Büro des Marinenachrichtendiensts Encrypted Video Transmission
.......● RECIPIENTS:.........Junkers Congress .......● SENDER:-..............Kapitan Kai Siegfried .......● LOCATION:............Bering Relay .......● PRIORITY:..............█ █ █ █ .......● SUBJECT:..............Supply Lines
To: Junkers Congress
I am Kai Siegfried, Kapitan in the Logistics Division of the BDM U-Korps. You may have heard of me through some of your personnel operating in and around Rheinland. I am contacting you on behalf of the Federalist Fleet regarding establishing an additional supply line to our main logistical hubs in Thuringia. I'm sure that we can work out a mutually beneficial arrangement to that end.
I await your reply.
From,
Kapitan Kai Siegfried
Büro des Marinenachrichtendiensts, Marinekommando
first and foremost, I hope that you are having nice day. Should this not be the case, I wish for you to have one soon.
I am Rell Harrow, Rheinland Director of the Junker Congress.
I would normally apologize for not responding to your request immediately. I can only hope that being unconscous due to a medical procedure is explanation enough. I have been working on a few things for months now and some of the set-backs had rather unpleasant effects, such as frozen splinters piercing my extremeties. I am still recovering from that.
Sob stories aside, I have relayed your message to Arbiter Tiltman.
Your proposal sounds interesting. Before we can come to an internal decision and for us to agree to any given request, I require some additional details that I can relay to the Arbiter.
What kind of cargo would need to be transported?
Given that I am unfamiliar with the system of "Thuringia" outside of the odd rumor here or there, which I tend to discredit in most cases, where would this cargo need to be transported to?
Do you request a certain amount of cargo that only needs to be delivered once or are you looking to establish continuously active supply lines?
If you request a certain amount of cargo, how much would that be and what time frame do you deem reasonable for such a delivery?
If you wish to establish continous supply lines, how much cargo would need to be moved how often?
And, even though I loathe having to ask a question such as this so openly, I must still do so to ensure swift and efficient negotiations: Do you have any specific sort of compensation in mind, such as credits, goods or potentially licenses or maybe even tech grants? If not, what options would you definetely exclude from such negotiations? I do not wish to present you with a counter offer that could potentially offend you.
While I am eagerly awaiting your message, I am only able to work because of my medication. At least I am likely to regain full control over my right shoulder once I have recovered from the latest procedure. Still, it may take me a day or two to respond due to likely being overwhelmed by either pain or medically induced sleep. I dearly hope that my condition does not offend you and will not hinder negotiations.
Signed with a sincere apology;
Rell Harrow.
COMMUNICATION OPEN TO REPLY
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>
Büro des Marinenachrichtendiensts Encrypted Video Transmission
.......● RECIPIENTS:.........Junkers Congress .......● SENDER:-..............Kapitan Kai Siegfried .......● LOCATION:............Bering Relay .......● PRIORITY:..............█ █ █ █ .......● SUBJECT:..............Supply Lines
To: Junkers Congress
Director Harrow,
I hope that you are in good health and are quickly recovering from what sounds like a most unfortunate situation.
Not unlike yourself, we find ourselves in a period of recovery after a rather unpleasant affair. While we have successfully consolidated our strongholds and pushed the imperials into something of a stalemate, we are looking to supplement our industrial base by incorporating our logistical hubs to the sector market at large through enterprising individuals such as yourself and your organization. To put it bluntly, what we wish to do the following:
A) Establish regular and self sustaining trade routes for:
1. Imports of military supplies such as arms (Black Market Light Arms, Black Market Munitions, Light Arms, Side Arms, Marines, etc) and supplies (Manifolds, FloraGrow, Energy Field Equipment, HydroGro, Synth Paste, etc) to our partner storage facilities on Tennstedt and our colony on Weimar.
2. Exports of Lanthanum from our mines on Weimar.
B) Establish an expedited channel for more specialized procurement requests.
While loading and offloading of the aforementioned commodities should be profitable in and of themselves, we are prepared to negotiate for further concessions including but not limited to the following:
A) A direct channel for negotiating procurement of technologies, hardware, and support from our operatives in the field.
In short, little is off the table outright - if the price is right. Although we may be engaged in a bitter civil war today, there is much to be gained when we have re-consolidated our place as the democratically elected Federal government of Rheinland.
I hope that we can reach a mutually rewarding understanding.
Best wishes,
From,
Kapitan Kai Siegfried
Büro des Marinenachrichtendiensts, Marinekommando
once again, I must apologize for the delay. It took me a good while to put this message together, as I kept blacking out mid sentence.
Fatigue can be quite an unpleasant experience. But things are getting better. I can now stay awake for more than 9 hours without medical aid and my shoulder is healing well.
Be that as it may. I have talked to the Arbiter. He is interested in your proposal.
Regarding your request for military goods and weapon supplies, Congress can definetely deliver such materials.
