Charost Depot

CLASS: St Michel

GRAVITY: Complete

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Yes

CREW: 250

Charost Depot was the result of a collaboration between the Maquis and Council, carved into one of the more massive ice rocks in Tau-31 during the Gallic War. It fulfills the most basic needs of the Maquis by providing a fairly remote staging point from which to launch guerilla strikes on Gallic Navy assets and Gallic shipping in the Tau systems. Since the nearby Hebrides have been infested by Gallic Royalist forces following the war, the Maquis of Charost have been working with the Gaians to coordinate acts of terrorism against the Royalist remnants and the new Gallic Navy that expand outside of Gallia.

## News

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.

At present, no house stands to conclusively fill the vacuum of power in the Taus, clouding the future to secure exploitation of its rich natural resources in ambiguity. Following the withdrawal of Kusari from Tau-23 after the final confrontation in Languedoc, the lanes within the system seem to have been subject to sabotage, and Gallia has released a public statement that Orkney would instead be favored over Tau-23 for the route to Tau-31, likely owing to Orkney being the last major Tau system that Gallia holds bases in. Niobium futures have ballooned in response to plummeting consumer confidence in stable Niobium extraction, resulting in vicious multinational corporate and paramilitary competition over Tau resource exploitation. The Taus are now a lawless battleground of conflicting corporate interests, small scale military skirmishes, and pirate incursions, all scrambling for a piece of Niobium.
Given the thorough depletion of military might and expansionist ambitions in the surrounding devastated houses, chances are low that the Taus will find themselves tamed by a lawful house in the foreseeable future.

The course of the Second Gallic War has proved many times that we can fulfill our obligations and act with honour and courage. The presence of Maquis on Planet Marne is stronger than ever, and several space ports on the planet are fully under our control, open for ships of our other allies, the Brigands and the Corse. Gallic Brigands and Unione Corse do not participate in our fight for the overthrow of the monarchy in Gallia, however, they share our desire for freedom from the control of corrupt officials and Gallic corporations.
The liberation of Languedoc, a massive operation of the Council in which we participated, was our most recent - and most deadly - strike against the monarchy. While several hundred of our fighters were destroyed by the Gallic Navy during this operation, the goal is now achieved: isolation of Gallia from Sirius is a thing of the past. The Maquis also played an important role in securing a secret passage in the Lorraine mine fields. Unione Corse delivered us the prototypes of the devices that the Gallic Navy was going to use to neutralise their mines when the time for the Sirius-wide invasion came. Council engineers recreated those devices in sufficient numbers to disable a large portion of the Lorraine mine field, revealing a nearby system that is known as Omicron Tau by Sirius naming conventions.
Despite our recent victories, the Second Gallic War is far from over. Gallic fleets are gathering strength, and soon they will inevitably gain the upper hand in Languedoc. Our current objective is to secure our installations in the asteroid fields of the Gallic systems. We will also aid in defending the Champagne system from any Royal Navy attacks. Planet Marne is a new home to many of us. Fresh air instead of recycled space station atmosphere, fresh food instead of synthetic substitutes - this is what we missed for so long, and what this war's successes have made accessible for us.

## Rumors

* The Maquis and the Council fight their battles very differently. While the Council has to maintain an image of benevolent freedom fighters, we of the Maquis will do whatever is necessary to see the Royalists crumble, even if that means hitting civilian targets.

* The Council and the Maquis are really just two sides of the same coin. While we all want freedom from the Crown, we have very different methods that we use.

* Here in the Maquis, we have two kinds of members. The majority of us are ex-soldiers, many of whom have lost everything they care about. The latter are hardened criminals and anarchists, who are quite happy to burn Royalists and fill their own pockets at the same time.

* The Council is too soft, in my opinion. They take little action against the very corporations which feed the Royalist war machine!

* I will not stop fighting. None of us ever will, not until the King has paid for his crimes against our people and the powers in Gallia have become accountable to the people.

* I've killed my fair share of Royalists. Everyone here has blood on their hands, and we're not ashamed. I lost track after a hundred, and that doesn't count collateral damage.

* You see this? It's a knife. I like sharp knives. The only thing I like more is plunging them into the soft flesh of Royalists. Unfortunately, due to the nature of this war, I have to make do with an Agama instead. Most of the time.

* We have a symbiotic relationship with the Council. In exchange for doing the dirty work that would otherwise tarnish their reputation, the Council supplies us with a lot of the equipment we need.

* The Maquis are not as structured as the Council. We have much more freedom to operate individually. However, at each of our bases there is always a group of senior members who have earned the respect of their compatriots, and they determine how and where we fight.

* Oil, such a wonderful thing to explode. The flames are just like in the liberation-day fireworks on Planet Marne.

* I came to this base as part of a supply convoy. We will be returning to Planet Toulouse with Refugees who wish to escape the fighting and start a new life outside of Gallia. It's going to be a hard life there, but we're up to the challenge and freedom is its own reward.

* While it is not openly discussed, quietly many of us Council pilots support the Maquis. They've done us enough favours in the past. The Council has to officially distance itself from the Maquis' tactics, but that doesn't mean we'll allow the Royal forces to kill them with impunity. We're all fighting for the same thing, even if we go about it differently.

* Our preferred tactical approach to combat is guerilla warfare. We pick our targets, infiltrate, eliminate, and leave. The Maquis is much smaller than the Council, so we don't have room for heroic self-sacrifice.

* Nothing satifies me better than a great, big, fiery explosion. Last week one of my torpedoes penetrated the drive core of an IDF transport...the catastrophic damage was a glorious sight to behold.

*NOTE: Page generated on the 28/10/2023 at 17:59:45 UTC*