Chapter 94: Intelligence Gathering
Summary: Meanwhile, the rest of the galaxy continues to spin ever onward...
Chapter 94: Intelligence Gathering
Rivva Asepha, Captain of the Toru II-class scout vessel Silent Wings, was proud of his ship, his mission, and his crew. He knew many people dreamed of commanding true combat vessels, of taking the fight to the Hutts and any other enemies of the League more directly. He didn’t blame them at all, particularly when so very many of those who signed up with the League Navy did so out of a desire to fight against slavery and for freedom. Things he valued as well, of course. But unlike many, Asepha wasn’t an ex-slave, nor from a particularly oppressed world. Instead, he had been recruited from one of the many, many worlds in the Outer Rim that had…historical issues…with the Hutts.
Specifically, Captain Asepha was from Mirial. Something that very few in the greater galaxy were truly aware of was that Mirialans, himself included, were followers of The Force. They weren’t like the Miraluka, who were lucky enough to be universally Force Sensitive. But, as evidenced by the fact there were virtually always several Mirialan Jedi at any one time, they certainly produced far more Jedi than most species did. Something made all the more remarkable by the fact that, unlike Twi’leks, they weren’t all that common in the greater galaxy. Not rare, no. But they didn’t have the sheer numbers to explain away the frequency of Force Sensitivity in their population.
Personally, Rivva figured it was probably a case of Force Sensitives being highly valued on Mirial and passing on their genetics. Despite what he could only call willful self-delusion on the part of the current Jedi Order, Force Sensitives tended to produce more Force Sensitives when they had kids. It wasn’t any sort of secret, no matter what the Jedi thought. So, with following the will of the Force being more or less the religion of his homeworld, it made it sort of obvious they would produce more of them. Kriff, while it was far less common these days, it still wasn’t unheard of or poorly looked upon for a Mirialan Force Sensitive to take multiple wives. The cultural approval of the chance at producing more Force Sensitives firmly overrode their species’ more common trend toward monogamy.
Still, the main point was that following the values of the Force in general meant that his species as a whole had…issues with slavers. Actually, more of a general issue with any action that tore other people down, instead of building them up. His people believed that each individual’s actions contributed not just to their own destiny, building up fate for themselves, but also counted meaningfully towards the destiny of their people and the galaxy as a whole. Actions that tore down others were, as a result, culturally anathema. They still happened, of course. People were people and Mirialans could be assholes too. But his people tended to judge individuals who did so regularly rather harshly.
By the same token, though, his people were fairly non-violent. They could and would take up weapons both in self-defense and for a good cause. But it wasn’t their first choice of response. Not really their second or third, either, for that matter.
Which is why he was very pleased to have found his niche within the League Navy.
He’d felt called to ‘be the change’ in the galaxy, yet hadn’t been particularly eager for violence. Discovering that he had a high aptitude for the stealth tactics of the original Toru-class scouts had been Force-sent, as far as he was concerned. Those ships and the tactics to use them properly had required great patience, steady nerves, and considerable skill at both hyper and real space navigation. All areas that Rivva had excelled in. Both at and after the League Naval Academy, he had found others like him. Those who wanted to make a difference but whom weren’t particularly inclined toward violence, and they’d become one of the more successful crews among the Toru-class scouts after he’d worked to bring them all together.
Which, of course, had made them a shoo-in for getting one of the new Toru IIs.
While it may not lead them to overly much glory, a posting to the new true stealth vessels was still prestigious, and their jobs were important. So Rivva was proud to have the posting, proud of the crew he’d brought to such success with him, and proud of his ship! He was even proud of his current assignment, even if a little fearful of the risks involved. After all. Stealth or no, scouting Hutt Throneworlds and the internal hyperlanes of the Bootana Hutta subsector was rather terrifying.
Even if he did look forward to the raids his information was going to enable. The Hutts were in for one hell of a nasty shock…
… … ...
Jedi Master Adi Gallia once again reviewed the data that had been left to her by Knight Ti with a worried frown. A very worried frown, given some of the other information the Order had come upon of late. She’d been monetarily baffled when she’d arrive on Alaris Prime to find the Knight already waiting for her, given that very few people were supposed to know her exact itinerary. Her real mission, hidden under more obvious reasons to move about, was supposed to be a secret after all, and the nebulousness of her schedule was in service of helping hide it. Due to the glimpses various Jedi had gotten of a large-scale danger to the Jedi Order during the momentary cracking of the Veil, it had been determined to quietly seek safe locations where Jedi Younglings could be diverted to while continuing their studies. Not all would be so diverted, but keeping them all in one place to ‘more easily protect’ them was no longer seen as an intelligent decision.
Given how friendly the Wookiees in general were to the Jedi, as well as the Jedi’s help in securing their colonies on Alaris Prime in the first place, the expansion of the small temple already here was one of several possibilities Adi was investigating. Since she was still, despite the issue with Skywalker, the High Council’s primary contact with the Council of Reassignment, she had been the logical person to send on a tour for suitable sites. A tour whose true purpose was hidden easily by the fact that she was also one of the Jedi Order’s most respected diplomats. One who regularly represented the Order in the Senate, in point of fact.
While some might think that meant she had a closer eye kept on her than most Jedi, and those people wouldn’t exactly be wrong, it was also the perfect concealment for her current task. With the Jedi Order’s current upheaval, it made sense to the Senate and it’s various hangers-on that someone like Adi would be sent out on a political tour to the Order’s strongest allies. A good-will endeavor meant to reassure those allies that the Jedi Order was still worth supporting.
