Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Star Wars movies, shows, books, comics or games. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not for sale, or rent. The Mobile Armors, and later Mobile Suits mentioned in the story are inspired by the various Gundam shows. They obviously belong to their respective creators, and, or copyright owners.

Chapter 6

=FG=

Part 1

=FG=

7.5 ABY

X-Wing

en route to Coruscant

hyperspace

Luke removed his helmet and rubbed his eyes, ignoring the warning beep his starfighter's computer gave in protest. R2-D2 beeped in question over the comm system, voicing his worry.

"Everything's fine, R2!" Luke unnecessary shouted, then rubbed his eyes again. "You know, there are more convenient places for you to appear, Master Yoda."

A hologram-like glowing, transparent figure sat on top of the X-Wing's instrument panel, with his long crooked ears passing through the canopy.

"Problem, I see not!" Yoda proclaimed. "Convenient this is!" The late Jedi Master even had his walking stick, which he waved in front of Luke's nose.

"You aren't dropping by just to see how I'm doing, are you? Perhaps just to give me a tip or two on where to find knowledge on how to train Jedi properly?"

"No. Soon, ask a Jedi you will." Yoda dropped a live thermal detonator in Luke's lap.

"I will?" The last Jedi exclaimed. "There are more survivors?"

"Survivors, there are. Jedi all, they are not." Yoda's ears briefly drooped flat to his head, before perking back up and shooting through the canopy.

That didn't sound particularly good. "More of the Emperor's agents?" Luke asked. The late, and certainly not lamented Lord Shadowspawn had been one of those. What was

up with crazy Darksiders and names taken from bad holo-movies,anyway?

"The disturbance in the Force you felt. Recovering, we were. Changed everything the merger did. Many who were lost you'll meet. Danger and opportunity await."

"All I can glean are odd, disturbing echoes. I thought it was just the Dark Side's presence in the area I was examining." Luke admitted.

"Changed the galaxy is. What once was, no longer is." Yoda kept being his frustrating, cryptic self. "Speak with your sister, you must! Prepare her you will. Fall, she should not!" Yoda looked Luke intently in the eyes and vanished as suddenly as he appeared.

"That was helpful, really helpful…" Luke grumbled.

At that point, his nav-computer beeped, announcing they were almost upon the hyper-lane's exit. Luke put his helmet back and checked if it was secured. The computer let out another, louder beep, followed by R2 chorusing from his position at the back.

"I noticed, boy, everything is under control," Luke said and took manual control of his X-Wing.

A few seconds later, they exited lightspeed, surrounded by the illusion of stars streaking by. As soon as they got back into real space, and the X-Wing's sensors came to life, the display in front of Luke lit up with incoming and outgoing traffic. He used the agility of his starfighter to get away from the long traffic lanes leading to the hyper-lane entry point and his eyebrows raised. Multiple New Republic IFFs flashed on his display, showing a large task force heading to Coruscant. He put his X-Wing on a converging course with the friendly ships and hailed them.

"New Republic task force, this is General Skywalker, please respond," Luke spoke in his comm. "R2, send them our codes."

A streak of binary followed.

"Luke, good to hear of you, buddy!" Wedge's familiar voice came answered. "And just in time too, we really can use your help on this one."

"What happened now?" Luke asked worriedly.

"Didn't you hear? General Hudsol ran into a new bunch of Imperials at Cal-Seti, and it was real bad! Sith-spit, Luke, they refused to let us retire, and instead ordered all the Rogues to get to Coruscant yesterday. We'll be having a bunch of Imps arriving here in a matter of days at best!"

"Slow down, Wedge, I've been stuck in the middle of nowhere searching for Jedi artifacts. I've been out of the loop since we liberated Coruscant. Please fill me in."

"Dock with Democracy's shield, and I'll tell you what I know over a couple of drinks. I'll get you cleared for landing."

=FG=

Ramses Hed
Cal-Seti
Cal-Seti system
Federated Empire

Two days after the failed Reb frontal assault, Jake found himself back at the main entrance of the spaceport, pulling sentry duty. He wasn't alone either. A Wookie and a Trandoshan of all things, from the Fedies no less, were on the same shift as him. The two of them kept roaring at each other as if they were going to tear each other apart. That by itself was fine with Jake, if they wanted to kill each other, it was no skin off his nose. The issue was he was stuck between the two large, scary aliens, and when their patience finally ran out, he was sure to be another bit of collateral damage.

