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Vespasian Leauge Information Service
October 11, 2486
Last Resistance Obliterated by The Guild

     The Slavers have won a major victor in the last few days - The Guild Lords, in thier surfiet for money and power, have eleminated every last dissenting voice in thier space in objection to the Slave Trade. Nighthawk, a mercenary who formerly worked for various Guild Lords, has fled into deep space with former Guild Lord Briant and Jason Furvii. The rest of the leaders of the rebellion have been caught. They were publicly executed with a degree of barbarism and cruelty that wasn't even seen in days of the Untied Republic.
     This whole episode has left us at Stellar Times stunned. The Guild, which still claims moral and humanitarian superiority to the Vespasian Leauge, seems to have just lost all legitimate grounds for that claim. The Vespasian Leauge is vaillantly fighting the slave trade in all of it's manifestations, despite Guild claims of it's corperations practicing "Legal Slavery". Some of the workers in the Vespasian Leauge may have to work long hours for little pay, but most of them have expressed graditude for this improvment over conditions on the Core planets they were rescued from. At any rate, our noble leaders firmly oppose the Slave Trade, and have taken admirable steps to prevent slavers from operating illegally within the Imperial Cluster.
     We are left now to decide where our alliances lie. Our leaders tried to remain in peace with the Guild. The last thing this galaxy needs now is more death and destruction. But now an acceptance of the Guild is acceptance of the Slavers. We have long opposed and Slave Trade, and we don't plan on backing down now. We are confident that our leaders feel the same way. Our most sincere condolences go out to the brave souls in the Guild that rose up in rebellion. They will be remembered as heros who refused to submit to evil. The Guild Lords, god willing, will be remembered as scoundrels, for they are the real threat to the galaxy.

Stellar Times
December 30, 2489
Ancient Ruins and "Gateway" Discovered South of Confederation Space

     Three days ago, the Confederation's Exploration Team 33 was on a perfectly routine assingment. They were to land on an uninhabited planet on the fringes of known space to the Confederation's south, take numerous recordings of the planet's chemistry, atmosphre, tempeture, etc. What the found will probably be the most singificant scientific discovery of the 25th century.
     As soon as the long-range scoutships and thier escorts came out of sub-space travle, it was immediately obvious that this would be no ordinary assingment, for the planet that had supposedly never been touched by intelligent life had a small station orbiting it! Closer analysis and cross-checking against the Confederation's records revealed that this station had been abandoned for centuries, and that it was not built by any known Human or Nassanite faction.
     The latter projection was confirmed upon landing on the planet, which they determined safe for both Humans and Nassanites. They discovered a small cluster of ruins that obviously hadn't been constructed by either race. The team immediately reported back thier findings, and were shortly joined by a dozen other teams.
     After three days of analysis, the Confederation isn't ready to draw too many conclusions. They are saying that the settlement was probably abandoned for unknown reasons almost 3000 years ago, or sometime around the 1st Century.
     The most exciting thing about this whole event, though, is the Confederation's theory about the station. The station, which they are now calling The Gateway, was very well preserved. The technology of these people was obviously much more advanced than even the Confederation's. This station, they believe, may have been a way to travel between galaxies. They're theorizing that it somehow twists the sub-space fabric to dramatically reduce the distance between it and any point in the galaxy, and creating a path for a ship to travle along. If thier theory is correct, then they could reduce the space between the Gateway and Proverance to half a mile! We can only imagine the oppertunities this could create.
     The Confederation is currently tring to figure out how the Gateway works, though they are having little luck getting even the msot basic parts of the station to function as the entire place is utterly alien. They are egar to learn, though, and say that they will devote huge amounts of research both to figuring it out and to looking for other settlements of this race.

