To: RM High Command
From: Alan Groteck, RepEx-Shipping|868
"Gentlemen, I have come across something very disturbing.
As I was finishing up my day trading I noticed PerfectCircle[Merc] flying above New Berlin. Since I know of the mercenary and freelancer ban in Rheinland these days I scanned him.
I also noticed something far more troubling.
I obviously could not leave these brave men (not the Hessian) in the hands of this criminal man. Alas there were no RM pilots in space at this time. So I called to him and offered to buy the pilots from him.
It sickens me that this degenerate got money for his criminal actions but the alternative was leaving Rheinland pilots in this guy's hands.
I turned the Rheinland Commander over to the New Berlin's Military Hospital and took the Liberty pilots to Manhatten General.
Please, deal with this fraud, he appeared to be green on my HUD."
I have had some disturbing reports from some Freighter Captains, seems one of their own, Callsign Wolf Of Solitude has gone rogue. He is outfitted with an outcast destroyer and is the newest pirate on the scene in Sigma-13. I dropped what I was doing, and hastily wrote this report out, I thought we needed this information.
' Wrote:To: RM High Command
From: Alan Groteck, RepEx-Shipping|868
"Gentlemen, I have come across something very disturbing.
As I was finishing up my day trading I noticed PerfectCircle[Merc] flying above New Berlin. Since I know of the mercenary and freelancer ban in Rheinland these days I scanned him.
I also noticed something far more troubling.
I obviously could not leave these brave men (not the Hessian) in the hands of this criminal man. Alas there were no RM pilots in space at this time. So I called to him and offered to buy the pilots from him.
It sickens me that this degenerate got money for his criminal actions but the alternative was leaving Rheinland pilots in this guy's hands.
I turned the Rheinland Commander over to the New Berlin's Military Hospital and took the Liberty pilots to Manhatten General.
Please, deal with this fraud, he appeared to be green on my HUD."
Alan Groteck
Message Delivered
To: Rheinland Military
From: Luc McCloud
Subject: RE: Merc.
It sickens me that folk such as this dirty the Mercenary name. This is why the Mandalorians had to go through a LOT of red tape to get in Rheinland.
I speak for the Mandalore himself when I say that the Mandalorians will NOT part take in such activities, and should we see other mercs doing this, we *may* shoot them down for a price.
Rest Assured, We will NOT be hunting Rheinland officers or civilians, and will continue our contracts within Rheinland.
Luc McCloud
Admiral and Intel for the Mandalorians.
Run Messaging Program
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Message to RepEx*BT|Geist
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CC to The Rheinland Military
CommID: Vice Admiral Meric Freelamen
Thank you for this information, Geist. It was been noted and this pirate will not live if he choses to enter Rheinland.
End Message
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Run Messaging Program
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Message to Alan Groteck of RepEx 868
Run Command Carbon Copy
CC to The Rheinland Military, RepEx, Mandalorian Mercenaries
CommID: Vice Admiral Meric Freelamen
Mr. Groteck, thank you for this information. But note, Perfect.Circle was marked KoS by both Lt. Commander Gunther Rall and myself for firing on Rheinland Military pilots during the first Merc ban of Rheinland. He is to be shot on sight by any RM official if ever seen in Rheinland space. What your own corporation does with the pilot is your own choice.
Freelamen out
End Message
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Message to Luc McCloud
Run Command Carbon Copy
CC to The Rheinland Military HIGH COMMAND
CommID: Vice Admiral Meric Freelamen
Mr. McCloud, we have read your response on this Merc Perfect Circle and we are glad to see another organization removing him from Sirius. But I would like to ask you kindly -not- to hack RM communications in order to read it. As the message from Alan Groteck was directed to RM High Command, not open channels. Please be more careful with what transmission you hack, because I believe you know of the actions we take to those.
Freelamen out
End Message
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Message Sent
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To: RM High Command, Vice Admiral Meric Freelamen
From: Alan Groteck, RepEx-Shipping|868
"Admiral Freelamen, thank you for your time and information. Unfortunatly, I was in an Adv. Train when this scum appeared and I have no doubt that he would have taken me apart. The nimrod got lucky because there were no RM pilots about that day, maybe next time he won't be so lucky."
