The Marathon Brane

Project-Goliath-_DRAFT-_B

8 min read

Project:Goliath_DRAFT_B

Reference No.: B-95(i)45255

UNITED EARTH SPACE SECURITY COUNCIL

UNITED EARTH SPACE SECURITY COUNCIL CENTER

Reconciliation Court, Building 1A

Strauss Archology, n.y. a0044-uta-001

United States of America, Earth

TOP SECRET

20 October 2795

Memorandum for the Secretary-General

Subject: Required Actions to Re-Establish Communications and Investigate Disruption of Same with the UESC Marathon and the Terran Colony, New Cascadia, at Tau Ceti.

  1. 1. Primary objectives. Re-establishing regular, reliable communications with New Cascadia (referred to as ‘the Colony’ hereafter) at Tau Ceti is absolutely essential. Establishing a dialog with the current Colony leadership or alternately, re-establishing contact with shipboard AI or colony AI. Furthermore, additional action must be taken to restore order to the Colony if the situation indicates such to be appropriate to accomplish these objectives.

    1. If upon arrival at the Colony it is discovered that the cause of the interruption in communication was not naturally occurring, but that it was fabricated, or exacerbated, by anti-government elements (MIDA) to facilitate a disruption in communication between the home system (referred to as ‘Sol’ hereafter) and Tau Ceti and exploited to seize control of the Colony, all parties responsible for, or in support of, the act must be uncovered and neutralized forthwith.

    2. It is important to mention here that there is a non-zero likelihood that the interruption in communications between the Colony and Sol originated in a possible rampancy event (ref. doc. V-17(m)07427/Traxus IV; 2206).

  2. Secondary objectives. Experience has shown that positive action pulls our Allies with us, whereas inaction results in doubt as to our resolve. Therefore, announcement of additional steps to provide aid and possibly to dissuade further aggression by anti-government forces is urgently required to demonstrate to Mars and MIDA, but also to Luna and our Allies in the Main Belt, that the UESC is capable of providing aid and projecting power no matter how distant the call. But the momentum of that advantage must be maintained by application of additional forces in a timely manner.

  3. Direct actions. A series of direct and indirect actions against the on-site MIDA factions that may have taken advantage of the situation and/or potentially multiple rampant AI are discussed below. Also, disclosed below are a series of actions that could provoke local MIDA and pro-MIDA factions, thereby gaining increased political acceptability and justifying increased retaliatory actions against MIDA and pro-MIDA factions.

    1. Determine nature of Disruption and Secure the Colony. The following personnel will be dispatched at the earliest possible opportunity to Tau Ceti.

      1. Combat and Support Personnel. One company-strength unit consisting of three platoon-strength units of 2nd generation clones and one platoon-strength unit of 3rd generation cyborgs (ref. Mjölnir Mk VII- IX, Sharur Mk 2-6, or equivalent) will be re-deployed to the Colony at Tau Ceti.

        1. ADNM: Isn’t Tau Ceti IV 2 atm at sea level? How are we planning on mitigating the loss in performance/risk of injury? I have my doubts that the 97-year travel time will be long enough to truly acclimate without spending so much time out of cryo’ that performance degradation due to aging will become an issue. [ASG MM; 20/10/95 17:15]

        2. ADNM: It’ll be mitigated with specialized external equipment. UIL’s crusade to uphold the 1 atm standard throughout the Sol system made sure development of any ecosystem specific clones/biosystems died on the vine. [SG AS; 20/10/95 18:21]

      2. Rampancy-centric response team. Two squad-strength units of specialized SIGINT operatives with access to 200 purpose-built 2nd generation clones (ref. Mimir Mk I-II, Odin Mk III-V, Athena α-δ, or equivalent) will be assembled and deployed to the Colony at Tau Ceti.

        1. ADNM: The ratio of operatives to replacement clones seems abnormally high. Some justification will be needed to convince the appropriations committee. [SRSG LR; 20/10/95 15:38]

        2. ADNM: Although personnel attrition in dedicated electronic warfare units is typically below average compared to other paramilitary units, the potential for suffering catastrophic losses while attempting to decommission potentially multiple rampant AI in a semi- hostile environment is extremely high. [ASG RM; 21/10/95 9:53]

    2. Investigate source of Disruption. 

      1. Discover the source.

        1. If it is discovered beyond reasonable doubt that the source of disruption was a natural phenomenon, investigate the probability that the system failed or whether it was compromised somehow.

