Project Boussh: Making Points
by Majick

"Captain, a moment please."
Face looked at his comlink, and realised he was receiving a private
transmission from Corran Horn, Jedi and Rogue Squadron pilot.
"Sir!" he said, his voice just screaming 'salute'.
"At ease, Face," the Corellian said, a trace of humour in his voice. "Are
you feeling okay? You're normally more... insubordinate."
"Too much time with the crispy fried Aussie, sir!" His face broke into a
grin. Even over the comlink, he could imagine Corran's blink, before the
other man caught on.
"Very well, Face," he said. "You've been assigned to lead Mike's team, is
that right?"
"Yes," replied Face. "We're going after the cloning cylinders."
"There's something you should know, then..."

At that moment, Sci and Josh walked up to the group. Josh held a cluster of
datapads in his hands, and Sci plucked one of them away from the Aussie,
before presenting it to Mike.
"There you go, Mike," he began. "Detailed layouts and schematics of the
Palace and the cloning chambers. Everything that Thayer, Tede, and even
Becki can remember about the palace, all the passages, everything."
"Lord Thayer was, apparently, a big help with that," Josh added. Mike
nodded, as if he would have suspected nothing else.
"Lemme guess... He roamed the Palace as a child, and knows all the secret
passageways, all the hidden doo-dahs, all the mysterious defence systems..."
He noticed Sci looking at him, curiously.
"No..." Sci said, slowly. "He bribed the architect." Sci looked at Josh as
though asking why Mike wasn't the one who'd been tied up. Josh just
shrugged.
"You're a romantic deep down, am I right?" Josh asked
"You've got me. I must admit. On that note, do you realise I'm the only one
who hasn't actually got to work with, in fact *meet* his wingmate yet?" Mike
said.
Sharon cleared her throat. "Fascinating as this is... We're on the way to a
briefing, remember? Besides, I haven't got to work with my wingmate,
either."
"Your wingmate is a traitorous, murdering piece of haggis," Mike pointed
out.
"True... But briefing, remember?"

Mike looked around the small group that he was part of for the duration of
the Mendellia stay. Emily, Face, Sharon and Alison, the first of whom was
very, very happy to find Face alive and well again.
"...so when you shot Retsim he just vanished..." he heard her whisper to
Face. What was it with her and the prettyboys, anyway?
The sea shuttle was moored on the beach, a short way from where the shuttle
had so abruptly dropped Mike and Face just minutes before. Alison had
insisted on using the privacy of the craft for their briefing.
For some reason, Face had ceded control of the mission to him, so he
cleared his throat. Mike wasn't sure whether total privacy was good, or bad
though. He lowered his sunglasses enough to catch the eyes of each of his
team-mates.
"Right, then. For whatever reason, I'm bossing this mission..."
He was interrupted by a chorus of whistles and mock jeers from Sharon and
Emily. Silently, he apologised to everyone he'd ever done that too.
"All right, okay, enough... Captain, would you like to explain why you're
not commanding this mission?"
"I'm still in recovery, Mike... I think it would be better for someone able
bodied and clear minded to lead us, at least through the light fight."
"When we get to the Spaarti cylinders," Emily chimed in, "it might be wise
for Face to show us the best way to blow things up."
"Hobbie wasn't happy that he didn't get to be on the big bang group," Face
commented.
"Awww... Poor Hobbie, he gets to blow up lots of TIE fighters. We'd love to
get a chance at that," Alison commented.
"Believe me, I wish I had an X-Wing's shields around me," Face added.
"Confidence in your leader, and enthusiasm for our mission," Mike murmured.
"Wonderful." 
Sharon smirked in his direction. "We have faith in you, Four," she said. 
"We just love X-Wings."
"I mean, you do have that lightsabre and all..." Alison added with a wink.
"It inspires loyalty."
"And the clothes just scream respectable leader," Face added.
Mike looked down at his outfit, ruefully.
"I thought it looked fairly cool. And maybe a little intimidating."
"Only if the stormies have seen 'the Matrix'," Emily said.
"And I would have expected a little support from you," Mike said, looking
at Face.
"I'm enjoying being back in the gallery," Wraith Lead offered. "I mean, how
often do you get the chance to make your team leader's life miserable?"
Mike looked at him over his sunglasses.
"Well... How often do these three get to do it?" he amended, pointing at
the girls.
"Anyway... We've been set to go after the Spaarti cylinders, as I was
saying," Mike said. "Now, Captain Loran can probably point out what we need
to make go bang, but it's really up to us three," he pointed at himself,
Alison, and Emily "to clear the way."
"And me?" Sharon asked.
"Communications, observation, and rearguard."
"Do you watch horror movies? It's always the rearguard that buys it first,"
she pointed out.
"You're observant, right? Plus, if you were hanging around Inyri and Gavin,
you must have gotten a handle on how to spot weird stuff."
"There were some... unusual events," she allowed.
"I look forward to hearing about them in greater detail at some point."
Sharon's grumbles were further quieted upon learning she would be assigned
a sniper rifle as part of her duties. As if on cue, Bror Jace bounded up 
the craft's ramp, carrying a hard case with Sharon's rifle inside.
"Mike," he asked, a shade irritably. "Why do Terras Eleven and Twelve keep
laughing whenever they see me?"
"I really can't even begin to imagine, Bror. Are you flying in the raid?"
"Yes... I still do not understand my call sign, though. I have never heard
of the word 'Gonad'. What does it mean?"
"It's... Well, it's an Earth term, and apparently translates well into
Corellian as well... You mean Corran never used it around you?"
"I've heard it used several times, in fact, but no-one would ever explain
it."
"Well... I believe it means, from what I can gather, something that's
usually a small part of the whole, but that occupies a disproportionately
large amount of a man's thought process. I believe it may explain why Corran
referred to you by that name."
"Yes," Bror said. "I always did think Corran was more impressed by me than
he was prepared to admit. This 'Gonad'... I may well name my next squadron
on Thyferra after it."
Mike and Face managed to choke down the laughter, the girls didn't. Bror
looked at the group, and walked away, mystified. Mike shook his head as he
watched the proud man move back to his ship.
"Back to the briefing, unless there's any more interruptions?"
He looked around, and then down at the datapad Josh and Sci had given him.
He transferred the files to each of their pads, and called up the schematics
for the entry points.
"Right, this data was transferred out from the Skate just after the caverns
were invaded. Let's make sure we use it properly.
"We'll enter here, I think," he said, pointing at the main entrance. "It's
the last place they expect, plus it's actually on the first floor, thanks to
a funky piece of drawbridge design by the architect.
"Now, the cloning chamber is on the third floor... What I propose is
this..."