3 PICERL - The eye - sniper alley
= = = Preparation = = =
When the outposts were first established, each of them knew they had to be responsible for their own safety and defense. Other assets were days away, maybe more. Every settlement had an incident response steering committee and considered the likely problems.
Number one on the hit parade was fire. One result of climate change was less stability in the atmosphere, more storms, leading to more lightning strikes and more fires. This was one of the primary reasons for observation towers and automated spotters. As part of preparation was the concept of keep your side of the street clean, combustible material was harvested and as often as not, the carbon was sunk into fiber.
Fire was not the only possible incident of course, but it was the one a Northern outpost like Broch Viavek was most focused on. Who would have guessed it was a bunch of riffraf on a flotilla that would put their readiness to the test.
= = = Identification = = =
The eye was nothing special, a high end JDK consumer surveillance camera, 50x optical zoom, but only 1080p resolution, decent low light performance, Shamus had found a warehouse full of them, new in box. What kept them out of the eJunk pile was the DIGIC DV 7 processor, for all the limitations of the hardware, that was a heck of a signal processor in its day. They put one into High Point Tower, another in Broch Viavek and tucked a couple spares away.
These were sentries, working day and night, scanning the land and lake. The software algorithms were simple. If the eye was scanning land the focus was on motion, smoke or objects moving across the terrain. When the eye was scanning water, if a found object didn't pattern match to drifting by factoring in wind, current and other drifting objects and it appeared to be greater than 3M x 3M in any shape, zoom in on it.
The sensor that first identified the object or objects would direct a second sensor from the second location. If it could latch on as well they began to create a 3D illustration, (that is where the DIGIC processor came in) and signal OBJECT FOUND.
The signals did not mean an alert was issued. Alerts were not instantaneous or the false positives would be too much to handle. A post-processor compared the current OBJECT FOUND against a trove of data, especially data that had been labeled by an analyst. The objects found by the eye in the water were moving, not drifting, coming closer to BV and were greater than three meters. An alert was issued.
= = =
Jasmine was taking her afternoon nap when the alert sounded. She had been working on a landscape watercolor of the lake and the colors in the distance were so subtle, she decided to sleep on it and tackle it later.
She took to alert on her bedside situation screen. By now the 3D model was forming nicely, the result of thousands of camera exposures looking to sharpen any possible detail. They were still in the distance, but it was a small flotilla, a monohull with tattered sails, a couple kayaks, and some sort of rowboat like a dory, (later they would realize it was an oomiak). If you made her guess with the incomplete knowledge available so far, there were probably 10 - 12 individuals total.
Jasmine increase the amount of storage and compute power available to the eye. They were headed away from the settlement to the East, but they would not get far, they would run into shallows and the land and there was nothing of interest up that way, scrub and barren rock. She transferred the operational screen to the high room, Keesha was waiting for her there, she had already looked at the screen. They knew the scenario, they had rehearsed it countless times. Unless they want to hunt, they will probably set anchor and sleep for the night, make their way West first morning when the winds are lighter.
I agree Jasmine said, "The monohull will run into a bit of trouble when they reach the end of the bay, it will need to go into the wind and there are shallows. That gives us time, let's parlay with Viavek.
XXX answered the comm screen, it was clear he was not alone. One by one the people on the call at Broch Viavek introduced themselves, basically the members of the incident response steering committee. "From the images we have been able to produce so far there are no obvious major weapons, small arms, shoulder fired, that is all that is likely. Sure would be nice if we had an idea if they were interested in being friends.
The best analysis of the 3D model indicated 13 souls, one of which in the boat originally designated a dory as a baby.
= = =
Nobody knew why Beezer decided to take a shot at the tower, but he went below and came up with his beloved Remington 700 bolt. With his sniper scope he could see there was someone in the high room. I bet I can make that shot he thought. Bad thinking, drugs, too much time sailing, hard to say, but there would be consequences if he pulled the dribber.
