Studying the Scene
Everyshore region – Chasnaye constellation
Harerget system – Planet V – Moon 1
CreoDron Factory station
27 April YC 127
As I was jumping through the gates toward Harerget system, I contacted Delphine Xarasier, a Level 1 R&D agent who agreed to help Alitura with deciphering the datacore.
“Good morning, Ms Xarasier,” I said cheerfully, when a disheveled, sleepy agent appeared on the comms screen.
“Morning? What morning? It’s a middle of the night!” she said testily by way of greeting. Then her eyes focused on me, she blinked a few times, squinted and asked, “Who are you? And how do you know my personal number?”
“Captain Korff, at your service,” I replied and made an attempt to bow courteously, as far as it was possible to do being naked and suspended in pod goo. “Sister Alitura told me that you had a little problem for which you needed a capsuleer.”
“This can wait till morning,” the agent waved her hand dismissively.
I stopped smiling, “Maybe your little problem can, but my big one cannot. I need your help with deciphering the datacore and I am prepared to act with alacrity to resolve any blockers. But I expect the same from you, Ms Xarasier. I am on my way to your station and will be in your office in approximately 20 minutes. I really hope to meet you there when I arrive.”
Delphine scoffed, “And what if you don’t?”
“Then I will meet you in the morning, collect the datacore and you’ll have to find another capsuleer.”
It was a blatant bluff, as I wasn’t going to engage another corp for that task, but I wanted to check how badly CreoDron needed me. It appeared they were quite desperate, as Delphine swallowed the bait.
“Damn you, Captain! I’ll see you in half an hour,” growled the agent and ended the connection.
I noticed the 10-minute pushback and chuckled – if such a petty trick was enough to secure Delphine’s cooperation, we would get on like maison en flambe.
When I entered Delphine Xarasier’s office she was busy making coffee. She gave me a bleary-eyed look, waved in a general direction of a visitor’s chair and turned back to the coffee machine. Soon she was sitting at the table with a steaming mug. For a while she was just sipping coffee and staring in the distance. I gave her time to wake up properly. Eventually, she started taking interest in the universe and her gaze fell on me. She studied me for some time and snorted.
“Caldari, eh? What brings you here, Captain? Are the pickings in the State so slim that you decided to try your luck abroad?”
“Me?” I raised my eyebrow. “I was dragged into this affair kicking and screaming. It was you who was looking for foreign mercenaries.”
The agent chuckled, “Touché,” and continued in a more benevolent tone. “You know, Captain, I don’t mind working through the night if a situation calls for it, but not three nights in a row. I was really looking forward to having some rest tonight, so pardon my grouchiness. And it’s not just the lack of sleep, it’s that stupid issue that does my head in.”
“What’s the problem?”
“The problem is that every single drone in this system ceased responding to signals three days ago. That just doesn’t happen with Federation technology!”
I ignored the obvious contradiction and shrugged, “As you say, Madame.”
“It’s actually Mademoiselle,” Delphine said demurely.
“I am not sure I am interested in your marital status.”
The agent looked at me in mock horror, “I would be alarmed if you were!”
I laughed and raised my hands acknowledging a good riposte.
“So what can I do for you, Mademoiselle Xarasier?”
“What you can do, Captain Korff, is get out there and see what happened to our drones. As I said, malfunctions on such a scale do not happen with our tech. I am quite convinced that the drones were destroyed. Bring back at least one drone, or whatever remained of it, and it will help us immensely.”
“Should I expect any hostile actors?”
The agent shook her head, “I don’t know. There were no signs of other ships in the system, so I have no idea what could have destroyed the drones. But someone or something did, so keep your eyes peeled, and I’ll try to do the same,” she finished with a yawn.
Everyshore region – Chasnaye constellation
Harerget system – Mission location
When I arrived to the last known location of one of the CreoDron drones, the overview showed me a very curious list of local objects. Firstly, there was a container labelled ‘Corrupted Drone’.
“How does the overview know it’s corrupted?” I asked Aura. “I don’t believe there are enough corrupted drones in New Eden to train its ML model on.”
Aura rummaged in capsule documentation and poked its APIs, then said, “It’s a generated label. The overview does not know what that thing is exactly, but it looks like a drone and it looks like other things that were known to be corrupted. And I use ‘looks’ loosely here as the overview uses readings from all available sensors.”
“Yeah, kinda makes sense,” I agreed. “But look at the next three objects!”
“Broken Duvolle Laboratories Recon Drones”, read Aura and got excited. “Does it mean that Duvolle Labs sent their drones to attack CreoDron’s drones? And to hide their participation in the attack, they introduced some flaw so that they now appear ‘broken’. Wow! Gallentean corp wars are tougher than ours.”
I shook my head, “No, I don’t think so. Look at the drone type.”
