Principle To A Point

[Fromikeable]

Horst was, by just about every measure, a city boy. The first time he'd ever been in honest-to-goodness nature had been during officer training; the academy had sent them all to Agamar to play war games in the fields. He'd learned survival, the importance of geography and terrain, and everything else, to be certain. But the sensation of another soul being kilometers away, of that pure and unadulterated wildness, still gave him pause.

The forests on Alderaan were no different, it seemed.

Pulling down his hunting cap, Horst's ears perked at the sounds of wild birds. Every step was audible against the brush of the forest floor, leaves and dirt crunching together. Reaching back, he slung his rifle off his shoulder, the ornate gold etching and wooden stock feeling ancient in the hand. The only assurances to his more modern sensibilities were the digital scope and small power pack that powered the blaster within.

Tiny reminders of a hyperspacial galaxy in this pre-historic land. Or so it felt.

Bracing the rifle’s butt to his shoulder, Horst kept the barrel aimed downward, finger off the trigger in proper form. He couldn’t help but glance to his side at Alder, his companion in similar gear; obnoxiously warm hat, orange vest over a camouflage jacket, ornate rifle cocked and ready, and boots muddy with the signs of a moist Alderaanian fall day in the woods. It was good to see him out of the usual Chancellor robes and perfect political stylings of Coruscant. Even if Alder wasn’t a soldier, he seemed to fit in here quite well, betraying a sense of sentience under an otherwise unflappable exterior.

Maybe that was just reading into the last few weeks a bit harder than Horst meant to. They’d both had to make some tough decisions, Alder especially.

"I'll give you one thing, Ald." Turning to his side, Horst motioned at the biome about them for his companion. "When you say you like to get away from it all, you fuckin' mean it."

[Rugs]

“Trust me, Horst, there are few places better for getting away from the bullshit than out here.”

Alder offered a rare smile — or they seemed rare, these days — to his hunting partner and Chief of General Staff. He’d promised Horst a hunting trip once the Archeri were defeated. It had a different meaning, all those months ago, when it seemed turning back the Chorus would settle the Galaxy back to the status quo.

An uneasy peace was still a peace, at least. These days, Alder could hardly get to sleep without wondering if they were already knees-deep in an undeclared war.

Oh, we declared it alright, he thought, stepping over a fallen tree trunk, whether I like it or not.

Still, a promise was a promise, and Alder kept his. Even if the events at Nar Shaddaa delayed their little trip, he and Horst set out for a few days’ retreat. A few days of quiet, then back briefly to Coruscant and off to Prazhi. The Galactic Court, wisely, wasn’t wasting time.

They were up in the highlands a few hours away from Aldera, on hunting grounds the Vrieska family had owned for generations. It was the closest thing Alder could get to the hunting trips of his youth, though security, sometimes spotted keeping their distance through the trees, occasionally spoiled the mirage.

Alder kept an eye out as they talked; their quarry was a ways off, yet, but it wouldn’t do to get ambushed by a rogue manka cat or some other predator.

“So how do you think this all ends?” They’d talked about the crisis with the Empire ceaselessly since Nar Shaddaa, but that had been in organizing a response and in preparing the Republic for possible counterblows from the Empire. Alder had yet to pick Horst’s brain for his thoughts, just for conversation.

“I know you’re not happy about the arbitration — I’m not happy about it — but if it gives us a chance to put off fighting...” he shook his head. “I don’t know that I believe it will, though.”

[Fromikeable]

”’Think you already know how it ends.” Horst’s tone was flat. The ability of elements in the Republic to expect peaceful coexistence with the Empire had always amazed him. He could understand it, sure. The hope for peace was something everyone prayed for at night and during the holidays. The senators preached the need for peace on the campaign trails and on the Senate floor and, surely, would continue to do so on Prazhi. The Chancellor’s office was arguably the best at it, giving the Republic a spine without ever blundering so badly as to come to blows.

But the military? They’d never had the luxury to pretend. For the past two years, Horst had made sure that no one in a uniform had dared to take their fingers off the triggers.

The Empire wouldn’t.

