Information Warfare
01 Jul 2024Argon Shadowstar
It is a good day for my campaign. I have spoken to many lately who are intrigued by my words and I observe that yet more of these mysterious agents act in tandem with me, even as I take time to deal with complications that have impeded my own action. Thanks to these shadow operatives, my campaign continues to see success even without my direct involvement. As I write this, the Order of the Imperial Knights is retreating from multiple systems. Meanwhile, their Imperial supporters in Tatuba have succumbed to the infighting that plagues all factions that overreach. For now, this takes the form of an election, but behind the scenes, secret Imperial operatives play a cat and mouse game of murder and sabotage against one another, typical of such an Empire. I must admit, it does delight me to know that in their desperation to deal with my campaign of righteousness, they plot and scheme against one another, unable to agree on a solution that pleases their selfish and corrupt masters.However, those complications I mentioned earlier have required me to adjust my tactics, and rely more on my followers and contacts. Some time ago, I became aware that some of my data uploads were failing, leading to delays in the publication of my flight logs and disruptions of my information analysis systems, which I interface with INARA for the sake of transparency. I would imagine that this has had little noticable effect to anyone else, but it has hampered some of my operational capacity. To resolve this, I have had to leave the theater of operations to visit a number of contacts with unique specialties in the fields of starship engineering and data handling. While visiting them, I've taken advantage of the opportunity to let them work on my ships and share some of the rarer materials I've collected during my campaign. I also took advantage of an opportunity to visit Felicity Farseer, whom I still suspect is a Federation spy. We have reached something of an agreement, though I still suspect she sabotaged my hyperdrive several months ago. I'm not letting her work on my ships, however we did agree to an "exchange" of information. To be clear, I stole some very useful data from one of her less secure network nodes and uploaded it to an untraceable off-site. To make it fair, I gave her a wealth of sensitive Imperial data, the sum of everything I've liberated from Order systems in the months that I've been working against them. I suspect she'll deliver this to her Federation cohorts, who will likely use it against the Empire in some way, furthering my goal of increasing hostilities between the superpowers. Of course, she still isn't happy with me since this "trade" was not exactly her choice, but I think she understood that it could have gone far worse. Hopefully, she appreciates my fairness. Most terrorists are much less reasonable.
In any case, this data will allow me to perform most of the frame shift drive modifications I will need myself, or at least with my own team of engineers. As far as the data disruptions, I have determined that the cause is more insidious than I originally suspected. What I first thought was simply a computer virus has turned out to be a dedicated team of information warfare agents who have been targeting me. I can't say I'm surprised, after all, one look at the state of the crumbling Order of Imperial Knights is enough. They are clearly frustrated, frightened, and desperate. The faith they put into their security forces, their law enforcement, and their bounty hunters, has failed them. They are losing systems, influence, and people. Their own Emperor has lost faith in them, to the point that they have lost the right to rule many of the Imperial systems once under their control. This, in addition to the systems they have been entirely driven out of. I suppose they must feel at least somewhat relieved that at least one of their measures of attack has met with success, however I regret to inform them (I assume they are reading this), that it hasn't worked. I will admit that you have succeeded in causing me some annoyance, but look at what it's gotten you. Your systems continue to fall into the hands of other factions, your Emperor doubts your competence, and the commanders who once fought in your name have begun to realize it is a futile and thankless endeavor. Even your squadron has abandoned you. You have prevented me from showing the galaxy at large the details of the systems I attack, hiding the truth from them and yourselves, but that doesn't stop me from attacking them in the first place. The damage is being done regardless of how deep in the sand you bury your head. But the truth is my sword, and apparently it is a fearsome weapon indeed, for it to be the main target of your attack.