Stable Cryptographic Analysis, Tewanta - 3306-03-18 08:27
"Hey, Denzel", said Brian Jones, as he walked into his supervisor's office carrying a data pad and a bulb of coffee. "I think I might have found something interesting."
"Lay it on me!"
"Well, I was working with FIDO to fine tune analysis of the low temperature diamond markets. Grete was complaining that some of the search routines were slow and difficult to use. So, to test the exploration interface I decided to put in that cult we were told to keep an eye on."
"Chapter of Isinor?"
"Yes! Them! Well, I may have found something weird."
"How weird?"
"Well, I was expecting some delivery contracts and maybe, they'd be the supplier for some LTD futures. You know, low level stuff. Well the search took a few minutes and I was worried that had mucked up the search indices somehow."
"And?"
"It turns out that they have a massive web of derivatives, futures, and derivatives on futures, based on low temperature diamonds. That's why the search took so long. It is sort of like the thing we did for the exploration data that CMDR Primetime Casual brought back. So I ran their portfolio through the analysis software we developed for that, and this was the result", Brian said, offering his boss the data pad.
Denzel reviewed the report. "Woah! Their stability margins on this portfolio are wafer thin for a few scenarios: over supply in a handful of markets could wipe them out. Are you sure you have the entire portfolio?"
"Yep! Triple checked it. Got FIDO to run a full search on the entire LTD market Bubble wide. I ran it overnight. There's nothing outstanding for anybody that could remotely hedge against this."
"Okay!", Denzel said taking a deep breath. "Management, needs to hear about this immediately. It looks like Chapter of Isinor took their war chest to the race track!"
Wilson Port, Tewanta - 3306-03-18 10:45
Francis Bonetti entered the maintenance and out fitting deck at a brisk walk.
"HEY! EVERYONE! GATHER ROUND! I HAVE NEWS TO SHARE FROM THE BOSSES!"
His team put down their tools and wander over towards him with curious expressions on their faces. The ten of them that were currently in the outfitting deck formed a rough semicircle in front of him.
"Heya Frank, what's the news?", said Kayleigh.
"I have just come from the operations meeting. The Bosses want us to prepare for a big increase in work. They will be outfitting about six Lakon Type 9's and about eight Lakon Type 7's as mining ships: refineries, collector and prospector limpet controllers, mining lasers, the works. In addition, the experimental Vipers are having their lightweight FSDs replaced with engineered, long range ones."
"Okay, long range missions coming up for those guys then.", said Kayleigh, "What's the reason, though? Why the big scramble for the mining ships?"
"You've all heard the rumours about mercenary build up near Tewanta, right? Well those rumours are true. Apparently, a faction called Chapter of Isinor are hiring them to prepare for some sort of attack. They are funding this with low temperature diamonds and the eggheads at Stable Cryptographic Analysis have figured out a way to disrupt their cash flow. It requires a hell of lot of diamonds to be mined, though."
"Aren't those Chapter of Isinor people the cultists that put Hiroko in hospital?", asked Maxine.
"The very same!", replied Frank.
There was angry muttering at that. A lot of them had worked with Hiroko. She was liked and admired, even more now they had found out she was a special agent for The Protectorate.
"What about the Buur Pit Mining Corporation? Will they be involved?"
"Almost certainly. In fact any work they have for us gets priority. It is likely they will be the ones doing the most damage to those cultist assholes. If enough diamonds get mined, then instead of an army of mercs. heading this way, they'll be pissed off and heading to Isinor. And whether the diamonds get mined depends on how quickly we can outfit the ships. Everyone is depending on us."
"Gotcha Frank.", said Kayleigh, " Good job Piotr got the module conveyor automation improvements in place yesterday." She gave him a high five. "We'll test that it is working smoothly while we are waiting for the ships and modules to arrive."
"There'll be three teams.", said Frank, "Kayleigh, you will look after the Vipers: they are a bit fiddly. Take someone along to shadow you."
"Will do, Frank!"
"Maxine! You will lead up the mining ship outfitting. Start with the Type 9s and work from there."
"Sure thing, Frank!"
"And Miguel, you Felix and Maria will cover any work from the Buur Pit. If you are free, pitch in to help Maxine."
"I hear you loud and clear, boss!"
"We'll need to run double shifts today, but we'll be getting overtime and bonus pay all week to make up for it. Also, if you have any problems or need any equipment, let me know straight away. I have been told that I can throw money at problems until they go away. Let's go ruin some cultists' day!"
Tewanta - 3306-03-20 14:11
Captain Gordon Coppinger began a scan of the Python ahead of him. He was the commanding officer of the Liberator, an Anaconda in the service of the Tewantan System Security Force. On the bridge with him were Lieutenant Rowena Davies, on the fighter telepresence control, and Pavel Ibsen on gunnery turret control. The other five members of the crew were at stations near the power plant and thrusters, ready to deal with any issues or do any necessary repairs that came up during combat. Changes in the rostering to support Operation Market Harvest had changed their role. Previously, the Viper wings had done most of the patrols and interdiction of criminals, with the larger ships being around to provide support. The new roster had the Vipers protecting mining fleets. Consequently, the role of the Anacondas and Pythons in Tewantan System Security Force had changed from being a show of force to its rigorous application. His scan completed.
