Ask Rime of the Modern Mariner

[The Storyteller]

A warship was a busy craft. Any kind of starship was already busy, with many things to do and repair and maintain. But a warship was not any kind of starship. It had to be ready at all times for anything to happen between a parade to a full scale war. As one goes up the size of these warship the crew numbers begin to climb, with small corvettes having merely a few dozen men to some craft taking thousands to crew. A battlecruiser like the Procurator-class takes a full crew of forty six thousand men, just to operate it at full capacity, and most likely has four thousand more just to act as marines. That amount of men means there are tons of orders.

The bridge of any battlecruiser is the brain of the command system, where orders from on high come down the chain to the respective men to complete. This means that, while the rest of the ship is orderly, the bridge is more akin to orderly chaos. Men shuffling about, talking on intercoms and open beam channels, reading and recording new data, the whole nine yards. And the flagship of the Seventh Fleet, the "Octavia", has the most of this controlled chaos. It had not only to deal with her own crew but the rest of her floatilla and sometimes even the entire fleet. And today was one of the busiest days most of the crewmen would ever see. Their uniforms were clean and pristine, hallways and floors freshly cleaned to a nice shine, droids were freshly polished and oiled, and bunks were even straightened up. If orders here came from on high, today must have been a visit from some being beyond then. It was important. This had to be perfect, or who knows what their guest would do.

One of the subordinate officers to the admiral herself stood right above the right-side command pit, so he was given the news when it had arrived. His throat was dry already, he was nervous. His eyes stared just slightly beyond, if this were to fail he may just loose his position and favor with the admiral. He swallowed softly and walked towards her, his back straight and shoulders aligned. Softly, and patiently he pulled her aside to say the words he had been dreading the entire day so far.

"Docking permission has been requested by a nearby shuttle. He is here, ma'am." He let the words hang there for a moment, his arms going behind his back as he awaited her order.
@Altaria

 

[Ceris Odrosess]

Although in charge of an entire fleet of ships, Ceris spent a good majority of her time on the ground. The further she's gone up in rank, the less labour she had to attend to. Missions quickly turned into desk work. It was dreadful for the once adventurous young girl. Her aspirations faded slowly, but she still held onto her ultimate goal.

The Republic Navy was falling apart anyways. Despite Ceris' efforts, many of her ships were extremely outdated. The current chancellor's decision to become friends with the Empire took away the needs of the Navy. Ceris believed the man to be a full, and knows peace cannot last in this galaxy. She's attempted to receive funding in anyway possible, and today she just might have her chance.

Weeks prior to the meeting, Ceris put out that order for every ship in her fleet to be in the best shape as possible. It was a lot to ask for no reason, but she also grew tired of her men sitting on their asses all day. She stood within the bridge, taking over command from the Captain of the ship. Ceris could tell he wasn't fond of the position he was in, since he was only in charge when Ceris was off-ship. She could feel a sense of nervousness and scorn from him, but she ignored it. Cards were already in place to take care of him eventually. "Permission granted." She responded simply.

Various formations stood in the hangar bay to welcome the shuttle. When it landed, two men rolled out a long red carpet towards the end of the shuttle's ramp. Ceris turned her head slightly to the Captain, but her attention was elsewhere "Have them escort the Senator here." The subordinate acknowledged the order and went off to delegate the job to someone else.

"Show time..."

@Olwin

 

[Aharon Staergin]

The Iota-class Shuttle began approaching the much larger vessel the second the order was recieved. The droid crew flew with a precision few biological pilots could, which gave any life sign scans only one reading. And that one life aboard the shuttle was knealed infront of his metallic bodyguards, tool in hand deep within its neck. One of its red eye sensors had gone out and the senator was trying to figure out the problem.

"Well my friend, you seem to always do this to yourself. Ah, here it is. I told you to be careful when maintaining yourself, these wires always seemed to be pinched when you do so. And..." the senator moved the small wire bundle away from the joint and the sensor sprung to life once again. The droid beeped softly, showing gratitude, as the young male moved back into his seat and sat down his tool. Now he had to move from what he loved to his job sadly.


The shuttle folded its wings and slowly drifted into the hangar bay as directed, effortlessly touching down and allowing a small crowd to gather. The ramp lowered slowly, a soft hiss from its hydraulics as the metal slab lowered. Before the men who rolled the litteral red carpet up could even return to their ranks stepped out two spindly droids. Their frames were lithe, yet powerful. Their eyes glowing with a raging. red. In their hands were their iconic electrostaves, as these indeed were IG-100 Magna Guards. Two stepped out beside eachother, a staff in opposing hands, as another two stepped forth. When all of them had managed to step off the ramp they turned in unison to face the formations of biological beings around them. Soon stepped out an N-Series Litigation Droid, a K4-Series Security Droid, a CZ Communication Droid, and finally the senator himself.