Letting slip a tiny, exasperated breath, Horst shook his head lightly, focusing on keeping his footfalls slow and quiet. ”You know what the worst part of flying into a warzone is? The wait.” Horst raised a hand, miming a slow-moving shuttle. ”You don’t have time to sit around and overthink when you’re getting shot at, but before that? It’s fuckin’ agony. You get used to it the longer you’re at it, but it never goes away.” Returning his hand to his rifle, Horst adjusted it, pressing the butt closer.

”We’ve been waitin’ for almost three years. In a sick kind’ve way, I almost don’t blame Smarcan. I’d admire her if she wasn’t such a damn moron.” Shooting Alder a glance, Horst’s head shook, his tone leaking with just a hint of cynicism.

”I think this trial buys us a few months, tops.” Wrapping his rifle’s strap around a hand, Horst nodded grimly. ”You?”

[Rugs]

“Yes, I think we both know,” Alder said, smiling in spite of the subject’s gravity. Horst was often a welcome breath of air for the Chancellor. So often, he had to hide his true thoughts behind the constant veneer of polite politics — and had to read through the masks of countless others who offered him the same.

Alder played that game with the best of them, but frequently, he found himself yearning for these moments of brevity — for these moments of letting words be words, without the double and triple meaning stacked behind them.

Horst was... less talented at the delicate dancing of politics; the man spoke his mind. For that, Alder respected him tremendously.

He listened to every word the general said as they walked through the forest, occasionally nodding or signaling agreement with a grunt. When Horst finished, Alder stopped, looking skyward as his sigh misted the cool air in front of his face.

“If we get a few extra months out of this, I’ll count us lucky.” That the Galaxy hadn’t already erupted in war was a small miracle. Every day that fact didn’t change was another. “If the Empress has been awaiting some outward justification to launch a new war, Smarcan gave her plenty with that stunt over Nar Shaddaa.” Alder wondered, though, if justification had stayed Renata’s hand, these past three years.

For all the Republic knew, the Empire had been just as exhausted at the end of the last war as they had. For all the lip service and weight the two nations gave the Peace of Prazhi, it’d been more an agreed-upon breather than a true effort at creating lasting Galactic stability.

“In any event, the grievances between us and Empire are too great for this peace to last forever,” Alder continued, trudging again across the soft earth. “If it wasn’t this, it would have been something else, eventually. Hell, I can barely keep the Senate in line, these days.” He’d complained of the issues of the Senate before; it wasn’t a road worth treading down. Senator Vonar Kenten, of Dantooine, and his cronies loved running off at the mouth and calling for increased aggression against the Empire.

That was before the clusterfuck over Nar Shaddaa.

“Whether we wanted it or not, whether reprisal takes a month or thirty, we’ve fired the first shot in this new war, Horst,” he looked at the General, mouth drawn tight. “Now we’re all waiting for the follow-up.

“Still, I would not have us sit on our hands,” he went on. “As our forces continue to reintegrate into regular positions from our excursion to Hutt Space, I’d like to see us take a defensive posture.” The Republic had spent the years since the war’s end fortifying along the border with Sith space, and on important strategic routes. There was always more work to be done, but the work had come along well enough. “If the Sith attack again, we will not be caught with our pants down like the last time.”

[Fromikeable]

”If the Sith attack us again, we’re gonna’ break their teeth on the fuckin’ duracrete.” The fortification of the Sith border had been Horst’s baby, for lack of a better term. Every planet, every starbase and dock, every fort and planetary defense array, every minefield, and every patrol had been built, refined, optimized, doubled, and redone in the two years since the Peace of Prazhi had been signed. The fact that the Republic fleets had been able to respond quickly to the Archeri threat was no accident; the first thing Horst had done when given his promotion had been to completely revamp Republic command and put the new defense spending to work.

It was one of the first lessons every officer was taught. In times of peace, prepare for war.

”All of the garrisons are still where they are. The fleets are returning to their stations. I’ve even put in a few calls with the reserves to run their drills.” Pulling down on his cap, Horst grunted. ”Last time, they ran us over and it took years to recover. This time, they’re gonna’ have to trade blood for blood.” A grim exchange, to be sure, but better than blood for nothing.

