Beyond - Legends The Art of Diplomacy: The Next Generation Part 4

Title: The Art of Diplomacy
Author: Mira Grau
Timeframe: 66 ABY
Characters: Mira Grau, Jacen Solo, Ulrika Grau, Elena Kyr
Genre: Friendship, Adevnture
Summary: The GA has fallen under the sway of the Sith and Mira Grau only barely escaped their grasp. While Mira is trying to heal on Bespin her aunts are once more called upon by the cruel twists of fate as the new President of the Coalition is attacked...

This story is part of a larger narrative, of which several parts are currently unposted here on the boards but will be posted in the coming weeks, though this OS should be able to stand on its own as well.
Further Pieces in this "Next Generation" Storyline include:
Defenders of the Outer Rim
The Emperors Maneuver
The Brewing Storm

As well as the sidestory:
The Dead Lovers of Mykr


Prologue

He had never seen a world like this, a world that in its own way both impressed and disgusted him. In Galactic Fringes, even in their home territories on Firefist as a child, he had seen hundreds of worlds, words filled with beauty and danger. Each and every one of them having its very own nature. But this world was false, it was repulsive. Even on cold, lifeless ice moons he had found even the slightest bit of life, of nature, like the farthest, practically unreachable dream of spring. But here, on Eriadu, spring would never come, nature had lost its battle with civilization.

And yet, at the same time, Truthsayer Arok Nighthunter, couldn`t help to be impressed, staring at the glittering towers. To listen to the tireless working of industry, look at the endless rows of factories that produced weapons, armor, vehicles and all sorts of civilian products. This entire world seemed to be a forge. A forge and its waste disposal dump at the same time.

So, these were the people they had fought the war against? If nothing else, they weren`t comparable to the Nagai in the slightest. The cold functionality was so different to the Brittle Bones sleek elegance. The Nagai´s cruelty being replaced by a cold and merciless pragmatism, or so it seemed at least.

How had it come this far? That he was now here, having to bow down to these people, to accept the final capitulation of his species?

When he had been a young cub everything had seemed so hopeful. His species had finally begun to win the war against the Nagai, finally turn the endless war between the two dominant species of Firefist into their favor. There had been a dream, a dream of peace, of a homeland that truly belonged to them, and that they didn`t have to fight for every single day of their existence.

He himself had fought as a young warrior in these battles that many hoped would be the final ones of the war. Had experienced the suffering on the battlefields and the triumph as the Nagai had finally fled… But the victory wasn’t meant to last. The Nagai had fled to the greater Galaxy and found new allies there. Worst of them the cruel and warlike Mandalorians and so they had returned to Firefist and the war had continued, now more and more in the Nagai´s favor. World after World had been conquered by the brittle bones and thousands of Tof were either slain or enslaved.

In the end, they had done what the Nagai had done before them, they had fled, giving up their old home systems and migrated into the wider galaxy. The memories of the great Exodus were still present of Arok´s mind, and the dreams of his suffering people plagued him to this day. For where the Nagai had found allies in the wider Galaxy, the Tof had only found barely hospitable worlds and false friends in form of the Iron Alliance.

This slaver Empire had little love for the Tof and while many individuals had joined them, abandoning their people in the process, that hadn`t kept the Alliance from raiding the Tof Colonies for slaves as well. Worse, the Nagai weren`t satisfied with having now achieved full dominion over Firefist but instead continued to send raids against their old enemies, desiring nothing less than the full extermination of their ancient rivals it seemed.

The remaining Tof tribes had fallen onto each other, decimating their numbers even further as they struggled over the few remaining resources in their exile. It may have been the end of their species, but after decades of struggle the Iron Alliance had collapsed.

The rise of the Coalition had given the Tof some breathing room and a new neighbor with whom they could build a trade relationship. It had been a time of renewed hope amongst their people and Arok himself had been amongst the first who had supported the collaboration with the humans. He had seen in his life where the Tof´s wars and xenophobia had lead them, had understood that continuing the path of conquest and subjugation of other species, would only further the Tof´s isolation and eventual downfall.

But this time of peace and hope… it wasn`t meant to last. And the friendship the Coalition had offered… it had been just a front and each of their words was laced with poison. The humans had send hunters into the Tof´s territories, cruel mercenaries who hunted down Tof for sport and fun. Treating them like nothing but animals whose pelts and scalps they would collect. At first the Tof had been unsure where these new enemies came from, but the interrogation of captives and the investigation of their ships data gave their origin away: The Coalition was actively arming them to exterminate the Tof.

Arok remembered the destroyed villages he had seen, where the hunters had slaughtered and scalped each and every Tof, males, females even their cubs had been brutally killed and mutilated for trophies. It had in some ways been even worse than what the Nagai had done. It had crushed the hopes for peace and so the Tof had gathered around a new Leader, Sobek, the last of an old bloodline blessed by the All Mother herself.

She had given the Tof new hope and promised them a war of vengeance, that they would make the Coalition pay for what they had done to their people. And they wouldn`t be alone in this fight, for Sobek claimed she had powerful friends. Friends who began supplying the Tof with weapons and equipment. The shipments where bountiful and once more there had been hope amongst the Tof, hope that with these new, powerful friends they could finally secure some peace for themselves.

But once again the hopes where false, not long after their had attacked the Coalition the ‘friends’ had broken off all contact with Sobek and abandoned the Tof to their fate. Leaving them stuck in a war that they could never hope to win, with supplies running out within a few months. Sobek had been everywhere during the fight, helped where she could keep her people together, but in the end she had been slain by a Jedi and with her death the war had been lost, the hopes of her people crushed once more.

“Will they make is wait for much longer?” A young voice called Arok from his thoughts and he looked up.

The other Tof sitting in this meeting room with him was young, in many ways still a calf himself. But the blessed blood was in his veins, as it had been in his mothers. Harthor Moonblood, last of the great line blessed by the All Mother, the last hope of his dying people.

“They have won the war, young one.” Arok said. “They will make us wait as long as they want.” He said it with all the sympathy he could muster. Harthor truly was a child a child who had lost his mother and most of his tribe in this war. A child to which what little remained of their people looked up for guidance.

It had been his mothers final command for Arok to take the young one under his wing. To help him survive in this cruel galaxy. So that he may ensure the safety of their people. And it had been this final command that had made Arok and Harthor sue for peace, they needed to bow down to the Coalition and accept whatever terms that would cause. For it was better to live bowed down than to see the complete extinction of their species. Many warriors had protested the decision, but in the end Arok knew that they owed this to their cubs. For them if nothing else they needed to make peace.

The door to the conference room opened and a human woman entered the room, followed by several others. She had dark skin, and her head was completely bald. “So, here we are,” she said, and her voice was cold. “I am Vice President Sarah Durran, and you are the animals who are now begging for peace for the war you started. Let me make this perfectly clear, we are not here to discuss terms, we are just here to accept your unconditional surrender.”

 

One

“I will kill that shutta!” Ulrika spat out as she paced through the atrium to the Presidents office.

Tobin had never seen her as angry as in this moment, not during all the years they were now working together. During the now close to two decades, they had been Ranger Chief and Supreme Commander of the Coalitions military. Sure, there had been times when there were conflicts, either between each other or with the government, but at no point had Ulrika ever been so angry.

“I am not sure if that would actually help the situation,” Tobin said softly, Ulrika being controlled by rage wouldn`t make this situation any better and had in fact the potential to make it much, much worse for everyone involved.

Ulrika spun around and gave him a flaming glance, “no? What do you want me to do? Just accept that he put out an arrest warrant for Mira? Shall I kneel down to the Sith as well? Turn all of us into appeasers? After that idea already worked so well with Jagged Fel?” She shook her head.

“No,” Tobin said firmly, “but you need to calm down, if we want to achieve anything here, we can’t lose our nerves. If you act like this, you will also give him the excuse he needs to strip you of your position as Ranger Chief.”

Ulrika let out a dry laugh, “as if I would even want to continue to serve in that position under this government, if he fires me, he only spares me the trouble to write my resignation letter.”

Tobin let out a sigh, he knew Ulrika´s temper, of course he did. Ilona had complained about it for decades before he had properly met her former rival for the first time, and in all his time knowing Ulrika now himself he had only learned that at least in this regard his wife’s assessment of Ulrika was accurate.

“And what use are you for Mira when you have lost your position?” Tobin asked her, as usual, not even bothering to soften the truth in his words.

Turning back around to him, Ulrika was silent for a moment, then she let out a sigh herself. “Well, you got me. But even then, it just feels wrong to serve this government. You know what I mean?”

Tobin gave her a slow nod. He certainly had been disappointed by the election results, disappointed and surprised. Saul Cameron hadn`t been on anyone’s mind just a few months ago. Sure, he had been a diplomate and politician in the Kathol Republic, which was now part of the Coalition for almost two decades, but the main political sphere had been dominated by Eriaduans, up until now. Tobin guessed the Tof War, as well as the conflict on Dathomir had caused the growth of a political movement wanting to see the end of the wars around the galaxy. That had voted for a dove, whereas Ilona had been a hawk.

“He certainly wasn`t my choice either,” Tobin said, “but he was elected democratically, and we have to respect that, if military commanders like us were to decide who becomes president, what makes us better than the Empire?”

“True,” Ulrika admitted, having stopped pacing around but still clearly unwilling to sit down. “And yet, is that even still democratic? He was elected with support of the National Vanguard mind you.”

The National Vanguard, the furthest right party in the Coalition of any significance, had been formed both from Eriaduan Human Centrists as well as various loyalists of Maximillian Palpatines Empire, as well as a broader spectrum of ultranationalists from various member worlds. Some also considered them the heirs of the old Eriaduan Goddess´s Militia movement, even if they lacked the more faithful aspects of it. They did not openly champion human centrism, but the subtext was always there, not to mention their open admiration for the Empire and Jagged Fel. To them the Fel Empire was the clear paragon to follow, a state with a strong leader who ‘did what was best for the people’.

Up until now the party had been little more than a fringe movement but in the current elections, they had achieved a comparably strong result, even if they still limped behind the four main political parties.

“Eight percent of votes,” Tobin said slowly. “In combination with twenty-two for the old-world league and twenty-one for the Faithful League. The Vanguard is an absolute minority to their coalition partners, I doubt they can do much damage.”

“They should have never even considered such a coalition,” Ulrika said, her voice giving away that she was getting angry again. “Working with a party like that, one that spits on democracy.”

“And a government involving the Populists would have been better?” Tobin asked.

“Of course!” Ulrika replied, “the Progressive Party fights for good and justice and…”

“An even stronger position for the President, to me they are no bit better than the Vanguard,” Tobin said firmly. He knew that Ulrika and many others didn`t share his opinion but he would die on that hill if it came to it. “If we put on radical party over the other, we get into dangerous territory.”

Ulrika shook her head, “easy for you to say. But the Progressive Party fights for people that weren`t born as rich as you and me. Cassandra wants to help people, to share the wealth of our nation.”

“I have seen her slogans,” Tobin said. “’Every Girl a Queen’ and whatnot. But I also know how she has been running the Imperial Territories as a personal fiefdom, using legal loopholes and executive powers to bypass democratic measures and the like. Is that right?”

“Its better than what the Vanguard is doing, in parts even better than what the Old-World Alliance does.” Ulrika said with a shrug. “Cameron made Durran his vice President. Durran, can you believe that?”

Sarah Durran, another one of Ulrika´s old enemies had become a leading figure in the National Vanguard, a figure around which old Imperial Loyalists and other Nationalists had gathered around. Tobin knew that Ilona had tried to make peace with Durran at multiple points, but the former Imperial Officer had denied these olive branches at every turn. And so, Durran had become a permanent sting in the flesh of the Coalition.

“And we both now that this position is explicitly powerless,” Tobin reminded her, “you give that to a rival to placate them, but other than attending public meetings and negotiations the Vice President has little to no real power. I´d say Cameron neutered Durran with that appointment.” He took a deep breath, “and can we really blame her for being bitter? After the humiliation Laric and Cassandra put her through during your trial.”

“That whole trial only happened because I stopped her from murdering two captive teenagers mind you,” Ulrika replied, but she had finally calmed herself down again. “But you are right, it wasn`t fair what was done to her. But it was a harsh time back then and we needed the public support.”

“And now we are paying the price,” Tobin muttered quietly. “She will certainly use her position to the utmost to cause us trouble, especially with the dark days ahead.”

“The darkest of days,” Ulrika said darkly. “What I heard from Mira, from others in the core. The Sith must have planned this for decades… who knows given the timing maybe Cameron is one of them.”

“Cameron a Sith?” Tobin raised an eyebrow, “wouldn`t we have been able to notice that?”

Ulrika shrugged, “what do I know, Palpatine sure managed to hide being one despite having regular meetings with the Jedi council so who knows.”

“True,” Tobin admitted, “we truly don’t know who we can trust anymore. Guess that is their greatest weapon. The uncertainty, how can we even still trust our friends.”

“I trust you,” Ulrika said firmly.

“Thanks, me too,” Tobin replied. “No Sith could fake being such an irresponsible person for so long.”

Ulrika stuck out her tongue at him, “and if you were a traitor, you would have at least the decency to admit it openly I guess.”

“Where is Elena by the way,” Tobin asked, lowering his voice a bit.

“She shows old friends of ours around,” Ulrika replied. “One of her father’s old contacts, someone who may be able to shed some light on the new Government.”

“Someone you trust?”

“No, I would only trust him as far as I could tear out his guts, but he isn`t a friend of the Sith, that´s for sure.” Ulrika answered and Tobin noticed her distaste for the topic, so he switched it.

“Is your daughter, okay? Lena I mean.”

“Yeah, she is okay, pretty worried about Mira though, of course, the two are close as sisters.”

“I am sorry, whole thing is just a mess.” Tobin replied.

Ulrika gave him a nod, “not your fault. We will see this sorted, and if I have to personally drag our new President to do the right thing.”

“I hope that won`t be necessary,” a deep, strong voice called over to them and Tobin looked up.

Saul Cameron stood in the open door to his office and looked at them. Rising to his feet Tobin gave their new head of state a proper salute. “Sir.”

He noticed that Ulrika hesitated for a moment before also straightening herself and giving Cameron a salute.

Cameron gave both of them a nod, “relax yourself soldiers. I apologize for making you wait, but my new duties give me little time to rest.”

“We can sleep when we are dead,” Ulrika replied before Tobin could say anything.

Cameron gave her a weak smile as he gestured both of them into his office.

Tobin knew the room very well from Ilona´s time here, but it seemed Cameron had already given it some personal touch as well. Ilona´s pictures were gone and replaced with ones of a family Tobin didn`t knew but he guessed it was Cameron´s. Behind the desk now hung an actual painting, showing Ilona in the same chair, a nod to Cameron´s predecessor that made Tobin´s respect for the man grow a bit. Maybe this wouldn`t be so bad after all.

Sitting down behind his desk Cameron gestured to his two guests to sit down on the chairs in front of it, Tobin followed his gesture, but Ulrika remained on her feet, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Tobin could see the anger rising in her eyes and knew that the explosion was about to happen.

“Sir, I must say I didn`t vote for you, but I heard you are a man who values the open and honest word.” Ulrika began, “So I want to be honest with you as well and save both of us a lengthy bit of Smalltalk. I consider your decision to put out an arrest warrant for my adoptive niece Mira Grau unacceptable. We both know that she couldn`t have committed the crimes she has been accused of committing. As long as this warrant stands, I don’t see myself able to serve this nation. Thus, I ask you to repeal it immediately.”

Tobin bit his lip to stop himself from instantly inserting himself into the conversation, to try and soften Ulrika´s words and to prevent an escalation, but at the same time he knew that any attempt to stop Ulrika here would be an escalation. And at the same time Ulrika had spoken fairly, without getting insulting herself.

