Criminal Reconnaissance

[Darth Vazela]

@[member="Nova Thanewulf"]

Almania system, Obscurity

Sat upon a throne center to the observational deck, Darth Vazela found himself not standing at the transparisteel barrier that separated the innards of the Obscurity to the dark expanse before him. The holographic projector had been set up before him, thanks to the work of Commander Malus Bligh. The Sith Lord had told the man and his crew to leave the deck afterwards, leaving the sounds of compressed air coming in from the life support systems and steady breathing of the hooded, dark figure.

Activating the projector, Vazela began to transmit his image to another...

 

[Tales of the Rule of Two]

@[member="Nova Thanewulf"]

Malus shut the locker and typed in the code that would activate it's locking systems. He turned away and back to the black, shoulder strap bag that held and studied it's contents. Inside were two datapads, a disruptor pistol, ammunition for the pistol, a combat knife, clothes and supplies for the journey ahead. Lowering himself onto the bench, he placed his aging hands on his knees and waited, quietly for the go ahead.

 

[King Kazma]

@[member="Vilox Pazela"]

The Core Sector - Unknown Location

Nova patiently waited for a very important holo-call. One she was sure to set her up for greater things in this galaxy. The location she was presently at would be kept secret long enough. Only the wariest of eyes would of paid her any mind down here; who would even care for some bounty hunter anyways. A small disk shaped object held in her glove began beeping. Nova set the device down at an appropriate level of elevation so both sides would have a clear view of the other and activated the device. The blue light flickered into existence; taking the shape of a hooded man; his face near entirely obscured by shadows. Nova's own helmet gave back the same impression of the faceless entity. She gave a slight nod to the man that everything was right, but kept her silence. Most bowed their head when faced with a Sith Lord. Nova owed no such allegiance to this man. She was neutral after all, but the respect was there.

 

[Darth Vazela]

@[member="Nova Thanewulf"]

"Greetings, Nova Thanewulf," said Vazela quietly, his voice barely above the decibels of a ghost. His eyes stared out from underneath the cowl, locked on where he believed Nova's to be. He continued. "As you have become aware, I have a task that I need to be completed. Our point of contact is en route to Coruscant as I speak. He will be delivering your payment of ten thousand credits for the job. This mission will be clandestine. I presume you know what that means, don't you?"

"Our point of contact has access to your communique. He will contact you when he is planet side, with the details of this mission. Do not fail me, Thanewulf."

Vazela severed the transmission between him and the bounty hunter, the blue light of his holographic projector dissipating, leaving a darkened room. Lifting his chrono on his wrist to face, he activated the device and relayed a message to his second hand man. "You are clear for launch."

 

[Tales of the Rule of Two]

@[member="Nova Thanewulf"]

Almania system, Obscurity's hangar bay.

Malus lifted his wrist slowly, to check the chrono attached to his wrist. The message on it read, "You have go for launch." He smiled, his creased face adding further wrinkles for a moment. "Action," he thought for a moment. "Time to move." Leaving the lockers behind, he picked up the shoulder strapped bag and headed out into the hangar bay. He marched across the large, opened area to a Sith Infiltrator ahead. "One of the last of it's kind," he remembered, thinking back to what Lord Vazela had said during the briefing he had underwent on the observational deck.

He stopped short of the shuttle and entered in a code into it's side. The hydraulics activated and the ramp lowered to the ground. Malus walked up the ramp and hit the button that would retract it back inside from the inside. He placed the shoulder strapped bag in a locker near the ramp, made sure the locker was secured and then headed into the cockpit. He strapped himself into the pilot seat and began a pre-flight check. When he was satisfied that all systems were secured, the fourth time that day he had done such checks, he activated the inter communication system and hailed the Obscurity's flight control. "Flight, this is the Bantha. Ready for launch, over."
"Bantha, this is flight, over. We have go ahead for launch, over," replied man on the other end. Malus recalled that he was a Lieutenant from the Exitium. When he had transferred over to the Obscurity, he had taken the best of the Star Destroyers crew with him. It was useful being under the direct command of a Sith Lord, after all.

Activating the impulse engines of the shuttle, Malus flew out of the hangar bay of the Obscurity and past the blue hue that were it's shields into the dark expanse ahead. As he turned the ship towards the launch coordinates, he saw the blast doors of the Star Destroyer close once more. He briefly wondered if he would ever see the ship again. After all, he was headed for the heart of enemy space. A suicide mission his aides had called it, in hushed tones. Malus thought otherwise. He was confident in his abilities.

