Cryptanalysis

"Artoo could outperform the entire division, I bet"

―Luke Skywalker

Cryptanalysis was a branch of Imperial Intelligence's Analysis Bureau. Informally known as "the Crypt," the personnel referred to themselves as lignyots, a term which no one else deciphered the meaning of. Cryptanalysis cultivated a reputation for the bizarre; they would send scandocs with simple encryption codes that would produce unflattering holos of the recipient if the code was not broken fast enough. They would also break communications security and forge inflammatory messages between branches. They had a habit of moving the entrance to their offices, or relocating entirely, leaving only a scandoc with clues to their new location. Other branches continually complained about Crypt's antics to the Ubiqtorate, but the lignyots defended their behavior by claiming that the time-sensitive nature of their work—cracking codes and ciphers discovered by Media and Signal—entitled them to be a little eccentric. Ubiqtorate, however, saw Crypt's antics as an opportunity, and began to treat each new prank as a problem to be solved as if it were an enemy operation, and would random assign the problem to a different branch to deal with. On one occasion, Assassination found and liquidated one of Crypt's installations after they had moved. Luke Skywalker implied that the entire division's ability to decipher codes and ciphers was inferior compared to his astromech droid R2-D2.

Appearances

• "Small Favors" – Star Wars Adventure Journal 12

Sources

• Imperial Sourcebook (First mentioned)
• Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition
• Star Wars: Imperial Handbook: A Commander's Guide