Encrypted Uplink – Rheinland Worker’s Front Secure Transmission
-- FACILITY ACCESS PROTOCOL --
• Identifkation .............. Friedrich Kruger
• Location Sector ........... Pacifica Base / Bering System
• Facility Class ............ Diplomatic & Engineering Operations
• Encryption Level .......... INTERNAL
• Transmission Status ....... STABLE
• Authorized Personnel ....... Unioner Diplomatic Corps
▌ LOG ▐
Flora. 21:00 ST works perfectly. I’ll make sure the conference deck on Pacifica is cleared and that your berth is kept quiet and off the record.
Don’t worry about coming without the ship better we talk first, set things straight, and move forward once everything’s agreed upon.
I’ll be waiting by Dock 2C when you arrive. You’ll find it easy to spot Unioner colors, and a guard who’ll know your name.
We’ll share a drink, talk business, and make sure both our people walk away satisfied.
Safe travels through Liberty, Flora. Bering can be unpredictable after dark send me a ping once you’re close, and I’ll have an escort waiting just in case.
Mit Gruß, Friedrich Kruger
Unioner Diplomatic Corps
Pacifica Base – Bering System
Verbindung Stabil – Dock 2C prepared for arrival.
Awaiting confirmation from inbound vessel.
✶✶✶ TRANSMISSION TERMINATED ✶✶✶
THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's outlawed trade unions, determined to take the underworld for themselves.)
✶✶✶ UNIONER ENCRYPTED UPLINK – UN-VF81 "ARBEITER" VERY HEAVY FIGHTER ✶✶✶
CALLSIGN: HELLION
--- DATEN ERHALTEN ---
Uplink initialisiert...
Signalverbindung wird hergestellt... Bitte warten...
>>>VERBINDUNG HERGESTELLT<<<
GAMMA-ONE-THREE-PHI-'HELLION'
TO: Flora FROM: A wizened, snaggle-toothed pit-dog. SUBJECT:Field Transmission
UN-VF81 'ARBEITER' ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ │ DESIGNATION: UN-VF81 'ARBEITER'│ │ CLASS: UNIONER VERY HEAVY FIGHTER │ │ HULL INTEGRITY: ██████████ 100% │ │ SHIELDS: ██████████ 90% │ │ POWER CORE: THORIUM MOX REACTOR │ │ ARMAMENT: 7/1x Hardpoints // 2x Missile Mount // 1x CD/T Countermeasure │ │ CREW: 1 PILOT // AUTOMATED SYSTEMS: ACTIVE│ │ CURRENT LOCATION: REDACTED│ ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
The Arbeiter is a highly modular very heavy fighter platform built entirely with domestic Rheinland technology.
Publicly, it stands as the cornerstone of the Union’s drive for independence from foreign spacecraft suppliers.
Implicitly, the Arbeiter represents a bold attempt to leapfrog both Hessian and Gas Miners Guild fighter programs.
Drawing from decades of accumulated shipbuilding talent and mechanical improvisation, the Unioners have produced a space superiority platform that reflects their unrelenting pragmatism — combining performance, molecularity, and survivability under hostile conditions.
Flora,
Discretion's going to get you all that you're looking for.
Transmission body
We're at the last step; sourcing the parts.
Bulwarks are marginal in Sirius, and most of that margin end up in the far reaches of the Omicron systems, in the hands of wealthy, enigmatic, zoner groups - the kinds who don't part with their spare parts.
Sure, Bulwarks are assembled at Alster, but a Bulwark drive module's a lengthy bit of kit. It'd take an entire armored transport, plus tugs, to nab one from Wet Dock Five. Now, Alster's trade lane slot is in the tightest of rent-a-gauntlets in Solar Orbit - The Imps devote entire gunboat hunter-killer packs - usually a pair of 'em - Corporate, Police, and Military, in interleaved flights - to deter Unioners from running off with ships, tooling, and gear. That's saying nothing of the on-station security. Of course, we're Unioners - we still make off with a hale percentage of their inventory - we've been doing this for centuries - but success is a function of scale. Theft is easy; but getting away isn't. Anyone can pocket a loose paving slab without anyone noticing. But you can't dig up and relocate a mountain without locals taking a look at the skyline, can ya'?
Or, if you wanna' choose an analogy closer to home - poachers might be able to make off with the odd critter, but you'd be sure to give them hell if they stripped n' burned an ecosystem with a drive torch. A la, the Enclave.
