Star Wars Star Wars: Unit Six-Sixteen (18BBY)

Star Wars: Special Task Unit 6/16
***Watch Opening Crawl***​

“Not one among us is special. It is what we do that is special.”​

Game Concept: In this game, you will play as Imperial intelligence officers and commandos charged with hunting down operatives from the former Confederacy of Independent Systems believed responsible for a series of deadly terrorist attacks. The game is set just over a year since the end of the Clone Wars as the Galactic Empire is transitioning from the Old Republic.​

This game aims to capture the grittier, darker feel of modern special operation/espionage dramas (such as Sicario or Safe House) which explore the morality and ethics of those involved in covert operations. As the grey realm between right and wrong grows darker how will you respond? Will you embrace the harsh, amoral pursuit of Imperial justice; or will you begin to question everything as you witness the rise of an order that betrays the values you once held? Your character will be forced to make decisions that will test their moral compass and those decisions will have consequences. Loyalties will be strained. Principals will be bent. Eventually, somewhere, something will break.

Gameplay: This game will be episodic. There will be a set objective to be accomplished and once the events surrounding such are complete, the game will move ahead a set period of in-game time (a few days or weeks) to the next major plot point (think of this as a television series). This will allow new characters a convenient way to enter the game and ensure everyone’s story arc is on the same timeline. While there is an ultimate master plan, the actions and decisions of the players will have major effects on the plot. Read: Failure will have consequences. Success will have rewards.

Between episodes there will also be downtime where character growth can occur as they process the events that have transpired. These interludes will be denoted by the game master to give opportunity for everyone to catch up and close out mini-arcs before the next episode.

Between post you may receive personal intel updates in the form of private messages from the game master. It will be up to you to fit these pieces into your story and convey them to other relevant players. These pieces, when connected, will drive the team toward their next objective. Don’t worry, this won’t be as complicated as it might sound.

An ISB officer kindly explains to a suspect: the alternative to compliance is a short trip down a long lift shaft.​

Character Creation: There is a need for four to six clone commandos which will comprise Squad 16 (any slots not taken by players will be filled by NPCs) and at least five or six major ISB characters. There are leadership and generic character slots available for multiple roles in each. If there is something you want to do that doesn’t quite fit in one of the slots, contact the GM and we will see what we can work out. We don’t want to pigeonhole your creativity, at the same time this game does have a narrower focus that some of the larger sandbox games.

Specialization will be the key in character creation. Your character does not need to be the jack of all trades to be effective in this game, nor should you feel as if your character isn’t an ‘operator’ that you will see no action.

Operating Environment: As these are the early days of the Galactic Empire, you will still be somewhat restrained to a rule of law that protect due process and the rights of sentient beings. The New Order isn’t completely morphed into the “Evil Empire” we know from the Original Trilogy and almost all of the characters will have come up under the ideals of the Galactic Republic.

Your characters will not need piloting skills or their own starships. Transportation to and from the targets will be provided by game master controlled vessels and craft, as well as provide close air support. In some cases, you may be given control of pilots/starcraft, stormtroopers, and other support NPCs to complete objectives, but you will not be allowed to introduce combat assets on your own (no conjuring a fleet or a squad of commandos at will).

ISB operator request assistance during complicated outreach efforts with local population​

Canon: Legend material from the Clone Wars-era not contradicted by nu-Canon will feature in this game (mostly Republic Commando material). Small deviation from canon may occur, but overall this game will not venture into an all-out alternative universe.

Rules: Standard RPF rules apply. Game Master’s word is law. No auto-hitting/godmodding other characters or game master controlled NPCs. Keep your abilities and and actions within the realm of reasonable and possible. Be polite to other players and take any excess OOC discussions or disagreements to private message.

No Force sensitive characters will be permitted. Two characters max at game start.

If you are going to be inactive for more than a couple weeks, let the game master know so they can move your character along.

Game Master approved character sheets should be posted in the library thread. There are additional resources there that should help in character creation and background. The opening post will take place six weeks after the formation of the unit, seven weeks since the bombings.

Character Sheet​

<<image if available>>
Name:
Gender:
Age:
Rank: (Use this standard)
Expertise/Position:
Affiliation: (ISB Task Unit or 501st Imperial Commando Special Unit)
Species: (Humans preferred, unless cleared with GM)
Languages:
Home World:

Personality
Traits:
Habits and Mannerism:
Morality: (ethical, amoral, morally compromised, malicious, etc)

Physical Appearance
Description: (Height, weight, build; skin/eye/hair color)
Other Attributes: (scars, tattoos, distinguishing features)

Clothing
Duty Uniform:
Tactical Uniform/Armor:
Off-duty/Civilian Attire:

Equipment:
Primary Weapons:
Secondary Weapons:
Specialized Gear:

Biographical
Personal History: (family, education, etc)
Professional History: (Before and during the Clone Wars as applicable)


[

PHP:

[B][U]Imperial Security Bureau Task Unit 6[/U][/B]
[LIST]
[*]Commanding Officer (CO)
[LIST]
[*][B]Col. Donnas ‘Don’ Mathgro[/B] [USER=742376]@GenOochy[/USER]
[/LIST]
[*]Senior Intelligence Officer (SIO)
[LIST]
[*][I]Available Slot[/I]
[/LIST]
[*]Lead Interrogator
[LIST]
[*]([COLOR=rgb(255, 0, 0)]character sheet pending[/COLOR]) @BobaMatt
[/LIST]
[*]Tactical Medical Officer
[LIST]
[*][B]Cmdr. Bren 'Doc' Darnell[/B] [USER=351318]@HanSolo29[/USER]
[/LIST]
[*]Slicer/Intercept Officers
[LIST]
[*][B]Maj. Jerric Isaac Cain[/B] [USER=1174500]@KraytDragon90[/USER]
[*][B]Cpl. Anastasia 'Whisper' Ulyanova [/B][USER=1354732]@galactic-vagabond422[/USER]
[/LIST]
[*]Tactical Operations Officers
[LIST]
[*][I]Available Slot[/I]
[*][I][I]Available Slot[/I][/I]
[*][I][I][I]Available Slot[/I][/I][/I]
[/LIST]
[*]Intelligence Officers
[LIST]
[*][B]Lt. Jak Ulno[/B] [USER=951869]@BLemelisk[/USER]
[*][B]Master Agent Aven Dorn[/B] [USER=1290121]@DarkLordoftheFins[/USER]
[*][I]Available Slot[/I]

[*][I][I]Available Slot[/I][/I]
[/LIST]
[*]Interrogators
[LIST]
[*]([COLOR=#ff0000]character sheet pending[/COLOR]) [USER=1427153]@Master Vo'Un'Var[/USER]

[*][I]Available Slot[/I]
[/LIST]
[/LIST]
[B][U]Imperial Commando Squad 16[/U][/B]
[LIST]
[*]Squad Commander (ARC Trooper): ([I]no slots available[/I])
[LIST]
[*][B]Major Alpha-23 'Hal'[/B] [USER=1434668]@supermatt6[/USER]
[/LIST]
[*]Clone Commandos
[LIST]
[*][I]Slots available (NPC fill-ins)[/I]
[/LIST]
[/LIST]

**ALL ADDITIONAL INFORMATION LOCATE IN THE LIBRARY THREAD**​

 

*GAME MASTER ANNOUNCEMENT*

I am very pleased with the number of responses I have receive over the last few days, and the level of thought that you are putting into your characters. We are still looking for more characters and we will add new players if they want to join at any time during the game (invite your friends!).

The start date of this game is now set for the 4th of April.

At game start, it will be 42 standard days after the Empire Day attacks (Imperial Year 2, day 42) and your characters will all be on Corellia as STU 6/16 prepares for it's first operation against a known Separatist operative. If you want specific notes on drafting your intro post, private message me.
I look forward to playing with you all!

~GenOochy~​

 

​

Opening Music Score

20:01 Galactic Standard Time (GST)
Day 1, 1 Year After the Formation of the Empire (1.1 AFE)

It was several seconds of confusion for several billion beings across the galaxy before the horror of what they just witnessed set in. The Supreme Emperor had just concluded an hour-long address on the state of the Empire to observe the inaugural Empire Day holiday, and aerial fireworks began to burst over cities across the galaxy.. Beings across the Core and Mid Rim worlds, not celebrating in the streets, watched the exuberance on their holonet viewers. Audio was almost a sea of white noise as tens of millions of cheers broadcast from the streets.

And then came the blast. By galactic synchronized time, the first explosion ripped through a crowd outside the royal palace on Alderaan just fifteen seconds before two near simultaneous detonations on Coruscant. Then came Chandrila and Corellia; again, on Alderaan six minutes later. The final blast was on Corellia in an underground tram station ten minutes after that; a tram packed with people trying to flee the capitol district where the first bomb went off.

Those watching, and the anchors on the holonet feeds, were dumbfounded. The shrieks of the panicked crowds didn’t quite discern themselves from the previous cheers of jubilation at first. The flash and thick smoke from the bombings took a moment to process that they weren’t just part of the pyrotechnic show. Even on the ground, those some distance from the blast weren’t sure for a couple minutes what had happened until word began to spread.

Then reality came crashing in. What had been a day of celebration was now indelibly linked with the grotesque scenes of tragedy that played over and over across the holonet. Bloody, mangled beings being drug away from city streets covered in shattered transparisteel, plast-dust, and body parts. The flash and engulfing smoke and debris from the blast, filmed at a dozen different angles. When all were accounted for, nine hundred and forty-nine were officially listed as dead in the attacks.

Imperial investigators quickly determined from debris, blast analysis, and hundreds of images and holovids taken, that the explosions originated from military grade explosives packed into various service droids. The droids moved among the crowds as if going about normal activities before, at a predetermined point or time, detonating themselves among hundreds of living, sentient beings.

Although official holonet stations were ordered not to broadcast it, a holovid was released a few hours after the blast to claim responsibility. The image was nothing more than a demonic mask and a distorted voice. The holovid, while attempting to look grungy and bootleg, had certain hallmarks of studio quality. The deep, mechanically altered voice rambled on about the injustices and tyranny of the former Republic and the Empire it had become. It praised the late-Count Dooku and the other now deceased leaders of the Confederacy of Independent Systems for their bravery in challenging the former Galactic Republic’s tyranny. At the end of the eight minutes of pontificating, the mask made one demand and one threat.

Release all prisoners held for their involvement in the Separatist revolt; or the next attacks would dwarf the first. The message was signed simply: the Liberation Army of the New Confederacy.​

06:57 Coronet Central Time (CCT)
Day 42, 1 Year After the Formation of the Empire (42.1 AFE)
Coronet City, Corellia

*Ding-ding*

“Stop Zero. One. One. City Centre. Governmental District,” came the soft, robotic voice of the tram’s droid operator. Colonel Donnas Mathgro stepped out of the tram and onto the platform as the door opened. The early morning sky over Coronet was cloudless with a pinkish tint, though the duracrete was still wet from the previous night’s rain.

