A Matter of Principle

[Kirie]

Senate Hall. 3rd floor. Commenor.
Kirie Ito's Office.

Kirie Ito, assistant to the Queen of Commenor, stood by the window of her office, nervously tapping her fingers on the window sill. Anxiously, she brushed her hair behind her ears, massaging her temples. The low tone of the voice chimed in, as it tended to do when she was alone. "You 're in way over your head, my dear." It purred from somewhere to her right, she was inclined to agree.

It had all started a few days ago. It had been a particularly busy day at the Senate Hall, and Kirie was running back and forth, delivering a seemingly endless stream of documentation whilst the King and Queen were away for the day. She'd just arrived at the top of the service elevator, a little known shortcut to the top offices of the Senate Building, one that Kirie found herself using every few minutes on hectic days such as this. It was strange, there hadn't been this much of a sudden influx of requests and documentation since the Incursion incident a year prior. Kirie frowned, was something going on that she didn't know about?

Hefting a heavy load of paper in her hand, Kirie hurried down the hall. Even as she moved to deliver all of this paperwork to the Foreign Affairs office she knew that documents were piling up on her desk, with impatient bureaucrats waiting for them to be signed and delivered. The deaf girl sighed to herself and quickened her step, not hearing the middle aged woman striding down the hall from behind her, staring intently at a holo-communicator in her hand, instead of where she was walking.

The woman slammed into Kirie, bowling the girl over and sending the sheaf of papers sliding across the floor. The woman bent down, babbling an apology, but Kirie waved her away, getting painfully to her knees. Other than some carpet burn on her shins, she was okay, and she set to reorganising the scattered documents. As she did, she noticed something strange. It was a request for a transfer of various military resources from bases in Commenor, to be moved in preparation for some sort of operation in the Atrisian system. Kirie frowned, pressing her back against the wall of the corridor and taking another look at the sheet.

Everything seemed to be above board, the request was even signed with the seal of the Crown Prince himself. This was very strange. All of a sudden, Kirie began to feel a tingling sense of danger. She looked up and down the corridor, now suspicious that she was being watched, gathering the last of the papers and slipping back into the service elevator.

"You're a fool," said the voice. "This is none of your business." She ignored it, instead rushing into her office, placing the heavy load on her desk, and rushing back to turn the small lock on the office door. Over the next few hours, Kirie looked over the documents, slowly piecing together what exactly was going on. By the end of it all, she seemed to have a rough idea.

It seemed, from the limited information she had, it seemed that someone in the Systems Alliance, along with help from a group of outsiders, was attempting to form some sort of cabal within their ranks. Even more concerning, it appeared that whilst the King and Queen had been kept in the dark, the group, with the help of the Crown Prince of Commenor, was attempting to siphon resources to fund the campaign. Their target appeared to be the world of Atrisia. Kirie knew nothing of it aside from the fact that the world had been ravaged by war. Whatever this was, it was shady, and totally against the principles of the Systems Alliance.

Now, Kirie stood, holed up in her office. On her desk her holo-communicator was open, each of her several messages winking with a small 'sent' icon. The first was to the Galactic Alliance, the second to the First Order. Both were sent as urgent requests to see a diplomat from the factions. Each of them were vague, sparing few words for details, and not revealing the nature of this plot. That would have to be done in person, she'd decided. The third and final message she was unsure about. She had wondered over and over who could be trusted among the ranks of the CSA. The extent to which the Systems Alliance was involved in this was still something of a mystery to her. In the end, she'd decided to request council with the King of Commenor, Veiere Arenais. The man was pure of heart, and a strong leader, and he had a certain quality that made her feel that he could be trusted. He believed, as she did, in the core principles of the Commenor Systems Alliance, and he would never willingly allow their resources to be used in some faraway military operation.

She replayed her message, still unsure if she'd made the right decision.

To the High King of Commenor, Veire Arenais.
As you likely remember, I am Kirie Ito, the personal assistant of Lady Kay, Queen of Commenor. I am writing to you because I appear to have uncovered some sort of plot within the ranks of the Systems Alliance. It appears that some individuals in positions of power are attempting to set up some sort of Campaign on the border of First Order and Galactic Alliance space. I don't know exactly who is involved, or when or even where exactly this will occur, but I believe it's of utmost importance that we discuss this as soon as possible. Please get back to me as to when you're avaialable.

