Loreley sat down, saying she would have whatever the two admirals were having, 'They are fine craft, but difficult to master. I haven't flown an X-Wing myself, but every encounter with one is a challenge. I don't imagine the rebels are staffed exclusively with fighter aces, so the craft must be easy to fly. Add to that the shields and R2 unit, and it's a very forgiving starfighter. A TIE/ln is not, any mistake and you are dust.' She paused for a second, 'One for one, an inexperienced rebel pilot can beat one of our decent ones, though a good pilot in a TIE will still win the engagement. Of course, we don't fly one on one and we can deploy a lot more TIEs than the rebels can X=Wings, but at that point it becomes a war of attrition. And with every good pilot we lose, the edge goes to the rebels.' She smirked a moment, 'Maybe we could capture a few X-Wings and set up a combat training programme against them for our pilots.'
DT-L30 tries to slice off the tip of their pikes as they attack. But then, since they were all bundled together, he decides to test out his flamethrower. Burning the group of assassins.
Dano is silent for several moments. "Okay. I'll agree to those terms. I have conditions, though. I'm retaining full control of the army. They'll carry out your orders, but those orders have to go through me. I'm not giving anyone my army, or my factory. All orders have to go through you. If Cyrus wants me to do something, he'll have to tell you, so you can give the order. Thirdly, the factory has been running on salvaged scrap for decades, now. I want regular shipments of high quality materials. Deal?"
"Those are all reasonable enough. I'll make some calls and get it all sorted out." This had actually went much better than she expected. They didn't need to kill him and while it might be difficult to run everything by him, he was tech savvy and would take good care of things. There was one thing that kind of bothered her however... "Perhaps this isn't the ideal time to bring this up again, but if we have all this settled...there is something that concerns me. Namely, the fact that being mostly isolated for so long may leave you vulnerable to the wrong kind of attention....I can think of a solution...but I will need to run it by Cyrus first."
The secretary brings her some pleasant smelling tea. Zenobia nods. "This has been my experience as well. We rely too heavily on the main guns of our capital ships, and lose good pilots for no reason. I'm biased, having been a fighter pilot like you, but the loss of life seems insane to me." Thrawn makes a gesture of aggreement. "It is no longer acceptable for the enemy to gain fighter superiority. X and Y-Wings are simply capable of doing to much damage. So, we've developed a solution." Zenobia presses a few buttons, and a hologram appears, displaying a bizarre looking fighter. Zenobia gestures to it. "Meet the TIE Defender. Faster than a Y-Wing, better armed and shielded than an X-Wing. If we mass produce these and give them to our pilots, we will win most fighter engagements. Unfortunately, they're expensive, and the Emperor is pouring money into a special project headed by Grand Moff Tarkin. Naturally, we can't tell you the specifics, but Vice Admiral Thrawn and I have both determined that it's a waste of money, compared to the Defender project. A prototype is being shown to military high command next week, who will then report to the Emperor, for him to allocate funds. We need to delay him to take some money out of Tarkin's project, to build defenders." He looks directly into her eyes. "We need someone with the piloting skills to truly impress everyone involved, to show them that the Defender is a project that, without a doubt, is needed. The trial will be difficult, extremely so. It's not impossible that you could die, but success would mean saving the lives of thousands of pilots. Do you think that you can do this task?"
They back away, but the burst of flame juts out further than DT or his assailants expected. Two are incinerated, their robes catching fire like a candle, the other leaping away and patting his out. He retreats, heading back into the darkness as the smell of his friend's sizzling flesh enters DT's nostrils. Xarrina raises her eyebrows. "You have a flamethrower?"
She gives a half smile. “The problem is, you need to adjust to getting used to female attention...” She smiled to herself at the absurdity, but the issue would be very real if anyone could just bend over his desk and show off their cleavage to get him to do what they want. “...you are going to take me on a date.”
'TIE Defender?' Loreley raised an eyebrow, 'It looks unique, I hope it lives up to our expectations.' She smiled, 'Let me guess, Tarkin wants to build even bigger Star Destroyers?' 'Of course, Grand Admiral, I never expected being a test pilot would be easy,' Loreley said, 'I can do this. I will bring the piloting skills you seek.'
Paz draws his Pistols and goes in a Combat Stance. He signals everyone to take position behind cover. "Who is there? Show Yourself..."
Zenobia sighs. "I wouldn't mind more Star Destroyers. No, what's planned is a hundred times worse. Well, Vice Admiral, do you approve?" Thrawn nods, standing. "I look forwards to seeing what you can do, Commander. Grand Admiral." He nods politely and leaves. Zenobia moves away from the desk. "What do you think of our Vice Admiral?"
“Think of it as practice for your Twilek friend. We won’t go that far...you’ll have to figure the rest out on your own from there, but learning how to even start with a woman, wouldn’t be bad, no? It will be a problem if any pretty face is able to win you over. This is more important than you think...I’ll cover expenses and find someplace nice for us to get to know each other....we never did talk about those droids like we planned. At any rate, I doubt Cyrus will be amused with the idea, but I see this is as necessary for survival. Besides, if I’m to be your new boss, you should be comfortable with me if we’re going to work effectively together.”
He nods. "Alright. Let's do it. If it's annoying to Cyrus, then I don't have a problem with it." He smiles nervously.
"Yeah, my mechanic is a hell of a guy." DT-L30 shrugs as the smell of burning flesh waft toward his nose, "Uck, apparently it's very effective."
“Then shall we away to the ship, my love?” She was joking, of course. In her younger years or really even a few months ago before she met Cyrus, she might have saw something happening...but now the chance was gone. She made some urging for him to deck out security while they’d be away, and left him on his own for a bit as she brought up the holo in private to debrief. “It will be a problem if someone the war hinges on can easily be converted to someone else’s side. It won’t get crazy...but I have something of a work around for that...tell Mari to wear something nice and meet us when we dock.”
Cyrus can't help but chuckle. You have the weirdest ideas, but if it works, it works. All right. I'll have your little friend over to meet you when you land."
“If it helps this time I’m...at least sixty to seventy percent sure about this. He’s cute..but I’m not so easily won over either. I mean..I can look, but I’m not touching. I’m not sure what you want to do. Last time we talked about this, we weren’t really serious yet. I figure if he does well enough to get anywhere, Mari can take one for the team. I’m sure she won’t mind...I’ll just make her come crawling back to us anyway.”
