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Phase 22: The seeds of an Empire

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Part 1

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Chancellor's office

Senate building

Coruscant

The view from the window behind her desk was breathtaking. Even the shadow thrown by a Venator cruiser that hung above the Senate to dissuade any and all further attempts to attack the building or at least evacuate her if the worst happened, again.

Chancellor Satine Kenobi sat in a sinfully comfortable chair, sipped from a cup of strong spiced tea and reminiscented. She would remember the past week until the day she died. Until now, if someone asked her when she killed the Republic, she would have to think long and hard. In all honesty, there were a lot of events that led her further and further down the path of being a dictator in anything but name. The easy answer would have been the day she was elected or better say, appointed as Chancellor. However, in the weeks that followed there were chances to bring back democracy to the Republic if only she was ready do damn her people for it.

It was funny concept, freedom. Democracy too for that matter. Many member worlds that made up the Republic were democratic in one stripe or another. As many were monarchies, theocracies, corporate conglomerates and even theocracies and everything in between. The Republic was a noble goal, it used to inspire respect and awe in her when she was young. Then one bright day she came to Coruscant as the ambassador of her people and saw the Republic for what it really was.

It was democratic on paper, sometimes in deed too and that precisely was the problem. There were at least a million notable worlds in the Republic, though not all of them had their own Senators – some did represent individual planets, but others whole systems and even sectors. And every single one of them had its own problems, politics, rivals, enemies and of course interests. Those members didn't exist to serve the Republic, their Senators weren't elected or appointed to act for the betterment of all. The Republic's function was to serve the interests of its members and those were always contradictory. On a good day.

The bitter truth was that some within the Republic were more equal than others. Many feared her people's reputation and history, especially now that they had a new and powerful Mandalore to lead them. No matter what people said in public, those who cared about what happened outside their neighbourhood were few and far between… that included governments too.

It was when Satine understood how the Senate really worked, how the Core powers ran things behind the scenes and were content to profit from the war at the expense of the Mid and Outer Rim territories, even their rivals in the Core, or especially their rivals in the Core, that she conceived the plan that ultimately led her to sit in this chair. To this day she wondered how Palpatine managed to run the whole circus as well as he did and she had to remind herself that he had spent decades of building contacts and alliances, figuring out where the bodies were buried so he could blackmail people and of course there was good old fashioned bribery.

Politics was a dirty, corrupted business and it was no where more dirtier than in the Senate on Coruscant. It was necessary too. Every day before breakfast, Satine had to deal with hundred problems that if left to fester would undermine the Republic she ran. There were many worlds that weren't content with the status quo and hadn't seceded or even joined the Confederacy only because of their location or the fact that their populations were too divided on the issue. Both kinds had to be handled carefully and constantly watched. Some did require to have forces on hand in case elements of their system defence navies went "rogue". Then there were the elements that outright seceded and Satine still wasn't convinced that those willing to work with her government anyway weren't more dangerous than the openly hostile ones.

Those two groups had to be watched and managed too, which was one of the main reasons why Obi-Wan was yet to launch the operation to liberate Corellia and push the Separatist out of the Core.

Another was the constant negotiations with thousands of systems to release a significant number of their SDFs for offensive operations. Some files recovered from the late Chancellor's archives helped in that regard. Promises and pressure by Satine's allies did their part but the rest was up to her.

It was all those deals that were necessary to continue fighting the war and ultimately secure Mandalore that murdered the Republic. She couldn't have done half the work without the power of a dictator concentrated in the office. She could understand both why Palpatine needed it to make the Republic work and why everyone was afraid of anyone having this much power. They were afraid it would be used against them… and Satine had little choice but do it. Every time made the next a little bit easier, every contradictory deal meant that another piece of the Republic died, not to mention that everyone knew that she couldn't possibly honour all the promises she made. That's why thousands upon thousands of worlds were jockeying for the ear of her regime at the expense of their rivals. They wanted to be on the winning side when the war ended and the new order got formalized.

Bitter laugher escaped Satine's lips. No wonder so many systems eagerly joined the Separatists. In their shoes she might have done the same. For a moment she wondered when the Republic went wrong. After all it achieved an unprecedented era of prosperity.

The answer was of course obvious – there was the price to be paid for said prosperity and the fact was that the ones who saw most of it were the systems of the Core. Those who joined the Separatists, well the Republic's fabled Golder Age was built by draining most of them dry of resources to fuel it. Now that they were finally strong enough to do something about it and the Republic itself had grown decadent and weak enough to give them an opportunity was it any wonder that they seized it?

