Salvation of a Doomed Star

[Director Isard]

Outgoing Message to Intel Agents Xao Shedim, Jared Thule, Sniper Tondry, Dr. Quill:

38:8:20:17:01:37-IIHQ-COR.1.IPC-STTQ

<h2>Special Operations Orders
# 31894.98 J/4</h2>
Operation Starbuster - Team Jenth

Please meet at the following drop point to receive your orders:

Location: Mt. Jhabarr, Halbara, Elrood Sector
Services: Orders, equipment supply
Primary Contact: Comm Channel 7349.2, encryption code N21-H
Secondary Contact: Comm Channel 2588.3, encryption code T33-A
Planned Duration available: Comm channels will be monitored for 4 hours each standard day, from 0200-0600 GST during this operation

STTQ-IPGV-INS-38:8:20:17:02:55


(OOC)
Closed Thread. If you wish to participate as we go along, please contact us at the Intel Visitor's Board.

[Jared Thule]

The blue ion bolt nailed the lead X-wing's left S-foil. Azure lightning played across the forward shield, boiling it away. The shield didn't collapse, but the lightning storm on the shield made it tougher for the pilot to see Jared's fighter. His return went wide on either side, then they were past each other before he could get another shot.

Jared rolled to starboard and held it slow and showed the other his belly, then yanked back on his stick and started a dive. The X-wing rolled to set himself up to come after him, and Jared knew he had him.

He cranked his throttle down to thirty percent, then reversed it, killing his momentum. He let it hang there for three seconds, then dialed thrust back up. As he did so, the X-wing went streaking by him, and Jared dropped into his exhaust. His first shot nailed the X-Wing's rear shield. It broke right, so Jared climbed, inverted and ruddered his way back onto his tail.

Jared's wingman raced past and pumped two laser blasts into him. One collapsed the X-Wing's aft shield, and the other holed its starboard S-foil. The X-Wing's roll slowed appreciably and became unstable as the vector jets in the damaged S-foil weren't matching the output from the other side. The pilot just goosed his throttle forward to get away, since he couldn't fly fancy anymore - so he tried to outrun the TIE's.

'This guy's a nutcase to think he's got a chance,' Jared thought, then nailed him with a single shot from the rear that stabbed deep into the cockpit. The X-wing dove and spun out of control, indicating that the pilot was vaped for sure.

The front screen went black all of a sudden, and Jared let go of his stick. 'The simulator shutting down on its own? How could that be?' he wondered, then sat back in his seat as a message scrolled across the opaque screen.

'So they finally found a mission to send me on. It's about time - apart from flying simulator runs in my TIE there isn't much to do around here.'

He leaned back and went through a few possibilities in his head. Getting to Halbara was no problem - his TIE Phantom was his own, and he could just fly out whenever he wanted to. The question was the equipment he should take.

The group he'd been working in for a while, as Intrusion and Demolitions spec, had relied on each member acquiriing and preparing the equipment necessary for a mission. Often a mission had been saved just by a single piece of equipment someone had thought of bringing along quite by chance.

But this was different - Intel could afford to equip their members with their own material. Which did not mean he couldn't take a few things himself...

With a slight smile playing over his mouth, 40 minutes later he exited a darkened hall he had found on his first tour around the Intel Training facility. This one had been holding a treasure for him - demolitions gadgets of all kinds, from explosive strings to specialised detonators. He'd be a fool to leave them behind...

Carrying a small bag of his belongings and a bigger bag full of components, he headed for the small Hangar at the front of the Lusankya, and prepped his TIE Phantom for the long flightto the Halbara system.>

[c]<table BGcolor=black border=3 bordercolor=875546 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5><tr><td><img src=http://darthogre.clanpages.com/sigshop/Jared.jpg witdth=208 height=245></td><td>[c]<img src=http://darthogre.clanpages.com/sigshop/Jared2.jpg width=250 height=55>

[Xao Shedim]

Being careful not to crush it in his metal grasp, Xao Shedim held the macrobinoculars up to his visor, trying without success to adjust them so they fit his face. “Blasted organic inventions... they never consider anyone else when they make their toys.” Normally, he would have just used his own vision enhancement systems that were built right in, but for this job, he didn’t want to be anywhere near the target point. His finger twitched, turning a small knob on the side of the handheld object until his view was centered on the steep cliff several miles away.

His internal chronometer counted away the seconds remaining until the Ambassador’s transport ship would land, and Xao could just barely see it approaching in the distant sky. His free hand was motionlessly poised over the detonator at his side, hovering just a few inches over a small button. This would be one of the easiest jobs he’d had in a while: the Corellian Ambassador was practically setting himself up for something like this.

The chronometer warbled a small alert, and Xao Shedim’s hand simultaneously dropped on the detonator button. The thunderous roar carried for a longer distance than Shedim had estimated it would, reaching all the way to where he was standing. He was forced to shut down his auditory input to save it from damage. With no way of hearing for the next few moments, Xao totally missed his comlink beeping for his attention. Instead, he focused on the scene at hand, as gigantic boulders rolled down from the mountainside, obliterating the unwary ship below. If he had a face, he might be smiling.

Only when he re-enabled his auditory sensors did he hear the insistent beeping coming from the communicator mounted on his wrist. He raised it to about the height where his mouth would be (were he a human) and enabled it, speaking in his harsh, metallic voice.

“Special Ops agent Shedim here. What is it?”

“Drokkin’ Hell! What took you so long to answer?”

“I had to temporarily disable my hearing. Now what do you want? Have you got a mission for me?”

“Indeed we do... report back and we’ll fill you in.”

