Shadows of Bankor

Using the workbench in the hangar, Dove stood without her usual stylish leather-jacket on... in fact it was on the workbench infront of her as she was working on changing and refitting the concealed armor inserts in it.

Instead of her usual smile, she remained focused on her task at hand. She wasn't a good modder and this was already going beyond what she was usually capable of, but so far so good...


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D8 MM Modding. Increase Defense on Armor Insert. Destiny flip: 1eP+1eA+4eD 1 success, 3 threat

Having gone from the CIS base to this other one to look over these fighter Djanik had been talking about, Elaranu had existed the New Hope and started walking around the area. The area seemed nicer than the CIS hanger up north, climate wise if nothing else. But, more importantly, it was better stocked and more spacious.

With all the people working on the ships, Ela decided to go to the equipment room and see what she had for flight gear. This area was slightly less busy, though there was a woman working on some mighty fancy looking armor, who Ela acknowledged with a bow of her head before finding her locker and opening it up.

"Hey there," Dove said softly in response to the bow. "How's it goin'?"

As the person greeteed her, Ela recognized the human; They were the one from the meeting. The one who had seemed to know muvh. Deciding that was exactly the sort of person she needed, Ela stopped and gave a more formal bow from the waist, one arm across her chest.

"Greetings. My day is satisfactory so far, despite the circumstances. I was just looking over the facilities here; They are more adequate than I would have thought."

The woman blinked a few times in response. "Uh... yeah. Why wouldn't they be?"

"Rebellions are often low on resource and adequate facilities for their cause. Especially with the Imperial blockade and the purge in Rygor, I was expecting things to be a bit more desperate. As far as such things go."

"You sound like you've seen a lot of rebellions and resistance-bases," Dove snorted a brief laugh. "Things are pretty desperate around here, but I guess we hide it pretty well behind the trust and teamwork?"

The Chiss brought a finger to her chin, "...you bring up good point; Experience and expectations are two very different things. As well as impressions and reality. Perhaps I am just a bit impressionable myself."

She nodded. "Experience and expectations are different things indeed. Though to be honest, this is my first kind of outlaw-base... ol' CIS-bases weren't really like this. Most of them felt more like droid-factories, really."

That got a head tilt, "You work with CIS in past? I am actually mechanic for them. I think. At the moment that is."

She certainly sounded unsure with her tone, not to mention her expression.

"Yeah, used to be CIS. Well, not this new thing... whatever that is. The old one, in the war." Dove shrugged. "Frankly, I think it's rather silly to have like this let's start our own rebellion, with pazaak and spreadsheets, but..."

She gave a hapless glance to the Chiss. "What can ya do, eh?"

"Yes, our proverbial hands are proverbially forced. No matter how silly it may or may not be. ...I remember you talking at the meeting the other day though; You seemed to have some ideas and strong opinions, so it seemed like you at least know what you are doing. Where as I have absolutely no idea, beyond the moment..."

She gave a very brief frown.

"Oh?" Dove rosed an eyebrow in surprise. No one else had commented on her input in that way.

"Ah, I see... well, sure, I always have strong opinions, and knowing what's going on is kind of my job. You're a mechanic, from what I understand?"

"I suppose so. I ~was~ a ship architect, graduated with honors from the acadamy's program. Repairs and modifications are what I have been doing to get by for the moment though. Well, up until my business in Rygor being stormed and shot up."

"Then you know more about ships and space stations that any of us who were in that room," she reflected upon the meeting where Ela had just been sitting there quietly. "Don't let those hotshot pilots and flyboys talk like they know more than you do."

"They do not? Well, I will trust you on that. I just felt lost, like everyone was speaking a foreign language."

She looked at what Dove had been doing, "Are you not a mechanic yourself though? That is decent work you have done on your armor there.''

"Pilots know how to fly, but they rarely know as much as the engineers and architects in what exactly makes the engine hum like content pussycat. Rarely do they know how to make other pussycats hum with content too..." she said with a teasing tone and smirk on her face.

