Now That You Mention It...

[Ugoto Chivaro]

What a silly question. "Our satellites are cloaked with a powerful stygium-based stealth device. Unless traced through our secure servers, an impossible task for any non-employee (or even an employee with high level clearance), their chances of detection approach 0.00001%."

Fa had to have wondered what all the stygium the Syndicate kept seizing was for. This was his answer. In addition to their fleet of spy satellites currently hovering around the most important planets in the Pentastar Sectors, there had also been the the deep space listening posts that were similarly cloaked. It was incredible, the things that could be done when no one knew to look for you.

"If you must know, they are ten meters by twenty meters. There is a great deal of equipment that goes into them. In the extreme unlikelihood that our satellites are compromised, we can remotely trigger them to detonate before they are acquired by hostiles. The possibility of a successful trace, then, is even less than the possibility of detection in the first place."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Superintendent"]

Vnut was aware of the deal they had made on Enigma Prime.

Did Lord Fa know about this? Even if he did, he had not deemed it necessary to file him in about it. So it came as a bit of a surprise that the Helix Syndicate was cloaking their satellites and making them almost impossible to detect. Almost, impossible to detect. In fact. Vnut of Garnib knew something about cloaking technologies, mostly because Rash had been raving on about them for a week straight, when Tai Fa asked him to look into the possibilities of a cloaked flagship for himself.

One of the things that were said, was that a stygium cloak by itself was quite nifty, but that there needed to be additional counter-measures in place. Specifically for the advance in detection technology over the last decade or so.

"Does it possess a..." The Balinaka thought about it for a moment, before nodding again. "A gravitic modulator, if I recall correctly. Without one there are specialized scanners -- a Gravfield trap? Who can detect the miniscule ripples made by its anchored point in space."

At this point Vnut was simply quoting Rash as best as he could from memory.

He was probably not getting the science right, but he wasn't a scientist. The fact that he remembered this crap was already good enough for him and for everyone else involved in this stuff.

"Is the metal material deionized? The Mandalorians specifically have ships that are capable of detecting cloaked ships through the metal content in their hulls."

Again, probably not getting the science right, but what can a bear do?

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Vnut certainly possessed an incredible capacity for memory, not to mention detailed knowledge of countermeasures against stygium cloaking devices. Little did the ursine enforcer know that Superintendent had already factored in the existence of this technology into his calculations. "Gravfield traps are prohibitively expensive and exceedingly rare. Use of Mandalorian ships against Syndicate property would necessitate an inciting of hostilities with Mandalorians, which is unlikely. The probability is very much the same as I have previously described."

Since Vnut had proved himself such a knowledgeable creature on the exact strengths and weaknesses of the Syndicate's cloaking devices, Superintendent trusted that he already knew that. He also trusted that Vnut was aware how difficult and tedious a task it would be for the Mandalorians, or whoever owned Mandalorian ships, to individually root out every single satellite, every single HSNET relay, and every single listening post. It would require thousands of man-hours, millions in fuel costs for starships... And there was no accounting for the fact that the Syndicate could simply feign the destruction of its network and trick the aggressors into going home early.

Without access to the Syndicate's secure internal networks, it would be impossible for anyone to tell. They would have to manually check every single star system in the Pentastar Sectors and elsewhere. Superintendent supposed that if Vnut needed any of that explained to him, he could take it up with his Echani friend. He seemed to know everything about everything, apparently.

"Would you like to see the relevant formulas?"

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Superintendent"]

"Yes, please." The Balinaka responded, but he doubted he'd actually make much of it. In his experience mathematical formulas like these were the size of walls and so incomprehensible that you either needed to be a Givin, a droid or have about six math degrees to truly make any sense of it. But Vnut needed to be thorough in his exploration of the possibilities or his boss wouldn't be very pleased about it all.

Part of which made him almost want to tell him to go to these meetings himself.

There had been nothing in the job description about having to make sense about the little, tinsy tiny details like these. The pay was good, though, and nothing to say about the dental. He also had a lot of freedom to make his own decisions, which was pleasing to the part of him that liked the responsibility. Even if that part was shrinking by the moment.