[Dr Quill]

Quill completed his notes on his latest virus experiment, and put the datapad down. He had gotten his orders to proceed to Halbara, and he was none too happy to be heading out into the field again. He preferred to stay cocooned in his labs with his experiments to traipsing off across the heavens in harms way, but he really had nothing urgent going on now, so he could not work up any anger at being sent into the field again. He just hated fieldwork and the long space trips they required, but it was part of being an Intel agent, after all. He was just glad he would not be working with that ape Oludh again. With a shake of his head, he left for his quarters to complete his packing.

He submitted his request for field supplies to be awaiting him on Halbara, and stowed the clothes he would need. Then, with a quick check of his door, he opened the hidden panel to his private lab, where he had the personal equipment he had purchased with false budget items buried in his expense submittals. From here he took his satchel, with its equipment for collecting and analyzing genetic material, and some securely packed vials.

Standing in the hangar, he looked over the ship he would be using for his trip to Halbara. Like all Intel agents, he had completed pilot training, but was really a poor flyer. The Z-95 Headhunter was a good ship, but he could see where parts had been replaced and repainted, or patched. He realized that he would not get a hot new fighter for such a simple hop, but this ship definitely looked like it had seen better days!

The tech he had corralled into doing the preflight check nodded and grunted at him as he walked away, so Quill took that to mean the ship was nominally spaceworthy, so he climbed in. While powering up the engines, he studied the controls, and was pleased to see that he recognized most of them.

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” he said out loud, then looked around embarrassed as the words echoed in the hangar. The tech that had checked his ship turned for a second from where he was talking to a friend, then they both strode off, laughing at some private joke. Quill shut the cockpit, and prepared to leave for orbit.

The ship lifted smoothly on its repulsorlifts, and then swung around to arrow out into the atmosphere and climb towards the clouds. He plotted his course and prepared to go to lightspeed. Very proud with himself, he lazily leaned over to push the craft to full speed when he accidentally fired off a burst from the triple-blasters, narrowly missing a freighter nearby.

“Oh, crap!” he bellowed, then jumped out of the system just as the comm began to squawk.

[Sniper Tondry]

Pierce pressed his thumb to his datapad’s screen. The computer inside the datapad took a digital analysis of the thumbprint, then searched its files for a matching print. After it had the match, it took the recognition code assigned to the print and sent it to another program. The code was decrypted, matched again, and upon confirming the code as an Imperial one with high-priority connotations, reacted with the utmost speed by attaching a positive marker, re-encrypting the code, and sending the entire thing back to the datapad’s interface-level processors.

At the bottom of the document, Pierce’s signature appeared and the form was signed.

Muttering to himself, Pierce sent the form out and opened his computer’s incoming folder to call up another one. The last one, thankfully. He read through it, skimming over several parts of the form he recognized as procedural jargon, and ended it by pressing his thumb to the datapad’s screen again. The computer did its thing and the form was signed. The screen reverted to the “Received Items” automatically.

There was something there.

Pierce stared at the screen. Didn’t these damn things ever quit?

Sighing resignedly, Pierce let his thumb activate the decryption program. The encoded letters in the message heading reverted to the forms they had been before whoever had sent it. The sender was Ysanne Isard, which made him sit up. What would she want with him on Coruscant?

After reading the message, and the short addendum that only his recognition code would be able to make readable, Pierce grinned. He called up the list of available agents remaining on Coruscant and found that Tau Team had just put in for a green alert status. How handy.

Pierce opened up another program and keyed in a short message.


Dear guys,

Aunt Lucy isn’t feeling well. She wants me to be available to receive my inheritance, and I know I promised you guys a round after it was done. If you can clear your schedules, meet me at the usual place and we’ll head out.

Lance


He pressed the send button. In a short period of time, the message would be delivered to Tau Team, and then Pierce could get out of his new office and back into the field.

[Aliya Vahlshalynn]

Her mouth was so dry and her head felt like it was floating on air. It felt like her body was swaying back and forth on the cold surface on which she layed. She slowly opened her eyes and had to close them quickly, for even the dim light that shone through somewhere was so harsh on them. Groaning, she tried swallowing to get the moisture back to her mouth, but her face twisted into a look of disgust. She was gagged and whoever put this in her mouth must have dipped it in bantha drok.

Finally she was able to blink herself to full consciousness, her eyes adjusting to the light that was coming from directly ahead. As she crained her next around she sighed, and then choked from the gag in her mouth. As her body convulsed with her hacking, she found that her hands and feet have been bound too. From the feel of it, from moving her hands and feet, the bindings were connected to each other from the lack of slack that she wasn't getting.

She curled herself into a ball and edged her way to the wall behind her. Once she felt something solid on her back, she pressed herself against it and worked her way into a sitting position. Now that she was upright, she could finally get a good idea what her prison looked like.

The light that she saw was coming from underneath her cell door. Turning to her left, there was a cot pushed up against the wall with nothing on it, except for the rat that scurried away. To her right was absolutly nothing. The floor looked dirty, but she really couldn't tell. As her eyes scanned back, a shadow passed under the door, blocking what little light she had available, and then disappeared.

She closed her eyes and lightly bounced her head off the wall in frustration and anger at herself.

Good job Aliya. Stupid girl, you know better. How did you get in this mess?

Aliya tries digging in her mind to remember the last thing she was doing before she ended up here. She was headed back to the headquarters of Imperial Intelligence, not surprised that they accepted her application to join. She was to meet Director Isard herself upon her landing. It was somewhere enroute that ... she growled. Things started to become fuzzy again.

If Aliya could smack her head she would to try and jog her memory, but that would be a futile gesture anyway. She knew full well that all she had to do was concentrate. Start remembering small details like, the warning lights coming on. She can picture her bodyguard, Dane, saying things to her, but she couldn't hear what he was saying. Explosion in the back of the ship. Turning and grabbing a weapon. Aiming at black fatigued soldiers. A flash of light ... then nothing.

