When Nareia and Rayce arrived at the Rogue Squadron hangar, they found Wedge speaking to one of the astromech droids next to his X-Wing. The unit and Antilles seemed to be arguing over something, with Wedge pointing at a data pad in his hand and the unit insisting otherwise. When Rayce and Nareia showed up, he seemed to sigj in relief. 

"Unfortunately, no." He said, placing the data pad on top of a crate before walking toward the duo near the entrance. The astromech unit beeped at him and then rolled away. "And like I said, politicians will always be the same. Anyway, like you said-" Wedge leaned against the nose of his X-Wing as he spoke., "We're probably not getting off this planet for a while."

Rayce shook his head disappointedly, while Nareia pursed her lips and held her tongue. It wouldn’t be of much surprise to anyone that out of every available fighter squadron, it was the Rogues who wanted to hit the Remnant the most. General Iblis and his cadre of sympathetic senators wouldn’t need to look far to find sympathy among the New Republic’s fighting forces.

“So, we’re just being used for propaganda?” Rayce asked, looking between Nareia and Wedge. “Does she want an air show over Chandrila? We do a few spins and somersaults—let the people feel a little good when we all know this isn’t over yet?”

“This fracture is only getting larger, Wedge.” Nareia nodded at the data pad he tossed aside. “What’s that?”

Wedge sighed as soon Nareia mentioned the datapad. "Droid's being all uptight about something on the ship. I told him it's fine. Something about protocol. These new droids they've sent us are terrible." 

Before the conversation could go any further, Wedge's eyes shifted to someone coming up behind Nareia. It was a junior officer running up to the hangar as fast as he could. By his uniform, Wedge could tell it was one of command's technicians. Once he arrived, the young technician nearly fell over. He bent down, placing his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

“To be fair, droids have a hard time thinking beyond the scope of their own programming,” Nareia said.

“Don’t let ZeeZee catch you saying—” Rayce cut himself off and looked over his shoulder as Nareia did. A young man—a technician of some kind based on his getup—hustled up to them. Before he could get a word out, he doubled over from exhaustion. 

“What’s going on?” Nareia was the first among them to ask.

At the mention of Madine, both Nareia and Rayce exchanged looks. If General Madine was calling for them, it was undoubtedly worthwhile. Neither of them would say it out loud, but if this was what they believed it to be, then there was hope for the New Republic yet.

“I’ll grab Kyrin; you grab Alara and meet us outside?” Rayce asked.

“That works. I just need to pull her from her books. You’ll have to pull him from pazaak.” 

“Oh joy, my favorite hobby,” Rayce said dryly. Nareia gave the technician a grateful pat on the shoulder before hustling towards the barracks. Rayce gave a nod to Wedge and entrusted him to gather the rest before he, too, ran off. 

Assembling the missing pair hadn’t taken long; Kyrin was more than eager to collect his credits and leave the pazaak table, giving the losers a wolfish grin before hustling to suit up. Alara saved her position in her latest book, “The Wroshyr and the Wookiees”, and suited up quickly. The two pairs managed to meet up around the same time and, with helmets beneath their arms, collectively entered the command room. 

Nareia nodded curtly at General Madine before exchanging silent greetings to the rest of the assembled Rogues. She stood as closely beside Wedge as was allowed; Rayce, in turn, joined beside her; Alara squeezed in beside Rayce, leaving Kyrin to close her between the two men. All Rogues were accounted for.

The group huddled around a holo table, usually used to display ongoing battles. Though this time, it was being used to showcase a planet. After a brief exchange with an aide, Madine stepped forward.

"I apologize for calling you all here on such short notice. But everyone else is off-world, and I need an experienced crew on top of this." With a cane he was holding under his arm, he pointed at the planet. The image also included a lone star destroyer in orbit. 

"About two hours ago, our agents in Onderon reported the arrival of a Star Destroyer. It orbited the planet for a few minutes before deploying ground units to the capital. The base there has a small garisson of special agents who work for New Republic Intelligence. While I would trust them to keep the base a secret, I worry that the commanding officer of that ship could compromisr their position." 

Madine sighed, as he changed the display. Now, the holotable showed the image of an Imperial Officer. He was more machine than man. Half of his face was replaced with a prosthetic, and the entire right shoulder and arm were also cynernetics. 

"This is Fleet Admiral Gable Karius. I had the unfortunate 'honor' to meet him in person. He's ruthless and obsessesed with perfection. If he's in Onderon, then he is looking for our base there. Your mission is simple, you will head out there with a small fleet, retrieve the special forces and return home. Any questions?"

Each of them remained silent and attentive as General Madine explained the situation. It was Wedge who asked the more pressing questions. Reinforcements would come if they hit hard and fast. That was Rogue Squadron’s MO, and if the Empire hadn’t learned by now, they will. 

Nareia inched forward. “If you lend us enough bomber support with that cruiser, we can take that Star Destroyer out. I know our primary objective is evacuation, but this is a chance at further crippling the Remnant’s ability to strike back at us.”

“In other words, we’re Rogue Squadron,” Kyrin bluntly cut in. “We can do both.”

“A GR-75 and a couple of us to cover it. That can leave the rest of the fleet to take out this Admiral,” Rayce added. “He can’t be expecting us to come in with force.”

“Unless…” Alara quietly started; the gazes of her comrades turned towards her, ears perked and expressions welcoming. Wedge may be Rogue Leader, but a squadron wasn’t comprised of one person. She was still learning that her input was appreciated. “Unless there’s something down there he wants. If he suspected there’s a base, he could just bombard it from orbit. He either wants the data they’ve obtained, or he wants the agents. Why go through the trouble of sending ground troops otherwise?”

"He's looking for something." Madine reluctantly admitted. "This is no ordinary New Republic facility. The forces there are keeping a special item under their protection. It is most likely what's he's after." 

Antilles gave a worried glance to the rest of the squadron. This whole mission sounded like a bad idea. He felt like Madine was not giving them the whole story, and while he understood the need for screcy sometimes he was about to risk the lives of his squadron for something he barely knew anything about.
"What is this item? And why does a cyborg Imperial officer want it?" 

"That's on a need-to-know basis. And right now, your squadron doesn't need to know." Madine gestured at the image of Karius on the hologram. "Another thing, this mission was authorized by the Chancellor. She wants you to focus on rescuing our agents. Rules of engagement are to only engage if engaged."

Wedge assumed Mon Mothma was doing this partly as a show of strength. Not only was she sending the best to retrieve a bunch of Alliance officers, but she also seemed ready to use force if necessary. Mothma was playing a dangerous game here. But, Wedge wasn't interested. While he could have put up a fight with Madine over the confidentisl information, he decided against it. Tensions were already high enough.

All of them had something to add to Madine’s explanation. But like Wedge, they reserved their comments and feelings and instead looked to him for his orders.