Traveller News Service

[mancerbear]

I'm gearing up my campaigne to move into the 5th Frontier War, with that in mind, I'm looking at news articles for them to read that will highlight and perhaps even warn them of the upcoming conflict. My first two reports are focussed on the Ine Givar, which certainly seemed to up their anti leading up the the war. So, let's put our heads together and come up with some news articles to spread around. I. Think we should be able to come up with some pretty good stuff that will have our players wondering what's going on.

I'll start.

EFATE/REGINA (1705 - A646930-A). Date: 72/1105

Eleven sophonts and several others were wounded in a terrorist attack yesterday morning in the Central Business District of the city of Anlisha. The terrorist group Ine Givar has claimed responsibility for the assault.

Two of the assailants were killed at the scene by police.

Fifteen sophonts were injured at the assault, including six seriously, four moderately, and five lightly. Ten were taken to the Anlisha University Hospital and the rest to Zediiki Medical Centre.


EFATE/REGINA (1705 - A646930-A). Date: 73/1105

A police officer wounded in the Ine Givar assault in Anlisha succumbed to his wounds today at Anlisha Hospital. Previously reported as being in a critical but stable condition, his condition deteriorated rapidly last night.

Ine Givar, the terrorist organisation claiming responsibility for the assault state, are known for their pro-democratic and anti-nobility stance. They argue that the Third Imperium's governing class is an unjust institution that denies the people any outlet and represents the interests of the capitalist system above those of the poorer parts of the populace.

 

[Golan2072]

What's the goal of the attacks? Create general chaos which will help bring about the Revolution? As a proxy for Zhodani intelligence, I'd expect them to try targeting Imperial officials and military installations, maybe assassinating nobles (the ones with military roles, of course) and claiming that they are bringing down the tyrants.

 

[mancerbear]

At the moment I'm not looking at goals, just news reports that can be used as adventure seed ideas, and actions that lead up to the war. Just like the Traveller News Service from JTAS, making the universe bigger than just the PCs and their current mission.

 

[Golan2072]

At the moment I'm not looking at goals, just news reports that can be used as adventure seed ideas, and actions that lead up to the war. Just like the Traveller News Service from JTAS, making the universe bigger than just the PCs and their current mission.

Maybe try to build the news so that they will subtly hint at a conspiracy, a hidden pattern behind the attacks... Let the paranoid players' mind-gears turn.

 

[mancerbear]

What I'm after here is a group effort at a group resource; a collection of news articles written by different people leading up to the war.

 

[SSWarlock]

Boughene/Regina (1904 - A8B3531-D)

The Imperial Scout Service announced today the discovery of the wreckage of the "Bold Buccaneer", a 400-ton merchant known to the Service and Imperial Navy for possible piracy activity in the past. According to the captain of the scout ship "Everwatch", the wreckage was too radioactive for close analysis. The captain noted this condition was unusual since there had been no recent reports of military-style missiles in-system for training purposes in the two years.

 

[Epicenter]

Ine Givar, the terrorist organisation claiming responsibility for the assault state, are known for their pro-democratic and anti-nobility stance. They argue that the Third Imperium's governing class is an unjust institution that denies the people any outlet and represents the interests of the capitalist system above those of the poorer parts of the populace.

So the Ine Givar are absolutely correct, then. :mrgreen:

While I like that the Ine Givar is essentially correct in this news report, I'd argue that because news outlets pretty much always serve the status quo, they'd subtlety choose their words to state what you've said here but to cast doubt and slant readers against the Ine Givar. I don't mean the really ham-fisted 1940s and 1950s stuff that many players seem to love, but the careful use of leading language as is used by modern-day news organizations:

Public Safety Officer Uligii MacCormick, a police officer wounded in a brutal attack in Anlisha succumbed to his wounds today at Anlisha Hospital despite the best efforts of the staff. Previously reported as being in a critical but stable condition, his condition deteriorated rapidly last night. MacCormick's partner, Talgi Mumulaaska, suffered less serious wounds and is expected to make a full recovery. The Ine Givar has taken credit for the attack. The Officer of the Peace Chuuhi Gineocha condemned the attack as a "unprovoked and deeply distressing and we are currently bending all efforts to catch those responsible for this unconscionable act." Baron Adarwi's Household Seneschal announced, "We extend our deepest condolences and prayers to the family and friends of Officer MacCormick in these trying times."

