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A summary of the important events reported on by the Traveller's News
Service during the year 1125 IY.
EXETER/DIASPORA (2729 B769895-F) DATE: 063-1125
Officials of the Exeter Federated Shipbuilders today announced the establishment of a
new program to ease the burden of commerce raiding that has plagued the war-torn Diaspora
Sector. The naval architects of Exeter's several noted shipbuilding firms will cooperate
in creating sets of standardized, simplified plans for the conversion of commercial ships
to military purposes, which will be distributed throughout the Diaspora Sector, but
without the usual architect's fees attached.
"People and organizations should be aware of this project so that they can take
advantage of it, and it's crucial that they are aware that there is no additional cost
involved to using these plans," said spokesperson Andelin Taro. "The use of
these plans should allow savings from standardization which will permit the optimal use of
this Sector's already strained resources," she continued.
When asked how Exeter's yards could afford to distribute these plans, which will create
business for competing shipyards, Taro explained, "We can't afford not to. The trade
situation in this Sector must be stabilized. The destruction of existing shipping does not
create a greater demand for the construction of new hulls. On the contrary, it destroys
any ability to generate the money to pay for new construction, and that's bad for
everybody, because there is no trade."
In addition to simplifying the arming of existing vessels, this program will encourage
the completion of surplus incoomplete starship hulls as military vessels for use by local
governments and starmerc units. A number of hulls have been left uncompleted because of
the bankruptcy of their original buyers, and because they are unsuitable for the dangerous
environment currently characterizing the Diaspora Sector. Typical of these are the over
two dozen unfinished Type M Liners throughout the sector, conceived for a peacetime
market, now abandoned in the face of the continued factional raiding and piracy.
The Federated Shipbuilders hope to have the full set of plans available in six months.
They will then be distrubted to all worlds requestingthem, with the only cost being that
of daa shipment expenses to the destination world. [Challenge 61]
VLAND/VLAND (1717 A967A9A-F) DATE: 157-1125
Zirunkariish today published its eagerly anticipated biannual report on the acturial
state of the Imperium. While many observers were hoping that the massive megacorporation
might have been able to statistically identify the beginnings of some positive trends, the
news was accompanied by an announced raising of insurance rates by the giant Vilani
megacorporation.
The most sobering portion of the report was the extensively doicumented estimate that
Imperial mercantile shipping experienced an 18% drop in aggregate tonnage during the
period 001-1123 to 365-1124. These figures are in spite of the shipbuilding rates during
the period, and show the maintained ferocity of the Rebellion.
The figures are thought to show another trend as well. In terms of total number of
merchant hulls, the numbers only dropped 14% during the same period, showing that larger
high-value merchant hulls suffered in proportion to their size, not their numbers. This is
believed to reflect the rising effects of piracy, because pirates pick their targets based
on percieved value and risk. Commercial losses due to general warfare during the Rebellion
have not shown this bias toward destruction of tonnage. Instead, tonnage and numerical
losses were within 1% of each other during the first six years of the war. The term
"hulls" in this report is a specific term used by megacorporate insureres
Zirunkariish and Hortalez et Cie to refer to spaceships and starships together, rather
than the distinguishing term "ships" which refers only to jump-capable
starships.
These loss figures were not the worst ever; that honor belongs to the 21% tonnage and
22% hull number drop in the 1119 report covering the period 001-1117 to 365-1118. However,
these record figures are artificially high because the shipbuilding rates during that
period had not built up to full mobilization levels. In fact, this years' figures are
quite bad enough to have prompted Zirunkariish to announce a 20% increase in starship
insurance rates. The reasons cited for the increase are the increased risk of loss,
reduced overall revenue base, the fragmented political structure preventing accurate
assessment of risk or enforcement of payment, the rise of piracy, and the decrease in size
of the average ship resulting in reduced economies of scale and capacities for
self-defense.
These rate increases are of a similar magnitude to those that Hortalez et Cie is
rumored to be studying. [Challenge 61]
ANAXIAS/DELPHI (1724 A253A85-D) DATE: 171-1125
Margaret's government responded with concern today to increasing reports of planets
whose published world profiles do not correspond to the realities found there. Margaret's
officials, citing the danger of such "surprises" to the safety of Imperial
citizens, will make a formal request of the Travellers' Aid Society Statistical Office,
responsible for establishing and disseminating these profiles, to look into these reports.
Reports presented include worlds whose starport capabilities do not live up to their
assigned codes, and planets where locally available technology is beneath listed levels.
The examples cited are all worlds in areas outside of Margaret's defended frontier, areas
being increasingly referred to as the "Outlands" and the "Wilds." It
is considered likely that the effects of warfare in these areas have caused these changes,
and this theory will be included in the request to the TAS.
The TAS will be asked to check into the accuracy of these reports and, if they are
found to be true, establish a method to ensure accurate reporting of actual planetary
conditions in future publications of world profiles.
Most of the reports cited only inconvenience to the travellers themselves, but in some
cases merchant ships found themselves stranded on worlds which, unreported in the world
profiles, could no longer provide fuel services or starship repair and maintenance.
[Challenge 62]
EXETER/DIASPORA (2729 B769895-F) DATE: 210-1125
Exeter's Federated Shipbuilder's, this world's largest trade organization, will close
its doors for the last time today, citing its continued existence as
"superfluous." This follows the closing last week of Exeter's two largest
shipbuilding and repair firms, Kearny Yards and Exeter Shipbuilding and Repair. However,
the organization will be survived by a core group of naval architects functioning as the
EMMC Office.
