LPI Sugarland

CLASS: Tantalus

GRAVITY: Complete

DOCKING: Restricted

AMENITIES: Limited

CREW: 730

INMATES: 49740

The prison station Sugarland, under the control of Liberty Police, Inc. (LPI), was built in 600 AS to handle the overflow from Huntsville. Sugarland is particularly hard time, as a smelter worked by prison labor operates around the clock to re-process scrap from the Texas and New York debris fields. Apart from the prison population, a large contingent of LPI officers, Bounty Hunters, and representatives of ALG Waste Disposal round out the personnel on board.

## Bribes & Missions Offered

* ALG Waste Disposal
* RGS Shipping
* Universal Shipping
* Bounty Hunters Guild
* Deep Space Engineering
* Synth Foods, Inc.
* Orbital Spa and Cruise
* Junkers
* Liberty Rogues
* Outcasts
* Cryer Pharmaceuticals

* 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

* One of my buddies was chasing some Outcasts near the West Dallas Debris Field a few weeks ago. He tried to cut across the edge of the Negra Pequena to catch up with them, but he stayed in too long and bought the farm. Too bad, he was pretty good.

* The largest concentration of Bounty Hunters in the system is hanging out around the North Dallas Debris Field. There is a Junker base in there, and where you find Junkers you are going to find other criminals too.

* Rogues like to come into this system since there is so much shipping passing through. They come in from New York I believe, and run their sorties from the Junker base somewhere in the North Dallas Debris Field.

* ALG hired me to kill all the Xenos and Rogues I run across, with a bonus for every Xeno. The truth is that Outcasts do a fair bit of pirating and raiding in this system, too. They probably drop their Cardamine with the Junkers and instead of going back home with empty hulls, decide to pick up some goodies on the way home.

* Aside from Trade Lane activity, most of the crime that takes place in this system goes on west of the warning buoys that the navy put up to protect people from flying into dangerous space. Going past those buoys used to worry me when I was green, but now I don't even notice them.

* The other prison station, the Huntsville, produces the majority of Consumer Goods in Liberty, although they're sold on Ft. Bush. We manufacture Basic Alloys from scrap metal, although it all gets shipped to Manhattan for further distribution.. These ships were built to alleviate the overcrowding of prison facilities planetside in Houston.

* This ship produces the Basic Alloys that Liberty uses in Houston and New York, and all our labor is done by convicted criminals. That's how we offset the cost of their housing. Without LPI, Liberty would be overrun with lawlessness, and would not be competitive with the other Houses.

* Even though the name of our company uses the word "police" in its title, I'm more of a factory manager than a law enforcement officer. I'm more concerned with squeezing all the production I can out of the miscreant workers here. Usually they are more inspired to work if I hold back their Food rations for a day or two. That always helps boost productivity.

* We used to house Xenos at this base, but somehow they always managed to get to the Outcasts no matter how much we tried to keep them separate. In the end, the only way to stop the two factions from killing each other here was to put them on two separate ships.

* I run the escort patrols around the East Dallas Debris Field. The work convoys we send out to clean the debris are vulnerable to prison escapes and criminal raids. That is the point from which they can most easily free their captured fellow criminals.

* Our inmates are clearing the debris fields left by the Dallas incident. Many of the fields have pockets of radiation and are too dangerous to clean yet. The first one to get cool enough to begin clearing was the East Dallas area. It is still too hot for civilian workers, but our inmates do the job. We stock plenty of anti-radiation pills in the dispensary.

* Xenos attack the Outcasts and Junkers in this system, so sometimes they actually make our jobs easier for us. The Kusari government, though, has been kicking up a fuss about the Xeno attacks on foreign shipping. The foreign corporations are pretty angry about it too, except for the Liberty companies that benefit from the Xenos attacking foreign shipping.

* Believe it or not, there is a large black market within the prison population aboard this ship. The only incarcerated Outcasts in all of Liberty are here. We sneak them small shipments of Cardamine to keep them alive. Their brothers and sisters look after them well.

* We bring Light Arms to this ship from the Beaumont within this same system. If you wanted to haul Light Arms, you could always come by "the Beau." She is tucked safely into the recesses of the North Dallas Debris Field. I know, it's a bit out of the ordinary for the LPI to buy weapons from Junkers rather than from Detroit. But we sell them a little cheaper, while the officers here charge the full price on their requisitions. They then get to pocket the difference. No harm, no foul, I say.

* Universal transports released inmates to all the Liberty Planets. It doesn't pay a lot, and they are a roudy bunch, but it's better than nothing.

* We carry off duty Crew to Planet Houston for their shore leave.

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