[RFC]Boskone attack on SerenityCon

[HRogge]

I had some ideas about this (unwritten) part of Fen history and wanted some feedback about a possible prologue... it should be compatible with the two forum threads I found with stuff about SerenityCon:

http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/rep ... renity-con
http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/top ... kone-Prime

What do you think... interesting enough to keep working on it ?

---

Working title: A line in the sand

Prologue

A small group of men were sitting around a non-descriptive table.

One of the men stood up and looked into the faces of each of the attending persons.

“Gentlemen, some of our spies in several Fen factions have forwarded important information to us. It is time to reveal and use our combined strength for the first time.”

A short guy with an Italic suit groaned. “Skip the rhetoric, we are here to earn money, leave craziness to the Mads If you got something profitable for this committee, spit it out.”

The men standing nodded and continued. “As you all know, the Fen plan another of their conventions soon. What we did not knew is that some Fen were visited by a group of alien travelers a few weeks ago. These travelers...”

Someone else interrupted him: “Aliens ? You are crazy... there have been rumors of aliens since the Trekkie's got up here. Don’t waste our time with these rumors.”

“... these travelers left after some days, but they left behind a small repository of advanced knowledge. From what my spies have told me it contains a lot material about space science, advanced biotech and other things. Rumors suggest that these document will be released at the convention. I ignored this rumors until one of my spies forwarded me this paper.”

He held up a small printout of maybe 20 pages.

“THIS gentlemen is a construction template for a small and efficient fusion reactor. One of our scientists looked over it and confirmed that it seems to be authentic.”

He stayed silent while the rest of the group stared at the document in his hand, trying to grasp the new facts they were confronted with.

”You all know that the situation is slowly getting worse. Most of our spies have been purged by the Fen, small operations in the asteroid belt are constantly harassed by patrols and cargo flights to Earth are becoming more difficult.

We must not let this alien knowledge get into the hand of the Fenspace convention, otherwise we will face a decisive technological disadvantage... and most likely a fatal one too!”

The man in the Italian suit raised his hand, this time with a much more serious look on his face. “What do you propose to do?”

The speaker smiled.

“My group has been planning a raid against the moons of Jupiter for some time, both to gather supplies for our operations and to disrupt the food deliveries to the inner system more permanently.

I propose we take the equipment to get into Ganymede’s orbit without raising an alarm, gather our mobile forces and deal a blow to the Fen which they will never recover from. We bomb most of the spacecrafts there while they are still on the ground, then land with a large reaver force supported by a few groups of Berserkers... grab the alien documents, take all the Fen we can get away with and wipe the floor rest of them by ramming a large freighter into the valley from orbit.

If we do it right we can kill most of the faction leaders and gain a solid and permanent technological advantage... not only over the Fen but over Earth too.”

Someone in the back of the room were taking an audible deep breath.

“It is an ‘all or nothing’ operation... but if we continue like we do now, the Fen will shut down most of our operations within 24 months... maybe even faster with the new alien technology. We have only a few days until the convention begins, so there is not much time. It is to act now or to die soon...”

A man with an American suit right out of an Al Capone movie nodded.

“Lets call a vote about all of this...”

[robkelk]

I had some ideas about this (unwritten) part of Fen history and wanted some feedback about a possible prologue... it should be compatible with the two forum threads I found with stuff about SerenityCon:

http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/rep ... renity-con

Don't worry about conforming to this thread - we pushed it back to the year after Serenity-Con.

What do you think... interesting enough to keep working on it ?

I think so...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Foxboy]

"Karen, we've got to get these kinder out of here," Eljay said as he disconnected the puppetry rig for Miss Susie. He could have led the kids out while performing the telepresence, but that would have left him in a bad position if any of the Boskonians found his practically helpless body.

Karen tilted her head as if listening to something. "Eljay, take Lime and the kids to the Pinafore. That should be safe enough."

"Right," Eljay agreed and let out a bit of a squawk of surprise as Karen kissed him.

"No matter what happens, I love you." She stepped back and took off her jacket, revealing the Crest of the House of El.

"Is this really the time for cosplay?" Eljay asked in confusion.

Karen shook her head, tossing her blonde curls as she pulled two red cloths from a pocket in the discarded jacket. With a thought, she lifted from the ground.

"Karen?"

"I was going to tell you on your birthday, but it looks like the Black Hats took it out of my hands." She shook one cloth out to reveal a cape, and tied the other around her forehead.


(3rd from the left)

"I am an Armitage type III android patterned after Kara Zor-El," she said softly. "And I'm going to save the day."
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[HRogge]

Some more ideas what could have happened just before the first alarm is raised... maybe a little bit too selfish, but I want to hear your opinion on it. If there is something Cortana is good at, its using the software defined radios of the Stargazer...

