Imperial CompLink

Imperial CompLink was the codename given to an Imperial project to augment the galaxy-wide HoloNet, allowing scientists on the far-flung worlds of the Empire to communicate on various projects.

When the New Order was decleared, there arose an ambitious group of scientists eager to free research from the parochial power struggles which typified the latter days of the Old Republic. They proposed a vast computer network connected to the HoloNets, giving scientists on any of millions of worlds instant access to information vital to their research. These scientists designed and wrote much of the software necessary to support such a system, presenting the entire package to Palpatine and his advisors.

The idea was rejected, ostensibly for the tremendous additional funds needed to upgrade the HoloNet to handle the increased flow of information. The costs were real, and Palpatine needed tens of trillions of credits elsewhere, but he also feared a system which would allow such an instantaneous and complete exchange of information between citizens of the New Order.

Imperial Intelligence managed to retrieve almost all of the documentation and software, and recruited a number of the scientists who proposed the Imperial CompLink. Using the PDVs and Plexus conduits to link the computers, rather than the HoloNet technology, reduced the costs more than ten thousandfold. The prospect of having access to every computer bank in the galaxy, with the nearly inconceivable wealth of information such a system would provide, was too tempting to ignore.

With the help of the system cells throughout the galaxy, as well as a massive effort by virtually every talented individual within Tech, the necessary software was installed in computer networks in hundreds of sectors. Still, les than six percent of the planetary networs had been tapped; many of the rest had security which was too difficult to penetrate to make it worth the risk.

The Ubiqtorate considered cancelled the project as too expensive for the benefits it accrued. It was then that a Plexus technician, Geothray Camber, sent Dr. Lindu Sencker a series of scandocs with preliminary specifications for a new eavesdropping device which would circumvent the security systems in virtually every computer system in existence.

Sencker's team conquered the formidable theoretical and technical problems poised by Camber's plan. A prototype of the device was built in time for an effective demonstration for the Ubiqtorate - by stealing several files from the computers of the Imperial Security Bureau.

With this device, the Hyperspace Orbiting Scanner (HOS), Imperial Intelligence, had been able to tap into the computer networks on moer than 470,000 worlds, and the number continued to increase as time went on. Left in hyperspace orbit around a planet, the HOS sensors did not pick up the signals from the computer directly. They monitored the hyperspace shadows left by streaking particles inside a computer.

Careful and systematic matching of the shadows of known computer languages to the shadows produced by the target system have produced data which is better than 78 percent reliable. Imperial science was not likely to produce an improvement over this phenomenal performance any time in the near future.

A HOS was placed and serviced by modified PDVs. PDVs enter hyperspace and then cycle through various trangulations on possible positions of the HOS (whose hyperspace shadow is lost against the shadow of the planet and other, larger space vehicles) until the orbiter is located. This process can take hours. It would be virtually impossible if the searching craft did not already have an idea of where the HOS was. The PDV then linked with the HOS in orbit.

To transfer large amounts of data, or to effect any repairs on the HOS, the PDV must temporarily pull out of hyperspace. It was vulnerable during this period, and so stays in realspace only for the minimum possible time. Once repairs were made or the information was transferred, the PDV and HOS return to hyperspace - the HOS to its orbit and the PDV to its rendezvous with the local Plexus conduit.