Roleplaying: Mercenary Mission One

Saul sat down his drink, sat back, and truly considered the situation as a whole. Odalis wasn't the first merc under his command to die, and he certainly wouldn't be the last. And blaming the Imperials for bad intel was about as hopeless as trying to reason with a Sith. No matter whose army you were in, intel was always notorious for screw ups. Besides, Odalis was only one pilot out of a possible 11 he could've lost.

In the big picture they overcame a numerically superior Force and came out with...

"That depends on one thing captain. Looking at the preliminary reports, what exactly did we manage to make out with? What kind of salvage are we looking at?"
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" Well, we have a nearly-pristine New Republic Nebulon B frigate in tow. And whatever cargo they have aboard. They were going to arm a colony, so I'm guessing there are plenty of brand-new weapns and ammo aboard." He smiled. " And Thrawn's respect. If that matters."
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Gavin followed Rulvan through the post-op ward headed towards an area that had been separated by draping some heavy fabric from the ceiling. The cots for the wounded were packed close together with just enough space in between them to allow a medic or orderly to get to the head of the cot. There was also a slight amount of space behind the head of each cot which Gavin assumed was to allow the use of stretchers for moving the wounded.

“Orderly, Medic Roe said something about not having enough bacta for submersion in tanks. Was the battle that bad that we’ve started to run low on medical supplies?”

“Oh that. No Captain we’ve still got enough bacta and other medicine stocked to properly treat all the wounded. You see in addition to being our flagship the Glitterclaw is also our medical ship. May I ask how long have you been with the Skar’kla Commandos?”

“This is the start of my second year”

“Ah. Well you see when we were originally formed in order to buy enough medical equipment many of our bacta tanks were sold. Not that it matters much because the entire medical staff agreed we needed the space for cots and that the bacta tanks were most often a waste of space.”

“But bacta tanks can be critical to the recovery from serious wounds”

“True. But you see in order to operate bacta tanks you need lots of bacta just for that purpose, filtration systems and loads of other equipment to keep them in proper running order. I served in the medical corps. of the Imperial Army right through the Battle of Endor and I can tell you for first hand experience that if you need complete submersion in bacta to survive you’re probably in pretty bad shape. It can also cost quite a few creds if you need more than a week of such treatment. The costs don’t end there either because usually those patients need anywhere from an additional week to about a month to fully recover from there wounds even after bacta submersion. Now that’s not a problem for an economic giant like the Empire but for us independent groups it can pose quite a problem.

To be quite frank with you Captain if we administered that kind of medical treatment to our wounded most of the money from our contracts would go to just keeping the med bay in working order. I don’t like it but the grim reality is many of those who would require prolonged bacta submersion to survive don’t make it onto the triage list of those that can be saved. We just don’t have the facilities, the funds, or both to treat those kinds of wounds. Even in the Imperial Army most of those wounded would be transferred to a planet side medical facility after they were stabilized where it would be easier to keep them properly supplied and where enough space for wounded wouldn't be nearly as big of an issue.

Don’t worry though Captain, our survival rate is around 85%. Even though it isn’t perhaps as high as might be possible for the New Republic or Empire it’s still pretty good.”

Gavin found himself at a loss for words and walked in silence for the remainder of the distance to the improvised fabric boundary, only the occasional noise of one of the medical personnel going about their duties or a moan from the wounded to break the silence. Rulvan silently parted the heavy fabric so that Gavin could enter the critical condition section of the post-op ward.
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Saul let out a sigh. "I've actually met Thrawn before. Didn't talk to him, he was just doing a line inspection of the mercs he hired for a particular job. From what I saw, he seemed like a dependable guy. Not too many aliens got his kind of status in the Empire. I'm not saying I value his respect over somebody's life, but I wouldn't toss it away as worthless either." He took another drink and let out a whistle. "Neb Frigates go for...oh, around 194 mil. That ain't chump change. Who knows what the cargo would fetch. It definitely hurt the Republic, not too mention all those ships we took out."

