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As we ran, I thought about the lots of moving parts that we had in this game, or should I say Great Game, for all the marbles.
Somewhere, probably on Earth given his recent sighting in once had been Southern California, we have the Mastermind. A very crazy man, bent on world domination of a world that had thought itself at long last free of tyrants, traitors, terrorists and other trash.
(San San does not have terrorists. We have mentally ill people who need help. Once in a great while, one of them manages to kill enough people for San San to notice. This is sad. No one has any sympathy, or agrees in their absurd cause, or is willing to help them do anything but get the therapy they need. Thus, no terrorism. We won the War on Terror, yes we did, but we had to get through a lot of craziness to get there.)
In some other places, both on Earth and off it, we have bases for the Mastermind. We've taken down two - Utah and Monrovia. One had been a biolab capable of hatching some nastiness, which we were only starting to counter. There are tenuous electronic traces of at least three more. But for real privacy, any serious capability has to be in either the Asteroid Belt or the Outer System. I was betting on Jupiter orbit.
We also have the opposite of bases, which are traps - areas the Mastermind has thoughtfully rigged, far in advance, to hurt his opponents. Such as a tower full of traps in Santa Clara. Likely a lot more. Time to plan, failure to plan is planning to fail, all that. But he would run out of traps before we ran out of people. Hopefully.
We also have his weapons - lots of weapons, mostly biological, but the Mastermind had shown an unnerving ability to hack the orbital laser network - which is full of the best protections and code we have. He'd executed at least three laser strikes on an inhabited, populated area and caused casualties with each. The words being thrown around on the Threat Trackers board were 'impossible' and 'hideously unlikely' and 'odds less than one in a million.' He'd done it three times that we knew of.
He didn't get anything much into UC Stanford. If the best he could do was changing out the meds on the crash carts, there's little danger of something suddenly making all of us chunky salsa from _inside_ the campus. From outside was another problem.
Defending a fixed point on a planetary surface is really hard. A guy up on a cliff (space) can throw rocks, or nukes, or other crap, at a guy standing on the beach below (the planet surface). Defense is really hard and offense is really easy.
One of the best military minds of our admittedly decadent civilization had said, essentially, get out while you can.
So we did. But the options were not attractive:
1) Leave UC Stanford. Probably a good idea. But we knew it was a primary target for the Mastermind anyway. Go elsewhere in capsules. Maybe in San San, maybe continental, maybe global. Stay out of underwater cities. Avoid air travel, see below.
2) Leave the planet Earth. A major chunk of Threat Trackers was watching all Earth departures for traces of the Mastermind. He might just blow the damn thing up - which in the mid 21st century is not actually all that hard to do. So getting off the planet was probably a good idea.
But Earth departures are vulnerable to the laser network, on purpose. And we'd had the seed planted in people's minds that _I_ might be the Mastermind. That wacky, crazy theory just might get enough votes to vaporize any aerodyne craft I was known to be on. Just in case. Because there are lots of people as eccentric as "Alan Anderson" out there, but only one Mastermind. Also only one me. So no.
3) Leave near Earth space. Might not get to go far enough - if he has the stellar doomsday weapon I'd intuited. Trying to leave might get him to set it off.
But he didn't have his stellar bomb yet. If he did, all he had to do was 1) announce it 2) prove it and 3) accept everyone's abject surrender. Except me. I'd die first. Maybe it would get easier with the practice I'd had yesterday.
The induced brain cancer was a tool, not just for genocide but for taking control of smart people. Such as people that could make his crazy big toys, such as a stellar bomb.
4) Leave the Inner System. Slow, obvious, takes months of constant boost - and plays right into his hands, probably on his turf. Certainly on his turf unless we hide in the Belt. But you can't command or defend the Inner System from the Belt.
The joy of smartware is that you can compose, send off and consider complex documents in about as fast as it takes you to think them up.
Amy said "COPY" and sent me back her thoughts. They were in a different format.
Strategic Summary
Scene Size-Up -- This is the big one, folks. The System.
Axis of Threat -- Can come out of the woodwork.
Motive -- Insane. Meglomaniac rule everything and break everything else.
Psychology -- Probably sociopath. Probably not psychopath. Not enjoying his work enough.
Our Allies -- Everyone. Protocol Enforcement. All the agencies. MarsCorp.
Our Enemies -- Anyone the Mastermind might have had two decades to compromise. See woodwork.
Vulnerabilities -- We care what happens. He doesn't care how many he kills. He's had years to game this out.
Opportunities -- He's one man. "No man, no problem." We are under enormous pressure to solve this one quick. Many, many minds catching up with his pre-planned plays. When he is off his recipe, we win.
Our Weapons
- Laser Network
- The Agencies - All on Maximum Alert Status
- Protocol Enforcement ??? play their own game as usual, but worst threat in a decade
- Mantle of Authority, "We're the good guys"
- Big Frickin' Rocks - if we get consensus on where to drop one
- Threat Trackers
- Henchman Prizes - rewards generally, buy him out - already have a lot of good informant data
- Alan Anderson - might just outthink the SOB
His Weapons
- Laser Network - also :(
- strategic brain cancer
-- hard to cure, not impossible
-- weak and strong strains - Alan and I are alive because of this, others are dead.
-- deliberate?!?
- trying to weaponize for mass activation - bio, audio, visual or radio trigger
- bioagricultural - Rice Blast - it's real, the Triads are afraid of it
- space fighters - a base - Belt or Outer - self sustaining
- stealth space tech?? LOOK INTO - thought gravitics made impossible
- psychwar - compromising agents to fight reputation, CalFire firefighter
I sent an acknowledge and we kept running, with help from slidewalks and the occasional buffet from a defense field. Into the SLAC particle accelerator lab.