Inuksuk* spun around at the sound of the rifle blast. Beezer was set up with his tripod and scope. Inuksuk, an experienced hunter took in the scene. Even though the cartridge was sometimes used for distance shots when Beezer decided to pull the trigger it was an impossible shot. Probably 1600 meters if they were on level ground, but the knoll HPT was built on was way above lake level, (400m in fact, and then there was the height of the tower. The effective range of the 7mm magnum was about half of that. Also there were no flags close to the tower for windage, but he grimly noticed several closer to the water's edge. He watched as the person on the tower disappeared. Oh, my, they are going to be pissed he thought.
Escape was unlikely to the South, he could see the land closing in. They had just come from the East, no way through. North and West was the only way out and Inuksuk had no doubt they people from the tower knew that, what's more that was probably just a lookout tower, there were already a few homes coming into view.
He spun the oomiak around and paddled for all he was worth. Quickly, he told his wife, we need to put some distance between us and the other boats. Since the oomiak did not draw much water he could work along the shore, no point in giving them a free shot in open water. He half expected to feel the impact of a 7mm bullet when Beezer realized he had left, but soon Beezer and his crew would have bigger problems.
= = = Containment = = =
The folks at the Broch had no choice but to consider the ill fated shot an act of aggression. One boat had spun and was leaving already, but they appeared to be first nation. 3 gone, 10 on scene. The game plan was clear, neutralize the belligerents, don't let anyone else escape to point they way back to the Broch. There would be plenty of time to run the oomiak down later; it wasn't the fastest craft on the lake.
Keesha had already hitched up the dogs even before the shot, Hoagie, Monty and Keesha were rolling down Sniper Alley, a well maintained dog run that followed small depressions in the land rising from the lake. When ever possible the path was shaded to preserve the snow and any rocks and roots that stuck up had been removed. There was no way to get a shot in at the sled team from a boat and the granite shooting positions provided cover and concealment. There were similar granite outcroppings not designed as bunkers, but there was no easy way to tell the difference from a boat.
Keesha was the most experienced shooter in the settlement, a product of Protective Spear, the life and death whack-a-mole exercise in Israel near Gaza. She had 31 confirmed kills as so-called terrorists would arise from the tunnels and try to wreak havoc on nearby Israeli towns and villages. That the folks on the boats had no chance didn't enter her mind, she was point for about 10 targets.
= = = Eradication = = =
Stopping the monohull was the first order of business it was picking up speed heading due South in the fairly deep water before Broch Viavik's marina. Four minutes after Beezer's shot she was set up at firing station 1. Beezer was on the deck scanning the coastal cliffs for signs of life. Fat chance, everyone was tucked away but Keesha. Jasmine was back online it the tower and folks from the Broch using the eye were serving as spotters. "Greenlight on the guy with the gun" came over her ear piece. She squeezed the trigger and Beezer was no more. Jasmine followed instantly, taking out a deckhand, 2 down, 8 to go. Since there was nobody on deck on the monohull Keesha and Jasmine took out the kayaks. 4 down, 6 to go.
The monohull continued South, either someone was still actively steering or it had some type of steering mechanism, otherwise it would have turned into the wind, the idea situation for the shooters. 3 more people came out from below decks all with guns. Keesha fired twice, Jasmine once, 7 down, 3 to go.
Keesha now only had the rear of the monohull, she needed to change positions. She stabilized her rifle and Jumped on the sled. As they hurtled South faster than the boat, she heard Jasmine, "Skip 2, go for 3, that will give you a shot at the oncoming boat."
Time was running out. There were 3 potential combatants left. The wind was blowing away from Broch and HPT, but if there was any sort of chemical or biological weapon it was still close and the damage it could do to the lake was unthinkable. They could shoot into the hull, but at what? What might they hit? Boarding the boat was high risk, but soon there would be little choice. Also, the monohull looked like it was in pretty good shape, if there was a way to salvage it that would be a windfall to the little community.
Jasmine, had her sensor focused on the boat. "Keesha, I think there is a way to disable the boat". The port side winch on mast. The sail might not come down, but it will certainly get sloppy and worse case slow the boat."
Keesha shrugged, Jasmine was the spotter, the winch was only a bit smaller than a human head, she had a 2 centimeter spread at that range. The .50 cal certainly had enough to power to disable the winch, she adjusted for wind and fired.
