[Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror (Completed)

[Krulle]

The malware scrambled the internal communications......
Often video feeds are connected to the internal communications...
Often any communication from any other device goes via the same bus connections of the internal communications....

The bridge may have, for security reasons, direct feeds. And those might indeed be quite jamming proof.

[dragoongfa]

The malware scrambled the internal communications......
Often video feeds are connected to the internal communications...
Often any communication from any other device goes via the same bus connections of the internal communications....

The bridge may have, for security reasons, direct feeds. And those might indeed be quite jamming proof.

Very close.

The ship's computer system is a giant network relying heavily on the communications system, you are right that with the malware there the network is essentially crippled.

However certain critical areas are bound to have redundant systems in place that will keep those areas working even if the rest of the ship's network goes out of commission one way or the other. The medical bay counts as a last refuge for surviving crew in case of catastrophic ship damage so it has a redundant emergency power supply (Shipstone batteries) and its own localized life support system that should keep the survivors alive for a logical amount of time (a week perhaps?). The bridge has redundant command and control systems in place as well as independent connections to the ship's sensors (which are the primary buses for sensory input for bandwidth reasons). Engineering has triple redundancy in the power conduits that provide power to the ship as well as two emergency generators that should keep the crew alive for an indefinite amount of time in case the main reactor goes kaput (one was given to the Loroi). The shuttle bay also has a redundant power supply for its own systems, easily replaceable user interfaces/hardware and enough armor to protect the rest of the ship from an internal explosion in case of a shuttle accident.

All of the ship's systems are hardened against Electronic Warfare and Jamming but that's for TL 9 EW, a TL 11 Electronic Warfare unit would rain havoc on the systems, even fry them completely should one go overboard with them from point blank range.

[Mr Bojangles]

An interesting update. Looking forward to more. I hope you can clarify something for me, though: just how many of the Matveyev's away teams were lost? I may have misread something, but it seems to be either one or two...

[dragoongfa]

One team definitely lost while the status of the rest is unknown. Going EVA, next to a fusion torpedo while in the middle of an asteroid field is dangerous no matter how you cut it.

[Mr Bojangles]

Yeah, I imagine being near an exploding fusion device would not be conducive to one's health. Some might even say it's a downright poor way to ensure continued survival...

(Poor) Joking aside, I think my confusion stemmed from the Umiak destroying the asteroid the first pair of torpedoes came from. Reading on, it seemed like the Umiak destroyed another asteroid while escaping (and another team, inadvertently). This is in addition to five already dead mentioned at the 55 second mark (it's possible I'm just not remembering something you wrote in a previous chapter).

[Sweforce]

Next part I guess could be from the loroi side. The humans are to occupied dealing with the umiak boarding party. Surviving umiak crewmembers on the heavy are probably to stunned to do much for a while except for any hard troopers onboard. So my guess we see it from the point of wiev of an loroi boarding party making a rich to reach and kill the commander before wakes up and hit the self destruct. I could be wrong thou. It could bee about the umiak boarding party thou.

[dragoongfa]

Yeah, I imagine being near an exploding fusion device would not be conducive to one's health. Some might even say it's a downright poor way to ensure continued survival...

(Poor) Joking aside, I think my confusion stemmed from the Umiak destroying the asteroid the first pair of torpedoes came from. Reading on, it seemed like the Umiak destroyed another asteroid while escaping (and another team, inadvertently). This is in addition to five already dead mentioned at the 55 second mark (it's possible I'm just not remembering something you wrote in a previous chapter).

There were plenty of small asteroids going around their merry business and the away teams were only six, not including the shuttle team which went in hiding deeper in the asteroid field and launched the two torpedoes they towed when the Umiak ship passed a predefined threshold.

The problem and benefit with multiple POVs is that you can't explain everything at the same time, one has to split everything in multiple parts and with multiple characters. The reader is then able to piece together the pieces and bits that each character provides.

