"That is so, Mr Blaque, but I do not intend to lose any of you on this mission, so a little thought to the future would not, I think, be remiss."  The droid's owner's voice was light and pleasant, her accent curious but not jarring.  "As much as she enjoys poking at Sergeant Dulvan, not unlike one wisely avoids poking a Krayt dragon with a stick, I believe Ms Melan'nel would readily agree our new official leader has a great deal to teach."

Mika had found her sy to the lounge, whatever the military types wanted t call it.  She couldn't find any fizz pops, no decent snacks  nor anything of the sort.  When Devon ones in, she dials up a grin, but her heart wasn't in it.  His comment about her potential got her attention, but it was quickly quashed by his ongoing announcements.  These guys were doomed if they thought they could take down the Imps by using the same tactics.  They'd need people who could think outside the military mind set, that was the way to outsmart the Imps.  What was that term the military types used for those who don't fit the standard military way of doing things?

"Sounds like you're excusing yourself from the training you're suggesting, Cor.  Hey, think you can program the M4's to translate what we say I to proper military speaking and let them handle the pleases and thank you's? 

She turns to face the group generally.  "Setting that aside, seems to me these guys are a bit blind to what we can do if they'll leave us to it.  We've managed to accomplish a lot not doing things the regular..."  That was it, "We're a bunch of irregulars, maybe they'll give us a chance to show em why they shouldn't force us into thei military mold.  The Imps got a lot more soldiers, an ships an equipment than we got.  If we're gonna beat em, our side is gonna have to figure out how to think outside the box, That's what we bring to the mix.

The M4 gave no particular indication of its opinion, if it had one.

Cor sounded very tired as she replied.

"I am not 'volunteering' anyone, Ms Trake.  It was a suggestion for an activity in which, as you have so precisely pointed out, I would not be involved.  I would, however, still be taking instruction from Sergeant Dulvan for my own purposes."

In a more even tone she added, "Irrespective, Ms Trake does bring up a notable point.  We are not compelled to formally join the Alliance.  The Talons could continue to operate as independents, 'irregulars,' and act as allies to the Alliance formal without being directly beholden to its command structure.  The trade-off would be lack of access to the Alliance's resources and intelligence, but we would retain the bulk of our freedom."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:10, Tue 12 Dec 2017.

Kyvarr nods at Cor's suggestions.  "I can put together a KFS for you guys.  Uh, that's a 'Knife, Fork, Spoon' course.  Basic rules and regs, how not to piss off the officers and the like.  Of course to do that I need to know what the rules are!  For now we're going to need whatever passes for shipboard uniform for us, a list of SOPs and a chain of command.  Then I can work things out."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:24, Tue 12 Dec 2017.

"'History is a stick, the future a treebranch', Aunt Edith used to say. We determine our own paths with our choices", Arcas stated, sliding his bag under the bunk. "We'll see what other choices will have to be made."

Later, after finding the rec room's choice of literacy to be depressingly limited, Arcas was waiting for an opportunity to talk with Devon about his request. When he arrived and seemed like he had things to declare, Arcas decided to wait until the news were told.

What news indeed. Listening to Devon Arcas arced an eyebrow. For a group of freedom fighters, the Alliance seemed to put a great deal of importance to military hierarchy. How many Rebels were there for this to be a necessity?

Mika was on the right track. Doing military operations against the Empire would be mostly suicide. Diplomacy, counterpropaganda, exposing crimes against sapience, those would be the methods that would work. And for those, you need to think clever, not rigid.

Cor's point about access to resources was the perfect moment for Arcas to make his plea. He rose up, performing a sharp salute. "Sergeant Dulvan. Congratulations on your rank. Regarding access to resources, should we decide to work adjacent to the Rebel Alliance, I have a potential solution. The Endeel family, my family, does not hold any sympathies to Palpatine's regime. If we can arrange a meeting with them, I believe I could negotiate a deal for resources.

It would be good if we can arrange this in the earliest possible moment, since my defection will probably cause more Empire to take note in Endeel affairs."