The trouble's cost-benefit analysis - we could pilfer the frickin' prop'block from under Imperial's snouts, but that'd set their gundogs on us. We'd lose lives and equipment in the doing, and, frankly, while we like you, Flora, we can't justify an outright assault on a fortified position, on our own mission-statement - and on our own people to fix up one ship. There just isn't enough in it for us to make the - frankly, probable - loss of Unioner lives mean somethin'.
That says nothing of the loss of face a dirty 'op would bring to the Union. One lil' chemical transport went blammo nigh near twenty years ago, and CNS still won't shut up about it. Do you know how much dirt-slinging the Alster Incident cost us? You'd think we'd (allegedly) gassed a nunnery, rather than some unsecured transport taking a leak in the portside ventral loading dock. Insurgency for idiots, 101: terrify your enemies, not your support-base.
So, there's only one place we can source a pre-assembled Bulwark engine module - Bristol Bay.
That means cutting a deal with Bristol. Sure, they're a corp', but they're a -highly- Unionized corp', which gives the Unioners chips to cash. The take we're jockying for - those damned stakes - outweigh any prospects we might be debatin' today, tomorrow, and so it goes. It's not about ships, it's about macro-bloody-economics.
Vascoguoncellos's talking big; his terms are that you should go to the -entire- Gaian movement and talk 'em out of whacking Bristol's operations.
Getting the inclination that you're unwilling to accommodate those terms.
Look, at the end of it, we wanna' get paid, and we want you to get your ship.
But, see, Bristol's workers - if not their exec's - are inundated with sympathizers, and susceptible to further positive influence, so we'd rather that you get what you want without pissing on our long game. Bristol's role on Alster Shipyard matters far more to us than anything involving the Bulwark line's production cycle. It's alike your people and the Green Front, 'cept in the workforce, rather than Academia.
See, Bristol's got a role to play in crow-barring up workers rights. We've got a leg in with them, and we're opposed to unnecessary amputations. Don't make us cut our leg off to give you a ship.
Lie to 'em if you need to. That'd be my advice. Just make sure the blowback lands squarely on you, not on us.
For now, placate 'em, till you've got what you need, and the Union isn't at the end of suspicion.
If need be, Once you've got your 'Wark, we'll make it look good, dress this whole affair up to make it look as if you've gone and betrayed the terms of the deal. We'll even shoot at you a smidge.
...Are ya' following me? Point being, Flo', if you want that ship, you're going to need to hold your nose -until- we've mounted up the drive. After that, you're free.
From: Flora, Gaians To: Unioners of Pacifica Encryption: Yes Subject: Middlemen
No, I'm not following you.
You told me you can fix the ship. You told me you have the leverage to get the parts. You told me you can do it clandestine.
Instead, first thing you did was go blabbering about the job to the one party I asked you to keep it away from, you have jack shit for leverage and apparently you don't even have the expertise to get the repair work done yourselves.
Gunda, with all due respect. What the fuck am I supposed to make of this?
✶✶✶ UNIONER ENCRYPTED UPLINK – UN-VF81 "ARBEITER" VERY HEAVY FIGHTER ✶✶✶
CALLSIGN: HELLION
--- DATEN ERHALTEN ---
Uplink initialisiert...
Signalverbindung wird hergestellt... Bitte warten...
>>>VERBINDUNG HERGESTELLT<<<
GAMMA-ONE-THREE-PHI-'HELLION'
TO: Flora FROM: A wizened, snaggle-toothed pit-dog. SUBJECT:Field Transmission
UN-VF81 'ARBEITER' ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ │ DESIGNATION: UN-VF81 'ARBEITER'│ │ CLASS: UNIONER VERY HEAVY FIGHTER │ │ HULL INTEGRITY: ██████████ 100% │ │ SHIELDS: ██████████ 90% │ │ POWER CORE: THORIUM MOX REACTOR │ │ ARMAMENT: 7/1x Hardpoints // 2x Missile Mount // 1x CD/T Countermeasure │ │ CREW: 1 PILOT // AUTOMATED SYSTEMS: ACTIVE│ │ CURRENT LOCATION: REDACTED│ ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
The Arbeiter is a highly modular very heavy fighter platform built entirely with domestic Rheinland technology.
Publicly, it stands as the cornerstone of the Union’s drive for independence from foreign spacecraft suppliers.
Implicitly, the Arbeiter represents a bold attempt to leapfrog both Hessian and Gas Miners Guild fighter programs.
Drawing from decades of accumulated shipbuilding talent and mechanical improvisation, the Unioners have produced a space superiority platform that reflects their unrelenting pragmatism — combining performance, molecularity, and survivability under hostile conditions.
Flora,
Calm it.
We've got an alternative source, one that doesn't involve the Company. I'm not going to make promises until it's in our net.
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