Die Rote Front - Faction info

[Die Rote Front]

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Die Rote Front

"Forge Freedom, Embrace Revolution"

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Die Rote Front

Origin:	Rheinland
ID:	Red Hessian ID
IFF:	Red Hessians
Tag:	R\-
Founded:	May 834 A.S.
Key people:	Jorg Frei, Ben Kloecker
HQ:	Vogtland, Dresden
Neural Net:	Discord Recruitment Internal Comms Feedback

The Red Front is a militarized branch within the greater Red Hessian movement that focuses on deploying heavy assets and accomplishing large-scale operations using sheer firepower. The Front strongly harkens back to the founding ideals of old, without which the Hessian movement would inevitably turn on itself and fall into dissolution. Despite this, hessian recruits from all walks of life have potential to be accepted within their ranks, from brigands to simple workers, idealists or political dissidents, the ideological element will be instilled without falter in all of the members.

Contents 1 History ----1.1 Formation and Beginnings ----1.2 The Omegas Front ----1.3 The Heartland ----1.4 Present Times 2 Identity 3 Objectives 4 Ranks 5 Naming Convention 6 Equipment and Shipline ----6.1 Capital ships ----6.2 Gunboats and Frigates ----6.3 Freighters and snubs ----6.4 Logistic vessels 7 Diplomacy 8 Zone of Influence

I. History |

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Formation and Beginnings

The Red Hessian movement is intertwined with the turbulent history of the Dresden System. Once the crown-jewel of Rheinland's mining operations, the industrial behemoths of the house, namely Daumann and Kruger, had their workers and miners subjected to very harsh conditions and out-right exploitation.

Vogtland The heart of the Hessian movement

The early seeds of hessian rebellion were sown as a response to the lack of political representation for the working class and the growing economic disparities in the heavily industrialized Rheinland. At the very dawn of the 700s A.S., the ever-growing discontent of Dresden's working class reached a boiling point when the disgruntled workers and miners left their stations and organized into a loosely-knit resistance movement known as the Red Hessians. The early activities of the rebellion included sabotage, targeted strikes against corporate shipping lanes and constant raids on the corporate facilities that wronged them. While initially the operations were conducted primarily in the Dresden system, the Hessians expanded to establish hidden bases in inhospitable asteroid fields in adjacent systems, like Freital and Ronneburg, where they could evade the reach of the Rheinland authorities.

As the poor working conditions on Kruger and Daumann facilities continued to swell the Hessian ranks, so did their reputation for daring attacks and guerrilla warfare tactics spread, quickly becoming a significant thorn in the side of Rheinland's big corporations by actively disrupting supply lines and economic activities in the region.

The Omegas Front

In order to secure more ground and resources far away from the military's prying eyes, expansion into the Omegas soon followed with the random discovery of the Omega-11 jump hole in 709 A.S. by a Dresden recon patrol. During 712 A.S. Freital was established as a key logistic base to further Hessian interests in the region and launch raids on Rheinland corporate mining operations across the Omegas, with a particular focus on Daumann diamond extraction. Soon after, the Omega-5 system connection was discovered, and with it came the first contact with the Corsairs. Originally, both factions ignored each other, which allowed for the Hessians to establish Ronneburg in 724 A.S. The asteroid base was initially intended to be a major staging point for Hessian raids into Omega-3 and Omega-7, but instead was gradually turned into "the last gate to hell" as known throughout its inhabitants ranks. Beginning with the year 731 A.S., a series of conflicts begun erupting between the two major unlawful factions over liberated cargo passing through the Rheinland-Bretonia trade route. These minor scuffles combined with a passive hostility attitude continued for over a period of 9 years until 740 A.S., when a breaking point was reached, starting one of the bloodiest wars in Sirius history.

With Omega-5 suddenly becoming an all out warzone, so did Ronneburg turn into the very frontline and the focal point of Hessian defenses. This lasted for a few years, until the Corsair siege subsided and the Rheinlanders' counter offensive managed to push the frontline back towards the system's center. With the raging war lasting in a stalemate for over 90 years now , the constant battles would turn this region of Omega-5 from an asteroid field into a large, relatively open area full of scattered wreckage, armed mines and disabled ships known by name as the Hammen Hole. Despite all of this, Ronneburg remains to this day the most important supply and defense base for the Hessians in the Omegas, ensuring a powerful presence in the system and a stable launching pad for Hessian pilots raiding into Bretonia.

In 810 A.S. the Corsair-Hessian war took to another level with the stabilization of a jumphole linking Omega-5 and Omega-48. Although the Corsairs had already established an earlier foothold with Casablanca station in the remote system, the Hessians wasted no time invading and capturing the base within the span of a year. At the same Planet Tangier, which was originally surveyed by the Corsairs, fell under Hessian control shortly after the Casablanca success. By early 815 A.S. the Rheinlanders entrenched themselves even more in the system by constructing the Viernheim station, which served as a logistics base for operations in the system as well as assisting in Tangier's docking ring construction.

