Good afternoon, everyone! What's going on with all of you wonderful people on this warm day of June 9, 2018? I've been reading the Warhammer 40k: Sisters of Battle Omnibus, and I've already read over 120 pages of the long book. I have to say that the series, while very dark and grim, is quite an entertaining read, and I look forward to the next book of the series that I read. And, I just received one of my two Tolkien books through the mail, and it looks very promising, and in excellent condition. Well, I can't believe that I've been writing this story for over five months, and I've surpassed 250,000 words in this story. This fills me with such vast amounts of joy, as it proves that my reservoirs of creativity, as well as my deep love of Star Wars, have not been extinguished in the slightest. So, our heroes have driven back the Empire, but they got away with a complete list of the Shadow Alliance's allies. Good thing that it won't be exposed for a long time. And, the Empire has suffered incredible casualties in their elite forces, which will impede their ability to wage war against their enemies. Oh, Squasher's saga is going to be a thing of pure beauty when it is complete, and I will be proud to have helped him in his bold and noble endeavors. One more thing, did you guys hear that a new Star Wars video game is coming out in Winter 2019, which is titled "Jedi: Fallen Order"? Given the history of recent Star Wars video games, I don't have much hope for this once, but I want to believe that it can be better than the others, and can be integrated into my head canon for the Star Wars Expanded Universe. I guess that only time will tell if I can buy this game. Well, back to writing.

(June 10, 2018 Addendum.) Hello, everyone. How are you doing today? I'm doing all right, as I'll be heading to church in a few hours, and I'm going to get a lot of writing in before and after I go to a nearby church. Anyway, I just wanted you guys to know that, while I'm waiting for the strategy Guide for Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening to arrive, I'll be playing the two DLCs for Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, starting with The Blade of Galadriel. So far, it's pretty good, and I will feel sad when I finish the two DLCs, as it'll complete the game for me. Well, back to writing.

Thirty Minutes Later

Eleven Hours and Thirty Minutes Until Admiral Libel's Arrival

In Hyperspace

En Route to the Lah'mu System

On the Subjugator-class heavy cruiserIntrepid

"You mean to tell me that you guys managed to drive back the Empire without our assistance?!" Dylan incredulously said to Tau, who was contacting him from his ship before he and the Shadow Alliance finalized its evacuation of the Lah'mu System.

"That's correct, Admiral." Tau said with a smirk on his face, and continued to speak, "We kicked the Empire in their shebs today, and showed the galaxy that they can still fight back against the Sith."

He then curiously said to Dylan, "Didn't you see the battle through the Shadowfeed? Well, I mean before the Empire shut it down just before they evacuated the system?"

Dylan found himself sitting down in the Intrepid's command chair in shock over the news that his friends had managed to unite the Shadow Alliance in such a way that the Empire, under the command of Darth Vader and several of the Empire's best officers, and numbly said, "I shut it down. I didn't want to have the crew distracted while we were in hyperspace, so I ordered the fleet's communications to be shut down until we were one hour away from you guys."

"A sensible explanation." Tau said in acceptance of Dylan's reasoning for maintaining communications silence. He then said, "I've got to go. We had a security breach in the Arda camp, and Bane and Kravous stole a lot of our more sensitive information. We need to have a final conference so that we can figure out what exactly they stole, and how to counter it when the Empire decodes it."

"All right. Let me know what you find after the meeting. Libel, out." With that, Dylan and Tau ended their communication on both ends, and Dylan said to his bridge's crew, "Alert all ships that our allies are safe on Lah'mu, and that we'll be focusing on evacuating the wounded and civilians once we reach our destination."

A strong chorus of confirmation reached the admiral's ears, and he resolved to ensure that Admiral Zalveniad's command ship was in pristine condition when he retook command of his Confederate fleet.

One Hour Later

Ten Hours and Twenty-Seven Minutes Until Admiral Libel's Arrival

On Lah'mu

Within the Second Chance

"Are you absolutely certain of the contents of this data breach, Headmaster Ozpin?" Tau said as he felt his hands and eyes twitching uncontrollably at the prospect of all of his allies, especially the Imperial Senators that pledged their support to the Shadow Alliance, being exposed to the Empire before they were ready to make their move, due to the lack of security of the Remnant's databanks.

