Chapter 2: Forges of Ithyari

[Rogue 4]

Nat nodded, rising from his chair after a moment and testing his weight on his leg. "Sounds like a plan, Captain."

[Vergere 1]

She glanced at his leg, "You okay?"

Edited November 1, 2007 by Rogue
present to past tense

[Rogue 4]

"I ah...got shot at with a Stouker concussion rifle on a...training run a few weeks ago." He admitted, keeping most of his weight on his other leg. "Missed, but the impact sent a metal rod through my thigh...it's still a little tender." Actually, he was supposed to still be going through physical therapy, but had managed to somehow fast-track himself into active duty again. And that jump before probably hadn't helped it any.

[Vergere 1]

Brier just gave him an amused expression, "Ah." She shook her head and then exited the shuttle. As she walked past Layla, she held the holodisk between two fingers, "How much?" She just grinned wickedly at her as she pocketed the disk again and continued to walk.

[Rogue 4]

Layla's granite gray eyes danced wickedly, as her lips quirked up into a Corelliaesque lopsided grin. Nat caught the exchange and sighed deeply, shaking his head before heading down into the campsite. He was trying not to limp. Nima was easily exciteable and he didn't want her to take him off active duty.

[Vergere 1]

"Alright kiddos, who has the Intel so I can get started while you all relax?" Brier's voice was light and easy, obviously in a good mood after the shuttle ride, and her eyes had a merry wickedness in them.

[Mara 29]

Kaden exited the 'fresher unit of the shuttle and followed the rest of his squadron mates down out of the ship and into their camp. He headed straight for Artie.

[Ayingel 24]

Szen slowly got off the shuttle. The events of the day were really taking a toll on her, even though she was in shape. Looking for the box of rations, she grabbed one and found an area outside of the tents to lie down. Szen sighed as her head hit the ground. She pulled out her holo and pulled up some pictures of her friends and some of the students from the academy. You guys were amazing, but it's time to let go. Szen deleted them all except for one group shot. It was her favourite, so there wasn't a point to get rid of it, and it had everyone who was in the other pictures anyway. Hopefully, soon, I'll have a picture like this from the Revenants. Putting the holo down, she looked up at the sky.

[Mara 29]

Kaden broke into a tired but wide grin. "Artie! Did you miss me?"

Artie tootled at him.

"Yes, I'm still in one piece..." He rolled his eyes.

[Drake 53]

Captain Tunon exited the shuttle and stood off to the side of the ramp as everyone departed. He took the datapad containing the intelligence information from his pocket and glanced at the data on the screen. Aeric looked up when Nat and Brier departed and waved them over with the datapad in hand. "Lieutenant, Captain. If you don't mind foregoing the post-mission nap, I'd like us to get started on this plan right away."

Without waiting for a reply, he turned from the two and made his way towards his planning tent.

***

Tak looked at Layla and raised a questioning eyebrow. "So what was that there then, hmm?" He asked, nodding towards the back of Brier. The Intelligence Captain was following the Captain alongside Lieutenant Riamor. "The holodisc she flashed you?"

[Vergere 1]

Brier spoke dryly, but so soft that only Nat could hear her, "Was that a choice?"

She followed Nat and Aeric into the planning tent as Aeric sent the information to both Nat and her datapads for analysis. Once she recieved it, she sat on the ground and pulled up the information, trying to scan it quickly to get an overview of what they'd gotten before actually going into details.

[Drake 53]

When the two Revenant officers took seats at the chairs around the planning table, Aeric looked down at Brier. "You sure you don't want to sit in a chair?"

[Vergere 1]

Brier looked down at the ground she was sitting on, then up at the chairs, then down at the ground again. "Well, it's rather comfortable down here..." However she sighed softly and got up, sitting at one of the empty chairs at the table. "But it will probably be helpful if I'm at eye level." She smiled and shrugged. "Alright, so, let's narrow down what we're primarily looking for in all this Imperial jibberish."

[Princess 35]

Nima found a quiet spot just away from the rest of the squadron. She started stretching, trying to work out the kinks from the mission.

[Mara 29]

Artie and Kaden headed off towards the ration food boxes, where Kaden picked up another ration bar and tore into it.

"So nothing eventful, huh?" He asked of his droid as they moved away from the pile.

Artie swiveled his dome and tootled.

"That's good. I don't know how long it'll last though... "

The droid stopped moving and Kaden sat down next to him on the ground, noticing they were near the tarped X-wings. He glanced at it before looking back at Artie. He gave him a light pat. "Soon we'll be back up in the sky..."

Artie twittered happily.

[Rogue 4]

"That was the holovid of your fellow Lieutenant attempting to jump out an exploding window." Layla grinned broadly, looping her thumbs around her beltloops. "But I'd like to think of it as endless hours of laughter."

