[X] Vaere hasn't burned her contacts across the Empire, in fact she's expanded them to a degree, and they're willing to help Vaere out where they can.
[X] Vaere gets lucky and manages to dislodge more information on exactly what The Contingency and Admiral Rax are up to. Something involving an "Operation: Cinder"?
My thinking is that if she gets wind of Operation: Cinder and has a solid network within the Empire she could do a lot to get the word out about it and minimise the damage. It would certainly help her reputation and would most likely be the thing that tips her over the edge.
[X] Vaere gets lucky and manages to dislodge more information on exactly what The Contingency and Admiral Rax are up to. Something involving an "Operation: Cinder"?
[X] Vaere hasn't burned her contacts across the Empire, in fact she's expanded them to a degree, and they're willing to help Vaere out where they can.
[X] Vaere gets lucky and manages to dislodge more information on exactly what The Contingency and Admiral Rax are up to. Something involving an "Operation: Cinder"?
[X] Vaere hasn't burned her contacts across the Empire, in fact she's expanded them to a degree, and they're willing to help Vaere out where they can.
[X] Vaere gets lucky and manages to dislodge more information on exactly what The Contingency and Admiral Rax are up to. Something involving an "Operation: Cinder"?
[X] Vaere hasn't burned her contacts across the Empire, in fact she's expanded them to a degree, and they're willing to help Vaere out where they can.
[X] Vaere gets lucky and manages to dislodge more information on exactly what The Contingency and Admiral Rax are up to. Something involving an "Operation: Cinder"?
Considering we now know were these "orders" came from we can just ignore the Spook that thinks he can tell the Navy how to do its job and make friends with the non-idiots that don't want to start burning planets for old Palpy. We should take the expanded group of contacts because that will get us more info in all fields. We should also figure out who tried to kill us because I think anther attempt is coming and we need to see it coming.
[X] Vaere hasn't burned her contacts across the Empire, in fact she's expanded them to a degree, and they're willing to help Vaere out where they can.
[X] During her little jaunt through the bowels of the Imperial rumour mill, Vaere managed to uncover information directly relevant to her.
[X] Vaere hasn't burned her contacts across the Empire, in fact she's expanded them to a degree, and they're willing to help Vaere out where they can.
[X] Vaere gets lucky and manages to dislodge more information on exactly what The Contingency and Admiral Rax are up to. Something involving an "Operation: Cinder"?
We are not going to take part in Operation "Cinder" and we are not a target of it so I really don't see the point of finding out about the fact that Gallus Rax is so loyal to Palpy personally that he is willing to start burning worlds Loyal to the idea to of what the Empire is that Palapatine sold people on and tricked them with. Even people like Isard would think his actions are madness so he will get little support once he starts. We on the other hand don't know who wants our PC dead and since it sounds like we have anther attempt coming we should figure out who ordered the attack.
[X] Vaere hasn't burned her contacts across the Empire, in fact she's expanded them to a degree, and they're willing to help Vaere out where they can.
[X] Vaere gets lucky and manages to dislodge more information on exactly what The Contingency and Admiral Rax are up to. Something involving an "Operation: Cinder"?
Scheduled vote count started by AKuz on Jul 19, 2021 at 1:12 AM, finished with 54 posts and 46 votes.
[X] Vaere hasn't burned her contacts across the Empire, in fact she's expanded them to a degree, and they're willing to help Vaere out where they can.
[X] Vaere gets lucky and manages to dislodge more information on exactly what The Contingency and Admiral Rax are up to. Something involving an "Operation: Cinder"?
[X] Vaere hasn't burned her contacts across the Empire, in fact she's expanded them to a degree, and they're willing to help Vaere out where they can.
[X] During her little jaunt through the bowels of the Imperial rumour mill, Vaere managed to uncover information directly relevant to her.
[X] In the absence of any other orders some of the Imperial Navy detachments operating along the Commenor Run have decided to officially throw their lot in with Admiral Vaere and the First Bormea Supremacy Squadron.
[X] Vaere hasn't burned her contacts across the Empire, in fact she's expanded them to a degree, and they're willing to help Vaere out where they can.
[X] Vaere gets lucky and manages to dislodge more information on exactly what The Contingency and Admiral Rax are up to. Something involving an "Operation: Cinder"?
