[GZG Fiction News] Missing UNSC Cruiser Found

		    Missing UNSC Survey Ship Found
			    June 4, 2183

New Albion (INN) - UNSC Cruiser 'Heitman' reported yesterday to have
discovered debris identified as the missing UNSC survey ship 'Niven'.
The
ship went missing two weeks ago along with its sister vessel 'McCaffrey'
while surveying in the Lagos star system.

Reports indicate that the 'Niven' was destroyed during a battle with an
unknown hostile ship or force. The shipboard 'blackboxes' were not
recoverable. 

The 'Niven' and 'McCaffrey' were wrapping up a two-month survey effort
of the Outworld system of Lagos when communications abruptly ceased. No
distress call was received by anyone in the Lagos system. The ships kept
in contact with the Lagos IV colony at regular intervals prior to that.

"At first we presumed they had gotten busy with some sort of wierd
survey
finding," said Trinidad Voss, commander of the Lagos IV space station,
"but
when after three comm periods came and went without hearing from them,
we
attempted to contact them directly. All we heard was static, as if they
weren't there."

"The ships were due to dock here at the station prior to departing for
UNSC
space two days after we last heard from them," reported Sabrina
Williams,
the station's traffic control officer, "The station commander sent an
inquiry to the UNSC representative's office about the situation, as a
matter
of course, but the UNSC guy didn't know anything about what was going
on,
either."

Josef Dennison, the local UNSC administrator, was unavailable for
comment.

The two survey cruisers were packed with state-of-the-art scientific
surveying
equipment, but also had the capability of defending themselves against
hostile
aggression. That the 'McCaffrey' simply vanished and the 'Niven'
completely
destroyed with such short notice is indicative of a massed fleet attack,
not
pirates. However, the SpaceNet sensors of the Lagos system detected no
evidence of fleet-sized jumpspace emergence or disappearances.

The UNSC cruiser 'Heitman' arrived four days ago and began an exhaustive
search for evidence of the missing cruisers. Three days ago it found a
debris
field of manmade materials and objects. Investigation by the 'Heitman's
crew
revealed the debris to be the remains of the 'Niven'. No bodies were
found in
the debris field.

No traces of the 'McCaffrey' have been located.

"We're kinda scared out here," admitted Voss, "To be alone, knowing that
some
fleet could just pop in, whack off two UNSC cruisers, and leave? Short
of
antipiracy defenses, this station does not have any military capability.
We
need to have some sort of protection here, or we'll be overrun by the
ESU or
worse!"

The ESU, and other nations, deny any involvement in the destruction of
the
'Niven'.

The UNSC promises to send a destroyer flotilla to safeguard Lagos IV in
the
meantime. Until then, the 'Heitman' will remain in the system,
continuing
recovery efforts of the 'Niven'.

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