Message from Achernar 08/02/3133
INN - Interstellar News Network
PORT HOWARD—Less than a week after a couriered message from Achernar
brought false hope to Towne that resulted in hundreds of thousands taking to the
streets and three days of riots all across the world, inside sources say an HPG
message from that same world arrived early today.
But could this finally be the beginning of the end of this long darkness we've been
experiencing since last August?
Speaking on condition of anonymity, two senior ComStar officials both reported that
a signal was received from the Achernar HPG station, but was cut off before the end
of the message. The first ComStar official said this shortly after the transmission was
received. “There is no question that this was a message from Achernar, but the
transmission was cut off midstream. We received only a few seconds before the data
stream ended.”
“We continued to receive the carrier for another 30 seconds or so,” said another
member of the order. “But that went dead, too, though not before we picked up a
huge broadband spike.” When asked what could have caused that spike, the individual
said that “There could be a lot of things, but my first impression was that the
transmitter somehow overloaded and automatically shut itself down.”
Initially, other representatives from the HPG station could not be reached for
comment, but several self-styled “watchdog” groups came forward with more
information shortly afterward. One of these groups, known as the Towne
Investigative Committee, immediately released a short statement: “We have confirmed
that an HPG signal was, in fact, received at 22:45 Terran Standard Time this morning.
Though we cannot determine where that transmission came from or what information
it contained, we do know that it consisted of 2.9825 seconds of data followed by
27.5441 seconds of empty carrier wave. This transmission ended with a spike
inconsistent with the normal operation of an HPG, one like no one has ever recorded
before.”
The secretive group known only as Cerberus later had this to say: “Our members
have been watching ComStar for many years, but this is like nothing we have ever
seen. Over the past eight months, we have actually picked up a number of stray HPG-
like transmissions, and we've confirmed that the Port Howard HPG has made quite a
few transmissions of its own, but the station itself is obviously not functioning. And
now to get a transmission like this? If indeed the message came from Achernar, and
we have no way of verifying whether it did or not—only ComStar can decode the
transmission to do that—it represents both a leap forward and a leap backward.
Whichever HPG sent that message is probably not in working order anymore. We've
never recorded a surge like the one that ended this transmission.”
Both organizations provided a great deal of mutually complementary information about
the nature of HPG communications. While a hyperpulse generator is required to send
communications across the cosmos, one only needs a device capable of picking up a
broad bandwidth of signals to receive the HPG transmissions. These transmissions are
encoded multiple times with constantly changing algorithms that only ComStar
knows, preventing anyone from actually decoding them. A typical HPG transmission
will last 30 seconds to a minute, but can carry literally hours of tri-vid, thousands of
personal messages, and countless official communiqués.
Each HPG transmission is specifically targeted at a world, but because of every
world's rotation, a number of receiving stations are constructed at different locations
while satellites likewise act as back-up receivers and help to link the various receiving
stations to the main HPG complex, where all of the processing is done. It is because
of this fact that individuals and groups with the right kind of equipment can receive
these transmissions, and likewise why ComStar uses at least three levels of encryption
on the data sent (though the organization refuses to say specifically how much
encryption they use or what its quality is).
The transmission that was received this morning was abnormal for many more
reasons than just its length and the way it ended. Of primary concern was the fact
that the transmission used a relatively narrow band of frequencies, which means it
carried very little information. Engineers working with the two organizations also say
that the signal was modulated in a nonstandard way. Finally, the carrier signal seemed
to drift and vary in amplitude. INN engineers studied these readings and confirmed
that there were obvious problems with the signal from the very beginning.
“There were serious problems at the source,” said INN Senior Engineer Terek Ko.
“It's as if the transmitter wasn't properly aligned or the antenna array tuned. While
that in itself doesn't explain why the datastream ended, I could easily see something in
the transmitter's finals blowing, causing that spike at the end.”
When this story first broke this morning, people around the world were glued to their
tri-vids and to the various newsfeeds while police departments quietly called in off-
duty officers in case of trouble. Thankfully, from the very beginning, we knew that
there were problems with the transmission.
