Log:Clan Kora: Brains and Brawn

After a major discovery on Corellia, Valeska returns with a holoprojector with some crucial information. Information that is locked behind intense triple-encryption and multiple sensitive failsafes. The greatest minds of the Kora Clan are coming together to crack this technological nut. To defy the will of a Jedi in desperation and hound his trail that is already eight years cold.

Previous Log: O Brother, Where Art Thou? ----------------------------- Next Log: A Broken Man on a Broken Planet

Brains and Brawn

OOC Date: August 09, 2022
Location: Echoy'la Morut, Ealor
Participants: Valeska Kora (GM), Avery, Hadrix Kora, Clan Kora

~-c< Great Hall - Echoy'la Morut, Ealor >~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~

An arching buttressed ceiling of fitted stone stretches out overhead upon entry of the Great Hall. Skylights carved from the stone allow natural light through in the form of thick beams during the day, and eerie moonlight during the evenings. The ceiling is beset with crystals that glimmer and sparkle when light streams through.

The walls are covered with tapestry, or other decorations. One banner particularly chronicles the stories that led to the formation of Clan Kora. Tall windows align the wall allowing for a proper vantage of the courtyard, and opportunity for more natural light to filter through.

The western wall is dominated by a massive stone ring upon a pillar, the open hand with palm of fire that is the Kora sigil over a small throne crafted with bits of armor and chunks of weapons molded together with the furs of local fauna cast over the seat. The floor itself has room for celebratory feasts complete with tables and benches, ritual combat, and several long banks for fires to be lit to warm the hall over more conventional means. This is the common room, and the main dining hall of the fortress, the karyai, for the clan home. Several passages lead off from the northern and eastern walls.

~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-~-c-o-

-- Valeska --

There is a notorious throne that dominates a large portion of the Great Hall. Constructed of bone, skulls, and weaponry, the Kore clan have crafted this symbolic seat of power from the remains of those who have tried to kill them over the years. Every member, alive and gone, have contributed to this throne. For Val there is a few huge ribs of a large lizard from Kashyyyk as well as the human skull from the savage of Mandalore that shoved her out of a window.

The throne is currently occupied with Valeska lazily lounging as she waits for others to arrive. Being out of armour while on Kora turf, she's sporting the classic shorts and tanktop combo. Having draped furs over the seat itself, she's got her back against one arm and her legs kicking over the other. Hands behind her head, she appears to be dozing with her eyes closed and laying on the flat of her stomach is a deactivated holoprojector.

-- Avery --

A form that hasn't darkened the halls for a few months now stomps his way back in, the silver and blue Mandalorian, still contained within his armor and wearing his helmet. He even arrived with an E-11 strapped to his back, certainly remembering to not be wielding it when he walked in the main hall.

After arriving, Avery steps over to one of the many tables and withdraws his helmet, the usual unkempt hair is there... longer, sun bleached to a light brown, but the beard that had been gone for so long had returned. Dark emerald eyes peered over the decor and relics, refreshing himself with each one as if with the time away he needed a refresher.

No one knew where the Slicer had gone those months ago and, only through arriving now did anyone have a clue where he was. There was a great sigh as he lowered himself into one of the seats, a nod and half cocked grin to Valeska who was draped over the throne. "Heya."

-- Hadrix --

Towel over his shoulders, approaching most obviously following time spent out on the beach comes Hadrix. In swim clothes, if you want to call them that. Trailing dribbles of water in his wake, bare feet padding along and Gripper managing to convey resignation in her floating while coming up in flank to the massive mandalorian.

Utterly oblivious to himself, it seems, the big man just ambles over to the fire once in, using it to dry himself as he nods to the others, "Vode, I see you." hand held out for a cigarra from the droid who instead pops it in his mouth and lights it with a cutting torch that makes a bit of his eyebrows curl.

-- Valeska --

"A ghost walks among us, yeah?" Valeska opens an eye and looks over towards Avery sitting at the nearest table. "Been missing you on missions and such. Lot going down on Mandalore and beyond." Idly one leg kicks a bit, seeming content to wait for others. "Good to see ya back, Avery. The beard looks good on ya. Little trim up and you'd tear up the bar scene."

