TKR: Our Interests Range Far And Wide

[Lyanna Drast]

Lyanna was of the opinion that if you wanted someone to work for you, fight for you, then you needed to be something more to them than some distant figure.

You needed to either know them on a personal level or you needed to be larger than life - something, someone, so much their greater that they felt there was no other way for them but to obey and adore you.

But this would be different.

Because she was meeting one of the senior rangers of the sector rangers today to discuss the future of their service within the boundaries of her Empire. Her predecessor, Elix, had largely ignored the Sector Rangers but Lyanna wasn't about to make the same mistake.

They might not be immediately obvious but they had their own benefits and she would much rather assist them than hinder them - after all, what laws had she broken? None.

Though she could definitely see why Elix had shied away from meeting with them but she was sick and tired of having to clean up the messes that spoiled manchild had left her with. And this would be a good start - meeting with this ranger in one of her studies in the Imperial Palace.

Sure, there were four Sith guards in the room with them but that was just a precaution. A woman such as herself had no reason to fear a lawman after all.

@Ecclessey

 

[Narr Noft]

It was an odd feeling, being summoned by the Empress. Narr figured that it was an extremely rare event, too, especially with him being undoubtedly alien. Not brave enough to deny a direct request from the most powerful person in the known galaxy, the Shivastenen ranger bought himself a new clean set of Imperial attire and polished his sector ranger's badge until it blinded him in the mirror of his cheap lower levels motel room. If she wanted a report on running investigations, Narr knew he couldn't offer her more than his superiors at the office could, because at the end of the day he was simply trying to shovel water out of a river and with the exact amount of imagined success that said mental picture would deliver. Then there were his investigations; One involved finding an unnamed Mandalorian in a sector filled with unnamed Mandalorians, not to mention the fact that Narr had his doubts whether the whole affair fell in his jurisdiction anyway, and the others involved petty gang warfare far outside the scope of interest for an Empress.

Thus, when the young ranger stepped into the Empress' study he had no kriffing clue what he could expect from the upcoming conversation. All he could see was the rather pretty young girl, the Empress, apparently, sitting there and thinking that it was weird that such a seat of power belonged to someone so young. Just like how Narr at 22 was an "experienced ranger" simply because most died even younger.

Fighting off the urge to sigh, for that was how Shivastenen lost surplus heat when a human would sweat, Narr did exactly what was instructed and bowed deeply. Sector Ranger Narr Noft, at your service-" and then after only half a second of pause, "-your majesty."

@Nefieslab

 

[Lyanna Drast]

They had warned her that he was a xeno.

They had not, however, told her that he would look quite so much like an over-grown family dog. That was... well that was something she hadn't expected but she wasn't considered a political genius because she would react with her first instincts and blink or stare. No, instead she smiled at his entrance and the smile continued, visibly no different than if she were greeting a human.

Her guards shuffled slightly in place, none of them exactly keen on Xenos either and none of them as well versed in politics or general manners as she was.

"Oh please, Ranger Noft, lift you head." She bade him graciously with a small wave of her hand, "Would you like to sit? A drink perhaps?"

She settled down in her own chair behind the desk and one of the guards moved over to pour tear for her. They would pour tea, coffee or water for the ranger as he requested. Sipping her tea once, she set the cup down as she looked across the desk to the ranger.

"I understand that this meeting may seem strange to you." she admitted with a small smile, "I admit it seemed strange to many of my cabinet ministers, moffs and my security team as well. But I cannot allow myself to be the same kind of ruler as my predecessors - I feel that I must know my people, their mood and the thoughts they have to better the Empire as a whole."

Lyanna nodded.

"To that end I ask you to speak plainly Ranger Noft - how can I make my Empire a beacon on law and order in this Galaxy?"

@Ecclessey

 

[Narr Noft]

Narr wasn't less confused by the whole thing despite the Empress' cordiality, but he didn't really have a choice but to bite through and sit it out. "Caf, please-" he said to the guard, "-with a bit of bantha-milk is you have it." No reason to take advantage of it, he supposed. After this meeting he would have to sit in his tiny starship and it's uncomfortable pilot chair for a good twenty hours to get back to his sector. He'd only have water and oatmeal during the flight, being on a ranger budget, so he might as well enjoy his stay in the palace. He noticed that the Empress' familiar attitude helped him relax a little and by the time he sat down it felt like a huge weight dropped from his shoulders.