[dragoongfa]

Chapter 12, part 3

2nd Lieutenant Altti Viranko let out a silent sigh of relief the moment Matveyev came into view. He tried hailing it but after he received no reply he hoped that the silence only meant that they were still scrubbing the ship’s systems from the malware. Deciding to just follow his instructions he activated the shuttle’s emergency beacon and accelerated slightly towards Matveyev.
He hoped that the emergency beacons each space suit had would be able to break through the electromagnetic interference that covered the entire asteroid field. Without those beacons or a chart of the asteroid’s movements it would be impossible to locate the away teams, since the asteroids that he had dropped them off had moved, in fact no asteroid within the cloud that covered the entire opening was at the same position. The process was automatic, even if someone had been knocked out the beacon would light up and reply to any nearby TCA beacon for a quick search and rescue.

There were a total of 30 men and women adrift throughout the small asteroid cloud and his team’s job was to get them to safety once the Umiak ship was taken out. It was a dangerous plan for everyone involved but still simple enough. The shuttle team’s job was to stay hidden at the approach to the small opening that served as Matveyev’s hiding place and when the Umiak ship approached they would shadow it from a distance until the Umiak would commit themselves into capturing Matveyev. Once their boarding parties were launched the shuttle would move into position and give the signal for the launch of the two fusion torpedoes they had towed, hidden and prepared. The torpedoes would then follow a roundabout flight pattern that would keep them from being detected and would allow them to accelerate for four minutes before changing course and aim for Matveyev’s position.

The two torpedoes would be harmless since almost all of their fuel would have been consumed during the acceleration but they would serve as a distraction to the Umiak gunners, a distraction that should offer a small opening for the six away teams to fire their own torpedoes from the best positions they could move to in the limited time they had available.

Against all odds the plan worked and the Umiak ship was now a fast moving wreck that was on a collision course for one of the huge asteroids that enclosed Matveyev’s position. For a moment his shuttle’s limited sensors picked something fast darting after the wrecked ship but more than a dozen emergency beacon pings drew his full attention. The first group of five was close by, on the surface of the asteroid they must have used for the trap. He turned the shuttle and gently slowed its speed until it came to a halt right next to the asteroid in question.

“Did we get them?” The unmistakable voice of ensign Wung was heard the moment he accepted a transmission from the away team.

“Yes, where is your LT ensign?”

“She is out cold, didn’t get covered in time and she was bathed in radiation from the torpedo’s wake.” The Ensign replied as he and the other members of his team equipped with EVA modules carried their unconscious lieutenant to the shuttle.

“Damn, get her inside and go get the last one, you are the first team I have run across.” He said and switched the channel to internal comms to inform his two crewmates in the passenger compartment. “You got someone with severe radiation poisoning incoming, strip her and do an emergency anti-radiation treatment. Lock her suit at the cargo compartment… no do that for everyone’s to be safe, we will wash them from radiation at the ship.” The proper procedure was to get everyone who was hit by radiation to the ship as quickly as possible but until Matveyev contacted them and gave them the all clear they would have to make due; thankfully someone had the foresight to stock up the shuttle with anti-radiation meds from Matveyev’s medical reserve as a precaution.

“We are all here.” Ensign Wung called after closing the outer airlock.

“Roger that… Pick one of your team with an EVA module and have them on standby inside the airlock. The other teams may need help.”

“I and Marter will stay.” Ensign Wung replied in an instant.

“Good man.” He accelerated the shuttle towards the next group of distress beacons when Matveyev finally contacted them.

“2nd Lieutenant Viranko, do you read?” Captain Asteio’s weary voice filled his cockpit.

“Yes, sir. Just picked up Lieutenant Salmon’s team. She is unconscious due to radiation poisoning and requires immediate medical attention.”

“Damn it; The Matveyev is still not secure. The marines are fighting to clean a path to the medical bay but you will have to wait until they give the go ahead.”