[X] During her little jaunt through the bowels of the Imperial rumour mill, Vaere managed to uncover information directly relevant to her.
[X] In the absence of any other orders some of the Imperial Navy detachments operating along the Commenor Run have decided to officially throw their lot in with Admiral Vaere and the First Bormea Supremacy Squadron.
[X] Vaere gets lucky and manages to dislodge more information on exactly what The Contingency and Admiral Rax are up to. Something involving an "Operation: Cinder"?
[X] Vaere gets lucky and manages to dislodge more information on exactly what The Contingency and Admiral Rax are up to. Something involving an "Operation: Cinder"?
[X] Vaere hasn't burned her contacts across the Empire, in fact she's expanded them to a degree, and they're willing to help Vaere out where they can.
[X] During her fruitless searching and calling in contacts Shara did manage to find a great deal of information on what exactly is going on across the galaxy.
[X] In the absence of any other orders some of the Imperial Navy detachments operating along the Commenor Run have decided to officially throw their lot in with Admiral Vaere and the First Bormea Supremacy Squadron.
[X] Vaere hasn't burned her contacts across the Empire, in fact she's expanded them to a degree, and they're willing to help Vaere out where they can.
[X] Vaere gets lucky and manages to dislodge more information on exactly what The Contingency and Admiral Rax are up to. Something involving an "Operation: Cinder"?
[x] Someone doesn't appreciate Vaere's curiosity and independence.
Chaos X
108 Days after the Battle of Endor
Chandrila System, Bormea Sector
Sector Governor Jannie Ha'nook was an ancient also-ran.
A Palpatine loyalist from the days of the Clone Wars whose influence ended with the dissolution of the Imperial Senate, Jannie Ha'nook should have been enjoying an ill-gotten retirement on her homeworld of Glithnos, instead of becoming the apparent commander of entire Imperial fleets.
Vaere was baffled to learn that the former Senator was still relevant in this day and age, nevermind that the woman being the apparent ruler of a pocket empire that spanned the Hydian Way from Fedalle to Skako. With designs on the Brentaal system as well.
Considering that Vaere had sort of de facto added Brentaal to First Bormea's operational area when patrolling the Commenor Run, this had suddenly become a problem.
Shara's contacts swore in good faith that Ha'nook considered herself loyal to the Imperial Ruling Council, her burgeoning military control over fleets close to the core their ace in the hole in the IRC's endless maneuvering against Imperial Intelligence Director Ysane Isard and Imperial Regent Sate Pestage.
Vaere was reliably informed Ha'nook apparently harboured a smoldering hatred for the Director of Imperial Intelligence, who Jannie blamed for the death of Armand Isard, Ysane's father and Ha'nook's one time friend and colleague. Which would explain why she was assembling an independent military force on Isard's doorstep.
Though other contacts claimed that it was a simple impersonal matter of the two belonging to different cliques of the new post-Endor government.
Either way, solid reporting said that Ha'nook's "Hydian Provisional Oversector" was expanding in Vaere's direction with the apparent intent of issuing the Imperial Admiral an ultimatum to surrender herself into Ha'nook's custody and turn command of the First Bormea Supremacy Squadron -and the territory she de facto controlled- over to one of Ha'nook's handpicked cronies. Whereupon Ha'nook's empire would grow and Vaere herself would almost certainly end up shot for treason.
Because apparently a majority faction of a Cabal made up of members of the Imperial Ruling Council didn't look favourably on Vaere's actions since Endor.
If Shara's fourth cousin (Demor's boy) was to be believed there were Army partisans in the Cabal who wanted her dead for Thiromer's death -the Navy partisans having already had enough black eyes from the wave of Navy Warlords like Zsinj and Harrsk to fight for a woman who had started acting worryingly independent of Imperial Center.
The Admiral can't figure out if the assassination attempt on her life had been a consequence of the Imperial Ruling Council's hatred for her, but it was a good bet that it was at least tangentially related.
In any event Admiral Vaere is assured that the Cabal is intent on securing the Brentaal system, a system that Vaere had taken de facto control of while dispatching anti-piracy forces down the Commenor run.