A chorus of avian species chirped in the green space outside of Building 1902, a fifty-two-story complex across from the Capitol Building. Construction workers were taking down the temporary fencing that had been erected after the Empire Day bombing on Corellia. Flowers and filmpalast pictures of the victims had been woven into the mesh wire fence as a temporary memorial to the thirty-seven who had died in the blast and the Coronet City Council had just voted to begin work on a permanent monument. Colonel Mathgro made a point to stop at the monument everyday as a reminder of what their mission sought to prevent.

Dressed in athletic attire, he made a stop at a juice bar on the corner of Building 1902, ordering an iced protein and herb concoction that claimed to “promote vitality, physical strength, longevity, and heart health in seventy-three species (including humans!)”. He somewhat doubted the claims, but it tasted decent and felt good after his morning workout. He reasoned at fifty-four standard years old, it definitely couldn’t hurt.

He badged into the lobby, showing his credential to the guards who let him bypass the body scanners, and took the lift to the fortieth floor. The receptionist droid, a polished black and chrome protocol droid, C-HCL3, welcomed him by name and took the now empty, disposable cup from him.. He laid his hand on the palm scanner and inserted his badge, which granted him access to the ISB suite. Making his way down the corridor to his office, he dropped his bags, grabbed his fresher kit and uniform from a standup locker, and made his way down to the refresher to clean up.

Standing under the near scalding water, rinsing out his hair, he mentally ran over the day’s to-do list. It had been several long weeks of setting up the Unit from virtually nothing. The ISB was still working out organizational structures, and the group he had been given was cobbled together in less than a week after the attacks from the ISB, Imperial Intelligence, and a couple joint duty assignments from CorSec and CSF. He was fortunate for the talent that had been lent to him, though there was still work to be done before the team would be functioning at a hundred percent, and time wasn’t something he had much of.

Late the previous afternoon, confirmation was made on the position of former Senator Bura Gonduddi, a Jazbinan, who was instrumental to the propaganda arm of the Separatist. Since the end of the war, he was continuing to support dissident publications against the Empire. The broadcast from the LANC after the attacks had all the hallmarks of Gonduddi’s agitprop and he was quickly escalated from being “merely” wanted for treason, to near the top of the Imperial most wanted list.

Assigned the codename HARBOR NOTION, Gonduddi was number four on The Unit’s target list of known or suspected LANC actors. As he was believed to be well-connected with the financial facilitators of the post-Separatist militant organizations, they required him alive for interrogation. Which meant, to Donnas’ dismay, they couldn’t simply destroy his hiding location from orbit and send down a team to identify the body later. Given the Senator’s location on his homeworld, this also meant the capture couldn’t be trusted to the nearest regular Stormtrooper garrison, or local police force. The former was too messy, and the latter couldn’t be trusted not to be on the well-connected Senator’s payroll. While the Jazbinan’s had mostly sided with the Republic and were now loyal members of the Galactic Empire, Gonduddi was part of a small faction of separatist that still had some support on the planet.

If they were going to bring Gonduddi in alive, Unit Six-Sixteen would need to be the ones to do it. Most the clone commando squad had served together during the Clone Wars, and while many the ISB agents under his command were still learning to mesh as a team, he was confident in their skills at this point to function in a tactical environment.

He turned off the water, stepping out into the fresher room and dried off. Looking at himself in the mirror as he dressed in his official uniform, he frowned. He hated this thing, personally. He missed the days of the war where he worked in casual street wear most of the time. Where the pomp and circumstance of appearing as a highly regimented unit paled to actually performing as a highly regimented unit. If there was a fatal flaw in the New Order, he believed it was the focus on appearances over actual competence.

The stiff, high collar scratched his neck, so he made a point to leave the top unclasped unless someone of significance was arriving; something that occurred more often that Don would like. While at least they weren’t on Coruscant, they’d still seen more flag officers dropping by with little notice than he would prefer. He was still conspiring to get this whole operation moved to some forward operating base in the outer rim. Maybe the beaches of Scariff or Illarreen, or, hell, he’d go for a jungle garrison on Devaron. Anywhere that wasn’t crawling with flag level bureaucrats trying to micromanage his operation.

Walking back to the office through the datacore room, he rapped twice on the door to the custodial closet.

“Corporal? Morning huddle in fifteen…” He paused and listened for the sound of movement. Sure enough, he heard the shuffle of someone. ‘Of course, she stayed here all night’, he thought, before continuing on back to his office. The youngest member of their task force, Anastasia, was a workaholic. For the first two weeks she was here, he was convinced she was just trying to prove herself in a group of senior analyst and operatives, yet quickly became apparent that, in fact, she was just that obsessed with her work. The previous evening, as he was preparing to leave, he had found her passed out over her console in the Tactical Operations Center (TOC). He tapped her awake and had told her to wrap up and go home. Not surprising to him, she’d ignored that, and instead had crashed in the closet--likely after a couple more hours of work, he suspected. He had to talk to Jerric about getting that girl a social life.

He took off the uncomfortable service coat as he entered the office, hung it on a rack, and inserted a mug into the caf and pressed ‘BREW’. Taking a seat at his desk, he inserted his badge in the reader and laid his palm on the bioscanner to access the secure holonet. He started by going through the message traffic. Most of it was irrelevant to him, just discussions between different team members on the cases. He would peruse some of them, but most he left to the analyst to handle.

Two messages did catch his eye. One, confirmed all the support assets were cleared to go and they could depart for Jazbina tomorrow evening as planned, with the Venator-class Star Destroyer Luminos taking them to the target system. The other was a message like he had never seen prior.

Don squinted hard at the screen and then leaned back and pinched the bridge of his nose. Abot'nijow had been picked up sixteen days ago and brought to Unit 6/16 three days later. He had confessed to depositing the droids, but had maintained he was simply deploying service droids for post celebration cleanup and had no knowledge of their deadly cargo. No matter how hard they pushed the Twi’lek, he maintained complete innocence, to the point where Don was even starting to believe him. Still, he claimed he knew nothing of anyone involved and wouldn’t give them a name, which still had Don convinced he was holding back.

Don had long lamented the slow wheels of justice, seeing mobsters, rapist, and murderers sit of years on death row as appeal after appeal was filed, and all too often (especially with the mobsters), walk free when a seemingly clear-cut case was declared invalid on some legal technicality.

This was the exact opposite. Abot'nijow probably wasn’t even aware of the tribunal which had sealed his fate, let alone that the man that now held his death warrant was just a few meters away. It was quick. It was efficient. But was it justice? The Colonel was probably the last person on the planet who would side with a criminal, especially one as despicable as these terrorist, but...something just wasn’t sitting right with him. While he’d probably not lose a blink of sleep to put a blaster bolt in some punk’s face on an objective, he wasn’t an executioner and he wasn’t sure that anyone under his command right now, other than the clones perhaps, was either.

He got up and walked back across the office and took the steaming hot caf on the brewer, mixed in some lightener, and walked over to the large open window that overlooked One CorSec Plaza. Morning traffic was starting to pick up now at a quarter till hour eight. Airspeeders, mostly hires, made their way in and out of the governmental square, dropping off commuters who worked in the district. Looking down forty stories, it was hard not to notice that, in the last two years, the previous sea of color of the Corellian officials that had worked in the government sector had been increasingly replaced with the monochromatic greys and blacks of Imperial officials. Times were changing and Don wasn’t completely sure how he felt about it.

He sipped his caf, continuing to watch the morning traffic, contemplating in silence for several long minutes. Turning his caf cup up to his lips to find it empty broke him from his meditations. He walked back over to the caf machine and started a second cup brewing. Walking back to his desk, he queued a couple files to the printer, and locked his terminal. He picked the filmsiplast off the printer and walked out of his office, with a fresh cup of caf, across the hall to the TOC. Analyst worked away at the various terminals along the walls and in the center of the room was a large holoprojector, which at the moment was projecting an image of the planet Corellia as a space filler, with no real purpose.

“Alright,” Donnas said, after clearing his throat to get the room’s attention. He glanced at his wrist-chrono; it was two minutes till hour eight. “Hey, if there’s anyone in the halls, get ‘em in here. We start in sixty.”

He took a sip and then placed the mug of caf down on the edge of the holoprojector. He looked at the filmsiplast, took a data chip out of his pocket, and placed it in a chip reader.

“We got everyone?” Donnas said, glancing at the face around at the room that had gathered. Analyst from Imperial Intelligence, operatives from the ISB, and the ARC Commander had all gathered around the center of the room. He realized for a moment he was wearing only a sleeveless, black undershirt as a top, having forgotten his service coat in the office. He glanced and noticed a couple questioning looks from people in the room.

“It’s casual Zhellday, come on,” he said jokingly with an relaxed shrug of his shoulders. He typed into the console in front of him and brought up an image of a Jazbinan in formal attire. “Alright let’s kick this thing off. Senator Bura Gonduddi, A-K-A objective Harbor Notion. As many of you probably heard yesterday, we did indeed confirm his location. Thanks to the tireless work of Corporal Ulyanova, we cracked his holonet access codes and this is the location of his most recent transmissions.”

Donnas keyed the console again, a large mountainside structure, with rounded spires, replaced the senator’s image.

“This property is located in sector twenty-seven of the planet Jazbina, northern hemisphere; looks like it’s about twenty-two hundred meters above the median sea level in mountainous terrain. We did have other reports that he might be staying at a property owned by his nephew-in-law, but until the holonet codes were cracked, we had no idea which one. This mountain structure is fairly remote, the nearest settlement is about twelve kilometers away. We don’t have updated schematics or a floor plan, but we do know that at least two years ago,there was some excavation effort underneath the building, based on construction orders we were able to obtain.”

“We also, thanks to the Corporal and Cain,” he gestured towards both the team’s slicers with the flemsiplast, “cracked part of two of his previous transmissions we had intercepted, and based on the contents, it appears he will be moving soon. Least we risk losing him, we’re going to hit him quickly; by which I mean tomorrow.”

He let that hang for a moment, noticing the looks from some of the officers. They had probably been expecting to move within a week or so, but Donnas knew that few, if any of them, who weren’t part of a late discussion the previous evening, thought they would be leaving before the weekend.

“Now, before we tumble down the black hole of ops discussion--which I know everyone is dying to do--what else have we gleaned in the last twenty-four? Let’s go around the room; what do we have?”​

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins @HanSolo29 @BLemelisk @KraytDragon90 @supermatt6 @galactic-vagabond422

GM OOC: Welcome to Special Task Unit 6/16! Some of you have received starting injects to present to the group during the morning round-up. Hopefully the start won’t be too clunky for you all; it will be a lot smoother and the injects should flow seamlessly as the game progresses. You can start your post anywhere. Your morning commute, breakfast, work-out, whatever; just as long as you are at the morning meeting on-time.

