As the Tides Turn

[Gir Quee]

Shield-class Orbital Base Rainfall Two, Roche System

“Slow day.”

Lieutenant Shay let a grin crease her face as she lowered her cup of caf, “It's always a slow day here...sir.”

Admiral Lucerne nodded as he surveyed the station's bridge. It was far more cramped than he was used to on the Obi-Wan Kenobi, as was the lack of a command walkway. Yet looking at the stations he soon realized how few of them were needed given the station's limited capabilities. He glanced at the crew's uniforms, quickly taking stock on their quality. Most of them were junior enlisted, but there were a few NCOs that Gir had saw that seemed professional and practiced enough to effectively lead the rest of them in battle. Quee had also read the personnel file of the OIC, Lieutenant Shay. She was a relatively new officer with a little over a year on active duty. This was her first command, and from Gir had read, she had to have encounter yet aside from bureaucratic paperwork, disciplining her crewmembers for minor infractions, and the occasional run-in with a smuggler vessel. Shay turned her hazel eyes onto him and offering a flickering frown that quickly morphed into a forced grin.

“But you aren't here to talk about our slow days...are you?”

Gir noticed a few so-far relunctant crewmembers spare him a glance at that remark. I guess I can't blame them from asking...

 

[Gir Quee]

“As boring at this duty may have seemed to many of you, it's a necessary one. And it looks that soon you will not have a very slow day.”

“Sir, that's rather cryptic sounding to me...are you implying that we may see action?”

“If signals intelligence is correct, yes.”

“The One Sith? Mandalorian raiders?”

“Neither luckily,” offered Gir with a forced smile of his own, “no, it's a criminal cartel.”

“A cartel? Why would they come here?”

“As you already know, the Roche asteroid belts sits on a trade route that links the planets of the Perlemian and areas of Hutt space. When the Republic briefly faltered and lost control of the belts, it used to be a fairly major transit point between this group of Hutts and some galactic core traders. With the Verpine as members of the Republic again, we've made this route unattractive to many of these criminal elements, but one of their associates tried to use it. You impounded their ship for a transponder violation last week.”

Shay frowned, “That thing? I thought that was a malfunction...”

“Well, one the technician on the groundside went to check out it, they found it had been illegally altered...but not very well. A further search of the vessel found some other interesting items...including ive tons of high grade ryll spice...and he didn't have a proper permit. I'm guessing they want that spice back...but there's something else in that ship that might be important to warrant an operation.”

Shay frowned, “And we know this how?”

“An undercover GRIM agent was recruited into the cartel specifically for an operation to recover the vessel. It looks likely that they'll be attacking the stations in orbit as a diversion while another team recovers the vessel. But our agent believes that he doesn't know everything about the operation, and there's something that we're missing.”

Shay's eyes briefly darkened, “Hopefully we'll find out everything about this whole mess soon.”

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir nodded, “Hopefully. Well, they're not set to appear until the broadcasted court trial starts on the surface.”

“They want Sni Teeles then too.”

Curious. Gir nodded, in as much in agreement as to partially obscure his facial expression. His composure regained, he turned his eyes towards Shay, but the woman had since moved to a vacant station and started working on it. Gir slowly walked towards her, careful to maintain some distance from her. But she looked up at him.

“It says here that the Cirduul Tiure is known to use knock-off copies of Subpro ships.”

“Z-95s especially, if I remember correctly.”

She glanced down briefly at the readout, “Yes sir. That's what it says here...you already read their data report.”

Gir nodded, “That would be part of my assignment.”

“Your assignment sir?” questioned Shay.

She quickly blushed and shook her head. Gir spared her his glance, remembering his own days as a junior officers. Yes, even admirals get assignments...there's always a bigger fish...but the small fish can grow up to be a bigger fish. That thought both comforted and troubled him. The doors to the station's bridge whisked open to reveal an tall man wearing an orange jumpsuit with a pilot's accoutrements hanging off of it. Shay seemed to beam at his presence.

“Captain Donos,” said Shay, “we have a guest.”

The newcomer's brown eyes instantly fell upon Gir. A flicker of disbelief quickly flickered across the pilot's face as he approached him. Gir quickly glanced at the man's left shoulder, catching site of a circular patch showing a silver katarn with a knife clutched in its beak flapping in front of blue republic chest. He barely recognized the patch from his briefing on the world's space stations. What ships did they fly again? His thoughts were disrupted by a hand stretched out to him.

“Admiral, it's a pleasure to meet you.”

