No One's Untouchable | FOSB

[Delilah Graham]

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Aboard the FIV Obsidian Shade, Nightgaunt-class Stealth Corvette​

Terra Damnatias Low Orbit​

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The holoprojector hummed softly as it displayed the globe of Terra Damnatias. It cast a pale orange glow over the conference room aboard the stealth corvette, giving Delilah Graham a bizarre, carnival-atmosphere look as she spoke to the two agents opposite her: [member="Val Pellian"] and [member="Isobel Nakano"]. "That is Terra Damnatias," she said. The planet was ringed in red lines, universally dashed, with red circled X's along the lines, marking out where satellites used to be, where they should have been. "The communications satellites -- in fact, all satellites -- have been moved or destroyed. Our sensors don't see them anywhere in the system. Debris fields suggest they were destroyed, but we'll take signal readings to make a final determination."

She paused and zoomed into the map, towards the main planetary city. "Preliminary scans of the planet suggest that planetary activity has stopped, by and large. Power plants are offline, ground-space traffic is stopped, and our life form readings of the planet are almost nil." Delilah frowned and shifted the view to the opposite side of the planet. "This is the site of the First Order colony established earlier this year. Ten thousand First Order citizens and members of the Directorate of Colonial Affairs set up their makeshift shelters here and city planning was taking place nearby. As you can see, the same conditions exist on this side."

Delilah stood and put her hands on the table. "It is highly unlikely that the entire population of the planet vanished. I'd like to think whatever interfered with the satellites is causing some kind of sensor cloud. Your mission is to travel to the planet and determine what's happening, assess the situation, and recover our people. I'll remain in orbit, continuing sensor scans. I'll provide what support I can from here, but be aware that there is a significant time delay to connect to the First Order's network and retrieve information." She inclined her head and looked at the map for a few moments before straightening again.

"If you have no questions, I'll leave you to prepare. I encourage you to take advantage of the armory before boarding the shuttle. I'll be on comms."

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Delilah Graham"]

It still felt weird to be away from Yag'dhul.

Sadly FOSB Command had determined his prolonged stay there had become untenable. Harlow had made it personal. That was something they couldn't afford. Not when Yag'dhul was one of the primary nodes of trade leading into the Outer Rim. The First Order couldn't afford a happy-trigger. Emotional. Shaking to take revenge. Of course, Val had not given any signs his mind was on that. Graham knew though. The interview had gone too smoothly.

Too calm.

After what they had gone through and not even a single spike in his heart rate? He was covering it up. Val knew she knew. Graham knew Val knew. Made it easier to just accept the transition. For now, anyway. Maybe in the future it would be different.

It better be.

"Hundreds of questions, ma'am, but I figure they are the same as yours. So we will get on it." Standing up, lazy salute and rounding on his heels. "Let's go, Lotus. We are burning investigative time." Their boots sounded muted against the floor. Some kind of sound-absorption material. Useless in space, but if you wanted to drop the corvette into atmosphere and give covert air support? Just in a day's work. The things engineers came up with in their free time.

It kept astounding him. "How's the face, healing okay?" Been about four weeks since the disaster show of Yag'dhul. The first two of which Val hadn't been allowed to see her. Or anyone else really, besides Graham and her team of psychotherapy monkeys. There wasn't a part of him that blamed Delilah.

The job was the job and it didn't mutate for anyone.

Val called for the elevator and settled down next to the doors. Studying her up and down.

"Seriously though, how the feth do ten thousand people disappear without a trace?"

 

[Isobel Nakano]

"It's my face again," Isobel said quietly as they made their way into the elevator. Isobel was dressed head-to-toe in standard FOSB desert ops camouflage: digital pattern on the formfitting slacks, flak jacket and cap, and plain beige/tan on the t-shirt she wore beneath the open jacket. "More people than that died during the war and were never identified," she answered. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Delilah did say it could well be a technological problem. But -- if I had to guess, I'd say it's not." The doors opened and Isobel wound her way through the halls to the ready room, which featured a changing room and armory. As she gathered her gear, she allowed herself a covert glance at Pellian. Isobel couldn't tell what was going on inside his head, which made her feel a little uneasy. He had to be annoyed -- if not at her, at the result of the ordeal that she had caused.

He couldn't be any less pleased than she was.

