Ask Karn's Relinquary

[Guinevere Delevigne]

Guinevere dutifully wrote out the statements provided by Lt Lorso as they continued to speak. A couple of questions sprung to mind, referring to Karn himself.

"Can you get me access to this holo?" she stared intently, awaiting his answer. The more she dug into his actions, the more questions continued to arrive, but perhaps they could stumble into some answers. "And perhaps you can tell me how to find the Commander?"

The information he had provided was somewhat valuable, but it was far from the concrete evidence that she needed. "I do believe it was you that said, suspicions don't get convictions, evidence does. Can you provide any?"

When she got a moment, she flicked a message off to designation control regarding this long range holo. If she could get access to it, could any useful information be pulled from it, or would it be a dead end?

@Eccles

 

[The Storyteller]

Lopik Lorso gestured towards Agent Delevigne's uniform, "Not like that, besides its membership only," he smiled as he leant back into his chair, "which I am, ofcourse." Pazaak Dens were known for their strict admissions because, quite frankly, the amount of illegal stims and other business being done at those tables didn't look good to peacekeepers showing up uninvited.

Getting access to the Pazaak Den's long-range communications terminals wouldn't be too tricky. Peacekeepers could storm the place, shut it down and take apart the terminals and the slicer protecting them from Designation Control.

This was the first time that agent Delevigne had asked someone about the current whereabouts of Commander Karn and as the Lieutenant knew where Levik was, he seemed a bit surprised by the question; "He's at his office, ma'am."

---

<... Run Directive 34-09-230: Tracing foreign ping ...>

Although he didn't notice it, Designation Control was heating up. Sweat was drenching his uniform and the skin around his cyborg-implants was turning red while the Overseer was slightly overheating. He had never experienced an attack on his person before. No one had truly dared to attack the Imperial Security Bureau before and for some reason this 'Siren' had known exactly where to find certain access ports and information. It had to be insider knowledge.

<... Unable to trace ping planetside: origin offworld ...>
<... Run Directive 20-42-01: Scanning Raxus Sattelites ..>

Agent Delevigne's message to Designation Control arrived, but he didn't reply. He knew that she was a slicer herself. She'd figure it out. He was dealing with a top level cyberattack and didn't have time to answer questions on whether or not useful information could be pulled from a holo-communicator.

---

"Are you asking whether I have evidence of crimes laying around?" Lopik suddenly displayed an amused look as she clearly suppressed a laugh. Who would collect evidence of their own crimes? Kriff, he didn't have a deathwish. "If you want evidence, then order a raid on the Pazaak Den. Statements on Commander Karn's visits would get him fired, fined and send in for re-indoctrination-" the Imperial method of ensuring loyalty of those officers that knew too much to be allowed to go 'independent' was as crude as it was effective. It basically involved getting brainwashed through stim-induced torture and was an investion of the Republic that emerged post Palpatine's Empire. "The communicator might prove a connection with Taris gangs. You think it's a coincidence that the Klatoonian Gotra grew while Peacekeepers took down the Mynocks and the Frumping Musks? Levik used to drink at the Freem Cantina."

@Xorism

 

[Guinevere Delevigne]

The conversation with Lorso had been quite profitable for the both of them, it seemed. If his intel proved to be true, that was. The agent was just as quickly typing up the orders for a raid on Pazaak Den, based on the intel that he would provide as to its location and the whereabouts of the information and records they sought. Any additional crimes they swept up along the way would be an added bonus.

>Have units pick up Karn from his office, I'll see him once we've got the intel from the raid.

"Interesting connection." she glanced back at the Lieutenant after listening to his little spiel. With Karn being the bigger fish it was time to depart and see what the man had to say for himself. The agent started to pack her things while looking toward the untouched glass for a moment. "Thanks for the drink." She stood before the man readying to depart before asking him one last time for further information should he remain in the sharing mood. "Anything else you would like to add?"

After ending their discussion, Guin made her exit and ensured that the men stationed outside would remain until she told them otherwise. It would likely only be until the information was verified, having taken his sworn and signed statement as fact in the meantime.

@Eccles

 

[The Storyteller]

Lieutenant Lopik Lorso smiled, "Just that I'm looking forward to a proper view."

