Cold Cigna Campaign: Confirmation at Fondor. (finished)

[Pierce Tondry]

(ooc) This takes place in the time period immediately prior to and during the wedding of Sumor Rayial and Dara Shadowtide. Any Sith participating there are obviously restricted from this thread, but outside of that it is open to anyone. I have already discussed this matter with Sums, who green-lighted the plan. I hope there are no other objections regarding what I plan to do.

P.S. This thread is intended to be very short. Either Pierce succeeds, or he doesn't.

(ic)

" Mnja oarnwm:

Fn fxdum jbt cqjc hxd sxrw db xw cqn yujwnc Exacng fqnan j bdayarbn jfjrcb.

Yunjbn vnnc db jc cqn Lahbcju Ljcqnmaju rw cfx mjhb. j yrlcdan xo cqn uxljcrxw jllxvyjwrnb cqrb vnbbjpn.

Odacqnavxan, fn jbt cqjc hxd lxvn juxwn.

Fn uxxt oxafjam cx hxda jaareju.

Mjaj jwm Bdvxa"

Pierce Tondry glared at the computer screen. The message didn't make a fragging bit of sense, even after having been run through half of his stored Intelligence decrypt functions.

It had been a week since the Toprawa data raid- a week since he had disappeared from the galaxy. A week since, as far as anyone outside of Intelligence knew, he had gone M.I.A- Missing In Action.

And thanks to the success of that venture, the pressure was off for the moment. Pierce had a starting place from which to follow up on a trail that was by now five months old. Follow it he would. In fact, before he'd recieved this odd, undecipherable message Pierce had been working on piecing together a set of stops he would have to hit in order to revive the trail he was on.

But now, Pierce needed to know what this message said, and whether or not it meant anything.

The message had a personal heading on it, one Pierce didn't recognize. More importantly, its' origin had been the planet Vortex- an odd source- and a quick vector check revealed that the end destination was in Sith Empire-held space.

Questions had been raised, and Pierce was interested in the answers.

Pierce reset his decrypt computer and keyed it to apply all Sith Empire encryption sequences he'd obtained through contact with Sith Empire members. It was a short list, so fortunately Pierce had the computer's best decryption within several minutes.

{
Match sequence list member: Sumor Rayial vocode
Match percentage: 35
Message unable to be fully decrypted.
Try keyword substitution?: Y/N
}

A voice message from Sumor Rayial was the closest match? Pierce began glancing through the code again, busy thinking up a plan. He typed in the word "Vortex" for the keyword substitution message and the computer went to work. The results were not encouraging, but the planet name Vortex did have a possible appearance in the message.

More importantly, some of the items towards the end were a bit different. Guessing that the name "Sumor" appeared at the end, Pierce keyed it in. Then he tried the name "Dara", then guessed the word "and" for the three letters between their names.

And with 11 letters of the Basic alphabet entered into the message, the decryption computer suddenly kicked in and began revealing other words. The computer came up with several possibilities, but only one of them made any sense.

The message was short.

Dear friend:

We would ask that you join us on the planet vortex where a surprise awaits.

Please meet us at the Crystal Cathedral in two days. A picture of the location accompanies this message.

Furthermore, we ask that you come alone.

We look forward to your arrival.

Dara and Sumor

Pierce stared at the message, feeling a wild surge of adrenaline begin rushing through him. He keyed for a communication to the Omega Base sector, and a surprised Ken Ludos appeared on the screen. "General!? What-?"

Pierce cut him off. "You remember the supplies I told you to get together for the Fondor data raid? I need them in two days."

[Pierce Tondry]

Two days later, Pierce Tondry was on Fondor, having arrived with his gear by sneaking it through customs with the help of a reliable smuggling contact.

Of course, it went without saying that Pierce Tondry was not on Fondor. That would collapse the whole "Presumed Dead" soap bubble he'd built.

The man who was on Fondor was called Vin Dietriex. He was small business owner who operated off Tatooine. Ostensibly, he was on Fondor to attempt to find possible buyers and shippers for various local goods his business sold.

"Good luck, Mr. Dietriex," one of the troopers checking his Identi-card sneered. "You'll need it."

"Thankee, sir," Pierce replied in a borrowed Tatooine accent. "I'll surely will be needing it."

