Volume 8

All the news that's fit to print, first!
From the Editor's Desk
I finally broke down and hired a new reporter. I'd like to welcome Frozen to This Week In The Empire. Frozen will be reporting on Keldon Cluster events for the most part. So if you have any hot tips or exciting news, share it with him. He doesn't have an expense account, but maybe he'll top up the fuel in your ship.


General News
The Pardusian Inquisition is preparing to embark on a new Crusade, by the look of things. They have had an injection of new blood and have a capable fighting force. Just recently, The Great Baptism happened with almost all Inquisitors prefixing their names with Inquisitor.
The Tiacken Tribune was on vacation this week. The weekly newspaper has had numerous production issues in recent months. Hopefully the paper will survive these problems and get back on track. Perhaps the elusive Brackard will be back as editor sometime soon. There are even rumours it may go under.
For the first time, a Shadow has been killed. Quallie of Quinto Imperio took it out with his hawk. The Shadow apparently is using Pardus weapons and eventually succumbed to the Bio-Spore Arrays of Quallie and most likely quite a few pilots who took passing shots prior to Quallie's attack.
Tactical Advantage, a new combat/tactical display company, has come up with a new combat analyzer that logs all encounters with craft. This miraculous new computer chip is able to analyze the hull and armour of enemy craft and process how much damage you do to that craft. Technology at work. Surely the work of some excellent Keldana engineers.

The Keldon Report - by Frozen
A lottery opened this week in Keldon cluster and closed a few hours later. Moisterizer cream is the guy who opened it. The rules were simple, everyone who buys 2t or more of liquor from his brewery in Pass EMP-04 has a chance to win 10000 credits. Everything seemed to go well until Quietscheente started to raid the brewery. After some time Moisterizer cream gave up and decided to move over to Nex-003. This is actually the first evil act of Quietscheente, we say congratulations and watch your back!!

The lives of new and still inexperienced pilots in Keldon just got easier. The Praetorian Guard brought out the "Praetorian Keldon Guide". I got a copy of it and took a look and the first impression is great. The guide consists of a map and a very detailed description of most of the sectors in Keldon. Every little bit of information is included. I strongly recommend everyone that wants to spend some more time around Keldon to take a look at the Guide. For more information, or for a copy of a guide, contact Zparhedwun

A big congratulations goes to Conglomo for their great work in Urlafa. The class M planet has, this week, managed to become the biggest planet in Pardus. That was just for a short time however. Now the question is how the planet suddenly lost so much population. One of the reasons may be that the tourist season is over and many tourists have left the planet. Urlafa is very famous for the cheap food and many tourists come here and remain for months. The traders in Urlafa are working hard to keep the prices low and it seems to pay off.

Pirate Activity
Scrotor McGrew has headed for Sol. Apparently the Federation officers don't like him much more than we did, but he remains steadfast in his evil ways.

If you hear of any pirate activity, report it to our hotline at Pirate Hotline

New Buildings and Demolitions

Alliance News
A little late but Quietscheente of the alliance Quietscheente declared private conflicts on every Imperial aligned alliance except M.E.R.C. and pharmacentricity. Speculation abound that he is a puppet for those two alliances. Regardless of his reasons, he has started acting on his conflicts, most recently targeting DABOO buildings and members.

Help Wanted
Cartoonist needed for political satire on current events, pays 10000 credits/piece.
Looking for Keldon semi-attired models for provocative photos. Please forward full body shots to Meanguy. Pays 25000/per photo if accepted.


Interviews
This week we talk with Imperious Blackheart of the Imperial Guard. I met up with him a few days ago at Base Down Under for a little chat.

MG> So, why did you form The Imperial Guard? Do you not fill the same role as The Imperial Paladins?

IB> Hi, No this has been the cause of much confusion and its something I have found quite irritating people keep confusing the two organizations. The Imperial Paladins, although I respect them, have a very restrictive mandate, they are interested in policing and security of the empire clusters, everything outside of that area they have no concern with. Also they have a very restrictive view of illegals. Inside of imperial space, meaning they often have operations to clean the area of them. Whilst I respect their ability to do so and their selfless use of their time for the greater good The Imperial Guard has a much wider remit. We are more interested in the overall security of imperials no matter where they are based, and we are strictly anti piracy. Think of the difference as the difference between Special Forces and a Police Force, with IP being the police. They uphold every aspect of the law, we are more concerned with ensuring imperials are treated well and can live in security. These days I hope people think twice before aiding criminals in empire space.
Incidentally IG is so anti piracy/pirate like behaviour we will aid anyone, neutral or federal who requests our aid.

