Hi. Ha... Um last week I almost forgot to post, so I posted without filling out the beginning card. Since that chapter was completed and I had it ready save for this beginning bit. Which had some stuff but not everything.
I'm glad some people are enjoying my story, even if not in huge numbers. Also, comments also make me think about things I didn't realize before sooo if you could comment/review that'd be great.
Next chapter will be the first thing I've written since I started posting this story. I want to make it line up with my end goal, with the characters own internal struggles and how the world is beginning to function, so I hope I can do that and keep people enjoying the story.
Jaina Solo was not exactly enjoying the meeting. It could be described as a combination of childish arguments and dull legal readings. It helped if course that Jagged was there, the man had a better mind for the meaning of things that Jaina, and was actually better suited to the diplomacy of the matter. She was just there to represent the Jedi.
Which led to a distinctive split in the groups present. Group one were the people who thought a Jedi academy would grant the empire further power, group two took the belief that having a Jedi academy on Bastion would weaken the Empire and make it weak to the will of the Jedi, group three were the people who thought that the Jedi academy would be a mutually beneficial arrangement that would be wise to allow.
The differences between group one and three were hard to determine, but the simplest was the control aspect, in the eyes of group one the academy would be an Imperial academy for Jedi, in the eyes of group three the academy would be a Jedi academy within the Empire.
As the end of negotiations neared, and the empire made the final adjustments to the agreement on their side, as the Chiss did the same, there seemed also to erupt some kind of power struggle.
Part of it was Pellaeon's age, now a more elderly figure there was a questioning to succession. Each Moff and General seemed to believe that they were the logical choice, in fact there had grown a group who seemed to resent Pellaeon without Pellaeon even claiming a logical successor.
As the turmoil within the Empire grew Pellaeon had announced he would in fact be revealing his successor after the deal went through.
This was somewhat concerning to Jaina, whoever Pellaeon chose might turn out to be a warmongering maniac. On the other hand they could turn out to be a diplomat who tried to solve everything peacefully.
At that point Jaina wasn't sure which option was worse.
Jacen was looking forwards to the weekend, even if he had only been working a week. It turned out that the senate was both energy draining and infuriating, the last week had been spent arguing over helping the Yuuzhan Vong, while most of the Senate found themselves without a strong opinion on the matter, there were several who made arguments against allowing the Yuuzhan any aid, it seemed Jacen was the only one who was willing to argue on their behalf, and his own patience was running thin.
Each time the question was brought up it got nobody any closer to a firm answer.
Once more that particular session of conversation ended with no result, once more the senate turned back to less notable matters, trade deals, supply movements, reconstruction efforts. Every hour or so someone would enter the center of the chamber, on the floor below, usually pushing a cart of recordings, or pieces of documentation in other forms. Janitors passed through mopping the hallways below.
As usual a man passed by underneath, a janitor, Jacen thought, leaving his cart for a moment, doubtless to go find a restroom or to go pick something up.
Jacen's focus returned to the conversation going on around him, talks about construction on a set of Starships, which Jacen gave little thought to.
The hair on Jacen's neck stood on end, adrenaline rushes through his system, he turned to see if anybody was behind him, but no one appeared, his eyes turned back to the floor. Below the cart remained, Jacen yelled and he heard Tahiri speak at the same time, their voices matching almost perfectly, "Everybody down!"
As the senators and ambassadors leapt to the floor a roar leapt up through the chamber echoing and rebounding as the janitor's cart burst into a mass of flames, Jacen reached our arms the flames leapt upwards and outwards, trying to contain the blast, he could see Tahiri doing the same, working to funnel the explosion upwards.
As the noise slowly vanished, Jacen examined the rest of the room, the edges of seats were scorched, and the walls and floor were blackened, but as far as Jacen could tell the senators had gone unharmed.
Had Jacen been alone his achievement would have been impossible, it was quite lucky Tahiri was there.
As Jacen began to relax it began, playing on every screen in the room, including the central holo display.
A deeply scarred face leered forwards, dark eyes shining as it did.
"Citizens of the galaxy, today it has become clear that the Galactic Allianceis unfit for rulership. They remain weak and corpulent, they have failed repeatedly to protect the citizens of the galaxy. Now, they allow the Vong, the monsters, to walk within their halls.
My followers and I now have set forth to rid the galaxy of this weakness, we shall form a new order, an Order to triumph above all others, from the remnants of the Galactic Alliance. We shall march forth as warriors of Purity, liberating the galaxy of fear. Today marks the beginning of the end of the Galactic Alliance. Today marks the birth of the First Order, the beginning of an age of protection, strength, power."
The figure disappeared, a singular word hovering where he had been. 'Snoke'.
"Who in the kriffing world is Snoke!" Tahiri yelled from her own position above Jacen.
Tahiri stood in the hallway waiting for Jacen, her eyes downturned, her dark cloak pulled around her.
The two stood silently for a minute before Tahiri spoke, "I'll take your help."
"What was that?" Jacen asked, not quite sure what she had said.
"I would like your help."
"Great. What do you expect me to do?"
"Your mother has access to the records room, the First Order seems to have some influence. That means there will be a paper trail."
Jacen paused and then nodded, "It seems reasonable enough. I'll see what I can do."
"Good. When I find these, these Tsup'o, they will learn what it means to incur the wrath of Shel'Ne."
