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For those actually reading this story, this is the first new chapter written for the story in years.Future chapters will probably be a little slower in coming as I'll only be able to work on them when I have the time.

The Trial of Darth Vader

Chapter 8

"The prosecution calls Captain Gillmunn of Jabiim."

"Hmmm, interesting," Tristain whispered as she leaned over to Anakin, not paying attention as the captain was sworn in. "Garethmust be trying to throw me off my toes by moving about in your life. First we seem to have been doing nothing but moving forward. Now suddenly we've dropped back to before you became Vader. Yes, most interesting indeed."

Anakin said nothing, merely nodding in reply as he watched Gillmunn take the stand. He wasn't surprised that Trugg and Dia didn't escort him forward, the Jabiimi captain certainly hadn't been a dark man when he'd known him. Rather, he'd been concerned about his people's safety. Alto Stratus had lead a coup the year before the Battle of Jabiim that had overthrown the Jabiimi government. He'd then thrown his lot in with the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and killed at least half the planet's population, the half that remained loyal to the Republic. Gillmunn had lead the resistance against Stratus, being the only force to resist the would be dictator until Republic troops had arrived.

"Captain Gillmunn, when did you first meet the defendant?"

"On Jabiim, when he and his master arrived with reinforcements from the Republic."

"Reinforcements?"

"Yes. I was leading the resistance against the usurper, Atlo Stratus. Many of my people had died fighting his forces for a year. Perhaps we all would have died at his hands within a month or so had the Republic not arrived when it did. My army wasn't very big anymore, but it was still a threat to Stratus, one he was willing to grind under his heel. General Kenobi and Commander Skywalker's troops bolstered our forces and gave us a reason to feel hope again."

"That hope didn't last very long, I take it?"

"No, Stratus wasn't a foolish man. He knew that even though his forces outnumbered my army, the Republic army had him outmanned. And they had the technological advantage as well. At least when they first arrived.

"Stratus kept luring General Kenobi further from the Republic's main encampment, Shelter Base, stringing his army out so that it became thinner the further he got from the encampment. It was all a part of his plan to even the odds in his favor. String us out and then when we were weak, attack at the weakest points. Show no mercy and expect none in return.

"It was a plan that seemed to work a little to well, too. Especially once Count Dooku sent droids to back Stratus up. We thought General Kenobi was killed in action, hundreds of clones and my own people were dieing. Jedi were dieing. Stratus had us on the retreat for the first time since the Republic landed. Even if he were to be killed, I knew that if my people weren't evacuated, or more Republic troops landed to bolster our forces, those of us Jabiimi who stood against his forces would eventually be put to death."

"Did evacuation come?"

"Only for the clones. And Skywalker. For the Jabiimi still loyal to the Republic, we were left to fight for our lives. And to die. They'd promised to free us from Stratus and his politics. Too bad for us they didn't keep that promise."

"But you wanted them to keep it, didn't you? You had been promised that one way or another you would be free of Stratus and his politics. Surely one way would have been to evacuate the planet's forces loyal to the Republic. So what prevented that evacuation from occurring?"

"Skywalker. He thanked us for being loyal to the Republic, but their pet clones were no longer going to fight our battle. To him the clones were more important than the lives of men who had shown their loyalty to the Republic all their lives. So he left us there to continue to fight for our home.

"Our home! That was a joke. Jabiim had been destroyed, we didn't have a home anymore. We wanted the Republic to show us it cared about those who stayed loyal to it. But Skywalker didn't care about us, only about them damn clones. And then to make his point, he chocked me!"

"How did he choke you, Captain? Just lunge at you with his bare hands? Or maybe wrap a cord around your throat and begin to pull it taut?"

"No, he used the Force. I could feel invisible fingers wrap around my throat as he just stood a couple meters away. The look in his eyes, one I'll never forget. Anger, loathing, a desire to kill. Only thing that prevented it was that he needed to leave, immediately, or else be grounded for several more days."

"Thank you, Captain, that will be all."

Tristain got up, making a show of shuffling some flimsies before confronting the witness. Anakin had to wonder if she had actually been going over her notes or if she merely wanted the court to think she had. Somehow he thought it had to be the latter, she just seemed to absorb the information too well to actually need notes.

"Captain, please, what was going on in the galaxy when the Republic sent forces to you planet?"

"Why, the Clone Wars. Everyone in life at that time had to have heard of them."

"The Clone Wars? Excuse me, don't you mean the Clone War? Singular, not plural."

"No, I mean the Clone Wars. General Kenobi said that was the new name of the war which had begun on Geonosis. They'd thought originally that it was going to just be a war pitting the Republic against the Separatists. Neither side expected civil wars to break out across the galaxy as folks fought each other on their home planets to determine which side of the war their planet would be on. So naturally, both the Republic and the Separatists sent their own forces to help fight these civil wars as well as their main war. Hence Clone Wars, plural."