Opening her eyes, the full realization of what happened hit her. Someone kidnapped her and Dane is either dead or captured with her. Most likely dead. Why she was kidnapped was simple. Being a Moff's daughter is a beautiful ploy for ransom. Especially a Moff of very high technological and prosperous sector like Ralltiir.

Aliya knew better. Her kidnapping went deeper then someone so easily figured out. Most likely whoever took her, knew of her father's shady dealings and this is why she is here now. Of course, where here is is another problem in and of itself.

The light underneath the cell blacked out and Aliya darted her eyes in that direction. To see was pointless since her only source of light was gone. Instead, she closed her eyes and opened her ears, concentrating on what was happening on the other side of the door.

She could hear muffled voices and could make out only a few words. Aliya heard her name mentioned and the word Nova caught her attention. Her eyes snapped open when the last thing Aliya heard was, "She's awake."

The doors creaked open and the light blinded her senses. The gag in her mouth muffled her whimper as she turned her head away from the door. From what she could tell, a couple pairs of footsteps entered the cell.

She jerked away on reflex as a hand stroked her cheek. A man's voice spoke that she didn't recognize, "So beautiful and so powerful. Such a shame to damage perfection."

Aliya could feel the hand slide through her hair, "Don't worry, once Daddy gives us what we want, we'll let you go. So no worries luv."

A few pats on her head and the hand was gone, "Time for sleepy sleep, Aliya."

A sharp crack across her head caused everything to burst into a sea of stars, followed by the endless darkness.

[Dr Quill]

The bright, blurry streaks of multicolored light tapered into discreet stars as Quill entered the Halbara system and slowed from lightspeed. He took his time edging in towards the planet, but noticed nothing out of the ordinary. As he plotted an orbit, he broadcast on comm channel 7349.2, using the mission encryption code. To his annoyance, Jekaan Oludh answered the hail, and gave him the flight path and landing coordinates.

‘Damn Oludh, it seems like I’m destined to never be rid of the man,’ he thought as he made his approach to the coordinates.

He searched with increasing agitation for some landing lights or other indication of his target as he neared the surface, but the alpine terrain showed no sign of a flat surface anywhere, never mind a landing field. He slowed to a crawl as he reached the indicated rendezvous point, but saw nowhere to land. He began to suspect a joke from Oludh and his brows pinched in anger.

A curse died unborn on his lips, though, as what he had taken for a rocky cliff before him resolved itself into a camouflaged landing bay in the sheer side of the precipice. He slid the Headhunter in softly on its repulsorlifts, and looked around at a fully operational Intelligence outpost dug from the very roots of its massive mountain home.

[Sniper Tondry]

"You like it?"

Quill paused in the act of stepping out of his ship and looked in the direction of the voice echoing through the hangar. "I prefer my lab," he replied.

Pierce Tondry emerged from beneath the wing of another craft, followed by twelve other men. "It's not bad from a military point of view," he mused. He then returned his attention to Quill. "You ready?"

Quill nodded, stepping off the ramp to face Pierce. "I brought everything I need," the doctor answered. "Where are the others?"

"Not here yet," Pierce chuckled. "Tau Team and I got here a couple of hours ago. No sign of Isard as of yet, either."

Pierce gazed around the hangar, then caught Quill's eye again. "Hey, come with me," he said. "I want to talk to you for a sec about the mission."

Quill followed behind Pierce. "What do you want to know?" he asked the sniper.

"I'm particularly interested in why you were chosen for the mission," he answered nonchalantly. "That and I'd like your opinion on a few other things that deal with biology."

[Jared Thule]

His fighter was in its second hour in orbit around Halbara. This was ridiculous - he'd run into some trouble with a pirate freighter a few lightyears away from the Intel base, and gotten delayed - which meant that he'd missed the time-window the comm channels would be operating.

Contacting both comm channels got him nowhere - he'd already tried that.

Now he could either just remain in orbit until the next morning, or he could try to find the outpost himself. He liked the second option a lot better than being trapped in this small cockpit for the next 21 hours.

'Shouldn't be that difficult - Isard mentioned the mountain in her message,' he thought, then activated his comm equipment and sliced into the local comm traffic. Somewhere down there had to be info on the local topography. Back-water planets like these always showed off with whatever they could to attract more visitors...

Ten minutes later, he grinned broadly. The mountain was on the other side of the planet's capital city. Being the highest mountain, there wasn't much of a chance he could miss it. And once he was there, he could run a terrain check with his sensors - there were always ways.

Not much later, the base' hangar support staff ran in all directions, as a TIE fighter swooped in at high speed, broke sharply, and settled down.

To the consternation of Oludh, Jared flashed him a smile as he jumped out of his cockpit.

"You know, you should hide this place a bit better - a life sensor scan was all it took to find you."

[Xao Shedim]

Hunks of dirt all sizes and debris went flying into the air in every which direction as the several-hundred pound form of the 'droid agent collided with the ground. Xao Shedim quickly stood, even as small flakes of rock were still falling down on his shoulders and head like hail. From his estimates, he had landed only a few hundred feet away from the alcove rendezvous. Excellent.

With no time to waste, he lifted one foot up to begin to make his way over, when he heard a creak coming from the his leg shell. Letting out a low buzz from his voice emitters (the equivilant of a vocal frown for the 'droid), he set his self diagnostics to do a quick repair. Within moments, he was back on his way over to the alcove. As he approached, he ran a series of over a dozen sensor scans to check the area for any signs of trouble. He found only the life signs of several human organics, and continued on inside, satisfied. In a harsh, mechanical voice, he called out:

"Honey... I'm home!"

