Dear FREE friends,
Thanks for getting back to us so quickly. Unfortunately, it would appear that Saber has changed their mind on needing Map Making.. they think they're too far behind to really compete with BABE on grabbing Islands, and so want to focus on defense.
The time may still come when we want to help Saber with tech to help them avoid being totally annihilated by BABE, but that can wait till they're under attack, in our opinion – we hope you agree?
We don't think it's likely we'll be able to get Saber's map… but we will push them to try to get some information about where BABE is located, and we'll pass that along to you.
Here is our first letter from BABE… (very similar to the one you got)
Hello members of the Council,
We are please to meet your acquintance and we've sent our envoy Alessandra Ambrosio to see if we can set up a meeting on IM. Here's our envoy to the Council.
We'd like to discuss our futures together. Emp. Killyouall is a bit tied up these days as you may have read however BCLG, Robi D or Whomp cover most every time zone so we're flexible on times.
Looking forward to our relationship together.
XXOO
Alessandra Ambrosio of The Babes
We responded with an offer of peace, and asked them to respect our territorial waters, and then got this response:
Dear Bureaucrats of the Council,
We find your offer of peace heartwarming however we find your demand regarding your coastal waters provocative and discouraging for our future.
Our vessels do not carry military personnel so come purely with peaceful intentions. If you do not agree to let us pass through we will consider this a dire breach in our relationship.
Sincerely your new envoy,
The Bambino
That's all from them so far. So, not very great.
As to your proposals… We still haven't met GONG, and unless you have(?), there's nothing we can do about them for now.
(and besides, based on how advanced BABE is, we suspect that they're working with someone else. We're 99% sure it's not Saber – and we know it's not you or us… so it stands to reason that BABE and GONG are at least friendly if not in full alliance.)
The embargo sounds good… but again, there's really nothing we can do now anyway. If you sign our proposed MAAP II agreement (or something like that) – then we'll have a mutual moratorium on trading with BABE anyway. (and we really doubt Saber will be trading with them).
The Mutual Defense Pact is an excellent idea… and we have proposed just such an idea in article 5 of our MAAP II proposal. We think Saber should be left on the outside of this for now, but if they come under attack, then we can gift them some gold, and maybe a few key technologies to get them into the Middle Ages and hopefully beat back the BABE invasion. We can always get them to agree to pay us back some small amount of gold after they survive. This allows us to help Saber if necessary, without having to promise anything and risk making them too powerful.
As for declaring war… doing so now is only likely to provoke BABE, in our opinion, and we'd rather try to lay low and hope they go after Saber, and waste their time and shields fighting there while we secretly help to prop up Saber… which ties in pretty closely to your last idea.
You have our word – we won't be spreading any tales to other teams. We're committed to our alliance of peace and science with you.
We hope you get a chance to look more fully at our MAAP II proposal soon, as we think it addresses some of the biggest concerns here. Of course, we're happy to explain any points that seem unclear, or to hear any counter-proposals you have.
Here's hoping that the Middle Ages are times of great prosperity for both our peoples!
- General_W, Speaking with the voice of The Council