"So the Republic was not fighting just one war, but many smaller wars that were in some way related to the larger one, is that correct?"

"That's right."

"Did you ever hear how long it took to create a clone soldier?"

"Can't say I ever heard an exact number, but the feeling I got from what I did hear was in terms of several years."

"Several years. According to the figures, the Kaminoans were able to grow, and train, a single clone trooper to full, combat prepared maturity in ten years time. Did it take that long for the Confederacy of Independent States to do the same thing with their troops?"

"Well, I'd say for some it took much longer. Those were the sentients, however. Born and raised to a certain age before they could even begin training for any kind of martial service, just like us on Jabiim. Combat prepared maturity would then take a few more years for us sentients.

"But the bulk of the Separatist forces during the wars were droids. Those troops could be built by the thousands on assembly lines in a matter of hours, and programmed for combat in the same amount of time. So you loose a droid it doesn't matter, in only a few hours you could have ten more to take it's place. Loose a living soldier and it would take years just to get one man to take their place."

"Even if that soldier were a clone?"

Gillmunn stroked his beard for a moment before answering her. "Well, if the figures you quoted are correct, then yes, it would take time to create a new clone just to replace one lost in combat. Of course them cloners would have to have been stupid to wait for a clone to be lost before they started to grow new ones. So I'd imagine they'd be starting new clones every now and then just to have some ready to come up as replacements for those lost in combat."

"But even so, ten years is a lot longer than a few hours, even if the Kaminoans waited at least a week to a month before starting the next batch. That would still have meant a week to a month before a replacement could be had. On Jabiim, once Stratus launched his counter assault against the Republic and loyalist forces, do you think you could have waited that long to replace those clones you were loosing in battle?"

"If Stratus had given us enough time to rest between his attacks and the weather had been better, maybe. But the weather was so bad the Republic couldn't have landed reinforcements without loosing most of them. And Stratus' attacks were so frequent that we were loosing clones at an alarming rate due to how badly strung out we were."

"How badly strung out you were. One wonders if the Republic was also badly strung out at that time."

"I suppose it's possible."

"Objection! Your honor, what does any of this have to do with Skywalker's abandoning allies of the Republic?"

"It has quite a bit to do with it, your honor." It was a ploy, and Tristain knew it. Gareth didn't want the jury to focus on what was occurring at that time across the galaxy, what may have forced Skywalker to abandon allies to their fate.

"I must agree with the defense, counselor. Overruled."

Gareth sat back in his seat, refusing to give Tristain the satisfaction of knowing she'd won that little round. Not that he needed to do anything, the judgment had already told her more than his actions could. The objection itself had told her more than Gareth would have liked to admit.

"Tell me, Captain, if the Republic was stretched thin at that point, and you didn't know when replacements for the men under General Kenobi's command would be coming up, who would you have chosen to evacuate had you been needed not only on Jabiim but hundreds of other worlds like Jabiim?"

Gillmunn didn't answer, rather, it looked like he couldn't answer. He seemed to be lost in time, his mind focused on that day so many years ago. It was a look Anakin was sure he'd had on his face when the orders came. Evacuate the men whose only loyalties were to the Republic and thus would fight anywhere they were sent, or the men who had been so loyal to the Republic, but also to their own home world. It hadn't been a choice he'd wanted to make. He wanted more transports, wanted to show the Jabiimi loyalist the gratitude they deserved for staying loyal to the Republic. For being so willing to die for their loyalties. But the Republic needed the clones even more than they needed allies who were loyal.

He had no doubt the Jabiimi loyalist were good fighters, but they had not been trained to fight in different types of environments as the clones had. And there was the question of whether or not they would be willing to fight. Jabiim had been their home world, that had been reason enough for them to fight to defend their freedoms and their loyalties. Had they been sent to places like Kamino or Naboo, would they have been so willing to lay down their lives for those worlds? Would the welfare of the Republic have come first to them?

It was a question that had to be asked of so many of the native military forces that fought beside the Republic. Some were fiercely loyal, like the Wookiees of Kashyyyk. Then there were others whose loyalty had to be questioned. Rendili had joined the Separatists, but it was hoped that it's fleet of dreadnaughts could be convinced to stay with the Republic. The fleet's commander had been convinced that the fleet needed to side with the Republic, but his junior officers felt otherwise. Their mutiny had nearly cost the Republic a vital asset. It only served to reinforce the need for the Republic to have its own military assets to rely on rather than those of it's members. If those members chose to leave the Republic and join the Separatists, then what was to keep their martial forces loyal to the Republic first?

