Star Wars the Pentastar Alignment
As you enter the hanger bay it once again becomes clear that you have been practically sentenced to death. It has been 5 years since the death of the Emperor at Endor and the galaxy is in chaos. The Rebel alliance has renamed itself the New Republic and is rapidly gaining power while the man responsible for the death of the emperor is rebuilding the Jedi order within their borders. The Empire has fractured with only the core worlds remaining loyal to its foundation. Still as consequence of the death of the Emperor the Empire has become increasingly xenophobic and extremely hostile to force weilders of all variants due to Palpatines status as a sith not being public knowledge. As consequence of this the Emperor's inquisitors, a cabal of dark side force users, have joined forces with Grand Moff Ardus Kaine in the Galactic North West and have formed the Pentastar Alignment as a rebirth of the ancient Sith Empire.
You are a nobody part of the Pentastar Alignment. That wasn't to say that you did not have your own accomplishments as you had graduated in an academy on coruscant and were beginning to build a career in politics when the battle of Endor occurred. As luck would have it you had been working in what would become the Pentastar Alignment and after seeing the power held by these new sith you decided to remain and try to become a person of some influence in what could possibly become the strongest faction even if no one else realized it yet. Unfortunately, it seems that may no longer be an option as you have been assigned to the special forces.
The special forces of the Pentastar Alignment consist of two kinds of people. The elite of the elite, sith who were practically armies in and of themselves, soldiers of particular renown, crafty diplomats able to convince you of practically anything and ace pilots who had flown hundreds of missions. While this sounds impressive, you belong to the second group. These were the people who someone, somewhere wanted dead. You knew that you would be sent on missions that were just as dangerous as those which required the elites and while they may have a decent survival rate, the survival rate of the group you were a part of was about 50% per mission. Even that may have been generous as you gaze upon the ship provided for your use.
It is a Raider class corvette, an excellent anti-fighter platform built to supplement the Imperial-II star destroyer by supporting the destroyer's fighter complement. Overall it was an excellent ship and most special forces used one as a personal vessel, although typically they would be based out of a larger destroyer. This raider however, was clearly a ship that was just functional enough that the navy decided not to scrap it. The armor was scorched and in some places missing, the 6 twin heavy laser turrets had been replaced by more basic single laser turrets, and the slot which could have held either a turbolaser or an ion cannon was just flat out empty. Looking once again at your orders you cringe at just how suicidal the mission you have been assigned is. The orders read as follows.
"You are to seize control of a rebel held listening post in the Borosk system as well as destroy the MC80 Liberty on site. It is expected that there will be damage to the station when taken, however its destruction will be seen as failure of the highest order and will result in your execution. You have one month to complete your objective."
This was impossible. The MC80 Liberty may not have been the largest vessel in the possession of the Rebels, however it would be more than capable of destroying a corvette while they would be incapable of even breaking down the enemies shields. All this assuming the intelligence stating the capital ship as the only enemy vessel in the system is accurate. Still you had no other choice, there was effectively no way out of this as there were some major military preparations going on in the sector and any attempts to flee would undoubtedly end in your death.