Inside the boat, you could feel the difference. That tight feeling of a good track was gone and the sail was flap, flap, flapping. The wheelhouse controls had only limited effect, they were starting to spin, once they were bow into the wind it was game over. Most of the rifles were now on deck, closest to lifeless hands. It sounded like they were only dealing with one primary shooter, there had only been two reports to the distant what would have been South West, but was now North West. Maybe that shooter did not have an angle anymore. The only chance was to retrieve one of the long range rifles on deck, flush the shooter and take them out. Yeah, it was a long shot, but it was the only chance. The crew talked it over. There was still one kevlar vest. One deckhand wearing the vest would make for Beecher's 7mm and slide it to the wheelhouse and then take whatever cover he could find to the East. If possible he would get a second rifle and tell whomever was remaining in the wheelhouse what he saw. The second deckhand would try to pull the bitter end of the halyard into the wheelhouse. If they could get tension they would have some control. On three we go, and in less than 3 seconds they were down to 2.
Keesha did not have a good visual angle on the deckhand slithering across the deck to the rifle formerly belonging to Beecher, but she could see the deckhand at the mast clear as day, his hands never touched the line; 8 down 2 to go.
Both JDks were fixed on the monohull, plus anyone with optics was watching. Keesha, there is one on deck now. He slid a rifle to the wheelhouse. He may have one was well, there is a dead guy close to him.
Keesha still did not have a shot at the guy on deck and the boat was slowly spinning him away from her as it was almost into the wind. So she focused on the wheelhouse. In the wheelhouse the pilot of the boat reloaded the Remington and pointed it through the louvers in the direction of the sound from the shooter. He pushed it a couple centimeters too far and Keesha caught the movement with her scope, 9 down, 1 to go. The guy on deck was panicked, the boat was into the wind, slowly sliding backwards towards the marina where there would be many shooters. He doubted seriously that they would take prisoners, that sort of thing went out of fashion decades ago. The wind was pushing one of the kayaks towards a large rock. If he could do the breathing tube trick and stay under water he could maybe get to the kayak, pull it behind the rock and make for the island to the West. Hey, it could work. 2 JDKs, a number of spotters, the second some part of his anatomy broke water he was shot, oh well, he would have frozen to death.
= = = Recovery = = =
10 down, that was certain. 0 to go, less certain. They could only know what they had seen. The snipers positioned themselves and a few watermen went to go recover the boats. They took them to the rocks to the West and used standard infection protocols. However ten gallons of bleach later they had two kayaks, a fiberglass monohull, various rifles and trinkets to trade.
A second response was planned for the oomiak. Tomorrow, first light, they would go after the boat, they were already planning the rules of engagement.
= = = Need contact with Inuksuk = = =
= = = Lessons Learned = = =
Life at BV began to return to its normal sleepy pace. The IR steering committee met to consider what they had learned from the event, what YYY liked to call an After Action Report. There were three main items on the agenda.
1) Overall priority of a water based intrusion, i.e. do we need to consider reweighting probability of incidents caused by external malcontents
2) Robustness of current defense in light of recent events
3) Changes in resource allocation if needed
XXX opened the meeting. "I just want to say, good job by all parties. Things could have been worse, or at least different." Currently we have the probability rankings of adverse incidents as fire 7, disease, or biological agents 2, water based intrusion .5, land based intrusion .1. This is based on historical data, "red" table top modeling which is frankly, a way of saying our best guess. Do we need discussion on the current weighting?
Nobody spoke.
All in agreement to leave as is? Aye.
Wonderful, keeping in mind that the current incident is ranked at 5% probability of being the agent of all adverse events, are there weaknesses that were either discovered or need to be reconsidered in our defensive posture. I have asked Jasmine and Keesha to prepare a report.
Jasmine deferred to Keesha to relay the executive summary. There are two issues to bring to your attention, deficiencies in the topographic protection for Sniper Alley and deficiencies in our optical detection of water based approaches to BV.
