AN: My efforts to rewrite and update Rosie Knight I had been stymied by lack of motivation and tons of other projects to work on, so instead I'll implement some of the ideas for fleshing it up and explaining certain issues better in the form of interlude in RK II and the future RK III, with the plan being to eventually stitch some of them together and update RK I as well. In no particular order, I'll be touching more in-depth why the war had been stalemating in various fronts, and showing it, expanding on the ORR and CIS leadership, especially after the coup, etc... As far as the Jedi go, I'll be showing the thought process of certain conservative members of the Order better, though I still can't wrap my head around why people believe that the Jedi acted out of character by going for the coup, when in my mind their biggest OOC actions are centered on not moving against Veil much sooner and damn the legality of it or the consequences.
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.
Interlude: Galaxy at War – Glorious Annihilation
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Today's spotlight goes to the Capza system in the eastern fringes of the Mid Rim. The system as a whole and the primary inhabited world in it, were a part of the now defunct Velcar Free Commerce zone. They served as a focal point for vicious fighting ever since the start of the Confederate Grand Offensive. In the months leading to the launch of Operation Star Hammer, Capza exchanged hands multiple times as the front-lines see-sawed for dozens, often hundreds of light years in every direction. It took eight invasions and counter invasions on top of no less than fifteen fleet battles in orbit to rend the lush tropical world, a dying, poisoned hell. Just two weeks ago, the Republic officially announced that the last survivors from the local civilian population had been successfully evacuated. Fighting on the surface continues between elements of the GAR and a Droid Army trying to establish long range scanners and ground to orbit weapon emplacements on Capza.
Nearly a year of constant fighting saw Capza's defense forces ground to virtual annihilation. We were unable to contact any survivors from their ground forces and currently there is a single known officer left from Capza's System Defense Navy…
As the narrator spoke, images of a once pleasant tropical world came to countless screens showing the planet in all its glory only to be replaced with gray ravaged ground choked by smoke clouds and bleached by radiation. Battered trenches and rows upon rows of destroyed vehicles replaced sparkling beaches, fields of closed caskets covered with both the Republic's and Capza's flags took the place of chaotic, colorful crowds. A shot of near-orbit complete with freighters coming and going, followed by shinny luxury liners bringing people to enjoy their well deserved vacations came next, only for edited footage of the space battles in the system to replace it, ending up with a long range picture of the planet, complete with an artificial ring of wreckage. The camera zoomed in, showing broken ships – both Republic and Separatist alike, being tended by repair and salvage crews, who dug into their innards like parasites.
Captain Jonam Brown is a young Zabrak, who graduated from the Capza's small naval academy just two years ago. The heavy fighting saw him rise quickly through the ranks until he found himself the most senior officer in the diminished SDF, commanding their pride and joy, the Dreadnought Cruiser, Glorious Annihilation.
The image changed, showing a young, scarred Zabrak in a bright blue naval uniform on what was an old fashioned exposed bridge issuing orders.
Captain Brown led the defense of his home-world until the end, when during the fifteenth battle for Capza, its SDF was virtually annihilated while protecting the last evacuation convoys racing to flee the system with their precious cargo. Today, the Captain is one of the youngest Star Destroyer commanders in the Republic navy, commanding his old ship's namesake, the Venator Star Destroyer Glorious Annihilation.
One of our reporters met Captain Brown at the Yaga Minor salvage yards, where his ship was a part of the defense force. He had taken a few hours to see the end of his old command – the wreck of the first Glorious Annihilation had been retrieved a week prior, deemed usalvageable and after everything of use had been stripped out, it was about to be broken up for the raw material.
"Good afternoon, Captain Brown. I'm Hoff Truggen from GNN's The Galaxy At War. Thank you for agreeing to speak with us."
"It's no bother. Besides, people in the Core need to see, to understand the kind of war we're all fighting." The Captain waved away Truggen's concerns. Despite him being in his early twenties, Brown appeared much older now, especially when compared to his previous image – taken just five months earlier.
"What can you tell us about the Separatist invasion of Capza, the fighting there and the war in this part of space in general?" The reporter inquired.
"That's a loaded question. It's hard to speak about home, what used to be home..." A painful grimace twisted Brown's features. "Capza used to be the jewel of the sector – a trade hub doubling down as a great resort destination for people of at least a dozen nearby sectors. Business was great, the economy had been booming for generations, which explains how we could afford to maintain a small but well equipped and trained System Defense Force." His grimace turned ugly. "Then the Separatist came." He looked through the window of the shuttle, to the breaking yard outside. Out there, the gutted hull of his first command could be seen being slowly led to be cut to manageable pieces for smelting.
