Gutter Press agents investigated rumours of a Drifter fleet in Republic space, and travelled to the reported site.
A large group of Drifter battleships was observed, with the Drifters using their scanners on all objects near the stargate they were clustered around, including our correspondent’s ship.
After around 1 hour of observation, with no observed aggressive actions by the Drifter ships, ARC agents arrived on site and engaged the Drifter vessels in combat, using Coercer class destroyers.
ARC agents had previously communicated to Gutter Press that they had obtained authorisation to engage Drifter forces from “all the (authorities) that matter”.
ARC agents also communicated that no viable specimens of Jovian meme worms had been recovered from Drifter vessels, but that they would continue to search.
The ARC vessels attacked in several waves of ships, receiving strong counter-fire from the Drifter forces once engaged.
ARC elements locked weapons on to our correspondent, with one ARC associate using racialist language to order our correspondent to “back off”, and that “these are our spoils”.
Odd behaviour was observed from one Drifter vessel, which stopped all propulsion and weapons fire, until it was later destroyed by non-ARC elements.