redshift [rɛdˌʃɪft]:

1 - (N. Physics, Astronomy, Stellar Cartography & Navigation.) A shift toward longer wavelengths of the spectral lines emitted by a stellar object caused by the object moving away from the viewer's position.
- Schumacher's Dictionary of Modern Terran English & Related Anglophone Dialects, 3540 Edition, Schumacher Foundation Press, New Dawn, Verne (Nova System), Terran Federacy

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Good Evening, it's Thirteen PM on the fifth of January 3546, here are this evening's international headlines from FBN News: Alban.
The Commonwealth of Allied Systems has accused the Sagitarii-Kausan Coalition of conducting covert armed raids under a false-flag across it's Rim-ward border. In a statement issued yesterday morning through the Commonwealth Embassy to the Federacy in Geneva, Terra, Defence Secretary Deonne McMahon expressed concern and outrage over what she called "the willing and wanton destabilisation of the region by elements within the Coalition government on Phoenix under the false guise of so-called interstellar banditry." She also added that irrefutable evidence of Coalition military involvement had been gathered and that the situation would escalated if any further raids took place. The Coalition government has yet to issue any response.
Other top stories this hour; The crisis on Waliso in the Trans-Stellar Confederation’s Didu system has worsened considerably, with reports published by the International Committee of the Red Chevron indicating that the Council of Generals has authorised Army units to shoot protestors on sight after the imposed curfew in all major cities. When pressed for comment, the Confederate embassy in Berlin, Terra, issued a statement vehemently denying the accusations, calling them “Insidious anti-Confederation propaganda.”
The Joran Dominion government has released the findings of the two year long Steyn Inquiry into Apollo Transtellar Communications to the public, revealing the full extent of corruption at the company, including monitoring of government communications up to and including members of the Preatura and foreign ambassadors. Despite public outcry there has been no word on whether any of the former ATC executives will be facing criminal proceedings at this time.
The New Lárus Mercantile Directorate announced that it is currently experiencing its highest rise in GDP for well over a decade, with analysts attributing the rise to the recent cross-border trade agreement with the Tarin Union which has lead to an increase of high-tech shipbuilding industries across the nation.
And finally, sport. The All Core-Worlds Games commences today on Verne with the first tennis heats and the opening ceremony later this evening. This year marks the first entry of a world from the Arietis Trade Organisation, in the form of a small team from Marmor in the Bözen system. Local rebroadcasting will start tomorrow on all FBN: Alban media-feeds.
- Late News Bulletin, Federacy Broadcasting Network: Alban, Port Crispin, Alban (Sykes system), Terran Federacy, 5th January, 3546

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PEOPLE OF ARGORIA

The bureaucratic fat-cats of Perla wish to take away The Outer Systems Republic’s self governance!

In the centuries since the signing of the Treaty of Veléz there has been a slow but steady degradation of local rule in favour of Federalism, stripping the states of their ability to choose their own destiny. This trend has increased dramatically in recent years: more restrictive laws are passed annually stripping our independence simply to keep the fat-cats in the Federal Capital in power and erode local cultures! Our so-called elected officials are complicit in this process, proving the political classes are not to be trusted!

ONLY THE ANTI-FEDERALIST LEAGUE HAS ARGORIA'S BEST INTERESTS AT HEART!

If given power, the AFL will ensure YOUR place in the stellar community is not compromised for the sake of the terminally ill “Federation” of the so-called Republic. Only we have the interests of the common Argorians .

ONLY THE AFL will fight to de-centralise the current system

ONLY THE AFL will restore The Outer Systems Republic’s independence

ONLY THE AFL CAN MAKE OUR REPUBLIC GREAT AGAIN!

THE ANTI-FEDERALIST LEAGUE:

INDEPENDENCE FOR ARGORIA AND THE REPUBLIC

RESCIND THE TREATY OF VELÉZ *NOW*!

- Anti-Federalist League (AFL) political flyer distributed around major cities on Argoria (Bounty system), Republic of Velézan States, January 3540

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~VivBanner (~216.6754@apollonet.nsp) has joined #JorPol-Anglo

[ChanServ] Welcome Back to #JorPol-Anglo VivBanner!

