Bethan sat back in his chair and shook his head slowly as Kenel finished 
going over the information that the spies had given up after an "extensive" 
interrigation.  He didn't know how much Intel had really pushed to get the 
information out, but he knew that it always sounded better to say that they 
had been either thorough, or extensive.

Vender sat across the table from Bethan and was puffing on one of those 
cigars again.  The habit was not one that Bethan particularly liked, but 
there was more important things to argue about then Vender's habits.  Off 
to Bethan's right sat Corran, still not very concerned with what was going 
on, Face midtable on his right, and on Vender's right about the middle of 
the table stood Kenel.  The middle of the table was lit up as a hologram 
floated over it, showing the image of a planet and its satellites.

"So, it appears that the Imps are setting up something, a base perhaps or a 
mining operation maybe, around the moons of Morba.  We couldn't determine 
the size or strength of the operation, but it appears to be vital to their 
retaking the rest of the Cadrel Expanse."

"Thank you Kenel." Vender stated mildly as he continued to stare up at the 
holo in front of him.  "It's good placement for a base, not easy to get in 
with anything big to attack.So, what suggestions do you all have?"

Bethan sighed and sat up straight, then said, "I say we just write this 
whole thing off.  You know as well as I do how much this thing stinks of a 
trap."

Kenel half rose again as he replied, "Hey, those Imps weren't very 
forthcoming to give that info up.  It took a lot of work by my people to 
get that out of them."

"I'm sure it did Colonel" Bethan rebutted, "now sit back down."

Kenel frowned at the man, then turned to look at Vender, who was also 
nodding for him to sit back down.  As Kenel did so, Vender went on, "Well 
Colonel, please continue as to why we should just forget all of this and 
why it's a trap."

"Certainly.  The moons right now are coming into alignment, which means any 
ship in that area is caught in the extended gravity well.  Hyperspace 
traffic in the system has already begun to alter its courses to compensate.  
Now remember that this is in this system, Dia Pas, and given the amount of 
forces we keep here, setting up any permanent facilities would be far too 
risky, since traffic to the planet is not that immense."

"So" Face interrupted, "Sounds to me like a nice hiding ground."

"Exactly, but only for a short term period, like this alignment.  Once this 
alignment passes, the rotation of the moons would open up, exposing anything
as major as Kenel's spies are talking about.  A few ships though could hide 
there easily for now, and if anything new came in, would make a perfect 
ambush."

Face then said, "Thank you Mr Paranoia.  Still, the fact is that something 
IS most likely out there.  I say we just go in and take whatever it is out. 
With the IA here, we can outmaneuver them with ease, and use something else 
for support.  Forget cautious."

Bethan just threw his hands up and exhaled.  "Yep, there's the typical 
response from the typical fool."

"Hey, who you calling a fool?"

"Look, why do we even NEED him here?  We got other Frigates if that's the 
case, besides, he flies X-Wings."

"You prefer your tin cans buddy?  I'll whoop you in my ship every time."

"Two minutes against my Defender and I'll have you into so much space 
debris."

"ENOUGH!"  All eyes turned to Vender, who slammed a fist on the table to 
reiterate his demand.  "Both of you, bickering is not needed.  Now I have 
asked Face to bring in the Idiot's Array and Wildcard for support.  
Understood?"

"Yes General."

"Sure General."

"Now," Vender continued, is there anything ELSE we should consider?"

Corran then sat up and said, "Yeah, two quick things.  First, I'm with 
Bethan that this most likely isn't anything long term, but what could be 
there is a small taskforce waiting to hit us once we head off on some 
mission.  It wouldn't be hard for mobile units to stay hidden there and 
then come out once our ships take off.  The other possibility is that this 
is a trap, but meant to simply lure us away from our base here to 
investigate.  I think we need to look at both of those possibilities."

"Well put Corran."  Corran nodded in thanks to Vender, then sat back as 
Vender went on, "Ok, look, I think we all know the risk in this.  However, 
from the sound of it something is there, in system, and we need to know 
what.  So we're going in."

A moan came from Bethan as he slapped his head and shook it, but Vender 
ignored it and went on.  "We have the Prometheus along with the Idiots 
Array.  The rest of our escort and the Sentinel forces will stay here for 
now.  The Idiot's Array and the Prometheus should be able to handle 
whatever's out there.  Now, now that we know WHAT we'll do, let's figure 
out HOW we'll do it.  Bethan, you have any thoughts?"

--------------------------------------------------------

Bethan sighed as he stood at the podium in the briefing room, all the faces 
staring up at him.  He had wanted to get back to Aecreas after the meeting, 
but Vender had ordered that he give the briefing first since so much of 
this attack plan had been his.  The mission was suicide anyway, but at 
least now the chance of Retribution Fleet material was not as likely to be 
lost, although Face hadn't enjoyed the ideas too much.  Still, the 
retaliatory strike against the Imps that had attacked Aecreas had already 
been delayed three days by this, and the longer they waited the worse off 
they were.

"All right everyone, listen up, we've got a nice one for all of you here."

A holo of the Dia Pas system appeared, and immediately highlighted the 
mature, yellow-white Dia star.  "It's right here in our backyard."  As he 
said that, the holo zoomed in again to focus on Morba, the large gas giant 
whose moons and rings engulfed it.  "This, is Morba.  At the moment its 
twenty-two moons are going through an alignment, which means one bantha of 
a gravity well.  We believe that the Imps are using this to stage some sort 
of operation inside the moon area indicated around here.  We are therefore 
going in to take them out."

"Our 'good friends' over in the PBF have loaned us the Idiot's Array as 
well as Wildcard Squadron.  They will be leading the strike."

Moans came from the R2F pilots now.  The idea of losing kills to snubs was 
not something any of them enjoyed, but at least this came with a tradeoff.  
"Now now, I know what you're thinking, I know that the Idiot's Array is old 
and decrepid, moves like a rusted old tin can and is falling apart from the 
bulkheads.  Not like our new, state of the art and perfectly conditioned 
vessels, but it's still a handy ship, and the General wants them along."  
Laughs burst from the crowd, while boos and spitballs flew up from the 
Wildcard pilots.  Face meanwhile has a face that was ready to kill.  Good 
thing he would be leaving back for Aecreas soon.

"The Idiot's Array will enter the moons' gravity well through this route, 
sweeping by as fast as possible along with fighter escorts.  For this, we 
will be using our brights, and since we expect capital ships, you will be 
supplied with proton torpedoes."

"The Prometheus will sit out beyond the gravity well and wait until the 
Idiot's Array flushes out the enemy forces, and then move in if needed to 
engage.  Objective is as always to kill the Imps, but at worst get them to 
scatter, and away from this system.  Your final data coordinates will be 
provided to you once you're in your fighters.  Good luck everyone, and I 
hope to see you all after."

With that he turned and left the podium.  He hadto get out of there before 
any of those crazy WildCard pilots decided to pay him back for his 
comments.  Besides, given how the mission would place their vessel right in 
harm's way, they probably weren't too pleased with his strategy already.  
Oh well, he had more important things to deal with now, and so did they.