ss13polaris

[ss13polaris]

"Deeply Entangled" Contract Terms May Delay Hammarstrom Review

Initial stages of Governor Hainirsdottir's investigation into the Hedberg-Hammarstrom law enforcement contract have raised concerns that the company's involvement may be significantly more difficult for the VGA to decouple itself from due to a "gordian knot" of subcontracts and leasing. Most of these are reportedly within Hedberg-Hammarstrom or close partner companies and could leave the contracted services in a "barely skeletal state" if not resolved on a case by case basis. Hainirsdottir has expressed "cautious relief" that the investigation has already resulted in "clear evidence that deceitful practices were taking place, and that this review was in fact necessary."

As a result of increased powers granted to the company during the Incursion, Hedberg-Hammarstrom retains ownership of most equipment, personnel contracts, and properties acquired after 2567, and initial estimates for outright purchase would be enough to exceed the current defence budget by a factor of ten. Negotiations are reportedly underway to reach some agreement which will meet Hainirsdottir's demands for reduced H-H influence, without undue negative impact for the people of Vir.

The contract, first signed in 2565, originally encompassed only "administrative services" and was intended to cut taxpayer burdens while ensuring that private alternatives remained with a home-grown corporation, primarily to soothe multinationalist voters concerns about trans-stellar influence over local government. The initiative was introduced by Representative Kristine. During the Incursion, further responsibilities were added in order to redirect emergency funds to the SifGuard.

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Hainirsdottir Announces "Reevaluation" of Hedberg-Hammarstrom Contract

Governor Lusia Hainirsdottir of Vir has announced that the Vir Governmental Authority will be performing an extensive reevaluation of its controversial standing contract with Hedberg-Hammarstrom private security, in light of the recent allegations against Representative Kristine Hammarstrom who was a strong advocate for the initiative during her first term in office.

Under the agreement, which was renewed for a further five years in late 2575, the company provides law enforcement services to most settlements under VirGov jurisdiction. VirGov may seek to end this contract earlier than planned, conditional to the results of the review and independent from the Representative Hammarstrom trial, which remains to be scheduled.

Governor Lusia Hainirsdottir announced the review this afternoon, expressing her feelings of "betrayal that a Sivian company could be entangled in the kind of underhanded dealings most typically associated with only the worst incidents in trans-stellar corporate history, and regret that the trust myself and Representative [Hal] Wekstrom placed in Representative Hammarstrom has been shaken." She assured crowds that no "rash" action would be taken, and that no representative of the company itself had been charged with a crime.

[ss13polaris]

Hedberg-Hammarstrom Denounces Rogue Scion

In a live address this morning, Hedberg-Hammarstrom CEO Gunnar Hammarstrom denied all knowledge of Representative Hammarstrom's alleged provision of classified military secrets for use in sales pitches to foreign government agencies. Gunnar has announced that the company will immediately perform an internal review of lead sourcing and "collaborate closely" with SOFI to bring the culprit to justice, and that he feels "personally betrayed by his granddaughter for casting doubt on his company's excellent reputation."

Representative Kristine Hammarstrom is accused of providing sensitive SolGov technical and analytic information to Hedberg-Hammarstrom, which was then used to market the company's own products and services to multiple foreign agencies which have not yet been specified, but are rumoured to include clients within the Five Arrows and Almach Protectorate, among others. The company has assured officials that these materials were understood to have been acquired legally according to Confederation law, and all market research data provided by Representative Hammarstrom - officially listed as an external consultant - has been pulled from use.

Kristine Hammarstrom has been suspended from all voting within the Colonial Assembly, and is being held in Fleet Intelligence custody aboard the SCG-D Wismar in Sif orbit. Governor Hainirsdottir and Representative Wekstrom of Vir have each issued statements calling for due process in handling Hammarstrom's future within the Assembly if she is unable to continue her duties.

[ss13polaris]

Representative Hammarstrom Arrested On Treason Charges

Kristine Hammarstrom, one of Vir's Colonial Assembly representatives, has been placed under arrest by the SCG Office of Fleet Intelligence on charges of treason, reported to be related to the "sale or exchange of SolGov military secrets to one or more foreign entities".

In dramatic scenes on the New Reykjavik metro, SOFI agents assisted by transit security intercepted Hammarstrom shortly after she debarked from her private train car at the Hedberg-Hammarstrom Corporate Headquarters station. A brief standoff occurred between law enforcement and Hammarstrom's private security, but was quickly resolved without bloodshed. This brash public approach is believed to have been selected as to avoid past issues of jurisdictional conflict and permission while on corporate property, and to take advantage of the cooperation of New Reykjavik Metro Security, one of few government-operated law enforcement agencies in the city without any contractual ties to H-H or its rivals.