With that, he drove his speeder through the checkpoint towing behind him a repulsorlift pallet that held a dozen large containers of fertilizer. Contained in the bottom of five of those containers was ordinance lethal enough to wipe the smirks from those troops, if Pierce had such an inclination.

Although that would imply that Pierce was paying attention to something other than his mission, which he was not.

The pallet and speeder continued along one of Fondor's highways, bound for an area near one of the local military installations.

[Pierce Tondry]

Dusk was falling, and Pierce Tondry was on the move.

Gone was the disguise of a simple businessman. In its' place was a set of black stealth gear which included a stealthsuit that would have made Darth Vader jealous.

Aside from the slight enhancements to his mobility, Pierce also had easy access to a dozen different melee weapons and blasters, plus a datalink to a computer that had been designed to allow him to penetrate Sith Empire computer security with ease. His face was doubly concealed- first beneath the helmet that accompanied the stealthsuit and second beneath a facemask that made him appear to be some random, nameless New Republic technician. It was a lot of effort to go through in return for precious little data.

He had briefly toyed with the idea of simply contacting Sumor Rayial and asking him for the information, but had discarded that on the grounds that there was no way of knowing whether or not the information given would be what was available. Or what he needed. Or even whether the data was true, for that matter.

Pierce didn't put anything past Sith, which was a shame because he'd always had a certain respect for Sumor. To not trust someone you respected was almost a crime.

The grounds of the installation were just beyond the defense wall that was before Pierce. Briefly swearing at the man who'd come up with the idea of a perimeter defense, Pierce keyed for full stealth mode. The stealthsuit shifted colors, and suddenly, Pierce was invisible. In addition, a slight cushion generated by microrepulsors in his boots sprang into existence.

Sufficiently masked and muffled from sensors as he was, Pierce then began his approach of the perimeter wall.

[Cizerack Hunter Forces]

"Therrre," The blonde-haired Cizerack security chief pointed to a monitor. "Thatsss hjim."

"And we have confjirrrmatjion frrrom Fondorrr on thjisss?" A taller female asked inquisitively.

The security chief nodded in the affirmative, switching to a different monitor...this one showing a different location from 8 hours prior.

"Thjisss jisss the majin cussstomsss porrrt on Fondorrr'sss sssurrrface. Thejy have logged and rrreporrrted a Vjin Djietrrrjiex havjing passssssed thrrrough thejirrr sssjyssstem todajy. And...accorrrdjing to thejirrr rrrecorrrdsss, he hasss not left the sssurrrface sssjince."

The trade station's constable's blue eyes narrowed.

"That meansss..."

The security chief knew exactly what was at stake.

"That meansss we have a possssssjible sssmuggler at worrrk."

The constable whirled around, snapping a finger at a shorter female officer.

"jI want that jimpossstorrr arrrrrresssted now!"

With haste, the officer ran out of the room, quick to dispatch a detatchment of Hunter Forces to the Trade Embassy's main promenade. The group of soldiers scanned the crowd anxiously, searching for the tawny-haired man in a brown sport jacket...Vin Dietriex, if that was his name.

The soldiers were about as subtle as a sledgehammer as they marched down the promenade, clearing away civilians from their path. Suddenly, one of the soldiers spotted a man that fit Dietriex's identity, standing idly by a terminal...waiting for a ferry to take him planetside.

The soldiers broke into a run, as throngs of people cleared out of their path.

[Pierce Tondry]

(ooc) Thanks for the confirmation there, Jubei. :) Time in.

(ic)

Pierce stepped in front of the perimeter wall, but did not touch it. The stealthsuit he was wearing was good, but if he actually made physical contact with the wall, whatever sensors were there would register the touch. They might also discover him, depending on how sophisticated they were, and TSE liked keeping Fondor under tight security. As such, the odds were not in his favor.

But he did have to get over the wall without passing through security sensors.

Pierce lifted his right arm, aiming a wrist-mounted grappling lanyard at a nearby turbolaser turret. He fired it and tugged sharply on his arm, causing the lanyard to wrap itself around the head of the turret. Quickly keying for an additional boost from his boot repulsors, Pierce leapt into the air. The lanyard retracted and Pierce grabbed on, pulling himself to the turbolaser's top. It tilted slightly under his weight, but another moment more and he was leaping off again, then landing solidly balanced on the perimeter wall's palisade causeway.

