Rax stands in the back, letting Issan do the talking. He quickly counts Zavvel's men and makes a note of their positions and armament. He then notifies his friends about the situation on the secure channel.

Issan left his hands visible, but not up in surrender. Those watching him could clearly see he held a holocomm in one of his hands, but it was currently deactivated. Speaking first, Issan tried to match Zavvel's expression. "We were planning to call...but then this lovely show came on over the holonet. Indeed intriguing, and nice to see you had a producer credit!"

Then, the smile dropped. "Credit where it's due, Captain, you played the situation well. However, in winning he hand, you risk losing the game. The Cell is breaking, Zavvel, and for the sake of our struggle against the Empire, we've come to parley."

"There does not need to be a parley," Zavvel's words carry clearly across the room. "There are only traitors, and those who command them. You will obey me or you will die. It's that simple."

[have you got comms open so we can all hear in ours?]

"But who here is really a traitor?" Issan perked an eyebrow up as he looked to his holocomm. "You set up your comrades to take the fall for a mission you ordered them to complete, that alone would raise questions about your true alliegences. Combined with the fact that your rise to leadership coincided with one of the worst attacks on the Cell in its history, I doubt you'll find it surprising that the almost the entire support staff has fled."

Issan let that sink in for a moment before continuing. "Carry out your policy on those you call 'traitors' and you'll see that you've destroyed the Cell, and let the Empire win. Is that what you want?"

Issan then looked at each of the men before him, trying to meet their eyes despite the bright lights in his face. "Is that what you all want?"

**** it, Zavvel is actually there. Ensuring the breath mask was secure and that he can hear over his comlink, Geoff looks at the others as he draws his pistol. "Toco, you have point. CT, you're behind him, sensors out. I'll follow, with Oro covering behind us. Lieutenant Braxus, can you send one of the scout teams behind us when ready? Breach team will lead the way."

Regardless of the LT, Geoff motioned Breach team forward. "Lieutenant, Parley team is already in contact. Can you stand back and provide assistance if needed?"

Toco nidges the cell member that is leading them through the sewer. " Things are happening, let's move. "

"We are not the traitors!" Zavvel roars. "You are! You scum, you weaklings, who allow the Empire to storm over us. The cell was weak, I strengthened it; the cell was leaderless, I commanded it. What have you done in comparison? How many of the Empire's lapdogs have you slain, compared to me? That is how we will win this war, not through words but through action. All your pleas for peace and understanding in the galaxy are worthless if you cannot back them up with strength of arms. I can lead this cell onward, but you seem set on holding us back.

__________

"I've got a team of six right behind you Breach," Braxus' voice is steady over the comm. "And a fire support section behind them. We'll be moving up fairly soon with rest of the platoon, but Trox fell down a drainaway in a flash-flood and Beldon is patching him up. But don't worry, the first aid team will be ready if we need them."

The trooper leading you through the sewer looks away from the pulse of his scanner for a moment. He's a Dresselian, it the kit of a ranger.

"You want to rush this? Be my guest. We haven't got too far to go, but if you saw how many drains and tunnels we've got to navigate you'd be much slower."

" I want us to get there while we still have a viable leadership. "

Toco reigns himself in.

" Get us to where we need to go, just with a faster pace ."

"...and this is why!" Issan gestured to Zavvel, and then to his armed goons arrayed before him. "If the only way to win this war is to meet strength with strength, than the Alliance has already lost! What good are all our forces against an entity that wields a fleet that can scour worlds of life in hours, if not just obliterate the planet outright!?"

Issan caught himself before his rage at Zavvel's short-sightedness compromised their dialogue. Even if the Alliance could win that fight, it would have to resort to tactics no better than the Empire. If in victory we turn into what we were fighting against, what's the point? Issan made sure to address the crowd just as much as Zavvel. Surely not every single person here is as so dogmatic...

Shaking his head at the cell's lack of preparedness as well as the debate going over the coms, Geoff looks over at Toco. "Everyone knows their job, Toco. We just have to be able to do ours before trouble happens."

Looking at the trooper leading them, Geoff nods at the ranger. "We're not telling you how to do your job, ranger. It just seems like Zavvel is getting too hotheaded and is about to start shooting."

[Request: Is there anyway that Geoff can help out with getting through the tunnels? Or at least keep an eye out for trouble?]

[i do believe i have the schematics in my banks? if so, can i speed up our getting there?]

"Come on," says the Dresselian. "No use just standing around," he sets off rapidly down the tunnel. "They'll catch up when they can," he calls back. "But we've got a job to do."

The manhole cover is sixty metres further on, closer than any of you expected. The ranger clambers up the ladder, letting his awkward A-280 rifle hang from its sling as he draws a pistol to lead him out. After a moment the voice drifts back down, "Clear!" and you scramble up after him into the dingy corridor of the service level.

__________

"But we would have won, and that's what matters! Not making a statement, simply killing as many Imperial scum as we possibly can. And even if we can't beat them we wouldn't make it easy for them. If we just roll over and die what could we achieve?"

"We would achieve a better galaxy," Omek earnestly responds. "One where people would care enough to help each other. The Rebel Alliance is about more than bringing death and destruction to millions; we bring medicine to the sick, food to the hungry, and help to the needy."

"No, you give the supplies we need to fight the Empire to those too weak or unwilling to help themselves!" Zavvel rages.

Rax has been quiet in the background. He seems to surprise even himself when he is the first to respond to Zavvel's rants. "Listen to yourself." He turns to the others standing beside Zavvel. "I don't know about you, but I fight the evils of the Empire to replace it with something better. To make the galaxy a better place. Not to replace one dictator with another. If we have to sacrifice our humanity to win, we have already lost."

