| Battleship Matsuda | |
| Owner | |
| Golden Chrysanthemums | |
| Location | |
| B/C-3, Kyushu |
CLASS: Meiji
CREW: CLASSIFIED
ARMAMENT: CLASSIFIED
The Battleship Himeji, commanded by Chujo Michio Raikatugi, was originally stationed outside Heaven's Gate - an ancient Imperial fortress in the Tohoku system that Governor Tekagi had subverted for his own purposes. The Himeji served alongside a guard fleet led by the Battleships Ishioka, Musashi and Sennan. In 800 AS at the peak of the Nomad War, the Blood Dragons led an attack on the fortress resulting in the Nomad-infested Tekagi's death.
The Matsuda was one of the casualties of this battle. A Blood Dragon bomber wing struck the ship while others distracted its escort fleet. Two torpedoes struck the bridge, killing the entire bridge crew instantly. A third torpedo struck the engine, exploiting a critical design flaw in the Meiji class, and the subsequent explosion crippled the ship. Its crew was forced to abandon ship and seek refuge on Heaven's Gate.
The abandoned ship drifted into an asteroid field, and was assumed destroyed by both the Kusari and Nomad forces it had been a part of. Eventually, Golden Chrysanthemum (GC) smugglers encountered the reasonably intact wreck by chance in 810 AS After a more thorough inspection, the GC decided it was worth the expense of salvaging the ship, and with the assistance of their Blood Dragon allies, managed to repair the engines to the point that it could safely jump.
The ship was brought into Okinawa where it was partially restored over the course of five years, until it could make the journey to Sigma 19 to receive more extensive repairs from the Chrysanthemum's Hispanian allies. Upon its restoration, The Sisterhood re-christened the ship "Battleship Matsuda", in honour of Yuyu Matsuda, founder of the Golden Chrysanthemum movement.
With its sublight engines fully repaired in mid-825 AS, the Matsuda was able to move back into Kusari, positioning itself in the Seiran Cloud to strike at convoys along the trade artery between New Tokyo and Planet Kyushu. While the Matsuda's engines are fully operational, her weapons systems and sensor suite are highly outdated, making a direct confrontation with a modern day Toitsu class or even a well maintained Meiji a serious concern. For this reason, patrols are frequently dispatched to ensure the Matsuda has ample time to flee if ever discovered.
Bribes & Missions Offered
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News
| [833 AS] Relief Convoy Arrives In Kyushu Orbit |
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Today a combination of Samura, independent, and government backed relief vessels arrived in orbit of the storm-stricken Kyushu, setting up a temporary depot in the planet's low orbit to better organise the distribution of relief supplies. Fighting through high winds, freighters deliver construction supplies, emergency generators and other relief materials to where they're needed most. Battleship Matsumoto and its task force remain in the Kyushu system to protect the fragile transports from vultures among the Blood Dragons or Golden Chrysanthemums. Some Farmer's Alliance vessels have even been glimpsed to patrol the routes left largely unnoticed by the wider Naval blockade of the system, and have subsequently been given some leniency by Naval Forces and State Police patrols. While the relief effort is now well underway, criticism has been leveled at Samura for the prioritisation of rebuilding profitable farming infrastructure over the care of the local populations. Spokespeople for the company have repeatedly assured that displaced victims of the storms that continue to ravage the planet are being cared for to the best of their abilities, but that supplies are strained and not all communities are yet able to be reached. |
| [833 AS] Kyushu Faces Rising Temperatures And Falling Profits |
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Kyushu, the key to Samura's monopoly on the organically-grown food industry, has faced rising ocean temperatures lately, owing to a vast temperature surge in the mantle plume underneath its largest ocean. This has been compounded by the resultant eruption of several underwater volcanoes, releasing enormous quantities of greenhouse gases into the planet's atmosphere. Partially as a result of the geological activity, the equatorial monsoon season produced some of the strongest tropical storms ever recorded on Kyushu since its colonisation. These storms devastated the world's agricultural sector as they blew through the most fertile tropical lowlands, destroying as much as 20%% of the planet's annual crop yield, on top of damage to infrastructure and tragic loss of human life. Many rural communities are reported to be struggling, with some farming communities still remaining flooded ghost towns even a month after the worst of the storms abated, though smaller-scale tempests still rage around the equator. A Samura spokesperson outlined the company's intent to restore the planet and its communities to full productivity by the middle of next year, despite the ongoing circumstance. |
| [832 AS] Battleship Matsuda Meets Its Demise! |
