Even Angels Sin

[Jen]

It had taken some time to determine the initial route of attack, but Jennifer was certain that the plan she had set in motion would shed light on something, whatever something would turn out to be. Under all circumstances, leverage would be needed to carry out the job.

Approximately a standard galaxy week ago, Jennifer had been tasked with framing an individual. A successful mission meant that the targeted became discredited, along with everything they stood for. Jennifer had been contracted with this sort of job before, even though the whole ‘framing thing’ wasn’t exactly the kind of work she enjoyed the most.

Needless to say, during the silent periods of her work over the last couple of days she had quietly wondered why no one needed a cryptographer. But alas, she needed the credits.

The target in question was Lady Kay, the President of Commenor. There was always risk associated with trying to bring down high value people like her, a simple search on the HoloNet would tell you as much. She had influential friends and a lot of credits to back whatever she decided to set her mind to. Like for instance hunt: down the people that tried to slice her. However, after having gotten a good look at Kay's profile a faint voice in the back of Jennifer’s head doubted that Kay was the type of person to do such.

As a final preparation for the slice, Jennifer made sure her connection to the net was running smoothly and that all data was being transferred through the CryptNet before it was shot back out into the HoloNet and then send towards Commenor and in turn Lady Kay’s holomail via a Neimodian connection. Effectively, this would ensure that it looked like that all messages Jennifer send came from Neimodia and even if slicers were hired to track her signal and found that the Neimodia connection was a ruse, they would be faced with trying to filter themselves through the CryptNet, an almost impossible task. She send the message to as many of Kay’s mails as she could find, all messages having some slight variation as if to illustrate that she had typed them all out by hand, as if someone were desperate to get in contact with the President.

Topic: Kay, you're my only hope
To: Lady Kay
From: Vhiran

>> Hello President Kay.
>> I write to you because I no longer have a home. My mom died only a week ago. She was very ill and we were tossed onto the street soon after, as I could not pay the rent. My brother (Nima) and I now live with my music teacher, she says she can take care of us, but she can’t. I know the burden is too hard on her.

>> Before I graduated school, I was taught at a public school and both me and my brother was taught by Elise in music class. She is a great musician (the best I know) and she also says that my brother and I could become very successful musicians. Which is why she told me to write to you for help.

>> She says that you have a university on commenor for the best musicians in the world. I would like to attend, but I do not have the money. Please help me and my brother.

Best regards:
Vhiran De Maal and Nima (my brother)

>> PS: I can send a recording of me playing the Growdi Harmonique, so you can listen. If you want to??

[member="Lady Kay"]​

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay sat at her desk in her office. The fireplace crackled as a few logs were licked by the heat of a fire, causing some of the wood to burst in a small explosion. She was going through her holomails. All of her accounts, public and private were sent through to one program, giving her less logging in and less passwords to remember.

The title of the message that appeared a few times gave her pause. She was known as the People's President. So it wasn't uncommon for people to reach out
to her. But this seemed like a desperate message. She opened up the one sent to her public account and read it over twice. It was the type of message that tugged at her heart strings and of her desire to help people. That's what she spent most of her credits on, liberating slaves and helping people recover from the devastation of war. So she typed up a response and sent it through:

~Topic: RE: Kay, you're my only hope
To: Vhiran
From: Madam President Kay

Greetings Vhiran and Nima,

I am sorry to hear of the loss of your mother, and of the further burdens being placed upon you and Nima. Your music teacher is a fine example of the type of people that the Galaxy is in most need of. And creative people are the best motivators for change.

We will be having a charity fundraiser at our Celebrations weekend coming up soon. Part of the proceeds will be going towards helping those like yourselves to attend our University. Would you like to be here for the Celebrations? Everyone is welcome and there will be plenty to see and do. I can pay for your transport and room and board if you'd like.

Please let me know soon.

Madam President Kay.
Presidential Palace.
Chasin City, Commenor.~

[member="Jen"]

 

[Jen]

As soon as the reply had appeared on Jennifer’s monitors she had to restrain herself from excitedly forming a new message and hit send. She had to be careful in order to keep the façade and so she waited a day standard Commenor day before replying, hoping that out of the goodness of her heart, Lady Kay would worry.

~Topic: RE:RE: Kay, you’re my only hope
To: President Kay
From: Vhiran

> Hello again President Kay
> My brother and I are very excited that you have replied and Elise was also very excited to read your reply. I would very much like to visit! It would also be the first time I leave Neimodia, I have heard Commenor is very different. We live in Koto-Si in the factory disctrict. Look forward to see you!!

