Finally, after over four weeks of brinkmanship and crisis
over Phekda, caused by the Federation's insistence that Phekda somehow
helped the Empire when it struck back after the attack on Olcanze (1,-3),
the crisis has ended.
A team of Alliance negotiatiors has been on Sol for the past three weeks, trying to prevent the outbreak of war, whilst the AJN has been holding Federation forces at bay in Phekda. The Federation forces are finally leaving (minus the FSS Francis, which was disabled after attacking the AJN Ajax). Although the Federation won't admit it publicly, the conflict was not about the Imperial strike on Eta Cassiopeia - instead, it was about the production of military fuel (just as we suspected).
Phekda 1 is very close to the hot class B blue star. As such, it makes an excellent platform for the collection hardware that is used to generate military fuel - almost as good as Lucifer in the Sirius system. The Federation were trying to demand from Alliance negotiators the right to exploit the massive energy influx into Phekda 1. The Federation wanted the state fuel producer, FedFuels, to have exclusive rights to the planet. The Alliance refused to negotiate on this point, since this is a matter solely between the Phekdan government and the Federation. Needless to say, the Federation's show of force against Phekda has been a real turnoff, and the Phekdan government has already denied this request.
The Alliance told the Phekdan government not to cave into any bullying tactics from either Federation or Imperial diplomats. Instead Phekda can be confident that it will receive backup from the AJN. It was a serious miscalculation on the part of the Federation to attempt to use military force, since they didn't realise how far the Alliance would go to ensure the security of its members.
Kelly Wright, President of Phekda, said in a press statement,
"We are relieved that the Federation finally saw sense and decided to leave
us alone. We are prepared to allow the sale of fuel to the Federation, but
after their disgraceful show of force, it will be a long time before
we can consider allowing FedFuels production rights in our system. We
are indebted to the Alliance for accepting us so quickly and averting
a takeover of our system."
Reports are just arriving that an Imperial State spaceliner,
carrying passengers and cargo and operated by Imperial Trans-Stellar Spacelines
has been hijacked. The hijacked spacecraft, a Canberra class passenger
and cargo liner derived from the Warlord class of military ships, is
carrying 950 passengers and
15,000 tonnes of cargo. It was forced by a group of hijackers to divert to
the Liabefa system (-2, -3). Liabefa is an independent corporate state
industrial system.
The ship was travelling to its original destination, the Federation system Beta Hydri (0, -2). The flight originated in the Imperial capital, Achenar. Soon after departure, a dozen members of the terrorist group, the Vequess Liberation Army, forced the crew to divert. The group is reported to be heavily armed, and has wired the ship with explosives. The ship is currently in stellar orbit around Liabefa.
An Imperial negotiation team was sent at the personal request of Emperor Duval. However, it looks like the hijack may become a long drawn out event because the VLA is demanding that the Empire relinquishes control of the Vequess system, something that is unlikely considering that the system is home to the largest state-owned duralium factory. The VLA has been taking an increasing hold on the system, and it is probable that the Empire will soon lose its temper and crush the rebels by force. The hijack may be the VLA's way of pre-empting the Empire - many people close to Emperor Duval were reported to be on the ship.
It is likely that heads will roll amongst the security services
in Achernar. The system is supposed to be extremely secure, and it is
extremely embarrasing to the spaceport authorities that a terrorist group
could capture a ship departing the system.
The star, Enfada (-7,32), a hot white type F star has recently become increasingly variable, and the current feeling is that it may soon supernova. The star itself has given a false alarm in the past - in 2587, it looked like it was about to explode, but instead it shed a layer of gas into space. This remnant is still visible as a faint reflection nebula.
However, this time, the unmanned probes orbiting the star are returning data indicating that the star's nuclear fuel is almost exhausted. The star is sufficiently massive that a nova is probable. It is difficult to predict exactly when the nova will occur (if it occurs), but it is expected in the next few years.
Enfada is an unusual candidate for a supernova - usually, supernovae occur with larger stars. The ASC told the News, "We are trying to learn all we can from this star. It is unusually dense for its size, and that's why it has been studied for such a long period of time."
Hyperspace technology gives today's researchers an important advantage when studying these phenomena. Although the probes in the system are likely to be destroyed, probes that are not so close to the star can make small hyperspace jumps, overtaking the energy emitted by the exploding star, and watch it happen all over again. The probes will do this dozens of times, and will be able to get more data. If Enfada is not giving us another false alarm, this will be the most studied supernova in history due to hyperspace capabilities. The star itself is over 200 ly from inhabited space, so we aren't going to be seeing the effects at home for quite some time.
An Imperial defector, working for Ironfrost Inc., has revealed imperial military secrets to both the Alliance and Federation. The defector, arrested last week, has not been named for legal reasons.
The defector revealed comprehensive information about the specifications of Imperial Navy starships, Imperial Army vehicles and the weapons and armour used by the infantry. However, the unfortunate defector has been a little on the hasty side, and has landed himself in trouble for no good reason. The Empire released the data only days after the defector was caught, and made it available on the Ironfrost ELITE Network.
An Imperial spokesbeing stated, "We had intended to release this information for some time since none of it is sensitive. This just goes to show the folly of treason."
AliothNet won this week's Site of the Week award from the Imperial website, Frontierverse. The SOTW is given to sites that have excellent content, layout and features. Although the Frontierverse is an Imperial site, they do not restrict themselves to Imperial websites when making this award, and AliothNet faced tough competition.
Dylan Smith, the Alliance chief webmaster told the News, "We are extremely gratified to win this award. It goes to show that co-operation and respect can extend across political boundaries."
Previous SOTW winners were the Ironfrost network and Fort TMT, both Imperial sites. The Frontierverse staff continue to scour the Galactic Information Network for superlative sites. If you are a webmaster, now is the time to make sure your site is in excellent shape and frequently updated.
This week sees a whole slew of journal updates. At the Frontierverse, three journals have been updated, along with the completion of the Frontier Ships Showroom. The journal updates are from the usual suspects - Brad Chacos has Chapter 19 of "Why did the Groigan Dance", including one very painful scene, Robin Sharrock has another chapter of Commander Cacti's journal and Johnathan Stott has Chapter 3 of Kerensky's story online.
That's not all. Matt Fossa has finished Chapter 12 of Pritchard on the Frontier. In this installment, things start to catch up with Pritchard, just at the wrong moment...such as after the consumption of a sticky blue liquid. Will he survive and reach Alioth? Or will he simply become pet-food in orbit around Isveve?
Finally, the Turner Space Combat Academy's commanding officer, James Winston, has chapters Zero to Three online in a new adventure. Winston had finally began to relax after receiving his Elite rating, taking some time out by living a simple, planetside life as a fisherman in Tionisla. Of course it wouldn't last...and James Winston finds himself being sucked into an affair that would completely alter the course of his life. The story is called "Deceit, Harmony and Pleasure", even though it mainly chronicles deceit, spacecraft covered in birdcrap and traps set by a sometimes less than honorable intelligence bureau.