Death toll in insecure space rising

Red alert! Lately, CONCORD offices have been flooded with reports of entire fleets of pirates outside empire space reclaiming their "sovereignty". In what can only be called a concentrated effort to drive back ore prospectors and bounty hunters, literally hundreds of ships have met their end in the cold vacuum of space to this new threat.

"We have no reason to believe that pirate nations and organizations such as Sansha's nation and Serpentis corporation are joining forces - there has been no evidence of cooperation between them - but we do find their simultaneous strengthening a bit mystifying." said Haram Goskaktar, the head of DED security.

The sudden strengthening of attacks on miners and bounty hunters in lawless space has come as a great shock to many pilots who had grown complacent with the ineptness of the piratical nations at keeping them out.

"I swear they even have new types of ships! I didn't even have the presence of mind to engage my warp drive before I got shot down by that monster." remarked an anonymous bounty hunter, who lost his ship to a new type of Angel Cartel battleship recently.

Strangely enough, not everyone seems bothered by this news. Some pilots even welcome the changes, saying that this will help keep out their competition.

Indeed it might. Lone pilots are now advised to stay away from the areas where the pirates are concentrating their attacks, and corporations are implored to operate in larger groups. This reporter has already suffered a loss while investigating these sightings. Don't let this happen to you.