He didn't necessarily answer his question on whether it was worth it or not. But Saul figured it was merely a matter of time. They'd all get over Odalis' death, in fact today would be the last day of mourning for Saul. His species have a peculiar custom of mourning the dead for only one day, then afterwards simply cherishing their memory. He would not hold any grudges, not against the Empire, especially not over the death of a comrade in war. It was to be expected.

He raised his glass to the commander. "To our new employers...may Odalis' loss secure our good fortune."
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Aden raised his glass to Saul's. " To the fallen. May they're deaths not be in vain." They both drank. He wiped the residue left on his lip away with his sleeve, and waved for the bartender to top off his glass.
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The critical conditions section was relatively small, there were only about 2 dozen cots or so. In addition to the regular ship lighting the section was lit by a blue glow coming from the 12 or so bacta tanks in the back of the room. Gavin couldn’t decide whether the blue glow had a soothing effect or whether the fact that the blue coloring made everyone’s faces have a bluish-purple coloring that reminded him of bloated dead bodies he had seen in the aftermath of battles.

“Ensign Sel’lis is right this way Captain.” Orderly Rulvan said in a grave voice

It would have been hard for Gavin not to have spotted Lesyr, her fur having a distinct tanish-brown. As Gavin approached her cot he noticed the other Bothans, about 4, were all different shades of brown or dark brown. Hm, never occurred to me until now just why Lesyr was always so easy to spot in a crowd of Bothans. Almost all the other Bothan members of the Skar’kla Commandos have medium to dark brown fur coloring and almost none of them have Lesyr’s tanish-brown coloring.

“Thank you Orderly, that will be all.”

Orderly Rulvan nodded and went back through the heavy cloth barrier. Gavin just sat on a bench next to Lesyr’s cot for a few minutes, the low wirring and beeping of medical equipment the only noise. Her fur was all matted, especially around the head area and Gavin could distinctly smell the residue of bacta on her head fur. Over her mouth was a oxygen mask, which Gavin assumed was to try to help ensure the brain got enough oxygen to help heal. Gavin looked at one of the screens showing her vital signs and saw that the section monitoring brain activity was dangerously close to the level where most doctors would declare the patient for all intents and purposes to be dead.

Common Lesyr, you can pull through this. I’ve seen you pull through worse physical wounds.

Not sure what else to do, and beginning to become unnerved by the wounded around him who were so close to death Gavin got up to leave.

“You’ll make it through this Lesyr, and we’ll have a ship waiting for you as soon as you’re ready to rejoin the flight.” Gavin said patting Lesyr’s hand. With that Gavin went through the heavy cloth barrier.
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It was getting late. Saul went over and bid farewell to his squadmates. The groggy edges of his vision, along with the warm fuzzy feeling in his head, were telling him it was time to turn in.

Stumbling through the corridors, he managed to find his cabin. The door opened with a swoosh. Staggering to his bed, he crashed into the soothing comfort of the mattress as soothing sleep fell over him.

There were no dreams this night. No terrors of fallen comrades and mistaken actions. Only the dark void of slumber. Sometimes even the abyss could be a comfort.
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After visiting the med bay had Gavin made his way to Grillo's pub. I sure hope they still have a bottle of Corellian Brandy. When he entered he saw all the members of Skull and Bones Squadron had just about taken over one area of the bar and seemed to be having quite a party.

“Any Corellian brandy left or am I too late?” Gavin asked the bartender who looked like he had been very busy keeping the drinks coming

“One bottle, I assume you’ll be wanting the whole thing?”

Gavin grinned “Bullseye”

The bartender then handed over the bottle of Corellian brandy and a glass which Gavin happily took, leaving a 10 credit chip with the bartender as a tip. I’ve never found the place without Corellian brandy yet so I doubt this is the very last bottle, but right now all I care about is that one of those bottles is all mine. And any bartender that provides me with that gets a tip in my book.

“Hey Cap! Over here!”

