Fwurg

[Veolian Commonwealth]

The vessel carrying the Hiocan delegation of scientists and military representatives to the Djana Military Research Centre was directed to one of the heated docking hangars by the Niras System flight control. Niras is the mostly uninhabitable system where the Djana Military Research Centre is located, the centre's existence only possible due to it's massive shield generator to protect it from regular asteroid impacts.

Inside the hangar, the delegation was greeted by the Veolian member of the board of oversight, as well as the director of the research centre.

[Former Senator Aunzora of the Confederacy of Excaria]

"Welcome to the Djana Military Research Centre", the director and former Excarian senator greeted the group.

"Allow me to introduce the field marshall Iaat Shigemi", he motions to the human woman standing next to him, "the veolian representative on the board of directors. We will soon meet the other representatives."

True to his origins as a politician, he smoothly lets a small pause fall to allow a hiocan representative to do introductions on their side before they continue on.

[Elaris]

The Hiocan delegation consist of Rear Admiral Elaris, Senator Harek and several attendants.

"Thank you for having us here, director Aunzor.

I am Rear Admiral Elaris and this is Senator Harek."

[Former Senator Aunzora of the Confederacy of Excaria]

"Welcome senator, admiral", Aunzora acknowledged the introductions.

"If you will please follow me", he said before leading the delegation to a conference room. It was clear from this short walk that the Djana Military Research Centre is mostly a military facility with laboratories and engineering bays, and only a few rooms that can be interpreted as "traditional office". The level of security matches that of a military facility, with security personell of Veolian, Teprogrenaian and Astrian backgrounds.

Eventually, the delegation arrives in a well-furnished conference room, with comfortable and luxurious chairs. The holoprojector is currently displaying a diagram of the current research areas, and several scientists are already present to listen to the introductory presentation of the Hiocans.

Also here are the Astrian and Teprogrenaian members of the board of directors, to which Aunzora led the Hiocan delegation.

"Senator Harek, rear admiral Elaris, it is my pleasure to introduce lord-brigadier general Charles Himekawa, the Astrian representative", he said as he motions towards the smartly dressed astrian, "And Danar Lorum, the Teprogrenaian representative.

"Representatives, allow me to introduce senator Harek and rear admiral Elaris of the Hiocan Society."

[Elaris]

"It is a please to meet you, lord-brigadier general Charles Himekawa and Danar Lorum."

She then goes to the desk to set up the presentation.

"Dear Djana research members and board,

The Hiocan Society promotes peaceful solutions over conflict, but as you all know not every species of individual agrees with this. Battles can be fought using various tactics. One of the key factors is communication. If you can coordinate your efforts you end up with results which are more than the sum of their parts.

The Hiocan Society has a big military cybernetic division as to minimize casualties and maximize the enemies frustration. For this you need good long range sensors and other equipment to analyze their communication system. "

In the pictures that follow various models and the basic principles are explained.

"With the help of Advanced military viruses, we are able to disrupt communication and make the enemy fleet less efficient and some fleet functions might be disabled. With this advantage the battle mostly ends quickly.

Thank you for your attention. Are there questions?"

((OOC: Maybe we can build a technolgy around this, request is placed at the technology Emporium.))

[Lord-Brigadier General Charles Himekawa]

"The pleasure is mine, admiral. And a good day to you too senator."

The general greeted the Hiocans. He listened closely, but appeared to be rather surprised by the rear admirals presentation.

"Is that all? Can you elaborate on these concepts?"

Charles asked, clearly displeased by the shortness of the presentation.

"How do you propose to coordinate communications? Military communication is already highly coordinated. At least in the Astrian Colonial Military, but I expect this also goes for other militaries."

"Also what kind of cybernetics are we talking about? How do long rang sensors help to 'minimize casualties and maximize enemies frustration' with these cybernetics?"

"Lastly how exactly are these viruses delivered?"

The Astrian brigadier general looked at the Hiocan admiral expectantly.

[Field Marshal Iaat Shigemi]

Field Marshal Iaat Shigemi — a human — listened intently, and had a glean of interest in her eye. Her colleague the brigadier general was faster with firing of several questions, and she happily waited her turn.

She patiently waited for the answers from the rear admiral.

[Elaris]

((OOC: I am not so good in just making tech up, so hopefully this wil work))

"Thank you for your questions lord-brigadier general Charles Himekawa.

Communication devices can function in a various ways on different frequencies in various codes, most military systems are quite complex and well protected. These various models of long range sensor arrays are made to analyze them all. Which communication chancels are used and how are they coded. They map the communication system, like tapping in on a chancel and decoding it.

With this information the cybernetic division can build a program which can infiltrate the system and disturb it. The delivery of the virus has to be done physically, which is the hard part. It is either can be directly introduced during a infiltration mission or delivered in a disguise as something normal that they meet on the way. The virus can in the best case situation immediately take over the enemy system or behave like a parasite and wait until a certain time/size/signal and then act.

If you disable the internal communication system of a fleet it will be hard to even relay the simplest messages to the crew on what to do when and where. Controlling a ships is indeed different and only the most perfectly drilled personal and experienced fleet captains who have know each other long enough to know what the other will do may stand a change."

[Stuiter]

((OOC: Could we start the research for Generalized Fleet Logistics? It might be usefull in the war now.))

[Field Marshal Iaat Shigemi]

((OOC: How about roleplaying the sudden urgency towards military research? This is after all an online roleplaying game... Just dropping an OOC line seems to be counter-productive to the actual roleplay.

Note: I have some follow-up questions, but I am waiting for a moment to give Stuiter the option of RPing the Hiocan's new-found urgency ^_^))

[Stuiter]

((OOC: I was thinking of doing that, but I did not want to disturb the presentation so abrupt, so that you ask your questions. But let's do this in a bit different way.))

