Thames Outpost

CLASS: Edmunds

GRAVITY: Complete

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Yes

CREW: 250

An old space station from Bretonia's age of expansion, Thames was designed to function as a hub for in and outbound cargo for Planet New London, and a storehouse for BMM Gold exports from Dublin.

In 826 AS, Thames found itself in the middle of the Battle for Planet New London, the largest fleet battle in human history. It is believed that Thames survived the battle with minimal damage because Gallic forces had intended to use the station as a staging depot for a terrestrial invasion once orbital space had been secured.

With the loss of Graves Station in 831 AS, Thames saw a sharp drop in traffic, although some Gold continues to be stocked as a result of confiscations by the Essex blockade, or extremely dangerous 'wildcat' expeditions by the most desperate or foolhardy of BMM miners.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* Border World Exports
* BMM
* Bounty Hunters Guild

## News

Jane Gilliam, whose commendation for repelling a Corsair raiding party as an Armed Forces Captain featured in a CNS article in 800, was not so convinced. "We all knew even back then that The Line wasn't fit for purpose. The Heilbronn disaster should have seen it scrapped, but the Regents on Cambridge didn't want New London looking too closely and pressured the Norfolk to lobby to keep it. If William was still with us, he'd say the same."
The exact catalyst for the extra attention from the edge world pirates is unclear, with various commentators speculating on increased resistance to their operations in Rheinland, Hessian efforts in the deep Omegas, or a shift in their internal politics. Regardless of their true motivations, Interspace Commerce has recognised the elevated peril and adjusted its premiums in response.

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.

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.

With the end of the war and Bretonia's withdrawal from Planet Gran Canaria, Poole's prominence waned. The cost of policing the system and maintaining infrastructure has significantly outweighed collected tax revenue in recent years, with Planetform's Terraforming Gas operations reporting disappointing year on year returns.DSE has already confirmed that it will begin deconstruction operations shortly, with the dismantling of the Cambridge jump gate expected to be completed by 833 AS.

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Planetform has confirmed its intention to withdraw prior to this point, while settling shareholder anxiety with the announcement of promising preliminary findings for a replacement site in Newcastle.

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While Bretonia is indeed witnessing an extraordinarily high rate of economic growth in particular, it may be the case that the strain of this effort is becoming untenable, and potentially the rewards misplaced. Timothy Ball, of the independent think tank Economic Review Institute, believes this may indeed be the case. "Bretonia's economy is definitely on the rise. While still not at pre-war levels, and not expected to be for some years, the recovery we've witnessed so far has been uneven", he says. "The reconstruction of damaged and destroyed public infrastructure is underway, but seems to be lagging behind the rate of recovery being enjoyed by several major corporations. This can be explained by various factors for a time, but unless rectified, at some point this inequality could become a major point of domestic political contention."

Yesterday at 2200 hours SMT, nearby Sheffield Station and Kingston Border Station received automated distress signals from Liverpool, indicating an emergency aboard the station. Guild patrols redirected from Sheffield arrived on the scene within minutes, finding the border station destroyed. Search and rescue operations headed by Guild and BPA units commenced immediately and successfully salvaged several escape pods bearing several dozen survivors, who were immediately delivered to hospitals on New London.
BPA spokesperson Sandra Halling held a press conference earlier this morning. According to joint police and BIS investigations, Liverpool was destroyed by antimatter explosives planted aboard the station. Their detonation caused a catastrophic chain reaction, resulting in the station's own reactors melting down and exploding. Of the estimated one-hundred-twenty persons on board at the time of the attack, seventy-eight have been reported as dead or missing.
\So far, no party has taken credit for this heinous attack. However, Bretonian police surmises that it was likely perpetrated by either the criminals known as the Mollys or the infamous pirate organization, the Lane Hackers. The attack occurred following a significant redeployment of local Armed Forces units to the Cortez system for the purpose of joint operations with Libertonian security forces. This, says Halling, may have allowed terrorist sympathizers to exploit undermanned BPA patrols and smuggle illegal explosives through Manchester's ice fields, onto Liverpool Station.
While investigations continue, Bretonian Police Authority has reinforced patrols within Manchester and established traffic controls at Kingston Border Station and Birmingham Station. Traffic to and from Liberty has been advised to reroute through the Cortez system.

