STAIN. Pilots of several freelance pod-pilot organizations in the region have reported a slow yet steady increase of the vessel commonly identified as 'probe', in addition to the many kinds of the usually aggressive Sansha Slave vessels normally encountered in the southern regions.
According to pilots of a large southern pod-pilot Alliance that wished to remain anonymous, several of these 'probe' vessels were sighted surveying the traffic travelling through former Sansha domains, usually showing a certain degree of purpose usually absent on other Sansha vessels "that just attack you on sight", and seemed to obey to "some commanding authority that has released these probes to seek out who truly resides within their former home". Regardless their somewhat less aggressive behaviour, most of the 'probe' vessels were destroyed "as we do with every Sansha ship we find."
As of late, Sansha Nation's silence regarding their current crisis with the notorious Angel pirate cartel has strengthened the theory that the majority of the Nation's forces are in fact merely a remnant without lead or direction, and its Slave ships only automated drones following an outdated program. The above pod-pilot reports, if true, would seem to imply that such theory is at least partially wrong.
The pilots were not authorized to comment on whether or not their higher command had any sort of diplomatic contact with Sansha's forces.