***Incoming message*** CommID: Rheinland Military Pilot Conrad Quentin RE: Patrol
To: RM High Command
The patrol started with a bang today, as I clocked into my fighter and undocked from Planet New Berlin. As soon as I cleared the ring I began scanning the four or five traders that were all around me and all were clear but one. This one was flying a Borderworlds Transport with a Freelancer class transponder. I immediately told him to vacate Rheinland space, him not responding. I hailed him by name this time, which I cant remember now, and he finally spoke up. We spoke for some minutes and whilst I was convincing him to leave Herr Krieger clocked in.
With the Freelancer booted out of Rheinland, we were clear to check the other systems for pirate activity, and we didnt need to check long. We immediately spotted and followed a Bundschuh fighter into Frankfurt. As we pursued him down the tradelane on his way to his home base it was suddenly taken down by an unidentified pack of low level Unioners. The Bundschuh pilot panicked and turned towards us to apparently flee. We quickly disrupted his cruise and shot him down, as he made a foolish move in his Very Heavy Fighter, he was obliterated nearly instantly.
After dealing with the pirate we moved back to Planet New Berlin for normal duties. No sooner had we arrived and began our routine scans on traders we noticed a few people gathering in Stuttgart and moved there to check out the situation. As we arrived we spotted a pirate vessel undocking from the planet with no shielding nor weaponry to speak of. As Hans spoke to him on private channels I halted Jinx and scanned the ship, allowing it to move on at will.
At that very moment, we spotted something that shocked us both. There was a gigantic Blood Dragon cruiser headed our way from the Omega systems in the trade lane. We quickly started evasive maneuvers, as we were both in Wraths, but he ignored us and docked on the planet. This was extremely peculiar to us both. We didnt particularly feel like dealing with this fool in our fighters, and he wasnt responding anyhow.
Immediately following this another Blood Dragon undocked from Planet Stuttgart and began his assault on us in his gunboat. We quickly reacted and shot back, destroying him with little effort since he had no nanobots or shield batteries on board. The pirate vessel previously mentioned then began shooting at us with his one operable weapon and he was also destroyed.
There was a bit of talking and conversation between us and the dead pilots, which was strange, but we went back to New Berlin anyhow.
We went ahead and scanned a dozen or so more traders and then moved out to Frankfurt and Hamburg to check out one pilot in each respective system.
Hans went to Hamburg and cleared that pilot, and I did likewise in Frankfurt.
There was little activity after this other than one interesting pilot who was running weaponry to the Junkers, but no real issues. From there on while I was on duty there was nothing else notable that occurred.
*** INCOMING MESSAGE ***
Sender: Hauptgefreiter Hans Krieger
Destination: Rheinland Military Command Offices
Subject: Action report
*** MESSAGE BEGINS ***
I was off duty, passing by our long range sensor station office in New Berlin when out of curiosity I decided to go check the ship signatures in our territory. I was surprised to find Matrose Schmitz's ship registered in Stuttgart alongside two Mercenary ships signatures in the same system. Immediately I had one loan Wrath prepared for me as my own was under maintenance and launched.
As I reached space I contacted Matrose Schmitz and he calmed me saying he had no problems and was finishing the outfitting of his ship. The two Mercenaries then entered New Berlin. I ordered them out, and even though they didn't outright deny it, their reply sounded defiant of my orders. I prepared for worse as I saw both ships exiting the tradelane from Brandenburg. Perfect.Circle[Merc] and Defiance[Merc], a Bounty Hunter Bomber and an Bounty Hunter Orca Gunship, both IDed Mercenaries. They said they would leave Rheinland after collecting their bounty on me.
I put up a fight against the bomber, but my shields were barely holding against the fire from the gunship. I'm ashamed to report the destruction of my ship before I could at least finish the bomber.
*** INCOMING MESSAGE ***
Sender: Hauptgefreiter Hans Krieger
Destination: Rheinland Military Command Offices
Subject: Action report
*** MESSAGE BEGINS ***
I launched from New Berlin to investigate an unknown ship in Hamburg identified Captain_Blood. The ship had been spotted by me before, also in Hamburg and evaded me refusing orders to stop and be inspected, so I proceeded with caution.
