Dublin to New-London jump gate wreck,
rumored to be the catalyst to the blackout.
[835 AS] [OPINION] Privatization of the stars
[835 AS] [COMMUNITY] Saverne announces formation of 'Volunteer Engineer Corps'
[835 AS] [PARAMILITARY] Butchers of Crete shown the line!
[834 AS] [COMMUNITY] Bielefeld labor unions motions to seek increased production with station council.
[834 AS] [PARAMILITARY] Networking with allies, from Saverne to Wolfsburg with ship maintenance
[834 AS] [DM RELEASE] Hamburg University Blast, Imperial Shipping corporate interests moving to xeno-technology
[833 AS] [COMMUNITY] Klaxon accepted into Platform anarchist federation
Privatization of the stars)
Bruchsal Base - Frankfurt:
Humanity is upon the stars, this has been the reality of the situation since the ages of Sol, but do we really control the journey that some of us set ourselves when going faster-than-light? Sirius only a few years ago felt a 3 day freeze on normality, system-to-system FTL transit under Ageira and EFL networks became inoperable, state and independent economies were halted and people faced uncertainty if the network would reestablish itself. So why did these tried and true methods that have been entrusted to these corporations fail?
Blame was thrown, governments investigated potential causes, but 3 days later the networks returned to normal and we were all told that life would return to business as usual... So the short answer is that we still don't know why. But the poor paid the price. Subsidies & bailouts made by the tax payer fell right into the laps of executives responsible for their distribution, leaving what stipend that workers received barely covered their essentials along with rising prices due to inflation; both of which are still blamed using the blackout till this day. Corporate executives report record profits, productivity and higher bonuses paid to themselves for those better stock market numbers. Meanwhile food stocks were rationed in markets across Sirius to prevent over buying, but that wasn't an issue if their luxury counterparts were still rich in availability if no one else could afford to be a customer in their market. It took less than a few months before everyone acts like they forgot the whole ordeal... But how did it get this way?
Jump space capabilities were and are still majority owned by a single corporate entity with a proprietary gate network, Ageira Technologies. This has been the status quo since 140A.S. and is layered under protection policies by the state of Liberty that has ensured that the general population of Sirius have still yet to learn what they entrust their lives upon as (for many) their only choice through space. Until now... Kishiro Technologies from the empire of Kusari have gotten enough attention from both the mass press media to the underground network data miners alike, some speculate large developments are underway that has many questioning Kusari's funneling of financial support into public works funding with dead-end details that has many people investigating with suspense, but no more compared to Ageira. Kishiro have certified themselves as a threat to Ageira's market dominance, and as such the responsibility for retaliation now falls on the Corporate Republic of Liberty. Hostilities between the state have risen, embargoes have been enacted to choke each others industries and each side is likely already taking part in covert espionage. Although this has been seen before in Rheinlands territories but was again largely forgotten about.
Liberty had retaliated against Rheinland's Old-imperial government for the forceful nationalisation of the gate and lane network during the 521A.S. agreements, this saw Interspace Commerce cede ownership of the network to the Kusari and Rheinland governments. Ageira claiming full intellectual and physical property rights of the network protested the Rheinland government and their public security interests, successfully lobbying the Libertonian government to threaten trade embargoes along side Ageira's independent boycott of conducting any further new business contacts or quality-of-life services in return, this resulted in economic instability as maintenance of these networks would have been left to old-imperial services that were unable to obtain maintenance instructions, design documentation or service training as this was all locked behind patients and policies. Whilst an agreement was struck to allow the nationalisation of the network, certain parties were enshrined in Rheinland law the sole right to transport these gate and lane parts, unsurprisingly it was majority held by Liberty corporations.
EFL gate constructed in Sigma-15 for the Federal Republic of Rheinland,
further gates were constructed under the Federal and Imperial government for Frankfurt and Cologne.
EFL, a faster-than-light infrastructure engineering corporation from Gallia had opened their doors to the only Sirian House that did not enact full trade embargoes to the Royalist kingdom following the Gallic invasion of Sirius, largely due to Rheinlands location away from the war zone. Rheinland in the background were already deciding on looking elsewhere for future businesses, and EFL via their vassal of Kusari had gained a vector into the Sirian market. Ageira had already come to an agreement to maintain services with the Federal Republic of Rheinland, at the same time, EFL were willing to honour a similar and agreeable position at a cheaper introductory rate. Ageira now had to face a viable market competitor, something it had to never contend with ever before in its history. But even with a more direct route from the Industrious Champagne via the Zurich & Cologne, the same restrictive privatized behavior is displayed by EFL, and has again been enshrined in Rheinland law for the strict non disclosure of these public essential means of transport and logistics.