He was in.

His first task was to find the nearest communications terminal he could.

[Pierce Tondry]

(ooc) I realize that I did post last night, however I'd like to keep moving this along since it is going somewhat slowly. I hpoe no one minds me sacrificing the delay I was giving people in case they wanted to post, since that doesn't seem to be a factor in this RP.

(ic)
Pierce walked quickly down the palisade causeway until he came to a ladder that led to the ground. Conventional military wisdom said he should have destroyed that turret, or at least neutralized the troops within it.

His Intelligence training kept him focussed on the mission. Besides, nothing screamed "Intruder!!!" more than a dead body.

Some distance away, Pierce could see the large dish and accompanying array that a communications station would use to transmit messages to the Fondor orbiting hypercomm satellite. It was a full-fledged military CommSat station, several steps up from your average communications terminal.

Reasonably certain that TSE wouldn't mine the ground inside of their perimeter defenses, Pierce began to walk across a paved track towards the main facility, and walk very slowly at that. Detection was even more probable here, and the sooner he could assume someone's identity and travel freely, the better.

After twenty minutes at his slowed pace, Pierce reached the CommSat facility and began a short reconnoiter around it. It was about 40 yards by 40 yards of actual building, plus several pieces of expensive machinery attached to the building through large conduits. The comm array was atop the building, which only rated two stories.

It also had only one visible checkpoint door in from the side. There weren't many windows on the building, and this was a military base so Pierce was fairly certain TSE would have some kind of rooftop security.

Still, entry by roof was the best option.

Pierce pulled two pairs of mag-clamp attachments out. Two he slid over his boots (after cutting their repulsor generated cushion) and two went on his hands. After doing a quick check to see that the coast was clear, he began to scale the building, heading upward in a sliding manner to keep down the chance that someone would see a set of mag-clamps heading up the building by itself. The stealthsuit was only programmed to chameleonize itself, and mag-clamps were difficult to cover up anyway.

Pierce reached the top and peeked over, spying what he was looking for: an elevator that went down inside the building.

Unfortunately, he also spotted six guards: one for every corner of the roof, plus two more for the elevator. ' Plus, who's to say there aren't guards that I can't see?'

It was an unlucky strike, but Pierce just might have to kill to get into this building.

[Cizerack Hunter Forces]

The male soldier was head and shoulders larger than his comrades, towering at 6 feet 10 inches. His sandy hair spilled down his back in unshorn locks, draped over his sienna-colored skin. He smiled at his CO's orders, and his red plastoid armor squeaked slightly as he lifted the suspicious Hyuu-mann into the air by his neck. Gasping, the blonde-haired man kicked in vain at the Cizerack's abdomen, which was responded with small grunts from the large felinoid.

Security Chief Syeessaa took pleasure in watching her subordinates at work. The station at Fondor had been operational for less than a week, and she was more than determined to make sure smugglers and similarly-nefarious criminals knew that the Cizerack Pride would not be a weak link into the Sith Empire. They would be just as stingy with the comings and goings as they would if protecting Carshoulis Prime itself.

Syeessaa looked to the Hyuu-mann, who was starting to turn a shade of red from the strain. His adrenals were pumping, and she could smell the scent of his sweat and pheromones amid the air. He was afraid. As long as this was the case, he could be bent to her whim. With a slight gesture of her hand, she ordered her manservant soldier to lower "Vin Dietriex". As he came back to stand on his own two feet, she smiled as nicely as she could...her canine teeth glistening slightly. Intimidation was definitely one of her forte's. Extending the claw on her right index finger, she hung it on the fabric of his shirt, and began to run it down slowly, popping a few threads here and there.

"Mjisssterrr.....Djietrjiex, jisssn't jit?" She asked.

He looked about incredulously from the soldiers, the tall one, and back to her. This was a nightmare. He'd come to Fondor to sell repulsor stabilizers for s-swoops. He had no idea what on earth these aliens wanted with him. He did, however, know the Cizerack weren't the most cordial of people towards other races...especially males of other races. To top it all off, from the gist of their growling, shouting, and muttering...it seemed they were accusing him of being a smuggler.

