UWP: A626464–B

Wiess is a world of little importance, other than its location. It has enough surface water for habitation but its atmosphere is extremely thin and barely breathable, even when compressed. For many years the only habitation was a small settlement maintained as a ‘territorial anchor’ by the Imperium. This changed after the Third Frontier War when an illegal colonisation operation landed tens of thousands of Sword Worlders on-planet. These were dissidents, unhappy with their lot in the Sword Worlds Confederation and requested asylum-en-masse. This was granted and the immigrants were placed under the governance of the tiny Imperial settlement.

Over time, the Sword Worlds immigrant population grew and was joined by a few Imperial settlers. The Spinward Development Corporation (SDC) invested in setting up some industry with the long-term goal of integrating the world’s population into mainstream Imperial culture. SDC also built an extensive starport to foster cross-border trade, although this venture proved to be less than effective.

Local governance proved impossible and the strong traditions of the Sword Worlds resisted cultural assimilation. The answer was to impose direct rule from the subsector capital at Glisten and to expand the Imperial settlement. As a result, the downport and its associated startown are distinctly ‘Imperial’ in culture whilst the surrounding towns have a more ‘Swordie’ feel to them. This has actually worked to the advantage of the local economy, as items made on Weiss prove popular as novelties within the Imperium and sell better than Imperial goods in some places. There are also rumours that intelligence personnel are sometimes sent to Weiss to immerse themselves in Sword Worlds culture before deploying in the Confederation.

Weiss is Amber Zoned at present, as misunderstandings between Imperials and immigrants can lead to considerable friction. The population is considered loyal-within-limits, if for no stronger reason than they came to Wiess to escape problems in the Confederation and are unlikely to be welcomed back. The majority of the population seem content enough with their lot and any trouble is small in scale

Weiss Highport is large and was built to be a highly capable port. It has high-capacity freight docks as well as extensive smaller-vessel facilities. When constructed, it was heavily subsidised as a gateway port facilitating expansion of the trade routes through District 268. There were big plans, including a freightliner service to the Imperial enclave in the Five Sisters and another up the Bowman Arm to Darrian space. Both were implemented but not on anything like the scale expected. The handful of vessels assigned to these runs now bring in most of the port’s revenue, with small-scale cross-border trade providing the majority of the remainder.

Many businesses moved into the highport, governed by the specially formed Weiss Starport Commission. This is a corporate body which owns the port and docks, along with some industry located at the port. Space was sold to private concerns and initially the project looked to be a big success. The expected expansion of trade never happened, however, and most of the businesses moved out or shut down. What remains is a pale shadow of what might have been and with too little income for proper maintenance the port is headed downhill quickly. On the surface it seems prosperous enough but those who look more closely will notice a lot of vacant business units and a veneer of quality over decaying infrastructure. Various attempts to turn the port’s fortunes around have come to nothing and nobody seems interested in buying the place out at a price the owners can afford to sell at.

One consequence of this trend is a tendency for trade and spacefaring laws to be ‘relaxed’ whenever the operators think they can get away with it. Vessels that might not pass a spaceworthiness examination elsewhere are able to scrape a marginal pass and the port has been investigated several times in regard of dubious cargoes passing through. For a time there was a large Ministry of Justice contingent stationed at the highport to monitor cross-border traffic but this was withdrawn some time ago to handle other more pressing situations.