Chapter Thirteen
The ensuing period of six months went with incredible smoothness as N'Lola continued her patrol throughout the Inner Rim. Her clandestine transmissions to the Alliance remained undetected, as her free reign within the region allowed her to be consistently in locations a thousand light years or more from any imperial vessel. Outside the Inner Rim, and even in some portions of the Inner Rim, the war continued to be waged with fierceness by both sides, though the Empire's ferocity was waning while the Alliance's was only continuing to build. On the fifteenth day of the month, as they were moving between two systems in the galactic-northeastern section of the Inner Rim, a familiar chime filled the air, and Aerla half-turned in her seat.
"Admiral, receiving a long-range communication from Admiral Hennat, confirmation code indicates privacy desired," reported the Twi'lek lieutenant.
"Put it through to my ready-room," she said, rising and moving to her ready-room, where there was a blinking blue light waiting for her on her desk. As she walked to her desk, she brushed her fingertips across the surface of the desk and the blue light, triggering a holo-emission to rise up out of the desk and form the image of the Admiral himself.
Admiral Michael Hennat was a man of forty-two years, with true-black hair and vibrant irises of bluish hazel colour, accenting his light-skinned complexion. At a similar height to herself and only a few pounds heavier, he was a well-muscled man, in the way that military men frequently were during the height of their military career. Despite the fact that he was no longer wearing an imperial naval uniform, he was still dressed nicely, in a dark blue dress shirt and matching dress pants, with brass buttons, black leather boots and belt with brass buckles.
"Admiral Hennat," she greeted, facing the holo-image, "How may I assist Imperial Naval Command, today?"
"Then you haven't heard. Good," answered Hennat, cryptically, before enlightening her, "I just disabled the Imperial Naval Command Centre, my fleet is currently blasting a path out of the Deep Core. I require your assistance, but I cannot be more specific: my contact informed me that an Admiral Calrissian needed to meet with me, and that you are the regional asset who can ensure my safe transit through the Inner Rim."
"All right, Admiral," she said, sitting down and beginning to brush her fingers quickly across the keyboard of her touchscreen, hurriedly producing the information needed and transmitting it to him, "Take your fleet out of the Deep Core to the galactic west. Meet me at these coordinates: this region is unmapped by any other except myself, so I can guarantee your security there, provided you are not followed."
"Understood, Admiral," replied Admiral Hennat, "We will make sure that we are not being pursued, we will rendezvous with your fleet in that location in four days. If we arrive before you, how will we know we are in the right system?"
"The planet is an arctic world, yet unnamed. We are currently near Reecee, however, and should be there in advance of you if all goes according to plan."
"Affirmative," replied Admiral Hennat, before terminating the communications channel. Just three days later, N'Lola and her fleet sat waiting Hennat's arrival in the system, and were ready when the Admiral's fleet swept out of hyperspace the following day. His fleet was impressive indeed, hauled from the Deep Core, and N'Lola surveyed that fleet thoroughly. Admiral Hennat arrived with his flagship, an Executor-class star dreadnought, accompanied by three Assertor-class star dreadnoughts, five Subjugator-class heavy cruisers, and nine Dreadnought-class heavy cruisers, all of which supported by seventeen Dragon-class heavy cruisers. Thirty-five ships in all, it could have taken on a massive amount of enemy ships and come out the victor no matter what kind of casualties it might have incurred, in the process. As the Executor-class star dreadnought floated in amidst her fleet to dock with her Providence-class carrier/destroyer, N'Lola moved to the corridor connected to the docking port. Her flagship looked quite minute by comparison; indeed the Executor dwarfed most of her fleet combined in terms of sheer physical magnitude and in terms of total personnel aboard the ship.
"Welcome aboard, Admiral Hennat," N'Lola greeted, as the docking bay doors opened and the first one that stepped aboard was Hennat, himself, who walked forward and bowed his head respectfully. She reciprocated that, and he smiled warmly.
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance in person, at last, Admiral Vurkoth," he said in response, "Shall we retire to your ready-room to speak more privately?"
"If you would prefer, that is agreeable to me. We are secure in this system, for now, especially while imperial naval communications are down throughout the galaxy. You've facilitated great victories for the Republic by taking down the intragalactic communications network, even if only for a few days," she replied. Together, they walked the distance to her ready-room, a refreshingly brief trip according to Admiral Hennat, though with his ship being nineteen kilometres in length, she could see how hers would seem like a brisk walk around the corner to him. Once they arrived, and the doors whirred shut behind them, Admiral Hennat immediately took the opportunity to speak that was provided by the fact they were now in private, and she had not initiated conversation herself.
