RENS - An outbreak of fedos on a high visibility trading post has exposed massive flaws in the way stations are maintained.
Despite being shunned by the majority of the space going public, the fedo has gained a small but sincere following among those who use them as cheap and effective cleaners for ships and orbital stations. Originally discovered and used by the Amarrians, fedos as space borne cleaners have only really been popularly picked up by Minmatar ship and station operators, although they are known to be used across New Eden. Although ships employing the use of fedos are sometimes unpleasant smelling, they are by far the most inexpensive option available to a ship or station operator.
However, as one operator in Heimatar discovered last month, fedos can also incur unexpected costs. The station operator, who has declined to be identified, failed to pay for the routine station integrity checks most stations are subjected to. As a result, a weak wall within the fedo nursery collapsed, allowing the fedos access to the main garbage hangar. The sudden increase in food supply prompted the fedo population on the station to expand exponentially to the point that the entire station had to be evacuated for over a week.
The incident has prompted an outcry from figures on both sides of the permanently divided Minmatar political scene, and drawn attention to the lack of oversight in station cleaning procedures. "Up until this point how a station stays clean is largely up to the manager, and some managers have taken to cutting a lot of corners. So long as you pass the basic hangar inspections, you've saved money. A lot of managers simply don't care about the people who live on the station," claims one station manager in Rens speaking under the condition of anonymity. In many cases, demand for off-world housing is so high that there is never a problem finding people willing to move.
It remains to be seen whether enough consensus can be reached on the divided political scene to enact real change, so it seems clear that for the time being, off-world living in the Matari state will continue to be an unpredictable, sometimes dangerous proposition.