Imperial Warlords - Planning and Administration

[robnar]

PRELUDE TO ACT II


Back on the Panthac, docked in Mustafar orbit

Four hours after the shooting stops, the Panthac glides up to the space-side gantry of the rebel supply dock. A battalion of stormtroopers from the 502nd and a battalion of naval engineers are crewing the station, and damage control teams swarm over the portside hull breach. Administration teams (each consisting of one of the ship's finance officers, a platoon of troopers, and an intelligence officer) have taken over the major mines, and the remaining battalion of the 506th and the 402nd have locked down the groundside settlement.

This breather is like the eye of the hurricane, and you've returned to the conference room on the command deck of the Panthac to take the next steps.

C4-LBN starts the meeting with his same cool demeanor.

"M'ladies, M'lords. Your first triumph is gained. You have gained complete military superiority over the Mustafar system. All major population centers are under our control, and the Panthac is now controlling all space traffic in the system."

"The purpose of this meeting is to coordinate our next activities. I will begin with an update on the strategic situation, proceed to short brief on the major issues that need immediate attention, and then conclude with an opening to the next planning issues."

"First, the strategic situation (https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/17ISuiWX4omF0HtJQcXu3vqoJ9MFI7vwLuWpAah-89x8/edit?usp=sharing). Outside of this system, our intelligence is limited. Battlegroup Leviathan has been systematically destroying the HoloNet satellites coreward along the Hydian Way, cutting both us and the rebels off from communication. The rebels have been using picket ships with preplanned hyper routes as relays, which means they will be aware of our triumph here at Mustafar. Battlegroup Leviathan is unlikely to be aware of our victory. Rimward along the Hydian Way there have been no new strategic developments.

We have captured significant assets with the capture of this station. In addition to the station itself, its holds contain 12 new X-wing fighters, 24 new B-wing bombers, and 12 Gozanti-class cruisers. The ordnance stores on station include most military useful weapon systems, and an immense store of space mines. The Mustafar station civil defense force has 12 A-wing fighters left, and there are some civilian transports that did not flee still on station. Several of the mining stations have ground attack vehicles, as well."

"Second, the pressing decisions:

First of these, we need a plan for political control of Mustafar. We have three basic options: appoint an imperial administrator directly from our staff, transfer control to a local proxy, or set terms for the current civilian leadership of Mustafar station to resume control under our authority.

Second, we need to develop a plan to address food and water. Mustafar system has no local capability to produce food, and very limited capability to produce water. Due to the damage caused by looting on the groundside settlement before the 506th could reassert control, we estimate that there are only 7 to 14 days of food left in system. If we distribute the Panthac's stores, we can extend that to a total of 45 days before the natives, and us, begin to starve. The system relied on trade, primarily with the nearby garden worlds of Rutan and Senali, to provide food. Our takeover may have disrupted that system.

Third, we need policy for the disposition of military articles. In addition to the stores we have captured, the Mustafar civilian station guard and the various mining company security forces have some militarily useful equipment. What is our policy for dealing with local armed forces?"

"Finally, we need to consider future plans. We assess that Battlegroup Leviathan will reach Eriadu in three more days. We do not know the size or scope of the rebel forces that will meet them, though some of our detainees may have more information. Admiral Halcoor has proposed mounting pressure on rebel convoys to attempt to ensure that the forces at Eriadu neutralize each other. What other actions do we intend?"

[RandomLunatic]

First of these, we need a plan for political control of Mustafar. We have three basic options: appoint an imperial administrator directly from our staff, transfer control to a local proxy, or set terms for the current civilian leadership of Mustafar station to resume control under our authority."Investigate the current leadership for Rebel ties. If they pass, we'll reinstate them as Imperial administrators once the groundpounders have accounted for all the Rebels."


Second, we need to develop a plan to address food and water. Mustafar system has no local capability to produce food, and very limited capability to produce water. Due to the damage caused by looting on the groundside settlement before the 506th could reassert control, we estimate that there are only 7 to 14 days of food left in system. If we distribute the Panthac's stores, we can extend that to a total of 45 days before the natives, and us, begin to starve. The system relied on trade, primarily with the nearby garden worlds of Rutan and Senali, to provide food. Our takeover may have disrupted that system."Hospital ships are meant to carry large numbers of personnel. We'll use her supplies, which should buy enough time to arrange a permanent solution without touching the Panthac's bunkers."


Third, we need policy for the disposition of military articles. In addition to the stores we have captured, the Mustafar civilian station guard and the various mining company security forces have some militarily useful equipment. What is our policy for dealing with local armed forces?""We should start a training regimen for second-line forces, and use local systems forces as the core for those."


"Finally, we need to consider future plans. We assess that Battlegroup Leviathan will reach Eriadu in three more days. We do not know the size or scope of the rebel forces that will meet them, though some of our detainees may have more information. Admiral Halcoor has proposed mounting pressure on rebel convoys to attempt to ensure that the forces at Eriadu neutralize each other. What other actions do we intend?"[/I]"Indeed. We should check the sensor logs on the captured ships and interrogate the captured crews. Hard."

[Gunhaven]

Dekki maintained his position near the back and nodded along as he listened to the plan and then smiled along as Veesha responded first. He waited a few seconds before he seconded her motions, saying "It would be good to see the Duro return to his position within the civilian space station, assuming he passes the background checks. Would it be possible within the next standard month to send a convoy to either planet and open up trade once more?" He shrugged at the last two points and waited to see what, if any, objections there were to a return to commerce for the system.

[robnar]

"Hospital ships are meant to carry large numbers of personnel. We'll use her supplies, which should buy enough time to arrange a permanent solution without touching the Panthac's bunkers."

"M'lady, the captured hospital ship has 600 beds and sufficient stores to feed them for two years. That will feed our subject population of 300,000 for approximately 36 hours."


Would it be possible within the next standard month to send a convoy to either planet and open up trade once more?

"M'lord, we can send ships, unescorted, to either planet immediately. The captured freighters are equipped with hypertransceivers, so we can communicate them real time once they get on station. In order to defend those ships we will need to bring some of the hyperdrive equipped rebel fighters into operation."

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa


It was an hour after the engagement, but Talia had not yet cleaned her armor or washed up. Thus it still exhibited the tell-tale signs of battle, from pock-mark blaster scorches and the smear of ozone and black soot from the detonation she'd taken to the face. Still dressed in the colors of combat, Talia sat at the head of the conference table, slouched back with one arm over the back of her chair and her other hand grasping a glass of brandy.

All in all she was satisfied with how things had gone. Though combat had been minimal, much to the duress of her personal bloodlust, Talia recognised the propaganda value of a swift, relatively bloodless victory over a rebel cell and liberation of the civilian populace. Success and efficiency always went over with the public better than a grinding massacre.

Tilting her head to pay attention to the droid, Talia listened in silence as she took another sip of her drink. When the machine finished relaying its information, the admiral spoke first, followed by the medic that she had spotted during the engagement.

"We'll need to clear the former administration for rebel ties, then they can re-administer the planet," Talia spoke up, remembering the enthusiastic bureaucrat that had greeted her towards the end of the engagement. "My understanding is that the rebellion made in-roads with the blue collar worker population that were embittered against the regimes policies. I'll tell whatever new administration we put in to relax some of these to disarm the rebellion propaganda and take the wind out of the sails of their efforts to re-infiltrate and recruit workers."

The Moff continued, "I can also send word to the merchants of Sector Alpha and surrounding systems that there are profits to be made getting food and goods supplied to the colony on Mustafar - and bringing the vast minerals and metals this planet produces back to their own regions for trade and that the former danger of trading with rebel-held planets no longer exists. That should be able to alleviate concerns until the once-permanent routes with the garden worlds is re-established."

The Moff didn't have anything to say with regard to the allocation of ordnance captured on the planet. Though she had the general expertise to weigh in on the matter, she wasn't familiar enough with the military supply logistics of the battlegroup to comment, and so left it in the more capable hands of the Admiral.

Indeed, the Admiral had a word for interrogation and the expansion of their intel regarding the rebellions knowledges and next moves - not to mention the Imperial battlegroup moving in on Eriadu. That could be an opportunity - or a major threat.

"In addition," the Moff added, "we're going to bring in some contractors from Sector Alpha to get the shipyards here up and running. We should also use any available factories to produce droids to supplement the Stormtrooper corp until we can furnish their numbers. Also....what intel do we have on Battlegroup Leviathan?" Talia asked, her mind wandering on the topic of dramatically increasing their standing forces...

[OracleofSilence]

"M'ladies, inquisitor. If I may, I have some recommendations on the front of local policy matters. Firstly, from our perspective, there are only two metrics that matter. The output of local industries, and the chance of driving civilians into the arms of the rebellion. Put simply, we lack the resources to adhere to old policies, and as C4-LBN has so kindly pointed out, we lack even the resources to survive on our own." Jen pulls out his datapad, flicking through a few requisition reports to open a new document. "I recommend that we sanction a period of collective bargaining between all mine and industry employees and management. Put bluntly, that same management is expendable. The workers are not. Secondly, I recommend that we relax any and all unique restrictions paced on non-humans under Imperial code, or preexisting local law. Thirdly, I recommend that we dedicate some bureaucratic staffers and a detachment of storm-troopers to act as an independent guarantor of any agreements that arise from the aforementioned collective bargaining. Simply put, we cannot risk revolt, and as such, we must make inroads with the working population."

Jen sets down the data pad, and straightens slightly. "Additionally, there are a few matters with regards to military policy that I hope to raise, but those can wait until more pressing matters are discussed."

[robnar]

As discussion around the table starts to percolate, C4-LBN weighs in:

"I believe there are several reasonable propositions on the table for action on some of the main items. We should begin narrowing them down for decision."

---------------------------------

Political control of Mustafar. It appears that we have consensus to transfer control to one or more local administrator(s), we just have to decide whom. Regarding the mines:
- Commander Arard has suggested an official who will work out a satisfactory compromise with the mine workers. This will likely reduce the profitability of the mines.
- Moff Vesa and Inquisitor Kru has suggested retaining control with the mine management. This will require security assistance to roll back rebel propaganda and organizing.

Regarding the civilian station, it seems to be the consensus that we return it to its prior administration.

We have leaders who can execute each of these functions in custody now. None of them are 'card-carrying' rebels; however, all of them have extensive rebel ties by nature of administering the planet under rebellion military occupation. Clearing them of rebel sympathies will require far more laborious interrogation. What is your policy regarding mine ownership and level of clearance?

-------------------------------------

Second, we need to develop a plan to address food and water. Even using the captured hospital frigate's stores, we need to begin initial movement on this immediately. There are two options proposed:
- A convoy to Rutan and Senali;
- Contact via hypertransciever with known nearby planets and sending out a call for trade.

The second option involves some danger, as it will announce to imperial forces that this planet is no longer rebel-controlled four to seven days earlier than they would have found out themselves. The first option will take more time, unless we send the convoy unescorted.

----------------------------------------

Third, we need policy for the disposition of military articles. It seems that consensus is to begin a training program for security forces. Once we hand over control of the civilian station, we can delegate this mission to the 101st Legion and 502nd regiment. Then we can retain the 506th regiment with the Panthac for our own purposes. If this plan is acceptable, we can delay a decision on what additional equipment and support to allocate to the 101(-)* until the commander has his security program underway.

Commander Arard has also proposed organizing an administrative and supervisory section from our staff and giving this group some political responsibility. This would require a commitment of approximately 100-200 personnel from the Panthac's crew, mostly staff officers, and would extend the mandate of the forces staying behind.

Do we all agree to the plan to put security and training under the 101(-)?* Do we wish to also organize an administration function with the 101st?

-----------------------------------------

"Finally, we need to consider future plans. Most of us have identified that our lack of information on Battlegroup Leviathan and Rebel Task Force Eriadu inhibits future planning. Admiral Halcoor has proposed detailed intelligence exploitation of the captured ships and crews. In between that task, vetting the station leadership, and vetting the security forces for retraining, our intelligence battalion will be completely occupied for five days. Do we wish to begin any reconnaissance flights before then?

Also, Moff Vesa expressed interest in investing in shipyards and factories here to begin producing reinforcements. Mustafar has a limited selection of factories, mostly producing replacement tools for industrial machinery, and no shipyards. Mustafar's economy revolves around the export of raw materials, not their exploitation. It is possible that we could convert the groundside factories to limited droid production and portion of the military station to fighter production, but to do so would require expertise we do not possess."

What actions should we take towards these ends? Are there other ends we should pursue?



The (-) after 101st means that its under its organized strength.

[Gunhaven]

Dekki hums in thought before finally speaking again. "I agree with Arard on the mining front. I'd rather deal with lower profitability versus another rebellion. In addition I would prefer the convoy versus the hypertransceiver, we don't need the additional issue until we are settled. We should tell them that things will return to some normalcy in five days, I will do what I can to assist the questioning. After that we can tackle what to do with the factories and such. Maybe start a hydroponics section or something to help become just a little more self-sufficient."

[RandomLunatic]

What is your policy regarding mine ownership and level of clearance?"In regards to what?" Veesha asked, trying and failing to grasp what the droid was asking.


Second, we need to develop a plan to address food and water. "The Gozantis are sadly faster than the freighters themselves. Assign four to a pair of the transports and move them out as soon as we can get them loaded.

"Additionally, we could use our captured Rebel fighters to stage false-flag attacks on outbound convoys. This will procure food and tonnage, as well as give us ammunition to paint their pirate problems as disguised Rebel problems."


Do we all agree to the plan to put security and training under the 101(-)?* Do we wish to also organize an administration function with the 101st?"Do it in case our current candidates fail vetting. Even if we don't go ahead with it now, we'll have it when we need it later."


"Finally, we need to consider future plans. Most of us have identified that our lack of information on Battlegroup Leviathan and Rebel Task Force Eriadu inhibits future planning. Admiral Halcoor has proposed detailed intelligence exploitation of the captured ships and crews. In between that task, vetting the station leadership, and vetting the security forces for retraining, our intelligence battalion will be completely occupied for five days. Do we wish to begin any reconnaissance flights before then?"Yes. This is our most time-critical task."


Also, Moff Vesa expressed interest in investing in shipyards and factories here to begin producing reinforcements. Mustafar has a limited selection of factories, mostly producing replacement tools for industrial machinery, and no shipyards. Mustafar's economy revolves around the export of raw materials, not their exploitation. It is possible that we could convert the groundside factories to limited droid production and portion of the military station to fighter production, but to do so would require expertise we do not possess."Sluis Van is a bit precarious these days. We may be able to lure some Slussi over with promise of a more stable future. Of course, Sluissi are never in hurry to get anything done..."

[robnar]

What is your policy regarding mine ownership and level of clearance? "In regards to what?"

"Regarding mine ownership, should we turn them mines back over to the mining guild management, or should we continue the rebel policy of negotiating with the miners to work a more equitable settlement?

Regarding level of clearance, are we satisfied with a simple imperial records check for rebel affiliations, or do we want to interrogate and/or polygraph potential candidates for rebel sympathies?"


"The Gozantis are sadly faster than the freighters themselves. Assign four to a pair of the transports and move them out as soon as we can get them loaded.

"Additionally, we could use our captured Rebel fighters to stage false-flag attacks on outbound convoys. This will procure food and tonnage, as well as give us ammunition to paint their pirate problems as disguised Rebel problems."

"Bringing the captured Gozantis back on line and recrewing the transports will take about 36 hours. Bringing the hyperspace-capable rebel fighters on line for simple reconnaissance will take an additional 48 hours, for pilot training and systems checks. I will check with the 420th commander, but he is likely to request two full weeks of pilot training before he begins combat operations - especially clandestine combat operations - with new equipment."

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa


"I'm fine with the Commanders suggestion for the miners," the Moff replied, gesturing with the brandy glass in her hand.

In truth she wasn't too fussed on the minutiae of Mustafarian operations - it was that imperial battlegroup that occupied the majority of her imagination. As her little crusade had only just gotten off the ground and always needed more men, ships and material, the Dark Jedi almost salivated over the opportunity to bring Battlegroup Leviathan beneath her purview - to seize the mind of its director or install a new one herself. The thought of all those resources going to waste for the limited vision of other Imperial directors around this quadrant of the galaxy was disheartening to say the least.

Unfortuntaely they barely knew anything about this task force.

But as Talia turned her head to regard Inquisitor Kru, she knew that they had one implement to expedieate the remedy of that shortcoming.

"Inquisitor," Talia addressed the Force user, who had so far remained silent throughout the meeting. If there was any agent in this operation that made knowing secrets their personal hobby, it was him.

"I want the ascertainment of information on this Imperial battlegroup to be your number one priority. We can't let it go to waste chasing rebels over Eriadu on behalf of some dim-wit from the Core Worlds."

[robnar]

"If Imperial forces will learn of Mustafar's fall sooner than usual - then the rebels will as well.

"M'lady, a brief correction. We assess that the rebels already know. The picket ships that escaped will carry word with them. It will take Battlegroup Leviathan longer because they are in hyperspace."


We can use the hypertranceiver to send out the call for argi-trade from local planets.

"If everyone agrees, this action can begin immediately."

[cybric]

Agreed.


While we should dissuade rebellion we should not handicap one of our primary strategic assets. The profits from the mines will help us to bank roll our other activites.

What we can not trade for we will need to buy and so the profitability of the mine is of concern.

Looking between C4-LBN and Jen the inqusitor asks his question to the both of them.

"Would collective barglong lead to a long-term increase in productivity and output?

If we believe that to be true it is worth discussing as a course of action however we have short term concerns that need to be addressed.

For example our dire need of basic resources such as food and water. The mines represent a substantial percentage of our economic ability. Anything that risks that should be throughly discussed"



I believe that the convoy is our best course of action that we have available. We should not tip our hand to imperial command sooner than we need to.

Regarding using the rebel fighters to run false flag ops. Do we feel that these attacks will bear fruit in the time frame we have before the empire finds out that Mustafar isn't controlled by rebels anymore? Do we also feel it wise to risk drawing attention.


I agree with the Moff Vesa that we should try and convert our current factories towards exploitation of the materials instead of just exporting them. Arards idea of



In addition to all of our other issues I have another topic to bring to the table.

I have been in contact with two ISB station houses on Mustafar during the battle. They provided inteligence and support during the battle due to the fact that they believed us to be still part of the empire however we will need to turn them to our cause.

I have kept this information close to my chest so to speak to avoid any potiental pitfalls in bring them to our side however we should work with them.

I will be setting up a meeting hopefully soon so that we can begin wider intelligence operations within the near by sector.

