Private No Room For Mistakes

[Imperius Anathema]

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Starport | Worlport | Ord Mantell
Post #1​

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The shuttle set down and with quick steps the dark figure emerged from the passenger section, a group of equally dark-armored stormtroopers accompanying him. The group marched quickly past the small welcoming party of local officials and imperial representative, there was no time to be wasted for petty little ceremonies or whatever, this was no celebration but a routine check. Irdorax narrowed his eyes below the mask when he glanced at the imperial standing among the locals but didn´t pay further heed.

Ord Mantell had reported the presence of a possible rebel cell. There was no fighting or open rebellion reported, yet, but opposition against the Empire in the population seemed to spread and take hold. Something or someone fueled these circles with hope and determination where they should know nothing but hopelessness. The Empire is at war and reactive measures are for lazy scum, actions are required, preventive and intervening. Thats why the Knight-Commander was here with a small contingent of his Vindicators.

Irdorax sat now since an hour hearing about the absolute loyalty and devotion of the people of the planet from the local government. His soulless lenses did not leave the imperial governor for a moment who was suspiciously silent. If the two Stormtrooper wingmen were not menacing enough, the black suited enforcer, silent, would be plenty on their own.

Silence beset the meeting chamber, apparently the blessing of the officials had ended. Irdorax looked from one to one before looking back at the imperial governor, standing up from his seat and stepping around the room towards a window and pointing towards the city, the capital.

"How many people live there? How many care about who sits in here for as long as they have work, food and a roof. Fool someone else." He paused and turned back at the gathered people. "When did the opposition come to notice? Where?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Do we have agents in the field?" His gaze was set upon the de facto ruler of this world, the imperial governor.

With visible nervousness the governor opened his datapad and raised his not so confident voice.

Iris Arani
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[Iris Arani]

Mountains and Mineshafts. Sounded like a tabletop game, but right now it was the only way the handful of rebels were surviving. Move through the range, use the abandoned tunnels to keep out of sight of any overhead eyes. Brave the condemned places in a hopes they wouldn't collapse and make it that much harder to track them. Seven had already been lost in the collapse of the last path through. More would've been, if not for the assistance of the Jedi with them.

Iris wiped at her brow as she lowered the healing crystal she had from yet another wound. More had survived the collapse, but not in one piece. Between what she could do with the Force and the supplies she had, she could keep them alive. But the supplies were dwindling, and her skill at healing wasn't where it should be. Too focused on her other skills she let it slack.

Something she'd have to fix, if she ever got the chance.

"How many are left?"

Beside her the Bith who'd ended up in charge of this rag tag group spoke. "<Injured, none. You've handled all of them. Dead, we're still clearing out some. No ones heard from Jenkins. He's the only one still unaccounted for.>"

She let out a breath and closed her eyes. This deep in the earth it was easier to focus on the colors around her. Those that represented emotion, life, the Force. Rock wasn't alive. All there were were the couple dozen or so of the rebels left. And death. A black spot in the colors where the dead had fallen violently.

"There's no one alive in there. We move."

"<.. Are you sure?>"

Doubt had long left the group on the skills of the Jedi. Iris gave a solemn nod. It was enough.

"The Empire might've caught wind of the collapse. We can't wait. Carry the wounded, we move to site C. We're still capable of putting the plan in motion. We'll figure out new roles and who can fill them. Understood?"

The group gave a silent nod. Those that could started to lift up those who needed it. The rest, they limped their way after. It wasn't going to be long until they made it to the next site. Which meant Iris was going to have to figure out just how to salvage this all.

".. Chit."

Imperius Anathema

 

[Imperius Anathema]

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Imperial Command Center | Worlport | Ord Mantell
Post #2​

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The gathering was dissolved mere moments later by the Knight-Commander, the charade and bootlicking part was over. They had their chance to try to make clear that this was a stable world. They failed. It was far from the terror and open war on Dorin, but it was on its way. Ord Mantell has always been a heaven for smugglers and criminals, especially in its less populated regions.

The Vindicator and his retinue made it to the imperial command center in the capital, the nerve system for imperial rule on Ord Mantell and home arena of the governor, he and his garrison were operating from here, the barracks of the stationed troops were here and their staff was working the center, from overseeing traffic, com checks, maintaining security and son on - what they are supposed to do to maintain imperial control.

After listening to more serious and neutral reports from imperial officers, Irdorax came to the conclusion that these officers were certainly more attentive than their superior or the local officials. Caught com transmissions, shady smuggler activities, busted meetings - they had a lot of stuff going on, though nothing seemed to follow a certain direction or showing a connection.

