Aesolian falls without a shot fired

“Who the hell does he think he is?”

The human woman stared out onto the tarmac where an old, scarred, drill sergeant paced back-and-forth, dressed in a khaki uniform, pith hat and old carved wooden cane. Tap, tap, tap, went the cane.

The drill sergeant was blue in skin colour, his face almost featureless apart from the scars of battles past. He turned and scowled at a gathering of pilots, standing straight and tall, uniforms crisp and neat. It was Twin Worlds Squadron, one of the finest units in Corellian Security (or CorSec). 

The drill sergeant had already been speaking for half an hour, lecturing the pilots on the importance of discipline, of formation, of the right way to brew a cup of caf using the local Aesolian blend…

“Just relax, Amy. You’ve got to understand what’s happening here on Aesolian - it’s just pageantry. Here the Tren are a proud, stubborn species. They used to aspire to be medium power in the region with numerous colonies around the sector. Those delusions were dashed, of course, when the Lahag Erli came through and crushed them all through the Har Worlds.

The pride remains, however. It hurts for them to have to come crawling, cap-in-hand to the Core Worlds for help, but they know they can’t deal with these pirates on their own. They’ve been trying for months with the help of the…” he scoffed, “...ragtag so-called ‘Volunteer Fleet’. So look, we turn up here. We let them think they’re in charge, throw the old drill sergeant a bone, but we all know they’ve had to turn to the Corelllian Security forces, ‘cause we can get the job done. 

This is good for us. It allows us to establish a beachhead in Wild space. This is after all part of why we join the Free Systems, not just out of the goodness of our hearts but for the trade and economic opportunities that’ll come our way. These poor Rimmers can’t look after themselves so they invite us in and fall under our influence without the need for a single shot to be fired.”

The staff at Red Tree Base on Aesolian

A mechanic’s work is never over

Best ‘fresher in the whole sector…. (Only ‘fresher in the whole sector…)

Couple of crates and an oil spill

I wanted to try a few things with this build:

• The ramp into the base uses a technique for half plate increments. This is the first time I've tired this at scale but I made it difficult for myself in also wanting green lights to shine through from underneath.
• Brick-built aurebesh writing for the I-15 or Isk-15 base name - which is also the grid that Aesolian is in
• Finding a good use for Rock Raiders roll cage.

In terms of characters, the Corellian man was in an earlier build marking the entry of Corellia and Duro in the Free Systems; the Corellian-Zabrak Jedi is actually from Jan Südmersen's CMF entry at the very start of Factions season 2. The multiple Tren became someone of a quest to find and use as many heads of that colour as I could.