[Alliance]Convoy Departs Benning for Elysium

[Alliance]Convoy Departs Benning for Elysium

by Meng Chao, Alliance News Network

BENNING-Hundreds gathered to bid farewell to the one of the largest non-corporate interstellar convoys seen in Alliance space since the Reaper Crisis. Today, a convoy containing over eighteen naval and civilian vessels - and also bearing along the Sixteenth Frontier Regiment - departed from Joughin Spaceport for the isolated colony of Elysium. Once a tourist hotspot and a trade hub, the destruction of its Relay has left the colony cut off except for military QEC and relief convoys. the colony suffered large casualties during the Reaper War and extensive damage to its infrastructure, with large sections of the capital of Illyria reduced to rubble.

Taskforce 453, under the command of Captain Alistair Farelli of the SSV Marie Curie, aims to change that. During the taskforce's 'slowboat' journey, an Ivanova Industries construction vessel will build refuel station and comm buoys along its route in order to re-establish contact with Elysium.

Many have welcomed the choice of the Alliance to use Benning as its staging point for the taskforce. The planet's previously booming economy has taken a major hit after the destruction of Arcturus Station. The convoy, which includes a seven hundred metre industrial vessel carrying dozens of mining lasers, construction drones and hundreds of fabricators, has caused a large upturn in the aerospace sector.

In addition to opening a slowboat route to the colony, the Sixteenth Regiment and four warships will be stationed at the planet, first signs of an expected military build-up in the area. The Marines will relieve the decimated Elysium garrison and assist in rebuilding settlements while the civilian construction ships and industrial vessels reconstruct orbital defences and facilities. The naval vessels are expected to be the first of a flotilla that will be permanently stationed in the system.

Military analyst Donald Davis observed, "Previous defence doctrine is no longer feasible in the post-war galaxy. If Elysium is attacked, garrison forces must be sufficient to drive off attackers, rather than relying on reinforcements that are weeks away. This move shows that the government is willing to build a sustainable defence network that protects all planets of the Alliance, rather than relying on the hardpoints at Earth and Arcturus."

In addition to military personnel and requested supplies, the convoy is carrying thousands of recorded vid messages from those with family and friends on the colony, many of whom haven't seen their loved ones since before the war, corporate representatives, reporters and consultants to advocate to the military government for the non-human minorities on the planet.

And much applause ensued.


Watch them arrive at Elysium in time for the relay to open.

Right, because it's only going to take a month to rebuild Elysium's Relay.

Is the Elysian Relay even being rebuilt?

With the reapers, who the fuck knows.

...Oh thank Christ, something that doesn't give me an aneurysm when I try to read it.


And there we are.

Also, to answer your rhetorical question, given the fact that the region is close enough to the core of C-Space as to be accessible via slowboat FTL within a reasonable frame of time and there are a great many other systems which are not I think we can safely say with relative certainty that reconstruction of the Elysium relay isn't particularly high on their list of priorities.

And even if that were not the case, the decision to mount an expedition independent of whatever the godsquid are doing is a sound one, particularly when it is, as I said, well within our existing capabilities.

I'll have you know I place great stock in the theory of the galaxy having a twisted sense of humor.