Issue #23
Monday, June 27th, 2005IOP and TPI take on the Technocracy
Long had rumor held that Technocracy, hidden behind their wall of military outposts, was hiding illegal buildings and restricting access to the Organic Armor research lab. Several individuals and alliances had shown concern that illegal buildings in Empire space was not good for the empire, nor was the ability to block the laboratory. IOP and TPI were the leaders in these protests. IOP and TPI decided to combine forces to break through the MO and rid the Empire of an injustice. While IOP was more concerned with opening up free trade to the organic lab, TPI was more concerned with removing the illegal buildings that were there. This hadn’t been the first attempt, an attempt a week earlier to gain access to Technocracy space had ended in failure as allies assisted in the defense of the attacked structure. The assistance was more than enough to call off the attack and regroup.
Regroup they did. This time, the combined forces of TPI, IOP, and a few neutral pilots led to the destruction of the MO. With the outpost destroyed, it was short work for IOP/TPI and others to destroy the line of drug outposts. Technocracy, with the aid of their allies were able to inflict a few losses against the combined forces of TPI/IOP, but the attackers clearly saw their goals successful. With the final lab destroyed, IOP and TPI retreated out of Technocracy space.
So what now?
Technoncracy is rebuilding their military outpost with the assurance that they will no longer build illegals, nor will they block lawful pilots access to the organics lab in Technocracy space.
[Editor: Word has it that all pilots participating (attackers, defenders, allies, and neutrals) all behaved honorably throughout the course of the conflict and the editor would just like to say thanks – it’s a welcome change.]
Magnetic Scoops – HALF OFF!
The magnetic scoop is an item that allows pilots to drag additional tonnage of items at the cost of decreased efficiency. Originally intended for the towing of incapacitated space ships, the scoop had a tendency to disrupt the magnetic field surrounding hyper drives and cause explosions killing everyone on board. However, the scoop was excellent at dragging the remaining scrap to the nearest scrapyard. The success of the secondary towing led to the mag scoop being used exclusively for the hauling/delivering of raw materials.
Now the magnetic scoop holds many of the same characteristics of the magnetic field used to protect the interior of ships from the rather dangerous radiation emitted from ship engines. These fields are not easy to produce and were rather expensive in the beginning. However, with the increased deadliness of the universe, and the continuous influx of dead ships, the producers of the magnetic scoop have been able to cannibalize dead ships for the expensive magnetic field configurations thus cutting costs that they’ve been able to pass on to consumers.
So this is indeed a case of one pilot’s loss is another pilot’s gain. Get your mag scoop from the nearest planet or starbase.
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The Beethi Conflict
A disagreement between the Guild and the Grand Unifying Alliance over the sector of Beethi led to the Guild announcing war on GUA last week. The conflict, supported by the Zenith Consortium, was limited to the Beethi sector where the Guild took down an MO and eliminated the few GUA holdings within the sector. Those pilots that left GUA were spared destruction, and neutral buildings were left standing as well. Roughly 24 hours into the conflict, the Guild claimed Beethi and the victory. No official statement from GUA has yet been seen.
FOR SALE
Used constrictor for sale. Previous owner got lost in the maze of cargo bays and died from starvation in cargo bay #72. The ship was found floating in space 47 days later. Free case of air freshener included. Will be sold to best offer. Send offers to Tribune.
Dictionary collection. Never been opened. Wife knows everything already. Send PM to Charlie at the Tribune HQ.
The Hunt
Every now and then, I tend to enjoy the company, so to speak, over at the Scorpion Bar and Grill in Urhoho. Yes, outsiders are let in every now and then with the access of a VIP pass. These VIP passes are not easy to come by, and are only given to select individuals. Needless to say, I’ve had to bribe, gamble, steal, trade, and do whatever I had to do to obtain a VIP pass. I can’t say I’m exactly proud of some of things I’ve done, and, well…some of the things I’ve done just aren’t suitable for print. However, it’s all worth it. The leads I obtain, the stories I overhear, and the information I gather makes for some of the best Tribune articles around! However, the fun generally comes to an end at some point when I’m discovered, roughed up a bit, dragged back to my ship, and escorted back to Usube with the promises of additional pain should I ever return.
However, this never deters me from trying again! This week I managed to…obtain…another VIP pass and decided to see what I could find out from the Scorpions this week. Although I do have to keep a low profile, I enjoy the food over at SB&G. Who can pass up the grilled scorpionkabob? It’s fantastic! So after buying my drink, I was making my way through the crowded room when a particular nasty shove from behind [I know it was you Esther!!] sent me sprawling into one Lady Aliara. My drink of course, was spilled all over the front of her shirt. Panicking, I took the napkin I was holding and tried to wipe it off. Now those of you who know Lady Aliara know that spilling a drink on her in the first place will likely end up getting you on her ‘bad’ side. Now trying to wipe off the front of her wet shirt?
