[Galactic News Network]

05/17/2185
May 17th, 2010

Two reporters from the Sirenum Scopuli Network have attempted to re-create the scenario necessary to cause another Vallum Blast. Faking their credentials with high-resolution omni-tools, they managed to charter the private vessel MSV Zothera and fly it into orbit; there, a computer expert claims he set its coordinates for the city of Regeris but was stopped by the ship’s hardcoding. “FTL plotters are all about safety, and you need a very specific skill set to bypass them,” says Serus Lilix, who handled the piloting. “It’s like finding a particle physicist who can also build a locomotive.” Primarch Idus Valen was asked in a press conference today about the incident and he praised the reporters for their work. He declined to comment on the specific differences between the reporters’ tactics, those of Vamire Squaron, and the failed [Earth local date] February 23rd hijacking now attributed to Facinus, saying “I’d rather not broadcast an instruction manual on what Facinus has learned.”

Tags: Facinus, Idus Valen, MSV Zothera, Primarch Idus Valen, Regeris, Taetrus, Vallum, Vallum Blast, Vamire Squaron

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[Galactic News Network]

05/16/2185
May 15th, 2010

In a prepared statement uploaded to the extranet, Taetrus separatist Kihilix Tanus demands that the Turian Hierarchy recognize the island continent of Eluria as the free and independent state of Parthenix, or face further attacks from spacecraft used as weapons. Calling the Vallum Blast “merciful” and saying he has ships that could hit with “100 times that force,” Tanus boasted that even Palaven itself was not safe. Primarch Idus Valen responded almost instantly, saying “Justice neither trembles nor runs in the face of evil. We will execute our plans, no matter the threat.” The extranet reaction has been more biting: despite the vid being released only hours ago, a game application called “Radiatum Response” has already gone viral. The app allows players to orient crosshairs on the faces of the turian separatists in the video and fire excrement, bullets, or pies.

Tags: Eluria, Idus Valen, Kihilix Tanus, Parthenix, Primarch Idus Valen, Radiatum, Radiatum Response, Taetrus, Turian Hierarchy, Vallum, Vallum Blast

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[Galactic News Network]

05/15/2185
May 14th, 2010

Players of the extranet game “Galaxy of Fantasy” held a virtual march supporting the survivors of the Vallum Blast. Over one million players attended in the virtual space of Radiatum Park, where an online kiosk set up by the game’s developers allowed them to donate to the victims of the blast. “The players have been incredible,” says community manager Enrique Schofgee. “The entire basis for the game is turian mythology. To see turians under attack like this in real life strikes a chord in our players to do something.” Prominent player Alila Minaro agrees. “We spend hundreds of hours defending and maintaining this world immersed in turian culture. You can’t do that and not have a little turian public spirit rub off on you.”

Tags: Alila Minaro, Enrique Schofgee, Galaxy of Fantasy, Taetrus, Vallum, Vallum Blast

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[Galactic News Network]

05/14/2185
May 13th, 2010

New video and details about the first few minutes after the Vallum Blast emerged today. The Carifinum, the emergency management agency responsible for public crises on Taetrus, delayed its initial response to the calls by half an hour — a critical misstep that citizen advocacy groups claim could have saved lives. The Carifinum released this statement today in its defense: “From the noise of the blast and the size of the fires, we judged a nuclear scenario possible and, in fact, probable. Our first response, made within minutes of the blast, was to send out teams with particle counters to ascertain if we needed hazard suits to avoid being irradiated. Once it was clear that the weapon used was solely kinetic, we sent every available hand to the blast zone. It would have served no one if our response had gotten our brave rescue personnel killed.”

Tags: Carifinum, Taetrus, Vallum, Vallum Blast

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[Galactic News Network]

05/13/2185
May 12th, 2010

Primarch Idus Valen addressed the colony of Taetrus in a [Earth standard] forty-minute speech culminating in a declaration of war against the separatist group Facinus. The primarch spoke from the steps of the Sanhei Memorial, received seven standing ovations, and was frequently interrupted by applause as he detailed the crimes of the previously little-known group. “Our enemies will not escape the long talons of justice,” he stated. “Their dreams of anarchy and unaccountability have given birth to a mass murder that marks them as criminals, not heads of state. We call upon their neighbors in an ultimatum: deliver them to us, or share their graves.” He announced that the Turian Hierarchy will be lending its support in a military effort against the Diluvian Wildlands, a rural wetlands area where Facinus holds the greatest influence.

