Captain (Navy) Probos Hud was the new G-3 for Vanguard, replacing his rather more complacent predecessor after the latter's relief, and the sectors it operated out of, which was roughly the region between Ziost and Jabiim, with a broad mandate to disrupt whatever he could with the limited forces available to his command. The most important element of that mandate was to do whatever it took to prevent Mon Calamari, the planet that provided the Alliance's best shipyards, from direct attack or at least to make the theoretical supply lines for such an attack look too daunting to undertake. 

So he wasn't impressed when a Captain (Army) Ornestes of Alliance Intelligence was briefing him on a botched mission involving one of his ships having to cut and run real fast from a Victory-class star destroyer that lay in waiting -- his forces, to the mind of the Duros, were supposed to be the ones with the element of surprise.

"Captain, I will make this clear," Hud told him in the straightforward way the Duros tended to have, the confidence of being one of the first starfaring races, "My predecessor was slack and sat on his ass and was happy to detach forces to your operations. I am not. I need every swinging tentacle in my command to carry out -my- operations. Also, that Ganatoo station mission was a wash on all fronts -- it was only because one Lieutenant Byron sent out a separate team to tap the traffic control at the same time that they were running this funny Hutt deal, acting like a palace guard for a washed-up crime lord, that my forces managed to discover the threat and got out."

"Be that as it may," Ornestes started.

"Please sit, Captain," Hud ordered/requested, "And allow me to explain the facts of life." Ornestes, who was something like three grades beneath a Navy captain, did so. It was hard to read Duros expressions, at least for a human, because they were blue-faced, golden-eyed and had no noses. It took a person experienced with their expressions to really read them. All the same, they were not some provincial species -- the Duros were far-flung, with colonies all over the galaxy, and their homeworld in the core. They often acted like they invented the hyperdrive, and certainly loved to make use of it.

"All Intelligence requests for my forces will be routed through me. The plans will be submitted to me. They will be vetted by myself and my staff before the forces you require are given their orders. I agree that uploading virii into the Imperial traffic control computers is a useful mission and will put my chop on it when I see an appropriate plan. By 'appropriate' I mean any plan that does not involve that Hutt." 

"But sir, Slooga..."

"Is washed up and has a price on his head big enough for his former contacts to turn on him. He's not really a powerful Hutt Lord anymore. I am reliably informed that his ship is in the alliance with or without him. For the sake of appearances, we'll keep Slooga because he might be useful in the future, but have no illusions, Captain, we are not here to facilitate his grandiose plans of a return to glory. We're here to fight the Empire."

"Yes sir," Ornestes said, somewhat stiffly, "I understand."

"Good, now I'd like to turn your attention," he hit a button and the room darkened and a holodisplay came up, "to this; Operation Bantha Poacher."

The Intruder, a squadron of Y-Wings, Buccaneer squadron, and, of course, 1st Platoon in the vanguard...