The Tiacken Tribune

The Tribune is happy to announce a serious upswing in the number of submissions to our publication. Many new authors are cutting their teeth in the Tribune, and we are happy to have them. Still, though, not enough pilots are requesting advertising space in the Trib. We aren’t joking about our desire to publish your advertisements, so please send them in. That being said, we proudly present this week’s important happenings around the galaxy.

An Open Letter to the Citizens of Pardus:

Ablution: Fact or Fiction?

My alliance and I have come under extreme duress since our inception several months ago. Not all of it is justified, and it is my aim here to set the record straight.

The Ablution is an alliance based in morality, an alliance that is inherently passive, yet people have seen fit to interfere and attack us, both overtly and also behind closed doors. I cannot see what has been done to offend so many people, but my version of events deviates significantly from what has been thrown at me.

People take what I say too harshly, and I feel this reflects poorly both on myself and my alliance. Indeed, it was enough to instigate continued conflict with Stuffz members and Ablution. I say “continued” because we have recently been subjected to further attacks from Boehne, who we have confirmed is not acting with his alliance’s backing. This raises a question about how the same alliance can provide two separate attacks, without backing either. However, this is not the focus of this article.

I will be making more of an effort to act diplomatically in the future, although I would implore that people do not take me too literally.

Moving onto The Black Pearl, I understand the Union’s perspective on that incident, although I do not entirely agree with it. I hope that I can continue to provide a cheap source of ships and equipment for the Union Keldon Core for a long time to come.

Lastly, I would like to briefly mention my alliance’s aims and goals. As mentioned above, we are a passive alliance, with trading goals. Hence, our main wish is to complete transforming our primary sector of Achird into a high level industrial sector. We are already producing droids and leeches for many satisfied customers, and we would like to be allowed to continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

We also have plans to expand into Phaet, setting up a large medicinal and liquor business in order to improve the conditions on the planet. This will lure more people to it, and will increase supplies of food and water to the region, which is badly needed.

Naturally, we do not yet have the members to do that just yet. However, once we are left alone by other pilots and alliances, free from the false image that we have acquired, we will be able to recruit and retain new pilots, as well as attract more experienced pilots.

I hope this answers some questions that people may have. Please feel free to contact myself with any other questions, or leave them on our alliance forums (http://www.invisionplus.net/forums/index.php?mforum=theablution&;act=idx )

Thank you

Soul of Dipstick

The Curse of Daaya (Nightstalker)

The sun orbiting Ururur had just risen, but the locals could already feel uneasy tension in the air. A distant humming was heard, and a glint was seen on the horizon. At the designated time, countless fleets of fighting ships poured into the dark sector of Daaya in the North Pardus Rim. The cursed sector of Daaya, legends say at night you can still hear the angels sing and the ghosts dance.

The M.E.R.C fleet, the Imperial Ruby Legion fleet, the Mutant Fleet and the Pharmacenitricy fleet along with ships from the Shadow Order arrived at the same time in Daaya. This was no coincidence. In times past, Daaya was claimed by the founders of Pharmacentricity. The ancient elders told in legends that had passed down through generations that golden angels came down one day in their glorious light, and burnt the souls of sinners, and from that day on the owners of the gates of Daaya disappeared along with everything in it. Later on, the guardians of Rashkir, Red Cell, rebuilt the high gates of Daaya and once again claimed this cursed sector.

This day, the pilots of the attacking fleet knew it was going to be a day to be remembered. A day when much blood would be shed. A day for honour, pride, revenge, and re-claimance. The strongest pilots stared at the military outpost guarding inner Daaya. This was their obstacle, and this was what they had to take down. The guns were powered up, missile armed, and at the same time – the attack began.

The sirens started ringing from within Daaya sounding cries of alarm and intrusion. Danger was lurking behind the gates. The vanguard of Red Cell, renowned warrior Pixx, was the first to come to Daaya’s rescue. The blue of his Night Hawk Deluxe caught the eyes of the attackers. Without hesitation, Pixx opened fire on Huba, a brave trader supplying the attackers with their necessary needs. Pixx heavily damaged Huba, and was about to finish him off, before the attackers redirected their fire, and in an instant Romanu and Kevorkian blasted Pixx out of the skies as he and the ship exploded.

