Cipher Nine

"I am assigning you a rank and designation that suits your new position. You no longer have a name. You will answer only to Cipher Nine."

- Keeper

Cipher Nine, also known by the callsign Nightshrike, was the codename for an elite Intelligence Operative of the Sith Empire during the Cold War and subsequent Galactic War.

Mission to Hutta
This Imperial Agent's first major operation was on Nal Hutta, dispatched by Keeper to convince Suudaa Nem'ro to end his neutrality and officially support the Empire. During the mission on Hutta, Agent earned the notice of Darth Jadus, a member of the Dark Council who oversaw Imperial Intelligence.

Upon arriving on Hutta, Agent rented a room in Poison Pit cantina, located across from Nem'ro's Palace in Jiguuna. The room was secured and used to make a contact with the Keeper on Dromund Kaas. They then met with an Imperial Intelligence contact Jheeg. He provided Agent with a cover identity of the Red Blade, a notorious pirate. The plan was for the Agent to infiltrate Nem'ro's inner circle by bringing him valuable tributes that Imperial Intelligence sent for this mission. However the tributes were stolen at the docks by thugs working for Nem'ro's rival, Voontara Fa'athra. The Agent tracked down the thieves, recovered the tributes and entered Nem'ro's palace to seek an audience with the Hutt. Nem'ro was pleased by the valuables brought to him and gave the Agent permission to operate around Jiguuna, as well as a private room in his palace as a sign of gratitude. The room was full of hidden surveillance devices which had to be removed before a secured contact with the Keep was made. The plan was made to gain the trust of Karrels Javis, one of Nem'ro's lieutenants, who was seeking to restore his favor in Nem'ro's eyes over that of his Twi'lek rival, Toth'lazhen. On the way to meet with Javis, Agent encountered a bounty hunter named Dheno Rey, who claimed that Red Blade owed him some credits. When he was dealt with, the meeting took place. Javis's plan to regain Nem'ro's favor required the Agent to recover ore stolen by the Evocii. To further help Javis, Keeper ordered Agent to cripple Fa'athra's gas mining operation. However, after the mission Keeper revealed that Javis' sons - out running cargo in Imperial space - had gotten into conflict with a Sith, resulting in one of them dying and the other becoming severely crippled, forcing Agent to eliminate Javis as he would reject the Empire for the injuries of his children. Offering services to Toth'lazhen, Agent implicated Fa'athra in Javis' murder. The next step was stealing holo-recordings from Fa'athra's palace and forging them to make it appear like Fa'athra was linked with the Galactic Republic. This false evidence forced Nem'ro to align with the Empire. It was towards the end of this mission that Agent gained the services of the Rattataki criminal Kaliyo Djannis, one of Nem'ro's enforcers, who was aware of the truth behind Javis' murder. After the mission was completed, Agent was recalled to the Imperial capital of Dromund Kaas. While preparing to leave for Vaiken Spacedock, Agent and Kaliyo encountered the real Red Blade, and were forced to kill him when the Blade threatened to reveal the deception to Nem'ro.

Dromund Kaas
On Dromund Kaas, Agent met with Keeper and Watcher Two, who would be Agent's liaison officer for the next several missions. The first missions was to deal with a dissident movement partly linked to the slave uprising on Dromund Kaas. The target was a Rodian slave named Jurithus who was part of the rebellion at the Unfinished colossus. He was owned by an anti-government radical who used him to deliver messages to his fellow dissidents. During this mission, Agent infiltrated a slave rebellion headquarters in search for rebellion leader. . After defeating the Rebellion leader, they injected him with SLV-16 interrogation serum to extract the information about Jurithus whereabouts. The drugged leader revealed that Jurithus died in a fight beneath the colossus. Agent found his body and recovered the datapad where he kept the messages exchanged between the dissidents. Agent's outstanding performance of the given task caught the attention of Lord Jadus who requested of Agent to meet him in his chambers at the Imperial Citadel. The previously recovered data provided a new lead, an imperial scientist named Theovor Mindak who was working for a rogue Sith Lord Grathan. Agent was sent to Nexus Room Cantina to search for his daughter, Samara Mindak. Agent confronted Samara and extracted security codes to the her father's lab. They then proceed to Grathan's estate, infiltrated Mindak's lab, defeated him and downloaded the data from his computer. The gathered information revealed that the dissidents were planning to detonate the power conduits running beneath Kaas City. Keeper wanted to assemble a squad of imperial agents for a mission into the Dark Temple to stop the saboteurs from destroying Kaas City. However, Darth Jadus overruled Keeper and ordered Agent to do this mission alone in order to reduce the possibility of disturbing the dead Sith Lord's spirits inside the temple. Inside the temple, Agent eliminated the terrorist cell and disabled their explosives. After defeating the saboteurs on Dromund Kaas, word came that Darth Jadus had been assassinated, along with thousands of dignitaries, Sith and slaves, in the destruction of the Imperial dreadnought Dominator during a tour of Imperial space. Immediately afterwards, a message was transmitted throughout the entire Empire by a terrorist leader known only as "The Eagle", a former Imperial starfighter pilot and veteran of the Great Galactic War. The Eagle claimed responsibility for the destruction of the Dominator, accused imperial government of corruption and promised more attacks with a goal to changing the government. After the transmission ended, the Keeper was informed of a terrorist ship trying to flee Kaas city. He sent Agent to Cargo Port A3 to intercept. They planted a mouse droid on the ship which disabled the hyperdrive and downloaded the data from its computer. For a success in the Dark Temple and in Cargo Port A3, Agent received a promotion to Cipher Agent, and would now be known as Cipher Nine. Along with the new rank, they were given a X-70B Phantom starship to utilize in the upcoming missions.

The hunt for the Eagle
Keeper instructed Cipher Nine to hunt down and destroy the Eagle's major terrorist allies and financial backers. Before the mission began, Nine was first called to the Sith Academy on Korriban to meet with Darth Zhorrid, Jadus' daughter, apprentice and successor, before the Agent proceeded on the hunt for the Eagle.

