The Mantle of High Command

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Lately, things were looking up for Jessica: her contribution to the Rift campaign was duly recognized in the Dominion's upper echelons, such as [member="Drox Fuga"], the Lord Protector of the Dominion, and also the Serenno Naval Yard was on its way to being built. In fact she was summoned back to Ession after the negotiations concerning the Serenno Naval Yard were well underway, even though the remainder of the process was out of her control. Important, very important business she had to attend to, and apparently with implications on a Dominion-wide basis: rumors are that she will become one of the Grand Generals of the Dominion, with command over an entire sector's worth of military resources. Knowing how the Dominion military operated, she knew that anything beyond three "general stars" (commanding brigades, divisions and corps respecively) or two "flag stars" (commanding squadrons and fleets respectively) are joint commands with authority over an entire system's worth of military assets or, in the cases where more than one planet was inhabited inside a system, planet-level commanders would be appointed in separate branches (called generals and fleet admirals respectively, if they have more than one corps or fleet under their command). Few enough among the Jedi, or Sith, could aspire to assume such large-scale responsibilities, but in practice a sector army would be there mostly for bookkeeping reasons.

"Thank you for your master's hospitality, I have other functions to attend on Ession" she told the valet prior to departure.

She left Blackgate Manor after all due courtesies were made, and then she went post-haste into orbit where, as usual, she ran the topology calculations in her head and only needing to use the Force as a painkiller. In the Clone Wars, Republican ground troops were of an unparalleled standard. Time and time again, the military protocol of the era, and also the Brotherhood of Darkness' planning in the whole leadup to the Ruusan campaign, proved that Force-orders were highly uneven in command competence, and that often proved to be their undoing: in Darth Bane's era, the BoD considered that a Master-level Force-user was worth an infantry division by itself on a battlefield - and that was in an era where FU power standards are lower than they are today. I might be a Jedi Master, but I know as hell that I am not worth an infantry division by myself, she thought, pretty deeply, once the jump to hyperspace began.

 

[Drox Fuga]

The Confirmation of the 2nd Dominion Army was not yet fulfilled, he was only just chosen to release his command of the Dominion 1st Army now renamed the Dominion Senatorial Defense Force. A rather large mouth full for such a useless group of soldiers now. Drox lead these troops into countless battles, survived years of hardships with them. Yet, the Archlord wanted his leadership to rebuild and revitalize the senate. This would be difficult as the Dominion was a Protection Force for most of its duration, lending its military might to planets in their times of need. Now the Archlord wanted a Governing Body to deal with the direction of the Dominion. Drox thought it appropriate to keep the Warlords... he meant Lords of the Dominion, occupied with conquest. That meant increasing Military Spending, Empowering the station of Lord Protector, as well as keeping close alliance with its neighbors. Its wasn't even his first day and he already had a full plate.

He stood from his desk and looked out at the black void of space from his private office on a repair space dock orbiting Ession. He had invited [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] to meet with him to learn more about her. It would take a lot of skill to build the 1st Dominion Army, but her and young count [member="Adron Malvern"] already did the hard work for him. The agreement of the Dockyards above Serenno was an unseen benefit to his campaign. There of course was a secrete reason Drox had considered Miss Med-Beq for the position of Grand Marshal of the 2nd Dominion Army.

The Intercom interrupted his thoughts, "My Lord, your next appointment has arrived, shall I let her enter."

Drox turned to the door and stood in a military fashion, one hand behind his back, the other on the corner of the table pressing down the button to answer her. He stood in his large Fuga Family Protected Armor, "Yes please, thank you."

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

And so Jessica arrived over Ession and she tried not to use her mind too much while underway, knowing that using it more intensively would make the headaches harder to dispel. For this reason she just wanted to initiate the auto-landing sequence to make sure that she is rested: the Force might be a painkiller, a localized one to be fair, but there's nothing like not pushing one's brain too hard when such headaches occurred. Oh, time is running short, I'm sure of that, she thought while the autoland sequence was made seamlessly in the repair spacedock. With the drydocks secured, perhaps the time has come for Jessica to move on to other items in the military composition of the Dominion. Perhaps Drox was a little sentimental to Jessica's eyes: what little she knew of the Fuga family was that they were highly involved in military affairs at the command level, which was a sphere that is not completely foreign to her but under different banners until the Rift campaign came.

"State your name and your rationale"

"Jessica Med-Beq, I have an appointment with Drox Fuga"

"The Lord Minister awaits you, ma'am" the servant told Jessica at the entrance, while guiding Jessica to [member="Drox Fuga"]'s office.

 

[Drox Fuga]

Drox stood at near attention, his stance only broken by his slight poster of recovering from when he was bent over his desk. He witness [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] enter his private office, oddly enough the information he received from the DSB as well as the Corperate holopics he saw didn't do her beauty justice. He was an average young man so he paused for a second as he was distracted. He was unsure weather the women noticed, let alone would take offense. He cleared his minds of everything but work.

"Ah, Princess Med-Beq, I must thank you for accepting my invitation so quickly," He gestured to take a seat as he moved to seat himself as well, waiting for her to sit first of course. "It truly is a honor and personal delight to have you here so quickly, I do hope I didn't take you away from any important business."

