It is our conviction that the Bounty Hunters Guild, operating on the behalf of the Libertonian Goverment, is staging strike craft from a Confederation of Freeport asset within the Bering system, in violation of the independent worlds security arrangement for the continued autonomy of the Bering system. Deep-recon patrols have ascertained that the staging vessel is neither an outpost nor a mobile colony, but a conventionally-armed Tactical Carrier.

Such an asset violates the historical compact of understanding between the Beringia Zoner populace and the resident parties of the Bering system. It is an egregious unsolicited act of aggression that will be persecuted to the full extent of our capabilities.


The Confederation will provide an explanation for the following occurrences:

1) The Presence of a zoner warship in the Tanner belt without pre-contacting local parties, including the Liberty Rogues, Libertonian Seperatists (including the LSA, Harmony Battlegroup, sic affiliates), along the Chort's Forge cell of the Reichsarbeitergesellschaft.

2) The residence of belligerent, house-aligned organisations upon a CoF vessel.

3)

We hereby issue the following demand:

The COF immediately blacklists the following mercenary groups from docking access to Carrier Tarrafal:

The bounty Hunters Guild.

The Forlorn Hope.


As the vessel is a beligerent warship attempting to disguise its presence from other parties resident within the system, along with hosting foreign, hostile mercenaries, it is hereby exempt from the Unioner policy of non-harrassment regarding Zoner assets. As the warship does not contain any meaningful civillian population, it will be viewed as a strategic threat and regarded as any other foreign undeclared warship would be.

Failure to comply will result in the utilisation of WMDs to remove the warship and therefore the risk presented to the civillian population of the Beringia region.


This is your only warning.

You have twenty-four hours to respond before WMD deployment. We urge the Liberty Rogues and the Liberty Seperatists to stand with us against the common nemesis.

Not since the dark years of the Zoner Alliance has such perfidy been drawn from the bloodied heart of the Zoner movement. Our swarthy Sternensoldaten will crush your devilish Zoner Marines under our pressure-boots.

We rebuke the amoral violence of neutrality and the Zoner way, if it leads us only to chaos. We take up arms in the dignified knowledge that we, as brothers, as sisters, stand for something.

The Union thanks you for your aid, our revolutionary comrades. In our gratitude, we will be forwarding you a munitions package shortly.


Information on the circumstances of the carrier's discovery are being forwarded now.


[REDACTED] Hours prior to transmission submission, Syndicliga Beringia defence forces were intercepted by strike craft affiliated with the Bounty Hunter's Guild, in trajectory from a sparsely charted, under-utilized region of the Tanner Belt. The vessels did not originate from the Hudson or Texas systems, the usual den of the Bounty Hunters Guild within the trans-Pacific verge, inflicting [REDACTED] losses upon Unioner spacecraft operating in the theatre at the time.


A scout party sent out to retrace the Guild's movements tracked the vessel back to a relatively unpatrolled region of the belt to the planar west of Freeport 2/Providence/Bristol NFZ, expecting to encounter an otherwise uncharted jump hole. Whilst initial contacts returned nothing, magnetometer searches revealed the existence of a massive unknown metallic object of separate composition to the rest of the field. Closer investigation revealed the existence of the following juggernaut:

x


The Unioners possess sparse technical information upon the vessel. From the scant records we can extract from the databanks of Captain Dross, the vessel is an 'Aquilon' deep space logistics and resupply vessel, a significant adversary by itself, but otherwise a civillian vessel, if an extremely well equipped one. This variant carries none of the discernable features of a science vessel; tactical blisters and hardpoints replace stellar cartography suites, the armour of the Aquilon is at least quadruple blueprint design thickness, reinforced with Iridium-Graphene meta-material weave. The vessel's ordinance is dreadnaught-grade, its hanger has been expanded into the vessel's cargo bay to bestow her with double the conventional strike craft capacity of a spacecraft her size.

Upon discovery of our scouts, the Carrier, bearing transponder designation 'Tarrafal', engaged aggressive jamming, and opened fire, deploying alert escorts from her magnetic launch decks.

x

Our lead scout escaped, however, it is likely the carrier tracked our Arbeiter to Providence. Upon NFZ arrival, an independent Bounty Hunter and a Sixth Fleet agent intercepted our men and engaged the Unioner pilot. Fighting bravely with a Seperatist wingman, the Arbeiter downed the Hunter before withdrawing.


We strongly suspect, as the so-called Zoner Alliance has now confirmed, that the Zoners are reneging on their agreement not to seek reprisal for the administration transition of Freeport Providence. The Zoners intend, along with mercenaries and the direct assistance of the Republic of Liberty, to drive the Forces of the Free out from our position within Providence's NFZ, using the Tarrafal as a rally-point.

Our course of action is clear. We must counter this fresh threat to our flank, before we lose our momentum in the Tanner Theatre.

Unfortunately, we believe it likely that the Tarrafal has now moved; our scouts have not been able to re-acquire the Carrier since its initial detection. Probability estimates predict the Carrier is pursuing randomised evasive patterns at combat velocities through the field, hot-launching and recovering strike craft as she goes. Evidence infers a commander well-drilled in the art of celestial strategic warfare, a likely veteran of the Zoners' own Omicron Delta skirmishes.

Caution is advised. Such a massive deployment by the Zoners cannot be the result of one isolate cell operating upon its own accord. We must brace for the worst.

Confirmed, pilot. We will need everyman to do their part to retain Providence's hardwon freedom from the jackboots of the Zoner way.

Packet orders will be transmitted over the secured band. The Unioners are being pressed to a mobilisation footing. Do, or die.