"Credits! Today is our payday you know? That beautifully carved golden ring I saw during our visit at Planet New Berlin, finally I can afford it. My wife deserves nothing less."
"Celebrating your wedding anniversary?"
"Fifth one. And how about you Lukas, found a woman yet? You are in your mid twenties afterall, it's about time you start settling in."
"Hah, don't you worry about me Klaus. I will be just fine."
"Glad you are optimistic."
"You sound like that is a bad thing."
"I just believe there is a time for wishful thinking, and a time to be realistic."
"You don't say."
"Either way, we should get moving before we arrive late."
Lukas and Klaus, along with several hundreds of other engineers made their way from lower deck towards the management floor. With the recent Rheinland economy steadily faltering in what seemed to be an everlasting spiral of dismay, Alster Shipyard was losing money, and losing money was never a good sign for the employees.
The main source of the issue came from the war with Liberty. Although, you could assume that a war would increase the demands for more ships, and as such production would rise which would ultimately require more workers - that necessarily didn't mean that the workers had to come from Rheinland.
Why pay a single Rheinland engineer when you can have five Kishiro ones for the same cost? They were simply being outsourced by Kusari workers. Management didn't care, why would they? This would contribute to a stronger income. Stronger income would then lead to a higher salary for the bosses.
Money always finds a way to corrupt people. Not corrupt them in a sense that they would specifically commit illegal activities, but corruption in a sense that they would abandon any levels of empathy for the sake of monetary gain. What gave rise to the Unioner movement during the Eighty Years War and why it still exists to this very day, was exactly due to the same reason. Betrayal.
These were people that were loyal to the company, who had spent their entire career solely dedicated to learn and master skills required to work for a shipyard giant. Their life savings, their financial income and their friends, all stemmed from this single shipyard, and they all collectively depended on it in order to function as a healthy human being. Lukas and Klaus would get their payment, this would be a payday, but nobody told them it would be their last. Just like the other hundreds of engineers that would soon form the roaring crowd, a crowd composed of disappointed and abandoned workers. Betrayal.
"Fellow workers, I'm sorry to announce that this will be the last time you receive payment. Due to severe losses on the market, we have been forced to conduct a major cut in employment, I'm afraid that almost none of you will be allowed to keep your job."
And as those last words were uttered from the speaker, representing the board of directors, the Republican Shipping Management whom controlled and operated this shipyard, whose emotionless and monotone voice still ringed in my ears today, only one word echoed in my mind. Betrayal.
"WHAT?! No. No, no, no. This must be a bad joke. No, please, Lukas. They are joking right? This is a joke isn't it? Please. Please tell me this is just a joke."
Klaus' remorse, his eyes spoke of great sadness, it was almost unbearable to watch. Ignoring my immediate problems of losing my own job, I could only do my best to comfort him.
"I'm sorry Klaus'¦"
"No, they can't do this! Lukas, they cannot do this to us. For fifteen years have I slaved for this company. FIFTEEN YEARS! I have given EVERYTHING to this company, me, and all these other workers are the very reason this piece of crap shipyard still hasn't been scrapped yet. And now they throw us away like rabid dogs?! Just like that?! For what?! Why are they firing us?! Tell me Lukas, why are they firing us?!"
"Klaus, I don't know..."
"There must be a reason, they can't fire everyone, if they do that'¦ then who will keep this place going?! Something isn't right here, there is something they aren't telling us. TELL US THE TRUTH!"
Klaus began shouting in an attempt to rile up the agitated crowd.
"Please. If I can have just a minute'¦" The speaker hopelessly attempted to calm down the crowd. But nobody wanted to listen to any more stories, they wanted to know, who the management had submitted to. Who could offer such promising investments, to justify the abandonment of these loyal workers within a blink of an eye.
"TELL US THE TRUTH, NO MORE LIES!"
"YES, WHY IS EVERYONE BEING FIRED?"
"ARE WE BEING REPLACED BY MACHINES?"
"THE TRUTH, NOW, I WANT TO HEAR IT!"
"Unfortunately the information you request is confidential." The speaker finally retorted.
Klaus' built-up anger now exploded into uncontrolled fury, he could not believe what he had just heard, how these people above him could throw out a man like himself without even having the decency to speak the truth. He pushed himself through the crowd and up towards the speaker, grabbed him by his suit and shook him up so bad that you could almost expect the man's head to fall off.
"Now you listen to me corporate swine, you tell me why all these people have just lost their jobs before I beat you up so bad you wished you never came out of your mother's womb!"
The speaker's face almost turned white, it looked like he was about to faint.
"W-well you see, Kishiro employees, simply go for less money!"