Balmorra
The first mission was to Balmorra, a world conquered by the Empire in the last war and annexed into the Empire with the Treaty of Coruscant. The Empire faced a fierce resistance on this world which was secretly backed by the Republic. Nine's target was "Gray Star", an ally of the Eagle who was aligned with the Balmorran resistance. Watcher Two instructed Nine to contact Security Chief Lekern Renald who was running a intelligence operations on Balmorra. He suggested that the best way to get to Gray Star is to infiltrate the Balmorran terrorist cell. Sanju Pyne, an Imperial infiltrator in the Resistance, aided Nine's effort to infiltrate their ranks by introducing Nine to local cell commander Chemish Or. Sanju stated that Nine was inspired by the Eagle's speech and wanted to join their organization. Suspicious at first, Chemish tested the new recruit by sending Nine to recover shielded power cores for stealth droids inside the Okara Droid Factory which they planned to convert into the stealth bomb. After recovering the case of cores, Nine was contacted by Sanju via comlink. He revealed that the terrorists intend to use the equipment to attack Sobrik and suggested to sabotage the cores. Nine brought the case back to Chemish, who gave Nine another mission which involved recovering data from an old terrorist training camp's computer inside a cave on the Gorinth Plateau. The camp was poisoned by the recent imperial gas bombing of the area which drove the resistance members inside the camp insane. Nine stormed the cave and installed a transmitter into the computer to transfer the data to Sanju who was waiting outside. By inspecting the data it turned out it was a list of Balmorrans who collaborated with the Empire. He suggested giving a copy of the list to the imperial command to protect the people on the list before turning it to Chemish. She was impressed by Nine's abilities and tasked them to deliver a package to a cell member who infiltrated the Republic base in the Balmorran Arms Factory. Inside the factory, Nine was contacted by Sanju once again to inform them that this cell member was in fact Gray Star who was posing as an Republic officer and had been secretly supplying the terrorists with Republic weapons. However, the Republic suspected him of spying and detained him which was the reason Chermish sent the package with maps and instructions how to escape to a safe house. Sanju suggested altering the instructions and send him into a trap which would allow them to manipulate the entire cell. Alternatively, the Gray Star had be eliminated.

Nar Shaddaa
Next mission was to eliminated Eagle's terrorist cell operating on Nar Shaddaa. Nine was sent to investigate an emergence of a powerful new stimulant called "Cyclone" that Eagle's agents used to dramatically boost their strength. However, the Cyclone had a lethal side effect. Watcher Two instructed Nine to meet with a former Intelligence operative Watcher X, who was kept inside an imperial prison in Shadow Town. He told Nine that the Cyclone was being sold on Nar Shaddaa streets. He provided a location of augmentation shop in Corellian sector that might sell it. Nine went to the shop and acquired a sample of Cyclone. Watcher X wanted to analyse the sample to determine the manufacturer of the stimulant, but did not possess the proper equipment to do so. He instructed Nine to take the sample to an old medical lab in Duros Sector. They managed to find a working bioscanner to perform the analysis. Watcher X was able to determine that Synchet Industries was involved in the production of the Cyclone. He sent Nine to question Jordel Tlan, a former employee of the corporation, who had been living isolated in his apartment in one of the casinos. To get to him Nine planned to blackmail him by first poisoning him and then offering an antidote. At the entrance of his room, they put the poison into the drink which was delivered to him by a serving droid. The plan worked, and desperate to get the antidote, he let Nine into his apartment where he revealed that an unknown group bought Synchet Industries medical division VerveGen Corporation. In order to infiltrated the VerveGen facilities, Watcher X performed a surgical insertion of several metal parts into Nine's body in order to disguise them as a droid. With the cover Nine infiltrated the VerveGen and found new owners (Raythen Predot, Chorto Rinn and Aphel Jaarn) in a holographic meeting with Eagle. Nine removed the droid cover and engaged Eagle's agents. Realizing that they were in a hopeless situation, some of them used Cyclone during the fight. Still Nine defeated them all. A sole survivor of the fight was a cyborg Aphel Jaarn. Nine connected Watcher X's computer with cyborg's brain, who was to extract information about the location of communication hub used by Eagle's cell operating on Nar Shaddaa. After the eliminating of VerveGen leaders and preventing the distribution of Cyclone to other Eagle's cells, Nine was sent to destroy the communication hub in Network Access area. Watcher X used the power disruption of the hub's destruction to escape his confinement.

Mission for Darth Zhorrid
After destroying the factory on Nar Shaddaa and preparing to leave, Nine's communication with Watcher Two was interrupted by Darth Zhorrid, who instructed the Agent to return to Nar Shaddaa to locate Vyord Yanol, the last person believed to have seen Darth Jadus alive. Panicking as the Agent demanded information, Yanol pulled a blaster. Despite Zhorrid's desire for his live capture, Nine killed Yanol, earning a ranting condemnation (including being slapped across the face) by Zhorrid upon the Agent's return to Dromund Kaas.

Tatooine
Returning to the hunt, Watcher Two showed an intercepted transmission from the Eagle describing "Eradicators", techno-organic satellite weapons capable of destruction on a massive scale, and his threat to use them against the Empire. The trail thus led to Tatooine and the "Ghost Cell", a near-mythical group of assassins that provided training to the Eagle's terror network. Nine was sent to search for a former cell member Mia Hawkins who contacted the Intelligence in attempt to defect. Upon arriving in Mos Ila, she contacted Nine via public holotransmitter. To prevent Ghost Cell member finding her hideout she instructed Nine to first gather imperial security holocams from the droids around Mos Ila and then take them to a local droid seller Datto Wys. There she arranged for Datto to trade a mouse droid for the holocams. When Nine bought the mouse droid, it lead them to the Mia's hideout. The two met and she told Nine that she trained with the cell but was sickened by their brutal methods. In exchange for a way out, she was willing to help Imperial Intelligence dismantle the cell. However, she did not know the exact location of the village, where the cell trained her, since they subdued her whenever they moved her in or out of the village. She suggested that they should identify a smuggler called "Dragon Eyes" who secretly supplied the village. Nine went into local cantina, tagged the customers with tracking devices and then publicly inquired about "Dragon Eyes". One of the customers run out to warn "Dragon Eyes" about someone looking for him. Since Nine made her presence known, Mia feared that they are now being followed by the Ghost Cell assassin. In order to get rid of them, they set an ambush inside an abandoned wind farm warehouse. In the meantime it turned out that "Dragon Eyes" was a local Exchange member named Milosh Varta. Nine raided his estate and interrogated him about the location of ghost cell's stronghold. He revealed a location of a supply line, before Nine killed him. They then infiltrated the stronghold through a secret supply line by hiding inside a supply crate. Inside the stronghold, Nine put down the Ghost Cell and confronted its leader, known only as the Old Man. He revealed that it was his plan to let Mia go and use her as a bait for Nine. In intended to use Nine's identity to infiltrated the Imperial Intelligence ranks as a Cipher Agent. Nine then fought and killed him. After that they eliminated Mia as well.