Palpatine had foreseen that it would be like that, foreseen that the less the Republic felt it could trust it's own members to provide for its defense the more to would turn to forces strictly meant for that very purpose. That had been why he had planned the war under the guise of Darth Sidious. Show the Republic it needed its own military and a strong leader. The Republic would see the Separatists flocking to Dooku's banner, never knowing that Dooku's Sith lord was in fact the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. He had been the supreme leader of both sides, and only Dooku had known it. Together they saw to it that Palpatine got exactly what he wanted out of the Republic, exactly what it would take to pave the way for the Empire. A military fiercely loyal to the Republic first. And the Supreme Chancellor was the Republic, once Palpatine had conned the senate into granting him far to many governing powers.

But in those early days of the war they couldn't afford to waste the clones in order to put the lives of their loyal allies first. The military was still too new, it's troops too important. Jabiim had been a decision he didn't want to make. One that he regretted for the rest of the war. To see the hatred and desperation on the faces of the loyalist had been almost too much for him. It was the look of betrayal, of hope being taken away from them that had finally done it to him. Gillmunn and his men had trusted the Republic, had believed that Stratus had been wrong about it. And then he'd been forced to tell them he'd been right, that they couldn't trust any promises the Republic made to them. That he was no longer a man of his word, but merely one who kept his word when it was convenient. That had left a scar on his soul for the rest of the war.

"Captain, do you mind answering the question?" Tristain's voice brought Anakin out of his own contemplation, only to find the courtroom suddenly blurry. Hastily he ducked his head so no one could see him wipe away the tears.

"I..." Gillmunn began, his voice hoarse and his eyes seemingly as watery as Anakin's had been. "I suppose that I would have been forced to evacuate a more vital military asset first over a more local one. I would have taken the clones so they could be used elsewhere, but it would not have been something I would have wanted to do."

"Did the defendant show any reluctance to do exactly that?"

"Yes... Yes, I believe he did. He didn't want to look me in the eye when he told me his decision to evacuate the clones. I suppose he could have had tears in his eyes when he said he was leaving us to carry on the fight by ourselves. But with all the rain I couldn't be sure of that. Even on the transport he seemed more intent on myself and my people, almost regretful. At least that's the way things looked for as long as I could see him until the transport was too high and those doors were closed completely."

"That doesn't sound at all like a man who didn't care about his allies. It sounds to me more like a military commander placed between a nova and a black hole. No matter which he chooses he still looses in the end."

"I suppose so."

"But what about his choking you with the Force? Now that sounds like the work of a monster who could care less about his allies. Unless, of course, his hands were tied and he was trying to prevent more bloodshed. Tell me, captain, why did he choke you?"

"Objection, calls for the witness to make a speculation on the defendants motives."

"No, you honor, I'll answer the question," Gillmunn said before either Ulic or Tristian could say anything. "There is no speculation, I threatened Skywalker's life, and told him that my men and I would be taking their transports. I'd already hit him once and he'd tried as calmly as possible to tell me they were still leaving. We weren't going to let them go, not without a fight. Skywalker ordered me to stand down and I wouldn't do it. I don't think he intentionally meant to choke me, rather just to remind me who was in overall charge. Probably meant to grab my collar and lift me up a little with unseen hands. He certainly seemed as surprised by his actions as I was. And he was sorry for what he'd done, both to me for using the Force to stop me and to my men for abandoning us. That much was clear from the tone in his voice."

"How can that be? You said yourself that there was a look in his eyes you'd never forget. A look of anger, loathing, a desire to kill. That doesn't sound like the type of look someone who regretted what they had done would give."

"I guess I wanted to remember things differently. I'm sure there had to be some anger there, but also sadness and being upset at having to leave us. At having to be forced to stop someone who refused to listen."

"Wait, I don't understand. How can such a look become one of loathing and a desire to kill?"

"I was feeling those same emotions myself and I no doubt transferred them to the defendant. I didn't want to feel he may have been upset at having to leave us to fend for ourselves. I wanted to vilify Skywalker, to feel he had cared so little about us that he would never have kept any promises made."

"Thank you, no further questions."

"Would the prosecution wish to redirect?"

"No, your honor."

Gillmunn got down from the stand, nodding to the jury as he did so. As he approached the defense table, he stopped and stared at Anakin. "I don't care if they find you guilty or innocent, Skywalker. It's no longer my place to judge you. But I will have you know that I'll never be able to forgive you for leaving us there to die. We deserved better than that."

"Captain, I'm..." But before he could finish, Gillmunn had already turned and left, tears once more welling up at the memory of that day.

"The prosecution calls Jedi Master A'Sharad Hett to the stand."