Shadows of Bankor

Dak was relaxing a bit sitting on a crate and leaning back on his yet to be named ship. He was clad in a simple dark shirt and brown pants his clawed paws hung off the edge of the box with no shoes covering them.

He had drills to plan and intel to review so here he sat tapping away on his data pad prepping for the op later this evening.

Having just returned, Jenna was a woman on a mission, finding the first person she found she inquired as to the location of Jurdak. Only for said individual to point over her shoulder across the way, being some distance from him but yet there he was. Taking the moment to thank them, Jenna calmed her pace and closed the distance.

"Jurdak," she called, once she'd gotten into conversational distance, "I- I need to talk to you, privately if we can."

Dak looked up with a warm smile hearing Jenna's voice but hearing her tone and seeing her expression his mouth fell into a serious line. He nodded and hopped off the box and walked towards his ship and motioned for her to follow.

Assuming she does so he closes the door behind her and moves to a small black box flipping a switch lights blink on. He waits for a moment and then nods turning back to Jenna "Report."

"There's," she says, walking further into the ship and pacing a little while she tried to figure out how to say it, "there's something I need to tell you, something I need to ask. But," she shook her head, stopped pacing and looked to Jurdak, "you'll have to promise me something, by the end of this."

Dak nodded "Well I dont make promises if I dont know what they are but I'd be willing to keep an open mind. I'll always help with what i can."

"I went into an Imperial base today," she said, finding something to sit against and lean on, "I saw movement in Rygor when I was out there and took advantage of the movement to slip in. My plan, originally, had been to collect information, information we might have been able to use but I got caught. Commander Poule, was his name," she goes on to describe him in detail, "why I'm telling you this is because he let me go, and what I learned, there is a chance that when we come to blows with the Empire we may just be able to talk him down instead of having to go through him, if it comes to it."

"He's a man of honor in there, appeal to his need to protect the people, his people and the people of Bankor, and offer him some guarantee of these people's safety and.." she paused, was uncertain, "he's a good man, and I don't like to think we're in the business of harming those."

"So, what I'm asking you to promise me is, make use of this information. Don't harm him if it comes to it, talk him down, just.. don't hurt him," she said, it sounded stupid to her ear but she'd hoped, hoped, that the desperation she felt for it wasn't overpowering the tactical sense it made.

Dak listened closely and his lips tightened "I dont know Jenna this is war and Poule chose his side for his reasons. Hes chosen to support a government that has battered and abused it's people and hes done worse than nothing. Hes stayed and helped them, led their men."

He paused clearly thinking "I'll pass the information up the chain and if I see him I'll try and convince him but Jenna at the end of the day he's working with the empire and if he doesnt back down we have to go through him. Understand?"

"No," she said defiantly, "people over there.. they don't know, they don't know what goes on like we do. He's just a man that's trying the best for his family, those who look up to him, and I'm sure he's not alone," she said, with some measure of that defiant confidence, "if we can't help people like him realize what's going on? Keep him out of harms way? How can we claim we're doing what's best, what's right?"

"Just two months ago I didn't even really know, I didn't want to know," she said, "maybe I'm lucky to know what's right, because of my brother, but he's never been given that chance. Many of them, so many of them, have never been given that chance. They have reasons, family they want to protect that keep them where they are. We shouldn't just be scrambling to survive, we should be better too. So no, I don't understand," she finished, looking to him with a bit of fire in her eyes.

Her fire was noted but Dak didnt waver "So what if he refuses to back down we just shrug our shoulders and go home?" He fixed her with a gaze of ice to match her fire

"This is war Jenna. I have told you I will talk first but going up against the empire if we hesitate too long we all die. Is that what you want? You want people here to lay down their lives because theres a chance that someone on the other side might flip? I'm sorry but I cant take that chance. I will talk to him first I will tell the others to do the same but you cant expect us to back down because you like this guy."

There was a little sense in every argument, but when he brought her reasons down to that level she came up off where she was leaning with a bit of a fury, "Don't you dare," she said, with a bit of heat. "No, I don't expect you to just lay down and roll over, but there's got to be another way than killing people, good people!" she fumed, exhaled deeply and roughly.

Continuing a bit more calm, with a colder anger about it. "Might be easy to kill someone because they wear that Imperial mask, but that's only because you can forget there's a person under there. There is though, and their life matters the same as ours, they might as well be a victim just as much as you or me."

"No I never forget there are people under there when I kill someone. Some of us just dont balk at having to do what needs to be done Jenna. You're young and idealistic I get that you dont like killing but if you think theres a way to overthrow the empire without killing anyone you're kidding yourself." He said forcefully.

His features softened "Listen Jenna I understand, you're just finding out that everyone on the other side isnt a monster. Some are just soldiers doing their job but that's how it goes they'll die for their job and they'll kill us for that job. War isnt easy, sometimes good people die. If you have a better way I'm all ears but right now this is all we have."

