BETA SIM IC THREAD

[BigJKU316]

Notice from the United Federation of Planets

It has come to our attention that several powers have setup trade routes that pass through our space without informing us beforehand. We recognize our responsibility as a central location to allow such trade through but need to do so in an orderly fashion that allows us to provide security to those routes while they are in our space.

We would appreciate that any government negotiating a deal where trade would pass through our space to contact us to discuss final routing and terms of passage. We will move with all haste to approve the routes as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your time.

[Reliant121]

This shall come in due time.

The Breen confederacy has restructure it's ruling system in favour of clan lead system. Our dictatorship has ended and a level of civility has been introduced in our space.

[BigJKU316]

The Federation wishes to remind other powers that at this time the Federation border with the Romulan Star Empire remains closed. Until such time as that government enters into open and frank negotiations with the Federation regarding the future of relations between our two powers any vessels attempting to enter our space bound for Romulan starports will be turned back to their port of origin. We regret that this state of affairs continues but it is necessary for us to resolve major security issues with the RSE and until we reach a resolution the border will, per our earlier annoucements, remain closed to all traffic.

We publicly wish to state our broad framework for any new agreement with the Romulans so that there can be no misconstruing of our motives in this case.

1. We wish to see the Romulans cease use of cloaking devices, in which case the Federation will refrain from deploying such devices. This is to be accomplished by public removal and periodic inspection.

2. We desire a larger neutral zone extending 5 LY's into each of our space, in which only patrol ships mutually agreed upon by both sides shall be present.

3. We insist that the RSE turn over any and all information on the Scimitar Class warship, pledge to produce no more such ships at any time that are capable of firing while cloaked and submit to inspections to verify that the Thaloron Radiation weapon will not be developed or deployed by the Romulan military. To ensure this occurs it would be necessary to allow third party monitoring of Romulan Shipyards and industrial facilities.

4. We demand that all associated with the development, planning and creation of the Scimitar and its Thaloron radiation generator be turned over to the Federation as war criminals. This includes any and all political figures of the Star Empire and members of the military who were complicit either through cooperation with the objectives of Shinzon OR had prior knowledge of such activity and aided those actions through their own inaction.

We believe this provides us a basis to move foward and await the reply of the Star Empire.

[Tyyr]

From: Prime Gul, Ashai Evek

It is with a glad heart that I can announce that the Cardassian Union has experienced a tremendous amount of growth in the last five years. In fact I find it libelous that given the tremendous strides we have made that the only thing the GNS can report upon is our debt. The Provisional Government has transitioned the Union into a democratically elected council of Archons. The council has even graciously asked that I remain in my position as leader and has elected me Prime Gul. We have take power from the military and returned it to a position subservient to the civilian government. We have raised educational standards throughout the Union. Our economy has grown to over ten times what it was when the Provisional Government came to power and contrary to the slanderous lies of the GNS we will have no trouble covering our debts. Yes, we have amassed significant foreign debt but what choice did we have? We had nothing. We have taken that nothing and made tremendous strides to restoring the Union to its rightful place in the quadrant. The future of the Union is bright.

[BigJKU316]

While the Federation government fully believes the Cardassian Union can and will honor its debt obligations we do have many concerns regarding the high level of debt being accumulated at this time. We feel that such actions present a large risk to stability in the region.

At present financing such debt is relatively easy with low tax rates in the Federation leaving the citizens with a great deal to invest elsewhere. We presume this is the case with a few other powers as well. Also at present the Federation is not borrowing any money, which helps keep rates low for other governments. However the high debt levels of others indirectly puts pressure on us to maintain the current situation.

Were we to raise our taxes the private money for investment would dry up to some degree. Were the Federation to raise debt it is likely that rates for other, less secure debt, would rise in response. This has the effect of limiting our flexibility and is a matter of no small concern for the Federation at this time.

We fully understand the Cardassian Unions need to rebuild, and in fact have supported that in several ways and will continue to do so. We are much more concerened with the level of debt being taken on by two powers untouched by the recent war. We feel we must make it clear that the Federation can't let its own economic policies be constrained by the fact that other powers have borrowed in a manner that is possibly beyond their means.

In the interest of full disclosure we wish to make it known the Federation will be borrowing around 16.5 million credits in the upcoming fiscal year. While it will have a short term repayment from our government we do fear that this will spark rate increases for other powers as a natural market reaction.

[BigJKU316]

The Federation is selling as surplus the following ships.

