The ability to debate, reason, and compromise is what makes good societies into great ones. I've dedicated my life to the practice of diplomacy because I truly believe it gives all citizens of the galaxy the greatest quality of life.
But what happens when you find yourself — and your people — ruled by an overwhelmingly powerful government that shamelessly ignores and abuses the basic rights of its citizens?
Let me be clear: I never wanted violence to be the solution. I never wanted the Rebellion to even exist. But it needed to, and I had to be a part of it because as the Empire's rule dragged on it became exceedingly clear injustices against the very people it existed to protect would not end without forceful interference.
Kenzo would come to accuse me of poor judgment in the matter. He would accuse me of failing to prioritize Pantora. I can't say I think he's wrong.
Eli made his way to Thrawn's cabin as the Chimaera readied to leave Pantoran space to a position closer to Orto Plutonia. His shift was nearly over, and he couldn't wait to spend some quality time with his bed. After the Senator's dramatic exit from the planet, a rogue Talz came from nowhere and attacked one of their men. It took five people to take the damn thing down, and it only ended after they shot it twelve times. The poor trooper it mauled was still in the medbay last he checked. The medic said he would make a full recovery, but he was pretty mangled with a broken clavicle and several deep scars. The stormtrooper armor proved useless against the creature's claws, tearing through it like butter.
"Commander Vanto, are we prepared to leave soon?" Thrawn asked smoothly.
"Yes, sir. I wanted to check in with you one last time before I turn in for a cycle. Is there anything else you need me to take care of?"
"I don't believe so. Your quick thinking during the Talz's attack today likely saved that Trooper's life. You did well."
"Thank you." As usual, Thrawn's cabin was low lit. He sat at a table, focused intently on an item lying on it as if he wanted Eli to ask what it was.
"What do you have there?" He stepped closer. It was a necklace — massive in size, with big, round beads strung onto it.
"This was taken from the Talz that attacked our trooper today."
Thrawn had always been fond of art. Eli wasn't sure he would ever quite understand it. He waited for his superior to elaborate, but he didn't. "Er… Why do you have it?"
Thrawn picked the necklace up from the table and held to the light for Eli to see.
His jaw nearly dropped open — on the center bead, painted in bright red, was an all too familiar symbol: the Rebel insignia.
Thrawn's eyes glowed in the low light, "It seems there may be a Rebel presence in this area. I suspect we will need to pay Senator Chuchi another visit sooner than she would prefer."
K: Admiral Thrawn is here to see you.
Riyo stared at the message on her screen. Maybe if she looked long enough it would just disappear, as though it weren't real. It hadn't even been a full week since she told Thrawn to leave Pantora and never bother speaking to her again.
R: What does he want? K: He says it's a private matter of great importance.She could just tell Kenzo to send him away. The Admiral would be unhappy with her lack of cooperation and would likely give her trouble for wasting his time, but at least she wouldn't have to deal with him lurking around her office.
No, she wouldn't make Kenzo get rid of him. This was beyond rude, showing up to her office just days after she explicitly told him to leave her alone. She wanted to tell him, in person, that she would not tolerate this sort of insulting behavior. If he insisted on disrespecting her request, then he would at the very least have to deal with the consequences of deliberately irritating her.
She threw the door to the front office open to a surprised looking Kenzo and an offensively calm Admiral.
"Admiral, was my request last time we spoke not clear?"
Evidently, the rude greeting meant nothing to him. "I am sorry to bother you, but an urgent matter has come up that I need to discuss with you privately."
"Very well," she made an exaggerated motion into her office. "Let's speak." She returned to her desk and took a seat, weaving her fingers together with her hands resting on the surface. She left the door for him to close.
"Senator, I hope you understand I would not return to you if this weren't a matter of importance that directly related to Pantora."
"Understood." She said curtly. "What are you so concerned about?"
"Shortly after you left Orto Plutonia one of my troops was attacked by a rogue Talz. We were forced to kill the Talz in the attack in order to save our own trooper." He set a small projection device on the table and flicked it on. An image of what appeared to be a beaded necklace blinked into view above her desk. "This was found on that Talz. As you can see," he adjusted the image, zooming in on one bead. "It's marked with the Rebel insignia."
Ardella mentioned they had contact with the Orto Plutonia natives once, ages ago. Someone from the cell must have given it to the Talz. While she was relieved the Admiral made his knowledge of the Rebel cell's presence known to her, this put the Rebels at a massive disadvantage before they were even able to mount an attack.
