Shadows of Bankor

Astin sat at one of the work benches in the hangar, Dove's maintenance kit open as he tinkered around with his newest purchase. With a few tweaks he was fairly certain he could get this part working optimally. Stretching he took a sip of his glass of whiskey before getting back to work. It was getting a tad bit late after all, and he wanted to finish sooner rather then later.

Modding accurate on custom grip, +2 boosts from dove's maitenance kit, -1 difficulty from Blaster: 2eP+1eA+2eB+2eD 2 successes


success!

Dak had been having trouble sleeping so he decided to stretch his legs a bit in the hangar. He curiously heard the noise of someone working which was odd at this hour. The Cathar decided to investigate who was burning the midnight oil. He came around a corner and saw Astin taking a break or finishing working on something.

"Hey there, working late huh?" He asked with a casual tone as he walked toward the other man.

"A bit." Astin offered looking towards the Cathar. "Ain't really late for another hour or so." Either way most of the fly boys were asleep by now and wouldn't ve bothering him. kids needed a early bedtime after all. "What are you doing up fooling around though?"

Dak shrugged moving closer nodding toward a seat with an inquisitive eyebrow not wanting to stay if hed be a distraction or unwelcome company. "Couldnt sleep mostly, just pre ops jitters. Things get a lot more complicated starting tomorrow I think."

"Never really understood that kind of thing myself, jitters that is. Sure I have things that creep me out and scare me, never thought worrying about them really did all that much of good though." He took a sip of his bourbon, then motioned for towards the bottle. "Still, there is a bit of whiskey there if you think it will help you nod off."

Dak nodded and took a seat near Astin taking a little whiskey "Not really nerves or worry more uhh excitement actually. Like yeah it's dangerous and a good chance a lot of us wont make it to the other side but it feels good just be doing something again ya know? Weve been spending weeks training and preparing and such I'm just ready to implement things."

Personally Astin was of the opinion they could do with more training, a couple weeks wasn't really much time at all. But the gung-ho lot were burning for action, and he knew nothing he would say would matter. "I suppose I can understand excitement a bit better."

"I get excited before a big race or the like after all, never really keeps me up, but then I can sleep through about anything."

Dak leaned back a little, getting comfortable "So did you race professionally or what?" He asked trying to get a better grasp on the other man's history.

"A bit, never in any of the bigger circuits though." Even if you were skilled those usually cost quite a bit of money to get into. Money he had never really had. "Moved around alot because it, but that's part of the lifestyle."

Dak nodded along "huh that's pretty interesting, travelling like that being this hot shot racer must have been pretty exciting. You plan on going back to it? Or continuing on with all this?" He asked gesturing broadly around them.

"Not something you can really go back to when your wanted by the authorities. You win a race, they put your picture in something the wrong person sees it." He shrugged. "Its just asking for trouble, and after once or twice bringing trouble to a track you're done."

"Ah yeah that makes sense, guess I didnt really think about it like that. So what are your plans then? You honestly dont seem too impressed by the resistance so far if your attitude during meetings is any indication." He asked with a quirked eyebrow, there was no judgement in his voice just curiosity mostly.

"I'll take it one step at a time I figure, you're right that I'm not too fond of a lot of things going on at most of the meetings though." What that meant in the long run he still couldn't make a solid decision on, but he should soon.

"What would you do differently?" He asked leaning forward putting his elbows on his knees, his tail moving idly behind him as they chatted.

"Stuff all this nonsense about force and hope like it's all we need. We don't need to be downers about all this, but we need to know where we stand."

"Just look at how we came to this base, we were either rated out or someone took too big of a risk, and it's but thousands out of their homes. Their are entire apartment complexes in the slums completely empty, and while it weren't us that kicked them out we do share in the responsibility."

He shook his head. "I don't think that alot of us realize that our actions affect civilians, and to me that's pretty obvious in our meetings. We make a wrong choice be more stupidly daring then we need to be we can get thousands killed."

Dak nodded along "I mean I wouldnt say we dont know, I myself watched my home burn to the ground when they came for me. I agree on some points but dont you think everyone who agreed to help knew what they were signing up for when they did?"

