A tall, handsome black man swept through the rubble of the former Diktat's palace. His cape, once finely decorated but now coated in dust and torn in more than one place, draped loosely from his shoulders, but he neither noticed nor cared. Once he paused, crouching down beside another man just long enough to examine a wounded comrade, before rising and continuing his lonely trek toward a distant set of doors. Reaching them, he paused, his coal-black eyes drawn down to the ruined control panel set into the wall, then shook his head. So make destruction, so much death... and all because the Diktat hadn't been willing to peacefully abandon his stranglehold on the people of Corellia.
Lando sighed, running a hand wearily through his tangled hair. He hadn't wanted this, hadn't wanted a war. He'd come to Corellian searching for another business venture, another way to make a few honest credits after his mining operation on Nkllon had gone under, but somehow he'd found himself drawn into the tangled game of point and counterpoint that had dominated Corellian politics for the last decade. And now... now he'd ended up leading a ragtag army of Smugglers and Corsec officers against the finest troops the Empire had to offer.
"I really need to stop talking to Han," he muttered with a wan, weary smile, even as he pressed his hand to the override device one of the rebels had attached to the door. Moments later, the door began to shudder open, only to freeze midway, forcing Lando to squeeze unceremoniously through the narrow gap. "Well, that's a turnup," quipped he as he emerged in the command centre, "Things usually wait until I've taken over before breaking." His words drew a few smiles, and even one or two laughs, but most of the rebels in the command centre barely glanced up from their stations. Rolling his eyes, Lando offered a nearby tech - a rather pretty little Corellian girl with long blond hair - a rakish smile and a bow, before striding toward another man. "Booster," he called, causing the elder man to start and twist about, "Any word from the Republic?"
The burly smuggler nodded in reply, eyes gleaming beneath heavy brows as he chomped down on his cigarra. "Aye, lad," he called in his usual boisterous tones, and Lando couldn't help but smile at the contagious cheer in his voice, "Garm's sent word that he's got a taskforce on the way."
The finely garbed Socorran grinned a broad, pearly grin at that, then flopped heavily into one of the few chairs scattered about the Command Centre. "That," he commented emphatically, "Is the best news I've heard all year."