The Hedberg-Hammarstrom corporation has released a brief public statement acknowledging "A high-profile arrest made close to corporate property", but has yet to acknowledge any connection to the incident. Ms. Hammarstrom's close relations with her grandfather, CEO Gunnar Hammarstrom, are expected to be under close scrutiny as the story develops.

[ss13polaris]

Shipbreaking on Pluto.

Once a significant "last stop" refuelling for some of humanity's early colony ships, tiny Pluto has long since declined in significance, and has become last stop of a very different kind for many of Sol's venerable spacecraft.

Yards on and around Pluto have employed generations of hard-worn workers, first maintenance technicians, expert engineers, and now primarily shipbreakers, and its yards are entrusted with government contracts too sensitive for yards further from Sol's watchful eye.

Atrocious working conditions in the yard's early days led to the formation of the Plutonian Union of Workers which to this day positions itself as the de facto government of Pluto, though the SCG does not recognise them as a unified state.

[ss13polaris]

Not evil enough to do slavery once people start calling you out on it, but too evil to make any meaningful changes to the economic status quo.

Vat-born humans (Invented 2080, full personhood and rights granted 2087)

Positronic Brains (Discovered/Commercialized 2281, hard-won modern legal personhood and rights granted 2453)

Prometheans (Created by accident, 2540, legal personhood granted 2546, creation decriminalized 2561)

A-Class (Generalized AI) Drone Intelligence (Achieved ~2558, non-person as of 2575)

X-Class (Recursive) Drone Intelligence (Defined 2270. The hypothetical boogeyman.)

[ss13polaris]

After some "play testing", I think this is ready to post!

This character generator can be used for a complete character concept, or to fill in details about important people and events in a character's life. I've also had a lot of fun doing it collaboratively with people, using the results to tell the whole story of a character's life up to the moment they found themselves working at Cynosure Station.

Tables do skew towards people (human or alien immigrants) growing up in the "Solar cultural sphere" rather than alien societies, and alternative tables are provided for synthetics where applicable.

Some of the tables could also definitely be useful for general "hard" sci-fi character generation, just omit the parts about anomalies, tech laws, and the skathari incursion!

Credit to @crynwr-drwg whose Elder Scrolls character generator formed the basis for these tables and idea for the spreadsheet format.

[ss13polaris]

78 Feared Dead In Orbital Collision as Traffic Control System Fails For Just Three Minutes

Shipping traffic in and around Sif orbit was suspended for two hours yesterday when two vessels in atmospheric transit collided during a sudden traffic control system failure, leaving almost one hundred people dead or seriously injured. This marks the third major shipping incident in Sif orbit this year, leading some to call for a total overhaul of the planet's traffic routing systems.

The Hephaestus work ferry Lu Bu struck Ward-Takahashi interstellar freighter Quark in the starboard side at high speed in Drammen spaceport transitional sub-orbit, causing catastrophic damage to the Quark and starting fires aboard the Lu Bu, which was able to stabilize orbit and evacuate. No survivors from the Quark's crew of 21 have been located, while the majority of casualties originate from the Lu Bu, mostly positronic mineral extraction employees returning from deep-space assignments. Initial cross-examination of the ship's navigation logs confirm that they each lost contact with Cynosure Traffic Control at the same instant at around 4:00 SST this morning, and automated pilot systems independently calculated intersecting fall-back routes around two minutes later.

NanoTrasen, who are responsible for control of traffic in the region immediately above Londuneyja have issued a statement corroborated by Cynosure Site Manager Zatoichi Susumu confirming that the outage was caused by an abnormally large shoal of space carp causing damage to electrical systems aboard their automated traffic control communications satellite. According to the company the accident was simply a matter of unfortunate timing of natural phenomena, and was entirely unavoidable.

[ss13polaris]

Unathi Fleet Waylaid In Saint Columbia

The Hegemony fleet en-route to Eutopia has been temporarily re-routed to Saint Columbia for "eleventh hour security briefings" ahead of its final approach to the Eutopia system in order to rescue missing Hegemony scientists kidnapped from a government vessel in August, according to a spokesperson from the Solar Fleet. "The additional leg of the journey is expected to add no unnecessary additional time to the planned operation, and has been organized with the full cooperation and approval of the Moghes Hegemony."

While the exact nature of this planned detour remains confidential, the new route has been disclosed to the public as part of the SCG-D Kondiaronk's escort plan to minimize any confusion or alarm caused by the presence of the Moghes taskforce, now known to consist of one cruiser-type vessel and two destroyer-type escorts, in addition to the Solar Kondiaronk.

