AU: Please check the website on our profile page out. Any recruit who contacts Aeos on the Vast Empire from will receive a present from me(Aeos) from the Imperial Store into their First Galactic Bank Accounts. This is if they can survive Naval or Army Academies.

Ron-Goron
Communications Technician
Level 4: Battle Analysis

Story 2: Target Analysis

My Choice -or- A Change in the Wind

The newly waxed floor of the Gregor Building halls reflected Ron's stance perfectly; though it was faded, tile green, and upside down. To match, his body slenderized on the slick tile, making his torso and head ridiculously flatter than in reality. The only part of his body that was proportional to the reflection was his feet, which were planted firmly on the ground.

In front of Ron was the greatest of all beer vending machines, which Ron had labeled suitably as "The King". In previous months, Ron had been consumed by a constant drive to cheat the machine; to steal as many beers as he could. But that seemed like a long time ago. He looked down at his clenched hand by his side and extended it forward, slowly releasing his fingers outward to expose the zip chip within it. This was Ron's masterpiece, the ultimate weapon against the beer vending machines. With this tiny instrument of technology he was able to suck the machine clean of all its beverage- making the difficulty of past attempts the work of a once incompetent youth.

But now as he stood with arm extended and palm open- Ron discovered that the age old trade of stealing beer had lost interest. He had defeated himself, the beer machine had been conquered and he had perfected his art; but for some reason his victory lacked satisfaction. The beer he stole tasted the same as the beer he bought. He pocketed the chip, reached back in for some credits, and paid the fee.

"Giving up?" came a familiar voice.

"It's finished." said Ron simply. "I'm just not interested in beating the machine, or you, anymore."

"Do you have it, do you have the chip?" asked the Janitor.

"Sure." said Ron absentmindedly. He pulled out the chip from his pocket and gave it to the Janitor without another look at it.

"Sure is a pretty thing." said the Janitor admiringly. "I don't recognize the technology though. What did you use?"

"I basically created it." said Ron while he opened the can with a hiss. "It's called a Hijack Chip. The computer inside the chip acts like a virus which completely takes over the computer- regardless of software and protection. Once that's done- it tells the machine to release cans in increments of five until I pull it out. That's it."

"Impressive." said the Janitor. And he meant it. He pocketed the chip and sat upon the hallway bench, motioning for Ron to join him. Ron nodded, and half grinned before he sat down.

"I remember setting up this bench twenty years ago." the Janitor mused. "That was back when I was first hired to do work here, right after I failed the Com Tech final exam."

"Wait." Ron said. "I thought you said you were hired to fix bugs and keep hackers from tearing apart the campus."

"Not exactly." the Janitor said. "I was hired because I had nothing else to go for. I had been accepted to a Squad, and to a full promotion; but I failed the test. The Squad chose someone else who passed, and they gave them the promotion as well." the Janitor's voice lowered. "It's a pity too, I knew more about computers than anyone else in that class."

Ron's eyes dropped so that he gazed at the floor. He raised his voice without raising his eyes. "So how did you fail?"

"I was not interested in the class." said the Janitor simply. I had passed the classes easily enough- they were all basically book exercises with occasional tests. I thought I could pass the exams the same way. I was wrong. When I took the exams, they gave me problems I couldn't handle. So I failed."

"Then… why are you telling me this?" asked Ron. He felt he knew the answer, but for some reason he just had to ask.

"Because you have potential; because if you pass this course, then somehow I'll feel like I did not fail that class for nothing." said the Janitor. He got up and stretched his arms before dipping his mop in the bucket. Ron got up as well and started to walk down the hall. He turned suddenly and said,

"Hey Janitor… thanks for everything."

"Get to class." came the Janitor's unemotional response. The sound of splattering water resounded through the hall as Ron took the Janitor's advice.

_ _ _

Ron's "class" was more like private instruction. With only seven students left in the class (all of them had passed from the last class), Prof. Wethers decided the best course of action was to schedule them separately. Wethers (as stated in the previous story) felt that his two classes of Battle and Target Analysis were the most important in a Communications Technicians training. Being as such, they were his only classes, and he could afford to give special attention to a small class.

Ron entered the room slowly, and shut the door behind him slowly. Regardless of his precaution, the door still clicked, and in the massive classroom the closing click echoed.

"Ah. Ron, yes, please make yourself comfortable in the first row there… next to the, ah, laptop there." came Wethers' voice. Ron couldn't see the man, but he followed the directions. Soon enough he saw his professor appear from behind the green chalkboard- a large black book in his hands. Ron stared at his actions, and was surprised to see that an instructor actually still used the dusty chalkboard.

"Ron?" said Wethers. He had caught Ron's gaze and was ready to move on. Ron snapped out of his momentary relapse and listened as Wethers explained his test.

