[20 BBY]
[Executive Security Solutions City-ship/Capital-class Warship Stormcrow {II}, Battle-group Army of Light, In Orbit Moraband, Horuset System, Esstran Sector, Stygian Caldera, Outer Rim Territories]
"After a thousand years..." I muttered to myself watching the view-screen of the orange-red world resting below the fleet, then sighed turning away. It wasn't the ideal place, the ideal plan, but these routes did lead back to the Colonies Region outside of the major hyper-lane routes. At least eventually, for it meant it multiple short jumps rather than use of a known hyperlane...most of which were under Confederate control after all.
Truth be told I was surprised that the Commerce Guild had actually set up a small base here, despite it being on their maps, as well...though it was now abandoned, and had been so since the Jedi killed everyone there at the start of the Clone Wars. It probably wasn't helping my case with the Temple overall, but it was pretty clear neither Anakin nor Ahsoka realised where we were, and Obi-wan had seemed unbothered by as well.
Or, well, beyond the general Dark Side taint that reeked off most of the worlds we were going to be going through to get back home; but that was to be expected considering the nature of the Caldera. Not that I could do much with them present anyway, beyond send down a droid force to explore and secure the Commercial Guild's abandoned base. One positive was the system did seem empty, and that gave us some time to rest before the next round of jumps towards the Yavin or Jovan systems.
It looked like the CIS were catching unto our little distract and jump tactic, but they'd guessed we'd jump towards the Mon Calamari held pocket rather than out into the maze of systems well off the main hyper-lanes in these sectors. The Mon Cala shipyards were appealing...but a lot of them were underwater, and my ships not designed for that sadly; the Core was the best bet with all these refugees on the fleet. Sure we'd found space to sleep, and food to eat, for them, but it was a logistical nightmare for my battered fleet in enemy territory, and less than good come a major engagement.
"So, where do we stand on Fleet status?" I asked of the holograms of Shesagora, Yulen, Gardan, and Shesagora's aide Nurg-something. Shesagora's avatar had her arms folded across her chest, shaking her head in annoyance "...not great I'm guessing?"
"No, it's about where we expected..." she answered with a grumble in her tone "...as we've been puttin' a lot on the hyperdrives of course. We've had another breakdown, so we have to strip parts from one of the captured freighters to get the speed back up, nothing serious but we're slow movin' falling back on secondaries, and herdin' this lot along"
"The Majestic Aurora?"
She nodded "Yeah, again, she took a beating over Centares, and repairs at Lianna only went so far looks like to me. Then that Zyggerian cruiser did some damage before she blew up, and looks like some of the coils got misaligned and then damaged with the jumps here. She's a Venator...but, best we can do is two-thirds top speed after repairs accordin' to the engineers, and a we're looking at a general reduction in firepower as well"
I nodded "Unfortunate, but she's still combat capable, and let's be honest...that's still a mite faster than some of freighters"
"Sad, but true..." Shesagora agreed "...but apart from that we're showing the usual signs of trouble from captured ships, and I'm having refugees moved to other ships where we have to, or the usual problem of transporting food over where needed. Even if we didn't have to stop for repairs, we'd still have to stop to do that"
"General's right Boss..." Yulen agreed "...but it's better than projected, the real difficulty is the this new Mandalorian block, and how near Serreno and the Seppie fleet building there, we'll be passing, before we can leap back to Republic controlled space"
I sighed, rubbing at my face "I know, but there's more enemy fleet elements on the more southerly route, besieging Kashyyyk, reinforcing Onderion, that big damned fleet Toth's got near Neimodia...Shesagora's plan to get near Taris and use the lane there is the quickest of our less obvious routes back to a major Republic held territory"
"Don't worry Yulen, there are multiple branches off those routes, so we're not committing till we've a better idea what's ahead..." Shesagora answered "...but the Mandos look like they'll be distracting both sides. Mandos being Mandos again as Braika'd say"
"One can only hope..." I agreed"...so how long are we looking at?"
"Thirty hours, most likely up to forty if we're unlucky. Unless you've any objections I want to spin off to small task-forces, Venator with a Gozanti or two, maybe a Consular, as escorts, to scout out nearby systems and set up monitoring droids"
I nodded "Whatever you think best Shesagora, just confirm the intended systems so we can monitor and coordinate from the Stormcrow. If that's the case we're as well keeping in defensive formation, and keep watch on what the Confederates do..."
It was a repeating problem, just more severe right now thanks to the success at Zygerria and adding Anakin to the situation, of not having a support base nearby to fall back too. Honestly it raised my respect for what would have been the Alliance to Restore the Republic for their having to do this constantly, in the face of an overwhelmingly superior military that controlled near everywhere. We, at the very least, a large swathes of Republic held territory to aim for, and isolated pockets of loyalist systems like Lianna to resupply at, unlike the Rebels had.