"I want you to search for two things. First, obvious and absolutely unremarkable, perfectly fitting things. Every time you think 'this is normal', question it. Nothing is normal and I want you, your aids and their aids, to watch out for anything which seems absolutely normal and fitting perfectly into the picture. The most convenient stories are usually fake."

"Second, the opposite. Anomalies. You have data for all the time the Empire is here and I want you to analyse communications, reports, traffic, controls, security etc. and their development since the first serious unrest was noted."

"For both groups, I expect a result within twelve hours. Recruit aides, clerks or whoever with an adequate security clearance, but deliver. We are not wasting any more time here."

Irdorax stands with his hands crossed on his back, his orders finished. The group of officers dispersed, swiftly, and consulted and instructed their aides and lieutenants getting to work.

Iris Arani


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[Iris Arani]

Site C. Yet another abandoned mining tunnel, but unlike the ones they'd been traveling through this one had been turned into a base camp of sorts. A gap below some rubble acted as a camouflaged door in. The only way in. It wasn't ideal, but so deep in the mountain it had to work. And with the cave in most wouldn't think there was a pocket on the other side being used as a rebel base.

Computers, datalinks, maps. Everything Iris could get brought in pieces had been used to set this place up. It wasn't much, especially since the primary site that had been lost had way more, but it would work. It had to work.

Standing in front of the holodisplay, which was already flickering in and out, Iris glanced to those still standing. A proper dozen. Not enough to do everything. But that's why they had back up plans for back up plans.

"Secondary objectives are off the table. We don't have the manpower for it. We'll focus on the primary, and only the primary." An image flickered to life. The Vice Governor.

"Kobbro Prehort has been our inside man for months. Feeding us intel, locations to hide. Where to strike. The barracks are our main target. We're going to infiltrate, steal as many weapons as we can, and rig the whole place to blow. We've three days before 'emergency reinforcements' requisitioned from Kobbro come in. That's us. We hit the drop off point to collect our gear, fall in rank, and ready up to get into the barracks. From there, we split into three. Kule, you find our weapons." She glanced to the Bith, who simply nodded an affirmation.

"Lur, you set the traps. I'll secure transport off world. Tonight's the last night we'll have in peace. Try and relax. May the Force be with us all."

Imperius Anathema

 

[Imperius Anathema]

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Imperial Command Center | Worlport | Ord Mantell
Post #3
Iris Arani ​

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Irdorax had set up camp in the headquarters of the garrison, where a steady stream of adjutants and junior officers would go in and out reporting to his personal staff, which was always performed by the squad of the Vindicators who accompanied him onto missions. Managing and selecting the information, they are summing up and looking through the majority of the stuff, filtering for their commander to find intel and possibly pick up the scent for the hunt.

The last two days were filled with a huge amount of seemingly useless information. Com-traffic, actual traffic in and out of the system, shady people passing customs ... it was a mess without clear direction and hints of where to go. Ord Mantell was afterall a world with a lot of criminal background going on. While they would pass on the information to the security forces, it was by no means a direction. There was too much going on to pick a single route or group.

One young second lieutenant, barely out of puberty by the surface of his skin and tone of his voice, brought a summary which was nearly ditched by the Vindicators, deemed uninteresting. It was the access statistics of the archives. Providing detailed information on who accessed what, how often, how frequently their codes were used, which security clearance was used and so on. And what was copied.

It was a very, very tiny raindrop in a hurricane of information. But one which opened up a direction.

​

The prison of the garrison was a simplistic complex underground with a few dozen cells and an interrogation chamber. Only two cells were occupied by some drunk soldiers of the garrison. Though they wouldn´t exactly find sleep tonight.

He was screaming. Again. Loud.

The governor stood in the corner and looked quite sick and pale by what was going on. His eyes screamed fear, they shouted that he did want to anywhere but here and for sure not wanting to take responsibility for this. He was an imperial officer, selected to be the governor of an imperial world and meant to show a good judgement of character, politics and security measures.

Irdorax was standing in front of the interrogation rack while his adjutant performed ... information extraction on the vice governor. He was naked to his bone and visibly in agony and despair, tears running down his cheeks. Surprisingly there was not a bit of blood, just the horrible smell of cold sweat and . The Vindicator stopped for a moment to let the Knight-Commander repeat his question.

"Tell me where and why."

The black knight wanted to know why this one betrayed the Empire and who was operating from where to undermine the government of the pale governor in the corner. He despised traitors, they are choosing disloyalty for some reason and either they are wrong or it needs actual work, but either way they will not see the change to come. Treason knew only one punishment and once this one was done passing on the information, he would be trialed and executed.

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[Iris Arani]

Pickup went well. They'd been careful about where they stashed the equipment. Salvaged armor and arms. Iris herself pulled on a suit of the Imperial Knights. Few would question them from what she'd seen. And at least this way she could still have a lightsaber. Her main saber was clipped beside the Knights. White was their blade. White was what she'd have to use. But if it came down to her needing to use a lightsaber as anything more than a badge of office, she made sure to have a second.

