Volume 42

Welcome to This Week In The Empire

From the Editor's Desk
Well, this week I've done it all. Trading, reporting, training, and relaxing. I must say it's the kind of week I enjoy. I know many pilots tend to get stuck in the grind and I just have one bit of advice. Spread your tail, lift your claw, get involved in the world around you. One week vacations won't hurt you know. You may come out of that week refreshed and ready to take on the world.

General News
Minor Squad skirmishes are reported between the Union and Federation. Occurring on and off for the last few weeks, tensions are slowly rising to a boiling point. Loyalists from both the Union and the Federation have stepped up efforts to call for war. Only time will tell if the two factions will proceed into a full blown war.

There was a rash of bombings this week in Federation space reported to have been organized by members of the Shadow Syndicate. Sources close to the Starbase commander for Beta Proxima Station, one of the most recent hit, noted that many unaligned members of the Free Trade Syndicate frequent the bases in large trade ships and that there may be a connection. In fact logs from the starbase show the ships leaving only minutes before the explosions and the pilots in question will be interviewed as suspects.

Famiso is being threatened by an Asteroid. There is not much cause for concern though as trading conglomerate Conglomo reside in the area and should have no problem finding the supplies to build the single-use tractor-array to steer the chunk of gas, metal and rock away from a planet strike.


Imperial News
Imperial Scientists reported that the Jeff K. Foam in Menkar was generating valuable exotic crystals recently. I travelled to Menkar to observe this phenomenon and found it to be a hoax. This reporter had his eye trained on the Jeff K. Foam for two days and I witnessed no exotic crystals.

Empire West Ska'ari Core is experiencing a space flux. Scientists theorize that this phenomena is due to increased space travel. My sources provide other possible reasons. Recently Crux Mason spent a period of time there and science people on TWITE's payroll have theorized that it is also possible that one smelly flatulent human, imbibing enough liquor and drugs and venting his ship to the vacuum of space could cause a similar effect. This seems like a far more viable theory for a relatively new area of space with smaller populations.

A meteor shower is currently hitting the Vewaa sector of Keldon Cluster. Several cults have claimed that this is an act of the Keldon gods for allowing Imperial relations to become almost friendly with the Federation. More doom and gloom is predicted in the future for the Empire if things do not change soon. Residents of Vewaa are encouraged to stay planetside and to take shelter until the storm is over.

The Old Man - by Kariel
HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN

Greetings ya yammerheads, and thanks to Meanguy for letting me spout off in this edition of This Week in the Empire.

I tell ya, I got quite a shock this week, made a trip up to Lane to "take care of some business" couldn't find my business, he had evidently left the area. So never one to waste a trip I stopped into one of the local Conglomo bases hoping to run into old friends and to rehydrate, if you know what I mean. It was a typical Conglomo base, clean, well run with a ships from all factions welcome as long as they behaved and had money to spend.

So I am sitting in the base tavern, rehydrating as I mentioned and just listening to the talk. Conglomo pilots of all types talking trade and profit/loss margins, Union pilots making deals and trading info as their shields were recharged, and Federation pilots BITCHING AND MOANING ABOUT HOW THEY SUCKED AND THEIR SHIPS WERE PILES OF JUNK!.

WTF? comm check please....seems to be some distortion on the line. So cleaned out my ears and listened again, nope same drivel. The proud Federation pilots almost to a being, were all whining about how their equipment was worse than the other two factions, about how they stood no chance in combat, about how they were sure to die if the present disagreements with the Union went to war. This was the Federation that had smashed us in Nari at one time, held the sector for months, this was the Federation that had their Doomstar pilots break ambush points by charging in guns blazing, this was the Federation that had shot more ships out from underneath my wrinkly old butt than I care to think about. All in the same ships they are crying in their beers about now.

I tried to make sense of what I was hearing, maybe there had been a technical fault in the latest run of Doomstars, or commodity prices were making missiles and guns hard to obtain and repair, The Empire had suffered a similar lack of confidence when component prices forced the price of the MKII missiles to rise during a war a while back. Nope, seems everything was as it had been and the Feds had even gotten a new capital ship, the War Nova, big sucker with lots of missiles.

After a while I bought a couple drinks for an Admiral and a Commodore and sat down to have a chat. Right away I could sense the REAL problem. Now I have shot at a lot of Admirals and Commodores and they have returned the favor, I've also had drinks with more than a few. Usually such are arrogant, belligerent and willing to do what ever it takes because they BELIEVE, they believe they are better than us, they believe theirs in the best way. Bloody rebels fanatics is what they are.

These guys weren't, they were loyal and all that but they had no fire, they didn't BELIEVE. Kinda sad really. I know my knowledge, my belief, that the Empire is supreme is what keeps me going. It's what makes me go from the pod recovery area directly to the cockpit of my replacement fighter. It's what makes me charge an enemy choke knowing I'm going for a pod ride. My belief in the fact that we are right makes me do these things, not what ship I fly or what missile I have slung under her. Seems the Federation no longer believes, on the one hand this is sad, to see a gallant enemy beaten, on the other hand to see a gallant enemy beaten was the point, still a sad sight.

So to the Federation, I salute your loss, I hope you recover but not too much and I offer these two bits of advice from an old war dog of the Empire.

1.Find your belief, if you have that everything else is just hardware.

2. As for number 2.....well .......grow a pair, seriously.

Kariel out

Interview with Xump

Thanks for taking time out of your schedule to enlighten our readers.