[Dr Quill]

Quill eyed the tall athletic sniper. Tondry was an excellent specimen, he thought. Physically honed, intelligent, decisive; he would love to study the sniper’s reactions to some scenarios. Of course, he’d have to do an autopsy afterwards, to see what physical effects…..

Quill snapped out of his thoughts when he noticed the sniper eyeing him with alarm. “Sorry, Pierce, I was just thinking about, uh, the mission. I think having me along on the mission is a good idea for a couple reasons. We have a hostage that has been taken by some pretty rough characters. She may have been injured in the kidnapping, or maybe in our rescue effort. There is also the possibility that she is being abused by them while they hold her, or drugged so that she can’t escape or talk. One of our team might be injured badly and threaten our chances to complete the mission, and I can get them at least able to escape pursuit. Also, if we capture one of them, I may be able to extract some vital information that will help us complete the mission with less danger to ourselves, or provide important intelligence for our databases.”

Quill turned as the sound of heavy mechanical steps echoed from the entrance. He suppressed a shudder as the android, Shedim, entered the base. “That thing gives me the creeps!”

Turning back to Tondry, he inquired, “What else did you want to talk about? Biology?”

[Jekaan Oludh]

Jekaan gave the base technicians a sign, and then watched them leave through the door in the back. He motioned for Thule who was hanging around the drinks dispenser to join him, and walked after the rest of the agents until they reached a door let into the left side of the corridor.

"In here, if you please follow me." he told them, then took possession of a holo-projector unit and waited until they had seated themselves.

"Without talking too long around the bush, I just want to say that this is a high profile mission, and each of your participation in this has been carefully considered."

He thumbed on the projector, and an image of a man came up.

http://gif.resoftlinks.com/mphoto/theworldisnotenough/image24.jpg

"Star's Nova is a mercenary outfit whose membership was drawn largely from both Imperial Special Missions teams and Alliance SpecForce teams. Star's Nova was conceived to be an elite, rapid-deployment mercenary task force capable of any and all special missions. Leader Qell Tepine believed, rightly so, that varous planetary governments, criminals and corporations would be willing to pay top price for top military agents.
Star's Nova was to be a purely mercenary outfit, with allegiance going to the highest bidder. Because so many of Star's Nova members originally came from the elite military outfits of the Empire and the Alliance, much of the group's strategy and many of their tactics bear a strong resemblance to those of the Imperial and Alliance special forces groups. Star's Nova has undertaken several operations working against both the Empire and the Republic.
The personnel of Star's Nova are drawn directly from former members of the special forces of the Alliance and Empire. As such, they have received the best training available to any military personnel. At present, the roster of the organisation stands at 600 soldiers, with another 200 support personnel. Each trooper is a specialist in one specific field.
They are split up in the following groups:
Field Command: in charge of mission operations and Tepine's most trusted advisors and associates.
Reconnaissance: long range scouts and pathfinders, capable of tracking an enemy's trail or scouting into enemy held territory, responsible for leading a mission unit into and out of the mision area, as well as preventing the unit from wandering off course or getting lost.
Light Weapons: the soldiers and infantrymen of a Star's Nova mission unit, the main fighting men, responsible for engaging the enemy first among the troopers in the unit.
Heavy Weapons: Armed usually with medium and heavy repeating blasters or artillery weapons, h-weps can hold off large numbers of enemy troops with their superior firepower.
Medics: providing first aid and medical treatment
Intelligence: responsible for maintaining up to date information regarding the mission area and its surroundings, and the enemy's strength and deployment in the mission area.
Communications and Electronics: the technicians in the field, capable of repairing damaged equipment, bypassing security locks and blast doors, and sabotaging remote sensors in the mission area nearest the enemy's location
Demolitions: deployed for advance sabotage operations, or may also provide a distraction by blowing up a building or secondary target while the rest of the unit invades or retreats. "

[Jekaan Oludh]

Tepine's image was replaced by a simple map.
http://www.geocities.com/sith_summoner/SONDARR.jpg
"Qell Tepine established a base of operations for Star's Nova on a planet called Sondarr. Though the base holds nearly all of the group's equipment, only about 100 people make the base their permanent home. The rest of the mercenaries are scattered around the galaxy in smaller, regional bases. This scattering of its personnel ensures that the entire force cannot be caught or captured in one operation. The base is staffed mostly by ficomms and support staff.
When Star's Nova is hired to perform a mission, Tepine and his field commanders determine the personnel needed for the mission, and then contact them, informing them of a designated staging area where the whole unit will assemble all necessary equipment and transportation.
The base is called Sondarr Base, and is located in the Lunnes Wastes of Sondarr. The facility is a simple cavernous area underneath a huge ledge, far out in the wilderness of the world. The base is well protected against intruders with motion sensors set around the entire perimeter of the base, and ten troopers performing constant recon patrols around the base. Each of the base's cavernous compartments can be separately sealed off from the command center.
Star's Nova has a number of small landspeeders and speeder bikes, which are used for fast-pcaed operations, although the unit relies on missions involving small-scale ground assault. When travelling to a mission site, the mission unit most often uses an old light freighter - unremarkable to bored customs officials and blockade fleets. The ship is typically a Corellian YT-1300 transport, but its substantial modifications are well hidden.

Any Questions so far?"

