Operation Rook Takes Pawn

Operation Rook Takes Pawn was a top-secret black-ops mission by Gudersnipe School with heavy support from the Assassin's Guild. The goal was to capture, intact, a Kamian capitol ship, along with some or all of it's senior staff.

Background

Attempts had been ongoing throughout the war effort to capture Kamian technology for study. Numerous badly damaged ships had been taken, but with their computers destroyed and their equipment in ruins, there was only so much that could be gleaned. Finally, the Blind Counsel ordered Gudersnipe School to make it happen at all costs.

Hurdles

The entire effort was first complicated by Kamian policy: as a matter of course, no ship should be allowed to fall into enemy hands, and the captain or ranking officer was expected to detroy the vessel without hesitation in order to prevent this from happening. Ninety-eight previous attempts to capture operational Kamian ships had ended this way.

Another major stumbling block was in intelligence. The Kamians had none, so turning a double-agent was impossible. Sympathizers among the Kamians were virtually non-existent, and those who did exist were never highly-placed. The Foundation had labored for years to create deep-cover operatives with no success; Kamian family structure made it impossible. To insert an operative, they would need to be given a background; but, due to the inter-connected nature of Kamian families, any background could very easily be checked. Further complicating issues was Kamian physiology; and deep-cover operative would have a difficult time passing for Kamian for a long time.