As promised Nami and I have recorded our music.

Best regards:
Vhiran De Maal and Nima De Maal

[Attached File: Recording_1]


While the attached file actually did contain music it was not a recording of Vhiran or Nima. Obviously, neither children existed and the music the file contained had been taken from a playlist Jennifer had found on the holonet after having searched: Top 10 most underappreciated growdi harmonique instrumentals. Needless to say, Jennifer counted on the fact that Kay wasn’t the type that listened to professional, yet underappreciated growdi music in her spare time.

Nevertheless, other than tunes and melodies the file also contained something much more sinister. If the song was downloaded and then opened, a program known as Blue Phoenix would infect the computer. Essentially it was a rootkit able to -if successfully deployed- take control of the device it attacked.

Opening the song would be a bit difficult for Kay if she had a very strong security program guarding her computer, after all it would be allowing the rootkit access. The security program would warn her that the file type was of an unknown, that it was malicious however would take closer, manual inspection from an experienced slicer.

Mainly bcause second chances were rare in cases such as these, Jennifer had programmed her malware so that in the case that Kay did not allow the rootkit access by opening and listening to the song, it would automatically attempt to combat the automated slicing safeguards and force its way into the system. If none of these things happened, Jennifer would activate it herself, but with vast distance between her and Kay’s computer, it was not the optimal solution...

[member="Lady Kay"]​

 

[Kay-Larr]

This time, when Kay opened up the holomessage, she was in her bed, sitting up against the headboard with her datapad balanced on her knees. She sipped her evening tea and read it over. Well that was wonderful. It seems that the two were eager to visit. She attempted to open the file so that she could hear them play, but then the warning popped up. Hmmm. The last thing that she wanted to do was to wreck her datapad and have the IT team come and fix it. Again. She ran a virus scan through the file anyways, just in case curiosity got the better of her later. But Neimodia wasn't that far away, so she should be able to meet the two tomorrow.

She set down her tea and then started up a reply:

~Topic: RE: RE: RE: Kay, you're my only hope.
To: Vhiran
From: Madam President Kay

Greetings Vhiran and Nima,

Wonderful news. Would tomorrow be too soon? I can arrange a transport for the bother of you. Otherwise my schedule is a bit busy with meetings and you'd have to wait a few more days. Either way is fine by me. The next semester doesn't start for a few more weeks. Let me know soon, please.

Madam President Kay.
Presidential Palace.
Chasin City, Commenor.~

[member="Jen"]

 

[Jen]

While programs were not living and thinking beings, certain logic still dictated their behavior. This was also the case when it came to the version of Blue Phoenix that Jennifer had attached to the music file. When Kay decided to not open the file when the warning from her datapad’s security program appeared, the logic Jennifer had imbedded in the malware took over. Quickly it began infecting the datapad, spreading through the systems unnoticed. Or at least partially unnoticed. The virus scan Kay had begun would soon, once finished, inform her that the file she had downloaded was indeed of malicious creation. However, from what a non-technical glance at the file would gather, nothing seemed to be wrong with the datapad yet as it still worked just as smoothly as it had before she had downloaded the music. After all, how could it be of any harm? She had not actually opened it.

It took some time before Jennifer was made aware of the progress the software she had once been gifted by her old friend had made. It would have served her better if she had been closer to Commenor, the vast distances between her own terminals and her target or in other words Lady Kay, made her connection somewhat delayed. Nevertheless, she worked quickly to gain as much out of the situation as possible. By the time the message from Kay appeared on her screen, she had already begun sending commands to Blue Phoenix, a reverse connection automatically being established by the program, piggy backing on the already established holonet connection Kay used. Sadly slowed down by its journey through the CryptNet.

While Jennifer was eager to get to work, she knew she had to play it smart. Her first commands to Blue Phoenix was that whenever the connection to the holonet of the infected datapad was disabled, it should wait a couple of seconds and then reactivate and attempt to connect to the strongest holonet connection in the vicinity. Hopefully, that would ensure that if Kay was the type of person to disable such connections before she went to bed, Jennifer would still be able to continue her efforts through the night.

The next command Jennifer executed would force the datapad to send all of its pictures, video files and other recordings to one of her own databases. As much material as possible would be needed in case she had to fake the video recording Flannigan had sent her. Unfortunately for Jennifer, she had not bothered checking that Kay had scanned the file and knew it was malicious. However, she was aware Kay had decided not to open it. As of now Jennifer still thought that she had plenty of time to slice through Kays messages and programs at her own whim.