The calls of help were transmitted to the friends of Red Cell, and soon backup arrived to defend the gates of Daaya. Admirals Nebulosa and Shwabrer arrived quickly afterwards. Nebulosa’s Doomstar opened fire on Kevorkian’s Liberator. The Prince of the Empire and Admiral of the Federation fought, but it ended soon. Prince Kevorkian launched the deadly Imperial weapon, the King Kraak, and it heavily damaged the Doomstar. A few more shots and the hull of the Admiral’s ship exploded.

Garak, a reliable fighter and friend of Red Cell flew to Daaya as soon as he heard the news in order to defend his friends’ homeland. Unfortunately he was not expecting so many enemies waiting outside the gates of Daaya. Intelligence scouted Garak, hailed the attackers, and they redirected their fire. A fiery explosion occurred in the skies and Garak’s ship exploded and spinned off uncontrollably into the distance.

The Military Outpost seemed to be overwhelmed by the amount of firepower of the attackers, and a few DDAs began to show signs of weakness. However, down in the planet Ururur, Pixx was rescued by a galactic ambulance travelling past, and was getting his wounds patched up. He knew he didn’t have time to rest here – with many injuries on him, he asked for his ship to be immediately repaired back to maximum. He jumped into his ship, and was seen blasting off towards the gates of Daaya again.

The attack on the gates continued, and soon many Defense Droid Avengers had fallen. The Military Outpost was greatly weakened, and more and more pilots joined up and began attacking it. Meanwhile, in outer Daaya, Shwabrer fought against many of the attacking pilots as he tried his best to relieve the situation, but he was outnumbered.

Seeing their first MO began to be shaken, Red Cell pilots inside Daaya quickly built up another MO underneath the first one in order to stall for some time until more backup arrived. Pixx arrived back in Daaya, and docked on the military outpost to provide more firepower. In the meantime Garak, heroically carrying many injuries was found by chance while passed by a large trading convoy, was able to receive medicine and reparations given by the kind traders passing by and quickly flew back to the defense again.

Fate, unfortunately, had it in for him, as the attacking pilots saw the arrival of Garak’s ship, they redirected their guns and swarmed him with overwhelming amount of firepower and he was blown apart again. The passerby Gordath heard of the eruptions of guns while travelling through Daaya, and seeing his friends in Daaya under attack, quickly came to their aid. However, excellent teamwork between Lexico and Ilanther took apart his ship immediately when he was spotted.

The attacks raged on, morale was high for the attacking forces. They gave the Military Outpost everything they had, and soon it had crumbled. Pixx, seeing the imminent destruction of his MO, undocked and retreated back into Daaya. The attacking forces advanced past the first MO after it was taken down, and were then blocked by the second MO. Due to the lack of time, Red Cell could not fully arm the second MO, and it was soon taken down again as well due to its meager defenses.

For the first time in many years, the gates of Daaya had fallen again. The attackers poured in in huge numbers and started raiding the buildings in the nook. Pixx, sensing the danger, planned to retreat out of Daaya along with the other pilots inside. Just as he was about to leave, he spotted a junior TSO pilot raiding the Drug Stores, and with precise aiming, he quickly blew him apart and then fled.

In no time, the buildings in Daaya were completed ransacked and pillaged dry by the attackers, and they filled their cargo holds with the spoils. With a heavy day of energy draining attacking and raiding, the attacking forces retreated back into the Star Base “Abbey Lane” in outer Daaya, where they rested for the second part of their mission. As they rested, more defenders arrived in Daaya.

As the sun of Ururur began to set, the afternoon had given the pilots enough time to recover and rest. Now, energized, they proceeded to complete their conquest. Traders carried the necessary resources from SD, the Mutants Nook, to Daaya in order to build their own Military Outpost where the old one owned by Pixx had fallen. The attackers set up a huge ambush on the outpost, in case of any defenders attempted to foil their plans of rebuilding the Military Outpost.

