(]c[) Zoner Trading Consortium is pleased to meet Samura Heavy Industries

[sadtranslation]

[font=Tahoma][color=#FFFFFF]Esteemed Jien Kogen, the Emperor of the Kusari Empire and distinguished Shogun Sulu, we present our apologies for distracting your mind from your cares about the straight and narrow way of the Kusari well-being and growth. The Zoners Trading Consortium, would like to make an important proposal to you, and the Kusari Empire.

The ongoing conflicts in Tau-31 made a lot of innocent civilians suffer a lot of hardship. The fighting for Tau and Leeds drives many people out of their homes and makes them seek shelter on the neutral outposts in the vicinity. Being an organisation maintaining a neutral position towards the sides involved in this conflict the Zoners are perhaps the only who are able to provide help to the suffering in this area.

Lending a helping hand for those who are longing for a serene sky above their heads, a peaceful coexistence with others, and the chance to develop their lives despite of the horrors of war is the way to follow our own basic principles, which have been the foundation of the Zoner Communities from beginning on. It'€™s a matter of honor and a principle of changing Sirius to be a better place for the powerless innocent. That is the reason why we are humbly asking for your help in this venture.

Increasing our aid programs we are planning to perform a full-scale humanitarian operation in Tau-31, in order to provide food, medicine and other essential goods to war-weary civilians. We are also intending to move refugees temporarily out of the critical zone by bringing them to our Freeports or even Gran Canaria where they should have a chance to survive the conflicts.

Thus we are asking the authorisation to transport humanitarian goods and refugees through Kusari space (including Leeds system) between Freeports and Holman Outpost, because we are not capable of defending our humanitarian transports except for minor threats on the way like pirates or occasional cutthroats. We feel that our motives are a matter of kindness and honor, which is why we honestly hope that Your Greatness might clear the way for us.

Yours sincerly,
Richard Maack;
Dankien Moebus,
Head of Trade & Supplies, Zoners Consortium.

---

[Markus_Janus]

*Incoming Transmission*
Comm ID: Okada Kazuya
Source: Shinjuku Station, New Tokyo

*Begin Transmission*

Konnichiwa Richard-sama.
My most benevolent Emperor has deemed it fitting to show his advisers in the Imperial Court this transmission so that it may be discussed for the betterment of Kusari.

I have asked for and been granted special dispensation to come forward and work with you for the purpose of clarification on a number of points you raise with this message.
Something I look forward to greatly.

Please feel free to come and stay at my modest estate on New Tokyo, where you will be shown the great hospitality of Samura Heavy Industries and of the Empire of Kusari.

Sayonara for now,
Okada Kazuya.

*Transmission ends*

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Samura Omotai Zaibatsu.

[sadtranslation]

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Good day, Kazuya-san.

I am pleased to recieve your invitation. I will arrive today in the evening and hope to see the the beautiful sunset on New Tokyo before heading to your estate.
I have a lot of expectations about our future cooperation.

Yours sincerly,
Richard Maack.

---

[sadtranslation]

[font=Tahoma][color=#FFFFFF]

{uploading visual data}

Good evening this time, Kazuya-san.

Exploarion vessel "Tundra" is approaching New Tokyo.
We will initiate mooring sequence in ten minutes.

Yours sincerly,
Richard Maack.

---

[Markus_Janus]

*Incoming Transmission*
Comm ID: Okada Kazuya
Source: Shinjuku Station, New Tokyo

*Begin Transmission*

Hai, I am glad to hear of your safe arrival Richard-sama.
I have sent a luxery shuutle to collect both you and your staff and bring you strait to my residence.
By all means if you would like to divert them and have them take you on a tour of the surrounding are, be my guest.
It really is beautiful this time of year.
All arrangements for your party have been made and I hope you enjoy your time here.
Sayonara,
Okada Kazuya.

*End transmission*

After sending his message to Richard Maack, Kazuya headed over to his buttler.
"I trust you have made all the changes to the eastern wing as I have requested, this meeting is very important to me."
Koro the smiled as he answered in the affirmative.
"Of course sir, have I ever failed you yet?"

---

Samura Omotai Zaibatsu.

