Victor class fleet

Frontier News Issue 2

Disappearance of the Lion

  The first of the two new Victor-class starships ordered by the Alliance has now been completed, and is ready for flight testing. The new ship, the first AJN vessel assigned to Phekda (the newest Alliance member), first flew under her own power from the Vosper Thorneycroft works in Titican on Wednesday. The Alliance Defence Secretary, Peter Saxon, sent the ship off in style by launching a bottle of real French champagne against the ship's bow from an AJN Asp Explorer's missile mount. The Ramillies then slid out of her final assembly berth at the Vosper works, bearing her new registration plate, MN-419, with Phekda's new flag proudly showing in the AJN shield.

  Commanding the Ramillies was one of the AJN's newest captains, Margy Schwarzkopf (43), a native Phekdan who left the then-troubled system and joined the AJN at the age of 19. She spent most of her time in the AJN's Anti-Piracy wing, and saw action in two skirmishes with the INRA in the 3280s. She told the News, "It was a great honour to be selected as captain of the new vessel. I've made the first flight in smaller ships, but to be the launch captain of such and impressive vessel just can't be put into words."

  Schwarzkopf and her crew will put the ship through its paces for the next six weeks before the official handoff to the Phekda defence unit. Her crew will then be expanded, taking on the full operational staff. The crew will number 1,900, and the ship will carry 250 Saker Mk.3 fighters. Even the Sakers are different to the norm: they are fitted with tiny prime movers based on the latest technology, and custom shield generators and weapons systems to make them an extremely potent weapons system. The crew consists of some 350 officers and 1550 enlisted personnel. Most of the officers and enlisted personnel will come from the Phekda system.

  Since Phekda has only been an Alliance member for six months, military recruits have all been in training up until this time. The new Phekdans will be accompanied by experienced crewmembers, mainly from the Alioth, Gateway and Titican systems.

  The next Victor-class starship to be launched is not destined for the AJN, but for the Alliance Science Council. It is the long-awaited replacement for the Lion which was lost in the 3270s.

Frontier Developments

Elite Club official site

Elite Club unofficial site

David Braben interview (Barrysworld)

  There are a few rumblings at Frontier Developments. Firstly, Andrew Gillett has let slip a few more details about the arrival of the Elite Club. Well, details about the non-arrival, at least. Infestation, FDL's new game, must be released first since they are busy finishing that one off. The game is due to be published by Ubisoft in the next month or so. Secondly, Gillett is working on making the F:E2 and FFE sources compile with the DJGPP compiler so they are workable by Elite Club members. Gillett has still not hinted on a date that we might see the Elite Club. People are getting antsy: messages on alt.fan.elite with the content "it's a hoax" have appeared more than once. Hopefully we're on the final docking path for the Club, and rotating with the space station now...

  The second bit of FDL news is that David Braben has done an interview with Barrysworld, and even let slip the tiniest snippets of information about Elite 4 - just not a lot, that's all! The interview is interesting, and hints that we might get to see things such as nebulae in this next version of Elite. I just hope it isn't anything like the wholly unrealistic nebulosity of X-Beyond The Frontier which makes space look like pollution from an oil refinery, rather than the inky blackness it really is.

  Judging by David Braben's comments though, he's not going to dumb the game down, like so many space sims have been recently. We wait with bated breath - it's obvious that FDL are going to pull out all the stops for Elite 4 and a great game will result. David rightly says he has some very high expections to live up to.

The Frontierverse

Ironfrost Elite Network

EBBS

  It seems like the proverbial excrement is about to hit the ventillation device. Earlier this week, on the EBBS, an announcement was posted indicating that the Ironfrost Elite Network was moving to the new domain, ironfrost.co.uk. Big deal you say.

  The trouble is, the message was a hoax. The Ironfrost Network isn't moving. It looked like the joke was going to end there - just some minor ruffled hyperdrives, and that's all. However, when Kevin Prest, Lord Ironfrost of the Empire, announced that this was a hoax, he also made a thinly veiled indication that Robin Sharrock, webmaster of the Frontierverse and Empire-defectee, was the culprit.