First, topographic protection. While I was out in Sniper Alley, I was quickly reminded that the system does not provide defense against high arching projectiles like mortars. This is not new news, there is a discussion about this in the system design document for Sniper Alley, essentially it is security by obscurity, they reference a quote from an ancient movie, Shooter, "They don't know where we are. Yeah, but they might get lucky". No change is recommended, but with our current armanent of six .50 cal sniper rifles, would restate and remind policy is to never deploy more than two snipers to the alley in an adverse event, there is more concealment than cover.
Second, optical detection. We had never taken the time to map out the water based blind spots for our two eyes. It turns out there are a lot of blind spots. If an adversary does not know the location of the BV and HPT sensors odds are they will cross multiple visibility zones in an approach. However, we are able to plot intentional blind spot to blind spot approaches.
Which leads us to agenda item three XXX cut in. Do we wish to deploy additional resources to remediate this deficiency. Jasmine, I know you have some thoughts on the subject.
Thank you XXX. We looked into this and note that we have several spare JDKs, in fact, a dozen. We could use a laser cutter to install one in the bedrock of the Northernmost promontory of land before the bay begins. Then use an LED laser Line of Sight com link back to HPT to beam what it sees. We would remove the signal processor, it would basically be a slaved, dumb camera. We have all the parts; installation and testing would be about six work days total for two persons and it would tie up the drill for one of them. The upside is a major increase in distance identification of moving water based objects. The downside is the investment of a JDK with zero visibility of land, which means it would not increase our ability to detect land based fires.
QQQ raised her hand, "What about building a tower and putting in a 360 degree servo like BV and HPT?"
Jasmine smiled, "Great idea, we thought about it, but the scope of work goes beyond a simple fix. In fact, that would probably need a guns vs. butter decision. And as did our homework, we found there is a project underway that might solve several issues with one investment, but I will not steal another engineer's thunder."
XXX cleared his throat. Well, we have used up an hour and managed to cover the agenda. Great work everyone, glad we stayed on task.
As the room cleared out, QQQ came up to Jasmine, I am dying to know about this project, do tell. Jasmine replied, let's get a cup of coffee and goat rope MMM into the conversation.
* Right path in Inuit.
When the outposts were first established, each of them knew they had to be responsible for their own safety and defense. Other assets were days away, maybe more. Every settlement had an incident response steering committee and considered the likely problems.
Number one on the hit parade was fire. One result of climate change was less stability in the atmosphere, more storms, leading to more lightning strikes and more fires. This was one of the primary reasons for observation towers and automated spotters. As part of preparation was the concept of keep your side of the street clean, combustible material was harvested and as often as not, the carbon was sunk into fiber.
Fire was not the only possible incident of course, but it was the one a Northern outpost like Broch Viavek was most focused on. Who would have guessed it was a bunch of riffraf on a flotilla that would put their readiness to the test.
= = = Identification = = =
The eye was nothing special, a high end JDK consumer surveillance camera, 50x optical zoom, but only 1080p resolution, decent low light performance, Shamus had found a warehouse full of them, new in box. What kept them out of the eJunk pile was the DIGIC DV 7 processor, for all the limitations of the hardware, that was a heck of a signal processor in its day. They put one into High Point Tower, another in Broch Viavek and tucked a couple spares away.
These were sentries, working day and night, scanning the land and lake. The software algorithms were simple. If the eye was scanning land the focus was on motion, smoke or objects moving across the terrain. When the eye was scanning water, if a found object didn't pattern match to drifting by factoring in wind, current and other drifting objects and it appeared to be greater than 3M x 3M in any shape, zoom in on it.
The sensor that first identified the object or objects would direct a second sensor from the second location. If it could latch on as well they began to create a 3D illustration, (that is where the DIGIC processor came in) and signal OBJECT FOUND.
The signals did not mean an alert was issued. Alerts were not instantaneous or the false positives would be too much to handle. A post-processor compared the current OBJECT FOUND against a trove of data, especially data that had been labeled by an analyst. The objects found by the eye in the water were moving, not drifting, coming closer to BV and were greater than three meters. An alert was issued.
= = =
Jasmine was taking her afternoon nap when the alert sounded. She had been working on a landscape watercolor of the lake and the colors in the distance were so subtle, she decided to sleep on it and tackle it later.
