Heigren considered Kira briefly.  "You know Kira, for someone who tells me, to effectively 'keep my hands to myself', you don't seem to practice what you preach.    I am not your 'plaything'.  Still, you're far from the only one around here who seems to have that double standard."

He turned to face Lin.  "You're most welcome to join me wherever I'm dropped off.  I had assumed your talents would be needed elsewhere.  Given the time constraints I think my mission is the proverbial 'grain of sand in an asteroid field' but I welcome the help and we can split the target sites between us and take half each.  We'll cover more ground, or the same ground with twice the depth."

"Is it actually necessary to discuss the expectation that, as members of the same team, you are expected to treat one another with at least some basic respect?" Cor's normally calm voice is hard and biting.  Her exasperation is neither feigned, nor disguised.  "Whether you understand Heigren or not, Kira, and it seems clear that you know very little of him, you are not to put hands on him again without his permission.

"It is embarrassing to be forced to say it, but this holds true for every single one of the Talons.  We are a very diverse crew.  There is no place here for disrespect or bigotry.  If you wish to behave in such a way, perhaps the Empire is hiring."

”Well, I do not know if nibbling on your colleagues neck and ear is common where you come from, Heigren, even at a party. But, as you said, we can cover more ground if I am in the field with you. I would hazard a guess, we can find at least one captain gambling. Of course, we would need to arrive separately, so our targets do not realize, we are working together”, she said smiling a radiant smile.

Heigren gave Lin a reproachful look.  "You'd better start packing then.  I'll worry about the plans."  He walked out.

Fiarr watched Heigren depart and made no attempt to hide her concern for him.  She'd spent the time to get to know the plucky Zeltron, better than most it seems and she didn't like the shift in his mood.  She turned her attention to Kira and Mika.

"Mika, Kira you'd better stow your gear and get the Ghtroc prepped, sounds like you'll be leaving ASAP."

She walked over and muttered something in Lin's ear.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 10:17, Fri 09 Mar 2018.

"Apparently some of you do require some further instruction.  This behaviour has been noted."

Cor's mood seems to have shifted as well.  Gone is her calm tone and she no longer sounds even exasperated.  Now her voice is icy.

"Get moving.  All of you.  We have a station to raid.  Devon, please come to the Voidsong before you depart the fleet."

The M4 droid pivots on its axis and buzzes from the room.

Kyvarr nods.  "You heard her, report to your stations.  Anyone who doesn't have a job come and see me."  She remained in her seat and began punching away on her datapad, considering various assault plans."

"Dohr, Aderek.  Apart from your training, give some thought to any agents we could quickly and effectively use to disable a ship in space without risk to ourselves.  It would also have to disperse quickly so it doesn't come up on any scans at the station."

"Hey Cor, what' it you're gonna be doing again?  If you're doing anything scrap-worthy, you should keep the battle bot for backup.  If you're not, then we might as well have him with us."

Mika turns to those of her soon to be ship mates and adds, "Sounds like we've got a fun trip in front of us.  Maybe if we can keep CC9, he Cor can give him some nanny programming to keep us minding our manners.". Mika gives an impish grin to those about the room.

"I'm off to get my stuff.". It wouldn't take her more than a few minutes, aside from her ever present tool kit, she didn't have much else to pick up.  And it would be nice to get out on their own and get away from the spit and polish military overtones on the ship.

Lin shrugged and headed to get her gear. It seemed to her, the Talons had to learn about humour just as much as she had to learn about their unspoken social rules. After all, all they knew was, Heigren had indeed been nibbling her neck at the party. Well, she would probably have to discuss the subject with the Zeltron on the ship, in a setting far less populated by people who would misunderstand things.

Gathering her gear did not really take that long - after all, she owned very little aside the things she was wearing and such a pile of gear was far quicker to gather than most things. Hopefully they would have a chance to drop by somewhere, she could do some shopping for the mission and for other needs as well. As far as she was seeing things, she had about an equal chance to be the one to find the suitable ship to capture as Heigren.

CC9, having been indirectly addressed, stomps after Mika.

“Your antagonism is illogical,” it states flatly.  Without waiting for a reply, the droid continues.  “Although less efficient, my Mistress has two B1-model battle droids for basic protection.  As she has declared you to be in command of the vessel for the duration of this exerise, I will report to the Ghtroc if that is your command.”