She looked over to Tak, her eyes sympathetic at the redness in his cheeks. "Sorry about the slapping by the way..."

Edited November 3, 2007 by Rogue

[Mara 29]

Kaden was finishing up his ration bar when Artie whistled sharply.

"What is it?"

A series of tootles and beeps came from the droid, and Kaden reddened a bit.

"Well, I needed to fit in, so... uhh.. Szen helped me pick out some clothes... for the mission..."

Artie chirped.

"Oh, shut up."

[Drake 53]

Tak absently rubbed one cheek, as if just noticing for the first time. "Oh yeah, no problem. It made for a good show. Besides, you're not the first woman to smack me around." He laughed and gave her a grin.

***

"As you know, Captain," said Aeric, "our primary targets will be the starfighter factory in Elyanti, the ground-based weapons factory in Evyani, the droid foundries of Iriya and the Ithyar orbital shipyards. Now, the closest to our current position is Elyanti. It's only a few dozen klicks from here. We should hit there first. Next will be Evyani in the tropics followed by Iriya, which is on the other side of the planet. The shipyards can be taken care of on our way out. Now, I would prefer to blast these from the comfort of our ships but if we need to send in teams to take it out from the inside, I'd like to know what we're gettingi into. What can you find on their respective defenses?"

[Rogue 4]

"You know you liked it, Lieutenant." She grinned back and winked, glad nobody was within earshot. "Now I heard a rumor that there's a 'fresher on one of these shuttles and all this 'stage makeup' is suffocating me, so I'll come find you post-shower." Her voice lowered. " 'Sides, I ought to get out of here before I do or say something to get you in trouble."

[Vergere 1]

Brier nodded and began going through all the files quickly, focused and intense in her work, losign all track of time.

[Drake 53]

Tak laughed. "Probably a good idea, hun. Besides," he double-checked that no one was around, "Even though roleplaying is fun and all, I'll be glad to have my hot pink Zeltron back."

He looked over his shoulder to where their X-Wings were parked. Tak could see their astromech droids going about whatever droid business they had. "I think I'm going to change into something more comfortable then run preflights on our fighters. Never know when we'll need to go, am I right?" He turned to walk towards the crew tents but stopped and turned his head back to Layla, a smirk crossing his lips. "On that note...you might have to fly in a towel if you take too long."

[Vergere 1]

After a half an hour, Brier put her datapad down on the table, making it clank loud enough to get the attention of her coworkers. "This is what I came up with, gentlemen. Elyanti: lightest of the defenses. They figure they have enough starfighters to attack anyone that is stupid enough to try and take them out -- that's assuming, however, that the attacker was coming in from space, and that the planetary defenses would have picked up on the incoming ships, giving the plant long enough to send out the starfighters to intercept.

"Second up is mountainous Iriya. Second lightest, but some defenses. The droid factories are expecting, if anything, a ground invasion. In other words, don't do it. This is one you have to attack from the air. There are some roof-mounted anti-air weaponry, but it is a light attack. It can easily take out a starfighter, but it is, from what I've been able to gather, is not intended to go up against aircraft as agile as ours. You should be good to go, if you don't stop mid-air to let them hit you.

"Third up is tropical Evyani. If you couldn't tell, I'm working up the list to the hardest to attack. So this is the second most difficult attack, I believe. Primarily the same defenses they're making at the factory. Amazing, huh? So most of that stuff is anti-air weapons. However, here is their weakness: they take a long time to power up. They are not expecting attacks, and they seem to be more for show than anything, according to Imp records. They think that starfighters and the like will protect them, and that they're not a major target." She shrugged. "Never said these men were intelligent. But anyways, once these bad boys are online, you're in trouble. They're fast, agile, and meant to go against 'Rebel' attacks as they refer to them. If you can hit hard enough and fast enough before they get warmed up and powered up, you're fine. If you're still around when they are fully functional..." Brier winced. "Then I'd suggest you get out of there. They are meant to go against our ships. Only if you're very lucky would you win that battle.

"And that leads to number four - the hardest of them all - the shipyards in orbit. You'll need the entire crew for this. Your only saving grace, as far as I could see, was that you would attack from the planet. Although they have equal protection all around them, the last place they should expect an attack is from the planet. However. We will have already been wrecking havoc all over the planet and they will probably expect us to at least fly past them, if not attack. They have starfighters at the ready at all times, in case of a space attack. They have anti-starfighter weaponry. They have shields. They're a small planet in terms of attack." She shook her head. "I'm thinking, personally, that the best way to do that one is to do an inside job. But then it makes escape pretty damn hard. And you can't go land an x-wing there without getting one too many questions, if you don't get blown out of the sky first."

