[L21 - Shiva - RM] Chapter 1 - Part 1 - Briefing

Chief Trelan Prossad could feel it. They were close to getting off this blasted orange rock. So close. One, maybe two more rotations, and his small contingent of scouts, troopers, and scientists could signal Imperial powers to rescue them from the dusty red hellhole of Shiva IV. Stepping out of the command suite of Signal Relay Station 16, the Chief prepared to brief his personnel, freshly updated datapad in hand.

"We are close to operational again," he said, showing the readouts to his second, Scout Commander Grav. "By IM-P3's estimates, signal strength is at 40% and rising."

The scout commander dismissively waved a pair of electrobinoculars at the black protocol droid laboring on the signal rods below. "Walking circuit box sure is taking his time about it. He needs to step it up."

"Agreed," Trelan said, glancing down at the droid. IM-P3 had been spending a lot of time working on that circuit... "We can't dally long enough to allow the natives time to regroup and put together another raid. We're still reeling from the damage they did last month."

Grav raised his electrobinoculars, scanning the rust-colored landscape. "Damn near wiped us out last time."

“Indeed,” Prossad said, “I want V’Kell and Bravian on perimeter duty until we get the signal array and our shield generator back online. We can’t weather another raid. We were a skeleton crew before…now…”

"Done," Grav said, already keying orders into his comm. "No room for error this time. Not with the resource data we’ve compiled.”

“About that, Commander,” Prossad said, handing the scout commander his dataslate to read, “you should know—that last mineral core scan came back even more promising than we’d hoped…I'd like to take our remaining craft for an atmospheric flight. I need to collect additional samples to verify the purity of these resources. If what I'm seeing here is true...”

"Done," Grav said. "I'll make the arrangements myself."