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Thread: Ghosts in the Machine

  1. #1
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    Complete Ghosts in the Machine

    With a tap of her stylus, Celeste Starborn magnified a square-off section of the hologram floating in front of her. What had been the image of a blue planet moments ago, lacking any details save for the faint contour of mountains, suddenly gained relief.

    “The Bothans have assets here and here,” she said, with another two stabs of the stylus that brought to life pin-points of light on the terrain. To look at it, Nelvaan did not appear to have much in the way of assets to offer, but as he observed the semi-transparent image Dashiel Starborn kept his doubts to himself. As though sensing his scepticism, the Councellor for Alderaan – his aunt – looked up sharply.

    “Reports from the secondary facility indicate a marked decrease in productivity... for the first time in decades. There have been casualties, which are being blamed officially on technical malfunctions,” the Councellor added, her piercing stare flicking to the young woman beside her nephew and back to Dash. The Director of Intelligence's choice of agents to survey the situation couldn't have been unintentional.

    “The two of you have clearance to travel to Nelvaan and investigate. We've been advised that adverse weather conditions are hampering communications with both siphoning facilities, but your quartermaster should provide you with the necessities to see that you get the job done. Dismissed.”
    Last edited by Dasquian Belargic; Jan 1st, 2011 at 06:17:19 PM.

  2. #2
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    Well that was a new one... in all her experience within the Alliance she had never been called into the office of any of the Advisory Council. And to have it be the representative of Alderaan at that was even more mind boggling. Leeadra Longstar she could have understood, but Celeste Starborn?

    As she was still attempting to piece together the whys, she glanced over at her partner for the mission and the "oh... right." came to mind rather quickly.

    "You know, Dashy... they keep partnering us up like this and either I'm going to nominate you for being an unofficial member of Dorn, or you're going to have to secure me the same honor with Intel." A small smile crossed her features and she let out a small laugh. "Either that, or I'm going to have to ask Glayde if he keeps letting me go on these errand runs just to keep me out of his hair."

  3. #3
    “It's getting to be more than a coincidence, huh..”

    Dash glanced up and down the length of the corridor outside of Celeste's office, then down at the file in his hands. It was the first time he'd been called before his aunt, in any official capacity, and the experience had left him feeling decidedly bemused. Traditionally, orders were passed by from the Director of Intelligence, through her sub-Directors, to the field agents – but that wasn't to say that Alliance Command couldn't interfere whenever they saw fit. If the rumours he'd heard were true, Grace and Celeste had butted heads on more than one occasion. For her to pull rank would have been petty, but there was no telling what kind of politics were at play. Best to just do the job and stay out of the complex stuff.

    “At least we won't be jumping out of any drop ships this time,” he said, as he flipped open the file and began to leaf idly through its pages as they walked. “Glaciers, ice, more glaciers... looks like Nelvaan is one big blue ball of zilch. Unless you need to siphon a metric frak-ton of water, in which case it's gonna be first on the go-to list.”

    It seemed odd to think that the Bothan's were investing technology and man-power into what amounted to melting a whole lot of ice. Then again, the Rebel fleet needed to get its water supplies from somewhere. Dash glanced up, just long enough to make sure he wasn't going to crash into someone walking in the opposite direction – and to see Charlotte. They hadn't seen a whole lot of each other since the Life Day party on Yavin 4...

    “Guess we better pick up some snow-boots and ear muffs for this one.”

  4. #4
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    "Yeah, well... at this point an ice ball sounds far preferable from waiting on another mission while attempting to avoid Captain Redhead, my brother, and pretty much everyone else on that damn ship." Despite the rather offhanded way she tossed the sentiment out, there was an underlying seriousness to it. Only a few days had passed since she had learned of the death of her former squad and had caused a rather large uproar. Those that had witnessed it all she didn't want to deal with, and those that hadn't probably had questions she didn't want to answer.

