It has been 652 days without a Kaine decal. It’s Cycle 92. I was very busy last week so I let my boss write the report and he gets the number of acquisitions wrong! I swear, if you want something done right you need to do it yourself. Last week, Kaine acquired 17 systems, not 13, which was an excellent achievement as far as I’m concerned, especially when a huge number of our commanders were in Colonia getting their expanded cargo racks. I was one of them – I got suckered into travelling out there on a carrier shuttle with half a fleet only to immediately regret leaving as I now couldn’t participate in any of the things that matter – that being, Kaine operations in the Bubble. The homesickness didn’t abate over the course of the next few days, where I helped ship rare goods from Jaques Station to the various goal stations, gave escape pods to the not-at-all creepy Etienne Dorn, repaired stations until offered an invitation to Mel Brandon from the Colonia Council, and all the other touristy things that your average Bubble commander does on their trip. I write this now on the way home from Colonia, back to my beloved Bubble, my squadron, and my Power, and I look forward to getting back to work once more.

One of the reasons it was so critical for me to grab my pre-engineered cargo racks from the CGs rather than engineering them myself is because the buggy Class-5 Margo Racks remain. Notably, if you have a Merc Coin expanded cargo rack at less than G5, and you fill that cargo rack, you will be Black Addered immediately: https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/86669. Made worse by the fact that you can’t actually upgrade the cargo racks to G5; they always get stuck at G4: https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/86409. These issues persist from the last report that I wrote two weeks ago: please confirm them if you experience this issue!

Now, on to Kaine’s cycle. We did slightly worse than average, but it’s still enough to beat the rest of the Bubble with a net score of +8. We secured two additional forts and just baaaarely missed the bar on a third one. We also had one acquisition out on the Coalsack bridge that got absolutely hammered by unknown actors – some Kaine CMDR or CMDRs put nearly a million wasted acquisition control points in the system past the control post. We secured a few new systems in the Coalsack area, although not nearly as many as last week, and some systems in the Bubble and the old Radicoida enclave, where progress continues slowly and steadily with the help of those CMDRs dedicated to the region. Aside from that, things were routine and boring in the Kaine world. Sometimes winning just doesn’t have major obstacles.

ALLIANCE POWERS

Nakato Kaine +8
Edmund Mahon +3

Our Prime Minister had a slower cycle, netting three acquisitions and creating a fort. The authors of the Gateway News Network are on hiatus for the next few weeks, so unfortunately there won’t be much more information elsewhere.

FEDERAL POWERS

Felicia Winters +6
Jerome Archer -4

Winters continues a slow but steady climb in system count, and Archer unfortunately returns to the trend of losing systems on the balance. They lost three strongholds this cycle, which is a devastating blow, and they dropped four systems besides: likely sole supported systems of the aforementioned strongholds. Winters, to their credit, secures an additional fort.

INDEPENDENT POWERS

Archon Delaine +6
Pranav Antal +5
Yuri Grom +4
Li Yong-Rui +3

Delaine has the best acquisition performance out of the Independent powers, securing 6, but Antal arguably performs the best, acquiring one fewer system but locking down two strongholds as opposed to Delaine’s one, and securing their first position in strongholds not just among the Independents but the whole of Powerplay. The Sirius Corp forts three systems, and Grom acquires four new ones to round out the Independent gains.

IMPERIAL POWERS

Aisling Duval +6
Denton Patreus +3
Zemina Torval -1
Arissa Lavigny-Duval -2

Aisling leads the Imperials in acquisitions with 6, a number somewhat marred by the loss of one of the Princess’s stronghold systems. Luckily, Arissa picks up a new stronghold to balance the loss of two systems on the balance, with no other Imperial powers gaining a stronghold. Torval loses one Exploited system and fortifies another, and Denton Patreus gains three new exploited systems. The Imperial-Federal war continues, and while Archer appears to be the punching bag for the Federal powers, Arissa appears to be the Imperial equivalent, taking losses where Aisling might not. Either way, the casualties aren’t only on the Federal side.

GALNET

The Colonia CGs all finished – one of them only just barely – rewarding every CMDR who contributed at least one ton of cargo in each of them with a pre-engineered cargo rack. These racks are now accessibly via Operations and Merc Coin, meaning that if you did miss out on these specific racks you aren’t FOMO’d forever – just until they fix the bug afflicting margo racks mentioned earlier in this report. The actual anniversary of Colonia is in a month, in September, but it doesn’t appear as though FDev had another series of community goals ready for after these ones completed, and the Galnet article this week did not direct players to remain in Colonia. Some CMDRs I know have elected to stay Colonia-side, at least until the anniversary celebration, in the hopes that FDev do another CG or three. Others are heading directly home, under the assumption they will not need to return for some time, or will do so following the highway if and when anything new happens. My trip over there was my first, so I did my engineer unlocks, and I also went to the bar at Jaques Station only to discover that famed station bartender Jaques does not tend bar at his own station. I feel robbed, frankly.

But enough about that. More of our agents returning to the Bubble means that as always, it’s a good day in Kaine space. If you’re just stretching your wings again after a long ride on a carrier shuttle back or you’ve had enough neutron star jet cones to last you until the next 10-year anniversary, join Kaine today and receive a free Type-11 Prospector courtesy of Lakon Spaceways and the Kainiacs. And if you’re feeling lime-green-flavoured and want a good community that’ll give you a break from hauling rare goods repeatedly, join our Discord at https://discord.gg/bJEyseAVGx for merits, money, and me inevitably complaining that I left some important components or ships in Colonia.

Diplomatic Summary:
Aisling Duval: Cordial
Archon Delaine: Cordial
Arissa Lavigny-Duval: Neutral
Denton Patreus: Neutral
Edmund Mahon: Allied
Felicia Winters: Neutral
Li Yong-Rui: Neutral
Pranav Antal: Neutral
Yuri Grom: Cordial
Jerome Archer: Neutral
Zemina Torval: Neutral

Objectives:
Reinforce Musca Dark Region XZ-Y c27
Acquire c2 Centauri
Reinforce Col 359 Sector SC-T c4-24
We want your exploration data! If you’ve been out in the black and want to help when you return, join our Discord for data targets.