A Tragedy Of War - Official SEA Statement
Late 2212 - Jool System
After incidents involving the destruction of one of our comms relays, along with the launching of a large fleet towards the system unprovoked, SEA forces were on-edge, Due to this, various measures were put in place for defensive purposes, all of which were announced earlier this year.
This included an explicit policy requiring that civilian vessels submit to inspection by patrol forces.
The UIF ship "Isaac" refused to respond to any hails from JOTC (Jool Orbital Traffic Control) stating that they needed to turn off their engines and submit to an otherwise routine inspection. As such, along with statements, now known to be false, from basillic intelligence forces stating that the ship, which was still refusing to respond to hails and extremely large, was most likely military in nature and attempting to stage an attack against laythe.
As a result, a force of 40 Type-114-2A Frigates was assembled, with the intent of disabling the vessel should it continue to refuse to respond to any hails
Captain Rahimi of one of these frigates opened fire on the "Isaac" at 11:00 Laythe Time, after the vessel attempted to evade his ship, After initially damaging the vessel, and the crew's evacuation aboard a shuttle, Rahimi, against his orders, continued to fire into the damaged ship, even after he realized it posed no actual threat and was instead a civilian vessel, he would eventually empty his entire magazine of anti-ship missiles into the "Isaac" long after it had ceased firing its engines or rotating, reducing it to a diffuse ring of debris in laythe orbit.
Another frigate, not involved in the engagement, would report that the crew shuttle had made an emergency entry into laythe's atmosphere over the Degrasse Sea, and most likely landed safely due to the design of the craft in question.
Upon his return to base, Rahimi found himself being arrested by MPs after combat footage was leaked, plainly showing his highly dishonorable and highly cowardly behavior of continuing to fire at a disabled vessel that was clearly non military.
A few days later - The SEA government provides proof that the crew of the "Isaac" had entered the atmosphere of laythe, based on their last known burns, in the Degrasse sea, the government also offers to extradite Rahimi to the UIF in order to stand trial for his war crimes.
A delegation between the SEA and UIF is proposed to meet in neutral space (slightly inwards of Dres) in order to prevent further escalation as a result of this tragedy.