Aggressive Negotiations

[Q'arnn Del-Qota]

Tioshh'kk led the Novas into the Senate Building's combat briefing room and instructed them to take a seat in the row of chairs spread out around the mapreader. Once everyone had taken their seats, Tioshh'kk pressed a button on the computer panel and brought up a holomap of the space outside of Coreilla. Around the blue hologram of the planet spread out eight red squares representing the last known locations of the Mandalorian cruisers.

Tioshh'kk dimmed the room's lights and cleared his throat. He began to speak in his gruff, growl-like voice, "From last reportsss we received, the Mandosss are spread out in a wide formation, with four or five Basilisks flying essscort in between. We'll need to draw the attention of the Basilisksss if we stand any chance of retrieving the missing Sssenators."

Tioshh'kk pressed another button on the mapreader's control panel, and five more holograms appeared in front of the planet hologram. "What I propose, isss to start with a diversion. We fly in five half-ssstaffed Hammerheads to confront the Mandalorian fleet. The enemy fleet will turn to engage us, drawing the attention of the Basssilisks. While we have their attention, we send in a carrier from behind," Tioshh'kk said, pointing as one blue square appeared on the other side of the red formations. "From this carrier we will launch two dozen armor-punching boarding craft, carrying several squadron's of SpecOps Marines who will commanded by yoursss truly. We will punch a hole in their shipsss and the Marines and I will board, find the Sssenators and once we have recovered the prisoners, we will return to the boarding craft and haul back to the carrier which will be preparing to jump to hyperspace as soon as we land onboard. Any quessstionsss?" he asked, scanning the room as the pilots absorbed Tioshh'kk's plan.

[Lt Gallistra "Gale" Persianati]

Flying in half staffed cruisers would present a readily available target to the Mandalorians. Mandos loved fighting, and so there was little doubt that they'd do anything other than take the bait. That meant it would be up to the Novas to not only support the decoy ships, but also make sure that the way out stayed open for the boarding party. Gallistra could feel the excitement, and adrenaline building already.

"We'll keep whatever they can dish up off your lander's backs. Questions? Just one. When do we leave?" Commander Dubracy spoke up.

There was a quick movement from one of the mid row seats, which turned out to be Lt Owen Barker lifting a hand to get some attention. "Commanders, if you'll permit me, is there any word on whether CorSec will be joining us? They've got some talent."

Gale laughed quietly to herself, and smiled. Glamor always spoke highly of his home planet's security force. When he wasn't speaking highly of himself, or the rare complimentary comment he gave out.


OoC: lol I feel like I hardly ever use my own character with this account. I've got a plan though.

[Q'arnn Del-Qota]

OoC: lol, yeah i've noticed that too. you should've named the account Nova Squadron XD

IC: A few minutes later the tactical group was making its final preparations for launch in the CorSec hangar that serviced the Capital district. A couple of squadrons of CorSec engineers were making their way through the hangar, performing the pre-flight checklists on the five Hammerheads and the one gargantuan and heavily armored Carrier at their disposal. Tioshh'kk watched from the control deck as the Senate Guard, first of the ground forces to arrive began boarding the carrier, light gleaming off their blue legionnaire amor. Tioshh'kk also noticed his former comrades from the Republic Special Operations Marine Task Force, instantly recognizable in their digital black camo armor and the modified Mando helmets. As much as Tioshh'kk had enjoyed working with Senator Q'arnn, his years with the Republic SpecOps had been the best years of his life, and he was immensely grateful to be able to work with them again.

When Tioshh'kk noticed the Nova Squadron filing into the hangar single file behind Commander Dubracy he leaped to his feet and calling out for him to wait up, the Trandoshan ran down the stairs to meet up with them back on the main floor. Catching his breath for a brief moment, Tioshh'kk gave Dubracy a respectful salute and said, "Commander, before you board your vessssels please allow me to make one request from you."

