What They Can't See Can Still Hurt Them

[Ayden Cater]

Ayden sat in front of a monitor in an office on Corellia. The wheels in his mind were turning, picking apart every detail he could with his plan. It was dangerous. Much of it hinged on getting the right people to the right spot at the right time, and as he poured over the Protectorate's manifest, there simply wasn't anything that fit the bill of what he needed. The Cira-class was probably the closest thing there was to a match, but there were only two of those ships. They needed more, hundred more. And as he always figured, if you couldn't find what you needed, you simply made it.

So orders were being sent out. Discretely, of course. Materials were being acquired for a new ship; the Protectorate's Black Ops ship. Most of the materials would be mundane or simple enough to acquire; titanium-durasteel alloy for the hull plating, TibannaX from their refineries on Bespin. However, there was still the need for more data. The Confederacy had been particularly reclusive. Very little data existed on their ships and their capabilities. He needed someone who had had access to that. Someone who knew the Confederate military.

And he had just the man in mind. "Send in General [member="Calico Tal'Verda"] at once."

 

[Revenchent]

Calico wasn't called in often. Not much at all, really. He wasn't particularly needed by the OP, as plenty of other personnel could carry out what he could, and better at that. The former Grand Marshal had swallowed that pill early on. As of late, he spent the majority of his time attempting to get used to mundane life on Abregado. A certain HK unit had helped him and his people settle, but when there were no wars to fight, what exactly was a warrior good for?

The cruel reality of the situation was something Tal'verda kept close to his heart. For one that preached of peace and cooperation so much; to hold an innate desire-- no, a need for warfare was unacceptable.

When the Lord Protector had asked for an audience, he had no hesitation in responding. The doors slid crisply behind him as he entered the Lord Protector's office, dressed in his usual combat armor. The helmet hung deftly from his belt, and his right hand was held up in a crisp salute. He expected a face-to-face call to be of utmost importance, and had opted to wear the armor just in case.

It contained all the information Calico had gathered over the past few years, and it was always better to be safe, rather than sorry. "You had need of me, sir?" He asked gruffly; brown eyes locked straight ahead--right at one [member="Ayden Cater"].

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Calico Tal'Verda"]

Ayden nodded. "Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, General. Please; have a seat." He gestured to one of the seats across from his desk while he sat back in his own. He had not had much contact with the defectors from the Confederacy before now. Those that wanted to be left alone were given their space, while those that wanted to integrate were. Tal'Verda had been one of the latter and as a man of his experience went, Ayden couldn't very well insult the man by giving him a rank any lower than general.

"I'm not a man of beating around the bush, so I'll get right to it; the Protectorate is going to be launching an invasion of the Confederacy soon, and I need your help to do so." The utter seriousness of his voice was accented by his unflinching gaze as he delivered that bombshell. Something like this, there was no preparing a man for it. There was no softening the reality that war was coming. He at least had enough respect for his people to be able to look them in the eyes when he declared his intent.

 

[Revenchent]

An invasion?

Those sweet words were the taste of the honey that Calico had found himself yearning for after so long. The end of them, however, almost made his heart stop. The Confederacy. He was sure there were plenty of reasons for the war. Oppression of the people, harboring Sith, a slave Army....he didn't care anymore. The Omega Protectorate represented freedom; a realm for the warrior who didn't wish to be controlled by a higher power. He knew, then and there, that if he wished, he could simply stand up and walk away. Were the Lord Protector as good a man as he thought him to be, then [member="Ayden Cater"] would simply let him go.

He made no move to leave. The former Grand Marshal settled down into the chair, his expression one of calm resignation. His sons had all been freed of that wretched piece of the galaxy when the Liberty Concord was founded. His sons had died to protect the Confederacy's corporate assets. They had died for credits. It was when he left, and only when he left, that Calico realized that warriors could only fight for other warriors. Sure, the sentiment of saving civilians was nice, and he would always try to avoid collateral damage, but the truth was plain to the Chieftain. The free merchants and tradesman of the Confederacy didn't matter.

"Then they will atone for their sins with the lives of their...clientele." Calico mused quietly. "I have no qualms with it. I'll march at the front of our boys if the opportunity arises, Lord Protector. Just give me the legal details as to why we're doing this, and what intelligence you need from me."

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Calico Tal'Verda"]

"Why? The answer to why is simple; they've given me a thousand reasons to wage war upon them." Ayden began typing on the keyboard at his desk, activating a miniature holoprojector. From it came his figure and the figure of a man Calico would know all too well. "Then-Grand Marshal Isley Verd. I could pin him for ordering the murder of civilian shuttles over Geonosis near the Confederacy's foundings. As I understand, Ashin Varanin very nearly had his head put on a plate for her. The Confederacy was founded on murder and one man's greed."

