Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Star Wars. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with a commercial aim. It is not for sale or rent.
Phase 30: Realignment
=RK=
Part 1
=RK=
The birth and much of the early history of the Mid-Rim Alliance is still shrouded in mystery. Some of the reasons for this turn of events are obvious. The Clone Wars, the Black Rebellion, and the Second Galactic Cold War that followed saw the deaths of key figures, the destruction of vital documents, or their continued classification. Various conspiracy theories run rampant throughout the Holonet. They still receive at least lip service by respected politicians helps to obscure the truth.
Finally, competing schools of thought about the war push for interpretation of events best suiting their narrative.
All of the above makes it very difficult for a professional to find and work with undisputed facts, much less one of the many regular beings who see history as a hobby.
The misconceptions and arguments about the Mid-Rim Alliance began from its very foundations and the initial impact it had on the Clone Wars.
The Coruscant School, created by Professor Alliina Shepard, from the First Empire University City, postulates that the strategic effect of the Mid-Rim Alliance on the war was relatively minor She postulates that most intents and purposes, the MRA's military influence in the key campaigns that decided the war was minimal. Further, their economic assistance, while important, was strategically misplaced in a way that still causes more trouble than its worth.
It should be noted, that Professor Shepard is a Unionist. In her worldview, anything that makes the New Order multi-polar, instead of a single power block with a singular vision for the future, weakens it. That is especially true, in an era, when the Core regions of the Federated Empire are rivals for power and influence with the Mandalorian Freehold and the MRA. This is a state of affairs only possible thanks to the MRA's actions during the war.
The Eriadu School sees the rise of the MRA in a radically different light. Doctor Striklis Mundis, from the Sebastian Tarkin Military University, holds to the belief that the MRA's rise shaped the galaxy we live in today. It was less through military action, though their contribution on that front was significant, but more through political support for Chancellor, now Empress Kenobi, and General Veil.
Indeed, without military and economic support from the MRA, the Mandalorian Freehold might have never risen like a phoenix from the flames of war. Indeed, retaking Mandalore, and cementing General Veil's position as Mandalore the Restorer, would have been impossible without MRA military assistance. Just like the MRA would have been stillborn without all the effort and sacrifices by General Veil and his command during the Mid-Rim Campaign
Those two campaigns, and the personal bonds of friendship between General Veil and Admiral Tarkin, would lead to an enduring alliance to rival the Imperial Core…
from "The Rise of the Mid-Rim Alliance,
an attempt at honest history|, by Glenn Meadows;
published by Alsakan Military History Journal
=RK=
Royal Plaza
Theed City
Naboo
Foreboding, poisonous clouds gathered above Naboo's capital. The once pristine buildings of the capital, the pride of the best Naboo architects and builders, still showed ugly battle scars. As often as not, collapsed domes and cracked durasteel floors condemned them as uninhabitable. Between the Blue Shadow, and all the poisons released during the various battles that followed, Naboo as a whole was a pale shadow of its former self.
The hollowed-out hulk of a Separatist battleship still lay in the valley below the city. That particular eyesore was huge enough to provide an avenue of attack that nearly saw Theed collapse once and for all.
As things stood, it was a close thing. The capital might still be condemned as too expensive to save.
That was all wrong. This was a sentiment, that was not unique to the handful of survivors from Naboo's Royal Security Forces. They fought with everything they had! They bled and died, yet it wasn't enough.
Dozens, then hundreds of cloaked figures gathered in the Royal Plaza. This was the same place where a decade ago many of them celebrated their liberation from the Trade Federation. Today, it was nearly unrecognizable. Various medical and private aid organizations had turned the place into a combination of a makeshift refugee camp and a mobile hospital. Barricades cut off access to the palace, manned by hard-eyed soldiers. Behind them, poked the guns of dug-in tanks – a sight that should have been unseen on Naboo.
That was merely another sign of the times.
Some of the refugees stirred and came out of their tents, while others huddled inside, seeking dubious security in obscurity.
The cloaked crowd kept growing until eventually, its dubious leader made her way to the front.
"My friends, thank you for coming!" An amplified female voice carried over the plaza. Some of the soldiers manning the barricades stirred, recognizing it. "We're here today with a simple purpose! We're here to remember all who sacrificed their lives to keep Naboo free! We're here to humbly ask our government to never forget our brothers and sisters in arms! We're here, with a solemn request!" The cloaked figure paused, while more and more curious people joined the crowd. "For centuries, our ancestors lived and died with their ideals intact. The Republic was there, ready, able, and willing to protect them."
Those words sent a stir through the crowd, and would soon shake Naboo to the core.
