Chapter 137: Firebreak

Chapter 137: Firebreak

- Near Midnight of Day 1: Coruscant System -

Aayla was grim faced as she stood in the makeshift command center currently trying to create some measure of order out of pure madness. She wanted, desperately, to be with Izuku at the hospital that was seeing to the survivors of the Senate Dome collapse. Yet, the entire planet was hovering on the brink of chaos, and what was happening throughout the rest of the Republic wasn’t any better. She would have to trust the Sovereign’s Guard to keep him safe, as he was at least stable and showed no sign of waking anytime soon.

Unfortunately for both the planet and the Republic, Palaptine’s contingency had been horrifyingly thorough. The sabotage that had brought down the Senate Dome and heavily damaged the Jedi Temple had not been limited to just those two locations. Planetary Defense Command, five critical nodes of the planet’s power grid, the primary planetary shield generators, all of the emergency service depots near both the Senate Dome and Jedi Temple, and perhaps more critically…the primary and backup Hypercomm Relays.

All of those had been hit by Palpatine’s contingencies. Not all at once, but in a sequence to cause as much chaos and panic as possible…while also neatly crippling any attempt to stop the former Supreme Chancellor from fleeing the planet. Nor had the chaos stopped there, given that hundreds of orders had spat out of the Chancellor’s office during the chaos, causing more emergency shutdowns and delaying responses to the various disasters. A few outright assassination orders had even gone out, some of which had succeeded. Which didn’t even begin to cover the follow on damage still being caused by rioting and panic.

There were no two ways about it, Coruscant was currently crippled.

It had taken the entire day to even begin to get the emergency situation under control, and to be perfectly blunt ‘under control’ was a horrific overstatement at this point. The survival of the majority of both the Jedi in the Temple and the Senators from the Dome were the only things that had staved off an outright complete collapse of order. With virtually the entire planet-side defense command leadership, and several of the highest ranking Coruscant Security Force officers dead…it had been left to the Jedi and a few prominent senators to take control.

The legality of that was…dubious, at best.

The Jedi Order at least, were technically part of the Judicial Forces, so that part was legal. Enough Jedi had been on planet and survived the destruction of the Temple to take command of the CSF and kludge proper teams together to start solving problems. The Temple itself was being stabilized with additional support systems, with Skyhooks having been commandeered to create support platforms for emergency modifications. The results were going to be interesting, since a good chunk of the Jedi Temple might well become a floating fortress instead of its previous more grounded existence, but it at least wasn’t going to collapse into the city like the Senate Dome had. Well, not any more of it than the portions that already had during the initial sabotage, at least.

Clean up around both the Dome and those fallen bits of the Temple hadn’t even started. The areas had been evacuated and contained, but it would likely be weeks before they could even begin contemplating repairs. Instead, the focus for the other teams and legions of recruited engineers from every walk of life had been getting the planetary power grid properly back online. For the moment, emergency power was keeping the city going, but rolling blackouts were still occurring as repair and construction teams struggled to put the grid back into proper order.

The primary planetary shield generators were just gone. Thankfully, the Capital was one of the very few worlds in the entire galaxy that had secondary planetary shields, and they hadn’t suffered sabotage. Once the power grid was back in working order, they could at least get a planetary shield up, even if it would be less potent than the primary had been. Which, given what word they had from the rest of the galaxy, was probably rather important. What with how the CIS had launched major offensives down the Celanon Spur, Entralla Route, Hydian Way, Perlimian Trade Route, and Rimma Trade Routes.

Information they only had at all because of Aayla, and the reason why she was included in this ad-hoc war council.

The Coruscant Hypecomm relay and its backup were just flat out gone. Totally destroyed. The two most powerful Hypercomm relays in the entire galaxy, worth quintillions of credits each. Utterly and completely destroyed with no chance of recovery, just as a single component of Pal-…no, of Darth Sidious’s contingency planning. In virtually any other scenario, it would have meant Coruscant was cut off from the galaxy entirely, reliant on relay ships to get messages out or receive word of how the Republic faired.

Except that the Sovereign of Tythe was in orbit.

Izuku hadn’t wanted to make too big of a splash, which meant they’d chosen to leave the Miruko back at Tythe. Bringing a full-blown Star Dreadnaught, very possibly one of the single most powerful such vessels in existence, would have been a bit overly aggressive of a move. At the same time, they’d needed to make a statement with their arrival, one that said they were equals rather than supplicants. Thus, the Sovereign of Tythe, known to be Izuku’s personal flagship during the Crusade and effectively named after him, had been their ride. The Paladin-class was still a battleship of immense power, but not enough to completely overawe, given that the Coruscant Defense Fleet had multiple Mandators in it….one of which had unfortunately fled with Palpatine aboard.

The critical point at the moment, however, wasn’t the fact that Sovereign of Tythe was a powerful warship. Rather, the important thing was that Paladins in general had originally been designed as fleet flagships. That meant that all of them, and the Sovereign of Tythe in particular given it had been Izuku’s personal ship during the Crusade, were equipped with an extremely large bank of Quantum Comms. Thousands of high-bandwidth channels, intended not just for local command and control, but to link an entire fleet back to the greater network. While individual ships could connect, doing so as a single block was better for fleet organization and security, thus standard fleet practice was to link back to the Quantum Network through a flagship when possible.

Which meant that Sovereign of Tythe had enough bandwidth to connect critical communications from the Capital to League Space, and in turn connect to the Hypercomm relays there.

