Disarmament Conference opens on Joyeuse.

Conference delegates have now arrived from Esperanza, Serendip Belt, Neubayern, New Home and Amondiage. The New Colchis ambassador has been empowered to act as his world’s delegate.

Esperanza

Wishes to discuss biological weapons also. Proposes a treaty which bans nuclear weapons from planetary bombardment, but not from space combat. (Is willing to put up to 40% of ‘Bombardment’ fleet into ordinary.) Is totally behind abolition of Deathstars. States that Esperanza has no need of planet-busters and will be willing to help police those nations that do.

Amondiage

M. Rene Artois stands up and says;

“My government shares the concerns of the Joyeuse government over the planet buster problem. We are currently reviewing the situation to develop a peaceful solution to the disposal of these weapons. I will convey any ideas raised at this meeting back to my Emperor for his consideration.”

He then sits down and says nothing for the remainder of the conference.

Neubayern

The Peoples’ Republic has sent a large party of twelve diplomats.

New Colchis

In what is widely seen as a snub, the New Colchis government has not sent any diplomats to the conference, but the New Colchis Ambassador sits in the New Colchis chair.

Sansterre

Sansterre, like New Colchis has sent no specialised diplomats but is depending on its Ambassador. The Ambassador states that his government has no planet-busters and has no plans to build any. He whole-heartedly deplores those governments that consider such weapons necessary.

Serendip Belt

The delegation deliver their message, which basically says that a) the Serendip Belt government’s ‘X-Bombs’ are not planet-busters, & b) they they will be decommissioned anyway if this conference requests.

New Home

The New Home delegate states that his world has no planet-busters and that his people deplore such weapons. He says that his government will consider any proposals whose aim is the abolition of these devices.

Events

A spokesman from the CDSD gives the following estimated figures for the strengths of the planet-buster fleets of each world:

New Home: none
Amondiage: At least two dozen Loki class planet-busters. (estimated displacement 25000t)
Esperanza: none
Neubayern: Two Apocalypse class planet-busters. (estimated displacement 300000t)
Joyeuse: none
Serendip Belt: at least 60 X-bomb class planet-busters. (estimated displacement 10000t)
New Colchis: an unknown number of Angwidd class ‘Deathships’. Nothing is known about these ships save that they exist in large numbers.
Sansterre: none

The Serendip Belt delegate produces ‘evidence’ that his world only has 45 of the X-bombs, and several world’s spokesmen confirm that this is also their information. He also objects to them being termed ‘planet-busters’ and insist on referring to them as ‘remote sensing drones’. This description is greeted with scepticism from the floor of the conference.

A CDSD campaigner accuses the Serendip Belt government of originating and deliberately disseminating planet-buster technology, in order to destabilise the politics of the clusters. She claims that the Serendip Belt government has calculated that it will win a planet-buster war because of the dispersed nature of its ‘homeworld’. This assertion is roundly rejected by the Serendip Belt delegate who points to his nation’s willingness to decommission these ‘remote sensing drones’ if required to do so.

Another CDSD campaigner says that he doesn’t believe that the Serendip Belt is sincere when it says that it will decommission these weapons.

It is noted by a reporter in a fringe meeting that although the Sansterre government claims not to have planet-busters, its Python class ‘transports’ had many of the features of a planet-buster. He suggests that Sansterre is misleading the public.

It is noted that only four out of the eight major worlds possessed planet-busters, and that perhaps the other worlds could combine militarily to ‘encourage’ the offending worlds to comply with the wishes of the conference. The delegates from Joyeuse, New Home and especially Esperanza welcome this proposal.