The brother in law of one of Vaere's exes informed her that a possibly First Bormea Supremacy Fleet sized Naval force under the command of one of Ha'nook's subordinates, Admiral Lon Isoto (Incompetant, lecherous, and loyal to power), was even now preparing an operation to storm down the Hydian way from Skako.
An attack that should come two months from now.
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As Vaere begins to prepare for Ha'nook's ultimatum by securing her supply depots, reinforcing the loyalty of her subordinates, preparing her crews to fight a washed up senator-turned-warlord, and setting some of her people to tail Narr and determine his involvement in the attempt to kill her, something else appears on her radar.
At first it seems to be a minor matter compared to the reality of the chaos approaching the Bormea sector, but the more Vaere pulls at the thread that is Admiral Rax and "Operation: Cinder" the more ominous the details become.
Orders issued in secret to hundreds of flag officers, Imperial Security Bureau agents disappearing, secret equipment transfers like the material she'd handed over to Admiral Versio, confusing fleet movements, vanishing fleets, the conference on Akiva in the outer rim that had been crashed by a New Republic fleet.
A superweapon? A coup? Or something else altogether.
All these pieces belonged together, part of a single puzzle. A single vast shadow that stretched across the galaxy in just such a way that Vare could not tell who was casting it, though it was certainly not the work of a non-entity like Gallius Rax.
Eventually Vaere reached enough dead ends that she decided that she had more immediate issues, such as the fact that one of the dead Emperor's old cronies was planning on arresting and killing her.
Or she had put that worry aside until one of her contacts passed on a message from a navy contact aboard the Raider-class Corvette Corvus, the personal command of Admiral Versio's daughter, Iden, which was currently transiting from Fondor to Vardos.
To the best of Vaere's knowledge Corvus, (which also served as the mobile command center for a special operations unit known as "Inferno Squadron") Commander Iden Versio, Inferno Squadron, and Corvus' current cargo were apparently key components in Operation: Cinder which was key to the "Contingency".
Corvus and Versio were the cryptography key to making the entire puzzle make sense.
But Vaere didn't know if she could spare the forces necessary to track down Corvus and… Ensure that her crew divulged their knowledge of what exactly Operation Cinder and the Contingency was.
Though it does occur to Vaere that Seles' Strike Wing would be the perfect fit for this operation…
There is so much to do and so much to fear. A woman from a lesser tradition would have surely collapsed into quivering fear by now.
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You're entering the climax of this arc, with the direct goal of not getting killed by the Imperial Ruling Council for the crime of being too much trouble to put up with, but not important enough to cut a deal with. You will have to survive the upcoming battle for control of the Brental System. (It literally does not occur to Vaere that abandoning her post or her command is an option)
The following vote will be the last round of [Fleet], and [Vaere] type votes until the Brentaal section is complete because I long for the sweet release of writing space battles and cannot delay much longer .
Thanks to your advanced warning, you will have the option to plan your response to Oversector Governor Ha'nook's attack ahead of time with a [Plan] instead of being blindsided and scrambling to respond.
(Though you also triggered a surprisingly quick climax by pissing off the Imperial Ruling Council and especially the Army Clique and moving forward A showdown at Brentaal. I'd expected not to have Vaere in a shooting war for a few months yet. Good job!)
How will Admiral Shara Vaere be spending what time she has before the showdown with Admiral Isoto and the forces of the Hydian Provisional Oversector?
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[x] [Vaere] The Admiral will be attending one of Governor's Weizel's innumerable fetes
The prospect of being hanged has done wonders to focus Admiral Vaere on the tasks at hand. Which means that Vaere has not had time for personal projects when she could instead be preparing her fleet for battle.
Unfortunately Shara's single minded focus has put her at risk of pushing herself to the verge of a breakdown. Thankfully her good friend Governor Weizel has all but forced her to into taking time for herself to prevent collapse from overwork.
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Vote for TWO [Fleet] Actions
[ ] [Fleet] Admiral Vaere will initiate a fleet exercise.
It has been years since all of the 1st Bormea Superiority Fleet has been stationed in one place with free time.
Vaere would like to take a few weeks to actually see what her people are capable of so that when the fighting finally begins there will be no surprises and her people know what she expects of them.
The fleet might not have an enemy close to hand, but that is no excuse for idleness.