As you enter the vessel you can see that the crew is clearly a skeleton crew who know they have been sentenced to death. They are polite as you go by, knowing that they are in the same boat as you and perhaps a little hopeful that this mission will be a success and they can try and transfer out, but overall the mood is dour. As you enter the conference room your party is simultaneously impressive and disappointing. The first person you see is what you would describe as a no nonsense soldier. At first you are puzzled as to why this person would be here as he seems like he would fit in well with the army of the Pentastar Alignment, then you realize he is too professional. You knew from his body size then he was an alien of some kind, but he quite literally never took off his armor so you really had no way of knowing what he was. By the conference table is an engineer who seemed to be hyped up on several gallons of caffeine given the amount of twitching and the rapid muttering he seems to be doing under his breath. At first you assume he is a member of the staff that is just here to fix some problem with the communication device. However, a quick glance at your datapad shows that he is in fact part of your team and that the holo-projector is in fact not actually broken. Although you may have thought so too soon as the lights on the panel die and the Engineer begins snickering. Speaking of, while you are not familiar with the particulars you do recognize the four armed simian as an ardennian. This one may have a few screws loose however. Surprisingly, there is actually a member of this party that you do recognize. An operative leaning back in the corner seemingly trying to blend into the wall. Had this been a game you could imagine all sorts of dark and mysterious backgrounds that could possibly surround this cloaked figure, but unfortunately for her as Jara, you knew Jara from when you were both kids on Coruscant and she had anything but a dark past. She was an Arcanian, a near Human species with White hair and eyes as well as being in possession of only four fingers. They tended to be as supremacist as Humans, but in the case of Jara, she was just incredibly curious about just about anything and had actually gotten along well with the numerous alien species on Coruscant. She was quite pleasant to be around and you knew from personal experience that the atmosphere she was trying to create was all an act and that she could not wait to learn more about her teammates. As you send a smirk her way she rolls her eyes, but has the hint of a smile under that scowl she has managed to put on her face. Looking further you realize that you are still missing the last member of your team when a voice sounds behind you. "You are in my way, move." With that you feel yourself pushed forward although it doesn't feel like anyone actually touched you and as you stumble forward you turn around and spot the final member of your team. A sith, this one was a Codru-Ji a near human species with four arms when you were assigned to this team you had read the files of all the members, but upon learning that there would be a sith you had spent much time reading their files specifics so as to avoid angering her. A sith being here was far from unusual as the sith were always trying to destroy their rivals. It was in fact completely possible that the sith in front of you had been sent by her master in order to destroy a potential future rival. Her file had made it clear that this one was quite ambitious after all. It was a small blessing that there was only one sith on board as even in the few years that it had existed the Alignment had already had several cases of two or more sith being assigned to a special forces unit only for them to tear the ship apart before even reaching their mission. More disturbing was that this would even happen with the actually elite members of the special forces. For the moment it appears that your fears of this sith may not have been warranted however as she simply seems depressed at where she has ended up. What is more that ambition had been belied by some serious talent and intelligence so she wasn't about to waste someone who could be useful in surviving this mess.
Of course at the same time it was clear that her pride would not allow her to be anything, but the leader of this group. "Well then, now that I have arrived let us begin discussing how we are meant to survive the coming month as well as completing our mission" the sith States. To your surprise it is the soldier who speaks up first,
"Ma'am, first order of business as per protocol, is the introduction of the command staff. This is clearly stated in section 381, paragraph 27 of the military guidebook which should have been issued to you upon receiving your orders." For a moment there is just stunned silence that this trooper would just blatantly tell a sith what to do, but having also read the book you did know why this protocol was in place and so began speaking.
"If I may, the section itself is there for a reason, I doubt any of us have actually worked together and even if some of us do know each other it would be useful to have a better grasp of each other's skills when making plans, and introductions would help smooth communications." The sith who had been glaring at the trooper turns her gaze on me and at first I am wondering if I am about to be killed in her rage and damn the consequences, but to my surprise and relief she simply sighs and concedes the point before beginning her introduction.
"Very well, I am Kayil-Ya. I am trained in the consular arts with particular focus on the use of sith lightning. I am admittedly not the most skilled in dueling, however I am capable of deflecting blaster fire with my lightsaber with little trouble." Having said her piece Kayil glares at the trooper in a non-subtle way of indicating he should go first, however as he does not seem to notice or care you suggest that perhaps he should go next.
"Of course, I am a Trooper now designated SF-1337. I am an assault specialist intended to engage the enemy at close range with the standard issue E-11 blaster rifle. Given our sith has chosen a more force focused path I shall prepare to engage on the front lines so as to draw enemy fire." At first everyone is rather confused as to why he used his designation instead of his name, but after a little bit of prompting all that was revealed is that he had discarded his name in favor of his designation a long time ago. While slightly disturbing this had established the order we would be introducing ourselves in and the next was your old friend Jara.