The wet-padded footfalls echo in the cavernous Great Hall, marking Hadrxi's casual approach. "Not been eager to rush back into the waters since that giant eel attack the last time we were here, ori'vod. But I'm told there was good eating for a while afterwards." She makes a face to this idle though. Eel. Yuck. "Tavi said he was gonna help with this, but I'm wondering if he's forgotten. Might just end up being Avery and Gripper tonight trying to crack this nut."

The nut in question is picked up from her abdomen as Valeska swings her feet around and stands. "I'd really like to preserve the holomessage already on there, but what's really important is whatever information Tai encrypted on this thing. We're talking Jedi-levels of paranoid security." She sets the device carefully on the table then takes a step back, hands resting on her hips.

-- Avery --

It seems everyone is arriving in a different state of dress, from fully armored, to normally clothed, to damned near naked. For his part, the smiling face of the armored man nods to Hadrix when he enters, those green eyes shifting to the droplets that dot the floor and mark his passage. "Do you have another one of those things?" Avery asks, motioning toward the smoke stick that now protrudes from the second in command's lips.

The ghost comment certainly gets a look from the shaggy man, an eyebrow lifted as well as a shrug of his shoulders. "Things needed killin'" Is all he replies, an explanation of his whereabouts would probably have to wait until another time. Regardless he looks back and forth between Val and Haddles, "What's been going on at Mandalore? More horribleness that has been discovered even deeper under the sand?"

...and to the business at hand. he had received a transmission from Val asking for assistance in cracking a datamodule, the one in her hand to be precise. As she nears, Avery cranes his head to look, almost salivating in curiosity at what the device may contain. "I mean... I'll do what I can." The Slicer remarks, reaching over to his gauntlet to withdraw the UCI line that will feed into the troublesome datapad.

-- Hadrix --

"Aye, Gripper?" the droid floats over, drawing out one of the thick cigarra that are the Al'Verde's preference, while he continues, "They're zeltron... Feel good pheromones, so be ready." Perhaps one of the secrets of why he seems more mellow when he's puffing on one, medicated essentially?

The same action of tucking the 'gar into Avery's mouth is performed by the droid, though his is lit with s little mor care and a lot less sass than Hadrix receives before she rubs all four of her little claws together, scans of the equipment bein run by emitters built into her optical sensors.

"The war is pushing into lava fields. We'll be hearing from Djarin on it soon, marching orders from King Mountain... Death Watch spotted as well." the big man's answer to questions about Mandalore and then silence when he steps up, arms folding across his chest.

-- Valeska --

"Recently captured a Viszla, too," Valeska adds. "Something going on there. Plus we took out that outpost and nabbed some computers before it all went up. Hoping something good was found on there. Computers ain't my thing." Avery asking for a smoke stick does earn a raised brow in return, clearly confused as to when the man took up smoking. But that is shrugged away quite literally and she returns her focus elsewhere.

"Lots going on. Hearing some issues coming out of Tatooine. Then there's the war on Thyferra. Good-paying work to be found there, yeah? And soon we'll be taking care of some unfinished business on Umbara. We aren't hurting for things to keep us busy. I've been taking on the odd job and helping with the Mandalore things. But this--" She taps the holoprojector. "--is the culmination of several years-worth of obsession."

-- Avery --

It looks like the taking of up a new habit is occurring quite literally now. The first puff has him coughing, the cigarello removed from his lips while the fit subsides. The next two are much more successful and, in a glance to Hadrix, he cradles the smoke in the corner of his lips, not in imitation, but because he doesn't know what else to do with the thing. The big man is right though, he feels much better even after just a few puffs.

"Well that certainly is not a spot of good news, none of that is. Sounds like more 'good times' on Mandalore and beyond." In speaking of the throne of trophies, Avery would wager that most of the things that came very, very close to killing them come directly from that damnable sandy planet.

"Alright... let's see what's on this thing." He replies, taking careful hold of the device to turn it this way and that, searching for some input in which to connect his deck. Port found, he delicately inserts the wire and lays the datapad on the table, the keypad on his gauntlet receiving his attention next as it feeds information about the system and software immediately back to the Slicer. "What am I looking for? Just a dump of data?" Avery asks with raised eyebrow.

-- Hadrix --

"All she can access is a broadcast about her half-brother, none of the rest of information. Hahtavi spoke of taking a look at it, but he's become vapor. Gripper can slice, but two heads make fewer mistakes and more hands make less work."

