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- Mar 31, 2008
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So, this thread is for various write-ups and creativity-posting for me
RECAP OF DECEMBER 2099
UN CONFIRMS SPACEPORT EXPANSION COMPLETION DATE. General-Secretary Luis Morterero's office issued a press release confirming that the International Space Port will complete renovations in the spring of 2101, catapulting the markets into the green after several days of small losses. The ISP's third round of expansion has become a pressing international concern after successful prototyping of the Lai Engine. Several engineers from a variety of aerospace firms, speaking under the condition of anonymity, state that the shipbuilding capabilities of the Zero-Two Shipyard will reach the sophistication and mass necessary to construct jump-capable ships. The Chinese firm [ZTS +9.43%] released a statement announcing it has surpassed a billion credits in combined private-public orders.
We are legally obligated to note that "Chinese firm" refers to the national origin and corporate headquartering of the company and that, as per an agreement between the United Nations and People's Republic of China, Zero-Two operates under special UN regulations and scrutiny.
NEW BELT COLONISTS CONDEMN SLASH IN FUNDING. The developing colonies of Ceres, Titan, Mercury, and Ganymede, operating under different colonial charters with a combined population measured in the tens of thousands, issued a surprising open letter to the United Nations to bring attention to the plight of the New Belt colonies, referring to the post-Enceladus colonial projects. In recent years, funding for further colonization has been redirected toward projects hoping to take advantage of the coming era of interstellar space travel. Supporters of this redirection point out that the ability to travel lightyears in a week will open up thousands of more hospitable worlds to colonization. Opponents of this reallocation is harming already existing colonists who have given up belongings and ties on Earth for promised new lives on new colonies.
An American colonial official on Titan told a reporter that the small colonial population of Titan is shrinking as angry colonists decide to pull up stakes and move to established colonies such as Mars, Europa, or Enceladus.
New Belt colonists are not the only colonists frustrated by the changing priorities of the United Nations and great space powers. Martians and Venusians believe that the Second and Third Earth Initiatives, programs that would attempt to terraform the two worlds, will be set back for decades, even centuries, if Earthlike worlds are settled outside Sol.
UN SECURITY COUNCIL DECLARES ELF A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION; AUTHORIZES SANCTIONS. The United Nations voted in favor of a resolution that declares the Europa Liberation Front an organization engaged in terrorism. This resolution requires Gaian nations to sanction individuals with ties to the organization as well as suspected fronts. The International Criminal Police Organization has been granted far-reaching powers to investigate and arrest members of the organization so they can be tried in Dublin. A pro-ELF rally was held in Aube shortly after the vote.
While the move was welcomed by the leaders of the major powers, it has given ammunition to movements with United States and New West calling for a reset in relations with the United Nations. They claim that the UN has usurped excessive power in the aftermath of the Samsonite War and that if the West fails to take a stand, it and the world will find itself embroiled in a federated world government within a generation. Staunch supporters of the United Nations point to the UN's rising power with a decrease in global tensions and threat of nuclear war and that a federated world government would prevent the intra-Gaian rivalries that allowed Europa independence for two decades.