Isn't This Interesting (Ovmar)

[Velok the Younger]

The Silver Jedi Order embassy on Lianna -- headquarters world and primary possession of Santhe/Sienar, and a major Tionese world -- was, naturally, a very interesting source of entertainment for various elements of the Tion intelligence community. They kept their distance, but every entrance and exit was recorded at a distance. One couldn't be too careful; the SJO included at least one convicted mass murderer and war criminal. Besides: every major power with any sense practiced embassy collection, the covert and illegal use of embassy space for signals intercepts. That made the embassy, and its occupants, of high intelligence value.

So when a woman started lingering in front of the Embassy with a school-shooting trenchcoat and a suspicious coat-pocket bulge, someone noticed. No action was approved, but her face was recorded, and she was noted leaving toward a shopping district. From there, they lost her; no tail had been approved, and she had a knack for avoiding holocams. She just didn't have a knack for not hanging around suspiciously in front of foreign embassies.

It took several hours -- long after the woman had gone off to some meeting or destination, unknown and unrecorded -- for the information and the picture to cross the desk of anyone in power. From there it would go to [member="Jared Ovmar"] and, by extension, the Nightsister sitting on the other side of that desk.

"Any clue who this is? If she was SJO, she'd have just gone right in."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Rave Merrill"]

When people said Santhe Corporation, they said Lianna. Those two names were inseparable to each other, for today’s purpose assume they mean the same exact thing. What that also meant was that Santhe and, as an extension, the Tion Hegemony had a vested interest in whichever foreign power decided to waltz around the surface of it.

The Silver Jedi embassy was tolerated, if nothing more, and through it’s tolerance men and women in power had made sure that they would be watched.

With the rapid expansion of these ‘Silver are Gold’ hippies you can never be too careful, always gotta make sure you don’t accidently sign something that turns ‘em into your loving Overlords.

Ovmar carefully looked at the imagery, frown creasing his forehead, he didn’t seem very amused by this.

‘Never seen this girl in my life, but man. She can’t be all that good in hiding her identity if she walks up to a diplomatic building wearing attire that sets her apart from the entire crowd.’

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"Trenchcoats are so last season. I made sure of that."

She scrutinized the image.

"So why do we care? Apart from this joker not fitting any of our SJO or person-of-interest dossiers -- are we seriously profiling based on the trenchcoat, the obviously fake black hair, and the concealed weapon? This could be some harmless, lost pedestrian with no covert interests whatsoever. We're probably wasting our time even having this image run through the usual databases."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Rave Merrill"]

He’d tap his lip for a while, still watching that picture and considering what he was ‘bout to say. Seemed funny, yet it seemed so true. The obvious thing here was that they did care, that for some reason it had popped up for them while thousands of others had been passed by, passed by without issue.

That in itself would tell ‘em something, some would call it the Force, other their gut feeling, intuition if you will, or perhaps it was simply that part of the human, the animal slash hunter part that had always been there, hidden inside of you and just waiting to come out.

...and it saw a lamb disguised as a lioness from a mile away.

‘We care, because it crossed my desk. You want me to tell you how many of these sort of reports has crossed my reports? Hundreds. You want me to tell you how many of them proved legitimate? Two. The first one was a suicide bomber, who took out half of an industrial district two streets from here.’

Ovmar sighed and took a gulp from the glass in front of ‘im.

‘Other one was a wetboy, she wasn’t able to do anything, because we cared.’

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"I'll take your word for it. I work out of Levantine space and I keep my nose clean -- ish. We've never had something like this, not even in the Great Terentatek Offal Spill of '35, and public opinion was not with us that day."

She pondered the image, ostensibly; in reality, Ovmar's words had struck a chord. "I'm reminded of something Velok told Dissero once -- 'You have the right to watch the universe respond to your sense of purpose, to your right to know.' But it seems...cheap, attributing it to the will of the Force. As if noticing and exploiting a mistake this colossal needed random chance or Force mastery to make it happen."

She snorted. "Then again, they'll say what they always say, regardless of how we do what we do. And neither one of us is in the business of being agreeable. I swear, Jared, these Silvers are going to be the death of me. And that's a crying shame, because they're effectively useless. Bit ignoble, dying due to anything they did."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Rave Merrill"]

‘We are who we are, Merrill and guess what.’ He met her gaze. ‘They are on our turf now, they can waltz ‘round as long as they like- pretending they are the Guardians of the Galaxy. But the moment they try and add Lianna to their collective… well. We both know what will happen, real question is- do they?’

