Ship Station Taniris

“If the galaxy is a plum of opportunity waiting for the right people to come along and take a bite, then Taniris Station is the pit, seedy and unwanted. It sits in a corner of the Delurr Pocket like a forgotten eight ball, squeezed in-between territory belonging to the Antys, the League, and the Solesian Hegemony. The territory is empty space, wanted by no-one, but because of some treaty from way-back when, administrated by all, the mutual corner of each powers’ share of the Delurr Pocket.”

Construction

In the year 874 AE the United League of Planets made the decision to allow the conquered planets that were once the Antarean Empire officially join the League’s legislature as the Antarean Federation. This was not only a momentous occasion, but also an extremely unstable one. Not only had the now Antarean Federation suffered serious losses and had been forced to give away a good deal of territory, but the ULP was still forcing the Antarean planets to pay reparations, and planed on continuing to do so. In order to avoid offending the representatives from the newly formed Antarean Federation, they decided to build a station for the meeting, it was decided that this meeting would be held on ground that was neutral. The closest neutral ground was in the Delurr Pocket, the space that had been, according to treaty, shared by the Antareans, the ULP, and the Solesian Hegemony. League representatives figured that since the SH was sympathetic to the Antareans this would sweeten the deal for the Antareans. Additionally, it would be the first truly joint project between the two powers hopefully making relations even better.

Departure of the Major Powers

After the Antareans and the ULP held their meeting, the station was maintained as a meeting ground and a less-then-thriving waypoint between the three entities. However, when Solesian ships began to raid ULP space in 941 AE, despite their government claims of disaffiliation with the raiders, the ULP legislature made an executive decision that maintaining the station was more trouble then it was worth and ordered all its forces, including the Antarean Federation to withdraw. When they did, all of the contractors on the station left along with them, leaving only a few independent shopkeepers on the station. Many of them had invested a good deal of money into their enterprises only to find that in an instant almost all their customers were gone. Some of them left and some of them stayed. For a long time the station was a forgotten way point, used only for secret meetings by drug dealers, weapon runners, and slave drivers.

Repopulation

In 946 AE the ULP forced a compromise with the SH and, with it’s new found safety, the population of the station began to increase. One particular “entrepreneur,” using the money from a particularly large drug deal, thought that he might make a good deal more money investing in the station by decorating, refurnishing, and re-supplying it. Making himself the highest administrator he brought in many others and turned the station into a sort of criminal hotel. It might have gone well until he tried to tax the original shops that had been in the station before he tried to take over. The next day after he announced he was going to tax the shops they found him with a walnut sized hole straight through his head.

After that business on Taniris Station exploded, the security of the fairly neutral territory combined with a now well stocked station turned it into a paradise for vermin, low-lives, and runaways. People soon moved into the station and more shops opened. Various crime cartels began to take control of Taniris and the original shopkeepers formed an alliance calling themselves The First, which controlled a good part of the station. With the support of outside sources and the upsurge in business, Taniris became well established as the main spot for those who couldn’t, or would rather not, be seen by the powers-that-be.

Situation

The station is mostly ignored by the various lawgivers, being assigned as the commander in charge of that sector is considered the worst job on any side of the border, however it does sometimes have its perks. Now and then the ULP or the Antareans raid the station, however the right palms are usually greased and the people in power on the station know that the authorities are coming far in advance and make the proper preparations. More often then not the raid is simply a cover for whatever commander in charge of the station’s sector that month to pick up their bribe, usually in the form of hard goods of some sort.

Every once and a while some foolish League administrator makes an attempt to clean up the station and usually ends up with a plasma packet through their head. More recently Grand-Marshal Thurgood was asked if he was going to do anything about the infamous station, to which he simply replied, “We find it useful to have all our scum in the same place.” For now, Taniris Station is simply the land that law forgot.