captain_brandei

OOC: Ulic, if you wanna create an Imp persona or three, be my guest; we've got a lot of good guys shadow-boxing with bad guys right now.

For those who aren't already there, the Mission at Hefi roleplay needs some more bodies. Specifically, we need some Imperials, plus somebody willing to play a Bothan ambassador with a serious attitude. Go ahead and leave me a message here and I'll fill you in.

OOC: For those who aren't already there, the Mission at Hefi roleplay needs some more bodies. Specifically, we need some Imperials, plus somebody willing to play a Bothan ambassador with a serious attitude. Go ahead and leave me a message here and I'll fill you in.

OOC: Arten, didn't forget you... IC: A three man security team strode up to the ship and assumed position outside the ramp of the cargo vessel, and simply stood there, waiting for the pilot to exit.

As General Drelin: The General looked up as Cadet Brandei and Major Karn walked in, Brandei immediately snapping to attention, Karn adopting a somewhat more relaxed pose. Not disrespectful, but relaxed. "Major, have a seat for a moment while I deal with the Cadet, here." "Cadet, you do realize that your chain of command exists for a reson, correct?" "Yes, sir" The reply wasn't proud, but it wasn't ashamed, either. Drelin smothered a grin, managing to keep his face deadpan while he continued. "During this battle, you repeatedly ignored that chain by forcing your way onto other command nets to disseminate information. By doing so, you prevented other sections, many of them more critical than a single turbolaser, from communicating with me in a tense combat situation. Do you understand that gravity of that?" "Yes, sir" Drelin grunted, then shifted his attention to Karn. "Major, you have extensive combat experience with the Rebellion, and you're quite familiar with Imperial tactics and capabilities. Alone, all things being functional and equal, how much chance does an Imperial Strike Cruiser stand against an MC-80 cruiser carrying a standard 3 squadrons of fighters, 2 of X-wings, one of A-wings? And ONLY answer that question; I intend to educate the Cadet here."

"Heh. I think I did screw up, but not anything I did today...I think the General might think I'm somebody dangerous" Before Alex had a chance to decide whether or not to explain any further, he heard General Drelin summoning them both into his quarters.

IC: Alex took a good hard look at the man in the outdated uniform, trying to figure out if he needed to address him by rank or not. Better safe than sorry, I suppose. Like I need anybody else pissed at me... "You screw something up too, sir, or does the General need you for something else?"

OOC: Yeah, it's still going. I fell off the map for awhile. Sorry everybody. Posts coming soon.

From the bridge of the Alderaan, General Drelin watched the Star Destroyer's battle group complete its jump into hyperspace. We need better gravity well technology, he mused. I'm gtting sick of the Imps jumping in and out wherever they want. There aren't enough 7700s to go around. Maybe if we started dedicating some of the new frigate hulls to interdiction...something to bring up when we get back... Logging the thought for later, he turned to his chief of staff. "Ok, we've got work to do. Start by informing our Bothan he'll have to contact his representative on Hefi and push things back a day or two. I don't want anybody important on the ground just yet" Distantly, he wondered how the Bothan would react to being spoken of as "theirs". Probably the same way I did the first time he talked about "his" escort group". "Second, contact Major Karn and have him report here. Get me that kid who was cluttering the freqencies, too. Did we ever figure out his name?" "Yes, sir. Captain Nulos of the Revolution said it was a Cadet Brandei, a turbolaser crewman." "Brandei as in the Coruscant Brandeis?" At the blank look he got back, he snapped "Find out. I like to know these things." "Third, I want every tagalong we have on this trip, all the extra civilians that Command insited I give rides to, to be ready for a radio conference in 4 hours" "Finally, bring that smuggler's ship we snagged in before he either burns out his engines or pulls something clever and gets away. I want him brought here to the bridge as soon as his ship is secured."

"Ok...I'm sure a lot of people, at the time, would have told you what a standup guy Senator Palpatine was, but it's two different people. I guess time will tell."