In addittion to that. We have 32 known ISB officers aboard the Panthac currently. Again loyal to the empire. I would like to redistribute them into the mines and the mil/civ stations to make sure that all goes well. This will occupy them and make it harder to report on our activites here on the Panthac.

My goal is to over time turn them to our cause as well.

As we grow I will require additional staff to help manage intelligence coming in and so I would request a team of analyst and admin officers to assist me.

Eventually we will need to setup a program for training and evaluating more intelligence officers and staff. Our capcity nearing max for what our analysts and other staff members can handle. We will also need to establish a intellgence funnel to help us gather/evaluate/analyze intelligence gained through out the system.

[RandomLunatic]

"What we should do," Veesha said, "Is restore the old conditions in the mines for now. When we announce our breakaway, we'll institute reforms, winning us instant points with the populace.

"If we're really clever, we'll broach the topic with the mine administrators beforehand, and give them input. If they can find stuff that looks as attractive but is cheaper for them, we'll go with that. And we'll split the cost with them in the form of tax breaks and the like. Which we can take out of our 'suppress worker uprising' budget.

"A message not only tells everyone we're holding this system, but that we're low on food. It's not going to do our timetable any favors if we have to use the Panthac as a blockade runner. And there's no guarantee independent traders will get here in time." She shook her head. "No, if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.

"The fighters won't be ready in time. This is a long term play. But Rutan and Senali are at odds with each other, and some idiot left the bulk of the system's defenses on the less reliable of the two. We need to unite them against a common foe, and convince them the Rebels are not their friends.

"Inadequate intelligence has been our biggest problem for the last five years," Veesha sighed. "Turning should be our current priority, because I doubt the local populace will produce a lot of viable recruits.

"But if we were to transfer every ISB agent on the ship to the mines, even ISB would notice something suspicious. We transfer no more than a couple, and only if it makes sense for their cover IDs.

"It occurs to me we have a TIE pilot on board with an engineering degree, numerous charges of unauthorized tampering with TIE fighters, and outspoken criticism of current fighter doctrine. I think we have a candidate for bring our industry dreams to fruition."

[Lentrax]

The door to the conference room hisses open, and a woman with jet black hair enters, dressed in the uniform of the Imperial Army. By her rank insignia, you know she is a Colonel.

The General sends his compliments. Or rather he likely would have, had he not recently been detained for attempting to send suspect messages. I am Colonel Vess, and as of one hour ago, I have taken command of the 101st. C4 sent me a message, inviting me to join you, that is, if there is room for another at your table.

[Thundercracker]

Thundercracker - hop in whenever. In your introductory post, RP it from the perspective of getting a message from C4-LBN (my GMPC meeting steward) calling you into the current planning huddle. If you like to do some fluff in your debut post that gives the other players some cues about your character, I support that.

Don't assume that they're putting you in charge of anything unless yall agree on it. Right now you're working as the maintenance control officer* of the 420th Strike Wing, and you fly with Dagger Squadron on the few flights they give you to stay current.
Maintenance control officer is a staff job that makes sure maintenance is done across the whole wing according to standard, and advises the commander on maintenance issues. For a fighter wing it's actually an important and responsible position, but it is very much paper-pushing staff weenie work.



Dr. Vandar Espana

Espana pored over the reports from the recent battle. Two interceptors down. Yes, the battle had been a resounding victory, but those fighters could not be easily replaced, not to mention their pilots. Eventually their fighter and bomber wings would be reduced past the point of effectiveness, and then where would they be? Even if they did manage to get a factory up and running or secure a steady supply of replacement fighters, where would the pilots come from without a training academy and all the infrastructure that goes with it?

He was interrupted from his musings by a chirp from his comlink.

Dr. Espana please report to Conference room 1

That was the big room. He absently wondered why he was being summoned there. The engineer turned fighter pilot picked up his datapad and walked to the turbo lift.

The conference room door slid aside to reveal the entire leadership of their little fiefdom, in all their brassy glory, along with a colonel who had also apparently just arrived. He quirked an eyebrow and stepped into the lion’s den, saluting smartly as the door hissed shut behind him.
“Dr. Espana reporting, as requested,” he said.

[robnar]

As the two outsiders stride into the conference room, C4-LBN segues the discussion immediately into a greeting.

"Ah, Colonel, Doctor (Major). Welcome. We are discussing efforts to bring Mustafar under imperial control and to re-establish supply for this station."

"M'lords and ladies, as the Colonel mentioned, General Ries was taken into custody an hour ago on Mustafar station by the 101st staff, and turned over to ISB agents. It appears that he was attempting to send messages to rebel forces, though he denies it. Colonel Vess, as the second-ranking officer in the 101st, is now the acting commander."

"I took the liberty of inviting Doctor (Major) Espana, the maintenance control officer of the 420th Strike Wing, up. He has enough of an engineering background to understand the intricacies of bringing Mustafar's production on-line to our ends."

The droid pauses for a moment. As it does, the door to the conference chamber shuts and locks. "Doctor Espana also has enough of an engineering background to understand that the Panthac did not break formation due to a mechanical breakdown. Similarly, Colonel Vess understands that no imperial authority ordered the seizure of Mustafar."

"Colonel, Doctor—both of you, at some level, have already figured out what walking into this room meant. I will now make it explicit. As of now you have departed the authority of the former empire, and become part of a conspiracy to establish an independent power. The other leaders in this room are the core of that conspiracy. There is no turning back from this point."

"Now we can resume our discussion. Your desks have a readout of the discussion - please add your input as you see fit."

You get a message from one of the ISB agents assigned to the 101st Legion Headquarters: "We detained General Ries after 101st staffers noticed him trying to send messages to rebel forces at Eriadu and Hoth. He is currently being held by ISB staff at the detention facility on Mustafar station and being questioned by our agents."

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa


Talia moved herself up from her chair and over to the viewing port of the conference room, her eyes drawn down to the smouldering ruby of Mustafar. For a brief moment, the droning of the room melted away as her focus was narrowed to the planets fiery hellish surface and the castle whose edifices were as imposing as its prior occupant, Darth Vader.

What exactly she'd find in that treasure trove Talia could only guess, but she was looking forward to exploring the home of the former Dark Lord of the Sith.

"They already know," the Dark Jedi Master spoke out loud to something the admiral said.

"The rebels. They already know we're holding this system. And as we have yet to declare our independence, the Empire at large believes we are still in its fold. All the everyman will see is the Empire trying to feed its citizens, and the merchants will see top credits dangled in front of them to do so."

It seemed the Moff had made her decision regarding feeding the populace. They didn't have the ships to spare for conversion, and the rebels knew the system was taken anyway - best to let the merchants risk their own vessels for a good payday.

It was at that moment that the raven-haired Colonel entered the room and announced both her intentions and invitation. Apparently, C4 had been the one to invite her along to this inner circle meeting...a note the Moff intended to take up with the droid at a later time. Who else was that sneaky machine inviting to such sensitive deliberations?

"Colonel Vess, how good of you to join us," the Moff stated, her voice clearly heard even across the room as she stood near the viewing port.

"Your timing is impeccable - we were covering personnel movements and your input would be appreciated," she said, her eyes still drawn to the planet down below and something only she could see.

And then came the second new arrival - Dr Espana, a bit of a laymans engineer who'd done his time in the trenches and in the workshop.

"...and the second, Dr Espana."

Now Talia turned around, her battle-scared armor clashing with the clearn sterility of the conference room.

"I wanted you here to consult your expertise," she asked, "the factories on Mustafar and the copious amounts of ore mined from within; how long would it take to have a factory operational to produce droid starfighters and combat droids?"

[Thundercracker]

Dr. Vandar Espana

Vandar read through the transcript.

“We’re in luck, I do have the expertise to mold the factories and raw materials of this wonderful little planet into useful productive resources.”

“Id have to inspect the current state of the factories, but we could probably do it in a few weeks,” Espana replied, “but with all due respect, Moff Vesa, I don’t think that should be our first priority. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like nothing more to see the resources of this planet extracted and turned into an unstoppable juggernaut of war, but we need to deal with the populace first, otherwise we’ll be facing a revolt.”

“Since a large part of our resources must go into trade in order to procure food and supplies for our population, I suggest replacing the workers with droids first. Assuming grinding them up to feed the administrators isn’t viable for our long term strategy, the majority of the workers can be contracted out to the Garden worlds, or somewhere else, where they’ll likely be more comfortable anyway. They’ll even make us a bit of money, instead of sucking up all our raw materials in trade for food. With the geothermal energy of Mustafar, we won’t need to worry about power for the droids, and all of the wealth which would have been tied up in worker food consumption can then be put straight into weapons, droids, and shipyards.”

“The great thing about construction droids is they breed exponentially,” he said, “unlike organic species who take years to reproduce, a construction droid factory can turn out workers quickly, who in turn create additional factories, and so on. We just need the raw materials-“ he pointed to Mustafar, “and the know-how.”


what else do we need aside from what’s already on Mustafar to build a droid factory, a shipyard, a weapons plant, etc?

[Lentrax]

Of course. Lyn seats herself at the table, without invitation. Though she seems relaxed, her posture radiates the bearing of the professional soldier, ready to move at a moments notice. But her tone of voice is calm. Much calmer than one would expect from someone just told that she was no longer a part of the government she had followed for more than half her life.

Which personnel are we discussing? What exactly are our needs at present?

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa


It was hard to tell whether Talia was pleased or not with what she was hearing, as her expressionless visage only served to contrast with the intensity of her glare as Vandar spoke his words. Instead, she listened silently, drawing herself closer and crossing her thick arms over her chest, the hard plastic of her armor creaking together for the slightest of seconds as she did so.

When Vandar finished his words, a silence hung in the air for several moments until the Moff finally spoke.

"Good. Make it happen."

No longer needed there anymore and wanting to channel her attention somewhere else, Talia started to move towards the door through which the two newcomers had just arrived.

"I'll leave the military matters to you and the admiral," the Moff answered Lyns words as the blast door hiss'ed open.

Unless anyone halted her departure, Talia proceeded to walk through it and into the hall, completely ignoring anyone else around her in the unlikely event that she was approached and questioned.

It wasn't long until The Dauntless was withdrawing out of the Panthac's hanger, extending its wings and slicing down to the surface to deliver the Moff to the one place most other people would actively work to avoid visiting: Vaders castle.

[Lentrax]

Lyn takes a moment to read through what has been happening before she arrived and sees where her efforts need to be focused.

My men are up to the task of training a security force on the planet. I will also see to it that they have officers we can trust in place. We don’t need to make the effort of bringing the civvies up to scratch only to have them balk when we declare our breakaway.

[robnar]

C4-LBN interjects:

"It seems like we've organized the following lines of operation for the next several days:

First, Recruitment and Vetting, Oversight: We will organize a team that will recruit and vet administrators and directors for the civilian station, mines, and groundside settlement. I recommend that we task these administrators and directors for organizing food shipments and trade.

Second, Security Force Training: We will begin training a local security force to take over civil control and free up the stormtrooper legions to return to combat duties.

Third, Economic Expansion: We will begin assessing trade requirements and facility requirements to start building military factories here.

Fourth, Reconnaissance: We will organize a force to attempt to locate the Imperial Battlegroup Leviathan and the Rebel Task Force Eriadu.

Fifth, System Security: Regardless of our other operations, we will need a force to bring the military station on-line, and then patrol and defend Mustafar system while the Panthac is being repaired.

If we accept these lines of operation, we need to decide who is in charge and what resources to allocate to them.*"

Here's what I'm looking for. Your order of battle is here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22032006&postcount=2), the second post on the OOC thread. I want you to look through that, and dedicate the units you think you need to each line of operation. Here's an initial starting position you might work from:

First, Recruitment and Vetting, Oversight: Commander Jen Arard
Determine the best leadership for the mines, civil station, and groundside settlement
-HQ- 101st Stormtrooper Legion (-) (101st legion staff forms the core of the oversight organization)
--- Panthac Counter-Intelligence Section (-)
--- 1st Battalion 506th - Mines security & policing
--- 2nd Battalion 506th - Ground settlement security & policing
--- 3rd Battalion 502nd - Space station security & policing

Second, Security Force Training: Colonel Lynn Vess
Train sufficient groundside and spaceside civil security forces to maintain control.
-HQ- 502nd Stormtrooper Legion (-)
--- 1st Battalion 502nd Stormtrooper - Groundside training
--- 2nd Battalion 502nd Stormtrooper - Spaceside training

Third, Economic Expansion: Dr. Espana
Begin assessing trade requirements and facility requirements to start building military factories here. No force requirements yet.

Fourth, Reconnaissance: Admiral Halcoor
Force to attempt to locate the Imperial Battlegroup Leviathan and the Rebel Task Force Eriadu.
-HQ- 9th Support Wing
--- Organize 3 Patrol Squadrons with 4 X-Wings and 8 B-Wings each
--- Patrol 1 - Eriadu
--- Patrol 2 - Rutan/Senali
--- Patrol 3 - Reserve

Fifth, System Security: ???
Patrol & Defend Mustafar System
- Military Station
-HQ- Panthac Battle 3
- 420th Strike Wing
--- All 6 TIE wings
-HQ- 506th Stormtrooper
--- 3rd Battalion 506th - Military Station Security
-420th Armored Squadron - Ground force reserve
--- 4th Battalion 506th - Mobile Reserve Infantry
--- Organize a Transportation Squadron out of your 12 Gozantis to move the 420th-506th around
- ISD Panthac (-) - Panthac will be undergoing repairs and providing crew to man other efforts. If needed, it can fight, but is at -1 persistent condition.

[Gunhaven]

Dekki for his part remained in an almost constant state of frowning, looking up from his datapad covering the losses on both sides only when the two newcomers entered the room. He shook his head at mention of replacing the mining crew with droids, more to clear it versus disagreeing with the idea, and sat down in a chair that off to the side. Finally he said "I feel I would do best in the first stage. Worst case scenario I can try and convince others to go with the plan we settle on." The lurmen sighed and seemed to frown even further as he added "I would like to try and reach a middle ground until we can get the droids built or acquired. Then give the locals a chance to serve some other part versus shipping them off to some other planet. Even if less people would mean less concern for me."

I think I'd fit best in with Step 1. Maybe Step 3 as well.

[Thundercracker]

Vandar Espana

“I will take economic expansion,” Vandar said, “if there’s nothing else, I’d better get down to the surface to assess the current state of the facilities.”

[robnar]

The meeting adjourns almost immediately after Moff Vesa leaves. C4 gives a concluding word - "this meeting is now concluded. Recognize that the plan at this point is loose, and I am tracking my suggested plan. Please ensure timely updates so I can keep the rest of us informed."

Admiral Halcoor, Dekki, Inquisitor Kru, Commander Arard
I don't know what you want to do. Post your actions, and if you're going to set any projects in motion, give me a quick 5Ws (who, what, when, where, why) of what you want them to do.

Moff Vesa
Are you waiting for Cybric's character?

Dr. Espana
You grab a couple of technicians from the 420th's maintenance department and one of the 9th's lambdas, and leave a message stating you'll be out for the next 6-12 hours. The shuttle departs quickly, and lands down at a large, rambling warehouse on the east side of the groundside settlement (north of the shuttleport). There's a squad of stormtroopers in front waiting for you. As you approach, the sergeant salutes and states flatly: "Sir, it looks like some of the employees looted it before we arrived. The major tools are in place, but they've pulled away a lot of the man-portable stuff."

Colonel Vess
You grab you security contingent and make your way back to the 101st CP on the civilian station. As you arrive in the CP the exec snaps to attention and calls "Officer on Deck!" After the obligatory shuffle, he provides you a quick report: "Ma'am, we're about a third of the way through a sweep of the station. The station leadership are angry and resentful at the terms of surrender, but will probably negotiate if we summon them. The security force have been stripped of their weapons and confined under guard to cafeterias on each deck. They are requesting to go home and see their families while we search. Aside from that, the search is going well. We have recovered 72 contraband pistols and some odd caches of spice and deathsticks. We have not yet located the missing fighters, however."

[Thundercracker]

Major Espana

“Understood sergeant, walk with me, ” Espana replied, not breaking stride, “gather the administrators, this is an inspection tour to determine our current capabilities. Whether or not we can still function without the looted will help inform our first initiative. Keep a detachment to cover the remaining equipment so nothing else disappears.”

[cybric]

*Before Vesa leaves*

Rol leans forward projecting an air of relaxed confidence.

"I will handle the vetting process for personnel and interrogating the rebels that we have captured. With any luck we might come across a intel that they might have regarding imperial activity. Even tangential information would be helpful. They could know someone that knows someone that knows something."


Vet Personel
Work towards discovering information about the imperial battlegroup
accompany Vesa to the stronghold
Talk with the Mustafar station masters



Turning towards Colonel Vess "I'll have files sent over regarding leaders that I feel will be supportive of our position. What to do with that information is yours of course but perhaps there will be some, enlightening, details about some of the officers."

*After Vesa leaves*
Rol leans back into his chair making notes in his wrist computer about the assignments thoughts that he had during the meeting as well updates to personel assignments. He will send over the files that he talked about the Colonel Vess as well. Suddenly his comlink beeps to attention. Rol places his palm to his ear to better hear the report coming in. "acknowledged"

Rol will nod towards those still at the table and excuse himself.

He puts his hand back up to his ear and contacts the commander of the 7th specnav. "Commander, The Moff and I will be going to the surface. Deploy alpha to accompany us. We're heading towards I don't want anything happening."

As Rol arrives at the shuttle bay he sees Vesa making her way towards the shuttle "Mi lady. I had a feeling that you might want to stretch your legs a little bit. I hear that the gardens in Vaders stronghold can be surprisingly pleasant this time of year on Mustafar. Might I join you?" Rol says with a dry sarcasim and wit

[robnar]

Rol leans back into his chair making notes in his wrist computer about the assignments thoughts that he had during the meeting as well updates to personel assignments. He will send over the files that he talked about the Colonel Vess as well. Suddenly his comlink beeps to attention. Rol places his palm to his ear to better hear the report coming in. "acknowledged"

Rol will nod towards those still at the table and excuse himself.

As Inquisitor Kru stands to leave, C4 interrupts briefly. "M'lord, should I relay any instructions to the vetting personnel in the 101st or the interrogators on this ship's intelligence staff?"*

If you just walk out, your interrogators are going to have no guidance and I'll have to make up what they are asking people about (Remember they have no clue what your priorities are, or what yall're even doing here). It would behoove you to give instructions to them.

If you want to do so, give me a 5Ws (Who/What/When/Where/Why) for your collectors. In this case, the who is either your 'vetters' on the civ station or your interrogators on the Panthac. The what/when/where are trivial. The most important part of this is the why - what information you want them to focus on, why you're looking for it, etc. If you don't know, you can give them a simple task like detainee screening (identifying which folks might have enough information to warrant your personal attention).

[Gunhaven]

Dekki waited a few minutes once the meeting officially adjourned before doing anything. He gave C4 a nod and moved to one of the corners before getting out his datapad with a sigh. To his staff he sent a message that he flagged with normal priority, in case they were doing something more important, that stated they were to work with the civilian doctors in aiding those that were wounded, with their own personal opinion on how much aid they'd actually give them or request from them. They were to do this within the next standard week at least once and at either the settlement or the station, as the civilians requested. He apologized in advance but in reality it was for them to get a handle on what the current medical staff is capable of and determine if they were capable of working within the Imperial system. In addition he desired for them to converse with them and help determine potential rebel subjects from what they've heard.

As for himself, he planned on meeting with the xeno leaders and thumbed through the contacts he was given during the transition. If he found any way to contact them electronically then he'd do that, otherwise he would finally leave and meander to where they should be. He'd like to have a meeting on the civilian station since that seemed like the most likely place and hear their concerns first hand while trying to convince them that they weren't like most Imperials with their xenophobia. Hopefully they'd be comfortable talking to him, seeing as how he's a fellow xeno, and if he needed to then he could always force his viewpoints.

Let me know if anything needs to be changed. I underlined the various questions' answers for the staff/myself.

[Lentrax]

Lyn returned the salutes from her staff as they reported in.

Very good. Continue our search of the station. Any and all contraband is to be reported to me immediately. The fighters are likely gone, we are unlikely to find them. Remain vigilant however. It is possible they will return in a suicidal attempt to wrest control of the station from us.

The colonel sighs as she seats herself behind a field table and picks up a report.

Deny the visitation of the security force, but we can arrange their families to see their loved ones here under our supervision. No personal effects are to be allowed into the visits. I don’t care if it is a piece of jewelry or a stuffed bantha doll. Nothing comes in with the families, no chance for any contraband to be smuggled in. Everyone wishing to see one of the security officers will be scanned prior to entry. Any medications will be screened by a MedTech before being allowed to be given.

Lyn tosses the report down nonchalantly.

We will also be in charge of training a new security force for our facilities planetside. I want a list in one hour of officers capable of handling the duty. As well as seasoned NCOs who can handle a group of gunslinging civvies who might turn out to harbor hitherto unknown Rebel sympathies.

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa


Vesa had been of in her own little mental world during the walk from the conference room to the hanger bay. One would think that she'd be used to the administrative duties by now, having had to perform them on her own for several years during peacetime...but for someone who had made their bones as a freedom fighter against a reptilian invasion, Vesa had a restless spirit when confined to sitting around and talking.

"Mi lady. I had a feeling that you might want to stretch your legs a little bit. I hear that the gardens in Vaders stronghold can be surprisingly pleasant this time of year on Mustafar. Might I join you?"

Kru's words snapped the Moff out of her thoughts as her head perked up and looked around to spot the Inquisitor. There was a temptation to say no, as the Dark Jedi wanted some time to meditate in the castle of the former Dark Lord of the Sith. But, who knows...maybe there were some booby traps left over that the Inquisitor could be helpful in discovering.

Looking at him over her shoulder, "As you wish," was her soft answer.

"I don't envy the slippery work that's cut out for you in the near future," the Moff continued as the pair neared the ramp of the Dauntless for the trip down to Vaders castle.

[RandomLunatic]

"Have intel start pulling apart those ships we captured, their crews, and the starbase computer logs. Find the other convoys they were talking about, along with any other Achille's heels we can kick out from under the Rebel battlegroup heading toward Eriadu."

[cybric]

As Inquisitor Kru stands to leave, C4 interrupts briefly. "M'lord, should I relay any instructions to the vetting personnel in the 101st or the interrogators on this ship's intelligence staff?"*

If you just walk out, your interrogators are going to have no guidance and I'll have to make up what they are asking people about (Remember they have no clue what your priorities are, or what yall're even doing here). It would behoove you to give instructions to them.

If you want to do so, give me a 5Ws (Who/What/When/Where/Why) for your collectors. In this case, the who is either your 'vetters' on the civ station or your interrogators on the Panthac. The what/when/where are trivial. The most important part of this is the why - what information you want them to focus on, why you're looking for it, etc. If you don't know, you can give them a simple task like detainee screening (identifying which folks might have enough information to warrant your personal attention).

The interrogators on the Panthac should handle this since they are the most qualified. They should be exceptionally through however I'm interested in the following topics most.



I think that they Interrogators should handled breaking down and vetting.

They should sort out people of no concequence and interogate those that they determine to know something. I'm interested in the areas below.

Rebel Command Structure/ key sector personel
Security procedures - what are they, how do they make contact with high command, how are the verified, what codes do they use, etc
fleet intel (rebel and imperial) - current/ recent locations, fleet composition, I'm very interested in supply lines and depots for each side, key fleet personel
intel on empirical assets - what do the rebels know about system or sector imperial operations /
supply logistics - where are the rebels getting supplies from. Where are they currectly stored.
current events/ plans

I'm trying to map the sectors assets and strategic composition for both sides. We need logistic support and if we can make the enemys support our own mores the better.

I'm particularly interested in their logistics/ financing and intel gathering. How are both sides supported locally in in the sector.

Armies need fuel, food, weapons, etc so I'm looking to locate those resupply/ depots so we can figure how to map those supporting factors.



Once they've finished interrogating those they feel know anything they should report to me. I'll review what they've uncovered and anything that i find pressing or lacking I'll followup personally

[robnar]

D+1 on Mustafar Prime

Work in Progress.

Admiral Halcoor & Commander Arard on the command bridge of the Panthac

Now that combat is over you can get out of the battle bridge and work off the command bridge. The latter has many advantages, like panoramic views of the planetscape and ventilation systems that effectively remove the funk of a hundred staff officers who've been working continuously for over 36 hours. You even caught two full hours of sleep after finishing supervising the repair work on the left glacis.

The morning command meeting is more exciting than usual, with actual combat feedback instead of the normal litany of maintenance and discipline problems. Three items are of particular import:

First, the 420th Strike commander reports that he has taken control of the captured X-wings and B-wings. He intends to task-organize "Shiv squadron" using 3 crews from each of his other squadrons to man all 12 X-wings and 6 B-wings. He estimates that he can get initial flight tests done in the next two days, flight-level certification in a week, and squadron-level certification in two weeks.

Second, the 9th Support wing commander requests your decision on who will run the military station. She suggests you nominate her, and she will move the wing command post to that station to bring it on-line.

Third, and most importantly, you get a preliminary report from the intel watch lieutenant on the progress of the exploitation of the captured rebel ships and stations. The search teams were able to recover the secure computers from the military station, and your communication intercept team is working to decrypt them. The ships themselves have extremely convoluted flight plans, often logged between imperial-held systems but taking too long (for example, a trip from Zonju V to Eriadu took long enough for them to divert to both Polis Massa and Mustafar). Based only on traffic pattern analysis from the captured freighters, they assess that supplies for Eriadu are coming from Senali, Plois Massa, Clak'Dor, Bespin, Hoth, Utapau, and Sullust. But, that's less interesting than the most important find - they assess that there are four hidden rebel space stations in deep space that the rebels can use to launch massive fighter raids onto Eriadu. The intel team reports that they'll need to crack the rebel crypto to find hyperspace data on how to get there, but the stations could provide the rebels a decisive advantage in the fight on Eriadu (projected for D+4). The rebel freighters also appear to have enhanced hyperdrives capable of keeping pace with the Panthac. Finally, almost as an aside, she mentions that this morning they finished breaking the code on the mysterious groundside communications during the battle. It appeared to be intelligence agency traffic from some groundside communications about rebel movements. She's downloaded the message traffic to your secure datapad.


Dekki on the civilian station
Please post OOC on how you're selecting who you meet with. Are you just having your staff invite xeno patients to a "get to know a non-threatening imperial officer social", are you contacting station leadership, or what? Who you invite will help me determine what you learn.

Also, roll gather information.

Moff Vesa and Inquisitor Kru at Vader's Castle
Your shuttles land on a high ridge face, among a recently assembled rebel scientific camp that must have been evacuated when the Panthac started firing in orbit. A hot, ashy wind blows from a volcanic mountain on the horizon, and the canyon ahead is inundated with noise from the roar of a lava river below.

Vader's castle is ahead, mostly fallen into the canyon. Once the power went out the huge repulsor/generators that kept it tectonically stable, the planet tried to reclaim its own. A rope bridge leads to one of the entrances to the castle, and a human-sized hole has been bored into one of the huge obsidian doors. On the other end, a third of the castle is immersed in the lava river.

The whole thing almost pulses with the dark side of the force. Echoes of the previous attempts to unlock the power of this planet swirl around it.


Dr. Espana at the groundside factories
The droid factory was mostly looted of actual droid parts. All of the man-portable components that they can't make on mustafar - i.e., the valuable ones - were stolen. A lot of the office computers were stolen, but the factory's designs and records are backed up in a bunch of places.

Most importantly, though, the records of who the factory's suppliers are and the parts they have to order from off-world are complete. The stormtrooper sergeant - who showed commendable initiative, given his responsibilities - identified the two factory directors who showed up for work in the morning and let them through to talk to you.

The airspeeder factory is in worse condition. It was nearby the police station, and took some damage when that building was destroyed from orbit. More to follow once I make it up.

Brigadier General (Brevet) Vess on the civilian station

You have a long night of work, going through the various materials and considerations of occupying the station. Your troopers got into several shootouts when they moved into the lower-level cargo holds in the station, which appeared to have some pretty entrenched gangs among the cargo-bay squatters. 18 troopers were injured, 2 critically, and one was killed. One of the shootouts was particularly nasty - while you were on the Panthac, one of the companies got in a two hour long firefight on the maintenance level below D-deck cargo. This fight alone accounted for the KIA and 12 of the injuries. According to the commander's report the troopers, mostly from C-company in 3rd Battalion, killed about 117 gang members. They did not report any injured civilians. The commander reports that deck now completely pacified, however.

The search was fruitful, though. The legion detained 942 criminals and suspected rebels, and is currently holding them in a makeshift detention facility in one of the main hangar bays (cleared of ships to the other bays, of course). The battalion commander reports this is the best location because they can easily contain a prison riot by deactivating the magnetic containment field on the hangar bay. The interrogators are currently neglecting the detainees, though, because they are overwhelmed by the requirements to vet the security forces.

By 3 AM local - your 27th hour awake, you estimate - you finally get the report of eligible officers. Most of the station's current security force leadership can be retained, but the a few sections must be entirely eliminated. The internal affairs and community policing sections are new rebel creations and led by sympathizers, and the customs and tariff section seems to be thoroughly corrupt. 80% of the officers in the general policing sections seem to have no political affiliation whatsoever, and seem to be willing to work for whomever's in charge.

Post OOC with what you're looking for in a police chief and what you think you guys want from the civilian station. Do you want to tax the hell out of it and make money? Use it for recruiting replacement personnel? Just keep it happy and content and not causing trouble?

Give me a clue about your policy goals and I'll make up some folks with starwarsy names who can support those policies.

[cybric]

Yeah I'm willing to splunk in there with due precautions.

Rol is looking for any force artifacts, lore, etc that the dark lord may have had and any imperial intel we can learn.

Also I thought when I was listing those questions for the interogators were dealing with the rebels not the security force. I'm happy if they helped with vetting it though.

Know that the security force has been vetted can I have them switch to interrogating the criminals / rebels?

Also i want to make sure that decisions i make are helping the group so if im missing something obvious feel free to advise.

I dont feel like im really operating at a strategic level as far as policy goes so I'm going to work on getting Rol more into that vein

[Thundercracker]

Dr. Espana

“Thank you sergeant, I’m going to nominate you for a commendation, keep up the good work,” Espana said, “do you have enough troops to secure the factories and prevent any further looting?”

To the directors:

“It’s good to meet both of you,” Espana said, as he paced back and forth in the office, “I’m major Espana, but I also hold advanced degrees in several disciplines so if I wasn’t in the military I would be Dr. Espana to my associates. I’m taking control over the production facilities of this planet, but don’t worry. We are on the cusp of something great and you’re going to be part of it, if you’re so willing. Call a general assembly, I want to address the non-local techs. Are there any major issues or improvements you would have liked to have seen and haven’t been able to put into place? I’d like to hear your ideas.”

Espana spoke fervently, with a gleam in his eye and purpose to his movements. It was clear he had a vision, something he wanted to carry out, and he impressed upon the directors that he valued their input so long as they bought into his leadership.

At the assembly:
Espana, flanked by the directors, addressed the group, telling them that mining would continue.
“I have seen some of the work that’s been done, and I can tell you, that we have here on Mustafar the finest and most talented crew on this side of the galaxy. If we work together, we can and will accomplish great feats of engineering, that textbooks will be written about in the decades to come, but only if we work together. In the spirit of cooperation, there will be a 24 hour grace period during which any borrowed equipment magically reappearing in its place will be accepted with no questions asked. After this time, it will be treated as stolen property. The riches we create will be shared by all, and to show how much I believe in you, I will not be drawing a salary during my stewardship of these production facilities. Tomorrow is another day, a day of change. Your managers will be in touch with you regarding your new responsibilities. If anyone wishes to be reallocated off planet, please make your desires known, and we will try to accommodate your request.”

After the assembly, Espana retreated to a conference room with his techs and the directors to plan out a retooling of the factories to construction and mining droids production.

Plan:
1. Retool existing factories to produce technical and construction droids.
2. Use new technical droids to augment existing tech staff, increase productivity without additional food imports
3. Use construction droids to repair airspeeder factory
4. Retool airspeeder factory to produce parts for new component factories
5. Take the increased capital from improved productivity to fund new component factories.
6. Begin upgrading existing fleet, starting with shields for TIEs

[RandomLunatic]

"How soon could you give me reconnaissance flights?" Veesha asked the 420th's commander. "No combat, disengage if challenged?"

On consideration, a logistics officer as a station administrator certainly made sense. "I'll do that. In the meantime, you can take the position pro temp. For your first task, look at the list of equipment Vandar is missing from his factories and see if the station can supply any of it."

The intelligence report was the one she was most eager for, though. "Do they have an estimate on how soon they will crack the codes?"

Then she checked the messages on her datapad. The first thing she noticed was the codes were Imperial. During the battle, she had assumed them to be some sort of Rebel transmission, and contemplated ordering the areas they originated from sterilized with orbital bombardment. Her face became drawn as she contemplated what she'd nearly done.

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa




Vader's Castle


ooc - I take it at the moment you just want OOC directives that we'd be giving for the short little exploration?

Talia would take normal precautions with getting there.

She's looking for:

- A place to meditate and attune herself with the Dark Side of the Force, using both Vader's castle and the "tragedy" of the events of Mustafar as a loci for such waves.

- She'd be curious as to what Vader kept stored in his castle; with a particular interest for any Holocrons.

- She'd also be interested to read the research of the hastily evacuated Rebel archaeology/science team that was looking the castle over.

[Lentrax]

Lyn restrained herself from giving in to the impulse of executing every single one of the detained rebels and sympathizers. Besides. If they try anything, they just get blown into space. Simple as that.

From there, Lyn ponders having an entire facility of Spacetroopers running a prison ship, where sections can be vented out into space to contain prisoners. She makes a mental note to pursue that line of reasoning later. THey may have need of a place to keep certain political prisoners. Assuming this little venture reached the potential Lyn saw in it.

But on to matters at hand.

She crafts memos for her staff officers.

She orders the separation of all Rebel placed personnel to be detained in the Panthac's brig. If there is not enough space there, then they can share cells. Lyn is not above cramming them two or three to a cell. So long as they have the necessities of life, then she is being, in her judgement, quite fair. Keeping them aboard the Panthac keeps them from being able to try and organize the other detainees into a riot that could threaten her people. Not just with the riot, but with the violent decompression of the atmosphere being vented into space. Once the interrogators can get to them, then she can decide whether or not to vent their bodies into space anyway.

She crafts a list from the names she has before her, and comes up with a staff list of those who have been cleared as being as loyal to the Empire as they can find among this wretched hive. She orders the civilian population to be brought to task. She doesn't order martial law to be declared, but the stormtroopers are keeping their weapons out and ready. Just in case.

Once things have settled down, then she can worry what to do with the civilians. But for now, she just wants to keep the whole damn thing from falling apart.

[robnar]

All
The 14th Imperial Intelligence Naval Interrogation Detachment reports 183 interrogations for the current period. The following summarizes the results.

-------------------------------- BREAK ----------------------
Triage. 156 of the interrogations produced no information of immediate intelligence value. Of these, 65 subjects are assessed as having future value for intelligence purposes - to confirm original information from other sources or as part of a systematic order of battle interrogation program. The other 91 are assessed to have on future intelligence value.

Starship captains. Interrogation of the 4 captured freighter captains, their executive officers, and their first mates (12 total) gave additional information about the rebel attack stations near Eriadu. The captains do not know the locations of the stations - instead, they pick up rebel operatives at the point of origin of their sensitive cargo. Those operatives have astromech droids that hold the coordinates for the stations. The freighters drop off the droids at the station along with the cargo. They report that the stations have huge numbers of fighters, but they don't have good information about the external defenses. The rebel operatives make them sit in the hold during landing.

Warship crews. Captured crewmembers from the Nebulon-B and the destroyed corvettes reported that this station was an ordnance bay for a force that would be in position at Eriadu itself. Much of that force included missile boats and minelayers designed to ambush Task Force Leviathan upon entry into Eriadu local space. This base was established to repair ships from that battle - some damaged rebel craft may retreat to this system during the battle.

Assessment. Triage 15% complete. Assess that the freighter captains are high-value for follow-up interrogations. Priority is to identify rebel political leaders or warship officers among the detainees.

The Hypertransciever broadcast from the Panthac stimulates tepid response. The Action-IV freighter Corellian Dog currently at Senali reports that it can ship 74,000 tons of food for a modest sum of 14.8 million credits, but would require an advance of 5 million credits to purchase the stores. Seven other ships from more distant locations report interest at varying prices, ranging from a cost basis of 150-400 credits per ton of unprocessed foodstuffs.

