| Ainu Depot | |
| Owner | |
| Golden Chrysanthemums | |
| Location | |
| C/D-5/6, Hokkaido |
CLASS: Kikukamonsho
GRAVITY: Partial
DOCKING: Yes
AMENITIES: Yes
CREW: 320
Most scholars date the start of the group as the publication of Golden Chrysanthemum in Bloom in 642 AS. The author, Yuyu Matsuda, was a young but critically acclaimed poet. Charismatic and well-spoken, Matsuda had a considerable following among young Kusari women who found their lives lacking in direction but were reluctant to become married and fulfil their traditional role in Kusari society.
Yuyu decried what she saw as the corruption of the Kusari male-dominated culture and preached a revolution led by the long-suffering women of Kusari. These ideas were eventually encapsulated in Golden Chrysanthemum in Bloom, in which Matsuda described a fictitious nation called Yomi. A place of fat, lazy male bureaucrats who handed out concessions at the whim of entrenched mega-corporations, Yomi was eventually engulfed in revolution and united under the rule of a benevolent Empress personally selected by the goddess Amaterasu to watch over her people.
Matsuda looked to the foreigners as a model, where women could be president and run corporations. The Chrysanthemum went on to become a best-seller. Unfortunately, in 648 AS, Matsuda crossed the dangerous line between ideas and actions when she was implicated in the botched assassination attempt of the planetary governor of Kyushu. Rather than face the ignominy of imprisonment, Matsuda chose ritual suicide instead. With the death of Matsuda, the radicalization of most of her followers began and an increase in attacks on government personnel and installations followed soon after.
Ainu Depot was the first space station built by the Golden Chrysanthemums, though the exact date of its construction is unknown it is speculated to date back to late 660 AS. Ever since its construction, Ainu has served as a valuable launchpad for raids upon traffic passing through Kyushu and Hokkaido much to the discontent of the Kusari State Police.
Bribes & Missions Offered
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Commodities
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Ships sold
| Ship | Class | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Lily | Light Fighter | 20,098$ |
| Blossom | Heavy Fighter | 37,608$ |
| Iris | Very Heavy Fighter | 23,729$ |
| Orchid | Bomber | 69,276$ |
| Drone | Freighter | 20,266$ |
News
| [835 AS] Gallic threats raise Tau fears |
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SCALPAY OUTPOST -- 835 -- The Taus are once more on edge, after Gallia threatens the use of force to retrieve the Tau-23 to Tau-31 Jump Gate. Bretonia constructed the first Jump Gate in the system, which was later annexed during the Gallic War. Bretonia was gifted the current Gallic Jump Gate by Kusari during their invasion of Gallia, and has held it since -- with Gallia formally ceding its Tau claims through the Treaty of Rishiri. Bretonia has historically refused to discuss the Gate’s status until its own demands on the extradition of war criminals and payment of Gallic War reparations are met. The Bretonian government has warned that Gallic aggression or threats “will not be tolerated”. |
| [835 AS] Kusari diet passes sweeping defense budget |
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NEW TOKYO -- 835 -- Kusari’s national diet has passed a sweeping defense budget, allocating significant additional funding to fleet readiness, modernization, and shipbuilding. This has included extensive military contracts for Kure, Yukawa, and Yokohama Shipyards, with Kishiro Technologies and Samura Industries both announcing record hiring programs in response. The new budget also ended the remaining reconstruction funding grants for Planet Kyushu, noting Governor Toho’s termination of the local state of emergency. |
| [835 AS] Bretonia and Rheinland call for de-escalation |
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CURACAO -- The governments of Bretonia and Rheinland have called on Kusari and Liberty to attempt formal talks, amid fears that continued escalation and military friction could spark war. Queen Carina and Emperor Frederick have offered to mediate an emergency summit on Planet Curacao after Kusari and Liberty imposed mutual sanctions that are already having rippling effects across Sirius. Gallia’s Grand Marshall de Varax meanwhile has condemned Kusari as a “belligerent and destabilizing actor”, and called for Liberty’s demands to be met. Neither Kusari or Liberty has agreed to attend, with each demanding pre-conditions be met by the other. Gallia has not received an invite. |
| [835 AS] Sisterhood signs deal on FA captives |
