Battleship Missouri

CLASS: Overlord

CREW: CLASSIFIED

ARMAMENT: CLASSIFIED

The flagship of the Liberty Navy since 799 AS, the Missouri represents nothing short of an emblem for House Liberty.

Built through a newly-engineered process, it remains equipped with some of the most capable batteries in the Navy's arsenal, and has been used as the benchmark for future warship classes.

Although being an easily-recognizable vessel of the Republic of Liberty, its service record is in a direct antithesis – the Missouri has only taken part in a handful of battles and completes only rudimentary patrols of New York's space.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* Orbital Spa and Cruise
* Samura Industries
* Bounty Hunters Guild
* Border World Exports
* Cryer Pharmaceuticals
* Deep Space Engineering
* Synth Foods, Inc.
* Universal Shipping
* Ageira Technologies

* Bounty Hunters Guild

## News

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.

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

* Being a Bounty Hunter is a tough job; nobody likes you and a lot of guys would enjoy killing you. But, that's why I like it. Bounty Hunters don't really operate like they used to. There was a time when we were paid to bring criminals in -- now we are paid to make criminals disappear.

* The Outcasts are using the Rogues. The Outcasts smuggle their Cardamine into the Rogue base in the Badlands, and then the Rogues and Junkers get it planetside. Most of the Rogues I've brought in were strung out on the Cardamine, so I'm guessing the Outcasts are the ones with their hands on the throttle.

* A Bounty Hunter named Harry Riggs went out after some Outcasts in the Badlands but never came back. He had some decent weapons on his ship.

* Most of the Hunters in our guild are Hunters because this is what they want to do -- at least the good ones are like that. I like working on my own terms and not answering to anybody. That's my style -- no bosses.

* When I got out off "the Wall" I didn't have many choices ahead of me, at least no appealing choices. I knew I didn't want to go back to making clothes on the Huntsville. I also knew I didn't like most of the scum I did time with.

* Ageira's technologies have kept Liberty at the forefront in Sirius, technologically and economically. We guard that corporation's interests like no others. Where would Liberty or even Sirius be if it weren't for the Jump Gate technology that Ageira developed?

* ALG handles all the Toxic Waste that this ship's reactors produce. A lot of the men here don't really care to have Rheinlanders on board this ship, but ALG does take care of our waste. It's better than dumping it in Liberty space.

* We know there is a Rogue base in the Badlands. We also know that Cardamine comes into New York through there. The problem is that the Badlands is a big and very dangerous chunk of space; it's not worth the men and ships we'd lose to try and clear it out. Best to just pop them as they leave it.

* I keep an Mk 3 Riot Breaker behind the bar here. Not to say I'd use it on a navy boy, but we've got Bounty Hunters aboard who can get unruly sometimes. They tend to quiet down fast when you level some Detroit machinery on 'em.

* The Navy does more than watch for criminals, we stand guard against any who might threaten Liberty, including other Houses. Our ship, if it ever comes to that, is fully capable of launching an attack outside Liberty space. She's got enough firepower aboard to lead an offensive.

* West Point is the training academy for the best of the Liberty officers. My family has put a man into "the Point" for the last six generations. I'm glad to be stationed here in the same system. Sometimes I'll pass a training patrol of theirs in my heavy fighter, and I know those kids have got to be jealous.

* The Trade Lanes between the Texas and California Jump Gates are patrolled by Liberty Navy heavy fighter wings. Our presence is mainly to protect the interstellar shipping that passes through our turf, but we also scan ships and interdict smugglers.

* The LPI does not enter the Badlands, which is our domain. Patrols generally skirt the periphery of the great cloud. From there we launch probing attacks into the area, looking to intercept and dispose of criminals.

* The police think they have it tough on the north end, but the truth is the majority of those fat, overworked, under skilled pilots have never come up against real trouble. I'd like to see how long an LPI would last against an Outcast… I'm guessing thirty seconds.

* Zone-21 is a classified area for civilians and any non-military entities; trespass into that area and you are threatening House security. If you try to enter the system and survive the mines, you will not survive the Liberty Navy. There are no exceptions.

* Crew going off duty are probably looking for a lift to Planet Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, or Denver. Check in the docking bay if you have some space and are heading in any of those directions.

* The Side Arms you see on the hips of the personnel at this base are bought from the Detroit Munitions plant. I carry one myself, a Detroit Mk 3 Resolver Hideway. It comes in handy for surprising would-be attackers. We used to get our own deliveries, but now we have to go to West Point or Fort Bush.

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