Check back soon...

“This is Mart Martizon for SNN cosmo-casting live from the Citadel Praetorium at Newlon City, Amazia. We end the year 2035 at a new location. Our board of directors decided it was a cost saving adventure to move from the STN Tower and take up residency in the SSG Citadel Tower. The overall reasoning behind this was as I stated a credit saving one plus a security factor by all concerned. It seemed during the previous year we have received threatening warnings from various fringe terrorist groups condemning our news broadcasts. It seems when you report the truth it irritates those who like to lie and give false facts to support their own priorities. I honestly feel we are doing our job if we stir the cosmic stew a little.”

“To close the year we have Kisco Ersean in the news room reporting live on the wealthiest men and woman and aliens in the Amazian Empire to-date, Kisco?”

“Thank you Martizon. This is Kisco Ersean with a new census of our richest citizens, including those who became citizens from beyond our boarders. This census was taken by the Imperial Treasury Ministry and made public, based upon accumulated bank wealth and the Cosmic Bond Market affiliates. This census goes beyond fixed assets and entails liquid assets that can be converted into credits by their holding institutes. Plus, total issued stocks and bonds dealing with various multiple consortiums and subsidiary holdings. Considering the vast amount of diversions in the world of high finances, this census has tried to pin down real wealth and not a hard copy statement based upon collected fees and inflationary percentages. The Treasury census has tried to gauge real solid wealth with our standard Retallite and the Credit standard based upon Silentium.”

“So, without anymore financial jargon, I present to you the six richest people in the Amazian Empire.”

“For our first we look at J. W. Wackon, Jarvus Winsalauss Wackon, Amazia’s wealthiest financier to date. Born in 1946 U.C., in a small mountain town of the Senimar Mountains, Jarvus followed his father in the family loan and banking business. He became an Assay Ventures, one who prices valuable metals and gems, and opened a mineral branch to his father’s bank. Jarvus took over the family business after his father retired and opened branch offices in other remote mountain ranges all over Amazia.”

“’If you can walk, you can work’, was one of his favorite sayings. Jarvus issued loans to the low income people expecting to get a good return, and according to banking lore, he always made a profit. If it wasn’t in return on his credits, it was property and physical assets. Expanding his business as a Venture Capitalist, he helped finance some major Amazian corporations including Reton Rockets.”

“To show his appreciation of Emperor Zaterite’s pro-business administration he bought Mount Bacttor in 1989, an extinct volcano and carved the Amazian Statue of Arathon. Around its base he built hotels, spas and recreation centers, drawing thousands of visitors every year. ‘Beware of the ones who laugh and giggle when the boss is around. It is they who do the least amount of work’, was another one of his witty sayings.”

“Jarvus died of over indulging himself in 2028 U.C. but during his sixty years of phenomenal financial success, no one as of yet has come close to the wealth he accumulated. We estimate his total net worth at his death of over 800 trillion credits in solid currency alone, and that doesn’t include what he gave away to charities.”

“The second richest individual is C. Evenson, Cosma Evenson of the Metronomic Corporation. ‘Your worst customers are your best teachers’, chiseled on his tomb, Cosma was born on Amzia in 1951 at the ancient city of Comon, Idon continent. Cosma claimed on his death bed in 2015 he made his first Retallite by selling water-downed lemonade to the athletic guys leaving the gymn after school. A student of salesmanship, Cosma graduated second in his college courses and married early to Marta Valulon, daughter to the supermarket magnet Valulon Stores. The marriage ended two years later leaving Cosma holding the majority of the store’s stocks.”

“’The person you kick in the ass today you may be kissing tomorrow’, another one of his sayings, but this one was true. Marta’s father came after him with a legal vengeance and almost wrecked his aspiring career. A hefty pay off and secret bribe to a jury ended the threat. Cosma returned to retail bigger than life. He used his shopping magazines and catalogues to ruin Valulon’s stores driving them under. When the stock fell he bought up the entire company restructuring it into a vast department store chain called Eclledium & Suns. His specialty was to have talented tradesmen as sales personnel who gave the right advice to customers. His stores became centers of information to buyers who didn’t really know what they were buying. Some stores even recommended the competition had a better product.”

