An Empire Fallen

[Hansen]

Jain Kazko
Coruscant Surface, Level 1515

Slumped against a Durasteel wall outside a pulsing and seedy nightclub with a black hood pulled over the crimson-coloured helmet's features Jain's hands steadily push down the conical ammunition down through the double-feed magazine before sliding it up into a pistol's receiver and peeling back the black slide quietly before stuffing it into the underarm holster concealed beneath a thick cotton coat draped over sinewy shoulders. They are deep down through the planet's crust so far that one couldn't tell what time of the solar rotation it was for lack of sky or sunlight. The Deeper one went down towards the core the more dangerous and seedy Coruscant becomes and Jain concluded that the authorities would still be struggling to address the damage done on much higher levels nevermind the slummier 'side' of town as it is. Jain's gray spheres carefully study each person that passes them searching for one man who had allegedly come from some prestigious university somewhere in Sith-Imperial space to investigate rumours of a Rebel Cell using Coruscant as a staging area to assault Imperial holdings both of the First Order and Sith varieties, it had to stop.

Unknown to Sebastian Khel the Mercenary and Private Military Contracting Company who had provided his bodyguard is in-fact a First Order Security Bureau front company used as a lawful means of providing commercial bodyguards who were truthfully spies hailing from that odious organisation. "This nerd couldn't organise a bughunt on Geonosis..." Jain remarks quietly with a chuckle their eyes moving over to the digital clock projected on the holographic helmet mounted display behind the pair of Polarised lenses that sit in the helmet's front expecting to receive a holomessage from the man, she'd instructed it to be as such and to identify his speeder without leaving it so that she might climb inside it before receiving the assignment briefing from Khel although Jain had yet a surprise of her own: Never had the young woman intended to keep her status as an FOSB agent a secret from the man, she simply valued trust and its' construction too much.

[member="Sebastian Thel"]

 

[Sebastian Thel]

Seated inside of a speeder marked as a civilian vehicle, Sebastian Thel had arrived early at the location where the mission was to take place. The thump of the music reverberated throughout the sides of the speeder and through his keyboard. Expecting a message from his contact, a mercenary by the name of Jain Kazko, he opened up the channel to her communications equipment. On his lap sat his slicing kit, with the computer screen displaying the interface of the local network. As he awaited Jain's voice, he scanned through the channels for her address and found an alert, indicating that the message had been relayed.

No voice arrived on Sebastian's headset. A pop of static followed by a low groan traveled from the channel on the other side, causing him to grip his headphone in surprise. The agent in the front seat must have noticed his expression in the rear view mirror and turned around with a gesture of similar concern. Raising a hand and forcing a smile, Sebastian tried to silently convince him that everything was alright. He hit a button on the glove compartment and closed the screen separating the front seat from the back seat. On the channel, a voice spoke into his headset, distorted by static and scratching.

"Hello, who is that?" In a calm tone, Sebastian responded, all the while listening carefully for anything important they might say. He held the mouthpiece to his lips in anticipation.

"I know you sliced Jain's comms." Speaking sternly this time, Sebastian squinted as he tried to listen. The voice began to list numbers, each in different sequences. The mathematician's eyes widened in intrigue and he immediately began to record the transmission. The numbers became increasingly distorted as the list continued and Sebastian could not decide whether or not the sequence was code. As he managed to record the last trail of the sequence, the message terminated. "Damnit." Sebastian cursed under his breath.

With a sigh, Sebastian returned his gaze to the interface, where he saw the name linked with Jain's channel. Upon clicking the link, he was greeted a page displaying information surrounding the address. He executed a function which scanned the page for vulnerabilities and uncovered several routes which he could access. When he selected route leading to the location of the server, he ran into an encryption which appeared to make up the back end of the page. He opened up a text box, which he linked with the window and executed a command which allowed him to engineer the code.

Taking a moment to analyze the symbols in the window, Sebastian isolated frequencies in the patterns. He calculated the numbers needed to form the correct keys after each line of the encryption and organized them into a verbose algorithm. After entering the algorithm into the text box, the system executed the command and decrypted the information on the window. While not all the text had been successfully decrypted, he had found what he was looking for, the location where the channel was being hosted. The channel was being operated from the night club where Jain had arranged to meet Sebastian in the first place.

"They must have traced her signal when she arrived." Placing a hand to his lip in thought, he spoke aloud to himself. He realized that the slicer on the other channel must have intercepted Jain's message when she entered the network, meaning that Jain was already at the night club.

After a pause, he adjusted the algorithm in the text box, then performed another function. This time, the account was revealed to be associated with a Rebel cell. Satisfied, he wiped the history of commands he had performed in the address to avoid them tracing him. Before he left the speeder, Sebastian selected a lead and plugged a portable communications device into his slicing kit. He opened up the recording of the transmission he had received earlier and sent the file to the portable comms device. When the transfer was complete, he slid it into his pocket and removed his headset, which he unplugged from the slicing and set aside.

With the compact, sleek case in one hand, Sebastian opened the door of the speeder. The lights of the club reflected in the surface of the damp ground and the smell of machine fuel hung thick on the air. Smoothing down the front of his knitted waistcoat, Sebastian straightened his jacket and made sure his plus fours were neat. He closed the door behind him and took a breath before he prepared to walk among the refute of Level 1515. Following the beat of the music, he quickly spotted the masked visage which matched Kazko's image on the operation file. He walked up to the mercenary and lightly tapped her on the shoulder.

