Juragga almost commented about "the end of misery" merely being the beginning - but he was too taken aback by the crushing grip to say so.

"Rmmmph," he commented.  Strong for a little guy.

Rhijans' frown deepened.  The man's assessment of the situation fit uncomfortably well with suspicions that had been brewing in his own mind...the fact that so many missions had gone awry so quickly, combined with the fact that there were only a few individuals who could have known enough about ALL the compromised missions, left a lingering cloud of suspicion over Kourene and his staff.

And the Colonel doesn't make any sense...if he was going to sell us out, he could just sell out the base, or assign people missions that took them directly into the line of fire, instead of having unexpected Imperial forces turn up...

He glanced over at Shard, and his expression was dour as he tried to catch her eye.  They needed to talk...and it would have to be someplace secluded, where they didn't have to worry about someone eavesdropping, either personally or by accessing the surveillance gear on the base.  He had some vague notions of a plan...but, like the one with Haarmon, it was a plan that couldn't be run solo.  At least, not effectively.

This is sounding worse and worse.  Either it's the Colonel himself - always possible - or it's someone on his staff, and he's going to have a hard time accepting that.  His people are, no doubt, hand-picked and fully trusted.  That one of them might betray him would be nigh-impossible to consider.

Alternately, it was a sleeper on the mission...but then that runs into the issue of timing - how would they get the word out so quickly - and the risks for the sleeper, themselves.  Would the Imperials kill a valuable sleeper just to damage one raid?

Maybe, Shard admits, if the commander were incompetent.

Rhijan's glance doesn't go unnoticed.  She gives a slow nod in reply.  "Listen, anything else you need a hand with here?" Shard inquires of the crewman.  "If not, we should check and see if there are other problems."  She grimaces.  "Seems we're up to our eyeballs in them right now..."

With Barsh out of the room, Haarmon and Juragga are left to consider the apparent failure of their plan to draw out the traitor, instead getting themselves involved in a plot from some sort of romance novel... 

The tech shakes his head, "I think I'm going to be up here for a while, there's a fair bit of damage to check over.  If you've got other things to do, Arthree and me can probably manage.  If I need help getting down, there's plenty of other people about."

He raises his hand in salute to Rhijans, "Thanks for the help."

Haarmon thought a moment. "What was with that handshake, huh? You think maybe he's got a robot hand? Or maybe he's secretly a droid or something? Either way, you wanna go find whasserface? Or should we hang out here and see if maybe anyone else comes by?"

Rhijans waved back in response to the salute.  He had no formal rank, therefore the salute was a courtesy that made little difference to him, aside from being an acknowledgement of his efforts.  Looking at Shard, he jerked his head in the direction of the blast-doors they'd come through, which were finally open again.

As they walked, he said, casually, "The more we dig, the higher this infiltrator seems to be posted here.  Starting to think we're looking for someone close to the top...."  His voice was low, and his lips moved just enough to enunciate the words.

"Not all the way to Kourene...that doesn't make any more sense than it being some no-name grunt.  But someone who's been in on all the mission planning.  Beginning to think the only reason we got in and out as cleanly as we did is because we don't settle on formalized plans beyond about three steps into the mission...so there was nothing concrete to report on us.  But too many others got hit too strongly for it all to be accidental."

"Why do you get the thanks?" Shard grumbles, following Rhijans.  It's half-hearted, though, more reflexive than anything else, and she listens intently as the bounty-hunter outlines his suspicions.  She can't help but laugh at his conclusions; not that they're incorrect, mind, but the picture they paint is an amusing one.

"So, our lack of serious planning actually has an upside?"  Shard shakes her head.  "Another benefit to 'flexibility', I suppose.  But I agree.  We're dealing with someone high up, but not so high as the colonel." She purses her lips in distaste.  "I hope.  There's always the possibility it is the colonel, and he's playing a long game.  Maybe hoping to attract all the Rebels in the sector, to more easily break the Rebellion's back hereabouts."

She rubbed her temples.  "It's at times like this I wish I'd learned more.  But that's out, so we have to do this the hard way.  I suppose our first choice is to break into people's records.  Comm records will be the obvious things - Haarmon can check those, but I'm betting he won't find anything.  Anyone doing this is going to have a separate system or method for dropping the information to the Empire.  Someone in our top group, with a secondary transmitter hidden somewhere?  Or a second person, our level, who gets the information from the high-level traitor and then takes it out to a drop when they go on missions?  That might be hard to coordinate, and might account for some missions being successful while others aren't."

Juragga shook his head.  Warbling, he added, no, he wasn't that strong; just overly enthusiastic.  He didn't suspect high-gravity upbringing or bionics.  Just taken aback.

"Graaauuurrrrh," he added.  I said I'd go talk to her; so I better do that.