If you have any questions as you draft you first post, especially on the dynamics of what has been going on in the last six weeks with the Unit, just PM me. Feel free to use the NPC characters from the Imperial Intelligence detachment (they work for you!) in your stories. They are blank slates you can build on.

An OOC thread has been opened in the RP Resource forum if you have any questions for the group.

And as always, this game is accepting new players!
​

 

IC: Anastasia 'Whisper' Ulyanova
Whisper's Nest, Suite 40-B1, Building 1902, Coronet City, Corellia

The light rapping at the door woke her, she'd only just closed her eyes...she thought. She was still working through the decryption. The key changed every few seconds, scrambling everything. She was able to save a few things here and there, but, it wasn't enough...not everything had been decrypted, not everything was known. If there was one thing she learned in her time with Imperial Intelligence, it was that any and all intelligence was useful. She worked to get every bit of it. Besides, it was a challenge and she couldn't let a challenge go unanswered.

"Corporal?" she heard the voice of her superior, Colonel Mathgro, the man that last night told her to get some rest. She did...earlier this morning. It was right in front of her, just a few more hours and she could have decrypted everything. But, her body rebelled. She was up for a full day gleaning what she could from the first intercepted message, and there was only so much caf could do. However, her last few hours of decryption yielded some information. "Morning huddle in fifteen…"

"Yes sir…" she replied, in her soft, constantly tired tone that wouldn't make it a few centimeters, much less through the door. Throwing the stiff military issue blanket off she put her sock covered feet on the cold floor. She had taken off the black top that was part of her standard uniform off, leaving her in a white undershirt and black slacks. They weren't the most comfortable of sleepwear but, she'd forgotten to bring a set from home. Though it was hard for her to remember when the last time she was home.

She shook her head, running a hand through her short black hair. Right away she knew that she would need to shower before the meeting. Two days of straight work with only minimal breaks didn't leave much time for personal hygiene. Fifteen minutes wasn't a lot of time either but, she'd learned how to shower quick.

Anastasia made her way, without putting her shoes on, through the data core. Taking just a moment to appreciate them, and the programs she had running constantly, chipping away at the codes even while she slept. Continuing on her path she came to her locker, inside it she found her other uniform, same as the one she wore yesterday but, cleaner. Above that on a shelf was a smallish black box and behind it a bottle of bright pink hair dye. Momentos from her younger days. Days only a year past. She ran her thumb across her lip, feeling the spots her piercings once occupied. She could still put them in, it wouldn't take too long and what would it hurt.

Her hand hovered over the black box for just a little too long, as she wrestled with her wants, and the duty she had to uphold. The dress code existed to lessen distractions, to allow others to focus on their work. The thinking went that having a co-worker with neon pink hair would be quite the distraction and be a detriment to their work. Same went for the overabundance of piercings. She still felt the pull, felt the need to stand out but, rules were rules, she had to follow them.

Next to the box was a holo-sphere, which when activated displayed an image of her father and mother waving her goodbye as she left for Imperial Intelligence. She could still remember her last visit home, it was just before joining this special task force. The first thing her father did was straighten her rank insignia. Always such a perfectionist but, she knew it came from a place of love. Her mother took her into a long warm hug.

Anastasia loved her parents, that was why she took up this post. Her parents were in the streets, celebrating with everyone else. They could have been one of the hundreds dead, could still be if this group made good on their promise, if she allowed them to attack again.

She took some solace in the fact that Carratos was out of the way, not of much galactic importance. It wouldn't be much of a statement to bomb it, might as well attack Tatooine, or some other Outer Rim planet. But, she couldn't take that risk.

After another moment reminiscing about her family she grabbed a smaller bag that contained her 'fresher gear. It wasn't anything extravagant just bargain soap equally cheap shampoo.

She did shower quickly barely giving anytime for the water to warm up. When she entered she felt the slight heat and humidity of a recent occupant. They were gone of course, the slicer would not have showered if there was another in the space. She was still very shy and the thought of co-ed showers made her a little nervous. As well she wasn't sure how her commanders could react to the purple and green flower tattoo on her right shoulder. She kept it hidden under the long sleeves of her uniform but, when she was so exposed, there was nothing to hide it.

After getting clean she dressed in her fresh uniform, making sure her rank insignia was perfect, and opened the box of piercings. She passed over the nose rings, brow rings, and others that attached to the shell of her ear. Instead she pulled out four studs, two with white gems, two with black gems. They were the few bits of jewelry that were allowed. Using the mirror she had on the inside of her locker door she affixed them, one white one black in one ear lobe, the same on the other side, perfectly symmetrical.

The last look in the mirror was to get her still slightly damp hair in order. She kept it short to keep it manageable and to hide it under her hat...or cover as her more military trained colleagues called it. She put it on with the same care and perfection that she did the ear studs, making sure it was centered on her head. She couldn't miss the dark half circles under her eyes an outward sign to all that she hadn't slept much. Not that it was much of a secret.

Once sure that her appearance was within the rigid rules of His Majesty's Imperial Intelligence Service, she made her way to the break room. More specifically the caf machine, cup in her hands. It wasn't comically oversized, but it was taller than the average cup, with a lid to prevent spilling it over her console. The break room was simple, with just a caf maker, and water cooler just inside the door. There might have been more but, all she ever really cared about was the area around her favorite appliance.

After putting in a minimal amount of sweetener she proceeded to dump dark caf into her cup.

"Hey, Ulyanova," A masculine voice called from behind her. She only spared a glance over her shoulder to a stocky man with dark hair and blue eyes. Skybri Boldub was his name, he was another cryptologist, they don't interact too much, Anastasia was far too deep in her work to worry about interacting with others. "Save some for the rest of us yeah,"

Her eyes slightly narrowed, her mug wasn't that big, it took maybe a quarter if that of the current carafe, far from all of it. Right now she wasn't in the mood for talking, her reply was to put the carafe away and walk towards the TOC.

Once there she again narrowed her eyes, tilting her head slightly. Before her was her commanding officer in a sleeveless undershirt and standard black slacks. It was well out of regulations and maybe a bit distracting, if only because she thought she could maybe now get away with her hair dye, or at least a few more piercings.

"It’s casual Zhellday, come on," His tone said he was joking but, part of her wondered if he would be alright if she broke a little with the dress code. It was not something to test today...or maybe ever, just something to keep in mind. "Alright let’s kick this thing off. Senator Bura Gonduddi, A-K-A objective Harbor Notion. As many of you probably heard yesterday, we did indeed confirm his location. Thanks to the tireless work of Corporal Ulyanova," Anastasia was unsure if that was fully a complement or a backhanded one. Either way she nodded slowly still a little groggy from her early wake up, "we cracked his holonet access codes and this is the location of his most recent transmissions."

The slicer took a long sip of her caf as Colonel Mathgro gave the details of Gonduddi's hideout. It didn't concern her much, her job was to provide information, not act on it. That was left up to the operators, and commandos, not analysts like her. However the construction orders did worry her a little. They didn't seem like much but, again anything could be important. It was yet another thing on her and Major Cain's plate.

She nodded her head again at being recognized for her work along with her colleague. They did good work kept intel flowing to those that needed it.

And with that information the timetable was moved up, the team moved out tomorrow. Many looked concerned or just surprised. It didn't bother her, she would be far away from the fighting, as she always was, as she always would be.

Soon the floor was open to any new intelligence gathered since their last meeting.

The slicer waited for a moment, then another before speaking up, voice still tired, movements a little sluggish as the caffeine worked its way through her system.

"Well I'm not sure how much bearing it has on the current operation." Her words came out at a steady pace, not too slow, not too fast. Her tone quiet almost a whisper but, could still be heard, as long as everyone else was quiet.

Her nickname wasn't for nothing.

"I was able last night...well early this morning," she corrected herself, sometimes night and morning blurred into one for her, "To decrypt part of another message it was only bits and pieces of audio. One voice was confirmed to be Senator Gonduddi and the other couldn't be identified but, it is a 78% match for Nemoidian. They were speaking Huttese, not sure for what reason but, I was able to translate most of what I had." She couldn't actually understand the language of the Hutts, all she knew was Imperial Basic, didn't have time of language classes when she was buried in computer science books.

"They spoke of someone, a male by the pronouns they used. Some new leader or higher up. Senator Gonduddi didn't seem to know who this 'He' was but, it was apparent that the Senator was spooked by something. He spoke of getting out. It might be something to use when you all..." She looked the operatives and commandos making clear that it would be them taking on this mission. "Bring him in for questioning." She shrugged her shoulders, it wasn't her place to interrogate subjects, she just provided information, what the others did with it was their job. "The other unidentified voice seemed afraid of this 'He', lending more credence to this other person being a leader within the organization."

"As well there was mention of Talos. They might be meeting there within a week, or planning another attack. I wasn't able to decrypt all the intercept. With a few more hours I might be able to give us a better idea of what is going on."

She went quiet again taking another long sip of her caf, finally feeling a little more awake.

TAG: @GenOochy @HanSolo29 @BLemelisk @KraytDragon90 @supermatt6 @DarkLordoftheFins

 

IC: Lt. Jak Ulno
Elevator, Building 1902, Coronet City, Corellia

He had that dream again. The one where they're walking in the afternoon sun on Coruscant. He, Myrcella, and Mom and Dad. That's always how he knew he was dreaming, his parents were alive. The smiles on their faces contrasted with the terror he always felt right then. Building in his gut, somewhere, something awful was coming. It starts each time with a sound like a dull roar. Every single time Jak tries to get everyone to safety with him. Every time it's all for nothing as the sound becomes deafening and the scene becomes blinding white.

Was Mom trying to say something to me this time? Jak wondered as he looked out the transparisteel of the elevator car. Don't be ridiculous, his rational mind chimed in. Shrinking specks of people were shuffling across the plaza below to populate the buildings for the day's work. His vivid memory of the dream would usually fade by mid-morning, but he was always left with an odd feeling until then.

The doors opened when the car reached the fortieth floor, letting in a burst of cool air enough to snap Jak out of his trance.

"Looking shinier than usual today, C-H," he smirked to the reception droid as he swiped his badge for entry to Suite 40-B1, "hot date later?" Before the nonplussed TC unit had a chance to dryly respond, Ulno was already in the hallway beyond. After a few weeks with Unit 6/16, he was sinking into his first-thing routine.

Locker.
Tea.
Workstation.

The floor was a small hive of activity as usual, but he wondered if something bigger was about to go down as he settled into his workstation in the TacOps center. Ulyanova and Jerric Cain had been burning the midnight oil on some data breach the ISB was harvesting with regard to the Six-One-Six's primary objective, the Empire Day attack perpetrators.

