EVE PANDORA | News Article: Prisoner Convoy Attacked – Terrorist Operative Believed Dead

Prisoner Convoy Attacked – Terrorist Operative Believed Dead

New Eden News - Mon, 14 Jun 2004 - 00:00

At approximately 18:30 EVT last night, a convoy carrying noted UDI operative Goran Mitelek was attacked in the Ebo system en route to the Avair Theology Council Tribunal. The assailants, a squadron of interceptors and missile frigates flying under EW cruiser support, had apparently entered the system through the Esteban gate, proceeding to ambush the prison convoy with mobile warp disruptors at the gate to Avair.

Details of the engagement are sketchy at present, but two Imperial Navy support frigates who managed to effect a retreat from the battle, severely damaged, reported the destruction of at least twelve ships from both sides, including most of the attacking force. Inspection of on-site debris later revealed that the transport Mitelek was travelling in had succumbed to missile fire, scattered bits of debris and unidentifiable biomass being all that remained.

As of yet no leads have been brought to light as to who is behind the attack, but internal as well as external investigations have reportedly begun within both the Civic Court and the Theology Council. Mervan Moritok, Arch Deacon of the Theology Council, released a statement just after noon today expressing the Council’s condemnation of the brutal attack and stating that perpetrators of terrorism within the Holy Empire would be brought to “the swiftest, harshest justice.” Since this morning, many ships traveling within the Liela constellation have been stopped and scanned by Imperial Navy vessels and extensive investigations are underway on the constellation’s planets and stations.

In all this, however, one curious detail remains unaccounted for. Security footage from the prison transport, relayed in real-time to the TC Tribunal station in Avair, appears to indicate that just after the attack commenced some internal struggle may have taken place on the transport itself. The footage, taken from a camera in one of the ship’s anterior passageways, depicts a Navy guard throwing himself at another guard with what can easily be taken to be aggressive intent. Amarr officials, meanwhile, have adamantly denied all such claims, stating that the ship was obviously under fire at time of recording, and that the hull-breached vessel’s shaking and systems failure account for the widespread misreading of the guard’s actions.

Mitelek, long-time transstellar arms dealer and operative of extremist ideological faction United against Decadence and Impurity, was believed to have been one of the persons orchestrating the attack against the Rent-A-Dream Pleasure Gardens complex in Elarel last March, an incident now known as “The Elarel massacre.” He was subsequently captured and held by the Gallente Federation before his surprise extradition to the Amarr Empire last month.