TO: All Guild Members
FROM: Director Nickolas Hargreaves
RE: Defense Update
It has been a long time since I last spoke to you all and updated you on the state of our defences and I deeply apologize. The amount of work that was needed - from everyone involved - to bring this division up to par with those of most house corporations was immense, and only now are we starting to reap the fruits of this efforts.
I am now pleased to announce that the new IMG Battlecruiser Pathfinder is now fully outfitted and in service to defend the Tau sector. Having only the standard, light armour, the Pathfinder will be mainly used only as a deterrent against enemy raids, rather than a full-blown offensive unit. Having gone through the same production line as the Trailblazer, the Pathfinder is its sistership and will be the last of it's class to be assembled at South Sheilds Refinery.
This is because of the fact that we now have finished construction of our very first shipyard! Aland Shipyard, located in Omega 3, is now the sole manufacturer or assembler of all our capital class, mining and trade vesels. To celebrate it's start in operations, Aland shipwrights have constructed the Zephyr Carrier, the first battleship class vessel ever designed by the Independant Miners Guild. Named the Comoros, this ship is a prototype, sporting all the newest and most experimental technologies the IMG has to offer and thus, will not be used in combat situations until systems are fully tested and calibrated. The Comoros was completely constructed by Aland alone in a matter of weeks, whereas the Pathfinder, entering service merely days before it, has taken little over a year to be constructed by almost all IMG stations and asembled at South Sheilds - This shows just how efficient Aland is and why only fighter-class craft will be produced in our other bases in the future.
With the combined efforts of our defence and exploration forces, the IMG have been successfully able to repel and push much of the outcast activity in Tau 23 back to their home systems. For this, I sincerely thank all those members involved - even those that contributed in only a small part. Our success in the sector has skyrocketed the amount of people willing to join and mine for the IMG, boosting our economic standing to levels unforeseen in our predictions. However, this will bring much more attention to us from the Outcasts, with my advisers expecting redoubled attempts to attack our vessels in the upcoming weeks.
This is why I have ordered all stations (that have the facilities to do so) to begin the production of Arrow and Ravens Talon fighters, along with our first serial runs of Pythos bomber craft. New recruits shall be soon graduating from initial training to pilot these new vessels and meet the defence requirements now needed to maintain the security of our fellow members.
In the near future, I shall also be introducing new advancement requirements for all Defence members, as well as some much needed rank ammendments to those pilots conducting great service to the guild during this period of hardship. In order to stay with inflation and maintenance costs, new standardised escort rates will also be released, payable to the pilots by the traders and miners protected by them.
Things are looking up, but we are not out of the wormhole yet folks. Keep vigilant and attentitive and we shall all come out incredibly better off than when we had first entered.
This is Director of Defence Nickols Hargreaves, out.
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