It wasn’t even a fake mission, either, as not all of her stops were planned as a cover for her true primary mission. In fact, the majority of her stops were exactly what they appeared to be. It was only a small handful, like this one here on Alaris, that were really a cover for negotiations into possibly expanding Jedi presence to include a youngling clan and trainers. Such stops were deliberately obscured and randomized through her trip, focusing on those allies who were genuinely friends to the Jedi and wouldn’t care if they popped up randomly, instead of to some precisely preset plan.
Which was, of course, why Adi had been very surprised and a little alarmed when Knight Ti had been waiting for her when she arrived.
That much, at least, had been explained away by Knight Ti explaining that she’d meditated on finding any of the Council members who were off Coruscant, and been guided to Alaris by the Force. Shaak Ti’s own ‘cover’ of wanting to introduce her new Padawan had even explained just why the Force had directed her to Adi specifically. After all, as the High Council’s contact with the Council of Reassignment, she was a perfectly logical choice to evaluate the story of Ky Narec and Asajj Ventress.
Indeed, that small part of their meeting had gone quite well. Despite her wildly untraditional training, the Padawan had developed incredibly well. The fact that she’d handled the death of her Master so well with just a bit of proper support, and the way she was clearly thriving under Knight Ti, had made it easy for Adi to endorse the young woman officially. That wasn’t quite enough to make her a fully recognized Jedi on its own, but it would weigh heavily enough in the young woman’s favor that it was unlikely she’d be denied the Knight Trials. Passing those, of course, would confer her the full mantle of a Jedi, no matter how untraditionally she’d been trained. A little known loophole that had, most likely, been Qui-Gon Jinn’s intentions for young Skywalker if he’d lived.
Of course, Adi’s original mild alarm had been replaced by far more serious alarm as the two younger women had followed up their ‘official’ business by explaining the real reasons they’d sought out a member of the High Council. The information about the Battleships being turned out at Nimban was bad enough, that information was at least already on its way to people who could investigate. But what the pair had turned up on Geonosis? That was setting off every alarm bell in Adi’s own mind. Doubly so when paired with Shaak Ti’s own pointed observation that the Sith had occasionally vanished for centuries before…only to come out swinging with invasion fleets and ground armies.
Grimly, Adi decided it was time to cut her little tour short. She’d already gotten multiple worlds to tentatively agree to the development or expansion of Hidden Jedi Outposts and Temples anyway, and she wasn’t even the only one assigned to the task. No, this new information was far more critical. Though, she got the feeling she shouldn’t break away too soon. She’d continue on for one or two more worlds, let any suspicion that it had been Knight Ti’s visit with her that disrupted her trip fade.
Then? Then she’d return with this data dump and make sure it fell into the hands of the right Jedi. The Sith threat that they’d been trying to ferret out since the Invasion of Naboo might prove to be far more dangerous than they’d so far realized…
… … …
Sasha Belphont did everything in her power to crush her instinct to immediately rush the information she’d just overheard into the hands of her boss. She knew better. Knew that she needed to suppress any reaction, to keep the memory of what had been said fresh with the best and most complete fidelity her training could offer, and wait until the end of her shift. Breaking her pattern of behavior was the fastest way to make interest in her peak, possibly giving the game away.
She knew it. But that didn’t make it easy this time.
Forcing herself to focus on her movement instead of what she’d managed to overhear, she used much older training than what had been given to her by LIS to making her tits sway just so as she approached another table to deliver their drink order. There was an art to doing that sort of thing without spilling a drop of alcohol. An art that Sasha had learned under the firm instruction of her former Master’s older slaves. Slaves whose beauty had faded too much to be part of his ‘display,’ but whom he still valued for their ability to pass on their ‘skills’ to his new acquisitions.
She’d keep up the show for the two additional hours she needed too. She wouldn’t raise even a single eyebrow of suspicion! On her pride as a LIS agent with fantastic tits! After all, knowing just where the Hutts had hired the Death Watch to strike, this time with even greater support and numbers, was by far the most critical piece of information that anyone in their little operation had yet gleaned. Those annoying Mandos would be undone by the power of Gloriously Crimson Tits and Loose Lips! So swore Sasha Belphont!
You know, assuming High Command decided to make use of the information…
… … …
Celeste had to admit that she was simultaneously impressed and seriously frustrated. Her lead regarding one Hego Damask the second had taken her out of Hutt Space to the Intergalactic Banking Clan’s headquarters on the world of Scipio. Unfortunately, there she’d run into a duracrete wall. Previously, physically breaching security of the Hutts and others, gaining direct access to their own internal systems, had been enough to bypass various protections. But that wasn’t the case here. The IGBC were responsible for a huge chunk of the galactic economy, and their security was far better than even the most paranoid of Hutt’s as a result.
For the first time, Celeste had found herself stymied not by physical access to a location, but due to her inability to breach her target’s systems sufficiently. Oh, the specialized hacking module that Mei had provided her with was up to the task of breaking the security on any individual console. But it was far from enough to then deal with the internal security systems that protected every IGBC system from every other IGBC system. Short of getting direct access to exactly the right main server that might hold the records she needed, she was stuck.
Here, anyway.
Reminding herself that the IGBC’s central systems were hardly the only place that might hold the data she needed, Celeste focused on her meditation. Damask Holdings and its various allies must have had some records of their own. She just needed to figure out where those records had ended up…
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A/N 1: Not a lot to say here, honestly. Other than that I told you Sasha Belphont wasn't entirely random :-p.