The General - Day 23
The Millenium Falcon had left the Resistance fleet under a shroud of secrecy, the drowsiness that always accompanied night watch having allowed for the pilots escorting Leia to leave the Radus undetected and join the carrier as it entered hyperspace.
Contrary to what Leia had thought upon inviting herself to the Republic's Summit, that which her Intelligence Department had gotten its hands on was not a destination, but the first on a long list of coordinates that had taken them all over the quadrant, forcing them to brave checkpoint after checkpoint in what would have been a tedious and uneventful journey, was it not for Cody's deteriorating mood making him end his dissertation on the failings of their hosts security measures with a ominous—
"If Hux got his hands on this, he will shoot us straight into a star!"
—and Poe voicing what Leia was sure everybody had been too shocked to say the instant the star trails had given way not to a remote piece of universe, but an easily recognizable planet, its face alight with a vast metropolis and its skies busy and alive.
"Are they damn insane? I say we turn back!"
Coruscant.
Leia remembered when she had first seen this planet. Her hands scrubbing the condensation off the ship's portholes, nose pressed against the glass, her attention on the skyscrapers going by her, not even the storm punishing the city with terrifyingly strong gales being able to crush her excitement when her father's delegation had stepped down the access ramp and the Imperial Senate building opened its doors for them.
First stepping on what had at the time been called the 'Heart of the Empire' had been a thing of wonder and if anyone asked what memory stood to her as the defining moment for her future that day was it. She remembered everything with clarity. The darkness inside the Senate chamber. Entering Alderaan's tribune with Bail Organa, his light touch on her shoulder making her jump forward to signal his desire to address his peers. Standing at his side, excited and eager to learn, even as this deep sense of dread racked her brain at Emperor Palpatine's presence.
For the rebellious and impatient girl she had been—the same one who frequently spaced out during lessons and had managed to get herself kicked out of boarding school for her fierce adherence to the former Republic's ideals—the Imperial Senate was, if not the learning institution Bail Organa had wished for her, at least the one who had managed to get his point across. It had been by sitting at his side during the long sessions that she had learned the value of discretion. By observing the senators that she had been taught to hide her hand, to choose her battles and to listen.
As young as she had been at the time she had taken over her father's responsibilities, she had been experienced in a way few of the youngest members of the Senate were. More than that, however, she had been, for more than a decade, privy to a parade of the comings and goings of the same officers she would one day meet on the battlefield.
Firmus Piett who had been known for his calculating methods even in his youth.
Lorth Needa whose fate at Vader's hands, like that of so many others, haunted her more and more as the years passed.
Maximillian Veers to whom she would lose the base on Hoth.
Wilhuf Tarkin who had gone from patronizing eye rolls at her impertinent answers, to contemplating her like a ticking time bomb of which he knew exactly the intentions of. Their entire relationship was perfectly synthesized in that last fateful banter, her eternal spite at the man being meet by his usual sarcasm and an order she would be hearing to her dying day.
In a way, Leia felt she had been facing the same people her entire life. Even when the New Republic had established its Senate—the pompously dubbed Galactic Senate—some of the people she had come to face there were the same from her youth. Childhood ghosts, she liked to call them and while most faces had faded with time, looking up to the chamber of the long deactivated Imperial Senate, fingers running over the parapet of Alderaan's tribune, Leia could but recall them, the summit she had momentarily left bringing forth one particular session, one of the many times all the chaos and heartache of the present could have been averted and hadn't been.
In fact, it was all so clear she was becoming convinced the Force was doing something. It was the only conceivable reason for the way this chamber seemed to be filled, functional, alive in a way that hadn't been in almost thirty years—and for her to be in the center of it all, the painstakingly long list of planets she had been reading coming to a sharp end as she raised the holo pad and waited for the echoes of her voice to cease, a five year old Ben right at her side.
"The planets I bring before you are but the tip of the iceberg," Leia stated, not letting go of her son's hand. "In total, there have been more than a hundred reports concerning similar encounters with what appear to be well organized groups operating inside the boundaries defined by the Galactic Concordance. I call the Senate's attention to the statement given by a Captain Braiss, officer in charge of a peacekeeping unit in the Outer Rim, in which he describes an 'unidentified group, supporting military grade equipment of Imperial design—'"
"I will assume, Senator Organa, these are confirmed sightings?"