Again he studied that image and the pointed at it.

‘She might be a nobody, might be some farm girl searching for a magical sword to release her from her boorish life or she could be a terrorist wanting to cripple Lianna’s Industrial Sector.’

And then he smiled, it radiated bitterness and showed how jaded the boy had become since the first time he left Coruscant.

‘Luckily neither of us needs lots of reasons to do what we do best, comes with the territory, eh?’

Again he took a sip, raising the glass towards her. Merrill would probably have ‘er own.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"No," she said, and felt suddenly tired, "we don't need reasons anymore, do we. But we wait for it anyways -- is it satisfaction or to salve our consciences -- why is it we give them rope to hang themselves-"

She cut herself off. "I'm rambling, Jared, don't mind me. Let's move on to something worthwhile. Let's run this with the usual SJO-affiliate parameters. Former Jedi Order members, known former Rebel Alliance people from my brother's time, known Levantine patrollers, though they're not that close these days. Known Republic people, from there to companies that've done business with the Jedi -- well, your people know what they're doing."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Rave Merrill"]

It’s a game, Merrill, a cruel game we play, because we have accomplished everything there is to accomplish in life. We have the money, the power and we have the authority to use both as we see fit. What else is there to do besides protecting our interests, shelter those we still care about and destroy the few who think themselves equal or above us?

He kept silent though, didn’t portray his thoughts, but as theirs eyes crossed understanding might cross-over.

‘Sounds good.’ the Sith Lord simply replied. ‘I will have my contacts run a few searches, who knows what they might come up with. Doubt the Levantines are involved though- care a lot about their territory, but it doesn’t seem their MO to waltz into someone else’s territory just like that.’

Ovmar shrugged. ‘Can’t hurt checking ‘em out anyway though.’

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"Might be worth doing all of the above." Her eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Leaving aside this little anomaly, which has probably taken up too much of our time anyway, I've been pondering our next move against the Silvers. They have to have heard about the Rudrig Declaration; they have to know it's directed at them. But it's only a matter of time until they try for our space anyway. Their sense of entitlement is just too strong. It's a pity -- I've certainly tried to honor my contracts with them, for mutual profit and so forth.

"Now, it's worth noting that -- just like the Grand Army of the Republic -- the Silvers' refugees and personnel on Zygerria eat my addictive leviathan spam. We do have leverage there."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Rave Merrill"]

The irony displayed in the Silver Jedi’s consumption of Sith Alchemized goods was tangible in the air, it was so tangible that Ovmar had to snort, to rid himself from that foul obstruction in his nostrils. Eventually though he managed to get a grip of himself and reply.

‘Never made any contracts with the Silver Jedi, even I got my limits when it comes to morality and breaking it.’

Ovmar shrugged.

‘Then again, it’s a wonder they aren’t economically bankrupt already. The amount of credits they blow on ships they never use… it’s painful to my metaphorical wallet.’

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"One wonders where their money comes from," said another voice, less accented than Rave's and more warmly amused. "And how their tax rates increased with the label 'Jedi' attached."

Ovmar had asked her out once, the first time they'd met. She'd declined. (That had been Je'gan posing as her, but she had those memories. All of them.) He would know her as the former interim CEO of Silk, and a current member of their board of directors.

"Evening, Lord Ovmar. My name is Velok."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Selka Ventus"]

When that name rang out, echoed wall to wall, until it finally reached the Sith Lord’s ears he froze up. A moment went by, then another one, before Ovmar finally stood up and turned around, taking in Ve-- Selka?

Well ain’t that a surprise.

...yet he saw something in those eyes that only a few would notice. Courtesy of Ordo, ya know things ya never wanted to know.

The Sith Lord bowed deeply and replied.

‘It’s an honor, Lord Velok or… Lady, whichever you prefer.’

If there was one entity in this Galaxy that Jared Ovmar truly respected, awed, envied and half a dozen other verbs?

It was Velok.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"Just Velok. Selka, in public."

