Chapter 31: The lurking shadow
August 13
After overseeing the creation of a unified Carunoan State and negotiating its integration into the Empire as an autonomous region which still swore loyalty to the Emperor, Iulius finally received the replacements. A new fleet to protect the planet if the Grysks or any other threat dared to show up again, some battalions of troopers to create strongholds in the most strategic areas of the planet and scientists to start the Dark Trooper Project, at last.
After a long journey back to the galaxy, the 101st finally reached the orbit of Coruscant, where it was allowed to dock at one of the major space stations of the Navy to resupply and give the men some deserved free time.
Meanwhile, Iulius had been summoned by the Emperor himself. He brought Qathora to accompany him as he also planned to stay on the planet for a while, hoping that the Emperor would allow his request.
When he arrived there, he was surprised to find the Royal Guards waiting for him on two lines, greeting him with full military honors, while Mas Amedda was the one to go in front of him.
"Greetings, Admiral Tanis, and congratulations on your recent victory." the alien said in a formal tone.
"Thanks, Viceroy, but perhaps my victory is being a bit overblown, here." Iulius replied calmly.
"The Emperor thinks otherwise, Admiral. But he will tell it in person." the Viceroy said while extending an arm toward the entrance to the Palace.
Iulius simply nodded and started walking on the carpeted path, followed by his faithful servant and the Viceroy shadowing him at a short distance.
They reached the base of the turbolift, at which point the two aliens stopped and let Iulius proceed on his own.
Just like last time he had been there, he passed the first corridor with the two guards, who let him enter the proper throne room, he stepped on all the ladders and finally reached the throne, where the Emperor was sitting patiently, with two of his guards standing on his sides. The red sun of Coruscant shined from the circular window behind the throne, painting the sky red and leaving the room a bit shadowy.
Iulius reached the protocol distance of just three meters and knelt.
"Welcome, Admiral." Palpatine said with his coarse voice, trying to sound benevolent. "You may rise."
Iulius obeyed and stood up, standing in the military rest pose.
"Your Majesty." he greeted.
"First, let me congratulate again on your victory over the Yavzakhs, young Tanis."
"I thank you, Your Majesty, but it was only a species with inferior technology and bad coordination. Honestly, I don't think it's much of an achievement."
"And yet, you defeated them in but a few weeks, gained a new, loyal stellar system for the Empire, along with the resources to start your project. Considering the military history of the Empire, this is no small achievement, Admiral, you can be proud of what you did."
"You're too kind, My Lord." Iulius replied calmly.
Still, Iulius knew that all those praises of his victory were mostly done to hide the harsh truth to the public.
The young Admiral hadn't been idle during the trip back to Coruscant: he had received and read the reports from the Armed Forces. He knew that the Sector Fleet of Taris had been all but annihilated in a botched invasion of Mandalorian Space, leaving that strategically vital world in a precarious position. The Federation and the Rebels had launched an incredibly destructive offensive that was swooping away the imperial forces in the Outer Rim, closing in on Felucia and the important crossroad planet of Lianna.
The Empire needed something to boost the morale and give the idea that it was still strong, and Iulius had just given it one.
Not that he felt glad about it. Quite the opposite: he was frustrated that the Emperor hadn't even started the process of restructuring the Armed Forces, because, as of now, they were good only to suppress local revolts. The immobilism of the various sectors was nothing less than detrimental to the State, and there was the need to change many things if the Empire wanted to survive the onslaught.
For now, though, he had managed to shove those thoughts in a remote corner of his mind, thus appearing in front of his liege with an air of composure and control.
"That is why, I believe it is time for you to ascend to a position where you can serve the Empire in the best way." the Emperor added, leaving Iulius to wonder.
Then Palpatine pressed a button on the left armrest of his throne and took out a small slab of metal, pointing it toward an astounded Iulius.
"Iulius Tanis, I want you to take the place left by your mentor, Thrawn, as one of the twelve Grand Admirals."