[sadtranslation]

[font=Tahoma]

Richard had already noticed the shuttle waiting for him when he was walking down the ramp. Yesterday he was alone is some unhospital system far away from civilization, and now here, on the populous New Tokyo, walking on the landing ground of one of the most amusing megapolices in Sirius. Yes, it made him feel a bit confused and somehow shy. [color=#CCCCCC]"No matter, everybody count on me" - he thought, entering the shuttle and giving his lonely suitcase to a tall man with a serious look on his face. [color=#CCCCCC]"First the work, then I can go sightseeng - Richard Maack was a bit nervous, he was better used to exploration, not to the diplomatic meetings - everything should be fine".

The shuttle was cleaving the cool air of the New Tokyo evening in the direction of Okada Kazuya's estate. Tomorrow should be a big day.

---

[Markus_Janus]

Kazuya waited with a small staff for the shuttle to arrive.
Having many hopes for this meeting he had made sure the eastern wing was in fine shape to accept visitors.

Once the shuttle arrived he walked over to the ramp to await his guest.
Mr Maack, a pleasure to meet you, I am Okada Kazuya and this is my assistant Kanora Miko.
She shall be taking care of all your needs during your stay, please do not hesitate to ask for anything that will make your stay more comfortable.
Now please attend to making yourselves at home and I shall expect you in the main hall, say around 5pm?
Please enjoy yourselves.

Once Richard Maack and his staff had taken care of their need and entered the main hall, they saw Kazuya sitting with four other men, all in suits.
He got up and greeted them again and introduced the men as his staff.
Once they were all sitting he moved on to the matter at hand.

Mr Maack, as I have stated in my introduction communication, I have been made aware by the Kusari Government that you intend to begin moving goods and people around the Taus.
I can say that the prospect as it first looked was not warmly accepted by the council, but I am hoping with further discussion we may understand your needs and concerns better and have another look.
Please do tell me more specifics of this endeavor as you have planned it, namely goods and commodities brought in and the numbers of people that you plan to move out as well as where your intend to move them from.
Please also include what it is you hope to gain by this and how it may help Kusari as a whole.

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Samura Omotai Zaibatsu.

[sadtranslation]

[font=Tahoma]

"[color=#FFFFFF]First of all, Kazuya-san, I would like to distinguish our expectancies concerning our forthcoming humanitarian mission from all the other subjects we will be discussing. In other words, our humanitarian project will not be a continual action, - Maack especially emplasized that point, -[color=#FFFFFF] It should be repeated, but it will not be a regular route for Zoner Trading Consortium. Here are the papers that describe all the commodities we're going to move to Taus, - he uploaded the list to the pads of all the participants of the negotiations, - everything is simple, - the list inclided medicaments, different consumer goods, food, water, oxygen and different medical equipment, - and yes, we're going to move there not only the commodities, but also our people, specialists and volunteers. I can hardly list the ships that will take part in the convoy at the moment, so I provide you with list, number of escorts and convoy leader identification later.

The refugees from Holmann will be evacuated to, - the map of Sirius Sector is projected by the holography module, - Gran Canaria in Omega-49 system, and to the Freeports located out of militarized zones, in other words to Freeport 1 in Omega-3 system, Porto Novo station in Omega-50 system and planet Kurile in Signa-17 system using Freeport 6 and Freeport 10 as provisional refugee camps. Again, I'm not able to provide the absolute number of the refugees we're going to move from Tau-31 since we are going to evacuate as more people as possible. For Consortium this operation is a point of honor and for Kusari Empire providing support to the people who suffer from the war the Empire is taking part in, will be good in terms of reputation. And it will also be of benifit to Consortium relations wth Samura Industries and Kusari Empire at all."

Richard ran his fingers over the touchscreen, put it on thу table and appealed to the people around the table - "I understand, that we're not going only to discuss our humanitarian mission in Tau-31 today, we all have some ideas about possible mutual benifical cooperation between Consortium and Samura Industries. But before we will change the subject of discussion, I would like to have a clear idea of the ways we will work on situation in the war zone." After that he sat down and smiled to himself. At least it was not so catastrophically hard to talk with serious face and explain Consortium ideas to other people. He even enjoyed what he was doing. Well, he was responsible for the things that may happen in close future, but he knew that he will do his best.

