Spinward Lines

Epistolary Experiment (9/30)

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Interruptions, Delays to Service in Spinward, Coreward Constellations

Outer Ring Netweavers, ICC regrets to inform its customers that, due to the ongoing state of war, extranet service can be expected to suffer delays and interruptions in the spinward and coreward constellations affected due to necessary network security measures.

Extranet service via ORE relays in the three constellations adjacent to the Republic border, the Crimson Expanse, Vanguard Reaches, and Csell Buffer, has been temporarily suspended to all except military priority traffic and high-protocol overweaves. Other constellations currently affected include the Galith Waste, Frentish Nebula, and Cordai Gap, all of which may suffer service delays due to enhanced security, anti-worm, and authentication checking protocols, and in which all current open-service relays have been suspended.

Affected constellations currently include the primary territorial volumes of the Free Eilish Confederacy, the Nineworlds, the Nsang First Interactivity, the Qiraf Assembly, and the Silicate Tree, in addition to various freesoil worlds and ecumenical colonies. Further suspensions in the coreward-spinward segment of the Worlds are expected to follow.

ORE apologizes for the inconvenience and asks for its customers’ understanding of the exigencies of war.

Contact:

Serril Cyprium-ith-Reyne
Sophont Relations
Outer Ring Netweavers, ICC

From: Adm. [blank], Imperial Naval Intelligence
To: Imogen Andracanth, VP Research, Ring Dynamics
Subject: UNSEEN KEY
Security: EYES ONLY UNSEEN KEY

About what? We don’t know any more than you do.

From: Imogen Andracanth, VP Research, Ring Dynamics
To: Adm. [blank], Imperial Naval Intelligence
Subject: UNSEEN KEY
Security: EYES ONLY UNSEEN KEY

Precisely.

“…while skirmishes continue along the Borderline, the Admiralty reports that a Republican raiding force has successfully broken through in the Crimson Expanse, and is currently pushing coreward into the Cordai Gap constellation, through systems controlled by the Qiraf Assembly, making significant efforts to loot additional fuel and resources as they go. Their motivation for doing so is presently unknown, since no known major military assets or other suspected high-value targets lie directly in their path. Nevertheless, Field Fleet Core is beginning a discreet mobilization.

“The Spinward Lines cruise liner, Circumstellar Wanderer, has been recovered from Republican forces in the course of securing the Doranzer System, Admiralty sources reported today, although she was heavily damaged in the ensuing battle. Of the 4,128 souls aboard, 2,919 were reported temporarily killed and 328 permanently killed in fighting aboard the ship as she was taken, ongoing resistance, and as collateral battle damage in Doranzer System. All aboard, per manifest, and their vector stacks have been accounted for, and detailed casualty lists have been made available by the Admiralty.

“In other related news, the Seranth Exchange today announced an eighteen-day suspension of trading on assets located within the primary conflict zone. <Brassy Trumpets in B-flat>, floor supervisor, was quoted as saying that it was ridiculous to expect any market to clear while all its asset values were coated in a thick smog of war. Meanwhile, on the currency exchanges, the Voniensan external-exchange credit closed dramatically down at 14,127 to the esteyn.

“This is Wynerva Peressin, reporting for Telememe.”

The drop pod sings as it descends. Bass thrum of the atmosphere. High tremolo hiss of the plasma sheath. Clattering thrusters as we jink —

Mektsha, that one was close.

Three hundred thousand. Aerozone, fins popping, countermeasures spinning up.

Painted already, fast for meat, someone’s on the bounce down there. Two-fifty kay, closing rate —

Incoming! SHIT —

– from the thought-log of Legionary Cordril Tsurilen

 

 

 

Epistolary Experiment (3/30)

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From: Karr mor-Kadrek, Fleet Security
To: Virni Alman, Fleet Communications
Subject: Re: War warning – procedure?

File it.

Nice of the home office to send it through, but even cutting the corner of their space, what’s the worst they could do to us? It’d take ’em ten years just to get done saying “Heave to and prepare to be boarded…”

-k

– from the archives of the relativist market-maker, Rocky Road to Riches

OVERDUE VESSEL REPORT (CRIMSON EXPANSE)

Spinward Lines regrets to announce that CMS Circumstellar Wanderer, a chartered cruise liner with 4,128 souls aboard, is 48 hours overdue to arrive at her next port of call after departing Istria (Crimson Expanse). Attempts to contact the Wanderer made by standard means and direct corporate tangle channel have failed. It is feared, therefore, that she may have been interned or become a casualty of war. No communication has been received from the Republic government on this matter, and investigations continue.

The thoughts and hopes of Spinward Lines are with the passengers and crew of the Wanderer, their families, and associates.

– from the Accord Journal, shipping news section

 

…and then there were warships all over the scanner, pinging loud enough to overload the ‘mesh…

…lizards, bloody four-armed lizards, on my claim…

…open up! they say. My hairy arse I’ll open up…

…through the walls. Blew out the garden maze…

…never find me in the deep tunnels, not with all the refinery hash…

– fragments retrieved from a log recorder, found in a rubble pile, Charach System

 

From: Sinith Arání, VP Public Relations
To: All Contractees
Subject: Shit. Fan. Congruence.

Well, folks, we’ve all heard the news.

From our corporate perspective, that means that we’re about to be condemned by a hundred polities and a thousand news organs for failing to do the impossible.

This in turn means that I need you to get three memetic campaigns polished up and ready to go:

First, that while we obviously deeply regret the specifics of this situation, in general freedom of transit is both extremely important and something they personally have benefited from greatly in the past. In the version of this we’re pitching to more militaristic governments and cultures, it probably wouldn’t hurt to remind them gently how unhappy they would have been if we’d disabled the stargates during some of their local squabbles, just so that they realize that we will have no problem pointing that out to everyone else, too.

Second, we need to subtly remind people that you can’t just turn a stargate off, anyway, in a manner that can’t be readily hacked back on, and if they think the damage the war will cause is bad, they should try comparing it to the amount of damage that a loose kernel would do to their star system.

And third, that we are doing our bit for the war effort, inasmuch as we’re waiving all transit fees for Accord member navies to, from, and in the front lines. Don’t launch that one yet; I still have to run the details past the Directorate, but it’s too obvious not to pass. And it’s not like we don’t have as much to lose as everyone else.

Actually, also, fourth: since we certainly can’t rely on those idiot baselines to hack carefully or even not to land on the stargates themselves and screw about with things beyond their understanding, you’d better start working on one to place the blame appropriately if they do manage to set a kernel loose, too.

Budgets are cleared all the way up on this one, people. We need to be at our best right now.

Sinith

– from the Ring Dynamics, ICC, corporate e-mail archive