Einstein Bouy

Einstein Bouys, or E-Bobs as they were commonly called, were covert Coalition sensor and listening platforms based on down-graded swallow sensor jammer technology. They were first introduced and used extensive in the Interstellar Coalition's Operation Sloth during the Xindi Conflict.

Design​
While each of E-Bobs was not strong enough to be overtly noticed or of use for battlefield-scale jamming, by occupying positions along known comm. traffic routes, they could monitor numerous official and encrypted channels by grabbing only a few seconds of each transmission. While altogether it took over eighty E-Bobs to record only one full minute of subspace traffice and their limited range required using a leap frog method to transmit their cumilative reports to actual FTL communication arrays, Coalition Intelligence was able to use the first generation E-Bobs to build deployment reports, officer transfers and general news reports without ever being actively detected.

By the time E-Bobs were actively deployed in the field, Coalition Intelligence deduced how to begin using the E-Bobs on a two way pathway, allowing them to edit snippets of the communications they intercepted.

Operation Sloth​
While Operation Gluttony focused on the disruption of material gains for New Xindus, Operation Sloth involved the use of information and disinformation. Over the course of three weeks, several hundred E-Bobs were dispersed over the entire Harvoon-system.

Thanks to the intelligence gathered by the E-Bobs scattered throughout the Harvoon-system, Coalition Intelligence deduced General Dolim knew that the Coalition had dispersed its major fleet to various nearby systems, including Azati Prime II, Triannon, Cleon, Galen and Illyria. Because Dolim was unaware of the presence of the E-Bob, he assumed any Coalition invasion would need to scout the Havroon-system in order to confirm the disposition of his forces, or come from Coalition forces massing at Azati Prime, which he was receiving regular reports from still loyal forces interred there among the civilian population.

To cement this idea, the Coalition began to cycle its front-line forces, making it appear to Dolim they were re-deploying units with a clear intent to invade New Xindus with only their top and most advanced ships of the line, while removing older or damaged units to be repaired. Once these vessels were repaired in a project two months, they would return to the front-lines for the final push into the Havroon-system.

From Dolim's perspective and confirmed via reports intercepted via the E-Bobs, the Azati Prime and Cleon-systems would be a fraction of their total strength. With enough warning, reinforcements could be dispatched from a nearby system to support Azati Prime II or Cleon, and those forces were not expecting any Xindi offensives, so the Coalition believed the system would not be under-strength for long.

Dolim formulated that if he launched the Fourteenth and Fifteen Cruiser Squadrons, supported by elements of the New Xindus Home Guard, he could smash the Coalition fleets at Cleon, then swing back to hit Azati Prime four days later. His plan would have resulted in the destruction of 28 of the Coalition's top capital ships, including Vice Admiral Archer's vessel at Azati Prime II, a distinction Dolim believed would cripple the Coalition moral.

By this point, Coalition Intelligence had deduced how to begin using the E-Bobs on a two way pathway, allowing them to edit snippets of the communications they intercepted. Through a minor edit to several communications from New Xindus, the Fourteenth and Fifteen Cruiser Squadrons launched merely 45-minutes earlier then Xindi Military Command intended, silent running as Dolim ordered and on a course heading that was merely 13-degrees off of their nominal heading, described as a minor course correction to avoid an neutronic storm.

In reality the Fourteenth and Fifteen Cruiser Squadrons were directed to hit the neutronic storm head-on near there passage of the Usari-system. A neutronic storm is a plasma energy storm which can travel through space at faster-than-light speeds. These storms are saturated with radiolytic isotopes, which are lethal to a number of species. The resulting contact with the neutronic storm resulted in all 17 vessels being destroyed, but because of the wavefront of the radiation, long-range sensors on New Xindus only registered the fleet's signatures as disrupted, not destroyed. With a firm hand in his information networks and communications, the Coalition was able to sow minor bouts of chaos into the Xindi forces around New Xindus, allowing Coalition forces to control where the Xindi were deployed to a degree, and if not, where they were.