Intergalactic Summit

This report is of the typically terribad reporting I have come to expect from a Gallente news agency. While I do not dispute the facts; a convoy belonging to Lai Dai was abushed and destroyed in Jarzalad on the Pimsu gate en route from Inoue to Jarshitsan, the facts reported in the article have a number of glaringly obvious mistakes and inconsistencies.

First the most direct route from Inoue to Jarshitsan does not include Pimsu. Why would the convoy be attempting to jump into Pimsu from Jarzalan? This direction is not only not on the most direct route, but in fact leads directly away from the destination of Jarshitsan, a mere 2 jumps away! Where you going, m8? The fact that the convoy was attempting to jump into Pimsu for any reason is extremely suspicious.

This also leads me to wonder why the convoy was going in the direction of Elmed, the system in which the attacking force was last seen. I'm starting to wonder about the purpose of that convoy and why it was going in that direction. This should be investigated.

Second, the report indicated that the attackers were last seen heading into Caldari losec of Elmed. Elmed is neither Caldari space nor losec. It is in fact a regional border system into Tash-Murkon hisec from Kador hisec.

Third, from watching the recovered video, I can see the attacking force consisted of 10 Scorpion-class and 1 Raven class battleships. There was also a Moa-class cruiser and 2 Condor class frigates shown besides the Basilisk which was destroyed. From the context and timing of the video, I'm fairly certain the frigates were part of the convoy. I cannot make a guess as to the alignment of the cruiser.

Every single one of the battleships was using the weapons typical to the ship frames, in this case missiles. However, an associate of mine pointed out that the Guristas Rattlesnake can use missiles quite effectively, despite its predisposition towards heavy and sentry drones.

tbh, I'm of a mind that there may have been some sort of dispute internal to Lai Dai, and corporate security was dispatched to take care of it. Industrial espionage? Defection? Who knows. I have a feeling that once the wreckage has been analyzed we will know more about what the true purpose of that convoy was.

Edit: I would also like to point out that a convoy carrying military hardware beneficial to the Amarr Empire was brazenly attacked and destroyed well within high security space. It is troubling that such an ambush was able to be carried out right under the Amarr Navy's nose only 5 jumps from the Throne Worlds with absolutely no response from local authority. Very troubling.

A brief check with navigational systems indicates that the addition of Pimsu adds only one jump to the route - but as Soldarius has stated, it would seem either the convoy turned around, or there is an error in the report. Perhaps the convoy had just jumped into Jarzalad (there is no 'Jarzalan', regardless of the report's claim), or the copy is simply wrong as to which side of the stargate they were on.

Either way, the routing is... highly curious. I suspect you're not far off with your suspicions of foul play.

It is well known that the Guristas have a well-developed intelligence network inside the State. Given this, and the Scope's apparent inability to identify who could possibly be fighting DED in Venal, I think it's safe to say that this is likely another Guristas attack that the Scope's simply giving a theatrical presentation to.

I am still shocked of what has happened and how many lives have been lost. Especially the loss the senior personal will be a hard blow to the company. While the loss of materials is regrettable, it are just materials. The loss of lives and knowledge en skill however is hard to recover from.


Looking at the released images I initially spotted 9 scorpion hulls and one Raven hull. Later video feeds show 10 scorpion hulls and no raven hull. This means that the ships used in the attack can be:

Scorpions
Widows
Scorpion Navy Issue
Rattlesnakes
Raven
Golem
Raven Navy Issue


I also believe a single command can be picked up before they attack, followed by short commands during the attack. There was no sign of any stress or anxiety by whoever was giving the commands. This strongly suggest that this was a well prepared strike.

That the attack took several minutes and seemingly not triggering the aggressive response from local Navy and CONCORD forces worries me deeply as the attack took place in High-security class space. That they even managed to escape is even more troublesome. Perhaps false ship ID's were used to delay any response. Something went definitely and seriously wrong to have this outcome.

DutchGunner
CONCORD Loyalist

And this is why the DED must be destroyed.

No, Guristas. I meant Guristas.

Honest.

Either works, really.

Another example of CONCORD's inability to do its job.

Condolences to those involved.

That was a lovely strike. I'd love to meet whomever pulled it off - sounds like we have an ally in all of this after all.

I would not focus on identifying the attackers based on types of vessels they where using as those could have easily been purchased by anyone on the market. Also, as none of those where destroyed, we are unable to use their IDs to trace any transactions hence the potential buyers.

The first and most obvious choice of the source would be the Guristas. The level of intel about the convoy and the swiftness of the attack would point in their direction but two things do not fit. First it is highly doubtful there would have been any evidence left (not to mention a video recording of this incident) directly pointing to them and second this attack seemed not to be directed at retrieving any kind of resources, neither people nor equipment, which would be the Guristas' primary target.

At this point it seems the primary goal of the attackers was disrupting the convoy at any means necessary.

Fellow Capsuleers,

I fully share the expressed concerns and sorrow about this troubling attack. I flew to the assumed ambush site yesterday, 117-7-24 // ~2300 EVE, and searched the closer vicinity. I could identify the two perspectives shown in the SCOPE video footage and thus confirm the mentioned locations: 1) the ambush site in Jarzalad is close to the Pimsu gate, with the dominant celestial and dust ring in the background; 2) the 'last known route of the attackers' shows a warp off from the Elmed gate in Pimsu, heading towards the sun or propably the Jarzalad gate. Thus, from what was already said above I think the video footage and audio comment does not completely match. Though, if listened closely, the newscaster did not necessarily imply that Elmed leads to low security space. He just said the attackers were seen there, heading toward low security space. Wether the shown footage is the last information about the attackers at all or just the last video footage is not so clear to me.

Besides that, there was no sign of major debris or unusual ship or structure presence in Jarzalad, Pimsu, or Elmed. One wormhole system next to Jarzalad (J170940) and two wormhole systems next to Elmed (J151102, J110425) showed no presence of any attackers related to the Lai Dai ambush as well. I used combat scanner probes and D-Scan for this purpose.

My fellow pilot Suzuha Yamada propably checked the closest route to low security space via Riramia. She might share her findings. But all in all, my impression is: what ever happened there, we missed it.

Sincerely,

Haria Haritimado
Itsukame-Zainou Hyperspatial Inquiries Ltd.

There are a couple valid points others have made here that should be reinforced, as well as another option I had not previously mentioned.

The ships used to mount the attack could indeed have been procured and used by anyone. I mentioned the racial type merely to give us a starting point.

It is true that the routing of the convoy could have been intentionally vague or long to avoid systems like Niarja, where suicide gankers are known to proliferate. But going into Pimsu is literally a step in the wrong direction. Also, going this way would not allow the convoy to avoid the 1 gate through which they must traverse: their destination gate.

Next, I'd like to suggest that the entire incident could also have been one mega-corp mounting an attack upon another. In this case, we then need to ask who are Lai Dai's competitors, or who would stand to benefit from the loss of the convoy?

Or could the incident have been simply made to look like the above, and is actually some sort of public display mean to sow disinformation?