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 11: The long way home

=RK=

Part 3

=RK=

Tarkin Family estate

Eriadu

Tarkin's family gardens were one of their pride and joys. On a world polluted by industries gone rampant, there were just a handful places left with natural greenery and even fewer when you could see trees and flowers from all over the galaxy thriving. It did take a sealed glass dome and artificially controlled environment, however Tarkin did possess one of the most beautiful pieces of Eriadu left. Their famous gardens were a great source of prestige, both home and abroad as well as literally a place to get a breath of fresh air and relax. Or hold an important talk or two in a nice atmosphere while still remaining undisturbed.

Gideon walked down a paved alley sneaking under low hanging branches heavy with colourful leaves – as far as the environmental control was concerned it was spring and everything in the gardens was coming to life. Around him a dazzling array of flowers had their petals opened towards the artificial light coming from the ceiling making passing through this part of the garden a dazzling journey through clashing colours that while looked like a painting by a maniac were still somehow beautiful.

He would never figure out what his mother though when she personally oversaw the overhaul of this part of the garde. She had planted flowers from all across the galaxy around this particular alley and had the arranged in such a way that the colours were just shy of eye-searing. He still didn't know if he found the place beautiful because he was biased – he did love his mother and this was practically the last thing she did before dying years ago, or if she actually managed to craft a masterpiece in this part of the garden. At any rate Wilhuff and he had given order to maintain this area just like their mother left it. Gideon never failed to pass through there in the increasingly rare occasions he had the time to visit the gardens. He just wished it was for pleasure and relaxation instead of work related. Despite that, he was grateful that his sister-in-law chose to meet him in the gardens instead in a more formal avenue.

He found Thalassa sitting in a small secluded picnic area complete with wooden benches and tables – all antiques and treated to keep them safe from the environment; they were actually comfortable to sit on too, which was something everyone was thankful to his great-grandfather for.

There was no obvious sign of Thalassa's security detail, though Tarkin was sure they were around, probably just out of reach of a quiet conversation but still able to see the place well. There was a lot of useful concealment around, just for that purpose.

"Gideon, please have a seat!" Thalassa smiled when she saw him and pointed at the bench across the table where she was sitting at. She had a light breakfast for two set up, complete with cups of hot tea and Caf, though there was a bunch of data-pads neatly stacked nearby. She had one in hand and had been reading when he arrived.

"My lady Thalassa." Gideon bowed as it was only proper before joining her at the table. "I have the AAR from the battle ready."

She waved a hand in dismissive gesture. "That's nice but we both know I didn't call you to talk about the details. We all trust you to handle the military." His sister-in-law put down her data-pad and gave him a frustrated look. "But lets first get the necessary things out of the way. We obviously won. Status of our remaining navy as well as odds of facing another such attack any-time soon."

"We lost about a third of the ships we had in system fending off the assault. Roughly half the others are damaged to some extent, however most will be at least eighty percent combat capability within the next day. Over the coming week we expect ten fully operational cruisers coming back from repair docks all over the region and I've called some more ships back before they're fully repaired – that would give us enough of a fleet to reasonably secure the system against any further raids when General Veil leaves."

"He'll be taking a not insignificant number of the ships left, I take it?" Thalassa frowned.

"A lot of them are under his command – Corellian or Republic he brought with him. Unfortunately, most of our locally produced capital ships – before we got authorization and the plans for Venators, were of lower capability and they did take disproportional casualties when facing Separatist battleships. Its something we'll be addressing when the next Venator construction cycle is complete. We'll be relegating our old types as heavy escorts..."

Lady Tarkin raised a hand in a forestalling gesture. "That's too much detain for the time being. We'll be covering further expansion of the navy and how to pay for it later. If I get it right, we'll have Eriadu secured over the next week, right?"

Gideon nodded and carefully picked up a cup of Caf to take a sip. While his hangover was mostly over, he still wasn't feeling quite alive yet.

"Good enough. Thank you for your service, Gideon. Now for the real reason why I called you – your friend Veil." She grimaced. "We all had our qualms about him – he's a Sith after all, however he did explain well enough that débâcle at Kamino. More importantly, not only Wilhuff but admiral Holt and her Corellians backed up his version of events. If it was just the Clones swearing up and down it was a weird Force-related accident, I wouldn't have bought it." She growled. "The Clones might have obeyed, no questions asked, even if it was their home he ordered bombarded. The Corellians and your brother?" Lady Tarkin shook her head.

