Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter. Sorry this took so long, but final exams really consume your time, and I've had a lot going on since they ended, but I'm finally into summer and have more free time, so you can expect more frequent updates.

So, this chapter might seem a little lackluster, but it's going to be important, as it's going to set up a plot device that will be important for a good chunk of this story. It's also going to take place over a long period of time.

Let's get to it.

tristian5: Yes. I mentioned them in Terran Alliance: The Odyssey.

MangoWango21: You'll see.

Chapter 34- Stalemate

(December 15, 2049)

On the bridge of the battlecruiser North Carolina, Vice Admiral Harkon grits his teeth as a heavy explosion tears through the hull of the battlecruiser. Several First Order TIE bombers come streaking in for a bombing run. Two CIWS mounts blow the bombers to vapor, but one of the bombers manages to drop two proton bombs, which blast apart a turbolaser mount and blow a hole in the hull.

Harkon is the commander of a task force that Jonathan had dispatched to launch a counterattack on Gamorr to try and retake the planet from the First Order. However, the intelligence they had about Gamorr's defenses was inaccurate, and his task force had run into a powerful First Order fleet over Gamorr. The troop transports bearing the troops that were intended to land on Gamorr had been forced to retreat after TIE bombers began hitting them, and now Harkon's task force is struggling against the enemy warships. Harkon has already lost 3 of his ships, while taking out only a single heavy cruiser and single Resurgent. The fact that there are quite a few Resurgents among the enemy fleet is not helping matters either.

"We need to hit them harder! Use the rest of our nukes!" Harkon orders. The Resurgent his fleet had destroyed had been destroyed by a nuclear missile, but the North Carolina carried only three more.

"Admiral, we have no more. Our hangar bay was just hit by several TIEs! Two of the missiles were destroyed and the last one was sucked into space!" an officer calls out.

"Seal off the hangar from the rest of the ship!" Harkon immediately orders. Even though the missiles had not been armed, he fears radiation escaping from the remains of the missiles.

Alarms sound through the ship and special blast doors begin sealing off the hangar from the rest of the ship as the remaining hangar crew evacuate from the hangar. Many of them are burned, cut, or otherwise wounded, and scramble as best they can for the exit before they are sealed inside the hangar bay.

As he contemplates his next move, he sees an Imperial-II class Star Destroyer moving towards his flagship. "Focus fire on the incoming Star Destroyer, 10 degrees off the port bow!" Harkon orders.

Many of the North Carolina's batteries turn towards the Star Destroyer and begin firing. The Star Destroyer is returning fire, but soon begins to turn away to try and pull back out of range. Harkon feels a bit glad, but then sees a series of explosions envelop the bridge of the Star Destroyer Minsk, causing heavy damage.

Harkon curses to himself, then calls out, "Signal the fleet! That's enough. We're not getting through this task force. All ships, retreat!"

The alarms begin to sound on the ship as the communications officers contact the rest of the fleet to signal the retreat. Harkon slams his hand against a table, frustrated that his attempted counterattack has failed.

(December 20, 2049, Naboo)

In his headquarters on Naboo, Jonathan is standing around the massive situation board that displays the latest updates on the war. Also surrounding the table is Admiral Jacobsen, Jared Hansen, and General Nam-seok, the commander of the Alliance's Army forces in the Andromeda Galaxy.

"Boz Pity has been held?" Jonathan asks.

"Yes, Admiral," General Nam-Seok asks.

"At least we have one ray of good news," Jonathan mutters. He pauses for a moment, then asks, "Do we know if they need any reinforcements?"

"I don't think so. Their fleet suffered few losses, as did the troops on the ground. But the troops have been able to use the landscape of Boz Pity to set up even better defenses expected to hold much better against an assault. The commander also confirmed that the shield generator is still operational to prevent orbital bombardment of our troops' position," General Nam-seok responds.

"What word from Admiral Harkon?" Jonathan asks.

"He's managed to move his fleet to Rishi to help protect the approach to Kamino. He's requested one or two Star Destroyers to help bolster his fleet after the losses he suffered at Gamorr," Admiral Jacobsen says.

Jonathan sighs as he looks back down at the table. Things are not going well for the war effort. At least, not as far as he's concerned. The First Order had continued expanding towards the Outer Rim through the "eastern" part of the galaxy, eventually managing to make it to the border of the galaxy, sealing the deal by capturing Teth from the Alliance.

However, Jonathan had finally managed to stop their advance. After the capture of Teth, the First Order had attempted to make several more attacks on free planets, but Jonathan's forces had managed to stop them. The First Order's defeat in their push towards Malastare at the hands of Admiral Tanaka and his fleet had been a serious blow to the First Order's fleet. Those losses had badly depleted their already stretched out fleet. They had seized so much territory while taking so many losses while doing so that they could not adequately carry out offensive operations while also defending the territory they had taken. It also didn't help that they had already captured all the territory where they had a lot of supporters. The territory still out of their hands was more aggressively anti-First Order than the systems they'd already taken.

The Alliance had finally managed to stop the First Order's advance completely. However, Jonathan also had thought that with the First Order stopped from advancing, it was a good time to start a counteroffensive to start retaking territory before they could take the time to dig in. Unfortunately, the First Order had predicted such a move. When Jonathan had ordered the counteroffensive begin with an attempt to retake Teth, the attack had met a strong defense force and been forced to retreat. Two further attempts to launch a counterattack at Gamorr and Mygeeto had also ended in defeat when the Alliance encountered stronger defenses than they expected.