---

Deception

Like most Fenspace conventions before SerenityCon was present in two different universes.

In the physical world a huge number of Fen of all kinds were running around, having a good time and discussion more or less important things.

The second part of SerenityCon was happening in cyberspace. Even network specialists from Earth would never have been able to comprehend the amount and complexity of communication between the hundreds and hundreds of AI equipped crafts, the adhoc networks, virtual servers and remote controlled avatars. Some of it were running with the same speed as the physical world, other parts were running at an accelerated timeframe to keep the participants from being bored.

Cortana was enjoying her time and listening to the local traffic. On the right two groups of AIs were playing a large game of tower defense with some of the webservers of the convention, while others were discussing, categorizing and analyzing the most recent discussions of the other Fen. There was even a small gambling place where AIs were betting cpu power on things like important discussion results, number of biomods per minute on a certain cafeteria and harmonic resonance frequencies of large groups of Fen having a party.

It was the fifth day of the Convention and the proportion of work to partying was slowly sliding more and more to the parties. Not everyone was happy with the things happening in the last year, but at least most Fen were having a good time. Later this hour there was an announcement about a large scale core war hacking contest and Cortana was already looking forward to see it. Hacking was not really her area of interest, but it was always fun to watch.

Suddenly Cortanas virtual avatar blinked and looked around, she had the feeling something strange was going on.

Concentrating on the input from the Stargazers radios, Cortana finally found the source of her strange ‘feeling’.

“Hey you little guy, what is wrong with you” she murmured and looked more closely to the weak signal of one of the sensor satellites of the Ganymede network.

“Perfect encoding, all checksums right, frequency as expected, nothing alarming on your data... but why do I think you are a little drunk today?” she whispered while accelerating her timeframe as much as she could.

All analyzer subroutines told her that the signal was perfect as ever, but Cortana was sure that her standard software was wrong this time. She began comparing it carefully with the data she recorded when getting into Ganymede orbit and frowned slightly.

The signal had gained some minor features it had not some days ago, and Cortana was pretty sure that changes like this were not just a matter of wear.

“I need some insight from someone with a different perspective” she thought and browsed through the attendance list of the convention.

“Ah, yes” she acknowledged, “you are perfect...” when she finally found the entry she was looking for. If there was one ship you could bet on that it was NOT parking on the ground, it was the Blackbird call Magnificent Midnight.

“Cortana of the Stargazer to Magnificent Midnight, I think we are in trouble and I need your help.” With a few short sentences she described her the funny features of one of the sensor satellites of Ganymede. “Please do a passive scan on the frequency of the sensor network and send me all results you got in an encrypted reply... and please hurry, I have a bad feeling about this.”

Cortana wrapped the message in a OGJ encryption code and send out a wide beam data package into the sky above Ganymede. The Midnight would be somewhere up there and would hopefully reply soon.

The next 30 seconds were the hardest waiting time Cortana had ever experienced.

“Midnight to Cortana... result of scan attached on message. Will do a quick flyby of the satellite. Expect another message in three minutes” said the response from the Blackbird.

“If in need for recon data, ask a spy plane” murmured Cortana with a smile and opened the attachment to correlate the two sets of data... and nearly froze in shock.

She stared on the data for nearly a second, then ran everything through her calculations a second time... and a third time, but the results stayed the same.

She could hear 15 sensor satellites above the Stargazer in the sky, happily sending small updates on the gathered data. But when she combined her data with the package from the Magnificent Midnight there were only five point sources in the sky, each of them sending the data of three sensor satellites... and each of them in a totally wrong position.

Cortanas ‘view’ focused back into the sky as she thought about the implications what she had discovered in the last minute.

“Either some joker managed to draw fifteen sensor satellites to different places, glued them together in groups of three and made sure neither he was seen by the satellites nor they noticed the change in position.... or someone has replaced these fifteen satellites. Which means someone can control what Ganymede orbital watch can see on its screens... or what it cannot see.”

Which meant that anything could be up there... from a Professor sponsored weapon of mass amusement to a fast asteroid style kinetic weapon. For another second she thought about sending out a clear alarm message to anyone in range, but then decided otherwise. Starting a mass panic would be more counterproductive than anything else.

She slowed herself down to realtime speed and connected to the local Operation Great Justice office, demanding a priority line to the head officer. If this one would decide that she abused her OGJ access codewords she and maybe Cathy would be in trouble... but better in trouble than being wrong about this.

“OGJ office, head officer. What can I do for you.... Cortana” a bored voice acknowledged her request.

‘Ahh, the poor guy who has to stay in the office while the rest of Fenspace is partying’ she thought.

“Here is Cortana from the Stargazer... I just discovered together with the Magnificent Midnight that someone seems to have replaced parts of the Ganymede sensor network with their own system. Someone else is controlling what we see or NOT see in the sky above the Convention.”

