The entourage passed through the hangar's exit blastdoors, which promptly shut behind them, and into the alabaster, fluid corridors of the Revanche. Normally, marines, sailors, pilots, and all manner of Confederate personnel would be flowing through the same hallways in a flurry of both on and off duty activities. But with the presence of the Grand Admiral and her officers, these corridors had been put into a lockdown, ensuring the delegations uninterrupted and expedient travel. They arrived at a turbolift, which prompted both the Rear-Admiral and Commander Fyre to insert their rank cylinders and undergo the typical security precautions of Confederate vessels to access areas. Their identities varified, and under the remote watch of the battleship's security personnel, the doors slid open to the priority turbolift; the same that had quickly whisked the two officers so quickly to the hangar area. The officers entered the rectangular lift, which was nearly the size of a family landspeeder. After the doors had shut, the lift shuttled them over to the diplomatic complex in a matter of a few minutes. The doors opened, and people stepped out into the dining room and all of its sophistication. Making eye contact with Lavality, Corise swept his hand over to the head of the table.

"Your spot, ma'am."

Lavality smiled; in the past she never got such a reception, nor such respect and curtisy out of someone before, for that reason alone she wasn't quite sure 'what' to say, so instead she gave a curtious nod and took a seat at the head. She would have to mention later that they weren't used to such a reception, espically considering that most of their diplomatic business took place in the ever violent - outer rim.

As Lavality sat there, waiting, her fingers fumbled with a data stick that was in her pocket. The stick had a multitude of information, included, but not limited to, trading stations that they owned and operated along with safe houses in the event someone needed to 'hide' from someone.

She was somewhat uncomfortable though; her lightsabre was pressing against her rear, causing her to shift position but even that didn't relieve her discomfort. She was tempted to move it but felt it wasn't a good idea, she wasn't to sure how the Confederate's viewed Jedi's and she wasn't about ready to find out.

The Rear-Admiral noticed Lavality fidget, and inwardly smiled. Glad that I'm not the only one uncomfortable at these diplomatic events. I could really go for a bit of Cambrian Wine right now. He glanced at his current drink, a cup of hot Aitha; a protein drink consumed by spacers to keep their bodies healthy during long runs. I almost wish I never made drinking a glass of Aitha a day for the fleet. His sapphire eyes swept up to the decanter of Cambrian Wine. He shook his head. Not a good idea. Drunk officers do not make good officers. Especially if we end up getting jumped, and maybe more so because this is a diplomatic event. He shook the temptation away. He glanced to his left, towards Commander Fyre, who had struck up a conversation with Caldwell about some maneuver done during the Iensis battles. Corise snorted. Typical. His head swiveled to face the Grand Admiral.

"So Grand Admiral," asked the Kashan man, "how bad do you think we crippled the local pirates in this operation?"

She let out a sigh and clasped her hands. "We've put a sizable dent in their operations; in relation to their ability to smuggle goods through space and to also raid ships then yes: we've crippled them. However, their is but one more group left that we have to deal with before this area of space can truly be 'safe' or at least, as safe as can be," she said.

To her left Savieve nodded. "The Iensis base can probably be turned into a sort of rearming point or perhaps a sensor outpost, but that all depends on is decided here," she said. "We have plenty of ships lurking in space that provide a much needed security 'net' in the event of pirate activity," she said.

"That may be true, Colonel, but we aren't talking about a pirate group that operates in space though," Lavality said, curious if the Rear Admiral would catch her wording.

Corise frowned, mentally repeating Lavality's words. That may be true, Colonel, but we aren't talking about a pirate group that operates in space though. He thoughtfully chewed a bit of savory L'laash. If pirates don't operate in space? Where do they operate? Terrestially, perhaps? Odd, and usually not hard to counter typically. What does she mean? The younger Lucerne swallowed his food.

"Excuse me Grand Admiral, but where exactly do the pirates operate, if not in space?"

Lavality blinked and turned toward the Rear-Admiral. "I thought I had placed it in the datadisk for the Iensis, I must've not done that," she said and sat up straight.

"They are known as the Manogeten," she said and collasped her hands. "They are located on Kashyyyk's second moon, which we don't have a name for right now," she said and glanced at Caldwin.

"The Manogeten excel at ground based combat, their base is protected by multiple shield generators which makes special bombardment impossible. We even attempted to use of MAC cannons on it and that only proved a waste in ammunition," Caldwin said.

Lavality sighed. "We have special forces groups on the moon now but they've been unable to find any weak point in the shield wall," she said and then glanced to her left at Savieve.

"They excel at ground based combat and use small transports to commit to slave actions on planets, their transports employ a type of stealth field which we've been able to break but its only been a limited success. And we've been unable to figure out just how they manage to get 'back' to the planet or how they've run our blockages," Savieve said.

"Attacking their base from the ground would be suicide but its our only option, orbital bombardment seems to have no effect, at least not until we take out their shield generators," Savieve droned on.

