2498

• The Confederacy demands the Raynor family hand over their son, John, due to his psionic powers. He is later pronounced dead due to a transportation accident. His mother Liddy dies shortly thereafter of grief.

• A spore blight strikes Bhekar Ro, mutating most of the wheat into a toxic substance. Octavia and Lars Bren's parents die from it, along with numerous others, including the colony's last scientific minds. Seventeen homes are burnt to keep the plague under control. Jacob “Nik” Nikolai becomes the new mayor of Free Haven.

• The Terran Confederacy begins a mass conscription process; abducting teenagers from the Fringe Worlds and putting them through neural resocialization, thus making them effective soldiers.

• Late Year: The Rample Murder Case occurs. The bodies two children of a semi-prominent shop owner are found in the Gutter. The affair becoming a media sensation, Detective Kelerchian assigned to track down the killer, who turns out to be Emmett Tygore–a member of the Tygore Old Family. Tygore is sent to Halcyon for “rehabilitation” and the affair quickly forgotten. Kelerchian keeps pushing for charges to be laid, putting him on the Tygore's black list.

The next article in this series is 2499.