Debriefing and Decontamination

[Dashiel Starborn]

It wasn't until he'd gotten out of the 'fresher in his surprisingly ample yet regrettably temporary quarters that Dash noticed his wrist-chrono had stopped. Face twisting in annoyance as he stalked the corridors of Alliance Intelligence, he tapped two fingertips against the watch face, where the read-out was frozen at 18:33. Depending on which way he looked at it, he was either incredibly late or very early for the debriefing on the mission to Nelvaan.

Since landing on Bothawui, there had been precious little time to do anything except grab a minute in the shower and a bite of something that wasn't freeze-dried or in bar form. The Advisory Council were expecting a report on the status of the Bothan water siphoning facilities which had inexplicably shut down and terminated contact with the Rebellion – yet, even as he called for the turbolift which would take him to the debriefing room, Dash still didn't know exactly what to tell them. He'd hoped that the lone survivor they had recovered would shed some light on the situation, but the big blue alien had been taken into quarantine mere minutes after they'd landed; for now, it was down to Dashiel and Charlotte to make sense out of the mess they'd found.

The ping of the turbolift arriving cut into Starborn's train of thought, the doors sliding open with an almost soundless hiss. He looked up and saw Tur'enne looking back at him from inside the lift. With a half shrug, he stepped inside.

“Going up?”

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

"I have another option?" The question was delivered deadpan as Charlotte let lifeless eyes meet Dash's before she forced a small smile and shuffled to one side of the lift.

Arriving back at Bothawui had been both a blessing and a curse. Sure she felt warm again and once again had full feeling in her toes and fingertips, but now she was back on the same piece of rock as her brother and the Captain. The immediate summons hadn't given time for much of anything aside from making herself presentable and for that she was grateful... even if it meant she hadn't had time to go catch anything to eat. Probably better that way... the last thing she wanted was any other member of Dorn to go off asking her where she had been or how the mission had went or... well... anything else.

Despite the fact she looked anything but approachable in the turbolift, her arms crossed over her chest and a slightly grumpy expression etched on her features, Charles did have to admit that at least she was with the one single person in the Alliance she had to admit that she was at least comfortable around. Especially after a mission like that.

Charles forced a small sigh to leave her as she glanced from where a small panel was reading off the current level the lift was at and then back to Dash. "I wouldn't worry about it too much... been put through the ringer a few times, sure you have too. I doubt they'll line up anything major for this. It's not like we fraked up or anything."

[Dashiel Starborn]

Dash nodded. “Right. Seems like sending us in was too little too late.”

Though there was obviously nothing either of them could have done to change what had happened on Nelvaan, their trip back to Bothawui had been quiet and uneasy. Charlotte had barely spoken, a peculiarity which she kept up for the duration of the turbolift ride. The doors slid open, revealing a short corridor that terminated in a sealed doorway. There was no security, at least not that Starborn could see, though an intruder hoping to assassinate the entire Alliance Advisory Council would have been disappointed at what lay on the other side of the door.

The brightly lit briefing room contained little more than a half-moon of podiums, centred around a large holographic emitter. Only two of the podiums were occupied, and by faces that, whilst translucent and blue, Dash recognised: Leeadra Longstar of Corellia and his aunt, Celeste Starborn.

[Celeste Starborn]

“Agent Starborn, Lieutenant Tur'enne,” Celeste acknowledged their arrival with a nod. “Councillor Oruo'rel is delayed in his arrival, however our time is limited so we shall press on. The Intelligence Oversight Committee has received and reviewed your preliminary reports on the Nelvaan incident. Two survivors, from a staff of sixty-eight, most brutally slaughtered – and yet you return to us without a scrap of evidence to indicate who is responsible for this crime.”

[Leeadra Longstar]

While not perfectly capturing the emotion, the blue hologram that was Leeadra's face was still set in stone. There was no need to chime in with her two credits regarding the situation. Celeste had seen to getting to the point in a manner that the Corellian Councillor had to admit was admirable.

While she didn't feel the sense of disappointment, or was it aggravation, that seemed clear in her Alderaanian counterpart, Leeadra did have to admit that the situation was rather off.