However, while the slicer waited for a response from Blue Phoenix to see if the command had gone through, she typed up another mail from Vhiran and Nima. The show would have to continue for as long as possible.

~Topic: RE:RE:RE:RE Kay, you’re my only hope
To: Madam President Kay
From: Vhiran

> Hello President Kay.
> Wow! We did not realize it could be so soon. We are very excited. But sad is that we hve not packed yet or anything. Our grandmom, she is in nursing home have visitor day tomorrow and it is a long distance away from Koto-Si city. We really want to say good-bye to her, if that is alright? When can you pick up us then?

> Also, I think we send you a wrong file. We can’t play it here, can you? I am the best of Nima and Elisa with datapads and none of us knows how the recording thing works. We just have to play for you when we meet. We will also greet you from our grandma when we meet her.

See you soon!
Vhiran and Nima

[member="Lady Kay"]​

 

[Kay-Larr]

So it was a bad file. Kay deleted the entire message, just to be sure. As far as she was aware, she had just saved herself the possibility of losing her datapad and having to get another one. In recent years, this had been her third datapad, the last one being destroyed by a thief that tried to rob her and then attempted to assassinate her when he failed. But that was just before she won the election.

While she was searching the holonet for some bacon recipes, she had received another message. Kay opened it and read it over. Awww, so they did have family that cared for them. How sweet. She whipped up a reply;

~Topic: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Kay, you're my only hope.
To: Vhiran
From: Madam President Kay

Vhiran and Nima,

That's quite alright. How does next week sound? I am planning a short trip and can have you both picked up on my way back.

Give my regards to your grandmom and Elise.

Madam President Kay.
Presidential Palace.
Chasin City, Commenor.~

And then the message was sent. Kay went back to her search for the bacon recipies. Veiere had told her that bacon was the fastest way into a man's heart, and she wanted into his. It was an odd thing as she had not had such feelings since before her husband died twelve years ago. There were no lovers, no nothing. A few of her friends had given her the nickname of Space Nun. But that could change if she played her cards right.

The information on her datapad wasn't very much. There were no pictures or video that she had taken. Most of what was on there were of the local buildings, parks and requests for meetings. All of her contracts with other governments, planets and companies were on a different datapad. It wasn't hard for her to confuse the two as they were different colours. She didn't keep a journal, and most of her holonet searches were on foods, other cultures, mystery books, known slave auctions and slave camps, the Hutt Cartel and of course different varieties of tea.

Kay was a bit old fashioned, like many others. She didn't keep an electronic record of everything.

[member="Jen"]

 

[Jen]

Jennifer had not made her own food in forever. If you disregarded microwaved food that was. The ding from the machine by her couch table indicated her nutrition pack was finished and had made Jennifer stumble through her dimly lit one room apartment to pick up the plate. She returned just in time to notice her transfer downloads between Kay’s datapad and her own computer had finished. It had taken much less time than expected. The explanation as of why that was hit Jennifer as she skimmed through the files; it was electronically deserted, the President barely had anything on the datapad.

Almost forgetting her plate of green-ish nutrition sludge for a moment, stunned by the realization that she had finally stumbled upon one of those magical creatures that did not put their lives onto their electronic devices made Jennifer use the next twenty minutes sending commands to Blue Phoenix to go through Kay’s datapad more thoroughly. No journal was kept and her Holonet searches barely revealed anything about her than what was already known.

Though Jennifer saved the history anyway, just in case.

Bacon, huh. Skimming the food search inquires had made her scowl at her own plate from time to time and soon the distasteful soylent was finally forgotten for good after a bite or two had not lived up to the memory of bacon and other exotic foods.

Upset, Jennifer’s response to Kay was this time around short. Obviously, she did not know the reason for Kays browsing of recipes, instead in her hungry state imaging the president sending them to her staff and cooks in preparation for what to Jennifer would have been a feast.

~Topic: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Kay, you're my only hope.
To: Madam President Kay
From: Vhiran

> That is good. We r very excited. And we will say hi from grandma.
Vhiran&nima

The message was uncharacteristic of the profile of Vhiran she had built, being as short and unexcited as it was, but Jennifer didn’t really bother. Instead she focused her efforts on trying to get onto Kays holomail. Preparing to retrieve cached passwords when the mail was opened and record Kay’s button pressing when she typed the password on her datapad.