[Pr3torian] All I'm saying is I think it'll be good for the economy. It's been a while since we had a trading partner that large. If ever.

[Admin!Jasper] You mean it'd be good for Pretoria. Amazing how people can't see beyond their homeworld at times. Any deal with the Niran's is bad news if you ask me.

[AuxCaptDracon] why? Just because it's nira? Or would you say the same if it was the tarins or the velezans or the vashkovans or any other state under the stars?

[Admin!Jasper] Dunno. But I do know the empire oppressed my world for well over a century.

[AuxCaptDracon] our wold you mean. and it was six hundred years ago move on for fucks sake.

[Pr3torian] No, I get that, and it's not like the Empire's changed in forever. I just don't think trading with them means letting them back on to our shores.

[Admin!Jasper] You think they'd let us make their military tech without "supervision." You just wait, it'll start with security advisors for factories, and before long you'll have the jade legion quickstepping along revolution way in russell's landing and the triumvirs saluting the most serene emperor

[AuxCaptDracon] holy shit your paranoid. The pretura wouldn't let things get that far.

[VivBanner] Yeah, less money in that. Can't put import tax on something when the makers invade.

[Pr3torian] not all the nobility's corrupt

[VivBanner] just the media magnates, right?

-RedSky (~782.072@ostweb.nsp) has joined #JorPol-Anglo

[ChanServ] Wellcome to #JorPol-Anglo for the first time RedSky!

[AuxCaptDracon] you're too cynical for your own good methinks.

[VivBanner] I'll stop being cynical when the nobles stop proving me right. Being corrupt’s pretty much a job requirement for nobility the galaxy over!

[RedSky] Damn right!

[Admin!Jasper] Not like letting the people electing our leaders did us any better. The devaughns were elected into power remember?

[VivBanner] No, and neither do you, it was over half a millenium ago! ;)

[Admin!Jasper] don’t get pedantic with me

[RedSky] The corruption in the establishment shouldn’t be allowed to stand! The treaty with nira shows they’re only interested in their own back pockets and are fully willing to sell out our own security! The preatura, the triumvirs are not to be trusted! Their Agenda Will Only Lead To Jora’s Downfall!

[Pr3torian] Oh fuck, who set off the loony? Please, tell us more of your crazy schemes

[AuxCaptDracon] RedSky, Cur veniam huc?

[ChanServ] Please remember ~AuxCaptDracon that #JorPol-Anglo is an Anglophone chatroom, try to keep the conversation in an Anglophone variant for other users’ convenience.

[ChanServ] Other language discussions can be found at #JorPol-Lat, #JorPol-Grk and #JorPol-Afr

[Admin!Jasper] Ha, forgot it did that

[RedSky] The only future the dominion has is to throw off the archaic shackles of the monarchy! True freedom cannot exist under an unelected government!

[Admin!Jasper] he would be an abolitionist too, wouldn’t he? I’ll bet you know who really killed old Al Colombano too, right?

[Pr3torian] So how do you plan to tear down centuries of monarchy and provide direct democracy to billions of people across three star systems? Never sure what you lot have as a game plan.

[AuxCaptDracon] dont encourage him!

[RedSky] You mock, but our demands are clear! The triumvirate must stand down and allow the commons council to arrange fair elections for a head of state! No compromise will be acceptable!

[Pr3torian] Just like that? No transition period? no backup? Just roll over? …well, fuck, I’m sold!

~VivBanner rolls eyes

[VivBanner] I’m not a fan of the nobility but even I don’t get this swivel eyed

[AuxCaptDracon] keep telling yourself that viv :P

[RedSky] Your supporting fascists! the system is untenable, thats why they want to sell our nation to their conspirators on nira! See sense, and wake up to what theyre planning for our nation! Don’t be sheep!

[Admin!Jasper] aaaand that’s quite enough of that. Time to put the foil hat away and say goodbye mister red sky

[RedSky] Your tools of the fascist establishment! We will not be silenced! We will prevail!

