Backroom Politics: Advocacy Groups

On the border planet between the Empire and Republic, Lucifer was watching and observing the other agents as he waited in the shadows...using the force to mask his appearance he was now more akin to a Anzanti than Massassi as he covered his tracks while ensuring everything went according to plan.

In this political crisis..politics of which he loathed he was called to the planet to ensure the talks went as expected, that the legal transition of those wishing to join the Empire occured. Pro-Empire senator - Irlav Threhad had specifically asked for Lucifer---most likely due to his reputation of getting things done.

The massassi was to both intimidate the senator's political opponent's when asked and escort the other Imperial Agents he was working with as they did the same with limited supplies and equipment. Lucifer as all involved had heard the rumours...word that the Republic were sending assassins to attempt to kill the senator and the imperial agents working for him to include the escort which in this case was Lucifer and a few others. Lucifer knew the Republic would try something like this, afterall it's the sort of thing he would have done had he been them.

However he also knew his enemy underestimated the sith. He would make them remember why they feared them...and feared him.

Artificial light poured forth from the light strips above, illuminating the busy city street below, casting shadows across the faces of the people who trudged the darkened streets looking for one of an almost infinite possibility of items. Drugs, food, fun and company were the most common topics on the people’s minds, but for Irina Vaax, the reason for wandering the city streets at this hour was capture and interrogation. Nearly a month of planning, hunting and spying had led the identification of her target, now walking idly along a number of yards in front of her. Knowing that, Irina was very cautious not to be obvious in any way to her quarry - an Imperial Agent, one sent to act as enforcer and political thug for the local senator Irlav Threhad. Too much effort and time had been spent into identifying this one man for her to allow for anything to compromise (or at least confirm in the Imperial’s mind) the Republic’s presence on the planet. The current street had far too many alleyways for her to ever likely catch her quarry if he became informed of her presence.

As she waited for the opportune moment to strike, Irina once again mulled over her mission in her mind. A number of Imperial Agents, like the man she tailed, were suspected to have been deployed to the planets surface in order to use terror tactics in order to bully support for the pro-Empire Senator Threhad. As it always did, the thought invoked a special rage within her. The Imperial dictatorship was corrupting the pure republican process that had long been the guardian of freedom and equality for the planet the planet. This was not a normal fight she was entering., but rather something that stoked her ideological passions as well as her military desire for victory. This travesty of justice and government could not be allowed to continue, for the good of all the people of the planet.

A flicker of movement from the Agent brought Irina back to the present. He had halted in his place and was just beginning to turn his head, as if to look behind himself, so Irina instinctively looked to the datapad she carried. When she raised her head to chance a glance at her target, she was shocked to find that he was gone. Looking around quickly, she had just enough time to catch sight of him heading into an alleyway before he was gone. She mentally cursed and followed, afraid that she may have been discovered in some way. She walked back to the alley and walked past it, casting a casual glance down it. The sight of her target running as fast as he could caused her to stop dead and swear loudly.

Reversing her direction, Irina took off after her target. She moved quickly, leaping over the stacked boxes of trash and various items of the city that the Agent had taken the time to go around. He ducked to the right and Irina was suddenly visited by a flash of inspiration. Rather than follow her quarry’s exact path, she instead lowered her shoulder and forced her way through a door in the building the Agent had just turned the corner of. She ran straight through the complex and spied the Agent making another right turn through a large window. Though he didn’t realize it, he was now hurtling along a collision course with Irina. She poured on extra speed and at just the right moment, dove through the window and tackled the Agent sending them both crashing to the floor.

The both rose quickly and assumed combat stances. The Agent lashed out furiously, but Irina had had more than enough combat experience and hand-to-hand training to counter his assault. She returned each attempted strike with a counterattack, landing a number of hard blows on Agent. As she advanced towards him, she noticed a number of movements from the Agent that occurred within a second - a look of desperate defiance flashed across his face, he relaxed his arms, and drew in a large breath through his mouth. Realizing what was about to be done a second before it happened, Irina thrust her hand forward like a viper and managed to wedge her hand inside her target’s mouth before his jaws clamped down on the poison capsule in one of his back teeth. Though he bit down, he was not able to close his mouth far enough to break the poison capsule. A look of wild surprise at soundly finding Irina’s hand in his mouth was replaced by a look of fear as Irina closed the hand, gripping the man firmly by his mandible. She brought her other fist crashing into the side of his mouth, delivering a tremendous punch that knocked the tooth with the poison right out of his mouth. With a resounding crash he collapsed in a heap.

Irina allowed her breath to hiss between her teeth as she stood over the dazed Agent, squeezing her hand where the Agents’ teeth had left bloody marks. She reached down and flipped her over, forcing his face close to hers before she spoke. “Well now, can’t have you leaving me so soon, can I?” she asked him, adding a threatening, malicious tone to her voice. “I know who you are. I know you’re an Imperial Agent sent to do Senator Threhad’s dirty work. How ‘bout you tell me how many of you I’m going to have to hunt down?”

The Agent tried to put on a look of angry defiance, but his eyes and involuntary trembling betrayed his fear. “I’ll not tell you anything, Republic dog!” he said shakily.

Irina smiled a terrifying smile and withdrew a knife from a hidden sheath within her jacket. “If you don’t start spilling your guts, I’ll just have to do it for you,” she said with deadly quiet. “Perhaps cut a few things off that you won’t be needing…” she pressed the blade of her knife to the side of his nose. “If you have a base of operations, you may as well tell me that, too.”

