Stellaris Wars: A Clone Wars Ironman Saga

[HistoryDude]

Thus does A'Nikori's fall reach its climax... if only Opalwan hadn't been knocked out.

At least A'Nikori still has enough loyalty to Opalwan to stay behind. Does that mean that he might have a chance at redeeming her eventually? And, if not, I can't wait to see how Eerabik destroys that loyalty...

 

[Arithmetician]

@HistoryDude (Are you sure it’s already reached the climax, or is this merely the next act in her fall? )

 

[Von Acturus]

T'Duku is a fool, as soon as he understood he had been set up, he should've blabbed about the chancellor.

And Eerabik should have brought a popcorn bucket. Everything is going exactly as she planned.

 

[Arithmetician]

@Von Acturus

(He was trying to do that at the very end. He was summarily executed first.)

 

[CBR JGWRR]

By then it would be too late for being taken seriously anyway.

 

[Arithmetician]

@CBR JGWRR

(Indeed; it would come across as a desperate lie and an attempt to save his own neck)

 

[Arithmetician]

A’Nikori, Eerabik, and Opalwan, who had soon thereafter regained consciousness, didn’t have to go far before they encountered General Dolorous.

The bio-droid had taunted them, saying that A’Nikori and Opalwan’s lightsabers would be another fine addition to his collection.

But as soon as the tables were turned, with the Jedi pushing his MagnaGuards back, and his flagship began to take severe damage from the Republic fleet, General Dolorous decided it was time to cut his losses.

“Time to abandon ship!” the bio-droid general shouted, before sabotaging the systems on his own bridge and quickly skittering off to the nearest escape pod, automatically launching the rest so that the Jedi and the Chancellor could not use them to escape.

With Dolorous’s bridge crew dead, as he hadn’t shown any concern for their lives during the scuffle with the Jedi, and he had personally killed several of them earlier in the battle as his frustrations mounted, it was up to A’Nikori to somehow land the rapidly deorbiting flagship in one piece.

Well, land half of a rapidly deorbiting capital ship.

Letting the Force guide her, A’Nikori brought the ship into Coruscant’s atmosphere, even as it began to burn up around them.

Even Eerabik, who was known for her resolve throughout the war, looked perturbed, and gripped her seat tightly with her talons.

But somehow, they survived the landing.

And as Opalwan said, that, by itself, made it another happy landing.

***
​

There was a flurry of activity in the Senate following the Chancellor’s safe return.

The Senate promptly passed the package of additional emergency powers that the Chancellor’s allies had been advocating for, while codifying existing ones into the Galactic Constitution, empowering Eerabik to take whatever means were necessary to end the Separatist threat once and for all.

Chancellor Eerabik also used her newfound powers, which included unprecedented powers over Jedi affairs, to appoint A’Nikori to the Jedi Council as the Chancellor’s personal representative on the body, speaking highly of how her bravery and skill had been instrumental to the rescue and defeating Cor T’Duku.

But the Council seemed less than pleased to have A’Nikori joining them.

“You are on this council, but we do not grant you the rank of Master."

A’Nikori was sure that she hadn’t heard them correctly.

“What?” she asked. “How can you be on the Council and NOT be a Master?"

“Take a seat, Starflier."

From his seat in the council chambers , Opalwan looked on sadly.

If the Jedi were to let politicians appoint Jedi Masters, it would compromise the integrity of the Order with nepotism. Even A’Nikori being on the council at all was a direct assault on the Order’s independence, but they had been forced to accede to it. Even before the invasion of Coruscant, public opinion of the Jedi had been worsening by the day, and they could not afford a direct confrontation with the all too popular Chancellor, lest that become a call to strip even more autonomy from them.

But even that told Opalwan that, as an Order, they had already lost their way.

Being a Jedi meant listening for the will of the Force, and doing what was right. But rather than listening for the will of the Force, the Council was preoccupied with the war, politics and its attendant power struggles, and other all too temporal concerns now.

And from the look of betrayal on A’Nikori’s face, he knew that she could see the Council’s failings all too plainly as well.

A’Nikori was NOT going to take it well when she was asked to keep tabs on Chancellor Eerabik.

And that the Council had asked HIM to give that assignment to her was only going to make things worse.

He had a VERY bad feeling about all of this.

***​

While A’Nikori was honored to have been chosen to serve as the Chancellor’s personal representative, the rejection of the Council and their outrageous request, delivered by a clearly uncomfortable Opalwan, to SPY on Eerabik, had left her in a foul mood.

Even Opalwan knew that it was wrong!

She also would have liked to have accompanied the Republic’s fleets to pursue the Separatists to Lokken space, where they had struck at Coruscant from.

