Alexander Bay

The time flew by. The first day of the trip they had arranged sleeping arrangements for the additional crew members and properly storing away the additional military hardware. The rest of the day the Pride's and Grace's Marines had spent training together.

"General Bay, please report to the bridge," Foster's voice called from the ship's intercom system.

Alexander sighed and got up from his bunk, grabbed his lightsaber and left the cabin. He took the turbo lift and headed up to the command bridge where he found Maxwell.

The four-star Admiral was standing at the front of the bridge and was staring out of the window at the vortex of hyperspace.

"We will be arriving in the Ryloth system within the next ten minutes," Maxwell announced without sparing his older brother a glance.

Alexander stayed silent. The impending arrival explained the air of intense concentration on the bridge and CIC.

"You summoned me?" he asked his younger brother.

"Yes, I want you to prepare a few men and take them down to the planet. The gunships are already on standing by. I will have the LZ's coordinates transmitted to the flight leader as soon as they are available."

"Yes sir," Alexander replied quietly. His brother had his hands full at the moment and now wasn't the time to test his patients.

"Good hunting," Maxwell added.

"You too. Hold the fort up here." They shook hands and he left the bridge. On his way down Alexander ordered Boss to put together an expedition party and meet me at the hangar.

When he got there Boss was already waiting for me with the rest of Delta team and a battalion of fully armed clone troopers.

Before he reached his team the hum of the ship's reactors died down and the intercom came to life. "This is the Admiral, we have dropped out of hyperspace and are establishing a stable orbit around Ryloth. Set condition Delta throughout the ship and resume normal day to day Operations."

"Okay, boys. The General is here so listen up." Boss yelled when he reached them.

Maxwell Bay

He left the holo table and returned to the main bridge. He had just finished exchanging pleasantries with Ryloth's political leader, a Twi'lek named Surro. It had been a short and simple introduction along with a short briefing.

He had ordered Commander Foster to organize a combat air patrol. Just as Maxwell reached the front window I saw the huge blast doors that protected the main hangar sliding open. A few seconds later seven gunships spilled out and headed down to the hangar.

Alexander's expedition force was underway.

"Okay people. You know the drill, send out sensor drones. Let's get full coverage of the planet's gravity well."

"Aye, sir," Nina called back, slipping into the role of a first officer.

"Nina, I am going to take go back to my cabin and get some sleep. You have the Con. Call me if anything interesting happens."

"Aye Aye sir."

Alexander Bay

The gunship shuddered as it descended through the atmosphere at three times the speed of sound. "Ten minutes to bingo," the pilot announced.

"I hate these," Boss yelled over the noise.

"I know," he yelled back. Flying in LAATs was a bitch. As a passenger, you were exposed, at the mercy of the pilots and whoever else was shooting at you.

Finally, the pilot announced that we would land in a few seconds and I could feel the aircraft decelerating hard.

"Okay men. We are there. There is a welcome committee already waiting."
The two doors slid open and they jumped out of the cramped crew cabin.

Around them, the rest of the expedition was also disembarking.

"Boss, you are in charge," he informed his old friend.

They had put down in some sort of military base surrounded by Meadows. A dozen barracks were set up to his left along with a command building. At the right, he spotted a shooting range and the arsenal.

Then he spotted the group of Twi'lek standing on the edge of the field. One of the people waiting for them, however, wasn't a Twi'lek.

The young Togruta female in the uniform of the SID immediately caught his eye. He recognized her at once, it was his wife, Yela.
The young woman caught his eye and winked.

Alexander walked over to the group. One of the Twi'lek stepped forward to meet him. "Greetings, I am Councilor Surro. I believe I talked to your brother earlier."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Yela making the gagging gesture. Alexander suppressed a smile and kept my face straight.

"Ahm hi, I am General Alexander Bay. I think we should get to work. May we use these facilities?" The Twi'lek looked slightly surprised but rearranged his face.

"Well, I can't complain about someone wanting to get work done. You aren't the only one with much to do. Yes, we have prepared this base for you. Settle in and inform us when you are ready so we can bring back some order into all this Chaos. Your wife Yela can show you around. I have a council meeting to attend to."

They shook hands. "Thank you for your hospitality. I look forward to working with you."

They bade their farewells and while Yela escorted the group of officials back to their shuttle he had Boss call in the rest of their forces. With nothing else to do he joined a group of clones and explored the main building in the center of the military camp.

------ Line breaker ------

He sat down in the main office. It was decorated in a very Spartan manner. A chair, desk with a console and another chair on the opposite of the desk. Whoever decorated this place even had an even worse place than Maxwell.

Alexander put his lightsaber and blaster down on the table and parked my feet on the desktop. I was just considering taking a short nap when the door opened and Yela stepped in. The Togruta closed the door behind her and leaned against the wall. "Hello, Alexander. It's been a while."

He grinned back at her.

When he first met Yela he had still been a padawan and she had been a slave. In short, they met, talked and then he had freed her. While he continued his training she had gone to school and had then joined the SIDs Academy.

They had still stayed in touch with close friends. After he left the order it turned out she had liked him the whole time which was convenient seeing as he spent years fantasizing about her. They had slept together, started dating, and got married on Alderaan.

"Hi, beautiful," he greeted her in return. With a casual movement, Yela locked the door. "So, am I disturbing anything?"

Her blue eyes sparkled with amusement. "In fact, I was about to give myself some much-deserved relaxation time and you disturbed me."

Yela smirked and walked forward and rested her hands on the top of my table. "Should I leave?"

He pretended to consider the question. "No, I think we should remind you to knock in the future."

Alexander got up and walked around the table. He stopped behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist and rested his chin on the tip of her head between her blue striped Montrails. "I missed you."

She pulled away and turned around and gazed up at me. "I missed you too Alex."

The Togruta wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned up and kissed the general who gladly returned the kiss before pulling away.

"I hope that you don't think you will get off easy just because you are my wife," Alexander whispered.

"Really, what will you do, punish me?" He gently grabbed her shoulder Lekku. "In fact, that is exactly a what I plan to do. I need to uphold discipline with the troops and letting this slide would send the wrong impression." His hand slid up her Lekku and to the back of her neck.

Maxwell Bay

Once again he found himself doing what he did most of the time on missions like this and that was paperwork. There were hundreds of requests and reports that needed to be checked and filed, work that he needed to do himself. There was also a letter from one of his very few friends.

Suddenly his doorbell rang. "Come in! It's open," Maxwell called. The door opened and his sister in law entered the room.

Maxwell would have gotten up but then he noticed that she was limping slightly and looked quite sore. She also seemed high-spirited and relaxed. There was only one explanation for those symptoms. Yela could obviously follow his train of thought and her shoulders slumped.

"You can tell?" She asked sounding slightly exhausted.

"Yes, do you want a cushion to sit on?"

Yela, gave me a grateful smile. "That would be nice, thanks."

He reached behind my desk and grabbed one of the cushions that I had ready for her. She put it on the chair and sat down. "Did you en-"

"Please don't. It's embarrassing enough." the Togruta growled.

"Are you su-"

"Shut up!"

Maxwell gave her a cool look and she paled a bit.

"Shut up Admiral please," he corrected her. Yela laughed softly and leaned back in her chair.

"So, how are things going down there apart from you know what."

Yela, made a face and pulled out her datapad. "Well, so far the boys have brought most of the heavy gear planetside. When I left the medical team was setting up their shop. If everything goes as planned we will be able to fly out medical supplies in a few hours. The doc asks if he can count on the surgical sweets on the Pride, there are a few critical patients down here."

Winter Wolf & Lengendary95 over and out.