Chapter 9: Live Free or Die

Tibannas Prime, Tibannas Sector

Moff Karla Illustrious looked out the window of her large residence in the planet's capital, Tibanna City. Many had died to get to this point, but ultimately if it gave them freedom from the Empire it was worth it.

A sigh escaped her as she looked at the large collection of high rises and other tall buildings that made up Kumar. When she had first come here a little bit after the empire had risen to power, she had found a planet that had great potential due to its natural resources but one with massive wealth inequality and the planet's resources coming from the pockets of a few wealthy oligarchs, not to the vast majority of the people.

She ushered in a new era of prosperity for the people of the sector, one based on the rule of law, property rights, and economic and political freedom for the average citizens. It was no surprise then that many flows led from around the galaxy to settle and have a better life here; including many of the best and brightest in their fields. While the rest of the galaxy was experiencing a new dark age of repression, violence, and corruption the Tibannas sector prospered, taxes from its vast economic resources going into a sovereign wealth fund that gave prosperity to the average citizen. There was no wonder that its people had not revolted like many others across the galaxy.

Illustrious had initially wanted to stay neutral in the growing galactic civil war. She had no interest in involving herself in a war that would have little benefit for a great cost. She did send some of her sector forces to distant battlefields to get experience and expanded her fleets and armies to be larger than any that surrounded her.

Several times rebels had entered her sector, but they had never stayed long. There wasn't much here that could be radicalized, and the sector was heavily guarded by ships and troops that were both loyal to her and competent, lacking the corruption and incompetence of other sectors around her. In one case she had even met a couple of the rebels who had ventured into the sector, the now deceased but infamous Saw Guerra and the daughter of Senator Mothma, Aillia Mothma. Illustrious had admitted to them that she was losing confidence in the empire as she could see its growing in effectiveness, and said that she wouldn't care what happened outside her sector.

An unwritten agreement emerged between her and the various rebel groups in the surrounding sectors: we don't care what you do unless you do it in the Tibannas Sector or you do it on the property of the Tibannas Sector. So that helped keep rebel groups out of the sector, and if they did come into the sector it was either to pass through the sector or set up a base in a remote part of it. Because Illustrois didn't actively hunt for rebel bases it meant that if you were good at hiding it would be a good place to hide some sort of base or installation.

This arrangement had worked well for the time being but its death had been brought on by Earth and the Free Confederacy taking control of the Zoloch Sector. The surrounding sectors made a plan to take the sector back and requested assistance from Illustrious. She refused, however, not seeing how this would benefit her sector. A better approach would be to provide assistance only when the other sectors were weakened, giving her more influence but even then she wasn't very excited about this war.

And to a point, she had had growing sympathies for the rebel alliance as the Empire failed to contain them. The empire was looking more and more like a failed experiment rather than a successful government. It might have unified much of the known galaxy, but it hadn't exactly kept them in line. Perhaps if it had adopted a better form of government that had at least some representation of the general public things would be different, but the Emperor would not give up the power that he had already gained. And when genuine ideas to improve the empire were raised those who did so often suffered significant punishment. This was a state which would not improve itself, and eventually crumble as others had done in the past.

She was brought back to the present as her door chimed and Lieutenant Dravon Jent entered the room. The young officer had grown up in poverty before the economic reforms implemented by Illustrious. He had then joined the Imperial Navy with a command track in mind but ended up taking her offer to serve as an aide, performing several dangerous missions for her. One of which had laid the foundation for the relationship between Earth and the Tibanas sector.

"Your daily briefing is here ma'am." He told her. "Are you ready?"

"Indeed I am." She replied. "Begin with what's going on on the front."

"Our forces have made good headway in the blank sector and we've solved the coordination issues with both Gorky and Johnson's forces. However, we are still in the process of upgrading a lot of our fleet to give us a bigger advantage over other imperial forces and will be ramping up the contribution to the invasion forces in the area. As for specific battles, nothing has happened there in the past 24 hours though there have been a few small skirmishes in wild space, and while we have lost a few corvettes and frigates we've captured and destroyed more tonnage than has been destroyed of ours."

"Good," Illustrious said. The investments into her fleet had paid off, along with the upgrades she was currently having performed on many of her ships. The Tibanas Sector hosted quite a large number of research facilities, especially for a world in the outer rim. Now her engineers and designers were working with those of both Earth and the Free Confederacy to improve and create new various ship designs. Imperial equipment that had proven to be less effective than initially anticipated would be either modified or sent to second-line units, while the front lines of this conflict would have modern equipment that would be standardized with both Earth and the Free Confederacy. Some like many of her TIE fighters would even be stripped for parts and scrapped, as they had proven wildly ineffective against rebel fighters unless they held a significant numerical advantage. There were some exceptions though; large capital assets like Imperial Star Destroyers would be modified but retained on the front lines due to there being only a limited number of ships that size that could be built in a short timeframe. But many vehicles that were among the most common in the empire such as the ATAT would be relegated to second-line service.