The quartermaster reports that Corellian Dog is offering a good price, but that's a huge amount of money to pay sight-unseen. Who knows the quality of its stores, you know?

Dr. Espana
The factory directors are cautious and guarded as they deal with you. Their first question is direct, and blunt. "Are you nationalizing our factories?"

You get the impression from at least one of them that they have ideas for improvement - he reacts with interest to your bigger ideas - but none of them are going to endorse your plan without directly knowing what it means to them.

Admiral Halcoor & Commander Arard
The 420th commander states flatly: "We can have one test recon flight today. 2 X-wings and a B-wing. The Bs have the hypertransciever - they're the only way to get quick feedback on our recon. Maybe 2 or 3 flights tomorrow, dependent on how the first goes. Should be able to do 6 flights of 3 every day afterwards, with a surge capacity of 9 flights."

Brevet Brigadier General Vess
Working through the files with an interest to just maintaining order, you find a couple of seemingly reliable officers on the police force who were passed over for promotion by the rebels. You assign a senior stormtrooper sergeant and squad to each of them for their protection.

The interrogators report that they're complete with vetting the security crew. They've transferred the ones who popped hot for rebel ties to the detention hangar, and have no intelligence reasons for keeping the rest detained. They recommend issuing instructions to them as to where to report tomorrow for roll-call and reindoctrination, and then letting them go home.

Moff Vesa, Inquisitor Kru
I'll give you a readout of your dungeon delving at tomorrow's SITREP. You'll be basically incommunicado until then, but you can go ahead and comment on any of the additional info you've seen above.

[Thundercracker]

Major Espana

“Nationalize? I guess I could... but really? That’s what you guys want to know?” Espana replied.

He rolled his eyes.

“Honestly, I care more about you two than your corporate masters and shareholders. You’re the ones here doing the actual work, so I’m going to answer your question with a question.

Do you like your bosses?”
He paused.
“Two questions, how much of your profit do you send to them?”

Espana smiled.

[robnar]

"Do you like your bosses?”
He paused.
“Two questions, how much of your profit do you send to them?"

The older of the two directors leans back and says "This factory is a Cybot franchise. I own a 12% stake and he-" nods to the other- "has 7%. The workers have 10%. The rest is all over the place, mostly in Corellia. A quarter of net profit goes to the franchise fee, the rest to the shareholders."

[Thundercracker]

The older of the two directors leans back and says "This factory is a Cybot franchise. I own a 12% stake and he-" nods to the other- "has 7%. The workers have 10%. The rest is all over the place, mostly in Corellia. A quarter of net profit goes to the franchise fee, the rest to the shareholders."

what does espana know about cybot and corellia? Specifically are they aligned with the rebels?
Is what espana wants to do with the factories outside the scope of the franchise?

Galactic lore take 10 for 27

“Well, we definitely won’t nationalize your existing assets,” Espana replied, “but we are going to be expanding operations significantly, probably outside of what Cybot specified for its franchise. I’ll need a copy of the franchise agreement and recent financials, and what they provide to us. Renegotiation might be on the table but I’m more inclined to cut them out of the expansion and just keep the current flow of credits going. As for the people in this room, I’m sure we can work something out which will be mutually beneficial.”

[OracleofSilence]

"Very good commander." Jen double checks that the information on the official report has the last details then return his attention to the officer. ""When you have a chance, get in contact with the Flight Wings support staff. Set up a simulator bank loaded with the X and B wing flight profiles, and have any promising pilots spend some time getting used to the new systems. Tell the tactical officers to get inventive with scenarios as well. Not enough into interrupt more organized drills of course. And get a tech taking feedback from the pilots. See if there are any features they prefer from the Rebel tech."

Jen checks his schedule, then nods to the officer and saultes the Admiral. "M'Lady, if you have no present need for me, I believe I am due to have a meeting with the mine staff regarding ownership and preliminary security arrangements."

Assuming that RandomLunatic has no objections, I suppose I can transition my scene to Thundercracker's. Based off the role assignments from the previous page, that appears to be the conversation that would be easiest to start without splitting the party even more.

[robnar]

Dekki

Your meeting with the station leadership goes extremely well. They are entirely unguarded with you, instead of the stonewalling and general stubbornness they show the stormtroopers. The leadership hits you with an outpouring of resentment - about the circumstances of the surrender and the general humiliation the entire station has endured since the stormtroopers arrived. The leaders are quick to point out that they remained neutral throughout the entire fight and they have no desire to harm anyone. They are willing to take the lead of the station, maintain order, and even pay a certain tribute for protection, but they don't want to be treated like a defeated and subject people.

You walk away from the meeting thinking clearly that all the station leadership wants is for things to go back to normal. They don't care who's in charge, they just want to be left out of galactic-wide politics. You also get the sense that if your occupation continues at this level the rebels will find it easier and easier to infiltrate operatives onto the station.

Commander Arard

You requisition a lambda down to the main CONHUGECO mine complex and a stormtrooper platoon to guard you. Though you heard them described earlier, the mines are a sight to see - almost like a huge sewage treatment plant, rivers of molten rock are sifted into cooling and centrifuge ponds, where the slag is segregated by element and sorted into huge cooling casts. The mining goes straight from the ground to refined ingots, without smelting or forging. The mineral wealth of this planet is astounding.

You land near the head offices - a mobile trailer farm and prefab office building where the non-native administrators and managers live and work. A small delegation is waiting for you there.

Dr. Espana

Cybot Galactica is described on p. 16 of scavenger's guide to droids. I'm feeling lazy right now, and cut-paste isn't showing me much love, so let me know if you need me to send you the text.

In immediate terms, a cybot franchise will have access to lots of droid designs, and you should be able to source parts from all over the region.

Correllia is still Imperial-controlled, as it is in the as-yet-unbroken core worlds. You don't know how deep support for the rebels runs among its population or its leadership in the corporate sector.

The directors shrug affably. The older says "look, we make droids. We'll work for someone who employs and respects us, and we'll even grant you first choice to purchase our products at a cost-plus-5% basis. All we want is fair treatment for ourselves and our workers."

The younger director leans forward. "So what do you want us to make?"

[Thundercracker]

Espana

“I have every intent on making sure you and your workers have all the incentive you need to keep producing,” Espana replied, “cost plus 5% sounds like a good deal, let’s shake on it.”

He turned to the younger director.

“We’re going to make construction droids and mechanic droids,” Espana replied.

“Half the construction droids and mechanic droids will repair the damaged airspeeder factory first. The other half will go into augmenting your existing facilities and techs; one of you should work with me and my team on the designs. I want the other one to work with me to design a lead mechanic droid. Eventually we will slave a bunch of mechanic drones to this lead droid to carry out upgrades.”

gotta repair the airspeeder factory to keep credits rolling in I believe.

My idea is to use a mass number of cheap drone mechanic droids to upgrade weapons like blaster rifles with superior tech. That increases their market value. We sell/trade the weapons and replace the ones we upgraded, and use the extra to fund a shield generator factory, which we then use to upgrade the vehicles. Meanwhile we keep upgrading and selling weapons to fund everything.

Goal is to add shield generators on every vehicle, then upgrade their weapons, then start producing new ones.

I’m going through all this rather than just producing shields off the bat because I’m thinking it should help us build up production faster.

Does that work?

Also I’m assuming Espana knows these guys’ name and I’m not asking because it’s easier for you than asking you to make up names for every npc (aren’t I nice? ;) )

[Gunhaven]

Dekki

The lurmen nodded with every complaint and let the fellow Xenos vent their frustrations. Truthfully none of it surprised him but he kept that to himself as he did his best to reassure them that things would return to normal for them as soon as possible. He simply requested their patience and to please contact him if they had any concerns in the future; admittedly the same way he talked to patients. Before he left them he made sure that his information was correct so that he could contact them with future developments.

When he returned to his office he made sure there wasn't any immediate developments that required his attention, then any updates from his staff aiding the civilian doctors, and finally any updates from outside his field of influence. Once everything was settled he finally sent a message to Moff Vesa, CCing the stormtrooper commander and any others that are directly interacting with the civilian station: There are concerns among the leadership about the conduct of the surrender. They truthfully wish to return as quickly as possible to the way things were and are willing to take responsibility for it. Please inform me which sections that they can return to running and how long the remaining sections must be inspected, or what reasons they can't be ran by those who were in charge, so that I may inform them. Thank you.

[Lentrax]

Lyn responds to the message.

I am perfectly content with letting the civilians return to work. We have cleared several of the former administrators to return to their duties. But they will not be able to return to duty until they have been reindoctrinated. Once that is complete, work will be able to resume.

Lyn attaches her schedule for reindoctrination, along with her list of approved administration staff.

Lyn then spends several hours with her own staff officers, scheduling boarding drills. She still did not know what they were planning to do with the upcoming battle at Eriadu, but wanted her troops ready for anything.

[Thundercracker]

After several subsequent rounds of discussions with the directors, Espana and them settled on a model whereby the Empire would build additional mines and factories while maintaining a supplier relationship with the existing franchise. When they were done and had an agreement, the Major pulled out his comlink.

“Captain Arard, this is Major Espana,” he said, “I understand you’re at the mines, I’m heading there now to evaluate their potential. See you in a few minutes.”

we can sync up our scenes.

[OracleofSilence]

"Gentlemen." The young officer approached the delegation, stormtrooper escort in tow. "It's a pleasure to meet you at last. I will be your liaison to the Admiral for the duration of negotiations." He gestures that the delegation should set off. "To begin with, I received a report that during the period of rebel occupation, some new regulations had been put in place in the mines here. Of course, I don't intend to hold management personnel responsible for cooperating with terrorists, but I hope you understand that I will need to be sent a full and detailed list of these arrangements, as well as who carried them out." Jen's expression remains calm as he speaks, though a perceptive administrator might notice a slightly predatory edge creeping into his voice as he continues. "Additionally, if you would be so kind as to transfer any receipts or proof of sales made during this period to my staff, that will make the transitional period significantly easier on all of us, i think. After all, the rule of law has returned to Mustafar. It wouldn't do to shirk now." The smile that follows is pleasant and unassuming.

At this point, Jen's com chirps, and he turns away slightly to take the call. "Major. Yes, of course. Very well. I'll alert them." He turns back to the delegation. "Now. Another officer will be arriving shortly to assess mine output and extensibility. I trust that this information will be prepared for him when he arrives?"

Rolling persuasion to change attitude. Obviously Jen isn't precisely being friendly here, but his tone is intended to convey that things will go positively for management, at least if they cooperate.

Persuasion: [roll0]

[RandomLunatic]

"We'll ease them into it. Scout for potential turn-off points in deep space," Veesha said.

After dismissing the flight officer, she quickly flipped through the messages on her datapad for anything that popped as being time-sensitive intel.

After that, she went to pay a visit to the cryptanalysts. She was down to three days to make a Rebel fleet disappear. Time to crack the whip.

[robnar]

D+2 on Mustafar Prime

Work in Progress.

General Situational Update
C4-LBN sends a brief memorandum in the morning to each of your datapads.
M'ladies and lords. I bring the following to your attention today.

First, the 9th support wing has brought 2 out of 3 of the military station repair gantries online. The Panthac can begin overhaul and repair of the damaged sections immediately. The 9th also reports that it has sufficient stores on-hand to service the Panthac and replace the water losses from the blast, but will need to contract for military supplies from out of system for the next major servicing.

Second, we have received several requests from out of system for trade entry. In addition to the Correlian Dog, three large super-freighters flagged from Kuat have contacted us from Sullust requesting permission to offload cargo and purchase steel in bulk from our mines.



Admiral Halcoor on the command bridge of the Panthac

Roughly seventeen seconds after you finish your morning routine you are stalking down the hallway towards the communications section's vault in order to get the crypto readout. The door slides open easily, and you see the room in a quiet state of panic. Lieutenant Ashro, your normal intelligence watch lieutenant, sputters when she sees you and snaps to ramrod attention, looking white as a sheet. She croaks out a nervous "Admiral on deck!"

You realize why she was so terrified when she reports. "Ma'am. I arrived here 18 minutes ago (0415) to prepare your briefing on the cryptanalysis results. Um. Uh... Um.... It appears that someone sliced the crypto computer last night. They wiped the entire memory bank. We've got some of the rebel code from our backup system decrypted, enough for some general intel, but everything else is out. We can backup the standard imperial military codes, but that intelligence code we decrypted yesterday is unrecoverable and we'll have to restart the decryption process on the rebel code. I have detained the night watch crew -" she points to a group of analysts sitting in a huddled corner of the vault under the watchful blasters of two stormtroopers under a cone of silence - "and informed Captain Grenn, but I'm still on damage control. I don't know how this happened yet."

Captain Roland Grenn - your intelligence staff director - sputtered into the vault during Lieutenant Ashro's brief, obviously barely woken up and still unshaven. Seeing you and the lieutenant already engaged, he snaps a salute and listens to her report.

OOC - I've got other stuff for you, but I suspect your character would want to react to this first.

Dekki on the civilian station
Not sure what your priorities after the civilian meeting are. Helpful reminder, though - you might want to figure out how to crew that medical frigate you acquired...

Moff Vesa and Inquisitor Kru at Vader's Castle
Your ground crews snatch up and bag the entire rebel camp as the two of you enter the building. It is slow going, as you're climbing on ropes on an almost 45 degree incline over the lava river that has consumed the east wing of the castle (now below you).

As you enter the central chamber of the castle, you both feel the dark side almost palpably radiating through the structure. Simply being in the middle of this castle is like a focal point for the dark side of the force.

Deeper into the bowels of the castle, almost two stories below the central chamber, is Vader's inner sanctum. You can see discarded rebel boring and drilling equipment around it, but the outer wall of the sanctum is untouched. It opens to a powerful push of dark side energy from the both of you.

Inside, you find the clear remnants of the dark lord. A huge spherical chamber, slightly open, with a chair inside lays solid against an obsidian hexagonal base. Along the walls you find various trophies of his career, including several different lightsabers and two previous versions of his armor.

The rest of the search reveals interesting artifacts, but nothing significant. Aside from the obvious power of the structure itself and Vader's memorabilia, there is little else of major value.

OOC - this technically happened yesterday. You can move some of the lighter equipment, but there's no way to move the chamber itself using what you have.

Moff Vesa
Not sure what you want to do after Vader's castle.

Inquisitor Kru
You have a long night after the return from Vader's castle, meeting with some of the senior ISB agents and sending out a contact request to the groundside stations. Later that evening, you get a reply from PINCUSHION: "MEET AT D-DECK CIVILIAN STATION INTERROGATION ROOM 3A AT 0900 TOMORROW."

You also send several requests to the 101st leadership on the civilian station for a readout on their criminal detainees and overall detainee triage program. Right now, it looks like you have about 32 high priority interrogations that are worth your attention.

This correspondence takes most of your evening, and its 0100 standard when you finally hit the sack. At 0433, your datapad screams you awake with a critical priority message from the intellignce section G2 - "potential enemy intelligence threat on Panthac. Come to the Comms vault immediately!"

OOC - plan 1 hour per each interrogation minimum

Dr. Espana & Commander Arard at the groundside factories
Commander Arard - The civilian administrator blanches as you deliver your greeting. It's pretty obvious that he got all of the huge threats and little incentives tucked in there. "Of course, um... General? uh, Sir? um..." Pauses for a moment. "Uh, we only have the one shuttlepad, so, um... Can I ask you to our conference room while you wait?" He points to a prefab trailer virtually identical to the rest.

Commander Arard & Dr. Espana - A few minutes later the two of you are seated comfortably in the conference hut, facing the mine director and a couple of his assistants. After a bit of hemming and hawing and some introductions, the mine director gets down to business.

"The rebels did a bunch of reforms to try and give the mustafarans more freedom and better wages and the right to buy into an ownership stake in the mines. The rebels had some government types walking around and describing the new arrangements. The problem is, the lava bugs are illiterate morons who can't do anything except suck volcano slime on their own. They hear these ideas, and some of them get the idea that now's a great time to overthrow the xeno tyrants. The rebel reforms aren't a big deal, just some extra money and leave time for the bugs. The revolutionaries are a threat, but as long as there's some stormtroopers for backup in case things get bad we can keep the lava bugs in line."

"Here's our books from the past six months," gesturing to a data chip. "It's yours to do with as you want."

Turning to Dr. Espana - "right now we're operating at 20% capacity, because there's nowhere to put the output. Until people actually come to start buying our stuff, we can't do anything. Our cash reserves are fine, but in about three more pay cycles (two standard months) we'll have a hard time making payroll. There's two things you can do to make more money here - sell more stuff, or find different minerals. For the first one, transportation's the bottleneck - getting the stuff to the elevator, getting it into orbit, and getting it to a customer. Making metal here is easy. For the second, that's where you can make real money. There's another mine that produces about 50,000 tons of pure gold a month, and we think there are some good volcanos in the north lava sea that are full of radioactives. You wanna fund some prospects and maybe we can get a plan to scoop those up."

Brigadier General (Brevet) Vess on the civilian station

Yesterday involved tons of chores. You had to stand up and make a stupid speech as you commissioned the new director of the Mustafar system constabulary - a competent enough police officer without enough backbone to challenge the stormtrooper legion staff Major who you assigned to supervise his department. Then there was the meeting with the 506th commander and plans to come down and inagurate the new groundside division police forces tomorrow.

The boarding exercises were interesting. You closed off a hangar bay, shut down the gravity, and had your troopers practice boarding and clearing of all of the civilian shuttles and craft inside. It was mostly a goat rope - you only have one spacetrooper company per regiment, and the regular troopers flounder like fish out of water once the gravity goes off. The 502nd's spacetroopers are pretty good though. Mostly, though, you wish you had the SPECNAV guys to train your men - they do this for a living. However, the inquisitor's been hogging them for the last couple days.

When you finally get to sleep, you have two and a half hours of blissful shut-eye before your commlink buzzes you awake. The current operations watch captain* comes in over your commlink: "ma'am, situation report follows. We detected a large volume of hypertransceiver communications coming from the first Intergalactic Bank branch office transceiver and repeated by the station transceiver. We've sent a platoon to each location to detain everyone. Do you have any guidance?"

[cybric]

Vaders fortress
Inquisitor Rol sweats from the heat of the near by magma and the exurtion of the clinb to the dark lords chamber. It had taken a immense amount of force power to unlock the path here and the inquisitor was taxed although it would not due to show weakness before his Moff.

Just being in the center of the stronghold Rol could feel just how laced with the darkside of the force this citadel was. It vibrated in his bones and sang in his blood.