No caf? The Alliance Navy had things way worse than DAF troops on a field mission. A ranger would always grab a pack of caf first and worry about food later. Dohr was surprised by the effect it had on him. There had to be a canteen somewhere. A ship full of soldiers would rebel sooner or later without caf…

Devon’s news were a real surprise, but of course from a military veteran’s point of view it also made sense. It also helped the Kel Dor understand the size of the whole alliance a little bit better. Someone high up, be it Kota or someone else, needed to have clear structure and chain of command from the top to the very bottom… On this ship the bottom was their little group along with another marine squad. A fleet the size they'd seen, most probably did not represent all of the Alliances firepower. If it had, there would've been no reason to have such a tightly formed hierarchy in place. So, for now Kyvarr was in charge at least on the surface. It was fine by Dohr.

Troopers, eh? I have never heard of a military doctor having the rank of a Trooper. In a theater, a doctor always outranks nurses or orderlies. But you cannot give a much lower rank than that to a nurse, can you? It would seem that I am not going to be working as a part of the medical team on the Indefatigable. Or if I am, they will not be making full use of my abilities. Well, we shall see…

Mika was right and Mr. Endeel had said likewise earlier. There was no way the Alliance would be able to defeat the Empire in on open war. No matter how large the Allied army was, it was still bound to be inferior to the Imperial one. But the Talons greatly needed resources right now. With nearly all of their ships destroyed and other assets compromised, the group was pretty much broke. Therefore going back to the way things was not really an option.

Dohr certainly didn’t need any training in army code or behaviour. The Alliance Navy couldn’t differ too much from DAF anyway. What he could use was some physical exercise, but something told him there would be no time for that now.

When Arcas was finished, Dohr nodded to him. ”I too should be able to arrange some resources, although I would require access to my private accounts and to perhaps make a call or two.” It had been a while since the Doc had had a look at his bank accounts. There should be a hefty amount there waiting for him by now.

"Get me to a Holonet connection and I can unload some of my accounts for the benefit of the 'squad'. Or get some proper clothing", Lin said, not specifying whether that meant a military uniform or a full ball gown with jewellery to match - or perhaps a proper, fully equiped bar. But whatever it was, the slicer was most likely pretty wealthy, as many things suggested she was born a noble. "If no Holonet connection is available, we can see if we can obtain some provisions from the other units aboard this fleet. Of course you need to get me on to other ships for that and I think Heigren would be helpful with that." Most likely such a scenario would mean gambling the pants off some fellow rebels.

Of course the current situation was new to her. She had never served in a military unit in any capacity and her experience on the subject was mostly from the few holovids she had seen one time or another. However, she was quite intelligent and quick to learn, so she was fairly confident she would learn the things required soon enough. Then again, if Kyvarr did not know what they needed to learn, it would somewhat slow the process down for the rest of them as well.

In essence, her homeworld's noble houses had their own footmen so to speak, and her's had some twenty soldiers and bodyguards, who ensured the safety of the family compound as well as the personal security of the higher status members of the house. She had received some rudimentary training by the Master at Arms of the family, Soon, but she had learned a great deal more during her adventures. Becoming a soldier would be one of those interesting experiences that would most likely also help her in her future jobs, if she ever needed to pose as one.

Devon shook his head slightly in response to comments from Lin and Dohr about downloading funds.
"Doin' that safely will take time.  At the moment, we don't got time.  We got a mission on the table, that we gotta deliver a plan for by 1100 tomorrow, and complete by 1100 five days from now.

Not that more funds wouldn't be useful, they would - but lets worry about that when we got the time to do it properly, OK?

Arcas?  if you're worried about your defection bringin' pain down on your family, then you probably need to go have a word with Zyra as soon as we are done here.  Lay it out for her, an' take her advice on what to do."

Devon sighed and looked around at his time.
"As to people not bein' happy with the arrangements here?  Look guys, we don't have to join the Alliance.  From where I sit, I see three basic options:

Option 1 - anyone is free to go their own way.  I can more or less guarantee that you'd all find commissions in various parts of the Alliance if you wanted them.  But we'd all have to go our separate ways to GET those commissions.  I've got the start of a list here"
Devon consulted his datapad for a moment "Myself an' Arcas would definitely end up  in starfighter command.  Fiarr would either be Starfighter command or Intelligence.  Mika?  Like I said, Chief Engineer an' maybe Captain later on.  Kyvarr, you'd easily end up with a commission in the Army.  Doc?  Medical Corp.  You get the idea.  The thing is... they would split us up.  They'd send us where we were needed, not where we wanted to be.  It would be the end of this team.

