Prime Targets
A month later, Cyrinity was standing in a pod in the Galactic Republic Senate hall where the main topic of discussion was the growing threat of war that the Empire was placing on the Republic. The young Senator took note of anyone who was trying to suede the Senators to take a peaceful route and try to have diplomatic conversations with the Sith Empire to resolve everything peacefully. Cyrinity was not overtly sure why Jaira wanted this list of people but her job was not to ask questions and complete the tasks that she was assigned completely.
"We must resolve this peacefully," Senator Amidala tried to insist yet again, "The Clone Wars nearly caused the Republic to go bankrupt. I must ask you Senators; do you really wish for the Republic to go bankrupt this time?" she asked.
Cyrinity sighed sadly as she had been hoping to leave the Senator of Naboo off the list because of how kind she had been to her since the young lady had joined the Galactic Senate.
"What makes you think that this Empire even wants to negotiate a peace treaty with us?" Senator Halle Burtoni of Kamino asked.
"These are not the Separatists, they did not break off from the Galactic Senate but rose up out of nowhere," Senator Mon Mothma pointed out, "I am sorry Senator Amidala, under other circumstances, I would have agreed with you but this Sith Empire is nothing like the Separatist Alliance," she apologised.
"Order!" the speaker yelled as he banged his staff twice so that the Chancellor could make his announcement.
"The vote will be organised for later this afternoon in two hours' time," Chancellor Organa announced, "That is all for now."
Cyrinity hurried gracefully to her office to ensure that she could contact the Sith Empress in private without anyone disturbing her. Upon arriving, she ordered her guards not to let anyone enter the office under any circumstances until she told them otherwise. Then the young Senator proceeded to lock the door and approach the holo terminal that was placed near her desk she pressed a button to close the blinds so that there was no chance that anyone would see anything through the tall windows. Cyrinity pressed a few controls on the terminal and began the call to the Sith Empress who answered just after three beeps.
"My lord, I have the list of Senators that you requested," Cyrinity revealed when the holo image of the Sith Empress herself appeared.
"Very good my dear, now if you could send them through to me that would be great," Jaira replied softly as Cyrinity plugged the datapad into the terminal and began the process of sending the information to the Sith Empress.
"I hope everything has been going smoothly," Jaira stated, simply trying to create small talk which she was not very good at but the young lady did not react in the way she wished she could.
"Yes, my lord," Cyrinity said, "Nobody suspects a thing," she reassured her calmly.
"Hmm, still make sure that you delete all correspondence with me and evidence of that list so that there is definitely no chance of anybody discovering this," Jaira ordered swiftly.
"As you wish my lord."
Then the transfer of the list was complete, "Very good I have received the list," Jaira said in confirmation, "Now run along Senator," she farewelled as the holocall ended.
Cyrinity hacked into the database of the holo terminal and deleted any evidence that she had contacted the Sith Empress and then deleted the list from her datapad before dropping into the chair behind her desk, feeling utterly exhausted.
Meanwhile, on Dromund Kaas, the Sith Empress sat on her throne when Darth Xaeven, Zromkiar and Agent Lazarn Brightvale entered the meeting hall with a cage being dragged in behind them by a few servants.
"Welcome back to Dromuund Kaas," Jaira welcomed them with a smile as Zromkiar took a seat on the step next to her throne, "Now what have you got for me?" she asked eagerly.
"I would like to report Empress that we achieved our mission to capture all the Rogue Jedi and their Jedi guards," Darth Xaeven informed her, "However we did not manage to take control of the Citadel," he added hesitantly.
Jaira glanced at the Agent briefly and noticed the cracked scarring that now covered the left side of his face before standing up and walking over to look out one of the windows.
"Empress?" Darth Xaeven asked nervously.
Zromkiar had a smirk on his face as he waited with bated breath for the Empress to punish the fool for calling for the retreat, fingering the hilt of his lightsaber with his right hand in excitement.
"We will allow the Republic this small victory," Jaira stated simply, surprising everyone in the room, "Now what is this?" she asked as she turned around to inspect the caged humanoid creature that was currently trying to tear its way through the bars.
"We are not sure, this is what happened when he touched one of the Sith Army soldiers," Zromkiar revealed as a body was dropped next to the cage.
The Sith Empress moved closer and touched the body but could not feel any remnants of the Force in the body that was usually present in dead bodies, "How peculiar," she muttered as she looked up into the creature's eyes.
"His records only say that his name is Tel Angor and that he was a member of the Order of the Silver Jedi, it doesn't say any more than that," Darth Xaeven explained.
"Barriss?" Jaira asked and the ex-Jedi stepped out of the shadows behind her throne, "What do you make of this thing?"
Barriss frowned slightly, "I have only heard rumours that Tel Angor was experimented on and everything went terribly wrong. I thought it was just one of those ghost stories," she mentioned briefly.
"What did the rumours say about him?" Jaira inquired as her curiosity levels heightened.
"Well only that he can suck the Force energy out of any living thing and that is what he needs to survive," Barriss revealed.
"Interesting," Jaira muttered as she became even more intrigued by this creature, "Take him away for tests to see if this is true or not," she ordered.
The servants dragged the cage out of the meeting hall with Darth Xaeven and Barriss following them closely.
"Agent, please stay," Jaira requested as Lazarn was about to also leave and as Jaira sat back down on her throne she dismissed Zromkiar who promptly left the hall. At that moment, Dr Giles Thatch entered the meeting hall with a servant who was carrying a crate.
"Empress, may I present you with the first prototype of the ZT-9 Infiltrator droid," Giles announced as the crate was opened and a small black droid floated up out of the crate.
"Very good Giles," Jaira approved as she surveyed the droid which had a disc-shaped head and one large red surrounded by four smaller black eyes. The body was constructed of five arms with a pincer-like claw on the end of each arm.
"It is programmed in infiltration, surveillance and assassination protocols," Giles revealed, "I will be completing a field test shortly," he added.
"No need for that Giles, Agent Brightvale will be completing the field test," Jaira stated, gesturing to the Imperial SIS Agent who was standing off the side.
Giles looked deflated momentarily but decided to just accept the decision the Empress had clearly already made. Lazarn eyebrows raised slightly in surprise as the droid looked at him and then back at the Empress before floating over to the Agent.
"Now Giles if you could give the necessary information to the Agent then you may leave," Jaira said and the Doctor followed her order and left the hall with the servant.
"Thank you for the opportunity Empress," Lazarn thanked her gratefully as he left the meeting hall with the droid.
"Loyalty and hard work is always rewarded," Jaira said to no one in particular as the doors closed shut and she was alone with her own thoughts once again.