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FURYOKU -- 835 -- The Sisterhood wept for the loss of Roppongi Station, and the needless murder of Kusari’s women and youth. The Alliance may have pulled the trigger, but they are far too stupid to have orchestrated the attack. It seems we are not alone in these suspicions. A deal has been brokered with Interspace Commerce for captive Alliance pilots to be delivered to Furyoku Station for interrogation. In exchange, they will barter supplies and Agricultural Machinery, which we will to trade to the Outcasts for technical support and ships. It is only a matter of time before the screws are tightened and an Alliance puppet betrays their Samura paymasters. |
| [835 AS] Liberty and Kusari trade sanctions |
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DESHIMA -- 835 -- Liberty’s President Hawthorne has announced sanctions targeting key Kusari high-tech industries, blocking their access to advanced Superconductors and funding. This came following a “security incident” in the Independent Worlds, and a failed Farmers Alliance attack on Deshima Station, which Liberty says is part of a state-endorsed campaign of terrorism against its citizens. Kusari has dismissed the claim as “lurid nonsense”, and responded by banning the export of Optronics to Liberty until its “economic coercion” is ended. Liberty has vowed to increase pressure until Kusari takes steps to eradicate the Farmers Alliance and root out their backers. |
| [835 AS] Liberty and Kusari trade sanctions |
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DESHIMA -- 835 -- Liberty’s President Hawthorne has announced sanctions targeting key Kusari high-tech industries, blocking their access to advanced Superconductors and funding. This came following a “security incident” in the Independent Worlds, and a failed Farmers Alliance attack on Deshima Station, which Liberty says is part of a state-endorsed campaign of terrorism against its citizens. Kusari has dismissed the claim as “lurid nonsense”, and responded by banning the export of Optronics to Liberty until its “economic coercion” is ended. Liberty has vowed to increase pressure until Kusari takes steps to eradicate the Farmers Alliance and root out their backers. |
| [835 AS] Alliance attack on Deshima thwarted |
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DESHIMA -- 835 -- The Bounty Hunters Guild have confirmed a major terrorist attack on Deshima Station has been thwarted. “Agents of the Farmer’s Alliance were apprehended while attempting to smuggle a large-yield dirty bomb aboard,” confirmed chief security officer Bill Parker. The attempt was foiled thanks to precautions put in place following the deadly Alliance attack on Roppongi Station in 832 AS. According to Parker, “this was the exact same playbook”. The detained crew and fissile material are believed to have been provided to the LSF; Kusari has lodged a furious complaint with Manhattan about the unauthorized interference in its own investigation. |
| [835 AS] Liberty court rules on Platinum dispute |
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MANHATTAN -- 835 -- Liberty’s Supreme Court has issued its verdict on the Galileo Platinum dispute between DSE, Samura and Kishiro. Ruling in DSE’s favor, the court has ordered the Kusari corporations to end all mining activities in Galileo, and pay compensation to DSE for losses. Kusari’s courts have objected to the ruling, calling it an “unprecedented breach of protocol” due to the Liberty court’s failure to consult and reach a mutual finding on issues of cross-border law. Liberty has threatened to deploy the Navy to evict illegal miners, while Kusari has warned that this would be interpreted as an “illegal act of hostility”. |
| [835 AS] Galileo on the brink |
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GALILEO -- 835 -- Following an unspecified “security incident” in the Independent Worlds, military forces in Colorado and Shikoku have been ordered to high alert. Observers have raised alarms as the Liberty Navy and Kusari Naval Forces surge to their respective borders, warning of a heightened risk of “accidental escalation” in Galileo. Despite urgent calls for information from local system representatives, the governments of Kusari and Liberty remain tight lipped, other than confirming Manhattan and New Tokyo were in “active dialogue”. Both Houses have since put traffic controls in place, and are actively stopping and searching shipping entering their mutual borders. |
| [834 AS] Kyushu state of emergency ended |
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PLANET KYUSHU -- 834 -- Governor Ikkaku Toho has rescinded the state of emergency on Planet Kyushu, confirming that much of the devastating storm damage has been repaired. Despite this, many farmers were driven to bankruptcy by the disaster and are now struggling to adapt to Synth Foods’ much enhanced presence within Kusari. Governor Toho has requested enhanced subsidies for Kyushu Rice in response, however New Tokyo has declined, advising that the Empire has other pressing funding requirements that must take priority. |