"WHAT? ARE YOU SELLING US OUT FOR FOREIGNERS?! YOU SON OF A BIT-"
Before he could manage to throw the first punch Lukas grabbed him by his right arm and mustered all his strength to drag this furious man away from the scene.
"That's enough Klaus, let's get out of here before you get us all thrown into jail!"
"THIS IS NOT OVER YET, YOU HEAR ME?! MY FAMILY, MY WIFE, YOU GREEDY SNAKES ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR MISERY NOW! YOU BASTARDS!"
[font=Cambria]Days, months, years had passed since that day. I still remember every word, every act and every detail of the room we were in. Screaming, shouting and expressing unparalleled levels of anger.
Klaus has mysteriously disappeared, doesn't answer to any of my calls, and his wife claims she hasn't seen him either.
But that's all part of the past now.
The goal of today, is something else.
Cargo interdiction. Or as the authorities likes to call it, "piracy".
Well is it so wrong to steal from the same people that stole your life? I would rather call it revenge if anything else. Or how about; justice? Yes that sounds even better.
When I first came in contact with the Unioners, I recalled their passion for justice. To claim back what was once ours. To make sure that the ones who stripped us to our bare clothes would live forever in poverty. Their entire life, surrounded by undeserved luxury, would no longer be true.
Although I never agreed to the more radical views of the Unioner movement, harming the entire Republican Shipping Corporation, in the sense of attacking innocent employees – I came to the conclusion that it was simply the only way to conduct business. How else could we damage the corporation? It wasn't as a simple as going to their headquarters and put a bullet through every board director, they would go underground at the first sign of trouble.
Their underlings had to suffer, it was the only way. And as much as that could possibly make us look like a bunch of hypocrites, it was simply the reality we had to face. And naturally, the reality our enemies had to face.
However, the rebel within me was slowly dying.
For the longer I stayed with the Unioners the longer I saw a pattern of raw criminality rather than fighting for a just cause. We had begun focusing way too much on piracy and general cargo theft that was completely irrelevant to our goals. Why do we keep promoting warfare against the Rheinland Police? Why attack unknown smugglers attempting to break the Rheinland embargo? Why commit to the artifact trade? These things had nothing to do with the Republican Shipping. They had nothing to do with Alster Shipyard and they had absolutely nothing to do with our movement.
Had we turned into the people we were fighting against? If so, what is the point of our existence? Was this movement just an excuse for piracy? Had the power of money corrupted us as much as it had corrupted the people who fired us in the first place? These questions ran through my mind, and it wasn't until we made the brave move to dedicate our assets to destroying the Xeno presence in Bering and Hudson, that I finally realized that this wasn't no longer a movement against unfair unemployment, or a voice for the working man.
This was a criminal organization that was no better than the Corsairs, or the Outcasts. It was a hopeless cause, one that was simply a well-fabricated lie. I was close to taking my own life out of pure depression, everything I once had was lost, even the right to call myself an honest man. But one chance remained, one tiny spark of hope still lit for mankind. And it was bigger than just something for workers, or something for righteous people. It was for the betterment of humanity as a whole. It was a gigantic project, but one worth dying for...
[font=Cambria]In a desperate attempt to reach the Coalition's ears, one man decided to listen to my story. One man understood my struggle, one man gave me guidance during the darkest days of my existence, and only one man showed that even my life... had value.
I thank him to this very day, because he was the only reason I ended up in the Coalition, he was the only person who gave me a second chance, a second chance in life.
Know this; Respect can be earned. Duty can be taught. Obedience can be forced.
But loyalty... it can only be won. This man won my loyalty, and so, wherever he goes, I shall follow.
Just like these writings, the past consists merely of different chapters of my life. What matters now is the Coalition and the victories that must be claimed in its name. The battle will most likely span over several generations, but every contribution brings us one step closer to our ultimate goal. One that will set humanity free from oppression and inequality, when there is only one class of society and when the only requirement to be part of it is being a human, that is when we are finished. When we are truly, complete.
Some will claim that is an impossible achievement. That it goes against humans most fundamental nature, the strive for self-preservation. And within this assumption others build up arguments such as selfishness, greed and jealousy, which are the primary factors that contribute to the division of people. To put them in different groups based on their wealth, sex or race. You see… criminals aren't born, they become them, and that is only due to the structural failures of our modern societies. I speak from experience.
Human behaviour is moulded based on the societies and cultures that we live in, it's not within the human nature to lie, cheat or steal, we simply develop these skills based on environmental influences. To change the human behaviour, and the current negative aspects which is part of being a human today, we must change society as a whole.
No movement, nowhere in the entire Sirius Galaxy can you find this level of understanding, except the one that is known as the Coalition. And that is exactly why, I would not hesitate to die for it.
