| Ames Research Station | |
| Owner | |
| Zoners | |
| Location | |
| D-4/5, Kepler |
CLASS: Cochrane
GRAVITY: Partial
DOCKING: Restricted
AMENITIES: Limited
CREW: 330
Ames Research Station was originally constructed in 773 AS by Deep Space Engineering, to investigate the strange dark matter clouds that were in the eastern areas of the system, and also to study the dark matter storm that was scheduled to pass through the system in 780 AS As it happened, the storm entered Kepler 4 years later than it was expected to, destroying the old trade lane that passed through the eastern area of the system and rendering it extremely dangerous to travel through. Deep Space Engineering incurred heavy financial losses during the construction of the new lane to the Shikoku Jump Gate, and as a result their operations on Ames were scaled back almost completely to the point of abandoning the station.
Having been taken over by the Zoners through a legal purchase of administration rights in 790 AS, the station was run as a Freeport for decades, serving all manner of pilots. This peaceful, albeit uneasy existence was thrown into disarray by a sharp intensification of the dark matter storm's potency. And while Ames had prepared for such an eventuality, life here still hangs on by a thread.
Bribes & Missions Offered
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Commodities
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Ships sold
| Ship | Class | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Bayonet | Heavy Fighter | 16,158$ |
| Eagle | Very Heavy Fighter | 24,079$ |
| Ceres Civilian Gunship | Gunboat | 956,480$ |
News
| [831 AS/747 AGS] Gate Corps Clash Over 'Blackout'! |
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ABBEVILLE -- 831 AS/747 AGS -- EFL's 'Resilience Taskforce' today reported its findings on The Blackout, claiming to have gathered forensic evidence that proved the cause as Ageira negligence. A spokesperson claimed that the destruction of the Dublin jump gate by Molly separatists had created a hyperspace feedback loop that was propagated and amplified through the Ageira gate network. Ageira disputed this finding in their own press release, calling EFL 'fantasists' and countering that their own scientists had narrowed the cause to a rare 'hypernova' stellar event that originated outside the Sirius sector. Both corporations claim that network-wide hardware safeguards have been implemented that would prevent a similar occurrence in the future. Independent researchers have sharply criticized the corporate announcements, accusing both of self-interested misdirection. Professor Sophia Nagel from Heisenberg Research Station called EFL's accusation 'incoherent' and the hypernova explanation 'nonsense' that did not explain the characteristics of the 'Blackout Pulse'. Despite multiple different Pulse recordings being widely disseminated across the neural net, public efforts have so far failed to triangulate its source. |
| [831 AS] Jump Hole Upheaval Causes Chaos |
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HEISENBERG -- 831 AS -- Jump holes across Sirius have become increasingly volatile and chaotic over the last year, with Professor Sophia Nagel from the Heisenberg Research Station linking the unusual phenomena to the Pulse. The Pulse was an unprecedented blast of hyperspace energy that was detected immediately prior to last year's jump gate Blackout. Professor Nagel and her team are certain the Pulse originated from outside Sirius, but are otherwise no closer to identifying its source or mitigating a future Blackout event. "Following the Blackout, we began to see immediate signs of jump hole destabilization in multiple different regions, with many ultimately falling out of phase alignment altogether", she commented. The dramatic upending of Sirius' jump hole network has already prompted many groups to abandon stations and withdraw from systems that appear to risk being cut off. While months-long trips between the stars are possible thanks to the Liberty Engine and many centuries of innovation, few ships are designed or provisioned to make such arduous journeys. Those who were displaced by Sirius' redrawn map hope that system connections will return, while adventurers and explorers rush to discover new routes. |
| [831 AS] Platinum claim triggers dispute |
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REPPU CLOUD -- 831 -- In a confusing turn of events, Deep Space Engineering, Kishiro Technologies and Samura Heavy Industries have all issued press statements claiming to have discovered the same Platinum deposits in Galileo. Galileo's mysterious asteroid fields have never previously been commercially surveyed due to the presence of hazardous Dark Matter clouds. Each corporation asserts their exclusive right to exploit the Platinum, citing recognised conventions on pioneer rights. DSE has already threatened to sue its Kusari rivals over any infringement, ensuring a costly legal battle is almost inevitable. |
| [831 AS/747 AGS] 'Blackout' Causes Jump Network Fail |