"Jain, I never got your message, your comms were sliced." With an almost nonchalant shrug, Sebastian regaled the situation calmly. He took one look at the imposing woman and recoiled slightly, holding the slicing kit with two hands. "The Rebels intercepted the frequency, but I managed to trace them back to this club." He nodded in affirmation. Failing to directly look Jain the eye, or rather, the mask of her helmet, Sebastian retrieved the communicator where the vague recording was stored.

"They used your channel to talk to me, but they didn't say much." Scratching his head, Sebastian handed Jain the device. As more hedonists and party goers spilled out of the club, he found himself moving in closer to Jain and hiding by her side. "I recorded some of the transmission on this." He explained as he looked around with caution. "I haven't tried to decrypt it, but I don't believe that they would send it to us if it was code, unless it's something they wanted us to know." Lowering his voice, Sebastian started to become uncomfortable standing out in the open. "They still have access to your channel, maybe we can use it to monitor them." He tilted his head sideways as he made the suggestion.

"I'm getting antsy standing out in the street." As he spoke, more denizens on the night came and went from the club. The hand of a Zeltron woman brushed his cheek and he winced in disgust. "Pfft!" He shook away the strands of hair the woman had swept across his face.

[member="Alika Zovu"]

 

[Hansen]

Jain Kazko
Coruscant Surface, Level 1515

Jain's wrist rises up beneath her gaze studying the personal data device held in place by a holster secured to her left arm from behind the polarised and ominous-looking black lenses, the woman had constructed the equipment primarily from commercial off-the-shelf equipment such was her resourcefulness with some custom items fabricated by Security Bureau armourers for the incomprehensibly young agent who had cheekily styled their armour and clothing's colours after the First Order's although few would initially consider this upon encountering that intimidating countenance. Though the youth belied Jain's skill for she had been one who has known only the warrior's path from infancy and yet her mind had not been constrained or limited by such a path.

Hands rest motionlessly atop the grips of holstered dissuader pistols secured against Jain's jean-sheathed sinewy thighs with their hammers pulled back into a 'half-cocked' position signalling to those familiar that the Mercenary was ready for action and would only need a light pull on the trigger to start spitting rounds at whoever they desired. another two blaster pistols sit in shoulder-holsters beneath her arms with no less than at least one fixed blade hanging off of her belt along with multiple onyx coloured pouches containing the sort of accessories, ammunition and equipment one would associate with a professional mercenary.

Hazel spheres snap in the sound of an opening Speeder's door revealing a man with the visage near identical on the photo she had been provided prior to commencing the Operation; it is without a doubt Sebastian Thel. Jain thought he looked dour and gaunt quite befitting the 'Slicer' Stereotype and while she herself was trained to a point in breaching network security Jain knew better than to compare her own skills to somebody like Thel's, what he lacked in martial prowess of physical power he made up for in genius, at least that's what the brief had said and Jain tried not to focus on it too much for all that information it didn't really tell her who Thel was as a character whether or not he'd be pleasant to work with or not. The nightclub's ambience beat through the street's ferrocrete surfaces with an irritating although somewhat delightful tickle on Jain's boot-wearing feet.

Jain's eyes swing away from Thel for a moment in the direction of the club's entrance; lines of people waited to receive leave from the burly Gamorrean bouncers to enter the premises, she snarled angrily at them knowing they could not hear it. They could make gaining access to the Club and the planting of any listening devices difficult, although if Thel could access the building's plans by some providence that could make their mission here significantly easier, this thought is interrupted by a light tapping at the pauldron prompting an immediate and surgical response from Jain as her helmet lenses whip in its' direction with a violent precision. Listening to Thel silently she decides not to interject, quietly disturbed by the possibility that her contact within the Club's management suspected that Jain's loyalties laid to an odious foreign government especially given Thel's history he wasn't exactly an undercover type.

Although it was a small struggle Jain manages to suppress a chuckle at Thel as he scoots closer to her person in a kind of awkward defensive shuttle with his feet away from those walking up and down the street, her gaze remained attentive not to Thel but her surroundings while he communicated with her. "There's a contact of mine within the Club's management, he's probably sold you and I out to an interested party, although given the fact they've also breached my Comnet as you say they've got talented people on the inside." Jain's 'Imperial' accent grates obnoxiously against her speech with a working-class inflexion that is simply unmistakable among the Galaxy's denizens, it was the one thing as an Undercover operative she couldn't hide with any proficiency and so masqueraded around generally as a native of Corulag or Kuat when on Coruscant. "He should be finishing work soon....I know where the man lives, maybe we should go to his apartment and extract some answers? It's your choice, your Government is paying me to be your 'frontline' bodyguard." Pausing for a moment Jain can't help but chuckle briefly when Sebastian recoils away from the scantily-clad Zeltron, how typical for that species she thought silently although even Jain had to admire the life and energy of those peach-skinned Near-Humans. Examining Thel again she couldn't help but wonder if the man had ever set foot into a nightclub before and leaned towards a 'No'.

"Several of my contact's associates usually meet him in his apartment, we could bug the room and see if we can learn anything actionable and perhaps identify key personnel?" The terminology used by Jain wasn't that of a brute cut mercenary but somebody who had been trained, perhaps even served with the Sith-Imperial Military?

[member="Sebastian Thel"]