A sudden, destructive wave of iconoclasticism has swept the Lane Hacker professorship over the last year, as neophytes steadily undermine the steady leadership of Professor Nicole Hunter. From outspoken attacks on the independence of the Rogues, to supporting tribal factionism within partner organisations, to openly coordinating with the classical nemesis of their allies, the Xeno Alliance, the Lane Hackers turned the relative stability of the independent worlds black markets into a battleground - one that the Lane Hackers have gradually surrendered trade ties over.

As artefacts and Cardamine continue their two-way flow between Rheinland and Liberty, efforts by the Lane Hackers to extort their several year allies in the Rheinland Underworld, the Unioners, have backfired. An attempts to claim undue sovereignty over Unioner salvage from the years of the Rheinland - Liberty War has been used as a Cassius belii for an increasing alignment with classical Unioner adversaries, such as the Red Hessian movement. Attempted theft, abortive attacks on Unioners using unmarked ships, the false construction of dummy structures to incite a stand-off, and an apparent schism between Lane Hacker rank-and-file and their administration, has elevated the status of the Unioners in the western independent worlds. The Unioners have termed the special interest groups that have commandeered the Lane Hackers from a virtuous anticorporate symbol of resistance to conflict hungry tribalists, 'The Cabal' - a group beholden to Red Hessian and Coalition interests through the blood diamond trade, in defiance of the conventionally anti-authoritarian bias of the traditional Lane Hacker movement. The Unioners have begun to prefer to address this controlling group as the Cabal, rather than as representative of the wider lane hackers, due to their disagreements with the rank and file, and apparent deliberate manipulation of information towards other Lane Hackers, and the peculiar, anti-Libertonian agenda which has seen the formulation of uncanny alliances beyond traditional boundaries of allegiance and respect. This included the development of an artificial modular structure to incite a conflict within the Tanner Belt. Known as 'Fort Diamond', the station was nothing more than a dummy installation, designed to provide the Lane Hackers with a means of diplomatic invocation to shared Unioner - Lane Hacker allies, in an attempt to push independent groups such as the Liberty Rogues to side with their classical nemesis, the Xenos.


With Bering secure against the Cabal, the Unioners are jointly focusing their attention upon Rheinland's south, in a desire to isolate the Red Hessian component of the authoritarian cabal. As warlords bioviate and stunt, the Unioners attack critical Hessian infrastructure near the crossover points between the Coalition and Hessian Zones of Control, whilst steadily reigning back direct action against Republican and Daumann as the organisations begin to actively concede to strike activism, and expand the rights of worker's organisations across Rheinland house. As Rheinland enters a phase of economic and political turmoil, the Unioner stand with the people. Negotiation does not equate to lenience - every day, the Unioners inhibit and disrupt the operations of bad actors throughout Rheinland, including Republican Shipping, Daumann, Kruger, and ALG executives who mistreat their employees, or source imports from untrusted, unaccountable sources. The Unioners remain vigilant in conserving worker's rights at home, and in the independent worlds.



According to the testimony of famed smuggler and Unioner tradesman, Cael Baumgardner: "The Union's strength is its ability to avoid being pulled into the conflicts and political intrigues of other powers. Abandoning the Lane Hacker relationship was worth the cost of business once it became clear that they would never accept a helping Rheinlandic hand in the eastern independent systems. Revenues have gone up now that we are depending upon our own astrogation instead of Lane Hacker information. For all we know, they could have been deliberately leading us into ambushes. For all the Lane Hackers say that they are close friends of the Maltese Outcasts, they import just as many Xeno Relics as anyone else. It helps that we play by the rules of the larger powers depending upon who'se territory we're in. The Loyola Group are a problem up in Texas and Kansas, but the Maltese Imperials are a regular trading partner in Liberty. Out in Rheinland, the Corsairs are a friend in need against the Red Hessians who'd readily through us all into the grinder if they thought they could. The Brotherhood consider us allies in the South, but they know that the line ends in Hamburg. It's just like our ties with the Hogosha and the Junkers - stay respectful, do not trade the same goods with competitors, and avoid becoming a factor in one another's wars. We have no planets of our own - we can't afford to be pulled into any wider war. Our limits end at the flow of the black market in and out of Rheinland, and in the eastern independent worlds. That's our patch. That's where we can make a difference."

An announcement by Arbeitsdirektor Frei had this to say: "We are in a time of great opportunity, min bror. Opportunity and hazard. The independent systems - the most valuable connections that our people rest upon, are the breadbasket of the core systems black market. The Laptev connection, thanks to the industrious efforts of Bristol constructions, our freelance allies, and the labour of our own, brave Arbeiters, has opened to us. Data from the infamous Galileo drive tests of the Sirene - when Zoner flexibility first sold our cause to the Cabal - has proven a final advantage. We have the charts to bring, for the first time, the contention of the Independent systems up to the cosmic north. With thanks to the efforts of the Zoners of Galileo, who first helped us track the Surtr animal to the northern reaches, we may yet bring the persecutors of the Cabal to justice - and bypass them utterly - just as you would pull a bad filter from an dodgy air system, aye? When you have alternatives to a bad lot, you take them. Judiciously, and without compromise. Our pathfinders are already working 'ard to bring us comprehensive maps of Galileo and Keplar. The Lane 'Ackers have started an aberrant war on the premise that they are inaccessible to us - that they may hide and let their intrigues do their work for 'em. But that is not the way of the Unioners. It's not my way. I know it is not yours, for the cell Unions have voiced your support. Our experiences in Zurich and Munich have filled us with plentiful experience in operating in the dark matter wastes of Sirius. They expect us to be uncoordinated and unable. But we bring confidence and strength. Our hulls are stronger. Our engineers soar ahead of any Xeno tinkerer or byzantine Lane Hacker machination that will break at the first neutron, aye? The Rogues have told the Independent systems that they wish for 'tis conflict to be resolved, with a clear, unbroken answer. We will give a resounding rapport! For now, our brave entrepreneurs, in the spirit of communal ownership, take the freighters gifted by the cells and head for fields of plenty. Keplar and Galileo will see the flashes of our cannonry and the integrity of our people. An honest conflict between brothers, then, as is the Unioner way. "