MG >There are criticisms that The Imperial Guard are a bunch of warmongering Imperials, just out to kill Federation officers.

IB> LOL also another thing which makes me laugh, IG has many friends in the federation, but we are an alliance of individuals with our own opinions, backgrounds, lives and history... Personally I can't stand the Federation for what it stands for, and sometimes my rhetoric as leader of The Guard is taken out of context, even I personally understand that some feds were simply born in the wrong part of space, others actively choose to help their rebellion. Oddly enough I am often PM'ed for conversations, and my opinions and help on certain subjects. We are loyal servants of the Emperor, if he declares war IG will secure the empire and hit out at the federation, he makes the choices not us and we don't presume to know when he will declare war.

MG> How did you feel after making a pact to leave Federation space after defending Ghost Town and having it destroyed?

IB> Saddened, the Federal pilots need to take a good long look at themselves and each other, firstly many of them condone this action which is blatantly a crime where 17k people died needlessly, and again it shows the rebel tendencies of the federation, they turned on the empire, they lied in public about their intentions if they are not careful they will turn on each other next, I don't know how they can trust each other really with all the betrayal that flys around there. But its part of who they are, it's also how humans got warp tech from us keldons, don't think we have forgotten the first betrayal.
However I must surround that statement with a couple of disclaimers:
Not all feds are like this, some just get taken along with the tide of events too easily, and some are as strong, loyal and worthy of respect as any Keldon or Ska'ri, we have humans in IG who chose to remain loyal despite their kind turning against the empire, that earned them endless respect in my eyes. There was a Federal base in the empire (more than one in fact) for a long time peacefully... the idea that a empire base in Sol cluster is unacceptable is blatant small-mindedness, and shows the federation jumps at its own shadow, cowards with guns is never a good thing.

MG> And what of Squire Jack, can you control him?

IB> Squire Jack has walked the line with IG rules time and time again and been punished for it internally. Whilst I don't approve of all his methods however he does bring results which speak for themselves and thus far he has not broken any of IG's Code of conduct.

I don't think it's a matter of controlling him he respects his instructions and has always changed his behaviour as I have requested so far. He is a great asset to the guard and I would be sad to lose him but he knows that he needs to take more care of IG's public image or we will be forced to part company.

MG> Does the Imperial Guard have any plans or operations in the works in the immediate future?

IB> Always, we have a open forum for members of IG to propose missions, intel gather, give feedback on each others ideas and then work together to carry them out, at the moment of course I won't give too much away but we have a couple of things in pipeline
Just keep your eye on TWITE, TT, and of course the all seeing GNN

MG>What are your requirements for becoming a Guardsman/woman? I've yet to see any recruiting

IB> LOL no recruiting needed to be the best. There are several people I have had to reject the application of for one reason or another, we could easily be 2-3 times bigger as an alliance if I had a more lax entrance policy, complete background checks are done on people, although there is nothing which will exclude you from becoming a Guardsperson there is one thing I expect from everyone, honesty and trust, if I don't feel I can trust you then its a automatic rejection... there are a few people internally I discuss some applications with, and some which I just leave to fester, I think that the longest someone waited for entry before giving up was getting close to a month and a half. I would say the entry requirements are to be Honest, Honourable, 100% loyal to the emperor, and not afraid to get your hand dirty. IG is a small mobile strong force which is hard to hit, there are many benefits to being a small alliance so you would have to bring something to offset the loss of that benefit as well. Mainly talk to me, let me get to know you, it increases your chances 10 fold.

MG> Do you have a home sector?

IB> We claim the galaxy in the name of the emperor, whilst we have a few Neutral Zone interests mainly we concentrate on building economies in the empire, we have a couple of StarBases and we support them but there's not really an area of empire space we don't have an interest in

MG> OK, is there anything you would like to add for the Imperial public?

IB> If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can speak to The Imperial Guard....
Seriously though, just thanks for all the support we have been given by the imperial public, its been overwhelming and know that if you need anything, Rebel, Neutral or Imperial, IG will do what it can do help... but we have our priorities.

MG> Thanks for your time Imperious, may the Emperor make your trigger finger sure and may none of your missiles be duds

IB> Thanks Meanguy, it's always a pleasure...