| Barrier Gate Station A | |
| Owner | |
| Freelancers | |
| Location | |
| C/B-5, Coronado |
CLASS: Makeshift
GRAVITY: Complete
DOCKING: Yes
AMENITIES: Yes
CREW: 4K
Barrier Gate is one of the few privately owned space stations in Sirius. Freelance explorer George Tinsley made a name for himself in underworld circles when he discovered the "Barrier Pass" in 801 AS. This shortcut between Tau and Liberty space completely bypassed Bretonia, promising to revolutionize the movement of contraband across the region. Knowing full well that his secret would not remain that way for long, Tinsley called in favors and invested his entire fortune into excavating a rock on the edge of the Barrier Ice Field. When the hired Independent Miners Guild (IMG) workers were finished, Tinsley began to discretely advertise the new passage to Liberty Rogue contacts, in the hope of reaching the Outcast cartels.
Tinsley now serves as the owner-administrator -- or some would say mob boss -- of Barrier Gate, which has grown steadily over the decades. The station is frequented by a motley assortment of pirates, freelancers, smugglers and Bounty Hunters, along with more disreputable elements among the IMG and Crayter Republic. Most of the station's revenue is made by taking a small cut from facilitated cargo transactions, and servicing the various needs and requirements of its guests. As Tinsley planned, Barrier Gate eventually became a place where the Outcasts could exchange Cardamine with the criminals of Liberty, producing astounding profits and making him the wealthiest man in the Independent Worlds.
This plan was not without its problems -- Tinsley is constantly fighting off subtle plots by the Rogues, Junkers and the Outcasts themselves, all who covet Barrier Gate's strategic location. As a result, the elderly kingpin has employed a well-paid army of mercenaries who are fiercely loyal to him alone. The arrival of the Crayter Republic to Coronado in 818 AS presented the station with a further quandary, as heightened military patrols threatened local smuggling. While it was initially feared that the Republic would attempt to shut the Gate down, this has so far failed to happen. Republic officials have conspicuously turned a blind eye, while Tinsley himself has been spotted hosting lavish and well attended parties on Planet Yuma.
Bribes & Missions Offered
| Bribes |
| Missions |
Commodities
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Ships sold
| Ship | Class | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Kingfisher | Heavy Fighter | 19,558$ |
| Hawfinch | Very Heavy Fighter | 23,504$ |
| Magpie | Bomber | 97,409$ |
News
| [835 AS] Interspace voids Coronado Trade Lane policy |
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SCOTSDALE REFINERY -- 835 -- Ageira Technologies and Deep Space Engineering have threatened to sue Interspace Commerce over an insurance dispute. Interspace provided a loss prevention policy for Coronado’s Trade Lane construction project, however the financial giant says the policy is now void. Describing the Jericho Pulse as an “act of god”, Interspace exercised force majeure clauses to deny compensation claims. Local transports caught in the blast are similarly out of pocket. Liberty itself has yet to comment on the situation, however the prospect of starting over with massively increased risk premiums has thrown the project’s future into question. |
| [835 AS] Coronado disaster sparks panic |
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YUMA -- 835 -- Public data feeds have lit up with distress calls from Coronado, after a system-wide EMP pulse wreaked havoc. Emergency requests for aid have been issued by the Crayter Republic and IMG, with early reports indicating that the system’s Trade Lane project has been destroyed. Ageira has confirmed that the Jump Gate remains unaffected thanks to post-Blackout safeguards, allowing relief to be delivered from Bretonia and Liberty. Panic erupted on many Liberty worlds after footage was released showing an energy field around the moon Jericho, seeming to indicate another activated alien site. President Hawthorne has called for calm, and reiterated that security forces were moving to contain the situation. |
| [834 AS] Independent Miners assert Jericho rights |
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PECOS -- 834 -- The Guild has issued a new set of ultimatums to Yuma. This time, Guildmasters are demanding that Crayter withdraw the defense grid around the moon Jericho. The miners assert the grid infringes the Guild’s claims, which they say includes exclusive rights to exploit the moon’s resources. Pecos miner Shane Harlon noted, “there’s probably a whole lot of Uranium down there, given the radiation band. If there is, it’s ours.” So far Crayter has dismissed the demands, calling the mineral claim “nonsense” and stating simply that their troops were stationed on site for “public safety”. |
| [834 AS] IMG and Crayter relationship deteriorates |
