Sansha Attacks The Arek'Jaalan Project, Others As Well?

The action is heating up in Eram as Site One of the Arek'Jaalan project was attacked twice.  In the initial attack on Wednesday, a Raven piloted by a day-old pilot with a -10 standing engaged the security forces around the Arek'Jaalan facility and was destroyed as well as a Crow that later warped in to salvage the Raven.  The Crow was also piloted by a day-old pilot with -10 standings.  Myrhial Arkenath issued this report from the scene:

"Somewhere around 19:00, a capsuleer by the name of Kaitoh Aikoh (deceased), then member of the State War Academy opened fire upon the Arek'Jaalan security forces at Site One. I witnessed the attack first had, though it took me a while to catch on what was happening as I was taking camera drone shots for an MRID report.

"The capsuleer managed to destroy one or two vessels -- one wreck is currently present, yet I registered more security vessels before -- and then appeared to activate a cloaking device. As I relayed information into the main Arek'Jaalan channel, the pilot jetissoned a can (contents unknown) and targetted me. I kept a steady distance, and after a while his ship cloaked once again. As reinforcements arrived, he eventually uncloaked and registred as free to fire upon. Moments after, his wreck and corpse were seen in space, and the one day old licensed -- suspected record fraud -- capsuleer registred as being deceased.

"Some while after a pilot named Surento Anniki, also licensed for only just one day, appeared in a Crow named 'Cold Wind' near the Raven wreck. He left Ishukone Operational Reports behind.

"It is important to note that neither CONCORD forces, nor Minmatar Republic forces, responded to the attack. This is even more curious as both pilots registered as -10.0 security status and should have been shot on sight. I'd also like to draw attention to the face that both capsuleers graduated from Caldari schools, which in light of the suspected record fraud may be either intended, or chosen to make the State look as to be behind this."

Guillome Renard, one of the pilots responding to the attack, provided some additional details:

• Both pilots were flying advanced hardware for freshly licensed pilots. The Crow, in particular, had advanced missile and other modules fit to it. The pilot records, including their affiliation, is likely forged or spoofed somehow.
• The Crow pilot appeared (though no one was in its proximity to confirm) to salvage the wreck of the Raven. Both ships were destroyed under mysterious circumstances.
• The raven wreck was discovered roughly 90,000-100,000 km from Site One, down the axis of travel one would expect from the Under Construction acceleration gate. It is unclear how it arrived there.
• Both corpses were recovered.

Gejaheline came up with rules of engagement (ROE) for capsuleers looking to help the defense forces:

"There seems to be some form of huge red-tape snafu RE Site one, possibly relating to CONCORD jurisdiction problems. I shall sum up the various points that were discovered during the attacks on Site One today. I shan't go into reasoning why, merely the basic facts, and shall leave speculation to those wiser than I.

1. Capsuleers may freely fire upon the non-capsuleer staff at Site One.
2. Capsuleers who are firing upon non-capsuleer staff may not be fired upon by other capsuleers, including A'J staffers.
3. Capsuleers MAY remote-repair non-capsuleer staffers with no repercussions, to the point where attackers cannot fire upon the remote-repairers.
4. Capsuleer - capsuleer interactions obey the normal RoE. The above only apply if there is a non-capsuleer ship involved in the middle.

"So, to sum up: Capsuleer staff may defend non-capsuleer staff by repairing them, but may not retaliate with force against their attackers.

"Similarly, Capsuleer attackers may not attack A'J capsuleers who are repairing non-capsuleer staff.

"I suggest that you take advantage of this to keep Site One craft intact until their crews have time to evacuate.

"Naturally, if you get a warning that repairing a target will flag you for aggression, do not attempt to repair the target unless you know what you're doing."

In the wake of the first attack, Dr. Hilen Tukoss, the head of the Arek'Jaalan Project, issued this statement:

"It appears that around an hour ago, a breach of our security was attempted by an unknown individual or individuals, presumably capsuleers.

"Two security vessels were destroyed and material acquired from them was used to activate the acceleration gate present at the site. Only a few crew members remain unaccounted for at this time.

"The gate these individuals were attempting to use currently leads to an empty pocket of space. No construction or work of any significance has begun there (only basic surveying has begun so far), as those who presumably found the wrecks at the same location can hopefully verify. This suggests that our would-be infiltrators were perhaps expecting something more.

"As soon as these individual's identities were discovered to be falsified, a notification was sent to CONCORD, and special operations teams were dispatched to neutralize the situation. Both pilots have since had their capsuleer records wiped.

"I agree with others that the somewhat bizarre nature of events is designed to muddy the waters, and that we should not rush to conclusions.

"I've sent a formal request of information to the State War Academy, on behalf of Eifyr & Co. to share any information they can about these two individuals, but I suspect little in the way of solid leads.

"Please continue to report any clearly violent or erratic behaviour observed at Site One to the list, and remember to presume innocence on a capsuleer's behalf as a matter of course. We do not want to start threaning day-old pilots with a genuine interest in our research."  

While the first attack was conducted by pilots flying with forged data entries and orders from Ishukone, the second attack this morning appears the work of the Sansha.  From the initial reports, at 6:41am a Sansha Nation sympathizer by the name of Kanza Mikakka flew a Bantam filled with nuclear pulse generators and thermonuclear triggers to the mouth of the Federation outpost next to the Residential Shuttle Port.  He initiated the self-destruct sequence and alert forces managed to bump the Caldari mining frigate 5-10km from the structures where it harmlessly blew up.  Kanza shouted "For the Master!" while conducting the attack and left this message for the Arek'Jaalan community:

"The Master calls; Your fleets will burn You will not see the Promised Land.

"We will vanquish your fear and commute your flesh to dust."

So what's going on?  Who really is attacking Arek'Jaalan?  Is Dr. Tukoss getting to close to things?  Is Ishukone looking for revenge against someone they may consider a traitor?  I have the feeling we will find out soon.