Private From the foundation to the pinnacle

[Gir Quee]

An Upper City level, Taris

Gir descended down the ramp of the Shyyyo-class Combat Transport and onto the landing pad. Cool air rushed up from the underlevels to whip around them, tugging at his newly washed trench coat, causing it to peel back to reveal the freshly pressed uniform of the admiral to those around him. Aside from A AvRe , only Sariya and a handful of Antarian Shock Marines were present on the landing pad itself to see their arrival. He briefly paused to look around the world - it had probably been a decade since he had last set foot on the world, and it had been very different then. Even now, he could see faint signs of the past battles on the buildings around him, but it took a discerning eye and concentration to see where duracrete had been poured in to fill chunks taken out by blaster bolts and where metal railings had replacement sections welded back on. Funny on how something so dilapidated can spring back to life so easily...

He turned his eyes to Avery, "Welcome to Taris. If you haven't been here before, it's almost like a worse version of Coruscant."

He was only half serious about that remark. The admiral gestured to the massive edifice of duracrete and mirrsteel in front of them - a clamshell tower design that seemed to replicate itself with minor variations all around them.

"This is the local defense force armory. I wasn't able to get ahold of Fentan once we were in orbit, but he's probably busy trying to play whack a mole with some problem. There's always something going on here, whether it's some underworld racket getting out of control in the under levels or intrigue going on up here in the lower levels. Want to take a tour of the place, or get acquainted with your new quarters first?"

 

[AvRe]

The thud of metal against metal rang out to the world as Avery made clear and concise steps down the ramp, approaching the Admiral from the side. With his hands behind his back, he looked towards the tower Gir had gestured to. Yes, this was Taris alright.

The sun hit the black leather, its color shining like a blackhole. With the sun glinting off the lenses of Avery's mask, he turned his gaze to the marines. They were rather stationary, holding themselves with uncanny stillness. Not even Avery could manage that. It was impressive, very impressive. If he hadn't known better, he'd assumed they were droids. Wait...

He gave them another once over. He sighed, heavily. They were droids. Not the ordinary type of droid seen around but droids nonetheless.

He turned towards Gir. "It's good to hear that Trossk hasn't become idle, he never was one for seating around. As for where to head next, a think a tour would be great." his voice shined like the new cybernetics and stitched clothing. The once washed up commander was now twice as intimidating in his past life

Gir Quee

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir nodded A AvRe . The trip did him some good - maybe it was some time away from drinking one's sorrows or maybe it was the repairs. The man from Hast shrugged the thoughts away as he started forward with Avery and Sariya. The cool wind continued to blow across his face, giving it a chill that made him welcome the indoors despite having been trapped inside a starship for over a week. The pair of doors in front of them whisked open to reveal a pair of dour, gray-clad soldiers toting what appeared to oversized blasters. He glanced at their insignia, but didn't recognize any of it save for the Taris Defense Force logo, which he previously seen on Fentan's uniform. The first one, a short and swarthy man, offered a salute to the trio along with a subdued smile.

"I am Lieutenant Skell and this is Sergeant Ige, welcome to Taris. I regret that my commander currently isn't available, but he will be present as soon as possible. Come on in."

The trio entered through the thick blast doors and almost immediately found themselves in a large, industrial bay. A variety of airspeeders, transports, and even a few starfighters sat on the ferrocrete surface or hung suspended from durasteel girders. Some seemed in great condition, ready for immediate use, but far more seemed to be taken half apart - hardly combat ready. Noticing the blonde man's interest, Skell cleared his throat.

"Our main repair hangar," explained the lieutenant, "most of our vehicles are spread across the planet in small micro-hangars to ensure that we can have a fast response to any situation on the world...at least by some of us. But most of them don't have the requisite facilities to do any real indepth repairs or servicing. It wasn't particularly our intent to show you this...but it just happened to be where traffic control directed you to land."

The admiral turned to the cyborg, "Do you do any flying yourself? You don't strike me as the type to do a lot of flying unless you have to."

 

[AvRe]

"Flying?" Avery made a brief glance towards the Admiral. "No, not me. I did have a personal fighter early on, but that never lasted. For the most part, my captain, William Tacer was the one doing aerial combat."