[Eluna Thals]

[Eluna was late. She had to stay an hour later than anticipated in order to fill out forms, the useless bureaucratic spiel that pencil-pushers in Operations seemed to collect like Sabacc cards. Mostly it was demographic surveys...outlining proper speech for addressing certain groups...what indefinite article would offend a Wookie, and things as such. As she walked through the hallway, she rubbed her temples slightly. Between Intel's latest activities, she was sleeping less and less, burning the midnight oil and doing the word-twisting and angle-bending that made Spin Doctors what they were. She stepped inside the alcove and saw a group of Intel agents being briefed by Advisor Oludh. Many of the faces she had been acquainted with. They were the muscle of Intel, the people who went and got things done. Tondry, Shedim, Quill...and others she did not readily know. Advisor Oludh turned as Eluna entered the alcove. Eluna kept her eyes forward, clicking the heels of her jack boots together as she snapped a regulation salute upwards]

Commander Eluna Thals of Propaganda reporting as requested, sir.

[Jekaan Oludh]

Jekaan acknowledged the officer with a brief nod, and put down his datapad.

He had never seen the newest batch of Intel's recruits since he had been here on Halbara setting up the base there. Of Officer Thals he had only heard, and what he had heard.... well, it was safe to say that her reputation preceded her.

He had had no instructions as to her attendance at this meeting, but he had also been advised by Isard that whenever Thals appeared, he was to consult her about last-minute changes.

It had long galled him a bit that he knew next to nothing about this mission, and all had been provided at last minute. There were no plans whatsoever, beyond a sketchy impression that the team should just land somewhere and try to gain access to the base. He had been told not to plan further, and wait for other input, and that was just not like Isard.

'It's got to be that woman's influence...she's got to have something to do with it...' he thought now, but deep down he knew that Isard was probably scheeming something real cute and nasty. Isard was always scheeming. And it was always the thing that turned the tide, much to Jekaan's consternation.

With a somewhat weary sigh that still could not hide his annoyance, he walked over and ceded the spot at the front of the briefing arena to Thals.

"It is all yours, Officer Thals. Let's hear what nasty little plot she's come up wiht this time."

He sank down heavily onto a chair at the egde of the row of seats, and stretched out his feet, to at least appear relaxed and looking like this was a completely common occurence in his life...

'to be replaced?'

[Eluna Thals]

(Eluna removed the contents from her portfolio, standing before most of the senior members of Imperial Intelligence. She turned to Advisor Oludh, who seemed to almost glare at her with semi-bloodshot eyes. Eluna wondered if she had perhaps stepped on any toes in coming here. Isard had opted for her to deliver the lynchpin information to this meeting. Was the Director playing favorites, changing the guard between the seasoned Oluhd and herself? The past few weeks had been rather intriguing, to say the least. Eluna felt much like Alice, stranded in Wonderland. Sure, working for Magistrate offices, and the occasional Imperial Naval taskforce was one thing, but Intel had a reputation for being...well...pretty damn unorthodox. Eluna looked her corpulent senior officer. Oludh seemed to be stewing, sweat beading on his bald head. Eluna smiled nervously...she was unaccustomed to offending people, and her personality didn't take well to it. She knew that it was how the game was played in the Officer Corps...and that many such things happened in the Imperial hierarchy. Nevertheless, she did not want to make enemies with a man such as Oludh. He had the capacity to smash her well-accoladed career into oblivion.

Eluna looked back at her report. She would have to play damage control with Advisor Oludh later. Eluna pulled out several sheets of paper.)

Our information retrieved in regards to Star's Nova was retrieved...by unique methods. Intel has opened communications with a contact who has innate and pertinent information to Star's Nova's base layout, defense parameters, deployments, codes, and passkeys. This contact has expressed his disgruntled nature with the terrorist organization, and has taken steps to fabricate his own death, in order to convince Tepine of his demise. With SN unaware of our contact's rather healthy nature, the intelligence this man has secured remains intact. Also, our contact's training has prepared him for any changes in the SN encryption patterns, as they all fall under the same calculated principle. The contact has been brought here, to further brief you on bypassing SN's defense systems.

(Eluna steps aside, as a silent figure walks in)

[Des Tevastan]

A man of meduim build, black hair, blue eyes and average height walked in. He looked wholly unremarkable.

Des drew a deep breath, and took a step forward. His hands fumbled a bit, thumbs making nervous circles.

"Erm, ahem. I used to be a communications/ encrypt expert at Star's Nova. Anyway, with the information your teams will have, braking the security system shouldn't be too dificult. Its based on a formula..."

The Thals bore a look into Tevastan that made him more than a little nervous. He sputtered for a moment. Why can't people be like numbers? He nervously cleared his throat.

"In terms of the physical infiltration, there is an equipment room... it has two doors. Very defendable, it miiiight make a good staging area. I'm not sure about that, not really my expertise. Ideally, the team should rendevous outside of the base, out of sight. I recall there being less... defenses near the hanger. Moving in there would probably be ideal."

He looked at the floor.

"There are some good people there. Please, try to keep the body-count down."

[Sniper Tondry]

Pierce listened to most of the information with half-open ears. He had been briefed more thoroughly, if only a little bit, by Isard's original message, which had included the name of Star's Nova. He would trust no one other than his experts in a dangerous field mission like this, where the enemy had been fully prepared to fight him upon the moment they'd defected from their respective militias.

And speaking of preparedness, that lack of defenses in the hangar sounded wholly suspicious. Ideally, a starfighter hangar should be one of the most monitored, defended areas of any base, along with the comm system. If help could not be called on, the base's commander was in more trouble than he could stomach during an invasion.

And aside from the military concerns, the hangar bays were also the points that infiltrators would be coming in from. Not that a merc outfit would have trouble keeping track of its members, but still. A former SpecOps officer, especially an Imperial-schooled former SpecOps Officer. would not have been trained to leave such a place underdefended.

But the newcomer's next statement had given him an idea. One of the things he had learned from Isard was that making friends from inside the enemy organization was one of the best ways to hurt somebody.

"Good people, you say?" Pierce spoke up for the first time. "Any more of them who might have an interest in joining- or in some cases, rejoining- the Empire?"