Alderaan
Finally, the trail led to Alderaan, in the midst of civil war. The target was a former nobleman named Denri Ayl, who acted as a mediator between the various houses of Alderaan. Meeting up with Diplomatic Service emissary Vector Hyllus, who had become a Killik Joiner during his time on Alderaan, Nine went to House Cortess, allies of the Empire-backed House Thul. Despite initial hostility, Nine gained an audience with the Cortess leaders, Baron Peyar and Baroness Chay. With Hyllus' aid, Nine entered the stronghold of House Alde to confirm that Ayl was the financial backer of the Eagle's terror network, and then tracked Ayl himself to the House Rist. Searching through Ayl's logs after killing him, however, Nine discovered that Ayl's efforts to gain the services of the Rists, renowned as a family of professional assassins, had been initiated by Baroness Chay herself. The Cortess estate was equipped with enough shielding and weaponry to hold off an attacking army or a Killik swarm, forcing Nine to find another way in. With the aid of Hyllus and his Killik nest, Nine infiltrated the Cortess estate's power generator hidden in the Glarus Valley and used Killik larvae to destroy the generators before assaulting the estate itself. Entering the throne room, Baron Peyar surrendered, and the Baroness was slain by Captain Perovius, head of the Cortess House Guard. Though the actual traitor was dead, Nine condemned the remainder of the House to death, leaving the Cortess estate to Hyllus' Killiks to form a new hive. When they exited the palace, they were contacted by the Keeper who informed them that he arranged for Vector to be transferred from the Diplomatic Service to Imperial Intelligence and was now placed under Nine's command.

Elimination of Eagle
With the Eagle's support network destroyed, Watcher Two contacted Nine with news that the Eagle himself had been located, at the "Eagle's Nest" on Hutta. Entering the base and fighting through the Eagle's troops, Nine confronted the terrorist leader, who revealed that his patron was in fact someone within the Empire itself. The Eagle's computer only had half of the command codes to the Eradicators; the other was in the hands of his Sith patron. If the full code was not transmitted within a certain period, the Eradicators would go ballistic and attack at random, rather than at the designated targets. With all the information needed, Nine killed the Eagle and returned to Dromund Kaas.

The Eradicator crisis
Keeper then dispatched both Nine and Watcher Two to the Artus system, an uninhabited system within Imperial space, where a Harrower-class dreadnought orbiting Artus Five was believed to be holding the second half of the codes to the Eradicators. They boarded the dreadnought manned only by crazed Imperial soldiers and droids, and discovered that it was projecting a jamming signal that would prevent them from calling for reinforcements; while Watcher Two guided the Agent using a communicator implant, Nine would head to the bridge and use the full command codes to deactivate the Eradicators en masse. Upon reaching the dreadnought's bridge, Nine was surprised to encounter a very much alive Darth Jadus, flanked by two cybernetically-enhanced dark guardians.

Speaking in his cold, mechanical monotone, Jadus revealed that he had faked his death as part of a plan to purge the Empire of its "corrupt" elements, particularly the Dark Council, and usher in a new era of terror, with the Eradicators as his secret weapon to destroy his rivals. He invited Nine to join him as his chief agent in this new order. While Jadus outlined his plan, Watcher Two secretly spoke over the comm implant; in order to keep Jadus' focus, Nine would have to activate the Eradicators, thus resulting in thousands of deaths, before Jadus could be stopped. After activating the Eradicators, Nine quickly deactivated the jamming signal and sabotaged the ship's shields and hyperdrive, rendering it unable to escape. Watcher Two was able to call for reinforcements, including three members of the Dark Council, leaving Nine to deal with Jadus himself. Despite the fact that Jadus' powers of the Force were second only to that of the Emperor himself, Nine was able to withstand Jadus' fury while diverting necessary power for Watcher Two to encase Jadus in a ray shield, to hold him long enough for the reinforcements to arrive. Eventually, Jadus was forced to submit, and would be turned over to the Dark Council.

The matter of the Eradicators led to a massive shakeup in the Imperial government, and several officials - including the Minister of Intelligence - would be removed. Keeper was named the new Minister of Intelligence, answerable directly to the Dark Council; in his place, Watcher Two became the new Keeper.

The Cipher Agent becomes a double agent
After the threat of Jadus's Eradicators had passed, Nine's next mission was to infiltrate Republic Strategic Information Service, and neutralize their spymaster, Ardun Kothe. Ardun Kothe was responsible for numerous successful covert operations against the Empire. They even suspected him of convincing two imperial generals to defect. The new Keeper leaked a false information about a Cipher Agent trying to defect to SIS and Nine was appointed to take the role of the this agent. Under the guise of defection, Nine first meet SIS Agent Hunter in one of the Nar Shaddaa casinos, who gave them a mission to test the genuineness of their intentions. The mission involved infiltration of an imperial droid factory on Nar Shaddaa that became operational after Nem'ro allied with the Empire. Hunter who was giving the instructions over comlink, ordered Nine to download the cortosis armored droid blueprint and then sabotage the factory. After the mission, Nine met with Kothe and his team in their hideout. Kothe welcomed Nine into his team and assigned them a call-sign "Legate". Kothe then spoke a code word, "onomatophobia", that activated a hidden conditioning program. Kothe and his team then used Nine to gather various items, while the Agent secretly searched for a way to break free of the mind control.

