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MC90 Ambition (Selvaris Mineral Field)
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Tren Drexel
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Joined: 23 Jul 2009
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 Post Posted: Fri, June 04th 2010 10:09pm    Post subject: MC90 Ambition (Selvaris Mineral Field)
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I reclined, wearily but alert. I was trying to go over in my head what had gone wrong. Had I failed my responsibility? Thanks only to Commodore Daast's intervention had Ares survived the sudden attack. It hadn't been me. I knew I was capable of more, but perhaps in that instance I had failed to keep my wits about me, to do what needed to be done. It wouldn't happen again, I told myself. I couldn't let it happen again. I didn't like setbacks, especially ones of such personal importance to me. It'd been a while since I had come up short on what people expected of me.

Commodore Kira Daast, Ares and I were seated, sprawled around the rather informal ready room of the Ambition. There were guards at both entrances to the room. We were headed back to Coruscant, but no one was willing to chance a lack of security even at the galaxy's most secure planet, especially in the aftermath of the attack on the Coruscant Jedi Temple.

We had been in silence for several minutes. The assassination attempt had ended less than a couple hours ago. Ares had no idea if the death squad had been sent to claim his life, or if their intruding while he was present was merely a coincidence.

Surprisingly, I couldn't read Ares' feelings on the matter yet. His nerves were shot from the assault, definitely, and he perhaps hadn't come to accept the occurrence fully. Maybe the thought of someone wanting him dead was even more harrowing than the results of his introspection over the New Year.


I sighed, no longer content to keep all my thoughts unvoiced. "I guess nowhere is safe anymore," I muttered a partial continuation of an earlier conversation.

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Ares Valure
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 Post Posted: Sun, June 06th 2010 03:57pm    Post subject:
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Tren's words were mostly ignored. Ares had heard them, but he didn't acknowledge them. He simply remained sitting in awkward silence, twisting his hands around each other in a sort of nervous tension. Commodore Daast stared over his shoulder at the doorway, as if expecting more assassins to come barging in. She hadn't said a word since they arrived on the ship.

Although the action was put behind them, Ares wasn't entirely sure that he was off his adrenaline high just yet. He still felt knotted up all over, and the waiting game they were playing only made him feel that much worse. However, after jumping at the sound of the door hissing open behind him, he finally came down a notch. He let out a long breath, then sat back in his seat and dropped his head limply against the back rest.

"I thought we had put things like this behind us," he muttered, closing his eyes and relaxing ever so slightly. Of course, anyone who knew him would know that it was nothing more than a front. He was just as much on edge as when they had left the scene. He took a small bit of comfort in knowing they were on their way back to Coruscant— back home, but there was still that doubt in the back of his mind that Tren was right. What if there was nowhere safe he could go?

Eventually, he lifted his head up straight and opened his eyes, though they quickly locked on to the floor rather than meeting the gazes of anyone else in the room. "This is the kind of thing we have to worry about in war, not in peace. When the Union was formed, I thought I wouldn't have to even think about this kind of thing. I suppose that's just painful optimism, isn't it?"

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Tren Drexel
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 Post Posted: Tue, June 08th 2010 06:50pm    Post subject:
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Idly picking at my chin, I listened to what Ares was saying. He was right. Well, I didn't really know how it was before the Union - I was too young. I knew how the galaxy would be without the Union. But Ares' framing of the situation summed up what, I felt, was the prevailing attitude in government in those days: false security. Ares had been a victim of it and I had been caught up in it.

I didn't know what to say to Ares to encourage him. The ability of the Union to protect its own officials, much less citizens, was falling into doubt, and everybody knew it. While the people who had formed the galaxy-wide government might think the Union had been a total success, those of us privy to more clandestine information knew that it was not the entire truth.

"Maybe. It shouldn't happen in any state of conflict," Tren mused. He glanced up at Kira with a small, apologetic smile. "No offense, Commodore."

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Kira Daast
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 Post Posted: Thu, June 10th 2010 02:49pm    Post subject:
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"None taken," Kira replied, keeping her eyes focused on the polished floor. She traced some of the patterns she could see, if only in an effort to pass the time.

She hadn't seen a great deal on conflict in her time, so she was used to anxious waiting. This was different, however. There was a tense knot under her stomach that she couldn't undo, regardless of anything she tried. There was simply nothing that would calm her nerves, which only led to more idle pondering. What would any of the other officers have done in her place? She never saw herself on the same level as so many of the others, and now her thoughts continued to race back and forth, always coming to the same doubt in the recesses of her mind.