As I reached the planet I picked up the ship some 14k from me and didn't have a bearing. I figured the ship would be going towards one of the jumpholes to the Frankfurt system and proceeded. Mid way I identified the ship as a GMG vessel, coming to scanners range I identified it as an Order Nephtys VHF with a Trader ID.
Since the ship had ties with the GMG I issued it out of Rheinland systems and approached. As I came to weapon's range, the pilot opened fire without warning. I fired back and quickly dispatched his ship.
*** INCOMING MESSAGE ***
Sender: Lieutenant Walter Krupinski
Destination: Rheinland Military Command Offices
Subject: Action report
*** MESSAGE BEGINS ***
Launching from New Berlin I found myself in the middle of a corsair party! 1 Titan and 2 Bombers were attacking traders. I engaged them at once downing the Titan after some fighting.
Two bombers to go. I began my work on Phaedrus, he was down to some 10 nanobots when Krieger joined me in the fight. With the two of us firing on him, the bomber was quickly eliminated.
The last remaining corsair Banderas.B [TBH] tried for a while to put up a fight. But after suffering heavy damage he fled.
I'm landed now reloading ammunition to my Wrath. It was only lightly damaged, using about 20 nanobots during the fight.
*** MESSAGE ENDS ***
Igiss says: Martin, you give them a finger, they bite off your arm.
*** INCOMING MESSAGE ***
Sender: Hauptgefreiter Hans Krieger
Destination: Rheinland Military Command Offices
Subject: Investigation Report
*** MESSAGE BEGINS ***
My mission today was one of intelligence gathering. I launched from New Berlin and was instructed to maintain radio silence and patrol the system while our long range sensor stations personnel and underground agents worked on filling me in with complementing information from outside our borders.
As I orbited New Berlin during my early data gatherings, I've been hailed by a Bounty Hunter Zoner Destroyer that appeared to be patrolling the system. The captain of that vessel informed me of a Corsair pilot at large in system. I then proceeded to routine patrolling of the tradelanes while still collecting data from our long range sensor stations and deep space satellites.
As I inspected some traders that entered the system I received additional information on hostile ship sightings outside of Rheinland, specially inside of Sigma-13 and Kusari space. From what I've heard from them, our investigation was leading to a possible newly formed group of Corsair pilots, heavily equipped (up to Osiris class battleships), operating specially inside of Kusari space.
I've been roughly informed that from our liaison with the Kusari government and Naval Forces we've acquired pointers that indicated not only this group had been formed and was operating in these sectors, but most troubling of all, that it was being financed through some apparent legitimate trading operations that included Rheinland companies.
As far as I've been informed, those companies were already being investigated and most people directly involved with them were under surveillance. Curiously enough, as I continued my long range surveillance, one of the trading vessels registered to the given company entered New Berlin. It wasn't carrying anything illegal so I let it dock without hailing it. As the pilot undocked carrying diamonds I questioned him:
The ship made little case of our conversation and moved to Sigma-13. Finally, through both the efforts of our sensor stations personnel and the feedback from our underground agents and informants we were able to cross reference the profiles of the suspect ships, our findings were most troubling:
The ships detected inside the Omicron Gamma system show the same transponder signature as of those spotted inside of Kusari. The probability that the ships in Gamma were engaged in hostile activities against the Corsairs are minimal. After their identification, they stayed in the midst of a peculiarly large force of known Corsair ships for quite some time. Most likely they were fraternizing with them.
It is outrageous to consider the possibility that the hard labor of our compatriots is being exploit in such a fashion. It is evident also that if this indeed turns out to be the surfacing of such a scheme, the Corsairs couldn't have done it without the help of either infiltrated agents or collaborators. To think that after the bloody war we've been through any Rheinlander would even dream of allying with the Corsairs for a mere monetary gain ignoring the well being of our nation disgusts me and makes me sick. If such a scheme indeed surfaces and the responsible turns out to be a person of Rheinlander origin, I'd like to volunteer for the firing squad in his execution.