Jent continued. "Nothing else in space since the last briefing but there has been some significant action on land. The offensive on Lonin III has finally resumed its pace and our forces are moving rapidly to take the rest of the planet. Major battles are reported on Anandm IV and several other worlds, all of them favorable to us." Jent aid.

"Good," Illustrious replied. "How are operations in the Ajans Sector?"

"No change since that last battle. We're getting a large amount of stuff from the fleet that was captured, this is some serious loot even divided three ways."

"Good." She replied. "What about more civilian matters; like the production reports and our transition towards democracy?"

"Well, ma'am as you know the primary elections will be taking place in a few weeks, specifically three weeks and four days from now. Two representatives from each planet in our sector will be elected and come here to work with a larger body or representatives from each world that is decided due to the population of the world."

"Yes I know, I was a major part of creating that system," Illustrious replied. "So have any issues arisen from the process yet?"

"Not yet but it isn't out of the question that some might." He said. "We've screened for anyone who had sympathies to the empire itself and so far we've been unable to find many but I think that there are a lot of people who are sympathetic to the empire, though I'm not sure what action should be taken."

"That's something to wait for," Illustrious said. "I need them to do something more substantial, and from what they have been doing I don't see any coordination or treasonous behavior." She said, "Though I want them to be put under surveillance, that should reveal any misdeeds or wrongdoing that they may be committing in secret."

"I'll notify the Intelligence service." He replied. "Have you made up your mind on what powers the civilian assembly will have and what they want?"

"Indeed, they will have the ability to create and pass laws that can be sent to my desk for approval. However I can veto and there will be no overriding power, and I will retain other powers due to the current nature of the war." This would be a transition to democracy, not a full one itself. One day they would become one with more balanced powers that would have more powers, and she would give up her dictatorial powers.

But until then the war would need to be prosecuted to its fullest extent, and having a full democracy would not exactly help that. A limited one would suffice for now.

"Anything else to report."

"Well ma'am, it's only been about 24 hours since the last time this briefing occurred."

"What's my scheadule for today?"

"A meeting with the production staff about some of the upgrades they want to implement on some of our escorts, and after that a check-in with both fleet and ground command on their strategic plans for the future." He said. After that, there is a meeting with the civilian government, one of the usual of course. You have a press conference after that and those are all of the meetings you have today."

"Good," Illustrious said, sighing and looking out at the city of one of the many worlds that she ruled. This was quiet for now, though this was partial because she had effectively delegated authority to a variety of regional and planetary bureaucrats and officials who ensured the stability of her regime and did their job without fuss. In return, they were paid wages that were competitive with private sector administrators with the understanding that corruption was unacceptable and anyone found engaging in such activities would suffer severe consequences. Corruption was a massive drain on a state at every level, and she had ensured that it had been purged on every level of Jen she had ridden to power, and Illustrious had put in major instructions that would prevent it from retribution in any meaningful way.

This was done through strong anti-corruption institutions, ones that would dissuade all but the least intelligent from partaking in such activities. Accountants kept track of and audited records at every level, and could be known by Illustrious how every credit in her budget would be spent. These accountants and auditors had vast and expansive power, some might call it authoritarian but the powers were investigatory. They could not arrest anyone, that was the job of her military, police, and intelligence service and anyone who did get arrested would get their day in court and a fair trial, something that wasn't exactly common in the rest of the empire.

Overall, Illustrious was proud of the institutions that she had helped build in this world, and she would admit that they were the work of many besides just her. These institutes were threatened by others in the empire, ones that had a much more unitary vision of the state. That was why she had succeeded from them, as they had no longer served the interests of her people as they enforced their will on them. No, she had decided that her world would become free from the clutches of the emperor's will, and decide its path in the galaxy. There quite frankly wasn't a better time to do so, as the galaxy was filled with chaos and rebellion.

She had given the empire a chance, as she thought that had found the answer to stopping the rebellion. It would not lay in building more Star Destroyers or going to a full wartime total mobilization, but by making the populist support the Empire like she had done. The Tarkin Doctrine might have succeeded in the short term by pacifying many worlds but in the long term had been an absolute and total failure. A ruler who ruled by fear would find himself turned on when his power looked to be in question. The mass defections of Imperial personnel after the distraction of the Death Star were unequivocal proof of that. The destruction of Alderaan had done far more to make the people of the galaxy gate the empire than anything t had ever done previously, and as far as she was concerned the continuation of the empire was untenable and it would eventually collapse.

It was time for her people to forge their path and their destiny in the empire. They would not be beholden to the forces that had constrained future prosperity and they would rise above what they had been before.

The people of the Tibannas Sector now had the freedom to choose their fate, and

She and her people would live free or die trying.