Dak shrugged "I know I've thought about it how our actions affect the very people we are fighting for. But then the question becomes what do we do? We cant just never take chances, we'll never beat the empore without taking risks." Dak had a casual tone not an aggressive or adversarial one as he spoke.

"I'm always down to hear other's input on what can be improved."

"Most of em, I wouldn't be surprised though if some had the decision made for them. Their proximity to members of the resistance taking away most of their other choices." He took a drink of his whiskey then shook his head.

"I'm not saying no risk, I'm saying calculated risk. Something like trying to take over the Dictator on our level is impossible. Encouraging that kind of thinking also only makes people believe they can do the impossible and take unnecessary risks. We have to think things through and be calculating in our moves. Or at least that's my thoughts on the matter."

Dak nodded "sure I get that but we have to do something about it, as long as it's there anything we do is just nothing really cause they can just dictator us to death. Ancestors help us if they ever figured out where we are while that thing is operational." Jurdak grimaced briefly

"but you know Astin we gotta have people like you around to talk to leadership when they get to crazy so we can try and find a happy medium. That more grounded perspective is really useful to us." He said giving the man a smile.

"Oh, I'm not arguing that it would be nice to do something about it, but the question is what? We can't take it in a stand up fight, and just look at the size of it. You can kinda guess at it from how it looks in orbit. The thing probably has all types of system redundancies if a small group breaks into it they'd likely need to hit a half dozen places or more to make any sort of difference "

That brought a smirk to Astin's lips. "If you are trying to lure me into attending any of those meetings, I'll pass. I'll leave that to you gung-ho sorts."

Dak shook his head "Come now Astin I'd never ask you to give up one of your naps to come sit in a dull meeting." He said with a chuckle

"no I just meant having people around to ground out some of the boundless optimism that these people have. Hope is important, it's one of our strongest weapons because we can use it to inspire others. But we also need realism to keep things in perspective."

"Sure we can, as soon as we get public opinion on our side." The last he heard it still wasn't. "Until then, hope only helps us and those we're directly related to."

He shook his head. "I'd say I don't mind trying, but as long as all those jedi are around trying to turn Mass Murderers into friends, I've not got enough hope myself to try to sell realism to most people."

Dak took a deep breath "Yeah......that whole situation is Kriffed. I mean I've done my fair share of bad things but killing children? Ordering the deaths of dozens of Aznuri and mandalorians? I mean maybe it's just me but that usually requires more than a change of heart at the end of a blaster barrel. Hopefully someone finds better than just having to live in a cabin on a tropical paradise."

"And that's the problem right there, from what I hear the Jedi made the decision on what to do with her and they decided to give her a cabin on a island paradise. Heck, one day I wish I can retire to a place half as nice."

He shook his head. "You aren't pleased with it, I'm not pleased with it, heck most of the folk i have talked to about it aren't pleased by it. Most though allow it because the Jedi are involved, and that's not right."

"There is a difference between good and evil and right and wrong. One I figure most folk don't understand. Sure it's a good thing to give the repentant criminal a place like that to be at peace and mend her ways. Is it right though? Not at all. People need to feel safe, the need to feel like they are protected, that their leaders have the best in mind for them. Letting that woman have a beach house undermines that, it makes people start doubting their leaders. At the end of all this are the jedi going to let all these monsters go free? Am I alright with that? It hurts morale and hurts our cause."

"Heck to be honest I'm starting to believe that maybe the Imps weren't wrong about the Jedi trying to take over. As much as they are pushing their morale and beliefs on us with this. I don't like saying it but there it is. Simply put I don't think I can trust most of em anymore."

Dak nodded along with Astin "I get it man I really do, I'm just.....I'm just hoping that theres a more final solution than this, im hoping that this isnt their final plan."

Dak shrugged and leaned back with a heavy sigh "I dont know I just gotta use the hope to keep going cause we all have the same goal and we all need eachother to get there."

"Do we though? Need all of us? When you get cancer you remove it, replace the part with something else if you can't live without it. If you just let it fester and grow it will kill you."

He sighed softly. "You said it yourself Dak, you question their actions, you have have to hope they know what they are doing, because you can't trust them."

"We need trust just as much as we need hope. Of we can't get them to see reason though, something will need to be done. As it is someone will break, sooner rather then later, and then we have the Dictator over our rooftop."