"I'm afraid so, Tau." Ozpin solemnly said as the rest of the Shadow Alliance's leaders, including their covert Imperial Senate allies, erupted in a frenzy over such a massive security breach, and roared their disapproval at the Remnant delegation.

Tau, Ahsoka, Daniel, and a handful of other leaders futilely attempted to restore a semblance of order to this conference, but it took Arnine's creative, and slightly sadistic, manipulation of the dejarik table's sound systems to create a screeching noise that nearly deafened everyone with how excruciatingly painful the sound was.

After the noise stopped playing, Tau, once he rubbed the blood off of his bleeding ears, furiously said to Arnine, "Thank you for breaking up this argument, Arnine. Just, in the future, please try a more safe method of trying to calm everyone down instead of TRYING TO BURST OUR EARDRUMS!"

Chopper then cheered in droidspeak for Arnine taking such a drastic measure in stopping a quarrel between organics.

"Great. Two Choppers to deal with." Cham despondently said, remembering how much mischief the C1 astromech droid got itself into after crashing just outside the Taan Province during the Clone War.

At least the infighting stopped. Ahsoka thought, even though she still felt a thick undercurrent of tension simmering against the Remnant delegation.

"How could you leave such a vital piece of information unguarded in the middle of the Imperial's attack?!" Saw disbelievingly said to Winter Schnee, the head of security for the Remnant task force.

"It wasn't undefended, Gerrera." Winter defensively countered, before she continued, saying, "We had a full complement defending the ship. Those two bounty hunters captured one of our missing Atlas Mechs, downloaded a complete layout of our ships from it, and slipped in and out of the Beacon's Light before anyone could do anything about it."

"Now that, I can believe, Winter." Ahsoka said, bitterly remembering how, during Ahsoka's time as a Jedi Padawan, Cad, the Clawdite Cato Parasitti, and the former's personal techno-service droid that was called Todo 360, managed to infiltrate the Jedi Temple in order to steal a holocron for Darth Sidious's failed plans to build an order of Sith Acolytes.

Embo then said in Ahsoka and Winter's defense, [Me too, Tano. Bane is one of the best bounty hunters out there, and only rivaled by Boba and myself.]

"So, how long do we have until the Empire figures out our loyalties?" Chi Eekway worriedly said to no one in particular, for every senator feared the inevitable reprisals from the Empire on their homeworlds once Sidious learnt of their true allegiance.

"Longer than you think, Senator Eckway." Kal calmly said to the Pantoran senator, eliciting looks of suspicion from the bulk of High Command.

Knowing that they'd want a more concrete answer in order to soothe their fearful minds for their homeworlds, the Mandalorian colonel continued, saying, "I took a look at the databanks that the Empire swiped, and it has encryption patterns from members of my clan, along with several other groups that helped secure the data within it, including Tau's Arnine unit. Between these layers of defense, I'd be willing to bet that it would take the Empire at least a year to even start to crack its secrets."

"Well, at least that buys us some time to put escape plans into place." Mon Mothma said, the relief that they had some time to plan to leave the Empire behind evident in her voice, before she continued, saying, "We need to ensure that, once we are discovered, the Empire can't tie any of our doings to our homeworlds in order to keep them from suffering Sidious's wrath."

"I agree. Even with our moles in the Imperials' ranks, this will be too huge a secret to be kept for long once the data is unveiled." Bail Organa said in consensus with the Chandrilian Senator's line of thought.

"Regardless of the future, we should take heart in our victory today." Garm began, earning nods of agreement from everyone. He continued to motivate the leaders, saying, "Together, this alliance managed to drive back the Empire from conquest, of a world and decimated their forces in a brilliant defense of a planet. You managed to capture three Imperial Star Destroyers, Grand Moff Tarkin, and an Inquisitor, and, more importantly, disgraced Vader in the Emperor's eyes. I'd call that a victory in my eyes."

"Agreed. Now we just need to finish this shadow war that we've begun." Tau said, his optimistic tone hiding the fear in his heart.

"First, we need to get out of this system before the Empire returns with even greater numbers. Many of us have our homeworlds to defend in case the Empire decides to retaliate against them, not to mention our own problems to deal with." Ironwood interjected.