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MANHATTAN -- 831 AS/747 AGS -- Two days ago Jump Gates failed simultaneously across Sirius, freezing commerce and neural net access across the sector. When the network resumed 31 hours later, restored communications broke the news of Bretonia's loss of the Dublin system. This twin shock has plunged the market into chaos, prompting fears of sector-wide economic recessions. Interspace estimates indicate that the stoppage alone caused billions of credits in losses. Gallia immediately accused Liberty of culpability for the outage, claiming the destruction of Dublin's jump gate instigated a cascading failure in faulty Ageira infrastructure. Ageira has sharply refuted the allegation, claiming such a systemic effect would be physically impossible. Independent researchers in Cologne and the Edge Worlds have also announced that a hyperspace pulse of unprecedented strength was detected moments before The Blackout, with data about 'The Pulse' being widely shared across the neural net in recent days. House authorities have remained tight lipped, refusing to comment on their own observatories' data. |
| [830 AS] Troubles in Erie's Paradise |
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ERIE -- 830 AS -- It was the early hours of the morning when a missile was launched from Erie's surface; A missile that struck its target of an LSF satellite in orbit of Erie. The attack was claimed to have originated by militant Zoners seeking to separate themselves from Libertonian governance, and proved to be the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. For some time, it had been alleged that Insurgent and Xeno-backed cells had been stirring trouble on Erie, inciting violence in the population and seeking to turn the planet into a second Veracruz. Never, however, had such open acts of terror been visited upon the governing Libertonian forces. The response was quick and decisive. In coordination with the LSF, Vice Admiral Hamish aboard the Battleship Alma lead a Liberty Navy task force directly into the system in Operation Pesticide, escorted primarily by Siege Cruisers, Gunboats and fightercraft, with many of the Navy's capital warships tied in the Vespucci campaign or ever watchful at Liberty's borders. They were met by Zoner Q-ships based from Bethlehem, with many coming from as far as Galileo or even the Sigmas, accompanied by a motley assortment of freelancers and other anarchist elements. Leading the Zoner line was a Aquilon-class carrier, the Pinnacle. While the Pinnacle came under heavy bombardment from the Alma and her task force, supplies quickly gathered onto Zoner transports from Erie attempted to run the Navy blockade. While some transports were lost to Navy bombers, others yet escaped to parts as of yet unknown. This 'victory', however, came at a heavy price. The Pinnacle was lost with most of her hands still on board and the rest captured, while the Liberty Marines landed virtually unopposed, quickly securing population centers for both the safety of Libertonian assets and the civilians on Erie itself. The Alma is settled now into the low orbit of Erie, a constant reminder to those below that they are under the protection of the Liberty Navy. A comfort to some, a dire warning to many more. |
| [830 AS] Victory Over Veracruz! |
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OHIO -- 830 AS -- An announcement by the Liberty government today unilaterally declared victory over the once-Insurgency as the LNS Ohio settled into high orbit over Veracruz last week. The Battlecruiser Triton, the infamous warship that felled the Delaware, was left as little more than debris burning through the planet's atmosphere that now rests in a crash site located on Veracruz's smallest continent. Over the last few days, Archer-class siege cruisers have been deploying their massive coaxial cannons to suppress military infrastructure on the planet, systematically targeting the very last bastions of the Insurgency. First to be destroyed were the planet's few remaining ground to space weapons installations, quickly crippled by bomber strikes from the Ohio herself, before the remaining desolate ground defences and deserted infrastructure were reduced to rubble, their populations having already long fled the world. A small service was held on the Ohio as the bombardment drew to a close in memory of Rear Admiral Dylan Brandt and those thousands of sailors and marines who had given their lives in the name of Liberty; fought their own lost brothers-in-arms so that others may not live under their misguided yoke, and many more who had their lives irrevocably changed as a result of the evils the campaign sought to end. The announcement also confirmed identical monuments to the Insurgency campaign would be erected on every world in Liberty, from Planet Houston to Planet Erie, each monument an obelisk carrying the names of every serviceman lost in the conflict and serving as a reminder that Liberty is stronger when it stands together. |
| [829 AS] Battleship Delaware lost In Vespucci: Part II |
