Embassy Lament [Vaas]

[Natasi Fortan]

oh my dear how boring, he's defecting​

just like all the others, he's expecting​

us to be impressed with what he's done here​

​

"Immy, I really haven't got time, can't you do it?"

'Immy' was really Imogen Fortan, a distant cousin that Natasi had pressed into service as her assistant, lady's maid, and general maid-of-all-work. "You know I can't, Tasi, this is eyes-only stuff. I only saw the envelope."

"I'm supposed to be handing the intelligence brief off to someone else so I can focus on getting this sad little wreck of a planet back onto its feet. Someone needs to crush those stupid Liberation people, they're certainly not going to crush themselves."

"Well I've got a meeting with the Marshall about that and I'll report details so you can deal with this... thing." Immy handed Natasi the envelope and the young lady sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Right. You go and do it and I'll take this nightmare meeting. Thank you, Imogen."

if these people can't strike blows for freedom​

with a valid visa, we don't need 'em​

if we seem offhand then please remember ​

this is nothing very special - he's the fourth​

we've had since last November​

who do these foreign chappies think they are?​

​

​

"This is silly," Natasi told Immy as she drummed her fingers against the desk. Her office was unimpressive, a small room in some little building in the government district. It didn't have the glamour of the Senate building, but it was a buzzing little bureaucratic hive and that was where the real power lay. "Not even a name, Imogen. No even a name. A codename is not the same thing as a name. What is this Gray Wolf nonsense? Was that his idea or ours?"

"It was the name given to the resource by the people who vetted the candidate. I didn't decide it, so no need to bite my head off about it."

"Oh Immy, you can be ever so tiresome. Bring him in and then bring in tea. Then set the door to the confidential locks."

and when he's safely in the west​

he'll be the subject to discuss​

the media will lionise him, fame and fortune thus​

no one will recall it's thanks to us​

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

He had been known by many names in his short but illustrious career with the Empire, and rarely did they involve his birth name, Ludolf Vaas. That name had seemed all but a century ago, before his career in Imperial Intelligence. Since then he had been known primarily as Cipher Eighteen. Add to that the various aliases he had adopted throughout his missions, and Vaas felt like sometimes even he forgot who he was. Grey Wolf was only the latest in a long line of aliases, and again, not self-applied. That seemed to be how the One Sith preferred to do business with potential functionaries of note. Vaas preferred it that way as well. Although the New Order was but a shambling shell of its once proud self, he did not want his meeting with the One Sith to be made public. Yet.

Vaas was led inside a modest office where he found his contact waiting for him. If the young man was struck by Natasi's unblemished porcelain skin, finely shaped face and chestnut hair, he did not show it. The Agent's square jaw was clenched tightly, his cold blue eyes betraying little emotion beneath. He kept his hands behind the back of his black doublet as he approached her desk.

"You must be Natasi Fortan," The stony Agent said.

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Natasi looked up from her paperwork and silently indicated the chairs opposite her on the other side of the desk. She finished annotating the documents and then raised them to hand them off to Imogen as she came into the office with tea. "Commissioner Fortan," Natasi corrected him coolly. It was impossible for even Imogen to tell whether this glacial greeting was motivated by anything other than her aristocratic bearing and upbringing.

"Thank you Imogen. That will be quite all." Natasi's dark eyes followed her pale-featured cousin as she left the room. A moment later a red light glowed above the door's access panel: the confidential locks had been engaged.

Natasi stood, her slim frame looking rather boyish in a black uniform that broadened her shoulders and narrowing her waist, her chestnut pinned in a severe bun. She poured tea into two stainless steel mugs - not her usual bone china, but it was what was handy - and left one on the desk for him. "You must be Gray Wolf," she said with a hint of a smirk. "How do you take your tea, black or white?"

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

"Gray Wolf, among other things," At that moment Vaas' mouth contorted into what could almost be considered a grin. "Black, please."

He could see that traditional Imperial mannerisms had not been lost on this woman, tea and all. Her accent gave way to her noble upbringing; a thing that was becoming all the more rare in the galaxy today. Even it was mildly distinguishable from the standard Imperial dialect.

"Your accent," He said as he sat and took the teacup delicately in one hand, cradling the saucer beneath. "It would seem that the Imperial aristocracy has found a home amongst the One Sith after all, or am I mistaken?"

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Natasi pushed the teacup across the table at Gray Wolf and sat down, smoothing the legs of her slacks, and pulled her tea towards her. She added a lump of sugar and stirred the tea, twelve to six, twelve to six, twelve to six, then out, just like Nanny taught her. "We're not here to discuss my upbringing, Gray Wolf," she said before taking a sip of her tea before setting it down. "We're here to discuss you. What you can bring to our little gathering of minds."

The Commissioner pulled the dossier over and flipped it open.

"Our intelligence on you is a bit sketchy." She folded her hands across her midsection and idly played with her engagement ring, pushing the rare black diamond to the ring around her finger, then pulling it back by the platinum setting, her dark eyes looking at Vaas with the mild interest of an aristocrat examining a stud for the stables. "Perhaps you could begin by filling in the blanks."

