Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars the Old Republic nor Star Wars in general to my great personal sorrow

We must fight—to victory, or death—for the Republic! While the sacrifices are heavy, we fight knowing that a single spark of courage can ignite the fires of hope, and restore peace across the galaxy. -Jace Malcolm, Supreme Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (3703 BBY - 3619 BBY)

At the outbreak of the Second Great Galactic War, the Republic found itself almost entirely unprepared to meet the needs of the conflict on a financial level, the Federal Treasury was still handling reconstruction payments due from the end of the First Great Galactic War more than a decade prior. Further hamstrung by the rivaling factions in the Senate, all of which pursued a different agenda as regards the direction the War should take, including several groups, largely from the Colonies and Mid-Rim, which advocated a peace settlement with the Empire. Only by the slimmest of margins was the Federalist Party able to pass the Military Expansion Act in 3641 which allowed for the opening of new military contracts to bolster the Federal Navy and the institution of a major recruitment drive for the Federal Army. A number of other programs had their funding quietly slashed in a series of backroom deals so that the Republic could pay for its growing military, these programs largely consisting of Outer Rim industrialization projects.

As the War dragged on into its sixth year, still a relative stalemate in spite of Republic victories in the Galactic South, once again the Federalist Party pushed a new Military Expansion Act, urged on by a cabal of frontline staff officers planning a major offensive against the Imperial strongholds at Druckenwell and Falleen. Despite the strain the First Act had placed on the Federal purse, indeed the Senate had been forced to levy three new forms of taxation just to keep the economy afloat, many of the most prominent Senator's of the Federalist Party, strongly advocated the benefits of a Second Act on the Senate floor. Only to be even more vehemently opposed by the full might of the Constitutionalist Party, whom argued true to their name that a Second Act would violate the Federal Constitution by rendering the Republic financially unfit to look after the domestic well-being of its citizens. Having been bolstered by a number of worlds and systems from the Colonies, from where the majority of recruits into the Federal Army had been drawn, the Constitutionalists had enough backing to quash the Act when it came up for a vote.

In order to continue the military expansion that frontline commanders were insisting was necessary to defeat the Empire, members of the Federalist Party and the Federal Cabinet of Supreme Chancellor Saresh, began secret negotiations with the megacorporations within the Republic for favorable production agreements to fund the War. Corporations such as Kuat Drive Yards and Corellian Engineering Corporation were granted broad authority over military production on a national level, in exchange for an agreement to withhold all payments of military contracts drawn up during the War until after its conclusion. Saresh had in effect handed control of the Republic's formerly nationalized military industrial complex over to the most powerful corporations in the galaxy; rumors also circulated that she had ceded control of countless Federal investment projects in the Mid and Outer Rim to these megacorporations as an additional sweetener.

Coruscant, Corusca Sector, Galactic Republic

"That is outrageous! I object to the Senator's statements regarding the conduct of my colleague!"

"Why, because they happen to be true! Your colleague is a thief and a scoundrel!"

"That is slanderous! We Kuati are a proud people who have long represented the best interests of the Republic! We're it not for our efforts then the Federal Navy would be naught more than a fanciful customs force!"

"Yes and you Kuati have no qualms driving the Republic into massive debt with your efforts do you?"

"It is an unfortunate result of the War that we did not ask for immediate payment during the conflict, we would not dare to propose something so unpatriotic as to sack the Federal purse during wartime."

"But you've no such issues doing so during peacetime!"

'What a bunch of children they all are.' At present Jedi Knight Nadia Grell was having a good old silent laugh at the affairs of the Galactic Senate, not out of humor but out of sheer disbelief. What had started out as a debate on the upcoming five-year budget, had somehow devolved into a brawl between Kuat and Naboo over Kuat Drive Yards calling for payment of its wartime contracts with the Federal Navy. KDY had gone the patriotic route of cancelling payments for contracts made during the War, though they did insist that the Republic continue to pay or finish paying off those contracts signed before the War, but now that the conflict was well and truly over, they wanted their credits. Talia Nefaar, the Junior Senator for Naboo, had very nearly bitten Senator Duus' head off after the Kuati broached the topic of repayment, which indeed was slightly preposterous given the other wartime debts the Republic needed to attend to.

