Willard Research Station

CLASS: Bingham

GRAVITY: Complete

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Limited

CREW: 340

There are few research facilities in Sirius as mysterious as the rocky white fortress that is Willard Station, hidden within the misty depths of the Tahoe Ice Cloud in the California system. Liberty Security Force transports frequent the station, although their contents are always shielded from scanning, and the Liberty Navy are careful to keep the inquisitive and the insane away from the station, either by the expedient of making verbal demands to withdraw, or simply allowing their massed energy weapons to do the talking for them.

Much of the research at the facility is classified, though since the highly publicised attack on Willard in 800 AS by a seemingly "rogue" Rheinland Military battle group, security has been further tightened with additional weapon platforms and patrols. It is known, however, that artifacts of unknown origin are researched here, although where they come from is anyone's guess.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* Gateway Shipping
* Bounty Hunters Guild
* Cryer Pharmaceuticals
* Universal Shipping
* Ageira Technologies
* Liberty Navy
* Liberty Security Force
* Liberty Police, Inc.
* Planetform, Inc.

* Bounty Hunters Guild

## 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.

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.

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.

Over the last few days, Archer-class siege cruisers have been deploying their massive coaxial cannons to suppress military infrastructure on the planet, systematically targeting the very last bastions of the Insurgency. First to be destroyed were the planet's few remaining ground to space weapons installations, quickly crippled by bomber strikes from the Ohio herself, before the remaining desolate ground defences and deserted infrastructure were reduced to rubble, their populations having already long fled the world.
A small service was held on the Ohio as the bombardment drew to a close in memory of Rear Admiral Dylan Brandt and those thousands of sailors and marines who had given their lives in the name of Liberty; fought their own lost brothers-in-arms so that others may not live under their misguided yoke, and many more who had their lives irrevocably changed as a result of the evils the campaign sought to end.
The announcement also confirmed identical monuments to the Insurgency campaign would be erected on every world in Liberty, from Planet Houston to Planet Erie, each monument an obelisk carrying the names of every serviceman lost in the conflict and serving as a reminder that Liberty is stronger when it stands together.

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.

Admiral Brandt was heard to give the order to abandon ship right as the ship's hull could take no more and began to be torn asunder, with hull breaches on multiple decks. Tragically, the armored engines of the Delaware had suffered a great deal of damage, and as the armor and shielding was whittled away, vast quantities of radiation and superheated gas began to flood into the crew compartments of the vessel.
In an emotional announcement, the Liberty Navy officially stated that they consider the Delaware to be lost with all hands, including Admiral Brandt himself. No life pods could be secured in the heat of battle, with the remainder of the Delaware's escort making a fighting retreat back to the LNS Ohio which had herself been caught lagging behind the Delaware's doomed thrust into the heart of the Insurgency. The Ohio now remains with her own escort, augmented by survivors of the Delaware's battlegroup, and will continue as the Liberty Navy's bastion in the Vespucci system, ready to ensure that the Insurgents pay dearly for the toll they have extracted upon one of Liberty's finest Admirals.

Leading a fearsome line of some of Liberty's most advanced warships, the Delaware bore down on the Insurgency's remaining, cobbled-together fleet in the Vespucci system, out of position from dealing with a Bretonian thrust from Magellan. Immediately caught was the Battleship Vanquisher, one of the scant few Arbiter-class Battleships available to the Insurgents. Caught by itself, the Vanquisher put up a fearsome fight but was ultimately unable to stand against the Delaware and its escort, despite its fighter component dealing severe damage to much of the Delaware's own, smaller fighter contingent, as well as the Delaware herself.
With the great Arbiter all but vanquished, the Interdictor-class Battlecruiser Triton stared down the guns of the damaged Delaware and her escort. Outnumbered two-to-one, and outgunned to an even greater degree by the Libertonian heavyweight, Triton and her escorts launched their one and only advantage, their fighter and bomber superiority gained at the Vanquisher's expense.

It is widely speculated that the recent surge taking place in the Kansas system is related. The oddly self named Insurgency has long been categorized as a "Domestic Paramilitary Organization" that is of extremist political nature, in effect making them Liberty citizens with rights as such. The Act recategorizes them as a "Foreign Supported Terrorist Organization", a drastic shift in political standing. Sources have speculated the move is related to the Bering operation that precipitated the formation of the Insurgency as the root cause of the change in policy. Despite considerable cost both monetarily and in terms of material, the operation failed to expunge the organization to the desired level. The Act comes a considerable spending package for future operations and gives free rein to Liberty Navy admirals to take necessary measures to properly remove the long-standing issue.

## Rumors

* We're not too far from the Whitney Ice Asteroid Field. The main Rogue hideout in California is there. They also got the Jump Hole to Texas.

* This place makes me feel real unwelcome. Them navy folks just don't want us here. They're all suspicious and secretive. We're just performing a necessary duty -- waste disposal. That's what I would call it.

* I'm getting bored around here. Same old stuff with the Rogues and Hackers. I want to get out to the Border Worlds. The Corsairs and Red Hessians are supposed to be nasty in the Omega systems.

* I'm just taking a breather. Been floating around this cursed cloud for weeks. There's lots of bad guys out there; it's just tough to nail them. Half the time you're just trying to avoid ice crystals appearing out of the mists.

* Those white coats gave me a strange request last week. They said to bring back an Outcast with their Cardamine. Guess they want to study them more closely. Sounds kind of creepy to me.

* This base was opened up in 700 to more carefully study the Alien Organisms that are brought back from the Omicron systems. They figured this field would be a good place to study their interaction with ammonia and methane, which are far more common frozen gases than water in the California system.

* Most of this ice around us is ammonia. Not much help for California's water problems. They mined the Sierra and Whitney Fields for a long time, however. Nothing left there now but some old, abandoned equipment and Rogues.

* Some top-secret folks came in from Alaska last week. All interested in the Alien stuff going on here. Sometimes I think there's a lot more going on in Liberty than I ever imagined.

* I used to work for the Bounty Hunters before joining up with the navy. I don't fit in too good with these squeaky-clean military types, but I've saved their butts a bunch of times out in Cortez. They need people like me.

* The LSF has brought in some of those strange Artifacts to the lab. We never heard what happened, but I suppose they did some experimenting or something. I never have figured out exactly what the LSF does.

* They used to attack this base a lot before we placed a regular squadron on it. We run a patrol through the cloud daily, letting them know who's in charge here.

* I'm here to patrol the area and look for Rogues and Outcasts. I have no idea what research they do. That area of the base is restricted access, scientists only. They have some biological quarantine barrier between the labs and the rest of the ship.

* I can't stand being penned up on this rock for weeks. We only see the sun as a hazy apparition most of the time, unless we're on patrol. Those Bounty Hunters get stinky, too. Guess they don't learn proper hygiene in prison.

* I heard they had an accident down in the lab last week. Some sort of unknown pathogen released from one of their samples. Guess that's why they keep it so closed off.

* The navy is a great place for someone to move up in Liberty society. We're held in great respect by the big corporations, defending their interests wherever they may be.

* Not sure why they want these Nuclear Devices here. We bring them in from Helgoland, but it's quite a tricky trip during a war.

* I think the military should handle its own supplies for bases like this. Too much risk for us. Why did they have to build a base in the middle of the second nastiest cloud in Liberty space anyway?

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