It wasn’t a full replacement for the communication lost, of course. Even if multiple Miruko-class ships had been in orbit, the sheer ridiculous bandwidth of communication that normally came out of Coruscant would have been impossible to support. For that matter, even splitting that traffic between the half dozen Hypercomm Relay stations within League Space would likely have over-strained those smaller relays. Certainly, despite its explosive growth since being created, the Quantum Comm network itself wouldn’t have been able to take the strain.

Thankfully, it was enough bandwidth to reconnect critical communications channels.

While the average citizen was still cut off from the Hypercomm, major services like the news, critical banking functions, and the surviving government apparatus were all being temporarily routed through Sovereign of Tythe. That meant that they weren’t fully cut off the way Darth Sidious had intended them to be. With that being true, a handful of the more competent Senate leaders such as Bail Organa and Garm Bel Iblis, along with Grandmaster Yoda and others of the High Council, were attempting to wrangle the wild beast that was the Republic in crisis mode. Something that was made all the more difficult by the fact that this part wasn’t legal.

Strictly speaking, control of the Republic should have passed to Mas Amedda as the Vice Chair, and only after a full Senate vote formally found Supreme Chancellor Palpatine unfit for his duties. The problem with that, of course, was that the Senate wasn’t really functional at the moment, and the entire Chancellor’s office had either fled or been arrested, including Mas Amedda. The laws-as-currently-written had not considered the insane possibility that the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic would turn out to be a traitorous Sith terrorist, who’d crippled the government in the process of escaping the planet.

That possibility hadn’t been accounted for by the law framers. Imagine that.

Clearly an oversight on their part.

The result of all of this was that Aayla, who desperately wanted to be with Izuku, was instead stuck in a war council. With the League’s Sovereign down, she was the single most senior member of the League of Free Stars on the planet. It was Aayla who had authorized the use of Sovereign of Tythe to reroute communications. It was Aayla and Esa Rostino who were, both feeling very out of their depth, shaping League policy regarding the war that was now in full swing.

Aayla had never so badly wished to be back on the Wandering Fate with Izuku, traveling the galaxy with her worst worry trying to find a way to escape a slaver’s chastity belt…

… … …

- Day 2: Coruscant -

Grand Master Yoda was feeling every single year of his near nine centuries of life. Only the Force was sustaining him, and only the fact that Veil of the Darkside had been badly eroded by Darth Sidious’s flight was allowing him and the other Masters to keep ahead of the various disasters, both on the planet and off it. Locally to the planet, things were still a mess and likely would be for weeks, at minimum, though at least the loss of life had been far less than their Sith opponent had obviously intended. Yet the casualties were bad enough as they were.

So far, just on the planet of Coruscant itself, they’d lost 73 Jedi. The bulk of those had been lost to the initial partial collapse of the Jedi Temple, but a number of others had died valiantly trying to restore order to the chaos. Thankfully, none of the dead had been younglings and few had been among the initiates. With so many clans having been moved off to the new, hidden temples, none of those remaining had been within the parts of their home that had collapsed. A blessing of the Force that had more than a few traditionalists who’d been against the changes abruptly changing their tunes.

Moving down the list of importance, at least to Yoda’s mind, were the leadership losses. Aside from the officers of the CSF and Judicial Forces lost, at current count, 237 Senators had died in the Dome collapse. There were also another 328 such that were badly enough injured to be rendered out of action for the time being. Considering it had been one of the fullest sessions in decades, with over 8,000 senators in attendance, the number that had survived was honestly impressive. Something which was owed entirely to the actions of Sovereign Midoriya, the various Jedi present, and some of the more courageous Senators. Thanks to their combined efforts, the Republic still had a majority government surviving and beginning to pull together.

Yet, getting any sort of useful structure or decisions out of them would likely take days yet.

Meanwhile, the civilian casualties were still being counted, but had already passed 70,000. The Senate Dome alone had housed thousands of workers, though many had managed to escape as the Sovereign held the Dome up in feat of the Force Yoda wasn’t entirely confident even he could have duplicated. Thousands more had died due to the damages the collapse of the Dome had caused lower levels, as well as the damage falling sections of the Temple had caused. Yet more had died to the various forms of sabotage, the riots and panic that they were still trying to get under control, and due to loses of power or emergency services.

In truth, it was already being predicted that the death might climb as high as a few million, if they ever got a full count at all. He hoped yet that such was a pessimistically high estimate, but the sheer population density of Coruscant meant it very well might not be. Something that was doubly true if you counted the deaths of those managing the Hypercomm Relay stations, and ‘a few million’ didn’t even begin to cover the countless deaths occurring galaxy wide as the Confederacy and Sith pressed their attacks. Already, dozens of worlds had fallen or surrendered, Yoda had felt the deaths of still more Jedi across the galaxy, and the situation was still getting worse.

Yet there were bright spots to be seen, even among the disasters.

Already word had gotten back to them that Rahm Kota’s fleet had helped stop an attack on Thyferra cold, and those they had warned of the Sith machinations had proven they’d made preparations of their own. Alderaan, Corellia, and a dozen other worlds were throwing together ad-hoc fleets which, in conjunction with the reborn Army of the Light, were preparing to throw themselves into the fire. There was at least some hope on the horizon that the Sith advance could be halted, and a fighting chance could be found.

