To: Harold Kane, Natio Octavarium | From: Hunter Wolff, Alster Union

[Aaron_Cianci]

From: Hunter Wolff, Commanding Officer, SLF Lorelei
To: Harold Kane, Ministry of Relations, Natio Octavarium
Subject: Technical & Humanitarian Assistance
Encryption: Absolute

---

Dear Minister Kane:

My name is Hunter Wolff, and I have recently been appointed as flight operations liaison for the Bering System for the Alster Union. To that end, I'm working on ascertaining our current status with Natio Octavarium, in light of recent events. Our High Command has seen fit to give me access to the following prior communications between you and the Arbeitsdirektor, Lukas Mohr and Admiral Schultzky:

* A discussion of humanitarian aid
* A discussion of technical knowledge

I understand from review of these communications that your aid to us has been both technical and humanitarian. I also understand that Natio Octavarium's support of the Union is based on a shared system of beliefs and morality. As it's been pretty much blasted all over the neural net, I am sure you are aware of the Union's recent nuclear attack against Harmony, and Marshall Station. I am not aware of any communications between the Union and Natio Octavarium since September 3, more than two weeks prior to the attack.

In light of our past relationship and current developments, I would ask the following:

1. Has Natio Octavarium's outlook on relations with the Union changed in light of the Union's recent actions?

2. Does Natio Octavarium remain willing to offer technical and/or humanitarian assistance to the Union in Bering and other systems?

3. Does Natio Octavarium have any willingness, or contacts within other organizations who may be willing, to provide direct military or combat assistance to the Union in the event it is needed?

Please accept this communication in the spirit is intended. Much has changed for the Union in the last 14 days. My sole goal is to identify where we stand today with your people, and where we can go from here. Union High Command has expressed a specific intent to keep Natio's military and/or combat components out of this conflict out of respect for you and your people, so please do not consider any of these queries to be a request for action at this time.

Thank you for your time and attention. I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
Gefreiter Hunter Wolff

---

[Kazinsal]

[ Incoming Transmission ]

---

Identification: Harold Kane
Affiliation: Ministry of Relations, Natio Octavarium

To: Gefreiter Wolff, Alster Union

Subject: RE: Assistance
Encryption: Good lord, yes
Location: Canberra Star City, Tau-44

---

Gefreiter Wolff,

I feel like we need to break this one down a little bit, so let's backtrack to the beginning of this branch of the mess that's going on in the Bering system.

The Unioners were constructing, on contract, a Hel-class cruiser for the Harmony fleet, using materials and funding from Harmony to ensure speedy resourcing and implementation. The construction of this vessel came to completion, yet owing to a verbal disagreement of some sort, the ship was not released. I don't know the details. All I know is there was an argument of some kind and Harmony decided to take the ship by force. Failing that, a thermonuclear strike was authorized by Harmony against Pacifica Base in the Bering system several weeks ago. The strike caused apparently severe damage to Pacifica and in its wake, Harmony began to enforce a blockade.

Now, at this time, we began to get involved, primarily out of concern for the people affected by the blockade and the NEMP attack. The Lane Hackers made an effort to assist in this, and were willing to broker a peace agreement. We personally sent out a logistics vessel, escorted by the Lane Hackers, to make an incredibly obvious run through a blockade hinging on our own luck and reputation and with complete disregard for the political fallout in the southern and eastern Independent worlds that it may bring unto us. We did this out of humanitarian concerns.

Fast forward a few days and your high command is making things in the peace process difficult. A few more days, talks are breaking down. A few more, one of the parties is accused of collaboration with the BDM and pulls out of the talks. Total war is inevitable and has to an extent already begun, so your high command then decides that the best course of action would be to authorize your very own thermonuclear strike against Marshall Station with the intent of causing equal or greater amounts of harm back at them and quite frankly, Gefreiter Wolff, I have to ask, DO YOU HAVE NO SENSE OF DECORUM AT ALL?

Ahem.

One: Your organization's willingness to play "shot for shot" with thermonuclear weapons is quite clearly among one of the most concerning things I've seen in the past six months, and that includes seeing a dreadnought firing flak cannons at a suspected smuggler from my bedroom window. I had hoped that the unification of the Alster Union and the Landwirtrechtbewegung would have tempered the situation but it appears that once one has used weapons of mass destruction against a station, one cannot help but continue to use weapons of mass destruction against other stations.

Two: We are better able to provide logistical support and aid in Rheinland proper. We tend to have logistics transports scheduled for the next few months to be operating in the area for unrelated reasons, so additional stops would be easy to add to the agenda. We are much more capable of removing civilians from an active warzone than we are moving goods into said warzone.

Three: The Fourth Octavarium Fleet does not have the capacity to base military vessels further east than the Cortez-Magellan corridor at this time. This is not an ideological blocker, but merely a logistical one.

In short: Yes, maybe, and no.

Regards,
Minister Harold Kane
Ministry of Relations, Natio Octavarium

---

[ Transmission Ended ]

[Aaron_Cianci]

From: Hunter Wolff, Commanding Officer, SLF Lorelei
To: Harold Kane, Ministry of Relations, Natio Octavarium
Subject: Technical & Humanitarian Assistance
Encryption: Absolute

---

Dear Minister Kane:

First, I feel the need to state my personal opinion on the matter of the Marshall attack: The Union at large was unaware of the planned course of action until it happened. Even those fighters and bombers which escorted the Empress Leicht, the vessel which fired the nuke, weren't informed of why they were being called into service until they were already surrounding Marshall Station. Please do not confuse the actions of the few with the desires of the many.

That being said, do you have any intelligence regarding casualties aboard Marshall? I have asked several people, including Commander Blackwings of Harmony directly, about their loss of life. Of course, the Commander accused me of only wanting intelligence. However, that is not the case. I would like to know how many died, and if they have proper medical supplies for those who survived. If you or your contacts have any information in this regard, I would consider it a personal favor.

There's more to this conflict than just the cruiser. I, like you, thought that was all it was too. There's more to it than that.

I'm pleased to hear that our relationship is not completely destroyed. We are currently contemplating evacuating all personnel from the Wedel Mining Facility in Hamburg, as we do not put it past Harmony to counter-attack a primarily civilian population, nor to use third parties to violate Rheinland sovereignty. The civilians aboard Bering that survived the original Hellfire attack were evacuated with the group we sent to you, and we have not dared to bring any back. Further civilian casualties among the Union in Bering are simply not an option.

I would like the opportunity to meet in person with you or a representative to further discuss this possibility, as well as your concerns. If we are going to recover our relationship with Natio fully, I believe you're entitled to have a member of the Union answer to all of your concerns - not just this most recent one. And you're entitled to all the details of what's going on, if you wish to possess them.

Let me know a time and place, and I will be there.

Respectfully,
Hunter Wolff

---