#thyrea

Thyreophora strode through the halls of the Senate Tower at the head of Avalanche Squad. She had been experiencing an unusual feeling fluttering in her stomach the whole time, as though she was preparing for a battle instead of a talk with a friendly member of their own side. So instead of wearing civvies or office wear, she'd had the squad dress in their matching active-duty armor. Might as well be as impressive as possible, make a show of the squad's strength on the way to war. It seemed to work, judging by the number of heads that turned to follow them.  Here and there they paused long enough to greet someone they knew before moving on to the site of the inevitable battle.

The Mirialan woman sitting behind the secretary's desk interrupted them as they started for the inner room to Garza’s office. "Just the Major for now. The rest of you can make yourself comfortable elsewhere. Perhaps outside of the Senate Tower."

Thyrea crossed her arms and assessed the woman with narrowed eyes. She didn't recognize the new secretary, and it pleased her when the other woman flinched and cast her eyes down upon first meeting her gaze. She hadn't liked the tone with which the Mirialan had referred to her men. “We were told to report here for debrief."

“I was told not to let them through,” the secretary insisted, tilting her chin up slightly when she delivered the line, even if she couldn’t quite meet Thyrea’s eyes.

The Zabrak appreciated the sign of strength, and chose to take pity on the Mirialan. “Very well.” She straightened her shoulders and walked into Garza’s inner office.

General Garza, the head of Special Forces, was often underestimated by a lot of people when they first saw her. After all, she was a short, rounded Human woman who was getting on in age, which was often equated with lacking any former strength and losing the vitality of the mind. But Thyrea had fought alongside Garza in the war, and continued to train with her when she was on Coruscant. She knew how lethal that body still was, and how the mind was still sharp as the edge of the finest hunting blade. Those who thought her weak would be horribly surprised.

Her long familiarity with the other woman allowed Thyrea to assess her body language and facial expressions, and so she recognized the pinched expression and hands on hips posture. Garza was unhappy, but determined. The combination meant she knew immediately that her instincts had been correct - she was in for a fight.

She snapped to attention and saluted, masking a wince as the formal gesture pulled on muscle groups that still hadn't recovered from the beating she'd taken two days ago. “Major Massani, commander of Avalanche Squad, reporting as ordered.”

“Ah, Major, good to see you again. Please, at ease.” Garza’s voice was tuned to be reassuring, another sign that there was a problem in the works.

Thyrea relaxed into parade rest, her hands clasped loosely together behind her back, but not clenched yet. Not until she understood what was going on. “I assume Avalanche is here for a new assignment?”

“Assignments,” Garza said, a definite emphasis on the plural.

The concern she'd been feeling until now felt flared from a dull ember to a wisp of flame. “You’re not sending us out together?”

Avalanche had done several split-squad missions before, usually when there were multiple initial tasks to be performed before the whole group could be sent after an objective. She wondered what it might be. She knew fighting was heating up in certain sectors of the core, and wondered if that's where they were going to be sent to.  If she'd been ordered to admit to it, she wasn't sure they were ready to go down to half-groups. If they'd had two straight weeks of R & R, maybe her answer would have been different.  But they'd just come off of  fighting with Imperial forces and there were still wounded, including herself. Dividing them so they couldn't compensate for that would be - 

“I’m disbanding Avalanche entirely.”

The words fell between them like an anvil, and it took a moment of disbelief before the Zabrak could speak. “What? You can’t do that to us -" she began, certain she had heard incorrectly.

“I can and I will.” Garza’s tone was implacable.

The flare of concern turned to the fires of rage, and angry words spilled from Thyrea’s lips before she could stop them. “There’s no good reason to! We’re a good squad, we’ve accomplished everything you’ve asked us to, we’ve done missions you wouldn’t send Havoc on, and now you're going to just tear us to pieces when there's so much more we can -"

“Stop, Major.” A whip-crack of command in Garza’s voice was enough to make the Zabrak close her mouth. “Avalanche is an outstanding squad full of exceptional individuals. That’s why I have to disband you."

She counted to ten in her head before speaking again. "I'm afraid I still don't understand you, General."

"Consider the members of your squad, Major. How long has Avalanche existed in its current configuration?"

Thyrea ran through the staffing changes since their founding in her head. "A little over five years," she finally said, wondering why their time together mattered.

"Five years. Your XO's been with you for seven. She should be a Captain of her own squad by now. Your Sergeants should be Lieutenants by now, at least! And yet they're still serving with you. Why do you think that is, Major?"