The Ine Givar is a loosely organized terrorist network active in many Spinward parts of the Imperium. Their stated aim is the destruction of the institutions of the Third Imperium and claim to be the voice "of the disenfranchised majority" and allegedly strikes against a system that supposedly perpetuates the interests of the nobility. Experts in the Imperium's law enforcement and intelligence community have repeatedly drawn links connecting the Ine Givar with organized crime cartels in the Spinward Marches while many cells are supplied by extra-Imperial actors, such as the Sword Worlds and the Zhodani Consulate.

In particular:

* This puts a human face on the police officers by giving them names.

* Casts the government apparatus as sympathetic by quoting official figures.

* The use of "leading" words such as "claim" and "allegedly" to bias the reader against the goals of the Ine Givar.

* Further condemnation in the form of "experts" from the Imperium showing them to be little more than puppets or a cover for organized crime (eg; criminals instead of politically motivated).

 

[mancerbear]

Nicely done, Epicenter

 

[Condottiere]

Murdoch eventually unified all the news media outlets under Cox News Networked.

 

[mancerbear]

Mora/Mora (3124 - AA99AC7-F) Date: 79/1105

A hairstyle sweeping through the nobility in Core is sure to be a desired fashion trend in the Spinward Marches. Noblewomen from Mora to Rylanor have been adopting this swept-up hairstyle eagerly, including the Matriarch of Mora, Duchess Delphine Adorania Muudashi.

Known as the “beehive”, the basic style involves long hair piled up in a conical shape on the top of the head and pointing slightly backwards. The basic style is then often elaborated on, including further hair fashioning and decorations of gems and jewellery. Purportedly first created on pre-stellar Earth, the beehive was named after the structure built by native pollinators, though proponents claim the style was founded on pre-federation Sylea. Regardless of its origin, the beehive has not been seen as a desired hair style for over two hundred years.

 

[Epicenter]

Adabicci/Lunion (Spinward Marches 1824)

The following is a TNS exclusive, one in a series of articles about Free Trading in the Spinward Marches.

"I'll have to think twice about doing that again."

Those were the words of Olaf Gundrsson, an Imperial trader of Sword Worlds extraction but currently residing on Mora. A free trader and until recently the captain of the Golden Swan, a 250-ton modified Free Trader working a path known to himself and a handful of other traders as "The Circuit" - informal trade routes that straddle the line between somewhere between illegal and legal that runs between Imperial and Sword Worlds space. Such trade routes are avoided by larger haulers as it is risky in the best of times due to the volatile politics between the Imperium and the Sword Worlds.

Gundrsson worked the so-called circuit and dealing with harassment on both sides of the border for the most basic of reasons: Profit. "You can buy a displacement ton of Sverdmarten pelts from hunters on Gungir for barely even a credit a pelt. They consider them pests and laugh when I asked them to save them so I could buy them. Treated right (Mssr. Gundrsson declined to divulge how they had to be treated), if you take them to Lunion, where those pelts, which I bought for about a credit for twenty, sell for about 250 credits a pelt to the local Aslan, who love to make them into cloaks for the males and stoles for the females. Then I'd buy Treeshark on Lunion. You know they consider Treeshark a 'invasive non-native' pest on Lunion so provided I hire the hunters, I can bag as much as I want, it comes down to about 100 credits a ton or so. My grandmother on my father's side used to make a kind of Hákarl from it, I loved the flavor so I used her recipe to let it cure in the used parts of the hold. Tried selling some on Gram and it was a wild hit! It goes for about 30,000 credits a ton!"

