Incoming Transmission - Neural Net ID: Erich Klugmann
Location: Unavailible
Priority: High
Subject: "Audience?"
I can't actually believe I'm doing this, but this was one of the responses I'd not gotten to that wasn't among the monosyllabic taunting that several organizations apparently deigned necessary to tout.
*A slow exhale*
Unioners. One of the few terms in Rheinland that acts both as a legal moniker and a pejorative term at the same time. Aside from repeatedly attempting to harry the Bundschuh's own efforts in Northern Rheinland, your organization has a sordid history of associating with nearly anything that can add another zero to a credit balance. Playing the Hessians and Corsairs against one another to smuggle both their trademark contraband was impressive in its own way I suppose.
But what have you actually done with this wealth, other than try to pretend Alster was still in your hands by playing "Shipyard"? - After you attacked its staffers with lethal gas, of course. More pointedly, why should I even consider an audience with a band of what may as well be Liberty Rogues if they'd taken a three-year course in German language?
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.
Arbeitsdirektor Corin Frei
Incoming Transmission
Unionised Peoples of Syndicalist Advocacy
To: My brothers. Forever. From:Corin Frei, The Hans Böckler memorial, Hamburg. Subject:Neutrality?
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"Ah. Perceptive. There's truth in the above, of course. You will not see Bundschuh on the streets of Hamburg and Neu Berlin, selling drugs to nightlife or guns to criminals. To be a Unioner is to lose alternative options, if you have the misfortune of residing aboard one of the seven worlds our movement draws its followers. Can you blame the criminal for his own poverty, or the social conditions that drive him to crime? The legislature that prevents them from acquiring a job, simply due to their association with other Unioners?"
"We have hard lives. Our movement is ancient. Its duration on this side of the law is second to the Bundschuh and Dragons only. Unlike the Bundschuh and the Dragons, we have never had the privilege of well funded backers, or secure habitats from the get going. Yet it is well documented that our ancestors did not choose this life for us - the Union was exiled, it did not turn against the state. The hand forced against the hand moved. What we were, once, was a state-sponsored collective of worker's advocacy groups."
"Under that light, all kinds of malice have been ascribed to us. Our non-participation in the Omega conflict provided us with profit, yes. It was simple pragmatism. The Corsairs never attacked the Union. Their ambitions in the Omegas did not touch the Rhein - did not impact our own objectives. Meanwhile, some ambiguity remained in our movement over the objectives of the HEssians. Would a Hessian-lead state remain independent from the Sirius Coalition, or would it become just another balwark in the repetition of the Sol War? We might be syndicalists, but we are not revolutionaries. We believe in a revolution of social systems, not in the sanitisation of one political view or the other. It is why some call us disloyal, although we a anything but; do not threaten the movement, and we will treat with you. We are all cast-outs from the law in our own ways. "
"Which brings us to the 'Schuh. The Bundschuh have always been strategic thinkers. By which, I mean, you look for the grand layout of the board first, then the minutiae as an extension of how to get there. You're a political organisation; you demand social democracy, and are prepared to overthrow the government to do so. You're an example of compatibility in theory, but not in system. Again, political theory is irrelevant to the Union - the Unions flourished under successive generations of Kaiser. There is no particular reason why they would not flourish under democracy, but that is what history has provided us with. The Bundschuh thus views us, and I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, as ideological traitors. The response would be that to a Unioner, ideology is immaterial. It will not feed the next generation of Unioners, and it will not arm them. Our historical grievances come from the fact that the Union would not be on this side of the law, if the Bundschuh had not sapped the will of the people to fight during the eighty years war - a just war against the monopolists of the one percent. Our exile was as a result of the Rhein's forced closure of its shipping industries - millions starved, because of the GMG and those that supported them. You still support the GMG, despite that the GMG thinks of nothing but itself and still gouges the price of H-fuel across the colonies, defrauding houses and citizens alike. The GMG is not a democratic institution - it is a pro-corporatist totalitarian institution, that enslaves convicts within Uranium mines, and hosts Wall Street Station within its own territories. There is one trait that the Unioners enjoy less than ideological stickling - it is ideological stickling that is not true to itself. Pragmatically, the Bundschuh have always leered at our non-intervention in the Omega conflict. The distrust is mutual. There is much to resolve."
