"What I told you was true, from a certain point of view,"
~ Obi-wan Kenobi
"The Republic is on a paper thin ice Master Skywalker. With the fall of the First Order, the Republic as moved its forces to occupy and fight the systems still loyal. However we were dealt a blow with the destruction of the Hosnian Prime, the New Republic lost many of its senators and representatives as well as majority of its navy. We need your Order in assisting efforts to maintain peace." Said the senator.
Luke, nodded, knowing matters of the order would bombard him the moment he returned to Ossus as well as the aftermath of the destruction caused by Starkiller Base. He had known Snoke would make a move, but what he didn't know was how crucial he, Luke Skywalker was to that move. He had underestimated his own reputation. Sure he was the Grand Master of the New Jedi Order, he was also the son of Darth Vader, and had fought many dark siders and threats to his academy and family.
However he was without space stations and other means of mass destruction which could alter the very galaxy itself, thus he could only wonder why Snoke had made him an important factor to his plans.
If anything, his choice to use his planet station had backfired.
It revealed the location of the station, showed it required energy to fire across the hyperspace lanes – possibly a star, which it needed to feed on first; which meant…well…when feeding of said star it would have its shields down or make the shield weaker than it would've been. This in turn allowed Han and his strike team to bypass the shield by a risky hyperspace jump.
Snoke actions had also drawn attention to himself and the Starkiller Base. The attention of not just the Resistance and the Republic, but the Galactic Alliance and the Imperial Remnant.
The Galactic Alliance was a growing political movement that was as much a separate sect of the Republic as the First Order was to the Imperial Remnant. They consisted of the Core worlds who believed in having things run as it was during the Republic, before the Empire. This included keeping the planet the capital whose hyperspace coordinates were easy for anyone lost in space and represented the very heart of the galaxy: Coruscant.
However during the days leading up to the battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance's forces consisted of many Outer Rim systems, systems who were formerly supporters or part of the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars.
They had fought the Republic hoping to overthrow the government that had taken advantage and forgotten them over the centuries.
When Palpatine declared himself Emperor and declared the Republic no more, these systems eagerly sought reconciliation in hopes they might gain the rights they had fought the Republic for and the Empire might generously give.
However these turned out to be hopeful thoughts.
The Emperor sent Imperial forces to force complete submission, no terms; if there was resistance, no quarter was given.
Once under Imperial control, the Empire mined all the systems of their resources and levied a tax to repay the war debt the former Republic military had accrued during the Clone Wars.
Despite twenty years of this tyranny, the Outer Systems had remained silent to any call for rebellion even when the Core Worlds created the Rebel Alliance and even after the Destruction of Aldaraan.
It was after the Destruction of the first Death Star, did some Outer Rim Systems begin to send aid and military to aid the Rebellion.
But it was the discovery of a Second Death Star which caused the remaining Outer Systems to join the Rebellion.
It was not for any reason of mass destruction of life or genocide - it was the realization that the cost for the first Death Star and the now the second Death Star, would be given to all Outer Systems despite their loyalty a burden they could no longer afford.
So they joined the Rebellion.
Unknowingly, almost three-fourth of the Rebel Alliance consisted of Outer Rim Systems - military personal, staff, and alien species - who joined due to genocide and xenocentrism.
When the Empire fell, the Outer Rim Systems immediately petitioned that all Outer Rim System be represented equally and if that could not be done, petitioned for the capital to be moved.
The Core Worlds had opposed both petitions and the victory over the Empire seemed destined to fall into civil war once more.
In an effort to compromise, the newly elected Head of State Mon Mothma managed to get both parties to meet and debate the matter. Whether it was her maneuvering or another's, the matter eventually became a minority on everyone's minds, including the Outer Rim Systems, as the Imperial Remnant began to attempt to push back from their crushing blow at Endor.
Unlike fairy tales, the Empire didn't just end with the death of the Emperor and Darth Vader. There were fleets of armadas still stationed throughout the galaxy, resources of weapons and caches of tech the Emperor had sanctioned and held on to should the right moment arise. And there were the system governors and the moffs.
Men and women who were both civilian and military, equal in their drive for political and literal power.
Luke had to admit, the Empire despite its despicable blood thirsty ways, had maintained a certain kind of peace and order. By bypassing the Senate, the Emperor had created his vision of peace. As long as those governors and Moffs followed his vision, they were free to do as they please.
With his death, these men and women jumped on the chance to possibly become the next Emperor.
There had been many claimants – Jerec, a dark side user formerly under Darth Vader; Desann, a former pupil of Luke's academy; Carnor Jax, an Imperial Guard force user; and many moffs.
Their attempts split the Empire and greatly reduced their manpower and navy with each failure.
