Haute-Seine Shipyard

CLASS: Gaiana

GRAVITY: Complete

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Yes

CREW: 870

Haute-Seine Shipyard was built in 578 AGS by EFL Oil and Machinery, on the site of a small depot that had shipped ice from the Doullens Ice Field. It was one of the first stations built in order to restore the economy of the Picardy system, and the government granted EFL huge subsidies and tax breaks in order to make the facility profitable. Moreover, because the GRN financed the trade lanes in Picardy for national defense reasons, the costs of shipping throughout the system to the shipyard were negligible to EFL.

EFL enjoyed these benefits for over a hundred years, until it was long evident that Picardy's space stations were in no real danger. Growing public outrage over this fact forced EFL into several troublesome corruption hearings in the Estates-General and funding was cancelled circa 680 AGS, though by that time Haute-Seine was already one of the largest facilities for producing civilian ships in Gallia. Today, Haute-Seine still serves as one of main civilian shipyards in Gallia, focusing mainly on the construction of mining vessels and midsized transports.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* Gallic Metal Service
* IDF Shipping

## News

Once a beacon of our national ingenuity, Metz was the site of the experimental Metz Mirror Array, more commonly known as the MMA project. The project was intended to assist the terraforming operations through a sophisticated array of orbital mirrors. The array would redirect additional sunlight onto the equatorial band of Metz, further raising local temperatures on the otherwise icy world.
Decried by its detractors as a "fool king's endeavour", the ambitious project never had the opportunity to prove its capabilities, as the nearly complete array fell victim to Kusari's invasion of Lorraine. With the array gone and supplies severed, the terraforming project and the biosphere it maintained collapsed during the occupation, leading to widespread famine across Metz. Unfortunately, in the wake of King Charles' gambit in Bretonia and the near complete destruction of Lorraine and Languedoc by Kusari forces, the Union government has declared the system a total loss and ordered a full evacuation of the planet.

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.

As a result, most financial institutions refuse insurance for any shipments going to and from the Core Worlds. Even if they do, insurance is so expensive that only a few shippers are able to afford it. As of now, the only efficient way to protect cargo is hiring Gallic Navy escort. Presence of Navy fighters usually scares pirates away, however, the Navy has many other duties to perform. Government promises to increase Police presence in the area, however, increased numbers of Police does not guarantee presence of their ships in the areas where pirates are going to attack. According to the reports from Briancon and Gap installations in Languedoc, some police patrols deliberately avoid patrolling areas where commercial transports are present and where pirate attacks are most likely to occur.
Solar Engineering, the only large space corporation without a significant presence in the Border Worlds, has actually gained profits from the war rather than losses: gaining large government contracts for building up the Core World defenses, its stock value has risen more than 80%% over the last 15 years, an unprecedented rise for any large company listed on the New Paris Stock Exchange (NPSE) for the last four hundred years.

## Rumors

*NOTE: Page generated on the 28/10/2023 at 17:59:45 UTC*