| Planet Curacao
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- I'm taking a well deserved R&R, compliments of Orbital Spa and Cruise. My patrol saved Orbital's butt last week on the east Trade Lane to the California Gate. A crew of Rogues was about to make off with a Luxury Goods shipment. We saved the day.
- It gets a little pricey here, especially if you've just lost last month's salary in the casino. Oh well, there are always the cheap buffets of Luxury Foods like lettuce and potatoes, none of that Synth Paste crap. Now I know how the rich people of Sirius live. The seafood is pretty weird though. They can keep that.
- I love this place. They have plenty of gambling, great Food, and lots of oceanic fishing trips -- some pretty weird creatures out there. There's a purple wing fish that literally flies out of the water at you when it gets hooked. Have to carry a shield with you at all times.
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| Planet Manhattan
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- Liberty Police, Inc., or LPI, doesn't have the will or the guts it would take to eradicate criminal activity here in New York. It's the Navy that patrols the Trade Lanes along the southern edge of New York; the police won't even go south of Detroit. Let's face it: If crime ended so would LPI, and they don't want that to happen.
- The Navy doesn't have the authority to enter another colony's space without the permission of the government. That's why sometimes if you want to catch somebody you have to hire a Bounty Hunter to do it, as unsavory as that is. Usually Bounty Hunters are just as bad as the scum you hire them to capture.
- Zone-21 is restricted to authorized personnel only. I wouldn't fly my ship too close to that part of space. You might not mean any harm, but the Navy's not going to wait to see. They are just going to kill you.
- The battleship Missouri runs a patrol along the Trade Lanes between Zone-21 and the Badlands. That's as dangerous as you are going to get here in New York -- unless you actually fly into the Badlands; then you are just asking to get aced.
- The Liberty Navy is the most sophisticated and well trained of all the navies in Sirius. Liberty's annual expenditures in the budget for naval and military spending are based upon cost estimates for a scenario in which Liberty would be fighting against two other Houses simultaneously.
- If you ever have the cash to purchase a Liberty Elite Fighter, it will have to come from a Liberty Navy base, and having the money to purchase the ship doesn't mean we will sell it to you. You have to prove that you are loyal to Liberty and the way of life she stands for.
- The Outcasts we have encountered in Liberty have been on the east side of the Badlands. We work in conjunction with Bounty Hunters to try and halt the Cardamine flowing into New York. Unfortunately, most infiltrators we've dropped into the Badlands have never returned.
- The Navy sends patrols into the Badlands, where the criminals are smuggling in a large portion of the contraband that enters the system. We have yet to find the Jump Hole they are using, but when we do the citizens of this system will be a lot safer than they are now.
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| Battleship Missouri
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- We know there is a Rogue base in the Badlands. We also know that Cardamine comes into New York through there. The problem is that the Badlands is a big and very dangerous chunk of space; it's not worth the men and ships we'd lose to try and clear it out. Best to just pop them as they leave it.
- The police think they have it tough on the north end, but the truth is the majority of those fat, overworked, under skilled pilots have never come up against real trouble. I'd like to see how long an LPI would last against an Outcast… I'm guessing thirty seconds.
- Zone-21 is a classified area for civilians and any non-military entities; trespass into that area and you are threatening House security. If you try to enter the system and survive the mines, you will not survive the Liberty Navy. There are no exceptions.
- The Navy does more than watch for criminals, we stand guard against any who might threaten Liberty, including other Houses. Our ship, if it ever comes to that, is fully capable of launching an attack outside Liberty space. She's got enough firepower aboard to lead an offensive.
- Ageira's technologies have kept Liberty at the forefront in Sirius, technologically and economically. We guard that corporation's interests like no others. Where would Liberty or even Sirius be if it weren't for the Jump Gate technology that Ageira developed?
- ALG handles all the Toxic Waste that this ship's reactors produce. A lot of the men here don't really care to have Rheinlanders on board this ship, but ALG does take care of our waste. It's better than dumping it in Liberty space.
