The Universe

Aliens are Real and Here Gorilla Q0 3204.066 The good news is that they are friendly and they are interested in trade. Gorilla Q0 is the setting for the most universe shattering event since Elvis came back. Only this time, despite early fears, it's no stunt. The events unfolded as follows. The giant alien ship materialised in orbit above Gorilla and stunned observers said that it was plainly visible with the naked eye from the ground. The ship is approximately 1,000 kilometres in diameter and spherical, and is clearly not of human manufacture. Communication with the Visitors commenced immediately in the local language and on normal commercial frequencies and this involved various offers of trade and other information including: > They are visitors from a 'parallel universe' (see science article page 123) called Universe 'A' > They are clearly technologically much more advanced than we are > They are friendly and want to indulge in peaceful trade with our Universe As yet we have no pictures of what the the aliens really look like as they are wearing encounter suits but they appear to be around human-szed, standing about 2.3m high in their suits. The League of Non Aligned Worlds immediately announced that is was guaranteesing the Visitor's safety during their time in our Universe, and immediately despatched their armed ship to Gorilla. See page 5,6,7,8,9,10 for live pictures of their ship See page 121 for our artist impression of the Visitors

Not So Good Life Dateline Good Credentials Q8, 3204.045 Anger flared on the streets of Goodlife City, Good Credentials as huge mobs of supporters of rival religious groupings took to the streets. Followers of Church of the Holy Elvis have been claiming that they have been unfairly treated, and subjected to violence and desecration of their holy places by adherents of The First Church of Earth. Additional police have been drafted into the city to control the situation, but this has not prevented violent clashes. Shops owned by The First Church of Earth citizens have been looted and burnt out. Bishop Ferandez said "These disgusting First Churchers teach their children that the Holy King Elvis was not the mouthpiece of God - this is blasphemy - uh huh". At a mass rally, reverend Laurinder Bracher said "We're all sick of these godless Elvists pushing their warped cult - Elvis was not Holy, and his music sucked too". Despite their reassuring words, the colonial government is rumoured to be considering using Imperial troops or even the feared Imperial Audit Office to deal with the situation.

Horror on Hook Dateline Hook Q1 3204.042 A state of emergency was declared throughout the equatorial continent on Hook, a Q1 world as the continent was hit by a massive planetquake. This was the largest such quake to hit the colony since its founding 102 years ago. Initial estimates indicate that over 50,000] casualties were caused and a number of small towns have been completely destroyed. Local colonial military forces have been employed to help and all on-world services are working flat out to attempt to rescue possible survivors, and to re-establish the infrastructure, but activity has been hampered by bad terrain. There is considerable concern about the fate of a study team working on the sentient anthrosaur population of this region. It is not yet known how the anthrosaurs have been affected, or whether they have also taken casualties. Planetologists say this was completely unexpected, and while highly regrettable has contributed a great deal towards our understanding of the plate tectonics of Hook.

Shrieking Winds on Sheik Dateline Sheik Q6 3204.041 The southern hemisphere of Sheik Q6 has been hit by unusually extreme weather conditions. The main effect was super fast winds and unusually high tides. The colony was caught very largely unprepared for this sudden climatic change, and [6,000] people are thought to have died as a result of falling buildings and coastal flooding. Planetary climateologists theorise that the freak conditions were brought about by changes in the solar wind density which altered the course of parts of the stratospheric jetstream. Humanity has only been on this worlds for less than 100 year and has obviously not yet experienced the full range of climatic conditions.

Just One More Embarrassing Politician Dateline Balus Q3 3204.037 The local Earth Q3 colonial government at Balus has been deeply embarrassed by revelations that a senior member of the administration, Lord George Fortissimo was involved in alleged shoplifting at the prestigious LexStore department store. A spokesperson for the government said "this is purely personal matter, Lord George fully intended to pay for the goods and merely slipped them into his pocket absentmindedly. Local media and opposition groups are calling the not only the resignation of Lord George, but a vote of confidence of whole Q3 cabinet. This comes on top of the ongoing legal battles the government is having with the Corporations on the wake of the so-called 'Vision Crisis'.

