Planet California Minor

DIAMETER: 6,101 km.

MASS: 2.77 x 10e24 kg.

TERRAIN: Arctic/Transitional

TEMPERATURE: -60°C to 12°C

ESCAPE VELOCITY: 6.7 km/sec

First surveyed when the California system was opened up for exploration, California Minor, was a small, icy world with a barely breathable atmosphere. Once considered unsuitable for conventional terraforming, largely due to the frigid surface conditions and overall distance from the sun, surveys did detect unusual geothermic readings deep below the planet's crust.

Previously considered unsuitable for conventional terraforming, in 741 AS, Planetform Inc. designed a new process to channel the planet's enormous subterranean stores of geothermal energy. Despite harsh conditions, the potential for jobs has attracted coarse, manual laborers to its few hospitable areas.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* Synth Foods, Inc.
* Universal Shipping
* Ageira Technologies
* Bounty Hunters Guild
* Border World Exports
* Gateway Shipping
* Planetform, Inc.
* Liberty Police, Inc.
* ALG Waste Disposal

* Planetform, Inc.
* Bounty Hunters Guild

## News

In a case which has gripped the nation, Sorderi's death due to Cardamine withdrawal was ruled "expected and calculated" by Cryer due to the treatment plan presented by them, which Sorderi had followed. The case now moves to the Manhattan Planetary Court.
Sorderi's family has expressed disappointment at the decisions, her mother stating: "This is an endless battle, and we don't have endless ammo! Our girl's dead because of them and they're just going to keep this going forever!".
Sorderi's fans, also known as "Rosebuds" for her net alias "Bloodrose", have vowed to continue fighting and are planning protests before the Manhattan court. Clashes have already been reported in Sorderi's home town of Opera, JN, as police were forced to use tear gas against enraged followers of the star who feel the trial is becoming lost in bureaucracy.

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.

Sorderi had made a name for herself by, among other things, speaking candidly about her Cardamine dependency and her attempts to overcome it by alternative pharmacological means. Though the circumstances of her death remain uncertain, theories abound which implicate the products of Cryer Pharmaceuticals that she had long championed as the future of Cardamine-dependent persons in the colonies.
"Cryer killed our baby!", says father Ernest Sorderi. "They used her as a guinea pig for their unproven treatments, and the reality was a family losing their daughter! We will pursue ALL legal means to find justice for her!"
The Neural Net is awash with an outpouring of sympathy from Sorderi's fans and scrutiny surrounding her sudden death.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

* The air's a little thin here still. I like to sleep in my ship at night. It's warmer and there's more air. Those Planetform people are kind of uptight sometimes. Guess that's how all Bretonians are.

* I made it all the way to the Texas Jump Hole in the Whitney Field yesterday. I didn't hang around for long. Didn't even a take a shot at the Rogues in the area. I'll go back next time with a posse.

* Fastest way to some quick bounties? Head straight for the Trade Lane to the Magellan Gate, around the middle of the Tahoe Cloud. You'll get some strikes pretty fast in that area.

* Heaviest action in the system is by the Cortez Hole in the Tahoe Cloud. You better come in with your guns blazing if you want a chance of going home that night. Been trying to talk a few of my buddies into doing it, but they all keep backing out.

* The Planetform folks let us use their site as a forward base for our operations in the central part of California. They're mostly interested in stopping the Rogues who prey on their Silver shipments from Freistadt Base in Omega 7.

* We bring in our Terraforming Gases from Birmingham in the Manchester system. At least there aren't any of those dreadful Gaians in this corner of space.

* We bring in the bulk of our supplies from other places in Liberty since there is no agriculture or industrial manufacturing here. We've set up a chemical processing plant to produce Floragro, but that's the only production going on so far. We get our Consumer Goods from Fort Bush, and Basic Alloy from Manhattan.

* Planetform, Inc. has operations in two Bretonia systems in addition to this one: Edinburgh and Tau-31. The Edinburgh project has been plagued from conception by terrorist activity in the area. Our headquarters is in the New London system at Canterbury.

* Liberty has been quite accommodating to our needs. We certainly haven't had to contend with anything like the Gaians. They are more pragmatic here. The primary use of this planet following the completion of our project will be synthetic Food production, now that Los Angeles is becoming too dry.

* Some time ago Planetform discovered that the Alien Organisms found in the Edge Nebula systems had very high reproductive rates, and could exist in quite hostile conditions. One of their primary functions is to dissolve the carbonate rocks found in abundance here, releasing elemental oxygen and carbon dioxide in the process.

* The use of Alien Organisms dramatically accelerate the terraforming process. Original estimates for California Minor were in the 400-year range. We now think we will be able to complete it in 840 AS, less than a quarter of the original estimate.

* The Oxygen is mostly used for the terraforming machines, which run around the clock. Their purpose is twofold: to increase Oxygen content in the air around the base, and to introduce various atmosphere forming gases like carbon dioxide and nitrogen into the atmosphere. We still have at least fifty years before this operation is completed.

* Most of our Water is hauled in from Freeport 4 in the Magellan system. The thin snow layer that covers this planet is actually quite recent, a product of our Phase I cloud-seeding efforts. California Minor is still too cold and arid for sustainable agriculture.

* We run patrols around California Minor. I think it's a waste of time. Not enough bad guys around here. I heard that the real reason is that Synth Foods wants to move up the schedule on Planetform a lot. They been resisting, saying there were too many shipping losses.

* This is as far off the Trade Lanes as we get in Liberty. They'll build one to the planet once Planetform is finished. Then Synth Foods will shift Food production here.

* We bring in the Alien Organisms from Planet Kurile that Planetform uses to jumpstart the terraforming process. The Sirius Commerce Act prohibits any import of Alien Organisms onto planets with indigenous life forms like Manhattan, but sterile planets like this one don't apply.

* We bring in supplies to augment Planetform's operation here -- mostly Oxygen, Food, Basic Alloy, and Industrial Materials.

*NOTE: Page generated on the 28/10/2023 at 17:59:46 UTC*