To: Unioner "Hellion"

[MasterL410]

Good day to you, Unioner.

I have finished my part of the kind deal you proposed. I hope this shipment will be of good use for your people.

You can find the delivery protocol below.

Delivery: ***

With best regards,
Sakae Mikami
Omicron Supply Industries

[Enkidu]

Incoming Transmission...
Decrypting User ID...
Displaying Message...

---------------Welcome, Arbeiter ---------------

Terms of use

This message is highly encrypted using syndicliga proprietary encryption cryptography through intranet-publicneralink drops and are functionally untracable if no sender address is given. Abuse of Intranet functionality commands community service punishments as listed in regulation five three seven gamma six. security is assumed. Any deliberate or otherwise location triangulation method successfully employed against anonymous transmissions will receive either a one billion credit reward or immediate incarceration dependent upon disclosure and motive. The revanchist council requests that Arbeiters do not squander valuable neuralnet bandwith on the consumption of CNS articles, adult content, or gambling, and advise that the relevant arbeiters employ public terminals for such use, rather than the secure line. Communal enforcement may differ between Reichsarbeitergesellschaft der Alsterian and Landwirtrechbewegung cells. Consult your admin for technical support or contact your resident Neural Technology Help Specialist at www.totallypacifica@notAHacker.net. The Union reminds Arbeiters that "trolling" is not an acceptable standard of political debate, unless aimed at capitalists, fascists, militarists, etc, who lack the neurological prerequisites to engage in such discourse. Southern Unioners are encouraged to remember that the average Unioner's literary age is roughly analogous to a twelve year old on PCP, and are encouraged to avoid engaging in difficult subjects, and are suggested to stick to familiar subjects, such as the market value of cardamine, bundschuh-based footwear puns, and the general terrible quality of life aboard wedel mining station.

Have a glorious day, Comrade user. - Unity, your resident Neuralnet VI.

G.Riehl

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Incoming Transmission

Ridrrs

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To: Hey Sakae. Your hair's nice.
From: Hellion.
Subject: Thanks for keeping your end of it.

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Unpacking videofile...
Scanning for malware...
Linking attachments...
Video play...

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Honesty. It's so rare out in the void. Cutthroated efficiency was the order of the day. What were the chances that they'd run into a Unionist with a heart of gold twice? The bottom line spelled the heading and that heading captioned the whole damn letter: Lie to the wierd heartbroken lesbian and make off with your Molly gold shipment - it's not as if she had any way of varifying the identity of the captain beyond voice recognition.


Still, the Zoner had kept it honest. She was a Zoner - corporate or not, she had no strings on her. She's her own master. She didn't need to give Riehl the time of day.



"But she took you at your word, Riehl. The Little independent contractor that Could took her Lanemax giga-transport full of mysterious Zoner engineering that the Unions would just oh-so-love to tear down to its subcomponents right up to a Unioner chop-shop, and came carrying tetanus shots, antivirals, inoculants, the works. She took you, a nobody pirate whose greatest-hitslist is basically going to be read out to you when they boot you out from the pearly gates, at your word. Your dirty, ill-gotten word."




Gunda Riehl turned the camera on. Even if she kept her helmet down, Sakae could see her eyes. The first glimmer Riehl saw of the Kusarian is that she had sculpted eyebrows, and that she knew how to match her lipstick. Stone-hard jaw though. The woman was probably more secure than she was - although that could be a side effect of all the credit chips she was probably lugging around.


"Hellion here. You've got through to me. Hi." She waves.

"You came through - I had you pegged for a utilitarian bitch."

She scratched her neck.

"You didn't poison the drugs, either. If I wanted to kill a pressurehull-full of Unioner kiddies, that's how I'd do it. Poison the inoculants. I'll be damned."

She flashed an image up on her Keywide, sketching a bundle of runes into the projection beyond. Out of the blackness flashed a bizzare shape. An ugly, lumpy bundle of modules shaped vaguely like a duck.

"Take a look at this."


"That swan-in-the-rough is a Freeman Drive Yards Mark Nineteen Hunterkiller. I've got an engineering degree and I still think that's for nerds; call it an Artisan. It's a rough-and-tumble new-build Unioner hull that'll kill anything you point it at if you can put guns on it. Best damn gunboat in the Sector. It's also a living hell to work on. Got life support to last for a decade or so, if the reactor radiation spilling into the bridge won't kill you first. Best damn gunboat in Sirius. Last for looks."

"That baby is a craftsman, you hear me? Make Sirius a better place with it; use her for good. You'll find a stripped-down one with main propulsion taken out and a rigged-down weapons grid aboard Vierlande. She won't do more than cruise in a straight line and hold pressure, but we're flatpack ship mechanics. We wern't gonna' just build you your own gunboat for you and we're not gonna sell you anything that'd break the seal on the few advantages we've got out here - some self-assembly is required, girl."

"Here's the access keys. Don't shoot any Unioners with it or it might blow up in yer' face."

"Tschüss."

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---------------Data, Uploading ---------------

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The birdclock croaked when it saw the sun, tethered to a spring.
G.Riehl.
Wedel's Remnants.

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Transmission Complete

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Scrambling access point...
Decompiling neuratrace...
Signal lost.

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THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)

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