History
Humble beginnings

Founded over 300 years ago in the system of Hamburg, right after to the Eighty Years War, the Unioner movement was created from dispossessed Alster shipyard workers, formed in 521 A.S due to a catastrophic accident aboard Republicans biggest shipyard that cost the lives of several hundred shipyard workers. Imperial Shipping, Republican Shipping's direct ancestor and the shipyard's owner, concerned itself little with such trifling details as worker health and safety, rationalizing that the occasional life pension or widow's compensation was nothing compared to the sum to be made from constant productivity.
The Unioner movement was formed to improve working conditions for the citizens of Hamburger aboard Alster and, later on the neighboring Altona station. The skills required to work aboard either station were highly specialized and quite esoteric at the time, and so the Union rapidly established dominance over its employers - benefits and bonuses poured in, and Hamburg's industry began to change.
The Union, over the centuries, attained so many government subsidies and concessions from Imperial Shipping that labor and production aboard the Hamburg shipyard and aboard Altona was no longer viable '€“ They simply could no longer compete with the Kusari shipbuilding giants of Samura and Kishiro, and plummeted into financial deficits. Though the Eighty Years War's onset led to a dramatic increase in spacecraft demand, its conclusion, not to mention the Rheinwehr's shattering defeat at the Battle of the Yanagi Cloud, meant that Imperial (rechristened Republican after the Rheinland government was vanquished) was paying for a colossal worker horde without producing anything at marketable prices.


Republicans decision

So it came that Republican no longer needed its workers - their highly specialized skills had initially led to the Alster Union's great strength - and so it callously disposed of them. Thousands of laborers were cast out to starve to death, any and all concessions to employees were immediately repealed, and the dockworkers of Hamburg were sold into slavery by the corporation they'd once had by the throat, in similar, if not worse, conditions as two hundred years previously.
A more radically-minded contingent of the unemployed shipyard workers - at the turn of the century, Hamburg's unemployment rate had topped 30%, a ridiculous figure even by the standards of the corrupted Rheinland government - resolved that, if the soulless Republican suits had left them to die, and if the impotent Rheinland cabinet would let the corporation do as it pleased, they'd simply alter their fates themselves. Thus the Unioners as we know them at this time were created.
Though initially a comparatively small organization, similar to the beginnings of the LWB thirty years later, their numbers skyrocketed after the Popular Revolt of 703 A.S., during which Rheinland's industrial heart made its last beat after years of weakening. Many more downtrodden throughout Rheinland realized their government's incompetence and incapability and their employers' Orwellian dictatorships - all for the sake of profit - and cast off their shackles to fight for independence. Yet again, ex-Republican employees, particularly Alster and Altona shipyard workers, formed the majority of the new Unioner recruits. Many Daumann and Kruger miners, for example, left to the Hessians, while students at the New Berlin university created the Bundschuh. Every industrial or economic sector in Rheinland had its revolters - the ranks of the populists swelled, and the Unioners grew mightier.


Idealistic Terrorists

When the first cell of Unioners rebelled and left Hamburg with a fiery farewell (in the form of a series of gravometric mines planted in the Alster docking bays), they needed a semi-permanent base of operations to launch their (remarkably brutal) reprisals against Republican and others. Freeport 2 in Bering tempted them (Freeport 2 had originally been a Republican supply depot, a fact many Unioners found amusing), and there they went. After twenty years of residence there, Freeport 2's Zoner owners had had enough - they issued the Unioners an ultimatum to get off their base. The Unioners, having grown comfortable in Bering, decided to leave the base, but not the system - they carved their own base, Pacifica, out of a sizeable asteroid in the western Tanner Field. Pacifica counts as one of Sirius' most well-hidden pirate bases; though located in a comparatively small system, it's out-of-the-way enough to remain completely invisible at long range, and is concealed among hundreds and hundreds of similar asteroids, as the Tanner Field covers all of Bering. The system's moody lighting, due to its yellow sun, lends Pacifica a tranquil, untroubled setting - quite at odds with its murderous inhabitants.
The Unioners are vicious and unprincipled, and they launch terrorist strikes of unparalleled brutality, even by Rheinland pirates' generous standards, against targets of opportunity throughout Rheinland - their arch-nemesis Republican Shipping and their points of origin, Alster Shipyard and Altona Station in Hamburg, are their favorite victims.
The Unioners finance themselves, outside of the aggressive piracy and theft they're notorious for, by dominating Liberty-Rheinland Diamond smuggling - they run said Diamonds from Kreuzberg to Dawson, occasionally even further. The Xenos have been trying to encroach on Unioner routes for years and years, without any success to speak of. The Unioners have come into frequent conflict with the Red Hessians over Diamond supremacy throughout the years - their relation has always been a precarious one at best, and Unioner incursions into Dresden to pilfer Diamonds off the books has been met by savage Hessian attack. Though the Unioners remain dominant in the Independent Worlds smuggling trade, they've nearly always been forced off Hessian turf, and the Hessians retain control of Diamond sources outside of Junker bases. Unioner provisions are primarily pilfered off of trade convoys (as always, preferably those of Republican) throughout their zone of influence, although Kreuzberg in New Berlin is a reliable supplier of H-Fuel and Side Arms. The Unioners also put their hereditary ship-building skills to work for them, producing Basic Alloys and maintaining ships.