The Clones were using new ARC-170 fighters to hit the Separatists with a heavy punch, while being faster and more maneuverable than Y-Wings, which had already been starting to show their age as they struggled to keep up with smaller and more agile Separatist Tri-fighters.

And from the shipyards of Kuat, the Chancellor had revealed the Republic’s new top-of-the line capital ship, meant to serve as the hammer that would drive back the Separatists all the way to the Outer Rim.

The Imperator-class Star Destroyer.

At 1,600 meters in length, it dwarfed both the 1,137 meter Venator-class and 900 meter Victory-class Star Destroyers that had preceded it. It took its name from an ancient word meaning “Commander”. Armed almost exclusively with heavy Kinetic Batteries and a super-heavy cannon for use against enemy capital ships, the Imperator had enough firepower to strike fear into the hearts of any organics serving in the Separatist navy, and an imposing girth to match.

The Imperator-class was still relatively few in number, and the Rothana Drive Yards were still producing large numbers of Venator-class Star Destroyers as the Republic’s mainline capital ship, but as the Republic advanced, few could deny that the Imperator was rapidly establishing itself as the new symbol of the Republic’s military might and its determination to crush the Separatists once and for all.

A’Nikori looked forward to the day when she would be given an Imperator of her own to command.

But for now, protecting the Chancellor was more important, and that meant staying on Coruscant.

 

[Von Acturus]

The Imperator-class Star Destroyer

Say what you will about Eerabik, she was never subtle in her aims. You don't need the force to have a bad feeling about a ship with that combination of names.

 

[Arithmetician]

The Separatists had taken advantage of the Republic being temporarily off-balance in the aftermath of the Battle of Coruscant to invade the Geonosis Sector, attempting to retake its foundries.

Besides the forge world of Geonosis itself, the Asjak System was the most strategically important in the sector, linking its two halves together through a four-way intersection of hyperlanes.

Fighting was fierce, but eventually the Republic managed to retake Asjak, and with it secure, the rest of the sector was reclaimed in short order.

The Republic progressed well at first though Khennet’an space, but the Dastamon System guarded a narrow hyperspace route into the bulk of Lokken space.

But Separatist resistance was fierce, with wave after wave of droid-controlled warships emerging from the system’s Hyper Relay.

And just when it seemed that the Republic might gain the upper hand, impressed ships from the Sol Sector Defense Forces, their crews forced to fight for the Separatists under the fear of facing General Dolorous’s wrath if they refused, arrived, with a flotilla of their own knock-off Star Destroyers, including their own version fo the Imperator.

But to the Chancellor, they were still traitors.

And Republic military intelligence was furious. Who could have leaked the Imperator’s designs to the Separatists?!

Needless to say, there was an internal purge of the ranks soon afterward, with dozens of ‘Separatist sympathizers’ being arrested and swiftly tried for treason.

They would be replaced by those who were properly loyal to the Chancellor.

With more and more impressed Sol Sector Defense Fleets flooding into the Dastamon System to aid the Separatists, the Republic’s Strike Force Charybdis and Strike Force Werewolf had to make an emergency retreat back into hyperspace.

But the defeat at Dastamon was merely a setback.

The Republic’s determination to crush the Separatists could not be perturbed after Coruscant.

With the aid of loyal Sector Defense Forces, the Republic forces its way past the Separatist Forces at Dastamon. But the enemy still had a vast number of ships, even after this loss, massed at the Waltom System.

Meanwhile, a smaller Republic strike force moved along a spur of hyperlanes to the south of Dastamaon, and destroyed a Separatist fleet at Troidom.

The Sol Sector traitors showed themselves once more in the Janna System.

Republic ARC-170s carried out attack runs on Sol Sector Star Destroyers, including a Victory Star Destroyer fittingly named the Defiance.

And needless to say, defiance had to be punished.

 

[Macavity116]

That is a disturbing amount of firepower concentrated in the Waltom system. I think the punishment of defiance will need to wait its turn in line for a bit.

 

[HistoryDude]

Why do I feel like a lot of the people purged after the discovery of the Separatist Imperator class ships were innocents that Eerabik saw as a threat to her future empire?

The fall of the Jedi approaches. I wonder how Order 66 will be represented in the game?

The irony of the Jedi Order asking A'Nikori to spy on the Chancellor and being right to do so is amusing me. Why didn't they send a different spy, though? That might have saved them...

 

[Arithmetician]

Why do I feel like a lot of the people purged after the discovery of the Separatist Imperator class ships were innocents that Eerabik saw as a threat to her future empire?

(That is exactly what happened, RP-wise.)

