The battle this Gazette foretold has borne fruit for the Pirates: PEARL's guns have carried the day at Barahona, wresting the port from France's NSCN in confirmation of yesterday's promised reckoning. Scarcely had the smoke cleared than word arrived of Great River, where the NPC Raiders have again shown their contempt for standing flags, stripping ORANJ's French holding bare and leaving it neutral for whichever opportunist arrives first. The horizon offers no rest for the weary: Pirates' GRMLN is set to test NSCN's grip on Gustavia at 13:39 UTC, MORC will call at the unclaimed Cayo Romano come 18:03 UTC, and Great Britain's LVTN has marked Port Antonio, presently held by Spain's CFS, for a trial at 20:49 UTC. The treasury ledger shows CFS unmoved at its summit for a nineteenth consecutive day, its twenty-seven ports steady as ever while lesser clans jostle beneath it. HEART reclaims fifth place from KP, the two trading positions yet again on unchanged port counts, a rivalry this Gazette now tracks with some amusement. LVTN's fortunes brighten considerably, rising three ranks to eighth, while 18BEK tumbles four places to eleventh despite holding its seven ports firm. PEARL's fresh conquest at Barahona lifts it three ranks to fourteenth on five ports now to its name, and further down the table KRAKN climbs four places to twenty-seventh even as its single port remains unchanged, while LOUP gives back three ranks to thirtieth on the same modest holding.