Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Star Wars. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it.
Phase 19: Storm front
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Part 5
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Hangar bay Besh
CIS dreadnought Providence
High orbit above Bothawui
Borsk Fey'lya stood upon the deck of one the newest Separatist dreadnoughts and stared with fury and sorrow at the grey orb that was his species homeworld. Bothawui was dead and even now, weeks after Veil unleashed the horrors of the Force upon it, it was hazardous to go to the surface, for droids, much less people. No one knew when it would be safe to step a foot upon the homeworld, if ever.
Borsk wanted to howl at the unthinkable atrocity. Even now, with the evidence staring him in the face, he found it hard to believe, the shock and stupor that stuck him while he watched it happen, affected him still. The Bothan turned around to stand besides his peers facing the cameras. Borsk was chosen as their speaker for obvious reasons and he was determined to do this right. It might be the single most important thing he did in his remaining life if it worked.
Every single governor from the various Bothan colonies was right behind him showing solidarity. Many Confederate Senators and leaders were right there, including those like Liira Sylvaris who foresaw what was really happening at he heart of the Republic. Borsk regretted that his people hadn't acted sooner, before Veil could get anywhere close to Bothawui and slaughter billions.
"Look at this!" He pointed a clawed finger at the brutalized form of Bothawui seen through the environmental shielding keeping the heat and atmosphere securely into the hangar. "When this monstrous crime happened, I along with anyone sane believed it was an aberration, an act caused by a sick and wretched madman!" Fey'lya paused for effect. "Today, is a tragic day. For today, the Republic shows its true colour!" He declared grandly. "No..." He said subdued. "That's my horror and need for righteous justice speaking." Borsk made a chopping gesture. "I would put blame where it belongs. Today, on Coruscant, we saw the Republic many of us cherished be betrayed, twisted and destroyed. It ended with… applause!" He spat the world with such a loathing that he even surprised himself. "This is the tragedy of our age, my fellow beings! The Sith and their Mandalorian lackeys now control the Senate and the Grand Army of the Republic. Today, they revealed themselves as the tyrants and brutes some of us knew them to be, they condoned the horrors unleashed by Veil!" He looked at the cameras. "The Republic is gone." Borsk added in a lower, sad voice. "This is no longer a war of secession but one of survival, of justice! There can be no peace while power hungry maniacs have the power to ravage whole worlds! I beseech you, all of you, peace loving people of the galaxy! All of you whose hearts cry for justice just as my own! All of you whom have been harmed by the Sith, no matter if they wore the colours of the Republic, the Confederacy or were mad Mandalorian dogs! Come and join is in our fight against tyranny! We will not stop, we will not falter, we will fight with everything we have to bring back justice and liberty to our galaxy!"
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Onara Kuat's residence
Kuat
For the longest time, Onara Kuat was one of the most powerful women in the galaxy. Certainly the most powerful on Kuat. She had done much she wasn't proud of to keep her position and advance her house's and corporation's interests. Her alliance with Satine Kenobi was no different – it offered her an unprecedented opportunity to put Kuat on the head of the Republic and in one fell sweep remove the opposition she faced from certain elements of her own family and supporters.
It appeared to be such a foolproof plan – the new Chancellor would be helpless without the backing of Kuat and it's allies. Sooner or later, Onara would have been the power behind the throne so to speak and thus she would have secured the future of her house. KDY would have become even more obscenely rich and powerful in the process too! She would have been able to act unconstrained by the Republic and Senate, wield more effectively the powers her position gave her and achieve even more! It was a dream come true and for a time said dream was a reality.
The Chancellor often listened to her advice, she arranged to have the thorn's in Onara's side removed and it was only then, when Zash and her retinue arrived, that the director understood how badly she had miscalculated. Now, she watched the drama unfolding in the senate, with Zash and Ahsoka Tano as her guests and all her mutated into nightmares. Onara never believed that Satine could act so openly, much less get away with it, yet… She glanced at the Sith she hosted.
Veil and this impossible woman, they changed the equation. What use were Kuat's vast and powerful fleets when someone who could potentially destroy the whole world by herself was already on the surface? Right beside her too!