Avery surveyed the hangar with deadly precision. It was well-kept, especially given the planet's military status. Fentan had certainly been doing a good job to keep it all together. He'd always been good at that, he served as a quartermaster for a brief time in Avery's militia. Still, the old commander could see that his skills had obviously increased far more since they last met. From a small squadron of troopers to an entire planet. Avery could only imagine the pressure on the man.

Turning to Lieutenant Skell, Avery said, "Tell me, Lieutenant, what shape is the stationed army in? I can't imagine it's doing well, Taris has never been a kind world."

Looking back to the ships, he looked them up and down. Doing a bit of reading on the Concord, Avery knew their ships came from a variety of paces but these ones seemed different in a way. He couldn't quite place his finger on it.

Come to think of it, Taris itself was strange. A military presence, a Hangar? While the commander didn't know too much about the planet, he did know how violent it had been since its bombing during the old republic. If there had been other invasions, they obviously hadn't worked. he could see that in the architecture.

Gir Quee

 

[Gir Quee]

Skell hesitated, and quickly looked around. Gir's eyes followed the other man's gaze. This is clearly something he doesn't want to talk about...at least no in public. Mute point anyways given who's here...The admiral cleared his throat, sparing a brief glance A AvRe .

"Taris has seen hard times, much as it has for millenia, following the cycles of growth and destruction," started the admiral, "recent years...have been more on the destructive side. The mandalorians in particular have ravage the world a little over a decade ago, left, came back again, and then got invaded by the reborn Confederacy of Independent Systems. There have been other battles on the world of course, lesser ones, but still devastating, as well as the occasional resurgence of the rakghouls on the lower levels. Additionally, there's typically some underworld activity going on that frequently draws in security or defense forces involvement."

Skell sighed, "It seems nigh impossible to truly build up a standardized force of exceptional ability given the circumstances. Every time we almost get there, something hits us, and we have to start rebuilding again. But this is the longest we've been at peace for some while...I'm using the word loosely, of course."

"Lots of minor 'policing' action?"

"They can all wear us down though, just by attrition. Colonel Fenton's been hard at trying to fix that though, trying to only deploy us when he really thinks we need to, a lot of time just sending in disposable battle droids if he can, and even calling on Admiral Quee here for reinforcements."

Gir nodded, "My fleet roves the northern reaches of the Concord space. I can usually send some of those Antarian Shock Marines you saw earlier or other ground forces attached to my ships."

"It has been a godsend too...but..."

"It's not really where you all should be."

"No. Colonel Fenton has ideas...but...thinking of something, and doing something can be quite different sometimes."

 

[AvRe]

Propping his arm on the other, Avery put his fist to his mouth. This deeply concerned the cyborg. They're doing the best they can, these men especially.

Weak~

It was a sad sight, the planet. One could only imagine how difficult it was to keep the thing safe and under control, he wondered if it was worth it to keep the planet at all. They didn't have to have a ground presence, Avery had seen many factions who controlled a planet in name alone. Of course, if they didn't try at all, the planet would descend into chaos. Then he remembered who the concord were. The Silver Jedi would never abandon a planet, they just didn't do that. There he went again, thinking like an imperial.

"I visited Taris a few years ago," he stated, "while I didn't see the majority of the planet, only the upper levels, even I could see how bad it was. The people here suffer greatly, barely hanging on, if at all. The fact that the military never gets a chance to establish itself is even worse."

He looked over the hangar again, "One of my fondest memories of this planet was a run-in with a family, it was after a job, we were badly wounded. They took us in, helped us. They had this little girl..." Avery cut himself off. This was no time to talk about that.

Something hit Avery at the moment, something he should've seen sooner. Taris was a large planet, it had many people even after its many invasions. How were they not forming an army with so many viable recruits?

Turning back to Skell, he asked, "Where do the majority of your troopers come from? Are they off-world?"

Gir Quee

 

[Gir Quee]

Skell briefly held his tongue.

"We get a lot from the lower levels, especially with the reforms that Fenton has brought in - really necessary. Ideally, we wish we could recruit the cream of the crop, or what we could call it here...I know it's not like many other worlds. A lot of people were already conscripted by the Mandalorians or the Sith Empire - and moved on or died fighting one of them or the Confederacy. So our recruiting options are somewhat limited. Fenton started to loosen some of the regs to let the lower levels in - things like waivers and/or pardons for minor crimes - assuming they successfully complete an enlistment term."

