Sorry for the delay, I just got into a roll with A Brutal Reality. But now, time for a chapter I've been looking forward to.
Chapter 5
Anaxes, Outside Pols Anaxes
What the citizens of Anaxes awoke to was a sight unlike any other they had seen in their lifetimes. Over a hundred Republic warships hovered over their city, their great bulk shadowing over their people. Striking red paint covered their hulls, letting them know that these are not Clone ships.
Although the occasion was such that everyone knew that these were ships of a new kind of force, one that was composed of people not that much different than them. These were volunteers from across the galaxy, and they were set to ship out as a now united fighting force, hopefully worthy of their ancestors. Tens of thousands of troops stood on the great flat plains outside the city, standing in formation. Battalion block formations were in neat grids all over the plains, with lines of officers in the front of their battalions.
In the very front of these formations were the thin lines of armored, cape wearing Anaxes Knights. They, like everyone else had their weapons equipped, sword and SE-14R repeating blaster pistol in their case, already equipped. With left hands on their sword handles as they stood the Anaxes Knights' capes blew gently in the wind while the A280 and DLT-18 wielding troopers stood in silence, rigidly facing forward.
Above them the formations of the RVC's fleet over a hundred ships stood ready, massive starfighter wings and squadrons circling amongst the ships. The citizens of the city stood on any platform, balcony, or anything that could support them to see the soldiers that they knew represented the patriotism and will of the people of the Republic. It was a sign of just how committed the Republic was to this war.
Holonet News crews were covering the event, and someone else was there to oversee and help commence this official activation of the Republic Volunteer Corp.
"Chancellor Palpatine!" a great voice boomed out over the loudspeakers and the whole field of troops stood firmly and looked up at a floating platform over the gates of the city where Chancellor Palpatine was standing with several senators near him.
Palpatine had been forced by politics to be here. It wouldn't have been right for some senator to do this, he was Supreme Chancellor after all. These soldiers were all here to fight for the Republic and if he didn't make this speech, show his face, and all of that sort of political idiocy the average citizen wouldn't see him as loyal to the Republic as he would need to appear. It was simply necessary, and he had to make this look good.
"This is it huh?" Kayle Titus whispered to a private comm channel to his brother standing in another row of his company while he himself stood in the lead of the Anaxes Knights alongside Golden Grandmaster Herex, the overall commander of the Anaxes Knights.
"I'd like to see the look on his face seeing the power here," Abel chuckled back. House Titus was politically was not a fan of Palpatine, so any little snub to him was appreciated.
"The Republic has no army eh? How do you like us now?" Kayle grinned beneath his helmet, snapping an eye over to the Grandmaster, just to make sure the older man didn't hear him, although he personally doubted it.
The Grandmaster was a rank held by fifteen Anaxes Knights elected by the leading members of the different houses. It was a rather unique process that wasn't fully understood by those who looked in from the outside due to the nature in which the Anaxes Knights, as an institution, ran themselves at a high level. The Great Grandmaster was then elected by the Grandmaster Council, who then had to be replaced as he could no longer vote on the council as one of what were colloquially known as the "White Capes".
This rank and cape theme was rather simple. A single normal Knight of Anaxes wore a red cape upon completion of his or her training. The cape itself was a marvel of technology, made of fire-proof, blaster resistant material. As a Knight this cape was a status symbol worn until the day they died. But some went on to become Masters, wearing a red cape with white trim on the edges. Usually the head of a house or an exceptional individual was awarded this rank and helped to train the next generation. Overseeing the entire training process were Senior Masters, wearing a red cape with golden trim on the edges. Then came the Grandmasters, who themselves wore a white cape with golden trim. These were usually legends in battle or exceptionally adept politicians, but those that wore the white cape had to perform their tasks well if they wanted to keep that rank. Ranking over them all was the all-gold cape of the Golden Grandmaster, the leader of the Knights of Anaxes.