Brother Arbeiter Frei released an extensive one-year plan for the contest of the Northern Weald, the newly named zone that extends beyond the North Tanner into Laptev. The discovery of ancient Rheinlandic survey ships in Laptev has proven that the Rheinlandic underworld has a claim to the northern zones, based upon both the interhouse recognised principles discovery and celestial proximity. This sentiment seems to be generally supported by the majority of Unioners, who state that Unioner revenues increased dramatically following the expansion into Zurich. The use of interhouse systems for the Union's vital trade arteries are the key to nourishing our front in the face of intensifying resistance from the swarms of the Coalition and the Red Hessians.

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Motivations for the push north were further elaborated on by the council of the cells as nothing less than a move to secure the ancestral claim of the Unioners in the eastern independent systems. As stated by Brother Arbeiter Sascha Lattke, newly returned to his post as the rations provisioner of Pacifica: "Our movement grew up, and survived, the moment we were exiled, by starting again in the independent worlds. Millions moved from Hamburg to the outer reaches, just as Rheinland itself developed industry and socially conscious state that no other house could match during the Empire's years, by expanding out into the cosmos early. We were the first to make contact with another house, when the Libertonian exploration vessel, the Einstein, was guided to Berlin by our brave early pioneers. Since these early years, the Unions have always profited by doing exactly the opposite of what our enemies desire that we do. It is the basis of resistance - to break the chains, you need to first apply the pressure. The Alster Union redefined shipyard safety standards in an age when life was cheap. Just so, as we now occupy an age of resistance, it is entirely sensible for us to pressure the Bundschuh, the Lane Hackers, and all others who'd seek to disrupt the trade arteries, out of the Liberty-Rheinland border systems. We have earned the right to be here, through our labour, through our efforts. Not through craven hero-worship like the Red Stains, or the bloody ideology like the Coalition, but through principled hard work. A black market trade route to Kusari that doesn't need to worry about the GMG sabotaging our operations, as they have for centuries, will help keep our people fed and our movement clothed as we slowly bend the corporations into protecting the fundemental rights of the workers. We are the better option for the Rheinland people over the Bundschuh's fraternization with the corrupt Federals and the Coalition's desire to put everyone under indentured servitude to the premier, and the power-brokers of our homeland are starting to realise this reality. In the end, it's a numbers game. The Lane Hackers are a secret society - like all secret societies, they suffer from over-selectiveness. It's the same reason why the Auxesians, for all their technological wizardy and edge worlds complexity, couldn't field more than two ex-Omegan cruisers they could barely operate and an ex-Hellfire hand-me-down against us in the Second Battle of Pacifica. Organisations that depend upon secrecy, not honesty, fair poorly when faced by the will of a large body of people unwilling to believe them. Information warfare only works if they have a credible position - and with rumours that the Lane Hackers may be subordinated to the Aliens, from sources such as Mister Silverstone, their position becomes only all the less credible. We can build ten arbeiters for every one vindicator. Thirty-Seven Unioner NEDAR blocks for every Spyglass Array. Hacking doesn't really work when our ships are air-gapped and sealed behind a shield grid. We're not trade lanes - we're very a collection of very angry shipbuilders unwilling to be lied to any longer. The fact that they have been jumping unpredictably between strategies rather than committing to one, makes the subject all the more pressing. Now with new spaceframes, such as project ARCHITECT and ADVOKAT under lead development, I believe that the Lane Hackers are behind the strategic curve. As for Pacifica, just yesterday we serviced a warship for an undisclosed client and released to our Bering partners a brand new Colossus-type transport. A protection payment came through for newfound Tanner development. The business has never been better. "


This brings us to the end of our scheduled broadcast. Up next: Will the Imperial Party commit to endorsing the Alster Union? Is Jan Van Hamburg secretly the most stylish man in the Unioners? Arbeiter Niska shares years of wisdom from the Tanner Ring in our exclusive episode of 'Below the Belt'. Is public enemy Wolfgang Weisen secretly a Lizard person - the answer may suprise you. Find out next week, in the Worker's Press - the only source of news not brought and paid for by corporate sponsors.* Unity Pressers are a publically owned by the Unioner member cells. We have a duty of reportage to accurate information involving the Unioners. All information must be sourced to preserve the journalistic integrity of our articles. Unity Pressers waives any sense of intellectual property protection over the release of documentation within AR pressers.