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Phase 11: The long way home

=RK=

Part 8

=RK=

Royal Palace

Theed

Naboo

Queen Neeytnee met us at one of the balconies overlooking the valley stretching below Theed. The first time I visited this place, the vista below was breathtakingly beautiful. Now? The crash-landed Lukrehulk dominated a pock-marked, battle-ravaged valley that had more in common with a lunar landscape than the lush green place of relaxation I remembered.

"Naboo will never be the same again..." The Queen sighed.

She was right. On my way down from orbit, I could see it with my own eyes. The space above the planet was cluttered with a terrible amount of wrecks, many of which were close enough to Naboo to be caught by its gravity. Right now there were whole cruiser divisions above us doing their best to either tractor away or blow up the hulks before more of them could slam into the planet. In contrast to the previous battles for Naboo, this one was of particular high intensity, not to mention viciousness. My shuttle had to slowly manoeuvre through an expanding ring of debris and floating frozen bodies clumped together. Space was big and it was seldom you could see such conglomerations. Battles tended to stretch over large parts of empty real estate and the same was true for the wreckage they left behind. However, during particularly vicious fights above planetary bodies...

This time around there was no one to spare to keep wrecked ships from hitting the planet. Broken hulks – both ours and Separatists had rained down for hours. Whole cities were wiped out or had to be evacuated due to radiation, all the toxic stuff thrown by burning wreckage or the dust and debris clouds thrown by more or less intact ships that slammed just far enough not to wipe them out with the direct after-effects of the impact.

Naboo used to be a beautiful verdant orb when looked at from space. On my way down whole continents were covered by spreading clouds of dust and smoke.

"No. However, your world and people will survive." I stated with a conviction I didn't feel. If the CIS came calling again, Naboo was kriffed. I didn't plan to hang around for such an eventuality.

"Why do I have trouble believing that, General?" The monarch turned to look at me. Despite the mask painted over her face, I could clearly see her distress.

"You should convince yourself then, otherwise you'll find it even harder doing so to your people and they will need that confidence." Naboo was a vital member of the Mid-Rim Alliance for a simple reason – a lot of the locals trusted them. You could say that besides self interest, they were the glue holding everything together. As long as she lived, I needed the Queen to keep her chin up and keep holding firm no matter what the CIS threw her way.

"That's easy to say. How can I..." Neeytnee waved at the valley below.

"Because someone has to, your majesty and you're the Queen." I stated bluntly. "You've told me all about some of the more radical elements trying to use the situation to claw their ways into more power. If you show any weakness, you will make it easier for them." I continued.

While I would find it easier to work with some of the more radical voices who were in the rise in Naboo politics, the same couldn't be said about a lot of other alliance members. For the time being the Queen was too useful a mediator to even think about replacing her.

"That's rich, coming from a Sith." Neeytnee chuckled mirthlessly.

"There were occasions when this Sith actually was stuck ruling worlds or even a few systems. If you lose people's confidence, your palpable options decrease exponentially. As you say, I'm a Sith. I had no qualms keeping order by any means necessary when I had to – it weighted not my conscience. The same isn't true for you, your majesty and as far as I understand the situation, you would prefer to become a tyrant than see what some of your loudest detractors would turn Naboo into if they seize power."

"How do you know all that?!" The Queen turned to glare at me.

"I have my ways, my lady."

While there were a few intelligence agents who seemed loyal and did report what they saw, I did talk with Tigellinus before getting down. He had spent months at Naboo and had the place's pulse well in hand. Not to mention that I finally found Veers when I landed – he was in charge of a tank platoon guarding the main entrance of the palace and I did stop to grill him about what he did when he got himself lost after Geonosis as well as what he had learned about Naboo while apparently stuck here. I left him just a few minutes ago with orders to report to my shuttle ready to leave with me. I wasn't leaving him back here in case the CIS did come in force.

Neeytnee's shoulders slumped. "You're right, damn you! Left to their own devises too many people would rather see me replaced with a military junta! They see all this," She pointed at the devastation outside, "as my fault."

I didn't point out aloud that they were at least partially true. However...

