10. War Elsewhere: The GoombaStomp and Discovery

15 October 2013

This is INN anchor Bobby Tiberius giving you the up to date news of space and space affairs.

The nearby Cosmos had been calm up until now. The most aggressive of enemies, the Zooks, were now nothing more than mounds of dead on the surface, and the Imperium had been working on recovery of damaged areas throughout the Red Planet. The lack of bacteria on Mars has kept the mounds from decomposing, and many are still throwing out ideas on how to deal with the corpses.

For the military high command, the eyes turn towards the outer solar system. Lately, the forces of Faner have engaged the forces of the Simmdc Soviet Scumbag Republic and Goomba in open combat. Contact with the SSSR on Pluto has been lost for nearly a week, but the Goombas on Titan claim to be holding their own against the attacks. In response to these attacks, the Imperium has declared a pact of defense with the Goombas and the SSSR. Should the forces of Faner continue their assault, the retaliation of the Imperium will be quick and total.

According to High Command, the forces of Bzone Lord have been quiet, and have not made any moves beyond moderate Earth orbit. Grand Admiral HyperFighter has been unavailable for comment, but our sources suggest that the Imperium has them under surveillance.

In other news, students from Olympus Mons University have discovered unknown ruins near the Tartarus Montes region of Mars. Initial reports suggest that the dilapidated buildings likely belonged to the long-dead XANA Empire. An O.M. senior commented, "These old buildings and ships have clearly been abandoned for a time period measured in years. Old maps from our predecessors do tell us that the XANA Empire used to inhabit this area before they were beaten off the planet. While we still have to do configuration checks on the structures and old units, it is likely this kind of infrastructure was of XANA design."

The XANA Empire was one of the inhabitants of the Red Planet that settled shortly before the forces that would later become the Imperium arrived. In a conflict in 2009, the then-called Imperial Army fought XANA off the Red Planet and secured hegemony over Mars.