Public Catch Me if You Can

[Olen Halcorr]

Readyroom 15, Phantom Group HQ, ANS Ouroboros

Spoiler: Readyroom

Corala Gethsverg Aeson Keel Serenity Cynthia Alucard Daz Farlander Westenra Mina Voldran Molf Dracken Pryce Republic Engineering

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The members of the elite hybrid starfighter commando group, Phantom Squadron, gathered in the unit readyroom, taking their own seats alongside dark green uniformed engineers, astromechs, protocol droids and naval officers of varying rank. Olen stepped up onto the stage, flanked by Admiral Dracken Pryce and Director Corala Gethsverg. It was almost unnerving to see so many faces look up to him expectantly. After the Battle of Bastion, through some.. manoeuvrings, the unit had been able to acquire a substantial amount of resources. That included members. The screening had been an arduous task without Max, but he'd made it through, with a few hitches in tow. Clearing his throat, he began the briefing, pressing down on a blue button which brought the screen behind him to life.

"Good to see the numbers replenished. Some familiar faces, and a few new ones. But know this, my expectations for you are all the same. You've all been selected for reasons that make you an extremely viable asset to the Galactic Alliance. Throughout these weeks, you've been training and both Admiral Pryce and Director Gethsverg are confident that you're ready for your first assignment."

A cough in the crowd from a dubious looking naval officer prompted him to get to the point. "As you are all aware, we've been assisting our Imperial allies in the fight against the Sith. The Special Threats Division of the SIA has identified pirates who've been terrorising the areas encompassing SJO, NIO and GA territory, they've dubbed themselves the Tofar Gang, after their leader, Rolyn Tofar." He switched the slide which showed a map, detailing their areas of attack.

"We have also received information that they are in league with the Sith, so we have an extra incentive in mind. The STD has produced intelligence concerning their supposed base on Gargolyn IV. We have been approved for a strike on their main base. Obviously, we'd be less incognito if we brought our GA ships, so Lieutenant Tim in Acquisitions has managed to get us some stolen Sith Imperial Interceptors, a transport and some speeder bikes." A stout looking older man beamed with pride. Acquisitions had done quite a bit for them over the years, and had been particularly benevolent with their resources, the methods used to gain them being questionable at best.

Olen quickly changed the slide. "Here's our plan of attack. Lieutenants Alucard, Keel and Mina will be in the Interceptors. You'll be our spearheads. Tim has also managed to get you some fake uniforms and identities. Cynthia, you're Lieutenant Jaina Halcoth, TIE PS-73, Aeson, you're Captain Jason Vaxter, flight leader, TIE-PS-64 and Westenra, you're Flight Officer Evey Parcs, a rookie and your callsign is TIE PS-29." He took a long pause before continuing. "I'll be leading the rest of your in transports for an assault on the stronghold. We're expecting some support from the commandos in a separate transport also."

"The Nightsade, our FarStar Carrier, will be waiting in another system with our X-Wings in tow if they initiate a space battle."

"Now, any questions?"

 

[Voldran Molf]

Rhyssa Edaara Quillan-E’ron
Ace pilot, commando, major, member of the Wraith Squadron (Phantom Group), Force disciple ​

Location: Readyroom 15, Phantom Group HQ, ANS Ouroboros
Equipment: Purple blade lightsaber | E-11 Blaster Rifle | 2x duranium Shortsword | Blaster Pistol | Gildenweave Light Armour | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | G1 OmniLink
Tag: Corala Gethsverg | Aeson Keel | Serenity | Cynthia Alucard | Daz Farlander | Westenra Mina | Dracken Pryce | Republic Engineering | Olen Halcorr

The first actual task and action with the new unit and its associated staff. She was the “new boy” on the team, although here she also saw Daz that the man is here as well. Admittedly, that didn’t help the situation either, as Rhys was the last to be placed on the team, plus she had a higher rank of officer. She knew she had been put in a place that had probably died before, and that was never the best. This way, it is always harder to fit in because they will be likened to the previous person. True, this is the case even if the other person retires.

