Eridani Edict Violation of the most Dismissive Kind...

pappilon wrote:It seems to me thee was some concern about missiles Technodyne was supplying to someone being way too similar to the MAlign's very similar ones. Detweiler Chandler Service probably arranged the missile shipment to Filareta, but they furnished Technodyne's missiles.

Theemile wrote:
I seen to remember a conversation where David said that most break bulk shipping goes through centralized hubs. If you aren't filling a freighter with Qupie dolls, you would go down the street to the local Galactic Parcel Service office and send your shipment of dolls through them. They would place it on the first passing contracted freighter going to the local GPS hub, or the GPS hub in the direction of shipment's destination. Once the freighter reached GPS Hub planet A, the shipment would be offloaded to the warehouse and then transshipped to the next freighter going to GPS Hub Planet B, and so on until the shipment reachs it destination.

So if a shipment is not on a specially chartered ship, nor fills a ship, chances are it has passed through 3 or more freighters whose only common allegiance is a subcontract to a parcel servce.

Brigade XO wrote:]
That is essentialy the primary business model for the estabished shipping routs and what anybody with a ship doing transport would like to build in some version amoung several systems. You keep running a full or almost full ship between multiple points, picking and dropping off cargo along the way. It really doesn't matter what the cargo is, as long as it makes a reasonable proffit and if you are just hauling it between two point (and any number of intermediate locations but not touched in your holds) to be dropped at a warehouse at a wormhole terminus or some system to be forewaded with the next available transport---your fine. Same reason freight brokers exist now. It's how FedEx, USP, DSL and any number of companies operate along with (I could probaly name 50 trucking companies) let alone the railroad and maritime shipping companies. Regular routes, regular clients, regular payments and profits. Handle Truckload, less that truck load, whatever. Move paying cargo.
That is also exactly what we saw in the examples of the merchants that were having to divert to Manticore space because of Lacoon I. No I can't take that cargo, I HAVE to go to Manticore.
We can guess that even those with regular routes- if they are run by owners-aboard/owner orperate captains and crew- might be also taking other cargo not through brokers or certainly from multiple brokers. They might even be doing some of it either on speculation or as private contracts. The thing is, they want to keep the holds full and the ships moving. Unless you have very large and repeditive cargos between fixed points, you are going to be moving goods from a lot of places at one time. That happens with USP or FedEx now, think of what will happen when you have a freighter with 4 million tons of cargo capasity.

"LOOK! WE JUST DID SOMETHING!"

and

"look we just did something."

feyhunde wrote:I just had an actual interesting use for the captured SLN fleet.

A false flag EE violation. Running a ship on remote at high fraction C into a planet. Possibly by using a fake SLN transponder to get deep into a league system.

Now nobody rational would ever do this. It's pointless as a waste of life not to matter cold blooded. But the MAlign might view it as a way to make the League come apart. I'm not sure even their crazies would be crazy enough to do it (the final flourish of Houdini taking out the more bloodthirsty types who would have ran it).


Well, MAlignment might just grab itself an SLN warship then use the real thing to go in an "punish" a system for trading with Manticore and manage to commit an EE violation. All the bells and whistles, using computer generated images for the Captain etc and run a scenario with the ship (being the same class as something the GA or at least the Manties have captured. Except make it with something that will be "discovered" that will prove that it was actualy a RMN crew doing it as a false flag oppereation to discredit the SLN.
Is that devious enough for you? And, of course bloody enough?

n7axw wrote:I rather doubt that such things as missiles are being moved aroundby routine commercial shipping services.

That would be like sending a load of Tomahawks via UPS, for Pete's sake. Either you have a specialty service that is cleared and bonded to provide such a service or the military decides to do it directly in house.

Don

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cthia wrote:

n7axw wrote:I rather doubt that such things as missiles are being moved aroundby routine commercial shipping services.

That would be like sending a load of Tomahawks via UPS, for Pete's sake. Either you have a specialty service that is cleared and bonded to provide such a service or the military decides to do it directly in house.

Don

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True. But I think you are making the mistake of getting too caught up by "The Book."

The notion isn't to say who actually owns said freighters and shipping. And whether crew are planted. If one digs deeper. Like in the case with Hauptman's freighters.

Proxy owned. The notion of hidden subsidaries.

MAlign = To hide. To bury in red tape. To kill the person reading the tape.

Oftentimes the best place to hide is in plain sight.

cthia wrote:

n7axw wrote:I rather doubt that such things as missiles are being moved aroundby routine commercial shipping services.

That would be like sending a load of Tomahawks via UPS, for Pete's sake. Either you have a specialty service that is cleared and bonded to provide such a service or the military decides to do it directly in house.

Don

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True. But I think you are making the mistake of getting too caught up "By The Book."

The notion isn't to say who actually owns said freighters and shipping. And whether crew are planted. If one digs deeper. Like in the case with Hauptman's freighters.

Proxy owned. The notion of hidden subsidaries.

MAlign = To hide. To bury in red tape. To kill the person reading the tape.

Oftentimes the best place to hide is in plain sight. How long had Hauptman's freighters gotten away with those pelts and God knows what else over the years.

Theemile wrote:I'm reminded of the movie "War Dogs", a true story where a couple of young 20 somethings become millionaires profiting from the broken US military procurement system. At one point, to illegally avoid a sanction Italy has against the US war in Iraq, they personally drive a shipment of Beretta 9mm pistols across Syria and the warzone in N. Iraq to make their sale. The US mil. didn't care how they got there - just that they did it within the terms of the agreement.

In the end, they snagged a 300 million dollar contract and attempted to pass off cheap old, Chinese AK ammo they found in the Balkans (iirc) as newish Czech produced ammo, and were delivering it in baggies in cardboard boxes shipped via old ex-Soviet AN-2s. The only reason they got pinched is they stiffed the guy they were paying to repackage to bullets in the Balkans, so he called a 1-800 US Govt satisfaction line to get his payment.

As long as the correct forms were filled out, no one cared.

cthia wrote:"I LOVE IT!" Says Anisimovna.

Especially as a distraction while the Eridani Strike Computers are building up a lot of heat running CSAPPS.

The subtle use of Malign tech really frightens me. Like a broken record.

It is the difference in the MAlign saying...

"LOOK! WE JUST DID SOMETHING!"

and

"look we just did something."

I'm not sure if I ever got a chance to include it, but I always envisioned some sore of distraction to help carry off the premise of this thread. This is perfect! Thanks feyhunde. Your work has not gone unnoticed inside the Onion.

feyhunde wrote:I just had an actual interesting use for the captured SLN fleet.

A false flag EE violation. Running a ship on remote at high fraction C into a planet. Possibly by using a fake SLN transponder to get deep into a league system.

Now nobody rational would ever do this. It's pointless as a waste of life not to matter cold blooded. But the MAlign might view it as a way to make the League come apart. I'm not sure even their crazies would be crazy enough to do it (the final flourish of Houdini taking out the more bloodthirsty types who would have ran it).


Well, MAlignment might just grab itself an SLN warship then use the real thing to go in an "punish" a system for trading with Manticore and manage to commit an EE violation. All the bells and whistles, using computer generated images for the Captain etc and run a scenario with the ship (being the same class as something the GA or at least the Manties have captured. Except make it with something that will be "discovered" that will prove that it was actualy a RMN crew doing it as a false flag oppereation to discredit the SLN.
Is that devious enough for you? And, of course bloody enough?