Tags: Diluvian Wildlands, Facinus, Idus Valen, Primarch Idus Valen, Taetrus, Turian Hierarchy, Vallum, Vallum Blast

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[Galactic News Network]

05/12/2185
May 12th, 2010

Today, corporate forces on Garvug intercepted a shipment of explosives and weapons to the rebel forces on that planet. The weapons, which included surface-to-air missiles, mortars, and small arms, allegedly come from Clan Urdnot on Tuchanka. “This was a critical find,” said Lieutenant Colonel Iason Riggs of Binary Helix. “It is imperative that the galaxy knows we have zero tolerance for those who aid insurgent forces, whether from the Terminus or elsewhere, and we will call out those who act against us.” Urdnot Jatt, spokesperson for Clan Urdnot’s financial arm on Tuchanka, appeared unimpressed: “What is Binary Helix to us? Or Sonax or Guanghui Solutions? They barely come to our planet, let alone sell anything.”

Tags: binary helix, Clan Urdnot, Garvug, Guanghui Solutions, Sonax Industries, tuchanka, Urdnot Jatt

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[Galactic News Network]

05/11/2185
May 10th, 2010

The reorganizing of Taetrus’ governmental infrastructure following the Vallum Blast reached an important milestone tonight, as the colony’s Laudatix — the ministry of citizenship rankings — held its first oserun since its office was destroyed in the blast. The oserun, a ceremony that recognizes the promotion of turians to a new citizenship tier, was initially overseen by local general Timus Aurelos, who swore in the new minister, Anela Saneraxis. Aurelos then turned the ceremony over to her, and Saneraxis formally promoted 1,238 turians, ranging from young adults entering 2nd-tier boot camp to Radiatum lawgivers in the 23rd tier. Saneraxis called on the latter in her closing remarks, saying “We know the task before us is mighty, and we look to our leaders to help us serve with dignity and strength. Together, we will prevail.”

Tags: Anela Saneraxis, General Timus Aurelos, Radiatum, Taetrus, Vallum, Vallum Blast

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[Galactic News Network]

05/10/2185
May 9th, 2010

As the last fires of Vallum are finally extinguished, new estimates for the numbers of dead and missing in the Vallum Blast have been established. Fire marshals now put the number of recovered bodies at 4,278. Military police estimate the death toll at 138,000, based on missing persons reports and traffic flow estimates for the city on the day of the impact. The cost for repairing the damage is estimated at 338 billion credits, to say nothing of the city’s gross domestic product that was estimated at 4.8 billion per year and is estimated to fall to 1.3 billion by the end of the fourth quarter of 2185.

Tags: Taetrus, Vallum, Vallum Blast
Posted in Official News | 28 Comments »

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[Galactic News Network]

05/09/2185
May 8th, 2010

Gruesome news out of Taetrus tonight: Four turian men have been arrested for stealing healthy organs from the dead at the overcrowded Haemona Medical Center. The men posed as nurses and used fake identity cards to gain entry to the hospital’s morgue. Two ran interference while the other two, skilled in surgery, removed kidneys, lungs, and gizzards from the freshest corpses of those who died just days after the Vallum Blast. The turians were discovered by a diener, who suspected something was amiss when the men attempted to prevent him from seeing the bodies. “I cannot believe I’m the same species as these parasites,” said the diener, Daherax Antivus. “Whatever happened to shame?”

Tags: Daherax Antivus, Haemona Medical Center, Taetrus, Vallum, Vallum Blast

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[Galactic News Network]

05/08/2185
May 7th, 2010

A video of the separatist group Facinus celebrating the Vallum Blast surfaced today. Footage shows noted separatist Kihilix Tanus praising pilot Vamire Squaron for his successful aiming of a private vessel and ejecting from it before it accelerated to its hyperlethal speed. The conversation implies that Squaron bypassed the ship’s safety protocols by installing an improvised FTL plotter, using an archaic design no longer in service throughout Citadel space. The vid also shows Tanus criticizing the Turian Hierarchy for failing to respond to the humanitarian crisis on the planet Belan. “They are old xemna [herd animals], only responding when they themselves are jabbed.” He then threatened a storm of lightspeed vessels, one for every week that Taetrus remains “subject to the human-appeasing lackeys that run imperialist space,” referring to the Hierarchy and Citadel species.

