The Imperial Academy of Exo-Anthropology, Coruscant
The obelisk-like building stood nondescript amongst a dozen others on the campus of Coruscant's Imperial Academy. The same foreboding stone columns and broad stair-lined walkways decorated it, and the next two buildings to either side. All around, the area was abuzz with students, academics, and various intelligensia and coattail-riders. And of course the Imperials, the true masters of the domain. Officers of the late Emperor's grand army could be plainly seen amongst the throng. They were here to recruit. The Academy hardly bothered hiding that it was a farm for the galaxy's brightest prodigies, and that the harvest was done by the iron blade of the Galactic Empire.
A slight, pale man cut through the crowd without much fuss, intent on entering the building without traffic or human interaction causing delay. Indeed, he barely paused to dispose of the cigarette he puffed on with rapid intent. The red embers bounced off a stony edifice, missing the ash recepticle.
He walked with his head tilted forward and eyes down. One hand gripped tightly at his briefcase. The hand that had previously been fastidiously holding a cigarette was now tucked into the privacy of a jacket pocket. Both hands were cloaked in black gloves, as if they were a necessary antiseptic to the squalor of life itself.
He muttered the minimal pleasantries to the desk clerk, and stepped into the lift, wary to pick a corner farthest away from the other passengers. Some brunette haired woman was smacking her gum, without any inkling as to how obnoxious the wet popping sound was.
Seconds of torture passed, and Colonel Erasmus Karrnage was relieved from the company of dullards. He walked with a rapid and purposeful gait into a lecture hall at the end of the hall. The plaquard on the door read:
PHRENOLOGY AND THE ANCIENT BLOODLINES
Bookmarks