Yoda, for all his exhaustion, could feel the Force beating in more than just pain. Right alongside the pain was a thrumming beat of triumph, as if the very chains of fate had somehow been slipped and an impossible chance been provided to them. It was that feeling, along with the weakening of the Veil, that Yoda clung to fiercely as he continued to help manage the crisis to the best of his considerable ability…

… … …

- Day 3: Coruscant -

Padmé Amidala felt utterly adrift as she stared with half-unseeing eyes at the reports coming in from Naboo. She’d been pulled away from crisis management yesterday, when emergency alerts from Naboo had come in reporting a CIS fleet of immense power sieging her home. She’d been forced to watch, helpless for a second time in her life, as her planet was put under blockade. A ghost of her past had seemed to grip at her heart as she watched Lucrehulks loom threateningly over her home once more.

Yet, for all that the threat had echoes of the past in it, there had been major differences too.

Naboo was no longer lightly defended. Her, her successor, and their chosen candidate to succeed said successor, had all taken steps to prevent it from being so easy a second time. The Gungans had taken even farther steps, including some it was obvious no one had been aware of, given that they’d produced multiple battlecruisers out of the oceans when the enemy fleet had arrived. Even so, the defense forces had been horrifically outmatched, to the point that they hadn’t even tried to engage the enemy fleet directly. Instead, they’d made use of an initiative that had begun under Padme herself, and secretly continued ever since.

They’d activated planetary shields no one had known they had.

The entire project had been incredibly secretive, and the bulk of the work done by the Gungans, not the humans of Naboo. With the help of very interested parties within the League of Free Stars, the Gungans had invested heavily in advancing their understanding of shield technology. Their own unique shields had been of great interest to the League, and the League had helped them make the design leap from ‘theater’ scale shields that could cover a city or battlefield, to a true planetary shield design. When the Gungans had brought it to Padmé, she’d realized the chance they’d given her, and quietly diverted some of the massive uptick of revenue from booming trade toward helping build the generators and power plants needed.

It was a work that had continued unabated under her successor, and which had now been activated by her successor’s successor. Queen Neeyutnee had instantly assessed the threat and, in conjunction with Boss Rugar Nass, chosen to activate those hidden shields and hold the defense fleet in tight to the planet, under the shield’s protection. Something that had proven to be the correct call when even the enemy Subjugator’s superweapon had proven unable to breach the shield. Apparently, according to a wide-eyed Eirtaé, the unique form of shield the Gungans had come up with used already-ionized plasma. Meaning that the Mega-Ion Cannon hadn’t just been ineffective, but had actually added power to the planetary shield. Something that had stymied the CIS fleet.

Said fleet had reverted to a more standard bombardment which would have brought the shield down sooner or later. Despite the defense fleet and the ground ion-cannons that had been installed be her and her successor doing their best to fire back through the shield and hamper the enemy fleet, Naboo’s fall should have been inevitable…

If, that is, Queen Neeyutnee hadn’t flipped the script entirely and switched Naboo’s allegiance to the League of Free Stars in exchange for protection.

Objectively, it had been the right call. Possibly the only right call available to the current Queen. A powerful fleet had screamed down the Enarc Run from Tythe and hammered the CIS fleet into so much scrap metal, capturing only those ships that had been smart enough to realize they were doomed after their Subjugator flagship was so adroitly destroyed. Objectively, a correct choice that had saved Naboo.

Subjectively, it had rendered Padmé’s every thought a scrambled mess she was still desperately trying to sort out.

Relief that her home had survived almost unscathed. Horror that Naboo was no longer a Republic world after all she’d done to try and fix the Republic. Elation regarding what it might mean for her ability to be open with her relationship with Izuku. Dismay at the likely fracturing of the power base she’d put together to attempt to steer the galaxy toward a brighter future. So many emotions, many of them conflicting, that she’d found herself paralyzed trying to process it all and find direction among a galaxy suddenly gone mad. Slowly, ever so slowly, she made progress. Sorting out pieces of the mess in her head one at a time.

Technically, since Padmé was the Senator for the entire Chommell sector, not just Naboo, her position as Senator was currently untouched. Yet, she could read a galaxy map as well as anyone. She knew full well that the Chommell sector as a whole was now smashed directly between the League of Free Stars and the core of Confederacy systems bunched around the galactic southwest. Enarc had already gotten aid of its own by flipping colors to the League, and the part of her that was still calculating politics and angles knew that most of the worlds in the region which were not yet overrun would do the same. The Republic couldn’t help them now, they would know it, and the League was a far more palatable option for most of them than the CIS. Doubly so now, after Palpatine’s very public and violent exit.

Whether or not the League actually had enough strength to hold all the worlds that came to them for help was something Padmé didn’t know. If they did, however, it was likely that nearly her entire sector would apply for membership in exchange for protection. Meaning, most likely, she was about to become a Representative of the Council of Free Worlds instead of the Republic Senate. Assuming, of course, that she didn’t get pushed out of that position as being too closely aligned with the Republic.

The most likely result of that would be the political bloc she’d collected within the Senate breaking up and flowing quietly into the other Senate factions.

That thought was, finally, enough to get her brain fully working again. Grimacing and realizing she might only have a matter of days to use her remaining influence to help the galactic situation, she spoke to her handmaidens with a crisp, commanding voice.

“Alright girls, up and moving! Our influence is going to fall through our fingers like water in no more than a few days. Time to burn favors and try to reorganize the bloc so they can hold together without us. Or, barring that, that they can join the best of the remaining factions as a unit. Dormé, I need break downs of which factions have even survived, and which ones are likely to hold together. Cordé, work with Sabé to figure out who both owes us favors and is still likely to honor them, and how we can collect on them. Eirtaé, you and I are getting as high up the chain with the ad-hoc war council as we can, before they decide we need to be cut out. We need as accurate a picture of how karked the galaxy is as we can get! Move it, move it, move it!”

