[June Pilot] Contract 015: Andrelious - Infiltration, C-Class

ACB Contract Offices
Lower Levels, Arcona Citadel
Estle City, Selen

The Onderonian rested his legs on his desk, taking a long drag from the cigarette in between his fingers. As Celevon exhaled the smoke towards the ceiling of his office, he sensed the approach of a familiar presence.

Scowling to himself, the Prelate didn’t bother moving from his position as the man halted in the doorway.

“Resting on the job again, Edraven? And what have I told you about smoking?” the Warlord asked in snide tones.

“Let’s get some things clear. Firstly, this is my office, not yours. I can smoke in here all I want. If you want to complain, talk it over with our Consul. Secondly, I’m technically on my break. Therefore, if I wanted to, I could ignore your presence until my break is over. However, since I don’t want to hear you incessant whining, I do have a contract for you,” Celevon retorted coldly, glaring at the Rollmaster.

As the former Imperial opened his mouth to counter, the Obelisk flung a holodisk at the older man.

Mission: Infiltration, C-Class
Target: Pandalé Industries Headquarters, somewhere on Corellia
Specifics: Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to infiltrate the facility and plant false evidence at key points therein to implicate one of their most trusted employees/researchers with accepting bribes to destabilise the company and embezzlement. It goes without saying that you should get in and out without being detected or the ruse will fail.
Suspected Resistance: Heavy. Though there are few guards, this insurance company has a state-of-the-art security system in place.

“Now that you have your mission, mir’osik, get the frak out of my office,” the Prelate drawled, sounding highly annoyed before he used a tendril of Force energy and a gesture, slamming the door in the Sith’s face.

“Typical frakking Obelisk! I’ll teach that jumped up little Prelate to speak to me like that! He can certainly forget about any special role at my and Kooki’s wedding!” Andrelious seethed as his ship hypered towards Corellia. His relationship with the Onderonian was best described as poor, despite the closeness that Edraven appeared to towards Kooki.

On arrival at Coronet Spaceport, Inahj studied his datapad, recalling the information that he had researched from the DIA’s extensive database.

Company Profile: Pandalé Industries
Headquarters: Coronet, Corellia
CEO: Raslak Myflax – Human Male, Corellia, 30BBY
Profile: We have little intelligence on this company at this time. Appears to be selling insurance of some kind, but what available data we have indicates this may be a front. Recently a member of Taldryan was seen exiting their Headquarters in Coronet. Suggest investigation.

Andrelious had not been pleased at how vague the information was. Whilst Celevon had provided him with a little more information on what to expect in terms of opposition, there was no schematic of the building, or information on any of the employees or directors. It had interested him that the company appeared to be ran by a man named Myflax – he remembered that Kooki had told him that Myflax was the maiden name of her mother, Tabithiamarissia. He made a mental note to ask her if she had any relatives by the name of Raslak when the mission was over.

Evening was already beginning in Coronet. Andrelious quickly decided that he’d be better off starting his mission the next day, allowing him a few extra hours to prepare for what laid ahead.

I’ll find somewhere to stay. Somewhere expensive, seeing as Edraven’s paying for it, Andrelious thought, smiling.

The Coronet sky turned a shade of gold as dawn broke. Andrelious clambered out of the large bed. He had had a relatively early night, but had still found time for a top-class 3 course meal, along with plenty of Corellian Brandy. In four hours he had spent hundreds of credits, before renting a luxury room at a nearby five star hotel. Normally the Warlord would have contacted his parents and stayed with them, but the fact that he was billing Celevon and the Contract Bureau for any and all expenses had swayed him to stay elsewhere. The fact that the hotel was much closer to his target was merely a convenience.

Inahj checked his chrono. He had two hours before the Pandalé facility would begin its operations for the day. Attempting the mission during the daytime was risky, but the Warlord was hoping to be completely finished in the two hour window.

Andrelious was planning on travelling very light. He carried his two lightsabers and his favourite E-11s, but had decided to leave grenades out of this mission, knowing that explosions attracted large amounts of attention. The Rollmaster was also carrying a datapad, on which he was hoping to download a schematic of the target building. So far, his efforts to locate one had been in vain. The Coronet authorities had not possessed one anywhere on their public holonet site, and Pandalé’s own site certainly did not carry such information.

