Splintered Rock Bar "Waters End" Attacked by giant insect. Are Arachnids a danger for mankind?

Splintered Rock, Al Raqis.

on Thusday the Waters End Bar was the location of a frightening insect attack. Reports say that a at least 8ft tall spiked insect came though a vent and attacked the people inside the bar, wounding the constable, resulting in a chaos and injuries by misguided gun and laser fire. The attack occurred during the evening when lots of people where visiting the bar.

During the attack, USD personal was at the bar, among this personnel was Lt.Col.John Collins, the local Commander of the USD outpost on AL Raqis. He was unavailable to be interviewed about the event, we will try to get a full interview with him as soon as possible.

The Insect escaped the scene after attacking the Constable, being chased away by laser fire, its whereabouts are unknown.

All people wounded during the attack are already out of the hospital there are currently no follow up reports regarding the insect. Eyewitness reports speak of a 8ft spiked insect that resembles a Thrull Drone.

There had been an encounter with this insect several weeks ago, where Doctor Thomas Issac shoot those 2 images of the creature:



It is not certain what kind of species that insect belongs to, but the danger it represents seems to be clear. This is only one of many of Thrull or Arachnid related incidents that have been recorded in the USD sectors as well as outside of it. The big question that everyone is asking now: are those giant insects a danger for mankind?

Dr. Freeman, expert for exobiology: "Both Thrulls and Arachnids are no danger for us, we should just need to be aware that we share this galaxy with other species as well. That means that we have to be careful with our expansion so that we do not intrude in already colonized space"

Not everyone shares that view like in the case of Professor William Holden: "These insects are incredible well adapted to live even in the harshest of environments, they can very well spread over large areas of space and be a real threat for colonists. We are still not sure how the Arachnids do it, but we think they send out Spore balls that can reach far away planets. Just imaging if such a spore ball lands on a planet like Nauri Prime, it would be devastating!"

Indeed the numerical advantage these insects have is often one of the main concerns and fears of the USD Citizens throughout the outer arm.

Images of a so called "Warrior Bug":


How high would the chances of an attack on the core worlds? "The chances for that are very, very slim" says General Case, Commander of all Core Forces. "We have an array of satellites, monitoring stations and regular patrols as well as orbital defense systems that would make it hard for any kind of Spore Ball to reach any of the core planets. Even most planets of the border have defense installations that would prevent a sudden attack"

Indeed, the orbital defense systems where improved after the recent Kaefer war and would make it nearly impossible to mount a sudden attack, but what if the creatures are already on the planet, how would our combat troops preform?

Images of a Standard USD Soldier:


"We have dealt with giant insects before and we can handle them very well. Not only do we have regular light infantry, we also have power armor and tanks and we can even call in air-strikes and other heavy stuff" says Major James Grimmon, 5th Battalion, 6th Infantry.

"Its nothing we have not done before, we go in, find the Hive and either use gas or napalm to destroy it. Flamethrowers also work wonders. We learned a lot from fighting the Plasmides on Hope. Our Power Armor makes short process of any type of bug. I remember that on Echon 5 we encountered Arachnids, we where outnumbered 5:1 but that was not really a problem. We had Tanks, rocket launchers, flamethrowers, pulse rifles, lasers and importantly, Power Armor armed with miniguns. Together with the air support we had no problems taking them out. After a 2 hour firefight we had killed most of the bugs and we only had 2 casualties." says the Major.

Close up of the Infantry Power Armor


So, clearly, the fears of a sudden Thrull or Arachnid invasion are unfounded. There is no real threat coming for these giant insects and we should try to understand them and only in rare cases we should make use of our superior weapons technology. Mankind will not be extinct anytime soon.

Research log, Doctor Thomas Issac, Cliffworm encounter

"Personal log of Doctor Thomas Issac, June 10th. I was called to the landing pad today to examining some sort of creature. It appears to be some sort of Sandworm. It has a large head with a maw that has sharp tooths. 2 more large tooths are attached to its side. The body appears to be mostly head, ending in a long tail like longer body. The skin is thick and brown. It seems to be able to eat flesh, which is odd for a regular sandworm. This is either a sub species or something completely new and different"

"The creature has no eyes, it seems to rely on vibration detection. There is also no nose present. "



"After scanning the worm, it seems that its internal structure is made of a exo-skeleton and the worm typical organs. It backed up when I started scanning which leads me to believe that the frequencies of the Tricoder influenced the worm, it seemed not to like the scan at all. We need to remodulate our scanners to have a lower frequency so we do not disturb the worms during the scanning process. I also got a DNA sample which I will put under a microscope very soon. I have to note that this is a very fascinating encounter"

Addendum: I recently could identify this species of Worm as a Cliff Worm. They where commone in the more rocky areas of Al Raqis but have not been seen since quite some time, so locals told me. It seems that people hunted them because of the threat these worms seem to be when spice mining. They also are supposedly venomous, if that is correct then these creatures do pose a threat to people venturing into the desert. I will continue my research in this matter and will report my findings.

Doctor Thomas Issac, lead scientist, Al Raqis

Cortex News: Hale's Moon Put Under Martial Law

CNS news services

HALE'S MOON - The UAP has declared martial law on Hale's Moon after the latest trouble to hit the riot and asteroid struck moon.

The crisis for the moon increased yesterday when transports approaching the spaceport were attacked. Three ships were heavily damaged but managed to land without injuries, though the fire of the Moonshel-registered Little Clarity did explode after landing, requiring emergency services to put out a rapidly spreading fire near the main hanger. A fourth ship was so badly damaged it crashed in the badlands beyond the town with all hands lost.

Colonel Silvermane of the IAV Abraham Sinkov declared martial law after arriving on Hale's moon after the latest problems.

Hale's Deputy Mayor Gennie Foxtrot, speaking for the colony while Mayor Seana Kawanishi was off world, said the arrival of the military came as a shock to the local populace, but that the people did appreciate the arrival of food and medicine. Both had been cut off because civilian ships were blocked from crossing the now treacherous airspace to the port.

As for the chance of it affecting the moon's relationship with the UAP military, Foxtrot said "Could if they start acting uppity with us. They've been civil a while now, so I'm hoping they don't change their ways."

Kawanishi has been told of events on the moon, Foxtrot said.

No word as of yet as to when martial law will be lifted or on the cause of problems on the rim world.

For more News from the UAP controlled space visit: http://www.cortexnewsservice.com/

Trail against the "Conspiracy of the 20" starts.

Acriborea,

Today the Trail against the 20 conspirators begins, that tried to start a war and get the USD invovled in it as a set up to shake the foundation that our goverment is based on. In the recent statment of the Department of Justice, the goals of Rayback and his followers where much bigger then just that. It seemed that they even planned to overthrow the High council and even the Chief Directorate himself. 

The other 19 people read like a who is who in politics and the industry. It appears that the tentacles of this group reached into the highest ranks. On trail are people like Calvin Wax, special  advisitor to the Prime Director; Colonel Seymour MacCall, member of the SPADS, Senator Clayton Willard the list goes on. 

due to the nature of the trail, the place where it is conducted is conducted at a still secret location. Informations will be first released when the court is in session. No public is allowed and only a selected few observes are allowed. Wherever that trail takes place, the security must be at a all time high, due to fear of retribution and attacks.

As soon as new informations are available, we will post them here.