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: The Twilight of the Republic, an essay
=RK=
Twenty five thousand years. It has a nice ring to it, does it not? That was how long the Republic has existed in one form or another. Twenty five thousand years. That is longer than many of the know sapient species across the galaxy had enjoyed the benefits of a technological civilization, longer than many civilizations recorded history.
It is a great number, so great in fact that the organic minds able to fully comprehend it both intellectually or emotionally, much less both, are few and far between in a galaxy of countless souls.
In that span of time, the Republic has faced many enemies, both internal and external, it had won many struggles, lost some, it has even been destroyed on multiple occasions only to rise up from the ashes. There had been very few constants in this eternity it has existed. The most important one is that more often than not, the Republic had enjoyed a status of undisputed regional, later galactic hegemon. External enemies came and went, most of them had been consigned to the annals of history and forgotten by all but dedicated historians.
What has always remained the same is that the primary strategic threat, source of rivalry and competition for many of the various Republic members, especially in the Core had been their compatriots within the Republic instead of any of the countless threats the Republic as a whole had faced. This unpleasant reality had always been compounded by the simple fact that the Republic had never been a real nation, even if during various periods of its history it has done great job to foster such feelings among its far flung citizenry.
Recently, this fact was firmly illustrated by the infamous Naboo Crisis, where one Republic member, the Trade Federation, invaded another – the pacifist planet of Naboo. We all know how the Senate reacted – there was no universal condemnation of the aggression. In fact, first the Senate couldn't officially, and thus legally, agree that there had been an invasion in the first place even when Queen Amidala, the elected Monarch of Naboo came to beg her case in front of the full Senate Assembly. There were denials, calls for proof, demands for the Senate to form a commission, which was to investigate if the claims of invasion were genuine, before the Senate could begin to even discuss a course of action.
Something like this couldn't have happened within an equal body of any functional nation, no matter if it planetary, system wide or if it encompassed multiple systems or even sectors. For many citizens, even whole governments, the impotency of the Senate they just witnessed was a proof that the system was fundamentally broken. At best that was a bug in the system, one that had to be fixed.
I would argue to the contrary – the Senate being locked down into inaction was no bug, it was a feature! Something like that happening was a safety valve, a legal and peaceful way for Republic members to block, veto if you will, decisions which they would find unacceptable in a way that bought more time for diplomacy and negotiations to run their course. The reason was simple – not all Republic members are equal, neither in population, nor in industry, much less in soft and hard power.
Kuat, Corellia, Alkasan, Anaxes, Coruscant, and many, many others, no matter if they were individual systems, leaders of alliances spanning whole sectors, with all that entailed, or certain individual planets holding incredible power and influence compared to most regular Republic members, there were many powers within the Republic which stood apart. They weren't even first among equals, they played and still play on a whole different league compared to the average Republic member. The fact is, that the Republic wouldn't exist in its current form, in any form that we would really recognize, if it wasn't for the consent and participation of these powers. Despite the attempts of certain Chancellors and political blocks to reform the Republic and diminish the power of such entities, over the centuries and millennia, they had met with only short lived success.
The last such attempt was nearly a thousand years ago during the Ruusan Reformation, which shaped the Republic which we know today.
To many of those powers, a system that could force terms upon them by simply outvoting them would have been unacceptable, it would have been viewed as an avenue to be exploited by their rivals by enticing, bribing and threatening third parties into voting the "right" or "wrong" way to achieve their agenda… or an avenue they could use against their competitors provided that said competition consented on becoming a part of the Republic.
On the other hand, giving outright veto power to said entities, would have been too disruptive, perhaps even disastrous for the Republic as a whole. It would have been a constant, blatant reminder to all smaller member states, and especially their citizens, that individually their votes didn't count for much if anything at all. Yet the truth is that it would have been extremely hard and ruinously costly to force terms on systems like Kuat and Corellia at the best of times, and that is before taking into account their individual networks of close allies. Between their wealth, industrial and military capacity, there is very little the Republic could actually do to them if they declined to comply with a Senate directive. In fact, the results could have been catastrophic for everyone involved.
For the longest time, such potentially disastrous confrontations had been sidestepped by a simple expedient – within the legal framework of the Republic there are levers that allow its member states to tie down the Senate in red tape for years, perhaps even decades and thus shelve away decisions that they find unacceptable. In theory large majority within the Senate backing a strong Chancellor could resolve such deadlocks in a relatively short amount of time.
In practice, the Republic hadn't had a powerful Chancellor in centuries, because the powers of the post had been slowly eroded and bound with an ever increasing number of legal tightropes…
This crude analysis begs the question, why did the Republic last as long as it did, if it could be made into a dysfunctional mess by any of its many member states on a whim? Simply put, it was generally too useful to discard. It brought an unprecedented age of peace and prosperity, one that was felt most acutely across the Core. However, now that the Naboo Crisis is behind us, the crack in the system had become very much visible for the whole galaxy to see. There is an increasing number of Mid and Outer Rim systems, which chafe under the laws and status quo imposed by the dominant Core. That in itself is an old sentiment, there had always been some amount of strife between the Core, the old colonies and the those who made up the periphery at the time. The primary difference nowadays is that with the obvious exception of the Unknown Regions the galaxy has been explored to its economic limit, colonization of new worlds ha been slowing down since before the New Sith Wars and the systems on the fringe of the Republic had grown, both in population and industry. Yet, they are still on the outside, they still are either sources of resources to feed the ravenous appetite of the Core's industry or mere transit hubs denied a large percentage of the tariffs and taxes many of their equivalents deeper within the Republic gather.