Only two individuals managed to gain the loyalty of the Empire loyalists and gain momentum which almost saw the Republic topple: Emperor Palpatine himself and Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Emperor Palpatine returning from the dead had been a shatter shock moment for the Republic. It united the splintered Empire under a recognized banner to rally under and with each resurrection, pounded home the idea the Emperor was unkillable.
Luke himself had served under the Emperor's New Rule, coming to his senses when Leia had arrived burdened with pregnancy of her third child, Anakin Solo. Together they fought the Emperor, where they would escape his flagship, the Eclipse, as it was destroyed by the New Republic fleet, killing Emperor Palpatine.
With his final death, the Empire scattered to the planets still blindly loyal to them becoming the Imperial Remnant.
Grand Admiral Thrawn was perhaps the greatest opponent to rise out of the ashes of the death of the Emperor. Most in the New Republic had never heard of him, defectors and prisoners knew next to nothing, as if the Emperor had anticipated this and placed his greatest servant in the shadows – to acquire power and resources needed to make a resurgence in the now the New Republic controlled galaxy.
Using his knowledge of analyzing art, culture, and his opponents as a whole – Thrawn was a genius of tactical strategy. Perhaps the only nonhuman in the Imperial navy and the only nonhuman to achieve the rank of Grand Admiral in the Imperial Navy, Thrawn proved time and time again to opponents and his enemies always too late never to underestimate him.
With the dead of Palpatine, the Imperial Remnant rallied to Admiral Thrawn.
Thrawn, unlike those before him, never used his power to better himself but the influence of what he believed was the Will of the Emperor. With each maneuver and battle, he had cut away at the foundation of the New Republic. However before he could achieve victory he was betrayed by one of his bodyguards, a Norgri, who stabbed him in the chest.
With the last Grand Admiral dead, leadership had fallen to Captain Palleon of the Chimera who ordered a tactical return to Imperial Remnant territory.
Within months a ceasefire was signed giving the Imperial Remnant sanctioned control over the planets who chose to remain under Imperial control while the remainder chose to join the New Republic.
With peace seemingly coming to the galaxy, the debate of changing the galaxy's capital became a heated debate.
Heated to the point the Core Systems threatened to secede from the New Republic and form their own government.
Given the number of decades of war the galaxy had fought in civil war, the New Republic government was determined to prevent another. However, the majority of the New Republic were of the Outer Rim Systems. They voted for capital change challenging what they thought was a bluff on the Core Words part.
The Core Worlds seceded, forming the Galactic Alliance or GA, Coruscant remaining the capital.
The New Republic had responded with a massing of their navy and military forces around Hosnian Prime.
Another galactic civil war seemed on the horizon when an event forced these two governments to put it on hold.
The Invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong.
Yuuzhan Vong, a Humanoid-like species who came from beyond the known galaxy. Warlike whose thirst and respect for pain drove them to improve their physical capabilities through organ grafting. Stranger still, they hated technology and what it represented: the reliance on tech, a sentient being could achieve with their own hands. If a person could carve their fate with own hands, from that sweat and blood, they have achieved their life's purpose.
At least, that was the root of the Vong.
Upon arriving in the galaxy, they began to lay siege to worlds, systems, and on the very foundation of the New Republic as a whole – destroying anything they deemed as tech abominations and forcing any to submit to their culture of pain. From the youngest child to the greatest of planets, the Vong began Vongforming, a process of biotech terraforming, to return worlds to their former natural roots, or at least in the Vong's eyes.
Coruscant had been one of the dozens of planets and systems Vongformed – the terraforming proving to be fatal for some of the natural fauna and ecosystems on some, improving others, while the few systems barely had any affect – such as Hutt-controlled space.
It had been war of survival on a galactic scale, only an alliance of the New Republic, the newly formed and recognized Galactic Alliance, and the Imperial Remnant – the Vong hold begin to break. Even with this alliance however, the losses accrued began to make the alliance question if the sacrifices were even worth the effort to overthrow their oppressors.
Amongst the trillion of dead had been Chewbacca, who died saving the lives of the evacuated civilians and Han's youngest son, Anakin Solo, on the planet of Sernpidal as its moon smashed into its surface.
His death shook the Solo family almost to the point of Han almost cut Anakin from the family. Though the two would come to terms months later, Han never truly forgave Anakin; which made his choice all the more tragic when Anakin was killed in the final years of the Yuuzhn Vong War.
Of all the deaths, Luke surmised, these two saw the tide of the war change.
Jacen Solo took a leading role in a mission to recover his brother's body, Jaina Solo, fell to the dark side in grief, using black lightning on her enemies. While the mission succeeded, Jacen was captured by the Vong.