Good practice should everything go pear-shaped I supposed as we went through the remainder of the technical details and towards the end of the conversation. Overall the Republic was back on the offensive again, if in a limited manner, and our efforts had drawn away a fair amount of Confederate reserves into hunting us merry raiders down. Not that it going all that well, Kashyyyk was close to falling, Kuat under pressure, and the Republic holdings still broken up...but, relatively speaking, it was better than last year's strategic position in a number of ways. Now, I just had to hang around in orbit of this horrible, terrible, place the Force had guided us too for much longer than I'd like...
--
[20 BBY]
[Office of Senator for Chandrilla, Senate of the Galactic Republic, Galatic City, Coruscant, The Core]
Mon Mothma sat wearily, but with some mild joy as she sat in her office with a number of her friends sitting around her desk "There is some good news, a change from recent events, as it seems the Separatists are finally ready to discuss peace terms with us. And, this time, have support to bring it to the table as we are able to do"
Bail nodded, an equally weary look upon his face...this terrible war had been exhausting on all of them, none more so than Bail who'd been on several frontline worlds despite is calls for peace "Perhaps because they've been winning Mon, but with Alaskan and Caamas throwing their support behind our position we might be able to negotiate some favourable ending to the unpleasantness"
She, and a few of the others including a hologram of Senator Amidala from Naboo, frowned at that as the support of Alaskan...was for less than noble reasons all knew. Several in the Core saw the loss of the Mid and Outer Rim as no major loss after the damage to Kuat, but Mon and her friends had found little other options with the Militarist Faction increasingly resurgent "It is unfortunate Bail, but we can only hope that some accommodation can be made to insure their continued membership, for perhaps greater autonomy, or something to that effect. The situation needs to be dealt with before we see further trouble from Mandalore"
Several of the others nodded at that. The deposing of the New Mandalorians, likely through electoral fraud despite the protests of Duchess Kyrze otherwise, would only see the rise of the violent militants who were the cause of so much suffering in the past. Most were agreed within the Senate for the need to swiftly put an end to the Mandalorian terrorist threat, and the restoration of a democratic pro-Republic government as soon as possible. Her friend Padmé's avatar winced "And what happened at Zygerria"
Mon winced at that as well; hard not too when they had to sit there and watch the darling of the militarist cause running about committing war-crimes, all while singing about it being for the Republic "Yes, and what happened at Zygerria. While the Zygerrians crimes were disturbing, and the slaves needing rescue, the response...sadly we cannot bring the Butcher to account no more than the Separatists can General Grievous. Not with the war being fought, even Mina Bonteri and her compatriots on the Separatist side have hinted at such as well. No, must struggle on as always for peace, and then work towards dealing with all the troubles the war has caused. First though, we need to end the fighting as soon as possible, however possible"
"Agreed Mon, though Jar Jar..." Padmé stated with sad look "...sadly cannot support us in this. Not for lack of wishing too, but his people are most upset and he thinks saying nothing would be the best for our cause. I...have to agree unfortunately, they are somewhat...militant, and have even managed to rile up some of my own people despite best efforts to calm them"
--
[20 BBY[Plus One Hour Twenty-Two Minutes post arrival in-system]
[Executive Security Solutions City-ship/Capital-class Warship Stormcrow {II}, Battle-group Army of Light, In Orbit Moraband, Horuset System, Esstran Sector, Stygian Caldera, Outer Rim Territories]
I frowned as I listened to the message stated to me through my wrist comm-unit "Sorry, could you repeat that Gardan?"
"Sorry Boss, but you told me to let you know about any activity, and well...General Skywalker and Commander Tano have decided to investigate the Commerce Guild camp we took over, and the area around it. Their shuttle just left The Negotiator a few moments ago"
"..."
"Boss?"
"Thanks for letting me know Gardan, I'll be back to you in a short bit. Just keep monitoring them for now would you please?" when I figure out what to do I didn't say as clicked off and sat back from eating my breakfast. This could be horrifically bad...really bad...
Sending not-yet-Darth-Vader down to Korriban bad, while I had a bald wannabe Sith lady sitting across from me giving me a coldly curious look. Telling Anakin not to do something had been my first mistake, now how to avoid compounding it without also letting the situation get much worse. I was somewhat at a loss right now, so I sat back with a sigh "Hey, how you feel about being the first Sith in a long, long, time to set foot on Korriban?"
"But this is..."
"Yeah, Jedi renaming things, and I think we might, just maybe, have to rescue them shortly..."
--