TRIAD Enterprises
17-05-2009, 07:01
The vessels were of Abh design, matching known Abh technologies and materials, replicated from vessels purchased from another Abh Empire in another universe by TRIAD. A grateful Abh Empire there had rewarded TRIAD's efforts to stem a stellar war with generous technological trade, and this was now being used for far different purposes than intended. Sixteen ships, two missile cruisers, eight assault frigates, and six capture frigates. Their crews were bioroids, biological androids being controlled by a Digital Entity, hidden within each ship.
This was a covert operation conducted by MACE, the Market Assessment and Competitor Evaluation. MACE was the black bag arm of TRIAD Enterprises, unkown by all it's billions of employees except MACE operatives, the Board of Directors, and the CEO himself. MACE obtained it's revenues from mercenary operations in various locations, all the time using peronnel and equipment difficult or impossible to trace back to TRIAD herself. For this campaign, the cover of the Humankind Empire Abh had been selected, as at least one iteration of that nation had been confirmed in this universe. Normally MACE would have simply begun attacking select targets to determine strengths, weaknesses, and exploitable markets. This time however, the Jannarii Empire wanted privateers to harass and attack the 'piratical' trade of the Federal Union. This served right in line with MACE's overall goals, and the added bonus of bounty revenue would further fund operations down the road.
The ships were Abh. To all appearances the crew we Abh. The technology was Abh, with select refinements. Normally Abh ships could only use their Planespace drives for FTL travel at naturally occuring "Sords", white holes where Planespace intersected with realspace. TRIAD had augmented the drives with devices which created temporary, artificial Sords, allowing entry and exit from Planespace and realspace from any point in either. Dimensional array passive sensors allowed the detection of mass shadows within realspace from ships lurking in Planespace. Planespace drive equipped sensor drones allowed conventional passive and active sensing and scanning of realspace, with the data being transmitted using tightbeam dimensional comms. The final piece of the puzzle, deployable Reality Anchors.
The Reality Anchor project had been a goal of MACE for years ever since encountering Nexus 1 and it's links to other universes. The discovery of subspace, hyperspace, planespace, and all the various forms of fractal reality that allowed FTL travel, it was proposed that it may be possible to tap into the very substance of the local universe affect those forms of travel. When the project finally bore fruit, it was hailed a two-edged sword. In effect, the anchor temporarily severed the connections between realspace any selective forms of "otherspace". Any and all technology which inherently relied on the selected Otherspace would simply cease to function. Otherspace drives, sensors, comms, computers; all would fail within the effect of the anchor's field.
The limit to the technology were the power requirements, which were enormous to cover a five light minute area of space, and the fact that any one device could only cover one specific Otherspace at a time. Analysis of the intended target was required to determine exactly which fractal mode was employed. Further research was needed to tune the anchor to that fractal mode, and the device could finally be used. If all variables had been met, reality anchors could very well leave a victim nearly defenseless in normal space, with no way to escape or call for help. The micro-fusion reactors which supplied power for only ten minutes of use could be powered down to avoid detection, a tiny solar array providing energy to the communication and startup equipment. When powered down like this, it would take extremely fine resolution passive sensors, or powerful active scanners to detect a drifting anchor device.
All the tools had been assembled. Now all MACE needed was the stage, and the actors.
********
Unnamed System - TEC Tradelanes
********
Watching for several days from within the relative safety of Planespace, the Abh vessels had drifted outside realspace. When they arrived, two hundred and fourty tiny, one meter wide sensor drones had been deployed into realspace when mass detectors had shown the system was empty. Over the next two days, the drones had drifted into a wide net, collecting data using passive, zero emission, sensors. This system was another tradelane stopover for the TEC, situated closest to Federal Union borders while still remaining outside sovereign territory. The percentage of civillian and military traffic which belonged to the Federal Union was higher than the other TEC members, but was not a constant presence.