”I just wanna’ know what they’re waitin’ for.” A crack from further ahead in the brush made Horst slow to crawl, crouching a bit and speaking at almost a whisper. ”I mean, let’s say you’re the Empress. Granted, your fleets are just as out of place as ours were, but you’ve got your gamble. You’ve got the best opportunity you’re gonna’ have to break through our border. You’ve got the moral high ground, which is a rare fuckin’ thing indeed for the Imps.” Horst shook his head.

”Why the hell do ya’ call for arbitration?” Horst huffed a brusque laugh. ”’She doesn’t strike me as the calm n’ cautious type.” A nod of his head.

”Though I guess you’re the only one really talkin’ to her. What’s her deal, Ald?”

[Rugs]

“There’s the rosy optimism I know I can always count on you for,” Alder said, eyeing Horst with a knowing smile that was as close as he came to winking. He teased, but Horst was a realist to the bone. That the general felt confident in the Republic’s defensive measures spoke well of the work of the last near-four years.

Of course, though the border worlds had recieved the bulk of the attention, the Sith would find the Republic’s underbelly was no longer the soft target it had been. Coruscant, especially, had seen tremendous fortification work in the years since the battle. The Senate had been more than willing to shell out credits for the capital world.

And all it took was getting their backyard set alight, Alder thought, ruefully. Funny how things work out.

But the break in the fighting was two-edged. The Sith Empire was likely to be just as tough a nut to crack, this go ‘round.

“She called for the arbitration, actually,” Alder said as they ambled along. “The Empire originally wanted Smarcan and her pals. Obviously, that wasn’t going to happen, so the option became arbitration or immediate war.”

Perhaps Renata had been bluffing, but Alder didn’t think she was. The Empire had all the justification in the world to declare war, after Smarcan’s betrayal. With Republic and Imperial forces deeply intermingled on the ground, it would have been a bloodbath, for all involved —- to say nothing of the people of Nar Shaddaa they’d ostensibly fought to save.

“With so much of their military power located in the system, if we’d won the Empire would be as vulnerable as they’ve been since before the last war.” Alder looked at Horst. “But, if we failed...” There was no need to finish the thought. The doors to the Inner Rim and the Core would be open, with precious few left to guard them.

“The Empress wants revenge, I suspect,” he said. “Or at the very least, she wants Smarcan in her hands, to make a public spectacle, I’m sure. But she’s not stupid — far from it. Whether her end goal is war or not, she’s going to make sure the Empire is prepared before rushing to conflict on a snap judgement.

“And despot she may be, but she’s beholden, to a degree, to the wants of her aristocracy and elite, just as we are to the Senate,” Alder said. “The power dynamics are different, but if enough of them truly want war or peace, they’ll get it. She’s not survived the snake pit for so long by ignoring the voices of power within.

“But her true end goal?” Alder shook his head. “That I can’t say for certain. If the Empire gets Smarcan as it wants, will she be satisfied? If the arbitration goes against them, will the Empire turn to war? I’ve lost sleep pondering those questions, but all I know is this, Horst: we must be ready for any eventuality.”

[Fromikeable]

“Oh well jeez, when you put it that way, I feel bad for her.” Horst’s voice flexed with sarcasm, a total lack of empathy sounding against the idea that the Empress was behold to anything, much less aristocrats. The Republic had many failings, to be certain, but at the end of the day, constituents elected senators, senators appointed chancellors, and if the voting population was pissed off, then things changed. The corporations and the criminals and the factions and the political parties all had their say, to an extent, but everything bent to the almighty decree of the ballot box.

The Empress’s personal taxation to retain power fell on deaf, democratic ears.

”The aristocracy and the elite can suck vacuum, for all I care. Whenever the Empire decides to try their luck, we’ll be ready to hand ‘em their losing hand.” A close crunch of leaves made Horst pause, crouching. Adjusting the sight on his rifle, he began to scan the treeline, noting a clearing up ahead. Motioning at it, he moved at a snail’s pace, his voice was reduced to just above a whisper.

