Investigation

[knightgrace]

A man about five foot nine inches tall, walked across a a not very wide bridge, that to either side was a mile deep fall. There was no railing, the man had hesitated, before finally choosing this site, to bring his small star ship into a landing. He considered himself fortunate that he discovered them, before they discovered him... what was going on, on this planet wasn't very good or nice.
So great caution was indicated, which meant that he took six months after his probe found its way out at several A. U., before bringing it closer. He was correct considering his order's business.
The probe was the size of a toaster oven, which meant that it had little fuel to run on. Most of its mass, was sensor systems, designed to map out surrounding space in precise detail by the definitions of his order. He had had to refuel it was twice, the last time just before he sent it much closer in - low planetary orbit to be exact.
The planet was extremely densely populated, with at least a thousand different species of intelligent life. The process of even trying to get a handle on what was going on, nearly overwhelmed his ship's computer. So much so, that he called in others of his order. Three ships showed up, of the same type as his, one ship, was very over crowded, with eight persons of his order. Which were redistributed across the other ships... Basically six people per ship. The the senior member of the order, decided that additional data was required to answer even more questions quickly. He did this, in what for him, was very clumsy. Nothing came of it.
Now as the man walked across the bridge, carrying a six foot long, three inch in diameter staff, the man was regretting being so bold as to land where he did.
His ship's sensor net, had revealed a host of problems, beyond what his ship's computer could readily handle. The same was true for the other ships.
As he walked through the gloom of the undercity, he saw in the distance, another member of his order, coming towards him.
She wasn't from any ship in the investigation. But she was a sight for sore eyes.
His daughter. She had been missing for two years at least.
She had flaming red hair, usually as was now.
His staff gave him read outs, confirming her as his daughter. But the staff, if it could be called that, was nervous.
It was a very sophisticated computer system among other things.
Some would have called it a Tricorder, but it wasn't.
It was all things to him.

 

[knightgrace]

The thing about this order, was the extreme levels of stealth technology incorporated into everything that they did, they never moved obviously, and almost never without full concealment or distraction being in use. One could walk right by you, and you wouldn't know unless something more important was going on...
But in this case, there were factors that only slightly interfered, with their methodologies. Ones that they weren't too sure about, because, while the topics were covered, they were only taught as theoretical possible events, meaning that they were so theoretical that developing actual counter events was extremely problematic.
Yet, the man, had for the last month, been looking into the potential problems for the past month.
As his daughter approached him after better than two years, on this massively over populated planet, he realized that she had been compromised. She failed certain counter checks.
Quietly triggering certain events from his staff, he realized something of the nature of what was in particular going on here.
Those events in nearby volumes encountered resistance that, most assuredly shouldn't be occurring. She should have triggered, even without knowing why, associated responses. So, he did a high level diagnosis of her staff. It didn't have any dispersals inside of it, true it made a good show for a third grade student, but for a college graduate? He increased the force in play...because level one, was only intended for very low threat level surveillance systems. He dispersed both level two and level three events. Level three was the dangerous one. It would go after the surveillance systems themselves. The level two would confuse any observers. At least in the immediate vicinity. Where 'vicinity ' meant out to a kilometer radius. In other words a Bee sting. His order frowned upon doing anything higher. He also triggered as an after thought higher level scouting.
So, you were compromised, pulling the knife out. It hadn't hit him, mere got wrapped up in his robes. He realized sadly that his daughter wasn't functioning as a human being at all.

 

[knightgrace]

The civilization that this planet represented was extensive and puzzling. They had droids, but onboard computers were at best not that not capable. They had stealth technology in various forms, as well as crude cloaks. These cloaks operated in various levels depending upon what the ship or installation was involved with. In most cases the level one version was in use by commercial installations or ship to down play there existence at long sensor range. But law enforcement systems could bypass their effectiveness, with ease - in effect being a beacon for enhancing detectability at even longer range than one might expect. Level one systems started to become ineffective at medium sensor range, but never approached zero effectiveness. Level - used by most police agencies, that is non military agencies, in order to begin to detect them, you had to be at short sensor range. Level three were basic military types, in which case, point-blank, was the only sure way.
The man recording this said into a microphone. The report would be multiple encrypted, and his voice distorted... The Man continued on their scale of levels a typical ship of the order would be a level five., but blocking a much wider range of conditions.
Their propulsion systems were interesting in that they floated off Planets, with a reaction drive aiding the responsiveness of the ship's as a whole. The order's ships did things a little differently; they used ship service power units to generate quick high power conditions for relatively brief events, like opening a pathway into hyperspace. An order's ship, could do this four times on internal fuel/emergency propelent...with a backup long acting power source. But it took a long time to get charged up.
What this meant was that the order's ships present got down to their designated coordinates quite safely. And he only left his ship, after it had cooled down to ambient conditions.
Meeting his daughter was a plus, but realizing that she had been compromised was an emotional experience for him, thankfully he gave absolutely no external sign. He gave no external sign because of his extensive training while growing up, emotional events were not permitted.
Her staff, wasn't functioning at all, in the way intended. Its diagnostic functions were suppressed. His ataff's weren't. Several attack patterns were generated and implemented.

 

[knightgrace]

Meanwhile others from his were spreading out and investigating further, some went down and and some went up, most, however went horizontal. They realized very quickly that the bridges in sight were purposely designed to keep people away from certain areas. For members of the order, it was easy to infiltrate their technology in and around, to determine whether or not further investigation was required. In most cases this meant a button sized drone going into an area...but in a very few, a second and a third drone was sent. In only one or two cases did a member of the order actually go into.
The watchers, watching them through security feeds, were puzzled, by the way these individuals, were going about obvious reconnaissance methodology. It wasn't seemingly aimed at any goal, they were dismissive of some things, but took great pains to look at other stuff...strike teams were assembled, and failed immediately, before even starting out.
That's when they became aware that one of them was in the communication/command center. Just peaceably standing there.