Seeing Issan walk in, Geoff looks at the tired Twi'lek over the brim of the caf. ****...

Turning around, Geoff grabs another unmarked cup, pours some caf, and hands it to the Twi'lek. "****, man, I thought I had it rough. Here, drink this."

Issan doesn't seem to respond quickly, but once the image of the cup of caf finally made it to his conscious brain, the Twi'lek reached out to grasp it. "Thank you."

The caf was quickly consumed, and Issan's skin began to return it its normal hue.

hearing that we have been summoned, I make for the command room. giving a whirr to Tookur as I leave

"Alright you lot, something's come up. A mission that I think caters to your special skill set," Zavvel grins, then turns to the holo-display, activating it to show a three-tiered bridge across a broad valley. "This is the Salano Viaduct. It provides transport for road, rail and water to the city - or at least it did. Now it is primarily used as the main pathway to the Imperial base just south of the city. Your mission, simply is to blow it up. This is a legitimate military target - it is used in logistical transport, and carries only military traffic. Moreover, it is heavily guarded, and I'm willing to call anything guarded by Imps and bucket heads a legitimate target.

"I've got here six military-grade demolition charges. Plant them on these pillars-" he highlights the six central supports. "And the whole structure will go down like so many stones. We can get you as far as the valley; once there you'll have to sneak the rest of the way. Shouldn't be too hard, even for you," he leans back against the wall behind him. "Any questions?"

"Sir, you said 'Primarily used as the main pathway to the Imperial base'. How frequently is it trafficked by civilians? And is there a policy on collateral damage?"

Toco examines the holo closer, " And what is the timetable for mission completion? Is this a precursor strike or conjoined to another operation?"

"Good points, Toco. In addition, are there any other bridges in the area? You mentioned that it is used for rail and road, but what do you mean by water? Is it being used to bring water to the city? If so, how much damage would that do to the civilians?"

Leaning forward, Geoff stares at the hologram. "You mentioned destroying the bridge would require all six designated columns. What would it take to render it inoperable? That way it can either force the Empire to repair the bridge or allow the civilians to claim it."

Letting his eyes wander, Geoff considers other questions that can come to mind, before realizing an important one. "What about the charges? Are they timed or control detonated? In addition, would that require specialized training? If it does, I don't believe any of us have demolitions training. Does anyone have experience with explosives?"

Looking at the others for clues, Geoff leans back, waiting for the Captain to respond.

"The bridge is rarely used by civilians. There's too many Imperial scum for them to brave it, so they usually go around. You'll be acting alone on this one. We need to make a big statement after last night: the Rebellion isn't dead! Of course, getting to kill some Imps is a nice bonus.

"There are other bridges across the valley, but they are further away from the base so the civilians use them more, while the Imperials have much reduced traffic. And yes, water is carried across from a reservoir in the mountains over here," he scrolls the map table to show a mountain range about thirty miles south of the city, then pans back to zoom in on the bridge supports. "The bridge is a few thousand years old, built by the indigs a bit after they thought that the wheel was fresh new thinking. 'Course now they're so simple you could con them out of a pocket-full of creds and they'd thank you for lightening the load. But that's besides the point. You hit those central supports, the whole thing - and anything on it - will come crumbling down with ease. We just need to give it a push.

"The charges have a lot of failsafes. They'll go off when you press this," he holds up a control switch. "Which one of you will need to carry. But they'll also go off regardless fifteen minutes after you arm them, in case you can't get out. In addition, there's also a pressure switch so once you arm them there's no moving them or disarming them. All you lot have to do is get these babies installed on the pillars and there's nothing anyone can do. And besides it's not that hard to set them up: I'm sure your droid there can do it easily enough.

"Oh, and one other thing. You'll need a getaway solution. I'll have Tookur drop you off on the edge of the valley then circle round. He'll pick you up here," he indicates a location across the valley from your arrival point. "Anything else?"

Issan decided to echo Geoff's concern in a slightly different manner. "I certainly agree that we need a grand showing in order to shake off the defeatism that the populace might have succumbed to after the ambush, but if the bridge is also a water source, it seems like we might be doing more harm than good in destroying it. While they may be happy to see the Imperial base inconvenienced, that cheer with no doubt die down when their plumbing backs up."

Issan pointed to the supports between the three tiers. "What if we focused on these supports instead, is there any way to save the water while rendering the bridge useless for moving heavy gear?"

"Our scouts say that the Imperials diverted the water supply to their own base when they put it near the bridge. Only the bucket heads would have backed-up plumbing - not that those uptights echuutas have any druk coming out anyway - that ain't a problem as I see it," he grins.