Iulius' mind literally shut down for a second. How was that possible? Him, a Grand Admiral? When he still had to turn 25? What was happening?
Then he took a mental breath and recomposed himself.
"Your Majesty, I'm confused. I'm sure there are more experienced and respected candidates for the position, so why me?" he asked calmly.
In response, the Emperor took his cane with his right hand, while still holding the plaque in his left, and stood up.
"Follow me." he simply said, and started walking toward the door on the left side of the room, escorted by his guards.
Iulius obediently walked by his side, staying just slightly behind his liege as protocol dictated.
They thus entered what seemed like a rich parlor, with crimson tapestries and six chairs around a small, oval-shaped table.
While the guards closed the door from the inside and waited at the sides of it, the Emperor went to touch a device on the table.
This showed up a project that Iulius quickly examined. It seemed like a moon, because it was perfectly round, but there was a strange recess on the top hemisphere.
"Look, young Tanis." the Emperor declared quite boldly. "The ultimate weapon that will give the Empire absolute control of the galaxy. The Death Star."
Iulius looked at it as he asked "What's its function?"
"It is a battle station. Bigger than any other in history and it's nearly complete. Once it's done, it will have enough power to destroy an entire planet with a single blow."
That statement had Iulius widen his eyes. If that was true, the implications would have been tremendous. Not just for the war in progress, but for the whole future of geopolitics and warfare in the galaxy.
"You think this weapon will win us the war?" he asked in the end.
This time, Palpatine lost his smugness, but still remained composed. "Almost. Its purpose was to prevent something like the Rebellion, but now they have an external help that will encourage them to fight."
"The Federation." Iulius understood.
"Precisely." the Emperor replied. "Honestly, Admiral, there are very few people who I believe could actually face this enemy. That's why I want you to fight them, cripple them, and force them out of the war. Without their help, the Rebellion will wither away in the face of the Death Star."
Now Iulius felt a bit overwhelmed, but also actually flattered. He had wanted to fight the extra-galactic invaders and avenge his mentor for a while now, but to be put in charge of the entire war effort against the Federation seemed a bit too much.
"So," Palpatine resumed after a few seconds, turning toward the Admiral and extending the plaque again. "will you accept this position?" he asked.
Iulius now understood that this was way more than a simple propaganda move. He felt like his suspicions about a power struggle between the Emperor and Vader were confirmed, and the former was now trying to gain his indisputable loyalty.
If he accepted, he would attain the rank and most likely enter the books of history for the simple fact of reaching such a high position at such a young age, but from there on, the authority of the Emperor would be the only things keeping every single high-ranking officer of the Empire from trying and murder him out of pure jealousy. For he, a career officer who came from the Outer Rim, from a planet that was the first to secede from the Empire and welcome the invaders, had surpassed all of them. Still, Iulius reasoned that Thrawn had been pretty much in the same position, being an alien in a human-centric Empire, so all he would have to do was to prove his worth.
If he refused, he would most likely lose the favor of the Emperor, which didn't exactly leave him with any real choice.
Thus, Iulius took a nasal breath and turned around with a jolt.
"It would be my honor, Your Majesty." he said with a bow.
Palpatine made quite the creepy grin and handed the plaque to Iulius, who took it with both hands.
"Congratulations, Grand Admiral Tanis. This is a momentous day for you and for my Empire." he declared. "Now...tell me what you need to crush our enemy."
Iulius admired the plaque for a few seconds before unpinning the one of Admiral and swapping them. His new uniform would have been provided later, for sure. For now, he clasped his hands behind his back and promptly answered to his liege's question.
"Well, if I am to take on the Federal fleet, I'm gonna need more ships. But not just Star Destroyers. I'm talking about anti-fighter vessels and more maneuverable battleships."
"I'll make sure that the Kuat shipyards will satisfy any request you have."
"Thanks, My Lord. That said, I require your permission to access the Royal Academy." Iulius added.
"You want some fresh cadets?"
