"Not particularly." Zenna replied to the Commander. "Ranks, if we use them publicly will only attract notice. Better to just stick with callsigns when necessary and use our normal names or aliases. We're going to have to blend in with the populace from time to time."

"And we can't afford to have someone slip up and use a rank by mistake." Zenna stated.

The young raven haired woman turned and locked eyes with Bishop momentarily.

Having sat down with something hot to drink, Exilim listens to the coversation. "I don't think that official sounding ranks are necessary" he commented "As along as we all know how things stand it should be enough."

"If it took that much effort to get the cruiser in here it appears that we should be safe enough. Sounds like we may need a different place to park her eventually though."

Bishop took pause, sometimes those aliens all looked alike to him, then he remembered, "Allen." as if reassuring himself of the Duros' name.  He cracks a slight grin to one corner of his mouth as he extends his hand, "A guy's got to make a living in this galaxy."

Bishop nods to Sheppard as he's addressed, "Aye sir. Personally in a military or even paramilitary organization I think it's important to establish a rank structure."

He glances over to Zenna, their eyes meeting momentarily as he's speaking with Allen.  A brief recognition flashes across his eyes, but says nothing uncertain if he had heard her name mentioned or not.  Well, at least she was more to look at than Allen.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:56, Fri 29 Feb 2008.

Jamie simply nods to most of the statements, looking a bit like a bobble-head stormtrooper on a smuggler's nav console.
"I've lived in a military environment most of my life; I'd be comfortable with an established structure.  However, I don't think it's really necessary that we have official titles, so long as everyone knows what's what.  Of course, depending on the idea you want people to get, perhaps we should use official ranks anyway."

"It's agreed then.  We wont have the formality of rank provided when we are in situations that warrant it people obey orders.  Were we still in the alliance, Jamie and Exilim would hold ranks of Lieutenant.  So if they give you an order, obey it.  For the most part, I will put decisions to the vote.  However, there will be times I will go against your decisions.  Not too often I trust though."

"As for designations I feel we can leave most people unchanged.  However since there is now only nine of us we will need to reallocate Devon's number for ease.  I thought of leaving him as eleven to make our numbers appear bigger but such deception wont acheive much and I prefer things concise.  This means we have the designations 3,6,7, & 8 for Devon, Zenna, Darron and Bishop.  Feel free to choose your own."

"That, like the new name for our cruiser is something to work out amongst yourselves."

"Now do any of you have any thoughs or recommendations regarding our current situation?  Its all well and good to discuss retreat but with out limited funds and equipment all we could do right now is jump on our cruiser and run.  We need to look at the now.  What priorities do you envisage?  What specialists do we need to try and employ.  Of a more personal interest, how do you want me to work wages?  I've used the prize money system for the cruiser.  If you'd prefer a different system let me know."




2/4/9/11

"One thing we definately need are proper mechanics tools for our ships. We are only as good as the equipment that we fly in, and the tools are what keeps our equipment flying. Now, where could we get some? Well, if we had the funds, we would just buy that stuff. However I don't think we've got the kind of funds to properly refit this asteroid to keep us going fight after fight after fight.

The only other options would be to borrow them, which really isn't an option for us, I don't think, or to steal it. Imperials are the only options for victims that I think we should consider. Intercept a ship enroute with supplies or take them from a planetside base."

He took a sip of his cooling caf to wet his mouth a bit. Daron shifted his position in the chair slightly to face more towards Sheppard.

"It doesn't do us any good to have any of these ships if we can't fix them when they get busted up."

"I agree.  I can tell you the Empire doesn't have enough firepower to keep all it's supply routes safe from pirates.  If we can find a weak link, we would have decent chances of getting away with our cargo holds full, so to speak.  Of course, we'd never be able to hit the same place twice, and they'll step up security around here pretty quick if we hit them two or three times.
"As for staff...who's in charge of these droids?  Are you sure they know what they're doing?  Do we trust them?"
Jamie shook his head hopelessly.
"Solomon.  We could name the ship Solomon.  That's my father's name."