"That's the other thing", Alex brought up as he motioned for another drink. "I might be a little more comfortable with the hero-worship Skywalker garners had he NOT been a Jedi, or on his way to being one, when he won at Yavin." Alex took a deep breath, and a long pull on his drink, before he went on; the subject he was about to raise was most certainly not a popular one these days. "Has anybody given any thought to how far Skywalker should be trusted? I don't know the man personally, of course, so it's hard to judge too much, but like I said, I've been trained to look at things historically." "Right now, one man stands alone as the single most powerful Force user in the galaxy. That man is a popular hero, and is seen as the pivotal force in restoring order to a galaxy-gone-chaotic. This man ALSO has the ear and attention of every member of the Republic's heirarchy." "The last time the galaxy saw an immensely popular, immensly powerful, well-connected Force user, some madman created a superweapon and blew up two planets, well on his way to a third...something to think about, at least."

"Oh, I give Skywalker full credit for doing the impossible at Yavin. I couldn't have done it; of course, I'm not all that much of a pilot, myself." "My point is, simply, that if it hadn't been Skywalker at Yavin, it would have been somebody else, somewhere else. Luke's the man who did the job, but Palpatine's brand of corruption always, eventually, prompts a response." [/i]

Alex grabbed a chair and sat down,motioning for another dirk as he did so. "My name's Alex Brandei...uh, go ahead and call me Alex, though." "Not much to say about the Rebellion, other than that is was bound to succeed, sooner or later. Skywalker's a talented guy, dont get me wrong, but if it hadn't been him at Yavin, it'd have been somebody else somewhere else. If the universve has proven anything conclusively, it's that absoulte and autonomous control by any one being can't work in the long run, especially once the sense of that control gets ahold of them. Palpatine was a dying regime from the moment he disbanded the Senate. My, uh, parents made me study a lot of history, growing up."

Heh. Yeah, she agreed to contribute some female voices, figuring she's been hearing me play the damn game long enough, she might as well throw her own voice in it.

Two questions, while I'm finishing these up: 1) For the fighter goups, I've run the sound through a distortion effect that has them soundin like they're coming over a fighter's com unit (for whatever reason, it seems that cap ships can communicate normally, but fighters always sound like they're using a WWI shortwave). Continue to do so, or take them back out? If it's a matter of continuity, you can send me the other fighter goups, and I can make them match what I've done with these. 2) You sent the list of which ones you wanted me to do, but not my wife? Should I just pick a Rebel fghter group?

Only too eager to escape the now-silent Imperial officer's presence, and seeing one of the veteran spacers a few tables over indicate him at one point, Alex decided he'd had enogh to drink to start being social. He stood up, nodded silently to the blue-skinned officer, and wandered over to the table, catching the last bits of conversation on Why the Rebels Won the War. "You know, I think, personally, Skywalker didn't have that much to do with it. Mind if I join you?"

OOC: For the time being unless somebody else want's to jump in (or somebody higher ranking wants to kick me out of the spot!), I'll go ahead and run the General commanding the task force, General Drelin. It'll make it easier for me to coordinate a few things for the next little while. I'll Header my posts so everybody knows which is which.

Alex's "request" for manual targeting had paid off. From the not-quite-trustworthy sensor station, he caught glimpses of the larger overall battle...a Corellian ship and some smaller escorts (look like civilians...what're they doing here in the first place?) were confusing TIE support from the ISD. Suddenly, his sensors cleared: he was able to get a good look at what was left of the Strike cruisers had been pounding on, and caught several tiny signals dropping away from it toward the planet's surface. Opting to bypass the gunnery officer, he dialed in the bridge directly "Sir, pull everybody out; the cruiser's about to blow!" Whether because their sensors were also clearing, or because they'd finally decided the gunner crewman might maybe know what he was talking about, the Revolution resonded immediately, pulling away from the doomed cruiser and repositioning to face the other Imperial group that wasn't advancing; he noticed the Alderaan also got clear just as the cruiser blew apart from the inside; from the sensor picture, Alex noted that it was likely self-destructed. Alex noticed the gunnery officer moving over to his station, and casually leaned back and said "I expect the Destroyer group will probably back out now, sir...that cruiser seems to have been their sensor coverage" No sooner had he said that then he noticed the ISD (which now LOOKED like an ISD to his poor sensors) was rearranging its support ships and backing out of the system. "You know, Cadet, you're just a font of useful information today. Power down your station...your gunner's on manual anyway. The Captain'd like to have a word with you. I'm to escort you to the bridge personally." Wonderful...I wonder if this is about jumping chain, or talking back to my officers, or maybe just where I 'd heard about experimental Imperial sensor tactics... The last thing Alex noticed before powering down his station was a small freighter caught in the Revolution's tractors.