"No problem at all, I always have time for the public"

You are one of the senior pilots. Can you tell us about your career up to this point?

"Wow, that is one big order to fill. I could go on for hours on that topic, but I'll try and keep it short. Lets see...The beginning...I was born in a small town on Quana. Yes, that is right, Imperial Quana. My parents were killed and I was raised by Ska'ari. While I was still young the lab I lived at had an accident that carried me to Epsilon Erandi."

"There I was put in the custody of the Federation. Since the Wormholes to the Empire were still not opened, I was stuck. Raised by the Federation, I eventually went to the academy. Once complete I joined the Free Trade Syndicate to learn how the universe worked. Eventually the Wormholes to the NZ and Empire were reopened creating great conflict for me. Imperial pilots started popping up everywhere. Not the kind loving Ska'ari that I was accustomed to, but rather harsh forces of humans in Imperial Guard causing havoc and trying to take over parts of the Federation."

"They were defeated and driven from Federation Space, but it left me torn. It was here that I realized the Factions would not overcome their differences in my lifetime. So, I set forth and created Extinction Agenda. With a handful of trusted pilots I set off for the Empire. I found my parents...err..adopted parents had been killed in the accident that sent me to the Federation. I also saw that the Empire was in effect, defenseless. After witnessing what the Federation could do first hand I set on a quest to make the Emperor aware of the dangerous situation. unfortunately a Federation officer has a hard time gaining an audience with the Emperor. I decided to show him what a few good pilots could do if the Empire wasn't prepared. By the look of the history books, I think i did a pretty good job. Not that it made me any less hated."

How did you show the Empire wasn't prepared, and what was the response following that?

"How else do you get the attention of the best traders in the Universe? We disrupted sector economy on a mass scale. Sector by sector we systematically stripped buildings of defenses and prevented trade. Most buildings didn't even have MMTs. We were as careful as we could be not to hurt anyone, but a few tried to defend in vain. Mostly the beloved Imperial Paladins. The only sectors that avoided this was controlled by DABOO. Then made up of purely trader pilots, DABOO stood watch over my birthplace, Quana. Here is were I stayed when not out stopping commerce. With little resistance, we left the Empire in shambles and let hatred grow."

"Several months later, we returned to see the results. It seems, the Emperor got the message as we were fired upon as soon as we entered Empire space, Not only the Paladins, but the other alliances too. Organized defenses replaced what was once open space lanes. Buildings with heavy defenses and even a few MOs popped up! MOs at this time were unheard of and in the Federation and weren't allowed to block trade routes, but the Empire was now actively creating defensive measures."

"I was quite pleased with myself for a little while...before I realized I had a bigger impact than I had realized. Across the Empire the name Xump brought forth hatred. This hatred was also shown to EA. I has succeeded in awakening the power of the Empire, but it cost me my home."

Extinction Agenda has been around a long time. Why did you start it?

"Oh that's an easy one! I built EA to change the face of the Universe by showing others that the conventional idea of an alliance didn't have to be the only way. Imagine an alliance were the individual is put before the alliance and the alliance before the faction. I take pride in the fact that there are several alliances who have tried to utilize EA ideals and many that have varied ideals and methods."

Is there a reason why almost every pilot in Extinction Agenda seems to hate the Empire?

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised. There are actually only a few EA pilots that are Anti-Empire. Now most of us are Anti Ruby Legion, but some of our strongest Allies are Imperial and even the most devout Federation pilots have Imperial friends. To answer your question, it seems that way because I have failed as a leader. Most Imperials are not able to trust EA even though we are up front about our actions and we always keep our word. Years of bad PR and propaganda are hard to fight."

You can see where this attitude could come from though? In Federation-Empire wars, Union EA have fought for the Federation. During Union-Empire wars, Federation EA have fought for the Union.

"Of course I can see how it came to be. The inherent problem is most people have trouble understanding how EA operates if it puts individuals before faction or alliance even. We have made outstanding progress with this, even in the Empire though. It does my heart good and gives me hope for the future!"


Is there any reason why you don't have any Imperial pilots?

"Definitely! First, I'm picky about my pilots. It takes a certain independent trustworthy breed to be able to get into EA. I am the only one who decides who gets in and who doesn't. There are several Imperial pilots I would love to have on my team, but they aren't interested...yet...and the few Imperials who have approached me about joining have been lacking in well, that certain EA quality."

Historically much of Extinction Agenda has fought in wars vs the Empire, regardless of faction allegiance. With the tensions that exist now between the Federation and the Union, what do you see your pilots doing?

"I have decided that EA as an alliance will remain neutral. those pilots who wish to join the war on one side or the other will declare themselves and the side they will be fighting on. The only question remaining is whether or not EA will fire on EA. that will be debated for quite some time before i make a decision."

One final question, If you had to pick one Imperial you admired, who would it be?

"The Emperor by far! On the few occasions I have been able to sit down to speak with him, I have found him to be wise and insightful. Truly a leader of worth! However, the Empire has dozens of pilots I admire on both side of the negotiation tables.
"

Anything else you would like to add for our readers?

"Yes. Imperials, take pride in your heritage. You are the best and the worst out there. Be weary of your foes, but do not shun the hand of friendship. I believe that in order to avoid the mistakes of our forefathers, we must eventually unite the factions. Otherwise, history will just repeat itself.

Thanks for your time.