A Business Proposal

**A Business Proposal** is the seventh episode of the original Airship Pirates series.

## Plot

As Captain Scott and the Royal Envoy disembark the destroyer in South Haven, the envoy suggests that the crew should stay in the ship while Captain Scott is eager to leave South Haven as soon as possible. When the envoy reminds him that his attitude may be perceived as an insult by their hosts, he retorts that South Haven itself is an insult as it was built on top of the shipwrecks. This causes the envoy to remind Captain Scott that half of South Haven's population also include the ones who served in the Royal Navy during the battle of the Argean Sea and that one should be impressed with what they were able to build in just two years: a bustling city where merchants regularly call to its docks. Captain Scott also comments South Haven's leadership choice of meeting place, to which the envoy replies that it was a calculated insult to see how they would react. When Scott comments that they do not need the people in South Haven, the envoy replies that he does not read the same reports she reads, before telling Scott that they should get going in order to not keep their hosts not waiting. As they make their way to the tavern, they get stares from the residents in South Haven. The Envoy comments that one half of them wonder if Scott will arrest them for desertion and the other half wonders when the shooting will start. They eventually arrive at The Salty Wench tavern, which also serve as the headquarters of the South Haven Shipping Consortium. As they enter, they are greeted by Captain Bellamy and Frigga. The envoy recognizes Frigga's influence in the design of the tavern and says that it is more open and welcoming than the cold and intimidating halls of the baronies. The Royal Envoy, after asking Bellamy, addresses the residents of South Haven and delivers a royal pardon to Captain Bellamy, in which all past infractions are forgiven for every South Haven resident as well as considering all those who served in the battle two years earlier to be honorably discharged from service. They get to their table, where the Royal Envoy introduces herself as Elanor Heloisie and the captain as Charles Scott. When Bellamy guesses that they did not come all the way just to deliver a pardon, Heloisie reveals that the intentions of the visit is to contract Bellamy's services in the Kingdom's war against the Silver Empire, specifically to offer a bounty for each Silver Empire ship the pirates sink. Bellamy comments that calling it a war would be too charitable as the Kingdom has lost every battle against the Silver Empire, which they have observed, as well as the Kingdom putting too much trust in the white missiles to keep porential rivals scared so they were not ready for a real fight and that the white missile were not as allmighty as first thought as one expensive bomb is not as good as a million cheap ones. Captain Scott responds that it sounded strange that this came from the first man to use a white missile in combat. Bellamy responds that he do not apologize for that event and says that one will do everything to keep one and those around alive when backed up against a wall and guessed that Scott would do the same. When Heloisie says they will not deny mistakes made in the past, she tells that they are here to talk about the future, hinting that Bellamy has more ships that could support the trade lanes in plunder, to which Frigga replies that they need to protect themselves, before asking why they should assist a kingdom that in the past showed nothing but arrogance and disdain. Heloisie responds that the subjects of Her Majesty is being killed and enslaved at a horrifying rate, and that they can no longer afford their previous conceit and that their price for their lesson in humility has been terrible, before assuring that this lesson has been learned. Captain Scott and Heloisie return to the ship while the offer is on the table, giving Bellamy and Frigga time to make a decision.