"People of Coruscant today we have a special treat for you, public execution of some of our enemies"
With that saying seven Jedi and two civilians were brought forth
"Meet the Jedi and their helpers who will be killed today for being an enemy of the state"
Meanwhile Ashland is quickly talking into the comm link that everyone had on them
"Does anyone have a plan B? because I am not letting those people die if I can help it"
"Don't worry we didn't expect this to happen but we have a contingency plan, just be ready for our exit to be a bit messier than originally planned"
"Got it"
Fortunately the plan did work and the prisoners were freed but it was indeed a bit messier than originally planned but finally everyone was back at base
"Well now that we're free we want to help fight and free Coruscant"
"Not now my fellow Jedi, the Rebel Alliance has plans, plans that must not be interrupted because that could be disastrous for all"
"He's right you know, I understand you might feel like it's your right to fight back to bring back peace and justice but it's just not feasible right now"
"We know Portland, by the way do you guys have a means of contacting the Federation from here?"
"No, is something wrong?"
"Yes, they recently sent out an invasion army to take over the Federation"
(Scoffs) "I'd like to see them try, the Federation is well prepared for any trouble that might head their way from Republic space"
"But Portland"
"No, Jedi, Sentinel Portland is correct she was communicating with Starfleet Command on a regular basis from what I heard plus the Sentinel's and refugee Jedi lectured at Starfleet Academy to fourth year Cadets about the potential enemies that might come from the Republic"
"Not to mention in my initial debriefs I made sure that everything I talked about was recorded and people with a certain security clearance or rank can access that information for others if need be and Starfleet Command or the President of the United Federation of Planets can declassify that information for Planetary defense forces for each of the member planets"
"Okay we'll stay put for now"
"Good now then we have food and places for you to get some sleep, then it's time we moved on from here because they'll be looking for us after what we did today, besides this place is getting to be too crowded we need a bigger space"
"Either that or spread out a bit more"
"Either way we need to move on from this location"
"Let's hope nothing else goes wrong this week especially on the day of the actual ceremony"
"Agreed"
On Naboo
The Captain obeyed Ashland's orders and quickly joined up with the Gungans temporarily while searching for the NRA and quickly found them because due to a unique celebration on Naboo they managed to save several lives and were quickly taken to the palace
"We of Naboo are part of the New Rebel Alliance, though only in secret. I am the head of the Naboo faction but I am also their Queen and as such cannot make many overt actions lest my people become endangered, as such any actions made are covert and small but they give our people hope when there is none to be had, plus not all of us are actually part of the Alliance through my choice to not make everyone suffer if we fail"
"We understand your highness but unfortunately we of Starfleet are accustomed to fighting and as such have no problems being in danger, as it is we are here on the orders of a technically speaking lower ranking officer who left very...vague instructions"
"Why do you obey the officer then if they are not of your rank?..."
"Captain I am the Captain of my ship and the reason why is because she is my Sentinel, my Jedi within Starfleet, there are still so few of them but whenever they act upon the Force all officers no matter what rank have to listen to them"
"Though you didn't exactly obey her orders to the letter Captain we were supposed to stay in the swamp until met by a Jedi"
"Yeah well considering that explosion I think she would understand why we disobeyed her orders and instead did our best to reach the Gungans before running out of oxygen"
"We're lucky they were already on the surface or near the surface and had room for us"
"Either way what's done is done"
The Queen actually laughs realizing just who they were now even with the ranks being said and even with him saying that he was a Starfleet officer she knew they could be lying just to get her to reveal where the rest of the group was located because on Naboo the NRA was split up into sectors so that if one sector was taken down then the rest would remain to fight even if the one taken down was the Queen there were several contingency plans regarding that and besides she never kept the locations of any meeting spots in the throne room
"Gentlemen I think I know who you're talking about, you see your ship was pretty obvious so I sent some of the resistance to meet you but unfortunately they were attacked because of how obvious your ship is, they all made it back but since it was too dangerous to do anything they could only hope that you managed to reach a place of safety which it appears that you did, now then I have something planned for a special Republic holiday in a few days and I think you can help me"
"Whatever you say your highness we'll obey your every order"
They quickly made plans for the celebration and finally the day came when they enacted those plans because while the Queen had been keeping her people safe, with the knowledge that there were Starfleet officers all over the galaxy she decided with the rest of her resistance leaders that it was time for Naboo to come out into the open about where their loyalties truly lied and to do so in a very public manner as well which of course meant the annual celebrations held every year around the galaxy
"No more hiding for Naboo everyone will be a target now but with Starfleet by our side I think we can handle anything"
"Indeed and besides there are many places that won't reveal themselves and still give you a strategic advantage whenever it comes time to strike at their ships"
"You're right Captain thank you for reminding me about that, but what about the fact that your ships are pretty obvious?"
"Simple they'll have kept themselves in the atmosphere if at all possible to keep themselves hidden, granted it's not something done very often but Starfleet does see the reason behind making sure that not just our shuttles can handle being in a planet's atmosphere and as far as I know they can't scan for enemy ships"
"That will be good to have an advantage like that, for now we must prepare to reveal ourselves"
So when it came time for the annual celebration Naboo came out of hiding and revealed that they were part of the Rebel Alliance. On Hoth and other planets the rest of the NRA started making preparations to fully defeat the enemy in overdrive due to the fact that with Naboo ousting themselves it would only be a matter of time before the rest of the galaxy suffered from that, those plans were especially made in overdrive and expanded whenever there was a Starfleet presence available. For the next six months the NRA struck whenever they felt it was a good opportunity on planets that were both ousted and not ousted and things were actually going pretty well seeing as how they hadn't lost any of their Jedi allies and very few of their fighters when everything changed on Coruscant
"Come on we have to take him down before he causes us more trouble"
"But why would a lone person interrupt the ceremony it doesn't make sense"
"Unless they are part of the group calling themselves the NRA"
"What does NRA even stand for anyways?"
