Strategy

[The Prophet]

A dark ship, deep in the outer rim, loomed over a nameless dead world. It was the Equilibrium, current home of the Fulcrum. The deep voice of Elder Matteus Robell boomed through the dimly lit halls of the ship. "Brothers and sisters! Convene in the war room as soon as possible! It's time to plan our next move." Summoned, the various members of the Fulcrum began to head towards one of the communal areas of the ship, designated as the war room. The ship wasn't particularly large, though its highly modified interior gave the ship a more homely flow. The Fulcrum had been working tirelessly since it's genesis, over 8 years ago, seeking to restore balance to the force by seizing power from the hands of zealots such as the Jedi and the Sith; so far, the group had managed to do so without their knowledge. One of the larger rooms on the ship, the war-room housed a large, ring-shaped table. In the center of that ring was a large space for holographic projection and, surrounding it, there were walls covered in maps and a plethora of different plans. Various members of the order began to arrive in the war room, filling out most of the seats at the table. Elder Robell, a tall and grizzly looking Bothan, stood in the center of the room, watching on patiently as everyone took their seats. "Come on all, hurry it up. We've got work to do." ​

Aizahk, practicing sword form in his chambers, smiled slightly at the sound of his old master's summons. A warrior of the Order, following the way of the Templar, he was eager to test his skills out in the field. Although he hoped to see some field-work, he didn't necessarily expect to. After all, the operations of the Fulcrum tended to be highly covert. Even should he be sent as escort, it was unlikely they would be angling for combat. Sheathing his lightsaber and quickly donning his robes, he began to slowly make his way towards the war-room. Striding through the corridors, he watched as various members of the Order scurried and rushed past him; he greeted many of them as they did. It didn't take long for Aizahk to reach the war-room and take a seat himself.

 

[ctrocks307]

Fang docked his ship in the holding bay of the Fulcrum's headquarters. He jumped out, his coat still on him, he went to the cargo hold of the small fighter and pulled out his Vibrosword and proceeded to strap it to his back. His coat had a slot for the sword's sheath on it's back that he used whenever he could. His mask jangling on his belt, he walked to the War room. It was amusing to him that he is probably the only one in this faction that is not Force sensitive.

 

[Kibagami]

A few small precision metalworking tools made a series of high pitched tinking sounds when tossed across the glass tabletop within his personal quarters. Having just come back from fetching the tools from the ship's communal workshop, Jubei was looking forward to cracking open an old broken holocron to see if he could fix and repurpose it for his own use. He wasn't exactly skilled with these particular implements and this wasn't exactly an activity of choice, but when one spends weeks at a time in space one starts to run out of things to do. Sure, one could go on a supply run or grab a mission to go planetside somewhere for a few days, but it always starts and ends in space. Weary. Drab. Cold. One starts to feel numb. He wasn't sure if he was getting sick of it or sick from it.

