[ARC] Solicitation for Enclave Boarding Mission Parameters

Fiction Portal Intergalactic Summit
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Pilots;

While ARC’s operations in Drifter Hives have allowed for significant asset retrieval over the years, boarding operations of structures existent in the Hive systems have been outside of our capability. Hostile environments, short duration operations, and the inherent difficulties in boarding Sleeper or Drifter infrastructure have all contributed to this.

ARC is currently negotiating with Kirkinen Risk Control for technical assistance with short-duration, high-risk boarding operations, with initial efforts directed at establishing testbeds and demonstrating project viability before we greenlight operations. Operations themselves would be multi-phase, with initial boarding operations to map constructs and determine resistance before we progress to active sampling, technology and data storage retrieval, and so on. Later stages will possibly require active breaching of undamaged structures elsewhere in the Hive systems, dependent on success of early operations.

The ultimate objective of these operations will be complete reconstruction of Sleeper mainframe systems unique to the Drifter Hive systems for retrieval of research or engineering data, with the aim of reconstructing a timeline of pre-collapse Sleeper activities in the Hive and replicating any possible research.

Project development milestones are as follows, with possible development targets noted:

  • Verify effective transfer of clone soldier incremental mindstate data through Sleeper infrastructure, without interference either from Sleeper hull construction or active infrastructure or defense systems.

    • Develop repeaters or signal boosters to be deployed at necessary intervals to enable transfer of data.
    • Deploy high-gain signal receiving arrays to be used on starships to ensure complete, non-corrupt data receipt, for evacuation failsafe.
    • Develop data fault verification processes to ensure infomorph data coherence and continuance in case of active electronic warfare or neuromemetic warfare processes.

  • Develop vacuum-rated and radiation hardened CRU infrastructure to be used for bridgeheads.

    • Integrate CRU infrastructure into small bridgehead craft to be deployed from bays aboard cruiser-class or larger vessels.
    • Develop CRU infrastructure aboard breaching pods to be used as one-way CRU transport systems, with either leave-behind capability for follow-on operations or self-spiking capacities to prevent suborning by hostile forces.
    • Ensure integrity of biomass and nanite feedstocks against environmental effects at point of breach to prevent loss of capability in exotic environments.

  • Develop appropriate clone soldier-compatible salvage capabilities for follow-on retrieval operations.

    • Develop clone soldier-compatible burnt engram skillsets for training of active duty clone soldiers as archeotechs, to enable multi-role clone deployment.
    • Develop appropriate mindstate preservation techniques to allow conversion of baseliner research staff to incremental mindstate transfer clone technology.

  • Verify suitable hull-breaching technology to allow for rapid penetration of heavily-armored facilities without significant damage to interior environments.

    • Test these technologies in secure, non-Drifter Hive system environments to establish effectiveness and low-impact methodologies.
    • Establish deployment timeline for use in Drifter Hive Sleeper Enclave environments.
    • Verify effectiveness of these technologies against Drifter Hive hulls themselves to provide for future boarding operations of Hives.

  • Develop and field test retrieval drone support for transport of valuable materials, with adequate hardening and trust procedures to ensure safe, autonomous hand-off of assets to a waiting vessel.

    • Deploy sterilization and electromagnetic cage equipment on retrieval drones to minimize contamination of retrieved materials in transit, or to thwart automated remote data protection protocols.
    • Improve on salvage handling processes to allow for fast, non-destructive removal of Sleeper assets in an intact or near-intact state, and provide for high-speed transport of materials.
    • Develop failsafe processes to temporarily secure materials on site for later retrieval in case of unexpected hostile intervention in fleet operations.

This project is, without a doubt, the work of months if not years. However, we believe this is an important step in the development of Hive penetration operations, which will be enabled by incremental advancement on existing technologies.

The development program is proposed here to provide for expert commentary from independent parties, to allow for additional exploration of points of failure, or other commentary as appropriate. ARC is committed to a nimble development process that may be adapted as needs be to changes in the on-going Drifter crisis.

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Ms. Priano,

Please contact me directly as I believe I have some useful systems that could certainly help in this endeavour.

Corra o/

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Ms Priano,

Our Black Hand operatives may be able to satisfy some of these requirements. We can discuss this further in a less public setting.

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Correct word usage: looting and pillage.
Considering ARC never had impression of being a loyal faction war force, nor even being a hired mercenaries, they can be designated as simple marauders.

I don’t believe that.
Looks just like an attempt to pillage more resources, trying to capture the thing intact instead or rummaging through wrecks.

“on-going crisis”
Cute!
“Oh, lets burn and pillage thing that we don’t understand and call it a CRISIS!”
Brilliant!

–
Capsuleers started poking drifters. They “woken up”, created these Drifters, killed the Empress and attempted to invade our space. Luckily, they were defeated and stopped doing that.

There is a war going on, people die daily, and Drifters just stare at us through their wormholes. But no, it’s not enough. These people want to poke Drifters harder, because they consider the war “not real”, closing eyes on all the people who lose their lives in what they consider “just border conflicts”.