"Oh, I how I find myself liking our Chancellor!" Zash laughed happily as she watched Satine speak. The Sith stopped paying attention to the broadcast and focused her attention upon Onara. "I believe that some changes in the relationship between Coruscant and Kuat are in order, don't you, dear?"
The director could only nod in resignation.
"Good. You'll be scheduling a meeting with the Board of Directors soon, then. After we're done there, we'll be having a talk with the officers commanding your navy."
Onara felt like a trapped animal who had the undivided attention of a hungry predator. This wasn't right! What Zash insinuated should by all means see Onara breaking up with the Republic, perhaps even joining the Separatists out of spite! She wanted to call in her security detail and have the Sith shot… however Onara doubted that they would answer and even if Zash allowed them, it would only be to make an example.
The director closed her eyes and nodded in surrender. She didn't know how and when she ended up in this position. It was slow, subtle, until one day, her security, the people she could trust, they had fallen under the Sith's thrall. The only recourse Onara could think off ended with her dead and likely Zash following in Veil's footsteps with Kuat. She remembered vividly attempting to threaten the Sith when it became clear what she was doing and shuddered in disgust and terror at the memory…
"You will turn upon us, will you, dear Onara? Ensure that the Republic loses the war? Use your toy soldiers and nice little ships to depose or even kill the Chancellor?" Zash laughed in the face.
"I will!" Onara was unwavering.
"Then what use do I have or you or Kuat? Do you know that what my apprentice kriffed up at Bothawui when done right will keep me alive for hundreds of years without a worry of ageing or weakening?" Zash gave her predatory smile. Her eyes shone with malevolent orange light and black poisonous veins bulged under her skin making it seem as if her face was a cracked leather mask.
At that moment, Onara had no doubt – she had made a deal with the devil and she was calling her bluff. Kuat's eyes darted at her comm unit and she knew the Sith could prevent her from using it with a thought. Yet…
"I don't particularly care if the Republic loses this war. For me that would be merely an inconvenience. You however, you do care if you live or die. You even care for Kuat, don't you Onara? You value it more than I value the Republic emerging victorious. So go on, make that call, see what happens."
There was no pity, nor remorse in Zash's eyes. Only malevolent hunger.
Onara shook and bit off a sob. She couldn't even rely on the young Jedi for support. The moment she threatened to abandon or even turn on the Republic over Zash's actions, that Togruta looked ready to gut her on the spot. Even now, Tan looked her with undisguised loathing and mistrust.
Ahsoka on the other hand found it impossible to sympathize with the director. It was people like Onara Kuat who tore the Republic apart with their petty ambitions! Even now, during the Republic's, perhaps the galaxy's darkest hour, all that woman was interested in was her little kingdom and how to put it ahead of everyone and damn the consequences! It was people just like her that made this necessary and Ahsoka found herself hatting Onara for forcing her to comprehend that truth from the bottom of her heart. She hated her even more for justifying Zash's methods by proving that the Republic couldn't trust Kuat nor the people who ran it.
"Shh. It's fine." Zash said soothingly. "There are way to handle those like her." She smiled at Onara and the director blanched.
"Yes. Yes, there are." Ahsoka agreed while looking with contempt at the director. She ruthlessly suppressed her side that rebelled at what she was doing and condoning. This war had to end and anyone who stood in the way of victory, anyone who endangered the people she was responsible for along with her friends, they deserved what they got.
Zash looked at her, nodded and smiled in approval. That little gesture brought both elation and made her feel dirty.
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Interlude: Jedi woes I
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ONI safe house
Alderaan
Mace Windu was a man with many regrets. Today, all he feared and fought to prevent, came to pass. The Republic was gone, all but officially proclaimed as a Sith backed, Mandalorian dictatorship. The ultimate guarantor of civilization in the galaxy fell on his watch and his failure was directly responsible. There would be no peace with Sith and Mandalorians twisting and corrupting everything in sight. Now, he not only had to fight to defeat them but to bring down the corruption that replaced his precious Republic before its legacy was tarnished beyond repair. He knew that given enough time the Sith would make the very idea of a return of the shining beacon of civilization that was the Republic and everything it stood for all but unthinkable.