Tags: belan, citadel, Hierarchy, Kihilix Tanus, Taetrus, Vallum, Vallum Blast, Vamire Squaron

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[Galactic News Network]

05/07/2185
May 6th, 2010

A glimmer of hope on Taetrus tonight: rescue workers found a turian child, alive, buried in the wreckage of the museum known as the Enrarium or the “old postal office”. The nine-year-old child, found in a collapsed stairwell, is known only as “Octa.” She has no injuries other than scratches on her carapace and some loss of hearing. She is conscious and being treated for dehydration and malnutrition. The press has not been allowed to interview Octa yet. Saren Yahirix, the rescue worker who found her, said that she didn’t even cry out. “We didn’t hear a thing. We just opened up the wall, and there she was.”

Tags: Enrarium, Octa, Saren Yahirix, Taetrus, Vallum, Vallum Blast

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[Galactic News Network]

05/06/2185
May 5th, 2010

Post production on the mega-simulstim “Nekyia Corridor” may be the latest casualty of the Vallum Blast. One of the sim’s major scenes involves a lovelorn pilot committing suicide by flying a ship into a city at FTL speeds. Asked if this would remain in the final cut, director Morgan Bierester replied “You’ll have to wait and see,” but added, “The project deals head-on with themes of death; the title’s “neykia” is actually a Greek word — the best translation for an asari tradition asking for guidance from the dead. We’re not about to ruin it all with some exploitative sequence. It would be tasteless to further traumatize those hurt by this tragedy.” His actions back up these words — the sim’s cast and crew have started a charity called “Recovery Corridor” to collect donations for the families of those devastated by the blast.

Tags: morgan bierester, nekyia corridor, Recovery Corridor, Taetrus, Vallum, Vallum Blast

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[Galactic News Network]

05/05/2185
May 4th, 2010

The search for survivors in the rubble on Taetrus continues tonight. Only sixteen trapped people have been recovered alive, and experts say the chances of finding more survivors are slim. Bulldozers and heavy cranes are removing debris from the city’s four major highways. Only a handful of aerial ambulances have made it to the interior of the rubble. Firefighter Extan Relius says that there is little hope for those in the central crater: “The impact didn’t just knock buildings over; it picked them up and dropped them.” New calculations indicate that even this massive blow was relatively mild compared to what it could have been — the ship involved was only starting its acceleration to FTL speeds, and achieved a velocity under that of a mass accelerator bullet before contact.

Tags: Extan Relius, Taetrus, Vallum, Vallum Blast

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[Galactic News Network]

05/04/2185
May 3rd, 2010

The culprits of the Vallum Blast remain at large, but colonial, Hierarchy, and Council investigators are narrowing their search. Only two of the twenty-one groups that now claim responsibility have previously demonstrated the hacking skills necessary to use a spacecraft as a weapon, and only the separatist group Facinus is known to have made the attempt. Facinus is believed to be behind the [Earth local date] February 22nd hijacking of another commercial cruiser that crashed at suborbital speeds in an uninhabited area. Facinus’ goal is to separate Taetrus from the Turian Hierarchy, who they see as having betrayed the trust of their people. Though Facinus’ structure is cellular, its political arm’s base of operations is in the Diluvian Wildlands on the Taetrus island continent of Eluria.

Tags: Diluvian Wildlands, Eluria, Facinus, Hierarchy, Taetrus, Vallum, Vallum Blast

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[Galactic News Network]

05/03/2185
May 3rd, 2010

The outpouring of support for the turian victims of the Vallum Blast has reached across the Milky Way. “Today, the whole galaxy bleeds blue,” said Earth’s European Union’s Prime Minister Hertz. On Thessia, Matriarch Tiala ordered the Serrice Republican Guard to play the turian anthem “Stars Behind Me” during their changing of the guard, an act last performed during the Krogan Rebellions after the turians lost Uchalda. The quarian Migrant Fleet made no symbolic gestures, but are sending two dozen cruisers to Taetrus packed with emergency supplies. The Salarian Union, meanwhile, is donating heavy moving equipment: state-of-the-art construction-grade vehicles that use mass effect fields to alleviate secondary collapses when digging through rubble.