Her carefully prepared speech having been ripped to shreds with infuriating expertise, Leia turned to the tribune hovering alongside hers, attention latching to the middle-aged man rising to his feet and taking over the senator at its front.
"I rather not discuss idle gossip by some overly bored guards that have nothing better to do than spin tales about their favorite boogeyman, or fill themselves with death stick up until they actually think they saw it," he continued, dismissively. "I hope there is something of substance to these accusations, otherwise, this continuous slander—"
"This 'slander'," Leia replied. "Is well supported by registries—"
"On Republic vessels. Written by Republic personnel. Catalogued by you," he stated, an almost imperceptible smirk rising to his lips when only silence meet his words. "I see I was not incorrect."
Feeling her hand being squeezed as the other tribune moved away, Leia dropped her attention to find her son on his tiptoes, frustration at being barely able to look over the tribune's barrier clear in his face as he tried to point at Leia's challenger.
"Who is he?" he whispered.
Pressing her lips, not daring to keep her attention away from the Senate's session for more than a few seconds, Leia leaned over Ben, dropping her voice.
"The Commandant of the Imperial Officer's Academy at Arkanis."
Ben frowned at her, his obvious conclusion that she had stumbled all over the man's rank making it impossible for her not to smile when he gently tried to point out her mistake.
"Commander?"
"Commandant."
She would save her lecture on the intricacies of the Imperial chain of command for later. At this time, as much as it amused her to see the red-haired boy standing at the back of the other tribune mimic Ben and point her to the rather stormtrooper-like man at his side, it was the way the senators had closed ranks around his father that consumed her thoughts. Had she known who the former Imperial territories had managed to raise out of whatever hole he had chosen to crawl into, she would have left Ben at home. This session would be nothing but vicious—and that was before a second tribune joined hers and golden skinned Twi-lek wearing the Republic's fleet brown uniform rose to its front. Now, Leia could only sigh. Dropping to kiss Ben's forehead, she pointed to the chairs.
"Go sit."
"Senators."
The voice coming through the speakers forced Leia to turn her attention back to the Senate before Ben, walking backwards, had a chance to reach the chairs.
"It has been five years since the Galactic Concordance was signed. However, and under the guise of conducting de-Imperialization operations on our soil, this Republic has maintained its aggressive stance towards the Imperial worlds that fell under its jurisdiction. These convenient sightings brought forth today seem to me as nothing more than a means to justify the continuous sanctioning—"
Mom Mothma rose from the central tribune.
"Commandant Hux, you stand here at the Republic's invitation. This chamber will not tolerate baseless accusations against—"
"Contrary to this plague of unconfirmed Star Destroyer sightings, Chancellor, my accusations are well funded. They are echoed by your own military. By your politics. By your innocuous celebrations of victories over territories left defenseless by the forced removal of the troops—"
"I would like to remind this Senate," Admiral Chilsse interrupted, his tribune moving in such a way that Brendol had no choice but to hide his distaste as he was forced to face the Twi-lek head on. "That the Imperial army retreated from the Republic's space under the Concordance clauses. A treaty that the Empire itself signed."
"A treaty that the Empire signed believing our civilians would be treated fairly. Not rounded up, forced to face mock trials and made destitute. "
"The Republic agreed on providing restitutions to the individuals and species targeted by the Empire and its very convenient treaty detailing what qualifies as a sapient species," Chilsse threw back turning to the Senate. "The populations of the former Imperial planets are in no way innocent bystanders to the conflict. They profited heavily from the war. Even now, they cling to the Empire and its late Emperor, keeping flags raised inside their houses, going so far as harboring war criminals—"
"You mean demobilized soldiers." Brendol countered, voice cold. "The fathers, brothers and sons sent home after being pardoned by this very Senate."
"Your men are no better than butchers," Chilsse snapped. "Stormtroopers are highly trained soldiers and represent a serious threat to the Republic stability if left to run rampant. I have in other occasions expressed to this Senate just how irresponsible it is not to punish these men for their crimes. If we lack the facilities to see to their sentencing, it would be better to execute them!"