"Agreed. But, before that, we need to appoint an interim leader of the Shadow Alliance until we can establish ourselves as the Galactic Alliance of Tau's time." Bail said as he and his fellow senators turned to face Tau, while everyone else quickly caught on to what the Alderaanian was talking about, and faced the Jedi clone.

Tau, at first confused by what Bail was saying, eventually realized that he was all but appointing him to lead the Shadow Alliance, and ardently said in refusal, "No. Absolutely not. I can't lead the Shadow Alliance. I… I can't have that much power; or I could end up like Sidious."

"Tau, no one here believes your claims. That's just your anxiety and your own sense of unworthiness in your desire to measure up to your brother's legacy." Jarael said, her old psychiatrist training being put to good use once again.

"But, but I'm…" Tau futilely protested before he knew that they'd have a good rebuttal for every claim that he'd make, as he recalled how Edaan embraced his role as the leader of his Shadow Alliance, and how he owed it to both Edaan and himself to finish what he had started.

After sighing in exasperation, he asked, "Why me?"

"Because you have the knowledge, experience, and availability to lead us." Lux Bonteri said. "You know more about the dangers that are coming our way than anyone else here, and you have your brother's experience in leading so many diverse forces into battle with such unity. Not to mention that all of the other candidates have their own missions to take care of across the galaxy."

"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, Senator Bonteri." Tau sarcastically said before he sighed in defeat, and said to everyone, "Is everyone okay with this?"

"Hey, you gathered us all together into a force that can fight the Empire, and you haven't betrayed us yet. You've got my support." Saw comically said.

"You proved yourself a friend of the Free Peoples of Arda during your time on our world, Tau Palpatine. You have all of us with you." Legolas said, with the rest of the Arda representatives nodding their heads in agreement with the Woodland prince.

"You still have much to learn as a person and leader, Tau, but you have the willingness and capacity to adapt and grow." Ozpin sagely said, with the ambassadors of the Remnant delegation voicing their agreement.

"Without you and the rest of your friends, Jed'dai Palpatine, the rest of my forces would be slaves to Sauron and Morgoth. And, like Senator Bonteri said, you are the only one of them who has the availability to lead us." Vem Carr continued to their line of thought.

"Okay…" Tau hesitatingly said to the Yuuzhan Vong commander, before he turned to face Viridian and Daniel's groups, and asked them, "And you guys are cool with giving me all of this power? What about you guys? Can't one of you lead the Shadow Alliance after you finish your tasks?"

"Just say yes, Tau. There's no way that you're going to wiggle your way out of this one." Viridian jokingly said to his fellow Jedi.

Tau then sighed in exasperation, and reluctantly said, "Very well. I accept the burden of leadership until a true election can be held for the Shadow Alliance." He then awkward said, "Please tell me that there's not going to be a big ritual or anything, because I couldn't endure pomp and ceremony?"

Everyone then laughed at the hilarity of Tau's awkwardness, and Tau rolled his eyes at everyone having a good laugh at his expense.

After the laughter eventually died down, Tau took this moment to ask Maarisa, "Are the transports ready to launch, Admiral, because we need to be out of here before the Empire comes for us again?"

"We've already begun to evacuate the civilian transports, Tau." Maarisa said in a reassuring tone, which earned a nod of gratitude from the newly appointed leader of the Shadow Alliance.

"Good. What about the wounded and vital equipment?" He said as he turned to face Jareal to ask her on her part in the evacuations.

"Most of the wounded have been loaded onto the ships, and should be up and walking again in a matter of days. As for the equipment, we managed to secure everything, including the nonessentials." Jarael satisfyingly said.

"Excellent." Tau said in relief, before he said to everyone, "All right. We need to scatter the fleet until we can build up enough strength to wage a covert war against the Empire, all the while sabotaging their cloning operations on Kamino, as well as liberating Admiral Volta's homeworld before the Empire destroys it. In the meantime, we'll need to recruit new blood to our cause if we're going to increase our ranks. So, anyone who has any prospective allies in mind, don't be afraid to speak up."