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JAVA STATION -- 834 -- The Crayter Republic and Independent Miners Guild have been drawn into a fierce dispute, marking yet another low point in their tumultuous relationship. Despite limited cooperation against the Outcasts, the two groups have been mired in mutual hostility and suspicion since the Aland Crisis of 826 AS. More recently, Crayter forces attacked and destroyed an IMG refugee liner they claimed was smuggling weapons into Gallia. The Guild has called the claims “preposterous” and formally expelled all Crayter representatives from their stations. Gateway Shipping has offered Lewes Shipping Platform as a venue for mediation to try and resolve the situation. |
| [833 AS] Carlisle cartels move on Slog |
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CARLISLE -- 833 -- Slog has got its hooks into Bretonia’s workers, and there’s cash to be made filling that demand. It seems the Gaians and Mollys certainly think so, as both groups have sent their own people to put the screws to the producers on Carlisle. What once was an independent operation is now being torn in half by the Bretonian underworld, as both factions see the trade as a quick, if dirty, means of funding their causes. It remains to be seen how the Gaians and Mollys will settle their differences. If you’re in the market for Slog, your options have never been better. |
| [833 AS] Liberty draws down forces in Crayter territory |
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YUMA -- 833 -- Liberty has announced the end of the Battlecruiser Yellowstone’s tour of Coronado, where it has spent several years targeting drug smugglers in the dangerous Barrier Pass. President Hawthorne has reportedly lost patience with indefinite foreign deployments of Liberty forces, and ordered the ship to be withdrawn to bolster domestic piracy and smuggling suppression in California. A Department of Defense spokesman stated, “we have for many years provided the Crayter Republic with the training and material support needed to police their territory. We have faith they will be up to the task”. The Yellowstone’s withdrawal comes as Deep Space Engineering deepens its own investments in Coronado, with the expansion of the Scottsdale Refinery. |
| [833 AS] LPI commissioner sentenced following Erie probe |
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PLANET ERIE -- 833 -- Helen O’Shea, Pennsylvania’s former LPI Commissioner, has been sentenced on corruption charges over the mismanagement of Erie’s planetary internment camps. The facilities were constructed to temporarily hold prisoners from the Liberty Insurgency while the courts cleared sentencing backlogs. Following allegations of human trafficking, the LSF launched a major investigation, discovering that as many as 10 percent of inmates were suspected of having been sold to traffickers. O’Shea is the latest and most high profile prosecution to date, and is expected to serve a ten year sentence at a minimum security penitentiary on Planet Los Angeles. |
| [831 AS] Gate corps clash over 'Blackout'! |
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ABBEVILLE -- 831 AS -- EFL's 'Resilience Taskforce' today reported its findings on The Blackout, claiming to have gathered forensic evidence that proved the cause as Ageira negligence. A spokesperson claimed that the destruction of the Dublin Jump Gate by Molly separatists had created a hyperspace feedback loop that was propagated and amplified through the Ageira gate network. Ageira disputed this finding in their own press release, calling EFL 'fantasists' and countering that their own scientists had narrowed the cause to a rare 'hypernova' stellar event that originated outside the Sirius sector. Both corporations claim that network-wide hardware safeguards have been implemented that would prevent a similar occurrence in the future. Independent researchers have sharply criticized the corporate announcements, accusing both of self-interested misdirection. Professor Sophia Nagel from Heisenberg Research Station called EFL's accusation 'incoherent' and the hypernova explanation 'nonsense' that did not explain the characteristics of the 'Blackout Pulse'. Despite multiple different Pulse recordings being widely disseminated across the neural net, public efforts have so far failed to triangulate its source. |
| [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. |
| [831 AS] Pulse phenomenon linked to Blackout |
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AMES RESEARCH STATION -- 831 -- Independent researchers have announced that a hyperspace pulse of unprecedented strength was detected moments before The Blackout, destroying many of the sector’s most sensitive and finely tuned observatories. Surviving data about 'The Pulse' has been widely shared across the neural net in recent days, prompting mass speculation. Professor Katsuma Oster of Ames Research Station described the signal as “astounding”. “These readings are unprecedented, as if reality itself were struck like a gong.” House authorities have remained tight lipped, refusing to share their own observatories' data. |
| [831 AS] 'Blackout' causes jump network failure |
