Chp-12: Creatures and Covert Operations

Chp-12: Creatures and Covert Operations

I was scheming. Plotting. On my evil mastermind shit. Why? Ironically enough, the same reason most evil masterminds plot. Fear.

Honestly, my paranoia was getting exhausting. Makes me glad I'm not Sith. I'd be too tired; wouldn't hit the weekly puppy torture quota or some equally inane shit. 

What was I plotting? My own safety, of course. You see, I just realized something. I have no defense against force users. At all. 

I have zero clue whether or not I'd be able to resist mind tricks, illusions, mind reading, and a million other things. Sure, it isn't exactly the biggest fear I have, not by a long shot. But the force is fucking terrifying, and I don't want to deal with it at all.

That's when I remembered a little planet called Myrkr. On this planet, there lives a species of lizard called the Ysalamiri. These little buggers can create a field that negates the use of the force around them. While the effect is similar to that of the Shirr Ka Rai, the latter actually eats the force around them, while the Ysalamiri simply ensure that the force within their radius cannot be controlled. 

Now, I want one. These little buggers would guarantee my safety. The problem? They were stubborn. For nutrients the lizards sink their claws into a specific type of tree and absorb the nutrients from there. Trying to remove them will almost certainly guarantee the creature's death. 

Thankfully, certain smugglers had figured out how to do this safely. Unfortunately, such people are rare, and the lizards rarer. So it would take some time for the queries I had tossed out into the underworld to come up with an answer. 

I say tossed, but what I really mean is that a droid was sent to buy a droid who was sent to buy a droid who was sent to pay a middleman who was sent to pay an information broker who would send out their feelers, and place the information gathered at a predetermined drop point that changed every week depending on a random number generator built into the datapad that contained the orders. 

It was a fairly complex plan, and one I'm quite proud of. This many proxies would hide my involvement from most. MI could probably track it back to me, but would have no real reason to do so. 

Suffice to say, I would be getting my own little force negating buddy who could sit on a backpack I would get to wear. Very nice. 

Putting my sinister schemes to the side, I turned to the task at hand.

A few merchants had decided to stop by Ugea. Nothing particularly special, save for their cargo.

They weren't smugglers, but instead traders of animals. Specifically, farm animals. They had heard about Minda's growing farming industry and decided to try their luck at selling cattle here.

So there I was, standing at the Accordian Spaceport alongside my personal detail, inspecting the various animals with Ulre Iglad, the head of the local agriculture department. He was sporting a light bruise on his forehead, what he called a "rubber wound".

"So" I said, "Which ones do you think would be best suited for Ugea?"

He scanned over the animals, before settling on one. 

"The Shaak will probably be our best bet. Ugea doesn't have any animals suited to cattle work. Most of them are either too small, or too vicious."

"Ah, but the shaak is both large and docile. How will it impact the ecosystem, however? I don't want an ecological collapse just because we wanted to stop importing meat." I said, taking another bite out of my sandwich. Damn, this thing is good, the techs at R&D really nailed the BBQ sauce flavor. Gotta give them a raise.

He shook his head. "Shaak are fairly widespread across the galaxy, so the chances of a major ecological collapse from their presence is unlikely. Regardless, we'll be conducting extensive tests."

I sighed in relief. "Good. Anything else here that could be of use to us?"

While Ulre looked around, scanning the various animals for anything of use, a cage in the back caught my eye. It was completely shuttered, unlike the other animals' cages which were more open, and looked large enough to fit a great dane.

Turning to the devaronian captain, I pointed at the object of interest. 

"What's that?"

He looked surprised, then rushed to explain.

"That's an animal that seemed to have snuck on board when we were refueling a system over. It was skittish, and lashed out so we hit it with a stunner and tossed it in that cage with some feed and a water bowl. It's been in there for a few days, and has been awfully quiet."

