The Hollywood National Press Office announced yesterday that the Metro Marauders fought off an attack by the infamous Medusa Gang against a Hollywood passenger zeppelin over the eastern Pacific, earlier this week. The announcement was made several days after the event due to the sensitive security surrounding the passengers, which included the Hollywood ambassador to the Kingdom of Hawai'i and a delegation of diplomats on their way to the ongoing negotiations over port rights at Pearl Harbor.

The all-female Medusa Gang, recently reported to have fled the Continent with the militias of a half-dozen nations nipping at their heels, attacked the passenger zeppelin shortly after 9am Hollywood standard time. The zeppelin was not marked as an official Hollywood zeppelin for reasons of secrecy, but fortunately the Metro Marauder squadron of the Hollywood Knights, led by Hollywood heroine Charlie Steele, quickly sallied to defend the diplomatic mission zeppelin. After a vicious dogfight, the Medusa fighters were thrown back with their tails between their legs.

The story doesn't end there, though; the Medusas retreated to their pirate zeppelin, the Gorgon, and made for the open ocean at full speed, probably expected to escape in the vast expanse of the open ocean, but Charlie Steele had other plans! Steele quickly docked her squadron's Bloodhawks, transferred to the squadron Firebrands, launched, and hunted down the Medusa airship. The Medusas were taken completely by surprise by the Firebrand fighter-bombers, and lost two engines by the time they could launch a response.

The Medusas put a tough fight and managed to tie up enough Marauders to allow the Gorgon to make a retreat, with half her engines destroyed and a burst gasbag. The Gorgon was so badly damaged that she is expected to have either crashed or been scuttled after making landfall—although there are few islands the crippled zeppelin could have retreated to. A British cargo ship out of the Gilbert Islands reports that they sighted debris from a large tramp zeppelin, but no hands were found after a search and no positive identification of the zeppelin was made.

The Medusa Gang had laid low after a daring and bloody prison break several weeks ago, in which then gang leader Justine Perot sprung their former leader, Athena Jackson. Who exactly is in charge of the Medusa Gang now is not clear, but the Medusas probably won't be showing their faces soon to explain it to anyone.

Nation of Hollywood President David Dunbar is reported to have sent Ms. Steele a personal radiogram thanking her for: "...showing the world that Hollywood will hunt down and destroy any pirate bold enough to attack her, that Hollywood is a nation with the best pilots and most modern airplanes, and for demonstrating to the citizens of Hollywood that their nation is safe."