<em>I have several theories,</em>Peña replied through an ecto of her own.<em>Chances are the sabotage was meant to send a message. Perhaps the guilty party is hoping that the synths will pick up and leave out of fear without looking any closer. Also by not doing TOO much they’re inferring a ‘warning shot.’<br/><br/>Or they could be getting everyone on edge in a war of attrition; a series of smaller incidents versus more serious destructive crimes so as not to bring down the heat too fast.</em><br/><br/>Peña gave a small nod before splitting up from Jeanette. Fortunately the synth became more at ease at the Ranger’s presence.<br/><br/>“Thank you,” the synth replied. “My name’s Milena Kamjian, pleasure to make your acquaintance. Actually this shredder is standard-issue as of May; it’s meant to compensate for novice aim, or at least what Delaunay Industries’ memos claim.”<br/><br/>Milena’s feet shifted, looking at an angle past the dome’s transparent walls. “We haven’t won many popularity contests. Some nomad groups claim that our proximity to the TQZ is baiting danger for the rest of Mars and talk about ‘radical action.’ But a lot of it is Mesh talk people wouldn’t say to our faces. Although there’s one thing I’d prefer to say in private…”<br/><br/><em>There’s been some internal problems with Delauney lately, and I don’t know whose side everyone’s on. The company received a large fund from the Reclaimer Movement as part of a deal to expand operations on Luna; I hear you can’t even buy a cappuccino without expressing pre-Fall nostalgia. So there’s been talk of reallocation of funds for what kinds of habitats should be built and where. Rumors mostly, but even the whisper of it is causing a lot of arguments. We try to keep quiet and do our jobs, but I wouldn’t put it past someone trying to prove the futility of Mars terraforming in such an extreme way.</em><br/><br/>“As for injuries, Adorjan sustained a high voltage shock from trying to sort out the lost and found from the supply station. Some wiring was deliberately exposed, although it’s fixed now.”<br/><br/>She nodded to the two synths sorting through tools. Jeanette saw that one of their legs had sky-blue molded plastic covering up likely burn marks.<br/><br/>Adorjan and his partner were not very talkative. “Sorry, direct your questions to Milena or Araz. Oh sorry, I’m not being disrespectful. I need to concentrate right now…<br/><br/>...and done!”<br/><br/>After a few moments of reassembling devices, Adorjan had Jeanette’s full attention. “Actually, there was some theft beyond the sabotage. I should know, there was a transmitter in one of the supply station crates that sent a signal if the contents were moved far away or lost connection, like in a Faraday cage. If they wanted to destroy it with the rest of the stuff, they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of taking it away. But if you can, please keep it… confidential from the general public and non-Delaunay terraformers. It’s a trade secret.”<br/><br/>Adorjan sent Jeanette pictures and an electronic document of the stolen items: a small sealed tank full of smart plankton. One of many artificially-bred animals of limited sapience, although avian and mammalian life-forms were by far the most common.<br/><br/>“They’re used for underwater communication. We think there’s an ice floe underneath the surface, but soon as word gets out everyone and their mother will come here to dig underground, melt the ice, and harvest the resource for themselves. I hope you can see why its theft is a big deal.”<br/><br/>Jeanette got another response from Peña.<em>The local Mesh’s firewall got compromised. You’re going to want to see this.</em><br/><br/><div align="center">(https://i.imgur.com/D4gAveW.jpg?1)</div><br/>The screen of code enlarged as Peña waved Jeanette over. “Long story short, there was a Kaos AI embedded in one of the supply station’s more recent items. A self-adjusting screw for a relief valve that released the thing into the wider Mesh.”<br/><br/>The coder synth looked up from her chair. “The shipment it came in was three weeks ago from Elysium, shortly after we sent in a request for new supplies for repairs. It broke the pump, but not immediately. It activated about 24 hours after installation and spread to other software.”<br/><br/>“Thank you for that information,” Peña replied. “Can you forward us the contact info of the Delaunay Industries’ representative with whom you made the request?”<br/><br/>“Certainly, although if someone in town’s guilty they’d likely have gone underground by now.”<br/><br/><em>So Jeanette,</em>Peña mused after sharing what they learned,<em>what do you make of all this?<br/><br/>Things are pointing at industrial espionage right now. The malicious AI coming from the company itself and the theft of the smart plankton that can tip off knowledge of water resources makes it seem like a business matter. It could also be a political matter, but we can’t go on the words of one employee over such a contentious subject. Threats from nomadic groups may be something to follow up on as well. The smart plankton can fetch a price on the black market. It’s more the knowledge that the habitat has it, but they’re rather hard to feed and take care of all the way in the outback. Got any ideas?”</em><br/>