Epernay Base

CLASS: Coquin

GRAVITY: Complete

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Yes

CREW: 300

Epernay is a pirate installation with strong links to the Gallic Brigands which was is as a staging ground for raids against EFL and GMS convoys bound for the Gallic Core. The base was originally a staging point for mining operations within the field, however as strip mining depleted all known resources the base was abandoned. After several years the base was occupied by an increasingly criminal population within Champagne as the economic fortunes of the system waned as over mining to fuel the Gallic war machine took its toll on employment.

## News

Professor Nagel and her team are certain the Pulse originated from outside Sirius, but are otherwise no closer to identifying its source or mitigating a future Blackout event. "Following the Blackout, we began to see immediate signs of jump hole destabilization in multiple different regions, with many ultimately falling out of phase alignment altogether", she commented. The dramatic upending of Sirius' jump hole network has already prompted many groups to abandon stations and withdraw from systems that appear to risk being cut off.
While months-long trips between the stars are possible thanks to the Liberty Engine and many centuries of innovation, few ships are designed or provisioned to make such arduous journeys. Those who were displaced by Sirius' redrawn map hope that system connections will return, while adventurers and explorers rush to discover new routes.

We will welcome any ships willing to explore Gallic space and establish relations with local factions. In exchange for the passage, we ask for guarantees of neutrality towards the Council, its military and civilian personnel. We also warn that any capital ship fleets or other large military detachments will be denied passage, by force if necessary. Our goal is to prevent the war, not to encourage attacks of other Houses who might consider Gallia its enemy. Gallia is no one's enemy, and our task is to prove it. We hope that after our actions in the Gallic Border Worlds the King of Gallia will demonstrate responsibility and discretion by establishing diplomatic relations with all four Houses and by canceling plans of Sirius-wide aggression.
However, even if the relations will be established, we, the Council, will still remain sworn enemies of the Crown, and the Second Gallic War will continue. Our current goal is to hold the passage in Languedoc open for everyone for as long as possible. However, the Royal Navy has assembled an overwhelming fleet in Languedoc that will soon head towards Languedoc. Our casualties has been very high during the recent years of fighting in this system, and odds to win the battles that will follow are very low. Languedoc detachments of the Council, and all civilians willing to escape the prosecution by Gallic government, will have to seek refuge in the Sirius Border Worlds. We are already looking for possible locations where we can build our bases and defensive installations.
We are also aware that Sirius space has its own unlawful factions, much like Gallic Brigands and Unione Corse in Gallia. Since our situation is complicated right now, we might seek help of those factions in order to survive and prevent unnecessary casualties. But we also realize that our equipment, ships and weaponry contain Gallic technologies that many Sirius parties are willing to appropriate. We are not trading or exchanging any of our military technologies. If any attempts to capture or attack Council personnel and ships occur, we reserve the right to retaliate with deadly force.

Where did we get those ships? The Council was aided substantially by using our supply lines from the Core Gallic Systems. Supplying the Council comes for a price, and while they usually avoid dealing with us directly, caring about the "public eye", the Maquis trade with us freely and simply transfer goods that they purchase from us to the Council. While we are not much concerned by the political motives of the Council, we share their hatred for the government, a rotted monarchy that has no sense of style, and corrupt corporations. If the Council needs help, we will provide as much as they can buy. Since money is not the only thing we need, the Council's new factories on Marne provide us a wide range of various goods necessary for a brigand's life, including ammunition, side arms, ship weaponry, and, most important, new ships. Maquis deliver the stuff to our installation of Epernay, and from Epernay they come to many other Brigands' bases all around the Gallic Border Worlds.
Now, as the path to unfamiliar new worlds in Sirius has been opened, the Brigands consider the future possibilities of this unexpected change. While the information on Sirius is now much less expensive than before and is easily accessible from anywhere within Gallia, we still do not have sufficient data on the unlawful groups that most surely exist in the Houses of Sirius and in other populated areas. We are now negotiating with Maquis to see if our survey parties could be granted passage through the mine field to gather intelligence and to find places where we could establish new bases of operations.

## Rumors

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