Planet Carlisle

From Discovery Wiki
Planet Carlisle
Owner
Bretonia Police
Location
C/D-4, Newcastle

DIAMETER: 12,642 km

MASS: 6,11 x 10e24 kg

TERRAIN: Terrestrial

TEMPERATURE: -8°C to 53°C

ESCAPE VELOCITY: 11.15 km/sec

From orbit, Planet Carlisle initially appears lush and hospitable. The ideal atmosphere, rolling jungles and deep oceans presented a pristine jewel in the barren wastes of The Barrier. When the earliest IMG explorers first landed in 669 AS, they discovered that Carlisle’s sweltering rainforests concealed a deadly secret. The biosphere was saturated with hostile strains of bacteria, many immediately deadly to humans. Highly contagious infections spread through the body like wildfire, dissolving internal organs. This devastating threat effectively stalled any consideration of colonization until a resolution could be found.

The “Carlisle Problem” became a long running project of Cambridge Research Station’s hot labs, studying how bacterial eradication could be achieved reliably and at scale. On-site trials began in 812 AS after Cryer Pharmaceuticals synthesized a protein capable of neutralizing the bacteria under lab conditions. This did not translate into real world results, as an effective delivery mechanism remained elusive. Despite setbacks caused by the Gallic War, a breakthrough came in 825 AS, when a joint Cryer-Planetform partnership successfully deployed an aerosolized treatment through adapted terraforming generators.

By 827 AS, this network of generators had created a 500km radius, self-certified “clean zone”. Cambridge University academics have warned of protein contamination across the wider Carlisle biosphere, and challenged the rigor of Cryer’s safety testing. Despite this, the Bretonian government quickly moved to certify Carlisle as fit for colonization, due to the urgent need to create jobs and housing for the enormous Refugee population scattered across Liberty, Rheinland and New London. To fund the colony, Bretonia has been forced to sell colonial development and extraction charters to Liberty corporations such as Universal Shipping and DSE.

Boom towns have now begun to sprout across Carlisle’s Clean Zone, focusing on mining, logging and manufacturing. Many among the Bretonian government see Carlisle as the only sustainable, long term solution to the loss of Leeds, owing to Sprague’s precarious location and disastrous development. Smog-belching factories have begun to churn out locally produced Consumer Goods and Industrial Materials. Organized crime quickly took root on Carlisle however, with the planet becoming an epicenter for Slog production and distribution. Gaian terrorist cells frequently strike at targets across the planet, usually hitting terraforming generators or deforestation camps.

Bribes & Missions Offered

Bribes
Missions


Commodities

Imports
Commodity Price
Robotics 28$
Agricultural Machinery 33$
Black Market Munitions 185$
Cracking Catalysts 63$
Energy Field Equipment 54$
Gin 39$
Hydrogen 9$
Liberty Ale 33$
Medical Equipment 35$
Rheinbier 56$
Rum 62$
Sake 45$
Detroit Light Arms 82$
Stabiline 93$
Titanium 13$
Tungsten 22$
Vodka 59$
Whiskey 9$
Zinc 54$
Crew 212$
Military Surplus 300$
Black Market Pharmaceuticals 157$
Counterfeit Computerware 153$
Boron 43$
Cobalt 39$
Alien Organisms 66$
Kyushu Rice 36$
Fertilizers 30$
Optical Chips 30$
Mining Machinery 25$
Pharmaceuticals 33$
Hull Panels 32$
Polymers 37$
Optronics 123$
Terraforming Gases 31$
Cardamine 191$
Consumer Goods 223$
Daumann Side Arms 135$
Gallic Enfer Blasters 101$
Black Market Blasters 134$
Ageira Gate/Lane Parts 928$
Black Market Light Arms 140$
Kemwer Technologies 287$
Volgograd Ordinance 197$
APM Advanced Hardware 135$
Black Market Augments 179$
Neon 39$
Bretonian Refugees 22,068$
Synth Paste 25$
Wine 66$
Munitions 41$
Xenobiotic Filters 61$
HazMat Canisters 126$
Nox 160$
Consumer Goods 187$
Passenger Cabin (Liberty) 37,099$
Passenger Cabin (Kusari) 46,240$
Passenger Cabin (Rheinland) 61,079$
Passenger Cabin (Gallia) 44,634$
Passenger Cabin (Omega) 54,573$
Passengers (Omicrons) 91,629$
Biodome Materials 90$
Iron 9$
Bioproduce 28$
Xeno Relics 231$
Molybdenum 238$
Silver 198$
Copper 183$
H-Fuel 120$
Aluminium 269$
Exports
Commodity Price
Deployable Mining Container 50,000$
Criminal Cells (Bretonia) 5,018$
Slog 75$
Oxygen 1$
Water 1$
Consumer Goods 15$
Hangar Provisions 250$
Industrial Materials 10$
Casualties 38,897$
Beryllium 20$
Food Rations 26$
MOX 26$
Basic Alloy 10$
Construction Machinery 43$
Scientists 245$
Passenger Cabin (Bretonia) 23,682$