"I've got no humanity to sacrifice," Zavvel grins.

"Me neither," chirps up Omek. "Same here," another of the Rebels, a Sullustan, points out. Despite this though, you see that the crowd is wavering, no longer looking so hatefully down on you or so set on your defeat. Now might be the time to press the advantage.

Letting Toco go first, Geoff looks at CT and Oro. "Don't use your thrusters, CT. That will alert the base. Oro, you want to help lift him through the hole? Toco and can probably guide us."

"You needn't worry about the thrusters," points out the Dresselian. "They couldn't hear us through the ceiling anyway. It's a full foot of concrete, built to withstand dropping pretty much anything on it. They won't hear you over all the shouting I imagine is going on in the main chamber anyway."

Issan nodded at Rax, knowing his heart was in the right place. "We give to others what we could use against the Empire now because we're fighting a bigger fight, a fight few can fully comprehend. Even if we can fight the Empire off worlds one-by-one, through strength of arms, we'll never win. It's only by making others strong, and then binding their power with ours that the galaxy as a whole can throw off the shackles the Empire has imprisoned us in!"

Issan then turned back to Zavvel, pointing an accusatory finger. "But you're doing the opposite, Zavvel, you're consuming the strength of others and then disposing of them when they've lost their utility. Look where that strategy has gotten us!" The jabbing finger opened to reveal an open palm, which Issan gestured around himself. "You're doing the Empire's job for them, Captain. You've alienated those once bound by a common purpose, fragmenting what used to be a cohesive unit into factions that the Imperials can pick off at their leisure."

Issan's rhetoric then turned back to the crowd. "You're all brave soldiers, fighting for a noble cause. That is worth respect, regardless of your reasons for doing so." The Twi'lek looked at each armed guard in the eye, giving a nod of true respect. His gaze then turned to Zavvel, and his respect twisted into disgust. "This man is undeserving of such loyalty. He will use you up and toss you aside once your purpose has been served!"

To add to the display, Issan finally switched on his holocomm, laying Zavvel's duplicity bare. It synced CT's recording of the briefing with Zavvel's later broadcast disowning them, the parallel structure sending a strong message that it was his plan from the start to betray them.

"This is a fabrication," Zavvel turns to his men. "They are trying to implicate me for their failures, their attacks on civilians and their abuse of the name of the Rebellion," a few of the men stood around have lowered their weapons and are stood awkwardly, unsure of where to go.

One of them speaks up. "Is this true sir?"

__________

"Ract, Logray, with me. We're heading topside to keep an eye on things. The rest of you follow up when you can," the service hallway leads you down to a ladder leading up to a hatch in the ceiling, one leading through to the command centre.

Toco scrambles up the ladder.

There is an itch growing. One he can't seem to scratch. It burns him every time Zavvel's voice crosses the comms.

" Keep it going Issan and Rax ." he hisses under his breath.

"T hose two in the meeting are doing amazing work" . Toco's ire has been stoked to a blaze after hearing his team mate's response to Zavvel's tantrum.

Issan looked at Zavvel quizzically, an eyebrow raised. "How could this be fabricated? Our group has been here for less than a week, and we've barely spoken in that time. How could we fake your character, mannerisms, or speech?"

Issan then gestured the holo to the other men as he let it repeat itself. "You have all known Zavvel far longer than I have, do you see any indication that his presence in this is fake?"

"Listen to me," Zavvel turns to the men around him. "And listen to them. If they had their way the Rebellion and everything you have fought for would be squandered on weak and pathetic lifeforms, beings without the strength to stand up for themselves. If you stand with me the Rebellion will be strong. We will overthrow the Empire, and stand in their place with the strength to protect everyone beneath us. Nobody can rule the galaxy without strength, but these talkers, the diplomats ," he spits the word with venom. "Would see us weak and willing to appease each new threat until we no longer hold our power. Who would you rather stand with?"

"Parley team, were any of those men in the briefing room when the mission brief was going on? You could also use the fact he didn't visit any of his wounded while we were elbows deep in their blood. Nor tell Weyrun to help out, either."

Helping CT through the hole, Geoff follows the fighters towards the CC. "Just a request, but can we go for non-lethal shots? I would rather be working on a bunch of people with knees blown out and shoulder wounds than corpses. By the way, what's your name, Ranger?"

"Diplomat?" Rax spits on the ground. "Hoth no, I'm a fighter pilot. Not a diplomat. Not a tactician. Certainly not a strategist. But if a grunt like me can understand how flawed Zavvel's plan is it must be bloody horrible. My conscience would not allow me to fight for a man like this. I've met men like Zavvel before. The were usually wearing white armor, but the results were the same. Both want to rule with an iron fist. And I will fight both if I have too, like all good beings, what ever the species."

"I'm Soomaal," the ranger gruffly says. "And I'm going in," he disappears through the hatch, then reappears a moment later. "Good thing they're still talking, there's nobody in here."

You follow him up the stairs into the control room, its holographic displays and datafeeds shut down, even the surveillance systems closed off. Passing through, you come to a set of windows overlooking the whole warehouse, a metal-frame ladder leading down to the warehouse floor. Below you, Zavvel is at the height of his rage.

"I am nothing like those thieving, murdering, lying scum!" the Weequay screams. "How dare you compare me to them! How dare you," he is an incandescent ball of seething white-hot rage. "Will you stand and listen to these lies and insults for one moment longer?"