I'm not ready for this...

"So what now?" came Ares' voice, shattering Kira's moment of reflection and finally bringing her eyes up toward the other two men. "I mean, we're going to have to figure some way of counter-attacking or... Or something."

"Not to mention we still need a Commander-in-Chief," Kira added, a small pang of regret shooting over her as she spoke. She still hadn't really come to terms with the idea of there being so few people left in high-command. Especially herself being one of them.

Without giving anyone a chance to answer her, Ares gave a scoff. "There's not really anyone left to promote," he noted in a moment of black humor despite not even sporting the slightest of smiles himself.

No one laughed.

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Tren Drexel
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 Post Posted: Thu, June 10th 2010 10:26pm    Post subject:
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We both knew Ares was right. The silence confirmed that Commodore Daast agreed. Fran Ulgo was dead. Akatos was dead, as were most of the other, viable admirals. Ares himself would be dead, if everything had went according to plan. I didn't relish Ares' position. He had to find somebody to take over what was left of the Republic's navy while he was barely stable himself. It was a choice he never should have had to make.

"I think security is the issue," I spoke up after what must have been five minutes. The words felt stupid even as they came out of my lips, since what I was suggesting was so obvious. "First Ulgo and now you, Ares," I left it hang in the air for a minute, looking back and forth between the two. "Something's not right. And those weren't Mandalorians." I completed, recalling Ares' own words spoken what seemed like a week ago.

I was thankful that Ares held me in such high regard that I could speak my mind on these things. It made my job easier - I wasn't just his aide. And in these times for sure, Ares needed something more.

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Kira Daast
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 Post Posted: Fri, June 11th 2010 02:35am    Post subject:
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Ares opened his mouth to reply, but Kira was faster. "No, they weren't," she repeated in a much more assertive tone. Although her eyes drifted back to the floor, they were anything but absentminded. It was obvious that she was merely running through her own thoughts for a brief moment before continuing, which she did shortly afterward.

"The attack patterns don't mirror any Mandalorian behavior that we've taken recent note of. They would have had twice the man power. Enough to make sure the job was finished without having to turn around and run.," she explained, taking up a sudden air of authority about her now that she was in her element. Still, her eyes remained fixated upon the floor, as if staring beyond it into the recesses of space on the other side. It wasn't until another guard creeped up behind her to jump in with his own opinion.

"Couldn't the Mandalorians have changed their strategy? To throw us off the trail?" he asked somewhat timidly.

Kira turned up one side of her lip. She didn't like the idea, though the boy had some truth behind his words. However, it still didn't fit. "It's possible," she admitted, but she was quick to straighten up and turn her head slightly toward him to deliver her retort, "but Mandalorians aren't ones to hide their trails. If they want to make a point, they make sure the galaxy knows they're the ones with the reigns. That's what unsettles me about all this."

The scene flashed through her mind again. Her blaster bolts flying through the air, returning the fire from the masked intruders. One of her shots hit, dropping the assassin to the ground just in time for the other to bail out and run. That's when she let her eyes drift back down into thought. "He wouldn't have run," she muttered, more to herself than anyone else in the room.

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Tren Drexel
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 Post Posted: Fri, June 11th 2010 11:18am    Post subject:
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I idly picked at my nails. I compulsively wanted to bite at them, as well, but that was something I had avoided as uncouth since my entry into the Republic scene. I, like everybody in the room, was nervous enough; I didn't have to look like a simpleton.

Somberly, I listened to Kira Daast's words. I knew they were true. I didn't expect such a keen mind from one of the countless commodores in the Republic navy. As she continued to talk, I knew she had to have guessed correctly. "You're right," I told her, voice only a modicum above a whisper. "He would've fought you personally, to the death."

Perhaps I didn't have any official experience with the Mandalorians, but I knew enough about them. They were excellent warriors, but like many Jedi, they were too fixated on honor; it was stupid to put a unmeetable ideal above practicality. What had to be done, for the greater good, had to be done, sometimes even at the sacrifice of an individual's good feelings about his personal ethics. Moral codes were essential to a being's identity. Artificial standards of unreality were not. Any smart infiltrator would have cut his losses, retreated, and thought of a different plan in the interim. They should have been worried about who that "smart" person was.

