E1S1 - Assignment

Kalavera found herself in an Alliance briefing room on Sy Myrth when Commander Jonas walked in, "Greetings Kalvera, I hope today is finding you in good spirits." It had been nearly a three months since the major victory at the battle of Endor but the Empire was far from being broken. Still they were not as effective as prior to that battle and they were losing ground so things seemed to be on a good path.

Commander Jonas continued, "We have gotten some information that might prove to be useful if it has any substance to it so we want you to go to Formos and talk with a Duros named Banu at Rii Jenks a Cantina near the space port there. However, while this sounds fairly easy I need to warn you that sector is starting to heat up so you are going to have to be careful. Still we will be providing you with a excellent pilot and a fairly good low profile ship so hopefully if you encounter any trouble there you will be able to get out if necessary. Any questions?"

Kalavera nods respectfully to Commander Jonas as he enters the room, turning her attention to him as he speaks and lays out the situation. A wave of relief spreads through at the mention of the victory over Endor, but she does know how far from truly defeated the Empire is. Nodding as the Commander speaks she thinks for a few minutes after he finishes before asking, "I'm doing well, Commander, thanks for asking. This Duros, is he going to have actionable intelligence or is this a retrieve info and report back sort of mission? Also, we if we run into trouble out there, is this pilot a fighter, or a taxi driver?"

"Well... how should I put this. He is a really good fighter pilot. He just... can be a bit of loose cannon. So if a fight breaks out you are more likely going to have to pull in on the reigns than be concerned about him not putting up a fight. Still you will have a ships tech as well and they will not take to kindly to getting the ship all shot up so you can count on them to help with the reigning in if it becomes necessary.

As to this assignment I think you misunderstood me. We got information from our contact that this might be worth looking into. What you will be doing is getting employed by this Banu character and from them you will be getting details. So at this point it is mostly a just go see what it is exactly then decide what needs to be done from there. Your just going into a rather hot zone, is all. Is that clear."

"Roger that. Yeah, I misunderstood the parameters. So our contact is Banu who will have some assignment or assignments for us. What is our check-in procedure for contacting HQ? After having spent so long working in the dark, and flying under the Empire's radar it still baffles me to think that their broken and trying to pick up pieces..." Kalavera answered, shaking her head in wonder at the change the last few months had made.

"Okay to be clear Banu is not a contact, in fact we do not even know all that much about them. They are simply the source that is going to higher your crew to do something that involves something that our contact felt may be of interest to the Alliance. So sorry for all that vagueness but this is not currently high on the Alliance's agenda, however, it might be should what you find out about it raise it from an interest to a priority. However in order to contact the Alliance you will have to pull back to Nimat which is about a 4 day journey one way from Formos so you will be pretty much on your own while in that region so use your best judgement in what you do and pursue and contact us as soon as it is practical to do so."

"Ah, ok. I understand now. We're meeting with an unknown quantity in this Duros and are to assess the situation as it progresses. The pilot and mechanic, how much information are they to be privy to, Commander, as I notice they are not in this briefing?" Kalavera nods, finally understanding the situation, she believes, and makes a few notes onto her datapad.

"Well that is going to be up to you to decide once you have assessed the situation, although on the ground the pilot is going to be your backup as I doubt you will get the tech to leave the ship once he finds out where you are going. With that said, you will probably want to let him know something about what you are doing, as you do not want him blowing your cover when you go to accept that job. Now to be fair, he is not all bad. He is just a bit overzealous when it comes to the Empire which has gotten him into trouble for not following orders. We are hoping that if he is not facing down the Empire he will be a bit more manageable."

"We'll call it a take on need-to-know, then. I do think that, in some cases, people work better if they know a bit about the 'why', but let me meet up with the team and see what I think. Based on your earlier comment, I'm guessing there's going to be no ground support or anything else standing by if the situation is worse than expected, but we'll get it sorted out, Commander." Kalavera says after tapping out a last few notes on her pad. As she finishes speaking, and typing, she glances up and throws a casual sort of salute. She'd never really gotten used to the militaristic stylings of the Rebellion, the Jedi had never had anything so formal, though the Grand Army of the Republic... Well, that was a different time, a different life away. Deal with the here and now. Standing up she paused for a moment, tapping the side of her datapad as she thought before adding, "Any other information you might have would be helpful. Pictures, background info on the Duros, anything like that. You know how it is, the more you know, after all, right?"

"No all we got was the name," he holds out a finger, "the species," increases it to two fingers, "where to find them" adds his thumb, "oh and" he pulls in the thumb and shows four fingers, "he is a blue skin almost forgot about that, good thing you asked. Also you will be taking the Epoch Raven it does not look like much but from what I hear Gakli has enhanced it some. Oh and that's your Tech by the way and your pilot's name is Zane. Yeah that is about it, I suggest you get your supplies and get going its about 7 days to Formos."

"Sounds like a plan. That bit of information might help, yeah. I'll get right on it, Commander. May the Force be with you." Kalavera says, adding the last almost as an after thought. She'd been hearing more and more folks saying it since Endor, even before then, since the Skywalker kid joined up a few years back and things really felt like they'd taken a turn, but especially since Endor. It felt weird saying now what so many years before was almost a ritual dismissal, but it also felt right. With a nod to the Commander she left the briefing room and headed towards where she could requisition supplies for the mission.

After that was set in motion, she figured it was time to meet up with this "Zane" character, and the tech, Gakli. She turned her steps towards the hanger area, knowing most pilots rarely drifted far from their ships if they could avoid it. She also figured that the techie might be there as well, tinkering away.

Zane sits on his crate, flicking a credit ship through his fingers.

As he notices people passing by, Zane starts doing, flicking the credit chip from hand to hand.

He tries to project the air of someone who is totally content where he is, but frequent glances to the boarding ramp suggest that he isn't.

As Kalavera looks around the hanger bay, she can't help but notice the Epoch Raven sitting around, being loaded and fueled up. She doesn't know much about ships, but it seems like it should suit their purposes more than well enough. Without knowing who Zane or Gakli are, nor what they looked like, she snagged a passing maintenance tech and said, "I'm sorry to bother you, Tech, but I'm curious if you know who the pilot of that ship, the Epoch Raven, is?"

"The exact pair for whom I was searching. Much appreciated." Kalavera says with a thankful nod to the technician before turning to head towards the one identified as "Zane". As she walks across the bay, she reaches up and straightens out the strands of the headdress adorning her montrals. As she gets close, she lets her gaze run over the human figure as he sits on the crate, fidgeting with the credit chip. Clearing her throat she says, "Good morning. You must be Zane. I'm Kalavera, though feel free to call me Kala if you prefer. You're to be my pilot, or so I hear...?"

Zane's fingers move inhumanly fast, spinning the credit chip around his hand before it flicks into the inside pocket of his jacket.

Kalavera raises an eyebrow at the response before glancing down at the pocket into which the chip had vanished, but holding back any comment. With her head she nods towards the ship identified to her as the Epoch Raven and says, "Well, if you're Zane, and that's the Epoch Raven, then yes, you are my pilot. Did you get any orders or...?" Leaving the question hanging, she glances at his outfit, scanning it for insignia or anything as she tries to determine whether he's actually a member of the Rebellion, or whatever they were going to call themselves now that there was nothing to rebel against, or merely a hired hand or mercenary.