Captain Brown remained silent for a few long seconds before continuing. "Our first brush with war turned out all right – it was just one enemy scouting squadron and we were reinforced by two Republic battle groups. We won that skirmish handily, loosing only fifteen fighters and suffering light damage across a few ships – nothing that we couldn't fix by ourselves. We felt like we were on top of the world at that moment." The Captain chuckled bitterly. "Then the Separatists threw a whole sector fleet at us, and even though we were heavily reinforced by then, it simply wasn't enough. The enemy ground down our defenses and landed two army groups planet side, sending them against critical targets – the planetary shield complex, logistics hubs and power stations. Our Guard had been augmented by ill trained volunteers and two Clone Legions. They should have been able to hold out long enough for us to win in space and provide the support they needed to win as well." Brown shook his head. "Instead, we were forced to fall back to Yaga Minor, regroup and counter-attack a week later. We managed to retake the orbitals during Third Capza, but by then our ground forces were ground down to the bone, and the civilian casualties." He sighed and looked away.
What Brown saw was a sorry sight – his once proud ship was under the knife so to speak, being cut apart in earnest.
"I was an ensign during the First Capza. I was Lieutenant when the dust settled after the Third. Made Commander after the eight and ended up as the Annihilation's XO during the ninth. By then, it was just her and a pair of battered escorts, which didn't survive the next battle… From what I heard, and saw, the situation on the ground was even worse, though I can still scarcely believe it. It was pure hell in space – we spent ships like water, throwing whole battle groups, hastily gathered fleets, which hadn't worked together for a single day at the enemy so we could keep them from striking distance of critical targets deeper within Republic territory. Just here in our little corner of the galaxy, there are hundreds if not thousands worlds like my Capza – all suffering as collateral damage, with little but broken fleets and wiped out ground units to show for it. That's why the Core is still more or less safe – the people out here and especially the military had been paying the price for it with blood. We're still doing it and we'll keep doing it until the Separatists are no more or we're all ground to dust."
=RK=
Interlude: The Rise and Fall of the Jedi Order 1
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The modern Jedi Order, the one we knew from the Clone Wars era… There are whole libraries worth of articles and analysis written about them, especially in the years after their infamous failed coup. Why did the Jedi betray the Republic in such a spectacular fashion at such a critical time? That's the most important question many people in the Empire ask themselves, while those in the Confederacy and the various break away states either have a simple answer or don't even bother to ask this particular question, because for them it is obvious – the Jedi didn't betray the Republic, they merely opposed its corruption and perversion into a Sith and Mandalorian run Empire.
In this book, we'll begin by asking a different question. Why did certain members of the now defunct Jedi Order find themselves believing that they had no recourse but to go for a coup? Why did they choose arguably the worst possible time for it?
To answer these two leading questions, we need to go way back. All the back of the Ruusan Reformation in fact. During the Reformation, the Jedi disbanded their military force, the equally famous and infamous Army of Light and officially took a step back from politics. Reading between the lines, with the Sith believed destroyed for good, the Jedi of the time no longer believed that they had be as involved as they were with both politics and the galaxy as a whole. In this author's opinion, it was that decision more than anything else, which ultimately led to the events we witnessed and experienced during the Clone Wars.
To put it bluntly, the Jedi did a poor job of stepping away from politics. I do believe that the Order itself, especially the Jedi Council did see themselves as largely apolitical, a trend they kept until the Clone Wars. The Jedi officially didn't take sides, didn't meddle, they merely advised if asked, provided mediation or investigated. I can see how they saw themselves apart from the games going on in the Senate and behind the scenes of the political performance that was the Republic.
People in power didn't see it that way. Lightsaber diplomacy was very much a thing in their eyes, something to be wary about. All it took was for the Chancellor or certain high placed Senators to pull the strings, sometimes merely ask, and the Jedi would dispatch investigators or negotiators to settle down disputes.
This author won't argue that the Jedi failed when called in such roles, more often than not they did succeed. They did good job, earned themselves goodwill with the side they supported. Inevitably, almost every such intervention also won them enemies, they stepped on toes, and wittingly or unwittingly, became tools for the powers that be running the Republic to us against their rivals. The Jedi Order as a whole did little to nothing in order to address this steadily growing animosity. Further, there were just ten thousand Jedi of various ranks by the time the Clone Wars began. It is not a stretch to say that the great majority of people on Coruscant itself, much less the galaxy had never met or even seen a Jedi in person or even the holonet beyond holo-dramas. All people had to go on was rumors… and when all was said and done, the good the Jedi did was seldom covered by the news. In fact, many of their greatest achievements and successes were done humbly and quietly avoiding the spotlight.
In contrast, every failure and controversy that became public was often blown out of proportion. Those were certainly newsworthy – one of the things people love more than their heroes is to gleefully watch said heroes be tarnished and torn down. It sells.