"No ruler of Naboo operates in a vacuum. As I understand it, even after the Federation invasion of a decade ago, there weren't enough people on board with Naboo creating a proper military. You did your best after Blue Shadow, however there simply wasn't enough time to do more." I said in a soothing tone. I didn't need her falling apart or trusting me even less than she usually did.

"It wasn't enough!" Neeytnee snapped. "Millions of my people are dead with more to follow! Tens of millions need new homes and will suffer long term effects of all the radiation and toxins released by crashing ships! My world is ruined!" She shouted.

Good. Letting it out of her system might actually help.

"It can be rebuild. Naboo can again be a verdant paradise. It will take time, resources and a lot of hard work, but it is very much doable."

Case of point – Tarsis. The place had more or less recovered by the time of the Cold War between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire. I've been there and I've seen records of the devastation that Revan's apprentice left in his wake. Compared to that, Naboo was barely scratched.

I wisely didn't mention any of that to the Queen. The last thing any of us needed was me pointing out that as often as not we Sith tended to wreck planets when we got serious about war... or just for the kicks...

"We hope you're right, general." Neeytnee composed herself and was back to using her royal voice. "That's not why we requested your presence. There are two points we need to discuss. First Sullust and second, your intentions."

"What about Sullust, your majesty?" I faked confusion. "I did what I said I intended to do when I got there – wreck as much of their industry as possible, steal as many supplies as my fleet could recover and neutralize as many of the Separatist mobile forces in system as practical. While our loses were higher than I'm comfortable with, we virtually achieved all our objectives there."

Neeytnee gave me a withering look. If glares could kill, and I've seen it happen, by all means I should have been reduced to a smoking pile of ash. "You know what we are talking about!" The Queen snapped.

"Is it the gas giant or the moons?" I asked innocently.

"Both damn you!" Her composure was gone again.

"Those moons and the people on them were already dead – no matter if we reduced them in a more conventional manner or not. To speak bluntly, your majesty, killing as many of the skilled workers there as possible was a secondary aim. Doing so ensured that the enemy couldn't use them to rebuild or at other industrial and mining centres. The stunt with the Freedom and the gas giant merely ensured that we got a use of an asset we would have had to abandon and destroy ourselves, not to mention it saved us a lot of ammunition, which considering what happened here today should be enough of a clue why I deemed that a good idea."

"That's monstrous!" Neeytnee recoiled.

"By any reasonable definition of the word, I am a monster, your majesty. Luckily for you and the Republic, I am your monster. As far as my intentions go, once we've straightened up the situation in orbit, I'll be leaving for the Republic proper with as many ships as practical. On the way there we'll hit targets of opportunity and hopefully help keep the enemy's attention away from the Alliance for long enough for you to rebuild a decent defence force or for the GAR to break out of the Core and reinforce this region." I explained in a very rough detail my plans.

=RK=

Part 9

=RK=

Royal palace

Theed

Naboo

A few minutes of trying to persuade the Queen that I wasn't a monster on the loose, but one who knew what was doing and had her and her people's best interests at hand – for admittedly selfish reasons centred around mine and the Mandalorian people's best long-term interests, the other people we were waiting for arrived. Tarkin – very much alive, not surprising considering he hadn't even thought of using his own Flag to ram the enemy with. Behind him walked the Hegemon, Mario Feneti, one of the few reasonable politicians gathered on Naboo; beside him entered Rintone's Ambassador, whose name I misplaced, again. The small group was rounded by a few of the Queen's advisers who chatted amiably with Senator Bog Divinian from Nuralee.

That was a very curious gathering we were going to have – the people who just came to the balcony had no illusions the kind of alliance we had and there shouldn't be division across ideological lines, at least at this meeting; it was going to be all real-politic, and I didn't envy whoever had to sell what was decided here on their more... ideologically inflexible colleagues. For all their dangers, politics back in the Empire had an elegant simplicity compared to what the poor bastards in the Republic had to deal with.

"Your majesty, what's your verdict? Is our resident Sith sane enough to work with?" The Hegemon proved why I liked him most of this bunch and cut right to the heart of the matter.

