Cold Bay Depot

CLASS: Unalaska

GRAVITY: Partial

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Limited

CREW: 230

Cold Bay is a small Planetform base built near Planet Atka in 816 AS, being the first hidden step in preparations for Atka terraforming ordered by the Liberty government. Rheinland discovered this base in 817 AS and demanded its immediate decommissioning, since populating Atka would mean that Liberty is going to claim the whole Hudson system as a part of its own territory.

Liberty however did not decommission Atka, which gave rise to tensions that would eventually escalate into a major war between the two houses. As the Rheinland and Liberty military forces came to blows, Planetform evacuated the station, citing it would not risk sending it's employees into what had become a warzone. The Liberty Police occupied the station with a skeleton crew to prevent looting by the various pirates that called Hudson home.

However, as the war turned favorable for Liberty in the Hudson system, it has petitioned Planetform to resume the terraforming efforts. Preparations are underway by Planetform to initiate stage one terraforming on Atka.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* Orbital Spa and Cruise
* Planetform, Inc.
* Synth Foods, Inc.
* Bounty Hunters Guild

## News

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.

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.

In an immediate show of change, the Federal and Imperial fleets have completely withdrawn from what used to be the battle lines separating the two Rheinland fractions - many have returned to stand-down docks for maintenance and repairs, and off-duty military and civilian personnel have already begun to travel back to their homes.
While details of how the reunification will proceed, or whether it will be successful are yet to be seen, but the Holstein Accords has brought the Rheinland Civil War effectively to a close.

## Rumors

* I'll admit, my favorite part of this new partnership is that it got me out of Bretonia. And getting out of Bretonia means no more Green Party and their nonsense about despoiling nature blah blah blah. We enhance nature. We take the crud that nature failed to deliver on and turn it into a thriving ecosytem. Of course, in Hudson we have Xenos and Rogues... but at least they don't sputter on and on about Gaia and her blah blah blah. They just shoot.

* Synth Foods knows agriculture, Cryer knows genetic engineering, and Planetform knows filtration and geoengineering. The combination is a scientific and technological powerhouse. The ability to do true terraforming and ecoforming. Samura executives must be quaking in their slippers at the thought. Their paltry efforts to develop terraforming technology can't compare to the storm of innovation that we're about to unleash on Sirius.

* We will take efforts to preserve the bacteria on this planet. We're not worried about them going extinct due to climatological changes. They live off the compounds ejected from the thermal vents on the ocean floor, which is a naturally isolated biosphere. If anything, the introduction of more nutrients in the water should cause their numbers to increase. We're planning to maintain a presence here even past stage 3. These Xenobiotic Filters generate a nice, steady stream of revenue for the company, it would be foolish to abandon that.

* Atka is gearing up to have stage 1 terraforming initiated. We've done a thorough geographical analysis of the planet. To make this planet comfortably habitable for human life, the average temperature will need to be raised between 30 and 50 degrees celcius. The planet has large glaciers that cover most of the land masses, and a liquid ocean beneath roughly 20 meters of solid ice. The ocean is being kept liquid by volcanic activity at the seabed, and plays host to a wide variety of microorganisms, but no macrocellular life. The soil beneath the land ice is suitable for plant life, but contains only trace amounts of nutrients.

* We get the Consumer Goods for our population from Fort Bush. It's ironic that those goods are being manufactured at the Huntsville by the relatives of the Rogues and Xenos who try to hijack the shipments when they enter Hudson. What's even more ironic is when those criminals get captured by the Alma they get sent to the Huntsville to manufacture more Consumer Goods for us. The Liberty sense of justice. I approve.

* It's certainly an exciting time to work for Planetform. After years of speculation that the company was spiraling into bankruptcy due to missed deadlines on Harris and Ayr, we've struck gold with these new filter packs. And the strategic alliance we've made with Synth Foods and Cryer is going to make all three companies a fortune. On top of that Liberty has pushed the Atka project up again, and with the Alma guarding us, the Xenos shouldn't be a problem anymore. Bloody marvellous!

* We'll need to induce greenhousing in the atmosphere to raise the temperature. We can do that by releasing Terraforming Gases, especially the Fluoride based ones we produce at Merthyr Tydfil. Then as the glaciers melt and the water levels rise, the atmosphere will thicken with moisture and start to create weather systems. Once the soil is exposed, stage 2 will start - introducing nutrients into the soil along with microorganisms to kickstart a planetary ecology. Stage 3 will be the stabilisation of the climate and ecology, and introduction of human-grown flora and fauna, as well as the establishment of colonies on the surface. Our client will take over control of the planet from that point. All in all, with the improvements to our technology over the years and the situation planetside, we think we can initiate stage 3 in roughly 70 years.

* The Xenobiotic Filters find plenty of use on various mining and industrial stations. We are shipping out to mining stations like Graves, Stokes, Fujisawa, and Birmingham. Fresh water isn't too much of a problem, usually, but recirculating air on a mining station can be problematic. Traditional filters can only do so much.

* The Xenobiotic Filters are especially effective in various research stations which deal with biological or chemical hazards. The Cambridge Research Institute, and the Atka facility in Sigma-17 come to mind. The ability to recycle atmosphere after a single pass filtration rather then a thermal sterilisation makes the life support systems of those stations much more energy efficient. Our customers in Honshu are installing Xenobiotic Filters to replace their old filtration systems. Yukawa Shipyard and Kansai Research are already fairly pristine to the naked eye, but now they'll be pristine on the molecular level as well.

* Our Pharmaceuticals come straight here from our factories on Denver, even though the Xenobiotic filtration system installed on Cold Bay removes nearly all the pathogens brought onto the station by arriving passengers. Every so often though, a pilot needs treatment after a brush with the Xenos or Rogues in the system, so we have to keep a fully stocked medical bay ready to treat any injuries.

* Synth Foods is eager to see if the filtration techniques developed here can be applied to soil filtration. Toxic spills can really harm agriculture on a regional scale. If a bacteriological filter can be released into the soil to neutralise any toxins, that could allow us to rapidly revitalise areas that have been spoiled, either by government neglect or terrorist actions. Can you imagine what something like that could do for Houston, or Leeds?

* While Cryer, Planetform and Synth Foods all have their individual strengths as companies, they also each have unique weaknesses. Cryer is so focused on innovative science that they sometimes forget that the point of research is to create a profitable product, 'though I must admit, Stabiline is likely to change that. Synth is so concerned with undercutting competitor's prices that they can forget the value of a superior product. Paste remains paste, no matter the flavor. Synth Paste and Synth Gel lack texture, which makes them unappealing as a Luxuary Food. Planetform only runs projects at such a long timetable that it is hard for anyone without an extremely long term vision to do business with them.

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