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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)

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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest) Starfleet Ship Design Bureau, Refit ("To Boldly Go...")
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Glassware said:
Okay, Forgothrax's point that we could theoretically get the understanding to put together anti-Singer countermeasures normally now that we know this exists is a good one.
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Still, being able to sweep up a bunch of compromised people and study them is going to make things a lot easier than having only two for sure. So I'd say that while external issues are the most important, we do need at least one Federation infiltration to sweep up.
 
Oh, a second draft plan. I'm not voting for it but I wanted to CRAFT it

[] Plan Remove the Worms
-[65kq] -Full theoretical underpinnings of Singer Psychi-Cybertech.
-[05kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions in regards to their intervention on Kelowna.

This way we have at least one concrete example, we do right by our own affiliate, and we still get that 'full theoretical underpinnings' advantage. I think this is much more useful than the whereabouts of their ships, which we can figure out by conventional means.

Raw90 said:
[] Plan Infiltration and Past Crimes
-[25kq] -Full details of planned operations in Felis space.
-[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Nessic space.
-[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Licori space.
-[10kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions when they intervened in Padani space.
-[05kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions in regards to their intervention on Kelowna.
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I basically think we should prioritize the Bolians over the Licori because we have less leverage over them WITHOUT something like this detailed information. It sounds like the Harmony are in their endgame with the Bolians, which means the Bolians will predictably fall into the Harmony sphere of influence unless we take immediate action. By contrast, the Licori are in chaos and the Harmony is still struggling to get into touch with them, and just what we've learned about the wolfpack-Rithe collaboration will greatly discredit the factions most likely to be Harmony-influenced.

But I agree with your basic priorities.

Ato said:
-[10kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions when they intervened in Padani space.

This one in particular seems like a very useful take, another great pwoer on our side is very if we want to face the Harmony down at some point. Though it could have unintended consequences. With the truth revealed the Padani might take soem radaicals teps to neutralize the threat...
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Glassware said:
The Padani already completely believe that the Harmony is a threat. I believe it's been noted that they're in the planning stages for a massive preemptive strike.
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Remember how we convinced the Padani to partly-trust us by giving them information on modern Harmony ships.

If we give them this information, we are saying "for the first time in your history, someone is really on your side, we believe you, not the gaslighting Narcissistic Space Empire, please work with us for just a little bit here." That may be the edge we need, especially since we may need the Padani's own help to clean our own house.

AntiSanity said:
I'm actually not certain that cybernetics is a trap. We haven't been able to detect it and a summary is a far-cry from theoretical underpinnings. Our neighbours haven't been able to do much without actual dissections and mind-rape, those are less than invasive and non-conclusive until after the damage.

It could provide jamming or at least some certainty against further infiltration and provide a path towards (undamaging) removal.

Okay, with how the math works out let's get one possible plan out of the way.

[] Plan Short-and-Long Term:
-[65kq] -Full theoretical underpinnings of Singer Psychi-Cybertech.
-[05kq] -Current Harmony Military deployments.

Both plans will (likely) provide short-and-long term paths on proceeding.
Short:
-Harmony deployments prevent us from planning our next deployments in the dark. Prepare for likely invasion paths or disruption. It'll give us a full accounting of their military assets and we can plan accordingly.
-Psychi-Cybertech info will (likely) halt further infiltration through detection, and hopefully jamming to disrupt coordination efforts.
Long:
-In case of invasion, in either direction of the border, it'll let us make long-term plans on how to defend ourselves or dismantle them.
-Might give us a way to, ideally, bring the Harmony to the surface of their society. Somehow prevent the Singers from direct manipulation/puppeting the populace, but allowing the Singers to cooexist peacefully. Hit directly on the network that's the primary cause of the problem.
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The problem is that this gives us no specifics on how to counter the Harmony penetration of various foreign powers, many of which they may roll up pretty fast (the Felis, the Bolians, the Nessics). I'd rather know what the Harmony is doing than precisely how they're doing it, since we're more likely to learn how from stopping their plans and figuring out what was done, than we are to deduce what they did from first principles.

That said, this is a viable-ish plan, but I'd rather take "what happened to the Tauni" along with my plan, if it's all the same to you.
 