It was about this point where conversations around us had stopped and everybody stood staring at the two of us. I think I lost my ‘low-profile’ status somewhere around this point. LordSteel, of course, didn’t find the situation exactly to his liking and I soon found myself on the floor rubbing an eye I could no longer see out of. To the cheers of the rest of the Guard, I was tossed out of the SB&G (once again) with promises from Lady Aliara that this wasn’t the end of it.
The next morning I received a courier package at Tribune HQ. There wasn’t a return address, but after I opened it, I didn’t need one. Inside was a black rose. It was a sickly looking thing, as if the flower had been intentionally tortured for someone’s amusement. Attached to it was a note with three words on it: “For your funeral” (And you always wonder what’s in those courier packages you carry around?) It seems that one Lady (and Lord?) were going to go through with their promise. Well, this editor was not going to take this lying down! No sir! So I headed off ALL the way to the bounty office (third floor of Tribune HQ), where I made sure that the Lord and Lady knew I was on to them!
So officially began: The Hunt.
One thing that I received that most hunted victims do not receive is a warning. I knew they were after me allowing me to prepare somewhat in terms of what I wanted to do. I was currently (still) gunning for missions and rank – but with a pair of SG after me, I’m not sure if I wanted to take the risk of being gunned down with a shipload of packages on me. So the first question in my mind was what to do? Well, the first thing I wanted to do was continue to remain productive. I could very easily have run and made the pair chase me across the universe. I could have likely received ‘protection’ from several different alliances behind walls of MO’s. I could have upgraded armor, even upgraded ships and been an absolute PIA to the Lord and Lady. These were thoughts that ran through my head anyway…
However, I wanted to remain productive. I still needed a ton of rank, but a ton of credits never hurt anyone either. I wasn’t sure how long it would be before they got me and I didn’t want to waste the time (whether it be hours, days, or weeks?) running from them. My thoughts were such that since they had hackers who would likely be helping out, my main concern would be leaving the planet when running turns. Assuming I made it off the planet/starbase ok, I would assume that the rest of my day could be run in relative safety. This was my thinking anyway.
So I came up with a strategy:
1) Try to finish the day in systems with multiple planets and/or multiple exits (Sol, Andexa for example).
2) Always take the least likely path when leaving a planet. Making the assumption that the pair will ambush on the most likely trade paths.
3) Stay away from my HQ and my buildings for the time being – not that hard as I didn’t visit them all that often anyway.
[Of course, since this is being published, I’ll need to edit this somewhat, but this was my plan for the first few days]
With these rules in mind – I started the following morning on Tau Ceti. A probe by LordSteel against my trading outpost let me know that the Lord and Lady were likely in the area. So, the question was, which way do you leave the planet? I didn’t have anybody to scan for ambushes, so I chose directly south. It was a good move, and I finished my turns for the day running missions and running FWE. A later scan by an ally discovered that I missed an ambush by one square when leaving the planet. Had I decided to do something a bit more obvious, I would have likely been embarrassed, and my clone would be writing this little article. I finished the day in Sol. Four different places to log off, and four different exits. It would have been rather difficult for SG to pull off an ambush here.
…
It’s now been several days since the hunt began. I’ve never been hunted before. It’s an interesting cat and mouse type game. The hunters need to gain a semblance of pattern for what the prey is doing. What does the prey do? Where do they go? What time do they play? The prey (when they KNOW they are being hunted), try to keep the hunters off balance while at the same time, try to determine the strategy the hunter has implemented. Part of me would love nothing more than for me to step on the landmine and for the hunt to conclude. However, the other part of me wants nothing more than to be the biggest pain in the posterior to the Lord and Lady that they’ve ever met. Exactly what I’m going to do is yet to be determined…
I look out the window of Tribune HQ and wonder where they are now? Out there. Somewhere. Planning. Waiting. And tomorrow is another day.
On A Mission
Librarians around the universe are still looking for rare histories after the Galactic Library was destroyed last week. While a few pilots have discovered some tomes in old and forgotten places, the Galactic Council is still looking to have histories for all the planets. If you’ve found one, or know the potential location of one of these tomes, please contact Shael’kut in the Main Forum. Thanks.
Tidbits:
Couple of comments that came in from last week’s issue that are worthy of paraphrasing here:
Regarding building capacity: The more capacity you have in your building, the more trader friendly the building becomes. Make your building profitable to traders (by giving them a large enough quantity to trade to make it worth stopping by) and traders will make your building a regular stop in their routine. (paraphrased from Dada)
Regarding Bio-waste: Another alternative to bio-waste? Selling it to the planets? Like other products supplied to the planet Pixx thought that a steady supply of bio-waste will help grow the population of planets, but this is untrue as highlighted by Snake and confirmed by Baldur. You can read here to be sure.
The numbers of Harriers has dropped since last week. Good stuff. CASH is having an amazing effect! Way to go CASH!
Editors Note: I seem to have a real knack at misspelling alliance names in the Tribune. Apologies to the Extinction Agenda for butchering your alliance name in last week’s issue.