Miriani

Pilots Repel Massive CTN Attack, Heavy Losses Sustained

Following repeated minor skirmishes and attempted raids against alliance space, the CTN today launched a large-scale assault. Immediately pilots gathered together crews to repel the invasion. The sectors most prominently invaded were sectors 1 and 2, notable for being the site of most of CTN's former territory in the solar system.

After obliterating the small force which attempted to prevent pilots from regrouping at High Guard Command, battlecruisers swept through the forty sectors destroying small pockets of resistance. The reclamation of sector 2 was taxing, with some ships having to pull away from the battle line to repair and rearm. Somewhere during this phase of the fighting, the battlecruiser "Exsanguinator", owned by AIE pilot Steven Flinnigan, was destroyed in battle.

The combatants in sector 1 met much more resistance, with three battlecruisers against a massive horde of CTN warships. Strategic preparations had been made in advance by the CTN; proximity weapons and interdictors were present in the system, and the battlecruiser "Challenger", owned by Commonwealth pilot Alexander Heart, was destroyed in the fighting. The other battlecruisers came very close to defeat themselves, and if not for the quick work of the repair engineers on the International Space Station, Hale pilot Sebastian Hadford's battlecruiser "Andorian" would have surely been lost as well, having come extremely close to destruction itself.

After much fighting sector 1 had been cleared. Some controversy has arose over High Guard's official neutrality on this issue, due to their rules about not being involved in interalliance warfare. The AIE financial minister stated that the alliance would "reprioritize funding meant for High Guard support in order to focus on our war effort." Representatives from all alliances vowed to keep fighting. The Commonwealth's official position was summed up with a succinct "If they want a war, they've got a war."

Dated: 07/29/2355