SLN Future

I have read, by people who are supposedly experts, that radio transmitters, down to cell phones, can be identified due to various characteristics of how they transmit. But it’s pretty simple to replace that stuff or the critical parts of the system.

kzt wrote:I have read, by people who are supposedly experts, that radio transmitters, down to cell phones, can be identified due to various characteristics of how they transmit. But it’s pretty simple to replace that stuff or the critical parts of the system.

Also do those characteristics remain the same or change over time? If the Hexapuma had encountered the Marianne several years later, would the identifications still be made? Even if they stay the same, is there a registry of emissions to identify a stolen cargo ship?

tlb wrote:

kzt wrote:I have read, by people who are supposedly experts, that radio transmitters, down to cell phones, can be identified due to various characteristics of how they transmit. But it’s pretty simple to replace that stuff or the critical parts of the system.

Also do those characteristics remain the same or change over time? If the Hexapuma had encountered the Marianne several years later, would the identifications still be made? Even if they stay the same, is there a registry of emissions to identify a stolen cargo ship?

I would make an educated guess that the emissions patterns do change over time due to component degradation and maintenance cycles. I would also suspect that many (most?) customs services keep databases of emissions signatures of the ships that passed through. Now the detail of those files would depend on the customs service and their data storage and sensor capabilities. Thus I would have questions about how easily they could tell the difference between two ships built in the same yard and part of the same lot.

If you have taken a ship and it is not a legitimate prize of either warfare or captured pirate, you are going to have to aquire papers for it and enough of a trail of documentation to satisfy Port Captains/ Harbor Masters, Customs Officials and anyone else who has cause to call for them. And that does include Commanders of Warships who might think they have cause to inspect you.
You can always have purchased a ship from someone who was upgrading their business or buy and retrofit something that had needed work. That would account for a lot of things being done to various bits and peices like nodes, an engine, stuff like that. How long ago and where is a different discussion. You need a trail of paperwork showing where you have been and cleared customs or otherwise did business. There will be places you want to avoid in that list- Mesa comes to mind-because there is always the suspicion that there might be things you want hidden.
So you "buy" it from somebody that repossessed it for a client and without a cargo to take back to "wherever the client was located or had an operations contact" it was better to sell it locally rather than hire a crew (all sorts of compications there) and send it in-ballast to a locaton to reunited it with the finacing company. Paperwork. Banks handle that kind of thing all the time since they can also make loans to finance the purchase and with it's new registration (either where you pick it up and buy it or some Star Nation of convience (like Panama or Liberia in our wet merchant shipping on Earth in the 21st Century) so it's flagged and off you go.

Brigade XO wrote:Paperwork. Banks handle that kind of thing all the time since they can also make loans to finance the purchase and with it's new registration (either where you pick it up and buy it or some Star Nation of convience (like Panama or Liberia in our wet merchant shipping on Earth in the 21st Century) so it's flagged and off you go.

It's very likely that when you have legitimate work done, especially with bank financing, the information is broadcast to all friendly ports so they know what to expect. This information goes by courier boat before the ship sets sail, so it's going to arrive before the ship.

It's possible a fence has a way to insert such information in these bulletins, but that's going to be expensive in the most reputable sources because I'm pretty sure the fence won't want to use it any more than they have to. The more they do, the more likely someone is to find that it is a fence for stolen ships.

So if you steal a ship, you need to "wash" it and get some fake papers, from some corrupt government that will issue them. And you probably need to travel only to ports that will look the other way and through wormholes that will look the other way. You can't dare go through the MWHJ, unless you paid an exorbitant price to Kolokainos for the papers.

There are various states that have different regulations on what is needed to obtain a title on cars or motorcycles. There are ways to manipulate the system so that you can obtain a valid title on something that isn't yours if you know what you are doing and pay the various fees.

Another example is house stealing. A thief files a title change with your county for your house, then takes out a big loan, gets it in cash and walks away. Guess what happens next? Yes, the bank shows up to take your house.

https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/ ... ing_032508

So no, there isn't any need for anyone corrupt. Just knowing how to manipulate the system.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:It's very likely that when you have legitimate work done, especially with bank financing, the information is broadcast to all friendly ports so they know what to expect. This information goes by courier boat before the ship sets sail, so it's going to arrive before the ship.

It's possible a fence has a way to insert such information in these bulletins, but that's going to be expensive in the most reputable sources because I'm pretty sure the fence won't want to use it any more than they have to. The more they do, the more likely someone is to find that it is a fence for stolen ships.

So if you steal a ship, you need to "wash" it and get some fake papers, from some corrupt government that will issue them. And you probably need to travel only to ports that will look the other way and through wormholes that will look the other way. You can't dare go through the MWHJ, unless you paid an exorbitant price to Kolokainos for the papers.