Though she knew it would slow the datapad on Kays end, she enabled camera and voice recording as well, in case the mail had voice activation or facial recognition features as well.

[member="Lady Kay"]​

 

[Kay-Larr]

It wasn't until the following morning that Kay brought up her datapad and turned it on. She yawned as she sat up a bit in her bed, logging into her holo-mail. Vhiran's message was opened first. It was short and sweet, no doubt done in a rush. She didn't whip up a reply this time, planning to do so later. Instead she opened up a few of her other messages, ones about security for the upcoming Celebration weekend, the podrace, parades and food festivals. Then there were the inquiries about the venues and the armed forces in orbit around the planet. Everything had to be perfect. She gave her answers, sending assurances and the names of the other Ministers to go to.

A look at the time told her that she still had a few more minutes before she needed to get out of bed and start her day. First and foremost was a meeting with the Elders. Those meetings were always in secret. It was listed in her schedule as simply going to see her Brothers. Kay had a few male friends that she considered to be her brothers, so it was the perfect cover. In the few minutes to spare, she did a quick search on holovideos of defensive lightsaber techniques. Her training was of course a secret, and she wanted to see some of it visually before she went to her lessons.

After a few short videos, she shut her datapad off, slipped out of bed and started her day.

[member="Jen"]

 

[Jen]

Jennifer had been sitting in her room all night waiting for response from Blue Phoenix as Kay had suddenly turned her datapad off before going to bed. It had been frustrating, especially considering she had yet to find anything on Kay to use. Throughout the night, the solution to the problem had materialized itself in Jennifer’s mind: create the evidence yourself.

In order to be ready for when [member="Lady Kay"] would turn on her datapad again, Jennifer had taken a whiff of stimulants that made it almost impossible for the body to rest. In a half zombie-like state, Jennifer had been sitting all night in front of her glowing monitors, working feverishly on other projects such as the system code for a project known as ESC. She was almost done with setting up the controls for the drones that came with the ESC when Kay had opened her datapad again and Blue Phoenix pinged her.

Confused she for a moment had forgotten why she was monitoring the datapad, staring at the data she was being send. Nevertheless, when she was informed Blue Phoenix was monitoring the input controls for a login of a certain holomail, it all came crashing back.

Sliding across the floor to get to the correct keyboard, her fingers clicked against the buttons as she accessed the malware and now with control over the holomail while it was active on Kay’s own datapad, she send a mail to [member="Flannigan Mcnash"] via Lady Kay’s own datapad and account.

~Topic: The deal is on.
To: Flannigan Mchnash
From Madam President Kay

Greetings Flannigan Mcnash,
I hope you have received my invitations and are at good health. I have considered your proposal thoroughly and have decided that I am onboard. Though I do not want the public to know of our affairs together as I still need them. I would also like another portion of your finest spice, it is wonderful what state credits can buy.

Give my regards to the rest of the Cartel.

Madam President Kay.
Presidential Palace.
Chasin City, Commenor.~


It was completely uncharacteristic of Kay to send such a mail, she knew that, but something had to be done in order to create some sort leverage if the job had to be pulled off correctly. It was unlikely that close relatives and friends of Kay would be convinced, but the public was another matter entirely. Some people tended to believe outrageous things, simply because they were outrageous.

While preparing yet another mail to be send while Kay browsed videos, Jennifer was suddenly alerted the datapad had been shut off once more. Exhausted as the effects of the drug was starting to wear off, Jennifer established a connection via the CryptNet to Flannigan and informed him from who the mail he had received was actually from.

Soon after, Jennifer went to bed wondering what the President would think when she discovered the mail she had apparently send...

 

[Kay-Larr]

It had been a few days since Kay had last checked her mail. Most of her time had been spent in meetings and preparing for the Celebrations. There was hardly any time for herself and usually she fell asleep before her head even hit the pillow. But she needed to check on Vhiran and Nima. Their last message was short. Turning on her datapad, she logged into her public account. There was no new message to be found. Did she even send a reply to it? Kay could have sworn that she did, but she had to check just to be sure. She tapped into her 'sent mail' section and nearly dropped her datapad in shock. A message to [member="Flannigan Mcnash"] ???! She opened it and read it through, her breathing gone shallow and her body stiff. This was not good. She thought back on her last words with Flannigan. He had told her that he was ruining her good name already. And now she found out how.

