Pacifica Base

CLASS: Unknown

GRAVITY: Partial

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Limited

POPULATION: Unknown

The history of the Unioners is intimately tied to Alster. The shipyard opened in 412 AS, specializing in commercial transports and heavy lifters. Conditions were appalling in the yards, worker safety being merely a tertiary concern of the owners. Coupled with the excessively long spaceside rotations, the workers’ morale gradually deteriorated until a major accident killed several hundred workers in 512 AS.

Three months later, the workers formed the Alster Union. Because of their highly specialized skills, the management had no choice but to capitulate to their demands. During the next century the union gradually strengthened and eventually included the dockworkers on the Altona Station above Hamburg. By the end of the 80-Years War, the union demanded increasingly high wages and progressively fewer annual hours. The system was out of balance. Republican was no longer competitive with Kusari shipbuilders.

With the war over, demand for ships plummeted. The bloated headcount of Alster was now a sore point for Republican Shipping, desperately trying to restore profitablity. Management was now back in the driver’s seat after almost 200 years of acceding to union demands. They fired tens of thousands and won major concessions from the remaining workers, who lost centuries of gains in a matter of days.

As unemployment rocketed towards 30 percent in Hamburg, a radicalized version of the union reformed -- more of a revolutionary cell than anything. The presence of Freeport 2 in Bering proved alluring to the nascent Unioner movement of Rheinland during the unsettled times. Following the popular uprising of 702, the station’s population exploded. In 720 the Zoners laid down the ultimatum: Take your criminal activities somewhere else. They would sell basic supplies to the rebels, but no more. So the Unioners carved their Pacifica base out of an asteroid in the Tanner Belt.

The Unioners range from Bering to New Berlin. Most of their attacks are focused on the Altona Outpost and the Alster Shipyard in Hamburg, which has alienated them from some of their still employed brethren. The bulk of their Trade Lane raids are directed against Republican ships traversing the Independent Worlds. Their main commodity is Diamonds, which they run from Kreuzberg to Dawson. Unioners are often spotted buying supplies on Freeport 2.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* Liberty Rogues
* Unioners
* Zoners

## Commodities

* Water
* Food Rations
* H-Fuel
* Pharmaceuticals
* Consumer Goods
* Light Arms

## Rumors

* The union that formed after the Alster Tragedy of 512 gained well-deserved benefits for the shipwrights and welders who built the transports that shipped goods throughout Sirius. In the decades that followed, the union grew stronger. When the 80-Years War broke out, we were sitting pretty on a mountain of government subsidies and contracts.
* We run shipments from the Junker base in New Berlin; they supply us with superior Rheinland Side Arms and Kusari H-Fuel. Not an easy run through Hamburg, but decent profit.
* The Alster Shipyards are home to the Unioner movement. In 412 AS it was established by Imperial Shipping to supply the Rheinland Empire with transport freighters, lifters, and repair ships.
* When the 80-Years War came to an end the Union joined the Popular Revolt to overthrow the Imperial government. There were no more government contracts, and unemployment skyrocketed.
* In 512 AS an explosion in the Alster Shipyards killed hundreds of workers. They formed a union and walked out on the Imperial Shipping executives. It was then that Imperial Shipping realized how valuable its workers were. Production ground to a stop, and they started losing millions of credits for each day production was halted.
* Our old boss Imperial Shipping became Republican Shipping after the Popular Revolt. It was a dark time for the common laborer, and within months we lost all the rights we had been working to create for the past several decades. Republican Shipping really stuck it to the worker, using the weak economic situation to strong-arm the faltering union.
* The Unioners are a political organization fighting like many others throughout Sirius for the fair treatment of the working classes. We cannot allow the type of exploitation that is common practice of the corporations
* With our old union destroyed after the Popular Revolt, we reformed and called ourselves the Unioners. We were formed to make Republican Shipping pay for the wrongs it had committed against its workers.
* We use this as our primary base to attack Republican Shipping in Hamburg via the Jump Hole just south of this base. The asteroid fields in the northern part of that system provide good cover. We also attack them on the Trade Lanes that pass through this system.