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Warship Destroyed by Saboteurs in the Cadrel Expanse
Caelum --- An unexpected tragedy has befallen the crew of the Republic Shield warship Halberd during its maiden voyage through the Cadrel Expanse yesterday. One thousand, eight hundred and forty-nine New Republic personnel were lost when the warship broke apart and exploded on the edge of the Elenian system, including the ship's captain, Averil Caracalla.
The newly-reconstructed warship had been recently pieced together at the Eagle's Nest shipyards in the Greeop system from the remains of several RS and Imperial Strike Cruisers destroyed in the Battle of Blerthmore, including the Kayak and the Blood Fang. The vessel's maiden voyage was to be a simple patrol through friendly territory, passing through the Greeop Sector and the Cadrel Expanse, where the ship was destroyed.
Forensic investigation has revealed a group of six Caelum nationals to be responsible for the attack. Each of them manually released the primary interlocks between the modules of the Strike Cruiser, which vented most atmosphere on the vessel, which was then followed up immediately afterward by the detonation of an explosive in the ship's reactor core.
Only one hundred and twenty-four people onboard the Halberd survived the attack, including task force Logistics Officer General David Vaughan. The survivors, in various states of injury, were taken to the Command Fortress on Mercurius for treatment. The General has thus far declined to comment on the incident. However, it is known that he was rushed back to the Greeop Defence Force flagship, the Peril, for debriefing.
The question perhaps less important than 'what happened?' is 'why did it happen?'. There seem to be two reasons for this, the first of which being that the sheer lack of resources the RS has left allocated to the home territories of the Greeop Sector, Cadrel Expanse and surrounding sectors has caused a drastic drop in confidence of some worlds that the New Republic can protect them from threats, be they Imperial, pirate or otherwise.
In fact, only a few weeks ago the RS Fleet Commander Trebonious-Astoris and his Minister of External Affairs made an unscheduled visit to the world of Caelum in the Cadrel Expanse to allay concerns of the planetary senate that the New Republic was unable to protect them. A vote regarding the issue of withdrawing from the galactic government was narrowly defeated; the margin of the defeat appears to have caused some parties on Caelum to whisper darkly about 'outside' New Republic interference in their planetary affairs.
Due to the massive lack of personnel and equipment in the aftermath of the disaster at Blerthmore two months ago, New Republic recruitment centres have drawn heavily on the local populations of the home territories, including the Cadrel Expanse. That a group of individuals from Caelum were able to join the crew of the newly-activated warship is not unexpected, but that tensions on Caelum have run so high that people would kill themselves in an attempt to remove New Republic influence was beyond anyone's ability to predict.
A press statement from Homely City, Caelum was released denouncing the attack, appealing to the Caelum public for any information leading to the capture of anyone else involved with or supporting the attack on the vessel of the military force stationed to defend the world.
The response of RS High Command has been swift --- all Caelum nationals serving within Task Force Republic Shield have been immediately stood down from active duty pending further investigation into Caelum involvement in the Halberd incident. An investigatory team has been activated to carry out an in-depth investigation of the incident, which is sure to provide numerous recommendations for increased shipboard security.
In the meantime security has been ramped up all across the board, including planet-based military installations and the task groups in the Minos Cluster and Subterrel Sector.
However, these measures do not address the underlying issue at hand: that many of the civilian populations falling under the protective banner of the New Republic military presence in the region have lost faith in the RS's ability to protect them from the scourge of the Empire, piracy, or even rival systems. In related news word was received several weeks ago that the Dotani peoples of the Cegul Sector had withdrawn from the New Republic and invited the Empire to reclaim the sector peacefully, so great was their belief that RS strengths in the region had fallen to such low levels that Imperial forces would bloodily conquer the sector.
A memorial for the men and women lost onboard the Halberd has been scheduled for sometime early next week, however the venue is yet to be decided for security concerns.