Extending the Front (The Moross Crusade Dominion of Ceto)

[Judah Dashiell]

[member="Zoey Marix"] [member="Crystal"]

"Judah Dashiell" There was a slight pause. "This is my main project manager, Chalu." The Mon Calamarian nodded slightly. Judah remained fairly quiet though. He wasn't buying the entire Crusader thing, nor did he think this could come to a relatively peaceful end. There was also no need to name his business. Not yet.

"You're right, something is guaranteed to happen."

 

[Blackthorne]

Loxa smiled quietly from within her hood during the introductions, though did not follow through with handshakes like the others. Varying customs, she supposed, but she dipped her head respectfully to those who approached, uttered a greeting, and then found herself a seat to take.

The Priestess cleared her throat, "Thank you, friends, for receiving us well and quick. We of Moross have come under tides of turmoil against an enemy calling themselves The Horde. Given our proximity to this rising threat, it is our intention to secure these areas of space against their destructive ways. We do not wish to interfere with measures being taken and actions already underway, but we have come with an earnest question and offer: how can Moross help?"

 

[Malik Rodarch]

Trust me to pick out quick draw McGraw...

His whiskers twitched slightly as he watched this Sam fellow shuffle and deal how own deck out like a true Tattooine terror of the tables. This wasn't good. Turn back. Abort. Forget pride. Ha! As if.

Rather lazily, Bill dealt out his own deck. Let me guess...

+1, +1, +1, +1, +1, +1

“Eh heh heh heh heh...”

Was that the laughter of confidence or madness? The Cantrosian took a monute to consider what kind of madman would own a deck filled entirely with +1 cards?! Still, as with all card games there was always an element of luck to consider.

“Interesting how?” he said with a few tablespoons of false bravado.

[member="Sam Aellin"]

 

[Sam Aellin]

Sam watched Brill for a few seconds, he wasn't quite sure if the Cantrosian was bluffing. He would have to learn the furry creatures tell before he could do that. Slowly he looked down at his cards, staring at them for a few moments before finally nodding to himself.

“A month of pay.” The Crusader said. They did all get paid after all, a meager soldiers wage but it was something.

Before Brill could respond Same dealt out a single card to himself, a +6. He nodded and then simply waved his hand. He did not have to show what he had in his hand yet, it would be boring for the first few rounds. Pazaak always was after all.
[member="Brill"]

 

[Malik Rodarch]

His nose twitched.

A month of pay, huh? Could that be sacrificed? They weren't exactly paid a lot but it was something, it bought a cheeky beverage and a pack of smokes when one was losing the perpetual battle of quitdom. It was a sacrifice of luxury, and a month could feel like an age while on duty.

“How about two?” Brill said calmly, observing the 6 that Sam had drawn. His own turn now.

8.

Okay, okay, early beginnings.

[member="Sam Aellin"]

 

[Sam Aellin]

“How about 4?” Oh yes. He would win this.

This time Sam only drew a one. He frowned slightly, clearly he had been hoping for a larger number. Slowly he pulled one of the cards out of his hand, placing a +7 onto the table. With the addition of those two cards he now totaled fourteen, a good number but one that with bad luck could still lose him the game. Still the chance was good that he would maybe even win next round.

The chance was one in seven actually, and he liked those odds.
[member="Brill"]

 

[Malik Rodarch]

Four months?

That wager caused Brill to actually look up at Sam through those glowing green goggles. Was this a bluff? Was he insane? Suddenly he missed the yoghurt chomping fiend that had stood before him. This card shark that sat before him was not sitting well with the Cantrosian.

“Deal.”

A surprise move, as Sam pulled out the +7 card to make 14. Brill only ever used the side deck to make 21, never to get there. A furry paw drew the next car.

9.

Whisker twitch.

17 brought him awfully close to 21 but not close enough. He wasn't about to throw down 4 +1s to get to win the first game. No, that was madness. Would he stand? Brill considered his options for a moment before deciding that he would draw again next round.

[member="Sam Aellin"]

 

[Sam Aellin]

Oh the fool.

With a vigor only seen in most cartoons Sam slammed his hand down onto the deck in front of him. He drew the card and without even looking at it slammed it down onto the table in front of him. He stared at the Cantrosian for a second, deep gray eyes digging into green goggles.