He sat, tied his hair back, donned a pair of old fashioned magnifying specs, took a sip of the room-temperature Blackroot tea he'd forgotten about then promptly spit the tea back into the glass, took hold of a tool in each hand and...was then abruptly cut off by an announcement over the comm. "Damn it, Matteus, you have the worst timing."
~~~~
The war room. Only a few had arrived thus far. Jubei took one seat over from Aizahk, to whom he gave a nod. "Hey, you got any more of that Shili Blackroot tea?"

 

[ctrocks307]

Fang walked into the war room to find that Jubei and Aizahk, had beaten him. Fang sat down and started twiddling a throwing knife between his fingers. He sized up Jubei, he looked like an agile man with many capabilities and was no doubt a force-sensitive. Fang quickly lost interest in the knife and decided to tinker with his wrist-mounted grappling hook. Taking out a small bag of tools, he quickly got to work while he waited for the others to show up.

 

[Veran Zin]

Veran breathed heavily as he heard the call to the war room. Of course the one time he decided to make adjustments to his saber the entire order is called to a meeting. Damn it! he said to himself. I'm never going to get those adjustments finished.

Veran Zin marched into the war room and looked around himself. Everyone was coming in from every entrance. Every member. Not a single person was going to be absent. The order may be small, but the war room could still be packed with the number of members it had. Veran found a seat and waited for everyone to fill the room. This was not going to be a short meeting. Veran saw Aizahk and Jubei about two rows down from him.

In the center, of course, was Elder Robell, probably the most respected member of the Fulcrum. The Bothan was there from the beginning. Veran often speculated if the Fulcrum was his idea. Either way he was a great man and a powerful member of the order. Everyone listened to him, even when they disagreed. That was one of the great things about this order.

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

Sitting in the center of his quarters, crossed legged and eyes closed, Hezron sat in silence with his weapon laying in his lap, meditating and seeking inner peace as he enjoyed the sound of silence throughout the room. The sound of the announcement cut off his train of thought as his yellow eyes glanced up towards the ceiling. He rose up to his feet slowly, dusting off his black robes as he walked with his sheathed weapon, making his way towards the war room. He hoped that whatever was happening wouldn't be too violent of an affair, as the pale white mystic made his way to his own seat, sitting as he gave a bow of his head to others he passed, smiling politely as he took his seat and waited patiently for the meeting to begin.

 

[RedneckLoves]

Whiskey was in a deep meditative state. She was in her personal room that had been assigned when she boarded this ship. It had little decoration, as she had only been here a few days and didn't have many personal possessions. In her meditation she felt at peace and at one with the universe. Her mother had taught her to feel with her soul all the things around her and all the things in the galaxy. All life has essence and these flow together to create harmony in the galaxy.

As she came out of it, the universe around her slowly began to shrink. There were no longer thousands of worlds connected to each other, but hundreds. Then only dozens. Eventually, it was only herself left alone and isolated from the rest. The end of a meditation always left her feeling empty and somewhat hollow inside. When she was connected to all those other living beings, she felt so alive and fulfilled that being just herself didn't seem enough. At least not at first. The feeling always faded after a while.

When she was alone again, she opened her bright eyes. The stark emptiness of her room only amplified the feeling of loneliness. She closed her eyes again and did a deep breathing exercise. A few moments more and she felt herself again. Opening her eyes again, she stood and walked out into the hall. At just that moment a voice sounded over the intercom, summoning everyone to the war room. Looking down the hall, Whiskey didn't see anyone else just yet. She thought she remembered which direction that room was, and started off that way.

She had been brought here by a man named Jubei. He had told her things that she wasn't sure about, but the cause of this group of people seemed just so she had come with him. As yet, she had kept to herself, preferring to learn about the others before they learned of her. She hadn't found out much, but hoped that this meeting may show her more of their ways, their purpose. She felt Jubei's reasoning was right and just, but she knew little of these others aboard the ship.

 

[ctrocks307]

Fang watched as the other members filed in and took their seats, 'Hm, looks like I am the only non-force sensitive,' he thought. He took notice of many other warriors coming in, Aizahk, and Jubei were having a conversation about tea, while Hezron was making his way past other members. Veran waited patiently for the meeting to start, while Elder Robell was in the middle of the room waiting for everyone to arrive. Strapping the grappling hook back onto his wrist, Fang started a Meditation routine his former master had taught him. The purpose of the meditation was to calm and relax one's mind, it had nothing to do with the Force, nor did it need to. As his mind calmed, he saw others walk past him with weird looks on their faces as they realized who he was, Fang simply smiled, hoping to catch them off-guard.

 

