Overhanging

[Black Noise]

Nora stood outside on a snow capped on Ruusan. In her full Mandalorian armor, she cut an imposing figure. However, intimidation was not something she strived for at the moment. Rather, it was only to keep warm as she made her way back to her ship. The snow blasted her armor as the frozen snow crunched beneath her boots. Common sounds and feelings on the mountains of Ruusan, and preferable temperatures to the Mandalorian girl that plowed on through. Bent on a meeting.

Seeing her ship, The Iron Maiden, Nora smiled underneath her helmet. Soon, she boarded the cold ship and removed her helm. Running a hand through her hair, she gripped the one, longer lock of her hair and sighed. Life had seemed to slow for her, sure she still fought constantly, but she no longer had the constant adrenaline rush that came from being in enemy territory. She wanted that feeling, she almost needed it. To be an insurgent, a 'terrorist' if you would. However, she was not, and that saddened her at times. Heck, she hacked into Hutt and Exchange databases on occasion just to keep her skill up. Sure, she would soon have a bounty on her head if they ever traced her, but Nora's homemade scrambling tech prevented even black market tracking technology from finding her. Truly, this was her gift. Her strength, Force Sensitivity, and training drive came from her father. But the gift of being naturally adept with technology was her own.

Sitting down in the cockpit, she launched the ship into the atmosphere. Within minutes, she entered hyperspace. A place of peace, yet infinite danger as the slightest mistake could send her to her death. Amazing. Opening Coms communication, she sat back and pondered. What would it be like if she never betrayed the Jedi? If she never sought out the Sith with the intent to learn from them, assist them. Now, being almost forgotten by them, what was she to do?

 

[GABA]

The grandmaster stood in front of a holograph projection table, glowing transparent panels floated and shuffled in front of one another as he read the given information. There had recently been a series of hackings into the Jedi temples, something that should have been detected by security, but wasn't until recently. Necessary adjustments and personal replacements were being arranged to solve such a matter.

Nevertheless, one hacking caught his attention; they were unusually good, able to get into the core of the most secured files, and logs of downloads were found. They were able to trace it back to where it was downloaded, clever, right under their noses. However, the problem Sigur personally had was an issue in trust. The Jedi Council had let in this girl, knowing her background and even with all the checks they had kept on her, she still managed to have some thought of corruption, whether it was ingrained in her being or if there was an outside influence, Sigur was sure he would never know. Though to an extent, he felt at fault. He was more than certain that he could have done more, the Order could have done more, but then again, now was how it was, he couldn't do anything to change the past.

Sigur studied one illuminated panel in front him, memorizing digits before swiping the panel with his hand, sending the screen of information back to the pool of panels in the hologram table. He turned off the table, shutting down the system before restarting it, clearing its previous contents before accessing the comm channels. He scrambled the system, setting up security detectors before entering in the specific numbers.

A mandalorian named Nora, who was previously known as Lain to the Jedi, was his goal to contact. He still had trusted friends in the CSF, who were brilliant at this tech and were able to achieve in collecting for him a few possible comm channels in order to make contact. Out of the thirty-six numbers and code combinations, number twenty-eight finally worked, he would now be talking with The Iron Maiden, coordinates poured in an unusual rate, she was on the move.

"Iron Maiden, this is Temple Tython, we have some business to speak about."

 

[Black Noise]

Nora sat up in her seat, slightly surprised. She left her comm channels open often, wanting to be surprised at who attempted to contact her from the ever shrinking list of people she knew, or from random accidentally connections. But this, this was more than surprising, it was shocking. A Jedi, no, possibly a member of the council or a master to have the resources to contact her had sought her out. It was awe-striking. Leaning in, she turned on a recorder and began preparing herself to guard against any attempts to hack the Iron Maiden's mainframe from its connection to the comms unit.

With a slight tinge of respect in her voice, she responded.
"Temple Tython, a pleasure to speak with you. With whom am I speaking with directly and what is this business you would like to discuss?"