Seeing a newly built Military Outpost owned by the enemy, Moray Darktide of FTS bravely led the vanguard forces and spearheaded the attack. Instantly, he triggered the ambushers waiting for him, and was killed. Knowing there would be more defenders coming, the attacking forces reset their ambushes quickly. Soon, Balin of FTS also came, but was also killed instantly. Later, Winston tried to penetrate the ambushes from inside Daaya, but he too was killed by the ambushers. Seeing the amount of firepower that had gathered on the MO, the defenders hesitated and did not try to break the ambushes anymore. At the same time, the Mutant traders worked and were able to fully maximize the Military Outpost, and soon the northern gate of Daaya was secured by the attackers.

As everyone was completely tired out, the attackers retreated back and rested for the next day as they completed their mission for the day. The tide had turned. The great storm was coming. However, this was the calm before the storm, and cold silence was all one could hear in Daaya.

Soon the stars settled, and darkness covered the skies. In middle of the night, the silence was broken. Eyewitnesses could only remember the skies opening up, and light so bright the naked eye could not handle streamed out of it. Some said that the angels had come again, come to claim the sinners’ souls. Bright, shining beams leapt from the upper heavens, and they descended upon the attackers resting in Daaya. The beams vanquished many pilots, who were later rumoured to have tarnished souls. Their buildings and possessions elsewhere in the universe had vanished as well, and their ships and themselves disappeared after the light touched them.

Urgent scouts reported back to MERC and Ruby Legion forces, that their homeland was open and vulnerable. There was no time to waste. Everyone jumped into the ships and blasted back to protect and guard their homes. The whole of the Mutants had disappeared, along with the newly constructed Military Outpost. As pilots left Daaya to quickly retreat and protect their homes, they could only look back at the cursed haven of Daaya with tears in their eyes.

The Waayan Epidemic (Walkingrazor, Tribune Staff Writer)

The star hung low over the horizon, bathing the low volcanic hills and shallow seas with dim, red light. Over the space-port, a long line of trading ships stretched into the distance, riding the descent beam down into the loading docks.

It had been almost three days now and the epidemic that had ravished the native Rashkirian population had begun to increase. The huge line of traders, mostly in WTX and Red Cell livery, had been delivering medicines since the discovery of this deadly disease. Emergency planning commissions on Waayan had sent an urgent call to all traders in the area to report and begin sourcing medicines and supplies to treat those affected.

WTX Sector manager Gordath was kind enough to meet with me after personally piloting many tons of supplies into the sector and concluding a sit-rep meeting with the other disaster coordinators.

“It was horrible, he said. I arrived on planet to find that 15% of our population had disappeared overnight. The dead and dying overwhelmed our medical facilities. Even worse, some of our most experienced traders were initially sickened by the disease and remain bedridden. We managed to keep them from danger, but this slowed our response to the disaster considerably.

Local medicine production had been completely overwhelmed from day one. Fortunately, the local Waayan traders have been working 24-hour shifts with heroic stamina to import the needed resources. But even then, that wasn’t enough. I put out a call to our friends in Red Cell and they responded beyond our expectations, bringing in huge amounts of medicines from outlying sectors. We are hoping that with help like this, the epidemic will soon pass and our friends and families will be healthy again.”

New medical facilities are currently being constructed as fast as the materials can be allocated and imported. Gordath reports that a number of these facilities have been completed and came online in recent days, further boosting the possibility that this situation will soon be under control.

Despite a co-claim to the sector, Freeholders Alliance personnel are very few in number among the suppliers. Apparently an alliance disaster in Hooth has caused a number of pilots to be absent in this critical time. Some planetary support buildings have been destroyed to support that effort, but FHA medical facilities remain online and producing with the help of WTX stockers.

Experts on planet have concluded that despite the horrible characteristics of the disease, that it has a limited ability to survive in the atmosphere of the planet, so it’s only a matter of time until they are able to treat those affected and inoculate them against a future infection. How long that will be, they are unsure. Further study is underway and a report is due to be issued at the end of this week.

