Newark Station

CLASS: Zeus

GRAVITY: Complete

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Yes

CREW: 1460

Interspace Corporate was founded in 204 AS by Ageira and Deep Space Engineering, since they could pool the necessary capital in insurance and finance. Built in the same year, Newark Station is the local headquarters for the now renamed "Interspace Commerce" (IC), one of the largest financial concerns in the Sirius Sector. While Interspace was initially responsible for financing the construction of the vast Jump Gate and Trade Lane network that connects the various colonies, it was forced to divest itself of these holdings as a result of the Rheinland-Kusari Trade Embargo in 521 AS

The corporation changed its name to Interspace Commerce and has since transitioned to insuring cargo shipments within and between the various colonies. The remainder of the Newark Station population is a constantly shifting crowd of traders, technocrats, executives, and Bounty Hunters, all cutting deals and arranging for the transport or protection of their goods.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* ALG Waste Disposal
* Border World Exports
* Bounty Hunters Guild
* Deep Space Engineering
* Synth Foods, Inc.
* Kishiro Technologies
* Orbital Spa and Cruise
* Samura Industries
* Gateway Shipping
* Cryer Pharmaceuticals
* Interspace Commerce
* Universal Shipping
* Ageira Technologies
* RGS Shipping
* The Core

* 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.

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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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

* The way to get a Lane Hacker is to give him Cardamine. They like to spend time in California, so that is where I will go. I'll snag a little Cardamine on the way and use it to buy my way in with them. Once I have their trust… well, you get the idea.

* IC has been losing money with the construction project fiasco in Tau-23 that will facilitate mining in the area. They have turned to the Bounty Hunters Guild to take care of the problem. I am here awaiting specific mission orders for my operations in that area.

* 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.

* IC hires Bounty Hunters to take care of the dirty work that goes with insuring shipments and operations throughout Sirius. If somebody starts to cost IC more money than it costs to hire Bounty Hunters, then we deal with them.

* IC wants me to hunt down and kill every single Lane Hacker I can get in my sights. They don't want them captured, nor do they want information from them like Ageira does. They just want them dead.

* There is a strong Outcast presence in the northern Edge systems. Unfortunately, that's where mining operations are starting to look for new resources, and that's where we come in.

* Bowex ships Silver here from Freistadt in Omega-7. The bloody Xenos are always a problem when it comes to making our various shipments in Liberty space. What is just as infuriating is Liberty's apparent apathy concerning the Xeno issue.

* This station is our trading center for operations in Liberty space. We supply high-demand items to Ageira in Pueblo, but first we come through this point. We insure many of our shipments through IC at this base.

* Any pirates who attack Trade Lane shipping or Jump Gates deserve to be exterminated, whether their motives are greed or politics. Terror and piracy must not be tolerated.

* Outcasts, Corsairs, Red Hessians, Blood Dragons, Golden Chrysanthemums, Liberty Rogues, Unioners, Xenos, the LWB, the Farmers Alliance, Gaians, and Lane Hackers -- all these groups attack Trade Lanes. And that's why IC will pay any Bounty Hunter top dollar to kill them, any of them. But especially Lane Hackers.

* The LPI, though sanctioned with policing the Trade Lanes in Liberty, is as corrupt as many of the criminals it is supposed to be arresting. The LPI can be bribed and coerced by almost any criminal with a little cash. The IC does not put any trust in the LPI.

* Any Trade Lane construction venture that begins is insured by us. If it isn't, then the Trade Lane doesn't get built. No one can risk losing the enormous capital required for the construction.

* The Lane Hackers must be destroyed. They know which shipments to hit that hurt us the most. Once they are gone, IC will double its current profits; the increase in revenue will be enormous.

* Interspace Commerce began as a banking institution formed to supply other Houses with the capital necessary for the construction of Trade Lanes within their space. Over time we became an insurance agency.

* The Lane Hackers are a bunch of California boys who split on Ageira and became the worst possible enemies of IC. They have Trade Lane technology, which allows them to punch ships out of the Trade Lanes. Once that happens, the shipments are basically theirs.