For a time the inquistor appeared to be almost in a trance as waves of fear and aggression crashed into him. He was stronger though than such echoes and he pushed through to conciousness.

With his wits restored Rol will instruct that the memorabilia especially the armor and lightsabers be taken back to the panthac and placed in their most secure vault. While the items maybe mundane enough by appreance they had to have been laced with the darkside as well and could be powerful reagents for dark armor or alchemically enhanced weapons.

Finally Rol turns and addresses Moff Vesha.

My Moff you feel it yes? The power? The darkside is so focused here. We must rebuild the citadel. It is a foci for the dark side and I believe it could help those of us familiar with its ways. It must not be allowee to crumble

Later aboard the Panthac
Rol had just laid down after a taxing day. After returning to the ship and managing some administrative work he was ready for some good sleep. He tossed for a time as his meeting with pincushion occupied his mind. He would like to bring insurance with him and so he sent a brief message to the SPECNAV captain.

He would take alpha squad with him but leave the rest of the 7th on board. As he sent the message he adds a addendum to have the captain coordinate with with troopers on the civilian station. Rol had recieved a update from one of his agents that the troopers were not fairing well and he felt the SPECNAV's could speed their training along.

He was asleep for not nearly enough time when his datapad screams in his ear. As he reads the message his eyes go wide. A breach. On board the Panthac herself.

He grabs his lightsaber and attaches it to his belt as he runs out of his quarters towards the comms vault

He sends a priority one alert to all agents aboard the Panthac while he makes his way in order to bring them up to speed and raising the alert level to max. He requests immediate up dates from all parties as well.

Rol also sends a priority measage to flight control requesting all outbound flights be grounded under security protocols until the breach was sorted.

As he arrives admiral halcoor is already on the scene

Rol strides into the situation his body laungage and posture showing he os aware of the breach

What have they found?

[Lentrax]

Did we intercept any of the transmissions?

[robnar]

Did we intercept any of the transmissions?

"Yes ma'am. Orders to transfer funds out of certain accounts held here. Looks like they were trying to hide some of their money."

[robnar]

Rol also sends a priority measage to flight control requesting all outbound flights be grounded under security protocols until the breach was sorted.


"M'lord. Will comply. We will send emergency requests to you for approval."

[Lentrax]

Right. Detain everyone. I don’t care ignore they have been vetted by intel before or not. Forward the transmissions to intel and order them to find out who the transmissions were sent to. I will transmit new orders if it becomes necessary to deviate from protocol. Vess out.

Lyn, like nearly every soldier in the galaxy, knows how to dress quickly. She is out the door in moments, heading for the shuttle bay. She has a trooper signal ahead to have a shuttle ready to launch by the time she arrives. Once underway, she contacts the Panthac’s intelligence division.

You are about to receive a set of intercepted transmissions for financial data. I want to know the source down to which terminal was used, what we can find out about the intended recipient of these transmissions, and I want a cryptanalysis done to see if there is another message buried in the signal. Start with known Rebel codes and proceed from there. I am on my way back to Panthac to be able to receive the reports firsthand.

[robnar]

You are about to receive a set of intercepted transmissions for financial data. I want to know the source down to which terminal was used, what we can find out about the intended recipient of these transmissions, and I want a cryptanalysis done to see if there is another message buried in the signal. Start with known Rebel codes and proceed from there. I am on my way back to Panthac to be able to receive the reports firsthand.

Inquisitor Kru and Admiral Halcoor - while you're conferring with Captain Grenn and Lieutenant Ashro, Captain Grenn's commlink buzzes with a priority signal. He steps back for a moment, and listens. After a moment, you hear him state in the pinched off whisper of a furious man who's really trying not to shout "well, she's not gonna *()&$%$# get them for a while yet, so she can go sit on her hands and wait. She's definitely not getting anywhere near here."

Brevet BG Vess - You receive a prompt response to your message from a staff functionary on the Panthac: "Ma'am, the analysis section is working on a higher priority mission right now. We are unable to estimate when we can action your request."

[RandomLunatic]

Veesha looked from Ashro to the computer terminal with a tight-lipped expression. To call this unfortunate timing was to describe Dac as "moist".

The she looked up as Kru came in. "There was a breach last night. Somebody deleted most of the intelligence we gathered yesterday," with an oddly level voice for somebody who had just had their plans dealt a possibly mortal blow.

Then she turned and fixed the Lieutenant with a piercing gaze. "Was anything else compromised?"

[Lentrax]

Lyn bites back the urge to curse. She does not, however, curtail the tone of her voice. She came from the ranks, making that leap that few troopers get, to sit in the Officer’s mess. And her vaunted common trooper attitudes are all coming back to her in one flash of pure, unbridled anger. Very well. Tell whoever is overriding my authority that while you are sitting on your asses twiddling your thumbs, a Rebel operative is attempting to transfer their assets out of the system, and probably leave themselves. I may not be in the almighty Imperial Intelligence, but if this isn’t a high enough priority to warrant any kind of immediate action, then as always, Intelligence is once again displaying their lack there of.

With that last remark, two of the troopers snort their agreement with the general’s assessment of II. Of course, it helps that troopers love nothing more than to deride the fancy smart people who don’t know anything about actually fighting the battles they send the Imperial legions to.

[robnar]

Then she turned and fixed the Lieutenant with a piercing gaze. "Was anything else compromised?"

Admiral Halcoor & Inquisitor Kru - "We don't think so. It's impossible to transmit a signal out of this room, and the logs on the computers do not indicate any data transfers. All we see right now is a hack job that deleted the crypto data. I've got two techs right now looking over everything to try and make sure."


Very well. Tell whoever is overriding my authority that while you are sitting on your asses twiddling your thumbs, a Rebel operative is attempting to transfer their assets out of the system, and probably leave themselves. I may not be in the almighty Imperial Intelligence, but if this isn’t a high enough priority to warrant any kind of immediate action, then as always, Intelligence is once again displaying their lack there of.


Admiral Halcoor & Inquisitor Kru - Captain Grenn gets another beep, listens to it for a moment, and then mumbles "roger. Put her in the command deck conference room." He looks up and says "Colonel Vess thinks she's got a lead on a rebel trying to get their assets out of system. She'll be on ship in a few minutes. I'm going check that out. Lieutenant, carry on. You're responsible for this investigation and damage control." And then Grenn walks away.

Lentrax - I'll give RL and Cybric a chance to respond, then advance you to your meeting with Captain Grenn.

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa

Vaders Castle

Tailia had only ever heard of the Dark Lord of the Sith through anecdotes and official records - but standing here in the seat of his power, she could tell that such tales paled in comparison to the man himself. Standing at the centre of the decaying monument, the Moff drew in the vestiges of power that permeated the environment, drinking them in as if they were a sweet wine to be savoured.


My Moff you feel it yes? The power? The darkside is so focused here. We must rebuild the citadel. It is a foci for the dark side and I believe it could help those of us familiar with its ways. It must not be allowee to crumble


Nodding slowly, Talia cast her gaze about the meditation chamber, her mind filling with images of what it would look like should it be restored to its former dignity. Whatever the Force decided for their fledgling campaign to remake the Empire, this dwelling could be its soul.

"Yes...the Dark Side is palpable here..." Talia replied, rolling her shoulders and rolling her senses over the surroundings, "its restoration should be a priority...I'll have engineering draw up plans to rescue the castle from ruin..."

Aboard the Panthac


Sparks flew and the scent of ozone blasted into the air as the blood-red saber blade sliced through the torso of another training droid, the ruined machine sprawling across the floor to join the graveyard of parts that had accumulated around the training room. Having destroyed another droid, the Moff charged forward into the second mass of training bots, her weapon curling about her figure in glittering arcs that both protected her from the forest of blaster fire and carved pieces from the training droids precisely as she desired.

Swiping here, a Force push there, it wasn't long until Talia was standing alone within a room of debris where once stood several squads of droids - her white, customed armor barely losing the sheen of its cleaning gloss.

Controlling her breathing, shoulders drawing up and down, Talia's eyes swept across the ruin before deactivating her cross-guarded lightsaber and putting it back upon her hip. Having delegated most of the duties of consolidation of Mustafar and preparation for Eriadu, the Dark Jedi had time to keep her skills sharp, skills that had not received the practice she was hoping for during the assault of Mustafar.

Nevertheless, the Moffs mind kept wandering back to Vaders castle, and the meditation sphere that had once been the sanctuary for the Dark Lord and his place of reflection. Seeing it stillborn among the rubble had been almost too much for the Dark Jedi to bear, but initially Talia had believed in restoring the entire castle to its former glory....but after a dwelling on it further, she wasn't sure if reconstructing the past was the path to the future. Afterall, all of this was due to her yearning to build something new, rather than to revive old glories.

Starting to leave the training area, Talia drew out her comms device and sent a message to Dr. Espana.

'Dr Espana, your time in my office, when you are free'

[Thundercracker]

Dr. Espana

moving along pending finalization of the balance sheet asset allocation decision.

Having finished with his assessment and worth a good idea of how they were going to improve operations, Espana reported to Talia’s office.

The Major was scuffed somewhat from the trip to the mines but still saluted smartly.

“Major Espana reporting,” he said.

[Gunhaven]

Dekki

For a moment the doctor pondered what to do next before he eventually thumbed to the recently acquired MedStar. He frowned as he looked at the numbers required to staff the new ship before he opened up his messages once more. To figuratively everyone that wasn't already assigned a place (including civilians) that he flagged with low priority for now he sent a mass, generic message. A crew was needed for the recently acquired ship. If interested then he simply requested the potential employee's information. He would get back to those interested within the week to move forward with the training program.

Because he didn't have enough messages he also sent to his staff a message with normal priority. He requested updates from their shadowing from those that hadn't contacted him or otherwise informed him. With the future information he created a new document to organize transfers and new hires for HR to go over. He wanted to make it as seamless as possible and attempt to show that the civilians could be trusted.

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa


Talia's "office" was surprisingly welcoming for one of her inclinations. Instead of the cold sterility dwellings fashioned for the Emperor or other Dark Siders, Talia enjoyed a degree of comfort in her place of business, as Espana was greeted by a flanking row of busts sculpted into the likeness of prior heroes and figures of Talia's home system. Likewise, the walls were decorated with a variety of banners displaying both the Imperial signa and that of Talia's royal family, alongside which were the preserved heads of vicious animals that the Dark Jedi had no doubt encountered in prior times.

At the end of the expansive room, opposite the door through which Espana entered, Talia sat behind her large desk with her attention focused on something before her. Since her training session she had changed out of her armor and into surprisingly normal civilian clothing, the simplicity of which could led the uninitiated to think she was a common freighter pilot.

Looking up from whatever-it-was that she was doing, Talia locked eyes with the engineer as she drew her hands over her lap.

"Major Espana," she said, her voice unusually soft now that she was no longer dressed and armed for war.

"I trust you are fitting into operations and have left your mark..." she opened the conversation.

[Thundercracker]

Major Espana

“There are the seeds of a thriving economy here,” the doctor replied, “one which we can use to improve trade relations and fund our war machine.”

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa

Terse and to the point. Espana seemed a man as frugal in his mannerisms as he was with his work.

"I am glad to hear it," the Moff spoke, gesturing to one of the chairs near the front of her expansive desk for the engineer to place himself within.

"Tell me; is the time and resources available to modify a room aboard the Panthac? Say, a room roughly about this size of the one we're in now?"

[Thundercracker]

Espana

“It depends on the modifications. Not all room upgrades are created equal,” the major replied.

“What did you have in mind?” he asked.

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa



Talia said nothing for several long moments as she rested back in her chair, fingers steepled before her and her bright blue eyes focusing on the major.

Finally, she spoke, "on the planet below us is the former residence of a particular VIP. He owned a room-sized dais for reflection and contemplation. I would like to have it moved from the ruins of his home to onboard this ship."

[Thundercracker]

Espana

“Send the location to me, I’ll have it loaded on a shuttle,” Espana replied, “I’m curious though, how will bringing this dais onboard the ship help us defeat the Rebels?”

[RandomLunatic]

"It sounds like you have a lot of work to do. You'd best get started," Veesha said in a very carefully level tone.

"Inquisitor, if I may have a word?" Veesha asked, dragging him someplace they could talk in private. "I can't help but notice one of the things we lost was our copy of the cracked cipher from our local agents. Could this have been the work of one of your men trying to keep it a secret? It's one of the more palatable explanations."

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa



Talia wasn't used to having to explain herself to anyone, but the Moff seemed impassive to the Major as she held his sight.

"In a multitudinous number of ways. All of which, I approve."

[Thundercracker]

Espana

“I’ll get an impact assessment done up,” Espana replied, “it will slightly delay our repair of the airspeeder factory but not significantly. Is there anything else? Have you eaten?”

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa


Talia smirked.

She reached forward her right hand to hold a picture frame that was facing her. When she turned it around for the Major to view, he could see a picture of her and five children surrounding her, as the Moff tapped the gold band around her ring finger.

"I'm already taken," she smirks, clearly being playful.

[Thundercracker]

Espana

“Understood ma’am, but it would be a good opportunity to discuss our long term strategy,” Espana replied, “such an understanding would help me plan our production expansion.”

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa


Talia's smirked remained, clearly used to hanging around the rough-and-tumble rank-and-file that were an endless source of crude humor.

Nodding once, "that sounds quite apt. Suggestions?"

[Thundercracker]

Espana

“One of the conference rooms would be best,” Espana replied, “so as not to be overheard or misunderstood.”

Assuming she’s okay with the suggestion, Espana arranged for meals to be delivered from the officer’s mess.

“I’m having all of our fighters outfitted with deflector shields or missiles or both,” Espana said, “it’s the obvious choice given the short timeframe we have before the upcoming engagement. It will also help reduce attrition to our fighter wing and improve both morale and skill of our pilot corps as we won’t have to spend time finding and training new pilots. What happens after the next battle though? What’s our end game and how are we planning to get there?”

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa


Talia didn't eat much - which was surprising for a woman of her height and activity. Instead she poked at a gentle, hearty stew and sipped from her goblet with refined, practiced manners that would surprise anyone who only knew her from the field.

To his first point, the Moff nodded.

"Good. I always thought the Empires reliance on cheap, disposable fighter squadrons was foolish and arrogant. We can neither match the fracturing empire nor the whole rebellion for numbers, so we must be able to at least meet them with quality."

Then came Espana's second question - to what end were all their efforts moving?

To this, Talia smiled.

"After Eriadu? We consolidate and plan the next attack. And then the next. We are to be the beacon of stability and protection in a galaxy that is quickly falling apart."

Taking a sip of wine, the Dark Jedi leaned back in her chair.

"Our movement is the product of an inevitable march through history. The Empire and the Republic that preceded it, each contained fatal flaws. Democracy was not the Republics strength, it was its weakness.

Any idiot with an opinion got a vote to deliver some pampered Senator onto the gravy train. The best argument against a democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter, and the spineless worms they put into office were more concerned with doing what was popular to the lowest common denominator. But that was the thesis of the Republic, personal freedom and representative government. But it didn't last. The Republic, though offering people the comfort of freedom, had become extremely bureaucratic, corrupt and paralysed by endless political infighting. Two thirds of the population required a license just to go to work each day, and navigating the endless halls of red-tape was a herculean effort that sapped the will to continue from most of the Republics citizens. And when one part of the population wanted this reduced, another wanted it kept in place for fear of the consequences, and so nothing got done. The Empire eliminated that.

But the Empire had its own flaws. Though it offered security and eliminated much of the committee facets of the Republic, it was excessively authoritarian in its means, curtailed many freedoms and brutalising citizens by the billions while designating any non-human as a second class citizen destined for slavery or worse, much to the ire of both aliens and the humans that sympathised with them.

The Republic was a proposition of good government, but like all thesis it contained within it an inherent contradiction - its antithesis, the Galactic Empire, was an inevitable outcome. The conflict of these two has yielded something new - a synthesis: us. A lightweight autocracy that provides security and order and before which all citizens are equal before the law and free to pursue their self-interest. Thesis. Anithesis. Synthesis.

To the populace at large and the Imperial High Command we will use the mask of the Empire for as long as possible. But the time will come when we will have to declare our intentions, and when that time comes, we will either have proof of our legitimacy or we will collapse."

[Thundercracker]

Major Espana

Espana nodded at the Moff’s words.

“Good thing we didn’t nationalize the mines or enslave the native population,” he replied.

“So, we’re aiming for the authoritarian rule of the Empire with the economic inclusion of the old republic,” Espana said.

He pondered for a moment.

“It could work better than either government. We’ll need to ensure corruption doesn’t take root, and we’ll need to secure safe trade routes, root out piracy. If we do these two things, and get the message out, planets should flock to us,” he said.

[robnar]

D+2 on Mustafar Prime

Work in Progress

Admiral Halcoor & Commander Arard

You each get a ping from your secure datapads. The 420th Strike liaison officer rings you in "Ma'am, sir, got the initial report from the recon flight. They are repositioning after broadcasting this update, so we have a half hour until we'll be able to contact them for updated guidance. Report follows."

On station at <coordinates>*, midway through the hyperspace route from Sullust to Eriadu. Repositioning in one mike. This route is very busy from traffic moving from Sullust to Eriadu. We've got cronau signatures of 6 cruiser-scale drives, 9 corvette scale drives, and 10 heavy freighters. In addition, we've located breakaway signatures from the main route heading in <direction1>, <direction2>, and <direction3>. One corvette, one frigate, and 12 fighter-scale signatures in each direction. We've got no more astrogation data, so we're repositioning in normal space. Unless otherwise directed we will begin exfil in 2 hours.**


* <coordinates> & <direction> indicate appropriately formatted navigation data.
** Counting transmission delays, that means in 45 minutes.


Inquisitor Kru

Your day just got busy. Between Captain Grenn and Lieutenant Ashro, a number of your first thoughts were already covered - including investigators checking all of the access records to the vault, the terminals, the personnel, movements in and out, the basics. You kick it up a bit, ordering an immediate all-hands battle stations drill across the Panthac. As the alarms run across the ship, the section leaders will have to take personnel accountability, which will let you know about any missing crew.

For the sensitive stuff - the cases where the infiltrator could be in the stormtrooper legion or the intelligence staff, you also grab some of the SPECNAV soldiers and put them on watch duty. Captain Grenn requests a detachment of them to secure the analytical sell he's setting up for Colonel Vess, as well.

But the next part is yours, alone. You move to each of the night shift analysts, grabbing their head and forcing yourself into their thoughts....