[Des Tevastan]

"There is a person in feild command that is a likely defector."

[Sniper Tondry]

"But no one else, eh?"

Des shifted uncomfortably. "I, ah, don't know," he stammered.

Pierce waved a hand and brushed aside his own question. "You're probably not trained to get that kind of information. Is there anything else any of you can tell us?"

Des looked at Eluna, who looked back at Des. Both of them shook heads. "Then its' settled. We're burning out of here in an hour."

######

Their shuttle flew in towards the Sondarr base quickly, and did so on a low approach vector. They landed about a kilometer out, behind a rocky outcropping that their ship could be concealed under. Once all the personnel had exited, the ship and the equipment cases dropped, the shuttle disappeared into the folds of a cloaking device.

Pierce happened to be watching the shuttle when it vanished, and had to admit that it was an unnerving sight, in a tactical sense. The shuttle could even depart following the original vector it'd taken to get here under cloak and no one on the team would be the wiser.

Shoving unpleasant thoughts about Isard out of his mind, Pierce addressed the team. "All right. I've been informed," he began with a glance at one of the agents in Tau Team. "By Vadgrin here that the enemy sensor net is blind to us. He's apparently managed to send the system into a feedback loop using whatever equation Tepine likes to play with."

"We will not cast away our caution because of this. We will move quickly. We will take our staging area first, and we will get there by infiltrating the hangar. Once we have our staging area, we will secure it, and then the agent sent to investigate for the prisoners will report in. We will then rescue the prisoners and any other defectors, and we will then leave. We will not take unnecessary risks. We will not treat these people with disrespect, because if this operation fails we may be their prisoners."

Pierce paused, allowing that to sink in. "We will go now," he finished.

He turned and led the unit up the crest of the hill they were at. When they got to the top, Pierce scanned the area for any dangers. None presented themselves, so he drew Tau Team aside to issue them some orders.

"Ludos, you'll stay here and be our link to the shuttle," he said. "You know how to warn us if you see anyone near us, or anyone landing at the base. The rest of you will cover the greenies' butts with me. They'll go first when we get to the base perimeter. Got it?"

They nodded, and rejoined the group. "Let's keep moving," he said to all of them.

[Aliya Vahlshalynn]

Aliya woke up, who knows how many hours later, staring into the beady little eyes of her cellmate. She never had the pleasure of seeing a rat this close before and it snapped her back into the reality of her situation. She realized that they must have moved her onto the cot before her captors left. Aliya tried to lift her head experimentally, but a burst of stars forced her to lay still once again and it made her sick that she gagged on reflex. The unpleasant taste drok was still there, but there was something new on her filthy gag. It was the taste of blood.

It made perfect sense now. The butt of a rifle was once again used to knock her out. This would force her to loose any sense of how much time would pass in conjunction with the little light that she received from under her cell door. Made the work she needed to do to get out of this situation harder.

She stared at the ceiling, remembering that there was absolutely nothing in her confinement that she could use to her advantage. She had a cot and a rat. The beginnings of the perfect plan. Aliya rolled her eyes at her own sarcastic humor and attempted to sit up once again. This time the stars came, but didn't disorientate her like before. She cursed mentally and really wished this damn gag was gone. Her mouth had never been so dry and when her tongue even brushed the top of her mouth, she swore something horrid was growing there.

Aliya couldn't handle being upright any longer. This was what, the third time they knocked her out? It was taking its toll on her severely. It was almost like clockwork. She could count down to the minute before they came back and she was reintroduced to mister rifle again. Aliya figured she had about twenty minutes before they came back. It was hard to concentrate from all the head trauma that her eyes wandered around the room. She noticed that her little cellmate poked his head around the corner of the cot and she wondered when her little friend left in the first place. Aliya watched him make his way up and onto her chest where he curled up and went to sleep. Normally, she would be utterly disgusted with seeing such a creature. Under the circumstances, small company was company none the less. She shifted a little to try and get comfortable herself and felt her eyes become heavy with exhaustion. Perhaps the little guy had the right idea in getting some sleep. She was rather irate with herself but in a way, much needed rest was a preferable option then what her most gracious kidnappers liked to do.

Yes, sleep was a good idea. Aliya needed her strength and wits about if she wanted to think of a plan. Hopefully when she woke up next time, her head would be clearer and she could start formulating her escape.

[Milstran Cophenaar]

Walking through the corridor of the Star’s Nova facility, Milstran carried a tray of food to the cell where his superiors had the one they wee to use for ransom. His thoughts dwelled on what he knew of this situation so far.

They were to only use her to turn a quick profit. Having a rich family made her a worthy candidate for his organization’s motives. It seemed such a petty motive and made by an organization who’s goals seemed to be quite nearsighted and not nearly a prestigious as they should be.

”I joined this organization thinking that their aspirations were high and their structure and motives sound, but now, they act no better than a group of small time thieves out for a quick thrill.” He thought to himself, as his footsteps echoed through the hallway, getting closer to the place where the prisoner was kept.

Opening the door to her cell, the light from the hallway cascaded inside the room, and the keys fell from his hand as he saw her face as she slept on the cot. She was bruised, battered, and bloody, her mouth gagged with a filthy cloth, stained with both blood and soil from the dirty floor.

The sound of the keys hitting the floor must have startled her, as her eyes opened and grew large seeing him in the doorway. Bending down to pick up the keys while holding the tray in one hand, Milstran smiled trying to ease the apprehension and fear he could see in her eyes. “Something to eat?.” He said calmly with a soothing tone as he stepped inside. His disgust at how she looked and at how she had been treated written in his features plain to see.