The overview classified the Duvolle drones as Mammon Apis and Belphegor Apis – the same way it classified Rogue Drones. Aura froze, and CPU consumption hit 100% as she tried to digest the implications of our discovery. A few seconds later she came to and looked at me with round eyes.
“So, this means…” she started and trailed off.
“…that Duvolle Labs drones mutated into Rogue Drones,” I finished her thought.
If it was true, it was a momentous discovery. Everyone believed that Rogue Drones traced their descent from malfunctioned military drones, but nobody was able to find a convincing evidence. The captured Rogue Drones evolved so much that there was hardly any trace of their ancestors left. Finding a drone which was identified as a product of human corporation and, at the same time, had characteristics of a rogue drone provided a missing link in Rogue Drones evolutionary development.
“These are priceless artefacts which will advance our understanding of Rogue Drones,” Aura whispered in awe.
At that moment the ‘priceless artefacts’ acquired a target lock on me and started harassing my shields.
“And what course of action do you propose, Professor?” I asked sardonically, watching a growing damage indicator on the HUD.
“Can we… can we disable them somehow?” she asked desperately.
“The only way I know to disable a drone is to shoot it down.”
Aura opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, then closed it again.
Finally she said in a pleading voice, “Just be careful.”
I rolled my eyes, “We both know that I don’t have precise targeting control. The best thing I can promise is make one hole at a time in them.”
And so I did, allocating just one railgun to each drone. The little bastards were fast and nimble, and I had an impression that they bounced off my 150-mm charges before they exploded. But the keyword was ‘little’ – there was only so many hits they could endure before they exploded. When the fight was over I checked their remains and discovered that there was nothing to loot.
“I wish I had a salvager,” I said wistfully, “but I am afraid we’ll have to leave further investigation to Delphine.”
Then I moved to the corrupted drone. Neocom found a few metal scraps which could be extricated from the drone’s wreck but also some interesting electronic components which were classified as corrupted. I grabbed the whole lot and stowed it in my cargo hold.
“May I inspect those components before you return them to CreoDron?” asked Aura enthusiastically.
“Um… better not,” I said, “there could be an unknown virus or something like that. Might give you pockmarks.”
Aura pursed her lips indignantly but didn’t press the point.
Everyshore region – Chasnaye constellation
Harerget system – Planet V – Moon 1
CreoDron Factory station
When I told Delphine about our discovery of the broken Duvolle drones, she, totally unexpectedly, emitted a triumphant whoop.
“I gotcha, Dad!” she cried exuberantly.
“Dad?” I asked, confused.
“Yeah, I told the old codger that there was a flaw in his design, but would he listen?”
“Do you mean that your father designs drones for Duvolle Labs?”
“Yes. Why do you look so surprised?”
“Because I thought he was a chief researcher at CreoDron.”
“Who told you that?” Delphine asked, astonished.
“Sister Alitura.”
Delphine shook her head, “She got her wires crossed. My father is a chief researcher but at Duvolle Labs. I, too, worked there for a while but it appears we are just incompatible. When it comes to research and design, he thinks he is a genius and always goes his own way.”
“And is he?” I asked. “A genius, I mean.”
“Oh, he is a genius alright, but even geniuses make mistakes. I was investigating some aberrant drone behaviour and found that evolution-limiting algorithm allowed, under certain circumstances, infinite AI development. That led to a deviation from the desired operational characteristics. I told Dad that the algorithm had to be strengthened, but he dismissed my concerns saying that it would make the drone behaviour too patterned and predictable by the enemy. I had a horrible row with him after which I left Duvolle Labs.”
“And were scooped by CreoDron the next day, I guess?”
Delphine smirked, “The same day. There are some advantages of being a daughter of great Avagher Xarasier, you know.” Then she added vindictively, “But now I’ll take him down a notch. When my salvage team brings the remains of those broken Duvolle drones, I will have an evidence to prove how stupid it was to ignore the risks of uncontrolled AI evolution.”
“And will he listen this time?” I teased.
Delphine snorted, “He’ll have to, unless he wants to become known as an evil genius who unleashed a new generation of rogue drones.”
That won’t be a bad outcome, I though to myself. I was afraid that my collaboration with a Gallente corp would harm Caldari interests, but in that one mission I managed to reduce the threat of rogue drones and make Gallentean drones more predictable, if Delphine’s father’s assertion was true. Not bad, indeed.
Aloud I said, “Well, I’ve helped you solve your little drone problem, as I promised. Are you ready to analyse the datacore?”
“You’ve helped indeed, but the problem is not solved. Now we know that our drones were corrupted by Duvolle drones, but we still need to figure out how to protect our drones from corruption,” said Delphine and, seeing my disappointed face, added hastily, “but I can allocate some resources to your datacore. We’ll start working on it today. I wish I could provide more assistance but I have to balance my priorities.”
“Is there anything I can do to free up more resources for the analysis?” I asked.
Delphine thought for a few seconds, then brightened up and said, “Actually, you can.”