“Roger that.”

“I am sending you the current coordinates of the asteroids that the remaining teams used, find everyone and do your best to stabilize those who need medical attention. Then have everyone who is able to replenish their life support units, we will need everyone to repair damage throughout the ship.” Captain Asteios ordered.

“Remaining teams sir?”

“The Umiak got one, I don’t expect any survivors…” The captain’s dark tone passed the full picture of the mood he was in because of that.

“...The suits of the away teams will have to be washed for radiation sir.”

“I know that…” The captain replied coldly. “Damage control on certain areas of the ship has to take priority. The Umiak tried to storm engineering and they blew up one of the power conduits when the marines forced them to retreat. The marines showed restraint there but the shuttle bay has been shot to shreds and they are still fighting throughout the ship.”

“Yes sir. I will inform everyone that damage control will be our priority.” The captain made to close the channel but hesitated.

“We need our home fixed Viranko.”

Chapter 13, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 426#p20426

[dragoongfa]

Chapter 12 is now done and all I can say is that there are still 4 maybe 5 chapters left till the story is concluded.

Had to cut a lot of bloat from this part that would be better explained on the next part anyway. The next part may turn out to be somewhat big as a result.

[Grayhome]

Congratulations on another completed segment of the story. I hope the Loroi will be able to patch up the injured crew members.

Dragoonfa, I've been wondering about this for awhile now, but doesn't attacking someone through their communications systems force everyone to never communicate with the Umiak? I would certainly consider any human who opened up communications with an Umiak or Umiak allied vessel to be a colossal fool after this dastardly and callous attack.

[dragoongfa]

I think that I would partially explain this in one of the two last chapters but here is what I had in mind.

You are thinking this as a binary communication when one side can afford to never talk with the other again when in fact its more like modern cloak and dagger incidents involving superpowers. To give a modern parallel lets take China and Russia, two great powers one of which has a guaranteed superpower future. Both of them are well known for their cyber warfare abilities and attacks, Russia has effectively DDOSed entire nations off the Internet while China has infiltrated almost everything in the US economy.

What were the repercussions of these attacks which adversely affected the victims and their economy?

Nil on all accounts. The ones hit weere either too weak to even protest (See Russian attacks on eastern Europe nations) or had too intertwined interests with the attacker (see US and China). It can be said that this is because the 'public' cannot understand the repercussions of cyberwarfare and as such didn't demand heads to roll but that's far from it. The truth of the matter is that both attackers were simply too strong and too important to cut off for security reasons alone.

The same applies with the Umiak. The Umiak Hierarchy is a local bubble superpower with a huge population, a large number of subjugated/affiliated species, a monstrous economy fueled by the aforementioned populations and an even far more monstrous military arm that destroys everything in its path. They know it and their neighbors know it. The neighbors and victims can't do anything about cyber warfare attacks and other provocations; what's worse the Umiak have an anti neutrality doctrine in effect as well. If poking a bear with a stick is a bad idea then the Umiak are a starving, bloodthirsty pack of bears that are currently fighting a pack of rabid, man eating tigers. Common sense says that you only go between such a fight only if you have an armored vehicle, plenty of ammo and the intent to kill everything that moves.

So in essence the Umiak know that they can get away with certain cyber warfare attacks because they are a superpower and if someone protests then the anti neutrality doctrine comes in as well and suddenly the ones who were attacked and were stupid enough to protest find themselves with a bulls-eye painted on their backs and with no one to protect them if they are away from the Loroi who themselves aren't someone who you want to voluntarily relate to anyway.

Then there is your assumption that the Umiak employ this particular avenue of cyber attack often and without reason. The attack software they used in this occasion is state of the art by their standards, not because of an ability to rewrite itself (that would require an AI) but because of its ability to recognize patterns and then copy and paste recognized code patterns in order to produce an intended result. To put a long story short what the program needed to attack was a known programming pattern to establish itself onto, which was the emulated Orgus communications programs. then to be allowed enough time to analyze and recognize the programming patterns of the emulation which would then allow it to infiltrate deeper into the system. Once the malware has a big enough library of recognized code patterns then it can proceed to cut and paste select patterns to derive a pre-programed result.