"Yet the truth of it is that it does not matter to the Union if the Bundschuh succeed, if the government of the Rhein is replaced, we would not protest. All we care about is the resurrection of the wealth-fare and labour state. Our support of the Rhein in the Sigma War is not one of supporting a land-grab - the notion of planetary occupation is antiquated, and simply leads to scarcity - it is a case of supporting a taxpaying population against a monopoly of the one percent. Meanwhile the Bundschuh insists on taking GMG bribes. Interspace bribes. I hope that this is a debate that can eventually be decided in peacetime, rather than continue to destroy the cause from the inside, as it did to the Landwirtrechtbewegung, split apart by the positions of its allies. It is an objective I work towards, diligently. My predecessors made progress with Annika Haupt, the woman responsible for the Second Volksrevolution civil war, and by proxy the Schism of the LWB. It is my hope, now that the conflict has burnt itself away, I can achieve the same, with the White Rose."
"Anyhow."
"The Union has done much with its money. Our trade networks are vast, the number of Unioner habitats throughout the Rhein, Liberty and the Independent worlds, only grows. We seek to repatriate the means of spaceborn production from the federals within Thuringia, and will soon have the means to do so. We produce ships and technology for any who desires them. We survive. We do not want for terrestrial notions of 'territory' or 'power' as if space was anything other than infinite. Presently, we battle for the independence of Bering from a collective of militarists who have taken up residence there. Much has changed. Our old alliance with the Hellfire Legion dissolved into treachery as we intensified our advocacy into Texas and beyond. We have incorporated all southern LWB elements as co-equal partners in the syndicliga, and seek to preserve the wealthfare of Stuttgart in their absence, as well. This is alongside the activities I do not disclose."
"Which is why we come to you."
"We hope for change within the Rhein - providing you have not captivated yourself with simply repeating the mistakes of the Eighty Years War within our own lifetimes. We're willing to fund, supply, and aid any anti-government faction that doesn't openly espouse demagoguery. As Bundschuh go, you have a record of being.... respectable. We are Unioners, Klugmann. Our social programs might be considerable, but our expression of making a statement distils to the logic of gassing a shipyard's population to create social pressure to grant Republican Shipping employees hazard pay. Utilitarianism is disgusting, but it is what we are driven to do. However, it means we are not figureheads of change. You are."
"Unioners do our upmost to preserve our engineering accumen between the the generations, Klugmann. Our reconstruction of Alster is not ideological vanity. It provides kids who would otherwise live their short lives as contraband dealers and gangsters, with pragmatic engineering skills. It gives them the capacity to reconnect with society, should the Union ever be pardoned. It is important for us to have customers. We will sell you whatever you need, if you promise, that, in the vain hope whatever revolution you have planned succeeds, you will give said kids a chance at life again. That the Unions will be pardoned."
"If your saviour complex isn't quite that developed, just feed us information every so often. Keeping tabs on the underworld helps keep Unioners alive and out of internecine skirmishes."
"Solidarity forever."
You cannot cut off the tongue, of a man who speaks through his acts.
C.Frei.
Comrade Arbeiter of the Cologne system.
Transmission Complete
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THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)
Incoming Transmission - Neural Net ID: Erich Klugmann, Gloaming Flotilla
Location:Unavailible
Priority:High
Subject:RE: Further Assistance and Cooperation
Arbeitsdirektor, where to... Begin?
Let me preface this by firstly explaining my intentions - I was a member of the Bundschuh once, but no longer. We of the Gloaming Flotilla are now a band of revolutionary syndicalists with the intention of carving out a niche for our societal experiment in the Sigmas - At the expense of the GMG, the competing nations, and any other megacorporate assets in the background. Hopefully that already addresses your accusation that I "support the GMG."