Neeytnee frowned at Feneti, who gave her a roguish smile in response. "You continue to be uncouth, Hegemon." She followed with an impressive sneer of derision that slid over the man's thick skin without doing any damage to his ego. "To answer your question, we're still on."

"Well, that's good. I'm glad things don't have to get unpleasant." He nodded genially in my direction.

I wondered if they had a concept how unpleasant I could make thinks for them in the fullness of time if they tried to stab me in the back after I wasted so much time and material in an attempt to keep their worlds safe? I could be as petty and vindictive as the worst of the Sith if I had a good enough reason. Or did they expect that I would be gunning for them just for the hell of it after Sullust or something? I actually asked that aloud and everyone looked uneasy at each other in response.

"Really?" I shook my head. "You take a few military targets and people think you've gone insane?" What was wrong with these people, damn it?

"You ignited a gas giant, blew up, set on fire or otherwise wrecked about thirty or so moons. Perhaps more." The Senator pointed out in what he thought was a reasonable argument.

"My engineers actually were in a favour of taking the time and resources needed to create an artificial black hole and use that instead, until I set them right. They're Corellian and didn't have any interactions with me prior to Sullust." I gleefully explained to everyone's consternation.

"I'm surprised you didn't go for that idea." Feneti admitted.

"If I wanted Sullust, the planet, wrecked, I would have found a way to do it. That however, would have been an uncalled for escalation at this point of time. Perhaps if the Separatists lose it completely and begin burning worlds again or break open something as nasty as the Blue Shadow. Again." They were acting as if the enemy didn't escalate to the nasty stuff before us and I was out to wreck worlds, well moons, for the fun.

For the record, it was damn fun, but that was beside the point.

"I agree with the General." Tarkin finally opened his mouth, the troublemaker. "All things considered, he did show remarkable restrain, for a Sith."

That was either a backhand compliment or a thinly veiled insult. I wasn't sure how he intended it the bastard; perhaps neither was he.

"That's rich coming from you." Feneti chuckled, then his face became serious. "The Admiral here tells me we lost most of the fleet."

"We did." I nodded. Only preliminary reports were available, but there were just a handful of fully operational ships from the force commanded by Tarkin and Tigellinus. "However, those ships were well spent. It will take time to crack the data-cores of the ships the Separatists surrendered, the same goes for interrogating their organic commanders, but it looks like today we broke the back of the enemy presence in this whole region of space. They no longer have the local forces to threaten the Alliance."

"The Confederacy at large does have such assets." Senator Divinian said.

"They do and if they actually bother to deal with us, there was nothing we could have done even before the campaign we undertook to keep your worlds safe. The truth is that for the time being the alliance isn't going to be a significant threat. You'll need time to rebuild your defences and fleets before you can even think about any offensive operations. At the same time, I'll be moving on towards the Core and try to focus the enemy's attention on myself." That actually wasn't an outright lie – if we found any juicy soft targets while we made our way home, we were going to hit them and made ourselves scarce before the CIS could muster an overwhelming response.

"Do you really need to?" Asked the Hegemon. "Wouldn't the forces you'll need be better served keeping us safe?"

"That wouldn't better serve the Republic at large and without help from the Core the alliance is likely doomed. While you do have the resources to build up more industry and then fleets, if the Separatists win the war in the next few years, you simply won't be able to create and man a large enough fleet. Besides, as far as ships go, there are some perfectly good Confederacy ones in orbit. The big issue there is going to be manpower and finding out any nasty surprises they've left behind. We aren't exactly leaving you defenceless by stripping everything that can fly and fight."

In fact I didn't want to take too big a fleet with me – doing so would make us threat that the CIS would have no choice but eliminate.

"It's good to hear that the Republic doesn't intent to abandon us. Again." Feneti jabbed.

"We certainly wouldn't have done that if we had an acceptable alternative. Naboo wasn't the only one particularly pacifistically inclined world. Even with the Clone Army, it was a miracle the enemy didn't win before the Republic could recover and begin shifting industries towards war footing." They almost did anyway, despite the Sith and corrupt leadership using the war as a distraction before it took a life on its own. Once the Confederate Council took power and stopped playing around, they came awfully close to winning – how close exactly I would learn only when I got back to Coruscant and had a chat with Obi-Wan. "To stress that point, I'll be leaving Admiral Tarkin around as a liaison between the Republic and the alliance. You my friend will be also in charge of all GAR assets in this whole Western Galactic Quadrant." Not to mention, you'll have to deal with the politics of the alliance you had me sign on off and support. Good luck with that, you'll need it.