"I don't think it's going to happen easy.." she said, "I'm not.. I'm not completely outside of myself, but there are people out there that we know we can save, we know that we can go that extra mile for. That's all I ask you to promise me, to promise me that you will try everything you can think of, everything you can do and get others to do to stop some of this needless bloodshed before you resort to just shooting your way through. Not just talking him down, but more, I want.. I want you to try, to really try, because I think if someone like you, someone like the others in this little.. big, movement, if they tried to figure something else out. They could," she said, flatly and with an even tone. Somewhere a mix of feeling deflated and yet fired up.

"Promise me you'll try? More than the placation that you'll just try to do what I asked you to do, but that you'll jump on the chance to do what you can see but might not be looking for anymore?"

"Jenna I'll do what I can but I cant promise that it wont come down to fighting. If I see another way I'll take it but what you want this to be it just ain't Kid. This isnt some saturday morning holo where you can always beat the bad guy with friendship or honor or conviction." His tone was soft not aggressive.

"This is the real world and sometimes people dont listen to reason and follow orders and do terrible things." He said almost apologetically "you might not understand and honestly i hope you never do."

"Once," she said, "I was a scared kid on Coruscant, just trying to get by," she started, her voice soft, "I learned to be a thief because I learned that people didn't look out for one another. That people are not always driven by what's good in their hearts. That the world was cold, and dark, and that trusting others wasn't just stupid but pointless, because they'd just look out for themselves in the end anyway. Under that thought.. I lead a life, a life where I was good at what I did, a life that was secure, and I stepped on people, I never thought about the consequences of my actions. Never cared because it didn't matter," she paused, a breath. Holding the silence of the room, that he not interrupt her speech.

"Then.. everything changed with what they call the Jedi Coup, but we both know it wasn't like that.." she paused, letting him think on the thought. "I remembered my brother and I worried, every night, until I finally made the worst decision of my life and indebted myself to a Hutt. I didn't have friends I could rely on, people who could help me find my brother, but I needed to find him before something happened to him."

"Together, again, the first couple of years were rough, Petrus wasn't himself.. at least, he wasn't like the kid I remembered, the older brother I could look up to and protected me whenever I needed it. There was something lost in him and I learned that the world took good things from good people for no reason at all," she paused, a breath to let the thought settle in.

"Then," she chuckled, remembering it, "my brother.. he, the amazing person he is he pulled himself out of that hole he found himself in. Despite the odds, despite what might have made sense, he did the right thing because even if he might die doing it he knew he couldn't turn his gaze away, he couldn't allow himself to forget the pain of others because it might be harder on himself, that it might hurt him and the people he cared for."

"I wouldn't have done that, I wanted to run home.. to hide, to conceal my brother from the Empire while the Aznuri Empire burned. While people lost their lives and everything they've ever known. I was afraid of losing, I was afraid of loss. My brother? He ran, he ran as hard as he could toward the Aznuri Enclave and in that moment he took the time too to convince me to come to, to help the Aznuri and to forget my fears for a moment and do something that was good. It was.. it wasn't a risk I knew how to take, but when he stopped that day to convince me, when he ran off toward the enclave, he saved me too."

"Took me some time, really, to process it, it wasn't easy to figure everything out but that's where it started, since then I've learned to trust so many others, to try and do the right thing and sometimes.. sometimes, the world hurt me for it, it cast me a bad hand but I've done a lot of thinking this past few week and that hand I've been dealt may have been rough but that doesn't mean that the choice I made was wrong. I tried to do what was right, because it was better for the rest, for everyone. I learned to care, to trust, and to do the right thing."

"Maybe it's easy to forget that, when you think of what we're about to do, because the loss isn't just your own but others to share. When I hear you talk now, it reminds me of the girl I was some few months ago when I was still afraid," she paused. "It's easier to do the right thing when it doesn't cost us anything. It's easier to do it when the only person we risk is ourselves, because no one else need to make that sacrifice. However, it's hard to ask others to make a sacrifice, to make a hard decision to try and find another way because that's the right thing to do. Maybe you think that going through these people, that killing good people in service of others is the sacrifice, but you're just lowering the risk. Sacrificing yourself, for others, instead.. we could take that on together, fight for something right. Maybe, maybe even die trying, but.. I would think, I do think, that trying is what separates us from them. Cause then, then we're just not replacing one evil with another."

"Then, even if it takes everything we have left, at least we tried," she shrugged, settled back, and rested her voice. There was a calm serenity she held when she finished, and in that moment she'd thought of nothing, acted on nothing.

Dak let her speak he didnt try to interrupt when she finished he didnt say anything he let the silence settle in.

"But what do I do with that Jenna? What's the other way you wish so badly to exist?" He asked simply "You cant walk up and say this is wrong and point at someone else to figure out how to make it right. What we do isnt easy and it's a disrespect to anyone weve lost doing what we do to say that." He took a deep breath "None of us here enjoy doing what we are about to do but we arent afrain to do it because it's the only way we know. If you find a different one I'm all ears."

