Chapter 6: Strategy and Suspicions
Han, Chewbacca, and the reconnaissance party returned to the Millennium Falcon just as the system's two suns were setting in the Tatooine sky. Once on board, the group gathered around the newly installed holotable and patched a transmission to Coruscant. A holographic image of Luke appeared on the table, and Han said, "Hey, Luke. Glad we caught ya. We have news from Tatooine."
"What's going on, Han?" Luke asked his friend.
"Well, the locals have informed our party that the First Order has been making raids on Tatooine," Solo explained. "Even the Hutts are complaining about it. We've met with Rotta the Hutt on requesting that the New Republic be allowed to drive the First Order away from Republic borders, and he's willing to let us pass through if we can stop these Empire-loving slugs from blockading the major trade routes to and from Tatooine."
Luke gave a nod of understanding and said, "I will convene with Chancellor Mothma to decide our next course of action. The defense force for the Republic is currently being supplied with recruits as well as veterans of the Rebel Alliance, so we may not have much to work with. But we will send help to handle this situation."
"Sounds good to me, Luke. But what about negotiations with the Hutts?" inquired Han. "I'm not too keen on going back to that old palace anytime soon."
"I can handle negotiations with this Rotta the Hutt," assured Luke. "Perhaps he's more willing to make this agreement and keep it. In the meantime, you and your party return to Coruscant and meet up with the new recruits. You've been selected as a commanding officer in the defense force."
Han could hardly believe his ears. A former smuggler and con artist like him, now a commanding officer in the New Republic? It was almost too crazy to believe. But a lot of things had made less sense to him since meeting Luke and getting roped up in the fight to free the galaxy from the iron fist of the Empire. Han saluted the hologram of Luke and said, "We'll be back to Coruscant faster than a sun flare can cross the Kessel Run, Luke. Solo out."
He switched off the holotable and headed to the cockpit with Chewbacca in tow while the rest of the reconnaissance party remained seated in the cabin. With a few pulled switches, the Millennium Falcon rose up and then shot into the atmosphere. In seconds, Han and his crew were out of Tatooine's gravitational pull, and then Chewbacca got the honors of launching the well-flown freighter into lightspeed.
On Coruscant, Luke spoke with Chancellor Mothma and a number of Republic senators on the matter of driving the First Order from Tatooine and forming an alliance with the Hutts. Throughout the conversation, Mothma noticed that Luke was uncertain about meeting with Rotta the Hutt, but he had the steely look of a much older man who was willing to take a risk if it meant keeping more people safe than would be lost. After the matter had been debated for two hours straight between the group, Chancellor Mothma finally spoke her piece.
"We must prevent the First Order from laying claim to Tatooine," she said. "If a bargain with this Rotta the Hutt can be reached, it may give us the drive we need to secure our borders and protect our systems."
Senator Honorius sighed and said, "I don't like it, dealing with gangster scum. This is a hard choice for the Republic as a whole and the Jedi."
"I agree with you, Senator. But what other choice is there? The Hutts are still in control of the Outer Rim and their space lanes will allow us to drive the First Order away from the Republic with the most efficiency," reasoned Luke.
"Then our first move will be to mobilize a task force for battle in Tatooine's sector," said Taché Jamaliee, the representative of Naboo.
"And I will take a handful of Jedi to go to Tatooine and hold back any attacks from the First Order," added Luke. "If they are emulating the way the Empire ruled, they will be no less cruel than the most devoted loyalists. As for negotiations with Rotta the Hutt, I will handle that."
"Very good, Master Jedi."
The senators nodded and murmured among themselves as they departed the room, but before Luke left, Chancellor Mothma gave a statement that seemed to make her natural aura of warmth dwindle with the coolness of a dying star. "I only hope that if you succeed, Master Skywalker, the Republic will not have to bear the weight of another war. Too many in this galaxy have suffered too much to bear it again."
...
At the Jedi Temple, Luke selected Ahsoka, Cal, Tor Solaris, Mawlekk, and Lung-Seek to go with him to Tatooine and repel the First Order's threat to the security of the New Republic. When the debriefing of the mission was over, Luke spent some time alone in one of the meditation chambers in the temple. He felt that this conflict might be Leia's chance to prove her commitment to the Jedi Order. Whether it was his affection for her as his sister or his hope for her as a Jedi Master, he hoped that she would be up to the challenge as she had been leading the Rebel Alliance against the Empire. However, he could not ignore the fact that there were many ways that he could lose her.