On a subchannel she was sending some 3D pictures showing the results of measurement of Magnificent Midnight and herself and the resulting positions of the sensor sources... and their proposed positions.

“Oh...” she heard through her radio connection, but nothing else was coming out of it for a perceived eternity. After ten seconds she decided to grab the initiative again.

“Yes I know, maybe its nothing, maybe we have hours of time until something happens... and maybe IN THIS MOMENT there is a kinetic kill vehicle incoming on your office... and the first thing you will know about it is the knocking on your damned roof!”

Finally she heard some hectic action on the other side of the connection.

“I understand, we are raising an alarm... stay in this radio connection and inform us about new results... we will...”

The second radio began signaling an incoming burst transmission from the Magnificent Midnight.

“Midnight to Cortana... bad news attached... more data soon.”

Cortana looked into the attached data and sighed. “OGJ office... I have more bad news for you from the Magnificent Midnight...”

[robkelk]

[size=smaller](edited from original posting, to remove anachronisms)[/size]

"I don't know why I have to wear a three-piece suit for this," Noah complained.

Yayoi sighed. "If you don't make a good impression out there, nobody's going to take you seriously."

"They aren't here for me, they're here for the Catalog. Why can't I just wear my usual polo shirt, slacks, and kevlar-lined jacket?"

"That isn't sufficiently professional. You aren't Steve Jobs, after all."

Noah sighed. "Polo shirt, not turtleneck."

"Noah, you trusted me enough to give me Yoriko's position as Vice-President of Stellvia Corporation. Trust me on this."

The door opened. Noah smiled when Safety bowed in midair as the door closed behind her - she was still so new that everything she did was delightful. What she had to say broke the mood. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I just received a message from the Magnificent Midnight. Cortana and Midnight are picking up some odd signals from the Ganymede sensor network."

"Odd?" Noah raised an eyebrow. "In what way?"

"They aren't sure."

Noah started untying his tie. "I have a bad feeling about this ..."

"You do have a tendency to overreact, Noah. Are you overreacting again?"

"Consider what we're presenting here, and how much it would be worth if not everybody had a copy of it. I have to go out there and present the Catalog, so I'm wearing my body armor. I want the rest of you someplace relatively safe, and the safest place I can think of is inside the Epsilon Blade with its forcefield turned on. Prep for launch as soon as the three of you are aboard - I want you to, as the Warsies say, 'pick up your visual scanning.' Coordinate flight paths with Midnight."

Yayoi and Safety nodded. "Do you have any messages for Kohran?" asked the latter.

"Yes," nodded Noah. "Kohran is to drop whatever she's doing and get back to the ship right now, and ..."

Safety waited for a moment. "Sir?"

"And ... tell Kohran she's to remove the weapons locks from the kaboomite warheads."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Yeah, who discovers the subversion of Ganymede's sensor net needs discussion.

Finally got off my ass and typed up what I see as a basic timeline for events. Be aware that it includes a few things from my timeline for A.C., and I've tried to make it open enough to be fiddled with by everyone.

---

Pre-Con

Boskonians meet about WFC. Vote to combine forces and attack.
Space Patrol supporters finalise arguments for and defences against setup.
Personal: A.C. gets late slot (day 6) for announcement of Re-Modding Process

Day 1

Arrivals. Groups meet and greet, get set for business.
Boskonians start moving on phase 1, subverting the Ganymede sensor net

Day 2

Panels on Space Patrol and OGJ effectiveness start.
Assault phase 2, freighter carrying Reavers and Berserkers, and mounted with more jamming equipment, leaves Boskone One as the main force finishes gathering.

Day 3

Arguments at Con go on
Main attack force leaves Boskone One
Late in day freighter arrives at Jovian system

Day 4

Personal: Early in day A.C. and Haruhi meet for first time face to face. Haruhi tries to get A.C. to agree to some plan. A.C. turns her down flat, publically scaring Haruhi. Further comments seem to imply A.C. knows a secret about Haruhi (Authors note: She doesn’t, the comments were about something else), which scares the rest of the SOS-Dan.
Maintenance finds evidence of tampering in equipment.
Boskone fleet enters Jovian space. Start jamming comms.
(Question: Do the Fen repair the sensor net enough to get a warning of fleet? Or do they ask for cross-link feeds from Fenships with good sensors e.g. Midnight, Ptichka, Stallion, etc…)
Scene:

The tech just looked at her screen, not comprehending what she was seeing for a moment.
To the side of her, her manager was also blank with shock. Surely what was on the display could NOT be real. Then he dove for a row of buttons on the next console.

At some time in the past, some helpful soul had labelled the buttons for quick recognition. They were “PANIC!”, “PANIC MOAR!”, “AIIEEEE!!!!”, “WTF?!?”, and “Egon’s gone Bye Bye!”.