"What for, Admiral? To have a revolution on our hands?" Leia intervened and truly she couldn't tell which of the men looked more astonished. Chilsse who seemed about to request an assessment on her sanity. Or Brendol who stood as if about to pull a time table out of his pockets and confirm if he had stepped into the correct Senate session. "I came before you with proof of a possible external threat and I will remind all of you that we are in need of unification, not more cracks to tear us apart. What we are observing are bold if careful incursions into our systems and—!"
"The Dantooinne tribune would like to remind Senator Organa that the Galactic Empire and all support groups affiliated to it were disbanded!" a senator stated, her tribune rising to join them. "To perpetuate rumors about some kind of organized military junta operating under the Empire's flag is not only dangerous but irresponsible! Your insinuation—!"
"I don't insinuate. These sightings are no fairy tale!"
"One would think that given Commandant Hux's record he would be the first person any Imperial effort to reorganize would go to!" she retorted, speaking over Leia. "I would like to point out to Senator Organa, that he is right here!"
Leia would have liked to point out she believed the former Imperial officer to be up to his neck on whatever was building up beyond the Republic's boundaries, Chilsse jumping back into the discussion, glaring at the new intervenient, however, kept her from doing so.
"I don't doubt Senator Organa's claims," he stated. "All these names she has brought before you, I make my own. Axxila. Lexrul. Sweswenna. Carida. Eriadu—These former bastions of the Empire stand in this very chamber, part of a Republic they despise. I should, perhaps, remind you all that Commandant Hux—these planets' chosen spokesman—is a war criminal himself!"
"Truly?" Brendol's tone was glacier. His son's attention snapped to Chilsse with his next words. "What does this Chamber call you for your actions in Arkanis, Admiral? A hero?"
The Senate stood still, the irate glaring with which Brendol had been met since he had arrived giving way to nervous glances.
Looking back to where Ben was sitting, dark eyes locking with the senators one at a time, Leia could but curse herself for not having sent him out of the tribune when she had the chance. This was exactly what she had been afraid this would lead to. He should not be here.
"The operation against Arkanis concerned the capture of—" Chilsse started to say only to have Brendol finish the phrase for him.
"A glorified schoolmaster," he stated, bitterness making the corners of his mouth twist. "I stand before this Senate now without any of those holding your leash seeming to be able to rub anything together as to justify my immediate arrest. So tell me, what is your justification for the siege?"
Before Chilsse could answer, Mom Mothma had taken to herself to diffuse the situation.
"Arkanis was a tragedy," she acquiesced, evenly. "A catastrophic military blunder born out of a hasty and ill thought out tactical approach for which the Republic has procured to make amends. Heavy restitutions to the population are under away. The rebuilding of Scarparus Port was made a priority. Arkanis is an example of the Republic's determination to restore peace and order to a galaxy raised to the ground by Imperial rule."
"What Arkanis is, Chancellor, is a façade. Nothing more than a smokescreen with which to perpetuate this image of the New Republic as saviors and call attention away from the war it still wagers," Brendol spat. "Also, a catastrophic military blunder? An 'hasty and ill thought out tactical approach'? Do you dare to imply it was an accident?"
Without as much as a glance back, Brendol waved his hand on his son's direction.
"Give the boy your tactical registries and he will point out half a hundred ways your claim is false."
Glaring at Chilsse with an intensity that said he wished to burn him where he stood, the blue fire on the boy's eyes went out with those words, his father's disdain leaving him to retreat inside himself. It would take two decades and the First Order's fleet leaving the Uncharted Regions for Leia to understand that had not been a slight against the Republic. And why the boy had looked so hurt.
"Arkanis was a deliberate, carefully planned military operation approved by this Senate," Brendol went on to say. "These planets Senator Organa was so kind to mention? It's this very Senate with its so called committee for Imperial Reallocation that is bleeding them dry. The bombing of their infrastructures and the blockade of any effort of rebuilding were approved here. And yet, while epidemics ran their course on Carida and famine wrecks Eriadu, your major concerns are rogue Star Destroyers!"
