notallofus | Thrawn-is-a-Rebel-AU

Hera doesn't look up from the Phantom's controls.

"We've seen what this crew have been doing out here. They're no friends of the Empire."

She pauses, making a mental note of the system readings. "And if it were a trap, I'm not sure how keeping the rest of you at easy jumping distance figures in to that."

Because they know we're stupid, Hera, and at least half of our crew would try to run in after you and then glare daggers at me when I didn't.

Kanan does not say that out loud because they both already know that.

"They're wily and clever. I don't trust wily and clever."

He exhales.

"Except when I have to."

Dammit.

Edited 2017-05-09 17:38 (UTC)

She sighs. "Kanan, they know they could just as easily be walking into a trap. The request makes sense, and this is only going to work if we both show some trust in one another."

Kanan mutters something in very uncomplimentary Twi'leki.

Hera has only herself to blame.

"I know that. I do. That doesn't mean I have to like it. Are you sure we can't even send Chopper?"

This is a terrible argument, just terrible. Kanan is making it anyway.

Edited 2017-05-09 17:47 (UTC)

"Yeah, I'm sure Chop would make a great first impression."

Hera rises from the pilot's chair, still watching the controls. "In any case, I need him here on the Ghost in case we do need to make a quick getaway."

Finally, she turns to him, smiling as she approaches. "And dear -"

She puts her hand on his arm. "I need you to get off my shuttle so I can leave."

Kanan scowls, even as his arm relaxes under her touch, and a few seconds later he stands.

"All right, all right. But I'm warning you, if anyone puts one foot wrong . . . "

Yeah, yeah. He's being ridiculous.

"Be safe."

"I will."

She leans up, and kisses his cheek.

"Look after the others."

Is his voice rougher than usual when he speaks?

"I will. We'll be fine. Promise."

Maybe.

(He waits until he's back in the belly of the Ghost and no one is around before he reaches up to touch his cheek. That just . . . oh.)

Edited 2017-05-09 18:21 (UTC)

Hera takes a deep breath, before returning to the pilot's chair and initializing her launch. On the comm, she signals Sabine.

"Spectre-5, 1 is on the Ghost. Have Chop keep our position and I'll signal when I'm on my way back."

"You got it. Good luck, Spectre-2."

With that, Hera lifts the shuttle gently from the Ghost, and begins her descent toward the moon. From this distance, the moon appears bright green, and as she winds closer to the moon's surface, she can see the enormous forests that seem to blanket every landmass.

The coordinates they'd agreed on are in the northeastern quadrant of the moon, and as she gets closer, another ship appears on her scanners. It's the only sign of technology anywhere nearby, and she reaches the designated area, she sees a clearing among the trees, where another shuttle has already landed.

Edited 2017-05-09 18:34 (UTC)

During the touchdown process for her shuttle, Hera will find that the person she came to meet has disembarked from his own shuttle, blue skin and red eyes standing out very effectively from the surrounding greenery.

He has a very upright posture, the kind that comes unconsciously for those that have been subsumed into military life.

One concession to the complexity of their arrangements is that he lowers his hands from behind his back and carefully keeps them open-palmed at his side, waiting for Hera's approach.

His expression is polite and attentive, but his eyes are watchful.

"Captain Syndulla, yes?"

Edited 2017-05-09 18:42 (UTC)

She nods. "Captain Thrawn?"

Hera doesn't recognize his species, and isn't sure if he'll expect her to do anything else in greeting. As it is, she just keeps her hands at her sides.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet me."

Thrawn inclines his head, mouth stretching in the very faintest of smiles.

"I thank you for agreeing to my request for limited personnel at this meeting. It is much appreciated."

Her own expression remains neutral, maintaining his gaze, though something about his eyes makes her feel as though she were under a microscope. It's slightly unsettling.

"I can understand why you want discretion. But I hope this starts to show that you can trust us."

"It is a beginning, certainly. But trust between comrades in battle must be reciprocal, must it not, Captain Syndulla? And I am not yet certain what your rebellion might require in order to trust me."