Today he wore something lavish yet still simple: a purple suit vest and a flowing purple cloak of a similar shade. He stood straight, shoulders back, and head high as he strode. His steps were powerful and long, which if one were to know him well enough were due to him being an early Emryc Routine follower. The CZ droid joined him at his right side, somewhat blocking the view of his facial scars, as he stepped towards the center of the Manga Guard formation and stopped. They returned to their forward positions with one step, and once the N-series and the K4 were in their places they began the journey to the bridge.

 

[Ceris Odrosess]

Ceris stood within the bridge awaiting the Senator's arrival. She received a notice that the Senator wanted to discuss the funding and status of the Navy, but was out of the loop in terms of what he wanted to do about it. Hopefully he had something exquisite in place.

When the Senator arrived, Ceris was a bit thrown off by his droid guards. She knew of his fondness for the metallic beings which attempted to mimic the likeness of a humanoid, but it was rather weird to have a full squadron protecting him on a Republic ship. "It is my pleasure to meet you, Senator Staergin. I hope you didn't have any troubles making your way here." Ceris observed the outfit Staergin was wearing "A suit vest? So out of style...rich people seem to just waste their money for no reason."

Pointing towards her right, Ceris continued "You may follow me into this office space where we can discuss the terms of our meeting today." If the Senator didn't have any immediate questions or concerns, Ceris would lead him into the room; she took the seat farthest away, facing the doorway in which they came through.

Tag: @Olwin

 

[Aharon Staergin]

The phalanx of the IG-100s broke apart when they entered the meeting room. Two stood at the flanks or the doorway, facing inward. The other two kept by Aharon's sides as he stepped forward and took a seat at the opposite end from the admiral. As they stood, it seemed that each one was cannibalized from other units. Only one infact was made of all the same color of armored plating with the others having patches of different color to them. They stood proud and ready, their poles by their sides and shoulders back awaiting any request from their master. The CZ Communication Droid stood to one shoulder of the senator while the security droid stood by the other. The litigation droid sat halfway up the table between the two, nodding to each of them to show he was ready. His hands sat on the table and a very subtle yet noticeable tremble was made more obvious in them as they gently tapped against the table.

Aharon nodded slowly to the droids around him as he smiled softly, a hand moving towards the very litigation droid infront of him.

"All of my droids were not perfect when I recieved them. This one here was a prosecutor. He had put a somewhat mid level criminal in hot water and was about to take him down, until that criminal decided his best bet was to try and blow the prosecutor away. It destroyed nearly all of his neural harness but enough remained that I have rebuilt him." His hand moved from the litigation droid to one of his guards, one that had half of his face pure silver and the other plated in a deep navy blue. "This one was merely a part of a torso when I gathered him. See, the IG-100 actually has his vital parts here," his hand now moved toward the glowing red eye in the droid's chest, "with a sentral sensor. Their head may be severed yet if the body remains it still functions. Yet during an encounter with a Jedi he was rendered mere pieces. This is where I come in, I save these droids and rebuild them. Many have left, yet so many have remained in my care.

That is my hobby, fixing damaged and broken things and breathing new life into them." His smile grew slightly larger as his arms leaned on the table, his hands moving as he talked to add emphasis to his points. "Droids, corporations, the like. I have now taken an interest in fixing the galaxy as a whole. For this to happen, we need all of our governments to unite and become as strong as they can. You are indeed our best admiral, that is how you got the 7th fleet. Yet what got me here is the fact I know you are not happy with what we have. No offense to our navy, but we have aging designs and old ships that should be retrofitted, upgraded, or simply replaced. I want an admiral to have my back before I make this push." He shifted I his seat somewhat, leaned further in, and spoke slightly softer now.

"But even that is not all I am wanting to do with you. I have a pitch going up in the next senate meeting and I want you to be on it. To strip the idea down to the bone it's a collection of the greatest military minds our galaxy has from each of the major powers united to act as a war council during the Killik Invasion. And I wish for you to be our primary representitive. I feel no one would argue against your appointment, but I wish to make sure you are OK with it before I go ahead and key you in as my nominee for if and when the motion gets enacted." He spoke as if he had seen into the future and knew this would happen. His confidence radiated like heat from a fire. Yet he still seemed to play his cards close to his chest. If she wanted to know anything beyond what he said, which may be little or may be quite a bit, she would have to work for every inch or simply accept all of what he had given her in such a short time. Atleast if his word was true.

 

[Ceris Odrosess]

Ceris watched with disgust, though not visible, as the Senator rambled on about his droids. They appeared to be heaps of junk scrapped together to create something. She didn't have anything against droids; they were the perfect beings to order around. However they took the fun out of manipulating people. It was more fun to convince someone to do what you want, rather than creating something that has no other option.