Nevermind that it was the Federalists who gave KDY and other megacorporations carte blanche to operate as they pleased during the War on the condition that the Republic be allowed to settle its debts after the conflict.

Now Senator's Nefaar and Duus were going at it, their dais' hovering a mere few yards from one another, Nadia wasn't so sure they wouldn't start ramming each other as the tension continued to escalate. Galark Trans, the Senior Senator from Ando, had attempted to intervene and get his colleagues off this mindless argument so the Senate could resume its budget debate, only for both to turn their ire against him and send the Aqualish' dais back to its dock in a hurry. Tenak Gruner, the Junior Senator from Kuat had quickly risen to his Senior Senator's defense after the Naboo representative began her assault, which made it utterly impossible to discern anything from the argument. Supreme Chancellor Leontyne Saresh, looking somewhat worse for wear if her sunken, drawn expression was anything to go by, had not made so much as a step towards resolving the argument, having remained silent for almost the entirety of the Senate session. Nadia suspected that she was probably taking the wiser route by not diving into this quagmire; if she sided with Kuat and advocated repayment, then the entire Constitutionalist Party would have her head come the elections in a years time, while if she sided with Naboo and watered down KDY's expectations, the megacorporation might just reveal all the details of their wartime arrangements with the Federal government on Coruscant.

'To think its arrogant beings like these who are charged with running the Galactic Republic.' Nadia had stepped in to observe the debates out of boredom more than anything else, most Jedi were deployed away from Tython to help stabilize the post-war galaxy, but a significant number had been detailed to Coruscant to guard the Galactic Capital in the wake of a series of riots and strikes by the lower levels. Nadia had hoped to find the Senate in debate over how they might improve the lot of the common citizenry and therefore prevent another such series of riots, but instead found them wasting their time bickering over Kuati contract payments. True the Senator from Naboo had begun the debate proposing an increase in funds for the housing and care of refugees, some of which had been on Coruscant since the end of the First Great Galactic War, but now she had become entirely focused on her rivalry with Senator Duus.

From the slums of Duro to the quagmire of Coruscant, stagnation wherever she went.

Despite appearances, the victorious aura was sapped from the Republic fairly quickly in the post-war period, as much as the Senate would prefer the citizenry believe otherwise. Even as thousands of formerly neutral systems applied for entry into the Republic, practically doubling the Republic's territory, the Federal budget was strained by an immense debt. Not only were the costs of reconstruction crippling the treasury, but it relied on the richer Core Worlds and megacorporations to fund such efforts and they were largely concerned with the preservation of their wealth rather than using it to better the Republic as a whole. Reconstruction efforts on Corellia and Balmorra were proceeding well, as they were on the several dozen other heavy industry worlds the Empire had occupied during the War, but the hundreds of poorer Outer Rim worlds razed as the Imperial's initiated a scorched earth campaign, still lay in ruins. Tython itself had needed to undergo fairly major reconstruction in the aftermath of Darth Arkous' surprise attack on the ancient Jedi homeworld, though the Senate had graciously approved a sizable appropriations bill that allotted enough funds for the repairs needed on Tython. Not that that had made the Jedi very popular in the Outer Rim, where people were desperate for food and shelter and then they saw the Jedi receiving what seemed to them to be the Senate's favoritism.

The inclusion of so many new systems to the Republic had turned out to be a bureaucratic nightmare. By constitutional requirement the Republic had to fund the construction of Federal consulates on every new member world, a pretty significant credit bill on its own, then there was the work of connecting all these new systems to the semi-integrated Federal infrastructure program. Nadia had a few friends who worked as aides to the Senator's serving on the Appropriations Committee, all of them had bluntly told her that most of those systems might not see a Federal consulate for at least five years, heck when their Senator's were elected in the next elections they would have to take up observer seats in the Senate chambers until the assembly had been remodeled to allow for the inclusion of several hundred more dais'. There were not nearly enough clerks and administrators to handle the bureaucracy, and the Federal administration could hardly spare any staff already deployed across the ravaged worlds of the Republic; Saresh dared not risk offending the Outer Rim worlds right now by showing favoritism to the formerly neutral systems, not when there were whispers of terrorist acts all over the Rim. Better to keep things quiet and calm until either the money or the clerks could be amassed to help solve the problem.

