A whole month had passed by since the mighty Javelin Wing was transferred to the Halcyon Warrior. It was a fairly boring month, with the capital ship itself still undergoing repairs, as well as the pilots being sent on various training exercises and routine missions. There were occasional skirmishes with pirates and NR forces too but none important enough to really stand out...

Wonder if excessive amounts of boredom can kill a bloke, Seth Qorbin wondered as he blankly stared at a datapad. If it were up to him, the man would've been out there - flying through space or at least flying within the confines of the Vectra System. Otherwise he would've been in his own quarters, watching a holovid, or in the rec room, fleecing other pilots and some techs out of their hard earned creds in friendly games of sabacc. Come to think of it the man wouldn't have minded a few cold drinks in a bar either. Unlike some of the other pilots he could still drink as much as he wanted - ah, the great perks of being higher on the food chain... or line of command, whatever.

Instead of pursuing any of those activities however, the man was stuck doing boring administrative work for the supposed benefit of his squadron and even the entire wing. It was the one thing he resented and to some extents even dreaded about the job. It was also one of the (many) things he usually had other people do on his behalf. His squadron's executive officer for instance managed to do most of those annoying little tasks almost perfectly and the only thing left for the blond officer to do was merely sign off on her hard work. It was perfect really - that way the man could enjoy all the perks of the job whilst pretty much ignoring all the responsibilities...

Alas, Aria was not on the Warrior at the moment, instead having taken out the rest of the squadron to test some new equipment near Asteroid 19. That was most unfortunate as it meant that Seth Qorbin would actually have to do his work all by himself. Wonder if I can bribe or threaten someone else to do it for me, the man thought and glanced around the hangar bay. Security officers, engineers, technicians, mechanics, couple of pilots, bunch of droids and a few individuals that Seth wasn't even sure what exactly they were supposed to be.

Pilots? the officer's eyes narrowed and an evil grin suddenly shadowed the rest of his facial features. "Hold!" he shouted loud enough for the two pilots to hear. The two turned to check whether the command was addressed to them or not and seeing their Wing Commander heading their way, both Human female and Human male pilots froze, straightened up and saluted.

Aah... Tuk'ata, the man realized as he got closer, Kerdi and what's his name? Fellow that threw that glass my way... The latter discovery wasn't that difficult to find out - all the man had to do was ask everyone involved in the fight exactly what happened. He needed the info to file a proper report - accursed paperwork! - and he just ended up putting all the pieces together when it was done. The culprit thus was easily found out...

Strange thing about that though was the fact that Qorbin chose to keep that to himself. He could've added that little detail to his report and thus ruined the other pilot's record, or he could've also just generally made his life miserable as well... Instead however Seth merely kept silent and bid his time. He knew full well that revenge was one of those dishes best served cold... and in large quantities as well.

"Kerdi, you're dismissed", the Ensign spoke and watched as the woman saluted once more before turning away and heading off. Seth noticed a strange look the two pilots shared right before that but he decided not to read too much into it. As he watched the woman walking away, Seth couldn't help but partly regret that decision. For better or for worse she had some leadership skills and thus also at least some limited experience with dealing with administrative nightmares. Exploiting her may have been more useful than using the other fellow.

Speaking of the other fellow... "Your name?" Qorbin asked him, not really bothering to remember such things in the past. Chances were the Onderonian would forget that inconsequential little piece of information by nightfall anyway. "Senior Chief Petty Officer Aita, sir", the other pilot replied in a stiff manner. Yeah, definitely going to forget it soon enough, the Navy officer thought to himself but otherwise said nothing. "Come on Aita, you're coming with me..."

OOC:

WC: 794

The Ensign lazily stretched as he watched Hades start working for a third time on the same project in a course of less than a few hours. Seth on the other hand rather enjoyed his break - he returned to his quarters, wasted a little time there approving some new squadron transfers and replying to some memos some of the other squadron leaders had sent him - mostly minor and inconsequential issues such as roster changes and personal reports regarding certain members of their teams.

After reading through those, the man sat down and next wrote a short report to Drac, suggesting some new missions and exercises for the wing that the Captain would have to first approve. The one he particularly cared about was a reconnaissance mission suggested for the Razors - the official mission would involve the group jumping in another system and scanning for a few hours to make sure there were no strange occurrences there. The unofficial mission would take the elite squadron to one of the system's planets - a planet known primarily for its great accommodations for tourists of all species and regardless of their political affiliation.