She threw an inscrutable glance at Rave and took a seat on the edge of Ovmar's desk, palms resting on the ridge. Her red skirtsuit rustled against the side of his datajack. Ankles crossed, she leaned back with eyes half-lidded, in something like nonchalance. Not explicitly flirtatious -- but Velok had never moved like this. After a moment of silence, she slipped one hand into a low-profile pocket, and produced a transparent square of plastic sheet with a flattened black petal trapped inside.

"This is from a Murakami orchid. There are hundreds of thousands of them in a valley in Silver Jedi space."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Selka Ventus"]

The Sith Lord nodded and was about to say something else, when she- he decided to sit on his table. Which was just as well, but then Sel-- Velok decided to lean backwards and Ovmar sighed, looking at Merrill for some help here.

It was pretty clear he wasn’t going to receive any aid from that corner though and so he started to recite a mantra, while listening to her voice.

‘A new scheme, Velok?’

Only thing Ovmar knew about ‘em was that Jedi could have a special bond with them, because of their Force Sensitivity.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"You keep using my name as if you're trying to convince yourself it applies." She swung her feet back and forth just slightly, crossed at the ankles -- a relaxed, almost childish affectation. "When appropriately altered, Murakami orchids are the source of the substance known variously as I-71-A, the Sickness...Blackwing. You're a man of the world; I'm sure you've heard the name. The Silver Jedi Order have direct access to a weapon of mass destruction. Matsu Ike has direct access to Blackwing."

She shrugged fluidly, slipped off the edge of his desk, and moved to examine a small ornament on a low end table. There was no rhyme nor reason to her actions; she moved and explored like a cat. "That's the line, anyway," she said over her shoulder. "Ammunition for whatever you need. The line, not the orchid. Unless just the right target comes to mind."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Selka Ventus"]

That brought a smirk on his face- not the blackwing part- the part ‘bout ‘er name. Because it was true, unimportant and beside the point anyway, so the Sith Lord simply nodded, this time in response to the biological threat.

‘Familiar, yes. Yet such things require expertise, while Matsu is publically known for her expertise in making cities go boom, I wonder if this wouldn’t be met with skepticism.’

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

She rose and turned to face him, catching the smirk and offering a half-smile of her own. Maybe he'd been looking, maybe not. Her posture hadn't exactly been provocative, but feth she loved this skirtsuit. "I've had the opportunity to examine a variety of the Jedi Order's minor Force artifacts -- I was in AgriCorps not terribly long ago. Matsu Ike experiments compulsively, has a curiosity almost as broad as mine, and does her level best to apply alchemy to the Light Side -- or at least claims it. She's the bargain-bin version of me. She's capable of making Blackwing, and you're capable of making people believe that she's capable of making Blackwing. People at all levels."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Selka Ventus"]

And suddenly the Sith Lord felt comfortable in this conversation.

Comfortable with the presentation too, of course.

Yet there was something about this… he had a need for it, the scheming, the plotting and in the end the marvelous execution and pleasant feeling of a job well done.

The fact that they would discredit the Silvers and Ike in particular? It would only be the cherry on the proverbial pie.

Ovmar found himself nodding.

‘Aye. I like it, all of it.’

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

"I'm sure."

She folded her arms tight across her ribs, shot Rave another glance, and refocused on Ovmar.

"Endgame is where it gets interesting. If they throw Ike under the bus, that's one thing, but if they band together behind her and try to fight the allegations, you'll come under scrutiny. How insulated are you? How hot can it get before you start burning?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Selka Ventus"]

Ovmar shrugged.

‘Over the years I made sure to be fair and honest with my dealings, I have lended my aid without asking anything in return, few if any will have any reason to disbelieve me if I put forward such a claim. Especially when it comes to a woman so widely reviled.’

He put up his hand.

‘That said. They would naturally want proof, simply saying that the Order has access to such resources… wouldn’t. be. enough.’ and that’s when it hit him, he wasn’t sure if what he was thinking right now was what they were suggesting between the lines.

Proof.

What better proof then a sudden outbreak, her metaphorical or even literal fingerprints all over it and then presented to the wide world.

Outcry.

People wouldn’t even consider any other culprit with her reputation.

Ovmar didn’t voice those thoughts, yet he studied Velok and tilted his head slightly.

Considering.