Her second.

Fitting on a hat to help hide her face she glanced to the trio with her. Stormtroopers by appearance. Basic troopers at that. They couldn't afford to sneak any higher officer ranks. It'd have to do.

"Remember, fall in rank. It's Sir or Ma'am. I'll do the talking."

They all nodded once before repeating in unison, "Ma'am."

Good. They were ready. The others just needed to get their job done. Trust them. "We go." She clicked on her com one last time before turning it off and walking ahead. Head high, eyes forward. Purpose in her step as the trio of troopers followed along behind her. Right towards the Imperial base.

The mission was a go.

Imperius Anathema

 

[Imperius Anathema]

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En Route to the Mountains | Ord Mantell
Post #4
Iris Arani ​

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The vice governor had proven to be extremely resilient. He would only pass on tiny bits of information and remain adamant about not telling more despite the pain he suffered through. Revelations like that he passed on records of imperial strengthes, where patrols would be and who was under surveillance were not exactly helpful and despite his efforts to remove his tracks, easy to find once his com, datapads and working station were taken a apart down to every byte.

It was obvious that he would not give any more, that something kept his mind going. But it was not the first interrogation, not the first nut to crack and when pain didn´t work anymore, there were more threatening measures. Irdorax was not known to be compassionate or sacrifice imperial integrity and safety for a single or two human lifes.

And suddenly the vice governor told them everything without even being on the interrogation rack himself. His daughter and wife were 'invited' and suddenly the screams took a much darker touch. While not intending to kill them, not even considering it for a moment, the Knight-Commander just used them as leverage.

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Irdorax was leading a small team of stromtroopers and local security on a mission to rout out the rebels in their hole. The late vice governor was quite specific in describing how the cell moved and where. Little miner-rats they were, utilising given up mines in the mountains, moving out of sight and far below watchful eyes. They wouldn´t have found that track except by accident.

The imperial knight decided it would be best to surprise them there, eliminating them all at once and taking their base of operations, maybe finding traces of more involvement or other cells. The idea was to fly into the area, hide the transport and slowly make their way in and scout the location before overwhelming them. Irdorax was quite sure that he could do so alone, but taken in locals and Stormtroopers was proving the point of the Empire and their loyalty.

Hours later they would enter the mines, taking care to not step into any traps and looking out for any energy signatures. The unit would start to split up to explore the various tunnels and find tracks of where they might find and track down the enemy.

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[Iris Arani]

Everything would've gone to plan. Everything should've gone to plan.

It didn't.

Iris whipped around the white borrowed blade in conjunction with her own blue, battering back blasterfire into the hangar guards. Something had tipped the Imperials off. Or someone. Didn't matter right now. Half way through getting the blasters loaded in a patrol that shouldn't of been there arrived. And now they were on the clock to get the ship loaded and get out.

"<Status!?>"

"<We're just about loaded up! Kar and Vince are dead! Haven't heard from Lur!>" That wasn't good. That was bad. Really bad.

"<What about site C?!?>"

"<Silent! Do you think we've been made?>"

"<I don't know but I got a bad fe->"

"<Lur.. Reporting in. Bombs, not fully set. Been made. Deadman activated. Get ou->"

The line cut off. Iris grimaced behind her mask as she knocked another shot into the ceiling. The rafters, bringing them down across the hangar. Sealing the doors just as Kule rushed through. For a moment there was silence. Just a moment.

"Load up what you can carry now. We're getting out."

"But what about the others?"

"They knew what they were getting into. .. We leave. Make sure what they did do wasn't in vain."

Imperius Anathema

 

[Imperius Anathema]

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The Mountains | Ord Mantell
Post #5
Iris Arani ​

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The imperial knight stood in the empty rebel base and stood still. He had looked around the meagre base, some generators, bunks, tables ... it was like a refugee camp with wannabe military equipment. It was not the imperial military headquarters on Bastion, but for their circumstances it was certainly enough. Shame that they would only return to find it as hostile territory.

He stood still because he was listening to the reports of a firefight including a lightsaber wielder in the barracks at the imperial base. So they missed each other. Unfortunate. How high would the chances be that they come back here? Would they still trust that the location was secure or did they rate their encounter as unlucky? The choice was his to make.

The Knight Commander would seat himself deep in the shadows of a corner, deciding to wait while he sent his soldiers away to hide outside and observe possible returns and the entrances they used to block them and the one they knew. He thought about ordering the base to let them escape, but he believed the rebels were able to managing that one their own. Irdorax also didn´t particularly trust everyone here on the planet.
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