A Helping Hand: Part 2
08 Jun 2022Fallharbor
This log continues a short series in collaboration with Titan Contractors and it's many Commanders. Thank you CMDR RADIUMIO and everyone else involved for allowing me to be part of this. Special thanks to CMDR Solix for roleplaying their character Zoe Viridian with me for this part! Part 1 here.
Location: Sheron on board Hecate's Rest
Date: 31 May 3308
A black cloud filled with lightening appeared, signaling the arrival of a massive ship exiting Witch-space. The Fleet Carrier, Hecate's Rest, burst through the rift with a loud bellow. Immediately, several ships deployed from the carrier. A red Alliance Chieftain is followed by a Krait MKII and two Imperial Eagles. Not long after a federal Corvette and multiple smaller ships deployed and took a defensive position around the carrier.
// Berserker Wing, this is Hecate's Rest. We are opening all channels and beginning system wide scans. Be careful out there.
// Will do, Hecate's Rest. We won't be long. Berserker Wing, out.
The Berserker, accompanied by the Arbmos piloted by Jenn Dixon and flanked by two Imperial Eagles, head out in to the system in search of any clues pertaining to the recent cryptic messages received. Immediately after jumping into supercruise the alerted the wing of a nearby vessel.
Fallharbor: Jenn, are you seeing this?
Jenn: Yeah, someone else is here already. ID: AMV Plato...
Fallharbor: Right...I'll send out a hail.
Fallharbor: //AMV Plato, this is Commander Fallharbor of the Berserker and Hecate's Rest. Please identify yourself.
LT Viridian: //Berserker, this is 2nd Lieutenant Zoe Viridian, acknowledge receipt of identification.
Jenn: Second lieutenant? Of what?
Fallharbor: //AMV Plato, identification received. What's your current business out here, Lieutenant?
Fallharbor: Wait I think I recognize that name from the TCON concourse channel.
LT Viridian: //Investigating a signal for a friend, I believe you're looking into the same one. If you'd like to split up we can cover more ground, I'll handle the bodies orbiting A star if you wish to handle those orbiting B.
Fallharbor: Yeah seems like I was right. What do you think Jenn?
Jenn: I'm not too comfortable leaving the carrier on it's own but they should manage against one ship if anything goes wrong.
Fallharbor: If they're a friend of TCON I don't think we've got anything to worry about.
Jenn: Didn't you say they're leader was a war criminal?
Fallharbor: Yes but...it's a long story. I think we can trust them.
Jenn: mumbled over comms First they trust the cultists and now friends of war criminals....
Fallharbor: What was that?
Jenn: I said sure I'll let Aurelia know.
Fallharbor: Roger.
Fallharbor: //That's a roger, Lieutenant Viridian. My wing and I will head to B star. If any trouble comes, feel free to harbor at Hecate's Rest.
LT Viridian: //Thanks. I'll keep you posted with anything I find. The comm link ended abruptly.
Jenn: Aurelia says she'll leave us if anything goes wrong.
Static silence over comms.
Jenn: I don't blame her.
Fallharbor: Whatever, let's go.
The Berserker Wing began to make their way to the B Star's system keeping their sensors open for any sign or signal. At the same time, Vidal decided to send an update to Titan's Concourse channel when suddenly the whole networked was compromised. The strange unsettling smiley emoji appeared in the channel. G.R.I.D. appeared down.
Fallharbor: //AMV Plato, I was trying to update G.R.I.D. in the concourse but...it looks like whatever has been sending us messages has taken over G.R.I.D. itself. All I get is that creepy smiley face.
LT Viridian: // Well that's...unsettling. I'm going to start doing some more intrusive scans, your carrier is whitelisted but some of the scans may still-hang on...
Jenn: Intrusive scans? What does that mean?!
Fallharbor: I'm sure it's fine. We've got nothing to hide...
Fallharbor: //Hecate's Rest, Fallharbor here. Our new acquaintance will be performing some deeper scans. Might affect our systems. Shouldn't be a problem.
//Vidal....too trusting. Too trusting
The scan begun abruptly and though brief, it's intensity reported by the carrier's computer seemed nearly impossible to have come from the small diamondback scout. It appeared LT Viridian's ship was custom made for this sort of thing. Whatever her job, she was surely good at it.
"Vidal...that last scan that ran through the carrier. It might...it might have found my programming..." Keep reported straight to Vidal's head.
"Well…our new friend hasn’t mentioned anything. We can always go with your main programming excuse; an archival general AI." I replied attempting to ease both our worries.
"I can only hope that works.." she replied.
