Tabi310 said:
Sorry, to be clearer, the specific wording here confused me.
What if an attack isn't directed at Dust (you)?
But instead directed at, for example, the space station Dust simply happens to be inhabiting?
Dust's basically got a micro-AI running in parallel to him... It acts to automatically run various counter-intrusion measures, and extends the software mutation jazz over all connected infrastructure. Basically it auto-applies Dust's procedures over a wide scale.
There is a hidden downside... If someone is studying Dust's countermeasures for a long period of time, they can find specific ways of getting around them. If he's extended over the whole colony, there are more chances for them to study them, and more for blind spots to crop up.
Imagine Dust were actively protecting a shipyard or factory, if someone wanted to intrude into its systems they'd have to get past security, security that has been enhanced and gone over with a microscope by an AI. Basically because of this AI sub-unit, there's a counter-intrusion construct running over the entire colony even when Dust is not consciously applying himself to large-scale counter-intrusion. It's not as effective as when he does it personally but it's pretty close.
There's a chance if someone is attacking something not directly relevant and it's overwhelmed, Dust wouldn't be aware of it. Say, if Cortana decided to pierce the security on a satellite. But, the odds of someone doing something successfully, and moreso doing something without being detected, are significantly lower.
Edit:
Czes said:
Sorry for the double post.
I do have some questions. There are no RNGesus rolling out the Human-Covenant war correct?
The Covenant war will begin and play out according to canon. Exceptions happen if you do something to change the course of the war, like, if you fluke-destroyed 3 CCS-class cruisers and then active-transferred onto and commandeered a CAS-class assault carrier, capturing it, that'd seriously change things up.
Czes said:
How did the Covenant even view the war? I always had the impression that it was a strange combination of a holy crusade of extermination and a halfhearted military expedition. It never seemed like they commited their full military power towards the war and handled this whole thing more on a basis of targets of opportunity and reclaiming forerunner artifacts.
You are correct they didn't see it as a "standard" sort of engagement. Figuring out their motivations, strengths and weaknesses are part of this Quest.
Czes said:
This would give our little colony good survival odds, since the Covenant, if they ever were to find us, would not resort to glassing our planet. What even was their war goal? If it was the destruction of humanity, they could have just slipspaced 2-5 ships and glassed weaker planets and the converged on the stronger ones. Could somebody explain their behaviour?
You can trawl wikis and read essays on them. Figuring out their motivations and modus operandi are part of this Quest.
Tabi310 said:
What buildings, skills and/or software suites would we need to research the slipspace "lane"?
Not a halo lore expert, but from reading the slipspace wiki, that sounds like a permanent slipspace 'wake'.
Well-intuited. Not saying you're right, but you've made a good connection.
Software, really just lots of physics, maths and slipspace physics. Ships have mapped out the slipspace lane using their sensors. The UNSC has a science ship assigned to study the fast-lane in hopes of better-understanding slipspace.
To do your own research, multiple AIs dedicated to physics, slipspace physics and maths, lots and lots of big server clusters, science ships and maybe stationary facilities with specialized instruments to try to probe slipspace.
The thing is, slipspace is something untamed... At this point, there's no such thing as a slipspace drive that doesn't have a chance, even a tiny one, that it'll malfunction. Every slipspace journey is subject to about a 5-10% variability in internal vs external time, overall travel speed etc. Sometimes weird stuff happens, and no explanation can be put forth except some official jargon synonymous with "slipspace weirdness". There is no universal set of equations that perfectly describes all aspects of slipspace physics.
If you could discover something new that sheds light on slipspace, that could lead to dramatically faster and more stable drives. On the other hand, there is over a century of intensive R&D leading up to this point, so...
Tabi310 said:
Is it possible to extend the training cycle, as a write-in?
Could we include some self-diagnostic training, before we run the full in-depth diagnostic?
Better being able to run and interpret diagnostics would fall under Maths, Computers and AI tech'.