A pause as Brendol looked at Chilsse and then to Leia.
"If the Republic Fleet is proving itself incapable of providing appropriate security for what little of our fleet didn't crash into Jakku, we are hardly to blame for it. If Senator Organa fears someone is smuggling Star Destroyers out of the dismantling lines, maybe she should take her attention elsewhere and look closer home!"
The words hit her like a bucket of cold water, the implied accusation making cold anger rise from the deepest part of her heart.
No.
No way was he dragging Han into this.
No way was he putting this mess on her husband.
"Our storages, Commandant, are well guarded," Leia stated, forcing herself to remain calm. "I spin no accusations against our allies. My vote has long been in line with stopping the senseless incursions against formerly Imperial territories. That is not to say we should turn a blind eye to the organized Imperial loyalists on our doorstep."
"And where is your proof?" the senator from Dantooine demanded. "If you even have any!"
"There are sightings both by the fleet and the infantry. Our troops—!"
The Senate exploded in booing, a fifth, sixth and then seventh tribune joining the ones hovering in the chamber, their occupants shouting in her direction forcing Mom Mothma to again take a stand, all the while giving Leia a slightly apologetic look.
"This continuous war mongering has no place on this Chamber, Senator Organa," she sighed. "The Galactic Civil War is over. You would do well to accept it."
Fuming, barely able to keep her fury from showing, Leia stepped away from the edge of her tribune, fingers sliding away from the parapet as the tribune returned to its original place. Sitting to find Ben again on his tiptoes and on the place she had left, Leia shook her head. Her son's struggle to see over the barrier would have made her smile was it not for the fact he was visibly trying to climb up it and she couldn't shake this fear she would see him vault over the parapet.
"Ben."
He was back on the floor even before she spoke, neck still stretched as he rushed back to her, attention so firmly glued to the proceedings he didn't see her lurch forward to grab him. His laughter would have been a lot more reassuring if it wasn't for how swiftly it ceased and Ben went to sat quietly at her side, his expression so heavy Leia ended up resting her head on top of his, her protective grasp on him getting tighter and tighter the longer he remained quiet.
"Mom?"
Leia looked down, meeting a pair of brown eyes that were exactly like her own and that had just lost their mischievous light.
"He was telling the truth," Ben said, proceeding to clarify what he meant when she frowned. "About the bombs and the famine and—" He stopped for a moment, lips mouthing the word 'epidemic' and giving up on trying to pronounce it the next instant. "The sick people. Why won't we help them?"
A large hand closed around her shoulder, carefully jerking her back and forth. Confused, pulling Ben closer to her, Leia looked up. In front of her, having entered the tribune Force knows how, was a tall hairy something. That and a worried pair of golden eyes peeking from just behind the creature's enormous frame.
"Are you alright?"
A growled question. A wookie. Chewbacca. And diving under his arm, something dark going over her expression and making her drop to one knee in front of Leia—
"Did you see something?"
Allya. Fearfully, Leia glanced to her side. Her heart shattered the same instant.
Ben.
She could still feel his warmth, his presence, but he wasn't here. He was—
"Just a memory."
Leaving her two assigned bodyguards to trade half relieved, half worried glances, Leia got to her feet. The buzzing of voices coming from the adjoining room becoming more and more prominent, she turned towards the tribune's entrance. Just outside, lifting the huge Republic flag embracing the meeting chamber, was a golden skinned Twi-lek, a specter jumping right out of her memories. She needed nothing else to be reminded of where she stood and the present the vision had stolen her from. The Republic Summit. Or as she liked to call it—
The Mess.
"General Organa," Admiral Chilsse saluted, eyes sweeping critically over the deactivated Senate chamber. "Not the safest of meeting places."
"Discretion has its flaws."
"And there are no gains without risks?" He laughed, pleased. "I must admit I was surprised to find you here. Not to say extremely relieved. I had feared I would be stuck with the politicians and their endless squabbles and not get anything done for the entirety of this summit."
"I should remind you I am one of those politicians, Admiral."
"Are you, General ? Were you ever?"
The smile that meet Leia's closed expression had something predatory to it, it only took him finding Allya getting herself behind Leia, however, for his expression to change, something gentler, sadder, softening his expression when he noticed her age.
