Sol Bulletin #27

The following is excerpted from issue #27 of the Sol Bulletin, an ad hoc news sheet distributed electronically among survivors of the Battle of Earth in the chaotic period following the firing of the Crucible. Issue #27 was released twenty nine days after the Crucible fired.

Arcturus Command Reports Contact With Eden Prime Colony

Today Admiral Quwil of Arcturus Command sent word that elements of the advance force sent through the Arcturus-2 relay to the Exodus Cluster have successfully activated the Exodus relay and returned to Arcturus. Even more significantly, they report successful contact with the human colony of Eden Prime. For the first time since the Crucible fired, the Sol system is connected with another inhabited world.

The news was a welcome relief to sentients across Sol. Many ships were run by skeleton crews as impromptu inter-ship celebrations were announced on ships large enough to host them, and traffic to the Terminus fleets ships that have been serving as space-bound pleasure destinations rose dramatically. The milestone is more than symbolic. Eden Prime has an extensive agricultural base, and while some fighting took place during the war, infrastructure is largely intact. Eden Prime will probably be able to supply all levo-amino sentients in the various fleets with food for the foreseeable future.

Even while the celebrations continued, many fleets announced plans to relocate the bulk of their forces to either Arcturus or the Exodus Cluster, including the Asari, Salarians, and the ships of the Terminus Fleet. The tense political situation in Sol that likely accounts for these hasty re-deployments was reflected in a noted lack of jubilation among officials of the Earth-based governments. A spokeswoman for the Chinese People's Federation seem to captured the mood when she characterized the reconnection with Eden Prime as "good news for aliens" - the implication being, perhaps, that only bad news for non-humans would be viewed as good news on Earth in the current political climate. 

The Inter-species Summit did not meet today, for the first time since it was first called to order. Officials on both sides of the Earth/space divide seem relieved that the galaxy has suddenly gotten bigger again.