Zhodani Dissemination

[Gadrin]

ZHODANI DISSEMINATION

Looking thru GURPS Alien Races 1 and the CT Zhodani Alien Module got me thinking about how
the upper echelon of the Consulate Leadership might hand out information they come
across while utilizing "the Atifact" in reference to the Core Expeditions.

Since it can show the future "under limited circumstances" it could be interpreted that
no matter what the Zhodani do, as long as they do it, it will happen (with "it" meaning
their actions). So when they come to a crossroads where they're incredibly sure it's
something they have pre-knowledge about, it stands to reason they could hold back until
a fairly powerful action is ready to be carried out. FREX: say the Artifact "images"
some minor system and some minor event; but that isn't known to the zhodani brass. So
assuming they wait until a full brigade is ready to undertake the mission nothing can
happen until they do so. Which means in theory they could always have a significant
presence ready for almost any situation. The other side to that would be the wasteful
usage of assets for something that doesn't require an overblown response. This you
might say is part of the learning curve the zhodani brass have come to realize over
the centuries of using the device and conducting operations from that information.

Next are the actual visions, meaning that only a certain number occur and only a certain
number are useful, either they happen after the fact (where pre-knowledge isn't helpful
or isn't realized) or that the information gained works or is perceived in a useful
fashion. It seems that it might be likely that as much information that is perceived
needs to be "recorded" in some fashion. This would mean in addition to the zhodani
brass who perform the actual use of the Artifact, they still need to communicate this
information gained to someone who can help them disseminate it; at first for their own
analyzation and secondly to get it to "the people in field". A good analogy of this might
be the ULTRA SECRET from WWII. So once they know that there's going to be a starship
battle at some place, they need to be able to identify the ships (theirs and the looks
of others) and then somehow get this information to the correct people. Or would they ?

Next the Artifact is a STATE SECRET and you don't just tell commander so-and-so the
nature of what he's getting nor how he's getting it. I believe to mislead the enemy
the allies used things like sending over an observation plane before bombing a german
complex or the equivalent; to make things look plausible. It's been a while since
I read the ULTRA SECRET, how did the allies tell their own people who were dropping
bombs on the complex, how and when to show up ? Soldiers primarily just follow orders
and the military is complex enough to say it came from some other reliable source,
which probably isn't that unusual, so...

Also, according to the books the Artifact remains on Zhdant. Which I believe gives the
leadership plenty of time to plan for upcoming Core Expeditions and my idea that follows.

So part of me says the zhodani brass would institure a similar process, say that
once information on a vision is gained they need to record it and analyze it. Once
they determine it's useful or important then you have to issue orders to carry out
missions. In most cases a soldier follows orders: GO TO X SYSTEM AND CONDUCT NORMAL
OPS. But what about when the system isn't known ? Say only key portions or fleeting
visions were gained. I'm thinking that once they deem something important enough to
disseminate it, they might be able to do so via computer databases. Meaning the zhodani
build a mechanism into their daily operations (they'd be using a similar model to store
and analyze data anyhow) that analyzes reports coming in. Part of the process is to
take that information and see if it matches anything recent, then the computer sees if
it matches something input for the Artifact; if so then some sort of dispatch is given
to the appropriate officers, not necessarily those that know about the Artifact, but
rather that their computer may issue some rather strange alerts or imperatives that they
must obey (or should obey). And of course the Tvarchedl can confirm this is followed.

I think some key leaders might also be briefed, but since death or some sort of
accident or misjump is possible, it either has to be a fair number of Zhodanis,
but also that a database would be the most likely candidate for use, since it can be
copied and widely distributed. Plus it makes a nice adventure hook just due to the
fact of what it contains. Obviously there are drawbacks to this, but at the same time,
I don't think it's an unreasonable approach.

Comments ?

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

*grins* once again the first to post.

Well, I haven't read the ULTRA book in a long time (2000 AD ) and IIRC, sometimes they didn't tell people things so as to mislead the Nazis from realizing that we (the Allies, more so the British, since the Poles that smuggled ENIGMA out gave it to the UK, not the US) were reading the Nazi ENIGMA traffic.

The Village, Town, maybe City of Coventry, England was denied access to the ULTRA traffic that informed the Great and Noble Winston Churchill that the Nazis were going to bomb the crap out of it....which they did. Winston being truly awesome went and viewed the resulting devastation.

Point being if the Ministry says 'We have reason to believe that enemy action is probable in your operational area of responsibility...", they expect the Person so informed to take the proper actions. They don't tell them anything except *grins* "I'm sorry but you're not cleared for that. It's above your pay grade Colonel." *mildy suspicious look from the Agent*

And as you also correctly point out, there are the misinformation campaigns, but another thing to remember, no matter how penetrated the British MI later, during WWII they rounded up almost everyone and turned most of the Nazi spies (remember, our people are Intelligence Officers, the enemies people are Spies!). Now how did they catch these people, why thru reading ENIGMA traffic and working out CODE WORDS and NAMES. So HUMINT and SIGINT are mostly combined. I mean really, James has been cleared TOP SECRET, but not ULTRA so I tell him what he NEEDS TO KNOW and no more. "...really James, just go the 24 Downing and arrest the occupants and toss the joint, it's that simple, people here at the Office will handle the analysis, thank you, Dismissed. *goes back to the endless stack of paperwork*

But that's just my take, awaiting other data input....

 

[Gadrin]

Yeah, but how do you think you'd handle the Zhodani distribution of this information for a Traveller game ?

I don't think the actual items would go along for the ride (to the Core), my take is that it requires such mammoth planning for the expedition, that they can get all the visions they need beforehand then prepare accordingly.

At the top of the z-foodchain is some psionic who knows such-and-such. How do you get this info to the right person at the right time which will probably be decades after the vision happened ?

>

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

wellll

As far as the Zho Module states that they record all the visions.

So some where on Zhadant (sp?) the Guardians of Our Morality keep a bunch of Specially Vetted Analysis Clerk-4s who go through the Visions and then review the Records and then speak with members of the Core Expedition Information Services Branch and together they decide the what, where, who, when, why and mostly how.

Then through the Prepositioned Stores System along the Core Route, the Council orders the necessary personal, vessels and stores in place for a Potential Event to Occur.