In brief, a very large battle in our atmosphere took place over Russia this week following the death of a base pilot last week. A flight of three ships from the base were jumped over Kazakhstan by a group of seven from the Zeta Reticuli system. The base craft beat off the attackers and resumed patrol. Over Siberia they were again attacked by a much larger force of 35 hostile craft. After calling for reinforcements, one of the base craft lost firing ability and withdrew from the battle. Shortly afterwards two flights from the base arrived and engaged the enemy. After downing a few of hostiles and taking damage to other base craft, the flight leader called for more squadrons from the base and they were dispatched.

   In the ensuing fight, a 2 to 1 ratio was reached as the base's total of hostiles shot down reached 15 to one base craft destroyed. Happily the downed pilot was rescued later from the planet. The remaining force of hostiles withdrew from the engagement. 5 base ships were damaged by hostiles with only minor injuries suffered by the pilots of those craft. One pilot injured his hand while raising it in celebration through the blown out window of his craft.

   -On a side note, Katrina, Taal's bondmate and mother of their child, shot down 2 of the hostile craft and became the newest base ace. We at the Hades Base News send our congratulations to her.

   -2 new squadrons of craft will be arriving at the base this week to beef up the base's patrol ability and replace those craft lost in recent engagements.

   -A note from Omal is that we mention that the base's craft and pilots operate independent of the base and there is a long standing rivalry between the pilots and the Zeta Reticulans.

   -In other news, one of the base defense force's second lieutenants who had recently transferred back to Sirius gave birth to a girl, her first child. Mother and daughter are doing well.