Eranin's slow-burn escalation of tension with the Federation over its 30th Anniversary Of Independence celebrations looks to be coming to a head.

On Saturday, Eranin's 30th anniversary, the Federation declared the special celebratory liquor from Eranin illegal. Liquor from Wyrd, Eranin's fellow independent communist system, was also included in the ban.

A spokesperson for the Eranin Government said:

"We don't understand why the Federation would want to deny its citizens the opportunity to share our celebratory liquor with us - it is just a simple expression of shared joy, and does no harm."

Off the record, it was indicated that the Eranin Government is furious over what it sees as a bullying overlord attempting to spoil its big day, and this sort of behavior is precisely why Eranin wanted to get away from the Federation in the first place.

Over the last couple of days it looks like the whole operation has moved underground - there has been a marked increase in Commanders trading liquor from Eranin to Federal systems on the black market.

Meanwhile the marked increase in trade in black market weapons from the Anarchy systems continues unabated, with large numbers of Commanders also involved in shipments.

Reports suggest this is being funded by Black Ops cells, whose presence we have already alerted you to, placed there by a Federal government for whom the celebratory liquor was the final straw. They feel that Eranin has gone way beyond acceptable boundaries of provocation as it tries to lure other systems away from the Federation and go independent.

The ultimate destination of all this hardware is currently unknown, but having a large amount of fire-power being pumped into the already delicate situation surely cannot be good news for the short-medium term of the systems.

Eranin's 30 year anniversary of independence from the Federation is tomorrow, and their 'cold war' looks more and more like a tinderbox ready to ignite.