from:jet.jaguar(a)Friggarock.fen
to:local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
Subj: State of the Rat 13.
Summed up in one line. Well, that all happened.
This month in the State of the Rat, The Arcadia Conspiracy, Our Worst Fears Realised, Great Balls of Fire, Renaming 'New Birmingham', Tournaments on Frigga, Ongoing Projects in need of a hand, and Happy 2025 - we hope.
1: The Arcadia Conspiracy
So, by now the news has been out for a while, and I've had my inbox fall over with questions on it. It's time to grab the pistol, spread the newspaper and take a long shot of whiskey. It's all true. Every last word of it. No, the redshirts are not coming. As for the crew who were onboard Lun for the mission who were completely innocent of what we were doing, I would like to take take this opportunity to apologise most wholeheartedly to them for involving them in my own mess and potentially getting them into trouble.
The truth is, the mission was a sham from the start, a cover to mine Gate Metal from the ocean floor. I tricked the entire ship's company. And I would've gotten away with it to if it weren't for these damn kids.
We found a sample while on holiday a few years ago. We figured out a way to use the metal as an energy storage device, and we sold powercells and motoroids with 'Tanalloy' batteries to the public. We ran out of metal, and needed a way to grab some more. That's the truth. Anything else is just some tinfoil hats nattering.
We also discovered a group of lifeforms which appearred to use handwavium as part of their natural biology. We had hoped, as soon as the existance of the gate went public, to return and make the 'discovery' for real. Looks like it's been made now, anyway. Scientifically, this is a big deal - especially in light of the problems those things caused us and how they responded to flashing lights. If you want to see something cool, watch this - they actually try and imitate our light-flash patterns.
As for what this means in real terms.
The Federation is displeased. And they have written a letter telling us how displeased they are. That's it.
Because while we have annoyed them, we haven't done anything illegal. No laws were broken. Nobody's going to be declared Boskonian for this. I'd like to think that standards of evil haven't slipped that far in 10 years.
Lun's Port Phobos registration has been rescinded. But that's a little superfluous at this point since she can barely remove under her own power right now. It also means ZOTT's planning has been put on hold - our sponsor didn't think it'd be good PR so soon after getting a slap on the face from the largest faction in Fenspace. Shit happens when you party naked.
Our recovered gate metal has been turned over to relevant authorities, along with the Azorian hardware which has been 'kindly donated' to the Artemis foundation to enable a followup expedition. In our defense, we did manage to pull some good data - a lot more than we'd let on.
I know the person responsible for the leak. I won't reveal their name. They've punished themselves enough by ruining their own career.
2: Our worst fears realised.
I've learned three things. My muse can learn languages without telling. Russian is a great language when you're blindsided by bad news, and Queen Serenity II still has her sense of humour. She's solved our problem alright. I just got the news. It's worse than we feared. It's our worst nightmare's come true.
For the next few months at least I'll be acting as Baron Frigga...
So, to start my political career We have three scandals already.
First of all, the diplomatic incident with the federation
Then, those procurement issues that caused so much fuss last month. Publicly lining my own pockets with public money, how did I get away with it?
And then, there're the conspiracy theories.
Not to mention the fact that, honestly, she just doesn't fit in with the faction does she?
What disgraceful behaviour from a Baron. And since I can't resign in disgrace.
Impeach Now.
Right. I've never made no bones about disliking this job, whether official or not. I said the same to Anika, but, well, she had her mind made up. I amn't going to screw everyone over just because I dont like the idea of being 'the man'. So, I'm going to go out there and do what I can as best as I can. I'll spare you all the promises otherwise.
Congratulations, comiserations, comments, suggestions, requests, advice and ideas can be dropped to the constuency mailbox here. It went live last night. Now, it's time to figure out how we're going to do this.
What's the old Vulcan proverb?
3: Great balls of fire.
In news unrelated to the first item, Lun caught fire in the skies over Venus four days ago and has been seriously damaged. No crew fatalities. One prisoner was overcome by fumes. Given that it was the person responsible for Daryl's biomod, you'll forgive me if I don't have a broken heart.