It will take several weeks for the exercises to complete, but once they have their operational effectiveness and coordination will be much improved.
[ ] [Fleet] The First Bormea will be dispatching forces to secure Ganthel.
Having proved her bonafides to Governor Weizer, he has passed along a request from Ganthel which he was formerly Governor of before just after Yavin.
Ganthel, an industrial system in the Bormea sector suffering from raids by a pirate band named "The Loyal Ghosts of the Kotaska", who have taken advantage of the chaos following Endor to intensify operations against loyal Imperial citizens in Ganthel and the Systems surrounding it.
Ganthel lies off the Hydian Way and with its many docks and shipyards would make an excellent staging area to respond to attacks coming down the Hydian way from Ha'nook's "Provisional Oversector" as well as providing better intelligence on what is stationed in the area.
[ ] [Fleet] Admiral Vaere will be personally touring the fleet and conducting inspections.
In these times of crisis the fleet needs to see that the Admiral is on their side and taking their concerns seriously, and Admiral Vaere needs to know that they're on her side.
While it's mainly a morale thing, Vaere also wants to ensure that none of her squadron or force commanders are questioning her judgement or are planning to get squirrely on her. It would also be an opportunity to take stock of the fleet's material position in a personal manner and force underperforming units to at least pretend to be functional.
It will likely take several weeks to complete this tour of the fleet and get them in order for the upcoming conflict. Having a fresh cadre of enthusiastic and loyal Chandrillan officers from Brionelle ready to fill gaps will certainly make this easier to accomplish.
[ ] [Fleet] Admiral Vaere will ensure that the fleet is loyal to the ideals of the Navy
Admiral Vaere promised her people that they would strive to preserve the best ideals of the Navy come black of void or blood red of battle. The First Bormea will persevere in the face of opportunistic cabals of politicians and corrupt Admirals. Whatever the Empire and the Republic stood for before now, it was certainly not not warlordism and political games.
The First Bormea squadron's officers and crew will learn all about the corruption festering on Imperial Center and its attempts to tarnish the purity of the Navy's ideals and the Emperor's legacy of peace and order.
Anyone suspected of loyalties to the corrupt IRC Cabal on Imperial Center will be purged from the fleet and replaced with men and women of higher character. Having a fresh cadre of enthusiastic and loyal Chandrillan officers from Brionelle ready to fill gaps will certainly make this easier to accomplish.
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Please vote for TWO [Strike] Options
[ ] [Strike] Dispatch Seles to secure Corvus
Vaere wants to know what Operation: Cinder and the Contingency actually are. She knows enough to be deeply concerned about the scope of it, but not enough to be prepared for it. Whatever it is.
The perfect mission for Seles' new unit, this operation will involve her TIE Hunters escorting a boarding unit of Naval Infantry to a friendly chat with Corvus and her crew.
The Vice-Admiral promises to attempt to secure Corvus without violence, but she cannot guarantee anything.
This action will complete this narrative chain
[ ] [Strike] Dispatch Strike Wing to conduct raids against Hydian Oversector forces
If it's war this warlord wants, it is war she and her politician cronies shall have.
Strike Wing will begin conducting hit and fade operations against targets identified by Vaere's contacts in an attempt to slow down the Oversector's mobilization and disrupt their supply lines before the conflict even starts.
Seles is confident that she can accomplish this mission with minimal friendly losses.
[ ] [Strike] Dispatch Strike Wing to conduct reconnaissance of Hydian Oversector force
Even with her contacts Admiral Vaere has only a loose picture of what exactly the Hydian Provisional Oversector is preparing to throw at her. Her contacts believe that a roughly equivalent force to the First Bormea has been assembled and is even now being prepared to "secure" Brentaal, but have few details beyond that.
Vice-Admiral Seles is certain that her Strike Wing will easily be able to gather information on the movements and composition of the Hydian Oversector's forces.
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Please vote for ONE [Plan] Option
[ ] [Plan] Operation Blue Sky
Ancient wisdom is that the best defence is a good offence.
With that in mind, Vaere and her staff will draw up plans for a spoiling attack from a staging ground near the Hydian way that will strike Admiral Isoto's fleet gathering at Skako.
For maximum effectiveness, it is critically important that Blue Sky has good intelligence and coordination to pull this off.