Gir raised an eyebrow, "He's thought about raising a penal troop as well, something almost unheard of within the Concord."

"Taris has many tough individuals," started the lieutenant, "many who already have combat skills and are willing with the right motiviation....they just don't meet many of the Concord's member state's requirements."

"Every world is different," admitted the admiral, turning towards A AvRe , "it hardly makes sense to apply the Hapes Consortiums or the Wookiee's recruitment procedures here. Though I would agree that they...ah...must be locally determined based on circumstances. I think that's part of the reason why Fenton thought of you."

The admiral now hesitated.

"Taris has many problems - you know that having been here before, and even now with just a cursory history of the place. But it has many people, and with that many opportunities for the right person. Fenton thinks it's you - you're the commander - I hope he's right."

Skell blinked as he turned to the cyborg, "You're becoming an officer? You must have experience of training these sort of...soldiers then..."

 

[AvRe]

Avery turned towards the lieutenant, looking deeply into him, uncomfortably so. "Yes, I am to be taking charge of the situation here, or so I am led to believe. Don't worry, I'm not as hard as I look."

Pacing back and forth, his gaze was transfixed on the floor. A dangerous planet full of primarily criminals, it was not a good situation at all, not at face value. Still, criminals could have their uses. A penal force? What an intriguing idea, I can see why Fentan would advocate for that. It's desperate yes, but something to consider.

"This is deeply concerning, especially given how long you've all been here. If we did recruit from the lower levels, then we must expect the violence to come with it. I would never force the concord to allow dangerous individuals into its fold but the way it's shaping up, that might be our only choice here."

Avery turned to Gir Quee , his superior. "If you allowed me, I could pull together a rather efficient of these people. We'd have to provide them with benefits, ones they'd truly want. After that, I could perform a cleansing of sorts on the planet. I feel that in the following months we'd have to allow a certain level of freedom to the people, only for a little bit, lessen taxation and the like. In those months, the planet might be given a chance to resurge financially."

Avery tapped his foot on the floor. "The galaxy has fallen on hard times, century-old empires have fallen, threats from the void of space are encroaching ever closer it feels. We cannot afford to pick and choose who serves under us, we must take what we can get, and if the only thing we can get is a planet of criminals and convicts then we'll turn them into an army as worthy as Vader's fist."

There was an inspirational tone in his voice, his head turned to the ceiling as if looking into heavenly bodies themselves. This would be his test, for himself, for the people of Taris.

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir almost felt frightened by A AvRe 's words, particularly the cleansing part. Yet that was balanced in a large part by the man's ambition and capability to actually put some order onto the world. Having read Fenton's reports long enough over the months and after meeting him in person, Gir could understand the appeal of Regailis to the other man. We just have to careful not to create too much of a monster...

"My involvement, should I say power, on Taris itself is fairly limited," started the admiral, "I can provide federal support and influence for certain initiatives, and separate to that, I can put some of the resources of the Lucerne consortium at your service as well, but to make the sort of moves that I think you're thinking about, you'll need to talk Fenton. We should probably continue this talk in a more...private setting. Lieutenant, can you take us to the command suite. Preferably by yourself."

Skell briefly looked at the sergeant and offered a dismissive nod. Well, the scuttlebutt is going to start traveling down the ranks now...The quartet proceeded forward, passing by more vehicles and starships undergoing maintenance before they reached a turbolift, whose doors promptly slid open for them. Skell inserted his ID card into the control terminal and entered in a few commands. The lift quickly descended, passing by at least a hundred floors before it finally came to a gradual halt. The doors whisked open to reveal a rather darkly lit but very clearly recently rebuilt section of the tower.

Skell offered a brief prefunctionary smile as he led them down the main corridor, "It may not seem it, but we're well below much of the city, safer from discovery. It used to be a sewage treatment plant - it's still listed that way on the blueprints everywhere actually - but he just rebuilt it into our command bunker. The walls on every side are dozens of meters thick of ferrocarbon reinforced duracrete. It's probably one of the most secure places on the world...but some of the internal work isn't quite done yet..."

