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The Final Curtain Will Fall

"How's the transmission, Captain?"

"Looking fine, Admiral. You know, I've made it project figures at 3/4 height so that I can finally feel like I'm taller than you..." La Forge put on a roguish smirk.

"Very funny, La Forge. I don't stake my self-esteem on feeling taller than you. But it is an amusing fact. My mother was right when I was in primary school, when she told me before long she would be looking up at me and trying to tell me 'no, you can't go to the hockey game' in the winter." Fel retorted in kind with a straight face.

"Fel, you had a mother? I thought you were spawned out of the darkness like some sort of demon." Wedge laughed.

"We've been over this... I'm *half* demon..." Fel couldn't hold back his smile.

"That explains the assignments you keep giving me." La Forge was determined to one-up Wedge, but neither of the other two laughed.

"Okay, on to business," Fel brought the conversation back to seriousness. "What do you want first: the good news or the plan?"

Wedge replied "News" at the same time that La Forge said "Plan". They both laughed again.

"Okay, news." La Forge conceded.

"You can check your official notices for the day, but I'll save you the trouble. We've got a former senior officer returning to us in command in Systems Force II." Fel continued. "We could play a guessing game, but we don't really have that much time. It's Aarkon Syrtaras."

Both officers replied with stunned silence.

"How'd you get him back, Admiral?" La Forge was still stunned.

"Ah-ah-ah - Admiral's Little Secret." Fel smirked. "If you want to hear the full story of that, you'd best ask him yourself. But rest assured that it's very good to have him back."

Wedge was smiling so broadly it looked like his face might break. "So he's back, eh? I like it!"

"Glad to hear it. He's been missed around here," Fel said. "On to the plan. Let's not waste too much time. You two always like to chatter in the meetings and we never get through things on time. But it's also my fault for letting you, so I'll be the meeting police from now on."

"Very well..." La Forge replied for the sake of replying, not because he had anything to add.

"On to the plan. We have been in the Outer Sectors for a year now, and though we've made a lot of progress, it hasn't been enough. Things are turning quickly into a stalemate, and that's really the last thing we want to happen out in the Outer Sectors. Imperial territory fluctuates back and forth and trades with Rebel territory all over."

"Some planets have both flags on standby, ready to be raised at any moment..." muttered Wedge, under his breath.

Fel continued ignoring Wedge's semi-interruption. "Enter Operation Curtain. I could have spent my time thinking up a way to make that into an acronym... Contain, Undercut, et cetera, but if I have time to waste making up humorous acronyms, then I'm obviously wasting my time as an Admiral. That is valuable golf time I'd be squandering on work."

La Forge laughed at the joke, but it was obviously polite "because-he's-the-admiral" laughter, not because it was funny.

"More seriously, though," Fel continued, "we need to melt the ice under the Rebels so that they fall in. If we can do that, we can break this stalemate we've fallen into since the destruction of the pirates. I've spent some time developing a plan of attack for each of you. If we can execute this correctly, we'll be in good shape."

"I will forward to you in a short while a detailed list of what's going on over the next few weeks, but I will give you each a general overview of what your next assignment is. Wedge, you're up first."

"Ready."

"Okay, the basic plan is this. Muunilinst is very heavily fortified - we've taken it from the pirates, lost it to the Rebels, and had some heavy skirmishes with the Rebels there. It's a lynchpin in their defence, and they're expecting us there. We won't disappoint. Only we won't come quite in the way they think we will."

"Explain, sir?"

"I'm getting there, be patient. I can't make it sound all dramatic without some build-up, you know." Fel was back to joking again, and then transitioned to all business. "We're going to do a flyby to scope out the defences and drop the Imperial Army. There's going to be quite a bit for them to do. But while we do that, you're getting that long-promised load of warheads. A bunch of rockets, actually. You'll need them for upcoming missions."

"Doesn't sound as exciting as promised." Wedge looked disappointed.

"Well, it's going to be a pain to try to do all the rest of the plain without the rockets. Do what you have to do, you know?" Fel finished up with Wedge. "La Forge, you're going on attack, but nothing super exciting. We don't want a repeat of Operation Deep Strike."

Operation Deep Strike was the mission where the ISD Chimaera was nearly destroyed entirely. A textbook example of the condition not to return the Empire's Star Destroyer in.

"Just picking on smaller capital ships for a while. Seeing if we can stir up some trouble. They've got a big fleet, and we can't afford to keep the Nemesis and Chimaera together to fight it at all times - but we can pick on their weak flanks with impunity."

"I like attack missions," La Forge smiled. "They sure beat out a reload mission."

"Stop gloating," Wedge said. "You're almost out of rockets. It will be your turn soon."

"Okay, you've got a point," La Forge said sheepishly. He was down to only another load or two of rockets. Getting them out to the ISDs was no easy task most days.

"As I said, gentlemen, I'll send along an outline of everything shortly. Don't do anything stupid. ISDs are expensive." Fel was serious.

"Promise, sir," La Forge replied.

"Aye aye, admiral," said Wedge.

"Good night," said Fel, and he switched off the transmission.

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