"One of my own."
Taking Leia's invitation to sit, something he did, to her relief, on the opposite side of where her son's ghost had been sitting, Chilsse frowned at the headdress Allya was wearing and that kept her blue appendices firmly folded and latched to the back of her head.
"You should be careful with how tight those lekku are, child."
"They get in the way during fighting."
"My granddaughter shares similar views," Chilsse said, fondly. "All the while we are still trying to get the younger one to stop stepping on his. Your name?"
The timid smile that had risen to Allya's face at the mention of the Admiral's family, was swept off her face at the question.
"I—Allya."
"Hers is Aayla. You must be the same age." Chilsse frowned, glancing at the blaster in Allya's hands and turning to Leia. "How is she with the Resistance?"
"We captured one of the First Order's prisoner transports."
And, just like that, gentleness turned into harsh steel. Getting to his feet, seemingly finding stillness too hard a feat to accomplish, Chilsse walked up to a flickering light at the tribune's entrance, hitting it with one finger until it stabilized again.
"Things have come full circle, haven't they?" he said. "The Republic. The Empire. The Rebel Alliance. They just go by different names now."
"There is a big difference on how things come to pass."
"Does that matter?"
"It matters." It always matters. "I assume your fleet was not present at the Hosnian system."
Chilsse walked back to his place, this time leaning against the tribune's parapet instead of sitting.
"No. We were assigned to one of the Republic's more remote territories. We were made aware of what was going down the same way everyone else was. Red trails in the sky. The coms going silent. Never going back up." He shook his head. "Are you aware of what happened?"
"Yes. But I am interested on your insight."
Focusing intensely on the floor, arms crossed, Chilsse took his time to think.
"From a purely tactical standpoint and as far as preemptive strikes go it was extremely effective first move," he finally said, not betraying any emotion. "Most of our fleet and the entirety of our ruling body taken out in one single strike. Chaos rippling through the remaining territories. Panicked governments pulling out troops, raising planetary shields, leaving more fragile territories unprotected. Everyone left without common leadership. Chaos is a good ally. And even more so when it is backed up by the psychological impact of seeing a fleet of Star Destroyers breaking out of lightspeed in several strategic points. It was clever. Up until they lost their base." He sneered at that. "I would doubt these rumors about the Order having some prized tactician in their midst, but—Have you heard of the manner Chardan was conquered?"
"I fear having General Hux on my trail is not conductive to be up to date with news from the war front."
Nor was, Leia might add, having fallen out of grace with most of the people in this summit on account of her shared bloodline with Vader.
"If you would be so kind as to enlighten me."
Seeing that the light was again flickering, Chilsse raised his attention to the Senate chamber, a visibly suspicious expression on his face.
"I recall you left in the midst of our first summit due to irreconcilable differences?"
If by 'irreconcilable differences' he meant refusing to participate in what had been rapidly turning into a session of name calling—
"Yes."
"The meeting in Chardan was our next effort to organize the remaining planets into a common defense. It backfired."
"Meaning?"
"We don't know when they got there, nor how they discovered the rendezvous, but the Order had its troops on the ground. Black armored soldiers from Special Forces. Them and that rabid dog of theirs, the infantry commander, a trooper with a silver armor."
Captain Phasma, a voice that sounded remarkably like Finn's whispered in Leia's mind, the unique mixture of revulsion and respect he always imprinted that name with clear even in his absence.
"They took control of the military facilities responsible for the planetary shield and ground defenses even before anyone noticed they were there," Chilsse continued saying. "The instant the First Order's fleet broke out of lightspeed the shield collapsed, only to be shut after the bulk of their ground offensive was inside. For those amongst our people that weren't able to evacuate in that window there was no way out. They were targeted by Chardan's own planetary defenses and killed."
Leia closed her eyes.
"When was this?"
"A month or so ago."
"How many Star Destroyers were involved in conquering Chardan?"
"Three. Including—"
"The Finalizer," Leia finished, interlacing her fingers when Chilsse gave her a surprised look. "Starkiller wasn't the only instance I faced General Hux on the battlefield, Admiral. This kind of carefully planned blitz attack has his name written all over it. More than that, however—" Something mischievous lightened Leia's eyes, despite how dark her demeanor was. "The silver armored trooper? Her being on the ground meant he could not be that far behind."
