In 3053, the leaders of the Terran Trade Council decided to adopt a policy of aggressive exploration of the Frontier star systems near the Council-Kopru Disputed Zone. This policy was developed with three primary aims. First, to locate, catalog and study planetary systems that might offer promise for future colonization/exploitation. Second, to discover and report any evidence of Kopru occupation and/or exploration of Frontier star systems in near-Council space beyond the Kopru Occupation Zone. Third, to create military outposts on hospitable but otherwise uninhabited Frontier planets on the rear flank of the Kopru Occupation Zone as staging bases for raids against Kopru logistical supply lines. To this end, the Terran Trade Council chartered the creation of the Planetary Survey Administration.
Because of its dual nature as both a scientific research organization and a military organization, the PSA falls under the umbrella of both the civilian and military branches of the government, and because of the necessarily covert nature of its explorations, it also falls under the aegis of the TTC intelligence community. As such, the PSA is directed by a committee of nine councilmen, three from each branch of the TTC government, one of whom is appointed to the post of Executive Director. This post is currently held by Hauptmann General Robert E. Otto of the Terran Defense Authority, a thirty year veteran of the TDA military. Beneath the Administration Council, the PSA is divided into three branches: Research & Development, Analysis, and Operations. The R&D Division is responsible for developing and implementing the technologies required for interstellar exploration, as well reviewing, verifying and reporting on the data received from the survey missions. The Analysis Division is responsible for compiling and collating the immense amount of data received from the survey missions. The Operations Division is responsible for the survey missions themselves, from staffing them to supplying them.
The Survey Missions themselves are semi-autonomous. The leaders of the missions are given broad discretionary powers to carry out the objectives of the Planetary Survey Administration. Because of the difficulty of remaining in communication with the survey missions, the team leaders are expected to make judgements on the suitability of planetary bodies for military exploitation, and to react to encounters with the Kopru as they deem appropriate (from assault to raid to retreat).
The first official act of the Terran Trade Council Planetary Survey Administration in 3053 was to commission the design and construction of a new class of DropShip, the SurveyShip, by Bowan Industries of Nessus, as well as specialized (and often roboticized) survey equipment from the New Terra Merchant's Guild. The PSA also used its political and military weight to commandeer half a dozen Merchant-class JumpShips from the Terran Defense Authority. As the SurveyShip designs and testing were being done, the PSA began quietly recruiting volunteers for the survey missions, culling through an enormous database of required skills and qualified candidates. By mid-3057, the SurveyShips were delivered from Bowan Industries, and the survey teams had been chosen. The PSA then went shopping for mercenaries willing to provide security escort for the mission into uncharted, unexplored territory, to engage the Kopru if necessary, and to establish a military staging base beyond the Terran Sphere for the purpose of launching raids against Kopru logistical assets. Needless to say, the PSA did not find many takers. Then, in November of 3057, they found the Grim Reapers Company. Formerly a battalion strength unit under an objective raids contract to the Terran Defense Authority, the Grim Reapers had been badly mauled in action against the Kopru on Geyser. Having returned from Geyser with over 80% of their unit destroyed and their commanding officers killed, the Reapers, under the new command of Hauptmann Mikhail Lakolski, a former Terran Defense Authority recipient of the Council Medal of Honor, had rebuilt themselves into a new mercenary company, based on the survivors of the old unit. Eager for cash to pay the debts incurred by this resurrection, the Grim Reapers quickly signed a contract with the PSA, and the inaugural Clinton Maxwell Survey Mission was quietly launched from Alula Australis in January of 3058.
The Clinton Maxwell survey mission was launched in 3058 and consists of 84 personnel, one Merchant-class jumpship, one Union-class dropship, one battlearmor company, and the Clinton Maxwell surveyship itself. It was assigned to a survey mission in the Frontier region beyond the Alula Australis and Cartago systems. During its one year tour, the Maxwell was to chart star routes, investigate unexplored planets, and, if circumstances permitted, to establish a military staging base for the purpose of launching raids against Kopru logistical assets behind the front lines.