Gavin turned to see most of Dawn Flight collected around one of the tables.
“How’s Lesyr?” Zak asked as soon as Gavin had sat down

“Alive, but not conscious. I don’t know what will happen.”

A silence feel on Dawn Flight almost instantaneously and lasted for the better part of 15 minutes. Everyone sipping at the drinks, staring into space or both.

“Where’s Zoomer gone to? Its not like him to miss an after battle party.” Gavin inquired trying to break the silence.

“Oh he’s off playing with his new toy. You know that DH-17 he got off of some poor New Rep trooper. I suspect he’s blasted numerous targets to pieces down in the firing range by now.” Ulrand said making a half-hearted effort at a smile.

“Anyone interested in a game of Sabaac? No credit bets this time, just to kill some time. If we’re gonna get drunk we might as well do something fun after all instead of just dwelling on things that can’t be changed.” Zak said holding his Sabaac deck in his hands.

“Why not? Deal me in.” Gavin said putting his glass down to refill it. The rest of Dawn Flight silently nodded in agreement.

Zak grinned and began dealing the cards.

* * * * * * *

“Alright I’m out.” Gavin said putting his cards down. Noticing that he had finished his bottle of Corellian Brandy he got up “Anyone else want a refill? I’m gonna see what they have left at the bar.”

“If they have anything decent left could you bring me a glass of it Cap?”

“Sure thing Jensen. Anyone else? No? Alright then.”

As Gavin made his way to the bar he noticed Saul Razaar getting up and stumbling his way out of the bar. Boy it must be later than I thought. Well I’m not drunk enough for my tastes so we’ll see how many more hours I can make this last.

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Aden emptied his third glass of brandy and looked down at his chrono. Tistell was fifteen minutes late. He took out his comlink and tryed to reach her, to no avail. He was worried. It wasn't like Captain Tistell to be late to anything.

After trying once again to raise Tistell on the comlink, Aden stood up from his chair and made his way to the turbolift located down the adjacent hallway outside the bar. After reaching Tistell's floor, he searched for her cabin, and knocked. Aden waited thirty seconds before knocking again. He tried raising her on the comlink once again before keying in his overpass code into the lock mechanism, fearing the worst.

The double blast doors whooshed open to reveal Tistell's spacious living courters. Aden suddenly felt a sudden current of air whoosh past him as he strode into the captain's quarters. It was cold. Ice was collecting in the chamber. Aden felt it hard to breath. Aden checked through the living area, and Tistell was nowhere to be found.

Aden keyed in his pass code once again entered the sleeping quarters of the cabin. He quickly clamped his mouth shut after viewing the large blaster hole in the view port of the room. The cabin had depressurized.

Aden's heart sank when he saw, crumpled on the floor near the closet, Captain Tistell. After picking her up and laying her in the hallway, Aden shut the chamber. He pulled out his comlink. " I need a medteam to my location, now!" He placed his hand on Tistell's head to check for vital signs. She was alive, but barely.
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While Saul was catching some z's, the rest of his men were still drinking it up in the cantina. Frender was leading them in a chorus of some old Ryn drinking song and the rest of the Skull and Bones squad was singing along, mugs in the air.Their rowdy voices were threatening to drown out everyone else in the bar.
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Gavin stumbled back to the table, two mugs of some sort of dark frothy ale in his hands.

"Here you go Jensen. Fraid its all they got left."

"Any idea what it is?" Jensen asked eying his mug skeptically

"Nope, but it isn't lethal and that's what counts right?" Gavin said taking a big gulp from his mug

"uh huh" Jensen then took a careful test sip, just to be on the safe side

"Sho whosh shtill up for shabacca?" said Zak slurring his speech

"If you're still willing to lose creds I'm willing to keep playing" Ulrand said grinning

"I'll play another round, I wanna see if I can win some of my creds back. How bout you Jensen?"

