The Coruscul Job

[Cathul Thuku]

After news of the Silver Jedi relocating to Kashyyyk arrived to the Alliance authorities, and rumors of various alliances between their enemies began being circulated, the memories of the Jedi Conclave that went nowhere resurfaced. But this time around, it would be a different scope and not simply about Jedi. Cathul knew that she might not be the best positioned to enter negotiations with the Silver Jedi, even though she did fight with them on Skor and Tartarus (on Tartarus, however, they filled different roles). That's where [member="Cecily Demici"] comes in. Meanwhile, [member="Stephanie Swail"] and [member="Rozalyne Kurganova"] were also issued invitations to a new round of negotiations to be held on Coruscul, whose aims were somewhat different, and hopefully more productive than previous attempts. The white Twi'lek was more accustomed to mediate public healthcare and public housing deals than inter-faction diplomacy, and she was more nervous than usual. But since they were hosting the talks at the Coruscul embassy, they had no reason to have excessive security details. The question now was: would they actually accept or decline those invitations?

"I hope that the Silver Jedi have accepted our invitations" she told Cecily to her right in the conference room.

 

[Cecily Demici]

This would mark the first true endeavor Cecily had embarked on in service to the Galactic Alliance. Most of her time since the collapse of the Republic had been spent managing her familial affairs on Naboo and Onderon (on the latter of which she had acted as Throne Minister in the absence of a legitimate heir to the throne). Now, however, with the Sith once again threatening peace and stability in the galaxy, the Alliance would need to move quickly to circumvent their efforts at sowing chaos and destruction.

"Your Highness, we have arrived," a soft spoken officer of her house guard poked his head through the wide round door of her compartment. Out the window she could see clearly that they were mere kilometers from Coruscul's surface. She regarded him kindly as he turned and made his way back to the cockpit.

Rare as it was, though not unheard of, Cecily was completely unaccompanied by her ladies in waiting. Not only was there a distinct absence of risk in their trip to Coruscul, but she always found that too much pomp was poor form for diplomatic missions. A measure of trust had to be established in both action and deed. Showing up with a full escort was a poor way to demonstrate good faith.

"Captain, instruct the crew to remain the ship," she said as she reached the top of the ramp. Although hesitant, the white haired captain nodded in compliance as she set off down the ramp in the direction of the rendezvous with [member="Cathul Thuku"]. Her heels clicked softly against the stone surface of the landing dock as she made her way to the white Twi'lek who would be her partner in these negotiations. Cecily had chosen something simple yet elegant to wear for the occasion in lieu of something with more flash. It was the sort of thing she would have worn in her days in the Galactic Senate. She had even forgone a tiara and in its place sat a small hat that complimented her teal gown.

"Cathul," she beamed on her approach, "it is good to see you. Have we arrived early?"

Spoiler: Cecily's Gown

 

[Stephanie Swail]

Stephanie was growing daily. Developing. Learning. Not in the sense of biology of course, but in growing, developing and learning about what it meant to represent the Silver Jedi Order and be Padawan and aide to Master [member="Valae Kitra"] as well.

Her experience had increased rapidly, and she was taking all the mistakes made and lessons learnt on-board to shape her into a more confident, self-assured woman who one day would prove herself. The call came again to return to Coruscal to meet with one [member="Cathul Thuku"] of the Galactic Alliance. It was no secret that word was spreading about new groups rising around the galaxy, new alliances being hinted at. Darkness never stayed in the void for long.

The transport had brought both Stephanie and [member="Rozalyne Kurganova"] to meet Cathul with open invites for Valae if she was free, but with things in full operation across Kashyyyk, it wasn’t a guarantee. They were greeted and escorted to the conference hall within the magnificent embassy, walking side by side.