Cameron looked up at her for a moment, a painfully long moment of silence during which his dark blue eyes assessed his Ranger Chief completely and Tobin was weirdly glad not to be the one to fall under this gaze, at least not now. His moment was sure to come.

“Chief Grau, I appreciate your honesty on this matter,” Cameron said, his voice was hard, but not unfriendly. “And I can assure you that I know your niece didn`t commit the crimes she is accused of. The entire accusation is completely absurd and in no way possible.”

“Then why did you give out the arrest warrant?” Ulrika asked as she took a step closer to the desk and slammed her fist onto the dark wood. “Why do you follow this obviously unjust order?”

Again Cameron made a pause before he answered, “reasons of state, the GA was putting pressure on the Coalition and I needed to react otherwise we would have lost a major advantage in this political game.”

“What advantage?” Ulrika raised her voice, “the advantage of being able to lick the Sith´s boots?”

Cameron looked up at her, “Chief Grau, do you really believe that advocating for peace is the same as surrendering to our enemies. I know fully well that the Sith are a danger to all of us, for that reason but if we want to have a chance against…”

The sound of exploding glass cut Cameron off, and Tobin saw a blinding flash of light that made him dive to the ground as his old soldier reflexes awoke and saved his life, as only seconds later further flashes of light filled the room. He saw how Ulrika fell to the ground, screaming in pain with two blaster wounds on her back. Following the direction of the blaster bolts Tobin saw a speeder hovering outside the office window, but only for a few seconds, then it turned and drove away, fleeing back into the labyrinth of city streets. But the moment had been long enough for Tobin to recognize the people sitting in it, or better the robes they had worn.

Then the sound of sirens filled the room, and flashing lights appeared all over the building. Knowing that help would be here in seconds Tobin jumped over to the small emergency medical kit on one of the walls. Looking at Ulrika he saw that her wounds were painful but not life threatening, so he jumped across the table to check on Cameron, the President had collapsed in his chair, probably been spared from the first hits by Ulrika standing in the way, but then Tobin saw how he clutched a blaster wound on his stomach.

Helping the president out of the chair he laid him down on the floor of the office, behind the desk. Tobin´s hands were shaking as he began to apply bacta to the wound. “Come on, stay with me, stay with me, don`t you die on your third day in office, Sir.”

 

Two

“She looks so innocent when she is asleep…”

“That has always been when she was the cutest…”

“I`m just glad she is okay… why did this happen again?”

“I don`t think she was the target, and if she was than certainly not the only one.”

Ulrika could hear several voices talking above her as she lay on her side on the hospital bed, keeping her eyes still closed to give off the impression that she was still very much asleep. Her head was still a bit dazed, even if with every second her thoughts began to clear up.

Knowing she couldn`t play asleep for much longer she let out a groan and sat herself up, opening her eyes, then instantly closing them again as the bright light blinded her.

“Ouch…” she muttered more to herself as she felt the bacta patches on her back tearing at her skin due to her sudden movement.

“Hey, easy girl,” the voice of her father reached her, and she felt a hand on her shoulder gently pushing her back onto her pillow.

Ulrika didn`t resist and as she was laying on her back, she blinked to get her eyes used to the light above. Finally adjusting to it she saw several people had gathered around her bed. Her parents said to the right side of her bed, while Elena had taken a seat on the left, Tobin was here as well but he stood, leaning against the wall opposite to her.

“How are you, Rika?” Her mother leaned over at her with a worried expression. Even now, with over eighty years, Ella Grau was still a good-looking woman for her age, the good looks she had passed onto her daughter, apart from her dark hair that now more and more lost its battle with her grey.

“Okay… I`m okay,” Ulrika muttered. “I`m okay, even if its mostly the painkillers I guess.” Her head was indeed dizzy, the old and well-known feeling of being pumped with medications that any soldier and especially someone as experienced as she knew all too well.

“That´s our girl,” her father said with a smile, “gets half of an e-web salvo in her back and it barely slows her down.” Arjen Grau had passed his dark brown hair to his daughter, but long since parted ways with his hair completely as he had already been bald by the time Ulrika had been promoted to the rank of Colonel decades ago.

“Your daughter had some incredible luck,” Tobin said, as always being brutally honest. “The shots mostly hit her shoulder and right arm, so no organs were hit, if the bolts had impacted her just a few centimeters left she would be dead now.”

Ulrika saw how her mother was preparing to say something, so she cut her off quickly, “mom, he is right. I once more just escaped death by hair´s breath, or the goddess holding her hand above me.”

“Always so humble,” her mother gave her a smile. “But you are really selling yourself under value, you are where you are because of your own skill and determination. Hardly anyone else could have done the same.”

Ulrika felt how her cheeks flushed red, no small feat to make her embarrassed but her parents were Masters of It. Since her earliest childhood they had given her the feeling of being the most awesome thing to have ever happened to the galaxy, had always completely and utterly encouraged her at everything she tried to do. It had given her, her sense of self confidence but also made her careless.

“I sure hope Mr. Cameron will give you the credit you deserve for saving his life,” her father said firmly. “If your long list of achievements doesn`t convince him to listen to you than this certainly should.”

“Cameron is still being operated,” Elena said. “We don`t know if he will survive the night.”

“Honestly would serve him right for what he did to Mira,” Ella said angrily. “How can he treat our family like that? After all Ulrika did for Eriadu and the Coalition? Our nation wouldn`t exist without her.”

Ulrika raised her hands, “please, Ella. I was just one woman amongst many, many people who created the Coalition, there are others much more important than me in it.”

Her father shook his head, “and its good how humble you are but you can sometimes acknowledge your importance.”

Ulrika let out a sigh, she knew how her parents’ behavior must feel to Elena and especially Tobin right now. So, to stop the embarrassment from piling up further she switched the topic. “How long did I sleep?” She just remembered how the medics had entered the office of the President and how one of them had administered an anesthetic to her.

“About ten hours,” Elena said. “They brought you and Cameron to the hospital once they had you somewhat stabilized.”

“Have you contacted Lena?” Ulrika asked, only now fully recognizing her daughter’s absence.

“We did,” Ella assured her. “She was still on Curean due to the opening of her new boutique there. Now she is waiting for a ship to bring her back to Eriadu. She sends her best regards.”

“Good,” Ulrika smiled, she wished she had been there on Curean, as the boutique had been something her daughter had been working on for quite a while, now branching out her brand from Eriadu. She and Elena had wanted to be there for the opening but Cameron´s Election and the events in the Core had prevented them from doing so.

“Durran has taken over as interim President.” Elena said and Ulrika could feel the worry in her voice.

She herself froze at these words, that was something she hadn`t thought of. Durran and the National Vanguard were only a small partner in the ruling coalition, but she had been made the Vice President. She remembered how Tobin had assured her that the role of the Vice President was the most powerless in the entire Coalition… unless of course something happened to the President.

She felt how her heart began to race, that wasn`t good, not good at all.

“That horrible woman,” her father said shaking his head, “how can she even run around freely these days after what she did to Ulrika? Dragging her to court, trying to have her executed?”

“Whole thing might be kind of our fault,” Ulrika admitted. “We humiliated Durran massively back then. Little wonder she is now seeking vengeance.”

“Never say that again,” her mother said firmly, “Durran does what she does because she wants to do it. It is not your fault and never will be.”

Ulrika wasn`t convinced but she didn`t want to argue about this with her parents. Instead, she turned to Tobin, “were you able to get a glance at the attackers?”

Tobin nodded, “I did, and so did several other people in the government building, they didn`t try to hide their identity at all.”

Ulrika looked up to him, “wait what? The attackers wanted to be recognized?”

She saw how Tobin exchanged a glance with Elena, then moving further towards her parents. What were they hiding?

“It was the Militia,” Elena said quietly. “The footage is already all over the Coalitions holonet.”

“The Militia?” Ulrika felt her heart shake again. “You mean the Goddess´s Militia? I thought those fanatics had a ceasefire with the government.” Florianne Idril had negotiated that and Ulrika herself had been a critic of the move.

“Seems that is off the table now,” Tobin said darkly. “Even if the Militia is denying any complicity in the act.”

The Goddess´s Militia, the last decrepit remnant of the Citizen Militias that fought to keep the worship of the Goddess legal in the years after the Pius Dea Crusades were bane on Eriadu and always had been. The group openly proclaimed itself a well-meaning group of the faithful, financing various social projects all over the nation and supporting especially veterans. But behind the charitable veneer lay an arch conservative sect who used their political influence to fight for the preservation of Eriadu´s human centric laws and customs. To the point of bullying and intimidating anyone they saw as opposed to their view of thinking. And rumors had it that the group in secret went even further, with some members outright murdering nonhumans in a perceived sense of ‘justice’.

“But…” Ulrika muttered, “weren`t they kind of a joke these days? I never thought that they would be able to do something like that.” The Militia had been on the decline as an organization for all of Ulrika´s life, loosing more and more members every year and these days being little more than a old boys and girls club who fantasized about past ‘glory’.

“They are no joke,” her mother said, with a somber tone in her voice that Ulrika had rarely heard before.

She looked at her, “what do you mean they…”

“We had a run it with them, on Torean.” Her father said, his voice now serious as well. “If you want to call it that.” He exchanged a dark look with his wife.

“They were active on Torean?” Ulrika asked, surprised. Torean was an Eriaduan Colony, the world she had spent the early years of her childhood on, in a small company town owned by House Grau, which her father had served as mayor of. Her parents still lived on the world to this day, even if they regularly visited their daughter and granddaughter on Eriadu.

“Yes,” her mother said. “At least until… well I doubt it’s a story for a time like this.”

Ulrika looked from her mother to her father and back, she had no idea of this run in, whatever it was. But it clearly caused her parents to drop their usual lighthearted mood and become dead serious, whatever had happened on Torean, it had shaken both to their core.

“The Group still has close to a million members,” Elena said, “though I don`t know how many could be considered as being active ones…”

“But they did support the National Vanguard don`t they?” Ulrika continued her questions.

The Vanguard had become the new heaven for Conservative forces in the Coalition, modeling itself far more after Jagged Fel and his Empire than following the ancient traditions of the Militia.

“Some yes,” Elena nodded, “but others apparently voted for the Faithful Union and even the Old-World Alliance.”

Ulrika felt a terrible suspicion rise inside of her, “do you think they tried to kill Cameron, and maybe Tobin and me as well, so Durran could take over as President?”

“We fear that might be the case,” Tobin said with a somber tone. “At yet… Durran´s first order of business of taking her new temporary position was to order the arrest of Betsy Hiran.”

“And that is?” Ulrika raised an eyebrow.

“The Grand Magus of the Militia,” Elena explained. “As in their leader. She recently took over from her deceased father Clyde Hiran.”

Now that name Ulrika had heard before, “wasn`t that the guy who supported Delvardus during the Eriadu Authority?”

Her father nodded, “yes, back in the day the Militia had a small renaissance. Where two dark years back then and that isn`t even considering what happened on Torean.”

“Clyde was smart enough to turn on Delvardus when the Eriaduan uprising began,” Tobin explained, “afterwards he began licking my fathers’ boots. Helped to ensure the Militia´s loyalty to the new Government. The same loyalty that he affirmed with Florianne two decades ago.”

“Maybe his daughter is more active then,” Ulrika mused, “but at the same time, whatever she wanted to achieve with that attack, I doubt it was to be thrown into prison. Maybe someone else in the Militia is behind this?”

“Certainly possible,” Elena said. “Several other leaders were arrested as well. At least those whose identity is known.”

“Right, they love their silly purple robes,” Ulrika said. “But hey, maybe Durran is doing something good here, if she wants to destroy the Militia, I won`t stop her.”

Both her parents nodded at her words, but at the same time she saw how Tobin and Elena exchanged a look. “You think something is wrong here?” She asked her friends, having picked up on their thoughts.

“Well…” Elena said. “In the last couple of days we have been consistently blinded by attacks coming out of nowhere and us being misled by our enemies. What if this is another part in Hett´s scheme?”

“You think the Militia is allied with the Sith?” Ulrika asked.

“I doubt it,” Tobin said. “Clydes dad, Atticus Hiran met once with Palpatine and things didn`t work out between them. And even before that the Militia has been anything but a friend of the Sith.”

“But…” Elena said, “who tells us that the attackers were truly who they seemed to be? Its not impossible to get the black robes the Militia uses or create well enough looking copies.”

“You think they were framed?” Ella asked.

“It´s not impossible,” Elena said. “Even if its so far only a theory. Thing is, I might now someone in the Militia, someone I could ask for more information.”

“Let me guess, it’s another friend of your dad,” Ulrika guessed.

“Well friend is a big word,” Elena explained, “my dad never liked the Militia much, considered them the most useful fanatics but yeah, this guy Jeremia Corvrn was an old friend of his. At first, I was wondering if he too was a member of the Brotherhood, but Darek has assured me that he isn`t.”

“Something I´ll explain to you later,” Ulrika said in response to her parents confusion at the sudden mention of yet another secret society. Turning back to Elena said, “then I guess you should talk to him. Just be careful, if the Militia was behind the attack, then all of us are probably now in danger again.”

 

Okay, I have got to catch up on the main series, but I couldn't resist reading ahead again and here we are. Especially since there's a "Dead Lovers of Myrkr" ref in the notes and I was very curious about the mysterious galactic problems mentioned there.

It's very cool to see the Tof and Nagai storyline from the comics put into a later Legends-based plot like this, and interesting that it's a less one-sided conflict this time. Not that Durran is acknowledging that, and it seems like she has reasons of her own not to want to actually make peace between the Tofs and anybody. Well, no way that'll end poorly.

Fair, and also yikes. Just what everyone needs at this point.

Okay, that escalated quickly! Lucky that Ulrika and Tobin escaped harm... or is it? Now all their ponderings on the various players have me wondering if they were the targets at all.

He knows his kid for sure.

Well, Ulrika is pretty cool so one can't entirely blame her parents for being proud. Though it's good that she's grown up in a lot of ways and has the perspective to realize she actually does have limits now!

Oh wonderful. [/sarcasm] That's going to be fun for everyone, I can tell!

 

I hope the president will be alright. And what about Hett? He is the real trouble?

 

Yeah, gotta admit one reason I put Dead Lovers out was to tease people for the new stories...

Indeed, they kind of disapeared in Legends after those inthial comics and are yet another plotline I brought back.

That is the big question isn`t it? They all have targets on their backs...

Guess who she takes after?

Indeed, she has found her balance.

Of course it will...
Thanks for the detailed review

We will see... the curtain will be lifted, at least a little bit....





Three

It truly surprised the Apprentice how much the Jedi Temple had changed in the last forty-eight hours. All this time, all these years they had been plotting and planning their path to power, all the sacrifices they had made, all the trials and tribulations that had threatened their path to success… they had made the Apprentice dream of this day, of the day the Temple would be theirs. And in dreams, naïve, foolish dreams, it had truly become so.

But being here, in the now the Apprentice finally understood how naive the dreams of a Sith Temple had been. How a darkened Temple filled with Acolytes and Slaves, where dozens of concubines lounged at their feet, had been nothing but the stuff for cartoon villains. The Master was right, the Apprentice understood now, they weren`t Sith, nor were they Jedi, they, the two of them were something more, something higher, something greater. They had left Jedi and Sith behind and yet both groups could and would still have their place in this New Order.

And it was in this understanding that the Apprentice now appreciated that the Temple hadn`t changed one bit. Walking through the halls and corridors the Apprentice still saw the usual activity, younglings being trained, older members of the Order meditating or studying in the great library. It was as if nothing had changed, as if the Order was still what it had been. Navie fools, the Apprentice thought, but useful fools no doubt.

