Hearing on the Battle of Ando Prime

[Dmitri]

Djibril turned to Daniel. "There's no reason to have the Supreme Chancellor under surveillance. The worst he's done is incompetence, not treason. We have no justification. Besides, he's already under lock and key by Republic security."

Djibril returned his attention to Adara. "Supreme Commander Talai, there's two things I wish to point out that were not in your report. The first is that a Republic colonel contacted the Jade and tricked them into bombing Ando Prime, killing many ground forces. Secondly, in Jedi Master Haar's report, who tragically died before he could be presented before this committee, mentioned engaging contact with a Bogan vessel above Ando Prime orbit. The ship was not attacked. In the report of one of your communications officers, it reports that this same ship was spotted when the 15th Fleet first arrived in the Ando system. According to the officer's report..." He glanced at the datapad one last time. "...the Bogan vessel remained in the Ando system for five minutes after your fleet arrived. In my opinion, five minutes would have been adequete time to scan an entire fleet's size, along with some statistics. What's troubling is that nothing was done with the ship, a Zweihander-class blockade runner. Please tell the committee why this Bogan vessel, whom may be what alerted the Hutts of your precense in the Ando system, was not destroyed, or why you omitted to tell in your report that it was Republic forces that ordered the Jade to bomb Ando Prime, wasting countless of Republic and Jedi forces on the ground?"

 

[Raif]

Korembeck idly stroked the hair on his chain which made his braided 'beard' as Adara answered his question. He was afraid that he had been right in his assumptions about her, and her answer seemed to confirm it: she had been a bit too cocky.

As his fellow Senators mentioned some nonsense about locking up Mohatu, Korembeck glanced down to his datapad and called forth the parts of Adara's service record which he had access to. As he had been led to believe, she seemed to be something of a progidy, rising rapidly through the ranks despite her youth and gender, which despite the 'open-mindedness' of the Galactic Republic, could still be a detriment.

Perhaps her meteoric rise had finally caught up with her? Korembeck purred softly as he pondered this. Though she was somewhat justified in blaming the lack of intel on the mission planners, the fact remained that she seemed to have made little fuss about the glaring holes in the battle plan which had been handed to her. Instead, she had charged head first, filled with the fire and bluster of youth, confident she could smash any obstacle in her path. Though laying the entire blame of the defeat at Adara's feet would be a gross injustice, Korembeck was sadly becoming more and more confident that the young Naval warrior would not escape this hearing unscathed...much like her 15th Fleet.

Korembeck was really starting to regret volunteering for this position. However, he felt compelled to interject when Djibril once again brought up the SOLAG call to JA.

"I don't mean to interrupt, Senator, but I believe she has already stated that communication was lost witth the ground forces, so it seems apparent that she would have no way to know that SOLAG was responsible for the bombing of the Bogan temple. Speaking of that assault, though, let's hear it straight from the Bantha's mouth, shall we?"

Barring any objections, Korembeck would once again signal to the guards, this time asking them to bring in Abelle.

 

[Count Sam]

"Senator Djibril if I am not mistaken commander Adara was busy dealing with the Ando prime defenses..technically it would have been hard for her to even notice a small yacht running away in the heat of battle. Also if I am not mistake during the time this ship escaped Adara gave the command for one of the commodores under her command to lead the fleet while she was away....and also the whole fleet was weapon free so technically if one of the gunners had that yacht within range and did not fire then it would obviously not be Adara's mistake." Daniel said as he took out a tissue and started to wipe his sweat away with it.

"That is of course if all the information I received about the battle is correct.." He added as he waited for a reaction from his fellow senators.

 

[Ru the Boatswain]

Guards entered and made eye contact. It was her turn.

The woman marched in with all the martial grace she had. She stood at a flawless attention and saluted the council before her. This was a military hearing after all and required all proper order. Instead of introducing herself she was introduced by another man as Colonel Hallen.

