"I pretend nothing, miss. The commander has his perogative to ask such a question, but I'd prefer to answer such a question prior to being considered worthless in advance. I do not have the information about your thoughts on my performance down on the planet, because, as you pointed out, you haven't given me such information. However, I do have information you do not, miss. I do have a pretty decent picture about the composition of the convoys from Phindar Prime", Arin stated in a rather dry fashion. He turned at the commander, directing his future comments to him.

"Sir, with respect, do you have a particular convoy already picked out for the ambush? To my knowledge, the convoys range from a couple of ships, covered by a couple fighters to convoys of nearly ten freighters, supported by a whole squadron along with a capital vessel. The ships are probably carrying at least a couple of stormtroopers on them for security."

Cor says quietly, "Point?  Missing it.  Ah well."  She sits back and directs her attention to the Commander to see how he'll respond.

"Enough you two." Mark growls.

"Ms Lambar, there is no shame in someone not wanting to shoot his former allies, people he has recently flown with.  Defectors sometimes need time to adjust, I'm sure Ms Masters could tell us some stories.  As to your question, I could have found several jobs that did not directly put him in the line of fire."

He spun to face Arin.  "As for you Mr Branden, you are in no position to talk about command.  As I recall your last command was wiped out nearly to a man, two of them dying as a direct result of you sending them into an ambush.  Now I will not judge you on that last command, I may even give you command opportunities here, but not if you are going to squabble with your colleagues, wether you were provoked or not.  Ms Lambar may not have had a command as such but she has been responsible for the lives of members of this team and she has performed admirably."

"Now back to tactics.  The convoy I'm targeting is based on location.  They'll pass far enough from patrols to give us a window.  The convoy in quesiton should consist of four tankers.  How would such a convoy be protected?"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:00, Wed 08 Aug 2012.

Cor nods slightly.  "It was not my intention to provoke, Commander.  I was asking whether he would be of use if he could not fire on his former colleagues.  I did not say he should be able to; I did not say he was useless; I certainly made no judgement on his prior command.  Perhaps my Basic is simply a little... flawed at times.  In either case CC9 should be able to provide some input to assaulting the convoy's defences if we have that information."

With that she lapses into silence, apparently having talked herself out.

Sheila smiled grimly.  "Oh, by the time I finally jumped ship, I'd have had no problem firing on my 'squadron mates', but that was my experience. If I'd managed to leave earlier, the question might have had a different answer."  She looked at the convoy.  "I'm sorry, I have to ask, if you are a member of phindar's pilot force, what were you doing with leading the last command."

Mika shrugs.  "If I can be of most use on the Nightshrike, then that's where I'll go.  Co-pilot is fine.  Since we're a little short on personnel, I could try to juggle either the shields or the sensors, or both if you'd like."

Co-pilot, the very definition of the job is to wait until someone tells you what to do and then do it.  Maybe she should talk to Cor about it, sounds tailor made for a droid type.  But until then, she'd take it on.

That is most definitely not how Mark sees the role on a cap ship, quite the opposite in fact.  In fact, Mark sees it as the most important job on a capital ship.  The pilot merely flies.  The co-pilot (perhaps we should rename them operations officer or something) controls every internal system on the ship.  They can:
  * Assist or take over piloting (though on a cap ship this is rare)
  * Control sensors
  * Control communications
  * Control navigation/astrogation
  * Designate target priorities for turrets (both manned and automated)
  * Control and repair shields
  * Control power re-distribution

So the co-pilot is responsible for nearly every station on the ship (engineering/damage control is about all they can't do).  Even if the role is assigned to someone in another area (so say Cor is doing shields in the computer room), the co-pilot can assist or take over.  They should also be instructing the other areas which roles to do first (as the co-pilot has the 'big picture' so knows what the priorities are)

Mark considers it the most important role on the ship, that requires the most flexible person to handle it.  The person who does this role needs to be skilled not only at pilotting, navigation, computers and mechanics but must be able to task prioritise, give orders and rapidly change focus.

There is no way Mark would put a droid there (unless it was a VERY skilled droid).  Mark will likely take this role if Mika doesn't but he wont be as good at it as he lacks her technical expertise.  He's a better pilot but when you're flying a cap ship, piloting skill is hardly that important!  Maybe he'll see if Mika can reroute enough systems so Cor could do the job from the computer room.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:10, Wed 08 Aug 2012.

Hearing the banter between Arin and Cor, Heigren mutters loud enough for Arin (and those in close proximity) to hear, "Sheesh, just get a room you two."

And Sheila turned to look at Heigren again, with those moviegoer eyes and said in a whisper at exactly the same sound level he had used.  "Can it."  then back to Arin waiting for him to answer her question.

Heigren feigns a hurt expression for a moment then gives Sheila a wink and blows her a kiss.

“ as the most experienced gunner on this crew I would like to take charge of the ion gun as it a highly specialized piece of kit” said Rann as he looked to the others.

Mark nodded to Rann.  "I am glad to see we are of a like mind Mr Pertwee.  That ion cannon will be the most important weapon in our arsenal.  The more ships you can disable, the more we can capture.  Do your job well and I think you will be owed a lot of drinks by all the Talons!"