Gir held up a hand to briefly cut off other man's commentary, "Is there anyone else here right now? Any droids or surveillance?"

"Well...no."

"Thank you Lieutenant. You're dismissed," said the blonde man abruptly.

Skell blinked, offered a weak smile, and scuttled away to the lift. The doors shut. Seems a good man, but a little too weak. Probably not bad for a liaison officers to most VIPs, but not the make of someone suited for high command. The man turned to his echani bodyguard.

"Sariya, if you'll wait by the lift please. I imagine that a certain lieutenant colonel will be joining us soon. But I'd rather not be accidentally disturbed by anyone else."

"You got it boss."

Now alone, the admiral turned to Avery.

"Some things are better said off the record," started the man from Hast, "the hard things that the public and our enemies shouldn't hear. Some things that even are friends shouldn't know, for their own health. I see why Fenton was so keen to bring you on. I am hopeful as well...what exact measures you want to take, I'm not even sure if I want to know myself, but that's something to work with Fenton on. He has the ear of the influential local politicians - they've been happy so far with what he's managed to accomplish, as little as it may seem right now. If you can make things even better, and help them survive the upcoming conflicts...well...the more you prove yourself and your methods, the more liberty and free reign you will probably get. As I understand it, Fenton isn't interested in actually being the commander in charge, despite the amount of influence he's managed to garnish around the planet. I think he'll gladly became your capable right hand man...but these are local affairs, and I am not a local.

My question to you is what do I need to know, as your likely federal ally in the case of the invasion? What can I do to make your job easier?"

 

[AvRe]

Avery turned his eyes to the floor, then back to Gir. "Before I begin, I want to apologize for what I said up there. I can become... over-zealous when given a task." He offered the other man a quaint bow.

With that out of the way, Avery started up his pacing again, with the added stroking of his chin. "Taris is a shelled planet, what I mean is, It's protected far better than most other planets. It's level after level, invasion is damn near impossible to fully complete. I think the foremost level should be primarily military, with it becoming more civil as you go down. I will work on that."

He turned to the Admiral. "You mentioned earlier that you could provide resources. I assume you mean ships, weapons, that kind of thing. If so, those would be invaluable. I won't ask for more than is necessary, although that may be a lot. What I think could truly help is a small stand-by army of those droids, in case things become desperate."

"Taris is on the doorstep of the New Imperial Order, while I'm not fully acquainted with the concord's relationship with them, it bothers me nonetheless. If you could, I need a few reports on them, military, navy, what they have at their disposal. Scratch that, I'll data on all of our enemies, at least the ones willing to attack Taris."

He walked closer to the Admiral. "I'm not going to lie to you or understate the things I'll have to do, what I'll have your forces do. It's going to be bloody Gir," He paused, having just blurted the man's first name, "I fully expect people to die, It won't be something the concord, let alone the Silver Jedi, approves of. What I really need from you, and I say this with the utmost respect, is for you and others to leave the planet to me."

He realized how insane what he was asking for sounded, it was insane. He was quite literally asking this man to put everything on him, betting all on black, it was risky, ignorant, and it had the potential for tragedy. But autonomy was where Avery worked best, although this was up to Gir Quee .

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir listend to A AvRe carefully. It was amazing how open people could be if you truly listened to them - but perhaps most of all, being this open gave the admiral much more respect for Regailis. He could already tell that the man had truly been involved in some fierce fighting at some point just by the views expressed. He could barely remember the naivety and moral innocence of which the other man spoke - the days he had been a fresh lieutenant right of the Academy.

War changed that mindset, just as it had sculpted much of the galaxy's peoples and planets for the worse.

"I will do what I can to support you," said the admiral, "I'll have my aide send you a catalogue from Lucerne Labs and Lucerne Personal Defense and she can work out the finer details about your needs. We can even design and build something to your product specifications if we don't have it alreayd, or help tool some local production as well.

You're not wrong in that Taris is on the front lines with a potential war with the New Imperial Order, and I'd be foolish not to give you the best fighting chance with equipment, intelligence, and other support that I can provide...not least so that you might one day have the potential to help protect other planets within the Concord if it comes down to it.

