Trafalgar Base

CLASS: Ramshackle

GRAVITY: Partial

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Limited

CREW: Unknown

Trafalgar Station was founded shortly after Bretonia's industrial boom when mass amounts of salvage and ship debris were beginning to coalesce into the Southampton Debris Field. During the Gallic War, many pirate factions utilized Trafalgar as a launching point for raids on Gallic supply transports in Leeds. This made the base a high priority target for the Gallic Royal Navy when they stormed New London using the nearby jump hole. While largely destroyed during Gallia's assault, repairs and repressurization were quickly carried out to bring the station back into service as a fuel depot and staging ground.

Following the devastating conclusion of the Battle of New London, the Bretonia Armed Forces occupied the station to monitor smuggling routes through the debris field. In a seemingly bizarre show of generosity, Bretonia later ceded control of the station back to the Junkers in early 827 AS. As a consequence, there is uneasy speculation in the Bretonian underworld about the nature of any deal the Junkers may have cut with the Crown, and what that means for their own interests. Despite this, scrap salvaging has resumed, as has Trafalgar's role as Bretonia's black market of choice.

With the opening of Belvedere Refinery, Trafalgar has added a veneer of legitimacy to its operations, mimicking the mutually beneficial relationship the Junkers and ALG shared during the Sigma 13 cleanup. Since the Bretonian withdrawal from Dublin in 831 AS, the space around Trafalgar has also been the site of several bloody clashes between Corsair and Molly patrols. While the Junkers have attempted to keep the peace around their base, neither faction appears willing to accept a truce, however temporary.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* Gaians
* Junkers
* Mollys
* Outcasts

* Corsairs
* Outcasts
* Mollys
* Gaians

## News

Jane Gilliam, whose commendation for repelling a Corsair raiding party as an Armed Forces Captain featured in a CNS article in 800, was not so convinced. "We all knew even back then that The Line wasn't fit for purpose. The Heilbronn disaster should have seen it scrapped, but the Regents on Cambridge didn't want New London looking too closely and pressured the Norfolk to lobby to keep it. If William was still with us, he'd say the same."
The exact catalyst for the extra attention from the edge world pirates is unclear, with various commentators speculating on increased resistance to their operations in Rheinland, Hessian efforts in the deep Omegas, or a shift in their internal politics. Regardless of their true motivations, Interspace Commerce has recognised the elevated peril and adjusted its premiums in response.

With recent waves of unrest and conflict brewing across Sirius, salvaging in freshly independent frontiers is quickly setting itself up as being the means by which we corner more lucrative markets.

The Outcasts and their most loyal agents stepped in almost immediately in anticipation of something like this happening, and set new rules for distribution according to set keys. A small group of Liberty Rogues defied them and followed their own rules of distribution, but they didn't fare too well - the Dons, despite the ongoing crisis in Malta, do not tolerate insubordination.
For this reason, several powerful Junkers and Rogues immediately decided to dilute Cardamine instead of redistributing ostentatiously against the wishes of the Outcasts at the expense of their clients, thereby raising their own shares. Fortunately for these savvy businessmen, word did not reach the Outcasts until some time later, and thanks to an improved network of cooperation, most of the organizers were able evade Malta's assassins.
However, all these measures had only limited effectiveness. Many end-clients and casual Cardamine users have been forced to seek medical attention due to their deteriorating health due to potentially fatal withdrawal symptoms. It is not known how many Cardamine users eventually died because of the shortage, but it appears to be in the order of single-digit percentages - much to the very verbal displeasure of the Outcasts themselves.

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.

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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While Bretonia is indeed witnessing an extraordinarily high rate of economic growth in particular, it may be the case that the strain of this effort is becoming untenable, and potentially the rewards misplaced. Timothy Ball, of the independent think tank Economic Review Institute, believes this may indeed be the case. "Bretonia's economy is definitely on the rise. While still not at pre-war levels, and not expected to be for some years, the recovery we've witnessed so far has been uneven", he says. "The reconstruction of damaged and destroyed public infrastructure is underway, but seems to be lagging behind the rate of recovery being enjoyed by several major corporations. This can be explained by various factors for a time, but unless rectified, at some point this inequality could become a major point of domestic political contention."

