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

Next to Han and Leia, Rieekan is my favorite character. I am loving this. PMs please!

 

Lovely diary entry about the difficulties of keeping the Alliance functioning. Rieekan does a great job managing things!

I wonder what that says about the members of the Alliance?

 

Ish? Update. Please?

 

Entry 10

I am constantly amazed by the caliber of people we have in the Alliance. In addition to some of the finest tacticians the Galaxy has ever known, we have experts on a wide range of subjects. One of said experts is a man who wrote several papers while a student at the renowned Yiorn Institute on the topography and geology of Hoth. Leia claims that all of his classmates had chosen to do on-the-job research on worlds such as Mon Calamari or Bothawui, so he decided to prove his mettle with a world that no one had surveyed in two centuries.

This person is now Grey 9 in the 3rd Battle Group and Leia, with her usual diplomacy, convinced him to translate some of his findings into layman's terms. I have several datacards that give us an idea of where to start looking for an appropriate base site. They unfortunately run along the lines of "According to the reports of Jedi Master Fowmiq, part of the 19th Expeditionary Xenogeological Survey, the plain at coordinates 890.43 and 21.22 would be ideal, but don't quote me on that." Still, it's better than nothing.

Entry 11

I have spent the last twelve hours squinting at snowpack and stamping my feet while trying not to look impatient. Our people clearly know their stuff, but aren't perceptive enough to recognize a blank look when they see one. I have resigned myself to the fact that they are not satisfied with the occasional nod or thoughtful 'Hmmm.' I am convinced that their reports will lament that if something happens while we are on-base, rather than show admirable leadership skills, I will be looking for someone to explain what just happened in my native tongue.

We had originally planned to leave our ride in orbit and take a shuttle down to the planet's surface, but that is an impractical approach when a ship on-station might draw unwanted attention. One of the disadvantages is that the ship is ill-suited to cold weather conditions and we have to keep our trips to a four-hour maximum before we risk being stranded. On the other hand, this lends a sense of urgency.

Entry 12

We have finished our initial survey and have brought the results back for the High Command's approval. Apparently, while they were gone, they went slightly mad. We had reported the difficulty of adapting the machinery to the cold and one of the more enterprising members of leadership suggested that we 'rough it.'

I should have never asked what they meant by that. I have never heard of tauntauns, but every person who has recognized the word sniggered at its mention. According to Han Solo--and I quote--"Give a wet Wookiee too many beans with his meat, stick him in a garbage pit with last week's moldy leftovers and then let a coupla nerfs roll around in it when they're in heat. It smells kinda like that." Tycho Celchu, one of our more recent acquisitions, claims that their meat is supposedly a delicacy on some worlds. I have learned from long years of experience in the Royal Court that 'delicacy' means 'wouldn't be eaten by anyone with two brain cells to rub together.'

Either way, the High Command thinks the idea has merit. They aren't susceptible to the cold and, in a pinch, can be used for emergency rations. If the Empire invades, they'll faint from the stench.

There are five freighter pilots who will be helping us relocate to Hoth. I believe I will let Captain Solo challenge them all to a hand of sabacc and then let the loser transport our livestock.

 

So good to see an update again, Ish!

I see the move to Hoth gets worse and worse...

 

There are five freighter pilots who will be helping us relocate to Hoth. I believe I will let Captain Solo challenge them all to a hand of sabacc and then let the loser transport our livestock.

...and it was right there that I started giggling.


Loved update!

 

You updated!

Please keep this going; I love this POV!

A game of sabaac to determine who has to transport those smelly tauntauns. That could get interesting.

 

Entry 13

My first mistake was letting Leia talk me into joining the sabacc game. She said that it would prove that we were all on the same side. If any of these people were as committed to the Rebellion as she and I are, we wouldn't have to make these grand gestures, but most of them are like Captain Solo. They are mostly here because they believe we're not completely nuts and the rest of the time, they're here because we pay them an honest credit for a dishonest day's work.