Ships sold


Ship Class Price
Locust Very Heavy Fighter 32,880$
Cavalier Light Fighter 19,522$
Kestrel Freighter 2,916$


News

[834 AS] BMM challenged on environmental record

REDCARR -- 834 -- The Green Front environmental group have sued BMM over alleged waste disposal violations at Redcarr Production Facility in Newcastle. The group assert that Toxic Waste is being vented into the moon Middlebrough’s orbit, rather than being handled in accordance with Bretonian safety regulations. Retired MP Terence Wimberley has led the move, declaring that the “private prosecution will hold BMM executives accountable, before they can ruin another system with their reckless corner cutting.” BMM has decried the case as a “malicious waste of public resources,” but offered no specific comment on the allegation itself.

[833 AS] Gold insecurity invites crisis

WATERLOO -- 833 -- Interspace analysts have published a report on the continued volatility of sector-wide Gold supplies, claiming that further instability invites disaster. The reports note the pressures placed on advanced Optronics, Bio-Neural Processor and Quantum Multiplexor manufacturing were already causing spiraling cost increases in adjacent market sectors. Market analysis also indicates that the bulk of Bretonian exports now consist of recycled and in some cases adulterated materials, likely indicating that stockpiles are running low. Interspace has called upon House authorities to collectively find the means of addressing the Dublin question before economic crisis becomes inevitable.

[833 AS] Cambridge on the Line

NORFOLK -- 833 AS -- The number of recorded Corsair incursions across Cambridge has increased by 193%% in the last 3 years. According to Captain Edwards of the Battleship Norfolk, this is simply a result of the successes in detecting and reacting to attacks. "You can't respond to a Corsair you don't know is there," he noted. "The Cambridge Line ensures we know when and where to deploy our resources for maximum effect." Retired Major Jane Gilliam disagrees. "The Line was never fit for purpose," she says. "The Regents lobbied London to keep it, and so the pantomine continues." It is speculated that the spike in Corsair raids may have been prompted by increased resistance elsewhere, or a shift in their internal politics. Regardless of their true motivations, Interspace Commerce has recognised the elevated peril and adjusted its premiums accordingly.

[831] BPA investigation probes droid safety

MANCHESTER -- 831 -- Detectives investigating the sabotage of Liverpool Station have made a significant breakthrough, after security logs from the attack were forensically reconstructed. Inspector Giles Mattin confirmed that the station’s service droids may have played a role, with footage showing the robots attacking the crew before heading to the reactor. “Anomalous network activity indicated the units were remotely compromised, possibly by Lane Hackers or The Technocracy. We are coordinating closely with Ageira Technologies to ensure the public’s safety,” he concluded. Calls have been made for Parliament to ban service droids across Bretonia until their safety can be verified. Industry leaders have called the proposal “premature alarmism”.

[831 AS] Gate corps clash over 'Blackout'!

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] Bretonian focus turns on Mollys

SHEFFIELD -- 831 AS -- The Bretonia Police Authority has announced the eradication of the Molly movement is their top priority. Following the loss of the Dublin system, the dangerous terrorist movement has leaped to the top of Bretonia's most wanted board. Bounties on Molly terrorists have doubled, with Guild Hunters flocking to the beleaguered House. Sheffield Guildmaster Tina Hale commented that, "these are Edge World rates for domestic threats." Despite that, prospective Hunters should be cautious, as the Mollys are notoriously cunning fighters. The crackdown appears to be having some effect, as reports of Molly attacks on shipping in Cambridge and Newcastle have already fallen.

[831 AS] Pulse phenomenon linked to Blackout

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

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] Cost of Rebuilding too High?

