Incident Report:

- AOB-WP15-CL-001

Summary: WATCHPOINT OMICRON ASSAULTED - TOTAL LOSS SUSTAINED

Report begins:

Background:

Local time: DEC 06, 03:08. Extreme weather condition 'CORALSTORM' begins. In accordance with previous directives, local units were sent out of WATCHPOINT OMICRON for an ongoing Search and Investigation mission.

No significant events occur for 22 hours.

Local time: DEC 07, 01:02. 'CORALSTORM' passes. Contact re-established. WATCHPOINT OMICRON reports no irregularities.

No significant events occur for 2 hours.

Local time: DEC 07, 03:07. Second 'CORALSTORM' begins. Contact lost with WATCHPOINT OMICRON.

All further information is speculative and subject to potential modification.

Incident begins:

Local time: 03:10. Unidentified hostile forces attack WATCHPOINT OMICRON. Long Range Laser Deterrence Weapon activates first. At least one attack is made towards enemy units.

Local time: 03:11. Long Range Laser Deterrence Weapon is subsequently destroyed by direct strike to its focusing apparatus. Self-destruction occurs when it attempts to fire.

Allied MT and Drone units engage with enemies.

Local time: 03:12-03:16. Allied MT and Drone units suffer complete destruction. No apparent enemy casualties.

Local time: 03:17. Local test CAVALRY units engage in battle. CAVALRY units are subsequently destroyed.

Local time: 03:18. WATCHPOINT OMICRON is breached. Internal Coral Sensor array is destroyed beyond repair.

Local time: 03:25. WATCHPOINT OMICRON fails to report status across secondary communication network. Alert is raised to level 2.

Local time: 03:28. Nearby allied forces arrive at site; WATCHPOINT OMICRON confirmed to be wiped out. Alert is raised to level 3.

Incident ends.

Aftermath:

Garrison squad deployed to WATCHPOINT OMICRON.

Recall orders issued across secondary communication network.

No significant events occur for 2 hours. Contact with primary communication network is re-established. Enforcement System renders investigation verdict.

All further information has been confirmed up to Gamma level.

Investigation results follow:

Unidentified hostile forces timed their attack on WATCHPOINT OMICRON specifically to attack during WATCHPOINT OMICRON's lowest alert level. It is possible that the unidentified hostile forces have infiltrated PCA databases, or have conducted extensive observation efforts.

The suspected number of hostile forces is 5. This information is supported based on the trails and tracks left on the ground. Zeta confirmation cannot be provided as no digital evidence was able to be recovered.

Unidentified hostile forces possess advanced, forbidden technologies. Analysis of destroyed and damaged units has produced evidence of weapons utilising Coral. It is possible that the unidentified hostile forces are C-Weapons. No matches have been found in the database. The database is either incomplete, or the unidentified hostile forces are not C-Weapons.

The goal of the unidentified hostile forces is unknown. No materials appear to be missing. While all units and data was destroyed, there appears to be no immediate purpose to destroying the sensor array.

The reasons behind this escalation of force are also unknown.

As an additional note; there were no Surges or Detonations in WATCHPOINT OMICRON's corresponding Coral deposit, in contravention to PCA Simulations. There is no current observable reason for this deviance; all information indicates that such a violent disruption to the sensor array should have caused considerable damage to BELIUS CONTINENT.

All further information is speculation. Beta level information accuracy applies.

It is possible that the unidentified hostile force is connected to the recent concerning group that has been destroying belligerent elements, as the modus operandi for both is the same. If this is the case, then this group must be raised in priority level significantly, as previous elements have not demonstrated similar Coral weapons previously. This may indicate that this group is either acquiring further resources or developing new technologies.

REPORT ENDS

The Enforcement system has rendered a verdict. UNKNOWN GROUP has been designated priority interest 3.

ALL PCA UNITS ARE ADVISED THAT INFORMATION GATHERING EFFORTS WILL BE INCREASED SIGNIFICANTLY.

CODE 151 IS NOW IN EFFECT!

With the benefit of hindsight, 'Limpet' might have been a better name than Levi.

My newest child was indeed a very clingy one- and not just to me, either. I was by far their favourite 'target', but Levi had a habit of picking someone, sticking to them for a few days, before jumping to somebody else.

Usually me.

This was, admittedly, a significant aid to the development of their skills, which had now expanded to cover what was possibly the widest array of skills outside of myself. Levi had picked things up from the Firekeepers just as much as they had picked up from me, Ezra, and Seria.

For depth of skill... that was debatable.

Still, it was fairly interesting to see. Levi's ability to overlap with other entities so easily was one that far surpassed the rest of the family. As a wave mutation, Levi was... efficient.

Well, putting all that aside for the moment, things were going pretty well.

The PCA was currently malding so hard that the passive sensors I had pointed at the Enforcement System's core registered the environment ticking up a few degrees, but I was electing to take that as an achievement.

Flatwell had managed to get a few things from BAWS, as well. Turns out the info we picked up from the LCs was in high demand; hard data on governmental technological development programs was particularly of interest to Megacorps who needed to stay ahead of that in order to maintain relevance. We hadn't jacked the complete developmental data or anything, but even the brief scans taken could show them how things had been progressing, where the efforts had been focused, and how it was likely to proceed.