We often find usable material of this kind in wrecks. At times, the legality of such weaponry is slightly questionable and Congress salvagers tend to break them down for parts and raw materials to avoid any legal troubles. You wouldn't believe how reliable a pen becomes once you put a military grade 0.114cm chamber spring into it.
We can sell you the goods we retrieve, though we would have to request you to allow Congress transportation of such materials. Not in an open statement that just anyone can see, mind you, I assume that that wouldn't be quite your style. But such information would need to be available to BDM pilots.
The laws of Rheinland are subject to very... interesting circumstances right now and not every patrol pilot might have the time to always keep on top of ever changing data bases.
If we are to deliver cargo of this kind to you, we would like to have something official that we can point patrolling BDM inquirers to. Such preventative action would avoid confusion and loss of the very cargo and supplies you request.
I remember six, .... no, five instances where I was stopped for carrying military salvage within Liberty, where we hold a licence to collect such materials from wrecks. These kinds of stops can take up to half an hour while the patrol pilot checks the license board to verify the legality of our actions.
Misunderstandings such as these lead to delays in the supply chain and we wish to be reliable in our deliveries.
The other supplies you mentioned are easy for us to procure and deliver. Most of these can be brought to your bases and settlements without issues. Sadly, there is one notable exception: HydroGro. This product is mainly produced by Samura Industries, a group that isn't exactly ... fond of Junkers.
We may be able to procure them through sub-contractors. However, such an arrangement would either cause an increase in the price or a decrease in the quality of working conditions. And since I myself am working to improve such conditions for space faring pilots, I would hope that we can settle on the former.
As long as you are fine with paying slightly more for this specific cargo, we can likely organize its purchase through permanently contracted Freelancer pilots, who would then bring it to Congress bases from where we would deliver it alongside other supplies.
But HydroGro is the only one that is difficult to obtain. All of the other goods you named will be readily available and can be delivered to your bases and planetary settlements on a regular basis.
Setting up a priority channel for express deliveries is very much possible.
Once established, you would only need to send us simple data about what cargo and how much of it you need, as well as the intended destination and the price you offer for it.
If the work would need to be done within a certain (preferably reasonable) time frame, then such information should be added to your transmission as well. If there was to be any trouble, then this is the step where we would inform you about whatever issues arise.
Otherwise, you would get a reply once the request has been processed and offered to some of our captains.
While I don't know much about internal functions of the BDM, I assume Congress pilots to be less organized than your people. We aren't a military group, after all.
But they do tend to jump at available contracts, so the work is likely to be handled within an acceptable time frame.
We also have separate internal channels for the distribution of work that requires the ability to not boast about it loudly in the next bar.
An example for this would be when a Junker base's primary defenses become unreliable due to damage. The nearest rag tag group of pirates shouldn't hear about that until the required parts have been brought there and the guns are operational again.
Your contracts and transportation through your space would generally be handled by pilots who have shown that they can work and act discreetly.
I hope that this offer is to your satisfaction. As is custom for the creation of a contract, Congress would like to request two different forms of compensation aside from the credits paid for goods.
Inbetween fatigue attacks, I spent some time looking into some of the more obscure rumors, hoping that I could derive some information about the routes Congress vessels would need to take.
I found something quite interesting in an old report. A few years ago, a severely drugged out and seemingly mad freelancer pilot claimed that he had found salvagable scrap metal in a system that he entered from Hamburg.
He later ended up in Puerto Rico, where he almost lost his ship to the extreme radiation and was found drifting by a Congress pilot. I don't know the validity of this madman's claims, yet I dare to build an assumption on them.
I also found decent evidence that there is a system accessible from both Puerto Rico's more dangerous areas and some distant gravity anomaly in Hamburg. It seems to be heavily guarded by Rheinlandic ship patrols. Apparently, all those who randomly stray close to its entrances are turned away.
Please forgive my assumption and the question that derives from it. Does this mean that there is salvageable scrap material within your sternly controlled sphere of influence?
If so, in exchange for acquiring, transporting and delivering supplies and arms for you, Congress is very much interested in acquiring salvage rights for the resources assumed above, given that they exist.
Furthermore, we would like to be allowed usage of the priority channel for your cargo request to inquire about access to some Rheinlandic technology. While we do have our own ships and equipment, much of it is built out of necessity and because more ideal solutions remain outside of our reach.
For example, the "Uruz" Rheinland heavy transport class vessel is quite a secure vessels that is known to withstand many different kinds of threats, be they human or environmental in nature. And some of the Rheinlandic ships and weaponry that tend to be reserved for its cooperations and groups would make the work of our escort and scout pilots a good deal safer.
Such requests would be handled on an individual basis, with permanent licenses being a possibility but not a necessity and with you always being able to give reasons for why a particular inquiry would be deemed unreasonable.