Isobel selected a high-caliber slugthrower and a blaster pistol. These she strapped to each hip. She also chose a lightweight stealth assault rifle, which she slung over her shoulder and buckled to the rucksack that she filled with sensor gear, medical kids, rations, and other helpful tools. She loaded a few small crates of various kinds of grenades onto their shuttle, then settled into the co-pilot's seat. She waited until the ship was descending towards the planet to turn to Pellian.

"I'm sorry about Yag'Dhul," she said. "For what it's worth, I told Graham the truth about what happened. That there was nothing you could have done differently. You shouldn't be penalized for something that isn't your fault. But I think they're going to stop me working in the field anyway. So whatever you need to tell them about me to get your place back -- just feel free."

[member="Val Pellian"]​

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Isobel Nakano"]

"What sort of technical problem can cloud out an entire colony?" Val countered. If Delilah actually believed it was a tech problem? She wouldn't have send them. A couple of engineers, maybe. Possibly combat engineers at that. But Val was a former station chief, Isobel was a field agent, both of them were killers and espionage experts at the end of the day.

You didn't send a pair of loaded guns to fix a tech problem.

Just didn't make any sense.

"Could be pirates. Blazing Chain? We have been so focused on the Alliance and the Coalition..." Val muttered as he started decking himself out. Hold-out blaster, knives, wrist device with diagnostic software. If it was a tech problem, it would be awkward, if they ended up not being able to do anything about it. So, better to deck yourself out for every situation possible.

Then figure it out surface-side.

"Could be they sneaked through our defenses, while we were looking elsewhere." Even the largest and most powerful nation could only keep so many things in mind. Pirates... they were insidious. Could be anywhere. Pop in, snatch an' grab, then get out again. They loaded up the shuttle in short order. Then went off. He settled himself into the pilot chair. Trying to keep his mind on the mission. That was difficult. When Isobel was literally sitting next to him this entire time. Made him wonder if this was Graham's way to further test him.

Then she piped up-

Val blinked and glanced to the side.

"Don't get anything to apologize for. Graham wanted me out of Yag'dhul, that much I am sure, you were just the tool she picked for the job." But why? Sure, Val had gotten a little bit native, but... nothing that impacted his mission performance that much, right? A shrug. "I will tell 'em the truth. That you're a consummate professional, a gifted agent with a knack for people. Social, but not overly."

He moved his focus back to the planet looming in front of them.

Even from here Val could see the storm roaring over the surface. It was huge, covering a large portion of the planet. This was gonna be messy. "It's my pleasure to work with you, Isobel, I am just trying to figure out why my presence on Yag'dhul was undesirable for Graham."

 

[Isobel Nakano]

Isobel shifted in her seat as she reached for the controls, adjusting the scanners and systems carefully as Pellian flew the ship. As Terra Damnatias swelled in the viewport, she considered her colleague's question. She made an appreciative sound, to acknowledge that she had heard it, but it would take a little time to unpack it. The young woman frowned thoughtfully and initiated another sensor sweep of the planet. "I only have conjecture," she began cautiously, her words formed carefully and slowly as she examined the data that was streaming in. "We're not -- like -- best friends or anything, although I think she has rather a soft spot for me." Isobel looked to one side and frowned.

"Yag'dhul is a critical world for this end of the galaxy, and Graham tends to be a control freak. Maybe she felt that you were operating the wrong way -- not outside of code, perhaps, but outside of Graham's code." She shrugged her shoulders and leaned forward to type a few keystrokes into her control panel. "She thought you may have spent too much time in the field -- let yourself get rough, you know? But maybe she's spent too much time in her ivory towers and doesn't understand that sometimes you've got to get rough to get things done."

Isobel glanced over at her co-worker and pursed her lips. "Who knows why people do what they do, Pellian," she muttered and shook her head. "I don't know about you, but I wasn't taking much comfort in my principles and the pristine decorum of the First Order when Harlow was -- " She fell silent and her eyes went glossy and unfocused until she closed them and took a deep, shaky breath. Her breathing was the only sound she made for a few moments. A violent shiver ran through her frame, and her eyes snapped open.

"Sorry," she said. "Where were we?"

[member="Val Pellian"]​

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Isobel Nakano"]

A snort.

"Ivory Tower indeed." He grunted, but left it there. His thoughts were complicated on the entire situation.

On one hand? The discipline of the Order was firmly instilled. Oh, Val might act like the tough guy. The anarch. The one who did what needed to be done. But at the end of the day? It was his loyalty to the First Order that set him aside from the common thug. He knew the boundaries, the limits, the objectives they were running throughout the Unknown Regions. It was why this was hard. Every hour in the academy had taught him a singular thing to prepare him:

Don't question your superiors.

