Sound of Silence

[Sergei Petrov]

ato Neimoidia’s communication network was not expansive or well-known. In spite of the wealth of the natives, the colony was hardly decades old and maintained a population below average in size. However, not small enough for the Imperial Republica to catch. As under the radar as the colony was, they could never escape the reach of the Sith. And for their treachery of establishing a colony without the concession of the Emperor, the Neimodians had to pay. First, to prevent potentially trying rebel propaganda, the colony and its lesser communication system needed to be torn down. The world had to go silent before the work could begin.

“Agents, thank you for your service to the Empire, but understand that your mission today is crucial to future missions and operations on Cato Neimodia.” His voice was distant and cold. Through a small device provided to the pair of Imperial agents, his holographic figure shuddered and his words were checkered with static. Raising his hand, his blue figure disappeared, replaced with a thin and metal tower perched at the top of a mountain peak. It was their target.

“There is a communications tower settled to the east of your current location. Located at the highest peak of the mountain range, it acts as the source of information for the colony. Everything goes in and out from there. Although this is a minor colonial world and the species are rather primitive compared to the Empire, the tower is heavily defended. It is extremely difficult to enter or exit. The high altitude and anti-aerial cannons dismiss any idea of flying in— not without being seen a mile away or being shot down mid-approach.” He said, the tower flickering back to his figure.

Arms crossed, he added, “Sneak in and shut down the network before our forces make a full-fledged strike. Or, charge in and make sure that tower is smithereens before the locals can call reinforcements or so much as make a noise. As long as the network’s down in less than twenty four hours, we can successfully continue the operation without worry of outside interference. Alright?” He glanced to each Imperial, pausing for answer. Of course, he expected uniform agreement.

“Alright.” He said and saluted the pair. “For the Empire.”

@One For Sorrow @Nefieslab @EmilyHuene (if interested, can replace Nef) (DICE)

 

[The Confessor]

Eriana hated flying. Almost as much as she hated visual briefings where the agent in charge always neglected to take into consideration that the twenty-eight year old Sith was blind. What made it even worse, she'd been blind her whole life! It wasn't like she'd just been in an accident and no one heard about it yet. Surely someone in headquarters would remember the name Eriana Fox and think "oh yeah...isn't that the blind girl? We should probably give her some physical documents she might actually be able to read off of."

Nope.

As they sat in the shuttle it became apparently obvious that the Sith was on edge. Flying was awful. She hated it. The Force had always guided the girl so she never felt like she had any sort of disability, but being in a shuttle, not behind the wheel itself -so to speak- made her really anxious. She could see the ship around her the same as any room. But she had to strain to get a better picture of the world outside the durasteel walls. And that gave her too much a headache. As far as she was concerned, she was blind. Ignorant to the world around her that they could crash into at any second. She'd be dead before she knew what hit her. Possibly. She had a feeling the Force would guide her in some way to save herself. There was no way she was going to test that theory though.

Although the Sith wore Maurader armor like the rest of her brethren, Eriana had hers tailored to fit more like a corset. With the dark robes, the tight black shirt and pants, the lace up leather boots that came up past her knees, everything matched her jet-black hair and complimented her gray eyes. If that wasn't a dead giveaway the woman was a Sith, then the two curved-lightsabers on her belt would be. They were the only weapons she ever needed. Although, as of recently she began carrying around the helmet that came with the original suit when she went on missions, as well as a filter to be added on when needed. She'd been caught in a training mission where the "attackers" used gas on them and she'd been unprepared to deal with that. She wouldn't make that mistake again.

So here she was on Cato Neimodia. Eriana cared not for the reason the Imperium wanted them shut down. She was loyal to a fault. If they said jump, she'd say how high? And that was the truth. Eriana had lived in the Core systems all her life. She'd been outside the outer rim only once in her life and then she was very young. The only reason she agreed to take charge in this mission was that she didn't have to venture far from home at all. She liked it that way. Better than to slum it with those savages out in the black.

The little voice in her head (for she could not see the hologram) thanked them for their service today. "Oh joy," she'd think sarcastically. "Can't even thank us in person." She had a very.....high opinion of herself. For most of her life the blind Sith had gotten whatever she'd wanted. It wasn't until these past few months in her life that she'd began to realize her life wasn't going the way it should. She wanted more.

The voice would snap her out of her thought and go on to explain how the tower worked. East of their location. Not so easy to figure out but she was sure one of the other troops could point her in the right direction. The tower would be heavily defended though. Not to worry. She had enough arrogance and pride to go in without help. But she was smart enough to know when not to. Pawns did the dirty work. She was there for support.