Fourteen Hours Later

Onboard the Second Chance

In Hyperspace

En Route to the Dagobah System

As Tau read over the casualty reports from the Siege of Lah'mu, he was grateful to Iluvatar that the vast majority of his friends and comrades managed to survive the Empire's failed invasion.

Thankfully, the Empire killed no Jedi, and the Remnant teams performed amazingly well against the rigid structure of the Imperials when they helped the Shadow Alliance took control of their three newly acquired Imperial-class Star Destroyers. As for the ground forces, it was estimated that, thanks to the coordination of Master T'Ra Saa, Vesse and Niwen Mallory, ad K'Kruhk, they had suffered only approximately fifteen percent of their combined forces, as every force suffered minimal losses on the ground. Unfortunately, in space, the battle had cost them about twenty-one percent of their naval capabilities. However, the capture of the Devastator, Obliterator, and Sovereign helped offset these losses, and would prove vital in the coming campaigns to come.

In addition, the capture of the Inquisitor Prosset Dibs and Grand Moff Tarkin served to raise the morale of the Shadow Alliance, as it proved that their leaders were just as vulnerable as they were.

In order to gain the most information and usage out of their new prisoners, Berch Teller, Rahm Kota, Maarisa Zsinj, Arden Lyn, Kal Skirata, Walon Vau, and A'Sharad Hett would oversee their interrogations before their trials for war crimes, and eventual executions on the Holonet.

The Shadow Alliance had just completed it evacuation of the Lah'mu System two hours ago when the Second Chance had jumped into hyperspace for the Dagobah System. They were heading there to in order to try and recruit Master Yoda as a teacher for the Force-Sensitive young that they knew existed in the Unknown Regions, as the Shadow Alliance needed experienced Jedi to train them for the wars to come.

Unfortunately, not everything was good news, as he had learned from Asajj and Daniel that Cinder was seen using the powers of the Fall Maiden, and was now a prime suspect for the attempt to steal all of Amber's powers from her for her own usage.

He was in communication with them, Daniel's mother, Naomi Valo, and Ozpin now on what to do with this knowledge, as they knew that, if Cinder was indeed the traitor, then they had to act quickly to prove her guilt in order to keep her from doing any more damage to their cause.

"We cannot arrest Cinder without hard evidence of her having stolen a portion of Amber's powers, or it could spread fear and division within our ranks, as Cinder is one of our best hunters." Ozpin said, laying the facts out on the table, to the irritation of Daniel, who was quite restless over the lack of action being done to prove who stole his wife's powers.

But, before Daniel could say anything that would immediately regret thereafter, Tau quickly said in a mediator's position, "We understand, Headmaster. That is why I've come up with a plan to lure Cinder into a trap that will expose her as a traitor."

Asajj, wanting her friend to keep calm in the face of Ozpin's understandable caution, said to Tau, "Well, don't keep us in suspense. What's the plan, Tau?"

"Headmaster, do you have access to the blood of Amber?" Tau suddenly asked, confusing everyone with such a random request.

"Yes… we kept blood samples of all our patients that we treat. But, I fail to see how that will prove Cinder's guilt." Ozpin confusingly said.

"It will, if we clone a fake Amber to lure her into an ambush with surveillance cameras that can capture her in the act. I can have Grand Moff Trachta help us acquire a Spaarti cloning cylinder for our usage, and have him clone an unintelligent clone of Amber that will serve as the perfect bait for Cinder." Tau said, astonishing everyone with how far he had put this plan of his together.

"Just like that?" Daniel incredulously said before he continued to speak, saying, "How did you come up with that plan of yours so quickly?"

"Ah… just something that I picked up from my brother." Tau dismissively said to Daniel before he said, "Listen, I'll contact him now, while he still has time to act before Sidious chews him and Vader out for their losses once they all arrive at Coruscant. I'll contact you again when we reach Dagobah. Stay safe, all of you." With that, he ended the communication, and keyed in Grand Moff Trachta's private frequency.

After about three minutes of waiting, he received the cyborg's holoimage, and Trachta humorously said, "Tau, this is unexpected. Come to revel in your victory over us, or do you have something important to ask of me?"