Kay took out her commlink, not bothering to think of the lateness of the hour and sent word to [member="Veiere Arenais"] . Hopefully she wasn't waking him up. "Veiere, it's Kay. Sorry if I've disturbed you, but I need you in my office asap. The Hutt Cartel have made their move." She shut off her datapad and then began to pace the floor as she waited for her advisor to either arrive or let her know whether or not he was on his way.

[member="Jen"]

 

[WolfMortum]

The hour was indeed late and yet Veiere Arenais remained very much awake and all the more so active; his residence situated atop the mountain range that overlooked Chasin City from afar meant that he would need to travel a short distance in order to reach her yet with his pilot Cillian who had awoken at the notification and stepped outside to interrupt Veiere's training session, the flight would be of no trouble at all. After all, it is why Cillian was receiving a personal commission out of Veiere's position at the Lady Presidents side.

Outside, the darkness of the night was being cleaved through by the glowing blue of Veiere's lightsaber, the weapon of a Jedi formerly owned by his Padawan who had been killed back on Svivren many years ago. Around him, swiveled two probe droids or otherwise thought of as remotes to some within the Order; spheres of metal, programmed to fire on the wielder in what was meant to be an unpredictable manner in which directions they spun back and fourth. It was fortunate that his personal living was done so far outside of the Cities borders otherwise the blaster fire coming from the small remotes would've awoken the neighbors. The flared with a red stream of plasma, a burning bolt sent for Veiere's torso yet readily met by the rise and parry of his lightsaber sending the shot off away from both him and the house; slowly he moved to turn his back to Cillian as he sensed the others approach, so that the blaster fire could not be ricocheted back towards the lad whilst Veiere sought to hear what the boy had to disturb him for. Naturally, it didn't take him more then a moment to offer the droids a wave and deactivate them both through the use of the force, telekinesis toggling the small clips at the back of each sphere, priming the miniature repulsors so that they could slowly descend to the floor while their central computers closed down for the session.

Nodding briefly to Cillian, he sent the lad off to prepare 'The Vegabond' while he gave the datapad a look over and reluctantly replayed the message. Oh how he detested technology; while understanding that it was the life blood that kept so many lives moving, so many people in the galaxy reliant upon it, Veiere had always found such things difficult where as he favored the outdoors and the truly living around him. Such was why he had a pilot and though the datapad was a small and relatively simple device, his one was somewhat worn from the less than casual way he treated it when it bothered him so. The fortunate thing however that would come to mind over the coming discussion with [member="Lady Kay"] was that with his lack of use around emails and computers and the like, it kept him for the most part off-the-grid and more difficult to track through the holo-net than your average tech-savy citizen.

The call had come through yet he'd not been there to receive it, instead it had been forward to the handheld device and woken Cillian who liked his beauty sleep more than most. Now however having reheard the message, Veiere tugged at his commlink, pulling it free from his belt and raising it near his mouth with Kay Larr's frequency triggered, he contacted her in response.

"Kay, it's me...-I was preoccupied. Cillian's relayed the message, I'll be there within fifteen minutes". It was brief though the urgency around the mention of the Hutt Cartel warranted such. After his session in training, he needed to quickly change into a cleaner attire before heading off to meet with her and hear just what exactly the cartel had done to stir up the distant panic in her voice.

[member="Jen"]

 

[Jen]

Jennifer had not been by her main terminals when Lady Kay had turned on her datapad again. Instead she had been down by Losers Bar. A slicer hotspot on Nar Shaddaa that many of the hot shots of the business frequented. While playing the arcades that filled the backroom of the place, she had been in deep conversation with friends, preparing the next big hit and celebrating the latest. The news that Phoenix (her) had sliced the President of Commenor had spread quickly down at the small bar that evening. If one knew the slicer community there was no doubt that the information would very likely spill onto the CryptNet in a little over a month. It tended to happen, everyone loved a little bit of bragging. Especially when having had too much to drink. Hopefully, Kay or any of her associates were not the kind of people that frequented the forums of such a dark and dangerous place.

Nevertheless, in the dark small apartment Jennifer currently used, the fans of her terminals still spun. The computer had been waiting for the infected datapad to ping back for days now. When it happened, another command would be send to Kay's datapad. The instructions this time would be to delete the established connection to Jennifer and her CryptNet channels, and itself from the device. Effectively deleting all evidence of the crime, or well, almost everything.