“Cosma’s fame in the retail trade even extended off world where he set up colonies financing their needs with his own products. This opened new avenues of profits and expansion. In the end Cosma worked himself to death and his estimate net worth was 740 Trillion credits on the retail exchanges.”

“Our third candidate is Con Pontrifon, whose real name is Kona Pontraffassus. She is a Unapiterian immigrant, whose family settled at Batter City sometimes after the Revolt. Born in 1932, she was famous for ‘we honor the dead by recalling and practicing their good deeds, and improving on their mistakes’. Her parents were funeral adherents and catered to the many different traditions of the Amazians. Con had a talent for organization but whatever she applied her self to, failed. She refused to be stuck in a funeral parlor and sought many different jobs.”

“Her break came one evening while playing Pit Duddi with some wealthy friends. She won the hand but the main player could not cover his losses and signed over to her his only possession. This was a wrecked Dreadnaught of the Hindonborg Class from the last Alto-Amazian War. It seems the stakes were high and her competitor, who had purchased the wreck with the intensions of restoring it for a traveling circus from planet to planet, but discovered the cost was too much.”

“Con took her friends to the orbital junk yard and saw what she had won. Her friends thought she was crazy, it had more value as scrap than a money maker, but Con had an idea. She got it space worthy, hired a simple crew and took it out to collect asteroids. She knew asteroids had great mineral wealth and began collecting them by the hundreds. The vast holds of the ship soon held big and small ones. Finding a processing center on a dead moon began extracting a fortune of rare metals and exotic minerals. Within five years she was enormously wealthy and expanded her company with another ship and other solar system. She pioneered the space age metal Funneminum smelting facilities on Mercury and other dead worlds close to stars where the heat and cosmic rays broke down the ore into the base metal.”

“’Always absorbed things and you’ll never lose knowledge’, was one of her favorite sayings. Con married a financier from Tijan, Alpha Centauries, and built a great mansion outside of Batter City. She established the Pontrifon Foundation of the Arts and built libraries, museums and theaters in most of the major cities on Amazia. The elegant and famous Opera Casa Saturno theater in Newlon City is the most famous. Her death in 2008, the people of Batter City gave her coffin a candle light parade of twenty thousand. Her net worth at her death is estimated at 642 Trillion credits.”

“The fourth wealthy person is T. H. Krydon, Thumas Hidro Krydon, the founder of Amazia’s largest corporation, Reton Rockets. Noted for ‘life is choice’, a saying that was etched in Silentium on his tomb, Thumas was a brilliant inventor. At school he was more interested in taking things apart than learning his lessons. At the age of fifteen he built a digital printing press using electronic algorithms than punched tape. Born into wealth, his family owned a vast fishing fleet on Amazia, from the town of Zom City, in 1976 U.C. He hated the family business, calling it ‘to fishy for my intestines’ and went off world to find his fortune.”

Thumas went to Titan, Amazia’s largest moon, took one foot out and found it to be a water world, and got back into the shuttle returning to Amazia. But he was recruited by a group of wealthy technocrats who found a research and development lab near Missile City. Here Thumas applied his digital inventions to communications and pioneered the Cosmic Wave Buoy, which is used today linking the Imperium. Seeing the need for better domestic transports for the common people developed a low cost Zo Car, replacing the clumsy and expensive models on the market.”

“Reton Rockets became a billion credit making company over night. He pioneered three types of Zo cars, a silorian-ground vehicle, a flying low atmospheric car and a deluxe model that can go off world to the Amazian moons. Competitors stole his designs and he began to lose market value. Thumas expanded his horizons further into domestic commodities of electronics. Computers, televisors and household music centers, Reton Rockets expanded into the military developing the Bozark Missile for the fighter crafts of the Zaterian Wars.”

“Kind of eccentric and difficult as he got older, it is said Thumas would play tricks on his fellow board members. As he got older these tricks became sadistic and dangerous. He was forced into retirement by his wife and three children before he really hurt others. Thumas is still with us, living in seclusion in a subterranean cave turned into a palace some where’s on Amazia today. His estimated net worth is 630 Trillion credits.”

