Truane’s Star is officially ruled by a republican form of government from the planet of Pale. New Pale is an agriculture colony and has the status of territory with limited representation (2 representatives). New Pale is administered by a governor that is appointed by the president. The colonists of New Pale enjoy citizenship rights as well as an exemption on income tax as an inducement to move to the colony planet.

            Pale is the headquarters of the Frontier’s second megacorp, Streel. Being headquartered here gives Streel quite a bit of weight with the government but their campaign contributions have all but bought the corporation control of the government.

     A division within the company, Resource Acquisition & Development (RAD) has committed a huge chunk of its budget toward campaign contributions. It was decided that new exploration was more costly than stealing the resources of others. The RAD has plans in place to take over the agriculture resources of New Pale as well as usurping the mineral rights of the Zebulon system which are currently owned by the Pale Republic.

            The plan for New Pale is to create a crisis that requires nationalization of the farming operations followed by legislation appointing Streel to manage them. Since the population of Pale would starve without the food shipments form New Pale it’s been relatively easy to engineer a crisis.

            The Palonite military under the auspices of Pale Aerospace Command (PAC) was responsible for exploring the Zebulon system but did little since the discovery of the system. Once they finally sent a manned expedition, Streel was forced to take action lest their secret mining operation on Volturnus be discovered. Contact was lost six months ago when the expedition entered orbit around Volturnus. Streel’s interference has not only caused the long delay in sending a rescue expedition but has forced its way onto the expedition which is now a joint venture with PAC.

            With the percolating crisis on New Pale caused by a new terrorist group and the colonists’ resistance to the government’s first move at nationalization of the farms, the government has a low priority on exploiting its rights to Zebulon. Streel has all but taken over the rescue mission and has had to scramble for personnel to man the mission. Luckily, a new draft of new employees has arrived in Truane’s Star expecting to take low level technician and security jobs and they’re about to be “volunteered” for the mission or discharged from company service. The company will of course turn over the names of those discharged to Pale’s Selective Service Corp which is charged with raising several drafted regiments of Peace Keepers for the impending civil disturbances on New Pale.