"You know, the attackers at the Jedi Temple, they fit the profile of Mandalorians, right? But, like Commodore Daast said, that isn't the case here," I paused for a moment, continuing with gravity as something else came to mind. "Maybe it wasn't the case with Admiral Ulgo, either. Who else could it be?" I carefully asked, my eyes connecting with Ares and then Kira. I knew they were both wracking their brains, thinking of who could possibly do such a thing. Who left in the galaxy had such a concealed power in the age of unification?

Unprompted, a thought occurred to me. "Ares," I began, looking at the man who appeared as if he wished he were a clam. He had been off center ever since that impromptu Representative Council meeting on Corulag, and he had not told me why. I might have been risking overstepping my means, but the question had to be asked. I had failed back in the meeting; I had to prove myself with my deductions now. I felt the answer to my inquiry would not surprise me, but I couldn't say the same for Daast. "What happened in the Empire?"

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 Post Posted: Wed, June 16th 2010 03:00am    Post subject:
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Ares' eyes drifted from the boy back down to the floor, as if they themselves were avoiding the question he proposed. There they remained for a long while, tracing out any details he could find. The information had he held from the others was intended to remain only his own, but he wasn't sure how long he could keep a hold on it. Especially in the kinds of conditions they were in. The way he saw it, it was their lives that were put in danger. They had a right to know.

"Terrorists," he blurted out, still keeping his eyes fixated downward. "Or maybe assassins, we don't really know. Either way, they made quick work of the Imperial Defense Council. We aren't entirely sure how many they killed, but it's confirmed that Jagged Fel was indeed one of them." There was a long pause until finally he lifted his head and gace a shifty glance toward both people sitting around him. "But... You're not supposed to know that," he added.

His head dropped back to the seat behind him and he sank down a little lower, letting his eyes close as he drifted into his thoughts once more. It wasn't long after, however, that he came to a sudden realization. "Oh gods," he thought aloud, still not opening his eyes. "It's bound to come up again now that the same thing has happened to us. I can only imagine the next Union meeting after this..."

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Tren Drexel
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 Post Posted: Wed, June 16th 2010 01:33pm    Post subject:
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Jagged Fel, one of the Remnant's most enlightened leaders, was dead. I didn't think Kira nor I heard most of the words Ares spoke after revealing that factoid. Meanwhile, Ares had looked at us as if he had tattled on his best friend. Now he wasn't looking anywhere but at the ground, his mind reeling from the revelations that had dawned on him today.

I could see the man was weary, and I understood why. I couldn't imagine the pressure that had been on him since hearing his Imperial counterpart had been killed. Maybe he had been telling himself that he would not be next, just to come to the stark realization that, today, he was supposed to be next. I had to admit, I felt a bit sick at what Ares had been put through.

"So, someone is offing leaders," I pointed out the obvious. "And they're daring enough to attack Bastion. "

My implication was clear: was Coruscant any safer?

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Kira Daast
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 Post Posted: Wed, June 16th 2010 03:12pm    Post subject:
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"If they're going to try getting into Coruscant, then they'll be stopped. Even if I have to do it myself," Kira replied rather confidently, though whether or not she actually believed in her words was another matter of debate. When Ares looked up to her with a curious eyebrow, she offered a hand in explanation and continued, "We'll increase security all-around. If there's anyone in the vicinity that knows anything about these attacks, we'll make sure they get dealt with."

She turned and gave a reassuring nod to Tren, who returned a weak smile before diverting his eyes back into blank space. "At least this time, we'll have some kind of pattern to look for," she added before drifting into thought, running through the various plans and set-ups that she would need for the new security measures.

Somehow, she had taken command during the incident, and it didn't seem that anyone was willing to relinquish it just yet, so she decided it was best to at least give the others someone to lean on that seemed to know what she was doing. Even if she was as lost as the rest of them. At least there was the small comfort in knowing that she would soon be handing control over to whoever would be chosen for the new Commander-in-Chief. That thought alone was enough to keep her going steady on both feet.

And while none of them voiced it, they no doubt all felt the same way: Coruscant couldn't have felt any further away.
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Kira Daast
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 Post Posted: Sun, September 12th 2010 11:16pm    Post subject:
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The halls of the Ambition bustled with appropriate activity as Kira made her way past engineers and officers quickly making their way back and forth. She was proud of the ship, even if it was starting to see a little of its age. In the time she had spent at the helm, it had grown on her. Relationships such as the like were common across the galaxy, for ships of any size. Even the most decorated officers refused to take command of anything other than their own vessel. The destruction of the Ambition would be a hard thing for Kira to swallow, should the need ever arise. Of course, if the ship was going down, she always did see herself going along with it. She was nothing if not loyal.