Her handmaidens, shaken out of the same stupor she had been caught in, now scrambled to obey, jolted loose by their mistress. Whatever came next, they would tackle it together, and do whatever good they could still manage…

… … …

- Day 4: Raxus Secundus -

Darth Tyranus, having just finished updating his Master on the state of the war so far, settled in to stare at a map of the galaxy with an expression of deep contemplation on his face. Sidious, he knew, was utterly enraged about having been driven from his secret throne. Yes, contingencies had existed for the possibility. Already, those contingencies were hard at work, painting Sheev Palaptine as the greatest ally of the Separatist movement. Their ‘man on the inside,’ who had fooled the entire Republic, preventing them from acting while the Confederacy was in its infancy.

It would take a little time, but the narrative would hold, and Palpatine would step into the major role of running the newly formed Separatist Senate just as he had the Republic Senate. Who better for the position, after all, than a man who had held the same job for their enemies…while secretly helping the Confederacy be born? There was more than enough genuine, provable truth to the idea that Palpatine had helped create the Confederacy. Including the backing of the various major powers within it who had known who he was in some fashion, such as Nute Gunray. It had been a fully fleshed out ‘Plan B’ from the very start. One which would see them to take a more traditional route toward conquering the greatly weakened Republic. Darth Tyranus to handle military affairs, and his Master to slowly take the reigns of the ‘civilian’ government.

Yet, it had never been more than a backup plan, and Sidious was utterly furious that he’d been forced to activate it.

Darty Tyranus saw things differently. More accurately Count Dooku, who still self-identified by that name more than his Darth title, considered what was actually happening to be by far the superior result. He had sought out the Sith out of disillusionment with the Jedi and Republic. He had believed, still believed, that the Sith were a required foil. A threat to break the stagnancy and corruption of the Republic. A cleansing fire to burn away the dross and leave only refined metal.

It had happened before, after all.

Numerous times throughout the Republic’s history, the Sith had served that role. They rose up, attacked a decadent and foolish Republic, and forced the Republic and Jedi both to unite and rise to the occasion, shaking off their latest round of corruption in the process. It was a cycle of renewal for the galaxy, of sorts, or so Dooku had come to believe. In truth, his greatest concern when he’d finally learned the details of the Grand Plan had been that it might actually succeed, leaving the Sith in charge of the galaxy. By that time, however, he had fallen far enough to accept the possibility. To take the view that ‘if the Jedi and Republic are no longer strong enough to survive, then they must be replaced with something better.’

Now, as he contemplated the results they’d actually gotten, a slow smile spread across his face. The Senate? Stricken hard enough to shake even the most corrupt to their cores. The Jedi Order? Given a harsh wake up call, yet already responding in ways that made him almost proud of his former fellows. The reveal that they had rebuilt the Army of Light to some extent was particularly telling, speaking of them having shaken off their complacency somewhat even before the war started, to a degree the old him would never have believed possible. The Republic as a whole? Split not just into two, but three, as many sought shelter with the League of Free Stars.

He was helping light the galaxy on fire, and was now completely confident that what came out of the other side would be the stronger for it. It was his vision, not Sidious’s, that had been the more accurate. Even if he was only now being reminded of what that vision had been before Sidious had twisted it to his own viewpoint. He’d imagined a galaxy refined, rather than brought to heel, and there was every indication it was he who had predicted how things would go more clear-sightedly, not his Master.

There was a deep satisfaction in that.

Dooku would play his part to perfection. He would become the villain the galaxy needed to unite against. Should the galaxy succeed? Then he would die knowing he had fixed what was broken, even if the cost was truly terrible. Of course, that meant it was also time to start taking steps to be rid of Sidious when the time came. He was no longer required, even if he was still the stronger between the two of them. The one in control of the now somewhat weakened Veil. That could easily change, however, and Dooku had more room to plan while his Master reestablished himself than ever before.

It was past time to embrace the best traditions of the Sith and plot to properly usurp his Master…

… … …

- Day 5: Hyperspace -

Raymus Antilles had been content in life, not too long ago, being the captain of a mere corvette. Of course, the reason for that state of affairs having been true was that the ‘mere’ corvette in question had been the Sundered Heart, Senator Organa’s personal ship. Despite having gone from commanding a cruiser in the Royal Navy to captaining the much smaller corvette, the posting had been a massive prestige boost. One which had indicated just how deeply trusted he was by the ruling house of his homeworld. He’d been pleased with that posting and had developed a close working relationship with the Senator since it had first begun.

Which is probably how he now found himself screaming through Hyperspace in command of the largest warship Alderaan had fielded since the New Sith wars.

Technically, there were twelve of them, cruisers that the Mon Calamari referred to as the MC80a. A combat variant of the medical and evacuation cruisers that had originally been designed at the request of, and for sale to, the Shattered Shackles mercenary unit. A mercenary unit that had specialized in anti-slaver operations…and which had eventually turned out to be effectively a training command for what would become the League of Free Stars’ navy.

It was no accident that Rana Lin, once the Commadore of the Shattered Shackles Fleet, was now the ‘First Fleet Admiral’ of the entire League Navy.

