Dagobah Slip Stream
Part Eleven -Cas's Plan
Cas stood in front of her chair. "I'm glad we're on the subject of Honor and Duty."
"Members of the Council. We have allowed things to happen that did not necessarily need to happen in the name of gathering information."
"We know all we can know until we have a live specimen that will talk to us. Which through our studies we know will, most likely, not happen. That being said, I declare, it is time for us to act."
"Jedi have always been keepers of the Peace. But more than that we are Defenders of the Weak and Tools of the Force. And it is time we prove it." Cas glared down at her fellow members, daring them to contradict her.
"Jedi, always and first, try negotiations. We try to talk things out. And we have. But what has been our result?" She paused but didn't wait for them to respond.
"We have lost five Masters from this very council. Convoys and thousands of refugees. Ships and their trained crews. Colonies and Allied Planets. All because we did not act, because we didn't want to get involved."
"First, it was the Republic Jedi's problem. But once the name of Jedi was involved we should have done something."
"Then it was an Imperial problem." She glared down at them. "I wasn't at that Council meeting, but I know, none of you- not one- felt any remorse in letting them die. Even though as Jedi we defend all life."
"ALL life. WE are not allowed to be bigoted until one is a threat to another. And then, only on the for the side of justice." She paused to let that sink in.
"After that, it was the Republic's problem, I do believe. Right? But we even teach our children," She motioned to her Youngsters in the first row. "That when Master Yoda and Master Saesee Tiin established our academy, they did so, so that there would be a chance to defeat the Empire and bring back the Old Republic."
"Well, folks, now the New Republic's all but dead. It's now or never. This is our problem, just like this is our galaxy." Her face was hard, like a teacher that found a student cheating.
"And I am telling you now, as I told you at our last meeting and the one before that, if you haven't figured it out yet: Negotiations are not working. It is time to take the next step."
"We would not meet them on the battlefield, even when honor bound to do so. Now, I understand, that it was from fear."
"Fear for the people who had just vacated these seats." She gestured to the five Knights on the council. "Fear of aggression. Fear of Death. Fear of the Dark Side."
She looked at them her fierce mask softening. "My friends, now is not the time for fear, it is the time for action. We have left our duty, our honor, long enough bleeding on the battlefield."
Corran's eyebrows raised at her use of the Dathomirian turn-of-phrase, he'd remembered hearing Teneniel Djo -the Hapan/Dathomirian ruler- use it when she was refusing to give up.
"I say we make our move and begin earning our honor back."
"What are you really suggesting?" asked Master Dueler Xin, trying to hide his honest distress at the thought of not having honor, with sarcasm. "What do your fancy words mean, wise one?"
"I suggest…" She hesitated.
How would they react? How badly will they reject her proposition? She was the little Sith girl, right, and now she was demanding aggression? Yeah that would go over real well with the Jedi back home. She straightened her shoulders.
Like she said, now was not the time to fear.
"I say we liberate a planet we should have never let fall. We have needed allies, needed supplies, ready ships and warriors to train, in hiding all on one planet."
"Ladies and Gentlemen…I say it is time to liberate Dathomir. But not only do we liberate it, we crush our opposition." She put up a hand to stall comment. "I know, barring the possible gain in logistics, it has no strategic value. Which works for us if we stick with the old Rebellion's tactics, it gives us early unpredictability."
"Some of you might have already figured this out, but, because of this strike, the Yuuzahn Vong will take us as on as their next challengers."
"If we are cunning they will send great ships and greater commanders to try to rock us out of there, Which would buy time for the New Rebellion's forces. Which again, helps us. Once the Rebellion has had time to reorganize itself in a rebel structure and comes back into the fight, I believe we will be more successful."
"Then the Vong will be fighting on two, separate parts of the Galaxy. Two places that we have enough forces to bring together into one larger territory. Once that is done, and we have their attention on that side of the Galaxy, we can really open up the ship yard back home and start turning out more ships faster."
"But we will also gain the eye of the people. We could bring them hope, elevating pilots, like Jaina Solo or Jagged Fel to Hero Status. Giving our people a new generation of heroes will raise their moral. Maybe keep them from collapsing under the Vong for the day or two it would take us to get in there and back their own forces up." She gave a wry smile. "Which would gain us allies and add to our recruiting schemes."
