Gunboat Diplomacy-
En route to the Fllaxxis system
It had been about 3 weeks since Kalen had taken the job with the Aliso Defense Forces(it was a fake name, and simply a front for Clan Plagueis to use for a semblance of impartiality). Officially Kalen held the rank of Warrant Officer, and the position of Flotilla Leader. In essence he was in charge of 5 new sleek gunboats. He commanded 15 people and about 100 droids split evenly among all 5 ships. Each gunboat had a Captain, Gunner, and Engineer as the only 'people' onboard.
Kalen walked through the tight central corridor of gunboat and into the small cockpit area. 'Juna, how long until we drop out of hyperspace?'
'About 20 minutes sir. We're gonna hit em so hard they wont know what to do.' Juna checked his dials on the command console.
'They certainly made a mistake bombing that market on Uvul. And our intelligence is showing that they are vying to become a major player in the drug trade in this region. Not on our watch" Kalen didn't know that he was simply striking at Clan Plagueis' rivals. He was naive and idealistic enough to buy into the notion that he was actually helping dismantle a drug cartel for the good of the galaxy. In the end, his goals and that of his Clans certainly weren't mutually exclusive. And it was a drug cartel after all.
'Hey Commander? Our port side weapons power coupling has destabilized' the droid co-pilot nervously fidgeted at his console.
'Well get someone to fix it then.' The Captain said.
'Roger roger' the dried began typing in the commands. Droids after all, weren't the most independant minded crew, as Kalen had reluctantly learned. The gunboats were a part time/on call force that stood by in case they were needed anywhere in the region. Kalen spent 7 days on duty, and 14 days off, in this role, rotating with 2 other crews. In this fashion, using the droids, Clan Plagueis could field a force of 15 gunboats while only using 'people' equivalent to 2 ships crews, Kalen had learned during his intake and orientation at the Citadel.
It was an ingenious system, as Kalen had noticed, among other things recently. During his first 'tour' serving in this role a few weeks ago, he had helped intercept an infamous serial killer who had been fleeing from Scholae Palatinae, which certainly earned him some good will. The killer had been transiting through the Cilix spaceport, and Kalen had only been about 20 minutes away from the location. He had seen some of the inner workings of his new organization, some of its structure, its military wing and law enforcement apparatus. It was a profession outfit, but he was quickly seeing that the upper echelons appeared to be that of benevolent yet despotic regime.
He had also learned that his previous work for Dath Kossir had actually counted in terms of -'service to the clan'. Counted toward what? He had no idea. But apparently he had been earning clout and respect before even being inducted. Most of the brotherhood and its upper echelons though, was still a mystery to him, and he didnt mind that fact much.
The pay was good, the schedule was great, allowing him 2 weeks off to follow his own pursuits if he wished. The job itself too was easy enough. When not deployed on an operation, he usually served as a quasi-dispatcher for the little squadron of ships, from a command centre near the Pinnacle. At times like now, he would embark on the flotillas lead vessel and command the unit from there.
As Kalen had learned early in his orientation for this role, his area of responsibility was a roughly 2 parsec wide radius around Aliso. His unit, and the ADF were the only military operating in then region that actively patrolled. They were the primary response quick response unit within that area. This current mission had been made possible by other clans sharing their intel with his own. His flotilla would hopefully help vanquish the scourge of the new designer drug known as Daytripper from Clan Plagueis' space, atleast for the time being.
Kalen had even been contracted by Scholae Palatinae through Dath Kossir, to investigate and research the harms and impacts of the drug over a month ago. He had compiled a large report on the substance, its origin, manufacturing and distribution. A week ago he had learned that some of his reccomendations for increasing policing and interdiction of the drug supply had actually been acted on.
He had been given the assignment 3 days ago, and they had done several training runs to learn how best to attack drug cartels local hideout. During the training had learned some of then finer points of gunboat handling. And now he was about to perform some gunboat diplomacy.