To write such a program one would need to be an insane monomaniacal entity that would devote countless hours/days/years in perfecting its pattern recognition abilities. This type of programming is an Umiak specialty and although the Umiak are known to play dirty with everyone, they really don't want people to know that they have this cyber warfare ability. Species with advanced anti malware systems can fight it back and are able to do so after having fallen victim to it a number of times early in the war (the Loroi suffered quite a bit from earlier versions while the Historian A.I.s are immune to it) but those who have not come in contact with it do have some very large holes in their anti malware abilities and the Umiak want to keep it that way until the time has come for an other Hierarchy expansion.

From the Umiak POV the human ship had no way to escape to inform their HQ and their need to secure the ship intact in order to secure the information leak about their 'device' and to find where the humans came from far outweighed the near minuscule risks. Humans however are weird in the way they do things, they have a weird game called X-Com from which the have learned that even a 99% probability is no guarantee of victory and thus would keep more than a couple of tricks up their sleeve in case of a disastrous probability result.

[Sweforce]

Congratulations on another completed segment of the story. I hope the Loroi will be able to patch up the injured crew members.

Dragoonfa, I've been wondering about this for awhile now, but doesn't attacking someone through their communications systems force everyone to never communicate with the Umiak? I would certainly consider any human who opened up communications with an Umiak or Umiak allied vessel to be a colossal fool after this dastardly and callous attack.

You need a modern firewall and a current patch and even better isolated systems that can easily be rebooted upon a suspected infection. I assume the loroi and most of their allies have that by now.

[Krulle]

SpoilerShow

Chapter 12, part 3

2nd Lieutenant Altti Viranko let out a silent sigh of relief the moment Matveyev came into view. He tried hailing it but after he received no reply he hoped that the silence only meant that they were still scrubbing the ship’s systems from the malware. Deciding to just follow his instructions he activated the shuttle’s emergency beacon and accelerated slightly towards Matveyev.
He hoped that the emergency beacons each space suit had would be able to break through the electromagnetic interference that covered the entire asteroid field. Without those beacons or a chart of the asteroid’s movements it would be impossible to locate the away teams, since the asteroids that he had dropped off them off had moved, in fact no asteroid within the cloud that covered the entire opening was at the same position. The process was automatic, even if someone had been knocked out the beacon would light up and reply to any nearby TCA beacon for a quick search and rescue.
[...]

“Damn, get her inside and go get the last one, you are the first team I have run across.” He said and switched the channel to internal comms to inform his two crewmates that in (?) the passenger compartment. [...]

So, cleanup is still in procedure, and will not become easier. But it's all mopping up...

I wonder what that small thing zipping past was?
The Loroi shuttle...?

Next chapter will be from the view of the Loroi in that shuttle, I presume.

Regarding the communications: I would also presume that the Loroi, as a "courtesy" and way to earn trust, warn all species about the Umiak capabilities, and even provide them with guidelines of effective countermeasures to protect themselves from such attacks. That would not have reached the Orgus, and thus not the Humans in time, but it would still slow down the Umiak slightly, and strengthen those along the Umiak borders....
Or do the Loroi use similar tactics, and thus not want to give "newly discovered species that mus decide now" a chance to protect themselves against the Loroi?
But affiliated nations surely should be given all that information. Even if just to prevent an information leak.

[peragrin]

The problem isn't in power requirements alone. It's also in targeting. As far as I remember, early 20th century military rifles were effective up to several kilometers, and early Lee-Enfields, for example, were equipped with a volley sight to use that. That means that the bullet had enough power to kill a (unarmored - it's 1900s we are talking about) soldier, provided it hit him. And hitting someone at 2 km was a tricky part, so to go to such ranges you had a lot of people firing on a big and soft target, such as another lot of people. It turned out to be pretty inefficient, so such tasks were given to artillery.