"I would like you to know, I did not come to this decision easily, this choice of defection, I mean," he said, taking a deep breath as he walked to the window and looked out on the stars, and the icy planet below.
"It must have been a difficult choice. You've been in the military since you were a young man, and of those two dozen years, you were in the Imperial Navy for almost all of them," N'Lola observed, standing behind him, about three metres behind and two metres off to his left-hand side.
"Yes. May I share my story with you?"
"I would be honoured, Admiral. You are an experienced veteran with an impeccable career record and maybe even more impressively, an unblemished admiralty."
"You blandish well, Admiral Vurkoth," he chortled softly as he looked over his left shoulder, his left eyebrow rising as he did, "When I was a young man… eleven, maybe twelve years old, I had a friend who demonstrated to me his Force-sensitivity. He was a handsome young man, gentle and sweet natured, a young Cathar named Wallas; then, one day, a Jedi Master came, taking Wallas as his padawan and leaving with him. He was not the only friend of mine who became a Padawan and later a Jedi, though: there was also an Iktotchi boy named Emeric, and a Leyakian girl by the name of Vi Harre, of whom I was quite fond. During their years as padawans, even as they became Jedi, they kept in touch with me, maintained their correspondence with me, until the beginning of the terrible purge that began twenty-two years ago, when I was twenty years old. I never heard from them again, and I knew that three of my closest friends in the galaxy had no doubt died because of the Empire's genocide. Still, I held out hope that the Empire might be good for the overall galaxy, and I remembered what my friends had told me of Jedi philosophy." He paused, taking a breath as he stared out the window, but she could tell he was not done with his story, and she had no intention to disrupt the Admiral's decision to share his story with her, even if only in part.
"So I remained in the Empire, a loyal soldier as I rose through the ranks, hoping the Galactic Empire would be what was best for the galaxy. When I learned of the development of the superlaser, I went through the appropriate channels: I filled out the paperwork, I filed a protest against devising or constructing such a weapon," he continued, "Yet, I still held out hope. When it was constructed nevertheless, I made a second official protest about the existence a ship that would be armed with such a device, but I held out hope that it would never be used, that it would be there only as a warning. I was a fool." Once more he paused, staring at the icy world ahead of the fleet, eyes glistening with the inner sorrows he must have felt, despite that he had no fault in anything that had transpired, and could have done nothing to prevent them.
"When the weapon was deployed to the planet of Alderaan, I worried. More than twenty of my closest friends since Wallas and Emeric and Vi, were of Alderaanian descent, and were on the planet when it was destroyed. Like a fool," Admiral Hennat went on, his voice as rich with sorrow as what she sensed exuding from him so intensely it nearly burned her senses, "I remained loyal to the Empire for three more years even following the commission of such a heinous act. I ordered every Alderaanian in my fleet to take to shuttles and go at once, to flee the Empire's brutality, to do whatever their conscience demanded of them. I have wracked my brain for three months to think of a reason that I remained loyal to the Empire, and I can come up with nothing to validate it. Then, three months and two weeks ago, High Inquisitor Antinnis Tremayne murdered a man named Jovan Vharing, who had inherited the position of Captain of a ship called the Interrogator, for something that his recklessly ambitious lieutenant had done while Captain Vharing was in bed. Jovan was the best friend I had had since the destruction of Alderaan, had been my friend for twelve years, in fact; finally, I realized that the Empire was a slaughterhouse. It would only ever butcher entire populations, murder those I cared about, and in the name of the ghosts of lost friends, the memories of those I love, I leave the Empire and follow the path that they would have wished me to take from the start."
"I only hope I can make contributions to the galaxy, now, that will make up for my tardiness and my failure to act," Admiral Hennat concluded, taking a deep breath as he steadied himself, then turned toward her once more, "I thank you for listening. Now, show me, young friend, the safest path from this place to the planet Timora, where I am to rendezvous with Admiral Calrissian." She nodded quietly, not pestering him with questions or burdening him with comments, simply tracing her fingers across the desk of her ready-room, activating a holo-map. It showed her personal charting of the entire inner rim, including portions that appeared in such detail on no map the Empire or the Republic had access to, and the whole of the Unknown Regions, as well.
"Your fleet can make sharp turns in hyperspace, correct?"
"Yes. The centrifugal forces of such turns are monumental, sufficient to shred most ships apart, but if shields are raised, it should be possible, why?"