In a quiet corner, just outside the hangar, Shard and Rhijans pause for a  discussion regarding the current situation and the apparent leak of information to the Imperials.  They draw a few curious glances from passers-by, but npbody seems inclined to stop and interrupt their obviously important conversation...

Meanwhile Juragga and Haarmon set off in search of Kedra.  It doesn't take them long to find her, she's still working in the reactor chamber.  They can see her lower half sticking out from under a control panel, and hear her muffled voice as they approach nearer to her.

"... stupid, nerf herding farkled sleemo.  There's always one kriffing piece of dwang that's got to krong everything up... "  Her words are drowned out by a sudden pounding sound, metal on metal, from somewhere around the same location as her head...

"My guess would be either a concealed transmitter or someone with enough clout to arrange some time in the Comm section, alone."  There was a very real possibility that it was two people, but that would be twice as many people to sneak in, and the more people involved in a secret, the harder it became to keep.

"Another option might be to have Dak look for any information about relatives of any of the command staff having recently run afoul of Imperial officials.  I'm not sure how deep he'd have to dig for that, though, and I'm not even sure he could do the necessary digging from here."  He shrugged.

"If we're gonna do any looking, you're going to have to ask him.  If I ask, and we're seen talking to each other, it compromises his 'fed up with the Alliance' gambit and puts him in some really iffy terrain."

Shard purses her lips.  "Anyone using the comm would leave records.  They might wipe them, but I'm betting that would show as well, unless they're better experts than Haarmon."  Given the kind of things Haarmon has pulled off, she figures no.  Hopefully.

And, as always, Rhijans' analysis of the situation makes perfect sense.  "Relatives, right.  That leaves me to go talk to Haarmon about this," she muses.  "I haven't spoken to him yet, and it'd be a little strange if I didn't anyway.  Maybe we can have a good old-fashioned yelling bout at the end of it."

She rubs her forehead. "People seem to expect that of me, anyway."

Rhijans quirked an eyebrow in response.  "Really?  You haven't struck me as the 'shouting match' type..."  He wasn't sure what to call her personality.  Fatalistic?  Resigned?  Something along those lines, but they didn't quite catch the nuances...

"I do think people would expect you to talk to him, though, especially after talking this much with me out in public."  Rhijans was well aware of his tight-lipped image...  "You haven't had to play peacemaker with any of us, yet, but you've got that kind of presence about you."

"No, I'm not the shouting match type." Shard sighs. "While I appreciate the effort, if you go by reptuation I'm more of the 'drunken bitch'."  There's been precious little of the former in her life of late, a fact for which she feels a small modicum of pride.  However, it does bring out the latter a little more; pride, certainly, but crankiness comes with it as well.  And after all that heat, I could sure use a drink.

Shard's head droops for a moment in disappointment, her sweat-stringy black hair hainging around her face.  Water it is.

Hot.  Void.

She shoots a sidelong glance at Rhijans.  "You people are my team."  There's a hint of possessiveness in her tone. "Cursed straight I'll be a peacemaker if there needs to be one, and people ought to get that much at least."  She glances away as they walk, her jaw tight.  "I've been on a lot of teams over the years."  It's probably very different for Rhijans, and she wonders just how long he has worked alone.  "They're all gone.  This is a good one, good people.  Not just at getting the job done, but you all...I'm not letting any cursed traitor bring us down."

She'll use the murder-stick on whoever it is, if need be.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:25, Mon 09 Dec 2013.

"Rhijans Thanus!" the junior officer spots them from the far end of the corridor and calls out to Rhijans as he hurries towards the pair.  "Rhijan's Thanus.  And Shard too.  Glad I found the two of you.  Colonel Kourene wants to see you and the rest of your team in his office as soon as possible."

He stops close to Rhijans and Shard and adds, in a voice that's several hundred decibels quieter, "He said to tell you there is a ship on its way in right now that will be able to take you on your next mission.  The one he discussed with you, in private, earlier."

Haarmon kind of stands and looks from Kedra to Juragga. "So. How you wanna play this? Just step up with some smooth Wookie gosh you're hairy wanna come hang out in my tree fort kinda thing? Or maybe the direct route?"

"WuuUUUHHHrrrr!" Juragga replied.

Few beings understand subtlety like a Wookiee.

He hooted at Kedra and waved as they approached.

Rhijans nodded.  "I'll go talk to the Colonel...he's probably not going to tell us much of anything further until we're all there, but I can let him know the rest of the team is on its way.  Can you round up Haarmon and Juragga...and ask Haarmon about the stuff we discussed?"  Best to keep playing up the whole 'Shard as the peacemaker in the party' thing, for now...if the Colonel doesn't have his spy hunted down by the time we get back, we can leave the door open for the kid to keep his ploy running and see if anyone rises to the bait...

"I can bring Kourene up to speed on the other stuff..."

