To: Union oberkommando. From: Gunda Riehl. Subject: Fear is the Mindkiller.
....Strange tidings. I'm not sure I'm fond of what I sense.
I've made contact with a representative of some stiff who claims to be from the Neo Terran Front. The NTF - canya' believe it? What little we know of them comes from files old enough to be creaking packaged out from the our trusty newfound LWB comrades, and what little goodwill files we have from the Hellfire before the Great Backstabbery Occasion of Eight-Oh'-Three An Ass. What little we do know is creepy enough to put a smarter woman off their lunch for a solar decade in an outer planet.
I'll fill in the specifics to keep the debrief down; strange events have been compromising my patriots. I'd believed it was pirate delusions - all huffed up on still fumes and coolant solvents before I started to feel the occasions myself - call me fallible but I'll trust my judgement till it breaks from overuse.
These Neo-Terran characters seemed real inclined to give a couple hoots long of an owl as to the tracking of a spyglass battleship that allegedly has been signal traced to somewhere within the Rheinish west. The hellfire's never been aggressive enough to put much credence to the idea that they might be slicing for the scalps of the everyman, but then they swooped out of the ether and emancipated the Seppies right from the eve of destruction around Freeport two. The Harmony was only fresh from the drydock and I saw her riding for the apocalypse - I saw doom, right then and there, gunning for us. Enough to scare me loose.
I'm gonna' contact these NTF and see if they have any ident systems that could help us track a spyglass trace. They seemed obliging enough. With a wee bit of fiscal grease, they might do more than lie to us.
We need a leader. Someone strong, someone immediate. Mary's too aggressive, and I.... I'm a wardog - I can't ride a horse and twirl the cape. We had that in the captain of the Prinz Eugen, but he's been real retiring in the background. We need someone who can fight the battles in the field, and in the mind. Someone quiet, not a talker, not one to dredge into the finer points of politics or robbery or coal, but a honest-to-God Charlemagne with roses in her hair.
I need her. We all do.
Hmph.
In other news, a fresh faction of Corsairs appears to be coming into its own - and they're even sociable than the last band to emerge from the aether. Perhaps the embargo will finally end, and we'll be able to rebuild our forces.
I worry Knight isn't being fully honest with us. Might come with all the installations they're manufacturing - they can afford to treat us like dirt now. Maybe someday they'll become like all the rest, and trample us into the floor. I hope I'm wrong - what do I know? I'm just a sick thug with a flight stick in her hand.
NTF Wrote:][27.01.2018 12:58:24] ]NTF[-NTGB-Kimbilio: Rusk: True enough.
[27.01.2018 12:58:44] ]NTF[-NTGB-Kimbilio: Rusk: Speaking of friends... one of the reasons I'm here is to investigate rumors of a weird Arbiter-class ship in the area.
Transmission Ended
THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's outlawed trade unions, determined to take the underworld for themselves.)