Yesterday at 2200 hours SMT, nearby Sheffield Station and Kingston Border Station received automated distress signals from Liverpool, indicating an emergency aboard the station. Guild patrols redirected from Sheffield arrived on the scene within minutes, finding the border station destroyed. Search and rescue operations headed by Guild and BPA units commenced immediately and successfully salvaged several escape pods bearing several dozen survivors, who were immediately delivered to hospitals on New London.
BPA spokesperson Sandra Halling held a press conference earlier this morning. According to joint police and BIS investigations, Liverpool was destroyed by antimatter explosives planted aboard the station. Their detonation caused a catastrophic chain reaction, resulting in the station's own reactors melting down and exploding. Of the estimated one-hundred-twenty persons on board at the time of the attack, seventy-eight have been reported as dead or missing.
\So far, no party has taken credit for this heinous attack. However, Bretonian police surmises that it was likely perpetrated by either the criminals known as the Mollys or the infamous pirate organization, the Lane Hackers. The attack occurred following a significant redeployment of local Armed Forces units to the Cortez system for the purpose of joint operations with Libertonian security forces. This, says Halling, may have allowed terrorist sympathizers to exploit undermanned BPA patrols and smuggle illegal explosives through Manchester's ice fields, onto Liverpool Station.
While investigations continue, Bretonian Police Authority has reinforced patrols within Manchester and established traffic controls at Kingston Border Station and Birmingham Station. Traffic to and from Liberty has been advised to reroute through the Cortez system.

"The standing Navy of the Corsair Empire as well as its irregular raiders must do everything within their means to break existing stalemates or make progress. The enemies of Crete have grown arrogant and take for granted that Corsair offensives have lost their steam, this is an assessment which must be proved woefully wrong."
In response to these express instructions, activity across every Corsair installation has intensified to levels that suggest substantial mobilization.

## Rumors

* The Artifacts that come into Bretonia pass through here. They are brought to us by the Corsairs from their bases in the southern Edge Worlds. We do run into New London, which can get pretty risky with the police and military hovering about. If you get scanned, it's over.

* If you need cash, you can ship supplies to the Molly base Arranmore in Dublin. They need Oxygen, Water, H-Fuel, Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Goods, Food, Side Arms, and Engine Components. Some of that you can pick up here, the rest you might need to find a Freeport for if you're not too good with the law.

* The Gaians wouldn't have any place to get their supplies if it weren't for this base, but you should see how they gulp and sniff whenever they set foot in here. I hate dealing with them, but they bring us money in return for the supplies they need for their base in Edinburgh.

* The Corsair ship Caraz was making a routine Artifact smuggling run from Cadiz to Trafalgar several weeks ago, but it never arrived. Several intercepted military comms. suggest that it was damaged by an Armed Forces patrol and pursued into the Grasmere Ice Cloud.

* Business is booming friend. Want my advice? Snatch whatever workable salvage you can from Dublin and bring it back to us here. We'll pay you a pretty penny for it considering how valuable ship components are becoming to the Mollys and Corsairs. Just be careful when they start fighting, can't guarantee they won't accidentally kill you out of spite for our frugality.

* We buy Engine Components, Basic Alloys, Side Arms, and other basic necessities in New London. That's all legal, of course. We run those goods in small freighters by the dozens, and tag none of them. Those burocrats at docking control never could keep track of us that way.

* The Corsairs require Gold and Engine Components for their Tripoli Shipyard in Omicron Gamma. If you're friendly enough with them, you could make some very good money - if you can survive that trip. Between Bounty Hunters, Red Hessians and heavy radiation, it's no cakewalk.

* The war-torn Corsair base Cadiz in Omega-5 is in need of H-Fuel and Engine Components. Be careful getting there. The Red Hessians don't like freelancers helping their enemy, and the Mollys are none too keen on Corsair sympathisers either.