Corise nodded. Pirates that have adopted a strategy not too unlike our own. Most powers that could possibly go to war with the Contegorian Confederation would have too strong of navies to directly face in one-on-one in combat. Thus, the Confederation had completely discarded the idea of waging traditional fleet battles, beginning to invest more in cheaper, more potent planetary defences, such as Protector Flak Towers and Gencore II shield generator networks. While most war fleets of a major power could drive away the main Confederation Fleet, they would be hard-pressed to actually take any Confederation planet via direct assault. The Rear-Admiral took a sip of his drink. But this situation is different, as the shield generators do not fully eo\ncompass the target world.

"Forgive me Grand Admiral, but have you considered sapping? That is tunneling underneath the shields, and then launch an attack through the tunnels?

Lavality sighed. "We tried that once already; four times in fact. The pirates inserted a wall just below the perimeter of their shield, this makes tunneling impossible. My men even tried blowing the wall up, it only succeeded in alerting the base and getting three of them killed," she said.

"There might be another way...." Caldwen said, drawing Lavality and Savieve's attention. "We know their shields run off a massive power generator, the one thing we didn't explore was possible vents to disperse the heat."

Savieve blinked. "Why wasn't that explored before?" she asked, a slight bit of aggitation in her tone.

"Possibly because the intelligence are slacking," Lavality growled. "If that's true then we may have a chance, but in either case we don't have the troops to launch a full scale assault on the base," Lavality said and then looked up at the Rear Admiral. "Unless you'd be willing to help assist in taking out this last threat in this system," she asked.

Corise wiped his face with one of the embroidered napkins, and stared straight into the Grand Admiral's eyes.

"Personally, I would have very little trouble sending in some Contegorian Forces, such as our heavy armor units equipped with the Ares or any of the Fleet's Padalin II Assault Droid regiments," stated the Rear-Admiral, "but I am not the one who can authorize their use for a mission such as this. My orders from the Council were quite strict in what I can and cannot do. One of which was to participate in ground assaults on foreign planets that are not of my ally's. This may seem strange to you, and understandably so given our stance on pirates, but it is an effort to ensure that we do not become the oppressors ourselves in a war that is arguably none of our business.

People do not like to see their sons, daughters, parents, friends, or any sort of relation die for a cause that is not their own, that will unlikely ever touch them. You see, people are selfish, unwilling to sacrifice for other powers unless it serves their ends as well, particularly when the cost is in their own flesh and blood.

As such, I cannot authorize their use, and it is unlikely that the Council will authorize their use, given Serendivius' status as a new, and somewhat unproved, ally. That is not to say that we will not help your attack given the circumstances. And there are really three options in how this could come about.

The first would be that these pirates threaten or damage the Confederation in some way. The second would be that Serendivius proves itself over time to be a trustful and valuable ally. The last would be to have Serendivius becoming part of the Confederation, or be in the process of doing so."

The Kashan man stuffed a piece of L’lahsh in his mouth to cover the ensuing, if somewhat awkward and brief, silence. I make few prayers, but I will make one now: Maker, please let that not have offended Lavality or any of the other Serendivius personnel. It's a tough truth, and one that is hard for me to sprinkle with sugar to make sweet to them. A little bit of his mouthful of food slid down his throat. But if these pirates really are a threat to them, who can they really turn for for help? The Coalition isn't exactly in the best of shape right now, and assuming that they even have the soldiers to spare, do they even have the ships to transport them? Given the bulk of their use in ferrying refugees from both the Onyxian Commonwealth and the Eastern Provinces. Mercenaries are an option, but they're rather expensive to field en mass in force for an assault, and given that it will be a costly attack in lives, they're going to want a rather good price for their services...

Lavality and both of her officers were silent; the words the Rear Admiral spoke rang in Lavality's mind. She pressed her back against the chair and thought about her options, it was understandable that if the Confederation did help them out of the blue it may make the wookiee's view the Confeds as an occupation force even though they would be helping the Serens.

"Well spoken Rear Admiral," Lavality said, a smile creasing her face. "What you say is very much true, even I can't afford to send my men into territory not our own or not of our allies."

She stopped for a second before glancing to her left. "People want a cause to fight for, they can't be expected to just be given a firearm and told to fight when they themselves don't know 'what' they are fighting for," she said. "Perhaps it was wrong of me to ask you right out in the open like that, I let my desires to protect this sector and it's people get ahead of diplomacy," she said, part of her response was an apology, the other was a way of showing that she was open to more ideas.

Caldwen had been thinking about other ways to get by the shield; while Sarieve was repeating the Rear Admirals words in her.

Lavality sat there, wigthing her options. She wasn't sure if offering an alliance now would be a good idea or not, she naturally wanted to break away from the Coalition as they hadn't done her any good.

The words, however, weren't coming to her. What was she fearing? She was hesitant on asking, after a few seconds it occuried to her on why she was hesitant. Her status as a Jedi was her main reason for her hesitation.

"Rear Admiral, I have a question for you before we continue," Lavality said, taking a risk that she hoped wouldn't bite her in the ass. "What's your view on Jedi's?" she asked.