There is news out of the Broken End settlement of a forced labor camp being sponsored by the local government. The camps were started two years ago as a solution of what to do with criminals. Since then,  the camp have grown slowly as a forced skilled and manual labor pool used by the government on public works and building facilities for the militia in the area.  The forced laborers are kept in check by draconian discipline enforced by their wardens and implants that prevent escape by offering the possibility of decapitation to those who try. The current forced labor force is believed to be in the neighborhood of 100 people. All of them are supposedly criminals arrested by the Broken End militia. Thomas Dillon, leader of Broken End, defended the program stating "the criminal needs to repay his burden to society." Meanwhile The condemnations coming from the Republic officials are strong. "This is glorified slavery!" were the words of Judge Bernie Hambly, superior court justice. The whole program being kept mostly quiet for two years and the accusations of abuse of the prisoners and rather loose criteria for someone being judged a criminal has made this one of the many new developments of late that has begun to drive a wedge between Dawning Star and the Broken End. 

The launch of the Totoro on it's diplomatic and exploration mission is scheduled for next month. The reports are the EFL will have something up within a couple of weeks of that launch. The sky has become contested ground it seems. The Dawning Star Republic emphasised that the mission primarily was to establish relations with our neighbors in the stellar neighborhood. It is a known fact that at least one planet in system has show signs of being inhabited by a race with limited spaceflight capability at least not counting the Tentari. The EFL is being closed lipped on their particular plans but it is believed they too will be seeking diplomatic relations. A memo from inside the Rogers administration also indicates a desire to find "resources of interest" to give a political and military advantage over the Dawning Star Republic. The next few months will be very interesting as we get the first reports of contact on the various worlds in the system.

In a related note,  a commission has been established to determine under what sort of circumstance the allowance for travel to these other worlds might take place once relations are established. The means for travel are obviously restricted for the most part but there are some privately owned craft which with some refitting that could conceivably travel between worlds. Most notably the facilities of Maximilian Dagos are more than capable of interplanetary travel. The commission will try and establish trade rules that should be enforced on the interplanetary trade involving Eos. The EFL of course have different point of view. They have a stated opinion that the individual tradesmen may set their own terms.

The astronomer Dr. Gil Packard released a paper today upon the study of NEO's or Near Eos Objects. This is a reclamation of the old term for Near Earth Objects. This is in other words a paper on the asteroids and meteors found in the planetary neighborhood. You may ask as to why this paper might be of interest to those outside the scientific community. Well, while it is a somewhat dry and technical piece it does have some startling findings. For one thing there is surprisingly few NEO's to be found. There are of course asteroids  in the system but almost none of them  intersect with Eos orbital path. The conclusion reached by Packard and his fellow researchers is that all of the naturally occurring objects of that type were deliberately destroyed or had their orbits changed. This is further evidence that the prior residents in this system were amazingly advanced. Packard even went so far as to theorize that it is likely that there may be facilities found in the asteroids that are found in system for mineral reclamation and the like. All in all an interesting study and can be gotten from the Dawning Star University press.

In a related note I will publicly ask that any one with information as to what is being made at the facility 30 miles southwest of Shakleton, please contact me at my public data drop.

It is the tragedies we all look to. So it is I must report upon the disappearance of the Cyclops and her crew last week while exploring the moon of Phaeton. The mission was routine for a full day before anything appeared to be amiss. At this time there is no indication what exactly happened. The team led by Cpt. Wells left the ship for an eva and explore on this almost featureless orb. Almost an hour later, approximately 11 hundred hours, they simply stopped sending telemetry or communication at all. The last sent telemetry indicated a sharp spike in their vitals as if frightened then no signal. Further visual inspection by the Ships sent by the Eos Space force found nothing. No ship. No bodies. No trace. Jack Richards the minister of space who strongly advocated this mission resigned today. He stated it was due to stress though undoubtedly the cabinet had pressured him to do so. It was announced yesterday that control of the further explorations would be held by the more militant Eos Space force. Gentle listeners i wish I could tell you the reason for the Cyclops disappearance. I wish i could give you some secret reason. But sadly life does not always have a reason. They were brave souls and our hearts go out to their families. Fly true my friends.

  Lt. Marcus Dubois of the EFL's scout team the Bonefishers, has reportedly turned down the invitation to the first annual eos unlimited martial arts tournament and symposium. The tournament has been organized to feature the best of the best in martial arts. Many traditional forms will be represented as well the few Martial arts that have evolved on Eos since the human occupation. Though not confirmed there is even talk of some Velin practitioners coming. The Zero G boxing prationers will demonstrate their form from orbit using a holographic projector to show the ground based audience. Of course Dawning star Kung Fu will be well represented by Shia Rober amoung others. The EFLSF Style, now somewhat infamous, was actually invited to participate but Lt. Dubois the head of the style declined to participate. He had issue with the tournament being held in dawning star for one thing. Also he stated"The only real test is life or death". A man of few words it seems.

The tournament organizers point to Lia Qian as a major sponsor of the tournament.

REports are out of the settlement of New Dheli that the local law enforcement has begun a crack down on the group known as Gadia Lohar. This goup of nomadic settlers has been accused of crimes all over the continent. This family oriented group has origins in the old earth nation of india. They have  refused to settle down in any permanent settlement and can be found traveling all over eos. Petty thefts and smuggling has been known to follow them. Mathew D'Souza, the head of the New Dheli police force announced that being a member of Gandia Lohar will be cause for a person to be classified as a "suspicious person". Strangely the Gandia Lohar have been seen often in the company of the Velin though their ties are unclear. Roger's point and Shakleton settlements also appear to be considering similar measures.

As an interesting note, it is always a good idea for a citizen of any government to see what its annual budget may be. This will tell you so many interesting things. For instance I did find myself in possession of the proposed budget for next fiscal year for the Dawning Star Republic. It has many interesting things in it. There is a 20% increase in budgeted moneys for the the controversial homestead project. This is the project which is trying to âcivilizeâ the Velin. There is a nearly an 80% increase in funding for projects building power plants. This is interesting because we are already over capacity in many areas for power needs. One simply does not need so much centralized power when power generation by an individual is relatively cheap and easy. Another strange entry indicates a 50% increase in funding to the Southland Terraforming Project. This odd as most of the other terraforming projects are staying even in their annual budgets. There are even a couple getting cutbacks. Whats more Southland already gets more annual budgeted funds than half of the other Terraforming facilities combined. Very interesting indeed.

music is from the podsafe network

Viva malta by Lee "Scratch" Perry