After a few moments, LT Viridian reported an anomalous signal pattern. She recorded and sent it to the Concourse for all to analyze. Hecate's Rest began to analyze with their own programs. Reports came back from the carrier and concourse channel with similar results. The signal, if ran through an audio spectrum analyzer, revealed an image. To Vidal and the rest of Hecate's Rest, the image meant little but to others closer to Titan it appeared to be an imagine pertaining to an enemy of theirs. There was little else to do for the moment and Titan operatives appeared to reestablish control of G.R.I.D. Berserker Wing, along with LT Viridian boarded Hecate's Rest until more could be discovered.
Location: Sheron on board Hecate's Rest
Date: 03 June 3308
Everything had gone to shit on this day. Not for us but for our friends....
We had decided to stay in the system and continue be on the look out for any more strange signals. A few commanders had only been receiving the same unsettling smiley face each day except each day it was one less. Today was the last one. LT Viridian had taken it upon herself to look for the source of the signal over the past few days after G.R.I.D. was able to confirm the origin was probably within 100ly of Sheron. She returned today with a report...
The Plato jumped in the carrier's local space and immediately requested docking. It handed over control for automated docking and a sigh of relief was heard as soon as radio contacted was established.
LT Viridian: //I-I found something.
Fallharbor: // LT Viridian, this Commander, Fallharbor. You found something?
LT Viridian: // Carrier, unregistered. It- her breathe trembled It managed to completely kill the Plato's systems. The Plato...a ship designed specifically for electronic warfare and it just...
The Plato landed at it's assigned pad but refused any and all connections outside radio contact.
Fallharbor: //That's...terrifying...Do you recall what system the carrier was in?
LT Viridian: //Y-yeah. IC 4604 Sector WK-O b6-0. A short pause. For the time being I'm not allowing any connections of any kind to the Plato outside of radio, I don't know what they've done to it, or if there's a dangerous worm in it. If I were that carrier and had total access to a ship like that then infecting it's systems like that would be one of the first things I'd do.
Fallharbor: //Noted and appreciated.
I had to check it out myself. I knew it wasn't a good idea but maybe Keep could analyze whatever LT Viridian found out there. I ran to the hangars and into the Arbmos before Aurelia and Jenn could stop me from taking off. I deployed off the hangar pad and jumped into the direction of IC 4604 Sector WK-O b6-0. For a while now, I'd been micro-dosing the Onionhead making The Void ever present with every jump into Witch-space. I reached out for it's advice. I'm not sure why but it felt like the right thing to do. The Void felt comforting as I continued on this path. As if reassuring me this was the right thing to do.
"Vidal, I don't think this is a good idea" Keep said in my head reminding me of the other recent ever present entity in my life.
"We're just going to pop in and see if we can get anything with a scan and pop out. Nothing to worry about." I replied attempting to assuage her worry.
"If LT Viridian's super ship was compromised what makes you think the Arbmos won't be?!" she exclaimed. The longer she lived in my head the more emotions she appeared to show.
"Viridian's ship didn't have you..." I said as we jumped out of Witch-space into our destination. We immediately scanned and locked on to the unregistered carrier. It was at the farthest point of the system it could be and the initial scan only yielded basic data until moments later a strange interference began to disrupt ship functions even from this distance.
"Vidal, this interference...it's similar to the audio we analyzed a few days ago."
"Can you find anything new in it?"
"I'm not sure. We'd-"
"Have to get closer." I said finishing her though and began to fly the ship towards the carrier. The closer we approached the worse the ship's systems reacted. While manageable at first, the impact on the ship only worsened with each passing second. Suddenly I was not in control and the ship turned away.
"I can't allow you to do that, Vidal" Keep said both in my head and through the ship's distorted speakers. "This interference is...unsettling."
"Ok, Keep. Let's just monitor it for now from a distance. At least until the Solaris-"
"Vidal. It's-it's getting worse. It's as if the carrrier...it knows we're here..."
"Is there anything new you can find in this signal??"
The ship began to plot a course back to Hecate' Rest without my input. I'd never seen Keep so distressed nor has she ever taken control of the ship like this from me. Not even on the wild trip to The Abyss and back.
"I-I'm not sure. I'm getting us out of here." Keep said charging the FSD and jumping us out. With each jump back to the carrier The Void felt uneasy. As if warning me about something. We reached the carrier, landed, and made our way to the Command Deck. There I was met by Aurelia and Jenn; their faces filled with worry. Aurelia handed me her tablet displaying a message from Titan's OSIRIS network. The Solaris hadn't made it's jump to Sheron and was now stranded...