If Blue Sky goes wrong, her fleet will be out of position and on the enemy's home ground.
[ ] [Plan] Operation Red Soil
Vaere knows pitched battles, and is confident in the ability of her fleet of heavy warships to survive close combat.
Under Red Soil, Vaere will attempt to lure Admiral Isoto into a set piece battle at Brentaal where she can defeat him in detail
There will be casualties, but Vaere is confident that she can take the First Bormea as is into this battle and emerge victorious. No fancy maneuvers necessary, just bravery.
To successfully pull off Red Soil, Vaere would prefer a fleet that is unshakably loyal under fire.
Win or lose in Brentaal, Vaere's fleet will be taking losses.
[ ] [Plan] Operation Black Fire
If Vaere has advanced warning about Admiral Isoto's attack, why not use that to its full effect?
Lure Isoto into an Ambush, isolate him from his supply lines, then hammer him in a running battle to break the wills of him and his people while her fleets have the advantage of interior lines of communication and intact logistical chains.
To pull off Black Fire Vaere believes that her fleet should be used to coordination, and that Isoto's supply lines are being put under pressure. Having additional vectors of attack would also help.
Vaere does run the risk of overcommitting to a too clever by half plan and being defeated in detail by Isoto's forces instead of wearing him down.
A/N said:
I could probably have written this up in a more engaging way, but eh. I wanted to get this done because I feel like work fatigue has made me drag out updates too much already. And I'm impatient to get to the Good Stuff ™️ instead of waiting a day or two to really work out a proper update.
Part of me feels like I moved the "Shooting at other Imperials" thing up too soon, but this is about the same time that the Empire really starts melting down into mutual shooting matches once the shock of Endor wears off.
Anyone suspected of loyalties to the corrupt IRC Cabal on Imperial Center will be purged from the fleet and replaced with men and women of higher character. Having a fresh cadre of enthusiastic and loyal Chandrillan officers from Brionelle ready to fill gaps will certainly make this easier to accomplish.
[X] [Fleet] Admiral Vaere will initiate a fleet exercise.
[X] [Fleet] Admiral Vaere will ensure that the fleet is loyal to the ideals of the Navy
[X] [Strike] Dispatch Strike Wing to conduct raids against Hydian Oversector forces
[X] [Strike] Dispatch Strike Wing to conduct reconnaissance of Hydian Oversector force
Sooo, that fleet exercise we've been putting off for months, eh.
[X] [Fleet] Admiral Vaere will initiate a fleet exercise.
[] [Fleet] Admiral Vaere will ensure that the fleet is loyal to the ideals of the Navy
[X] [Fleet] Admiral Vaere will be personally touring the fleet and conducting inspections.
[] [Strike] Dispatch Strike Wing to conduct raids against Hydian Oversector forces
[X] [Strike] Dispatch Strike Wing to conduct reconnaissance of Hydian Oversector force
[X] [Plan] Operation Blue Sky
Edit: Now I'm not sure. Would conducting raids against their forces put them on alert for the Blue Sky counteroffensive?
I don't think Varae should feed her fleet into a Red Sky grinder to support her... lack of perception of the opportunity to just... leave.
Doing Black probably needs us to take Ganthael Ganthel lies off the Hydian Way and with its many docks and shipyards would make an excellent staging area to respond to attacks coming down the Hydian way from Ha'nook's "Provisional Oversector" as well as providing better intelligence on what is stationed in the area.
Starry bright eyed graduates in place might be the best option for having some of the surviving forces (if we win) also defect with Varae.
[X] [Fleet] Admiral Vaere will initiate a fleet exercise.
[X] [Fleet] The First Bormea will be dispatching forces to secure Ganthel.
[X] [Strike] Dispatch Strike Wing to conduct raids against Hydian Oversector forces
[X] [Strike] Dispatch Strike Wing to conduct reconnaissance of Hydian Oversector force
[X] [Fleet] Admiral Vaere will initiate a fleet exercise.
[X] [Fleet] The First Bormea will be dispatching forces to secure Ganthel.
[X] [Strike] Dispatch Strike Wing to conduct raids against Hydian Oversector forces
[X] [Strike] Dispatch Strike Wing to conduct reconnaissance of Hydian Oversector force