She left him behind in his apartment as she began to make her way over to the Old Town's pazaak den. When she arrived a couple of minutes later she was already greeted by the Bureau's special forces. They weren't peacekeepers, for they were often stationed on planets and in charge of local law enforcement, but these guys were all hand-picked from the Empire's various branches. Specialists in small unit tactics that were trained to back up Cipher agents during the most daring raids and even to pull them out, and utterly wiping out, insurgency cells that were close to blowing the cipher's cover identity. These were the best and most ruthless killers that the Imperial Security Bureau had to offer..

"Agent Delevigne, Director Senyn told us you're in charge of the investigation," one of them, wearing blackened Imperial armor and helmet, approached Guinevere the moment she exited her speeder. "We're ready on your say so."

Assuming she'd confirm her order, things were quickly set in motion as the twelve-man strong team breached the door and tossed flashbang grenades inside. A loud BANG signalled them to rush in, blaster rifles at the ready and only a few moments of erratic blaster fire later someone yelled, "Clear," which was echoed by eleven other voices.

"Agent Delevigne," the same operative motioned for Guinevere to come closer and then pointed towards an open door leading to a flight of downward stairs. "Intel says long-range comms are down in the basement," two operatives joined them as they made sure their rifles were cooled down again, "We're not sure where the slicer is or what the defenses are down below. Our recon never managed to get down there, so we're going in blind. Stay between us, Director Senyn was clear about you staying unharmed."

It was at this moment that Agent Delevigne received a message from Designation Control;

<Breached Network. Access Code: 23-23-98-NJC. Last exchange twenty seconds after you left residence Lieutenant Lopik Lorso. Unknown Communicator; Local. No activity since.>​

It would strike Guinevere as alarming right away. Shortly after she had left Lieutenant Lorso's apartment a message was received by whoever kept the Pazaak Den off of the ISB's radar. It all seemed like Lopik had played her and warned the slicer of the upcoming raid.

The ISB operatives took point and head down the flight of stairs and found themselves into a crude fifty square meters room filled with private booths sporting hookah pipes and large ceiling-mounted long-range communicators. A holograph could be projected underneath to make it seem that whoever was on the other line sat close enough to the hookah pipe to partake.

It was empty. On the far side a wall was breached, crudely hewn out and through a foot of concrete so that the communicators could be illegally tapped into the landlines of the Imperial headquarters. All cables from the communicators went straight into the breach and were latched onto the landlines, from where a console rig displayed flashing red lights. It was obvious that whoever operated this console rig usually, had been tipped off by someone, most likely the double-dealing Lopik Lorso.

@Xorism

 

[Guinevere Delevigne]

Tick, Tock. The digital read out blinked in and out as the seconds passed ever so slowly. The agent simply nodded in recognition to the assembled team as they made the final preparations to breach. This part of her job was sometimes the worst, there never was a guarantee that it would go smoothly and there was always a possibility that some innocent was caught in the middle. That might have been less likely, considering where they were today, but the thought remained.

Approving the operation, she watched nearby as the strike team entered and cleared the initial portion of the building. It didn't take the elite squad much time at all to do their work, and soon she followed inside. "Then downstairs we go. I'll get another agent to make sure any live ones up here are processed." she simply nodded to their assessment as she typed up the message.

Suddenly, the message arrived from DC causing a whirlwind of anger to stir within the agent. Pausing in the stairs for a moment, she sent off another message. If he was responsible, she wanted to make sure that he was before ripping up his deal.

>Arrest Lorso and search him/building for electronics on suspicon of interfering with an investigation.

Then it was time to continue downstairs and to her surprise they encountered what they were looking for. The evidence was sitting right there in front of her, but the cautious agent was reluctant to simply waltz over and potentially run haphazard into the other slicers' territory. Instead, Guin would do one better and begin a visual search over the devices to check for any potential anti-tampering defences that may have been installed.

She could only assume that the device was well protected, and she clearly did not have the fire-power to tackle it alone. Therefore, once she was certain that it was safe to do so, she would plug a device into the station and invite their mutual friend at Designation Control to assist her in neutralising any defences installed, and retrieving any evidence that could be used in the investigation.

