CSL Passenger: Alex
Begin data transmission…
Begin decryption…
Pirate holonet decryption complete…
Report begins:
To the illustrious Captain Crimson Jack, commander of the Pirate fleet. I am transmitting this fourth intelligence report as instructed, scouring the galactic holonet using my best operatives, droids, and slicers, accessing New Republic, Old Imperial, and Republic databases. As agreed, the credits have been received, and I have spared you no expense. Well, at least as far as your credits go, which is quite far my good Captain…
Unfortunately, as I have stated previously, access to the First Order databanks has become increasingly difficult to obtain. Help on this front from yourself, and your associates, is vitally important to filling the holes in the missing information on the upcoming passenger manifest you recently “liberated” on your “excursion” on the CSL Halcyon Galactic Starcruiser.
I must compliment you Captain, as your suspicions were well-placed about the individual known as “Alex”, as he is of interest to yourself and your “affiliates” within the First Order. Current records of the Halcyon show that he has booked passage on the September 16 voyage, the 275th anniversary voyage of the Halcyon. My operatives have identified Alex from both his recent activities across the Galaxy, as well as his past, a past that is not as long gone and forgotten as he might wish. In looking across the holonet data, data that is unusually abundant, it seems that we perhaps are not the only ones interested in this individual. Alex is most definitely a person of interest on the upcoming Halcyon voyage.
Alex is a well-known professor specializing in finding and acquiring antiquities, ancient artifacts, and information from across the galaxy. He is appointed at Theed University on Naboo, yet data shows that he is rarely present on-planet. In fact, Theed records state that Alex has been reprimanded multiple times for his cavalier attitude towards the university, as it seems that he is often offworld and rarely present within the core or mid-rim systems.
Rather he is known instead across multiple systems in the outer rim and wild space, as well as multiple pirate cartels and syndicates, as a rogue smuggler who has made a wealth of enemies and debts as he blasts his way across the galaxy in search of seeming adventure and new acquisitions.
You may remember Alex from the holonets from the multiple artifacts he has recovered. Unfortunately, rather than sell to the highest bidder, these items were donated to the New Republic museum of antiquities for study. Some of the most well known artifacts were the ancient holocrons of Septos Major.
The fabled jeweled hand of the Droid King X3-78 of the ancient Sect of Machines, predating even the Old Republic.
The ceremonial mask of Krechic V.
And much much less well known, an Imperial high command data encryption droid. Each artifact of course is assumed lost in the recent destruction of Hosnian Prime. Yet, as you have instructed, we continue to search for the droid.
This information alone makes Alex a most interesting individual on the upcoming Halcyon voyage. However, upon further digging, and at much sacrifice by my operatives, who have worked tirelessly on the holonet transceiver network, I have discovered the most intriguing information about Alex’s past from over 30 years ago that he appears to want to forget and bury, but that we discovered and I believe you will find of much interest Captain.
Alex appears to have been a Hand of the Emperor!
However, oddly, my sources indicate that he is now in league with the Resistance against the First Order. As you can tell from the credit extraction for this transmission, this information did not come cheap, neither in credits nor in the lives of my operatives.
But given what you have paid for this information, I will provide you with all I know.
Old Imperial records indicate that Alex was born on Coruscant, his mother a Rebel spy and his father an operative for the Empire. The parents must have had a falling out, as it appears that Alex and his mother left the core worlds when he was merely an infant, becoming dust miners in the outer rim while his mother fought for the Rebellion.
Soon however, as a young man, Alex seems to have left the on-the-run life of the rebels, joining the Imperial War College as a young cadet. Imperial records show that Alex rose quickly in the ranks, showing himself to be a gifted pilot.
As usual, Imperial records are overflowing with holo-images of cadets and officers in ridiculous helmets as they rise through the ranks. Data records from across the old Empire are difficult if not impossible to acquire. Yet as usual, inexplicably abundant records detail exactly which helmet was worn when and by whom. What was it with the Empire and helmets with new officers? I will never understand the fascination.
Across the recorded data logs retrieved from the recovered Imperial archives, it seems that Alex fought in many battles and rose quickly through the ranks, distinguishing himself as a warrior and a pilot.
But then, the records become clouded. As Imperial data must be considered suspect after this many years, my operatives searched throughout the archives and my network of contacts. It appears that Alex’s performance as a pilot caught the attention of the Emperor himself, with records indicating a call to the Emperor’s personal chambers.
Soon after, the official military records end, but the deep archives of the Empire, combined with intelligence acquired from across the galaxy, reveals that Alex was drawn into the Secret Order of the Emperor, rising quickly here as well.
He soon became a Hand of the Emperor.
Both the Order and the Hands are little known outside of the Emperor’s closest circle, and information on either is scarce. Interestingly each Hand seems to have thought they were unique, yet as I have noted in our previous correspondence, there were many.