Her question was an odd one, however- for surely she understood that it was impossible to please everyone? Narr shifted uncomfortably in his seat when he accepted the cup from the guard with a nod. "You majesty, I-" his sudden anxiety had him interrupt himself by taking a sip from his caf, "-can I be brutally honest?"

The Imperial Republica as a beacon of law and order in the galaxy? She had clearly never stepped a foot outside of her own privileged world. Narr's family, like all aliens that grew up in the Empire, were discriminated against and treated as less than second-tier citizens. Some say Andraste herself had been the opposite, being both a ruthless Empress as well as a kind and open-minded person. None of her descendants seemed to share those qualities. So far the current Empress hadn't shown them either, because every alien in the Empire recognized the kind of look she showed when she first laid her eyes on him. It didn't matter she didn't blink or stared, but even the conscious effort of not doing it is noticeable to someone who has seen it a countless times in his short lifetime..

@Nefieslab

 

[Lyanna Drast]

Her guard was annoyed that he was serving a xeno but Lyanna didn't care - the guards were not paid so that they could question her or her choice in visitors and guests. They would accept that which they did not like and they would be sure to be reminded of that in the future. Not by her though. Their officers were likely already planning on disciplining them for their attitude since it was clearly coming across in their body language.

Honestly she had no issues with them liking or not liking Narr - she had issue with the fact that they lacked the self control to make sure they didn't let it cloud their judgement.

She chuckled a little bit.

"I'd be offended if you weren't." she joked lightly in return before holding up a hand, "I understand your scepticism... in the past rulers have been all too happy to ignore the harsh realities."

Her smiled was gone and she was serious.

"But I can't afford to do that Mr Noft. I cannot afford to bury my head in the sand and hope everything will be okay - I have to know my problems so I can fix my problems however." she smiled faintly, "And for that I need someone who owes me nothing to tell me their truth."

@Ecclessey

 

[Narr Noft]

Narr had never seen a person in authority smile so much. Was that a Drast-thing? He couldn't remember ever meeting another Drast, but they grew up in some ivory tower with cushions, plenty of luxurious meals and all the other luxuries one could possible think of. Yes, Narr thought that he, too, would smile more if he was born with such a last name. "Then let me be frank-" Narr tried to smile in return, but merely bared his teeth and that would not give the desired effect.

"-you cannot."

Shoot, he probably needed to extrapolate on that. "The Imperial Republica is known as specist, abusive in its power and since recently the best known mass murderer in the galaxy. An entity with such a record can -never- become a beacon of law and order." This was why he had asked if he was able to speak frankly and hopefully the Empress was true to her word, because he wasn't yet done. Still, he paused, taking another sip of his milked-up caf and having a short look around the study. "Sector Rangers have a typically short life expectancy-" he said, sighing, and put his cup back on the table. "-because we choose to be impartial and a neutral factor in any conflict." He shrugged now, as if he knew that the whole attitude of the ranger was good in theory and hugely inadequate in reality, but the Empress wouldn't know that, having never said a foot out of her ivory tower. "You see, choosing Law and Order above your own interest exposes you to great risk. A ranger would-" he paused again, hesitating and breathing faster as if he needed to lose some nervous heat that was suddenly building up inside his body. "-when murder is against the law-" may the ranger service forgive him if the Empress suddenly stops all of their funding, "-apprehend even the Emperor if he's guilty of it." He had come to the true crux of their conversation. With the HoloNet filled with interviews of survivors of Medriaas clearly pointing at the forces of then-Emperor Elix V Drast as the culprit of planet-wide mass murder, there had to be an answer by the Imperial Republica or indeed the guilt of the whole affair would go to the current head of state, Empress Lyanna herself.

This was how far Ranger Noft was willing to take it, however, since the idea to arrest and prosecute those involved in the Medriaas Affair should always be her own. Perhaps if she did decide to act on such an idea, her rule would at some point at least twenty years from now evolve into the beacon of law and order she wishes it to be.

@Nefieslab

 

[Lyanna Drast]

Her guards shifted in response to his failed attempt to smile and the perceived insult that they saw in the simple, blunt, statement he had led with. Rather than let them posture however, Lyanna waved them off with a hand and laughed brightly at the answer instead. Likely not what anyone in the room expected but she didn't much care. She just smiled.

"That is the honesty I'm looking for, Ranger Noft." she told him simply, "The brutal, the truly honest."

Sipping her own tea, she allowed him to continue and continued to ignore the non-verbal suggestions of her guards to let them shut him up themselves. They were loyal but gods were they lacking in the brains sometimes. And then, at last, they came to it.

The crux of the issue and the crux, the source and sole cause of many of her woes; Elix.