They poked Sleepers - came Drifters. They will poke Drifters - and who will come next? Have you forgot what happened when capsuleers started poking drifter bodies? Maybe they will just want for some advanced race to land on our heads and wipe all life around with some sort of weapon of mass destruction, and make all our stars going W477-P?

And what for? Just for greed of people like Makoto Priano?..

–

@Corraidhin_Farsaidh, @Vlad_Cetes if you two fell for all that, I am losing my faith in humanity.

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@Diana_Kim

Your opinion is irrelevant to how we conduct our business. There is potential for improving ourselves, and that is worth whatever destruction may be vested on others…human or otherwise.

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And I don’t really care how you conduct your business, really. I just gave you a fair warning. You are neither a citizen nor other person I swore to protect. I can say you there are rake laying on the floor, but I am not going to hit a finger to finger to stop you from stepping on them. If you get hit to your forehead with that stick even after being warned, well, I’ll just laugh. And maybe add something like “I’ve warned you, I’ve warned youuu!” So… good luck. With attitude like that you will need it.

Also. Bwahahaha.

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This is an interesting problem you are trying to solve.

You seem to be focused on using Infomorphs as the extraction team. I am not well versed in Sleeper or Drifter tech but is there a reason for not using drone platforms?

The use of a cruiser level platform for deploying a CRU seems like a pipe dream. Is this simply for space saving or is there another reason that a cruiser platform would be preferable?

You mention putting Baseliners on the Enclaves. This seems like an extreme risk? What warrants it? Even with mind state capture which would seem prohibitively expensive it seems extremely risky.

How much of your resulting methods to solve the proposed problems do you intend to make publicly available?

These problems ARC is facing have an interesting similarity to current issues GMVA is approaching. From a cursory look it would seem that both of our groups could benefit from working together to solve these problems.

These are just a few of the questions I have I would be very interested in further consulting on this project as it seems something that I am personally suited to and passionate about. I do not often have much to contribute to ARC projects but I think this might be a perfect place to start.

Tristan Valentina
[GMVA] Freedom Through Superior Firepower

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You know what? I’m going to say it, I partly agree with Diana Kim. This is dangerous to the cluster like poking a hornets nest with a stick. And I highly doubt you would be able to safeguard against neural hacking upon death, which would mean that the warclones probably wouldn’t take the job if it risks permanent deaths, unless you plan on lying to them about the risks. I certainly hope that’s not the case. ARC has not shown interest in warclones in the past so now that they are, it’s rather concerning

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Ms. Valentina;

Essentially, I don’t trust drones in this environment. Sleepers tend to have a strong defensive reaction to drone presence, and so my concern is that drones may cause a different and potentially stronger response than infomorph personnel would. There are, of course, other technical issues with regard to provisions against electronic warfare, informatic intrusion, and so on. We know, however, that clone soldiers are able to operate in varied environments, which we hope would include that of a breached Sleeper enclave. However, you’re right that I shouldn’t discount the utility of drones beyond simple point-to-point transport of salvage.

On the cruiser component, we’ve determined that existent CRU technology would easily fit aboard a Stratios-class cruiser, and that its bay should be sufficient for a small beachhead craft. Certainly, larger vessels might also be useful in this capacity, but the simple truth is that between wormhole mass limits, our existing cruiser-focused doctrine, and the various advantages of the hull, we’re likely to use a Stratios or similar platform. Of course, if there’s a compelling reason to use another hull, we’ll adjust our plans.

The plan is explicitly to not put baseliners on an enclave. One potential option for ensuring the personnel used for the mission have the appropriate specialist training would be to convert baseliner science staff to ‘clone soldier’ or Sleeper-derived incremental mindstate transfer technology. Alternatively, we will be looking into the compatibility of Capsuleer- and Elysian-employed burnt engram technology to determine if existing skillsets could simply be used for clone soldiers. Odds are we’ll need to consult with the Society on the technical component of that, given all.

Of course, you are right that entirely biological, unaugmented personnel would naturally be most resistant to electronic warfare or neuromemetic warfare techniques, but, well-- our objective is to preserve personnel mission-on-mission to ensure sustained capability and preservation of specialist skills, hence the exercise.

On how much we intend to share, that is still very much a question. ARC prides itself on transparency to whatever degree is feasible given the circumstances, and so we’re planning to publish on this. However, I can’t guarantee there won’t be some proprietary practices or technologies in play. Insofar as cooperating with GMVA is concerned, ARC has no particular qualms with cooperating with any organization. However, GMVA’s partisan politics tend to be troublesome, and GMVA has not exactly established a friendly relationship with ARC, so it might be challenging. It will certainly merit further discussion.

I do wonder, though; you indicate this research work mirrors GMVA’s. Considering you were posing GMVA’s interest in clone soldiers as more or less humanitarian, what exactly is your work?

Mr. Ormand;

Given the nature of incremental mindstate transfer technology, it seems like soft clone preparations for a clone soldier should be trivial. In such a case, a clone soldier should lose, at most, several hours of memory when reawakened from backup outside the combat zone. This is, I should add, an area of research interest.

ARC is not in the habit of misleading contractors or associates.