The manager’s dive hit all of them at once.

Scene End:
Cue mad dash for ships.
Insane furball ensues, with freighter disabled and drifting. Freighter disgorges dropships. Fen try to stop dropships.
As the battle turns in Fen’s favour, Boskone Command get freighter to vent, putting on collision course with Serenity Valley.
Scene (Personal):

“We could use the Rail Cannon.” Lebia suggested, mind focused on the ECCM battle.

Eddie calculated all the variables.

“Negative. Can not build power fast enough.” It was the current limitation on the Rail Cannon. And right now it sucked.

A.C. dashed past the cockpit of the Boskonian vessel, allowing her fully extended sword to slice the top third off.

“Then pulse charge the bloody capacitors then!” She snarled, dodging fire both friendly and mostly hostile and straining her flight pack to do so.

For want of anything better, Eddie tried it.

“Power curve acceptable. Beginning run.”

The Stallion turned, its rail and coil guns clearing space as she aimed directly at the drifting freighter. Seconds ticked by as the capacitors filled to capacity. Eddie made sure all friendlies got clear.

“Power level at 98%. 99%. Full power now.”

Caught up in the moment as she was, A.C. swung her sword arm across her chest in a dramatic fashion (incidentally bisecting another enemy ship) and bellowed over the com-net…

“FIRE!”

From the outside, huge shock cones spat out of the Stallion’s engines as Eddie threw them to emergency power. A second later the Rail Cannon mounted to the top of the ship spoke for the first time, the immense recoil nearly stopping the ship dead, with a green arcing muzzle flash as the vaporised ice used to protect the rails from friction was ejected.
Sensors screamed as the diamondoid bolt blazed across the space between the Stallion and the freighter at one percent the speed of light.

At 5 kilos, the bolt hit the freighter with a kinetic energy equivalent to almost 5.4 kiloton’s of TNT. The impact point atomised with a flash, with some of the cloud of atoms fissioning and fusing. The shock front passed into the freighter, disintegrating the structure and igniting the remaining atmosphere into plasma. Both elements tore through the ship at ultra-sonic velocities, instantaneously killing any remaining crew before reducing them to humidity.

In less than 90 milliseconds, the 2000 tonne freighter was reduced to a rapidly expanding and cooling cloud of atoms.

Scene End:

Bokonians routed.

Day 5

Arguments on response.
WFC debuted.
Personal: A.C. tracks down origin of attack via comm. logs.
Victory party?

Day 6

OGJ reorganised, Space Patrol instituted.
Boskonians officially made ‘Threat to Humanity’.
Fleet Operation Attila organised.
Personal: Haruhi forces A.C. to be lead on Ground Assault. A.C. promoted by Supers over her objections.

Day 7

Final announcements.
People leave to War.

Edit:
And Rob? Serenity-Con's 2013 not 2014. No Yuu, or pregers Leda.

[HRogge]

*grin* Fenspace networking at work. Noah will most likely get a second update from the OGJ office soon... I think the SMoFs will be the first ones who will get the alert... before the public alert is raised too.

I am working on a small third piece from the Boskonian point of view, which goes up to the point where they are discovered and send a first missile barrage (expect it later today).

I heard from Dartz that he had some small action planned in this early phase against the first missile push of the Boskones... something to buy the rest of the Fen a few more minutes time to get ready, before the bad guys arrive in numbers.

I don't really have more ideas how to continue at the moment, but maybe we can built and improve upon this start.

edit
Stopped working on the third part until we can agree on some timetable...
But it seems I triggered some work on the Serentity "hole".

[robkelk]

(Question: Do the Fen repair the sensor net enough to get a warning of fleet? Or do they ask for cross-link feeds from Fenships with good sensors e.g. Midnight, Ptichka, Stallion, etc…)

That's one reason why Noah is sending Yayoi and Kohran up to take a look - this is post LoGG, so Skuld has upgraded their glasses. Top-notch optics, with literally Divine reliability - if they look in the right direction, they'll spot anything. (Sora has a pair of Skuld's glasses as well, but Noah isn't about to give orders to a Soviet even if she is his favourite daughter.) The trick is getting them to look in the right direction.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

Edit:
And Rob? Serenity-Con's 2013 not 2014. No Yuu, or pregers Leda.

D'oh! No Takami, either - it's two months before she wakes up. (And this problem with signals is probably why Noah built Takami the way he did...)

Okay, rewrite to follow. For now, replace Yuu with Yayoi, and Noah gives her her orders in person.

Edit: Rewrite's up.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[HRogge]

@Cobalt Greywalker: I am not sure this jamming plan in your timetable works... jamming is "drowning useful information in lots of noise"... which means everyone will know they are coming. Thats why I thought about how to do a stealth/surprise attack.