Flying past the observational deck and it's transparisteel screen, he could feel Vazela's eyes follow him. He shuddered at the thought. The man scared him. The were look of him could take the air out of you. He felt relived that he wouldn't be under the mans stare for the next three weeks. Activating the hyperdrive, a hyperspace window formed and Malus was off, towards Coruscant.

 

[Darth Vazela]

@[member="Nova Thanewulf"]

Vazela lifted himself to his feet, walking towards the transparisteel screen once more. His yellow, predatory eyes followed the Sith Infiltrator as it glided in space. When the hyperspace window opened, the shuttle was sucked inside and disappeared from the Almania system. Folding his hands into his sleeves, he thought of the man on board. He could had chosen another man for the mission at hand. But he had chosen Malus for a specific reason.

The first was his reliability. The Commander would be relied upon to complete his mission. Vazela even thought that, if the situation called for it, Malus was the type of man to have the character and decency to sacrifice his own life in order to see the mission through to success. The other, and more important reason, was his age. The cover story that they had come up with for him was that he was visiting Coruscant for sight seeing. The Sith Lord knew that Malus was in ill health. If it came to an encounter with the Jedi or Republic officials, then the fact that he was dying would convince them that Malus was just an old man, sight seeing before his inevitable death. No harm, they would think. What harm could an old man do in the first place?

"How wrong you will be," Vazela murmured, turning his eyes to the world below him.

 

[King Kazma]

@Vilox Pazela @[member="Malus Bligh"]

"Understood". This was the only word she was able to give to the Sith Lord. All that was needed. This man was not one to tarry in speech.

'Do not fail me, Thanewulf'. How cliche. Were all Sith of higher positions always this dramatic? It did not matter, so long as the dramatics didn't turn on her. Nova swiped her holo-projector from its perch and swung around for the door. She wondered for a short second just who he was sending. A Sith apprentice seemed most obvious, but this was the Capital. Far to many Jedi about. Well whoever it was; they were sure to be competent. In that Nova had no doubts. The armor clad woman exited the room. Now was the waiting game for her contact to contact her.

 

[Tales of the Rule of Two]

@[member="Nova Thanewulf"]
Coruscant, Liston Spaceport.

Malus undid the straps of his pilot seat and rose up to his feet. Heading back to the back of the Sith Infiltrator, he opened the locker he had put his gear in eighteen hours earlier and put the bag on a bench next to it. He lifted the metal cane inside and leaned it up against the bench as well, then closed the locker and locked it. He knelt down next to the bag and opened it up. He pulled out the combat knives and attached one and it's holster to his left ankle. With the other, he leaned it next to the bag. Then he took out the two disruptor pistols and began to change.

The sleek black clothes he had choose for the trip were folded neatly into the bag. Wearing a smart, brown suit and tie, he tucked the combat knife into the blazers inside pocket. He concealed a blaster onto his back with a holster and the other in the other inside blazer pocket. Then he clipped his communique, datapad and other equipment onto a utility belt he wore. He hid the belt underneath the shroud of the blazer and the shirt he wore underneath it. Then he picked up the cane, walked to the ramp, activated it's hydraulics so the durasteel would lower to the ground and began to limp his way into the Liston Spaceport.

The trip between Almania and Coruscant had been a long, arduous eighteen hour trip in which Malus only picked up three hours worth of sleep. Two of them were accumulated during the last hyperspace jump from the Corellia system and the first during the trip between Almania and Munto Codru. Bypassing Mandalorian space had been difficult and the systems he had navigated and jumped from where near the borders of the aforementioned and Omega Protectorate. When he had cleared the borders and entered Republic space, he had deactivated the cloak, deciding to stick to the facade he and Lord Vazela had made up for when he was in the Republics region. An old man from Corellia who had traveled to Coruscant for one last time before he died.

Crossing the spaceport, he left the hangar bay, which he had been previously cleared to land upon only fifteen minutes ago and went in search of a cafe. The most dangerous part of the mission had been the Sith Infiltrator itself. But it seemed that the Republic had lost records of this type of craft during the centuries in which the Gulag Virus had ravaged the galaxy. Safe in the knowledge that his story had worked and nobody knew who he really was, Malus settled into a vacant seat in a position where the CCTV of the cafe had not caught his face. He had kept his head lowered so the cameras would not catch him either. Asking for a waitress to get him a cup of coffee, he leaned back in the seat and allowed his cane to rest on his hip. Pulling out the communique on his belt, he typed in a command and a burst transmission was sent to Nova, displaying his current location.