Barring a reform, there is the potential for the chasm between the Core of the Republic an its outlying regions to grow until the situation becomes untenable. This is an issue which needs to be addressed in the coming decades and centuries before the Outer Rim grows powerful and desperate enough to seek an extra legal redress of a status quo that hasn't served its interests for a long time now.
RK=
Interlude: Jedi Master Rancisis
=RK=
From the Journal of Jedi Master Oppo Rancisis, recovered during Operation Headhunter
There are days I can hardly recognize the Jedi Order any more. We are working with a Sith! A damned Sith! As if that wasn't enough, there are young impressionable Padawans and even Knights who are taking notice and if I'm not wrong, are ready to take that madman as a role model! Can't Yoda and the rest see that we're blissfully walking down a dark path? What do they need to see things clearly, another sack?
All right, not that I got that off my chest and took a few minutes to meditate and calm down, I can almost understand why some people see the utility in using Veil's skills. There is no doubt that he is an effective military commander, which should be no surprise, the man is an artifact of a past, barbaric age. Yet, that's precisely why he is so dangerous! I can already see what he is trying to do – reshape the military in his own ruthless image, escalate the war in the name of victory and if it was just that, he would be merely a dangerous element, not much different than a number of other high ranked officers who might get "ideas" because of the war.
However, Veil is a powerful Sith. It is in his nature to loathe the Jedi. I have no doubt whatsoever that he has plans both for the Jedi Order and the Republic as a whole, plans that if we're lucky, we won't live to regret if we let him carry them out…
With every new battle Veil wins, my fears are proven to be true. What is happening at Geonosis is beyond the pale, its precisely what we Jedi tried our best to prevent from happening by pursuing tactics and strategies that leave both the worlds we defend and attack as intact as possible. Sooner or later we will win this war and then it would be time to bring the Separatists systems back in the fold. Every atrocity, every strike at critical infrastructure target, every civilian death the GAR causes, would make this task that much harder. Every such action binds our enemy closer together out of justified fear, hatred and the desire of vengeance… And I'm afraid that's precisely what Veil wants. He doesn't want a quick, nor clean end of the Clone Wars. He wants, needs the war to expand, both in scope and ruthlessness shown by both sides. That would make him useful for longer, give him more time to subvert and corrupt not only those poor souls under his command but the Republic's military as a whole and the politicians he has regular dealings with.
=RK=
Geonosis is a prime example of what will happen if we don't stop him! I've read the reports, seen the images from reconnaissance assets! The Republic army under Veil's command is busy dismantling Geonosis' infrastructure. By the time the battle is over, we will be guilty of the direct murder of millions, if not tens of millions, and in the following weeks and months, orders of magnitude more of the locals will perish due to breakdown of essential services and lack of vital supplies.
This is a war-crime as efficient as any other, and if there is any justice in this universe, Veil will suffer the consequences of his actions. Yet, I fear that the military High Command sees only results – a world taken much more cheaply than they feared, a massive enemy fleet shattered with acceptable losses. They can't see the bigger picture, or perhaps they don't want to. We must do something, before its too late…
=RK=
It happened, I was part of it, yet I can scarcely believe it. It… I… I find it hard to articulate how I feel right now, even harder to put into words what happened during the Senate Hearing.
We went in front of the Senate after Veil returned as Mandalore, after he brought back Obi-Wan Kenobi married to the Mandalorian Duchess Satine Kryze, the Mandalorian's former leader.
It's was a farce, that much I can say for sure. What I can't comprehend is how did we misread the disposition of the Senate to such an extent, and what is perhaps even worse, that of the Republic citizens. Force there are protests in Veil's support! The Senate itself, its disheartening to see how many of the Senators there were ready to throw their lot behind the Sith, behind the Mandalorians, as if history meant nothing to them! It is as if they don't care about the atrocities that man is trying to make standard tactic for our military! There are countless people cheering Veil for his actions at Geonosis, happy that he murdered millions! I simply can't understand it. He couldn't have influenced that many regular citizens with his mere presence, right? Yet, that's what I fear now more than anything else! If this trend continues, if the Senate, the GAR and even the regular people on the street are behind further escalation of the war, if they are happy about it and continue to reward the man who set us upon this path of ruin… Then I fear for the Republic, its citizens, its very soul.
=RK=
The Force help me, we're running out of time. We can't let Veil do any more damage or the Republic might never recover. People, many Jedi among them, they're simply willfully blind to the real danger. They see the obvious threat – the Confederacy with its fleets and droid armies, yet they're blind for the poisoned blade thrust into their backs. The days grow darker, more and more people cheer Veil for his monstrous acts, there are more and more demands that we respond in kind to every slight and wound the Confederacy had inflicted us or might inflict in the future. Its eye for an eye until the whole galaxy is blind and at the nonexistent mercy of the Sith.
Did he plan it this way from the very beginning?
I am afraid, that much I can admit. In my nightmares, I see a twisted mockery of the Republic that brought the galaxy an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity. I see an endless age of conflict coming, one cheered by and supported by twisted poor souls. I see a short sighed Senate mired in graft and blind to the truth, I see it being further and further corrupted with the few good people in it being silenced by power hungry masses.
I see the very fabric of the Republic tearing as the tumor that is Veil grows and spreads. If we don't excise it soon, then there won't be a Republic to save, instead there will be a monster wearing its skin as a twisted guise, one which we'll have to somehow put down for the good of the whole galaxy. We simply can't let it get that far or I fear that the New Sith Wars and all the horrors of the Clone Wars will pare in comparison to what Veil and those twisted by him will wreak over the galaxy...