OOC: Well, nobody's playing Imps yet, so I'll grab you in my next couple of posts. It's time to chase the Imps off for a bit, anyway.

OOC: Transfered, as in...ahem...encouraged...to report to the Alderaan for a specific, limited-duration assignment. You'll see me drop a cue in a bit here

OOC: Aslo, if you can figure a way to do it, Krytos, I'd like to see your character transfered over to the Alderaan (the MC 80 leading the task force) as soon as the immediate shooting stops.

OOC:Depends on what you're asking. Commander of the current fleet (The task force assigned to Hefi), the fighter commander? "General", at least as I'm familiar with its usage in Lucasworld, denoteds the leader of either a ground force or a special task-force of fighters. Then again, SWR is giving us Army ranks for playing naval (mostly) characters... Let's put it this way. I'd say there's probably a few different chiefs in this tribe...you'd have the task group commander (in charge of the ships and men), as well as the head diplomat, and it'd probably be a toss-up as to which was ACTUALLY in charge of saying "yes, we'll do this or that". Think Dark Force Rising, where you had both Borsk Fey'lya and the ship commander (can't remember the character's name, was it Virgilio?) "in charge" at various points. Either way, nobody's played either character yet, and nobody's named them, so far as I know. Unless somebody else wants to step up, put whatever name you want in charge of the fleet...let's have one of Fey'lya's Bothans be the diplomat, just for the sake of some fun.

Heh...consider me chastised. I can't bitch about technical problems...just one of those where something always seems to come up that needs stricter attantion. You'll have mine end-of-weekend, sir.

Alex had a problem. As the Revolution accelerated to engage the Strike cruiser in close orbit, he peered at his sensors, still trying to get his gun commander accurate readings. His sensors still showed the cruiser as an assault shuttle, and Revolution's turbolasers, like so many in the Republic fleet, were still civil war vintage; they couldn't accurately taget something as small as a shuttle with any sort of accuracy until it was close, and no way was the ship getting that close to another capital ship. As soon as he heard the report of the ISD dropping out of hyperspace, he, on a hunch, focused his scan on it. It showed as an ISD for about 5 seconds, before his screen blanked momentarily, then reappeared on his sensors as another assault shuttle. What was it his father had said that one time...? He turned to his gun commander and said "Sir, switch to manual targeting; they're messing with our sensors". Not waiting to get an acknowledgement from his superior, he toggled his communicator to the Gunnery commander's channel. "Sir, the Imperials are using a new type of jammer on us, and they're doing it from a pretty good distance. Please get the word out to the fleet that they're going to have to target manually, or we won't be able to hit anything until we get too close for safety" "What jamming? We're not showing ANY sort of emissions from any of the Imperial ships." "That's because it's precise enough to target INDIVIDUAL sensors; check with the bridge, and I bet they'll tell you half their sensors read correctly, the other half are wrong. I'm betting they're concentrating on the gunners to try to get us in close." "You have any data on that, Cadet?" Alex didn't miss the extra emphasis placed on his rank. "No sir, I don't, but unless you move smartly, we're not going to last long enough to collect any, are we?" Dad was the fleet politician; Alex was a lot more concerned about surviving this mission.

Alex took his seat and drank in silence for a minute, waiting for the Imperial to break the silence. When he didn't, he nervously said "Uh, thanks for the drink. To what do I owe the, uh, pleasure?"