"I have sat through enough of this slanderous tirade!" Duus finally declared, pointing an accusatory digit at Senator Nefaar. "I am an honorable member of this Assembly and have earned the right to be treated with the dignity and respect due my position as the Senior Senator from Kuat."

Nefaar wasn't letting him off though. "You speak of dignity and respect? Where is your respect for the dignity of the Republic, of our Federal Constitution which prohibits the State neglecting the domestic needs of the citizenry? By paying these contracts to KDY, nevermind the other megacorporations calling for their checks, it would bankrupt the Republic, which would in effect force the State to neglect the domestic needs of its citizens thus violating out Federal Constitution!" Nadia smiled at that. Oh yes, you could always win points in the Senate by throwing the Founding Principles in another Senator's face, and it was all the better now because Senator Nefaar was in the right on the issue. It was enshrined in the Fifth Article of the Federal Constitution that the Republic shall sufficiently manage its finances so as to never neglect the needs of citizens at home, stating that sound economic principles were one of the most sacred laws in the nation.

Setting aside that morality often had little to do with economic principles.

"May it please the Honorable Member from Naboo to know that I love the Republic, our bastion of democracy which stands against the chaos and disorder threatening to wreak havoc across the galaxy. It might also please the Honorable Member to know that I have in fact read the Article in question and it does not..." Duus paused to wave a hand for silence as a roar of disapproval began to stir among the Senators, members of Kuat's own Industrialist Party hushing their colleagues so their cohort could speak. "...it does not state anywhere in said Article that the Republic shall be excused from honoring its commitments to private industry. The Article in question does not enter into the current debate at any point."

Another valid point there, the Fifth Article didn't stipulate that meeting the financial needs of the citizenry would allow the Republic to disregard private industry contracts or investments. It in effect merely stipulated symbolism rather than practicality; if the Republic were ever to declare state bankruptcy then it will have failed in its fundamental duties to its citizens, violating the Founding Principles of the Republic. For all intents and purposes the Article could not be used as an excuse to prevent economic suicide, merely as an assurance that such a course labels the galactic government a pack of failures.

Senator Duus was looking quite satisfied with himself, even as he argued that the Republic should be driven to bankruptcy. The smug smirk on his face made Nadia's stomach turn in disgust, though to be fair she'd never held this particular slimeball of a Senator in high regard. He had made a not so insignificant profit off his investments in KDY during the War, while countless billions suffered at the front and at home.

"Now that we have established that the Honorable Member's argument holds no water, I demand satisfaction for these scandalous accusations leveled against myself and my home world! It is simply infuriating to stand here and have one of my colleagues, of whom I think quite fondly, devote such time and effort to slandering me, without any provocation on my part."

"No provocation, thats-"

Senator Duus did not however give Nefaar the chance to interrupt this time. "Therefore I ask that the Chair bring forth a Motion of Censure against the Representative from Naboo!"

The Senate went deathly silence, even Senator Nefaar, ready to leap into action just a moment ago to fight against Senator Duus' grand-standing, was now quiet as could be. Her mouth hung open in shock, even Senator Gruner was looking at his Senior Colleague in something approaching surprise. To ask for a Motion of Censure was the equivalent of demanding a Senator be silenced; if passed then the Senator under Censure would be forbidden from participating in the debates of the Session, could not vote on any proposals made, and would bear the Censure on their official record which could potentially blight their chances for reelection. It was such an insulting move that it hardly ever happened, the last time was just before the War when the Junior Senator from Corellia had levied xenophobic rhetoric against the Senior Senator from Anaxes leading to her Censure. It was normally only ever used when a Senator crossed a line and started to attack a colleague on personal terms, not that such insults didn't volley across the chamber on any average day, or were to utilize xenophobic rhetoric or even Pro-Imperial rhetoric.

Here Senator Duus was attempting to silence a political rival on an issue which he wanted shut up to avoid drawing attention to it.