Satine sipped her tea and brought her thoughts back together. It took everything she and the institutions of the Republic government to keep an illusion going. As fart as most common citizens were concerned, it was back to business as usual on Coruscant. Those who knew better or simply feared her Mandalorian heritage, most of them already seceded, joined the Confederacy or were closely watched. Every bloody day it was more of the same backbreaking work needed to keep things running. Then with a single stroke everything changed and the house of cards came perilously close to tumbling down. If it hadn't been for the efforts of countless people on Coruscant and beyond it would have happened months ago and yet, now despite all their efforts it was almost all for naught.

It all came back to Kuat. Oh, how she learned to hate that name! The political ramifications of what the press coined as Skyfall were borderline disastrous even if the military ones wouldn't be really felt until few months to years down the line. Time in which the loss in production capacity could be made inconsequential or the war lost for all intents and purposes.

One of the primary rules of politics was that they were at least as much about perception as reality. For months now the Republic had been suffering blow after blow and even Veil's return and his successful campaign in the Mid-Rim had been a mixed blessing at best. This new disaster put everything on the line.

Satine sipped her tea again and paused her thoughts to savour the taste.

Seven days ago, disaster struck. Seven days ago, she had to work like a demon to keep everything together and when things began to slip through her clenched fingers, it was Veil of all people who came to the rescue along with Onara Kuat to rub salt into the wound. It was him who called that meeting between the major powers of the Core. It was his presence and words that convinced them that his plan could stave off disaster.

And it was she, Satine Kenobi, who sealed the final death of the Republic with her own hands when she signed off on the plan and the deals made during that meeting. The price to pay, neither she nor a democratic Republic could pay it. A formalized dictatorship however, an Empire even, one where those people ran from the shadows with her as a figurehead, such a future could give them what they wanted.

Satine put a hand on her growing stomach. Those people would use her, one day they would use her unborn daughter too. Or so they thought.

The Chancellor and future Empress smiled and it wasn't a nice smile. None of them bar her husband knew the truth, of the deal she cut with Veil, Zash and Kuat. In the fullness of time, she would rule, not reign. She wouldn't be a pawn to the same people who would gleefully throw her people to the wolves when it served their purposes.

Satine began quietly singing a lullaby, the same one her mother sang to her and Bo what felt like an eternity ago and remembered what exactly led to this moment.

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In a war full of history shaping events, few are as important, yet rarely acknowledged as the Coruscant Summit. That event happened four days after the Skyfall with the meat of it unfolding on the six one after a series of smaller meeting and negotiations between the various delegates. A lot of historians speculate that the second day of the summit served a single purpose – to show unity and merely formalize the various deals already made…

The military effects of the Coruscant Summit couldn't be understated, though they're covered in another part of this book – Operation Star Hammer. What we will dissect at length here are the arguably more important aspects, the political ones. The Coruscant Summit is hailed as the time and place where the then Chancellor Satine Kenobi laid the foundations of the future Galactic Empire. While she had already been enjoying close to dictatorial powers, she didn't seek them in the first place but merely inherited them from Chancellor Palpatine, the one man the galaxy trusted with that much power. In fact, it was the fear of his successor misusing the power invested in the Chancellor's office that was one of the primary reasons why the Senate remained locked down into inaction after Chancellor Palpatine's assassination. If it wasn't for that situation arising in the first place, it was unlikely that Satine Kenobi would have tried to gain the post of Chancellor. In fact, as a Mandalorian ambassador and remember, at that time Mandalore wasn't a Republic member, it was strictly speaking impossible for her to gain said office in the first place.

As people say, necessity is mother of invention. Satine Kenobi needed a working Senate and thus Republic so GAR Naval forces could be made available to lift the siege of her homeworld of Mandalore so she made the necessary deals, gained support and herded along enough local governments that it became viable to sidestep the Senate and elect a Chancellor directly… a most controversial step that led to a number of systems seceding in protest.

Many an author saw that step as the first towards re-unifying the galaxy and ultimate power, something very much not in character according to those who knew Satine Kenobi prior to her arrival to Coruscant…

And thus we come full circle – back to the Skyfall and the Coruscant Summit, which was its direct consequence. In the days following those tragic events on Kuat, Chancellor Kenobi personally met with members of the Kuati government and KDY Corporation, notably Onara Kuat. During that perilous period, she was known to consult and work closely with General Veil in his persona as Mandalore and her husband, General Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Supreme Commander of the Republic Military.