Edited November 5, 2007 by Tyche
cut down "a few hours"

[Rogue 4]

Nat nodded thoughtfully. "It seems that for Elyanti, Iriya, and Evyani at least it would be best to split the team up to go for those targets simulataeneously, so that the Imperials don't expect the attack to come, and then it spreads them thinner when they decide to retaliate."

His lekku wriggled with consideration as he seemed to stare at his datapad, more staring out into space. "As for the shipyards, would it be at all possible to get one or two people inside? Then perhaps they can time the fireworks to coincide with our departure, allowing us to cover their escape. Our only other option is to really attack the shipyards head on."

----

Layla smirked at him knowingly, placing a hand on her hip and shifting her weight along with it. "Cool your jets flyboy before you get all excited...unless that was the point of that statement in the first place, in which case...I've flown in less before." She turned, begining to walk away, grinning. She didn't need to see his face at that remark. She already knew what his reaction would be, and her Zeltron pheromone-empathy would only confirm it. "Mull that over while you're checking the coolant lines."

Edited November 5, 2007 by Rogue

[Vergere 1]

"I agree. If we can hit the land-based plants first, that will be good. Would you have enough people, though? I would assume - correct me if I am wrong, this is my first job with starfighters - but I would assume you could break off into flights to attack the first three bases, then regroup to attack the orbital one?"

Brier sighed as she looked over her information, and rubbed her temples. "As for the shipyards... we can get people on. But I'm trying to figure out what you would do with a leftover X-wing - it wouldn't be able to help in a fight." She paused for a moment, for once looking tired as she thought through things. "I mean, I could take the support crew and the shuttle and land there, and plant some fireworks and some pretty nasties. I even have some less-than-legal counterparts on here that would probably have fun blowing things up. But you guys are the experts on this - not me, or my contacts, no matter how pyro-crazed we are. So I'm not sure what to do. I can get you any information you want to get someone aboard that ship. But as to who and the like... I don't know." It looked like it almost killed her to say that last part.

[Drake 53]

Aeric reviewed all of the information carefully. His mind was working on who he should send where. The Captain took a few minutes, while Nat and Brier discussed, to evaluate the members of his squadrons' strong points.

When Brier brought up her question and comment, Aeric finally looked up from his datapad and said, "We will have someone infiltrate the orbitals." He pointed his index and middle finger at her and made a blaster shooting motion. "You, Captain. I'd like you to take the Krazy Krakana up. While the rest of us blow things up on the ground, you will work your way into the heart of the shipyards. Find some way of sabotaging them or destroying them. When it's time to leave, we'll send you a message to get clear before we carve a path through."

Aeric turned back to his datapad. "Before I go over the mission details, I would like to call in Lieutenant Beskar. He needs to hear this as well." The Captain took out his commlink.

***

Takeshi was climbing up the ladder to Layla's X-Wing, about to start her preflight checklist, when he received a comm call from Captain Tunon telling him to report to the planning tent for a briefing.

He looked up at Layla's astromech, Sexy. The little droid was plugged into the X-Wing's socket, ready to run through the preflight with Tak. "Think you can handle this yourself?"

Sexy tweedled a positive reply.

"Good, make sure that you do. If Layla's fighter junks out halfway through the mission, I'm blaming you."

Layla's droid blew Tak a raspberry then got to work. He laughed at the droid then made his way back towards the tents.

Entering the planning tent, Takeshi offered the other officers a salute.

"At ease, Lieutenant," said Captain Tunon. He motioned to an empty seat at the table. "Have a seat. I was just about to go over the mission details and the attack flights."

Tak nodded. "Okay, sir."

Aeric smiled and looked at his datapad. "First, I thought that simply splitting the squadron into its preestablished flights would do but then I began thinking of everyones' personal strengths and how those would be needed for each location we need to attack. So I made a few revisions. The first flight will be led by myself. In it will be Szen Brǽnen, Jya Orson, and Nima Secura. Second flight will be led by Lieutenant Riamor and will consist of Aston Kendall, Kaden Staal and Jaim Adarra. Third flight will be led by Lieutenant Beskar with Arlan Vaar, Atuarre and Layla Nasrin."

Takeshi noticed Nat twitch slightly at the mention that Layla would be grouped with him. He knew that his and Layla's relationship was suspected and was ready for the XO to make mention of it in front of the Captains but the Twi'lek remained silent.

Not noticing anything from either Lieutenant, Aeric continued, "Flight One will hit the starfighter factories at Elyanti. Flight Two will attack the Evyani ground-based weapons plant. Flight Three will deal with the droid foundries at Iriya." He passed Tak a datapad. "This contains geographical data on the Iriyan mountains and military information on your target."

Tak scanned the datapad then nodded. "Understood. Thank you, sir."

"Good. Lieutenants, get your groups together and ready to leave. I want to leave in one hour." The Captain stood from his seat. "Any questions?"