Taris
The first mission was on Taris, to hunt down renegade Zabrak Jedi Knight Ki Sazen, who had assumed control of a Nikto cult. During the mission Nine was supported by SIS agent "Chance" and began by investigating an old laboratory of Republic scientist Nasan Godera. They located the lab with the help of an Imperial communication center led by Lieutenant Needa. Inside the lab Nine found an Imperial Intelligence Fixer agent Doctor Lokin, who claimed to be sent by Watcher Four to search the lab. He provided the next lead in tracking down Ki Sazen - an abandoned bio-research facility that used to be the workplace of a scientist named Doctor Dorant. Unfortunately, Lokin did not know the exact location of the facility and Nine had to use scanners to triangulate its position. There Nine encountered a group of Ki Sazen's Nikto warriors, who revealed that their master obtained an Ultrawave Transmitter, technology developed by Godera that could control the rakghouls of Taris. However, the device was broken. One group of Nikto were tasked to search for a scientist Doctor Ianna Cel, who could fix it, while the other group was sent to collect the data on rakghoul colony movements that would allow Ki Sazen to to position the device. Nine defeated the group of Nikto inside Dorant's lab and met with Lokin back at Godera's lab. Lokin suggested Nine to use the sensor equipment from the Taris settlers to gather the data on rakghoul colony movements. While Nine was using the scanners around the devastated landscape, they were contacted by Chance, who had tracked down Doctor Cel inside the Dynamet General Hospital but got wounded in the process. He used the mind-control code and ordered Nine to come to his rescue. Nine rushed to the given coordinates where they found Chance. He tried to use the mind-control again to instruct Nine to heal him but he faded before he could finish the keyword. Nine then left him to die and searched out Cel. In the meantime, Lokin had infiltrated the hospital using a stealth generator. He suggested that he should pose as Cel's assistant and that she should make a public announcement that her assistant was lost inside the hospital. He would then get captured by Ki Sazen's Nikto warriors and brought to her hideout where he could signal the coordinates. Nine agreed to the plan and went to destroy Republic jamming stations nearby, ensuring that Lokin's signal reached them. When Nine approached the hideout, the agent was contacted by Kothe, who changed the mission objective to obtaining the Ultrawave Transmitter. Nine then stormed the base, where the Cipher confronted and eliminated Ki Sazen. Shortly after that, a rakghoul appeared and started to tear the remaining Nikto warriors apart. When approaching Nine, it started to transform into a human who turned out to be Doctor Lokin. Back at the base, Lokin explained that he was not sent by Imperial Intelligence and admitted that he was on a personal mission to develop a reversible rakghoul virus that allowed him to switch between the two forms. He also said that Ultrawave Transmitter may contain encrypted secrets, such as coordinates to hidden locations and other codes, which explained why Kothe was after it. He asked Nine to let him join their unit and run experiments in the ship's laboratory and Nine accepted.

Breaking free
When the agent returned to the ship and uploaded the Ultrawave Transmitter data to Kothe, Nine suffered a mental breakdown and saw the origin of the voice: Watcher X, the "retired" operative from Nar Shaddaa, who manifested himself in the Agent's mind using the holo-disguise implants he had surgically placed in the Agent's spine. Watcher X reminded Nine that brainwashing of this type was an Imperial tactic, not a Republic one - which meant that Imperial Intelligence had betrayed Nine to the Republic. Secretly entering the archives in Imperial Intelligence HQ back on Dromund Kaas, Nine discovered that the brainwashing had indeed been ordered by Intelligence. Watcher X instructed Nine to disable the power generators inside the archives in order to prevent being monitored. When the power was down Nine started to search through archives for the clues. By searching the first terminal, they found a record of Security Directive 101-3A where the former Keeper, now Minister of Intelligence, approved the Castellan restraints on Cipher Nine. While the Dark Council acknowledged Nine's skill, the Agent had directly opposed a Sith Lord, which was unacceptable to them. To spare Cipher Nine from execution, the former Keeper was forced to approve a mind control program. In the second terminal, Nine found a record of an Imperial scientist, which indicated that a substance called IX serum was being used to perform the brainwashing. It also indicated that the process is irreversible and the only possible solution to disable the conditioning was to use IX serum to reprogram the command codes. Further search through the records revealed that the Empire ran out of IX serum and the chemicals required for it could be found on the poisonous world of Quesh. Upon docking to the Quesh space station, they were greeted by an Imperial traffic control officer who inquired about their business. Nine pretended to be part of a surprise inspection sent to check the Imperial supplies of Quesh chemicals. They were directed to Administrator Kroius, head of the supply depot. Unfortunately, Kroius informed Nine that they run out of the dimalium-6. Nine then attacked the Republic mine and secured a ready supply of the required chemical. Using a nearby lab, Nine synthesized the IX serum and injected it into the body. However, the serum would take time to make and circulate through the Agent's system. On the ship, Nine was contacted by Kothe who assigned the agent a new mission.

Hoth
Cipher Nine had to continue the charade by travelling to the icy world of Hoth, where Kothe was searching for a Special Forces shuttle known as the Starbreeze. He assigned SIS agent Hunter to oversee Nine on this mission. Nine was to find Imperial Admiral Layek Davos to help him seek out the lost ship. Two decades ago, Davos commanded the battle over Hoth, which resulted in the destruction of numerous Republic ships that were pulled into the planet by its gravitation force. Now Davos was leading an expedition to recover the Republic valuables from the crashed ship. Inside Dorn Base, Nine meet with Captain Furth, one of the admiral's subordinates, who said that Davos had been gone for some time. Nine then went to the expedition launch point, where the agent found several Imperials speaking to the admiral over holotransmitter. Nine informed Davos that Intelligence would oversee the expedition and that Nine would join him. However, Davos sought the wreck for himself and ordered his men to attack Nine. After Nine eliminated the attackers, they were contacted by a Chiss sergeant who offered them a refuge. Nine they went to the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force outpost and met with Human female Ensign Raina Temple, who worked for the Chiss. To track down the Admiral, she instructed Nine to investigate the supply caches that were being transported into White Maw territory by Davos' men. The investigation revealed that the caches were given to the pirates in exchange for a safe passage through their territory. Nine then went inside the cave system called the "Bone Pits", where Davos' men met with the pirates in order to negotiate the deal. While Nine spied on the meeting through a hidden camera, the pirates agreed to help find the Starbreeze inside the crashed Republic battleship Star of Coruscant in exchange for getting part of the salvaged valuables. Nine and Temple then intercepted Admiral Davos, his men, and the pirates at the Starbreeze. They were all eliminated in the fight that followed and Nine took the ship to a place designated by Agent Hunter. When he saw Temple, he pretended to be an Imperial Fixer Agent and told her that she was transferred under Nine's command. Before taking the ship to Kothe, he used the mind control code on Nine to program the Cipher to eliminate Temple if she became a threat to their plans.