Several hours after the transmission was received, Chief Sacrist Lev Bouzerau held a
brief press conference in which he basically verified everything that had already been
known, but gave very little additional information. “We did receive a hyperpulse
transmission this morning, and I can confirm that it did originate from the Achernar
HPG station. The data transmission lasted for almost three seconds before it ended,
which it did prematurely and in midstream. We continued to receive a carrier wave
for approximately another 30 seconds before it, too, ended. There were a number of
irregularities with the transmission, not the least of which was its premature end.
Other individuals have already weighed in on what those irregularities were, so I won't
bore you with those details. What I do want to emphasize was that this was not a
normal transmission, and so it did not contain any traffic. It consisted solely of a
telemetry feed from the station and a few test patterns. Our technicians will analyze
that feed and we will ultimately send several of them to Achernar to confer with
station personnel there.
“This is the first step in the right direction, but we are very obviously quite a ways
away from finding a solution to the problem that has been plaguing us all now for
almost nine months. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up here. Any speculation on
when we will have the HPG network up and running again is premature. As I said
earlier this week, even if the Achernar HPG is brought back up soon, it will be months
before we can effect the same repairs as they did. We are not giving up, though.
We've had people working on the problem since the blackout happened. As soon as
we have any more solid information, we will pass it on immediately.”
Bouzerau went on to answer questions for almost another hour.
This is just the latest development in a problem that has plagued The Republic of the
Sphere, and indeed the entire Inner Sphere, since August of last year. Interstellar trade
slowed to almost nothing in the months immediately following the blackout, and many
businesses were forced to close their doors. Earlier this week, a DropShip landed with
a message for ComStar from Achernar, rumors of which sparked three days of riots,
looting, and other violence that local governments are still cleaning up. Thousands
were arrested, and Governor Renee Oscar imposed a worldwide curfew in its wake.
Towne Log
+ You know, one would think that after four hundred years that ComStar would
know how to fix their machines. I mean, these principles have been in use for how
long? There's gotta be manuals lying around somewhere! :- Sparks
+ That's just what I've been saying all along! ComStar knows how to fix them, but
for some reason they can't?! It's someone, or many someones, within ComStar who
caused the problems that they now can't conveniently fix. They might be losing
billions each day, but they're covering up for someone. We've been hearing rumors
from the Periphery for years of other forces on the prowl. Anyone ever heard of the
Wolverines? ComStar knows where they are and what they've been doing for the last
three hundred years! :- Hippee
+ That's what I love about you, Hippee. Just when I think I've seen it all, I realize that
you've got more where that came from! :- Pooky
+ Okay, I'm not a neophyte when it comes to radio equipment, but there's got to be
something weird going on with the Achernar ComStar techs. I don't think there's any
way that they'd screw up something as important as aligning their transmitter and
antenna before transmitting. Sure, there's something to be said for oversights here and
there, but that's leaving tools behind or forgetting to put that extra layer of insulation
over the waveguide. I worked comms on a JumpShip for 10 years before getting my
land legs back, and our techies had checklists for everything, just like I did. Sure,
those things may be written like a damn bible for the ComStar types, but you gotta
know they've got the same thing, even though they're chanting something every time
they tighten a screw. Their transmitter didn't “just” cut out, and carrier signals don't
just waver all over the place like that without a reason. It was sabotaged or
something! :- Vasiliy
+ This isn't the work of man. It is the will of God. We've been living too long without
Him, and it's now time for us to pay the price. The scriptures prophesied a time of
darkness before the coming of the storm and finally the rapture. It is time to find your
Savior. :- Hop4lif
+ This has absolutely nothing to do with religion. God doesn't just make every HPG in
the universe stop working. It's a virus or some sort of worm that someone created to
do this. The question is, just who has the ability to do that? ComStar, of course. The
Word of Blake. That is, if anyone survived. The Clans, but why would they do that?
The NAIS, maybe? But the question is still why. It's not like we've heard of any major
invasions kicking off. The Inner Sphere is big, but not *that* big. Even if something
was happening on the Periphery, we'd have heard of it by now. :- CMike
+ I gotta say you make some good points, CMike. But still and all, there's a lot of
people going back to church just to be on the safe side, including me. Some may call
it hedging your bets, but it can't hurt . . . and, quite frankly, the more people that do
find God, the fewer riots we'll have like earlier this week. :- PanzerGruppe
+ And considering how long we'll still be cleaning up after those riots, I've got no
problem with people learning a little temperance and civility! :- Chief_Clancy
INN - Interstellar News Network
PORT HOWARD—Less than a week after a couriered message from Achernar
brought false hope to Towne that resulted in hundreds of thousands taking to the
streets and three days of riots all across the world, inside sources say an HPG
message from that same world arrived early today.