She waved the image away dismissively. "You suspect Orto Plutonia has a Rebel presence? I don't see why this concerns Pantora."
"I suspect there is a Rebel presence somewhere in this area. They tend to reside on less populated planets, so they may be on Orto Plutonia. From my experience, they carry out operations in various locations surrounding their base. Since Pantora is the most heavily populated moon in this area, your people may see their presence, if you have not already." He paused. "Have you noticed any suspicious activity?"
"Nothing has been reported to me. I don't see what the issue is, Admiral. This area of the galaxy would be an awful location for a Rebel cell. I imagine they would prefer to stay concentrated near the core worlds. There's barely any Imperial presence here for them to rebel against — or at least there wasn't."
"There may be good tactical purposes for their activity this far from the core. Given our presence on Orto Plutionia, I imagine we will begin to see activity from them in the area soon. I trust you will let me know if you see signs of anything on Pantora? In particular, you should be concerned about supply shipments. They are often raided by Rebels."
"I'll notify the shipyards and if there is anything suspicious, I will let you know."
"It would be immensely helpful in our investigation if we were able to obtain the shipyard records spanning the past few years."
He'd deduced so much in such a short amount of time. She and the Rebels would have to tread very cautiously moving forward. "Of course. I'll have Kenzo reach out to them and see what we can do for you."
She hadn't actually met Ardella in person before. Without the blue tint of the holo distorting her appearance the scars on her face had a pinkish appearance, dulled from years of healing. She held out a hand to Riyo. "It's good to finally meet you in person, Senator."
Handshakes weren't a common gesture in this portion of the galaxy. Between that and the accent, Ardella must have spent most of her life near the core. "You as well." She looked to the two unexpected guests accompanying Ardella. "Who are your companions?"
She motioned to the first, a Pantoran man with no facial markings, "Garren Osdov," and to the other, a human woman with dark eyes and somewhat careless posture, "and Mae Amneta. These two are my next-in-command. Garren handles ground operations while Mae handles air operations. If this is important enough for us to meet in person, they need to be here. You can trust them."
This made them the only other two in the cell who knew she was their contact on Pantora. The human looked like she couldn't have cared less, but the Pantoran man recognized her.
He frowned, "I guess that explains why funding has never really been an issue for us."
She ignored the flippant comment and spoke directly to Ardella. "I'll trust your judgment in this matter, but please keep in mind that if my involvement with this Rebel cell is leaked it will be a disaster for both the Rebels and for the Pantoran people. I would prefer if my identity is not known beyond this circle. Understood?"
"Absolutely," Ardella said. "As I mentioned, they're only here because you said this was highly important."
"And it is. We have a problem with the Admiral," she began.
"Our scouts have been watching the Imperial ships moving in on Orto Plutonia." Garren interrupted. "They're acting fast, so we'll need to strike before they establish themselves too deeply. The more preventative measures we can take the better-"
Riyo cut him off. "Right. That sounds like a splendid plan, but you have a much, much larger Admiral already suspects there's a Rebel cell in the area."
Mae stood straighter, suddenly interested in the conversation. Ardella rubbed her mouth, her eyebrows raised.
"What?" Garren hissed. "How the hell did he find out already?"
"A rogue Talz attacked them after I left Orto Plutonia. He was wearing a necklace with the Rebel insignia on it."
The two newcomers fell silent, but Ardella's shock quickly morphed into anger. She turned to the two, her arms crossed. "What can you tell me about this? The Talz never agreed to work with us. They wanted to keep to themselves. They didn't want anything to do with our operation."
The two looked at each other, and Mae finally spoke. "A few of them were curious. We spoke with them, there might have been…"
"Brilliant. Well, you've managed to ruin our element of surprise. Great job, you two." She scowled at them.
Garren returned the hostile look with one of his own. "If people are interested in our cause, we aren't going to hide from them. The whole point of this is bringing people to our side."
"I understand that." She seethed. "But now we're at a massive disadvantage before we've even made our first move."
Riyo butted back into the conversation. There was no point in this internal bickering. It wasn't helping them take any steps forward. "The Admiral personally warned me and asked I watch for any Rebel activity on Pantora. We need to be extremely careful moving forward, particularly when it comes to supplies. He's already fixated on Pantora likely being your source."
"That's good to know." Ardella nodded. "I think we've got a good back-stock of supplies for now, so it may be best to halt everything, at least for the time being."
"That will only work for a little bit though," Mae said. "Once we start taking action against them we'll likely need to resume shipments of munitions and fuel. We can maybe get through a month without restocking, but something will come up."