Taking a sip of tea while letting the steam work its way into his sinuses, he closed his eyes as he listened to the series of light audible "ticks" his console played while new messages came in. Upon review they were the standard bunch, updates and news reports of varying levels of importance, but one caught his eye.

Twenty minutes later and all were assembled in TacOps, with Colonel Mathgro giving them a full briefing on just what it was the dedicated Slicer team had uncovered over the night. It turned out they would be deploying to nab one of the cards out of their Most Wanted deck - tomorrow.

The prospect of their first big deployment was exciting to Jak, but it also meant personal plans would have to be placed on the back burner. Looks like I'll have to cancel that date with miss Naval Intelligence, he mused as the CO postponed the discussion on the operation itself with a direct question about leads over the last day. Anastasia Ulyanova spoke first, and her nickname "Whisper" was well deserved. If Jak hadn't been standing so close to her he might not have heard the entire thing.

He was interested in how former Senator Gonduddi's paranoid recording about a new boss in town might feed into the mission at hand, especially speaking with a supposed Nemoidian. They would definitely find out more when they went boots-on-the-ground, especially the nature of this mysterious construction project the ex-Senator was involved with.

"We might even find one of these beings for you when we get into that secret man-cave he's building down there," Jak said to Anastasia, tongue in cheek.

He then waited a moment before piping up, glancing at a flimsy he had scribbled notes onto. "I have a request for assistance from one of our overextended ISB colleagues on Duro. She says they picked up a weapons smuggler in space city Jyvus. He was packing a lot of hardware, including unlicensed explosives and a stolen R2 droid. Smugglers like this Weequay aren't uncommon in that system, but it fits our profile."

TAG: @GenOochy @HanSolo29 @galactic-vagabond422 @KraytDragon90 @supermatt6 @DarkLordoftheFins

 

Aven Dorn
ISB meeting room, Corellia

The morning routine had been boring as always, but finally the hunt began. Aven had taken a seat in a corner and had barely spoken a word to anyone this morning. He usually kept to himself. His job was actually the boring one, until it became the most tense one. He preferred to keep free of personal relationships for that reason. Any of them was expandable.

After the Boss made his little briefing about their lead Whisper spoke. The woman knew her job. She was obviously now in their communication. That was a good entry point, by any means. Talos she mentioned. Interesting enough. A meeting or an attack, well that made a difference. They needed to find out pretty quickly. 1"Sounds like Talos should get our attention." He remarked and made a mental note to make himself familiar with the planet asap.

Then Ulno spoke and had some request for assistance. A Weequay with explosives and a droid. "A shame they catched him, would have been interesting to follow him." He sighed. This might be a lead and it might be a coincidence. Not so much unlike the only usable piece of info he got.

Aven leaned back in his chair and thought about it. Finally this was going somewhere. So they had their first target. They hadn't hit gold yet, but it was a place to begin. They had a potential hotspot. They had some random potential leads.

The Empire had been challenged and their unit was about to answer that challenge. He was ready to do his part of course, but time was working against them. He had little doubt the mask with the deep voice on the holo was planning to make true to his threat. If the Clone Wars had shown them anything, it was how quickly these insurgencies and terrorists got out of control.

Looking at the datapad with report he had received from Alderaan, the sight of multiple attacks, he wondered how valid this info really was. Anyway, it was a good a lead as any other. He straightened the black uniform and spoke directly to all those assembled.

"I got a potential lead on Alderaan. Might be nothing, but considering it's Alderaan, I'd say it is worth checking out. A lab was found, the guys using it have abandoned it around the attack. We got agents on it. But this one might be worth our attention." He decided against going into details. It wasn't yet anything but a potential lead, that might be a waste of time.

Looking around he wondered who would do Jazbina. The clones weren't exactly specialists in getting people alive. He would love to give it a shot. But the Alderaan and Duros thing kept on bugging him. This was operational. This was the lead to the guys who actually did it.

He had send a request to their local Alderaan ISB agents to look for droid parts and any sign these guys had worked on the droids. Yet he had to receive and answer. He had also asked for a holoscan of the whole flat and lab. Another thing he would look into. But Alderaan was a busy place right now probably. It had taken a while to push this to highest priority.

His thoughts went back to their priority target and his construction project. Jazbina, the expansion region. Minimum imperial presence. Good spot to hide. A bit too obvious probably. Actually he wondered how dirty this would get. Infiltration of the target would take too much time. But if the guy was legit, the question was how far would the enemy go to make sure their target did not talk. He kept those concern to himself for now.

"If we can identify a cell on Alderaan or Duros, we could potentially infiltrate it. Might lead us to some insight on their command structure. Their communication methods etc." He was thinking loud. "A galaxy wide conspiracy is easy to hide. Galaxy is a big place. But you need to give orders and to coordinate an attack like this ... orders on short notice. I assume we look at a cell structure here. With at least half a dozen cells." He looked at Ulno. "Can we find out if your weapon smuggler visited Alderaan, any of the target worlds or Talos?" He looked around. "Might verify he was involved."

Aven had thought a lot about how he would have organized an operation like this. He would not rely on holocomm for the operations team as that one was monitored and even when encrypted you knew something was said when a message arrived. Massengers probably. A command cell hidden behind layers of intermediaries to give orders to the execution cells. A method the Seperatists had used before. A military approach was also possible. A commander briefed in advance leading the cell. In that case they were truly autonomous, but not very flexible or quick to respond to changes. Unlikely an operation like this could be pulled of through field commanders and still work so perfectly well. Unlikely but not impossible.

"Talos sounds like the most solid lead though. If our priority target wants to meet there, the question is do we wanna storm his liar and keep him from that meeting?" He looked around, wondering if anyone was following his reasoning. "Sometimes it's better to watch. If he wants to get out we might also turn him. Amnesty will be something he is interested in right now, considering the alternative."

Tag: @GenOochy, @HanSolo29 , @BLemelisk, @KraytDragon90 , @supermatt6, @galactic-vagabond422

 

Game Master In-character Post​

08:02 CCT 42.1 AFE
Special Task Unit 6/16 Tactical Operations Center
Suite 40.B Rm.3, Building 1902, Coronet City, Corellia

It surprised him that Cpl. Ulyanova would be the first one to speak. He definitely found himself leaning in a bit to make sure he heard everything she said. Within the first week, people were calling her ‘Whisper’, which he was initially concerned might offend her, yet she seemed to take to the moniker without complaint.

“...I was able last night--well, early this morning--to decrypt part of another message. It was only bits and pieces of audio.” Of course, she had been working into the morning hours. “One voice was confirmed to be Senator Gonduddi and the other couldn't be identified but, it is a 78% match for Nemoidian.”

Now that was interesting; there would be so many questions for the Senator once they got him back to Corellia. “Senator Gonduddi didn't seem to know who this 'He' was but, it was apparent that the Senator was spooked by something. He spoke of getting out. It might be something to use when you all...bring him in for questioning. The other unidentified voice seemed afraid of this 'He', lending more credence to this other person being a leader within the organization. As well, there was mention of Talos.” She ended that statement as almost a question. Don scribbled notes on the flimsiplast in his hands as she spoke. “They might be meeting there within a week, or planning another attack. I wasn't able to decrypt all the intercept. With a few more hours I might be able to give us a better idea of what is going on.”

“We might even find one of these beings for you when we get into that secret man-cave he's building down there.” Lt. Ulno quipped eliciting a moderate chuckle out of a few of the officers.

“Well,” Don said, “Looks like we’ll have all sorts of questions for our next guest here at the ‘Suite Forty Motel’, that’s for sure.”

"Sounds like Talos should get our attention." Came a quip from the group, though Don didn’t note exactly who it was.

“Yeah...let’s start looking at any and all leads or traffic in and around Telos. Anything that raises an eyebrow; and once we have Gonduddi here, make that the main line of questioning. Who’s next?” Don asked. Lt. Ulno spoke up again.

“I have a request for assistance from one of our overextended ISB colleagues on Duro. She says they picked up a weapons smuggler in space city Jyvus. He was packing a lot of hardware, including unlicensed explosives and a stolen R2 droid. Smugglers like this Weequay aren't uncommon in that system, but it fits our profile.”

Don frowned and noncommittedly shrugged. “Eh, look into it, but I don’t want us playing host to every piece of garbage that stole a detonator and a droid. Follow up and see if there’s any additional reporting that indicates that this is not just your average lowlife smuggler. What else?”

“I got a potential lead on Alderaan,” Agent Dorn spoke up. “Might be nothing, but considering it's Alderaan, I'd say it is worth checking out. A lab was found; the guys using it have abandoned it around the attack. We got agents on it, but this one might be worth our attention. If we can identify a cell on Alderaan or Duros, we could potentially infiltrate it.”

Dorn was ever the spook, wanting to build an informant network. If this was a slow burn case against an organized crime syndicate, Don would be inclined to go the same route; but things were too volatile for that sort of work, at least at the moment.

“Might lead us to some insight on their command structure,” Dorn continued to ramble, a habit that the Colonel wasn’t too fond of. “Their communication methods etc. A galaxy wide conspiracy is easy to hide. Galaxy is a big place. But you need to give orders and to coordinate an attack like this ... orders on short notice. I assume we look at a cell structure here. With at least half a dozen cells. Can we find out if your weapon smuggler visited Alderaan, any of the target worlds or Talos? Might verify he was involved.”

Don shook his head. “I want more reporting; something that correlates these incidents to our mission focus. Like you said, the galaxy is a big place. We’d have to clone an army of us if we wanted to follow up on every lead that looked cross. Follow-up and see if we can get some more specifics; more details on the lab would be great.”

“Talos sounds like the most solid lead though. If our priority target wants to meet there, the question is do we wanna storm his liar and keep him from that meeting? Sometimes it's better to watch. If he wants to get out we might also turn him. Amnesty will be something he is interested in right now, considering the alternative,” Dorn said.

“I want him back here so I can pull as much information as possible out of him. I also want his commlink and datapads. It’ll also spook the others in the organization, cause them to make mistakes. Do follow-up on Alderaan, though, it's worth a shot. Anyone else have any reporting that matches up with any of these?”
​

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins @HanSolo29 @BLemelisk @KraytDragon90 @supermatt6 @galactic-vagabond422

 

IC : Jerric Cain


Jerric stood by the holoprojector as Ulyanova and the others gave their reports, still shaking off the aftereffects of the previous night’s poor spice to sleep ratio. The Doaki had been supposed to wear off by now, but remnants of it tugged at his concentration. The mention of Alderaan did the trick as Aven spoke up.

"I got a potential lead on Alderaan. Might be nothing, but considering it's Alderaan, I'd say it is worth checking out. A lab was found, the guys using it have abandoned it around the attack. We got agents on it. But this one might be worth our attention." He began flicking through the files on his datapad as the other agent continued with his report. He had found something about the attack on Alderaan late into the night, in the middle of his second dose of spice and third pot of caf. Not much, but something of use if he could find where he had stored the file in his haze.