”Which reminds me...” Coming to the edge of the clearing, Horst paused again. Within, grazing in the tall grasses, stood a large buck, its elegant horns curved and shaped, its coat numerous exotic colors and lavish. The creature ate in bliss as Horst leveled his gun at it, a hand coming up to slowly adjust the sights.

”Project Vanguard is officially underway.” He was quiet for a second before nodding toward Alder. ”700 meters. 3 meter per second breeze south-southeast. Your shot.”

[Rugs]

Alder chuckled. “Oh, I don’t think we need to spare any sympathy for her or her aristocrats. Just an understanding.” He knew the General knew that. The Republic devoted no small effort toward gleaning as much insight as possible into the Empire’s machinations, through monitoring official word from the rival nation, monitoring unofficial sources, and of course, espionage.

The Empire’s top-heavy, paranoia-prone leadership made sussing out any useful information a tall order, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t worth the effort. He was sure they returned the favors toward the Republic.

All in support of ensuring the Republic’s held a strong hand, if and when conflict arose, as Horst so eloquently put it.

Alder paused behind Horst as they neared the clearing’s edge. A beautiful buck grazed near the center, seemingly oblivious to their presence just out of sight. They were, for now, upwind from it, though that could change at any moment.

Project Vanguard. Alder raised the gun. The sights drifted just slightly, in time with his breathing. A lot of choices come with that. The weapon had been long in development--since the closing days of the Pan Galactic War. For most of that time, it seemed just another military R&D venture that might produce some useful side results without direct practical use.

Then came the Archeri, and everything changed.

Alder emptied his lungs. The buck raised its russet-fur covered head, lined with orange and white near the eyes and along its ears. His sights steadied over the buck’s chest.

Crack!

A flock of birds erupted from the trees, startled by the gunshot piercing the tranquility. The buck bounded off, but staggered, slowing to a walk.

Alder stood and strung his gun by the strap over his shoulder and motioned for Horst to follow. The buck would fall.

“Last I heard, we had enough material for a test and perhaps one or two uses beyond that.” Alder looked to his general for confirmation. “Regardless, I’d like to order a test of this thing once it’s ready. I presume the Kalist system has some candidate worlds that could be of use, with Kalist VI being the only planet with anything else on it.

“If not, somewhere else in the Deep Core. No inhabitants. No prying eyes except for people who are supposed to be there.” In the distance, the buck staggered and fell. Alder could hear its legs flailing weakly against the ground. Its breath came in quick, hoarse bursts as it struggled against the blood filling its lungs. His hand tightened on the knife at his belt. A mercy kill would be in order, it seemed.

“And Horst,” Alder said, bracing himself for possible pushback from his general, “I’d like to work with you and the rest of the chiefs of staff to craft a policy for using this thing. I do not want this as a first-use weapon. Only retaliatory.”

Gods, the Force or whatever only knew they’d have enough trouble simply justifying Project Vangaurd’s existence to some contingents within the Republic as is. Alder couldn’t say he disagreed with them, but it was too late to put the genie back in the bottle. “We’ve already given up a lot of moral ground after what Smarcan pulled over Nar Shaddaaa. Even if that hadn’t happened, we need to exercise restraint with this thing.”

[Fromikeable]

Horst nodded at both Alder’s assessment and his shot, lowering his rifle as the buck fled into the woods. Standing, he grunted in acknowledgement of Alder’s request. ”You’d better not put what we write up for Senate approval then.” Horst’s inexperience with politics had ensured that the efforts to move the Enduring Flame were forever burned into his skull. Months of debates, numerous interventions, and all while Hutt space had been demolished by an extragalactic threat. For what?

To finally come to the conclusion that something had to be done. Absolutely brilliant.

”I’ve got no problem with establishing terms of engagement, execution criteria… whatever you want. But the minute they start getting involved in military orders?” Horst flattened his hand into a flat pane and moved it quickly in front of his neck.

”Good commands are on point, Alder. They come quick enough to be worth a damn, and that means that all consideration is fast, efficient, and effective.” Beginning to walk in the direction of the shot buck’s very obvious, very bloody new trail, Horst looked to Alder with a brow raised. ”Y’know which three words don’t describe the Senate?”

