The controls are Imperial standard, familiar enough, though the engine responding to them is far more powerful than any Soph has encountered before.

If only she wasn't being a glorified bus driver. Still, walk before you run...

Soph brings up the course from the nav computer and runs her checklists.  

Green lights across the board. Coordinates are locked in and they have clearance to depart.

Off we go, then.

The trip's not all that long. It'd be a good idea for them to acquaint themselves with the mission briefing.

Vincoria is already deeply immersed in the various documents. She has questions that need answers.

The briefing will have many answers. Here is more history of Makeb (largely boring), climate (paradisical at six thousand feet and above, toxic below that, plus occasional electrical storms), geology (lots of very high mesas, good for living on), infrastructure (mostly tourist attractions, some minor mining operations, apparently instead of shuttle pads they have gravity hooks to get things in and out of orbit).

Another section lays out everything known about isotope-5 (not much). A third details their support staff (four black ops squads, a coordinator, two Imperial Science Bureau liasons).

Hmm. Priorities. 

First, her people. She trusts Occlus to give her competent people, but competent can come in many forms. She needs to review their dossiers, and consider her approach to their first meeting. 

... And review Darth Marr's dossier, as well. If there's another Sith involved, she should be careful of internal Empire politics. Double-check the personnel records for 'her' people. Who precisely is providing them? By what chain of command have they been allocated to her?

Second, ground situation on the planet. Current political, military and geographical realities. If the situation is delicate enough that black ops teams are necessary, she needs to know why. 

Thirdly - Is her ship expected on Makeb? If so, has she been provided a cover? If no to either, personnel insertion needs to be planned sooner rather than later. 

Darth Marr is the head of the Sphere of War, he is in supreme military command of all Imperial forces. Occlus notes that Vincoria should trust Marr to do what is in the best interests of the Empire, no matter the cost. And that she has always found him relatively easy to get along with. The black ops teams seem to have come directly from Occlus. They are veterans one and all, with highly decorated service records.

The Hutts have employed a mercenary group known as the Regulators to provide security and enforcement. There are signs of tension between them and the locals. It's likely taking the stockpile will involve a clash with these Regulators, black ops will be there to ensure any such happenings are quick, decisive, and most of all, quiet. Information security is paramount, the theft must not be noticed by the Republic until it is well over.

She is currently en route to a point just outside the system, there to meet up with the rest of the team. An insertion strategy will be decided upon there, with the benefit of the most recent reconnaissance data.

Good. If the black ops teams are personally loyal to Occlus, that significantly reduces the chance that someone will 'misplace' recovered isotope-5. 

Now to review the known properties and applications of I-5. After all, there's no use in infiltrating a highly secure facility and then discovering that you needed to bring a truck. 

Vincoria makes herself a cup of caf, and keeps going through the reports.

Projections indicate the Hutts may have as much as a kilogram of refined isotope-5 stockpiled. Here are stolen schematics for what look to be storage and transportation containers, they seem relatively portable. But at five grams per container, that's still two hundred cases to move.

Hmm. If it's that easy to move, and there's that much of it... There may well be secondary stockpiles. What does the shipping data have to say... Wait, no. That's the wrong question. What the fuck are the Hutts going to do with a refined kilogram of isotope-5? If two or three grams can run a hypermatter reactor, then each of those cases could represent a warp-capable starfighter.

No wonder the Empire can't afford to let the Hutts keep their stockpile. This is a clear and present threat to the stability of the whole region. 

There is no information about what the Hutts plan to do with their isotope-5.

Hutts like to keep things centralized, secondary locations are unlikely. The reconnaissance they've so far been able to run has had no luck turning up any possible locations, yet.

Well. 

... Let's see. Worst case scenario time.

If they have an estimate of how much isotope-5 has been refined, then they ought to also have a rough idea of how long the Hutts have had knowledge of the material. Given that starship construction on the planet would be almost impossible to hide, the next question is what other applications the material might be turned to. Small arms? Perhaps. Given that the Hutts seem to have maintained information security for some time, it seems likely that they haven't involved other parties yet... Though if she were a Hutt, she would not be storing her absurdly-valuable, easily portable material planetside. On the other hand, the limited orbital transport might make offworld transfer too easily noticed... 

So long as the orbital transport is actually limited, that is. The Empire analysts have checked thoroughly for unauthorized shuttlepads, right? 

While the mission would clearly be best conducted without the steel gauntlet approach, the strategic aim is clearly sufficient to justify full blockade of the planet if necessary. If she ends up needing that option, she wants to know that it will function as advertised. 

Apparently there's exotic ionospheric activity that makes utilizing conventional methods of orbital transit a risky proposition, where 'risky' is taken to mean that six times out of seven, your shuttle crashes to the ground in flaming pieces. The gravity hooks, by contrast, have a perfect safety record. If anything is leaving the surface, it's through those.

Ah. 

... How remarkably convenient. And they have shipping records for the relevant period?

Of course. Officially, there's been no change from usual, but unofficially, the Hutts seem to be bringing in more mining and manufacturing equipment. No detectable change in cargo being shipped offworld.

Then yes, she agrees with Intelligence that the stockpile is most likely still on-world. If it were her... 

... A facility which would be expected to take deliveries, near the edge of a mesa. A vault full of war and transport droids, buried in the toxic atmosphere at the cliff bottom. Assuming the toxic atmosphere isn't corrosive. What is it made of? Does it provide useful cover from overhead sensor scans? Are the electrical storms vicious enough that they could cause problems for droids in an EMP-hardened vault?

Storms are only a problem in the higher atmosphere, lower altitudes are mostly unaffected. Sensors can cut right through the toxicity, it's just that people and droids should not go down into it.

Hm. Well, that does minimize its use as a defensive feature. 

We have extra shipments of mining equipment: presumably they have been going somewhere?

Presumably, but if the location is known, it's not mentioned in this briefing.

Hm. That suggests a lack of assets on the planet's surface, if known shipments of mining equipment cannot be easily traced. What is the covert intelligence picture like planetside? 

If she were operating this, and needed to bring in mining equipment... She would import it openly, send it to established mines, 'decommission' the old equipment from those mines, use the 'decommissioned' equipment at the true location, and then watch the established mines carefully for interlopers. 

... Unless. Is the shadily-imported mining equipment nonstandard in any way? Specialized? 

The Empire doesn't seem to have good penetration on this planet. Before the discovery of isotope-5, it wasn't exactly a priority location.

The mining equipment is specialized for extreme-depth operations, and hardened against corrosives.

The intelligence picture is good. If they had a significant network on the planet, then she would be asking what portion of it the Hutts had subverted. 

As for the mining equipment... More so than other mining operations on the planet? If all the mines require this type of specialized equipment, it won't help much in identifying it.

This equipment is for deep-core operations, far below the depth of any acknowledged mines currently active on Makeb.