Glancing at the place Ben's memory had occupied, Leia felt her heart tighten. She wondered—
"Was any of the Knights on the ground?"
"Two of them. A pair of women, I believe, working with Special Forces."
"Kylo Ren wasn't sighted?"
"He wasn't there. And anyways, the Finalizer didn't stay for long. It pulled out with its troops before the battle was concluded. Where it went afterwards we know not."
Leia closed her eyes, relief at her son's absence from Chardan crashing there and then. A month? That was right on schedule for—the very clear memory of the Finalizer appearing on the Resistance radars, of her base being surrounded by the Order and Ren coming to her help engulfed her mind. All of a sudden she felt nauseous.
Where were you before that, Ben? Where were you?
Dread threatening to consume her thoughts, Leia forcefully steered the conversation to other matters.
"What is being done to stop the First Order? What kind of defenses—?"
The lamp on the tribune's entrance had gone back to flickering again. This time Chilsse didn't care with inspecting it, gesturing for Leia to follow him, he took a step towards the exit.
"If you would accompany me outside."
Moving to follow him, discreetly mouthing "Get Cody" in Chewbacca's direction, Leia put forth her best innocent expression as she marched beyond the not so innocent flickering lamp.
She had no idea of how her Intelligence Department had gotten hold of the electricity or the mental gymnastics that had gone into thinking this was a discreet way of passing messages, but—
Honestly, Cody!
Seeing Allya fight to raise the flag covering the exit, only to have Chewie take pity on her efforts and pull the thing up with ease, Leia accompanied Chilsse to the meeting room.
Light leaving her blinded for a few seconds, the irate words raising up the chamber much more clear for that, Leia ended up sighing as she finally took in the overcrowded chamber and the empty pulpit to her left, attention coming to rest in what appeared to be two warring groups right in the center of the chamber and the many ambassadors rapidly fleeing the site.
"We were the first planet they attacked. Retribution for harboring your summit after Starkiller's destruction," someone, Leia could not tell who, was saying, fighting to make himself heard over the arguments and accusations being thrown around him. "The Order's troops have taken over our cities and government. If we are to stand a chance of pushing them out of our territory we need support! All of your support!"
"It is the planets in your vicinity that are responsible for giving immediate military support," a second voice retorted with frigid calm, the tall slim frame of a Pau'an male Leia recognized as Tek Patil breaking over the sea of heads on the more numerous of the two groups. "Least there is a reason why they haven't—"
"And what might that reason be?!" a woman exploded, stepping to the front of what, with people rapidly fleeing the site, was proving to be a four people line.
"Ambassadors, this is not the time—!"
"On the contrary, this is exactly the time!" she spat, expression enraged, one finger stabbing the air. "What exactly are you accusing us of?!"
"Our planets are being conquered one after the other," Tek Patil replied still in the same frigid voice. "Swallowed by the Order's war machine as if they were nothing. And yet your planets, all of your planets, lay undisturbed. One doesn't need more than two working brain cells to see where this is going."
The group behind him exploded in shouting, accusations crashing into each other in such a way, Leia could only understand some of them.
"We rebuilt your planets!"
"Spying for the Order!"
"You refuse us help!"
Grabbing hold of the young ambassador's arm before she could punch anyone on the opposing group—something she seemed increasingly close to doing—an older woman took to the front.
"The Galactic Concordance dictated the disarmament of all Imperial planets and colonies," she reminded, evenly, not letting go of her young companion. "That was the price of peace."
"If your fear of an Imperial uprising inside the Republic's boundaries hadn't made you disband our military—!" the third member of the group started, only to be interrupted almost instantly.
"And why should we let you keep it?!" an angry voice asked. "To have you turn it on us the first opportunity you got? Not that you seem to need it, considering how quickly the rest of your kin turned to the Order!"
"It is our planets that are left defenseless! Not yours!" the same young woman from before spat, still being held in place by her older companion. "It is our planets that are closer to the line of fire! "
"Ambassadors! While we trade accusations, the Order—!"