The irony of the Jedi Order asking A'Nikori to spy on the Chancellor and being right to do so is amusing me. Why didn't they send a different spy, though? That might have saved them...

(They asked her because the Chancellor gave them the opportunity to do so, by positioning A’Nikori so close to herself.

This, of course, was completely intentionally on Eerabik’s part, and bait for the Jedi Council.)

 

[Arithmetician]

The emergence of the Gray Tempest from the mysterious L-Gates late in the Clone Wars was largely seen throughout Republic space as a desperate last ploy of the Separatists to throw the Republic into disarray.

That all archaeological evidence pointed to the Gray Tempest predating the rise of the separatist movement by millennia was irrelevant.

Once again, the Republic and its member states were under attack.

And besides, the Separatists were known for using droid armies and fleets. And what was the the Gray Tempest but a marauding droid fleet, rapidly breaking down starships, their crews, and even one or two outlying planetary populations into their component materials, to be used in the production of more droid/Nanite warships?

Indeed, the terrifying imagery of being forcefully disassembled at the molecular level by the Tempest was enough for renewed calls to grant still further emergency powers to Supreme Chancellor Eerabik.

The Republic navy responded to the Tempest as they would any other droid threat.

And it wasn’t long before a Republic fleet, including two of the new Imperator-class Star Destroyers, entered the L-Gate nexus, dubbed ‘Terminal Egress’.

It was a pitched dogfight between ARC-170s and Tempest fighters, while Star Destroyers and Tempest cruisers pounded each other. But despite taking some losses, the Republic was victorious, bottlenecking the Tempest’s reinforcements before more droid/nanite fleets could escape into the broader galaxy.

Yet there were those among a growing number of senators quietly questioning the Chancellor’s motives who soon began to piece together that the Republic’s fleet had remained stationed in Terminal Egress, rather than making any attempt to push deeper to the Tempest’s central factory....

When they expressed their concerns in a private meeting, the Chancellor easily explained to them that the Tempest was but a distraction next to the far more important war against the Separatists, and as such, a larger commitment of forces was a luxury the Republic could not afford at present. Containment of the Tempest was the most viable option for now.

But several of these senators still couldn’t help but feel that Eerabik was deliberately prolonging the war against the Tempest, so that she could use the fear that they might return to continue to amass more and more power for herself.

And as they left the meeting, Eerabik made mental note of the senators who had dared to question her.

In time, they would be... dealt with.

 

[Macavity116]

But several of these senators still couldn’t help but feel that Eerabik was deliberately prolonging the war against the Tempest, so that she could use the fear that they might return to continue to amass more and more power for herself.

And as they left the meeting, Eerabik made mental note of the senators who had dared to question her.

In time, they would be... dealt with.

Yeah, the Chancellor's going to need to add another page to the ol' kill list.

I would not be surprised to learn of several major battles taking place at Terminal Egress in succession. The Republic wants to stall, but can we say the same for her enemies?

 

[Arithmetician]

While the Gray Tempest was bottled up in the L-Cluster, the Clone Wars continued to rage in the Outer Rim.

A Separatist fleet was encountered in the Redamon System and swiftly defeated by the Republic.

But no sooner had the first Separatist wave been defeated did traitorous forces from the Sol Sector arrive, with several of their own knockoff Imperator-class Star Destroyers.

And so a pitched battle began.

One of the main weaknesses of the Imperator, which extended to the Separatist version of it, was its glaring lack of point defenses, relying on its heavy guns to overwhelm the enemy before they got close. But if small, nimble ships could close in on an Imperator, such as Corvettes, Frigates, or starfighters, they could do heavy damage to the much larger vessel’s critical systems.

Cruisers, such as the Acclamator, could not stand up for long against an Imperator’s broadsides.

Sometimes, however, only a momentary distraction was needed.

A squadron of the Separatist’s Venator knockoff, the Valkyrie-class Star Destroyer, approached. But the Republic’s clone pilots knew all too well that the Venator’s long hangar doors were a structural weak spot in the vessel, and the same was true of the Valkyrie-class. Bombing these targets allowed the clones to deal heavy damage to the Separatist Valkyries.

And as opposing capital ships entered point-blank range of each other, all batteries were busy firing.

And soon, Sol’s Separatist forces were themselves in rout.

Now, it was a matter of continuing the advance toward Lokkur.

 

[HistoryDude]

I don't think that Eerabik was responsible for the Tempest, but she'll use any excuse to gain more power...

Did future rebels take note of that weakness of the Imperator class? I imagine that it'll be useful for destroying the imperial versions once the Empire is declared...

