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Sitting on a crate in the cargo hold on the “freighter”, Kristof O’Neill pondered his course of action. He went into this training mission fully aware of his objective, unlike his previous course on communication systems - that exam was intense and blind. The mission was to disable the sub-light engines, as if it was that simple - even in a simulation environment like he was in. It would likely not be the simplest thing he could do, it was designed to provide a small text of his abilities. Sent in with just a data-pad, and an almost limiteless ammount of time, this was a test of his mind.
Standing up, and beginning to walk across the cargo hold, he came across a access terminal. Neatly placed near the entrance to the cargo hold, it was programmed to be a cargo manifest terminal. This would not provide much assistance to him as he went towards his goal - as ridiculous as the goal was.
He stood there, staring at the terminal - a cargo manifest terminal. It was likely designed to only grant people access to the manifest, likely designed to restrict access to any other material. It would not be a simple task to get into the main systems of the freighter, though if the console was not properly isolated, anything was possible. He would have to determine this through the terminal itself, as the cabling went into the wall - it was not possible to physically trace the cabling. A slicing kit - a set of hardware and software tools designed to break into systems, and bypass security - would come in handy in this situation; he really should put together one in the near future.
Though sitting there and thinking of what he wished he could have would not solve the issue, it was time to get started. Then it hit him, the manifest was likely not the only function of the system - it was just the only function being presented. He used a combination of commands from his data-pad, and managed to drop down beyond the manifest. It took him to an access console, though it was secured. This was progress, although it was just another wall. He needed an an administrative log-on account, he had no idea what it would be. He grabbed his data-pad, and began to try to bypass the authentication. He was denied each time, he needed an account. Seeing this, he began to write a small basic programed application to generator user names and password combinations with the characters of galactic basic - presuming that the user name of any account was in basic.
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Time passed as he wrote the application, this was something that should be in a slicing kit, though eventually he did get the program done - to the best of his ability, he was not very good programmer. He initialized the application, and started to notice an issue, there were an Account threshold lockout policy of one-hundred attempts. This meant that after one hundred attempts of logging into the system, the terminal would be locked out; in addition a log entry and likely an alert would be made if he reached the threshold. Luck was what he needed, sadly at this point it was more luck than technology. He got a ‘ping’ sound from his data-pad, an account had been found - his crude application worked.
Logging in with the account, he found it to be the account for a communications technician on the vessel. He was not lucky enough to get into an account for a propulsion technician, or a similar one that would have access to the propulsion systems. This would again only complicate the situation; however he had an idea on how to make this work. If he used the privileges of the communication officer to use social engineering to ask for the account information, he might get a response. Though he ruled that idea out, if it back fired it would alert people to his presence immediately. Instead he looked for flaws in their security, ways that he could get access when in reality he - or the account he was in - should not.
He chose use the account he was in to view account data for other ship system accounts. He scrolled through the list for accounts that someone would not be using, he saw a group for an operator within their home port - in essence a backup operator - who's job it was to take a copy of files and other data for placement on the corporate server. He chose this as his target, if he got in he would have higher privileges, and the actual user was not located on the vessel. In addition, it was a corporate employee, so the likely hood of a strong password was very small.
Again he loaded his brute force program from his data-pad, and attempted to access a file on that operator’s account - he bypassed the threshold policy’s view by doing so. Quickly he gained access to the account, as expected the password was weak and the security settings were on low. He logged out of the account he was in, and used the initial terminal to log in as the operator.
“Corporate morons.” He said jokingly.
He was in, with access to the main system of the freighter, but not the subsystems - like propulsion. The account he was in was only permitted to access the main system, the operator only had access to the main system and was trusted to not damage it. Kristof got an idea, again, to boost his privliges on the operator’s account. As he had access to the main system, he had access to the access control module. Opening the module, he boosted the privileges of the operator - giving him access to the propulsion module. All there was left to do was open the module, and finish the job.; a quick command opened the propulsion module.
He was in the main propulsion systems of the freighter, so far it was a success. It did not appear that there was any security layers left to stop him from doing what needed done. He now had administrative level access to the main systems of the ship, anything from lighting to the life support systems were within his control; and yet all he wants to do was take out the engines. He loaded the module to configure - a simple bland console mode. He modified the port side sub-light engines first, setting them to a “Null” setting. While on the other side, the Starboard engines were still set to “70% Acceleration”. This made the freighter slowly drift to its side as it moved forwards through space. Quickly realizing his mistake, he moved over in the console and set the starboard engines to the same “Null” setting. With all acceleration now cut, the freighter just began to drift - still slightly turning as it did.
His mission complete, he now had to exit the system and get out. He disconnected his data-pad from the terminal, and as he was logging out of the system he realized something - the was no listed escape plan. He was never supposed to be on this freighter;even if he was, he was not permitted in the cargo hold. He exited the system at the terminal, and sat on the crate to think. It had only hit him at that point, even though he should have thought of it before he disabled the propulsion systems.
Just then, a door to the cargo hold opened, and a man entered the hold; “That will be sufficient, come with me.” a familiar voice said. Kristof got off the crate, and walked towards the man. As he got close enough to identify him, he saw it to be Sergant Abogado. The simulated mission was over, he exited the freighter for his debriefing. It was just another day at the Vast Empire Army Academy.
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- 1,340 Words
