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 7: An Alliance born in fire

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Part 8

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CIC

CIS dreadnought "Vorpral Blade"

Lununmo planetary system

Sullust

TK-51 was pretty sure his data-core glitched. That had to be. Yes. He shut down his photo-receptors, isolated himself from the network and ran a deep diagnostic. It wasn't like he was needed right now. The enemy was at least five minutes out of contact depending on what that... that... Sith did next.

Emotions were a new and undiscovered country for the Tactical droid. He wasn't accustomed to them, nor was he programmed to feel or handle them. Thus, frustration, anger and now sheer disbelief – those were new things to experience. They caused problems when his sub-routines attempted to handle them.

The diagnostic finished. TK-51 went over its logs. No errors. His data-core was in no worse shape than it was before Veil came to Sullust for the first time. Both hardware and software were performing acceptable despite the odd emotion and freedom of choice related bugs. The data in the core wasn't corrupt.

TK-51 let out an electronic whine. It wasn't fair! This couldn't be happening! A frustrated sight escaped his vocoder. Perhaps if he doesn't connect to the network? Could he simply remain in his own little world that actually made sense?

A resigned Tactical droid came back to the outside world. He was immediately bombarded by his subordinates requests for orders. A single glance at the tactical plot and the crimson blinking image of Lununmo in its centre confirmed the information that sent him in the Droid equivalent of shock.

"Turn bow first towards Lununmo. Reinforce shields." TK-51 ordered, while more and more notifications and information bombarded him. Gravity fluctuations strong enough to ensure no one was leaving through hyperspace until they were light minutes away from the planetary system. A great thermal and radiation spike coming their way.

How did Veil do this?! TK-51 put sub-routines to figure it out and ordered his fellow Tactical droids to do the same. Was this more of that damnable space wizardry of the Sith or just plain old science he was unaware of? Did it mater now?

The birthing pains and shock of a new star washed over the Confederate forces in a wave of heat and radiation. Warships were build tough. They were meant to dish out and survive energies that even a Tactical droid could find hard to comprehend. At this distance, they could survive an energy release that was comparable to a fractional supernova event.

A warship in full repair could have tanked the titanic hit with its shields and suffered merely some nasty energy feedback. Its sensors would be blinded for some time – that would be inevitable but that would be it.

There were only three undamaged Confederate warships hit. They did handle the event as expected – with no much trouble at all.

The rest of the CIS fleet was less fortunate. The lucky ones merely had their shields further depleted. As consequences they suffered some nasty power surges that damaged various systems. Those were generally the lightly damaged and bigger ships. TK-51's order did help too. Taking the blow on the generally well armoured bow helped to mitigate the damage.

The ships suffering moderate damage were less fortunate. Their shields went critical. Large power-surges wracked their systems causing various amounts of damage all over the place. In some cases the deflectors failed outright in others they were merely left at very low levels and still had to struggle against the radiation washing over them. In both cases radiation and energy bleed through damaged and blinded sensor clusters.

The only saving grace for the heavy damaged ships was that they lacked organic crews. Shields that were already in tatters had no prayer of surviving the onslaught – in those cases when the ships in question could still raise the deflectors. All kinds of radiation slammed into their hulls. Hardened sensors burned. Armor glowed and weakened. The particle shielding, when still operational often shorted out. Then the shock-wave itself hit. The more intact ships were merely rocked. Even low level particle shields maintained as a matter of course were enough to handle the shock. The those heavy damaged or crippled – they were less fortunate. The battleships were built sturdy enough to survive even if their outer levels were irradiated and smashed into uselessness. The frigate and light destroyers however, a few fortunate ships were merely mission killed. The shock-wave was too much for the rest. A few broke when one stress too many struck their brutalized space frames. Others suffered all kinds of catastrophic damage either as a direct consequence of the fractional nova event or it was merely enough to compound already existing damage enough to doom those warships.

TK-51's own flagship rocked violently. Her deflectors were almost gone, the particle shielding failed, yet it held for long enough to prevent any critical damage from happening. The Tactical droid knew the status of his ship. It was a Providence dreadnought and only the Lukrehulks were more sturdily built. It had suffered moderate to high damage, yes, but her defences were still quite formidable. Radiation blinded the Blade's sensors. Comms were spotty at any meaningful range.

