Pacifica Base

CLASS: Riss

GRAVITY: Partial

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Limited

CREW: 360

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, or have the Rheinland Police take you to Vierlande. 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. Over the years, the base received various upgrades, including a small shipyard module modeled as a miniturized Alster to build and maintain Unioner ships.

The Unioners today are known as some of the most brutal pirates in Rheinland, ranging from the upper Omegas even as far as Texas to the stellar North. Most of their attacks are focused on 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 in New Berlin. Historically their Syndicate is infamous for holding little loyalty to anything but profit, with rumors suggesting that they have proven quite adept at smuggling a vast variety of goods and acting as middlemen for many groups, even those in conflict with each other.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* Unioners
* Zoners

## News

Professor Nagel and her team are certain the Pulse originated from outside Sirius, but are otherwise no closer to identifying its source or mitigating a future Blackout event. "Following the Blackout, we began to see immediate signs of jump hole destabilization in multiple different regions, with many ultimately falling out of phase alignment altogether", she commented. The dramatic upending of Sirius' jump hole network has already prompted many groups to abandon stations and withdraw from systems that appear to risk being cut off.
While months-long trips between the stars are possible thanks to the Liberty Engine and many centuries of innovation, few ships are designed or provisioned to make such arduous journeys. Those who were displaced by Sirius' redrawn map hope that system connections will return, while adventurers and explorers rush to discover new routes.

For some time, it had been alleged that Insurgent and Xeno-backed cells had been stirring trouble on Erie, inciting violence in the population and seeking to turn the planet into a second Veracruz. Never, however, had such open acts of terror been visited upon the governing Libertonian forces.
The response was quick and decisive. In coordination with the LSF, Vice Admiral Hamish aboard the Battleship Alma lead a Liberty Navy task force directly into the system in Operation Pesticide, escorted primarily by Siege Cruisers, Gunboats and fightercraft, with many of the Navy's capital warships tied in the Vespucci campaign or ever watchful at Liberty's borders. They were met by Zoner Q-ships based from Bethlehem, with many coming from as far as Galileo or even the Sigmas, accompanied by a motley assortment of freelancers and other anarchist elements. Leading the Zoner line was a Aquilon-class carrier, the Pinnacle.
While the Pinnacle came under heavy bombardment from the Alma and her task force, supplies quickly gathered onto Zoner transports from Erie attempted to run the Navy blockade. While some transports were lost to Navy bombers, others yet escaped to parts as of yet unknown. This 'victory', however, came at a heavy price. The Pinnacle was lost with most of her hands still on board and the rest captured, while the Liberty Marines landed virtually unopposed, quickly securing population centers for both the safety of Libertonian assets and the civilians on Erie itself. The Alma is settled now into the low orbit of Erie, a constant reminder to those below that they are under the protection of the Liberty Navy. A comfort to some, a dire warning to many more.

## Rumors

* The Alster Shipyards were home to the Unioner movement when we were still a legitimate, political entity. Alster was established in 412 AS by Rheinländische Großspedition to supply the Rheinland Empire with transport freighters, lifters, and repair ships. Rheinländische Großspedition became known as Republican Shipping after the 80-year war.

* We're running Alien Artifacts from our base in Munich into Liberty via Pacifica. This is a new route for us, but so far it's proven quite profitable. There is a strong demand for Artifacts in Liberty. Sure, it may annoy the Hessians a bit that we do this, but hey, the Junkers have done the same thing for years.

* The Unioners are a political organization fighting like many others throughout Sirius for the fair treatment of the working classes. For that we are branded criminals. And when you treat someone like a criminal, he eventually starts to think and act that way. So yea, we're pirates and smugglers now. That is what Rheinland, and Republican in particular, has made us into.

* 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. The reformed Republican Shipping used this as an excuse to fire every known Unioner and replace them with workers brought in from New Berlin, breaking every agreement they ever made with us. The government didn't want to step in, despite us helping them in the Popular Revolution, so we took matters into our own hands. It was the right thing to do. It still is.

* 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. The government broke those contracts and attempted to basically impose indentured servitude on us. We would have none of that.

* 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. To this day we exact our vengeance, and we'll not stop until Republican recognizes the Union and restores the worker rights that our fathers and grandfathers fought so hard for.

* In 512 AS an explosion in the Alster Shipyards killed hundreds of workers. They formed a union and walked out on the Rheinländische Großspedition executives. It was then that Rheinländische Großspedition realized how valuable its workers were. Production ground to a stop, and they started losing millions of credits for each day production was halted. They tried to get the government to step in and declare martial law, but the conditions were so appalling that the government didn't step in. All Imperial could do was concede to our demands.

* This base is mainly used as a smuggling waypoint and small production facility for our weapons. We mostly control this system now - only the Xenos oppose us, and they are no match for us. The Liberty Navy doesn't go far from the only working Jump Gate left in this system, and the Rheinland Military has completely withdrawn. In other words, we're as safe here as we'll ever be.

* We run Synthetic Marijuana shipments from the Corsair base in Simga 13. We used to get them from the Junkers, but things have changed out there... Not an easy run through Hamburg and Frankfurt, but decent profit. We sell it on Freeport 2 for eventual sale to the Xenos and Rogues. Hopefully they won't find out they're getting high by making us rich.

* Our old boss Rheinländische Großspedition 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. In the end, it did them little good. They lost their most skilled workers, and with them, many construction contracts went abroad, to Kusari.

*NOTE: Page generated on the 28/10/2023 at 17:59:46 UTC*