The Imperial Trans-Stellar spaceliner that was hijacked by
the VLA last week remains resolutely in VLA hands in Liabefa. The spaceliner
is now known to be the "Duval Dynasty", the flagship of the ITS spacelines.
The Canberra-class cruiseliner is carrying not only valuable cargo, but
30 members of the Imperial court, all personal friends of the Emperor.
The VLA are demanding that the Empire releases the vice president of the same organization, a Mr. Jared Columbus. Columbus was arrested by the Imperial Guard six weeks ago at a protest rally in the Vequess system. Additionally, the VLA is demanding that the Empire turn over control of the Vequess system to them.
The VLA have warned the Empire that if any attempt to crush the movement in Vequess, or any attempt to storm the Duval Dynasty will result in the destruction of the ship (along with the loss of everyone on board). The VLA have booby-trapped the Duval Dynasty with several nuclear devices. It is thought that the VLA have sympathises in the Achenar system to have been able to plant these devices while the ship was in the spaceport, and the Empire is conducting a security review of the Achenar system with a zeal that can only be described as a "witch-hunt". Already, several suspects have been arrested, and are likely facing execution for high treason.
An Imperial team has been attempting to negotiate with the hijackers, and have so far made no ground. However, it is understood that the 950 passengers are being well looked after by the hijackers, and conditions on board are thought to be good. The VLA has asked for the ship to be refuelled, and it is likely that the VLA will have the ship moved elsewhere, possibly further from Imperial systems.
There have been rumours that Scalpel, the elite Imperial Navy group, have been dispatched to resolve the affair. It is unlikely that they will be able to do a great deal - the hijackers are reported to be extremely vigilant, and are fully prepared to destroy the ship should any rescue attempt be mounted.
The Empire was not only having problems with hijackers this week. Ten days ago, the Imperial Secret Service arrested a man who was working for Ironfrost Inc., under suspicion of passing Imperial secrets to both the Federation and Alliance. In a sensational rescue attempt, the spy, whose identity is unknown, was spirited away in an adventure that would be fitting for a Commander Jameson espionage novel.
The Empire attempted, but failed, to conceal the rescue attempt. The attempt was made in broad daylight at the public execution (by electric chair) of the spy. The execution was due to take place three days ago in Duval City, Capitol, Achenar. As the spy was being led to the chair, his identity masked by a black cloth bag over his head, a small helicopter swooped in and hooked the spy. The guards attempted to shoot at the craft, but not only was it polished to a highly reflective sheen, it apparently had shield generators, and the shots from the handlasers the guards were equipped with were deflected. The reflectivity of the craft caused some consternation as many of the laser shots were reflected into the gathered crowd, and at least twelve people were hospitalized by stray fire. The helicopter was then seen to disappear towards a clearing, and into an opening on a customised Asp spacecraft. The spacecraft quickly departed and hyperspaced before anyone could catch it. It apparently forced a misjump since the hyperspace cloud analyser equipped Imperial Special Police lost track of the unidentified Asp.
Not surprisingly, nobody has owned up to the rescue attempt and it was not known who the spy was working for. The man was allegedly passing secrets to both the Federation and Alliance. Neither the Federation Navy nor the AJN would comment on the rescue attempt, only saying that the spy was incredibly lucky to be rescued in such a manner.
Dissappearance of the AJN Lion
The ASC science ship, the Exelcsior, has been continuing its mission to discover the nature of the Liazeda Radio Anomaly 2 (LRA-2). In issue 8 of the 'News', it was reported that the unmanned probes had begun examining the object, using a variety of non-destructive methods to try and discover what was inside. Amongst various other structures, they found an exceptionally dense object at the centre, making up a large proportion of the object's mass.
The ASC now have good images of the interior of the object. The probes have been for the last two weeks broadcasting signals at the LRA, including the signal that was last transmitted by the AJN Lion just before it, and the original LRA disappeared. However, this time the object did not disappear. Instead, it began radiating new signals on the 243 MHz frequency. There appears to be data encoded on this frequency, but so far nobody has been able to make sense of it.