In the military, this was just the norm, but she hoped she would be accepted soon. The red-hair woman didn’t want to be an outsider for long, making the job harder and less efficient. Rhys was not present at the action in Bastion, which she was partly glad was never pleasant when she had to fight on the opposite side of her husband, against each other. The man was also there for the fight, but he also fortunately escaped the fighting and purge ordered by the NIO. Rhys looked up as Commander began to speak.

She had already had the good fortune to get to know him earlier, as did Daz. The whole thing was started with the usual respect circles, and then the man finally got to the point. Tofar Gang, Rhys had never heard of them, but based on what Halcorr said, they seemed like a pretty dangerous company who didn’t dare to take risks. Rhys loved the challenges, so she had no problem with that, all she had to worry about was hopefully her husband’s hand wasn’t involved in the matter in some way. That would have been very unpleasant.

And yes, they were related to the Sith. She nodded that they had to go in disguise and get a suitable vehicle for that. Hoping to get a TIE hunter, it was always an exotic experience to drive such a sluggish bird after the X Wing. But unfortunately this did not happen because only three lucky ones were given this task. However, they didn’t really get any information about the actual task, only to be attacked. But then? She didn’t know what the sequel might be, what to do there, because there were so many options. So when she could find the questions to ask, she took that opportunity.

”And what is our exact job with the Tofar Gang, sir? Capture and arrest them, possibly a complete cleansing and we go there so as not to remain a survivor. Last but not least, sir, have we been able to obtain maps, radar data that you can provide so that we do not have to go in blindly? Are defense systems, military personnel and similar data available to us?” she asked.

​

 

[Westenra Mina]

Two hours prior...

It had been a horrible, horrible incident.

It was a routine feeding on Coruscant. One of the nightly ones. Westenra had targeted a gangster, with Cern waiting in her limo nearby. She had gone into his stronghold in the Underworks.

He wasn't sure what happened inside. All he heard was the explosion afterward. Westenra had screwed up. He saw her monitor in the limo flatline.

Cern, a young former racer and Westenra's favorite familiar sighed. He was always sad when this happened. It had made it somewhat difficult to get attached to her...she had died multiple times already.

He had ventured into the street where the blast had occured. Thankfully no one had been near when the stronghold erupted. But he unfortunately saw little bits and pieces of Westenra everywhere. Most were too small to use to regrow her but he saw a large chunk of her right calf.

He snatched it up, glowing red blood and all and he chucked the rest into a fire and then hauled ass to an alleyway close to the limo. The young man wiped the blood off the inside of his jacket, fetched the gamma ray lamp from it and dropped the piece of leg on the ground and shined a green light on it, wondering what the hell had gone wrong. Not like he would be able to ask the other Westenra.

The piece of flesh shuddered, breaking down into nearly liquid, molasses like tissue and began expand, and bubbling. He saw a bit of ribcage start to haphazardly form and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it as he waited for the process to complete, while he did so, a drunk man who had been partying all night with raggedy clothes and unkempt beard happened to walk up, startling Cern as he took swig from a bottle.

"Say, man you happen to see a real bright light?" He asked, slurring his words.

"Nope. Nothing like that..." Cern replied taking a drag of his cigarette. "Wassup man? What's going on with you?"

"Oh, me? Wild night of partying with Twi'Lek's..." the drunk, unkempt man slurred, then noticed the mass growing next to Cern.

"Hey what's that stuff?"

"Oh, its nothing, man, it's cool. So how late were you partying?" Cern asked, keeping the subject off the creature growing next to him.

"Oh hours, I went to the bathroom at least 007 times because of all the wine..." the drunkard slurred and laughed, though his attention again went to the growing mass next to Cern.

"Hey, that stuffs gotten bigger. You sure that ain't dangerous?"