Those are the people universally hailed or vilified, depending on where you stand, as the founding mothers and fathers of the Galactic Empire…

Rise of an Empire: The Accidental Empress and the Coruscant Summit

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Part 2

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Chancellor's office

Senate building

Coruscant

It all began one fine morning a week ago. The sun was shinning, because it still wasn't high up enough to hide behind the cruiser hanging above the Senate, flocks of military transports flew all over the place either patrolling or bringing in Senators and their aides and a small army of aides burdened with data pads waited for the Chancellor's attention. The most important of them, Satine's personal assistant brought her a fresh pots of Kaff and her favourite teal along with medicine to sooth her stomach.

"What new disasters we have to deal with today?" The Chancellor didn't know it but she would be regretting those words not ten minutes later. "Military related issues first."

"More unrest on Castell. The Military Governor requests at least two more battalions of military police or an infantry regiment so he could properly secure the place."

It took Satine a few moments to place the name. Castell was one of the original Separatist aligned worlds within the Core and along with Skako the Confederacy had managed to turn the place into a fortress that didn't fall until Obi-Wan became Supreme Commander of the military. The locals were proud, had long military tradition financed by their close ties with the Commerce guild. In fact, the current president, Shu Mai, one of the more influential leaders of the Confederacy hailed from that world. Finally breaking its defences was a political coup that helped lessen the political blow of the Jedi treason. On the downside, the industry and lot of the infrastructure across the whole system were wrecked, unemployment was rampant and the newest and most favourite past time of the locals was bombing and taking pot-shots and the Republic garrison tasked with holding down the place.

"Place said request on my to do list when I speak with General Kenobi this afternoon. Next?" Needless to say, that planet, in fact, the whole system had to be held down for various reasons.

"The usual suspects. Aargau is rattling sabres along with their whole clique."

At that news, Satine felt a headache beginning to form and this was just the start of her day. During the chaos following the Jedi Coup, the Aargau mercenary military went rogue, no doubt under the direction of the Director of the Bank of Aargau. They politely surrounded the GAR detachments on planet, put a warship in orbit above their heads and then kindly asked them to comply with one of the three absolute local laws, disarm, leave or face the punishment for being non-locals carrying weapons – death. Technically that system along with those nearby were still aligned with the Republic. In practice, considering their close ties with the Banking Clans and how unreliable all of those unofficially were, that whole sector of space was under a distant blockade and a powerful Republic naval detachment hang in the area in case the locals got uppity and threw their lot with the Separatists. Either that or went on a "restore the Republic" crusade.

Ideally, Satine would have loved to have that ulcer upon her Republic gone for good, however she lacked good options to deal with them. As long as Aargau was technically still loyal, using the military against them was out of the question and all the political pressure she could bring upon them wasn't enough to make them cave. The locals were still quite furious at the Republic landing troops there to secure their world from Separatist incursion, which was an excuse and everyone knew it – the truth was that neither Palpatine, nor the GAR trusted them farther than any of them could throw a star destroyer. The troops were there to keep them in line and now Satine had to deal with the fallout.

Aargau wasn't alone – there were a lot of similar systems that her people had to closely watch in case either their civilian government or military acted up and only some of those officially seceded from the Republic. In fact the latter were the simplest to handle – either the threat of blockade, outright blockade and all the political pressure that could be brought to bear to keep them sticking to their neutrality or if at all possible negotiate a return to the fold. The real problem were the number of systems that were loyal in the very technical of senses – because they saw no other acceptable option even if they hated Satine and her government.

In fact, the next part of the briefing was about to cover the most notable stunts that group pulled off since last night…

Satine took a sip of Kaff and waved for her military aide to continue his briefing. He was just over the highlights – nothing too surprising if downright troublesome anyway, when the comms of various aides came to life soon followed by her own. What followed were twenty four hours of sheer madness with only Kaff and stimulants keeping the Chancellor awake. The only highlight of the whole mess was that for once Veil turned out to be helpful and started the ball rolling on getting as much aid to Kuat as possible.

Satine should have known the other shoe was about to drop and that indeed happened soon after she came awake after six hours of medically prescribed sleep while Obi-Wan and her government managed to keep the galaxy from imploding if barely. What she awoke to were a great many nervous governments, civilians and pundits alike crying that the end was night and Veil having an idea.

The Chancellor should have known that it was Veil who would cause the most chaos and headaches but at the time, she was just glad that someone had a rough plan how to stave off disaster before the Republic managed to finally fly apart…

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There were protests already, small ones thankfully and just the crazies so far. That was more than enough for Obi-Wan to get into even more of an overprotective mode and Commander Rex was back along with a whole regiment to further boost the already impressive security at and around the Senate. It was too bad that none of those nice troopers could help her deal with the political fallout.

Ever since the Jedi Coup, to a large extent even before it too, but then Palpatine somehow kept the problems down to a saner level, the largest issue the Republic had wasn't strictly speaking military even if the CIS had some notable advantages. It was political instability and that particular can of worms had been wide open ever since her predecessor managed to get himself assassinated.

