The Solitude Sentinel, YC 123/1/25
Anama Wracked By Pirate War as Braille and Elose Aenebra Bases Raided
Pertnineere, Elose District
Federal forces have identified multiple criminal deadspace pockets that have been housing members of the Aenebra, an Intaki death cult that is responsible for the murders of two high-ranking drug enforcement officials in the region, along with undetermined levels of drug trafficking primarily focused in the low-security systems bordering the cluster of high-security eastern Solitude. Large quantities of the booster Exile, and the material used to make it, celadon cytoserocin, were discovered in a deadspace facility in Pertnineere, which seemed to facilitate the manufacture and distribution of the booster throughout the Elose district. A similar such operation occurred in the Yveve system in Braille, although unlike the Pertnineere facility, a large transmitter sending coded messages to locations believed by Federal authorities to be somewhere in the Syndicate region was also present in the latter’s case.
The Aenebra drug distribution facility in Yveve. Much like in Heluene, the ships defending the operation had Serpentis liveries and the facility itself contained Aenebra paraphernalia, such as engraved daggers and other small arms.
While the Serpentis have always been a blight upon the region, especially in the lower-security districts, the presence of the death cult in the region marks an escalation by forces affiliated with the pirate corporation in the region, particularly when it comes to violence. However, the Federal Intelligence Office has indicated that despite the Intaki cultists’ beliefs around ritual murder, there should be no cause for alarm amongst the general populace.
“The Aenebra are not a foreign adversary to the Federation,” remarked FIO official Witte Sorgard in a statement from the office’s garrison in Pertnineere. “Federal forces have routed them from Placid nearly a decade ago, and we are absolutely confident that they will be similarly routed from Solitude in short order.”
While eastern Solitude has been safeguarded in the wake of Federal raids on the two drug production and personnel housing facilities, western Solitude remains much more uncertain in that regard. Rumours have abounded amongst miners in the Elerelle district that a recent vanishing of a party of miners in the ore-rich Babirmoult system has to do with the Aenebra, as various spacefaring Federal citizens have reported an increase in the amount of Serpentis vessels in the area, particularly in the systems near the border gates to Aridia and the Syndicate. In the case of the former, the Aenebra’s violence seems to have not been constrained to Solitude, either.
Per sources from Imperial Navy stations in Aridia, the Sentinel has learned that numerous Serpentis installations have been detected lately by Imperial forces in the Anama constellation in Aridia. While previously a rarity in the area, they have reportedly increased rapidly in the past month, although all instances have been confined to Anama. Imperial surveillance has also noted in one instance, what appeared to be attacks from ships affiliated with the Blood Raider cult on the Serpentis installations. While the two pirate factions have never been on good standings with each other, hostility in the area surrounding Aridia and Solitude had never materialized itself in the form of violent retribution until recently.
“I sure hope that the FIO knows what they’re doing,” a miner from Babirmoult who wished to remain anonymous remarked to the Sentinel. “First we got those damn Intaki murdering folks for their sick rituals, and now they’re poking at the Blooders! Last thing we need are fights around here between crazies obsessed with murder, and crazies obsessed with draining people’s blood in our space.”
While the FIO has maintained that Solitude will remain safe from incursions from the pirate organizations, capsuleer organizations like the Mobrault Security Consultants have also pledged their support in fighting the Aenebra, as news regarding the cult seems to be shifting to the west of the region.