Edit
Anyone interested coming into the IRC channel to brainstorm a little bit more ?

[robkelk]

Have to log off now... have fun without me. (Noah's keeping calm and carrying on, presenting the Catalog.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[LynnInDenver]

OOC: We'll see how well this works for everyone, a discovery while everyone else plays with the Ganymede sensor network:

Jeph handed the microphone and stand of the gaming setup over to the next person in line to play, and walked over to the bar, itching a bit at the wig on the top of her head, and then pulling down her spandex skirt a little bit, wondering what the hell possessed her to activate her biomod and dress as BGC Priss for the debut of the Rock Band setup she had Handwaved with Myk a couple of months back.

That shifted to wonderment as her phone buzzed on her skirt belt, and she looked at it to realize that Nene was calling her. In the middle of a Convention party. Nene never did that if she could help it, unless it was something very, very important.

So Jeph answered it.

"Hey Nene. What's up?"

"We've got a Blue Midget coming into the approach patterns," she said. "I can see their JMC network. But... it's the Fifteen."

Jeph's ears started to itch, and itch badly. Blue Midget 15 had disappeared in the Belt a month back, without a trace. If she hadn't already been female, she would have shifted right then and there.

"Nene. Log into their computers if you can, any means necessary, verify their identity and status. And contact OGJ with your findings if they're anything other than "oops, we lost track of where we were"."

"OK, will do."

*****

On the other side of that conversation, Nene was already at work.

She had embarked on something of a personal improvement plan ever since the Jupiter Mining Corporation had expanded into something of an important shipping powerhouse. Now, she could do all sorts of things expected of AIs that weren't housed in anthropomorphic presentations, including being able to run hundreds of simultaneous human-speed avatars... or a few high speed avatars, all of them wirelessly.

So, she stretched out her presence over the wireless network that the JMC had set up as a 'backup' to the primary wireless network that linked the bulk of Serenity Valley together into an electronic community, and touched the accidental Artificial Intelligence known only as 'Sparky' aboard the Fifteen.

Oh thank creators someone to talk to. You won't believe the amounts of poking I've been undergoing here, much of it quite painful, Sparky said. Nene winced a little bit, she'd never quite cottoned to Sparky, who had been accidentally incepted when the engineer installing the computers on Fifteen, a Fiver with a bit of a disregard for protocol, had not quite followed procedures when applying Handwavium to the system.

How badly have they been poking you? And who? Nene asked.

Oh, you won't like it, but I need to verify you, Sparky said.

Tell me, command override, Garibaldi Peekaboo Game. Nene commanded, the pit of her virtual stomach starting to drop out.

OK. They've cut off the primary feed, so I can't give visuals, only text, but they boarded, killed my crew, and physically cut most of my connections, except for internal sensors. Then they wired in some sort of rude computer that seems quite willing to kill itself for them, and began loading in all sorts of junk. I can tell that the ship's pretty well loaded down with mass right now. And I heard them say something about kinetic kill.

*****

In the office where she had been doing some important paperwork, Nene would have dropped her phone if she'd been holding it. Instead, Jeph heard her swearing, which was so out of place for her that it got Jeph's immediate attention again.

"Oh my fucking hells. Jeph, the Reavers have commandeered Fifteen, and loaded it with enough mass to completely vaporize Serenity Valley if it hits. I'm already calling OGJ Control here about it."
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

[HRogge]

In the office where she had been doing some important paperwork, Nene would have dropped her phone if she'd been holding it. Instead, Jeph heard her swearing, which was so out of place for her that it got Jeph's immediate attention again.

"Oh my fucking hells. Jeph, the Reavers have commandeered Fifteen, and loaded it with enough mass to completely vaporize Serenity Valley if it hits. I'm already calling OGJ Control here about it."

I think it makes sense to use a craft as fast and as maneuverable as possible as the last resort "kinetic valley kill" weapon...

This message will increase the panic of the Fen even more, regardless when it happens...

from "the Boskones are shooting at us" to "the Boskones Reavers/Berserkers are here" to "the have a damned kamikaze blackbird"...

OUCH. *G*

[Cobalt Greywalker]

@Cobalt Greywalker: I am not sure this jamming plan in your timetable works... jamming is "drowning useful information in lots of noise"... which means everyone will know they are coming. Thats why I thought about how to do a stealth/surprise attack.

Edit
Anyone interested coming into the IRC channel to brainstorm a little bit more ?

Well, partially the jamming is ECM to hide themselves, and partially to jam comms when the attack starts so the Fen can't call for help.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

In the office where she had been doing some important paperwork, Nene would have dropped her phone if she'd been holding it. Instead, Jeph heard her swearing, which was so out of place for her that it got Jeph's immediate attention again.