Regards, Kirie Ito.

|[member="Veiere Arenais"] | [member="The Major"] | [GA Rep.] |​

 

[The Major]

The fires of war had been stoked, and for some organizations that meant cutting the edges of bureaucracy in order to expedite the process of reactions. Moving assets safely required logistical backlog on a scale both mind boggling and intimidating. So when a dignitary from an embassy was replaced with an intelligence agent one had to wonder what exactly was happening with that group that would warrant such a change of pace. Not that anyone requesting the audience would know the difference. All papers and bioscans would confirm the identity and authority of the person now walking down the corridor.

And so the operative otherwise known as the Major in some circles strode down with confidence, moving past bristling palace guards who were almost immediately annoyed by the ever present smirk painted upon her pale face. Hands in the pockets of a long frock coat, the agent toyed with various tools of her trade —nothing very lethal, as a use of force was more or less strictly forbidden. Once upon the passage leading to [member="Kirie Ito"] and her office, the four eyed modicum of anachronistic taste internally went over what exactly she knew about the CSA representative waiting just past the doors. Besides being retainer and personal assistant of Queen Kay, there wasn't much in the files besides a set of warnings surrounding events involving the Shard invasion. Conflicting reports from agents that seemed struck by some sort of mania contradicted one another consistently. As a result nothing surrounding the events involving the Contingency was to be taken without a grain of proverbial salt.

Breathing once to clear her head, the Major knocked on the door politely, waited a beat or two, and then pushed across the threshold. Choosing to indulge in a loaded silence, the operative maneuvered to the front the desk. Once there, a white gloved hand touched her heart. With a slight bow the gesture was completed.

 

[Kirie]

Kirie was sitting alone in her office. It was the evening now, a few hours had passed since her message had gone out, and in that time she had sat in her office, carefully perusing the documents that made their way across her desk. She'd found little more concerning the plan she'd discovered, and hadn't heard a peep from anyone she'd attempted to contact. Slowly but surely she begun to tire, and by the time she finished work all she could do was lay her weary head on the desk, her holo-communicator open in front in her, ready to receive any responses.

Slumped at her desk, Kirie's dark locks spilled over the side of her face, veiling the far side of the room like a curtain drawn across a window. In the corner, a small, stylish lamp flickered to life, its sensors detecting the fading light in the room. In the courtyard below, birds chirped happily in the receding dappled sunlight. The Senate Building was winding down after a busy day, and the mood was now quiet and peaceful. Her eyelids grew heavy, and her mind drifted off. The stresses of the day still weighed on her as she slipped into an uneasy and exhausted sleep. Just before her eyes closed, she saw a figure appear from the comer of her vision, a humanoid of pure shadow. It stopped in front of her desk, pausing to stretch its too-long limbs, and cracking its neck and back, as if it had been cooped up for some time. With a soft sigh, she drifted into oblivion.

About a half-hour later, the soft puff of air as [member="The Major"] pushed open the door woke her. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she stared blearily at the wall while her brain slowly kicked into gear. She sat up slowly, wiping a string of drool from the corner of her mouth and rubbing her eyes. The voice sounded slyly from beside her. It seemed to have resigned itself to tolerating her attempts to find information, but it still reminded her as often as she'd let it that she was merely 'playing detective.'

"You have a visitor," it purred. "Oh and what a specimen she is. A true secret agent, unlike you." Kirie's eyes shot to the door, where a woman stood, bowing to her in greeting. Kirie jumped, standing up quickly and awkwardly bumping her chair backwards. She hurriedly brushed her hair from her face and straightened her rumpled clothes. The woman wasn't an agent, as the voice had said, but one of the new temps. She thought she'd seen the woman walking around the Senate Hall over the last few days, and the ID badge slung around her neck indicated that she was a part of the Senate Building's staff. "You're blind as well as deaf, my dear." The voice murmured, it's smooth voice tinged with a sour note of disappointment. As usual, she ignored it, instead signing to her guest.

'Hello ma'am,' she signed. 'What can I do for you?'