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I. Often pilots complained that when they took a mission with their commander or performed a secret task for one of the factions’ agents, they got into battles under the command of an unexperienced officer. The pilots proved their skills and did the utmost to win, but their luck has often been bad despite the tactics and good fortune in general.
After multiple complaints both from pilots and factions’ representatives the Centre is going to grant the mercenaries access to a new service. From now on the pilots will be able to form major units for fulfilling priority missions and bypass the system of “added human resources”, which used to “reinforce” the units wth “special” allies before. Only high ranked persons will be able to form major units, and there’ll be no possibility of turning the command over. Also the system of contracts pickup will be modified to grant a similar contract to another major unit regardless its line-up, ships completion or ranks of pilots.
II. The Mercenary Centre is glad to announce that a modification project for “combat recon” contracts pickup is underway. While the system is being developed, the previous system of status detection for the leader pilot and his subordinates will be used, with minor fixes applied. For the time being the system will be tweaked to filter out the unsuitable pilots and give a chance to those more or less experienced.
III. The personnel information page has also been modified. From now on the pilots fulfilling the same contract will be specifically marked. The Centre feels this to make data systems more informative and make the whole system more transparent.
Also there will no more be any info on the number of corporations on each side of the conflict available at main information consoles at the Centre docking stations. Instead the consoles will provide info about those corporations that own, exploit sectors or lead assaults in them.
IV. The Antipiracy Committee has completed the investigation of the stationary turrets sabotage case. As you remember, a minor problem has been detected recently - stationary turrets at shipyards under constant raids of pirates has been dealing no damage to the enemy. The Committee has been looking into sabotage as the main version, but the investigation showed that it has nothing to do with the pirates. The fault was on the stockkeeper technician of the UFO military arsenal, who made a mistake while preparing the documentation. As a result, the turrets were supplied with drill ammunition made of plastic. The firing looks the same, but they easily shatter themselves on the target, no damage dealt.
The federate technician is not prosecuted, just transferred to reserve. His depot commander is transferred as well, by force.
We failed to interview the technician. The only thing we got from him is that he is now " con stantly v** i ffing with c lear t**ab" somewhere near Saturn, no clear terms announced.
V. Increasing numbers of mercenary pilots resulted in difficulties for the Centre in processing all their enquiries. Vast queues, delays in assignments of mission and even ship repairs or modules replacement has become usual. But the most terrible problem is that pirates took advantage of all this. Recently a gang of pirates lead by a baron belonging to the “White Claw” group used special ion traps to stun the pilots. Now they’ve gone even further. Taking advantage of the mess on the stations they upload their software to onboard systems, and when the moment is right, the virus causes the subspace communication system’s malfunction, leaving Jericho ships uncontrolled. Minor drones size less than a bug find a way through cable systems and assume control over imperial and federative ships. Imperial combat clones are neutralized with hte help of gas.
All components used in such operations are easily detectable, but the Mercenary Centre guards often doesn’t perform even visual examination due to hard routine. As a result, the pilot attacked by the “White Claw” loses control of the ship and not only gets zero credits for the mission, but has also to say goodbye to his ship. Of course insurance covers such cases and the pilot will get another ship at the station after all the necessary documents are filled in, but sometimes the ship is of sentimental value, and getting a new ship is not as pleasant as returning from the battle on your old one.
Actions of pirates became so much daring, that whole units get lost without appearing in the sector. The only hope remains that the Centre will hire more personnel to deal with the queues and outrage of pirates.
VI. Jericho continues to advance. While Federation is carrying out subdued attempts to contain Jericho forces and loses sector by sector, Imperial fleet undertook a bold move. Having gathered all the scattered retreating groups, Empire managed not only to stop Jericho army with one powerful strike, but also to capture some territories. Still, now Empire is nearly exhausted. Analysts assume that after a couple of days Jericho families will easily get their territories back.
There’s a low pressure nebula coming from the north. But the synoptics are sure it will disperse far from any inhabited planets. There’s a big butthurt anomaly coming from the east. It poses no danger for now, but citizens from far eastern sectors have already felt its breath. StarMed reminds you - whatever happens, an insurance clone will substitute you. StarMed - you’ll have a long memory of us.
Everyone has a new hobby now. Our CEO is kicking banners over the map, and the banners try to run away from him. His deputy is learning to sing; our top pilot is trying to dream. And I try to do all this at the same time, because now we have a lot of free time while changing modules or serching for a contract. A new instrument, “3000+” - coming soon! We wish your corporation a frequent online and a strong server.
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The issue was prepared by:
MoonLight, LexxVIII, SeraX
Special thanks to wCELENw for the startup video and SeraX for the new banner.