| [834 AS] Narita renovations bolster strategic independence |
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NARITA -- 834 -- The completion of long-running works to expand the capacity of Narita Outpost have been jointly praised by the Ministers of Economy and Defense. The ambitious project saw the station’s storage capacity radically expanded, allowing it to service a wider range of foreign trade, and hold larger reserves of goods. “This much needed modernization will tap into the river of prosperity that flows through Kusari, while deterring malign interests who seek to damage Kusari by curtailing access to goods and markets,” noted Trade vice-minister Okazaki. |
| [834 AS] H-Fuel prices spike as market volatility increases |
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MANHATTAN -- 834 -- H-Fuel prices across Sirius have spiked after demand for future supply contracts surged. This unusual increase has been driven by Liberty corporations who are buying up all surplus stocks, although what has provoked the sudden frenzy remains unknown. Universal Shipping and Synth Foods both declined to comment on their own significant increase in buying activity, however many have noted that neither has the storage capacity to account for the excess. Share prices for Kishiro, GMG and Samura all rose on the news, despite Kusari warning that it may impose export caps on H-Fuel to limit market volatility and curb inflation. |
| [834 AS] Samura struggles with fraudulent claims |
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SHINJUKU -- 834 -- Following the loss of Roppongi Station, Interspace withdrew most of their services from Kusari. Samura gleefully filled this void, establishing its own domestic insurance brokerage. Samura rapidly encountered trouble when Interspace refused to provide access to its proprietary USI system. This ubiquitous Trade Lane scanner allows Interspace to accurately track cargo shipments for insurance premiums. “Before USI was implemented, we had centuries of experience in fraud mitigation. Samura will learn the hard way,” one IC analyst noted. Samura is believed to have incurred significant losses on insurance in recent years. |
| [833 AS] Kyushu Faces Rising Temperatures And Falling Profits |
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Kyushu, the key to Samura's monopoly on the organically-grown food industry, has faced rising ocean temperatures lately, owing to a vast temperature surge in the mantle plume underneath its largest ocean. This has been compounded by the resultant eruption of several underwater volcanoes, releasing enormous quantities of greenhouse gases into the planet's atmosphere. Partially as a result of the geological activity, the equatorial monsoon season produced some of the strongest tropical storms ever recorded on Kyushu since its colonisation. These storms devastated the world's agricultural sector as they blew through the most fertile tropical lowlands, destroying as much as 20%% of the planet's annual crop yield, on top of damage to infrastructure and tragic loss of human life. Many rural communities are reported to be struggling, with some farming communities still remaining flooded ghost towns even a month after the worst of the storms abated, though smaller-scale tempests still rage around the equator. A Samura spokesperson outlined the company's intent to restore the planet and its communities to full productivity by the middle of next year, despite the ongoing circumstance. |
| [832 AS] A different kind of Houston heat |
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MARLTON CITY -- 832 AS -- A huge firefight has been reported in one of Houston's urban centers, involving a gang of heavily armed assailants and dozens of casualties. The target appears to have been a major LPI penitentiary facility, with one force spokesperson going so far as to say that the raid must have been carried out by a professional mercenary outfit. Malton City has gone into lockdown amid rumors of a mass breakout by Pennsylvania convicts. An enormous manhunt has been launched, involving Marine support from the Battleship Arkansas. |
| [832 AS] Battleship Matsuda Meets Its Demise! |
