Maid of the Swamp

[Cathul Thuku]

Even though she lamented the recent events, where Lily Kuhn's actions went so far as to cause Cathul to consider the actions as amounting to dereliction of duty in the Metharian Nebula, and cause the Red Fleet to be disbanded as a unit in the wake of the Alliance's defeat to the hands of the First Order, with its remaining units allocated to other commands. Good riddance; to the extent I trusted Lokthra, the late Nemo Ven thought that she was better suited to lead a shipyard than a battlefleet in the aftermath of Kaeshana, she thought, while typing a message on an encrypted datapad. Yet, she knew that Lokthra spent nearly the entire FO-GA war on "shore duty" as the superintendent of the Dagobah Shipyards, which were used mostly as a maintenance yard for the duration of the war. Maybe the Mirialan will seize her opportunity to redeem herself after this string of events. But where was she when the main station of the Dagobah Shipyards was destroyed? That said, the Imps didn't hit the auxiliary docks; they went all-in on the main one.

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ATTN: [member="Lokthra Dawning"]

Subject: The future of the Dagobah Shipyards with the GA

First off, let me preface this message by saying that war has taken its toll on our southern regions. In addition, the Galactic Empire destroyed the main station of the Dagobah Shipyards, so, needless to say, we will have to provide assistance so that frontline servicing of starships can resume, especially as the war is expected to rage on in this region for a while. In fact, I would like to enter a deal so that servicing and also construction of escorts could be done on Dagobah; the Alliance's fleet maintenance requires the collaboration of every shipyard still in its territory. Perhaps we should meet on Dagobah to discuss the topic.

Adm. Cathul Thuku
CO, Therapy Command

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[Diysuperguy33]

Lokthra had heard of the tolls of the war. She frequently tuned in the radio broadcast; it hurt more than her words could say, too many deaths. Too many innocent lives lost. In the year Lokthra had off, away from the Galactic Alliance, she found a few contacts, no one of note as of yet, but small people that could help Dagobah Shipyards. She had a few designs of various things: new components, fighters, bombers and even one for a new class of frigate. She had planned to come back to the Galactic Alliance as soon as she could be useful to them; this being the main reason she left, she felt that a useless captain, one who although managed to do some damage, lost control of herself when it mattered most, was not needed in the Galactic Alliance. This time away she used to recover, and now she believes she is ready to help. Not necessarily start controlling the fleets again, but she damn well wants to fix what damage she had caused; starting by giving the Galactic Alliance, a new fleet. This is her first and last chance for. Redemption.

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ATTN: [member="Cathul Thuku"]

Subject: RE: The future of the Dagobah Shipyards with the GA

Greetings Admiral, it has been some time. I hope the war hasn't taken too much of a toll on you, I'm sorry I took shore duty; but it was absolutely needed. I'm back now though, and I'm here to stay, help me rebuild, and Dagobah could be the new southern stronghold and you'll have a new all-powerful fleet, starting with the escourts as you said, I have a few other designs that you might like to see as well. I am on the station all the time now, come by anytime.

Lokthra Dawning
Owner Dagobah Shipyards

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[Cathul Thuku]

So the superintendent of the Dagobah Shipyards already started rebuilding the station? she thought, upon implying that there actually is a station, with her estimate placing the current status of the station as housing a CIC, main engineering and crew quarters for both, but far from complete operational status. Not even someone like [member="Lokthra Dawning"], whom the Alliance trusted more on the maintenance side, would be able to successfully rebuild a station of that size in just two weeks, and in those two weeks, she did fight on Thyferra and Byss. Of course, her priority would be to get the shipyard rebuilt in full; however baffling it was from the Imps' part to attack Dagobah, she had to fix the damage. And yet, while she was en route to Dagobah, she was re-reading her ex-padawan file, as it pertained to the Chalcedon theater of the Kaeshana campaign: she lost control of herself when it mattered the most. So, in Cathul's mind, it was mostly a move intended to diminish the damage she could potentially have caused at the time. Upon arriving in the Dagobah system, in a cargo ship laden with the components that will help rebuild the primary station, she could feel that there was something terrible that took place just a few weeks prior, while she was away in the Metharian Nebula, as she boarded a shuttle that will take her to the unfinished main station.