 

[Von Acturus]

The Tempest is another gift for Eerabik indeed. Not only are they machines, so obviously easy associate with the separatists in the public consciousness, but their sudden and shocking entrance into the scene will further discredit the supposedly far-seeing and much powerful jedi.

 

[Arithmetician]

A’Nikori was not sleeping well.

Her nights had been plagued with visions of as of late... visions of her friends, suffering or dying.

From her past resurfaced images of those she had already failed in the war, and had been unable to save.

She saw the galaxy engulfed in a never-ending series of wars and rebellion.

She saw the galaxy under invasion from a threat approaching from far beyond the Outer Rim, and far more terrible than the Gray Tempest.

She STILL wasn’t powerful enough to save everyone.

And that knowledge was gnawing away at her from within.

***
​

“You wanted to see me, Chancellor?” A’Nikori asked, stepping into Eerabik’s box at Coruscant’s most prestigious opera house. An aquatic spectacle was before them, but she paid it little mind.

Why had Eerabik called her there?

​

“Yes, A’Nikori,” Eerabik said. Per custom for patrons of the opera, she wore an expensive and warm-looking black robe, over a luxuriously trimmed vest. "It good to see you. I have good news. Clone intelligence has tracked down the bases of both Admiral Taranch and General Dolorous, from which they have been launching their futile attacks. It will take time to besiege their defenses, but we can now close in on them."

“At last,” A’Nikori breathed. “We’ll be able to capture those monsters, and end this war."

“The Council has already called its collective wisdom into doubt by not granting you the rank of Master,” Eerabik continued, “but if they do not select you to deal with General Dolorous, who is by far the more dangerous target, then I would have to wonder if they have any sense at all. You’re the best choice, by far.”

Eerabik beckoned with her wing. “Sit down, A’Nikori.” She turned to the other members of her entourage who were in the box with them. “Leave us,” she commanded.

Without a word, her aides and advisors got up and did as they were bade, filing out of the Chancellor’s box.

A’Nikori took her seat at the Chancellor’s side.

Eerabik waited several moments, watching the opera as if in deep thought.

Then, she spoke.

“Unfortunately, that is not the only reason why I asked to see you here tonight, A’Nikori. You must have sensed what I have come to suspect: the Jedi Council is plotting against me and my government... against the Republic itself. You know that they do not trust me... and I doubt they put any trust in democracy either. You need only look at how they organize themselves to see that is true: an unelected elite who reign over lesser beings who do not happen to be born with their powers, and wish nothing more than to be answerable only to themselves!”

“ The other members of the Council have regularly failed to see your wisdom, Chancellor,” A’Nikori said. “But you really think they want to dismantle the Republic itself? I have a hard time believing that."

“A’Nikori, your loyalty is one of your most admirable qualities,” Eerabik said. “Even now, despite being slighted time and again by the Council, you wish to give them every benefit of the doubt.” She shook her head. “Oh, I’m sure they will maintain the structure of the Republic, and will still allow elections to be held - from among their hand-picked candidates, chosen to be weak-minded enough to be easily dominated with Jedi mind tricks, so they will do exactly what the Council tells them to do without question. They won’t allow any real differences of opinion. Anyone who does not conform to their narrow dogma will be deemed ‘evil’ and swiftly condemned after a show trial. That is, assuming they are even afforded a trial at all. There will be so many Senators they will need to purge at first that I doubt they will have time for such niceties."

“I... I don’t know what to say,” A’Nikori said. Could it be true? But the Jedi-

“The Jedi have already sought to bring you into their plot, haven’t they?” Eerabik asked. “They've asked you to do something dishonest. They’ve asked you to spy on me.”

Eerabik raised a wing before A’Nikori reply. “There’s no need to deny it. It is exactly what I would do if I was in the Council’s position. And it is why, besides your own prodigious achievements, why I asked for you to be given a seat on the Council in the first place - so you could see their duplicity for yourself. Because unlike the Council, who has sought to conceal their true purpose from you, A’Nikori, I trust you."

“But why... why would they act now?” A’Nikori asked.

“Remember what I told you, A’Nikori: all those who have power are afraid of losing it. And with the war nearing its end, the Jedi see their privileged position slipping away from them. They already occupied a position of power well before my administration, but leading the Republic’s armies and fleets into battle have given them a still greater taste for it. I have tried to rein them in, but that only made them guard their power all the more jealously."

“The Jedi have always used their power to do good,” A’Nikori said, not even managing to fully convince herself of that. “They stand for justice, and seek to bring peace to the galaxy."

“Good and evil are but points of view, A’Nikori,” Eerabik replied. “From my reading, the ancient Sith had their own strong ideals of justice, and also sought to bring security to the galaxy. One might even consider them to have been champions of individual freedom, liberated to experience the whole range of emotion that the Jedi would deny themselves - and others."