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It had long been rumored that the grand Battleship Himeji had not been lost in the Tohoku system as previously thought; That it had been brought back and given a second life by the unlawful elements that are the antithesis of the Kusari state. This rumor had been proven true as the Kusari Office of Intelligence reported movements of a Meiji-class Battleship in the Kyushu system, deploying Golden Chrysanthemum fighter wings that seemed to deliberately target Kusari patrols in the northern part of the system. Immediately upon learning of this, Battleship Matsumoto and its battlegroup were redeployed from Hokkaido, and within two days were poised and ready to face this new threat. Only a short few hours later, a patrol of fighters reported a warship with the transponder reading Battleship Matsuda operating in the relative open, heading for but not yet reaching the relative safety of the Seiran Dust Cloud. Matsumoto itself departed with its escort to confront the Chrysanthemum battleship, close to the edge of the nebula. Within minutes of it coming into sensor range, bomber and fighter squadrons from both sides closed in and opening salvos were exchanged between the battleships. It didn't take long before the KNF's preparation was shown to be well worthwhile; their superior numbers whittled down or otherwise preoccupied the Chrysanthemum's fighter force leaving a variety of openings in the Matsuda's defensive cover for KNF bombers to exploit. While the Matsumoto was withstanding a heavy beating from the guns of its older sister, it was plain that the Matsuda was slowly being whittled away as its shields began to fail and the very same engine design flaws that had rendered it immobile in KNF service were now exploited by bomber wings to once again cripple the warship. After several more minutes, the Matsuda's escape pods began to eject from the ailing battleship, picked up by Chrysanthemum fighters as they fled deeper into the Seiran dust cloud. It didn't take long thereafter for the ship's powercore to falter and fail completely, culminating in a vast explosion that reportedly almost turned night to day on the dark side of Planet Kyushu, if only for a split second. Matsumoto itself sustained moderate damage in the engagement, relatively untouched by Chrysanthemum bombers however still suffering the ill effects of Matsuda's anti-capital weaponry. Despite its damage, it remains deployed in the Kyushu system to continue the blockade of the cardamine trade and to serve as a show of force to any who would challenge the might of the Emperor. |
| [832 AS] Houses outraged by Roppongi attack |
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NEW TOKYO -- 832 -- Kusari has received blistering criticism from the other Houses after the destruction of Roppongi Station. Roppongi hosted House embassies in Kusari, and was a major business hub for foreign companies. Liberty’s President Hawthorne is said to be “incandescent” over the attack, which killed Ambassador Luisa Mason and her aides. She has threatened consequences unless Kusari exert all “means and resources” towards the Farmers Alliance’s eradication, and announced the LSF will be taking “enhanced measures” to protect Liberty citizens. Interspace Commerce has quadrupled its bounties on Alliance targets. Kusari has opened an inquest into the attack. |
| [832 AS] Terror in Tokyo orbit! |
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ROPPONGI -- 832 -- In the worst terrorist attack in recent Kusari history, the Farmers Alliance have detonated a dirty bomb aboard Roppongi Station. Emergency responders are still working to rescue victims, however the known death toll has already risen to the thousands. Planet New Tokyo has gone into immediate lockdown amid fears Roppongi may break apart and rain radioactive debris upon the capitol. The Farmers Alliance broadcast a manifesto the following day, accusing Roppongi of “corrupting the soul of Kusari’s youth” -- alleging the widespread sale of the drug Cardamine. Interspace has condemned the attack as a barbaric and senseless atrocity. |
| [832 AS] Interspace auditors re-open files |
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ROPPONGI -- 832 -- Interspace auditors working aboard Roppongi Station have reportedly re-opened the historic claims file relating to Osaka Storage Facility. The Samura station was allegedly destroyed through Blood Dragon sabotage in 822 AS, shortly after Samura purchased what some have called a “significantly overvalued” insurance policy. Insider Interspace sources claim the investigation was launched after random spot checks in seemingly unrelated cases detected anomalies that linked back to Osaka. Neither Interspace nor Samura have responded to requests for comment. |
| [832 AS] A foul wind |
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KYUSHU -- 833 AS -- Ravaged by the worst storms in Kyushu's history, bustling farming communes have been thrown into total disarray. Local authorities are struggling to address the severe infrastructure damage caused by the violent typhoons and flooding, while the number of dead and missing has risen to the tens of thousands. Many communities are directly calling for external aid, as assistance from Imperial authorities has been slow to arrive. In response, Samura has demanded the restoration of their planetary management contract, which they claim will prevent imminent food insecurity. What was forecast to be a bountiful harvest now only offers grim tidings. |