Before Mika leaves, Fiarr chimes up.  "Hey Devon, while we're at it can I get the Mika reprogrammed?  Maybe have her cluck like a chicken when someone says 'Egg'?  Trust me, I know people who can do it too.  Shouldn't degrade her mechanical performance and it would be great for laughs."

The Bothan levelled a glare at Mika, all pretense of levity disappearing.  "Cor just finished giving us a well-deserved lecture on treating members of our team with respect and yet in addition to passing it all off as a joke, you still address B2-CC9, a valued member of the team in the third person and casually suggest we reprogram him because it's funny.  Perhaps humanity's sense of humour is lost on me but I don't see what's funny about it.  B2-CC9 in my opinion is a Black Talon, a valued member of the team.  He's not one of your hydrospanners."

Before the conversation could continue, the team was shuffled off to their various assignments.  Mika, Kira, Heigren and Lin headed for the Ghtroc and soon left.  Devon and Arcas went to take a pair of Z-95's for a flight.  Kyvarr and Fiarr sat down to plan strategy.  The medics wandered off to undertake their own training.


OOC: I am uncertain if B2-CC9 ended up going on the Ghtroc or not.  Cor I leave that decision to you.

Various 'teams' can talk in private channels while I wait for a few teams to catch up.

Mika looks confused at Fiarr's response, then decides what's up.  "My joking, if that's what we're going to call it, was aimed at some of our colleagues, not at CC9.  I agree that CC9 is a damn fine member of the team."

As she moves off, Mika wonders. Was the team always so touchy?  Well, maybe they had been, at that.

Having received no answer or acknowledgement from Mika, CC9 pauses for a moment as if listening for something.  Then it turns slightly toward Fiarr and bows its head briefly before turning and stomping off toward the Ghtroc.

Mika, Lin, Heigren, Kira and CC9 need little time to prepare and in less than an hour the Ghtroc has left the hangar bay and vanished into hyperspace.

For the team left on board, some had plenty to do.  Fiarr and Kyvarr were discussing tactics while Devon had a meeting to attend with Colonel Jax that had been bumped forward for him.  Dohr, Aderek and Arcas did not have specific tasks assigned.


OOC:  Dohr, Aderek, Arcas, up to you what you do.  Maybe the docs want to discuss medical stuff.  Arcas, perhaps you'd like to join the planning session or work on idea for the backup plan (i.e. prisoner transport) since you're the expert on this?
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:22, Tue 13 Mar 2018.

Devon was last to exit the briefing room and quickly caught up to and kept pace with Arcas.
 The shipjacker was tense and tight lipped, clearly angry over what had happened.
"Right - I managed to get the Colonel to bump us up an' see us now instead of tomorrow - I'm on my way there now.  Wanna come along?  You can help me put our plan into more official soundin' military speak..."  Devon glanced up at the taller man.  "Maybe get answers to some of your questions too.  But don't over do it, OK?  We're supposed to be briefing her.  An' we want her on our side, given we're about to ask for somethin' like half the damn fleet:  Y-wings, Z-95s, the Gamma shuttle, marines...."

"Certainly." The little 'situation' was quite strange for Arcas, who had been used to strict military discipline. In the Imperial Navy the end result would have probably been disbanding, brig time... or worse.

The point about respecting others began resonating in Arcas' mind, and for a moment he sunk into his thoughts.

Aderek is happy to offer the Doc a hand with transporting his stuff to the suggested ship.  He was admittedly curios to learn more about the VoidSong and its owner.

He was also admittedly contemplating some of the ramifications of the discussions of methods of taking over or destroying the station or its contents.  But the old conventional, and excepted massive explosion, burning or shredding people alive wasn't necessarily actually that much more humane than death by being spaced.  He'd seen survivors and casualties from both.

"Hmm... a medical droid wants to talk with me... not that many I've met that weren't psychiatric droids were really much on having lengthy conversations.  Could be interesting, most medical droid programming as pretty strictly, by the books, as a general rule, as opposed to what I believe it was Endelov described as 'dealing with undesirable environmental constraints'."

Devon and Arcas are invited into Zyra's office by an administration droid.  Zyra who is sitting behind her desk looks up and smiles as the pair are ushered in.  There is a Duros in the office wearing the uniform and rank insignia of a Commander.  She turns in her seat to inspect the pair as they are ushered inside.