Dietriex gulped. He knew what that meant. He'd seen holonews reports of previous pirates and smugglers that had been fortunate enough to wind up in Cizerack hands. Well, he'd seen reports of what was left of them, at least. These felinoids were nearly fanatical over trade and money, and took it in a bad way to those who tried to screw them over. The last smuggler cartel that ran through the Carshoulis cluster were sent back to Oord Mantell in a series of 2 ounce jars...with most being unaccounted for. This wasn't happening...what a nightmare.

Shakily, Dietriex replied.

"Y-yes! Thats wh-what...I've been trying to tell you that for five minutes!"

His eyes continued to shift, and he felt the fingers around his neck tighten again. Almost pleadingly, he put his arms around the male Cizerack's thick wrist, hoping he wouldn't be lofted into the air again. Syeessaa concurred with Dietriex's hopes, and ordered her soldier to keep the Forrda on the ground for now. She brushed back a strand of her cinnamon hair, and leaned close to Dietriex.

"Then jyou have a prrroblem...becaussse the cussstomsss ssstatjion on Fondorrr hasss alrrreadjy rrreporrrted that jyou passssssed thrrrough thejirrr gatesss on an jinbound fljight. Do jyou know what thjisss meansss?"

Dietriex slowly shook his head. He was clueless.

"jIt meansss that ejitherrr jyou arrre who jyou sssajy you arrre, orrr jyou arrre a ljiarrr, and gujiltjy of sssmuggljing. Ejitherrr wajy...we have an jimpossstorrr on ourrr handsss."

She smiled with a cruel streak.

"jI hope jyou packed a toothbrrrusssh...becaussse jyou wjill be ssstajyjing jin a Cjizerrrack prrrjissson forrr at leassst a few dajys. And jI hope forrr jyourrr sssake, jyou arrre telljing usss the trrruth."

With dramatic flair Syeessaa licked her tongue over her teeth, glaring at Dietriex.

"Take hjim awajy!"

The soldiers casually lifted Dietriex up, hauling him out of the promenade, to the prisoner's chamber. Dietriex shrieked the whole time.

"I didn't do anything!!!"

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce quietly slipped off all but one of his mag clamps and slid them into a secure pouch on one of the stealthsuit's legs. He hung off the side of the building using the remaining mag clamp until one of the two closest corner guards happened to be looking the other way. He then hoisted his frame over the guardwall and onto the roof in a swift, fluid motion, rolling out of sight as fast as he could and hoping that the other guard had not noticed him.

The stealthsuit's camoflage was supposed to be worse at high speeds, but hopefully there was enough shadow on the roof that a quick, silent intrusion could be mistaken for a trick of the light.

Hiding around a particular apparatus, Pierce took a quick recon. There were twelve guards total- a full squad. There were enough devices on the rooftop that Pierce could stay hidden by remaining low, and one or two of the taller ones might block a guard from view vision long enough for him to be taken out.

It was chancy. Pierce could take them all out in a straight fight, but to do it without being noticed and an alarm being sounded would be tricky. The worst part of it was that each guard had a rebreather mask on their belt, so a quick gas strike was likely to fall short of Pierce's expectations.

In addition, there were two observation holocams by the lift tube, no doubt to watch who came in. Those would need to be destroyed before he could proceed.

Pierce lifted a small, wicked looking blaster from his side holster. It was a holdout version of a Xerrol Nightstinger, a weapon Pierce also had with him, however the smaller one would be more concealable for his current purpose.

Balancing the weapon on his arm, Pierce fired it.

One of the observation holocams suddenly fell from its' perch with a loud snap. On the way down, it hit a guard square in the head.

"Oh, crap," a voice said. "Wilkins, Briggs, get over here. Security cam just hit Gainer in the head."

"What happened?" a voice said, traveling in the direction of the lift.

"It broke, smart guy," the first voice replied. "I dunno how- bad maintenance, maybe.

Pierce quietly began to move, keeping low along the ground. He pulled a small dart gun from one holster and kept it ready.

"Call a med team," a third voice put in. This one was more authoritative. "We'll get him taken care of. Meanwhile, we'll need someone to take his place."

[Pierce Tondry]

"Holder Command, this is Station Twelve, we require non-critical medical assistance," the authoritative voice said. "We have a soldier down with a hit to the head from a falling security camera. He was wearing a helmet, but is out cold and may possibly have a concussion."

