| Willard Research Station | |
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| Owner | |
| Liberty Navy | |
| Location | |
| D-6, California |
CLASS: Bingham
GRAVITY: Complete
DOCKING: Yes
AMENITIES: Limited
CREW: 340
There are few research facilities in Sirius as mysterious as the rocky white fortress that is Willard Station, hidden within the misty depths of the Tahoe Ice Cloud in the California system. Liberty Security Force transports frequent the station, although their contents are always shielded from scanning, and the Liberty Navy are careful to keep the inquisitive and the insane away from the station, either by the expedient of making verbal demands to withdraw, or simply allowing their massed energy weapons to do the talking for them.
Much of the research at the facility is classified, though since the highly publicised attack on Willard in 800 AS by a seemingly "rogue" Rheinland Military battle group, security has been further tightened with additional weapon platforms and patrols. It is known, however, that artifacts of unknown origin are researched here, although where they come from is anyone's guess.
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News
| [832 AS] Cardamine Withdrawal Epidemic! |
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MANHATTAN -- 832 AS -- Reports of Cardamine withdrawal-related hospitalizations have surged to unprecedented levels, with a specific hospital on Planet Manhattan recording a staggering 450%% increase compared to the previous year. A growing number of addicts are seeking emergency medical care, apparently unable to obtain their regular dose of the highly addictive drug. Symptoms of withdrawal rapidly progress into severe sickness, pushing many of these individuals into critical condition. While this troubling trend is observed throughout the Sirius colonies, Liberty is bearing the brunt of the crisis among the four major Houses. Remarkably, even Rheinland, where historical data indicated low Cardamine consumption, has witnessed a notable rise in medical cases linked to the illicit narcotic. Experts postulate that the extensive black market responsible for Cardamine distribution might be facing a shortage, or worse, that Outcast factions deliberately curtail the supply to bolster demand. Regrettably, no law enforcement agency has been available for comment on these concerns. The long-standing debate over Cardamine's controversial nature, juxtaposing its euphoric and purported medicinal qualities with the genetic alterations it inflicts upon long-term users, continues to echo. A key point of contention revolves around the plight of innocent consumers caught in this crisis. Yet, according to independent polls, a substantial majority of our viewers maintains that the substance must remain banned. In response to this escalating crisis, Cryer Pharmaceuticals has announced a forthcoming press conference. During the event, the company intends to unveil plans for an expanded production of Stabiline, their touted "wonder drug". This announcement promises affordable access to Stabiline for all patients grappling with Cardamine withdrawal, sparking a remarkable 15%% surge in Cryer Pharmaceuticals' stock following the revelation. |
| [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] Core of an old problem |
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MANHATTAN -- 831 AS -- After a recent leak by an undisclosed source claiming to have loose ties to the Liberty Security Force, Congress has been sent into furious debate following intense public uproar, all in response to allegations that the Core has cooperated with the loathsome Outcasts. These allegations come as a shock and have significantly impacted the investment climate, leading many to reconsider Core stocks as an addition to their portfolios. While the investigation is as of yet inconclusive in its findings, analysts believe that values may not reach their historic peaks again as a consequence of this potential breach of trust. |
| [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] Rampant Human Trafficking Cases on Erie |
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ERIE -- 830 AS -- A scandal rocked Planet Erie's administration when a video recording of Insurgency prisoners, escorted by LPI officers, were being loaded aboard a transport bound for the Edge Worlds, surfaced on the Neural Net. As the Republic's forces maintain law and order on the pacified planet, this leak has undermined their authority, causing waves of public outcry and calls for police reform by both local Zoners and Liberty citizens alike. In the video, a number of restrained people that have been identified as former residents of Planet Vespucci, board a Dromedary-class vessel registered to a freelance trader Vincent Ruthen. They are under supervision from several LPI officers, who exchange words with the ship's crew. Private investigators have trailed the ship, determining that it did not land at its purported destination of Gas Miner Naha in the Sigma-13, instead electing to travel away from civilized space into the Edge Worlds. The people aboard it have effectively vanished from the colonies. This is the latest case in a streak of such disappearances, with investigators estimating as high as ten percent of all inmates thought to be awaiting their trial in LPI internment camps have been covertly shipped off-world for unknown reasons. The fate of these people is yet unclear, but theories range from secret trials to unethical experiments aboard Atka. Outraged by what is apparently an LPI-sanctioned human trafficking operation, protesters flooded the streets and had to be dispersed by police riot control squads. A Liberty Police official has denounced allegations of corruption, stating that "All interned personnel are secured and all prisoner transfers have been done within the framework of the legal code". He refused to comment on the evidence presented, dismissing it as "slanderous fabrication against the good, hard-working officers of Liberty law". Meanwhile, political opposition already promises increased oversight over the law enforcement corporation for the next election cycle. |
| 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. |
| [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. |
| [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. |
| [829 AS] Imminent defeat of the Insurgency |
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MANHATTAN -- 829 AS -- The Liberty Navy has finally published news on its most recent operation, beyond the Pennsylvania system. The Navy has committed two vessels and their escorts to clearing out the threat of the Insurgency once and for all. Battleship Delaware and Ohio have since reported the successful destruction of two major Insurgency installations and report that they assume to see the end of the Insurgency within the year. Admiral Brandt, who is charge of this pacification operation, has stated that the defeat of the Insurgency is not only certain but he expects to come home without major losses. Following this press release, the Navy received record applications for its West Point Academy and the arms market has seen an explosion in investors. If support for the Navy continues like this, experts anticipate a return to the Navy's peak operations of 800 AS. |
| [829 AS] Ontario festers |
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MANHATTAN -- 829 AS -- Having been a longstanding den of criminals and smugglers, Ontario has finally taken a plunge into complete anarchy. The Navy issued a categorical notice of withdrawal and advised all legitimate operations in the system to follow suit, as no further attempts could be made to keep the increasingly expensive operations secure. This comes after heated debates divided Congress for months until the deadlock was broken by an independent economic publication, revealing that revenue was overshadowed by security expenses that were double the amount gained. DSE has officially commented saying that this closure of business is a minor setback to future operations, and that the ultimate prosperity of the market is assured. |
| [829 AS] Fingers in the broth |
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MANHATTAN -- 829 AS -- Liberty's High Congress has passed the recently submitted Organization Categorization Revision Act (O.C.R.A) by a considerable majority. The Act sets out to revise long-standing categorizations of domestic and foreign organizations, which in turn allows or disallows certain actions by Navy and Law Enforcement agencies. It is widely speculated that the recent surge taking place in the Kansas system is related. The oddly self named Insurgency has long been categorized as a "Domestic Paramilitary Organization" that is of extremist political nature, in effect making them Liberty citizens with rights as such. The Act recategorizes them as a "Foreign Supported Terrorist Organization", a drastic shift in political standing. Sources have speculated the move is related to the Bering operation that precipitated the formation of the Insurgency as the root cause of the change in policy. Despite considerable cost both monetarily and in terms of material, the operation failed to expunge the organization to the desired level. The Act comes a considerable spending package for future operations and gives free rein to Liberty Navy admirals to take necessary measures to properly remove the long-standing issue. |
Rumors
| Bounty Hunters Guild |
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| Liberty Navy |
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| Universal Shipping |
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NOTE: Page generated on the 17/11/2023 at 17:48:45 UTC