- The LPI does not enter the Badlands, which is our domain. Patrols generally skirt the periphery of the great cloud. From there we launch probing attacks into the area, looking to intercept and dispose of criminals.
- I keep an Mk 3 Riot Breaker behind the bar here. Not to say I'd use it on a navy boy, but we've got Bounty Hunters aboard who can get unruly sometimes. They tend to quiet down fast when you level some Detroit machinery on 'em.
- The Trade Lanes between the Texas and California Jump Gates are patrolled by Liberty Navy heavy fighter wings. Our presence is mainly to protect the interstellar shipping that passes through our turf, but we also scan ships and interdict smugglers.
- West Point is the training academy for the best of the Liberty officers. My family has put a man into "the Point" for the last six generations. I'm glad to be stationed here in the same system. Sometimes I'll pass a training patrol of theirs in my heavy fighter, and I know those kids have got to be jealous.
- The main objective of this dreadnought is to patrol New York space and keep her safe from any who may threaten the interests of the Liberty government. This ship is one of eleven battleships in Liberty space.
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| Norfolk Shipyard
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- This base is the home of Liberty naval ship construction. In this place the greatest ships are built in all of Sirius. And the best naval officers command them. I served on the Missouri; she's one of Norfolk's finest.
- ALG ships MOX to this facility from Rheinland. If you ever want to ship MOX, you are going to have to be pretty good friends with the people in Dortmund. A lot of criminal factions would like to get their hands on MOX -- it's possible to separate small amounts of plutonium from it.
- The majority of Liberty naval ships protect our shipping concerns in the Independent Worlds. That is where the more dangerous pirates and criminal activities take place. The exception is the Missouri, which is stationed in New York to keep the jewel of Sirius safe.
- The sorties launched from this base are patrols tasked with keeping the inbound Commodities to this base safe so that ship production is never slowed by thieves and pirates.
- Liberty Navy Patrol 27 flew into Badlands two weeks ago on their regular route, and then disappeared without a trace. An extensive search by authorities has not turned up anything so far. The patrol comprised three elite fighters.
- The Bounty Hunters you see here are pretty good; we're near the Badlands and I've seen these guys around before. Usually you only see green Bounty Hunters once.
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| West Point Military Academy
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- We run patrols along the edges of the Badlands and the Trade Lanes leading to California. We intercept Rogues trying to make the run between the Detroit Debris Fields and the Badlands.
- People say the stars hold the stories of those who came before us. I like to think that’s true. There’s someone who guided me, someone who shaped the path I walk today. Their wisdom, their laughter - it’s etched into every choice I make, every leap into the void.
Even now, as I chart my course, I feel them here. Not as a shadow, but as a light, reminding me that no matter how far I go or what I face, I carry a part of them with me. And maybe, just maybe, one day the stars will carry my story too, for someone else to follow.
- The navy sends a patrol wing into the Detroit Debris Fields. There is a lot of illegal traffic moving through there. Criminals use the debris to hide in as they jump from debris field to debris field through Liberty space.
- We teach these cadets the importance of estimation. An officer must never overestimate his own capabilities, or the capability of his men or his ship. Overestimating our forces was the darkest lesson that the Liberty Navy ever had to learn.
- The Kusari-Rheinland embargo was an incident that reminded Liberty that her forces must remain ever-vigilant. We believed our military might to be unstoppable, but we were wrong. Once the H-Fuel stopped flowing into Liberty we could no longer power our attack crafts and had to acquiesce to the demands of the foreign powers.
- Right before graduation the cadets here are sent into the Badlands to kill some criminals. It's the last part of their training, and they go without an instructor. By that point they should be able to handle themselves reasonably well, even if they are still pretty green.
- Outcasts killed some of our boys last week. Our intelligence showed that our training wing's operating area was supposedly unpopulated by Outcasts. Well, Intel was wrong and we lost two cadets. The instructor was able to bag a couple of Outcast ships before they escaped back into the Badlands.
- The recruits here are good boys from the top families in Liberty. One day they will lead Liberty's military and keep our space safe from enemies.