”It seems all we do is talk recently, “ she mused to Kurganova, an admirable figure she had been watching for some time. ”I pray this will get us somewhere.“

[member="Cecily Demici"]

 

[Rozalyne Kurganova]

Rozalyne stepped off the courier to join Swail down on the landing pad, pausing to take in her surroundings. Corsucul looked to be a lovely little garden planet tucked away in the core. She could see why the original Silver Order had chosen it as their base of operations. The current iteration had accepted handover of the original Silver fortress from the Galactic Alliance, renovation work beginning immediately thereafter to create a waypoint for future expeditions. Following talks with the GA delegation at the Jedi Embassy, she would personally follow up on the progress of the renovations.

As per usual, Swail didn't refrain from speaking her mind about events, expressing rising exasperation with diplomatic missions that didn't seem result in any meaningful resolutions. Rozalyne didn't necessarily disagree with the Jedi's sentiment, herself keen to see something finally done about the Sith, but she did feel that Swail was failing to empathize with the position of their counterparts.

"Patience, Ms. Swail," she advised. "It wasn't too long ago that the Silver Order itself was reluctant to lend aid. The potential to lose precious blood and treasure in failure can all make us hesitant to act as we should. Keeping our fears in check is a constant struggle."

"With that said, I feel confident that talks with the Galactic Alliance this time around will be fruitful. After Tython, they now have first-hand experience with the threats we've been facing in the Outer Rim all these years. They can't afford to ignore the Sith like they did with the First Order - none of us can. So take heart, and let's hope for the best."

[member="Stephanie Swail"] [member="Cecily Demici"] [member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

OOC: This thread takes place IC before Muunilinst.

IC: "Thank you all for coming here today, and please take your seats. The events of Tython forced us to revisit any alliances that we may be willing to form. Whereas my predecessors did not have much success, hopefully the events of Tython will enable us to get more common ground, and not only agree on the threat Sith pose, but also the necessity of taking action against Sith and their allies"

Already Therapy Command had plans in place to take the offensive, but none of them would warrant full-scale invasions at this stage. They had to raid key planets, for industrial reasons or something else altogether. [member="Stephanie Swail"] would probably have realized that, while mighty, rumors of the Sith having a vulnerable C2 began to abound, but that might have to be brought up at a later stage. [member="Rozalyne Kurganova"] and [member="Cecily Demici"] were seated. She was eager to get the meeting done, and that their respective citizens' fates hung in the balance of this very meeting. The Triumvirate would probably understand now what threat the Sith posed, while the First Order, winning on Ossus a while ago, did, however, spend a lot of resources doing it, and also that their ability of defending their own planets was diminishing as a result. And yet, she would still believe the Sith were easier to deal with than the First Order at this jecture, because their doctrines have a lot of exploitable flaws, especially as it came to ground assaults.

"That said, while mutually supporting each other in battle is great, we need to ensure that the proper means of fighting Sith are shared between our two factions. I also propose a free technology transfer agreement to last until the Sith are dealt with"

 

[Rozalyne Kurganova]

As soon as they entered the embassy, Rozalyne and Swail were quickly whisked away to the conference room for their talks with the GA delegation. Admiral Thuku, leading the GA side, didn't waste any time launching right into the meat of the matter upon her first breath. Tired of dealing with sniviling politicians from previous diplomatic encounters, the former executive welcome Thuka's bluntness, finding it refreshing.

"Before we begin, I would like to point out that I'll be recording this discussion with my device," she said, holding up her tablet. "It's all part of my process of taking notes for later review, and for matters of transperency with my conterparts within the SJO."

As she was among allies, she assumed there wouldn't be any protest in her employment of modern technology for the sake of convenience. Though she had thought the same thing with another supposed ally once before.

"We're glad that the Galactic Alliance is finally on the same page with us about the threat the Sith pose."

"As for a technological exchange, the SJO would be be more than happy in providing technical assistance and sharing technology developed through the Silver Engineering Corporation. I can't say the same for the private vendors that the SJO works with, as we have own exclusive deals in place with them that wouldn't extend to the GA. However, I know several of our contractors, like Kiribian Systems Armory, or Lucerne Labs, already have some arrangements in place with the GADF, so I don't think it would be a problem getting them on board with future projects. In fact, KSA, in association with the SEC, have expressed interest in providing refit packages for the Itsukusk and several of your older lines of vessels."