“You feeling lucky?” Sam said as he lifted up the tips of his finger from the card, showing the numbers on them to Brill, but not himself. He let his palm stay there for a few minutes, staring into the Cantrosians soul. “Because I do.”

Sam removed his hand entirely, revealing a 7.

He smirked slightly, 21. He had won the first round. That was if Brill didn't get to 21 as well on his turn.
[member="Brill"]

 

[Siara Vorru]

As the response from the Freya came back Siara could do nothing but smirk to herself, surely others on this ship would be intimidated by the presence of a being they considered to be their god. No doubt the Captain of the Aurora was sweating bullets having heard the same message. For her part she was annoyed but understood, the contractor was just ensuring their investment, part of her could respect it, even if she didn’t like someone watching over her shoulder. Ultimately it didn’t matter the mission would still be completed one way or another.

Switching her comm over to internal and back to communicate with the bridge. “Well Captain, you heard him, the eyes of the gods are on us, we best get back to work. I am going to join our team of delegates over meet with the leaders of this world, I will have my earpiece in if anything critical comes up but I expect you to handle the mundane tasks without my guidance.”

“Yes commander, understood.” Replied the Captain in a rather subdued tone.

Siara couldn’t help but giggle to herself, the Captain would most certainly be on edge now. It would force him to perform that much better or fail miserably, either was fine by her, she didn’t have any particular attachment to the crew of this vessel and if he needed to be replaced this seemed like a good way to find out. They were in the relative safety of a highly populated system, no identifiable threats with backup nearby.

Leaving her office the Kiffar woman joined the rest of the team on the shuttle over to the Pathfinder-class vessel. The transit time over was short over to the other vessel and as they travelled Siara did a brief check of her blaster pistols ensuring they were set to stun so as not to make their hosts nervous @Paraiba would do a good enough job of that on his own. Her role over there would be simply support in case of a threat from one of the delegates they would be meeting with. She was certainly no diplomat, she would leave the actual discussions to those who had some experience negotiating without a blaster to the chin of the person they were negotiating with. In reality with the Horde as close as they were to Ceto the leaders of this world may as well have a blaster to their chin. No doubt that fact would be a big factor in the discussions here.

Stepping off the shuttle to be greeted by one of the CEOs of one of the major companies that operated on Ceto Siara watched [member="Crystal"] take charge. This was exactly what she wanted, she followed the team keeping an eye on all of them on their way through to a prepared conference room. She kept an eye on each of the team members watching [member="Zoey Marix"] split off to speak with one of their hosts. The Kifarr woman glanced at Paraiba signalling for him to stay with Zoey as she stayed with [member="Loxa Visl"] and Crystal.

During Crystals’ introduction Siara gave a small nod when her name came up but kept quiet otherwise. She remained standing behind Crystal waiting for Loxa to take a seat or remain standing, whatever suited her. The Kiffar mercenary would remain standing, easier to get moving if you had to.

[member="Selka Ventus"] [member="Judah Dashiell"]

 

[Malik Rodarch]

The Cantrosian almost jumped out of his skin as Sam slammed a yoghurt chomping hand down to draw his next card. This guy is wired, what the jeff was in that yoghurt? The suspense was killing, literally particles of dust and fluff were dying mid-air as they waited for the soldier to flip the card.

Brill wished he hadn't.

“Wah?!”

21.

He had to draw. He had to possess the same amount of luck. He flipped his next card.

10.

“WAH!”

So without luck on his side Brill very swiftly went bust at the grand old height of 27, allowing Sam to easily take the first round. Oh dear. Four months. Four months of pay!

“Next round is mine, buddy!”

[member="Sam Aellin"]

 

[Crystal]

[member="Selka Ventus"] [member="Judah Dashiell"] [member="Siara Vorru"] [member="Loxa Visl"] @Piraiba [member="Zoey Marix"]

Crystal looked over to Loxa as she began to speak, which had surprised her. She had figured that they would let their hosts speak first, but alas, the die had been cast. And they were cutting to the chase. And not too aggressively either, which was good. But now they would see how their presence was truly received...

 

[Sam Aellin]

Sam smiled, an evil smile that spoke volumes, that spoke of victory.

When the Cantrosian said next time Sam simply smiled, scooping up the cards in front of him and swiftly mixing them back into his deck. He nodded to himself slightly, his eyes never leaving the hands of the Cantrosian...in case he tried to cheat. He watched the cat carefully, making sure that his own deck was shuffled properly before placing it on the table in front of him.