The Apprentice was greeted by several Jedi as he walked through the halls, brothers and sisters… or at least so they thought. It was tempting, almost too tempting to not mock them for naivety and ignorance, to not rub it in their faces how they had been fooled, how idiotic they were. But those were childish temptations, the actions of a Sith, of a beast frothing at the mouth, barely able to control itself in the most basic of ways, the Apprentice and the Master, they were now so much more, and even that was just their first step, the first on the route towards true enlightenment. They would do what no one had ever done before, would travel further along the path of the Force than neither Sith nor Jedi had ever dared.

As the Apprentice reached the door to the master’s Quarters they opened on their own, as the man behind them had sensed the arrival of his student. Stepping over the threshold and hearing the door close again, the Apprentice sank to down to one knee and looked up to the Man standing above.

A`sharad Hett, Jedi Master of the New Jedi Order just as he had been for the Old, the recently christened Hero of Davion. To the initiated also known as Darth Krayt, leader of the Sith Order, or so at least the remaining Sith thought. For no one, just Hett and his Student knew the truth, knew that the Sith were tools, just like the Jedi, tools to be used to shape the Galaxy in the Master’s image and severe him in fulfilling the grand purpose he had foreseen.

“Rise my apprentice,” Hett´s deep, strong voice called over to his student. “We bow to no one. Not here.”

The Apprentice rose and the two of them now stood eye to eye in Hett´s simple, puritanical quarters. It fascinated the Apprentice how a man like Hett, a man of such power and influence was able to live for so long in such simple circumstances, how a man who could have literally everything he ever wanted could be so humble when it came to his own lifestyle. Or well it had, before Hett had shown his student the much more luxurious accommodations he owned all over the Galaxy. Secret hideouts for the two of them, places where they could indulge in any pleasure they desired, to reap what they had sewn for so long.

“The Force is with us, my child,” Hett said after a moment of pause. “Everything is falling into place and our plans move forward with every moment.”

A grin played around the Apprentices mouth, “I am pleased to hear that my Lord. I still try to fathom that we are finally here, finally standing at the precipice of destiny, our hard work finally being rewarded.”

“Take in your triumph, my student,” Hett continued. “Don`t be afraid of the future, nor the present or past, we are the masters of our own fate, and each and every bit of our victory is the result of our own preparation.” He made a pause before addressing his student again. “And yet, least not let our victory go to our heads, others have stood at where we now stand, Sidious, Caedus, Revan, Vitiate.”

“They were fools,” the apprentice replied, “men blinded by the easy power of the dark side. They didn`t understand the true path.”

Again, Hett was silent for a moment. It was a tactic he employed often when talking to his Apprentice, to make his students doubt their latest statements. But the Apprentice didn`t take the bait and instead returned the silence.

“A notion no doubt each of them have felt as well when looking back at their predecessors,” Hett finally said after a long pause. “Caedus thought he would avoid Palpatines mistakes, Palpatine saw himself as superior to Vitiate, who believed himself more powerful than Revan. Our war is not yet won my child, our road is still long, but if we remain on it than one day, we will truly stand above each and everyone of them.”

“Then I will follow your lead, until the day we will stand next to each other as equals,” The Apprentice replied.

For their bond was the bond between Master and Apprentice now, but it wouldn`t be so forever. Hett had learned from the mistakes of the rule of two, for one day he and the Apprentice would stand side by side, leading the Galaxy together, perhaps in time both of them would take find others who bore the potential to be their equal as well, set the foundation of a new Order, one who stood above both the Jedi and the Sith. But for now, it was just the two of them.

“One day it will be so,” the Master said firmly. “But first the time comes to celebrate, the Galactic Alliance is ours, the Jedi and the Sith kneel at our feet, and the people stand behind us.”

“Still, we have enemies,” the Apprentice said, “both Jacen and Mira Grau managed to escape our grasp.”

Hett gave him a smile, “it matters little, both of them are now just fugitives, with no allies or save heavens to flee to. The entire Galaxy is out for their blood, hundreds of bounty hunters and mercenaries are already seeking for them. Their own allies have declared them criminals. There are many gallows waiting for either of them. But their fate, it matters little, for they still have their use as phantoms that stalk the good folk of the Galaxy in the night.”

“What about those mercenaries who saved Grau and Calrissian?” The Apprentice continued to ask.

“I have investigated them, they call themselves the Tunnel Cats, just a minor gang, with a connection to Grau´s aunts. Our friends in the Media are already painting them as a misandrist bunch of madwomen.” The Master replied.

“But the Coalition,” the Apprentice said. “Grau has many supporters there, her aunts, Ilona Malek… Can we really trust in Saul Cameron to keep them down?”

Again, the Master gave the Apprentice a moment of silence, as if he was angered by such criticism. But the Apprentice knew that Hett stood far above such childish notions. That he was no second Darth Vader who killed people for merely second guessing him.

“Don`t be afraid my child,” the Master said after the silence finally passed. “Cameron or not, the trap is set, the bait placed, the Coalition will dig its own grave. One of my most trusted servants is in place, waiting, I had Grau´s great uncle removed years ago, maybe now its time to say goodbye to her aunts. They have been allowed to cause trouble in the Galaxy for long enough.”

“Indeed, the rise of the Coalition was unexpected to say the least,” the Apprentice said. They had foreseen the rise of the Fel Empire, but the Coalition, they were different and so some of their plans had to be adjusted accordingly.

“Don`t worry about them anymore,” the Master said once again. “Soon they will tear themselves apart, and even if not, the Rim is too weak to pose a real threat to us. The Cold War made them and the Empire enemies, so they won`t unify against us, and for both it would be political suicide to ally themselves with the Hutts.”

“Then where does the danger lie?” The Apprentice asked.

“Here, where it always has been,” The Master replied. “Here, on Coruscant, in the Core, in Corellia, Kuat and the other high Industrialized Worlds. It’s here where we need to keep our control at all costs.

Currently the people support us, but we can’t allow us to lose their support. Think back to Palpatine, until Alderaan he was just fighting uprisings in the Rim. But After Alderaan he had the Core against himself and lasted barely three more years.”

“But we have Luke Skywalker, he is still a hero to the people, and he will do anything we force him to,” the Apprentice said firmly. “As long as he supports us we are safe.”

“And yet… his support hinges on a blade being pressed to his son’s neck…” Hett said slowly. “In the end Luke Skywalker is too honest, too naïve to ever truly support us… sad as that is. He would have been a tremendous ally.” He made a pause and for a moment the Apprentice noticed a dream gaze in the Master’s eyes. Then it disappeared. “I will have to leave Coruscant in the next few days, Operation Freedom needs its architect. It is time to put the pressure on the Hutts, and to ensure the our martyrs find their heroic deaths.”

The Apprentice smiled. They had worked for so long on Operation Freedom, a genial move to bring the Galaxy behind them and discredit any kind of opposition to their takeover. And now… well many of the Jedi now battling the Hutts had no idea that soon they might find themselves leading hopeless charges or cutoff from all supplies. Generals would have their locations tragically leaked to Hutt assassins, no doubt the work of further traitors like Mira Grau. It was an elegant way to kill dangerous foes and then nail their corpses at the prow of their ship as martyrs the Galactic Alliance would avenge in full force.

“That means, I leave the Temple to you.” Hett now looked directly at his student.

The Apprentice returned the gaze with all of his strength. “I will do as you command me, Master. Don`t worry, I will keep the blade at poor Ben´s neck and ensure his father continues to lick our boots.”

 

the hideous scheming from Hett and his apprentice who-ever that is.

 

Well that´s the million credit question, isn`t it?


Four

The Restaurant was one of the best on Eriadu and, in more ways than one, Elena had become quite familiar with it in the last few years. Mostly because she had been invited her a couple of times by Ilona, it was here where the now Ex President had first brought up the topic of running in the first Coalition wide elections. Where her friends had discussed ways of making her dream a reality. And after Ilona had been elected, she had invited her friends several times during her reign to discuss other matters of the Coalition, or just relax and have a good time.

With it being Ilona´s favorite restaurant though additional challenges had been placed on their meetings here, Elena had been the one several times to lead a complete search of the place in preparation for their meetings and so spend more than one longer afternoon getting familiar with every nook and cranny of the place.

Today though her mission wasn`t the security of the President, that was something that currently the doctors at the central hospital had in their hands, but instead to determine who had it been who had been able to break through the tight security net that the Coalition had created around its head of state.

Leaning in the shadows of a decorative statue of an old Eriaduan War hero Elena watched Jeremia Corryn who was hosting a cadre of veterans from the Tof War. It was almost thirty of them and they had gathered along a large table, Corryn sitting at the head but he often got up to personally refill the glass of one of the veterans, or to fatherly place his hand on the persons shoulder and exchange a of few direct words with them.

It didn`t take long for Elena to see how he controlled the conversation and as much as she disliked it, she had to admit he was truly a genial host. He gave each and every one of his guests the feelings that they were important to him, to their nation, and that the blood they had shed was appreciated. In between the heavier stuff Jeremia lightened the mood by telling jokes or sharing small anecdotes. All in all, it wasn`t too similar to how Ulrika handled events like these, even if Corryn was less vulgar in his language as Elena´s wife.

What surprised her the most though was that his guests weren`t all human, instead Elena saw a Twie´lek and two Kage at the table, and just as she prepared herself to step out of the shadows and towards the table she saw how Corryn personally refilled the drink of a young Sephi woman before sharing a laugh with her. That was puzzling to say the least, of course the Militia had always been an organization dedicated to helping veterans, in fact Elena herself had been invited by them several times, she had never even bothered to dignify these invitations with a reply but still they had continued, but as far as she knew they had always strictly focused their efforts on humans and even openly criticized the ORSF letting near humans into their ranks.

“Ah Lady Kyr, a surprise certainly but a welcome one,” Jeremia Corryn said, a bright smile on his face as he saw Elena walking towards the table. Giving the young Sephi a fatherly pat on her shoulder he moved towards Elena and gentlemanly took her hand. He was a good-looking man for his age, even if now the grey was winning the battle against his brown hair that was kept to a reasonably short length, his face was clean shaven and Elena could smell an exquisite aftershave. This was truly a man who put considerable time and effort in creating a perfect appearance.

His elegant pants suit also couldn`t be a greater contrast to Elena´s simple black tunic and pants, just as his perfect haircut was to her messy, spiky short blue hair. And yet his eyes gave away warmth as he took her by the arm and brought her closer to the table. Clearing his throat he said, “ladies and gentlemen, most of you will already know her, but just in chase some of you skimmed on the recent history of our nation, let me introduce you to Lady Elena Kyr, Co Ranger Chief of the Coalition and heroine of Qaelan.”

“You are too kind, Sir Corryn,” Elena replied, giving Jeremiah a small nod. She already felt how she was losing the control over the situation to Corryn´s polite words and that she needed to be on her guard with what she said and did here.

“Oh please, call me Jeremia, we are all friends here,” Jeremia said, his smile being so brilliant she could almost consider it genuine. He gestured her over to the young Sephi, “let me in turn introduce you to Lieutenant Mya Lokan, a wonderful woman. And just one of my guests tonight.”

Elena knew she was losing the situation more and more, if she wasn`t doing something now Corryn would completely control the conversation from now on and in the end all she would achieve was to help him buttering up to these veterans. So, she decided to take a page from Ulrika´s book and to break with the etiquette as she said, “indeed Jeremia, but I must say you surprise me, I had never thought a member of a human centrist hate group would ever voluntarily sit at the same table with someone like the Lieutenant. Especially only a few hours after the same group nearly killed our President.”

It was remarkable, how even now Jeremia managed to adjust to the situation, as while many of his guests were gasping or began to whisper with their neighbors, he kept his friendly demeanor. “Oh Elena…”

“I didn`t gave you the permission to use my first name,” Elena continued her assault, if he wanted to play nice, she would let him, but she wouldn`t play along.

Jeremia raised his hands, “Lady Kyr, I beg your pardon I didn`t knew you to be such a firebrand, you father always described you as a polite young girl.”

“Polite to those who warrant such a treatment, and in my opinion fanatics don`t fall into that category.” Elena said bluntly, now that she had kicked in the door she might as well continue her path of destruction.

Even now Jeremia was completely clam, which in a way frustrated Elena far more than any angry reaction would have. “Ah I begin to see what you are getting at,” he turned back towards the table, “I am sorry folks, seems the good Lady Kyr doesn`t want to wait until after our dinner to talk to me. Reasons of state I presume, so please enjoy the food, I will be back in a bit.”

“So, now that you have made a scene in front of these brave souls,” Jeremia said as the two of them stood alone on one of the balconies of the restaurant and looked down into the city streets of Eriadu. “I think we can save further time by coming directly to the issue at hand. But maybe before that, we should agree on being honest with each other.”

“I am honest with you,” Elena replied. “And to prove that let me tell you that I can`t stand neither you nor your little club of robed fanatics. I am here because I want answers, nothing more.”

Corryn turned around and gave Elena a long glance before he said, “and let me prove my honesty by saying that I feel a similar disgust for Betsy Hiran and her cadre, for what they did to the Militia.”

“What they did to it?” Elena raised an eyebrow, “the Militia was always a hate group.”

“Was it really?” Corryn replied. “You should know the story of how the Militia first came to be. It where simple men and women who fought to keep their religion.”

Elena said nothing for a moment, of course she knew the deeper story of the Militia, for her family had been deeply connected to it, from its earliest days to her own late aunt. “Maybe,” she admitted, “But Jacen Kyr gave up on the violence after the Republic accepted the religion, in fact he urged for reconciliation in his later years.”

“He did,” Jeremia said as he nodded slowly. “And in turn the Militia became a force of good, caring for veterans, running social programs, educating people. Protecting our communities from criminals and syndicates.”

“So, you could take over the underworld yourself,” Elena shot back. “And let’s not forget the various attacks on non-humans. Lynchings and the like.”

“Truly a shame on the Militia´s honor no doubt, but answer me this, if the Militia had been dissolved, do you really think it would have stopped hateful people from committing such crimes? Wouldn`t it actually have been all the social programs that would have been the actual victim of such a move?” Jeremia asked.

Elena just stared at him, and she had to fight herself to not place her hands around his neck and give him a good squeeze.

Again Jeremia raised his hands, “I know how you think about this situation, but… let me assure you that I absolutely detest the hate crimes that where committed in the name of the Militia. In fact, I personally helped bring several members involved with such crimes to justice. You know that.”

It was true, as much as Elena hated to admit it, but Jeremia had worked with the government before to bring down several violent members of the Militia, it was one of the reasons her father had still considered him a friend, despite his own distaste for the Militia. “If you are such a great humanitarian,” Elena said. “Why are you still a part of this group? You probably have enough dirt to get it shut down permanently.”

“And what would happen if I did?” Jeremia lowered his voice. “Yes, we shut the militia down, pull the plug on dozens of social programs, veteran houses and free clinics… and then in a year or so someone will for the Goddess´s Legion or something like that which continues to do the exact same things as the Militia. You know that it has happened before.”

“Still, even if it’s only for year, it would be a hit to the movement, a movement that is dying these days,” Elena replied, her anger had begun to cool, but her frustration remained.

“Certainly, but why shoot for something so low? Why not try to turn things around?” Jeremia leaned himself a bit further against the railing of the balcony and Elena had to fight the impulse to try and shove him over it.

“Turn what around?” Elena asked.

Turning around again the old man let out a sigh, then he said. “I promised to be honest with you, so let me put my cards on the table. I despise what the Militia has been used for during its history, but I also acknowledge the good it did. I believe, or at least want to believe that it can be turned into a genuine force of good, one that would in turn shield the faith against the rise of new extremists. I have been working towards said goal all my life, and I think that the recent attack on President Cameron might be just the chance we need.”

