Wilkar cursed loudly.

When it rained, it shit banthas.

The admiral was nearly thrown from his command chair when the Rapier was hit by two salvos of turbolaser fire at once. He struggled to maintain his balance as he ripped the syn-band off his still attached wrist and threw it to the deck. There were definitely consequences for contracting finely tuned hardware out to the lowest bidder. He looked at the Zelosian communications officer.

“Why is your hand still attached Ensign Worrel?” he asked.

“I… I… left my syn-band in my cabin Ad… Admiral,” stammered the humanoid as he attempted wrapped his belt around the bleeding stump of the ship’s science officer.

“You’re excused,” forgave the admiral sarcastically. “Rapier! Activate automated systems now! Roll us starboard! Maintain port side fire pressure!”

Wilkar felt the ship begin to rotate. It would take almost a minute for the lumbering hulk of the Rapier to fully rotate the 180 degrees to bring its starboard to bear, but soon only the starboard shield array, untouched by enemy as of yet, would be exposed to the Tan.

“Get the reserve bridge crew up here from the auxiliary bridge now Ensign! Oh yeah… get the corpsman up here too!” he added.

The Zelosian did not say a word. He only picked up the comm and relayed the order.

The ship began to fire again as the automated systems kicked in, somewhat inaccurately without the gunnery officer coordinating it all, but still with effect.

The Tan warship began venting atmosphere as a full broadside of turbolaser fire followed up a concentrated proton torpedo strike from the Rapier’s starfighter wing. Almost on cue, the five reserve fighter wings tasked with defending the sixty-five percent of Etti-IV that sucked arrived to join the fray. They immediately began strafing the Tan ship’s bridge.

“Tell three of those wings to break off and go after those fucking pirates! I don’t have time to deal with… What’s that son of bitch calling himself? The ISD Joker?”

Wilkar smiled as his combined forces continued to pound the Tan imperator.

“Keep all batteries firing five percent past safe speed! Don’t let up!”

The admiral was taking a risk pushing his guns to the brink and past, but a calculated one. Reinforcements would arrive soon. Clannus Prime willing.



Meanwhile on the surface…

The old general raked his teeth across his chapped lower lip and smiled as he looked through his macrobinoculars at the city below.

“I would wager these men could shoot a fly off a bantha’s ass,” he praised.

The artist capturing the general in such a gallant pose nodded and continued to paint. The buildings garrisoning Tan soldiers had been leveled with a surgical artillery strike.

“Colonel!” yelled the general. The artist sighed as the gallant pose became lost to time forever.

“Yes sir!” said the enthusiastic adjutant.

“Begin the ground assault!”

The general’s army began to stream into the city, taking back what belonged to them.

Jackal


The intruder was imposing and the Diplomat-Tan looked about at the fugly starfighters moving off to attack New Tan (formerly Etti-IV).

His brows drew together and he gave a forceful exhale knowing he would need the strength of the God-Tan to accomplish his mission.

"Open a comm with LOS-Tan laser," he ordered imperiously and the underling complied as was his duty. After a few minutes of positioning, the invisible beam shot out to what appeared to be a receiver.

"Channel open."

All at once, the Diplomat-Tan fell to his knees and wailed, "Oh great people of the warship! I beseech you with gifts of the great Tan Empire and would beg for an audience so that you may profit from what we have to give! Spoils of war are yours!"



*


Tan-warship, Glory of Tan


His opening shots had made their mark on the port side of the enemy but the Commonwealth mothership did not seem to out of the fight as it began to fire it's own weapons at a greater rate of speed than that of the Tan warship.

Much to the consternation of Cappy-Tan.

That should not be happening!

Damage Control-Tans were scurrying everywhere as the shock of the combined attacks from the Commonwealth fighters as well as their mothership took the Tans by surprise.

They fully expected the commanding stump of a human to be signalling for a surrender since his 'trap-door' tactics were not successful. However, it seemed that they were willing to fight without their hands which was almost Tan in nature.

Almost.

With pounding their ship was taking, several shield generators exploded exposing several durasteel plates which buckled under the onslaught causing atmosphere to vent.

A Tan was brutally sucked out of the small hole like a camel being forced against it's will through the eye of a needle. A really small needle.