”This thing needs to be a quick, definitive reaction to any Imperial superweapon. That doesn’t include waiting five months for a bunch of screaming legislators to do nothing.”

Stepping through the brush, the fading cries of the shot buck grew in volume as they approached. The creature lay on its side just a few dozen meters away, legs losing strength as they flailed lightly, wound bleeding steadily. Handing his gun to Alder, Horst drew his knife, kneeling beside it and patting its side.

Cradling its skull, the knife moved with practiced swiftness into the jugular and out through the throat. The buck faded from life with a light shudder, and Horst was quiet save for a quiet muttering.

He didn’t pray often, but this felt like an appropriate time.

Standing and cleaning his knife, he returned it to its sheathe. Taking his gun back, he nodded. ”Must be three hundred kilos. Not a bad haul for a bureaucrat.” Horst cracked a small grin.

[Rugs]

“Trust me, General, I know the value of a rapid-response capability.” Alder wanted to chuckle, to laugh at the head of his Chiefs of Staff urging him to take a step he knew would already be necessary, should the terrible day come when the Republic was compelled to deploy Project Vanguard.

He could not.

Even for a man as skilled at feigning, at putting on airs as Alder Vrieska was, the stakes were too high and the situation too serious for laughs. Even fake ones.

Besides, Horst had always had a knack for seeing through the politician bullshit. It was one of the reasons Alder liked him.

He fell silent as Horst put the ailing buck out of its misery. It was never an easy thing, to take a life. Alder vividly remembered his first kill on a hunt with his father, even decades later. The actions grew more routine, but the actual killing, watching the life leave another creature’s eyes, never grew easier. He prayed it remained that way.

“Hauling it back will be fun,” he said dryly to Horst with a nod of appreciation for the general’s compliment.

“As for Vanguard, we can’t cut the Senate out of the process entirely.” Alder’s mind was never far from the superweapon. How could it be. “Yes, the decision to use it may fall to the chiefs of staff and myself, but you know as well as I that we will be expected to explain such drastic action to the Senate. To the Republic.

“As for our red lines to trigger the use of the weapon, shall we limit it only to Imperial superweapons — assuming they even possess any?” Alder didn’t doubt they’d invested research into the matter, just as the Republic had, but researching a thing and having it were two very different things. “You know well what a sustained turbolaser barrage can do to a world, General. And Taris - they devastated it, but would we call the resurrection of a disease that’s plagued that world for centuries a superweapon in and of itself?”

Alder stood still for a moment, one hand in his coat pocket, the other cradling his hunting rifle. “There is one more thing.” His breath misted in the cool air as he looked up at the clear sky, thinking.

“I’ve not heard word from the Grandmaster since our conversation but he, and I suspect the Jedi Council, are aware of Project Vanguard.” Alder looked at Horst. “If his reaction is anything to go on, I cannot imagine the Council will be pleased. I can’t say I blame them.”

[Fromikeable]

”Sounds fine to me. Entire point of the project is to be able to respond to non-conventional warfare.” Looking down at the buck, Horst crossed his arms. Alder had a point; it was going to take the two of them just to get their kill back to where they’d left the speeders. To say nothing of getting it back to the city.

”I hope Oronoa likes game.” Dropping to his knees, Horst dropped his pack. Opening it and producing a few lengths of rope, he began to tie up the creature’s limbs.

The mention of the Jedi left Horst silent, avoiding Alder’s look as he peered down on his work. He let the silence hang as he finished up the front hooves, part of him unsure how to begin to broach the topic, another part content to let silence be the first part of his response. When he did finally speak, his tone shifted toward a far more hesitant direction.

Nevertheless, he was blunt. ”I’m not gonna’ say that was a bad idea. But I am gonna’ say that I really fuckin’ wish you hadn’t told them.” Turning to work on the back hooves, Horst sighed heavily.

”All due love and respect to the Jedi. But Ald?” Hands pausing, Horst shot up a look. ”The Jedi Order’s got no hill to stand on telling the Republic how to handle super-grade Imperial threats. If they hadn’t taken years to officially get involved last time, the Imps wouldn’t even have the capability to build stuff like this.” Shaking his head, he muttered a quiet curse under his breath as he finished tying the back hooves with a little more force than he’d needed to.