I won't deny that the former ideology prior to my "radicalization" was that of Social Democracy, or perhaps Democratic Socialism at the leftmost extent. I frankly can't understand how you can blame the Bundschuh for "sapping the will of the populace to fight" - Could it not be possibly that the "eighty years" aspect of the war had something to do with that, along with the literal enslavement of the working people by Empress Leicht and others? Neither of us were around at that time of course, but the Bundschuh "did well" until they'd successfully coup'd the Empire, in my opinion.
Aside from the imminent threats of political-based harm to my person, the reason I'd departed from the Party is because I no longer believe it to be capable of formulating the Just Rheinland idea we both have rattling around our heads. The standing Bundesrepublik is practically a continuation of the old Bundschuh - Instead of successfully changing the broken system from within, they were engulfed by it and merely became another appendage of it. Having taken the Bundschuh to as "left" a position as I could, I'd additionally tried to keep the Hessians and Coalition from subsuming it - We share those fears, but likely for differing reasons. All the while, there was also the notion of keeping satisfied the ex-military among us, as well as those who wanted a "return to normalcy" that they only had envisioned in their heads - A Just Republic.
Rheinland is no longer my purview, save for what little aid I might offer Nuremberg's people in their time of catastrophe. You paint a somewhat-more-reasonable - If pragmatic - picture of your movement than your immediate predecessors, but I'm afraid that should the Empire ever be reinstated, you'll come to the same conclusions as myself and the second generation of Bundschuh did after exile - That power begets power, and that the State will brook no serious threats to its absolute supremacy. Don't make all of your efforts go to absolute naught, knowing this.
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.
Arbeitsdirektor Corin Frei
Incoming Transmission
Unionised Peoples of Syndicalist Advocacy
To: Erich Klugmann From:Corin Frei, The Hans Böckler memorial, Hamburg. Subject:Further Assistance and Cooperation
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"Another collective of Syndicalists? In the Sigmas, no less? You amaze us. Pardon my mistrust, but it is difficult to gauge if you are simply telling us what we wish to hear. We have been used, and discarded, before, the Bering situation being the most prominent example."
"The Union was founded under the Empire for ostensibly cynical reasons - when the Rheinland's flight crew morphed into the aristocracy above their frozen passengers, they desired a way to prevent a resurgence of an Alliance-Corporatist Coalition-Leftist divide in future Sirius, primarily as a means of preserving their own chain of command between generations. Cynical, yes, but it worked - Rheinland lacked measurable piracy, organised crime beyond planetary petty offences, and maintained a healthy wealthfare state along with a history of stellar exploration and technological innovation. The Kaisers were tyrants, yes, but they were benevolent tyrants for the first centuries. Of course, the systems were corrupted - the Unions became subservient to the throne, close to the aristos, rather than a check on their influence. Kruger and Daumann brought the throne, and thus, the Unions - Kruger, more respectfully, Daumann, less so, as evidenced by their operations around Solarius, and Imperial through the direct intervention of the crown. When Empress Leicht took the throne at twenty three, then clung onto it till her centenary, the throne had developed other allies, one more suitable to its own image. There is a Federal Police attack cruiser bearing the designation 'RFP|Kaiserin.Leicht', to provide context to her legacy in the eyes of the military-industrial-justice complex. The Empire may have existed in name, but it was Leicht who provided the curse of imperialism. "
"In the.... light.... of history, we choose not to repeat it. The Empire is dead, not asleep. It deserves its demise. What is not dead are a smattering of ideals the Empire germinated, which may hold the key to the future."
