Hullo,

Firstly, Hi. I'm Sarah. I'd shake your hand, but... Could be a little difficult with the screen and all. It's been a long time since I had anything to do you guys, but I was hoping you might be able to help me out with something.

I won't go on with the details, since I'm not quite sure what it is exactly you'd need off me, but I need to get hold of a current Rheinland Military transponder code, and I thought that might be the sort of thing you would be able to make happen. I'm not sure if you can pull it off the authentication they send to the gates, or what. Taking it off a wrecked ship's not really an option, since the military tend to cancel the authentication on any ship that goes off the grid. Obviously I don't expect the transponder to last indefinitely if we're loaning an existing ship's signature, but as long as it can fool a handful of defense platforms for long enough to grab some pictures, I'll be happy.

Anyway, it'd be great if you could let me know what you can do, then we'll talk about payment, of course.

Thanks.

Hi Nicole,

You're probably right. My last contact with the Hackers as an organisation was a lifetime ago, and I can't say I'm aware of any official Bundschuh contact since then. As far as Daniel and Dennis go, they were years before I time, and I haven't heard anything of them bur whispers. Then again, I'm not exactly here in an official capacity either, so I suppose that diplomatic void might have to drift on a little longer. This is more what you'd call a personal project.

It does simplify the philosophical debate a little though, I suppose. The funny thing about dreams is that they don't tend to react very well to exposure to the air. Not that that ever stopped anyone from trying to hang on to them regardless. Maybe it's just me, but I think there's a certain poetry to that. In any event, I'd prefer to see this war end sooner rather then later but that, as you said, is a matter of personal politics.

Buro transponders are an interesting option, but aren't those ships wired to self-destruct, or something similarly impressive? Don't get me wrong, I mean, I'm sure you know what you're doing, I'm just curious as to how it is you plan to get the data out intact. I'm more mechanically inclined, personally, but it's always interesting to see how the other side does things.

Anyway, on to the information you mentioned... I can certainly have a look for you and ask some of our own patrols. I never flew as a smuggler myself, and our own ships tend to focus more on essential supplies then contraband, so I doubt I'd be able to offer you much on that front, but some of our crust- Er, veteran pilots know the jump network like the back of their collective hands, so I should be able to update you on that front, if that's fine by you.

Also, I appreciate the German, really, I do. So thank you for the effort, but I don't mind if you leave it be. I was born in Liberty and, to be honest, I was sort-of looking forward to getting away from the accents for a while.

Thank you for the help.

Hi Nicole,

We certainly do. Have a deal, that is. I'll be heading into Liberty over the next few days, and I'll bring a physical copy of the data with me then. There's still a few kinks I'm ironing out in the travel plans, but I don't really expect it to be a huge problem, compared to tracking down that information. Other then that, that seems to be pretty much it. I'll make sure to drop a note over this channel once I'm back in Liberty space, and I can organise somewhere to drop off the information from there.

Oh, and there's no need to apologise for the Rheinlandian. I'm still fairly certain the language is a particularly cruel form of verbal contortion that exists solely so the Rheinlanders can enjoy watching us mangle it. It'll be good to get back to Liberty for a while.

Until then, then.

Dear Nicole,

That's quite alright. Sorry for not making contact earlier, things here managed to get themselves tangled enough that I didn't have the opportunity to assemble that database for you as quickly as I'd hoped. To be perfectly honest, I haven't even been able to look at it yet.

Anyway, I understand that your people have things to do and places to be. Hopefully we can arrange a more productive exchange in the future.