Revenge
Nine eventually learned that Kothe was after the Shadow Arsenal, an armament of undetectable nuclear missiles developed by Colonel Laren Omas and Nasan Godera during the end of the previous war. Omas had died at Hoth, but his personal ship Starbreeze carried the location of the arsenal. With the loss of Omas's leadership, Godera and his team of scientists decided not to use the weapons and hid the missiles inside a factory complex on Quesh and protected it with various automated defenses. Godera then encrypted the missiles' arming codes into the Ultrawave Transmitter.

Kothe meant to use them as a nuclear deterrent to prevent further war. He instructed his team to meet at him at the factory complex. SIS agent Saber was tasked to disable the anti-air batteries, Nine was tasked to disable the base shield while SIS agent Wheel sliced the main computer and supported them. When the defenses were down Kothe and Hunter landed a cargo ship to extract the missiles. Kothe gave Nine one last order to remain at the shield generator control center, intending to leave them behind. Shortly after, Watcher X contacted Nine again. The IX serum started to take effect and he helped to reset the brainwashing program. He set a new keyword, "iconoclasm", and locked it to Nine exclusively. Watcher X then gave the Agent final directives to stop Ardun Kothe. Cipher Nine then hurried into the building where the missiles were stored and first ran into Saber and Wheel. They were suspicious because Agent was able to disobey the Kothe orders to stay at the shield controls. Nine then reveled their true affiliation before killing them both. Finally they confronted Kothe, who revealed himself to be a former Jedi. At the end of the battle, Nine trapped Kothe behind a force field and activated the security turrets, which shot Kothe down. Before the agent could claim the Arsenal for the Empire, however, Nine was interrupted by SIS agent Hunter, who revealed himself to work for a third party. He then tipped the Imperial Bomber Command who sent a strike towards the base, with Nine narrowly escaping the explosion.

The affair of the Star Cabal
After the defeat of Kothe, Nine took a short break to recuperate before reporting back to Imperial Intelligence. When they returned to duty, Imperial Intelligence was occupied with figuring out the identity of a third party, which had managed to fool the Republic's late spymaster so easily. Nine met with the new Minister of Intelligence to confront him with brainwashing. He defended his actions by stating that it was the only way to save the agent's life. However, he was puzzled about how the mind control codes were leaked to SIS. The obvious lead was Hunter and his third party organization. He informed Nine that a man fitting Hunter's description was spotted at the Isen IV Republic mining colony several hours ago. He also played a recorded message of representative Omana Tragg surrendering the colony to an Imperial fleet. Afterwards, Keeper had to rush to a meeting with Darth Baras and Minister of War to discuss the reemerged war. He expressed concern if the Sith found out that Intelligence was using their resources on hunting a conspiracy at the expense of the war effort. He promised to try to withhold this from the Sith as long as possible and dispatched Nine to investigate the lead at Isen IV.

Isen IV colony incident
Upon arriving to the devastated colony, Nine came across many dead bodies and a wounded colony security officer who angrily accused the Empire of murdering civilians after they surrendered. When Nine was talking to him, he was suddenly shot by mysterious droids. Before the security officer died, Nine was able to extract information from him, which indicated that SIS agent Hunter made contact with the colony shortly before the attack. Nine then searched the colony for its control center to get more clues. While searching through the main computer, the Cipher found a sabotage device which made the security and medical droids attack the colonists. In the meantime they were contacted by Hunter. He admitted that the purpose of staging this attack, on behalf of a secret organization, was to infuriate the Republic by making them believe that the Empire committed this atrocity. The goal was to manipulate the Republic into reigniting the war with the Empire. Despite the Empire's best attempt to cover up this incident, Hunter and his organization were ultimately successful in achieving their goal. The Isen IV incident was one of the major factors that led to renewal of hostilities between the Republic and Empire.

Back on Dromund Kaas, Nine met with the Minister and Keeper to discuss the next move. They analyzed the sabotage device that was recovered from the colony computer. At the same time they looked through archives for similar incidents in the past. They found sixty-two events that indicated similar sabotage and outside intervention. The most promising lead the found was on the planet Belsavis where the conspirators subverted the Republic leaders into building a vault known as Megasecurity Ward 23.

Belsavis
Cipher Nine's next mission was to find out what secrets the conspiracy organization hid inside the vault on Belsavis. The planet was used by the Republic as a secret prison for Imperials, Sith, and dangerous criminals. The Empire sent a strike force to extract the Sith and Imperials, while in the process caused chaos by inspiring riots among other prisoners. Cipher Nine was to use some of the experts among the prisoners to break into the Megasecurity Ward 23. Nine landed at one of the Imperial bases, where an Intelligence operative, Bax Kholer, left a box with necessary supplies and dossiers on the selected prisoners. The dossiers included Kanjon Slyke, an escape artist whose brother was killed trying to break into Ward 23; Ohta, an ex-Mandalorian; Chaney Barrow, an Exchange slicer; and Paarkos, a male Gand with the ability to see through walls. Nine broke into their prisons and rigged the cell doors with explosives, before going to one of the control towers, where the agent contacted the prisoners and provided them with coordinates to a meeting place. While doing so, Nine was interrupted by the SCORPIO security program for the first time, and it seemed to be able to use the entire prison security network. Nine met the prisoner gang inside a nearby cave. Upon arriving, the agent was threatened by Ohta. Nine quickly made an example of him by shooting him dead in front of the of the gang. Posing as a fellow prisoner, the agent persuaded them to help break into Megasecurity Ward 23. However, they would need certain equipment to do so. Chaney suggested raiding the prison medical center. When they entered the facility, they were again interrupted by SCORPIO, which released the SLV-88 mind control aerosol into the air ventilation system. Controlled by the SLV-88, the gang attacked Nine, who had to incapacitate them. After destroying the vents to prevent further intoxication, they grabbed the necessary equipment. However some crucial parts were still missing and Nine had to acquire them from other sections of the prison. These parts were a carbonite trap, a maranium power battery, and anti-radiation serum.

