The Lane Hackers | Internal Comms

[Mr.Ling]

...hack.initiated...connecting.to.Spyglass.Network...decryption.in.progress...
...Deceiver.Mr.Ling.recognized...encoding.transmission...
...uploading.data...

Turns out old habits die hard.

To preface, over the past five or so years, I've been monitoring everything we had on the Cold Lake Project. Everything salvaged from Airdrie Hideout back when Alberta was accessible, and everything pulled onto Insidious when it breached Alaska before the reinforcement of the system. I, personally, haven't been able to breach Alaska since, and because they're not including Cold Lake tech in regular jump gates, haven't been able to breach the network security on what they built either. But, let's be honest, it's the Cold Lake Project. It's another Supergate.

So, I had this brilliant idea to track for mapping pings that had a strength to be a Supergate. One of the primary functions that's been there since the first Jump Gate is a subspace ping to scout for other viable Jump Network locations. Supergate definitely had one, but tracking down the exit was absolutely horrible. There was always two, and they could be damn near anywhere. I never really saw them in house space, but I did see them in basically every single border and independent world out there. The most common pattern was one near established jump networks that were not too heavily occupied, house borders, and one out in a basically untouched corridor like the deep Omicrons, but once or twice I've had both pings off in the deep Omicrons or Taus, or both right next door like Cortez and Magellen. I might have almost worked out an algorithm to predict them with a 3D Perlin noise gradient, but I'm not confident in that.

Anyway, I've had this tracker in place for a little bit, I rolled it in with a Spyglass Network Scanner package a while ago as a non-intrusive project and just left it to catch data. Yesterday, it finally bore fruit. The primary pings came through from Kepler and Copernicus, both nearby Leiden. I had a squad of real go-getters, called Cipher Team, on standby in the event a secondary ping hit. I wanted to intercept something Cold Lake related to get a shot at accessing the project. Sure enough, after a while of waiting, we got secondary pings. We got a torrent of secondary pings, actually, from Kepler. Twenty or thirty ships worth of hyperspace breaches. Cipher team went through while I ran a blanket signal through Leiden to piggyback on Ames's distress calls and search for fully automated systems. Got a single hit, transmissions recorded below.

Code:

[19.01.2025 18:57:20] LH~Ling.Ling: ::: >PingSystem . . . ReportFunction: IFF Report ; Command Module Report :::
[19.01.2025 18:57:48] Argonaut-3: IFF: Freelancer. Command Module under electronic warfare assault.
[19.01.2025 18:58:39] LH~Ling.Ling: ::: >PingSystem . . . ReportFunction: IFF Error Report ; Command Module Threat Report :::
[19.01.2025 18:59:43] Argonaut-3: Electronic warfare origin: Liberty Navy; LSF; KNF; KOI
[19.01.2025 19:00:33] LH~Ling.Ling: ::: >SystemRequest . . . Information Control ; Previous Access . . . Command: WipeCommData ; Last 45 Seconds :::
[19.01.2025 19:00:56] Argonaut-3: Affirmative. Initiating.

So, the Liberty Navy, LSF, Kusari Naval Forces, and KOI were hacking a drone of some kind. In Kepler. Great news all around, right? I stayed in Shikoku to keep an eye on Kusari reinforcements, while Cipher Team hijacked the target in Kepler. As I'd later find out, the target was a Hercules class Heavy Lifter with a chunk of wreckage in tow. The wreckage itself was pretty large, so Cipher Team made the call to transport it to Cochrane, as Leiden doesn't have a drydock. I was called out of interception in Shikoku to maintain the connection to the target as Cipher team ran interception against the LSF and LN, who were suddenly on the highest alert I've seen them since that time the Insurgency breached California. During that time, I got a bit of a look at what the lifter was hauling, and it seemed to be the reactor core and engine of a Kusari battlecruiser.

Nonetheless, as we crossed Ontario, we were quickly intercepted by Liberty's Military Budget, and while Cipher team is good, they're not "stop a team of Liberty Assault Battlecruisers from unleashing full broadsides into a heavy lifter with just 10 guys" good. The actual component was shot to shit, as was the Heavy Lifter. Currently, I'm in the process of seeing what I can salvage from it, but the damage is pretty damn extensive. Plus, some KOI operatives, along with a single KNF, breached Colorado and Ontario as well, and shot down Cipher-44, I think it was. Seems LSF picked up the pod, because I haven't seen 'em since, and the last place their personal tag was pinged was a little too close to the Lehigh.

I've had the Cochrane boys forward every single drydock scan, regardless of content, to Amarillo. With that, I'd like to request elevated Mactan Network access for things regarding this piece of hardware, and to stage a jailbreak. I'd also like to request that this count for Ingeniousness. I understand that this project wasn't listed in the available Advanced Missions, but you gotta admit it was one hell of a job.

That'll be all from me until I get a preliminary report on the acquired hardware out.

...encryption.in.progress...disconnecting.from.network...hack.terminated...