She took to alert on her bedside situation screen. By now the 3D model was forming nicely, the result of thousands of camera exposures looking to sharpen any possible detail. They were still in the distance, but it was a small flotilla, a monohull with tattered sails, a couple kayaks, and some sort of rowboat like a dory, (later they would realize it was an oomiak). If you made her guess with the incomplete knowledge available so far, there were probably 10 - 12 individuals total.
Jasmine increase the amount of storage and compute power available to the eye. They were headed away from the settlement to the East, but they would not get far, they would run into shallows and the land and there was nothing of interest up that way, scrub and barren rock. She transferred the operational screen to the high room, Keesha was waiting for her there, she had already looked at the screen. They knew the scenario, they had rehearsed it countless times. Unless they want to hunt, they will probably set anchor and sleep for the night, make their way West first morning when the winds are lighter.
I agree Jasmine said, "The monohull will run into a bit of trouble when they reach the end of the bay, it will need to go into the wind and there are shallows. That gives us time, let's parlay with Viavek.
XXX answered the comm screen, it was clear he was not alone. One by one the people on the call at Broch Viavek introduced themselves, basically the members of the incident response steering committee. "From the images we have been able to produce so far there are no obvious major weapons, small arms, shoulder fired, that is all that is likely. Sure would be nice if we had an idea if they were interested in being friends.
The best analysis of the 3D model indicated 13 souls, one of which in the boat originally designated a dory as a baby.
= = =
Nobody knew why Beezer decided to take a shot at the tower, but he went below and came up with his beloved Remington 700 bolt. With his sniper scope he could see there was someone in the high room. I bet I can make that shot he thought. Bad thinking, drugs, too much time sailing, hard to say, but there would be consequences if he pulled the dribber.
Inuksuk* spun around at the sound of the rifle blast. Beezer was set up with his tripod and scope. Inuksuk, an experienced hunter took in the scene. Even though the cartridge was sometimes used for distance shots when Beezer decided to pull the trigger it was an impossible shot. Probably 1600 meters if they were on level ground, but the knoll HPT was built on was way above lake level, (400m in fact, and then there was the height of the tower. The effective range of the 7mm magnum was about half of that. Also there were no flags close to the tower for windage, but he grimly noticed several closer to the water's edge. He watched as the person on the tower disappeared. Oh, my, they are going to be pissed he thought.
Escape was unlikely to the South, he could see the land closing in. They had just come from the East, no way through. North and West was the only way out and Inuksuk had no doubt they people from the tower knew that, what's more that was probably just a lookout tower, there were already a few homes coming into view.
He spun the oomiak around and paddled for all he was worth. Quickly, he told his wife, we need to put some distance between us and the other boats. Since the oomiak did not draw much water he could work along the shore, no point in giving them a free shot in open water. He half expected to feel the impact of a 7mm bullet when Beezer realized he had left, but soon Beezer and his crew would have bigger problems.
= = = Containment = = =
The folks at the Broch had no choice but to consider the ill fated shot an act of aggression. One boat had spun and was leaving already, but they appeared to be first nation. 3 gone, 10 on scene. The game plan was clear, neutralize the belligerents, don't let anyone else escape to point they way back to the Broch. There would be plenty of time to run the oomiak down later; it wasn't the fastest craft on the lake.
Keesha had already hitched up the dogs even before the shot, Hoagie, Monty and Keesha were rolling down Sniper Alley, a well maintained dog run that followed small depressions in the land rising from the lake. When ever possible the path was shaded to preserve the snow and any rocks and roots that stuck up had been removed. There was no way to get a shot in at the sled team from a boat and the granite shooting positions provided cover and concealment. There were similar granite outcroppings not designed as bunkers, but there was no easy way to tell the difference from a boat.
Keesha was the most experienced shooter in the settlement, a product of Protective Spear, the life and death whack-a-mole exercise in Israel near Gaza. She had 31 confirmed kills as so-called terrorists would arise from the tunnels and try to wreak havoc on nearby Israeli towns and villages. That the folks on the boats had no chance didn't enter her mind, she was point for about 10 targets.