- I was the marine commander aboard the Missouri for many years. Now they have me teaching these little runts about ship-boarding operations and planetary-invasion scenarios. I miss being back aboard the "Iron Miz." I suppose it's my duty to train whelps now.
- The tactics that the cadets here are instructed in cover all manner of scenarios, from defending our space from foreign invasion to small-operations tactics. The best of our graduates go on to captain dreadnoughts and other capital ships. If they have good, fast-twitch reflexes and lightning-quick decision-making abilities, they might end up piloting a Liberty Heavy Fighter as leader of an attack wing.
- I've been waiting to get into West Point my whole life, but now I don't know if I'll be able to handle it. Last week my dorm mate and best friend died on one of our patrols sweeping the outer edges of the Badlands. Outcasts weren't supposed to come through that area, just Rogues.
- Liberty Navy Patrol 27 flew into Badlands two weeks ago on their regular route, and then disappeared without a trace. An extensive search by authorities has not turned up anything so far. The patrol comprised three elite fighters.
- The navy has secret research stations in the Badlands. I think they are there to study anomalies that occur within the area. Of course it could also be a cover for covert operations there.
- This academy also serves as a supply point for the remote stations within the Badlands. We also carry supplies for the ships entering the system through California that might be running low on Water, Oxygen, or Food.
- I haven't been flying with the Navy for long, and I'm not the most gifted of pilots, so I was surprised when I was transferred to West Point to help teach the next generation of midshipmen. I'm pretty nervous about it, actually, and I asked the Commandant why I was chosen for this position, and their response wasn't what I had expected. They looked at me for a moment, seeming to really think about how to answer, before they finally let out a gentle sigh and responded.
"Rebecca, you're here because you can teach what's important," they said, "Regardless of everything else we teach here, there is only one truly important thing that we teach, and it is the singular universal truth of war. During a war, young men and women die, and there's nothing we can do to stop that." They turned their head away from me, looking at a collection of photographs on their wall, seeming to take in every face collected there for a very long time. "Though their deaths are tragic and regrettable, it's important to understand that those who die did so to protect others, and that to truly honor their ultimate sacrifice we must remember why." I looked at him, my throat clenched so tightly that it was hard for me to breathe, before I finally managed to ask him. "How can we teach that, sir, it seems impossible." His gaze returned to me, his own voice gravelly when he spoke. "If you figure it out, let me know, and you can have my job. Until then, you teach them what you can, and ensure that they do the most important thing of all." "What’s that, sir?" "That we never forget."
- This academy is near the California Jump Gate. California is a favorite hangout for the Lane Hackers. Lane Hackers were former Ageira employees who turned to crime. They're smarter than most of the criminals you'll go up against.
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| Planet Los Angeles
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- I'm on leave from the Yukon. That's the battleship parked in orbit above LA. They gave a group of us some time to recuperate after doing patrols into Cortez. Liberty is a joke compared to the Independent Worlds. The LPI wouldn't last two seconds out there.
- I'm on leave from the Alma. They gave my squadron some time to recuperate after doing a month of combat patrols in Cortez. Liberty is a joke compared to the Independent Worlds. The Liberty Police wouldn't last two seconds out there.
- It's frustrating trying to stop the Cardamine smuggling. All of those rich New Yorkers keep buying the drugs, then they turn around and tell us that it's a big problem that has to be fought. Rumor is that Cryer is doing some pretty hard lobbying back in Manhattan to keep the drug war going.
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| Willard Research Station
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- I'm here to patrol the area and look for Rogues and Outcasts. I have no idea what research they do. That area of the base is restricted access, scientists only. They have some biological quarantine barrier between the labs and the rest of the ship.
- I used to work for the Bounty Hunters before joining up with the navy. I don't fit in too good with these squeaky-clean military types, but I've saved their butts a bunch of times out in Cortez. They need people like me.
- The navy is a great place for someone to move up in Liberty society. We're held in great respect by the big corporations, defending their interests wherever they may be.