"Between the attack on the tower and the large number of promotions in my fleet, I need to replace many roles. Not to mention, I'm going to need the best officers to enlarge my fleet and to perform at peak condition against the Federal fleet. Besides, the academic year will end in around four months. Plenty of time to see who I might have a use for."
"Very well." Palpatine replied quite cordially. "You shall have it, though I have to warn you that some of the top students will have to be assigned to the Death Star."
"We'll see when the time comes. For now, unless you need something else from me, I would take my leave." the Grand Admiral concluded.
"Of course. I have already informed Amedda of the promotion, you will find your new uniform as soon as you exit the turbolift." the Emperor explained in the end.
"I see." Iulius replied before bowing. "Have a good day, My Lord." then turned around and started to walk out.
September 2
Since the battle of Kalevala, things had only become better for the rebels. The Mandalorian Clans had officially joined the UACT, the Joint Fleet had been pushing back the Empire and already taken Lianna. It was now battling for the control of Felucia's surface, and the fall of the planet looked to be only a matter of days.
The Rebel Army had also been bolstered by the loot of Operation Market Season, where General Iblis and his company had managed to steal an experimental imperial armored land-platform called the Gargantuan, which now served with the 1st Allied Army on the main battlefront.
Such Army was, in fact, under Iblis' command, while the Joint Fleet was formally under Edrix's command, though really, the two factions worked in great coordination, mostly thanks to the intense joint exercises that Jaral had promoted during the Mon Cala Campaign.
Speaking of Mandalorians, the colony on Lothal had been established with the blessing of the new Governor.
The elections of the 28th of August had been attended en masse by the population, but in the end, it was the pro-Federation candidate, Shweera, who received the 52% of the votes, followed by the independentist Volkar, who got the 37%, while the pro-Rebellion Uiblot, who only got 11% of the votes.
Similar elections had been held on Garel, where another pro-Federation candidate had won the Presidency, and with the two most important planet of the sector starting negotiations to earn the status of Sister-Nations of the Imperial Federation, it looked like the Milky Way had definitely got a secure foothold in Andromeda.
Sabine had moved to Lothal for a couple of weeks to help the construction of the first settlement, and came back to Yavin once she was sure that the colony had become self-sufficient and left it in the capable hands of one of the elders. The Lothal government had also welcomed them in exchange for some of the warriors to work as instructors for the LDF, since Wolffe was still pretty much alone to do that job.
All of this should have put the Grand Marshall in a great mood, but that was not the case.
Since the investigation carried out by Jordan and Cassian confirmed the existence of an Imperial super-weapon, Jaral's number one priority had been to uncover it. While she still carried on the other operations, like arming and training numerous rebel cells around the Outer Rim, many of which pushed her to organize a massive uprising to drive out the Empire from the region.
More than that, she had followed the HoloNet, and thus she knew that Iulius had been announced as Grand Admiral, pretty much enshrining his legacy as Thrawn's worthy student.
Many Councilors of the Rebel Alliance had dismissed that as a propaganda move, overusing a marginal success of the Empire in subduing a new, unknown planet in Wild Space and elevating a young genius as a facade, but Jaral knew what this meant: Iulius would soon fall like a hammer on the allied forces, but she couldn't predict when.
For now, the priority was to find any clue about the super-weapon, something to which even Colonel Undir had agreed, mobilizing the entire MI6 for this. The secret service of the Milky Way had started to provide commandos, infiltrators and many resources to bolster the Alliance Intelligence, now reorganized into a more efficient agency with a proper hierarchy.
Such agency was also cooperating with Nimbus and her organization, and it was exactly her that Ezra, Sabine, Moreena, Zeb and Kallus were now flying to aboard the Silver Bullet, which was now leaving hyperspace and entering the system of Cantonica, in the Corporate Sector.
"Does that dust ball really have a city?" Zeb asked as he saw the orange color of that desert planet.
"Canto Bight, yes." Sabine replied. "And apparently, Nimbus has found a deserter who might lead us to whatever the Empire is hiding."
"Before we get down," Moreena intervened from the sensor's seat. "Remember that we are in the Corporate Sector, which is possibly an even more dangerous place than the Empire."
