Norfolk Shipyard

CLASS: Alabama

GRAVITY: Partial

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Yes

CREW: 1120

Built in 87 AS, Norfolk Shipyard has the honour of being both the oldest shipyard in Liberty and the second oldest in the Sirius sector, after Yokohama Shipyard in Kusari. Constructed and maintained by the Liberty Navy, it has the distinction of manufacturing many of the battleships and cruisers of the Liberty Navy. Of particular interest, is the unique, triple hulled armor plating design that all Liberty Navy vessels have, although the manufacturing procedure used at Norfolk is highly classified.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

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

* When you think Optronics, the Kusari manufacturers come to mind. But when it comes to Optical Chips, Ageira builds some of the finest in all of Sirius. They are shipped here from Los Angeles to be used in the construction of ships of all sizes.

* From Jump Gates to Side Arms and Optical Chips, Ageira is the high-tech leader for all of Liberty and Sirius. What other company has given so much toward the progress of all the people here?

* Some people say that Outcasts and Corsairs used to be the same people. I guess it's possible, though if you've ever seen an Outcast you might think differently. They are just different from the rest of the people of Sirius and the Corsairs. I can't imagine them being friendly with anyone but other Outcasts.

* 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.

* The pirates and raiders here in Liberty are punks compared to what you'll find on the fringes of Sirius. Sure, there are Outcasts here, but they are an Edge World syndicate that travels into the heart of Liberty to sell their Cardamine.

* The scum you see here in Liberty is all that you find in an area with the greatest police and military presence in Sirius. Once you leave Liberty, you start meeting the real bad ones: Mollys in Bretonia, Red Hessians in Rheinland, and Blood Dragons in Kusari.

* Most Bounty Hunters you run across have either been hunting for a few years and know the ropes, or they're green -- in which case they'll probably be dead within a month or two.

* Think you're a good pilot? Well, tell me what you think of yourself after you tangle with a Corsair. That's if you survive, which honestly, I doubt you would.

* The Mollys in Dublin hit the last shipment headed here before this last one. All hands were lost, but that is the cost of shipping valuable Commodities like Gold. That is what Bowex is known for -- um, the shipping valuable Commodities part, not the dead-employee part.

* Bowex is one of the oldest and most reliable shipping firms in all of Sirius. We have more ships and greater hauling ability than the upstarts at Gateway Shipping. Their company will not last the test of time, as Bowex has.

* Deep Space ships Uranium from Isehara in Sigma-59 to this shipyard. That gives us a profitable return trip after delivering Gate and Lane Parts.

* Sometimes we supplement our shipping routes with MOX. BMM supplies most of our needs from LD-14, but before the war with Rheinland ALG supplied us large quantities from Dortmund.

* ALG ships MOX to this facility from Rheinland. If you ever want to ship MOX, you are going to have to be pretty good friends with the people in Dortmund. A lot of criminal factions would like to get their hands on MOX -- it's possible to separate small amounts of plutonium from it.

* The majority of Liberty naval ships protect our shipping concerns in the Independent Worlds. That is where the more dangerous pirates and criminal activities take place. The exception is the Missouri, which is stationed in New York to keep the jewel of Sirius safe.

* The sorties launched from this base are patrols tasked with keeping the inbound Commodities to this base safe so that ship production is never slowed by thieves and pirates.

* This base is the home of Liberty naval ship construction. In this place the greatest ships are built in all of Sirius. And the best naval officers command them. I served on the Missouri; she's one of Norfolk's finest.

* The Bounty Hunters you see here are pretty good; we're near the Badlands and I've seen these guys around before. Usually you only see green Bounty Hunters once.

* Even though this run is a dangerous one, we need to fulfill this contract with the Liberty Navy. When this company first began no one believed it would survive, but we grow stronger every day.

* Gateway ships Robotics to this base from Aland Shipyard in Omega-3. The Rogues' ability to sniff out the Robotics convoys seems uncanny. I'm told that they get their info from the Lane Hackers, so they are the real enemy -- the ring leaders versus the attack dogs.

* This is more navy space than it is an LPI patrol area. We send a flight down the Trade Lane between here and Ft. Bush, but that's to protect against Rogue attacks launched from the Pittsburgh debris.

* If we didn't need labor for our consumer goods facilities, I'd kill all the Rogues I came across. I just get tired of putting away the same scum and watching 'em get released a couple years later to start doing the same illegal activity.

* H-Fuel from Ft. Bush and Basic Alloys from Manhattan are brought to this base by Universal Shipping. The Basic Alloys are dropped off here. I head up to Ft. Bush to pick up the H-Fuel, come back here to unload it, and then head back to Manhattan to start all over.

* Quantum Multiplexors are in demand here. Samura's new Misaki Station supposedly has automated much of their production process, and it's a good thing, too, because even now they can barely keep up with orders. Between retrofits and new capital ships, Norfolk burns through its inventory pretty fast.

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