28 ABY
Unknown Regions
Ilum
"Shuttle Tyderium requesting deactivation of the planetary shield."
The humming of the ship filled the cockpit as it flew down towards the arctic planet.
"Shuttle Tyderium please transmit clearance code." Came the returning message.
"Affirmative, transmitting now."
The pilot reached up and flicked the switch to begin the transmission.
A moment followed before there was a response. "Shuttle Tyderium you are cleared. Please proceed to hangar TK-421."
"Affirmative."
The shuttle banked downwards towards the planet, passing the battle group of star destroyers, travelling along the massive planetary trench. The weapon assembly dwarfing all other proportions.
The shuttle passed over the muzzle of the planetary cannon, before it ducked into a large hangar.
Jackson descended the ramp to a waiting squad of the red armoured praetorian guards. They motioned to follow him, and escorted him through the winding hallways of the planetary citadel.
Soon, they reached the all too familiar giant doors, the six pointed emblem of the old sith empire emblazoned upon them.
They opened, and the escorting praetorians remained by the door as Jackson marched forward.
Before him, on the towering throne, stood the haunched, scarred form of Snoke. His leering eyes watching Jackson's advance.
Jackson stopped before him, tilting his head slightly in respect to his title.
"Supreme Leader." He greeted, stoically.
"Jackson." Was the cold response.
"I completed the task you requested. The Jedi learners are currently en route, and were acquired mostly without incident." Jackson reported. "Though I still have my reservations as to the action."
"I'm more than aware of your objections, Grand Marshall. Though you would do well to remember who sits upon this throne." Snoke lorded.
"You would do better to remember who built it." Jackson replied, coldly.
A tense silence followed, Snoke staring daggers into him, before he leant back, huffing in amusement.
"I knew the Emperor had chosen a good one. How nice to see an officer with a backbone for once." Snoke said, his voice echoing throughout the grand chamber.
Jackson waited a second before continuing. "Regardless, the new republic is bound to notice an attack on the one remaining Jedi temple. Skywalker at least."
"The new republic," Snoke began, "Is so bogged down by galactic bureaucracy they cannot afford to notice."
"You underestimate them. New republic intelligence is still attempting to investigate the ships and resources that were wiped from the records, and they're closing in." Jackson continued.
Anger simmered in Snoke, plain to see. It was moments like now that he was thankful for the small amounts of ysalamiri skin woven into his uniform that prevented Snoke from attacking him with the force.
"I trust you have been rectifying this issue?" Snoke leered.
"We have assassinated the lead senator of the committee and eliminated the chief case officer within new republic intelligence in what will seem as an unfortunate purrgil collision." Jackson replied, maintaining his nerve.
"An excellent means of cover up." Snoke commended.
"In addition, the new republic is also increasing their surveillance on these 'cultists' you seem so fond of." Jackson finished.
"Those cultists will serve a purpose, as will you, as will everything." Snoke lectured. "They are under the control of the sith eternal, and therefore not your concern."
"These cultists, are attracting unwanted attention, and making it harder for my forces to operate." Jackson replied.
"Hm. Very well." Snoke replied. "And what of the plan?"
Jackson was silent for a moment. "I've begun laying the foundation, but I'm hesitant to begin until we know the progress of the weapon."
Snoke was silent as he took Jackson's answer. "Very well. Just remember that everything hinges on the plan."
Jackson nodded. "Do you have any news on the final directive?"
The air within the large throne room grew quiet. Snoke's brow furrowed, before he turned to his guards.
"Leave us."
A moment passed as the red armoured praetorians filed out of the room.
"The search continues, though my explorers are making little progress. We must find the map to it." Snoke explained.
"You are searching for a device, the size of a fist, in the entire galaxy. We would make better time using our current methods." Jackson replied, ever the strategist.
Snoke clearly wasn't happy with the answer. "You are dismissed, grand martial. Begin your work on the plan. The weapon will be ready by then."
Jackson nodded his head and turned on his heel, marching out of the room. As he walked through the planetary base, he looked into the various halls within, the white kaminoan interior betrayed the nature of the activities within, the large embryonic chambers towered high.
The next chamber, also coloured in a sterile white environment contained the cadets, training diligently for their role in the first order.
Awaiting in the hangar was his shuttle, a young officer tapped his foot impatiently at the bottom of the ramp.
Jackson cocked a silver brow.
"I hate those meetings. You always take too long." The officer replied.
Jackson stared down at the green eyes which still held the fire of youth, eyes that he recognised from looking into the mirror at the start of his career.
"Peace Apollyon," Jackson replied. "I'm no fan of them either but they are of great importance."
He walked up the ramp, the officer falling in behind him.
"Why did you cede the throne to him anyway? You built this empire." The younger questioned
"It was the instruction of the Emperor to do so." Jackson replied.
He scowled. "You have alot of loyalty to a dead man." He remarked cynically.