After jumping from the Alula Australis system in January, the Clinton Maxwell mission entered star system AC+23 468-46, some 4.4 light years from Alula Australis. The system, consisting of a M2.5V star, was intriguing enough for a study of the star system's unusual gravimetric fields. Although two planetary bodies were observed in orbits around the star, closer inspection of the worlds revealed that they were entirely inhospitable to life. After a brief stay to collect astrophysical data, the Maxwell mission jumped 6.5 light years from AC+23 468-46 to BD+20 2465 (also known as AD Leonis), a M3Ve-class star system with a Brown Dwarf companion, eight planetary bodies and an extensive asteroid field. Due to the asteroid field's position within the so-called "life zone" of the system, it was decided that a survey of some of the larger planetoids might prove fruitful, as some were large enough to support some kind of atmosphere. Additionally, two of the system's planets were within the boundaries of the "life zone," and therefore deemed worthy of closer attention. Neither planet proved habitable, however, nor did any of the planetoids, despite a time consuming and often nervewracking exploration of the asteroid belt. Geological studies of several of the planetoids did reveal the likelihood of large precious metal deposits, however, and were recommended as likely candidates for future mining expeditions. After completing its survey of the system, the Clinton Maxwell then jumped from BD+20 2465, intending to journey to G 12-30, another M5Ve star system, its next scheduled destination, 10.9 light years distant.
However, the gravitational field of a previously unknown McClure Nexus (a black hole with atypical gravitational patterns) pulled the TTCS Journeyman from phasespace at the Nexus' proximity point. Without a source of solar energy from which to recharge the Rankin-Stirling PionPhase drive energy capacitors, the crew of the survey mission was forced to spend three weeks in the vicinity of the McClure Nexus feeding power from the engines of the Grim Reapers' dropship into the Rankin-Stirling PionPhase drive. During this time, the Clinton Maxwell made a number of brief and unenlightening approaches to the McClure Nexus, collecting astrophysical data on the unusual gravitational patterns which make such a phenomenon a hazard to interstellar travel and launching a remote survey probe into the Nexus.
Their Rankin-Stirling PionPhase drive capacitors finally recharged, the Maxwell mission then completed its jump to the G 12-30 star system. Aside from one Jupiter-mass object in a tight, tidally-locked orbit about this weak star, the Maxwell Survey Mission discovered nothing else of interest in this system.
The Clinton Maxwell mission then made a jump to its next scheduled destination, HD 109358, also known as Chara, a G0V star system 13.9554 light-years from G 12-30. Arrival in the vicinity of HD 109358 on March 20, 3058 was confirmed by a PhasePulse transmission from the TTCS Journeyman received at the Alula Australis PhasePulse Relay Station on March 29, 3058.
Further details of the Clinton Maxwell team's survey of the HD 109358 system are still forthcoming, and represent the bulk of the information contained within this report, which will be updated as often as new information can be received.
Information transmitted from the survey mission is being received at the Alula Australis Phasepulse Relay Station via coded submeson polytachyon bundle transmissions and is being relayed by coded Phasepulse transmission to the Planetary Survey Administration's headquarters on Mendelin, where it is being compiled, collated, and analyzed.
For further information on the HD 109358 system, refer to the Planetary Survey Logs.
Also available are the Combat Mission Reports of the Grim Reapers Battlearmor Company, with a full strategic assessment of the current situation on HD 109358.3 (aka Chara 3).
Complete files on Survey Mission Personnel and Equipment may also be referenced. This information is made available to authorized Omega Clearance personnel only on a need-to-know basis, by Order of the Quintad of the Terran Trade Council. All other access to this information is restricted, and any unauthorized attempt to access this information is an act of treason according to Terran Trade Council Law, under the Emergency Measures Acts of 3050 and 3056, Paragragh 6, Subsection 9.
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