This wasn't the angle that Thyrea was expecting, and it threw her off her balance. She knew her squad hadn't wanted to bring in any new recruits, and that her soldiers hadn't wanted to accept lateral transfers or promotions. She would have let the, go if they had asked, but no one ever had. The truth was that they were more impressive as a unit. 

"Because we're a good unit together.All of us have achieved more together than we have apart." Every individual in Avalanche Squad was highly decorated, but with the exception of Thyrea herself and her XO Kalanes, they'd earned their most prestigious medals while working together. So her next statement was framed with puzzlement.

"Which is why your unit hasn't changed in five years, even when we've needed it to.” Garza folded her arms and stared Thyrea down, no pity showing in her hard blue eyes.

“You have some of the most experienced and talented men and women in Special Forces in your squad, people who have accomplished missions no one else can. Unfortunately for you, that’s a concentration I need to break up for the good of my command as a whole. Your people, spread out into different squads, can share experience and skills that will benefit their new places. But did you know that every single time I’ve offered any one of them a promotion, they refuse it?"

Thyrea wondered when that could have been. She remembered Kalanes getting a captaincy offer around two years ago, and come to think of it Sylave had completed the extra training course that made one eligible for Lieutenant, but that was it. “I’ve only seen one promotion order cross my desk, and that was turned down by the person.”

“That’s the problem.” There was real exasperation in the human soldier's tone as she continued. “Your people are turning all chances at promotion down. I’ve made sure they were on the lists when opportunities are sent out about openings in other squads, and I’ve heard nothing. I’ve seen them take the promotion coursework, only to never apply for a spot. I’ve even sent private messages informing them of chances, and I’ve had those turned down.”

“I haven’t heard about any of this, and I haven’t been encouraging them if that’s what you’re about to say,” Thyrea challenged. “And if you needed them elsewhere, why not just give them mandatory orders?” Her fingers had begun curling behind her back and she realized her claws were digging into her skin.

“Let’s sit, Major. We'll be more comfortable that way.” Garza took a seat first, waiting until the Zabrak also sat down.

“I did consider forcibly reassigning them,” she admitted. “I didn't want to go that far immediately. I thought you might have interpreted me giving them assignments away from you as a challenge to your skill and authority."

Thyrea found that she couldn't object to that assessment. If Garza had reassigned her people, she would have taken it badly. She might have seen it as a sign she wasn't a good enough leader, or that she had failed her squad in some way, or that the squad itself was failing.

Garza gave her a moment to sit with that revelation before continuing. Her voice was softer now that she didn't need to force Thyrea's attention. "Believe me, It's the best thing for the squad and SpecForce both."

"Where will they go?" The thought of her people being scattered all over, separated from the comrades they'd come to rely on, felt like a betrayal. It wasn't just rearranging the composition of a unit, it was breaking up a family. She knew Garza had to know that - she understood the bonds of brotherhood that formed in the crucible missions so common to Special Forces operatives.

"Kalanes will be a Captain of her own squad. I have a few XO candidates in mind for her, but I could use your input on the subject. You know what she'll need as a counter-balance. Everyone else will spend some time at the Academy, taking courses for advancement and providing tactical information and passing on their real-world experience to the newest class. Then they'll be promoted and reassigned to other squads as well."

No specifics of where they were going to wind up she noticed, though she couldn't entirely blame garza for that. After all, squad vacancies were inconsistent; sometimes there was a skills hole waiting for the right candidate, while other times a critical injury made an immediate opening.

"And you'll let me know what happens to them?"

"Of course, Major. Which brings me to my next point."

"What happens to me?" Thyrea guessed. "Do I reform Avalanche with transfers and new cadets?"

Garza didn't say anything immediately, and that made the Zabrak nervous. Finally she spoke, a heaviness in her tone that Thyrea couldn’t understand or accept. "You're not getting a new squad."

Confusion warred with anger warred with loss inside her belly. Loss won out first, and she choked out “Why?” before her throat closed up on her.

One simple word, but it wound up representing all of the discord inside of her. She needed to be out there in the throng of blaster fire and explosive smoke, fighting enemies and claiming objectives. Soldiering was her life’s passion and work, something she devoted herself to in most of her moments awake, and the idea of not being in the field felt like torture. She’d been aching for it badly enough these last few weeks while the squad put themselves back together after the mess that was the last operation. And now Garza was telling her that not only was she losing her squad, she was losing her chance to go back out there? To take risks and make a difference? What would she do if not that - who was she, if not a warrior?

