Dominion Altierior Motives | Galactic Alliance Dominion of Altier

[Cailen Corso]

Location: Blackridge Outpost, Altier
Tags: Corazona von Ascania ; Aurorae ; Kel Se'Taav
Objective 1: Dealbreaker
Soundtrack: Quiet Watchers

Cailen kept his eyes low, too nervous to peer into Aurorae's masked visage. The mission was a success by his own standards, but it could have played out much differently. He froze up. Spaced out. He'd been on a handful of dangerous missions, even faced down a deadly SCAR trooper on Ilum, but he'd never actually killed someone before.

Did he kill them? It was their blaster bolts, after all. He just deflected them.

He parted his lips, prepared to take responsibility, but Cora beat him to it.

"I-I apologize."

Cailen flashed his eyes at her, his face wrought with confusion; He was the one who lost his cool, staring at the bodies, not her.

"I panicked, and Cailen had to save me. As a result, he was injured."

"That was my fault, Cora, not yours," he interjected, rubbing his palm over the burn. That Rider only shot him because he was lost in the moment, the sickening reality of taking a life - taking several lives - burrowing into his mind.

That was on him.

 

[Aurorae]

There was a moment of silence before she reached up. Took off the helmet. Blue eyes, unscarred skin. A frown. Aurorae glanced between the two as she crossed her arms.

"It's both your faults. And neither. You're both young. Inexperienced. I should've had you stay on the shuttle when I first saw hesitation. I didn't. .. I'm just glad you're not truly hurt, either of you."

She let out a sigh as she plopped down. Got comfortable. It'd be a couple minutes before they touched down in the Alliance camp.

"Neither of you were ready. But, you survived. And saved those people regardless. Tell me what you learned."

Corazona von Ascania | Cailen Corso

 

[Alicio Organa]

DEADLOCKED
GALACTIC MUSEUM, CORUSCANT
Auteme - Dominique Vexx ​

As Auteme spoke, Alicio found himself... frowning. One terrorist attack wasn't enough to call an entire organization into question. It was a stretch. A thinly-veiled stab at Hayata Corp. It was hard to tell when the lie ended, just how much the leader of the free galaxy cared about what happened.

Alicio wondered in that moment if the events on Altier were just a political tool to the Chancellor, to strike out against the corporatists. Sure, it was a tool in his favor, but the idea of using the tragedy as an excuse, rather than treating it as a crisis, made him feel a little cold.

More importantly, Alicio wondered if he should join in. Play the game, so to speak.

Or be a bit more forward with his intentions.

Senator Vexx did a good job of deflecting the situation away from her own interests, but Alicio wouldn't let her escape so easily, folding both hands over his cane. "From what the Chancellor has described, it seems as if corporation-invested planets have fallen behind the rest of the Alliance, thereby damaging our coffers, in the long-term. If that's the case, it would point towards corporate representation being an economic problem, rather than an economic solution."

A bold claim in front of a corporatist, he knew. He turned his attention back to Auteme, meaning in his stark grey eyes. "I agree with Senator Vexx, we need to re-evaluate how we bring new planets into the fold. But perhaps a more... responsible solution would be to do away with the litany of corporate protections held over from the previous chancellor's term. The Alliance shouldn't have to rely on third parties to expand our influence, especially if we could do it better."

It was an open invitation to talk about the rumors. As straightforward as he dared to be.

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

"That was my fault, Cora, not yours,"

Cora's brow tensed, looking over to Cailen a second time—now, in disbelief. Her lips parted to refute his claim, but jumbled thoughts died in her throat before she could speak. His demeanor had shifted into something more grave, but she didn't understand why. The Force ebbed and flowed around them, carrying trickles of their guilt, their apprehension, their troubles. Cora didn't recognize it as such, but there was an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She flashed Cailen an empathetic pout, unsure of what was wrong.

Her gaze immediately snapped to Aurorae as the elder Jedi disengaged her helmet, and Cora simply stared with wide eyes. She was a dead ringer for Iris, the Knight who'd taught an entropite class and who'd later tended to Cora's wounds after a training mishap. Even as she moved, Cora's gaze followed the Shadow, trying to rationalize the strikingly similar looks—sans the burn mark, and she hadn't noticed the eye color difference. Even the way the Force shifted in her presence was similar to Iris.

Given how addled her mind was, Cora elected to not draw attention to it. Perhaps Iris had a twin sister, or maybe she was hallucinating from the stress.

"I...I suppose that need to learn to keep my nerve in difficult situations." The blonde Padawan admitted, idly picking at her nails as a nervous habit. She hadn't the first clue on how to do that.

Satisfied that no violent retribution would rain down on her, she turned her attention to Cailen again. "Are you sure you're alright? I hit you pretty hard back there." A beat passed, and she added for present company. "On accident!"

Cailen Corso Aurorae

 

[Cailen Corso]

Location: Blackridge Outpost, Altier
Tags: Corazona von Ascania ; Aurorae ; Kel Se'Taav
Objective 1: Dealbreaker
Soundtrack: Quiet Watchers

Cailen expected her to push back, but Cora held her tongue instead. He hadn't meant to snap, but he hated the thought of her taking the fall for his own ineptitude. If those Riders hadn't phased him... if killing them hadn't phased him, then he'd have reacted to the straggler sooner. Maybe even avoided the blaster burn altogether.

