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 was codename for an Intelligence Operative of the Sith Empire.

Biography
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, the Agent earned the notice of Darth Jadus, a member of the Dark Council who oversaw Imperial Intelligence.

Taking the alias of the Red Blade, a notorious pirate, the Agent entered Nem'ro's inner circle by first gaining the trust of Karrels Javis, one of Nem'ro's lieutenants, and seeking to restore his favor in Nem'ro's eyes over that of his Twi'lek rival, Toth'lazhen. However, Keeper revealed that Javis' sons - out running cargo in Imperial space - have gotten into conflict with a Sith, resulting one of them dying and the other severely crippled, forcing the agent to eliminate Javis as he would reject the Empire for the injuries of his children. Offering services to Toth'lazhen, the Agent implicated Nem'ro's chief rival, Voontara Fa'athra, in Javis' murder and planted information that linked Fa'athra to the Galactic Republic, forcing Nem'ro to align with the Empire. It was towards the end of this mission that the 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 Imperial capital of Dromund Kaas. While preparing to leave for Vaiken Spacedock, the 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.

On Dromund Kaas, Agent met with Keeper and Watcher Two, who would be the Agent's liaison officer for the next several missions. The first missions was to deal to deal with a dissident movement partly linked to the slave uprising on Dromund Kaas. During this mission, Agent infiltrated into the slave rebellion leader's bunker in search for information. Agent's outstanding performance of the given task caught attention of Lord Jadus who requested of Agent to meet him in his chambers at the Imperial Citadel. The gathered information revealed that the dissidents were planning to detonate the power conduits running beneath Kaas City. Despite Keeper's objection, Jadus selected Agent to go on a mission into the Dark Temple to stop saboteurs from destroying Kaas City. For successfully preventing this disaster, the Agent received a promotion to Cipher Agent, and would now be known as Cipher Nine.

The hunt for the Eagle
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, and claimed to have allies on countless worlds. Seeking to investigate further, 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. The first mission was to Balmorra, in the midst of a bloody civil war. Nine's target was "Gray Star", an ally of the Eagle who was aligned with the Balmorran Resistance. Sanju Pyne, an Imperial infiltrator in the Resistance, aided the effort, leading to the death of the Gray Star. On Nar Shaddaa, retired agent "Watcher X" assisted in destroying a chemical factory used by the Eagle to produce "Cyclone", a powerful stimulant used to boost his soldiers' strength. Watcher X, being held in the Shadow Town prison, used the power disruption of the factory's destruction to escape his confinement.

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. 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. Aided by Mia Hawkins, Nine put down the Ghost Cell and slew its leader, known only as "the Old Man".

Finally, the trail led to Alderaan, also 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.

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 the Republic's Strategic Information Service, and neutralize their spymaster, Ardun Kothe. Under the guise of defection, Nine approached Kothe but was swiftly subverted when Kothe spoke a code word, "onomatophobia", that activated a hidden conditioning program. Kothe and his team then used Nine to gather various items for an unknown purpose, while the Agent secretly searched for a way to break free of the programming. The first mission was on Taris, to hunt down renegade Zabrak Jedi Knight Ki Sazen, who had assumed control of a Nikto cult; Ki Sazen had obtained an Ultrawave Transmitter, a technology developed by renegade Republic scientist Nasan Godera which could control the rakghouls of Taris. Throughout the mission, Nine kept hearing a familiar voice, taunting the Agent about the loss of free will. After defeating Ki Sazen on Taris and obtaining the transmitter, 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. According to the former Keeper, now Minister of Intelligence, 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 brainwashing program, known as the Castellan restraints, on Nine. Presented with the correct code word, Nine would have no choice but to comply with the order. Watcher X revealed that the IX serum that had been used to condition the Agent could be used again to reset and then shut down the conditioning. The chemicals required for it could be found on the poisonous world of Quesh, and Nine was able to secure a ready supply of the required chemical, dimalium-6. However, the serum would take time to make and circulate through the Agent's system, and so the Agent 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, located inside the crashed Republic battleship Star of Coruscant. But an Imperial admiral, Layek Davos, sought the wreck for himself and ordered his men to attack Nine when the Agent arrived at their expedition launch point. Nine was forced to accept the aid of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force - as Chiss, natives of an ice world themselves, were better suited for work on Hoth - to battle the admiral and obtain the Starbreeze.