He was blind, he just lost more ships and Veil would be coming. This time there was no question – this was a trap and TK-51 flew right into it. The Tactical droid didn't need to call the data-logs to figure out that the Sith had reached the shadow of the moon before the shock-wave hit. His ships would be largely intact. He would have had time to manoeuvre and turn to face his pursuers.

The Republic force should be as blind as TK-51's own ships. However, could that Sith use his wizardry to locate them? After all he knew their locations just before the event hit. TK-51 might be able to calculate a reasonable area where they would be if he was in Veil's position. A good enough supposition to move his fleet for the kill while the enemy was blind.

With Sith sorcery as an additional advantage? TK-51 knew he might be jumping at shadows as the organics would put it. So what? He saw the impossible happen for a second time this day!

"Send to all ships. Rotate perpendicularly to the system's plane. We're leaving Sullust to regroup at Vondarc for repairs, resupply and new orders." For some reason, TK-51 found it hard to give that order.

He... hated the thought of being bested for a second time. Running away, and he was running, it was unpleasant. TK-51 pondered the meaning of hatred and the object of it as his ship hurled herself through the radiation consumed hell that used to be Lununmo's system.

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CIC

Republic cruiser Eriadu

Lununmo's planetary system

Sullust

"We estimate the energy release to be low on the supernova even scale. I would classify it as a small fractional nova event!" The Eriadu's chief engineer, a very excitable Twi'lek man, gushed over the comm from engineering. His eyes shone with unrestrained glee. "Just the thermal and radiation release is going to mess up the whole planetary system. You can consider all industry on the moon sides facing the gas giant, heh the proto star now, gone when it hits! Those with atmosphere would see it ignited and the ensuring fire-storms would take care of them! The rest, well if the gravity readings we're getting are correct, we can expect at least five moons slamming into Lununmo over the next two to three months. Ten over the next year and some of the more unstable ones might get torn to pieces by tidal stress!"

"Thank you, Commander. Compile a report when you have the spare time. Veil out." I cut off the connection. "Status of the fleet?"

"Emergency repairs are complete on most ships. We're as ready as we're going to get, general." Maya's voice was subdued. It was a sentiment shared by most of the crew. The destruction we just unleashed was something the galaxy hasn't seen outside a natural event for a very long time.

"My compliments to the crews. We're going in. There's some clankers we have unfinished business with." I finally relaxed. Even in the hell outside, it was possible to divine the rough location of the enemy fleets. All I really had to do was concentrate on which vectors would give me a sense of danger and after the destruction I just unleashed the Dark Side was very eager to assist me.

The only sore spot of our success was the fate of all the crews stuck on our damaged ships that were unable to get into cover – both drifting wrecks from the fleet I personally commanded and from Joanna's force. Once we took care of the enemy I would be dispatching SAR while the rest of us went to plunder as much useful material as possible but I didn't have high hopes. Every poor bastard who got to an escape pod would be lucky if the shock-wave killed them. Otherwise, they would either bake inside, very fast if lucky or slowly while radiation ravaged their bodies. The same was true for those left behind on any crippled ship.

In the end, it turned out that we didn't really have to fight a fourth battle today. The enemy was damaged and disorganized. Some were running, others attempted a furious suicidal charge and there were odd ships that simply drifted. The first kind generally managed to escape hidden by the radiation accompanying the birth of a new star. The second kind was of two types – droid controlled and local SDF I presumed. The first were the more dangerous, yet we were able to roll them up and smash them in detail. We did lose a pair of Venators to the single coherent battle group we met – two lightly damaged Lukrehulks, another with moderate damage and fifteen escorts. They all had their shields depleted to some extent, which made them easy targets. We were able to use our numbers to maximize our fire-power on target and the rest was history.

Three minutes after we dealt with that battle group we met another, roughly two times larger, which should have been a challenge. I decided to use what little endurance I had left for Battle Meditation to save as many of my people as I could during the engagement and that proved to be fortunate.

That was the first time I was able to use that technique to its full capability. The enemy was the local SDF and it was crewed by people not another bunch of droids. Their already wavering morale shattered at the mere brush of the Battle Meditation. The enemy formation unravelled as ships tried to flee. Their crews broke apart and became individuals and every one of them did their own thing. Some cowered, others panicked. People went berserk, preserved, tried to fight, became catatonic.

