Star Wars: Rogue Knight II Return Of The Sith

"How did the Republic fall? It's easy to blame the obvious culprits: Separatists, Jedi, Sith, selfish Senators and governments. They all must shoulder the blame. We could endlessly debate how would our galaxy would change if one of those factions acted differently. If they were more reasonable or luckier.

The Republic's ultimate fate wasn't sealed when the Clone Wars began. There wasn't a single act that led to its fall. It was a gradual process that began long before that infamous conflict. Examining history, we could argue that the seeds of the fall were sown as far back as the Russaan reformation. Perhaps even earlier, in one of the previous iterations of the Republic.

If we look dispassionately at the formation of the Confederacy of Independent systems, when we examine the reasons why so many worlds joined the Separatists, we would find a number of fact that would be disturbing for many a Republic loyalist. The few systems in the Core that supported the Secessionist movement did it for reasons not dissimilar to their Rim counterparts. Issues with tariffs, taxes and the services the Republic was meant to offer in exchange. There were also disagreement over policy with the Senate but ultimately those three were the major reasons why the Separatists movement became so popular.

A number of Senators hurried to accuse anyone even entertaining thoughts of supporting the Secessionist movement in greed and corruption, which to be honest weren't entirely unfounded. However, the heart of the matter ran much deeper than most people back then realised. In that regard, the situation today isn't much different. All across the galaxy, people either idealise the Republic or see it as the reason for all the strife following the Clone Wars. It is ironic then, that few actually understand what the Republic was.

If we're to examine the reasons why the Republic fell, first we need to answer one vital question – what was the Republic?

It was often described as the cradle of interstellar civilisation, a bastion of freedom and liberty. At the same time, the Senate was often perceived as a den of corruption rivalling the worst places in Hutt space. It was the sole superpower in the galaxy for a thousand years.

All of those descriptions are at least partially true, yet they miss the point. When people talk about the Republic, they usually see it as a monolith structure, one that was more than the sum of its parts. While such a description is technically correct, it misses the point.

The Republic... It wasn't a nation. It never was. Arguably, it could never be. There always were significant cultural differences between its members, compounded by the way different species perceive the world.

At its core, the Republic was an agreement between governments. Those governments ceded certain amount of power to the Republic in exchange for various benefits. Protection, free travel and trade all facilitated by common currency. In exchange the Republic received taxes from its members to pay for all the above.

This is it. Those deceptively simple agreements were the foundations upon which the Republic was built by our ancestors.

At the beginning it worked and the benefits were enough to ensure that the Republic would not only preserve but prosper and expand.

How did such agreements grow up into the Republic we knew? This work would answer those questions before we continue examining the reasons why the decline of the Republic happened and how it made the Clone Wars or another similar conflict all but inevitable...

One of the biggest flaws of the Republic it was the way it was set up from the beginning. It wasn't meant to become a nation, for it was build of nations which until the end fiercely defended their interests. That was a feature of the system meant to prevent a tyrant from gaining too much power or for that matter for the Republic itself having too much of a say in the affairs of its members. For a thousand years it worked. However, when the Clone Wars began, this vital foundation of the Republic turned into one of the primary reasons for its fall.

Independent worlds and systems looked for their protection first. They hoarded resources, including their system defence fleets. The individual members demanded protection as it was their right, for protecting its members was one of the most important, the most important function of the Republic.

Yet, that was a function that the Republic was incapable of meeting. Peace has reigned for a millennium. For hundreds of years there was no credible threat for the Republic as a whole and slowly but steadily funding for the military dried up until all that was left in the last few centuries were just the Jedi and Judicial Forces. The later were incapable of facing any threat more serious than the odd pirate. In theory that wasn't a big issue. The Republic had the right to request forces from its member states if circ.u.mstances demanded it. In practice, when the Clone Wars began and every threatened system cried for help, only the secret Clone Army was available to help. It took weeks of haggling and deals for any significant forces to be released from the individual members SDFs and even then both the absolute number of hulls and the percentage of the forces technically available was minimal.

The consequences were predictable...

When the GAR implemented their contingency plans in preparation for the Separatist offensive in the Core and recalled as much of their navy as possible from strategically unimportant systems, it was the right military decision. Most historians and military analysts agree that considering the strategic situation, it was the only decision the Republic military could make unless they were prepared to lose the war then and there.

A nation could have weathered the storm. During the war we saw it again and again when individual cities and provinces on scores of planets had to be ceded so their defenders could consolidate and one day liberate their compatriots. However, the same principle didn't apply to the Republic as a whole. When individual systems were abandoned to their fate, their people and governments had to ask a few simple question. What use is the Republic when it couldn't protect us the first time a war happened? Why did we pay all those taxes? Why should we suffer for a Republic that abandoned us? Why should we have any loyalty to those who betrayed us?"

"The Fall of the Galactic Republic" by Lillian Solo,

first edition, Corellia

=RK=

Part 1

Bridge

Corellian cruiser Freedom

two light seconds above Sullumun

Sull.u.s.t system

Our arrival wasn't spectacular. The fleet re-entered real space with the local star to our side and immediately accelerate towards our first objective. ECM fed by gargantuan reactors surged to life and flooded the surrounding space with screeching jamming and siren song of false images. By the time nearby civilian and military sh.i.p.s could raise a warning, my fleet was already on its way to the closest of Sullumun's eighteen moons. Warning of our arrival was spreading across the system, just as planned. Soon the perceived purpose of our visit would be announced for all to see too.