'What a pompous ass. Can't stand up to his critics so he wants them shut up. Not that he hasn't done that before.' Nadia knew for a fact that the Kuati Senator had connections to the Underworld and had used said connections to silence several of his critics in the media. One day they were spitting out vile accusations and the next they had mysteriously forgotten he ever existed.

Senator Nefaar was quick to recover and was she furious.

Nadia imagined steam coming from her ears and her face going a bright red, not that she would even be able to see that from her observation pod near the top of the chamber, but she imagined it.

"HOW DARE YOU! You would move to Censure me for speaking the truth!" She flew her pod over so it hovered barely two feet from Duus', she looked ready to ram him at this point. "Were you a being of any honor I am sure you would not have proposed such a flagrant violation of the Parliamentary Guidelines, but as you have not an ounce of honor it really should be no surprise. However, I was sure even you would not cross that line into authoritarianism Duus, that you would not attempt to utilize our Democratic process to silence one of your detractors! That is the tool of the oppressor, that is the tool of the Imperial's!"

"She's right!" Someone called out from somewhere in the chamber, quickly joined by other calls of agreement from around the assembly.

Duus was quick to counterattack. "The Senator cries that she speaks the truth yet all that I can hear is baseless accusations with no evidence to back them up. These are slander to both myself and the Kuati people and merit Censure." He turned to look up at Chancellor Saresh with a pointed look. "Does the Chair not agree?"

Nefaar gave the Chancellor a look that said any agreement would mean electoral homicide, and Saresh looked very much like she wanted to melt into a puddle.

Nadia wanted to laugh at the irony.

Before and throughout the War, Saresh had been a being of iron will and cold demeanor, willing to make any sacrifice for the Republic and always quick to strike down her opponents as if she were on the battlefield. But that was almost twenty years ago, and she was now much older and in a much more divided Senate; before the War Saresh had made her career whipping the Senate up on the back of Anti-Imperial sentiment, focusing the hatred of the entire Republic on its age-old enemy, the Sith. Now in the aftermath of the greatest military victory in Republic history, with the Empire humbled, the citizens of the Republic could go back to hating their other age-old enemy, each-other. Now the Senate had transformed from a political snakepit to a battlefield of verbal artillery and accusations flying faster than starfighters. It was quite hilarious to see the once mighty Leontyne Saresh humbled by her own creation, rendered inert by the growing power of the Constitutionalists and the Federalists, forcing her to claw at every moment of neutrality she could to save her political career.

"Serves her right, starting a war that caused the death's of billions, nice to see her fighting for her life for a change."

Nadia turned, and smiled on seeing an old friend.

Leaning forward, she reached out her arms to embrace her Twilek friend. "Dashi!" Nadia couldn't help but try and squeeze the life out of her friend and comrade in the Republic Special Operations Service, who for once had shed her armor. "And without your armor, I thought you lived in that tin suit!"

Naldashi 'Dashi' Sureyan, Commander in the RSOS, smiled and gently pried her Jedi friend off her before her uniform got ruffled, she was after all here on official business. "Yes, yes make all the jokes you want, everyone at base did when they saw me in the regiform..." Nadia chuckled at Dashi's little nickname for ordinary uniforms. "...instead of in my armor. I'm much more comfortable in the armor, its really not as constricting as most people assume."

"Dashi, your much cuter without it in my opinion." Nadia gave Dashi a little flirtatious look, all jokingly of course, to which her friend responded by quirking one eyebrow at her behavior. Nadia had always been a bit of a flirt, to men and women both, which one would imagine wouldn't quite sit well within the Jedi Order, however the losses the Order sustained during the War as well as a bevy of other increasingly frustrating concerns meant they couldn't very well expel so experienced a Knight as Nadia for this indiscretion. "I'm not big on the orange stripes but the boldness of the white makes your green skin shine out even more and it is probably the most attractive green I've ever seen."

The two friends laughed at what was quite plainly and obviously one of the worst pickup lines Nadia had ever spoken in her life.

"I see time on Coruscant has blunted your wit Nadia, you poor soul, whatever shall you do without your charming sarcasm? You might be thrown out of the Order now you can't charm your colleagues anymore."

