[Day 5 - MA] Allies and Shadows

[Dapper Dog]

Rayne considered the responses.

As the unseen audience listens to the theme growing in strength.

[Dove Gray]

Dove knew who that was. Last she heard he wasn't exactly making friends with the Resistance here.

"Look, don't go saying that we're throwing ourselves at the nearest garrison or not thinking things through or fighting stupidly. Some of us have spent the past weeks putting our lives on the line in getting intel - you'd do well to remember that, Flyboy, instead of talking like you're the only one with experience here."

[Sinnya]

Sinnya had been listening attentively, arms crossed. One lek had begun to twitch agitatedly at the tip as Dove and Djanik argued. "So this is just supposed to be the CIS again? That worked really well last time." She unfolded her arms and waved a hand at the assembled sentients, rather like a nervous speeder salesperson showing off the merchandise. "Mister Kaveen, that uniform of yours doesn't mean anything to me, or most of us. We don't have a wing of fighters right now, and handing out titles won't get us one. All the Captains and Generals there were couldn't save the CIS or the Republic, anyway." If they were even worth saving. Sinn had her doubts about that, too. "Maybe some more of you here think the most important thing to start with is dividing us all up into bosses and underlings, but it seems like a waste of time to me right now. If it's because you miss getting to be somebody's boss, before the Empire... I can't sympathize, because I've never been one."

She shrugged. "To me it looks like we've been doing all right as we are. Except that Bankor is one planet, and what can one planet do against the whole galaxy? If there are other groups out there, I think we don't have a choice. We need them. Even if they never give us anything, even if we just keep working on our own, we need to not be alone." She flashed a nervous grin at Ria'la and Mia.

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus cleared his throat. "I'd like to hear more about these alliances. We're in kinda a tight spot right now. Not just one, but two Inquisitors, a Star Destroyer hanging out overhead..." He grimaced.

Spreading his hands, he went on. "Is there anything they can do to help? Or... anything we can do to help them? Even when things are hard, we've gotta be able to stand up for each other."

[Jurdak Surt]

Dak got between Dove and the Djanik "woah woah guys let's not fight amongst ourselves. Djanik I see what you're saying but I dont think you have all the knowledge of what's going on behind the curtain. The jail break was hasty out of necessity, no one here is looking to go off half cocked all the time."

[Djanik]

Djanik sighed. "I'm sure the Aznuri and Mandalorians are very impressed with our efforts so far."

This was how it was going to be then, ineffective scrabbling, no attempts to build something better. No attempt to become something bigger, something that could actually make a difference for more worlds than Bankor some day. No looking past the now.

If a crisis happened, without any chain of command, they'd scatter into chaos. It wasn't about pride - it was about the dream. The dream of destroying an Empire.

"I'm not talking about haste - I'm talking about the reality that when the lasers start flying, you need people to be able to respond quickly - to have trained together and spent time learning how to work as a team. We need to invest - to gain the strength to do more than try and pick up the broken remains of those we want to protect."

With an angry glare at the twi-lek, he added, "If you think I'm here to be someone's boss, you can think again. I'll be the god-damned janitor if that's what it takes to bring down the Empire."

[Dove Gray]

Dove wanted to retort. Or rather slap some sense into him. But she didn't want to fight now, and she let Dak's interceding work for now.

She threw up her hands in annoyance, but said nothing.

[Jurdak Surt]

Well now it was the peace keeper who's temper had been triggered a snarl rose in his throat "how dare you!" His tail twitched angrily behind him and his claws were fully out "the Aznuri Enclave incident was a tragedy that happened before many of us even joined the resistance how dare you try and leverage their tragedy into a kriffing talking point!"

[Djanik]

Djanik stared at the man and said, quite simply. "Because it might make you listen for half a second. As we are now, we can't stop that from happening again, and again, and again."

His eyes showed a surprising pain. "I swore an oath to defend those people and we can't do anything like this. I want us to become strong enough to stop that from happening again. I want us to be able to make a difference, damn it."

[Dove Gray]

Dove held onto Dak's arm. "Dak, he's not worth it."

[Xanna Teevou]

Xanna stepped forward holding her hands up. "Peace! We are all on edge and concerned about the future. It is easy to take that out on each other. We will not defeat the Empire if we are at each other's throats."

She looked around the group. "We do have allies here. It seems we have allies out there." She pointed up. "Now what we need is a plan to turn the liberation of Bankor into the start of a movement. That will require ships, it will require diplomatic leverage, and it will require us to work together."

[Jurdak Surt]

"No you threw it in our faces, a failure we already live with that some of us already blame ourselves for asshole." He spit on the ground in front of Djanik "it was uncalled for." He felt Dove's hand on his arm and turned quickly away from Djanik "im gonna go cool off."

[Sinnya]

"Then take a seat and listen."