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

Out of every aspect of being a soldier, an officer at that, the one thing that Charlotte always hated above all else was reporting in. Especially when it was bad news, and even more so when it was to floating heads rather than some physical individual whose rank you could practically breathe in with the way they would carry themselves. Not that she liked those types either, but at least you got the benefit of knowing you could always at least have the option of talking yourself out of shaking the other individual silly when they started making stupid accusations. Even if they were only implied ones.

As her eyes moved from one blue face to another, she found herself squaring her shoulders, already feeling herself forcing a defensive position that admittedly was a bit loathsome as well.

"We brought you one of the survivors. There wasn't much else aside from destroyed equipment and corpses." She avoided the wanted addition of If you'd like, we can make another trip and bring you those as well. Oh and we're terribly sorry there wasn't any Imperial gear scattered about. We can always toss some of that around too if you want. You know, just to brighten the place up a bit.

[Dashiel Starborn]

“With all due respect, neither of us have a background in forensics.”

Dash spoke without hesitation. Charlotte had hit the nail on the head: the only evidence that the perpetrator had left behind was a trail of bodies, only two of which had still exhibited signs of life. Whatever conflict had torn through the now-dormant facility had left the machinery and structure itself largely intact, whilst executing the entire staff with brutal efficiency.

“We checked out the main security room but the consoles had been trashed. Only the live-feed surveillance was still running. A tech crew might be able to salvage something from the memory banks?”

[Celeste Starborn]

“Indeed. As to the.. Nelvaanian, until a suitably equipped protocol droid can be found to provide translation for its grunts and growls, we can only speculate as to the purpose of the creature's presence within the facility.” Celeste's eyes drifted downwards to the podium she stood in front of. “Your report indicates that you spoke with a survivor who claimed there was a... monster in the facility.”

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

"Monsters come in all forms." Probably shouldn't have said that. Regardless though, the comment couldn't be held in.

The insinuation that was being made seemed completely ridiculous to her... no matter how logical it honestly was. The big blue thing did seem kinda monstrous at first glance, and it was true that it did threaten her and Dash a bit with that spear it had, and the fact it was present at the scene of the crime... but it reeked of frightened wounded native savage erather than the person that had gone to all the trouble of destroying the facility and slaughtering its workers. Charlotte figured anyone could piece that together... even without the freaky (she hesitated to call them) visions that she wasn't even remotely going to mention.

"Whoever did this seemed more intent on mindless destruction than gaining any sort of real advantage. I honestly hesitate to even suggest the Empire was at fault. There just didn't seem to be any rationale behind it."

[Leeadra Longstar]

"No one was implying that it was the Nelvaanian."

Naturally Leeadra had her own impression of the incident after reading the report, and while she wasn't certain that the representative of Alderaan shared her view exactly, something had to be said to diffuse the situation. She was familiar with the two younger rebels, at least as far as paperwork went, and it was enough to know that seemingly vague accusations weren't going to be met with the cooperation that the Advisory Council was looking for.

Not that they had to be exactly easy on them, however.

"We simply wish to make sure that you left nothing out of your report, not even the slightest detail. If we are to even begin to consider investing the time and funds towards sending a group of technicians and medical professionals to fully examine what remains of the facility we have to ensure that it won't be a waste and that they will bring back more information that will actually lead to a conclusion on who is responsible.

However, if there's information you have chosen to withhold..." She let her voice trail, they both knew what she was getting at.

[Dashiel Starborn]

“Why would we...”

Before he could say anything else, Dash bit down on the inside of his lower-lip. Although debriefing sessions within Alliance Intelligence itself were about give and take, typically with senior agents and analysts trying to tease out some vital over-looked fact from their junior counterparts, this was different. People had a way of shutting up about Dash's aunt when he was around, but he had heard enough to know that she wasn't well-liked within the military. At moments like this, it wasn't hard to see why.

“I put everything in my report that I can remember. Maybe a tech team will be able to find something we couldn't, work out an M.O, but my gut tells me that the Nelvaanian was just as much a victim as anyone else who wound up a smear on the factory floor. Where that leaves us... I don't know.”