[The Prophet]

"I might have a bag left. It'll cost you though, it's good stuff after all. Perhaps a spar for them?" Aizahk smirked, scratching his beard as though he'd only just come up with the idea; his face said otherwise.

Elder Robell paced slowly around the center of the table, arms crossed, still awaiting a full attendance. Eyeing them like a hawk as they entered, the old Bothan rolled his eyes and called out to the last few stragglers, beckoning them as he did. "Don't all move too quickly!" He said in jest, the naturally stern edge to his voice urging them to move faster. "Alright, that'll do." Robell shrugged, knowing not all had attended promptly. He thrust his arm in the direction of the door, shutting it with the force, before turning his attention to Fang. He raised an eyebrow, noticing he was still in a meditative state. With a flicking motion of his claw, he sent a small shock at the strange man, prompting much of the table to laugh as the small force blast knocked him across the forehead.

"Firstly, allow me to thank you all for your work so far. Our last few missions have been a great success and both the Jedi and the Sith are, as far as we know, none the wiser to our existence as an organization." Robell waved his hand again, but this time to activate the holographic projector at his feet. Images of three planets were generated, surrounded by various information. "As we all know, we've spent a good while on the move. Whilst this has worked up until now and whilst there are some upsides, I want to look towards us settling down." Many around the table perked up slightly, nattering amongst themselves whilst Elder Robell brought up a few more planets.

Aizahk turned to Jubei, raising an eyebrow approvingly. "Sounds like we're finally getting off of this ship." He muttered.

"These are the candidates me and a few of the other elders decided on. Obviously there's a war on, so we've had to be careful with our selections. We tried to look for locations that are wild and out of the way; places neither side would think to look. Due to the fact that, obviously, these are uninhabited planets, we are going to need to send teams down to thoroughly survey potential locations for us to settle down. We cannot be one hundred percent sure what you will encounter on the surface of these worlds, but what we do know is that they will likely be hostile environments. You're going to spend at least a couple of weeks on each, reporting back to us with information as often as possible. Because of this I want balanced teams on these missions. Well, actually, before I make any choices, does anyone want to volunteer?"

 

[ctrocks307]

Fang chuckled as the Force hit his forehead and his chair tipped back a bit. He listened intently to Robell and decided that he may like to volunteer for the job, but would like to see who else would be stupid enough to go on this mission.

 

[Veran Zin]

Veran listened intently as Robell showed three uninhabited planets on the holo projector. Was he really asking for volunteers? That was so unusual in a full group meeting. Veran stood up unexpectedly and, not really knowing what he was doing, said, "I volunteer."

Once the words were out, Veran realized what he had just done. He had just volunteered to potentially lead a mission to three deserted planets. What was he thinking? Why was he volunteering? He had not done anything like this before. He was a warrior and nothing else. He stood stock still. Hopefully he would not be the only one to volunteer for this mission because he knew this was going to be terrible.

 

[ctrocks307]

Fang smiled as Veran volunteered, "I also volunteer, it should be fun." Fang smiled and chuckled to himself as other members started murmuring in surprise.

 

[Kibagami]

"Heh! You're on." Said in agreement to Aizahk's terms for the Blackroot tea, then caught Whiskey out of the corner of his eye and gestured to her to sit with them for the meeting. He folded his arms across his chest when Elder Robell began, and chuckled under his breath at Aizahk's comment. "Let's hope."

The mission sounded more like a vacation, a potentially dangerous one but a vacation nonetheless from the coffin-like existence of life on a ship. The urge to throw his hand up and volunteer along side Veran and Fang was curbed in favor of waiting to know more about these planets to see if one looked particularly more vacation-ey than the others. Like Mother Nature herself, he preferred the path of least resistance. Then a thought struck him that pushed his analytical mind to the forefront.

"Question.." he blurted towards Robell. "..would any of these planets have a singular geostationary moon? A gravitationally locked satellite moon, if big enough, could act like a Gravity Well to disrupt subspace travel and prevent any ships from dropping right on top of our heads. A location directly under a locked moon would be ideal, provided that tidal sheering isn't too much of a problem..."

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

"A moon doesn't matter much to me. If you need people to go and survey, I'd be happy to help..." Hezrons voice added to the others, voicing his desire to aid them in their mission. As a mystic, part of his job was to help to archive and record new discoveries. The way he saw it, going down to the ground would help him get a better grasp of his duty. Besides, he was in truth getting a bit cramped on this ship, and wouldn't mind some time to stretch out and breath some non-recycled oxygen.