But alarms weren't ringing too loudly just yet for Ageira, Rheinland was the only viable market for the deployment of EFL technologies, Kusari during its occupation were unable to fund new infrastructure projects and relations had soured following the ejection of Gallic forces from their territories after their emperors reintegration to form its current government. Kishiro will most likely take the same route as Ageira in terms of restrictions on their knowledge and distribution, Kusari's interests would consider this technology a breakthrough for retaining sovereign power as the Keiretsu already have a culture of strengthening inner family politics and enterprises in conjunction with state government function.
Bretonia was constantly facing onslaughts from Gallia during and after the invasion and had ferociously decided to scuttle the EFL infrastructure that supported Gallia's occupational forces, as a brazen sign of rejection to any Gallic inclusion in future Bretonian domestic policy following the unforgivable glassing of Leeds. This assured the status of persona-non-Grata in the involvement of any sensitive state infrastructure projects for the long term future.
As such, Ageira has still enjoyed a majority dominance in Sirian lane and gate infrastructure. And even with the inclusion of a second competitor to the Sirian market, the potential market for expansion is limited as colonies across Sirius face a time of recuperation following major multi-system conflicts, benefiting Ageira as they've secured multiple reconstruction contracts for damaged and destroyed networks like those in Omega-11. But with Kishiro's recent activity causing eyebrows to finally raise on another potential competitor, we may see Ageira beahvour become more cut-throat in the overt market, and lobbying and corporate underworld.
So where does that leave us...? The ones who use it to live, survive, and depend on its functionality on a daily basis?
Dallas experimental jump gate in Texas, with a visual stellar anomaly still occupying the center after its explosion in 500A.S.
There's an illusion of choice, because the public are not the one who own the arteries of economies. Our travel and data are under the whims of corporate decision as state and public organizations meagerly ask for their rented networks to be maintained at the expense of extortionate costs, corruption and nullification of peoples freedoms. Ageira, EFL or Kishiro... They're the same reality with a different name,until FTL becomes open source, there is no open space. Rheinland has still yet to become a technological giant but it with Bundschuh reports of Imperial shipping meddling in Xeno-Technological experiments on Hamburg causing a deadly explosion, one can only guess what may develop following rapid advancements in Sirian technology in the past decade, even if its to finally topple market dominance of a long hated rival entity.
Whilst corporate control of this networks jump gates are unarguably in the hands of private oligarchs, is the network it runs through established by these executive elites? Independent researchers across Sirius are still trying to decipher the workings of Jump-space now that concern for their function is widespread amongst the public. Many deep space parties by circumstances ops to use natural jump hole anomalies around Sirius, these have provided lifelines to colonies who don't have the infrastructure or finance means to construct gate and lane networks but are at the whims of the movements and collapses akin to natural jump-holes, and this situation has only worsened since the jump network blackout as new jump-hole collapses are being reported at a record rate. While the likes of Ageira and EFL have established hubs of transit and take huge measures to find suitable jump network routes between systems... 'Who laid the road'?
Will we ever know the health of our transit networks? That depends if an organization, or even a single person, decides to release the knowledge or the means to finally make accessible FTL travel and beyond a truly shared reality. Corporations are fixated on profiteering as much as possible from the deteriorating network without us knowing if its costing lives with reports of ships vanishing via gate networks. Until the engineers of the people can obtain the necessary knowledge to produce our right to travel and the understanding of the jump network, even if its to spite these monopolies, then any future chance for travel and the failure of the network forever lies in the hands of the corporate elites.
This isn't a conspiracy theory, this is asking a question that even I don't know the answer to, but what I am assured of is that our current methods are neither sustainable or ethically correct.
We face an uncertain future to the security of our freedoms in the stars.
- "Seven of Swords", Civil engineering ethics writer
Democracy flourishes beyond words.
Press office is sponsored by Platform 'amplified press initiative'.*
Comments
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Damn you Federalist writers and damn the Bundschuh. We lost Rho because you lot had a bone to pick with some poor Gallic contractors and shot up the gate! Workers! Not some overfed college students! You destroyed the only safe route to the Omicrons, and for what? A notch on your belt? At least the corporations give us a home out here. And you forced us out of ours!
Must be a slow news week if we're getting an editorial. At least the ads are not in your face. Gewerkschaftspresse should do some real journalism and check on all the currently unemployed Unioneers who were forced to eat medicated synth food back in the day. About time people stopped espousing Sol ideologies and solved some real problems.
![[Image: Leeds-gate-wreck.png]](https://i.ibb.co/pj4SJQZV/Leeds-gate-wreck.png)
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