- I can't stand being penned up on this rock for weeks. We only see the sun as a hazy apparition most of the time, unless we're on patrol. Those Bounty Hunters get stinky, too. Guess they don't learn proper hygiene in prison.
- This base was opened up in 700 to more carefully study the Alien Organisms that are brought back from the Omicron systems. They figured this field would be a good place to study their interaction with ammonia and methane, which are far more common frozen gases than water in the California system.
- They used to attack this base a lot before we placed a regular squadron on it. We run a patrol through the cloud daily, letting them know who's in charge here.
- Some top-secret folks came in from Alaska last week. All interested in the Alien stuff going on here. Sometimes I think there's a lot more going on in Liberty than I ever imagined.
- The LSF has brought in some of those strange Artifacts to the lab. We never heard what happened, but I suppose they did some experimenting or something. I never have figured out exactly what the LSF does.
- I hear they got all sorts of bizarre plants no one's seen before growing in a greenhouse down on Level B. They're all sorts of strange orange and purple colors. Cryer's supposed to be interested in that one.
- I heard they had an accident down in the lab last week. Some sort of unknown pathogen released from one of their samples. Guess that's why they keep it so closed off.
- Most of this ice around us is ammonia. Not much help for California's water problems. They mined the Sierra and Whitney Fields for a long time, however. Nothing left there now but some old, abandoned equipment and Rogues.
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| Planet Denver
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- I'm about to turn around and head back out on patrol to the Rio Grande. We patrol the east-west line. LPI covers the two other Lanes out of Denver. Personally, I think they should let us patrol the whole system, leave nothing to those incompetents.
- We nailed a Xeno raiding party in the Copperton Field the other day. It was a turkey shoot. Normally we don't even bother with them that much, but the Kusari government had been raising a stink about Liberty not taking the Xenos seriously enough. It's true, outside of an odd Side Arms shipment, they don't really harass Liberty shipping.
- I'm on R&R from the Rio Grande. That's the battleship out by Gunnison. If we weren't around, those worthless LPI drones wouldn't even bother to patrol the areas they do. We take care of the Independent World patrols, too. That's another story. It's no joke out there.
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| Planet Houston
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- All our patrols originate from the Mississippi. Some patrol the Trade Lane to the Bering Jump Gate, and others fly through the North Dallas Debris Field and along the southern edge of Pequena Negra looking for criminals where we suspect Jump Holes may exist.
- Our battleships have been patrolling this system since the catastrophe with the Dallas. At first we patrolled this system to protect citizens from going into deadly radiation areas caused by the failed Ageira experiment, but now we patrol to curb the piracy in the lawless area of the Forbidden Zone.
- My patrol wing flies through the southern part of the system, along the edges of the South and East Dallas Debris Fields. Our route then takes us along the western edge of the Grande Negra. A ship can only last a few seconds in the dark matter of the Negras.
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| Battleship Arkansas
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- After the Dallas incident this system went to hell. I guess it was a bad idea in the long run to make one system the depository for all criminals within a House and a government test area.
- Somewhere in the Grande Negra Cloud, the main complex of the Dallas Research Station is rumored to still have some relatively intact pieces. There was a lot of Superconductor research there, so some storage containers may still exist.
- One of my ancestors was on guard duty aboard the Dallas on that fateful day. He and everyone else onboard was killed instantly. The ironic part was that the naval commander had recommended the ship be moved to a safe distance from the experimental Jump Gate, so the test didn't begin until they had repositioned the Dallas to twice the normal distance.
- If the Bounty Hunters and LPI weren't so damned easy to bribe, Liberty would have much less crime on her hands. But that's what happens when you hire a corporation to do the government's job, or when dealing with mercenaries.
- The epicenter of the Dallas explosion was almost directly across the sun from us, between those two dark matter clouds. Rumor is that a Jump Hole was formed by the incident. That's when all the crime problems in Liberty started.