I hummed while I chewed, then swallowed. Not quite beef, but Bantha was close enough. "Can you unshutter the cage? I'd like to take a look." He nodded, and quickly pressed a few buttons on the cage's control panel. As panels slid back, I got a look at it.

The animal was lithe, and most certainly carried with it a sense of danger. However, I could tell it was scared, based on all the hissing it was doing. It had the remnants of whatever kibble the merchants had given it tossed around, and a small water bowl that was nearly empty.

Despite its clear fear, its eyes clearly tracked my sandwich. Taking a gamble(I gotta stop doing this), I ordered the cage opened. As soon as it opened, I tossed the sandwich at the opening just as the creature tried to dart out. 

I almost laughed as my sandwich smacked the animal in its head, dazing the poor thing. It took a moment to sniff at the meat and bread, before quickly gobbling it up. Immediately after it snaked over to me and started to lick at my fingers.

A raised hand stopped my detail from gunning it down, as the creature was clearly friendly. So long as it got food, that is. 

It walked on all fours, but was clearly capable of utilising its hind legs. 

"Hah! Hungry, eh? I think I'll take em. What is it?"

The captain's face was a mix of confusion and relief. "I don't know, I've never encountered one of these before."

Regardless, I smiled. This buddy was fast. If trained correctly, not only would I have a cool pet alien, but one that could very well end up as a bodyguard of sorts.

I reached down, slowly of course, and let it sniff my hands, before it let me touch its head. It seemed to coo. Light scratches under its chin left it practically melting in my hands.

Oh yeah baby. 

Alien cat time!

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Now back at the capitol building, which I was really thinking of giving an official name at this point, I was sitting in a conference room. 

Specifically, the conference room. The one that was built in the remodeling of the building with as many anti-spy safeties that the budget could afford. Which was a surprising amount, all things considered.

There were the three big leaders of Minda. Myself, Commander Kaela, who controlled the system's army forces, and Captain Veers, leader of the MSDF.

We were there because Captain Veers had asked us to meet. Only the Captain herself wasn't physically present, as she was still aboard the Rationale in orbit. 

"So, Commander. Care to tell us why you called this meeting?" I asked, trying to ignore my newest friend's attempts to get me to play with them. 

Giving no notice to the creature, the Captain activated the holo table from her terminal, a serious look etched across her face.

"We have a problem." She brought up an image, some sort of space buoy. One of the ones that were being spread across the system to allow the new network we were building to spread. This buoy was different though. While it was clearly one of ours, it had a myriad of extra tech slapped across it.

"This is Relay 5-2-3. It's one of our farther out relays, and covers a few of the farther out mining claims. One of those mining teams approached the relay to get a better signal and send their findings back to their HQ on Ugea when they noticed the clear modifications."

I studied the relay a little closer. The extra tech was shoddy, to say the least.

"After dismantling the relay, we discovered a few things. This extra technology was a slapdash listening post. It seems that whoever implemented such a thing did it in a rush. Probably intended to be a temporary measure, which is why it was placed on the furthest relay."

Shit. People are trying to spy on my fucking system!? This sounds bad, to say the least. "Any possible leads as to the perpetrators? Rebels, perhaps?"

Veers shakes her head. "No, though the rebellion is unlikely. They thrive off of secrecy and sympathy. Such a sloppy job was bound to be discovered. This reeks of a different stench of evil. Criminals."

I raised an eyebrow. "I was under the assumption that rebels are criminals."

"They are" she said, "But rebels fight for a cause they believe in, however misplaced. They have a reason to battle, and therefore are more careful in their actions. Common criminals however, are sloppy. They succeed a few times, and get arrogant. The problem here, however, is that these criminals are far too arrogant. They must be found, and crushed."

"All right. First, have every relay checked out. They may have tampered with others. Bring the spare relays out and check the internals of all the relays as well. It'll take time, but they may have taken a more subtle approach for the relays in more traveled sectors."

"Of course," replied the Captain. "My people are already on it".

