Tyler was standing next to Admiral Mcree, admiring the wreckage of the Separatist blockade. "I wonder what Cad Bane has been up to lately."
Mcree shrugged. "Not sure, Draco. Haven't seen his name pop up in any of my intel briefings. He must not be a tangible threat at the moment."
Tyler sighed. "Or better yet, we just haven't noticed his activity. Blaze, send a message to Papi Chulo. Have him assign a team to look into Cad Bane. He'll understand what I mean."
Blaze nodded. "Immediately, General. Also, Generals Windu and Kenobi are awaiting your input on the invasion."
Tyler nodded after dapping Mcree up. "Later, dude. Take care of my cruiser for me."
Mcree rolled his eyes. "The entire galaxy knows that they'd have to be out of the god damned minds to even look at your cruiser wrong."
Tyler chuckled. "That is true. Anyways, I'll be seeing ya." He then walked towards the planning room.
Windu and Kenobi both turned towards Tyler as he walked up to the holotable. They were present in hologram form of course since they were on landing ships. "What's the situation?"
Windu sighed. "We can't gather much about the surface. They are jamming our scans and the cloud cover is too thick to gather any intelligence. I'm getting a bad feeling about this one."
Tyler shook his head. "Nothing we can't overcome. I'd say let's just bomb the hell out of them but there are plenty of reasons we can't do that. I say we take a page out of their own book."
Windu tilted his head in curiosity. "How do you mean, Draco?"
Tyler smirked. "Well they use droids, so why don't we use some as well to gather intelligence. We can also send some forward operatives down. The hard part will be disguising them among the droids."
Obi Wan stroked his beard, seemingly in deep thought. "That could work. Is your cruiser equipped with probe droids?"
Tyler nodded in confirmation. "They aren't exactly probe droids but they'll do pretty much the same thing."
Obi Wan sighed. "All that remains is getting the forward operatives down there. Any suggestions?"
Tyler thought for a moment and then an idea came to his head. He turned to the operator sitting near the holotable. "Contact Commander Skywalker and have him join us."
The guild member nodded. "Immediately, guild leader."
Obi Wan grimaced. "Are you sure about this? He's bound to come up with something crazy."
Tyler laughed. "Obi Wan, crazy is just what we need right now. How else do you expect us to be able to land on the surface of Ryloth without any idea what's going on down there?"
As he finished saying this, Anakin's hologram popped up. "How can I help?"
Tyler smiled. "We need your input, Anakin. We are planning on sending some of my reconnaissance droids down to the surface. We also want to get some boots on the ground to secure an LZ. How do you think we should do it?"
Anakin quickly replied. "How large is the delivery capsule for the droids?"
Tyler smirked. This type of thinking was exactly what they needed. "The capsules are about 6x8x4 meters. I designed them myself."
Anakin nodded. "Easy. Escape pods are only slightly larger than that. Send down some guys with handheld excavation equipment in escape pods. They won't be able to tell the difference."
Obi Wan rolled his eyes. "That is ridiculous. You are just sending the clones to their deaths."
Tyler chuckled. "Who said we have to use clones? I'll send some of my guild members down. I'd go myself but I need to monitor the recon drones."
Windu nodded. "Very well. Let's get everything in order. Keep us informed on anything you find. Time is of the essence."
Tyler nodded in agreement. "I'll issue the orders immediately. The faster we get this done, the faster I can get some time off!"
Windu raised his brow. "Time off?"
Tyler nodded, smiling. "I need a break. I do a lot more than just fight in the war, Master Windu."
Windu thought for a moment and then sighed. "I can't argue with that. You will be missed in your absence. Nonetheless, enjoy the vacation."
Tyler smiled, wearing a warm expression. "Thank you, Master Windu. I must be going now. I'll keep you all updated."
