View source for Comm-Link:New United - Emboldened Outlaws

It still pains [[Khalil Carr]] to speak about the incident. The Lead Engineer of [[Androtti Racing]] turns to his office window overlooking a massive hangar filled with custom built racing rigs in various states of repair. Located in a non-descript warehouse deep inside a New Austin industrial park, there are no signs, billboards or indications broadcasting the famous racing team working within. The anonymity is intentional, as both Carr and Chief Mechanic [[Jan Saperstein]] know their operation is under constant scrutiny.

“Sometimes it’s diehard fans just hoping to catch a glimpse of the action,” said Saperstein. “Most of the time it’s our competition trying to get an advantage in the next Cup. We learned a long time ago that security could only protect you so much; it’s also about deception.”

For the previous six months, Carr devoted time to a project even most members of his team didn’t know about — modifying a competition-grade [[Hammer Propulsion]] [[HM 4.2]] engine to make it both lighter and more powerful. Preliminary controlled tests in the Androtti hangar were promising, but it needed real world testing, so Carr hatched an elaborate plan.

“Saperstein took most of our crew to [[Goss system|Goss]] to test some ships and components,” said Carr. “It’s a team bonding thing we do every year, but I played sick. Two nights after they left, I boarded a commercial Starliner bound for Ellis with our test engine. It took a lot of planning and misdirection on our part to set it up.”

With the modified HM 4.2 in the cargo hold and Carr in a sleeping quarter, [[Starliner]] Flight 1289, operated by [[Meridian Transport]], broke atmosphere above [[Terra system|Terra]] at 22:03 SET and left the system not long after. It passed through the [[Stanton system|Stanton]] and [[Magnus system]]s without incident, but when it entered Ellis, something strange happened. The ship’s cargo hold opened and started spewing its contents into space.

What was first believed to be an unfortunate technical malfunction proved to be something much more sinister. The Starliner swung around to see a [[Caterpillar]] using a tractor beam to pull the Androtti engine into its cargo hold.

Since the incident, Androtti Racing has hired security expert [[Cassius Thornton]] to conduct an independent investigation. Thornton was not surprised by the well-executed plan, which involved a passenger sneaking into the hold, opening the hatch to free the cargo and then EVAing into a waiting ship.

The [[Ellis Protection Force]], a local militia, were first to respond to the distress call. Their members had already suffered heavy casualties when [[Advocacy]] officials arrived. Even though they now outnumbered the outlaws, the authorities had little luck preventing them from snagging all the remaining cargo they could carry before escaping into the black. Still, Thornton was taken aback by the outlaws’ behavior once the [[EPF]] arrived on the scene.

“They didn’t run,” he said. “Even though they had secured the big score, they slugged it out with the militia and even the Advocacy until they had collected everything they could. Think about it for a second. How much value could that personal luggage really hold? Not much when compared to the engine. It’s almost like they stayed to fight just because they wanted to.”

The aggressive action taken by the outlaws has convinced Thornton that this isn’t just another case of high-stakes corporate espionage. “In the past, I could usually sniff out a corporate job pretty quickly. They were cleaner, and there was a concerted attempt to limit collateral damage,” said Thornton. “But recently I’ve worked an alarming number of cases similar to this. Some of them are corporate jobs; others just brazen outlaws looking for a big score. To be honest, I don’t know what’s worse, that corporate espionage tactics have gotten more aggressive or that more and more outlaws won’t hesitate to fight militia.”

It’s no secret that crime has been on the rise around the [[UEE]] over the last decade. The Advocacy’s [[Travel Safety Advisory System]] ([[TSAS]]), which collates crime data from every UEE system, then assigns each system a Threat Level ranging from ‘minimal’ to ‘extreme’ danger,’ clearly charts a steady rise in criminal behavior in almost every corner of the Empire. According to the last TSAS annual report, more crime occurred in 2945 than any other year this century, and 2946 appears poised to break that record.