27 MAY 3301
At a press conference held earlier today, Acting Federal President Felicia Winters made a personal appearance to address the rdisappearance of Starship One after failing to re-enter normal space following a routine hyperspace jump.
“The disappearance of Starship One has us all on edge. Tensions are high, and the rumour mills are making all their usual noise about terrorists, aliens, conspiracies and cover-ups. I’m afraid the truth will likely get you all far fewer viewers, but it is the truth that the people of the Federation need to hear from me now.”
“I’m told the early investigations from telemetry and uplink data suggest an explosive drive failure destroyed Starship One in hyperspace, catapulting all three of her protective Guardian Wing out of hyperspace. Wreckage is likely spread across interstellar space. I’m told there are parallels with the loss of the Highliner Antares way back in 3251 when she was lost with all hands on her maiden voyage.”
“I know I remember where I was when the Highliner Antares disappeared, and I fear we will always remember where we were the day Starship One was lost.”
“While we don’t know what caused this incident – yet – we do know that Starship One’s engines experienced an unexpected surge of power just seconds before making its last jump.”
“The search efforts will continue, of course. Our hearts and hope go out to the friends and families of President Halsey and all those lost yesterday in this terrible incident.”
27 MAY 3301
It has been almost 48 hours since the disappearance of Starship One. Early reports indicated that the ship was lost with all hands, and in this instance GalNet is pleased to announce that the early reports were mistaken. Three ships from Starship One’s Guardian Wing made contact with Navy HQ shortly after the initial disappearance. Unfortunately, they were not able to shed any light on the ultimate fate of Starship One.
Despite thousands of Federal scouts combing the sectors along Starship One's secured route, designated Spaceflight One, no trace of the missing ship has been found.
Specialist teams from Core Dynamics and the Sirius Corporation are currently attempting to analyse the wake and uplink data captured by the President’s Guardian Wing escorts in the moments before all four ships jumped. Theories involve either a rare misjump or some sort of catastrophic drive failure. Unfortunately, results so far are inconclusive as to what may have happened to President Halsey and her team.
One member of the crew of one of the President’s Guardian Wing, who wished to remain nameless, spoke exclusively to GalNet about the last moments before the President’s disappearance.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. One minute everything was fine. Pre-jump checks? Normal. Engine power? Normal. Our drives were slaved to Starship One, as is normal. The entry to hyperspace seemed normal at first, but then there was a terrible shock wave and our ship started tumbling. We exited hyperspace uncontrolled and in deep space – something I’ve never seen before. Our ship had taken damage. We couldn’t reach Starship One via comms, but managed to make contact with the other two members of the Guardian Wing. We first searched the deep space around our positions, then jumped to the destination point rendezvous as quickly as we could. Nothing. Not even wreckage. ”
The Federal Navy are requesting that any pilots interested in helping to search along the Starflight One route should sign up for active duty as a member of the search and rescue team aboard Leoniceno Orbital in Azaleach.