"Is that even possible?" Zeb asked.
"At least, in the Empire there is a legal system that protects the citizens. Here, there is no law. The Corporate Sector Authority has a police force, but, honestly, do you think a corporation cares for the well-being of the people around them?" the young woman explained.
Zeb groaned just thinking about it.
"That's why we will pose as the kind of people the CSA likes to do business with." Ezra reminded.
Sabine sighed. "Do I really have to tag along?" she asked unenthusiastically.
Ezra made a lopsided grin. "You always complain that I never bring you anywhere." he quipped, making the other two passengers sneer under their nose.
Nimbus was expecting Ezra and Sabine in a house she had rented for a few days. From there, they would infiltrate the biggest casino of the city, where their target apparently liked to blend in.
Though, infiltrating a casino meant wearing formal dresses, and Sabine seemed to find that uncomfortable.
Still, in front of her husband's quip, she realized that she had no choice. While that place was filled with adventurers and scoundrels of every kind, wealthy couples were one of the more common sights, so if the two of them went in, they would have an easier time passing through unnoticed.
Meanwhile, Zeb and Moreena would stand ready to intervene with the Gauntlet in case things got complicated, and also making sure that nobody would try to steal it.
And so, after landing at the spaceport, paying the docking toll and taking Chopper with them, Ezra and Sabine ventured into the alleys of the city. The casino was located into the biggest palace of the settlement, which was sitting at the top of a hill and was clearly visible from pretty much everywhere.
Ezra had dematerialized his lightsaber into the omni-tool, while Sabine was walking around with a lighter version of her armor, since otherwise she would be very much recognizable. Eventually, they reached the rendezvous point and found Nimbus lurking around the plaza.
"Hello there. Ready to join high society?" she greeted them with a smirk.
Ezra returned with a lopsided grin. "Good to see you again, Nimbus. Let's get to work."
The Mirialan nodded toward her right before walking in that direction, prompting the teens to follow.
To their surprise, Nimbus entered into a small villa in one of the wealthy neighbors.
"You're kidding." Sabine commented.
"Hey, if I can afford it, why not?" Nimbus quipped.
The teens followed her, but they barely had the time to look at the luxurious interiors because Nimbus started explaining the plan while walking up a ramp of stairs.
"Listen, the guy we're looking for answers to the name of 'Alypaz'. He will be awaiting for us on the higher floors of the casino, but for security reasons he has refused to give me a more accurate location."
"So, how do we find him?"
"We'll have to make sure he comes to us, by making him understand that we are there to save him." Nimbus concluded as she opened a door for a locker room which also had a couple of dresses ready.
"There. I took the freedom to get your disguises ready."
There were a black suit with an orange tie for Ezra and a violet dress and a blue overcoat for Sabine.
"Good thing my sister isn't here…" Ezra muttered, thinking how she would tease both him and his wife without end.
"Or Hera...or Zeb...anyone, really." Sabine added.
"But I am," Nimbus said with a wryly smile. "and we don't have much time to waste, so go get changed." and she pushed them into the room before closing them in.
The teens sighed and then started to change in two separate cabins.
Ezra was the first to get all dressed up and to get back in front of the door.
Not long after, Sabine also walked out, clearly embarrassed to wear something that wasn't related to her armor at all.
"Go on, laugh about it." she said in a toned down voice.
Ezra just smiled and replied. "Why would I? You're perfect."
Sabine rubbed one of her arms nervously. Both of them were covered by a pair of long gloves the same color as the dress.
"Thanks." she replied with a grateful smirk. Then she took a moment to take a look at the fine man in front of her. "You look astonishing as well." she conjured up the compliment.
"You flatter me, my goddess." he said with an ostentatious gentleman's attitude, then lifted a hand to invite her. "Will you do me the honor?"
Sabine smirked and decided to satisfy his play.
"Incoming!" a voice screamed as a mortar shell whistled in the air before lifting the earth, disseminating both dust and spores of the many fungoids that covered Felucia's surface.