"If I'm in that position, I will," she said, looking directly to him, serious but a bit apologetic in tone, "I'm asking you to try, asking you to promise me you will do everything you can, because chances are you'll be the one in that position and not me."

"I'm just trying.. trying to explain, trying to cast away this.." she shook her head, "I hear you talk and it sounds like your mind is already made up. I hear someone who tells me at the start they understand, that they understand what I'm feeling, what I know and am asking for and trying to say and that they'll try and then in the next.. in the second you take it back, try to prepare me even now for when you come back and say 'sorry, I tried'," she paused, "I hear the voice of someone who is already preparing to disappoint me, to not try, to focus more on what you're doing than why."

"I want the assurance," she said stepping forward, "I want you to look me in the eye and promise me you'll do everything you can, no trying to spare my feelings or trying to convince me what I ask for is unlikely, maybe even impossible. I just want you to promise me. Promise me so that I know when you're out there you will try, so that if you come back and tell me you couldn't. That there wasn't any other way. That I know you tried everything you could, and instead of hating you.. maybe I can just hate the world a little more instead."

"Jenna....I.....my place isnt even on the front lines what you're asking me to do I wont even have the opportunity to do." He thought for a moment "I'll talk to Yusandr or maybe Hin and get them to see what you're saying. Seeing if they have any idea how we can try and weed out some of the good ones." He said honestly.

"I promise you I'll do my best to get the people that need to hear this to listen." He finished simply but firmly.

"Thank you," she said, "I don't... I don't know how involved you'll get, but you're more.. involved, connected than I am. You're still a fighter and I'm just.." she shrugs, "some girl that's suddenly in way over her head and out of her depth but I want to try, I want to do what I can. So, maybe.." she pauses, "maybe if what I can do is to get you to promise me that much, just that you'll do everything you can, and know that you will because if you have to come and tell me you failed to keep your promise. That at least then it will mean something."

"This way.. this way I can say, at the end of the day, I tried everything I could.."

"Thank you."

Dak nodded "I won't promise it will work or even that they will listen but I promise I will do everything I can."

He looked at her for a long moment "be straight with me though Karath, is this only about doing the right thing? Nothing personal at all?"

"Everything I do is personal," she said, thinking on her brother, Xanna, Sloan, Vaya, Liua even though she didn't know the girl much. Juri, Sacha, Sinn'ya, Ru'ni, her brothers close friends, Dove and Mia, everyone she's dealt with, everything she's done since coming to Bankor and trying to move past her old life.

"I can't lie to you, tell you that this isn't personal. That I don't ask this of you because I found I might.." she shook her head, she didn't want to voice it like that, "I'm not a bleeding heart," she said honestly, "I won't cry over every lost good soul in this conflict, I don't have the time and I don't have the focus. Doesn't make the point, their plight, any less real, but.. yes, I think, I think that if you were to come tell me, after all of this happens.. whatever it is, that one person died out of many.. I, I don't know, I would hurt."

Dak sighed "It doesnt make you wrong but it does make you compromised Jenna. You're not the first to find love on the battlefield but I gotta know if it comes down to it if there is no other way if this Poule wont back down and it's for some reason just on you and you have to go through him could you? If the whole mission relied on it would you put whatever this is above the entire resistance?"

"I'm not a soldier, I won't have to make that call," she said, walking toward the ships ramp. Maybe she just needed something closer to air, maybe she just needed to move, "but that's.. that's pretty specific possibility that probably won't happen."

"I can tell you no, and lie, and it wouldn't mean much. I could tell you no, and mean it, and it'd mean about the same. Could just tell you yes, and you'll use it against me."

"So," she turned, "rather than trying to trap me.. do you still trust me? You did, when you signed me on to help how I can. You trusted me then to do the right thing. I've been honest, as honest as I can be. Considering that, that's my question to you."

"Do you still trust me?"

"No Jenna that's not fair, you cant come here and demand things from me and then just avoid it when I ask you for something in return. I do still trust you and that's why I want you to answer me and I'll believe you whatever you say." He said fixing her with a hard stare.

"No, it's your question that's not fair," she said, fast and harsh, "you want to ask me if I'd shoot my brother next? Want me to start rattling off the people I care about, to see if they might, just might, get in the way? If I was faced with that situation, I wouldn't stop, I'd do what I needed to do to keep my family safe, but I wouldn't kill him."

"No Jenna it's not the same and you know it." Dak said gently "you've seen this man three times, spoken to him twice and it's got you questioning everything we do."

He walked over and put a gentle hand on her shoulder "Its not to be mean and its not because I think less of you Karath, but our hearts can hold a lot of sway on our mind without us even realizing it. I've seen it happen before operatives good operatives falling for a mark, flipping, giving away intel."

He sighed "I trust you Karath but I trusted them too and it didnt stop it from happening. Just keep your head about you ok? Remember the Aznuri, remember the Mandalorians, remember the jedi, remember why we fight."