  Whether Ironfrost really believes that, or whether it was in revenge for Sharrock's defection from the Empire some weeks ago is unknown. It also seems that Ironfrost sent some hate-mail in Sharrock's direction. The ex-Lord Sharrock sent a retaliatory post via the Frontier Elite Sites mailing list, making some fairly non-specific threats.

  So it looks like things are rumbling. Sharrock and Ironfrost were known to be collaborators on many Imperial projects, the most notable being the disastrous (for the Empire) Carstein project. The email salvos might just be the tip of the iceberg. Both parties have a sizeable fleet at their disposal, and the conflict could escalate into a shooting match. It is unlikely the Empire will give it much thought (they have their own problems), but Ironfrost alone can muster a sizeable fleet.

  And our opinion? We don't think it was anything to do with Robin Sharrock. Whoever the hoaxer was was so clueless that they posted the "moved" message to each site in the EBBS Network, not realising you only have to post it once for all sites to see it...

The Federation (Eta Cass. - Phil Raqoon

Frontier News Issue 13

  Hot on the heels of the launching of the AJN Ramillies, a hot-headed Federation presidential candidate has been making manifesto pledges to annexe the Phekda system. Sam Redterk, the Unity party candidate in the for the presidency of the Federation, made a rather stunning press release in the light of the overwhelming evidence that the whole Phekda crisis was pre-meditated by the Federation and Empire in the first place.

  The press release said, "Phekda rightfully belongs to the Federation after it actively helped the Empire attack Eta Cassiopiea, an act of war. If I am elected President, I will use all diplomatic channels to have the system rightfully transferred to our control. If diplomacy fails, then I reserve the right to use necessary force"

  President Winters, the current Federal president, is also running for office again as the Liberal candidate. Winters has already aplogised for the Federation's involvement in the Phekda crisis, calling it a "sad misjudgement" and has guaranteed that the Federation will never try and meddle in Phekda's affairs whilst he remains in charge.

  In response to the press release, Aleksandr Primakov, the AJN's chief press liason said, "This is the reason why the Alliance needs a strong defence. The politicians who go on about 'peace dividends' and try and cut defence spending are acting shortsightedly."

  The most worrying thing about Redterk's sabre-rattling is that the man is not some loony-fringe candidate: the Unity party is the Federation's voice of conservatism, and a major political party. Although Unity slightly trails the Liberals in the polls, they have benefitted from the seemingly incompetent Liberal government's frequent mistakes. Redterk could be a serious threat to peace between the Alliance and Federation.

Aftermath

Mufossa's Elite Site

Deceit, Harmony & Pleasure

Demons Gate

EBBS

  This week's been relatively quiet, with only three updates coming to our attention. Firstly, Chapter 17 of Aftermath is up... and it's a cliffhanger! Simon Challands says the end is nearing for this story. And this chapter has a nailbiting finish with the Constrictor getting a bit out of control, with a little help of an unknown vessel...

  Matt Fossa is talking of a new story. A prologue has been written for "The Memoirs of a Rockjack". The story starts off with an old Lavian giving a little background. The site has also had a facelift, so I urge you all to check it out.

  Chapter 13 of James Winston's "Deceit, Harmony and Pleasure" is also available here at Alioth.Net. Things appear quiet enough for the three on the bridge to have a little chat, and for Albright to have an angst-attack. But their peace is short-lived. The Osprey pilots want answers...

  Failure of Psion technology? Well, the Demons Gate is still accessable (see the link). Thanks to Robin Sharrock for pointing this one out. However, the FNBS (Kris Kania's Elite 4 news site) seems to have undergone a gratuitous total existence failure, giving 404 errors. Kris, if you're out there, let the Frontier News know what's happened. Perhaps he got swept up by a bunch of pirates...

STOP PRESS: It appears that Jannah Berihn is not dead after all, as reported last week. Apparently she was trying to get a tan on the planet Waterloo (Reidquat). Go to the EBBS to find out more.