Satine looked tiredly at her guests – Obi-Wan who sat stiffly on the other side of her desk instead of hugging her like both of them wanted, Bail Organa, Padme Amidala and the new Senator from Alsakan – the previous one resigned shortly after the last attack upon this very building.

"My government has concerns that I was instructed to bring to your attention in person." The career diplomat began.

"By all means, do so." Satine wondered if there was anyone who didn't see through her fake smile. She had been awake for just an hour now and this was the third such meeting with one of the major allies who made it possible for her to be Chancellor and their backing kept the Republic running. Or at least the illusion that the Republic as people knew it still existed, which was actually more important nowadays.

"We've seen the preliminary reports of lost shipbuilding capacity at the KDY Array. The damage on the surface has been substantial too. To speak bluntly, my government now has substantial doubts in the Republic's capacity to prosecute this war to a successful resolution."

They wanted someone to take the blame too and Satine was the perfect woman for the job. Everyone so far had been ready to volunteer her to fall upon her sword. Well, everyone but her husband but that was kinda expected.

"While the loss of partially complete warships and industrial capacity is concerning, it won't affect the war in the short term. The earliest we'll feel it is six months when the first of those ships were slated to come online." Obi-Wan spoke first.

Six to twelve months and then the effects of ships that wouldn't be build would double and so forth if the war was still ongoing in two or three years. The longer the time the more pronounced and cumulative said effects. In the short term however? Military speaking they weren't any worse than before the Skyfall.

The military advisers of her allies had to know this as well, yet their Senators kept coming to her. The conclusion was obvious since the very beginning – strictly speaking their concern wasn't military or at least not primary military. It was one more blow in a series of crippling disasters that had them running scared. The CIS changing their leadership, overhauling their military command and suddenly becoming much more dangerous was bad enough. Their Grand Offensive and it did warrant the capital letters given its success, was worse. The Jedi Coup and its consequences, Veil's stunts and the impossibility of throwing him to the wolves… those all combined into a political fuel waiting for a spark to ignite an explosion and the Skyfall threw a burning flare into the mix.

An increasing number of regular citizens and more importantly, politicians were losing faith that the war could be won, especially at a price they would find acceptable – that was the primary concern for the latter category. Everyone wanted the CIS defeated, they just didn't want to be the ones to pay the price so they could be in a better position for when the dust settled and it was time to reshape the political balance in the Core for decades to come.

Those were her allies too and they at least were more or less consistent. All other governments – even thinking about the convoluted mess that were their politics and interests made her head pound… and she missed what the good Senator said. That wasn't a good sign at all.

"I can assure you, despite the latest setback, we're perfectly capable of overcoming everything the Separatists can throw at us. Our military hasn't been in a better shape since the war began." Not a lie, strictly speaking, it was just that a lot of forces were tied down securing the Core from possibly unreliable 'friendly' elements and CIS deep strikes. "Political and economic consolidation continues at better than expected speed. I can assure you, we'll keep our end of the bargain with your government." Which was hopefully what really the Senator wanted to hear, just like those who came before him.

"I'll require more assurances than you word I'm afraid."

Assurances that Satine couldn't give without lying through her teeth for a simple reason – two of the previous meeting were with people who had agendas that was at least in part conflicting with what Alsakan wanted and she would be meeting five more such representatives before noon today.

Lying through her teeth it was then, if not to the good Senator sitting in front of her desk and sipping expensive Corellian brandy, then to those who even now waited to meet her.

Curiously, no one ever commented that strictly speaking, what Alsakan and many of Satine's other allies wanted wouldn't fly if put to the vote through a democratic Senate. Alsakan wanted to regain the prestige, authority and economic power it wielded before losing the conflict it had with Coruscant for leadership in the Core. Giving them what they wanted would amount to significant economic concessions and a voice in running things with weight that many others would find unacceptable. There was no amount of pressure and bribes Alsakan's government alone could bring to bear to push something equivalent through the Senate.

However, if they had Satine's backing and she persuaded some of her other key allies to help, then it might be just possible. Doing so would just require kriffing over a number of both allies and currently neutral systems and Satine had little choice but use her best diplomatic skills to persuade the Senator that she would do her best to ensure Alsakan would get what it wanted. Just like she did during her previous meetings.

The presence and tactic agreement of both Senators Organa and Skywalker merely gave gravitas to her promises. Satine always knew that the deals she made to gain the post and give her people a fighting chance would come home to roost. She simply didn't expect it to be this soon. Unless she found a way to change things, all she was doing was merely patching up a sinking ship and not fast enough at that.