I am no Jedi - you will find that despite the Concord's name, and the esteem of which jedi are held within it, a fair amount of us can be more flexible in our moral values when it comes to simple survival - that is how one can ultimately survive, after all.

You speak of a small army of droids. That can be easily done - I can fairly easily reroute a federal unit of them on my fleet and transfer them permanently to you, but I should also let you know that we can transfer some organic troops from other worlds if need be. As much as the Concord has come to like droids because they are so disposable and not wasteful of life, and dare I say with it, potential political problems, there is a time when flesh cannot simply be replaced, as much as we may try.

There are a number of small Mandalorian clans within the Concord could probably be excellent shock troops if you need them, but they are small in number..."

He abruptly stopped as he heard two pairs of feet walking their way. The admiral turned around to see Sariya and Fenton. Well, this should be an interesting reunion...

 

[AvRe]

Listening to Admiral Quee, Avery hadn't even noticed the two approaching them. Only when Gir Quee had stopped talking and turned, did Avery see them. He cursed under his breath, he'd gotten sloppy. That bit of self-deprecation was short though, as Avery saw who was with Sayira.

That was Trossk alright. He'd gotten older, not the shiny-faced young man he once knew. But honestly, were any of them shiny-faced, to begin with? Making a few direct steps forward, past Gir, Avery got a little closer to his old friend. Well, Captain Tacer's old friend, but Avery knew him good enough.

A part of him didn't believe it was him, another wanted to greet the man with a hug, some of him wanted to point out all the minute flaws of his system, but the majority of Avery was just glad to see him.

"You look awful, when did your skin become so sallow?" Avery maintained a tone of dead seriousness for about ten seconds, then began chuckling loudly.

"It's good to see you Trossk, you've done a fine job here," he continued, "Admiral Quee here was just telling me about the available military units. I won't bore you with the details, but I've formed a plan on how to deal with this plan's problem. We'll discuss it later." The apparent joy at seeing Fenton again was relatively short-lived.

He was happy though, they'd celebrate later when there was no need for such a formal manner. But now, Avery had a job for Trossk. "Tell me Fenton, can you assemble me a list of recently convicted crime lords? It doesn't matter the crime they were convicted for. There can't be too many, I might be surprised though."

 

[Gir Quee]

Fenton ruefully shook his head A AvRe , "This is Taris, a world of over a billion documented people and probably a million more undocumented. Depending on your definition of crime boss, that could turn into a uselessly long list...but I can at least point out several dozen of the biggest ones to you, and send an aggregate list of all the others to you."

The admiral raised an eyebrow, "You have me curious as to your intent - looking for new enemies to fight? Or new people to recruit? A little of both?"

 

[AvRe]

"Almost," Avery turned back to Gir, "In criminal organizations, at least the ones I'm familiar with, the lackeys often follow a rule of prowess. Not all of them, but a good chunk of them. Besides, you'd be quite surprised how many of them would turn to me when offered a chance."

Avery looked back to his old friend. "You're right, notable ones only. Forgive me, It's been a while."

Avery paced back and forth again, stroking his chin once more. "With the size of this planet, those crime bosses have to have many people under their thumb. While I'm not fully sure, I think if we dispose of them, and offered their people a chance for something better, we'd have many new troops. Aside from the criminals, I think if we put some work into it, we could get many of the citizens themselves. Like I earlier, we'd have to offer them something they'd really want. My opinion? We give them free housing for them and their families on one of the concord's better worlds. It probably wouldn't take much to satisfy them. In return, they'd have to serve for..." Avery thought long and hard. "Five years? Maybe not? I'll have to put more thought into it."

Avery stopped in front of Gir, "That settled, the first war, if you can call it that, will be with the planet itself. The crime bosses left will oppose our rule once they realize what we're doing. That's the part that'll be bloody, while I'm not sure how long it will last, it won't be pretty."

Avery sighed. "If it were up to me, the actual people of this planet would be moved off-world, Taris would become a fortress. Unfortunately, the only thing we can do is protect them."