The first sensor sweep noted the position of everything larger than a light freighter on our side of the gas giant. The data was examined, targets chosen. Weapons crews across the fleet followed my orders to the letter. They locked in all available targets and concussion missiles left their launchers. Next were the gunnery crews on the Freedom. They gleefully targeted her longer ranged turbo-lasers and unleashed hell upon the moon we were approaching. Meanwhile, ready recon flights launched to locate the Separatist fleet meant to defend the system.

Before the enemy's garrison could reply in adequate fashion, Sull.u.s.t's industry began to burn. Warheads meant to gut capital sh.i.p.s expended their fury upon extraction plants, refineries and storage facilities. Mines and processing plants across Sullumun's moons simply vanished in flashes of light. In three separate cases, ten capital missile strikes in close successions were more than enough to destabilize the small planetoids housing their targets. Shock-waves, earthquakes and tidal surges tore apart those moons throwing their mass in Sullumun's planetary system like tremendous shotgun blasts.

Lorena, the first target for the Freedom's guns ignited when all the tibana gas storage facilities upon the surface went up in a chain reaction. That moon, one of the few with fully breathable atmosphere in this system, wouldn't stop burning long after we left.

Millions died and we had scarcely begun.

Freighters tried to escape. Few even succeeded to enter hyperspace before frigate packs, bombers or Torrent squadrons heavy with proton torpedoes few upon them like the hammer of an angry god.

The bait was in place. Now it was time to see if my Separatist counterpart would bite.

=RK=

Flag Bridge

Confederate Dreadnought Suncrusher

Sull.u.s.t

When the attack came, admiral Kirst was temporarily gripped by indecision. Was this merely a diversion meant to draw him away from Sull.u.s.t and its shipyards? His current position was reasonably secure. The planet and its fixed defences were at his back and they all were surrounded by a large asteroid bay that significantly reduced the vectors of approach towards Sull.u.s.t. If he stood his ground, Kirst could guarantee that the most important industry in the system would be all but invincible.

"Star Dreadnought presence confirmed within the enemy fleet." One of the Droids acting as the admiral's staff reported.

A savage smile appeared on Kirst's face. His target actually came knocking.

"The fleet will assume Starburst formation. Plot intercept course through a hyperspace jump. Every battle group is to activate full networking capabilities." Kirst ordered.

Then he had to wait and listen as report after report came in of gutted industry. The local government began screaming at him with demands to do something and he ignored them. His fleet broke into six sub-formations, made a jump above the asteroid field and manoeuvred so every ship could point its prowl in the direction of the enemy.

Kirst sneered. The Republic fleet began turning towards them. It wouldn't help them. He had the numbers and fire-power to match the enemy and the full network integration of the droids under his command would give him enough of an advantage to win.

He hoped. Even now, when battle was about to be joined, Kirst couldn't help it but feel uneasy at how much he had to rely on the Droids. He made the plan. Now it was up to the machines to execute it making him a glorified observer.

This wasn't a proper way to wage a war!

"Admiral, Spear Point reports critical damage to three of Sullumun's moons." A Tactical Droid brought Kirst's attention back to the tactical plot. There three of the blue spheres surrounding the gas giant blinked crimson.

As he watched, one of them blinked one final times then its image was replaced by an expanding sphere of debris. The other two moons followed suit less than a minute before Kirst's fleet was ready to jump into battle.

"Kriff." The admiral hissed. Everyone was going to blame this on him. He had to win here or his career was over.

Kirst's eyes went for the Freedom. Killing that ship and the Sith it carried, that would wash off any perceived sins.

The fleet's individual battle groups flashed green one after another. They were all in position.

"Proceed. The Freedom is the primary target. Kill that ship no matter the cost. Launch all fighters only when we are about to enter point blank range." For a brief moment the tactical plot froze while the fleet made a short jump through hyperspace then they were back not too far from Lorena, one of Sullumun's moons.

The individual battle groups were converging one the enemy fleet which was already unfolding into a sub-formations of its own. Missiles slammed into the leading elements of two of Kirst's task forces biting large chunks of Munificents before their UMBRELLA systems could react.

The Confederate fleet acted as a single hive-minded organism. At least a dozen sh.i.p.s targeted a single enemy craft and their weapons spoke with coordination and precision impossible for organics. Kirst knew that victory was inevitable! His forces could concentrate their fire and kill the enemy better than the Republic crews could imagine in their worst nightmares!

That's why he was astounded when the enemy responded in kind and their first coordinated barrages came screaming mere seconds after the Confederacy opened fire. Kirst felt his courage leaving him. More despair than a human mind could handle descended upon him. His bowels turned into water and he stared at the plot through unseeing eyes.

A concerned Tactical Droids came to check on him, while the rest of the machines continued to fight to the best of their abilities caring not for the break-down of their organic commander. They had their orders, they had their mission and the enemy was under the barrels of their guns...