Expression growing heavier as the argument rose in volume, Leia sighed, heart heavy.
Things never change.
At her side, Allya leaned next to her ear, staring incredulous at the feud.
"They won't help each other?"
Not even this.
A bitter chuckle come rolling down Leia's throat, the sheer amount of derision in her laughter shocking Leia about as much as it seemed to shock Allya. In fact, both Twi-leks were looking at her, golden eyes studying her face. Even if she could ignore Chilsse's carefully guarded look with ease, doing the same with Allya was difficult. Her eyes, even if they were so different from Ben's dark ones, still gave her the feeling she was looking right at him.
"I won't lie to you and say things didn't work like this before. That they didn't always worked like this." Leia sighed, guilt making her point to the four ambassadors on the receiving end of their peers fury. "What do you know of them?"
Biting her lips, eyes running over the symbols in the group's armbands in a way that seemed to say she was terrified to get this wrong, Allya glanced nervously at Leia.
"Those are Imperial worlds."
"Former Imperial worlds," Leia corrected, ignoring the way Chilsse clicked his tongue at the correction. "They used to make up for a small percentage of the Republic, and were all the worse off for it."
Even so to think only four had not gone running for the First Order—
"You know them?" Allya queried.
Staring at the still ongoing contest, Leia forced a smile.
"I know everyone." She pointed at the members of the group one at a time. "Eelie Lorjan from Lexrul. Zeive Kopel from Zaadja. Ajast Milneri from Lipetsk. Cas Neij from Carida."
Leia frowned. Come to think of it, she thought she had glanced one more planet. One she was actually very surprised to find here.
Where is–?
"Arkanis?" Chilsse offered, pointing towards one of the many ambassadors that had fled the scene and now stood alone next to the window. "At their best behavior after that affair with Carise Sindain, aren't they? Meant on proving on whose side they are on. Not that eager to flaunt their riches in our faces." Once again Chilsse's predatory smile made an appearance. "If you hit them hard enough they stay down."
Something strange went over Allya's expression, some sort of emotion Leia couldn't quite place and that was gone before she could try to understand what it was.
"I thought Arkanis was poor," she said.
"It was." Leia agreed, diplomatically, studying Chilsse by the corner of her eye. This wasn't exactly a topic she wanted to touch with him here.
"Isn't it—?"
"A certain General's home planet? It is," the Admiral offered in a strange tone, before turning to Leia, gesticulating towards the increasingly vicious argument. "But isn't this touching? Look at all of them, General. All these esteemed members of the late Republic Senate, alive!" His tone became darker. "Luck doesn't quite cut it, does it? It almost looks like they were warned."
A cold shiver going down her spine, Leia forced her attention back to him.
"We had our previous conversation interrupted, Admiral. If I recall correctly."
"Indeed. And you were asking what is being done?"
Hands going behind his back, Chilsse started leading them across the chamber.
"I have spent days trying to convince these bureaucrats to refocus our efforts on what can be salvaged. If we had things my way, which I fear we will not until it is far too late for anything to be done, all planets directly on the Order's path would surrender this very instant."
Leia could only stare. This didn't sound like Chilsse at all, unless—
"What for, Admiral?"
"If the Order is short on anything that is manpower and that can be used in our favour. The Order's offensive works with two very distinct groups." He pointed at the holo map on the center of the chamber, in particular to the moving red line creeping ever closer to several systems and then to the one that stood behind it. "The vanguard with which, unfortunately, we are getting rather familiar with, and a slower moving line responsible for stabilizing conquered territories and organizing supply lines. Despite how fast the front line moves, you might have noticed that the number of territories they hit is small. In fact, many of their territories are actually Imperial planets that have given their allegiance to them."
Leia frowned, pensive.
"And you think if a large enough number of planets surrender, that could be used to overwhelm their resources?" Leia shook her head. "I doubt the Order would fall for that. Hux certainly won't."
"That boy reeks of tactical simulators. The way he lost Starkiller—"
"He might be inexperienced, but he is not stupid."
Nor is my Ben. Ben—Kylo Ren would see straight passed this charade.
