"It is your life. It is your pride and joy," Jor told them, as the younglings puzzled over the parts in front of them. "Knowing this weapon inside and out will save your life on the battlefield. Even the best equipped soldier suffers misfires and equipment failures. They are a reality to be overcome and conquered, just like any enemy."
Just as he was building up steam, on the verge of filling the mess hall with stories of glorious victories that could only have been accomplished through good planning and full magazines, the front doors opened wide.
The four kids turned away from the blaster parts spread across their tables and watched as another Mandalorian came to tell Jor something, in person.
"Jamie, go with my friend here."
She did as she was told, hopping up and following the unnamed stranger back out into the main compound.
"What's going on?" she asked, expecting yet another drill.
"You're going back to your family."
"This council does not meet to discuss fairy tales," Counselor Ruduznik called out from his high perch. "We make decisions, or at least I do, based on hard evidence."
"I cannot agree more," Orin said, with a sly smile.
The Supreme Council of Shilrakaen was arranged in a semicircle, sitting high above the speakers presenting their cases. Thayla stood at the forefront with Teller at her back. However, Orin was backed by dozens of citizens lambasting the council for their unfair treatment of the gracious Blood Battalion.
There were so many of them, it almost made it hard to notice the armed troopers lining the back wall.
"No decisions are being made. Our goal is just to hear the Jedi out," said a second Counselor, Geller. She didn't seem any more likely to give the Bloods the boot than Ruduznik, but she was at least pragmatic enough to listen to both sides. "Speak, Jedi."
"Thank you, Counselor. I know that the fall of the Empire left the galaxy with mixed views on the Jedi. For that reason, I am honored that the Supreme council will hear our call to action."
Teller was impressed by Thayla's demeanor. Jon was too, though he was far less likely to ever admit it.
"Esteemed ladies and gentlemen, I know what you are expecting to hear from me. I know that you are expecting me to reveal the horrors the Blood Battalion have-"
"Hearsay!" Orin cried out.
"Excuse me. You expect me to call out the horrors they have allegedly inflicted, but I come bearing a more important message. I am here to tell you that I believe the Blood Battalion is afraid."
Jack Orin's neck snapped toward Thayla so fast that the rush of wind could be heard across the room.
"I believe they are afraid of you, the only great defence that Centrallis has against invasion. I believe they have sent a diplomat of their brass division to win you over, to cause you all to swoon into complacency right before they strike, but you must stand up and be ready to fight. I don't know what their endgame is or why they have come, but I also don't know how anyone could look at the massive space station hovering right above our heads and not foresee impending invasion."
"Nonsense," Ruduznik cut in. "The troops of the Blood Battalion have graciously served as police and local security in these trying times."
"Exactly. How can you claim that a hostile invasion has come, when the Blood Battalion is already here?" Orin shrugged in confusion. "We have arrived. Forty troopers are already in the city and I made sure that every one of them spends every day assisting the city of Shilrakaen by any means necessary."
"The same way you oppress the people of Davn or kill the Rabble in Nordic?"
"Restrain yourself, Jedi." The voice was sudden and thunderous. It came from deep within Shilrakaen's High Counselor, seated above all the others, Carnada.
"Forgive me."
Orin quickly dove in for the kill. "The militia currently occupying Nordic quite literally calls themselves the Rabble. Any deaths on their side are tragic, as are the deaths of any living beings, but that cannot possibly be seen as proof that we are evil. The outer rim is in chaos. The Blood Battalion represents stability." He heroically raised his fist in the air. "We have brought peace, freedom and justice to the lawless sectors of Centrallis. Is it surprising that those backwater tribals in Nordic would resist? Is it surprising that a few workers in Davn protested? This is part of the process. This is what happens when you ask people to change their way of life, even when it is in their own best interests. It is for that reason that I beg you, Supreme Council, not to see the great machine above us as some crude tool of destruction, but as the final solution to the chaos that has plagued the outer rim for years."
As much as the Jedi hated to see it, the crowd of citizens Orin had brought with him stood up and cheered. Three of the seven Counselors clapped. Ruduznik and another gave standing ovations.
However, Thayla took notice of one face in particular, Carnada's. The High Counselor's demeanor remained hard as stone and cold as ice throughout all of his grandstanding.
"This meeting is adjourned," she called out, to the shock of everyone in the room.
A door behind her was opened by one of the obedient battle droids, while the rest of the Counselors looked at one another in confusion.
Thayla's heart sank and Teller just stared at the ground. Jon wasn't at all surprised at how things had gone, but it still upset him to see Thayla so thoroughly defeated, especially when she and her apprentice had spent hours working on their presentation.
"Come on." He took her by the hand and led his friends outside the room, away the Orin's smarmy glare. "We're still going to beat them."
"Without Shilrakaen's help-"
"No, I don't want to hear that," he told her, annoyed that he had to be the positive one for once. "We still have Ahor. We still have ships and soldiers. If we put together a strike team, we can take over that space station and end this."
Thayla rolled her eyes.
"I'm serious. With three armed Jedi and a few dozen of the Rabble's best soldiers, we perform a surgical strike and end this."
"A few dozen people can't take over a space station the size of a planet," Teller reminded him. "Without Shilrakaen's guns, it's over."
"Well, then we just set up defences in Nordic. Ahor said he had been hoarding supplies. We can hold out until-"
"Excuse me?"
The three Jedi turned to find a mousy young woman calling to them.
"Can you follow me, please?"
They looked at one another and followed, figuring they had nothing left to lose.
Jack Orin and his troopers might have noticed the Jedi slipping away, if they hadn't been preoccupied doing a victory lap around the Council Chambers.
The young woman led the Jedi down several corridors, which became less and less grandiose every time they turned a corner.
They travelled away from the delicate sconces and marble walls of the entranceway, into a harshly lit office of expensive wroshyr wood desks and glass-walled conference rooms. From there they walked past rows and rows of dingy desks and tiny cubicles, before finally ending in a durasteel maintenance area that no one but the lowliest of public servants was meant to see.
"Please enter," the young woman told them, holding open an innocuous looking door.
However, to their surprise, past that doorway was a state of the art communications hub.
High Counselor Carnada turned to greet them. "Welcome, Jedi."
She was surrounded by two other Counselors they recognized, along with several individuals dressed in either fancy garments or military uniforms.
Also amongst them were several blue 3D visages, two of whom they immediately recognized. One was Ahor, with his blue cloak still wrapped around his shoulders. The other was Mandalore, wearing her beskar plating studded with crystal shards.
"This is a historic moment for Centrallis," Carnada told the room. Her voice was so naturally demanding that their attentions were forced to turn to her. "Never before has this planet united."
"The Supreme Council still doesn't back you," called one of the crowd.
"Not yet, but it is only a matter of time. For now, it is the time to both celebrate and make plans for the future, because once the Blood Battalion knows of this meeting they will come for us."
A sense of dread overwhelmed them, but the resolve in her voice kept them focused.
"However, when we stand united they will fall. No matter how many of them come, they will not conquer us. As of this moment, this meeting, Centrallis is under the protection of the united voice of Centrallis's people. It lies under the protection of the Demagogues."