"I'm confident I can find a way to safely continue supplying you all, but I will need to alter my approach," Riyo said. "I need to be much more cautious moving forward. Shipments will likely be much less frequent."
"We can work with whatever you can get us," Ardella said.
"As far as mounting an attack goes," she said slowly, "I would urge you to act with the utmost level of caution."
Garren, in a brash, mildly offensive move, laughed.
"I'm sorry, do you have a problem with my suggestion?" She frowned at him.
"I don't make a habit of trusting the tactical observations of politicians." He nodded to her, "You were a Senator during the Clone Wars. You're one of the ones who got us into this mess. Let us take care of getting out of it. The last thing we need is more of your help."
"Garren," Ardella shot him a well deserved deathly glare. "Keep your mouth shut."
She'd faced this sort of adversary before; the type that liked to beat their chest and stomp around in an attempt to scare people away. She didn't take her eyes off him. "War is not my business, Garren, but I assure you I am extremely well versed in reading my opponents. The Admiral is no fool. How else would he be onto your supply source this quickly? If you make the mistake of underestimating him it will be the end of this Rebel cell."
The door to the Admiral's office aboard the Chimaera slid open to reveal him standing before his desk in a manner so dramatic she momentarily suspected it may have been planned. An art piece featuring some odd little creatures she was unfamiliar with hung on the wall behind his desk, lit around the edges in a manner that cast an ominous glow on the room. With the majority of the lighting coming from directly behind him his face was mostly obscured by darkness, save his glowing eyes.
"Senator Chuchi, your visit is unexpected. I'm afraid I haven't had a chance to prepare a more hospitable welcome. I hope our lack of accommodations doesn't offend you."
Given this new setback for the Rebels, she had to reassess her firm stance against befriending the Admiral. They were now at such a disadvantage she would have to sacrifice her sanity and try to tolerate the man just to keep aware of the extent of his knowledge about the cell. She bit back her instinct to dislike him and smiled. "Not at all, I came on short notice. Accommodations are unnecessary."
"I hope my crew has been at least courteous enough that I'm not the first to welcome you aboard the Chimaera."
"It's an impressive ship, Admiral. You should be proud." A little flattery never hurt.
"Thank you." He made his way to the back side of his desk, fingers trailing over the surface. "To what do I owe this visit, Senator?"
She pulled the chip containing the log of supply shipments from her pocket and handed it to him. The records were edited of any suspicious looking activity to keep them off her trail - they wouldn't find anything. "That should be all the information you're looking for."
"I didn't expect you to be so prompt with my request. Thank you." He plucked the chip from her fingers and slid it into a drawer of his desk.
"You know, I didn't need to deliver that in person."
"I am somewhat curious what brought you here in person."
She put on her best repentant face. "I wanted to personally apologize to you. I feel we may have started off on a poor note because of my adamant resistance to your presence in Pantoran space."
"An apology is unnecessary, Senator. As I have mentioned, I understand your desire to avoid any Imperial military presence on Pantora. You are looking out for the best interests of your people. That is, after all, your job."
She looked around the office, trying to discern anything about the man. Several art pieces hung on the walls, and a few were displayed on shelves. "It's odd, I've never thought of it as my job. It's simply my purpose. Nonetheless, that doesn't excuse my hostile behavior. If a Rebel cell is located anywhere near Pantora of course I am interested in cooperating."
"It heartens me to hear that. Your cooperation will be helpful."
She stepped across the room to a winding sculptural structure that was nearly her height. His red stare bored into her as she circled it. "This is beautiful. Where is it from?"
"Lexrul. I find it intriguing as well."
Sculptures, artifacts, paintings hanging on the wall… She would never have guessed the man was an art connoisseur. "You must be a collector?"
"Something of the sort."
She couldn't have asked for a better setup. With an air of victory, she wandered to the next piece, a scroll with delicate lines of foreign text covering it, "We have that in common. I have one of the largest private collections on Pantora."
He still hadn't blinked. "I wasn't aware. Strictly Pantoran?"
"Mostly Pantoran, for obvious reasons. But I do have a somewhat substantial collection of pieces from around the galaxy that I've acquired while working out of Coruscant. If you're interested, Admiral, I would be happy to let you view the entire collection. Think of it as a more formal apology from me. We can discuss how to best deal with this Rebel cell further over dinner and then discuss my art collection over drinks."
He gave the slightest pause before responding. "That is a gracious offer, Senator. I would be honored."
She had to hide her grin. She'd hooked him.
