GWOT II - Epilogue - Crowning Achievement
Jan. 9th, 2024 08:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drewkittyGWOT II - Epilogue - Crowning Achievement
The War continued, as wars do.
Site continued coding for the War. The executive offices were moved to F building. The fourth floor of H had had just too many bad things happen within, for anyone who knew the Site at all to be comfortable going there.
A few of Echo 18's adherents fled Site during his arrest. They were duly listed as wanted.
The food got a little better. Onsite was as safe as it ever had been. Offsite, anti-American partisans and the Resistance rose from a nuisance to a threat.
After interrogations and review of files, Sharon was confirmed in charge of the Security forces. Her background, impeccable. Her story, plausible. Most importantly, she had not risen from within the labyrinthine bureaucracy of Site and therefore was not regarded as a threat.
As ordered, she excised all mention of Echo 18 and the others from Security's files - except to note briefly that if they returned they were to be detained and Homeland to be notified.
Somehow this entire time, the Homeland Bound program had overlooked Arturo. His execution was merely a minor correction of an oversight. Foreign born, not naturalized, not identified as an alien. It was simply faster and less embarassing to sidewalk him than to send him to a collection site and put him on an aircraft.
Sharply worded memos began to fly between Homeland, the Office of the Inspector General and the Department of Defense.
Finally Homeland was informed. Keep your hands off the San Jose Site. We're using it. It's important. Leave it alone.
###
The campus minimart was still named 'Echo 18 Sundries.' Homeland hadn't bothered with trivia like how Site named its departments.
A picture of Echo 18, scowling, was still posted on a support column unsuited for shelf space. "Shoplifting is stealing from your fellow Employees."
A little hand-carved table appeared below it, with six eye bolts on the underside for some unknown reason. A candle or two, a few coins at first. No notes or pictures; paper was still expensive. Every now and again, a stray padlock would be found locked to one of the eye bolts. Then chained to each other. Occasionally, when there were too many, the Security shop would remove them to be repurposed.
###
What did the Site code for the War?
Projects were always compartmentalized. Massively parallel computing, complex database management, hyperrealistic simulation and training software, and language translation and modeling were all components.
It was the one place where a Department of Defense customer could come for custom code, or repair of legacy code dating from the 1960s onward, and get their fix in a militarily useful timeframe.
When the simulation software used to load freighters with military cargos had a glitch, Site fixed it.
When the database used to track Naval Aviation parts worldwide went down, Site put it back up.
When a tank or helicopter glitched, and the glitch was "somewhere in the computer," Site would find it.
But the most useful purpose to which Site code was put was actually on behalf of Homeland - as a customer.
###
"This program would not have been possible without the detailed analysis at Site of population trends, characteristics, identities and addresses, drawing in detail on both public and non-public datasets including the raw United States Census and the credit reporting agencies. The special capabilities of Site, including the ability to track individuals and plausibly falsify their personal communications, made the entire effort run much more smoothly and without causing premature public alarm."
- From Executive Summary, Homeland closing report on her crowning achievement, Homeward Bound
The War continued, as wars do.
Site continued coding for the War. The executive offices were moved to F building. The fourth floor of H had had just too many bad things happen within, for anyone who knew the Site at all to be comfortable going there.
A few of Echo 18's adherents fled Site during his arrest. They were duly listed as wanted.
The food got a little better. Onsite was as safe as it ever had been. Offsite, anti-American partisans and the Resistance rose from a nuisance to a threat.
After interrogations and review of files, Sharon was confirmed in charge of the Security forces. Her background, impeccable. Her story, plausible. Most importantly, she had not risen from within the labyrinthine bureaucracy of Site and therefore was not regarded as a threat.
As ordered, she excised all mention of Echo 18 and the others from Security's files - except to note briefly that if they returned they were to be detained and Homeland to be notified.
Somehow this entire time, the Homeland Bound program had overlooked Arturo. His execution was merely a minor correction of an oversight. Foreign born, not naturalized, not identified as an alien. It was simply faster and less embarassing to sidewalk him than to send him to a collection site and put him on an aircraft.
Sharply worded memos began to fly between Homeland, the Office of the Inspector General and the Department of Defense.
Finally Homeland was informed. Keep your hands off the San Jose Site. We're using it. It's important. Leave it alone.
###
The campus minimart was still named 'Echo 18 Sundries.' Homeland hadn't bothered with trivia like how Site named its departments.
A picture of Echo 18, scowling, was still posted on a support column unsuited for shelf space. "Shoplifting is stealing from your fellow Employees."
A little hand-carved table appeared below it, with six eye bolts on the underside for some unknown reason. A candle or two, a few coins at first. No notes or pictures; paper was still expensive. Every now and again, a stray padlock would be found locked to one of the eye bolts. Then chained to each other. Occasionally, when there were too many, the Security shop would remove them to be repurposed.
###
What did the Site code for the War?
Projects were always compartmentalized. Massively parallel computing, complex database management, hyperrealistic simulation and training software, and language translation and modeling were all components.
It was the one place where a Department of Defense customer could come for custom code, or repair of legacy code dating from the 1960s onward, and get their fix in a militarily useful timeframe.
When the simulation software used to load freighters with military cargos had a glitch, Site fixed it.
When the database used to track Naval Aviation parts worldwide went down, Site put it back up.
When a tank or helicopter glitched, and the glitch was "somewhere in the computer," Site would find it.
But the most useful purpose to which Site code was put was actually on behalf of Homeland - as a customer.
###
"This program would not have been possible without the detailed analysis at Site of population trends, characteristics, identities and addresses, drawing in detail on both public and non-public datasets including the raw United States Census and the credit reporting agencies. The special capabilities of Site, including the ability to track individuals and plausibly falsify their personal communications, made the entire effort run much more smoothly and without causing premature public alarm."
- From Executive Summary, Homeland closing report on her crowning achievement, Homeward Bound
