Log:Sith Empire: Shadow Relic

Sith Empire: Shadow Relic

OOC Date: January 20, 2022
Location: Umbara
Participants: Sith Empire: Tamsin Cas, Tarq Najjic, Midne

It's evening time on Umbara, not that anyone with eyes that perceive the visible-spectrum of light can tell. This part of Eternity City is in its 'evening' time of the planet's rotational period, so the day shift is wrapping up and the night shift is getting started. For most of the university, this means the students and professors go home, but for the research facility, it's an exchange as the next shift comes in to take over the ongoing projects. A great time for an infiltration.

The university itself is a massive complex of buildings - study halls, laboratories, administration buildings and dormitories. The primary research wing isn't quite central to the complex, though it isn't on the outskirts either. Surrounded by other buildings on virtually every side, it's accessible at most hours of the day for those authorized for entry such as research students, technicians and security staff. The doors are typically locked at most times, requiring an authorized keycard for entry at both of the main entrances, each on opposite sides of the building from each other. A loading bay is closed and sealed along one side of the building, presumably for vehicles to enter and load or unload cargo or tools to be used by the research staff. An emergency escape system can be found on the perperpendicular sides of the building from the entrances, though they don't go as low as the ground floor without being triggered from higher up in order to prevent exactly this kind of situation: The agents of the Sith Empire have landed. Getting on to university property itself is as simple as walking on site. The university is a public facility. But the research center is not. Inside is an ancient Sith scroll that intelligence has learned of, and command has ordered it to be recovered. SN-6428 rests on the roof of an adjacent dormitory, having barred the door so nobody will happen upon her as she observes the research facility through the scope of her Sonn-Blas F-11S sniper rifle. Her ID Seeker Droid has lowered itself to the research complex's building and plugged in to its systems in order to keep an electronic monitor of the facility while Midne keeps a visual monitor. "Comms check," she whispers in to her wrist-mounted comm, not taking her eyes off the scope of the blaster rifle. "I'm getting sentries, two at each door. Looks like security. They're not at alert and they look bored. If you're going to make a move, now's the time."

Tarq Najjic had spent his few minutes on his own productively. <"Loud and clear, Midne. Will be there in five minutes.">

What an evening! First he tailed a professor who was speaking to a grad student. Their conversation was uninteresting to the unscientifically-minded Kuati, who was pretending to play with his datapad until they start to head into a classroom. Then he bumps into the professor. "Oh, excuse me, so sorry sir." He had the man's ID card in hand when the professor stared at him. The card started to slip from between his fingers. Tarq smiled and continued walking. Stupid sweaty fingers... it slips a little more. The door the classroom closes before it falls to the corridor floor. He took a deep breath, pocketed it, and headed back over.

<"Making our move."> He walks up to the entrance looking dignified. He nods slightly to the sentries and swipes his card through the reader. The light goes red. He stares at it, eyebrows raised. He swipes it again. Again it is red.

"Blast, these things always get thrown off by the lab's emissions." He pulls a black handkerchief from his pocket, and gives it one last swipe. "I'm so sorry, fellows. I have a meeting in four minutes to hear today's findings, and it's just not working." He holds the card up for the guards to see.

The walk from where they had landed to the grounds of the university was uneventful enough, and Tamsin took the time put her equipment in order, going through some of the leftovers of the job they had completed on Coruscant a scant few weeks ago. "I hear you." Tamsin's reply to the comms check was easy, as she listened to the report of the general setup of the building and its security. It was the emergency exit that took most of her attention. What attention wasn't diverted by looking for other entries was taken up by trying to keep the stack of datapads in her arms stable, as she followed behind the 'professor', as all good graduate students should. He was clearly here for a lecture. She was here as his general all around dogs body. It was a mark of his status.

The doors open for the two infiltrators and they disappear from Midne's line of sight. The Mirialan sets her datapad down at the edge of the roof sill beside where her rifle is propped up and she keys a small button in the corner of it. "ID, I don't have a visual on them any longer. Keep me updated." The droid chirps back at her, translating in to written Mirialan on the screen of her datapad: 'Understood. Team inside south entrance.' The droid continues to keep her updated as the team move about.

Inside, the facility is very Imperial by first impression. Polished black floors, dark, reflective walls. It would be easy to forget the pair were infiltrating soverign territory and not a First Order facility. Researchers come and go from various corridors as they prepare to start their shift, some of them sipping coffeine, the others pouring over notes. The main hall leads toward the opposite lift, and in the center branches off to other more administrative rooms on the ground floor. A series of turbolifts extend five floors, each labeled for the types of laboratories it holds. The fourth floor is labeled 'Archives and Storage' and the fifth, 'Exigent Laboratory (Restricted Access)'. The lift from the bottom floor seems to be accessible to anybody, though accessing the fifth floor requires an input of some kind. A single security team member stands at a standing-desk near the lift to assist researchers and their assistants with questions or guidance.

