Planet New Berlin

DIAMETER: 18,207 km.

MASS: 7.11 x 10e24 kg.

TERRAIN: Ice

TEMPERATURE: -73°C to 1°C

ESCAPE VELOCITY: 14.22 km/sec

On New Berlin, the capitol of Rheinland, day and night each last for nearly a standard year, with the nightside of the planet being plunged into frigid, bitter winter, and the dayside a more temperate summer in which temperatures hover above the freezing point. Despite this potentially hostile environment, New Berlin is very close to the abundant natural resources of the Walker Nebula and so became the first planet settled by the Rheinland people. After the economic collapse brought about by the 80-Years War with the Gas Mining Guild (GMG) and the subsequent Popular Revolution in 702 AS, New Berlin became a society of marked contrasts. As millions try to recover from years of economic mismanagement and political scandal, the black markets of Rheinland boom while the underground clubs and cabarets of New Berlin are rumored to provide anything -- for a price.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* ALG Waste Disposal
* Gateway Shipping
* Kruger Minerals
* Universal Shipping
* Daumann Heavy Construction
* Republican Shipping
* Bounty Hunters Guild
* Junkers
* LWB
* Red Hessians
* Unioners
* Synth Foods, Inc.
* Orbital Spa and Cruise

## Commodities

* Artifacts
* Luxury Food
* MOX
* Basic Alloy
* Optical Chips
* Construction Machinery
* Polymers
* Optronics
* Cardamine

* Oxygen
* Water
* Diamonds
* Food Rations
* H-Fuel
* Mining Machinery
* Pharmaceuticals
* Consumer Goods
* Luxury Consumer Goods
* Engine Components
* Light Arms

## Rumors

* Unlike Republican and Daumann ships, ALG ships are not viewed by of Rheinland criminals as a threat. We’ve tried to take a less antagonistic approach in dealing with our current and former employees in the hope that we can avoid the poor labor relations that have plagued other Rheinland companies.
* ALG has cleaned up this system dramatically since the early Daumann days. They are still operating smelters using centuries-old technology. One visit to Leipzig will show you the harmful effects of Daumann's unregulated emissions of pollutants.

* Our headquarters is in the Ring, high above Berlin at the La Grange point between New Berlin and Potsdam. At least up there we never have to worry about the notorious Berlin night, which lasts upwards of a year here. It would be lifeless on this planet without the strong volcanic and geothermal activity.
* At least in New Berlin, one has a reasonable amount of security provided by the Federal Police. Out in the Omega systems and Dresden, the Red Hessians are running amok. Their flame is fed by the growing legions of unemployed Rheinland workers.

* The Federal Police runs a daily patrol up into the Aachenfeld to keep an eye on the Bundschuh and the Unioners. Rheinland's full of splinter groups like them. Their usual targets are the Ring and the Oder Shipyard. Everyone wants to overthrow the government and big business in Rheinland.
* Sometimes we have to deal with demonstrations and riots, which has become an all-too-frequent occurrence in Berlin these days. It's easy to control them because so much of Berlin was built underground. We just seal the doors to the entire affected area.
* Rheinland has seen better days. Since the end of the war, we've had one crisis after another. The Popular Revolution never fulfilled its promise. The government just keeps issuing more money in order to pay off its debts, so the inflation rate is out of control. It's running about 5 percent a week right now.
* The old Harz mining area south of New Berlin is favored by the Red Hessians. They prefer to attack the Trade Lane to Brandenburg, especially Daumann ships. There's some pretty bad blood between those two.
* Artifacts and Cardamine have recently begun appearing in the high-end clubs of Berlin. We think the Junkers are involved, though they're hard to pin down. They always seem to know when we're planning a sting operation. Smells like a mole to me.
* The Federal Police was once a proud agency. Now we are underpaid and demoralized. Many of the younger officers accept bribes, which was unheard of among the old timers. Guess the hard times have finally hit us too.
* New Berlin was once the mining center of Rheinland. But over the centuries all of the deposits were exhausted. Now most of the new activity is in Omega-7. Even Dresden is not what it once was.
* Rheinland has been humiliated militarily and economically bankrupted by the poor decisions of Empress Leicht 200 years ago. Now we must suffer the injustice of foreign corporations occupying our homeland. Someday Rheinland will once again be strong enough to control its destiny.

* If you want to find Diamonds cheaply, go out into Omega-11. That's where the Hessians find them. They bring 'em in to Kreuzberg, we sell them to the Berlin Diamond traders. It's all perfectly legitimate.
* If you want to make the real money, haul in some Cardamine or Artifacts from Kreuzberg. Just remember, if you get caught by the police, I've never seen you in my life.

* It's nice to be in a civilized city again. Our ship just came in from Omega-7 with a load of Silver. The Hessians love the thick clouds of the Walker. Once you enter open space in Stuttgart, it gets better. Then there’s another difficult stretch passing the Saarfeld in this system -- a notorious area for Hessian pirates.
* Kruger has an experimental H-Fuel center in Mannheim, Frankfurt. I don't know why we bother to continue the operation. Only the government subsidy keeps our price competitive with Kusari and GMG gas from the Crow Nebula.

* Berlin is the Diamond-trading center of Sirius. They're mined-out in Dresden and Omega-11. Daumann and Kruger ship them in here, where the initial sorting and cutting takes place. Then we ship them to the far corners of the universe for use in Luxury Goods or Mining Machinery.
* The Silver that Kruger mines in Omega-7 ends up in the Commodity markets of New Berlin. We then transport it to Kusari and Liberty. It's especially in demand in terraforming operations like the one on California Minor.

* We are concerned by recent reports that the Red Hessians have become sympathetic to the LWB and are planning new strikes focused on Synth Foods convoys. The LWB are an irritating annoyance. The Hessians are an entirely different matter.
* The LWB has many supporters in New Berlin, so we must spend heavily here to defeat their cause. The Rheinland officials expect ever-larger bribes from us. It's the cost we pay to continue our expansion plans in Stuttgart, unfettered by government interference.

* My ship's down from Bonn -- that large space station at the western end of this system. We buy our basic supplies here. Kind of a Liberty outpost up there. Synth Foods, Bounty Hunters, IC -- they all call Bonn home.
* Let me tell you, Rheinland is tough. It's a cakewalk through Liberty, even the Texas system isn't that bad. Then wham, you hit the Independent Worlds. We have to rearm in Houston and beef up the escorts for the rest of the trip here. At least we don't have the LWB headache that Synth Foods is dealing with.