Option 2 - the Talons as a team refuse to formally join the Alliance.  We stay freelance.  Good side to that?  we get to do what we want.  Set our own course.  Downside - we'd have to be totally self reliant.  Money, funding, equipment. We'd have to find a way to do ALL of that ourselves.  Mark would probably keep us as contacts, feed us intel an' pass us jobs when he could.  But no promises.

Option 3 - We suck up our dislike of the Org chart - an' I aint a fan either - an' join the Alliance: they pay our bills, they patch up our hurt, they put the ammo in our guns.  They're doin' it right now - Moonshadow took a poundin' an' right now there's a team of Alliance mechanics, repairin' my personal starship for free.
Option 3 would also means we hit the targets we get told to hit; but is that a problem?  we'd be servin' under Sheppard, an' he knows how best to use the Talons.  Hell, he came up with the idea to begin with!
We get to be part of somethin' that I think will hit the Empire way harder than we could ever hope to on our own."

Devon let them chew on that for a few moments.
"I'm gonna make a suggestion here - this ain't an order.  This is me offerin' advice.  I think option 3 could work best for us, I really do.  So how about this - we suck it up for now, an' we do this mission that Mark an' Zyra got lined up for us.  Then we take another look at the situation, see how we feel.

Unless anyone has a real major hate for us stickin' around for a few weeks, then seein' how we feel; I'm gonna move on an' start the mission briefin'."

Cor's voice interjected briefly.

"For the record I do not oppose joining the Alliance.  Truth be told, I do not fully understand why we would resist such a move, for two reasons: Firstly, in order to work effectively, we would need to be given considerable leeway in how we fulfil missions.  That is why our superiors have taken pains to keep us together.  Sheppard and Jax are committed to the vision that the Alliance represents.  If they felt we were ineffective they would not be attempting to preserve the Talons.

"Secondly, if we do not like it in the future we are not obligated to stay.  The galaxy is a large place.  If we leave and the Alliance become... perturbed, there are more than sufficient places to avoid their notice while still striking at our real foe.  Either way, we are not party to any significant security intel.  The loss of one team would be unlikely to perturb them much."

Cor paused briefly before adding, "This is a positive move.  More than one of us is capable of gathering resources from various means when required; if we remain with the Alliance we have access to an intelligence network we cannot hope to match, we have direction and focus, we have support and even backup depending on the mission - and we have our own resources to do with as we please on top of that.

"The discussion we are having right now does not need to be decided upon immediately, but it is a vitally important one for us to have.  I do believe that we all deserve to know our options and that it is our responsibility to make that decision individually.  If I wanted my life to be mapped out by someone else I would have remained on Umbara.  But for what I want to do, for who I am and for where I currently want to be, my decision is clear and made: in the end I will follow Devon Kismet, but I am in favour of us joining the Alliance."

Fiarr shrugs.  "I've never really had much to do with the Sheppard or Jax but Heigren speaks highly of them."  At the mention of the Zeltron she looked around, wondering where he was.  Hadn't he come back yet.

"I'm all for the try before you buy approach.  Let's hear about this mission and see if it's the kind of stuff we're suited for."

Kira listens silently to cor and devon's suggestions. With Fiarr's idea, the woman shrugs. "I'm not one for military life, never been around it other than family..." She pauses for a second, then continues. "But i was raised by mercenaries....who have their own code.

She looked around the table with a wry smile. "But with the strict structure there are some perks. I for one wouldn't mind sticking around and see how this plays out." She looked at the droid. "...and like cor said, we have option."

She claps her hands. "So...what ya got for us?"

A great deal of noise seem to suddenly erupt outsides.  Sounds of droids, feet and hovertrolleys.  It all seemed to move into the troop canteen and galley.  After a minute or two it began to die down.

