Utilizing Information

[Adron Malvern]

[SIZE=11pt]The flashing lights of Hyperspace wrapped around The Wanderer, a small Corvette popularly used in the outer rim for trade and economic purposes. The rusted and partially damaged experience made the ship the perfect cover for the team of Dark Jedi aboard. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Adron sat in the cockpit, a hand running across his chin while he peered out at the light show that flashed before the view port. The Imperial was not clad in his military uniform, or even a set of shadowy robes gifted to him from the Order. Instead he had on a brick shaded leather jacket, opened to reveal a grey T-shirt. A pair of black cargo pants and a set of matching boots completed the disguise. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Since the formation of the Dark Jedi Order there had been numerous discussions on how best to proceed after their foundation. Some members believed gaining military and political power was the best route, while others wished to focus on recruiting new students to be trained by the Order. None of these paths were necessarily wrong, yet Adron believed they needed more than soldiers and planets to truly become a force of control in the galaxy. His time in the Empire had taught him that information was an invaluable currency, that was best exploited whenever it could be. That was what's had brought Adron and his team to the center of the core, information. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]A datapad sat on the ship’s console, one that Adron had been reviewing most of his trip. Taking the device into his hands he let out a faint yawn before standing up from the Captain’s chair. There was a little bit less than an hour before they arrived in space over Coruscant, and it was time for the team to get the final part of their briefing. The others had been told they were heading to Coruscant for a special mission, and were not to be dressed as Jedi, but Adron had kept the information go a minimum to save time during their departure.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Adron turned to the doorway leading into the inner workings of the ship, his hand pressing against the intercom system. As he spoke his voice echoed out over the ship. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]“Everyone, get ready and meet me in the cargo hold in ten.” He called out, before turning off the receiver and making his way down the hall. Part of the High Moff was eager to meet this team, and the other part was nervous. Generally Adron was put in a situation where he was fully in control and his orders were law, surrounded by a team of Dark Jedi, he doubted it would be so easy. [/SIZE]

 

[Jennifer Blanchard]

There was a lot of information all of the place. And Jenn was one who knew how to find it. What she was doing now? Well, it was not exactly what her hold boss had told her to do. Nope. She still worked with Bright Star, in the Confederacy, but sometimes she had to do things for herself. She was never the best of the Obsidian Order, doing what she could to help the CIS and Techno Union, but also having to answer her own questions and help the people she could. There was a part of her that was sympathetic to the Alliance, and Resistance, but there was another part of her that felt their need to adhere to the light side weakened them.

The dark offered a lot of options, and well, her skills were…specific, to say the least, but sometimes you just needed to get to work that way. This Dark Jedi Order that she had contacted was something else. And she was hoping they would continue with subterfuge. It worked for her, and allowed her to do what she could for her adopted nation, as well as what was best for the galaxy.

This group though, she knew they represented a few different nations, and hopefully they weren’t digging too hard into her, but the leather jacket-and-jean clad slicer nodded. She had some work to do, it looked like. All her tech was from the open market, just so happened to come from mostly CIS companies, but still, she wasn’t wearing the uniform.

Independent hacker, here.

[member="Adron Malvern"]

 

[Veleera Ta'al]

There was nothing to be said.

Time had played it's part, the Jedi had played their hand and in the end she had become something far different from what she had ever intended. Yet, in a strangely apathetic manner, the woman hardly cared for the complexity of her situation; for the loss of so much that she had earned and acquired in her years of Jedi training. When it had come down to a selection between the visionary progression of the Dark Jedi and the stagnated hypocrisy of the Jedi Order she wasted little time recognizing the superior, and much more flexibility friendly, position.

It was a known truth within the political circle of the Ta'al family that her father disapproved of her previous stance. She wondered just how he would feel about her new stance as a member of the resurgent Dark Jedi Order; the difficulty in convincing a Sith supporter that anything else dark was just as viable a difficult task indeed. Even still, she was content with her perspective and choices in striding through the galaxy on a much lighter pair of wings. Wings no longer burdened by the hypocritical weight of the Jedi's unwillingness to bend under their own doctrines and philosophies.

