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 Affiliated Press

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 Affiliated Press.

A massacre on Tarabba Prime as forty-three men tried to stop the infamous leader of White Bantha, Salazar Haka, from escaping incarceration in a Republic-controlled prison.

“The walls and the floors were covered with blood like crumbs, body after body was left in the wake of Salazar Haka and his allies. Flickering corridor lights hid even more severed limbs in the dark shadows.”

Whilst this may sound like a description of a horror holo-movie, it’s not. On the night of 430.05, Salazar Haka, former leader of the infamous “White Bantha” organisation, and by means unknown, managed to escape the prison of Tarabba Prime. Fellow inmates and guards alike ultimately suffered, cut down in a bloody break-out that left dozens dead and far more wounded, the prison itself a scene of chaos and death.

The last prisoner escape from this facility prior to this was on 417.02, and the Republic devoted considerable funds to improving the security of the prison – though to less effect than was clearly hoped for, judging by the events of today – such that the prison was known as one of the most secure in the region.

This, however, did not stop Salazar.

Major Rako Syvar, Warden of RJA Tarabba Prime, had this to say:

“We mourn for all who’ve died doing their duty on this terrible, terrible day. I – I… I wish to not say anything more, but an investigation is currently ongoing.”

With the tightening of the facility’s security in recent years, the question has to be asked: how did this happen, and what will follow? The Republic will no doubt be concerned at the risk of further violence from the White Bantha, now that their leader is free. What will Haka do next, and who might suffer for it?

This is Haaru Mash, reporting live from from Tarabba Prime.

Flag of the Newly Established “League of Sovereign Systems”

The engines of the E-wing squadron roared, a full squadron of three, followed by a second pass where one was gone. The blasters fired, a total of twenty-one times, an age-old salute to those who gave their lives defending the freedoms of others. A somber, traditional, pyre for the fallen Jedi who led the charge to protect those who could not defend themselves from the opening salvos of the war to the last operation of capturing the Emperor himself.

With a somber ceremony, we close a conflict that has claimed the lives and liberties of millions over the course of these last, long, ten cycles. During which, one of the central speakers was newly elected President Zebulon Pyke. Formerly a commander in the Republic Military, he renounced his commission early when Alzoc III was first surprised attacked as, at the time, the Republic had not yet committed to the conflict. He led almost every major operation, gaining popular support among the “Coalition of Freedom”, later the “Coalition of Free Planets”, and now, formally reorganized into the “League of Sovereign Systems”.

Consisting of four founding planets: Svivren which was voted the capitol, Skynara, Alzoc III, and Ryloth, these founding planets established a finalized constitution that inspired other planets to swiftly sign on and join. These systems include Suarbi, Drexel, and Dom-Bradden; planets who also suffered at the brutal occupation of the Wyld Empire.

Their common statement being as follows,

We, the people of Wild Space, for too long have maintained isolation from one another. Mutually, we all believed that our own sovereignty and independence was more important than our common national security. This last conflict has proven to us that our previous commitment to local seclusion from one another weakens us, rather than strengthens us. So, it is now that we commit to one another a promise to uphold our collective, mutual, sovereignty so that never again will we find ourselves alone against a tide of violence to fall one by one.

-President Zebulon Pyke

The League is already in negotiations with the Republic about striking a deal that would allow them to purchase mothballed ships in the Republic’s reserve fleets, retrofitted weapons platforms from bygone eras, that could serve as patrol fleets to ensure that the laws passed by the League congress are enforced properly to maintain security and peace in Wild Space as the region slowly begins to rebuild after this extended conflict.

Reporting from Svivren, Capital of the League of Sovereign Systems, this is Andee Nevaro.

We raise a solemn toast, our Borelan brandy swirling in our glasses before we drank. I’d been attached to the aptly named “Snowpiercers” when they hit landfall on the icy dunes of Alzoc III. The fight had been an uphill battle in the most literal sense. The Wyld forces dug into the icy cliffs on the approach to the old Praxium that was now their headquarters. Regiments of walkers tore through squadrons on the flanks while the heavy canons of our treaded tanks behind us made the snow shake so hard beneath our boots that it caused some of it to give from time to time. The crimson bolts leaving holes in the durasteel of the walkers so large you could stand upright in them.

When the transmission came through and the Wyld put down their arms, their general having been captured, the fight leaving their spirits, in many ways was when the real work began.

I’ve been witness to the liberation of Skynara, I’ve interviewed survivors on Ryloth, but nowhere have I seen worse living conditions for civilians under Wyld occupation than here on Alzoc. The labor camps that people were imprisoned in are chilling and defy rational thought. They illicit images from four hundred years ago of the brutal Imperial regime on Kessel of Kashyyyk. Beings of all species worked to death in the glaciers under the snow on Alzoc, mining down for precious minerals to further fuel the Wyld’s war machine.

As we take our silent shots in memory of our fallen friends, the holonews headlines scroll passed on a screen not far off. Talks of the “Coalition of Free Planets” meeting on Svivren to discuss formalizing the intersystem alliance in a “League of Sovereign Systems.” The soldiers I’m drinking with murmur their opinions. I ask Sergeant Il’tak, a twi’lek who had helped the insurgency on Ryloth, their opinion.

“I speak for my whole squad, and for the people I left back home, when I say that this whole conflict happened for two reasons: One, all of us Outer Rim people didn’t look out for each other… and Two, we believed that the Republic would do something to protect us. The Republic has shown that they only care when their worlds are threatened… So what does that mean? It means us Outer Rim folks need to look out for one another, cuz no one else in the galaxy is gonna.”

As the war moves into the later years, new questions come up. What does this region of space look after the war? Can the Empire be dissolved? Or are they strong enough to hold out to legitimize themselves as a perpetual government? Sergeant Il’tak has an opinion on that too,

“If it takes another year, or another ten years, the soldiers of this Coalition will not put down our arms until this tarnish on our solar systems [The Wyld Empire] is wiped clean.”

Let’s hope it’s sooner than later,

Reporting from the front lines, I’m Andee Nevaro