Taking a moment to stretch the cramps out of his wrist, Sebastian leaned back and inhaled the smell of metal stained with fuel. The system churned within the terminals, processing the calculations which Sebastian and his fellow analysts input. Craning his neck over his shoulder, Sebastian exchanged a glance with William, the analyst who had been rescued with him on Jaminere. Hard at work, he combed the channels linking regional outposts and output the values of points where they had been breached. With a hand held on the ear of his headset, Sebastian watched William's screen keenly.
"Looks like we got a breach on the Iego line, somebody's feeding data into the channel." William affirmed Sebastian's suspicions and he turned around to face the other mathematician, who turned back around. "Thel, can you decrypt the feed and find out where it's coming from?" He asked, adjusting his glasses. Pulling his headset over fluffy, dirty blonde hair, he turned around and continued to comb the lines between the channels for any more suspicious presences.
"I'm on it." Sebastian said, pulling on his headset. After tapping in an entrance code, he opened the channel between Iego and Chrion, where an operator received him on the other end of the line. Static muffled her voice, disrupted by pops of grain and external activity. "This is Agent Thel reporting from Chiron, we've detected a breach in your system, I need you to grant me access to your channel so I can locate the source." Sebastian said through his headset, having vaguely heard the voice of the operator on the other end, which belonged to a woman, but he hadn't heard what she had said. For a moment, Thel waited, drumming his nails on the terminal as the channel struggled to relay the message from the other line.
"This is Agent Thel reporting, do you read me?" Sebastian asked again.
As the woman spoke, her voice became more distorted, slurring out of tone beneath the static. When William turned around to speak, Sebastian waved him back firmly with a hand, while he focused on hearing what the operator was trying to say. The deeper he listened, the more he could hear the feint trace of a song, which sounded almost like a lullaby, ringing at a shrill pitch behind her voice. The connection must have been cut by the data which was being fed into the system, replacing the operator's voice with their own cryptic message to the Sith.
"They're down, log out before we get cut too." William said, his tone dire.
Paying no heed to the warning, Sebastian left the channel open to hear the message that was being fed. Cupping his chin in thought, he listened the woman's voice wane, to be replaced by a series of numbers, repeated in sync and all baring the same behavior in terms of their divisibility. The malicious data came in and Sebastian set his fingers to the keys, ready to decrypt it, just as William turned around.
"Bas, log out." William warned. "They could breach our systems too!" He cried, keeping his voice low.
"Not unless you safeguard them." Sebastian said, in a tone which could have passed off as threatening. Ignoring William's gaze, he continued to wrap the numbers around as they came through, turning each character into plaintext as he entered them through the modular function on his keyboard. The numbers rang in his ear, juxtaposed with the shrill lullaby playing in the background, which sounded like it had been designed to threaten, or send a message.
An alert beeped on Sebastian's terminal, informing him of the Emperor's imminent arrival. He stiffened at the sight of the notification, momentarily pausing with his hands above the keyboard. The doors to the bunker opened at the top of the stairs, allowing Carnifex and his guards to enter. With a jolt, Sebastian turned around and looked William directly in the eye, almost threatening to grab him if he did not do what he was told.
"Install my encryption right now, Will." Sebastian ordered.
As the march of boots became closer, the smaller mathematician turned around and installed the encryption which Sebastian had designed specifically to use when accessing a sliced channel. William shook, his hands trembling as he hammered the installation code into the keys, successfully backing up the channel with Sebastian's encryption. A notification rang on Sebastian's terminal, ensuring him that the system was guarded, now he could finish decrypting the suspicious feed. Before he could turn back around, Darth Carnifex entered the bunker and stood above the analysts, his back flanked by guards.
Immediately, Sebastian and William shot up. Straightening the double-breasted coat of his uniform, Sebastian shoved his headset back around his ears and put on his cap. The other analysts wore the same uniforms and stood up justly, in time to greet the Emperor as he stood before their terminals.
"Your Majesty, we uh, didn't expect to see you just now." Sebastian said plainly. The formal titles had escaped him again and all he could manage was a broken stammer. Scratching the back of his head, he looked past Carnifex' shoulder hesitantly, his eyes falling over William, who trembled uncontrollably in the Emperor's presence.
"We've located a breach in our line with Iego, an enemy source is leaking data into the channel." Sebastian informed the Emperor of the situation, his mouth hanging open at the sheer size of the man. "I've designed an encryption system which can be used to protect our home channel while accessing a sliced one, William just installed it so I can decrypt the feed." Sebastian said, nodding in William's direction
"Here it is." Sebastian said, pointing to the message. While the presence of Carnifex loomed over his back, he found the characters he had been deducing and proceeded to wrap them around based on how they behaved. The encryption kept the channel unguarded while Bas tapped away on the sliced line, pocketing the intercepted data right under the enemy's nose, "I'll transmit the message to your commlink, so you can see what it says when I crack it." Quick as a flash, Sebastian cut the message from the feed and isolated the plaintext.
"Will, secure a line between my station and his majesty's personal device." Sebastian said and pulled on his headset.
"Okie dokie." William said, sitting down. With a few taps, he used the same encryption system which Sebastian had designed to secure an edge between Sebastian's system and Carnifex, which would arrive on the devices on the Emperor and his guards with a beep.
Once the line was established, Sebastian turned around and forwarded the plaintext to Carnifex. Entering numbers through his modular function, he divided them based on the behaviors they shared, which produced a pattern, the letters which the numbers stood in for. With every number he wrapped around, a letter appeared, revealing the message the Rebels were feeding to their allies in real time. Tapping away, Sebastian unveiled the plaintext, forwarding it to the Emperor's device as he went.
[member="Darth Carnifex"]