Although the fighting had slowed down, the situation is not good for the Alliance. The First Order holds virtually everything from the Inner Rim in, and almost the entire galaxy from the Inner Rim out to the Outer Rim east. Although the Alliance still holds an extremely thin stretch of territory on the edge of the galaxy, the First Order's conquest has virtually divided the territory the Alliance has. The Alliance has mostly been pushed into the "north" and "south" of the galaxy., with First Order territory between theirs. Although it could be dangerous for the First Order to have the Alliance on two sides, the Alliance doesn't have near the resources to exploit it, and trying getting forces between the two sides of their territory is dangerous. The southern territory is easier to reinforce, since the wormhole to the Milky Way is within the southern territory. However, the northern territory is much harder to reinforce.

Jonathan has been desperate to try and retake territory from the First Order, knowing it will help inspire further resistance from the galaxy and shorten the war. But he knows his resources are stretched thin defending what territory they still have. If he tries another major counterattack and fails, it could deal him enough losses that the First Order might be able to resume their advance.

Jonathan looks across the table at Jared. "Master Hansen, what do you think?" he asks. Hansen is one of the foremost military experts among the Jedi, and a master strategist and tactician.

Jared sighs as he looks across the board before looking up at Jonathan. "I don't think we have a choice, Jonathan. We haven't found any particular weak point, and we don't have the resources to launch an attack except against a major weak point. Unless that damn Grysk War stops or takes a massive turn in our favor, we can't afford to do anything but hold what we already have," he says in a grave tone. As Jared rarely swears at all, Jonathan knows how concerned he is with the situation.

Jonathan looks down at the board for a moment before looking up at the other three men around the table with him. "Alright. All offensive operations are on hold. Send out a message across the general frequency. All forces are to remain where they currently are until individually ordered to move, and are to hold against any attack as best they can. All First Order movements are to be reported immediately," he orders. He pauses, then sighs as he knows this may not go down well with some of the troops, then adds, "And tell all forces that in the event of a First Order attack, they are not to retreat from their positions unless they receive permission from me directly."

Everyone nods, knowing that Jonathan is really worried if he's ordering what is essentially a "fight to the last man" policy. This war has gone far worse than pre-war theory proposed, and if things don't start changing, it's going to be a very drawn out war.

(January 30, 2050)

In the Terran Alliance's main command center under the Pentagon, the 12 officers of the Joint Command are all gathered together for an important meeting on the status of the two wars the Alliance is engaged in.

"Grand Admiral Page's latest report confirms that the First Order has made no moves beyond their existing territory since his last report," Grand Admiral Takahama addresses the meeting.

"So they really are just digging in," General Chevalier mutters in frustration.

"It sure seems that way. The First Order has been much more intelligent about their war strategy than we thought, that's for sure. Especially using our own tactics against us," Grand General Lawrence responds to the comment.

Since Jonathan's failed counterattack, the war in Andromeda had devolved into something of a stalemate. Jonathan had cancelled any offensive operations and tried to fortify as much as possible. As it turns out, the First Order had done the same, either due to lack of resources to continue their advance, or out of fear that the Alliance would make further counterattacks.

Grand General Lawrence now turns to General Dreykov, a Russian member Joint Command who oversees a very specific branch of the military. "Ivan, how did the latest tests go?" Lawrence asks.

"Very well. The tests proved that the formula is just as effective as we hoped for. It affects their nerves in particular. Although not always fatal even with a heavy dose, it does wreck their nervous system and make it difficult for them to even more, and causes heavy pain. It also seems to have some effect on their ability to generate and feed on fear," Dreykov responds.

Lawrence grins. After his appointment to the Joint Command, Lawrence had asked Dreykov to oversee the Alliance's chemical/biological weapons program. A few months ago, scientists had begun work on a brand new chemical weapon specifically designed to be used against the Grysk. The scientists had managed to complete their formula and begin tests a few weeks ago. Although some considered it a little too brutal, the gas was being tested on some Grysk prisoners that the Alliance had captured.

The situation in both wars hinged in part on the success of the tests and viability of the gas. If it worked well, the Joint Command had decided they could afford to strip some ships and troops from the Grysk War and redirect them to Andromeda.

"Very good," Lawrence says.

"However, the team gave me a warning. The Grysk have showed that they can get over the effects a little easier than we thought, and it isn't as lethal as we hoped. It gives us a great advantage, to be sure, but not quite as much as we thought. My recommendation is that we have to slightly downsize the reinforcements we planned to send to Andromeda. We can't spare quite as much as we thought," Dreykov says in a warning tone.

Some of the other officers look a little disappointed or wanting to argue, but Lawrence quickly stops any argument before it can start. "Very well, Ivan. This is your specialty, and I'll trust your judgment."

"You know that we wont be able to begin full counterattacks yet because of this. Our original estimate for what we could send was barely enough to consider a counteroffensive. This will only make our defenses more sure instead of giving us an offensive opportunity," Takahama points out.

"I know. But the Grysk are a more direct threat to us than the First Order, and they have to take priority," Lawrence responds. He pauses for a moment before saying, "This is going to be a long war. But we don't really have a better option. We're just going to have to maintain the stalemate in Andromeda until we can cripple the Grysk."

All the officers around the table nod. The war has already been going on for months, and it seems like its only the beginning. The war is just beginning, and sadly, the end is not in sight yet.

And, I'll end the chapter there.

So, the war has come to a stalemate. Now, there will still be battles, but they will be much smaller in size, and neither side will be launching major offensives for a long time. This stalemate will last for years.

I decided to do this not only to make the war not too short or to make the First Order seem like a more impressive enemy, but also to give me the chance to develop my characters. A lot of plotlines I have planned, as well as a lot of character development, particularly with Rey and Ben, will take place during the period of the stalemate.

Alright. Next chapter will be up soon. Until it is, please leave a review, and stay tuned!