Naval Battlecruiser Destroys Merchant Ship

Word was received today that two weeks ago the Imperial Battlecruiser Adamdun mistakenly engaged and destroyed the merchant craft Bloodwell of the Oberlindes Line. The Bloodwell, according to the crew of the battlecruiser, was not showing its ID transponder signal and would not answer broad-beam hails. The Bloodwell was under full acceleration, and after it refused to change vector in response to laser warning fire, it was engaged engaged by high-G missile fire and destroyed. A subsequent (and unsuccessful) search for survivors resulted in the identification of the ship.

Oberlindes Lines officials called the story "an obvious cover-up of a tragic display of incompetence." and claimed that the Bloodwell's ID transponder had just undergone its annual maintenance check, and could not have failed to function. As in all commercial vessels, the ID transponder was supposedly tamper-proof, and are could not have been turned off by the crew. Legal action is expected.