Insider reports of a series of visits from Solar diplomatic personnel with VirGov and NanoTrasen officials in Vir have been met with no official comment from government officials. The Vir News Network has been strongly advised not to speculate.

[ss13polaris]

November 2023 Events

An Ethical Anomaly

Saturday 18th November, 9pm GMT / 4pm EST

Event Manager: Cerebulon

The company has agreed to provide unpredictable anomalous materials to a classified buyer. For the public good, of course.

Canonicity: Yes.

Directly recommended roles: Command, Science

Risk Assessment: 2/5

1-3 Volunteers for non-crew plot roles would be appreciated.

Hypocritical Hippocriticals

Sunday 26th November 9:30pm GMT / 4:30pm EST

Event Manager: Doctress

Our doctors thank you for your mandatory assistance during this difficult time. (Event will be focused on solving anomalies and minor corporate conflict. Low, but non-zero risk of violence.)

All events take place on the game server at byond://ss13polaris.com:4000

[ss13polaris]

going to hijack your claim of adherents being the worlds most underrated ss13 alien, as a platform for some zaddat propaganda. they are bug-jellyfish folk with an allergy to light, nitrogen, and pressures below 400kpa so they gotta wear a shroud (custom voidsuit). theyre utterly and direly addicted to The Grindset. they dont have romance but they do have homoerotic rivalries. theyre so addicted to anime that their shrouds are near always some kamen rider ass shit. with capes. its so good and theyre just so unknown because theyre only on like 2 servers and their maintainers on their server of origin had such huge dev-burnout when they were being implemented

you're so right, these guys rule and ive never heard of them prior

[ss13polaris]

Made a bunch of Armored Core 6 decals based on companies and governments in SS13 Polaris lore. Even if you don't play, slap em on a robot.

NanoTrasen logo AJTRV3Y496PS

NT Weathered (1) DHC1BKL84K93

Almach Association 3ZY17CHUKWZA

Almach Weathered (2) CYBEVFBA6G9L

SolGov SC46S123WCHA

SolGov Weathered (3) X4EQDPK5JT4H

Hephaestus Industries (4) R8N5C8MUZUQD

Stealth Assault Enterprising (5) K1QA0YTB5KUP

Proxima Centaurai Risk Control (6) QBP68T0SSQ5D

[ss13polaris]

If I don't doodle them who even will

[ss13polaris]

Scavenging Teshari discovers new home for their pack amidst the ruins of the Incursion.

[ss13polaris]

"Emerald Skies" Conspiracy Protest Shuts Down New Reykjavik Mall

This weekend saw the Vinterlykke Shopping Center shut down after a surge of protesters crowded the mall. Vinterlykke is known as the largest mall in New Reykjavik, renowned for its expansive selection of shops, restaurants, and entertainment options. According to witnesses, protesters crowded the major walkways, preventing shoppers from passing and leaving some stranded in shops to avoid the crowd. Many shops barred and locked the storefronts in response, an unnamed employee of one store commenting, "That many people [...] you never know if it's going to get out of control."

The protesters chanted with signs regarding NanoTrasen's exclusive rights in studying the Sif Anomalous Region, demanding that studies into the anomalous properties be public knowledge. The march appears to be headed by the Skathari conspiracy group "Emerald Skies", known in recent months for many other smaller protests regarding the government response to the Incursion, and beliefs that Skathari are more intelligent than the public has been informed.

The disruption was eventually cleared out by mall security forces before the crowd could grow out of control. It is reported that Vinterlykke will reopen on Monday with additional security measures in place.

[ss13polaris]

Kalmar Department of Conservation Dangerous Wildlife Advisory

Residents of and visitors to Londuneyja, Amundsen and the Leitandi range, as well as the Sif Anomalous Region, are advised that changing conditions in the temperate band have altered seasonal migration patterns for a number of potentially dangerous Sivian species.

Please employ caution when travelling outside of developed urban areas, particularly forested or tundral regions with a lack of smaller animal life. If approached by unusual or unknown wildlife, please refrain from feeding or interacting with the animal, and report the sighting to your closest conservation or exploration organisation for appropriate relocation or culling.

Remember: no matter how cute or friendly it appears, it is a wild animal, and should be treated with caution.

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Now playable as a special role: The Grafadreka, or "Snow Drakes": Sif's weirdest dog-lizards yet.

[ss13polaris]

New title screen art created by Adrien Perrier @ gasgano on artstation!