Earth (Net-7) -- In efforts to gain more market share, GETCo recently put out a public bid for upgraded ship operating systems for all their trading vessels. Continuing their long tradition of strength in the operating system software field, Microsquish won the bid and has recently begun equiping ships with their new software.After just a few weeks of operation, a serious flaw was found in the operating system. Brianna Goodreau, GETCo CIO, announced that "Shortly after the new operating systems were installed, our pilots began reporting odd things happeing to their ships."
The most serious of these "odd things" seems to be what pilots have dubbed the "Blue Screen of Death." The symptoms would be comical if they didn't often result in not only ship, but pilot death. While at full warp, the ship's systems will suddenly all flash a blue screen indicating an internal error has happened, but the ship will remain in warp. Unfortunately, with the guidance system down, ships will continue to warp in a straight line until their reactor is drained.
This "Blue Screen of Death" has resulted in a number of impacts of ships with asteroids, planetoids, and in a few sad cases, stars. Pilots have indicated that the only known solutions are to eject into a lifepod, hope you don't impact a celestial body before your reactor runs dry, or reboot your whole ship operating system.
Brianna Goodreau indicated, "We (GETCo) have contacted Microsquish about the problem, but Microsquish continues to point to pilot error." Interestingly enough, just this morning, Microsquish announced a software update for its brand new Ship Operating System (dubbed S.O.S. by pilots).
While Microsquish officials refused recorded comment, S.O.S. programmers have been overheard complaining that their concerns about releasing the product to the public before it was ready could endanger lives.
A second, less serious flaw, in S.O.S. are some significant security holes in the system. Ships equipped with the new S.O.S. are being hacked by V'rix from significantly greater distances than they had been. One GETCo pilot was heard to say, "Now all they have to do is show up on my radar and they start hacking my systems."
GETCo company have reacted by buying up all copies of the V'rix Deceptor they can get their hands on to prevent their trade ships from being hacked and captured.
Net-7 will continue to pursue these issues with dilligence, please stay tuned.