“Our next entrepreneur is H. Pactin, Havalard Pactin, born in 1919 at the sleepy seaside town of Atomy on the Sudon Island. His favorite saying was ‘A man is not himself until he jumps into action’. Havalard was not your normal kid, he ran away from home at sixteen and became a cabin boy on a cargo ship. To make money he started a small casino on the lower deck, and when the captain won a big amount charged him to turn the ward room into a gambling den. Where ever the ‘Morning Ring’ made port gambling was offered to the locals. Havalard, with some financial backers, purchased a bigger ship, an old luxury liner and turned it into a floating casino. “

“Soon Havalard had a small flotilla of cruise gambling ships churning the seas of Amazia. His real chance came when the Mayor of Newlon City invited him to setup a casino in town at an old hotel. He went one further, and built the luxury Presidential next to Belvadear AJS Port. Every dignitary and upper crust citizen arriving on Amazia ended up staying in his hotel casino for a few days before going to see the Emperor at the Capital Area. This turned out to be a cash cow and Havalard sold his ships and invested in land based casinos. At this time there were no strict laws for gambling houses on the books, as long as things were honest, a gentlemen’s agreement existed. But crime and dishonesty seeped in and by the time such legislation was proposed Havalard had a casino complex in every major city on Amazia. Certain factions in the government bureaucracy, who were not receiving payoffs, stifled his growth by limiting the number of casino hotels he could own.”

“Havalard did one better, he expanded his operations off world. He sent professional gambles with legal educations to the major planets in the Regents. They studied the culture, the people’s habits, and tailored special casino games for each unique society. Within twenty years every major planet in the Regents had a casino owned by Havalard. But, he surpassed the Lizyonites in their own game. Attached to his casino’s was an investment bank that gave out reasonable loans to the local people. Not only was he raking in credits from his hotel casino complexes but his banks made a fortune in starting up new business.”

“When Havalard died in 2027, he had a big smile on his face and was reported saying, ‘I did it all and I’m glade.’. His net worth totaled over 600 Trillion credits in hard currency.”

“Our final person on my financial hit parade is J. M. Kidscon, Jurmar Mathusala Kidscon, born in a latrine in 1949 when his parents ran from a terrible wind storm that destroyed the town of Si Yill. They moved to Zeetor City and set up a medical practice. Jurmar, after graduating went to medical school where he and some pre-med students started a company making arterial implants in a local garage. Their business took off as doctors replacing damaged arteries bought their products. Finding this career limited Jurmar went off, and with some different investors, started a business making medical instruments for hospitals.”

“He found this profession too much salesmanship and not enough creativity. Once a profit was made he sold the business and wandered about southern Amazia. At a flea market he met a lady who was selling herbal spices based upon the surviving medical texts of the ancient Norumians. Jurmar made her an offer she could not refuse and both established Kromatica Pharmaceuticals. Jurmar at first grew and sold natural herbs, then in a wild move, partnered with other doctors, leaving Lady Kromatia in the dust, and changed the natural formulas. He combined the natural herbs with chemical drugs to reduce the bad side effects.”

“Kromatica became an instant success overnight as pharmacies and hospitals bought their drugs and cure-all products. He went off world with his schemes for greater longevity promising good health, free from the aches and pains of old age. Totally controlling the market Jurmar and his partners even offered special free rates to developing worlds, but they had a bad reputation. Some of his partners used alien races as experimental subjects to test genetic enhancing drugs. Their nasty policies ended when the planet Organia III became public knowledge as the people degenerated into mutations.”

“After the legal trials ended and most of Jurmar’s partners ended up in jail, only he survived the class-action suites. When J. W. Wackon carved out Mt. Bactton’s monument, he built the Statue of Amazian Greatness on Mt. Ziminion in 1999. The gigantic sphere with a sustained Ring was the first use of the new science called Gravimetric, anti-gravity fields held it up from toppling over. Afterwards, Jurmar slowly withdrew from running his many businesses and lived out his life as a playboy and degenerated into an eccentric. He died in 2031, with this carved on his tomb, ‘Don’t leave anything undone when you can do it all now!’, his net worth is 552 Trillion.”

“That’s quite a listing of wealth, Kisco.”

“It’s what our culture has created, Martizon. Granted, some of these mega-barons are long since gone but their influence and wealth still remains unchallenged. I am convinced in the near future, as Amazian society continues to grow and new technologies offer greater incentives to entrepreneurs, the net wealth of my six will be a shadow.”