"Oh its cool, its nothing to worry about..." Cern said dismissively.

"Well what the hell 'is' it?!" The Drunkard asked, flabbergasted.

"Oh don't worry, it ain't nothing to worry about. Its a...its a weather experiment..."

"With an exposed ribcage?" the drunkard asked as it had partly finished the skeleton.

"Sir, you 'did' have a lot to drink. Perhaps you aren't seeing what you think you are seeing..." Cern replied smoothly.

"HEEEYYYYY! I ain't 'that' drunk!" The man scoffed. "Something that is clearly horrifying is growing right next to you, you fething smartass!"

"Maybe somebody slipped something into your drink..."

The Drunkard was given pause at this. Then he gave Cern a funny look.

"You tryin' to mindfeth me, ain't you?" The Drunkard asked in suspicion

Cern took a long, calm drag from his cigarette.

"If you have to ask..." the young man trailed..."then I have already succeeded."

The Drunkard stumbled backward in surprise at the logic. Then, he hiccupped.

"What the hell were we talking about? He asked.

"Exactly..." Cern replied, satisfied.

The Drunkard burped, farted, and decided to find somewhere to relieve his bladder away from the strange, well dressed limo driver and stumbled off just as the mass at last took the shape of Westenra in her Piloting Form (See Bio), a lightly tanned athletic woman with brown hair, flesh altered to look like it wore a Bronzium Catsuit.

"Cern...something terrible has happened..." the fresh Westenra clone said sadly, realizing a previous her was dead.

Present

'Lana' had boarded the ship where Olen Halcorr had called a meeting for a mission. She listened to all the orders, still getting used to the idea she was a new Westenra and not a continuation of the other. She remembered all these people, had the emotions associated...but she herself had never met any of them personally before today.

The Android raised her hand, unnatural metallic pink eyes blinking as she stared at Olen, wondering if her emotions and desires to protect them were her own, having never asked the question before now.

"Sir..." she called out to Olen. "Beyond the strike attempt, should we expect reinforcements from the enemy. Do they have any allies that can reach and help them quickly when the attack starts? Quillan makes an excellent point...also, what if the cover gets blown early on?"

Dracken Pryce

Voldran Molf

Cynthia Alucard

Corala Gethsverg

Aeson Keel

Serenity

Republic Engineering

 

[Cynthia Alucard]

Lieutenant Cynthia "The Pixie" Alucard
Location: Readyroom 15, Phantom Group HQ, ANS Ouroboros
Actions: Attend the Meeting, Asked one question

Cyn tapped her arm with her fingers rhythmically and it provided a somewhat soothing moment for the young Pilot. She had been briefed earlier about her role in flying an Imperial Interceptor, nothing out of her skill set obviously, in fact she even relished the thought of flying another TIE craft once again. Now hearing it said out loud, the rest of the Squadron present, Cyn felt a bit different about the plan itself. Anxious? The notion was novel to her, if not forgien like the Republic uniform she had worn before, or when she sat inside an X-Wing for the first time.

A direct assault on the enemy stronghold though was something else entirely out of her skillset, the mere fact it was only going to be three TIE interceptors instead of an entire wing was bad enough. But with minimal naval support of the larger crafts would pose serious issues should they get bogged down. Even with the notion of support from a single support craft a single jump away hardly made this assault any better in her eyes.

I guess the X-Wings from the Support Ship will get a great view of our spectacular bright demise. . .

From experience she knew there would be hardly anything left of them should their end be a dramatic one when inside a TIE craft. With a mental shrug she continued to listen, her eyes drifting towards the other members here to take part of their mission, Cyn had done little with the majority of those present. Less attachments then. . . Cyn figured it was best to at least get something positive from this meeting.