"Since then, we've been given examples of conspiracy to commit war crimes, conspiracy to invade a foreign state, attacking a foreign head of state, conspiring with the Sith, attempted mass murder. I don't think I'd have to come up with too many words to help paint this picture to anyone else." He smiled mirthlessly before shaking his head. It was honestly surprising to him that Cira had not sounded the call for war months earlier. "And to top it all off, they're responsible for the assassination of the Exarch of Naboo." That was not a fact that was publicly known, even inside the Protectorate. As far as the public was concerned, the Exarch had simple succumbed to failing health and had retreated from the public light. "I'm not sure at what point I -shouldn't be invading them."

For a time, he said nothing else and simply stared at the hologram. Finally he sighed and refocused his attention on General Tal'Verda. "You are a former Grand Marshal, as I understand it. That would mean you were at the top of their chain of command. Means you know how they think, how they react. You know how they fight. What I need from you, General, is nothing less than a complete debriefing of the Confederate defense network and response time."

 

[Revenchent]

And so it had came to this. Events in history were rarely so clear when they were actually about to occur. Calico had all the knowledge Ayden needed, and then some. He knew exactly how this little war would end.


"It's been a few months since I left, but I highly doubt much has changed, Sir." Calico began. He knit his brow in deep thought, and ran a hand through his short beard as he decided just what needed to be said. "First of all, the Confederacy's navy is in a constant state of motion. It's rare for a staple ship to stay in service for long. During my tenure, the San-hill Star Destroyer was the standard. We had around sixty in full service, and almost the entirety of its snub fighter force is completely inorganic. All droids."

The former Commando cracked a small slip of a smile; a ghost of the wide, warming, long gone smiles that the lines around his eyes payed homage to. "In the space game, the Confederacy generally swarms, swarms, and swarms some more. The main cause of victory, however, are small thirty man troop transports fully outfitted with Stygium. They're the perfect stealth shuttles, the perfect insertion craft, and the perfect bombers. Devastating if deployed correctly."

He began to dig into his belt, and after a moments searching, pulled a large tablet free. It was an enlarged datapad, and the image of a stunning planet surrounded by ships of seemingly endless number flashed up over its service. The image fought with the one of Isley Verd's for supremacy, and its vibrant colors were winning at the moment. "This is Zenith Prime, the most fortified and strategically valuable planet in the south of Coruscant. The planet is almost completely artificial. Its atmosphere can be adjusted with the touch of a button, its continents moved from the planet's capital, Fort Tal'verda. The Confederacy commissioned its construction from an old Vong world under my order. If you want to win the war quickly--" He pointed an armored finger at the image. "This is what you want. Bothuwai is important, but this is where the soldiers come from. Its where the San-hills are made. It's where the soldiers are trained, and its where the injured warriors are moved to."


The General paused to take a breath. He stretched his arms up high, and seemed a whole lot more comfortable now than when he was when he came in. "Before I continue, Sir, got any caf?"

[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Calico Tal'Verda"]

He made notes while Tal'Verda spoke. Swarming space with drones and droid fighters; how painfully predictable. He wasn't particularly worried over that fact. A great many of the Protectorate ships had flak cannons, so such antics would do little. His mention of the San Hill brought a raised eyebrow to the Corellian. Surely there were more than that, or perhaps they were building other ships besides the San Hill... Either way, the idea that the Confederacy maintained a paltry sixty heavy cruisers for the bulk of their armed forces was laughable. Their stealth ships did not concern him either. The Fringe had tried that little trick at Eriadu, and the Protectorate learned its lesson.

When the man asked for caf, Ayden chuckled. In spite of this massive revelation, the man was apparently quite at ease. That was good. "You name it, I'll have it brought in. And on the off chance you need a stronger pick me up..." He leaned back and opened one of the drawers of his desk and produced from it a bottle of Corellian whiskey, setting it on the edge of the desk for the man.

"Knowing all of that, it's apparent to me that the Protectorate lacks a means of infiltration. Already I've ordered excavation and transport of stygium within Protectorate space. What I would like, General, is to make a ship designed so that you, and those like you, can sneak past the bulk of the Confederacy's defenses and disable them from the planet's side. Despite the inevitable loss of life in war, my goal is to wage this war with as little loss of life as I can. On both sides."

 

[Revenchent]

Calico eyed the whiskey with more than a little temptation. There was an...event involving alcohol two months ago that had made him swear off the stuff. As much as he wanted to have a taste, the soldier waved it off as politely as possible. "Love too, but I'm trying to ween myself. It's not an enjoyable experience."


The now-General fell silent as the Lord Protector explained his little idea. Stygium meant stealth ships, and stealth ships were lovely little treats indeed. Calico's slip of a smile widened to something a bit more genuine. "The military was downsizing when I left. I wasn't expecting a war, and people were calling for full disarmament, if you can believe it. Needless to say, besides the ground forces, the Confederacy won't be much of an issue in combat."

He set his hands neatly on the table, and gave the bottle a passing glance. "The ground is where you have the issues. As I'm sure you know, the Confederacy has a thing for being the victim in...everything they're involved in. The citizens will fight back as soon as we're BOG---so on you're decision for a little infiltration team, I fully agree."

