The Copper Pirate Cycle – Part One

To My Honorable Defense Counsel, Mr. Otto Lanquist,

Ahoy, my friend!  I trust this letter finds  you in good health and prosperous times.  Certainly, unraveling the legalities of my own checkered past must be keeping you in brandy and cigars.

I write to point out to you a few details which may aid in my legal defense.  I wish that I could bring these to you in person, but my presence in that part of the hemisphere will certainly only bring about my incarceration.  I need not tell you that I will not be able to fund your rather lavish lifestyle from within the walls of a prison.  

Attached, you will find a map, which the prosecution will undoubtedly be using to outline my trail of destructive visits along that particular coastline.  My rebuttal remains the same as it was when we last spoke.  In my quest to bring the elusive Copper Pirates to justice, there was a certain amount of unavoidable collateral damage.  This cannot be helped, as the cause of justice knows no ticket price.

In regards to rumors of smuggling being the sole source of inventory for my mercantile business, the keyword here is “rumor”, as they are unfounded notions by my most imaginative detractors.  While it is true that some of my merchandise was obtained from unconventional circumstances, I can assure the good court that they were all legal transactions.  Purchasing goods from the cargo bay of a pirate vessel is as legal as purchasing them from any salon on the high street, is it not?

That being said, while these circumstances may be dubious, I can only report that I had no knowledge of the origins of this merchandise.  The gentleman in question were not very forthcoming.  I assume that it was a proprietary source they did not wish to disclose.  The idea that these fine gents would be involved in larcenous endeavors… unthinkable!  

With that, I leave you.  I know that there is an unfinished bit of business regarding urchins or “Moreaus” in the New Babbage area that have gone missing under mysterious circumstances, but I, of course, know nothing about that at all.  Perhaps the Pennyfarthings are up to their old games.

I trust you will rectify this matter in all due haste.

Sincerely, your humble servant,

Captain Alexis Sommerfeld

Starhelm Aviation