"Hux might not be stupid but he is absent. And there is something, something going on that—" Again Chilsse glanced at the holo map and shook his head. "Considering that the bureaucrats inside this chamber refuse to listen to me, however, it is probable we might have to do with another solution to permanently cripple the Order. Going directly for the serpent's head. Cut it before it has time to strike again."
"This being Snoke?"
"Their unofficial triumvirate. At least, the ones we can take out. Without Master Skywalker, Kylo Ren is out of our reach. But the infantry commander and Hux are different." A pause as he gazed at the map, unfeeling. "I remember that boy. I suppose I should be sorry, but when the seed is bad—"
Leia felt herself freeze. The towering figure of Darth Vader immediately filling her mind and crumbling to give way to Luke. To Ben.
"I don't have the privilege of thinking like that, Admiral."
Stepping away from Chilsse, Leia wandered around the room, not seeing or hearing anything of what was going on around her and only vaguely aware of Allya at her side and Chewie rejoining both of them, her mind consumed by Chilsse's words.
"When the seed is bad—"
Its cruelty haunted her. As did Ben's kindness, a lifetime ago.
"Why won't we help them?"
Leia stopped her pacing. The raised voices had fallen silent, discussions replacing the rage-filled argument from before making her look around, frantic, until she found five ambassadors assembled in a discreet corner. She was marching in their direction the same instant.
"Ambassadors."
Barely visible amongst the shadows where they had hidden, the entire group stopped talking, backs tensing. Of those present, only Ajast Milneri turned, an entirely fake smile on his lips.
"Senator Organa. To what do we owe the pleasure ?"
It was hardly one if his increasingly rigid smile was anything to go by. It mattered little, however, she was not here for the pleasantries. There was something in the air, a kind of warning in the Force that told her—
"You are leaving."
It was not a question and that, if nothing else, seemed to make those bent on ignoring her turn to face her.
"I assume you came to stop us," Eelie Lorjan, the eldest of the group, stated.
Her smile was genuine, but sharp. Painfully so. It made Leia shake her head.
"I don't believe I have the right."
Studying those present one by one, Chilsse's suspicions about the reason for their survival hanging over her like a hammer, she steeled herself for what came next.
"The First Order is not the solution."
"And this is?" the same angry young woman from before derided, glaring at those assembled in the chamber in fury. She reminded Leia of someone. It took a moment to realize it was herself. "We didn't come here to serve as punching bags!"
"Zeive," Lorjan sighed, again grabbing hold of her arm, forcing her to calm down. "We are here at your peers invitation, Senator Organa, and we came in good faith. We thought, foolishly I now understand, that for all our differences, at long last we could be in agreement. Yet, even now, we are forced to show gratefulness for the crumbs grudgingly tossed our way, to accept them as some kind of mercy, when more times than we could count, even those were taken from us."
She shook her head, exhausted.
"With all due respect, Senator, why shouldn't the First Order be our answer?"
"You are here. You know why it is not." Leia stepped forward. "Retribution is not justice."
"Your side as long defended that it is," Cas Neij whispered, trading a heavy look with the still silent envoy from Arkanis. "When Carida was raised to the ground, it wasn't the Order that forgot us."
A shadow of sadness swept over Lorjan's elderly face.
"For what it's worth, Senator Organa, we are grateful that you tried."
And turning their backs on her, they stepped away, leaving Leia alone, listening to Allya's and Chewbacca's footsteps as they returned to her side, eyes captured by the bustling city beyond the window, the lights of the forest of skyscrapers so bright that they outshone the stars, Ben's question still in her mind.
"Why won't we help them?"
She had hoped—
But no. It was far too late.
We lost them.
All of them.
Notes:
Things truly aren't going well for anyone. And they are about to become a lot worse.
Note about Rating going up: so, yeah, the rating will go up (and yes, that is the reason why!). Also, pardon the absurd level of eloquence of this statement.
Other Notes:
Carise Sindian, who was referred in passage is part of the extended canon - Bloodline. She was the senator from Arkanis and a First Order supporter. Like her the Siege of Arkanis and the Galactic Concordance are canon. Leia being kicked out of boarding school was mentioning on Star Wars - The Force Unleashed.
