Ouray Base

CLASS: Red Dog

GRAVITY: Complete

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Limited

CREW: 410

The Xenos were originally comprised of heavy manufacturing and mining workers within Colorado and Texas. Quite a number of their ancestors also worked at the Ames Research Station, which was a good employer for generations. But as Liberty industries faced stronger competition from Kusari, and natural resources in Liberty declined, most of the blue-collar workers became unemployed and were pushed to the economic fringe of Liberty society.

As the Liberty rich moved to Colorado to escape the paradise lost in California, many unemployed workers were displaced, sometimes forcefully by police forces. This led to several radical groups popping up, which eventually gave rise to the Xenos movement. Taking to the stars in whatever old mining ships they could lay their hands on, the Xenos settled in old mining bases like Ouray, vowing revenge on the foreigners that had taken their jobs and prosperity. Once settled in to their new home, the Xenos began launching sporadic raids focused against foreign shippers, in the hopes of driving them out of Liberty. Whenever they were captured they were sent to Huntsville prison in Texas, where cross-fertilization with other inmates only helped to swell their ranks.

Because of the Xeno preference for attacking foreign ships, Universal Shipping has actually benefited from the attacks and has lobbied the government to take it easy on them. It is rumoured that some of their attacks on foreign shipping were not Xenos, but actually mercenaries hired by Universal to harass the competition. The Xenos are currently one of the poorest of all the criminal factions, so they have little resources to buy better ships and weapons. To gain a more stable income stream, they hope to evict the Junkers from Texas, and ultimately New York, and thus control a crucial market for black market goods, mostly artifacts, "liberated" software, illegal gold and diamonds.

The Xenos' love of light arms often brings them into conflict with Ageira, especially around the Detroit Munitions plant. They also regularly attack the Junkers in the Jersey Debris Field of northern New York, in the hopes of displacing the scrap merchants as the premier smuggling outfit within Liberty.

## 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.

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.

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.

Presenting the potential for cataclysmic damage to personhood and proprety prompted Ageira to shut down the gates leading into the system, as well as the respective trade lanes. In the time since then however, Ames has relayed a stunning report that the storm despite being violent at first, has now settled into quite a passive albeit looming stance over the system. Perhaps more surprising than even this is the phenomena regarding the storm's interactions with the established lane and gate network in the system, seeming to bend and contort around the structure rather than engulf them. This stellar formation has produced the spatial equivalent of a tunnel that travelers into the freshly reopened Kepler have taken to dubbing the "Murky Road", prompting a small degree of sensationalized tourism into the system. Which comes as a small positive after the harsh loss of the otherwise frequent traffic.
This news comes at the tail end of previous publications that cited the storm as having origins in Alberta, supposedly arriving via some form of leakage through the jumpholes in the system. Newer research has allowed for discoveries which now suggest the contrary and this has in turn reinvigorated research into these storms and their enigmatic natures.

## Rumors

* When the Xenos began, we were just miners who kept getting shafted by Liberty. There were fewer and fewer jobs as the years rolled by. Finally, there was nothing left for us, no jobs, not unless you could use a data pad instead of an auto-digger. All our jobs were being done by somebody in Rheinland or Kusari. Well, we decided to take back what had been taken from us.

* We might not have the best equipment or ships, but we are a lot better organized than we were. It was getting so bad that LPI almost won and ripped us out of Colorado. But we have a focused agenda now: We lift supplies from Kusari shipping, a little extortion here and there, some salvaging, and we get by. This lets us attack our real enemies -- the Junkers in New York. Once we knock them out of Rochester, we'll corner the contraband trade in Liberty.

* We used run supply shipments of Side Arms to Nome, our now-abandoned base in Kepler. A real shame, it was a pretty easy way to earn some quick cash.

* The main drug-smuggling routes cross the eastern part of the Jersey Debris Field, which will be our turf someday. This would let us interdict the drug shipments headed to and from Rochester. If we could control the Liberty drug trade, we wouldn't have to scrape by.

* Ever since Kepler got locked off, we can no longer safely get supplies from Ames. If anything, it's them who are in the market for buying some. You want to try making that run? Best of luck, but I'm in no rush to die.

* The Rogues still hold the largest share of the Cardamine market, and that doesn't seem like it'll change any time soon. But at least now things will change, we're in a position to compete, and it's not like we have to care about splitting the pot with some lousy middleman like the Junkers. That means we can rely on more attractive prices to lure the rich pricks on Manhattan right into our pockets.

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