At the time such events seemed trivial – trillions of lives were being destroyed – yet what happened to the Solo twins paved the way for the fate of the galaxy after the war.
Jacen escaped captivity and led an attack on the Vong fleet resulting with a duel with the revealed Onimi being the Supreme Overlord of the Vong. Becoming One with the Force, he defeated the Overlord ending the Vong War.
However the Jacen who returned from the war was no longer the joke and animal loving teenager of his youth. War and torture by the Vong had hardened him and changed his views of what it meant to be a Jedi and the use of the Force. He no longer saw being a Jedi as a means of doing good, but a means to an end. The Force was a tool, if used in the hands of a Master, could accomplish many things.
Luke had seen the change and had attempted to stop Jacen from drifting farther in his mindset, as it was the same as any dark side user and dark Jedi, going as far as giving his own son, Ben Skywalker, as his apprentice.
This may have aided in pushing Jacen towards the path he took.
Jacen was shown a vision by the disguised Lady of the Sith, Lumiya, which Luke was killed – every possible path leading to his uncle's death. The only one which Luke lived, was the one where he took a life.
He did.
He killed his former student Nelani Dinn in the name of the greater good, but most of all, to save his uncle.
Using this basis, Jacen embarked on a path of the Sith, deceiving everyone, his family, his friends, and even the closest ones he loved including Luke. Resolved not to make the same mistakes as his grandfather, Jacen hardened his morals and did not hesitate to take action.
This resulted with a trail of bodies numbering in the tens of millions of deaths as he went on the warpath to restore his vision of a unified galaxy. Commanding a Star Destroyer named Anakin Solo, Jacen lead the of the Fourth Fleet in a galaxy wide war against Confederation, a rebel group of systems united against the central powers of the Galactic Alliance.
This conflict would pit him against many people he knew while growing up – Wedge Antillies, Lowbecca, and even Boba Feet – but it was the lives he took personally which changed him from Fallen Jedi to Sith – Nelani Dinn, Ailyn Vel, and Mara Jade Skywalker.
Luke felt sadness come to him as he remembered those dark days.
Mara had discovered Jacen to be working in league with Lady Lumiya and, to protect her son Ben, had not only called him out in public but also threatened his life. She would track him to the Hapes Cluster and ambushed him when he left planet side. After a fierce space battle, the two landed on Kavan, a planet made of tunnels when the year long winters took hold. There, Mara ambushed Jacen as he hunted her, turning the duel into a brawl. She managed to wound him using her vibroblade and lightsaber shoto, disarming him and forcing him to use his last resorts: Force Illusion, projecting an image of her son. Mara had froze, giving Jacen enough time to stab her with a poison dart. As he felt his aunt pass away, Jacen felt a change in the Force, his ascension to Dark Lord of the Sith was complete. He took the name Darth Caedus.
Luke had felt the death of his wife and the grief of his son – even more he had felt the ripple in the Force. Though he did not know him to be part of the Sith, Jacen was a stranger to him, no longer the Jedi or the man he knew.
This became more apparent when Jacen threatened the lives of his Jedi Academy on the planet of Ossus under the pretense of protection as a means to prevent the Jedi Order from moving against him.
The final straw came when Luke learned his son had killed the former Head of State Omas, an act set by Jacen. Furious, Luke had confronted Jacen on the Anakin Solo and demonstrated his power in the Force by pinning his nephew without any hand motion or any indication of strain.
He left the GA forces, taking the Jedi Wing with him, leaving Jacen Solo and his fleet to a battle he could never win.
Luke had known Jacen would retaliate, however there was nothing he could do for his academy on Ossus. All he could do was rally any Confederation forces to the Jedi form a new coalition to fight against Jacen and the GA, which was more and more looking like Jacen and his Empire.
He even stopped hiding his dark side affiliation. Whether it was intentional or not, Jacen donned black robes and cloak alongside his GA armor, becoming the new Darth Vader in all but name and mask. He called himself Darth Caedus publicly. He even killed a loyal crew member on the bridge with the Force after Luke, his son, Leia, and other Jedi did a rescue mission on the Anakin Solo.
Darth Caedus was killed by his twin sister, Jaina Solo in a duel onboard the Anakin Solo, his death ending the Second Galactic Civil War.
It was strange, with his death Jacen Solo had united the galaxy. Becoming the enemy of all, old enemies united under a single banner to fight him.
Knowing what he did now, Luke had a keener eye when it came to watching new students – whether they were brash, full of themselves, willing to do anything to achieve an end. He knew the lengths family ties could go: they could prevent a galaxy wide war or cause one or do nothing at all.
With Rey, he had seen all what Jacen had been. While she did not have the family and political ties as Jacen, she could become a Dark Jedi if a lesson hadn't been learned.
