Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars. It belongs to Disney. I make no money from this story.

Chapter 7: Falling shadows

=KoF=

Part 5

=KoF=

Many misconceptions persist to this day about the nature of the Republic. Both among the regular citizens of the galaxy and politicians of all stripes.

For thousands of years, being a citizen of the Republic, being part of it, was something to be proud of. Why wouldn't you be? You were part of the institution that brought peace, prosperity, and stability to a barbaric galaxy! That had always been true for those living in the Core of the Republic – its founding members and their closest allies. They built the Republic, and more often than not, they were the Republic. It worked great for them.

The roots of those misconceptions are many, and often obvious. Yet, the truth is somewhat different. For most of its long and often glorious history, the Republic was never a powerful centralized state, much less such a government. It was always there in the print of the various treaties binding it together.

The Republic was a union of sovereign states built for the purposes of mutual defense and economic prosperity. The key words here are sovereign states. The Republic wasn't a traditional nation, not even a proper federation or confederation. Crippling flaws in the latter were features of the alliance that allowed it to survive for over twenty-five thousand years in one form or another.

When the Republic lacked a credible external enemy, its centralization always decayed quickly. The power of the Chancellor vanished, and soon, demands to downsize or even disband the Republic's military followed. For most nations, doing so would have been catastrophic. For the Republic, while always dangerous, such initiatives allowed it to survive.

The reason for this contradiction is simple. Without significant outside pressure, many of the Republic's member states saw themselves as each other's rivals and enemies. Further, they had no incentive to support, or remain a part of a centralized supranational organization, if it had the power and ability to rein them in, or dictate how they should operate.

A key example of this was the Republic Senate. It was an often hated and derided institution, which was a useful feature in removing blame from the local governments for unpopular decisions or inaction. The truth of the Senate had always been simple and hidden in plain sight. It was supposed to mediate disputes between member states, regulate trade across the galaxy, and in theory, represent the galaxy's citizens. The last part had always been both truthful and misleading.

Each Senator represented their government, alliance, or corporation powerful enough to warrant a seat. It was the interests of those governments the Senators were meant to represent and defend, and in theory, through them, the interests of the regular citizens. The latter often didn't happen.

The other side of the same coin was that the Senators weren't meant to safeguard the interests of the Republic. Not those of the organization itself, or even those of its other member states. Not unless they were allies, de facto or of convenience.

For example, during the infamous Naboo Crisis ten years before the start of the Clone Wars, many Senators felt compelled to cover for or defend the Trade Federation for multiple reasons. First, the core issue behind the Federation's actions – a dispute over taxation reforms, affected many Republic members negatively. They wanted those reforms overturned, and the Federation's actions could be a lever to do it. Further, no interstellar corporation could accept the precedent of seeing the Trade Federation broken over their actions on Naboo. Doing so would have created a precedent to attack them in the future, which was seen as unacceptable.

That brings us to another related issue. What the people of the galaxy usually saw unfold in the Senate Chamber was little more than show and grandstanding for the regular citizen's benefit. Everything that mattered wasn't decided on the Senate floor. It happened in backroom deals all over the galaxy, where government representatives from the Republic's member states decided the fate of the Republic…

Twilight of the Galactic Republic,
Dr. Jone Sellik,
Alsakan Publishing House

=KoF=

near Bestine
Tatooine

An unpleasant miasma of doom and gloom permeated the speeder. Anger mixing up with anguish and despair tasted much better to Vader's emphatic senses.

"Snips, people all over the Outer Rim would cheer you on for slaughtering a Hutt, especially a sleemo like Jabba." Vader carefully prodded his Apprentice. "You aren't a monster because of it. You aren't alone, and the Jedi won't lock you up and throw away the key." He did his best to sound convincing and reassuring.

"We slaughtered them all, and I loved every moment of it!" Snips grumbled. Even talking about it was enough to make her recall how she felt, and a spike of exhilaration pierced through her aura of doom.

"Slavers, criminals, mercenary scum." Vader shrugged. "The galaxy is better without them. We did a good thing. The real world is seldom as black and white as the Order taught us. I saw that as a child slave on this dust-ball years ago." He paused for a moment. "Think about it this way. How many people will now live because those bastards are dead? How many people won't be enslaved by them? How many slaves they won't brutalize? How many crimes they won't be able to commit now? This is not one of the safe Core worlds in the Republic, snips. We're in the lawless parts of the galaxy both the Republic and the Jedi abandoned a long time ago."
"That's not the Jedi way. Are we evil now?" Snips looked at him with huge eyes. Her irises were even now tinted in a shroud of gold.

"According to the Jedi's dogma? Perhaps. Those are the same Jedi who did nothing about the likes of Jabba. All that matters is where do you want to go now, Snips. Do you want to prove them right? If you allow it, the Dark Side will make it possible. You can choose to become an unrepentant monster. You know, like the Sith we were taught about."

"They were evil. And fools. They failed." Ahsoka pouted, while her emotions went back to acting like dogfighting fighters.