"My father died saving my life. But when I faced him the first time, my haste cost me a dear price," Luke said to the empty air of the chamber. "I shouldn't sacrifice Leia's life to keep the New Republic safe. It just doesn't feel right."
Another voice could be heard in the meditation room, even though Luke saw no one else in the room with him. The voice said, "Leia would give her life for you as any wise Jedi would, son."
Luke looked to the door and said with soft astonishment, "Father."
Luke was correct. The ghost of his father Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi who had been deceived into obedience by Emperor Palpatine only to return from the dark side through the love for his son, walked through the chamber to sit beside Luke. After the two had shared a loving smile, Luke asked, "I suppose you have guessed the reason for my concerns, Father. I'm worried for Leia. She's been training as a Jedi for a short time and already the New Republic is threatened with conquest from fanatics of the Empire."
"I know of the struggle the New Republic is soon to face," Anakin assured his son. "But you shouldn't worry. You have trained several Jedi well enough to be more than a match for any threat, and Leia may find her proving ground on Tatooine."
"Are you certain of it?" Luke asked him. "I don't want her to make the same mistake I did when I first encountered you-" Luke was about to mention the fact that his own Jedi father had been the sinister Darth Vader, Sith apprentice to the Emperor, but he quickly corrected himself. "I mean, when I first encountered Darth Vader on Cloud City."
Anakin nodded with deep understanding and said, "You take the lessons of the past seriously. This is very wise. Luke, as long as Leia is with the Jedi Order, you cannot control her destiny or that of any other Jedi. If you are to become the Jedi you were always meant to be, you must first relinquish the fear I was not able to."
His father's statement made Luke curious. He had never known this side of his father and would have asked about it, but Anakin explained without needing a question. "When your mother was going to have you and Leia, I began to dream that she would die and I feared that I would lose her the way I lost my mother. Palpatine used this fear to play to my hope to see you safely brought into the world, and I blindly pledged myself to the ways of the Sith for no other reason than I wanted to stop my visions from coming true. I thought that Palpatine would ease my suffering mind better even than my own master. I was wrong."
Luke said, "So if I am to avoid the same fear defeating me, I need to let go of it. I need to keep my friends close, but trust that the Force will be with them throughout this trial."
"Your wisdom has grown, my son," replied his father. "Have faith in your friends, Luke. It hasn't failed you yet. It will not fail you as long as you trust them, and neither will the Force."
Luke thought deeply of all his father had told him. He's right, the young Jedi thought. I must trust in the Force to protect and guide Leia as it has done so for me. I must help her trust in it as well. It could save her life.
Luke would have spoken some more, but when he looked at the round stool beside him, Anakin's ghost had vanished.
Coruscant's four moons were unfit to support life. They had been formed from violent collisions of smaller bodies with the planet in its infancy and after being formed from the ejected semi-volcanic matter, they were as barren as Coruscant was rich with life. Even after a few thousands of years since the beginning of the Old Republic, the four moons were as dead and cold as they had been upon their completion. However, the first moon had been the site of an Imperial correctional facility; it was only correctional in name, for its true purpose was to compel inmates through violence into submitting to the domination of the Empire. Now, all four moons held a separate complex where the New Republic would prepare starships off-world until the new defense forces were fully supplied and ready to protect the Republic from threats of invasion.
At the moment, on the first of Coruscant's moons, the task force selected by Chancellor Mothma was meeting in the underground bunker along with the Jedi selected by Luke to aid the task force. Luke was authorized to deploy troops on missions of this degree as he had been a commanding officer in the Rebel Alliance, and he was sure that the men, women, and non-humans assembled there were up to this new challenge.
"Now, we are all aware of what we're up against," Luke said to the assembly. "The Outer Rim is being invaded by a military organization known as the First Order. This organization is composed of soldiers, officers, spies, and assassins loyal to the Galactic Empire."
The assemblage of humans and non-humans shared looks of varying emotions, some fearful, some doubtful of the potential for success, and others grimly determined to prevent the crimes of the Empire from being emulated by this First Order.
"Though most Imperial loyalists have gone into hiding following the death of Emperor Palpatine and the destruction of the second Death Star, the First Order is potentially large enough to present a serious threat to the freedom of the Republic," Luke continued. "It's now up to us to begin the liberation of the Outer Rim by driving the First Order away from Tatooine. If we succeed, the Hutts are willing to allow us safe passage through their territory to repel a potential attack on Republic star systems."
