I am Gottfried Verlanger, proud son of two Kruger wage-slaves. I was born on the Elbich Mining facility around twenty six years ago.
I was raised in the communal nursery at Elbich until I was aproximately six years of age, after which I was educated in rudimentary reading and writing as well as in mining operations and equipment repair.
After four years of education, I was put to work as a pilot and technician of a mining station maintenance vessel. During the next nine years of working tirelessly under the shackles of a contract that I had never agreed to, my foreman secretly continued my education - teaching me to read beyond the inane instructions of mining equipment manuals, into the realm of the great thinkers. As part of my clandestine education, I was exposed to the works of Marx, Lennin, and Mao of the first great revolutionaries, as well as the works of Makarov and Ivanova of the American revolutionaries on the old Earth. Their words roused the revolutionary within me as they made clear the injustices which kept me and my fellow workers in the chains of our slavery.
It soon became clear to me that complacency was the enemy of revolution - too long had we just worked with our eyes to the floor, silently accepting our fates. Too long had we postponed our fantasies of liberation from the corrupt and oppressive to the impossible daydream. As clear as the red sun burned, the time for action had come. Since then, I spread the liberating words of the revolutionaries among those that had not heard, collecting resources and people so that we could take our wretched fates into our own hands from those of our undeserving masters.
Five more years, this continued - I spread the teachings of the Revolution by night, and worked tirelessly by day - until our cause had the support of all the miners and the enough of the guards for a takeover. We were so close... and yet so far. It was greed that motivated one of my comrades to sell us out.
The response was swift - They put us all to the bulkhead and shot us one by one. It was by a miracle that I had been warned by a trusted friend to escape - and a precious few of us did.
The majority of those of us that had fled decided to join the Unioners and the Hessians - however, while I believe the two to be brothers in our cause, I believe them to be too short sighted. It is my belief that the revolution should take place all over Sirius, and not just Rheinland, that I wish to join the Coalition.
If you will have me, I willingly offer the sweat of my brow to benefit the common peoples. Years of manning a nimble repair drone through the dangerous asteroid fields of Omega-7 has left my hands deft, and my piloting skills exceptional; the years repairing machinery and lugging parts has left my body strong; the reading and sharing of the revolutionary principles has left my mind sharp, and my heart willing. I can fight the oppressors on ground or in space if necessary - and I can learn and enlighten the common worker with our glorious revolutionary cause.
Thank you for your time, Comrade.
Gottfried Verlanger
