Csillian Sunrise (Open to ALL Chiss)

[Travis]

He did mind if this officer partook, but he was a superior officer and there was nothing Mestrin could do about it. He was asked a question, though, and he was more than happy to oblige an answer. "Sir, the Ascendancy will have to rely on its Sith Imperial allies if a full war is unleashed. That is not something I prefer as it is difficult to trust lesser species, but we have no other choice. Numbers don't always win battles, but even the Chiss cannot withstand them indefinitely. I have been on a Redoubt exploration expedition before and while our Redoubts are valuable, the Chiss people cannot rely on them forever if we are overrun. Our enemies could easily discover and overrun them if given enough time.

"We must rely on rapid first strikes coordinated with the Imperials if we are to gain a decisive advantage. The problem with that is that we must trust the Sith to cooperate and I don't trust them at all. Sith are nothing more than erratic, emotional, psychopathic beings that are hardly able to be trusted not to stab each other in the back, much less remain loyal to allies."

 

[jpchewy01]

The lieutenant demonstrated a good knowledge of grand strategy and also displayed wisdom in not trusting the Sith. It was clear that the Sith could not be trusted for a long term alliance and that by allying with the Sith, the Chiss were appearing to bind themselves in service to a lesser race. Doran was impressed. He asked the lieutenant, "Well that much is clear, but do you have any ideas of how we can stand alone and not be tied to such an uncertain ally?"

 

[Travis]

"We can do so only by remaining neutral and not taking any sides," Mestrin replied with no hesitation. "For a thousand years, the Galaxy has known of us and left us to our own means as long as we do not threaten them. Now, we have allied, for better or for worse, with an Empire that seeks galactic domination. Because of that, we have made ourselves a target for enemies more powerful than us alone.

"The Imperator has chosen to ally us with these forces, so we are therefore allied. This could allow the Ascendancy to expand greatly should the Empire and their Sith puppetmasters succeed. Should the Empire and the Sith fail, we too will be dragged down with them. In likelihood, even an Imperial loss would result in little real change for the Ascendancy as our territory is well away from the rich Core worlds and the Galactic Alliance's interests. Isolation has always been one of our most important defenses.

"Further, as our territory is deep within the heart of the Empire, if the Galactic Alliance wishes to conquer the Ascendancy, they would need to conquer nearly all of the Empire itself, a task that will not be easy. Since both sides are relatively equal, neither will be able to quickly overwhelm the other and thus a prolonged war will result. Such an undertaking would take many years or even decades if past conflicts are to be judged.

"The most likely outcome would be minor territorial changes along various borders and perhaps a diminishing of dominance from the losing side. Should this happen, the Ascendancy will be in a position to demand favorable concessions in both trade, exploration, and possibly Imperial territory currently near our own. Either that or the Imperator might even decide to create Chiss colonies away from our traditional territory.

"Should the Empire lose, as stated, it would be unlikely that Chiss space would face serious invasion. Should they lose, we could expect penalties in trade and limits on military development and expansion. Such things would not be devastating, but would hamper the Ascendancy by decades or even centuries. Should we actually have some territory invaded, it would be unlikely that the conquerors would wish to keep it as it would be difficult to rule a Chiss planet due to both resistance from the all Chiss population and distances from their normal base of operations. In time, the Ascendancy would be able to reclaim those planets either by them being abandoned by the occupiers, local uprisings, negotiations, or even calculated military action."

 

[Cyril Khan]

"Thanks." Soran looked at the woman carefully. This was the first time he had encountered someone so drunk before, and he wanted to preserve the image in his mind. Next time he'd make sure to avoid people like that. He knew drunks were considered immoral, and although she didn't seem that way to him, he was afraid that his superiors would court martial him for associating himself with her. "I don't come here often."

Each time he looked at the drunken woman, he couldn't help but stare longer. It wasn't that he was attracted to her. She looked familiar to him, but his memories were vague. He hadn't made a point to spend much time with friends outside of studying; granted, he rarely made any effort to make time away from studying.

"Wait... have we met before?" The idea finally drove him to ask. He just hoped that it didn't get him into trouble. After considering it for a moment, he didn't need to be too paranoid. His particular talents were rare for him to be fired so easily.

-Edited- since Hess'ora'nuruodo and Hess'iga'nuruodo are from the same two families, it wouldn't make sense for him to not question that, even if they hadn't formally met

((sorry, I was out camping... no internet))

 

[Lavi]

((Sorry, didn't realize you edited your previous post))

Hess'iga'nuruodo raised her head again at the question. She didn't quite get the "we" part of the sentence, though it was clear for her groggy self that the question was aimed at her. She stared at him for several seconds, narrowing her eyes to focus, and the Chiss patron did seem kind of familiar, even when intoxicated.