"They had no reason to obey such insane orders, which as they all point out were never given in the first place and the computer records of the battle and the Freedom's CIC confirm it. Without having access to the Force we can't really be sure if Veil is actually saying the truth but his version of events does explain how everything went so wrong." Gideon still found it hard to believe how a whole planet could have been glassed by accident, yet all available evidence pointed at that outcome instead of pointless malice. There simply was no reason for Veil to want to gut the whole planet outright, though there were voices grumbling that even attempting to deny critical assets on the ground to the Separatists would have been going too far even if everything didn't go terribly wrong.

"However, Sullust did happen. Veil insists he was going only after military targets. You supported him on that one along with a lot of our officers – both navy and ground-side. That might even be the case and he did make a convincing case. What I need to know is can we trust him enough to continue working with the man? Some of our allies are unconvinced."

"Well, legally speaking he's more or less covered about Sullust. The best angle of attack would be that it should have been a political decision if the war should escalate that much..." Gideon raised both hands in a forestalling gesture. "Which would be foolish after what the Separatists already did – they obviously have no qualms about using biological weapons or bombarding non-military targets not just legitimate ones."

"That's unfortunately a point in Veil's favour. Speaking about politics, he's not just a General of the GAR, he's Mandalore and the former Supreme Commander of the Republic military. Wilhuff said he was very close to Palpatine before the Chancellor's assassination so he would know what the former Republic leadership intended as far as escalation and reasonable response are concerned. As Mandalore he has the political clout to order retaliatory strikes after what Grievous did to his throne-world so to speak. All those are nice excuses; believable, possibly true as well. None of them tells me if we can actually trust the man."

Gideon thought about it; took another sip of Caf and wondered aloud. "Did we really trust him in the first place? This alliance isn't based on goodwill, nor trust. It's about our best interests given the political and military situation. So far, General Veil or would it be more appropriate to call him Mandalore in this instance, has held up his part of the bargain. After Wilhuff went off on the deep end and forged this Mid-Rim Alliance of his, Delkatar did his best to give it, us the best chance he could." Tarkin sighed. "Speaking as a military man, he might very well had succeeded. Our best guess is that right now the Separatists are throwing everything they have in this region at Naboo, where Wilhuff and the rest of the Republic forces in the area should be facing them. After yesterday, a victory there would ensure that the Confederacy won't be able to take us out with local forces and the big question remains – will they spent the time and resources needed to subdue us when they have a much bigger fish to fry?"

"The Core." Thalassa stated. "It is a big risk."

"It always was. Besides, once General Veil heads back for the Republic, it's very likely that instead of going after us the Confederacy would throw any spare fleets they have after him, thus buying us time."

"Will we get enough of it anyway?"

"No way to be certain. In the long term, unless the Republic wins or at least manages to open the major hyper-lanes leading to our part of space and reinforces us, we're done for – we'll have to pray for Confederate collapse if that doesn't happen."

"We got off track here. Veil." Thalassa demanded.

"As I said, we never trusted him as a person. He is a self proclaimed Sith after all. It's Mandalore following a course of action serving his and his people's best interest we're banking on, aren't we? We know how most of the Core sees the Mandalorians. It was shrewd of him to make the deals he did with us – we'll bankroll the expansion of the Mandalorian's industry as well as recovery of their capital world and exchange we'll be getting preferential access to a huge new market – thousands of worlds across the Mandalorian region we currently have little to no trade with."

"I ran the numbers." Thalassa grumbled. "While the initial investments will be steep, they will pay for themselves in the long run. That's why a lot of the corporate interests were on board with the alliance. Then there were our fears about the Republic, which in the end might be either unfounded or not grave enough."

"Chancellor Satine Kenobi nee Kryze. The current Supreme Commander of the GAR being General Obi-Wan Kenobi, our friendly Sith's in-laws. I certainly didn't see that one coming. From what I gather General Veil got blind-sided by that revelation too. They do owe him allegiance. Technically, anyway."

"We don't really know how close they're or if that supposed fealty they owe Mandalore really means anything. Needless to say, Veil claims they're thick as thieves." Thalassa smiled wryly. "That's a very big new complication, you know."

"You mean that backstabbing the Sith for short term political gain might be an even worse idea than it was before? That was only the worst case scenario option if he went on the deep end, right?"

"And as far as you military types are concerned he hadn't?"

Gideon pursed his lips. "A reluctant no on that. As a man I found his actions at Sullust abhorrent. As the commander in charge of Eriadu's security – simply throwing fleets at the Separatists won't work. After Corellia's fall both sides are too evenly matched. We'll have to go after their industries – both in space and on the ground and it would be seldom we would have the luxury of letting workers and anyone else in the vicinity of such targets evacuate."

"If you told me that a few years ago I would have done my best to have your head examined by specialists, you know." Thalassa huffed.

