Official News page 3

TOTE THAT PLANET, HAUL THAT WORLD

by Hazed

You may have noticed that over the past month, Aringerdroid has been posting messages on the board warning his population, as well as those who have built property on the planet, that it is going to be moved to another star system. You may also have noticed that for the last few days, despite being a lowly Founder, the droid had two planets in his star system Sports, Candlepin being joined by Baseball, and both of them at agri level. Finally, the observant may have spotted that as of today, he's back to one planet again, because Candlepin has vanished, leaving Baseball as the sole world in the system.

In a few days, you will see the temporarily missing Candlepin appear again, this time as the second planet in Mogul Aringer's Bowling system.

This whole process is a massive undertaking for Slarti and his dedicated team of removaldroids, for which he has charged a great deal, the payment taking the form of both groats and slithy toves. It is not a service he intends to offer as standard, but rather it's a special one-off project he agreed to do because the challenge piqued his interest.

The operation is a very complex one. Moving a whole planet to another star system is not as easy as you would think; the standard interstellar link that most star systems have is not large enough to accommodate something as massive as a whole planet. The exception is the one in the Solar System, which is what the planet designer uses to get his newly-built or modified planets out to their home systems. (The size requirement is on the entrance link, not the exit link.) Slarti and his team therefore have had to fit special equipment to the surface of the planet Candlepin so the planet can generate its own hyperspace field, rather than relying on the system's link. In the process, the planet will experience a great deal of turbulence and disruption, and any factories, depots and warehouses that remained on the planet when the move started will be destroyed before it takes up its new position. The whole economy of the planet is going to be disrupted and so when it appears in Bowling, who knows what it is going to produce and consume?

Slarti is hoping that his team can complete the project on time and within budget, and that his heroic efforts will bring him the kind of prestige and accolades from the industry as did his early work on fjords.

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