"I had a contact open up one of the datapads from that outpost, connected to the computers. Gripper has been working some, but I can have them brought out if we want to take a look, easy enough." shifting his jaw in a sharp jerk that taps ash onto the floor without having to remove it from his lips. Avery rolling his to the corner of his mouth gets a slight nod, though, affirmation of 'what the hell do I do with this thing?'

The droid just floats down to the device, watching Avery and also inserts into a port with a small probe extending from her lower section.

-- Valeska --

What /are/ they looking for? "My guess? Coordinantes. Tai left that message for my mom. Told her to go looking for him if she had gotten this message but he never showed up at her door. Which -- ya know. He didn't. But mom also never got this message. I was thinkin' about how long this thing must've been sitting on Corellia. The Jedi wouldn't say how long ago their Order was destroyed by this Ben Kylo guy, but it happened before the last big war started. So... I dunno. Five years? Eight? Almost a decade? It's been a long time."

Ramble, ramble. Valeska rubs the back of her head as trying to do too much math without a pen and flimsiplast starts to hurt her brain. "Anyways. He said he was gonna go look for the people he believed had attacked. S'far as I know, no one has heard from him since. None of the Order seemed to know who I was talking about. So..." She gestures to the holoprojector. "Our next clue is on there. If you can get back the encryption and failsafes."

-- Avery --

Avery nods to the information given by both, the basic outline of... well, anything will be more helpful than what they have. "Got it." He sits back and waits for Gripper to connect in, the pair of them most likely more than enough computing power to take down this device. Once secure, the shaggy human leans forward to press fingers to keypad, flying over the directives and navigating the subregions of the software. There are numerous failsafes that Gripper and he have to dodge at every turn, one or both of them almost colliding with a trap that would have rendered the data useless but, with their combined knowhow, the system is laid bare.

Bright emerald eyes look from the glow of his display, projected just above his gauntlet and, with a crooked grin that hangs on his lips he remarks, "Ok... we're in."

-- Hadrix --

Nodding to himself, Hadrix just keeps quiet and would be more still if not for the touch of one of his hands to one of the droid's claws when she settles back to her normal position, floating at his shoulder.

"Be ready for more toaster shakings." grumbled with a raised brow for Valeska, doing his best not to sound sarcastic - but it's been a series of stops and goes. Maybe bracing himself for the same and anticipating the disappointment of just one more step that some feel on these sorts of investigations are typically fraught with.

"Put on some pants..." Gripper, exasperated. "I'm fine."

-- Valeska --

Valeska has taken a seat on the other side of the table in attempt to stay well out of the way. She doesn't have a smoke stick to keep her occupied, so her fidgeting comes in the little flicks of her foot as she watches man and bot go to work. "Wherever he went," she offers in further explanation as they toil away, "he seemed to think it would lead him right to those who could have attacked 'The School.'" She even does the air quotes. Not because she doesn't believe it existed but because it had been mentioned a few times with so much weight.

"I mean, this trail is several years old, yeah? We could just be headed to a place where some old dude died. Or maybe he /did/ find what he was looking for there. And maybe this group of Hunters, he called 'em, are still there." Hadrix catches her in the act of getting her hopes up. Fair enough, that. "I mean... yeah. But at least we have a face to the name now. I was starting to think this guy didn't exist at all. But if this merits another dead end?" She sighs heavily. "Dunno where to go after that."

Gripper earns a smirk. "Naw, he's good, Gripper. Not everyone can pull off the banana hammock."

Avery announces they've made it past some failsafes and now the real test begins. What awaits Gripper and Avery both is a veritable mess of code. There is no rhyme or reason to it. Jumbled and scattered as if encrypted, broken into piece, thrown into several locked doors, then encrypted again.

-- Avery --

There's a nod of understanding to what both of his clan mates said. All too often he's been ready to declare victory only to have defeat rear its ugly head. But he will do what he can to help out and, failsafes bypassed, the Slicer goes back into the machine to navigate through the data.

It's messy... really messy... messy like letting a herd of womp rats loose in a fine dining restaurant, but bit by bit Gripper and he make headway. They discover the pieces of information, store them and through alternating their collections, are able to look for key words, maps, locations, trails, anything that will link two pieces of information and insert them into the whole. Overtime a blanket of data is gathered, the blanket worm eaten and full of holes, the rest of what they find will be used to hopefully stitch patches over those missing bits.