“Losers first.” Sam said offering a wave of his arm.

Smugly he looked at his own cards, waiting for the cat to make another move. This was high stakes Pazaak, and he was going to win.
[member="Brill"]

 

[Piraiba]

Piraiba had stuck pretty close to Loxa Visl as everyone boarded the shuttle and made their way to their destination. When the party entered the conference room, Piraiba stayed back a bit and leaned against the back wall near the door they entered. Ideally he didn't need to stand too close to their hosts. Really there hopefully wouldn't need to be a reason for the Togorian to have been there at all, but he followed his orders none the less.

Granted a disciplined soldier of Moross would have stood at attention in proper dignified attire. Piraiba on the other hand leaned with a bit of a slouch and chewed on one of his claws while wearing only pants. The Togorian had no interest in moving to the heard of the group to shake hands with any of the royalty or politicians. However, when Siara motioned for him to stick with Zoey, he followed along meekly enough and stood a good ten feet away from his female comrade. Zoey Marix wasn't likely to need his protection, but he'd be nearby if needed.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Loxa Visl"] [member="Crystal"] [member="Judah Dashiell"]

"And I'm Selka Ventus, co-CEO of Silk. I'm glad to be hosting you, though frankly, the question of where your help would be most appropriate would be best answered by the leaders of Ceto. As far as Silk's end of things goes, we're a transportation, starship manufacturing, and medical supplies corporation. We can afford this sort of effort, to protect our investment, but most of these transportation ships are from our inventory; unlike some failing corporations, we don't build ships for our own use. The Connestoga container transports, for example, are from our stock. Thus far, nothing's actually happened, the ships are literally as good as new, but if this goes as anticipated and we're forced to use vessels from our inventory..." She shrugged. "That, and our crews aren't set up for this sort of thing. I recognize that this might sound mercenary under the circumstances, but buy these vessels, provide expert crews, and you can double the efficiency of the system's restructuring effort or fortify this system thoroughly. Those are my first thoughts, at any rate."

 

[Siara Vorru]

Listening to the pleasantries exchanged Siara expressed little interest, she probably didn’t have to but she watched over her people like a hawk, her senses all tuned with their protection in mind but she couldn’t help but become interested when the mention of the sale of ships came up. They weren’t here to incur that kind of cost, not as she understood the mission, so some rules needed to be set.

“We would be happy to help this system’s fortification efforts but I have no doubt we don’t really have need for the type of ships you are talking about. We could offer personnel to crew them properly during these efforts but as we are not in the business of transportation we don’t have a use for that much pure transportation vessel. We may be able to arrange some form of agreement for future contracts, as long as the relationship was mutually beneficial.”

Of course everything Siara was speaking of would have to be approved by someone much more influential then herself but she certainly saw no harm in suggesting they may be interested in future contracts, she had little doubt the Crusade needed ships and having a contract with a shipyard facility close to home would likely be something the Gods of Moross would covet. The Kiffar woman certainly intended to use some of these hard earned credits that continued to burn a hole in her pocket to use in the near future.

“I would certainly be interested to hear what the leaders of this world would wish of us and what they would offer in exchange for our assistance.” Siara looked at the delegates for the planet’s government waiting for their reply.

[member="Selka Ventus"] [member="Crystal"] [member="Judah Dashiell"] [member="Loxa Visl"]

 

[Thessa Kai]

The walls of the modest beach house on Ceto rattled and rumbled. The veteran x-wing pilot and squadron leader's ears identified the thrum of ships overhead. The very pregnant Thessa Kai Dashiell waddled off the couch and into a standing position and maneuvered herself and her unborn child outside, craning her neck skyward, at the visitors.

Blaster was strapped to her side, the large baby-bump thankfully, not getting in the way. Sparky warbled next to her. "Doesn't look like the horde. Still, I don't like it. Lets take a trip to town."

She managed to get her pregnant self into the speeder, shooting [member="Judah Dashiell"] a text before pulling out.

'You okay? Our skies just got a heck-of-a lot busier. #notaquietbeachhouseanymore.'