Utilizing a long but profitable routes, Gundrsson managed "the circuit" for years. The trade was not without hazard. Gundrsson shares stories of harassment and even threats on both sides. "On most worlds, it'd take a few minutes, maybe overnight. Sometimes they'd hold up your paperwork for weeks, just to tell you to stop trading over the border." And these were the least of his problems. "It's normal for a naval patrols and COACC cutters to literally shoot a shot across my bow, even before hailing me. You just have to keep cool, then." Like most traders working this route, the key to profitability was to cultivate the right officials and know which starports to stop at ease business. "Any traders out there reading this might think they can edge in on the Circuit. It's not the routes that are hard. It's building the friendships and knowledge of the starports to make sure your ship doesn't get impounded or your crew doesn't get arrested."

All that changed three months ago. When Gundrsson jumped into the Joyeuse system, his ship was boarded then impounded by local authorities. After waiting for a month, Gundrsson was told his ship was being confiscated. Gundrsson managed to purchase a berth out of the Sword Worlds for him and his crew to the Imperial world of Adabicci, where he plans what to do next. But he has a warning to traders in the region: "Thing's are different now in the Sword Worlds. They've shook things up. They're a lot more vigilant now. The people I used to know there, they've been transferred around and are gone. Some of them remain but they act like they don't know me. It's getting really ugly doing trade. The thing is, I don't think they wanted anything but my ship. The way the naval officer's eyes lit up when I said I had a Jump-4 Modified Free Trader was nothing other than greed. I don't know why, they have shipyards in the Sword Worlds. Can't they just make their own ships?"

"I'll probably have to try my luck somewhere else for a few years. I'd suggest anyone reading this to do the same."

 

[mancerbear]

REGINA/REGINA (1910 - A788899-C) DATE: 102/1105

¶ A man who claimed allegiance to the Ine Givar group has stabbed a huscarle in the service of the Duke Norris Aella Aledon, to death just before being killed in a dramatic police operation, sources close to the investigation said.

¶ Regina prosecutors launched an anti-terror probe after the huscarle and his partner were killed at their home in the city of Chesara.

¶ Witnesses told investigators the man may have shouted "Death to the Imperium," as he stabbed the huscarle repeatedly outside his home, before holing up inside with retainer’s wife and the couple's three-year-old son. Loud detonations were heard at the scene as elite forces moved in following failed negotiations with the attacker, who claimed allegiance to Ine Givar while talking to officers. Officers found the woman's body when they stormed the house, and the attacker was killed during the assault. The couple's toddler son was "in shock but unharmed" and is receiving medical attention.

¶ The attacker is yet to be identified and neither of the victims have been named, but the slain policeman was known to be 42 years old. His partner was a local police official.

¶ Duke Norris condemned the killings as an "odious act".

¶ "A housecarl commander and his partner, a civil servant, were shamefully murdered this evening," Duke Norris said.

¶ "Every attempt will made to shed light on the circumstances of this terrible tragedy," he added, announcing a meeting of top officials at his estate on Twoday.

 

[mancerbear]

LUNION/LUNION (2124 - A995984-D) Date 112/1105

Efforts are underway to assist the subsidized liner, the Spinward Princess, which has precipitated from jump several hundred diameters from its plotted exit point. Crew reported that the liner was having difficulties with its fusion reactor. The engineering crew were not able to rectify the situation before the power plant exploded approximately one hour later, forcing at least fifty sophonts to abandon the vessel in escape bubbles and the ship’s launch. Reports indicate that there are causalities amongst the crew of the Spinward Princess, though details are incomplete.

Orbital Rescue were alerted to the incident and have dispatched two of its craft to assist with the rescue. It is believed a free trader in the area is also assisting with the rescue.