"Yet, all the histories are clear, the Sith were the greatest threat the Republic ever faced. Did you ever wonder why that was, Snips? I sure did." Vader admitted. He learned about the Sith both as a young Padawan, and later, when the war began, to better understand and counter the likes of Dooku. After that, he had to study about them under Sidious'.

In hindsight, the old man's manipulations and hypocrisy were kind of obvious. So much for the vaunted rule of two. There were logical contradictions in the Sith's teachings, or perhaps it was the simple fact that Vader didn't want to follow the rule about Master and Apprentice trying to kill each other in the end. When Sidious was the Master, it was a great idea, and he couldn't wait for the time when it would be prudent to remove the old man. However, when said Apprentice was to be his son or daughter? Or his little sister Snips? Then the whole idea lost its appeal. An Apprentice besting and defeating their Master would be one thing. Killing said Master without an excellent reason? That only weakened the Sith as a whole, and they consumed themselves from within.

The less said about the Jedi, their incompetence, and what they allowed, the better.

Vader wanted a different path, a better path. His path.

"I can offer you something different, Ahsoka. Something you won't find among the Jedi. A way that doesn't contain the foolish madness of the Sith." Vader carefully said. He cursed the lack of time to properly formulate plans for the future, much less figure out what kind of Force Adept he wanted to be. All he knew for sure was what he didn't want to be!

It didn't help that Snips perked up at his words, and now he got her attention. The storm of emotions consuming her subdued as well.

"What path?" It was painful to hear how much need she put into that simple question.

"Our path, Snips. The Jedi are wrong. We aren't droids. We feel emotions, often strongly. Denying and suppressing them is wrong. It's not a healthy way to handle the issue at all. At the same time, the Sith philosophy is at best misleading. Yes, there is always some kind of conflict, and peace is a fleeting thing at best. Yet, it is something worth fighting for. Passions should be embraced, not denied. At the same time, we are not mere beasts to let our passions control us. You have a choice to make, Snips. You stand at a crossroads that will define you for years, if not decades to come. Who do you want to be? What do you want to be, and how do you want to be remembered?"

"I want a future Master! I don't want to be hunted down, or locked away." Ahsoka shivered in revulsion and anger. "I can no longer keep my eyes closed. People… things like Jabba," she snarled, "they have to go! There is no place in the galaxy I want to live in for such monsters! I want something more, something better!" Snips demanded, and her whole being lit up with unrestrained, keening need.

"That's a galaxy worth fighting for, Snips." Vader smiled proudly at her. "It's something that I want as well. Order, peace, stability, but not just for the Core Worlds. For the whole galaxy, especially the parts that need it most like the Outer Rim."

Ahsoka nodded, burning with unrestrained passion.

"How do we begin, Master?"

"We take Bestine, liberate the slaves there, and show the whole galaxy what both the Jedi and the Republic condone as a matter of course." Vader laid down his immediate goals and activated his communicator. "Rex, what do you have for us?"

They had a campaign to plan.

=KoF=

Part 6

=KoF=

Bestine Township
Tatooine

As far as plans went, this one had a beautiful simplicity to it. One of the hardest lessons Vader learned during the war was that when military planning was concerned, simple was almost always better. That was especially true when a campaign was larger and could include whole armies and fleets. In that case, even the simplest of things tended to be complex.

A complex plan could easily fall apart due to its separate cogs being unable to work well enough together. Either that or fail to achieve objectives on the desired timescale. That was before taking into account that the enemy usually got a vote as well. Vader vividly remembered that happening to both sides in the Clone Wars he fought the last time. The same was true for the odd rebel escaping or achieving unexpected success through insane, desperation-fueled measures.

The key to ensuring your simple in concept plans didn't fail miserably was contingency planning, and the application of localized overwhelming firepower.

In this case, Vader, his ship, and the troops still on board it, was the source of said firepower. Locally, there were not enough assets to stop them.

Contingency-wise, he got confirmation from the Dauntless that assets fleeing from the Confederacy would use the Tatoo system as a staging ground, offering additional reinforcements and firepower. The first task force to reach them would be in the system within the next two hours. They would provide the assets needed to secure what passed for other larger settlements on Tatooine.

Vader and Snips entered Bestine without an issue and headed straight for the spaceport. Rex and his troopers waited for them at their shuttle, ready for action.

"Two minutes." Snips announced after checking the time.

"We'll be there," Vader noted in a tone of approval. The short planning session, and the stated goals of the operation, had a positive effect on Snips. They were enough to calm down Ahsoka and keep her focused for now. That was a good turn of events, even if she still needed close supervision.

They got to the spaceport with seconds to spare, thanks to Vader's expert piloting. He didn't even have to run over any of the locals. A few had to jump out of the way, but that was to be expected on Tatooine. Vader parked in front of the large building, opened the canopy, and jumped out, waving for his Apprentice to follow.

"Master, I'm not letting you drive me anywhere anymore!" Snips grumbled, and dragged herself out, looking a bit ill.