Gir Quee

 

[Gir Quee]

That's an intriguing way to go about it... He allowed himself a brief smile when A AvRe wasn't looking - the other man was showing to be surprisingly more progressive and thoughtful than the admiral would have guessed for an ex-Imperial. Not one who knew much about Taris politics, the admiral immediately began to think of the political side effects of the plan.

"We can probably figure out a way to get some of them and their families to a new world if they want it - though that will take some work with the other governments within the Concord," started the admiral, "a lot of the worlds we have startled resettling from the Bryn'adul lost a fair amount of their initial population and there's a lot of work to be done there. They'd probably appreciate a source of new population, as well as one that can help protect them in the future. But those planet's aren't likely to be anything like Taris - they'll probably need some sort of program to teach them new skills if they aren't going to continue to be soldiers...speaking of which, how were you planning on training them? I would guess that you already have a program in mind..."

 

[AvRe]

Avery actually considered how they would train them, although he already had a few ideas. They would most likely have over 3,000 men ready within the first day if his mental math was right. That meant they would have more than their hands full, they'd be drowning at that point. He hated to even consider this, but the majority of the troops would have to be treated like conscripts, with minimal training to boot.

"I think... training will have to be minimal. Not to sound overly confident, but the number of people we would have coming in, we likely wouldn't have the resources necessary to give them anything proper." He said, regretfully.

"I do think we should look out for those who show proficiency in certain skills, however, marksmanship, strategy, that kind of thing. It wouldn't be easy, not at all, but I still think we should attempt it. An army this large will need capable officers, most likely commanders too if that's even possible with this place. Remember though, if we do train leaders, they're the most likely to have criminal backgrounds, large ones too."

Avery was amused, in many ways. Think of it, an organized penal military. If he'd recommended that to anyone else, on any other planet, he'd be considered insane. Sadly, this wasn't a different planet, and he was talking to Gir Quee , who seemed to be far more reasonable than first assumed.

"What you said, about getting their families off-world, I think we focus most of our efforts on that, to begin with. It would help..."

Cracking~

"It... It would be good publicity for the concord, definitely put it in the limelight of the people."

There we go~

 

[Gir Quee]

Conscription would almost never be a popular public policy - Gir would hate to be the public affairs officer assigned to work for A AvRe . It would likely be a necessity though, and that necessity trumped any sort of potential public image issue. Still, he reckoned that the former Imperial was right - a couple of spin doctors could work a narrative about this being better for the soldier's families for the wider galactic audience, and even some of Taris's domestic audience as well. The upper classes on Taris would likely support the measure broadly and quietly for different, less publicly tasteful reasons as well. Classism and hierarchies never truly went away, even in the most equitable of cultures. But the admiral was still worried.

"Poorly trained and weakly motivated soldiers are potential liabilities," started the man from Hast, "unless you have some strong officers to oversee them and potentially and gradually mold them into something worthwhile later. Hopefully, with some time and experience the conscripts, at least some of them, can be formed into something truly worthwhile. But it seems that you have much on your plate to get started with, and I fear that if I stay longer, I will interfere with your work. Is there anything you need from me before I depart back to the Silver Tide?"

 

[AvRe]

Avery bowed his head. Gir couldn't have been more right, the path ahead would be difficult, unbelievable so. Still, I must try.

"No, I don't think there's much of anything left for you to do. If you wouldn't mind, In a few days I'll need armaments. If it's no trouble, I'm thinking of something high-powered, for a long-range unit. Aside from that, you're free to leave, Admiral." Avery turned his gaze to Trossk, looking him over.

Things were changing, more had happened this week alone than it had in five years. Avery was getting older, he knew it. Hopefully, he could find a successor out of all these criminals, but that was a thought he only amused. If he had told himself that in 20 years, he'd be working for the concord, he'd laugh in his face.

Times change though, and as Avery had already said, the galaxy was becoming far more dangerous. He felt something, deep inside, a war. Maybe he was becoming paranoid, half the time he felt like he was becoming insane, although that may just be him aging.

"I hope we speak again, sir. There's a lot to do here, and something tells me that you'd never give up on a planet like this."

With that, Avery turned from the Admiral. Gir Quee would leave for the Silver Tide, Sayira close behind. Avery would turn to Trossk, a long silence between them, then embrace the other man. It's good to see you, old friend.