"Before the war really get going I would have agreed with you." Gideon shrugged.

"You'll be with me when I have to reassure our allies again. And when I have to keep those ready to become too close to Veil because of his in-laws from falling over themselves to please him too." Thalassa warned.

"As my lady commands."

"With that out-of-the-way... Gideon, what are those rumours I hear about a... more interesting version of the AAR you just brought me finding its way to the holonet?" Thalassa smiled pleasantly.

Tarkin froze like a small mammal caught in the open by a starving predator. "Another version of the AAR?" He smiled. It came out genuine, right? "I have no idea whatsoever what you're talking about, my lady."

Thalassa's grin became predatory as she picked the top-most data-pad from the stack. "I'm pretty sure I have it right here..."

"I believe that now I'll take my leave, my lady Thalassa. Someone has to keep a close eye on General Veil while he's still in system. Do have a nice day, my lady!" Gideon got up, gave a stiff but very much proper bow and hastily strode away with as much speed as propriety and dignity would allow. He was going to find out who among his staff backstabbed him in such a way and when he was done with those bastards they would beg that he would hand them off to the Sith!

=RK=

Observation deck

Republic cruiser Shinning Light

Eriadu

"That's a neat idea." Gideon commented after examining what the Republic engineers had transformed the former bridge into.

The place was a verifiable lounge, complete with a bar of all things, though the latter might have been added by the crew in their spare time.

"It makes for a nice place to relax and it's not like anyone should be here during combat so the huge vulnerable windows are non-issue nowadays. If there was more time during the refits as well as the available equipment, the command tower would make for a nice sensor mast." Delkatar was saying. He was also pointedly pouring cups of scolding hot Caf to his guests.

Gideon still resented the man from getting out of the night of drinking hangover free. That was so unfair it wasn't even allowed, damn it! You had to face consequences when you got drunk like a...

"I want to run a few ideas by you." Delkatar interrupted his musings.

"What insanity are you planning today, sir?" Joanna inquired in a long-suffered tone.

"Our voyage back to Republic controlled space."

That got their attention all right. "So you're really leaving after hitting Naboo?"

"We kept to the Rim for too long already." Veil nodded. "We have a few options, at least as long as your brother and company still hold Naboo when we get there, otherwise we'll have to make a run for it, directly for Hutt Space and try losing any pursuit there before backtracking. We'll be discussing what to do if the situation isn't kriffed up beyond any reason."

"Do tell." Gideon suggested and picked up his cup. It was just shy of boiling and the smell alone was enough to focus his mind.

Veil did outline his three rough plans.

"Shouldn't we make a run for Hutt Space ASAP anyway? Any other options' means more combat and expending fuel and munitions that are in a short supply." Joanna pointed out.

"That's a concern. Major one at that. Still, I would like that we pass through either Bothawui or Lanos where we might be able to link up with surviving naval elements. When we go through Hutt Space we'll probably hit Nar Shaddaa, where we might be able to pick up some supplies too. I do have contacts there with loyal elements of Republic intelligence. I hope so anyway."

There was obviously something the General was reluctant to say about that particular operation and none of them felt like pushing. As far as Gideon was concerned, it wasn't really his place to know, though he was curious.

"Option three has the benefit of having a minimal number of jumps through Separatist space, though if something goes wrong there you'll be left stranded deep behind enemy lines with predictable consequences. Option One, while safest will require the largest number of jumps and thus most expenditure of hypermatter and that is one consumable we're shortest on."

"That road has only two jumps through Confederate space after we clear Enarc. The rest would be through territory they captured recently and thus will almost certainly lack fixed defences or any major fleet concentrations. We'll have to hit just Molavar and Ukio before reaching Rishi and after that Manda. One of those two worlds might still hold too, though we can get there in another way too..." Delkatar offered.

"That would require striking through Separatist space, which is less than ideal. Can you really hit anything important enough to warrant risking your fleet being pinned down and overwhelmed?"

"Not really. The best we can reasonably get is hitting a few soft targets and stirring up the CIS into chasing us, which while might be disruptive can prove fatal." Delkatar grimaced. "However..." He shrugged.

"We'll get chased when they figure out what we're trying anyway." Joanna finished for him.

"All roads lead to Nar Shaddaa then?" Gideon frowned.

"Unless we want to either make a larger detour or pass through more Separatist space." Delkatar confirmed.

=RK=

AN: Map of potential roads to safety:

[https:] [/] [ /] [i.] [imgur] [.com] [/acTSFAq] [.jpg]

Option One and it's possible targets: Blue;

Option Two and it's possible targets: Green;

Option Three and it's possible targets: Black;