Starship Enterprises

when Starship Enterprises were just beginning to set up as a new corporation within LP 339-7, Dr. Lewis Chapman received a lot of political pressure in the courts. An digital avalanche of documents almost stalled the startup process altogether and things were very stressful and very touch and go for quite some time.

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Eventually sources close to Chapman discovered that it was in fact the Independent Values Party -a rival political faction- using various contacts within the courts to slow down the SE startup campaign.

 

It emerged that the reason they were doing this was to do with their stance on black market trading.

The IVP are quite a laid back faction when it comes to illegal trading and have long been suspected of operating underground slave trade rings with their stations.

 

At the time the IVP owned Whitson (a declining agricultural station) and Kerwin Gateway (where it has been thought the bulk of their slaves enter the system)

 

Although 339 is a sovereign Federation system and does not allow the trading of slaves, many off the wealthy citizens still agree with the use of indentured help and there has been a fashion by some to secretly 'adopt' illegal slaves into their household. The creation of 'Master Chefs' in the Kappa Fornicas system only helped to fuel this and the IVP still do not recognize them as prohibited goods.   

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Starship Enterprises stance on slavery has always been the same as Blue Creatives and despite their split, the two corporations remained in agreement on that point. We do not agree with slavery, including master chefs and imperial indenturism, and we do not agree with or operate black markets within our stations.

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The IVP were worried that with SE now on the scene, public opinion within 339 would swing away from their more lax attitude. And they were right. Indeed, their underhanded efforts to stall SE within the courts only served to make them the bad guys. 

The general public loudly voiced their opinions, divided as they were, hostilities quickly broke out between the two camps.

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Over the next few days chaos reigned at Whitson Orbital. Rioting and looting forced a general curfew to be put into effect. The police forces were massively outnumbered however and struggled to keep a semblance of control.

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It was these events that eventually triggered a brief and brutal civil war between SE and the IVP. 

SE attempted to send relief ships to Whitson while the IVP attempted to blockade their efforts.

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The IVP underestimated the corporate weight that Dr. Chapman could throw at them and SE quickly proved that they were not to be trifled with. After five days the conflict ended with Starship Enterprises taking Whitson Orbital from the IVP and claiming it as their new HQ.