"What is often miss-assumed about us, used by our enemies to paint us, is that we revere the empire. In truth, we do not help ourselves; the same symbols and designations employed by the Imperial Alster Union are still traditionalised by our organisation. I do not deny a minority fantasize for the return of the eagles. Arbeitsdirektor Petra Abendroth, twelve years ago now, and Arbeitsdirektor Hansel Garen, a mere two years prior, were in that minority. Both were assassinated, both at the hands of the Volksfront. Assassination is an impermanent fix for an ideological threat - both figures are now the poster-childs for the fanaticism they represented. But it is not the Union. It is not what we stand for. The integration of our LWB brothers, who stood with us during the extremist years of the Arbeitergewerkschaft and now stand with us again, have helped restore the belief that the strength of the Unions under the Empire was the Unions themselves, not the flag, not the throne. You could compare Garenism to Hauptism. The comparison operates well. Fortunately for all of us, both are on the wane, and, within the Union, Imperial reverence is a pariah sentiment. It is not who we are. It is not what we aspire to be. It is also why I call the Bundschuh to account over the Eighty Years War - all parties were at wrong, but the 'Schuh were uniquely situated to mend the machine in failure - preserving the unions, under a democratic regime. Instead, they threw an antimatter bomb into the workings, and the population of Hamburg starved."
"The Syndicliga uses the Imperial Alster Union as a template, because it still has resonances within the eye of the public. People do not support systems they cannot understand. This does not mean that we desire a direct restoration of the Reichsarbeitergesellschaft. Such a thing would be lunacy. It would also be innapropriate to the needs of the people. Other entities can govern. We seek to tame the beast, not squabble over who holds the mouth. The Empire was a mistake. Its embrace, even if churlish, of syndicalist causes, was not. It has created a template within the Union for an alternative on the left to a Bundschuh codependent on the Hessians, who in turn operate as a proxy for the expansion of Neu Moscow's revolutionary internationalism and an encore of the Alliance-Coalition bloodbath. A Republic, a Dictatorship - of course, we would prefer the former, but the first must come the salvation of the people, not the state. A labourer on Hammersee does not care what colour cufflinks sit within the Bundestag. He cares if he can afford to pay for disinfected water. He should not have to pay for disinfected water. That is the reality we must all face first. That is the reality social engineers, executives, and Cambridge academics tend to ignore."
"However, an opposition cannot stand alone. This is in part why the Union has waded shallowly beyond general corruption. We, till your transmission, believed ourselves the sole Syndics within the sector. Your presence within the Sigmas is especially valuable, for we have been forced to restrict our operations in the region by tactical considerations elsewhere, and a general disaffection with the conflict's objectives: The GMG is a worthy enemy of the people, but Saigon, beautiful though it is, is but another flora-coated rock. It will not heal Rheinland's scars, and victory will but lead to future unrest. If only the prospect of defeat was not so equivalently crippling. The theatre deserves a local set of eyes, wearing the same lenses."
"My fear of the Coalition - and it is fear, not suspicion, or doubt - is manifold. The initial problem is that revolution - as the Coalition defines it - is emotionally compelling, and that any Syndicalist movement would be naturally drawn to Coalition influence. The secondary problem is that the Coalition is a dictatorship that makes the manifold human rights abuses the Union has committed over the years seem middling, in the treatment of their own populations. This is no different to the Corsairs or the Outcasts, for example. However, would you wish for the Rhein to be run from Crete? The Coalition would merely repeat the tragedy of Sol within our own lifetimes, and the Hessians cannot run a state alone. Heinrich is interested in the conquest, not in what happens after. We want to prevent bourgeois excesses, not massacre ourselves a utopia. This may seem hypocritical from a movement that regularly dumps the crews of transports outside of airlocks. Of course it is. I do not fear the sin, I fear the rise of men who cannot identify their own sin. Heinrich and the Premier are such men. Yet, they are my comrades and my reservations remain my own. I hope do not live to see the day when they are shared. It has long been the Unioner creed that the most revolutionary act is to be revolutionary in action. We have certainly achieved this maxim - it is one of the few we do universally keep. Revolution has a place in Sirius, but it is not in the precedent Sol developed. Revolution must be redefined."
