Chapter X
Conscription
"Good day Captain Ost." Draggoo Vexus said as he gave a firm salute. He was a rather short stocky man whose hair was receding away from his forehead. He had a small scar above his left eye which ran down into his eyebrow.
"Good day, sir." Isea replied. "I believe you already know Dashal Freestar and Jerryfar Du'cana." The two men gave Draggoo a solid salute. Isea motioned towards Vobe. "My I introduce Vobe Onoss."
Vobe didn't know quite what to do. Should he salute? Should he bow? This was all new to him. "Hello, sir," he finally said has he saluted.
"Vobe Onoss? The Bounty Hunter? I must say you are not quite what I expected. I thought you to be taller," Draggoo said.
"I get that a lot."
Draggoo turned towards Isea. "This is the extra cargo you mentioned? He wishes to join also?"
"Yes, I will explain it all later."
"Okay. May I introduce Colonel Evit Yniemi?" The second man, who had stayed behind near the elevator's doors, finally began to step forward. He was taller than Vobe and dressed extremely formal. His dark brown hair covered his ears. His voice was intimidating but a sense of pleasantness was embedded in it also.
The three men gave a salute which Evit returned. He looked at Isea. "It's good to see you made it without any problems. I was a little worried since we had not heard from you in some time. But no need to worry now, you are here safe." He turned towards Vobe. "I always thought bounty hunters never take sides?"
"They rarely do, but the only ones who do usually have conscience problems."
"Do you have a conscience problem?" Evit said accusingly.
"Not anymore, sir," Vobe said firmly. "It recently disappeared."
Evit gave a strange look towards Vobe before turning back towards Isea. "Let's go inside."
"Lead the way," Isea said has he followed Draggoo and Evit towards the elevator door which slid open automatically. The elevator was solid beige with several bright lights installed in the ceiling. The elevator had no need for windows for the lights could illuminate a large room.
All six men squeezed into the small lift and Draggoo, who was the last to enter, positioned himself next to the control panel for the elevator. He pushed the button for the sixth floor and the elevator began to slowly lower in altitude. Vobe watched as the light moved down the panel indicating they were passing a floor each time.
Twentieth.
Fifteenth.
Tenth.
Seventh. The elevator began to slow down and came to a stop when the number six has been lit up.
The doors slid open and Vobe was surprised to see the room full of equipment. There were holonet trackers, technical consoles, maps of planets on the wall, and personnel running around all over the room. The room looked like it could wage a small planetary war; however, this couldn't be the heart of the Alliance, this equipment is too few.
As soon as he stepped off the elevator, Evit was handed several personnel handed him memo after memo. He put a few of the papers down on a table initialed them and handed them back to the recruits who began to run them to different areas of the room. He motioned for Isea, Vobe and Draggoo to come to the large table with a map of the Galaxy on it.
"Our current intelligence reports that Vader has moved his fleet to the Gyndine System." He points to the location on the map. "Thrawn has moved his flotilla near the Anzat System here." He points to that system with his other hand. "Right in between these two fleets is Kashyyyk which is having its own problems. I have read."
"Yes, well Kashyyyk is handing its own problem I believe. There have been reports of uprisings in the in the Trandoshan Slave Camps on the planet."
"After the destruction of the Death Star and the subsequent ground battle, we set up several small facilities throughout the Galaxy, while we build our new base of operations in the Hoth System. Once we receive word that the Hoth base is operational, we will pack it up here and go to there."
"Why Hoth?" Isea asked. "Surely there are other planets that would be more" he paused for a moment, "hospitable."
"I know, but I don't choose the base locations. Hoth should be operation in about a year and a half, because we mostly have to build from scratch. However, the shield generator and several of the ground weapons are in separate pieces and will have to be put together like a gigantic puzzle."
"Where are the other small facilities located?"
"Besides here on Metellos, we have a tiny base set up on Dantooine; one on Aduba III, one on Yag'Dhul, and last one on Xagobah." He looked at Draggoo. "Now, it's your turn."
Draggoo turned towards Isea, Dashal and Jerryfar. "Now, about your ranks; Isea Ost, you were a Captain with the Empire, but you will be promoted to Major."
"Thank you." Isea saluted.
"Dashal Freestar, you were Second Lieutenant before, now you are First Lieutenant."
"Thank you, sir." Dashal said as he saluted.
"Jerryfar Du'cana, you were also a Second Lieutenant, you are too First Lieutenant."
"Thank you, Captain." Jerryfar said as he stood firm and saluted.
Draggoo turned and looked at Vobe. "Now, Vobe, with your unexpected appearance and your known skill in battle, I could not see you any less than a Captain. How does that sound to you?"
"Sounds great. I appreciate it." Vobe replied as he was the last to salute. "I might know some others who might join also. An armorsmith, a weaponsmith, and a fighter-for-hire."
"Do you trust them?"
"With my life."
"Well we may make an effort to get these men here."
"I would do it this instant, but I have a personal business to attend to."
"Business?" Evit said as he turned around.
"Yes, well…"
Isea interrupted. "We'll explain everything in a little while."
The six men entered the conference room and sat down around the circular table in the center of the room. Vobe sat first followed by Evit, Isea, Draggoo, Jerryfar, and finally Dashal.
The room was brightly lit via the large windows on two of the walls. Small speeders could be seen flying past the windows outside in all directions. It did seem to have the same kind of traffic lanes as Coruscant had, although not as many lanes.
Over the course of the meeting, Vobe explained the entire situation to Evit and Draggoo with Isea filling in small details every so often. He described the parley with Sarguillo, the attempt on his life on Socorro and his meeting of Isea. Evit and Draggoo just sat back and listened.
"Isea, if Sarguillo is such an important figure, why doesn't he change his schedule? I mean we could launch an attack on his ship anytime." Evit asked.
"He is a very arrogant person. He is not going to change his plans around because of three defectors. He believes we are not much of a threat to him."
"I see."
"Speaking of Sarguillo," Vobe added. "He is probably wondering what is taking me so long to fulfill his task."
"Aye. He will probably begin to have people look for you. You had better make some kind of contact with him."
"What would I say? I mean I cannot just tell him that I want him dead. I don't think he would like that very much."
"What do you propose, Vobe?" Draggoo inquired.
Vobe sat back in his chair with his wrists resting on the table. He sat quietly thinking. The other men looked around trying to figure out what Vobe was doing. A minute passes with no sound heard out of him or anyone else.
"Vobe?" Isea said.
"Yes?" Vobe replied as he sat up casually.
"What do you propose we do about Sarguillo? You are the one who wanted to do something about him," Draggoo said with a slight amount of irritation in his voice.
"I am trying to think of something. How he could be taken down." Vobe leaned back again in his chair and closed his eyes for a moment. The other men noticed that he was silently muttering to himself.
The men began to speak to each other coming up with different ideas of an attack on Sarguillo's flotilla. The room was getting more vociferous with each passing moment.
"I have an idea." Vobe said softly but to no avail of anyone hearing him. "I think I have an idea." He said louder and with a more alerting tone.
Silence.