    Another sidelong glance was cast at Dashiel, part of her wondering if Intel had even caught word of the little drama within Dorn Force that had been caused by her. Nah... they must not have. Though Blue Sauce and Charles shared their own little secret and that alone was going to make this whole thing a tad more interesting than any of their previous excursions. Despite the slightly awkward silence that fell between them she forced a small laugh.

    "So how big of a shitstorm you think we're walking in to this time?"

  5. #5
    The dossier on Nelvaan wasn't exactly thick, so it was difficult to say. Sure, they had a lot of technical info and schematics on the Bothan's siphoning plants, but all of that could have been pulled from planning records. It told them a whole lot of nothing about their actual mission objective, which in itself seemed nebulous at best.

    “Maybe the cold has just finally got to the machinery,” Dash ventured, not believing the words even as they came out. “You think it would be expecting too much finesse and subtley of the Imps to think that they'd sent a sabotage team in?” he added, looking sidelong at Tur'enne who in turn seemed to be fixedly looking ahead and away from him.

  6. #6
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    "The way I see it, they've got to be expecting something more than a leaky pipe somewhere if they're sending us. Not sure why we aren't getting the big picture, though."

    A slightly frustrated sigh left her as she stole another glance at Dashiel. "Thinking we should go in as subtle as we can. If something's decided to hole up in the plants we could be in for a nasty surprise."

    She couldn't help but laugh again slightly before taking a step towards Starborn and gently bumped into him, her shoulder lightly colliding with his own. Something had to be done to end the damn tension between them or the entire mission was going to be miserable as hell.

    "Of course, they could just be sending us in to a trap knowingly and hoping to off the both of us trouble makers."

  7. #7
    The nudge, whether unintentional or otherwise, triggered a smile from Dash who returned it with a light elbow to Charlotte's side. “Another case of Chuckles and 'sauce against the world,” he grinned, flashing an ident-card as they passed from the hallway into a guarded room, where a series of equipment lockers lined the walls. As he slid the mission brief on top of one of the metal cabinets and swung open the door to examine its contents, he threw a lingering look over his shoulder at Tur'enne.

    “You want some all weather gear? I can pretend like we forgot to pack it, if you were hoping to exploit the cold to get all cosy with me again.”

  8. #8
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    Her eyes rolled at his choice of nickname for her. One of these days she swore she'd hit the boy after he called her that, just to get the point across. The pushed the thought aside as she began casually looking through the equipment lockers herself.

    "Only if you ditch the gear in place for a drukload of rum." She didn't look over at him as she said it, but the sly smirk came anyway... even if it was somewhat forced.

    Opening one of the lockers revealed an array of blasters of various types. She toyingly let her hand run along one of the E-17d rifles that were propped up inside. Sure it wasn't her's, but she couldn't help but want to take it along, like an old friend. Though Charles let a small pout come to her as she realized most, if any fighting, would be done in close quarters. Damn. A DH-17 Carbine and pistol of the same model were chosen instead. The rest of the weaponry she'd stock up on would come from her own gear.

    "Though probably best if we don't try this whole thing completely plastered."

  9. #9
    One of the weapons lockers yielded a couple of DC-15s side arm blasters. Dash picked one out and looked along its sight, testing the weight of the pistol. It was beaten up, but from the looks of the power cell the self-recharge feature was still working. He picked out a trusty DL-44 for good measure too and spun the pistol once around the end of his finger before shoving it into his belt.

    “Save the fireworks for the after-party?”

    Drifting from locker to locker, Dash tried to compile a mental check-list of what they'd need. He shoved a couple of choice pieces into a holdall – a variety of sensors and a grab-bag of grenades – but it was almost all guesswork. He tried to think ten steps ahead, the way his superiors would have wanted him to, but it wasn't easy. Especially not when around step four and a half his mind wandered into not entirely appropriate territory involving Tur'enne, himself and the cramped quarters of a standard Alliance shuttle.

  10. #10
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    Charles couldn't help but smirk at the way Dash handled the DL-44. It was the kind of thing she hadn't seen done in ages and she didn't know whether to shake her head or be glad for the subtle things that constantly reminded her just how different Starborn was from just about everyone else she dealt with.