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A clone soldier would lose memory. That implies that the original brain scan was lost or intercepted and the transfer was not complete, meaning you re awaken an older scan. That is highly unethical. From what i hear from the valkyrie pilot I recovered, fatal did this same thing, except when he did it, it was to throw away the old and retry with a clean slate. You will essentially be leaving warclone infomorphs to be tortured by drifters for having attempted to steal from them.

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Well, ■■■■, pack it up guys. We can’t be having soft clones any more, no backups, no second chances if you die outside the pod.

Because it’s unethical.

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For clarification, is the intent to create soft-clones for prior existing research staff or to seek out experts and labor for salvage teams that are already equipped with the type-2 implant?

While it would technically be possible to create soft clones for all your researchers and salvage teams with this technology I imagine it’d be a fairly arduous procedure. While the warclone technology has improved slightly in the years since the templar program, the transfer and training process is still very long and costly even compared to capsuleer technology and can cause long term psychological changes that can be rather unpredictable.

Not trying to dissuade you from that option, just mean to advise caution. That having been said, if you are in the market for clone soldiers already equipped and trained the technology our organization at the Bosena Accords has plenty of members willing to act as laborers. Many of us are also skilled engineers, and can provide addition on-site specialist support.

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Any participant would be made aware of the risks, risk mitigation techniques, and technologies employed. That is all one can hope for. If you consider that unethical, well, you’re welcome to feel whatever you like.

An edit, as Mr. Eskola-Fae responded as I was posting:

The concerns with regard to adjustment to the incremental mindstate update technology is precisely why we’re entertaining two approaches: either providing already-adapted personnel the appropriate skillset, or providing the appropriate infomorph technology to those who have the skillset already. Whichever proves the more advantageous option is likely what we’ll pursue.

My thanks for the offer of personnel, of course.

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Our interest in giving Infomorphs a home is completely humanitarian. We accept all comers, and we try to provide contracts in the field that they are passionate about. Our current militant contracts being offered to clone soldiers involves livestock extraction from hardened positions, the sort of positions that breaching with shipboard weaponry is either ineffective at, or colossally over effective. I am sure you have seen the results of 1400mms and heavy drone strikes on stations. Using these methods without having a proper extraction plan for livestock is purely wasteful of life. Contrary to many vocal entities in the cluster GMVA has a hard doctrine of not being wasteful with life, it is far to precious a resource to waste.

I believe we would be working in parallel firstly in the pursuit CRU infrastructure. Followed closely by the pursuit of cruiser based CRUs in which our current research has hit many a road block, the needed stability and power “Gimps the fit” and my fitting technicians would say.

You are certainly correct we have never reached out to ARC to establish any friendship. For past grievances, as well as a level of distrust of wormholes made us wary of being used simply as soldiers for scientists. I do not expect you to know our past, and recent history but some of the biggest personal , and leadership mistakes our corporation has made have involved wormhole entities. With that I consider this me, and GMVA reaching out to ARC to start cooperation in a space where we have some expertise. The deployment and support of Elaysian Infomorphs is something we have been studying since the first Elaysians hit the dirt.

On the point of our partisan politics it is true that we are steadfast in our support of the Federation, we are Gallente, and we are unapologetic about it. We fight in the war zone, and it is a crucible where we have become strong pilots. But if you take a look at the war zone you will see that we have become tired of the current pendulum and the reasons that we fought have been grossly miss-handled by the clusters leaders. We have scores to settle, and we are not pacifists. But our beliefs in combat do not make us any less Humanitarian in our goals.

If yourself or ARC have any specific issues with specific situations I am more then happy to talk those through, to see and address our exact failings.

Tristan Valentina
[GMVA] Freedom Though Superior Firepower

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Why is this suggestion not beset by angry Minmatar frothing at the mouth screaming that CONCORD doesn’t “let you do this kind of thing”, and rolling on the floor raging that “it’s not possible” ?

Really makes you :thinking:

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Also, have you considered the use of the Takmahl Mass Cloning Device, and the Takmahl Biodroid controller, to make vast numbers of entirely expendable remote-operated cyborgs, with which to infiltrate these structures ?

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They probably haven’t woken up yet.

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Maybe I am just outside of the normal loop, but is there something being discussed here that CONCORD would not allow?

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Who the hell even cares what CONCORD wants? They didn’t want us poking our noses in “Ghost sites” and didn’t do a damn thing worth considering threatening.

I say we all put our support behind d ARC’s moves to take a fight right into those hives. They think they’re so tough with their high-grade starships? We’ll find out what they got inside to fend off entire squadrons of super soldiers who will come right back after you put them down!

My only fear is that any dead soldiers raiding these hives can be used and defiled by these Drifters. But I have hope ARC will do their best to prevent that and bring home many spoils.

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Oh usually whenever someone says something about boarding operations, people complain that such things are “impossible” under CONCORD regulations. Like the time someone delivered a Bestower full of Angry Marines to one of the hangars on one of Naupliuss citadels. They whine that if such things were possible then surely PL or one of the other nullsec superpowers would be doing it all over, but PL isn’t doing that therefore it must be impossible, therefore it couldn’t have happened and everyone that said it did is experiencing group hallucination.

Really makes you :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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