Roll 5 use the force checks

In the middle of this, you get a ping from your datapad, reminding you that you're scheduled to meet the Mustafar ISB station chief at the civilian station in a half hour.

Dekki
Shortly after your advertisement for crew positions goes out, you start to get responses. Then tens of responses. Then hundreds of responses. Three hours later, you've got almost 3,000 inquiries, almost exclusively from the civilian station. Maybe 120 look somewhat professional - the resumes of professional traders and merchants stuck here after you locked down the civilian station. The rest come from everywhere, and you get the distinct feeling that a lot of people are going to jump onto any ship to get out of this system as soon as possible.


Dr. Espana
Taking a quick look at the castle from imagery, you immediately notice three things. (1) There's no way to rebuild it where it is. It looks like some kind of earthquake, or combination of quakes, changed the ground around it. Only way to rebuild it would be to move it, intact, somewhere else. The Panthac's tractors are the only asset you have currently that could do it. (2) For some reason, you don't like the look of that castle. And (3), it's a nagging feeling, but the whole structure for some absurd reason reminds you of a tesla coil.

But that's a distraction. The real action is in hangar complex 3, where the small craft mechanics from the 9th and 420th are all assembled next to a TIE fighter and interceptor. You march in, and start to explain the program to the team - 58 fighters, 60 hastily-converted shield generators. The mechanics are stoked...

Make a knowledge(technology) roll, a mechanics roll, and a persuasion roll. I'll use these to determine how well the crew performs. Apply any relevant bonuses for leading a group that you might have from feats/talents.... but the 420th commander is not. Rear Admiral Walnor slides up to you while you're watching the first crews get to work. "What are you doing to my fighters, Major?"


Brevet Brigadier General Vess
When your shuttle lands on the Panthac, there are two young enlisted intelligence analysts in the standard imperial grey ship crew uniform waiting to meet you. They snap to attention as you arrive, and the taller says "Ma'am, Captain Grenn is waiting to meet you at the third deck conference room. Please follow us."

The third deck - one of the warrens where the staff pukes count beans and the greatest danger is a papercut or a stern talking-to - is actually strangely subdued. There are fewer functionaries shuffling between offices and a bunch of stormtroopers from 3-506 standing outside of all of the locked doors. When you get to the conference room, a stormtrooper checks your escorts' credentials, then your own, and tells your troopers to wait outside. Then he takes away all of your communication devices, puts them in a signal proof box, and waves you in.

Captain Grenn, looking extraordinarily tired, is swearing into his portable computer about something. Five harried analysts who look like they just woke up are huddled around the table working among tangles of wires from workstations that were obviously just uprooted and planted here. Four SPECNAV guys sit in the corners, impassively monitoring whatever. They are the only armed ones in the room.

Captain Grenn looks up. "Welcome to your new fusion cell, Lyn.* We've had a breach, so you'll have to deal with the paranoia. These are the only analysts we can spare. They've got a preliminary report for you, but they'll need some manpower from your staff at the 101st to do some more detailed analysis. I've gotta go deal with some other crap. Coffee is in the corner."

The senior intel specialist on the team - a mid career technical officer by the looks of him - steps up. "Ma'am, looks like a rebel sympathizer on the bank staff responded to a request to transfer some investments to other banking houses across the galaxy. They sent out transfer requests for 350 million credits to 14 different spots in the galaxy before we stopped them. A search of their ledger reveals about 200 million credits held in other securities remaining in accounts accessible from this bank. That's the short version of it. What are your questions?"

Not sure how familiar you are with military rank structures, so a brief clarification follows. If you know this stuff already / don't need it, let me know.

*Captain Grenn was your peer as of yesterday, so him calling you by your first name is familiar, but not directly insulting unless you choose to take it as such.

Moff Vesa
BP, anything Talia is focusing on?

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa

“It could work better than either government. We’ll need to ensure corruption doesn’t take root, and we’ll need to secure safe trade routes, root out piracy. If we do these two things, and get the message out, planets should flock to us,”

"My thoughts exactly," Talia responded.

"Corruption is a scab carried by any form of government. But the best way to neutralise corruption is to minimalise the number of laws one can break. The more laws you create, the more likely citizens are to break them in ignorance, while more power is delivered into the hands of bureaucrats with which they can bargain their favour to special interests and the more resources are needed to be fed into the judicial machine to sort through the ensuing mess.

But keep the laws minimal and the trading routes safe, and we can establish a dominion that lasts a thousands years."

[Thundercracker]

Espana

Vesa:

“Alright then, I think I’m best suited to come up with a plan to keep our trade routes secure and open. I understand how pirates and privateers operate and we’ll probably need a two or three pronged approach. I’ll put together a proposal and send it up for approval or revision,” Espana replied, “keeping the laws simple I’ll leave to you.”

Hangar:

“Sir,” Espana responded with a crisp Imperial salute, “we’re installing shield generators on all the TIEs with the expectation of reducing attrition and improving pilot morale significantly.”


I’d like to take 10s if possible.
Technology: [roll0]
Mechanics: [roll1]
Persuasion: [roll2]

[robnar]

“Sir,” Espana responded with a crisp Imperial salute, “we’re installing shield generators on all the TIEs with the expectation of reducing attrition and improving pilot morale significantly.”


Your demonstrations convinced the mechanics, who go to work installing the systems with gusto. The shield generators are not complicated systems, and a few connections here, an adjustment there, and the techs start to get them running.

You have failed, so far, to convince the wing commander. "Tell me who authorized you to do this, and why."

[Thundercracker]

Espana

“Moff Vesa sir,” Espana replied, “she authorized it because I asked her to.”

If the rear admiral pushes further:
“We can no longer count on the Imperial supply shipments or new recruits from the academy, sir,” Espana said, “we need to preserve what we have before attrition whittles our fighter wing down to ineffectiveness, until we can manufacture our own fighters. This will also increase survivabilty and morale among the pilots, and increase the average number of sorties our corps have flown.”

If he still pushes further:
“Tell you what rear admiral,” Espana said, “let’s both fly in the upcoming engagement. You can choose whether to have deflector shields installed or not, but I know I’d rather have shields.

[robnar]

“Moff Vesa sir,” Espana replied, “she authorized it because I asked her to.”

"Why did you ask her, not me?"


“We can no longer count on the Imperial supply shipments or new recruits from the academy, sir,” Espana said, “we need to preserve what we have before attrition whittles our fighter wing down to ineffectiveness, until we can manufacture our own fighters. This will also increase survivabilty and morale among the pilots, and increase the average number of sorties our corps have flown.”

Admiral Walnor takes an awkwardly long thirty seconds before he responds, or before his face even moves. "Good. I expect you to brief me on the modifications and their implications at 1900 tonight, and to brief all of the squadron commanders at tomorrow's command and staff meeting at 0730 tomorrow."

No need to roleplay the meetings, unless you have something specific you want to say to the squadron commanders.

[Thundercracker]

“Yes sir,” Espana replied.

he will brief the vice admiral and inform him of the short and long term plans to transform the fighter corps and upgrade the rest of the vehicles before moving on to manufacturing.

The squadron commanders he basks in the good news he gives them, asks for their feedback, takes requests, and tells them not to take unnecessary risks because they have shields.

[cybric]

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]

a roll of 2-7 is treat as a 8 per the exceptional skill feat

[robnar]

Inquisitor Kru

Most of the techs' surface thoughts are confused gibberish - wondering if they did something wrong, wondering if you're going to summarily execute them, wondering whether or not you'll find about some other peccadillo from their past that they're trying hard not to think about it.

Two of them are a problem. One of them keeps humming an annoying tune in his head, drowning everything else out; the other is reciting poetry. These are classic techniques, that might indicate formal training on how to resist mind probes. Definitely not part of a normal intelligence agent's repertoire, but a staple of Rebel operative, ImpIntel counterintelligence, or ISB training.

[Lentrax]

Lyn grunts at the news of the situation. It certainly explains things. It at least explains the gruffness she got from II originally.

She goes through a mental list of her staff that can be cleared for this information. The list isn’t long. The rest of the information will need t be compartmentalized for distribution to anyone else she may have to bring in.

Have we at least determined who it was that sent the requests?

[Gunhaven]

Dekki
For the first half of the day Dekki ran through the resumes he received, attempting to weed out the ones that would likely come back negative after he moved it up the chain. Ultimately he wanted to only send roughly five hundred (sixty above the required crew count) to get them properly vetted, most of which would hopefully be the professionals. Those he’d send with a higher priority than the others to get properly vetted with a request that those approved meet him in a few days on the MedStar.

The second half of the day was spent on the ship itself. He spent most of the time just getting used to the layout of the ship, trying to figure out how best to get to which medbay and which supplies were needed. He made a note of what was still missing beyond the crew and how many medics he'd need for this venture. Then he'd send off another mass message to both the Imperial and Civilian medics, requesting that number join him on the ship. He was a little less concerned about their background check, feeling that he could trust his fellow medics to judge those that would help any in need.

[RandomLunatic]

Veesha's expression brightened as she read the report. The situation may yet be salvageable.

"Are the other flights ready yet? Send one to each of the locations identified."

[robnar]

She goes through a mental list of her staff that can be cleared for this information. The list isn’t long. The rest of the information will need t be compartmentalized for distribution to anyone else she may have to bring in.

Have we at least determined who it was that sent the requests?

One of the analysts responds with - "The messages themselves were sent from a junior clerk's workstation. I think you guys have her detained."

Your G2 (intelligence staff leader), deputy G2, and about 4 analysts are cleared for the intercepts. Only the 101st's political officer would be cleared to know about the breach, and if he doesn't know already than he likely doesn't need to.


The second half of the day was spent on the ship itself. He spent most of the time just getting used to the layout of the ship, trying to figure out how best to get to which medbay and which supplies were needed. He made a note of what was still missing beyond the crew and how many medics he'd need for this venture. Then he'd send off another mass message to both the Imperial and Civilian medics, requesting that number join him on the ship. He was a little less concerned about their background check, feeling that he could trust his fellow medics to judge those that would help any in need.

The MedStar has a full-service combat hospital with 600 beds - actually, almost the same number as the Panthac itself. This is a bit of a problem, because making the MedStar operational would require a third of the Panthac's nurses and two-thirds of the Panthac's medical specialists. You have applications for maybe half of the positions you need.

You start to get good responses to the medical recruitment meeting - they plan to meet up on the ship tomorrow.


Veesha's expression brightened as she read the report. The situation may yet be salvageable.

"Are the other flights ready yet? Send one to each of the locations identified."

The 420th commander comes up on the net. "Ma'am, nope. Other flights aren't ready until tomorrow. Crews are still certifying on the equipment. We can push one earlier to this evening if you want, but no faster."

If you want to push up a flight earlier, give it a target IC and you'll get a report back next time we "advance the clock." Otherwise, you can push all three simultaneously next clock tick.

[Lentrax]

I will instruct my intelligence officer on what to ask for. He is fairly competent, and cleared for the task. Would it be possible to trace the money that was already sent out?

[RandomLunatic]

"Recall the flight, and get the second ready as soon as possible. I'll have tasking by then," Veesha said into her commlink.

Flipping through the other reports, she paused as she looked at Dekki's recruitment efforts. Beings outright trying to flee didn't bode well. She thumbed her commlink again. After a moment's consideration, she added Lyn to the call as well. "Dekki, Halcoor. I read your reports, and I don't like the situation on the station. Can you set up a meeting, you me, and the old administration? I want to have a chat with them, see where their loyalties lie. Sometime around 2000 hours."

After that, she turned back towards the intelligence section. Luckily, the implant she'd had implanted in her skull gave her a partial backup of the lost code, so it wasn't a total loss.

[robnar]

I will instruct my intelligence officer on what to ask for. He is fairly competent, and cleared for the task. Would it be possible to trace the money that was already sent out?

"Yes, Ma'am. Our initial impression is that it was sent to rebel accounts across the galaxy. We will try to get you a better assessment of where in a few hours. In order to fully trace these leads we'll need to hyper a message to ImpIntel headquarters on Coruscant - do we have your authorization to bring them in?"


Flipping through the other reports, she paused as she looked at Dekki's recruitment efforts. Beings outright trying to flee didn't bode well. She thumbed her commlink again. After a moment's consideration, she added Lyn to the call as well. "Dekki, Halcoor. I read your reports, and I don't like the situation on the station. Can you set up a meeting, you me, and the old administration? I want to have a chat with them, see where their loyalties lie. Sometime around 2000 hours."

This meeting will happen about an hour after you expect to break the code, and about a half hour after you expect to get a readout from the banking transfers. Dekki, I'll give you a readout from your inspection of the ship then.

[Lentrax]

"Yes, Ma'am. Our initial impression is that it was sent to rebel accounts across the galaxy. We will try to get you a better assessment of where in a few hours. In order to fully trace these leads we'll need to hyper a message to ImpIntel headquarters on Coruscant - do we have your authorization to bring them in?"

Not yet. The situation on board is too important for us to risk further damage at this point. Do what you can, and we will forward our information and requests along when we are more secure. I don't want the Rebels to know what we have so far.


"Recall the flight, and get the second ready as soon as possible. I'll have tasking by then," Veesha said into her commlink.

Flipping through the other reports, she paused as she looked at Dekki's recruitment efforts. Beings outright trying to flee didn't bode well. She thumbed her commlink again. After a moment's consideration, she added Lyn to the call as well. "Dekki, Halcoor. I read your reports, and I don't like the situation on the station. Can you set up a meeting, you me, and the old administration? I want to have a chat with them, see where their loyalties lie. Sometime around 2000 hours."

After that, she turned back towards the intelligence section. Luckily, the implant she'd had implanted in her skull gave her a partial backup of the lost code, so it wasn't a total loss.

Fine. Send me the location.

[robnar]

D+2.5 on Mustafar Prime

Work in Progress

Admiral Halcoor

The day passes in a flurry of activity, between the breach containment, the codebreaking, and the other activities. The first recon flight gets back at 1800, and in between their debrief and the constant requests from the analysis cells you get literally no respite before the 1915 ping that you've been waiting for. Captain Grenn comes up on the net: "Ma'am, here's the rebel code data. This is hot off the computer, we haven't even analyzed it yet."

Looking over the report and the traffic data, you can identify six potential sites - three in Eriadu system itself, and three interesting ones in deep space. The three destinations in Eriadu system include the planet Eriadu itself, the gas giant Tarastra, and the outer orbit rockball of Kelliadu. Outside of Eriadu system, there are two deep space destinations listed as Upper and Downer, corresponding with arbitrary points about 1 hyper-day above and below the galactic plane from Eriadu. In addition, there's a slowly moving point relative to Eriadu marked "command."

Let me know if you have any questions on these data. In addition, make a Knowledge (Tactics) and a Knowledge (Galactic Lore) roll.

After you make a decision here, move your character on to the meeting with Dekki and Vess.

Inquisitor Kru

Placeholder for dealing with the agents.
Post OOC with what you want to do with the two guys in the commo vault who seem to be resisting your mind probe. I'm going to move you along to the meeting with the Mustafar station agents - if you want to interrogate those two yourself it will have to be after that meeting. If you want someone else to deal with them, make sure you tell me who - 101st? ISB? ImpIntel?

After leaving the pandemonium at the commo vault, you hop in a lambda back to the reception dock on the civilian station. Your commo with the ground stations listed an interrogation room in this deck as your meeting location. When you get to the security station, they tell you that they've detained some thugs who seem to be asking for some official from the Panthac, and take you to an interrogation room. Inside is a large human man who looks like a laborer and a small, bookish woman with a heroic bruise over her left eye. The woman speaks first: "There are at least two listening devices and one camera in this room. Please deactivate them all." Once you do, she introduces herself: "I am Tycha Baro, whom you know as SCATTERGUN. He's PINCUSHION. I'm the senior imperial intelligence officer here on Mustafar after BUTTONHOLE was killed when that star destroyer blew up the police station. You must be the senior intel officer on that star destroyer. Who are you?"

Dekki

When you walk through the Rebel MedStar, it appears to be in good order. It has a crew of 240 operators and 200 medical staff, though it appears that the rebels only had about 45 personnel on board. Most of the medbay droids are still present and functional, and the ship's stores are about 25% stocked after the Panthac raided it for food. The hangar bays are empty, though, which is a pity.

After you resolve some crabby requests from the 9th support wing asking who's supposed to shuttle all these medics over, about 180 medtechs assemble in the main hangar bay waiting for your instructions. Maybe 120 are from the Panthac's crew, and the other 60 from reputable clinics on the civilian station.

I'll calibrate their questions for you based on what you want to tell them. Once you've made your initial comments, though, you can move straight to the meeting with Halcoor and Vess.

Dr. Espana

Your day is a whirl of lathes, arc welders, and busy techs running around looking for tools and parts. As soon as fighters get pulled off the modification line, their pilots start taking them out for test runs. You start with the interceptors, both because they're your most valuable asset and because interceptor pilots tend to be annoying primadonnas, so that gives you some extra time to unruffle their egos.

The initial feedback ranges from blind enthusiasm ("with this I'll take out 4 more X-wings than last time!") to nitpicky fighter pilot complaining ("I'm not sure about that 2 degree wobble in my left Ion thrust coupling."), validating your initial feeling that the shields work and don't adversely affect the fighters' performance. Most of the pilots want to try them out against live fire, but the only Ion-equipped fighter you have in the inventory are the B-wings that RADM Walnor is ferociously trying to bring online as quickly as possible.

Later that evening, at the 420th daily debrief, you bask in a bit of the glow from the Bile and Bone squadron commanders' rave reviews. But the majority of the meeting is consumed by the recon flight's debrief. The Blood squadron commander was leading the flight, and gives a detailed report. The most important points - the Rebel fighters are pretty easy to operate, but should only take veteran TIE pilots. The normal pilots from the TIE/ln squadrons are too junior - the bomber pilots would work better. Hyperspace travel is very difficult to coordinate with junior pilots, and coordinating a large flight with so little time would probably lead to a couple pilots misjumping. Finally, he assesses that the rebels are moving a lot of stuff from all over. They saw two cruisers pull out of hyperspace and change vector while they were watching, and none of them thought it strange that there were a couple random fighters just sitting around.


Brevet Brigadier General Vess

You spend half of your day on a lambda, moving personnel back and forth from your CP to the Panthac to set up an intelligence cell and exploit the bank breach. After a couple hours meeting with station security and replacing some of their communication officers with more reliable agents you even get the full cooperation of station security.