To put it slightly differently, you need a sniper to hit a distant target. If the bullet is a simple slug with no in-flight correction capability, then you need a lot of specialized equipment to make that shot possible. That includes a rangefinder, a meteo-station and a stable firing position at least, with the latter being most important. After you have it, it probably helps to have a ballistic computer to factor all these things in. The armor you described might (just might) solve some of these problems, provided it isn't switched out by ECM. If it is switched out, such long-range shots start to require a lot of skill and a lot of time to prepare, making them less attractive. Sometimes all you can do is try to close and land a close-range hit.

If the bullets have some in-flight correction, then the requirements for initial positioning can be lightened. But then, in your setting, it's ECM's job to prevent that.

I would like to point this out. Tracking point has a smart scope matched with high quality rifles that allows anyone with no training to hit targets that the best snipers in the world can do. Technology means you with no training can hit that 2km target pretty easily.

how will it be affected by ECM, no idea. but we are building smart scopes today that have all the ballistics calculators in them.

[Suederwind]

how will it be affected by ECM, no idea.

That Tracking Point "smart scope" has wifi (I have no idea why) and it has already been hacked: Link

[majorminor]

The wifi is to record and share data. For civilian uses, to record hunts and show everything is on the level. Police and Military, to allow commanders to see confirm what exactly the shooter sees before approving engagement. The fact that the wifi aspect is connected to the weapons ability to fire or data input is nothing short of terrifying.

[Suederwind]

I guess it makes sense, to use that scope for recording what the operator of the gun is doing with it. But a simple usb port or so would be much safer than wifi.

The fact that the wifi aspect is connected to the weapons ability to fire or data input is nothing short of terrifying.

Its absurd to connect those abilities by wifi and I really can't see the benefits of that. Thats like an accident waiting to happen.
On the other side, it made me think a lot about Battlestar Galactica and all those fancy new weapon carrying UAV's...

[majorminor]

Like many other failures involving security, nobody knew it was a risk or viewed it as a very low one. The company was acting under the notion that the main purchaser would be hunters, and the only people that would mess with them would at most be activists and they'd have to be close. However if these got picked up by a law enforcement or military contract and this was found out by a not so nice group, things could have gone very bad.

[peragrin]

I guess it makes sense, to use that scope for recording what the operator of the gun is doing with it. But a simple usb port or so would be much safer than wifi.

The fact that the wifi aspect is connected to the weapons ability to fire or data input is nothing short of terrifying.

Its absurd to connect those abilities by wifi and I really can't see the benefits of that. Thats like an accident waiting to happen.
On the other side, it made me think a lot about Battlestar Galactica and all those fancy new weapon carrying UAV's...

The wifi only carries the video, it doesn't control the shot.

but the computer is in-between the trigger and the hammer fall. You pull the trigger and only when the gun is precisely lined up does the hammer fall.

For law enforcement the wifi isn't a big deal as on site commanders can confirm targets before the snipers shoot. There will be enough other wifi devices around to provide localized interference. in urban combat the same could probably be said as well. it is the lone sniper in a field where the wifi signal could alert the enemy.

This is why it isn't much of a risk yet. Also you can disable the wifi and still shoot.

[majorminor]

That's still a huge issue for government contracts though. Look at how much the United States has been hacked in recent history, and some of that has been due to negligence of protocols. Cyber warfare is becoming a greater aspect of conflict these days.

The weapon system still needs to have a human physically pull the trigger, but should the system be compromised a hostile element could alter data for the operating system or even delete it making its abilities worthless. I acknowledge that you can operate the system without wifi, but the issue of wifi access influencing weapons operation could make this a no go for LEO/DoD usage, since more parties with greater resources will seek ways to influence combat.