I thought about how I could provide some information about Rheinland shipyards and ship movements.
For the beginning I wanted to be cautious and chose to enter Rhineland as one of my covers, an independent trader.
To stay under the radar I began with a trade from Kusari to the Rhineland system Munich.
In Sigma-13 I noticed a jumphole with a name that sounded like a Rhineland name: Luneburg. I entered the Luneburg system from Sigma-13. Luneburg does not feature a lot, only one Bundschuh base. As the Bundschuh reacted hostile to me, I was unable to collect more information on the base. So I left the system as fast as possible. Luneburg system
I then surveyed the whole Munich system. There was the battleship Regensburg which is stationed there on the most important trade lane crossing, but I did not notice other mlitary crafts. Munich system
I was able to enter the battleship. This is the data on it: BS Regensburg
I decided to take up some prisoners there to transport them to the Hamburg system. I hoped this to be a good reason to cross most of Rhineland space.
On my way to Hamburg I had to cross Frankfurt and New Berlin. Still in the Munich system I checked the broadcast channels and noticed that all Rhineland Militaries on the display were said to be located in a system named Braunschweig. This system was not in my ship computer. Hint to Braunschweig system
I continued and reached the Frankfurt system. I enclose a map of this system. Frankfurt system
The next system I reached was New Berlin, the capital of Rhineland. I shivered when I entered the system. When I reached New Berlin Planet I saw the Oder shipyard and quickly entered.
After that I had the data on it in my ship computer. The data showed that Oder shipyard does not produce war ships. Oder shipyard
Then I quickly continued direction Hamburg system. I have to admit, that I did not have the guts to do a full survey of the New Berlin system, I'll try to do that on a later mission. I did not notice Rhineland capital ships moving through the system, though.
When I was flying direction Dortmund Station I noticed on the broadcast channels a broadcast by the LNS-Defiance trying to motivate Rhinelanders to defect. Radio Free Liberty
I then stopped at Dortmund station. All had gone well so far, this made me more optimistic. In the bar I heard that a jumphole to the Braunschweig system was in the vicinity of the station. I did not get the information about the exact location, so I continued direction Hamburg on the trade lane. Suddenly I saw on the radar the jumphole to the Braunschweig system.
I left the trade lane and took the jumphole to the Braunschweig system. When I entered the system I saw some red marks around me and then already heard the first shots pounding the hull of my ship. I instantly pushed a function key to transfer a backup of my ship computer's database to my wrist watch and ran for the escape pod. Seconds later I was floating in space in my escape pod (six seconds after entering the system, my ship had been a wreck), and some dead prisoners were floating in space along with me.
The escape pod was quickly picked up by some ship I could not identify and I soon found myself in an uncomfortable room being asked a lot of questions. I told them that I had heard at Dortmund station that I would be able to get a lot more money for the prisoners in the Braunschweig system than in Vierlande. They questioned me repeatedly and finally released me after two days. I guess they finally bought my story. That is also what I understood when they talked to each other in Rhineland dialect (which I can understand). They even laughed at me, being so greedy to let those Rhinelanders at Dortmund play such a bad joke on me.
They dropped me off at Dortmund station. The insurance refunded me the ship, but not the "cargo". Anyways, I was happy to be still alive.
After restoring the ship database to the new ship, this is all of the information that was left from that incident: Braunschweig system
Probably this is only part of the Braunschweig system. There seems to be at least one battleship stationed there (the Moselle) and at least one station is in the system (Mecklenburg Station).
Still, the BS Moselle is some distance away from the New Berlin Jumphole, and my ship was grilled instantly. The way the shots were pounding my ship, I suspect at least one or two capital ships at the jumphole. BS Moselle Mecklenburg station
I took cargo at Dortmund and instantly took off direction Bretonia. On my way to Bretonia I passed the Stuttgart system and there saw the battleship Karlsruhe which is close to planet Stuttgart: BS Karlsruhe
I noticed that they were selling fighter crafts there.
In Bretonia I found out that no one was interested in the load I had taken in Dortmund, I was able to sell it at battleship Yukon in Califormia later.
Anyhow, this first recognaissance misson to Rhineland ended with a bad surprise for me, I'd say, it was close to disaster. I really have to be more cautious next time when I continue this mission, and also try to prepare more carefully. The mission is more difficult than I thought (although I had been warned). I also am not happy about the fact that I missed the opportunity to survey the New Berlin system while I was not yet suspect.
Meanwhile I did some additional studies and found information which indicates that Braunschweig is a Guard system (Rhineland Military). I should have found out that before I entered. And Luneburg probably is the system of the Bundschuh Guard, so I had been lucky not to encounter any Bundschuh craft there.
Well I hope the next part of my mission to Rhineland will be more successful. But before that I have to build up a new cover, I do not dare to use the same cover again.
James Turtle
Agent in training
Division Homeland Security
[font=Agency FB][color=#CC0000]Enabling Feedback Loop...
Closing Transmission...
Signal Lost...
She: Some soldiers, I know, are afraid of death.
He: All of them, dear lady, all of them, believe me. It is our duty to live as long as we can, and kill as many of the enemy as we can.
