Incoming Transmission
Transmission Origin: New Berlin - Planet Side
Vessel ID: [FL]-FireHawk
Sender ID: Adam Spire
My father came to visit me on the Ring yesterday. It was a pleasant surprise to say the least. We say down and caught up on the last year over a cup of coffee and this cake my mother made. He still fixes the occasional civilian transport and starflyer to keep busy and still keeps in contact with an old mechanic back in Colorado where we used to live in Liberty for a few years. I told him about what we're doing and how things have gone while with a near exuberant expression and drive. He then sat there, took a sip of his coffee and asked, 'So what's different?' I was stuck for a moment, ready to say all that we have accomplished, again, and how far we've come, again, but when I thought about it, I was just looking at him with a blank expression.
I know how far I've come and what I have accomplished, but has anything changed? My father tells me that everyone on the ground level seems to be on automatic. Hearing illegally broadcasted propaganda stories followed by victorious marching music has gone hand in hand. People have become apathetic to it. Hard work is spent on the military grade equipment to the point civilian ship lines are sold at cost. Shipments of goods, parts, equipment, minerals, supplies, everything are sent in bulk because if it's destroyed by military, revolutionaries, or pirates, its still destroyed isn't it?
Junkers are being used to help with internal cargo shipments because there is actually a better chance at least some of the cargo reaching the destination. Junkers?! A scavenging back water faction that has built its foundations off the destruction of everything and anything and yet they thrived. Just one big damn irony.
How has ALG prospered?
I keep hearing they support our enemies, they helping revolutionaries, supplying intel and trading routes to pirates and anyone in-between. Openly and actively helping anyone but Rheinland.
How has Kruger prospered?
Fighting tooth and nail for every square inch of space it can? Gathering a bunch of irate miners who went vigilante and started blowing the hell out of half the universe while the Rheinalnd Krugers got blamed for it all?
Both of you fighting over Omega 15 and blaming the other relentlessly for not coming to any agreement on who and what is going on. In the end, no one cared and no one looked twice at Omega 15. Another lost opportunity.
How has Daumann prospered?
I barely see their ships, and any mention of them results in endless trite statements about their vicious methods to maintain their corporate strong hold and dominance. Their aluminum fields stripped daily by anyone with a mining ship to profit those who want to see Rheinalnd destroyed.
How has Republican Shipping prospered?
They hire out independents to ship their goods which in turn become subject to any and every attack form anyone wanting to make a profit on their loses. Their trade is restricted, their ships remained docked in fear of being completely destroyed.
Back door dealings, backstabbing, sabotage, conspiracies, false accusations, real accusations, more conflicts, political arguments, personal attacks, an endless waltz from all of you.
Is this the best we can be? Is this all Rheinalnd's backbone can offer? Are we that broken?
Do you have any idea the strength our enemies, our real enemies will face if they see us all fight for each other and not against each other?
Do you all want some sort of reparation? Maybe some kind of formal and forthright apology for all the years of idiocy and falsehoods tossed between one and another?
When the war is over whether we win or loose, who will do business with Rheinland, who can trust Rheinland? We can't even trust ourselves. All we can do is accept it and go on.
Is that honestly the best we have?
I'm at my wits end people. Tell me there is something left here. Tell me there is a possibility that you four can work together.
I ran from the IMG because I felt I could no longer help them, that things were too big for me even with the position I once held there. Maybe, that was my mistake for leaving. Rheinland is my home. It's where my family and my friends are. There has to be something more we can do than all 'this.'
My father reminded me about the time we were in Colorado. Fixing those ships and seeing how people came back to us. Loyalty he told me. Not the mindless droning on of clowns to the only remaining option open to them, but a conscience choice to choose one over another.
So what will it be people?
Time to choose.
Transmission timed out
Sometimes, when all you want is to gain your freedom, you must be willing to risk it all.
A man sits up, alone in his mining rig as the rest of the crew sleeps. He watches over the systems scans and listens to the comms chatter. After hearing a certain transmission, he looks out into the voids of space. Thinks to himself about this message and what was said in it, then smiles, still staring out into the emptiness of space.
After a moment, he snaps back to work as the system scanner starts beeping and he walks over to check out who has intruded on his moment. He looks over the report and shrugs, another free-lance transport approaching. As he starts to wake the crew he thinks to himself, you don't really see ALG or DHC transports requesting to be filled, only these few free-lance transports and an occasional Kruger transport.