The Man Behind the Curtain(TNO)
Posts: 171
  • Posted On: May 13 2007 3:47am
Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain - The Wizard of Oz


The Forge thrummed with the mechanical heartbeat of machinery as factories churned out items and weaponry while further in the bowels of the planet the Morgue continued to produce Necrotroopers for the Union's needs as more fresh converts were spawned from illegally acquired cloning vats. Everyday the Forge grew a little bigger, a little more complex as its facilities slowly engulfed the entire dead planet the Union had established its secret headquarters at. It could have been considered a feat of engineering but no one would ever know about it if the Union had anything to say about it. The sprawling factory world remained hidden away in the Deep Core in close proximity to the black hole that would now devour it in a century or so. Enough time for the Union to pillage every last resource it could from it before a new Forge had to be established somewhere else. Prospective worlds were already catalogued due to Union paranoia about discovery as the organization had thus far managed to remain in the galaxy's shadows, lurking in the gutters and filth of the many civilized worlds via its many criminal connections.




For a time business had been going well on almost all fronts as the corporations under Union influence continued to prosper with no obvious connection to their hidden puppet master. The galaxy was, to the great disappointment of several individuals on the Committee, stable with little visible war as the Coalition seemed unable to fight now, tearing at itself internally while the Black Dragon Empire sat within its claimed territory unmolested. Other governments went about their business, either left alone or ignored by the Empire. It was an environment for growth though at the same time it also ment greater law enforcement which irritated the criminal elements of the Union's leadership. Perhaps that was the problem though, the peace was lasting too long, the galaxy was in stagnation. Stagnation benefitted no one, especially those individuals who made profit from far less savory occupations. Growth was necessary, change was necessary, war was necessary. Growth was visible, yet the other factors did not. Change nor war seemed to exist in the galaxy, both such vital elements of the chaos of civilzation which allowed it to advance...




Estro Sabrino sat back in his white uniform style suit and examined a map of the galaxy, disappointed with the progress of it. The Coalition remained simply that, a coalition with apparently no central leadership to rally it anymore. The Empire sat over vast swaths of territory, bloated with conquest and having not fought a true war for some time now having established itself at the top of the food chain. The Corporate Sector looked like a tantilizing target for expansion of Union operations yet there seemed no reason to do so. The Union had created a vast spiderweb of governments, crime syndicates, businesses, and terrorists. All tools at its disposal which meant that they were at the personal disposal of Sabrino since it was his will that directed the Committee and the Union together. It was all that he had left, his former life shattered to pieces with the fall of the Jutraalian Empire. It had all collapsed but from it, Estro had risen from the shattered government and created something unique, something powerful in its own right.




Rumors had spread more at the Union's permission than anything else that there was in fact something sinister lurking in the galaxy's underworld, pulling the strings. Few would have imagined the scope to which the Union operated because so many saw only the front, the small, petty syndicates that gnawed at eachother when they could all the time trying to avoid being caught by law enforcement. Such competition was not only allowed within the Union, but even encouraged to ensure that no one would ever notice a connection. Now though, the time was growing close where the name Union would be known, even if only to those higher up in the hierarchy of the governments. Brutus Nogoth had played his role well even if perhaps unintentionally on his own part at times. The Union supplied his organization which in turn stirred up such chaos and panic that everyone was far too focused on Nogoth and his Galactic Liberation Front to even imagine there was something bigger behind it. Mindless fanaticism combined with explosives seemed the perfect distraction.




Sabrino's eye narrowed slightly as he entered a command and most of the distinctions faded away from the galaxy save for the Empire's holdings. Change was necessary for both the galaxy and the Union to advance. War was even more necessary since the irritating cold war that existed now was inhibiting the Union from taking contracts and jobs for payment to carry out certain deals. Assassinations and political manipulation were always necessary and still demanded though for more internal reasons. The Empire was creating a problem for Sabrino. It created nothing but stagnation in its current state. It was too powerful apparently for governments to challenge and others were simply too weak or unwilling to do anything about it though whispers of a resurging Rebellion had recently reached Sabrino's ears. He wasn't sure whether they were true or not but he also knew they were probably far too moralistic to contract the Union's services. At the same time though, a democracy was far more easier to corrupt than the Empire was... perhaps there would be some gain in utterly shattering the status quo.




But for that to happen, the Union needed to do something that could be the beginning of a new era and the end of the old. The Empire's time had been well spent, consolidating its hold over worlds but now this era of dominance was useless, unnecessary. The Empire was too authoritarian and thus too restricting for the Union's needs. However, unlike Brutus Nogoth and the Galactic Liberation Front, Sabrino needed something more permanent, something that would affect the galaxy for years to come. Sabrino reached out and typed in more orders, causing the display to shift again this time to a prestine, blue and green world. To any human it probably looked like paradise surrounded by a ring. The only thing that seemed out of place was that very ring. It was one of the Wonders of the Galaxy, the oribtal shipyards of Kuat. No other world had such vast arrays established for production. Such massive facilities seemed so very tempting to seize for the Union's own uses but Sabrino was not stupid. The Empire had far too much military might behind it to challenge it for such a valuable world, however that didn't mean the Union could not still put it to use. However, for any plan to be formulated, the Union would need to gather information which would be far easier to do than any other operation that might be carried out later. Infiltration needed to begin immediately...