Pierce, meanwhile, was taking aim with the dart gun. He didn't like his current plan, which was to take out as many guards as he could with stimdarts before being noticed. The feeling grew so large, in fact, that he didn't pull the dart gun's trigger, even when he had a perfect chance at a guard no one was looking at. Although attempting to take out each uninjured guard of the guard squad had seemed like the only option earlier, Pierce knew it to be as shaky a plan as attacking an AT-AT Walker by himself with nothing but a blaster pistol would be.

' Frag it!' Pierce thought furiously. ' What the hell kind of options do I have other than a straight fight?'

It was a good question. Pierce seized his anger and set it aside, cogitating on the solution. He was a Cigna, an Elite Beret team, coldest of the coldly logical. There had to be some way he could turn his surroundings into a weapon.

There were scattered antennae and coolant piping across the rooftop, as well as the giant satellite dish which sat atop the lift tube doors. Nothing that could really do an efficient job of killing. But maybe he didn't need to kill. Maybe he could find another way.

Coldest of the coldly logical.

Suddenly, something about the scene seemed to make an odd kind of sense to Pierce and he came up with a potential solution. His brain exploded into action, measuring distance, time, possible thickness and durability, and other factors that Pierce he knew were in place.

It was a moment's work to replace the dart gun, and another moment's work to retrieve the holdout Nightstinger again. He peered through the un-darkness of the stealthsuit's helmet. The holdout's nozzle was pointed directly at the seam in the roof where one of the coolant pipes to the main satellite dish was located.

Spang! Thwisssssssssshhhh..... snickersnackersnickitSNACKT! KEE-RACK!

It happened so quickly, Pierce could barely keep track. The piping cracked, then began to release coolant gas. The escaping gas settled on the outside of the pipe and the crack widened, simultaneously freezing and splitting the piping. An instant later, a large cloud of coolant exploded from the ruined pipe, settling over the rooftop in a foggy haze.

"Coolant leak!" the authoritative voice shouted. "There's a leak! Get a repair crew up here, on the double! Rebreather masks on! Don't go near the source!"

The guards cleared away from the dish, staying on the opposite side from the leak and dragging their fallen comrade with them. It took them a few minutes, during which time their attention was diverted.

It just so happened to be a diversion long enough to let Pierce sneak past the remaining security camera, which was now iced over, and into the lift tube. A quick blast of coolant entered with him, misting over the walls of the lift tube and, as luck would have it, a third security camera as well.

Pierce hit the down button and the lift doors closed. It began to move down into secured depths of the CommSat facility.

[Pierce Tondry]

The lift tube's doors opened up to the second floor and Pierce was in an empty hallway- no one, not even himself, was visible.

Fortunately, Pierce did have some idea of what he was doing. Mentally, he eyeballed the walls, imagining the wires and datalinks that had to be concealed within them. After thinking about certain precise architectural concerns, Pierce began to walk.

It did not take long for Pierce to reach a door, which he opened and went in.

The room was not full of terminals and flatscreens like Toprawa had been. It had instead a security terminal, sets of lights, and screens depicting images that could only be security camera feeds.

It also had two guards, both of whom leapt to their feet, their eyes squinting at the man they couldn't quite see.

Pierce's right leg kicked upwards, catching one guard squarely beneath the chin. That guard reeled backwards, while the other guard swung a fierce chop at Pierce, aiming straight for his neck.

The Intelligence agent's arms were faster than lightning, and with cool precision he had his own arms wrapped around his foe's attacking hand. He ducked beneath the trapped arm, releasing his left arm long enough to wrap it backwards around the guard's neck. His right arm crossed the guard's face from the other side, and Pierce twisted.

With a sharp crack, the guard's neck broke and Pierce let his limp body slide to the floor.

The other guard, meanwhile, had recovered. His hands were grabbing for both a blaster and a commlink.

They were not fast enough.

Pierce plucked a combat knife from his suit's breastpocket and hurled it straight at the remaining guard's neck. The enemy's hands froze in their respective acts and the guard toppled to the floor, the blood fountaining from his mouth and drowning his lungs.

The victor calmly went over to the security terminal and began operating it. He placed a datacore linked to a flat-datapad inside one of the upload drives and then ran the program.

The virus contained inside the datacore had been designed to work against TSE's primary programming language. It had taken a long time to work out, but TSE had been a major power for a very long time, and Pierce had made it a priority for Intel slice teams to work with the computers of the galactic powers-that-were. It, the stealthsuit, and other items, had been provided to him yesterday by a secure equipment drop.

