Resupplying Dulvoyinn (Galactic Alliance and friends)

[Ugohr Poof]

Ugohr knew that the current structure of the logistical chain of the Galactic Alliance was just fine so long as they were campaigning only for a short amount of time, for engagements on limited theaters. The Gungan formerly known as the general of the Army of Malastare, that is, until his minesweeping unit was relieved off Malastare and that the command of the remaining units, anti-aircraft, infantry was handed over to another officer, whose command included another squadron of armored units. Logistical Command just ordered 300,000 tons of hypermatter, which shall last us a few weeks, or perhaps a month. While Malastare was, to Ugohr, the dream of any young officer come true, Force-user or not, he knew the dream would not last: no way he would have remained the general of a planet-wide army for that long at this point in his career.

"Some people in da high command expressen concerns about da logistics of da operation. Even though mesa minesweeper commander, General [member="Aela Talith"] could not find other volunteering officers from the Army other than usen to establish da base. Unless da Corps of Engineers actually outside da main Army"

"The Fifth Legion had no minesweepers to begin with, sir. We are the only unit in the Alliance that can sweep mines: we will see action all the way to Coruscant" the Jawa tank commander told Ugohr onboard the company transport, which could hold 12 tanks.

Alongside another veteran of Malastare, Silara Varis, he was part of a mission whose aim was to establish a forward supply base in preparation for a lengthy campaign that is purported to lead the Alliance's military to the very heart of Coruscant. Any would-be master would probably be angry to have a Padawan that asssumes so many military duties with so little command of the Force, almost neglecting non-combat Force skills in the process, unless that master happen to be training Jedi brutes, and this is more or less the direction where Ugohr is headed as a Jedi.

"The army is marching on its stomach. This is the very reason why we needed to establish a supply base for the Alliance's armies, so that we can follow through our victory on Dulvoyinn"

[member="Silara Varis"]

 

[Silara Varis]

[member="Ugohr Poof"]

Her mission here was two fold. One she was helping establish the base of operations, where fuel and munitions could be resupplied. But her secondary mission as always was off the radar. Since the reconstruction efforts had begun, she'd seized a sizeable budget chunk and managed to help coordinate with some former PMC buddies the construction of a compound.

It was named Shadow Alpha, and marked with only the highest of security clearances. The compound itself was outside the main base of operations, and was slowly under construction. When it was finished, they would have a war room, an armory and a few bays in which to park ships and vehicles. Not much but it did for a little intel outpost. Discretion was key here.

She was lost in her thoughts as she entered the main chambers where her Gungan friend was already briefing and debriefing various parties on the situation at hand. With such a rag tag assortment of units and weapons, it was a wonder they ever survived at all.

Silara chuckled softly, brushing back her hair and flipping her black cowl from her head. Her amber eyes swept the room, and she hung both thumbs in her belt, letting her arms rest.

"I see we are busy here. Main landing pad is almost finished ladies and gentlemen. The next bigger part of the picture is troop and supply movment. I have a solution for that if anyone is interested."

 

[Dunames Lopez]

While the Rings of the Lord were deployed on Dulvoyinn in an attempt to get the logistical supply base up and running, alongside Alliance engineering, Star Tours is carrying out the first phase of Operation Noah's Ark, targeted at rescuing 30,000 refugees on that planet. But they have to do make their approach under the guise of a shipment of hypermatter from Bothawui. As always, Merrily is there to keep tabs on Dunames as she flies, as a relief pilot while in hyperspace. Flying from Bothawui to Dulvoyinn would probably take them two days or so with a class 2 hyperdrive. Their initial quantitiy is 300,000 tons of hypermatter, but how much of that will arrive on the target planet Dunames couldn't tell just yet. The people on that target planet were given as much advance notice to pack up before their transport arrived, as they had to order hypermatter. But they would have to make a stop on Dulvoyinn first.

