Galnet News

The accomplishments of independent pilots participating in the Buckyball Run A* rally race continue to make headlines around civilized space. This 26,000 light year rally race to the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy has so far attracted over 40 fearless competitors. One of these competitors, Commander Alot, has made a name for himself by beating the galactic record for the quickest run twice in less than a month.

Alot’s current time to reach Sagittarius A*, an incredible 9 hours 39 minutes, was accomplished aboard a Faulcon DeLacy Anaconda named ‘Rhonda’. In comparison, his previous record-breaking attempt was done in 11 hours 46 minutes using a Lakon Spaceways Asp called the ‘Big Bird’.

When asked for a statement, Alot answered philosophically:

“Nothing lasts forever. I'm quite sure that in time my record will be beaten. In fact, I've already heard of several skilled pilots planning their next attempts, and I wish them the best of luck.”

At the time of broadcast, Commander Kligg has already taken the lead, passing Commander Alot by a mere 8 minutes, using an Anaconda named the ‘Rub Tub’. However, Kligg himself speculated in a short statement that it was only a matter of time before Alot climbs back to the first position.

Léonard Chamberlain - GalNet News Correspondent

The People’s Princess made an appearance in Cemiess late last night to attend the opening of Emerald’s newest art installation, ‘Prism’s Shades’, a multi-sensory experience that uses experimental light and sound projection technology to stimulate a series of empathic responses from its audience.

Aisling dazzled crowds by dressing in a long-sleeved ruby red evening gown, adorned with painite sparkles. She accessorised with an equally stunning tinted visor, fashionably stamped with Aisling’s personal crest.

Surprisingly, the people’s princess only stayed at the installation for a little over an hour. Aisling left the show long before midnight, citing exhaustion from her recent activities in the Summerlands as the reason behind her early exit.

Over the course of the weekend hundreds of tons of Bio-Waste were dumped in and around stations in 78 Ursae Majoris. This system is currently undergoing preparations for President Halsey's arrival as part of her planned grand tour. A group calling themselves 'The Canonn' claims responsibility for this act.

An anonymous spokesperson told GalNet that they are "a movement of like-minded Commanders seeking the truth about the recently discovered 'Unknown Artefacts'." They state that they are "prepared to use whatever levers are at their disposal to increase the political pressure on the Federation government to force them to come clean." The spokesperson echoed growing fears that the artefacts could be some new weapon of mass destruction.

Parallels were immediately drawn to Dr. Arcanonn and his recent demands to the Federation government following research into the Unknown Artefacts discovered to be transported in Federation convoys. We asked Arcanonn if he was connected to this terrorist group. He denied any responsibility for the group's actions but declined to answer any further questions on the subject of his potential involvement.

However he did go on to say:

"It is clear that we are not the only ones who are growing tired of the Federation's cover-up over these artefacts and some Commanders would seem to be taking more direct action. Obviously, I do not condone such methods but I can certainly sympathise with their frustration."

"In the spirit of seeking to put an end to these disruptive acts I urge all citizens, Federation, Alliance and Empire alike, to petition your government to make public any information that they have on the origin and nature of these objects before these demonstrations escalate. I also appeal to Chief Xeno-Chemist Lyran Betar to contact me so that we can pool our resources and research into these potentially related items, in the search for answers for the common good of all humanity."

Over the last week, Imperial forces loyal to Senator Patreus continued their assault on Quivira, and due to their efforts, Quivira Electronics Plc was finally able to secure control over Godel Dock early on Monday afternoon.

Despite being abandoned by their supposed saviours, the People’s Quivira for Equality Party were able to find some small respite from the war in the Summerlands. Thanks to the efforts of Aisling Duval and her ‘angels’, refugees from the People’s Quivira for Equality Party found themselves well cared for in the Summerlands, even as their counterparts in Persephone and Quivira continued to suffer.

Now that the war is over, the People’s Quivira for Equality Party has elected to pledge itself to Aisling’s service. In recognition of that fact, Senator Patreus has promised that only residents of Quivira who have directly broken Imperial law will be held responsible for the debt incurred by the previous administration. Members of the People’s Quivira for Equality Party who have sworn themselves to Aisling are expected to start returning to their homes over the next few days.

The war-torn region of Quivira has finally settled into an uneasy peace, following an intense period of fighting which saw hundreds of thousands dead and several billion credits worth of damage done to the local economy.

Initially the situation looked promising for the People’s Quivira for Equality Party. Independent and Federal Commanders flocked from all across the galaxy in an attempt to repel Senator Denton Patreus’s attempts to extract the debts owed to him by the Quiviran government. Early attempts at repelling the Senator’s mercenary forces proved to be a success, and the freedom fighters were able to buy enough time for the People’s Quivira for Equality Party to evacuate a great many innocent civilians to neighbouring systems.

Unfortunately, once the Party’s credits ran out, so too did the support of Independent and Federal pilots.

As further alien artefacts claiming to be from Soontill are being sold on the open market, the results of the initial scientific tests have been revealed.