"Open a channel to the station still under construction"

"Channel open"

"Dagobah Shipyard control, this is Therapist Actual; requesting permission to dock"

 

[Diysuperguy33]

OOC/ Let me first give you some insight into the status of Dagobah Shipyards/

The main station was completely destroyed, although a great chunk was destroyed and unusable in the explosion, there were some parts that could be salvaged. Lokthra's father who spends almost all of his time on the station as the company's 'Manager-In-Chief' (Second in command). He with the trusted loyalty of the workers salvaged all debris from the explosion and recycled what he could use to build a temporary control structure. Not having access to much time, skilled labour or materials; he created an adjoining command centre connected to the main engineering bay for Frigates. Having the authority of complete command he has diverted all available material (limited at that), to the recreation of the main station.

"We are receiving a communication from Admiral [member="Cathul Thuku"]"

Channel open

"It's great to hear from you Admiral, although I wish the circumstances and terms were better. You have permission to dock, I shall be waiting for your arrival... Sorry for your losses, I was too eager and began too much too soon. I should have had more training"

 

[Cathul Thuku]

More training? The training required has to do with emotional control; that's the primary thrust - in terms of technical skill Lokthra is an improvement over the likes of Lily Kuhn, she thought, while realizing that, even with the stuff that could actually be salvaged, it was remarkable as to what [member="Lokthra Dawning"] could do with the makeshift station remnants. She had a shuttle dock in the makeshift hangar bay, with the main cargo ship carrying the remaining parts to get the station rebuilt to operational status, albeit with only the ability to service escorts. Escorts were still better than nothing, and even Lokthra would know that escorts see more action and get abused more than the larger ships. So, once she was within the temporary confines of the station, it didn't take long to meet with Lokthra and another much older Mirialan male. And it's more than just getting the shipyard rebuilt, or even signing the maintenance contract. It's also about Lokthra's future among the GA. Understandably, she was herself a little nervous to meet with Lokthra again after so long. But she had to get seated in front of her.

"Greetings. The remaining materials to get the station rebuilt have arrived; however, there are other things I would like to discuss with you, beyond the maintenance contract itself, more than simply your need to control your emotions"

 

[Diysuperguy33]

Although Lokthra had little training from her 2 masters, she had enough to sense the unease in [member="Cathul Thuku"]. Whether it was that she had failed at the post or took an inordinate amount of shore leave; she didn't know, but it was there all the same and it was strong. Lokthra knew that she had to make her good impressions, although they had met on several occasions, the time apart and Lokthra's mistakes created an apprehensive feeling in the room. She had aimed at signing a contract with the new leader of the Galactic Alliance, but more than that she wanted friendship, she wanted to be useful, and most of all she wanted a master; whether the Admiral was that person or not she didn't know.

As the Admiral stepped down from her ship, a horrendous nervous butterfly feeling took control of her. "Snap out of it," she told herself, she hoped the feelings would cease to exist.

"Greetings and salutations Admiral. It has been quite some time, and for that, I apologise deeply. My emotions are... better. I have used shore leave to gather contacts and learn about myself, I don't feel complete control over my emotions but it will not be much of an issue anymore."

Lokthra took a few seconds to recover that she was apologizing to one of the most respected members of the Galactic Alliance.

"Thank you for the parts. It is greatly needed."
Lokthra gestures towards the makeshift 'meeting room', only a few chairs and a table with a couple ornate surroundings, nothing overly fancy though, and it looks very rushed; good consider the circumstances though.
"Shall we proceed?"

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Yes. Because the southern theaters have seen a lot of action lately, both here and in the Metharian Nebula, I know where Dagobah fits in our maintenance scheme - and, after the happenings in the Metharian Nebula, it's clear by now that I feel you would do a better job in command than the former commander of the Red Fleet"

What baffled her was exactly how part of the First Order has come to underestimate her, even though she knew that several of the alleged losses were actually due to other people, with one of those people being right in front of her. The Mustafar campaign was lost on Mustafar proper, and, to a lesser extent, Barkhesh, and it's clearly in the Ison Corridor where she had the most responsibility for the loss. The Metharian Nebula was mostly about the Red Fleet's commander, one Lily Kuhn. Thyferra is another matter, and the northern theaters, such as Byss, along with them: they had Fondor, Yag'dhul, Hakassi, and also Empress Teta for maintenance. Also, they have realized that, in today's parlance, a theater is usually taken to be a system-sized area of engagement, and often people talk about the ground and space theaters for any given planet in a system under contention. The [member="Lokthra Dawning"] of today is much more composed than the one she last saw on Chalcedon, and the makeshift meeting room was where she could deal with the shipyard for the maintenance. Speaking of which, she has to enter negotiations pertaining to the maintenance.