He paused for a moment, and chewed down on his lower lip as if in deep thought. Finally, he spoke. "A simple stealth insertion or did you have something orbital based in mind?"


[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Calico Tal'Verda"]

Ayden nodded and respectfully put the bottle away. No need to leave temptation out like that. "Well, I'm not concerned with civilians. The Confederacy leaders have shot themselves in the foot every which way on this one. It would take a great fool or a delusional man to back the Confederacy after all this is said and done." He chuckled throatily. Naturally there would be plenty who would do as they were told and fight for a government that would throw their lives away like refuse. But a line had to be drawn. Clearly the madness of Isley Verd and his ilk was not going to be contained from within, so it had to be contained from outside.

"I'm not overly concerned with their fleet presence either. The Protectorate fleet is well maintained. However, it would be preferable to secure their shipyards and other orbital assets over destroying them. The less we destroy during the course of this war, the better it will be for us. I aim to liberate these worlds from the Confederacy's madness, not plunge them into oblivion." It was tricky business trying to balance a want for justice against a need to not subjugate the innocents to unnecessary cruelty. He wanted to save them, not destroy them. "Even if I wanted to strike at Zenith Prime, we'll need a world closer to our borders to use as a staging ground. Druckenwell comes to mind. What do you know about the planet?" As he asked this, a thermos of StarCaf coffee was brought in and set on the table for the general.

 

[Revenchent]

Ah. Drunkenwell.


That world was a topic of debate that made itself at every meeting of the Confederacy's executive council. When Calico had sat on the board, the council members had often fought over Drunkenwell's civil status. The planet was the staple of corporate takeover on a planetwide scale. Everything was centered on business and the economy; morals and other luxuries as the planet's inhabitants called them were reserved for those with enough money to observe them.

"Drunkenwell is a planet sized symbol of the Confederacy's greed. The entire planet is run by industry. The government is run by corporate guilds with the Confederacy's blessing. The Vong took it a long time ago, or so I'm told, and the 'Feds took it back a few years ago." He set his elbow on the table, and his chin in his hands. "The populace goes out to the highest bidder most of the time. I doubt we'll have much issue with them."

He paused for a moment, and exhaled a deep sigh. The soldier's smile broadened even more so, if that were possible. "It's also home to one of the Confederacy's biggest droid factories and a rather important shipyard. Strategically, it's the perfect world to start a campaign with, and it's not exactly the best defended. There shouldn't be a planetary shield, though you shouldn't take my word for it. Things can change in a few months."

[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Calico Tal'Verda"]

"Sounds like the perfect place to start. Liberate the general populace, expose the wider Confederate systems to the wrong-doings of the Confederacy hierarchy, and cripple the Confederacy's war production facilities." Ayden smiled and nodded. It was a very good target. Apparently the Confederacy had believed that no one would dare touch them, if what the general was saying was true. Of course, as he admitted himself, there could have been changes since the former Grand Marshal defected. Even so, slightly outdated information was better than no information at all.

"By the time this invasion is launched, we'll have enough of these new stealth ships to allow you and several more teams a chance to land on the surface or orbital platforms. I suggest you begin preparing for the operation. The ships are already being built now, and the stygium will be used to make cloaking generators in no time. It won't be long. The people of the Confederacy will see their masters in their true forms." He paused and looked at the general. "What about you, General? Will you be okay with waging war on a place you once called home? Are there any within the Confederacy that you fear to face?"

 

[Revenchent]

"It's a sound way to start the war." Calico stated calmly. A brow was raised ay the Lord Protector's rather personal question. Professionalism aside, it was still a bit difficult for Calico to come up with the correct kind of reply.


"They used my brothers and sons as slaves. Now my sons are all dead, my comrades are gone, and the values I fought for simply don't matter." He shook his head slowly. "I am a warrior, and I fight for you because you took in those I was charged with protecting. If there's no war, then I have no purpose. We aren't normal people, we aren't content to live normal lives."

His hands came up to rest behind his head, and the General smiled solemnly. "I don't care what happens to the Confederacy sir. I won't stand for any of the innocents being harmed, but I won't lose any sleep over a government falling. The only one left there is my brother, Galaar, and I'm rather sure he'll join us when he realizes the war is real. So, to put it bluntly--no, I have no fear, only anticipation and a bit of healthy caution, Sir."

[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Calico Tal'Verda"]

Ayden nodded in understanding. "Thank you again for coming, General Tal'Verda. I won't take up any more of your time. I'm sure you've got plenty of orders to give in preparation for this." A lot more orders would be given before the day was out. With what the general had given him, Ayden was confident that these new stealth ships would be exactly what he needed to get advanced combat teams on the ground and on the orbital stations to make way for the general troops. Elsewhere, orders for metals and parts would be carried out and acquired. This was not a project that anyone would be able to track unless they knew exactly what to look for, and by the time they did it would be too late.

As the general stood up to leave, Ayden spoke one last time. "Make no mistake. War is coming, with all its glory. And all of its horror."