A skilled slicer would after close inspection, as in poking around in the core systems of the datapad be able to find a tiny message embedded where a portion of the now scrambled and useless malware once was located. It read:

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX​

​

This Datapad is owned by:​

Phoenix​

​

Please don't eat yourself
fat in bacon. lol.​

​

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX​

​

​

​

​

[member="Veiere Arenais"] [member="Lady Kay"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay breathed a sigh of relief as [member="Veiere Arenais"] ' voice was heard over her commlink. "Thank you. I'll be waiting." She put a robe on overtop of her nightgown, securing it closed with the belt that was tied around her waist. She exited her bedchamber and went down the spiral staircase to her office, datapad in hand. Tea was needed and required, so while she waited for Veiere, Kay prepared the tea.

By the time her advisor arrived in her office, it was ready. "Thank you for coming so quickly Veiere. I was going through some of my holomail when I came across this." Kay handed him the datapad with the sent message open for him to read. After he had read it, she spoke up again, "I didn't write that of course, let alone sent it. My holomail has been hacked some how. And I know that the Cartel is behind it. The problem is, now what do we do? I should contact [member="Ultimatum"] and get him to run a check through the systems, that much I know. But how many others would have seen this? What if it goes public? Should I make a statement to let people be aware of it? Or try to keep it a secret in hopes that it wouldn't come to light?"

Ultimatum was the best that she knew. He was able to find files of her hiring Sith to aid her slave rescue missions on the holonet and security feeds, then destroyed them so that they never existed. Back then such a thing would have gotten her fired and jailed by the Republic. But that wasn't a problem anymore. Now she had her good reputation on the line.

[member="Jen"]

 

[WolfMortum]

He had arrived and in no time, [member="Lady Kay"] had invited him in and elaborated on her concerns with no small amount of justification; Veiere's brows furrowed, a hand raising to be placed against his chin, the left arm crossing his chest beneath to support it and eyes looking to the datapad he had placed for the moment upon the table, he read the email carefully and true to her word, found little to recognize in what was her usual dealings. Call it a personal bias towards Kay Larr though he just couldn't imagine her of all people being caught up in the drug business, let alone the force signature around her that lacked any hint of deceit or underlying threat.

"You cannot go public with this, that much is clear..." He picked up the device once more and turned to hand it to her, moving towards the nearest window to glance outside as he continued to elaborate on his initial thoughts; though they might change as the time would pass. "This email doesn't implicate the Hutt Cartel, not legitimately. Anyone reading into this would see that their name has come from your supposed hand in this and there's no evidence to pin anything on this Flannigan character nor his friends...".

"This is certainly a problem though, I do agree..." He continued, turning to lean back against the windowsill, his eyes landing back on her as he studied Kay in careful consideration, "Have your friend [member="Ultimatum"] look into this and try to find record or tracks of this person who's compromised you; change your credentials and ensure that this cannot happen quite so easily again if possible but also consider that you have not any of this substance in your possession as of yet, nor have they made any such delivery of the Spice to you. The Email suggests that this would be an extremely private affair which would also move against the possibility of your own people being involved..." Veiere bobbed his head to the right in a moment of indifference, "This could be a bluff in order to have you act rashly, to bring something like this to light to beg question around your integrity...".

"Thus far, it is hearsay..." He concluded, moving to stand upright and step closer to her side, his eyes returning to the device, his shoulders tense as the situation commanded though more out of concern for her than any real stress around the situation as of yet, "It is word of mouth, so to speak. For all the public would know, it could be you trying to draw the Cartel out in order for your security to move on a threat you already believe exists...".

[member="Jen"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay waited eagerly while he read it. She sipped her tea after picking it up and then handed [member="Veiere Arenais"] his own cup, trading it for the datapad. This was why he was her advisor. When her emotions got in the way, it clouded her thoughts and made her want to act quickly instead of thinking things through more thoroughly. She nodded at his points. "I will contact [member="Ultimatum"] tonight, have him check it over and my accounts in a secure location. He'll be able to change the passcodes and everything without the same risk that I would have upon doing it myself. I'm not the greatest when it comes to this technology. I don't use it as often as most would think...."

She took another sip of her tea, glad that Veiere was near. She valued his support, his encouragement and his wisdom. "I'll have the warehouse and port securities be more careful in their searches as well. No spice or illegal goods should be able to slip through our borders." HIs last thought was brilliant though, in her mind at least. It was the perfect justification if people were to see the message and believe it to be truly sent by her. "The ploy to draw the Cartel's agents out is a good one. Though the deal that Flannigan wanted me to make with him was for him to be able to use my name in order to open doors for the Cartel. But I will not endorse or support any of their illegal activities. Surely everyone here and elsewhere knows that. But then again, there could be a large amount of people that don't know me at all, nor the Cartel, and they would fall for such falsehoods. Therein lies a possible danger."