The female officer tried to focus more, but she turned away with a headache, resting her head in one hand while she mentally warded off the negative effects of the alcohol.

"Hesh'or'nuroodo, waz et?" she asked through slurred speech.

 

[Cyril Khan]

"It is." Soran was still unsure to who she was, and it annoyed him. The woman's voice sounded familiar, and she got his name correct. It made sense that they had to have been from similar families; any friends he made outside of that he knew he could recognize immediately, regardless of how out of it they were. As he thought through the names, two came to mind: Hess'eve'nuruodo and Hess'iga'nuruodo. The former he knew better, and was certain she would not drink in excess. But then again, friends do change with age. At least she remembered him.

"Hess'eve'nuruodo I take it?" He guessed, almost certain on his decision. It was his own fault; he chose to not remember names when he didn't need to, and only the closest of friends were ingrained in his memory. He spoke confidently, worsening his mistake.

((flipped a coin for the name... and it decided to be mischievous))

 

[Lavi]

She shook her head in disgust. "No."

Propping up her head on her arm, Hess'iga'nuruodo didn't say anything more, inviting the other to try again. It went completely over her head that Soran was not hesitant in trying to call her Hess'eve'nuruodo. She didn't know Seven that well, nor has she really cared about that relative. Spent too much time being a please-body, from what Sigan had seen at least.

Hess'iga'nuruodo gestured to the bartender for another drink.

 

[Cyril Khan]

"Eh?" Soran's skin turned even paler than normal as he realized his mistake. At least she didn't seem angry. He stared at the wall of the cantina as a deer would in a spotlight. His mind tried to piece everything together; he hated making such elementary mistakes. Now if she was human, there was no way he'd have messed up like that. Perhaps foreign affairs was all he was good at.

"Hess," he paused longer than he should have at this spot. He second guessed himself, having made the mistake already. The last thing he wanted to do was to make a second error. "iga'nuruodo?"

He had no confidence in his voice this time.

 

[Lavi]

Hess'iga'nuruodo gave a smile, raising the glass that the bartender gave her as Soran struggled to come up with the correct name. "Yea."

She downed the entire cup in one go, as was with previous glasses. She sighed as she placed the glass back on the table, seemingly losing interest in the conversation already.

It didn't connect with her, yet at least, that Hess'ora'nuruodo completely forgot who she was, despite both of them having dealt with foreign affairs in some form before: she used to be a Chiss representative within the Galactic Alliance around twenty years ago, sometime before the Ascendancy cut their ties with the government and returned to the seclusion of Chiss Space. Her term was short-lived, due to a scandal involving her being accused of libel. She never said whether the accusation was true or not, stepping down from her post before the scandal grew to galactic proportions.

 

[Cyril Khan]

Although it took him a while to put the correct name to the face, Soran remembered who she was well enough. He spent a lot of time working with the military in foreign relations. His training wasn't in diplomacy so to speak. Most of what he learned was how to blend in with other cultures as if he had lived their his entire life. His handler took advantage of his genetic disposition. While any Chiss could use the best technology to put on a human disguise, which could fool even advanced security devices, Soran's much paler skin and dimmer eyes allowed him to assume a convincing guise faster than anyone else of his species. In fact, he only needed specialized technology to hide his DNA signature.

Soran ignored most other things than this training. He knew of the people in the same area of service, but usually by name. He hardly spent the time to match names with the faces. After all, that's all he did in his studies, except with big wigs located on the core worlds. Adding people who worked near him, but not with him, to that list did not appeal to him.

"Perhaps we should catch up sometime." It seemed pretty obvious that Hess'iga'nuruodo was not in the right mind to hold a conversation. Not that he expected to hear from her again; she did leave his branch of service on a poor note.

Soran took a sip from his ale. It was dark and dry. For someone unaccustomed to drinking much at all, he cringed a bit. He didn't mind bitter drinks, except for the first few times trying them. He had yet to acquire the taste for alcohol.

 

[Lavi]

Hess'iga'nuruodo gave a nod to Soran, fumbling with her pockets for some cash to give to the bartender. The tender looked at the money she offered and picked up the correct amount and gesturing her to keep the rest. The drunk patron rested her head on the table, appearing to fall asleep at the bar counter.