By the end of the day, you have a pretty good assessment of how the breach occurred. It looks like a rebel agent who'd been squatting on one of the slum decks - the same deck that your troopers ended up shooting through the other day - moved in, met with a bank teller, and passed her a sheet of instructions. The video shows her getting halfway through the sheet before your troopers raid the bank, and then eating the evidence before being detained. You don't have a clear picture of the rebel agent, though - he is obviously experienced, because he never shows his face to any of the innumerable security cameras on the station. The most valuable immediate effect of the breach, though, is that you are now in possession of an escrow account with $150,000,000 imperial credits from the rebel coffers. The rest of the analysis is disappointing.

Your evening command and staff meeting with the 502nd and 506th commanders is much better. Both report significant progress reindoctrinating the locals. The 506th reported that the terrestrial-side police forces had to be almost entirely disbanded and moved into detention in the civilian station hangar bay, but there were abundant new recruits from the mercenaries that guard the mines. The 502nd reports that the civilian station police pretty much changed sides immediately, and have been performing their jobs as if nothing happened. They both raise the issue of the detainee population on the civilian station - they won't be able to process them all for another 5 days, and guarding them takes a company of troops.

Moff Vesa

TBD.

[cybric]

Rol moves from analyst to analyst using the techniques his master had taught him. Peering into the analysts mind Rol finds two of them interesting. Anti interrogation techiques these two were definitely more than they appeared

Rol will make a show of slowly looking over each one if them. Then he says one word "solitary" after all of the analysts are taken away he'll contact the lead interrogator and inform them of the two that Rol marked as special. He informs the interrogator that the two are most likely either rebel agents or ISB ops and to proceed with condition to determine which they are. Rol also makes sure there is no mistake that he expects results. The other analysts won't need to be bothered but this is cover that they are interested only in those two.

After that Rol leaves to rendezvous with station masters

[Thundercracker]

Dr. Espana

Dr. Espana made sure that all the pilots know that this is a trial run of using upgraded fighters and the better they perform and he fewer casualties they incur, the more upgrades there will be in the future.

Upgrades for the rebel fighters would have to wait, there simply wasn’t enough time between now and the battle and he’d rather have the pilots using something they were familiar with than hesitate when using a new design for the first time. Plus it would tip their hand that they had rebel fighters at all. He’d rather keep that secret as long as possible.

When he got a free few hours, Espana pored over the recon data, trying to divine some additional meaning which could be missed by the others.

taxtics & lore take 10 for 27 each.

[RandomLunatic]

Do we have enough data on the "command" group to semi-accurately forecast its position at least couple hours in advance, or are we just getting its current position. I'd like to arrange for it to hit a minefield.:smallamused:

[roll0]+21
[roll1]+16

[robnar]

Do we have enough data on the "command" group to semi-accurately forecast its position at least couple hours in advance, or are we just getting its current position. I'd like to arrange for it to hit a minefield.:smallamused:

[roll0]+21
[roll1]+16

The astrogation section reports that the command group is a brown dwarf system - a dead star - on an extremely eccentric galactic orbit that currently has it near Eriadu. Its less of a moving fleet and more of a slowly moving (relative to Eriadu) base. The advantage is that you know exactly where it's going to be.

Galactic Lore - The gas giant around Eriadu has dense rings and lots of moons - good defensive terrain for rebel tactics.

Knowledge (Tactics) - The stations above and below the galactic plane are an interesting tactic. It would have taken a lot of effort to move them there, and though nobody would look for them where they are, once the first wave of fighters comes from them their cover will be blown. It seems like a mistake for the rebels to be splitting their forces like that.

[Gunhaven]

Dekki
The Lurmen restated that he didn't want to be an unnecessary burden and only to take full shuttles over to the MedStar. He went down to the main hanger bay and waited for each shuttle, giving a slight smile as he saw familiar faces mixed with a handful of new faces. Once everyone was gathered he held up his hands to quiet any murmering and said "Thank you for meeting me here today. Assuming each of you keeps with your requests this will be your home away from home. Now...due to timing concerns we will be staying here."
He looked at the mass of personnel for a moment before he rose his hands once more to pause any further discussion. "I would like each of you to gather into groups with individuals that you feel comfortable with..." He pulled up maps of the Medstar, setting up lists under each of the Medbays and the various bunks. "...and list where you'd like to work with said companions. I will be over here in case there are questions, concerns, or comments." The xeno then rolled to one of the sides, letting the staff assign their own positions.

[robnar]

Dekki
The Lurmen restated that he didn't want to be an unnecessary burden and only to take full shuttles over to the MedStar. He went down to the main hanger bay and waited for each shuttle, giving a slight smile as he saw familiar faces mixed with a handful of new faces. Once everyone was gathered he held up his hands to quiet any murmering and said "Thank you for meeting me here today. Assuming each of you keeps with your requests this will be your home away from home. Now...due to timing concerns we will be staying here."
He looked at the mass of personnel for a moment before he rose his hands once more to pause any further discussion. "I would like each of you to gather into groups with individuals that you feel comfortable with..." He pulled up maps of the Medstar, setting up lists under each of the Medbays and the various bunks. "...and list where you'd like to work with said companions. I will be over here in case there are questions, concerns, or comments." The xeno then rolled to one of the sides, letting the staff assign their own positions.

After hearing that they would be assigned to this ship, but staying in system, the medics mutter to each other, confused - One of them asks "So, what are we doing here? Like, when this ship is up and running, what's its job? Are you going to be captain of the ship?"

Another voice pipes up - "What timing concerns? How long are we here?"

Most of the questions are coming from the civilian hires. They quickly start to delve into the mundane - "If we're gonna be staying here, can we shuttle back home to stay with our families when we're off duty?"

While they ask, you start to get rank-ordered preferences. Looks like the civilians want to stay with civilians and military with military, with a few exceptions.

What did you mean "assuming each of you keeps with your requests?"

[Gunhaven]

Dekki
After a moment the Lurmen rose his hands to calm down the initial bout of questioning. His voice was calm, doing his best to project so that he could be heard by everyone. "I don't believe any of you are trained to be pilots as well?" He chuckled a little at his joke before he continued speaking.
"I have submitted staff for the remaining positions on the ship. If any of you have preferences or recommendations then you may forward them to me but our capacity is currently taxed with the transition. We will be doing our best to aid wherever we are needed and however we are needed, once we are fully staffed. That is what I meant by timing concerns." He took another moment before he held up his hands once more.
When they were quiet enough he continued speaking. "While we are off duty and the means are available...when there are shuttles and we are in this system, for example...you may return home until you are needed. I will set up the notification system this evening and test it out at 22:00. I will do my best to give everyone a warning before I call for you all, though. It is important that everyone is able to work at their peak, after all. Likewise if any of you change your mind after tonight please contact me ten days in advance so that we won't be short staffed."
Finally he looked around and gave a nod. "I will likely be the captain of this ship. That said I understand that this ship depends on all of you to be effective. Even after today I will listen to any comments, concerns, or questions about our roles. Just send me a message and I will reply as soon as possible."

[cybric]

Lol looks over both people in the room scrutinizing and commiting to memory everything about them

Yes, I'm the senior Intel officer. The Inquisitorius often takes the lead in these matters


Name dropping the inquisition.

Sorry for the delay.

In regards to who should interogate the analysts from a while ago. Rol would put people to that task that he could trust to be discreet. I'd assume the isb would be the best option

[robnar]

Dr. Espana
You basically learn the same stuff I told Admiral Halcoor. One thing occurs to you, though - it'll be very difficult for the rebels to do hyperspace hit-and-run tactics around the gas giant, because the terrain is so cluttered. They might be hoping for a decisive action there.

Dekki
One of the civilian hires sticks to the point. "Look, sir, are we signing up as part of an warship crew, or a hospital?" He waves his hand around, towards the turbolasers on the ship and the laser cannons on the lambdas. "Are we preparing for combat?"

That's their final question. After you answer this one, go ahead and advance to the meeting with Halcoor & Vess.

Inquisitor Kru
Tracking on the ISB. You'll get a result from that when they finish the interrogation.

You don't sense any deceit in the two - they are most likely the agents they claim to be. The woman nods when you introduce yourself. "Good. I'm glad to see imperial authority returning to this system. We have comprehensive lists of the rebel sympathizers and agents on Mustafar, though we lost some of the data on agents in the police and capitol when BUTTONHOLE was killed. We're not sure yet how many of them escaped your cordon. Finally, so far we count that four of the rebels you detained were sources of ours - you may wish to release them back into the system to see if they can generate any more information."

[RandomLunatic]

Veesha looked over the intercepts. One question tugged at the back of her mind as she read-what were the Rebels doing out in the hinterlands of the Eriadu system? She cut orders to resolve the matter by dispatching one recon flight to Kelliadu and the other to the system marked as command.

Then she quickly grabbed a bite to eat and freshened up her appearance before her meeting with former station administration. She also sent a message to both Dekki and Vess to meet her in the meeting room 10 minutes early to prepare.

Station Conference Room
Veesha greeted Dekki and Vess as they arrived, and once both were there, she started without preamble. "I'm hoping putting the old government in charge will calm these beings down. But to do that, we need to know they can be trusted.

"The sticking point in my mind are those fighters. To disappear so quickly and completely, the Rebels needed help. I want to see how far up the chain of command the Rebel sympathy goes.

"So we're going to accuse them. Or, specifically, you are." Veesha pointed at Vess. "When they bring up their desire for neutrality, bring up the fighters. Threaten to airlock them and their entire families unless they cough them up. Be angry, and make them good and scared. I want to see their reaction.

"Assuming they pass, I do intend to give them back control, with a few adjustments. A token garrison to enforce Imperial law, for one. Is there anything else you'll need from them?" Veesha asked Vess.

[Thundercracker]

Espana passed his thoughts up the chain (that due to the cluttered space around the gas giant making hit and fade attacks difficult, the rebels may be aiming for a decisive victory there) to the admiral and to moff Vesa.

[cybric]

Rol presents a cool and confident air moving through the room with a steady stride with his hands behind his back.

Indeed. The loss of BUTTONHOLE was regretable but we must proceed forward. We will try and reconstruct what was as a result of their death are you aware of any projects or operations that BUTTONHOLE was working on before?

Gesturing to Rol's wrist computer "Send over the sympathizers and agents and we'll begin coordinating so that we do not disrupt any currently running operations. Are there any agents that are of immediate or urgent concern?"

Regarding the 4 rebels that you would like released. Send over their names and they will be released. We'll make a show of interogating them so that it doesn't appear that we diliberately released them. Are these agents anything that to be concerned about?

Lastly, as you say we are reestablishing imperial authority here and our intention is to bring the rest of the sector in line as well. Our next target will be Eriadu. Do either of you have any information regarding the planet and it's defenses that would be useful to us?







what was BUTTONHOLE working on
Take possesion of list of rebel sympathizers and agents on mustafar
ask if they know anything that could help with the invasion of Eriadu
Get list of rebel sources to be released and monitored
Ask about data breach
Ask the npc's what they think are the greatest threats to security an Mustafar

[robnar]

Cybric

1. Buttonhole was the chief of police. He was working on building an information network in the police department.
2. They transfer the data to you.
3. Nothing directly relevant. They can give you shipment schedules to Eriadu for the past 17 years, though.
4. They transfer that list to you.
5. Are you SURE you want to ask them about a data breach? ​Asking them the question would let them know it happened....
6. The rebel sympathizers infiltrated throughout the settlements. They still have some communication capability.

[Gunhaven]

Dekki
The xeno sighed and said "We aren't a warship. There's no purpose in making our jobs even more difficult, after all." He gave a nod as his datapad chirped with the meeting reminder, stating "I must go. Please, make yourselves at home. The shuttles will be here in two hours." As he walked away he contacted 9th support wing with a request for a shuttle or three in two hours of time so that the civilians could return home if they wanted to.

He made his way to the meeting with Veesha and Vess, arriving ten minutes after the appointed time. He gave a bow and said "Sorry for my tardiness, I was addressing the new staff on the MedStar." He moved to the side and sat at an available table, listening to the plan, and frowning the entire time. He responded with "If you go that route then I hope you're having me along to bring them back to life in case the threat becomes a reality" and obvious displeasure at threatening the leadership.

[RandomLunatic]

"Nobody is going to be airlocked, even if they are Rebel scum," Veesha assured the diminutive doctor.

"Not until Kru is done with them, anyway.

"No, you're here because you've already met and talked to them. The friendly face in the room."

[robnar]

D+3 on Mustafar Prime

Everyone - your morning huddle begins with uniformly good news - updates of the up-armor progress for the fighter fleet, reports of the successful dispatch of the second scout group, etc.

C4-LBN starts with updates on the ground situation:
-A late night confrontation between the 506th commander and the civilian station government led to the confession that rebel sympathizers probably sent the new fighters to the surface on the space elevator - where they could easily be semi-disassembled and hidden in the vast warehouses and stockyards around the groundside settlement. The civilian station masters pledge full cooperation with the government and the 506th, and will do what they can to avoid any retaliation from the stormtroopers.
-On the ground, things are going well. The station and civil police forces are back to work, though they've been reissued stun-only weapons and rely on the stormtroopers for backup.
-The factories have begun cleaning up and retooling, and an engineering crew has already sent an invoice for galactic supplies and equipment that could bring both factories up full capability.
-The intelligence team has tracked the rebel assets down. It seems like 65% of their money in system was invested from galactic sources - probably the rebel alliance itself - and the rest was from the major mining companies an the ground. It seems that the rebels were able to transfer about half of their initial investment back. You are sitting on the other half and the mining companies' contribution.
-The 9th support wing reports that they've got a crew identified for the MedStar and another crew separated and training on the captured Gozantis. They've also reconfigured one of the storage bays on the military station as a medium-term detainee holding area that can keep the rest of the detainee population together.
-The interrogators believe that one of the detainees from the data breach has significant counter-interrogation training, and may be an intelligence operative. He is their lead suspect for the data breach.
-The discussion ends with the Panthac's personnel officer report. Of the 37,000 crew on the Panthac, 4,000 are required for administering your interests in Mustafar system, not counting any stormtrooper garrison you may deploy. Bottom line, this means that you will have difficulty manning three full combat shifts for longer than 48 hours. If you are in combat for more than 48 hours, crew fatigue will start becoming a serious problem.

Not counting the stormtrooper garrison:
1,000 on the medstar
1,500 on the military station
750 for the three new fighter squadrons
250 for the new transport squadron
300 for detainee holding and management - half the Panthac's detainee management company and a medical platoon
200 for support to the team overseeing the civilian government


Your datapads bleep with the incoming situation update from your reconnaissance flights.
- The "command" report is simple - the rebels are massing freighters and transports around GRX-97230BZ, an eccentric brown dwarf star. The fighter recon spotted 12 Nebulon-B cruisers, each with two medium transports pulled up close. The Nebulons looked like they were hosting multiple fighter wings - the scout system leader saw over 400 rebel fighters of various types. In addition, they counted 9 more assorted combat frigates in the system. They were lightly challenged by a fighter patrol, but were able to stall for time until hypering out of the system.
- The Kelliadu report is more troubling. Kelliadu is an iceball in an elongated orbit off the plane of the Eriadu system. The fighter commander reported immediately that there is a disabled Interdictor class cruiser on the surface of Kelliadu, and it appears that the rebels are using its engines to power a battery of six KDY-V150 Planet Defender ion cannons. The scout flight commander - you think it's Major Cardix, executive officer of hammer squadron - reports in rising surprise and panic that the rebels are scrambling fighters to intercept him, and that his hyperdrive is disabled. His transmission ends with sounds of space combat and a burst to static.

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa

The Kelliadu report -

The atmosphere of Talia's war room was upbeat in the wake of their swift victory on Mustafar. Though the actual combat had been light, it had provided valuable experience for the greener personnel beneath her, and the effect that a quick and efficient triumph had had in boosting morale was palpable to one as attuned to the network of emotional sensations as Talia.

It was a curious thing, then, that the Dark Jedi Master was ignoring all of her supernatural senses in favour of the more mundane: the Interdictor-class cruiser on Kelliadu.

Dressed in her customised, white armoplast armor, Talia Vesa stared up at the simmering holographic mimicry of the planet that held this beautiful prize. That such a fine example of military engineering was simply being used as a glorified battery by the rebel alliance only served to demonstrate their lack of imagination. The possible uses Talia would have had for an Interdictor when she had been leading the rebellion against the Kha'lesh occupiers of her home system were almost limitless...

"I want it," the Moff said quietly to herself, her eyes holding a miniature reflection of the tactical report.

"I want that ship..." her words were uttered gently to no-one-in-particular.

Finally, however, the Moff did speak up so that her voice and direction were clear for all to hear.

"The retrieval of the Interdictor should be directly following the engagement on Eriadu. We can use the ensuing rebel retreat with their captured vessels to sneak a team ground-side and neutralise the vessels jailors."

[Thundercracker]

Major Espana

“With the interdictor gone, the ion cannons will be without power, and the rebel base might be vulnerable to orbital bombardment,” Espana said.

[Gunhaven]

Dekki

A tear rolled down the Lurmen's cheek as they heard the scout's report and probable death. He made a note to hold a memorial for the scout once the battle was done, hoping he could paint the sacrifice in the best possible light. He nodded along with the bit of chatter about taking the Interdictor with barely any understanding of what that meant. Instead he was busy looking at personal, specifically a Deputy Naval Officer that wanted to transfer to the MedStar.

More to himself he said "Deputy Officer Steven Michaelson could be the one to serve as the Panthac and non-medical liaison for the MedStar...Zanthar Evenington looks like a good candidate for the civilian and medical portion of the ship...They should be able to work together while we're gone." He looked up from his datapad and added "The MedStar will stay here. The civilian crew will man it while the Panthac transfers will man it unless we need the crew elsewhere. We will make do with the remaining medical staff and maintain fatigue as best as we can."

[cybric]

Continuing his conversation with the station masters Rol confirms that he has received the intel.

He forwards the lists of rebel sympathizers and agents working on mustafar to the inteligence officers on the panthac requesting a threat assessment and recommendation brief.

He also sends over the list of rebels sources to be released from and monitored. He gives special instructions that the release should be made as believable as possible to throw off suspision.

Lastly in the data packet Rol sends the 17 years worth of shipment information to the data analysts for break down. Rol was cyptical that anything of worth would come from the data however perhaps the information would give them a idea of what goods are being moved or possibly a way to infiltrate the planet via the shipping lanes.

