A Snake in the Lair

Setting

One year before the Battle of Yavin (34:5:11) on the planet Brentaal (Imperial Garrison base).

Characters

Lieutenant Oleander Sarin, Major Dagon Tong, and Major Arden Zevrin.

Major Arden Zevrin made her way down the hallway to the office of where she was supposed to meet a new face in the facility. She took a deep breath and straightened her regulation COMPNOR uniform and tucked a few strands of strawberry blonde hair behind her ear. She folded her arms back behind her, as she held onto that datapad, making her way through sliding metal doors and into the office.

Lieutenant Oleander Sarin, was standing near the window port staring into gloomy light of the outside, his face gaunt and haunting. As he heard the doors slide he turned his body. Hands holding in a knot behind him. "Greetings! I'm Oleander hailing straight from Coruscant. You must be the charming Major Zevrin no?" Oleander stretched his dry cold white hand to greet the Major.

Major Zevrin blinked a few times as she held up the datapad. She then looked to the man standing in front of her, hearing what he had to say. She raised a small brow slightly not impressed with what she saw. "Lieutenant Sarin, I am Major Arden Zevrin. And this is quite the informal greeting." She spoke rather stern and emotionless. She would give a nod to the man, denying his hand. "Come with me, and we'll get you to your briefing with Major Tong. This way." She would step back and wait for the sliding metal doors to open so that she would motion for him to move in that direction.

A slight grin flashed on Oleander's face as he pulled back his hand. "Heheh Major I am a politician not a military man, but I do what my Empire requires of me as I am sure so do you," with those words, Oleander floated into the doorway, his dress not quite the COMPNOR stock, but an elongated version resembling that of the new political branch uniform. Oleander cocked his head slightly as he made it past the doorway to imply the Major to join him.

Arden followed suit. Her pace was a little faster than his as she stayed a few inches in front of him. She looked over the datapad in her hand once more as she would then let it rest at her side. She would not retort back to his comment.

Tong sat in his office, going over his least favorite activity that he could ever imagine. Paperwork. A cigarillo was clenched in his lips as he read over and filled out the bureaucratic nonsense that someone thought was important. His scarred countenance was pulled into something like a snarl, one of the few genuine emotions he showed. A sharp bark escaped him before the could even knock on his door, "Enter."

They got to the Major's office only after a short stroll and before Major Zevrin could lift a hand, she would walk though the metal door after giving the clearance to enter. She entered the Major's office and stood but a few feet away at attention and give a slight bow to Major Tong before she spoke again, "Major Tong ... this is Lieutenant Oleander Sarin ... a new ISB officer."

Tong glanced over at the terminal, pulling up the name and file of the new Lieutenant. He did not look any happier after he quickly read the file. "Our new politician. Thank you Major. I'm sure you have duties to attend to, I wont keep you."

Arden gave Tong another nod and bow of respect. "Major...," she turned to Oleander and give another nod, though she did not really care to address the new politician, "Lieutenant." No other words were spoken as she turned sharp on her right leg and exit the Major's office the same way that she had entered, leaving the two.

"So Lieutenant, whose bright idea was it to send you out to a war zone? And what exactly are you hoping to do out here in the Ringali Shell?" he looked the new man directly in the eye, the lack of emotion not exactly fitting the irritation in his voice.

After observing with slight amusement the Major's exit, Sarin turned his attention to the Major, "Major Dagon Tong, how does this galactic day bid you? Well I hope? COMPNOR is all too kind with us old coots running around, Ringali Shell is the place to be!"

"I'm not part of COMPNOR, and you didn't answer either of my questions, Lieutenant. How about you try again," came Tong's growling response to the man's upbeat greeting.

"The Select Committee has deemed it necessary to establish political occupation of the population regions in this sector, I am to be responsible for that," The politician answered briskly with running eyes all over the Major, Oleander seemed a bit disappointed in the flexibility of the man in charge.

"Well isn't that just spectacular. Well, you will take care of the media propaganda, and public relations. The politicians in this sector are primarily nobles. Something I'm sure you'll fit right in with. For the purpose of the actual work around here, if you can not do anything particularly useful, do me the courtesy of staying the hell out of the way of those who can. Understood?" Tong stated.

Without any change to his slight grin and lightheartedness, Oleander formed a thoughtful expression on his face. "Tell me Major, would my experience in internal security be of any use. Say to sway a political opinion or to convince a certain party to a certain opinion? In favor of the Empire? I guess the question is, what sort of resources are at my disposal?"

"Only after the politicians and parties have the issues in front of them that need to be addressed. You are welcome to request what resources you need. If you think you can sway politicians, just make sure you let me know of your intended targets." Tong left out the fact that he was orchestrating a massacre of at least one politician.

"I have extensive experience in intelligence gathering, perhaps setting up some networks in the region would also be beneficial to your tactical goal," Oleander stated.

"You aren't the first spook to come through here Lieutenant. Coordinate with Major Zevrin for your specific mission goals in intelligence gathering. Any other questions?" Tong stated.

"Yes I was hoping you could assist me in setting up a political platform on a major population center in this sector, are you the man to talk about this, I must apologize for my lack of knowledge. Something to attract people to the New Order, a collaboration maybe. This way we can have military presence without the violence and a positive assimilation of the culture. Maybe even here on Brentaal?" Oleander stated.

Tong snorted and lit a fresh cigarillo. "You're the politician. I will give you plenty of reasons for the people around here to want us. You're job is the politics end. And you already have something to work with. The hospital bombing that was perpetrated last month. Lots of signs that rebels were responsible for it. If you can't do anything with that, then I will get your hind end out of here and back to Coruscant where you can muck up someone else's operation," he said with a snarl.

Oleander was still trying to pry the Major to seem that he sees it his way too, a typical politician move, "Oh those bombings are a drag! Poor souls. If there were more of them, who could the people possibly turn to other than COMPNOR! But with soldiers patrolling the streets, there would be peace and justice! I will get to preparing my initial plan of operations for Major Zevrin then."

 "Good. Expect more bombings and assassinations and kidnappings. I'm sure that a parasite like you can work wonders with this material," Tong made no attempt to hide his disdain for the man's job. It was not often that soldiers liked spin-doctors anyway.

"Empire has a hard job and even harder for us to fight this idealistic war, not as simple as a soldier's job I'm sure. Often you never know who it is you need to be shooting at," softly hissed Oleander, and lowered his eyes in bogus but vivid respect. With that said, Oleander backed into the doorway and floated down the hall to his quarters.