“I sympathize with you, nothing is permanent the way things are going. Any more too comment on?”

“I have blown my tongue, this is Kisco Ersean reporting.”

“Looking at the accumulation of such wealth humbles me in comparison to my annual salary. The gross national product of many worlds doesn’t even come close to what those fellows have amassed. So, lets go to a more understandable topic on Amazian Citizenship and some new laws the Senitium is passing. Reporting on this is Sable Generion.”

“Sable Generion reporting live from our newly painted press room, and with this new location I have become reminded of how precious our citizen rights are. Such Rights are taken for granted by the vast majority of our people. School children are asked what is it to be a Amazian Citizen. Most can’t answer, most just turn away embarrassed. To shame on the parents who have raised those children in negligence. My commentary will answer all their questions.”

“It began on a long torturous road in the 1610’s when at a drunken party the Unapiternian Celestial Monarch Barters charged his minister of learning, Ambashkon to make a document legal and binding to protect all the Unapiterians. After vomiting, the brilliantine of Barter’s University went to work. From this the Declaration of Universal rights, was made. But it only included legal protection for humanoids and not alien thinking species. Because the high Magnate only considered themselves the enlightened ones, all other thinking entities were mere gutter insects.”

“Then, with the impending Amazian revolt and expansion of colonial society the Shuton of Amazia, Adostine, defies the King of all kings and passes the Amazian Code, a greater version of the one from 1610, in 1709. This allows Amazians to travel to the moons and other worlds to do business, plus stronger liberty rights in a court of law. Now we fast forward to the awakening of modernism when in 1840, after a bloody revolt for freedom, the man who would be our first Emperor commissions a nicotine smoking alcoholic degenerate professor Jammerson to compose a constitution that fits all for a new government. This Jammerson Special, as it was called, was the Tyocratic Document that created the Union Amazian Republica. Incorporated was the Dectum Phessium, our own Bill of Rights.”

“This cemented our heritage as a people and did more to galvanize our mastery of the universe than all the wars and legislation since. Not only does it apply to humanoids of the Triple C Group but aliens from all different environments. It creates a set of legal standards that stamps one as an Amazian citizen with special rights and privileges no one can take away. Others tried to corrupt the process in those early times, such as the Lizyonite Shift; a devious group who offered a package of Amazian legal statutes for entire world populations, at a price, but did not hold up in court. Then there was the Miyrant Dodge, a liberal company of humanoids and aliens who offered Amazian citizen courses, who promised a certificate signed by the Emperor, but never delivered, for a price. The scams and illegal fronts made life horrible for those who fell into a trap seeking an easy way to be a citizen.”

“Under the first Emperor the Ackard Police sought out the tricksters and brought reason to the process of gaining citizenship. This policy cemented the new nation so it can have social security and advance into the future. Under the tyrant Zaterite all that began to change as he sought ways to subvert the law and do what his priorities demanded. Civius Proctor and other legal luminaries of that time fought him and were killed by him. By the time of the 2033’s citizen rights were in chaos. It was not until the third Emperor, our current reigning leader, that all was fixed by the Great Code of Dwitinton. All the abuses stopped and a golden age now dawned for the common folks of the Republica.”

“The Great Code applies to all worlds with slight variations depending on their culture and environment. But here is what is guaranteed under the Law. Many people become citizens by joining the military and going through a comprehensive course. Others seek legal means at a Citizenship Training Center which is located in your municipal hall. At one time citizenship is acquired if your world was conquered by the Amazian Army, that has been changed. A child born to parents who are not citizens is not a citizen, he or she or it must take the course and the exam. The examine teaches Imperial history, learning the Amazian language, and various questions on morals, ethnics and patriotic sympathies. A qualified magistrate does a background check on the person or family, if all is okay another is taken, kissing of the Amazian flag ceremony and a certificate issued with your ID Number for benefit and tax purposes. In some cultures a trial period of two years is required. Any major infraction of the law will result in a hearing and suspension of citizenship.”