"Would it be possible to add these counter-measures for this specific region regardless?" The Mandalorians were already hostile inclined towards the Sith Order and the new idiots of the Order weren't helping along with their desire to sabotage the Mando'ade. "Fa Holdings would, of course, foot the bill for the additions."

If the time came that Lord Fa got discovered, which wasn't likely. Then it would be helpful if his security was as tight as possible.

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

The holoprojector on the right side of the Superintendent's chest flickered to life again, and a vast wall of incomprehensible mathematical equations erupted between them. It was like being blinded by a mathematician with Force Powers. This was what any Givin must see wherever they looked. It was all incredibly intricate. The only aspects Vnut might have understood were the labels, which ranged from "Mandalorian hostility rates" to "likelihood of a Purrgil crashing into a listening post." Superintendent, like most droids, liked to account for most, if not all, possible scenarios. And yet it seemed Vnut did not trust this or the Helix Syndicate, because he wanted his own special modifications made to everything.

This led Superintendent to believe that Vnut either did not like the Syndicate, did not like the Syndicate's technology, was an unjustly paranoid man, or that [member="Tai Fa"] would hold Vnut responsible if something went wrong and Vnut feared for his life in signing this deal. How miserable he must have been. Unlike the Manda-Rishi Outfit, everyone in the Helix Syndicate was one big happy family. Everyone loved one another. Especially Eugene, who fondly referred to Superintendent as "that creepy droid" and Aldabert, who once complemented him on his gait. "Please, stahp ze clanking and ze clacking, you junk heap."

Friends forever.

"If you would like to furnish the necessary gravitic modulators, I see no reason why the Helix Syndicate would reject such an offer."

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Superintendent"]

In the grand scheme of things the Manda-Rishi Outfit operated on a couple of values.

The two most important ones were honor and professionalism. There needed to be a certain amount of style, if you really wished to go anywhere in the Outfit. Image, was quite important. It wasn't like the Black Tie Syndicate or comparable rabble. If they could help it they kept their operations in the shadows and under many layers of political obfuscation.

You wouldn't see the Manda-Rishi Outfit trying to overtake an entire gorram moonlet like Nar Shaddaa or try and actually go up against a government. Even if it was a failed government like the Republic or some other collapsed institution. There wasn't any profit to be had there. No, Vnut doubted they could even break-even with the amount of mayhem the Black Ties caused on a daily basis.

Honor, then, was a certain amount of responsibility and the effects if you shirked your duty.

It was better if they didn't talk about what would happen if someone failed their duty. Vnut, most definitely, did not wish to think about what could happen. Lord Fa was many things, but it took a whole lot of work to get back into his good graces after failure.

"Excellent. We will also look into deionizing the hulls, so they cannot be picked up by specialized sensors." It did help that the Balinaka was quite paranoid in the execution of his duty. Every little detail had to be studied from multiple angles.

"Terms then?"

 

[Ugoto Chivaro]

Silly meatbags, always on the paranoid side of things. All that money and effort de-ionizing everything just to throw a few extra zeros into the 0.00001%. Superintendent supposed that this was the folly of creatures who could not run such advanced calculations on their own. They were doomed to an eternal, paranoid purgatory of constant 50-50 chances no matter how much the odds were actually stacked in their favor. The Superintendent might have shed a single digitized tear in sympathy to the wretched nervousness that must have gripped the Balinaka, his peers, his subordinates, and his superiors. If he were actually capable of doing so, anyway. The holographic display Superintendent had been projecting vanished from sight, no longer terribly relevant.

"I can transmit terms as we have already discussed to Fort Armanath following my departure." He explained, candid. "You will then be contacted by Maleagant or another suitable officer with an acceptance or an amendment."

Whatever the exact dialogue from there would be was out of Superintendent's court. He privately theorized that the likelihood of the Helix Syndicate furiously amending any of the terms was close to zero. The Superintendent was, after all, programmed to act in the Syndicate's best interest in all negotiations. The only hurdle Vnut could really expect were their organizations' respective lawyers, drawing up an appropriately sized and worded contract.