~RedSky (~782.072@ostweb.nsp) has been kick and banned from #JorPol-Anglo by Admin!Jasper. Reason: “kicked, banned, game, set, match - Jasper xx”

- Chat log from the #JorPol-Anglo GDN chatroom, Jorus (Minerva system), Joran Dominion, 3rd May 3546

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Dear Marc,

Sorry I haven't written in an age, but things have finally been set in motion here. We've finally gotten clearance from the local government to go ahead with the dig, so we'll be moving from New Ventnor to the site of Union City tomorrow morning. Not a minute too soon, either. Gavin, one of the interns we brought with us from Mars, ignored all the warnings we'd been given the night we made planetfall and let slip that most of the group was from the Federacy while trying to impress someone in a bar the other night. Things have started to get weird, the local's didn't get outright hostile, but things have certainly gotten frosty, for lack of a better word. Walking down the seafront yesterday people were definitely staring at me as if I were up to something sinister or had sprouted a third eye. They genuinely don't trust people from out of system here, even from the smaller states, despite it being centuries since the Voight system was anything other than independent. It almost feels like they're silently blaming me directly for whatever happened here during the early Interstellar Wars and military occupations, even if my homeland had nothing to do with it. If it hadn't been for the Schumacher Foundation's presence in the expedition I imagine we'd been lynched by now or something. I can't thank Doctor Tsukino and his aides enough for acting as intermediaries between us and the Redmond government, I dread to think what it would have been like if the University had been left to figure it out themselves.
Difficulties aside, I cannot wait to see what's survived at Union City. The prospect of being the first in-depth study of the ruins in the centuries since it was destroyed and abandoned still excites me. Who else can say they're the first archaeologists to get a look at Union-era ruins in this day and age? Outside of black-rocks I don't think anything like this remains untouched in the entire Core region, possibly even all of inhabited space! Imagine what it could tell us about the civilian impact the First Interstellar War had on the outlying systems, especially by the time unrestricted orbital strike raids began to occur. Just the photos of what survives on the surface show how badly the area was damaged, so I can't begin to imagine what lies beneath!
Wish me luck, Marc, this is going to be one fascinating trip.
With love,

Quin

- Correspondence from Doctor Quin Lannon, leader of the joint Olympus University and Schumacher Foundation archaeological expedition to the Union City ruins, New Ventnor, Redmond (Voight system), 20th November 3545

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Let me take a minute to address one or two common misconceptions the general public have about space combat. We’ve all seen the stereotypical war drama vidcast with vast warships side-by-side blowing chunks out of each other from so close you can see the enemy crew in their portholes. I can assure you that this is a narrative construction and almost never the case. Naval doctrine over the entirety of the last half-millennium has constantly avoided these scenarios, and standard minimum operational ranges often exceed the multi-kilometer band. Hell, sometimes it’s considered too close when the enemy ship is discernible to the human eye. Much like the odd concept that combat routinely takes place in empty depths of space as opposed to around planets and other space rocks, this is a concept you have to put out of your mind when thinking about actual historical warfare.
Most fictional accounts tend to place allied ships so far within the danger-close range, any kind of saturation fire would result in insanely frequent friendly-fire incidents. Only the most foolhardy captain would get into this situation willingly. Which is not to say it doesn’t happen occasionally. Most of you will have seen historical images from the First Interstellar War of combat actions in orbit of worlds like Terra, Verne or Gateway that frequently match with the fictional depictions now, most famously the battle of the San Francisco Anchorage in 2688 among others. These should not be taken as anything considered normal, if anything they show up the insane levels combat had reached during those dark days. Given the vastness that is space, good tacticians learn to think outside the planet-centric nature most humans have hard wired into them and see how nose-to-engine is the least effective arrangement for starships.

- Extract from a public lecture on Military History and Tactics given by Senior Lieutenant (Retired) Isaac Reid, Union Charter University College, New Campbelltown, Milestone (Ark system), United Stellar Republics of Vashkov, December 12th 3541