JEDI HoloNet

Shown above: Jovan Station minutes before chaos broke out, killing 80 people and injuring over a hundred more.

Devastation today at Jovan Station, a deep space station and trade hub located at P6 subgrid C in the Gordian Reach. Abruptly, and for a second time in the last cycle, Industrial Automation’s line of DE units, ones that had been recalled, repaired, and vetted by Quality Assurance specialists before being reactivated; exploded and sent out EMP shockwaves that resulted in damage throughout the station. System failures and collateral damage from unit detonations caused 76 people to die during the events, as well as four others who succumbed to their wounds at a later time.

During the commotion, several storage bays opened and thousands of credits worth of goods were lost. Eyewitnesses spotted at least one freighter taking advantage of the chaos to recover several dozen crates that were adrift in space before departing and making a jump to Hyperspace. Due to the electromagnetic blasts that occurred throughout the station, flight control was unable to identify the transponder code of the freighter in question. The Republic is offering a 10,000 credit reward for anyone who has information that can help in identifying the thieves.

Industrial Automation’s spokesperson has not made any public or official comment yet. Anonymous sources from inside the business have reported that there’s mass chaos within the droid manufacturer as the leaders of the corporation hunt for people on the inside who may be conducting sabotage or other espionage inside the business.

Senatorial Candidate for the newly formed Independent Reach Party, Ralskun Direeb, had this to say on todays’ events:

It pains me to see my people, the noble and dignified people of the Gordian Reach, betrayed yet again by the incompetence of the Republic! Over the last several weeks all that my supporters, and future constituents, have been demanding is basic security and stability for their families! This is the problem with the bureaucracy of Democracy. These democratic elites on Coruscant care about nothing other than their re-election campaigns! When I’m elected to office, I will waste no time in using my voice to introduce a secession document for all systems so that we can create our own government that will reclaim how great the Gordian Reach used to be!

Of note, Candidate Ralskun Direeb was wearing an armband on his sleeve with the emblem of “The Roilers”, an ultranationalist group that has been holding, often violent, protests in the independent ‘Back Reach’ as well as on Torque after the terror attack there. The movement is gaining in momentum, and only time will tell how this latest incident impacts the radical movement in this sector of space.

Shown above: The logo of “The Roilers”, an often violent Ultranationalist group dedicated to creating an independent state for the Gordian Reach.

Reporting Contributed by the Associated Presses

Planetary Counsel for Torque, regarded as the highest elected law enforcement official on the world, recently filed suit against DE-series droid manufacturer Industrial Automation in the Courts. This move comes after the world was afflicted by a catastrophic failure of the aforementioned droid series that was under recall at the time.

The initial hearing of the case was held at the Galactic Courts of Justice building on Coruscant in a closed session, so the exact particulars of the suit will not be known until a later date. However, our investigative reporters have uncovered two clues suggest the suit is not related directly to the incident, but rather statements made by Industrial Automation employees leading up to the tragedy.

A discarded draft of the initial filings reveal that the Galactic News Network was also named in the suit. However, the final filing was amended to remove them from the list of involved parties. Secondly, a leaked excerpt from Industrial Automation’s motion to dismiss indicates their defense theory is the detailed statements were to “stress the dangers to our clients and dissuade them from delaying to engage with the recall process.”

These two items hint that the government of Torque is claiming the attack on their world would not have occurred if the droid manufacturer had not released the following statement to the HoloNews:

“One of our Lead Engineers found a potentially dangerous subroutine error that, if triggered, could cause a catastrophic meltdown in the unit. It’s highly unlikely, and we have no reports of the bug causing any damage, but we don’t want to trust that this error won’t cause serious troubles down the line. Effects could include a dangerous detonation of the unit, as well as even EMP bursts that could wipe out on-board electronics including life-support systems on freighters.”

We have reached out to both parties in the suit. Both sides have declined to comment, citing the on-going nature of the case.

The planet Torque, regional capitol of the Gordian Reach, faced a terror attack that resulted in dozens of civilian deaths, hundreds of injuries, and millions of credits in damage. The attack was triggered when Industrial Automation’s DE series droids all across the planet began to suffer catastrophic meltdowns in a number of different ways. Several exploded while others emitted EMP blasts that took ships and speeders down from the sky to crash into metropolitan areas below.