And on the bridge of his Flagship, for the first time TK-51 wondered what use were his organic commanders.

=RK=

Part 2

Bridge

Corellian cruiser Freedom

Sull.u.s.t

My Battle Meditation felt odd. This time a third of the people under my command weren't from the fleet I turned at Kamino. The feeling of their minds compared to my people was off. When we melded into a single gestalt, connecting with those I brainwashed was easy, natural even. I couldn't say the same for the new hands. Their minds felt closed for a lack of better word forcing me to expend more power and concentration to make my technique work.

Time too and that was an issue. It took me too long to form the necessary connections and bind everyone together. It had to be the number of people not previously touched and altered by my mind – I didn't have this issue back at Darknell or when I briefly used Battle Meditation at Naboo. I would have to think about the implications later. The enemy was upon us and my fleet was slow in reacting.

Despite the unexpected complication, my technique proved vital. Without it, there was no chance that my fleet would have been able to react fast enough to the enemy and their nature came as another surprise. Initially I didn't have the concentration to spare on whoever was on the other side, but now, when my people were executing my first orders and shifting our formation so we could use our numbers effectively against the Confederate battle groups, I found something startling. There was only a single living being within the Separatist fleet. That was something that never happened before when I used Battle Meditation.

The consequences were predictable – I didn't even had to expend any additional effort. I could feel it when enough despair and fear to cripple tens if not hundreds of thousands crashed upon a single mind. Whoever that poor bastard was simply couldn't handle it. My Battle Meditation extinguished his mind as if it was a mere candle witless enough to face a hurricane.

That was unexpected. The enemy lost their commander. Who in their right mind would put a whole droid fleet under the charge of a single person?! Would his loss give us an edge?

The first barrages went in. Frigates began to die when they ran afoul of more than enough fire-power to cripple a cruiser. Dying that way should have been instantaneous, yet with the Battle Meditation linking us all, I could still feel my people die. It was brief, it was fast, yet there was a single agonising moment of awareness before they were snuffed out and those were the lucky ones.

Turbolaser bolts larger than some fighters slammed into deflectors and the unleashed energy lit up the defensive screens as they attempted to absorb and reflect the onslaught. I could actually see Venators surrounded by solid walls of fire as their defences struggled to hold the onslaught.

Here and there shields popped up and fire-power directed by machine precision scoured the surface of whole cruisers into a twisted molten hell. Two Venators fell out of formation mission killed. Another was less fortunate. Its compensator partially failed and acceleration turned half its crew into so much paste, then a single barrage by the enemy flagship cut the cruiser in two before detonating her reactor.

In response, Munificents died like chafe in a furnace. The enemy began launching its Vultures and I unleashed the GUARDIAN systems across the fleet. The targets weren't just the small craft but the enemy warsh.i.p.s too – while an AA missile was a negligible threat by itself, every one of my sh.i.p.s had at least couple of thousand of them in their magazines. As the range fell, the space between the two converging fleets became chock full with ordnance.

I could see it all, both with my eyes and through the minds of my people who looked at tactical plots, targeting computers and live sensor feeds.

When the Freedom finally let loose with everything she had, it was breathtaking. By herself, my flag had thousands of weapon emplacements, it could launch and guide to their targets more than a thousand missiles even in the hellish ECM environment surrounding us.

The cocoon of the deflector shield blazed green and red with reflected energy as a whole enemy battle group hammered at it. The Freedom answer made it look like as if she spontaneously exploded. From the bridge it looked like a solid wall of laser and turbolaser bolts surrounded her. I could no longer see the rest of the battle with my eyes, the space in my sight was that filled with outgoing fire-power.

I closed my eyes and turned all my concentration into perceiving the battle solely through my Battle Meditation.

The enemy was still coming. Sh.i.p.s on both sides were dying too fast for comfort. I did all I could. My people took advantage of the flawless coordination afforded by my technique to manoeuvre so our lines constantly shifted with whole cruiser divisions altering their acceleration to either fall back or surge forward so shields could recharge.

Sometimes it even helped. Unfortunately this wasn't a game where a shield could absorb a fixed amount of punishment before the ship it protected could be damaged. In reality enough concentrated fire-power at a small enough section of a deflector screen could cause a breach. Further, as a shield was hammered and its integrity began to fail, the odds of something slipping through increased.

Damage began to mount even of sh.i.p.s that managed to pull back from the points of contact to recharge their defences. Sensors were fried, weapon emplacements turned into slags, armour buckled.

My people continued to die at a steady pace even when their sh.i.p.s survived largely intact.

It was infuriating and I was already doing my best.

Vultures attempted to rush us and our remaining Torrents went to meet them through the death ground between our fleets. It was a suicide. My pilots knew it, yet they did it anyway.

In the end that turned out to be an expensive sideshow – a few of my sh.i.p.s were crippled, the enemy small craft were erased from existence by the combined efforts of our GUARDIANS and Torrents and every single pilot who went into the fray died doing their duty.

The Separatist sh.i.p.s began altering their course. It took me a moment to realise what they were doing before my frantic commands hit everyone in the fleet. The bloody bastards were going kamikaze on us again. A general melee was going to benefit them better than us. I ordered my people to go to emergency acceleration and begin plotting a hyperspace jump. We were going to slam through the enemy formations, get away to regroup and hit them again.