- This system used to be the testing grounds for Ageira's Jump Gate projects in the early days of Liberty. After the Dallas got destroyed with about half of Texas, the government pulled stakes and left the system.
- Many of the prisoners aboard the two penal ships in this system are petty criminals who don't deserve the sentence they got, but that doesn't matter to the LPI. They just want workers for their facilities, so they will arrest everyone they can.
- Did you know that there weren't any Jump Holes in Texas before the Dallas incident? The criminals in all of Sirius were helped more than they could possibly know. Texas is the crossroads of the criminal universe. If it weren't for the Jump Holes, we would have crime locked down to nothing.
- In 521, the supply ship Ft. Worth was approaching the Dallas Research Station from Houston when it was caught in the tremendous system-wide explosion that occurred during the failed Jump Gate experiment. The ship was far enough away from the initial blast that some people think it may still be floating out there in the Grande Negra Cloud. The Ft. Worth was carrying a full load of Jump Gate Parts.
- We do the majority of the patrolling here in the system. We are commissioned with curbing the criminal activity in Texas, but it is almost an impossible job. Every time we bring one in, they are releasing two more for time served, and most of them are coming back.
- Once the government pulled out of the system, half the people in Texas lost their jobs. All the money here was government money, and overnight it was gone. Crime exploded three hundred percent within the first ten years.
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| Chadwick Station
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- The Nomads keep getting more interested in the work we are doing here. Lately, there have been several attempts to infiltrate our staff, and the attacks on the stations have become more aggressive. Hopefully, this base is sufficiently well defended to repel these attacks indefinitely, although the navy has stepped up patrols recently to counter it.
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| Battleship Alma
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- I can't help but feel that with the Insurgency now going down the drain, all we're doing here is making more enemies for ourselves. Navy brass says this is absolutely necessary to prevent any future homegrown insurrections from popping up, so what do I know?
- I hope Planetform can thaw that snowball yonder. Would be nice to have a fresh world for the Houston slummers. Houston isn't really suitable for mass habitation anymore, ever since the Dallas project blew up. Impoverished folk can still work the land, unless the land itself becomes sterile. Ageira never payed for any reparations to the planet. Would probably bankrupt them if they were made to.
- Hamish is being really hands on with this operation, and it's putting us all to the test. I'm counting down the days until I get some shore leave, even though I know taking a vacation here as a member of Liberty's forces paints a huge target on my back.
- There's only one lane we need to patrol anymore, and that's the one back to Texas. Sure, we run patrols down to the busted gate too, mostly to keep an eye on it and make sure Rheinland isn't up to something else, but according to the LSF the gates in Hamburg itself have shut down as well, as they were designed to. So instead of a war frontline, this is now a dead end system. Unlike Bering, there's something worthwhile here though.
- All that's left for us now is to make sure that this area stays secure. With the Gates down, Rheinland may not be as big a threat anymore, but the Rogues and Xenos aren't going anywhere. We'll likely be assigned to Atka until that project is done. I suppose they could contract the LPI to handle things here, but they'll argue the system is still being claimed by Rheinland.
- Well, suppose you could call it a victory we've won here, but it feels a bit hollow. Atka is secure, and with Rheinland unable to enter Bering or Hudson, these systems have effectively been ceded to Liberty. But we lost a significant amount of men in Rheinland's trap. A costly victory, without any glory. Hollow.
- I'm not sure if Rheinland even realised they would be ceding these systems to us by sabotaging the gates. You see, all Jump Gates are paired, and have a safety. If for any reason the companion Gate goes offline, a Jump Gate will deactivate itself. This is to prevent ships from jumping into a potential catastrophe. Only Ageira can override this failsafe, and given what Rheinland did to the Hamburg gates, I don't think they'll be in any hurry to do so.
- The pirates in this system aren't really agressive anymore. They mostly keep to themselves, which suits us. We have orders to not pursue too far, just drive them from the Trade Lanes, Jump Gate and the vicinity of Atka. I bet they're making more from smuggling then thieving out there, so they don't want to draw attention to themselves. But smuggling is a police matter, not a naval one.