"nah I'll just watch as I finish my mug of ale, then I'm gonna collapse on my bunk for some well earned rest."

without any further talk Zak began dealing cards as Skull and Bones began another round of loud drinking songs.
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The next day Saul awoke late, and with a lousy hang over. Nevertheless he managed to drag himself up. Once alertness finally crept in, he slouched his way over to his computer terminal and checked out their status report. Waiting there was a message from the commander saying that they be at the RV point with the Imperials at 14:00 sharp.

Glancing at his chrono he saw it was already 14:50.

"Fierfek. Imps are probably already in the hangar." Saul put on his boots and decided to take a walk. Maybe he could pop in and see how things were going. Most likely Kad was in the briefing room with the Imps...then again, they might have done the whole thing via comlink.

Hmm...Kad would debrief with the Imps, showing that the mission was completed and hand over the captured ships. Then the Imps would transfer the money...

"Let's see if it's payday yet." Saul finally decided to head toward the bridge. Most likely he'd be able to find Kad there or someone who knew where he was.
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Aden strode out of the briefing room . The debriefing with the Imperials had gone well. In fact, it couldn't have gone better. The Imperial officers present apparently had no clue that Thrawn had set the mission up as a test; therefore Aden didn't even mention it. They payed in full, and they even let Aden keep the Nebulon B frigate the Skar'kla's had captured, to replace the gunships lost in the battle.

They had also given Aden the mission briefing for they're next assigned mission. Aden held the datapad under his left arm, and he was looking forward to seeing what they're next challenge would be.

While Aden had put on his most professional personality for the Imperial officers, he was dieing inside. Two hours earlier, he had received news that Captain Tistell had died during a procedure to replace her collapsed lungs with mechanical ones. He'd also received news that Lieutenant Commander Plaschek had died during the battle, during a bridge decompression on one of the gunships.

These deaths disturbed Aden greatly. He did take comfort in the fact, however, that the survival rate of those admitted to the medical bay was more then eighty percent. But still, many of those troops would be out of action for the next mission at least.

Aden made his way to his ready room, and sat down with the new mission outline, and began creating the briefing on the next mission he'd soon give to his officers
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OOC: Real sorry I haven't been around lately. Its the last two weeks of classes here so things like term papers have had me swamped lately. It'll all be over by Friday next week though so I should be more regular around then.

IC:
Gavin woke up in his quarters. A quick glance at his chrono showed the time to be 15:20. Muttering to himself Gavin got up and trudged over to the sink in his quarters refresher. Turning the water on cold he filled the basin up and submerged his head in the ice cold water. Jerking his head out a few seconds later Gavin took a deep breath and looked at his reflection in the water Well if I was asleep a minute ago by the Force I'm not now

As Gavin finished washing up he reviewed the previous night's festivities. He had no recollection of who had ended up winning the last hand of Saabac but he was fairly certain he had at least broken even by the end. Hmm now that I think of it I don't recall many members from Nova Flight being at the Cantina. Maybe one or two crews, but not the whole unit. I don't actually recall seeing much of them after leaving the hangerbay for that matter. Everyone celebrates surviving another battle in their own way I suppose but this is probably the first time one of the units wasn't in force at the Cantina celebrating life.

Before leaving his quarters to do some work on Sanguine Dawn's systems he checked his datapad. Except for one note by Commander Kad noting that a briefing for a new mission was scheduled soon after return to base for refitting there was no other messages. Pleased that he could pretty much have the day to himself Gavin put the datapad down and headed down to the hanger.
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Well Saul finally found out that Kad was in his quarters working on the next briefing. Rather than disturbing him, Saul figured he'd just wait till later.

Hmm, what to do what to do...

The techs would be going over his ship and fixing any damage, which was fine with him cause he didn't know too much about ship repair. Most of the rest of his squad would probably be leisurely passing off their hang overs.

Maybe I'll take some time at the range.

Yes, that sounded like a good idea to pass the time. Thus Saul headed off for the ship's indoor shooting range. It was always a good idea to keep one's marksmanship skills at their peak.
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