 

[Malon]

Through all of this, Senator Yar remained unspoken. He listened to the questions and occasional rants of his fellow Senators, bar Korembeck, and occasionally glanced down at his datapad to cross check the reports with the answers coming from the witness. Finally, Korembeck signaled the guards to bring in the next witness, yet the Senators were still talking about the first witness' closing statements. Disregarding them, he noticed that the second witness had entered the room.

"Welcome Colonel. I believe it would only be fair if we got your account of the battle, as well as anything not mentioned in your reports you feel we should know." he glanced once at his fellow senators and at the chairman before continuing. "After all, it is only fair we hear your side before interjecting our questions and opinions."

 

[Ru the Boatswain]

Crisply she responded, microphones floating around her backed off as her own voice carried across the room.

"I will repeat my story which you will find is in line with my report: My mission objectives, which were to land my troops and assault the temple, were completed successfully. As expected, I suffered losses in the assault, but due to circumstances beyond my control we lost contact with the fleet. I was forced to assume the mission was scrapped and began plans to pull out. Some of my men volunteered to stay behind and guarantee the destruction of the temple. As we escaped upon Bogan freighters I realized that Jade forces had arrived in system and were engaging Republic forces. I recalled classified intelligence I gathered while infiltrating Jade to complete my mission."

 

[Malon]

Senator Yar narrowed his eyes, glanced at his colleagues and then once down at his datapad before continuing, "That's fine and dandy, but the Jade bombers were said to have mowed down some Republic troopers. Your very own people. According to the reports, you ordered that bombing run despite the fact that Jade was the enemy." he said, keeping his tone cool and calm.

"I'm all ears Colonel, as I'm sure the rest of this committee is, so why don't you explain to us the reasons behind your actions."

 

[Tsar Fire]

Adara, dismissed for the moment, was standing by the side wall. She clenched her fists, behind her back, as she listened to the Colonel's account.

Lost contact with the fleet? She'd contacted all ground forces to inform them about the Hutt arrival. Whether or not she explained her maneuvers was inconsequential, as that wasn't their part of the operation, and they couldn't help with it even if they knew.

Adara couldn't help the faint frown that crept over her lips. The ones who had dropped out of communication had been SOLAG and the Jedi, not her.

As to why those bombers had been called in? She'd have loved to know. If the Jade Armada hadn't been called in, it might have stayed neutral for a few minutes longer... thousands of lives and millions upon millions of credits in Republic Military equipment might have been saved.

The Colonel had better have a very good reason.

 

[Ru the Boatswain]

"I did send a distress call from the ship my troops captured."

Then to the second question she could only tell her story again, it was vague.

"Could you be more specific, Senator?"

 

[Raif]

Korembeck followed the exchange between the Colonel and Senator Yar with interest, as he was also very interested as to what had led Abelle to do what she did. From the parts of her service record that were not blacked out and redacted, she seemed to be a more-than capable soldier, and the Wookiee held faith that there had been some larger strategic reason for the call to Jade. On the service, it was a bit too hard for he and his colleagues to discern.

Korembeck's nose twitched a bit, and his attention was momentarily called over to the wall of the chamber, where Adara was waiting to be recalled if need be. His sensitive wookiee olfactory senses could pick out the pheremones being emitted, and it seemed that Adara was less-than-happy with Abelle. Hmm, perhaps a case of each theater commander thinking they knew more about the other's operations? It wouldn't be the first time a soldier had spoken ill of a sailor's tactics or vice versa. Korembeck made a note to weigh what each had to say about the other carefully.

 

[Malon]

Senator Yar leaned forward, keeping his arms folded in a calculating manner, "Forgive me for not being specific. According to the reports issued from survivors of the battle, you issued the order to the Jade Armada's bombers to initiate the bombing run on the surface of Ando Prime, knowing full well that they were not a friendly force in the system, and that such actions would cost the lives of valuable Republic soldiers." he put bluntly. "Now what I'm trying to figure out is why you did it. Also, prior testimony has stated that it was the Jedi and SOLAG that lost communications with the fleet, not vice-versa. Why don't you explain to us more in-depth, why this is."

