cipher visits ekkreth
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The first thing she notices when she steps outside is how hot it is. Why anyone would choose to live here, she doesn't know. Of course, explaining the population is a much easier task: the Hutts like it because it's quiet and unobserved and they don't have to leave their climate-controlled palaces, their courts follow them because sticking close to the nearest Hutt is the best way to ingratiate yourself to the Cartel without risking life and limb, and the slaves go where they're told to. Much like she does, now.

"As for the secondary objective... Keyword: ■■■■■■■■■■■■." Her body snaps to attention, her voice speaks without her conscious direction. "Keyword accepted. State One activated. Awaiting orders." "Evaluate the suitability of planet Tatooine as a testing ground for Project Day's End. Deliver your report only to myself or Codename: Hunter. Acknowledge." "Orders acknowledged." "Revert to State Zero. And for what it's worth, Legate, I'm sorry." She manages to put a weak smile on her face before leaving the room.


But there's no use dwelling on what can't be changed right now. First she has to find the truth of these rumors of murdered Cartel bosses. She takes a moment to look at the city around her and get her bearings before heading to the cantina.

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The population is wearing a weird amount of black for inhabitants of a desert planet.

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Her brown-and-tans aren't too far out of place, at least. Probably not worth going back to change. Maybe it's a cultural thing. Anything else of immediate note?

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Yes, there's still a lot of brown-and-tan. The other offworlders are a little tense, a little wary--and if she listens around at cantinas, the rumors of a murdered Cartel boss are either true or very oddly pervasive for a falsehood so close to the source. Apparently there was some kind of slave uprising.

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How long ago, and where?

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A few months ago. All over the planet, apparently--there were some holdouts, but it's pretty much gotten to the point where claiming to own another person isn't safe anymore.

If she cares to dig a little further she can probably find out there was supposedly at least one force user involved in all this (sources are confused as to whether it was a Jedi, a Sith, both or neither).

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Probably not a Sith, with the whole freed slaves things. Jedi's more likely, but they don't usually go rogue like that.

A couple months is a long time, but she still wants to go check out the former Cartel headquarters. She rents a speeder.

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The Cartel headquarters has been pretty thoroughly demolished. If her forensic skills are good enough she can probably discern lightning marks on a few pieces of rubble and lightsaber marks on more.

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Curiouser and curiouser.

Is everything thoroughly demolished? No overlooked electronics still in one piece? Cameras, terminals, stray datapads?

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She can find some of those. The demolition was more "vent rage against the oppressor" than "attempt to prevent forensics."

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All right then. Let's see what she can find.

Not much out of the ordinary in the ledgers, visitor count looks stable... She flips to the security footage from just before the building collapsed.

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The Hutts are apparently concerned about the slave uprisings! They've been trying to detonate transmitters but it keeps not working. There is apparently a mob approaching outside; the Hutts are mostly confident their guards can handle the rabble.

The guards can, apparently, handle the rabble, but not the woman dressed in black with a lightsaber in her hand and lightning at her fingertips.

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Looks like a Sith to her. Trying to create a personal fiefdom, maybe? Play the liberating hero, bask in the adulation, set up as the new overlord. Depending on the Sith, that could be plausible.

She has half an answer. If she can find the Sith, she can get the rest.

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The building remains intact for a while longer. Before it's been demolished, but after most of the inhabitants have died, a man in pale tan with a lightsaber on his hip shows up and starts healing rioters who were injured by the guards.

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Huh. That's a thing.

Two are easier to find than one, assuming they're working together.

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There isn't much more of interest in the files, unless she wants to study the Sith(?)'s fighting style.

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Are there enough good angles on it?

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Yes, actually.

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What's the fight look like?

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The Sith seems genuinely angry with the Hutts. On more than one occasion she offers to let a guard live if they step aside; on the occasions where they accept her offer she doesn't go back on it.

When the last of the Cartel is dead, she spits on the ground in front of the body and says something in an unfamiliar language.

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She sees at least two exploitable systematic vulnerabilities in the Sith's style, quite aside from the parts where she lets people live.

The Sith's putting more effort than usual into appearing benevolent, and does seem genuinely angry at the Cartel. That she doesn't recognize the language is vaguely troublesome. It sounds like someone brewed a pot of Huttese tea, drained everything but the dregs, and threw that into a blender with a pile of rocks.

Any clues on which way she went afterwards?

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After that she checks to make sure the guards she let live are out and comes out and says something dramatic to the crowd in the unfamiliar language, at which point there is cheering and then the building gets demolished.

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Hmm. Her best bet seems to be going back into town and trying to pick up some more local gossip, if the Sith's as populist as appearances indicate.

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Gathering gossip from the locals is somewhat impeded by the fact that a lot of it is in the unfamiliar language. Gossip in more familiar languages tends to mostly come from the subset of locals who weren't slaves or closely connected to any slaves before the uprising. From them, she can glean the fact that the figure in the light tan is a Jedi, or possibly ex-Jedi, and the woman in black claims not to be a Sith or a Jedi.

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Claiming things is easy. She's more interested in the where than the what, though. Not that she'd say that in so many words, but she can poke and prod the conversation.

Also, are the locals talking with context such that she can start picking up the language?

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Yeah, she probably can.

The ex-slave locals seem to be referring to the Sith as "Ekkreth" a lot.

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