The second mention of Alderaan brought Jerric back into focus as the Colonel spoke. “I want him back here so I can pull as much information as possible out of him. I also want his commlink and datapads. It’ll also spook the others in the organization, cause them to make mistakes. Do follow-up on Alderaan, though, it's worth a shot. Anyone else have any reporting that matches up with any of these?” The major cleared his throat and spoke up for the first time that morning.

”The boys in white were able to get some fragments of the carrier droids from the attacks to my lab.” Well, several tons of fragments, in fact, but very little was of any use to Jerric. After years of failing at it the slicer didn’t even bother trying to tell the clones what was and was not of use to data recovery these days. Sure slagged metal can tell you a lot, but Jerric’s specialty required something more intact.

”Nothing all that special came from most it, but in respect to Alderaan, I do have something we can work with. I was able to pull an address from the droid involved in that bombing, 2136 A South-West Avenue in district CB7-5631.” He looked over at Aven as he continued. ”It’s a semi-rural area, which for Alderaan means estates and mansions. The property is listed for rent on the local holonet, but that could mean anything. Properties across the Empire are increasingly in flux from what I could tell, I suppose the first galactic war in memory does that to a market.”


Tag: @GenOochy, @HanSolo29 , @BLemelisk , @supermatt6, @galactic-vagabond422 , @DarkLordoftheFins

 

Aven Dorn
ISB meeting room, Corellia

Grab the target and hope his superiors panicked. What a nonsense. Well, one had to respect the chain of command. Even if their plans were brute and ineffective. They might make the enemy aware of the efforts of this Unit far earlier then necessary. But Aven knew better than to argue. He would not question decisions of a superior until asked to. And he would never do it before the crew.

Alderaan was probably more important than thought. "That is the address my lab was at. This might indeed be worth checking out. Request permission to go there and look into it, Sir ." Aven was eager to get his feet on the ground and do his own legwork. And a military extraction probably could do without him.

"Regarding Talos we should probably check Hutts. These guys used Huttese. They might use the organized criminals there to move their assets. Would make sense regarding the logistics. Hutts have their network to move stuff with discretion."


Tag: @GenOochy, @HanSolo29 , @BLemelisk, @KraytDragon90 , @supermatt6, @galactic-vagabond422

 

OOC: I’m going to move a couple of the conversations around in sequence for the sake of flow. You are all doing great, and I know it’s difficult to have a round robin discussion like this with multiple parties talking at the same time. Everyone’s post have been fantastic, though.

Game Mater, In Character: Col. Donnas Mathgro

08:04 CCT 42.1 AFE
Special Task Unit 6/16 Tactical Operations Center
Suite 40.B Rm.3, Building 1902, Coronet City, Corellia

Jerric Cain was the next one to speak. The Colonel hadn’t gotten to know the slicer very well, as he spent most of his time in the forensic lab down on floor 37, but at times he had noticed some rather odd behavior from him, especially in the mornings. It wasn’t just as if he was tired, or even hungover, it was...something else, and the Colonel had a suspicion of what it might be.

"The boys in white were able to get some fragments of the carrier droids from the attacks to my lab. Nothing all that special came from most it, but in respect to Alderaan, I do have something we can work with. I was able to pull an address from the droid involved in that bombing: 2136 A South-West Avenue in district CB7-5631,” Jerric said and Agent Dorn perked up.

"That is the address my lab was at. This might indeed be worth checking out. Request permission to go there and look into it, Sir?” Agent Dorn requested. Before Don could respond, Jerric added more detail.

”It’s a semi-rural area, which for Alderaan means estates and mansions," the slicer said reviewing his notes. "The property is listed for rent on the local holonet, but that could mean anything. Properties across the Empire are increasingly in flux from what I could tell, I suppose the first galactic war in memory does that to a market.”

“That right there is the sort of correlated reporting I am looking for. Both of you get with me after this, because that’s--well, a lot more interesting,” Don said. "You should definitely pack your bags."

"Regarding Talos, we should probably check Hutts,” Dorn added. “These guys used Huttese. They might use the organized criminals there to move their assets. Would make sense regarding the logistics. Hutts have their network to move stuff with discretion."

Don made a note on his flimsiplast. “Alright, someone do me a favor and look in the database to see if there are any known Neimoidian associates with any of the major Hutt criminal networks. I can’t imagine there are too many; they don’t tend to run in the same spheres. Someone take that for action, please.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” the Unit’s medical officer, Commander Bren Darnell interjected. “But going back to that weapons smuggler for a moment, our Twi’lek friend revealed an interesting bit of information yesterday during his daily session. You know how he maintained that he had no prior knowledge of the bombings? Well, we may have caught him in his lie. He finally broke down and admitted to receiving his payload of droids from a group of Weequay pirates. They apparently threatened him and his family if he ever mentioned the droids to anyone else. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

Now they had two sets of overlapping leads. Weeks of grasping at straws, and now something was finally coming together. Don went to speak, but noted that the Commander clearly had more to say. Bren locked his gaze firmly on the Colonel, and Don was concerned of what was coming next.

“And speaking of our Twi’lek friend,I have some concerns about his long-term prognosis. He’s exhibiting signs of extreme fatigue; he’s not sleeping at night, and it’s starting to affect his memory. I’ve given him a sleep aid, but that won’t remedy the slow deterioration of his mental processes. He’s endured a lot of trauma, and he’s becoming delusional. We were able to get something out of him yesterday, but I can’t say if that’ll continue. That was probably his limit.”

Don frowned. He knew this conversation was coming for a few days now, and with the message he got this morning, he really didn’t want to have it here in front of everyone.

“He’s also complaining about intense headaches. I’m treating him for the pain, but that’s only a temporary fix. At some point, I’ll have to deal with the root cause if you want him to remain viable,” Doc continued with a firm tone, softening a bit as he closed his remarks. “I know this is ultimately your decision, sir, but I have to advise you to lay off on any further interrogations for the time being. Let him regain some of his composure. Otherwise, I fear he won’t last much longer.”

Don raised his hands in an apologetic gesture. “Doc, look, I hear you. I really do and I absolutely agree. Hell, I’ve started to even feel bad for the poor shev. I mean, even with that revelation, I’m to the point where I think this poor fool had no bloody clue what he was getting into. But, there’s some--sensitivities--though, and I would rather we take this conversation offline. Come see me in my office afterwards, alright?”

He looked back at his notes and then back up at Jak Ulno. “Follow-up on the Weequay aand let’s compare notes from yesterday’s session with Abot to see if there is any correlation. It might be worth dragging the trash back here from Jyvus after all. Okay, anyone have anything else?”
​

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins @HanSolo29 @BLemelisk @KraytDragon90 @supermatt6 @galactic-vagabond422

 

IC: Lt. Jak Ulno
Special Task Unit 6/16 Tactical Operations Center

Jak had been keeping up with the meeting and making his own notes on the general operational situation they were dealing with.

While Jerric and Dorn worked over the Alderaan leads, Jak's thoughts turned to his sister Myrcella. She had been on-world there during the Empire Day attacks, and it had nearly killed him to be out of contact with her for hours while she was presumed dead. He admittedly lost some of the conversation, his mind half in the Ops Center, and half in a dark place six weeks ago. As his concentration resurfaced, the unit seemed to have a solid lead to go on in that direction.

He reached for another pull of his tea to bring his focus back while Bren Darnell revealed some interesting information. The Six-One-Six's only permanent resident, Twi'lek Abot’nijow, divulged during some of his "special attention," that Weequay thugs had fenced him the droids he was guilty of planting during the bombings. Now that IS interesting.

The doctor and Col. Mathgro discussed the prisoner's state of health before the colonel turned to Jak.

"Follow-up on the Weequay and let’s compare notes from yesterday’s session with Abot to see if there is any correlation. It might be worth dragging the trash back here from Jyvus after all."

"I'd love to know if Abot was near Duro before the attacks. I could definitely find out, given the Doc's go ahead of course." His rage over the attacks had started to seep back in before he breathed and retained his composure, clearing his throat, "But I have a good connection on Jyvus, we'll have something back from them soon, I can find you two afterward."

TAG: @GenOochy @HanSolo29 @galactic-vagabond422 @KraytDragon90 @supermatt6 @DarkLordoftheFins

 

Aven Dorn
ISB meeting room, Corellia

Aven nodded at the comment to discuss this post-briefing. At least he would see some action. Despite what everybody seemed to think you did not get any info by reading what others dogged up. They had already plenty of leads. If any of them was meant to go somewhere they needed to work them.

Alderaan wasn't hot anymore. It could hardly be expected the cell hang out there anymore. But identifying the suspects could at least lead to a manhunt.

The Doctor was concerned about the patient. He wanted to restrict access. Aven could not help but smile at the nativity of the man. "Seriously?" He asked and was eager to see how the Colonel handled this one. He really did not inspire loyalty or admiration among his people. That much was for sure. Military.

Aven went through potential approaches to Alderaan, while the discussion about medical conditions of what he considered to be a dead man were ongoing.

Tag: @GenOochy, @HanSolo29 , @BLemelisk, @KraytDragon90 , @supermatt6, @galactic-vagabond422

 

IC: Anastasia 'Whisper' Ulyanova
TOC, Suite 40-B1, Building 1902, Coronet City, Corellia

Anastasia remained quiet sipping on her caf while the other agents gave their reports. Nothing that seemed interesting...to her at the very least. A smuggler with explosives and an R2 unit. It could be a lead but, it all felt just a little circumstantial. She pulled out her datapad unlocking it with her thumbprint and passcode that she changed regularly. No security was impenetrable, she knew that better than most but, she took as many precautions she could. The main one being that it was rarely far from her grasp. She was not paranoid, when you work in this field you know you are a target. Your anonymity was not assured everything they knew about their enemy could be known about them. It was all about who acted first.

Another long sip as a lab was mentioned on Alderaan by Dorn. It might have been abandoned but there was still a question in her mind...Did they leave any datapads, datadisks, or other storage devices? Before she could ask Dorn asked a question of his own.

"...the question is do we wanna storm his liar and keep him from that meeting?"

That seemed like a question for the Colonel not her. Dorn seemed very focused on infiltrating the group figuring out how they worked from the inside. Most of what Anastasia knew was that their communications were very secure, not unbreakable but, difficult to crack. At least the communications between Gonduddi and his friends were. She had been working for days to finally once and for all break it but, hadn't. Maybe once she got her hands on the devices she could tear them apart and figure out how they work and break the code. It would be a boon to her team and get an annoyance off her mind.

"I want him back here so I can pull as much information as possible out of him." Their commander replied, "I also want his commlink and datapads." The slicer's head snapped up at this mention, yes she would need everything the team could get their hands on. Herself and Cain could do a lot of work with whatever was recovered, as long as it was recovered intact. She could still work with broken equipment but, it would be far more work and only yield incomplete information at best...and nothing at worst.