Issan squinted at the Captain's grin, but said nothing. "Note to self: fact check the scouts' report on-site."

"what supplies does it normally transfer?"

"The usual: food, munitions, spare parts, that sort of thing."

"wouldn't it maybe be better to acquire the resources?"

"You make a good point, but consider this. These supplies are coming in from all across the southern part of the continent, but they pretty much all have to come through this bridge, or else go the long way around. At the moment they can guard the road up fairly well, but force them to go around the valley along a bridge? Try adding on ten or twenty miles of road to guard, and all those bucket heads are going to be stretched out a long way - making it easier for us to swoop in and take what we want."

CT warbles something non communicative in response...

"Good points, Captain. I'm curious, though, what is being used to defend the bridge? As for the supply convoys, what do they use? Do they use wheeled vehicles, tracked transports, walkers, repulsorlifts, or some combination?

Also, one big question: is there a way to damage the bridge but not destroy it? Could we take out one of the other set of supports, damaging the bridge but leave the rest of it intact? This way, either the Empire abandons the bridge or are forced to repair it. Or, if we can get the civilians on our side, they can take it over."

"The guards are slack, Imperial Army types mostly. Bucket heads have better things to do apparently. The convoys are hover trucks, average sort of stuff. They do use the trains to transport troops though, quite a bit - hence why the triple tiering is useful to them - but the point isn't to block it off. They can rebuild it given two or three months, it's no worry to them. The point is to send a message. Here we are, we're the Rebel Alliance, and we're going to reach out and touch you."

Rax frowns. "Wait, Tookur's driving the getaway? Not that I'm saying he's a bad driver or nothing, but I'm not used to riding bi--um, being a passenger."

Leaning back, Geoff looks at the hologram, letting the words ponder. He quickly turns to Rax, then back to the hologram. Seems like he doesn't want to give up the control stick just yet.

Leaning forward again, Geoff smirks as he thought of something. "Then that would be another reason damage it, not destroy it. You said it would tie up the Empire for two to three months. Between having to move and secure new supply lines, repairing the bridge, and having to deal with the cell, wouldn't that be an advantage? Plus, once the Empire repairs the bridge, we can hit it again."

Sitting back, Geoff looks at Captain Zavvel. "You said it yourself, sir; hit them once, we prove we can hit them anywhere. How about we give them this; we can hit the Empire anywhere, with precision and fury. Once the Empire rebuilds a location, we hit it again. That proves that we can do repeat performances."

Leaning over, Geoff looks at Oro and Toco. "You two have more experience in combat than I. How does that sound to you two?"

[My apologies for bring your characters in, Tear44 and Jaspor, but you two are being silent about a combat op.

In addition, part of me isn't giving up on the idea of "expanding" Captain Zavvel's thinking. I'll explain more in the OOC line.]

"I think it is a pretty straight forward retaliation strike at a vital military piece of infrastructure. Minimal civilians and almost all dedicated Imperial use. Knock that bridge down."

Toco is a little confused by all the push back on a tactical briefing.

Oro considers the mission as initially described, the questions and answers, and the suggestions for changing it. He squints a little bit at the hologram and says, "The captain says take down the bridge, we take down the bridge. He says there won't be civilian casualties, we'll verify that once we get on site. If the Imperials fix it, we take it down again. If they find an alternate route, then we hit that one next."

He takes out a vibroknife and runs his thumb along its edge and nods at Captain Zavvel. "No further questions here, sir. Well, just one - When do we leave?"

"Captain, how can you assure to us that there will be no civilian casualties?"

"Hah, now that's what I like to hear! Listen, this bridge is vital to Imperial logistics. They'll have to repair it, especially once we hit their convoys going around the long way. The way I see it, you try to minimise destruction you'll be wasting your time because they'll just put it back all the faster. We need to go all out, maximum force - that's the way to win a war," he pauses, and looks more solemn for a moment. "I can't guarantee the area will be clear of civilians, but we have to accept that there will always be losses in war. It's sad, but it's the truth. But on this occasion, with this target, I think the chances are good that you won't hit any civilians."

"And as for you flyboy, I don't care who drives the damned truck so long as somebody does."

"Well, I'm no killer. and as long as there is the possibility of civvie casualties, I'm out... "

Issan sighed as he rubbed a finger against his collar amp. "There are ways to avoid collateral damage...It would increase our problems with getting out of there, but once we set the charges we can alert anyone on the bridge that it's about to blow." Thinking more on the issue, Issan shrugged. "Or, and this has its own risks of alerting the Empire to our plan, we could spread a rumor that the bridge is going to be hit, and that anyone who doesn't want to be caught in the crossfire should stay clear of it."