To: Contari Lance High Command

[BobMacaroni]

Malta Hyperspace Starfleet
Incoming Transmission

From:Alejandro Harabero
To: Contari Lance High Command
Subject:A Greeting
Classification:Confidential

---

To the High Command of those who still bear the insignia of the Contari Lance:

Saluti.

I am Alejandro Harabero, Explorador Alfa of the Maltese Hyperspace Starfleet. Don Harabero also will suffice. I was made aware that your organization still remains after all these years by my pilots, who informed me of your skillful assistance to our forces in Omicron Gamma.

This is an unexpected connection after all these years, yet not unwelcome by any means. If you have any questions or seek to collaborate on any specific missions to expand the Orange Dream, let me know. I would also advise connecting to the Starfleet Embassy for rapid communication, should you be interested.

I would be most interested to learn about what has transpired over all these years. Why has the Lance risen back to prominence after all this time?

We look forward to collaborating with you.

For Malta.


Alejandro Harabero - Explorador Alfa

---

[Luke.]

The forlorn leader of a once great arm of the Maltese sits up from twiddling his thumbs, startled as the transmission hits his console. Lights, flashes...it was all coming back to him. The victorious scuffle with the Corsairs just hours earlier hadn't given him long lost purpose...but this did. The information he was given when pulled out of his dilapidated private estate to see the great outdoors once more, years after the supposed end of the Contari Lance...in his dazed, crestfallen stupor he had refused to believe it but it seemed...there was no avoiding it. Luke Orsini was his name. The Comandante of the Contari Lance. His mysterious "friend" had given him this ship. The Contari IFF. It was no coincidence. He wanted him to go back in time and remember who he was.

He felt indignant at the very least but alas no one would know of his embarrassment. The lack of self-esteem that had destroyed his mind since being released from a scuffed prison post-civil war gangs had set up and thrown him into once captured had ruined his psyche. There's much to tell about his past 9 years, but for now there was business. No time for personal chatter. The old familiar. He had to be first to respond to the revelation that the Maltese presence in the edge worlds had not completely disappeared, at least in official capacity. A skirmish with some Cretans was no more than daily life after all. The ability to work and be a leader of a Maltese arm once more was too much to resist.

As if hit with a world's worth of eureka moments at once, he falls out of his chair out of shear adrenaline, dashed to his bathroom and spent some time cleaning, flossing and pruning himself. Finding his old formal clothes covered in dust wasn't great, but it'd have to do. It was a must to be back to normal. He opened the curtains, spent hours cleaning his place for the video feed and then...begun anew.

---

Ahem. he clears his throat once more, struggling to know how to start. It'd been so long.

Buonasera, Don Harabero. Mi scusi for the informality I present to you. Still getting my bearings even after almost a week of being back in the air. I see much has changed. The old military might, religious nuts and Maltese-affiliated mercenaries seem long gone, or at least that's what I'd noticed upon my travels these past days. Felt like a bit of a ghost town, no pun intended. Regardless, the last the Contari Lance had been uttered of, I was at the helm. I imagine that responsibility falls to me once more as a result. Comandante... whew.

I must say, it's wonderful to see life in Maltese space however. The sudden transmission from your men was unexpected as I had coincidentally planned some reconnaisance of our ancient enemy that day, so to end in a fight and to stretch my metaphorical wings again so-to speak, was much needed. I've never felt more like myself! The might you showed was second-to-none and the catharcism of seeing the Cretans run with tails between their legs is a feeling I've long, long missed.

Anecdote aside, to business then. To tell you a little more about who we were, I suppose we could be seen as a mafia of sorts, not interested in matching military might of our compagni. A full description of the Contari Lance's history can be found here. I must warn you however, this manifesto is outdated. Some terms and names may not seem familiar due to their antiquated nature, and our stance with certain groups may not be as described any longer. I still have a lot to catch up on myself, and I suppose many to contact too but a lot of that seems futile. Space doesn't feel how it once was if the silence in the Tau's is anything to go by. As a baseline it'll do an ample job for now. The base principles are imperative for the Lance, relations can be secondary until I can make some calls. Our goals therefore shall not change but of course we will absolutely cooperate with you and the Hyperspace Fleet...what's left of us anyway.

To call it prominence in any way would be laughable of course, to my indignance. To what extent we can rebuild is yet to be seen too. I have one other with me for now, a veteran for sure as we'd fly together way back as well. For now though I had not put much thought into it, being too tied up with being prisoned by rogue Maltese gangs following the end of the civil war and a brief resurgence for the Lanciere which was short lived, and then left to rot in my own home. I must thank you and your men for pulling me to my senses. It is possible we remain small company...but time answers all. It led me to this, after all.

He nervously pulls the nape of his shirt with a weak smile before continuing, knowing he'd spent years being quite the opposite of any authoritative figure.

I supposed to put it short - Our goals are to assist in making the Outcasts a prominent force again... our control has lapsed, the orange dream spreads as usual thanks to affiliates but our presence must be felt throughout all corners of Sirius, if even in name alone. It's about time la Nacion rose to greatness once again.

Ask away with any further questions, per favore. I'll be sure to use rapid communication channels too, in case we're both a little too busy.

Per la Nacion

~Orsini

::End

---