The woman's thoughts were disrupted by the sound of a man's voice over the comms, a voice she wasn't overly familiar with and likely from someone she had allotted herself with inadvertently in light of her taking action before fully acquainting herself with the entirety of the new Dark Jedi Order. It hardly concerned her, however, if she knew the individuals she was working with. She had made the mistake of bonding closely with others during her time as a Jedi, lost a master and several friends in the process, and she was keen on remaining as distant as possible should the circumstances remain fair.

Regardless of her thoughts, the woman rose to her feet and made her way towards the cargo hold as she was instructed. Following the orders of another was easy if one accepted that the extent was merely to acknowledge someone else's position as influential within the reason of their position. When the time came that she discovered his identity, if he was neither a master nor a lord, she would decide if his authority outweighed her own. After all, she was tired of taking orders from councils and errant masters. Such things were best left to the archaic designs of the misguided Jedi.

In the mean time she would make herself comfortable. Dressed carefully, and luxuriously, in a velvet dress robe, though it looked more like a gown than anything else, the woman waited for the others to arrive.

Perhaps this was day one, perhaps not, it hardly mattered.

[member="Adron Malvern"] | [member="Jennifer Blanchard"]

 

[Tiric]

Dark Jedi? Really? Tiric thought to himself as he idled in the cramped quarters that had been assigned to him aboard The Wonderer. The room was roughly the size of a standard refresher unit. Actually, that was a fairly apt description. A refresher unit with a tiny, uncomfortable bed. Laying on the bed - bed? No, let's try cot - Laying on the cot, hands folded under his head, he stared at the ceiling of the small room and let out a sigh. He was dressed simply, not in his typical black robes. Instead he wore a simple, grey shirt with long sleeves and a pair of black pants. Hanging off the end of the bed was a black blazer style jacket that he would put on when he left the room. He wasn't particularly worried about the cold, rather it was a simple adaptation to hide a lightsaber. Don't leave home without it.

Currently he was weighting his decision to throw in with the Dark Jedi Order. He'd found that in his time of serving the galaxy through the use of the Force that he rarely fit in anywhere. His ideal of service and sacrifice fit in with the typical Jedi Orders. The Force existed in order to bring people together, to make things better. And that was his role - he was a tool of the Force for the improvement of the lives of others. However, that's where he tended to depart from the typical orders. One had to fight fire with fire. The high ground was for innocents, not combatants. If being a Jedi was about sacrifice, why would he be willing to stop at only sacrificing his body? No, that wouldn't do. Tiric would sacrifice that moral high ground to protect innocents, as well. Let them be unstained, untainted by the necessity of what had to be done. He would take whatever damnation the Force had for him when this life was over, and he would do so for the cause of the oppressed and the unjustly persecuted. If there were aspects of the Force that could help him attain his goal of seeing children protected from tyranny, what right did he have to turn them down?

A message came over the ship's comms systems, giving an alert to final briefing in the cargo hold. Ten minutes. Tiric took one last deep breath before standing and donning his jacket, clipping his lightsaber hilt to the inside before moving for the door.

[member="Adron Malvern"] | [member="Jennifer Blanchard"]​

Yeah, Dark Jedi, he thought. For now.

 

[Tiric]

Double Post. Apologies.

 

[Adron Malvern]

Adron had not had his pick of the members who would join him on this mission. Instead Veiere had assigned what members of the Order were available for a trip into the core worlds. They had no time to familiarize themselves with each other, and since they were not enlisted into a sole military there were no records to reveal anything about the gathered team.

As the first arrival made her way in Adron appeared to be investing his time into the series of crates stored at the back of the hold. The grates had been placed on board in the event the ship was checked by the port authorities. Some clothing, jewelry, and a few exotic blasters were all that could be found in the durasteel containers.

After closing the lid on one of the containers he turned to the fire-haired woman, offering her a curt nod before planting his hands on either side of his waist.