Exiting the hotel without stopping to thank the staff, Andrelious moved quickly through the city streets. He had dressed in civilian clothing, concealing his weapons under a full length beige coat. The Warlord wasn’t expecting the ruse to work once he got to the facility, suspecting that the ‘extensive’ security system that Edraven had warned him of would include metal detectors and scanners that would easily highlight his weaponry. Entering through a public or even employee entrance had already been ruled out, but the Sith needed to see the building before he could work out his entry route.

Rounding a street corner, Andrelious studied the row of buildings. He smiled as he saw the Pandalé building at the end of the street. Celevon hadn’t been wrong about the security systems. Even on first look it was clear a number of CCTV cameras lined the perimeter of the building. Inahj suspected that he’d find even more cameras inside, along with automated defences and heavily armed guards. Such threats combined spelled a difficult mission for Andrelious, who ducked into an alleyway to consider what to do.
Peering at his datapad, Inahj beamed to himself.

He had a plan.

Andrelious prised open a nearby man-hole cover. The smell from the sewer that it led to immediately assaulted the Warlord’s nostrils. Inahj grimaced at the odour as he descended down the maintenance ladder, making sure to slide the cover back over the man-hole with the assistance of the Force. The loss of the morning light plunged the Rollmaster into darkness, so he reached for one of his lightsabers, preparing to use it as a makeshift torch.

Navigating by the crimson light of a saber blade was not an easy task. Andrelious nearly fell into the filthy sewage twice as he tripped over the rats that populated the tunnels. He even thought that the incessant squeaking of the rodents sounded a little like mocking laughter. The Warlord navigated by instinct alone, having calculated roughly how many paces he had been from the perimeter of the Pandalé facility.
After a few minutes of carefully planned movement, Andrelious felt around in the darkness, and smirked as he found another ladder. Without wasting any further time, he clambered up the ladder, occasionally reaching upwards to feel the man-hole cover at the top. It was only a short climb before he felt the tell-tale durasteel on his fingertips.

The Arconan heaved the cover away, immediately climbing through the exposed hole. He noticed that he was in a refresher room. Before the Warlord could do much about it, a man dressed much like he was turned from one of the wash basins.

“What the frak? Who are you?” the man asked.

Andrelious said nothing. Instead, he grabbed the stranger, trying to knock him to the floor. The man fought back, but Inahj stunned him with a fierce electric shock, the Force again coming to his aid.

I’d better not use my lightsaber. And blaster fire will probably be detected. There’s no camera in here, but I’ll bet there’s some sort of sensor system. Unless…

The Sith pressed the butt of one of his E-11s on the back of his dazed enemy’s head. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger, having quickly set the weapon on a much lower power setting. Usually such a blaster bolt would do minimal damage, but at point blank range, the shot was still powerful enough to burn deep into the man’s brain, killing him instantly. Inahj smiled as the weapon’s discharge dissipated somewhere inside its target.

“Now, let’s find out who you are and what you’re doing here.” Andrelious stated, emptying the man’s pockets. He ignored a small metallic screwdriver, and found little of use in his prey’s wallet, other than some credits that were quickly stashed away. The Warlord then found what he was looking for. An identity card.

Employee Name: Frent Drozel
Job Role: Technician
Clearance: Level 2
PANDALÉ INDUSTRIES

Andrelious pocketed the stolen ID. Working quickly, he rolled Drozel’s corpse towards the man-hole he had entered through.

“Thank you, Mr Drozel. Your gift will prove most valuable today.” Inahj declared stoically, shoving the body into the man-hole. He then pulled the cover back across, hiding his entry route.
Slowly sliding the door open, the Arconan peered both ways down the corridor outside. The coast was clear.

And he was in.

