Saga Diary of a Matchmaker General--Update 9/9

Entry 1

On Alderaan, we celebrate the New Year by letting a candle burn at midnight and the number of hours that it takes to burn out represents the number of happy months that we'll have that year. This year, for the first time since I last left ALderaan on assignment from Mon Mothma, my candle lasted more than an hour. In fact, it was nearly mid-morning before the last of the wax gave up the ghost.

I have never put much stock in such superstitions--my wife was the one who insisted on maintaining the tradition--but I am placing my hope in what that candle represented. After the last year, we could use a few happy months. But what would count as a happy month? One where we weren't chased off of a base by the Empire or one where we gained more allies than we lost? One where I laughed more than once? I wonder when I forgot how to be happy. Perhaps it was before Alderaan was destroyed.

Two hours before the candle in my quarters burned out, I received a coded comm from Mon Mothma. She wished me a happy new year and, as often happens with my fearless leader, she asked a favor of me. As often happens, I granted her the favor. As often happens, I have since had second thoughts.

It is not that I am hesitant to command another base. Or that I am worried about my duties as a theater commander. I do not have as much experience as I would like coordinating both ground and aerial forces, but I have always been a fast learner. And she has promised me good people. In all of my years with the Alliance, I have never met a soldier or pilot or civilian who has not, in some way, been a good person.

But why, in the name of all that is holy, does she insist on assigning both Princess Leia and Han Solo to my command?

 

Oooh what a fun time for H/L!!! Almost but not quite as oblivious

And Rieekkan's right in the thick of it!!!

This is gonna be fun!!!

If you're keeping PM list, I'd love on it!

 

But... but I thought you liked Carlist!

This looks interesting. PM me with updates, please? Oh, and also loved the tradition with the candle, there

 

But why, in the name of all that is holy, does she insist on assigning both Princess Leia and Han Solo to my command?

(At least his command won't be boring, right?)

Plue side that he's not seeing just now: along with those two, comes Luke!


Good start, and I'd love update PMs.

 

HA! This looks great.

 

Aww, poor Rieekan! Should make for a huge roller coaster ride, though, and certainly plenty of entertainment! Besides, it gives him a chance to serve in his most important role, getting those two stubborn banthas to quit arguing and do something more fun....

This is gonna be fun! Keep this story going! I love when you write Han and Leia, and this point of view is going to be fascinating. Also, if you are doing PM notifications, I'd like to know when this updates!

 

Oh, this is a guarantee that Rieekan's year is going to be a whole lot of fun, at least for us readers, if not for him! Looking forward to seeing what happens as soon as Leia and Han arrive (because something will happen, I'm sure )!

If you're keeping a PM list, would you please put me on it? Thanks!

 

Jade_eyes--LOL, yeah. Poor Rieekan is never going to recover. I'll start the PM list now.

RK_Striker_JK_5--Yes, but this is kinder than making him judge Vader's war crimes trial. I made up the tradition after considering adapting a few of our own.

DaenaBenjen42--Yeah, I once wrote a story in which an X-wing squadron had to babysit a crossroads star system that never saw action. This is better! Actually, that plus side will come soon. Thanks!

JediMara77--LOL, thanks.

dm1--Hey, more old friends/readers/familiar faces. Nice to see you again. Very big roller coaster. LOL, I'm not sure carbon-freezing is something more fun... Thanks!

Valiowk--Glad you approve. I'm looking forward to writing their grand entrance.
*****
Entry 2

After I had slept off as much of the hangover as possible, I set about more practical things than taking my mind off of the firestorm headed my way. Mon Mothma, in recognition of all the things that I have done for her and the ALliance, has given me something of an open line of credit. There were only two 'mandatory' members of the base--Solo and Organa--and that was because Organa's my second-in-command and Solo will be invaluable in establishing the base. He puts the entire quartermaster's division to shame. It goes without saying that he also puts a supernova to shame with some of his blowups, but the High Princess of Alderaan is not much better. The redeeming element of their 'friendship' is that they seem to pull off the impossible just to spite each other.

I spent most of the day establishing the command structure, calling in a few favors to see if I can get Derlin for security or Narra's squadron as the primary starfighter force. The major hassle will be defense concerns. X-wings are not cold-weather vehicles and the best of our speeders will need heavy modification. As far as we know, we won't be fighting off the indigenous life forms, but there hasn't been a proper survey of Hoth in thirty-six years.

As soon as Leia received the news, she went to work with her usual efficiency. She believes that she can follow through on a contact for heavy weaponry that would be well-suited to the climate and she gave me the names of some designers in Alliance Armaments. Why she knows more about this than I do is a mystery, but I assume that it has to do with her tendency to keep company with Lieutenant Commander Skywalker and Captain Solo.

Entry 3

Rogue Squadron is approved for Echo Base. Our official 'move-in' date is set for two months from now--High Command likes to plan things in advance--but they will be sending the first prep teams to assess the enormity of the problems we face tomorrow. Leia reported back with more information on the heavy weaponry. We may be able to work out a deal for an energy shield, but it will be extremely limited given our budget. Still, if we can keep the Empire at a distance of 300 kilometers, that's better than nothing.