Shortly after that Heigren popped into the rec room where the Talons where.  "Hi guys, found the people who were supposed to stock our kitchen and they've activated the droids and stocked supplies.  We'll have food and caf shortly."

He looked around the room.  This looked suspiciously like a briefing.  "Did I miss something?"

"I'm with you sir."  Despite the fact Kyvarr officially had rank on Devon she couldn't bring herself to see him as a Trooper.  Besides, in the Talon hierarchy, he was the leader, she was a deputy so her choice of rank wasn't incorrect.

"I'll run interference with this marine Lieutenant and bring you guys up to speed on the basics of military ettiquette and procedure, but as Cor said, that is for another time.  I want to hear what Brigadier Sheppard has for us.  I'm sure he'll give us something that hurts the Empire."  She sounded positively enthused, almost gleeful, when speaking the last sentence.

Dohr was about to stand up and say his piece after Kira, when Heigren spoke up. Caf? About time too.

Kyvarr spoke next and the Doc found himself nodding at her words. "It probably does not come as a suprise to anyone when I say I agree with the ladies. Military structure, etiquette, procedure. It is all very familiar to me and I don't mind being part of that flow for a while. Oh and I too can assist those of you who feel like you require some help."

"So I a would rather see us as some kind of a fixed part of the Alliance fighting the Empire than trying to accomplish the same on our own.  But I am already accustomed to the Talon way of working and would probably find it very difficult to take the role of a regular soldier in a large army for the rest of my life. It would be senseless to break up this team now that we have our leaders back and some new members as well... Then again... The rank drop from Major to Trooper is worse than getting shot, at least for a ranger."

The way the Kel Dorian told the "joke" probably didn't work too well. He was trying, but the human concept of joking was a bit difficult for him to grasp even after all these years he'd been away from the home world.

"Aaaand here's Heigren." said Devon.  "Sounds like you've been busy.  You've not missed the briefing yet, so lets get into that."



"You bet he has.  This is exactly the sorta mission Mark had in mind for the Talons back when he first came up with the idea."
Devon sounded like he was looking forward to this.  Given that this room lacked the holo-projectors one would normally use for a briefing, Devon nudged Catch with his foot and the droid obligingly projected a starmap into the air.
"This is the Atrivis sector.  We've been there before an' now we're goin' back.  Kota's got a whole series of missions goin' on across the area - Empire's got somethin' big happenin' out here, an' we need to know what.
Our taskforce has been given a bunch of stuff to do, but Mark wants the Talons to focus..."  Devon searched for a moment, then pointed at a particular point in the star-map.  Catch zoomed in and added a brief description:
Imperial Suppy Station K-6342-978-Alpha.
Resupply, Refuel and repair for Imperial craft up to Frigate class.
"... here.  Five days from now at 1100 hours ship time, Gold squadron are going to blow the place to hell.

The Alliance is badly short of supplies an' stuff; so before the place goes up in flames, Talon squad is to infiltrate the base an' steal anythin' we can lay our hands on.  Supplies, intel, ships - it's all good.
We submit our plan along with requisition requests by 1100 tomorrow,  an' get Zyra's approval - she'll make sure the rest the task force are able to co-ordinate with us - incase we need a retreat coverin' or crew for ships we steal, that sorta thing."

Devon paused and added, making it sound like an afterthought.
"Oh, an' Mark said that if we can find it in our hearts to destroy the place as we leave, then we save Gold squadron the job of havin' to do it themselves."

Cor picked up the briefing at that point.

"As the Talons now have a broad selection of Empire-tolerated species - specifically, Humans and Chiss - as well as a recent expatriot, the possibility of infiltrating under the guise of a legitimate Imperial group now becomes significantly viable - especially as we have been informed that we may have use of the Gamma-class assault shuttle liberated from Despayre, an ominously appropriate name indeed.

"A possibility may be to infiltrate in the shuttle, with its transponder altered suitably, with Mr Endeel posing as an Imperial officer.  The roles of pilot, mechanic and so on may be played by whoever is most suited.  Stormtrooper armour and Imperial uniforms can be made available to us."

The M4's projector starts up and the image of a B2-series super battle droid appears - a familiar sight to the established Talons.