So there they had it. Twenty four hours to blow the thing up or at least disable it. Not that any of their party needed or warranted the time to do that. A quick reconnaissance (from one of the others naturally) and they'd come up with a go-plan. She suspected going in stealthily would be the best bet. Just to be on the safe side. They could run in, disable whatever systems they needed, then rush out without worry of being caught. Maybe even plant a few explosives inside to make sure the job was done regardless.

"For the Empire," she'd say quietly to herself before placing the helmet over her head to ready herself for combat.

 

[Talo Geist]

Talo listened closely to the briefing, this was the work he lived for. The very idea that he could slice into this communications relay and silence an entire world gave him a kind of thrill that nothing else could.

He was with the blind Sith again. Funny how we keep running into eachother. he thought to himself. He was sure that a force user -or someone who followed their religion- would say it was "the will of the force" or something like that. Maybe it was, he couldn't say.

He nodded his understanding to the officer on the hologram with a simple "Yesssir." it was a simple task really, not understanding it would be just plain silly. After the ofher two he threw in his own "For the Empire." and the hologram shut off.

The agent busied himself checking his gear, making sure everything was adjusted properly before nodding to himself. "Well this should be simple enough. Nice to be working with you again Lady Fox." he started, "The relay is a tall thin tower at the tip top of a mountain. Such a cliche." He thought describing the target to the blind Sith would be a good idea, he had no idea how her ability to "see" with the force worked but he assumed she couldn't see a hologram with it.

So either he was being nice or would look like an unintelligent Nerf herder.

"How do you feel about climbing?"

@EmilyHuene

 

[The Confessor]

This was the third time Eriana would be working with Talo. Only this time she was alone with him. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. She knew the man was not a human. At first she didn't know what to call him. She'd done some research afterwards to find out he was in fact of the Nagai race. Eriana didn't mind either way. It was just...curious. He felt human enough but she knew based on his smell and aura that he was not like everyone else she knew. She was told -based on this research- that they had fair skin if not a different color altogether. Color...Another strange word for her. The idea behind it was foreign to her by all means.

Hearing him greet her she too would reply in kind, "Yes it is a pleasure."

Like every other time in her life she never bothered to look in his direction or give him any social ques of any kind. A normal person -for lack of a better term- would likely nod their head to someone. Or at the very least offer them a smile to show their gratitude was genuine. But not Eriana. It was just a part of who she was and how she was raised.

He would then explain the situation more in detail to her and she listened quietly; though it would look as if she were ignoring him by the fact she wasn't even looking in his direction. As stated in their briefing, the tower was at the very top of the mountain ahead of them. Cliche indeed. His curious nature then gave him some bold confidence and he'd ask her how she felt about climbing. In any normal situations she would tell him -along with some unladylike words- that she could handle herself just fine and didn't need his pity. But she'd worked with Talo twice now before. He earned a little slack.

"I will not have any trouble with the cliffside. I suspect I may even have an easier time than you." She would smile a little. Was she teasing him? Flirting with him? It was hard to tell. "But I will require you to scout ahead and I will follow you. Your eyes will see further than mine."

The thing with her vision, was she saw everything around her. And that meant everything. At any given time, unless she specifically wasn't trying to See, Eriana would notice the world around her in a three-hundred-sixty degree vision. This was a boon to her fighting as she didn't just rely on instinct as other Sith might and gave her an extra edge when fighting. This would apply to the climbing as well. His eyes might not see the ledge in the dark, or a small crack in the wall to use as a foothold. Eriana would see every part of it. She'd find the path with no effort at all. Her only hesitancy was the stamina in might take to climb the thing as she wasn't certain how high up it actually was.

 

[Talo Geist]

Talo nodded in understanding after Lady Fox spoke, then mentally slapped himself for forgetting again. "Yes, you're probably right. I can't imagine my arms and grapple line being able to compete with the force." he double checked his grapple line again, just to be certain. "Have to admit, I wish we had blueprints of the inside of the building. Maybe I can get one out of the computer." Talo had a sneaking suspicion that Eriana would somehow be able to lead them to wherever they needed to go, he found the force eerie but was a little envious of those who could use it. Partially because Sith were generally respected regardless of their species. He wanted to ask his companion so many questions about how it worked, how she could "see" wothout the use of her eyes. But he figured that it was far above him to know such things. For a fleeting moment he wondered if she could feel his curiosity, but that passed as their small transport landed out of sight of the tower.

The agent disembarked as soon as the ramp was lowered, sticking low and i whatever cover he could find.

Another reason he wished he could use the force was communication. He had heard that it was an almost arbitrary task for force users to cimmunicate telepathically, and briefly wondered if a non force user could be read and made to hear things too.

@EmilyHuene

Ooc: not the best post, but it's here.