There was no choice now – with the direct attempt to remove the Sith from power a failure and the Republic institutions failing to a coup of a Mandalorian and Sith manufacture, it was time to ensure that the abomination that masked as the Republic lost the war. This was one of the unstated "benefits" of the Council going for a coup when they did – in a case of failure, the Republic would be weakened and the odds of the Sith winning the war while taking over the Republic would be significantly diminished. Now, no matter how distasteful it was, it fell to Windu and his compatriots to ensure that everything the Sith worked for was for naught. Once the dictatorship lost and the Sith eliminated, then the Separatists could be dealt with at a leisure if it proved necessary at all. It did them credit after all that they saw the Sith in their midst for what they truly were and managed to remove them from power! Yet, at the same time, it grated that the Jedi failed where the Confederacy succeeded!
Windu wondered, again, would things have turned differently if the Jedi hadn't faltered when Veil revealed himself for the first time. He still didn't know what Yoda was thinking and cursed himself for not acting sooner. The best chance he had was possibly when the Sith so conveniently came to the rescue during the Separatist raid on the Jedi Temple. Hindsight being what it was, it was now obvious that whole episode had been a set up to legitimize Veil, seed doubt among the more impressionable members of the Order, a divide and conquer tactic the Sith executed flawlessly. Perhaps he should have acted then, when he had the chance to take out Veil, yet then Sidious would have used that opportunity to execute Order 66 then and there. It had been a no win situation, especially when the Jedi didn't know that the enemy had wormed his way to the heart of the Republic, to the Chancellor's office itself!
Thinking back… Windu couldn't see what the Jedi could have done better given the circumstances. The Sith had to be opposed, no matter the odds. He admitted to himself he was afraid to think what would happened if Sidious had survived and continued to use his charisma and contacts in his Palpatine guise against both the Jedi and the Republic! Then the Sith would have been in a much, much stronger position right now and all too many systems would be flocking to their cause instead of shying away. It was clear now that Palpatine was the face of the Sith, the "nice" one who could make people flock to their cause. For all their power and the danger they represented, Veil and Zash were the lesser evils, because if right now the Sith had the unquestioned backing of the whole Core, stopping them might have proven impossible even if the Jedi had somehow fled intact instead of going after Sidious.
That didn't meant he found the outcome acceptable! One Sith was dead, while two more still ran wild and they were busy corrupting the cradle of civilization itself and poor bastards like Kenobi!
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Interlude: A Master and apprentice
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Aria found herself examining another memory. This one was of a scandalous clad human woman who wouldn't pass muster even as a low paid prostitute. She was a Sith too – the dark bulging veins marring her once pretty face and the malevolently glowing eyes were a hint enough.
"Why are you showing me this, Master?" Aria asked, her distaste evident in her voice.
"This..." Veil spat, "Was technically my first apprentice, though she never deserved such a lofty title. She was the first Jedi I turned and I'm showing you this as a cautionary story. There was no doubt that Jaesa Wilsaam was gifted and had a tremendous potential."
"That didn't work too well for her I take it?"
"Turning her to the Dark Side broke her. She revelled in the darkness, the pleasures it brought her, the sense of undisputed power. All her potential, her skills, wasted. If you decide to walk the path of the Sith, remember this, Aria, the Dark Side is our tool. It is a means of an end, a power to be utilized. The same is true for violence, terror, torture and murder. If you are not careful, they will become the end in itself, the Dark Side will twist you until you are merely a shadow of your former self."
The memory shifted and Aria saw some of Jaeasa's excesses – murder for the hell of it, torture for the sheer fun, a few orgies she took part of only to be dragged away by Veil because they had work to do, though Aria wasn't sure what that was an issue until she saw the corpses in Imperial uniforms and armour… She saw the moment Wilsaam definitely became more trouble she was worth and Baars' need for her special talent to divine the truth was no longer so highly prised… After that, she swore to herself never to give her master a reason to make an example of her…
"On the other hand," Veil continued as if what he did to Jaesa was of no consequence, "If you master the Dark Side, if you avoid falling for its corruption, the rewards are substantial. Freedom, from restrain, from your own limits, potentially, freedom from death itself. Not to mention, that you wouldn't need to constantly mind and manage your emotions as the Jedi must at the best of times."