* The tolls that Kusari and Rheinland had to pay us were not nearly the full amount that we had put up to fund their Jump Gates. The compromise reached in the Sirius Commerce Pact was not a compromise for our corporation, but unfortunately Liberty didn't have the military clout to enforce the payment of Rheinland and Kusari's debts to us.

* The Bounty Hunters Guild, though perceived as not entirely trustworthy by some, is very helpful to us. They handle all of the nasty work that goes into insuring the progress of Sirius and Liberty.

* After the Rheinland-Kusari Embargo of 521, IC lost millions of credits as both Houses nationalized their Trade Lanes. The massive debts that those Houses had incurred were wiped away, and the Trade Lanes became theirs.

* Our relations with Kusari and Rheinland have never really recovered. They have banished our company from residence in their major planets, and we cannot even build bases in any of their minor systems. The irony is that we were the ones who lost all the money.

* The Lane Hackers' illegitimate use of our Universal Ship Identification system is infuriating. A technology created for the good of Sirius commerce is being exploited by a bunch of hedonistic junkies! That is why IC has begun hiring the Bounty Hunters in force.

* The Bretonian authorities, the LSF, and the Liberty military are stalwart allies in our crusade against piracy upon the Trade Lanes. They can be trusted not to take bribes or be lenient upon the scum that plague the dark places in Sirius space. If only the Rheinland Federal Police or the LPI could be relied upon...

* IC's plans for Texas have gone sour -- too many criminals in that area. Hudson and Bering have their fill of criminals, too. The Liberty to Rheinland Trade Lanes have been trouble for IC as long as I can remember.

* The Universal Shipping transport Chesapeake was hijacked several months ago and flown into the Komatsu Cloud. It is rumored to still be there, serving as a Pharmaceuticals storage depot for the Lane Hackers and Rogues.

* We ship Beryllium to this base from Java. Our shipments are frequently attacked in the Independent Worlds; no doubt the goods that the criminals manage to steal will end up back in New York fenced by the Junkers. It's always fun losing cargo containers to Rogues only to get to buy them back from Junkers a few days later.

* The Beryllium we supply Ageira with in Pueblo will eventually be used to manufacture Gate or Lane Parts and then sent back to Waterloo in New London to maintain the Bretonian trade lane network.

* Samura should not be here selling Fuel; we supply more than enough H-Fuel to Liberty. Samura would be better served to stay in Kusari where it can continue its illegitimate business practices in safety.

* Kishiro supplies this base with H-Fuel from Fujisawa in Okinawa. Much of the H-Fuel that we attempt to ship here is stolen by Rogues and Xenos, which forces us to raise our costs to cover expected losses due to theft.

* I don't know why they call them Bounty Hunters -- in my book they are assassins, plain and simple. You hire them to go hunt someone down and kill them. Very rarely are they required to bring someone back alive -- and that's usually the runaway son of some executive.

* I don't like being around the Bounty Hunters on this base. I recognize some of them as criminals I've put away before. But Bounty Hunters can go where the LPI doesn't have jurisdiction -- outside Liberty.

* Samura ships Polymers to this base from Tsushima Depot in Kyushu. Polymers are used in a wide variety of manufacturing and industrial processes. Universal handles most of the local distribution from here at Newark or Trenton so all we have to do is handle wholesale deliveries.

* Samura is an ancient company dating back to the first Shogunate of Kusari. Since then Samura has become the leader in a wide array of technologies. Samura supplies Liberty with Quantum Multiplexors, so they are indispensable to the people of this House. Remember that.

* Synth Foods representatives are often found here on Newark. Even though our product is very cheap, we still purchase a great deal of insurance. We also use Interspace's conference facilities to meet with representatives from other Houses who are here on business.

* The pilots who make the shipping runs within Liberty and Bretonia have it best. Sure there are lots of criminals in this House and in Bretonia, but we have dire enemies in Rheinland and Kusari.

* We import large quantities of Optronics from Planet Honshu. From here we distribute to the various shipyards and high tech manufacturing in Liberty that uses them.

* We bring Oxygen and Water to this base from Manhattan. It's one of the shortest and safest runs in all of Sirius. It took many years of flying for Universal before I got this cherry assignment.

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