 

[Gir Quee]

“Always a honor to meet a fellow warrior of the Republic,” said Gir with a dull smile, “you're the CO of the Silver Marauders, if I remember right?”

The other man blinked, “I am...sir. I'm afraid I wasn't expecting to find you here sir. What is the occasion?”

“The admiral here thinks that we're about to be attacked...sir,” said Shay.

The sir as an afterthought? Could be her nerves...or they could have become relaxed. Gir knew the arrangement between the two to be somewhat awkward. By rank, Donos would have been her superior. But by assignment and training, Shay was technically his superior. But for all intents and purposes, they were equal partners. Judging by tradition, She was likely administratively in charge of everything related to the station, but had little power in any tactical leadership position. Gir could remember that relationship dynamic on his first assignment as a carrier-corvette captain. Donos turned his eyes.

“It sounds like a big attack if you're here sir...but if I may ask, if you're here, where's the rest of the fleet?”

“I hate to be vague with you,” said Gir, “but I can't reveal everything. I'm here to inspect the defenses and make a few minor adjustments before the attack is suspected to hit us.”

“Sir, if I can be of any help...”

“As a matter of fact,” said Gir, “I was just finishing talking to the young lieutenant here. I'd like to briefly meet with you and Captain Kilith before I move on in my inspections. Perhaps I can meet the two of you in your briefing room in a half-hour, if your schedules allow it.”

“Yes sir, we can make that work.”

Gir nodded, “I'll meet you both down there then at 1300.”

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir quickly excused himself from the station's bridge to briefly visit the starfighter hangars. He wasn't much of one for staged white glove inspections, but he did find random visits to reveal much about a unit's day to day behavior. The lower hangar deck which housed the Silver Marauder's R46s was reasonably kept in order, and the man saw no breaks in any observation of regulations. Yet he was surprised at how little activity there was on it. He only a pair of mechanics and an astromech working on calibrating what Gir thought was the hydraulics that controlled the ship's S-foils. The deck above it housed Kilith's Green Pawns. Perhaps the Nubian bombers were more complicated in upkeep or they had just finished a mission, but it seemed to Gir that all of their ships were swarming with droids and maintenance personnel.

Satisfied with his hangar visits, the admiral entered the briefing room, where Donos and an olive-skinned mon calamari female were talking. Gir briefly glanced at her flightsuit, catching sight of the bomber squadron patch. She eyed him warily in turn. The admiral locked the door behind him.

“You must be Captain Kilith,” said Gir, stretching out his hand.

The mon calamari awkwardly gripped and shook the admiral's hand.

“Sir, I'll admit that I thought Donos might be pulling my leg when he told who was onboard.”

“You were at least expecting a star destroyer to pullup and dock with Rainfull Two?” said Gir with a wry grin.

“I think we'd be the ones docking with you,” smiled Donos.

“Green Pawn squadron looks pretty busy, judging by all of the work going on in your hangar.”

“We just finished a bombing run practice,” informed Kilith, “Donos is scheduled to take his crew on a practice run at 1500.”

“We haven't seen a lot of action here,” said Donos, “but we try to keep our skills honed.”

“You've talked to her about the Cartel?”

“Yes sir.”

 

[Gir Quee]

“I need you both to understand that what I'm about to talk you about does not leave this room. Do not even talk about this with ever other after I leave, do you understand?”

Gir waited for each one to nod in agreement.

“As strange as this may sound, I'm not as worried about the Cartel's allegedly imminent attack. We have a means of estimating when they will attack, and if we are prepared for them, we should be easily able to dispatch any attack they might may be able to muster,” said Gir, “I'm more concerned about the actions of one of the station's crew.”

Kilith frowned, “Did you find something wrong in the hangars sir?”

“No, it's nothing with your support crews, and as far as I can tell, with your pilots. There is some evidence, and its strictly circumstantial at the moment, but there's a possibility that one of the station's bridge crew is not loyal only to the Republic.”

Donos frowned, “A double agent? Or someone brainwashed or corrupted by the Sith?”

“I think that that certain someone is actually connected with the Cartel. I want you both to take extra precautions that will prevent any tampering with your ships or your ability to fight against an incursion. The only reason I'm here is because of the possibility of an internal interference and my current command's proximity.”

“The Obi-Wan Kenobi will be joining the defense then.”

“It's a strong possibility that her battlegroup will be present, but that piece of information must not be relayed to anyone else.”

Kilith considered her words carefully, “You're trying to suggest weakness so that we can crush them in a decisive battle. But how does that work if there's a potential mole onboard the station? Shouldn't your presence and talking about their attack tip them off?”

Gir let a knowing grin crease his face.