Elena crossed her arms in front of her chest, “let’s just for one moment assume that I believe you, and that doesn`t mean I do. Why are you telling me all of this? I am hardly a person to support such a plan.”

“Because we have, if nothing else, a common enemy neither of us wants to see Betsy Hiran get away with what happened. And we are both smart enough to understand that if we don`t find any proof she will get away with it.” Jeremia said, his voice taking a somber tone.

“She was arrested,” Elena said, still doubting this whole thing.

“Yes, but only on an assumption that she had something to do with it. In the end the fact that the attackers wore Militia Robes doesn`t prove anything, anyone can get those, if nothing happens, she will be out again by the end of the week.”

“I see,” Elena replied as things began to make sense in her head, “so you want me to take down the Militias leadership for you, so that you can take over?”

“And if that were the case? Would it be that bad?” Jeremia asked. “Lets once more be honest here, you have wars to come Lady Kyr, and the Militia, a reformed Militia could be a strong ally in the dark days ahead.”

Elena took a deep breath, she didn`t like this ‘offer’ one bit, but she also knew that Corryn was right about the war that loomed on the horizon. “Before I would agree to something like this,” she said carefully, “I need to know what it is you can do for me. Cause currently it seems I must do all the work and you will be able to reap most of the benefits.”

“Well,” the old man said slowly, “I can say for certain that the two people who attacked our President were members of the Militia, and I happen to know where you can find them.”

 

new unlikely allies?

 

We shall see...


Five

“I want to see the President,” the man said, and Tobin could hear the annoyance in his voice. Annoyance and anger.

“And you are?” he asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

After the attack on Saul Cameron Tobin had personally called in some of his most trusted soldiers to the hospital, one of them was with the President even now, while the others kept vigil at his room’s door. They couldn`t take any risks, Ulrika leaning over the table to yell at him had potentially saved Cameron´s life and it was absolutely possible that another attempt would be made to `fix the mistake` and ensure the President would never wake up again.

Tobin wasn`t taking any risks on it, whatever people would say about Cameron, Durran had already proven herself to be much worse than anything Cameron had been accused of. Ilona had told him the interim President had purposefully stopped the negotiations with the Tof and instead arrested the diplomates, demanding nothing but full and unconditional surrender, and, if the rumors where true she already had had a lengthy talk with Jagged Fel about ‘normalizing relations. Worst of all, some of the Vanguards more militant supporters where just in this moment rioting in the streets and Durran used her executive order to keep the police in check. Tobin knew that the Senate and the Chancelor of the Coalition would be able to block most of Durran´s insane goals, but the damage she could do if she was to serve out the next six years as President was staggering.

“Who I am?” the balding grey-haired man in the ill-fitting business suit said, his voice dripping with anger. “I am Elija Cameron, Saul´s older brother and his chief of staff.”

The words ripped Tobin back into reality. He hadn`t known anything about Cameron´s family or staff and cursed himself for not having done a proper background check on the head of state. Still, could he trust this man?

“Then I need your identification,” he said. “I am sorry, this whole situation is very problematic for us.”

The man, Elija let out a grunt as he produced an ID card that displayed both his identity and his occupation. “Proof enough that I am who I am? Or do you need a DNA sample to doublecheck?”

Tobin let out a sigh as he turned around and gave the two men at the door a sign. But, just to be sure, he followed Elija into the small room. It was a windowless one, of course, located at the center of the hospital building so no attackers could reach it from the outside. Next to Cameron´s bed another soldier stood vigil, the woman giving Tobin a salute. “Take a break Lieutenant, I will stay here with our guest.”

The woman nodded and quietly left the room, while Elija stepped next to Saul Cameron´s bed, laying a hand on his brother`s shoulder, “What are you doing to yourself again Saul,” he muttered. “I told you this would be your end, didn`t I? But you wouldn`t hear. You never do, but… please listen to me now, fight, fight, stay alive, don`t die on me here, do you hear? Don`t you dare die on me.”

Tobin said nothing, keeping a polite distance as to not disturb Elija´s pleas but close enough to step in just in case something happened. As he waited, he looked across Saul Cameron´s large, muscular body, truly an imposing man even in his old age. The sheets covering the bacta patches on his stomach where the worst had hit him, but they didn`t cover the rebreather over his mouth and the cannulas into his right arm.

After a while Elija sat down on one of the chairs next to the bed and Tobin took this as an invitation to sit down himself right next to him. “You hold him very dear, do you?”

Elija let out a chuckle, “holding him dear? He has been my best friend throughout all my life. We´ve been through so much… he used to say I am closer to him than he ever was with his wife.”

“He is married?” Tobin asked, again feeling bad for not having studied Cameron´s background, but things had moved so quickly. Barely a week ago Cameron had been a no one, just a candidate barely anyone considered having reasonable chances to make it into the ruling Coalition, let alone leading it.

“Was…” Elija explained, “but they´ve been divorced for ages now… since the whole mess with his daughter…”

“Should we inform his daughter that he has been shot then?” Tobin asked, not wanting to jump to the implication that Cameron´s daughter was dead, but it certainly was there.

“Oh, she will have heard it by now, but its not that she would come to visit him anyway…” The man shook his head and Tobin realized it was probably no topic to talk about now.

“I`m sorry to hear, sorry for the complications I caused you,” Tobin said. “I barely know his background, basically I know that you are from the Kathol Republic and that´s it.”

Elija looked at him, “oh that´s true, and I well know quite a lot about you, they hail you the greatest soldier of your generation. The rebirth of your ancestor Arien Redan.”

Tobin raised his hands; he always felt a bit embarrassed when this aspect of his biography was brought up. “Too much praise to be honest, I mostly just did what anyone would have done in my position. I was just amongst the lucky few to survive so long. I don`t think I was ever anywhere near what Arien Redan did, nor do I want to.”

“Given the reputation he has that is certainly understandable,” Elija replied. “And yet, you survived on Coruscant when the Vong held it, you were one of the leading Generals in the war against the Iron Alliance, you certainly have a lot of stories to share. So why don’t we help each other why we wait for my dear brother to recover.”

A smile played around Tobin´s mouth, “a story for a story then? The truth about Saul Cameron for the truth about Tobin Redan? Well honestly why not? I suggest you go ahead good sir as you suggested it.”

“Deal,” Elija replied. He took a deep breath, as if he wanted to tell the entire story in one massive sentence. “So, to understand where Saul, and well myself, come from we must first look at the Kathol Republic. Are you familiar with it?”

“I am,” Tobin said, glad to be for once not be completely clueless, “It was founded during the thousands year peace after the Ruusan Reforms, by people fleeing from the growing corruption in the Republic.”

“Exactly,” Cameron nodded, “they are calling themselves the thousand families, even if their actual number was way higher than that. In many ways they encompassed the people who felt that the Republic had lost its teeth after the reforms, who saw the weakening of the central government as troubling and often protested the abolition of any Republican Armed Forces. In many ways the Kathol Republic was a return to the grassroots democracy of the Republics early days, as well as the more defense ready times of the Sith wars. And note that I said defense ready, not martial, we never had any desire to start wars or expand our territory with military means, nor did we ever glorify war. ‘Don`t mess with the Kathol Republic and the Kathol Republic won`t mess with you’ that might have been the motto we lived by.”

“Sounds similar to what the Old World Alliance wants,” Tobin threw in.

Elija nodded, “many of the parties ideals hail from the Kathol Republic that´s true, even if its ideals also found support elsewhere, even on Eriadu these days.”

“Indeed, so was house Cameron one of those Thousand Families?” Tobin asked to get them back to the story.

The chief of staff shoot him a flaming look, “The Cameron Family, we are not nobles, no one in the Kathol Republic was. In fact, another reason we formed the Republic was because we where fed up with the various core nobles encroaching in the Galactic Republic.”

“I am sorry,” Tobin said. “Guess it’s the Eriaduan in me speaking and thinking in those terms.”

Elija calmed himself down instantly, “oh you are forgiven. But back to the story. Saul was born in the influential Cameron family, the youngest son to his parents. I was the oldest, there were two, twin sisters between us.” He gave Tobin a sad smile, “If you want concrete dates, Saul was born three years before Yavin, I five years before that. I experienced the war against the Imperial Colonists in the Southwest as a young man. I was serving my national service during those years, was there when Qaelan was taken…”

“You were allied with the Iron Alliance back then?” Tobin asked, raising an eyebrow.

Elija said nothing for a moment, “allied Is a big word. But it is true that in those days all anti Imperial Factions fought together, the Warlords that would form the Alliance, as well as the Liberation front, who we where supporting…” He made another pause. “You know about the liberation day massacre?”

Tobin swallowed hard, of course he knew, a dark chapter in the history of the Southwest. “After the conquest of Qaelan the Iron Alliance went on a killing spree on the world, killing, raping, looting, torturing any human they came across, enslaving the survivors.”

“Yes,” the old man replied. “You can’t imagine it and be thankful you can’t. It´s been haunting me ever since, especially in the first decade afterwards there was barely a night I didn`t dream of it. I will spare you the details but know that we came across victims who begged us to shoot them, so horribly had they been violated. And the worst thing… it wasn`t just the pirates who indulged in the violence, the Iron Alliance didn`t just materialize one day, neither was there a clear line between them and the Liberation Front, or even some of our own soldiers. We had fought the Empire for so long, seen them cause so much destruction and murder, both of our sisters had died in the taking of Qaelan, on that day Vengeance ruled the hearts and minds.” The old man said nothing for a while and Tobin saw tears run down his face.

He himself had no idea how to reply to this, how he could cheer up Elija, so he did just lay a hand on his shoulder and allowed the old man´s tears to come. It took them time, several minutes for sure, until the older Cameron was able to look at him again, now a weak smile underneath the tears. “But… it was on that horrible day, that Saul first stepped up. He was just a young recruit at the time, barely eighteen, and he had been assigned to the same unit as me, as my personal aide… but where I was vomiting my entrails onto the bloodied streets, where I and most of the soldiers were too horrified to act, Saul took charge. He yelled at us, as if he was a general, I remember he even punched me in the face to get me back to my senses. He then led us through the streets, giving orders like he was born for it. We saved people, shot the worst offenders and chased the looters away from homes. We knew the pillagers would return soon so we gathered them in our midst. I remember how Saul ran into a burning building that had children trapped in there, how he came out carrying two of them while his army cloak was burning. He didn`t even take time to extinguish the flames before running back in, inspired me to follow him. You can still see the burn scars on his arms.” Elija pointed at Saul´s right arm where Tobin could indeed see some old, faded burn marks.

“I had mine removed with Bacta,” the old man continued. “But Saul, he kept them, said they were a reminder for what he was fighting for. He gathered further units around himself in those dreadful hours, not just from the Kathol Republic. We saved thousands of civilians that day, yet we couldn`t be everywhere at once. Remember, Saul had just lost both of his sisters, and yet here he was fighting, risking his life to protect enemy civilians. And in a way the people we had saved, saved us in return…” again a pause. “You know what happened after the conquest of Qaelan?”

“I do,” Tobin said. “The Iron Alliance turned on their erstwhile allies, massacring many soldiers of the Liberation Front.”

“They did,” the old man nodded. “But not soldier of the Kathol Republic, we had already left Qaelan behind, with those civilians we had saved. I don’t know how Saul managed to convince our commanders, I suspect there had already been rising tensions with our ‘allies’ and our commanders saw the writing on the wall. So, we managed to pull out in time.” Elija cleared his throat then he continued, “overnight Saul had become a hero to our soldiers, to our nation. But the dark days had just begun. Our soldiers had survived the betrayal of our allies, but now the war with the Iron Alliance had begun. Our democracy, already struggling, fell apart and the military took over. For them Saul was a tool but also a threat as he began speaking out against them. The next decades were a time of constant struggle, Saul organized protests, lobbied for support for the Liberation Front, even openly suggested an alliance with the Imperial Regent against the Iron Alliance. His status as a hero protected him against any direct actions being taken against him, but it was never easy. It was a long struggle, and I was at his side through most of it.” Again, the old man stopped for a while.

“I think Saul Cameron, the Saul Cameron who would one day become the President of the Coalition was formed that day on Qaelan, as he saw the true horror of war and what kinds of people it breeds, that was the day he took up the banner that he has carried ever since. That he would strive for peace whenever possible, but ready to defend the rights of each being under his protection. Its this determination that helped force the Military Government step down after the Iron Alliance was defeated, that saw our nation join the Coalition, that made him the President… That might have been the reason someone has tried to murder him.”

 

Saul Cameron, a man wanting peace for all with a very likeable brother. I love his story

 

Glad you do.



Six

Leah buried her elbow in the stomach of the large, grey clad human. She heard him scream but still decided to give him a force push for good measure, sending him crashing into the nearest wall. But she barely had time to watch him crash into it as the next two grey shirts attacked her. The small city street, littered with small shops and restaurants had turned into a battlefield, and even now, fighting the group of Grey shirts Leah saw that even more where marauding all over the street, several shops where aflame and every moment she could see even more makeshift firebombs flying.

She gave the next Greyshirt a kick into his private parts, then pushed the other to the ground with a force push, barely having the time to observe their collapse as she was already attacked by the next ones. One on one no one here was an enemy for her, as she moved quickly through the night, her fists, elbows, and feet finding targets left right and center, breaking bones and sending Greyshirts flying through the cold nightly air. And yet it was nothing but drops in an ocean, as not only this street had turned into a battlefield, now the entire city was aflame it seemed.

Having been one of the Jedi to remain in the Coalition now that the Tof war was coming to an end, she had initially planned to stay for a while to help with the Negotiations with the Tof. It had been a decision not so much out of a believe that she could help with the Negotiations, but rather the hope to relax herself a bit, to find some measure of peace to herself before joining operation freedom and returning to a life dominated by war. It had been a selfish decision, but as the GA had begun to crack down on the Jedi it might have very well saved her life. After all she was one of the Jedi who had known that Jacen was alive for all those years, even more so she had traveled with him several times, they had been to Mortis together and later stopped Daala once and for all. All things that no doubt would make her a target for whatever was going on in the order right now, and so she had made the decision to keep her head down, she had left the hotel where she had been staying and instead taken a room in a smaller one in this quieter part of town using a fake name to protect herself.

Her plan had been simple, wait until she could gather more information about the goings on, on Coruscant before making her decision on how to deal with them. She had also tried to contact Master Thul, as Raynar was the highest-ranking member of the order in the Coalition, but then she had learned of his arrest. Of course, she had also tried to contact Gaven who was now serving as one of the leading generals in Operation Freedom, but it had been impossible to get a message through to him, at least for now. She had debated with herself if she should have tried to contact Jacen as well, after all they were close friends, but in the end, she had worried that any and all attempts at communication with Jacen could only further the trouble both of them were currently in.

And so, her plan had been simply to keep her head down and wait out the worst of this crisis before making her move. But of course, no plan survived the first contact with the enemy as the Eriaduans would say. She had first heard the riots before she had seen them, the screaming, yelling, the sound of explosions and fire had cut through her sleep and torn her back into the waking world. She had stumbled over the window of her small hotel room and seen how bad the situation already was. She had seen the Greyshirts rioting in the streets, had seen the inhabitants of some of the small stores dragged outside, beaten up, robbed of their possessions and worse. It hadn`t taken her much time to make a decision, to give up her plan of keeping her head down, and so she had instead run down, entering the street and trying to do what she could to help.

As far as she could gather the Greyshirts had chosen this part of town as it was a mostly nonhuman neighborhood. Leah knew that the Coalition had officially abandoned its segregationist laws not too long after its foundation, but of course many communities of nonhumans had stayed together even now. Not that it mattered to the Greyshirts, she saw several human´s being attacked by the paramilitary as well.

