Venta Event

The Venta Event was a major top-secret operation that took twelve years to plan and execute, from A.Y. 2217 to 2229. It was chiefly under the command of the Assassin's Guild, which at the time was still largely an independent organization. Several Gudersnipe Foundation agencies were involved, including the Office of Special Operations, and the Nonlinear Security Agency. The Slayer Dragons were also involved, as well as their First File.

The Event

The operation was a lengthy 'sting' to expose the existence of the Society of Assassins, of which rumors had begun to surface in A.Y. 2217. The first stage of the investigation, by the Foundation and various Alliance agencies, took 5 years, and seemed to indicate that a vast network did exist. What the investigation could not prove was that this secret organization had the backing and resources to be a threat. The Society had to be caught red-handed.

The OSO was brought in, the only agency with fingers long enough to launch such a sting. From there, a target was needed.

Pendragon Anthony Trac was selected for the task. At 73, he appeared at first-glance to be a less-than-ideal candidate. Time, it was reasoned, would take care of him fairly soon. But Trac was a Pendragon, the sort of career one doesn't get by dying easily or young. He was more fit than the average 50-year-old, and a crafty old man to boot. He was level-headed, and had the right profile for the job. Most importantly, he had the ability to walk tall while knowing an assassin's bullet was looking for him.

As a high-level political figure, Trac was also a good target. However, part of the operation required convincing the Society that sombody wanted him dead. Pendragons, as the sort of people typically associated with rescuing kittens from trees and orphans from burning buildings, were typically well-liked.

So, in A.Y. 2224, Trac publicly signed a treaty which gave sovereignty of three contested stellar-clusters to the Foundation. In reality, the Foundation already had a strong presence in these regions and neither needed, nor wanted, direct political control of the area. But the Alliance had the authority to seize control from the local government, and hand it over. This was a bold political move sure to make a lot of people angry.

Some years earlier, in an unrelated move, Foundation operatives seized control of a major crime syndicate on one planet of the newly-acquired territory, and kept it in operation to gather intelligence on other organized criminal groups, but now to hire the Society of Assassins to kill the Pendragon.

It took two years to make contact with a Society member high-ranking enough to take the order. The Society operated on every level, but killing the biggest public political figure was a major undertaking. After that, they only had to create an opening.

Three more years passed while the various agencies struggled to gather intelligence. The plan had always been to create an artificial situation in which the Pendragon could appear vulnerable. He was safe in Arindell; not even the Society could reach him there. And the Society was already on the prowl; the First File had already tracked various members gathering intel on the Pendragon.

Something something finish this article.