Ministry of Intelligence & Exploration Facing Issues with Its Subcontractor?

The Ministry of Intelligence & Exploration (MIE) and the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) have been subcontracting Osiris Consulting for some time now. Osiris has produced numerous intelligence studies for them and provided assistance in data gathering—sometimes even serving as the primary source of new information.

It has been, until recently, a fruitful partnership that greatly benefited the United Space Confederation (USC) in managing threats, planning operations, and warning citizens about potential dangers and emerging crises. Everything appeared to be working smoothly—until a recent interview with Director Mackson raised new concerns.

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“Questionable Data Accuracy”

The Citizen Compass had been investigating recent malfunctions affecting MIE ships as well as fleet data breaches. Several ships experienced a total shutdown of their defense systems, leaving them defenseless upon entry into the Pyro system and forcing emergency repairs at the Pyro Gateway.

Osiris Consulting generously provided us with insight from their most recent report, stating:

“Ship malfunctions may be attributed to shortages in functional equipment, stemming from recent disruptions in the supply chain caused by pirate activity at the Dupree Industrial Manufacturing Facility on Hurston over the past several weeks.”

Shortly after our article was published, we secured an interview with Director Mackson, who had led the expedition. The Director refuted Osiris Consulting’s explanation, instead claiming that the issue stemmed from a slight delay in activating the turret aim-assist software. He added that the crew had been testing an accelerated initialization protocol for an upgraded AI control model.

Director Mackson declined to go into further technical detail, saying he didn’t wish to “bore us with specifics.” However, he did add—rather pointedly—that he would need to “have a word with Osiris Consulting about their data accuracy,” going so far as to remark:

“It seems our new contractor has been interpreting things a little too much in their reports lately.”

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Sensitive Data Gathering Phase on Frontier Fighter Activity

Is this really the right time to make such accusations? We certainly don’t think so. While we’ve occasionally butted heads with Osiris Consulting over differing assessments of certain groups or evaluations of specific datasets, we’ve never gone so far as to accuse them of providing false or inaccurate information.

At present, a large-scale intelligence operation is underway to track down and recover as many datapads and records as possible from the Frontier Fighters. This operation requires close cooperation between the MIE, Osiris Consulting, and all available members of the USC intelligence community.

Given the sensitivity and scale of these missions, this is certainly not the ideal time for an ONI Director to be publicly questioning the reliability of one of their most critical contractors.