Interview with BDM Dkt. Geoff Enfield | BBC News

[Stolt.]

"This is BBC News with me, Steven Gradgrind. It is 7 PM at Planet New London, 3 AM at Planet Manhattan and 4 PM at Planet New Berlin. Today I have the Direktor of the Buro der Marinenachrichtendienst with me who has agreed to answer questions regarding the developing crisis in the Sigmas. How are you this evening Dkt. Enfield?"

He quickly puts down his ration juice box, placing it on the floor. before facing Mr Gradgrind with a small smile. "Well, I can't exactly say smooth right now. But we're trying our best that it doesn't turn out to become the worse case scenario."

Gradgrind Sits back. "Now, before I ask you what the worst case scenario might be, I must first bring up the fact that you are partly Bretonian and also running the Buro. Have you ever come into contention with your heritage from your officers or from politicians in the Bundestag?"

He gives off a chuckle to himself. "Yeah, I guess. But that's never bothered me. My co-workers and agents don't mind, we tend to get people from all across Sirius. The politicians seem to give me a harder time, always questioning where my budget goes, why every dent in my ship exists."

Gradgrind lets out a polite chuckle while going back to the obvious question. "Now on to the topic at hand, you mentioned that Rheinland has not yet entered the worst case scenario. What would the worst case scenario in this situation be regarding the GMG?"

He seems the be a little confused about it while trying to maintain a smile. "Well... That would be war? Wouldn't it?"

Gradgrind leans in. "Well of course, but I must ask, in what ways has the Rheinland government sought to prevent a war? One would assume that the chances of the Rheinland military returning to the Sigmas is rather high given that the Militar entered it twice in its history already, once during the 80s years war and another during the Nomad War in 800 A.S.

Gradgrind takes a step back with his thoughts: "Although, the incident in 800 was due to unprecedented circumstances of Nomad infestations I should add."

He raises his eyebrows for a bit. "Yeah, I could say that both sides do have a sour taste left in their mouths after both the Nomad War and the 80 Year's war... I have to admit that delivering my statement also had some bias in it, but that's because I woke up at 4AM to find out that a federal police station was attacked and nuked." He looks at the ground for a moment while folding his arms. "I just hope it doesn't effect how we handle things. But right now, the Bundestag has put us and the Rheinland Military on defensive protocols until their further statement." He gives his rough chin stubble a scratch before taking a deep breath. "Yeah, as far as our records show. Both the Militar and BDM conducted an extensive purge after the Nomad war, although I was only 3 years old at the time and living in Bretonia."

"A few months prior, there was extensive sightings posted on the Neural Net social media platforms of Militar ships meeting with the GMG, for unknown reasons however, in the Sigmas. Although the BBC must admit that the images have not yet been geolocated due to the extensive nebula in the Sigmas and that the eyewitness accounts have some confirmed but some unconfirmed details, does the Rheinland government have an official statement to make about having met with the GMG during the days of Guildmistress Kara Yukari?"

He seems to look away again for a brief moment... "Yeah, Sigma-15. I was there." He picks up his juice carton off the floor and takes a quick sip. "Well, you see, tensions were rising in the first place after a few incidents when we saw that the GMG were openly showing they were having dealings with the Red Hessian Army and The Order, but also when my agents were travelling through to the Omicrons for an assignment where they were stopped and threatened by GMG paramilitary forces. I asked the admiral to assemble a meeting to attempt to lower tensions with the GMG. But upon their arrival... They didn't even want to talk to us. This guild mistress was very bent on just ensuring that we couldn't get any sort of answer from them... Ya' know, like a corporate politician!" He chuckles to himself as he leans back. "But, this was only with her sector of the GMG, I just hope it's not the same with any other subsidiary groups of the Guild."

Gradgrind puts his notes on thecoffee-table beside him. Given the unexpected answers, he sees little need for a pre-prepared question list. "I must point out that in the Buro's statement, the Buro..." Gradgrind cleared his throat for a second. "...the Buro stated that the Gas Miners Guild was responsible for the attack upon Fulda, without differentiation of the different corporations within the guild. Has the Buro obtained new intelligence confirming that only a specific group and not the whole Guild was responsible for the terrorist attack at Fulda?"

He shakes his head. "No, as for now we can only suspect the guild as a whole since it was their latest ships marked with their main paramilitary insignia's and IFF's. We wish to conduct an investigation into this if the GMG are willing to co-operate." He gives a sigh as he looks to the ground. "Like I said in hindsight, I was waking up at 3AM to find that the Federal Police border station had been attacked and around 50 people dead. So I admit I was showing anger in my voice."

"Well Dkt. Enfield I must ask, it's been almost a few days since the situation began, has the Rheinland government spoken with the Kusari government about the Fulda attack? Have they reached out to the Buro for cooperation with the investigation with KNI? Kusari has of course, always had vested interested in the Sigmas given the shared border."

"Honestly, I don't know what I would ask from kusari. Help? Aid? Yes I guess, but if it came to involve themselves in their our conflict, no." He twiddles his fingers a little bit. "As for now, we're not at war. As much as I understand how our alliance works. Now isn't the time to start talking about war with them."

