The Abysmal Diplomacy
18 Apr 2021Galacius
Data Log Entry 2: Diplomacy with StraylightPerspective: Captain Galacius of the Imperial Corsairs
ooc: This is about our diplomacy attempt, on 04/14/2021, with Straylight Systems and Straylight Syndicate.
"DeLacy Golf Alpha Lima, welcome back home Captain! Please proceed to the officer docking bays, over." Says the Station Master in Flammarion Terminal. "Roger that..." a very tired and exhausted Captain returned. The silver python, Atomos, enters the station and lands on docking pad OF-1. As the landing feet touch the ground, Galacius lets out an enormous sigh and says "I'm home... finally." She gets off of her ship and heads towards her quarters. She opens up her holo-computer and starts documenting the mockery of what was supposed to be an end to the war.
When you're faced with immeasurable odds, what motivates someone to continue fighting?
As we, my co-diplomat Monkey Knuts, traveled into Straylight space I often asked myself why do they continue fighting? At this point we've contacted our allies, disrupted their systems, and created a trade blockade in Harrigus. What is their end goal? I guess that's why being a diplomat isn't easy. It's understanding the other side, having empathy for their problems, their gripes, and coming to a mutual understanding of each other's grievances. This is what separates our Corsairs from our diplomats - it's that level of finesse and empathy that has us change the tides of war. As we got closer to Straylight's station, Tapoinas Ring, in Moram, I received an encrypted transmission from Monkey. He tells me we need to be careful of our approach, because there's obvious bad blood between our Viceroy, Grand Vizier, and Straylight's leadership.
I didn't have much time to process the thought, because we exited supercruise right in front of Tapoinas Ring in very short order. I was expecting a diplomatic hello, but the usual greeting to new pilots, in the station's space, never arrived. Instead, we received over the communication line "hurry up and get in before we change our mind and blast you both into space dust!" Immediately I started to feel uneasy. I knew the Imperial Corsairs outmatched them, we outgunned them, but at the same time... you can't shake the feeling of dread when in enemy space. You especially get a bad feeling in your gut when you're threatened, right at the start, for what was supposed to be a civil and peaceful affair. They allowed us to dock and we land our ships within a hanger full of security forces. As we exited our ships. we didn't object to being escorted by armed security forces. It was an unusual way to treat diplomats, but then again we expected their unorthodox methods and general lack of tact. We were escorted past a few hallways, received snooty and taunting looks from their squadron, and stopped at a room that smelled like bilge-water. As we sat down on the chairs, we were told "we're not here to discuss the conflict and since you wish to talk, you kick off the negotiations."
This level of stonewalling, negativity, and aggressiveness continued for hours until we finally got to the root of the problem. We asked them why do you continue to fight us? We don't want this war - yet you treat us as an enemy. The answer they gave surprised us... "we don't have a problem with you. Our problem is your leaders and everything they stood for, including the Imperial Corsair name." We were taken aback by that statement and pushing further revealed their true intentions... they're attacking us because of something that occurred in the long forgotten past. They're committing genocide against our people, because they want to dig the knife into our founder's hearts. We figured nothing else would surprise us, but they even went so far as to tell us to leave the Imperial Corsairs. If we wanted the conflict to end, we needed to leave our home, our people, and everything we stood for just to stop the bloodshed. As I pondered the thought, It dawned on me I finally had an answer to my question. The reason they continue to fight despite all odds is because they're fueled by their hatred.
At the heart of my enemy, I had a choice and frankly... I don't regret the outcome
"As a captain I have to do what's best for my people and my squadron." I thought about these words as I considered the prospect of leaving the Imperial Corsairs. I wanted my family, my squadron, to be safe even if it meant I had to make a difficult choice. What sent me back into reality was the continuous aggressive push for Monkey and I to leave. It felt it was no longer the terms for an agreement. Rather it was something THEY wanted and THEY were going to continue their aggression towards my family, regardless of my choice. Despite offering to help them to ease the tensions, they were so consumed by their own hatred and weren't listening to us. Our refusal to leave the Corsairs just made it worse, so much so that you could literally cut the tension with a knife.
