To:Whom it may concern. Sender:Sparks Origin:Frankfurt Relay #7b
Lane In Wait.
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.
End Message
"This is really sort of a personal project of mine."
- James Arland, on single-handedly engaging an enemy regiment.
I believe we have never met. In fact I am quite certain that the last official contact with a Bundschuh affiliated party happened years ago. I believe it was Professor Paco Pistols who was exchanging information with Herr Daniel Boehmer and Dennis Koberstein form the Volksfront back then. Taking into consideration that recent years were not very kind to your movement, especially in terms of stability and continuity, both might be killed or missing by now.
Unfortunately, we have never really established a strong business relationship, mostly because besides some sporadic smuggling detours we really have no business in Rheinland and our presence in Bering and Hudson is close to none. Ironically, although our goals are quite similar as we both aim to destabilize governments in our countries, we view each other's nemesis as an important catalyst for this change. Each Rheinland Military victory in this war is a blow to Liberty rotten establishment. Each Rheinland Military incursion into Liberty space draws a lot of attention which in turn allow our members to operate undetected and uninterrupted. At the same time Liberty Navy's victory in this war could result in enough internal turmoil in Rheinland to allow your activists to perform a coup and reinstate democracy. Isn't it your dream? Isn't it also a perfectly legitimate conflict of interests?
But let us not be carried away by politics and get back to business. Your data is correct but incomplete. While Military transponder codes are revoked instantly after they are lost, it does not apply to agents of Das Büro operating behind enemy lines. While such masquerade will not get you through human assisted verification it should fool automated identification mechanisms. In short we might help you here.
In exchange for our service we would like to receive information about the current network of jumpholes and safe smuggling routes from Kusari to Liberty through Rheinland, as well as from Liberty to Omegas through Rheinland.
I will be waiting for your answer with anticipation.
You're probably right. My lastcontact 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.
End Message
"This is really sort of a personal project of mine."
- James Arland, on single-handedly engaging an enemy regiment.
Who am I to deny you that measure of romanticism? Pleasant illusions are, after all, still pleasant and dreaming is undoubtedly a pleasant illusion - at least as long as brutal reality does not decide to painfully verify it. Please also excuse me my sloppy Rheinlandian, as even during my time in New Berlin I have never mastered it as much as I would like to.
But pleasantries aside, I think you can give me what I want. As you're undoubtedly aware, strong ion storms that happened over a half year ago radically reconstructed natural jumphole network around entire Sirius. Your organization is once again active - which means your activists are able to get to Liberty, Kusari and Omegas to look for support and supplies and to do it even despite tightened borders and strong Military patrols in the region. Ergo, you are familiar with the new jumphole network and most frequently patrolled areas. This is what we want to know.
As for what you want, you are probably not aware how active Das Büro is within the Liberty space. We are mostly ignoring their operations, as they are usually causing enough turmoil to act as a fine distraction for our operations. But it does not mean we are not keeping close eye on them... Mimicking their IFF without full credentials is something we can do.
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.
End Message
"This is really sort of a personal project of mine."
- James Arland, on single-handedly engaging an enemy regiment.
I am afraid that the time window for this operation has expired. The resources we were keen to reserve for this endeavour had to be directed elsewhere.
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.
End Message
"This is really sort of a personal project of mine."
- James Arland, on single-handedly engaging an enemy regiment.
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