Titus himself, as Champion of Anaxes had a special design on his cape, it was red like the normal rank and file Knights, as that was what he was technically. But emblazoned on the back was the emblem of the status of Champion, two silver crossed swords in the middle of his cape. That design would stay there even as he progressed to Master and hopefully beyond.
"Soldiers, Crew, Pilots, Knights, patriots all," Palpatine began his speech, "Your selfless bravery for choosing to step forward and protect the Republic is worthy of my thanks, and that of all. I cannot imagine the pride that you must feel standing here before us as guardians of our democracy. Today you step forth into a galaxy at war to fight beside Grand Army of the Republic as equal partners in the maelstrom of battle. I wish you all luck, and bid you safe travels, and good hunting. We shall all look forward to your gallantry on the battlefield and our enemies shall know to whom your loyalties lie, and for whom, you so willingly fight."
The Golden Grandmaster, even as old as he was, stepped forward with such strength and dignity and drew his sword. He lifted it into the air and with his helmet speakers set to project his voice he roared three words.
"For the Republic!"
Without delay the immense formations of Knights drew their swords and raised them high, shouting for all to hear.
"For the Republic!"
Behind them the rank and file troopers raised their fists and blasters high and themselves roared, after the Knights led the way.
"For the Republic!"
Sitting behind the Chancellor, overlooking all of this was a collection of high ranking Republic Senators and several more minor Jedi Council members. They could see the vast expanse of white blocks now vibrating with men and women cheering and chanting "For the Republic." It was a sobering sight for their Senate Commando guards, who were soldiers of the Republic in their own right, but they were overshadowed by these regular troopers and the vast armada assembled overhead.
"There's no stopping them, is there?" Senator Padme Amidala sighed to herself, watching the crowd subside now.
"They're patriots, even if we refused to allow our own militias and defense forces to directly fight there are always those who shall ignore us and fight anyway under another flag," Bail Organa sighed in response.
"There are several thousand Naboo in those formations, I can't believe that," Padme added now, "The Queen signed a directive barring our citizens from taking up arms, in the hopes we could stay out of the war and maintain our own police forces to protect Naboo."
"Alderaan followed the same directives, but more than ten thousand of my own people are down there and up there," Organa stated with almost an air of admiration in his voice, eyes gazing up at the Dreadnought Basilisk hovering over the city.
"I don't feel…betrayed Bail, just…amazed. That's really all I can say."
"War has a habit of making people do amazing things Padme," Organa noted, "Whether it is for the good or the bad, we shall have to see."
"For the sake of the Republic I hope so," Padme breathed quietly under her breath, remembering the stories of the amazing feats of the Jedi and Clones, "As I live and breathe I hope so."
The anthem of the Republic was now set to play. The great army below them now went to attention. The soldiers with their rifles now held them rigidly to their fronts, straight up and down. The Knights as well held their swords with both hands on the handle, the blade splitting their visor. Large screens floating throughout the city showed the red and yellow uniformed crewmen and women of the fleet saluting with their right hands aboard their many ships.
To those who had been keeping an eye on the progression of the war such images of unique non-clones in the Republic uniform was incredible. It showed that the war had been elevated to a new level. It wasn't on the part of the Republic as a government, it was by its citizens and the individual planetary governments who, before the war, seemed to refuse to commit to armed conflict. Now, with the anthem of the Republic now playing, they sure seemed ready to fight now.
On the ground with the soldiers along the sides of the great gathering where some of the VIP's were seated nearer to the ground in repulsorlift luxury barges was a small personal hover platform held a middle aged Zelosian reporter. Erik Syno, Holonet News, had secured his place covering the event with a half dozen camera droids and a support staff of senior assistants and plenty of top of the line equipment. He was standing there, speaking to the camera droid in front of him.
"As you can the activation of the Republic Volunteer Corps has gone off without a hitch," he started to the camera, "Behind me you can see the sheer scale of the force that has been assembled, trained, and equipped to a high standard by any measuring stick. The sources I've spoken with have informed me that the Republic Volunteer Corps is so far operating independent of the GAR, but that is soon to change, given time. Now I'm sure that to anyone observing these forces here the Republic will be glad to have them. From Pols Anaxes, I'm Erik Syno, Holonet News."
