03 MAY 3301
A tense hostage situation in Eotienses on Tuesday morning turned bloody as East India Company members failed to negotiate the liberation of an Imperial trader from the Code, a well-known pirate group. The Imperial trader, unaffiliated with either group, was destroyed after an attempted escape, resulting in tens of millions of credits in property loss as well as small-scale skirmishes between the two organizations throughout the night. EIC members later went on to admit that poor communication and victim anxiety led to this tragic outcome.
Though it is unclear exactly what the hostage believed, Commander Trillen is quoted as saying: “The members of Code appeared to be getting a little jumpy and I started to worry that things were not going to end well. I contacted Commander Egg90 asking if he was ready to run if $@%# hit the fan, but I think he misinterpreted that because at that very second he boosted and was destroyed by the members of Code.”
After the destruction of the trader, chaos broke out as both sides opened fire on one another. The fighting was reported to have lasted for several hours with both sides suffering major losses, and damages are currently estimated in the hundreds of millions of credits.
Galnet News reached out to The Code, who had this to say: “The approximate ship destruction estimate is currently sitting at 3 EIC deaths for every 1 Code death. The Code apologizes for the destruction of all these EIC vessels, but we will destroy anyone who gets in our path of riches and plunder.”
Dick McKinley - Galnet News