And when the GA finds such a ship and follows the paper trail they hammer the owner of the ship, the government that gave it papers, everyone who had a hand in covering it up etc... they can go and do counter piracy but at the same time they should also go after the people who benefit and support the pirates and the pirates infrastructure. At some point people will get the message that is cheaper to not get involved with pirates or you might receive a visit by the GA, a visit you will not enjoy. Piracy in Silesia survived for so long because members of the Silesian Government were involved in equipping, supporting and covering up for the pirates like what happened in "Lets Dance", the RMN captures a pirate ship, hands it over to the proper authorities and then the pirates and the ship disappear to be captured by someone else at a later date and repeat the exercise because the local governor is corrupt but the SKM was not willing/able to be more forceful. In the verge post war they will and should be more forceful, if pirates are captured they are turned over to either trusted systems or GA FOB's where they are processed, tried and held for transport to a GA prison to serve their sentence. Pirates that are captured would serve their sentences in GA prisons if sentenced to death they are executed in the FOB.

Take the Pirates out of circulation, take the pirate ships out of circulation and follow the leads to all who knowingly benefited, supported or funded the pirates and punish them as well. No more revolving door for pirates, if a pirate ship can be repurposed for one reason or another by the GA great, if not use it as target practice by the ship that captured it.

cthia wrote:

Theemile wrote:Actually, the military arm of the OFS was the Gendarmie. Frontier Fleet was the SLN force assigned to police the Frontiers, and seconded to the regional Governor for their use in police keeping and paroling neighboring polities. AS such, the Frontier Fleet wasassigned by the regional governors to provide assistance to the OFS in their territories.

Yes, it is a technicality, but an important one - the FF was not OFS, even if it was forced to do it's bidding. Because of this, the FF hierarchy had a different mindset than OFS did - even if they could not do anything about it.

I'm not so sure I can agree with that, if my intuition and common sense is in order, or my understanding of how things work in the real world.

Or, if what's in a name can be trusted ...

It is an OFFICE of (FRONTIER) SECURITY.

If I'm a civilian wanting to complain or whatever about something going on in the frontier, I go to the Office that houses the entity. The Office of Frontier Security.

If the job is too big, they have an assistant in the form of FRONTIER Fleet.

Frontier Fleet is the naval arm of the civilian body that is OFS.

It is the way my twisted brain twists it. ::shrug::

Theemile wrote:Independent of how you perceive it, David has said repeatedly that OFS is NOT the Boss of Frontier Fleet. They are 2 separate operations who report to separate SL Offices (and Mandarins). The org chart doesn't even have a dotted line at the FF/OFS level. It is only the local FF detachments which report to the local Governors (or reinforcements ordered to support said governors), that are seconded to support OFS operations. The overlap of the word Frontier in their names is the overlap of their area of operations - the SL Frontier.

Anyone who percieves them as a threat, probably sees them as a singular threat, as an endangered OFS office will ring sufficient bells to get FF units to show up, as well as OFS Intervention Battalions.

Understood. The author says ixnay on that foray.

However. The hierarchy is still there, in place. The need to oversee their territory still exists. Even the Core needs to be protected. Especially when the RF appears and begins to sow seeds of discord and disharmony. SL units will have to be put together simply to police League space. No matter what they are named, their "true" responsibilities will be the same as that of OFS and FF. Whether those entities were fulfilling their true missions, previously, or not.

Since the infrastructure is already there, I say, "Make it so, Number One."

cthia wrote:However. The hierarchy is still there, in place. The need to oversee their territory still exists. Even the Core needs to be protected. Especially when the RF appears and begins to sow seeds of discord and disharmony. SL units will have to be put together simply to police League space. No matter what they are named, their "true" responsibilities will be the same as that of OFS and FF. Whether those entities were fulfilling their true missions, previously, or not.

OFS and FF are most likely gone as a part of the surrender demands. However OFS and FF were never tasked with policing League space; their responsibilities were with the "Frontier" outside the boundary of League space and that is no longer permitted, no matter what what they are named.

kzt wrote:There are various states that have different regulations on what is needed to obtain a title on cars or motorcycles. There are ways to manipulate the system so that you can obtain a valid title on something that isn't yours if you know what you are doing and pay the various fees.

Another example is house stealing. A thief files a title change with your county for your house, then takes out a big loan, gets it in cash and walks away. Guess what happens next? Yes, the bank shows up to take your house.

https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/ ... ing_032508

So no, there isn't any need for anyone corrupt. Just knowing how to manipulate the system.

Up until passage of HB-3200, the corrupt bureaucrats who administer the Oregon Medical Marinjunna Program were gleefully handing out address specific licenses to tenants or anyone else to commit Federal Felonies on rental properties. The Cole memorandum notwistanding, Federal prosecutors were also invoking civil forefeeiture of rental properties that had been utilized to commit these Federal feelonies without the landlord's knowledge or consent. The policy on issuing grow site permits was intended to circumvent the reluctance of marijunna growers to put their own property at risk and the reluctance of landlords to assume the risk. Such licenses could enable grows with hundreds of mature plants. Amanda Marshall, former US Attorney for the State of Oregon, was particularly eager to invoke civil forefeitute when she wasn't to buy perrforming oral sex on her subordinates. (Google it)