I think Simon Jester's plan is pretty valid, though I think we should at least take a stab at uncovering our own infiltration so i would vote fro swapping out the Nessic for the Amarki, and the Felis for the Rigellians. The remaining 5kq can go to finding out military deployments, jsut in case we do have to fight.

Edit: compromise Include Felis, no Rigel or Military deployments.

[X] Plan We should have expected the Inquisition.
-[25kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration in Felis space.
-[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Amarki space.
-[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Bolian space.
-[10kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions when they intervened in Padani space.
-[05kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions in regards to their intervention on Kelowna.
 
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It just occurred to me that sharing the information on Harmony actions in Padani space would ALSO be a great way to convince any of the more paranoid Padani that we're not actually Harmony-controlled or fully compromised.

Ato said:
I think Simon Jester's plan is pretty valid, though I think we should at least take a stab at uncovering our own infiltration so i would vote fro swapping out the Nessic for the Amarki, and the Felis for the Rigellians. The remaining 5kq can go to finding out military deployments, jsut in case we do have to fight.

[X] Plan We should have expected the Inqusition.
-[20kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration in Rigellian space.
-[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Amarki space.
-[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Bolian space.
-[10kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions when they intervened in Padani space.
-[05kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions in regards to their intervention on Kelowna.
-[05kq] -Current Harmony Military deployments.
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Can we compromise on dropping the military deployments and the Rigellians (but not the Amarki) for the Felis?

Having the Harmony abruptly flip the Felis would be disastrous in that it would immediately trigger an ISC pre-emptive invasion, and grant them a forward base from which to whittle down any offensive action by the ISC. Conversely, revealing the monster behind the mask in Felis space gives us a forward base and greatly reduces the immediate perception of a need to fight by the ISC.
 
Simon_Jester said:
It just occurred to me that sharing the information on Harmony actions in Padani space would ALSO be a great way to convince any of the more paranoid Padani that we're not actually Harmony-controlled or fully compromised.

Can we compromise on dropping the military deployments and the Rigellians (but not the Amarki) for the Felis?

Having the Harmony abruptly flip the Felis would be disastrous in that it would immediately trigger an ISC pre-emptive invasion, and grant them a forward base from which to whittle down any offensive action by the ISC. Conversely, revealing the monster behind the mask in Felis space gives us a forward base and greatly reduces the immediate perception of a need to fight by the ISC.
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Yeah sure.

[X] Plan We should have expected the Inquisition.
-[25kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration in Felis space.
-[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Amarki space.
-[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Bolian space.
-[10kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions when they intervened in Padani space.
-[05kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions in regards to their intervention on Kelowna.
 
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So. This is a thing.

I was pretty sure that Zarael was trying to upload Zara for a while there.

AKuz said:
It is the view of the Harmony that the Federation has done admirably to resist such threats, better even than the Interstellar Commonwealth.
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We have been stupidly lucky. ISC is far from perfect, but they have crisis response and resolution down to an art form.

Forgothrax said:
Voting for the cybernetics is a trap. If we know it exists and Zara has the summary on it, then Intel can put together an op to capture and extract the tech from a Singer. Proving it is relatively easy once you know about it.
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I strongly disagree. This is the option that would allow us to rapidly develop ways to detect, jam, vaccinate, and otherwise prevent and fuck with the Singers mind control, as well as the proof of Singers existence and their abilities.

This kills HoHs diplo and most of their intrigue, along with possibly collapsing the Singers control over the HoH itself.

But almost more importantly, this opens the path to the Good End of either disabling the implants em mass, or restoring them to their full original performance.

It is everything we need to solve the problem of Harmony of Horizon, and the Singers.

Also, we could reproduce the tech with this probably, which is extremely valuable, even if it is only applied on the small scale cautiously. And hopefully not ignored completely as ST writers do regarding anything transsophont.

[X] Plan Good End.
-[65kq] -Full theoretical underpinnings of Singer Psychi-Cybertech.
-[05kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions in regards to their intervention on Kelowna.