He eyed the blonde-haired girl affectionately, wishing she knew he just wanted to help. He tried to emanate that through the Force, in his own diluted way. His eyes snapped to Aurorae though, as she lifted her helmet to reveal an all-too-familiar face.

'I-Iris?'

The mysterious Jedi Shadow, now unmasked before them, looked like a mirror image of his former co-Padawan. Cailen immediately noted the absence of her trademark scar, and the unfamiliar blue hue of her eyes. How...?

Suddenly, the embarrassment of Cailen's missteps were magnified. He could feel his pale cheeks and ears flush red. Replaying the actions he took, the choices he made, only lead to the same conclusion: He killed those men on the fourth floor, and he'd have to live with that truth forever. They were Riders, kidnappers, dangerous killers... but people all the same.

"I learned," he began cautiously, unwilling to delve into his reservations now. "I learned how quickly things can turn bad."

A brief lull came over the trio as Iris - '...er, Aurorae?' - took their feedback. It was Cora's voice that broke the silence.

"Are you sure you're alright? I hit you pretty hard back there."

Cailen scrunched his nose, a nervous giggle cutting through the intensity of the debriefing.

"I'm fine, Cora, really," he said with sincerity. "You didn't hurt me."

 

[Aurorae]

"Good. Take those lessons to heart. Focus on them." Not on the kill. Not on the hesitation. Focusing on the good was all she could hope the two would do now. Her own lesson was along those lines. Don't bring children. Even as Padawan's, even though she herself had been fighting since around their age, this wasn't the type of conflict they should be involved in. Or something.

She let out a sigh, closed her eyes as she leaned back against her chair. Just listened to them talk. That was better for them to talk about.

Corazona von Ascania | Cailen Corso

 

[Corazona von Ascania]

Cora nodded once, dutifully to Aurorae—Iris?—as the debriefing came to a close. With that done, she attempted to roll the tension from her shoulders. The harrowing part was over, and now they'd simply replay those crucial few minutes over and over in their minds for the next six months.

Even though she was relieved that Cailen hadn't been hurt (by her, at least), her nose scrunched for a moment. She thought she'd hit him pretty hard, by her own estimate. "At least let me see where you were struck by that ruffian." Retrieving a medkit from the storage space above them, she reached for his sleeve. "It's the least I could do after you protected me."

Aurorae Cailen Corso

 

[Cailen Corso]

Location: Blackridge Outpost, Altier
Tags: Corazona von Ascania ; Aurorae ; Kel Se'Taav
Objective 1: Dealbreaker
Soundtrack: Quiet Watchers

Cailen gave a solemn nod, taking his seat on the bench opposite the Shadow. He slumped his shoulders, glad for the quiet ride that awaited them. The engineers were safe, the supplies were secure, and the team was still in one piece. His eyes drifted about the cabin before turning to Cora, a medkit in her hands.

"Oh, it's..." - he was going to say 'nothing', but the sharp breath he drew in as she rolled his sleeve said otherwise.

As far as blaster wounds go, it could have been worse. But even so, his arm was marred by a charred gouge. Cailen watched with grateful eyes as she carefully wrapped the injury, voicing a humbled "Thank you, Cora," when she finished.

Despite their close call, he was glad to have undergone the mission with her. There was much to learn, but he was proud, nonetheless.

FINAL POST​

 

[Auteme]

Alicio Organa Dominique Vexx | Sonya Provost Desric Terassi Elizie Athacorr ​

"Indeed," she said. She paused a moment, as though considering both the Senators's counsel. In truth, she was calculating the worth of including Vexx at all. Surprisingly, Denon's Senator was one of the less-focused corporatists; perhaps it was because so few regulations actually made it home to Denon, or that Vexx's world had enough problems already. There was a disconnect between her and the rest of the party that was in theory worth exploiting, but Auteme found a sort of distaste in the idea nonetheless.

Still, Denon's corporations were only peripherally involved in SILK -- they had nothing to lose from removing it. The angle came to her in a flash of inspiration, and her unwavering smile widened just a little.

"Well, when you say, corporate protections -- they're hardly protections for all corporations. We've normalized an economy where three, four megacorporations dominate. They're the ones who benefit most from, ah, for example, Tithe's Southern Interplanetary Linkages Act. Our local economies have been suffering. I've heard of the unrest on Denon. Surely this is a result." She hardly meant it, but she eyed Vexx carefully for a reaction. The situation there was yet developing; the DireX would hardly be so foolish as to let all the news filter out. She wondered how dire the situation really was.

"Competition drives the market, but we've cornered it for a few powers who -- even beyond the few accidents that get reported -- appear to abuse-" hardly "-the systems we've set up to benefit the galaxy. We should take a stand. I admit, Senators, it's been something on my mind for some time now. We've got to start somewhere, rein things in. I think a good start would be repealing SILK, but we must have provisions in place to replace it with something better."

As though she was just realizing who she was talking to, her expression brightened, and she looked at the two more intently. "Surely such striking legislators such as yourselves could come up with something that will do good for the galaxy?

"And, of course, my office would be happy to offer its services to help in any drafting or other trivialities." The backlog of bills was intense -- there were hundreds of minor amendments and bills that, nonetheless, required review by the Senate. But if she could thank Tithe for anything, it was the startling powers to expedite the process granted to the Chancellor. Of course, she'd repeal them.

Eventually.