Nobody was hit, this time, as the troops of the Systems Alliance tried to find cover behind the tall plants of that alien world or behind the M-57 that was hammering the gate of the imperial stronghold, though with limited success.
It was in such an environment that Jordan and his Legionnaires were dropped in by the Kodiak.
Still, the Legionnaires calmly walked through the hailstorm of explosions and occasional sniper blasters darting at them until they met with the Turian major leading the assault, who was himself keeping his head low.
Jordan knelt down to speak with him.
"Captain Jordan Bridger of the Constantinople, awaiting orders, sir." he dutifully said.
"Glad to see some Legionnaires, Captain." the officer replied. "We need to capture that stronghold, but there's an important asset inside of it and we can't ask the Navy to bomb it out of the way."
Jordan took a look at the situation.
The M-57 was waiting right in front of the ford of a small river where there were already various corpses of soldiers who had tried to get close and had been cut down by the blaster turrets on the walls. From inside that perimeter kept coming the hail of fire, but clearly there was also a small squad of mortars, which was not holding back their fire.
After coming up with a plan, Jordan crouched again.
"We can get that door open, Major, if you can provide us with some smokescreens." he declared.
"If that's all you need, we'll make sure to raise one of a Taetrus' fog for you." the Turian declared.
"Great." Jordan said before turning toward his companions. "Thabo, Micha, you and I are going to use the jetpacks. We'll jump on those bastards once we pass the smokescreen. Pablo, you use the cloaking and approach the gate while they're distracted. Once we get their full attention, you fly to the control room and get those doors up."
"You got it, boss." Gutierrez replied.
Jordan then turned to the other officer. "Whenever you're ready, Major."
The Turian nodded and contacted the tank, telling the crew to prepare some smoke projectiles.
When the machine launched fired a salvo of those kind of grenades, creating a multi-layered and thick wall of dense smoke, Jordan exclaimed "Now." and went over the top, followed by his companions, with Gutierrez only staying slightly behind.
Jordan, Thabo and Michalina materialized their jetpacks while they were inside the screen. When they came out of it they were just a dozen meters away from the walls. The troopers and stormtroopers defending the perimeter were confused, at first, then they tried to shoot at the Legionnaires, but the three jumped at the right moment, avoiding the volley of blaster bolts and then landing with force on three troopers that were occupying a small strip right next to one of the gate's towers.
The Legionnaires decided to land there so they would have their backs relatively covered, and then started firing against the still baffled imperials. Thabo even used his psionic powers to send a violent shockwave that threw some imperials around and stunned the others for a few seconds.
The soldiers on the tower pointed their weapons downward, and it was at that moment that Gutierrez jumped in the middle of them, quickly taking control of the command room and sabotaging the commands so that the blocks of the gate were removed.
Jordan, Thabo and Michalina quickly secured their side of the walls, and by the time the gate was down, they started to move on the other side, to give better cover to their allies who were starting the advance again.
Still, resistance from the imperials was formidable. The deeper the federals went into the fortress, the more obstinate the imperials were, and they found more and more stormtroopers rather than Army troopers.
With the rain pouring and making visibility worse, the Legionnaires could still count on their optics and scanners to move as if it was clear day, but from time to time, they, too, would have to stop and deal with a fortified nest, or some security droids deployed by the imperials.
The fight was harsh, and losses were mounting on both sides, but the federals could still count on numerical superiority, better protections and the help from the tank and the Legionnaires.
After an hour of fighting, the imperials abandoned the facility and retreated into an underground cave system, at which point the Major ordered to halt the advance and inspect the facility.
"Thanks for the assistance, Captain." he said to Jordan as they met up again.
While the eldest Bridger folded his rifle on his back, he asked "You said there is an asset here. What are we looking for?"
"MI6 said that there is a database in this place with lots of imperial intel, but that's all I know. An agent should drop by any moment."
"Sounds interesting…" Jordan said genuinely before raising his forearm to talk with his AI. "Jinx, can you make a quick scan of the base and see if there's anything interesting?"