Flash raises his hand again, his expression clouded.  "Uh, hello?  Cloakshapes?  Any opinions?  Nobody?  Fine."  He crosses his arms, clearly unimpressed.  "We need more R-41s.  Well, we need more anything that flies.  Cloakshapes, headhunters, 41s, TIEs, anything.  An' we need as many ion cannons as we can get.  Hell, we could even scavenge th'wreckage after th'battle and start makin' uglies.  Boarding party's essential, sure, but pump any ship full of enough ion bolts an' we can board it at leisure.  Tell you what'll kill us faster'n anythin' out there - bein' outnumbered."  With that he slumps back in his chair.

"Boss, you're itchin' t'get out behind th'stick an' we need th'best fighter we can get in the 41.  That ion cannon's gonna be essential.  Why don't you put your flight suit on for this one, take wing lead?"

"I will give it some thought Mr Allen." was all Mark responded.  In his mind though, his thoughts were churning.  Of course he'd love to be in the fighters.  He was a fighter jock through and through.  Being the commander however meant he had to put the good of the team before his love of flying.  Still, he could command from a fighter couldn't he?  Or was that the pilot in him talking, not the tactician?

He sighed inwardly.  He wished Zyra was here.  The XO was always good at clarifying such things.

"Tactically, the quicker they can get a distress call out the quicker they can get the backup required to eliminate us.  What are our options and capabilities for jamming their signals as soon as the ambush is sprung?"

Cor lets out a small sigh as Arin voices the words 'You can judge my skill in command all you want,' and shakes her head a little.  She doesn't comment, though, instead making notes on her datapad.

The wookie stood passively, listening to the talk. The conversation between Arin and Cor concerned him. He knew that the likelihood of every member liking each other was unlikely, but they didn't need to like each other to trust them. Grayrhynn was sure this wasn't going to be over in this setting, but he hoped that either way, they focused on what was important.

And then their was Heigren. He knew he was skilled at what he does, but also knew to tolerate him you needed patience. Heigren was skilled, he knew...he had spent several weeks around him, and he did like him,  but he knew that his sense of humour was unusual.

The wookie looked at the commander, and stood impassively.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:56, Thu 09 Aug 2012.

Cor, being entirely unaware of Grayrhynn's inner dialogue, doesn't comment.  She just keeps making notes.  She's probably, in fact, making too many for them to be solely about the meeting.

Devon looks up from fiddling with his own datapad, which he had used to distract himself during the verbal sparring between Cor and Arin.  He'd had to exercise willpower to avoid smirking on a couple of occasions...

"Well, based on past experience someone's going to suggest I'm in the fighter wing..."
Devon had always wondered why he kept getting selected for pilot duty on missions, and one night had looked up the Talons simulator scores.  It had surprised the hell out of him to learn he was near the top of the group...

"But I think I'd be more use on the boarding party this time round.  We're going to need to bypass or gain control of any security systems as fast as possible - and if the crew wont co-operate we're going to have to do it ourselves.  I think your going to need me."

Mentally, Devon added:
And with how my lucks been recently, I'll be wishing I had Mika and A9 with me...
Give the choice, Devon would have wanted them with him anyhow - even allowing for his catastrophic luck last time out, the three of them had proven to be an effective team.

"So we now have a boarding crew of Nallis, Trake, Kismet, Grayrhynn and three droids.  Mr Branden, what kind of internal security are we likely to face?  Do you think we need this much firepower?  Remember they just need to clear the defenders, we have civilian crews to fly."

"The ships will probably have two or three Stormtroopers each, so that amounts to a total of perhaps one squad. However, the crews may be corporation personnel and armed, which makes it possible, they could fight back. The droid also has it right about jamming - there's several capital ships in the system, including a couple of Star Destroyers, and it'll probably take about ten minutes for reinforcements to arrive in the worst case scenario, once the alarm goes off, so we need to jam their transmissions in order to keep them from calling anyone."

Arin had a small pause for thinking.

Fighterwise, we are probably talking about half a squadron of TIEs, but could be more."

Turning his gaze on Sheila, Arin simply noted, "Let's talk about it a bit later, shall we - we'll need to plan this mission first."

"So a couple of stormies and some civilian crew?  Shouldn't pose a major problem.  Sounds like we might be putting too many people on the boarding crew.

Mr Allen, if you wish to fly a Cloakshape, I will try to arrange one for you.  I only make this offer as you are one of the few pilots skilled enough to have a chance to survive an engagement with a TIE and crazy enough to even try!"

"Commander, if the boarding party seems excessive then perhaps we should split it into two strike teams."  The droid regards the human stoically.  "Seizing control of two freighters at once will maximise the opportunity for seizing multiple vessels.  If the resistance is that minimal then perhaps we will be able to secure all four vessels.  If," he adds, "the intelligence we have on the likely resistance is reliable."

Flash nods easily and gives the Commander a big, and not entirely sane, grin.  "Sure thing.  What's the worst that could happen?"

Mark considers CC9's plan.  "Risky.  Not only do we have to prepare a second boarding craft we have twice the ships to defend, half the crew on each.  Yet it does double our speed as you say.  Any thoughts people?" he asks of the table at large.