"Oh my fucking hells. Jeph, the Reavers have commandeered Fifteen, and loaded it with enough mass to completely vaporize Serenity Valley if it hits. I'm already calling OGJ Control here about it."

I think it makes sense to use a craft as fast and as maneuverable as possible as the last resort "kinetic valley kill" weapon...

This message will increase the panic of the Fen even more, regardless when it happens...

from "the Boskones are shooting at us" to "the Boskones Reavers/Berserkers are here" to "the have a damned kamikaze blackbird"...

OUCH. *G*

The main problem here is Rule 5c. Direct KKV strikes against things like minor planets are disallowed. Hence I went for a very heavy craft as the freighter tasked to aim itself at Serenity Valley, and set it drifting so the drive isn't affecting things.
Loading it up with explosives might help.

[HRogge]

The main problem here is Rule 5c. Direct KKV strikes against things like minor planets are disallowed. Hence I went for a very heavy craft as the freighter tasked to aim itself at Serenity Valley, and set it drifting so the drive isn't affecting things.
Loading it up with explosives might help.

It will not be a "earth shattering 20%c KKV"... build it should be fully loaded Blackbird (maybe with lots of explosives) ramming the building at mach 3+...

But using it as a large guided bomb might be really better.

Edit
Does Ganymede has an atmosphere? If not they could could fly pretty fast towards the Serenity Valley. Still no kinetic energy from the impact, but difficult to shoot down.

[Seraviel]

Any problem with me joining the party ?
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.

[Black Aeronaut]

My two cents:

Benjamin would have been immediately notified by Midnight the instant she noticed something was off via Cortana's direction. Right then, Ben would gone onto the private SMOF channel and said words to teh effect of, "Don't anyone look now, but we seem to have a pest control problem..." and "I just received a status report from Home. They're on Alert Status and ready to scramble any assets we may need here. Knowing my ships, they'll probably get here just in time for the party."

Thoughts?

[HRogge]

Any problem with me joining the party ?

Just be aware that the whole "Boskone war" (the attack on SerenityCon is a part of it) have already happened in Fenspace, they are just not described completely with stories... so at the moment its just a "suggest story parts that will/might fit" and brainstorm session.

There is already some material about the Boskone war on the Wiki and in some old forum threads you might be interested reading first.

[Dartz]

What I'd planned for Jet and the Panzer Kunst is that as a gruppe they're attending SerenityCon. Only a few trainees and half the AR's are left behind the hold the fort at Grunthal. They're interested in the cybertech, and to see if there's any Battle Angel Aliita stuff in the WFC.... like the berserker body details. How to shoot plasma.... any actual Panzer Kunst information and techniques... Jet's also asked to seek out AC and take care of some technical negotiations for system repairs and upgrades, since they know each other.

Jet also partakes of some of the martial arts panels, and hopes to meet Ford Sierra for some.... personal time. This is about the time they realise they care more about each other than the 'just friends' level.

The Engel Gruppe are doing a vacuum demonstration of their skills in orbit, showing just what they can do. Max Armblessed is the Engel's leader at this stage. They're halfway through their display routine when the first missile salvo launches. Max has them intercept the missiles, and try to knock as many of them out as possible. It's not a suicide mission....not by any means, hit the missiles hard enough and they just run out of control and either inert themselves with their built safeties, or just disintegrate through the G-Forces from the impact.

Max, and two other Engels are killed.... they time it too late and get caught in the warhead's detonation. Jet is the only one who has the updated encryption codes, so finds herself the single point of contact between the Engels and what's beginning to be a defence coordination.

Jet continues with Max's missile intercept plan... not sure of what else to do... until she receives clear orders to hit knocking out Boskonian dropships. Jet is somewhat panicky and is somewhat startled and overwhelmed... but is able to at least keep enough common sense to act as a relay, before eventually settling down and doing well enough that she's considered for taking Max's place (And does at the end of October). By the end, Jet's coordinating the Gruppe on a long grind of Smash and run.

When it's all over but the cleaning up of the debris, Jet's still in orbit, battered and scorched, with her blades destroyed and her the engines in her feet all but trashed from repeated impacts. One of her arms is duct-taped, there's a few obvious spots of JB-weld on her body and she's lost her helmet somewhere in the confusion much like Captain Kirk tends to loose his shirt. The other Engels are in much the same condition...

Ford Sierra in her truck... with quick technical modification.... pulls up. "Need a lift?"

Meanwhile, the Kammer Gruppe are fighting the ground war to allow time for evacuees, and probably having their own heroics.