Sinnya stepped closer to Jurdak, on the other side from Dove, but unlike the pale woman she didn't reach out to restrain him. She too looked tense, though in her the tension was more balanced between fight and flight. "Take your own advice, mister Kaveen. Listen to something besides your own voice for a couple minutes. I promise it won't hurt you." Her nails dug into her palms. "The Republic and its army failed. It failed a lot of us before the Empire even happened. Get that on board if you want to help us build something new."

Lekku still twitching agitatedly, she turned to Yusandr. "Right now we came here to hear about allies, not claw back and forth about who's in charge." Xanna was favored with a relieved look as well.

[Djanik]

Djanik couldn't believe how stupid, how utterly petty, these people were.

They had literally a single win to their name, a win orchestrated by the general they scorned, made possible thanks to the experience and knowledge he and Rayne provided, in order to even give them the chance to use their own skills. He couldn't have done that mission alone, and he knew that.

But apparently they didn't.

And all they could care about was if someone was in charge. Or if their feelings were hurt. The people of Bankor were at the mercy of an enemy they currently had no power to stop, and trying to change that was... somehow wrong?

Shaking his head he turned away. Striding back to the edge of the oasis, he would listen in silence.

[Dove Gray]

Dove patted Dak on the arm as he said he would cool off.

She nodded to Sinnya. The Twi'lek had a good head on her cute shoulders. "Right, can we get back to what Rayne and the Lady Senator were telling us about other worlds and other Resistance movements?"

[Astin Denive]

Astin yawened. "You folk make it terrible difficult for a man to nap ya know." He said letting his eyes open before looking around the group. "Well, I can't say I listened to most of the arguing but I heard that bit at the start. Seems like Mr not really a Imperial deserter, and Mis no longer a senator have some friends that need some help putting together a real rebellion."

"One that is likely pretty small right now, and can't do much of anything to help folk like the people here on Bankor. I figure I can help a bit if they need it. Mind you I don't much like the idea of following people that won't be honest. So I'd like to hear it from them before I go agreeing to anything." He gestured to the ship in the sky. "Is that right there something we could do something about right now with that help of yourrs? Or are we going to have to accept that we are a small force, and can't immeadetly right every wrong in the galaxy?"

[Mianerra Tavvos]

Mia blinked. "That's the answer! Yes, that ship, that vessel that represents the tyranny... I mean it's literally called the Dictator," she rambled, still piecing together her thoughts. She grabbed Dove lovingly by the shoulders and shook her.

"You have access to it! And you can get the codes we need to broadcast the message, to rally the people." She pointed up towards the Dictator. "Their symbol of terror will be their downfall. And from it, we shall have our symbol of hope, the first of countless others."

[Jurdak Surt]

Dak walked back in looking tense but more composed at least he heard what Mia said and quirked an eyebrow at Dove in a silent question. When had she got access to the dictator?

[Ria'la Tu'roth]

Ria'la watched the ensuing debate turn to argument and began to get a serious bad feeling. He stepped back slightly.

"Dray, Binky, pick up your visual scanning. Tell me if anyone else is out there."

[Verse Aura]

"Oh hey, that's the stuff I saw, with Senator Or... I mean, yeah." She responded Rayne's talk of an alliance and Core support. She knew it!

She was enthusiastic about the prospect of a plucky resistence forming; less so about the bickering, but she didn't get involved. Other people were better at calming people down, she figured.

[Xanna Teevou]

Her yellow eyes shifted to Mia and Dove. "I have an ally who is willing to help with providing a distraction. His ships cannot take on a Star Destroyer on their own for long, but he has no love for the Empire and is willing. If we can get some teams on board, perhaps we could deactivate the Dictator's weapons and take the ship?"

She looked back at Rayne and the senator. "At which point we would just need some more ships, and diplomatic cover."

[Ru'ni Wayne]

Through it all, Ru'ni had been silent, he was not one to weigh in without thought. Now he rose and walked slowly towards the hooded figure.

"Excuse me," he spoke in a calm measured voice. "Everyone here is known or vouched for by someone so far. Everyone except you. I would know each soul to whom I am trusting the fate of my people."

[Jurdak Surt]

Dak's eyes went a little wide but for now he sat back and listened but they were casually talking about raising an imperial ship. Tricky and dangerous for a well trained group of infiltrators and saboteurs.

"Its possible." He said after a moment "but....incredibly risky. Wed need weeks to plan and train a group to do that kind of op."

[Mianerra Tavvos]

"Wait, what? I was just planning on subtly stealing the codes so we could transmit the message. We'd only need a few minutes." Mia crossed her arms in thought. "Well, if we somehow could overtake all of the ship and crew it... That would be a great victory."

[Djanik]

Oh, so now someone else said that to defeat the empire, they'd need to train and prepare, and invest... and nobody took issue.

Shaking his head, he observed the chaos in silence.