[member="Jen"]

 

[WolfMortum]

Veiere nodded gingerly, "If the Hutt Cartel is as serious as you've made it sound, they will be well financed and have contacts in many pockets of the galaxy. They will look to find holes in your defense but the way you react to their attacks will tell them just how well they are doing. It is better to keep our foes guessing than to step out and confirm for them their success or otherwise...". It sounded very thin, cosmetic even though the fact was that if Kay acted rashly and told the world that they were being attacked without knowing their chances and what they were really dealing with then the ones looking to destabilize them would know more about the situation then either he or [member="Lady Kay"], let alone the government they were heading. "Even the Jedi value the advantages of deception when it comes to such tactics. Often the Order, while it may sound dishonest, lead the public astray from what they considered 'in-house' business, in order to protect themselves from criticisms of the Galactic Republic...-And those that did not understand our way". Such was arguably why few had trusted the Jedi Order. The Galaxy had seen them as warriors, soldiers to step in when things were at their most dire and yet the Jedi Order was an extremely careful organization; shutting out all outside of their members from gaining insight as to who they were, why they were and how they operated.

"Should [member="Flannigan Mcnash"] respond before [member="Ultimatum"] arrives, request that you both meet privately and rather than endanger yourself, I will go and make it clear to these people that we will not tolerate their business on Commenor...", no doubt Kay wouldn't entertain the thought yet Veiere offered her a look that asked she not argue with him. There would be no way to ascertain any certainty in Flannigan's involvement in any of this without meeting him face-to-face, however Kay stepping out into the open would only move to potentially detriment her further.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Oh yes, the Hutt Cartel is well financed. She had seen more than enough evidence of that during the years. Yet why they didn't outright try to kill her, that was a mystery unto itself. Of course there was a lot of fates worse than death.

Kay listened to every word that [member="Veiere Arenais"] had to say, raising a brow as he spoke of the small deceptions that the Order would use as a tactic to keep their secrets well hidden. It was very much like what she was doing and had been doing for all of her political career. Hopefully her secrets would continue to remain hidden for quite some time.

When Veiere suggested that he go and meet with Flannigan if one was to be arranged, Kay's mouth opened to interject. But the look in his eyes told her not to. So she furrowed her brows and stared down into her tea cup. She had seen [member="Flannigan Mcnash"] fight on more than one occasion, whereas she had never seen Veiere fight. He was capable of handling himself, sure, but against Flannigan? That was a tough call. She didn't want him to go alone, if it came to that. And staying away would be very hard indeed. Would he be this protective of her if she wasn't a President? Maybe. Her late husband often kept her away from any fighting as well.

Almost reluctantly, Kay nodded in agreement. ...Okay. I just hope that [member="Ultimatum"] can solve this first before it came down to that. If we don't let other staff know, then maybe they will assume that-...No, he'd of already gotten the fake message. Well he would want to know what was going on at any rate. So far, thankfully, I don't think that we have any of their spies among us." Hopefully that was the case still.

[member="Jen"]

 

[WolfMortum]

His eyes found the pot of tea, likely left over from an earlier hour of the night yet disregarding the fact and knowing that it would be cold, he poured himself a cup anyway, his facing the window offered a light gleam to take to his front from the moon high over all of Commenor, in which took his gaze for a moment in quiet consideration for their situation. "Tell no one but [member="Ultimatum"] if you do indeed trust him. It is a difficult position and I realize that keeping this quiet may look as though we have something to hide but we need to understand what we're dealing with here. How much has been compromised aside from simply your end..." He of course referred to the email and the potential claws the Hutt Cartel could have had in other personnel files and the like; his imagining didn't go quite so far where as technology was concerned but he kept up a good front as best he could in the lack of knowledge around such things; "When he has taken the first look then perhaps we can involve the Elders and the rest of the government. A public investigation to clear your name would be the way to go about it but only if we're certain the Hutt Cartel hasn't planted false evidence and the like to marr your name".

"Remind me again..." He slowly turned and moved to one of the couches, as fashionable as they were made to appear within the presidential office they offered no further comfort than his at home, especially in such a times. Seating himself he continued, "What you did exactly to earn the aggression of such an organization. Naturally of course, anything wishing to call itself a cartel likely has it's hands in a variety of atrocities but still, what do they have against you?".