Tarq slows to make it look like he's talking to Tamsin, but he's not. He's talking to their droid on the roof, while making eye contact with his fellow Councilor. "ID, we have a restricted-access floor on the turbolift. Get direct control of it." The Kuati steps to one side of the corridor to look through his datapad again, trying to look conspicuously inconspicuous. Like he deserves to be here, but also is unremarkable. That means occasional side-eye to mimic the other researchers.

Once they were inside the building, this place, whatever its architecture, was no different than any other university. And that meant people both doing all manner of research, and if Tamsin was lucky, talking amongst themselves. Still shuffling her datapads, she wandered the floor, as if she were looking for just the right place to set up, or at least somewhere with enough room to offload the sheer quantity of data she was carrying around. Ah, finally, a free spot. Tamsin took advantage, as she settled, shaking out her arms to get blood back into them, as she pushed back the hood of her robes. Once again, she was not quite Tamsin, as her blonde hair was once again black, and her shin was a quite normal, human neutral tone. the red lips had not changed though, so it mighr still be possible to pick her out in the crowd as she grabbed a coffee and was soon in conversation with one of the researchers. She sat patiently, as if she had all of the time in the world, or at least until her cup was finished, and she excused herself. The work of the downtrodden research assistant was never done. Soon enough, she was on her way back to Professor Najjic, the hood adjusted, hands blocking for the moment, her mouth as she passed along her information, "The item is kept secured in storage unless specifically requested by a female Doctor Solano." That should at least give them a clue on what turbolift they needed.

The Seeker droid at the roof, plugged in to the comms systems, continues to report the team's location to the Mirialan stationed on a rooftop, observing the permiter with her scope. 'They're at the lifts.' Midne, like the droid, heard the order from Tarq and the information from Tamsin, and she doesn't need to instruct the droid to follow the man's order. It takes a full Coruscanti minute, as the droid was only plugged in for monitoring and not for reprogramming, but with a tiny spark from the comms array, the droid reports back to its controller. Text flows across the Mirialan's datapad screen and she lifts her eye from the scope long enough to speak in to her wrist. "Lift's unlocked, third one from the right." she whispers. She's up on a roof, whispering seems unnecessary, though it is essential for a stealth mission.

Inside the third lift from the right, the '5' button changes from red to white, ready to be accessed. The fourth floor remains available as it was before. The fourth floor is a large storage archive full of cubbies built in to rows of shelves, and deeper, larger cubbies along the walls. A single, foggy glass wall greets people as they come off the lift and a glass door with a keycard reader is the only thing barring entry. The area is more brightly lit than the first floor was, and kept cooler than the rest of the university as well. In the back, a large, rectangular storage module rests against the wall protected by a pair of insulated security locks. The archive itself is empty for the time being, though a small office inside the door reads 'Security' and an adjacent office is labeled 'Maintenance'.

Up the turbolift. He presses '4' but it's a farce because ID has control of this lift, not him.

When the doors open, Tarq steps out, looks towards the offices, and then at the security card reader at the glass door on the glass wall. He crouches, saying "Two guards" as he inclines his head towards the Security and Maintenance alcove, and pulls tiny screwdriver, roller key, and long wire from his pocket, and goes to work.

In a few minutes, the panel is open, and when he touches two wires together, the door lock light goes green - then it goes out altogether. He slides the panel back into place and screws it in as best he can. It's definitely broken, though. He pushes the door open for Tamsin. "This way, Doctor." They don't need to know it's a medical doctor.

"Thank you," It did pay to be polite to the help. Perhaps the Doctor would set a good example to...literally no one, as there was no one currently in a position to see them. As Tarq took over the datapads, Tamsin began an easy circuit of the room, poking in this cubby and that alcove, as though she were looking for something she was sure should be here but didn't appear to be. You know how flighty academics can be. Finally, she made her way towards the storage module, a hand reaching out to examine the locks, as if testing just how secure the 'security' was in this university. A tightening of her fingers on first one and then the second of the locks released the mechanism, as a small surge of the force twisted the couplings inside enough to register them as open, before she attempted to open the door, quietly as possible, of course. This was practically a library. And everyone knew you were supposed to be quiet in a library.

Three aisles down, and a bit further along the row the tiny research student pauses a moment as she hears a cabinet open, but the oddity passes and she's back to her archival work, checking things off on a datapad after confirming their presence within the bin before her.