We were not attacked. It was not an assasination attempt by Kayabuki, Gabriel. We didn't ram anything either - I know that's already been going around since Avin's blog post. It was a simple mechanical accident, nothing more.
One of the shuttle's engines activated while it was still in a launch tube. The resulting explosion disabled most of the spacecraft's hydraulics and started a large fire in the aft compartment that burned through a lot of cabling and caused an uncontrollable dive when the elevator jammed.
We came within maybe 500 meters of hitting the red line and imploding, but, fortunately, Daryl saved the aircraft. We limped her to Grovers Corners to ventilate, and perform a damage quick survey, before returning home. She's currently docked below but is still in a very dangerous condition with spilled oxidiser and fuel trapped in the ventilation circuits, so please don't go aboard. If you have anything left on the ship after the Arcadia mission it's going to have to stay there unless you like flash fires.
We have severe structural damage to the tail and elevators. Her navigational sensor array was destroyed along with two missiles tubes and it's looking like one whole central compartment will have to be cut out and replaced with fresh metal. Lun will be down for months until repairs are complete. She'd be a write-off if it weren't for being something of a Soviet unicorn. Even so, we've lost our no-claims bonus. Again.
This means most of our engagements in the meantime are cancelled. Anyone who had the ship booked for any time between now and whenever it gets - sorry, you'll need to make alternate arrangements. We won't know until we can find a shipyard willing to take it on, and those are thin on the ground, especially considering the federation issues.
I'll try and borrow something, from somewhere, for the time being. Somehow, I don't think our insurance company will offer a courtesy battlecruiser.
4: Renaming 'New Birmingham'.
So, I've always hated that name. We never bothered our arses changing it because until people started living here, nobody bothered using it. Now that we have a three digit population and people are starting to get asked their addresses, it's about time we changed it .
I had a bad experience travelling to a con in Birmingham once.
Based on the discussion on the bulletin board, these have made the shortlist:
"Eleanor City"
"Night City"
"Luningrad" (Honestly?)
"Frigga Rock"
"New Dominion"
Vote will be through STV under the usual format. It'll run for a week or so.
5:Business as usual
Okay so, over the last few months I like to think we had a relatively functional sort of government-like thing going. At least, we managed to avoid any obscene base-breaking bitch-fests among ourselves. The train runs on time. There is something of a balanced budget and we've held our own in the Fen stage when we've had to.
So, I see no reason to really change anything. For one thing, it means a lot less hassle. There's a lot of voices in it and we balance each other's eccentricities and fuckups out as well.
Although it's not technically the right way of doing things, we'll keep doing it because so far it's been working pretty well. It's a little bit ad-hoc, but we've no power hungry muppets, blueshirts or bureaucrats to worry about, things get done when they have to get done. In spite of all the crap, we're 20% above our target for this year and still accelerating.
There's no reason to change that just to make people who live far away feel like they're in control of the peons. Lets keep what works
To figure out what we're going to do with the barony, I'd like to arrange a town hall meeting next week and get everyone together before the next sitting starts on Venus. We can sit down, work out what we want, what we absolutely need, and where the redlines are and what's going to happen if we can't do it. If I'm going there, I want to be clear that it's a two-way street - I won't be gone into the ether. I need comms with everyone here. We need to talk about what's happening, what we need to compromise on and how we need to deal to get what we need.
One thing The Queen told me is that nobody in that chamber has ideals, or friends, or enemies - they have interests, and priorities. We all need to remember that.
6: Tournaments on Frigga
Being a few AU from Venus has its advantages. Not just the Romulan ale.
The Rose Duellists will be hosting the first Rose Bride tournament in five years next month. The rules are simple. Each duellist has a single sword, a uniform, and a single rose on their chest. And no body armour. The fight continues until the rose is cut. First prize is the crystal rose with a 'powerful' vial of handwavium in it, to be used by the winner if they dare.
I think I see why this got banned.
Whatever happens between two consenting adults is none of our business. Just try not to make too much of a mess. The AMP will be watching, don't make them come over here by doing something catastrophically dumb.
Our second tournament may be a little more prestigious. Ford's Heavyarms is hosting an Open target shooting tournament.