[Senator Harek]

The senator looks worried around an then decides to take action.

"I am sorry for interrupting, but the Slave Rebellions has made a hostile against the Union. I suggest we immediately start with the research of the Generalized Fleet Logistics technology. The Hiocan Society will start payment to the Djana research centre with 100 / and depending on the number of participant this can be adjusted. "

[Field Marshal Iaat Shigemi]

"I agree that with should not act with undue slowness. But you are forgetting, senator, that the Hiocan Society is not yet a member of the Djana Military Research Centre.

I agree however, that we should start this research forthwith. I agree that the Djana Military Research Centre should be the organising force to get all factions that are interested in this research into a collaborative effort. I will send out invitations, and expect research to start in the coming week."

((OOC: @Stuiter: You can't really expect people to join up within a day; so I suggest we start the research next week.))

[Senator Harek]

((OOC: Only the Astai turn report was finished and now still not all turn reports are finished. So the it could have been done, but I will postpone it.))

[Field Marshal Iaat Shigemi]

((OOC: @Stuiter: It is completely unrealistic to expect people to only make a turn report and arbitrarily join the research without even knowing it is going on... Most people post at the same speed you do: once or twice a week. And as such they would have missed out on the opportunity to join in.))

[Senator Harek]

((OOC: Is this ending okay or should there be more aka story page?))

[Field Marshal Iaat Shigemi]

((OOC: Well... I'm guessing the Hiocans still want to become a member of the Djana Military Research Centre? In that case this thread is simply not done yet. It might have been suspended somewhat due to the ongoing war, but there are still questions to be asked and votes to be taken.

But I admit that the thread has been standing still for a tad too long. I'll kickstart it with a post immediately! (I will also see about getting the Teprogrenaian representative in here.)))

[Field Marshal Iaat Shigemi]

((OOC: My OOC reply is collapsed above.))

With the senator's urgent message done, the human field marshal directs her attention back to Elaris, the hiocan rear admiral.

"Rear admiral, how does your cybernetics division ensure that the virus is actually effective? Only the most technologically advanced ships have large and interconnected computerized systems, many ships have separated systems. Navicomputers, communications consoles, sensor data analysers, and power routing switches are often unconnected, requiring personnel to run them and to effect any change.

I am sure that you custom-built viruses are very advanced, but it is common knowledge that at least half of enemy vessels is not advanced enough to be affected because they simply lack internal networks. Even in the Veolian fleets, many ships rely on manned consoles and personnel to bring data from one system to the next, simply because an interconnected system of computers is too complex and expensive to build and maintain."

[Elaris]

"Communication with systems is done in a lot of different ways. Fully integrated systems are rare, you see more (wireless) separated system. Electronic signals can travel far. As stations have to be accessible for people they are open for signals from the outside. By using high tech modern wireless technique the virus can spread from a probe (near or on the ship) to a certain area of the ship."

[Field Marshal Iaat Shigemi]

"I understand how that would work with advanced civilian vessels, since they will indeed accept open signals. But civilian vessels pose little threat to most serious military undertakings."

"I fail to see how you would be able to get your computer virus idea to work on an actual military vessel. Not only are these vessels built much more securely, most electronics systems are simply not connected at all, and require manual operation to get anything done. Your virus will most likely not flip switches, push buttons and turn knobs, right?"

The field marshall is completely honest about how she sees the proposed highly advanced technique, she simply does not see how it would affect any military vessel.

[Stuiter]

((OOC: I am not enjoying this discussion. I try to think up a new imaginary techt and you beat me down. I am no technical expert, so this is hard for me. Could you help me? Otherwise I am not going to see how this is going to work and quit.))

[Brend]

((OOC: It is good that you tell us that you do not enjoy the discussion. Now we can find a way to continue that is enjoyable for everyone.

First off, OOCly I have no problem with your proposed technology. I must admit that I think it is a tad on the high-tech side for the FWURG universe, since it is based on the Star Wars univers (the one where literally every computer has a single function, and people are still manning a ships turrets by hand). But I do think that it can work, especially with the advanced technological know-how of the Hiocans.

What happes is that Iaat Shigemi does not understand what the Hiocans are trying to do. She is used to vessels where you have a lot of people running around carrying messages and configuration commands for different systems, and then entering those commands by hand. On most vessels she knows of communication between computer systems (if that even happens) is done through manual effort. So, after hearing this, she simply does not understand it.

I think that the Hiocans can make a very strong convincing argument though, An argument that will show off their expertise, the feasability of this technology, and convince Iaat Shigema that this will work. The Hiocans can present a prototype virus that they made, and show a holorecording of that virus disabling a Mandalorian vessels that was captured during the mandalorian wars. That way it becomes a concrete possibility, instead of a hypothetical attack.

What do you think of that?))

[Elaris]

"It seems you are not persuaded by words Field Marshal. Maybe a little demonstration will be more convincing.

During the Mandalorian war we have done some test with the prototype. Please note that this is top-secret information which I will be showing you."

Rear admiral Elaris grabs her datapad and connects it to the holoscreen. She shows a video where a Hiocan vessel approached a lone Mandalorian ships somewhere in their sector. The battle starts and during the fight the probe is launched during a fly by and hits the Mandalorian ship near the engines. After making a turn, you see that the Mandalorians have problems turning and within 30 seconds the engines stop and they float in space.

[Field Marshal Iaat Shigemi]

The field marshal pays close attention to the holovid. She has read several reports on Mandalorian vessels, and knows that they are not as high-tech as the Hiocan ships.

"Impressive.", she states, "Were they able to recover from this ability before they were destroyed?"