"I hope this flotilla that you represent can be a component of this redefinition, Erich."
"Anyhow. You call us pragmatists, yet I've offered you nothing more substantial than the carbon from my mouth. My movement is renowned for its manufacturing capabilities and logistical assets. What do your people need, Klugmann, to lift this new revolution of yours into the clouds?"
"Solidarity forever."
You cannot cut off the tongue, of a man who speaks through his acts.
C.Frei.
Comrade Arbeiter of the Cologne system.
Transmission Complete
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THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)
Incoming Transmission - Neural Net ID: Erich Klugmann, Gloaming Flotilla
Location:Unavailible
Priority:High
Subject:RE: RE: Further Assistance and Cooperation
Arbeitsdirektor, your novellas of replies take a little time to break down, so please bear with me if you may.
I'm not bluffing when I refer to the hypothetical "Sigma Free State" that we stand for as "Syndicalist" - The intention is to completely outlaw and make a non-factor the notion and existence of hierarchical corporations in the region - Optimistically, of course.
The Bundschuh tried, and they failed. I'm doubtful I can convince the organization to disband or re-organize, so I'll need to be satisfied with those who once were in "my camp" in the Party, for direct aid. Having established that, I'll attempt to summarize what we apparently value in common.
We both oppose the Hessians, Coalition, and a Bundschuh reliant on either. We both oppose several prominent corporations in the region, notably the GMG. We both understand jointly that verbosity and over-reliance on inaccessible political theory can alienate people who just want to be comfortable and rightly repaid for their labor - With no offense meant, this may be something you may look into in your messages, as opposed to myself.
Finally, we both recognize that there needs to be an alternative to "The Coalition" when one speaks of Revolution, and fortunately, there is. Forms of Libertarian Leftism such as our own Anarcho-Syndicalism - replete with rules as opposed to rulers - Are the alternative that my compatriots and I have been studying and dredging up from the forgotten recesses of Old Earth history. Even back then, the Socialist Nation that would eventually grow to the Old Coalition vehemently opposed other leftists that didn't fall in step with their Party Line - I doubt anything's changed now.
If you're actually willing to aid us logistically, perhaps we can come to some kind of distant accord - There's next to nothing we can spare in return save a small stockpile of credits, but I'm certain no-one will miss a transport or two en-route to Hammersee.
People ultimately fight for land as opposed to space, however - Hence why the planets Miura, Saigon, Hammersee, and Kurile are vitally important for our movement's ultimate strategic objectives. I know your organization's reputation for ship-building, but what about outpost-building? There are a number of places in the region that could easily conceal one.
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.
Arbeitsdirektor Corin Frei
Incoming Transmission
Unionised Peoples of Syndicalist Advocacy
To: Erich Klugmann From:Corin Frei, The Hans Böckler memorial, Hamburg. Subject:Further Assistance and Cooperation
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"Your movement's survival is a reimbursement."
"We have a staging ground in Munich, not far from Sigma fifteen; Leipheim. You're free to make use of it temporarily till you can develop your own and ensure its survival."
"Base building. Hm. In capability, yes. In practice? Doubtful. Our current predicament is that the majority of our resources which could be used for such an effort are devoted to patching Pacifica up. The problem is not the fabrication of modules, it is their transport. The only station in our domain large enough to manufacture other stations is Pacifica, of course. Pacifica is presently under blockade. "
"An alternative would be to set up proxy contracts through external companies, to proxy clients. Expensive, but the corporations, in irony, would do most of the heavy lifting. If we managed to get components to Hammersee, could you arrange their transport to their final position?"
"Solidarity forever."
You cannot cut off the tongue, of a man who speaks through his acts.
C.Frei.
Comrade Arbeiter of the Cologne system.
Transmission Complete
Scrambling access point...
Decompiling neuratrace... Signal lost.
THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)
Incoming Transmission - Neural Net ID: Erich Klugmann, Gloaming Flotilla
Location:Unavailible
Priority:High
Subject:RE: RE: RE: Further Assistance and Cooperation
Arbeitsdirektor, I'm going to propose meeting with one of your people in person, blockade permitting. At present I can't promise Hammersee will be able to "store" anything for us, unfortunately. Perhaps we can work out some kind of diplomatic accord at a safe location.
...Also, can you explain this blockade? All I know is that some sect of Libertonians fled to Bering and set themselves up like junkers in the scrap of a jump gate - Do they pose that much of a threat?
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.
Arbeitsdirektor Corin Frei
Incoming Transmission
Unionised Peoples of Syndicalist Advocacy
To: Erich Klugmann From:Corin Frei, The Hans Böckler memorial, Hamburg. Subject:Further Assistance and Cooperation
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"Pardon my overestimation of the groundswell you seek to build on Hammersee. It is sometimes difficult to grasp that I am not talking to a Bundschuh anymore, your reputation preceding."
"Of course. Direct contact is both more trustworthy and more meaningful than nattering over the neuralnet. Unfortunately, I cannot be in two systems at once. The end of the Volksrevolution Civil War requires ratification. I must travel to Moscow."
"That will not prevent me from sending an aid. Arbeiter Morgenstern is one of our best. He can be a little orthodox, but he's truthful, honest, intelligent and direct. Above all, he's influential, in environments I am not. The Syndicliga is not a monolith - I might hold the temporary seat of service, but it does not mean I pull every string, of course. Anarchists cannot be ruled, just directed."
"How fitting your description of the Seperatists. How unimposing you make them sound. I wish that was all there was to them."
"Their story is long and would require the very novels of which you are not fond. They are a vestige of Liberty's military intelligence complex, drawn from the battlegroup of Liberty Navy Flag Battleship Harmony, veteran warship of the Eighty Years War, whose commander, Admiral Victoria Knight, became suspicious that her chain of command was compromised by the nomads, following a series of what she interpreted as unlawful orders. Elements of the LSF, including former, now missing, LSF director Adenauer, appeared to concur with her interpretation, although Adenauer notoriously lusted after power, and may have been consorting with the Gauls from what information we managed to obtain from Harmony during our year of collaboration. For a short duration, the Liberty Seperatists, as the defecting elements called themselves, successfully captured Zone Twenty One, digging themselves into the Alaska system beyond, of which we know little except what Seperatist personnel were willing to share. The navy rallied overwhelmingly against Alaska, succesffully breaching Zone Twenty One despite heavy casualties, at which point Adenauer dissapeared entirely, to theories ranging from that she herself was an infectee, attempting to sow discord in the Pentagon, to that she had secured asylum within the Gallic realm. Encircled, the battlegroup staged a breakout into New Hampshire with every remaining ship they could muster, amounting to one badly damaged support dreadnought, the Discovery, and the Harmony itself, a handful of cruisers, and half an airwing, minimal fuel, and no objective.
Knight sent out a general distress call.
You must understand our actions in the context of history. Bering was suddenly untouched by the houses with the end of the war. We sought the opportunity to create a commune of resistance to keep the system that way; free for all those who chose to occupy it. Knight's refugees - elements of the military industrial complex turned against itself - represented that hope.
We responded - ourselves, and the Lane Hackers, who had their own interests. Even the Gaians played their part. The Navy fleet persuing them found themselves engaged in the flanks by volleys of attack craft that they were not prepared for. The Seperatists took mortal losses, yes, but against the odds, the battleship Harmony survived, as did its commander and her immediate aids, thanks to the Union.
Pacifica was the only shipyard willing to service their needs. The situation escalated from there.
