Search Results
ID: Ybars1bO/qst/6253377#6257364
6/13/2025, 12:43:05 AM
>>6257362
“Ever since the Ides ten years ago, the whole world has been suffused with detailed mirages like this one. As have the other planets, in fact. These are not the only kind of illusion - you’ll probably see some before too long, especially if you get into any weather - but they are the largest and most realistic, and greatly complicate satellite ISR. Over land they’re only that, a complication, like weather, and they can be corrected for because mountains don’t usually move overnight. But marine illusions are more powerful, and one bit of ocean looks pretty much like another: anything smaller than about a kilometre tends to get washed out, and whole islands can disappear or move for weeks at a time. Even when we do spot something like a ship, there’s no way to know if it’s real, or even in the same hemisphere as where you’re seeing it, or if what you’re seeing isn’t an echo from some ships thirty years ago.”
The casualness with which Raleigh delivers this news causes you to double-take as you try to follow along. “I’m sorry- am I hearing right? Are you really telling me that satellite ISR is useless at sea?”
“Oh no, if you radiate, you’ll be found just fine. Illusions mostly affect light that passes into the atmosphere before being reflected, not so much what’s produced on the ground.”
“But if I don’t…”
“Then, you’ll have to be spotted from the air.”
You take a long moment to digest the sheer enormity of it all. The thought that Abyssal surface units could sail safely anywhere below a warship or search plane’s radar horizon anywhere in the world is horrifying to contemplate - really, it’s no wonder they’re giving humanity such trouble. At the same time, it’s the greatest gift anyone’s ever given to surface vessels, including the likes of you. Ever since the 1960s dodging Soviet and later Russian and Chinese recon sats to keep task forces hidden whenever possible has been one of the defining challenges of the surface fleet, and suddenly, that challenge is just gone. Now again it seems you’ll be living in the days before, when task forces had to locate each other by scout aircraft alone, and two task forces both running dark could pass within easy striking distance of each other and never know.
As you’re turning over the implications of everything you just learned, the skinny rating you talked to before rises and approaches Raleigh. “Their updates are ready,” he says. “Are we go to upload them?”
Raleigh’s eyebrise rise. “That was quick.”
“Link-16 is made to be pretty backwards-compatible.”
“So it is.” She turns to you. “Well? Up to you.”
>(1) Ask another question before giving the go-ahead. (Write-in)
>(2) Get patched in and talk to the brass now for concrete mission planning.
>(3) Take a minute to try out this attention-splitting thing before you have to do it for real.
“Ever since the Ides ten years ago, the whole world has been suffused with detailed mirages like this one. As have the other planets, in fact. These are not the only kind of illusion - you’ll probably see some before too long, especially if you get into any weather - but they are the largest and most realistic, and greatly complicate satellite ISR. Over land they’re only that, a complication, like weather, and they can be corrected for because mountains don’t usually move overnight. But marine illusions are more powerful, and one bit of ocean looks pretty much like another: anything smaller than about a kilometre tends to get washed out, and whole islands can disappear or move for weeks at a time. Even when we do spot something like a ship, there’s no way to know if it’s real, or even in the same hemisphere as where you’re seeing it, or if what you’re seeing isn’t an echo from some ships thirty years ago.”
The casualness with which Raleigh delivers this news causes you to double-take as you try to follow along. “I’m sorry- am I hearing right? Are you really telling me that satellite ISR is useless at sea?”
“Oh no, if you radiate, you’ll be found just fine. Illusions mostly affect light that passes into the atmosphere before being reflected, not so much what’s produced on the ground.”
“But if I don’t…”
“Then, you’ll have to be spotted from the air.”
You take a long moment to digest the sheer enormity of it all. The thought that Abyssal surface units could sail safely anywhere below a warship or search plane’s radar horizon anywhere in the world is horrifying to contemplate - really, it’s no wonder they’re giving humanity such trouble. At the same time, it’s the greatest gift anyone’s ever given to surface vessels, including the likes of you. Ever since the 1960s dodging Soviet and later Russian and Chinese recon sats to keep task forces hidden whenever possible has been one of the defining challenges of the surface fleet, and suddenly, that challenge is just gone. Now again it seems you’ll be living in the days before, when task forces had to locate each other by scout aircraft alone, and two task forces both running dark could pass within easy striking distance of each other and never know.
As you’re turning over the implications of everything you just learned, the skinny rating you talked to before rises and approaches Raleigh. “Their updates are ready,” he says. “Are we go to upload them?”
Raleigh’s eyebrise rise. “That was quick.”
“Link-16 is made to be pretty backwards-compatible.”
“So it is.” She turns to you. “Well? Up to you.”
>(1) Ask another question before giving the go-ahead. (Write-in)
>(2) Get patched in and talk to the brass now for concrete mission planning.
>(3) Take a minute to try out this attention-splitting thing before you have to do it for real.
Page 1