Solo came by and offered to play me a hand of sabacc, with the winner deciding if he really needs to go to that 'useless spitball you call Hoth.' I smiled genially and told him that's not how we do it in civilized society. He smirked and managed not to tell me what I could do with my civilized society. He declined my offer to file an official complaint. I essentially killed him with kindness, but he upped the price on some things that he was planning on selling to us from his last scrounging mission. Leia played him a hand of sabacc and got the parts at a 20% discount. Perhaps their competitive relationship has its good points.

 

Han is so ... himself in this and he and Leia definitely have a competitive relationship going on -- among other kinds of chemistry

 

I love the voice you've given to Rieekan. The conflicts between Leia and Han are going to be fantastic, and I foresee much potential for Rogue Squadron hijinks!

 

Had me giggling, and then I had to explain to mom why I was giggling, and I set her off laughing...

Good entry, Ish.

 

That was a hilarious entry, Ish, despite Rieekan's serious style. I can't help but wonder if Rieekan actually had to make an attempt to keep the diary sounding serious but was actually laughing uproariously the whole time he was writing it!

Ah, maybe that's why Mon Mothma decided to assign them to the same command.

Shame on you, Rieekan - I'm sure it has nothing to do with Leia keeping company with Skywalker and Solo!

Hm...not very useful considering that light travels that distance in a thousandth of a second...

Great update, and looking forward to reading more. Thanks for the PM!

 

So you've got two supernovas on a freezing cold planet; that should help warm things up! At least it's entertaining, which is a great deal on a frozen wasteland.

Rieekan has a point about their competitiveness getting them to do the seemingly impossible. Leia playing cards with Han to get a discount on the stuff he was selling is hilarious. I guess either she knew the game well, or Han trained her well, little knowing that she learns quickly.

 

Perhaps there are some good points, yes. Things are progressing well... which means the shavit will hit the fan soon. Poor, poor Carlist.

 

This should be good

 

Entry 4

Today was spent in travel. I enjoyed seventeen hours to myself and finished a readerchip that a sympathetic officer smuggled back from a mission last week. It was a study of the pacifist systems' involvement in ending the Clone Wars. The author had some good points and I appreciated her study of Alderaanian philosophy, but she missed one significant point: Whatever Bail Organa's role in the Republic Senate, it was Palpatine who started and ended the Clone Wars. The tyranny of the Emperor is the reason that I keep fighting it, but the treachery of the former Supreme Chancellor is why I began fighting in the first place.

Entry 5

At 0720, I was granted permission to dock on the Headquarters Frigate. Mon Mothma and the rest of High Command spent the majority of our time in meeting outlining our official position on evacuation. Apparently, there is a school of thought that claims we've been giving up too easily. I wonder how many people thought that before General Madine got his rank. I pointed out that if we were better-equipped on our former bases, we would have held out a little longer. Mon Mothma agreed and announced that I had a meeting with the quartermaster's division in two hours.

The entire meeting with Quartermaster Ensign Kath felt as if I were in school again, working out my arithmetic assignments. If one Rebel soldier requires 2000 calories per day and that can be supplied by eight rations bars or .6 kilos of food, how many kilos per month will Echo Base need to provide food using 1/3 food and 2/3 rations bars? Solve for x if 300x/28=y rolls of hygiene paper. If 1.7 blankets are required for each soldier per ten degrees below zero and the average temperature of Hoth is 20 degrees below, how many blankets will a base of 600 full-time residents require for an one-year period? I'm glad that Kath enjoys her job because I wanted to give up and uninstall my datapad's calculator function.

In addition to the problems posed by giving 600 soldiers hypothermia, there is the concern of food supply. On previous bases, if we needed to, we could hunt or forage for food. On Hoth, there are only so many uses for ice and snow. If we are blockaded or unable to get to our resupply ships, we will be in dire straits.

Entry 6

Mon Mothma offered to give me a ride back to my current posting, but I respectfully declined and slept most of the way back to the base. High Command has the final numbers from the quartermaster's office and they should be able to approve preparations for those kinds of numbers. If not, they might have the common sense to move us to a more hospitable world. I won't be holding my breath.

 

I agree with Rieekan's conclusions about Palpatine's actions as Supreme Chancellor and Emperor. I'm sure those sentiments are shared by 100% of the rest of the Alliance. My brain hurt just reading the quartermaster's calculations

 

Poor Rieekan! There's really no reason why he should need to worry about all these things at all - I guess Echo Base needs to iron out some of its manpower issues!

 

Ah, interesting book he received. Good reasons to fight, there. LOL at him and Ensign... Kath? Do I detect something there? Nice little post.

 

You should recognize Quartermaster Kath as Salra Kath from Wait-listed, the one who was in quartermaster's division for 3 years.

 

Liked the whole scene with the quartermaster and Rieekan being completely out of his element during it. Keep up the good work.

 

Love your characterisation of Rieekan - I don't recall much about him so it's great to take a peek into his diary.

 

I havent been in the forums for ages and now what I found
Just my fav time period and characters of the entire SW saga!

My year starts good that's for sure.

Zs.

 

Any chance of another post soon-ish? You seem to be a very busy person at the moment though!
Satisfying my need to read more of this by doing a mammoth read of 'To Cast Away Stones' and the sequel...very 'out there' compared to this fic but still so well written.
I have to ask, have you ever written something using your own material?

 

I'm going to update ASAP. I went out of town this weekend and came back miserably ill. I'm going to bed now and will be awake for questionable amounts of time tomorrow. I don't ever fanfic crossovers with my own stuff.