= = = Eradication = = =
Stopping the monohull was the first order of business it was picking up speed heading due South in the fairly deep water before Broch Viavik's marina. Four minutes after Beezer's shot she was set up at firing station 1. Beezer was on the deck scanning the coastal cliffs for signs of life. Fat chance, everyone was tucked away but Keesha. Jasmine was back online it the tower and folks from the Broch using the eye were serving as spotters. "Greenlight on the guy with the gun" came over her ear piece. She squeezed the trigger and Beezer was no more. Jasmine followed instantly, taking out a deckhand, 2 down, 8 to go. Since there was nobody on deck on the monohull Keesha and Jasmine took out the kayaks. 4 down, 6 to go.
The monohull continued South, either someone was still actively steering or it had some type of steering mechanism, otherwise it would have turned into the wind, the idea situation for the shooters. 3 more people came out from below decks all with guns. Keesha fired twice, Jasmine once, 7 down, 3 to go.
Keesha now only had the rear of the monohull, she needed to change positions. She stabilized her rifle and Jumped on the sled. As they hurtled South faster than the boat, she heard Jasmine, "Skip 2, go for 3, that will give you a shot at the oncoming boat."
Time was running out. There were 3 potential combatants left. The wind was blowing away from Broch and HPT, but if there was any sort of chemical or biological weapon it was still close and the damage it could do to the lake was unthinkable. They could shoot into the hull, but at what? What might they hit? Boarding the boat was high risk, but soon there would be little choice. Also, the monohull looked like it was in pretty good shape, if there was a way to salvage it that would be a windfall to the little community.
Jasmine, had her sensor focused on the boat. "Keesha, I think there is a way to disable the boat". The port side winch on mast. The sail might not come down, but it will certainly get sloppy and worse case slow the boat."
Keesha shrugged, Jasmine was the spotter, the winch was only a bit smaller than a human head, she had a 2 centimeter spread at that range. The .50 cal certainly had enough to power to disable the winch, she adjusted for wind and fired.
Inside the boat, you could feel the difference. That tight feeling of a good track was gone and the sail was flap, flap, flapping. The wheelhouse controls had only limited effect, they were starting to spin, once they were bow into the wind it was game over. Most of the rifles were now on deck, closest to lifeless hands. It sounded like they were only dealing with one primary shooter, there had only been two reports to the distant what would have been South West, but was now North West. Maybe that shooter did not have an angle anymore. The only chance was to retrieve one of the long range rifles on deck, flush the shooter and take them out. Yeah, it was a long shot, but it was the only chance. The crew talked it over. There was still one kevlar vest. One deckhand wearing the vest would make for Beecher's 7mm and slide it to the wheelhouse and then take whatever cover he could find to the East. If possible he would get a second rifle and tell whomever was remaining in the wheelhouse what he saw. The second deckhand would try to pull the bitter end of the halyard into the wheelhouse. If they could get tension they would have some control. On three we go, and in less than 3 seconds they were down to 2.
Keesha did not have a good visual angle on the deckhand slithering across the deck to the rifle formerly belonging to Beecher, but she could see the deckhand at the mast clear as day, his hands never touched the line; 8 down 2 to go.
Both JDks were fixed on the monohull, plus anyone with optics was watching. Keesha, there is one on deck now. He slid a rifle to the wheelhouse. He may have one was well, there is a dead guy close to him.
Keesha still did not have a shot at the guy on deck and the boat was slowly spinning him away from her as it was almost into the wind. So she focused on the wheelhouse. In the wheelhouse the pilot of the boat reloaded the Remington and pointed it through the louvers in the direction of the sound from the shooter. He pushed it a couple centimeters too far and Keesha caught the movement with her scope, 9 down, 1 to go. The guy on deck was panicked, the boat was into the wind, slowly sliding backwards towards the marina where there would be many shooters. He doubted seriously that they would take prisoners, that sort of thing went out of fashion decades ago. The wind was pushing one of the kayaks towards a large rock. If he could do the breathing tube trick and stay under water he could maybe get to the kayak, pull it behind the rock and make for the island to the West. Hey, it could work. 2 JDKs, a number of spotters, the second some part of his anatomy broke water he was shot, oh well, he would have frozen to death.