Outcry across the planet about the massive security breath that allowed this to occur is echoed in the halls of the Senate on Coruscant. In the cacophony, the Chancellor has stepped down in the face of a vote of no confidence. In the shadow of many critics of the Wyld conflict compounded by critical security gaps that allowed this terror attack to cause such catastrophic damage, many local officials in systems across the galaxy are vocalizing a lack of confidence in the ability of the Republic to protect their systems.

Nominee for the Independent Reach Party, Ralskun Direeb,

For decades there’s been an animosity in this sector against the presence of Republic on their worlds. While the Republic brought security and prosperity to their worlds, they bowed their heads and accommodated their presence. But, after recent events, more and more Reachmen and women are clamoring for their long-desired independence. Their voices will be heard after I win this upcoming election!

Ralskun Direeb was seen helping evacuate victims from burning buildings and helping with first aid on scene while his competitor, Incumbant Senator Kielbras Pol’cal, was seen running to his shuttle to get offworld during the chaos.

With the Chancellor of the Republic stepping down the two major parties, the War Hawks and the Diplomats, have been fragmenting as they race to find nominees that cover the full values of their respective parties. Already the parties have begun to disintegrate into smaller declared parties marking a seismic political shift away from the two-party system that has dominated galactic politics for the last two decades into a more complex coalition government akin to the historical scenes of past Republics in galactic history.

While the Senate struggles to find answers and fill the gaps in security that allowed this tragedy to happen, the citizens of the Republic wait with baited breath to see if the institutions designed to protect them, indeed, will do just that… Or if more systems like the Gordian Reach will begin to debate the merits of independence.

More on this story as it develops, this is Quan Regal of the Associated Presses

Industrial Automation’s Kuat branch, a droid manufacturing firm specializing in cutting-edge astromech units, has announced a galaxy-wide recall of the last generation of their latest model the, DE series. Their public relations spokesperson gave this explanation to news outlets when asked about the recall for the droid model, popular with independent contractors and small business freight companies for their reasonable price tag and trusted reliability,

“One of our Lead Engineers found a potentially dangerous subroutine error that, if triggered, could cause a catastrophic meltdown in the unit. It’s highly unlikely, and we have no reports of the bug causing any damage,” the company spokesperson said as they continued, “but we don’t want to trust that this error won’t cause serious troubles down the line. Effects could include a dangerous detonation of the unit, as well as even EMP bursts that could wipe out on-board electronics including life-support systems on freighters.” The spokesperson finished by reassuring their consumers, “All clients will be issued a new DE series droid from our latest generation, free of charge, with reassurances that all issues with programming have been resolved.”

When asked why this glitch existed in the first place, IA’s spokesperson responded that programming is incredibly byzantine with astromech units of all types. They cited that in order to process intense cosmological calculations in the short time it takes requires an abundance of algorithms and subroutines to work complex tasks in tandem. Occasionally errors are bound to happen.

However, competitor manufacturing company Cybot Galactica, known for their historically popular C3 series protocol droids, issued their own statement on the recall,

“We have industry standards for a reason. Subroutines like this are extraordinarily rare, and the fact that it’s been embedded within these trusted and reliable machines for over a cycle now is something that no other company has had happen in living memory. It’s a miscarriage of safety and, in fact, we call upon the Galactic Republic to launch a full investigation into how this ‘bug’ was implanted anyway. Something this severe could indicate no less than sabotage.”

The Associated Presses have not found any evidence to support a theory that malignant intentions were involved with this programming error, however, the Galactic Republic’s Senatorial subcommittee on Business Ethics and Oversight did say that they would launch an investigation to clear the air. Industrial Automation responded saying they would fully cooperate with whatever the Galactic Republic required in order to clear their name of malfeasance.

More on this story as it develops, this is Quan Regal of the Associated Presses

Greetings Residents,

Jedi do not choose an easy life. Many beings have attempted to walk the path of denying their baser instincts in favor of service to the Galaxy and to the Force. Many of those same beings have failed to complete their journeys. For some beings, the obstacle of said instincts may seem insurmountable. It is the Council’s pleasure to acknowledge their victory in the face of these odds.

By right of the Council, by Will of the Force, the following Jedi has been elevated to the rank of Jedi Knight:

• Eli Tzineda

May the Force be with you all,
– The JEDI Council.