"If that's your attempt at humor, Trachta, it needs some work." Tau said, playing along with Trachta's jokes before he got serious, and said, "I need your help in ferreting out a traitor in our ranks, and I need to use one of the Empire's Spaarti cloning cylinders for that purpose."

"That's a tall order, Tau. The Empire is keeping a close watch on all Spaarti facilities, and they'll realize that there's a traitor in their ranks if I help you steal even one cloning cylinder." Trachta warningly said to Tau.

"I know." Tau said in acknowledgment before he continued, saying, "However, I might have a way around that little complication. We know that the Emperor has a storehouse full of Spaarti cloning cylinders in his private storehouse on the Outer Rim World of Wayland, and, it just so happens that we now have three Imperial Star Destroyers under our command now. If we could use one of them and several Jedi and experienced commandos to deal with the guardian of the storehouse, we could steal at least a couple hundred of the cylinders, along with many of the Emperor's artifacts and relics, for our usage as a contingency just in case we need a quick army of shock troopers."

Trachta's plain shock was obvious to the Jedi through the Force, and Tau quickly said, "You might want to be careful, Trachta, because, if I can sense your disbelief, then it's highly likely that Vader could as well."

"Uh… Right. Good catch, Tau." Trachta said as he quickly reined in his disbelief, and said, "Yularen and I'll do what we can on our end to ensure that the Empire is kept in the dark on your plans, but you'll have to act fast since the Emperor has several facilities there. One of them is will be bound to notice something's up in Mount Tantiss. "

"Don't worry about us. Just keep yourselves safe. Tau, out." Tau said as he prepared to retire to his cabin for at least ten hours of much-needed rest after helping finish the evacuation of Lah'mu.

Sensing that everyone else was asleep in their bunks, he quickly made his way to his room in order to join his girlfriend in a well-deserved sleep.

What he saw when he entered his room warmed his heart, as he saw Ahsoka sleeping with a beat Butch at the edge of the bed.

Moving quietly in order to keep from waking up either of his loved ones, Tau quietly unfastened his boots, and silently slipped into bed, kissing his girlfriend on the cheek, which caused her to unconsciously smile, before he fell asleep as well.

Two Days Later

Within The Dagobah System

In Orbit Above Dagobah

"Can you sense Master Yoda on this jungle of a world?" Akku said as he prepared to slowly take in the Second Chance for a difficult landing, as he recalled the stories of how challenging it was for Luke Skywalker during his first trip to this world.

"Yes. He knew that he was coming, because he's broadcasting his presence to us. We know exactly where he is." Tau said as he, Ahsoka, and Ventis sat in the other seats in the cockpit of the YT-1300 freighter.

"Great. Then you three will have to guide us down." Akku said to the three Force-Sensitives as he began the ship's descent into Dagobah's atmosphere.

Thirty Minutes Later

On Dagobah

Within Yoda's Hut

The last Grand Master of the Jedi Order was finishing his soup when he heard the distinct sound of a starship's engines nearing his hut.

Knowing that his guests had finally found him, he put down the now-empty bowl, grabbed his cane, and walked outside to see the disk-shaped freighter land on a nearby strip of land.

Sensing that Ahsoka Tano and the ship's entire crew was exiting the ship, Yoda prepared himself to face the woman who the Jedi Order greatly wronged in its final months, and apologize from the bottom of his heart for his complicity in its crimes.

Once the nine-man crew exited the ship, Yoda warmly said, "To my home, I welcome you, Ahsoka Tano."

Well, that ends one of the last chapters of Star Wars: Shadow Wars: Foundation. What did you guys think of it, as I put it together in just two days? Did you enjoy the plans that Tau and his allies made, as well as the inclusion of Master Yoda in the beginning of their attempts to recruit him to their cause? Well, don't worry, I still have a few chapters to go in this amazing story, and then we'll begin a new one soon after. So, how are you doing on the night of June 10, 2018? I'm doing well, as I'll be reading some more of my Warhammer 40k Sisters of Battle Omnibus soon, and maybe play some more of Middle-Earth: Shadow of War:The Blade of Galadriel later on. I will be writing more tomorrow, don't worry, as I still have one day off before I work on Tuesday. Well, I guess that that's it for this update. May the Force and Iluvatar be with you, and Long Live the Expanded Universe!