"Scanning." the construct replied.
Jordan's omni-tool beeped for a few seconds, then Jinx spoke up again. "There." and he highlighted the main administrative building on the Legionnaires' visors. "There is a great amount of data flowing to a terminal in the under-level 2."
"You heard him. Let's move." Jordan said to his companions and the four of them immediately ran toward the objective, while the Major called up other forces.
The ground floor of the building was already being occupied by the regular troops. Michalina spotted the stairs to the underground level and the squad moved to secure it.
Along the way, all they found was a squad of stormtroopers that were clearly establishing a line of defense to impede access to the second underground level. After dealing with them, Jordan was the first to burst into the server room of the second level. He was so quick, that the ISB agent trying to erase the data was caught by surprise and was gunned down as he tried to reach his pistol.
The Legionnaire then rushed to the main terminal and stopped the deleting process. He then sighed a breath of relief as the rest of his squad entered, after leaving the stormtroopers dead or wounded.
"You got 'em?" Thabo asked.
"Maybe not all of them, but let's hope there's something useful." Jordan replied as he inserted a storage disc into the terminal and had Jinx take all the data in the server.
Once the transfer was done, the squad was reached by the troopers, who reported that the officer of MI6, a Human Lieutenant Colonel, had just landed in the courtyard of the fortress. Jordan went to consign the storage disc and then waited for the next orders, as the battle for Felucia was still raging.
"Found anything?" Jaral asked to her husband, who was standing with her at the holotable in the strategic room of Yavin Base.
Darvos shook his head as he kept tapping the keyboard of the terminal. "Not much. But if I have to guess, Iulius has been granted a fair margin of autonomy, since his fleet seems to be allowed to operate on different frequencies and with its own encoding."
"Since when does the Empire allow his officers to act autonomously?" Draven asked.
"Normally, they wouldn't. But remember: only the Emperor himself can appoint Grand Admirals. I think it's likely that he understood that the Empire can't face the Federation at its current state. He is probably allowing Iulius to take some mild reforms, and see if they work."
Draven and the few other officers at the reunion looked at each other and mumbled various things. Overall, Jaral's theory seemed the most logical one, and it looked like the prelude to many problems for the UACT in the future.
The inherent structural weaknesses of the Empire were the main advantage of the Rebellion and the Federation. Their immobilism, their institutionalized infighting and many other mismanaged policies of the state had allowed the rebellion to grow and the Federation could easily pick one imperial fleet at a time without the fear of the nearby sectors intervening to aid their colleagues.
Iulius and Thrawn were probably the only really competent Admirals of the Imperial Navy, but even they were completely bogged down by the inefficiency of the imperial war-machine, which was an uncoordinated mess compared to the extreme quality of the Systems Alliance's personnel or even the federal-trained Rebel Army.
If Iulius, with all his talent and skill, was being allowed to finally operate outside of the rules, then the allied forces had to expect a serious comeback from the Empire, sooner or later.
"Anyway, what can you tell about Iulius' fleet?" Jaral asked Darvos.
"Only that it has been stationed over Kuat, but Iulius himself seems to be on Coruscant." the Captain replied.
This only seemed to support Jaral's theory: while the 101st was being improved with new ships, Iulius was still doing his business on Coruscant, though the rebels had no way to know what those business were, despite there being a few theories. On Coruscant, where Leia had now taken the place of her father in the Senate's seat of Alderaan, rebel sources were still unable to approach Iulius, and many actually feared his reputation, fearing that they would be unmasked right away.
The debate was then interrupted when an encrypted message from the Federation arrived.
"It's from Colonel Undir." Darvos announced.
"What does it say?" Jaral asked.
Darvos opened the mail and the decryption program started to compose the brief sentences that were into the message.
"Found intel on Felucia. Unregistered imperial vessels sent to Eadu. Will update on future developments." Darvos read.
"Eadu…?" Jaral asked, since she had never heard of that planet.