"Emergency Power!" shouted Cappy-Tan as the two massive shield generators protected the bridge from the pot-shots from the fighters that tried to hit them. It was not as coordinated as one might have expected because of the jamming caused by the arrival of the warship, Jackal.

Such a move was spineless and Cappy-Tan's contempt for the enemy increased.

"Return fire!" he bellowed and the Glory of the Tan belched back it's own fury in response at the Commonwealth warship's starboard side.

By the time Admiral Wilkar considered the grizzly scene, the fighters had refueled, reloaded and relaunched.

On their way back, they found the Commonwealth mothership with it's port side to them and they decided to attack since they could not land with the Tan ship's shields up.

The Pilot-Tans began their roll as the the port guns were delayed, most of the automated responses being directed at the Commonwealth warship's starboard side in pushing it's weapons to the max without re-cooling cycles. They flew down the length of the warship and when they turned around, they saw the bright engines of the commonwealth warship.


An idea!


Their bolts spat out from their ships immersing what weak remaining shielding was left in their flood of fire.

Several explosions were seen.



Government City of New Tan


The defending Tans had civilians in front of them to block any enemy weapons fire that might be directed at them. And why not?

Surely the civilians would want their homes defended and how could it be defended if all the Warrior-Tans were dead?

Or so the Tan thought.

So they rounded up civilians and used them for shields.

The enemy began pouring into the city and the Tans began shooting at the advancing army from various spots.

The Rapier


The giant vessel shuddered as enemy fighter craft began firing from behind. Admiral Wilkar had had enough and as he moved through the morass of emergency crewmen and women replacing the injured bridge personnel he tried to wrap his mind around how quickly everything went into the soup.


The day had started out well enough but to go from "well enough" to "shit" as fast as this?


The instructors would say that, in war, anything is possible. And that was the literal truth as far as the Admiral was concerned. He had seen the best and worst that war could bring out in a person.


During the Domain War, he had seen the Scourge grab his boys and he'd burned fields of the buggers in revenge. In order to stop the Scourge he had to become the Scourge and as the Commonwealth slowly reversed their fortunes to finally reach their homeworld, he found himself physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted. He remembered staring at the buttons that would ignite the fantastical weaponry on his warship to turn the world to cinders...


..oh how he wanted to do that!


But his hand had been stayed. The Jedi commander had ordered a powering down of their weapons because of something he sensed.


Well, Admiral Wilkar had sensed something too! He sensed that if he landed more of his boys on the surface, there would be a killing field the likes of which their push had yet seen. This was the buggers homeworld and taking it would thin their ranks so much, they'd have trouble patroling a single star system.


The Jedi overrode his advice, overrode his protests and eventually ignored his bitter rants.


In his heart of hearts, he knew the Jedi was going to get them all killed and was contemplating taking the situation into his own hands...

For the boys!

Always for his boys!


When the Jedi requested the Admiral join him, Wilkar was taken aback. He could hardly refuse for that wouldn't look right to his men. Not then. He wanted the Jedi on the surface of the world which would have left Wilkar still in command of the fleet and with more freedom of action, even if subversive.


The Jedi must have seen that and so Wilkar's anger burned at having to accompany the force user onto the planet. He expected a quick death since he felt their landing force too small to cope with the mother hive of the buggers, especially in light of what he had experienced on other worlds.


What he found, though... was something different.

There were Dark Jedi who had taken and subverted the Domain into something disgusting and wretched. The Commonwealth Jedi, the Admiral and their men fought these Darksiders and found that the war ended with their deaths.

The buggers gave great credence to balance and the Darksiders had put the Domain off-balance for so long they had not realized it until their influence was no longer there. And so now the buggers were in debted and to satisfy their own cultural striving towards the Great Balance, they became productive members of the Commonwealth.


But not for Wilkar and the war continued to rage within. He still smelled the burning flesh of infected men and dreamed nightmares of the Domain War. He was conflicted as his heart wished he had pushed the buttons and ordered the genocide of the Domain while his head realized the growing contributions their society brought to the table. His was a war wound and one that refused to heal. One that festered until he could drink himself into oblivion no longer.


