PHOENIX ━ dameron

004 | takeoff

"You can't possibly believe it will be that simple," Lyra spoke up. Everyone's eyes fell on her.  She was risking too much for such a shoddy explanation. Getting the location on Grakkus had been hard enough. Having a civil conversation with a Hutt was next to impossible, and this one was also a crime lord.

Poe gave her an indiscernible look, something close to a glare as he tried to keep his anger under control. They locked eyes.  Lyra raised her left eyebrow, daring him to say she was wrong. "I have to hope it will be, Commander Endellion," he answered, sounding convinced of it.

For a fleeting moment, Lyra saw something different in him. He was trying to lead, doing his best to keep his worries buried and hidden from his crew, just like she did. But she couldn't forget how foolish it would be to walk into Megalox blindly. Out of the six of them, she was the only one who knew what Terex would do to get what he wanted. An untrustworthy prison guard would only be another variable in a disaster.

"If it's self-governing, we need to be prepared for anything. No matter what the Twi'lek promised, she might back out," Lyra reminded. "She doesn't have a lot to lose.  Hope is not enough, Dameron."

"It's a good point," Snap said delicately, putting his hand in front of his mouth as if to hide that he had been the one to say it.

Lyra nodded and leaned forward. "We'll need to make sure we have grav-belts, for one. If she can shut the gravity off and on at her will--"

"I was getting to that," Poe muttered, put out by her attitude. "But yes, we go in armed and ready. Grakkus himself is a limited threat, being a Hutt, but there's no telling who he has working for him in that slime hole."

"What makes you think they throw limited threats into high-security prisons?" Lyra quipped under her breath.

Karé started snickering, and Jess shot her a look of wide-eyed warning. This was usually how it went. Jess tried to stop Lyra, and Lyra never listened.

Poe's eyes narrowed the slightest bit. She was questioning his authority, and both of them knew it. "I understand he was a crime lord, but he's still a Hutt. They don't move very fast," he enunciated, talking like he was explaining it to a toddler.

"Grakkus was cybernetically modified. He has bionic limbs.  But that was all in the prison report which it seems like you read," she quipped.  The report that her squadron had to risk life and limb to get.

Poe just shook his head, still plowing through with his argument. He grinned the same cocky, flyboy grin and said, "Great, then it'll be an even fight."

Unbelievable.

Lyra moved her hand off from her hip to fold at her chest. Stubborn, arrogant, foolish behavior like this would get them all killed. There was a line between confidence and hubris, and she wouldn't let him drag them across it.

"Any other questions?" Poe asked, turning away from her like he had finished dealing with the only problem in the room.

"Yeah, just one," L'ulo said, glancing between them. "When do we leave?"

Whether or not he had been trying to diffuse the situation, it worked. They weren't going to get anywhere by standing around and talking. Lyra wasn't in charge. This was Poe's mission, as she had been reminded on multiple occasions.

"This afternoon. The sooner we have information, the sooner we find Tekka," Poe nodded, dismissing all of them.

The meeting adjourned, and no one lingered behind. Lyra switched gears, moving away from tactics to technicalities. Still, no matter how high she held her head or how straight her posture was, the same shaky fear snaked up into her clenched hands. If she saw Terex again, if she had the opportunity, she had sworn to kill him in cold blood.