"Our ancestors were safe and secure. They lived in a different galaxy," The speaker took a deep breath before continuing. "Ten years ago, we should have learned a painful lesson! The galaxy changed around us! It is no longer safe. Our vowed pacifism doesn't make us harmless, so a hostile force could ignore us. Again and again, the Confederacy brutally demonstrated that such high-minded sentiments make us nothing more than victims to be abused. If it wasn't for the sacrifices, blood, and lives of countless Republic and Mid-Rim soldiers, we wouldn't be here today talking. We would be dead, or toiling in Confederate labor camps until our bodies gave up!" The voice turned cold and filled with derision, "Yet, I still hear calls to abandon all thoughts about resistance. I hear calls to spit on the graves of all who made the ultimate sacrifice for our liberty! I hear demands that we turn our backs to our saviors! When I hear such rot, I weep for everyone who sacrificed for Naboo! Is this what we are? A bunch of spoiled, ungrateful children?"
=RK=
Royal Palace
Theed
Naboo
Queen Neeyutnee and her principal advisers gathered in a secure room, while yet another, so far peaceful protest, gathered at the Palace Plaza.
"The latest poll results are in," The Minister of the Interior began. "What we're seeing is in no way an anomaly, as many of us knew weeks ago. The days of our people as a whole being pacifists, or believing the idea had any merit, are over. Over ninety percent of the survivors would be out there, backing that demonstration if they could."
That was a demonstration led by a Royal Guard Captain. One that flew in the face of what the government still technically stood for. Under almost any other circumstances, Captain Marina Jebo would have found herself drummed out of the service with a dishonorable discharge, if she didn't find herself facing charges first.
The Queen narrowed her eyes at the General in charge of her Royal Guard. She had no illusions that Captain Jebo was outside right now, riling up the crowd with his tactic approval. If her sources were right, more than half her government agreed with the sentiment wholeheartedly, with many others supporting it, if not the way it was carried out.
Queen Neeyutnee already made a deal with the Devil, well with the Sith. Her own hands and conscience were far from clean, yet this…
"This is an opportunity!" The Navy representative raised a clenched fist. "We finally will have enough volunteers to fill up the rosters of both the army and navy!"
It was no secret, that even after the Invasion a decade ago, it was the citizen's mindset that crippled any attempts to build up a proper defense force for Naboo. Before the recent disasters, they had a decent force structure on paper, just not enough warm bodies to properly fill it up. The same was true for releasing enough funds for a proper Self Defense Force. It was a miracle that the green military Naboo managed to build performed as well as it did. Yet the sad truth was that without massive outside intervention, they have achieved little more than die valiantly.
Uncomfortable silence stretched throughout the room. Despite everything that happened, despite the radical changes in society brought by consequent attacks and invasions, very few people on their level dared state the truth. The reason was simple. Doing so would make it that much more real, and impossible to deny any longer.
"Naboo is not what it once was," The Queen stated, "We are the servants of our people, and we can all hear what they want. We can either follow the way they want or wait to be replaced." Neeyutnee sighed in defeat. "We've been attacked and hurt one time too many. We have to ensure the security of Naboo, and the protection of our people. We also have a debt of honor to repay to all who came to our aid in our darkest hour."
=RK=
Part 2
=RK=
GAR HQ
Coruscant
Once again, General Valentra found himself wrangling bureaucrats and civilians who wouldn't know logistics if it bit them in the ass. At least this time, he wasn't suffering alone.
Right now, a Captain from Military Intelligence was in the spotlight, facing a long, U-shaped table. There sat Senators and high-ranked representatives from the most powerful governments and alliances supporting the war effort. They all expected answers and a close-to unbiased account of how the war was going, and more importantly, why.
By all means, wrangling them should have been either Kenobi's or Veil's job, while Telar was busy keeping the logistics of the war effort from unraveling around everyone's ears. Instead, he had to deal with one of the many drawbacks of being the Supreme Commander of the GAR support forces.
"To the best of our knowledge at this time, it was a combination of factors, Minister." The Clone Captain kept speaking calmly but firmly when addressing the Alsakan's newly minted Minister of War. "First, and I can't stress this enough, there was a pervasive sense of not built here among the various Republic Intelligence services. There was outright incompetence and treason as well. We all know that for a fact now. However, that was a secondary factor at the beginning of the war. There was too much focus in the Core and Mid-Rim even as tension rose and civil war became a real possibility. No one was willing to mention certain inconvenient facts in reports that made it to the Senate and the Judaical Forces' High Command."
"Captain, please elaborate." The old human from Alsakan' politely demanded.