After the Nomad War


The years that have passed since the Nomad War have marked a time of tribulation and change for the Unioner movement. Though originally idealists and terrorists, most Unioners have degenerated into nothing more than a pirate, hijacking shipments in the Independent Worlds and throughout Rheinland indiscriminately. Membership hadn't been on the rise since the years after the Popular Revolt; Rheinland's government, though still corrupt, had stabilized somewhat and had begun to crack down on its pirate problems. Republican and similar corporations also began to flourish again, with the exception of Kruger Minerals, which was slowly being pushed out by Daumann. Events came to a head after the Nomad War - though this time of confusion presented a golden opportunity for recruitment, chaos and incompetent leadership within the faction, as well as the average Unioner losing sight of the organization's initial goal (however destructively implemented), led to the Unioners failing to take advantage of Rheinland's situation and to its subsequent weakening. The notorious Outcast and Corsair Alliances throughout Sirius also dealt the organization a severe blow - initially betraying all its fellow Rheinland pirate factions, excepting the LWB, who distanced themselves from the conflict, by joining the Corsairs, the Unioners were consistently beaten back by its fellow unlawfuls with hardly any allied intervention. Unhappy with these results, the Unioners abandoned the Corsair Alliance, thus alienating their erstwhile compatriots, and retreated from the war, attempting to maintain a position of distinct neutrality. This diplomatic bungling is also to be attributed, primarily, to lack of solid leadership.


The movement today


Recent events that affected the Unioners aside from these include, most prominently, the Rheinland-Liberty trade embargo. This proved to be a double-edged sword - though trade throughout Bering was throttled, thereby necessitating the faction to move more into Rheinland for successful piracy, so was lawful presence which allowed for the safer smuggling of contraband to liberty.
The modern Unioner has quite lost sight of his ancestral objective, aside from a desire to wreak havoc upon Rheinland's corporations for personal gain. Piracy, theft and murder have become primary goals, although the workers' rights problem remains in the consciousness of many faction members. Unioners are to be spotted much more frequently throughout Rheinland, the outskirts of Liberty and even the Omega and Sigma Systems than they were two decades ago, attempting to increase their influence in these areas and they also have begun to intercept various life-giving House trade routes , causing them to be more of a serious problem for the Rheinland government and law enforcement units. Rumors indicate that Rheinlands leading figures actively trying to act against the movements increased activity have rather short lifes.


Future Plans.


With Hex, the "Black Witch", taking control, the unioners are in for a big shake up. Hex aims to destroy the image of the "savage and bloodthirsty" unioner pirate and bring the movement back to the goals and views that gave rise to it.


Goals

-Increase the Unioners influence in Rheinland and the bordering systems
-Increase the profits made by smuggling and piracy operations
-Make Rheinland and especially Republican Shipping pay for their wrongdoings by sabotaging their operations. Make them pay where it hurts, their pockets


Diplomacy

Allied:
None yet. May change after RP is done

Friendly:
Liberty Rogues (LR-)

Neutral:
IND
Hessians
Zoners
Mollys
Hogosha
Padua Liberty Rogues
Corsairs
Hellfire Legion
Junkers
Landwirtrechtbewegung

Unfriendly:
Bundschuh/VWA
Everyone not mentioned elsewhere

Hostile/At war:
Rheinland
Liberty
Xenos
Bounty Hunters
Strange Blue Aliens and other freaks of nature


Equipment:

- Unioner Equipment and Ships
- Rheinland Civilian
- Borderworlds line/ generic civilian
- Other factions tech by 1iC approval only.


Zone of Influence:

The Unioners are a common sight within Texas, Rheinland and the surrounding independent worlds. Recent MND studies also showed increased activity in the Omega and Sigma systems.


Affiliation, ID, Tag and Naming


Affiliation: Unioners
ID: Unioner ID
Tag: RAP|
Naming Convention: RAP|Firstname.Lastname or RAP|Callsign


Ranks

Vorarbeiter: Short and simple: The boss. Can use all ship types available to the Unioners

UnterVorarbeiter: A part of the leadership, supplying the Vorarbeiter with all informations needed to do his job, their word usually is law within the Unioners ranks (2iC) Can use: All ships up to GB + access to shared cruiser

Arbeiter: Someone who survived long enough to be called a full member of the Unioner movement. Can use up to transports. Arbeiters granted veteran status are allowed to use the shared gunboat(s)

Recruit: Someone who just recently joined the Unioners ranks, will be watched closely and any wrongdoings might lead to his death.


Active Roster


- Vorarbeiter Hex - Sabre
- UnterVorarbeiter Karl Muller - TheSauron
- Arbeiter Meinrad Metz - Dr.Who


Retired Roster


- Arbeiter Jessika Weber - Bushwhacker


Code of Conduct/ Faction Do's and Dont's


1. No ooRP in system or local.
2. Don't get into brawls with other unlawfuls unless they shoot first.
3. Be reasonable and creative about your piracy demands. If you ask for money, be sensible about the amount. If you ask for cargo, take up to half of the cargo. no more. Consider other demands, like making the victim say something, or give an unusual item.
4. Despite the prevailing views towards unioners, be polite if a victim pays up. We are proud workers, not a bunch of savages.
5. Taunt the lawfuls. They are our enemies. If they want to chat in system, by all means take part.



If you are interested to join the Unioners or already are flying for the unioners, a recruitment thread is here.

Quote:Daumann has been able to capitalise on the economic and political fallout from this event. Economic aid is pouring into Munich. Some of this aid is being diverted by Daumann to Unioner proxies, and in turn the Corsairs. Daumann wishes to buy a free pass from the Corsairs in the Omegas, as well as encourage them to attack Daumann's enemies.

The Unioners are taking advantage of this event, as well as Daumann's overtures towards them. The Unioners intend to play both sides, seeking to run Blood Diamonds from the Hessians, and Artifacts from the Corsairs. Their base still lurks in the deep nebula, adjacent to a jump hole to the Sigmas.
The Bundschuh are still hoping to spoil the party. They are well aware of Daumann's heinous attempts to use this humanitarian crisis for political and economic advantage.