She took another swig of her caf noticing that it was already half gone. Her brow rose when Cain began to talk.

"The boys in white were able to get some fragments of the carrier droids from the attacks to my lab." She nodded her head. That was where he went. She had wondered were he'd gotten him to last night. He managed to pull something out of that mess. It impressed her slightly, though her face didn't show it. It seemed their leads were multiplying a small team being stretched in many directions.

There were going to be more sleepless nights for her.

"Regarding Talos, we should probably check Hutts," Dorn spoke again. "These guys used Huttese. They might use the organized criminals there to move their assets. Would make sense regarding the logistics. Hutts have their network to move stuff with discretion."

"Alright," Colonel Mathgro replied, "someone do me a favor and look in the database to see if there are any known Neimoidian associates with any of the major Hutt criminal networks. I can’t imagine there are too many; they don’t tend to run in the same spheres. Someone take that for action, please."

Anastasia waited for a moment wondering if Cain was going to jump on that. Data mining was his skill, she was better at cryptography. That didn't mean she couldn't do it but, she rather not step on someone else's toes.

"I can sir," she said quietly during a lull in the conversation.

It was the only lull as the doctor spoke, informing the team of the previous interrogation session. It was strange, wasn't that the lead interrogator's job? What was a doctor doing sitting in on them unless…She shook her head busying herself with her datapad. She started her search through the databases looking for Neimoidians with ties to the Hutts. It should be simple enough but, it did take away from her decryption work which to her was of the utmost importance.

However, she was a good worker. Her boss says do, she does.

The conversation about the wellbeing of their prisoner was drowned out in her mind. She had work to do, the fate of the man in the cell was not her problem, nor was it her decision. Live, die, imprisoned for the rest of his life, it didn't matter to her, didn't affect her work...unless this man had the key to the cypher she was working on.

Which was highly doubtful. He seemed to just be a patsy.

There was a part of her that felt some pity but, in the end…

His life wasn't in her hands...His blood wouldn't be on her if something were to happen.

It was simpler to think this way, it wasn't her problem, it wasn't her decision. Why should she care about something she has no control over?

Best to just keep out and do her job.

TAG: @GenOochy @HanSolo29 @BLemelisk @KraytDragon90 @supermatt6 @DarkLordoftheFins

 

***GAME MASTER POST***
​

Scene II Playlist

08:04 CCT 42.1 AFE
Special Task Unit 6/16 Tactical Operations Center
Suite 40.B Rm.3, Building 1902, Coronet City, Corellia

"I'd love to know if Abot was near Duro before the attacks. I could definitely find out, given the Doc's go ahead of course. But I have a good connection on Jyvus, we'll have something back from them soon, I can find you two afterward."

“I suggest you work from that for now, under the circumstances, I can't allow you access to the prisoner. Not until he’s stable. At which point, I may agree to supervised visits only, but I reserve the right to end the session if I feel he can’t handle the stress.”

"Seriously?"

As the disagreement between the medical officer and two of the intelligence operatives began to brew, the Colonel step in to squash it. He leveled a deadpan stare at Agent Dorn and then to Ulno, gesturing authoritatively towards them with the flimsiplast in his hands.

“Hey, I said that we’d discuss this afterwards. If the Commander says we need to pause interrogations, then that’s what we are doing,” he said, his voice not raising as much as just adopting a significantly more serious tone. He stressed the Doctor’s rank, something he was typically loathed to do.

“Is there anything else?”

He looked around the room, a slightly awkward silence hanging above the hum and whirls of the computer terminals around them.

“Alright, moving on. If I call your name, please follow me to the planning room,” he said as he began reading down a list on his flimsiplast. “Boldub, Borrbuck, Burgrie, Cain, Darnell, Dorn, Hal, Toppmins, Ulno, and Ulyanova. Everyone else, continue on with your day.”

Gesturing across the hall with his flimsiplast, he picked up his caf mug and lead the group over the the smaller planning room, allowing the other analyst to get back to their duties.

The mission planning room (Suite 40.B Rm.5) was just across from the TOC and doubled as the break room, with a caf machine, water cooler, and small cooling unit for those who wanted to pack in a lunch. The table in the center of the room had a small holo projector and Don had already had a projection of the target site up. As soon as everyone was in the room, he closed the door, and moved to the table, setting his caf and flimsiplast down.

“This is the residence that we’ve identified as being the current hiding spot for the former Senator Gonduddi ‘Harbor Notion’. It’s a mountain side villa with a footprint of around three-hundred square meters,” he pointed out the features as he spoke with a pen. “Two above ground stories, two spiral towers, and an unknown underground space. There is a landing pad constructed on the northwest face of the cliff, with a retracting door, so it is assessed to be a hanger space. Our probe droids observing the target structure have yet to see it open, however, we suspect the hanger and landing pad are probably the reason for the construction order a couple years back.”

He switched views to some holo captures of bepedel beings walking in and out of the building. Based on the low quality, it was obvious the images were captured from a few kilometers away.

“The probe droids have been observing individuals entering and leaving the structure over the last forty-eight hours. By last count, there’s likely seven to ten adults in the house, and possibly three to four children. We are detaining everyone the premise, and we will turn everyone we don’t want back here over to the local Army Garrison, who will probably just hand them off to the Jazbinans, if I had to guess. We need to identify who on the scene we want to keep and who we want to give to the locals,” he gave a pause for everyone to digest in the information he was providing before continuing.

“So, we are departing tomorrow morning from Garrison Seventeen. We’ll load up at eleven hundred hours local on the shuttles and take them up the the Star Destroyer Luminous. So on-deck time at is no later than zero-nine-hundred at Seventeen. I want full combat kits for everyone, including the exploitation team. That means long arms, full body armor, including helmets,” he stressed this part, knowing that more than one of the team likely hated to somewhat cumbersome blast helmets. “I have no interest in bringing your scrambled brains back in a bag, so wear your gear. The flight to Jazbina is fourteen hours, give or take, which will put us on target three hours prior to local star rise. There’s no lunar body around Jazbina, so thermos for everyone.”

“Security and rapid support will be provided by Three-Seventieth and we’ll have the Five-Eighty-Eight providing CAS overhead. Luminous will ion-smack the local power grid one minute before we hit objective. Hal, you and the squad are going to be performing a HARL to take the landing platform first. Thirty seconds after Sixteen takes the platform, we’re skids down out front. Borrbuck, your team is out first, followed by exploitation as Three-Seventieth sets security. There won’t be any callout prior to you hitting the door. Go in, subdue the occupants, get them either out in the yard, or the main room for debriefing...and, please, collect every commlinks you find.”

“Exploitation team,” he gestured towards Jak. “I want you right behind the tactical team. Lieutenant Ulno has lead of scene exploitation. Boldub, Toppmins, Ulyanova, you’re with Jak. Primary is the encrypted commlinks and the main computer terminals. Secure any droids as a secondary, and we’ll bring them back for exploit. You’ve probably noticed Slade is still out sick today, but he’ll be on the exploit team as well for field debriefing of any captives. Doc? You’ll be with me, assuming none of us are hurt, your primary is hostile wounded in action, and then we want bios on any E-KIAs. Slade and I will be debriefing the captives while tac-team tears the place apart.”

“What's the ROE?” Asked Constable Borrbuck, who stood to the side of the room, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

“Red, weapons free. If it looks threatening, blast it. Ideally, let’s bring back the Senator alive,” he said, adding as an afterthought. “Let’s also not smoke any of the small ones; that’s just bad press we don’t need.”

There was a low chuckle from more than one being the the room at the Colonel’s dark humor, including the tactical team leader. Borrbuck leaned back and said with a smile, “you know that’s what I wanted to hear.”

“Your team up at Seventeen?” Don asked him.

“Yeah, I told them to just head there after our chat last night. Got ‘em working in the sims based on the floor plans we were able to find on this place. Hope there aren’t any surprises. Just getting as many walktroughs as possible before we hit it.”

Don nodded, glanced down at his wrist-chrono and pursed his lips, taking a moment to think.

“Being short order like this, the rest of you go ahead take the rest of the day to do whatever you need to do to get ready. Corporal...you don’t even have kit, do you?” He asked the young slicer, her face clearly betraying a look of concern, which the Colonel elected to ignore.

“Jak, I’m going to have you take Whisper up to gee-seventeen today. Get her fitted out with plates and a long arm. Boldub, Toppmins, make sure you have all the equipment you need for scene exploit. Final mission details, including call signs and exact timing of execution will be briefed en route on the Luminous. Cain, Dorn, and Burgrie, stay behind. Everyone else..dismissed,” he said a motioned for the door. “...and Doc, I’ll meet you in my office in a minute; just let me get these three rolling.”

As soon as everyone filtered out of the room, and the door slid closed behind them, Don gathered the three officers back to the conference table.

“So, we’re just going to do this from the hip; I’ll work the logistics while you are en route. I’d expect you to stay two, three days at the most. Dorn, go ahead and reach back out to Alderaan and tell them not to touch another mote of dust in that place. Jerric, Aki; take your full tool suites, prepare for anything. I want you to take the building apart down to its base elements. Hopefully, the local idiots didn’t trash it and we can develop something substantial,” he said, pausing for another moment, clearly in a moment of thought from his facial expressions. “Your best bet is going to be is to take a military shuttle, so you can go straight to the site. We’re taking our full complement to Jazbina, so I’ll make a call down to Garrison Seventeen and have them manifest you either a Nu or a Theta to take you to Alderaan. Just do what you need to to prep and head down there, I’ll take care of the rest. Good work to all of you, again. I think we have something this time. You are dismissed.”

As the three were walking out the door, Don spoke again.

“Hey, Jerric, I’ve got a question for you, if you’ve got a moment.”

All three of them paused and turned back. Don shook his head as to indicate the other two could leave. As soon as the door closed behind them he motioned Jerric over by the table and leaned in closer, speaking in a low voice, inaudible to anyone outside the room.

“This is one Corellian to another--well, close enough,” he cracked a smile that faded as fast as it appeared. His tone dropped lower as he spoke. “I need you to watch Agent Dorn for me...I don’t trust spooks like him, never have. So, let me know if you had any issues, anything you hear from him, just...keep me informed.”

Don squinted as he studied the other man’s face, evaluating how well the slicer was taking his request.

"He reminds me of some guys I knew who were a little too happy when the war broke out,” Jerric said, nodding his head. “I'll keep him on task."

He glanced to his left and right, visually sweeping for an intruder he already knew wasn’t there, before he spoke again.

“I would watch yourself around him; he’s the sort that might use someone’s proclivities as leverage against them,” he said, again in a low voice, as he scanned the slicer’s face, looking for anything facial expressions that would confirm his suspicions and indicated understanding. There was a grimace, and a flash of frustration, as if Jerric was biting his tongue on something he wanted to say, but he hid it well.