[member="Cathul Thuku"] [member="Stephanie Swail"] [member="Cecily Demici"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

OOC: To speed up the pace of this thread, each faction can move on when a representative of the other faction has posted.

IC: "To the extent we know about the Silver Engineering Corps and other companies that you just mentioned, refitting the Itsukusk is a major operation that is far more complex than doing the same to even a battlecruiser"

Refitting the Itsukusk? That was a big job, so big, in fact, that no single company could handle, not even the largest of the suppliers common to both factions, she thought, while thinking of exactly what refits to outfit it: a self-sealing fuel tank, regenerative cap drains. Plus she knew that battlecruisers saw more service than the Itsukusk ever would; she knew that flagships were often regarded as more of an instrument of power projection than a ship that will actually see battle. So it would be a hard sell even with proven capabilities. Plus Jessica, who was the public face of the SEC, by virtue of being the SJ's Grand General, was someone Cathul trusted pretty much in full. But the Triumvirate didn't trust her to the extent Therapy Command did. However, there is one lingering question Cathul might have had for future: she was concerned about the ability of the Alliance's sprawlingly cumbersome logistics to sustain them in large-scale engagements such as a system or sector campaign, even though she knew that, on the defense, it worked just fine, hoping that [member="Cecily Demici"], [member="Rozalyne Kurganova"] or even [member="Stephanie Swail"] would understand what that would even mean in the first place.

"Glad we are now on the same page concerning Sith in battle. Unfortunately, because of our logistical structure, it is not possible to keep allies supplied if we were to take the offensive, or at least not for large-scale engagements such as system or sector campaigns. What assurances do we have that your logistical structure will allow you to keep us supplied should the SJ take the offensive, as was the case on Mirial?"

 

[Rozalyne Kurganova]

She only nodded the Admiral informed her of the complexities of building and maintaining a dreadnought like the Itsukusk. Of course, KSA and the SEC had already accounted for the technical hurdles in their refit offerings, but if the GA wasn't biting, then she wouldn't press the matter.

"The Silver Jedi Order and the allies within our sphere of influence are quite capable, and we've been able to handle our own against the various threats that have cropped up in the Northern Outer Rim for the past decade. The issue is that we cannot contend against the Sith, Galactic Empire, or the First Order at the same time on our own."

"In the event of the Galactic Alliance engaging the Sith in concert with the SJO, we can provide waystations and staging areas for incursions into Sith Space. Logistics isn't really a concern as far as material goes. What we really need from the Galactic Alliance right now is manpower, drawing upon your huge population pools that dwarfs just about every other power combined. The Silver's technological edge against the Sith and Imperials will only get us so far."

[member="Cathul Thuku"] [member="Stephanie Swail"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"Manpower. The uneasy peace with the First Order forced us to keep large forces in reserve, to be re-activated should any of those major dark-sided powers attack us again; then again, the same would be said of the First Order, too"

The events that led the Silvers to retreat back to Kashyyyk proved Rozalyne's point. Fighting all three major dark-sided powers at once was a daunting prospect that wore them down. The GA was large, but with large territories came an equally large number of garrisons. Now, of course, not every world would need to be garrisoned the same, but short of conscription, the manpower problem was far from an easy problem to solve, she thought, without suspecting that, in fact, the GA will come under attack from at least one of those powers later down the road, in fact, all three in rapid succession, no more than she suspected that the Itsukusk would become one of the high-profile GA casualties. [member="Rozalyne Kurganova"], however, knew about the Sith would instead use rather crude tactics, which is not the case for the First Order or the Galactic Empire. As for the reserves, they were mostly used as some territorial defense forces by the local authorities, but Sith and Imperials attacking would give enough cause to 1) declare war and 2) cause their territorial defense forces to be placed at the entire Alliance's disposal.

"Any other topics you feel are important to the Silver Jedi in a military alliance?"