We didn't face a naval task force. We went against a bunch of terrified individuals and annihilated them without a single one of my ships losing their shields. Only those who ran lived to tell the tale.

And just like that it was over. The last naval force able to contest our presence in Sullust was destroyed. We would have to keep an eye out for those who ran in case they rallied and tried to do to us what we did earlier to the main Separatist fleet after they forced us to make a tactical retreat earlier today.

"Launch what probes we've got. I want images of all moons and the damage they suffered due to the nova event. Go over the data and determine if there's anything worth looting in this planetary system. If not, after we're done with SAR, we're going back to Sullumun, taking what we can and wrecking everything else." I turned to Maya. "Captain, detach this ship with appropriate escort and get us clear off the radiation field. I have a message for the Separatists."

=RK=

Part 9

=RK=

Ambassador's suite

Mandalorian Embassy

Coruscant

Obi-Wan listened Ahsoka tell him about her time at Anaxes with a bitter-sweet smile on his face. This was the second time he heard of her since the coup. The last time it was just a brief call meant to reassure her after Kenobi recovered and ensured no one under his nominal command would be going after her in any official capacity.

At a first glance, Ahsoka was her usual cheerful self. Obi-Wan knew better. He had been around her enough over the past year to see the signs. There was a change in her bearing. Her eyes still shone brightly with a lot of enthusiasm, yet there was weariness to them. A rough edge heralding her lost of innocence.

"It wasn't all bad. Not really!" The young Togruta made a dismissive gesture. "Oh, there were a lot of nasty muttering behind my back, a lot of angry and scared glares but no one really tried anything. I did make a few friends too!" For a moment the old very cheerful Snips was back in a full force as she told him about the pair of friends she made. "Jena's very much into logistics and numbers. If it wasn't for her I don't think I would have got good enough grades in those courses to get my honours!" Ahsoka exclaimed with a huge grin plastered all over her face. "Kole's great too! The things he can do with light escorts..." Snips sighed.

"Someone has a crush I think." Bo chipped in from the sofa where she was recovering from her latest operation.

Ahsoka proved to everyone there was still a lot of Snips left in her by squeaking and blushing furiously. "I don't know what you're talking about!" She stammered.

"Of course not. Any prospective boyfriend needs to pass muster." Bo added.

"Mine, yours or your husbands?" Obi-Wan couldn't help it but cracked a small smile of his own.

"Any boyfriend who doesn't immediately run away or faint might have a potential. When are we going to meet that Kole of yours?"

"He's getting deployed to Kuat for his ships shake up flight. I still don't have my orders." Ahsoka pouted.

"That's one of the reasons I called you." Obi-Wan picked up a data-pad that he had left on the nearby table. "Ensign Ahsoka Tano, it's my greatest pleasure to give you your first assignment. In view of your exemplary service as a Jedi General and your performance in the academy, I'm glad to inform you that you're out of uniform." Obi-Wan chuckled when Ahsoka flustered and began looking all over herself.

She was in a proper uniform – for an ensign. Obi-Wan transmitted the necessary data from his data-pad over the encrypted channel. He sent it earlier through the proper channels too and it should be all in order on Anaxes before the call was over.

"Your copy of your orders should be arriving presently, Colonel Tano. Congratulations. Your first assignment is to take command of Twenty-First Independent Regiment of Anaxian Rangers, the Void Stalkers. Your orders are to prepare it for deployment to Coruscant, where you'll receive additional orders."

"I..." Ahsoka straightened up to attention and gave Obi-Wan a by the book salute. "I won't disappoint you, sir!"

He stood up and returned it. Kenobi still felt a bit uneasy of all the military related formality and traditions though he understood the need and power behind them. It was sad to see them influencing Ahsoka in such a way that she found it necessary to observe said formalities when it was just them, a pair of former Jedi. He could see where she was coming from, or he thought so at any rate. With the Order betraying not only her but a great many other Jedi who were blind-sided by the coup, Obi-Wan believed that Ahsoka was left drifting and in a need of a pillar of stability. It was becoming clear she found it too – in the military.