"You weren't wrong. This... this record is old and incredibly difficult to decipher." Avery looks to the droid with a nod when she saved him from accidentally deleting a mess of code that would have set them back hours. "Thanks."

-- Hadrix --

Connected by radio link while she works, Grippers claws flex and clack and her opticals have gone dark while she floats and tasks. Whirring and clicking emitting from her as the little spy-droids specialized systems do their task. Stopping only when the information begins to show its size if not its form.

Hadrix quiets again, dour and glowering in his silence. Like a great frowning angel of misery there, pouring water on hopefires. But then he has been one to say 'Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.' but like his droid keep their peace now. His right eye turning independently towards Val, brow lifting, at the comment 'banana hammock' but making nothing of it otherwise.

No time for those sorts of jokes right now, after all.

-- Valeska --

Valeska has folded her arms on the table and rests her chin upon them, curiously pondering the machine and the two brains currently connected to it. "Maybe mom had some kind of key. Something between them? Or maybe he thought she would have access to the military software to crack into it?" While Avery and Gripper work at piecing together a puzzle she cannot see, Valeska is busy trying to make sense of it all. "Or maybe mom still had connections with some of the Jedi." A frown. "No, that doesn't make sense. Most of 'em were wiped out or something. I dunno. It's all a mess."

Fingernails rap on the table now in growing irritation. The whole situation is far more convoluted than she felt it needed to be. "Ya know, I wouldn't even care about finding this Tai guy if he wasn't the only one that would have any information on my brother. I hope he's still alive so. Tai, I mean. Well, my brother, too, yeah? But I want to give Tai a piece of my mind. And maybe a few fists."

She does give Hadrix a crooked smirk, though. Yes, banana hammock. There's always time for those kind of jokes in Valeska's world.

Progress on the encryption goes better than planned, but that still means it is an arduous task. Pieces that look like they go together do, in fact, fit. But when looked at as a whole, the message makes no sense at all and parts have to be reconstructed again. They stumble across a few hidden partitions in the holoprojector that had behind them other bits of data that starts to click better. Something is coming together.

-- Avery --

The farther they go, the more complex the data encryption is, the pieces of the puzzle having jagged edges that don't seem to make sense with the rest of what has been found. Deeper and deeper they dig and Avery watches in frustration as more of the readout on his screen flip to red. First, the field of the display was a wash in green, like a fresh field... then slowly but surely the pasture became dotted in red, sprouted crimson plants which bar their passage and prevent any more decryption.

In a huff, Avery bypasses the encryption all-together on what remains, capturing as much data as possible and downloading it directly to his armor's hard drive.... if they can't decode it now, better to do it when they have the data than trying all at once and losing some of it. Still, the attempt has been successful and a good amount of what they sifted through first has been laid bare.

With a glance to Gripper, Avery leans forward to log off his system and withdraw the UCI cord from the antiquated device. "Well... we didn't get everything worked out, but I think we have a planet and some coordinates." He takes out a spare datachit from his utility belt, plugging the small bit of technology into his bracer and uploading those particulars onto the device. Once done, the datachit is detached and Avery offers it to Val with a shrug and a hopefull smile.

-- Hadrix --

Gripper is caught by Hadrix as her systems give out - having run into logic paradoxes and other little traps for droids seeking to bypass the system. A few warbling sounds and her vocalizer malfunctioning emitting from the little droid that the big man actually cradles to his chest in a fashion that people have only otherwise seen as he would with his son.

"It better be at least something that can be used." growling out and his attention is back on the slicing droid that is rebooting after her slicing systems begin to unfreeze enough to free up resources for the rest of her processors to use. Mouth cut into a savage frown and he hunkers to rest the droid on the towel in his makeshift lap, a panel opened and a probe drawn from her to begin tapping and working at her droid innards.

"At this rate if we find your brother I'm going to put some teeth out of his mouth for all of this... unless his father is still alive to get the treatment."

-- Valeska --

Valeska lifts her head up as Gripper seemingly fries out and deactivates, thankfully caught by Hadrix. "Is Gripper going to be okay?" She's been to war with them. Surely the security on some almost-decade-old tech won't take her out.... right? Valeska looks warily between the powered down droid and the device that did it. Then Gripper is rebooting and Avery says he has something.

Rising up quicker than she intended, Valeska accepts the datachit and looks at it curiously. Clearly she had expected something more--- oh. "Oh!" Valeska knows enough technology that allows her to check her datapad and function in an advanced society. So fortunately two braincells rub together enough that she plugs the chit back into the holoprojection from whence it came only this time as readable information.