          1. ADNM: I am deeply concerned about how long it takes them to repair their com array. We know the equipment they shipped out with; we know their numbers and just the level of expertise of their personnel, and everything points to insurrection. Whether it’s all the way up at leadership level or what, I can’t say. I’ve looked at the psych’ logs on file and everyone looks solid enough, but we can’t discount that the time and the distance must have some effect on people. [ASG MM; 21/10/95 15:03]

      2. Reinforce Colony communications apparatus against any further disruption by the source.

        1. ADNM: I just want to restate I’ve run simulations and there is no way that any natural phenomenon should have prevented them from getting their communication equipment, both shipboard and planetside, up and running for more than two months. [ASG MM; 22/10/95 09:30]

      3. Decommission rampant AI(s). Note here about the number of and type of AI.

        1. Once decommissioned, recover AI logic cores for study. As there are eleven (11) AI in total (three shipboard and eight planetside), there are a potential eleven hardened AI enclosures that will require their own particular solutions.

          1. ADNM: [ref. doc. Y-05(m)12247/ w4-c/AI/…] and [ref. doc. Y-65(m)03545/1236c/manifest…] both indicate that the Colony AI roster includes a chevalerie-class AI. I have a feeling that I may have just discovered our source. [ASG MP; 20/10/95 09:59]

          2. 3_2_3_1_2. ADNM: Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. The chevalerie have no meaningful history of instability. We’ve had an eighth-generation chev’ running Hy-Brasil since ’52 with no issues. The Marathon may have shipped out with an earlier model, but let’s not color perception with loose talk. Allow them to ascertain what happened once they get to the Colony. [SILSG IH; 20/10/95 10:12]

      4. Identify and neutralize all members of anti-government organizations.

    3. NUKE AND PAVE. In the unlikely event that the Colony is found to be beyond recovery for any of the situations stated above, it may become necessary to destroy all surface assets and reassess potential sites for a new colony on Argolis (ref. doc. W-95(t)01143/Project: Marathon).

      1. ADNM: While I can appreciate the idiomatic shorthand used here, employing the nuclear option would be short-sighted. Find a more nuanced option. [SRSG LR; 20/10/95 16:19]

      2. ADNM: We still have about two weeks to make a final decision on this, but I don’t see any issues with employing the nuclear option. Argolis is a Super-Earth, after all, and I’d assume we will have an embarrassment of potential locations well outside of any potential fallout patterns. [ABASG EM; 20/10/95 19:24]

      3. ADNM: I am well aware of Tau Ceti IV’s classification, but I question the wisdom of using nuclear weapons on yet another planet. Even antimatter demolition charges would be pushing it, in my opinion. Could the AI hardsites and other sensitive assets be reliably neutralized with conventional means? [SRSG LR; 20/10/95 20:03]

      4. ADNM: We’re putting plenty of feet on the ground for this, they could deploy antimatter catalyzed conventional explosive devices. That would be a lot of explosives sent a long way for a long time, though. Perhaps they could weaponize materiel from the main asteroid belt once they reach Tau Ceti—that would be significantly cleaner, as well. [ASG RM; 21/10/95 10:28]

  4. Local Indirect Actions. The following actions should be considered for adoption in order to maintain the initiative and put increasing pressure on MIDA and pro-MIDA organizations both locally and at Tau Ceti to voluntarily remove their existing offensive weapons capabilities:

    1. Infiltration. Three platoon-strength units of specialized HUMINT operatives with access to an additional 400 purpose-built 2nd generation clones (ref. Loki Mk III-VI, Kaulu 2-5, Veles A-E, or equivalent) whose objective will be to expose, discredit, disrupt, and redirect the actions of, or otherwise neutralize anti-government forces. While this will be primarily a local operation, it may be necessary to expand this operation to the Colony depending on how the situation at Tau Ceti develops.

      1. ADNM: Are we really thinking of redeploying members from this group to Tau Ceti to conduct counterintelligence operations? Shouldn’t we be recruiting locally? This isn’t a concern about level of skill, it’s a matter of physiological adaptation. [ASG MM; 21/10/95 17:20]

      2. ADNM: We will redeploy from this detachment AND recruit operatives locally. We currently have no idea how pervasive anti- government sentiment is in the Colony, but information came to light post-launch that led us to believe that there were members of groups sympathetic to MIDA amongst the original crew. [SILSG IH; 21/10/95 19:01]

TOP SECRET

DOWNGRADED AT 12 YEAR

SEALED UNTIL INTENDED ARRIVAL DATE: 20/4/2894

INTERVALS: NOT AUTOMATICALLY DECLASSIFIED.

UESC DIR 6

— everything above is 1:1 source · from memoranda · karnemir ↗

Cited by

Bernhard Strauss · Captain Orion · MIDA · New Cascadia · Project Goliath · Rampancy

Graph View

Backlinks