Breaking Point

Things at Gell-Mann Ring station have been getting a little out of hand over these past few weeks. Ever since the IVP party took over the station, rules and regulations there have been rather lax, leading to a massive spike in black market trading. Narcotics, including onion head have become commonplace in Gell-Mann, and a large majority of the population have been none stop partying for nearly a month now. This of course led to a serious problem regarding efficiency, as most of the stations workforce had abandoned their posts in favor of a few drinks, and a good old dance.

Local business owners dealt with this problem by importing imperial slaves, via the black markets, to replace their missing workers. These past two weeks have seen literally thousands of indentured workers arriving at Gell-Mann and taking over as the primary workforce at the station. Unfortunately, this seemed to be the spark to the proverbial powder keg. residents of Gell-Mann suddenly found themselves out of work, replaced by cheaper and more reliable workers, and with no income they could not afford the ever increasing prices of the various substances necessary to party down, never mind food and other basic comforts.

Indentured workers began to be targeted by angry groups of residents and there was a spate of attacks across the station. Things devolved quickly after that, local security forces at the station couldn't control the roiling population and eventually riots and looting broke out all over the promenade.

Startship Enterprises Corp have decided it is time to step in and put an end to all of this. Dr. Lewis Chapman has vowed to restore order to Gell-Mann, shut down its black markets and return the station to the power house it once was. Even now, SE Corp pilots have started to try to take Gell-Mann Ring, but the IVP party is not letting go easily and things look to escalate between the two factions.

One good thing has come out of the current situation at Gell-Mann. Because of the very low security levels at the station, a small group of SE Corp operatives managed to sneak in and have a good look around. In a dusty long term storage hanger the team discovered a number of tourism beacons. The shipping details on the containers had been tampered with so that the beacons had no destination and thus wound up forgotten, in perpetual transit, This proved that some mysterious agents had been actively working against SE Corp during their CG event. Alas, no evidence of the culprits could be found by forensic investigators. SE Corp have now installed the beacons across the system and hope that they will help to bring more tourism and commerce into LP 339-7.