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

The Agent only held his tea deadly still, and did not drink until after Natasi had taken a sip. Only then did he finally lift the teacup to his lips, sipping quietly for a moment before setting it back on its saucer held by his other gloved hand. Vaas was a statement in black today; his black doublet coupled with dark pants and high black boots, complimented by the leather black gloves on each hand. He met the Commissioner's eyes with his own orbs; pale blue things that betrayed no thoughts beneath.

"I would think this interview is less one-sided than you make it, with all due respect, Commissioner," Vaas said coolly. "My joining the One Sith depends on two things. First, whether you deem my skills valuable, and second, whether I deem your government worthy. Of the first, I have little doubt."

He shrugged.

"Your upbringing is important to me, Comissioner Fortan. I want to see whether this is truly a place where Imperial culture thrives, rather than a motley of power-hungry Sith. As for myself, most details of my life are at this point in time, classified. Though I was bred by Imperial eugenics on Dromund Kaas, during the days of the old Sith Empire. I graduated from the old Imperial Academy and was sent off to the Intelligence bureau. My path was chosen for me before I was even born. And so it is with all of us. Yes?"

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

"My father is Frejrik, Earl Herevan on Galidraan," Natasi said flatly, not looking up from her tea. "My mother is deceased, a Bakuran heiress. I had an older brother who was killed two years ago at the front and the estate will be inherited by a distant cousin of mine, one Baron Jens," Natasi said, in the tone of a reciting the Kings of Galidraan in order as in grade school. "I went to the academy and was tested into the intelligence service. I was intelligence attache to Governor Tyrin Ardik. My father became ill before he became Emperor and I elected not to return after he was deposed. Loyalty or something along those lines. Not long after that, the whole thing imploded."

She paused and took another sip of her tea before setting it down once more and leaning forward.

"That is it. That is all of it," Natasi said quietly, her eyes closing for a moment before she flicked them back up to the Gray Wolf's face. "Anything else before we can get to the business at hand? My zodiac sign, perhaps?" She again twisted her engagement ring with her index finger on the opposite hand.

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

"You misunderstand my meanings, Commissioner Fortan," Vaas said without a hint of humor. He did not smile at Natasi's little joke. "I merely wish to see whether there are some vestiges of the Imperial aristocracy within the One Sith. Whether the Sith realize it or not, the Empire is not the Empire without High Human Culture."

He wondered how these same people had not been taken in by the New Order, but perhaps the reason why Vaas himself was sitting here in the first place was his answer. As much as he had hoped that the New Order would prevail, it now seemed that the answer to the successor state question was before him. Both factions had faced the trial by fire, and only one had survived.

"Straight to business, then," It seemed that Natasi had no interest in answering any further tangential questions, and so Vaas reached into his belt pocket and unfurled a small datapad. "I think you will find this interesting."

He slid the datapad lightly across the desk towards her with two gloved fingers. When Natasi opened it, she would find the transcript of a Republic transmission sent by a Republic general to some commanders on Mon Calamari. The top half was written in the usual top secret Republic code. The point of interest was at the bottom, where the same top secret code had been perfectly deciphered.

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Natasi looked relieved for a moment when it seemed his prying was at an end. "That's a matter for discussion," she replied before letting the subject drop. She reached across the table and took the datapad, lifting it to a certain angle so that she could see and read its contents. It was all rubbish for the top half, then it had been deciphered into Basic. "This is certainly a matter of interest," she said without looking up as she scanned the contents, committing them to memory in case he took the datapad back.

"...if it's legitimate," she added, looking up at him with a frosty glint in her melted-chocolate eyes. "Where did you get it? And what about the cipher?" She glanced back down at it for a moment before setting it back down on the desk between them. This could very well be a set-up; Natasi was eager to be sure that she didn't recommend him for a post and have it turn out to be some kind of sting or double-agent job. Damned if it would happen on her watch.

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

For the first time, Ludolf Vaas cracked a smile.

"I obtained it personally under mission directive from the New Order," He said. "You'll find that it is legitimate."

This was, in fact, only one transmission among many. "The contents of this transmission are rather trivial, but you'll find that the Republic is still using this cipher for top secret transmissions. To my knowledge I am the only one who has cracked it. By the time I had returned from my mission, the New Order was already crumbling under the weight of the Mandalorians. The Intelligence Bureau had all but disintegrated. Thus, the knowledge that the Republic codes have been compromised is limited only to myself..."

Vaas took the datapad back into his hand. With a thumb on the touch screen, he pressed the -delete- button on the message he had showed Natasi.

"And now, you."

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Natasi leaned back in her seat and steepled her fingers. "Yes, the Mandalorians," Natasi said quietly, her eyebrows furrowing, as if she had something personal against the Mandalorians.

"Given the time and resources, could you synthesize additional Republic codes from this?" she asked, gesturing at the datapad vaguely with her left hand, while her right hand took her teacup and again took a sip from it. The nice thing about those stainless steel mugs was that they held the heat in rather nicely. "This would certainly be something of interest to my organization. If it were legitimate, well - I wouldn't say you could write your ticket, but I could certainly write one and it might get you somewhere worth being."