Carida, Caridan Special Forces Headquarters
"Yeah, really pretty," Colonel Myec laughed as he relaxed into his armchair in the officer's rec room in Dagger Team's own separate compound.
"Figures the Core pretty boys wanna have a show," one of his platoon Captains responded.
As they talked a young lieutenant poked his head in, "Colonel, the new equipment's here sir."
"The droids?"
"Looks like."
Colonel Myec stood up, grabbing his blaster belt with his A180 in it as always. He and everyone else in his command was wearing their usual assortment of black utility pants and boots, unless they were doing PT. They all either had a tight T-shirt or their black garrison uniform on but in the case of many of the company-sized outfit they just went bare chested out in the camouflage netting-covered workout area outside the rec building in the center of the closed compound.
Myec walked out behind the more junior lieutenant and saw a handful of his men sprinting by, obviously in the midst of a race. He walked on the snow-covered ground towards the blocky armory where a handful of his own men were sitting underneath the large patio at some tables, doing some maintenance and cleaning of their weapons. He went into the large building, and saw a young Nubian woman with a datapad waiting for him.
"Colonel Myec?" she asked.
"That's me," he replied.
"Handprint please," she ordered, holding out the pad with a blue label for him to place his hand on.
He did so, and the pad scanned his hand quickly, and blinked green.
"Now are they ours?"
"Yes, your Marksman-M's are all present, as are your new Marksman Deployers, they require some training to link properly but they are combat ready."
"Excellent, Lieutenant, if you'll please show her out," Myec said, getting a flirty grin from the Nubian girl who'd just delivered their new toys.
"Master, let's get these things unpacked," Myec ordered to the team Master Sergeant.
"Roger that boss," the older NCO stated he pried off the lid and pulled out one of the blaster-fitted floating orbs.
It was slate gray, with a single lethal hold-out blaster in the main housing and four folding legs inside for it to clamp down and manipulate objects as needed. Inside was a small amount of explosive, allowing it to act as a guided bomb. It was only slightly larger than a single thermal detonator, which meant that each Commando would be able to hold a protected tube on their backs filled with five of the things. They would be controlled with a neural link to the individual Commandoes in the same way they controlled their HUD's, meaning their company-sized team could field more than five hundred blaster-armed miniature droids and more than five hundred explosive devices.
"Nice," Myec noted, "We have the full requisite number?"
"Yes sir," the Master Sergeant responded, "A shade over a thousand for the whole team. Each platoon has two deployers for an extra emergency swarm of the damned things and each man has five tasked to himself. It's a helluva of a lotta firepower, even with hold-outs being the prime armament."
"And a helluva of a lotta credits to get them," one of the other officers added.
"Get everyone trained on them immediately, I want full combat readiness ASAP."
This was in reference to the list of targets he had on his desk, and the orders he knew they would soon be hitting like a freight train.
Man this one took forever, just had so much trouble getting it going and finishing it. Best to make the next part a jump-to sort of thing so I can move on as I see fit for the story. Let me tell you, I've got quite a plan for this story, really looking forward to it.
Now, I promised that I would give you guys some actors for how I would envision these characters if I were to cast them in a movie. So here's my cast for Soldiers of the Republic:
Admiral Cynan Drexel – Edward James Olmos
Lieutenant Wain Kuat – Jamie Bell
Colonel Gaynes Myec – Max Martini
Private Wyatt Lullian – Logan Lerman
Private Eva Quartin – Nicola Peltz
Captain Kayle Titus – Kit Harington
You envision them as you see fit, but this is how I do it. I figure it's an easy way to do so and makes it more of a challenge to develop their characters and their surroundings. I'll probably have one or two more to cast as we go along, so let's go with these guys to start out.
Next Chapter Preview: First contact with the enemy.