the director sits across the table, brushing drops of water off his finely groomed mustache, as you anxiously shuffle in. The director earned his office on the 17th floor of the Bureau for spotting oppertunities just like this one. You earned your office, two floors below, for turning his oppertunities into advantages. What's on his desk now could move you up one floor.
The director passes two slim documents your way, each composed of a few laminated pieces of paper, stapled together. You haven't seen this kind of primitive technology in decades...they moved on to holopaper and cloud projection at the end of the last century...but each format was fraught with its own security risk. Whoever printed these documents was trying to keep something secure.
"I don't officially condone the activities of the Fruentes industrial espionage cartel" the director says "but its time you learned that we...ah...invest in them from time to time, and occasionally these investments pay off."
"I'm well aware," you respond cooly, examining the documents, "what am I looking at here?":
Assyrian Guided Missile Drone
Missile Size: 10 MSP (0.5 HS) Warhead: 0 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 5
Speed: 24000 km/s Endurance: 156 minutes Range: 225.0m km
Cost Per Missile: 10.9418
Second Stage: Cohort Antiship Missile x4
Second Stage Separation Range: 2,000,000 km
Overall Endurance: 3 hours Overall Range: 227.2m km
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 120% 3k km/s 40% 5k km/s 24% 10k km/s 12%
Materials Required: 4x Tritanium 5.8488x Gallicite Fuel x2500
Cohort Antiship Missile
Missile Size: 1 MSP (0.05 HS) Warhead: 4 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 5
Speed: 19200 km/s Endurance: 20 minutes Range: 22.5m km
Cost Per Missile: 1.195
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 96% 3k km/s 30% 5k km/s 19.2% 10k km/s 9.6%
Materials Required: 1x Tritanium 0.178x Gallicite Fuel x25
"Our sources intercepted that from a courier outside of Vindge Colony, on Mars." The director says, "It looks to be an official military design...and highly unconventional. The warheads on the primary weapons system are slow, probably designed to shoot down large capitol ships. What interests me is the range...any warship capible of projecting a 200 million kilometer threat zone would fundamentally alter the balance of power in this part of the system."
"It would be able to outrange any weapons system currently in use." you conclude, "It seems like you've got a good handle on this, why did you call me in."
"Because I don't trust the Fruentes," the director says, "And I trust the current government even less. This could the United Nations feeding us false information, if not a Fruentes fake....but if it isn't, we need to understand this system inside and out."
He takes another sip of water, and you get the feeling this is going to be a long day
"I need to know if this is a plausable weapons system." He explaines, "Or is there something here I'm not seeing?"