Sabrino activated his comlink. There were orders to that needed to be given.
Posts: 171
  • Posted On: May 17 2007 4:54am
Several Weeks Later


Deraggo sat back silently, running his tongue absent-mindedly along his teeth as he was still adjusting to the specially modified tooth the Union had installed in his mouth before this mission. The tooth contained a small but highly leathal dosage of organic poison the Union had discovered in its exploits throughout the galaxy's underworld. Since then they had taken to calling it Silence because that was its purpose, to silence the tongues of captured operatives since suicide seemed the safest route. Capture could mean torture or assassination as the Union was extremely draconian in the enforcement of its secrecy. Suicide was expected of captured operatives if they had no chance of escaping. The tooth was still the original, merely removed and fixed with a special internal capsule disguised as the nerve cluster which was able to be opened if its owner bit down hard enough on it to shatter it. Once unleashed, the poison would induce a seizure followed by major organ failure which would cause instant death even if in a bacta tank due to the extreme power of the toxin.


Suicide was not an option for Deraggo, at least not a quiet and easy death. If he was going down then he damn well was going to take down as many people around him as possible. The suicide tooth was the last option if all else could not succeed and its was utterly undetectable unless someone knew what they were looking for since it was still the original tooth, just modified and replaced even reconnected to the gums. The Chairman had recently ordered the creation and installation of these teeth into all Union operatives. It was likely they would be used as well because those who worked for the Union were terrified of its power, its influence that could be turned against them if they decided to become a turncoat. Families could be exterminated, children murdered, wives raped, relatives slaughtered. The Union would butcher anyone even closely linked to a traitor for revenge and then kill them if it could.


Loyalty was not an issue for Deraggo though, he'd been with the Union since the start and he rather enjoyed the work in a sociopathic sort of way. He was an assassin by trait but he was also skilled at infiltration and that was required this time, at least for their initial operations. Kuat had become the Chairman's new pet project and it made Deraggo wonder what he wanted from it since even he knew the Union lacked the sheer military might to take on the Empire for Kuat. Even if the guarding forces were overwhelmed and the planet conquered, a counter-attack was sure to come, far too strong for the Union to resist. However, Deraggo didn't tend to question orders which is why he was paid so very well.


"You seem restless, Kove," said the man sitting next to him with a calm, almost predatory smile.


Deraggo looked over at the man who had addressed him, one of the Union's other products, a clone from a most remarkable piece of DNA salvaged from the tortured mummy of Xim the Despot. It had taken time to extract the sample and breed the clone but this man seemed to have inherited his gene donor's talent for viciousness combined with a intellect nutured by the Union and Doctor Mengax. He was simply known as Xim as well though for now his alias was that of Gio Luxis. Deraggo's own alias was Kove Menos both of them enroute to Kuat on a liner bound for the world, filled with newly hired employees. The Union had managed to train the pair well enough to qualify them not so much for shipyard work as maintanence workers for the droids used on the yards themselves which would be quite useful considering the fact that this was nothing more than a recon mission. The Union needed to see just how the yards operated and how the Empire operated there as well before any real plans could be established. Such loose mission parameters ment also that it would be unlikely the Empire or Kuat Drive Yards would detect this little probing mission since the Union practically did not exist to Kuat and the Empire more than likely only ever heard rumors, even from its impressive intelligence apparatus.


"Just want to get started on the job, this ride there is tiresome. You'd think they'd want us there more quickly to get us working," Deraggo replied a bit darkly to Xim.


"Heh, Kuat can afford to wait. They already have so many workers there that we're just going to help relieve some stress by establishing a new shift and probably replacing disgruntled workers whining about their salaries. Try to relax and enjoy the luxury before they but you to work," Xim replied with a chuckle as he sat back, adjusting his his worksuit bearing the KDY emblem with his assumed alias and position on it.


"Whatever, just as long as we get there," Deraggo muttered and leaned back, closing his eyes and trying to relax a little though thinking more about their infiltration than anything else.


The Union needed information about Kuat, the more that was attained the better a plan could be formulated for whatever grand scheme the Chairman was concocting back at the Forge though Deraggo felt he might very well be playing part in something grand anyways. The Chairman only tended to send him on important missions that he couldn't afford to have lackeys foul up which meant success was necessary no matter the cost. Whatever plan was forming in the Chairman's head, Deraggo had a feeling that it could very well be something many would not forget for a long time. To be a part of that would be most enjoyable and perhaps Deraggo would get to kill someone. That was always something to look forwards to...
Posts: 171
  • Posted On: May 27 2007 12:10am
The prestine world of Kuat hung in space like a beautiful jewel, its surface untouched by major industry as any and all primary operations were carred out on the massive artificial ring of shipyards and other space stations that orbited Kuat. It would surely have been a wonderful view to Deraggo and Xim if not for the fact that they were in a repair bay attempting to fix a malfunctioning maintanence droid.


