The North Star Bulletin News [Hokusei no Hödö 北星の報道]
"Disaster Strikes Osaka. Centenary beacon of Kusari industry lost in mysterious incident."
May 12th, Honshu system.
House Correspondent Yarijima
May has been a bad month for people galaxy wide, as a series of disasters keep striking both the Houses and the far regions, reminding Humanity how frail its achievements and ambitions are.
Tragedy struck closer to home this week, as reports came in of the sudden destruction of the revered Osaka Storage Facility, maintained by Kusari giant Samura, in the Honshu system.
The revered station, a beacon of industrial prowess of the House, suffered a critical collapse of yet unknown origin, and was destroyed almost beyond recognition. Few survivors were retrieved from the station evacuation utility pods.
The Kusari State Police has cordoned off the area, and advises traffic to not loiter around and proceed their voyage.
They issued strict order for the wreckage to no be moved by passers-by, while Samura and KSP teams investigate the debree and remove the corpses of victims. Current estimates point out for a number of deaths approaching 90, still far below the expected count on such active station.
The causes remain unknown, and the KSP has so far refrained to voice their suspicions. Meanwhile Samura has already initiated procedures with IC to claim the Osaka base insurance payouts, which according to some sources were last evaluated in January as worth several Billions of credits.
It is unsure at this moment if Samura plans to reconstruct and resume operations of Osaka. Several citizen groups of Planet Honshu and throughout Kusari have pleaded the prefectural government to build a memorial in the place of the Osaka in memory of the victims, and public donations have already acquired several millions of Sirian credits for the cause.
"New routes in the Sigma region open. Opportunities for new business likely."
May 14th, Honshu system.
House Correspondent Yarijima
In other news, several freelancer and corporate reports revealed the appearance of new interstellar connections in the Sigma region, opening new avenues for accessing previously remote systems.
Sources close to the Kusari Government indicated the appearance of several new links in all of the known sigma systems, and the establishment of stable routes to at least 3 systems in the region. Interstellar Charters have dubbed the three systems Sigma-21, Sigma-59, and Sigma-15 respectively.
Sigma 15, the land of Rheinland opportunity.
The Sigma-15 system apparently has been carefully monitored by the authorities of Rheinland, and several Rheinland led projects are visible in the area, including a military outpost, and heavy RM patrols.
Civilian traffic flows mainly to a relatively unknown Freeport 8, which has seen it's customary days of peace come to the end as the media and traffic attention direct their gazes to this seldom explored sectors of the Sigma cluster.
Rheinland government has initiated overtures regarding a potential incorporation of the system to their holdings, with the denomination of [Luneburg] as the official name for the system on Rheinland papers, and the initiation of the colonization project of Planet Hammersee.
Sigma-59, Gas Miners Guild domain of secrecy.
The Sigma 59 system appears according to outside sources to have been for the past years a closely guarded secret of the Gas Miners Guild, who have experimented in their development of the system infrastructures with megalomaniac station designs and massed labour construction policies.
Whether such designs are more than some half assed propaganda campaign by GMG and Interspace Commerce marketing pundits, or whether if labour casualties reached the thousands or were not accounted at all remains to be seen, as our reporters have been refused entrance to the installations and the system corridors itself, an old practice of the ethically degenerate Gas Miners.
Elsewhere in the system, the Bounty Hunters Guild has set up some sort of shop, using some techniques they probably learned from scrappers on their wild adventures. The North Star news has been unable to verify these accounts so far.
Sigma-21, the Sapphire ( of Asia) of the Sigmas.
Lastly, the Sigma-21 system is reported to be the closest to Kusari, and already it's made evident by several resemblances of the traditional Kusari systems.
Our reporter had the pleasure of photographing a beautiful gas giant Hanoi, as well as a aesthetically pleasing planet, that astronomers have dubbed Saigon. Scientists of Kishiro have reported that there is high conditions for colonial settlement on Saigon, and that the Kusari government should consider initiating a House project towards such end, much like Rheinland has begun in the neighbouring Sigma-15/Lunenburg system.
The centre of the sector is dotted with an asteroid field, orbiting the twin suns that make this system one of the most memorable of the Sigma cluster.
Government officials has so far declined to issue any statements on the matter of the "new Sigmas", nor to the official but unrecognised
"declaration" by the Gas Miners Guild on their claim of the Sigma region, or the legal application of the Guild oppressive rule on this undeveloped territories.
This is House Reporter Yarijima, signing off.