// This thread is heavily inspired by @Reeves ' Slice of Life series "Behind the Scenes", and acts as slices of life in the HIGHCOM, MIDCOM and lower ranks of the Ouroboros movement.
The SIFC, the beating heart of the Ouroboros movement's intelligence and strategic awareness. A bustling, organ driven by some of the best minds the faction had left following the fall of Maehara. Every bit of sensor information from every ship in the fleet moves through this very room, a small two-deck command center-esque datacenter, huge screens at the fore of the room split into six, showing topdown astronomical charts of the AORs of the faction in detail, with a large scale strategic map of the entire Sirius Sector at the fore-top most screen. One could make out countless symbols across the maps, demarcating the presence of all ships in the movement across the sector, including reports of last known contacts and active tracks.
In the Libero-Kusari temporary AOR, going under the reporting name of "OKAZAKI", at the lower center, the Skidbladnir can be seen hiding within the Galileo system, inside the relatively far off Raikou Cloud at the edge of it. Tracks of the 46th and first fleets of Liberty's Navy, and the Kaigun's Shikoku defense fleets are shown, with snubcraft galore being reported as occasional spats are seen by way of sensors aboard the Ootori drones that in recent weeks have seen extensive use to keep tabs on the theater.
At one of the stations, rests Lieutenant Julian Kent-Ikeda, a former Zoner from Freeport 9 who joined up in December and due to his degree from Raleigh University, found himself working as one of the men tasked to intelligence analysis. Whilst Ouroboros did have AGIs in their ranks in a very, very, very small minority of 2 (3, if you count Shinta Nagasaki being undercover at Kishiro). Their use of AI was extremely limited, primarily due to mitigating the risk of the less sentient ANIs like those on the Ootori drones, whom were already extremely compartmentalized. As such, outside of being directly requested of Mercury or Bride, Sanzu was left to do all the heavy lifting themselves. Only in recent months have they been even close to the capability they once had.
Julian sits at the station in his officer's uniform, cap covering his dark hair, observing a pair of Defenders that just were spotted by long range IRST sensors aboard Ootori-513, about 100km north of the Akhetaten's last known position, which was last updated 13 hours ago. It was the third two-ship that was sent out on CAP in the past 10 hours, likely from the Akhetaten's aerospace complement. The situation in Galileo has been tense, and Hanamura herself has order Sanzu to observe the system, hellbent to make sure they are the first to know when things 'pop off'.
He speaks up as the track appears. "Pop-up, two ship Galileo, tracks 29924, 29925. 2104-4330 bearing 230 for 500 - IRST from 513, Defender. Likely mother Akhetaten."
Another voice shouts back, reading back his report. "Affirm Pop-up 29924, 29925."
The tracks appear on the large screen for Galileo briefly, showing the IRST and EOTS feeds, showing both thermal and direct visual imagery of the two Defenders in cruise. Julian looks up at the sight, before it returns to the system map. Sporadic Kusari and Liberty patrols zoom about as their respective capitals near the gates to both Houses lay in wait for any potential escalation like the other day. He moves for his coffee cup, a black one with the sigil of the Kourindou Intelligence Directorate, a series of seven eyes around a shield with a sword, lightning bolt, and Key overlaying each other before the shield. The emblem took heavily from old world military heraldry - the key signifying intelligence, bolt signifying communications, and the shield and sword, the preparedness for war.
He drinks from the cup, black and lukewarm coffee within. His superior Major-Aspirant Takeru Honda, comes up from behind.
"This is what, fourth CAP they've sent out in the past hour? Think they're setting up an orbit along the border?" He utters as he approaches Julian.
"No. Tracks 09 through 14 are running circuits between the Colorado gate and Reppu Bend. Tracks 895 and 896 went into the Reppu Cloud and faded. Likely we're to see 24 and 25 just do either a patrol of their half of the Reppu-Raiden lane or contribute to a BARCAP." Julian says, before taking another sip.
Honda looks up at the Galileo map.
"Any idea as to why? They already had a large detachment here."
Julian shrugs his shoulders as he swallows the drink."Maybe the 46th are relieving the other groups. From what we were able to decrypt from SECFLT comms, most of the people that were out here already were the garrison from the LNS Ohio. Though then again, that track from the Akhetaten is stale, so.."
"So?"
"So, it could be the Akhetaten, it could be another 46th ship, It could be merchant navy, for all we know it could be flying okonomiyaki shitting out defenders. we don't know until we send something out there to get a closer look." Julian says, a bit annoyed at the conservative use of the drones.
"You know we're trying to keep our EMCON to a minimum right? And if they spot us they're likely to shoot down the drone? We don't need to give Liberty any funny ideas."
"Yes, but Hanamura-dono wants us to know when things happen, and we can't do that if we've got the Ootoris poking their heads out of the Livia and Komatsu clouds every 5 minutes, and too shy to look in the direction of the capitals for less than 10 seconds. All I'm asking, is to have Nguyen put 513 on bearing 230 instead of 300 like it is now."
Honda sighs, a bit annoyed. "Alright, I'll go ask him if he or Hitomi can get 513 moved." the man says, before moving up the center of the lower deck of the SIFC, through the rows of stations to the stairs to the upper deck to the command lounge, where he finds Major-Aspirant Hitomi Kaneda, a somewhat volupt 29 year old with brunette hair and green eyes. She is busy at the kitchenette waiting for the tea maker to finish.
"Kaneda-san." Honda says, approaching the fridge to grab a bottled water. He collects it and opens it with ease, before taking a drink from it.
"Honda-san, I hope your morning is going well." She says, a bit chipper.
He breathes a moment after drinking to respond. "It's going. Kaneda-san, I need you to have Nguyen reposition Ootori-513 bearing 230 towards the Colorado gate."