She would carefully listen as the Senator transitioned into his main point. Her elbows rested on the table with her hands holding up her chin as she looked intently towards the opposite end of the table. It was true that Ceris was not happy with what she had currently. Staergin spoke the same language as her, but he was flattering; a bit too flattering. It would benefit her greatly to be a part of his plans, but it was unclear what the Senator truly wanted out of it. Ceris has spoken to a few Senators, and they were all deceitful little rats, even her friend Jin.

"Well then," Ceris said, leaning back in her chair with her arms now crossed. "what a lovely arrangement you've come here with. I'd be a fool to say no. However, I do not believe things will be as easy as you wish it to be. It will be difficult to put me in this war council. If anyone were to go, it would most likely be my mentor: the Grand Admiral, whom despite his sickly decrepit state, is still one of the most hard headed individuals I've met. Secondly," Ceris ran her hands through her hair, scratching the back of her hand in annoyance "the Chancellor will have the final say in all of this. We've witnessed how passive he is, and he typically avoids conflict as much as he can. He may view our attempt to improve our ships as a potential sign of aggression, which he does not want."

The Chancellor was the biggest hoop to jump through. It could be possible, especially with the allies Ceris has made, but she couldn't be certain. Staergin was also her biggest worry, that is, if he was even capable of putting all of this together. The Senator of Champala was somewhat a new face with practically nothing on his track record. Ceris leaned back in, her right hand tapping the table. "I'm also curious on how you intend to do all of this. The Senator of Arkania already proposed a splendid way to go about it, but it wouldn't hurt to open up to more options. I'm also curious about your plans to put this war council together. What will you be proposing to the other bodies?" The tapping came to a halt, the light blue sky eyes shot deep into the Senator's "I also must know if you intend to have the Empire be a part of this council."

Tags: @Olwin

 

[Aharon Staergin]

The young man followed the lean forward that the female had done, a large grin on his face. She had a right not to trust him. He was green, he was young, and he was untested in her eyes. His resources and allies would allow him to atleast fund several prototypes of the designs he has already commissioned, which brought him to the display he wanted to show. He motioned towards the security droid at his side, who moved over to dim the room lights. The K4 then moved back to his original place and turned its rather oblong head towards the wall. From its eye it projected design schematics of various ships. From single man snubfighter interceptors to a massive Destroyer, the images quickly rolled across the screen. The images were still recognizable, giving hints towards the grand designs they would fully be, but they were fast enough to atleast not spoil the whole supprise.

"You are indeed correct, on my own all of these visions would simply be a dream. But you are a key military figure, an icon of our time. The 7th fleet is a command post many in your previous position would kill for. What you are, is what I need most. An ally with allies. An ally with allies who has the insight I need into fixing our fleet." He slowly stood up, moving towards the projection and standing infront of it. He pointed towards the display, his hand emphasizing his point when he referred to the ships.

"You are indeed correct, the Chancellor is indeed not a fan of warfare. Yet we are already at war with an enemy who has drawn atleast one eye away from us from our rivals. The ISC and the Sith are the greatest fleets of our time, yet the Killiks still can create fear within their commanders. He cannot say we can't show aggression to a foe who does not stop, does not sleep, unless we are all decimated and assimilated. They are aggression incarnate. We simply cannot let us roll over and accept whatever support the other governments hand out, we have to make sure our people are safe ourselves. This is bigger than just PR. This is survival.

"Which is why the Sith have to be on this council. If this is meant to be all of senate represented we need them. They are the strongest fleet, and they are a key ally of opportunity in this war. I will propose that this council is simply our best and brightest military minds gathering together to coordinate the war effort to defend our galaxy against the Killik menace." His frame took a few steps toward the admiral and out from the projection, his eyes focused and slightly squinted with passion. He paused a moment, thinking about his next words carefully. He knew that Ceris felt he had another motive behind this.

"I know you feel like I am some novice politician reaching way over my head or that I have my own motives. You are correct to some extent. Myself, I have not been in the limelight for too long. But I have had a life studying the works of my father, who was a Senator long before I was even thought about. I am also going to put most of my resources into this project. I am putting my own hard earned credits into this project, to make this work. With you as an ally I get more contacts, to rub elbows with and potentially have them as my own contacts to go on and on from. But that is how contacts work after all. And if this works out well, it will not be just me who gets the praise. And if this fails, it will be me who gets crucified." His dark eyes bored into hers, his hands now pressed against the table as he somewhat leaned into it.

"But for this to work, we need more than just you or I. We need more than just Kuat. We need several shipyards, several of the other senators, and many other admirals and commanders. They will be easier to get if we work together, instead of just one of us doing so alone."

 

[Ceris Odrosess]

After carefully considering everything the Senator said, Ceris stood up and took her own steps toward him. With her hand extended she asked "Where do we begin?"

Tags: @Olwin