She slowly sat up as he entered and he set the tray at the foot of her bed, not noticing the rat scurrying off into the darkness as she rose. “Let me see your hands?” He asked as he stood near the cot. “Can’t feed yourself very well with those binders on.” Before she reached her hands out to him, he slowly reached up and pulled the gag from her mouth.

Holding her hands out to him, he unlocked her binders and placed them at the end of the cot, next to the tray of food. Backing towards the door, with a sorrowful look on his face he said a few final words. “I’ll let you eat in peace and return to collect the tray in a little while.” He picked up the binders and walked to the exit, closing the door behind himself as he stepped out, he sat in the chair next to it, beginning to wonder why he had even considered joining this organization.

[Aliya Vahlshalynn]

Aliya woke suddenly to the rattling of metal. She turned her head to see one of the kidnappers enter. Her senses were ready for the inevitable attack but when she looked at this man, something wasn't right. He was carrying a tray of food and no blaster rifle. Sure he has a pistol but no rifle to knock her out again. This calmed her down somewhat but Aliya stayed alert, the good that it would do her considering her state.

She sat herself up and looked at the tray on the floor. Her stomach grumbled loudly and she never knew how hungry she really was. It felt like days since she last ate. For all Aliya knew, it could very well have been. To her relief, the gag came off followed by the binders. She looked up at this man in total confusion and disbelief. Rubbing her wrists, Aliya slightly nodded to him before he left and couldn't believe her luck. She was alone and could move, as soon as she got the stiffness out of her body. Ravenous as she was, she had to prepare first.

Flexing her arms and moving her wrists around, she worked out the kinks and sores that laying in the same position would cause. Stretching her arms back she looked down at the tray and her eyes lit up. Aliya grabbed the cup of water and used the first quarter of it to get the horrible taste out of her mouth. She spat that out and then drank from the cup once again, already starting to feel better. Now that her mind was clearing, she put the glass down and got to work. Laying back down on the cot, she unzipped her pants and folded the left side over. Feeling for the seam that should not be there, Aliya found it and thought herself fortunate that her captors did not find her hidden pocket. She ripped it open and two lock picks were revealed. She grabbed them and clothed herself once more. Aliya quickly looked around for a suitable hiding place and that is when her friend appeared. Seems that he had a nice little hiding space behind the cot.

"Well ..." She couldn't get past that word as she coughed violently. Her voice was so ragged from lack of use and being dry. She forced herself to stop and feared that someone outside would hear her and come in. Aliya picked up her furry cellmate and placed the lock picks in the hole. She looked at the rat and hoped that he didn't have any other friends to take those away. Sitting back on the cot, Aliya grabbed her tray and placed it on her lap and began to eat as if nothing was wrong.

[Des Tevastan]

Tevastan sat inside the ship while the intrusion team assebled itself. He knowingly navigated the keypad with precision, carefully testing codes.

Of course, they had changed since he had left Star's Nova, but the base mathematical sequence remained the same, based upon Pi, and then tossed into some obtuse equation.

It took little time for him to find a set that worked. Des worked with care to cut the signals from the sensors in the right places and replace them with false readings. He disabled as many silent alarms as he could, and finnally he decided he could do no more. It took a mere 45 minutes.

"Tondry, I've cleared out what I can, you should not have to worry about equipment picking you up. Good luck sir, and please..."

Tondry cut him off abruptly. "I know Tevastan, kill as little as possible."

Des held a worried look on his face, his eyes pleading. He turned around and walked back into the shuttle.

[Dr Quill]

Quill went into his pack and pulled out a box of nostril filters for the team.

"Be sure you wear these. You won't do much good laying on the floor."

He selected 4 vials. Two would incapacitate the Nova people while they infiltrated and performed their mission. The other two he would combine when they were finished, on Isard's personal instructions

"I'm set for my part, People."

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce took his pair of filters from Quill's outstretched hand. Since he was backing up the good doctor if necessary, it would be necessary to have a pair.

He returned to the hilltop, gauging the distance between the base and their position. It was approximately a kilometer of hilly ground. If Tevastan had done his work well, then the external sensors would be blind to their approach if they moved quickly.

"All right," he spoke up. "You know your objectives. Comm me if any of you get into trouble, and I'll do my best to bring backup."

"Now, let's go!" Pierce finished, and broke off into a dead run towards the base.

[Milstran Cophenaar]

Sitting outside the door to the cell, Milstran fumbled with the binders in his hands. The more he thought about this hostage situation, the more he grew to dislike his choice to become a member of Star’s Nova. Their methods were proving to be no more than those of thugs, evident by the condition of the prisoner whom he had just left a tray of food for.

She had been unnecessarily beaten, and kept in unclean conditions, something that the Rebels he was once a part of would never do to even their greatest enemies. He really hadn’t been offered much information as to who she was, but he did know that it was nothing more than a ransom kidnapping. An act of a group of losers, desperate for cash, which they could surely acquire through other means, if their thought processes were higher than that of common slugs.

He lifted his head from staring at the binders, realizing that enough time had passed for the prisoner to have finished her meal. Rising from his chair with rampant thoughts of how he might help her escape and foil the childish plans of this organization by helping her get free, he keyed open the door and stepped inside, his eyes displaying his displeasure at the situation.

He walked over and picked up the tray, setting the binders down on the end of the bunk. His eyes began to betray his true feelings of anger at this entire situation. A thought came to him suddenly as he looked down at the binders on the bunk. He wasn’t sure if she would understand, but he hoped his idea would also mean the end of his stay with this organization. Speaking up he began to explain.

“I know you don’t want to be here, and I myself don’t like the way that my current employers are treating you, therefore I have an offer.” He paused to reach down and pick up the binders. “Knock me out with these, take the blaster from my hip and get the hell out of here.” Taking a quick look behind himself at the open cell door, he continued.