Monkey was trying his best to work past the tension, but I had enough and I snapped. I stood up and looked at them, dead in their eyes, and said "we didn't want this war and we're offering to help you as a peace offering. You spit in our face by asking us to abandon our family and our home. When you're ready to be men and humble yourselves, let us know." I realized what I had just done and gestured to Monkey that we're leaving. They stood there in shock as I rushed Monkey out of the negotiation room and quickly to the hanger bay. He looked at me confused and said "what's the rush, we need to leave with a peace deal!" I stopped at looked at him "there is no peace deal, they never wanted one, and we need to leave NOW. They will come after us very shortly." Sure enough as I said that, we had laser blasts come through the hallway and our ship's AI, with their synaptic link, told us to get to the pilot seat ASAP. We started running as fast we could to the hanger bay and all we heard was PEW PEW BOOM Sssss PEW PEW. We barely made it to our ships before Monkey was shot in the arm. He said it was just a graze and he assured me that he would still be able to pilot his ship.
The hail of bullets was enough to strike fear into any Captain
In a hail of gunfire we finally made it to our pilot seats, our ships taking shield damage from the barrage of weapon fire. I hastily put full power to my engines and set the auto pilot to blast out of their station airlock. Monkey managed to get his ship running and followed me out shortly after. We saw laser fire fly past us and hit our shields as we left. We quickly engaged our thruster boost to try and escape, but not before they sent ships after us and they opened fire. I thought it was over for me when my AI said "UNDER ATTACK SHIELDS at 30%!" and my radar showed over 20 hostile targets. Monkey thought we were doomed, but we both agreed that we made our point clear even if we die for it. I screamed at my AI to spin up the hyperdrive drive faster, but the stubborn thing wanted verification and an authorization code to overload the drive. I got angry and smashed the console. Sure enough I hear "Frame Shift Drive Charging... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Engage!" about damn time...
You know that feeling you get when your adrenaline is pumping so fast that you can't think? Yeah that's what I had only it was compounded by the sudden jolt of the hyperspace jump. Monkey was panic stricken "THEY ARE CHASING US THROUGH HYPERSPACE!" and I wasn't doing much better with my hands shaking from fear. As a last ditch effort, I put all of the energy I had into sending out an SOS message, using short range radio signals. Unfortunately, the strain from the overloaded frame shift drive caused us to drop out of hyperspace earlier than expected. The AI gave a report "Warning! Frame shift drive malfunction! Drive offline due to overheat!". That gave our pursuers time to follow us and sure enough they warped in beside us... they surrounded us. They knew they had us and they continued to push their demands "leave the Imperial Corsairs or die!"
All we could do it pray for a miracle... all we could do is wait and hope our hyperspace message went through. "Warning... enemy targets have deployed hardpoints!" the AI exclaimed. I was prepared to face my end and I looked back on my life and I had no regrets. I did what I could for my family and I hoped that was enough. I was staring death in the face, waiting for them to open fire, when suddenly I heard a comm signal. What I saw made me burst into tears. BOOM... BOOM... BOOM... BOOM... One after another our allies showed up in large corvettes and started to speed towards us. Imperial Corsairs, we received your signal and we are engaging targets. All you could see were hundreds of allied ships all warping in and firing weapons into the blackness of space. Our enemy wasn't expecting this attack and to be out numbered and outgunned caused panic in their ranks. One after another their ships started to explode in a vicious hellfire of space debris. Those who survived the initial onslaught engaged their frame shift drives and escaped. All Monkey and I could do was cheer and when the last of our enemies retreated, our allies offered to escort us to our home. Upon arrival to Flammarion, I can't tell you how relieved I was to be home. To hear "DeLacy Golf Alpha Lima, welcome back home Captain! again reminded me of just how important my squadron is to me and the dangers of abysmal diplomacy.