It's where Jet first comes to most of Fenspace' attention..... and where herself and the Engel gruppe get Zig medals for stopping a good chunk of the first salvo. (It's mentioned in the shadowrunning story as a stupid plan, but one that worked... so not stupid)

Got to remember. Jet's a front-liner... right at the teeth of the attack, and then right at the teeth of the response. Not in command... not by a long shot. It's also the beginning of Jet's six months of hell.... the stuff that'll give her nightmares for the rest of her life.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[robkelk]

OOC: Recapping - we've got a compromised security system, a Boskonian group using Blue Midget 15 as a kinetic-kill weapon, another Boskonian group launching missiles at Serenity Valley... All we need now is a third group landing well-armed troops in an attempt to seize the Catalog and kill anyone who's already got a copy. (Have to give Kara Zor-El and the other hand-to-hand fighters something to do... and we need a reason to evacuate innocents and take a few casualties while inflicting a lot of losses on the other side.)

If nobody else comes up with anything regarding #15/Sparky, Noah will ask Jeph for permission to disable the Midget's engine (read: "blow the aft end to space dust"), then ask Ben to have the Magnificent Midnight and the Epsilon Blade repeat the maneuver that deflected that asteroid away from Auckland in We Don't Need that Hammer, Lucifer... As for the rest, you're on your own.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay then. Benjamin always has a special tactical package tucked away on Midnight in case something goes pear-shaped for whatever reason. Once he knows things are wonky, he'll have Midnight drop it by the nearest airlock like a Martian Cannonball for Ben, Gina, and the trio of Jess that are with them so they can get equipped.

The armor is based on the ODST armor from Halo, only bearing Roughrider's colors and markings. Benjamin's will be modified to accommodate his right arm. In fact, he'll even have a specially made gun for that arm - a monstrous hand-cannon that's chambered for the .500 Nitro Express. Even if the Reavers are wearing armor, they're gonna stay the hell down.

Gina is his mark element and she'll be toting a custom-made coil-rifle that fires slugs designed to act as hallow-point rounds, only at hyper-sonic velocities.

The three Jesses will be armed with full-auto coil-guns based on the Calico Light Weapons Systems designs to minimize recoil. and will act as support elements.

Artillery weapons and equipment I'll leave up to you folks.

So, we'll have a five-man squad, properly armed and armored with plenty of practice and enough experience to make them a pain in the ass for the Boskonians - if not a game-ender all together.

[Foxboy]

FWIW, Karen/Kara is one of the expected casualties at the end of things. She gets to die a hero after finally being able to cut loose, freeing her authorial "cool" back to the textpool.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Dartz]

If Ben needs backup, the Panzer Kunst Kammer Gruppe are fighting the ground war. These are the sort of people who'd wield a Barret .50BMG or an M2 like your average Joe might wield a .22LR..... and then get in close for serious smash with blades. They're big drawback is overconfidence, and a the fact that there's ten of them against how many highly motivated enemies?

Meanwhile, my head has cleared up, with only a lasting linger of last nights 'planning for the next Eirtakon', so I edited my previous post and squeezed out some words.

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It was stupid. It was insane. It was daft as a brush and madder than the Professors Panel. It was desperation. It was the only chance. Missiles, bearing down on orbiting ships. Bearing down on defenceless orbiting ships. Max thought fast, thought like lightning.

"Intercept them! Knock them out of the sky!"

Jet thought he was insane at first. She wasn't the only one.

"Hit them just ahead of the tail, the warheads won't go off,"

Max managed to project confidence, the certainty that he was right, the certainty that if they pulled it off correctly, there wouldn't be so much as a paint-scratch. Jet wasn't quite sure why she was going along with this plan, or why she wasn't making a beeline straight down to the ground, or off into the black.

Her target streaked forward, trailing condensing vapour and ice. Anti-shipping missile. It's target was getting closer. Some lumbering waved transport. Jet could see it's engines begin to glow, thrusters exhausting as it tried everything to move. The missile tracked unneringly. One hit and that ship would just disintegrate.

Jet could run. Jet could leave them to it.... Jet really wasn't sure if she could live with the guilt of it.

Or was it just a case of Max order, she follow? It wasn't insane heroism, she told herself. It wasn't stupidity. She was only following orders! Sure that was easier to believe. Jet just couldn't say 'No' to her trainer. She assumed that was it.

Ten meters out, she realised she was doing her best to just keep her mind from fully realising exactly how dangerous this was. A few milliseconds. Everything running full bore. Thinking like lightning on an adrenaline rush, mind trying to cram as much as it could into these last few moments. Well... at least she got to kiss Ford... really kiss. Real skin touching skin with the sort of tingle waved alloys just didn't have. Cold hand on one side of her face. Warm fingers on the other....

Adjust a little bit. Missile's moving slower than she guessed. Ease in. Hold your breath. Grit your teeth and wham!

Jet hit so hard, with such a strong kick running up through her leg, she could've sworn the missile went off right then and there. There was a flash of twisted metal and expending propellant burning momentarily in the vacuum before it boiled and froze at the same time...

And then. She was clear.

