Sournia Logistical Drydock

CLASS: Désix

GRAVITY: Complete

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Yes

CREW: 700

Sournia Repair Yards is currently the largest and most important space installation of the Maquisards. Sournia is essentially one giant space dry dock with associated workshops and simpler foundries. While it prevents the construction of a completely new spaceship, it allows for the repair of even very badly damaged Maquis ships that would otherwise have to be scuttled and abandoned.

Its origins date back to 831 AS, when all the jump holes in the Lorraine system collapsed, allowing the Maquisards to concentrate their forces in the southwestern parts of Gallia. Despite the use of knowledge gained from the remains of Issoudun in Orkney, the construction of such a massive space installation was by no means easy for the Maquisards. Sournia was immediately plagued by several structural flaws, the main one being the construction of the main beams, which have proven to be of sub-standard quality. Less than a year after they were built, they have already developed micro-cracks with the potential to compromise the structural integrity of the drydock itself in the future. Replacing them, however, is no longer economically or technically feasible, and so this is a weakness that the Maquisards will have to reckon with.

Because Sournia is structurally weaker than it should be due to these major internal defects, the Maquisards have been forced to commit more men and ships to her own protection - even at the cost of less comfort for all aboard the Sournia, where personal privacy is something virtually unheard of.

## News

Once a beacon of our national ingenuity, Metz was the site of the experimental Metz Mirror Array, more commonly known as the MMA project. The project was intended to assist the terraforming operations through a sophisticated array of orbital mirrors. The array would redirect additional sunlight onto the equatorial band of Metz, further raising local temperatures on the otherwise icy world.
Decried by its detractors as a "fool king's endeavour", the ambitious project never had the opportunity to prove its capabilities, as the nearly complete array fell victim to Kusari's invasion of Lorraine. With the array gone and supplies severed, the terraforming project and the biosphere it maintained collapsed during the occupation, leading to widespread famine across Metz. Unfortunately, in the wake of King Charles' gambit in Bretonia and the near complete destruction of Lorraine and Languedoc by Kusari forces, the Union government has declared the system a total loss and ordered a full evacuation of the planet.

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.

The most ambitious project was by far the Metz Mirror Array or MMA, which consisted of a vast phalanx of reflective satellites in orbit of the planet meant to increase the sunlight during Metz's 28 hours day. Contracted by EFL, the project was about to be finished when Kusari began its invasion of our Home. Most of the MMA satellites were spared during the earliest hours of the war as the initial fighting occurred around the stations of Roanne and Montigny. Unfortunately, the rest of the MMA was completely destroyed by the scorched earth tactic of Kusari's retreat.
On the planet's surface, the 70 million inhabitants suffered the long six months of the war. Being unsupplied, the oil reserves necessary to provide energy to the generators of the water reclamation facilities were dry by the end of the summer. As consequence, the quantity of water collected for agriculture was well below the required quantities for sufficient production. This was also coupled with a very early winter, with the first frosts in the equatorial regions by the end of September. These multiple factors resulted in serious consequences on Metz's food production and reserves, to the point that the possibility of famine was even evoked.
While this statement is revealed to be false, the food situation on Metz is more than worrisome and the confusion created by the end of the war and the Reunification makes the Metz supplying mission in food even more complex.

We will welcome any ships willing to explore Gallic space and establish relations with local factions. In exchange for the passage, we ask for guarantees of neutrality towards the Council, its military and civilian personnel. We also warn that any capital ship fleets or other large military detachments will be denied passage, by force if necessary. Our goal is to prevent the war, not to encourage attacks of other Houses who might consider Gallia its enemy. Gallia is no one's enemy, and our task is to prove it. We hope that after our actions in the Gallic Border Worlds the King of Gallia will demonstrate responsibility and discretion by establishing diplomatic relations with all four Houses and by canceling plans of Sirius-wide aggression.
However, even if the relations will be established, we, the Council, will still remain sworn enemies of the Crown, and the Second Gallic War will continue. Our current goal is to hold the passage in Languedoc open for everyone for as long as possible. However, the Royal Navy has assembled an overwhelming fleet in Languedoc that will soon head towards Languedoc. Our casualties has been very high during the recent years of fighting in this system, and odds to win the battles that will follow are very low. Languedoc detachments of the Council, and all civilians willing to escape the prosecution by Gallic government, will have to seek refuge in the Sirius Border Worlds. We are already looking for possible locations where we can build our bases and defensive installations.
We are also aware that Sirius space has its own unlawful factions, much like Gallic Brigands and Unione Corse in Gallia. Since our situation is complicated right now, we might seek help of those factions in order to survive and prevent unnecessary casualties. But we also realize that our equipment, ships and weaponry contain Gallic technologies that many Sirius parties are willing to appropriate. We are not trading or exchanging any of our military technologies. If any attempts to capture or attack Council personnel and ships occur, we reserve the right to retaliate with deadly force.

Where did we get those ships? The Council was aided substantially by using our supply lines from the Core Gallic Systems. Supplying the Council comes for a price, and while they usually avoid dealing with us directly, caring about the "public eye", the Maquis trade with us freely and simply transfer goods that they purchase from us to the Council. While we are not much concerned by the political motives of the Council, we share their hatred for the government, a rotted monarchy that has no sense of style, and corrupt corporations. If the Council needs help, we will provide as much as they can buy. Since money is not the only thing we need, the Council's new factories on Marne provide us a wide range of various goods necessary for a brigand's life, including ammunition, side arms, ship weaponry, and, most important, new ships. Maquis deliver the stuff to our installation of Epernay, and from Epernay they come to many other Brigands' bases all around the Gallic Border Worlds.
Now, as the path to unfamiliar new worlds in Sirius has been opened, the Brigands consider the future possibilities of this unexpected change. While the information on Sirius is now much less expensive than before and is easily accessible from anywhere within Gallia, we still do not have sufficient data on the unlawful groups that most surely exist in the Houses of Sirius and in other populated areas. We are now negotiating with Maquis to see if our survey parties could be granted passage through the mine field to gather intelligence and to find places where we could establish new bases of operations.

## Rumors

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