The EMMC (for "Extemporised Mercantile to Military Conversions") Office is
named for the project that it is working to complete, announced by the Federated
Shipbuilders on 063-1125. The project calls for the creation of a set of plans which will,
when complete, form a standardized set of plans for the conversion or completion of
merchant hulls to military standards. The project's name reflects the increasing emphasis
given in the plans themselves to the use of standard "off-the-shelf" items
available at most starports, rather than specialized components that must be imported.
It is still intended that these plans will be widely distributed among the remaining
viable shipyards in Diaspora Sector, free of charge, when they are complete. [Challenge
62]
TRIPOLIS/VERGE (2612 B885A98-E) DATE: 263-1125
A goodwill visit to the restive world of Tripolis by Lady Isis, daughter
As part of her tour "to show my father Dulinor's solidarity with you during these
difficult times," Lady Isis appeared with the Shaw Hamet, Tripolis head of state, at
Sirle Downport. While speaking there, an as-yet unknown number of rioters appeared and,
after shouting, "Down with Dulinor," and "Dulinor has brought back the Long
Night," began throwing objects, apparently including bottles, garbage, and small
fireworks at the dais.
Lady Isis, though unhurt, threw herself to the ground to avoid being struck. At the
same time, some of the fireworks thrown by the crowd began to go off. Although they were
themselves harmless, their reports as Isis fell to the ground caused her personal
detachment of bodyguards to conclude that she had been fired on by the crowd. One or more
of the high-strung bodyguards returned the supposed fire into the crowd with plasma
rifles, eventually killing at least 20, reportedly including many bystanders.
The crowd panicked, and many fled the scene, trampling and injuring several dozen more
in the process.
The only photograph of the event, taken by an unknown photographer at long range, shows
Lady Isis with a horrified expression, and with her hallmark fashionable gown spattered
with some foreign substance. While some claim that the substance is blood, acquired when
Isis waded into the crowd to comfort injured bystanders, others maintain that it is
refuse, and she is angered at the damage done to her wardrobe. [Challenge 62]
ANAXIAS/DELPHI (1724 A253A85-D) DATE: 311-1125
The Travellers' Aid Society Statistical Office today presented to Margaret's government
its report on world profile information published in TAS materials. This report was made
in response to a formal request by Margaret's government that the organization look into
recent accounts of TAS-published world profiles that did not accurately reflect current
conditions on several worlds. The report was filed in the remarkably short time of 140
days, reflecting, in the words of TAS official Eneri Kraus, "the importance of
ensuring the safety of not only our members, but of all travellers in Imperial
space."
The report shows that many worlds show a degradation in starport capabilities,
sustainable technology levels, and in some cases, population and atmospheric qualities.
The report was clear that in all cases of variance between published figures and reality,
it was the conditions on the world that had changed, and not the result of misprinted or
mistransmitted world profiles. "What we are seeing here is a very real and tragic
decline in the quality of life of Imperial citizens that is so precipitous it has
overwhelmed our ability to document it in a timely fashion," said Kraus after the
presentation.
The report establishes and documents that these changes are all direct or indirect
results of Rebellion combat, and are concentrated in disputed areas between factional
boundaries that have seen high levels of combat. Merchants operating in these areas have
been to distinguish between "Outlands," those areas just beyond the defended
factional frontiers, and the "Wilds," that remain in the much contested no-man's
land between heavily engaged factions.
Having identified the astrographic regions that hold the highest probability of rapid
world profile change, the TAS can now concentrate field agents in these areas to report
changes in world profile codes as quickly as possible. A new system of world profile
notation is being introduced, which will show changed digits with Italics, and a
question mark (?) for values that have changed or are changing so rapidly they cannot yet
be evaluated. [Challenge 62]
VAHANA/DIASPORA (2926 E65A5??-B) DATE: 325-1125
Six months of sporadic fighting on Vahana is now coming to a close, with an apparent
victory for the popular Mericulture Directorate over the so-called Interim Council. The
Interim Council, composed of retired military officers, took power following the fighting
that destroyed Vahana's starport. Although it repeatedly promised economic programs and an
orderly succession of power, the council spent over a year in power delivering only
increasingly bombastic demands for belt-tightening and self-sacrifice from Vahana's
citizens. That year also saw a sudden decline in the population's health and living
standards as distribution networks broke down under the council's interference.
The end of fighting follows a brilliant and almost bloodless island-hopping campaign
fought mostly by Vahanan volunteers, but led and master-minded by an off-planet mercenary
unit. The unit was recruited for this operation by ex-Imperial naval officer Robert R.
Rivera, who was hired by the Mariculture Directorate to remove the council. The defeat of
the council will clear the way for the directorate's program to reestablish planetary
trade networks and restore interstellar trade by creating a "soft" (water)
landing starport facility. The directorate also seeks to establish alliance ties with
nearby worlds, and the elimination of the insular Interim Council will open the way for
these plans.
The campaign to overthrow the military government is notable because of the lack of
casualties suffered by either side. This was a deliberate goal of Rivera's force, which
used technologically sophisticated maneuver tactics to overmatch and overawe its
opponents. Rivera appeared yesterday with his second-in-command, Lisa Marlene, to discuss
these operations at a brief press appearance. When asked how she felt about the campaign's
low casualties, only 83 killed and 349 wounded on both sides in six months of operations
that saw over 20,000 prisoners taken, Marlene replied, "We don't feel good about
casualties, no matter how low the number. But it is gratifying to know that we kept
them from being any higher." Rivera added, "Every life that we take, every
building we destroy, will make recovery from the Rebellion that much harder. Killing more
people isn't the answer." Rivera also announced that his mercenary unit will remain
together under the name Rivera's Vigilantes [Challenge 62]
Traveller News Service is another Imperium-wide benefit of membership
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TNS - 1125