Bishop pipes in, "I'm all for raiding the Imps, but perhaps we shouldn't limit ourselves.  Afterall there are all manner of scum in this galaxy, say, pirates?"  He cracks a slight grin out of the ironic thought that may be only a couple of others in the room might understand.

Kris flashed a smile at Bishop's comment. "Right. Pirates are a good target especially if we hit them after they hit an imperial convoy."

Zenna shook her head in Jamie's direction. "I'm not for sentimental names. I'd rather name the ship the White Knight."

Mark let the discussion continue for a while before intervening.  "The one thing you may not have considered is a question of simple logistics.  We have two starfighters at the moment and thats it.  Our cruiser needs several weeks of work to be ready for duty and so we have no transport capability or heavy guns.  We can't wait for the cruiser to be ready or we'll be out of credits.  As such we're going to have to shelve any supply raids for the moment.  Instead, we're going to take a new angle."

"We're going to start working for the Empire."

Bishop blinks a couple of extra times at Sheppard's last declaration.  Then laughs a little as he commends the Commander, "That's good, oh that's good." nodding his head in approval.  "Why not hide among your enemies?" he asked rhetorically to no one in particular.  He tapped his scruffy chin pensively as if trying to figure out the Commander's exact angle or plan, so he asked, "What exactly did you have in mind, sir?"  This time he full well is expecting a damn good answer.

Jamie almost choked on a breath of air.
"Uh...well, I suppose that could work...but I'll need a real good identity.  A new one, I mean.  If it works, perhaps we can hijack a ship or two?  A supply ship or fighters or a small transport.  I imagine having an Imperial craft could be extremely useful."

Exilim grinned as he looked around. "Infiltration and trying to walk away with goods, again." he pauses and looks around at faces old and new "A relatively soft target would be a good way to start. It will make it easier to get everyone working together, and learn how we complement each other to get hings done."

Mark listens for a few moments as the Talons begin formulating ideas.  It was good they were thinking, this was what the unit had been formed to do.

"Good ideas, but you're on the wrong track.  An Imperial planetary governor who controls the Phindar system has been having pirate troubles.  Obviously he doesn't want to let his superiors he can't deal with this annoyance so he's put out the call for bounty hunters.  Zyra caught on to this through her contacts and we're going in as a private security force of such.  We'll be performing a number of raids for this Moff."

"Not only does this get us close to an Imperial Planetary Governor, which give us the opportunity to potentially access the Imperial Holonet, we can deal with a group of pirates who have been attacking trade routes and murdering civilians.  Best of all, the Moff will pay us hard currency.  Wins all around."

"Of course, we're going to pull the dirty jobs the governor doesn't want to use his army troops on.  He'll probably hope we killed in action so he doesn't have to pay us.  We'll just show him what a group of mercenaries can do."

"Transport will pick us up tomorrow.  We're largely ground-based on this one.  Zyra will serve as our liaison officer."

Mark sat abck in his chair, giving the Talons time to absorb the plans.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:39, Tue 04 Mar 2008.

Daron nodded. The plan made sense. No one knew who the black talons were right now. Answer the call for some mercenary work. Take care of some pirates. Get some cash to fund their operation.

In the end, though, they were making it easier on the Imperial Moff. It was good that they were taking care of this pirate group that was terrorizing trading lanes and killing innocent civilians. But after all was said and done, they were going to make that Moff look good for getting the job done.

Daron waited a few minutes to see what the others thought about it. It wasn't that he thought they shouldn't go on the mission, because he thought it was as good a chance as any to get what they needed for their cause. But there was a slight reservation in the way they were doing it.

"So we play it cool and get to earn some cold hard credits." Zenna stated the obvious. "We'll have to see if Zyra will be able to get us an allowance for supplies. Or at the least, we'll make sure that anything we find off the pirates is confiscated before the Imperials take inventory."