 

[King Kazma]

@[member="Malus Bligh"]

Nova activated a pocket datapad. A message appeared onscreen from Malus. His location was not to far from her. Maybe a 10 minute walk. Nova wasted no time getting there. It wasn't good to keep people waiting. The wolf girl strutted in to the cafe and took a quick look around. It was pretty obvious who he was, grey and sullen face. Sitting alone. She on the other hand was wearing brighter colors. A blue shirt, rather simple design with a v-neck. And a pair of pants that would match the ensemble. She was barefoot, unless it was custom made it was impossible to get shoes that fit her feet. Nova took a seat with the old man who was Malus. She gave a simple introduction and pleasantries. She missed her armor, but a bounty hunter walking into a cafe here would be a bit odd. Nova kept her ears perked, quite apt for listening for anything trouble wise.

 

[Tales of the Rule of Two]

@[member="Nova Thanewulf"]

Malus lifted the cup to his lips and drunk some of it. It tasted good, after not gaining much sleep. He felt slightly rejuvenated when Nova settled herself at his table. Watching her quietly for a moment, he observed what she wore. Thinking back on the files he had read on the Obscurity, prior to beginning his mission, he nodded and recognized who she was.

Lifting his hand gingerly, he offered it to shake her hand and said, "Hello, Thanewulf."

 

[King Kazma]

@[member="Malus Bligh"]
Nova took her own hand to meet his, exchanging a light handshake. "A pleasure to see you Mr. Bligh. I hope things went smoothly with your trip here"? Really the man looked pretty ragged, but with his age and profession it was hard to tell if that was just the way he was or exhaustion. Nova took her hand back and settled a little more into the chair.

 

[Tales of the Rule of Two]

@[member="Nova Thanewulf"]

"Thank you, Miss Thanewulf." Retracting his hand back onto his lap, Malus leaned back and began to speak. "Our client has requested a series of points on Coruscant must be recorded. When the information has been compiled, it will come with me and I will leave this world to parts unknown."

Picking up his coffee, he drained it's last dregs and placed it back onto the circular plate it had been on. He continued, "You will receive payment of ten thousand credits when the job is completed. If you agree to these terms and to the job, you will come with me."

Folding his hands over each other, resting his elbows on the table, Malus leaned forward, focused on Nova, waiting for her answer.

 

[King Kazma]

@[member="Malus Bligh"]

Nova too took her hand back. She was all to willing to accept the work. Simple reconnaissance with minimal danger was easy money. The old man patiently awaited her reply. His eyes locked on her own glowing blue ones. "I accept the contract Mr. Bligh. And you've finished you're coffee; so lets not tarry longer than needed". Nova rose up from the seat and pushed in back in. The quicker she was briefed, the faster she started. Speed was the name of this game. The longer spent idle or slowed was more time for authority to catch on to them. Both for the current and once on the mission.

 

[Tales of the Rule of Two]

@[member="Nova Thanewulf"]

"Indeed, let's not. Come with me."

The old man used the metal cane that was leaned up against his knee and with it's support, got up to his feet. He placed two dactaries on the table, for his coffee and headed towards the exit. He gestured with his free hand, silently, for Nova to follow him out of the cafe and back into the crowd spaceport.

Gingerly, the old man led the way back to the Bantha, the Sith Infiltrator he had used to get to Coruscant. When he came to a stop before the shuttle, he used his free hand to type in keypad to the left hand side of it's ramp. After inputting the code, the hydraulics within the transport came to life and the ramp began to lower, with the doors sliding to the left and right to reveal the inside. When the metal touched the floor, Malus nodded to Nova and made his way inside.

At the threshold of the entrance, he waited for the bounty hunter to come inside. Then he pressed a button in the inside of the Bantha and the ramp began to retract, the door closing. Then he turned, settled in a nearby bench and turned his stern gaze to Nova, slightly illuminated by a red hue from the ceilings artificial lights.

 

[King Kazma]

@[member="Malus Bligh"]

Nova had to slow her step to keep pace with Malus. Either old age or a war injury did a number on his leg. He wouldn't be of much use if a fight broke out. Not that Malus should be partaking in much if any of this mission besides being the liaison. Slowly they traveled to the star port he had arrived at; his ship was nothing she'd ever seen before. The model must of been over five hundred years old, amazing this thing wasn't a wreck unless the Empire still made them. Malus opened up the ship while she was admiring it; a break of the ill focus had it turn back to the matter at hand. Nova climbed the ramp into the Bantha; its doors sliding shut with a metallic clunk. They were obviously here for the privacy. Nothing could of should be trusted on the Republic home world when discussing matters of this type of importance. Red hued lights and Malus Bligh. Sith. Nova waited for him to start, it was his stage.