Trust is the key. And in order to be put in position to use his talents to their fullest, there must be trust extended across the entire web of this rebellion. And web it must be, or the Empire would have already found them out and left only ruin in its wake.

"Our cells share information and resources. Sometimes we run ops for one another."

She finally does shift her stance, folding her arms.

"That's how we'll be starting."

"And you will be the tactician in charge of operations?"

If so, that will be interesting. And instructive. On many fronts.

"Our hierarchy isn't exactly that... defined."

She's unsure if she senses hesitancy or reluctance on Thrawn's part, but decides not to try to push on that, for now.

"I'll be running point on this, but you know this area better than I do."

"Hmm."

There are calculations and weighing of intent going on behind Thrawn's eyes, and he makes little attempt to hide that he is thinking, though the thought process as passed through a Chiss demeanor is unlikely to be clear.

"That is an acceptable state of affairs. I am more used to hierarchy, but a warrior must be adaptable."

"We really can't operate like a traditional military."

Not yet, in any case. "So we make do with what we have."

Edited 2017-05-10 04:17 (UTC)

"There are advantages. From my observations, most Imperial commanders have a very limited tactical repertoire, and they tend to be slow to respond to changes in the field of battle. Particularly when such changes are not laid out in some sort of manual."

The size of their forces it what keeps the engagements challenging, on the whole. So far.

"The Empire doesn't really value independent thinking."

It doesn't help that so many rebel recruits are Imperial defectors, giving them even more knowledge of the Empire's protocols and tactics, but Hera isn't ready to share this quite yet.

"How fortunate that the rebels do."

His mouth flattens just a hair.

"I find it much to my liking."

"Your group's work certainly speaks for itself."

And then some, really.

"It took some little doing, speaking of the inflexibility of the Empire. But they're coming along well."

One must always promote and acknowledge one's staff and dependents, when they have done their jobs.

"Well, if they're up to it..."

Hera unfolds her arms, and reaches down to her belt, pulling out a data card.

"There's an Imperial target we've been asked to look into. The Thrugii Asteroid Belt in the Sorocco system."

"Ah," says Thrawn, shortly after Hera finishes. "The doonium. I see."

Hmm. Not surprising at all,

"Shall you be more comfortable if we look at the data in your shuttle, or mine?"

"That's right."

Hera takes a moment to answer, not looking hesitant, but like she's simply thinking it over.

"If you're offering, I'll be fine looking at it in your shuttle."

He inclines his head, turning and opening up his shuttle for them both to enter.

(Thrawn has no problem with Hera at his back, and this, too, is perhaps meant as a gesture to build trust between them.)

"I can promise not to try to leave this moon with you inside the shuttle. My piloting skills are not so good that I'd care to have your judgment on them."

Serviceable for going from ship to ground, but nothing particularly skillful. Alas.

"I wasn't worried about it."

His isn't the first stranger's ship she's climbed into. Hera hands the data card off to Thrawn, as she openly examines his shuttle, and its interior.

It's spartan, but not spare. There are a few pieces of visual art on walls and surfaces, some holographic representations of sculptures spinning slowly in place. None of them are from the same world, or have the same species as an artist. None on display are from a Twi'lek, though there is Nemoidian and Wookie art in amongst the mix.

"I'm glad," he says, gesturing at the displays as he bends to put the data card into a reader.

"You'll notice, I expect, that I have some fondness for art."

"I did notice," she says, her eyes lingering on a Wookiee totem.

"You'd get along well with one of our crew."

"Only the one?"

It's not amusement in his voice, it's pure curiosity. Such evaluations are a useful way to find out how another person's mind works.

"Ah, here we are."

Thrawn steps back from the reader to make room for Hera, as several maps and a few other documents and plans pop up onto a not-ungenerous display.

Hera's not sure how to answer that, but once the display turns on, it's also not important to her anymore. She moves away from the artwork, to step next to him.