She didn`t know much about the political system of the Coalition, but as far she understood it the Greyshirts were part of the right-wing national Vanguard Party. A small group, but one which had managed to become part of the government in the recent elections. And now that the interim President of the Coalition was one of them it seemed the Greyshirts had been let of the leash to riot and abuse supposed enemies of their nation.

It made Leah sick to her stomach as she surveyed the carnage in the street, this community had lost its innocence, there would be no coming back from what was happening right now. How could these people still feel save anymore when this was how their own neighbors treated them? As Leah approached the next group of rioters, she saw how they surrounded a Kage on the ground, still continuing to kick him with their boots even as he was already bleeding from several wounds all over his body.

Leah felt how anger overcame her and this time she wasn`t going to hold back, her lightsaber flew from her pocket into her hand and the blade awoke with a healthy whispering. One of the rioters turned around, seeing Leah run towards them, he opened his mouth to warn his companions, but it was far too late, his hands fell to the ground cut of cleanly by her blade and only seconds later he began to scream, his scream soon being past anything human as its height and intensity grew and grew, echoing through the whole street like an out of control fire siren.

The group burst away from each other, screaming, panicked. Leah didn`t pursuit them but instead offered her hand to the Kage on the ground. But it was too late, he couldn`t take her hand, he couldn`t do anything anymore, she saw how one of the boots must have cracked his skull, spilling blood, and brains over the pavement of the street. Leah felt how her rage boiled over, as the injustice of the situation eroded her self-control, she couldn`t let this stand. She saw how one of the other groups turned towards her, and how one of their number raised his hand to throw a firebomb… She didn`t let him finish the action. Instead, she caused the bomb to explode only fractions after it was thrown. The wannabe thrower and the rest of the group were engulfed in flames as the fire took to their grey shirts and began to devour them. Leah heard their panicked screams as they fell to the ground, rolling around in the dirt, trying to extinguish the fire, others took to the street and ran. Beating down helpless victims was their usual MO, so Leah wasn`t surprised at how easily they fled once presented with a real enemy.

When the police forces arrived a few minutes later the street was already deserted by the Greyshirts, only their victims were still here, the victims, the corpses and the burned-out ruins of shops and restaurants, they destroyed wreckage of what had once been a neat little street. Leah was breathing heavily as she stood in the center of what had been a marketplace, her lightsaber still in her hand and activated, its green blade scaring away other wannabe rioters. But they had long fled the scene, as had all their victims who could still walk on their feet. A few of them had approached Leah, given her thankful looks or nods, but none of them had dared to talk with her. To them their savior was just as scary as the people they had just been saved from.

Leah understood them, after the rioters had fled, she hadn`t pursued them but instead closed her eyes and taken a few deep breaths. Had brought calm back to the ravaged sea of her thoughts, had become herself again had fought down the rage that had, for a moment, controlled her. It wasn`t the first time she had lost control, far from it, most Jedi knew that it was just a small step over the line, a step most of them would occasionally make. Her own Master, Gaven had sometimes even lost complete control over his battlefield reflexes and become a storm wind of justice. And yet… Leah knew that what she had done was, at least from a strategic standpoint a mistake, by drawing her lightsaber she had revealed herself as a Jedi and word would have by now, no doubt spread through the surrounding streets. Yes, she could have fled, but what good was that? Once she was gone the rioters might return, to finish off what victims had so far escaped their wrath. And so, she had made the decision to remain on the scene and await the authorities, even if that meant getting arrested.

“You stopped the riot?” A dark-skinned woman with short black hair approached her. As she came closer Leah could make out that her ears were pointed, like that of a Sephi or a Nagai.

“I did,” Leah said as she deactivated her lightsaber. “I take that I have done your job?”

The woman gave her a salute, “no, not. The President ordered the Police to stand down and don`t step in, as the Greyshirts are just ‘exercising their right to protest’.” She spat on the ground, “I am Colonel Kinga Sturm, me and my unit came here on orders from Ranger Chief Ulrika Grau.”

“So the President is supporting this?” Leah could only gag in disgust as she looked around at the carnage of the riot.

“It appears so…” Kinga replied. “Thing is, as you are a Jedi I am under orders to arrest you, but… given the chaos around here I need your help into ending the violence. Can I count on you?”

“You can,” Leah replied, “seems there truly is a lot going wrong on this world right now.”

“Not just on this world,” Kinga said darkly, “seems that in the last couple of days, the whole Galaxy has gone mad.”

 

Mad and who is behind all of this? Sith? Or someone even more devious?

 

More than one puppetmaster? Who knows...


Seven

Jacen raised his sword to block the attack, the two sabers clashed against each other sending sparkles all over his face. He saw how the second saber closed in, raising his hand and using the Force to keep the red blade away from himself. But in doing so he lost control over the battle between his green and Kay´s blue blade, allowing the former Sith Inquisitor to push them down slowly but surely, close to Jacen´s head. Refocusing his efforts to win the physical struggle he weakened his concentration in the Force for just a fraction of a second… more than enough.

The red blade hit his left side and pain shot through his entire body as he broke down on the ground. He saw how Kay briefly crossed his red and blue blades in victory, before deactivating them and giving his downed opponent a nod.

Grabbing the offered hand Jacen allowed himself to be pulled to his feet again. He was breathing heavily, they both were, having spend the last few hours training. “Seems I still have a long way to go,” he muttered more to himself than anything.

Kay still heard him as he raised his head, “haven`t kept up with the martial arts in your life as a healer?”

Jacen nodded as he began flexing his shoulders and loosening his muscles, “pretty much yeah. I used to train with Gaven after I got out of my cell for the first time, and we kept that up, but it seems I am still not where I used to be.”

The other man smiled as he sat down on one of the stone benches next to the practice ring, opening a bottle of water and drinking several large sips before turning back to his guest again, “well whatever you have restored, it was enough against the Sith who attacked us in your clinic.”

“True,” Jacen nodded, “but from what I can gather about them they seem to be little more than pawns to our real enemy. I presume he just sends them against targets he considers pretty soft.”

“I wouldn`t say that,” Kay reminded him, “remember they also attacked Master Grau and Knight Pandionne about a year ago. Hardly what you consider a soft target. Even if I presume that they failed for the same reasons they did in the clinic, they weren`t expecting two opponents.”

Jacen thought about this for a moment, “probably true as well.” He said as he sat down on the bench as well, the stone was hot from the war afternoon sun shining down onto it for hours now. “They must have planned to ambush Mira on her own, same with me, and in both cases I am certain that they would have succeeded if you nor Yoshihisa had been there.”

“What do you know about Mira by the way?” Kay asked him.

“You are asking me?” Jacen asked, raising an eyebrow. “I thought you have all the answers.”

Kay chuckled, “do I sound like that? Well guess that might be true, I have been told before that people find me too pedantic. But I can assure you I don`t know everything, less than I would like to, at most barely enough, if we are lucky.”

Jacen returned the smile for a moment, then he leaned against the back of the bench and closed his eyes, relaxing his body and enjoying the warmth of the sun on his skin. “As for Mira, well I have never met her, but I heard a lot about her, she was trained by Asajj Ventress, already an adult when she came to the order, starting with the Knight Trials which she passed with flying colors. I heard that quite a few people in the order were quite upset about that, there is this new woman who doesn`t play by the rules and yet she gets away with it, is made a knight on her first day, and suddenly people start even talking about her becoming a master and whatnot.”

“So much for the official information’s,” Kay said quietly. “I was more interested if your family mentioned her.”

Jacen let out chuckle, “I was hoping for you wouldn`t ask… but its probably necessary. My sister certainly has a less than stellar opinion on Mira. She ranted to me about her more than once… But that is probably a political thing, Mira is from the Coalition, her aunts or something like that have publicly denounced the Empire. And then this woman because everybody’s darling in the Jedi order, gets into fights with Zekk and worst of all begins to date her prize pupil.”

“Truly a remarkable development,” Kay mused, “Mira Grau a woman embodying the Coalition dating the perhaps greatest Imperial Knight of our time.”

“Welcome to my world,” Jacen said as he opened his eyes again. “Coincidences like that have been a part of my life forever. At some point I just stopped wondering about it. A similar iron is that our dear Jaina herself played a part in the rise of the Coalition, something that upsets her to this day.”

“But you have never given too much on the political game?” Kay asked, “at least not after you returned?”

“Pretty much yeah,” the brown haired Solo nodded, “I feel after what I did, the crimes I committed, taking over the GA, playing a major role in the second Galactic Civil War I kinda lost any right to even comment on political developments. Truth be told the rise of the Empire has never been a source of happiness for me. But who am I to judge? Jaina trusts Jagged and that was always enough for me.”

“And for your parents,” the older man added.

“Yeah, its hard to believe that my parents spend their final years helping the Empire to rise again… did you know that my own father had the idea for the Imperial Mission?”

“I didn`t,” Kay admitted. “The Fel Empire has been an enemy to me for many years now and yet there are still aspects of it I don’t know about it seems. But back to Mira, I was wondering why Hett had chosen her above several others to be his main scapegoat.”

“I wouldn`t be surprised if that, as well as several other moves he made was dynamic response to the developing situation. Mira had escaped, and Lando was with her, Hett needed to shoot down any and all attempts from them to cause trouble to his reign.” Jacen mused. “If he had been successful at arresting her things might have been different… As you have theorized, he might have chosen to kill my parents for the same reason, because they stumbled over something.”

When Kay first had breached the topic, had brought up even the merest suggestion that foul play might have been involved in his parents’ deaths, Jacen had been very hesitant to consider it, he had thought that being the powerful Jedi she was at least his mother would have felt any attempts at poisoning her and her husband. But at the same time… It was certainly suspicious.

“I actually thought about that again,” Kay said after a moment of silence. “And I remembered how the powers of Sith alchemy can be used to manipulate life, all sorts of life, including sickness carry bacteria.”

“True,” Jacen said, “there have been Sith in the past who used plagues as weapons. Our current enemy seems to prefer the more subtle way, just make sure that people who are in his way suddenly fall ill.”

Jacen had been saddened by his parents’ deaths, yet at the same time the rift that had opened between them, well if he was completely honest with himself had always been there had never truly healed. Just as in the days of his childhood there had been a certain distance between him and his parents, that had only worsened during and after the Vong War. Sometimes he asked himself if that distance hadn`t been there, if he still would have fallen, if his path and the suffering he caused would still be the same, or if a better or worse fate awaited him in such a case.

“If your parents were truly killed this way,” Kay said, lowering his voice. “Then the list of other possible victims grows quite exponentially. Wedge Antilles, about ten years ago his sudden death of sickness caused the Corellian Crisis, Boba Fett died shortly after his return to Mandalore due to the Empires cure of the Nanovirus. Aegwynne Djo she…”

“Was extremely old,” Jacen reminded his host. “I have met her, I doubt it was deliberate, even if her death did accelerate the Dathomirian conflict. And Fett was an ally of the Sith it seems. But if we start like this… where could you stop? Mon Mothma also died before her time, allegedly due to long term effects from a poisoning she survived years prior. I feel it could easily turn into a shadow hunt if we tried to figure out which deaths in the last decades were natural and which weren`t even if it is a chilling possibility.” He shrugged. “But guess the only way to find the truth is to ask Hett when we have him cornered.”

“There is indeed many I would like to ask of that man,” Kay said darkly. “I wonder for how long I have been clashing with him and his agents. Did he watch me as I explored the mysterious Sith activities on Korriban? Was he opposing me in all those years I wandered the Outer Rim searching for Lumyia? Was it his men that ambushed me on Tenupe as I was following the long since cold trail of Alemar Rar.” As he looked up to Jacen his face betrayed his age, the usual, quiet wisdom and absolute determination had vanished from it and instead it was the face of a tired man, a man tired beyond belief.

“You? You did all that?” Jacen asked, unsure if he understood.

“That and more,” Kay said, and melancholia filled his eyes. “I told myself that it would be my way to redemption. Redemption for my deeds as an inquisitor. All the Jedi I killed, all the lives I destroyed. I told myself that if I could just prevent the next dark Lord from rising, if I could protect the Galaxy from the next big threat, then my life had at least some sense to it. Then my arrogance and pride would have amounted to at least some good before everything was over. I´ve spend the last decades traveling the galaxy from the rim to the core and back, following rumors, dark visions and whispers, seeking the Sith, the Sith I knew were still out there. And yet…” he raised his hands, “what did I ultimately achieve? Nothing, I came to late to stop Lumyia, was too late to save Alemar, couldn`t stop Hett from taking over. All things considered, some of the things I arranged for might have even helped the shutta secure his rule.”

“At least you tried,” Jacen said softly, seeking for words to comfort Kay at least a little bit.

Kay grunted and gave him a bemused look, “I thought you Jedi don`t believe in trying as a concept.”

Jacen shrugged, “I am not sure if one can really consider me a Jedi these days, I do, but that might be trying…”

“Well, be that as it is,” Kay said. “There is one thing yet ahead for us, one thing where we have to do more than just trying. It might all come down to the two of us after all.”

“To take down Hett,” Jacen nodded. “What a romantic plot for novel, two former bad guys against the true Sith Mastermind of their age. Guess that would be the stuff of Legends no matter how it turns out.” And even as he said these words he knew that this was the reason he had survived his encounter with Jaina on the Anakin Solo so long ago. He understood why the Force had kept him alive, for the same reason it had Kay, so the two of them could do what possibly no one else could, to kill Hett and drive the shadow of the Sith from the Galaxy, even if it cost them their lives.

 

Hett the big bad vilain master of the Sith. Is Cade Skywalker also coming?

 

Well it´s a couple deacdes early for him isn`t it?
But seriously the story is going kinda AU, thus while Cade himself might still be born at some point in the future the Legacy plot won`t happen... Esentially the Coalition being a thing and potential other factors have convinced Krayt to follow a different route to power...


Eight

“Stars I`m exhausted,” Elena muttered as she stumbled across the threshold of the small cabin. She nearly lost balance and could only just prevent falling over by grabbing hold of one of the wooden support beams.

“Already pumped? After the first day?” Her father turned around, away from the simple wooden desk he had been working at. Like his daughter Cedryc Kyr wore a simple shirt and short pants, but where Elena´s clothes were dripping with sweat his looked as immaculate as they had this morning.

“Those kids are from hell,” Elena muttered as she allowed herself to fall backwards onto the old leather couch next to one of the windows. Looking back at her father she still found it a bit strange to see him like this, wearing simple clothes and not being dressed in a business suit like usual. It reminded her a bit of the hunting trips they had taken together when she was still a kid.

“From hell, huh?” A small smile played around her fathers’ lips. “Well, if you say so… seems the ORSF training isn`t what it was used to be when one of their top recruits can be brought down by just a handful of kids.”

“I´d rather have stayed my summer break at the academy than doing this,” Elena had to admit. Sitting herself up a bit she gave her father another examination. He truly didn`t seem to show the slightest bit of exhaustion. “Just how do you do this? I spend the entire day getting chased around with water guns, tied to trees, getting tickled madly to get the access code to the storage out of me so that the little brats could steal sweets.”

“They always try that on the first day,” her father said. “I hope your ORSF training helped you not to crack under the interrogation?”

“Just barely…” Elena muttered. Then she gave her father a mocking salute. “Reporting that I gave no secrets away sir.”

“That´s my girl,” Cedryc smiled. “But as to why am not drenched in sweat… well maybe it’s because I have been organizing this summer camp every year for decades now. Or well because I got here five minutes before you and already had time to shower and put on some fresh clothes.”