The holoprojector activates, but instead of playing the same message again, a new image is seen floating in the air. A flickering blue image of distorted data shows a planet but not all of it. The bottom half appears to be broken away. "Must be the data, yeah?" As the picture jerks and corrupts only to right itself again, the image otherwise remains unchanged. The bottom half of the planet has yet to materialize and then Valeska realizes: "By the Maker. It's literally half a planet." She hits a key to cycle through the mostly missing data until the image returns but zoomed in on the northern hemisphere where coordinates mark a specific location.

"Lola Sayu?" She glances between the two men. "Either of you heard of this planet?"

-- Avery --

A frown slides over his face at the toll taken on the Slicing Droid. "She should be alright... it was a hell of a machine. Whomever made that didn't want the wrong people finding that information." Avery remarks, pulling the smoke out of his mouth after a couple of puffs to relight the cherry.

Curious eyes watch Val's next moves as she plugs the data into a holoprojector, the information attained popping up to float in the air between them. He too had assumed the data was corrupt, the bottom half of the planet contained in the device but unable to be procured and displayed... until it reset. Dark green eyes stared at the display of blue, narrowing after a time while he searches his own memory banks. "No... no I haven't." Then it's to the one who's been more places. "Hadrix, have you?"

-- Hadrix --

"It was a CIS planet that the Order had looked into, it had a facility called Citadel. it was a jetii prison." said after moments spent with eyes half lidded, running through information archived some time ago. Hadrix doesn't stop with his tending of Gripper while he speaks. Ticking open panels and using the probe to slide and toggle. The droid continues to rest, optics offline, but she's clicking again.

"Never been there, but Aurek Osk is close to it. So I'm familiar with the region." standing and carefully setting the droid on the table, the big man frowns - the probe put back where he drew it from the droid's body, nodding to himself when something inside her gives a beep and small blue lights begin to wink on, one by one. Panel being closed he turns his gaze back to the projector, accusingly.

-- Valeska --

"The Order? The First Order, yeah?" Good to clarify when also talking about the Jedi Order, but Valeska nods in understanding. "A prison for Jedi? I wonder..." She moves around the table, careful of where Gripper is powering back up, and leans in to the hologram of their next destination. "No way of knowing until we get there, but sounds like this could be a pretty serious place. Dunno what we'll find, yeah? But we'll be ready." She turns the projector off and unplugs the datachit, laying it down somewhere between the device and where Gripper is starting to blink back to synthetic life. "You good, Gripper? I want to make sure you're awake so I can thank you proper."

A hand touches Avery's shoulder. "And you, too. Thanks for making the trip to help with this. Be good to have you on our backs when we go. If you find the time." Hadrix does get an apologetic tilt of her head, though. She didn't know the security system would fry droid attempts. Though maybe she should have. "If Gripper needs anything, let me know. I'll make it up to her."

She does tap the table a little. "You said you had gotten information from the computers on Mandalore?"

-- Avery --

"Yeah, the First Order." he replies, delivering a nod as well. He listens to the information as it's given, logging it away for down the road knowledge. "Should be nice, visiting half a planet. I mean, who needs a whole planet now a days, anyway? That's just extra space that takes up... space." the silver armored man offers with a shrug.

His eyes go to the system boot up of Gripper, feeling like he could offer to get her back and running but, seeing the care and concern in his eyes, things Hadrix would rather do it himself and that is just fine. Sitting back, Avery nods to Val's touch, a light smile showing beneath the beard. "Yeah, I'll make it. Can't pass up the chance to visit a discount planet that housed Jedi prisoners. Plus I can't let you two have all the fun of exploring old abandoned space rocks alone."

-- Hadrix --

"Some, but more on that later. Gripper is carrying a lot of it." lifting his droid companion up again, gingerly. "I need to run some diagnostics, possibly check some of her cores." brow knitting and tucking her against him, eyes flicking from Val to Avery and back. "More to talk of later, I assure you. But for now I need to tend to this."

A small bow of Hadrix's head and he looks to Avery once more, "Good to see you again, should make it a habit." and just like that, he turns to begin wandering for the doors to the small park they call a courtyard and likely then to the Woor'tra once he makes it as far as the hangars.

Possibly with a bit of a rush in his step.