Tags: earth, European Union, Matriarch Tiala, Migrant Fleet, Milky Way, Prime Minister Hertz, Salarian Union, Serrice Republican Guard, Taetrus, Thessia, Uchalda, Vallum

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[Galactic News Network]

05/02/2185
May 2nd, 2010

Clearing bodies is just one of the grim tasks firefighters and medical personnel are performing in the city of Vallum tonight. Remains are being taken to indoor gun ranges, hielae (throwball courts) — any nearby intact buildings with enough open space to accommodate the dead. Even citizens outdoors at the time of the impact were not spared — the sudden blast was enough to burst organs and eardrums in a phenomenon called overpressure. “It’s like tossing explosives into a lake,” explains Lieutenant Razun Scartos. “You don’t need shrapnel to get a lot of dead fish.” Meanwhile, nearby hospitals are full to the brim with the living — at least 4,500 turians managed to limp or carry one another to nearby Haemona Medical Center, which previously had capacity for only 1,500.

Tags: Razun Scartos, Taetrus, Vallum
Posted in Official News | 11 Comments »

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[Galactic News Network]

05/01/2185
April 30th, 2010

Reaction to the attack on Taetrus continues to pour in from across the galaxy. “This is an act of war,” stated Minister of Agriculture Idus Valen, who became Primarch of Taetrus by the laws of succession. “This is an attack against all civilized colonies of the galaxy,” stated Ulra Nron of the Vol Protectorate, who ordered a national day of mourning for those lost in the destruction. On Palaven, millions of turians in dozens of cities marched in solidarity with the victims of what is becoming known as the Vallum Blast. The death toll is still unknown, but estimates run anywhere from 150,000 to 1.1 million, which could make the day of the blast the second bloodiest day in turian history, ranking just under the first 22 [Earth standard] hours of the Battle of Digeris.

Tags: Idus Valen, Taetrus, Ulra Non, Vallum, vol protectorate
Posted in Official News | 27 Comments »

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[Galactic News Network]

04/30/2185
April 29th, 2010

General Timus Aurelos toured the wreckage site of the Vallum Blast today, giving the claw salute and attempting to lift the spirits of the rescue workers within the so-called collapse line. “All turian space is praying for the people of Taetrus tonight, for the lives that were lost, for the families that mourn, and for the workers who toil here,” he declared. “I assure you that the cowards who did this will have no safe harbor anywhere in the galaxy. They will be found, they will be killed, and their twisted labors will come to nothing. They have not crushed a people; they have united one far larger than they ever dreamed.” The rescue workers responded with chants of “Taetrus! Taetrus!” and presented the general with a Hierarchy flag taken from the rubble.

Tags: General Timus Aurelos, Taetrus, Vallum, Vallum Blast
Posted in Official News | 38 Comments »

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[Galactic News Network]

04/29/2185
April 28th, 2010

The list of dead and missing on the planet of Taetrus continues to grow. At the time of impact, the planet’s Primarch was in the Signis, his executive building, now indistinguishable from the rest of the rubble. His viceroy, chief of staff, and countless workers are also dead — burned, or vaporized by the tremendous impact of the FTL vehicle. There is seemingly no end to the death and destruction; besides the Signis and the Radiatum, three museums, four national monuments, and the Esarus Mint have been destroyed, with many of their occupants killed.

Tags: Esarus Mint, Radiatum, Signis, Taetrus
Posted in Official News | 58 Comments »

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[Galactic News Network]

04/29/2185
April 28th, 2010

The list of dead and missing on the planet of Taetrus continues to grow. At the time of impact, the planet’s Primarch was in the Signis, his executive building, now indistinguishable from the rest of the rubble. His viceroy, chief of staff, and countless workers are also dead — burned, or vaporized by the tremendous impact of the FTL vehicle. There is seemingly no end to the death and destruction; besides the Signis and the Radiatum, three museums, four national monuments, and the Esarus Mint have been destroyed, with many of their occupants killed.

Tags: Esarus Mint, Radiatum, Signis, Taetrus
Posted in Official News | 58 Comments »