Andrelious exited the refresher room quickly. He saw that he was in a long, fairly narrow corridor, with several more cameras in various elevated locations. The cameras moved in steady arcs, sweeping through a large area. Inahj sidestepped and ducked behind a nearby plant, determined not to be spotted by the nearest camera. The Warlord studied the path of the recording device. It moved in synch with other, nearby cameras, leaving virtually the entire corridor under constant surveillance. Progress would be virtually impossible. Normally, Andrelious would simply destroy the devices, but keeping them intact was key. He’d already taken a massive risk by murdering an employee and disposing of his corpse rather haphazardly. Further violence would only increase the chance that the Rollmaster would be caught.
As he crouched in his hiding place, Inahj examined the card he had acquired from Drozel. Aside from acting as his ID, it also appeared to control access to various rooms throughout the facility. The Sith assumed that ‘Level 2’ dictated exactly which rooms he’d be able to access. Without further context, or without knowing exactly what sort of ‘technician’ his prey had been, Andrelious knew he’d have to tread carefully. He could not be sure that trying to access something that had been beyond Drozel’s paygrade would not attract attention.

Inahj remained where he was, trying to figure out his next move. He could sense two people approaching from opposite ends of the corridor. With a quick peek above the foliage, he noticed both wearing dark blue uniforms. Guards!

“Brelt. How’s it going?” the slightly younger guard asked as he approached his colleague.
“Not much be happenin’, boy. I dare zay it be another borin’ noight.” ‘Brelt’ answered, with a thick farming accent that Andrelious found unpleasant and hard to understand.

“Did you hear that Frent was in early again? It’s a good job he had his card – you know how reliant our security systems are on those. Without it…” the first guard replied.

“I don’t think ‘e cares about that, Straz. Not wiv ‘is ‘ome loife.”

Interesting. State-of-the-art, yet relies on the cards. Shame about the cameras. Inahj thought as he continued to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“After what that bitch of an ex-wife did to him, do you blame him for being here all the time? I won’t be too surprised if he kills himself one day.” ‘Straz’ stated.

“I suppose you’re roight. Just an 'our and a 'alf before the rest of 'is lot get in. Then we can get 'ome.” ‘Brelt’ smiled, turning to resume his patrol. ‘Straz’ simply nodded in affirmation, and the two guards were soon leaving the area, having not so much as glanced in the direction of the plant that Inahj was crouching behind.

Andrelious waited until both patrolling guards had turned a corner, and moved out. He moved briskly along the corridor, guessing rather than taking on any genuine plan. The cameras continued to arc about, but the Arconan had grown tired of waiting. He decided to gamble on that any sighting would be radioed to ‘Brelt’ and ‘Straz’, who would simply confirm they had met each other and dismiss the idea of a third person.

Though he progressed slowly at first, Inahj began to pick up the pace as he became more confident of evading detection. He kept his coat’s hood up, and had pinned Drozel’s card to the outside of the garment, hoping that he resembled the dead technician enough at a quick glance. He passed a few locked offices, before reaching a T-junction. With a moment’s pause, the Warlord took a left turn, sensing several beings in a nearby room to the right.

Andrelious passed a few more locked doors, before noticing one marked ‘Office 1653 – Technical Support’.

Let’s try this one. Inahj thought, pressing the liberated ID card onto the door entry system. A red light flickered to green, and with a single beep the system allowed the man it thought was Frent Drozel into the office inside.

As expected, the office was empty, other than for an empty mug and the remains of several cigarillos still smouldering away in an ash-tray. Drozel had likely been alone before his fatal urination. Andrelious inferred that the large amount of cigarillos were used by the deceased technician as a means of coping from some sort of emotional trauma caused by his ex-wife. The Sith felt little sympathy, especially as he had just put Drozel out of his misery.

“Right. Time for this datapad to prove its worth.” Inahj hissed quietly, connecting his datapad to the computer system that Drozel had evidently been using. A DIA program began to run, attempting to brute force Drozel’s password.

Username: FrntDroz
Cracking Password. Security level: High
Working…

Andrelious relaxed a little in a chair as he waited for the datapad to complete its work. He took a large swig from his hip flask, as he tried very hard to avoid being tempted by the smell of cigarillo. The Warlord checked his datapad every few moments, becoming more nervous as time continued to tick on by. The DIA program he was using operated a little more slowly than many password crackers, but was designed to avoid detection. Faster software would yield quicker results, but also far too much attention.