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MANHATTAN -- 831 AS -- Two days ago Jump Gates failed simultaneously across Sirius, freezing commerce and neural net access across the sector. When communications resumed 31 hours later, the news broke of Bretonia's loss of the Dublin system. This twin shock has plunged markets into chaos, prompting fears of sector-wide economic recessions. Interspace estimates that the stoppage alone caused billions of credits in losses. Gallia immediately accused Liberty of causing the outage, claiming the destruction of Dublin's Jump Gate instigated a cascading failure in faulty Ageira infrastructure. Ageira has sharply refuted the allegation, claiming such a systemic effect would be physically impossible. |
| [831 AS] Caught in their own trap? |
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BARRIER GATE -- 831 -- Word is the Xenos have a Cardamine problem. Recruiting from the bottom of Liberty society, most Xenos lived in poverty and decided to lash out. Now they’ve got a foot in the door with the Cardamine trade and their leaders are having issues keeping the grunts out of the goods, after that first taste of luxury. Witnesses report one such incident aboard Barrier Gate, after a Xeno executed a green wingman who’d used the product he was supposed to be shipping. Even if you’re only in the trade for business, the GC and Rogues can tell you there’s always a catch in the contract. |
| [830 AS] Liberty annexes Planet Erie |
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PLANET ERIE -- 830 -- The Liberty Navy has launched Operation PESTICIDE to annex Pennsylvania, following the collapse of talks between Liberty and Zoner authorities. President Hawthorne declared that Liberty could no longer tolerate a "lawless frontier" within its very core, and that the Zoners had repeatedly refused to extradite criminals and terrorists from the Pennsylvania protectorate. The recent destruction of an LSF satellite was the straw that broke the camel's back. Militias congregating around Planet Erie were routed following the Zoner Carrier Pinnacle’s destruction. The Battleship Alma then secured Erie’s orbit and landed Marines to impose Liberty law on Lake City. Surviving militants have vowed to resist Erie’s occupation. |
| [830 AS] Trouble in paradise on Erie |
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PLANET ERIE -- 830 AS -- Since the destruction of Williamstown Depot near Planet Tremont, Liberty and Erie's autonomous Zoner government have been locked in a standoff. Liberty has long suspected the Insurgency attack on its logistics station was facilitated by informants on Erie, and has accused the Zoners of allowing Insurgency and Xeno operatives to roam the planet with "impunity". This morning, a missile streaked from Erie's wilderness, shooting down an orbiting LSF satellite that had been tracking "terrorist activities". Liberty has accused Zoner militias of the attack, and ordered Erie authorities to hand over the perpetrators, and all Insurgency affiliates. Zoners have denied responsibility, calling the attack a “Liberty false flag”. |
| [828 AS] Underworld meeting goes sour |
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BARRIER GATE -- 827 -- Patrons were forced to dive for cover when a meeting on Barrier Gate’s Orange Deck went south. A delegation of Xenos met with Outcasts to “bury the hatchet” over recent attacks on the Cardamine trade. “I didn’t hear what they said, but the Outcast Donna laughed in their face, then all hell broke loose”, said Lucky Stevens. “It was a massacre. The Xenos didn’t stand a chance.” The Xenos recently knocked out Rochester Base, with most guessing they’re trying to cut into the drugs trade. One anonymous Xeno noted, “eventually they’ll see it’s better to have us in the tent and pissing out, than out the tent and pissing in.” |
| [735 AGS] Brigands Secure Deal with Liberty Rogues |
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MONTAUBAN -- 735 AGS -- In a move guaranteed to cause envy among Gallia's underworld networks, the Free Brigands of Gallia has secured a lucrative agreement with the Liberty Rogues for the import of contraband material from Gallia into Liberty, via their new base in the Roussillion system. At the same time, the Gallic Brigands gain access to a wide variety of Sirian goods to take back into Gallia. With the main effort of the Gallic Navy directed at Bretonia, smuggling opportunities through the Tau systems are plentiful. Brigand representatives are reportedly in talks with the Outcasts to safeguard their passage through the Tau systems, but regardless of the outcome of those negotiations, the volume of goods flowing to and from the Liberty and Gallic black markets is expected to increase dramatically. |
Rumors
| Freelancers |
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| Outcasts |
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| Bounty Hunters Guild |
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| Independent Miners Guild |
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| Lane Hackers |
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