Hoth: Blood and Ice

Luth approached the Star Moth, the odd ship she had ridden in only once and sent a message to its owner, alerting her that she was here and needed to speak with her.

As the sith approached the ship what sounded like a small clear chime could be heard coming from it. Soon enough the ship's white silvery 'skin' would separate itself into a weave of hexagons and peel itself away from an iris door.

The door had already been opened form the inside and the Jedi Master was waiting

''Good morning Lord Khalan''

She watched the ship's... skin? Carapace, perhaps?... move.

That's so weird.

Her eyes focused back on Baes, nodding to her. "Good morning, Master Zyn. I have something that you might be able to help everyone get some use out of." She held up the orb. "I admit, I'm kind of assuming because of the... very custom nature of your ship, though."

It was clear curiosity was sparked but the young sith's words

''Oh?'' she tilted her head ''Come on in, then. Tell me more''

She followed her inside, following the path they'd used before to go farther in. "We were contacted by a woman who claimed to be a slicer by trade. Said she had piggybacked off some signals and collected information on the Zakuul fleet that might be vital against them," she said. "I have the data, but it's not easy to make sense of because of its very different nature. I figured if you didn't know how to approach it, you might know someone who does."

The jedi master listened carefully to the request being formulated and nodded

''I am flattered you came to see me...let us make our way to the Moth's cargo hold, then. My instruments are there.'' She indicated another corridor ''Can you tell me more about the data's nature or the woman who brought it to you? I am not sure how secure the data is or how many fail safes Zakuul put in their transmissions. Any detail might help figure out the approach.''

She turned towards the other woman as she opened the hold

''We might get only one chance at this''

She let out a short breath and tried to remember everything as they walked It hadn't been long, at least. "We got a signal yesterday. It turned out to be from a dark-skinned, black-haired woman who called herself Valen... as opposed to Vaylin. Imperial accent. She claimed she had been monitoring communications from the pirates and got news from the core - an invasion from an outside Empire with unstoppable fleets. She claimed that by piggybacking off pirate communications, she was able to find a way to potentially counter their space superiority. She asked five million credits for the information. Sylvain agreed. I told her we'd front an advance, take the information, and agreed to safe passage off to the Empire when everything is said and done."

She held up the metal ball. "This is a data imprint with all of her findings. The short-short version is that it's an automated system run by some kind of advanced AIs, and there's some kind of central control. Super secure data signals, but ultimately crackable, apparently, but we'd need some kind of specific hardware to pull it off, probably stolen from Zakuul. She tried to wrangle proprietary rights and a cushy pseudo-government job in the Empire for the willingness to put this stuff into use in a hurry, but that negotiation didn't go through."

"That's all I've got for you, unfortunately. I had a bit of a knock-down, drag-out argument with Baras over reporting all this to the Republic at all," she sighed.

Baesal reached for the metal ball

''May I?''

She handed it over to Baesal. "Go nuts."

She took the sphere and gave it a good look first, wondering it's make an general capacity as she turned it around. ''Unusual'' was the word that came out fist before she descended a flight of stairs to a great computer sitting by an empty pod.

When reached she began plugging and unplugging different wires from it: She did not want a virus to spread to the ship or anywhere else. Then she put the data in a socket and an metallic egg in an other.

''I want to run diagnostics first.''

She nodded, finding a place to settle in to observe in the cargo hold. "Worst case, even if we don't crack this now, SIS might be able to."

''We have more then the SIS at our disposal.'' she said as she began looking at the data

''Oh...wow''

She frowned

''I am not sure I can make much sense of what this is...it...it...will be a challenge for sure.'' She turned back to Luth ''And I'll need your help if you are comfortable.''

"I know. They're just who jumped to mind in terms of specialists."

She pushed off. "I'll do what I can. I don't know much about tech, but I'll do my best."

''The task is quite simple'' she turned a monitor over to Luth ''This screen shows us the frequencies of the algorithms used as a filter for intrusive hostile data streams. Just tell me the wave numbers and warn me it they go below or higher then the red markers'' she pointed them out

''That would help a lot''

She turned to the sphere once more

''Alternatively we could call in someone to help but I understand if you are concerned about leaks''

"No no, that sounds simple enough," she agreed, stepping up to the monitor to observe. "Even I can understand that."

She nods before stretching

''Okay then...''

She took a deep breath as her fingers extented to the holographic board

''May the Force be with us''

A display projected itself from where her fingers were put and streams of brightly colored glyphs, letters and numbers aligned and realigned themselves. Some of them emitted notes of music whenever they crossed or changed. When more of these notes began to manifest Baesal's hands had already left the board and where busy weaving the streams together, a silver glow surrounding them acting as gloves.

It seemed she was physically shaping the data into some kind of symphony

And then...it was done

''We have it'' she said smiling

Cracking the Zakuul Code, destiny, specialist tools, computer (+1 succ and +1 adv.), rakatan slicer, Zash's boost, assist: 4eP+2eA+3eB+5eC+1eD+1eS 5 successes, 1 advantage
Total: 6 successes and 2 advantages.

"All green..." She looked at what she was doing. It was all incomprehensible to her, but their contact seemed to think they wouldn't be able to do it, so... "You are honestly amazing, Baesal."

It's what they were told at the listening post.

It was done and now the rush of adrenaline was fading.

''Ah...thanks Lord Khalan. In the end I am just as equally lucky...let's hope this data can help us int he war.''

She reached for her comms

''Care for a coffee? I'll ask my assistant to bring some''

She took a deebresth and let it out through her nose. "I'd love some. You can just call me Luth if you want."

She nods

''Very well Luth'' she makes the request known to her first droid friend ''It will take some time. We can move to the common room if you wish.''

She made copies of the decrypted files before unplugging the metal sphere and giving it back

''This information will be quite the advantage going forward. The Eternal Empire has no idea of what we are capable of.''

"I guess it really was exactly what she said it was, then?" She mused, following Baesal. "Once we have some of Zakuul's tech... once we know what exactly we need... it'll just be a matter of time and deployment, then. And working together. The real challenge."

Her jaws tightened slightly ''True indeed...once Zakuul is gone hostilities between Empire and Republic will likely resume. Many knows this on an instinctual level and will prepare.''

She sighed

''We can't quite stop it but we can make sure it does not ruin our chance at victory over Zakull''

She shook her head. "If you're willing to listen to my thoughts on it, I think... it might be better to think of it as ongoing, if we want to win. If we see the two sides as an alliance of convenience, we'll be fighting Zakuul with one hand and backstabbing each other with the other."

"I think we know it on an implicit bias level, rather than instinctive."

''Your assessment is more accurate then mine Luth, I agree'' it wasn't long before they reached the common room with the table set for coffee and cookies

''The question is: how do we coordinate our efforts? The leaders and commanders we choose to work together will have to be selected carefully.''