She seems a bit frustrated by the request. "Kensington-san requested we respect EMCON and that includes respecting enemy emissions aimed at *us*. At the angle we're at right now the capitals at the Liberty perimeter can't make out the C5\Os due to the nebulaic gas refracting off of and obfuscating the chassis. The front of the drone will come back on their sensors, even if we strangle the search radar entirely."
Honda tries to explain his case. "True, but at the same time, we can't just be entirely blind there."
"We already lost Ootori-647 and 304. Contrary to popular belief, these drones aren't cheap, you know."
"And what if one of those Akhetaten-classes goes off to monitor the periphery - walks into the Raikou cloud, and finds us sitting here?" Honda objects. "If we adjust 513, we lose no overlap with 859, 431 and 192 all watching from their clouds over the lanes. Hell, I'd suggest we move 192 to observe the Colorado gate from the Raiden cloud."
She gives an exhausted sigh as the tea begins to steep. "Fine. But we're bringing down the radar. IRST and EOTS only."
Honda is annoyed at the retort. "Oh, so we're not allowed to reach out and touch someone with radio waves, even though we're getting live data over the Link 31 net. So desu ne."
"The Link 31's decryption-resistant. Meanwhile the radars will come back on their EW sensors that it's definitely something that shouldn't be there. And please spare me the references to old Interspace Telecom commercials." Kaneda answers back, concluding with a bit of annoyance. She collects the tea kettle from the maker, and pours the black tea into her cup, grabbing packets of sugar and creamer.
"IRST's useful if we're picking up engine plumes, in the nebula edge - beyond that, it's useless. Unless we can at least run the radar every half-hour, we're essentially waiting for someone to peek their head in here. Heaven forbid the Xenos find us - that Moretti guy alone in a Roc would tear us a new asshole."
"You worry too much. We're on full passive save our Link 31, and we're forming that beam galactic west towards the Utsunomiya, unless the usual actors sending people out with ELINT equipment, we shouldn't appear to anyone. Which begs the question, when did you see the Xenos ever consider Electronic Warfare? They're more focused on brute force." Kaneda answers, taking a sip of her tea. Honda sighs a bit.
"Look, all I and Julian from my team need is some eyes on the gates."
An idea pops up in Hitomi's head. She takes her tea, and heads out of the break room, back into the SIFC. Honda looks to her, confused. "Where are you going?"
She answers as she steps out the door. "To solve your radar problem." She goes over to the command room initially on the other side of the SIFC, and proceeds to go into the small library of records and manuals in the back. Whilst there were many digital copies of these already, sometimes the old fashioned way to show the solution is the best.
She pulls out a binder labeled 'RADAR INTELLIGENCE SPECIFICATIONS'. Skimming past the cover sheet as she opens it at the bookcase, she seeks through to find a listing for the Ageira AT/MPS-95, an old Ageira search radar. She makes note of its' place by folding the corner of the page, before moving through to the Kusari section, and finding a Samura SA-230 radar as well. She takes the corner and folds it as well, before closing the binder and heading out of the room.
Hitomi makes her way down to the lower area of the SIFC, and approaches Nguyen, the Lieutenant responsible for Drone Control under her command. The black-haired, finely shaven young man turns to Hitomi, sensing her approach. "Major-Aspirant Kaneda, ma'am."
"At ease, Do you have SDB uplink to Ootori 513 and 192?"
He doesn't hesitate. "Yes, ma'am. 192's a bit slow with some packet loss from corruption, but what do you need that low level access for?"
Hitomi gives an order. "Have 192 moved on the periphery of the Raiden aimed at the Colorado gate." she says, before opening the book to the SA-230's page. "Set the frequency to 40.492GHz, maximum Azimuth 45 degrees, 147kW ERP, and undervolt the radar bus to make up for the cut to the radar's frequency and radiating power."
Nguyen obliges the command, and opens a terminal at his station to give direct low level commands to the Ootori drone, setting a temporary change to its' radar configuration. As he does this, Hitomi moves through the pages to the Samura radar. As Nguyen finishes work in the terminal and sets the drone on a heading aimed at the Shikoku gate, the picture on the large screen above them all shows new tracks and the erasure of stale ones from the battlespace - Including the Akhetaten. In its' place however, lies the LNS Clermont, a carrier. Hitomi gives a slight grin.
"If we spoof these radars, they'll just think they're derelict or something coming from the Imperials. It'll just blend in with the rest of the EM traffic in the AO. Now we'll do the same for 513."
Nguyen nods affirmatively, and opens up the SDB terminal to Ootori-513, preparing to change its' configuration.
"Set 513 to 52.321GHz, Maximum Azimuth 50 degrees, 178kW ERP, and boost the reactor output by about 10% to account for it." she answers, reading from the specifications for the Ageira radar. Nguyen inputs the command and without much trouble, the drone yaws left towards the Shikoku gate, finding a similar battlegroup to the Libertonian one in formation around it. The picture updates again, showing a greater picture of the battlespace. calls again come out as personnel confirm and report back new tracks to the entire SIFC whilst adding them to the battlenet.
Hitomi nods a bit as the task is done. "That'll do.." she says before a call comes out.
"BREAK Pop-up, four ship Galileo, tracks 29982 through 29986. 2540-8190 BRAA 320 for 30, -1, hot from ownship - Radar from 513, Wyvern, leans on Skidbladnir!"
Kensington then over the intercom in short order blares an order. "All hands, all hands - enemy contacts scanning periphery are leaning on the ship - we are going cloak, all hands, brace for cloak."
Hitomi and Honda both groan in unison. They knew the radars couldn't have had the Kaigun sent at them this fast.. an irony - that even despite their best efforts, the ever watching eye of Ouroboros still needs to be wary of people lurking in places they shouldn't be.