"All right. You sent us intel that the Empire is getting its hands on shipbuilding metals, especially doonium, as much and as fast as it can. We've seen something similar on Lothal - we know a line of doonium was discovered there relatively recently, and that since then Imperial activity has increased dramatically. But security's tight at the mines, and there are plenty of hyperspace lanes off Lothal, so we've had trouble finding an in or a way to track their shipments. But -"

Hera taps the controls, bringing forward a holographic image of a section of the Thrugii Asteroid Belt. "We've found another facility here."

Thrawn nods, hands clasped behind his back and stance gone military again.

"Fewer hyperspace lanes, fewer witnesses and overt threats . . . I see."

He half-turns to look at Captain Syndulla.

"Who do they have working in the mines?"

Hera lets out a breath.

"Slaves." The distaste in her voice is palpable.

"Which means they never leave."

"And perhaps their guards might grow lax, thinking their spirits broken."

Thrawn frowns, exhaling after a moment.

"Do you -- "

He stops himself.

" -- rather, do we have anyone on the inside? Or will that be part of the mission plan, as well?"

She shakes her head. "Right now we only have what we've observed from the outside.

"Our goals are to track their shipment hyperspace trajectories, sabotage the operations, free the workers, and take anything we can use for ourselves."

It's by all means a tall order.

"Hmm."

He moves one hand to rest his forefinger across his lips, thinking.

"I have in my possession two -- let us call them refurbished -- buzz droids of the Mark One variety. They may prove useful for sabotage and our subsequent escape."

They may prove useful for other things, too, but one cannot adequately plan for battle if one does not know what resources are available. And so.

"Really?"

Hera doesn't try to hide her surprise. "I haven't heard of those turning up since my father took down the Perilous."

She turns back to the display. "All right. I think my ship can get into the system unnoticed, the asteroid belt can provide ample cover. We can investigate the best way to get someone inside - I'm guessing it would be easier to infiltrate the Imperials, they already seem to have their guard down."

"It can be very surprising, the things pirates have stashed away when they don't know any better."

Surprisingly useful, too. Thrawn enjoys being well-read.

"I do have two humans on my crew. One is both a demolitionist and a fair pilot, which may be useful in the exfiltration portion of events."

"I have three. One's an explosives expert, she and another have experience infiltrating Imperial complexes."

Hera takes a breath before she continues. She knows the Loth-cat is out of the bag on this, but it still feels strange to so easily acknowledge this out loud.

"And two of them are Jedi."

Jedi, is it?

There's a sense of dominoes falling -- or there would be, if the Chiss Ascendancy had anything like dominoes -- as several mission successes and methods attributed to the Ghost's crew begin to make more sense.

Oh, how very clever.

"Well-trained, I presume? Your Jedi. But not, perhaps, well known enough that every Imperial soldier is expected to know their faces."

One can hope.

Hera bites her lip. "One might be too well-known by now."

Kanan was just recently a prisoner of Grand Moff Tarkin, it might be hoping too much that his face wasn't transmitted across the Empire.

"But the other can probably still get by."

"It will be a risk, but one, I think, well worth taking, should the layout of the mining facility be the type which one might expect."

There is a certain way for mines to be built, so it's not a huge gamble.

"As for hyperspace monitoring, there are several positions that should have the widest fields of view, and also sufficient places to hide sensor beacons."

She nods, pressing the control panel again. Several points on the image of the asteroid bet are highlighted.

"These were the best options I saw."

"Hmm."

Thrawn shifts forward onto the balls of his feet, just a fraction.

Then he reaches out to point toward one particular point on the image.

"I imagine my engineer will feel most confident and least nervous in that relatively sheltered spot -- and thus her observational skills will be at their height. If that's acceptable to you, of course, for where my ship ought to be stationed."

"That should work," she agrees.

"But this might be a good time to bring in our crews."

"A wise idea."

Credit where credit is due.

"And as we have a second shuttle, I'll send out the summons now."

Neutral ground -- and some open space -- is probably still a good idea. Thrawn knows his own crew can be fractious, and they are still sub-standard, at times, in holding up under tension when no action is forthcoming.

So.

Thrawn-is-a-Rebel-AU

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