I turned to the Commander. "As for you, work with the people in R&D. They should be able to identify the components used in the tech and tell you where they can be found in the system. I want a full investigation into wherever these components originated. It could lead us to the perpetrators."

She saluted. "Yes, governor. At your command!".

Captain Veers turned to me. "What if the components are from out of the system? What then?"

I sigh. "Then I'd have to contact the sector moff. Which I'd rather not do."

Las's memories showed me the brief exchange he had with the sector moff. A rotund old man, Moff Tarry was a party animal, constantly drinking, eating, and wasting away in Dubrillion. He was also incredibly lazy, and getting him to send resources and assistance to Minda, or assist in an investigation would be…difficult. Not impossible, the man was the type with a myriad of exploitable weaknesses after all. It would just be a major pain in the ass.

Hopefully this could be resolved in-house. I didn't want this to explode out of my control. 

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Zyx Mola

Minda System, Minda-0, The Bore

Zyx was… impressed, to say the least. A fully functioning mining and refinery asteroid base. That had been built in but a month? Sure, it was completely possible, technology allowed for modular, pre-built structures to be fully functional within mere weeks, but in systems like these such constructions were usually impossible because of local officials just pocketing the money that might go to such things.

And yet here she was, stepping out of her HWK-290, Humble Darkness. It was an older ship that she had picked out of the yard for her personal transportation. It had been extensively upgraded, of course. Better thrusters, class 1 hyperdrive, improved weapons, shielding, etc… The only thing that hadn't changed was its appearance. The older look and weathering was perfect cover for her. A lone mercenary jumping around. The kind of ship and person you didn't look at twice.

Currently, she was situated in the visiting section of The Bore. As the furthest station from the central star, it was often the first stop for visitors. 

As she looked around, she took note of the clean hallways, and happy employees. The Bore is an Imperial facility, this she knows. But for the average worker to seem as healthy as they are is odd. Most refineries and the like, especially those situated in space, are dangerous. Workers are often considered disposable, as there are always more people to fill in the spots. 

Not only that, but the amount of non-humans was… unusual. Especially the intermingling between them and regular humans. Now, she didn't particularly care whether or not someone was human, it was irrelevant to her. But it was relevant to many other Imperials, so she kept her mouth shut about her opinions. Here though? The acceptance was odd. 

Quietly, she slunk about, subtly hiding in the camera's blindspots. She made her way over to the administrators office, and tossed a small disk onto the camera across from it, temporarily looping the footage. Next, a quick slice and the door unlocked, her footsteps quiet as she crouched low to the ground. A few more camera looping discs were scattered around the office, while the occasional toss of a credit coin distracted the few workers within. Most were on break, as she had seen in the cafeteria.

All it took was a quick slice of a data port, and the entire database of the Bore was downloaded into her personal database. It would normally take far longer, and far more space, but MI let their agents have a few of the nicer toys. 

After that, it was child's play to retreat. The discs would degrade on their own within minutes, leaving no evidence of her tampering save for a thin layer of dust.

From there, she retreated to her ship, the refueling finished by then. A light smirk graced her features as she sat in the cockpit of the Humble Darkness. Another successful infiltration. Sure, it wasn't an official job, but she still loved it. The thrill of it all, the feeling of digging up secrets, of knowing more than others, holding that knowledge, it was exciting.

And now, she knew a great deal about her brother's operations on The Bore. There were more places to stop by, but it was just the beginning.

She was going to have so much fun teasing him with all of this information.

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Hi there folks! Decided to start on the next threats and such, along with advancing Zyx's side of the story. Things are going to be heating up in the coming chapters, with new threats, allies, and all that lies between. Also, pets. I liked the design of that creature from Hardy Fowler so much when I was looking for the design of the Qakuh that I felt I needed to include that beautiful creature somehow.

On that note, I need name suggestions! I couldn't think of anything that fit this catlike snake thingie, and I didn't want to do them an injustice.

Aside from that, as usual, feedback and comments are appreciated!

Thanks for reading!