"Now." he started. "As I had explained over the course of the last few days, there are five methods to determine your target for execution…"

"Sore-thumb, Affirmative Action, Tip, Hour-glass, and Trial and Error." said Ron immediately.

"And what do they mean?" asked an already pleased Wethers.

"The Sore-thumb method is the easiest to find. Basically it's the theory that suspicious actions are the best way to determine the correct target. Suspicious actions could be anything from clothing worn by target, to equipment carried by target, to even the language spoken by the target." answered Ron.

"And the dangers of using this method?"

"Using the Sore-thumb method can be dangerous if the suspicious target is not the actual target. In extreme cases: if the suspicious target is eliminated and it is found out that said eliminated person was innocent, then the mission is jeopardized; and the only method left is Trial and Error."

"Next." said Wethers.

"Affirmative Action is when a person performs a suspicious and often violent action in front of the trooper. This is not likely to happen, but if the trooper should be lucky enough to witness the action committed then his work is pretty much cut out for him. The benefit of using Affirmative Action is the high chance that the subject is the correct target. Drawbacks include putting yourself in danger to view the action and accusing an innocent person as the target."

"Good." exclaimed Wethers.

"The Tip method is when a trooper receives reliable information regarding details that can lead to the extermination of the target. This is the most frequent of all the methods used. Tips don't have to come from other people, they can be clues that the trooper finds that leads him to the enemy target. Drawbacks are false leads and poor information, which can lead to unnecessary death.

"The Hour-glass method," continued Ron. "is the theory that if a trooper waits long enough, the proof and target will present itself over time. This is usually used when a trooper has used, or tried to use all the aforementioned methods to find said person. The drawbacks to using this method are losing the trail, missing the target, and wasting time."

"And last…" started Wethers.

"is the Trial and Error method." continued Ron. "This method is the worst method; but in some cases it is the only one left to use. The Trial and Error method is the theory that after eliminating all suspicious targets, the objective target will be eliminated eventually. While this is the most thorough of all the methods, it is also the dirtiest and least professional. Consequences fall heaviest with this one. The drawback to Trial and Error is killing innocent people and in some cases missing the target completely while wasting shot and manpower on wrong targets."

"Excellent." said Wethers. "You have definitely passed the oral exam with flying colors. I doubt that you will have trouble remembering those methods in the future. Now we will move on to the actual execution of the exam."

Wethers drew three figures on the chalkboard and labeled them,

"The first is a human male, five foot eleven inches tall, one hundred and seventy pounds. The only other information you have on him is the fact that he is a citizen of Corellia and he carries a heavy pistol on his right side.

The second is a female Twi'lek, six foot tall, one hundred forty-nine pounds. You can see from looking at her that she wears a ceremonial necklace around her neck, carries twin blaster pistols at both sides of her hips- and has a blaster rifle strapped across her back. She is a hired guard for one of the larger Vertis Corporation company buildings.

The last suspect is a heavily armored mercenary. You don't know the sex of this suspect, but you can see that it is six feet four inches tall, and about two hundred pounds. The mercenary wears thick armor with numerous weapon devices built into it. The mercenary favors a heavy repeating blaster rifle as his weapon of choice."

Ron nodded as the information was presented to him.

"I will now explain to you the location and then will explain your "mission" to you. After that, you will proceed to explain to me how you will narrow down your suspect and eventually you will chose one of them to exterminate. Is everything clear?" asked Wethers,

Ron nodded again.

"Right then. Upon the Imperial transport Legacy twenty passengers are being shipped to Tatooine for personal and business matters. While traveling in hyperspace, the captain is murdered in his room. The three suspects above were caught nearby when the pilot of the ship arrived on the scene. You, being the highest ranking officer left on board are called to investigate. The clues are as follows:

First: all three of the suspects have weapons with them. The human has a blaster pistol, the twi'lek has two blaster pistols, and the mercenary has a heavy repeating blaster rifle.

Second: there are no visible blaster wounds visible on the dead captain's body. But there is some signs of redness around his neck as well as several bruises on his skull. Blood is also visible around the mouth, nose, and ears of the captain.

Third: the blood of the captain has been found on two of the suspects, the human and the mercenary.

Fourth: the video camera in the room was shot and destroyed before the murder could be recorded. When the damage was inspected, it was determined that it the person who destroyed the camera used a blaster pistol.

Fifth: the room of the murder scene has large traces of carbon monoxide gas.

Sixth: the mercenary has an empty canister of carbon monoxide gas equipped on his wrist.

Seventh: only the twi'lek and the human suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning, the twi'lek suffering the most.

Eighth: all three suspects blame a different suspect for the murder."

Wethers looked at Ron. "Are you with me so far?"