“We were looking for key markers,” explains Chief Xeno-Chemist Lyran Betar. “Elemental make up, crystalline structure, anything that indicates it could have originated from human hand.”

And the results? Inconclusive. The research team’s results clearly state that no known human technology could have created the relics, yet they do not quite align with known Thargoid materials. Whatever they are, they are indeed very old, with isotopic dating indicating that they could well be tens of thousands of years old.

Jean Molyneaux, a historian from France, Earth, suggests we look back at our own past to determine the home of these relics. “Imagine an alien travelling back two thousand years into mankind’s past. The varied culture, arts and building materials of the Aztecs, Greeks, the Shang dynasty, what have you, the alien could think they were all different species, if that was his way of thinking…”

The community seems wary of awarding these artefacts any title yet, given the fifty years of false hopes since Soontill was first mentioned by the Thargoids. However, reports indicate that these relics have now arrived at labs on both Mars and Capitol for further testing, and with any luck, we may soon finally agree on what these relics are, or are not.

Senator Kahina Tijani Loren, currently residing as a guest on Capital at the request of Chancellor Blaine, remains completely ambivalent to inquiries into her intentions. She has airily dismissed questions regarding her purpose or what was said to her at the reception to which she was summoned and continues to ignore requests from the press.

Now there appears to be another name in the frame. Cuthrick Delaney, ambassador to the Prism system, has had a long and varied career within the Empire, first coming to prominence during the events which ended the dictatorship of Dr. Walden on the Old World planet of Lave. His precise involvement in that event was unclear, and he seems to have lost none of his ability to stay close to those with power in the intervening time. He has been seen in conversation with Kahina on many occasions.

There is considerable conjecture as to what stance Kahina will take. Many have stated that her aggressive tendencies will align her to Senator Patreus. Others have pointed out her support for traditional Imperial slavery, and her distant family connection to the Duvals, indicates an allegiance with Senator Torval is more likely

It would appear that only Kahina, and perhaps Cuthrick Delaney, actually know.

In other news, the Senator’s ship was confirmed to have had some significant modifications made to it recently, including a state of the art fuel scoop and a custom built Gutamaya discovery scanner.

Despite pleas for information from the Scientific cross-faction coalition, the Federal Authorities remain tight lipped. According to sources close to Dr. Arcanonn and his team, Halsey's government have refused to even acknowledge that Federation ships have been transporting the artefacts through populated space, despite mounting evidence. The authorities have also been accused of providing the scientist with nothing more than cryptic responses designed to stall their investigations.

Dr. Arcanonn is quoted as saying: "This information blackout is outrageous, they have to understand that they have no right to withhold this information. I would ask all humans, no matter their allegiance, to contemplate the existence of these objects and their meaning. I would also ask them to contemplate why the other major powers are not so much as passing the slightest comment on this. What are they hiding?"

"Some members of our community are done with waiting to be fed lies, simply to allow the Federation to perhaps continue to acquire some perceived military advantage. If no information is forthcoming immediately I cannot be held responsible for the consequences."

When asked to clarify exactly what this implied, Dr. Arcanonn declined to comment further.

In a possibly related development reports suggest some Federation convoys are being shadowed by groups of unidentified combat ships.

For the first time in almost a decade, Utopixx Entertainment, the subsidiary of Reynhardt Intellisys responsible for some of the top virtual reality experiences in the galaxy, has posted an operating loss of almost 5,000,000,000,000 credits.

Investors were shocked by the news, which saw Reynhardt Intellisys shares drop by almost 14%.

Reynhardt Intellisys has issued the following statement in an attempt to explain the drastic change in profits:

“Overall, uptake of Utopixx products in Independent, Alliance and Imperial markets remains strong. We continue to see a yearly growth rate of between 1 and 2% per sector, which in many cases means that we are exceeding our targets.”

“The losses posted for this year are partly due to the construction of a completely new and extremely exciting line of VR-Streams, which includes the latest instalment in the popular CQC franchise.”

“In-sim purchases within Federal markets have fallen below expected levels, but an analysis of the market suggests that such losses are part of a general downward trend that appears to be affecting a wide range of media companies operating in Federal systems. The cause of this drop-off in purchases remains unclear at this time.”

After two weeks of frantic construction, which saw close to 70,000 engineers working around the clock to get the project finished in time, Parkinson Dock is now home to some of the most advanced factories in the entire Empire.

The upgrade was completed as part of Senator Patreus’s plan to increase economic opportunities for the residents of his home system. 2,267 Commanders helped ship a total of 8,274,504 tonnes of industrial materials to Parkinson Dock, all of which were put to good use during the construction effort.

In particular, the Eotienses Citizens’ Forum would like to honour Viscount Plo Koon, Baron Coiling Dragon, Earl Prawnetto, Earl Morton and Baron Kosmetas for their assistance in refitting Parkinson Dock in preparation for its new role as a dedicated research and development hub for new military technologies.