NEW LONDON -- 831 AS -- Bretonia continues to face a difficult and lengthy recovery process following the conclusion of the Gallic War. The Bretonian people initially accepted this, and quietly pledged to come together and struggle on. While Bretonia is now witnessing an extraordinary rate of growth, it has come at the cost of severe cuts and harsh industrial quotas. Professor Timothy Ball of the Economic Review Institute says, "the recovery we've witnessed so far has been uneven, mainly benefiting Bretonian corporations and Crown agencies. If dividends of recovery are not felt by the average citizen, this inequality could become a major point of domestic political contention."

[829 AS] Marauding in Manchester

MANCHESTER -– 829 AS -- Reports from the Manchester system have now been confirmed by BPA and Bretonian intelligence officials: Liverpool Border Station, guarding over the Magellan Jump Gate and serving as the command center for police operations in the system, has been destroyed in what is being deemed a terrorist attack.

Yesterday at 2200 hours SMT, nearby Sheffield Station and Kingston Border Station received automated distress signals from Liverpool, indicating an emergency aboard the station. Guild patrols redirected from Sheffield arrived on the scene within minutes, finding the border station destroyed. Search and rescue operations headed by Guild and BPA units commenced immediately and successfully salvaged several escape pods bearing several dozen survivors, who were immediately delivered to hospitals on New London.

BPA spokesperson Sandra Halling held a press conference earlier this morning. According to joint police and BIS investigations, Liverpool was destroyed by antimatter explosives planted aboard the station. Their detonation caused a catastrophic chain reaction, resulting in the station's own reactors melting down and exploding. Of the estimated one-hundred-twenty persons on board at the time of the attack, seventy-eight have been reported as dead or missing. \So far, no party has taken credit for this heinous attack. However, Bretonian police surmises that it was likely perpetrated by either the criminals known as the Mollys or the infamous pirate organization, the Lane Hackers. The attack occurred following a significant redeployment of local Armed Forces units to the Cortez system for the purpose of joint operations with Libertonian security forces. This, says Halling, may have allowed terrorist sympathizers to exploit undermanned BPA patrols and smuggle illegal explosives through Manchester's ice fields, onto Liverpool Station.

While investigations continue, Bretonian Police Authority has reinforced patrols within Manchester and established traffic controls at Kingston Border Station and Birmingham Station. Traffic to and from Liberty has been advised to reroute through the Cortez system.

[828 AS] Harris conference mends wounds

PLANET HARRIS -- 828 -- Delegates from Bretonia, Kusari and the Crayter Republic have met on Planet Harris, announcing the ratification of the Harris Treaty. Kusari and Crayter had come to blows the previous year, after the KNF militarily evicted Republic forces from Tau-31. Despite this, it appears the three parties have found common cause in their mutual mistrust of the newly formed Gallic Union. Despite historic grievances, each has tentatively agreed to come to one another’s aid in the event of a conflict with Gallia in the Taus, while also guaranteeing military and economic access to Tau-23.


Rumors

Bretonia Police
  • Beyond all the normal teething problems you’d expect on a young colony, we suspect Carlisle is also the epicenter of the Slog problem. Running down dealers to try and work up to the source is an endless task. That’s not helped by both the Gaians and Mollys seeming to be up to their elbows in the trade. Interrupt the wrong deal, and you’re getting a pickaxe to the back of the head and a pocketful of pyrite for your troubles.


  • It’s said that Carix is made from a local bacteria mixed up with industrial chemicals. Apparently the bacteria’s toxin and its effects were discovered by some Planetform scientists a few years back. There was a pay dispute going on then, so they must have decided they’d get rich their own way. Last I heard, a bunch of Planetform employees got arrested during the police crackdown not so long ago.


  • The Governor has a lot riding on her shoulders here. Carlisle is being publicly described as a sister colony to Sprague, but the government knows that Sprague is untenable in the long run. The location, the... challenging societal conditions that developed. Carlisle is a chance to start over and build a foundation for colonization that will last a millennium. It’s vital we don’t repeat the same mistakes that blighted Sprague, even if those mistakes were regrettably necessary due to the war.


  • There’s a lot of soldiers here in Currock City. From the big training camp out in the wilderness. Newly enlisted squaddies do a rotation out there to get to grips with military life and harsh conditions. Of course, when they get back to civilization, it’s like setting off a firework. Drunk and disorderly, public indecency, fights with the civilians. We give them a cell to cool off and set them loose in the morning. In return, the army’ll back us up if we ever need to cash in a favor.