The League had continued to order increasing amounts of the Dac-built medical ships, and his own rulers and other interested parties throughout the Republic had ordered quite a number of the amazingly well-built craft for their own relief efforts. Yet, though the ships had been armed with point defense and possessed incredibly good shielding, they hadn’t been warships. Not, that was, until something or someone tipped Senator Organa and Queen Breha off that the war everyone had feared was inevitable, rather than just possible.

Whatever had alerted them, the husband and wife pair had acted decisively.

The Mon Calamari government had been quietly contacted and somehow convinced to convert the MC80 design into a proper warship, both for their own use and for sale to Alderaan. Now, the Alderaan Defense Force had just shy of forty of the 1,200-meter-long cruisers, armed heavily enough that they officially fell into the Battlecruiser classification in the League’s system. A system which Alderaan had quietly adopted to organize its own fleets, in acknowledgement that the League of Free Stars was now the definitive authority on modern naval standards. After all, no one else had fought a war on the scale of the Hutt Crusade for a thousand years.

Well, not until now, anyway.

Of course, when Admiral Raymus Antilles had been, as one of the most trusted and senior Captains in the entire Defense Force, promoted and given a fleet command…he’d been given more than just a standard MC80 for his personal flagship. Not that there really was such a thing as a ‘standard’ MC80. The only genuinely sort-of-annoying thing about the Mon Calamari shipbuilding practices was their habit of treating every single ship as a work of art. There was no arguing with the incredible quality of the result, but it did mean that every single ship had unique design choices and quirks. A few more guns, a few different guns, different hangar arrangements, more or less lavish or spartan accommodations, the list of variances went on. To the point even someone completely familiar with one MC80 might well get lost within the hull of a sister ship just trying to reach the bridge from their quarters.

His flagship, named Home One by Bail Organa himself, was the most radical divergence of all those so far delivered.

She was a solid 200 meters longer than any of her sister ships, measurably more heavily armed, and carried nearly twice the fighter compliment of the other MC80As. Where the average MC80a carried 6 fighter squadrons, Home One carried twelve. A design choice Raymus himself heartily approved of. The sheer, ridiculous number of droid fighters that Lucrehulks could put into space meant he wanted as many fighters for his own screen as he could get. There was only so much that the superior quality of their fighters could do to make up for the sheer quantity disparity.

At least Naboo had been willing to sell them the N-3 design that the League had used to great effect before phasing them out for the Hero. Frankly, Raymus would have been even happier to get his hands on the Hero itself, but the League didn’t sell it to non-affiliated worlds. It should be fine, though. The N-3 was already a far better space superiority fighter than anything the CIS was supposed to have. Which is precisely why they were now using them exclusively, save colony worlds that still have older fighters to flesh out numbers. There had initially been some talk about acquiring the H-7 design as well…but the truth was that what they really needed was a fighter that could screen them from Vultures, not a bomber that could make runs on capital ships. So they’d settled for stuffing every N-3 they could into their hangars.

Now, he only hoped that such had been the right choice as he raced through hyperspace, hoping to make it on time to defend the star system what currently passed for high-command were hoping to make one of the firebreaks against the CIS. Lantillies was a good choice, in his opinion. Particularly with the reinforcements the Jedi had apparently already dropped into the system. Those crazy bastards having somehow built a fleet of their own while no one was looking was a surprise for sure, but hardly an unpleasant one given the circumstances. Corellia was sending aid too, a mismatched fleet of ships frantically brought out of mothballs and updated. They weren’t throwing their own new construction into the fire just yet, which he could understand. Even the old-ships-made-new they were providing would be a powerful additional asset he’d be glad was with them.

Taken altogether, it might just be enough…to stop a single offensive out of three that were still actively stabbing into the Republic.

Though, at least the good word was that another such offensive had been stopped cold at Thyferra already, and that the League had stepped in to protect against a handful more thrusts at critical systems. The combined victories nicely proved to the troops that the situation wasn’t entirely hopeless yet. It was his job and the job of his counterparts to shift the balance farther, to keep that little bit of morale lift alive. If they could just staunch the bleeding and buy the galaxy a little time to scramble back to their collective feet, the Republic might yet survive this catastrophe…

… … …

- Day 6: Dac –

As Zavra idly used the Force to aid her movement underwater, she swept the Darksaber she’d brought along through one of the Quarren zealots as he tried to make a passing run on her with his underwater-scooter-thingy. She much preferred her Double Saber, it being the weapon her first Mistress had specialized in and taught to her. She’d known from her few, limited experiences with underwater combat that they were a poor choice in such environments though. Hence digging out the silly emo-saber that she’d taken from that big-headed Mando dude.

Ah well, at least she was getting some serious action again!

Inventing with Mei was super fun, in more than one way! But she’d always found her true thrills on the battlefield, doing her Mistress’s bidding. The Hutt Crusade had been a great way to get that rush again, and one she didn’t even need to feel slightly bad about, like she sometimes had with the Empress’s targets! Even aside from the rush of combat itself, many of the ‘combat’ implants had ~fun~ side effects that left her practically moaning. Not quite literally, since her Mistress had forced her to learn to focus through it, but getting a nice jolt to her pleasure centers whenever she needed to use some of her boost ‘ware was always amazing.

Something that she was having to do a fair bit more underwater than usual, to keep up with everyone else on the battlefield! Sure, she had implants that let her breath underwater, but she wasn’t natively aquatic like the Quarren, Mon Calamari, or Gungans that were doing most of the fighting here under Dac’s oceans. So the occasional use of her reflex-boosters, subdermal target scramblers, and synaptic accelerator were called for in this case. They allowed her to keep up, despite the other combatants all being built for underwater fights in a way she wasn’t. The fact that all of those implants had been specifically designed with fun side effects was only a bonus, really!

Even as she shifted through the water to target one of the larger submersibles that their enemy were using, she used the Force to shape her profile so she sliced through the pressure of the deep more readily and speedily. Doing so allowed her to more cleanly weave around the poisoned needles it was firing, instead of plasma bolts which wouldn’t hold together well underwater. Reaching the sub, she stabbed into a previously-identified weak point, cutting through it in such a way that she knew she’d damage the energy regulator inside. She pushed off, jetting back away from the vehicle as it overloaded and fried all the Quarrens hanging off it with enough electricity to stop their hearts and flash-fry their skin.

Coming out of the maneuver into a hover in the water that let her take in the battle with her low-light vision enhanced eyes, Zavra had to admit that she was seriously impressed by the Gungans in this fight. While the Mon Cals clearly did know how to fight in the water, their hardware had been designed more for policing than serious warfare. Since the ‘Free Dac’ movement, which had gathered all these racist Quarrens into an army, had clearly equipped their own people with a more militaristic mindset, the Mon Cals would have been in trouble on their own.

Unfortunately for these ‘Free Dac’ nutbars, the Gungans had extremely good underwater military hardware. Up to and including underwater ‘tanks’ whose assault cannons she badly wanted to study. Somehow, they were firing energy bolts underwater that weren’t being karked up by the water itself. She was sure it, like most of their other interesting innovations, had something to do with Naboo’s usual plasma. But the heck if she understood how that was translating to working underwater energy cannons that weren’t suffering the usual problems with energy shell breakdown through water!

Shaking her head, she grinned wildly and snagged a passing waver, the rapid movement platforms the Mon Cals favored. She let its rider carry her closer to where the fighting was heaviest, before letting go and igniting her stolen blade again. This fight really was an interesting challenge! She was glad she’d hopped in Acina’s Fist and brought herself along for the fight! Sure, neither the locals nor the League’s few underwater specialist corps had known what to do with her other than point her at the heaviest fighting…but that was just where Zavra thrived anyway!

Now, just how should she deal with the next group of prey? Would Force Lightning work properly underwater? Well, she didn’t know, but finding out could be fun! At worse, she’d shock herself too, and that would be just liked old times with Mistress Acina, really…

… … …

- Day 7: Coruscant -

Shaak Ti struggled not to rush forward, to crash into the tight hug Aayla had Izuku in. She wanted to, badly, but she hadn’t exactly made her relationship with them public just yet. Not because she really cared what anyone thought of it on a personal level, but simply because it would complicate her efforts to get some of the stick-in-the-mud Jedi to loosen up a bit. Her efforts, along with the teachings of the Shan-family Holocrons, had gained a bit of traction within the Order’s ranks, and she didn’t want to risk that progress by having people suddenly questioning her motives.

She genuinely thought that the Shan family’s views represented a healthier approach to…everything, really. They had found a balance that the modern Jedi Order just didn’t possess. Well, not most it anyway. There were uncomfortable parallels with the Green Jedi of Corellia, she supposed. Yet the Green had their own flaws. With them, their patriotism overrode fairness to all at times, resulting in a different set of issues entirely. The Shan family holocrons contained a viewpoint that included the good things the Green Jedi had retained from the pre-Ruusan Jedi Order, without the fault lines created by being more loyal to a world than to a belief.

Yet, despite feeling that was true to her bones. Despite knowing that it could ruin her efforts. She still wanted badly to join that open embrace. An emotion that she recognized as the very reason such attachments truly could be dangerous. At least, they could become so if one allowed the attachment to come before your beliefs. That self-reminder soothed the stirring of irritation within her. The moment it did, she abruptly recognized the tug of the Veil on her thoughts, something that had become easier to notice with it thinning a bit for reasons they didn’t fully understand just yet. Frowning, she mentally firmed herself in the Force and willed a mental version of Force Light into existence. The Veil retreated…and with it a subtle cloud on her mind shed hadn’t even recognized was present.

…

…

…

Sheepishly, she reached out with the Force, instead of physically, and was immediately pulled into a mental hug of reassurance instead of a physical one. A moment later, she gasped, unable to stop herself as a connection…no, a bond, snapped into place between herself and both of her lovers.

No, she realized a moment later, three of her lovers. Though the one that must be Zavra felt far distant, not just in location, but in connection. Something that made complete sense to her as she fell into the depths of the bond, basking in the feeling of Izuku and Aayla’s surprise and welcome. Shaak simply wasn’t as close to the Sith woman, having spent too little time with her, to establish the same depth of bond she could now feel herself practically swimming in.

Is this what Aayla and Izuku had been feeling all the time between them? It was no wonder they hated being separated! It would be akin to having a piece of your very being ripped away! Light dread at that idea was met with firm amusement from the pair, reminding her that she could feel Zavra, despite the fact she was deep in the Outer Rim and barely connected to her compared to them. Whatever this new change meant for all of them, it was unlikely distance was going to matter very much.

She blushed, unable to suppress it, when the clear thought came from Aayla that Shaak probably wouldn’t even need to be ‘ultra horny’ before reaching out to communicate interstellar distances through the bond. That was probably for the best, all things considered, even if the sensations Aayla had sent with the thought felt…intriguing. Abruptly realizing her body was responding to that thought, she forced herself to pull partially away from the bond and cough to gather the other two’s attention.

“If you two are quite done, we should probably let the medical droids finish their check, and then update Sovereign Midoriya on what has occurred since he lost consciousness.”

Force, hopefully no one had seen or felt her brief loss of control. It wasn’t quite as obvious as having gone over and hugging the pair would have been, but if any other Jedi had been too nearby they might have noticed something. Thankfully, the vast majority of Jedi were still very distracted trying to either get the Capital under control or launching on missions intended to help efforts aimed at getting the rest of the galaxy into some sort of functioning order.

Aayla grinned over her shoulder at her, reached up to pull Izuku down for a long kiss which she sent the feeling of back to Shaak Ti via the new bond, and then let go. Well, mostly. She still had one of Izuku’s hands in her own.

“Yes. We should let the pokers and prodders have their pokey and prody way, so we can explain just how utterly fucked the galaxy is and get about fixing it!”

Shaak Ti snorted at the bizarre mix of gallows humor and positivity in that statement. It was obvious that, even after days of grim-faced hard work, having Izuku back was enough to spike Aayla back into a hopeful mode. Which, she reflected, was exactly why she thought it so important to teach the Jedi Order that not all connections and attachments had to be bad ones. While they could lead to bad ends, just as often it was the connections between people that brought hope of something better, provided a light to burn back the darkness. Throwing away the latter in fear of the former was an action of the Dark Side, not the Light. It was something she was determined to teach the Jedi Order, at least as many of them as she could get to listen.

By the time she was done with that, hopefully this war business would be over and she could take a nice long vacation with these two and the others. Preferably somewhere were clothing was very optional. Izuku’s reaction to her ‘outfit’ on Rishi had really been quite enjoyable…

… … …

- Day 8: Coruscant – War Room -

“So, that’s roughly the current situation in the galaxy. The unexpected assistance of this ‘Grand Army of the Republic’ stopped the combined push down the Celanon Spur and Entralla Route where they meet at Ord Mantell, with elements of the Jedi Fleet assisting. While the Coalition of defense forces led by Kuat, Anaxes, Shili, Dorin and the Jedi managed to halt the advance down the Hydian Way at Kidriff 5. That’s all major CIS assaults at least temporarily stalled. Though once they digest all the territory they took and bring more ships forward, we might not be able to hold.”

There were grim nods all around at that. There were far more CIS ships than anyone had expected, even with the penetration groups like the Jedi and LIS had managed into the preparations the Separatists had been making. There were only two reasons they’d managed to halt the major thrusts so far. The first was that the Republic had possessed more groups preparing for the war than anyone had realized as well. A lot of those had come just in the last year and a half, from planets or groups carefully warned by the Jedi Order. Like Alderaan and Corellia, the Shili and Dorin fleets that had fought at Kidriff 5 were from that same pool of groups that had been warned and began frantic but quiet preparations.

The second, more concerning cause was simple math. The CIS had decided to peel off large numbers of ships to siege and secure those systems within the territory they’d gained. Admiral Yularen, who was the senior most Judicial Forces officer they’d been able to draft, had given the general overview. As he’d just stated at the end of it, much of their ability to fight back had been because the Confederacy was choosing to ‘digest’ its gains. On its own, the Republic was still significantly outnumbered, despite the GAR appearing from virtually out of thin air and the various fleets that individual planets had been quietly preparing sallying forward valiantly.

Now, after Yularen’s summary, the two dozen beings that had come together in this room mulled over the information. Bail Prestor Organa, newly appointed Interim Supreme Chancellor in a shockingly quick move by the surviving Senate, a speed brought on mostly by sheer desperation, was the first to speak.

“I think, in trying to sort this unholy mess out, we have three primary questions that need answering before anything else.”

Everyone looked at him, many of them with expressions of disbelief that said ‘only three?’ better than any words could have. Undaunted, he kept speaking.

“The first and most critical is coming up with a sane and practical way to weld all of the disparate fleets and navies into a centralized whole. Right now, everything is working on an emergency, ad-hoc basis with desperate alliances between local commanders running individual defenses. That’s not sustainable. From everything I’ve been able to learn about war since starting to study the subject in earnest these last few years, the one great truism is that logistics is what wins wars, not guns. We’re going to need a way to bring this mess all under a single umbrella so we can handle supplies and organize what reinforcements we even have and where they are most needed.”

There were several nods from around the war room at that, the firmest such coming from those with any level of military background or experience. Of which there were sadly few present. It wasn’t exactly a skillset that had been in high demand in recent centuries. Not stopping to elaborate on or debate the point, the Interim Chancellor went on.

“The second point is somewhat related to the first. We need to figure out what to do with this Grand Army of the Republic. It’s obvious, from the reports that Jedi Masters Celeste Morne and Kina Ha sent in, that they were originally both a sort of slave army to prop the Republic up through a Separatist offense and a trap. We believe that trap to have been disarmed, but can’t be absolutely certain. The Military Creation Act that was passed in loose, incomplete form at the same time I gained my current position gives me the authority to fold them in as the unifying core of the new military. But there are inevitable risks to that which need to be considered.”

The response this time was grimaces. No one was exactly complaining about a fleet of thousands of Venators and Acclimators having crashed in out of nowhere to help save the day. Nor about the 400 million well-trained ground troops already ready, with roughly another 300 million still in the process of being trained up. At the same time, the fact that they knew, or at least strongly suspected, that the Sith had originally intended them as a trap? That made using them as the critical core elements of a new military…potentially risky.