His eyes widened and crossed almost comically as they followed Irina’s knife to the side of his nose. “Alright! There’s 25 of us plus our commander. He’s a full Sith Lord. You’ll never be able to kill him yourself,” he said, trying to put a note of angry conviction in his last words. The thought of Lucifer seemed to renew his confidence as he added, “And I’ll never betray our location to you, Republic scum!”

Irina merely gave a twisted smile and said, “Is that so?” She drew the knife down the side of his head, leaving a red trail that made the Agent groan with pain. “There’s lots of you to cut off, you know,” she said evilly and began to slowly draw the knife down his chest towards his belly…

The Agent, all defiance forgotten, looked near absolute panic. “In the spaceport warehouses! Near the house of the Senate! We’ve set up a base in a few of them! Emperor forgive me,” he moaned as Irina removed her knife from his body.

“Thanks,” she said before removing a small syringe capsule from her jacket, removing the cap and stabbing it into the Imperial’s arm. He had just a moment to give a small yelp pain before his eyes closed and he went limp. “You sleep tight now. My comrades will be along to pick you up soon,” Irina said and lowered him to the floor. She pulled a tiny chip out of a pocket on her pants, activated it, and slipped it into the agents pocket. She stood and started entering the information she had learned onto her data pad along with a request for the rest of her team to meet her at the building opposite the warehouses. She sent the information along and looked back down at the agent. One down, she thought.

“I thought I made myself perfectly clear before, Senator.” Marius Vorenos glared at the silvery hologram that shimmered in his palm. “The sum you demand is outrageous, we won’t pay it. I also would advise against going back on our deal, lest we decide to apply… harsher methods of persuasion.”

“Fine, fine! I wasn’t pushing anyone, just exploring opportunities.” The man whom Marius called ‘Senator’ shifted in his seat visibly, trying to conceal his fears in vain behind a mask of confidence. “I’ll see what can be done about that upcoming vote.”

“Good. Then we understand each other.” Vorenos smiled. “We are counting on you, Mister Beillane. Make sure that our trust is not misplaced.”

Senator Beillane nodded enthusiastically the moment before Marius cut off the transmission. Greedy bastard, he muttered under his breath. A lying one too, Beillane would betray them without a second thought if he had a chance, but he was too cowardly to even contemplate double-crossing the Empire. To think how many more such parasites plagued this world. Vorenos almost spat, such was his disgust. Still, it made this mission so much easier. A few bribes here, blackmail there, some public unrest raised for additional flavour – and the world is almost ripe for the taking. And then, should the Emperor will so, they would proceed to cleanse it of political corruption. After all, nothing pleases the common people more than a couple of politicians strung up on the nearest lamppost.

There was still a lot of work to do, however. In addition, the Ministry of Intelligence issued a warning recently: they had reason to believe the Republic would attempt to eliminate Imperial operatives on the planet. As if confirming these suspicions, Marius’ communicator rang again. This time it was Jon Faber, a fellow Agent and one of the overseers of this particular operation. The look on his face did not bode well…

“Vorenos, we have a situation.” Faber spoke, his tone serious as ever. “Kortig just contacted the HQ. It seems that someone is after him.”

“After him?” Marius wondered.

“Yes. As in chasing after him. We lost contact less than a minute ago.” The other agent barked impatiently. “There no telling how many more of us are compromised, so I am putting everyone on red alert and order to relocate the HQ. You are to provide support. ETA?”

“An hour at most, it’s not like we weren’t prepared for such situations.” Marius replied with a nod. “I assume we are to cease all current operations?”

“Negative, we can’t stop now, there is too much at stake. But look over your shoulder at all times. Faber out.” With that the hologram ‘collapsed’ back into the projector with a soft click. Vorenos didn’t lose time either, if Kortig spilled the beans – though, granted, he didn’t know that much, only enough to jeopardize the temporary base of operations – the warehouses would be his captor’s next target. However they covered a large area near the spaceport, and Imperials utilized only two hangars closer to its center. Sentries disguised as port workers should be able to spot the attacking party beforehand. In turn, several Imperial soldiers sent here as grunts, reinforced by a team of hired mercenaries provided an adequate defense. There were also several surprises along the way, lovingly prepared by the Imperials for night such as this. Vorenos allowed himself a knowing smirk, then grabbed a large plastic case which concealed his rifle, and marched out of the building. He had a sniping position to find.

Lucifer walked around the port area using his disguise effectively. He disliked the quietness of the night...it usually meant hell would soon break loose, the calm before the storm.

The massassi had heard word that one of the agents had already gone missing which did not bode well. Just to be on the safe side he decided to keep all the remaining agents within his sphere of influence in the force so that he was familiar with their presence and so he would know when the next one went missing to pinpoint where the republic would strike next. Thinking of his next move Lucifer pondered as to where his enemy was hiding...if he were in his enemies position where would he hide.

It hit him that they would have to be nearby close to the quarry, no doubt the missing agent spilled the beans so to speak most likely with some influence beforehand and so the location was compromised. Looking around the area while on his patrol Lucifer noticed several buildings nearby...thinking again he figured if he were the enemy he would use one of them, the closest to the target or as the case was targets.

Speaking into his com Lucifer issued a order.

''Send some men to investigate the nearby buildings. I have a feeling our 'guests' are nearby. With one of us missing no doubt he compromised our location, and I am under the impression the hunter always keeps close to the prey. Keep in contact and report every 20 minutes.''