It was just about invaluable, that kind of stuff. Hell, they were technically underpaying; as far as BAWS higher-ups were concerned, they were making out like bandits. Support one small rebellion group on a single planet in exchange for the developmental data of a group that could propel them galaxy wide?

There's a reason that high-corporate hadn't told them to stop. Literally, who wouldn't make that trade without an ideological reason?

If it all went south, the rest of BAWS could just cut off that small section and claim it was rogue actors.

Still, it'd be a bit before that help actually manifested on our side of things. BAWS was pulling some legal bullshit with the PCA's licensing system that, if it all worked out, meant that they could ship in some stuff from outside the planet. There was a fine art to this, of course; the PCA could crack down on anything and BAWS knew it, but if the PCA was too heavy-handed in their cracking down, BAWS could slap them right back in the legal and political spheres. The key was to duck in right at the tolerance line.

But, we had no part in that. Our only involvement was in handing more stuff to BAWS so they'd be more willing to help out. Giving the PCA enough rope to hang itself with would have been nice, but the Enforcement System wasn't so utterly awful in navigating politics that it would hang itself.

That would require a complacency that the machine didn't have.

So, instead, we were forced to collect more and more and more evidence of the Enforcement System's cruelty, to forge it into the guillotine blade that would push the PCA out, at least for a little bit. Long enough to give some breathing room, at least.

That would be both helped and hindered by the soon to arrive extraplanetary groups.

The licences for those had been relatively public, as it happened. Ring Freddie managed to pick up the list by his lonesome. There were a few interesting faces for our prospective newcomers; a half dozen miniature corps, multiple surveyor/prospector groups, three dedicated salvaging groups, and more asides.

It looked, on the surface, like there were multiple groups with many different agendas, but, well, that was just guises. Wrap it up in as many reasons and obfuscations as possible; there was still only one thing on Rubicon that couldn't be acquired easily anywhere else.

Coral.

Ha.

This planet was going to eat them alive, but they'd last long enough to start the mercenary cycle.

In the meantime, we'd have to deal with them as things as they came. Some of the outsiders would be usable, some of them would put on at least airs of cooperation, some of them we would be able to break without many problems.

Until then, I had another subject entirely to take care of.

Flatwell and Dolmayan had managed to arrange an appropriate amount of free time for the latter. Near on three full months, to be exact. Time enough for me to conduct my research and make the attempt to bring Dolmayan's augmentations up to C5. It would, if it worked, allow him freedom from his reliance on Dosing to hear our voices, and it would likely also extend his combat abilities significantly.

That was great, because he was the RLF's best pilot by long shot, and him being better directly benefited all of us.

Word on the grapevine -carefully arranged by Flatwell so that Dolmayan going missing for a period of time wouldn't be a big cause for concern, of course- was that Dolmayan was readying himself for a 'pilgrimage'.

I wasn't exactly fond of the religious connotations, there. For all that a significant portion of the RLF's population group would in fact see me in such a light if they knew I and my children existed, I held no illusions as to my own nature. Still, if allowing this spiritualism assisted the RLF's morale, then it wasn't that big of a deal.

An upgrade to his Augmentations was not the only gift I was preparing for Dolmayan. I can't exactly supply him outright with the best of the best, but I can sure as hell make sure that his AC performs a bit better than its model would indicate.

I wasn't that far off doing a few upgrades for the Firekeepers, either. Several months of combat data had provided more than enough information to further refine the IB-C04 AC Frame. It wouldn't be very significant changes right now, but generational, procedural incremental improvements held their place just as much as transformative alterations to base design. The preliminary data suggested they were looking at approximately one-to-three percent increased performance across the board, which was pretty damn good at this stage.

Chances were, it'd be a few years before I moved to anything transformative. The base frame was fine right now, it just needed to be refined before I took all the lessons I learned from it and made something new.

The Parts, at least, were much more free to develop and use. They were by nature less important than the Frame. Very few were going to get used to the exact idiosyncrasies of their weapons enough to be thrown off by incremental upgrades. A few completely new ones would also be joining the pool, for various reasons.

By far the most controversial of those among the Firekeepers was a Pulse equivalent to the Generator-fed Laser Rifle I'd previously developed. Half of them loved it. The other half hated it. Opinions swapped on the regular based on who got to use it.

Pulse weapons were rather infamous among Augmented pilots. The technology started out in the form of barrier generators, but it had been weaponized in the form of creating short-lived, semi-stable 'bubbles' and then throwing them at the enemy. They were excellent at breaking other pulse barriers, and equally good at infuriating the average AC pilot.

The bubbles, see, generated destructive electromagnetic interference on whatever they hit. For most, that was bad, but when you were literally wired into your machine?

They say that love and hate are two sides of the same coin. When it came to the 'Bubbleguns', that was definitely true, and whether you loved or hated depended on which end of them you were on.

I was still on the edge on whether I wanted to further scale them up or add Coral for the next upgrade to Pulse weapons. On one hand, bigger gun. On the other hand, Coral Pulse. It's not like I didn't have a design to work from; the IB-C03 had already produced an omnidirectional shield Unit that employed exactly that.

Ah, well.

Maybe I'll end up doing both.

If there's one upside to spinning so many plates, it's that I'm never bored.

And what a gift that