After twenty minutes of anxious waiting, the datapad finally beeped to indicate success. Inahj wasted no more time, and examined the options that were available to him on the console screen.

*Please select:

1. View New Trouble Tickets (0 in queue)
2. Review Recent Trouble Tickets (419 solved)
3. Review Security Options
4. User Administration
5. Message Center
6. Logout

The Rollmaster was by no means an expert on such systems, but his gut instinct told him to explore option 3. Activating it brought up a large amount of options. Many of these involved shutting down or resetting individual systems, such as the cameras or the metal detectors. Andrelious did not want to perform anything so drastic, at least without having planted his evidence. Instead, he exited back to the main menu, and tried option 4. Again the screen was filled with various tasks. Andrelious thumbed his way through the list, before noticing a couple that jumped out at him.

16. Review Access by user
17. Reset user’s password

Inahj selected option 16 and was presented with yet another wall of data. This time the information was a list of usernames and the apparent level of access associated with them. Frent Drozel was evidently a computer technician as his access was among the highest. Andrelious picked one of the users marked as a Director at random, a user called CoeSas, and returned to the previous screen. Selecting the option to reset CoeSas’ password, the Warlord found himself at a new screen, one not packed with information. According to it, the system would allow ‘Drozel’ to alter the password. For security, it would send a message to CoeSas’ personal datapad.

“Frak. It’ll let them know I’ve changed it. ” Inahj whispered. Regardless, he altered the password, setting it to ‘Karufr’. The console quickly obeyed the command. Next, Andrelious exited out of the user administration menu, and out of Drozel’s account. He then tapped in CoeSas’ details, remembering to enter in the newly changed password. The console accepted the details, and presented Andrelious with adifferent set of options on logging in.

*Please select:

1. Message Center
2. Employee Administration
3. Review Security Options
4. Logout

The Warlord opted for number two, and then selected to view employee’s data files. Unlike the list that had been available on Drozel’s account, this list gave full names of all employees, with more information available on everybody from the CEO to the caretaking staff. Inahj selected a name that was framed in gold – likely because it was the man he was masquerading as within the system.

Name: Coevyn Saswith
Year of birth: 9 BBY
Planet of birth: Corellia
Address: 29 Arvyx Road, Coronet
Job Role: Vice Director, Sales
*

The information on Coevyn Saswith continued to scroll on the screen, but Andrelious was not interested in anything else. He had what he needed, so he returned to the main menu. Once there, he activated the message centre, noting the Galactic Standard Basic spelling of the word ‘centre’. Quickly, he typed a message, trying to remember if words still needed a ‘u’ and if he needed to substitute ‘s’s for ‘z’s.

Attention all
I am disabling security features for the next twenty minutes. This is at the request of Frent Drozel, who will shortly be testing a new upgrade to our database systems.
Regards
C. Saswith

Andrelious was into the security menu almost before he had sent the message. As he attempted to select the option to shutdown security completely, the console refused access, stating that at least four senior employees and three technicians had to authorise such a move. The Warlord knew he simply did not possess the resources to do this, so tried to shut down the cameras, instead. This action appeared acceptable to the console, but a message informed the Arconan that the cameras would be disabled for only three minutes.

Inahj, knowing time was of the essence, almost ripped his datapad free from its connection to the console, not even bothering to log out from Saswith’s account. He sprinted back down the corridor, keeping an eye on the disabled cameras. A quick look at his chrono informed him he still had over an hour before the majority of the Pandalé staff would arrive.

With seconds to spare, Andrelious returned to the refresher he had entered the building in, and moved the man-hole cover.

Clambering back down the ladder as quickly as he could, the Warlord replaced the cover with the Force, before leaping from the ladder.

He had just one more step to do…

Minutes later, Andrelious had successfully navigated his way back through the Coronet sewer system. Once he returned to the streets he noticed that they had become a lot busier as rush hour approached. The Rollmaster pushed through crowds of people, looking for some sort of information office or other facility that would give him a clue as to the location of Arvyx Road. From the job status Saswith carried, the Sith imagined that he would live in a more affluent part of the city, and so headed for one such district- his knowledge of Coronet was sketchy, even though his parents lived on Corellia.