Ahhhh. Good choice.
Somewhere, probably on Earth given his recent sighting in once had been Southern California, we have the Mastermind. A very crazy man, bent on world domination of a world that had thought itself at long last free of tyrants, traitors, terrorists and other trash.
(San San does not have terrorists. We have mentally ill people who need help. Once in a great while, one of them manages to kill enough people for San San to notice. This is sad. No one has any sympathy, or agrees in their absurd cause, or is willing to help them do anything but get the therapy they need. Thus, no terrorism. We won the War on Terror, yes we did, but we had to get through a lot of craziness to get there.)
In some other places, both on Earth and off it, we have bases for the Mastermind. We've taken down two - Utah and Monrovia. One had been a biolab capable of hatching some nastiness, which we were only starting to counter. There are tenuous electronic traces of at least three more. But for real privacy, any serious capability has to be in either the Asteroid Belt or the Outer System. I was betting on Jupiter orbit.
We also have the opposite of bases, which are traps - areas the Mastermind has thoughtfully rigged, far in advance, to hurt his opponents. Such as a tower full of traps in Santa Clara. Likely a lot more. Time to plan, failure to plan is planning to fail, all that. But he would run out of traps before we ran out of people. Hopefully.
We also have his weapons - lots of weapons, mostly biological, but the Mastermind had shown an unnerving ability to hack the orbital laser network - which is full of the best protections and code we have. He'd executed at least three laser strikes on an inhabited, populated area and caused casualties with each. The words being thrown around on the Threat Trackers board were 'impossible' and 'hideously unlikely' and 'odds less than one in a million.' He'd done it three times that we knew of.
He didn't get anything much into UC Stanford. If the best he could do was changing out the meds on the crash carts, there's little danger of something suddenly making all of us chunky salsa from _inside_ the campus. From outside was another problem.
Defending a fixed point on a planetary surface is really hard. A guy up on a cliff (space) can throw rocks, or nukes, or other crap, at a guy standing on the beach below (the planet surface). Defense is really hard and offense is really easy.
One of the best military minds of our admittedly decadent civilization had said, essentially, get out while you can.
So we did. But the options were not attractive:
1) Leave UC Stanford. Probably a good idea. But we knew it was a primary target for the Mastermind anyway. Go elsewhere in capsules. Maybe in San San, maybe continental, maybe global. Stay out of underwater cities. Avoid air travel, see below.
2) Leave the planet Earth. A major chunk of Threat Trackers was watching all Earth departures for traces of the Mastermind. He might just blow the damn thing up - which in the mid 21st century is not actually all that hard to do. So getting off the planet was probably a good idea.
But Earth departures are vulnerable to the laser network, on purpose. And we'd had the seed planted in people's minds that _I_ might be the Mastermind. That wacky, crazy theory just might get enough votes to vaporize any aerodyne craft I was known to be on. Just in case. Because there are lots of people as eccentric as "Alan Anderson" out there, but only one Mastermind. Also only one me. So no.
3) Leave near Earth space. Might not get to go far enough - if he has the stellar doomsday weapon I'd intuited. Trying to leave might get him to set it off.
But he didn't have his stellar bomb yet. If he did, all he had to do was 1) announce it 2) prove it and 3) accept everyone's abject surrender. Except me. I'd die first. Maybe it would get easier with the practice I'd had yesterday.
The induced brain cancer was a tool, not just for genocide but for taking control of smart people. Such as people that could make his crazy big toys, such as a stellar bomb.
4) Leave the Inner System. Slow, obvious, takes months of constant boost - and plays right into his hands, probably on his turf. Certainly on his turf unless we hide in the Belt. But you can't command or defend the Inner System from the Belt.
The joy of smartware is that you can compose, send off and consider complex documents in about as fast as it takes you to think them up.
Amy said "COPY" and sent me back her thoughts. They were in a different format.
Strategic Summary
Scene Size-Up -- This is the big one, folks. The System.
Axis of Threat -- Can come out of the woodwork.
Motive -- Insane. Meglomaniac rule everything and break everything else.
Psychology -- Probably sociopath. Probably not psychopath. Not enjoying his work enough.
Our Allies -- Everyone. Protocol Enforcement. All the agencies. MarsCorp.
Our Enemies -- Anyone the Mastermind might have had two decades to compromise. See woodwork.
Vulnerabilities -- We care what happens. He doesn't care how many he kills. He's had years to game this out.
Opportunities -- He's one man. "No man, no problem." We are under enormous pressure to solve this one quick. Many, many minds catching up with his pre-planned plays. When he is off his recipe, we win.
Our Weapons
- Laser Network
- The Agencies - All on Maximum Alert Status
- Protocol Enforcement ??? play their own game as usual, but worst threat in a decade
- Mantle of Authority, "We're the good guys"
- Big Frickin' Rocks - if we get consensus on where to drop one
- Threat Trackers
- Henchman Prizes - rewards generally, buy him out - already have a lot of good informant data
- Alan Anderson - might just outthink the SOB
His Weapons
- Laser Network - also :(
- strategic brain cancer
-- hard to cure, not impossible
-- weak and strong strains - Alan and I are alive because of this, others are dead.
-- deliberate?!?
- trying to weaponize for mass activation - bio, audio, visual or radio trigger
- bioagricultural - Rice Blast - it's real, the Triads are afraid of it
- space fighters - a base - Belt or Outer - self sustaining
- stealth space tech?? LOOK INTO - thought gravitics made impossible
- psychwar - compromising agents to fight reputation, CalFire firefighter
I sent an acknowledge and we kept running, with help from slidewalks and the occasional buffet from a defense field. Into the SLAC particle accelerator lab.
Ahhhh. Good choice.