The next step was to plant a virus into the security droids to disrupt SCORPIO. Nine inserted the virus in numerous warden droids around the prison and destroyed the droid maintenance facility to prevent it from erasing the virus. Nine then infiltrated Megasecurity Ward 23 using the carbonite trap to disguise the Cipher's life readings. Inside, the agent used the radiation of the maranium power battery to melt the vault doors and anti-radiation serum to neutralize the negative biological effects of the radiation. When Nine entered the main vault, the agent was attacked by SCORPIO, which turned out to be a droid that was built by conspirators to protect their vault. After defeating SCORPIO, the agent found the contents of the vault. It contained stasis chambers with past members of the conspiracy organization that Hunter was part of. They spoke with Nine through the holoterminal and revealed that their organization was called the Star Cabal. They claimed they were created after the Great Hyperspace War with the purpose to manipulate the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic in order to prevent devastating wars and suffering caused by the two factions. However, each new generation of the conspirators was more corrupt and deviated from the original goals of the Cabal. On this basis, the contained old members were willing to help Nine dismantle the Star Cabal. They rebuilt SCORPIO and placed it under Nine's command so that the secrets it contained could be used to track down the current conspirators.

Tytun Rings
When Nine boarded the ship, a blast came from the airlock. They went to investigate and found Pashon Cortess and his guards inside the airlock; he was seeking revenge for Nine ruining his family. Pashon was defeated and when the station security arrived, the agent ordered them to execute him. Back on ship, Nine was contacted by Watcher Three with a new lead. Intelligence found a record of a meeting between Hunter and other members of the Star Cabal that took place somewhere in the Brema sector around six months ago. However the actual recording was stored somewhere on the Tytun Rings, which served as an archive of all communications sent via the HoloNet. Nine went to the Tytun Rings and managed to find segments of a recording on one of the storage ships there. Back on Dromund Kaas, Keeper and Watcher Three managed to put the segments together and play the entire recording. The recording revealed several members of Star Cabal, yet they could only recognize Hunter. The discussion mentioned events such as Darth Angral's incident, Darth Baras' rise, and the awakening of the Emperor's Children, as well as undisclosed events on the Republic side which would seemingly counterbalance them. While observing the recording, Keeper and two other Watchers from the new eugenics program collapsed. The recording contained a hidden overlay which overwhelmed the genetically enhanced personnel and temporarily shut down their brains. Keeper and the affected Watchers had to be placed on life support, which left Intelligence in shortage of Watchers. While extremely busy with handling the extra agents, Watcher Three informed Nine that Keeper had been working on some lead on the planet Voss. However, he did not know any details beyond that.

Voss
Nine traveled to Voss to find out what Keeper was after. They met with an Imperial agent, who was surgically altered to look like a Voss, in order to infiltrate the isolationist society as a Voss-Ka tea house owner named Bas-Ton. After a discussion, they suspected that a Human named Albathius could have been a potential Star Cabal member. After his arrival to Voss few years ago, he became a legend among the Voss people. The Voss believed he was a part of a prophecy and called him "the Shining Man". However, he recently died and was buried under under Voss-Ka with full honors - something that was unusual for an outsider. Nine then went to visit his tomb. To minimize suspicion from Voss the agent performed some of the rituals along the path leading to the tomb. Inside the tomb, Nine opened the Shining Man's sarcophagus, finding his ashes and a scroll containing his prophecy. The agent learned that the Shining Man visited the Wellspring of Healing inside the Shrine of Healing. When Nine entered the chambers, they were stopped by a Voss acolyte guarding the sacred place. The acolyte confirmed that the Shining Man came to Wellspring of Healing and that the recording of the event exists. Nine treated the Voss to let them inside the archives where they found the Shining Man's Vitalicron. However, these records were genetically locked and could only be viewed by the person that the record is about. Luckily, Bas-Ton was able to extract genetic sample from the ash collected from the Shining Man's sarcophagus and Nine played the recording. The recording suggested that the Shining Man somehow forged the scroll using ancient materials in the Nightmare Lands and used it to con a Voss Mystic. Nine then went to meet with Bas-Ton at his tea house.

Upon arrival, his family was contacted by a bounty hunter informing them that he had kidnapped Bas-Ton and demanded Agent to meet with them. Nine went to the meeting location designated by the bounty hunter and found out that the mercenaries were working for Fa'athra. Bas-Ton distracted the mercenaries while Nine defeated them. Fa'athra reveled that he was seeking a revenge for Agent acting as a "Red Blade" and ruining his business on Hutta. When Nine questioned how he managed to track Nine down, Fa'athra said that he was contacted by a man named Hunter who revealed the agent's identity to him. After that, Nine shot Fa'athra. Unfortunately, Bas-Ton was mortally wounded in the fight. He gave final instructions to the agent before dying. Nine ventured into Nightmare Lands to the Chamber of Ashes, where the Shining Man forged his prophecy. In the Nightmare Lands, they found his ship guarded by a Gormak named Xanar. The Gormak refused to believe that the Shining Man was dead and attacked the agent when Nine attempted to take his ship's computer. Nine killed him and secured the data. Throughout the mission on Voss, Nine performed deeds that made the Voss believe Nine was also part of the prophecy. This granted Agent a meeting with the ruling government of Voss - the Three. The conversation reveled that the Shining Man was able to exploit his fake prophecy in order to convince Voss to stay neutral for 3,000 days on behalf of the Star Cabal.

Star Cabal strikes back
At that point, Cipher Nine came close to uncovering Star Cabal. In response, conspirators tipped the Dark Council of an on-going conspiracy hunting operation within Imperial Intelligence. The Dark Council sent Kaleesh Lord Razer to dismantle the Imperial Intelligence. When confronted by Nine, he told the agent that the war was not going well and that the Sith were not going to tolerate Intelligence wasting resources on a conspiracy hunt. All agents were shuffled to serve under military officials and Sith Lords. Nine, in particular, was put under Razer's command and given a rank of Lieutenant in the Imperial Army.