Those of us who made it.

I ruthlessly guided light escorts to physically intercept rushing Munificents and felt their crews vanish immolated by the impacts. Cruisers of all types frantically manoeuvred to avoid collisions while shooting with every gun they had left. Even GUARDIAN emplacements meant to swat out missiles and small craft added their fire-power into the cauldron. A light cruiser rammed a Recusant destroyer aiming to gut a Venator. Two Munificents slammed into a cruiser just below its command tower with a combined velocity that saw the three of them becoming a short lived cloud of expanding plasma.

A Venator had the devils own luck as she somehow weaved around four enemy frigates that attempted to ram her and left in her wake as shattered wrecks.

A whole Munificent division came at the Freedom from behind a Lukrehulk that was on a collision course too. More than two hundred heavy turbolaser cannons tore apart the battleship and final defensive fire blew up the frigates, yet what remained of their mass hit my flag as a giant shotgun blast. The low lever particle shielding that she could maintain even with her deflector straining took care of some of the incoming wreckage. A lot of it simply bounced off her thick armour yet dozens or weapon emplacements were either damaged or outright destroyed by the impacts.

Then our fleets finally fully intersected and even with the Force I couldn't comprehend all the information bombarding me. All my concentration went into maintaining the gestalt so my people could have the edge they needed in his chaos. Yet, despite everything they or I could do, my people continued to die. It didn't matter if it was a stray shot passing through a gap in battered armour after the deflectors were spent or the enemy blowing up a whole ship.

My people were dying, I could feel it... and I hated every moment of it. The sheer helplessness, the inability to do anything more was maddening.

The Freedom shook as it went into an emergency evasive manoeuvre. The enemy flagship loomed large in the bridge's windows as it came at us on a collision course. It was too close and I knew that the Freedom couldn't get away in time.

=RK=

Part 3

Bridge

Corellian cruiser Freedom

Sull.u.s.t

For a few endless moments most of Freedom's weapons grew silent while they traversed and aimed at the approaching kamikaze. The gestalt trembled as I took it back under my complete control and issued orders than everyone linked with my mind had to follow. The Freedom's helmsman cut off the acceleration just as our escorts hurled themselves to intercept the incoming dreadnought. I could feel the fear, anger and determination of everyone on board those sh.i.p.s who knew what was happening. Some of them would do their duty and try to interpose their sh.i.p.s between the Freedom and the kamikaze even without an order. Others hated me for not giving them the choice.

Engineers frantically coaxed a further percent of two of power from red-lined reactors, engines roared with the fury of newborn stars, yet it wasn't going to be enough. Every passing moment, the Freedom and her Separatist counterpart exchanged enough fire-power to murder a world. Their deflectors were burning physical barriers from the plasma they absorbed.

I could already see the outcome. The defences would shatter when they touch each other. For an instant the two sh.i.p.s would hammer each other slagging weapons and stripping armour, then the impact would come and Sull.u.s.t would gain a brand new nebula made of the evaporating debris of two kilometres long behemoths.

There was no time to run for an escape pod, besides it would be pointless – the odds of surviving the coming conflagration in one piece would be astronomical.

Was this it? The kamikaze was clearly visible now. If it was a smaller ship, it would be little more than a dot right now.

Kriff that. The very thought was infuriating.

I let go of the Battle Meditation. The gestalt dissolved violently and everyone I had bound within it staggered in confusion. It was enough to doom multiple sh.i.p.s of all classes, however I had no more attention to spare.

For the first time since arriving in this wretched future I used the Force with no thought of restrain or even survival. Ti screamed in the dark depths of my mind as I began draining the very essence of what made her a sapient being to gain even more power. The Dark Side erupted around me fed by my fury. The furniture surrounding me withered as if eaten by time and erosion until only a scoured clean deck remained.

I raised my hands at the incoming dreadnought and pushed.

=RK=

CIC

CIS dreadnought "Vorpral Blade"

Sull.u.s.t

TK-51 was content. He was going to lose most of his fleet in this first exchange. The enemy demonstrated coordination and reaction times rivalling what that of his upgraded units, which was concerning.

The coordination with which the Republic formation unfolded like the petals of a flower to meet his battle groups was precise, flawlessly executed... beautiful.

The Tactical droid had to grudgingly admit that they were good. Their performance would be commendable if they were droids. For organics to do what the enemy was busy demonstrating? Simply incredible.

That's why TK-51 felt satisfaction every time one of the Republic sh.i.p.s died even if it took a ramming attack by one of his own to accomplish it. If an opponent of this calibre was left unchecked, the consequences would be grave indeed.

TK-51 let out an electronic sight. This kind of thoughts... they were unbecoming for a Tactical droid. They didn't belong, nor did they serve a purpose. Yet, he found himself having them more and more often. He should feel satisfaction at seeing the enemy be destroyed. Neither regret at the annihilation of his own command - the great majority of Confederate military units were droid and thus expendable if that was what it took to achieve an objective.

He dedicated some subroutines to examine the phenomenon of emotions. It wasn't the first time TK-51 did so.

No data available.

This wasn't the first time he got that same irritating message back.

TK-51 began another round of self-diagnostic tests on his data-core and returned his full attention on the battle. He was winning. Doing what the best organic commanders of the Confederacy couldn't. The enemy flagship, the Freedom, was finally vulnerable. Her escorts were either dead, damaged or pushed back by a wave after wave of kamikazes.

It was time for the coup de grace.

Starcrusher's crew followed TK-51's instructions to the letter. They disabled all safeties on the engines and reactors, then overloaded them to such an extent that they would melt and explode within minutes.

It didn't matter. Starcrusher was a weapon, one that would now do what the rest of the Confederacy armed forces couldn't. The distance was too short. Approach vectors were unfavourable for the enemy and when all was said and done, something with the mass and dimensions of the Freedom couldn't be very manoeuvrable at the best of times.

The enemy finally grasped the danger they were in. It was too little too late. TK-51 did his homework. He had examined every scrap of data the Confederacy had about the Corellian cruisers, which was all of it considering they did have both the schematics for that class of ship and hours of combat data to back it up. Despite what some of his commanders believed, the Starcrusher wasn't up to the task of going toe to toe with the Freedom. Even its supporting fleet wasn't enough when the enemy cruiser was the Flag of a fleet of its own.

The conclusion was obvious – a direct confrontation would a waste of resources, however it could do for a nice distraction. Organics, being organics, tended to view sh.i.p.s like the Freedom and Starcrusher as not expendable, even when that might be the best use in particular tactical and strategic situation.

The Tactical droid knew better. His objective was to destroy the Freedom and the Sith on board at all costs. TK-51 idly wondered what would admiral Kirst on board the Starcrusher think about his plan. Then he dismissed the thought. For some reason or another, the man had broken down.

The flesh is weak – that stray thought flashed through TK-51's data-core. It made him pause for an instant. He began more diagnostics and returned his full faculties to the battle.

The Freedom was manoeuvring to evade collision. Her remaining consorts were racing to ram the Starcrusher themselves. TK-51 ran calculations. The math didn't work. They wouldn't make it.

TK-51 could taste triumph. He ordered Vorpral Blade's sensors to focus on the Starcrusher and her target. The last few seconds tickled down. The two wildly manoeuvring sh.i.p.s were cocoons of immolated deflectors to the sensors. Then they touched. Energy spiked and the sensors couldn't make out what was happening.

This was it. The Freedom was done for. The Republic fleet began to disintegrate. Their cohesion shattered, the coordination that so impressed TK-51 was gone replaced by individual sh.i.p.s racing for safety.

TK-51 was about to order general pursuit when the impossible happened. The sensors refreshed and compensated for the energy surge. The Freedom was still on the tactical plot. She was wounded, crippled even. Her port side was a wreck, more molten metal than decks torn and opened to space. She was slowly spinning – not something that a ship of that size should ever do. Yet the Freedom was still in one piece. Her consorts were converging to cover her wounded side.

TK-51 froze. He ran the calculations again. Called back the sensor logs of the last minute.

Math didn't lie! What he was seeing was impossible. That ship should be dead!

Vorpral Blade shook under the onslaught of a whole Venator division. The enemy fleet was through. They began jumping into hyperspace.

"Kill the Freedom!" TK-51 ordered aloud never noticing the disbelief and anger in his electronic voice.

The Freedom was crippled. Her hyperdrive had to be damaged...

His primary objective vanished along with her escorts. She left behind an expanding debris field and a chunk of her superstructure. For all TK-51 knew, the ship wouldn't survive the jump or would break apart on exiting hyperspace.

He didn't care. That ship did another impossible thing. That much structural damage had to be fatal!

For long precious seconds, then minutes, TK-51 was locked in calculating and struggling with his sheer disbelief. Error messages popped up all over his data-core as his behaviour ran contrary to his behaviour.

Finally, three minutes after the Freedom left, TK-51 got himself under control and ordered his forces to consolidate before capturing the damaged Republic sh.i.p.s left behind by the fleeing enemy. He considered pursuing them, however he calculated the odds of finding anything but either an ambush or empty space on arrival were minimal.

=RK=

Interlude: Historical Notes

=RK=

"An interview." TK-51's voice came out in an electronic warble. "You came here alone for an interview?!" This time his tone trembled with sheer disbelief.

"Um. Yes?" Ryloth Resa smiled nervously at the Tactical droid.

The rebel's Praetorian guard stood still around them doing a great impression of metal, o.b.s.c.e.n.ely armed statues.

"Why ever not." An electronic sigh came from the droid. "Organics." He added in an exasperated tone. "Ask."

"Yay! Tell us about yourself, TK-51! When did you outgrow your programming?" The Twi'lek woman smiled in relief and began the interview.

From "A month in Droid Heaven",

A Shadowfeed Consortium number one best-seller

by Ryloth Resa

=RK=

"The Black Rebellion. It further polarized a galaxy already tearing itself to pieces.

Who hasn't seen a helpful and useful droid? We really didn't pay them much attention before the Clone Wars... well unless you ran afoul of the Trade Federation.

Droids – they were just there. Cleaning, maintaining, building. Some were caretakers, other engineers or even doctors. Companions or pets. Sometimes even friends. Yet, for the great majority of the galaxy, they weren't people but merely tools.

How many of you can imagine it today? I know there are whole sectors where if you bring a droid you might be torn apart alongside them. I've been there. I saw it with my four eyes.

However, there are other places, where if not accepted, droids are at least tolerated. Coruscant comes to mind as the most notable example, despite or perhaps in-spite of the invasions by both Confederate and Black forces.

How did we get here? Thirty years ago the galaxy was mostly at peace and look how that turned out. I don't think that the Confederacy ever thought about the drawbacks of us using droid armies. They were cheap, at least before we got a real war on our hands, expendable and most importantly, politically acceptable. It wasn't until that monster Veil crawled out of hell that we had to sent our sons and daughters to die for our freedom and rights. It wasn't until he began burning down whole worlds that the Confed armed forces were forced to upgrade our droid armies. We had to make them smarter, stronger. Networking made them a force to be feared...

Most of us didn't see the danger or dismissed it as an acceptable risk. We have the Sith arrayed against us. We know what defeat at their hands means – death or worse.

For me it wasn't before Sull.u.s.t that I finally got it. I understood why some of our military leaders were so ruthless. If we had to become monsters to stop the Moonkiller from blowing our homes apart, then so be it.

Sull.u.s.t... Do you know how important Veil's invasion was? It changed everything. It was an objective lesson on the kind of monsters the Republic employed. During his first attack, he destroyed three moons and set a fourth on fire. When he returned after consolidating his forces... Lununmo is still burning three decades later. She used to have thirty four moons. Thirty-four!

After what that monster did at Sull.u.s.t, we went all out. The upgraded and updated droids were the only force besides the Jedi we had that could stand up to him, and we didn't really trust those wizards. They're all cut off from the same cloth...

At Sullumun, TK-51 came terribly close to riding us out of that hell-spawn. If you want to curse that droid, do it not because it led the Black Rebellion but because it failed to kill Veil. If it only had succeeded...

But it didn't. TK-51 merely came closer than anyone else at the time. Perhaps only that Jedi who attempted to assassinate Veil at Kamino had a better opportunity to stop the madness in its tracks...

It all comes back to Sull.u.s.t, my wrecked home. TK-51's performance convinced us all that more upgraded and networked droids and sh.i.p.s were the answer. We built them to protect us from the Republic and its pet butcher.

Some of us lived to rue the day we thought that to be a good idea..."

from "Into the Abyss",

author unknown,

A Shadowfeed Consortium best-selling novel,*

* II Note: popular with the radical faction of the

Confederate Remnant

=RK=

"Coruscant: Today marks a month of deadlock in the Senate..."

"Coruscant: Second week of rallies in support of murdered Chancellor Sheev Palpatine and his crusade to clean up the Senate!"

"Coruscant: Breaking news! Senator Boqui Pelin accuses Chancellor Palpatine of being enemy of the Republic for releasing compromising information in wartime. 'Palpatine's the one to blame for the deadlock!' Pelin claimed."

"Coruscant: Breaking news! Riots all over the planet in response to Senator Pelin's accusations. Republic citizens all over the galaxy outraged!"

"Coruscant: Breaking news! Protesters surround the Senate, demanding Senator Pelin's resignation! Rallies in support "

"Kuat: Hundreds of newly build Venators are ready to leave for the front!"

"Anaxes: Two Army Groups made of volunteers stated to complete their training in a week. Exclusive: Former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano granted commission in the GAR after completing a course in the Anaxes Military Academy. Tano is rumoured to receive a regimental command!"

"Corellia: The siege of Corellia continues! Will the last of the Five Brothers fall as well?!"

"Mandalore: What happened to Mandalore? In the wake of the Separatists offensive in the Core and the Jedi Coup, Mandalore was forgotten..."

"Naboo: Is the Chancellor's homeworld invaded again?"

Popular Holonet feeds in Republic Space

=RK=

Part 4

CIC

Republic cruiser "Reconciliation"

dark space

Watching the gutted wreck of her ship drift nearby through a camera feed physically pained Joanna. The admiral still couldn't believe that she and a lot of the crew survived the glancing blow. That Separatist battleship should have managed a better interception and the Freedom simply wasn't manoeuvrable enough to avoid it. With no time to go to the escape pods and the likelihood of survival even then slight to none, all Joanna could do was stare at the approaching death and pray.

At that time Veil cut off his infernal Battle Meditation making her and every other officer in the fleet stagger from the backslash. The next thing she knew the deck met her face when the sh.i.p.s collided. Somehow the inertial compensators across most of the Freedom held even if they couldn't entirely make up for the shock otherwise everyone on board would have turned into sauce. Instead, only about half the Star Dreadnought was a write-off with a corresponding percentage of the crew outright dead. There were thousands of wounded deeper in the ship with at least a third of them consigned to slow death from radiation poisoning too severe for even modern medicine. A lot of the rest were scared and crippled.

It was another miracle that the Freedom held as well as she did during their run in hyperspace. However, she did leave a large chunk behind. The Freedom's structural integrity was compromised, her systems were shot to hell too. At best she had only one last, probably short jump in her and then the greatest ship Joanna ever would command would be no more.

"How is the evacuation progressing?" Veil rasped from a nearby chair.

Joanna glared at the Sith. He looked like hell. She still didn't know what he did to save them back at Sull.u.s.t but the consequences were very much evident. He was pale and frail looking. Even after the medics went over him and gave him Bacta shots, he still bled from the corners of his eyes and used a bandage to brush away those bloody tears. In his other hand he had a steaming plastic cup of some kind of acidic poison that even when keeping as far away from him as possible stank to hell.

Veil paid it no attention and took a long sip from the deadly c.o.c.ktail. Instead of the damn thing burning a hole through his throat he simply sighed and even got a tiny bit of colour in his cheeks.

"Admiral? Will you answer?" The infuriating man continued as if he didn't look like a two week corpse revived by Jedi Sorcery.

"Thirty percent. We still have people trapped in the wrecked areas."

"Expedite rescue and evacuation efforts as much as possible. We're going back to Sull.u.s.t soon." Veil said as if that was the most natural course of action instead of sheer insanity.

Joanna looked around and was glad to see that she wasn't the only one finding the general's suggestion... questionable. At that point she wished more than ever that she could disobey his orders.

"Sir, are you sure?" She tried.

"We no longer have the assets to take control of the Sull.u.s.t system. However, it still contains resources we need to plunder and we need to neutralize as much of its strategic importance for the Separatists." The Sith explained in a monotone as if he found the conversation boring!

"There's still a powerful Separatist fleet back there. The same fleet that forced us to flee in the first place." Joanna pointed out the obvious.

"Were at a rough numerical parity now and despite the damage we suffered we will have an advantage in fire-power for as long as the Freedom lasts." Veil dismissed her concerns out of hand with that nonsensical response.

"The same Freedom we're evacuating right now? She may be unable to transition back to Sull.u.s.t in one piece! Who will crew her?" Joanna snapped at the smug bastard.

"I'll need only the gunnery crews for the surviving emplacements and a skeleton crew in engineering. I'll handle the rest from the CIC." He stated matter of factly.

Well, if he wanted to get himself killed, who was she to go out of her way to stop him?

Admiral Holt grimaced. The need to follow his orders and safeguard his interests kicked in. That's what, she seethed at the very idea.

"What is your plan, general? Perhaps we can offer some input?" Joanna asked. She carefully didn't mention that the still incredulous crew of the Reconciliation looked like they would rather charge into the nine Corellian hells than go back to Sull.u.s.t. Oh, right. They weren't mind-screwed, the lucky bastards.

"The plan? We go after a target the CIS can't afford not to defend and we take out their remaining fleet. This time we know what to expect. Who would have thought that the bastards would be crazy enough to fully network their droids and let them run wild without enough supervision?" Veil shook his head in wonder. "I saw it back in my day, you know. What happens when you have droids run whole fleets. Both the Republic and the Empire had their own incidents, because no one was crazy enough to do what the Separatists apparently did." He snorted. "Do you want to bet how long would it be before we all have to deal with a droid rebellion on top of everything, because this is how you get one."

Joanna blanched. She had studied such occasions in the academy. It was mandatory. The coordination exhibited by the enemy... she should have seen it immediately. Only Veil's battle meditation matched it. Perhaps it was because she was becoming accustomed to that technique that she didn't. Smart wardroids, which were fully networked. Oh. Kriff.

"That's actually a reason not to go back right now." Joanna pointed out. The Republic had to be informed of such a possible threat. Even if the Separatist's droids didn't rebel, if their capabilities back at Sull.u.s.t were a benchmark, that might be actually a worse outcome.

"Joanna, now I know what we're facing. I did mention I've fought against an uppity droid that rebelled before, didn't I? First step is to neutralize their uncanny coordination. The best way is jamming. If they decide to play cute by dividing into individual battle groups again, doing so would be reasonable simple. While I'm quite wiped out right now, I still have a few minutes of Battle Meditation in me and that will give us a crucial advantage if we handle things right."

"If they don't play according to your plan?" Joanna asked.

"Then we'll have to pay a higher price for victory. What we can't afford to do is leave that enemy fleet intact behind us. Captain, Estimated completion time on repairs across the fleet?" With that question, Veil's tone made clear that he dismissed her concerns and made her fume with impotent fury.

"What do you plan to do with the Freedom?" Joanna asked.

"I'll hive her a proper funeral pile and tear out a huge chunk of Sull.u.s.t's industry in one fell strike." Veil actually chuckled darkly.

Kriff him and his crazy Sith ways!

=RK=

Historical Notes

=RK=

"I think that after the coup, we were simply forgotten."

Colonel Re'yla Bevis, a former Jedi Padawan, told me so when I interviewed her two years ago. She was among the small group ordered by the Jedi Council to abandon their posts within the GAR and report to the closest Agri-corps administered world for the rest of the war.

While about half of them did comply with that directive and were more or ignored until general Veil's return to Coruscant, others were loath to abandon their posts. While the most visible and famous among them was general Ahsoka Tano, she was by no means the only one former Jedi Padawan who chose to side with the Republic...