Viernheim Station wreck orbiting over Planet Tangier

Casablanca remained in Hessian hands until early 819 A.S., when the Corsairs decided to mount an overwhelming offensive to retake the base and once again safeguard their vital supply lines towards Bretonia and Dublin.
Although Casablanca was a major loss, spirits were once again revitalized in 824 A.S. with Planet Tangier's docking ring becoming fully functional, marking eight years of hard work since the start of its development under constant Corsair counter attacks. As the ease of supplying basic necessities to the planet and transferring minerals off-world to Viernheim increased, so did the importance of the planet's orbital processing facility. By 827 A. S. the Corsairs, aware of the fact, doubled down in their efforts to overwhelm the Hessian garrison, mirroring the Casablanca campaign 8 years earlier. Viernheim came under heavy fire from an overly-aggressive Battleship Fes and its escorts, but unlike the previous successful operation in the system, the Hessians were not alone. The Coalition Carrier Alvin Katz was deployed to fight in unison with the station's garrison, and although much of it was decimated during the brutal fight, the day was won in the end with Fes having to retreat having taken substantial damage. The celebrations wouldn't last as the base suddenly suffered a catastrophic explosion, rendering it a total wreck. In their cowardice, seeing that the battle was lost, the Corsair boarding parties who initially aimed to take control over the station, planted and detonated explosives in a last ditch effort to deliver a heavy blow to the Hessians.

Ultimately, the loss of Viernheim was the last nail in the coffin for the Hessian presence in Omega-48. With Planet Tangier now at the edge of their supply lines, imminent expectations of constant Corsair retaliations and with no real immediate economic benefit, the high command decided against rebuilding another orbital processor. Despite this, the Hessians wouldn't just throw all their historic efforts away. Thus, by mutual agreement, the administration of the planet was left to the Coalition, who gladly entrenched themselves given the proximity to their home-system and with the Carrier Alvin Katz already in the orbit.

The Heartland

Beginning with 818 A.S. the Red Hessians achieved the first major objective in liberating Dresden with the destruction of the local police HQ on Pirna and subsequent occupation of Leipzig. By 824 A.S. the system was fully under the worker's control, with all corporations expelled and only a military garrison remaining guard over the New Berlin jump gate. This resounding success was shortly followed by yet another in fully capturing the Koln system and entirely driving out the Military and Bounty Hunter forces in the area at the beginning of the Rheinland civil war.

Not everything in the Heartland involved the Military, during 826 A.S. the tenuous pact with the Unioners would come to an abrupt end. For years they had conducted a careful balancing act of smuggling both hessian diamonds and Cretan artefacts. With evidence of this scheme, the Hessians boarded Krefeld Base in Koln claiming to hunt political dissidents and summarily executed all the corsair traders on the station. In the same year the Unioners, still unaware their deception was fully exposed, called for the combined Coalition & Hessian forces to aid them into a joint strike of Hamburg's Vierlande in an effort to free its prisoners. While the operation was successful, little did they realize it was all a carefully planned trap, with the Hessian-Coalition force suddenly turning on the Unioners during the celebrations. The aftermath ended in the destruction of the Union's flagship, the Undine, with simultaneous attacks wrecking the Wedel Station, leaving no survivors. To this day, the Unioners became staunch adversaries of the Hessians, going to great lengths to stop their movement into northern Rheinland and disrupting operations house-wide, including their diamond smuggling routes.

This golden period for the worker's movement would be short lived though and the Hessians were brought crashing back down with the Holstein peace accords between the Imperials and the Federalists. With the newly reunified government preparing to launch a decisive offensive to retake Koln, the Hessians had little hope to hold the system any longer and chose instead to hastily abandon it by 828 A.S.

Battleship Strausberg wreck in the aftermath of the Dresden invasion

In 832 A.S. the Military had set its eyes on Dresden, with Battleship Strausberg spearheading the operation. The Hessian forces were aware of the inevitable invasion but they did not expect the diversionary maneuver by the Military 4th Strike Flotilla into the heavily defended perimeter of the Giftnebel. Although the Rheinland flotilla's attack near Vogtland was repelled incurring heavy losses, the action itself was successful in pinning down the Kassel Battlegroup as planned. By the time Kassel reached the Strausberg, both Bautzen and Leipzig were lost. Initially, the Hessian counter-attack against the retreating Military force inflicted heavy damage on the Strausberg but, as the fight went on, the larger Rheinland fleet steadily begun to overwhelm their smaller opponents. The premature launch of the Kassel after the damage it suffered during the Koln retreat skirmish with Battleship Altenburg didn't help the situation, as the mammoth's patchwork repairs inevitably started to buckle under the strain, losing its ability to maneuver while being torn asunder by smaller capital ships. Although the Hessian's flagship was disabled, enough damage was dealt to the Strausberg's reactor plating to be easily targeted by the Thor bomber squadrons, leading to a critical meltdown of the battleship's engines. Incapacitated, orders were given by the Military to scuttle the ship in an effort to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