- I thought for sure the Alma would be tasked to the west. There's been talk about greater support to Bretonia against the Gallic agressors for months now, but instead we have been ordered to hold here and secure the system. Suppose the Admiralty knows best, but what's the bigger threat, a bunch of Xenos and Rogues, or a fullsized invasion fleet barreling down from Cortez and Magellan?
- Suppose none of this is really classified anymore, seeing as it went up in flames. The Dreadnoughts Alma, Concord, Whitefield and Cumberland with support from carriers Logan and Foraker were meant to breach the Rheinland frontier from multiple angles. The Carriers would push into Hamburg and large fighter groups would neutralise any defenders, then Alma and Cumberland would take up position by Alster and Hamburg itself, blockading the system. This would draw forces away from the rest of Rheinland, allowing Concord and Whitefield to breach from the rear, into Bremen. It all went to hell as soon as the carriers tried to jump through both the Bering and Hudson gates. Rheinland had rigged them somehow, and instead of jumping, the gates caused a small singularity to form at the jump treshold. Both carriers and the gates themselves were ripped apart in under a minute, all hands lost. Cumberland was also destroyed. The only reason Alma survived was that our captain hadn't given the order to line up for the gate yet, so it was lagging behind the Foraker. Guess he had one of his "gut feelings" again.
- I can't help but feel that with the Insurgency now going down the drain, all we're doing here is making more enemies for ourselves. Navy brass says this is absolutely necessary to prevent any future homegrown insurrections from popping up, so what do I know?
- Hamish is being really hands on with this operation, and it's putting us all to the test. I'm counting down the days until I get some shore leave, even though I know taking a vacation here as a member of Liberty's forces paints a huge target on my back.
- Welcome to the Alma, and to the old front, where the dust is settling now. Rheinland sure pulled a surprise on us when they sabotaged the Jump Gates. Not sure if it was a wise move on their part, but it made our lives a whole lot easier. Invading Rheinland itself would have cost a lot of lives. Not that we haven't had our share of losses - but fighting over populated planets? It doesn't get more messy then a planetary ground war.
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| Battlecruiser Yellowstone
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- Junkers, especially, always know more than is good for them, and until they spill their guts to LPI, they're too valuable to just toss into a cell somewhere and forget about them.
- Occasionally we do have to take some Prisoners to Fort Bush for interrogation before shipping them down to one of the prison stations in Texas.
- Just look around: Liberty fuels the military-industrial complex across Sirius. Without our Superconductors, Boron, and Platinum none of these other Houses could build their fleets. We supplied everything Kusari, Bretonia, and Rheinland needed to conduct their "gunboat diplomacy." We have no one to blame but ourselves. No one but our politicians, I mean.
- Between the criminals that get bagged in this system, and the roudy workers on Toronto, we have a reserved docking space on Sugarland!
- Originally there were plans to extend the trade lane all the way to Fort Severn, but when the Navy stationed Ottawa out here, DSE exercised an obscure clause in their contract and opted out. Apparently the lawyers figured that Naval patrols are more secure than trade lanes. Makes no sense to me.
- Sometimes Sugarland can't process the crooks as fast as we can bag them, so Huntsville has to take the overflow.
- Fort Severn was built to guard the jump hole to Alberta, but then space time had to go and hiccup, and the jump hole has moved further away. Until we can get DSE to send some tugs up here to move the station, we just have to extend our patrols out a little further.
- Don't get me wrong, I don't object to exploiting Ontario for the good of Liberty. Platinum is fairly useful, after all. What I object to is digging it up and shipping it off to fuel foreign expansionist wars.
- This system is going to hell. First the Junkers moved in, followed by the Hackers. Then the Xenos showed up. Soon there won't be so much as an asteroid that isn't corrupted by Liberty's ruling hooligans!
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| Battleship Concord
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- The main objective of this dreadnought is to patrol New York space and keep her safe from any who may threaten the interests of the Liberty government. This ship is one of eleven battleships in Liberty space.
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