Flat Out Violence Dateline The Flats Q7, 3204.030 Rioting has broken out in six towns across the Southern continent of The Flats, as a result of widespread resentment against recent actions of the government. On one night, it was estimated that over 6,000 people were on the streets fighting the police, looting and committing other illegal acts such as arson and littering. The chief of police said "The correct place for protest is peacefully through the ballot-machine. I am the Law" The colonial government said "We know our policies have been unpopular with some, but we believe history will judge that we were right". The local media say the governor must go.

Flying Saucer Buried for 50,000 years. Dateline Trucker Q5 3204.027 Local archaeologists, working under IFF auspices have reported a major find on Trucker Q5 This find - discovered buried in one of the northern deserts - consists of what is allegedly a crash forerunner 'flying saucer'. Rumours are suggesting that it is at least 50,000 years old. The IFF has not, as yet, issued a formal statement about this find.

Ruined Undersea 'City' Discovered Dateline Novo Q0 Explorers on the Sirian world of Novo have reported the most exciting discovery since the colonisation of this world, several centuries ago. Undersea explorers, surveying a remote section of the Southern Ocean for mineral deposits, encountered 'unusual rock formations'. On closer inspection it transpired that they had discovered an extensive complex of artificial structures that pre-date humanity. Structures vary in size from a few tens of metres to five kilometres long. "It is like some vast deserted undersea city". The explorers quickly called in local archaeologists who have been studying the deep structures, covering a area of some 120 square kilometres. Sirian Ground Force units have been deployed to the region to ensure that sightseers and trophy hunters are kept away. The local government has declared a 200km total exclusion zone in all directions, including orbital space. A battleship from the 1st Worker's Fleet is patrolling orbital space to enforce the exclusion zone.

Former Ancongo Loyalists Win the Day. Dateline Binni Q0 3204.090 In a shock result, the first independent elections in the former 'Free Republic of Binni' resulted in a landslide victory for the Ancondo memorial Party. It would seem that Ancongo loyalists, organised and led clandestinely by members of the former Ancongo Regime (themselves fugitives from the Martian-backed interim government) - managed to get twice as many votes as the next highest party - the Mars Alliance Party. This has set back plans for a seamless admission of the continent into the rest of the colony - the other continents on this world have already successfully applied to and joined the MAFC. Where a deal can be cut, or a coalition opposition government formed remains a matter for conjecture.

Offle Election Deemed 'Awful' Dateline Offle Q4, 3204.009 According to local sources, the membership referendum that the Offler's had agreed to last year was marred by pathetic turnouts. Accusations of sabotage have been dismissed, but the very poor turnout seems to have been caused by administrative errors around distruibting the data for the electronic vote. Turnout was so low that the referenum organising body declared the result null and void, and have set a date for a re-run. The local government have come under severe political pressure as a result of the electoral disaster. Members of the Wolf Economic Union Party, who had been campaigning vigourously were said to be 'distraught'. "We won! This was another case of Venerian intervention - they had a hand in this - we don't know how but they are everywhere, damn T****s". A spokeperson from the Venerian Embassy refused to be drawn on the WEUP remarks and said "The Republic has a long standing and fruitful relationship with Offle - we have many social, trade and economic links with Offlers. If it their democratic wish to become more closely associated with us then that is only natural, and we would support it wholeheartedly".

Venerians Remove Software Patch. Dateline New Venus Q0, 3204.055 The Central Government on New Venus has issued an unusual edict requesting all space traffic control centres in Venerian space to uninstall service Pack 34.1 of the space Traffic Control software. This is particulalry unusual, since government rarely issues any sort of technical directive, and because the service pack wasfirst implemented over 200 years ago and has been operating flawlessly ever since. The software companies that support the Repblic's STC systems are being tight-lipped about the reasons for the change - but a spokesperson said "This is a policy decision - SP34.1 was implemented to improve filtering and image clutter removal, and continues to operate effectively. There is no question of a fault in the software. Our legal department will be contacting anyone who thinks it might.".

Linwood Joins the Empire Dateline Linwood Q2, 3204.031 After a poopular referendum the colony world of Lindwood has applied for membership of the Earth Empire. It is believed that they will be accepted into the Empire.

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The Universe(of Starship Marine, Cruel Void and Hellfire) is © Jim Wallman 1996-2007. You may freely use this material in other games, works, websites etc for your personal entertainment - with appropriate credits as to authorship and copyright. It may not be resold or distributed with any publication for sale without the express permission of the copyright holder.