"This is B2-CC9, my personal combat, tactics and demolitions droid.  Given the rarity of B2 Baktoid droids independent from a remote processor, it is unlikely any Imperial would reasonably have one, but it may be possible to include him in the mission under the guise of a bodyguard to a bounty hunter - perhaps Ms Daochi or Mr Veen, whichever would enjoy the part more, with Mr Blaque acting as Mr Endeel's aide or perhaps XO.  In this case Mr Endeel would likely be posing as an Imperial who has brought in bounty hunters to deal with troublesome elements in the sector, freeing Imperial troops to shoot baby non-Humans, or whatever it is they do.  Those members of species which the Imperials are less inclined to trust might don stormtrooper armour or otherwise remain hidden.

"I would be situated in the Voidsong in my role providing communications and oversight, likely some distance away, as my freighter is unlikely to withstand attack from competent TIE fighter pilots.

"The spacefaring cargo pod is a possibility but the problem with that option lies in getting it to the station and then past scanners.  It is shielded but if the Imperials question why it cannot be scanned, things may get nasty quickly.  With so much going on in the sector, security may possibly be heightened.  It may be more wise not to take it at all and find a way of hiding or explaining the presence of the other members.  The Gamma-class assault shuttle normally contains elite spacetrooper armour; perhaps some of that may be altered to appear empty when scanned?  If not, there need not be only one bounty hunter.

"Once infiltrated, the team would then split up into two: a distraction team, headed by Mr Endeel, and a stealth team headed by Ms Melan'nel."  The projection of the combat droid vanished.  "While Mr Endeel and his team keeps the Imperials busy, Ms Melan'nel and her team seeks out any useful supplies and ships.  With limited intel on what may be happening within the station it would then be a matter of adjusting plans as appropriate to get the supplies to the targeted ships.  Both teams would then exit with all haste.  Sabotaging the station's defences would be the minimum requirement to escape safely but as Devon says, if we can destroy the station in the process - without jeopardising the mission - it would not be imprudent."

A pause, then.

"This is not a solid plan, only a suggestion of one.  If there are other plans to be offered, now is the time.  If this is a suitable one and any Talon member can refine it with their own expertise, please do so.  But please remember: the more supplies and ships we come away with the better off both we and the Alliance will be, but it would be significantly preferable if nobody was forced to give up their lives in the process."

"Repair base huh?  Sounds like a good place to 'borrow' an Imperial ship or two.  Getting back into your old business huh boss?" The last comment came with a wink to Devon.

"If we only have five days I guess we need to get onboard fast.  No time for me to try a forward scouting operation.  The Gamma shuttle sounds interesting, if they don't recognise it as stolen property.  But how do we explain our reason for being there?  Imperial craft or no, I'm sure we'll garner extra attention if we just pop in unannounced."

"Mr Endeel would be best suited to answer that," Cor replied, "presuming he has a suitable knowledge of Imperial operations and procedures.  Any such ruse would need to be believable, though I assume it might not be too far-fetched that an Imperial officer may arrive at such a station to refuel and to orient the 'mercenary scum' under the Empire's employ."

The small droid turned to look directly at Arcas, seeking his opinion.

"I have to admit I've never played the part of an actor save for the occasional reactor-side game of charades, which I haven't been that skilled at.  However, I'll admit if you are trying to build an aura of bounty hunters and such, I am fluent in Huttese.  Their influence is quite strong out in the fringes, so knowing their language is prudent.  Some of that which goes on around such worlds are not beyond my familiarity, but I'll be honest, I've never been involved directly in any of the negotiations, it hasn't been my forte.  I don't know however, if I could be a representative for the 'bounty hunters' in question.  Someone the Empire would be willing to deal with.  What might be more in line with my normal nature, would be being a repair consultant.  I've helped some mining outfits refit their repair facilities to get better efficiency, that wouldn't be hard for me to do naturally.  It doesn't sound like the station has that significant a medical presence, so consulting on that seems an unlikely angle."  He suggests.  "But let me know what you need from me, and I'll let you know what I can do."