---

[Markus_Janus]

I am sure that for any Bretonian citizens to travel through Kusari you would first need to agree for all vessels to stop of at authorized Kusari checkpoints where a security check will no doubt be carried out on all persons, to make sure that no criminals wanted by the Kusari Empire are using you vessels to try and escape the war zone.
Do not get me wrong, I am all for innocent civilians being protected from the horrors of war but ultimately we can not allow our compassion to be used against us to allow terrorists to escape only to attack us later.

You mention that we may have ulterior motives for entering into these negotiations with you.
You are a shrewd businessman Mr Maack, I like that.
We would not be here if we did not, for that is how business works I am afraid.

Some time ago we approached the Zoners about a bold plan we had for a new research and diplomatic vessel.
As you can see here on this data screen it is based off of one of your Corvo class Deep Space Explorers.
We are quite fond of this design as it has met all our projections for being able to accommodate the advanced systems we are looking to introduce.
Previously we were involved in some negotiations to acquire one of these vessel, however after seeming to go well negotiations broke down after we were asked to support some rather unethical business practices.
Being that our relationship with the Empire of Kusari is what it is, we were not able to accommodate this request and were denied all access to this vessel.
This was quite upsetting as we were not only put in a position of betraying our beloved nation or forgoing access to a vessel that we have seen other far less savory people being granted access to.
But that we were even asked to do this at all.
We love our nation very much, and place it's continued prosperity above all else.

But alas that was in the past and I can see the logic in it being used as a bargaining tool, it is good business.
Which brings me to the point.
We are in need of a vessel to act as a research/ diplomacy vessel.
The Corvo class fits the bill perfectly.
We do not see how it would have any negative impact on the Zoners to grant us access to one of these vessel.
I must stress that this vessel of course would not act in any way against the Zoners and indeed would avoid all combat situations completely.
We are only in need of the basic hull, all internal systems would be installed in Kusari at our own shipyards.
You see this vessel as a diplomatic symbol would be perfect as a testbed for new technologies.

So if we are to be given access to one of these fine hulls, we will cover all cost of transporting it to Kusari and will be more than happy to lend our official support behind your endeavor, as long as it complies with Kusari law.
You will find that although we are not the secret rulers of Kusari as some will claim, we can be quite influential among our friends.

As I see it, this is a win/ win situation and that is what I find works best when friends negotiate.

---

Samura Omotai Zaibatsu.

[sadtranslation]

[font=Tahoma][color=#FFFFFF]

I'm glad to see that we've got that close to the terms of our future agreement. I clearly undestand your apprehensions and have to notice that we will allow Kusari Naval Forces to perform all the security checks needed. Their work is to ensure that their no threats for Kusarians during the Mission will appear and, I would say that it's a respected duty.

I have spent some time studying the Zoner-Samura and Zoner-Kusari relationships and I can see the possible ways for our cooperation and exploring in the close future. You know, that Consortium is not the only side that makes decison about granting our partners access to the Zoner technologies, but in the present situation I can say that you will get full support from Consortium on Zoner Alliance meetings.

On the other hand, I would like to return to the Consortium interests in Kusari too. I know that it is the point that was discussed in the past and we do not had any agreement on it with the Empire. As you know, Ames station is among other things one of the Sirius-wide providers of different operating systems and security programs. Well, some kinds of it are somehow special. Consortium is interested in establishing a route for transporting different software to Omicron systems to our facilities via Kusari. We understand, that the request like that is quiet special, but we hope that Samura Industries may help us with solving this delicate issue.

This is not the only way of cooperation that I can suggest for us. Consortium has a large trading fleet and Kusari as well as Taus and Sigmas are a good market for us. As an Authorized Merchant of GMG Products, we're glad to get our deuterium supplies from Okinawa and use the rights provided to GMG and GMG partners by Kusari government. But we are really interested in more work with corporations in Kusari and open for any offers. You know, the Empire Legal Codex is not that liberal and puts a lot of limitations for foreign organisations so maybe our cooperation will be a step on the way to warmer relationships between Kusari and Consortium.

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