  • Colonization is expensive, and credits are something in severely short supply in Bretonia. To fund key infrastructure, the government has issued development charters to foreign corporations, primarily Universal Shipping and Deep Space Engineering. Both are preparing to establish their own frontier settlements. The combination of Liberty credits, Liberty citizens, and Liberty specialists managing Cryer’s bacterial project means Liberty’s interests are a major constituency we need to be mindful of.


  • I lived on Sprague before Carlisle, and Leeds before that. Carlisle takes some getting used to. One-hundred percent humidity most days. Sprague is quite the opposite, so dry it’ll suck the moisture from your mouth. The smell is another issue. The forests stink. It almost reminds me of the smog on Leeds, but rather than acidic fumes that make your sinuses bleed, someone has mixed rotting grass cuttings with milk and left it to curdle in the sun.


  • Any successful colony needs strong political backing to thrive, to access the resources and capabilities it needs. The Governor’s Office maintains a permanent staff on New London for the purpose of building relationships and currying favor with the government and other notable peers. This is an uphill struggle, because we are facing a campaign of political sabotage by Cambridge’s elites. The Lord Regents despise the Carlisle bacterial project, and are intent on seeing us fail.


  • Nothing puts my hackles up like environmentalists on Carlisle. Cambridge students on sabbatical, posing for self-aggrandizing photos. Green Front firebrands sabotaging colony infrastructure and workplaces. Then there’s the bombings. Gaian work, right foul stuff. They’ve attacked the Terraforming Generators too. If they go down, the bacteria could kill us all. Mind you, I heard how the Gaians dealt with Fort Monarch -- maybe they wouldn’t care.


  • Despite the problems, people are flocking to the colony here. Majority are Bretonians of some stripe, whether they were Refugees who ended up abroad during The War, or workers who’re trying to escape from Sprague or Croyton. Not to mention the forlorn lot that transferred here from Gran Canaria. Whichever staff officer concocted that campaign should have been court martialled. There’s a large Liberty presence here too, thanks to the Universal Shipping company towns.


Bretonia Armed Forces
  • Lots of the BAF instructors here have slightly-illicit side-gigs as guides for game hunters. You’re not supposed to leave the Clean Zone, but the biggest, meanest and most valuable carnivores don’t much like straying inside it these days. Of course, outside the Clean Zone, if your hazard suit rips, you’re going to be Man Soup in little more than an hour. Not for me, I’ll tell you. I’ll stick to drinking awful liquor to pass my weekends.


  • Carlisle is a hellish mix of heat, humidity, and deadly wildlife. The perfect place to stick the primary training camp of the Bretonian Army, naturally... This is without a doubt the worst posting I have ever had, and I fought on Planet Leeds when the Gauls first touched down. God help any poor Toms that can’t figure out their hazard suits while on maneuvers. If the bacteria doesn’t get them, their sergeant major will.


  • Bretonia acquired a lot of materiel during the Gallic War. Thousands of times more than we need in peacetime. Carlisle was picked as the spot it’d all be dumped; outside the Clean Zone there are vast fields of Military Surplus protected by their own little Clean Bubbles. Parliament reckons having it stored here in the north is a deterrent to Gallia, while the bacteria acts as a free security fence for the stockpiles. Utter madness if you ask me. Carlisle is a hot, damp nightmare. That metal is going to corrode until it’s worthless.


Bretonia Mining & Manufacturing
  • Newcastle is significantly easier to operate in than Omega-3. We’re already scaling up Consumer Goods production using a combination of local materials and Kusari Optical Chips -- soon we will be able to meet all of Bretonia’s domestic demand. We are considering deprecating Industrial Material production on Sprague and spooling up factories here instead. Despite the higher regulatory burdens on Carlisle, the security situation alone allows for significant savings.


  • Carlisle is the cheapest place in the Colonies to get a good fix of Slog. Yeah, don’t judge. Walk a mile in another bloke’s work boots. After a long day, my joints are on fire, my head is banging, and my stomach is empty. I try to sleep it off and I’m back in the war again. Go to the doctor and they tell me to think happy thoughts and get out their office. Slog makes it all numb, makes it go away. So I’ll take my medicine and make it through another day.