"As for me, no I'm no mechanic. I got enough luck and experience in making sure my own equipment stays in good shape, but I'm not gonna call myself a mechanic. Hand me a screwdriver and tell me to fix some power converters, I'd be pretty clueless. And I know better than to claim I am something I'm not, at least in the presence of those who know better than me."

Dove brushed a hand through her blonde ponytail. "Do Djanik and Bowze just talk over you usually, or just tell you what to do?" she asked with genuine curiosity. Maybe it would explain some of the reason why she had been so quiet at the meeting.

"Over me?"

She thought about that a moment before shaking her head, "They do talk much, but they do not interrupt. Ask many questions, not ones that are easy like back at the academy. Things about motivation and romance and loyalty and feelings."

Ela tapped her forehead, "I think with here..." then her chest, "Not with here. So I give pragmatic answers that do not seem to satisfy for some reason. Particularly with Mister Djanik. He asks the most questions and gets flustered."

"Ah." Oh men. "Good woman. Matters of the heart is rather useless anyway to the situation we're in here, after all. At best it can be a distraction, at its worst it's... well, it can easily be a weakness in the armor of those who aren't careful."

Dove was after all an expert at abusing that weakness.

"Motivation isn't a bad question though. After all, what is it that made you decide to join in with this - when you could just accept fascistic rule and try to carry on with a somewhat normal life underneath the boot of the Empire?"

"I think perhaps it was being shot at," she said with a deadpan expression. "In all seriousness, this was not my choice; I honestly was not even too put off once their Inquitor slammed me around for no good reason, or when they drove my employer out of business. But killing people in a campaign of terror eroded what sympathy I had for their motivations, and then threatening me and calling me a criminal kind of pushed things from dislike into action. So they have no one to blame but themselves."

"Fair enough. Though for most people it's quite a leap to take from being put in such a position to open rebellion."

Dove shrugged a little. "What sympathy did you have for the Empire before? Because it couldn't have been too much, it sounds like."

A nod, "It was mostly...'' her nod went into a frown, and she paused a moment, as though she was reluctant to say something.

"...well, I suppose the right word would be propaganda? You must understand, the Chiss Ascendancy is in an alliance with the Imperial Government, for helping to control the unknown regions and technology sharing. My class at the academy was part of that technology sharing program, and I even flew a TIE variant during training. The message that those sent from the Imperial government was one of order, prosperity, and strength, all things the Ascendancy likes in a government.''

Ela looks more directly at Dove's eyes, "The Ascendancy Council even had official condemnations for the Galactic Republic as a weak and inefficient government after first contact, which is why they never allowed official diplomats into that 'Unknown Space' region and the Hegemony was so isolated."

Dove's pale eyes didn't shy away from Ela's intense red ones. That she had visible irises betrayed that she wasn't a full Arkanian. "Well, not gonna disagree about the Republic," Dove nodded, "as you already know, I was part of the CIS."

"But the Empire just the rotten core of the Republic dressed up in an ugly new dress with terrible makeup that's about using fear to control folks. Whatever ideals the Republic once had, which at some point were good, were corrupted, and now discarded... all in favor of a cult of personality around a megalomaniac old geezer."

She gave a thoughtful nod to what Ela explained. "I must admit my knowledge of the Chiss Ascendancy is very limited. It was never something I had to deal with during the war, or taught to me during my training."

"It would not have been; Who would know about some relatively small empire in an isolated region without even a name? In that Unknown Space, it is the largest government to be certain; The Expansionary Defense Force has seen to that over the centuries of politics. But we never exactly had traders going to the Republic to trade, or holovideos being broadcast to Republic space."

"Very interesting to break such an isolationist-policy then, no? Must've been quite the offer from the Empire, or did they bring the fear-tactic there too?" Dove had a hard time imagening the Empire being actually diplomatic and not just presenting a gift with a closed fist at the other end.