"Jara, I am an infiltration specialist." You can't help but snicker at the short introduction and you are already planning on how to embarrass her during your own introduction. Before you can think of anything however your thoughts are interrupted by the last remaining member of the team who apparently never heard of volume control.
"HI yes, THis One iS I uh my nam- Named O-ObeK KabREE, YES yes, uh- yes, I- I do uh EXPERIMENTAL engineering uh- yes uh -uh" as he seems on the verge of hyperventilating you thank him and ask that he sits down before beginning your own introductions. "I am Jar Bundai, I was trained as a diplomat on Coruscant and have been working in the political sphere of the Pentastar Alignment for the past 5 years, it is a pleasure to work with you all." Kayil rolls her eyes a bit and Jara seems to sigh in relief when you don't call her out on what she has been doing for the past five years to which you send her a little smile before Kayil brings attention back to the matter at hand.
"As you all know we are currently assigned to take a listening outpost set up by the rebels as well as destroy the capital ship they have patrolling the area. We are under equipped for such a mission, but we do have the authority provided to us by our status as special forces and so we should be able to draft other forces along to perhaps draft other forces in the area so as to overwhelm the station's defenders." Unfortunately, once the plan is stated you immediately realize the flaw. Yes, you could draft other forces, even permanently as it happens, but this draft did not include mandatory compliance. Instead the commander of whatever forces the request was made to would decide if the request by a member of the Special Forces is more important than their current assignment. To your chagrin it does not appear that the rest of your party has noticed this issue as of yet, still this is hardly unreasonable as the laws stating what a special forces operative were legally capable of demanding was rather long. Before they can get started with the discussion of what resources could be requisitioned you interrupt.
"There is an issue here. It is not strictly a requirement for everyone to assist us in our mission and we will likely need to convince them that our own mission is more important than whatever assignment they are on. In addition, it is clear that our team likely isn't expected to succeed so even if others do agree that our mission is more important they may wait for a… proper special forces team to come around." This has a sobering effect on the rest of the room as everyone goes quiet, fortunately you do have some idea of how to fix the situation.
"That isn't to say we can't get help, it just means we will likely have to provide something in exchange for support." This gets the table talking as everyone begins discussing possible allies.
"If we can gather enough credits then there are always mercenaries available on Capza. If we are fortunate there may even be particularly skilled bounty hunters that can join in the assault on the space station." Jara provides her work as an imperial agent has given her some insight into the less reputable members of society.
"There is also an imperial training facility on Capza that has been having trouble with rebel saboteurs. With Capza being mostly jungle any attempt to clear the area with the army would take too long and give those scum too much time to pack up and leave after setting plenty of traps. A small team like ours would not raise as much alarm and potentially allow us to capture the leaders of the cell for information. The commander of that base is a reasonable if blunt man and he should give us some opportunity to gain reinforcements should we accomplish this task for him." The Trooper adds. It is unclear if he personally trained at this base or if he knows it by reputation, but this is certainly an issue that has merit. Hopefully this won't have attracted the attention of other special forces as it is simply beneath their notice which could mean that it is a mission your team is capable of. However, as you are considering the logistics of both hiring some mercenaries and gaining the support of the Imperial Training Facility a new argument is born.
"Do we even have the resources to assist the training facility? Even if we do it hardly seems worth the effort as if this was a serious problem then someone would have been sent to deal with the issue. Or do you just think that the dark council are fools?" Kayil-Ya's words snap at the Trooper. She isn't necessarily wrong, however the flaw is clear to the rest of the table as this may simply be a problem of little significance which the dark council did not have time to deal with.
"As for mercenaries, I see little value, they may be more experienced than the average imperial trooper, however the ones we can find on Capza will not possess their own ships and that is what we will need in order to take control of the listening post which is located in space. Or have you both forgotten the actual objective we have been saddled with." Sounding like a petulant child Kayil continues berating the rest of the team. Unfortunately, she was sith and getting on their bad side was widely considered a stupid method of suicide. Not wanting to risk raising her ire the room goes quiet. However in contrast to the silence that now pervaded the room your mind was moving rapidly.
When you were learning your trade as a diplomat it was absolutely critical to be able to read someone based on their emotions. As a Sith Kayil wore her emotions on her sleeves constantly ready to use them to empower herself. So it is with some surprise that you hear yourself begin speaking.
"If I may interject. While it is unlikely these troops will be of use in taking out the cruiser it is possible that they will allow us to complete other objectives more easily. In addition, we will absolutely need funds if we want to perform any operations after our current mission." as you say this you feel a slight squeeze around your neck. Not enough to cause any pain or even prevent you from speaking, instead it is just enough to let you know it is there and you are left gazing into the crimson eyes of a sith.
"After our current mission? It is fully expected that we will die on this current mission and you think we should be saving for the future?" Kayil growls in a low voice. A quick glance shows the rest of the table unsure what to do. Jara and the Trooper almost look ready to intervene, while the little engineer just seems to have become even more of a nervous wreck. What urges you to keep going however, is that in those dangerous eyes you see exactly what you thought you would. The sith was surprised and perhaps even a bit impressed as they would have been more than aware of the reputation her kind had.
"80% of the teams sent on missions like ours die during their first mission, however 90% of those who manage to survive lose their lives during their second mission as they were unable to gather the resources needed to complete their objective. So yes I would highly recommend we-" the grip on your throat tightens as the sith maintains eye contact and there is silence for a few seconds. For a moment you are concerned that you have made a horrible mistake as you wouldn't be surprised if the person in front of you could kill everyone in this room, but you maintain eye contact. A few more seconds pass when the sith smirks. The grip on your throat is released and you are able to take in a gasp of air.
"Not bad. Here I thought you were one of those diplomats who did nothing but sit behind a desk and rely on your silver tongue and ass kissing to gain favor, but seems you have some fire in you." Kayil leans back in her chair and the rest of the people in the room let out a sigh of relief.
"Very well, we can likely look int-" Kayil continues when a yelp is heard from Jara causing everyone to turn towards her. Meanwhile, she had a horrified look on her face as she looked at what seemed to be the least threatening member of the team and the massive amount of explosives he had pulled out of seemingly nowhere. Perhaps the sith wasn't the most dangerous person in the room after all. The little engineer just looks mildly embarrassed as he has now become the center of attention with even the sith looking rather scared at the pile of ordnance capable of turning the room they were in into slag. Before rapidly putting everything into various compartments much to the concern of the rest of the team who each panic whenever it looks like he is going to drop a particularly volatile piece only to catch it at the last moment. Fortunately before long all the ordnance is once again stored safely and the meeting can continue, but not without everyone sending the occasional glance at the simian to make sure he is not about to blow them all up.
"As I was saying.. We should certainly look into what you suggested, however there is still the rather major concern of dealing with a cruiser class warship. No amount of preparing for the future can help if we aren't able to deal with that." Kayil finally finishes what she was saying, still sounding unnerved about how close she had come to being paste on the wall before the mission even began, and from a member of the team who she had clearly judged to be of no great threat.
"We-WELL, th-the-the pIlots academy is oN y-Yaga Mmm-MinOr." rattles off Obek causing a slight panic at the sound of his voice from the others at the table. After the immediate panic settles your mind quickly goes through the information you have on Yaga Minor. It is the largest ship building planet located in the Pentastar Alignments borders and consequently had a number of facilities intended to train competent crews for the military vessels being produced.
There was an issue however, between them they had maybe a few thousand credits between them. If they were lucky that would be enough to outfit their current vessel with a turbolaser or ion cannon in the slot it is intended for, but buying a ship capable of going up against a new republic cruiser was a joke. The pilots academy or rather academies were almost entirely based around fighters. Certainly useful in space combat, but a handful of tie fighters and bombers would at best be a distraction to a Rebel Cruiser.
Still this does give you ideas on where to gather forces capable of challenging such a cruiser. Still before you make your plans known you wait for the rest of the ideas of the rest of the crew. It is quite important to get a good read on these individuals given just how dangerous they can be and while you already know Jara and who she used to be. You can't say that you know her NOW. Something perhaps more concerning is you have no idea who would put them here as that could prove to be just as much of an obstacle as anything the rebels can throw at you. Although if they are anything like you then they are likely clueless as to who could have sent you all here.
In the background you can hear the others discuss some sort of mysterious happenings occurring on one of the stations, likely caused by force powers if Kayil is to be believed, however you are busy considering who could want you dead. The list is unfortunately a rather long one as you know plenty of people who would have loved to take your former position, low ranking as it was. In fact, even now you can picture dozens if not hundreds of people trying to become the substitute junior partner for the diplomatic core of the Pentastar Alignment. Still, none of those people would have had the diplomatic weight to send you to this place.
Well that wasn't entirely true as you consider your first suspect comes to mind. A Human Male by the name of Orn Jobliss was a rapidly rising star in the diplomatic ranks. In fact he was rising a bit too quickly, unbelievably so which brings you to why he is a likely candidate. The next position on the ladder was your own and so if he really does have connections with someone high up enough to get you sent to the special forces then that would certainly be a convenient way of getting you out of the way. Still if it is him then there really isn't anything to be concerned about. Chances are he will get the position and will just as quickly move to the next position until he finally arrives in whatever position he is already expected to receive by his mysterious benefactor. Now that you are out of the way they wouldn't care if you succeed or not. Still something to investigate. If it was him who got you sent here then you could move on and seek revenge later, but at least it wouldn't be a problem for a while. If not then you have crossed someone off the list of candidates.
Speaking of candidates, the next one to come to mind is your former mentor. An Arcona named Odil-Mug. He had been assigned to you during your apprenticeship during the reign of the empire and it was clear to both of you that the intention was for you to ultimately replace him due to the xenophobic tendencies of the Empire. When the Empire began to fracture and you were both left in space now controlled by the Pentastar Alignment,you both offered your skill sets and rather quickly went your separate ways. Still there has always been a grudge between the two of you and while you were only slightly annoyed at the somewhat lackluster education you were receiving as he tried to avoid letting you be qualified to take his position. You can imagine that he held quite the grudge as your ambition made you seek more knowledge regardless of whether or not he was willing to share. Last you heard his prior connections and skill had left him in a rather high position in the diplomatic core and perhaps this was his way of settling an old grudge.
The last likely candidate coming to mind would have to be the thing just above you. A hutt of all things had chosen to enter the diplomatic core of all things. Frankly, you had a distaste for hutts due in no small part to their opinions on hygiene. Yuwa Orva may not have a particularly high position at the moment, and certainly not high enough to get you sent here, but if you knew anything about hutts and their reputation, then this one would be ambitious and have connections to spare. Given your own ambition and quickly rising status it is likely that Hutt would have felt threatened and sought to remove a thorn in his side. Unfortunately, even though there was basically no way you would be of any threat to his job from your current position, Hutts could be rather prideful and if you did manage to survive and he was responsible then you could expect bounty hunters sent after you.
Of course you could have stepped on any number of toes and are simply unaware of who you have angered, but for the time being there is at least a list of things to look into if you survive this mission. You chuckle to yourself, it is almost funny how you are so clearly expected to die during this and yet you are already thinking of what to do next as though this will be easy.
While you have been considering the future the rest of your team remains trapped in the present. You weren't exactly paying attention as you were focused elsewhere, but best you can tell not much has actually changed. There is apparently a pilots academy that is apparently haunted by ghosts and so you will be heading there to see if your resident sith can't solve the mystery and possibly gain some pilots and fighters in exchange. Certainly every bit will help, but that leaves you with the problem of the capital class cruiser.
"I may have an idea on where we can recruit the force needed for such a task." You say, catching the attention of the party. Both were a difficult bet, but it was doable with the right sell.
"First off, there is a captain in the Imperial fleet stationed at Ompersan with too few connections to rise to the rank he should have. Trav Usom is currently the captain of a Victory I-class Star Destroyer. On its own it will not be enough to take on that Rebel Cruiser and he knows it. However that is where my second group of recruits comes in."
You take a breath here as you can already imagine the objections you will receive. You yourself are not entirely certain on the matter, but it has to be done as there aren't any other forces to be found locally and you don't have enough credits anyway.
"There are three pirates piloting dreadnought-class heavy cruisers in the asteroid belt in Yaga Minor. Each of them hate one another, but none of them can risk attacking the other as even if they win they will absolutely lose to the third pirate ship in the area." You take a breath already seeing the stunned looks on three of your parties faces even with a helmet blocking one and then push on.
"If we can offer our services to one of the pirates as special forces and take down an opponent's dreadnaught from the inside, they may be willing to assist us in dealing with the rebels." You finish before waiting on your team to begin objecting.
As you wait you can see quite clearly what everyone thinks. The crazy engineer doesn't seem to have a problem, but that isn't the most ringing endorsement of your career. The sith almost looks impressed at the audacity of your plan, but more in the idea of how badly it is going to crash and burn. Unfortunately she is acutely aware of how her life is at stake, and so she seems none too thrilled that this is what you came up with. The trooper… well it is hard to tell through his helmet, but you can still somewhat get a read on him through body language and you can tell that what he thinks of your plan is not good. Your possibly now former friend and resident spy has her hand to her forehead as she considers all the ways in which this could go wrong.
Before anyone opens their mouth to call you an idiot for even considering this you refute their argument with a simple statement of how bad the situation is.
"I am aware that dealing with pirates is risky at best and that we may be thrown out the airlock, but there is simply no choice. The only thing we can offer Captain Usom is a promise of support in the future and before he is going to believe in us that we can assist him, we need to demonstrate that we are capable of surviving this. We can hope that we find another ship to assist us in taking on the rebels, but even then it would be better to have the pirates as having two ships only means we will likely win not that there won't be losses. Captain Usom is an excellent captain and should reasonably be an Admiral, if we are able to not only succeed, but minimize casualties by having three ships then that would be ideal, but either way we will almost certainly need to have a pirate vessel working with us."
This seems to shut everyone up before they can say anything as they consider just how unlikely their victory is. There is still the great possibility that they will be betrayed, but they really don't have a choice in the matter.
After giving the room a moment to collect themselves you bring up quite possibly the most important matter that has so far gone unaddressed. That being why the rest of them are here and what obstacles that might cause.
"We still need to talk about who sent each of us here. I don't expect you to know exactly who it was, but we will potentially need to deal with them if the matter is personal. You don't want to name names fine, but we need to know positions that might be a problem." You bring up this point knowing that it will almost certainly bring up angry memories in each of their minds. Sure enough when you bring the matter up each of them look down and you can see the sith and agent grinding their teeth. Still in order to encourage cooperation you decide to go first.
"I have three suspects in mind for my own circumstances, but of them the only ones I can think of being a problem would be my former mentor and a Hutt that was just above me in the diplomatic corps. My mentor probably holds a grudge and the Hutt… is a Hutt." The personal matter doesn't matter to your new team, but knowing what can be sent your way because of you is important. In your case that would mean bounty hunters, criminals and difficult missions. After a moment the trooper brings up his matter.
"Mine are various individuals, but they all present the same problems to our group. They are all army base commanders who I accused of incompetence. It is possible that a former Squad captain of mine is involved as well, but aside from running into him personally I don't believe he has the influence to cause us trouble." With this new information you are left running scenarios in your mind. The amount of trouble this could cause largely depends on the individual, but so long as it was members of the Imperial Army you had some ideas. It was perfectly possible that the more cunning commanders would draft plans for a massive battle that requires a suicide squad of special forces to recon and when they fail to report back the plan gets scrapped and the battle that was never going to take place never does. That was the best case as those missions would just end up pointless as the commanders scrap whatever non-existent battleplans they made when the target turned out to be too 'hard' as if they didn't already know. The more crafty ones would find battles that actually needed to be fought so they could send in a suicide special squad to find some way of turning what might otherwise be a hopeless battle, when in reality they are just the diversion. As you consider how to investigate this your train of thought is interrupted by Jara.