Jackson paused, looking over at the officer as the shuttle lifted off.
"The Emperor is a man of great wisdom and virtue. He is who appointed me to this position, one that will eventually supersede the imposter Snoke."
The younger officer looked at him in shock.
"Regardless, we have been ordered to begin preparations for the plan, so when we land, convene the senior strategic command on Erebus." He ordered.
"Yes father."
Hosnian Prime
New Republic Senate
The hushed and gossipy whispers of politics filled the senate hall, news spread like wildfire here, and even the deepest, darkest secrets were brought to light.
"Word is that Chancellor Mothma is to resign." One of her aides said.
"It's about time, she's been doing this for years." Another responded.
"Well, the consensus is that the loyalist faction will gain power in the wake of it. They've been laying a lot of pressure on chancellor Mothma recently." The lead aide finished.
They followed their respective Senator into the repulsorlift pods, in a room that was near exactly the same as the senate chambers of coruscant, save the fact that the chancellors seat was instead a large terrace for her and her staff to sit.
The delegation took their seats, and waited for the rest of the galactic senate to take their seats. An excited mumbling filled the chamber.
"Order! Order!" Called the vice chair, as they rapped their staff on the terrace. "The chancellor speaks."
The aging, frail and admittedly withered form of Mon Mothma stood, her hands resting on the terrace, though it was more to support her waning sense of balance.
An array of news camera probes flew in a flurry around her, as she surveyed the grand senate chamber.
"Friends, colleagues and delegates." She began. "Senators of the New Republic. Together, we have been working diligently and tirelessly to repair the galaxy in the wake of the destruction of the empire."
Even the senatorial opposition watched in anticipating silence.
"We have made great strides to establish our new diplomatic system, and I can say with confidence that I am proud of our achievements. However, after a long debate within my administration, I have made the difficult decision to resign from my post, in light of my declining health."
A stir began to rise from the senate, until the vice chair again rapped their ceremonial staff.
"It is with this session I ask for any senators to begin their election campaign." She announced.
A significant murmur ran amok before it was again silenced.
A nervous tension settled as the differing factions within the senate began to communicate nonverbally.
A minute passed before the silence was broken, a pod entered the centre of the grand chamber.
"The delegation of Naboo speaks." Announced the vice chair. A discontent murmuring erupted, the credibility of the lush temperate planet had been greatly damaged under the empire, with it being Palpatine's homeworld and having received considerable imperial investment.
"The delegation of Naboo nominates Senator General Leia Organa-Solo for the position of chancellor of the new republic." The senator rattled off.
Immediately, an explosion of uproar emerged among the senate, with different pods all throughout the chamber shouting their opinion and waving their arms emphatically.
A pod directly across from the Alderanian detached from the wall, floating toward the centre by the currently hovering Naboo pod in the centre.
Again, the ceremonial staff was rapped. "The Senator of Kuat speaks." The vice chair announced.
Heading the loyalist faction, the Kuati Senator, Amadeus Kuat commanded great respect and wielded tremendous gravitas when they spoke.
"I ask the senator of Naboo how can General Organa Solo be elected if they do not represent a planet?"
Outraged murmurs followed the highly controversial remark.
The delegate for Naboo stuttered for an answer before Amadeus flew onward. "Furthermore are we to elect a wartime leader in one of civil peace? What experience does senator Organa have in any political environment?"
Many of the opposition attempted to formulate a response but Kuat bulldozed forward. "Furthermore one who currently has a son who is missing? How can we trust her to not be blinded by motherly instinct and divert valuable new republic resources to search for him?"
The senate was now truly in uproar, with many different senators around the chamber calling out their support or opposition to the nomination of senator Organa-Solo's nomination for chancellor.
"Order! Order!" Came the shout, whilst the ceremonial staff was now being bashed against the chancellor's terrace railing.
Despite the calls from the vice chair, the incessant raging debate going on, if it could even be called debate anymore.
When the vice chair finally lost his patience, he slammed the staff down, which halted the noise.
"It is clear that we are not going to achieve successful debate today. Therefore, the senate shall reconvene tomorrow, where we will let clearer heads prevail."
Leia ducked out from her observers pod, making her way back to the ceremonial office she held in the building.
Thankfully managing to avoid other politicians looking to speak to her, entering her office suite, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Leia." She turned to see her brother sitting in her office chair.
While it wasn't particularly any secret that Luke had aged worse than her, perhaps a side effect from the torture of the Emperor so long ago, now, he looked positively terrible.
There were large bags under his eyes, his hair was a tussled mess, his eyes dark. His wrinkles even seemed more accentuated.
"Luke, what happened?" She asked, almost scared to hear the answer.
"I don't know." He whispered. Her heart melted, she had never heard him so defeated. "I left to gather more holocrons and came back to nothing. The academy burnt down and the students missing."