When the next woman entered, Adron’s gaze fell on her, a brow rising in a brief moment of confusion. He met her with silence, and a nod matching the one of the first arrival. He was sure he knew her, if not of her, however in the moment he could not pull the memory to his mind. He studied her for a moment more as the third and final arrival made his way into the cargo hold. With his entrance, Adron was able to begin his briefing. “We don’t have a lot of time to talk so I need you all to pay attention.” He said, pulling his datapad from where he had left it on one of the containers. “First thing is first. My name is Adron Malvern and I’m the one who requested you all for this mission. Now, the Order has stumbled on something that could potentially be a great asset. However, for it to remain an asset, we need to procure it without bringing attention to ourselves.”

As the man spoke it became obvious he conformed to a strict military infrastructure. His movements and speech pattern matching that of an Imperial, while his stance and bearing seemed akin to an officer.

“You were all told we were going to Coruscant but none of you were told why.” He continued, his fingers running over his datapad as he spoke. “Three months ago the Galactic Empire identified three ships moving through the outer rim. These ships were badly damaged and held markings of the Galactic Alliance. We can’t be sure these ships were of the Alliance, however, because before our cruiser could detain them the ships exploded. Each within seconds of each other.” As he spoke he looked to each member of the team, making sure he was holding their attention.

“Our search team wasn’t able to salvage much. The navicomputer was wiped, all droids on the vessel were wiped or destroyed in the explosion, and obviously there were no survivors.”

“About two weeks ago Imperial intelligence was finally able to salvage information from a datapad that had mostly survived the explosion. With the information they got from that datapad we were able to go forward assuming those ships belonged to a group of assassins called the GenoHaradan.”

“There was a location on that datapad we believe is a GenoHaradan safe house. If it is, the information stored at that location could be invaluable to the order. This isn’t going to be easy. We do not have anything to identify the location, defenses, or personel. If it even exists we’ll be going up against a group that prides itself on never being identified.”

Adron offered a small smirk, clasping his arms behind his back. “Any questions?”

@Tiric @Veleera Ta'al [member="Jennifer Blanchard"]

 

[Jennifer Blanchard]

She had a lot of work to get done, and she was going to do what she could. Sure, she could be working alongside these people from other governments, but it was all a cover, right? It was for her. Hell, she wasn’t supporting the Empires, she didn’t support the Alliance either. The Confederacy suited her fine. A lot of freedom, really. She wasn’t about to start stealing babies or setting fires to worlds because they could. Nope, she was here to help set things right in the galaxy.

Making her way to the meeting room, she found herself a seat slowly and looked around. She looked up at the one talking, someone had to lead them, so this was the guy who was doing it? She nodded and tried to not grab her datapad. She’d start typing and nothing would get done. And Coruscant, really?

Well, that was going to have to happen eventually, right?

“Will we need to slice the data? Upload it to the darknet? Or just take the data in its form and bring it back… wherever?” Better if she didn’t know.

[member="Adron Malvern"]
[member="Tiric"]
[member="Veleera Ta'al"]

 

[Veleera Ta'al]

Many buckled under the pressure of dabbling in the affairs of strangers.

While the same could be said of even the strongest of people without the stomach for bowling over the affairs of another, it hardly held merit in the Serennoan woman's heart. The notion was given example as the man who claimed to be leading them brought himself about into their view to belt orders and information at them. Her automatic response was to stiffen her posture and cast him a side glance of distanced approval; natural for her in the recent days and often quite effective.

What she hadn't counted on, an element that took her by embarrassing surprise, was recognizing a number of the man's features as he made his presence known to them. It wasn't his hair, his face or any of his body, for that matter, that gave him away. As she watched him, the way he carried himself and spoke with a cold but calculated sternness, the feeling of familiarity crept over her until she could easily lock the gears in place in her head. Squinting her eyes just a hair, unnoticeable save for the trained eye, she discerned, without a doubt, just who this man was.

And then he spoke his name: Adron Malvern. Though she knew him as the charming young boy with enough pride to keep a star destroyer afloat.