"That's one concern addressed, General. We have others." Neeytnee let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"I'm all ears..."

We discussed the military situation, the odds of the CIS throwing an armada or two in to kill everyone and what to do if the worst didn't happen. Only then we were back to the politics of our alliance, which were going to be even more fascinating.

Frankly, while a part of me couldn't believe these people's reactions over my actions at Sullust, there was another that marvelled that there wasn't more fallout. It was only now that I was listening to the people gathered on the balcony that it dawned on me – Satine's declaration that reached more or less the whole galaxy. My sister-in-law was the new Chancellor. My brother-in-law was the Commanding General of the GAR and both of them were Mandalorians.

I was Mandalore.

To make it all better, most politicians who gathered at Naboo along with what forces they could scrape, did so to gain good will and favours with Palpy, the previous Chancellor by officially trying their best to protect his homeworld and not so officially running when overwhelming CIS forces came knocking at their own homes...

"You know, I won't be here for long. A day, perhaps two at the longest and I'm leaving. So please say your pieces plainly." I interrupted a long winded speech by Senator Divinian that was heavy on flowery expressions and very light on substance.

The Hegemon laughed at the pole-axed expression of his colleague. "What Bog is trying to say is that he wants a reassurance that his world's interests will be protected when we re-establish contact with the Republic. He would also like to continue to represent his people in the Senate. We understand that there had been some spectacular upheaval on Coruscant and that you might not be in a position to stick to any specific promises before actually getting there and figuring out what is happening." Feneti smiled. "In fact we're all hoping that there will be some major changes in the future, positive ones."

"That's what we are all striving for, Hegemon. However, it's as you said. I may make any and all promises here and now, but before any of us knows what exactly happened at Coruscant and the Core..." I trailed off. "What I can do is listen to your concern and ensure that they're heard by Chancellor Satine. She will see their importance. The question is what real power she can wield and what she can actually do about them and that something I can't even speculate about at this time."

"In other words, in the end it might be more of the usual." Divinian grumbled.

"Not necessary." I smiled and it was even genuine this time. I caught Tarkin's eyes with my own and he nodded.

Wilhuff and Eriadu were behind changing the Republic into something that would better serve our interests, the same was true for his allies. Now it was time to see how well did he prepare the soil here for any such ideas...

"What do you have in mind?" Divinian asked.

"Why, precisely what you came to Naboo in the first place. I'll facilitate a deal between you and the Chancellor. She might need the support of all the allies she can get to make sure your interests are addressed to a satisfactory degree. While right now Satine might not be in a position to do much to help the alliance, and I'm not talking about the pesky Separatist problem we all have, we can eventually make it so that she can..."

"The General is correct." Tarkin added. "None of us were blind about how the Core treated most of the Rim words. As loath I am to suggest it, some CIS members do have legitimate grievances, some of which many of us share. For all the suffering and destruction this war has caused, it also offers us an opportunity to address grievances that we couldn't even hope to have resolved before. For too long we have been bound to the Republic in a relationship that almost exclusively benefited the Core. While a few of our worlds did do all right for themselves, the vast majority of the Western Quadrant is a mere shadow of what it can be. It's even worse on the Outer Rim."

It was time to see if we could convince these people to eventually back our vision for the future of the galaxy.

=RK=

AN: And this folks is the real reason why Delkatar bothered with the Mid-Rim Alliance. Military speaking, it would be years before they really become relevant after the end of the Mid-Rim campaign, which was fought predominately by GAR vessels that avoided destruction and gathered at Naboo after the CIS grand offensive began. It's all about the long term political and economical support they could offer Delkatar and the Mandalorians once the Republic is able to re-establish contact with that region and reinforce it. What military assets they can eventually bring to the table is going to be a nice bonus but just that – a bonus.