 

[GABA]

Sigur smiled, a response, he would have been very disappointed if the other end didn't respond at all. He folded his arms comfortably as he continued to speak, "This is Grandmaster Sigur Vainikainen, I assume this is the Iron Maiden's captain, Nora? Or as best as known by Lain when she was with us in the Jedi." he paused bringing up her file on his own computer, her holo image floated in front of him, "We had an incident at one of the temples not too long ago, our techs discovered a hacking, and they were able to trace it. As you probably are aware, you may have an idea of what I am talking about." he said with a wryly grin.

"Hacking into the archives, downloading sensitive material, who knows in what hands it could have fallen into, that can guarantee someone time in prison."

 

[Black Noise]

Nora couldn't help but chuckle a bit as the Grand Jedi master finished speaking. As for who's hands the information fell into, well, they both knew the answer to that question. And as Nora came to think of it, she still kept all the downloaded information on a heavily encrypted copy of the datapad she downloaded it from. Nora felt considerably safe in her ship, taking a clear beeline towards Nar Shaddaa. The smuggler's moon, she could hide there for months, years, an eternity. Heck, she didn't even need to land, once she got in the atmosphere of that dark planet she would be out of danger completely. Yet, for done reason that did not do much to comfort her as she spoke with the Grandmaster. After a small fit of coughing from a cold, Nora replied.
"Grandmaster Vainikainen, an honor. Yes, this is Nora, and I'd prefer if you didn't call me by the name my father gave me. As for the hacking, I'm surprised it took you this long to figure it out. On the topic of prison time, I'm a Mandalorian, and an experienced Force User. Death is the only option for me, and that's an occupational hazard."

Nora leaned forward, concentrating and closing her eyes.
"But, you did not contact me to threaten me. You want something, yes? What is it?"

 

[GABA]

Sigur made a mental note as well as one to the database about Nora's name.

"Well, the Galactic Alliance has received a very serious accusation. About four months ago, there was an assassination attempt on the Mandalore on Manda. The sniper meant to take out the Mandalorian leader ended up critically wounding the general that was with him." the Grandmaster begun to explain, holo screens of information popped up as he spoke. He read the information from which GA intel could gather at the moment just from the reports given to them by their mysterious hacking guest Lord Geist Weiss.

"Except, there are some things that don't add up." the Grandmaster paused, collecting his thoughts, "STROST, our special ops team who was disbanded nearly several months earlier, is for the blame, several of its members. But from what we could tell, we don't believe they had a motive to go against the Mandalore, the same Mandalorian who was also once on this SpecOps team, who once worked with the same individuals who were accused." he rubbed his chin with the side of his forefinger, a habit he did when thoughts and ideas turned in his head.

"But this whole incident, seems too convenient, Nora, having just the right location, time, individuals..." Sigur sighed lightly, "This is where I would like you to help. I need someone who can get on Manda, do a little investigating where the assassination occurred, witnesses, evidence recovered. If you help the Alliance, we will forgive you of your computer tricks and perhaps offer you some other payable conveniences?"

The Grandmaster waited for a response.

 

[Black Noise]

Nora closed her eyes, listening intently to the Grandmaster and nodding as he spoke. Pausing only momentarily to confirm Sigur had finished speaking, Nora replied.
"I'm quite impressed with your humility Grandmaster. While the information you present does not impress me as I do know about STROST and their disbandment. The great humility you exercise in contacting me, a traitor, and asking me for my help. You are a far better being than myself. If a pardon of my crimes against the Order is in the equation then that's all the incentive I need to pursue this project for you. However, rather than a 'payable convenience,' perhaps you could, even temporarily, pardon all of my crimes against the order?"

 

[GABA]

Sigur was silent for a moment, his eyes looking over the information the GA and the Jedi had on Lain, he swiftly moved his hand, the screens fell back into their holoprojecting table.

"If you are successful in the information you provide for us, your crimes will be pardoned. A clean slate."

 

[Black Noise]

Nora smiled and nodded silently to herself.
"Alright then, send me everything you deem necessary for me to know and I will contact you as soon as I have some solid information for you."
After receiving the packet and any reply from Sigur, Nora wordlessly discontinued their comm chat. Uncovering conspiracies, cleaning the records of framed soldiers, and alot of hacking. This would be fun!