The transmission only lasted 30 seconds, and the object transmits every time the Lion's last message is transmitted to it. It is probably a pure coincidence that the Lion's signal triggered something to happen - it appears that the frequency used and the modulation of the signal is being interpreted as some kind of command by the LRA. It is unlikely that anyone will be able to work out what the LRA is saying, since the frame of reference of the designers is likely to be so different from ours that trying to communicate with one of their machines will not give us that much meaningful data about the language of whoever made the machine. The ASC are busily working on the encoding - it is obviously binary data from the patterns, but what is actually represented by the data is much more resistant to a quick solution. The Ackwaze Space Science University is busy examining the data for meaningful patterns. Relatives of those missing on the Lion are anxiously waiting for any news that may shed light on the fate of the Lion and its crew.
Vic Dobbins, the ASC's Chief Science Officer told the Frontier News, "It took years of painstaking research to communicate with the Thargoids, and we could actually talk to them face to face. Trying to talk to a machine may be much more difficult. We are already working on the information we have, but it may be years before we can even make the remotest sense of what the machine is trying to say".
They said good things come to those who wait...and it looks like
we might be waiting a little longer for the Elite Club. In a communication
with the "Frontier News", Andrew Gillett, of Cambridge (Earth, Sol (0,0) ),
estimated that it may be another three months before the Elite Club is
finally unveiled (or perhaps longer).
Of course, we hope it isn't longer, but since the Elite Club is being organized on a strictly time available basis by Frontier Developments, we can understand that they can't commit to an exact date.
There is some speculation that the Elite Club could be taking
its time to show because Frontier Developments are busy getting a new game
ready. It would be nice if this was Elite 4, but this is unlikely given the
time period it takes to develop a quality game. The "News" will be watching
with great interest.
John Johnson, of Alison's World, Quurol, has released a new version of the recompiled edition of Frontier First Encounters. This new version has several new features, including one that FFE fans have wanted since the game came out...black space!
The latest version of JJFFE should run under Win2K and Windows NT (reportedly badly without sound at the moment). This may mean it will also run with DosEmu under Linux, which will be a huge boost to the Linux community. Included is a hacked setup utility for sound configuration. John reminds people to read the readme file for information, and that you need the full version of FFE to run JJFFE.
The Frontier News recommends John's work highly - it is keeping FFE alive and well on newer platforms as DOS and the old 640k limit becomes just another bad memory of gaming history.
This week sees more journals from the Frontier. A new chapter in Commander Winston's saga, "Deceit, Harmony and Pleasure" is online. Is his copilot loyal? This is a question that James Winston must find the answer to. But what about the mysterious Viper Mk.2 that's following...
The Frontierverse once again has journal updates: the excellent "Why Did The Groigan Dance?" is now up to Chapter 21, with our hero, commander Wolfsheart, getting a nasty shock (as if his public flogging wasn't bad enough). Chapter 7 of Commander Cacti's journal is in the works and should also be up soon.
Finally, Simon Challands has published a relic of history. Long ago, the Constrictor was a secret and highly advanced military project. Of course, today, the Constrictor is a nice, but standard light trader/fighter. However, in those days, a commander was sent on a mission to destroy the stolen prototype. His mission was successful...but not as successful as GalCop had hoped! Read all about it in "Aftermath".
If you know of any more stories from the Frontier, please let the Frontier News know about it.
The Frontierverse decided to move this week. The Imperial information machine decided to move to a new "classified" (but of course, not so classified that we couldn't find it!) location. Included in the move was the purchase of three orbiters, a planet and a long-range cruiser.
The move includes a new domain, frontierverse.co.uk. Amongst other useful Frontier: Elite 2 information, the Frontierverse contains an excellent library of stories from the Frontier, including the legendary Wolfsheart's journal, "Why did the groigan dance?".
You are well advised to check this site out.