War breaks out in Old Islands

A message boat, two months out of date, has arrived from the Old Islands subsector with word of extensive fighting in that remote, non-Imperial region. Old Islands subsector, due to its astrographic location, has never been integrated into the Imperium. The combination of fairly uniform tech levels, aggressive trade policies, and numerous autonomous governments have traditionally made it an area of continuing instability. It now appears that the instability has erupted into open warfare.