Junebug breathed a little easier when no further rounds were forthcoming. For a moment she had allowed her mind to imagine that the port, the ironically named 'Eternal Peace' might be under siege by the more active of the rebel groups. If you held the ridgelines it would be easy enough to emplace missile pits to spike any incoming ships and effectively blockade the planetary capital. Fortunately or unfortunately the rebels seemed neither that well funded, or that advanced. Idly she wondered what the mininum force Andor would have used for the task of taking the city would have been. Perhaps a company of skimmers and two companies of infantry, only a modest commitment but cities could be tricky and urban fighting ate troops the Goddess knew.

The signal pulsed an ugly yellow on Sayeeda's terminal, she wasn't sure if that was the default of if the AI didn't feel she had responded to it quickly enough and was making its electronic irritation known. She grimaced, it was properly her duty so she flicked open the communication circuit.

"... AT ONCE..." an irritated high pitched voice shrieked into the pickup. Wincing at the volume, Junebug dumped some of the gain.

"ALL HOW DEFY THE LIBERATOR HAN WILL BE INFALLIBLEY DESTROYED!" Junebug could imagine spittle flying from the man', she was pretty sure it was a man, lips.

"Roger," she said in a bored, boring neutral voice. It wasn't how she felt but people responded to tone on an instinctual level. You could issue a deadly threat in a pleasant tone of voice and it would take several seconds for the fact to register one somone, her choice of this voice was to deescalate the speaker, some minor flunky she imagined, and dissuaded him from any action that he, or she might regret.

"Highlander Six to Port Control Eternal Peace, requesting landing instructions." There was a moment of silence on the line, it was entirely likely that shouted threats were much more the common medium of exchange here on Sarvan. Certainly her reasonable request seemed to take the spaceport controller, if so grand a term could be applied by surprise.

"We will of course be open to discussing all landing fees once we have touched down," she said judiciously. Translation, pay any required bribes. A directional signal appeared on the board.

"We will indeed!" snapped the controller, "Follow the signal and do not deviate. We are at war here on Saravan and traitors are dealt with as is proper!" The line went dead.

"Well... lets go meet the locals," Sayeeda said in a dry tone.

[@POOHEAD189]