And yet... on the other hand Delilah had taken away his pearl. His masterwork. A network he had been forging for half a decade now.

Institutional indoctrination aside? That was a hard thing to shake. "Trust me- I had a hard time not going off-book and smashing his knees in myself." Val muttered in response, before shifting the controls just a little bit, until the ship pierced the atmosphere.

There was a storm brewing on the horizon.

It would be a few more hours, before it reached the site, but it was concerning nonetheless. "We will need to work fast. Moment that storm hits, the passive sensors we do have will be karked." A comment there. Before starting to circle around. Trying to find a good place to land. "We were talking about Ivory towers and Delilah being a pain in the arse." Bemused there, before reaching over and patting her hand. "It will be fine either way, you did your job, I did mine. Not even the Ivory Queen will be able to dislodge us that easy."

Spoken with the confidence of a station chief who hadn't had to bow to red tape in years.

 

[Isobel Nakano]

The fine hairs on the back of Isobel's neck stood up. She covered his hand for a moment and squeezed lightly. "You're one of the good ones, Pellian," she said, looking over at him sidelong. "Don't let anyone tell you different. Not even Graham." She lifted her hand and leaned forward, new energy motivating her movements. She pressed a few keys, scanning the surrounding area. "How about there?" she asked, flicking her wrist to send a map designator onto his screen. There was a field at the edge of the settlement that was flat enough to land the ship. "Close enough to the settlement that we can get back there on the double, far enough that if there are traps it wouldn't disable the ship."

Isobel craned her neck, peering to where the storm was forming on the horizon. "Looks like a sandstorm, if my understanding of this planet's climate is accurate," Isobel observed.

She stood as they flew low over the colony, leaning to get a closer look out the window; Isobel chewed the inside of her cheek thoughtfully. "It's spooky, isn't it?" she muttered. "Ten thousand colonists out of communication. Maybe missing. Maybe dead. In any event, I have a really, really bad feeling about all this." She resumed her seat again and strapped in for landing.

As she ran through the post-flight checklist, Isobel glanced over at Val again. "You know, I never quite considered that question -- about Graham?" she said. "What could she have to gain from pulling you of Yag'dhul? I wonder..." She checked a box on her list. "...Graham might have some interest there. Maybe there was something there you were getting too close to. She -- no. She couldn't be involved with Harlow, could she?"

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Isobel Nakano"]

"Yeah, that works." Val commented as he shifted the trajectory of the ship.

He was careful about it.

They didn't want to make too many waves. Not while they had no idea what was going on there. "It's karked up, is what it is." A murmur, while trying to focus on piloting the ship and having a conversation. "It's why I doubt it is a technical failure. This isn't a hundred people at a far-flung colony without support. Ten thousands of colonists, they'd have had security, technicians, ships -- anything they'd need to carve out an existence here. We aren't the Outer Rim Coalition or some other amateur group." A smirk there. "When we do chit, we don't half-ass it. We whole ass."

The idea that among ten thousands of experienced and motivated colonists not a single one was capable of getting out a signal to them?

That seemed completely inconceivable.

Val managed to land the ship at the exact time Isobel said that. It made him stiffen. Spine tight, brows furrowed, glancing at her. "Dangerous talk, Lotus, be very cautious about that." Rising up. Biting the inside of his cheek as he pondered that idea though. "....Harlow had deep connections and... I did wonder how he knew so much about our operations." Then Val shook his head, curtly. It was impossible. It was one thing to talk chit about Graham.

It was just frustration venting, eh?

But this... "If she is in it with Harlow, then everything is suspect." Turning around to face her again. "Even this mission. If we can't trust our handler, then what the hell can we trust?"

 

[Isobel Nakano]

Isobel's eyes darkened at the thought of her trusted mentor Delilah Graham working with her tormentor, Ciaran Harlow. It did seem unlikely. The way Delilah closed ranks around her had seemed protective at the time, like a mother hen with ducks, trying to soften the blow of protocol's demands that Isobel be ostracized. She frowned thoughtfully, her eyes narrowing out the viewport at nothing in particular. At that moment she felt every jolt, every cigarette burn, every slap, every fractured bone.