* Criminals deal with us because we can go where they can't. They could run the gauntlet into Liberty from here, but they wouldn't be able to dock anywhere. We Junkers have a cover. Most authorities don't know if we're hauling scrap or contraband, and that's how we get through. We can get our ships onto almost any planet, so criminals have to deal with us. Still, you got to be smart when running contraband - if you're caught, you'll either have to bribe someone or you won't be docking on your destination any time soon.

* The Outcast fighter Puno stumbled into one of the Southampton Debris Field radiation zones on the first Outcast drug run into the New London system in 751. It still lies there, untouchable to anyone who values their life.

* The Gaian base is known as Islay; they call it "the Sleet." Everyone knows that it's in the Islay Ice Cloud, but they don't know where - it's too well camouflaged. It's situated very close to a hidden Jump Hole to Leeds, which is really handy for hit-and-run attacks against BMM and the Trade Lanes, or for hitting the ice mining by Planetform's Perth base at Ayr.

* Us Junkers, we're a different breed from the rest of our "clientele." We just want to get along with everyone. You know why? Cuz that's the way to make money. We don't care about politics or which group killed this other group. To Junkers it's all about how many credits we can get our hands on, so we get all kinds on our bases and that's how we like it. One rule though: No guns in the bar.

* I'm hearing talk that the price for gold is skyrocketing. I've also heard that the Essex withdrew from Dublin, so it sounds to me like that's what I'm going to be spending the next few months running into Kusari. We might be seen as "scum" there, but that doesn't mean the right people won't know a good deal when they see it.

* We sell the Mollys' Gold, Corsairs' Artifacts, and Outcasts' Cardamine in New London. You can make very good money doing it, but don't get caught. We'll say we've never seen you before.

* Sometimes people wonder where the Junkers come from. It's true you can find us throughout Sirius except Kusari space, but no one knows where we started. The truth is that the Junkers are comprised of all kinds. We are the ones who weren't happy working for one group or another. Our blood is from all the people of Sirius, even the Kusari. Truth is, once yer a Junker you aren't nothing else but a Junker, and whatever you were before falls away.

* This is the last stop for us on our Artifact run from our homeland. Maybe one day you could run Artifacts for the Corsairs. It's dangerous but pays very well. If those aren't two things that interest you then I'm wasting my time talking to you. Just make sure to stay clear of those Red Hessians.

* Once we drop our Artifacts here, the fun begins. We raid the Trade Lanes here in Bretonia to supply our bases back home along the Edge Worlds. Before we discovered that we could make such a nice profit from selling the Artifacts, we lived solely by raiding. Bretonia is a relatively easy place to raid, compared to Rheinland or the Sigmas. The police here are not very skilled fighters, and the military are too preoccupied with a war. The only worthy opponents here are a few Bounty Hunters.

* Bretonia offers many tempting targets. We soon realized that we didn't need to buy the Gold from the Junkers; we could go steal it ourselves from the Mollys and IMG. Once we dispose of the Mollys, the Bretonian underworld will be ours - the Gaians aren't a threat to our presence here.

* The Trujillo stumbled into a gas pocket in the old Somerset mining area during the early days of Corsair incursion in the New London system. The ship was lost deep inside the hazard area. Several attempts were made to rescue the Artifacts it carried, but to no avail.

* Now that there has been a ban declared on Artifacts, it has been more difficult to sell as many as before, but we have compensated by raising the prices. Everyone always wants what they can't have, and now the rich fools who crave these toys will pay almost any amount for them. We drop them off here and have the Junkers handle the last leg.

* There are Outcasts on this base. They arrived in Sirius on the same ship as us - the Hispania, but they refused to join us on Crete. Now they are just like everyone else - targets. It's not that we don't like them, but that won't stop us from taking one of their shipments or putting them in the airlock. Somehow I doubt those masks they wear would save them from that.