This time, someone spoke up before Chancellor Organa could continue. That person being Master Koth, the closest thing the Jedi High Council had to a proper military expert and present along with Grandmaster Yoda and Shaak Ti as representatives of the Jedi Order.

“On that particular subject, the High Council has also already decided that the Jedi Order will not be taking command of this GAR as the Clones believed would be happening. Our limited military-trained Jedi are already stretched thin handling the recreated Army of Light. I and a few others will be available to become part of any High-Com, to help Jedi Forces integrate and work with the new military, but we just don’t have the trained manpower to command more forces on that scale. Which isn’t even mentioning the issue that we were seemingly the main target for the Clones to eliminate.”

There were a lot of unhappy looks around the table at that statement, a statement that was firmly confirmed by a nod and few words by Grandmaster Yoda. The Republic had leaned heavily on the Jedi as troubleshooters for the last thousand years. For that matter, it had been the Jedi, far more than anyone else, who had managed to restore some semblance of order so quickly. The idea they weren’t going to swoop in to keep fixing things wasn’t a concept many in the room enjoyed. Still, Bail Organa only nodded stoically and continued onto his third point…while looking at Izuku, Aayla, and Esa Rotsino, who were there representing the League of Free Stars.

“The third and final thing is a need to know where the League of Free Stars stands on all of this. We of the Republic certainly appreciate the help you’ve been here on Coruscant, lending the Sovereign of Tythe’s ability to keep communications open. However, I also can’t help but notice that the League has gobbled up quite a lot of new space of its own.”

There were outright discontent grumbles about that fact which instantly started up around portions of the table. Izuku, however, was utterly unmoved by those grumbles.

“As of right now, we have only folded in worlds which have asked to join the League. While we have secured hyperlanes, we are siegeing no Republic systems and committed no violence to encourage worlds to join.”

The grumbles turned to grimaces as that statement, as everyone in the room knew that to be true. Which didn’t mean the loss of some of those worlds didn’t sting.

“That being said, I can state unequivocally that the League of Free Stars acknowledges the Sith, in particular, as a threat. We are willing to work together to see that threat ended. Beyond that, as regards the CIS as a whole, the League is less certain. Many of the issues that caused its formation were legitimate in our eyes.”

That got glares from about half the room, but those didn’t phase Izuku any more than the grumbles had.

“Joint operations may be on the table, and the League may be willing to allow ships to move through or resupply in our space. Furthermore, there are certain specific CIS worlds that we are willing and able to act immediately against. We have, for example, blockaded Geonosis for the time being, based on evidence collected before the war began. I trust no one has an issue with that, or with the League possibly dealing with that world if they will not see reason?”

Even those that had glared shook their heads at that. They’d all seen the numbers now and were aware that Geonosis was one of the largest of the hidden battle droid manufacturing facilities they currently knew the location of. What little was coming out of Mechis III said that state of affairs was going to change quickly as Republic-controlled leases on the planet had been seized and were being rapidly converted to produce battle droids. For now, however, Geonosis being cut off was removing a major strategic CIS asset from the board.

Bail nodded slowly, sighed, and spoke again.

“I suppose that will have to do for a starting point, at least. I also hope that the League may be willing to lend its expertise to the first point I brought up? There is little question that the League Military has the greatest current experience in structuring a new galactic-scale military.”

Several men and women around the table perked up at that, even some of those that had been glaring at Izuku looking hopeful. Suppressing a grimace of his own, Izuku sighed and nodded back.

“That much, I believe I can agree to staying for. As well as to calling a few experts from Tythe to help with what will inevitably be an ongoing process for some time. That said, I will have to return to the League soon myself, gentlebeings. So I suggest we get down to at least hashing out how you’ll manage High-Com and what to do with the GAR units. For starters, as much as it is a risk, I don’t think you have any real choice but to lean on those units initially to form your new military’s core. They are the only ones with enough standardization in equipment and tactics to work from. Furthermore…”

The meeting, which had started just after dawn on the 8th day of the war, wouldn’t end until nearly midnight. Though it would, at least, finally get the ball rolling on more than just emergency responses to the situation…

... ... ... ... ... ...

A/N 1: Check out the Maps I added to the Glossary, as well as THIS FILE, for a better idea of the state of the galaxy and various factions around his point.

A/N 2: Hey everyone! Most of you should know that I have a P-a-t-r-e-o-n for Early Access chapters (find the link for it in my profile, or just search 'Novus's Fanfiction Works' in your browser of choice). This particular note, though, is to let everyone know about a new Update Schedule that's resulted from my attempting to go full time with my writing :-). Going forward, updates look roughly like this monthly:

1st - 10,000 words of One Piece: Halfway Broken

4th - 10,000 words of (Monthly Poll Winner)

8th - 10,000 words of Can One Displaced Hero Save the Galaxy?!

12th - 10,000 words of Author's Choice Story

16th - 10,000 words of One Piece: Halfway Broken

20th - 10,000 words of (Monthly Poll Winner)

24nd - 10,000 words of Can One Displaced Hero Save the Galaxy?!

28th - 10,000 words of Author's Choice Story

At a Random Point in the Month - 10,000 words of Extra Content (Patron Only). Extra content is either original fiction, teasers for possible future stories, extra lemons, or artwork (yes, I can technically draw, I'm very slow and only middling in skill though). In June the extra content was 10k words of an original work tentatively labeled Cyberpunk Hero.

Total Word Count = 90,000+ words

Since I already am on this schedule this month, look forward to a pretty solid increase in number and size of updates next month as it starts rolling onto the public sites too!