Tioshh'kk scanned the commander's face while he planned in his head how to phrase his request; he couldn't help but notice a subtle youthful energy hidden beneath the lines of the commander's face. "If I may, I'd like to requessst one of your men accompany me and the boarding party. We could really ussse one more ssskilled pilot on the boarding team. Don't make it your bessst pilot, as we need them in the fighter squadrons, but I would requessst that it be the one pilot in your squadron outside of your Top Gun that you trussst the most. It would be most appreciated if you could do thisss for me." Tioshh'kk waited while the Nova Leader considered his request.

[Lt Gallistra "Gale" Persianati]

OoC: Haha, I'm still planning on making Dubracy into a character himself eventually.... And, Corsec meaning Correllian Security, but whatevs. It works fine. lol Blast all these acronyms!

BiC:

Dubracy touched his brow in a casual salute as Commander Tioshh'kk addressed him. "What can I do for you, Tioshh'kk"

As the request was made known, a few things came into his head, leading off with the fact that he considered his pilots his personal charge. The Nova Squadron had been entrusted to him, and he took that responsibility as quite serious. He felt reluctant to let anyone go. At the same time, he felt sure that placing them into Tioshh'kk's hands, or claws rather, would be as safe as in his own. HE'd picked up a little on the background of this soldier, and if a senato- well, Supreme Chancellor employed him, he certainly knew his stuff.

Next came the decision about who. There were several choices spread across the three divisions of the Novas who came to mind. Delkar was capable in piloting larger craft, but wouldn't necessarily have the right mindset to storm a ship. He liked to think things through too long for that.

Owen came up next, and the Commander was sure that the boy would love a chance to show off, but his shooting skills were a little rougher than they ought to be in close combat. Not to mention that he was one of the sharper pilots in the squadron. No, I'll want him flying with me.

Several other pilots were quickly considered, and discarded, as they simply wouldn't be the right pick. That left Gallistra. She was far from their worst pilot, even managing to beat out some of the leaders of the other wings occasionally, but she had all the skills which would be useful in case they ran into trouble on the ship.

"Lieutenant Persianatti!"

Gallistra cringed as she heard her name called. The Commander's voice sounded all serious, like it had when Owen had hand warmers into her flight boots, or the time she'd gotten him back, and replaced Owen's breather tank with helium.... At least after the commander had stopped laughing at the sheer stupidity of it all, he'd been serious. THis wasn't a time to be thinking about that though, she thought to herself, as she suppressed a grin and moved over to him.

"Sir?"

Commander Dubracy moved to stand behind her, putting hands on her small shoulders, and pushing her slightly towards the reptilian commander. "Lt. Gallistra Persianatti. Skilled pilot, capable shooter, and a fair mechanic. She's also our scrappiest member. She should be pretty much just what you need" The Commander grinned a bit at the last bit. He'd not bothered to add the part about keeping her away from any troublemakers in the group. Things rarely stayed calm for long if she began to feel too comfortable. "Just call her Gale. It saves the mouth a workout."

"Commander!" She wasn't really sure how she felt about being called "scrappy", but she couldn't very well dispute it's truth either, so she just left it at that.

"Gale, Commander Tioshh'kk has asked for a pilot to assist his group directly. I'm choosing you for this, because I believe you to be the best suited for this sort of task. You'll need to follow his lead till we're done."

"If that's it, I'll make sure everything is ready on my end. We'll pack your Headhunter, Gale. In case you need it down the skylanes."

Gallistra turned more directly to Tioshh'kk, and saluted. She seemed a little unsure of herself, but also seemed to be putting her best face on it.

"Commander...Tioshh'kk..." It took a moment for the difficult word to come out of her mouth, but she picked up some strength after she made it past. "Lieutenant Persianatti reporting as ordered. Ready to Smoke'em, Burn'em, Vaste'em." It was a sort of unofficial motto that had been growing in popularity amongst the Nova Squadron, speaking of enemy craft, of course.