* The Mollys' hatred for BMM is an advantage to our own attacks upon that corporation, and though we don't share the same motivations that the Mollys do, our disgust with the despoilers of BMM is just as intense. Unlike many underground operations, we are not motivated by the acquisition of money. We are a political organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for all who live in Bretonia, even our enemies, though they are too blind to see it.

* If it wasn't for the Green Front, I doubt the Gaians would be able to operate at all. We have the support of the intellectuals in Bretonia and the educated elite of Cambridge but without the financial assistance that Green Front brings in... Well, let's just say that good causes don't fund themselves.

* The Molly fighter Vanguard was on a Gold run from Dublin to Trafalgar when it was intercepted by a Bretonia Armed Forces patrol in the Cumbria Asteroid Field. They gave chase and he fled into a known gas hazard area. Unfortunately, his luck ran out that day when he encountered a particularly dense pocket. The ship still lies there, awaiting anyone foolish enough to knowingly enter a volatile gas zone.

* One of our lads, Roger Patience, got captured last week by the police in Manchester during a MOX raid. He's one of our best. He was on a prison convoy headed for Newgate Prison. We cracked him out in Manchester yesterday as it broke from the Trade Lanes. If you see him, he might buy you a drink to celebrate his new-found freedom.

* The Junkers like to deal with us because we bring them something everybody wants: Gold. We used to mine it for BMM; now we steal theirs or mine it from our own fields. We aren't thieves, though. We paid for that Gold in blood and the broken hands of our brethren and fathers before us. Graves was nothing more than a slaver. He and his ilk got what was coming.

* We buy Side Arms for the Cali base in Tau-23 here. It's not an easy Jump Hole route between Trafalgar and our base out there. Fortunately, the Barrier offers plenty of cover, and there are several routes available to us. My favorite is over Dublin and Edinburgh. The Gallics make things a bit more interesting on that route now, but dealing with militaries is nothing new to us. They can't use their capital ships inside the asteroid fields, so we have the upper hand there.

* BMM was no match for our forces in Tau-23. The IMG are more tenacious but also hardly a match. The Gallic forces that have taken over the BMM base are a different story. Their craft aren't as strong as ours, but they are highly maneuverable. Still, we will force them out of the system and destroy the Jump Gate. Our survival as a sovereign nation is at stake. Cali is a crucial distribution point for Cardamine on the trip to Bretonia and Liberty.

* The San Vicente was making a Cardamine run from Cali to New London when it was ambushed by an Armed Forces patrol in the West Leeds Smog Cloud. The cargo was recovered by the military, but it is possible that one of the larger pieces of debris still has some equipment attached.

* So you're interested in working for us? Try running a load of Cardamine to Magellan or Cortez for us. The Lane Hackers would appreciate that. Be sure to stay away from any military or police ships, they'll likely open fire on you if you're loaded with Cardamine.

* Cardamine was the one good thing that fate gave us. When we first landed on Malta the weak who didn't want to live anymore could go to a better place chewing the orange grass. Taking an extreme dose of Cardamine raw from the grass is almost always fatal, but it's a gentle way to go. It was also a curse, as we became dependent on Cardamine to survive, though we don't get a high from it anymore. Now we use Cardamine to make money. Eventually we'll run Sirius. Once a large enough portion of the populace is hooked, we've got them. The Rogues and Golden Chrysantemums are proof of that.

* From here we ship to Liberty via the Rogue base Montezuma in Cortez. They can't get enough of our Cardamine, so as long as we keep it flowing they are under our control. They make good attack dogs. Soon more of the criminal factions will become addicted, along with the house elite who are just looking for their next highs. When we've got control of both, we'll essentially control the houses - then our revenge will be complete.

* The Outcast ship Lorenzo was making a Cardamine run from Cali to Mactan when it was caught by a military patrol in the LD-14 Asteroid Field. It turned further into the heart of the field to escape its pursuers and stumbled into an old radioactive pocket. The crew is presumed dead, but the ship is probably still intact. No one has retrieved the cargo yet due to the high radiation danger in the area.

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