[President_Elect_Shang]

2402.7 – In the Delta Trianguli System a survey ship from the Arachnid Oligarchy crosses paths with a survey ship from the Imperial Council of Terra. Attempts at communication go awry and the Arachnid captain resorts to weapons. In the Republic developers at SAAB Aeronautics develop two small craft and boat bays for launching these craft. The first small craft; the Cutter, is a limited utility vehicle with a few ammo storage racks for remote re-arming operations. The Shuttle is a slightly larger small craft but is capable of transporting a larger quantity of ammo. Neither of these small craft are wp capable or able to outrun a starship in or out of combat. Although SAAB promises weapons will be available for them there are none at present. The boat bays for housing, care, and launch of these small craft come in a verity of sizes from tiny to large. Although Sky Marshall Kana finds these small craft to be pretty useless the Chairman for the Department of Exploration sees the potential for speeding up system surveys. He requests and receives funding for testing and design proposals of this new system. The resulting design; the Quasar (not attached), is a modified Daphne II platform with 10kT of Armor removed to make room for a Small Boat Bay. A Senate committee agrees to fund the modification of one of the Daphne II’s as soon as SAAB can gear up a plant to produce 2 of the accompanying Cutter designs.

2402.9 – The Republic emplaces its first extra-solar colony in the Roris System. Although the planet is habitable the conditions are less than perfect. Despite the challenges the colonists waste little time setting up a temporary seat of government. They appoint their first planetary governor and Senator so they may have representation in the Senate of the Republic. In a grand ceremony (grand for a newly formed colony anyway) the colonies governor presents the Planetary Charter and in honor of the home world names the planet New Tal-Re.

2403.2 – In the Narcisston System (0, 9) exploration ships of the Imperial Council of Terra and the Archanid Oligarchy make contact. Again the Archanid captain resorts to weapons and once again the Terran captain retreats. Now there are two points of contact for these empires which are clearly on a crash course for war.