"I think it stands for the New Rebel Alliance but don't quote me on that"
"Don't worry we won't, think we have a Jedi on our hands?"
"Don't know but the new standard procedure is to put the Force inhibitor collars on them in case they are so we put the collars on once they are taken down"
"Maybe we should wait to see if they lead us to the others"
"They're too smart for that besides we've been looking for them for over six months and we still haven't found their base of operations"
"Fine let's take them down"
Finally they took down the person who had interrupted the ceremony and found out it was actually a female who was still fighting them with everything they had but finally they managed to get the collar on the person and they stopped fighting, what they didn't know was that they had managed to capture Ashland Portland of Starfleet, though that wouldn't help in the long run considering that if she was captured or killed the rest of the Starfleet officers with her had their orders already given in the early days of them joining the Coruscant resistance. At the resistance base
"So where did you send Ashland anyways Master?"
"I sent her on a scouting/attack mission in regards to a celebration being held today all day, she should be back soon seeing as how I..."
Master Loo'mata suddenly grabs his head in pain and goes very still two minutes later he looks at the Starfleet officer in front of him and the officer suddenly gets a very bad feeling
"Master?"
"Get your fellow officers together...now"
Ten minutes later the Starfleet officers are all in front of Master Loo'mata
"I regret to inform you that Sentinel Portland has been killed, I don't know who killed her or how but I do know that she's dead"
"But what about Force inhibitors? I would think that you would know if she just has a Force inhibitor on her"
"Normally yes but I remember the last time she had a regular Force inhibitor on her plus I know the feeling of the Starfleet Force inhibitors when they aren't modified she's dead I'm sure of it"
"We understand, so then as senior officer I am enacting the plan we made in private shortly after we joined the group"
"What does that mean for the rest of the Alliance?"
"Not much really but there will be changes, no more solo missions for one and for another if we can't be partnered with a Jedi we will be partnered with the most experienced people within the resistance, either that or we go in groups and together"
"I can accept that after all I was thinking of changing those policies anyways but will have to ask the rest of the group first"
"Either way Starfleet policies will be changing for now in regards to this fight, at least on Coruscant"
Meanwhile with Ashland her captures had managed to keep her unconscious long enough to transport her to wherever they took their prisoners and threw her into a cell where she woke up and turned towards her captors
"You're staying here until you're executed rebel and don't think of doing anything, that collar on you doesn't just inhibit the Force if the person we catch is a Jedi it's also a shock collar to keep you under control until you either die from forced labor or we execute you"
Her captors leave her to ponder those words and she knew that she was effectively unable to do anything and she also quickly realized that she might be thought dead because she knew exactly what the Force inhibitor was doing because she had done that once with the Starfleet Force inhibitors
"So they got a new prisoner"
"Indeed and just who are you?"
"I don't have a name, not anymore but I used to be known as Asayla my only crime is being part of the New Rebel Alliance back in the early days before we managed to go underground"
"Well I know for a fact that efforts have scaled up since my people joined"
"And just who are your people?"
"Starfleet officers"
"That's actually going to be a big help in the end, how long has the effort been scaled up?"
"About six months now"
"So hopefully things will end soon"
"Yes and in the meantime I have one major report to prepare for and also explain that this time being thought dead is not my fault considering what this collar is doing to me as a Jedi"
"You're the first Jedi as far as I know of, at least they can't hear us except when they come into this area to patrol so let's stop talking about your unique abilities"
"Fine, good thing I've trained myself not to react to pain because these things hurt being who I am"
The next day Ashland starts her forced labor and for the next three years that's all they do because while the Federation occasionally sent support they couldn't do it often and those that did manage to get there were either quickly captured or the group that took over the Republic upped their forces in known or suspected Rebel Alliance areas which slowed down the Alliance a lot even with Starfleet's help. Finally though they had enough help to free the slave camp on Coruscant that they had found because that strike made on the anniversary of when the second death star was destroyed was actually the signal to finally take down the people that forced the Republic into this situation in the first place. When that day arrived there was chaos but also the slaves started to fight back for real when they realized what was happening and Ashland quickly started making use of the tool she had in her hand as a weapon and went for the shock collar control panel which she managed to reach and destroy, but she was blinded in the process
"You may have destroyed the collars control panel which means we can't hurt you with that but do you really think you can fight blind?"
"Actually yes I can"
And so she starts using the tool as a weapon against her attacker and won which surprised the slavers seeing as how they thought no one could fight blind but Ashland proved them wrong, eventually reaching the exit and leaving with the resistance. Several hours later she was in the Temple hearing reports from all over the galaxy that the Republic was free at last and a Starfleet vessel was heading towards Coruscant to pick up the few remaining Starfleet officers because they had received orders to come home, the Federation had experienced some fighting as well and they were needed to help in the clean up process. While they waited Ashland was taken to the healers who did everything they could for Ashland's eye sight and also took off the collar which is when they received a shock