"Rotten piece of bantha fodder!" Deraggo snarled as he cracked the droid upside its round head with a wrench.


"I don't even understand what could cause a malfunction like that..." Xim muttered as he walked around it, dressed in a technician's overalls which were spatted with a mixture of fluids used within any number of droids they maintained for their section of the yards.


The droid in question was an older model though it proved highly skilled at maintaining the hulls of the stations and yards, ensuring their plating was tightly held in place with little chance of it coming free. That was until recently when for some reason or another the droid had started randomly removing plates without replacing them. It was not noticed until this little quirk went from eccentricity to near disaster when the droid began doing this to entire sections rather then random plating. The debris from it almost killed several who almost flew into chunks of it free floating and now the droid was he and proving harder to fix than initially thought.


"I'll tell you how," Deraggo spat out as he reached in and ripped out the droid's processing core. "This damned thing's got problems with its brain, not with its systems."


"You know, you could be a little more gentle with your work," Xim muttered but then left it at that, preferring to let Deraggo vent his violent nature on the droids they fixed rather than let him loose on the crewmen whom likely would start randomly vanishing.


The Union employed any number of individuals but few had the creative bloodlust that Deraggo managed to wield. He was an assassin by trade and enjoyed performing that job immensely as he eliminated problems for the Union whether they were internal or external. Committee members were terrified of him because they all knew he'd likely be the one sent to kill them if they tried to betray the Union.


"If I wanted to be gentle, I'd sleep with a whore," Deraggo snapped back as he plugged the processing core into their little maintanence terminal and started looking over its programming. "There's the problem..."


"What?" Xim walked over to where Deraggo was pointing at a set of programming.


"Some stupid tech forgot to memory wipe this little pile of junk. Its not defective, its rebelling. We can fix that though," Deraggo said with cold satisfaction as he went about wiping the droid core clean and began reinstalling the necessary protocols.


"Oh, don't forget this," Xim said handing Deraggo a data disc which the assassin casually inserted into the computer and started to upload the files into the droid as well.


As far as anyone was concerned, even any other technicians who examined the droid, it would be functioning normally, it's programming looking completely normal all except for a small piece of data which caused the droid to scan and map the area it passed through. This was the fourth model the pair had installed the program in so far with little trouble especially since Kuat did not see to monitor its services areas since the workers would not do anything stupid there and what Xim and Deraggo were doing looked exactly like it was supposed to, working on and repairing droids. They just happened to slip a little bit of recon and espionage equipment into the models, careful with what program went into which model so that it never drew any real attention.


Thus far from the data dumps they'd been collecting from the droids they had managed to map out about fifteen percent of the shipyard ring though that was far from enough. They would not report back to the Union until they had a more viable amount of information which meant they needed to make a few more unwitting spies for their recon mission. Thus far it had only been external maintanence droids but they'd managed to get assigned to handle some internal units soon. Those droids would provide data just as valuable as the location of the prime yards and stations in the ring. It was easy enough to find the station serving as the corporate headquarters for Kuat Drive Yards which had requested some droid repairs as well. Xim had done what he could to get assigned to that job since if he had left Deraggo to it, someone would have died mysteriously and too many questions would be asked. Instead Xim made deals, appearing anxious to impress his corporate pay masters. In exchange the pair had been forced to do more shifts and work which seemed to grate on Deraggo's nerves but also allowed further installation of more observation software.


"This one's done," Deraggo said, slamming the droid's casing shut after re-installing its processing core with its wiped memory and new special hidden files. He sealed it and then pressed the reactivation on the droid.


The machine lurched to life, its green photoreceptors glowing as they came back online, looking at the pair before heading off to its holding station to recharge for its next work cycle where it would start recording data innocently like any droid would except that data would then be dumped into a waiting data cache Xim was building, hiding it as random tech data for the shipyards being taken for the good of the shipyards.


It would take time and effort but soon enough they would have more data, or at least enough to go back to the Chairman with and not fear for their lives since failure was not an option. The Union did not like failure though at the same time it would not be so quick to execute useful operatives. Demotion though was an open option and Deraggo had no intention of losing his position as the Chairman's personal hitman. For now though they let the droids do their thing, quietly ignored as always by humans and never paid much attention if they were doing their jobs. It was just as well though that the droids had a small fail-safe protocol with their new espionage programming. If the droid malfunctioned again, its processor would automatically overheat, basically self destructing the droid's memory, exploding and burning, and preventing any data retrival while all the while looking like an internal glitch within the droid.


The pair of Union operatives were taking no risks in being discovered, thus they made sure the little permanent memory wipe technique as they called it was installed into droids under the care of other maintanence crews as well, making the droids seem like faulty models instead of possible sabotage. This recon mission had to succeed and they couldn't afford to be discovered until it was completed and the data was delivered.