  • Working the forests is dangerous business. The biggest beasties stay out of the Clean Zone, but we keep stun batons on hand for the rest. I hate Sumpers the worst. They’re giant, stinking, carnivorous slugs. Shoot one and the round will punch straight through, annoying it at best. Have to repeatedly shock them until they get the idea and leave. Horrible things burrow below the moss and wait for prey to walk by.


  • BMM has a range of operations on Carlisle, ranging from biomass harvesting and mineral extraction to infrastructure development and goods manufacturing. Despite that, Carlisle presents a difficult environment to work in, politically and practically. Our freedom of action has been significantly hamstrung by Cambridge lobbying, which is making it difficult to run our operations effectively. Worker protections and environmental regulations have their place, but this is little more than sabotage by well-connected eco-radicals.


  • There’s a lot of work to be found here, but most of it is hard going. Lumber -- clearing the forests -- needs a lot of hands. I’d hesitate to call the produce wood, not like the stuff they grow on Cambridge anyway -- but it’s still useful enough for construction or Consumer Goods. Grind the tree flesh down and you can dry the pulp and press it into panels. Surprisingly strong once it binds. Not winning any prizes for beauty however, and it stinks until it's properly treated.


  • The Bretonian economy is growing at a ferocious pace, driven by industrialization here and on Sprague. The loss of Planet Leeds set us back more than a century though. You’ve got room to grow when you’re starting from rock bottom. Where that leaves us compared to the other Houses, in terms of workforce and raw productive capacity, is the problem. BMM spent centuries making the hard decisions that were necessary to keep Bretonia competitive. Now, well... I just don’t know.


Border World Exports
  • Our transports carry a range of goods to the colonies of Carlisle, including Food Rations and Pharmaceuticals. Maybe one day Bretonian scientists will genetically engineer crops that thrive here, but until then Cambridge remains our primary breadbasket. Pharmaceuticals are vital to treat the multitude of tropical illnesses harbored here. Even with the most dangerous bacteria eradicated in the Clean Zone, there are still all manner of things that will make you sick on an alien world.


  • Military Surplus from the Gallic War is stored in large BAF stockpiles outside of Carlisle’s Clean Zone. Our freighters ship them from there to the space port, and then up to Gateshead Station in orbit where they await export to their final destination. Whenever making these trips from the wilderness, our ships have to be thoroughly decontaminated to ensure there is no possibility of bacterial contamination.


  • Bowex comes with a long heritage of reliability. We have been integral to Bretonia’s good fortune all the way back to 66 AS. That kind of longevity is vital for the development of a new colony. A logistics contract with Bowex will be as valid in five centuries as it is in five months. A pale imitation like Gateway simply does not have the staying power. They will be gone with the wind in a matter of years, like the countless failed upstarts before them.


Gateway Shipping
  • Carlisle is a big opportunity for Gateway. After the disaster that Sprague turned out to be, Bretonia has reigned in the Royal Charters issued to Bowex and BMM. Rather than being an unsupervised playground for Crown Corporations, the government is managing this colony directly. That means we can bid for contracts and win because we’re competitive, without worrying about Bowex locking us out because they have BMM’s ear.


  • Gateway lost a lot of ground when Poole was abandoned -- Caernarfon and Newbury were massive victories, the first time we’d taken government and police contracts from Bowex. Bowex has the audacity to blame us for making Poole cost-prohibitive to operate. Complete nonsense. Our bid was significantly lower than theirs, and they know it. Now we’ve got a taste for public contracts, we’ll just have to prove we can beat them here too.


  • The first ship to set down on Carlisle was the IMG Clydesdale Fortunate in 669 AS. She didn’t live up to her name. Upon disembarking, the crew were exposed to Carlisle’s hostile bacteria, succumbing to infection incredibly quickly. Their wretched final transmission sealed Carlisle’s reputation as a deathworld for over a century. Apparently game hunters will pay a pretty penny to anyone who’ll take them into the wilderness to see the wreck.


Planetform, Inc.
  • This project is a little different to our normal work: we’re adjusting an existing biosphere rather than creating one. Carlisle is no Gaia -- simple, brutish creatures abound -- but I don’t think we’ve fully grasped the secondary effects of what we’re doing. Yes, we’re eradicating harmful bacteria, but there will be knock-on effects neither HQ nor the Bretonian government want to acknowledge. Hopefully I’ll be retired before those pigeons come home to roost.