Corellia
Cipher Nine was transferred to Corellia by order of the Minister of Intelligence, where a significant battle was being waged by the Empire and the Republic. Suspecting that there may be a link to the Star Cabal's machinations there, Nine decided to play along. Following Razer's orders, Cipher Nine assisted with identifying targets for bombing runs. In between finding these targets, Nine started receiving a distorted transmission. Eventually managing to clear up the transmission, a hologram of a masked figure was projected. The figure instructed Nine to infiltrate a Republic base and gain their records. Deciding to follow the figure's instructions, Nine soon discovered a message from Supreme Commander Rans announcing the impending arrival of Republic reinforcements.

After reporting back to Razer's command center and waiting until everyone left the room, Nine set up communications with the unknown figure. The figure revealed herself to be Keeper, who had been brought out of her coma to assist Nine. She instructed Nine to seek out Moff Alvon Zamar and obtain his report on Imperial forces on Corellia before the Star Cabal intercepted and doctored it. After obtaining the data and transmitting it to Keeper, she determined that the Empire did not have the sufficient numbers to repel the Republic reinforcements. She then passed a message from Razer, whose base was under attack. The agent returned to Razer's base, where a Jedi had broken in and killed the Sith Lord, before he himself was killed by the Imperials. As Razer's troops left to be reassigned to other Dark Lords, Nine contacted Keeper, who explained that the conspirators were arranging for Jedi and Sith to clash with one another. She had tracked conspirator resources to an airship above Coronet City, defended by mercenaries formerly belonging to Eidolon Security. She instructed Nine to board the airship and get captured, feed the Star Cabal false information under torture, fooling them into thinking that their plan is unhinged.

Boarding the airship, Nine walks through various wealthy guests, all celebrating hedonistically as their planet burned. Nine eventually spots a hologram of Hunter and walks up to it. Hunter revealed that this party was to keep Corellia's wealthy distracted from doing anything constructive. He then explained the conspiracy's grand plan: using the control of information, the Cabal would trick both the Empire and the Republic into annihilating each other, destroying both Jedi and Sith, thus allowing "ordinary" people to rule once more. Nine dismissed his plan as delusions of grandeur, before being subdued with coma gas. Nine held out for a period of torture for the contents of Zamar's report, successfully feeding the false information before killing the interrogators and escaping the airship.

Unfortunately, the Star Cabal was watching the agent's movements, so Keeper came up with a plan to fake Nine's death. This would be accomplished by entering the Military History Museum, bombing it into destruction, and hiding underground to be safe. Though it would not fool Hunter for long, it would be all the time Nine needed. As Nine was setting up in the museum, Harson Nild of SIS Core World Operations reached out to the agent, offering the Cipher Agent a chance to surrender, with the promise of eventually being returned to Imperial space. Nine refused his offer as the museum came crashing down. In accordance with the plan, Nine escaped, and the Star Cabal was successfully fooled.

Fall of the Star Cabal
Cipher Nine journeyed to the Intelligence flagship Tenebrous, where the Minister of Intelligence had gathered the remains of Imperial Intelligence to strike at the Star Cabal. Thanks to Nine's mission on Corellia, the conspirators had finally slipped up and Keeper has traced their transmission to a station in the Null Zone. The Minister ordered Nine to kill all the conspirators aboard the station and obtain their secrets so they can scour the galaxy for the remaining members who were not aboard the station. .

Nine then infiltrated Star Cabal's headquarters, the Star Chamber, killing its entire inner circle, before facing Hunter at the Black Codex data center, where all the conspiracy's secrets were being kept. After wounding Hunter, "he" revealed himself to be a woman. Nine then killed Hunter and took the Black Codex. Nine then gave an encrypted holocommunicator to the Sith sent by the Dark Council to retrieve the Black Codex. Nine then returned to the Tenebrous, where the Minister of Intelligence informed them that the Sith would not reform Intelligence and instead replace it with Sith Intelligence, headed by people like Nine. Nine then departed the Tenebrous to continue serving the Empire.

Rescuing Shara Jenn
Cipher Nine's travels eventually brought the Imperial agent to Rishi. While exploring Raider's Cove, Nine received a holotransmission from a protocol droid asking for the "Red Blade", Nine's first cover identity from the Hutta mission, and that Jheeg wanted to meet. Nine went to the rendezvous at the local cantina only to discover that Jheeg was not present, but that it was the former Minister of Intelligence himself. Having set up an Umbaran jamming field to give them some privacy, the former Minister revealed that after the fall of Imperial Intelligence and Darth Malgus's New Empire, Shara Jenn, former Keeper and Watcher Two, was captured by the Republic. He had arranged for her to be carbonite frozen and her transport to be raided by pirates and brought to Rishi, where the former Minister intended to negotiate for her release. He assigned Nine to slice the pirates' databank to give him leverage in negotiations.

Nine followed the Minister's instructions and sliced the pirate terminals while listening in on the Minister's negotiation over the comm. Overhearing that the pirate leader owed debts to a trio of Trandoshans, the agent tracked down the pirates and eliminated them, clearing the pirate leader's debts.

Afterwards, Nine returned to the cantina, expecting Jenn to be there, only to learn that she was on a transport headed for a medical facility where well-compensated doctors and scientists would repair the damage to her mind and undo her loyalty program; the former Minister withheld this information because he wasn't sure that Nine would approve and he wanted Jenn to make her own life away from the conflict. He then allowed Nine to say their final goodbyes to their former handler.

Following this, the Minister passes along a rumor that Imperial Intelligence was on the verge of reformation and that Darth Marr wants Nine to oversee and advise. The new agency would require new personnel to fill in its ranks, so the Minister provided Nine a list of potential recruits, composed of military deserters, terrorist sympathizers and Malgus' alien insurgents, whom he considered "untraditional" but believers in a better Empire. The Minister then parted ways with Nine to return to his retirement, reminding Nine to remain vigilant for threats within and without and that the Empire's fate rested with them.