"Target is wanted", Lieutenant Ibsen responded, "The target is Fred Johnson, Chu I Purple Cartel. Bounty is 121 kCr."
"Beginning interdiction! All hands, battle stations!", replied Captain Coppinger.
They had caught the pirate flat footed and quickly pulled the Python out of supercruise. Captain Coppinger quickly reoriented the ship and deployed hard points.
"Fighter deploying!", announced Lieutenant Davies
"Fire at will!"
As the large burst laser turrets unleashed their fury, Captain Coppinger maneuvered his large ship to line up a shot on the Python. He pulled the trigger and ball of plasma surged towards the target from the Anaconda's huge plasma accelerator. The Condor's beams were hammering the Python's shields. It was looking like they would destroy their fourth pirate of the day.
Resource Extraction Site, Tewanta A 5, Tewanta - 3306-03-23 15:30
Lieutenant Katie Benedict sat in her Viper Mk III, "Dirk", and studied her scanner. Currently, there was a Type 9 and two Type 7s on the scope, with their swarms of limpets, and the wing signal of Lieutenant Jamie Hatch's Viper Mk IV, "The Archer". Although she was the better of the two of them as a combat pilot, she was still learning things from the wily old goat. She wasn't certain that he'd show up on the scope without the wing signal. He was really good at hiding in these ice rings. Tricks he learned from getting shot at by pirates, he said. He was floating stationary in the middle of a cloud of ice crystals left over from when the mining ships cracked an asteroid, using the crystals to draw off his ship's heat. Hidden by the cloud he was effectively invisible. The two of them were running with all their systems, other than sensors, shields, and life support, powered down to reduce heat output. They were waiting in ambush for pirates. As part of their current assignment, for Operation Market Harvest, they were guarding a small fleet of miners, powering up engines only to reposition when the miners moved to another asteroid. And to take down pirates when they showed up.
Two ships dropped in from supercruise. She targeted them: a pair of Vipers, both wanted.
"Heads up everyone!", she announced, "two hostiles incoming!"
The Type 9 launched a Taipan fighter and brought two pulse laser turrets around to face the targets. The Type 7s maneuvered to place the asteroid they were mining between them and the newly arrived Vipers. She waited. There was no sign of activity from Jamie either. The Vipers flew right past the asteroid she was hiding behind, just over 500m from her. She powered up weapons and thrusters. A faint flare of light from the ice cloud indicated that Jamie had done the same.
"Charlie Two, engaging!"
"Charlie One, engaging!", Jamie responded.
She fired thrusters and maneuvered her ship to within 500m of the rear of one of the Vipers. She pulled the trigger and her two plasma accelerators launched two boiling balls of plasma. Just before the plasma struck, Jamie's railgun slugs slammed into its shields, almost taking them down. The plasma hit, finishing off the shields and slamming through its hull into the power plant. The Viper exploded. The second Viper started to turn as the pulse laser turrets began to fire. It was trying to make a run for it.
"Good luck with that, buddy", she said to herself, as Jamie, the Taipan, and herself gave chase. It didn't clear the mass lock of the ring.
Cortes Base, Tewanta A 7 A - 3306-03-26 11:49
Commander Graves took a long drink from his coffee mug as he reviewed the parameters for strategic battle simulations around Black Wildwood Ranch. He had been working on this simulation for the last three days, tuning it based on the latest data he had received on The Protectorate's ship deployments and the estimates of mercenaries building up in nearby systems. So far, the mercenaries had an edge but there it was slimmer than he would like, especially if retrieving some live specimens of the wildlife there was the goal. He assumed that it was, as there was little strategic value in the installation otherwise, and holding it long term wasn't feasible. He wanted to account far as many variables as possible, to be sure the results could be relied on. If it looked like the mercenaries had a high probability of keeping the System Defence Forces busy, he would commit The Order to a raid on Stable Cryptographic Analysis to steal data cores and, if they were really lucky, sabotage the compute farms there. When he was happy he had things configured the way he wanted them, he began the simulation. It would run for a few hours running millions of iterations. His analysis software would pick out patterns, assign probabilities of victory and defeat, predict loss levels on both sides. He finished the remainder of his coffee and stretched. He was considering going to have a light meal, perhaps some soup and a sandwich, when his workstation chimed. He leaned forward, a puzzled expression on his face, and clicked on the alert icon in the bottom right hand corner of his workstation's screen.
"Frakk!"
A concerned Lieutenant Kohira poked his head through the door to Commander Graves' office. "Is there anything wrong, Commander?"
"The Burian Protectorate has activated their emergency broadcast system. It is broadcasting an encrypted message to all their operatives and allies."
"Is it something that we need to worry about?"
"Directly? No. Most likely they have detected the plot by our mysterious mercenary hiring clients and are mobilizing forces to neutralize it. My prior simulations indicated that this was a low likelihood strategy with an above average chance of success."
"Ah! That's not ideal. Should I stand down Operation Long Strike?"
"Yes, that's probably best. It is very unlikely to be successful now."
"I'll attend to that right away Commander.", said Lieutenant Kohira, before leaving to head to the operations center.
Commander Graves leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and took a few deep breaths.
"Well, my mysterious clients", he said to the empty room, "It was fun doing business with you while it lasted!"
He straightened up in his chair, logged back into his workstation, and cancelled the simulation run.