Elena let out a laugh as she allowed herself to sink back into the couch, “hah, even the unbreakable Cedryc Kyr turns out to be a human after all.” She already felt a bit better, but the notion of continuing in her role as a camp councilor for the next two months was terrifying to say the least. Especially as a new group of kids would arrive here every week.

Her father had been organizing camps like this for decades now, offering the children of Eriadu´s poorest human families a week of fun and freedom on one of the colony worlds totally free of charge. Which for many of these kids was the first time in their lives they left their home world. Obviously, the camp wasn`t nearly as well equipped and staffed as the camps for the children of nobility and upper class that Elena herself had visited a few times as a kid, but it was still a great experience for the kids involved, even if it led to them getting quite rambunctious once they had arrived here.

“A human beneath the steel?” her father raised an eyebrow. “I think there are many who would deny even the possibility of that.”

Elena let out a sigh, with her seventeen years of age now she knew all about her fathers’ controversies and had for years. Though she still found it difficult to reconcile her loving dad with the fiery demagogue and political orator he had been. To reconcile her deep love for her father with her distaste for some of his political ideas.

“I heard Ethan Malek just demanded last week again that you should include non-human children in your summer camps.” She said, before biting her tongue… Why did she just have to bring up such a topic now? She really wasn`t in the position to argue, even if she did agree with the Senator of Eriadu on the matter.

Her father looked at her, and there was no anger in his gaze, not even annoyance. “Well, you have seen the chaos we had here today,” he said softly. “Just how much worse do you think things would be if we included non-humans? Who all needed their specific foods to eat, who sleep and rest in different circles as humans, whose different physical qualities can make them unfair in the field games out in the forest.” He made a pause, “plus, if I think about how little support, we are already getting from the Quintad, I fear it would be even less if I included non-humans into it.” Another pause, “in an ideal world there would be camps for the non-human children, one for each species that is specifically designed for their various wants and needs. But we both know we don`t live in an ideal world.”

For a moment Elena was taken aback, as usual when trying to argue with her dad he would bring up a smart and sound response to her arguments that she herself found difficult to argue against. A part of her even already began agreeing with her father, at least in theory, as she looked at the problems, he had outlined to her. And yet… “we could still try couldn`t we? If for nothing else than to show, we can do it?” She suggested.

Her father thought about it for a moment, “well you truly inherited your grandmother’s stubbornness, but who am I to argue with my own daughter? For this year the lists are already filled but if you insist on it we can open up a few spots in next years to try and see where it goes.”

“It’s a deal then,” Elena stood up and placed a hand on her fathers shoulder, “thanks dad.”

He looked up at her, “what for? You are the future of house Kyr, one day you will sit here and make all the decisions. It´s therefore only fair when you already take some responsibility now and then, so you can be prepared when the day comes.”

“Let´s hope its still a long time until then,” Elena said firmly, the thought of loosing her father wasn`t one she liked to have.

“I am sure it will,” he replied as he took her hand for a moment and their eyes met. Elena could see pride in his eyes, and that made her feel embarrassed, but also happy.

They might have stayed in this moment for a while if that door hadn`t opened and Ulrika hadn`t stumbled into the cabin. “I swear to goddess these kids are demons,” she muttered. “But whatever genius had the idea to give them makeup kits really deserves to be shot.”

“Yeah I had the pleasure…” Elena muttered, then she broke into laughter as she saw Ulrika´s face. Her lips were drawn in an almost obscene red, her eyeliner had been applied to her eyes and something, apparently glittering to her cheeks. Her finger and toenails were brightly shining in all colors of the rainbow and something that appeared to be curlers were stuck in her short hair. Her father was chuckling at it as well and after a moment even Ulrika joined in on their laughter.

“We are here, are you ready?” Cari turned her large head in Elena´s direction.

Elena blinked a few times, as if to drive away the daydream of her father from her mind, they now came back more and more frequently, ever since she had found out about his allegiance to the Brotherhood and the fact that he might have been murdered. It was distracting and worrying to say the least. After the death of her father, she had taken time to make peace with it, but now, the knowledge that he had been regretting at least some of the things he had done, and that his seeming relapse into extremism in his last years had been a façade he had used in his work with the brotherhood.

It had opened so many new questions for her to wrap her head around and to rob her of sleep every night. She had pressed Darek for answers, had skimmed each and every message saved on his datapad at least thrice. Always looking for an answer, an answer to the question on her mind: Had her father been on his way towards redemption when he had been killed? Would he if he hadn`t been killed have renounced his human centric extremism? At least in private towards his daughter? It was possible, but maybe also impossible to prove. She told herself that in the end she would one day get her answer, after her death when she would meet her father again in the next world, but that was a weak comfort and did little to help her find peace. In a way things had been easier when just a relapsed human centrist whose political beliefs had driven a wedge between him and his daughter.

“Yeah, let’s do this,” she gave Cari a nod as they left the speeder. This was it; the address Jeremia had given her. The alleged hiding spot of the people who had almost succeeded in assassinating Saul Cameron. Jeremia had claimed that it was an often-used hiding spot for the agents of the Goddess´s Militia and that he would suspect any would be assassin hiding here before trying to leave the system.

It was a dark an disgusting alley, near the spaceport of Eriadu City, filled with small apartments that were usually ‘rented’ to all sort of freighter pilots and other travelers who wanted to spend a night on solid ground before continuing their space travels who goddess knows were. It certainly wasn`t Elena´s first time here, she had been here before with Ulrika, several times during their undercover work. About a klick from here was the dirty night club were Ulrika had once ‘worked’ for a week as they had brought down a large prostitution ring and not far from there was an abandoned warehouse were Elena had met more than one smuggler during some of her own operations. Today now the quarter looked a bit better, but it was still a dump, certainly a part of the Coalition now official videos would ever show.

As she approached the simple, inconspicuous door of the given apartment Elena had a bad feeling come over her. It was quiet, too quiet. Even standing here in front of its door she could hear shouting come out of the flat right next to it while in the one on the left it sounded like the inhabitants tried to make music, using the furniture. But this flat was silent, completely dead silent.

Reaching into her pocket for the access card Jeremia had given her she quickly ran it through the reader at the entrance and it was recognized in an instant. “At least so far Jeremia did say the truth,” she muttered more to herself as she stepped across the threshold of the building, drawing her hand blaster into her right hand and putting the keycard back into her pocket.

She wished she had brought an entire Squad of rangers with herself, but in the current situation everyone was needed in the streets to stop the violence the followers of the interim President were causing.

Elena still couldn`t believe it, she had known Durran was a power-hungry jerk, but this? It brought back a specter of a past Elena had hoped the Coalition had left behind by now. And the damage caused today would take years, if not decades to heal.

“They are dead,” Cari suddenly said as she raised her head next to Elena.

“What?” the blue haired woman looked up. “Who?” In some ways she guessed she didn`t need a full squad, there was little in the galaxy that could stop a strong and battle hardened Karkarodon. In some ways the former bounty hunter was more like a walking, biological tank than a person.

“The ones we seek,” Cari said as she stepped ahead and opened the next door. It lead into a small kitchen and in it… “If they had been alive, I would have heard their beating hearts by now.” Cari said as she gestured Elena inside.

Inside she saw them, two humans, still wearing the purple robes of the Goddess´s Militia, though they had put down their hats. Both of them were lying with their faces on the table. Each of them had an empty vial in their hand.

“Poison,” Cari concluded after sniffing at one of them. “From the state of the bodies it seems they already drank it at least an hour ago.”

“So, they didn`t just react to us arriving,” Elena said as she slowly walked around the table. On the other side she saw a datapad on the table, and in one of the corners of the room she saw two heavy blasters. The caliber at least fitting the ones who had been used in the attack.

Pulling the keycard from her pocket she tossed it to Cari. “There is a small garage belonging to the apartment. Do me a favor and see if we find the speeder there that was used in the attack.”

Cari caught the card with an elegance no one would expect from a being of her size. “Alright, but to me this already looks like we have found our prey.”

“Or so it seems,” Elena muttered as she picked up the datapad, its memory had recently been deleted but the rangers had a program, created in the Arkanian Dominion, that generally allowed them to secure most data on a recently cleared memory card. “It seems we did indeed find them, but to me this more and more feels as if this case is coming together way too easy.”

 

The prey dead. More mysteries.

 

Time for some clarity.


Nine

“And of course, we found the speeder in the garage. So, all we really had to do then was to wait for the data to be restored to confirm what we already knew.” Elena explained, leaning against the window of Jeremia´s office.

“So, it was indeed them?” Jeremia replied as he comfortably leaned back in his chair. So far truly everything was developing as he had believed it would. The information he had given had truly been valuable to Elena.

“All pointed towards it,” Elena continued, smiling weakly. “So I guess I have to thank you for helping us solving this crisis.”

“Oh, too much credit,” Jeremia lowered his head politely. “I am just a simple man trying to help in these dark days with my own limited abilities.” He made a dramatic pause, almost hoped that Elena would disagree and shower him with some further praise for his ‘invaluable information’ but sadly she didn`t, so, after a moment had passed, he took a deep breath and continued, “well in that case, with the case closed it demands for a celebration. I`ve got an old bottle of Alderaanian Wine here, a truly limited supply to get these days.” Opening a small lever at his desk he pulled out a flask filled with a murky white liquor. “Believe me once you have tasted that you will truly understand why the destruction of Alderaan was the worst thing ever to happen to the Galaxy.”

“Don`t you want to hear what was on the datapads?” Elena asked, rising an eyebrow.

“I have little doubt as to what was on them.” Jeremia replied as he pulled out two glasses and filled both of them with some wine. “But of course, I don’t want to take it away from you to tell me about it. After all you solved the case, so the bragging rights are yours.”

“Wasn`t just me,” Elena said lowering her gaze. “I had some help, not the least from you.” She made a dramatic pause. “But you wanted to know what was on the datapad, well, it was truly staggering what we found on them, direct orders from Betsy Hiran to commit a hit on our dear President, even including orders to if possible also take down Tobin and Ulrika.”

Jeremia shook his head, “that idiotic woman. I knew she was a power-hungry madwoman, but this… high treason… No doubt she hoped her accomplice Durran would be able to recement the Militia´s power after taking over.”

“It truly seems like that,” Elena said, still making no efforts to take one of the drinks on the table. “But either way the data was enough for me to conclude the investigation on Mrs Hiran, I have asked my wife Ulrika to take care of the matter from now, because I wanted to thank you in person for having brought this whole situation to a satisfactory conclusion.”

Jeremia inclined his head towards her, “as I said before, too much honor for a simple man like me. I just did what everyone in my position would have done.” He picked up one of the wine glasses and raised it, “I think that truly calls for a drink. What do we want to toast to?”

Elena finally left her position at the window and took the other glass, “on my dad, after all he was one of your oldest friends.”

“Indeed,” Jeremia replied, “it is truly a shame what happened to him, but now you can bring justice to that as well.”

Elena turned around and walked back to the window. “Indeed, for almost three decades I believed my father died a natural death, but thanks to the information on the datapad I now know the truth about that as well.” With that she let the glass drop to the floor where it shattered into a hundred splinters. Turning around to Jeremia, her face was not hard and devoid of any sympathy. “Tell me one thing, just how dumb you and your ‘friends’ think I am.”

Jeremia looked up at her and for a moment he froze, that wasn`t what he had planned for. That wasn`t good, but he was too skilled a player to be that easily intimidated. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and took a sip from his glass. “Let me assure you Mrs. Kyr that I personally think you are an intelligent and capable woman. As your father used to say you were the future of…”

“Cut the crap,” Elena said and there was anger in her voice. “This whole case you presented here, it was just too perfect, too smooth to be considered real. Everything clicked right into each other. And to be honest, I myself might have believed it…” She made a pause as she calmly placed her hands at the edge of Jeremia´s desk. “But of course, that would have been to simple for you, you had to add that notion that Betsy Hiran had my dad poisoned.” She shook her head. “How could she have done that? My father hated her, her entire family, he would have never ever consumed something that came from them, and like most Eriaduan upper class he had his own kitchen staff, only eating and drinking what came from people he trusted.” She let out a bitter laugh.

“But you? Jeremia, you were the one person in the militia he had some sympathy for, I think he even called you a friend. The ideal person to poison him don`t you think?” Elena concluded by looking down at Jeremia.

Corryn leaned back in his chair again and took another sip from his drink, “that is an interesting theory my dear, most interesting indeed. But if we assume you are right, and again just assume. What motive would I have to murder a man who was, by your own admission, my friend and even more important, do you have any proof for any of this?”

“Oh, I have several already, my dear friend Dannika is currently performing an autopsy on the two supposed assassins,” Elena said. “But more importantly, the Rangers are currently going through your holonet documents and messages. Certain communications with the Core for example.”

“You are bluffing,” Jeremia said, still absolutely calm. He knew his communications with the ascendant were one hundred percent save, and there was nothing that could directly connect the two dead assassins with him.

“Maybe,” Elena said and shrugged. “But back to your first question, what motive you would have to murder my dad, well I was thinking about that for quite a while. And well I think your friends in the core knew that my dad was on his road to redemption, that he was trying to bring down the Felpire before it could even be formed. So they had him killed to protect the balance of power.”

Jeremia broke into laughter, “redemption? Your father? My dear Elena I don`t want to know what delusions you have been following but I understand it, its hard for such a good, hardworking, and progressive woman like you to accept the fact that her father was a complete zealot, a fanatic who believed in everything you stood against your entire life. That is no doubt a tough thing to accept growing up, I feel sorry for you, but this isn`t your fault.”

“If he was such a monster then why he wrote stuff like this?” Elena asked, throwing a datapad onto the desk.

Rising an eyebrow and finishing his glass Jeremia picked up the pad. He saw it contained a series of messages from Cedryc Kyr. Curious as to how Elena might have tried her hardest to interpret them into a ‘redemption story’ for her father, he opened the first one.

…and so I can only stress again that the Fel family and their continuous rise within the Empire is a source of great trouble to me. The Baron has, somehow, been able to dodge any and all accusations of war crimes against him and might at this point be one of the few Imperials with a completely clean vest. Insanity if one considers that he was amongst Palpatines’ most celebrated Ace Pilots. I suspect that similar to the likes of Mara Jade and Jan Dodonna the Baron used his time and contacts with the New Republic to sweep the record clean. I think the idea of seeking personal witnesses to crimes he did commit is worth a shot but I remain skeptical it will amount to much. Instead I hope the Baron and his family becoming associated with ‘known human centric fanatic’ Cedryc Kyr will finally drag them into the mud were they belong….

Jeremia´s eyes widened as he continued to skim the letter, his heart was racing and he was sweating, but the worst was still to come.

I actually consider inviting a fellow Eriaduan to our Brotherhood, a man called Jeremia Corryn, he has been a member of the Goddess´s Militia for a long time and he has consistently opposed the conservative old guard within it. I think he, like us, seeks to ensure a better future for the galaxy within his organization. On top of that he has been a close personal friend of mine all my life. I was skeptical for a long time whether we should invite him, but the more I think about it I think he could be a great and useful recruit. I am sending you his life story with this message so you can decide whether he should receive the invitation or not. If you come to agree with me that he should I will begin his initiation after I return from my meeting with the Fel´s.

Hope this letter finds you in good health, my brothers.

Your Brother in spirit

Cedryc Kyr

Jeremia read the letter a second time, then he checked Cedryc Kyr´s signature at the bottom again. It truly was his, but still he decided to triple check the validity of the document, but the sigil was there, unbroken.

“No…” he muttered to himself, feeling both hot and cold at the same time, “no, no, no… that can`t be true, Cedryc he… he was a fanatic. I… I saved the Galaxy when I stopped him, it had to be done… it had… it was for the greater good, it had to be. I… I…”

“Want to read another letter?” Elena asked her voice devoid of any emotion her eyes filled with steel as she looked down on her father’s old friend. “Maybe read another letter or two, just to be sure that the man you murdered was actually trying to stop the rise of a great evil.” She took a step back from the desk, “need a moment to think? Sure, take it, you have all the time in the galaxy, the rest of your life.”