The toll to the citizens of Waayan has been a horrible one. Special quarantine zones have been created on the planet and the bodies of those who have succumbed to the disease have been cremated to prevent further spread of the vector. Families have been torn apart as this senseless killer refuses to discriminate. Even still, hope lives on in the streets here. Behind their biohazard masks children still point excitedly to the arriving trade ships as they descend in the dim twilight. Though sickness and death have seemed inescapable to the people of Waayan, life goes on. They laugh and begin a game of Waayan stick-ball in the dusty street, beckoning me to join them. I am touched by the gesture and we play until it is long dark and the street-lights flare, smiling to myself about these people and the future of Waayan.

Comment:

If Your Names Not On the List You’re Not Coming In…

- MOODY DO GILT - Voice of Reason in a Galaxy of Madness

So have you been wondering why everyone keeps singing “who ate all the pies” to members of TSO and Popcorn factories are increasing production in the Federation and Union sectors? Well if you don’t know, where have you been? Under an asteroid!?

It appears to be business as usual in the old Imperial court but with a twist this week - it would seem that TSO have decided in their wisdom to MO off Olbea to stop certain nefarious factions of the Imperial citizenry from stealing food from Prince Thorns banquet table. Now normally you’d have expected the call to go out for the Empires finest the Paladins to go hunt down the free-thinking people watching out for Thorn’s waist line evil-doers…but lo-and-behold this time it is the Imperial Paladins themselves that have been caught eating all of TSO’s pies.

It transpires that TSO got a little upset with IoP traders buying up the excess food and selling it to the Paladins SB Utopia Planetia and forcing them to buy it for the same prices as the peasants - so they decided to make things difficult for those traders by putting up a few MO’s between Adda and Olbea and charging a ‘toll’ to pass through to Olbea. Pictures from the new Toll Booths report ships tied up in holding formations back to Ska. While it brings a smile to my face to think of all those Imperial Traders stuck in tailbacks, I must say that this only goes to show that civilization is only 2 meals away from anarchy and TSO appear to be a crab stick away from declaring a state of total war. So as the Empire looks like being on the verge of providing the citizens Olbea with a free firework display, it’s my honest opinion to all empire citizens to start hoarding you food…TSO are hungry and who know s what lengths they’ll go to get it! The best hope for peace is if IoP gives in to TSO’s demands and builds some neb plants to supply power for TSO’s Kitchen’s.

(Ohh and during all this high-powered negotiating it took an FTS representative only 15 minutes to get on the galactic news channels with comment. You have to admire those guys, they really do live up to that old adage that there’s no such thing as bad publicity…only publicity.)

Now moving swiftly on to other news today from the Union. There used to be a time when Imperial and Federation leaders would wake up in a cold sweat thinking what new and dastardly plan the Union would get up to next; well, information landed on my desk today that they can sleep easy tonight as the Union leadership appears to have handed over control of Covert Intelligence Operations to Pulsar, a young Rashkir buck pilot who’s reputation for cunning plans precedes him. His newest plot to get his claws on Imperial and Federal credits is to set up a new Lottery. Each ticket will cost you 20k in credits for a possible 2million credits jackpot. I have serious doubts that this is in anyway a proper lottery (the initial prize was 20 million credits - apparently the marketing material went out before it had been checked…believe that and you’ll be believing those crazies who talk about a way into the sealed Pardus cluster.) Indeed, bookmakers around the galaxy are already offering good odds that Pulsar will do a runner with any possible ticket sales before the draw.

I’ll be back next week when I can bring you an update on this lottery scandle-to-be shortly; it’ll either be footage of Pulsar disappearing with a bag marked ‘SWAG’ to the nearest Union stronghold or, in case of a miracle, a picture of an elated winner - now I’m a gambling man and I’ve got some of the TT’s best photographers following Pulsar now looking for the bag…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 5th, 2006 at 3:57 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.