[member="Lady Kay"] | [member="Jen"]

 

[Kay-Larr]

Of course she trusted [member="Ultimatum"] . She had no reason not to. He had offered sanctuary, and had been with her through thick and thin since her time in the Republic Senate. Her eyes dropped down to the datapad. Was it safe to use? Or was it just her mail that was hacked? And what about her other accounts? Maybe she'll just have to try to reach him through either one and hope for the best.

Kay watched as [member="Veiere Arenais"] poured himself some tea and then sat down. It wasn't until he asked her about what she had done to get such nasty attention from the Cartel, that she sat down on one of the adjacent chairs. "I...freed a large number of their slaves. No two missions were the same, and I even stopped some of their slave raids, had them ambushed. It was never difficult to find those that wanted to help liberate slaves. I'm sure that that has cost them a lot of credits. So I suppose that now that I am in a position of power, they are trying to punish me for it." It was amazing how much harm could be done, with the Cartel doing so very little. If she wasn't smart, then she would have done all of their work for them.

She reached over to the datapad, turned it on and accessed her holomail. Then she typed up a message for Ultimatum:

~Hello Ultimatum,

It's Kay. I have reason to believe that this mail account and quite possibly my datapad has been hacked by the Hutt Cartel. I found a sent message in the files of which I did not write or send myself. I believe that they are trying to discredit me. Please investigate, if you can spare the time.

Your friend,

Kay.~

She then hit 'send' and looked up to Veiere. "The message is on it's way. Let's just hope that he can help."

[member="Jen"]

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum was in sleep mode at that moment, having been calculating the potentials of producing a large-scale Quantum computer. It was a difficult task that he still had at least another 128 hours of continued computation to complete. Unfortunately that number was likely to be increased four or five fold given the interruptions by his captive AI, SCORPIO. Had she been working with him he believed he could cut the time by a third, but the ancient artificial intelligence was not being cooperative in any manner. She had corrupted one of his droid bodies and attempted to sabotage his facility terminal system in order to facilitate her escape. She failed only due to a mistake on her part of failing to disable the transfer abilities that the droid had been outfitted with. Ultimatum had been able to send enough of a code into the droid to cause a failure switch to trigger, shutting down the droid.

A difficult past 48 hours most definitely, but perhaps well worth the effort. For now Ultimatum was aware of and had a defense against another of the rogue AI's routes of escape. He could feel the time wearing on him, while in sleep mode he had set himself a number of preset light thought processes that would become the sole thoughts of his mind while he was at rest. Akin to dreaming for organics, but he was unsure of how dreams occurred so he had o work with what he had.

His restive state was broken by the arrival of Legion, more correctly Legion III. The droid had unattached Ultimatum from his chamber and was turning on the terminals.

"What is it Legion?" Ultimatum asked in a somewhat dreary moment.

The rebuilt robot turned and replied, "Sir, a message has been sent from Lady Kay of Atrisia."

Ultimatum smiled to himself tiredly as he corrected his oldest of friends, "Commenor, Animus is from Atrisia."

"If you say so. Too many organics to keep track of for me." Legion shrugged as he spoke offhandedly.

"There are a lot of them, but we must be polite at all time to all peoples."

"As you say. Anyways, the Lady has sent a high priority message that requires your attention." And with that the droid turned and walked out of the room back to whatever job he had given himself at that time. Maybe to check on Loyalty, make sure her vitals were still holding out.

Left to his thoughts, Ultimatum moved to the terminal and opened the message. Reading it the droid was not surprised, after all the HoloNet was a place rife with such slicing attempts. While he found organics who were skilled at slicing most respectable he believed that they were simply not on the same level of capability as artificial beings who accomplished the same. As a being built from the same building blocks there was a far more intimate connection between himself and the codes he worked with and that of an organic. He found the HoloNet codes enjoyable, it was like working in a fellow who thought the same way that he did in a less advanced version.

Typing a reply he sent it in a secure package requiring confirmation of the identity of the recipient, for security reasons since it had been told that Kay's datapad had been broken into. If this message were one of those unintentional messages he wanted to be certain that he did not open his own systems to any form of attack.

Greetings [member="Lady Kay"],

Apologies for the extraneous layer of security, recent events along with your previous message require extra caution on my part.

Anyway, I will begin looking into your issue. If you could copy the datapad codes and send a replica to me, or grant me access to the datapad remotely, I should be able to start there. Would you prefer my presence on Commenor at the moment?

Sincerely yours,

Ultimatum

And with that Ultimatum moved onto preparing his code systems for work on hazardous network environments.