The encasing is opened by the Firrerreo to reveal two very large scrolls laid out along the vertically-oriented storage container. Easily as wide as a human's shoulders and as long as a small tapestry, these two scrolls look to be obviously ancient at first glance. The first one, on the left side, is written in a fairly modern (by scroll's standards) handwritten script and the other, on the right, was written in a runic language, the archaic ink having already begun to fade centuries ago. These scrolls are large enough to roll up, if you were brave enough to risk rolling up something as flimsy as this, but it would be impossible to simply walk out with them as they aren't small enough to stick under a shirt or down a pant leg. Across the chamber, the turbolift closes as someone calls it to their level from another floor.

Tarq does the unthinkable: he takes off his cape, unstrapping it from his shoulders and setting both scrolls on it, then wrapping it around them to protect them from the elements. He catches Tamsin's eye and points up, shrugging. He returns to securing the scrolls, then slides the storage unit back closed as quietly as he can. He puts datapads above and below his cape-wrapped scrolls. Then he looks back towards the elevator door, pokes a finger out into nothing, and the elevator call button lights up. Whether they're going up or down, they'll need it.

Tamsin nodded, as if Tarq's comment was the most reasonable thing they had done all day. She grabbed one of the many datapads her general dogs body was now carrying, in addition to the scrolls, typing out a quick message, 'ID scrolls' and then she was off to one of the terminals, putting that big brain of her to work as she began to conduct a search for any identifying images or texts which would verify if they had what they were looking for. Better to be safe than sorry. Nobody wanted to lose their library card for no good reason. It didn't take terribly long, well one would hope, before Tamsin was back on her feet, after taking the time to delete her search history and wipe the keyboard with a swipe of her robes. She made the sign that Tarq would know to be GTFO.

Hovering a foot above the roof, the black and red seeker droid chirps something in a low, binary tone. The research student several aisles down goes about her work, stifling a yawn as she lazily ticks off a few entries without even checking that they were actually there. On a roof across the yard, the Mirialan's datapad translates the droid's low-pitched warbling. "Lift's got two occupants," she warns in to her comm, aiming her rifle scope at the fire escape for the fourth floor to see if she can get a glimpse at anything inside. She can't, but if they have to make a quick exit, she's ready to cover them if blaster shots become a part of the exiltration. She doesn't need to tell them this as it can be easily assumed.

The pair of infiltrators have a moment or two to react to the transmission before the call button dings and the turbolift doors slide open. The frosted glass walls that protect the interior of the storage area conceal the infiltrators from sight at the turbolift area, but it's just a matter of moments before the pair of Umbaran researchers that step off the lift discover the broken lock.

Tarq carries his two half-stacks of datapads with his cape in the middle towards the door and pushes it open. When he sees two researchers outside, he slides the door open, eyes widening slightly, and steps out, gesturing inward for them to continue while he holds the door open with his foot. Then he goes to stand in the lift's door, so it can't close, just in case they want it for their exit. <"ID, disable fire escape alarms."> He's not sure which exit they're taking, so he tries to prepare both.

Clearly, Tamsin had been spending far too much time in Tarq's company, if her first thought was 'eliminate the evidence of theft' and not, get the ***** out as quickly as possible. Tamsin, who was not far from the computer terminal still, turned away from the lift, even if she did hear the report, focusing her attention on the storage locker she had just unlocked. A frown took her expression, as she focused her attention, fingers hidden beneath her robes, mimicing the movement of replacing the shackle on the locks, first one and then the other. If they were very lucky, there would be no sign that the module had been tampered with at all. Once Tarq was out, and the researchers were in, she'd head for the door herself. Likely a good thing she had nothing in her hands at all. That would be suspicious otherwise, yes?

'Team is on lift' comes across the screen of Midne's datapad, followed up a minute and a half later with, 'Team is approaching exit'. The Mirialan presses a switch on her wrist-mounted communicator, recalling the droid. The Seeker droid above the roof of the research facility unplugs from the communications array and slowly hovers to the adjacent building, where the Mirialan waits on a rooftop, watching the south exit in her scope. The doors glide open as the two familiar robed figures emerge. From the dark, into the dark. With a single nod of confirmation, she powers down her rifle, rises to a short crouch and slings the weapon around her back. "I have sight of you. I'm coming down to ground level." Another silent press of a button on her communicator, and a few miles away an intelligence officer onboard the Harbinger begins to prepare the ship for departure so that the team can leave as soon as they arrive.

The scroll has been secured and those at the facility won't know it until morning. A professor will find his ID missing and likely assume he misplaced it and a maintenance worker will be repairing a faulty lock within the hour. The real panic won't begin until the day shift returns and discovers the scrolls to be missing, but for all they know this theft could have been internal. Suffice it to say, the university police have a lot of work on their hands tomorrow, and someone's getting fired.