Nine eventually learned that Kothe was after the Shadow Arsenal, an armament of undetectable nuclear missiles developed during the end of the previous war; the Starbreeze had carried the missiles' arming codes. Kothe meant to use them as a nuclear deterrent to prevent further war, and eventually found the arsenal in an old base on Quesh. Upon infiltrating the base, Kothe gave Nine one last order to open the base hangars for the arsenal's extraction. Shortly after, the chemicals took effect and the Agent's brainwashing program reset. Watcher X then gave the Agent final directives to stop Ardun Kothe, whereupon the program would shut itself down for good. Cipher Nine then 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 called down a strike towards the base, with Nine narrowly escaping the explosion. After these events, Imperial Intelligence would be greatly occupied with figuring out the identity of this third party, who had managed to fool the Republic's late spymaster so easily.

The affair of the Star Cabal
On Belsavis, Cipher Nine eventually uncovered the unknown group to be the Star Cabal, conspiracy that originally desired to keep Sith/Jedi wars from igniting, now out for personal power. In tracking the Star Cabal, the conspirators leaked Nine's identity to those who had an axe to grind with the agent, eventually using their influence to dissolve Imperial Intelligence. All agents were shuffled to serve under military officials and Sith Lords. Nine, in particular, was put under the command of Lord Razer and given the rank of Lieutenant in the Imperial Army.

Cipher Nine was transferred to Corellia by order of the Minister of Intelligence, where a significant battle was being waged by the Empire and 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 paintings targets for bombing runs. In between painting targets, Nine started receives 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 is revealed to be Keeper, who has been brought out of her coma to assist Nine. She instructs Nine to seek out Moff Alvon Zamar and obtain his report on Imperial forces on Corellia before the Star Cabal intercepts and doctors it. After obtaining the data and transmitting it to Keeper, she determines that the Empire doesn't have the sufficient numbers to repel the Republic reinforcements. She then passed a message from Razer, whose base is under attack. The agent returned to Razer's base, where a Jedi had broken in and killed the Sith Lord, before he himself is killed by the Imperials. As Razer's troops leave to be reassigned to other Dark Lords, Nine contacts Keeper, who explains that the conspirators are 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 the various wealthy guests, all celebrating in hedonism as their planet burns. Nine eventually spots a hologram of Hunter and walks up to it. Hunter reveals that this party is to keep Corellia's wealthy distracted from doing anything constructed. He then explains the conspiracy's grand plan: using information control, they'd trick both Empire and Republic into annihilating each other, destroying both Jedi and Sith, 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 an unknown 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 is watching the agent's movements, so Keeper comes up with a plan to fake Nine's death. Though it won't fool Hunter for long, it would be all the time they need. As Nine was setting up in the Military History Musuem, Harson Nild of SIS Core World Operations reached out to the agent, offering the Cipher Agent a chance to surrender, with the promise to be eventually be returned to Imperial space. Nine refused his offer as the museum came crashing down, though Nine escaped, the Star Cabal successfully fooled.

Cipher Nine journeyed to 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 have 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 what's left of their membership.

Nine then infiltrated Star Cabal's headquarters, 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 tricked the Sith the Dark Council sent to retrieve the Black Codex by giving them an encrypted holocommunicator. Nine then returned to the Tenebrous and used the Black Codex to delete all files regarding Nine. Nine then became an invisible ally to the Empire while eliminating the remnants of the Star Cabal.

Personality and Traits
Cipher Nine was an incredibly skilled agent, demonstrating skills in combat and manipulation. Cipher Nine was also highly intelligent and adaptable, managing to outmaneuver and defeat Darth Jadus, a Sith Lord who was feared even by other Sith.

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. 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.

Cipher Nine is a title bestowed upon a player's Imperial Agent character in The Old Republic at a certain point in the class storyline, written by Alexander Freed. In the scene the player is promoted from an Imperial Agent to a Cipher Agent by Keeper.

Onomatophobia, the code word used to mind-control Cipher Nine in Chapter 2 of the Imperial Agent storyline, is the fear of certain words and names.

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.

Male Nine is voiced by Bertie Carvel whilst the female is voiced by Jo Wyatt.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel