Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage

For a moment, I rolled the plan around in my head, nodding in appreciation for the basic outline.

"I like it," I said, nodding along after Draven, the stern man shifting to look at me. "But there are a few holes. "What happens if the defense fleet gives up the chase before we are ready for them?"

"We chase after them, harassing them as we can, delaying them as best we can, giving the ground teams time to run," He explained. "This is a high-value target. There is no way to make the plan airtight."

"Maybe, but there are ways to make it safer," I pointed out. "How would we land on the planet, exactly? I'm open to using my ships, they can handle some heavy fire and are pretty fast."

"We have three Aegis-class shuttles ready for use," He responded, shaking his head. "They are sturdy, easy to load up, and can handle the rapid descent.

"Those don't have hyperdrives, though," I said, shaking my head. "We won't be able to retreat on our own. We would have to wait for a pickup, putting ourselves and whoever is getting us at risk."

That seemed to catch him off guard. After a long moment of thought, he eventually nodded.

"Fine, we can use your ships," He agreed, not looking happy but seeming to realize I had a point.

"We should be able to land everyone at once with the Chariot," I responded with a nod. "Which is good because it leaves the Loyal Hound free to complete a secondary objective."

"Secondary objective?" Draven asked, looking confused. "What secondary objective?"

"Well… you said it yourself, three ships have been grounded from the defense fleet," I pointed out. "Sounds like easy pickings to me."

"We are not assigning more troops to this mission," Draven responded, shaking his head. "And further dividing the team would only make trouble for the primary mission."

"Fine, my people will take care of it," I assured him. "We have resources, the Loyal Hound will simply go off on its own for a bit before returning. Then, if the idea pans out, then great. If not, it's not your problem."

I did my best not to smirk or shake my head. People were constantly shocked by how much progress the Skyforged had made in such a short time, but none of them seemed to realize that it was situations like this allowed us to grow. Looking out for opportunities and seizing them as they arrived, that was the key to turning a simple asset acquisition mission into something even more impressive. I would get Nal and Racer to run research on the planet's situation, and we would come up with something after that. Or scrap it if it wasn't feasible. Either way, simply waving off the opportunity was a mistake.

"...Fine, as long as you and your primary ground team are on task, I don't particularly care," Draven said, shaking his head. "Is there anything else?"

"Why would a strike team be needed to destroy the comms tower?" Corvak asked, leaning forward in his chair. "Knocking out communications is key to the plan, yes, but is it necessary for it to be done by a strike team? If we are simply blowing up the comms tower, why not just destroy it with a starfighter or other vessel?"

"It's an Imperial Facility, correct?" I asked, looking at Draven, who simply nodded. "Then a strike team does feel like overkill. Not to mention that if they are delayed for too long, then they might get word of the attack off before it's destroyed."

"Then what exactly do you suggest?" Draven asked, once again frustrated but silent since we did have a good point.

"The Brick has weapons heavy enough to destroy the tower, or at least its ability to send communications," I said after a moment of thinking. "It can deploy out of the Chariot as we get close, it's stealthy enough to sneak past most scans, and it's been upgraded enough that it can stand up to a handful of TIEs if they have any on the ground as support."

The Brick was a powerhouse for its size. Originally, we paid twenty thousand credits for it, expensive for its small size and lack of hyperdrive, but after dropping another large chunk of credits on it, Miru turned it into a force to be reckoned with. It was actually a bit unfortunate that we hadn't been getting much use out of it lately, as it was basically a small, starfighter-level gunship on its own, even if we bought it to use as a shuttle. It was supposed to keep us from having to land the Chariot on every planet we traveled to, but between Omega Station and how often we were offloading and loading things, it hardly got used.

"All we need is a pilot and a gunner, and it should be more than enough ship to get the job done," I finished. "We can probably pull them from the Loyal Hound if we were desperate, but…"

"Send me the stats and layout of the ship, and I will find a pilot and a gunner capable of flying it well," General Syndulla volunteered. "If I remember correctly, it is a CEC design, so it shouldn't be difficult."

"That... is a sound idea, assuming your ship can handle it," Draven said after a long moment. "Is there anything else?"

"Yeah, there is," I said, shaking my head. "Do we have floor plans? How are we moving the materials? Will we have an escort to keep ground forces at bay while we clear and loot? Should we have labor droids with us? If the fleet is underpowered enough, why don't we try and flat-out destroy it rather than lead it away on a chase? What happens if the chase doesn't work or the defense fleet splits in two?"

"Believe it or not, Deacon Roy, we do know how to plan a strike mission," Draven responded, giving me a hard glare. "Do you require every detail?"

I looked at him for a moment before looking at General Syndulla. She looked concerned but mostly defeated, shaking her head. She met my eye and shrugged, giving me the go-ahead to voice my thoughts.

"General Draven, I'm going go ahead and assume that your reputation is true and that your gruff, blunt, and hostile attitude is because you take your job seriously and have no time for anything that might even vaguely resemble a possible threat to the Rebellion," I said, standing from my chair, meeting the man's glare with one of my own. "But this is a joint mission. We are working together, as equals, to perform a mission, one that Mon Mothma herself wanted to happen. While I appreciate the need to be suspicious and careful, I will not tolerate being treated like good little soldiers."

My words silenced the room, the air sucked out and the tension rising as I stared him down. Just as he opened his mouth to counter, I continued.

"Let me put this bluntly so that there is no confusion," I said, holding up my hand to silence him. "Pull your fucking head out of your goddamn ass so that we can actually plan for this mission, or not only will we walk, I will rescind the offer to equip the Rebellion with beskar. With your name as the reason."

He looked at me, clenching his teeth, looking like he had bit into a lemon, and then I followed it up by punching it down his throat. After a long minute, he swallowed, nodded, and sat back down in his chair.

"Very well," he finally said, tapping something on the screen. "Then where should we start?"

"At the beginning," I responded easily. "What sort of support are we looking at, and what do the defense and distraction fleets look like?"

For the next three hours, we went over the plan, piece by piece. At first, I could tell Draven was trying to be a brat by asking for input on every little thing. Eventually, however, he seemed to at least partially realize he was being an absolute idiot, as we continued to modify the plan in ways he didn't see or predict. I also made a point to pull Han and Chewie into the conversation, resulting in a fair few new points being brought up.

First, the idea of only relying on tricking the defense fleet to follow a smaller fleet away was abandoned. There were too many weak points, too many moments when something out of our control could change, and suddenly, the mission was over, and we all had very little time to run.

So, with a little cajoling and convincing, we agreed the best bet was to stack the deck. The primary mission was still distraction, so a fleet would engage the defense fleet and run. Standard Imperial procedure was to chase and apprehend the Rebels, but should something else happen, there would be a secondary fleet, just a micro-jump away, ready to take care of the defense force in a more brutal manner.

It still had risks, and meant we would be putting more people in danger, but it also had the smallest chance for everything to go belly up and for the mission to fall apart completely.

Once the defense fleet was chasing or being taken care of by the secondary fleet, the Chariot would descend. My team, Clan Corvak, and a Rebel commando team would all be on board. The Brick would pull off and attack the Comms system, which would be our cue to attack the metal storage vault.

This was also, if our research confirmed it would be a worthwhile idea, when the Loyal Hound would split off on its own mission of dropping off our contingent of Commando droids. When it was done with that, it would return to the vault to provide cover and keep any starfighters off our asses. Along with our own muscles, we would be provided plenty of equipment to quickly move the metals, as well as labor droids.

Once we had our loot, we would load it onto the Chariot and head for space, with the secondary fleet jumping in to cover us, even if the defense fleet was still off following the distraction team.

Our cover for the entire mission would include a half squadron of X-wings, as well as the Loyal Hound when it was done with its mission, which should only take a few minutes. It wasn't quite enough to fight off anything massive, but it should keep us covered from any ground-based TIEs or heavy ground threats.

When the meeting was finally over, I had a much better grasp of what we were doing, what my team would be doing, and what everyone else would be doing. I also felt a lot better about the plan with the secondary fleet waiting in the wings to act as backup. General Draven left with his people as soon as it ended, but I leaned back in my chair, shaking my head.

"You know, he's a pain in my ass, too," Han said, watching the man leave. "It's almost like he thinks I'm untrustworthy."

"He really does see himself as the Rebellion's older brother, protecting it from their own naivety," Ahsoka said, shaking her head and looking at Hera. "I can't imagine he has good things to say about the Skyforged recently."

"He has voiced concerns," She admitted. "But you have enough friends to keep it from being an issue."

"So far," I said, voicing the unspoken addendum. "I can't imagine finding a handful of Jedi, and getting them to join me is helping that."

"Nor is the clan of Mandalorians," She pointed out.

"They have not technically joined us yet," I corrected her. "Clan Syr is enjoying our hospitality and will be paid according to an already settled amount for participating."

"Of course. Well, Sabine will certainly be surprised," the General admitted. "She has been reaching out to some of her old contacts for you but hasn't had much luck."

"Skyforged prefer to make their own luck," I responded with a smirk. "Speaking of, do you have access to the info on the grounded ships? I want to decide if we will actually be attempting to claim one or more."

"I do, just give me a moment…"

General Syndulla accessed the computer system in front of her, bringing up another projection, the holoprojector blinking as it turned back on. After a moment it displayed three ships, a pair of IPV-1's, and…

"They grounded an Arquitens?" I asked, looking at the General to confirm. "Their defense fleet only had three of them, and Moff Dowri grounded the third?"

"Well… according to what we know, the one he grounded was an older model," She explained, bringing up a close-up of the ship. "This one, in particular, fought in the Clone Wars. It's been heavily updated, and the Imps don't skimp on their Navy after all, but it's still technically inferior to the more advanced modern models."

"... I want it," I said simply after a long moment. "I want that ship almost as much as I want the metals."

"You think you could take it?" She asked, watching me eye the projection.

"I think… it depends on what sort of defenses they have around them and if they are kept ready to serve or not," I responded with a shrug. "It doesn't matter who I send to take it if it's not fueled or it's been stripped of parts."

"I doubt you have to worry about that last one," Han said, leaning on the desk and shaking his head. "Grounding a ship to save money on upkeep and staffing is one thing. He might get a slap on the wrist if he gets caught skimming the difference. Selling parts off of it, though? He'd be dead the second someone found out."

"Well, that's a good sign. Still, even if it's not ready, it's worth the attempt," I repeated. "I have Twenty commando droids, which we can back up with super battle droids. They do good work, so there's a solid chance this plays out… Actually, we should include a slicer droid in that group, I think we brought spares of them as well..."

General Syndulla chuckled before deactivating the computer and standing. She handed me a datapad with a smile.

"This contains all the information we have on our target," She explained. "Feel free to go over it more with the rest of your team. Well, the rest of your team, minus Ahsoka. I was hoping to talk to her for a moment."

I gave Ahsoka a look, who nodded with a small smile. I gave her a peck on the cheek before making my way out of the room, once we had all left, I turned to Han and Chewie.

"I want to head back to the Chariot to brief my team. You're both welcome to join us if you would like," I offered. "Nice chance to meet who you're working with…"

"... May as well," He said after sharing a look with Chewie. "You got anything to drink?"

"I'll see what I can do."