All recent general military communications to the facility began being compressed and uploaded into the flatpad. The virus was very specific, and would only remain undetected as long as it didn't try to open anything beyond minimum security encryption.

While the computer was busy, Pierce began taking a look at the titles of some of those recent communications.

And then one of them caught his eye and he stared at it.

[Pierce Tondry]

Defection notice regarding General Scorpion.

Scorpion? The talented General Scorpion had defected from the Sith Empire?

"What the hell?" Pierce muttered. The name General Scorpion was well-known to him. In fact, he had a file detailing the good General's accomplishments back on Coruscant. It was a list that had started with the Death Star attack- the first engagement Pierce had witnessed with Scorpion in it- and continued up to a few months ago. Why would someone with such a distinguished record and exemplary service suddenly betray his command?

The communication went on:

As of this notice, General Scorpion is formally stripped of any and all rank given to him by the Sith Empire, due to his sabotage of Sith Empire military equipment and computer systems. He is further charged with treason and defection, and shall be turned over to the nearest Sith Empire police force upon location. All former members of the Unknown Regions Sith Fleet involved in close contact with Scorpion have also gone underground, and they are to be captured for trial before a military tribunal. Also, the following public notice is to be distributed to Sith Empire publicist facilities.

Notice: there is a bounty claimable of fifty thousand credits for a live capture of one General Scorpion. Those whose information leads to the capture and arrest of this traitorous snake shall be looked upon with a favorable eye.

Well, that summed it up nicely, didn't it? Not only had Scorpion burned his bridges with the Sith, but they had burned their bridges with him in return. Certainly, this message substantiated the rumors that had been popping up lately regarding the General's disappearance from Sith Empire news.

Perhaps, Pierce could use this information to Intelligence's benefit. Fifty thousand credits would pay a lot of bills.

What a confirmation. At Sith Empire-held Fondor, no less.

Pierce checked the download status and noted that it was complete. He unhooked the flatpad from its' connection and stood up. Now, all that remained was for him to leave.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce slipped over to the door and locked it, briefly sealing it against all intrusion. He then took another look around, readying himself to perform the final aspect of his mission- the destruction of the evidence.

Of course, it went without saying that he had to be out of the base's perimeter by the time this destruction actually occurred. The question was, how could he create a bomb that would go off with enough time for him to get clear without using an inflexible timer mechanism, or a remote detonator that would be rendered useless by distance and shielding.

Towards the back of the guard station was a large storage locker with a guard rotation list on the side. The symbols on the front and sides indicated that it held weapons inside, probably for use in emergency situations where invaders had cut the guardroom off and the guards inside needed to defend themselves until help could arrive.

Pierce took a small prying tool from his stealthsuit and slid it into the plate on which the locking mechanism was mounted. After a minute of work, he was able to open the mounting plate enough so that he could pick the lock with the prying tool.

The locker swung open, revealing three suits of TSE combat armor like the patrols on the roof had been wearing, several handguns, blaster packs, rebreather masks, food rations, replacement piping tubes for power conduits, and even some low-yield thermal detonators. This room was built like a bunker.

Mentally nodding in appreciation, Pierce ran his eyes over the contents, trying to think of a way to use them. He took a deep, calming breath and began to cogitate. He remembered an old concentrating technique once taught to him by Navaria Tarkin, and the image of a brick wall leapt unbidden to the back of his mind.

Suddenly, the entire world seemed to bend and warp, as though Pierce were looking at everything from the inside of a glass bubble.

Pierce's breath caught in his throat. His eyes widened, surprise flooding his thoughts-

And the bubble-effect disappeared.

Frowning in consternation, Pierce looked around. He sniffed the air for gas, examined the weapons locker for anything that might distract his eyes, and eventually came to the conclusion that there was nothing around to induce such an effect. No external attacks meant Pierce was just seeing things.

Pierce took another calming breath, his senses relaxing. He refocussed on trying to come up with a way to use the materials stored in the locker to destroy the room.

The bubble reappeared.

Having already let the effect slip away once, Pierce was determined to examine it this time. He kept his cool and looked around the room again, this time noting what effect the bubble had on things.