Setting her tea cup down gently, Lyanna leaned forwards slightly to address the ranger.

"The former Emperor Elix is of royal blood. To have him executed would weaken the monarchy... and be, in my own opinion, too much like recognition for him." She sniffed, annoyed at the mere memory of Elix, "He has been arrested, he has been fitted with Force restrictive restraints and he has been interned into the system as a deluded fool who believes himself to be Elix Drast but is, in fact, quite mad. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that his days will be short, miserable and lethal to him before long aboard one of our many prison ships destined for a penal planet."

She pulled forward a few manilla envelopes and presented them to Noft.

"Besides... the Imperial military is a modern military machine and officers are given the freedom to refuse orders they know to be wrong."

It very seldom happened due to pressure but the thought and the principle was in place.

"These are the officers who carried out the attacks, as far as we can narrow it down." She confirmed for the ranger, "I would like your help to present these men and women to the Mandalorians for trial."

@Ecclessey

 

[Narr Noft]

Kriff.

Kriff...Kriff....Kriff..Kriff

Did the Empress just tell him ultra top secret information containing the fate of the Emperor she usurped? Narr couldn't help it but his mind wondered to the question of how easy it would be to identify all the prison ships leaving Coruscant and were currently still en-route. Kriff, this was information that was definitely need to know, only. Perhaps Sector Rangers were involved in the escort? Maybe she thought he already knew because of that? No that would be ridiculous. KRIFF.

Suddenly he sighed again, to allow excess heat from nervousness to escape from his body, and with a small shake in his hand accepted the manilla envelopes. His amazement grew even further, but he began to realize why she would share Elix's fate with him, albeit in too much detail. The officers detailed in these envelopes were all high-ranked admirals and Moffs, commanders of Imperial frigates and clearly selected to take the blame for the events on Medriaas. It was a public perception strategy that wasn't lost on Narr, despite it only focusing on Medriaas and not on the structural blockades that the Imperial xenophobia had erected to the detriment of true law and order.

As soon as his heart-rate dropped down after the initial scare, the sector ranger nodded, but also shrugged to show indifference. "Put them in shackles and me on the ship with them and I'll try to smooth things over with the Mandalorian people" He wasn't sure it was going to help, considering the damage that had been had on both sides a gesture of peace wouldn't be taken as such. But not reaching out only ever made sure a conflict would not end. He admired the Empress' heart.

@Nefieslab

 

[Lyanna Drast]

Ah she had got his mind whirling with the information she had dropped about Elix's fate... that had been the intention. It was to give him the information that he didn't know he wanted but give him it anyway. Nothing she had said had been a lie either. Of course, not all of the truth had been included.

No one ever said Elix was moved directly from Coruscant after all.

She might be willing to give the Sector Ranger a bone but she wasn't about to give him all of the information all at once. Like she wasn't going to tell him that the Imperial Security Services had snuck an unconscious Elix off of Coruscant and shipped him out on one the many prison ships leaving Corellia, not Coruscant.

But the game was continued.

"Specifically I want you to take them to Clan Solus." she agreed with a nod, "We are not blind to Mandalorian polictics - many up and coming men and women call that Clan, or House, their family. Their home."

She gestured to the folder.

"It is... a start." she admitted with a small frown, "I know that some of my allies, and no doubt my enemies as well, think me a fool for wishing to attempt some form of diplomacy. But as far as I see it - the only fool is the one who doesn't seek to use any and all methods at their disposal to end a war."

Or at least bring it to a crawl so that the Empire could better position itself for a counter attack once the diplomacy broke down.

@Ecclessey

 

[Narr Noft]

Narr wasn't too happy with the Empress extended a branch of peace to a clan he was investigating for numerous crimes against Imperial civilians, but that was politics, he guessed. By extending an olive branch he knew that Imperial law no longer cared for him to bring the badgers to justice, which coming from the Empress herself, was basically a firm order to stop investigating and erase any files. Kriff, all that work for nothing...

After once again nodding to the Empress, Narr got up from his seat, still holding the files she gave him, and said "The Ranger Service will see it done." Whether it was him or another more experienced ranger doing to actual hand-off, or perhaps they'd show up in numbers for fear of being killed by the unreliable badgers. Then again, the Empress seemed to trust them. Then again, the Empress seemed all the fool for trusting anyone. Elix apparently did and look where that got him.

Paying attention to all ceremony that came into play with leaving the Empress behind in her study, Narr backed away and exited.

/end thread

@Nefieslab