Many folks from all different walks of lives could be found at the bar, as expected in a Freeport. Gunter, now 31 with black hair and blue eyes, scanned his surroundings, found a table close to the edge of the room and sat down. His face wasn't known outside of certain circles in the Rheinwehr, and even those circles never saw him in civilian clothes. He wasn't too much of a fan of places like these. They were too chaotic for his liking. He shook his own head. "Stop comparing places as a Military, Kunrad." He thought to himself. He decided to at least try and enjoy the ambience while he was here.
He waived his hand to the passing waiter. "One Rhei-" He quickly recovered. "I mean one Liberty Ale, please." He didn't think it mattered that people would presume he's a Rheinlander, but better not take any risks and the fewer people here know about him, the better.
After receiving the drink from the waiter, he sat still and pondered. What kind of man would this Friedrich Geyer be? In their communication he seemed a cautious man, yet willing to hear one out if it could better their situation. The Farmers Alliance and it's suborganizations were officially enemies of Rheinland. Nonetheless, Gunter had sympathy towards their cause, albeit with some different views in how to further their goals. Helping out his parents at their farm on Holstein, he knew how it felt loving the land that you worked on.
"Only one way to find out." He took a sip of his drink and almost spewed it out. "Verdammt!" He whispered. "From all the drinks I could come up with I had to choose Liberty Ale..." Whatever expertise he got in war strategy, he surely lacked in quick-ordering a drink.
Time went by and there was no sign of Friedrich yet. He kept his calm however as he was a patient man. The waiter noticed the undercover Admiral sitting there by himself for a while now. After he delivered Gunter's second drink- Bretonian Tea this time, he couldn't help his curiosity. "Waiting for someone else?" He asked rather blunt. "Correct." Gunter replied. Undeterred, the waiter continued: "Must be an important talk, seeing you wait so long for this person." Gunter turned his head towards him. "Yes it is, we will discuss why people should mind their own business." He said with a calm voice and indifferent look. The waiter seemed to have received the message. He nodded and left in a hurry.
Friedrich Geyer arrived on Freeport 8 with considerable delay. For a change, responsibility fell not on Rheinwehr patrols he had to evade but rather a small group of very displeased and very talkactive Bundschuh activists. A recent endeavour on Holstein led to unwanted attention to a Bundschuh hideout and Geyer was to blame, at least in the view of the Bundschuh.
However, the situation solved itself and Geyer eventually arrived at the main bar of the Freeport. A man in his early 40s, dark brown unkempt hair and clothes which would not set him apart from the average impoverished worker on one of Rheinland's populated planets - he looked less like a negotiator but more like a scoundrel. Looks which did not set him apart from most of the local guests too, in contrary to Vizeadmiral.
Geyer barely needed a minute to locate the high ranked Rheinwehr officer he was meant to meet. Waving the waiter - who seemingly recognized him as he nodded in response - before he sat down on the chair opposite to Gunter. "A pleasure, good sir." His view trailed to the drink and a smirk appeared on his face. "Interesting choice."
Being spoken to, Gunter immediately woke up from being lost in his thoughts. "Guten Tag herr Geyer. I was almost getting worried." He said in a kind and calm manner. Looking at the man in front of him, Friedrich was very much the type of person Gunter expected to meet. Simple but easy clothes that could basically blend in everywhere, the unkempt hair and the slightly wild beard. Yes, this guy was a real farmer, or at the very least he was before Synth Paste took over Stuttgart. Sometimes he wished that he didn't always have to wear that same tight uniform in the field. Luckily, today was not one of them.
He gestured his hand towards the seat on the opposite side of him across the table. "By all means have a seat, please." Gunter looked towards the drink on the table, hearing Friedrich's comment about his taste of drinks. "I'd say not my first choice, but at least it wasn't as bad as the Liberty Ale i got earlier." He said while grinning. He looked back towards Friedrich afterwards. "Not that it matters to me much, but it took you quite a while to get here, I hope you didn't have trouble on your journey here?" Gunter asked in a tone that is both calm and intriguing.
Geyer was giving him a brief smile. Just as expected of Rhineland's Vice-admiralty, as much as he tried to, he was still rather easily set apart from everyone else just by his gestures and mimic.
"An interesting choice as it makes you appear suspicious to everyone around, Kunrad. Tea in such a place? Liberty Ale is hardly better too. You should have just ordered a Bier." He gestured it off, briefly talking a look around the bar. The waiter met his gaze and just nodded. Did Geyer just quietly order something?
"I was.. hm.. Let's just say, I briefly got interrupted on my way here. Nothing serious, however. You wanted to propose something, so speak up. Time is finite here." Geyer did not appear rushed though, perhaps he was just overly cautious? Freeport 8, as he knew, was frequented by all kinds of people and rumors persist about a MND presence here.
"I will take that advice should i ever do another low-profile meeting again." He grinned. "Why don't you suggest me some drinks since you seem to know the local specialties around here so well?" Gunter then watched the waiter nodding to Friedrich. Was he missing something? He decided to ignore it but kept an eye on the waiter for now.