Ron nodded. It was a lot of information, but all of it was vital to determining who the target is.

"Alright." continued Wethers. "Now to personal accounts. The human claims that the twi'lek committed the crime. According to him, he heard a gunshot in the captain's room which made him enter the room incase someone was hurt. When he entered, he saw the twi'lek in the room strangling the captain, so he rushed at her to stop her. Then the human said that the twi'lek turned out the light, and then tried to escape. The human claimed he grabbed the twi'lek by her neck and held down tight until he felt her get weaker. After that, he called for help and the mercenary came in; resulting ultimately with the lights turned on, the captain on the floor dead- and the pilot walking in. The man gives no account for the carbon monoxide."

Ron nodded for him to go on.

"The twi'lek claims that the mercenary killed the captain. She said that she was the one who walked in to find the human try to kill the captain, and so she tried to stop him. She said that she raised her blaster to kill him, but she missed and hit the camera instead. She also said that he turned out turned out the lights. Suddenly she felt cold metallic fingers around her neck and the sound of a quiet gas leaking. The twi'lek claims she was almost choked to death and then thrown aside by the mercenary. She finishes the story by saying that the mercenary used the carbon monoxide to poison all the people in the room, except himself because he was protected by a mask, and then he made sure that captain was dead by strangling him."

Ron wrote down the last part of the narrative before nodding for Wethers to finish,

"The mercenary claims that the human killed the captain. He says that he came in late, when the lights were already out. He admits that his canister was emptied, but he says that the human emptied it on purpose to poison everyone in the room. The mercenary finishes his story by saying that the human strangled the captain after releasing the carbon monoxide into the air."

Wethers smiled after finishing. "Now tell me." he said. "Which one of the suspects killed him? And who should deserve death in return?"

_ _ _

Ron looked at his information carefully. From everything he heard, the mercenary's story sounded the least likely. The fact that a mere citizen killed an Imperial Captain in his sleep before a guard and a mercenary did was very unlikely, and the part of the mercenary's story about the human releasing the carbon monoxide into the room was very unlikely as well. Doubtless the human did not even know about the carbon monoxide at all. So from the start, it looked like the Mercenary was the perpetrator just because of his suspicious story; Sore-thumb method.

But then there was the twi'lek. She was seen by the citizen as shooting the camera, a fact that she did not even deny. The story about her missing the human was a very big lie too, that was a terrible shot for a hired body guard. That alone gave her away as committing a suspicious action; Affirmative Action method.

Next Ron had to figure out exactly how the captain died, and perhaps narrow it down to who could have possibly killed him. He thought back to the clues that Wethers gave him, or his Tips. Wethers said that the man died with no blaster shots, but instead had pressure around his neck and bruises on his head. That sounds like he was strangled. Then again, there was blood around his mouth, nose, and ears. That means that some pressure within him must have forced him to bleed externally. Ron was no medic, but he had heard some terrible effects of carbon monoxide poisoning. Ron thought that once again, the clues led to the mercenary; Tip method.

The Mercenary did it...

As Ron was about to answer, he suddenly remembered a very important fact. The twi'lek clearly claimed that she was strangled by cold metallic hands. That contradicted against the man's claim that he's the one who tried to choke her. If that was true, then the part of the man's story where he claims he strangled the twi'lek was not true… which meant that he actually was holding onto the captain's neck.

The twi'lek must have done it...

Ron was about to answer again; he opened his mouth and breathed, but then he remembered one last point. The twi'lek was the one who shot the camera. If it was clear that the twi'lek did not hit the camera on accident, then why would she want to destroy the only trustable evidence of the murder in the room? She was covering up for herself. That could only mean one thing: the twi'lek meant to kill the captain, but she was stopped by the man who tried to kill her, but accidentally killed the captain instead. The mercenary, while he seemed to be the most obvious choice, was hardly involved at all. The only problem left was how the carbon monoxide was released…

After thinking about it for a while, the answer came to him. The man who strangled the captain must have hit the release for the carbon monoxide on the mercenary, either by accident or on purpose- it did not matter. That would explain how the captain's blood got on the mercenary. All this using the Hour-glass method.

Finally Ron gave his answer. He explained everything to Wethers first and finished saying,

"The human killed the captain, but the Twi'lek was the one who set up the murder. The human should be punished severely, and the Twi'lek is our target, letting her go would be dangerous to other crew members."

"Well…" started Wethers. "You've passed Target Analysis… you solved that problem perfectly."

Ron blinked in surprise. He was not expecting such a short answer.

"That's it?" he said.

"Unless you want me to give you another one." grinned Wethers.

"No." said Ron firmly. He took out a death-stick and grinned,

"All that carbon monoxide got me thinking about my smokes…"