Freelancer Houses - The Rheinland

The Rheinland was among the second wave of sleeper ships to arrive in the Sirius Sector, along with the Kusari. The Rheinland eventually elected to make planet-fall in an area of Sirius close to the Walker Nebula and with easy access to the resources required to rebuild the Rheinland nation.

New Berlin Christened New Berlin, the Rheinland's new home was a strange planet with a very slow rotation rate. Day and night each lasted for a little more than a Standard Year, with the "nightside" of the planet being plunged into frigid, bitter winter, and the "dayside" a more temperate summer. Beneath glaciers miles deep, the planet surface was quite warm and in many places dotted with volcanoes and hot springs. Gases produced by volcanic activity combined with the constant thawing/freezing of surface ice led to an atmosphere that tolerably approximated Earth. The crew of the Rheinland faced many difficulties during the first years, but eventually persevered. The difficult living conditions on New Berlin itself encouraged rapid space side expansion. Large numbers of orbital manufacturing platforms were built orbiting the one of the LaGrange points along the orbital path of New Berlin's moon, Potsdam. Over time, they were interconnected and eventually became a single, enormous ring. "The Ring" is recognized as one of the wonders of the Sirius Sector. Operated by Daumann Heavy Construction, the largest and oldest industrial firm in Rheinland, The Ring manufactures everything from engine components and construction machinery to sidearms. The Ring also houses the Oder Shipyards, headquarters of the Rheinland military. In the northern part of the system, at a fork in the Liberty bound Trade Lanes, lay the industrial bases of Essen and Dortmund. Essen, the sole Kruger facility within New

Berlin, is one of the primary users of industrial diamonds in the entire Sirius sector, creating the grinders, crushers, and massive drill bits used by mining ships throughout the universe. Dortmund houses ALG Waste Disposal's large smelting and toxic waste reprocessing center. Here they produce new MOX fuel pellets, basic alloys, ship hull panels, and manufacturing furnaces from the scrap metal and toxic waste of the Sirius Sector. Their most lucrative contracts are in the Liberty systems, where the government has finally realized the benefits of cleaning up all the junk left from centuries of uncontrolled industrialization. Interspace Commerce maintains the Bonn station in the southwest quadrant of the system, which also serves as a base of the Bounty Hunters Guild and Liberty corporations within Rheinland. Junkers are often spotted in the nearby Ruhr Feld debris fields, leading to speculation that they have established one of their bases catering to the criminal element in the area

Stuttgart
The planet of Stuttgart was identified for settlement shortly after the arrival of the Rheinland in New Berlin. Initial surveys indicated that despite being habitable, the high oxygen content of the atmosphere relative to nitrogen on Stuttgart could prove hazardous to any form of large-scale industrialization. However, the planet's biosphere was enormously fertile and hospitable to human habitation. Stuttgart was the natural candidate to be the breadbasket of Rheinland, a role that is has fulfilled since the beginning of the second century. The crops produced there fed not only Rheinland, but increasingly Liberty, due to the declining agricultural fortunes of California. They were also one the primary exporters of gourmet delicacies found nowhere else in the Sirius Sector. All went well until the end of the Eighty Years War.

In a secret deal, the Rheinland government had been forced to borrow significant amounts from the Liberty government to pay for H-Fuel supplies during the war. Unable to make the payments, they were forced to offer something in collateral. Synth Foods wanted complete access to Stuttgart, which they granted, in exchange for the debt being settled.

This decision had immediate impact on the traditional way of life on Stuttgart, so carefully preserved for centuries. Within 20 years, Synth Foods had transformed the planet from an archaic patchwork of small farmers to something more amenable to large-scale industrial agriculture. Forced buyouts and even outright land seizures were common, with the tacit approval of the Rheinland government. The local farmers were eventually forced out by the Liberty food giant. Soon after, they formed the terrorist group commonly known as the LWB, which to this day is dedicated to the expulsion of Synth Foods from Stuttgart

Hamburg
The Hamburg system is the home of Republican Shipping, Rheinland's exclusive shipper for many centuries. Until quite recently, foreign shippers were not allowed to operate within Rheinland space. Republican established outposts and trading stations in the frontier systems with the other houses, where cargo was off-loaded from foreign vessels by the dockworkers union. After the Eighty Years War, Rheinland opened its borders to Liberty and Bretonian corporations, which reduced Republican's monopoly power. It is now considered a matter of time before the three transfer stations are scrapped. The union points to poor management by Republican as the reason for the huge layoffs in recent years.

They also operate the Alster shipyard, which has experienced a precipitous drop in business since the close of the Eighty Years War. The company's relations with the powerful shipworkers union have never been smooth. With the ongoing economic difficulties, thousands of workers were let go. Eventually the unemployed dockworkers and shipbuilders banded together to form the Unioners, a criminal group whose official goal is the overthrow of Republican, although they'll rob and steal from anyone they can. Operating from a base in the adjacent Independent Worlds, they terrorize shipping along the busy Rheinland-Liberty trade route.

Frankfurt
Frankfurt is a politically sensitive system, strategically positioned as the gateway to the gas-rich Border Worlds that lie between Rheinland and Kusari.While possessing tremendous mineral wealth, Rheinland is largely deficient in the key chemical components of H-fuel. This led to repeated attempts by Rheinland mining companies to expand past Frankfurt

most famously in the conflict that came to be known as the Eighty Years War and which had lasting consequences for all of Rheinland. Frankfurt is home to several planets, all orbiting a weak main sequence star. The planets include Holstein, a partially terraformed water planet; Munich, an enormous gas giant; and Stuhlingen, a smaller desert planet with minimal atmosphere. Holstein terraforming efforts ceased during the Eighty Years War for financial reasons. The subsequent economic events in Rheinland have delayed the project indefinitely. However, it does support a Boron salt extraction operation. Republican operates one of their trading outposts in the orbit of Stuhlingen, transferring Kusari goods to Rheinland ships. Kusari shipping companies are not allowed to travel beyond this point into Rheinland, over 120 years after the cessation of hostilities within the Sigma-13 system. Kruger still maintains a synthetic H-fuel extraction plant in Munich's orbit, but its future is in doubt with the looming end of government subsidies that have sustained the non-economically viable operation for the past century. The main criminal faction present in Frankfurt is the Bundschuh, which is devoted to the overthrow of the Rheinland government. Primarily a political group, they do attack shipping on occasion for supply purposes. It is rumored that they have a base hidden somewhere in the asteroid fields.