Perhaps she could fall on that path regardless.
Luke turned his thoughts back to the politician at hand.
The galaxy remained splintered. The GA, Confederacy, and the New Republic remained at odds.
Severely weakened from the war, the Confederacy had merged with the New Republic, adding more Outer Rim planets to the fold though this did little in regards to their military. The Confederacy had resources, but they did not have the funding. The GA had the advantage in both.
The attack by Starkiller Base shattered the New Republic even more. The Home fleet around Hosnian Prime had been destroyed.
Yet Luke saw a chance to unite the splintered galaxy.
"Master Luke?"
Luke blinked.
"My apologizes," he said, "I had an altercation with one of my potential students – I was thinking on the matter."
Technically true.
Senator Gaius, a human from Serenno, had been talking to him in the lobby of the Jedi Academy on Ossus.
"I was saying, can we trust the Jedi Order to maintain the peace while until a new government is formed?"
"The Jedi are not law enforcement," Luke reminded him.
"I know that," said the Senator. "However, we need your help."
"You did not need my help leading up to the events of prior to Starkiller base," Luke said, putting an edge in his voice. "The New Republic knew about the superweapon. Yet did nothing about it. Now in the wake of its destruction and that of the current capital of the Republic, you need my help. I remind you, the Jedi are not senators. We are underpaid Force wielding warriors. So I can only guess your reason here is to gain influence in the new government."
Senator Gaius opened his mouth but shut it quickly.
Luke smiled. Leia often said he would've made a good politician. However that line work was not his forte, being the Grand Master was close enough to being part of politics then he desired, ever so often it hit close to home.
The Second Galactic Civil War was a prime example.
Starkiller Base's attack was another.
Han had gone on that mission with Rey, Leia, and Finn
He had not returned.
Neither had Leia.
Luke knew they were not dead through the Force, yet for some reason, they did not make contact. He assumed they had a reason, however…
Politics was Leia's field, even as a Jedi she kept her skills as a politician honed to a sharp edge.
Senator Gaius was of a handful of surviving senators out of the hundred who perished during Starkiller attack. Luke knew there was an attempt to rebuild the government, host emergency elections, and most importantly chose a new capital.
Luke sighed inwardly. He did not understand the need to move the capital every so years – it ate at the economy, planetary resources, and the needless added debate at where the next capital will be when attention should be diverted elsewhere.
Such rebuilding the Home Fleet.
The day the capital was destroyed had been the day to move the capital to the next planet. As such the Home Fleet as well as every Senators' ceremonial ships had been either in orbit or docked planetside.
Though the Home Fleet was one of twenty-four fleets, it had consisted of the newest cruisers, support ships, and capital ships. Men and ships destroyed by a blast in an instant. Men and ships not easily replaced.
Luckily neither was Starkiller Base.
But this meant the New Republic was still down one fleet and diverting the wrong fleet at the wrong time, the New Republic may open itself for an attack of an outside force.
Luke was not an admiral, nor was he a desk general. But he had been a Commander and a leader of men during the days of the Rebellion and he knew a single wrong move could result with disaster.
He also could spot an opportunity.
"Senator Giaus, is it possible to open talks with the Galactic Alliance? See if they might aid if not unify the galaxy under a unified banner once more?"
The senator scoffed. "And return to the years under the Empire? No."
The Jedi Master raised a hand to stop the Senator and his prepared argument. "Senator, the New Republic was an attempt to bring back the old while giving it a new name. The only new thing was changing the capital every other decade. That system which designated the next capital only added another theater to make the next capital to whoever lobbied the most.
If anything it made the galaxy split even more and those planets and systems that saw their chances to become the next capital go dim with each passing decade.
Remember the GA Reclamation?"
Senator Giaus glowered.
After two decades of the New Republic and realizing the corruption hadn't changed anything, five systems including the Hapes Cluster, Hutt Space, and even the hotheaded Corellian system seceded from the New Republic and joined the GA.
This moved not only planets and resources from one flag to another, it threw the military power scale in favor of the GA.
Only the events of the Vong and even the civil war Darth Caedus waged managed to postpone any outbreak of war between the GA and the New Republic.
But Luke had enough of politics.
He raised a slow hand to stop any further outburst from the Senator. "Again Senator, I am tired. I have only recently returned from self imposed exile, learned of a system planet killer and it had been destroyed yesterday; I had to discipline a student by bloody means this morning.
"I suggest you bring any further plots, ploys – whatever you call it – to the PR section of the Jedi Temple. My jedi will begin the process of sending it to the Council and to me."
The Senator's eyes nearly popped at the notion of being handled like a normal civilian, but he bowed to the Jedi Master.
Luke inclined his head then walked deeper into the temple.