It didn't help that when the war began, while many Jedi did distinguished themselves, at least as many proved totally unsuited for combat command, with disastrous results, which led the GAR as a whole to view their Jedi commanders as a mixed bag at best. There were units that swore by their space wizard leaders, while others were tempted to shoot them in the back from nearly day one, or so the rumor mill goes. Certainly, when Order 66 came, certain units couldn't wait to shoot first, ask questions never, and it wasn't necessary because of the Clone's conditioning. At the same time, the reason a number of Jedi survived those dark days was their good relationship with their subordinates combined with Generals Veil and Valentra altering Order 66…
=RK=
To summarize, the view of the Jedi as heroes was far from universal across the Republic. To a large extent, it was more or less indifferent during the opening stages of the Clone Wars. Their mixed performance as commanders was a double-edged sword.
And then, General Delkatar Veil, future Mandalore the Restorer and a Dark Lord of the Sith came to the stage and began his rise within the military. His tactics and strategies worked, even if they escalated the war. This I believe is an often overlooked aspect, especially nowadays. Back then, in the months leading to the Separatists' Grand Offensive, the Clone Wars were seen as merely a civil war, and once won, the enemy's systems and people would have to be re-integrated back into the fold with as little disruption as possible. My thoughts on the matter was that the Jedi held back from utilizing "effective" tactics as a matter of course in order to preserve as much of the Separatists people and infrastructure to make it easier for the Republic to recover after the war. It was a commendable, often overlooked and disregarded effort, and unfortunately, ultimately a futile one.
Many saw General Veil's actions as those of a hero, he was winning battles, liberating worlds and striking back at the enemy, making them feel the pain of loss and perhaps rethink their vicious tactics, perhaps even come to the table and negotiate a peaceful resolution before the war could escalate even further, now that the CIS leadership knew it was far from untouchable. To the Jedi and those who did had their history lessons empathize how bad the Sith of the past were, and later, the Mandalorians, they saw the General's actions in a different light. He wasn't merely an effective military commander, he was a subversive element gaining a concerning amount of popularity. Even worse, he normalized vicious reprisals, orbital strikes and for all intents and purposes, fighting less and less restrained war in the name of victory.
Worst of all, with him being a competent veteran leader who brought back victories, people listened to him, supported his tactics, supported him. Soon, he could do little wrong in the eyes of his supporters, while to those who opposed him, Veil's every action was aimed to subvert, corrupt and twist first the military, then certain Senators, the Chancellor himself, and even beyond – the Republic's society itself. For certain members of the Jedi Order, the General soon grew in a greater threat than the Confederacy as a whole, more dangerous even than a complete Separatist victory.
This culminated in the infamous confrontation between General Veil, who had just ascended as Mandalore, in the Senate upon his return from the Mandalorian capital world. These days is taken as a given that said Senate hearing was the one last chance for a peaceful resolution of the tensions building between the Jedi Order, the Jedi's allies in the Senate and General Veil and his own supporters, including Chancellor Palpatine himself.
Unfortunately, the leaders of the Conservative faction among the Jedi misread the situation, and ultimately their failure to successfully address their grievances the proper way led to the Jedi Coup. That failure in the first place came as a surprise to many, but no more than to the Jedi themselves. In hindsight, the reason was simple – the Jedi had stood apart for too long, isolated themselves too well from the mainstream society of the Republic in general and to some extent, from the Senate as well… The Jedi lived with the misconception that their name and prestige, the legacy of good deeds done by the Order during the past thousand years would be enough. Perhaps, in a better world, it would have been.
Instead, the Jedi Masters who went to confront General Veil at the Senate during the hearing over him becoming Mandalore, ran head-first into the ugly side of Republic politics. Post war interviews with surviving Senators who attended the hearing show that it was to a large extent pre-determined before it even began. General Veil and Chancellor Palpatine had spent the time since Mandalore's arrival to rig the deck in their favour and make the necessary deals which would mitigate or fully neutralize the fallout of the hearing. To the Jedi, their failure to see General Veil removed from power and his influence excised was an unmitigated disaster. What was worse, they saw the outcome of the hearing as a proof that Veil in particular and the Sith in general had achieved at least a partial control of the Republic and were well on their way of fully corrupting and subverting it.
On the face of it, such a conclusion sounds insane, right? Well, it is merely a proof of how disconnected certain Jedi were from the galaxy as a whole. To the Jedi Council, especially the conservative Jedi, the threat of the Dark Side, people who had fallen to it, and especially the Sith, had always been the greatest. In comparison, the Clone Wars were merely a side-show, an inconvenient distraction – that by the way is a quote, almost word for word, from former Jedi General Kota, one of the people who led the Jedi Coup.
To the rest of the galaxy, a religious dispute between the few Jedi and a handful of Sith running around was of no consequences. The Clone Wars, their price, how they impacted the balance of power within the Republic, how to take advantage of it and how to win them were what people cared about, generally in the above order as well, which doesn't say good things about the priorities of the local governments that made up the Republic. The less said about the many of the Senators and their own priorities, the better...