Bishop poses a question related to Zenna's, "Are the 'spoils of war' part of our contract, Zyra?"

Allen slowly considered the conversation.  "Yes, we would need supplies, and more than just weapons."

Sitting back in his chair Exilim considered what Mark had said. Working for the enemy, even though sounding wrong, made a perverse kind of sense.

Noting others had mentioned supplies and 'spoils of war' he decided not to continue down that line. "Will be interesting to see the quality of any intel we get. It may not be the most reliable if the Moff is hoping that he won't have to pay us" the last bit said with a smirk in Marks' direction.

Bishop nods and lets out a small laugh himself at Exilim's comments, adding his own, "I wouldn't put it past those Imp scum to try and waste us after we served our purpose."  He conjectured, "Perhaps we shouldn't do too good of a job."

"On the contrary."  Zyra interjects.  "If this Governor is smart he should be more than glad to pay our fee and not wish to rid himself of us.  A smart man knows that good mercenaries are hard to find and they are loyal as long as they are paid well."

"Still that requires the governor to be smart and us to be good at the mercenary life.  We can't control the actions of the Imperials at this point but we can sure make them want to keep us if we do our job well.  The more they like us, the easier for us to stick the vibroblade to them where it really hurts."

"As for the question of reward, the Commander and I have discussed this already."  Zyra knew Mark wasn't a commander any more but old habits were hard to break.  "We shall all receive a flat five percent of all liquid currency we receive.  The rest of the credits go into the kitty to run this operation.  All equipment gathered will be added to our inventory.  Anyone may use items from the inventory at the discretion of their superior and the quartermaster."

Zyra's face takes on a serious look.  "Remember, the credit situation is MY responsibility.  You will also receive your shares in due course.  When we're on a mission you keep your minds on the job and off the credits.  Any loot acquired is given to me for distribution at a later stage.  We may be playing the role of pirates, but it doesn't mean we are."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:55, Sun 09 Mar 2008.

"I really couldn't see anyone in the Empire, especially a Moff liking someone who succeeded in doing a job that they couldn't, making them look bad. If we are good enough to get the job done when he and his storm troopers couldn't, then I would think they would consider us a threat.

Either way it's probably good for us to watch our backs around the man if we do indeed take the job and complete it. I've not met an Imperial I could really trust, even one that didn't want me dead."

With his caf finished, he set the cup on the table in front of him and continued to listen to the others.

"Lets hope we are working for a smart governor." Exilim said. Turning towards Daron he continued "I don't think that it's a matter of us getting the job done when his own troops couldn't. By the sounds of it, we'll be doing the dirty jobs he doesn't want his troops getting involved in. Hopefully that means the rewards for us will be greater."

Bishop holds his hands up in a submissive surrender gesture, "Whoa lady, I wasn't suggesting we pirate the loot, what I meant was we wouldn't have to return it to the Imps, right?"  He shook his head, he may have appeared to be a scoundrel, but he was either coded with some sort of ethics or he developed some of his own along the way somewhere.

"Lets leave discussions of plunder until we have some people.  Zyra will handle that end of things.  For now, we have missions to prepare for.  The transport will be here tomorrow morning.  There will be an equipment check tonight at 2100.  Be ready.  Some of you have extra work to do.  Jamie, I want you to redesign our flight groups to suit our skills and equipment.  Exilim, I want you to start planning how you want us to work as a ground unit.  There are many roles to fill and limited people.  Devon, a few of the ex-slaves are former mechanics.  Look over our 'fleet' and assign them some work orders."

"The rest of you need to start looking at how you can help run a portion of this business.  For now though prepare your gear.  Examine our weapons cache and see if you need or want anything from it.  I'm also looking for someone to take over the role of quartermaster for us."

"Tomorrow the new, mercenary Black Talons go to their first job."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:35, Mon 10 Mar 2008.