Shard shoots a quick look at Rhijans as the JO jogs up.  Void.  Perfect timing, of course.  Another mission, now?

"Fair enough," she replies to Rhijans.  "I don't know if I can get Haarmon to come, but we'll see.  Maybe he's not quite that honked off as he looks, or maybe I can appeal to his patriotism.  Or something." Play it up, Shard.  This one could be the traitor.

Ugly, ugly thoughts.  Now she's suspecting everyone and anyone but her own group. "Tell the colonel we'll be there," she tosses over shoulder, walking quickly away. And watch your back, Rhijans.

He doesn't need the advice, but she thinks it anyway.

Rhijans nodded an acknowledgement with a thin, barely-there smile...one that Shard would have seen in situations where there was nothing humorous to be smiling at...more of a 'smile in the face of danger' expression.

He turned to the officer that had brought them the message.  "Colonel in his office?" he asked.  It was possible that Kourene had taken the whole 'we've got a mole in our midst' thing seriously enough that he wanted to meet somewhere other than his office--just in case the spy had managed to place surveillance gear to monitor what was said there.

Kedra slides out from under the panel and sits up, smiling, as she sees Juragga and Haarmon.  "Hello.  What are you two doing here?" she asks cheerfully, all the anger which had been in her voice a moment ago faded to nothing.  "Did they send you down to help or something?"

She pushes herself to her feet and leans back against the edge of the panel, careful to avoid sitting on the controls, "Not that it isn't good to see you, but not many people come down here, so I'm curious."

"Yes, Colonel's office, as soon as possible." the office replies, then raises a datapad.  He taps at it once, producing a quite chirp, then checks the next entry on what looks to be an extensive list before turning to leave.  He nods to Shard and moves off.

Rhijans sets off for the Colonel's office, close to the briefing room, leaving Shard to find Haarmon and Juragga...

Off marches Shard, in search of Juragga and Haarmon.  The obvious choice is, of course, their quarters.  Which puts her at least close enough to her OWN quarters to change, possibly shower...

...no.  There's no time, of course there's no time, why would there be now, there never has been before, void, it's always the case...

Grumbling under her breath, the soot-smeared, char-scented, and sweaty Shard strides down the hall with a determined expression on her sharp-planed features.  May the Force help anyone who gets in her way; it sure hasn't done her a lot of good.

Rhijans was getting familiar with the path leading to Kourene's office, and it didn't take him long to get there.  He paused outside the door, taking a moment to knock.

Even if the door was open, one does not barge in on the commanding officer.  Rhijans had never been part of a regular military unit...his time in the Alliance was the extent of his military history.  But he understood, a CO deserved a certain amount of respect...even if you didn't respect the man, you had to respect the position.  In this case, he had some degree of respect for the man, as well...

Haarmon stood off to the side as Kedra pulled herself up from what she was doing. "Uh, no. Um. We didn't come down here to see you."

No. That wasn't right.

"I mean. We came to see you, but we didn't come down because we wanted to."

No. No. That wasn't right either.

He took a breath. "We came down to ask what kind of present you want."

That was even worse somehow...

He looked up at Juragga, his eyes pleading.

Juragga opened his mouth to talk and then shut it again as Haarmon jumped in.

Shaking his head, the Wookiee gently interceded before his friend completely ruined things.  In a low warble, he spoke eloquently in his own language, slipping into a formal clan-speak, knowing that Haarmon could at least translate it for him.

For those of us who have lost our families, who are far from home, who have no one else... we have become like family unto one another.  And as new friends, and future packmates, we have come on behalf of one who vies for the honor of your companionship.  He only need know what your heart desires as a gift, that he may provide it.  This we ask for him, and for you.

Kedra nods slowly as Haarmon tries to explain the reason for their visit.  As he finishes speaking, she looks as if she can't make up her mind whether to laugh, cry, or ask "What?"  In the end she settles for the latter, and then her attention is drawn by Juragga's uncharacteristically long speech,  She has no idea what it means, but it sounds important.

Haarmon translates for her.  "I see.  That was really nice Juragga."  She frowns, before saying, "It's Barsh, isn't it?  He would know the old traditions.  So he sent you to find out what it would take for him to make an acceptable, formal approach?"

The tech starts to pace, muttering and shaking her head, "It's hard.  Most of the things I'd like are too expensive for a first gift."  Then she stops, "Nlorna flower perfume!  That's what I want.  But he has to get it himself.  No sending somebody else to do it.  I mean it's easy enough to find, but he needs to make the effort himself."

Shard finds her way to Haarmon's quarters, but finds nobody home.  So next stop is probably Juragga's place...

Rhijans finds Kourene's door is actually open.  The Colonel beckons him into the office.  "Can I assume that the rest of your team are on their way?  We can wait until they get here, save me repeating myself."