Standing up, he brushed off his knees. ”I don’t really give a damn how pleased they are. These things exist whether or not they like ‘em.” Horst squinted, his mind flashing between Master Vyshaan and Master Moho. He was no expert on the debates and philosophies held within that famous Temple, but he was pretty sure he knew who would be making the war easier on the Republic and who wouldn’t.

”They’re gonna’ need to be involved from the get-go this time around if they want that to change.”

[Rugs]

There it was.

Alder had expected some pushback from the general, and Horst didn’t disappoint. He rarely did, in moments like these. Horst’s ire was understandable; he was tasked with defending the Republic, whatever it took, and the Jedi were not likely to be pleased with their newfound knowledge of Project Vanguard if the Grandmaster’s reaction was any indication.

Yet Alder could not, in good faith, leave them in the dark.

“I can’t say to know much of the Jedi-Sith divide personally, but I imagine they’ll have significantly more incentive to assist us when the next war comes.” A cool breeze blew down from the distant mountains and into the clearing. Alder turned his back to it, facing his general.

The Republic and the Jedi Order enjoyed a good, if complicated, relationship. Almost all of the Order’s funding came from the Republic, in some form or fashion, yet they remained a semi-autonomous part of the Republic. Alder was sure there were some legal hoops he could jump through to bring the Order under his office’s authority, if he wanted to and the Senate willed it — the thing about laws was that new ones could be made at any time, with enough support — but the damage, possibly irreparable, that would cause the Republic and Jedi would far outstrip whatever temporary gain it might bring. Likewise, the Jedi were trusted advisors, ambassadors, and defenders of the Republic, even if they had no direct control over it or its policies.

Things hadn’t always been that way — there had been Jedi Supreme Chancellors in the past, and the Order essentially rebelled against the Republic during the Pius Dea crusades thousands of years ago — but Alder enjoyed the current arrangement. It was one borne of mutual respect.

To the Supreme Chancellor, that respect demanded that the Jedi at least know what horrors the Republic might unleash if the Sith brought them to war.

Even if the Order and Republic found themselves at odds.

“If they withhold from this war on a hypothetical scenario, and the Republic falls, they will find themselves alone against the Sith,” he said, rueful. “And the Sith have made clear what they’d do to the Jedi. What they’d do to all of us, if given the chance.”

“But more than that, Horst, they’ve answered when we’ve called,” Alder went on. “Yes, it took longer than any of us would have liked in the last war. Officially, anyway.” Some of the Jedi broke ranks while the Council debated joining the effort against the Sith and fought alongside the Republic. The Blades. “But they still came, to defend against the Sith sweeping in from the Outer Rim. When the Sith came to Coruscant, the Jedi fought as fiercely as any of our men and women in uniform.”

Alder smiled subtly at Horst. “And I seem to recall you and Battlemaster Vyshaan worked quite well together during the Archeri Crisis.” Once Horst was finished wrapping the buck’s legs, Alder placed his pack on the ground and retrieved a rugged cloth with a smooth underside. He unfurled it and lay it on the grass, before the buck. They’d have to get the deer on it, then use the set of ropes on the front to drag it back to their speeder.

Sure, Alder could have called in help, for a repulsor cart or a few extra pairs of hands, but that’d defeat the purpose of the whole excursion.

“Maybe revealing it will make that decision more difficult, when the time comes,” he said, grunting as he grabbed the deers front legs to pull while Horst pushed to get it positioned on the glider. “Maybe I’ve made a mistake. I don’t know. But I know this: telling the Grandmaster felt like the right decision. I fear it’s about to get a whole lot harder to do what’s ‘right,’ so I would be remiss to abandon it now.”

[Fromikeable]

”Getting involved that late isn’t something I can just shrug off, Ald. Same for a lot of people out there, you know that.” Shifting into position, Horst was quiet for a few seconds as he shoved the corpse onto the glider, grunting with each heave. Once it was on, he took another second to breathe.

