Location: Kōshioka Naval Base, Fukadomari
Time: 9:45 AST
"This whole Abstergo affair reeks," Sophia said to those in the room. It proved to be the usual cast as of late, Kado on behalf of the INIS and <0 on behalf of, well, herself in most instances. It was certainly the opinion in Kōshioka, and shared with the INIS, that there might be more than meets the eye with the events. "As such, after discussions with Kado prior to your arrival," she said as she looked to <0's screen from that of her own, "we've arranged a mission for one of our most capable intelligence gathering tools to spend some time in the Great Northern Sea," as she said the words Kado's smile became more evident.
"We're sending
Hunting Girl to do what she does best and, most importantly, give you plenty of data to play with so you can do what you do best. Won't that be fun?" Kado said as he 'booped' the monitor as one would boop a nose, prompting <0 to sigh. "You can't even see where my nose would be on the screen, ugh, but I like where this is going. If we can tap into some underseas cables and use the ROVs, I imagine you'll bring me something home to work with." As Sophia began to ask how Kado shushed her, "our girl here knows quite a bit about all of us, she's got her fingers in just about every digital system in the First Empire and likely has windows into foreign nations though, if she does, she hasn't told me. As Lucinda told me she's an "asset of the Crown with broad purview" so her clearances might just rival yours or mine." Sophia nodded and returned to her seat, "very well, let us continue."
"
Hunting Girl will enter the Great Northern Sea along with IRN
Edward Truden, an Obeisance Class battleship and IRN
Hinagiku, a Kashiwa Class destroyer, each of which will be conducting a port of call in Setri, Clysperis as Rokkenjima and Clysperis continue to normalize relations. Mind you it would not be my first choice to send Rokkenjima's largest battleship for such an occasion, however, the Pharaoh noted her interest in seeing such a vessel and felt it would bring in more tourists to Setri, so the request was allowed. I also believe this will draw the attention of the Unitary State whilst
Hunting Girl conducts her mission inconspicuously beneath the waves. That much firepower sitting directly across from you in the Gulf of Safraen, not to mention the presence of the
Excalibur Strike Group is nothing you'd ignore, even if the situation at present had no potential to escalate to military conflict."
"Essentially, party up top and all business down below," Kado said with a grin. "Kado, the saying is
'business in the front, party in the ba...' you know what, the quirks aren't what's important right now. What is important is that we see what information we can gather, which is why we're also sourcing aOS and nexus devices used by Rokkenjiman citizens returning from the Unitary State for inspection. Essentially Abstergo has agreed to provide new models in return for the sacrifice of their current devices. Those devices will then be forwarded to <0 for analysis," Sophia continued, which prompted a chuckle from <0.
"Explain?" Sophia asked. "I know what Abstergo's been up to with their SIMP, they've done much more than
data anonymization and quite franky I'm surprised the bastards streamlined Helmine to operate on a single processor. To offer a crash course," <0 said as a series of images filled the displays before Sophia and Kado, "in ICON Helmine oversees the central ICON cluster; she knows what each local client of Renix RSP should look like, and what the apps that are ran on them should look like down to the bit. If she sniffs something running unauthorized or otherwise modified code, even on the system level, she isolates them and disconnects them from the rest of ICON before purging the local hard drive in question. I know the Vice Admiral is privy to this bu..." "I'm aware of Helmine, thank you," Kado said while raising his hand, "what has Abstergo done with their SIMP though?" he continued.
"Well, just as the central cluster queries and checks those local clients, SIMP's Helmine queries and checks the status of aOS, any apps installed, and checks them against what is offered in the aOS Store and the official versions of aOS released from Abstergo. If there's something amiss Helmine issues a prompt to the user before rendering the device inert, and yes Abstergo ships them a new device. They're ambitious if attacking the hardest nut in the technological space is their goal but, I'm merely speculating here. I'll need the data to work with to find any ultimate conclusions here."
"And data you shall have," Kado said with a smile. "When do we expect our vessels to arrive?" he continued. "We're scheduled to arrive in about 23 hours, I'll be on hand aboard the
Excalibur, and while our entire carrier strike group will not be partaking in the port of call the remainder of our group will be about halfway between Abydos and Achkaerin." "Speaking of Achkaerin," Kado paused, "clue them in on this. Something of this nature seems like something they'd be interested in knowing the results of," to which Sophia nodded. "Let's hope someone's listening in on GRAFT, I don't want to trust this to general comms."
"Then we're adjourned for now," Kado said as he stood to leave. "And here we are, the boys at it once again," <0 said which prompted a confused look from Kado. "I've been into Amazon properties lately, and the fourth season is going to blow your mind but," an image filled her screen.
"Cheeky bitch," Kado sighed as he exited. "Love you too, intelligence daddy," <0 said before ending the call, which left Sophia wondering what had happened in the conclusion of their meeting.