[] Plan Infiltration and Past Crimes
-[25kq] -Full details of planned operations in Felis space.
-[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Nessic space.
-[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Licori space.
-[10kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions when they intervened in Padani space.
-[05kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions in regards to their intervention on Kelowna.

This was was my first idea too, but HoH diplo is shot to hell anyway with what evidence we could gather even without keeping any data right now, much less with a proof of mind control.
 
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[X] Plan Cheap and Dangerous and Federation
[25kq] -Full details of planned operations in Felis space.
[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Licori space.
[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration in Amarki space.
[05kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions in regards to their intervention on Kelowna.
[05kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Laian space.
[05kq] -Current Harmony Military deployments.


Okay, here's my logic. I'm taking the three 05kq ones because they're cheap and they contain three things that can each be leveraged differently.

Getting the Kelowna data opens the path to inciting the Japha rebellion. There are still many Tauni living within the Harmony of Horizon. They they can be persuaded to rebel...

Getting the military deployments could be important if this goes hot, and they're relatively cheap. If it's a fight, this could save a lot of lives in the early days.

Harmony deployment in Laian space- they're Federation members now and it's good to have an example of how they're reaching into the Federation.

From then on, I take the infiltration into Amarki space. Why? Because they're the arsenal of the Federation. We count on the Amarki fleet to serve as the backbone of any wartime force. If they've been sabotaged, we need to know about it.

Then I get Harmony infiltration into Licori space because the Licori are in chaos right now, and a through understanding of Harmony influence might help us salvage the situation.

Finally, we owe it to the ISC to help them keep the Felis out of Harmony hands. I'm sure if we asked, they'd much rather this than details of their own long-ago attack.

Details of the Padani incident just aren't very important. The Padani "know enough" as they say... they don't need anything more.
 
Hi there, Jacqueline Appel at Starfleet Communications here! I've heard some of y'all are confused by that Yalla reference, so I pulled up the relevant logs for ya!

AKuz said:
Captain's Log, Stardate 23471, USS Courageous, Captain Zara ka'Athnon
(Excelsior-A, EC)

Hello again Captain's log! It's so nice to be back in deep space!

Courageous has just entered the orbit of YIL-7000, or as it's known to the natives of the largest continent "Yalla", which I understand translates to "Dirt".

We'll be conducting a thorough xenopological survey of Yalla before we move on with our surveys. Spying on history books from orbit with our really big telescopes, recording the layouts of streets, all that good stuff.

-

Counselor's Log, Stardate 23475.6, USS Courageous, Counselor Lwema Noir
(Excelsior-A, EC)

The societies on Yalla are wrong.

I have been assisting Commander Beekeru and Courageous's Xenology section.

It is hard to see. But there are patterns in recent Yallan history. Patterns in their social organization. An artificiality.

Zara must be informed.

-

Captain's Log, Stardate 23477, USS Courageous, Captain Zara ka'Athnon
(Excelsior-A, EC)

Counselor Noir and Commander Beekeru believe that an outside force is interfering in Yallan society.

The evidence is subtle, but it's there. New languages, sudden wars, riots, inventions, breakthroughs, strange plagues and anachronistic cures, a warlord with impossible knowledge, all improbable but still happening.

There's also the electromagnetic signals that we're picking up from underneath the largest Yallan city. Usually we wouldn't be able to pick up these signals, expect my crew are really really really good at what they do! They're the best there is!

We picked up signals reflecting off of the mirrored semaphore system used by the city's upper classes. See the mirrors they use contain trace elements of Wozolinium which briefly store electromagnetic [COS NOTE: clipped for brevity]

So anyway, we're taking a trip to visit some primitive sewer systems! Exciting!

-

Captain's Log, Stardate 23478, USS Courageous, Captain Zara ka'Athnon
(Excelsior-A, EC)

Okay, I'm looking at this equipment, and it's whew. There's a lot of it. A spike of electronics digging nearly five hundred meters down into the earth below the bottom of this well.

It's all built from materials sourced from Yalla itself, nothing we've scanned or found has been sourced from offworld. But we can't find the manufacturing equipment, but, there are no signs of say, replication or nanofabrication.

The computers appear to be programmed in the primary Yallan language. Or rather the constructed language that is now spoken by most Yallans. Right, yeah, I forgot, just got word from Courageous that Chitik is almost certainly a constructed language introduced four generations ago.

