Tentacle Covered Chaos Chapter Seven

Tentacle Covered Chaos

Chapter 7: A Test of Character

<<<Poppy>>>

Poppy was moisturized, calm, and in her element as she slipped into the bathroom rafters. Could she have snuck inside in a different way? Probably, but everyone knew about her and, more importantly, was on the lookout for her.

Frankly unfair as a test of security, but those were the conditions the council gave to her to prove they needed a security update. “Can’t let me do my thing the normal way, no, need to…” she grunted as she slipped past a pipe, “do this bullshit.”

She really hated dealing with potential clients that believed their security was perfect. Nothing was ever perfect, there was always a weak link. But to be fair, their security was honestly impressive, it’d stump the average thief easily enough, but all it took was someone that thought a little out of the box and all their secrets would be forfeit and sold to the highest bidder.

Sure, they had the maintenance accesses watched… but there was plenty of room outside of those in most of the temple. Not the secure areas, no, but she didn’t need them to get there.

She just needed to get into someplace where it looked like she belonged.

Now if only she didn’t have to go to such absurd lengths to prove a damn point! God, no wonder the Jedi order inevitably got destroyed!

Still, she did eventually get to her destination and, with a grunt, shifted the metal panel baring access to a side hallway. It was rarely used, but there’d be no questions about why someone would be there either. Perfect to drop down into with a brown robe covering her body.

“Let’s see them deny me after this,” Poppy thought with a small smug smile.

Humming faintly and after ensuring her robe was in place and nothing could give her away, she calmly walked down the hall. And anyone that saw her would, probably, mistake her for a padawan that got separated from their Master and got lost.

All she had to do was get to the library and, for that, she could follow the helpful signs littered about the complex. She wouldn’t begrudge them that, however, the place was big enough that they were needed.

The only person, at that point, which might pose an issue was the librarian and she had the perfect cover story in that case.

She nodded at a passing jedi, body relaxed as she walked and tentacles carefully hidden in her robes. She could declare mission success by just arriving at the library… or she could really drive the point home and go up to the council room itself.

Decisions decisions.

“Council room it is, I really want to see their reactions.” Was it petty of her? Absolutely, but it turned out she really didn’t like it when the space wizards acted like they knew better.

Who knew?

Library, then council room, and if still not stopped she’d see about popping into one of the armories. If she knew how to make a lightsaber that would have been the second place to go, for the shock factor, but she didn’t have those blueprints.

And so she walked into the library like she owned the place, nodding to Master Nu as she walked by. She didn’t have to do much beyond sit at one of the consoles for a few moments, a virus getting installed didn’t take that long but appearances had to be kept, before leaving.

Still, she began typing in some searches and, when no one was looking in her direction, slipped a data chip into the terminal.

To her grand surprise, the system was write only on that port, but that didn’t really matter. It just meant she had to drop the chip elsewhere for someone to pick it up and use it on their personal machine which would then let whatever virus was on it onto their network.

Not that she had any such virus, it was just the equivalent of a text file saying ‘You got pwned.’

“Oh, there’s an idea,” Poppy thought as she waved down Master Nu. “Excuse me, Master Nu?” She asked with a soft and nervous smile. She didn’t even have to fake that, this would be very delicate to do. “I’m afraid I need to send a file to my Master, Master Fisto, but I can’t do it from this computer. Could you do it for me?” She requested, holding the chip out.

“Of course padawan. No problem at all,” Master Nu said with a smile.

“Thank you, Master,” She replied with a bow, “And… could you direct me to a good text on force suppression? He has me practicing it and I want to surprise him with faster than usual progress.”

“Such a diligent padawan,” Master Nu said with a smile, “Of course, honestly I’d prefer this force suppression to be a standard part of training.”

“I think Master Fisto agrees,” She replied, “Thank you again, Master.”

“Now, if only the others were as reasonable,” Master Nu said, “And it isn’t a problem. Now force suppression is in…”

Poppy listened to Master Nu, and after getting directions she made her way deeper into the library. After all it wouldn’t do for her to just leave, and she was genuinely interested… if only in an academic sense as she still wasn’t entirely sure she could even use the force.

Still, maybe there would be something in there for non-force users to hide their emotions? That would be useful.

Still, she grabbed the dataslate and, as she read, started to leave. “Thanks again, Master Nu, I’ll be in my room studying this and will return it when I’m finished.”

Master Nu smiled. “If only all padawans were so diligent…” Poppy wasn’t entirely sure if the jedi meant to say that out loud or not.

Still, the walk from the library to the council chambers wasn’t too long and, bonus, she had a dataslate to read as she walked; easily explaining why her face was partially hidden as she went!

The elevator, of course, needed a code to be used but there were ways around that, namely opening up the emergency controls with a tentacle shoved inside and picking the lock. Sure, it would only open up the door to get in but… there was a technician ladder there too.

A little more dangerous than back home, but apparently they’d never heard of ‘fail safe elevators’ or operator keys.

Then she just climbed up, praying that the elevator wouldn’t come down on her because that would… be very unpleasant to experience. She was squishy and could survive a lot, but that was probably not one of those things.

“And now… to make an entrance,” She whispered to herself as she forced the doors open with raw strength, the gears making an unpleasant grinding sound as she did.

Though, she did absentmindedly wonder if she always had a flair for the dramatic? She probably did, but this was a touch more than usual.

<<<Master Windu>>>

“I win,” Poppy announced as everyone turned to look in her direction. He’d already taken his lightsaber out, alongside Kit, but Yoda seemed singularly unconcerned. He’d probably realized it was the girl immediately.