She chose not to speak immediately, rather waiting until the man had finished, but even still as Adron continued to relay his information she actively made effort to disregard the firmness in his tone. Whatever militaristic rock he had crawled under was far from a concern of hers and it would take a lot more than a few ranks and files to bring her under his thumb. She was the daughter of a Count, after all, and he was nothing more than a man shunned from his own world.

Though, if she was being completely honest with herself, he had not lost the charm of his figure.

"So we're airing out the Empire's dirty laundry, then, are we? I must say it sounds like a job for their janitorial crews and not the Dark Jedi," she mused as she ran over Adron's information in her mind, rattling through the details of what sounded like a clean up mission more than a mission requiring the expertise of Force wielding warriors. "What do we need with assassins who fail to do the one thing any assassin is most famous for? If they're unable to erase even the slightest trace of their existence outside of what they intend to leave behind themselves, than we should leave them to rot in their squalor for another eight hundred years; and preferably without another single credit to their name."

Even as she spoke, she was sure to keep her eyes fixed on Malvern's. Her expression was placid, hardly a hint of the coldness or venom she had just spouted with her words, even as she rose to her feet and took a step towards him on careful footing with her gown. When she was right and comfortably close enough to the man, she gave him a once over before scoffing with mild disgust.

"You may have grown into a reputable military man, Malvern, but the boy I remember was never the type to chase dreams tied on ribbons to empty fantasies," she breathed as she turned and made her way past the other two passengers in the compartment, her eyes trailing over the other red head as she did so. "I'll play your little game, Adron, but I expect a better explanation for putting my neck on the line than petty spy games from the Galactic Empire. I'm not an errand-girl and I'm sure as kark not one of your toy soldiers."

Perhaps it had been a bit much. Possibly even more, as she cleared the passage door to the next compartment of the ship. But, mindfully, as she glanced back to him for the slightest moment more she couldn't help but surrender to the urge to pay him, at least, the smallest compliment.

"You've kept yourself well, however, Adron. You're far from a dissatisfaction to the wandering eye." Her voice was hushed, though no intent was made to hide it from the other members of their meager crew.

After all, worse things had been said in far lighter company.

[member="Adron Malvern"] | [member="Jennifer Blanchard"] | [member="Tiric"]

 

[Adron Malvern]

​Adron had expected there would be some questions, and the man was ready for them. His eyes turned to the slicer, a hint of amusement on his face as he spoke. "We won't know until we get there. My informants tell me slicing may be necessary, but we everything I told you is everything that is known." He offered the woman, crossing his arms as he leaned back on the crates behind him. "Everything for the next few hours is going to be on the fly, so we will have to act as we go."

​As the next woman spoke up, Adron's brow was given cause to rise once again. Veleera, whom Adron had been trying to remember, spoke words that caused the man to clear his throat a bit. "The information may come from the Empire, but it is to help the Order and only the Order." He returned, watching as the woman made her way over to him. He had hawk-like eyes that peered over her while still maintaining that amused expression. When she spoke once again Adron had been preparing a witty remark, yet silence left him as he realized he was dealing with someone who knew him as a boy. This was going very bad, very early.

​Turning to Jennifer for a moment to gauge her reaction to the display, Adron looked back to Veleera, calling out to her. "I'm a satisfaction to many eyes." He returned with an almost forced smile. He exhaled softly before looking to Jennifer and shrugging his shoulders softly.

​Making his way back to the cockpit, Adron was trying to ascertain Veleera's identity.

It did not take long for the group to break the flashing lights of hyperspace, replacing them with the city-planet that was Coruscant. Turning his eyes to the viewport, Adron took a moment to muse on Coruscant. For many years this single planet had been the center of the galaxy and it's shifting', now it was little more than a token, a bobble of the Galactic Alliance to host as their own.

Their ship had been cleared for landing in the lower parts of the planet's industrial sector. Surrounded by large towers that belched out a smog of muck and smoke. Once the ship was powered down Adron saw to the rear ramp, making his way towards the exit. His voice would echo through the ship as he used the intercom once again. "It's time."

[member="Veleera Ta'al"] [member="Jennifer Blanchard"]