"Final preflight status initiated"

"All status go"

Dunames wasn't quite used to piloting such large capital ships as a Maersk; she insisted on personally piloting on certain flights in Operation Noah's Ark. Like that one. Usually she piloted Pullmans (or Neimoidian Yachts, but by and large Neimoidian Yachts are the same as piloting Pullmans except for greater speed) or Bowsers, with emergency flights on the Tofolks when incapacitated pilots were involved, like the last Eriadu-Bothawui flight. And, in addition, landing one of those behemoths was not going to be easy. But taking off was almost the same as takeoff sequence on the Bowser. The landing gear retracted, they can now speed off into the blackness of space, laden with their precious hypermatter.

"Hyperspace to Dulvoyinn!"

[member="Silara Varis"] [member="Ugohr Poof"]

 

[Ugohr Poof]

The 68 organics and 20 droids were assembled in a plain where the Galactic Alliance Corps of Engineers had the spare parts for a hypermatter storage tank delivered shortly after the victory on Dulvoyinn. Man it didn't take that much: most of the volume of the Tofolk-class freighter delivering the spare parts for the hypermatter storage tank, the ANS Rose of Carwee, was taken up by pipes and sheets of quadanium, about 3 cm thick, as well as durasteel beams, that the droids would weld together. The machinery took up about a cube about 5 meters wide. Of course, it wasn't convenient for the capital ships, like the ANS Fondor's Aegis, which couldn't land on planets to save their lives, so corvettes and maybe frigates were the ships that had to ferry back and forth to refuel the capital ships. As the spare parts for the hypermatter reservoir are just freshly hauled off the Rose of Carwee, and the duracrete foundation of the reservoir is already in place, Ugohr starts using Force push to place the durasteel beams into position so that the droids could weld them, one at a time.

"Andariel, Hadraniel, yousa militiagungs install da hypermatter mackineek, all-n-youse else install da plumbin"

"Padawan Poof, I have some new instructions from the Alliance's high command" the captain of the ship transporting the components of the prefabricated hypermatter reservoir tells Ugohr.

"Yousa want something?"

While the remaining members of the Rings of the Lord get to work installing the equipment such as an hypermatter pump and pipes, the captain of the Rose of Carwee approaches Ugohr with the new instructions from Alliance High Command, as they pertain to Coruscant, at least apparently. It seemed that the Galactic Alliance is committing its entire military strength to one bold gamble, from the looks of what the captain is about to tell Ugohr. He is also the commanding officer of the Corps of Engineers contingent on Dulvoyinn, laden with droids as well as organic technicians and engineers, with an architect or two. With the crossguard lightsaber that once belonged to Jar Jar Binks fully visible, gained from the wreck on Aquilaris, the commander is seemingly fixated on his main lightsaber, more so than his secondary one, which has an orange blade with a black core.

"Padawan Poof, you did an excellent job on Malastare. Now that the plan to liberate Coruscant is made public across Alliance space, there has been an influx of new recruits into the Alliance's armies. All units with any combat experience are committed to one bold gamble and are to attack Coruscant; to this end Malastare will be relieved by a unit of fresh recruits"

"Mesa sense dat oursa only chance of pasting da One Sith armies in theirsa capital require units with all sorts of specializations: mesa da maxibig boss of da minesweepers. But mesa force of minesweepers issa only drop in da bucket, and wesa da only minesweepers in da Alliance"

"You will command, for the duration of the siege, the very units you had under your command on Malastare during the later stages of the battle. If your unit performs satisfactorily during the Liberation of Coruscant, the Army of Malastare will become a formalized unit and you will be confirmed in the command of the Army. Oh and the rest of the Army of Malastare will arrive alongside the main army, in three days"

"Now, if yousa may excuse mesa, mesa have work to do. Wesa only have dee days before da main army arrives here"

So the Army of Malastare would comprise the Rings of the Lord, and about 700 infantrymen, of which about 500 are regular line infantry, 50 grenadiers, 50 anti-aircraft, 50 anti-tank and 50 specialists in an assortment of other roles... he was a Jedi brute after all. That was, by most standards, a regiment-level command but, because that unit first saw action together on Malastare, and was at the time the only ground force present on that planet, it was deemed practical for that unit to retain that name.