I hope that this offer is both fitting and to your liking. If it isn't, then please do inform me what I got wrong in my attempt at putting a price tag to rumor or what might upset negotiations.
Signed;
Rell Harrow.
COMMUNICATION OPEN TO REPLY
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>
Büro des Marinenachrichtendiensts Encrypted TEXT ONLY
.......● RECIPIENTS:.........BERING COMM RELAY .......● SENDER:-..............Flotillenadmiral Kai Siegfried .......● LOCATION:............RNC BRYNHILDR Forward Operating Base - HAMBURG .......● PRIORITY:..............█ █ █ █ .......● SUBJECT:..............RE SUPPLY LINES
Director Harrow,
Thank you for your reply - I would like to apologize for the delay in my own, things have been quite eventful of late.
I find the terms of an expedited channel for technology exchange and purchase requests to be quite agreeable - and we can utilize this direct frequency to serve in that respect.
Naturally, working with us will afford all Congress vessels certain privileges and permissions in the way of hauling. Requests for hauling permits, certain flight routes, and restricted ship licenses can be expedited within reason, given the nature of our cooperation.
Regarding the rumors of scrap fields, I am afraid that such areas, if they do indeed exist, are in quite dangerous space and may prove to be insufficiently lucrative to be worth exploitation. This, of course, can be discussed further as our partnership progresses.
From,
Flotillenadmiral Kai Siegfried
Büro des Marinenachrichtendiensts, Oberkommando
we fully accepts your decision regarding the potential resources. While Congress pilots are fully capable of dealing with dangerous working environments, maybe we simply need to prove our capabilites first.
The Arbiter has given me some input that I would like to bring up.
If any of the requests below aren't to your liking, I would love to hear your input on what problems could arise and what we could do to solve them.
We could present such requests on an individual basis via this frequency once the contract is signed.
Considering the number of Congress pilots, that would lead to quite a lot of unnecessary data traffic, work load, etc.
Instead, I thought it possible to simply deal with the most common requests by adding a general clause to these talks. In that way, we would eliminate most of these issues before they could even crop up.
Rheinlandic civilian technology is quite fascinating. Most of it is either extremely efficient or expensive and top notch.
Some of our escort pilots have been trying to work with widely available ships and equipment such as the X4TS Rheinland Civilian Light Fighter, commonly known as the "Tiger Shark". But despite the open availability of such and similar vessels, we keep running into problems. It seems that, for some strange reason, our equipment doesn't work quite as well on ships such as these. And Rheinlandic civilian gear, such as the "Flammenwerfer" line, causes similar issues when tested on our vessels. There appears to be some sort of incompatibility that hinders energy transfer from the core to onboard systems. Whatever it is, we can't quite pin it down.
The Uruz is quite the beast, sporting very defensive equipment and a large cargo hold, as well as significant hull platings. This combination makes it into one of the most defensive transports in Sirius. Given a few armor modifictions, it could brave some areas that our heavily reinforced second rate transports have trouble with. Sadly, it isn't openly available to our captains. We would like to change that, as well any potential problems with energy efficiency.
Last but most certainly not least, the Junker Congress is a collection of Junkers. We salvage scrap, electronics, sometimes even full wrecks.
But some of the gear we find in working order is seen as... problematic by other groups in Sirius.
Just last week, we had to turn a fully repairable wreck into manifolds because others would have taken issue with us piloting such a vessel.
We often come across some older vessels that were previously flown by less than desirable groups. Instead of turning them into working haulers, we have to destroy them and strip them for parts.
It is a waste.
In order to combat this waste of resources, I would like to request for Congress to be granted a general license for the following ships, which are the models most often found drifting and having to be disassembled:
Z-9550 "Pitbull", also known as a "pirate train". We often find these adrift and have to just let them lie or cut them apart. These ships are easy to repair and bring back into working order, yet we can't for fear of prejudice.
Z-8500 "Bullmastiff", also known as a "pirate transport". Our pilots sometimes bring these down when their captains decide to attack our Salvagers. While not especially large, they are easy to refurbish, comparatively agile and quite defensive, making for an excellent vessel for transporting cruicial goods, such as the express cargo deliveries you may need done. Sadly, the vessels are seen as illegal by most entities.
TR4c-T0R "Sichel", a very heavy fighter previously used by Rheinlandic pirates. Through our proximity to and work in Bering, we often find such old tech and could easily put it to good use. These vessels are good as scouts and for fending off heavily armored pirate bombers.
TR4c-T1R "Sense", a bomber, likewise previously used by Rheinland's underworld but long since forgotten by most. Just like with the T0R, we often find wrecks of these that could be made usable again with minimal changes. These vessels would be quite useful to face the constant threat of cargo piracy.
I would very much appreciate your input on these requests and if they could indeed be worked into the contract.
Signed;
Rell Harrow.
COMMUNICATION OPEN TO REPLY
<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>