After a long pause, he spoke in earnest, "thank you, Colonel...and thank you for your candor, I'll take it under advisement."

Don straightened back up, smiled again, and dropped the conspiratorial whisper from his voice,

“You’ve been doing a fantastic job for us, keep it up,” he said and patted the slicer on his back. “We’ll see you when you get back.”

And with that, the Colonel led the way out of the planning room. The two intelligence officers, Agent Dorn and Operative Burgrie, stood outside waiting. The Colonel did a casual half handed salute to them.

“Do us proud out there and I’ll be in touch,” he said before turning and walking straight down the hall to his office without another word.

'One vaguely uncomfortable conversation to the next.'

As he expected he found Darnell in his office, silently looking at the awards, coins, and other memorabilia that Don had set on a transparisteel shelving unit. The office was decorated unlike the rest of the facility, in warm colors, with actual wood, bronzed metals, and leather accents. He motioned with a nod and a hand gesture towards the large, oversized bantha-leather chair that sat opposite of Don’s desk. He closed the door, and walked over to his desk, casually tossing his flimsiplast notes down and taking a seat in the leather and wood chair behind the desk. He let out an exasperated sigh, before launching into it.

“Doc, first of all, let me say, I was not trying to shut you down in there. You are completely within your rights to make the call on the prisoner’s health. That is your job and your helm, I do not want you to think that anyone is going to tell you different. The reasons I didn’t want to have the conversation in there, with everyone, because there’s been a change I need you to be aware of, and I don’t want everyone to necessarily know about it yet,” Don stopped for a moment to gather himself. He could tell from the look on the Doctor’s face that he had at least half a dozen things he wanted to say, and none of them were probably pleasant.

“Before I get into that, though, what did you want to say?”​

TAG: @DarkLordoftheFins @HanSolo29 @BLemelisk @KraytDragon90 @supermatt6 @galactic-vagabond422 @BobaMatt

OOC: Was that all clear as mud? Good.

@DarkLordoftheFins @KraytDragon90 - Intractas you wish, tag me back in when you get to Garrison 17. The NPC is yours to use as needed, let me know via PM if you have any questions.

@galactic-vagabond422 @BLemelisk - Same, complete whatever you had planned at the office and interact as you wish, and then move together to Garrison 17 and tag me in. Let me know if there are questions.

@HanSolo29 - Well, you’re with the Colonel. Pretty self-explanatory.

@supermatt6 - I know you are out of town, when you get back, post intro and bring your character up to speed. We’ll talk about what needs to be done.

@BobaMatt - Character Sheet and then contact me.

The next major GM post that’s not NPCs interacting with you, will have Dorn and Cain on Alderaan and the rest of you descending towards the objective on Jazbina.

As always, PM me if you have questions, and use the OOC thread if you want to start discussing character direction with everyone.

Glossary of Terms
CAS (kah-as) - Combat Air Support
HARL (har-ell) - High-Altitude [jump], Repulsor-Landing
(E-)KIAs (Eee, kay-eye-ays) - (Enemies) Killed in Action
ROE (arr-oh-ee) - Rules of Engagement
Thermos (therm-ohs) - Thermoptical Night Vision
Bios - biological samples (for identification)

 

***GAME MASTER STORY POST***​

Music: Still - Hans Zimmer

Saibish Manor, Darawai Mountain Range
Erinaqin Administrative Region, Planet Jazbina

The balcony off the main dining room overlooked the valley below the cliff which was still obscured by low-hanging morning clouds. A male Jazbina stood on the balcony, a blaster hanging on their side as he diligently observed the terrain around the cliffside dwelling. In the dining hall behind them, the manor’s family ate their morning meal, tended to by the domestic servants. The atmosphere was tense, as it had been for several weeks. At the head of the table sat the former Senator of the planet, once a proud, well-connected member of the royal society, now in hiding in the remote villa with a handful of staff. His wife, to his left, ate her meal in silence, staring down her food. Bura Gonduddi scrolled through the news on his datapad as he ate. Finally, his youngest, who had been absently prodding his meal, spoke in their native tongue.

“Father, why do we have to leave again?”

His wife looked up and began to shush the child, before Bura shook his head.

“No, no, it’s alright. We’ve been here too long, son. The people that want to hurt us might find us if we stay much longer,” he said as sympathetic as he could.

The child stared at their lap, “are we really going to leave the planet?”

“Yes,” Bura said, livening his voice to try and replace the somber mood. “But our new home is going to be surrounded by trees and water and it will be much warmer. We’ll be safe there, you’ll be able to go outside again.”

“But I like it here,” the youngest responded and the oldest child interjected into the conversation.

“I don’t like them,” she began and then clarified. “The red eye men--and their robots--they scare me.”

“We should have just ran when we could,” his wife, Silis-Ma, spoke softly.

“Where to? Where would we go? He’s our only hope for safe--”

“We are never safe with them! You were always just a tool for them!” she shouted as she brought her fist down on the ornate wooden table. “What do you think is going to happ--”

“Silis! The children, please,” Bura said taking her hand in an effort to calm her. “Silis, I am doing everything I can for us. Please.”

Silis stood up in anger jerking her hand back from his. Her chair falling back to strike the floor with a sharp crash. One of the domestic servants cautiously peered into the dining hall from the kitchen.

“You’ve killed us all you arrogant fool!” She spat at barely holding back tears of rage, turned and fled the room.

“Silis!” he called after her. “Silis!”​

Unknown Warehouse
Southern Polar Region, Planet Telos IV

“...with this we are now ready for the second phase,” a tall Neimoidian said in Huttese, gesturing out the window of the observation deck that lookes out across the large warehouse. A mixed crew of various beings and droid moved about the warehouse floor working on the five transport ships that we parked below.

“Excellent, Vulture will be pleased. You are only two weeks behind schedule,” spoke a Koorivar, in the same language. He stood at the window, hands clasped behind themselves. “Perhaps we could have waited around another week and just sent the Empire an invitation to this place.”

“Uh-our-our facility here is completely legal, there’s no reason the authorities would search it...the final mix was not ready for delivery until yesterday it is hardly our fault,” stammered the Neimoidian.

“Timing is everything, Overseer...and what of the Jazbinan? Has he arrived?” The Koorivar turned and walked back towards the lift at the rear of the observation deck.

“He is...hesitant. I spoke to him two days ago, he was supposed to be leaving tomorrow, but as I said, he is hesitant to trust us further,” the Neimoidian said walking with the Koorivar.

“Well, that’s a pity, but wise of him. I’ll dispatch Crodil to take care of them on Jazbina then. We’ve contacted the Hutts about our other...problem. It will be taken care of. How long till we can execute?”

“No more than three days, General,” said the Neimoidian, adding with a voice of hesitant curiosity, “and Vulture has the assurances from his Lordship that the wealth of the Federation will be reinstated? We were promised so much at the end of the war, and those promises seem to have died with Viceroy Gunray.”

“You and your people will be rewarded, The Plan is still in place...Mustafar simply...delayed the reward.”

“And what assurances do we have that we will not be disposed of like Gunray--like, well, Gonduddi? We are taking an awful risk here, General, and the reward is always just ‘around one more corner’. What assurance do I have?” he asked, becoming increasingly forceful in this tone. The Koorivar keyed the door for the lift and stepped in alone. He turned back to the Overseer and smiled.

“You don’t, but what choice do you have?”

The lift door closed leaving the Overseer standing alone.​

The Crokite Field Tavern
District 24Z8, Level 242
Planet Coruscant

The bar was deficiently lit and the musk of a hundred different species hung heavy in the air. The music and the din from the late evening crowd made it difficult to have any normal volume conversation in most of the establishment. The crowd was mix of low-class workers, bruisers, mercenaries, and other malefactors. At a private booth, three women, an Icarii and two humans, were sipping on vibrantly colored cocktails. Their attire was rough and utilitarian, body art and piercings clearly marking them as part of the underworld. They were carrying on in a jovial manner until a male Rodian approached their table.

“Not interested,” one of the humans said preemptively to any advance from the green-skined alien. The Icarii sighed and rolled her eyes as she sat back in the booth with her armed crossed.

“No, I know what he’s here for. Greedo, why the hell are you back on Coruscant?” she exasperatedly said, glaring at the Rodian merc.

“They have another job for you,” he said in Rodese.

“One that turns me unwittingly into a mass murderer again? Frak off,” she responded in Basic.

“With a body count like yours, they didn’t think you’d mind quite so much.”

“Are we getting cut into this one?” the other human said in annoyance, directed more at the Icarii than the Rodian. “Or are you leaving us out again?”

“This one is a favor from the Hutts, at the behest of Vulture,” the Rodian said. “I’m sure the reward will be enough for you and your compatriots.”

The Icarrii leaned back forward to take her drink and motioned for the Rodian to take a seat.

“What are they offering and for what?” she asked clearly skeptical of the offer.

“Seventy-five flat. There’s a pirate that got himself rolled up. He’s been a snitch in the past and Vulture would prefer he’d not blather to the Empire to save his skin. Jabba is happy to have the trash taken out of Ohnaka's band as well,” Greedo said after taking a seat, and motioned to a wait staff droid. The Icarii glanced to her two comrades, both of which looked distrustful of the Rodian’s proposal.

“That sort of money sounds like I'm going to get killed. Let’s hear the details,” she finished in Rodese.​

Tag: No One

 

IC: Anastasia 'Whisper' Ulyanova
TOC, Suite 40-B1, Building 1902, Coronet City, Corellia

"Alright, moving on. If I call your name, please follow me to the planning room," After ending the standoff between agents, Colonel Mathgro, got to business. Anastasia started turning away. It was obviously a planning meeting for the raid on the Senator's hiding place, surely her name wouldn't be called…"and Ulyanova." She stopped in her tracks head turning in disbelief. Why did he need her. Not willing to object, or make a scene she followed the others into the planning room, stopping to refill her cup with caf. She couldn't hide the subtle shake to her hand. She hadn't sat in on these meetings, and didn't know what to do...other than stay silent.

Her eyes took in the information, how could she not, it was right in front of her. She had a general idea of the layout of Gonduddi hideaway but, seeing it first hand made it a bit more real. She saw the landing pad, the spires, the hangar, her mind filing away all the data.

"...possibly three to four children." The Colonel continued, Anastasia's eyes widened. Children, there were children there. She screwed them shut, that wasn't her problem...not her problem. Surely she was just here to give an assessment of the what she needed back from the location, what the teams should be looking for when they raid the house. More logistics were spilled forth, the team needed to leave by 1100, meaning they needed to be at the pad by 0900.