[font=Cambria]Our movement was growing with a steady pace, despite the fact that we had lost one of our strongest allies – The Order. Although I did not share the opinion of the Coalition Leadership, to turn our backs on them so hastily, without even so much as discussing the different paths available, it was still the decision that was taken. One that the rest of us had to follow regardless of what we personally thought about the matter. Such is the life of any militarized organization.
However, with this rather dramatic turn of events, another one was about to emerge. A dictator of sorts that strongly disagreed with Premier Katz's methods, he would have him removed from the ruling seat of the Coalition by force if necessary. This caused a major friction in the Coalition, one that ultimately divided them into two groups, those still loyal to Premier Katz and those that were willing to submit themselves to the Volkhan.
Personally I never felt the need to side with either one of these two leading figures. Some people, especially higher ranked members of the Coalition were more focused about fighting for their leader and his name, rather than the movement itself. It was as if one of these two figures, depending on which one they chose to follow, was more important than the ideology we represented as a whole, in which more than a thousand comrades had died fighting for.
Flowing discussions back and forth suggested however that some people believed that if their leader would fall, so would the movement itself. I personally couldn't disagree more, if people were this dedicated to serving the glory of their leader, rather than recalling the reasons why they joined the Coalition in the first place, then the Coalition itself has failed to succeed even within its own members. If this assumption is the absolute truth, then is there really any point left in continuing our struggle? It seemed that the Coalition had fallen into the same fatal mistake that the Unioner movement did so many years ago. Or perhaps I'm just wrong about all of this, either way I do not like how things are currently going.
One could paint me as a hypocrite for pledging my loyalty to the one man who saw potential in me where others saw failure. But at the same time I hope that both he and I are aware that the movement goes above everything else, even a pledge. Ricardo Alvarez is a good friend of mine, perhaps the only one I have, and my views will most likely be swayed by him. But the true test of the Coalition is putting aside ones own personal preferences and feelings, and make the decisions that best serves the movement itself. Anything less is selfishness, and I refuse to promote such human behaviour.
But for the Coalition to survive, to last, everyone of us have to choose a side, either the Volkhan or Premier Katz. For me, the choice lies in which one has the higher success of winning the civil war with as little causality as possible. That will ensure that we posses enough resources and men to continue our movement without requiring a longer duration of recovery. At the same time we must take into account the possible outcomes when the day comes, where one side tops the other. We have already seen where Premier Katz has led us so far, a shaky path filled with mistakes.
The question remains however, is it worth taking the risk of committing even more mistakes under his rule rather than following the iron-fist of the Volkhan? Someone who might promote inequality and mental slavery still has the willpower to aggressively promote the Coalition movement. I would call that a necessary sacrifice. How can people in the Coalition claim they are willing to die for it, but not willing to sacrifice their own freedom to serve humanity as a whole? Are they after the receiving glory and honour to fight for the Coalition or do they truly which to see it turn into reality?
Questions remains. Answers waiting. Decisions that must be taken.
[font=Cambria]Thirty-five years old, and here I'm, tucked in a dark corner somewhere in the Ontario System. I think they call this place Thunder Bay Depot. Most of my comrades have gathered inside some kind of coffee shop called Tim Hortons, personally I prefer to be left alone. I don't mind them and they don't mind me. It is not my place to judge where other people like to spend their time before and after battle. However, even I could use something strong to shake up the mind. Today however, is not that day.
Yes, given my current location it is rather evident that I ended up siding with Premier Katz, why? I honestly can't say. I somehow feel that he has a better chance to forward our movement than this other leader. Perhaps because Volkhan's methods seem self-destructive in the long run, trying to force peoples loyalty never works, it always ends up backfiring. Then again Volkhan dominates in terms of resources, manpower and controlled territory.
That Colonel Rhade is our current field-commander and most likely our current leader who represents Premier Katz, is both a good and a bad thing. To his merit he has the experience and skill to execute strong leadership, and enough charisma to inspire those around him. However, I still have my doubts regarding his views on the current situation. The Volkhan is no evil man per say, he is no tyrant or a symbol of destruction.
Most of my comrades are treating this scenario like religious fanatics, fighting against the heretic of the Coalition. I honestly do not think this should be depicted as a battle between good versus evil. Far too many amongst us are thinking like Rhade, we are not a group of shining knights fighting against the roaring beast. Instead, I would rather view the conflict as two sides with different methods of forwarding the same movement, although one seems more detrimental than the other. Why is this relevant? Because the reasons to go to war, are as important as fighting it.
Either way there is no point in me going against him, on a vocal or physical level. It would only cause arguments, slow us down from patching together a united Coalition. And that takes priority over settling personal disputes. I can only hope my comrades reason the same way, but I fear I might be lying to myself.