 

[Tales of the Rule of Two]

@[member="Nova Thanewulf"]

"Please, take a seat Thanewulf and listen carefully. Do not record this on any device or repeat a word of what I am about to debrief you on. If you were thinking of using another to help you in this task, do not. This mission is between me and you and nobody else is meant to know about it. It is my hope that we have an understanding."

Malus leaned the cane up against his knee and leaned back on the bench. It felt good to sit down again. Even after seven or so minutes of walking between the cafe and the Bantha was exhausting. But he would not fail Darth Vazela. He couldn't afford to do so.

"Our client has requested several points on Coruscant be assessed. During our reconnaissance, we will be recording information on these locations. After today, we will not meet for one week. This will be the time period in which we will record the data we need and compile it into a report. When the time period has ended, we will meet back inside the Lucky Den. If you didn't catch on, that was the cantina that we just left."

"Your mission will be to find out the dynamics of the Jedi Temple and it's structure. This includes it's circumference, including how high and how wide it is. We need to know the size of it's area. Included, we need to identity the spot nearest to the temples entrance in correspondence to a vessel that is four hundred meters high, five hundred and fifty meters wide and one thousand, two hundred long. The spot needs to be clear enough for... something that is this high, tall and long to land upon and this space needs to be as close to the temples entrance as possible."

"We'll create our own sector for this space, the temple and the surrounding area. The sector will be as far from the spot in which the aforementioned will be placed upon to the temple and around it."

Malus fell silent, waiting for Nova to speak. She might have questions. She might ask what he would be doing during the week period. He would have answers and when they settled on her mission, she would leave and see to it; and then he would see to his own.

 

[King Kazma]

@[member="Malus Bligh"]

Nova took a seat at the request of Malus. He went over the needs of secrecy. This was a Sith plot after all, and a bold one at that. They were placing quite a bit on the shoulders of a third party. Nova was a professional of course, and was leaning favor towards their faction. It wouldn't be for a lack of skilled operatives they could send here; ones that wouldn't alert the Jedi with their presence. Nova figured this wasn't on the books at all. Secrets wrapped in secret plots of secrecy for this. The main show would be just as well kept. "Of course. None of this leaves my knowledge".

Malus explained exactly what he wanted her to do. It seemed simple enough. Scans, holo-recordings, guard placements, possible schedules of those who enter and leave the temple on a regular basis. A bit of math and the report and this job was wrapped up. There were a few things that needed to be cleared up. And the old man seemed to be waiting for her to ask. "Firstly; does this ship need to land before it can drop off its cargo. This would factor into the best way to make the run in on the temple. And of course the Jedi themselves. I figure if I'm caught I'm forgotten. But if I have the information compiled or simply raw, and am on the lamb. Would you consider a contingency meeting area off world"?

 

[Tales of the Rule of Two]

@[member="Nova Thanewulf"]

"I see that you are a true professional Thanewulf. Lord Vazela was right to include you in this mission." Leaning backwards on the bench, he nodded his head and replied, "In the event that we need to meet off world, I have this tracking device that you can use to follow this shuttle." Malus, prepared for this, put his hand in his clothes and pulled out the tracker. He leaned across and gave it to Nova. "The device that this is linked to is currently offline. But in the event that we need to meet off world, I will activate the device and the tracker will come online. Then you can follow the signal to me and we can meet there."

Leaning backwards, he said, "The ship will land outside the temple and will be staying there for an indefinite time, so you can understand why we require this intelligence."

 

[King Kazma]

@[member="Malus Bligh"]

The tracker Malus provided was small enough to fit in the palm of her hand easily. Nova flipped it around between her fingers to get a full view of the device before pocketing it. She was attentive to the mans words too. All she needed to know was asked. Question time was over and it was time to prepare for work. "Well Malus. I've nothing else to ask. I'll ready what I need and will begin in about six hours. And have no fear you and your master will have this information on time and in detail". Nova rose from the seat, ducking her head so she wouldn't collide with the ceiling. "Is there anything else before I go"?

 

[Tales of the Rule of Two]

@[member="Nova Thanewulf"]

"There is nothing else, Thanewulf. We will meet again in one weeks time, in the Lucky Den. Have the data recorded on a datapad and we'll do the exchange. I'll pass the ten thousand in exchange for the datapad, after I have checked over the information, to see if it is there."

Malus rose to his feet and limped across the closed expanse to the back door. He activated the button, for the ramp to lower. "We will be verifying the information that you will pass to us, in the event that your clandestine operation is successful. Good luck."