1st Prize will be a matching set of 20mm Long-Lance Rifle and 20mm Vulkan Pistol, both with Smartgun systems and Recoil compensation.
2nd Prize, Precision-assembled railrifle and plasma pistol. bespoke tuning and calibration session.
3rd Prize, FR-15 carbon fibre rifle and Colt 1911 pistol, bespoke tuning and calibration session.
Other spot prizes and young shooter's prizes will also be given out, to be detailed here. Signups, here. Tournament rules will follow the usual NRA format because most shooters will be familiar with those rules. Smartgun systems and similar enhancements are forbidden.
7: Ongoing projects in need of a hand.
Our hackerspace is thriving. Really. It's a great environment down there for the casuals and the hardcore sparks alike. It doesn't matter what your experience level is, you're guaranteed to find a friendly, welcoming atmosphere with a good set of tools and a great set of people. A number of projects are looking for volunteers to pitch in.
Anika and Mackie are working on a response to Great Justice proposal RFP-2024-109-E
Myself and Daryl are prepping next year's ARR warbirds entry. It's gone to the public, but applications for pilot's seat are still open
Kotono is running another 3DMG class, and tweaking her gear.
Gabriel is setting up a small brewery, and is looking for some hands to get in in the act. Anyone ever hear of Chicken Little.
Lun and her fellow travellers are considering turning parts of the arboretum into some form of a Collective Farm, which might even supply grain to the brewery.
Rin is modifying a Motoroid into something more Mospeda
Jaret and Brian are trying to make a live action Worm short film about Alan Gramme
There's also about a dozen more little things that people can either dip into, or try for themselves. Check it out at FuckingTinkers.Residents.Frigga for more.
8: Happy 2025.
Alright, so our Yule tree burned down due to a short circuit but it was, at least, an impressive blaze. Impressive enough for the midnight torching of the tree to become a tradition, I think. Even if all that biomass was expensive. We might need to find a substitute. Otherwise, here's hoping we've laid the groundwork for a happy and succesful 2025 for all aboard.
---
Next month. I amn't even going to bother with a summary, aliens will attack and ruin it if I do.
-Jet
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
to:local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
Subj: State of the Rat 13.
Summed up in one line. Well, that all happened.
This month in the State of the Rat, The Arcadia Conspiracy, Our Worst Fears Realised, Great Balls of Fire, Renaming 'New Birmingham', Tournaments on Frigga, Ongoing Projects in need of a hand, and Happy 2025 - we hope.
1: The Arcadia Conspiracy
So, by now the news has been out for a while, and I've had my inbox fall over with questions on it. It's time to grab the pistol, spread the newspaper and take a long shot of whiskey. It's all true. Every last word of it. No, the redshirts are not coming. As for the crew who were onboard Lun for the mission who were completely innocent of what we were doing, I would like to take take this opportunity to apologise most wholeheartedly to them for involving them in my own mess and potentially getting them into trouble.
The truth is, the mission was a sham from the start, a cover to mine Gate Metal from the ocean floor. I tricked the entire ship's company. And I would've gotten away with it to if it weren't for these damn kids.
We found a sample while on holiday a few years ago. We figured out a way to use the metal as an energy storage device, and we sold powercells and motoroids with 'Tanalloy' batteries to the public. We ran out of metal, and needed a way to grab some more. That's the truth. Anything else is just some tinfoil hats nattering.
We also discovered a group of lifeforms which appearred to use handwavium as part of their natural biology. We had hoped, as soon as the existance of the gate went public, to return and make the 'discovery' for real. Looks like it's been made now, anyway. Scientifically, this is a big deal - especially in light of the problems those things caused us and how they responded to flashing lights. If you want to see something cool, watch this - they actually try and imitate our light-flash patterns.
As for what this means in real terms.
The Federation is displeased. And they have written a letter telling us how displeased they are. That's it.
Because while we have annoyed them, we haven't done anything illegal. No laws were broken. Nobody's going to be declared Boskonian for this. I'd like to think that standards of evil haven't slipped that far in 10 years.