 

[The Confessor]

Talo joked about his grapple line not being up to par with the powers of her Force abilities. Well, he wasn't wrong. In the hands of the Force almost anything else seemed insignificant. But she wasn't just being biased. Tales and legends of what previous Sith had done were proof enough that there's was the superior power. He'd then go on to wishing they had a way of seeing their map before going into the establishment.

"When we get inside I can guide us. At least to a terminal. I'm sure with you're slicing abilities you'll have no trouble downloading the schematics."

Now that they're objective was in sight the two would start heading to the far side of the canyon and climbing the wall. Much to her embarrassment she would get no more than five feet up the wall before slipping and falling back down onto her butt. She was so startled by the fall she squeaked and a blush would come to her cheeks.

"I'm fine! I'm fine!"

"Stupid stupid stupid," she thought to herself. "Now I'll never hear the end of this."

Trying again, Eriana would dust off her butt which was slightly stiff and start to climb. Again her foot would slip on the wet rocks and she'd fall back down. She caught herself slightly since she was expecting it now only to land on her ankle and fall over again. Eriana cried out and sat down as she held her foot in pain. It seemed the Force was not going to play nice with her today. Perhaps she should have used that grapple line after all....

 

[Talo Geist]

Talo watched as Eriana tried and failed twice to scale the wall, cringing a little as her second fall caused her to cry out in pain. Somehow seeing someone that much more powerful than him in such a vulnerable state was incredibly humbling and off-putting all at once.

After a quick check to see if she would recover Talo pulled up his left sleeve and took aim towards the top of the cliff before firing his grappel line almost straight up, after a few moments of it sailing upwards the faintest clinkcould be heard. The Nagai agent disconnected the end of the cable from his wrist so that they both could use it to climb and gave a few sharp tugs to ensure it was firmly set before beginning the climb.

 

[The Confessor]

"I said I'm fine!" she waved him off again.

The tone in her voice would indicate she was not at all fine. Something was very wrong and her temper was growing. She watched Talo then focus on sending up the grapple line. With a solid tug he made sure the line was secure. Eriana would wave her hand at him once again.

"You go ahead. I'll catch up.

She would feel his presence starting to drift away from her so she knew he was heading up the cliff. Eriana would take off her boot. Rubbing her swollen heel she tried to set about healing it. But that was more of a skill the Light side had. There wasn't much the Dark side could do for her. After a moment of rubbing out the muscle she put her boot back on making sure to tie it as tight as she could. She'd then get back up and wrap the rope around her arm to start climbing after fastening the other end to her belt just in case she were to fall.

Once again, the Force had other plans. It seemed destined that Eriana was never going to get up this hill. Starting the climb she got nearly halfway up when something horrible happened. The wind began to pick up causing Eriana to grip the rope tighter. It pushed her against the wall even more and for a moment she was spinning and swinging slightly. Her foot caught the edge of the rock and she cried out again. The pain distracted her and her grip on the rope started to slip. Eriana fell and the rope latched around her belt caught her. But the combined weight -even though she didn't weigh that much- and the distance of the fall would be enough for the grapple line to yank itself free of the top part of the cliff and Eriana fell the rest of the way.

She wasn't sure what happened because she'd blacked out for a moment. She groaned and tried to move only to feel incredibly sore. Nevermind that idea. Trying to focus was hard enough. She must have hit her head. She couldn't concentrate enough to use the Force. Where was she? What happened? Where was Talo?

 

[Talo Geist]

Talo looked down as he climbed and saw Eriana hooking the cable into her belt, a good idea he thought, considering her run of luck with scaling this cliff. He comtinued to climb and then felt the wind shift and the cable begin to sway with the two of them, then he heard his companion cry out in pain again. This was the point where he decided he would be better off not holding the cable anymore, he quickly found hand and footholds just in time and watched the dislodged end of the grappel line fly past him. Moments later he heard a sickening thud as Eriana hit the ground below.

He looked down, concerned, at her prone form. She was either unconcious or dead. Regardless, he knew she would have his head if he abandoned the mission. Even if it was to potentially save her life.

He finished the climb -he had already been practically at the top anyway- and hurried to the tower, keeping low and in cover along the way. Once he reached the tower he took a quick look around to be sure that no alarms had been raised, though as they weren't expecting to be infiltrated like this it was unlikely they would be on their guard.

He pulled out his small datapad and connected it to a security panel by the door, making quick work of the systems and gaining access. He slid one one of the blank datacards he always carried into the reader on the datapad and used it to make himself a keycard for easy access. With the highest possible clearance, naturally. Then he remembered Eriana's half-joke about downloading the blueprints, and he did just that.