"Missing?" She asked.
"I could feel their pain and fear there." He admitted, sagging. "They thought I had abandoned them."
"Oh Luke." She whispered, hugging him.
The twins stood in embrace, Leia feeling Luke's pain through the force. Eventually, he pulled away.
"I'm going to look for some ancient Jedi artefacts." He said. "I won't be reachable whilst I'm away, I've left what map fragments I have with a trusted friend, on Jakku if you need me." He explained.
Leia nodded.
"Im going to look for some ancient Jedi artefacts."
Amadeus Kuat reclined in his chair, the recording gathered from the hidden bug in the General Organa Solo's office continued to provide a goldmine of information, how they overlooked it her would never know.
Pressing against a hidden panel in a wall, the section swung open in a small letterbox shape, he retrieved the holodisc, triggering it.
"Priority message. Contact urgent." He said.
A garbled static followed, before the voice cleared, a heavy modulation evident. "A Kuati passenger transport will land on your platform in five minutes. Board it."
Amadeus didn't even have a second before the transmission cut out, and he was quick to scramble his things together, telling his guards to stay out as he walked briskly towards the landing platforms, careful not to attract any attention.
As he made his way on to his personally allocated landing pad, true to his contact's words, a Kuat made civilian transport touched down, the door and ramp opening.
He climbed up the ramp and entered, finding a ship full of commando droids, dressed in large cloaks to hide their robotic figures from any potential onlooker.
As he took his seat the craft lifted up, turning towards his apartment. Once they were airborne, the door to the cargo hold opened, and a human stepped out.
He too was wearing a long cloak which, with the help of a mask, concealed his identity.
"You said you had priory intel?" The garbled voice asked.
"Yes, a bug placed in Organa-Solo's office picked up a conversation between her and the Jedi. He is going into self admitted exile apparently." Amadeus explained.
"Do you have the recording?" Came the garbled response.
"Here." He said, passing over a data chip.
"Excellent. In exchange, I have this for you." He replied, lifting a small case from the adjacent seat. "This information proves that Leia Organa Solo is the daughter of Darth Vader. Use this to stop her being elected."
Amadeus took the case, opening it to inspect the contents, inside, was a data drive, of which could be plugged into a senate pod.
"Very well, I will try my best." He promised.
"You will succeed. Or face consequences." Was the grave response as the shuttle landed back at the senate building, the commando droid signalling for him to depart.
As he stepped off, the transport left, leaving his clothes dishevelled by the exhaust. Straightening his clothes again, he contacted his assistant. "Summon the others, we have much to discuss."
Approximately twenty five minutes later, the leading members of the loyalist faction sat around a table in Amadeus' office suite.
Whilst Amadeus sat at the head, surrounding the table was other planetary representatives who had all either greatly benefitted under the empire or were in the pocket of the megacorporations who had reaped immense profits, such as SIENAR Fleet Systems, Blastech and Rothana Heavy Engineering.
Even further, what remnants of the trade federation and banking clans had consolidated under the political hegemony.
All of the corporate influence was technically legal, through a nice grey area in the legislation that Amadeus had fought for.
Whilst politicians couldn't directly be paid to vote in favour of certain legislation, they could, however directly donate to their senatorial election campaigns on their home worlds.
It went without saying this bought considerable influence, and directly instituted a large amount of puppet senators of which the corporations could vote through.
It was an open secret that these senators were puppets and whilst they weren't respected in near any means, they voice did carry a vote, and that what was needed.
"As I'm sure many of you are aware, the potential election of General Organa-Solo would be near disastrous for all of us." He began.
A murmuring of begrudging agreement followed.
"A contact of mine has provided me with this." He said, plugging in the data drive to the holoprojector, bringing up genealogical records of the late Darth Vader and that of Leia Organa Solo, highlighting an exact 50% match.
"We will use this to discredit her, and hopefully force her to resign from the electoral race." He proposed, being met with rounds of nods.
"Further to this," The Senator for SIENAR spoke, "My, erm, constituents are concerned about the Imperial Affairs Committee."
Amadeus nodded. "My contacts have assured me that subversive activities have been successful, we need now only pressure them openly in the senate."
The other members nodded in agreement, ever trusting in the silver tongue of Amadeus Kuat, an unknowing weapon of the First Order to destabilise the New Republic.
Skadoosh.
Another chapter done, this one was more polticky. Wonderful.
As said before, I'm gonna rewrite basically the whole sequel trilogy.
Special awards for whoever guesses who Apollyon is.
Also been considering another pjo x sw fic, with a bit more pjo powers in, and more lore, but it's only an idea, for now, Wolfs Head still holds my attention so you'll be getting more chapters, soonish?
Work is getting a bit more busy so most likely there will be a bit of a wait. Sorry :(
anyways, stay safe guys, drop a review, share the story, yk the lot.
-duduheheh