“So, what does it mean to be an Amazian citizen? As a citizen you can run and hold any political office, you have the right to vote in all elections, you are guaranteed legal representation free of cost, you can even appeal to the Emperor for final judgment, you have the benefit of Republican Insurance, you pay a smaller tax rate, you can travel within or without the Imperium without visas or a license, in a foreign country you are protected, your artistic achievements are protected by citizen copyright laws, you have the right of public opinion, of free speech, of freedom of worship, freedom to buy and own property, no police or law enforcement organization can come into your home without a search warrant, freedom to own and operate a business, freedom to work full time or part time, the list goes on.”

“What is starting to happen is the eroding of these rights. There is a powerful lobby of foreign interest groups starting too chip away at these basic freedoms. They want a greater share but without working or earning it. They want to setup companies and hire only their own kind, they want equal representation in a court, they want their children born in the Imperium to be automatic citizens without the exam, they want to buy and own property without paying taxes, they want public signs made in their own langrage, they want to run for public office without fulfilling the educational requirements, these are just a few of their demands. In the wake of these assaults my advice is to address your representatives shouting out a resounding ‘NO!’ to halt this corruption. The Amazian Imperium is only for the Amazians.”

“A very good line, Sable.”

“Yes it is, M.M., we are under assault and no one knows it. I am a watcher crying out in the swamp and hoping you listened well.”

“I thought you would approve of these changes, Sable?”

“I’m normally a liberal, M.M., but to much liberalism leads to chaos and a breakdown of security. In this instant I’m hoisting the conservative banner, this is Sable Generion reporting from the STN news desk.”

“I learn something new everyday on this job. Our final report is about something new, but of a terrible disaster. Reporting live from Belvadear AJS Port is Heva Sidlemon.”

“They are the largest space liners yet built, and the most accommodating for trans stellar travel. This is Heva Sidlemon at the tarmac of Belvadear Air, Jet and Space Port outside of Newlon City. As you can see the wreckage covers a vast area. Twisted metal, gaping airframes, bodies by the hundreds dead on the tarmac, emergency vehicles by the dozens speeding about, Tri-R’s descending from on high, a great smoldering carcass torn and broken, a disaster of paramount catastrophe strewed before your eyes.”

“The first of the TUSL, or Trans Universal Space Liners, making the voyage from the Corsight Nebula in Byspica Regent, over 210,000 light years away in the First Forsex, with a passenger compliment of five thousand, came close to a successful run. Promises made by the Saturnian Space Syndicate to the new administration to link the Imperium with domestic flights came to a crashing end a few hours ago. The inhumanity of it all, all those lives lost when the giant bird met it’s demise. According to the last report of the master pilot the aerodynamics of the ship failed to work, some type of computer malfunction, brought down the thirty billion credit ship.”

“With the advent of prosperity and security, mass domestic transport became a reality when the Saturnian Space Syndicate rolled out their new interstellar ships. The TUSL and the smaller PULTA, Planetary Universal Liner Trans-Alton, part of a grand strategy too link up the Imperium with domestic needs. Boasting a passenger compliment of two thousand, they make the long journey between the planets an easy one. But the giant TUSL’s are the real landmark of Amazian technology. These behemoths are a partnership with Reton Rockets, for passenger and cargo profits bridging the immense distances beyond the galaxies.”

“They are a new introduction to seize some of the commercial profits from the Andromedian corporation Flexta, who until recently, had a monopoly on intergalactic travel. Let no one say the Amazian’s are late comers to a Universe that is growing smaller each year. This disaster, as terrible as it is, will not soften our spirit to excel in all things.”

“Heva, will this horrible incident push our efforts into the backyard?”

“Definitely not Marts, not by a long shot, forty TUSLs and two hundred PULTAs are already in service with more to be made. The company representative assures the public this computer glitch has already been corrected and the giant birds can land and lift-off from any planetary surface.”

“I look forward to traveling in one soon. Anything else too report?”

“There will be an investigation but neither side see’s no legal complications. This is Heva Sidlemon, out.”

“Speaking of no complications, we have seen the year come to a close with good things and not so good things. Perhaps better news will come our way in our new location and studios for 2036. All of us at the cosmic news desk eagerly awaits the coming days to bring you the most accurate reporting in the Imperium. This is Marts Martizon saying and that is it, for 2035.”