The missile's warhead spiraled uselessly into the black, finally detonating relatively harmlessly in open space, bursting into a cloud of sparkling debris. Above and behind her, a few of it's compatriots hit home, causing untold carnage. Jet would swear she saw someone blown out a shattering window... a humanoid figure trying to swim desperately back in, reaching for safety that was getting further away by the second... before going dreadfully still. He seemed to ask the question... why not my ship?

Max's voice crackled into her mind. "Come on! That's only the first wave. Next salvo's coming in. Get moving. Try get more than one this time."

There was no arguing with that, as much as Jet wanted to. Just keep going. Jet'd already picked her next target.

-------

-------

It didn't take long to get into a rhythm... as crazy as it was. Surprising how that happened. It'd almost become a game. How many could she get before impact? Don't think about what happens afterwards. Just get back out to hit the next salvo. They were still coming in. Still a distance out. Wreckage was burning in space. Debris pattered off her armour. Ships were starting to move. Defenses were starting to come up. Jake got hit by a friendly missile defence battery. Gone. Just like that. So much debris. Keep going Max orders.

Don't think. Do.

There was so much noise over their radios... they had to switch frequencies just to be able to communicate with each other. Only Max and Jet still had the OGJ frequencies loaded. Crazy chance saw them being the only ones with the new operational encryptions. Jet could hear the panic giving way to calm. The hard part was over.

Last missiles. Next comes the dropships.

Jet angled in... smash goes one. Adjusting her vector, she aimed for the second. It just disintegrated. Then to a third. A fourth. The Fifth was too far away and she cursed it.... the ships own defences took it out. High and infront of her, she saw Max dive towards one of the last stragglers.

He disappeared into a flash of burning orange, and a spray of wreckage.

"Engel one, Engel three" Jet tried.

Silence.

"Engel one, Engel three," she tried again, desperation creeping into her voice. "Answer me!"

Silence

"Engel one, Engel three," she yelled. "For fuck's sake Max answer me!"

Jet spinlocked for a moment. That..... that's not fair!

"Engel flight, [hq callsign]. Move to position 125-mark-40. Dropships inbound. Meet up with [whoever]"

For a few moments... Jet wasn't able to answer. She was waiting for Max. Max wasn't going to answer.

What do I do now?

Follow orders. Just keep following orders.

"Engel flight. This is Three. Orders are to move to position 125-mark-40. We're going after the dropships."

Her voice was breaking. Jet was scared beyond all belief...

"Engel flight, Wilco," she radioed back to command. "Engel one is down. This is Engel three."

"Engel flight. Take command Engel three."

She'd been afraid of that. Jet mumbled Shephards prayer and got going.

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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[HRogge]

Some ideas about the same moment from the Boskones point of view... must be adapted for the changes what is happening on the ground.

===============
Murphy strikes

“And here we are... the missile ships will enter the orbit around Ganymede within less than 5 minutes, and no swarm of Fen fighters in sight. I would say Phase One was a full success, lets go to Phase Two as soon as possible. If we have smashed the crafts on the ground, we have all time in the universe to do the rest of the job.”

The insertion of the radio platforms to fake the signals of the Ganymede sensor network had been as smooth as possible. With the help of the code from the Ganymede service engineer they had copied the current signals and began broadcasting them exactly the moment the kinetic flechette strikes had hit the real satellites and destroyed them. This and the sabotage of some of the key nodes of the rest of the network would give the fleet a nice and easy to use corridor to get directly over Serenity Valley without being detected. After this it would be the work of the drop ship crews.

“Is our special surprise package loaded and in place? If everything goes to hell we want to get most of the important Fen with the big bang on the ground.” It had been a pleasant surprise that one faction had managed to intercept and capture one of these damned Blackbirds spy planes some time ago, but having a really fast and really stealthy ship to deliver a multi-ton bomb was a great bonus for an operation like this.

“Give the troop transports the signal that we are going forward with phase two. They should rush in after the two missile waves, keep them of balance and make sure they don’t organize... as soon as the first missiles are away, activate the communication jammer, no need to give the Fen a chance to call home.”

A woman on one of the consoles of the bridge looked up. “Sir, one of our ships says they saw something out there... they are not sure what it was but the engineer says they were passed by some shadow. The optical records are not conclusive, could be a very small spy satellite.”

The captain cursed loudly. Flying under the protection of a radar cloak was great, but it prevented to usage of your own radar too. If they had been discovered this could cost the operation a lot, but they still had a chance to accomplish their goals.

“Damn them, all of them... five minutes more, is that too much to ask for? Get these missiles out as soon we are in range, the timetable just got shortened a lot! And activate the Interwave jammer NOW!”

EDIT
How large is one of the dropships the Boskones are using? Are we talking about 1-5, 10-20 or 100+ people inside? This makes a huge difference how easy they are to knock down.