“Because I need you out of the field.” Garza saw that it wasn’t registering and continued on. “I saw Sergeant Sylave’s medical reports. The real ones, not the ones you've been sending back. You’ve been walking wounded for the past five months and I've kept sending you on missions without giving you enough time to properly heal up. I didn’t know how badly off you were until she messaged me privately with her concerns, or I would have pulled Avalanche back here two months ago."

Great. Now her own men were reporting back to HQ about her behind her back. When had that started, she wondered? They’re not your men anymore, whispered the traitorous voice inside her head. Garza's taking them from her own, taking them away from you...

"I've been getting by." Thyrea shrugged one shoulder as she spoke, not wanting to move the one that was still sore. "Nothing I haven't been able to handle."

"Handle with a great deal of stims and adrenals, you mean. The reports say you're physically close to burn-out. You need at least a week of medical observation and treatment to make sure you don't fall apart on me. The doctors here at HQ who've seen the reports say a month would be better." Garza shook her head when she saw the Zabrak's disbelieving look. "Major, I need you badly, and I need you in peak condition. Taking you out of the field seems to be the only way to actually accomplish that."

"What do you expect me to do when I'm not out there?" She'd never been good at being idle.

"You're familiar with the events that have shaken Special Forces recently. The resignation of Kardan, the defection of Tavus and those who followed him, and now the betrayal of Darok. It's a tidal wave of our best talent walking away and taking our secrets with them. And it's crippling the Division."

Thyrea nodded as Garza spoke. Of course she knew of those incidents, but she didn't see what that information had to do with her and Avalanche. Or maybe she did have an inkling of where the path was starting to lead, but refused to acknowledge it, as though willful blindness could prevent the words from being spoken.

"And how do I factor into that?"

Garza was implacable when her mind was made up, and it was certainly made up now. The Zabrak could sense it from her body language. "Ideally, I want you back at Headquarters full time. You'd be working directly under me, coordinating the operations of Special Forces. Instead of handling the mission assigned to you, you'd be the one making sure the right squads went to the right places, and making sure they have the intelligence and support to get things done. You could become the support you'd wished you had."

"Is that my only option?" Thyrea's voice was steady, even if her hands had begun to shake.

"No. You could teach at the Academy, passing your skills on to the next batch of soldiers. Avalanche's missions are the stuff of legend and already studied in Tactics courses, and your skill in hand-to-hand outmatches our instructors here."

The Zabrak grimaced. "Can you see me as a teacher?"

Garza fixed her with a level stare. "Experience is the best teacher those soldiers can get. They don't have to like you, just respect and obey you." 

Like they 'respect' you, General? Like they feel about me already? The words were left unsaid. but they were thought. Thyrea knew of her reputation among the other squads.

"You could coordinate with one of the other groups that work with us if that's more your style. Pick a planet and work with their local forces - the Balmorran resistance, Corellia's CorSec. There's always room for coordinating with the Jedi, especially since some of their members seem to have become attached to our squads. The SIS needs a new liaison with us."

Despite herself, Thyrea smiled at that. "Tired of throwing things at Trant?"

"I never tire of dealing with fools, Major." But the General's tone was more affectionate than cutting.

Desperate for her feelings to be understood and recognized, Thyrea dropped the formal titles and pose, demanding answers not as a Major seeking clarification from a General, but a woman seeking answers from one of her oldest friends. "Do you think I'd be good at any of those? I'm a grunt soldier, Elin. I belong on the front lines with my men." 

"You've never been just a grunt," Garza said immediately. The Human sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she considered what to say. "Truthfully? I can't see you as a teacher or a liaison. Your best bet is to stay here at HQ. But you have time to think about it. I don't want your decision today."

"You don't?" Then why spring this on her?

"I meant it when I said you need a month of medical leave. You're not to leave Coruscant, or pick up your weapons. Your job is to get better and consider what you want to do when you come back. I don't want to see you interacting with any SpecForce individuals in any non-social context, or I will be very cross." Garza rose to her feet, signaling that the time to talk was over.

Thyrea pushed herself up as well, masking the wince as her hip pulled. "Yes ma'am." She gave a crisp salute.

"Dismissed," Garza said, providing the proper return salute.

She spun on her heel and walked out the door of the office. She didn't see any trace of the rest of Avalanche. The Mirialan behind the desk gave her a frosty smile as she departed, apparently having regained some of her backbone. "Have a good day, Major."