Dresden
Dresden is the mining heart of Rheinland and key to her power. Tucked into the leading edge of the Walker Nebula, Dresden is a failed solar system that never managed to fully coalesce around the red dwarf at its center. Devoid of planets, it is a harsh and unforgiving place. First surveyed in 92 AS, Dresden was immediately recognized by the Rheinland government as critical to their expansion efforts into the Frankfurt and Stuttgart systems. The Jump Gate to Dresden was completed in 188 A.S. The resulting financial drain required loans from the two largest family firms in Rheinland: Kruger Minerals and Daumann Heavy Construction. In return, they demanded large concessions from the government for several hundred years.
Daumann built a sprawling base named Leipzig near rich asteroid fields containing copper, cobalt, and numerous other strategic metals. Kruger set up a processing facility at the other end of the system, devoted to mining the abundant diamonds found in the Sulfurous clouds to the east. Both companies routinely exploited the miners, ignoring even the most basic safety rules during operations. During the Eighty Years War Daumann's operation flourished, as the Rheinland Military needed a bottomless supply of material to continue the fight. However, the workers received no share of the vast profits generated by the lucrative military contracts. If anything, conditions worsened as managers pressed the workers to produce ever more. Following the war's ignoble end and the dramatic drop in demand for metals, workers were fired by the thousands, with 20 year veterans often receiving nothing more than a one way ticket to New Berlin on a commercial transport.
Conditions were ripe for a revolt. A group of two hundred miners took over the factory control of Leipzig on Von Rohe's Day in 700 AS. The uprising soon spread to Daumann and Kruger facilities around Rheinland, setting off the Popular Revolution. Within two months, the Emporer was overthrown and a new government established. Both Kruger and Daumann were eventually required to pay substantial reparations, and all Rheinland companies were forced to comply with a newly ratified Worker's Convention of Rights. By 720, however, it was back to business as usual. A large group of disullisioned miners decided to take matter into their own hands and formed the Red Hessians, a terrorist organization dedicated to the overthrow of Kruger and Daumann. Within a decade, the idealists in the group had been pushed aside by more pragmatic types who gradually transformed the organization into the most powerful House pirate group in the Sirius Sector. The Hessians are now the among the most feared criminals in the colonies, routinely attacking shipping and even fortified bases within Rheinland and the Omega Border Worlds.

The Walker Nebula Border Worlds
Omega-7 lies deep within the clouds of the Walker nebula, filled with mineral rich asteroids and explosive gas pockets. Not really a system, it's more of a waypoint along the Trade Lane that was constructed from Cambridge to Stuttgart in the middle of the eighth century. The long and dangerous construction process took 20 years, with drifting asteroids an

ongoing problem. Five years after the Trade Lanes' completion, a motley crew of independent miners from Bretonia and Rheinland rehabilitated an abandoned DSE construction site for use as a mining base. They named it Freistadt, a free port operated along similar lines as the Zoner run bases scattered throughout the Border and Independent Worlds. In 760, they became official members of the Independent Miners Guild. Over time, the miners discovered significant pockets of silver, copper, and cobalt. Lacking the facilities to refine the minerals, they shipped much of the raw ore to the relatively new ALG smelter in Berlin. The IMG dominates mineral production in the system to this day, although Kruger and Daumann have recently opened mining operations in higher risk areas off the Trade Lanes. Piracy is an ever present threat in Omega-7. The ongoing attacks by Corsairs and Hessians have led Interspace Commerce to recommend closing the Rheinland-Bretonia Trade Lane unless security can be improved. Little can be done given the complete lack of funding available for Rheinland Military patrol operations. Omega-11 is a dying and dangerous system located at the southern edge of the Walker Nebula. At its heart is a late-stage red giant, a sun grown huge and hot as it begins to burn off the last of its helium reserves in its final death throes. Most of the planets in the inner system have already been consumed in the fires of the Omega-11 solar furnace, leaving only the volcanic planet of Schutz.

Between the sun and the orbital path of Schutz lies the astronomical anomaly known as the Von Rohe Belt, named after the famous Rheinland deep space exploration leader who initially surveyed Omega-11 in 110 AS. Von Rohe theorized that the belt was comprised of the molten remnants of a destroyed inner planet. Rich in diamonds, it has lured miners to Omega-11 ever since.
With the construction of the first jump gate to Omega-11 in 376 AS, commercial exploitation became a priority despite the inherent dangers. Daumann established the Solarius base within the planetary shadow of Schutz, the only area close to the Von Rohe Belt safe from the debilitating effects of the frequent solar storms. Mining the Belt is a very simple process that hasn't changed much in the preceding centuries. Ships make runs to the inner edge of the Belt and literally grab as many of the molten asteroids or loose diamonds as they can before retreating to the relative safety of Solarius.
The system also sits astride the Omega Jump Hole network, so both Red Hessians and Corsairs are frequently spotted in the area. Attacks are common along the tenuous supply line that stretches from Solarius back to the Suttgart Gate. Omega-11 offers great riches, but only to those who are able to take care of themselves in this lawless frontier.