But could this finally be the beginning of the end of this long darkness we've been
experiencing since last August?
Speaking on condition of anonymity, two senior ComStar officials both reported that
a signal was received from the Achernar HPG station, but was cut off before the end
of the message. The first ComStar official said this shortly after the transmission was
received. “There is no question that this was a message from Achernar, but the
transmission was cut off midstream. We received only a few seconds before the data
stream ended.”
“We continued to receive the carrier for another 30 seconds or so,” said another
member of the order. “But that went dead, too, though not before we picked up a
huge broadband spike.” When asked what could have caused that spike, the individual
said that “There could be a lot of things, but my first impression was that the
transmitter somehow overloaded and automatically shut itself down.”
Initially, other representatives from the HPG station could not be reached for
comment, but several self-styled “watchdog” groups came forward with more
information shortly afterward. One of these groups, known as the Towne
Investigative Committee, immediately released a short statement: “We have confirmed
that an HPG signal was, in fact, received at 22:45 Terran Standard Time this morning.
Though we cannot determine where that transmission came from or what information
it contained, we do know that it consisted of 2.9825 seconds of data followed by
27.5441 seconds of empty carrier wave. This transmission ended with a spike
inconsistent with the normal operation of an HPG, one like no one has ever recorded
before.”
The secretive group known only as Cerberus later had this to say: “Our members
have been watching ComStar for many years, but this is like nothing we have ever
seen. Over the past eight months, we have actually picked up a number of stray HPG-
like transmissions, and we've confirmed that the Port Howard HPG has made quite a
few transmissions of its own, but the station itself is obviously not functioning. And
now to get a transmission like this? If indeed the message came from Achernar, and
we have no way of verifying whether it did or not—only ComStar can decode the
transmission to do that—it represents both a leap forward and a leap backward.
Whichever HPG sent that message is probably not in working order anymore. We've
never recorded a surge like the one that ended this transmission.”
Both organizations provided a great deal of mutually complementary information about
the nature of HPG communications. While a hyperpulse generator is required to send
communications across the cosmos, one only needs a device capable of picking up a
broad bandwidth of signals to receive the HPG transmissions. These transmissions are
encoded multiple times with constantly changing algorithms that only ComStar
knows, preventing anyone from actually decoding them. A typical HPG transmission
will last 30 seconds to a minute, but can carry literally hours of tri-vid, thousands of
personal messages, and countless official communiqués.
Each HPG transmission is specifically targeted at a world, but because of every
world's rotation, a number of receiving stations are constructed at different locations
while satellites likewise act as back-up receivers and help to link the various receiving
stations to the main HPG complex, where all of the processing is done. It is because
of this fact that individuals and groups with the right kind of equipment can receive
these transmissions, and likewise why ComStar uses at least three levels of encryption
on the data sent (though the organization refuses to say specifically how much
encryption they use or what its quality is).
The transmission that was received this morning was abnormal for many more
reasons than just its length and the way it ended. Of primary concern was the fact
that the transmission used a relatively narrow band of frequencies, which means it
carried very little information. Engineers working with the two organizations also say
that the signal was modulated in a nonstandard way. Finally, the carrier signal seemed
to drift and vary in amplitude. INN engineers studied these readings and confirmed
that there were obvious problems with the signal from the very beginning.
“There were serious problems at the source,” said INN Senior Engineer Terek Ko.
“It's as if the transmitter wasn't properly aligned or the antenna array tuned. While
that in itself doesn't explain why the datastream ended, I could easily see something in
the transmitter's finals blowing, causing that spike at the end.”
When this story first broke this morning, people around the world were glued to their
tri-vids and to the various newsfeeds while police departments quietly called in off-
duty officers in case of trouble. Thankfully, from the very beginning, we knew that
there were problems with the transmission.