Galactic News Network
May 2, 2492
The Confederation Takes it's Side

      After several weeks of negotiations, and several more of internal debait, the Confederation has come out with the verdict that we've all been waiting for. They decided to sign the contract with Singularity Starcraft and jump on board the Vespasian Leauge's ship. This contract allows Singularity Starcraft to buy several planets and contruction rights for them from the Confederation. That is the letter of the contract, but the spirit of the contract is much more serious. This marks a turning point for the Confederation's relationship with the rest of the galaxy.
     The Confederation has long claimed - and up to now practiced - nuterality in galactic affairs. They remained nuteral throughout our first war with the Vespasian Leauge and it's henchmen. But now they are clearly sending a much different message. This contract suggests an alliance with Singularity Starcraft - the largest, greediest, sleeziest of all the nihilistic corperations that make up the Vespasian Leauge. We have to wonder why the Confederation - supposedly holding humanitarian interests close to the core of it's government - could do this. Singularity Starcraft makes no secret of it's policies of bigotry towards all other ways of thinking in the galaxy. Could it be that the Confederation shares this belief? They don't share Singularity Starcraft's practices of supression or bitter alienation of dissent in the Vespasian Leauge - not that we know about, anyway. Could Singularity Starcraft, or even the "Vespasian Leauge", which we all know is simply a reincarnation of the United "Republic", which they have such a death-grip on, have maunvered agents into the Confederation's high council? Or could it have bought existing managers? We can only guess about the reasons, but the outcome is certian. The Confederation has chosen it's side.

Stellar Times
February 23, 2493
Terrorist Attack Destroys Vestien's Tribute

     Yesterday, at 9:36 A.M., an explosion loud enough to be heard all across the Guild frontier planet Draco VIII rang out, preceding a deadly hail of debries from above. Draco VIII's only station, the Guild outpost Vestien's Tribute, had been destroyed by a group of terrorists. There were about 2.8 million people on the station, including numerous GWDF commanders, GWDF General Marsoon, Guild Lord Wasition, and two leaders of the Kahn Slaver Sect. In addition, another estimated 500,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed from the hail of debries that rained down onto Drack VIII from the station.
     The terrorists, posing as newly captured slaves on a captured slaver ship, stormed the landing bay as soon as they landed. They were being transported on a modified Caravel, and the 200 armed terrorists easily overwhelmed two dozen spaceport guards. They quickly made thier way to the centeral power generator of the station, fighting off guards as they went. The whole attack occured at lightning speed, and before the GWDF troops on the station could be mobilized, about 30 of the terrorists broke into the main generator room - the rest had been killed by Guild guards.
     The Guild had precautions against attacks such as these. The generator had been shut down, the terrorists had been sealed off from the rest of the station, and the GWDF military had surrounded them. This, however, brings us to the most alarming part of this tragedy. The terrorists had about five pounds of Uranium-38 with them - enough to set up an small nuclear explosion. The power core may have been shut down, but it's plasma cells were still there, and were still suceptable to a nuclear explosion. The terrorists exploded the Uranium, and the chain reaction quickly spread through the plasma cells until a massive explosion from the center of the station completely demolished it.
     The Guild is currently ambitiouslly investigating this tragedy, though they currently have no conviction as to who is responsible. While several Guild leaders suspect the Vespasian Leauge, it is hard to believe that the leaders of the Vespasian Leauge would be as rash as to carry out such an attack. The Guild also suspects Cassiopeia, the nearest non-Guild planet to Draco VIII. Cassiopeia has a long history of being anti-Guild, and has been accused by the Guild of harboring leaders from the 2483 rebellion from Guild justice.
     Prehaps the most obvious party to suspect would be the Goblin pirates. They have repeatedly used terrorism, among other meathods, to attempt to beat the people of the Core and the Pledias Union into submission. It is well know that they have been growing more powerfull and anxious to use that power in recent times. Though they seem the most obvious suspect, the Guild seems to be largly ignoring them.
     One also has to consider the message the terrorists sent. Vestien's Tribute was built as a tribute to Guild Lord Vestien by his hier and his colleuges after his death in 2461. Lord Vestien had been a pioneer of building the system on which the Guild is baised - the system that supports the slave trade and shamlessly takes advantage of the lower classes. He is seen as the father of the Guild's policies of imperialism, feudalism and slavery by many Guilders as well as many non-Guilders. Prehaps the Guild, through thier practices of repression, intimidation, and tyranny, has brought this on themselves.
     Nevertheless, we recognise this event as a tragedy - the 500,000 civilians killed on Draco VIII had nothing to do with the forging or maintaining of the policies the terrorists so clearly despise.