The likely truth of the matter of Harmony's defection was eventually stitched together- It is highly likely, given the evidence available, that Knight's direct superior was compromised - however, no proof of the wider infection of the Liberty Government was found after, even by the Seperatists themselves. Whichever blacksuit has replaced Adenauer has heavily reorganised and decentralised the intelligence gathering apparatus into Agency Four one Four and the Office of National Security, or ONS, effectively hardening Liberty's intelligence services against infection risk, a move that an entirely compromised government would likely not attempt. Knight could have surrendered - she had, whilst committing treason, effectively exposed the infection, and rooted it out. She had completed her objective to serve the Libertonian people. The only cause keeping Harmony on our side of the law was Admiral Knight's pride.
"Of course, we only learnt this retroactively. After we built Harmony fortifications in the Tanner belt. After we had repaired their ships, armed them with our weapons. When they started imposing limited legislature, in the style of lawful policing, we did not protest. Nor did we protest when Knight chose to segregate Harmony and Unioner crews aboard shared vessels and installations. Nor did we protest when Knight started to claim Freeport Two as Seperatist airspace. Nor did we protest when they let the Hellfire Legion, who had so recently betrayed our movement by firing upon us, by equating Syndicalism to fascism, whilst they in turn back the Xenos, into our homeland."
"Then Schilder protested. Maximillian Schilder was a former direktor of the Pacifica habitat - and something of a populist. After one year of mistreatment, the Unioners aboard the station, deservedly, started to feel as if their activities were being unwantonly restricted; that they were second-class in their own theatre of operations. Schilder, in response, temporarily withheld Harmony orders for Unioner strike cruisers, thinking a negotation over shared rights could be drawn out.
"Harmony responded with an overwhelming surprise assault, attempting to sieze Pacifica's dockyards through boarding action. With near-zero defence forces prepared, Pacifica improvised; arming the cruiser constructed on Harmony's orders and engaging the attacking siege cruiser, destroying the vessel when it would not retreat, nor negotiate. Knight responded with nuclear ordinance. We are still in damage control."
"We have been used. The Separatists and their fascist militarism represents a meaningful existential threat. We are presently amassing what forces we have to break the blockade and replace it with our own; within a month, we believe we will have sufficient forces available to conduct an assault. The Seperatists are diminutive and under-supplied, but they have the benefit of advanced tactics and discipline. Their forces approximate to two thirds of our own, and they are already deployed, already prepared. It appears that Knight had cynically been planning the betrayal for months, only to await the correct moment to strike."
"Here we go."
You cannot cut off the tongue, of a man who speaks through his acts.
C.Frei.
Comrade Arbeiter of the Cologne system.
Transmission Complete
Scrambling access point...
Decompiling neuratrace... Signal lost.
THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)
Incoming Transmission - Neural Net ID: Erich Klugmann, Gloaming Flotilla
Location:Unavailible
Priority:High
Subject:RE: RE: RE: RE: Further Assistance and Cooperation
Arbeitsdirektor, I've reviewed your story.
I... Empathize, in part because your Syndicates aren't the only ones who'd been "screwed" by House Liberty's navy. I was a naive fool several years ago when I continued the Widerstandsarmee's non-aggression pact against the House, but I should have realized that they acted at the beck and call of their ruling corporations, not human decency.
So I'm not innocent of this, and while I can't claim they blockaded us or assaulted us in such an extreme fashion, I believe your story. I even believe the part about "Alaska", because several years ago when the Hackers were accusing me of licking corporate bootheels in Liberty, they dropped that word more than once. I'd assume, of course, that every House has some sort of "hideaway" for their illicit products and plots. I... Digress, however. This is far more important - Your people.
You didn't ask much of us several days ago, but here I'll simply offer it - What can myself and the few others with me do, to in any way alleviate your peoples' plight? Mind you, we're at most a dozen-odd pilots in CTE ships, often far from the most recent makes and models. We can additionally attempt to run the blockade in an attempt to deliver H-Fuel, Robotics, and similar supplies, liberated from the generous "providers" in the Sigmas - but admittedly not in an output comparable to a transport's.
Feel free to pass one of your compatriots along to this channel if you're needed elsewhere. I'll be eagerly awaiting your word.