It would not have been the first time that the Wing Commander suddenly changed mission parameters or otherwise decided to take his squadron, or at times just his own flight, or even his wingmate, or just himself to some remote world that had a reputation for pretty women, good booze, relaxing settings and lots and lots of fun...

Before leaving his quarters and heading for the nearest bar - where he would enjoy himself up until the time he would return to Hades - Seth also approved the salaries for all the members in the wing. While stationed on the Atrus he heard stories of other Wing Commanders penalizing some of the pilots with various sums for various deeds as well as heard there were occasional glitches when some members would either end up being paid more or less than they actually deserved.

Qorbin was almost surprised to hear as much and really considered actually staying put and checking the next time he'd have to approve those lists. He considered as much and nothing more though, deciding it was after all easier to just sign off on everything and be done with it. Applying financial penalties to the pilots would've required more paperwork on his part so he was damn sure never to use such methods to get back to a member of his own command. And if they happened to earn more than they were supposed to - well good for them. And if they happened to earn less - well tough luck to them. So long as they were getting paid at all that should be enough - or so Seth though as he shrugged and left his office behind.

"Come on Aita... still not done yet?" Seth finally spoke again. "Dammit man, are you this slow in a cockpit as well?" he decided to have some further fun on Hades' account. "In a minute sir", the latter replied in an almost neutral sounding voice. Almost neutral - which made Seth smile some more...

Five minutes later when Hades returned the datapads to Seth, all three of them, the blond Onderonian was starting to get bored himself. He gave the final draft one quick look over and believing it looked good enough he signed off on it. He then shoved that datapad back to Hades. "Take this to Logistics, get them to sign off on it as well and then bring it back to my office. You should hurry up too, I think those guys might start their lunch break soon enough..."

Or have they started it already? Qorbin wondered as he checked his chrono, of course after Hades had already rushed out of the hangar on his newest errand. "Think I'll go have a couple more drinks with the guys before returning to my office..." the man decided out loud and slowly made his way towards the nearest bar. Chances were he'd be there a while and Hades would end up waiting for him some more as a result but then again what were the chances that the SCPO actually had anything better to do anyway?

~~~~~~~~~~

After all the paperwork would be signed and generally put in proper order, as well as ultimately approved by the ship's captain, Drac, the orders would be sent out and everyone would have nothing better to do than just wait around for them to arrive. Of course during that waiting period more paperwork for different things would end up having to be dealt with, meaning the cycle of misery would never truly be broken as a result.

Chances were that the military constructed gear would be the first to arrive, two to three days tops. Depending on the exact items requested the supplying ship could be anything from a small corvette to a Star Destroyer for the really large and/or expensive orders. Important orders were almost always also escorted by either a few fighters or a few smaller cap ships with one, two or even more squadrons on standby.

Civilian contractors usually worked slower, most of them having to deliver goods from across the galaxy and thus taking a whole lot longer to do so. As for what they used to get the job done - anything from small and nimble freighters to bulky, slow moving ones and in some cases even military grade ships. They were held responsible for the goods reaching the VE safely and so usually also employed some escorts to ensure that no pirate raids would pose any major problems.

For this latest order, the VEN sent a Victory Star Destroyer to deliver 2 TIE Interceptors and 1 TIE Bomber as well as a few more missiles and a whole bunch of other things that the other departments aboard the Warrior also ordered. The Star Destroyer then moved on to supply a few of the other ships stationed above Abrae.

A regular civilian contractor - that Seth never bothered remembering its name despite using them fairly frequently himself - also showed up four days later, delivering some avionics, targeting systems and a handful of tractor beam projectors. The latter made Qorbin particularly happy for that matter.

The ship officer in charge with Logistics and Supply signed their receival, the docking crews employed droids to move them from the supplying ships to the Halcyon Warrrior, another bout of paperwork followed and once that was done the Wing Commander would receive his order, which he would again need to both sign for receiving as well as send a report higher up that he did indeed receive everything and that it was all in proper condition - such was the stunning world of endless bureaucracy.

OOC:

WC: 1139