For now, the small fleet of sixteen waited, drifting through Planespace, leeching data from their drones in comm bursts timed for when local traffic was thinnest or non-existant. MACE waited for collection of more data on the Federal Union's most common drive types, and what fractal modes those drives might utilize. Until they had enough information to reliably use the reality anchors, they would continue to wait, and drift...
This was a covert operation conducted by MACE, the Market Assessment and Competitor Evaluation. MACE was the black bag arm of TRIAD Enterprises, unkown by all it's billions of employees except MACE operatives, the Board of Directors, and the CEO himself. MACE obtained it's revenues from mercenary operations in various locations, all the time using peronnel and equipment difficult or impossible to trace back to TRIAD herself. For this campaign, the cover of the Humankind Empire Abh had been selected, as at least one iteration of that nation had been confirmed in this universe. Normally MACE would have simply begun attacking select targets to determine strengths, weaknesses, and exploitable markets. This time however, the Jannarii Empire wanted privateers to harass and attack the 'piratical' trade of the Federal Union. This served right in line with MACE's overall goals, and the added bonus of bounty revenue would further fund operations down the road.
The ships were Abh. To all appearances the crew we Abh. The technology was Abh, with select refinements. Normally Abh ships could only use their Planespace drives for FTL travel at naturally occuring "Sords", white holes where Planespace intersected with realspace. TRIAD had augmented the drives with devices which created temporary, artificial Sords, allowing entry and exit from Planespace and realspace from any point in either. Dimensional array passive sensors allowed the detection of mass shadows within realspace from ships lurking in Planespace. Planespace drive equipped sensor drones allowed conventional passive and active sensing and scanning of realspace, with the data being transmitted using tightbeam dimensional comms. The final piece of the puzzle, deployable Reality Anchors.
The Reality Anchor project had been a goal of MACE for years ever since encountering Nexus 1 and it's links to other universes. The discovery of subspace, hyperspace, planespace, and all the various forms of fractal reality that allowed FTL travel, it was proposed that it may be possible to tap into the very substance of the local universe affect those forms of travel. When the project finally bore fruit, it was hailed a two-edged sword. In effect, the anchor temporarily severed the connections between realspace any selective forms of "otherspace". Any and all technology which inherently relied on the selected Otherspace would simply cease to function. Otherspace drives, sensors, comms, computers; all would fail within the effect of the anchor's field.
The limit to the technology were the power requirements, which were enormous to cover a five light minute area of space, and the fact that any one device could only cover one specific Otherspace at a time. Analysis of the intended target was required to determine exactly which fractal mode was employed. Further research was needed to tune the anchor to that fractal mode, and the device could finally be used. If all variables had been met, reality anchors could very well leave a victim nearly defenseless in normal space, with no way to escape or call for help. The micro-fusion reactors which supplied power for only ten minutes of use could be powered down to avoid detection, a tiny solar array providing energy to the communication and startup equipment. When powered down like this, it would take extremely fine resolution passive sensors, or powerful active scanners to detect a drifting anchor device.
All the tools had been assembled. Now all MACE needed was the stage, and the actors.
********
Unnamed System - TEC Tradelanes
********
Watching for several days from within the relative safety of Planespace, the Abh vessels had drifted outside realspace. When they arrived, two hundred and fourty tiny, one meter wide sensor drones had been deployed into realspace when mass detectors had shown the system was empty. Over the next two days, the drones had drifted into a wide net, collecting data using passive, zero emission, sensors. This system was another tradelane stopover for the TEC, situated closest to Federal Union borders while still remaining outside sovereign territory. The percentage of civillian and military traffic which belonged to the Federal Union was higher than the other TEC members, but was not a constant presence.
For now, the small fleet of sixteen waited, drifting through Planespace, leeching data from their drones in comm bursts timed for when local traffic was thinnest or non-existant. MACE waited for collection of more data on the Federal Union's most common drive types, and what fractal modes those drives might utilize. Until they had enough information to reliably use the reality anchors, they would continue to wait, and drift...