"You will not likely want to stop to change direction in unfamiliar space, and the safest path to Timora would be by complete circumvention of the Empire's spatial territories. This means," she said, tracing a path with her finger through the holo-map from their current location, "you should direct your fleet to E-13 before altering course to G-16 so that you can come to Timora from the galactic northwest. This would allow you to slip by an unexpected trajectory, which increases your security exponentially."
"You are a clever young woman, Admiral Vurkoth. I will instruct my fleet to drop out of hyperspace in E-13 at the first star system with no sign of machines or sentient life within six hundred light years, for security purposes, to minimize the risk of my fleet being torn apart. I'm sure the ships could survive it, but I'd rather not take the chance."
"Understandable, Admiral," N'Lola said agreeably, "and let I be the first to say, the new Republic welcomes you with open arms. Your fleet is remarkable and your record incredible; I am sure your friends would be very proud of the decision you make today, and would support it wholeheartedly."
"Thank you, Admiral Vurkoth," Admiral Hennat said.
The following day, Admiral Hennat's fleet departed from the system using the trajectories she had provided, with the promise that she would be praised on Hennat's arrival for her assistance. A few days later, as N'Lola's fleet sat in a high orbit over the planet Foless, the Imperial Naval Communications Centre came back online. As the fleet's databanks updated, and she received a communication from Alliance command updating her on the situation, N'Lola found the war had taken a major surge in the Republic's favour. Thirteen major battles had occurred in thirteen separate star systems in the brief window that Admiral Michael Hennat had provided them, and in every case, the result of that disruption was the same. Each battle ended in a catastrophic loss for the Empire, thirteen fleets destroyed and thirteen heavily populated star systems, most of them in the Mid Rim, liberated from Imperial oppression.
Unsurprisingly, she also had a communique from Imperial Naval Command, which she chose to read in her ready-room, as protocol demanded.
Admiral Vurkoth,
As of the upcoming first day of the seventh month, you are no longer bound to the Inner Rim; you may patrol throughout the Empire's reach without further hindrance. Admiral Thrawn has repeatedly chastised our refusal to put your clear talents to greater use than the duties of patrolling the Inner Rim, in which avenue you have excelled. It is our hope that with your talents, the Empire may change the tide of the war back to one of imperial favour. You are to prepare your fleet for participation in a major battle that will crush the rebellion permanently, to occur in the early segment of the following year. Your fleet will be expected to provide additional security to one of the critical functions of the plan; you will receive clearer mission orders in advance of the battle, including the location of the battle and a position your fleet shall be instructed to take.
Imperial Naval Command
Confirmation Code 1883-9873-451P
"Well, that was unexpected," N'Lola said to herself as she read the information, and then reread it to confirm she had understood the full implications of it. Once she had, she immediately returned to the bridge, taking her seat in the admiral's chair.
"Helm, set a course for the Gholondreine system, Imperial Naval Command has finally cut our tether and granted us authorization to travel throughout imperial space." On their arrival, N'Lola returned to her ready-room and transmitted a warning to the Alliance's Naval Command structure of a plan to launch a major ambush on the Alliance's naval power at some point in the unknown but foreseeable future. She couldn't yet give them more than that, but they did relate back to her that their spies in other sectors of the Imperial Navy reported that a certain Admiral Banjeer had learned of it as well, and had had a rather bad reaction. On learning he was being excluded from major military action in which her fleet had been invited to partake, he had begun to seethe and fume, even going so far as to publicly rant about it on three separate occasions. At least, until his commanding officer told him it would cost him his admiralty if it didn't stop, at which point, Banjeer had settled into a silent seething that she might want to use to her benefit later.
From there, N'Lola ordered her fleet to the planet Serenna in the unknown regions of the Inner Rim, in which system they proceeded to spend their next few months in intense training. Finally, in the start of the second month of 4 ABY, Imperial Naval Command delivered the combat orders: Endor. Her orders in-hand, N'Lola contacted Alliance Naval Command immediately, using the holo-emitter in the desk of her ready-room.
"Admiral Selene?" queried the communications lieutenant who answered her holo-transmission initially.
"I have vital information for the Alliance. I need to speak with high command."
"Right away, ma'am!" replied the communications lieutenant, scrambling to his feet and rushing off so swift he tripped and stumbled, nearly falling before righting himself and vanishing around a corner. A few minutes later, he returned with a collection of what were obviously admirals and generals, as well as a few who looked as if they were politicians and not soldiers.
"Admiral Vurkoth," greeted a woman of stately beauty and magnificent poise, "I am Mon Mothma. We are told you have vital information that you would like to share. Please, by all means." The auburn-haired, blue-eyed fifty-one-year-old prompted her, and N'Lola nodded, as the woman's eyes remained intently focused upon her.
