Lianna's Open Orbit

He got hold of her shoulder and rolled, rotating her on top of him and using both hands to hold her.
"Just sneak in eh? Just like that. Not going to give me the chance to say no?"
He smiled coyly up at her.
"Where would you like to be? I have the drive yards themselves that will have to be assaulted, and the ground battle on the planet itself. The ground battle is going to be very vehicle and aircraft heavy though. Mechanized warfare. If you are going to be there..." He paused for a moment considering as his eyes seemed to become lost once again before refocusing. "The Drive Yards would be the best place. Ever done a vacuum insertion boarding action before?"

"Well, at least I don't have to worry about you running off with some dashing stormtrooper! The place where your skills would work to best advantage would be on the Drive Yards themselves. The only problem is, its exposed to vacuum."

His face turned completely serious.

 "If you go you'll have to do it in a set of armor that you havent used before, in one of the most hostile environments. And...whatever happens, don't go near machine shops or drydock and construction areas. That is the only way to actually hurt Dark Tides war making ability. To do it, the yards shields need to go down. The way to do that, is to take out onboard reactors."

He looked into her eyes. He didnt need to explain just how dangerous a job that was. More or less stuck within enemy occupied territory and going to blow up or otherwise neutralize reactors that could take out large sections of cityscape, or an entire city on its own if its shields breached or violently melted down. If they succeeded, anyone on the mission would be cut off for long periods of time without backup or extraction available, and would have to make do with what they could find on the station itself. Granted the whole thing was the largest shipyard in the galaxy which usually lent itself to large amounts of nearly finished spacecraft...but...

He smiled as she used the word 'love' as she referred to him. It felt good to be the object of someone's love, and to love that person in return. The thought of having someone to look forward to coming back home to, someone to share life with in a way shared with no one else, it was a warm, comforting, inviting, and heady feel, an addicting feeling, and he liked it. In point of fact he loved it. It was as if something that had been missing suddenly had been put into its place, completing a puzzle as old as time in every being, but this was his puzzle of life that was being completed.

"What I need is for you to come back from all of this. But I can't keep you away from it. And I doubt you could keep me from it. Besides, how am I going to find out every part of the real you if you leave me all alone?"

He gave her a pinch and a wink.

"Well then you'll just have to promise yourself to get back so you can find it all out." He leaned towards her and gave her a peck on the cheek before rolling out of bed on the other side to gather his clothes and started getting ready to continue preparations. He still had to talk to Gaeza and give her the holocrons that his troops had recovered at Carida before its destruction. There were many details that had to be finished before they left for battle, grim details. Details that seemed morbid, but were nevertheless necessary in the event of a run of bad luck. Ironically enough it often helped to focus one's attention and hold onto one's nerve. It took one's mind at least partially away from the dark realities that were about to face them, looming over them as the future came closer with each change in the digit of the chrono, looming closer and closer. As he finished fastening his boots he looked back up at Melia laying there in the bed with a blanket draped over her, and he thought again, that he had more to come back to. A bright point in the future, in the heart of the looming specter, a future in one that was difficult to see past the coming battle. Yes he would make sure that he achieved his goals, this was a sight that he wanted to see again. He picked up a canvas bag from the corner, a number of cube shaped objects in it and headed for the door.

"I'll talk to Gaeza. You might want to see about getting some armor modified to fit you. At least you won't be swimming in it."

He stepped out of his bedroom and noticed Gaeza's bag laying on the floor. At least she was home and he didnt have to try to find her. A quick glance around told him that she was likely in her room. He gently tapped on the door.

"Gaeza. May I come in?"

Taung wasnt expecting the enthusiastic greeting that he recieved, but he supposed that he had gone to battle and been gone for a few days, and been very busy in between.

"Its nice to see you too."

He followed her into her room, letting the door hiss shut behind him. He glanced about her room, it appeared clean, but he could tell not all was quite as it appeared, a sleeve just peeking out into sight from under her bed gave that away. Clearly she had tried to clean things up quickly so he wouldnt chastise her about always keeping things put away where they could easily be found when needed quickly. But he wasnt here for that. He held up the bag of holocrons to her.

"I brought you something. Be careful, they'll break."

"Jedi Holocrons. Hopefully they can teach you something about the Force without trying to control your mind first."

He hoped that she would be able to use them to help her focus and control her Force powers. Or at least start along that path. He wasnt sure she could even open them, but he thought that it would be better than simply letting her move through things mostly blind through trial and error.

"I'm not sure to be honest. I've heard stories about how someone uses the Force to access the information or activate it, but I have never seen it or done so myself. As for controlling a mind, there are myths and rumors, but more than enough to not ignore, that Sith holocrons often attempt to corrupt someone's mind, kind of like mind control, though some rumors and legends argue tell of long dead Sith trying to take over someone's body through a holocron of their own creation. Which are fact and which are simply old wives tales I could not tell you. But like I said, the rumors and legends are consistent enough not to ignore. Jedi holocrons don't have any of that stigma attached, which leads me to believe that they are a bit safer to work with at first."

He rubbed his nose.

"The other way to do it would be to find someone who was willing to train you. I thought that since you had your prime's holocron as an option to learn from, you should have the same choice from the opposite school of thought as a balance."

"Well I did give you the choice on whether or not to access your prime's holocron. But presenting only one side of a discussion seldom does any good. These are your choice just as it is."

He rubbed his chin.

"Yes. And yes Mel is going with me. And no you can't come, and no you shouldnt test me on this. I am going to Kuat. Its going to be a bad battle. There is going to be heavy losses no matter what. So I will not have you sneaking on any ships. In fact I am thinking sending you away while the battle is being fought. There are powers on Lianna that want me dead, and they may come after you just because its a way to get at me. And I can't look in two directions at once."

His eyes met hers.

"I know that isnt what you wanted to hear."

"Mel...isnt all that she appeared to be. She is more than a commando, but we'll leave that conversation for another time. But she is how I know."
He saw the fear darken her eyes and he frowned at her slightly, while fear was neither shunned nor encouraged by Mandos it was something that she didnt have much experience in dealing with.
"I am sending you away from Lianna, for your protection for now with one of my commando squads, out of reach of anyone from Lianna. At least until I get back. I don't want to be worrying about you when I need to be worrying about me. As to where I thought I might get your ideas on where. A vacation on some paradise beach somewhere laying out in the sun perhaps? Some old city that you might want to explore?"
He deliberately didnt answer her question about what might happen to him. He was content, if he could, distract her with other thoughts. She already knew the truth, that there was the possibility that he wouldnt come back. He would try with everything in him to do so, but the odds had a way of catching up with someone every so often.