It was always better to start vague, Natasi thought, and detail the specifics when an agreement could be reached. "What are your thoughts on that?"

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

"I can decipher any Republic transmission that is written with this code, yes," He answered affirmatively.

Vaas leaned back in his seat. There really wasn't anything more he needed to say about the subject, he knew. If Commissioner Fortan had any wits about her at all, which she seemed to have, then she would know that this was a potentially groundbreaking revelation. Advantages like these were how wars were won.

"Somewhere worth being is somewhere I'd like to go," The Agent's face betrayed a hint of amusement before fading back into a stone wall absent of emotion. "I believe your Intelligence Bureau could use leaders with similar scruples."

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

"It would seem, then, that your usefulness to us extends only insofar as the Republic doesn't know that the code is cracked. Which means that we can't be seen as acting on the intelligence we get, or even the stupidest of the stupid Republic intelligence analyst would figure out that it's been cracked, and they'd change it." She looked across the table at him and shrugged.

"Leadership is... complicated," she confessed. "I'm not prepared to offer you a significant leadership position. You have faced significant scrutiny during this process, to be sure, but it's early days. Take me through your CV. What other skills and experience are you bringing to the table?"

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

"You don't just need the code cracking," Vaas said, leaning forward. "You need the skills that got the code in the first place."

He tented his hands on her desk.

"We all have our role to play, Commissioner Fortan. My role is the shadows. Behind the troopers, behind the talking heads, behind the Emperor. I make the chips fall how you want them to fall. I make some people talk and I silence others. You order the pieces, Commissioner Fortan, and I make them move."

Ludolf pulled out yet another item from his belt pocket - this one a small data chip. Within it was stored his full dossier, including his missions helping to acquire Dubrillion and Mirial for the New Order. The Agent's face was still as cold as ever as he locked eyes with Natasi, pushing the data chip across the smooth surface of her desk with two gloved fingers.

"The missions of Cipher 18 are classified. Even though the New Order is no more, you should see that they remain so. If you wish to know about Cipher 18, you may read about him."

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Natasi had to stop herself rolling her eyes. The spooks could be tiresome, she thought. Thank heaven she had never been a covert agent. Her experience as an intelligence analyst had been enough to put her off them personally for a long time. She recognized the practical applications, but she just wasn't a fan. "Yes, I'll look into this," she said dryly, taking the data chip and slipping it into her datapad. "Unfortunately, I'm afraid you're having a very bad meeting. You've been rejected. Insulted, even. Enough to swipe a data chip of classified data... say, our plans of a raid against the Coruscant Liberation Front's midlevel suppliers."

The woman pushed a chip across the table. "Enough to want to take it and deliver it into the worst hands. That will certainly show the One Sith what they're missing. Pride goeth before the fall, and all that." She smiled and pushed a card with her personal com frequency on it across the table so that it perched jauntily on top of the other item.

"I could write you an impressive ticket, Gray Wolf, if this were to come off."

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

Ludolf saw how it would be. With switching sides came more hoops to jump through and more people of just the right station to butter up. He had worked diligently as the New Order's best Agent to achieve the title of Moff, only to have to start from the bottom rung yet again. Yet he couldn't refuse, as this was his only option. What else was he to do - join the Republic?

No. Ludolf Vaas was too much of an idealist to do anything but see things through with the Empire, or whatever form it might masquerade under, to the end. New Order, One Sith - it mattered little to him. Vaas served the Empire. And perhaps one day, that great Empire just might return again.

"Your meaning is taken," Vaas nodded. "This Coruscant Liberation Front - what do we know about them? They're a thorn in the side of the One Sith, that's all well and good. What about their leaders? Known headquarters? And what is my mission once I'm inside?"

[member="Natasi Fortan"]

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Natasi stood up and paced away from her desk, clasping her hands behind her back. "I don't know their leaders. I've been on this job for all of two weeks and I'm somehow meant to have sorted it out by now." She sighed quietly and shook her head. "You're new here. You're not going to be identified by their spies as a covert agent. You're going to put on a show, and you're going to win their trust. And you're going to find out what I need to know. And then we're going to ride this straight to the top."

She paused and then quirked an eyebrow at him. "If you think you can, that is."

Returning to her desk, she leaned over it locked eyes with Vaas. "I think the coup de grace will be when you bring in Commissioner Fortan to show your loyalty. That will flush out the leadership, don't you think? We'll have the commandos ready..." She pressed her lips together to suppress a smile. "Any thoughts, Gray Wolf?"

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

An undercover infiltration mission was not to be taken lightly, Vaas knew, especially since he had yet to be given an assignment like this in his career. Still, it was the type of mission that every Agent was trained and prepared for, and consequently one of the most dangerous.

"I'll agree, of course," Vaas nodded, after taking the data chip that Natasi had given him and slipped it back into his belt pouch with a gloved hand. "Though I'll need your permission to do whatever is necessary to win their trust, no matter the cost. I am sure that they will have tests of their own waiting for me, which may involve collateral damage."

[member="Natasi Fortan"]