 

[Ru the Boatswain]

"When the Republic fleet moved away from the planet my communications were down, my only communications being my comms officer with his backpack. Communicating through the noise of Naval command and at that range was impossible. I ordered my men to secure ships and prepare for escape, at the same time I was met with my counterpart Ilbert leading the second objective. He came to the same conclusion as myself and arrived at the hanger with most of the remaining ground troops. As we escaped the planet my comms officer picked up a Jade signal which I used to destroy what was left of the Bogan force on the ground."

"As to your statement, sir, of an 'order' to Jade. I gave no order to Jade ships, I issued a distress call under guise of a Bogan."

 

[Raif]

Korembeck leaned forward in his seat to speak up.

"So Colonel, are you saying you were never alerted by command of the enemy reinforcements and the subsequent change in plans? How, then, did you realize the enemy had been reinforced, thus leading to your rather unorthodox escape plan?"

This seemed to be turning into 'she said, she said.' Adara claimed to have alerted the troops, Abelle seemed to claim no such alert was ever given. Finding the truth between the two versions being presented would be difficult, but it was what they were here for after all.

 

[Ru the Boatswain]

"My comms officer patched me through to listen to the Naval chatter, which was littered with reports of the incoming vessels. I immediately recognized the situation as dire, I needed to escape with my men intact."

 

[Raif]

"And did you alert command of your intention to escape the system by, uh, other means?"

 

[Ru the Boatswain]

"Doing so was not a feasible course of action."

 

[Empress]

" might I remind the senators, to check report section 16, sub article 3 where it makes note that the com systems used by Solag are lower powered, and would have been unable to penetrate the atmosphere as well as other signals well enough to be noticeable."

The chancellor had been sitting back this whole time, letting matters play out. She was here merely as a mediator, just one of the many tasks. It was more for the symbolic of it all, however the Pantorin felt the questions were hitting a point that would just go in circles. " perhaps, we can have this further confirmed before making anymore assumptions on this matter ? "

 

[Dmitri]

"That is true, Supreme Chancellor Hoshiko," agreed Djibril.

While Djibril had hoped that this hearing would bring to light the truth, it had turned into a "she said, he said". Politics were coming into play. Witnesses were choosing their words carefully to pass the blame onto the others.

In Djibril's opinion, both parties shared blame. Talai shouldn't have left the fleet, but she should have kept communications with her ground forces. A lack of communications, since it didn't seem like communications were being jamned, that something had gone horribly. Worse case scenario, the ground forces had been annihilated. Abelle, while true communicating with the fleet was not feasible, should have sent a communication once her ships were free from the battle and about to jump into hyperspace. Had Abelle done that, Adara would probably have had time to have the 15th Fleet escape.

"Colonel Abelle, would you please enlighten us why you did not communicate with the 15th Fleet once your ships were out of harm's way? Surely if you could contact Jade, you could have contacted the 15th Fleet once the Jade bombed Ando Prime and your ships were ready to flee."

 

[Ru the Boatswain]

"I could not, I still had to travel for a number of weeks before escaping back to republic controlled space. The repercussions of such an action would have been greater than simply the loss of my men."

The Colonel knew she was getting close to speaking about things that she could not speak about.

 

[Dmitri]

Djibril considered this fact. "Colonel Abelle, I apologize. You are correct. Notifying the fleet would have risked your lives too."

Djibril faced his fellow Senators. "However, I see no reason to blame Adara for choosing to stay as long as she did trying to save as many ground forces. It seems like she was fated to be blamed regardless of what she did. Had she just left, she'd be blamed for abandoning troops. Had she stayed, as she did, we have the current situation of blame on her for letting countless lives be lost to create a front that was no longer needed, though she couldn't possibly have known that."