"The Trade Federation, elements within the Commerce Guilds, Banking Clans, and last but not the least, the Techno Union. Those factions have been building up their navies ever, ever since the Republic disbanded its military. They have been subsidizing worlds and systems in the Outer Rim by offering them modern ships for system defense, in exchange for only paying for maintenance. They have been financing the expansion of local shipyards and military industries to make sustaining their newfound militarized navies easier and cheaper. Long story short, the core factions of the Confederacy had to step in to fill up the void the disbandment of the Republic military left in the Rim, or make operating over there unsustainable due an ever-increasing pirate and warlord activities. Among other things, it was politically unacceptable to submit such conclusions to the Senate, the Chancellor, and high ranking members of the Republic government."
"All because the lowered taxes and focus on local defense forces made almost everyone in the Senate and local governments who backed it incredibly popular back home." The Alsakan's Minister noted. "That was the case with our government, and it was by no means unique. Do continue, Captain."
"Further, there was an ingrained tendency among the existing intelligence services to dismiss and downplay the danger the CIS could possibly pose. Both people within our intelligence organizations and the Senate perceived the Confederacy as inferior due to the origin of most of their members, or the regions where the more powerful ones primarily operated and earned their combat experience. The danger of the Confederacy's Navy was often largely dismissed as that of up-jumped merchants armed with converted freighters. They have often been deemed a threat to barbarians on the Rim or pacifists like Naboo, but of no consequence against any major faction in the Core. Such conclusions unintentionally, or deliberately failed to note a few key facts. The CIS program to refit their trade navy in combat ships often produced results more powerful than most ships the Republic designed and built under the still active Reformation restriction. The purpose-built warships the Confederacy built based on modified freighter hulls were something else entirely. The same goes for underestimating the sheer number of ships the CIS had built since the Republic disbanded its military. Realistic conservative estimates of inflicted and sustained losses lead us to paint a grim picture. We believe that until now, the losses we inflicted upon the enemy so far have been largely replaced by local forces SDF forces, and new construction. So far, there is little indication that we've forced the CIS to tap into the large amount of combat-capable ships that they're using to maintain their economy and logistics.
In fact, one of the primary reasons the Confederacy didn't overrun us earlier in the war, was the logistics difficulties they had in sustaining large enough force in face of stiff resistance. Practically speaking, they could have won early in the war, if their Sith leadership so desired. What allowed us to weather the storm so far was a combination of sustained combat losses, disruption of enemy logistics, and destruction of logistics support hubs in the Mid-Rim while the GAR pulled back to hold the Core."
"Thank you, Captain. You're dismissed for the time being. Speaking about logistics, General Valentra, please elaborate about their state concerning our war effort and give us your best estimate on the challenges faced by the enemy." This order came from the Chairman of the commission, who was a new Senator from Kuat."
The Zabrak General stood up and walked around the table until he was facing everyone.
"At this time, the difficulty of both sides to support major forces beyond our core territories is limited by the destruction of mid-range support infrastructure. Much of said infrastructure was destroyed during the fighting for the Mid-Rim before the Confederate Grand Offensive. That, or while our forces retreated to better fend it off when they employed scorched-ground tactics on fuel mines, refineries, and storage facilities. The Confederacy partially restored some of the said industries in the wake of their offensive, however, they still could maintain a relatively limited amount of forces in the Core. The same will be true when we have the forces at hand to assault enemy systems beyond the scope of Operation Star Hammer. We will need to rebuild a significant amount of logistics and maintenance infrastructure before we could have sufficient power projection away from the Core and allied strongholds in the Mid-Rim." Valentra paused.
"Further, sustaining the deployment of Admiral Trench's forces in the Core was a tremendous logistics strain on the Confederacy. Without it in the picture, their relative combat power close to home will increase beyond what the successful retreat of Trench's forces implies. The Confederacy employed hundreds, if not thousands of ships to sustain their deployments in the Core. Now, those ships will be available for defensive or limited offensive operations, likely aimed at our remaining strongholds beyond the Core, which had been cut off for a long time now. In the same vein, without properly restoring a logistics backbone for operations beyond the Core, we would be significantly limited in the scope of operations for the time being. Contributing to this is the high number of losses among logistics vessels we suffered during Operation Star Hammer and the need to sustain multiple liberation operations all over the Core. At this time the ongoing battles on Corellia itself, and in the Corellian system are going to be a taste of things to come. We'll have to liberate hundreds of vital Core Worlds, and this will tie up a large amount of logistics assets and Assault Ships that could be otherwise used in offensive operations."
"Practically speaking, with the conclusion of Operation Star Hammer, the GAR will be in a need of a rebuild and restore period. For the following months, we'll need to rebuild our frontline combat forces and logistic assets. We need to link up and protect surviving strongholds in Mid and Outer Rim, so we can increase the flow of raw resources to feed our remaining industries, and focus on liberating the Core."