At least, otherwise, the guard duty wasn't as tedious as it could be. The field in front of the main entrance was a ravaged mess, with close to a hundred blown up, or shot down Rebel vehicles. There were groups of Fedie engineers crawling all over the place. At least a platoon of their power armored infantry held a perimeter between them and the city beyond the field. Watching them pick through the wreckage wasn't the most interesting of things to do, but it certainly beat standing alone and just staring at an empty field. It wasn't like someone from the city would dare approach the starport so soon after the battle, and there was no oncoming traffic.

A glance at a different work detail was more than enough to make Jake glad he was pulling security at the gate today. He could have been stuck guarding one of the warehouses containing Rebel prisoners, and then he would have been stuck enduring their taunts.

It quickly became painfully obvious that dealing harshly with those bastards, even just making them shut up with their constant taunts, was frowned upon. A pair of Jake's buddies found the hard way – they were now in the base's original detention center, awaiting a trial for mistreating prisoners without due reason.

The explanation of a gruff, alien Fedie Sergeant after the fact still stung.

"Brutalizing prisoners for no Force-demand good reason only means that the bastards will fight that much harder not to be taken alive!" The old Duros, and wasn't that unexpected development, had both a deep, scary voice and a presence that screamed, 'don't kriff with me!'. "That in turn means more of us will die achieving any given objective! We'll spend more time, and supplies

to achieve said objective! When that happens enough times, an operation's timetable gets stuck in the deepest Corellian hell! Then, there is no unkriffing it without paying with blood! That's why we treat prisoners as well as the circumstances allow! We don't shoot them out of hand! We don't torture them for fun! We want the bastards to surrender instead of fighting to the death to take one more of us with them!

That was a far cry from the way the Empire treated prisoners. Usually, if they were to take any, that was because an officer wanted someone to interrogate or make an example of. Either that, or during raiding pirate ships, there could be Imperial citizens to recover, so the blasters were on stun setting all the way through.

As far as the Rebs went, until now,

all command wanted was the Rebs to be either very dead, or having fun with Intelligence. At least that was what everyone told Jake. It wasn't like he had run into real Rebels until the abortive invasion a few days ago…

Speaking about Rebs, Jake winced when he saw the other work detail he was really glad he wasn't a part of. There were a bunch of Stormtroopers, and Fedies, alongside medical droids, scraping out bodies. Or what charred remains they could find in burned-out vehicles. Then they put them into body bags for later disposal.

Jake looked away. He hoped that this shift would end before the two aliens beside him finally went at each other's throats.

=FG=

Part 2

=FG=

ISD Chimera

Kelada system

Duluur sector

A GNN broadcast from the new part of the galaxy murmured within Pellaeon's quarters. Gilad was more than old enough to remember when that particular holonet news channel, and the corporation owning it, still existed. It was in the time before Coruscant became Imperial Center, and the government nationalized GNN, turning it into the infamous Imperial News Network, with all its unsubtle propaganda.

Gilad looked at himself in his fresher's mirror. For a man in his late fifties, he looked too damn old and worn. His hair was almost steel gray, going on white, and the same could be said for his mustache. At least he wasn't balding yet. However, with all the stress he endured every day, that was likely only a matter of time now.

At least women still found his look distinguished, otherwise, one of the few joys in life he had left, would be gone.

The truth was that Pellaeon was tired. He was tired of running and of fighting doomed battles. More importantly, he had his fill of fighting for commanders who were a disgrace for the uniform, and what it was supposed to stand for. Yet, all he could do was his best to shepherd the navy, and hope that a worthy leader would emerge from the insanity of this civil war. He had been doing that ever since the disaster at Endor.

Gilad's only reward was to see for a fact that all the political animals on Imperial Center were either useless fools or worse, insane like Isard. That was why, after she ran, he broke away alongside much of the navy nominally under her command, and they reinforced various important systems across the Core. Kelada with its repulsorlift factories, and ability to build all kinds of fast reconnaissance vehicles was a valuable asset. Even better, with its location on a hyper-lane, holding it meant blocking an avenue of advance towards Fondor, which was still in Imperial hands.

"Good morning, galaxy! I'm Sylvia Halcyon, today broadcasting live from the Federated Empire's newest member world, Cal-Seti!"