“Chancellor! If the Council heard that you’ve read about ancient Sith philosophy-"

“They would arrest me without second thought? Yes, I know. Even though it isn’t even a crime to read of other philosophies in this Republic. They would use it as justification for their coup nonetheless. But the Jedi do not have a monopoly on truth. In fact, I would argue that it is the responsibility of any learned individual to expose themselves to contrasting points of view, so that they can hold both those ideas and their own up to the test, and take what is useful from each. Indeed, I have read just as much on Jedi philosophy as I have on the Sith’s, so that I can better understand how the Council thinks.” Eerabik shrugged. “Besides, you can’t exactly say the Jedi Council has done a good job of managing the war or bringing security to the galaxy. Who’s to say at this point that the Sith, if given the chance, wouldn’t do a better job?"

“But the Sith are evil,” A’Nikori protested

“Evil, as viewed by the Jedi,” Eerabik corrected. “Evil because they were not afraid to be honest about their power - about themselves. They recognized that they are similar to the Jedi in almost every way - including their quest for greater power. The Jedi maintain their own self-righteousness, but in the process they delude themselves about their pretensions to power. Those on the Council are perhaps the most self-deluded of all. They fear what they do not understand, and would destroy it without a second thought."

What Eerabik was saying went against everything A’Nikori had been taught by the Jedi.

Yet it all seemed to make so much sense.

“The Sith think inwards, only about themselves,” A’Nikori said, trying to latch onto a point that she could defend.

“And the Jedi don’t?” Eerabik asked.

“The Jedi are - or should be selfless, caring only about others,” A’Nikori replied. “Though... whether they actually live up to that..."

There was a long silence.

Finally, Eerabik spoke again.

“There was a curious tale that I happened across in my readings, A’Nikori. Did you ever hear The Tragedy of Darth Jefferius the Wise?"

“No,” A’Nikori replied.

“I thought not,” Eerabik said. “It’s not a story the Jedi would tell you. It’s a Sith legend. Darth Jefferius was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise, he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to... create life. He had such a knowledge of the Dark Side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying."

“He could actually... save people from death?” she asked Eerabik after a moment, finding herself intently awaiting the Chancellor’s answer.

“The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural."

“What happened to him?” A’Nikori asked.

Eerabik almost seemed to chuckle slightly. “He became so powerful, the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power. Which, eventually of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew... then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. Ironic... he could save others from death... but not himself."

A’Nikori had to ask.

“Is it possible to learn this power?"

Eerabik turned toward her.

“Not from a Jedi.” Eerabik said. “But imagine... if one had such a power, to create life itself, then to maintain life in those already living would be child’s play, would it not?"

A’Nikori sensed that the question was rhetorical, and didn’t trust herself to answer it.

“And what happened to the apprentice?” she asked instead.

“Oh, her?” Eerabik seemed amused. “She went on to become the greatest Dark Lady of the Sith the galaxy has ever known..."

“So it was only a tragedy for Darth Jefferius,” A’Nikori observed. “For the apprentice, the legend has a happy ending."

“Yes... I suppose that is true, A’Nikori. I don’t think I ever quite thought about it that way before. It’s just like what we were talking about earlier, with how so much depends on your point of view."

“Do you think that Darth Jefferius and his apprentice really existed?” A’Nikori asked. “That it would be possible to find her?"

“Oh, yes, I’m certain that they both existed,” Eerabik said. “While certain details may have been embellished, the Tragedy appears to have a firm factual basis, if one can read between the weave of galactic history to see all that their influence touched. And the apprentice, if she still lives... would almost certainly be one of the most powerful individuals in the galaxy, not to mention virtually immortal. Though she would have to remain hidden - after all, if the Jedi would arrest anyone who merely reads about the Sith, can you imagine they would do if they met an actual Sith Lady? They would try to kill her on the spot, without any pretense of a trial or due process, just because she happens to subscribe to a different philosophy of the Force than they do."

Eerabik paused.

“And if she were to be killed by the Jedi, the secret of immortality would be forever lost with her,” she concluded.

 

[Arithmetician]

(I took significant inspiration from Matthew Stover’s version of the opera scene from his novelization of The Revenge of the Sith here. Like in the scenes with the Battle of Coruscant, it just adds so much depth to it.)

 

[Macavity116]

I do love this scene. I need to get my hands on this novelization you mentioned. It's a simple conversation full of subtle nods, yet it had the power to rock the galaxy.

Impressive. Most impressive.

...


Meanwhile, in an alternate universe... there is far less subtlety: