Chapter 2

Commander Han Solo carefully brought his Actis III-advanced interceptor into a careful landing behind the Security Director's shuttle. As the leader of Rogue Squadron, some joke from the Mandalorian evacuation apparently, the most elite fighter group of the Alliance it was his privilege to fly escort for their supreme commander whenever Skywalker visited the front.

The Actis III was the single most advanced starfighter in the known galaxy, with powerful deflector shields, multiple rapid-firing blaster cannons, and a concussion missile launcher. Those had been present on the previous model as well however. What made the Actis III truly stand out were the powerful inertial dampeners inside, which allowed Alliance pilots to match the impossible maneuvers which previously could only have been achieved by droids. With an elite pilot's skill behind it the Actis III was virtually unbeatable in a dogfight. Only one pilot that Han knew of could outfly his squadron, and she officially did not exist. He had never trained her, nor had she ever flown with them.

He hopped down the ladder that was provided for his fighter and moved up with the rest of his squadron to guard the ramp of Skywalker's shuttle. Arrayed before them were the crew of this Star Dreadnaught, all arrayed in formation. Standing at the front was Admiral Pellaeon, at attention as the ramp came down.

Skywalker's guard, a group of clones clad in traditional Mandalorian armor and armed with heavy weapons came down first, forming up at the bottom, then separating into two columns and turned outward.

Finally, down the ramp came the man himself, Luke Skywalker, Director of Alliance Security. The man was the supreme commander of the Alliance military, and head of the Intelligence service. He'd kept a low profile during the war, but afterward had emerged as the unifying force between the two, and had established the firm power base which held sway over almost all of the territory liberated from the Republic.

In theory he was subordinate to the Assembly and Premier, but the Assembly was no better than the old Senate, and it held no actual power. The Premier was a figurehead with as little power as the Assembly. The true power in the Alliance were the Oversector Directors. Amidala, Kryze, Needa, Antilles, Mothma, Zar, Tarkin, etc. These were the people who had willingly led their worlds into the Alliance, or had formed it initially. And as such they were the trustees who maintained vast groups of sectors across the quarter of the galaxy the Alliance controlled.

But the reality was there were so many sectors, and so few trustworthy leaders. And so, the rest of the Alliance fell under military administration, or to put it another way, Skywalker's administration. He directly ruled as much territory as the other Directors combined, and a preponderance of all military forces. Without any Assembly oversight he was also free to maintain order through any means necessary.

In effect, Luke Skywalker was the single most powerful man in the galaxy. And as the leader of a squadron hand-picked by Han Solo himself, Han was virtually unquestionable in his orders and judgement. Pretty good for a street rat from Corellia if Han said so himself.

Director Skywalker greeted Pellaeon, then began down the soldiers, surveying them as he did so.

Occasionally, Skywalker stopped to greet a specific person, often those he had either gone to school with, met in functions in the years afterwards, or had recruited from planetary security forces to serve in the Alliance Fleet.

"Is he always like this?" The newest pilot in their squadron, another Corellian named Antilles, whispered, only loud enough for Han to hear. Technically they were not allowed to talk while Skywalker was inspecting the assembled force, but Rogue Squadron was afforded special privileges for their skills.

Han nodded imperceptibly. "Got a memory for faces," he whispered back. "Gets inspiring the first time someone that important singles you out by name."

Antilles nodded. Han spotted the signal a few moments later and gestured for Rogue Squadron to fall into line. They did so, Skywalker's guards behind them and began forward down the aisle as well. The fell into step behind the Director as he strode from the hangar, and escorted him to his quarters, the largest on the ship naturally. When they reached the door, Skywalker turned and dismissed his clone guards with a word. They would be birthed in a special barracks, and were largely ceremonial anyway. Han remembered the attempted assassination of Skywalker on Coruscant five years before.

Despite being outnumbered ten to one the Director had slaughtered his attackers with a casual, almost contemptuous ease. The lightsaber he openly wore was not for show.

One by one Skywalker thanked Rogue Squadron, including Antilles, who seemed positively elated that Skywalker remembered his first name, Wedge, and the name of his wife. Won a follower for life there, Han reflected. Such a small gesture really, but it paid dividends. Anyone on this ship would throw themselves in front of a turbolaser bolt if it meant even the smallest possibility of saving Skywalker, including Han himself.

Finally, Skywalker extended his hand to Han and commented, "Congratulations on being promoted to Rogue Leader. Fel recommended you highly."

"Thank you for selecting me," Han answered immediately. "It is a great honor sir."

Luke smiled and nodded, "I know that you won't disappoint me. Say hello to Winter for me, and congratulate her on her own promotion as well."

"I will sir," Han answered, genuinely grateful for the gesture even if he knew it was a minor thing. Winter had worked hard to gain respect in Alliance intelligence, and his wife would be elated that the man in charge had personally recognized it.

Skywalker entered his own chambers, and Solo ordered his subordinates to their quarters.


Luke Skywalker closed his eyes as the doors slid shut behind him. This all got so…tiresome. Pretending to care about whatever petty concerns his subordinates had paid dividends naturally, but it could be exhausting. Breathing deeply Skywalker settled into meditation, and drifted away. As he did so the ship fell away, and he drifted into the Force.


Mara's eyes snapped open as she broke into the Jedi's beacon. It had been a long process of unlocking the complex defenses the Jedi built into their equipment. One of their own Jedi could have done it in seconds, but without already knowing exactly what to do Mara had had to work slowly and methodically, probing and testing each point, but that work had paid off.

She felt a moment of triumph, but even as she did so there was a warning in the Force and moments later the Beacon began to heat.

Mara swore as she tried to find what could have gone wrong, but there just wasn't enough time. Instead she started the program to mine the device's data as fast as possible. It took barely of a fraction of a second for the device to wipe itself and self-destruct. During that time her program had gotten some section of the data stored on it, all of it encrypted. Mara sighed and started the long process of breaking the encryption as well.

It was a process of nearly two days to work out the encryption key, and then another six hours to break the code underneath. The Jedi, Mara reflected as the computer decoded the information, really did not want their secrets being leaked.

She rapidly scanned the data that had been gathered and sighed. The location of the Jedi's new temple was not included. Whether it had been in the data which had been wiped before she could pull it, or had never been included was irrelevant, she would have to keep searching. From the initial data it appeared that Jedi transmissions originated from several planets scattered throughout the New Republic's territory, with the majority seeming to originate on Dantooine. That made sense, Mara reflected. The planet had long been a Jedi stronghold, going back thousands of years. While it had fallen out of favor in modern times the Jedi returning was logical.

Resolving to investigate Mara set her course for the planet, and jumped to hyperspace.


The refugee fleet was vast, at least a thousand ships of all sizes, and all of them were packed with Chiss.

Surrounding them was the less numerous, but far larger Kuat-class Star Destroyers. The Kuat was the natural successor to the old Venator class. The Alliance had learned lessons from the Revolution, and these informed every decision made in the new capital ships. The Venator's large hangar had been replaced by a smaller hangar dedicated almost entirely to fighters rather than a mixture of fighters and bombers. The hangar was approximately half as large as a Venator's, despite the vessel itself being the same overall length The broadside turbolasers had been completely removed, replaced by a larger array of forward turbolasers. The aft had been more heavily armed as well. Most importantly, the class had had a vast amount of slave circuitry installed based on the Katana fleet, leaving the ship only needing a third of the Venator's crew requirements.

The wedge that marked the Kuat Drive Yards' iconic design was intact, but the front was thicker, and the Venator's side indentations had been removed, resulting in a more trapezoidal shape. The Venator's two towers had been lowered significantly, instead merely projecting directly from the ship's superstructure without a neck. The bottom of the ship had also been angle upward, and the top had been angled down, meeting at the front of the ship at an angle. With the addition of significant firepower on the bottom of the ship allowed more firepower to be projected forward, while giving a 360 degree field of fire for the ship if needed. The ships bottom also held a larger complement of ion cannons, placed with the intention of giving the ship an ability to weaken, or potentially remove, planetary shields.

The interior of the ship was drastically different. In addition to the shrunken hangar virtually all ground assault capability outside of bombardment had been removed. A battalion of soldiers was retained onboard the ship, but these were primarily intended for use in boarding actions, both conducting and defending against. Overall, the Kuat was the logical extension of everything the Alliance had learned during the last war. It was a capital ship designed to battle other capital ships and assault planets. These particular ships bore the black exterior which marked ships not belonging to a specific oversector fleet. Those just looking at them would simply see a void in space where there were no stars against the darkness.

By comparison the Chiss vessels were tiny, and all of them were clearly damaged. Scarring and burn marks ran along the hulls. Most of the ships were barely function, being primarily devoted to keeping the engines and life support running. Alliance transports moved between them delivering food, water, and air to keep the ships running while they waited for Skywalker's arrival.

The designated time arrived, and true to form Skywalker's squadron dropped out of hyperspace. This was a formation of eighteen Kuat-class Star Destroyers, arrayed around the even larger Solstice-class Star Dreadnaught. The Solstice was the largest ship constructed by the Alliance, though by the standards of its ship type it was tiny. At only three miles long it was primarily an alternative capital ship that had been rejected as impractical for mass production. The Solstice had had only four vessels ordered, all commissioned within the last year. The planet Kuat kept one as part of its Oversector Fleet, to replace the Mandators which remained in service but had been transferred to other regions. Two were dispatched to Naboo's oversector and Mandalore's. Both had been chosen for their early support of the Alliance, and their proximity to Republic Space.

The final vessel had been taken by Skywalker as his personal flagship, after some additional modifications and upgrades. The vessel itself was named Eclipse, and was fitted with additional turbolaser batteries, and more importantly a gravity well generator, a prototype of a scaled up design built to be used on capital ships rather than on dozens of satellites. The system had never gone past the testing phase however, as its power requirements were too great for even a Kuat to carry it and an acceptable level of weaponry.

Quite what the alien dignitaries were thinking as the Alliance shuttle brought them into the vessel's hangar was impossible to guess. Waiting for them was an assembled battalion of clones, one of the few pure clones from the original Kaminoan sources, left. Rather than normal equipment however these clones wore armor that was painted black with streaks of gold, and had long ceremonial cloaks. Most striking however were the virtually featureless masks they wore. Normal clone trooper armor, and indeed all other Alliance armor, was formed to at least partially mimic the face of a sentient being. It put those who saw it at ease, initially at least.

But the personal Legion of Luke Skywalker, of which this battalion was a small part, did not bother. Their helmets were based on the Mandalorian helms of his guard. For this particular occasion the lower ranks carried force pikes, while the officers carried lightsabers. Both weapons were purely ceremonial.

Han Solo was waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp, in his own dress uniform, and unarmed. The first Chiss off the shuttle was a man of clearly military bearing. He was wearing a dark uniform, and wore enough gold thread on it to be a high-ranking officer Han though, not blind to the amount sewn into his own uniform.

"Commander Han Solo," he introduced himself, extending his hand. "Galactic Alliance Starfighter Corps."

"Admiral Thrawn of the Chiss Evacuation Fleet," the alien answered, uncertainly taking Han's hand, and allowing it to be shaken. "Is Skywalker not here?" Thrawn enquired.

"He was unfortunately delayed," Han said immediately. That was a damn lie, and he knew the other man knew it as well. Luke was technically talking to Director Amidala, but that had been purposefully timed. The Alliance were in the vastly superior position, and Skywalker was emphasizing that. Unless Han's initial impression was wildly off however Thrawn was unflappable enough that the minor insult would not seriously impact the situation. And, he thought ruefully, its not like they have much choice.

More aliens descended the ramp, several wearing heavy armor, though they lacked visible weapons. The leader approached and Thrawn announced, "Aristocra Chaf'form'bintrano will be our primary ambassador during the talks."

"Formbi," the Aristocra, noted, taking Han's extended hand. "I was the last Aristocra, but there is little point in retaining the title now. I cannot tell you how grateful we are at the Alliance's ongoing aid efforts, what food we had ran out several weeks ago, and I was afraid whoever we found would be unwilling to aid us."

Han smiled, "Don't mention it. Our government was founded on the principal of aiding the less fortunate. To refuse aid in such circumstances would be against our most important values." Seeing that there were no more aliens coming down the ramp he said, "If you are ready Director Skywalker has had a conference room prepared where he will meet with you. Several of our military leaders will be present as well, and a number of our government leaders will be watching and may comment."

"Of course," Formbi answered happily.


Skywalker was already waiting at the head of the conference table. He was wearing his normal clothing, a simple admiral's uniform, black to signify his section of the Alliance military, and no rank insignia. He didn't need one.

The Chiss were shown to their seats, and beverages were delivered by a golden protocol droid , while Skywalker's personal astromech sat next to his seat. The astromech was responsible for maintaining communication with the ghostly holograms around the table. Obi-Wan Kenobi of Alliance Intelligence, Admiral Zzinj of the fleet, Amidala of Naboo, Lorth Needa of Kuat, Raymus Antilles of Alderaan, and Satine Kryze of Mandalore were all gathered. Due to the still unstable Holonet connection within the Alliance none of them would be able to communicate while they were watching, but each would know what had happened in the meeting.

"Director Skywalker," Formbi began. "Allow me to once again thank you for the aid your fleet has provided. Our situation remains desperate, but our people are no longer starving."

Skywalker smiled and answered, "Naturally we could not turn down your request for aid. My advisors tell me a planet has been selected which is similar to your own world. It is uninhabited, and has only a small number of local species." He gestured, and Artoo beeped before a holo-image of an ice world appeared. "Hoth is in what we call the Outer Rim," he explained. "The planet is largely a frozen ocean, but there is significant geothermal activity. The planet is near a thick asteroid field rich in metals to use in constructing your new capital, and the planet also boasts an extremely rare spice."

Formbi examined the planet closely, and finally nodded, "It appears colder than our own world, but not unbearably so. It will take time to rebuild our society however."

Luke nodded, "Of course. We will give what aid we can." There were a small number of details to be worked out, but soon the Chiss's new home was formally given, and Luke turned the subject he cared about, rather than some worthless planet even more remote than Tatooine. "What can you tell me about the Vagaari?"

Thrawn cleared his throat and leaned forward, "I can answer that most effectively Director. The Vagaari are a slaving race from an unknown area beyond our own borders. They began moving through out space forty-two years ago, and our peoples had light clashes for some time afterward, but the Vagaari never deliberately attacked us at first. Our people had a strict policy of never beginning a conflict." That, Han thought to himself, had to be the single stupidest defense policy he could imagine.

"The Vagaari were aware of this," Thrawn continued, "And so avoided provocation until approximately twenty-five years ago. By then they had amassed significantly more strength, and took our forces by suprrise. The Vagaari had mapped many of our defensive installations without our knowledge, and destroyed nearly half our fleet in a surprise attack. In addition to their own forces however the Vagaari had been supplemented by biological weapons and ships we believe originated beyond the edge of the galaxy. These new systems gave their ships a distinct tactical edge over our own vessels, which we were unable to overcome. We fought a long time, but ultimately our initial defeats proved insurmountable. Our homeworld fell shortly after our first meeting, and what remained of our people retreated into our Redoubt. For years we held off the Vagaari assaults, but six months ago they destroyed our last defensive station, and entered the Redoubt itself.

"Our remaining planets fell, until what few ships remained were able to break the interdiction fields the Vagaari used to trap us. There were twice as many ships at the beginning, but Vagaari attacks at every stop reduced our numbers until we entered your space. The ships here represent the future of our people. The rest have either died or been taken as Vagaari slaves, either way they are not recoverable currently." Thrawn sighed, "I would like to request that the Alliance attack the Vagaari, but given your hostilities with the Republic it would likely not be possible."

Luke nodded, "Eighty-percent of our military is deployed opposing the Republic currently, and we cannot afford to shift our forces away currently. I will do what I can to arrange surgical strikes aimed at rescuing prisoners."

"That would be appreciated," Thrawn acknowledged.

"These extra-galactic allies of the Vagaari," Luke noted. "What do you know about them?"

"Little," Thrawn answered. "We have records going back centuries of possible contact with a group our people call the Far Outsiders, but solid information is scarce. Our analysts however have determined the group uses biological creatures in places of machines, and are extremely hostile toward the galaxy's current inhabitants. We believe they are preparing for an invasion."

Luke nodded, "Thank you, I will look through old Republic records for similar encounters. For now, I believe the two of you have preparations to make, the trip to Hoth can begin whenever you are prepared."