  • Canterbury has provided the Bretonian government with projections that Carlisle’s bacteria can be fully eradicated within 20 years, if a sufficient terraforming generator network is funded. I don’t see it. Gaians have already intensified their attacks on the project, and the “Clean Zone” site was picked precisely because its climate and terrain were amenable. It’s not realistic to assume we’ll proceed at pace or faster elsewhere.


  • Once Planetform and Cryer synthesized the bacterial treatment aerosol, it was relatively trivial to alter our terraforming generators to distribute it. Bretonia will need to pay for the construction and maintenance of a globe-spanning network, or eventually the bacteria will simply return. Why, that equilibrium could be maintained for centuries. Perhaps there’s a bright and profitable future for Planetform as ecological adjusters?


Cryer Pharmaceuticals
  • Working here comes with a sizable hazard premium. There’s a serious risk of attack by Gaian ecoterrorists, or harassment by their Green Front proxies. Each morning we have to run a full sweep of our shuttles for undercarriage bombs, and all Cryer facilities are patrolled by armed guards. Despite that, environmentalist protesters regularly block the roads leading to our labs. It’s terrifying really. You never know if one of the crowd is going to be a Gaian radical with a gun.


  • The Carlisle Eradication Project is mostly staffed by Liberty specialists. Despite being a flagship program of the Cambridge Research Station, you’ll be unofficially blackballed on Cambridge for involvement. Grant applications declined, tenures refused, papers rejected at peer review -- Green Front intellectual terrorism. The only xenogeneticists and microbiologists that will take the role are the ones who don’t see a future in Cambridge academia.


  • Cryer has other Carlisle teams that aren’t working on the Eradication Project. I knew a scientist that was embedded with the BAF out in the wilderness -- wouldn’t say a word about what they were up to though. A few years back, I was drinking with him when we heard one of our transports -- the Thornton -- had gone missing on the way to Leeds. He turned gray and shipped out to Liberty the very next day.


Universal Shipping
  • Detroit Light Arms are in high demand across Carlisle. Officially this is because the local wildlife is dangerous, and homesteaders are entitled to arm themselves for protection. Unofficially, I’ve heard there are huge issues with gangs brewing here, thanks to Slog and organized crime. I’m sure our weapons only find their way into the hands of people looking to protect their own property. All I can say is they are in very high demand across Carlisle.


  • Bretonia is funding Carlisle’s growth by selling off development charters. Universal has obtained several such charters as a speculative investment. This isn’t our normal field of work, however we’ve acquired several key tracts of land we believe will be vital for future infrastructure over the coming decades. Staking several settlements which we are populating with expatriated Bretonian Refugees also gives us significant influence on the Colonial Governor, and favorable treatment on import tariffs.


  • During the Gallic War, Liberty housed huge numbers of Bretonian Refugees, mostly on Erie and Houston. Blue collar wages collapsed, and Xeno gang violence followed soon after. Now, Universal has purchased a development charter here on Carlisle, and is running an expatriation program to move those Refugees back to Bretonia. Of course, they will be moving to one of our newly founded company towns, where they will work off the transit costs.


Crayter Republic
  • Carlisle and Yuma are similar in many ways. Both are tropical exceptions in the Barrier, although each faces different challenges. Both also have Liberty’s covetous eye fixed upon them. Not in terms of conquest, but Liberty’s influence and culture is everywhere you look, with financial strings that inevitably lead back to Manhattan. My trade delegation is here to offer their insight. A strong trade partner is preferable to a leashed hound.


  • We import Copper from Coronado, where recently discovered deposits rival the purity of those in the Walker Nebula. The Crayter Republic refines some of this Copper on Yuma, however we now purchase most of our exports from Deep Space Engineering. They have established their own orbital refinery in the system, and disapprove of our independent production. Previously we had a profitable relationship with the IMG to counterbalance Liberty’s corporations, but this recently collapsed.


  • Bretonia’s current state is a strategic concern for the Crayter Republic. We are aware that Liberty’s primary interest in our Republic is securing a buffer territory in the Barrier Pass. Deterring Gallia before a hypothetical future war occurs requires a credible threat in the Taus. We are pulling our weight in Tau-23, however Bretonia is not. Requests to New London have failed, so now we will try lobbying the Colonial Governor here for their support. If war comes again, Newcastle will also be a front line, after all.