<strong>Name</strong>: Commander Rixx, Captain Nunq, New Republic personnel<br/><strong>Location</strong>: Indellian system, New Republic repair & supply ship Indata, conference room<br/><strong>Date/Time</strong>: Day 1, noon<br/><strong>Tagging</strong>: Everyone<br/><hr/>Rixx smirked at the first question. "Oh no, mister Kooth. Of course we don't want you to find out how to take an entire star system. We want you to find out how to take an entire sector.<br/><br/>"And yes, miss ... Hearts. Gathering intelligence on the nature and deployment of hostile forces in the sector will be a large part of your mission. We do have some information on that, but not as much as we'd like."<br/><br/>Turning to the red Twi'lek, he tried to address some of  Anya's questions. "The Lucky Magpie has a clean rap sheet, as far as the Imperials are concerned. As long as you engage only in legitimate business you should be able to move as freely through the Vandor sector as any other freighter. And if you can't avoid trouble with the law, well, we did modify your ship's transponder for a reason. Spacelanes and planetary approaches will be patrolled, lightly in some systems, heavily in others. Piracy shouldn't be a problem.<br/><br/>"But part of the mission will really just be doing business and keeping your eyes and ears open. Pay attention to ship deployments and patrol patterns, and listen to talk among the locals to get an idea what the general mood in the sector is. The death of the Emperor has changed loyalties and ambitions of many a local sector official. Some might be more willing to seek their fortune with the New Republic, others might be interested in carving out their own little kingdom, some might still be keeping their options open."<br/><br/>The Commander sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm afraid we can't give you very precise mission parameters. It boils down to going there and trying to pick up anything that might be useful. If you can find targets of opportunity, engage in a bit of hacking or sabotage for example, go ahead and do it, but be careful. Combat engagements are not at the core of this mission – and perhaps not a terribly good idea anyway, given the size of the local forces. You see, we do have some information about imperial and vandorian forces in the sector."<br/><br/>Half the monitors shifted from the sector map to a new image, as Rixx went on. "The Imperials have the six twenty eight battle squadron, under Admiral Kalmann, in the sector. They have been on station since before the battle of Endor and we are pretty certain from intercepted imperial communications that they are still there in full strength.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/d/d4/ImperialForces.jpg)<br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 8pt;"><strong>Edit:</strong> 1 fighter symbol = 1 squad of 12 ships</span><br/><br/><br/>"Full strength in this case being the Imperial-II star destroyer Adjudicator, Admiral Kalmann's flagship, the Victory-II class Dauntless, three Imperial-II frigates, the Falchion, Cutlass, and Sabre, and a group of Assassin-class corvettes, which are the imperial version of the Corellian CR90 corvettes." Rixx paused for breath and studied the ship list from narrowed eyes. He didn't like what he saw there and he was willing to bet the other people in the room didn't enjoy it much either.<br/><br/>"As far as their fighter complements go, we are fairly certain the Adjudicator and Dauntless carry their full standard complement. When it comes to the frigates some of it is an educated guess, but it is certain that pretty much no frigate ever received the full complement of three interceptor squadrons. The Empire could never turn them out fast enough and gave priority to the squadrons on the larger star destroyers. Still, those frigates are as much carriers as they are combat ships, which makes them a problem, even if they are slow as Tindarian slugs in hyperspace."<br/><br/>Rixx tore his eyes from the monitor, once more looking from face to face. "While our information on the imperial forces can be considered accurate, we are out of luck when it comes to the Vandorians. What we do know is that they have been allowed to acquire several older ships left over from the Clone Wars for their own defense forces. Their flagship is the King Orson, a Venator-class star destroyer, their second big ship, the Queen Shiris, is an Acclamator-class assault ship. In addition they have a few Consular-class ships refit for military duty. Those Consulars are about the equivalent of the imperial corvettes, but when it comes to the capabilities of the Orson and the Shiris..."<br/><br/>The Commander left the unfinished sentence hanging in the air for a few seconds, then heaved a sigh. "We don't know. We know the Vandorians did modify them in one of their own spacedocks, but to what specifications we don't know. As you may imagine, we had bigger problems than the local defense forces of a sector in the Expansion Region while we were fighting the Empire in the Outer Rim the last few years. One thing is certain, the Venator star destroyers can carry a huge amount of fighters. Clone War military doctrine called for massive waves of starfighters, and a Venator can carry up to thirty-five squadrons. Yes, people, you heard right. If fully stocked, this one ship alone carries more fighters than all the imperial warships in the sector combined. Lucky for us the Vandorians have absolutely no reason at all to use that many fighters. Still, it could be a major problem.<br/><br/>"Now, what else? Yes, speaking of fighters. ..."<br/><br/>From there the briefing turns to the fighters used by the Vandorians. They make use of several older models and one home-grown fighter. Among the older ships they use are the Z-95 headhunter and the Cloakshape fighter.<br/>The Z-95 is a pretty common but fairly old model that is rather sluggish for a fighter and packs only a modest punch. A lack of hyperdrive also makes it a strictly short-range ship.<br/>The Cloakshape is another short-range fighter, as old as the Headhunter, and also lacking maneuverability and a hyperdrive. It is sturdy but not equipped with shields. A large payload of concussion missiles makes it comparable to the imperial TIE-bomber.<br/>In addition the Vandorians also use V-19 Torrent-class starfighters, a model left over from the Clone Wars. While lacking shields, Torrents are pretty good, agile multi-role fighters. They are also the only Vandorian fighters equipped with a hyperdrive.<br/>The home-grown Vandorian fighter is the Stryga-class interceptor, a fast, short-range ship equipped with both blasters, ion cannons, and modest shields. All in all its specs are comparable to the New Republic A-wing, except for the lack of hyperdrive. Strygas have, apparently, only been produced in limited numbers, as most in-system patrols still make use of the older models, instead of the more advanced Strygas.<br/><br/>After that, Commander Rixx changes the sector map on the monitors to one showing the known ship deployment patterns.<br/><br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/c/c1/VandorTroopDeployment.jpg)<br/><br/>From what Republic intelligence knows there are three "deployment zones" in the sector.<br/><br/>The imperial frigates guard the 'southern' entrance to the sector, patrolling the MT-3, Katura, Demawand, and Ord Belmor systems.<br/>Two of the vandorian, and four of the imperial, corvettes patrol the 'back yard' of the sector, rotating through the Weedora, Trillo, and Almaraz systems, also keeping an eye on the uninhabited Jion and Draal systems.<br/>The Vandorians keep their two main ships, and two of their corvettes, close to Vandor. The Adjudicator is also most often found in this 'northern' part of the sector, splitting its time between showing the flag at Vandor and keeping an eye on the Bandar system on the Trade Spine from time to time, but Bandar seems to draw little imperial attention. Any ship entering the sector from there will end up at Vandor, where it will run into a heavy military presence, and any ship traveling down the Trade Spine is bound to encounter a frigate at MT-3, so why bother much about the Bandar system?<br/>The Dauntless and two of the imperial corvettes roam freely through the sector, keeping an eye on system not covered by other forces.<br/><br/>"Of course you can also expect to find at least one or two custom ships or system patrol craft in most systems, but that's about it from me, as far as military forces in the Vandor sector go. Unless there are some questions at this point I'd like to hand over to Captain Nunq for some background on the political situation at Vandor."