While few would recognize it, a Hand of the Emperor is marked with a unique tattoo, reportedly seared directly into the skin by the Order. This image is all we have of this Hand’s markings, taken while Alex was piloting an Imperial TIE fighter.
The records are spotty at best, but the information that exists shows that Alex was deployed on specific assignments across the galaxy to enact the will of the Emperor, wielding free reign and command within system across the Empire, “solving” problems that the Emperor’s inner circle and intelligence considered intractable.
For example, “solving” issues of recalcitrant, mutinous, or incompetent battalions.
In reviewing what we could find and pull together across Old Imperial, New Republic, and pirate data archives, as a Hand, Alex’s theater of operations was extensive, including investigations and interdictions across a variety of planets and systems, including core and mid-rim worlds, in which he dealt with a large variety of smugglers, pirates, operatives, and Imperial officers…
And he appears to have survived at least one encounter with remnants of the Jedi Order.
However, during the Battle of Endor, while Alex appears to have been deployed to Jakku, both of his parents were killed in the battle at the second Death Star, as the Rebellion came head-to-head with the Empire. With the death of the Emperor, it appears that Alex was released from the thrall of the Emperor, and blaming the Empire for the death of his parents, left the life as the Hand of the Emperor behind.
For many years after the fall of the Empire and the early years of the New Republic, Alex fell into league with the Phantom Regiment, providing Imperial arms and supplies using his vast knowledge of Galactic Imperial supply lines, archives, weapons depots, bases, caches, and codes. Alex continually supplied Imperial armaments to the Phantoms which they then repurposed in their struggle against Imperial Remnant forces across the outer rim planets that lay beyond the New Republic’s influence.
Alex also is recorded to have joined multiple different ship crews at about this same time, participating in uprisings across the Outer Rim systems, apparently falling in league with a variety of ships and captains, following the credits, but also seemingly working against Imperial interests.
Certainly, his knowledge of the Empire must have been an incredibly valuable asset to his many associates and allies, some of whom I think you know quite well Captain.
He is also known to have piloted many different ships. This included piloting for the New Republic, along with multiple planetary system governments, as well as legitimate, and not so legitimate, business associates over the years.
Most recently, my operatives have learned that Alex took part in a daring raid on previously unknown Imperial military wreckage in the Brytirn system. Apparently, at the height of the Empire, an Imperial convoy carrying supplies, credits, and most interestingly, a kyber crystal shipment to the Endor system, crashed out of hyperspace for unknown reasons and into the third planet in the system. This information seems to have been lost to the galaxy for all of these years, yet, Alex seems to have conducted a mission directly to this location.
Alex seems to have been met with some resistance, as it appears that there were other interested parties who perhaps had discovered the wreckage on their own.
Our operatives indicate that Alex was able to successfully board the crashed Imperial ship, and locate the kyber crystals, as well as a cache of Imperial and Old Republic credits. In addition, Alex appears to have identified Imperial datacards. These datacards may be of high value as my operatives have learned that they most likely contain coordinates to multiple Old Imperial kyber crystal caches, long forgotten and now unknown to all, including the First Order and the Resistance.
Quite interesting as well, it appears also that in addition to the large cache of kyber crystals, that one crystal glowed for Alex, which he has apparently kept. I highlight this issue, as one would assume that if Alex was force sensitive, this would have been dealt with during his past with the Empire. However, perhaps this revelation was a surprise to Alex as well? We do not know.
Who sent him on this mission? This information I could not acquire. It could have been the Resistance, or multiple possible underworld contacts, such as those in league with the Hutts. There are rumors on the blackmarket that remaining kyber crystal caches from the old Empire are fetching extremely high credits, but information on the buyer has proven difficult to identify, even to our most connected and highest value operatives.
Nevertheless, it appears that Alex sold the bulk of the kyber crystals to Rax Rillian, well-known smuggler known to operate in league with the Resistance and no friend to the Empire or the First Order.
Our information shows though that Alex has not yet parted with the datacards, nor the one glowing kyber crystal.
We surmise that Alex is boarding the CSL Galactic Starcruiser Halcyon to attempt to unload the datacards to an underworld buyer. Or, as you are well aware of the Resistance action taken on the Halcyon, perhaps he is looking to pass the kyber crystal information stored in the datacards to the Resistance. Alternatively, as the Halcyon is scheduled to visit Batuu, perhaps Alex is planning to meet with a contact there, as Black Spire Outpost provides a large range of opportunities for such a meeting.
In the end, few if any know of Alex’s past activities with the Empire, and if he is known at all, it is for his more recent adventures acquiring all manner of artifacts as a professor of antiquities. His recent actions show however that his past is not perhaps as buried and gone as one might assume. Alex is most definitely a person of interest on the upcoming Halcyon voyage.
End data transmission…
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