And, like, the designs don't match anything we're familiar with either.

It's certainly not a design from any Federation member. It could possibly be a left over mentat experiment, because the mentats didn't ever stick to standardized designs.

Anyway, we're going to spend more time down here to figure out what exactly this thing does.

-

Counselor's Log, Stardate 23480, USS Courageous, Captain Zara ka'Athnon
(Excelsior-A, EC)

So, our well spike is some sort of central processing unit for a distributed series of broadcast systems and drones located around the planet. If I wanted to I could talk to the King of Tappika, the Presider of Gammin, and the Bishop of Ranna all at once. They probably think god is talking to them or something.

Other than that we know nothing, as the system doesn't appear to have a memory. The well spike doesn't appear to maintain itself, but we've found no signs of any group on or off Yalla actively maintaining it, no warp traces, no repair facilities, nothing.

We don't know who built this, if it was Licori Mentats, Romulan Tal Shiar, Horizon Singers, or Breen…. Whatevers. And we don't know why either.

I've decided to transport the well spike and the other electronics into Courageous's hull for disassembly and further study. Afterwards we'll leave stealthed probes behind to monitor Yalla.

This is honestly such a mystery, and I don't know if we'll ever solve it, but the least we can do is stop the manipulation of the Yallans.

[+20pp, +10sr from reprocessed components]
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I really want the cybertech but I also think it would take too long to reverse engineer it to be usefull.

The Diplo information we can use right now.

[X] Plan We should have expected the Inqusition.
-[25kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration in Felis space.
-[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Amarki space.
-[15kq] -Full details of Harmony infiltration of Bolian space.
-[10kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions when they intervened in Padani space.
-[05kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions in regards to their intervention on Kelowna.
 
CircleTheSkies said:
So the thing the young singer didn't have a chance to share... Was it the Samson trap, or is it foreshadowing of a major game-changer?
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She was probably planning on handing Zarael the keys to turning off the Samson trap if she was convinced that Zarael was on the level. Then Zarael basically pulled out a grenade and pulled the pin and that went out the window.
 
I don't think the Singers are ever going to give up plotting to take over the Federation and the other civilizations around them. They are to much invested in the idea that the Harmony is the best possible society.

The Romulans and the ISC are certainly to paranoid to just adopt a defensive stance and let the Singers plan their next move. And I wouldn't like to stay passive, either. So it will probably come to a war against the Harmony of Horizon.

The only way I can see how we can win against the Harmony without killing at least half their citizens is if we manage to find a way to jam and/or diable their Psychi-Cybernetic Network. For this a thorough knowledge of the technology will be invaluable.

[X] Plan Good End.

Forgothrax said:
Some of them still run around in meatspace, and they have control hooks into their high rankers. Once you know something exists, finding it is much easier.
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The bodies of Singers who still have bodies are "little more than a tool for interaction with the outside world," not the Singers themselves.
 
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Random Member said:
This really seems like it might offer long-term gains at the cost of lots of short- and mid-term pains.
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The info to rapidly identify, block, and remove Singers mind control seems like a pretty great short term thing?

Medium term, proof of HoH mind control implants kills their diplo and most of their intrigue.
 
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Gingganz said:
The Romulans and the ISC are certainly to paranoid to just adopt a defensive stance and let the Singers plan their next move. And I wouldn't like to stay passive, either. So it will probably come to a war against the Harmony of Horizon.
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Yeah. At least half the challenge here is going to be convincing the Romulans and ISC not to engage in genocide against the Harmony population to weed out the Singers.
 
[X] Plan Good End.
-[65kq] -Full theoretical underpinnings of Singer Psychi-Cybertech.
-[05kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions in regards to their intervention on Kelowna.
 
[X] Plan Good End.
-[65kq] -Full theoretical underpinnings of Singer Psychi-Cybertech.
-[05kq] -Full records of the Harmony's actions in regards to their intervention on Kelowna.
 
[X] Plan Good End.
Adhoc vote count started by Thors_Alumni on Jan 2, 2019 at 4:32 PM, finished with 52 posts and 12 votes.
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