"As you have no doubt heard, the incomplete Death Star II is presently orbiting the forested moon of Endor. This is an ambush: the Empire means to spring a trap intended to crush the resistance utterly," she warned, and then continued, "The battle plan hinges heavily on two key elements. First, you are expected to be unaware that the shields are actually operational until you arrive in the system and discover it. Once the Alliance fleet is in the desired position, a wall of interdictors commanded by Fleet Admiral Firmus Piett will come into position behind you. These ships will be using their ability to disrupt gravitational forces and therefore disrupt hyperspace travel to prevent the fleet's escape. However, Admiral Piett has been ordered not to engage directly: the Death Star II's superluminal laser arrays are also fully operational."
"Thank you, Admiral Vurkoth. Your information has been most helpful. We will be in touch with instructions once our tacticians and strategists have worked out the best solution to the threat you have revealed to us. The Republic thanks you for your service," Mon Mothma replied. N'Lola nodded and offered a quick salute, then terminated their communications channel. Four hours later, she received a communique instructing her to move to coordinates G-17, where she would rendezvous with two admirals whose connection to the Alliance she had secured, herself: Admirals Riwwel and Hennat. Together, their three fleets would comprise the reverse pincer that would eliminate Admiral Piett and his interdictor fleet through a major assault from their rear flank.
As the day of the battle arrived, N'Lola opened a channel with both admirals and confirmed their readiness, and their fleets' readiness. Once they were certain that everyone was prepared, N'Lola's fleet made the jump and came into position amidst Piett's interdictor fleet. They were there to provide security for Piett's interdictor fleet, since they were unshielded and needed to be defended if they were to be able to make the contribution that the planet called for. Meanwhile, Riwwel and Hennat waited for her signal to attack. As the battle came underway and the interdictors fell into position with N'Lola's warships amongst them, N'Lola ordered the quick loading of weapons in the direction of Admiral Piett's flagship. It would be her signal.
"Admiral, all missiles and torpedoes are prepared to open fire on your command," reported Aerla from her communications station, "The Interdictors are completely unshielded; Admiral Piett has also not raised shields on the Executor."
"He is not expecting trouble. He was told that his fleet would not be in harm's way, they would simply be a wall that would block Alliance manoeuvres. Order all ships to unload the maximum ordinance on the Executor," came her reply, with a faint touch of sympathy for the admiral who was about to learn he had been badly outmanoeuvred, "order them to fire any weapons that cannot hit the Executor at the nearest interdictors. Instruct them to maximize the number of ships destroyed by focusing fire on precise targets." The interdictor wall consisted of three hundred of them and the Admiral's Executor, spread out far enough to make a massive contribution to the inhibition of manoeuvres by the Alliance's Fleet.
"Also, order the full mobilization of all starfighters. This is the day we've been training for, and if the Force is with us, at least most of us should come out of this battle alive." Seconds later, as pilots raced to their starfighters and hangar bay doors opened throughout the fleet, a full bombardment was unleashed which succeeded in the nearly instantaneous destruction of Admiral Piett's Executor. Simultaneously, a dozen more ships were destroyed by the fury unleashed as starfighters swarmed out of their hangar bays. Barely a minute later, Admiral Hennat's fleet swept in on one far flank while Riwwel's arrived on the other, mirroring her movement: a full-scale bombardment followed by a swarm of hundreds of starfighters sweeping out from their hangar bays. Even as the interdictor captains realized their part in the battle was far closer to the frontline than they had been forewarned and began to counterattack, starfighters and capital ships alike were eviscerating the interdictor wall. N'Lola could sense the startled explosion of rage aboard the Death Star II, as they no doubt noticed the ambush that was snapped shut on their interdictor wall, and knew who it was that had orchestrated it. Yet, even so, there was nothing to be done for it now: the Death Star II was engaged in a ferocious struggle, itself, as battle raged all around it, at exceedingly close range.
Several minutes later, the interdictor wall had been utterly annihilated, though it cost the lives of more than two thousand rebel pilots, more than six hundred of which had originated from her own fleet. The fleet took heavy losses, and the losses were worse yet for both Riwwel and Hennat, who lost slightly more starfighters than her fleet. At the same time, however, the ambush was a resounding success, with the destruction of the Executor, the inhibition of the Empire's tactics, and the impact it had on the rest of the armada's ability to focus on the destruction of the Death Star II. Their three fleets had taken heavy damage in addition to the loss of most starfighter personnel as they whipped through the interdictor wall, but once the interdictors were down, the battle was over for them. When the battle at last ended, it allowed her to take stock of the damage, and she was amazed that every ship in all three fleets had survived, even if they had taken a severe beating in some cases.