He didn't necessary agree, nor he liked it very much. However, this was her choice to make. He would be supportive, try to keep her alive and do his best to keep the GAR an organization they could be both proud to serve. They might be unable to protect the Republic as Jedi any more, but perhaps they could do as good if not better job as soldiers.

"I know you wont, Ahsoka." He said in a light tone. "I'm looking forward to meeting you in person when you arrive. How about..."

"Obi-Wan! Get the Holonet on. There's a Shadowfeed broadcast you need to see!" Satine stormed into the living room. Her face was pale and the concern she felt was so potent Obi-Wan was surprised he didn't sense it before she came in.

"Ahsoka? It's good to see you. You might want to look at it too. What are you waiting for?" Satine glared at Obi-Wan.

"That bad?" Bo sat up.

"The good news is that your husband, the bastard is still alive."

Bo perked up. "That's great! What's the bad news? You don't look particularly overjoyed yourself."

"He did it again!" Satine snarled.

Obi-Wan used the Force to put on the holonet.

What he saw chilled him to the core. A world was burning – its atmosphere was consumed by a fire-storm.

"Republic atrocity at Sullust!" The caption screamed in bold red letters.

Another image – another world. This time there were no fire-storms, probably because there wasn't enough atmosphere for it. However, if at all possible, this was worse. Half the planet was a charred ruin. The picture changed. Yet another world was dying. This time the camera was high up in the atmosphere and it showed fissures opening up as great industrial district burned. The picture zoomed out and it showed a brightly lit world shacking apart by monstrous earthquakes.

"I'm Ryloth Resa with grave news, citizens of the galaxy. The infamous Republic war criminal, General Delkatar Veil, struck again. This time the victim is the Sullust system. Two days ago he attacked the Sullumun's planetary system, Sullust's gas giant closest to the star. That attack saw three moons destroyed and a third turned into an inferno." There were tears at the sides of the Twi'lek eyes as she spoke.

Behind her a large monitor showed missile strikes slamming into said moons. Warheads meant to cripple capital ships detonated and consumed areas larger than some continents. The stress was too much fort those moons. Two were quite small to begin with and the third was probably tectonically unstable to begin with. In short order they shook themselves to pieces.

Another moon, this time lit up by large cities or industrial centres, perhaps both, was the next victim. There was a great shot of a huge Corellian cruiser leading what appeared to be a whole sector fleet, unleashing hell upon that moon. Punishing barrages hit erasing the lights and the population they represented. Whatever that moon produced had to be volatile. The way it began burning – that wasn't the atmosphere igniting. That came a bit later.

"After those monstrous acts, Sullust's defenders rallied behind the valiant Admiral Kirst and went to serve justice upon the monster Veil! They defeated him again as they did at Kamino before he murdered that world too." Resa smiled sadly.

The screen behind her showed carefully put together montage of dying Republic ships of all stripes.

"By the Force..." Obi-Wan exclaimed when he saw the Freedom herself be struck by a kamikaze. He knew that the Separatist fleet had to pay a steep price for their victory but they managed to cripple, perhaps even take out for good the best asset Veil had.

"Its good to see Delkatar having fun." Bo declared glibly, though there was concern in her voice.

"He's escalating the war in a way no one needs!" Satine snapped.

What in the name of the Force happened at Sullust? The first images he saw guaranteed that this wasn't the end of it.

"So far it looks like he went only for industrial targets." Obi-Wan whispered. 'I hope.' He added in his mind.

Shadowfeed promptly proved their spin on the truth.

"Admiral Kirst and his valiant fleet evicted the war criminal from Sullust. In a commendable display of restrain and grace, he ordered his force not to pursuit but instead attempt to rescue the crews abandoned by Veil with the damaged Republic ships. Regrettably I have to inform you that such an act of mercy was misplaced and wasted on a Sith." Resa snarled. "Five hours later, while Kirst's fleet was in the middle of rescue operations, the monster returned. He struck a fleet busy with humanitarian mission saving his own people and caused grievous losses. Then he proceeded to viciously attack the Lununmo Planetary system, the second gas giant of Sullust."

A ground shot followed shown the Freedom again along with a much smaller fleet. They were busy bombarding the planet, no moon from orbit and soon the camera and whoever was with it vanished after a streak of light came through the heavens.

