Given a conflicting set of statements, only additional, preferably objective, data could decide the answer. Major Nix set out to find that data. He was no cyberpunk, but he could get the job done.
He started with order logs. All electronic commands issued over Battlenet were stored on the Cheyenne Mountain Secure Server. He first called up the initial deployment orders for every unit in Tenth Corps. After that he called up the logged unit responses. A short query indicated that twenty-five percent of the units gave an invalid response. Logically, the higher commands receiving an invalid response should have replied, but there were only three replies to invalid responses. In addition, a plot of the logged responses had the units scattered all over northern Virginia. If the encryption codes had been invalid, the units would have either gotten no communications or map references scattered all over the world. Puzzled, he queried the unit local servers.
It was a little-known fact that communications within the local commands were also stored locally. Unlike external communications, which were stored in Cheyenne, these communications were purged after each exercise. Mostly it was interdepartmental e-mail that would not be stored under any normal conditions, or comments between the staff and their subordinates. Like «back channel cables,» the information was in no particular style and often had nothing to do with the exercise or even the military. In addition to local communications, however, the precise information presented on the command screens was stored. Since, logically, this would be the same as the commands stored at Cheyenne, the information was considered of low priority and only existed as a debugging tool. However, until purged it was available and purging only occurred during a stand-down maintenance cycle. To Major Nix's surprise, most of the Corps's databases had been purged, but Thirty-Third and Fiftieth still had some intact files at battalion level and the data conflicted with Cheyenne. Not in every case, but in several cases what the operators at battalion level saw was not what had been transmitted from their division.
Tenth Corps had been hacked.
* * *
Jack Horner stared at the electronic map of northern Virginia and shuddered. Across the map were red penetrations and friendly-fire markers. Now he knew how an officer as experienced and capable as Arkady Simosin could have let the battle fall apart like this.
He turned to Colonel Tremont. «Begin the evacuation.»
«But . . . sir!»
«It'll take hours to do it in an orderly fashion, and if Major Nix is right . . .»
«I am . . .»
«We don't know how this is going to go. I don't know if Ninth Corps is where that map says it is without sending you out on a goddamned horse to tell me! If we are penetrated, we have to assume the worst-case scenario for this battle.»
«Yes, sir.»
«So start the evacuation of the Pentagon. Now!»
«Yes, sir.»
«Now, Major, explain this. How pervasive is this penetration, and who did it?»
«I don't know, and I don't know, sir, but here are the best guesses. I tickled Second of the Four Fifty-Second's battalion computer into sending me all its files including a complete copy of its core programming. I ran that through some analysis tools and it isn't good. I've got a bunch of file snippets that look . . . questionable, but this is the beaut.» He pointed to a line of incomprensible text on the screen of his laptop.
«What am I looking at, Major?» asked the general, smiling tightly. He looked like a gray tiger about to teach a deer why it should learn to drink looking backwards.
«This is a portion of IVIS control code. It is telling the IVIS system to go to an external file each time it sends a position fix. I don't know what the external file is, but I can guess.»
«It tells it whether to tell the truth or not.»
«Yes, sir. And if it's in IVIS . . .»
«It's in everything.»
«Yes, sir. These friendly-fire incidents . . .»
«Shit.» The general swung around. «Operations, send out a priority order to all field artillery units. Do not use the Central System for fire control! Go to voice communication for all calls for fire.»
«Umm, sir . . .» interjected the major.
«What?» snapped the enraged general.
«Their targeting computers might be corrupted as well. And the units might not know where they are, precisely, without IVIS. It's happened before.»
«Monsoon Thunder,» said Jack, with an angry shake of his head. «But this time we're the side being hacked. Maybe renegade cyberpunks? Who's that guy, got the Medal, quit and then disappeared?»
«No, sir,» said Major Nix, positively. «If it were King Arthur, we'd never know it until you were out of the picture. His MO was to assassinate the command elements then confuse the troops. No, sir, I think it's someone else. Because there's this bit of code.» He flashed another line on the screen. In this case, it was only ones and zeros.
«Binary, so?»
«It's Galactic binary, sir, a translation program for a quantum algorithm.»
«Galactic? Could it be Posleen penetration? They use similar code, don't they?»
«It could be, sir, but it doesn't feel that way. I'm no GalTech expert, but this line looks a lot like some of the code in the AIDs.» He gestured at the one encircling the general's wrist. «My guess is it's someone with renegade GalTech. I think that that external file was an AID program running somewhere that gave more or less random units false data and then carefully backed up all the lies.
«The key is that the files in Cheyenne do not match what was received at battalion, but battalion's responses were ignored. I suspect that the 'response' was crafted by this program to be what the higher unit originally sent out, and the IVIS code was there to maintain the distraction as long as possible. In addition, all of this was masked by legitimate 'fog of war' incidents. This is sophisticated as hell; I don't even know if cyberpunks could pull it off, not for this many units. I would have to finger renegade Galactics. At this point it is way out of my league. We need some Darhel investigators, or maybe Tchpth.»
«Darhel,» said the general, distractedly. «They're the programmers, the Tchpth don't program. Damn, this means all of our automated systems could be corrupted. Even the ACS could be vulnerable. There goes our ace in the hole.»
«I don't think it's global, sir, but I can't tell how widespread it is. I definitely think we should go to full manual backup on call for fire and movement orders. We can probably wait and see on logistics.»
«Right, put it out along with an alert about the problem. And good work, Colonel.»
«Major, sir.»
«Not anymore.»
The officer blinked. «Thank you, sir, but I need to send out that warning.»
«Get on it, and send an order to Tenth group telling them to retreat through any available route.»
* * *
«Gee, thanks for the information,» muttered Keren. The cheep for arriving orders from the now-useless ballistic computer distracted him momentarily from plotting the next fire mission. He quickly read the terse code and went back to his board.
«Last volley, Keren!» said the platoon sergeant, throwing personal gear into the armored personnel carrier. A stray Kevlar helmet bounced once on the deck and cracked cleanly in half.
«Mortars, this is Third! You better be ready to pull out, we are about to bypass your position!» The call was an effective punctuation.
«Roger, Third.» Keren took one last glance at his charge sheet and stored the board; this one was easy enough. He stood so he could look out of the Mortar Carrier and called, «Deflection Two-Eight-Zero-Zero!» All the communications wire was stored and the commanders had their heads out of the hatches, the better to man their machine guns. Company was expected and it deserved a professional reception.