Personality and traits
Cipher Nine was an incredibly skilled agent. Capable of exhibiting calmness and even charming behavior, they were a highly dangerous individual. Cold, calculating, and ruthless, the agent demonstrated skills in combat and manipulation. Their skills extended into assassination, espionage, manipulation, seduction, hand-to-hand and ranged combat. Cipher Nine honed years of training and personal skill to the point when they are able to switch from blasters to knifes in a second in battle. Their ranged skills extended to short and long range weapons and expert sniper abilities.

Behind the scenes
This article represents the character story of the Imperial Agent player class in Star Wars: The Old Republic, a video game from LucasArts and BioWare. The class was first announced in November 2009, while the game was released December 2011.

As a result of being player determined, no canonical description of this individual is currently available; therefore, the article presents the subject's gender as neutral, as well as their allignment being dark, seeing as the Sith Empire was introduced as the game's antagonistic faction. Their race is also chosen by the player, and by default they be one of: a Chiss, a Cyborg, Human, Rattataki, or a Zabrak. In addition, other races such as Twi'lek and Sith Pureblood may be unlocked for every class. The male Cipher Nine is voiced by Bertie Carvel, while the female is voiced by Jo Wyatt.

If the Imperial Agent is a Chiss, there are several racial-specific dialogue choices in certain quests involving Chiss or the Agent's background. For instance, on Balmorra, an Intelligence officer named Breerdin offers a mission (for all classes) to implicate the Balmorran resistance in the slaying of a Chiss delegate at a cantina in Sobrik (which was in fact the act of a drunk off-duty Imperial officer); a Chiss Agent has the option of asking whether Breerdin intends that they work against their own people. Another example can be heard in a conversation with Kaliyo (with a high enough affection level), the discussion of their homeworlds; a Chiss Agent will remark that they have not been to their homeworld of Csilla in some time. The interaction with the Chiss officers on Hoth, such as Captain Yudrass, and the forces of Aristocra Saganu have Chiss-specific responses, and at the end of the storyline on Hoth, the Chiss Agent is made a merit adoptive of House Miurani.

During the class mission on Voss, the Agent's origins may vary based on the Agent's species. If the Agent is a Chiss, it is mentioned that the Agent was part of the secret police on Csilla.

Creation and design
"'What's going to make it more about the Empire?' The Republic Trooper can do things that the Jedi won't for moral reasons. There is nothing the Sith won't do, so who do you need?"

- Daniel Erickson

Early on, the game's writers had difficulty deciding upon the class's concept. They needed a class to represent the Empire without creating another soldier like the Trooper, intending to add something new to the Star Wars universe. The Imperial Agent was supposed to help examine the mindset of an Imperial everyman, how a non-Force-user like Grand Moff Tarkin was able to stare-down Vader, and the "role of the defender of a despotic nation". Unlike other classes in the game, the Agent had no direct counterpart in the films (such as the Smuggler and Han Solo), instead being founded on background elements such as Bothan spies.

Alexander Freed wrote the Imperial Agent storyline. Developers initially assumed that the Agent's story would be a classic James Bond spy story, though Freed instead suggested a grittier base in works like 24 and The Bourne Identity. Each act is intended to emulate a different spy genre: Act 1, the modern-day anti-terrorist plot; Act 2, a mix between a mad-science romp and a The Prisoner-style psychological drama; and Act 3, the global conspiracy. Freed, a believer in "psychological realism", wanted the story to have a "toll" due to the nature of the Agent's work. In addition, Freed took inspiration from works such as Suicide Squad, the Lensmen series, Use of Weapons, and Aeon Flux.

Visually, the Agent's armors were intended to "convey intrigue and clandestine acts"; to that end, they contain lots of cloth and leather, while high collars and shades convey a "cloak-and-dagger coolness". Each part of the Agent's design is supposed to have "function", though everything is smaller and more elegant compared to the similarly functional Trooper.

As a result of the Imperial Agent's creation, both the Sith Empire's Imperial Intelligence and its counterpart the Republic Strategic Information Service were introduced.

Gameplay
In the game's combat, the Agent makes heavy use of cover and/or stealth, both included to make the idea of the class (and the Smuggler) being able to take on Force-users logical. The player may choose between two "Advanced Specializations" at level 10, effectively picking their class. The "Sniper" focuses on long-range combat, while the "Operative" is a melee-based class focusing on stealth, backstabs, and others. Either may form a DPS role in combat, though the Operative may also choose to be a Healer. The developers attempted to have the gameplay of classes originate from their archetype rather than stereotypical MMO roles. "Cover" was a relatively new idea to MMOs.

Choices and endings
Though this article assumes that Cipher Nine took dark-side actions over the course of the game and gave the Sith the Black Codex, the canon ending for the Agent storyline has yet to be confirmed, and several other endings exist.

At the end of the first Act, the betrayal of Jadus can be handled in four different ways. Two light-side paths end up with the same outcomes: Jadus escapes, but the Eradicators are stopped with no further cost to Imperial life. This may be achieved by either deactivating the Eradicators when prompted, or talking Jadus into retreat by telling him he's been recorded and his plan can no longer work. Alternatively, the player may trick Jadus by activating the Eradicators initially to gain his trust at the prompt of Watcher Two, then sabotage the ship. Jadus is unable to escape, and is trapped behind forcefields when the Agent distracts him; he is handed to the Dark Council and his plans permanently foiled, at the cost of many lives when the Eradicators initially fired. The player may also instead choose to join Jadus, help him fire the weapons, and become the "Hand of Jadus".

When the player finishes Act 3, several endings are possible. A full list:
 * The player may choose to have Cipher give the Sith the Black Codex, allowing the Dark Council to replace Imperial Intelligence with Sith Intelligence. Cipher Nine will be placed head of it, though still answerable to the Sith. If the Agent sided with Darth Jadus in Act 1, the Sith will come in the name of Jadus.
 * If the player spared Ardun Kothe and told him about the Star Cabal on Corellia, he will show up and kill the Sith, locking off the previous ending. He will offer to care of the Codex, keeping it from the wrong hands. If the player does so, he will offer to let them join the Republic and act as a double agent, which the player may or may not accept.
 * Should the player keep the Black Codex, the Minister of Intelligence will offer to take it and erase Cipher Nine's identity from all sources, effectively making them a ghost and free agent.
 * The player may also refuse the Minister and stay in the Empire or destroy the Codex.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic