Shadow Arm to the Core

[Tobias Dracks]

Planet: Cardia
Location: New Republic Senate Building / Vice Chancellor Officer

Standing and looking over the daytime city that was becoming the Capital of the New Republic he only thought of the future of the Republic. The Economy was on the rise and average acceptance of the New Republic was showing nothing but growth. Yet there was never growth without signs of problems elsewhere in the Republic.

Things were becoming difficult for the Republic in the recent years. The attack on the Frontier Outpost near the planet of Wakeelmui to the galactic north of the capital was becoming a political disaster in the area. A full garrison of New Republic Troopers and a Battle Group were outmaneuvered by a picket fleet of renegades. One hundred were dead, double were wounded and the Republic was spending millions of credits to repair the station. This was a blunder and he knew as soon as those vultures at the New Stations would spin it off to gain viewers. The War Hawks were sure to be elected in the end of the election cycle.

Tobias was never against fighting it out with anyone, but he was smarter then the average bacteria to know fighting someone stronger was just going to end bad. Their weakness at the battle of Frontier Outpost 32B only showed that they were not ready.

He would scold the General of the Republic Army another day, only get pissed when you have something better to offer. As such he invited General [member="Noah Corek"] to speak with him today. Appointed to head the Special Forces Division of the Military, he needed some answers questioned about the future of the Republic Army. The future looked bleak if the Military could not get their chit together before moving on a blitzkrieg into the Core Worlds and the possibility of facing off with unknown forces left over by the Alliance.

A beep sounded from hit wrist communicator, "Vice Chancellor Dracks, General Corek is here for your meeting."

Tobias nodded and spoke into the mic, "Thank you, send him in."

 

[Noah Corek]

Noah sighed as he entered the Senate Building. Noah hated politics. Growing up in a Mandalorian household his disdain for politics and politicians had been well known in the Old Republic, where he was a commando, in the Omega Pyre, where he was a contractor, in the Galactic Alliance where he was special forces, and in Rebel Alliance where he was a leading figure. Unfortunately someone had the bright idea that Noah's combat experience in the Old Republic and Omega Pyre combined with his leadership experience in the Alliance and Rebel made him the perfect candidate for the head of the New Republic's Special Operations Command.

Originally Noah had planned on rejecting the promotion to general and the prestigious position but he had been overruled and convinced by someone with more sway over him than any comrade or leader, his daughter. Melissa had suggested that he take the role because one he was getting old, just being a few years shy of fifty and two because he could serve the New Republic better by training and equipping men than he ever could actually fighting for it. While the first point was meant as a joke Noah didn't deny that he was starting to slow down in his age.

It was the second point that had really got him thinking though. With nearly two and a half decades of combat experience he was an effective operator in the field but as a trainer he could bring the New Republics special operations units up to snuff skill wise easily and equip them with the proper advanced equipment they needed. For this reason Noah had taken the job. But by whatever deity you pray to Noah hated politics.

Noah had heard against the attack on Frontier Outpost 32B long before most other both military and politicians had, one of the great things about having so many intelligence community and underworld contacts was being able to respond to things long before the others around him had even got the chance to hear about it. As soon as he heard of the attack he had set upon doing two things. First he sent out a memorandum to all of the officers below him to start training the operators under their command to the specifications and training regime he had developed. The second thing he did was send some of the designs he had been working on to LOGCOM and CENTCOM to get their approval so they could be manufactured and deployed within a few months to strengthen the New Republic Army and Marine Corps all around.

But Noah could speak about that in detail with the Vice Chancellor. As soon as the VC's secretary told him that the VC was ready for him Noah walked into his office. Most general would have worn their full dress uniform to meet with the VC and been unarmed. Noah though? He wore a simple set of digitized camo fatigues and had one of his sidearm tucked away in a shoulder holster. "Vice Chancellor Dracks." Noah said simply, not even bothering to salute but he did have enough tact to wait until offered a seat to sit.

 

[Tobias Dracks]

Tobias noticed the commander did not salute, and instead of making a fuss out of it he just continued as if nothing was wrong. Walking towards his desk and pulling out a Data-Tablet he made a few notes and then looked to General [member="Noah Corek"].

"It is no problem at all General, I called you here because after I took office I saw how mismanaged the Provisional Government was about the Military." Looking up from his data-tablet the VC was unable to make facial features do to his exoskeleton features. "The Republic Strategic Intelligence Services do not have operators to execute missions, the Senate Guard are inexperienced, and now we have Ex-Dominion, GA, CA, Free Worlds, and Rebel soldiers all having different command structures attempting to work together and several different command practices attempting to show their values,"

Tobias just sighed as his mind just ran over the large amounts of problems within the Republic that needed to be fixed. "I called you here to give you the funding you need to get the Special Operations on course with R-SIS, we have a lot of information that we can not do without your troopers, we also need to revise your division to deal with the influx of mission critical operations, got any suggestions."

 

[Noah Corek]

Noah snorted at [member="Tobias Dracks"] understatement of how much the Provisional Government fucked up the military. "Speaking freely sir, mismanaged is a severe understatement of what they have done. I've sat in on HIGHCOM meetings between the other command heads and their always seems to be bickering. Honestly me and General Hale tend to be the only voices of reason in the rooms."

When the VC mentioned the several governments and armed forces that the Republic had cobbled together Noah just nodded his head. "I've personally been trying to corral and cobble together some units from the GA and Rebel Alliance but it's been slow going so far." The VC would then recognize a flicker in Noah's eyes before a smile came to his face upon the mentioning of funding and the need to get operators out in the field.

"Well sir to get enough operators, about two hundred and fifty, trained, equipped and deployed to combat the threats that currently face us it'd take me about six months but if you'd be willing to do something a little unorthodox I can have it done in a few weeks." As Noah said this he smiled and handed a datapad to the VC. "Tell me sir what do you know about the Omega Pyre?"

 

[Tobias Dracks]

It seemed he brought the right guy to this conversation. HIGHCOM was another problem all together, it was his hope that the former separate Commanding Officials would take up the status of the New Republic. Instead however, they choose to argue about how they should organize the Armies and Fleets. Their different ideals were putting a clog to the Republic management of troops and thus slowing everything down.

He spoke frank to [member="Noah Corek"], "I have already pushed the Military Oversight Comity to sack the Current High Marshal and General in charge of the HIGHCOM, the senate will meet to discuss their replacement as well as giving the Grand Fleet Admiral position to someone, our fleets are just as in disorganization as the rest of the Military."

The Ranks of High Marshal and Grand Fleet Admiral were the highest ranks in both the Army and Navy, without their strong leadership all approval from the senate would mean nothing if the they stalled everything. The positions being empty meant that the senate had a lot more work to deal with, but it seemed faster without the commanders fighting back. Tobias saw them as soldiers that needed to act on the Orders of the Senate, not the other way around.

He listened as the general continued to speak, "The troop request should not be a problem there was a platoon of Free World Commandos that asked to join the Republic, but I would like to hear more about this other solutions as I remember hearing the Pry were a Mercenary Company that were popular before the One Sith - Republic War a few years ago, I thought they were no longer in business."

 

[Noah Corek]

Noah's teeth grinded at [member="Tobias Dracks"] mentioning of the Omega Pyre as mercenaries. "We were private military contractors, mercenaries had a bad connotation to it so we tried to keep away from that moniker. Anyway, after I was discharged from the Old Republic Army Commandos, I ended up roaming the galaxy looking for work. It was by pure luck that I stumbled upon the Pyre. I spent seven years working as a contractor for them with the last two and half years being the Pyre's field commander. But the Pyre wasn't just a PMC, it inspired a government around it, the Omega Protectorate which was replaced by the Alliance when it feel. Many we're still loyal to the Protectorate and Pyre though."

As Noah talked a smile began to form and he began to speak with a near reverence and massive respect for the Pyre or more likely someone within it. "I digress though. A lot of Pyre Contractors and Omega Defense Force Navy and Army assets were swept up into the Alliance when it came to power and when the Alliance feel? Let's just say there are a lot of refugees flooding away from former Alliance territory. With that flood of refugees comes Alliance military as well. One unit in particular though may suit our needs. The Omega Old Guard. Three hundred and thirty of the most battle hardened soldiers you'll ever lay eyes on. I formed them from the Remnants of the Omega Pyre before I left the Alliance. Because of our 'mercenary past' the Alliance never truly trusted us and we we're often given the crap jobs but we always came out."

Noah grinned as he remembered some of the ops that the Old Guard had been given that they weren't supposed to survive but still managed to not only survive but to come out relatively unscathed. "Sir these men are battle hardened and have a will of iron. They've faced down some of the gravest threats the galaxy has ever faced. The Bando Gora, the Fringe, the Empire, the One Sith and the Confederacy to name a few. You give me them and enough funding to re-equip them with some more modern gear? We'll tear down anything that stands in our way. Of course you might have to do some political manuevering at the same time." Noah said with a bit of a sheepish grin.

 

[Tobias Dracks]

Tobias was half listening for the most part, soaking up all the information that General [member="Noah Corek"] was throwing at him. It seemed that these troopers where the best of the best that he could bring to the table. Tobias had a spark of an idea as the man spoke, shuffling through the Data-Tablet and transfer some data to another Tablet. Still listening to the General he waited till the man was finished.

"Apologies for the confusion, as I stated I know little about them thought they sound quite impressive." Tobias finished his work, "Three hundred and thirty, that is about Eightieth more then you had asked for, and if they are as impressive as you say then I will need more grantees,"

He set the tablet down and leaned forward placing his chin between his hands that were clasped together, "If they wish to join the New Republic Army then they will need to cut ties to the Omega Prye Private Contracting Company, I can grantee they will receive the same rank, given citizenship, and different names for civilian life, but I will not have an army of Contract Soldiers within the Army, the Senate would believe they could be bought from under us."

He did not mean any offence to the General or his soldiers, but even if they were loyal to only the hard credit instead of the Republic then it would be waist of Citizens money. Experienced or not, it would spit the pack from those loyal to the General and those loyal to the Company. He had enough experienced veterans that were willing to stay loyal to the Republic to a near fault.

And that is where it lead to the second part of the conversation, sliding the Data-Tablet, "If you can agree to those terms, then I will grant approval for a Battalion of Ghost, that is a list of five hundred Ex-Galactic Alliance Commandos, FWC Recon Soldiers, as well as Republic Rangers and Dead Men Legion, I want you to take them and turn them into ghost, legal names filed as killed in combat, relocated, and minimal amount of family members and break it down to five hundred and fifty troopers who can do off the book operations."

Tobias thought for a second, "We can call it Operation Specter, Republic SIS need that many for operations in the Outer Rim and Unknown Region, securing resources for our industrial machine."

 

[Noah Corek]

Noah again listened to the VC and found what said agreeable. "You were right with your first assessment about the Pyre being no longer in action. It was bought out a few years ago and basically gutted by the new owner to make room for more 'agreeable' people, so getting them to join us with no ties to the Pyre won't be a problem. Anyways like I
said most of them are refugees from Fondor and have had their lives turned upside down in a few months by the First Order and the Empire so they'll want to get some sorta revenge."

Noah sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "But that's not the political maneuvering I'd need you to do. When the refugees starting streaming in some jackass senator decided he'd make a name for himself as a 'Defender of the New Republic.'" When Noah said this he made sure to put air quotes around the defender comment. "So as the refugees were being processed here he got the authority to intern any refugees with military experience and deemed them 'First Order Infiltrators' so they can be tried by military tribunals. I just need someone higher up to take him down a peg and get them released."

Noah then listened to [member="Tobias Dracks"] thoughts about how to structure SOCOM and Noah internally sighed, another politician trying to insert himself into politics. "I've got my own plans for SOCOM sir." Pulling up a outline that Noah had been working on. "I've created a multi-tiered system from 2 to 0. Tier 2 will consist of a light infantry and a reconnaissance unit with one from the Army and one from the Marine Corps. Tier 1 will consist of a consist of a commando type unit from the Army and a raider type unit from the Marines. Tier 0 will consist of the unit you had the idea for. Personnel pulled from every major faction of the Republic. Military, intelligence, law enforcement and even Jedi. Like you said we'll erase them from existence on paper and they'll operate outta normal government and military regulations."

After he spoke Noah had a thought. "Sir if I may suggest something I might have a couple of candidates for the overall command of the military." Noah wasn't trying to be political, far from it in fact. He just wanted the military to run smoothly so politicians would get off their back on how it was currently being ran.

 

[Tobias Dracks]

The conversation was turning into less desirable water for the VC, and it seemed [member="Noah Corek"] had other plans for everything. It did not bother him too much, military people often tried to push their own ideas onto the leadership of the Senate. He would accommodate where he could, but other areas were just not able to go the way he wanted.

He let the General finish, "We have refugees flooding in from the Outer Rim everyday, with the brutal laws of the Sith Empire and the First Order, nations like the Silver Jedi and Mandos push those that can not fight to the Republic as we are the only ones willing to take in everyone, I can not reprimand a senator for doing what he thinks if right for I could be seen as a tyrant pushing his will and allow myself to be opened to slander of helping First Order Spies."

Having allies in the lock up accused of being traitors and spies was a difficult thing to play around with. He had a few things to do, but was it worth pulling those string to have them vanish forever for a investment that could not pay off. It was a difficult thing, but one he would have to gamble with.

"I will make sure they are found not guilty for their connections and speak to the Senator behind close doors," He looked the General with a dagger like stare, covering his mouth with his folded hands that were locked in inter-crossing fingers. "In exchange those soldier of yours will be tested for their worth, find a mission, get me intel I have use as leverage, do whatever you need, but show me these personal are worth calling in these favors, I do not care for the target or if the leverage is something I can use years down the line, but results are all I am looking for,"

Moving on to the other topic, Tobias was not interested in getting specialized soldiers on the battlefield at the moment. The Republic Military was still reforming and due to finding new head of HIGHCOM, as well as a Grand Fleet Admiral, things were going slowly. There was an Intel War that was being waged however, and the First Order and Sith Empire had some of the best agents in the galaxy. He needed operators in the field yesterday to kidnap, kill, and sabotage targets that were threats to the Republic.

"General, I am not trying to take over your position within Special Operations Command, but we need those off the book operators as of yesterday, Republic SIS already arrested and are interrogating several First Order Operators and that does not include the Sith Inquisitor that took his own life earlier this month, we need those operators in the field and that list already have the training and background," He paused, "We get those taken care of first and training for proper Commandos and Raiders can commence without interference of the other nations."

That last part of the conversation did make him a little more interested, "The position of High Marshal of HIGHCOM is vacant yes, and I am interested in to hear the names of your suggested candidates so I will take them into consideration before taking my opinion before the Senate."