Several hours after the transmission was received, Chief Sacrist Lev Bouzerau held a
brief press conference in which he basically verified everything that had already been
known, but gave very little additional information. “We did receive a hyperpulse
transmission this morning, and I can confirm that it did originate from the Achernar
HPG station. The data transmission lasted for almost three seconds before it ended,
which it did prematurely and in midstream. We continued to receive a carrier wave
for approximately another 30 seconds before it, too, ended. There were a number of
irregularities with the transmission, not the least of which was its premature end.
Other individuals have already weighed in on what those irregularities were, so I won't
bore you with those details. What I do want to emphasize was that this was not a
normal transmission, and so it did not contain any traffic. It consisted solely of a
telemetry feed from the station and a few test patterns. Our technicians will analyze
that feed and we will ultimately send several of them to Achernar to confer with
station personnel there.
“This is the first step in the right direction, but we are very obviously quite a ways
away from finding a solution to the problem that has been plaguing us all now for
almost nine months. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up here. Any speculation on
when we will have the HPG network up and running again is premature. As I said
earlier this week, even if the Achernar HPG is brought back up soon, it will be months
before we can effect the same repairs as they did. We are not giving up, though.
We've had people working on the problem since the blackout happened. As soon as
we have any more solid information, we will pass it on immediately.”
Bouzerau went on to answer questions for almost another hour.
This is just the latest development in a problem that has plagued The Republic of the
Sphere, and indeed the entire Inner Sphere, since August of last year. Interstellar trade
slowed to almost nothing in the months immediately following the blackout, and many
businesses were forced to close their doors. Earlier this week, a DropShip landed with
a message for ComStar from Achernar, rumors of which sparked three days of riots,
looting, and other violence that local governments are still cleaning up. Thousands
were arrested, and Governor Renee Oscar imposed a worldwide curfew in its wake.
Towne Log
+ You know, one would think that after four hundred years that ComStar would
know how to fix their machines. I mean, these principles have been in use for how
long? There's gotta be manuals lying around somewhere! :- Sparks
+ That's just what I've been saying all along! ComStar knows how to fix them, but
for some reason they can't?! It's someone, or many someones, within ComStar who
caused the problems that they now can't conveniently fix. They might be losing
billions each day, but they're covering up for someone. We've been hearing rumors
from the Periphery for years of other forces on the prowl. Anyone ever heard of the
Wolverines? ComStar knows where they are and what they've been doing for the last
three hundred years! :- Hippee
+ That's what I love about you, Hippee. Just when I think I've seen it all, I realize that
you've got more where that came from! :- Pooky
+ Okay, I'm not a neophyte when it comes to radio equipment, but there's got to be
something weird going on with the Achernar ComStar techs. I don't think there's any
way that they'd screw up something as important as aligning their transmitter and
antenna before transmitting. Sure, there's something to be said for oversights here and
there, but that's leaving tools behind or forgetting to put that extra layer of insulation
over the waveguide. I worked comms on a JumpShip for 10 years before getting my
land legs back, and our techies had checklists for everything, just like I did. Sure,
those things may be written like a damn bible for the ComStar types, but you gotta
know they've got the same thing, even though they're chanting something every time
they tighten a screw. Their transmitter didn't “just” cut out, and carrier signals don't
just waver all over the place like that without a reason. It was sabotaged or
something! :- Vasiliy
+ This isn't the work of man. It is the will of God. We've been living too long without
Him, and it's now time for us to pay the price. The scriptures prophesied a time of
darkness before the coming of the storm and finally the rapture. It is time to find your
Savior. :- Hop4lif
+ This has absolutely nothing to do with religion. God doesn't just make every HPG in
the universe stop working. It's a virus or some sort of worm that someone created to
do this. The question is, just who has the ability to do that? ComStar, of course. The
Word of Blake. That is, if anyone survived. The Clans, but why would they do that?
The NAIS, maybe? But the question is still why. It's not like we've heard of any major
invasions kicking off. The Inner Sphere is big, but not *that* big. Even if something
was happening on the Periphery, we'd have heard of it by now. :- CMike
+ I gotta say you make some good points, CMike. But still and all, there's a lot of
people going back to church just to be on the safe side, including me. Some may call
it hedging your bets, but it can't hurt . . . and, quite frankly, the more people that do
find God, the fewer riots we'll have like earlier this week. :- PanzerGruppe
+ And considering how long we'll still be cleaning up after those riots, I've got no
problem with people learning a little temperance and civility! :- Chief_Clancy
| August 2, 3133 |