Lun's Port Phobos registration has been rescinded. But that's a little superfluous at this point since she can barely remove under her own power right now. It also means ZOTT's planning has been put on hold - our sponsor didn't think it'd be good PR so soon after getting a slap on the face from the largest faction in Fenspace. Shit happens when you party naked.
Our recovered gate metal has been turned over to relevant authorities, along with the Azorian hardware which has been 'kindly donated' to the Artemis foundation to enable a followup expedition. In our defense, we did manage to pull some good data - a lot more than we'd let on.
I know the person responsible for the leak. I won't reveal their name. They've punished themselves enough by ruining their own career.
2: Our worst fears realised.
I've learned three things. My muse can learn languages without telling. Russian is a great language when you're blindsided by bad news, and Queen Serenity II still has her sense of humour. She's solved our problem alright. I just got the news. It's worse than we feared. It's our worst nightmare's come true.
For the next few months at least I'll be acting as Baron Frigga...
So, to start my political career We have three scandals already.
First of all, the diplomatic incident with the federation
Then, those procurement issues that caused so much fuss last month. Publicly lining my own pockets with public money, how did I get away with it?
And then, there're the conspiracy theories.
Not to mention the fact that, honestly, she just doesn't fit in with the faction does she?
What disgraceful behaviour from a Baron. And since I can't resign in disgrace.
Impeach Now.
Right. I've never made no bones about disliking this job, whether official or not. I said the same to Anika, but, well, she had her mind made up. I amn't going to screw everyone over just because I dont like the idea of being 'the man'. So, I'm going to go out there and do what I can as best as I can. I'll spare you all the promises otherwise.
Congratulations, comiserations, comments, suggestions, requests, advice and ideas can be dropped to the constuency mailbox here. It went live last night. Now, it's time to figure out how we're going to do this.
What's the old Vulcan proverb?
3: Great balls of fire.
In news unrelated to the first item, Lun caught fire in the skies over Venus four days ago and has been seriously damaged. No crew fatalities. One prisoner was overcome by fumes. Given that it was the person responsible for Daryl's biomod, you'll forgive me if I don't have a broken heart.
We were not attacked. It was not an assasination attempt by Kayabuki, Gabriel. We didn't ram anything either - I know that's already been going around since Avin's blog post. It was a simple mechanical accident, nothing more.
One of the shuttle's engines activated while it was still in a launch tube. The resulting explosion disabled most of the spacecraft's hydraulics and started a large fire in the aft compartment that burned through a lot of cabling and caused an uncontrollable dive when the elevator jammed.
We came within maybe 500 meters of hitting the red line and imploding, but, fortunately, Daryl saved the aircraft. We limped her to Grovers Corners to ventilate, and perform a damage quick survey, before returning home. She's currently docked below but is still in a very dangerous condition with spilled oxidiser and fuel trapped in the ventilation circuits, so please don't go aboard. If you have anything left on the ship after the Arcadia mission it's going to have to stay there unless you like flash fires.
We have severe structural damage to the tail and elevators. Her navigational sensor array was destroyed along with two missiles tubes and it's looking like one whole central compartment will have to be cut out and replaced with fresh metal. Lun will be down for months until repairs are complete. She'd be a write-off if it weren't for being something of a Soviet unicorn. Even so, we've lost our no-claims bonus. Again.
This means most of our engagements in the meantime are cancelled. Anyone who had the ship booked for any time between now and whenever it gets - sorry, you'll need to make alternate arrangements. We won't know until we can find a shipyard willing to take it on, and those are thin on the ground, especially considering the federation issues.
I'll try and borrow something, from somewhere, for the time being. Somehow, I don't think our insurance company will offer a courtesy battlecruiser.
4: Renaming 'New Birmingham'.
So, I've always hated that name. We never bothered our arses changing it because until people started living here, nobody bothered using it. Now that we have a three digit population and people are starting to get asked their addresses, it's about time we changed it .
I had a bad experience travelling to a con in Birmingham once.
Based on the discussion on the bulletin board, these have made the shortlist:
"Eleanor City"
"Night City"
"Luningrad" (Honestly?)
"Frigga Rock"
"New Dominion"
Vote will be through STV under the usual format. It'll run for a week or so.