| [832 AS] Counting doses |
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ROCHESTER -- 832 AS -- The catastrophic crash of the Cardamine market has been tough for all the associates involved in the chain of its distribution, and the substantial drop-off in the quantity of it available for use and resale has caused a new problem in this series of bad episodes. The Rogues and Hackers, former partners in feeding the needs of the underworld are now at each other's throats, unable to meet demands for the drug both by their own and by customers, it seems as if stealing it from each other at gunpoint is the new business model. |
| [831 AS] Cardamine Shortage Stops Initiations |
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AINU -- 831 AS -- The unfortunate slave uprising on the planet Malta, the home world of our patrons, has led to a shortage of Cardamine for our clients and needs - especially initiation rituals. With an acute chronic shortage of Cardamine, we have been forced to suspend initiation of new members into the Golden Chrysanthemums, and existing sisters have had to make do with smaller doses until this crisis is averted. The Cardamine shortage has taken a toll on the fighting ability and courage of our sisters, who have refused several combat assignments and we have been forced to rely more heavily on the assistance of our allies, the Blood Dragons, who have of course attempted to discourage our sisters from taking Cardamine and some have even insisted on the necessity of abandoning our sacred rituals for situations such as these. The Shikoku system itself, where the presence of our allies is limited to say the least, has been a most difficult situation for our movement. The Lane Hackers have repeatedly been unhappy with our deliveries of Cardamine to Leiden, and our convoys heading to Leiden have also been the target of several ambushes by Liberty Rogues attempting to seize our product. We can do nothing more than wait and pray that the crisis on planet Malta will be quickly averted, and our patrons will once again bestow their Gift upon us as before. |
| [831 AS] Jump Hole Upheaval Causes Chaos |
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HEISENBERG -- 831 AS -- Jump holes across Sirius have become increasingly volatile and chaotic over the last year, with Professor Sophia Nagel from the Heisenberg Research Station linking the unusual phenomena to the Pulse. The Pulse was an unprecedented blast of hyperspace energy that was detected immediately prior to last year's Jump Gate Blackout. Professor Nagel and her team are certain the Pulse originated from outside Sirius, but are otherwise no closer to identifying its source or mitigating a future Blackout event. "Following the Blackout, we began to see immediate signs of jump hole destabilization in multiple different regions, with many ultimately falling out of phase alignment altogether", she commented. The dramatic upending of Sirius' jump hole network has already prompted many groups to abandon stations and withdraw from systems that appear to risk being cut off. While months-long trips between the stars are possible thanks to the Liberty Engine and many centuries of innovation, few ships are designed or provisioned to make such arduous journeys. Those who were displaced by Sirius' redrawn map hope that system connections will return, while adventurers and explorers rush to discover new routes. |
| [828 AS] - Shigeakiki. What is it? |
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AINU -- 828 AS -- A brand new kind of drug enters the market today. This new Cardamine derived stimulant is composed of multiple herbs and chemicals and is designed to enhance the performance of Chrysanthemum pilots during combat in high risk encounters against the Kusari Police and Navy. "This stimulant affects the nervous system which results in heightened senses. This can lead to oversensitivity. One of the most common symptoms is light sensitivity. Darkened visors or sunglasses can alleviate this." says Ishida Morika, a spokesperson for the Golden Chrysanthemum cell that developed the drug. "These, like all effects of the stimulant, last roughly an hour and leave no permanent alterations. The only permanent effect is Cardamine addiction. None of the other components have addictive qualities." Ishida goes to elaborate further and states that "The full formula is a closely guarded secret and shall not be made public." This new drug is currently focused mainly for the Kusari market, but Ishida has not ruled out the possibility of expanding it further. |
Rumors
| Blood Dragons |
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| Golden Chrysanthemums |
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