Tears were running out of Jeremia´s eyes as he looked at another letter, it also containing Cedryc talking about the dangers of the rise of another Empire and the steps he intended to take to prevent that from happening. About halfway through he dropped the pad, unable to continue. “Ced… oh goddess Ced, you… you and I… we wanted the same thing… what have I done? What have I done?”

“You killed a man who has been a lifelong friend of yours,” Elena spat at him. “You took away my father’s chance at redemption, you are the reason he and I could have never reconciled. You are the reason I lived the last thirty years thinking my dad had relapsed into being a monster in the last thirty years of his life.”

“I… I…” Jeremia stumbled across his words, unable to find a single clear thought. “But he, the Ascendant, he said it had to be done. That Cedryc was a danger to the Galaxy, that if he stayed alive, he would oversee an alliance between the Imperial Remnant and Eriadu. He told me it had to be done… that if he and me wanted to build a better galaxy people like Cedryc Kyr needed to die. That it was for the greater good of all.” He fell back in chair, unable to think, just crying.

“If that Ascendant is who I think he is,” Elena said, her voice remaining harsh, “then you have been manipulated by him. The only comfort I can give you is that you are by far not the only one who has been. But that is no excuse for what you have done.”

“I know…” Jeremia muttered, “I… I know I`m done for. But please, please, let me at least help you understand. I want to do what I can to make up for what I did. I will cooperate with the authorities, tell them all I know.”

Elena stepped closer to his desk again, “that information are the only reason I haven`t already avenged the death of my father here and now. So, you better get talking, I want to hear everything, every little bit of it. And best be honest about it for I am not in the mood to hear even more lies.”

 

Jeremia knowing the truth. Now he has to tell more

 

Oh, he will talk...


Ten

“…in what can be considered quite a remarkable turn of events the violence in the street tonight has reportedly been stopped, by a combination of Ranger Units as well as members of the goddess´s militia. Why the Militia which hasn`t been seen on the streets like this has chosen this night, as the time to return into the open currently remains a mystery, though some attribute it to the Militia´s Grand Magus Betsy Hiran being cleared of the accusation of having ordered the assassination of President Saul Cameron…”

While the news speaker was talking pictures from the streets showed large groups of robed militiamen standing vigil in ravaged streets and forming a human shield against the rioters. They had taken to the streets, praying loudly, and placing themselves between the greyshirts and their victims, one hate group standing against another, it was truly a remarkable sight.

“Seems you fanatics are good for something at least,” Ulrika muttered, making no effort to hide her disgust at the situation as she looked away from the holoprojector and back through the large transparent steel window over the nightly Eriadu city, in the distance, to the east, beyond the harbor and over the dark ocean she could see the first red of dawn appearing, this hellish night finally coming to an end.

“Even if I don`t know how the people feel, being rescued by a group that discriminates against them.”

“I for one don’t give a kriff on what they think. We did what needed to be done, this rioting brutality has no place in a lawful state.” Betsy Hiran said, standing next to Ulrika, dressed in a purple militia robe but having taken down the hood.

“But vigilante killings have?” Ulrika shot back, shaking her head. When Elena had informed her that she had found the real culprit for the assassination and so they had to release Betsy Hiran she had at first believed it to be a joke. And then afterwards she had even played with the thought of just ignoring Hiran´s supposed innocence and just leaving her locked up, maybe just have her share a cell with the real perpetrator.

“The Militia stopped those back when my father still lead them,” Hiran said, as if that was something to get praise for. “We have a concordat with the state and unlike others we always stand by our word. We would never break our word like that.”

“If you want a kriffing price for that bit of decency you are really barking up the wrong tree,” Ulrika said. “If I was calling the shots I would imprison each and every of your little robed fanatics.” Elena had eventually convinced her not to, and in her heart, Ulrika knew she was right, the Coalition was a lawful state and if they started to arrest people just for holding an opinion they would become just as bad as their enemies. And yet, even knowing that Ulrika still felt sick at this ‘arrangement’.

“And I won`t even try to convince you of the opposite,” Hiran said. “I know a lost cause when I see it. You have your convictions and I have mine, I doubt we will ever see eye to eye. Well except in one thing.”

Ulrika raised an eyebrow, “and that is?”

“We have a common enemy, if it is true what you said about Jeremia then he was a cultist of a new Sith Empire…” Hiran shook her head, “these… cultists tried to abuse the Militia for their own devilish ends. We won`t forget that and we won`t forgive it. The Sith have crossed the line, and I intend to make them pay for this insolence, even if we must chase them to the ends of the Galaxy for it. If you fight them as well the Militia will have your back.”

“We will fight them,” Ulrika said darkly. She didn`t like this offer one bit and it made her sick to even consider fighting alongside these fanatics, but she also knew that against this enemy, the Sith who now controlled the Galactic Alliance they could use each and every possible ally. At the very least she thought bitterly the Militiamen might make good meat shields for the real soldiers. “But don’t let that fool you into thinking we are friends. This is an alliance of convenience, nothing more.”

“I am no fool Chief Grau,” Hiran said. “But I know when I`m in debt to someone. You and Colonel Kyr cleared my name, and for that I am grateful, it is a debt I will repay to you one day.” She offered her hand to Ulrika.

“I doubt there is anything I could ever want from you.” Ulrika said shaking her head and ignoring the gesture. “At least nothing you would be willing to give.” With that she turned around and left the room, but at the door she turned around once more. “I sure hope all of this was worth it, don`t make me regret this, Betsy.”

Quickly she made her way through the government building, still shaking her head at the events of the night, as she walked the bacta patches on her back tore into her skin, she knew the doctors had ordered her to stay in bed for at least a couple of days, but the duties of the Ranger Chief, especially in crisis like this made that impossible. There was almost always something, or someone needing her input and guidance.

At least the situation in streets had calmed down again, now the most important thing they had to wait for was a message about Saul Cameron´s current state. The President needed to survive, or Durran could continue her reign of terror.

These and even darker thoughts were on Ulrika´s mind as she slowly walked towards the main shuttlebay, she now had at least a few hours to herself, at least if the situation continued to calm down, and so she wanted to head home and get at least some sleep, for the next days would once more demand her all she knew. She wished Mira was here, but currently there was an arrest warrant for her niece, as was there for other Jedi within the Coalition.

It really said something about Durran, Ulrika though as she leaned back in the skycar on her way home, when she already desperately hoped for the appeaser Saul Cameron to return to his office, that the man who had put out an arrest warrant for Ulrika´s niece was somehow considerably less bad than the former Imperial Officer.

The sun had risen further over the bay as the skycar landed at the top of the Penthouse apartment Ulrika and Elena lived in on Eriadu. It had been her fathers, one of the few family possessions of house Kyr he had managed to retain. Ulrika had heard from Elena that she had found her fathers killer, and despite Elena remaining outwardly calm Ulrika had noticed the cracks in her wifes words, Elena was struggling with these news and she would need all the support Ulrika could offer now.

She had liked Cedryc Kyr, even if she disagreed with him on many issues, he still had been a charming gentleman who had given Ulrika his full approval in dating his daughter. If nothing else that was commendable and if Elena was right, he might have had been turning towards becoming a better person in his final years. Ulrika hoped it was true, if for nothing else than for the comfort it would give her wife.

But this, as well as any other discussions could hopefully wait until tomorrow as Ulrika felt the weight of her tiredness weighting down on her shoulders, she needed her bed now, nothing more and she wouldn`t be of much help for Elena before having gotten at least a few hours of sleep.

Entering the penthouse she quietly moved through the darkened rooms, slipping out of her boots and throwing her jacket somewhere on the floor, knowing that Elena would chide her for this but too tired to care. Barefoot and just in her simple tunic and pants she walked towards sleeping room when she suddenly noticed that someone was already there.

As she entered the living room a figure stood up from one of the couches where she had been sitting a reading. A smile appeared on Ulrika´s face as she recognized her daughter, “Hey Len.”

“Hey, Rika,” her daughter replied as she pulled Ulrika into a hug.

Ulrika returned it weakly, letting out a yawn in the process, her face turning red at such a display in front of her daughter. Trying to get herself awake a bit she patted her daughter on her back a bit before stepping away from the hug, “good to see you. How was Curean?”

Lena gave her mother a smile. She still had the spikey hairstyle she had adopted from Elena about a year ago, but somewhen recently she had changed the burgundy color to a light, almost white, blonde. As usual and all too unlike her parents she wore a designer dress, one of her own, Ulrika knew, a simple yet elegant white business costume. “Oh, it was amazing, the world truly is one of a kind even now and Kat and Liz hosted me like a Princess.”

“Do they still live in that tower?” Ulrika asked as she sat down in one of the armchairs next to the couches. Planting her feet on the small coffee table, she once more knew Elena would get angry but tonight, she just didn`t care.

“No, that a museum now,” Lena explained. “They actually live back at Liz´s family inn once more. And still help running it.”

“The former chief of staff of the Coalition working as a barmaid again?” Ulrika smiled. “Honestly I would pay to see that, guess I should consider taking our next vacation there…” Ilona had explained to her many years ago that the Presidents Chief of staff needed to fulfill two criteria: One be someone the President can trust without any shred of doubt and two be smarter than their boss. So naturally Ilona had chosen her best friend Kat for the position. It had strained Kat´s relationship with her wife who had for some of that time served as governor of Curean but the two of them had eventually settled into their long-distance relationship but were no doubt happy now to be finally reunited.

“In a way, Liz said, Curean is the place were the Coalition started,” Lena said.

“It did,” Ulrika nodded, “It was there that Tobin convinced his sister to pressure the Quintad into confronting the Iron Alliance. And later Admiral Caer told me and Tobin there that we were the future of the ORSF, honestly back in the day I just couldn`t believe it, I had been such a troublemaker all my life, how could anyone consider promoting me to a high position.”

“And now you are the founder of the Rangers and have been their Chief for more than twenty years,” Lena smiled. “Not a bad showing for a troublemaker.”

“To be fair here, Ellie did most of the actual work,” Ulrika said, suppressing another yawn. “I just held a few speeches and kicked a few butts to make things go along.” She made a pause, “actually even more insane is that, during all that time I even found the time and responsibility to have a daughter, and such fine one at that.” She gave her daughter a twinkle, or well she attempted to, having closed her eyes, her eyelids refused to open again and remained closed as the tiredness once more began to overcome her.

“Awww, and I always thought I was the family runt,” Lena said, but there was chuckling in her words.

“Because you didn`t join the military?” Ulrika asked. “Goddess that means you are by far the smartest amongst us. Guess I did still have some braincells to pass on, even if most of it came certainly from Elena.”

“Got Ellies brains and your good looks then?” Lena mused.

“The one good quality I can actually pass on,” Ulrika said and a second later she let out another yawn.

“I should let you go to bed,” Lena said.

“No, we can still talk for a few minutes,” Ulrika said, still glad her daughter was back.

The few minutes turned into almost an hour, and only ended when Ulrika fell asleep in her armchair, her feet still on the table.

 

Nice moments between Ulrika and Lena

 

Glad you liked it.


Eleven

They had gathered in the crisis room, the same place where they had sat down together so many times to discuss the most important matters of the Coalition during Ilona´s presidency. It was here they had spent entire days, twenty-four, sometimes even more hours discussing and debating during the Corellian Crisis and later during the Dathomirian Civil War. Lately the troubles and tribulations of the Tof War had called them together here once more, and once again they had spent most of their waking hours in this room.

Tobin surveyed the room as they waited, Ulrika and Elena were quietly talking to each other. Victor Laric was studying a datapad, Corvey Adrimetrum and Eryl Besa looked at a map of the Galaxy, the ambassadors of the Qaelan Accords signatories sat together and exchanged meaningful looks. Lastly Tobin´s gaze returned to his own part of the table, Ilona was here, as was Florianne Idril both now serving the new government in an advisory role.

When the door in the back finally opened and Saul Cameron entered everyone rose to their feet. Cameron walked with a cane in his hand and his slow walking gave away the fact that he still suffered under the aftereffects of the assassination attempt. Behind him came an old acquaintance, Creon Damask, the Muun Businessman who had been a major supporter of the Coalitions occupation of Qaelan and an enthusiastic convert to the faith in the goddess. He had been a minor member of the Iron Alliance, but his usefulness had made him invaluable in the years since, at the same time allowing him to rise in influence to the point he had become Florianne Idril`s understudy and now her successor as Chancelor of the Coalition. A nonhuman in such a high position was surely a sign of the changes the eighteen years of Ilona and Florianne`s rule had brought to the Coalition.

But it was the third person that entered that made Tobin´s eyes widen. It was a human, but one so mangled and scared in appearance that it was hard to recognize him as such on first glance. In some ways he reminded Tobin of how Eryl had locked when they had found her on Coruscant, half dead and torn apart by the Vong, but even though his scars ironically were the result of the same battle as Eryl´s Raynar Thul looked even worse than her.

Cameron gestured everyone to sit down and cut off any attempts at questioning him with a quick gesture. Then he stepped to his own seat at the head of the table and slowly sat down. “I apologize for not standing,” he said his voice soft but filled with determination. “But I am an old man, a wounded old man and there are limits as to what my body can take.” He made a short pause before he continued. “But if nothing else this event has taught me to not hold important information’s back for dramatic effect. Which is why I want to tell each of you the truth, I am not bought or anyhow else connected to the Sith, in fact I consider them the greatest threat the Galaxy had to face since the Vong War.”

“Then why did you put out an arrest warrant for the Jedi in the Coalition?” Ulrika asked, clearly unable to remain quiet any longer. “For so far all you have done seems to be doubling over backwards to, pardon my language, suck up to our enemies.”

Cameron turned towards her his gaze full of sympathy, “because of the danger that each of us is in. Yes, I could have decried the Sith from the start. But what would that have gained us? In the end it would have only given them a handy excuse to move against us, and confirmed to them that the Coalition is their enemy.” He made another pause. “I know that some, maybe even most of you consider my actions foolish, and in a way, I think the Sith agree with you, they hopefully think that I am a spineless old man who they can just walk over.”

“So, it’s a trick?” Elena asked. “You are playing the fool to them to goad them into a false sense of security?”

“That is the plan,” Cameron nodded. “As you know the Coalition is not able to fight the Galactic Alliance, even if all our allies support us.” His gaze briefly went over the allied ambassadors. “Especially after we have just finished the war with the Tof. We must win time and prepare ourselves for the conflict that is about to come.”

“So, you think the conflict is inevitable?” Thoran Fenig, the Corellian ambassador asked.

“I fear it is,” Cameron said. “What I have gathered in terms of information has only been confirmed by what Mister Corryn said after his arrest. The Sith desire complete control over the Galaxy and in the end everyone else must fall. To us and to all our friends the war will come sooner or later, it pains and frightens me, for I know that much will be destroyed in it and maybe we loose everything we hold dear.”

“Goddess have mercy,” Ilona muttered into the silence that followed. “But I agree, events are already in motion, events we cannot stop and at most delay. The Galaxy stands at the brink of another great war. Star´s this might be the worst news that came to Eriadu since my birth.”

“Indeed,” Raynar Thul said, “just as we speak the Jedi order is scattered over the Galaxy, most of them are fighting in operation Freedom, they have no idea that their very own leadership has been couped. They believe that they are on the side of the good guys here. Even worse I have received reports that many Jedi in other parts of the Galaxy have been arrested. Some openly, others just ‘disappeared’.”