5:Business as usual
Okay so, over the last few months I like to think we had a relatively functional sort of government-like thing going. At least, we managed to avoid any obscene base-breaking bitch-fests among ourselves. The train runs on time. There is something of a balanced budget and we've held our own in the Fen stage when we've had to.
So, I see no reason to really change anything. For one thing, it means a lot less hassle. There's a lot of voices in it and we balance each other's eccentricities and fuckups out as well.
Although it's not technically the right way of doing things, we'll keep doing it because so far it's been working pretty well. It's a little bit ad-hoc, but we've no power hungry muppets, blueshirts or bureaucrats to worry about, things get done when they have to get done. In spite of all the crap, we're 20% above our target for this year and still accelerating.
There's no reason to change that just to make people who live far away feel like they're in control of the peons. Lets keep what works
To figure out what we're going to do with the barony, I'd like to arrange a town hall meeting next week and get everyone together before the next sitting starts on Venus. We can sit down, work out what we want, what we absolutely need, and where the redlines are and what's going to happen if we can't do it. If I'm going there, I want to be clear that it's a two-way street - I won't be gone into the ether. I need comms with everyone here. We need to talk about what's happening, what we need to compromise on and how we need to deal to get what we need.
One thing The Queen told me is that nobody in that chamber has ideals, or friends, or enemies - they have interests, and priorities. We all need to remember that.
6: Tournaments on Frigga
Being a few AU from Venus has its advantages. Not just the Romulan ale.
The Rose Duellists will be hosting the first Rose Bride tournament in five years next month. The rules are simple. Each duellist has a single sword, a uniform, and a single rose on their chest. And no body armour. The fight continues until the rose is cut. First prize is the crystal rose with a 'powerful' vial of handwavium in it, to be used by the winner if they dare.
I think I see why this got banned.
Whatever happens between two consenting adults is none of our business. Just try not to make too much of a mess. The AMP will be watching, don't make them come over here by doing something catastrophically dumb.
Our second tournament may be a little more prestigious. Ford's Heavyarms is hosting an Open target shooting tournament.
1st Prize will be a matching set of 20mm Long-Lance Rifle and 20mm Vulkan Pistol, both with Smartgun systems and Recoil compensation.
2nd Prize, Precision-assembled railrifle and plasma pistol. bespoke tuning and calibration session.
3rd Prize, FR-15 carbon fibre rifle and Colt 1911 pistol, bespoke tuning and calibration session.
Other spot prizes and young shooter's prizes will also be given out, to be detailed here. Signups, here. Tournament rules will follow the usual NRA format because most shooters will be familiar with those rules. Smartgun systems and similar enhancements are forbidden.
7: Ongoing projects in need of a hand.
Our hackerspace is thriving. Really. It's a great environment down there for the casuals and the hardcore sparks alike. It doesn't matter what your experience level is, you're guaranteed to find a friendly, welcoming atmosphere with a good set of tools and a great set of people. A number of projects are looking for volunteers to pitch in.
Anika and Mackie are working on a response to Great Justice proposal RFP-2024-109-E
Myself and Daryl are prepping next year's ARR warbirds entry. It's gone to the public, but applications for pilot's seat are still open
Kotono is running another 3DMG class, and tweaking her gear.
Gabriel is setting up a small brewery, and is looking for some hands to get in in the act. Anyone ever hear of Chicken Little.
Lun and her fellow travellers are considering turning parts of the arboretum into some form of a Collective Farm, which might even supply grain to the brewery.
Rin is modifying a Motoroid into something more Mospeda
Jaret and Brian are trying to make a live action Worm short film about Alan Gramme
There's also about a dozen more little things that people can either dip into, or try for themselves. Check it out at FuckingTinkers.Residents.Frigga for more.
8: Happy 2025.
Alright, so our Yule tree burned down due to a short circuit but it was, at least, an impressive blaze. Impressive enough for the midnight torching of the tree to become a tradition, I think. Even if all that biomass was expensive. We might need to find a substitute. Otherwise, here's hoping we've laid the groundwork for a happy and succesful 2025 for all aboard.
---
Next month. I amn't even going to bother with a summary, aliens will attack and ruin it if I do.
-Jet
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?