The Lord Minister knew she had a meeting with the young Count of Serenno. However, he saw no reason to share that information as it was irrelevant at the moment. Plus he didn't know if the businesswomen wanted to keep that deal on the down low.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Ah yes, speaking of business, what is the nature of the business"

Jessica would realize how she could have distracted [member="Drox Fuga"] for a while. True, she did take care of her body on some level, and she readily acknowledged that she was, well, beautiful, but she never prided on her body that much, nor did she consider her body a curse (other than when ceilings are too low) even though she knew she had the ability to turn some heads. She knew that, in today's world of Force-users, few enough would want anything to do with battlefield commands at such a high level that they would be in charge of entire planets' worth of armed forces. Yet she held the command of the entire complement of ground forces on Irn in the Chiloon Rift campaign and fighting what she considered at the time as being the main Primeval army, which turned out to be a mercenary force.

"Does it have anything to do with the aftermath of the Rift campaign?"

 

[Drox Fuga]

Drox continued to think on [member="Jessica Med-Beq"], he was a smart man. Trained as a Hapan Diplomat, a Commenorian Merchant, a Gyndine Soldier and a Anaxes Military Scholor. Yet he could not place a finger that could define this women. He served only a small part in the larger campaign to pacify the Primeval upstart and bring a strategic reign into the fold of the Dominion. The Rift was already showing productivity that the Fuga Family were already exploiting. Raw minerals were being shipped to the capital through close allies to the Dominion and his party.

Drox leaned forward, his hands clasped together and a quick breath left his lips, "Jessica Med-Beq, ex-senator and commander within third creation Confederation, the DSB even investigated you possibly being close with the Butcher of Korriban," The Minister looked the women in the eyes, where there was once distraction, it was now an empty void. Even through the presence of the force the young man felt at balance, no emotions, wants, needs, or desire. He and his family gave their life's to a higher goal, one where he lived only through his loyalty to the Archlord.

He looked through the women, seeing not her, but the so called soul that everyone hid deep within them. When he found what he thought was on par with his ideals, his presence shifted again. He was now stern and serious, "I have talked with the Director and these investigations were started by me, you were being vetted."

He stood up and tapped a button on the table, instantly a hologram of a symbol of Jessica's company appeared, "Tell me about your company?"

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Ringovinda StarYards manufactures ground vehicles, drydocks, freighters and, of course, warships, with its subsidiary Ringovinda Systems producing vehicle-mounted weapons, starship components. Speaking of drydocks, there is no use hiding it anymore: I sold the starter kit of drydocks for the Serenno Naval Yard, with one unit each of the products in the mobile drydock range"

The Butcher of Korriban. That was one person that made her uncomfortable to talk about. The memories of that one miscalculation made by her predecessor at the helm of the company, based on reports of zombies in and around Korriban City, resurfaced in her mind. As hard as she tries not to make much of a fuss about the whole deal on Korriban, it seems that she had to use a lot more computational power than usual for it not to affect her emotional state. There is no emotion, there is peace, she kept thinking to herself in an attempt to calm herself down after hearing from [member="Drox Fuga"] that her dossier was being vetted. What contributions she made to Ringo began long before she took the helm of the company, that is, before the events on Korriban: she ultimately drew Kuat Drive Yards and Rendili StarDrive out of the bulk freighter business, and Rendili StarDrive out of the mobile drydock business. She had to admit that Drox threw a curve at her: she expected to be talking about the future direction of the Dominion armed forces, unless Drox wanted to talk about the procurement aspect of it.

 

[Drox Fuga]

Drox listened closely to [member="Jessica Med-Beq"] as she spoke. Her company was very well known to Outer Rimmers, even this far Galactic North. It however had a tainted name, he knew through very detailed reports of Dominion and Old One Sith Investigators. Charzon was a scapegoat for the horrible communications between the Silvers and their Allies. He had a distast for those uptight do-gooders, but in reality they were isolationist and spoiled in the old ways. However he knew better then to publicly say anything negative about them. He was surprised though that the women willingly gave up the information of the Drydocks. She showed her hands, it was only fair for him as well.

"I know, me and my allies have been proposing that Serenno become a Fortress World and port for the new 2nd Dominion Army," Drox wanted to wait, but he moved none the less to his desk again and pulled up a Galactic Map of the Dominion and the near by sectors. "As you and Every Dominion Citizen knows, Serenno is our only connection to the Hydian Way and the Core Worlds, thanks to those damn cultist he paused as the hologram zoomed into the planet, "I stand before the senate in a few days and going to propose the creation of the 2nd Army, Your negotiations with the young count has cut our expenses down considerably, and the senate will likely approve the plan."

He looked up at the hologram, and then back at Jessica, "Your Command in the Rift Campain, as well as your command of Confederate Armies and during the Omega Crisis, these and your connections to the Corperate Worlds and Owners is the reason I've considered recommending you to the Senate as the Lord Marshal of the 2nd Army, the Archlord," Drox bowed his head and said a prayer, "May the Universe Protect him," then recovering to look back at the women, "He's already given his blessing and now await the Senates approval."

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Were there other candidates for that position?" she asked.

Perhaps some of these other candidates I could probably use at system levels or even corps/fleet levels, if awarded the command, she thought. Jessica's first taste of ground command came right in the aftermath of the Omega Crisis: Agamar, where stragglers from the Rogue One Sith hid, and a few more on Lok. During the crisis proper, she played a different role that lied elsewhere: slicing into the Rogue One Sith's starship databases, for which she knew she was much better than Charzon ever would thanks to her skill in mechu-deru. So I enhanced the passage of the Second Sector Army Bill with but a simple procurement deal? she thought, upon hearing from [member="Drox Fuga"] about the status of the bill, knowing that sector-level commands usually were used for bookkeeping and logistics more than for any real combat deployment, unless one is overseeing sector campaigns, and that's going to be a major component of her life as a command. Even then she was unfamiliar with the protocol for establishing new commands of that magnitude: each faction had its own set of rules regarding this.