    His comment, however, had a small blush rising in her cheeks again, at least when sober she could better control it. "If you're still in one piece I'll put it on my list of things to consider."

    A quick check over of the things that had been stocked up on in the holdall and she looked back over at her partner for this particular little bout of fun. "Well, unless we're planning on stuffing a mechanic in here in case the machinery actually has just taken a dive, I'd say we're good to go."

  11. #11
    “No one said anything about fixing anything,” Dash replied with a quick, pointed look her way. “All we're doing is scoping out the problem.”

    A light freighter had been provided for their trip and was already prepped with flight co-ordinates. Add this to the two bags of gear they'd taken like pick-n-mix candy from the quartermasters stash, it was all feeling far too easy so far. Far too smooth. As he strapped himself into his safety webbing – mindful that the Alliance freighters were often ancient things with a liking for malfunction – he restlessly fiddled with a few dials on the control board.

    “No radio? Frak.”

  12. #12
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    The freighter, as much as it had certainly seen better days, was a welcome sight to Tur'enne. If for no other reason than it meant things would get moving as soon as possible and as soon as gear was stowed and seat found she became quite content with the prospect of spending a few hours trying not to think about... well... anything.

    The quiet she was attempting to force was constantly interrupted by Dashiel's fidgeting and his exclamation caused him to receive a sidelong glance from the Corellian. She watched his reaction to his realization for a moment before letting a small bout of laughter leave her.

    "Oh come on, you didn't expect everything to be perfect right off, did you? Didn't you know it's standard Alliance regulation to have at least one piece of faulty equipment? Should be glad it's the radio and not the life support display."

  13. #13
    Perfect wasn't a word that often got used in conjunction with anything related to the Rebellion. It was all, by nature, on the fly and off the cuff. Equipment was drafted in and out wherever and whenever it was needed. That in itself was the reason that Tur'enne and Starborn had ended up working together on more than one occasion: inter-branch co-operation was about the only way that Command had of covering all bases.

    To their credit, the freighter was sky-worthy. Dash took the controls, enjoying the chance to get behind the steering yoke of something other than a land-speeder. He wasn't an ace pilot, by any stretch of the imagination, but he could do a point A to B jump without a hitch (...nine times out of ten). If nothing else, having something to focus his mind and hands on was a welcome distraction.

    Sure enough, within minutes of clearing their moorings, the stars before them were exploding into a pulsing tunnel of light as the freighter entered hyperspace. Dash exhaled and reclined, tapping a key to darken the view-port against the glare of the near-hypnotic throb of light that stretched seemingly endlessly before them.

    “Savareen sector. We're out of the way of any known Imperial bases,” he noted, as he cycled through the information that the ship's computer held on Nelvaan. “Though I wouldn't fancy our chances making a pass by Rodia,” he added, frowning slightly. It was common knowledge throughout the Intel department that the Black Sun were operating heavily out of Iskaayuma and Equator City; the space-lanes nearby were almost certain to be rife with all kinds of trouble.

  14. #14
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    "Think it'll be that big of a problem?" Charlotte wasn't sure what exactly to say. While she wasn't against knowing what all could possibly stand between her and getting back home, she was getting overly used to the routine of not asking a ton of questions until on the ground. Leave the flying to the pilots, so long as you were in space everything was on them. That lesson had managed to override her natural curiosity... though it had helped that she had exactly zero interesting in learning how to fly anything.

    Charles couldn't help but notice that Dash took to it easily enough, though. Even if it seemed he was making some of the motions over complicated to the point where she wondered if it was all an act to try and avoid any odd moments between them. Maybe she was just over thinking things... Frak... this was going to be a long flight.

  15. #15
    Dashiel shrugged, non-committal. When he thought back to all the briefings he'd undergone recently, he couldn't recall anything that seemed relevant, besides the unspoken warning to give this kind of territory a wide-berth where possible. It was times like these that, he thought, he would have benefit from having the crystal-clear, never-fading memory his cousin Jane possessed. Then again, having a holo-accurate memory of Life Day playing through his head would have been a little distracting.