@Eccles

 

[The Storyteller]

When the arrest team arrived at the residence of Lopik Lorso he was still busy packing his bags and as he turned around towards the armed peacekeepers only had one thing to say; "I have immunity!" The guard at the door had confirmed he hadn't left his apartment and his official imperial communicator was plugged into a charging socket in the kitchen. That wasn't the unknown device, but if it had been in the apartment it sure as kriff wasn't there now. If Lopik did warn the slicer back at the Pazaak Den, then it was unlikely Guinevere would ever manage to prove it. Whatever statement he'd give if she dared to tear up their deal, however, could sink her career.

After all, any mention of Levik Karn's involvement in the theft of the Book of Shadows were uttered after Guinevere herself provided him with all the pieces to tie together. It was a mistake that had often thrown out confessions made during interrogations and while the Empire wouldn't care as much if the proper procedure was followed when they wanted to get rid of Levik Karn, the mistake could cost her dearly when she applied for a promotion in the future.

---

The panel and the tech used to attach it to the landlines was all illegal under Imperial law. Active portscanners, active Coreworld slicer deck, the droid-brain of a network security droid attached to it for improved processing speeds.. all of it screamed black market and underworld technology. Agent Delevigne couldn't be sure it was 'safe' from just a visual search of the devices. She had to take the gamble, so she accessed the panel using the codes that Designation Control had provided her and opened link with the ISB's top slicer.

<... Access code: 23-23-98-NJC ...>
<... Access Granted ...>

<... Systeminfo ...>
<... Operating System: Arakyd 12 | Manufacturer: Zeno Technologies | Logon Server: 5S-23 ...>

It appeared that this console, this technology, is a highly modded version of an Arakyd 12 operating system designed by the Hollastin-based Zeno Droid Technologies. It connects to a server that Guinevere would recognize as an old subnet of the Five Syndicates, that is, before their Collective failed and they once again split up in five actual syndicates with all their own subnets. Turns out the old ones are still being used...

Apparently connecting to old Five Syndicate subnets allowed these long-range comm units to stay under the radar, circumventing their encrypted comms through old beacons that the Empire couldn't tap into without access to the old 5S infrastructure.

The actual data on the console seemed sparse. There were empty folders that revealed there being meta-files in the past, but they appeared to have been deleted. A thorough investigation by automation could retrieve some of these files, but as luck would have it there was also one other filemap that only seemed to be half-deleted. Did the ISB special forces arrive too early for the slicer to delete everything?

<... Open Client List: Y/N? ...>

@Xorism

 

[The Storyteller]

Guinevere was smart enough not to open the client list file and realized it was wiper malware designed to reproduce on linked devices and wipe everything in its path. Although much of the console seemed boobytrapped, there was enough metadata to extract that revealed several illicit business dealings made through the pazaak den's basement. Spice shipments from the cartel apparently found their way on Raxus through the spaceport, where a local gang held sway over an Imperial administrator.

The jackpot however were excerpts from what seemed to be a holo-conversation between Commander Levik Karn and a Troig. The Troig asked him for more kyber crystals to sell through the 'exchange' and gave a summary of sales for digital copies of Levik's "Book of Shadows" which they both seemed to argee was just Force abracadabra and it was strange people actually thought valuable.

Armed with this information, Agent Delevigne had all the proof she needed to arrest Levik Karn. She found him in his office where an Imperial security droid had already detained him. He didn't answer a lot of questions and tried to twist the truth by focusing on all the fallacies that he knew investigations operated by, something he, too, was aware of as an experienced member of the Imperial Peacekeepers. Unfortunately for him the evidence was strong enough for the director to order him to be interrogated further with the help of torture-droids causing chemical imbalances in his brain.

By the end of it he had confessed not only to theft, but also High Treason. It did seem, however, that the missing lightsabers of the Sith Order's council on Junction were not his doing and he wasn't the only one who had been stealing valuables that belonged in the Imperial Vault.

/ END THREAD

OUTCOME:

Agent Delevigne (@Xorism) managed to secure enough irrefutable evidence to justify advanced interrogation of a high-ranking member of the Imperial Security Bureau. During said interrogation, Levik Karn (@Eccles) confessed to stealing from the Imperial Vaults and siphoning off Imperial goods to sell to local Taris gangs for over a decade.​