She closed her eyes briefly and counted to fifty in her head before opening her eyes again and focusing on Harry, "Can you make one of your port things? We need to get to one of the cities to help the Wookiees as much as we can. They'll have to bunker down until the Republic is notified and can muster up the force for a counterattack.
"Does Salporin say how the ships are spread up there?" Harry asked ignoring the request poorly masked as a question.
Aayla let out a huff at being ignored, but Shaak Ti shook her head slightly. "Given that they're landing in one place, I would assume they are loosely gathered in one area of space to guard against a hit and run bombardment of their landing forces. Though they might be scattered farther apart to try and catch any ships that try to escape now."
Harry tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling of the warehouse. Ahsoka briefly thought that it looked as if he was trying to see through the ceiling and dense levels of canopy up to the stars hundreds of miles above them. His brow and lips kept twitching and Ahsoka could literally tell that he was trying to solve a problem, though not what he was actually thinking.
"An orbiting fleet. That's a new one for me." Harry muttered softly.
Ahsoka noticed curiously that Shaak Ti wasn't saying anything, and instead seemed to be watching Harry intently with a look of pure concentration.
Slowly his eyes narrowed and a ghost of a smile crossed his face. He moved past Aayla back to the comm unit, ignoring the speculative looks from all around him. He opened the connection. this time it rang several times and Harry's frown grew more pronounced with each ring.
Finally Salporin answered once more, but Harry cut the Wookiee off before he could say anything. "Salporin, I'm going to need clearance to get the Gryffindor into the air."
The Wookiee hesitated a moment before replying "One ship isn't going to make a difference, and our defense force won't help. The king won't allow it. They're providing cover on the cities closest to Kachirho to allow evacuation."
"I'm not planning on assaulting them with my ship." Harry says flatly. "And you can go ahead and tell King Grakchawwaa that any ships he has out near where their forces land are probably as good as scrap."
Aayla and Shaak Ti's expressions both changed. Shaak Ti's turning neutral while Aayla can't hide her disappointment at the idea that Harry's fleeing. Though neither could argue that against a full scale invasion the Wookiee defense fleet would quickly be rendered scrap.
After Salporin responded that he would have clearance. Harry simply nodded and hung up on him. He immediately queued up another call, this one answered almost immediately with Minnie's droid head. "Minnie, power everything up I want to have the Gryffindor out of atmo in 20 to 30 minutes."
"Yes Mist-"
Harry didn't even wait for a response and hung up again.
"Harry, you can't abandoning the-"
be
thinking
of
just
Harry didn't even glance up at Aayla before he silenced her again with a flick of his fingers. He paused a moment and then queued up another call. This one took several rings before it was answered. This time a man answered the comm. It only took him a second to recognize Harry and he was entirely unsurprised. Shaak Ti and the now silenced Aayla exchanged a look at the person who appeared in the holo-screen.
"Harry." the man said by way of greeting.
"Kento. What are you and Mallie doing?" Harry responded with a similarly short greeting.
There was a soft and someone sheepish chuckle, "Currently? Arguing with my wife over which one of us is going to go into the forest depths and protect Galen and which one is going to help the Wookiees." His answer was dry and honest.
"Heh... I'm sure that's pleasant." Harry replied with a wry smile.
"We both agree that one should help the Wookiees and one take Galen and get to safety, but neither of us agree which is more dangerous or which one we should do." Kento replied once more bluntly. "Each of us think the other should take Galen and go."
There was an indistinct murmur of agreement behind Kento. Clearly Mallie was listening in on the conversation.
"Shocking," Harry replied with an equally dry tone, "I need a favor."
"You know I owe you our lives more than once… but now's not the best time…" Kento sounded more than a little hesitant. "How about I solve your argument for you?" Harry replied with a wry grin.
"I'll give you my second born," Kento replied instantly.
There was an indignant gasp in the background that sounded distinctly feminine, followed by Kento jerking to the side forcibly. "Ow! That hurt woman!"
Mallie's face appeared in the holo next to Kento's who was rubbing his shoulder with a grimace. "Serves you right. Not only promising our next child, but risking it after Harry warned you about F-magic backed promises!"
She turned and smiled genuinely at the screen, ""Hey Harry." "Hey Mallie," Harry replied.
"Never said thank you for the other day. You okay?" Mallie asked with more than a little concern in her voice.
"Oh you know me," Harry replied with a small grin.
Mallie rolled her eyes, "What favor did you need?" She asked taking over from her husband whose glare had softened to a look that while amused also clearly conveyed his adoration of the woman with him.
"I need someone to pilot my ship out of atmo," Harry replied honestly.
"Did you lose the ability to pilot?" Mallie asked curiously.
"Hardly," Harry replied dryly.
"You want one of us to pilot the ship and do what? You know there's… kind of a fleet out there right now." Kento replied with a raised eyebrow. "Not the safest place in the system to be right now."
"That's the point. You know my ship. You should be fine up there. I just want you to keep the fleet within sensor range… maybe move it around if I need it," He replied, "Oh, and don't accidently drive it into a star or something."
"Well, that rules out Mallie, she can't pilot a freighter," Kento responded with a glance at his wife. Mallie huffed slightly but nodded slightly in acknowledgement, then she let out a sigh, "Fine, I'll take Galen and find out where the Wookiees are retreating to," She knew that arguing really wouldn't do her any good in this case.
Kento winced slightly at that, but nodded in acknowledgement.
"Mallie can come down here, my place," Harry offered to ease some of the tension and the worry the other man was experience. "You have my word that short of them cracking the planet in two, she will be safe. If the worse happens, I'll leave a portkey so that she can travel back to a few of the cities so she's not stuck down here." Kento and Mallie turned to look at one another, their expressions only shifting slightly as the two communicated silently for several moments before they seemed to come to an agreement. Mallie spoke up for both of them. "Okay."
"What are you going to be doing?" Mallie added curiously after a moment.
"I'm… going to roll out the welcome mat," Harry replied with a smirk.
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