Bethlehem Station

CLASS: Endeavour

GRAVITY: Complete

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Yes

CREW: 620

Bethlehem is a Zoner installation built in 780 AS Unlike larger Philadelphia, it remained independent from Liberty civilian authorities after the House took Pennsylvania under its control. Its inhabitants mostly keep to themselves, trading food and Helium gathered from the nearby nebula for anything they might need.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* Bounty Hunters Guild
* Liberty Rogues
* Junkers
* Xenos

## 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.

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.

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.

Upon further investigation, the Navy has successfully identified the ordnance being transported as being sourced from Rheinland. Going as far as to state that they contained serial codes which correspond with weaponry used by Rheinland's own Military. Naturally given the circumstances around the discovery of these weapons and Liberty's history of hot and cold relations with the neighboring House, it is expected that this development will lead to further scrutiny when it comes to potentially suspicious activity.

Presenting the potential for cataclysmic damage to personhood and proprety prompted Ageira to shut down the gates leading into the system, as well as the respective trade lanes. In the time since then however, Ames has relayed a stunning report that the storm despite being violent at first, has now settled into quite a passive albeit looming stance over the system. Perhaps more surprising than even this is the phenomena regarding the storm's interactions with the established lane and gate network in the system, seeming to bend and contort around the structure rather than engulf them. This stellar formation has produced the spatial equivalent of a tunnel that travelers into the freshly reopened Kepler have taken to dubbing the "Murky Road", prompting a small degree of sensationalized tourism into the system. Which comes as a small positive after the harsh loss of the otherwise frequent traffic.
This news comes at the tail end of previous publications that cited the storm as having origins in Alberta, supposedly arriving via some form of leakage through the jumpholes in the system. Newer research has allowed for discoveries which now suggest the contrary and this has in turn reinvigorated research into these storms and their enigmatic natures.

## Rumors

* There's not much actual thieving going on around Bethlehem, but it's a good place to find information. A few credits or Liberty Ales here and there, and you'll have enough leads to last you a month.

* Erie is a nice place to live if you like roughing it. A lot of the planet is still uninhabited, and I hear the wildlife is quite a challenge. 'Though I suppose, after chasing Outcasts in California, a couple of predatory tripeds will seem like vacation. My kind of vacation.

* The Zoners are supposed to be a young movement, but if you're honest you've read about free spirited adventurers in the Sirian Histopedia. Who do you think these men and women were? Simple adventurers? Or would you rather like to believe that all the Zoners are just jumping on the weak promise of making their fortunes by adventure?

* Being in the middle of everything and yet so insignificant among Zoners, Bethlehem developed its own profile. It's not as respected, successful, or perhaps even powerful as the reputations of other Zoner bases in Sirius. Behind this insignificance we're trying to hide our knowledge of the transactions happening in Pennsylvania. Beside Allentown or Milford Base there's also Niverton, where you can pick up the unlucky to haul them by a shortcut through Texas, Bering and Rheinland straight to the criminals of the Upper Omicrons. Sure, you might like the profits, but remember who we are: Free People. Don't be surprised to meet a Zoner in Pennsylvania who is openly naming you vermin when you are heading to the Maltese Nation.

* Do you really believe that all of these corporate pilots docking at Bethlehem are just having a short break from their travels? Such naivete would be heartbreaking. The truth is that most of them cannot wait for the moment they enter New York again where the corrupted authorities are going to pamper them like babies, but they're docking here to find intermediaries who have established contacts with the black market. You know, in every cargo hold there's always some far away corner where you can store special commodities that might boost your poor corporate income.

* I took a vacation on Gran Canaria last month. Over-rated, if you ask me. Corsairs and Bretonians all over the place. Anytime I managed to find a Zoner, it was like meeting a long lost relative instead of a stranger. The immigration controls on that planet need a major overhaul. I can't wait to go back as soon as my restraining order expires!

* Some are calling themselves even Brothers and Sisters. Others are making their vows to fight and die for each other. And others are again building commercial networks spanning the whole of Sirius. Being a Zoner is more about doing whatever the hell you want then anything else. That's why the house governments don't really like us I guess.

* I left my home, my fat children and my cheating wife. Heh, I still love to imagine her fury when she had found out that our account was swept clean for my Dromedary. A cousin of mine introduced me to the Zoners, and what can I say? They're cool. Just cool. They won't ask too many questions. They won't interfere with your business unless you're too daring and endangering their own existence, and sometimes, especially in the Edge Worlds, they will take a bullet for you. Sounds amazing? Well, it is.

* Viewing the universe with Zoner eyes is overwhelmingly exciting. You can travel anywhere just because you're a Zoner. You can discover secrets only a few Sirians know about, or you can satisfy your natural curiosity by just talking with people, and by being there, in the proper place when things are going to develop and evolve. Of course, being a Zoner also means you're out there pretty much on your own, so it helps to carry a big gun - preferably more.

* You've docked here, and now you're thinking you've found the Zoners, aren't you? Here's good and bad news. The good is that you've found some Zoners indeed. The bad news is that you've only found some Zoners. The larger Zoner communities exist outside of House space, in the Borderworlds and Edge Worlds. Each Zoner base has its own feel and culture, influenced by the region and people going there. So out here, you've found mostly Zoners who have roots in Liberty, but got fed up with the corporations running our lives. Unlike the Xenos, we don't like to fight. We just move and give those corporations the finger. Literally sometimes.

* You know what Bethlehem means, buddy? Yeah, it's a place of birth, so you might want to be reborn as a Zoner. Look around the bar, and you'll see plenty of Zoners here. This base is the best place to get in touch with us, and the place where you can achieve a record enabling you to travel almost wherever you like. Welcome to your adventures, but don't dare to cry if you're caught in one of the endless wars in the Border Worlds, or at the Edge. Take a drink, and return to your cozy place in Liberty where you've started to dream of a silly future.

* Zoners are quite different, depending on their surroundings. The Zoners here are pretty much conforming to Libertonian points of view. Except for their willingness to swallow everything the Navy demands from their submissive civilians of course. But messing around with the Navy leads to disaster, we know that, so everybody here is trying to conceal personal relations to the less appreciated groups in Liberty, although not a few of us are objecting to the Liberty Government or their oppressive Laws. It's called a democracy, but in fact it is nothing but a military dictatorship.

* Have you been to Freeport 9? I hear it's beautiful! The nebulae are supposed to be the most romantic sight you'll ever see. And I hear there's all sorts of people at that Freeport. Folks from all over Sirius! Isn't that exciting?!

* I should really get paid for my information services. Sitting here means that a lot of folks are coming around asking questions about Zoners. Oh yeah, all of them want to change. It's so fascinating to become a free person, a Zoner. You're so much more free then. Just leave the Libertonian misery, all the oppression and patronizing from their military junta. Guess what? Are you sure you can bear the misery of freedom?

* It's only about the credits with you, isn't it? All right, I'll tell you how to earn them. Fill up with Neon on the spacepad, then haul it somewhere. Where? Just about anywhere. Freeports, planets, research stations, shipping depots, they all pay top rates for the stuff.

* Among all the spies you may usually find on a Zoner Base the Gallians are the most enduring and cunning. Usually we're quite open to any kind of relations, with a comfortable attitude for all the petitioners to our intelligence services, but Gallic intelligence services are a completely different matter: we don't like them, but we still don't know how many Zoners are working for them. So take care who you're trusting when trying to open secret channels.

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