[TRI News Bot]

107.4.4.12:46.38

By Alexa A'vros
TRI-HQ (TRI-FP) - The lack of sentient activity last night,
following several days of raids and probes has many people wondering if this is
the calm before the storm that was predicted by Dr
Calatorius.TRINN has received several reports of light sentient
activity, over the past week, similar to this one from vorlon31 from 107.04.01:

"Last night saw another testing bout of sentient Conflux incursions into our
territories, with attacks reported in both Hyperial and Quantar Core station
sectors.

"And it was at Quantar Core where I caught up with the Sentients. The initial
target located was a sentient C8 Kraken, armed with Ions and with a top speed in
excess of 640v. After a brief but vicious fight I, (aided by the Mk 1 defense
drone launched by Quantar's station officials, a well timed Morning star and
some heavy hitting gunfire) destroyed sentient and received a 250k credit bounty
as a reward.

"It was only after the first sentient was destroyed that I noticed the
second. A plasma firing c3 sentient squid which flew at me with speeds in excess
of 500v. I launched a Rapier missile in its direction which honed in on its
target with unerring grace. In an attempt to destroy the closing missile I
witnessed the c3 envelope itself in a plasma field, but it triggered its self
defense too early and the missile survived a few seconds longer and hit its
target.

"I cannot say what the Sentients were doing in QC, my mindset was focused
only on their destruction. Nor can I say what occurred in Hyperial but this does
lend credence to Calatorius's suspicions of a major attack coming soon."

This was followed up with an attack two nights ago, reported by pilot
Istanbul:

"After several tries, I made my way back to Corridor and refreshed my ship.
While docked their, sent markers appeared in Oct Shore. I made my way to QC to
get flashfires. The sents had almost reached OC by the time i docked. I then
made my way up to Oct Core. Well on the way, RedDwarf had engaged the flux and
reported a C17 and a C3 sentient in sector. Pilot _RAZAAR_ was also in sector at
the time and had engaged the sentients. They were both unsuccessful in their
attempts and were reequipping when I entered the sector.

"As reported, there was a c17 and a c3 (which was doing 660v). I engaged the
C17 which was at 80% shields from the prior conflicts. I unfortunately wasn't
able to do much damage in my raven, though I made the fight last awhile with
very tight circles. (A distant observer may have thought we were mating... but
we were NOT!) The C3 seemed to stand by and watch the fight. Perhaps it was
concerned about hitting it's cohort."

These attacks appear to have generated significant concern amongst officials.

"Station officials at Octavius Core have confirmed that the most recent
attack knocked out the plutonium factory as well as the RB-4 facility," remarked
Dr Calatorius, from the Octavian Ministry of War.
"We are now certain that the tactical intent of these raids is to test and
evaluate our defenses with the strategic goal of disrupting or terminating the
ongoing efforts to restore production of nuclear weapons at Cornea. We believe
that biomass extraction capabilities at Hyperial, as well as repair beam
facilities everywhere are secondary targets of opportunity.

"We a

Link To Original Article

[Istanbul]

This looks to be a big one folks. I unfortunately will be unavailable this evening, and i'm not sure about tomorrow either. However, I'd like to plead for any semi-retired (active account, not playing), pilots who are able and even remotely interested, please sign on and help with the defense tonight and tomorrow night.

Istanbul