Those words stopped Pellaeon's mechanical actions. He briefly examined himself in the mirror and decided that there was no point in grooming himself further. He wasn't going on a date, after all, more's the pity. The Captain walked out of the fresher and went to his bed, where his freshly pressed field uniform waited for him. He took a moment to look at the reporter, vaguely recalling seeing her on his GNN a long time ago, before she simply fell out of the public eye.

What he saw behind her on the screen, gave Gilad pause. Huge green droids were towering above many of the buildings at what was a pretty typical Imperial spaceport.

"Behind me, 352nd Engineering Battalion just deployed to upgrade and expand the port of Ramses Hed. As the forward base of operations for the Imperial Military in this region of space, the Federated Empire will upgrade the Mirror Cal-Seti into a military hub system. Then, the hub will be able to provide logistics support for fleet elements that operate from it." The camera focused on multiple descending, or departing vessels. "As you can see, shuttles with all kinds of supplies are currently landing on the operational part of the starport. Most of these shuttles carry aid for the local population. Cal-Seti had been virtually cut off from the rest of the galaxy for months now…"

Pellaeon briefly wondered if such large droids would be economic, even if they could be useful, before shaking his head. Considering his position, the merit of these machines was of no consequence.

The civilian broadcasts from the other side had been ongoing for days now. The sheer variety and quality of the constantly streaming channels, made it certain, that the Event replaced the Unknown Regions with a mirror of the explored galaxy from about twenty years ago. One which had a different history, at least since the early Clone Wars.

Empress Kenobi's proclamation had been stunning; everything Gilad could find about her Federated Empire was unsettling. He could vaguely remember the woman as a naive pacifist, a contradiction considering she used to be the Ruling Duchess of Mandalore, and predictably got killed over her ideals. Well, not on the other side. Even more interesting was the change of her family name.

How could he forget Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Negotiator? One of the Jedi Generals who quickly learned on the job? The confirmation that Kenobi had not only survived Order 66 but had ended up Emperor, was stunning.

Many good men died over the years, fell out of favor, or retired due to old age, who were still close to their prime. They still served the Federated Empire, the New Order.

That made the Federated Empire extremely dangerous. It offered hope. More importantly,it offered an opportunity that seemed to have not existed before.

Pellaeon finished dressing, paying little attention to the reporter's babbling. He had options to consider.

"We now see the arrival of Senator Padme Skywalker, the Imperial Diplomatic Envoy to the New Republic. She's arriving to inspect the status of the prisoners taken during the battle for Cal-Seti and meet the local civilian leadership!"

Gilad looked sharply back to the screen at these words. It showed a large, obviously armored shuttle, escorted by a whole wing of old ARC-170s. The camera zoomed to a landing pad surrounded by heavily armed troopers. A small contingent of Stormtroopers stood at parade rest, with a man in Imperial uniform waiting in front of them.

The shuttle landed without accident, its ramp descended, and a squad of soldiers disembarked first, fanning out, looking for threats. A group of familiar faces followed suit, capturing Gilad's undivided attention.

Anyone who paid attention to politics during the Clone Wars would never forget Padme Amidala from Naboo. She was headstrong, vocal, and never afraid to make her voice heard, no matter how many interests she trampled. The only difference Pellaeon could see was that she was a few years older than the woman he had seen on all those news broadcasts back in the day. Her face was scarred by what looked like molten metal. A close miss that she was likely lucky to survive. One of the assassination attempts against her, which Amidala had been infamous for, had come a tad too close to succeeding, it seemed.

Then, Gilad's eyes went to the tall man in black armored robes towering above the Senator. It was another dead man walking. Anakin kriffing Skywalker was almost certainly the father of that crazy Rebel who blew up the first Death Star. The Hero Without Fear, that crazy bastard, in the flesh and very much alive.

"Senator Skywalker, and her husband, Imperial Knight Skywalker, just arrived on Cal-Seti for an official visit. They're followed by, oh my, that's General and Imperial Knight, Ahsoka Tano, alongside Aria Astra, the adopted daughter and Apprentice of Mandalore himself, General Delkatar Veil!"

Pellaeon knew not who the last two were supposed to be. Ahsoka Tano on the other hand, her trial had been sensational, and it helped ruin the already shaky reputation of the Jedi Order. She used to be Skywalker's Padawan all those years ago as well, wasn't she? From a Jedi learner to a general in the military, and in her early twenties, it was impressive. From what Gilad recalled, the few Jedi who learned on the job eventually became impressive commanders. That was a stark contrast to those who simply lacked the aptitude for command, yet still led large formations, to often disastrous ends. From the thousands of Jedi who overnight became Commanders and Generals, only a few dozen at best grew enough to deserve such ranks.

