Tales from the Service: A Plugged Leak

2950-01-04 – Tales from the Service: A Plugged Leak

This week, Fifth Fleet is finally in motion here in Berkant. After a major attack on the picket line on the last day of the year was defeated, Admiral Zahariev ordered the fleet to form up for a push away from Berkant toward occupied Hallman. 

While this movement across the open system has not (as of this entry being submitted late on the second) yet resulted in a major fleet action, I can’t see how it can be avoided at this point. If the Incarnation fleet at Hallman does not run or come out to fight a maneuver battle by mid-day (fleet shipboard time) on the fourth, the day this post is being ingested into the feed distribution system, they’ll be forced to fight a defensive battle in orbit to protect their groundside installations. 

By all estimates Fifth Fleet has the numeric and tonnage advantage; almost none of the dozen-odd enemy cruisers observed retiring after being damaged in the numerous skirmishes here have been seen returning. 

While we are waiting to see what the result of Zahariev’s offensive will be, I am bringing you a unique account. Unlike most, which are sent to Cosmic Background and then fed to Naval Intelligence for review, this account comes directly from Naval Intelligence, and is about the activity of an agent of one of its subordinate organizations, the Bureau of Counter-Intelligence. In interests of full disclosure, they did not pressure me into editing it for the text feed; they submitted it last month with a request to treat it exactly like any other candidate for the Tales from the Inbox series. Their interest seems to be mainly to remind the public that the terror campaigns waged by Immortal agents like Horus are not the only variety of Incarnation espionage within the Confederated Worlds. 

Just to avoid the inevitable flood of questions to this effect, the name of the BCI agent used here is almost certainly a pseudonym, and though the submission claimed this took place on Madurai, I doubt highly that that is true.

[N.T.B. - If we’re not missing something – and I rather think we are – I expect Nate to run rather than fight here. Hallman hardly seems worth protecting, and at this point Berkant is nothing but a fortress.] 

Duana stared hard at the bouncer at the nightclub entrance as the man made a show of scrutinizing her holo-badge and credentials. Most likely, the oaf normally saw such things as forgeries created in a vain attempt to allow those not on the sleazy establishment’s curiously exclusive guest list to enjoy the party. 

The man's vain search for subtle signs of falsification increasingly creased his broad forehead, but Duana didn’t move a muscle, knowing even the least motion would be analyzed both by the guard and whoever was watching behind the cold eye of the security camera behind him. She had already cataloged the extensive list of illicit body-modifications which the club’s door-man kept concealed under his ill-fitting uniform, and her folded arms concealed one hand already beginning to work an electromagnetic stun-wand out of its hiding-place in her sleeve. 

“This ain’t real, sis.” The man flipped Duana’s badge back to her.  

She pretended to be surprised and deliberately failed to catch it, then stooped to pick it up. “I assure you, it is very real. This is a matter of the utmost-” 

The man half-turned away to focus on a slouched, shifty-eyed man approaching the club entrance. It was just enough of an opening for Duana to leap up and jam the shiny studs on the stun-wand into the side of his neck. With a surprised gurgle, the bouncer crumpled to the ground, all of his concealed cybernetics scrambled. For his sake, she hoped none of those newly defective components were hooked into the vital processes of his body; an EM wand could put a grown man on the floor for a few minutes, but against the cybernetically corrupted, it was a lethal weapon. 

As the slouching man fled down the shadowy street, Duana held her holo-badge up to the camera’s lens for several seconds, then held up the five splayed fingers of one hand. Slowly, she lowered one finger at a time. The door lock clicked open just as she reached two. Clearly, the club’s owner was not as dull as his help. It was no secret that those who obstructed Bureau of Counter-Intelligence investigations rarely stayed in business for long, especially when their business acted as a covert hub for the degenerate goings-on of the local counterhuman scene. 

In addition to a wall of thudding, discordant music, a slim young woman whose face was painted with bruise-like purple makeup slipped out of the door. Glancing nervously at the bouncer, she beckoned for Duana to follow her. Unlike the downed man, Duana’s analysis lenses didn’t detect any cybernetics installed in her body. True, her facial features bore the unmistakable signs of having been "improved” by a bargain-basement fleshsculpt procedure, but Duana didn’t have the time or the jurisdiction to worry about that. 

Duana followed her guide around the margins of a chaotic tangle of human and mostly-human revelry toward the club’s back office. Dim lighting shot with bright strobes, diaphanous curtains hanging from the rafters, and a haze of damp smoke made it hard to see any particular details, but Duana didn’t mind that double-edged sword; it also made it less likely that her quarry would notice her in time to escape. Of the few patrons close enough to look up and see her clearly, most quickly lost interest. One made a doomed, intoxicated come-hither gesture, but received only an exaggerated eye-roll in response. 

Ushered into the sound-dampened office at the back, Duana found a broad-shouldered, silver-haired man sitting behind a huge desk. She calmly set her holo-badge on that desk and waited for his eyes to return to her after examining it. 

“Got nothing to say to you or any other spook.” The club manager shook his head. “Come back with a magistrate’s warrant.” 