 

[Judah Dashiell]

[member="Siara Vorru"] [member="Selka Ventus"] [member="Crystal"] [member="Thessa Kai"]

The government officials had been quiet up until now. They had spoken with Silk Holdings at great lengths before, the evacuation procedures on the company's end and the hiring of mercenaries on the government end. All has been focused on protecting the planet in a Horde takeover. It was likely to happen, save the Horde suddenly become wiped out by some external force. War had finally encroached on the quiet area, making for unsettling times.

An older human woman finally spoke up, ready to input the governments concerns.

"My name is Sola Tanau. These are my fellow governmental associates. For obvious reasons the Royal House of Ceto cannot attend this meeting. However, I am authorized to act under the behalf of the Royal House. Our concerns are very simple and logical. By nature, Cetans do not oppose the freedom of religion or personal practices. We try to be an open people most of the time. However, your religion is closely tied with the Sith practices, is it not? The Sith have been tied to slavery, oppression and war. We do not want any of these things."

Pausing a moment, the woman continued.

"Perhaps you desire to build a base on one of the many uninhabited islands that dot the surface. No doubt a wise tactic by your people. Yet building a base will attract those who wish to do you harm. Every group had enemies. Your enemies will undoubtedly show up on our doorstep. Are you prepared to defend Ceto to the death? To see its citizens live a life without the threat of war constantly breathing down their necks? Or is the planet simply another notch in your belt? Build and outpost, send your worst troops, ignore us."

"Your intentions are very unclear."

-----

Meanwhile, comm buzzed in his pocket. Judah tore his gaze away from the proceedings and looked at the message. He supposed Thessa would notice the Moross vessels filing the sky and the frenzy of activity surrounding their arrival. No doubt some locals were running scared.

Fine. Actually not at work. Meeting up with our visitors, the Moross Crusade. Shame about the peace and quiet. Anything fun happening around there?

 

[Crystal]

The Sith Princess listened intently as [member="Selka Ventus"] spoke of how Silk typically did business, and urged the Crusade to purchase the vessels. Siara didn't seem to keen to negotiate, however. But she had an idea.

One of the government associates spoke next, on behalf of the Royal House. They were concerned that the Crusade was in the habit of using Sith practices such as slavery and oppression. It was a legitimate concern, however, that had certainly never been her style. They were also concerned that if they build on the world, it would attract those that were not desired on it.

It was then that she spoke. "Have you considered using the transports to evacuate the population? Transport them to Exocron, where they would be safe and under the protection of the Crusade. We are trying to keep our people safe, and if you are willing to work out a mutually satisfactory agreement, Your people and homes are most definitely treated and protected as our own."

[member="Judah Dashiell"] [member="Siara Vorru"] @Piraiba [member="Zoey Marix"] [member="Loxa Visl"]

 

[Judah Dashiell]

[member="Crystal"]

Sola inclinded her head, as if to think. She noted which concerns were glossed over, focusing her concerns on a few key points.

"Exocron is the fabled planet. While it had been found during the New Republic, there is still much mystery surrounding it. Evacuation has been considered in a imminent threat situation only. Many of our population are Mon Calamari with fresh knowledge of Dac being enslaved. To round them up and evacuate them would be a task one would have massive difficulty achieving. If were speaking of a group of humans then the selling may be easier."

"Besides, we have massive underwater cities. Ones that have cost millions of credits to build and refine. Generations have roots on Ceto. Homes, businesses, relationships. Merely relocating the people as if they are cattle will not work. Unless the Horde are slaughtering people in the streets then some minds may be changed. The Security Council is not quite convinced the Horde is advanced enough to penetrate our underwater seas successfully either."

"As you can see, many variables. Yet you avoid my question. Explain the Moross' real reason for stopping by our simple planet. Our intentions, beyond that of protecting civilians, may align."

 

[Malik Rodarch]

His brow furrowed, this card shark was nothing if not a cocky big bugger. It was a quality that Brill himself could appreciate but when in a situation where four months of pay was at stake he was less than receptive to the man's jibes.

“Alright, alright, hold yer banthas.”

He reshuffled his main deck with only honesty and fairness at those clawed fingertips. Perhapss there was a galaxy wide stigma about short sentient species but Brill...well, actually they were mostly true, he was a cut-price scavenger by trade, hardly the most honest profession on the market but hey, that suspicious gaze Sam was casting over him cut deep. Well, not really, but let's just say it did.

3

Now where were you two minutes ago, buddy?

“So Sam, tell me something about yourself. Something interest. Give me some intrigue. Some mystery.”

[member="Sam Aellin"]