Cyn was hardly one to question her superior officers, her Imperial training had made her rather strict, rather Imperial. Though here within the Alliance certain things were different and Cyn had one question; “Sir, I must ask, should this mission become untenable, who possess the final say to cut all losses?”
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| Olen Halcorr | Voldran Molf | Westenra Mina | Serenity | Corala Gethsverg | Daz Farlander | Aeson Keel |

 

[Daz Farlander]

Daz Farlander, Lieutenant, Galactic Alliance Starfighter Corps
Location: ANS Ouroboros, Phantom Group HQ, Readyroom 15
Tags: Cynthia Alucard | Olen Halcorr | Voldran Molf | Westenra Mina | Serenity | Corala Gethsverg | Aeson Keel
​

​

A new start. Great.

Daz was the new man in the group, along with Major Rhyssa. The others in Phantom Group he had not gotten to know just yet, but he was sure he'd make great acquaintances with all of them. Pretty sure at least, if they can get through this mission. It shouldn't be anything to worry about though. Daz had already gone through a dozen combat missions. And the other hundred combat missions in the flight simulator. Should be a breeze. Right?

He typed away at his datapad, collecting notes from the briefing. Tofar Gang? Never heard of them. And supposedly everybody else didn't know them either. Daz knew about the conflict with the Sith, hell, it was all anybody talked about for a while. This Tofar Gang was in league with the Sith, making them allies, and potentially dangerous enemies. That's really all Daz needed to understand for the mission but there's more.

A strike on their main base was authorized, something Daz had never done before. Lieutenants Keel, Alucard, and Mina were to be the decoy, in stolen Sith interceptors. What a genius idea. It would allow them to gather enough information about their movements and activity in the base to make pin perfect strikes on their base. No possible room for error. It would make the mission a confirmed success. Hopefully. The rest that was not in interceptors, were to wait in transports as Commander Halcorr led them to the main assault. Their X-Wings would be in another system, waiting for the go-ahead before showing up. Perfect.

Daz sighed a breath of relief after collecting his thoughts. He had nothing to worry about. Most of the people in Phantom were experienced. In and out. He relaxed in his seat, listening to the questions that were thrown at the commander, not having any questions of his own.

And boy, were they changing his feelings on the outlook on the mission.

 

[Olen Halcorr]

Readyroom 15, Phantom Group HQ, ANS Ouroboros
Voldran Molf Dracken Pryce Corala Gethsverg Daz Farlander Cynthia Alucard Westenra Mina Aeson Keel Serenity Republic Engineering

Spoiler: Music

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Olen's attempts to capture the many questions that were bombarded at him bordered on futile. Even the newbies decided they wanted to pitch in their concerns which was quite interesting. It would have quite paid to have his trusty second in command, Max Darksun to help alleviate some of the pressure, but he'd left to find himself on a journey in which Olen had wished him godspeed. In a way, it felt easier to see someone off from the door than the funeral pyre.

He turned to the red-haired new recruit to the unit, Rhyssa Edaara Quillian. He'd been quite open to having those with more service on the Squadron. It meant that he'd have experience, and someone to talk to within the starfighter unit, which was always a good sign. "Good question Major, our official objective is to capture Rolyn Tofar and to steal any information they may have on Sith-Imperial movements. But, if they shoot at you, you shoot them back, that's generally how these things work isn't it?" He explained, giving a cheeky grin at his joke.

"And to answer your second question, if you'll all look under your chairs, you'll find a datapad with images and an in depth analysis of the base carefully provided to us by our friends in the Special Threats Division of the SIA, we'll also have a team of commandos and marines to maintain our position and take the base while our fighters arrive." He gave a cursory nod to Corala Gethsverg , to acknowledge her unit's part in providing intel.

Next in the inquisition was Westenra Mina, a trusted pilot who'd fought in his old command, Twin Suns Squadron. "This should be in the datapad, but their base is located on Gargolyn Iv, where we'll be fighting. This planet is in the more neutral crossroads located between GA, SJO and NIO territory. If the Sith were to reinforce them, then they'd be far away from potential reinforcements, but we have to be ready for anything."