Noticing a taxi rank, Andrelious hopped into the frontmost speeder.

“Take me to Arvyx Road. And step on it,” the ex-Imperial ordered, not wasting what little time he had with manners. The driver sighed, but began to comply, more than used to rudeness from his customers. The flight was brief, taking no more than five minutes, but not a word was spoken. Inahj paid the driver, telling him to keep the rather large amount of change he was owed, and looked around at the houses that made up Arvyx Road. Each was fairly large, and by luck rather than by judgement, the Warlord stood outside number 27. He moved towards his target, making note of further cameras on the outside of the building. Either Pandalé took their security seriously, or Saswith was concerned about his own safety. Either way, Andrelious did not have time for another sophisticated entrance. Instead, he simply rang on the doorbell.

A woman in her forties answered the door. Andrelious guessed that she was Mrs Saswith – she was about the right age and was dressed far too casually to be a servant.

“Can I help you…sir?” she asked, gazing across at Inahj, who was about her height.

“Mrs Saswith? I’m And…Vibush Stendec, Corellian Security Force. I’m afraid that you and your husband have been named as possible suspects in a robbery that took place. As part of the investigation, I need to interview the pair of you.” Andrelious explained, massaging the female’s mind with the Force.

“My husband just left for work! I’ll have you know we don’t need to rob anyone! We have plenty of money as it is, thank you. In fact, perhaps you’d accept a donation. I’ve heard you CorSec types aren’t the best paid…” the woman responded, finding it surprisingly easy to accept the nonsense story that Inahj had spun.

“That’s fine. I’ll have a colleague interview him at work. I’ll also forget your attempt to bribe me so long as you allow me to examine your financial records. But one more slip up and I’ll have the pair of you thrown into jail.” ‘Stendec’ threatened.

The female Saswith had no idea why the ‘CorSec officer’ at her door wanted access to her family’s financial records, but she had left herself with little choice after the bribery attempt hadn’t worked.
Usually these CorSec pigs bugger off if Coe or I slip them a few creds. At least he’s not as bad as that Dark Jedi that turned up the other day. I hate their frakking kind! she thought, oblivious to the fact that she was currently talking to another Dark Jedi.

“This way, Mr Stendec. I’m sure you’ll find everything is in order.”

Andrelious was logged into the Saswiths’ account. He pretended to investigate the rather uninteresting information, whilst noting down the information he would need. Mrs Saswith continued to watch him from a distance.

“Are you sure there’s nothing I can do to persuade you of our innocence, Mr Stendec?” she asked, her tone a little suggestive. Inahj frowned. Not only did he not remotely fancy the rather large Mrs Saswith, but the thought of cheating on Kooki disgusted him even more.

“Actually, Mrs Saswith, your accounts have done that for me. At this stage, I am convinced that neither you, nor your husband, were involved in the robbery in question,” the Warlord replied stoically.

“Can at least offer you a…” Saswith began, but found ‘Stendec’ was already leaving the building.

Andrelious, once he was clear of the Saswith residence, quickly mailed the relevant data to his DIA contacts. As a military man, he had taken the time to learn the hacking skills that would be required to complete the last few tricky tasks.

It would be some time before the Warlord could be sure if he’d done enough.

Contract: Complete

[Excellent - 3 Points]

Notes:

A really well written contract all around. Good detail, good pacing, good development of character and auxiliary NPC characters. A few random errors threw me off, like the butt of the blaster instead of the muzzle. Otherwise, the story was good, but obviously a bit rushed at the end. Still, it went above what I consider Satisfactory, and should stand as an example of what the typical contract should look like when planning, pacing, and thought go into completing an objective.

I would suggest possibly dumping a point into slicing for the future. With a 0, you could obviously follow all the prompts, but with the line “As a military man, he had taken the time to learn the hacking skills that would be required to complete the last few tricky tasks.” you open yourself into a grey line of crossing what a standard 0 in slicing means. 0 in slicing is about what we (non coders) can do with computers–things like downloading torrents, moving files around, how thumb drives and datapads and such work, ect. Anything bordering on actual training would be a +1, IMO.

Did not affect the grade, just musing out loud on what I feel would be brought up in a competition judged by Sarin.

-W