[member="Silara Varis"]

 

[Silara Varis]

[member="Ugohr Poof"]

Silara watched each of them give their reports in the main room. The Gungan had taken off to do his thing, so she was saddled with babysitting the delegates and XO's as they debated upon logistical anomalies and how they were going to set up supply lines. Several of them were of the opinion that all supplies should go through the Merchant Fleet, whilst others were more concerned with armed escorts being so close to OS territory.

She had had enough and broke her long silence.

"XO's, commanders, all the armed escort business is unnecessary."

"And who are you again?" One of them asked. A Rodian with a crisp dress blue uniform, complete with shiny badges.

"That's Classified. What I can tell you is that I work for Intelligence. That's about it."

"And why should we take your word for it? I've never seen you before!"

Silara rested both hands firmly on the holoprojector and smirked. That was the point wasn't it? Intel agents, black ops, the unseen hand rocking the cradle?

"Think for a second commander. All forwards fleets and armies are redeploying here for the final push. Orders just came in hours ago. With such a huge concentration on this staging area, you should have no problem moving your supplies in. In addition we've rooted out most resistance cells here and inflicted a major loss on the OS."

Silara paused to let that sink in.

"With the insurrection at the Kuat Drive yards recently, and losing nearly all their froward deployed Armada, the OS are in no position to launch an immediate counter attack. At most you are looking at harassing patrols of fighters and maybe a few saboteurs. That's it."

The Rodian stroked his chin, leaning back.

"She's very astute eh gentlemen? You bring up a good point. Say we win Coruscant, what then? We will still need to move supplies via the main lanes to the reconstruction effort and reinforce our forward garrisons."

"Use private contractors if you're so scared. There's plenty of reputable ones and some that are..... less than reputable."

 

[Jareb Kaine]

Dulvoyinn - Alliance Compound (STATUS: Under Construction)

Jareb did a couple fly-by's looking for a spot to land. His X-Wing skirted the tops of the trees as he settled on a clearing roughly a kilometer from the base coordinates he'd received. Engineering updates told him that it was not yet safe to land inside the compound hangars. Jareb actually welcomed a short walk though after being crammed in a cockpit for an inordinate amount of time. He engaged the landing gear and primed their hydraulic stabilizers to give his X-Wing a nice cushion as it set down on the uneven and wild surface of Dulvoyinn.

Excitement and anticipation had been building in him ever since he'd received the recall back to known space and then coordinates to their newly founded stronghold on Dulvoyinn. The hyperspaces lanes had been clear as crystal, with no One Sith ships in sight. Coupled with the news of an assault on Coruscant, Jareb was in the highest spirits he'd been in months. Fresh air filled his expectant lungs as he popped open the canopy. No more of that canned air inside his X-Wing. As he jumped down to the grassy surface, he suddenly felt like running. All the space travel in the past several weeks had left him feeling sickly. As he stared towards the direction of the base, the mechanical sound of latches releasing and the hiss of hydraulics made him remember his co-pilot. Astromech droid designation: BD-3 rolled up beside him and chortled candidly.

"Don't be too relaxed just yet buddy." Jareb looked down at his companion. " They're probably gonna put us to work." He chuckled and set off at a jog toward the base. As he arrived at the edge of the camp, he surprisingly got a cheer from some of the engineers who had looked up from their gravsleds, crates, and datapad inventories. He nodded and smiled politely. they'd probably seen his X-Wing overhead and assumed he was a part of the battle. Whatever had occurred sure seemed to be a moral booster, and perhaps history would see the battle of Dulvoyinn as the turning point of the war. That thought put a confident spring in his step as he entered the compound proper. It was a shame he hadn't been here to see it.

Inside he caught the ending of a conversation between a Rodian Supply Captain, whose name escaped him at the moment, and a woman he'd never seen before. She seemed to be of some high importance, as she was instructing the Captain on the situation. Jareb approached casually, as he often did in front of military or political brass.

"If it's protection you need, Fleetcom intel from a couple days ago advised fighter vessels with hyperdrives to start rallying here. Soon you'll have the firepower to see your supply ships safely." He then turned to the woman, giving her a slight nod.

"Jareb Kaine reporting in." BD gave a short whistle in greeting as well. "Seems like a lot has happened while I was gone. What can we do to help?" He said with a lop-sided grin.