"Mine is likely due to former missions of mine. My handlers would have considered me a valuable asset and although some of the other agents were jealous of me I don't think any of them had the influence to do this. However, I can think of a few targets of my missions that might have sent me here for revenge. The Most likely to have even found out I was involved are a Sith Lord I was investigating on charges of corruption and a member of the civilian administration on similar charges. I found both guilty and they paid for it, but if they found out which agent it was, well they can't target my bosses, but who cares about one field agent." Jara finishes and you consider the new and disturbing implications. While she only mentioned two it is likely she has caused trouble for others or even been falsely accused. In fact Kayil seems to agree as she breaks you from your train of thought.
"If one of the other agents dislikes you then maybe they framed you in one of their jobs. A couple locks of hair and suddenly you broke into a place you have never set foot in." The sith laughs evidently familiar with such tactics whether she has used them or had them used on her. You concede that it is completely possible and can only hope that is not the case here as it makes tracking down who is sending you places significantly more difficult. As for the others, the sith lord is undoubtedly more of a problem. A member of the civilian government may be able to make you go on more dangerous missions, but nothing of major significance. A Sith however would be able to send you just about anywhere or even send his apprentices to 'test' themselves against you. What is more, killing or discrediting a Sith Lord was difficult business to deal with. Still with this thought in your mind you raise your eyes to meet your own sith who appears ready to explain her circumstances.
"Mine is rather straightforward. My master sent me here because I was becoming a potential threat to him. Don't misunderstand he is still stronger than me right now and I don't have his influence, but for the time being he won't be able to influence our missions, just send his other apprentices to bother us hoping if enough are sent we might actually lose." Kayil's blunt statement is quite expected given the nature of sith. Ironically this is less of a problem than if you have to deal with Jara's sith lord as basically no one will question it if a master is killed by an apprentice as that is simply how being a sith works. Still, Kayil's former master will no doubt continue to try and rise in power and influence, so may be able to give them difficult missions at another time. Finally, everyone turns to the engineer who seems nervous and you would be lying if you said that didn't make you nervous as well.
"I-uh-um-uh- wel-well." the mammalian takes a gulp. "I sent here after, uh, th-th-the navy bo-board de-determined I be a-uh-um hrmn" the nervous engineer slumps down. Still even this small amount does give you some idea of what happened. Likely the imperial naval board considered him a liability and so in order to not completely waste the time spent training him had him instead reassigned to the special forces. If he succeeds great, if he dies then it was no great loss. Still despite his nervousness it is unlikely the navy will intentionally cause problems for you.
"There is one last order of Business." Kayil begins. Teams like this need someone listed as the person in charge and it seems Kayil is laying claim to it now. "We still need to decide the leader of this team." There it was. "As the person to bring the subject up… I nominate Jar Bundai." With this she sits back down as the rest of the room takes a moment to process.
A sith giving up power was… unheard of. Still if there was any time to be careful it would be now. Fortunately you are not the only one to realize it and don't have to be the one to bring it up.
"Jar? Why not yourself? As sith you are certainly more combat capable after all." Insulting as this may have been, Jara did have a point. You were trained in combat, but hardly an expert.
"Do not misunderstand. I expect to be included in any decisions made on this ship, but I see in him something the rest of you lack. Besides, my talents are more suited to fighting on the battlefield and I cannot be bothered with your problems. So unless someone has another candidate I believe we have our leader." That said Kayil gets a dangerous look in her eyes and you can almost see the lighting within. You are concerned about what she has planned that she would nominate you, but now is not the time to argue about such things.
One by one everyone files out of the room and as the newly elected leader you head to the bridge to set the destination. You can only hope that your suicide mission will be possible with the plan you have outlined.
With this in mind the Raider heads into hyperspace. First stop, Capza.