"I see. I want the work that Buttonhole was doing continued. Decide amongst yourselves who would be best to reinfiltrate the police force.

I will be reorganizing the counter intelligence roles on Mustafar and implementing a lead intelligence officer with authority over planetary operations. As the lead intellgence officer in the sector I need to know that I have someone capable leading the efforts here on Mustafar now that we have liberated it. I will not tolerate the system backsliding.

I want recommendations of how you will handle the situation here on Mustafar. Now is the time to impress.

In addition I will be elevating a officer to lead our initatives within the sector. Make recommendations for how you would handle the inteligence situation throughout the sector as well.


Rol says with a wirey smile

I also want to be appraised of all current operations and assets so we can avoid miss steps like buttonhole.



[Morning Huddle]
Rol

If we were to insert the 7th onto the planet we could possibly disable the engines however making the ship flight ready would most likely take more personal then we could insert.

[Gunhaven]

Dekki

For a moment the xeno goes through his datapad, comparing the numbers, and says quietly "We could weaken them..." He looked up and said "We still have the rebel sympathizer names, right? We use one of them to tell the rebels about the Leviathan fleet. Maybe we pretend to be them instead of telling a civilian what we know. I personally hope they abandon the area." He went back over his logs and finally added "We managed to get our hyperdrive fixed and arrive in system in a day and a half, shortly after they're done fighting. Someone can lie about what we did in the mean time."

[cybric]

Rol turns toward Dekki around the command table "indeed, thanks to the Mustafarian station masters we have a list of rebel sympathizers. They are also working on agrigating a list of operational metrics and updates for me so we will have a more up to date picture of the intelligence situation here on Mustafar and within the sector as a whole. The station masters specialize in Mustafars politics and status however they have been able to offer limited antidodial information about other planets.

Currently, we are unaware of the rebels strategic interest in the sector short of expelling imperial presence however my hope is that we will be able to assertain more concrete details.

As you have been updated, currently our best lead is the captured analyst. He has received considerable training in counter interigation tactics. He has even received training in evaiding mental probing.

if our battle plan does not include immediate deployment today he will receive my personal attention.



After the meeting Rol retrieves a subordinate.

You. This is a list of important assets needed for the Empires prosperity. See it is dealt with! He makes is abundantly clear he is in no mood to be trifold with.


So I don't know how many of each is appropriate or that I can get however I feel like a expert dark jedi would know so he'll send off the right number to procurement. The idea is to acquire infiltrators to give us information and assassins to take out targets.

dp-2 probe droid
RWW-SERIES PROTOCOL DROID (espionage model)
TC-SC INFILTRATION DROID
colicoid infiltration series droid
hk series assassin droid
Model 88 series administration series droid (industrial espionage model)
EI-9 network security droid
GY-I Information analysis droid
SD-X series stealth battle droid
VZ-SERIESCOMMANDO DROID

[cybric]

During the briefing Rol has a thought and sends a message to Captain Grenn, the chief intelligence office on board ship

Captain Glenn,

In the interest of operational security security measures onboard should be reset and cycled. Sensitive areas and functions necessary for ship operation should be given priority.

Send a estimate of how much time this would take for you to accomplish.

Additionally in regard to the release of the rebels assets that was send on to you for tracking. If possible see if we would be able to plant one of our agents among them. If that is not accomplishible proceed with the surveillance and tracking op


Rol sends the message and turns back to his datapad with the recon reports of enemy positions. He cycles through the data. As he moves through the reports he thinks about likely logistics and operation locations the rebels would need to have nearby in order to support their forces.



[roll0] not sure what you'll ask for but I'll add the modifier later.

Rol is trying to infer from all the intelligence we have where the rebels would need to place supply depots and other operations nearby to support their operations here.

so kind of like "alright fighters need fuel and have x amount of range so if they are flying out of this planet and striking this planet then their logistics must be over here ish"

[RandomLunatic]

"The Rebels have already shot down their own ships poking around Kalliadu once already. There's no evidence the cruiser is even flightworthy," Veesha pointed out. "Our path to success is hitting weaknesses, not throwing men at fortified strong points. And our picture of the situation is yet incomplete."

[robnar]

D+3.25 on Mustafar Prime

The day goes incredibly quickly, as each of the various units pack up and prepare for combat.

The four reconnaissance flights leave as soon as possible, travelling to Eriadu itself, Tarastra, and the two points of "Upper and Downer".

The initial reports back are mixed:
- Eriadu looks... inconsistently defended. There are huge minefields in the lower and upper orbits, seeming to be part of both a blockade of the planet itself and a defensive measure to delay forces approaching the planet. The recon flight sees 2 Nebulon-Bs and 6 CR-90s around the planet in what appear to be a blockade patrol. The patrol estimates that they can only see about a third of the ships on station, since they did not have enough time to fly around the planet.
- Tarastra appears to be unguarded. The planet itself has a couple of huge gas-harvesting stations in the upper atmosphere of the planet, and they see some civilian prospector ships in the rings of the planet, but nothing else.
- "Upper" appears to be a simple massing point. There are two MC80 Star Cruiser in place, and a group of transports with refueling booms servicing a group of X-wings and three flights of B-wings.
- "Downer" is very similar, but instead of MC80s you see four imperial star destroyers swarming with both TIEs and A-wings. Another Nebulon-B, outfitted as a command cruiser, accompanies them. Major Santril of Bone Squadron (the flight leader) checks the transponder numbers of the ISDs before departing, and reports that they're from the Corellian squadron.

The analysis section puts an estimate of total rebel forces as follows:
-4x ISD-IIs.
- 2x MC80s.
- 36x CR70 retrofits &/or CR90s.
- 28x Nebulon B-s
- Between 1280 and 2160 rebel fighters, arranged at 33% A-wings, 20% X-wings, 33% Y-wings, and 14% B-wings.
- 1x Hardpoint at Kelliadu

The analysts assess that there might be another strike force lurking about, because rebel concentrations this size generally include a number of rebel assault cruisers to support the decisive strike.


Leaving open the following lines of effort going on:

- Reestablishing the spy network at Mustafar
- Retooling the factories
- Handling the detainees
- Bringing the MedStar online

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa

Talia hadn't let Veesha's comments about Kelliadu dissuade her - it was just a simple bump in the road. The engineering crews could get that Interdictor-class spaceworthy. What mattered most was that they had the peace and quiet to do so.

But, as the day had continued and reports continued to arrive about troop movements and the composition of rebel forces, Talia remained standing before the large holoprojector that kept a running log and shimmering three dimensional models of all that they knew.

Arms folded, Talia gestured towards the giant holographic display before her that was draining the color from her face.

"The rebels must have something up their sleeve if they believe their force can take Battlegroup Leviathan..." she muttered to herself, her mind wandering as to what she's do if she was in the rebels position. Use their capital ships to hold the line against the Imperials while the fighter-bomber wings jump in on the flanks in hit and run raids against the Star Destroyers? Split the fleet up into several smaller groups that would jump in and out in constant hit-and-run raids after first taking out the Interdictors?

"Whatever the rebels have planned, the Admiral is going to be walking right into it if he tries for a conventional pitched engagement," Talia spoke out-loud, her eyes still on the holographic projection.

"They know that that is what he is going to try and do, and they're going to have planned around it. They're not going to give him the pitched engagement that he wants. But they'll be bursting at the seams to take out that Executor-class...big propaganda win for them if they can do that and devastating for Imperial morale."

Thinking for a moment, her hand near her chin, Talia gestured once more to the flickering Imperial fleet, "but what if we use that against them?"

"Say we...persuade, the admiral of his loyalty to the Empire. Say we bring him under our control, but we make it look like division within the ranks. Have his ships jump off to nearby sectors. Word gets back to the rebels that the Leviathan is vulnerable, that the battlegroup is in momentary chaos. To them it'll look like another high-nosed Imperial bigwig has blundered into the situation, thrown their political weight around and cannibalised the battlegroup for their own ends, giving the rebels the opportunity they've been waiting for. They jump in, bring their plan into action...I can immediately notify the captains of those groups that departed to the arrival of the rebels - they make the jump back. But we use the Interdictors to bring them out of hyperspace exactly where we want them - close range and right on top of the rebels heads, right near their capital ships, on their flanks, on the rear; encircle them completely, and use the Interdictors to keep them there.

Who is in charge of the rebel forces? Do we have any intel on them?"

[robnar]

Who is in charge of the rebel forces? Do we have any intel on them?"

C4-LBN says "Wait a moment, m'lady."

After a pause, it returns with: "According to Captain Grenn, one of the MC80s sighted at 'Upper' is Fleet Admiral Ackbar's flagship, Home One. The other is unknown. Our analysts believe the Nebulon-B command variant sighted at Downer as Admiral Rieran, sector commander for the Chommel sector. Admiral Rieran was under Ackbar's command at Endor. We assess that Ackbar himself is likely in command of the expedition."

[cybric]

Rols eyes wince at the mention of admiral ackbar.

Ackbar has caused havoc with his unconventional tactics. If he is in command then he can safely assume there's more going on then we can see.

I would advise caution m'lady


Rol turns his attention towards the holo display and makes a breif sweeping motion towards it. His eyes moving from icon to icon. Calmly, respectful, and matter of factly Rol says.


Somewhere out there is Ackbars ace in the hole. Something he believes could tip the scale on his favor. It must be found.


Addressing the droid

Is there a way to use the comms data we have to our advantage? Could our sensors detect where a disproportionate amount of comms chatter or data is being sent to or came from?

[Thundercracker]

Vamdar Espana

“I wonder if Ackbar has a load of support ships he plans to hyper in and ram the Leviathan once they fix its location,” Espana mused, “It’s the only way I can see the rebels being able to take down the executor class ship, which they have to do if they want to hold the system.”

“Perhaps they’ve stripped the gravity wells from the interdictor and put them on home one or one of the cruisers, to keep the flagship from leaving. It would explain why the interdictor is sitting at a base powering shields instead of stopping ships from entering hyperspace.”

[robnar]

Vamdar Espana

“I wonder if Ackbar has a load of support ships he plans to hyper in and ram the Leviathan once they fix its location,” Espana mused, “It’s the only way I can see the rebels being able to take down the executor class ship, which they have to do if they want to hold the system.”

As you parse this line of thought, something else occurs to you... quickly, you look down at your datapad and review the footage of the rebel Ion cannon batteries on Kelliadu. You note larger than normal beam focusing arrays at the tips of the cannons, and huge capacitor arrays behind. Bottom line, you think these cannons could pierce the shields of the Leviathan, possibly with enough power remaining to slow it down.

It's been a year since Endor, and the rebels have gotten better at attacking big ships. Leviathan is counting on the interdictors and its support ships for additional defense against fighters.

[RandomLunatic]

Veesha could have facepalmed. "It's Kelliadu. The Rebels are going to harry Leviathan, then dangle the flagship of the entire Rebel fleet as bait. Bait that will lead them to Kelliadu. That's why they've placed the interdictor there, so it can trap the fleet in front of those ion cannons. That's why the scout patrol's hyperdrives didn't work.

"The real question is, did they confirm the identification of Home One with a narrowband emissions scan?" she continued, glancing at C4.

The only bait better than the Rebel flagship was a fake Rebel flagship. But if it was real, then forget Eriadu, the entire Rebellion could be dealt a critical blow in one stroke.

[cybric]

"Indeed, if they could get the Leviathan to commit it could be devastating"

Rol scans through the other recon images for other details that could have been missed.

[robnar]

"The real question is, did they confirm the identification of Home One with a narrowband emissions scan?" she continued, glancing at C4.


Is there a way to use the comms data we have to our advantage? Could our sensors detect where a disproportionate amount of comms chatter or data is being sent to or came from?

C4 accepts the questions, then pauses as he contacts various staff offices on the Panthac. "Unfortunately, our reconnaissance craft were not equipped with sufficiently advanced communications intelligence devices to get a full readout. The MC80 identified as Home One matches that ship's transponder codes and visual profile, but we do not have sufficient information to compare its other measures and signals to the known profile."

"Captain Grenn reports that it is 75% likely to be Home One itself, since all MC80s have distinct visual profiles. It is possible, but unlikely, that the rebels copied it. It is also possible that Admiral Ackbar is not on board that ship."

"We cannot get additional data to confirm or deny this assessment from this location. We would have to either move the Panthac into theater or re-equip one of the recon flights and send it out again."

My answer to Cybric on discord about the rebel log tail:

... analytically you can derive a couple assumptions about the rebel log tail:
(1) What you're looking at Upper, Downer, and Command points are what's called "Forward Area Refueling Points" - FARPs, or staging bases for forward attacks
(2) From what you saw at those points, they will need to cycle in new transports to plus up the fuelers and resupply transports about every 6 hours (after each 2 waves)
(3) You don't know where those tranports are, but there MIGHT be another transportation staging area 6 to 12 hyperspace hours behind the line
(4) That's a lot of space, thugh - until you get closer you can't tell where they're coming from.
(5) if you found it and could destroy it, you might be able to force the rebels to retreat or to converge on it to defend it.

[cybric]

How long would refit take? Right now information is crucial so if possible we should gather as much as we can from additional flights

As the droid assesses his question Rol closed his eyes. He reaches out with the force searching and seeking Ackbar.

[Where are you, you old fish]

His vision swims and eventually settles rushing in from across the stars. Ackbar in a control room. There are personnel running around. Rol commits everything he sees to memory and it while he's there something startled him.

A Ithorian, a youth by the look of him, staring right at Rol. Rol tilts his head and sneers at the youth a hungry smile.

The youth whispers something to ackbar and the old fish throws Rol a rude jesture.

ackbar is on home one

Rol the fills on the group with the other details of his vision

In addition Rol looks through his inquistorial records to see if there was any mention of the force sensitive itheon

[cybric]

In addition I saw admiral Rieran.

He was marching through corridors much like our own, imperial design, he could be on one of the ISD's or he could be supervising the operations on Kelliadu from inside the interdictor

Rol pauses for a second.

He had people in imperial grey uniforms aiding the rebels. It could be that the ISD units that we saw are defectors and not captured units.

If the imperial admiral has whole squadrons of ISD units defecting it could signal problems in his fleet

[robnar]

C4 interjects briefly:

"Ladies, Gentlemen. With the updated intelligence information, at this point we need only decide on where we are going and if there are any other capabilities to prepare or forces to bring with us. Given the size of the forces involved, I recommend lurking in the moons and belts around Tarastra until we get a better sense of the developing battle. The Panthac, 7th SPECNAV, and our TIE and support wing are prepared to move on order, minus previously designated detachments."

I will largely be narrating the battle(s) at Eriadu, except for those you choose to engage in. I'll even narrate those if they're sufficiently large. I see most of your brainpower into going into picking how you'll influence the other fleets decisions and what targets of opportunity you want to strike.

I view the engagement as 6 separate maps (Eriadu near space, Tarastra, Upper, Downer, Command, Kelliadu), though you can of course go anywhere in system you like. Hyperspace between them is basically instant. Sublight travel between maps is possible, but will take significant time (probably longer than any battle will last).

[cybric]

Rol looks over the maps on his data pad taking the droids advice and trying to find a good place to lurk.

He draws upon his upbringing as a pirate on the Strider under Craz before Aylrac had claimed him for the emperors inquisition.

If Craz were here where would he hide that crafty pirate.


Knowledge roll to see if Rol can find a more optimal place to lurk about given his pirate past

[roll0]

[cybric]

After scanning through the various tactical maps Rol determines that the droids options were pretty spot on. Between the belts and the various moons it didn't make much difference.

For what it's worth he thought the gas giant presented a marginally better array of options

[cybric]

Rol types up a requisition request to the armory to modification to his armor spec's telling them to spec it for boarding actions as well as some other gadgets that would help him coordinate forces better.


Per our dicord conversation. I also have some other items that I'd like added but scribd was being dumb so opening the pdfs took took long to look through the books.


Turning his attention to the report about rebel fuel tankers Rol addresses Espana. "Espana, I am hoping to have a moment with you later. I would like for us to come up with a way that we can attach tracking devices to these rebel tanker ships. With luck we can use the tankers and other ships to help map the rebel fleet movements. If we're very lucky we might even find were the rebels capital ships are hiding. We'll also have to coordinate with Fleet to run the tagging operation.

Robnar and I were having a discord chat and he mentioned the espana would be able to come up with a tracking missile/device fairly quickly so hopefully we can use it in the battle coming up.

[BananaPhone]

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/90/9a/0c/909a0cf16f40e10aaa647126f3e79cb7--half-shaved-head-shaved-heads.jpg Talia Vesa

Talia spent several more moments in contemplation while staring at the shimmering, blueish-white holographic images at the centre of the groups attention. Finally she spoke.

"Ackbar will have a reserve of capital ships somewhere. The rebel fighters will be the tar pit, but his capital ships will be the hammer he'll bring out to make the knock out blow. The Leviathan itself will be the primary target."

The Moff didn't seem intimidated by the idea of engaging one of the rebellions greatest heroes and strategists. Still seemingly transfixed, she reached a hand up to point with her right index finger towards the groups of rebel ships, "but their force is composed of ships belonging to two different fleets - the rebel third and fourth fleets. Those two fleets have been separate for most of the rebel insurgency, developing their own atmosphere, means of coordination and understanding of each other, their own personalities..." Talia rolled her hand in a circular motion, "Ackbar has his work cut out for him if he's hoping to coordinate them against the unified battlegroup Leviathan. Perhaps you could exploit that, Admiral...." Talia spoke over her shoulder to Veesha.

The Moff then straightened up and seemed to pull her mind out of whatever semi-daydream she had been experiencing.

"The rest I trust with you, Admiral," she announced, turning on the heel of her boot she addressed an awaiting nearby ensign.

"Have my ship and Honour Guard on stand-by. I'm going to meet Fleet Admiral Bandar personally and...persuade him of our cause. With his forces, ours and the intel we've gathered, we can trap the rebels, destroy most of their fighting forces and capture one of their most eminent leaders in one swoop."

And with that, the Dark Jedi Master started to depart from the bridge without any expectation that anyone else would join her. Admiral Veesha was getting the next military engagement moving in coordination with Rols intel, and so the Moff didn't believe her presence was necessary any longer, and could be put to use elsewhere.

Unless anyone halted her movement, Talia made her way to the hangers where her ship, the Dauntless, should have been ready for departure.

[cybric]

As his Moff walked past he knew there was nothing else to be said. Her mind was made up and they had been given their orders.

Well then everyone...I believe we have work to do with a brief smile

Rol then stands makes some last minute boardroom coordination comments and then strides away