"The best way to be a good actor Aderek is to be yourself.  In your case, I'd just stick an Imperial ship technician uniform on you and who is going to no any different?  You know your way around a ship engine room.  Don't overthink it.  You'd be one of the easy ones to pass off as an Imperial."

Lin nodded in approval, when Devon explained the mission. "Get me to a terminal and I will pull out every secret they have there, open every door for us and jam them up so bad, they need to start using messengers to convey messages", Lin said with a slightly mischievous expression on her face. "But if you are referring to me as Chiss, Miss Lambar, you are highly mistaken though I understand the reasons behind the mistake. I am Pantoran, not a Chiss. However, I can easily pass as one, if needed, but just as easily as a human."

The Pantoran slicer thought for a moment, then continued. "We could send a message to the station's commander posing as someone higher in thebchain of command, informing him that there will be a team technicians coming to install a critical security update on to the station's mainframe in order to weed out a vulnerability. They'd be expecting us and we could probably walk in to their C&C, which would give me an access to their security terminal, communications and everything else as well. I believe, I could program a virus to lock out other users from the system once I am in and to download everything from their mainframe. With me in the control of the station's security systems, we could easily access any place on the station and lock the Imperials behind blast doors and out of the way. As for the shuttle, reprogramming transponder is not impossible, but it takes a while."

Another brief moment to think and she carried on. "Of course, the second my virus locks them out, they'll probably start to figure out something is up, so once that happens, we would need to take out the crew in the C&C. After that it should be easy pickings."

"Ah, my error, Ms Daochi.  Please accept my apologies."  Cor said nothing else to interrupt the discussions, though alternative plans were forming in her mind.

So the first thing the Alliance wants us to do is to destroy a space station. Arcas listened to the briefing and the first suggestions in silence. His mind was not in the 'how' but 'why'. The re-purposing of Imperial supplies he agreed with, although he had a sneaking suspicion that they would be used by the Alliance military, not the suffering civilians. But what purpose would destroying the refueling station serve? Arcas raked his memory, trying to remember any significance surrounding the station's location.  If there are any civilians inhabiting the area, they would be at a risk of retaliation.

Not wanting to go against the grain yet again, Arcas decided to address his questions in writing after the briefing is over. No doubt the officers would throw the very familiar 'It's classified' to his face.

As for the matter at hand... "The one benefit from the Empire having a human majority in their  ranks is that one can rely on human psychology. A concerned human is an alert human. A content human is a lax one.", Arcas stated.

"Are there any pirates, smugglers or other problematic people around the area? Since our operation should not take long, we could pose as an Imperial-led bounty hunter crew who have captured one. We can arrive at the station for refueling, exchange words, thanks and maybe a small 'gift' with the station commander and use that opportunity to procure supplies", he said, considering his plan as he said it, "Especially in smaller stations and outposts, the Imperials are not looking at what is proper, but what is likely. I would certainly believe the existence of an officer who decides to outsource a difficult problem to criminals."

"As for the procurement itself... Imperial transportation relies heavily on pre-calculated astrogation data, probably so that no-one steals the transports. Some of us", Arcas said, looking at Aderek and Lin, "could indeed pose as technicians servicing the transports. If we can bypass the navicomputer of the transports and give a different set of coordinates on hyperdrive activation, then we could send the transport into the waiting hands of the Rebellion. We could even attempt to forge the manifests to load extra cargo to the transport. That way we wouldn't have to do any of the heavy lifting."

Arcas rubbed his chin. "That would be my plan. Less risk than interfering with the station's command structure. Apart from the navicomputer slicing, everything else can be explained by user error."

"Seems to me, an Imp ship that was damaged in battle would have a good reason going to a repair base.  And a reactor leak might be a decent sensor mask."

The Alliance sure was looking for them to earn their pay.  "if not an assault shuttle, could we put our hands on an Imp freighter?  Get a small shuttle or worker pod full of explosives might put a dent in their defenses when we head out."

"I like the idea of a damaged ship as our entry Mika but battle damage may raise questions.  Could you arrange a mechanical accident bad enough to need station repairs but not so bad it would take more than a day or two to fix.  All while making it look genuine of course.  A smart technician might report anything bizarre."