    The minutes trickled by. Starborn went over everything they had access to on Nelvaan with a fine tooth-comb. Ordinarily, there wasn't the time for this kind of background work, but until they dropped back into real-space time was all they had. Occasionally, he made a comment on something of interest, but it occurred to him that what he found necessary for mission work wasn't necessarily the same as what Tur'enne did. The last thing he wanted was to give the impression that he was trying to tell her how to do her job. She probably had a head full of strategies that would fall into play naturally, as the mission unfolded.

    Eventually, though, there was nothing else he could read. Well, there was always geothermal activity and the migratory patterns of the native wild-life, but there was no making that relevant. With a huff of breath, he tapped the data console into sleep mode and lifted his eyes to the main view-port. Hyperspace still spun like a kaleidoscope before them. The more he looked at it, the more it made him feel nauseous, so he closed his eyes and tilted his head back, trying to shut out the light that still pulsed in front of his eyelids.

    “...You hear that someone broke Director's Van-Derveld's nose that night on Yavin 4?”
    Last edited by Dashiel Starborn; Jan 24th, 2010 at 01:47:49 PM.

  16. #16
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    The thought sprung into her mind, was tempted to be said in jest and then Charlotte came to the realization that there seemed to be a great deal about Life Day that she couldn't remember... bits and pieces, and one very specific event was pretty clear, but everything before Dashiel and her had...well...

    "It... wasn't me, was it?" Silly question to ask, but it did have some sort of basis in might-be. Oh for kriff's sake...you're both avoiding it. Just... "If so, I think that might be the only thing I could say I might regret from that night." Smooth Charles, real nice one there...

  17. #17
    “You?” Dash blinked his eyes open and looked across to his co-pilot with an expression of mingled amusement and disbelief. Whoever had hit the Director was probably in a wheel-chair by now, taking their meals through a tube. No, Charlotte wasn't that bold. If nothing else, he could safely vouch for her whereabouts for almost all of the evening...

    When talk turned to regrets, a little of the humour drained from Starborn's smile. “You never got that... what was it, ration of shit from your squad, then?”

  18. #18
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    She sighed softly and looked away from the swirling colors of hyperspace. "Not really, I think the guys don't care. Captain Tallen..." Charles cringed, "on the other hand was more than happy to bring it to my attention."

    The thought was chewed over for a bit, physically mirroring her brain by biting her lower lip just slightly before she spoke again. "Though I swear she'd point out the fact it was raining if she thought it would ruin someone's day. So you can stop looking over your shoulder, Dash, I'm not going to be making good on that threat any time soon."

  19. #19
    “Thank the Force, I can sleep safe at night.”

    He'd gotten the impression already, after only a handful of mentions of her name, that Captain Tallen wasn't someone whose opinion Charles valued a great deal. He didn't care much for it either, though Dash could have easily said the same about a lot of the military so it wasn't anything personal. Idly, he brushed one hand against the back of his neck, mussing the hair just above his jackets collar as he looked sidelong at Tur'enne, out of the corner of his eyes. A smile was creeping its way back onto his lips.

    “Though, you know.. if you did happen by my rack after hours sometime...”

  20. #20
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    A slow smile crept on her lips, "Careful what you wish for, Starborn."

    Charlotte was tempted to wink at him, very tempted. But that was playing a bit too much with fire and for the moment she was quite content to let them both cool off a bit. It was with a slight bit of amusement she realized it was more on account of the fact they were on a mission than a lack of alcohol.

    A sensation like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Good... It didn't get rid of everything that was eating away at some portion of her mind, but at least it took away whatever worries she had regarding Dashiel, and that for the moment would do. So... on to the next thing on the agenda...

    "Don't think I'm asking this to just change the subject... but you have any idea what's going on in your department? I mean... us being called in by a member of the Advisory Council for a briefing just seemed... off. Orders don't come like that unless something's up."

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