Private Refining the Blade

[Shade]

Encrypted Channel: HR-INT / Blackglass Node
Clearance: Tier IV+
Origin: Shade (Verified Asset)

Seeking discreet professional development resources.

Recent operations have highlighted areas where expanded capability would improve long-term field effectiveness, resilience, and adaptability under compromised conditions.

I am interested in developing skills that support continued independent and joint-task operations, including but not limited to:

• Covert mobility and recovery techniques
• Advanced counter-surveillance and evasion
• Close-quarters adaptability under injury or impairment
• Psychological and cognitive resilience under sustained pressure
• Nonstandard infiltration and exfiltration methods
• Redundant operational competencies

Preference for instructors, programs, or mentors with proven field credibility and strict confidentiality standards.

No interest in ideological training, recruitment efforts, or visibility-based programs.

If you are aware of reliable resources or off-record training opportunities, reply through secured channels.

Discretion will be reciprocated.

— Shade

Vizion Trozky

 

[Vizion Trozky]

SHIRAYA'S SANCTUARY
GALLO MOUNTAINS, NABOO

As part of his duties as High Pathfinder, monitoring secure intel channels he'd been granted access to for messages from his contacts and postings in general that would fall under his purview was par for the course. Today, however, what came to his notice wasn't the usual fare...

Encrypted Channel: HR-INT / Blackglass Node
Clearance: Tier IV+
Origin: Shade (Verified Asset)

Seeking discreet professional development resources.

Recent operations have highlighted areas where expanded capability would improve long-term field effectiveness, resilience, and adaptability under compromised conditions.

I am interested in developing skills that support continued independent and joint-task operations, including but not limited to:

• Covert mobility and recovery techniques
• Advanced counter-surveillance and evasion
• Close-quarters adaptability under injury or impairment
• Psychological and cognitive resilience under sustained pressure
• Nonstandard infiltration and exfiltration methods
• Redundant operational competencies

Preference for instructors, programs, or mentors with proven field credibility and strict confidentiality standards.

No interest in ideological training, recruitment efforts, or visibility-based programs.

If you are aware of reliable resources or off-record training opportunities, reply through secured channels.

Discretion will be reciprocated.

— Shade

It wasn't often that a skill-development request piqued his curiosity. He wasn't an intelligence operative, but he overlapped, and the sense he got about this one, like what compelled him once on Jakku, couldn't be ignored. It wasn't like he was juggling a bunch of training, nor did he have a padawan as of yet.

Once he opened the contact, the message he tapped out went straight to the point.

Encrypted Channel: HR-INT / Blackglass Node
Clearance: Tier IV+
Origin: Nightstalker (Verified Asset)
Recipient: Shade (Verified Asset)
Re: Development

I can help. Your place or mine?

— Nightstalker​

Of course he meant that in a professional capacity — intel or temple? — he wasn't about to invite someone else home.

Shade​

 

[Shade]

The secure channel chimed softly, the reply arriving with a speed that Shade had not anticipated.

Seated at a workstation within the Republic Intelligence facility on Moena, she watched as the glow from various data displays cast a soft, rhythmic light across the quiet operations room. With most of the shift personnel already moved on to other tasks, her corner of the workspace remained momentarily still, allowing her to focus entirely on the datapad in her hand. Her crimson eyes moved across the message twice, absorbing the weight behind the alias: Nightstalker.

It was a name that carried weight within certain operational channels. Not strictly intelligence, nor purely military, but belonging to someone who moved with ease along the jagged edges of both worlds. That ambiguity explained the efficiency of the response, but Shade truly noted the content. The reply had been brief, direct, and professional, a lack of fluff that she appreciated with the same quiet patience she applied to any other operational variable.

Her own message had been a deliberate filter, structured to discourage those seeking anything other than practical development. She needed skills, methods, and a way to ensure that the next time she faced an encounter like the last, she would do more than just survive it.

Leaning forward, her fingers moved across the screen with practiced intent.

Encrypted Channel: HR-INT / Blackglass Node

Clearance: Tier IV+

Origin: Shade (Verified Asset)

Recipient: Nightstalker (Verified Asset)

Re: Development
Your offer is acknowledged.
My location will be preferable, as Republic Intelligence facilities provide the controlled environment and privacy required for the development I am requesting. If that aligns with your intent, I will forward the necessary coordinates and access clearance.
— Shade

The datapad emitted a faint, final tone as the encrypted transmission left the network. Shade set the device aside and folded her hands loosely on the desk, her gaze drifting across the silent operations floor. If Nightstalker had answered, he likely would have understood the gravity of her request; if he had not, the exchange would end here. Either outcome, she decided, would be efficient.

Vizion Trozky