Following the Second Volturnus Expedition, Pan Galactic realized that Spacefleet and Star Law could both use a helping hand in protecting the Frontier from piracy. To this end Mercenary Starbase was concieved and proposed to the UPF and Star Law for approval as a "reserve" military unit. At first MS was supposed to be an elite fighting unit, but when applicants started pouring in with many other skills to offer it soon became a much more versatile unit. When UPF strategists deduced that the Zebulon system was one of the major points of entry that the Sathar used to enter the Frontier, only Truane's Star could prevent the worms from accessing the "Hub of the Frontier". PGC pushed for Volturnus as the home of Mercenary Starbase two fold, both as a protection of their interests of the newly discovered planet Volturnus and also as a point of operations for a roving fleet of fighting starships that could both assist Strike Force NOVA  in patrolling the Frontier and blockade the Sathar point of entry as well. Strike Force Zebulon was born, and many of their smaller vessels were completed in time for the Second Sathar War.

Various independent freighter captains as well as captains under charter with PGC made small fortunes running supplies during the construction of Mercenary Starbase, and many of them began participating in a form of competiton that was soon dubbed "the Zebulon Run" where freighter captains tried to achieve the best delivery times by acquiring cargos along the way starting from White Light and ending in Zebulon. The Run is still held today and is recognized by freight runners as the measure of efficiency by which a captain and his/her crew and ship can be judged. Any and all runs commencing at Clarion Station with a stated destination of Zebulon are eligible for entry as an official run, and upon notification these runs get documented and recorded at Zebulon, and any captain that participates in and completes any run can use this documentation to help "sell" his abilities for future prospective jobs. Naturally there are best times recorded for each year as well as an all time record.

Following the events at Inner and Outer Reach involving MalCo, a smaller and similar event dubbed "the Dramune Run" mimics the Zebulon Run in honor of those heroes that liberated the Chukkahs and ended the Malthar's criminal operations by piloting the Gullwind from Clarion to Inner Reach. Not as widely recognized as the Zebulon Run, but freighter captains can still use such runs as bragging rights, especially if they get their names logged into both sets of records, which always boosts one's reputation in the freight hauling business. The Independent Freight Haulers Association is working on establishing guidelines for "the Frontier Run" where all systems of the Frontier must be visited along the way of a given freight run. And to think that all this notoriety started over running supplies destined for a little speck of sand in the Zebulon system...

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