“The Jedi in the Coalition are save for now,” Cameron said. “We will use the alleged accusation of them starting the Tof war to prevent their extradition to the GA, maybe we will even set up a sham trial to keep up the appearance that we are bringing them to justice.”

“But just how many Jedi are still here right now?” Florianne asked.

Raynar Thul answered, “about one hundred members of the Order though many of them are healers or Padawans who stayed behind to help with the humanitarian crisis, but also a few knights. But I am the only Master we have currently.”

“One of two,” Ulrika said, “Mira has escaped and can return now that we know she will be save here. Even if I think keeping her current whereabouts a secret might be beneficial to us.”


“So, Mira did escape?” Raynar said, a small smile on his lips, “that is good news. I have also seen another Jedi at this table who may return to us.” His eyes flickering over to Eryl.

“It may yet come to it,” Eryl said. “Even if it has been quite a while since I last called myself a Jedi. But it truly is an irony, between you and me and now the news of Jacen´s survival it seems us Mykr survivors truly can’t be brought down permanently.”

“Indeed, it seems so,” Raynar replied. “In fact, I hope to contact Jacen myself so we can hopefully recruit him to our cause. He is a strong Jedi, even now. Yet I have no idea where he is now. At least I have sent encrypted messages to several Jedi in the Galactic Alliance telling them to come to the Coalition if they can, and there is another idea I have where we can gain further support in the order. I will talk about that with Mira once she returns.”

“What is the situation of our allies,” Corvey asked. “If the Coalition is save for now that is well and good, but our influence hardly ends at our own borders these days.”

“The Council of the Domion has gone to yellow alert,” Livia Nascada of the Arkanian Dominion said. “We have mobilized our forces just in case, but of course we couldn`t withstand a massive attack from the Galactic Alliance for long. Currently there are plans to move critical assets to the Coalition. Should the GA attack we would hopefully be able to leave little of value to them. A fact they know all to well, so we hope that they realize that attacking us would be futile and thus leave us alone.”

“It´s at least something,” Cameron made a note on his datapad.

“The Teris Sector is currently largely engaged in Operation Freedom,” Nev said. “Many of our worlds have sent volunteers and supplies to the front. Gaven is leading our efforts on the Hutts eastern Border. Thankfully as he is leading Terian Forces there are not many GA supporters around him. I send him a message to be on his guard either way.”

“So Gaven is save?” Raynar asked.

“Well as save as you can be leading a military campaign against the Hutt´s but yeah, he is outside of Hett´s reach at least for now.”

“That are good news, I didn`t know he was in the east,” Raynar said again smiling, “but it eases my heart to know he is still with us. That gives us at least three Masters.”

“I think the big question is,” Laric threw in, “should the Terian´s continue their attacks against the Hutts? Cause for now that is helping the GA. Shouldn`t they pull back?”

Nev let out a grunt, “try to tell a Terian to stop killing slavers is as if you try to tell a Sith to stop trying to be a supervillain. Gaven and his forces have already liberated a few border worlds and have freed thousands of slaves. Should we abandon these people to the Hutts again? That is insanity.”

“If we abandon them then we can skip a war and straight tell the Sith we are on their side.” Ilona said firmly. “Not only that but doing anything to help the Hutts would destroy our international reputation. As troubling as it is on that battlefield, we need to support the GA for now.”

“That seems to be the best course of action for now,” Cameron said, “but I am most worried about Corellia. It is our main bastion of supporters in the Core and thus probably the prime target for the Sith once they begin to move against us. How is the situation there?”

“Not good,” Fenig explained. “The GA has massively bolstered Duro in their claims against us, they have reignited the old rivalry and support several of Duro´s claims on our territory, I fear the day is not far when Duro will begin press these claims with backing from their friends on Coruscant.”

“How is the military situation?” Ilona asked. “Can you hope to hold your positions?”

“Not for long,” Fenig said darkly. “Without Centerpoint Corellia has lost the main anchor of our defenses. Sure, our military isn`t in bad shape and most of our citizens owns weapons and armed ships but… if the GA attacks in force we would eventually be defeated. It is also troubling that many of our forces are currently here in the Coalition.”

“That are troubling news, even if they aren`t surprising given how easily the Empire could size Corellia during the crisis.” Ilona said.

“I think for now the best way will be to try and avoid the escalation for as long as possible. Let us not give them a reason to invade.” Cameron mused. “We have the advantage that the Sith still need to play the heroes to the people in the GA. They can`t just invade Corellia.”

“But given how they have acted so far,” Eryl said, darkly. “They will probably find a reason for war sooner or later.”

“Speaking of Corellia,” Creon leaned forward on the table a bit. “There are also the remnants of the Confederation. Like the Bothan´s and Fondor? Being forced to crawl back to the GA hasn`t sat right with many people on these worlds, people who would sure welcome a chance to truly assert themselves again.”

“Both the Bothan´s and the Tapani would be very helpful in a large war like this,” Cameron said. “We should definitely send out our diplomatic branches to them and see what can be done. Similar with other minor factions all across the Galaxy, if we want to win this war, a war against the Core we need absolutely every bit of support we can get.” He made another pause and took a deep breath. “Which brings me to the most important thing. A fact most of you won`t like but… if we want to win this war, stop the Sith, then we need the Empire on our side.”

“You are joking.” Ulrika chuckled as she looked at Cameron. “You want us to make a pact with our mortal enemies? Then why not invite the Hutts as well?”

“He isn`t joking,” Tobin said. “I have run calculations, more than once about such a scenario. The Core is so far ahead of us in terms of population and industry… even if each and every minor nation in the Galaxy outside of the Imperial Sphere were to join us and if we gained all GA worlds outside the Core, we would be hilariously outmatched by the Core.”

“But the Rebellion managed to take the Core and they had less resources than we currently have.” Ulrika countered.

“The Rebellion only succeeded because the Empire had fallen apart into Warlordism, they never had to fight a united Core, as an example most Imperial Super Star Destroyers were lost to infighting, plus after the destruction of Alderaan much of the Core´s population had also turned against the Empire,” Tobin explained. “But this time the Sith seemed to have learned this lesson they control the media in the core and fighting the Hutts they have an absolutely believable argument for why they are the good guys here.”

“Well, whether an alliance with Jagged Fel could allow us a victory or not is a pointless discussion,” Elena said darkly. “I doubt there are any circumstances in which he would ever even consider such a Alliance, we are talking about a psychopath who tried to have me killed for being beaten up decades prior.”

“So, it may seem, and yet our enemy might give ironically be giving us an incentive to work together.” Cameron said, “if the reports I`m getting are to be believed Corellia isn`t the only sector the GA has their eyes on, they also talked about sending a ‘peacekeeping mission’ to Dathomir.”

“No doubt to take down all the Force users there,” Eryl nodded slowly. “The witches and nightsisters could have truly been a reinforcement to our cause. But Dathomir is so far away from our sphere of influence that we can`t help them.”

“Well, we can’t,” Cameron agreed. “But the Empire isn`t far from Dathomir and they also have a stock in about half the planet.”

“The loyalists yeah, Tenel Ka is leading them,” Eryl muttered. “You think this could be a place for cooperation? Us working with them to keep Dathomir save?”

Cameron smiled weakly, “I sure hope it is, if not the entire galaxy might be lost to the Sith.”

 

Working together to save the galaxy from the Sith will be difficult

 

Indeed it will...


Twelve

“We… we simply cannot accept this,” Arok said, slowly as he looked back at the woman in front of him. The words didn`t come lightly across his lips, for the old warrior understood the meaning of them. It was one of, if not the most important decision a Tof had ever made in the history of their people, a decision that would decide the fate of what was left of their species.

And yet… even with that being on the line, with the very fate of his people in question there was a line that Arok wouldn`t cross. The ‘terms’ laid out for them by the Coalitions Vice President were nothing short of a total surrender. All adult Tof would be forced into decades of brutal servitude to ‘help undo the damage of the unprovoked war they started’ while their calves would be given over to Coalition caretakers. For many warriors’ sterilization was considered to ‘keep the population to a manageable size’. In short the terms were an open call to enslave the Tof, to turn them into nothing more than beasts of burden for the Coalition, sure their species might survive, but only so they could be continued to be exploited by their merciless overlords.

“Then the war will continue,” Durran said, her eyes almost giving something like triumph away, “your species will be whipped out. It pains me to have to make this decision, but you force me to it.”

“Force you to it?” Harthor jumped to his feet, throwing his chair to the ground. “You attacked us! You slaughtered our calves, tore their teeth out, flayed them for their pelts and hides as trophies! We were nothing but animals to you! And now we are the villains for defending ourselves!”

“We didn`t attack you,” Durran said. “If you had troubles with pirates and hunters that´s your problem so don`t blame it onto us. Your species has chosen their way, a way of violence and cruelty. How many worlds did you burn? How many people did you slaughter, enslave, and violate? You have caused so much damage that whipping you out would only be just, and yet even now when we are offering you greater mercy than you have ever given to your victims you are still spitting on us. Still ignoring the hand, we are offering you to find at least some redemption for your uncountable crimes.” The human woman shook her head, “guess I shouldn`t have expected anything else from the beasts you are.”

Arok saw how Harthor lost what little self-control he had and thus was just fast enough to sling his strong arms around the young Tof´s upper body and restrain him from throwing himself on Duran. “Don`t young one,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm. “That will only make it worse.”

“Make it worse?” the young, blessed blood spat. “How can it be any worse than it already is? They only offer us slavery or death.”

“Maybe because those are the only two options you are still deserving of,” Duran said coldly, clearly trying to further enrage Harthor. “We tried to live in peace with you, to trade with you. But you spat on our mercy by starting this war, a war that will now see the end of your species… but you yourself caused the fire that will now burn you.”

Arok´s grip around Harthor´s shoulders loosened as he himself began to lose his remaining self-control. He thought back to burning villages, mutilated corpses, destroyed homes, slaughtered families. If that was what the Coalition called peace, then war truly was the only option. Better to die than to bow down to monsters like this. He saw how the guards in the room drew their blasters and pointed them at two Tof, he knew that they had no hope of winning this fight, but… given what future lay ahead, did it really make a difference if they died here or in some ditch in a month´s time? Maybe here they could at least take that Durran woman with them.

But before he fully lost his grip on the young blood the door of the conference room opened and two further humans entered. One was an old man who walked with a cane, the other was a woman, maybe around the same age as Durran, but unlike her she actually still had some hair which she wore at mid length.

“President Cameron,” Durran said, her voice dripping with triumph. “You shouldn`t be here, I have everything under control. You need to get some rest.”

“Oh I am seeing just how in control you are,” the man, Cameron said slowly as he let his eyes wander across the room.

Harthor stopped his fight and so Arok released him, the two Tof now standing side by side in the far corner of the room, watching the interaction between the humans.

“But I appreciate your worries for my health Sarah,” the old man continued in a genial voice. “I just wanted to pay you a short visit before I head to bed, to introduce you to your successor. I assume you know Mrs Hiran?”

“Successor?” Now it was Durran´s turn to explode in anger. “What are you suggesting Saul? I am the vice president of the Coalition and that woman is just a fanatic.”

“If we look back at the events of the last twenty-four hours,” the other woman, Hiran said. “Then just which one of us comes across as the dangerous fanatic I ask you? It wasn`t the militia who turned our streets into battlfields.”

“So that´s why you suddenly started protecting the nonhumans,” Durran shot back. “To suck up to old Saul here so he would give you a promotion, what a loyal little nerf you are.”

“Mrs. Hiran has indeed shown loyalty to our state,” Cameron said, and his voice gave away that he wasn`t really happy with the development. “Unlike you, I knew you were power hungry but even I didn`t consider just how far you were willing to go. If I had rest assured, I would have never made you my vice President, it’s a mistake I now intend to correct.”

“You are accusing me of treason?” Durran looked at him.

“Indeed, I do,” Cameron said, still largely calm. “In fact, I accuse you of having send out mercenaries to attack the Tof, to cause the provocations that lead to the war.”

Arok looked up, had he just understood this right? Had this Durran woman sent the hunters against them? Behind the back of her government?

Durran crossed her arms in front of her chest, “an interesting theory Saul, but why would I do something like that? Why would I hurt the nation?”

“So that your party will pick up steam in the upcoming elections,” Cameron said. “You deliberately escalated the situation to discredit the current government and to play on people’s fears to drive them into the arms of the Vanguard. A little over a year ago, shortly before the war, your people were barely noticed as a party.”

“Truly a staggering accusation,” Durran laughed, “but I fear you have turned into a conspiracy theorist my dear Saul. What will the people say when they find out about this? Maybe they will decide to remove their foolish president and have someone more capable take over. I should thank you for so generously offering me your seat.”

Cameron looked at her for a moment, then he said, “it’s not a conspiracy if proves exist, in fact another old friend, Jeremia Corryn has been quite helpful, he had been watching your actions for years now.”

“Corryn was a traitor, and a maniac, he just makes stuff up as he goes along,” Durran shook her head, but for the first time there was a shred of doubt in her words.

“Oh, he for sure is a traitor, but he is hardly insane.” Cameron said, “but I am not surprised you never noticed that he found out about your dealings. I presume he and his Master; both saw you as just another useful idiot they could string along. Something they supported by providing the Tof with weapons to further escalate the tensions.”

“They were the ones who offered my mother aid?” Harthor asked. “Who is this master who promised aid to us and then stabbed us in the back once the war began?”

“The very same man who killed your mother,” Cameron said. “Jedi Master A`Sharad Hett, the Sith Lord who has taken over the Galactic Alliance. His mother was just another pawn on his board, just like Mr. Corryn and our dear Sarah Durran here.” He gave the other woman a nod.

Hiran took out a datapad from her robe, “these data proves that you hired the mercenaries Sarah, and Corryn admitted that once you had secured your Presidency, he would have used it as blackmail to turn you into a puppet for him and his master.”

Durran looked at them, her eyes twitching as her body began to shake, but she quickly caught herself again. “Maybe I did send those mercenaries…” she shrugged. “But even if you believe you can prove it, making this public will cause a scandal that will destroy the people’s trust in the government. Something you surely can`t allow yourself now that it seems a new war is coming.”

Cameron slowly shook his head, “it seems you still haven’t understood the foundations our nation is built on. We will not keep this a secret; in fact, we are telling the people about it right now.” He walked over to the holoprojector at the wall and activated it.

He kept the tone low, but it was enough, Durran´s face was visible all over them and the news speakers talked about the conspiracy that had just been unearthed.

“You… you,” Durran said, breathing heavily. “I will turn this trial into a mess, I will mention every other scandal of our government. When I go down, I will take you with me.”

“You could do that,” Cameron said slowly. “But if you do… who will be there to prevent the government from handing you over to the Tof. I am sure they too would want to put you on trial for your crimes against their people.”

“Matter of fact we will,” Arok said his voice filled with anger. “This cannot remain unpunished.”

“Trust me she will be punished by us,” Cameron shook his head. Then he gestured the soldiers, “take Ms. Durran into custody, lets hope she will make the right choices in the days to come.”

As the screaming and cursing woman was lead outside Cameron turned back to the Tof, “now that that is settled, I think its time we start these negotiations again, but sadly my wounds demand I return to bed, but I can assure you that my new Vice President Mrs. Hiran here will be able to cover for me.” He gave them a nod before he left the room.

Harthor sat down again on his chair, “All Mother give that this time it won`t take as long as the last…”

“The All Mother, is she your goddess?” Hiran asked as she folded her hands on the table.

“She isn`t just our goddess,” Arok said as he sat down again, “she created the universe, she is everyone’s mother.”

“Well,” Hiran said with a smile, “we Eriaduan´s happen to know her as well. I am sure we will get along splendidly once we gotten to know each other…”

 

Durran gone but what will happen next. Hett and his gang?