Her last question had admittedly be something he'd been pondering on himself when making the plan, he'd decided a solution to it, but it was now coming into question. "If cover is blown, which it shouldn't be, you'll need to contact us as soon as possible, eject and find your way towards our position. They'll be quite a bit of communication between you guys as you are essentially going under cover."

The last one to ask was Cynthia Alucard. Olen waited as the silver blonde haired woman aired her own concerns to the plan. She was someone who's commando training he'd witnessed during the Battle for Brentaal when he'd watched her take out creature after creature, and he made sure he had signed her up as soon as he could, knowing that her skills would prove invaluable to the unit.

"As I've said Lieutenant Alucard, we'll maintain full contact with Starfighter Command, but I am not yet in the proper position to say." He momentarily turned to Dracken Pryce for some assistance, before turning away having batted away the last of the inquires.

"Also some announcements. Firstly, Starfighter Command has identified the issue with our standard orange flight suits and flight gear for ground combat. So we have been issued new ones."

Olen hit a button on the remote to turn on the large screen behind him. It flashed to life, showing an image of the flight suit. It shared similarities design wise with their current suits with some key differences. They were green instead of the standard orange with a much smaller life support box and black flank panels. An armband adorned the shoulder joint, packed with tibanna gas cartridges. A utility belt was worn around the waist with a holster for a blaster.

Spoiler: New uniforms, green

Feeling quite content with the uniforms, he turned back to the crowd, ready to address them once more. "You can collect these with your desired accessories at the squadron lockers. I want everyone suited up and in the hangar bay ready for a last debriefing within the hour. May the Force be with all of you, you have orders." He acknowledged, reciting the old Jedi mantra which he'd picked up during his service with the Force users. A curt salute and he headed off the stage and to collect his own things as everyone began to disassemble.

 

[Voldran Molf]

Rhyssa Edaara Quillan-E’ron
Ace pilot, commando, major, member of the Wraith Squadron (Phantom Group), Force disciple ​

Location: Readyroom 15, Phantom Group HQ, ANS Ouroboros
Equipment: Purple blade lightsaber | E-11 Blaster Rifle | 2x duranium Shortsword | Blaster Pistol | Gildenweave Light Armour | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | G1 OmniLink
Tag: Corala Gethsverg | Aeson Keel | Serenity | Cynthia Alucard | Daz Farlander | Westenra Mina | Dracken Pryce | Republic Engineering | Olen Halcorr

To tell you the truth, the additional questions the others asked were also great. At least that's what Rhys thought. And soon all the questions asked were answered. Luckily for her questions too, that’s why she was happy. It was always positive not to have to go blindly on a mission. That is why she took out the said datapad. To her heart, she would have looked at the data on it right now, but she knew the decency not to do it at the briefing. She had to wait until they were done.

And patience was never really her strength. She was much more impulsive than that, except when she had to fly with the birds. If she could sit on the fighter, she could be infinitely patient, but only there. She smiled at that thought for a moment. Then Rhys quickly redirected her thoughts back to where they needed to be. Here at the briefing. What she regretted a bit was that she didn’t have more time to get to know the others, but had to jump into the mission right away. Everything went much easier if she could have gone to the task with a well-known company.

But nothing can be perfect, especially not in such a field. She already knew two people, she talked to them on her first day here. The Commander was among them, who soon released them after even announcing the new uniforms. When he said goodbye, Rhys also saluted, and then went straight from the briefer to the locker rooms so that she, too, would receive the uniform. Since they still had roughly an hour, she quickly changed clothes and then spent most of her time reviewing the data on the datapad carefully and thoroughly.

In addition to these, she also retrieved all possible information about the enemy group that was only available with her rank. She was also fond of the improvisation, she had no problem with it, but she also loved to know the enemy. After she’ll probably spend an hour reading and reviewing the data - and probably even have little time for everything - she’ll go to the specified location with the datapad to join the others.

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