”If my house is burnin’ down and I call the fire department, I don’t forgive ‘em for not getting there in time to save my wife and kids if they stopped to debate the ethics of hoses on the way.” Pausing at the ludicrosity of his own analogy, he waved a hand, giving Alder’s subtle smile a flat look. He knew what the general was getting at.

”That war was hell, and no amount of Jedi could’ve stopped that. But they sat on their hands, and I’d just like to hear them fuckin’ say that it won’t happen again.” Crouching, Horst made quick work of the ropes, wrapping the buck in its cloth. Tying the dragging ropes, he slung one over his shoulder before holding out the other for Alder.

”S’all I’m gonna’ say about it.” Grunting, Horst adjusted his grip on the rope before finally breaking his mood, offering Alder a gentle slap on the back.

”If telling Moho was a gut feeling, then I’ll run with it. I might not trust the old crab to put up those claws, but I do trust you.” Horst huffed a chuckle, cracking a smile. ”You’re usually pretty on-the-money when it comes to people.”

[Rugs]

“Of course. I wouldn’t ask you to.” Alder busied himself with getting a hold on one of the ropes to pull the buck along, once it was situated on the glider. “Though I doubt we will face the same scenario that confronted us at the last war’s beginning, we must contend with the possibility that it will repeat itself.”

Some things would not be the same, regardless of the Jedi’s decision to participate or watch from the sidelines. The Republic was far more militarized than it had been at when the then-nascent Sith Empire launched its attack. It had taken time — precious time the Republic did not have to spare — to bring the weight of its economic and industrial might to bear toward the war effort.

Now? “We will be ready when the Sith come, Jedi or not,” Alder said. “But it would be to our detriment to exclude the Jedi from discussions that must be held as we prepare for conflict. No matter how uncomfortable those discussions may be. Or must be.”

Alder smiled, genuinely, at Horsts’ compliment. “Thank you, General. Time will tell if I’ve made a mistake, but until then,” he began to pull, moving forward with Horst, buck dragging along the ground behind them, “we must remember that, whatever differences in view we hold, we have to work together if we’re to see this Republic through the coming tribulations.”

Not for the first time, Alder felt like a ship captain, preparing to navigate through a foggy night on one of Alderaan’s pristine seas with no clue what lay on the other side. It would take all of them — himself, his generals and military, the Jedi, the people of the Republic itself — to see them through.

“I think that’s enough ruminating on war, though, don’t you? There’ll be plenty of that to come.” Alder cracked a smile as they trudged along. “Stop by the house after we’re done here, why don’t you? We’ve got a new vintage in, and Orona is expecting a dinner guest.”

[Fromikeable]

We will be ready when the Sith come, Jedi or not. Horst lingered on the words, each syllable lodging a soft hook in his mind. He hadn’t lied to Alder; the Republic as it was today wouldn’t make an Imperial advance easy by any measure, even if they had Sith support and they lacked the Jedi. But the actual war was only a single factor. What did the military say when the enemy could harness a force as iconically evil a Sith Warrior, a being that could fling soldiers with rolls of the wrist and electrocute a squad to death in seconds? What did it say if the counterbalance to that, the paragons of goodness that were the Jedi, the only real match for such a threat, refused to fight?

Horst could plan defenses and contingencies for fighting the Sith Order. But he couldn’t battle the idea of fighting the Sith Order. For all their hot air about power and superiority, the truth was simple; they were powerful and were superior to the average man on the battlefield.

They would lose the battle of morale starting with the first lightsaber hiss.

”Yeah,” Horst sighed one last time, rolling his shoulders against the rope. ”Enough for today, for sure.” He allowed himself one last moment of grim thought before forcing his focus onward. Glancing up at the blue Alderaanian sky through the canopy, Horst took a deep breath and focused on the smells.

Pine and other resins danced on the breeze. A far cry from any city, but a welcome one.

”Well if Orona’s expecting, I don’t see how I couldn’t.” Horst’s voice finally returned to a relaxed, warm tone as he gave a genuine chuckle, returning Alder’s smile.

”Far be it from me to leave a chair empty at the Vrieska house.” A night surrounded by food, company, and laughter; now that did feel like home.