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LOS ANGELES -- 829 AS -- Navy pilots fought in a heated scrap with many of their former comrades-in-arms as a fearsome shroud of flak rippled around the great Battleship Delaware, several trails of explosions snaking towards myriad bombers and torpedoes swarming the vast Mitchell-class. Delaware herself launched volley upon volley of anti-capital torpedoes at the Insurgent Battlecruiser Triton, whose own flak screen was considerably weaker than that of the Battleship. The missiles found their mark, but the battlecruiser retained its hull integrity as the Insurgents' one advantage in fighter superiority began to shine through. Torpedoes and antimatter cannons landed hits on the Delaware's vital flak batteries as they went silent, one by one. Admiral Brandt was heard to give the order to abandon ship right as the ship's hull could take no more and began to be torn asunder, with hull breaches on multiple decks. Tragically, the armored engines of the Delaware had suffered a great deal of damage, and as the armor and shielding was whittled away, vast quantities of radiation and superheated gas began to flood into the crew compartments of the vessel. In an emotional announcement, the Liberty Navy officially stated that they consider the Delaware to be lost with all hands, including Admiral Brandt himself. No life pods could be secured in the heat of battle, with the remainder of the Delaware's escort making a fighting retreat back to the LNS Ohio which had herself been caught lagging behind the Delaware's doomed thrust into the heart of the Insurgency. The Ohio now remains with her own escort, augmented by survivors of the Delaware's battlegroup, and will continue as the Liberty Navy's bastion in the Vespucci system, ready to ensure that the Insurgents pay dearly for the toll they have extracted upon one of Liberty's finest Admirals. |
| [829 AS] Battleship Delaware lost In Vespucci: Part I |
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LOS ANGELES -- 829 AS -- The state-of-the-art Delaware was the tip of Liberty's spear in the Kansas system; it was from here that the charismatic RAdm. Dylan Brandt commanded the fleet that secured the system from both Rogue and Insurgent elements. But now, he sought to strike a crippling blow to the Insurgency in their very home, an attack to break the back of the movement and stand as a warning to those who would stand against Liberty's unity. Leading a fearsome line of some of Liberty's most advanced warships, the Delaware bore down on the Insurgency's remaining, cobbled-together fleet in the Vespucci system, out of position from dealing with a Bretonian thrust from Magellan. Immediately caught was the Battleship Vanquisher, one of the scant few Arbiter-class Battleships available to the Insurgents. Caught by itself, the Vanquisher put up a fearsome fight but was ultimately unable to stand against the Delaware and its escort, despite its fighter component dealing severe damage to much of the Delaware's own, smaller fighter contingent, as well as the Delaware herself. With the great Arbiter all but vanquished, the Interdictor-class Battlecruiser Triton stared down the guns of the damaged Delaware and her escort. Outnumbered two-to-one, and outgunned to an even greater degree by the Libertonian heavyweight, Triton and her escorts launched their one and only advantage, their fighter and bomber superiority gained at the Vanquisher's expense. |
| [828 AS] Kepler Reopened |
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AMES -- 828 AS -- In line with Ageira's prediction prior to 801 AS, the darkmatter storm makes an appearance after nearly two decades and no doubt sets the cosmic standard for being fashionably late. Presenting the potential for cataclysmic damage to personhood and proprety prompted Ageira to shut down the gates leading into the system, as well as the respective trade lanes. In the time since then however, Ames has relayed a stunning report that the storm despite being violent at first, has now settled into quite a passive albeit looming stance over the system. Perhaps more surprising than even this is the phenomena regarding the storm's interactions with the established lane and gate network in the system, seeming to bend and contort around the structure rather than engulf them. This stellar formation has produced the spatial equivalent of a tunnel that travelers into the freshly reopened Kepler have taken to dubbing the "Murky Road", prompting a small degree of sensationalized tourism into the system. Which comes as a small positive after the harsh loss of the otherwise frequent traffic. This news comes at the tail end of previous publications that cited the storm as having origins in Alberta, supposedly arriving via some form of leakage through the jumpholes in the system. Newer research has allowed for discoveries which now suggest the contrary and this has in turn reinvigorated research into these storms and their enigmatic natures. |
Rumors
| Bounty Hunters Guild |
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| Zoners |
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| Lane Hackers |
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| Universal Shipping |
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| Xenos |
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NOTE: Page generated on the 07/06/2024 at 15:55:47 UTC