Nadia dryly chuckled. "Trust me, they've had enough excuse to throw me out of the Order even if I should lose my wit." She caught herself before going any further. Even if Nadia frequently flouted the conventions of the Jedi, she did still (largely) comply with one; refrain from discussing inner troubles of the Jedi with those outside the Order, even a friend so great as Naldashi. Nadia had no doubt that Dashi would (probably) keep her secret, but she did still report to the Republic High Command like the rest of the SOS, and frankly the division between the High Council and the High Command was so great at the moment as to give pause to any Jedi talking with friends in the Federal Forces.

Her friend wisely did not take the matter any further, recognizing Nadia's reluctance to speak on that subject, and changed direction. "Is this all you've got slated for today, watching the Senate I mean?"

Nadia shrugged her shoulders. "Well my father does sit in the Senate remember."

Naldashi nodded, she did indeed remember that fact, though Nadia's father, Tobas, was not the most well known member of the Senate. He spoke in the open sessions very rarely but was quite popular in his represented sector in the Mid-Rim so he had been able to win reelection a total of seven times, for what reason Dashi did not know.

"I mostly come to try and keep up with galactic affairs, the media isn't to be trusted to give the full story everytime or even half the time, as any outlet is serving one side or the other. The best outlet for information tends to be the direct source, so I stop off here to keep abreast of whats going on." What Nadia left out was that information was so compartmentalized inside the Order, there was little chance of the High Council letting the rest of the Jedi know about galactic affairs short of another War breaking out. "But to a degree I come to support my father, if he needs it."

Dashi grinned wryly. "By 'support', do you mean provide as in offer emotional support in the aftermath of a political attack, or..."

"If need be I would jump into another Senator's pod to defend him, knock some heads together."

"I've no doubt that you would, they'd probably have to call my unit in to pull you off of them."

"No offense but even with our friendship, I wouldn't go easy on you."

Dashi waved a hand. "I know better than to try and take you myself, I'd have Forex tackle you if we had to go up against you Nadia."

Laughing that away, Nadia changed the subject away from her to Dashi. "So what brings you to the Senate Dashi? And in such a clean, official-looking uniform at that?"

Dashi sighed, in both annoyance and exhaustion, thinking ahead to the approaching meeting. "Another budget debate. Trying to keep those bean counters from cutting the SOS' budget, they seem to think that now the War's over, intelligence isn't important anymore." What morons. Just because the Republic wasn't at war with the Empire did not mean that it should cease surveillance efforts, that was why they were so unprepared in the First Great Galactic War. Had the SOS been in operation then, and properly funded at that, they may have discovered the resurgent Sith Empire before it could launch its deadly surprise attack on the Galactic Republic.

"Just how much of your budget are the proposing to cut?"

"They might slash it by as much as 40%, that means dismantling most of our intelligence network inside the Empire and scaling back on recruitment at home. Do you know how many CI's inside Imperial Space we'll lose if we stop paying them, very few turncoats are doing it out of ideological passion and far more are doing it for credits! Nevermind the scum we deal with in Hutt Space, they'll flip on the turn of a coin without constant financial inducement." In the 'harrowed' halls of the Senate, Dashi was reluctant to use the word 'bribe'. "If we cut back on recruitment, which we will be forced to if they cut our funding by so much, we will have to modify training to get as many recruits into action as quickly as we can to make up for the dismantling of our network inside the Empire." That would mean operatives graduating from training with significantly inferior skills compared to their Second Great Galactic colleagues, all of whom not only had more experience but had gone through more rigorous training.

"This is my fifth time before the Senate Appropriations Committee, and General Jurgon's gone before them three times himself, and every time instead of them listening to our arguments all we get are bland statements about how the money has more important uses elsewhere. I'll grant them that there are people that need feeding and houses that need building, but based on the reports I've seen their certainly not putting the money towards that." Half of the reports SOS had received, at least the one's that crossed Naldashia's desk, seemed to indicate most of the Federal Budget was earmarked to helping worlds that could very well finance their own recovery and paying off the contracts with the megacorporations. If the Senate wasn't going to use the money in a just way, Dashi would rather they not take it at all so the SOS could at least continue to serve its purpose and keep an eye on the Empire.

