Relations between Liberty and Kusari are at boiling point, with the Liberty Navy and Kusari Naval Forces both placed at high alert along the borders. There is significant public confusion about this situation, as neither government is willing to comment on the nature of the "incident" in the Independent Worlds that prompted the buildup. Against this backdrop of paranoia and hostility, another straw is tossed onto the teetering pile.

A devastating Farmers Alliance attack on Deshima Station has been thwarted. They had attempted to replicate the Roppongi playbook to the letter. A hijacked freighter had been loaded with a dirty bomb and sent to dock, with their plan being to set the foreign station ablaze, destroying it and the attached Synth biodomes. However, station operators had learned painful lessons from the atrocity at Roppongi and had implemented stringent countermeasures.

Acting on LSF-provided intelligence intercepts, Guild security officers quickly incapacitated and boarded the Rhino. Several Alliance operatives were arrested, the fissile material confiscated. Before breaking the news of the attempt's failure, the prisoners and payload were spirited away to Liberty and the waiting hands of the LSF, Deshima having little faith the matter would be thoroughly investigated in Kusari.

Following the Roppongi explosion, Kusari had been forced by outrage abroad to launch a formal initiative to curtail Alliance activities. Liberty was chief among these voices, aggrieved by the death of their ambassador and hundreds of citizens during the attack. Despite this, it is widely considered that the KSP and KNF initiative is largely performative, and the investigation intentionally short-sighted. Most significantly, Kusari has steadfastly failed to follow leads on the Alliance's funding or acquisition pipeline for the radioactive material used in their attacks.

Deshima is a step too far for Liberty. Citing emergency circumstances, President Hawthorne has announced a targeted package of sanctions against Kusari for their failure to take basic steps to prevent acts of terrorism against Liberty citizens. She has demanded immediate action to eradicate the Alliance threat altogether. A full embargo on the export of essential Superconductors has been applied - a critical input for Kusari's high-tech industries that are already suffering from the Sirius-wide Gold shortage and associated supply chain shocks. More painfully for Kusari's ambitions, this is one of the few Liberty inputs they are reliant on for their own Jump Drive program.

Outraged by Liberty absconding with key evidence from Deshima, and furious at the painful economic coercion, Kusari has immediately fired back with their own retort. A reciprocal embargo has been applied on the export of Optronics to Liberty. Kusari has demanded Liberty withdraw its sanctions and remove the military forces along its border. Already shipping traffic has begun to back up across both borders as military vessels stop and search merechants. As the news broke, stocks across both Liberty and Kusari plummeted, and commodity prices soared. Bretonia and Rheinland have responded with unease, urging both feuding Houses to come to the table to negotiate.

One thing known for certain is that those goods are still needed, and a captain nimble enough to pick their way through the dangerous blockade can become very rich indeed.

The immediate escalation of hostilities between Kusari and Liberty that many feared and some craved did not come to pass. But while the hawks continue to stew on their bridges and behind board room chairs, the situation if nowhere near de-escalation. Confirmed reports have been brought forward to the clandestine agencies of both Houses about outright destruction of trade convoys, and the heavy-handed blockade enforcement that left many independent hulls drifting dead in space.

As the leaders on both sides of Galileo ponder the situation, magnates who have previously enjoyed a warm relationship with their counterparts continue to curse their masters. While many who are bought and paid for continue peddling de-escalation, most have resigned to the specter of war on the horizon. More aggressive resolutions about the control of Galileo are already being tabled, and only those with an eye for opportunity and healthy lack of risk aversion will come out the winners in the end.

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Players of characters eligible for the Smuggler id. Please reply here or contact @Barrier if the combined deliveries across your characters makes you eligible.

• Galway (665000)
  
• Idris (470278)
  
• Sandriski_Transport (449000)
  
• Trevor.Gills (389498)
  
• Sentient (329401)
  
• NHI-T>Abel_Deacon (306000)
  

Players of tagged factions accumulated the following point totals:
(rates: Longhorn = 280,000 | Supertransport = 60,000 | Frigate = 40,000.) Their leaders should contact @Barrier with the details of their reward, if they are eligible.

• NHI- = 306000
  
• USC|- = 50000
  
• =IT= = 35600
  
• Samura| = 22400
  
• [DSE] = 18845
  
• B|- = 8600