My second mistake was not so obvious. Leia has played sabacc with all of them at one time or another, since she is the unofficial 'independent contractor liaison' and while she was loath to turn her back on everyone else, she was more than willing to give me a few pointers on what Captain Solo's 'tells' were. He stretches his left ankle when he's got a risky hand. He smirks no matter what hand he's got. If you see him lean on his right elbow, move in for the kill. He broke the left elbow a few years back and when he's feeling vulnerable, he favors that side.

I won two hands paying dutiful attention to everything she told me. It was best out of five. The third game Soyur won by sheer dumb luck. When Solo leaned on his right elbow and bet the bare minimum to stay in the game, I knew I had him.

I should have known that, while Leia's loyalty to me is infallible, Solo was counting on that. I now have the onerous duty of explaining to Captain Liosk of the Suffrage that he will be hauling beasts of burden in addition to twenty light infantry officers.

 

Oops! Rieekan has pulled the most onerous task.

 

Entry 14

There is a new policy memo being circulated that, dependent on the value of a cargo, a ranking officer must accompany all military appropriations for transport. On some worlds, such as Coruscant, the rare tauntaun would sell for three million credits a head. Our supplier effectively came within a heartbeat of paying us to take them off his hands, but the appraisal of the tauntauns was done by a Core Worlder and they estimated that our herd was valuable enough to require a General on board.

I suspect that Leia had a hand in this. If it were not for the syntax of the memo, I would have suspected that Solo had a hand in it as well. But Leia, with her earnest voice and patriot's heart, would have made an impassioned plea to Mon Mothma about the importance of safeguarding our precious resources.

Our precious resources eat everything but engine fuel and recycle the waste wherever they happen to be. We are low on sani droids, so we have taken to assigning any officer on report to waste management. Rogue Squadron has never been this well behaved. Solo should have done his turn, but he is not technically a member of the Alliance and regulations state that he is not subject to disciplinary measures.

I still overstocked the Suffrage and mournfully informed Solo that the leftovers would have to travel with him. I know that he has a fondness for furry beasts, but I think he will repent of that after three days with tauntaun flatulence.

Revenge is not an Alderaanian principle, but it is sweet.

 

Very, very sweet. Carlist, you magnificent guy, I read your book!

 

Carlist Rieekan=Rommel. Did not see that one coming...

 

Love these diary entries and I will follow them

 

I see that Rieekan is having lots of fun having revenge on Han for the sabacc game... Awesome to have an update after the long wait with the temp boards!

 

I'm a little late getting to the party, but I am loving this. The POV and diary setup is a refreshingly excellent choice and you are pulling it off masterfully thus far. I'll be along for the rest of the ride.

 

Entry 15

War is sometimes a matter of hurry up and wait and this is one of those days. Our shipment is moving out in four standard days. The engineers have set up the first pre-fab sections of the base, which means that we have a command center waiting for soldiers and equipment to arrive, but that won't be offloaded until the last minute because they have to be acclimatized first. I received a requisition for thirteen space heaters for Rogue Squadron--twelve for the pilots and one for their caf-maker, which is very good at making iced caf no matter the setting on the percolator. I am not one to judge the tastes of Narra's men, since they are the best of the best.

Mon Mothma is scheduled to meet us at the rendezvous point on the day we start moving in. It's supposed to be a morale booster to show that she appreciates how many toes we'll sacrifice to frostbite. I'm sure the gesture will be appreciated on some level; the grand dame of the Rebel Alliance gets applause and cheers no matter where she goes and it's not because she looks good in a dress. It's because wherever she goes, she creates order out of chaos and revolution out of oppression.

I used to wish that we could bottle some of that charisma and keep it on hand when times got rough, but as it turns out, the grand dame is rubbing off on Leia. The good thing is the hope that such a person brings. The problem is that it's a very lonely existence.

 

Nice bit of insight on Mothma as a leader and yet how isolated and burdened her reliance upon Leia is for the latter.

 

Nice look into Mon Mothma. And yeah, hurry up and wait. The real motto of any military.