"In exchange for any assistance for rebuilding the shipyards, we would like the Dagobah Shipyards to carry out maintenance and repairs on the escorts, and also to allow construction of GA escorts not specifically earmarked to a particular manufacturer to take place here. However, how many of the auxiliary drydocks are currently able to service ships?"

 

[Diysuperguy33]

Although the talk had just begun, Lokthra sensed a somewhat disheartened tone in the Admiral's voice, she was strong and wise, she contained it well; but she talked of a schedule that appeared to be tight, and the loss of the Red Fleet Commander; a person Lokthra had never heard of before. [member="Cathul Thuku"]'s eyes appeared to of seen loss, she sensed that for sure. Perhaps these negotiations shall bring some much-needed light into the Admiral's life.

"This is reasonable, we lost some 2 auxiliary docks, leaving 3 remaining, of which 1 is specialised in fighters, and will take time and resources to repurpose; the remaining two were already equipped for frigate-class ships. As per the arrangement we shall make a more temporary repair and maintenance station for all escorts of the Galactic Alliance for the time being, after this contract I hope to spend the additional credits on upgrading the facilities here to allow for the creation of additional ships, hopefully, another deal then if this one goes well, and I don't see any reason why It wouldn't. My father and I will design the escorts to your needs; was there any particular purpose or role these escorts will partake in?"

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Thank you: that we can agree upon. Also, since some of our current suppliers are too small to keep up with demand by themselves, perhaps you could be open to sub-contracting work if it came to that"

True, [member="Lokthra Dawning"] may not have known Lily Kuhn; the Red Fleet was hastily formed to fight the Contingency on Tartarus, which happened well after Lokthra returned to Dagobah, but Lily's poor performance in the Metharian Nebula led her to an all-too-predictable end to her career in the navy. Also, with 3 docks left, there was only so much maintenance that could be done. Yet, that was much better than nothing. Meanwhile, the materials to both rebuild the station and the remaining two docks were being deployed so as to make the most out of the yard. Now, upon mentioning the question of designing escorts, she had to think hard of not only what Therapy Command used, but also what the other commands used. To that end, there was a wide variety of escorts, most of which were privately sourced, but she knew a few cases where the companies are too small to produce the whole thing by themselves, such as Ne-Cal. In that case, Lokthra could be willing to take on sub-contracting work until the Dagobah facilities have enough of their own designs to produce their own classes of hardware. And have recovered enough, too.

"There are no particular purposes we need from the escorts"

 

[Diysuperguy33]

"Dagobah Shipyards will be accepting essentially any and all friendly contracts. The faster it grows the more helpful it can be to the Alliance, that's mostly why I'm here."

The negotiations, if you could even call them that were going smoother than a bantha's behind. There were no disputes by either party, and Lokthra was excited about the opportunities that [member="Cathul Thuku"] mentioned. Perhaps things are now working out for Lokthra. With this contract; a few new ship designs as well as a maintenance and repair station; Lokthra is now starting to redeem her mistakes, she hopes that the people she hurt will accept them.

Lokthra pulls out a map of the stations in front of them.

"Auxillary station 4 was designated to smaller ships, larger than fighters and smaller than corvettes; station 2 was designated bombers and fighters; during the reconstruction process, we shall designate them to escort manufacturing. Leaving a total of 4 out of 5 stations producing escorts and with a few improvements to station 3 (the fighter station), it will become the repair and manufacturing spot until such time as a more effective and larger-scale station can be built. Shall this provide you with enough ships?"
/OOC Station 4 & 2 were the destroyed stations.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"To the extent five drydocks can actually contribute, it shall be satisfactory"

It was a truism that Cathul was the first to dive into the more delicate procurement issues these days, and she couldn't exactly ignore the realities of assembly lines like Dagobah's; it was a major surprise to her to see Lokthra being that enthusiastic about what she did for this length of time away from the battlefield. She was interested in how the facilities were going to be used, without caring as much about how [member="Lokthra Dawning"] internally called them. Yes, she was on the right track to be redeemed for her past sins on Chalcedon, but the rest of the work was still to be done. Yes, she knew exactly where the shipyards fit in the planet's socio-industrial landscape, to the extent Jedi actually cared about those, just that she then prepared the contract that formalized the relationship between Dagobah Shipyards and the GADF. For the time being, Dagobah still played second fiddle in the southwestern edge of the Alliance to Terminus, but in time that may be changing, especially if this war drags on or she otherwise secures more deals with other companies or allied factions.

"Here's the contract"

 

[Diysuperguy33]

"Thank you, Admiral"

Lokthra felt more than relieved, it was the easiest deal of her life, the biggest one too. These rush of happiness didn't last very long, she sensed something; she didn't know what, but she had the slightest feeling [member="Cathul Thuku"] wanted to say something, whether she will or not, Lokthra didn't know. Her feelings of happiness switched to feelings of playful curiousness.

"Was there anything else you wished to discuss...?"

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Ah yes"

If only all procurement deals were like this one, she thought... and, while the Dagobah shipyard was a rather minor shipyard, she knew that even the commanders of the smaller shipyards could be called to frontline duty. Yes, Cathul trusted today's [member="Lokthra Dawning"] if it came to a battle sufficiently large in scale to involve more than the usual main battle fleets (Mazik Stazi, Sieb Tevv and her own), but at best Lokthra would be a flanking element while Cathul took the hits. Just that such engagements will, going forward, usually imply the involvement of the First Order, in her experience, especially since, if her intelligence was correct, the Galactic Empire was facing internal troubles in the wake of the Dagobah attack. And, more than logistics, the trouble with the Sith Empire was that it didn't have a whole lot of command-level naval personnel, and they could only commit one, maybe two admirals on the offensive at any one time. Just that, assuming her intel was correct, the First Order seemed to either regard her as just some fly on their wall or someone that has to be taken down first.

"The Alliance is now at war against multiple enemies. I have to warn you: if we were to fight engagements large enough to require elements beyond what the main battle fleets, we may need to activate you in command of reserve forces"

 

[Diysuperguy33]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

"Oh"

Lokthra took some time to think about this. Was she ready to command a fleet again? She had some skill in command, and especially in ships of varying sizes. She pondered this idea, but could it be? Does the Alliance have one, or even the means to create one? Lokthra didn't know, and there was only one way to find out.

"Does the Galactic Alliance have an Academy to deal with the likes of training. I'm not saying I would enrol full time or anything; but perhaps a few lessons to refresh and teach me the latest of news, sorts and perhaps some eh... things to avoid the issue last time.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Continuing education is there for precisely that sort of purpose"

The lessons to which the Mirialan referred, in wartime, were much more popular and much more accelerated. Especially with the influx of new recruits she observed these days, in the wake of Thyferra and, to a lesser extent, Dagobah, those enlisted with actual experience of battle often found themselves with commissions, and likewise junior officers promoted to more senior levels, with two streams of part-time, continuing education, so she can continue on duty as the commandant of the Dagobah Shipyards. [member="Lokthra Dawning"] was definitely going to be studying with officers in the second case, without having to set foot on the main in-person campus on Anaxes, or even any of the branch campuses. Understandably, Lokthra will hear about the First Order regularly once those lessons are underway and, in space, they are the most serious threat. But she was confident that the Mirialan padawan could succeed, at least in the coursework, and she was left wondering who could teach her Instinctive Astrogation, seriously doubting that Lokthra would even have the topological knowledge to proceed with IAC, knowing that Instinctive Astrogation is a favorite of Force-using fleeters.

"What's appropriate for reactivation of duty, in your case, would be to take the recommended lessons for those aspiring to the command track, or to return to it"

 

[Diysuperguy33]

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

"Then that is what I shall do"

Lokthra felt for once in a long long time, truly happy. This is what she planned of her life, not getting attacked or the assumed getting stripped of her rank and titles, not that she had any. This was her chance, the great war was on, and she has ample opportunity to help the Alliance. It is now the time for doing, no more just saying.

"Who do I contact for lessons and enrolment? I shall start the moment we are done here"

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"I believe lessons and enrollment are handled by Training and Doctrine Command"

To be fair, her direct interactions with T&D were limited at most, but, if anything, the [member="Lokthra Dawning"] of today seemed to be easier to work with than people like, say, Lily. Another recurrent complaint was the lack of cohesiveness at the command level; to the extent T&D might have taken some flak, lately, lack of cohesiveness is a much larger problem than T&D alone. So whatever happiness for Lokthra she might have actually turned to vinegar when she began realizing where its roles in the failures against the First Order may come in. That was most puzzling indeed. I might have suggested some changes to them after Kaeshana but because they identified a clear culprit, back then, they didn't actually implement those changes. How scapegoating can actually hurt an organization even with sufficient evidence for just cause for that specific scapegoat, she thought, while scapegoating can get the real problems hidden from view from those other parties whose share of the responsibility is definitely called in question. Perhaps it's for the best that she didn't disclose anything about Kaeshana or Chalcedon in front of her; she knew that engagement was a delicate topic with the Mirialan.

"We're done here. I'll be taking my leave"