It was like looking at a lightwarp mirror that stretched at the edges only to focus to a pinpoint in the middle. The security terminal terminal stood out as being pinpoint clear, as did one of the armor suits, one of the dead guards, the piping, and the T-dets, but things like the blasters and rebreather masks were stretched out of recognition.

What did it mean?

Pierce took inventory of the things that stood out, then shut his eyes. He re-opened them.

The bubble effect was still there, like string wrapped around a-

That was it!

Pierce jerked into action, grabbing all the items that had been clearly marked by the bubble-effect and a few more. He ran over a few things he'd once learned from explosives expert Dominguez, then got to work.

Ten minutes later, Pierce exited the room in the combat armor, his stealthsuit neatly rolled up in the backpack that came with the armor. He carefully closed the door and casually walked down the hallway, acting for all the world as though he were supposed to be there.

[Pierce Tondry]

Campaign Cold Cigna: Fondor Infiltration Report

Target Mission Parameters:

Primary Directive #1: Determine if Ivanrue Mikas Tondry (subject A005-CC7) was on the planet of Fondor, or if subject had made contact or communication with certain military elements assumed to be former comrades who had retired to the planet or were working in non-sensitive military areas.

Secondary Directive #1: Confirm as much information regarding Sith Empire activities as possible.

Secondary Directive #2: Acquire any and all knowledge of Sith Empire tactics, MO, equipment, etc.

Target Objectives:

TO #1: Penetrate security and defensive sensors at the Golt Defense Station on the planet of Fondor.

TO #2: Locate and infiltrate local COMSAT facility that monitors incoming communications traffic and infiltrate.

TO #3: Download all general communications for analysis.

TO #4: Destroy all possible evidence of intrusion and exfiltrate unnoticed.

Mission status: Complete.

Mission success: 100%.

Overview:

Vice-Director Pierce Tondry (Agent D101-CC10) assumed the ID of petty smuggler/businessman Vin Dietrix and boarded an inbound flight to the planet for insertion. Upon arrival, the ID of Dietrix was discarded and the role of Special Operator (SpecOp) was assumed.

At 2200 Golt Local Time, the official mission began. Agent D101 successfully bypassed perimeter security defenses utilizing a SpecOp Stealthsuit (Class SSD-C015) and standard rappelling gear in accordance with TO #1.

Agent D101 made a visual reconnaisance and located the COMSAT facility in accordance with TO #2. Infiltration began utilizing magnetic climbing gear. Detection was avoided through use of a diversionary tactic focussed on disrupting the cooling system for the COMSAT facility's main reception dish.

General military communications were accessed via a security terminal and downloaded to a secure flatpad, in accordance with TO #3.

The security room was then booby trapped with Class 2 explosives found onsite. Combat armor found onsite allowed Agent D101 to assume the ID of a COMSAT station guard. Agent D101 then exercized the prerogatives of his assumed role as though his shift had ended, making use of stolen security passes to access a full layout of the facility. Agent D101 then exited the facility through a ground floor window and stationed himself at the perimeter, reassuming his SpecOp role. The booby trap was confirmed to go off properly through a secure commlink placed at the scene, after which TO #4 was executed through simple exfiltration from the premises. Removal from the system was accomplished through concealment aboard a freighter carrying perishable foodstuffs that was allowed through the temporary lockdown that was established as a result of the operation.

Addendum:

A successful download of the past two weeks of communications was acquired. Immediate analysis has confirmed the defection of General Jyanis Scorpion from Sith Empire ranks. Further analysis also confirmed that Subject A005-CC7 was present on Fondor ten Standard days before this mission was enacted.

Also acquired during the raid were various pieces of Sith Empire equipment including one standard combat armor set, two standard combat blasters, two standard military ID cards,

Enough data was gained during the operation to determine a general layout of the Golt base and its defensive capabilities, security capabilities, quick reaction times, and preliminary threat assessments.

Fondor Defenses have earned a Class C rating- standard for a planet protecting orbital shipyards, but unrecommended in Fondor's case.

Evidence gained from this operation will be enacted on after the operation planned for Arcan IV, Codenamed Mudcrawler, which I have been assigned to oversee under the false ID of Corinas Jax.

The attached pages contain more detailed information on this operation.

Pierce Alexander Tondry
Vice-Director, Imperial Intelligence

End Report.