"Come in, come in."  Zyra waves the pair in.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:59, Wed 14 Mar 2018.

Kira, having few possessions, was the first to board the Ghtroc and waited near the doors for the others.  When they were all aboard, she simply clapped her  hands and rubbed them together. "Alright...who brought the snacks!"

It was obvious from the mirth in her tone that she was not oonly joking, but more than eager to get underway

Dohr wastes little time grabbing his gear from the bunk. He gives Aderek a thumbs up for helping out. "I have a feeling you and I will make a great team, Aderek.". The Doc's voice was stern, but there was a happy ring to it. He was pleased to get back into action even if their previous trip hadn't gone quite as well as it could have. Or maybe it had. All in all with the traitor in their midst, the hostile environment and the prison gang in mind things could've turned out a lot worse than they had.

"Perhaps we should wait until Devon has finished his meeting with the Colonel and share a shuttle. We are not in that much of a hurry anyway right now."

A thought then occurred to him and Dohr opened up a link on his comms. "Cor, how is the medical supply and equipment situation on Voidsong? Is there something we should bring along as we head over there?"

"I have only a basic medbay setup, Doctor," Cor answers after a moment, the channel open to both Dohr and Aderek, "and while the layout of the Voidsong means I have ample room to expand, I have not yet had the opportunity to do so.  The ship is stocked well enough but do please feel free to bring anything supplies or tools you feel that you would prefer to."

Devon nodded to Zyra and the duros Commander, then dropped into a seat.  He wondered briefly who the Duros was, and if the man was 'in on the secret' of who the Talons were and how they operated.  Then he put it out of his mind - surely Zyra wouldnt have had the man present if he didn't understand the situation.  First things first then, introductions:
"This is Arcas Endeel, formerly an officer in the Imperial military.  He defected during the prison colony mission, and is workin' with us now." Devon didn't elaborate - Zyra would definitely know which prison colony he meant.

Devon hesitated - he wasnt used to talking 'business' with Zyra in more formal situations like this.  Suddenly he was very glad he had bought Arcas along.
"OK, so I asked to see you today instead of tomorrow because we got a plan an' we're ready to go - an' since the first stages at least involve a bunch of leg-work that's gonna take time, I figured the sooner we can start, the better.

The plan is fairly simple - at the most basic level, we're gonna locate a suitable transport or freighter en-route to the station, take it over an' then use it as our way in.  Our preference is to take the ship in flight - fewer witnesses that way, but we'll need a bunch of stuff to make a deep-space hit possible."

Devon tried not to let his worries show - on top of all the... 'personality clashes' currently going on within the Talons, the sheer amount of support he was about to ask for could be a problem.  He had the list ready on his datapad, and was sure that between himself and Arcas, they could justify everything they had asked for...

The Commander eyes Devon carefully then turns to inspect Arcas standing in the doorway before turning her eyes back to Zyra.

"So this is your lauded special forces team?  One who languishes in a superior officer's chair like he's at a social club and the other stands in the door gawping?  Neither seems to have the slightest inkling of military discipline.  I'm not going to question the General on his strategic ability but are you sure about these?  You'd think the Empire would have at least taught that one how to come to attention"

She turns her gaze on Devon.  "I don't care how you've done things in the past Trooper.  If you want to serve in the Alliance you will show deference to superior officers."

"Perhaps I need to put your Sergeant on disciplinary action until she can teach you all the basics."

Arcas comes back from his historical ponderings when he becomes aware of the commander. He gives a polite cough, salutes and steps forward.

"Sir. Apologies sir, this was the first instance of military discipline I have witnessed, sir. Will not happen again, sir!"

"It was decided that the supply liberation operatives will pose as the crew of a transport that requires external repairs after being attacked by hostile aggressors. While the repairs are ongoing, the operatives will trigger an evacuation alert on the station via sabotage. The ensuing chaos will allow the acquirement of any valuable supplies and materiél from the Empire and exfiltration without significant opposition."

"Trooper Kismet has formed a list of necessary supplies for this operation. At this point the most crucial requisitions are reconnaissance starfighters so that the search for a suitable transport can begin. Sir!"

The footwear Arcas had found did not make as satisfying sound when he saluted and struck their heels together as his Imperial dress uniform boots.