ComStar AP News Services
received Nejiro System August 3068
[INN Anchor]: "The First Circuit released a statement today confirming the failure of Case White. All Com Guards Divisions and all ComStar WarShips - nearly the entire Com Guards combat navy - dispatched to the assault on Terra are listed missing and presumed destroyed.
"With the losses over Tukayyid and elsewhere in the Chaos March, the Case White failure has all but eradicated the Com Guards admiralty and rendered its ground forces a shadow of its former self. The First Circuit statement did not mention the use of nuclear weapons in the Blakists' defense of Terra, and First Precentor Gavin Dow could not be reached for further comment on the operation. However, INN has received this video release from Jenna Martins, our field reporter on the Invisible Truth, soon after she narrowly escaped Blakist interceptors in the Terran system - contrary to earlier reports by Blakist outlets..."
[Cut to: Reporter Jenna Martins stands in a small, soot-smeared corridor with several other reporters and their crews. A bulkhead door is visible some distance behind her, flanked by two Inner Sphere standard battlesuits. The letters 'C-I-C' can be seen stenciled on the door, over the ComStar and Star League logos.]
[Martins]: "We are standing just outside the command and control center of the Invisible Truth, which has been under heavy and steady acceleration ever since our arrival in the Sol sytem. Adept LaMoine Oberschulte, a designated spokesman for Precentor Martial Steiner-Davion and Admiral Beresick, both of whom are on the bridge at this time, will be addressing us shortly on the status of the mission and of the rest of the Case White task force."
[As if on cue, the sentry on the right side of the door shifts in place and a female voice issues from the suit's external speakers.]
[Sentry]: "Ladies and gentlemen, Adept Oberschulte will see you now."
[The C-I-C door opens to reveal a holographic presentation in the center of a dim room filled with computer stations and busy crewmen in Com Guards naval attire. The camera focuses on the hologram, which projects the Sol system, a single green triangle blinking near Terra and along the planet's orbital path. A dashed green line indicates the green triangles projected course. Several red triangles are depicted closer to the planet and the moon, with multiple dashed red lines projected in front of them, all of which cross the dashed green line at various points. Numbers flutter around each icon, all apparently counting down. Stepping in front of the image, a ComStar naval officer in his mid-thirties clasps his hands behind his back and meets the eyes of the gathered reporters with a grim expression.]
[Oberschulte]; "Welcome, members of the press. I am Adept LaMoine Oberschulte. On behalf of Admiral Beresick, I apologize fot the inconvenience of our current 1.5-G acceleration, but as the projection behind me demonstrates, there is an urgent need for us to put as much space between us and the enemy fleet as possible.
"What I am about to discuss with you has already been shared with the crew of the Invisible Truth. It will likely be weeks before you can give this to your news outlets, and even then only after significant editing for security purposes. The Precentor Martial has chosen to divulge this information because he feels you have a right to know what kind of danger we are presently in, but stresses that we expect more responsibility from you than that of certain colleagues whose actions nearly got us all killed.
"You see behind me a plot of the Truth's path away from our Word of Blake pursuers. We estimate no less than seven ships currently in pursuit, which we first detected at a spot roughly one point four one-gee burn-days away from our present location after our arrival here via a non-standard jump point believed to be that used by the initial Case White fleet. As far as we can determine, the Blakist ships were engaged in salvage operations on our arrival, and the space around their location appears to be filled with debris and derelict vessels. Unfortunately, sensors told us that all active IFF transponders in the field belong to the Word of Blake. Upon confirming what appears to be the complete destruction of the main task force fleet, we received transmissions from the Blakists to cut our engines and surrender our vessel or be destroyed.
"Since then, we have picked up several drive flare signatures that indicate a large number of inbound vessels vectoring to intercept the Truth. In the past few hours, despite constant scanning, we have not picked up any ComStar beacons of any kind. We can only speculate as to what occured here, but clearly the Blakist forces still active in this system are far more numerous than our scout reports let on. The cause of the intelligence failure remains under investigation, and I am not authorized to speculate.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it appears from the sensor evidence that Case White has utterly failed. We dare not speculate at this time how the Blakists managed to defeat a fleet three times as large as the vessels we knew they had, nor can we ascertain the composition and configuration of most of the Blakist ships now pursuing us. We have detected higher-than-normal levels of radiation from the debris field, suggesting that nuclear weapons may have been employed to destroy the Case White fleet, but we cannot be certain of that, largely because of some unusual signals and inteference.
"With no apparent survivors or support available, and considering our present condition and prior battle damage, the decision was made to immediately move away from the enemy vessels in hopes of buying enough time to hot-load our K-F drive and effect an emergency jump out-system before the Blakists can engage. The admiral and the Precentor Martial want you all to be aware of the distinct possibility of imminent combat within the next twenty-four to thirty-six hours, and to know that we will do our best to assure the safety of everyone on board. But we are all in grave danger, and you have a right to know about it.
"I will not take questions at this time. Thank you for your patience and support."
[Oberschulte nods to another pair of sentries and begins to move around the holoprojection as another pair of battle-suited troopers ushers out the small gathering of silent reporters]
-INN News Special Report, Orestes, 21 March 3068