Challenger Class- 4
Cheyenne Class- 30
Constellation Class- 5
Excelsior Mk I- 180
Freedom Class- 12
Griffen Class- 6
Olympic Class- 21
Polaris Class- 14
Raider Class- 150
Shelly Class- 83
Springfield Class- 12
Trident Class- 5
Yeager Class- 15

We will listen to any offer from a recognized government for these ships. This also serves as notice that these designs will be stricken from Starfleet if they are not sold. No further models of these types will remain in comission and we ask that powers update their records. All sales will be made public to prevent any confusion. Respond on a private channel to make a purchase offer.

[Tyyr]

The Cardassian Union has purchased the Constellation, Cheyenne, and Olympic class vessels for exploration and humanitarian purposes.

[Mark]

THE THOLIAN ASSEMBLY HAS NO INTEREST IN SHIPS DESIGNED FOR CARBON BASED LIFE FORMS. HOWEVER, WE ARE OPEN TO TECHNOLOGICAL EXCHANGES AND TRANSACTIONS.

[Reliant121]

The Breen Confederacy wishes to offer a statement concerning the recent speculation of our internal affairs. The conflict that the Federation and Cardassian peoples discovered was not a move to attack them, rest assured. We have no wish to assault neighbours, and wish to remain neutral. However, the reports of civil war are greatly exaggerated. Following recent increases to the power of the clans, a conversion to a imperial clan based system, they have protested our abnormally high tax rates and we have since reduced them to alleviate internal pressures. Our empire is stable at this time.

[BigJKU316]

State of the Federation Address

Fellow citizens of the Federation, I come before you today to update everyone on the great progress we have made in the first six years of our administration and to share with you where we plan to go from here. Before we get into the more mundane details I must say to you all that it has been a great personal honor to serve you during this time, which is frankly a time of revival in the Federation.

We have survived many trials in the recent past. Many both within and outside of the Federation have predicted its demise. They have said that we were not strong enough, not united enough and were not willing to pay the price necessary to ensure our continued existence as a democratic society. They pointed to regimes like the Dominion and Romulan Star Empire as the way forward, believing that such authoritarian regimes were the only ones capable of surviving these trying times.

I can proudly stand here before you and state with certainty that not only has our government survived the worst of those times, we as a people we have emerged stronger for it. This is something every citizen of the Federation should take their own measure of pride in. At times the easy way out would have been to give in to pressures to change our government, to abandon our moral values. Some would say this shows the inherent flaw in our Federation.

Instead I choose to view it as our greatest source of strength. Whenever threatened by forces, either from within our without, the overriding values of our society have always been championed by someone willing to do what is right. Today I wish to recognize two such individuals, neither of whom I can do full justice in the limited time allotted.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard is well known to the majority of you. His accomplishments as the captain of the Enterprise are too numerous to list. It is sufficient to say that he and his crew have served the Federation well over the course of many years. In particular the citizens of the Federation should be thankful for his willingness to stand for the ideals of the Federation, whatever the cost.

Today, I am submitting to the council a recommendation that Captain Picard have bestowed upon him the rank of Vice Admiral for services rendered and be placed in charge of the newly formed Exploration Command division of Starfleet. I can think of no better person to train, instruct and be the face of one of Starfleet's prime mission areas.

The next person I wish to mention sadly is not present. Captain Benjamin Sisko, despite his rank, played one of the key rolls in the recent Dominion War. His achievements are well known to most. He was the embodiment of the unshakeable will of the Federation to resist those that would look to destroy our way of life, regardless of the odds and personal cost.

We can no longer honor Captain Sisko through promotion or medals. However we can ensure that his memory and ideals live on, both in the Federation and in particular within Starfleet. To that end we have commissioned the first of a newly redesigned Defiant Class and have elected to name both the ship and the class in honor of the Captain under which it first achieved fame.

Throughout this long and difficult period it was people like Picard and Sisko who helped to see the Federation through. But they did not do this alone. It took the hard work and sacrifice of all of our citizens to see our way clear of the recent troubles. We can now happily report to you that not only has the Federation found its way clear of those events, we are thriving.

In the past 6 years the economy has grown by twenty-one percent in terms of real gross domestic product. When newly revived trade is added to that the economy can said to have grown nearly fifty percent in this period. This has been achieved with a population growth of less than the four percent, meaning the average Federation citizen has nearly seen their standard of living rise by nearly fourty-five percent.