"On the same note, if we decide to build ships, we might want to guard and/or liberate planets, like Kashyyyk, Vortex, and Mon Cal, whose people are known for their honesty, hard work, and ingenuity."
"But more than even that, this is a Galaxy problem. We should watch out for our neighbors, even the Imperial ones. For all we know they could have Engineers and their crews, just needing a place to build and design. If we could get them to work for us, it would benefit the both the New Rebellion and ourselves."
"I've put a lot thought into most of this. I've got a probable plan for anything I could think of. A rough one any way." She gave a practiced smile.
"I am not the tactician," She winked, "only an idealist."
Wedge spoke up. "In the 'old' Rebellion the two were one and the same." That made her smile. A real humorous smile of a friend, not a practiced one.
She took a deep breath, like she was about to face daddy and tell him she wrecked the speeder. Of course with her father maybe a Death Star would be more suitable.
"The Vong have not made it to our home yet. As far as we know, they don't know it exists. I mean, most of the people in our own galaxy don't know about it. And most that do, don't know exactly which planet it is or have only been brought to the SlipStream by our ships. It's a rather safe secret."
"If this is true, and nothing we have proves other wise, my plan will work." She clasped her hands in front of herself. A light entered her eyes and face. Making her look like a conspirator.
"What I want to do first is to leave the Justice at home. Hell, leave most of our big ships in hiding. Because they don't know about the Justice or her fleets yet, but they've gotten a taste of the Lasankya and hers."
"What we do is simple, we have other members of our fleet come here to protect this base while its away and get Wedge to send the Lasankya, armed with our forces, to Dathomir, with, of course, other members of our fleet."
"If we can keep them from finding out our exact forces, which we can accomplish by showing different numbers, one week a fleet has two Imperial Star destroyers, the next week it has an ImpStar Deuce and two Lancer Frigates. Maybe using different names and altering their drive emissions, and altering them all the time. We can keep them guessing, and keep and ace or two up ourselves."
She straightened her posture and gave a tightlipped smile to signal she had finished speaking. Then turned to the other members of the board, so they could try to shoot her down.
"We will need to form battle groups and ground squads, perhaps cellblock our information, like we have on some planets, but I think the plan has promise. You are very thorough, young one." He gave a tightlipped smile, meant to disarm her into feeling excepted.
"If only we can convince the New Rebellion to join our plot, that is." Knight Jan said, raising an eyebrow, thinking he'd out thought her.
But she's a politician so, of course, she'd already come up with an angle on anything they could throw at her.
Her only problem was keeping him from detecting her humor at his lack in that area.
"Once we have a plan, I, with a few of our military experts will dress up a report, make it look very official, and present it to General Antilles. I think his interest will be piqued by the use of antiquated Slam-tactics with new technology, warriors and generations." She sat.
She suddenly lost her practiced political smile. "Sadly, this fight may last generations. In all my visions of the future, this engagement ends with one side being…obliterated." She looked tiredly at the other members of the council to see if they had seen the same.
They just looked mournful and she realized how blurred things were right now. Peacekeepers were being forced in to aggression. The Higher Councils discussing tactics that could kill thousands.
The Dark Side was every where. Clouding everything.
Making everything worse.
She sighed, feeling more centuries than her mere 26 years.
She was a Warrior, she needed to be on the front line, but they were telling her to have children.
How could she fight and not endanger a child? She could fly a StarFighter, or command a battle group. She'd had experience in both, but both options had risks and there were many in the Navy that were better to those tasks than she, whose skills, along with her own, would be wasted.
Ground Fighting, Guerrilla Tactics, that was were she excelled.
There was a moment of silence, then Jan stood. "Moving on. I think we can hammer this plot in to a battle plan."
He looked out to the crowd, particularly Wedge, and smiled. "If you have any suggestions, you're welcome to speak. Our sessions are usually open to our people, you'll just be a surrogate."
There were a few chuckles then they sat down to work. Compete with a secretary taking notes and a holo-display showing their topic of discussion.