Cali Base

CLASS: Gorgona

GRAVITY: Partial

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Limited

CREW: 220

Constructed inside a hollowed out asteroid within the Tau-23 system, Cali base was initially built in 734 AS as a small refuelling outpost for Outcast smugglers. It has been substantially upgraded over the years to become one of the most important forward bases for the Edge World pirates, particularly in light of the recent discovery, and breaching of the minefields blocking the entrances into Gallia.

Fighting between the Outcasts and the Independent Miners Guild is prevalent throughout the system. Outcast raiders frequently ambush IMG transports, making off with a decent portion of the cargo moving to and from Java.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* Outcasts
* Zoners

## News

Fortunately for the Outcasts, the Dons had prepared for this eventuality from the rebellion's outset, and so, our distribution networks were immediately put into "maintenance mode", where maximum emphasis is placed on supplying existing customers, and the existing Cardamine stocks are distributed on a key-by-key basis in order to prevent the network's collapse.
Despite these measures, panic reigned, and demand for Cardamine skyrocketed, triggering armed conflicts between the various network participants and driving the prices to dizzying heights. Although Cardamine has now fallen from its record prices thanks to the lobbying of the Outcasts themselves, this price shock is sure to leave markets uncertain.
The Dons expect production to return to pre-rebellion levels over the next four years as they rebuild the rebel-destroyed on Malta.

We of course speak of the Corsairs, who exploited our people's moment of tragedy to seize Freeport 9 as a forward base. The Corsair occupation of the Freeport represents an existential threat to the Maltese people, and their raids upon our very home cannot and will not be tolerated. The Battlecruiser Augusta has led a force into Omicron Theta with orders to destroy the station and its biodomes, disrupt the Corsairs, and annihilate the Artifact trade that funds them.
Already we have won a great victory by striking down the Battleship Fes, with the Battleship Delos surely soon to join it in the grave. The Dons have promised a handsome payment to the cartel of each pilot that kills a Corsair in Omicron Theta.

Ibiza Station has been reinforced with additional guard squadrons and placed on high alert, in case this is the precursor to a larger Corsair fleet movement. Once the current disarray on Malta is resolved, the Cartels will turn their attention to matters of security, and the fleets will be free to strike terror into the hearts of our foes once more.
The Corsairs may feel they have won themselves a great prize in Omicron Theta, but the Freeport is no fortress and a biodome is a fragile thing. The Corsairs say they were forced to act to secure their territory. Soon enough they shall learn that men in glass houses should not cast stones.

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.

While it remains unclear how the rebels learned of the orbital installation locations, it is possible that some of the more benevolent masters did not consider their slaves to be a serious security threat and allowed them access to portions of critical infrastructure. The Dons do not know how they will approach this pressing fact, but it is clear that the laxity of their brothers and sisters has allowed the rebellion to put up unexpectedly strong resistance.
Despite this, the slaves themselves seem to realize the futility of their struggle as Outcast forces in Omicron Alpha have managed to disable most of the IMG and CR ships that attempted to smuggle aid and reinforcements to the besieged rebels. As the Outcasts succeed in gaining tactical and strategic superiority and their forces regain lost territory, the end of this rebellion is only a matter of time, blood and sweat.
As a final act of revenge, the slaves aimed their weapons not only against the Outcasts themselves, but also against the reason they were brought here: Cardamine. As such, plantation fires stretch from horizon to horizon across the rural regions of planet Malta.

The slave rebellion itself began in the mines of the planet Albegna when the Benitez Cartel executed 200 slaves for sabotaging a mining facility. This cruelty resonated throughout the mining colony, even among the usually trouble-free slaves, and they quickly gained control of the mining facility, including Don Juan Benitez himself, who was to oversee the execution. When the Benitez Cartel learned that their Don had been executed by the slaves instead, they ordered the liquidation of the mining colony.
Although the Albegna mining colony revolt was resolved in less than two weeks, promises by other Dons of 'precautionary measures' across the board, which most slaves interpreted as more mass executions, sparked a widespread slave uprising across Malta. Although the slaves themselves would hardly have been able to resist the well-armed Outcasts, the rebels had the element of surprise in the form of caches of smuggled weapons and other military equipment.
As war rages on planet Malta between desperate slaves and their surprised masters, all Outcast forces from Sirius are recalled to planet Malta to quell the rebellion as quickly as possible. With the IMG and CR taking advantage of weakened Outcast influence in the Tau Region, the question arises as to whether this was all planned by their neighboring foes.

Our smuggling routes have come under increased scrutiny from law enforcement throughout the Sirius Sector, causing an increase rate of failure for our smugglers. The independent smuggling contacts are also increasingly reluctant to continue their work as the risks begin to outweigh the rewards. That in turn, has a secondary effect of making people turn to the filthy Cryer for their Stabiline, a fake remedy for Cardamine withdrawal that we can only describe as snake oil, filling up pockets with false promises.
Dissenting voices painfully point out that this is the first time in a century where we have seen three consecutive quarters of falling profits, with several minor Cartels allegedly facing bankruptcy amid the disaster. The Dons have quickly silenced such assertions, reassuring the public that the Orange Dream will continue to grow.
To address the situation, the Dons demand ever-greater Cardamine yields, launching unprecedented expansion efforts. Steps will be taken to secure the product's shipping. In addition, they plan to import a large labor force from the colonies to bolster the Maltese plantations. This undertaking will require a coordinated effort from Maltese Navy captains, independent smugglers and subverted Sirian assets to acquire and ship slaves en masse to Malta.