Gunter kept his composure when Friedrich insisted to push the discussion. He leaned backwards and rested his arm on the armrest. "Herr Geyer- may I call you Friedrich?- I might not be a good undercover agent, but I'm not a fool. You wouldn't have come all this way just for a rushed conversation, don't you?" He leaned forward again and clamped his hands together in a negotiating way. "What I will have to tell you is too important for that. But in any case let me not make you wait any longer."
He took a quick look around again and went closer to Friedrich with his head and lowered his voice. "As you know, the official stance of the Rheinland Military is to defend Synth Foods and it's assets in Rheinland. However, like the Farmer organizations such as yours, the Monarchist party, including the Rheinwehr aren't too keen on their presence here as well." He glanced to his left when he heard some laughter but then continued. "Officially, we can't do anything to stop them. We can however, make it easier for you to hurt them by turning a blind eye to your attacks... more or less at least." He looked at Friedrich, trying to read his face. "Before i go further into detail, what do you think so far of this... idea?"
Whilst the Vice-Admiral started to talk, Geyer leaned in as well. It was hardly discreet, then again nobody seemed to give a damn anyway.
"I've expected something along these lines, Kunrad. What else would it be you could discuss with us?" He returned quietly, grinning blatantly. "The Monarchists were helpful before.. we know very much about this mutual.. hm.. displeasure with Synth Foods. I am curious though, how do you intend to arrange this? Delayed responses to attacks? After a while, this becomes too obvious." But before Kunrad could answer, Friedrich gestured him to be quiet. The waiter brought them a glass of herbal schnapps. "Hmm.. Danke, Oskar." Geyer said to the waiter, who with just a little nod, went on his way again.
Gunter took his glass and nodded to the waiter as well. He look to the back of Oskar as he left. He place the glass closer to his nose and smelled the different herbs, roots, fruits, and spices. "Interesting. Usually Schnapps is focused on one taste, but this one seems more a cocktail of many." He pondered about what's in it in silence for a few seconds. Then went back to business.
"It will get obvious indeed, but there are other more... subtle ways to deal with it, Friedrich. However, they might cost a few fighters on both our sides." He took a sip and was quite satisfied with the taste. "There will still be instances where we will not be intercepting your assaults. There will also be instances where we WILL intercept your attacks... and by that I don't mean just firing some blind potshots towards you. We will do some real damage." He stared Friedrich in the eyes for a few seconds to show he was not messing around on. "My otherwise perfect example of pilots however, might accidently let a window of opportunity open for your bombers to pass through." He took another, larger sip of his Schnapps this time.
"What happens afterwards is out of my hands. Wherever said Synth Food ships then gets damaged adequately is up to your own men. I myself will be dealing on the political side of these... unfortunate events."
Geyer carefully listened to the Vice-Admirals plan. It seemed half-baked, although acceptable if tied to a condition.
"A solid strategy with a simple flaw. You might be able to address that though." He drank a bit, relaxing more in his seat. "You will want to connect this plan to large Synth Foods convoys only. We are doing perfectly fine in picking our targets. However, the large convoys are often well protected, including by Rheinwehr forces dispatched from the Westfalen. Of course, we will need detailed data about these convoys.. that's the tricky part."
A thought crossed his mind and he began to smirk. "Their route being the crucial part. If it is a convoy crossing the Hamburg system, we might want to strike there instead. If they cross Frankfurt, we will expect them in Sigma-15. I think you get the picture."
He listened closely to What Friedrich had to say on the matter. Then gave his own feedback.
I'm glad we both think the same way. I also was referring to bigger convoys as well. This will be done through anonymous channels of course, should the need of it be of use to your alliance. He looked a bit confused when he heard about the Rheinwehr escorts. We usually don't actively escort corporate ships. This would be only either when they happened to ask for it themselves on the go when passing by or in a house-wide emergency. He looked around again to see if there were no unwanted listeners. I'm not aware, however of every single patrol detachment in Rheinland, so it might have happened on a rare occasion.
He almost finished his drink. Consider your data retrieval problem largely solved, Friedrich. Whenever they pass a Rheinland station or patrol, we'll be aware of it. Just know that we'll have to engage each other's forces from time to time, but will tell my men to keep your pods intact, as i will expect from your side.
Friedrich seemed overall satisfied. The plan was solid enough, considering the constraints of maintaining each respective public image.
"Well, that solves that. I'll have to reach out to a few.. skilled experts, let's say, to ensure the reliability and security of the data channel." He emptied his glass and sighed. "As for the escape pods. Spilling Rheinland blood over Synth Foods? I couldn't imagine it, many cannot. We will avoid it to the best of our abilities, though you know it goes. But.. I agree, casualty reduction is in the interest of both sides."
He left a few matters unspoken, especially in regards to a modus operandi to indiscriminately disable any warship directly protecting a Synth Foods convoy by all means necessary. This includes a preferred and reliable strategy for the otherwise combat-wise lacking LWB: Striking the engines and then crippling both bridge and command sections.