“ Take a left in the corridor. There is only one guard at the bottom of the stairs and one other at the top. Once to the top of the stairs, take a right and then exit through the first door on your left. After your outside, its up to you as to how to find passage off this world, but I suspect that shouldn’t be too difficult, and is much better than the alternative of having one of the other guards come in here and beat you down with the butt of a blaster rifle.”

He lifted his hand and offered her the binders, as well as the keys to the ones around her ankles. “This should be reason enough for them to cut me loose from their services. Failing them in such a simple task as feeding a prisoner.”

[Jared Thule]

Wearing a broad grin on his face, Jared ran alongside the droid, Shedim, his little bag of nasty surprises slung over his shoulder. This was what he had joined Intel for - what he was best at, what he enjoyed most.

He'd done his own equipment check before he'd left the ship. Shaped charges. Grenades. Explosives. Adhesives. Detonators. Detonation comlinks. Miniature datapads optimized to detect complex sets of circumstances and then trigger detonators. Sensors. Tools. Handlights. Headband lights. Lights with temporary adhesives to stick to all sorts of walls and other surfaces. It was all there - in his bag, in pockets or otherwise in places where he could find it easy by touch.

This was his first mission for Intel, and he'd make sure he'd make them see just how he deserved to be a part of it. Jared just hoped that the droid would be able to keep up. Shedim wasn't really along to do anything but keep the security off his neck, but he hoped the droid would know what to do when the situation got bad.

They were about half-way to the base entrance, when Shedim suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, Jared almost bumping into the droid's back.

"What?" Jared whispered.

The droid's eyes flashes brightly, then went back to their usual dull gleam. Then he spoke in an oddly low modulated voice that made Jared think of something grinding on stone.

"Two guards at sixteen degrees, approximately 175 meters ahead."

Jared groaned. Damn, he had forgotten about the perimeter guards Oludh had warned them about. He hoped the other team would remember about it. But then again, they were Tondry's team, and that guy was so efficient it was almost inhuman. Fat chance he'd forget...

His hand wrapped around his blaster, the thumb activating the kill switch, he gestured for Shedim to stay where he was. Bright metallic silver would stand out a lot more against those trees than his own combat suit - he'd deal with those guards himself. But Shedim seemed to have other ideas, because he followed him through the undergrowth.

Oh well, better to have him with me as at my back. call it superstitous nonsense, or prejudice, but a droid as a partner on a mission just made him a bit uneasy. And he had heard some ugly rumours about this one, when he'd joined Intel. They'd pretty much joined at the same time, but almost the first thing he'd heard from his fellow members was that Shedim was rumoured to have been a Bountyhunter and assassin before he joined up. It made him wonder why in space Intel had recruited Shedim, but then again, it had been a surprise even to find out that Intel would accept a non-organic at all. Or non-humans, for that matter.

Walking through a dark forest with an ex-assassin at his back wasn't what he thought of as fun. A shudder ran up his spine.

Jared shook off his unpleasant thoughts and returned his concentration on the job ahead. He'd have to deal with those guards somehow, and it had better be done quietly, or he'd never live it down with the others.

Shedim stopped again after another 100 meters, and Jared heard a low click behind him. The droid had activated his blaster. Jared swallowed hard, then forced himself to remain calm, and proceed.

They came upon the guards like a couple of vultures gliding through the trees on silent wings. The two men didn't seem to be greatly concerned about the security they were supposed to uphold, and were playing some exotic hologame Jared had never seen before when the two Intel agents fired their shots. Neither missed, hitting the men cleanly in the heads, and they fell over and onto the ground noiselessly.

Jared took note of the fact that the droid's blaster carbine seemed to make almost no sound when firing. It was something he'd have to investigate later - he'd been trying to calibrate his own blaster to do exactly that for a while now, and it still wasn't going as silently as Shedim's.

They dragged the two bodies a little back into the undergrowth and left them there. Looking down at the two corpses, Jared had an idea. He started stripping them off their dark but comfortable-looking camouflage suits, and threw one at the droid when he was done.

Shedim looked at him in something that could possibly be interpreted as a puzzled frown, one eye glowing up for a fraction of a second, his head tilted slightly to the side.

"Put that on - we're going into an enemy camp, and it might come in handy to make them think that we're supposed to be there. I don't think they'll have another one of your kind there, so they might get a little suspicious when they see a droid walking around all of a sudden, don't you?"

Quickly getting out of his own tunic, he put on the Star's Nova uniform tunic over his shirt, transfering his equipment from his old pockets to the new ones.

The droid didn't seem too appreciative of having to "dress up", but he didn't say anything as he awkwardly put the pants and tunic over his metallic body. Jared grabbed the two caps the men had left on the ground beside their game, and threw one over at Shedim, grinning.

The droid looked ridiculous, and Jared imagined that he must have some problems keeping the cloth out of his joints, but now at least he didn't stand out that much anymore. And that was always an advantage.

It took them another 10 minutes to reach the entrance to the base, and they hid in the bushes beside the grotto while observing the comings and goings.

There was no one in sight, and not a sound could be heard. He supposed that was good, but decided that he had better ask Shedim to check.

"Can you break into that security net and see if they have anyone guarding the entrance from the inside?"

Shedim nodded and went rigid, his eyes flashing rapidly. After another five minutes, his posture became more relaxed - if that could be said about a droid - and he spoke in that low grating voice again.

"One guard. Approximately 50 meters into the tunnel's entrance. He is having lunch at this minute and does not pay much attention to anything else. I assume we proceed in the manner planned?"

Jared grinned. This was going a lot better than he'd expected. The security here seemed ridiculously lax - it woulnd't be much of a surprise if they'd get as far as the personnel quarters without a soul noticing them. This should be fun.