“Please.” Duana waved her still-active stun-wand around, and noted the way it made the man wince even before her analysis lenses identified several unknown cybernetic modules within his body. “Our style is more to come back with an extraction team, but you like your roof, so you won’t let that happen. I’m just looking for someone.” 

“Who?” 

Duana tossed a miniature holo-projector onto the desk next to her badge, and it lit up to display the head and shoulders of a dumpy-looking young man. “He probably gave the name Adam Symons. Real name doesn’t matter.” 

Even before he spoke, the man’s reaction told Duana that he’d seen her quarry. “What for?” 

“There’s been a leak on a secret project. We just need to talk to him.” 

Whether the man believed this lie or not didn’t matter. He didn’t need to know that “Symons” was a Ladeonist ideologue named K.B. Cole who had penetrated Naval security systems and was only hours from delivering the full technological specifications of the battleship Maribel and dozens of other new warships to a local Incarnation sleeper agent.  

After a long pause, the club manager nodded. “He’s in one of our private rooms, with, ah... entertainment.” 

“Which one?” Duana didn’t envy the prostitute unlucky enough to be in the process of satisfying Cole when her associates interrupted the festivities. Prostitution, too, was illegal in the Core Worlds, but once again she had neither the time or jurisdiction to be concerned with it. 

“Upper floor, third from the stairs.” 

As soon as the picocameras woven into Duana’s coat picked up these words, she knew a dozen armed agents were in motion. Smiling and nodding her thanks, she reached out to collect her badge and projector, then sat down in the chair across the desk. 

After a few seconds, the manager seemed to conclude Duana was not going to leave. “Er, you said you wanted to talk to him?” 

Duana smiled. “Oh, sure. But you said he’s busy. You have the cameras... Tell me when he’s... quite finished.” 

After a minute of glancing between the screen in his desk and his guest, the man cleared his throat and seemed likely to object. He never got the chance. The distant thudding of the music was interrupted by the resounding, tooth-rattling boom of very rapid remodeling. Duana knew the string of shaped charges used to cut open the wall of the traitor’s room would have left a two-meter-wide hole and left anyone inside insensible, and that her compatriots had stormed in through the gap to black-bag everyone inside. 

“Sounds like he’s finished.” Duana set a cred-stick worth a few thousand of the bureau’s credits on the edge of the desk and stood, extending a hand to the grey-haired man as she did so. “Thank you for your cooperation, and sorry about the mess.” 

The man didn’t take the offered handshake, so Duana turned and left. She could feel his glare on his back all the way to the front door.  

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Sponsor Message: Special Offer from Kosseler Shipbuilding

2946-06-27- Sponsor Message: Announcement from Kosseler Shipbuilding

Thanks again to Kosseler Shipbuilding for being a sponsor both of the vidcast program and of the new text feed content. I hope that, if you are in the market for a new ship, you'll consider what Kosseler products have to offer.

We're hoping to introduce a second sponsor to the text feed soon - a sponsor who has not worked with the vidcast program. I can't say any more until the deal is final.

We here at Kosseler Shipbuilding would like to announce a new product and a special offer on this product for the Cosmic Background audience.

One of the main concerns potential customers raise to Kosseler representatives is that most Kosseler products contain non-owner-serviceable components. While we stand behind the value added by these extremely sophisticated components to the high standards of performance, comfort, and durability that have been our goal for almost six decades, we also know that for explorers and other frontier-bound interstellar professionals, the ability to service one's own spacecraft in even the tiniest detail is a hard requirement for any major purchase.

Here at Kosseler Shipbuilding, we've been working on a way to solve this problem for the better part of a decade, but with the pace of the Coreward Frontier's expansion we've seen in recent years, this effort has been given added urgency. After all, this isn't just a problem for potential new owners - spacers who've owned Kosseler ships in the Core Worlds for years are increasingly finding themselves drawn out to the frontier, where Kosseler repair facilities are difficult to find.

Today, we're announcing the release of the first stage of the solution to this problem. In addition to constructing a full Kosseler service yard at Maribel, which will be opening for limited business sometime in October, Kosseler ship-owners can now purchase Kosseler Repair Units, which contains a small swarm of the same nanomachines used in our repair centers and the equipment to control and direct it. These relatively inexpensive, disposable nanoswarms are designed to be small, light, and reliable, requiring only limited management by the ship-owner or a designated technician. A KRU will be able to diagnose, repair, and rebuild almost any of the non-user-serviceable parts on a top of the line Kosseler spacecraft, given the availability of raw materials. Because this new product is based on the same technology used in our repair yards, proper use of a KRU will be indistinguishable from having your vessel serviced in one of our facilities.

As many of you know, Kosseler has resisted public access to its nanotech-based repair technology for many years. There are of course safety concerns when any smart nanoswarm is deployed. A KRU's nanomachines become inert one full shift after they're activated, to limit risks; like the unit itself, the swarm is single-use and disposable.

Cosmic Background audience members who own a Kosseler spacecraft are entitled to one free KRU. This is currently the only reliable way to acquire a KRU in the Core Worlds - most of these items will be sent to distribution centers on the largest Frontier outposts, where they will be available for a reasonable fee to the ship-owners who are most likely to need them.