“Mmm, so it seems…” Master Yoda said with a chortle, “Most amusing you are!”

“Speaking of amusing,” She started, ignoring their ignited blades as she skipped over towards Kit, “You will, if I’m not mistaken, be receiving an… email? A file soon, just a text one, from Master Nu. I asked her to send it to you.”

Kit was about to open his mouth but stopped before pulling a dataslate up and a few moments later he just chuckled, “Well played young lady, well played.”

“Really, her having inserted the datachip into her own system was enough for me to declare victory,” Poppy continued, “I could have headed down into an armory too, but I don’t know how to make a lightsaber so there wouldn’t be much point.”

Master Windu just laughed as he deactivated his saber and put it away. “I do believe you’ve proved your point, Poppy,” He said as he shook his head, in truth he would’ve accepted her assistance sooner but the others needed proof.

And some simply could comprehend that their security could be circumvented.

“It would have been easier if I didn’t need to break in and could instead have just, you know, walked in,” She complained, “Did you have to let the guards know I wanted to get in? That was cheating.”

Master Yoda just chortled and Windu just shook his head. “Yes actually. Generally people aren’t allowed into the Council room unless they have a reason or have been called,” He said.

“Ah, but let into the temple itself?” She asked, “I just walked here from the library thanks to these lovely robes that Jedi Anakin lent me and I had a lovely conversation with Master Nu.” She paused for a moment before walking over to Kit and handing him a dataslate, “Also Master Nu thinks you should focus on teaching force suppression.”

“... I’m going to have to have some words with our security force…” A distinctly unamused Windu said as he rubbed his nose.

Master Kit just laughed, but didn’t disagree in the slightest.

“And that is why I’m here,” Poppy said, clapping once, “You see, the easiest way to infiltrate a building or known as Social Engineering and one of the key tenets of that is… act like you belong in the building. There are other things too, of course, like dropping a datachip that someone will inevitably plug into their own personal system out of curiosity, picking locks, etc.”

She’d started pacing at that point, like she was giving a lecture.

“Education is key! Education for security, for staff, and for those that live in a place!” She announced, “Bad habits must be expunged and burned at the stake!”

“Well, she’s certainly passionate about the subject,” Windu thought with some amusement.

“And then there’s the security systems you need installed in general. Sure, they won’t work if a power outage happens but if you have one of those happen there are bigger problems,” She ranted, “Locks! Locks everywhere! And sensors, you need more of those! Sound sensors, specifically. Heat and vibration can be bypassed too easily!”

Windu noticed to his amusement that Master Kit was actually making notes on his dataslate! 

“And everyone should have a badge, something to verify that they actually belong in the temple to begin with,” She continued, “The badges should double as electronic keys and be personalized, the central database should be able to revoke keys as they become invalid and they should need to be reauthorized every two weeks, just in case its stolen or the jedi is killed.”

Her tentacles were waving now, “And, finally, no one except Jedi should be security.”

“Reasoning?” Master Yoda asked, more curious than resistant, really.

“You can’t verify that a non-jedi is supposed to be somewhere if they look right, which surgeries can manage, but if someone tries to look like a Jedi they’re going to be easily found out because they won’t have the Force,” She explained with a shrug.

Master Yoda just nodded. Master Windu wanted to believe that people wouldn’t go to such lengths, but he was too pragmatic to do so. Before he became Master he’d seen the extent some people would go to deceive and steal from others. 

“Of course, everywhere that only Jedi are ever supposed to go should have force specific locks, like needing to lift a weight inside an otherwise solid wall,” She continued, “Again, just to ensure that the only infiltrators you need to worry about are either Sith or me.”

She then paused and everyone foolishly assumed she was done before she continued, “And honestly? You should also consider security measures to protect the temple from Jedi. After all, all it takes is for one with high enough access to fall and well… the order would just collapse from the inside.”

Windu frowned but… “You are not incorrect, but creating something for them would be rather challenging. Anything done to stop them would stop us from doing our job too.”

Poppy nodded. “Agreed. I simply felt that it was a possibility that should be brought up,” She said, “Any security system will cause at least some disruption, but the tradeoff is that people can’t screw with you. Perhaps needing another jedi to access the super important stuff? That way two of you would need to go bad for things to go wrong.”

And Master Windu understood, though he certainly wouldn’t welcome the new paranoid thoughts this suggestion would bring up.

“And that’s it for just off the top of my head,” She finished, “Oh, aside from making the doors and to where younglings are shielded, probably the way up to the Council Chambers too.”

“Given us much to consider, you have.” Master Yoda said while nodding his head, “Consider yourself hired, will you?”

“Thank you, Master Yoda,” She said with a bow, “I don’t know what the going rate is, so I’ll just pray that you pay a market wage. Or room and board, either works for me.~”

Master Yoda just chortled, “Fair wage you will have,” He said before tilting his head, “Hmm, much change you will bring Poppy.”

“I should hope so,” She replied, “If nothing changed I’d have to sneak in and actually steal something.”

She was entirely too serious for Windu to feel comfortable with the statement.

“But…” She started before slowly walking backwards, “Bye!” And then dropped down the elevator shaft she’d come out of.

“... I hope she didn’t just kill herself there,” Kit sighed, jogging over to look down it, “Nope, she’s fine. She is far too reckless.”

“Hmmm… breath of fresh air she is.” Of course Master Yoda would find her chaos refreshing.

“Master Yoda…” Windu started, “We’re going to have to hire people to fix our elevator now, you realize.”

“Expensive, she also is,” The green man agreed with a chortle.

Windu couldn’t help but sigh.

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