Disconnecting his datapad he ducked down again and removed his new keycard before quickly studying the blueprints, once he had a good idea of the layout he used his card to open the door and vegan sneaking along the halls to the security hub.[/abox3]

@EmilyHuene

 

[The Confessor]

Waking up after a serious fall was never a good thing. She knew in her minor bit of training in medicine that if someone experienced a fall they should try not to move. Especially not to move the head or the neck as it could exacerbate the injury further. Well Eriana was stubborn and to be honest not thinking very clearly. She rolled onto her side and cried out again as the overwhelming pain struck her. She wasn't sure if anything was broke, but she was absolutely sore. Everything hurt. And moving made it worse.

What else could she do though? She couldn't call out for help. She remembered that much at least. She began to remember why it was she was even there. Eriana moved once again onto her stomach and rested her head against the ground. She took several pained breathes and tried to focus. Where was she? Cato Neimoidia. Who was she with.....Tal.....tallon? Talo. That's right. Talo. Where was he...?

Searching out with the Force she worked on clearing her mind. This time she had more clarity. She felt his aura but it was very far away from her. He'd left her?!?!?! What the kriff!!!

Then she remembered. Oh wait. They were on a mission. She didn't know the reason why he'd left her but now she was glad he did. The mission came first. The specifics of the mission were a little....fuzzy still.

"I've got to get back to the ship," she'd say to herself.

Now all she had to do was push through the pain...

 

[Talo Geist]

Talo snuck through the halls of the communications tower, a pistol drawn in his right hand and his self made keycard in his left as he ducked in and out of corners anf doorways. After several minutes of completely uneventful sneaking, he made it to the room and used his card to access it. Once inside he sealed the door behind him, setting it to only open from the inside to prevent surprises. He had some work to do now, from the terminal in here he would be able to access the tower's systems in their entirety.

After hooking his datapad into the terminal it took him only a matter of minutes to access the systems. Now he could do as he pleased. First he set the security feeds to play still images on a loop, but keep the moving timestamp. This would aid in his sneaking back out. Next came the more lengthy task. He set to disabling the colony's communications.

After what felt like forever he was satisfied with his work. Offworld communications were impossible, he hadn't just disabled them, he removed the protocols and code from the system entirely. Next he set it up so that after an hour the tower would jam all on world communications as well.

His final little treat was the code that would run if anyone tried to undo what he had done. As soon as anyone began working on the system the entire tower would short out and blow the generators up.

Finally finished Talo disconnected his datapad and pocketed it, smirking to himself the whole time. Now he just had to get out of here and back to the ship.

@EmilyHuene

 

[The Confessor]

Eriana would now try to get to her feet. She managed to push herself off the ground only to then stumble and fall back down. She was now hearing a ringing in her ears. Eriana curled in on herself and clutched her head which was pounding! She was terribly disoriented and didn't seem to be getting up any time soon

 

[Talo Geist]

Talo exited the security hub, keeping the open only from the inside setting on and letting the door close behind him. Just to be that much more of a pain for the colony.

He quickly exited the tower after yet another uneventful trip through the halls. Eventually making his way to the cliff edge again.

He looked down and saw Eriana had moved, now curled into a fetal position. At least he knew she was still alive, he was hopeful that the good news would liven her spirits. All he had to do was get to her and get her back to the ship.

He began the climb down, going slow and hoping to whatever force had kept him so lucky through this mission that he made it down. It was a long a grueling task, and as he was only about seven feet from the ground a rock broke loose under his foot and he dropped the rest of the way. He rolled his right ankle and let out a short yell of pain.

Pulling himself into a seated position he rubbed the ankle for a few moments until the pain was a dull throb. No break, but getting back to the ship was going to involve quite a bit of limping now.

"Eri- er. Lady Fox. I was successful in the mission, they will soon have no communications at all. Now, I am going to have to move you a little bit to get you back to the ship and -ultimately- back home."

Thinking quickly he grabbed the cable that had fallen and caused all their problems in the first place and found some branches on the ground, using the cable he lashed them together and formed a crude sled. Once done he gently moved Eriana on to the sled and made sure she was secure and would not fall off. "I apologize in advance for any bumps we hit." he said respectfully before limping off to the ship with Eriana in tow.

@EmilyHuene

 

[The Confessor]

Eriana wasn't so much in excruciating pain as she was in total disarray. Everything was blurry and her ears were screaming with white noise. She barely registered that Talo and found his way back to her -albeit had hurt himself in doing so. Apparently this ledge was cursed. Thankfully the mission had gone down without a hitch once he'd gotten inside. But she'd have to hear about that later. For now, she had varying memories of being carried as her brain latched desperately to consciousness. There were parts of things she wouldn't remember and for the life of her when she would end up waking up in the infirmary she'd have no idea how in heaven's name she'd actually gotten there. All that could be said though...

was mission accomplished.

~END THREAD~
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