The Liberty Security Force has long prioritized its intelligence gathering operations in Kusari, owing to persistent rumors of a Jump Drive research programme. Using intermediaries and existing trade and diplomatic networks, the LSF has managed to embed low-level agents into the Keiretsu. These men and women are often simple workers who pass along efficiency estimates or cargo manifests, never being promoted far enough to get near the real humint "gold". As R&D efforts at Kansai near their final critical stages, Kusari prepares for a ground-breaking demonstration in Bretonia. More and more Kishiro personnel have been transferred to temporary support roles. This in turn has left openings which must be filled by new workers on short notice, often without the prerequisite rigorous background checks.

One such occurrence has finally led to a breakthrough in the year-long infiltration op. A Yukawa dockworker under the pseudonym "Harris" noticed unusually large deliveries of Hull Panels, and unprecedented overtime offers for a time-sensitive critical project. Chatting about the order with his fellow "deck apes", he confirmed that the items were not going to any new construction, but rather to reinforce a special Foreign Service government convoy. Harris then overheard a different crew boasting of an urgent run to Bretonia for quintuple pay, carrying an unknown cargo from Kansai. Harris’ report was confirmed by the LSF with assets inside the Bretonian Ministry of Defense, who had become aware of a highly classified arrangement between the two Houses relating to the planned Invasion of Dublin -- although its specific nature was a mystery.

LSF leadership has always taken a liberal view of its mission brief, to protect Liberty’s commercial, military and political interests at all costs. It is the assessment of the Bretonian and Kusari bureau chiefs that the successful field demonstration of a functional Jump Drive could be the single most commercially damaging event in Liberty’s history, even if it did resolve the current Gold crisis. As a result, they have determined that this cannot be allowed to happen, regardless of the price paid. Using a dizzying chain of intermediaries, mercenaries and burnable assets, details of the Jump Drive programme and the impending convoy were anonymously leaked to the Blood Dragons and Mollys -- with details fabricated or embellished to urge immediate action. Despite this, the LSF is unwilling to leave the Republic’s financial future in the hands of these terrorist groups.

A taskforce has been assembled of elite LSF agents, armed with unmarked ships flagged as pirates. The operatives were told that their mission was essential to Liberty’s future, but that they were very much on their own: their very existence would be denied if killed or captured. The LSF, Mollys and Blood Dragons all see the deployment of Jump Drives as an existential threat, and they are all clearly willing to kill whoever it takes to see the project fail. The BAF and KNF remain unaware of the looming threat awaiting them. Only time will tell whether the critical Jump Drive Parts will reach Portsmouth Shipyard, and how these momentous events will reverberate through history.