"The Surveyor is more than just a ship, it's a symbol of ingenuity and industrial development to all the Sirian Colonies. It's a pattern that dates back to our origins in the Sol system, and it's a pattern that will persist for many generations to come. Just as we have adapted to meet new challenges, so too must the Surveyor to meet emergent needs."
The Next-Gen Surveyor is slated to roll out multiple updates ranging from technological optimizations to upgraded armor and firepower capabilities. Many of the new modifications directly address a recent study by the Sirius International Institute of Statistics and Economics, citing up to 32 percent losses by BMM and Kruger Minerals to piracy and related factors.
The ship's expanded armour increased the ship's mass by almost 50 percent, which forced Samura's Surveyor team to completely overhaul the ship's power delivery system, powerplant, and hull. The new ship utilizes a power delivery system integrated into the super-alloy frame. The integrated frame was torture tested at the Aso High Altitude Proving Grounds, and sports certifications as best in class for maneuvering with a load under high Gs.
Though time will tell whether the upgrade will prove successful in addressing the increase of piracy, the stock market has greeted the welcome news with a 15 point general increase, and a relative high for Samura and mining sector stocks.

## Rumors

* Welcome to Thames. This is the headquarters for BMM, Bretonia's oldest industrial conglomerate. BMM and our affiliates handle rougly 85% of all Bretonian industrial ventures, and 65% of all mining endeavours. In other words, if you intend to do business in Bretonia, it is hard to go around us.

* We ship Mining Machinery out to Peterborough, Birmingham, Graves, and Douglas Station. Peterborough is the new Beryllium processing plant in Cambridge. I worried for a while that we'd have to deal with those IMG criminals in order to secure Beryllium, but the Crown was smart enough to see that that would essentially give the IMG leverage over the entire Bretonian economy. And that won't do.

* At least the Bowex boys know the value of keeping Bretonia alive. They've been a right blessing, bringing in those raw materials that we need to keep our factories going. Having to deal with Rheinland for Aluminium now that we've lost Leeds is not the preferred option - we really need Belfast back under our control. The automated mining rigs it controls would produce all the Aluminium we need.

* The war with Kusari and now Gallia has done immense damage to our company. The most obvious to everyone is the loss of Stokes, Leeds and LD14 - but what is even worse is the loss of business. Other companies are filling in the gaps that our predicament has left, and those companies won't go away as easily once we're done rebuilding.

* The amount of money we lost in Tau-23 still makes me shudder. We sank billions into that system, trying to fight off the criminals and start up a viable venture, and then that cursed Gallic armada came along and took it all over. What's even worse is that they left those IMG traitors be - those guys threw an accord with Gallia. Typical.

* IMG is a motley collection of unemployed New London miners, former BMM malcontents, and hordes of Daumann and Kruger Rheinlanders. They have no business operating as a legal entity within the boundaries of Bretonia - the Crown ought to remove them from our border as a matter of principle. There is little we can do in the Border Worlds, unfortunately.

* BMM and Bowex have had a long and profitable relationship stretching back over 500 years. You should never listen to what Gateway, IMG, or ALG tell you. They are young, poorly run organizations that will not be there for you in the long haul. Dozens have gone before them, and will come after them. But BMM and Bowex endure.

* Thames is company headquarters for all of our operations across Sirius. Supply runs from New London bring in Food, Oxygen, Water, and H-Fuel. We then transfer them for special shipment to our other bases: Douglas, Southampton, Graves, Birmingham and Peterborough.

* Thames is in a bad way without the mineral shipments from Tau-23 and Leeds. Even with the new Peterborough base slowly starting to replace the Beryllium train. Some people wonder whether the whole company will survive. The IMG must be real smug right about now. Parliament ought to nationalize their bases without our border and hand them over to BMM as a matter of national security.

* The Mollys have been a challenge for BMM ever since the revolt on the Graves Station in 752, in which they mercilessly executed the chief of base operations, Sir Edmund Graves, and several of his senior lieutenants. They fantasized of Dublin being their own country. We asked for assistance from the Bretonia Armed Forces at the time and have been engaged in a war of attrition ever since.

* The Gaians have recently begun raiding the Birmingham plant, apparently because they believe we are guilty of producing gases subsequently used in terraforming operations. In my opinion, this guilt by association is not constructive and further alienates their cause from the common man in Bretonia. Not to mention, the company has posted a whopper of a bounty on the Gaians. Planetform is one thing, but if you attack BMM, you attack Bretonia as a whole.

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