"You should stay here. You're guarding the Ambassador, and your ship is Sekotan. Furthermore you're very clearly Yuuzhan Vong. I can get around with a bit of hair dye and some Makeup, but you'd require an Ooglith Masquerer."
"You'll probably let them go with a warning!"
"Which is better than killing every member I encounter." Jacen countered.
"Fine, But you should take someone with you, someone who knows how to get results." Tahiri said, as she folded her arms and wrinkled her nose.
Jacen gave a shrug, walking towards his mother's small office.
Leia frowned at Jacen as he stepped through the door.
"I'm not helping you look through files that will get you killed." Leia said, her voice stern, her eyes stayed glued to the holopad she was looking over as she spoke.
"I'll be careful. I always am."
Leia remained silent, tapping the keys on the screen in front of her.
"Chances are they'll target me anyways I'm a Jedi and a Solo, in fact I was one of the most Yuuzhan Vong sympathetic Jedi around. I'm the logical target for them."
"I can't persuade you out of this can I?"
"No."
"Then I'll have to send someone with you. What about Tahiri?"
"She's staying here. We already discussed it but the Ambassador will need her protection, anyway taking two Jedi away from the Senate will make us easier to track, and will leave the senate unprotected."
"Fine, Jaina can't go obviously she's got other duties to perform. Same for most of the other Jedi. I know a pilot, the child of some friends from my Rebellion days, they could help."
"Sure. Speaking of Jaina we should call her, she's working with the Chiss and the Empire, both might have relevant information."
"I presume we are keeping Tahiri in the loop for the course of these missions?"
"Of course," Jacen noted with a grin, " she deserves to know what's going on, after all its her people who are most endangered."
"I'll call Jaina and let her know what's happening, then I'll see if I can get the pilot to support this." Leia said, making notes on her holopad, "We'll start tomorrow morning."
Jaina was finding her life difficult. She left a long boring meeting to find that an attack on the Senate had not only happened but had been concluded by a public broadcast on all Channels stating wild beliefs about the New Republic, the Jedi, and the Yuuzhan Vong. Ninety percent of her was certain that the Moffs in the meeting she had just left supported the radicals.
An hour or two later she had received a holocall from her Mother assuring her that everything was alright and no one had been injured. As much as she wanted to rush home to her mother and brother's side her mother had requested she begin digging into possible funding for the group within the Empire.
The issue was that Jaina had never been the researcher. She had read books and she was clever but she wasn't used to the long boring lists of pure data, which she was combing through to determine if the numbers added up. It felt small, unhelpful, and annoying, she was a Jedi Knight not a kriffing accountant. As the thought passed through her mind a small smile formed on her lips, vague memories of yelling blaster bolts in her childhood until she was a teenager filled her mind.
She turned back to the holopad before Jagged entered, raising an eyebrow at the list of names and numbers before her.
"You're looking into Imperial Finances, might I ask Why?"
"My mother requested it, she wants to see if any of these Moffs have been providing resources to the First Order."
"And?"
"I don't know."
"Well, unfortunately we have little remaining time, we've been called to Csillia to defend the Chiss ambassadors on their way to the treaty signing. I can provide assistance with this matter on the way."
"Thank you. If I were in this alone I would be lost." Jaina admitted with a smile.
Jagged placed his hand on top of hers, "You are never in this alone Jaina."
Jacen wasn't sure what he was expecting the pilot to be like. In fact it was strange that the young wild haired man surprised him. There was something familiar to his manner that just wasn't what Jacen expected from a New Republic fighter pilot, even one so young. his eyes were dark but there was a brilliant wildness in them, his face was marked by a very slight beard, dark hair seemed windswept even after he walked in, he held out his hand, "Poe Dameron."
"Jacen, but you probably knew that already."
Leia grinned from behind her desk, "Listen, we have a list of possible connections to this Snoke figure. There are at least seventeen missing warships from Corellia from over the last five years, ten or twelve are missing from Bothawui, but those reports are less clear, and the Defense Budget is missing at least three million credits."
"Which will be the easiest to track?" Jacen asked, examining the list of issues.
"The ships, if they were made on Corellia there have to be records somewhere. While I can't find out from Denon, if you asked about the matter you might find something." Leia said, continuing to scroll through the information.
Tahiri was only informed of Jacen's departure two hours after he disappeared. She wanted desperately to be angry about the whole thing, except Leia had been waiting for her the whole time, and had told Tahiri as soon as she could.
The entire event led to a discussion of setting up a lunch for the three politicians to discuss policies.
Tahiri found herself standing around as the three politicians spoke, scanning the hallway for any dangers to either Ambassador she was charged with protecting.
Tahiri was becoming rapidly aware of another issue though, the Jedi seat at the senate would remain empty so long as Jacen was gone, which could be a month or longer. Last she had heard he had left in a small shuttle barely designed for hyperspace jumps, so it was likely there would be some time between their adventures.
The growing impatience with the Senate was not helping her cause, the anger at the quickly emerging anti-Yuuzhan Vong sentiment was clear as well. She was hoping, beyond hope that something, someone might show up to deal with the senate more quickly. In some ways her request was answered.
End of Chapter Three. I'm trying to split the characters off right now so that I can jump between them and not over crowd scenes. Fun fact Overcrowding scenes can be a major problem for me, simply because it means I have to use notes of each name after the person speaks. Sooo yeah. I'm going to try and work in more stuff with the Jedi temple and other Jedi but I'm not sure exactly how to do that.