[member="Silara Varis"]

 

[Ugohr Poof]

There were two big priorities for the engineering corps on Dulvoyinn: the hypermatter reservoir and the compound hangars, which were almost finished but not quite. Warehousing would be up in a matter of hours once the hypermatter reservoir was up and, according to Ugohr, it would have to house blasters, missile launchers, proton torpedoes and other explosive ordnance, because building prefabricated warehousing is basically the same principle as building a prefabricated hypermatter reservoir, except that explosives with fast cook-off times would need to be kept in a freezer. Engineering has been working around the clock: any relief, be it Rogue Squadron pilots or the main Army of Malastare, would be welcome. Ugohr's Force-push was a big asset for manipulating the prefabricated components whereas cranes were busy elsewhere, and General Talith was also seen lending a hand in the construction of other buildings in the base, like a command center, alongside the R7 and R9 units.

"Thank da Force for prefabricated buildings: theysa meken da right choice in theirsa choice"

"Sir, or should I say, General, the stair trucks have just arrived" the relief transport pilot tells Ugohr, back from a shopping trip at a Ringovinda Motors dealership on Hosnian Prime.

And, along with the three stair trucks, one of which is used by Ugohr, there were a few Math 25000s, designed for safe transportation of refrigerated materials. Ugohr may have driven a Math 25000 once or twice back on Sullust, but he wasn't to drive the stair truck, which had similar controls: instead he sat on the adjustable platform at the top of the vehicle, using Force-pull or Force-push from there. Officially these vehicles were purchased by the Army of Malastare but they were, in practice, to be used by the Alliance Corps of Engineers as well, at least while the Army of Malastare is on the move to Dulvoyinn. The Army has now spent a quarter of a million on purchasing vehicles that were to be used by the Corps of Engineers...

"Thesa trucks even have da battle flag of da Army of Malastare on them-sa, and not just da crest of da Galactic Alliance, good job, sergeant"

The relief transport pilots herds his commanding officer back to the construction site of the hypermatter reservoir, where he used Force-push and Force-pull to move durasteel beams into place and, at later stages, quadanium plates, long after the quick-dry duracrete foundations were poured.

[member="Silara Varis"] [member="Jareb Kaine"]

 

[Silara Varis]

[member="Jareb Kaine"] [member="Ugohr Poof"]

As the young blood burst in the room Silara smirked again, letting the edges of her eyes wrinkle. She wondered whom he was, and what he was capable of. The entrance, the bravado, the casual disregard for the Commanders ranks were a telling sign. Not that she was much for rules. The way the Black Daggers operated, they didn't have much use for them.

"Will that be all Commanders?"

"Not Quite, what was it you interrupted us for."

"Requisition Sir. I'll need some fuel and munitions delivered to my team at the following times and coordinates."

Silara tossed the datpad from her belt on the table.

"You'll note it has all the correct signatures."

The Rodian Captain looked over it, thumbing through the holo papers and nodded.

"Very well, that'll be done."

"Then I thank you Gentlemen."

Without salute she whirled, locking eyes with the new recruit.

"You wanna help, come on." She said, waving one arm. It was time to see if he was made of sterner stuff than he looked.

 

[Jareb Kaine]

"Right." Jareb responded with a nod. Though it was clear now that she wasn't actually the one in charge, Jareb liked the way this woman took control of things. Jareb always had respected transparency and hard work over chain of command. He followed and tried to keep up along side of her. Bee Dee trailed along behind. As they walked he examined the freshly built walls of the building.

"This base is impressive for how little time we've been here. We must not have given the Imps a chance to pack their bags before we drove them off the planet and started moving in." As he walked, he unbuckled his crash harness, slipped the top of his orange jumpsuit off his arms, and let it hang around his waist. The climate here was too hot to have the full vacc suit on. The plain sleeveless shirt he had on underneath was far more breathable.

"Everything has been going so fast. I've been used to the tedium of staring at lifeless rocks filled with tibana gas for the past few months." He laughed.

"So whatever you've got for me has to be more entertaining than that." BD-3 whistled in affirmation.

[member="Silara Varis"]

 

[Silara Varis]

[member="Jareb Kaine"]

"It is."