Out of just over four hundred and four thousand personnel, nearly one hundred thousand were reported dead, and she was thankful that she had instated the standing order she had before the battle. She had ordered every captain in her fleet to be prepared to make an emergency hyperspace jump if they took damage that was extreme, which had saved tens of thousands of lives, and several ships. The Acclamators were critically damaged, though their loss of life was almost nonexistent because of the heavily armoured nature of the troop barracks' inside each, they had been forced to retreat early in the battle. The hospital frigates had fled early, as well, early enough in fact that both of them were in nearly perfect condition, per N'Lola's orders that they would be needed after the battle and were to pull back at the first sign they were being targeted.
The Albatross, the Dauntless, the Ox, the Ram, and the Dreadnought-class Heavy Cruisers, had suffered the potentially largest percentile of crew fatalities. It was the Vindicator, itself, however, that had taken the heaviest fire, and had suffered the largest number of dead in physical volume, with more than twenty-seven thousand of those dead being Vindicator personnel.
In the aftermath of the battle, N'Lola saw to it that all members of her fleet who had died were given proper burials on their native worlds, eulogizing at every ceremony. As hard as it was to give eulogies on several worlds, and to so many bereaved, she knew that it was what they needed, and her personal code demanded that they deserved the closure. They deserved the closure of knowing not only how, where, and why their loved ones had died, but how they had lived, and that they had died heroically, doing what they knew was right: protecting those whom they left behind. It was important for their families that their healing could begin, and it could not start without the closure that only a commanding officer could provide. For her part, N'Lola simply felt thankful she could tell their loved ones, in every eulogy, that their loved ones' sacrifices had made it possible to free the galaxy from tyranny. Their sacrifice had been instrumental in killing Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader.
As her fleet underwent extensive repairs, N'Lola had dismissed every person in the fleet, granting them each permission to return to their homeworld for as long as they wished. If they did not wish to return to the military life at any point in the future, or did not wish to leave their homeworld again, she would not hold it against them. For herself, she returned to Bpfassh, allowing the Republic and every member of her fleet to know where to locate her if they were to decide they wished to continue to serve under her command. As she and tens of thousands of fellow Bpfasshi came back to their homeworld, she was accompanied by those who had no other home to return to except N'Lola herself: her mentors, Nuav and Xuax, the five young men she had picked up from Serenna, and the Jilruan assassins.
She soon discovered her fellow Bpfasshi she had led congregated into her area, and she found herself moved to the formation of an Order of her own, which she called the Ven-Shimu. As those who had been under her command trickled back to her, N'Lola focused on a task of great importance to the Ven-Shimu: the documentation of what would be the Code of the Ven-Shimu. Every Order needed a code, Nuav reminded her, and as the founder of that order, in the first month of 6 ABY, the responsibility to create that code fell to the twenty-eight-year-old. Finally standing in the light, her long years undercover now behind, N'Lola set herself to the task of creating the Ven-Shimu Code, as her kin transformed her family's ancestral home into the first Fortress of the Ven-Shimu.
Wherever there is brutality, we shall bring restoration.
Wherever there is oppression, we shall bring liberation.
Wherever there is hatred, we shall bring benevolence.
Wherever there is Darkness, we shall shine the Light.
We commit ourselves to the protection of the peaceful.
We commit ourselves to the healing of all who are ill.
We commit ourselves to the maintenance of justice.
We are the Ven-Shimu Order, we are warriors for the Light.
For the next five years, N'Lola managed the growth and the stabilizing of the Ven-Shimu. By the time she had finished writing the code, she learned that the Chistor who had been under her command had built a Ven-Shimu Fortress on Chistor. When she was informed that similar fortress-academies had been constructed on the planets Annoo, Barab I, and Panatha, she knew she needed to divide the personnel who had returned to her. As a result, she appointed Jorren Mirkaire, Owen Furth, Seamus Quartermaine, Caradoc Murrow, and Luan Corr to be the commandants of those five respective fortresses.
On the ninth day of the second month in 12 ABY, N'Lola experienced a Force Vision that showed her a lush, green world, wholly uninhabited, and she knew she was meant to search for that world. The thirty-four-year-old would simply need to organize a fleet, and then set out in search of that nameless planet, hidden somewhere deep within the Unknown Regions.