"These, like all effects of the stimulant, last roughly an hour and leave no permanent alterations. The only permanent effect is Cardamine addiction. None of the other components have addictive qualities." Ishida goes to elaborate further and states that "The full formula is a closely guarded secret and shall not be made public." This new drug is currently focused mainly for the Kusari market, but Ishida has not ruled out the possibility of expanding it further.

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.

## Rumors

* It's been hard to crack into the Kusari market with our drug, because their strongest crime syndicate, the Hogosha, refuse to deal with us. But we have found allies within Kusari who will help us tap that well. The Golden Chrysanthemums have discovered the allure of Cardamine.

* One of our allies is the Rogues. They aren't our partners as much as our pawns. We have them under control because they are addicted to Cardamine. Soon more groups will fall to the allure of the drug, and they will also be ours to control. I see this upon the horizon for the Golden Chrysanthemums.

* If you don't mind risking NCR status in Liberty, you may be interested in shipping our drugs. You can take the Cardamine from here and sell it at any Rogue or Junker base. The closer you get to capitol systems, the more dangerous it gets. But it's also more rewarding. The best delivery point is Buffalo Base, a Liberty Rogue base in the Badlands in New York.

* Our most valued Cardamine customer is the Lane Hackers. Not only do they pay us well for our Cardamine, they will barter valuable Trade Lane information for it. I foresee them becoming completely dependent upon us. Soon their Trade Lane technology will be ours.

* We get our Side Arms from the Junkers at Rochester in New York. It would be very lucrative to run Cardamine there and return here with Detroit Side Arms.

* The Jump Hole to Tau-37 remains hidden to most amongst the asteroids that populate this system. Unfortunately the IMG found their way there. Beyond it you will find the way to Omicron Alpha, which is the location of our home planet, Malta.

* The IMG miners in this system capitulated to the Gallics as soon as it was demanded. Pathetic... We'll do no such thing. We were here long before those interlopers showed up, and will continue to be here long after.

* The Gallic battleship protecting Java Station has been withdrawn from the system and the Jump Gates were sabotaged. This means that Tau-23 is once again a lawless place. The upside is that the miners still here would be easy pickings. The downside is that their cargo convoys will be much more sparse than they were before.

* The Gallic invaders had lost all the foothold they once had in this system. Their Jump Gates and Trade Lanes have been disabled, but this does not mean they would not be back again. It is a matter of time before they or the Sirians try to lay claim on our system again.

* We receive the Cardamine from where it is processed on Malta, and then we distribute it into Sirius. Our path towards Liberty passes through Coronado, where we encounter hinderance from the Crayter Republic, while our path towards Bretonia is through Newcastle. The recent military conflicts in the Taus had made shipping Cardamine in secrecy all the more difficult.

* Our raiders keep a close eye on the movements of Gallic ships in the Taus. Sure, they gave the Crayter Republic the bloodletting it deserved, but having them interlope here is just as bad. If left unchecked it would be only a matter of time before their scouts find the passage to Omicron Alpha.

* Tau-23 is our space. Unfortunately Bretonia, the IMG and even Gallia have begun encroaching upon us. Niobium and Beryllium have been discovered here, and the miners have followed looking for it. That is why this base is mobilized for sorties. We're fighting to keep their operations from spreading beyond this system towards Malta.

* I yearn for my return to Malta. I miss the orange fields of grass and sprawling plantations. The Cardamine is so woven into my blood that even my skin feels dry and cracked without the winds of my home planet upon it.

* We trust you, so I will tell you how to make yourself very rich. The Cardamine brought to this base comes from Malta. It is there that we also receive all necessary supplies to run this base. Delivering Cardamine to our allies in Liberty and Kusari is dangerous, but very rewarding.

* I am Santiago Llorens. Perhaps you have heard of me? My Don, Don Miguel of the Benitez Cartel has asked me a favor, and I cannot deny him. I will soon leave this base and cross the Edge Worlds to kill a man he asked me to.

* The Ohtori was escorting the Yukari Maru from Cali to Ainu when it was ambushed by a Naval Forces patrol crossing Kyushu. The cargo ship fled to safety while its escort turned to fight the attackers to the death. There are rumors that the Ohtori may be still intact somewhere in the Seiran Dust Cloud.

* We use the Kyushu Jump Hole to the northeast of this base to get into the system. These Outcasts are weird guys, but they sell us what we want. Cardamine is essential to the Golden Chrysanthemum way of life.

* The Cardamine we get from this base goes straight to Ainu. Sometimes we come here with H-Fuel from our base so that we can make a little money to buy extra Cardamine for personal use. We don't get bothered by anyone in this system. Even the Bounty Hunters leave us alone.

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