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To: The Lane Hackers (via Morioka Depot's secure relay)
From: Tomas Mendes of the Crimson Cross
To whom this inquiry is most appropiately addressed,
A mutual ally of ours has an issue that your skill in computer compromise might be able to assist them with. If you are interested in the details, as well as discussing terms of payment, send a reply along this relay and I will see it.
I am looking forward to working closely with your organization once more.
--Capitán, Tomas Mendes
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To: Stefan Pomorov (via Morioka Depot's secure relay)
From: Tomas Mendes of the Crimson Cross
Signor Pomorov,
First let me extend thanks to you for answering my call in the darkness, and secondly for your patience in awaiting a reply.
The reason that the Golden Chrysanthemums are using us as a proxy is simply that they came to us first with the issue. Having at least indirect ties with your organization through the nation of Malta as a whole, I deemed it best for both parties to...escalate the issue to those who are better suited at electronic warfare.
You might have raised an eyebrow at the term 'warfare', but I have chosen this word carefully, since that is exactly what both of our organizations will ask you to do - specifically, to wage war on the software defense and virtual intelligence of a Kusarian Meiji class battleship. The sisters have been using one such vessel as a base for quite some time now, but have not been able to actually gain nominal control over the ship. As it was explained to me, the ship still thinks it is in Naval Forces control, with a Naval Forces crew compliment, and should it ever learn otherwise it would 'blow them all out of the nearest airlock', to quote the statement. Fortunately for the sisters they had enough knowledge to blind and deafen the ship as they took it over, but the situation in Kusari is changing rapidly and simply living aboard the ship is no longer sufficient.
To do this without killing everyone aboard, a hacker would be required to craft a software package capable of infiltrating the central computer core through a standard reactor control console (the only remaining direct point of access that, to the AI, is 'functioning normally'), overwhelming or subverting the AI's defenses and then either resetting the ship to its firmware defaults, or at least wiping everything completely and allowing for a fresh intelligence to be installed and configured. The second option would add a second step to the process - that being the acquisition of a 'Meiji' class factory AI from Samura somehow, and as a bonus, the blueprints and technical information of the class as a whole. They claim to be able to reproduce most if not all of the physical components they need to repair the vessel, so the technical information is all they are missing in order to complete the work.
Needless to say, anything that strengthens the position of the sisterhood in Kusari also strengthens the position of Malta in northern Sirius. We are very interested in seeing a successful conclusion to this undertaking of theirs, and as such, you can discuss payment with me through this secure line. If credits aren't enough, we can discuss that as well.
--Capitán, Tomas Mendes