"So I take it that the Rheinlandic government views the Fulda attack specifically as an internal affair. Now, to shift the questions to economics; the GMG provides the majority of the H-Fuel that ships need throughout Sirius. Although Rheinland does have some MOX production, the vast majority of civilian traffic would still use H-Fuel for their ships. If the price of H-Fuel increases due to the instability in the Sigmas, could this not effect Rheinland's stagnant economy further? Additionally, what will happen if Rheinland's H-Fuel or MOX demands are not being met and there is a major fuel shortage in the House?"

"Well... Let me think." He sits silent for a moment, crossing his arms as he thinks. "Honestly, you can't accurately predict an unstable market. Like you said, there would probably be an economic fuel crisis. Maybe we might end up switching fully away from H-Fuel for MOX, or we might have the biggest civilian logistics problem since the 80 Years war."

"Yes however, the other Houses in Sirius are also dependent on H-Fuel and unfortunately, unlike Rheinland or Bretonia, they do not have easy access to an alternative fuel source to switch to, which in this case is Mox. Couldn't this result in diplomatic pressure from the other Houses? Is Rheinland prepare to assist the ships of other houses in switching to MOX and becoming a supplier of MOX on a larger scale?"

"I think you should probably leave those questions with corporate heads and Bundestag politicians. But as far as I can imagine, either people are going to get very rough to get any slice of H-fuel they can get, or get creative in finding a new source."

"Thank you Direktor Enfield. Now, in terms of intelligence, what are the goals of the BDM with regard to the Sigmas? You've said yourself that the BDM has launched an investigation however the GMG has also limited their cooperation according to you. It seems that this is the perfect recipe for a war and in the event that does happen, what role will the BDM, broadly, play?" He took a pause before continuing on. "During the last two wars in the Sigmas, Rheinland suffered devastating losses and one can only assume that intelligence failure must have played a part in this, has the BDM learned from the mistakes of the past?"

"Obviously I can't tell you what role we'd have... I mean-" He laughs slightly while pointing to the camera. "But what I can say, is what we've currently had with the GMG. We've yet for them to contact us... Which is like in my mind-" He brings his hand to his head and just shakes it showing frustration. "It would be the first thing I would do, that or subsidiaries atleast contact us to show their non-involvement in the situation."

"And what about the mood in the Bundestag?" He shot back. "Has the influence of the Imperial Party of Rheinland incrased? Which political parties or notable politicians have posed for the war or against it?" Gradgrind had to take a bit of a pause before asking. The last thing he wanted was to give questions for which the Buro was not cleared to answer. In what could be the defining moment of his career as a reporter, he needed to avoid unanswered queries.

He looks slightly confused, "Err..." He looks at the camera and the reporter switching between the two. "Look, I'm not a politician, I couldn't really care what influence that a certain party has. As much as I want to ensure that war doesn't break out, if the government in power actually sends us out, then we do what we've been trained to do." He seems to disapprove of the question as he looks starts to brush off the tension by taking another sip from his juice box. "Alright, look... I used to be a soldier, field agent and commander, I'm not exactly a suit strutting through the political halls clinking glasses of red wine or screaming out about royalty should in power. I'm just not that type of person."

"Oh that was by no means what I meant Dkt. Enfield. However, a general picture of the debate at the Bundestag would have given our audience a projection of what could happen within the next few days. Now, moving on to what a potential war with the GMG might look like." He took a sip of water and a deep breathe before continuing. "If the situation worsens and the Militar and the Buro find themselves fighting the GMG, what would the goals be? If it proven that the GMG was behind the attack without question, would Rheinland attempt to replace the GMG's leadership and liberate it with more moderate figures in charge and then return home? Or would Rheinland want to completely eliminate the GMG as an institution and replace it with a more moderate organization, or bring its resources in charge by a neutral third party, given the historic animosity between the Federal Republic and the Guild?"

"If we did find them responsible for actually trying to instigate a conflict, we'd obviously try to at least obtain reperations for the damage they caused. Its not exactly something that we'd let go scot free if they are the ones that caused it. I can't support the movement of a war unless the other side is hell bent on trying to harm the Republic of Rheinland and its people. But what we do after a conflict is down to what the overall outcome at the end is."

He picked up his juice carton and finished off the rest of whats in it. "So obviously, I can't predict the future. So as far as we might-" The door knocked in the conference room a few times before a silver skinned woman stepped in. Enfield quickly removed the lapel microphone and stood up and moved to the back of the room nodding the woman in. He leaned against the wall as he talked to her with a bigger smile than he had at any part of the interview, she had silver hair and gave him another ration pack. As he was talking to her, he noticed the light on the camera. "Hey, Camera...! Off!"

As the camera shifted back to Gradgrind he realized the need to contain the awkward moment. "And that is the end of part 1 of this interview ladies and gentlemen. Please stay tuned as we will continue with this as the situation unravels. This is BBC Interstellar News with Steven Gradgrind signing off, have a lovely evening."

---

- Dossier on Adrienne Perry