Darvos quickly activated the galaxy map and zoomed on Eadu, a planet located in the Kessel Sector, on the Triellus Trade Route, truly the frontier of the galaxy before Dark Space.
"That planet is supposed to be uninhabited. The terrain is all made up of spire mountains and it's extremely hard to move between them."
"Then it's perfect place to hide something." Jaral commented. "Captain, send back a message with the proposal of a joint recon op in the near future." she added nonchalantly.
"Yes, ma'am." her husband replied before complying with the order.
And while she consulted with Hera about what they could possibly do to reach Eadu, which was pretty far from their base, the holotable beeped with another request for communication, this time it was Ezra.
"Put him up." Jaral said.
A moment later, the hologram of his brother appeared, and she couldn't hold back an incredulous smile.
"Oh my. What do my sore eyes see?" she said with a quip.
Ezra chuckled. "You can tease me all you want later. For now, just know that we found the deserter."
"Fantastic, did he tell you anything?"
The young man shrugged. "I'm not quite sure. He said that he was not connected to the project of this super-weapon, but he was the traffic controller on a space station where apparently many unregistered imperial cargos passed."
"And does he know where they went?"
"They seemed to change the route every time, but anyway, he was always forced to erase the registers, so…"
Jaral snorted. "That doesn't bring us forward in any way."
"No...but his intel might help us plan a few raids in the Outer Rim." Ezra tried to note to lighten up the mood, but his sister sighed.
"Yeah, ok, but we need to find out anything about this weapon." she said while making a couple steps opposite to the holotable, her hands behind her back.
"And I think I know who can help us." she added.
Everyone looked at her with curiosity, wondering who she might be talking about.
Then the Grand Marshall turned around with a calm and controlled movement, looking at Darvos.
"Captain Tanis, call up Admiral Edrix, or better yet, Prince Claudio."
A bit dumbfounded, Darvos still executed the order and called up the Prince, first. Luckily, after a few seconds of waiting, the hologram of the royalty appeared.
"Greetings, Grand Marshall. Can I help you?" he asked politely.
"Greetings to you, Your Highness. Yes, I need your permission and an escort to reach Earth."
The request left everybody staggered. The Prince probably had a suspicion over why, considering the expression on his face remained mostly calm.
"I'll send the Constantinople to accompany you there, if you want to. Perhaps you would like to share your purpose?"
"Because I want to talk with Grand Admiral Thrawn."
Hello there.
You might have noticed that I've made quite the temporal jump in the timeline. I decided that everything is set to start the final arc of this book. The one essentially leading to and covering the events of Rogue One.
Mostly because I feel that I can't waste too much space on this time window anymore. Right now, we've set the geopolitical and military situation of the galaxy and our characters: Ezra and Jaral are now the established heads of the Rebellion, Jordan is fighting with the Federal fleet, Mira is on Lothal, directing the main hospital of the capital, and the Ghost crew is still very much the personal team of the siblings.
To be honest, I'm having much more fun to write about Iulius. I already know what I want him to become at the end of the Saga and I have already a few ideas on how to implement him into the events that will lead to the Battle of Yavin.
We've already seen that he's not your average imperial officer: not only he is a gifted tactician, a talent that has been honed by none other than Thrawn, but he also doesn't look down on aliens, he values the lives of his soldiers and, if possible, he goes for diplomacy rather than shooting at whatever he doesn't understand.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to make him a Grand Admiral immediately, but I think it makes sense given the strategic situation: the Empire was built to keep the galactic populace in line through an iron fist, and in its history it never faced an enemy like the Federation, which has the resources and the military apparatus to take it head-on.
With Thrawn gone and this new enemy seemingly unstoppable, to me it makes sense that even the Emperor would realize that he can't just watch from his throne. He needs a competent commander for his forces and to give him the autonomy necessary to do his job, and who better than the man who has just become a hero of the Empire and has even earned Thrawn's and Vader's respect?
So, that's it. I thank all those who still read this, and I hope to see you in the final chapters.
May the Force be with You.
Ganel750