[ ] The Publicani Fleet
This is the guy from the taxmen that left last time, expecting to come back with a 'recolonization contract'. He's got a load full of prospective colonists aboard ship to go with his troops.
"More than we anticipated," indeed. Screw them. Conversely, might make for a decent ally... but is also an Imperial Publicani, so probably not. Best case with talking here is setting up a large bribe to get them to dump their colonists and GTFO - but the statement about bribing the Vikings to not attack you applies here; if you can afford to bribe them with
this much, what are you holding back?
They're looking to bomb us to the stone age and plant a new colony down; no matter
what.
[ ] The Ancient Vessel
We owe them a favor; they're why we got the Cog way back in Turn 09, and that's how we used the Artifice Domain on the Necron Ship, which got us the Lotus Star Reactor - and was one part of what made the Earthblood action as cheap as it was.
Reach out and talk to them, and we can probably get their assistance quite easily, both in the short-term and the long term.
This is most likely the Azure Magus, our eldest sibling. A warm, pleasant welcome is preferred - and an alliance with them should be
lasting.
On the other hand,
not talking with her straight up could result in damn near
anything. They're here to pull a loot-and-scoot; if they can't loot they'll just scoot; if they
can loot they
will, and they're the most likely group to figure out loopholes in the Elysium Wards. "Hey, we'll take this, this, and this, thanks!"
[ ] Prince Sendai's Expedition
A thrillseeker of a Necrontyr Prince, who's looking for a good fight. It's almost a pity Orks didn't show up; that would blood his warriors. As it is, well... I have no fucking clue what this could result in. Best case has them joining us as allies; worst case is, uh. Pretty damn bad.
Could go either way with opening up communications, even with our Connections domain backing us up I
just don't know.
[ ] The Azure Dragoons
We made a promise:
"It is for the best." You snap your fan closed. "If you do return another time, I hope it is as a friend, and not a foe."
"Perhaps." He dons his helm once more. "It is not for me to say."
And they appear to intend to keep to their end of the bargain; as such, we shall keep to ours.
And yeah, getting Space Marines as allies is
huge. Even if all they have is a beat-up Strike Cruiser carrying an even more beat-up Company, nearly everything mentioned previously still holds true.
----
None of them are
yet aware of all the others - or rather, the Necrontyr are probably the only other group that does. We can contact two of them to inform them of the situation and speak.
Who needs to be warned most of what is in system? Who least?
I'd argue the Dragoons for 'Most', the Publicani for 'least', and the AM somewhere in the middle. No idea about the Necrons at all.
Who would make for the best allies?
... AM and the Necrons, hands down, if we can get both. Publicani is a crapshoot. The Azure Dragoons
are a company of Astartes equipped with 50k gear, and are spectacular examples of bioengineering on top of that, but they aren't one of our sibling nascent Chaos Gods, and they aren't
Necrontyr.
So. Tough choices.
Except the Publicani. Fuck those guys. I wouldn't mind picking up their load of new
converts colonists, however.
But like...the azure dragoons did in fact killed a lot of our people tho...wonder what the public opinion on them is.
They killed our soldiers, not our citizens, an important distinction. We lost thirty of our
Belladonna pilots completely, but the rest are alive, even if most of them required reconstructive surgery. Losses among our Hunters were
light, and a small group of our Sentinels also fell in the Spire, but beyond that not too many were listed as dead.
To clarify matters somewhat.
"Contact" does not necessarily mean 'Eliminate them as a threat', or 'Escalate matters'
What it is happens to be a chance to communicate with one or more parties before they know it's a multi way clusterfuck and are caught up playing their particular roles. No more, no less.
Contacting the Dragoons seems to be a 'welcome' sort of deal; still a possible threat, but an unlikely one. AM is opening negotiations; no change to potential threat or alliance, I don't think. Necrontyr is... saying 'hello', I guess? No idea on the effect. And the Publicani is... something. Maybe butter them up with a 'warning' about the other shit in the system.
Can you tell I don't like these guys? I admit to being biased against them. Not simply because they're tax-men, but because of
how said taxes are appropriated.