Nadia frowned. "That kind of reduction sounds more like a vendetta than a standard budget cut, it would be more normal for them to reduce the budget in increments over time, say 5% a year for ten years. That way the SOS would be able to properly manage the reduction of budget and maintain its key operational services."

"Oh there's a vendetta at hand." Dashi ground her teeth together as they stalked the Senate halls towards the South Wing. "Its against General Jurgon."

"Why would any Senator have a vendetta against Aric?"

Dashi quietly ignored that Nadia was somehow on first name terms with the General-in-Command of the SOS, filing it away for future discussion. Likely one of those very rare yet often very fun nights where she and Nadia would indulge in perhaps a few more drinks than either could handle. Given Nadia's tendencies and General Jurgon's own social stiffness, it should be a very interesting story, indeed.

"The General doesn't play politics like some of his predecessors, which the Senator's are rather peeved about. He looks at everything with a mixture of common sense and morality, he's not going to play up to any particular Senator to try and curry favor. Last month, the Kuati Junior Senator tried to sway the General into deploying SOS resources for domestic security on Kuat, glorified police work essentially, and the General shot him down because there was simply no reason to." 'The Kuati government probably wants to keep an eye on 'subversives' without violating its Planetary Constitution by having the Federal Military do the spying.'

"So its not quite business as usual for the greedy leeches?"

"No, the General runs the SOS just as he did during the War, you advance on your merits and nothing else. He earned the ire of one of the Duro's Representatives after dishonorably discharging her nephew for abusing his position to amass credits in a protection racket. That same Representative tried to get General Jurgon removed from his post, but the General still has enough allies in the High Command to keep that from happening."

Nadia whistled, that was quite a bold step for a Senate Representative to take, attempting to unseat a senior military officer over a personal slight. Even more surprising was seeing the Military High Command defy the Senate in such a move, where before the War they would've kowtowed to any obscure demand by even the most obscure Senator or Representative; the War had shattered the image of the Senate as the most powerful authority within the Republic, as the Federal Military had more than tripled in size during the conflict, lending great power unto the High Command within society. Even ordinary citizens knew that the Senate weren't the same all-powerful bureaucrats anymore, not when soldiers from the Federal Army still garrisoned tens of thousands of worlds, exerting their influence on every level of society. Planetary garrison commanders were as well known as a Sector's Senator these days, and often more popular; why care about the individual that supposedly defended your rights in the Galactic Senate when you could care about the one who would defend your world from a Sith invasion?

That was why the Senate was so eager to start reducing both the budget and size of the military, so they could curb the effects of its influence on society, because clearly the stronger the military was, the weaker the Senate would be. It wasn't so much the Senate was fearful of a military coup upending democracy, they were fearful that a military takeover would upend their power.

That the Senate had a legitimate fear of a potential military coup showed just how much the War had changed internal society in the Republic.

"Well that's enough talk about boring official business, back to more interesting conversation. Are you free tonight, I've gotten my hands on some prime Felucian Acklay steaks, which just demand enjoying what with how hard they are to get." Nadia was giving Dashi quite the 'cute' look to try and sway her to join her this evening.

"I'm not sure, it depends how long this meeting goes for and then how much work I have left at the SOS..." Dashi looked down beside her where Nadia was still giving her such a puppy eyed look, it was practically irresistible. "Oh fine, I'll come round to your place at 1700."

"YAY!" Nadia let out a squeal which drew looks from those around them but she didn't care. Her personality was already outlandish as it was and she didn't give two credits to the opinion of others, again a rather loose philosophy for the normally heavily conservative Jedi.

Dashi smiled at her friend, Nadia was always willing to cheer her up no matter how frustrated she was. "Well, at least you've given me a reason to feel good about getting this meeting over with." They'd at last reached the chambers of the Senate Appropriations Committee, from within they could already hear the Senators and Representatives bickering with a few of the other military officers called to testify in defense of the SOS. "Time to get this over with."

Nadia gave her hand a squeeze and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Good luck."

Dashi smiled sadly. "Thanks, I'll need it."