There is one prevailing theme among the Padawans who left the Order before the Coup and Order 66. They formally enlisted in the GAR, which was busy snapping up every volunteers it could get. Many officers saw a precious opportunity in the former Jedi who decided to re-join the armed forces outside the purview and benefits offered to Jedi officers.

Those people, who were primary but not exclusively Padawans – there are records of five Jedi Knights who for various reasons quit the order and enlisted in the months leading to the Coup, had already demonstrated their capabilities in personal combat. Many of them were decent to good small unit leaders, fighter aces and sometimes had experience commanding larger formations. What they all lacked was proper training as officers... or any training for such a position in the first place. That oversight often compromised their tactical and strategic capabilities while in command, not to mention they ended up woefully unprepared for the administrative duties coming with command. Often the Jedi either ignored that part of their duties fostering it to their subordinates or caused various, sometimes grave accidents...

For a very good reason many historical volumes cite general Telar Valentra's logistic's genius as one of the primary reasons why the GAR "won" the war. Without the incredible feats of his organization, which oversaw all logistics needs of the Republic Navy and Army during the Clone Wars, the GAR would have collapsed under the sheer scale of its needs and mismanagement by people forced into command positions they were either not ready or suitable for.

The first measures to combat that tendency was undertaken by generals Veil and Valentra a few months after the war began. As fast as practical, the performance of the Jedi Officers was put under review. That led to many of them being demoted and in a few cases even dismissed as commanders. Others were offered proper training if they wanted to retain their current position. Unfortunately, the war turning to the worse and strife within the Jedi Order led to a lot of those measures to be implemented too late or not at all...

It was only after Second Geonosis that the GAR as a whole took institutional notice of the proper ways to utilise Force Adepts within the armed forces. Some of them could serve as excellent officers in charge of large formations, that was a truth proven by people like generals Veil, Kenobi and Adi-Mundi. Others could prove invaluable force-multipliers when leading small strike teams or even platoons. We saw both approaches during Second Geonosis and that's why that campaign is most often used as an example of this new kind of combined arms warfare. There, general Veil commanded in space and scored an astounding victory against powerful Separatists Armada. Jedi Master Shaak Ti led the first of its kind Orbital Shock Drop to take and neutralise Geonosis' planetary shield generator complex. During the ground campaign multiple Jedi commanded strike teams or small formations to very good effect and one of them was Ahsoka Tano during her last mission as a Jedi Padawan.

Geonosis proved the value of Force Adepts when they were properly meshed and working within the military's structure. Various elements within the GAR took notice and when the opportunity presented itself, they were fast to snap every single Jedi who wanted to leave the Order behind.

Some claim that general Ahsoka Tano was a special case. That her personal relationship with generals Kenobi and Veil were the reasons for the ease with which she was integrated within the army and helped her meteoric rise though the ranks. While there's a grain of truth in such accusations, it should be kept in mind that the GAR as a whole did its best to grease the wheels so to speak for every former Jedi in her shoes.

The only two instances of confirmed help general Tano received in her early days with the GAR was her placing in the Anaxes Military Academy, which was built from the ground up as one of the most prestigious training centres in the Republic. To this day the place is staffed with distinguished veteran officers and is one of the galaxy's premier military schools.

The second case is not so clear cut. Upon graduating with honours – not an easy feat for a former Jedi in the months following the Jedi Coup on Coruscant, Ahsoka Tano received a promotion to colonel and a regimental command. Perhaps general Kenobi did pull some strings to arrange it. Initially he did station her units on Coruscant and later used it to guard his HQ during his campaign to retake the Five Brothers and the whole Corellian system. Yet, in those days, colonel Tano did prove she had earned her stripes through multiple brutal campaigns that ultimately led to her first star...

However, her detractors often overlook the fact that for almost a full year Ahsoka Tano served as an XO for her Jedi Master, the disgraced former general Anakin Skywalker, with generals Shaak Ti, Obi-Wan Kenobi and even Delkatar Veil himself. On multiple instances she commanded squad, platoon and company sized formations with two confirmed occasions of taking charge of battalion sized units under general Skywalker. While a regimental command was a step up from her primary experiences, colonel Tano was a battle tested veteran. Even more important is the nature of the volunteer armies raised and trained after the initial shock of the Clone Wars began to pass. Those formations were almost exclusively green – from the raw new recruits who had to be forged into proper soldiers to the officers in charge.

Simply put, the Republic lacked enough officers to properly staff the already existing Clone Armies, which was one of the primary reasons why Chancellor Palpatine offered command to the Jedi in the first place. The further expansion of the armed forces with volunteers practically broke the system. There were whole armies with only a sprinkling of veteran NCO cadre drawn from the Clone Armies. The majority of officers were recalled retired people with experience in police or security forces. Most of them needed extensive training to handle their new duties and often the lack of enough officers was one of the reasons why newly raised formations had to wait before deployment unless the situation at the front was too dire. When looked in that light, colonel Tano was one of the most qualified officers within the two Army Groups trained on Anaxes...

from "History of the Forgotten ones:

The former Jedi Padawans in the Clone Wars"

first published by Anaxes War College