Although each of the passing men and women gave her a salute, she was paying little attention. Her eyes were trained upon the small, rectangle gripped casually in one of her hands. The latest list of defensive measures were listed upon her personal datapad, which scrolled upward in a white blur with a flick of her other finger. It was a lot of information for any one person to take in, though she always did try her best to stay on top of things. Being a Commodore, she certainly had some level of responsibility, but trying to impress superiors was always a good idea. It's how she managed to get as far as she did in such a relatively little time. With the right display of competance, anyone could be in power.

Makes one wonder how Ares got elected.

Just before she closed the list to open another set of fleet listings, she heard the familiar "bing" of a new message arriving. She wanted to simply give it a glance and move on to more pressing matters, but she quickly noticed that the message was marked as urgent. With a curious eyebrow raised, she pressed on the notice and waited for the text to load, slowly coming to a stop in the middle of the hallway as she read.

At first, it seemed rather standard. The usual formality and official jargon packed into every other important memo. However, as she read further into the paragraphs, it was obvious that this was anything but usual. Without even realizing it, she was soon silently mouthing the words one by one, until finally coming to one that she simply couldn't comprehend. For the longest time, what felt to her an eternity, she stared at the construction of letters, unable to make her brain process them coherently. As the realization slowly settled in, she found her eyes were no longer even staring at the datapad, as it was soon slipping from her fingers and tumbling helplessly to the floor below. Still frozen in place, she didn't even hear it clatter against the cold steel, instead remaining trapped in her daze and staring well past the wall before her.

Finally, she managed to collect her thoughts, and while still staring off into space, she finally caught herself whispering the very words that had given her so much trouble mere moments ago, "C-commander-in-chief?"

The sound of promotion was a stifled one that day.

"Frak" First Previous Next Latest

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 Post Posted: Tue, September 14th 2010 02:46pm    Post subject:
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It had taken a little getting used to. Even after a few days, Kira was still adjusting. After all, knowing that she now outranked every single person in the fleet had been slightly more than a shock to her system. Having people salute her in the halls didn't seem to be any different, but at the same time, felt like she had never experienced it before. It didn't help that they were constantly reminding her of her rank as well.

"Commander-in-Chief, sir," came the voice of Captain Tonoz from behind her. Kira quickly spun around to meet the man in mid-salute. She returned the motion as well as she could, but with everything spinning in her mind as furiously as it was, she seemed to drift off soon after. She had to stop herself and give a small shake of her head just to clear her thoughts well enough to listen to what the man was reporting.

"Go ahead," she stated, to which he replied with a prompt nod and a loosening of his posture. She then found a datapad being passed into her hands as he moved in to explain. An overview of the Selvaris mineral field they were currently stationed outside was listed on the screen. Her eyes scanned over the information before the Captain continued.

"The field is doing well. Production is up to an all time high. Or it was, anyway," he said. Kira, still staring into the datapad as she flicked through the data turned away and began wandering down the hall toward the bridge. Tonoz glanced at her as she turned, as if to confirm that she was indeed paying attention, only to catch up and carry on with his report regardless. "After the attack on Bilbringi, the workers here have been terrified. They're worried about their safety, and because of that, productivity has fallen nearly 35 percent."

"I'm a military officer, Captain, not a union leader. It says here that they have defensive systems installed in the mining facility. Aren't those enough?" Kira asked, surprising herself a little with her sudden command.

The Captain shrugged a little, apparently nervous under the scrutiny of the Commander-in-Chief. "Not according to the workers. They claim they wouldn't last five minutes out here under a well-directed attack. And if the assault at Bilbringi taught us anything, Daara is anything but unorganized in her plans."

"Point taken," noted Kira, letting her eyes fall back to the datapad. Most of the defense systems they had installed were surprisingly outdated. While they could certainly hold their own against pirates, as the Captain had said, anyone with a capable commander at the helm would roll right over the facility like it wasn't even there. "Which is why we're here, right?"

"We can't be too careful. Reports indicate this facility could very well be one of their next targets, especially given its proximity to Bilbringi. It's a good idea to check out what we have on our front lines."

"Then have their weapon systems upgraded. I don't want to give them any more ground than absolutely necessary."

"Yes, sir," Tonoz acknowledged, giving another salute before scooping up the datapad from her hands and rushing off back the way he came. Even though little had happened to calm her nerves, Kira somehow found herself smirking. Maybe she was getting the hang of it.

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