A man in the fourth row, shown to be a pilot by his uniform, inquired, "Pardon me for asking, Master Skywalker, but why will the New Republic Armada be needed if direct landings on Tatooine are the cause of this trouble?"
"The fleet will be required because at the moment, Tatooine's major trade routes have been cut off by the First Order occupation," explained Luke. "We will need the ships departing from the moon bases here to draw the blockade away from and engage them long enough for the ground forces to stop the assaults on the local populations on Tatooine. The members of the Jedi Order assembled here will go with me to Tatooine to handle negotiations with Rotta the Hutt, the new crime lord in charge, and from there we will meet with ground forces on the limits of Anchorhead to formulate a plan to remove the First Order from any and civilian areas."
There were still mumbles of discouragement among the group, but Wedge Antilles spoke up in favor of the plan. He said quite hotly, "Are we going to forget that Emperor Palpatine ruled this galaxy only because a few worlds wouldn't stand up to him? The Empire is dead and so is its unjust way of rule, and if we stand against this First Order, they will fail to steal our freedom as well!"
This, of course, was an understatement as thousands of worlds had been under the sway of the Empire even before the defections after the destruction of Alderaan, but Wedge's statement had many of the Republic troopers, pilots, and technicians nodding assent.
"I dunno about the rest of you folks, but I'm with Wedge," said Han. "I had to run from Imperial agents for nearly fifteen years since my defection from the Academy, and I'm not about to go back to smuggling just to scrounge for credits."
When no further questions were asked, Luke concluded, "Now let's man our ships, and may the Force be with us."
With the speed of water being poured from a half-filled pot, the agents of the New Republic scrambled to prepare to face the First Order.
...
Three hours later, a task force of ten CR-90 Corvettes, Mon Cal cruisers, and New Republic vessels entitled Star Defenders was assembled with three squads of five GR-75 medium transport vessels in case of emergencies and another two squads of Munificent-class frigates. Even to some of the troops on this force, it seemed ludicrous and by extension hypocritical for the New Republic to utilize ships of the Star Destroyer model in the Armada, but these vessels had been redesigned to be more maneuverable due to their arrow-like shape, and they were outfitted with cannons that fired proton torpedoes as well as energy beams. Moreover, the new title of "Star Defender" was the surest method to prove that the New Republic would not emulate the Empire in even the worst conflicts.
On the bridge of the New Republic Star Defender dubbed the Legacy, the pilots and navigators worked to launch the leading vessel of the task force. As the fleet began to depart their lunar base, troopers in armored uniforms suddenly stood at attention as Luke entered the bridge. He cut a figure that was regal even for him; with dark armor shielding his collar and chest as well as his wrists and shins and a black cloak around his shoulders, no one would have known Luke Skywalker as the farmboy he had been when he first joined the Rebel Alliance in their fight for galactic freedom. He strode along the passage between the bridge stations with the lofty poise of a lion, and officers and troopers saluted him as he passed. Even handfuls of droids gave electronic expressions of respect as Luke made his way along the deck.
He came to Admiral Ackbar, who now stood at the main console, and said, "What's the status, Admiral?"
The Mon Calamari admiral looked up at Luke and said in his throaty voice, "We are proceeding with the countdown to lightspeed, General Skywalker. All cruisers and fighters accounted for."
Luke saluted Ackbar before he went to the end of the bridge to stand by Leia. Standing by him in snow-white robes with her lightsaber tucked out of sight, the Princess looked so radiant that the billions of stars seemed to be releasing their seemingly unlimited energy into her form. Luke and Leia seemed as different as day and night, but they shared a smile of sibling love.
"Stay close to me as often as you can," said Luke to his sister.
"It won't be a problem for me, Luke," Leia replied with a winning smile. However, she could tell by his penetrating expression that Luke's mind was elsewhere. She asked, "What is it?"
"I sense there is more to the threat the First Order is presenting besides their unrestrained desire to rule like the Empire," Luke said warningly. "The dark side of the Force is stirring, as if it's waking from a long sleep done by a wound. We could be facing a new agent of the Sith on this mission."
Leia felt a vine of unease growing in her stomach. She had been taught about the Sith and how their only desire was to use the Force to rule the galaxy as they saw fit, and it was because of Luke that she had learned that Emperor Palpatine had been the Master of the Sith while Vader was merely a Sith Lord. However, she had confidence that Luke had trained her well enough so far to prove a match for even the deadliest attacker she might meet. So Leia said nothing more and neither did Luke. They stood silently together, feeling the warmth of the light side around them as the task force jumped into hyperspace and raced to Tatooine.