[Q'arnn Del-Qota]

Tioshh'kk respectfully returned the lieutenant's salute and said, "Lieutenant Perssssiantti, I look forward to working with you! Now if you'll excussse me I have to go gear up before we take off. Lt. Gale I will meet up with you on the bridge of the carrier. As for the ressst of you, good hunting out there! We'll all be counting on you!" As he said this he saluted the rest of the Novas and gave an encouraging nod to Commander Dubracy, before jogging off to the equipment room to grab his gear.

---

Five minutes later Tioshh'kk was boarding the bulky carrier vessel suited up in his former SpecOps uniform, black camo like the rest of the marines but with a three red chevrons on his shoulder signifying his position as a commanding officer. He was carrying a heavy repeating blaster rifle on his back and he had two crisscrossing belts of thermal detonators on his chest. Combine that with the heavy pistol holstered on his hip and the knife holstered on his outer calf and he was quite an ominous looking figure. Several of the Senate Guard and even some of the Republic SpecOps Marines gave him glances as he walked past that made it pretty clear how relieved they were that Tioshh'kk was on their side and not the enemy's.

After a short time of surfing through the crowd of soldiers taking their position for take off, Tioshh'kk finally arrived at the door to the bridge. The door opened with a loud 'whissssh' and as it did, everyone in the room turned to figure out who was entering. Upon seeing the commander they all leapt to their feet and saluted, and Tioshh'kk briskly returned the gesture saying simply, "As you were." The Trandoshan then gave the command for the ship to take off, and a few moments later the ship was lurching off the ground and soared out of the hangar into the late afternoon gleam of the Coruscant sky.

The ship flew very awkwardly, as though it had always wanted to be a tank but was forced by its peers to be a carrier, but they needed it be able to take a punch, not win a podrace so it didn't really matter how it handled. When they had made it out of the Coruscant atmosphere and arrived at the coordinate they'd be jumping to lightspeed from, Tioshh'kk ordered the nav engineers to start calculating the jump to hyperspace, and then activated his communicator and paged Commander Dubracy.

The communicated crackled for a second before whirring to life and from the other side of the comm line they could hear, "This is Nova Actual, go ahead."

"Nova Actual, this is Shadow Actual. We're going to proceed to the holding area in the Nubia system and await your signal. When you've engaged the enemy, contact us with the coordinates and we'll jump in right behind them and begin our attack run. Do you copy?" he asked, waiting for DuBracy's response before giving the order to jump to hyperspace.

[Lt Gallistra "Gale" Persianati]

Gallistra watched as Commander Dubracy, as well as Commander Tioshh'kk went their separate way, and she realized something: she felt rather lost right now. Well, Tosk had said that he'd meet her on the bridge, so that meant she probably ought to head there. First though, she headed off to grab her own small amount of gear. A belt with some basic electronics tools and her trusty blaster.

Comander Dubracy, meanwhile fell into his duties as Squadron Leader/team coach, speaking to the gathered Novas. "Alright, listen up! We're going in there, and we're going to knock'em in the chin so hard that they won't know what hit them. Focus on eliminating their fighters. Once that's done, we'll be making sure that nothing on the outside interferes with our boys on the inside. Any questions? No? Alright. Get to your ships, and pair up. Glamor Boy, Lawman, you two are with me."


- - - - -

Gallistra finished her reflexive salute, as Tioshh'kk told them to relax. She was standing nearby, steadying herself on a rail while the ship lumbered out of the atmosphere. Truthfully, she wasn't really sure what she should be doing.

"Copy that, Shadow. Give'em a good kick in their metal covered cans for me, eh? Nova Actual out."

That was her Commander. Always throwing out a sense of sarcasm, and casualness except where absolutely prohibited.

Within a few minutes, she could see some of the Nova Squadron fighters, Z-95 Headhunters, stretching out as their hyperdrives kicked in. "Commander... should I be doing anything in particular?" Gallistra asked hesitantly.