Wassuh wassuhh, it's ya girl, you still alive Shades? You better cause I gotta air out some of the old folk's laundry and you're like the one person still around who understands this stupid BS.
First off tho, remember when I said I might have some solution for your drive lab needs? Yeah that kinda fell through. Kinda figures by the radio silence, yea? I was pulling some strings to get some braniacs disappeared off of certain Ageira labs, yaknow, people who wanted into the pipeline. Unfortunately the Navy setting up armed checkpoints everywhere in Colo made that way harder. Still trying to get the green light from a few contacts, and even then it might be a long scramble before we get a regroup. Man fuck the war for reals.
Ok ok, now what I actually wanted to talk about. What's the deal with the Unioneers? Cuz they've been hitting us up with some sadboy shit like "oooh babygirl, im so sorry, call me back, this time it's for reals" tryna do biz and shit and like. Why are we mad again? Any reason I should care 'bout this old man beef? I think these crews that are poking us are some young blood, at least the comm codes don't match but you'll know better than me probs.
We already did a bit of touch and go biz just to get a feel for 'em and they seem reliable at least, but they got some plans for big ops they want us in on and I sure as fuck aint going in on that until every deet is triple-checked, yea? So lay it on me.
Just got done moving the wife and kids down in the direction of Bretonia. As fortified as my mansion on Pecos is, I don't think it's "A whole moon turning into a damned alien beacon" fortified. Cost a bit, and I'm literally rich so that's saying something. Brute force on the Argonaut and the Niyodo is proceeding apace. The stuff in there is pretty disheartening, but hey, what are you gonna do? Arms races make scary weapons.
Now, uh, Unioners. Ugh, where to start. Mostly, they're your regular strongarm-deals, bait-and-switch betrayal, predatory lending types. They want to control Texas and are willing to cut deals and backstab anyone on their way through. Most of that was done at the hands of Corin Frei. If they've grown past the days of "being for the working people" and then gassing a station full of working people, I mean congrats to them. Get on the net and look up "Alster Shipyard Gas Attack", it's a rabbit hole.
The other part goes all the way back to like 826, somewhere around there. So, when the Hellfire Legion took over Vespucci from the Lane Hacker Guard, the original Battleship Spyglass was lost. You know, the one that makes the foundation of basically all our scanner tech and those network nodes we keep at our stations. Hellfire Legion was its own problem, but somehow Unioners got their hands on an "Arbiter" battleship. "Found it in a nebula" or something, except Professorship sent a team that included yours truly to go check it out.
Thing was a mess, discharging power directly into open space to compensate for the generator overloading itself every single cycle. Evidence pointed to them ripping out the entire scanner suite and Liberty's original engine array, probably because they couldn't figure out how to use it. Big ass Tesla coils to displace the overloaded energy, but even then the ship couldn't really handle it and had to return to drydock to discharge like every two weeks or so. Definitely not an actual Arbiter from the Legion, something completely different, jury-rigged for their use.
After that, Unioners took over the Rheinland government. They'll call that civil war a lot of things, but I'll tell you this much: Rheinland used to just look at us strongly. Never land on stations, but they wouldn't come shooting us. Maybe they wanted to keep the ever-present Lane Hacker information network as an option, they DID just get over a war with Liberty at that point. But, I'm over there maybe second day of the war, and I watch a single Unioner, low rank guy I've seen him piss around Bering before, commanding a pair of cruisers and a battleship to go hunt me. Delivering commands to high-end Rheinland Military, and they immediately followed him all "yes sir yes sir, roger roger". They'll call that civil war a lot of things, but it was Rheinland getting taken over by Unioners, and it's why Lane Hackers can't even fly through Rheinland sightseeing anymore. Ya ever been shot at by Rheinland Military? Unioners did that.
Anyway, while all that went down, Professorship basically told Unioners to turn towards Hamburg, and keep going until they fucked all the way off, and leave the Spyglass at the door. Unioners didn't, obviously, and so we fought them. That's basically the long and short of it. If they're talking to you, it probably means you have something that they want, and they're willing to pretend to be friends until they can snatch it, stab you in the back, and run off back to their little hovels with it. So, good luck with that. Equal chances they turned over a new leaf, or they're the same stank, just pretending so that they can get one over you.
Though, if you can get a bead on Corin Frei, do let me know. There's not a lot I wouldn't give to get to put a plasma bolt between his bug eyes.
So the TL;DR is we're dealing with a buncha flakey opportunistic turncoats. That's good to know. Tho I'ma be real with you chief, I don't really buy into your idea that they took over the government. Maybe it's the Libertonian in me, but that's usually something the people with the big bucks and the luxury yatches do, not some shipwright bums living in a big rock in the borderworlds. Not that that changes much.
The op they were trying to sell was simple enough. Rush the Hamburg Gate Reconstruction Site, gut the local servers, run out, turn them over to us to pick apart. They're hoping there's something in there that'll make Ageira or DSE look like clowns if it goes public and that'll give Rheinland an edge in some diplomatic bullshit. So they're still larynx-deep on that imperial wurst it looks like.
Personally, I doubt there's gonna be anything there except boring maintenance logs and shipping manifestos but I also think for them it's more a show of force more than anything, like look at me, I can take the gate and shit. It's just gonna bring a ton of heat down on 'em for like 0 gain but whatever. All they want from us is network interference and data analysis so it's as low risk as it gets so it's no skin off my balls.
Now ya might be thinking: Chloe, ya dumb bitch, even with all I told you you're still considering this? And to that I tell you: I'm looking at Galileo and ya know what I see? A place that's just gonna get shittier and shittier to smuggle artifacts through for the next long while. We gotta diversify our supply before shit really hits the fan and while the Rogues are just sitting with their thumbs up their asses. So this op would be a test, to see how much they got their shit together, how eager they are to cut and run, etc. Then we'd see.
Will definitely let you know if I get word on Corin Frei tho.
I mean, hey, that's just the Inner Circle's edge of the story. See if you can snatch one of the old Alcatraz Rogues, they also had a run in with Unioners and their ways. I'm pretty sure they handled it by just punching them in the teeth really hard, and that the Rogues are the reason we're not shooting down Unioners at the Texas gate in New York to this day. If Hemlocke was still around, I'd send you straight to him, but seriously, find one and ask.
Anyways, between Unioners and the damn Hogosha, you might be starting to figure out why, traditionally, Lane Hackers ran Cardamine and not Artifacts. Hell, the original peace treaty between IMG and Crayter Republic was brokered by Inner Circle members so that we could get a better, more stable grasp on the Barrier Pass. If you really want to mess around with Artifacts, though, get me a stealth module for my bomber and I'll drum up an old contact. Can't tell you who it is now, good old "need to know", but I assure you that they're significantly more reliable and more professional than Unioners. They're also experts on which artifacts blow up in your cargo hold and which don't, so you can rest a bit easier. Us old Inner Circle guys still got cards up our sleeves.
Also, might check in with the Junkers. I know your Xenos buddies won't like that, but your Xenos buddies also don't like you, no matter what they tell you. Even Inner Circle fell for that one. Oldhead business, though.
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