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It had long been rumored that the grand Battleship Himeji had not been lost in the Tohoku system as previously thought; That it had been brought back and given a second life by the unlawful elements that are the antithesis of the Kusari state. This rumor had been proven true as the Kusari Office of Intelligence reported movements of a Meiji-class Battleship in the Kyushu system, deploying Golden Chrysanthemum fighter wings that seemed to deliberately target Kusari patrols in the northern part of the system. Immediately upon learning of this, Battleship Matsumoto and its battlegroup were redeployed from Hokkaido, and within two days were poised and ready to face this new threat. Only a short few hours later, a patrol of fighters reported a warship with the transponder reading Battleship Matsuda operating in the relative open, heading for but not yet reaching the relative safety of the Seiran Dust Cloud. Matsumoto itself departed with its escort to confront the Chrysanthemum battleship, close to the edge of the nebula. Within minutes of it coming into sensor range, bomber and fighter squadrons from both sides closed in and opening salvos were exchanged between the battleships. It didn't take long before the KNF's preparation was shown to be well worthwhile; their superior numbers whittled down or otherwise preoccupied the Chrysanthemum's fighter force leaving a variety of openings in the Matsuda's defensive cover for KNF bombers to exploit. While the Matsumoto was withstanding a heavy beating from the guns of its older sister, it was plain that the Matsuda was slowly being whittled away as its shields began to fail and the very same engine design flaws that had rendered it immobile in KNF service were now exploited by bomber wings to once again cripple the warship. After several more minutes, the Matsuda's escape pods began to eject from the ailing battleship, picked up by Chrysanthemum fighters as they fled deeper into the Seiran dust cloud. It didn't take long thereafter for the ship's powercore to falter and fail completely, culminating in a vast explosion that reportedly almost turned night to day on the dark side of Planet Kyushu, if only for a split second. Matsumoto itself sustained moderate damage in the engagement, relatively untouched by Chrysanthemum bombers however still suffering the ill effects of Matsuda's anti-capital weaponry. Despite its damage, it remains deployed in the Kyushu system to continue the blockade of the cardamine trade and to serve as a show of force to any who would challenge the might of the Emperor. |
| [831 AS] Cardamine Shortage Stops Initiations |
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AINU -- 831 AS -- The unfortunate slave uprising on the planet Malta, the home world of our patrons, has led to a shortage of Cardamine for our clients and needs - especially initiation rituals. With an acute chronic shortage of Cardamine, we have been forced to suspend initiation of new members into the Golden Chrysanthemums, and existing sisters have had to make do with smaller doses until this crisis is averted. The Cardamine shortage has taken a toll on the fighting ability and courage of our sisters, who have refused several combat assignments and we have been forced to rely more heavily on the assistance of our allies, the Blood Dragons, who have of course attempted to discourage our sisters from taking Cardamine and some have even insisted on the necessity of abandoning our sacred rituals for situations such as these. The Shikoku system itself, where the presence of our allies is limited to say the least, has been a most difficult situation for our movement. The Lane Hackers have repeatedly been unhappy with our deliveries of Cardamine to Leiden, and our convoys heading to Leiden have also been the target of several ambushes by Liberty Rogues attempting to seize our product. We can do nothing more than wait and pray that the crisis on planet Malta will be quickly averted, and our patrons will once again bestow their Gift upon us as before. |
| [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/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. |
| [828 AS] Birds of a Feather |
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STUTTGART -- 828 AS -- Many ex-LWB remnants took up the Imperial cause during the Civil War, hoping for a government that would expel Synth Foods from Rheinland. They were left feeling betrayed and enraged when these promises were abandoned. Lacking funding and resources, the fighters looked abroad to find support. An unexpected benefactor was found in Kusari’s Farmers Alliance, who fight a near identical battle against the Liberty corporation. The Alliance has provided leadership, funding and resources to relaunch anti-Synth operations in Rheinland as a wing of their own organization. It remains to be seen how this united Farmers Alliance will impact affairs on the wider stage, with the security forces of both Rheinland and Kusari already strained by internal conflict and crime. |
| [828 AS] - Shigeakiki. What is it? |
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AINU -- 828 AS -- A brand new kind of drug enters the market today. This new Cardamine derived stimulant is composed of multiple herbs and chemicals and is designed to enhance the performance of Chrysanthemum pilots during combat in high risk encounters against the Kusari Police and Navy. "This stimulant affects the nervous system which results in heightened senses. This can lead to oversensitivity. One of the most common symptoms is light sensitivity. Darkened visors or sunglasses can alleviate this." says Ishida Morika, a spokesperson for the Golden Chrysanthemum cell that developed the drug. "These, like all effects of the stimulant, last roughly an hour and leave no permanent alterations. The only permanent effect is Cardamine addiction. None of the other components have addictive qualities." Ishida goes to elaborate further and states that "The full formula is a closely guarded secret and shall not be made public." This new drug is currently focused mainly for the Kusari market, but Ishida has not ruled out the possibility of expanding it further. |
Rumors
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| Blood Dragons |
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NOTE: Page generated on the 15/12/2024 at 15:51:00 UTC