= = = Recovery = = =
10 down, that was certain. 0 to go, less certain. They could only know what they had seen. The snipers positioned themselves and a few watermen went to go recover the boats. They took them to the rocks to the West and used standard infection protocols. However ten gallons of bleach later they had two kayaks, a fiberglass monohull, various rifles and trinkets to trade.
A second response was planned for the oomiak. Tomorrow, first light, they would go after the boat, they were already planning the rules of engagement.
= = = Need contact with Inuksuk = = =
= = = Lessons Learned = = =
Life at BV began to return to its normal sleepy pace. The IR steering committee met to consider what they had learned from the event, what YYY liked to call an After Action Report. There were three main items on the agenda.
1) Overall priority of a water based intrusion, i.e. do we need to consider reweighting probability of incidents caused by external malcontents
2) Robustness of current defense in light of recent events
3) Changes in resource allocation if needed
XXX opened the meeting. "I just want to say, good job by all parties. Things could have been worse, or at least different." Currently we have the probability rankings of adverse incidents as fire 7, disease, or biological agents 2, water based intrusion .5, land based intrusion .1. This is based on historical data, "red" table top modeling which is frankly, a way of saying our best guess. Do we need discussion on the current weighting?
Nobody spoke.
All in agreement to leave as is? Aye.
Wonderful, keeping in mind that the current incident is ranked at 5% probability of being the agent of all adverse events, are there weaknesses that were either discovered or need to be reconsidered in our defensive posture. I have asked Jasmine and Keesha to prepare a report.
Jasmine deferred to Keesha to relay the executive summary. There are two issues to bring to your attention, deficiencies in the topographic protection for Sniper Alley and deficiencies in our optical detection of water based approaches to BV.
First, topographic protection. While I was out in Sniper Alley, I was quickly reminded that the system does not provide defense against high arching projectiles like mortars. This is not new news, there is a discussion about this in the system design document for Sniper Alley, essentially it is security by obscurity, they reference a quote from an ancient movie, Shooter, "They don't know where we are. Yeah, but they might get lucky". No change is recommended, but with our current armanent of six .50 cal sniper rifles, would restate and remind policy is to never deploy more than two snipers to the alley in an adverse event, there is more concealment than cover.
Second, optical detection. We had never taken the time to map out the water based blind spots for our two eyes. It turns out there are a lot of blind spots. If an adversary does not know the location of the BV and HPT sensors odds are they will cross multiple visibility zones in an approach. However, we are able to plot intentional blind spot to blind spot approaches.
Which leads us to agenda item three XXX cut in. Do we wish to deploy additional resources to remediate this deficiency. Jasmine, I know you have some thoughts on the subject.
Thank you XXX. We looked into this and note that we have several spare JDKs, in fact, a dozen. We could use a laser cutter to install one in the bedrock of the Northernmost promontory of land before the bay begins. Then use an LED laser Line of Sight com link back to HPT to beam what it sees. We would remove the signal processor, it would basically be a slaved, dumb camera. We have all the parts; installation and testing would be about six work days total for two persons and it would tie up the drill for one of them. The upside is a major increase in distance identification of moving water based objects. The downside is the investment of a JDK with zero visibility of land, which means it would not increase our ability to detect land based fires.
QQQ raised her hand, "What about building a tower and putting in a 360 degree servo like BV and HPT?"
Jasmine smiled, "Great idea, we thought about it, but the scope of work goes beyond a simple fix. In fact, that would probably need a guns vs. butter decision. And as did our homework, we found there is a project underway that might solve several issues with one investment, but I will not steal another engineer's thunder."
XXX cleared his throat. Well, we have used up an hour and managed to cover the agenda. Great work everyone, glad we stayed on task.
As the room cleared out, QQQ came up to Jasmine, I am dying to know about this project, do tell. Jasmine replied, let's get a cup of coffee and goat rope MMM into the conversation.
* Right path in Inuit.
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