For a moment, she was back in that meat locker, looking up through swollen eyes at Ciaran Harlow and wondering what mixture of malevolence and bizarre affection was looking back at her. He had claimed a special connection to Isobel, some sort of kindred spiritness or attraction, and the thought had haunted her since that day. She had offered to join him to buy her time to live, to escape or be rescued, and the appearance of [member="Val Pellian"] had meant that she needn't have faced the question of what she would have done at do or die time: do, or die?

The gentle shudder as the ship's engines wound down jolted Isobel back to the present. Pellian was cautioning her about making wild accusations. She glanced over at him, trying to cover her previous daze with an impish smirk. "What's the worst she can do to me? Send me on blue milk runs with you?" Isobel stood and went to check her supply pack. "I don't think it's likely. If she's concerned about your methods, would she ever condone Harlow's? It doesn't feel right." She fastened the seals on the pack and slung it over her shoulder. "You know what I think it was? A test. For both of us. For me, to dip my toes into internal affairs to see if I'm management material. For you, to see how you'd react to a legitimate investigation into your dealings. But for Harlow I'd say we both passed with flying colors."

She cocked her blaster and then set it for stun. "D'you know, I'd really like to kill that bastard."

 

[Thaddeus Wyse]

[member="Isobel Nakano"]

Val didn't point out that if it had all been a ruse?

Then maybe Graham never had a problem with his methods. All a cover to get him away from Harlow, as he was closing in. He didn't point it out for a singular reason. He didn't believe it. Oh, Graham was a lot of things. A stick in the mud. A pain in the arse. Iron Queen and tyrant in the ivory tower, but a traitor to the First Order? No. Val didn't believe that. Couldn't believe that. It was too much of a twist in his belief.

"Y'know, I'd bring up that I have wanted to kill him for waaay longer than you, but-" A bemused glance to her as he holstered his service weapon. "-I figure after the chit he did, you get first try, but I won't be far behind ya."

He stepped up towards the controls.

Studying them for a second. Just a moment of pause. Then he hit the button. Breathing in, out and following Isobel out of the hangar. This was the first field mission of his since Yag'dhul. "Been a while since I did a field mission out of the urban centers..." Val admitted as the ramp closed back behind them. He tried to make sense of things. It was dark, the gloom behind the horizon already dying out.

"So if you don't mind I am gonna lean heavily on you this mission."

Checking his chrono-meter, it beeped at a steady cadence. The town wouldn't be far away. About five minutes of steady-walk, but they'd have to be careful.

Who knew what was lurking in the dark?

 

[Isobel Nakano]

"Lean on me," Isobel said in a sing-song voice. "When you're not strong. I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on."

She continued along the walkway with him to disembark from the ship. "Except don't actually lean on me. You're like twice my size. I'm not sure I could keep you upright." She gave her blaster one last check-through and then disembarked the ship with Pellian.

The first thing that hit her was the heat. The air was dry and arid, like someone had taken mud and baked it in the oven for some hours. She could feel the grit already pricking at the back of her throat. She brought the tan camouflage scarf from around her neck to shield her mouth and nose. It made her uncomfortable, but it would at least stop her from breathing in too much of the gunk. Isobel checked her datapad and flicked the waypoint at the nearest town to their heads-up display, so they wouldn't have to keep checking the map to see they were going in the right direction.

They walked in silence for a few minutes until the outskirts of town were rapidly approaching. Isobel paused and glanced over at her partner, catching his gaze before nodding towards a tall structure some several hundred yards from the town's nearest building. "Water tower. Good place to get a vantage, and set up a comms relay. I've got the antenna in my pack. You're welcome to come with, or you can stay low and cover me?" She jogged across the dusty path to the water tower. A ladder constructed from rebar let her climb up, which she did once she hooked her blaster over her shoulder. Her lithe frame snaked up the ladder like a shot, and it was only a few moments before she was hauling herself onto the metal mesh platform that circled the water cistern. She knelt, pulled her pack off, and withdrew the temporary comms uplink, then slapped it as high up on the cistern as she could.

She touched her earpiece. "Crane, do you copy? Should have broadband local comms at least. I'll set it for a scan and do a quick tightbeam to -- you know who," Isobel intoned with a playfully dark tone. She patched into the communicator and set for a sweep of local frequencies, seeing if there was anything in the air. It was mostly static, except for a local radio station, where a DJ was enthusiastically announcing the upcoming tune. So far, the only sign of life. She listened for a moment, then switched back to her local private channel with Pellian. "Radio station still broadcasting. Seems like someone is still alive. I'll see if I can identify where the signal is coming from. Do you see anything of note from where you are?"

[member="Val Pellian"]​