"My man sure was busy." Bo's tone indicated that she approved of this slaughter.

Satine launched a tirade at her sister, which Kenobi ignored. Obi-Wan simply prayed that Veil only struck industrial targets no matter what the propaganda claimed. The very fact that they were showing this meant that the Separatists faced a complete disaster at Sullust, one they had no prayer of hiding. Was that a good thing? Losing a significant part of that systems industry would be a very good in the long term.

"Regardless of the damage his fleet took, Admiral Kirst and his men didn't falter in their duty. They rallied to Luminara's help." Resa sniffed. "It was a trap no sane mind could have seen much less devised.

What followed... It was a recording of a vicious space battle where the ships they saw earlier with the Freedom raced to get away from the gravity well and race to safety. Initially it didn't make sense when the Corellian Star Dreadnought wasn't shown with them. That came later, only after a recording of three Separatists battle groups hitting the running Republic fleet from converging vectors. Obi-Wan didn't think many of those ships lived long enough to reach hyperspace.

Next... There was the Freedom racing alone into the heart of a gas giant. Did she get crippled? Perhaps she was boarded and set to a collision course just like Anakin did with the Malevolence shortly after he found Veil?

The truth was much more chilling. The three of them watched with sick fascination how the Freedom vanished into the gas giant... and somehow turned it into a star.

Now those devastated worlds made sense. If the ignition was violent enough...

"With that unspeakable act, Veil doomed the Lununmo planetary system. Thirty four populated moons." Resa blinked away tears. "Hundreds of millions dead with billions more expected to die in the coming weeks from radiation poisoning or as their suppliers run out because evacuating them all might be impossible with Veil still at Sullust hunting down every ship daring to attempt a rescue."

"That's..." Bo trailed off. Her tone was off.

Obi-Wan turned to look at his sister-in-law in concern and her expression took him aback. It was awed.

"... magnificent. He just proved to the whole galaxy he's worthy of being Mandalore."

"Most of our people would see it that way. Every one else will call him a monster." Satine gave her sister a disguised look then sighed.

Obi-Wan's mind finally began working properly again. Lununmo. Sullumun. Those two gas giants and their moons – they were the industrial heart of Sullust. What he said next, Obi-Wan hated himself for even thinking it.

"Those were legitimate targets of war. The way he did it is... unthinkable. But the targets themselves..." What was he saying? This was an atrocity! This wasn't unavoidable collateral damage like what happened at Christophis.

Did all those souls who perished there due to the lack of supplies and exposure care?

"At Sullust, the Republic's pet butcher revealed his true colours for the whole galaxy to see!" Resa continued to rant. "He even bit the hand that fed him!" She was gleeful now.

Resa was replaced by an image of Veil who stood in front of a window with the burning Lununmo as the background.

"Citizens of Sullust. People of the Confederacy. I am General Delkatar Veil of the Grand Army of the Republic. I am Mandalore and I am the Dark Lord of the Sith." He paused to glare in the camera with a pair of cold, pitiless eyes. "I have a message for you all. For the people toiling to keep the Separatists war machine running. For those of you lucky enough to had only heard of the war tearing the galaxy apart. To your leaders in their 'safe' bunkers hiding behind legions of soulless droids. The free people of the Mid Rim will no longer tolerate the Confederation's crimes. They banded together and formed a defensive alliance to oppose you on every turn. With the destruction of the Lununmo's Planetary System, I'm making a statement of intent. I am announcing the Formation of the Mid-Rim alliance. My actions today were a reprisal authorized by the leadership of the Mid-Rim Alliance. It was a declaration of resolve and of mercy."

Satine spluttered at the last world.

What the kriff was Veil thinking?! Was this him or was this the Separatists trying to cause even more trouble?!

"At this time we chose not go after civilian targets. We won't unleash plagues to ravage your people and poison your worlds. We won't enslave you as your minions attempted to do at Ryloth. However, we are not meek! We will fight back and we will hurt you if you come after us and what is ours! The Mid-Rim Alliance stands for justice, freedom and the ideals of the Galactic Republic. .."

The Kenobi's comms began screaming for attention. All hell was going to break lose now.