Present Times

Despite the recent losses and drawbacks, the present day Red Hessian movement is still a force to be reckoned with. Between continuously fighting the Corsair Imperio to a standstill in the Omegas, systematically spreading their influence into Bretonia, all while maintaining a large share of power in the Rheinland underground, the Hessians maintain their status as the third largest unlawful faction in the Sirius sector after the Hispanic nations. Although the constant influx of new recruits bolstering their ranks is essential for the movement's survival, it has become an unexpected issue due to the overcrowding of Vogtland. With Freital and Ronneburg unsuited to house the ever-increasing population, the command is now focused on finding suitable alternatives.

Hessian raiding party targeting trade lanes in New Berlin's Harzfeld

In terms of economy, the military invasion of Dresden wrecked significant damage on the remaining hessian infrastructure in the system. With Leipzig gone, the movement makes use of whatever they can scrape off the largely depleted resource fields.
One critical component of the movement's economy remains the mining of diamonds, particularly the ones nicknamed "Hessian Tears". Found only in Dresden's Schwefelnebel, the unique conditions of the cloud coupled with the inability of Kruger to mine the area, allows the Hessians a sole monopoly of these very rare diamonds.
With the current poor state of their home-system aside, the Hessians still make use of their other traditional sources of income to stay afloat, namely the constant piracy of trade routes from Rheinland going to Bretonia, Kusari and Gallia, coupled with the smuggling of cheap black market munitions sourced from Kaiserslautern, courtesy of the Bundschuh.

Although the military eventually retreated out of Dresden, the main threat to Vogtland shifted to the Corsairs. The Cretans, smelling blood, punched through Frankfurt to establish a forward raiding position in the system with Battlegroup Penitence. Now, for the first in 2 years, the Hessians have taken the initiative to launch a massive counter offensive against the Corsairs in Omega-41 and draw the savages out of Dresden. Operations are now underway, spearheaded directly from Battleship Zuschen with aid of newly formed brigades launching from Freital.

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II. Identity |

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Die Rote Front, or Red Front, has emerged as a natural response to the increased presence of Corsair Imperio's capital fleets along the Omega frontlines. The faction was formed by an assembly of tight-knit and battle-hardened Hessian commanders to be a militarized and disciplined group with a strict but fair approach. United by a common vision harkening back to the ideals of old, the leaders of the Red Front took it upon themselves to spearhead the Hessians' ambitions within the Edge Worlds and finally bring about the Volksrevolution in Rheinland proper.

Rotfront flotilla disabling a corsair battleship in Omicron Theta

The Front, just like the greater Hessian movement, is a symbol of hope for the disillusioned working class and stands in defiance to the oppressive imperialistic powers and corporate interests that dominate Rheinland's political landscape. Although the faction makes use of any individual willing to join their ranks, from self-centered brigands and pirates to visionaries and simple men looking to create a better future for their families, it remains steadfast in maintaining a cohesive unit that strives to accomplish its goals. Despite this diverse background of its members, the Hessian Front holds the ideological element in high regard, aiming to instills the founding ideals of the movement into every eager recruit.

The faction's headquarters and place of birth is Vogtland, with the nearby Wolfsburg Shipyard serving as the launching and maintenance base for the Front's flotilla. The chain of command is fragmented, operating with a high degree of autonomy, employing heavy assets and deep knowledge of southern Sirius to disrupt and dismantle enemy operations, with the end goals of breaking the Corsairs' foothold in the Omega systems, and ultimately, to ignite the revolution that will overthrow the oppressive and corrupt government of Rheinland and bring justice and equality to its people.

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III. Objectives |

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Primary Objectives

• Break the Corsair Imperio's back on the Omega front and secure the region's resources;
  
  
• The total dismantling of the Rheinland Military apparatus and overthrowing of the fascist regime it enforces.
  

Secondary Objectives

• The continual hinderance of operations belonging to Rheinland and foreign corporations that knowingly work against the workers' interest and self determination;
  
  

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IV. Ranks |

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High Command

» 1st IC: Colonel

» 2nd &3rd IC: Lieutenant Colonel



Veterans

» Major

» Captain

» Lieutenant


Rookies

» Sergeant

» Comrade

» Recruit

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