"...I want full combat kits for everyone, including the exploitation team. That means long arms, full body armor, including helmets," Mathgro put extra emphasis on the last words. Anastasia's heart pounded in her chest. The thought of even needing to use her pistol made her nervous, much less a full rifle. The roaring voice of her trainer echoed in the back of her mind as she failed again and again to hit her target. She nearly dropped the blaster the first time she pulled the trigger. It was a grueling week and at the end of it she just barely passed, not that she wanted to.

More logistics, more laying out of the plan all very tight and militant and over the young woman's head except, the clear order to collect all comlinks. Her head came up at the mention the one thing she could comment on she was about to speak when their commander cut her off.

"Exploitation team," he barked gesturing towards Lt. Ulno. "I want you right behind the tactical team. Lieutenant Ulno has lead of scene exploitation. Boldub, Toppmins, Ulyanova, you’re with Jak." Her face blanched, she was going to be on the scene...no...no she was just an analyst she shouldn't be on the front lines. Her heart nearly lept into her throat, sweat beading on her brow.

"Corporal…" Her head snapped up eyes wide with trepidation, "you don’t even have kit, do you?" She shook her head hand vibrating with nervous energy.

"Jak, I’m going to have you take Whisper up to gee-seventeen today. Get her fitted out with plates and a long arm." Her terrified gaze turned to the older operative part of her nearly pleading with him to say no to speak up to say something. She couldn't she was just a Corporal, the youngest of the team, anything she said would be thrown to the side, disregarded.

"Everyone else..dismissed," Anastasia took a long sip of her caf walking nearly stunned out of the room. She couldn't process this, couldn't think about it. All she could do was walk next to Lt. Ulno and hope this was all some sort of halluicnation brought on by too little sleep.

"He can't be serious." she said eyes locked ahead hands wrapped around her cup, still shaking.

TAG: @BLemelisk @GenOochy @HanSolo29 @DarkLordoftheFins @KraytDragon90 @supermatt6

 

IC : Jerric Cain

“We’ll see you when you get back.” As Jerric trailed the Colonel out of the briefing room to where the other agents were gathered, his thoughts were stuck on the rather pointed warning. He hadn't worked with the other officer too long, and their paths had rarely crossed during the war. The two didn't know each other, but the Colonel apparently knew enough to make the warning. His experiences during the Clone Wars had taught him that some being cared about what other did in their spare time and others didn't give much of a fek. It was good to know who was which.

Upon exiting the chamber, Jerric saw the other officers gathered there and he turned to Agent Dorn. As with the Colonel, he hadn't worked with the other man much yet, but he had made a point to read the relevant files. Though some remained sealed, it gave him enough of an idea of who he was working with. "So Alderaan, then. Tell me about it. The war never took me that direction, myself." He made a gesture down the corridor and began walking towards the barracks.

TAG: @DarkLordoftheFins

 

Aven Dorn
ISB meeting room, Corellia

Aven had not missed the detail his "colleague" had been singled out for a one-on-one. Oh there was a good reason intelligence usually commanded military and not the other way around. That and the reference to command chain quite revealing about the Colonel. Intelligence did not care about ranks outside intelligence.

"Never been there myself. Firm Republic loyalists which saw no combat." He sighed. "Peaceful high culture world through. A lot of grass I heard."

Aven walked to the barracks. "So we are among us now? How shall we approach this? I am not a great believer in kicking in doors." He smiled. "Then again I am not the new best friend of Colonel Doorkicker."


Tag: @GenOochy, @KraytDragon90

 

IC: Lt. Jak Ulno
Special Task Unit 6/16, Mission Planning Room

There were two takeaways from the briefing. First, Jak was finally going to be on his first major deployment on a world other than Coruscant in his career. He was both excited and even a little scared at the prospect, but he knew to stick to his training and experience and he would be fine. The second takeaway however, was that he was supposed to have a complete newbie on his team, Anastasia 'Whisper' Ulyanova. And that scared him a hell of a lot more.

"A good officer doesn't betray their lack of confidence to their men. Doubt is poison, and it seeps into everything they do," his father's voice rang in his head.

He was diligently scribbling notes onto his pad as the meeting concluded. ISD Luminance...ion smack power grid...data exploit-terminals, comms, droids...get Whisper ready for combat? Perhaps he was writing just a little too verbosely as he became aware that Anastasia was blowing in the wind of the meeting aftermath.

A slight jog caught him up with her as they moved down the hallway back toward the Ops center.

"He can't be serious," was all she managed to get out. She reminded him of a refugee clutching their last belongings, but in this case it was just a cup of caf.

"Hey, you're on the exploitation team, Borrbuck and his squad will take care of the scene before we're even on it." He tried to brighten her up a little, but he didn't think it was terribly effective knowing 'Take care' was universally translated as 'kill people.' "Look, we'll take it nice and easy today and get up to G17 early afternoon and get you outfitted. Besides, I'm bigger and can cover you, and that plasteel armor will deflect a glancing blaster bolt. I should be able to take a round or two before I go down." Jak was more acquainted with gallows humor than most.

TAG: @galactic-vagabond422, @GenOochy, Others

 

Master Sargeant Pontius Slade
Lead interrogator, Unit 6/16
Coronet apartment

Slade's eyes slid open to see a large glassy one looking down at him. His heart seized in his chest and he gritted his teeth for combat, but then he took stock. He remembered. Looking around his room - this was his spartan apartment, this was his bed, and the ID-10 seeker droid hovering over his head staring down at him was just Jaig'ika. Slade closed his eyes, took deep breaths, took stock. He was suddenly aware of his own clamminess, of the pool of sweat below him on the bed. Was he supposed to be at huddle? No, he was out. Out sick, the Colonel would say. Cute euphemism.

One more breath, and he felt the adrenaline leave him, felt his muscles slacken. Droids were so common, but the war had recontextualized them. It was hard to work with them, now. He reached up and shoved Jaig'ika across the room, hearing her repulsors whine in protest. "I told you not to do that." Jaig'ika tweedled a reply, registering concern. As Slade stood up, he felt a pain in his side that let him know why - his bandage was leaking.

Painfully, Slade stood from the bed and crossed to a cigarra stub from the night before. He held it out to Jaig, who floated over and lit it with an attachment. He took a drag and felt some of the pain subside. This particular cigarra was terrible, but it would do.

The door to Slade's bedroom slid open and he emerged into the sunlight of the living area. A couch. A display screen. A table. A chair. A book-case. Jaig'ika's charging station. Not much else, except his uniform tunic crumpled in a corner. It still stank of char and tibanna gas. Since bending low was painful, Slade used his toes to pick it up high enough to transfer to his hand. He examined the hole burned through the tunic's side, and reflexively reached for the bacta patch on his own side. He grunted and flung the tunic into the waste disposal on his way to the fresher.

Out sick.

It's possible Doc was the only one who knew what happened: a frustrated, too young, trigger-happy stormtrooper officer - Slade couldn't even remember his name - threatening to shoot the Twi'lek prisoner in the knees, pulling his weapon, Slade intervening, the man's weapon going off. He'd been assured the upstart was receiving severe punishment, but these interjurisdictional cases were always dicey. Well, they'd never been so dicey that he'd taken friendly fire, before. As he cleaned his teeth, Slade peeled the bacta patch from his side. There'd been enormous progress, but there was still a hole in him. Slade spit in the sink and fished around under it for another bacta patch. He looked at the time, and sighed. He needed the time to recover, but he didn't have to like it. Opening a cabinet, he found a syringe that would dull the pain. He jabbed it into his side, then tossed it down the chute after the burned tunic.

"Jaig'ika. Contact the Coronel and find out what happened at the huddle. And tell Doc I'm out of bacta patches, and can I please have some more before my guts fall out?"

With a few swift motions Slade had his hair up and way from his face. He sat on his couch again. As the drug kicked in, he dozed to the sound of Jaig'ika transmitting messages.

TAGGED: @GenOochy, @HanSolo29

 

Game Master IC: Colonel Donnas Mathgro
08:11 CCT 42.1 AFE
CO’s Office, Suite 40.B Rm.5
Building 1902, Coronet City, Corellia

“It’s not important. Nothing that can’t be handled in the breakroom or after hours, sir, but anyway, what--” The Doctor dismissed his inquiry with an inference that the Colonel took to be that he would straighten out the intelligence agent on his own. As Doc began to change the subject back to the detainee his datapad chirped with a message. Looking down at it with some annoyance, he quickly typed a response and looked back up.

“Sorry, sir. Needy patient. So, what’s going on with Abot?” He asked. The ‘needy patient’, Don surmised, was their interrogator, Master Sergeant Slade, who’d been the unfortunate recipient of an accidental discharge. Don didn’t know all the details, and he didn’t want to. He knew what he had reported up and for all he cared, that was exactly what happened inside the debriefing cell.

“I really hope he can fly tomorrow, we need him,” the Colonel said twisting his lips as he glanced up at Doc and then back to his computer. He laid his hand on the palm scanner and inserted his code cylinder to access the database. “As for Abot--this is what is going on.”

He leaned over the desk and turned the computer’s viewscreen around to face the doctor, displaying the termination message he had received that morning, and then settled back into his chair, looking to the Doctor and waiting for his reaction.

“Frankly, Doc, I don’t know how to handle this,” he said after a brief pause.

Tag: @HanSolo29

 

IC : Jerric Cain


"Never been there myself. Firm Republic loyalists which saw no combat. Peaceful high culture world through. A lot of grass I heard." Jerric nodded as the other agent sighed. It matched what his research on the world had told him. The planet was filled theoretical pacifism and old credits, both of which helped keep the world away from the worst of the destruction of the Wars. Cain’s opinion remained that the greased palms helped more than the supposed pacifism and loyalty of the system.


"So we are among us now? How shall we approach this? I am not a great believer in kicking in doors. Then again I am not the new best friend of Colonel Doorkicker." Jerric shook his head as Aven grinned at him. ”The Colonel and I met in passing a few times during the War, I handled data retrieval on a swarm of those frakkin Buzz droids for his team after the first battle over Christophis.” Jerric winced at the memory before punching the turbolift call button. ”A couple other things like that, but I’ve never worked directly for him before this bombing mess.”


The slicer tilted his head to the side as he listened to the lift approach. ”I’m definitely not the doorkicker kind either, I’ve always preferred to let the boys in white handle that. But if your cell has ditched the lab like you said, it probably won’t be immediately necessary. Hopefully they were sloppy enough to leave some traces in their digital systems for us to get at.” He gestured for Aven to board the lift as the doors opened and stepped in behind him. ”Of course if they ditched the entire Alderaanian system, we’re kind of at a dead end. Did the agents on the surface have any further details for you on the lab?” With this Jerric selected floor 35, living quarters for those of 6/16 that choose to make use of them. While he maintained a small property on Tralus, he never felt the need to do the same on Corellia proper, especially given how often he actually slept on Floor 37.

TAG : @DarkLordoftheFins

OOC: Forgot we were in a tower in my last post, course correcting us to take a turbolift down to living quarters/armory level of the tower