To: Auxesia. Someone who can keep their mouth shut.

[Enkidu]

Incoming Transmission

To: Auxesia.
From: Armin Jansen, der Alster Union.
Subject: A gift.

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When deception is force-fed you as a way of life, you realise the importance of truth. We may not like that you, to us, treat your comrades as a means to an end, or that the issues you focus on are macrocosmic - to do with humanity in aggregate, rather than individual humans. After all, it is not humanity who starves, dies, suffers - humanity itself has been on a consistent, evolutionary trajectory since the evolution of sentience; but tell that to a family suffering from addiction, unemployment, bereavement, incarceration. We will never reach the Unicorn utopia - utopias are a lie for children - but we will do what we must. Besides, your cause smacks of internationalism, which, to Unioners, remains conceptually vile.

Yet you have a role to fill. Humanity in aggregate is astounding at finding means to render individual suffering irrelevant.

The Federals spread the assumption that those of us on the far side of the law are dishonest because we are forced to entertain less-than-infalliable ethical codes. Whilst some organisations do use subterfuge as a way of life, the utility remains limited. A pirate puts themselves at risk to their prey - they form a compact of trust, credits and resources for continuity, a trust that safe exchange can overcome each other’s teleological differences. Both have something the other desires - so death is avoided. Trust. No proletarians would enlist in our cause if they believed that the Union offered nothing other than death or Virlande - yet still, many do, and their fate is wildly publicised. The Military, as much as we love them, is known to trade scalps for soap in areas where the supply situation

Know this, Auxesia. If a black hole formed in New Berlin overnight, we would not contest you. If an unknown alien war forms saturated the Rhein, we would not contest you, although the Order and Core, both of which who have significant interest in Rheinland, lamentably, might. However, if the Rheinland military developed, say, an armour impenetrable to gunfire, or Daumann developed an instantaneous replacement for trade lanes, we would happily die to the last man to preserve the state’s advantage.

So this is where we are. No lies between strangers. Your agent will return with exactly what they were looking for.

Till our paths bring us together again - which, if the Lord is my Shepard, couldn't come distantly enough.

Regards,
Armin Jansen.
First contact representative and Diplomat-in-Chief of der Alster Union, Pacifica Base, Bering.

Transmission Ended