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Identity: MAEDA, Kazuo Origin: Kyoto Base Recipient: Unioners Subject: Surprise
Greetings.
I will admit that I am not fully aware of traditions in the Rheinland, but it is customary for us to introduce ourselves in a polite and respectful way, even if it is to engage in combat moments later. One "Horst", manning the "Heppenheim" transport ship, certainly felt it was beneath them to abide by these rules of common decency.
This can be forgiven, provided an explanation is given. Even if we believe first impressions are the foundations of any relationship, we can tolerate such trangressions, coming from outsiders. What is more diffcult to accept, however, is the fact that your smugglers think of Kusari as a mere shortcut. It is not. Know that we are the rightful guardians of this House, and as such we will pursue all vessel we see fit, especially if said vessel is carrying contraband, and doubly so when our demands and inquiries are met with nothing but stereotypical insults and crude jokes.
Read this, Unioners: The Blood Dragon Oath Bound will turn away any of your transport ships found in Kusari space. The Blood Dragon Oath Bound will attack and destroy any of your combat ships found in Kusari space. This will remain so for as long as we have reason to believe your influence here is nefarious and goes against our goals.
Now that I have made our stance clear, there is one last thing. Your pilot kept referring to a group known as "the Auxesians". Some of my people have heard that name before, but truthfully, we do not know much more than that. Consider educating us on who it is you are comparing us to: Your insults will have more impact then.
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.
From out of many, one. From one cause, many dreams.
Incoming Transmission
Unionised Peoples of Syndicalist Advocacy
To: Sender node 'Oathbound' of the Blood Dragons. From:The Unioners, Syndicate Leagues Outreach, Panoria-elect 'Belltower' Subject:Weapons transportation and sovereignty violations.
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We're listening.
Hey.
I'm Karel Baran. Comns ident' 'Belltower'. The kind you ring bells from, not the kind you shoot off. I'm not a shooting type.
We don't think of Kusari as a short-cut. Currently, it's the long-cut. We try to be respectful to any organisations we have comms access with - our contact with the Dragons has been intermittent. Still, we took a stroll through your turf without asking - you're right to show us the door and confiscate our goods. We won't deny that. For all you knew, we could have been a threat to you. For that, you'll earn nothing but respect from us, even if you did cause our clients trouble.
Captain Horst Dellen was rude because he was dealing with an unknown factor that took his livelihood from him. Not the most noble livelihood shipping guns, no, unless they're going to fight a cause even more of an evil than arms trading itself. Barrier gate station in Coronado. There's a whole lot of forces in the Taus that can benefit from the resources to get out of the thumb of each other.
It's a critical step. We try not to profit from the destruction of others. I get why your men would be curt to our sister and brother Arbeiters - it's hard for a Rheinlander and a Kusarian to look one another in the eye in these dishonourable dawns. When Horst chose that route he did it out of his own choice, aware that he wouldn't find friends. If he'd find friends in the dragons or not - he had no way to tell. We have a different set of outlooks as to what honour is, you and I. Different ethics for different walks of life. One of ours is if someone threatens you and yours, you counter-punch. Horst counter-punched as much as he could without violating the integrity of his ship, and the crew aboard.
You say there's a rumour going around that the Unioner presence is corrupting. Somebody must have told you that. We won't ask who. If people want to make up stories and disseminate them as truth, that's their lie to live with. The Unioners arn't anything. We don't have a 'team'. We have friends who we see eye-to-eye with, and those that don't. Those who find unity in difference, and those that don't. We're just Unioners - common men and women whose ancestors were chucked into jail near three centuries in the past. We're a democratic society that gives our cells - of which there's thousands - wiggle-room. We don't have a top-down structure like most Kusarian groups. That means we live fast and deal with our mistakes. Occasionally people pick the wrong representatives.
It makes a lot of organisations angry who benefit from being top dog. We're not about being top anything. Just ensuring our people's survival and dignity; and sharing that dignity to others. Sometimes that earns us cuts and scruffs, or someone takes their beef with the blacksuits and the CEOs just too far.
Now, these are war-torn times. Times of hardship.
According to Horst, your guys twigged him alike those 'Sesians he filled you in on, if only in part. They're supremacists. Call themselves 'transhumanists', a full-on gravitas-laden portmanteau which literally means to transcend humanity. What that means in practice is that they steal technology from the darkest holes of the sector, then horde it for themselves. They see anybody who isn't them as degenerates - that means anybody unaugmented. For us, engineering and tech' is pride, it's a profession, it's a way of offering service, to let people be people and humanity thrive. They see it the other way around; they want to build people of Machines, suck the emotion out. Suck all that makes us people out. They're an autocracy, ran by most far gone of the lot of them, if our tip-offs are telling the truth. They'd kill us all for the right to call the shots over our bodies. There was a word your guys used that reminded him of them. 'Degenerates'. We're just people. Not warriors, not soldiers, just people sticking out for one another in the cold vacuum of space. Some of us are poor people - thrown out by a corrupt nation that would have left us to die.
We're fighting back. Part of that means buying electronics from the tau worlds, where the Crayterians make an armful of the stuff. It's just aimed at repairing civilian habitat modules, fix busted modules back to working order.
Look, we're not enemies. Whatever your contact told you, or the GMG, or whoever in a gold-suit gains a credit collecting Unionist scalps, we're not going to cause Kusari trouble. Now I can promise you that we won't dive through Kusari unless there's an immediate, critical emergency that threatens a transport's crew sending our men up north. If so, it's your choice what goes down from there.
I won't tell you how to live your life. That's between you and space. You don't need to believe us if your gut tells you otherwise. If you ever need supplies, fuel, or a place to dock, you're welcome on our bases in Rheinland. Just give us some warning."
"Proximus Ardet Ucagleon. Horst is gonna' remember that."
With Respect,
The Syndicate Unity of the Five hundred exiled Trade Unions,
Alster Unioners.
Transmission Complete
Scrambling access point...
Decompiling neuratrace... Signal lost.
"Though the past is scarred and the future untold"
" Be the boot heavy, the vacuum cold."
"I of the Liga, do not fold" "For suits or saints or beggar's gold. Information-Recruitment-Message Dump-Feedback
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Identity: MAEDA, Kazuo Origin: Kyoto Base Recipient: Unioners Subject: Surprise
Greetings Mister Karel Baran.
Many of my brothers in arms were surprised by the contents and tone of your reply. I, for one, am glad to be speaking with someone who employs reason and a transparent, if colorful, discourse.
Your explanations are appreciated, and your warning about the Auxesians is noted, although it should be known that we have no interest in them so long as they do not enter Kusari or try to interfere with our objectives. For too long were our predecessors caught in the political games of Sirius, running after unnatural alliances, and away from their duty.
This leads us to your offer, Mister Karel Baran. We have little use for your bases in the Rheinland, since we rarely leave our home. However, your offer of supplies echoes with our needs. We have made great strides recently, strides that must be supported appropriately, lest they crumble into dust.
The Oath Bound are currently in the process of setting up a delivery board open to interested parties and friendly organizations. Among those we call our friends are the courageous Golden Flowers of Kusari, and those who dwell in the Omicrons to safeguard mankind against the alien threat. Prove to us that you are on good terms with our allies, and you will be formally invited to take part in the deliveries when the time is right.