Mon Calamari's Open Orbit

With a flicker of pseudomotion and a distant flash of light, the Starwind-class star yacht Exeter that ferried Archais and his retinue to Mon Calamari popped into Dac space, cruising smoothly into Mon Calamari orbit and broadcasting standard greeting phrases. Within the ship, designed for a crew of five plus ten passengers but currently stocked for roughly half that number, Archais sat within the small communications suite designed to host discussions with parties on other planets or vessels. He was dressed in attire different form his usual garb, his usual black fatigues swapped for a more casual and less threatening finery that bespoke one of utilitarian dress mixed with a certain opulence that suited his forged identity's well-to-do mercenary and security consulting career. He'd applied cosmetics to his scars to give a bit more youth to his experience and reduce his sinister appearance, and sat now in front of the main comm screen with a casual expression, awaiting the inevitable challenge from planetary control.

Surely enough, it came within a few minutes of their making orbit. The screen flickered to life, and a gruff voice came over the speaker that matched the Mon Calamari that sat at the other end of the communication.
:Starwind Exeter, this is Mon Calamari planetary control. Please state the nature of your business, your destination, and transmit a full crew and cargo manifest at your earliest convenience.:

Archais put on a false smile and spread his hands in a universal gesture of openness before he replied.
"Greetings, control. I am Captain Zahyzu Archos, commander of the Exeter. My crew and I represent the Valley Pact, a security consultation and contractual firm based out of Concord Dawn. My second is transmitting our validation, credentials and the requested manifest now. We are here specifically on the business of one Quarren Cephorda, as he has requested our consultation expertise in Aquarius City. Please let me know if I can provide any further aid in establishing our identity."

The Mon Calamari on the screen looked away for a moment, conferring with his unseen coworkers, then tapped a few commands into his console. From his place behind the helmsman, Adur looked to Archais and offered a nod of his head confirming they had access to the planet.
:That won't be necessary, Captain. Commandant Cephorda has already informed us of your arrival and will await you in Aquarius. For now, you have been granted a berth at the southside spaceport in Coral City. An envoy will await you there, and will transport you from your berth to your destination in Aquarius. You are free to make planetary ingress at any time. Control out.:

The image winked out, and Archais held the congenial smile for just a fraction of a second before letting it fall into his usual cold, calculating visage. He stood, and nodded to the crewman that he had the bridge before motioning for Adur to follow him to the heart of the ship. The pair moved through the overexpanded hallway that indicated this vessel's purpose as a pleasure vessel-turned-utility transport, and after a moment came into the conference room where the rest of the Imperium operatives already awaited them. A few were faces Archais had worked with before, most notably his most prominent pupil Itzal Chisisi, but most were ones that he hadn't yet met. The lot of them silenced themselves as he arrived and he began without much in the way of preamble, using the Force to amplify his voice to a normal speaking tone.

"Mon Calamari," he said, gesturing to the holoprojector and summoning a three-dimensional figure of the planet that dominated the long conference table. "A planet that has remained a part of the Galactic Republic for centuries and that has provided not only potent diplomatic envoys, but the backbone of the Republic Navy's capital ship fleet. Recently, tensions have mounted between the planet's local populations of Mon Calamari and Quarren, as well as the lesser species, over equality or some other such trivia. The former two have had difficulties for millennia, and recent insurgencies and large-scale protests over Mon Calamari involvement with the Republic are just the latest iteration of these abrasions."

"At a noon-time protest two days ago, the Quarren separatists' leader, Teuthus, was killed in a police response to a demonstration. The rally ended in a bloodbath, and this development has set the situation to a boil. More recent actions in the last few days have involved anti-Mon Cal mobs and small explosives utilized at governmental buildings. The long story short is that the Quarrens want out of the Mon Calamari regime dictating the planet's alignment with the Republic, and we are here to help facilitate that."

Archais tapped a command into the console, and an image of a Quarren appeared on-screen.
"This is Cephorda, the second-in-command of the separatist movement and our contact within the party. While Cephorda publicly supported a peaceful withdrawal from the Republic, he is actually the head of a splinter group of ultranationalist Quarren and other Mon Calamari natives that seeks to oust the dominant regime of Mon Calamari and seize power himself. We are being brought in as 'security consultants' to assess how to make protests safer while in actuality, Cephorda believes we will be arming and training his people for a full-bore insurgency. We have multiple targets already identified, but will fully reconnoiter the area once we are in place."

"The target area itself is the Domed City of Aquarius, some manner of symbolic settlement built underwater and housed beneath a giant dome to allow both natives and non-natives to coexist," he said, with another tap yielding a view of the enormous city. "Our endgame is to planet high-explosive devices at several yet-to-be-determined sites that, when detonated, will destroy the protective water shield and flood the city, killing all non-natives and catalyzing Mon Calamari's forced withdrawal from the Galactic Republic. In the meantime, we will do all we can to sabotage pro-Republic sites, assassinate pro-Republic personnel, and incite whatever chaos we can. Any questions?"

" None, Dread Lord. I am restless only to begin."

The rest of the operatives voiced similar sentiments, and those that didn't remained silent or offered some tribute. Archais let his eyes rest a moment on the diminutive Omwati that had spoken, one of his most promising tools in Chisisi. The young Sith was beginning to refine his Force abilities into almost manifest powers now, and while his discovery of his talents had been a painful road thus far - as was that of any Sith - it was finally starting to pay dividends. He knew the blue-skinned alien's skills in subterfuge were already impressive, and taking steps in mastering the dimensions that Force mastery added to that particular field would make him a renowned agent. A useful one.

His musings concluded, Archais looked at the rest of the group and simply said, "Prepare yourselves. Dismissed."

He felt the subtle shift as the ship changed course to land on the surface, and moved to secure his own things before the ship cruised neatly into the landing bay some twenty minutes later.

As the hailing frequencies were received by The Acheron, they were diverted down to the planet's surface. There, the comms techs checked against the database for the Pertinax Battlegroup. When everything checked out, a comms officer alerted Marshall Marshall to the arrival of the Rear-Admiral and his fleet of ships. Victor smiled to himself, before making his way to the command center and opening a line back to the Duro Rear-Admiral Zhundilt, it is a pleasure to see you. I am Victor Marshall, Third Marshall of the Alliance Forces. If you would, proceed down to Foamwander City, where we make speak in person... Co-ordinates down to Foamwander City spaceport were then sent up to the Pertinax, leading to a specially set aside hangar bay for VIP guests