Once production has stabilized, we expect that KRUs will be available for purchase at all Kosseler facilities.

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Sponsor Message: Chandler Rose | Trust Nothing Less

2946-06-06 - Sponsor Message: Chandler Rose | Trust Nothing Less

Our sponsor, Kosseler Shipbuilding, wanted to provide its own story for the new series. This story is well documented in local newsfeeds, and will be featured in a Kosseler datasphere marketing campaign - but our readers get to see it first. Our audience has always rewarded Cosmic Background's sponsors with their business, and I hope that, if you are in the market for a new ship, you'll consider what Kosseler products have to offer.

The station crew crowded the viewpanels to gawk at the ship which drunkenly maneuvered toward the outstretched docking collar. The little yacht's hull was mangled almost beyond recognition, and it was a wonder to the steadily increasing audience within the station that the vessel had not only survived its ordeal, but had made a successful star drive jump in its condition. The name of the ship, Eustace Shelby, was all but invisible, the painted markings scoured off those remaining plates of hull still attached to the vessel's bent frame.  

Shelby missed the docking collar once, then again, its few remaining maneuvering thrusters sputtering dangerously. Over the radio, station control suggested that the lone occupant of the limping ship take manual control and attempt to complete docking himself. 

"Hell no, boss. Shelby's got this." The pilot replied. His bravado, piped to the nervous onlookers, inspiring a scattered, tense cheer from the small crowd within. The ship's plight had been known aboard the station from the moment Shelby had completed its jump into the system eleven days prior, but until the ship was finally close enough for docking, they hadn't been able to see the damage with their own eyes. Some hadn't believed the pilot's story, when he'd first established contact. Now, it was easy to believe. 

Chander Rose, pilot and owner of Eustace Shelby, is something of an adventurer, who takes his little yacht into dangerous territory in search of lost treasures, derelict ships, and other mysteries. He has had more than his share of run-ins with criminals and claims to have had at least one encounter with a Rattanai raid-ship, but it was not fire from hostile weapons which had shattered his ship, but an accident so incredibly rare that no previously recorded incidents exist. Chandler's ship had survived a blind, head-on collision with a comet.

Chandler took Eustace Shelby out of Sebastiaan Station on the twenty-seventh of April, intending merely to go and see The Gorgons, three spectacular gas giants in a nearby system, for himself, as do many tourists and explorers passing through Herakles. His jump completed normally, but Chandler couldn't see the Gorgons' stellar primary, which should have been dead ahead. A collision alarm had sounded, but too late – the icy lump and Shelby were moving too fast relative to each other for there to be any hope of avoiding impact. 

Still, the autopilot corkscrewed wildly before its pilot could react. The screaming alarm had not yet ceased before Chandler, strapped into his crash-padded station chair, heard a roaring crash and the tearing of metal, the stars outside his viewpanel spinning too quickly to follow, dancing to a discordant tune played by dozens of shrieking alarms. The gravitics stuttered for only a few seconds, but it was long enough that the force of the ship's tumbling knocked its lone pilot unconscious. Chandler's last thought as his vision went black was that nobody would ever know what had become of him. 

When Chandler Rose regained consciousness, he was surprised to find that not only was he still alive, but so was his ship. Eustace Shelby, a Kosseler Pegasus, was in bad shape, with most of its external fittings torn off and its outer hull almost half-gone, but the cabin life support was still working. Any atmosphere breaches had been quickly and automatically sealed. Shelby still had main power and its Himura unit was intact. 

After a day's worth of EVA repairs, mostly to jury-rig new radio fittings, and to restore a small percentage of his original primary thrust, Chandler powered up the Himura and calculated a jump back to Herakles, every moment expecting something to fail. Yet, despite its bent frame creaking, the battered Shelby carried Chandler Rose to safety. 

On the third try, Shelby's autopilot found the docking collar, and a cheer rose from the crowd gathered inside the station. Chandler, uninjured but haggard, stepped through, and the cheer grew into a roar. Chandler Rose had survived his improbable accident. 

When asked later by a local newsfeed correspondent what he credited with his survival, Chandler did not hesitate. "My ship saved my life." He told her. "I'm alive today because of the engineers at Kosseler." 

If you're in the market for a new vessel, consider Kosseler Shipbuilding products, built to only the highest standard of quality, safety, and comfort. Whether you travel for business or pleasure, can you afford anything less?

In honor of Chandler Rose's amazing story, the buyer of any new Kosseler Pegasus who mentions Chandler Rose will receive a 5% discount on their final purchase price. The first one hundred buyers who mention Cosmic Background will receive an additional 5% discount.

(These offers apply only to purchases of new vessels and are cumulative with other outstanding offers from Kosseler Shipbuilding only up to a 20% total discount. Void where Kosseler representatives and/or products have been banned by law. Claimant need not be physically present to purchase. A delivery fee may apply to orders placed from outside the Core Worlds. See Kosseler's datasphere hub for more details, and to see the features of the Kosseler Pegasus product line.)

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