And that was all she offered, until they had reached Shadow Alpha. The gate guards checked her ID, and then authenticated her iris and finger prints, nodding and giving the signal. Next she swiped her badge, and the magnetic seals of the main gate hissed. The door opened with a dull grinding sound, sending dirt poofing away in dust.

"I can already tell you're familiar with flying."

They stepped through the arch and walked left, entering the hangar. It was a tall warehouse, partially concealed from the air and lined with Black X-Wings. The dull grey walls and harsh over head lights left nothing in the shadows. There was rows of crates, ready tables scattered with weapons, and lockers full of black flightsuits.

"So tell me about you. Where are you from, what are you doing here."

He could be a promising recruit.

She leaned on her Black X-Wing, again letting her thumbs rest in her belt.

 

[Ugohr Poof]

Night falls on Dulvoyinn. To think that, in a few days, they will be fighting down in the streets of Coruscant, that is, if Coruscant's orbital defenses didn't slow them down. And Dulvoyinn is far from a tropical paradise: it is filled with mosquitoes. They have to be careful about the mosquitoes if they want to be finishing that job of building the base and not to be nursing mosquito bites en route to Coruscant. With R7 and R9 droids welding the quadanium plates together, the stair truck and his ability to use the Force, and other cranes, they could get the hypermatter reservoir ready for when the supply tanker will arrive in about two days, the day before the main army is set to arrive. But the spirits of the Rings of the Lord are better now that they are poised to defeat the One Sith on their homeworld.

"Compound hangars almost finished, general!"

"Maybe wesa sleep in da hangars tonight, away from da maxibig nest of mosquitoes"

The poured duracrete now having dried up, while the corrugated sheets of durasteel were welded into place by Jawas, one of which was at the controls of the Math 25000 truck whose refrigerator unit was shut down. All they have to do is to finish getting the foodstuffs unit online, like this McYoda automated kitchen the Alliance ordered for Bloodhawk and Rogue Squadrons to use (the hangar was large enough to house both units at once)

[member="Silara Varis"] [member="Jareb Kaine"]

 

[Jareb Kaine]

"Nice paintjob." He offered as they stepped into the hangar. The black finish on the housed X-Wings certainly caught his eye. They reminded him of the old antique Stealth-X fighters he used to like to run on the combat sims. It almost made him forget the armed guards and retina scan on the way in. The Alliance ran a tight ship to be sure, but security never seemed this thorough. Jareb wondered what exactly he'd just walked into.

"I'd normally ask to at least know your name before I give you my background, but I'm willing to guess that might be classified at my level of clearance."

He looked down instinctively for his astromech, but realized Bee Dee had fallen behind. He was halted in front of one of the black X-Wings, examining it closely. Without a memory wipe, the little droid had certainly worked up a quirky personality of it's own.

"My friend seems to take in interest in your snub fighters. I wished he paid that much attention to my own ship." Jareb laughed.

"Anyway, I'm sure it wasn't hard to tell I'm a pilot from this get up. I used to fly with Black Squadron. We flew at Omwat and Lujo before I was reassigned to help protect mining rigs collecting Tibanna in the Polis Massa system. Not real exciting work. Now that the fleet is rallying in preparation for Coruscant, they've called me back though. And as for where I'm from well, it used to be called Corellia. If you know what happened there then you know why I signed up with the Alliance..."

His tone had shifted with the slightly grim topic he skirted over. His lightheartedness quickly snapped back though.

"So I'm supposed to meet up with the Rogues here, but it looks like I'm the first one to arrive." Jareb then shifted the conversation.

"So what exactly is going on with all this?" He waved his arms to indicated the walled off section of hangar they stood in. "Seems a little high security for an already pretty secure staging ground." Jareb was a pretty straightforward guy and he didn't beat much around the bush. Much like his astromech droid, he was more than a little curious. There was also a strangely enticing smell coming from somewhere else in the hangar, and it was quite the distraction. Jareb hadn't had much but dry rations for the past two months. Somebody was loading food into the base, and it made his stomach audibly growl.

[member="Ugohr Poof"] [member="Silara Varis"]