We have done this while maintaining a tax rate of historically low levels. The government plans to continue having a special assessment every five years where taxes will be higher for a short period to continue our internal improvements in education, manufacturing and other crucial areas. But we project that we will be able to maintain taxes at a low level for quite some time. Indeed those investments allow the government to keep the tax rate low the majority of the time and improve the quality of life for everyone in the Federation.

At the same time we have not been looking past our needs in the area of defense and exploration. Starfleet has experienced an unprecedented period of growth and revival. Construction rates have and will remain high. If the recent war and events that followed proved anything it is that we cannot afford to be complacent regarding our defensive capabilities.

The recent war saw a great deal of sacrifice on the part of the officers and men of Starfleet. They shed their blood so that we could all remain free. And during my six years in office I have seen nothing to suggest they are not willing to do so again, to the end of their ability to resist.

However this does place one burden back on our government. When one makes a choice, as a free person, to place their life at risk to secure the ideals of a society for others there comes to exist a sacred compact between that person and the people they seek to defend. They agree to possibly give up their life in the line of duty and at the very least our end of the compact as a government and as a people is to see that those who do so are equipped in the best manner possible so that our sons and daughters are given the greatest chance to return home to their loved ones as we can afford them.

It is no secret that during our long period of complacency we have not always lived up to our end of the arrangement. Starfleet suffered a staggering fifty-eight percent loss rate among smaller ships during the recent war primarily because those ships were largely outdated.

It is not our wish to enter into any form of armed conflict. However if such a situation is forced upon us this administration pledges that it will ensure that those who take great personal risk in defending the Federation are given the proper tools to do so.

At the same time we will not ignore the other core mission of Starfleet, which is to remain on the cutting edge of exploration and science. You have already seen step one of this commitment, which is the appointment of a new head of exploration with Starfleet. In the six years of this administration we have effectively doubled the number of ships dedicated to exploration. We expect to continue growing this vital field well into the future.

We can do these things without compromising our values or our internal growth. We can do these things without heavily taxing our people. We can do these things without losing sight of who we are. We can do these things and with your help we will do these things and secure a future for ourselves and our children and indeed our children's children.

Thank you all for your time.

[BigJKU316]

The Federation wishes to announce that despite a round of talks that were sometimes productive we were unable to reach an agreement with the Romulan Star Empire that satisfies our security concerns at this time. We look forward to another round of hopefully more productive talks in the future, but for the moment our mutual border will remain closed.

[Griffin]

Since the Romulans have not reached an agreement that satisfies the Federation's security concerns, and our own similar concerns, the Klingon-Romulan border is now closed to all traffic and will be until these concerns have been alleviated.

[stitch626]

Forgive us for sticking our nose into the matter, but as it involves trade with a relatively major power, we are concerned.

What exactly did you expect?

[BigJKU316]

Forgive us for sticking our nose into the matter, but as it involves trade with a relatively major power, we are concerned.

What exactly did you expect?

As a starting point when a power has just attempted to commit genocide against Federation citizens we would not expect them to equate that to the actions of a small group of Federation officers pursuing a cloaking device, all of whom were then court marshaled and removed from service. While we can come to agreement on many technical points the overall theme of the negotiations with the Romulan government was that no one there was responsible for the attempted genocide. No one there knew anything about our was responsible for the attempted invasion of Vulcan. No one there was responsible for the intervention in the Klingon Civil War that cost thousands of lives.

The refrain that it was the Tal Shiar or that it was corrupt members of the Senate or the military is simply not an acceptable stance and does not create a sufficient environment of trust to allow the Federation to sign a treaty that in the end is only as useful as the other party is trustworthy.

If it is indeed the case that the Romulan Star Empire was unable to control its various agents then after time they can show what control they do have, and a formal treaty of relations could then be possible.

[Mark]

THE ASSEMBLY IS UNPREPAIRED FOR THE HYPOCRACY OF THE FEDERATION. WAS THE WHOLE OF STARFLEET AND YOUR FEDERATION COUNCIL PUNISHED FOR ATTEMPTING FOR FORCEABLY STEAL A PLANET FROM ITS INHABITANTS? IT IS OUR UNDERSTANDING THAT ROMULAN FORCES ASSISTED YOURS IN THE BATTLE TO STOP SAID WEAPON AND RENDERED COMFORT, AID, AND HUMANITARION ASSISTANCE TO THE CREW OF ONE OF YOUR STARSHIPS.