"You need more time in a flight simulator, and a fighter's cockpit." Vader decided. His communicator beeped twice, announcing that the Dauntless just jumped in high orbit above them. She would be launching fighters, bombers, and troop transports ASAP. Of equal importance was her e-war suite, which would blank the whole area in jamming shortly.

"Here we go. You know the drill." Vader ordered and executed a Force-assisted jump, landing on the roof of the main entrance. Ahsoka followed suit and as predicted, she lacked the proficiency to make it up in one go herself. Vader assisted his Apprentice with a telekinetic pull, deposing her on the roof beside him. "Follow me."

Vader sprinted towards the spaceport's control tower at the center of the facility. He used the Force to enhance his speed and strength, moving like a blur. Before someone could raise an alarm, or even figure out they were under attack, Vader vaulted forward, using the Force to better hold on the wall. He uses that leverage to jump up again. This time, his fingers reached the small flat space in front of the windows. Ahsoka jumped after him, and once again, Vader pulled up his Apprentice, until she was beside him. He gave her a nod and vaulted up, using a telekinetic push to shatter the reinforced windows, before hurling himself inside.

Jagged shard scythed through much of the controllers, incapacitating or outright killing them.

"Surrender or die!" Vader barked at the stunning beings.

A wide-eyed insectoid screeched a challenge and charged him. The thing was shocked into a fight or flight response, acting on instincts alone. All Vader could sense from the creature was delicious fear. He grabbed his lightsaber and in one smooth motion, ignite it mid-strike, bisecting the overgrown insect.

Ahsoka landed behind him, lightsaber in hand and a furious snarl on her face. That was more than enough for the still intact controllers to raise their shaking hands and proclaim their surrender in four different languages.

"Ahsoka, watch them," Vader ordered. He had communications and any ground-based defenses to shut down. Places like this rarely could afford decentralized command and control infrastructure. Any anti-air weapons, not to mention the theater shield if present, were often controlled by the local space-port. It was the one place that could detect and track hostile incursions or was responsible for damaged ships attempting a landing.

Bestine, in particular, had some light AA laser turrets ringing the outskirts of the starport, and Vader wanted them disabled before his reinforcements arrived. Otherwise, the Y-Wings would have to gut them, and much of the complex, with extreme prejudice.

It took Vader a few minutes to make sure he had all defenses shut down, including a very old theater shield barely large enough to cover the town. Meanwhile, he could hear the odd blaster discharge coming from below – that was Rex and his men securing the elevator and stairs leading up into the control tower.

"Gather up your wounded, you're going down," Vader announced, once he achieved his primary objective. He noted that two of the controllers had bled out, along with an unlucky Gamorean guard who had a large shard stuck into his throat. Two more, a human and a Rodian were busy bleeding out. The human was unlikely to make it without seeing a modern hospital in the next ten minutes or so.

"Do it!" Vader barked when no one moved to either pick up the wounded or head for the elevator. His shout got them into high gear, and the hale controllers finally picked up their wounded colleagues. Vader walked in with them while pointing to the stairs. "Make sure no one but our people are coming up, then join us downstairs."

Unsurprisingly, no one gave him any trouble on the way down. When the doors opened, Vader saw two Clones pointing blaster carbines at them, while the rest of the unit was in the best defensive positions the area could offer. He could see the bodies of a few locals dragged near the opposite wall, along with a few wounded sitting under guard.

"Join them. Rex have a medic check the wounded. Dauntless Actual, Strike One. Objective secured." Vader spoke into his comm.

"Strike One, Dauntless Actual. Talon is en route. ETA: four minutes."

So far, so good. Ideally, they would strike the rest of Bestine, while the locals wondered what the kriff was happening. With the ongoing jamming, there would be no slaver enthusiasts blowing up their property.

Ahsoka came down the stairs, feeling grumpy. "The way down is clear. I passed by three Clones going up to hold the control center."

"Good. Rex, you're with us. The rest of your people, hold down this position until relieved, then join us in the town.

Vader walked towards the primary entrance, noting the locations of the odd cowering civilian. There was a commotion outside – local "guards", read thugs in the Hutt's employ, were busy gathering and arguing how to retake the spaceport from the mercenaries.

"Rex ranged support. Snips, sleemos in front. I want them gone."

A large Gamorean wearing heavy armor pointed at them and shouted to the other thugs. By the time any of them could react, Vader was already hurling through the air, lightsaber in hand. He landed before anyone could point a blaster at them, unleashing a telekinetic blast that hurled them all off their feet. By the time Ahsoka joined him, Vader was busy cutting his way through the thugs, giving them no opportunity to effectively resist.

High above them, Republic small craft screamed down from the heavens like flights of avenging angels.

=KoF=

If you want to support my writing or discuss this story, see the following links:

Pat re on: Delkatar's writing corner

the space battles forums - this is where most discussion over my stories takes place

the sufficient velocity forums

the alternative history forums