Pellaeon checked the time and switched out the screen. He had a meeting to attend. The Captains of the capital ships in the system would be soon

be meeting on the Chimera to discuss their situation. And for the first time since Endor, he had something substantial to offer them.

=FG=

Home One
Coruscant system

Due to heavy traffic, a lot of it aid supplies heading towards Coruscant, Luke had more than enough time to catch up with the Rogues. This allowed him to easily figure out the obvious danger they might soon find themselves in. However, he was more than sure, that Yoda didn't manifest as a ghost just to warn him that they might end up blowing up in combat. That kind of hazard came with the job, no matter if it was Jedi business or that of a General in the New Republic military.

As soon as Luke landed on Home One's cavernous primary hangar, he could feel Leia's distant anger and worry.

Those were not good signs. He left his helmet back in the cockpit and paused only to activate the sequence that would allow R2 to disembark as well. Then, Luke followed his instincts and went in search of his sister. He barely paid any attention to the barely controlled chaos as ships and fighters landed or launched from the deck, or to the throngs of busy, worried people.

Luke found his sister in one of the VIP suites that remained even after the cruiser's refit. She was furiously pacing around, while Mon Mothma sat on a nearby armchair with a pained expression on her face.

"Leia, Chancellor…" Luke trailed off, not sure of the nature of the problem, and where to begin.

"Ah, Jedi Skywalker, you're here as well. Good, this concerns you as well." Mothma grimaced. "What do you know about your real parents?"

Luke looked speculatively at the Chancellor. He wanted to say that given his record no one would hold against him that Vader was his father, however, even he wasn't that naive anymore.

"That they're both dead?" He tried. Lying to the Chancellor of the Republic, as the last of the Jedi no less, would be a terrible idea.

"In our part of the galaxy, yes. They're very much alive in the new part of the galaxy, and are on their way here as representatives of the Federated Empire."

That answer wasn't what he expected.

"Vader's coming here?!" Luke blurted out as his mind short-circuited.

"What does Vader has to do with…" Mothma trailed off and closed her eyes with a wince. "Palpatine turned him, didn't he?" She asked after a long, awkward silence.

"My father," Luke began and looked at his sister, who was still fuming angrily, "Our father, was Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. Vader was… something else…" He trailed off, not sure how to explain it. Obi-Wan's dancing around the truth back on Dagobah didn't help matters. Neither did Yoda's half-truths.

"Well, his younger version is something called an Imperial Knight. At least he had the good sense to marry his version of your mother." Mothma briefly smiled wistfully, before sobering up "Both of them will be here in about a day or so." Mothma searched Luke's face for something, while he simply stared at her in confusion.

"Can someone explain to me what is happening?"

"Luke, you haven't been paying attention to what has been going on across the galaxy, have you?" Leia snapped at him.

"I was kind of busy and out of contact! Wedge filled me up on the disaster at Cal-Seti and the new imperials that are coming. What does that do with a younger version of our parents? What's happening?" Perhaps he really should have paid more attention to recent events?

Mothma sighed tiredly and quickly filled him in with the bare minimum he needed to know. The Event, how it replaced the Unknown Regions, the Federated Empire, it taking Cal-Seti, and the delegation heading to Coruscant.

Things finally began to click in Luke's mind. All he could initially think of was to wonder if Yoda couldn't have spoken clearly, just this one time! Yes, now he could see how the galaxy was changed and would continue to change in unforeseen ways. And, how no matter whatever else happened, Leia had to control her anger, no matter how understandable it was.

"Leia, think of this as an opportunity, instead of something to be furious about!" Luke tried and said the first thing he could think of. Force, he wanted to see his parents, in the flesh, even if they weren't quite the same people! It wasn't like he knew the real ones anyway!

"Those people aren't my parents! Mother and father died on Alderaan!"

Luke winced at putting his foot in his mouth again, before thinking better of it. He looked at the Chancellor.

"Didn't you say that the changed galaxy was about twenty years behind us? Doesn't that mean no Death Stars? No one has destroyed Alderaan over there, right?"

At those words, all blood drained off Leia's face, and she nearly collapsed on the nearby couch.

=FG=

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