Tyler quickly walked away from the holotable. As he did, he opened up the guild interface. Using the proximity function, he sent out a guild quest with 20 slots. The quest was to reach the surface of Ryloth in escape pods and then establish a landing zone for the group of acclamators. The rewards were generous, amounting to 50k credits. In addition, the death of any of the quest takers would result in full compensation plus the quest reward. Failure was not an option.
By the time he was finished issuing the quest, he arrived back in the command room. "Mcree, get me a core member. We need an officer for this mission."
Mcree snapped his fingers and a guild member that was standing nearby quickly walked over. "Yes, sir."
Tyler raised his brow. "You like this guy?"
Mcree shrugged. "I keep him around for a reason."
Tyler chuckled. "Very well. What's your name?"
The guild member stood at attention. "Bruno, sir."
Tyler smiled. "Well Bruno, it's your lucky day. First of all, congratulations on your promotion to Commander in the GAR. Secondly, successfully complete this mission and you're a guild elder."
Bruno nodded. "Thank you, sir."
Tyler pressed a few buttons on his wrist comm, sending the mission briefing to Bruno. "All the details are in there. I've made you the co-issuer for this guild quest so it's in your hands now. Good luck to you."
-GE-
Tyler was standing before the holotable, informing Windu and Obi Wan of his findings. "Yeah, this is gonna be a shit show. They have anti-air cannons of unknown caliber. It would be easy to take them out if they weren't using the locals as shields to prevent us from doing so."
Obi Wan scoffed. "Despicable. This is just like the Separatists."
Tyler nodded. "That isn't the most troubling thing though. Through some ultrasonic scans, my drones discovered a massive underground compound in the mountains near the village with the cannons."
Windu wore a look of great concern. "I was wondering why they had such a massive blockade for a seemingly unimportant world. Tactically speaking at least. Do you have anything more?"
Tyler shook his head. "Other than the ways in and out of the compound, nothing. This is quite concerning."
Windu nodded. "I knew I had a bad feeling about this. I wouldn't be surprised to find some Sith down there. I'd say we should postpone the operation but the locals can't afford to wait that long."
Tyler sighed. "If we postpone, it would also give them the opportunity to pack up whatever they are working on here. My bet is that it's a staging ground. For what? Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that even if it isn't a staging ground, it can't be good. I saw we proceed with an operation to eliminate the anti air cannons and then cross that bridge when we come to it."
Windu nodded. "I guess that is all we can do at the moment. How is the LZ coming along?"
Tyler smiled. "Nicely. Commander Bruno is leading the operation nicely. I'd even go to say that we will be able to land as soon as the cannons are gone."
Windu sighed in relief. "At least something is going well. Let's get moving. We should head down in gunships for now and fly low during our approach. We must keep the acclamators in the air so they can move on the capital as soon as those cannons are down."
Tyler nodded in agreement. "Sounds good to me. Obi Wan, shall we go play with the cannons?"
Obi Wan rolled his eyes. "Let's go. We don't want to keep the Techno Union waiting, do we?"
-GE-
A turbulence-ridden flight welcomed them to Ryloth. The gunships shook as they traveled at high speeds just above the forest canopy. This was their only choice to avoid being shot down by the AA cannons.
It was dark inside the gunships. All of the men stood in silence, gripping the strap that hung down from the ceiling.
The darkness was abruptly pierced by a flashing red light. This indicated that the drop point was imminent.
There was a click as the lock on the doors disengaged. The doors then slid open, revealing a blur of green and brown below them. Off in the distance, sprawling mountain ranges dotted the horizon.
A voice came over the intercom. "Delta team, you are clear for jump."
Tyler smiled when he heard this. Jumping out of aircraft was one of his favorite parts of this game. Especially when he does it without a parachute. He had become a bit of an adrenaline junky.
He turned to Napoli who was next to him. "Where we droppin'?"
Napoli chuckled as he hopped out of the gunship that was coming to a halt. "Right here, dipshit."
Tyler rolled his eyes, quickly following his best friend, plummeting towards the forest below.