He was a hero of the Domain War and it was an accolade that he both treasured and repulsed. He enjoyed the company of the military men and women that looked up to him for he truly did care for his people. But the adoration of the public he could do without. All they saw were the holovids of the war where everything was neat and tidy. They did not see the horrors that Wilkar had seen. No, their adoration was their ignorance and Wilkar would have none of it.


In one of his drunken tirades, he had hit a Commonwealth Councilman and now the man was after his career. The Admiral was almost willing to let the man have it but Seth Vinda and that meddling Jedi would not let go of him.


And so here he was...



*


He saw the nervous glances of the replacement bridge crew as the shudders from the enemy fire moved up and down his vessel's spine.

His sister's family was killed. The settlement on the planet was taken and the enemy was willing to use the population as human shields against the reclamation forces.

Part of him seemed mentally exhausted and he wanted to just grab a blaster and turn it on himself. At least, moreso in the beginning. Now, though. Now that he'd seen the grizzly scene of a family he would never see again... It was as if something had snapped.


Or at least, had snapped on.

Like flicking a switch and there being light.


Only this time, it was like flicking a switch and there being power.


A tremendous amount of power. Power that rippled through Wilkar's veins like adrenaline and far more potent than the strongest liquor.


And when that fire reached his brain, he had seen just how sluggish and underclassed his forces really were. It was as if a drunkard had awoken in an alleyway and found that he really did not reside in a mansion.


This was not the cream of the Commonwealth Navy.

His Captain was not smart and had positioned the Rapier where it could do the least good.


He also saw that the enemy was inferior and displayed a lack of attachment within their current situation that was totally unrealistic. But then, considering who controlled these 'Tan' bastards, realism meant nothing.


It was time to lash out.


"Drop the ship into the atmosphere, over the city," the Admiral ordered and the secondary crew moved to carry out the order.


"Sir, a Cappy-Tan is on the comm..." someone stated but the Admiral waved him away. He was not going to put up with this foolishness anymore.


The change in vector and momentum caught the enemy fighters that were weaving in and around the Rapier by surprise and some collided with the Commonwealth capital warship.


"Damage control to those sections!" the Admiral barked out to the responsible crewmen whose job it was to carry out his orders.


"Weapons systems, target the city and the enemy army!" he shouted and a voice somewhere intruded...


"What are you doing?!!"


"Targets aquired," an excited Lieutenant relayed.


"WHAT are you doing?!!"


"FIRE!!!" Wilkar yelled and the ground below the warship bubbled up and burned away into ash as the concentrate fire of the vessel rained down.


Washed away were the invading Tans, their native hostages as well as the captured city of "New Tan".


"Now," growled the Admiral, "call up that fucker, Cappy-Tan, and tell him to get the hell out of my space!"


"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!!" came an indignant shout behind the Admiral and as he turned, the rear of the bridge pulled open to reveal an aghast Councilman Bortel followed by others.


"Ending this farce," Wilkar remarked as calmly as he could.


"You..you... killed the population! On the Capital no less!" the Councilman screamed at the military man. "You're a madman!!"


"Oh, get a hold of yourself, Bort," complained Seth Vinda as he walked onto the bridge simulation grid. Already the hardlight projectors were powering down and the room became less and less a bridge of a Commonwealth capital warship. Already the contours of the room were changing to suit a business meeting room.


"Seth, I don't know why you are supporting this.. this..ruffian! This, this primate!!"


"Bort, if you don't shut the hell up, so help me I am going to punch you myself," bit back Vinda. "You do not insult Republic Admirals no matter how influential you think you are!"


"You saw the sim, Vinda. Your Admiral is out of control! We put him in a reasonable sim and you go and mock that sim by acting cross purpose or you," the Councilman thrust a finger at Wilkar, "are mad, mad, mad!!"


"Doctor?" Seth Vinda turned suddenly to another person joining the two politicians.


"It is well known that the Admiral here has been suffering from Post Traumatic Stress as a result of the Domain War. Alot of soldiers were suffering from it but the good Admiral here chose to work instead of treat it and the government, I am sad to say, went along with the Admiral's choice.."


Vinda chomped down on his cigarra, "Doctor, we needed the man during the transition, especially with Lupercus Darksword invading Hapan space. The Admiral is probably the only reason Lupercus did not try to attack our fleet and invade Hapes while being ferried there. Now that that bit of trouble has been dealt with, we need to look to our own."


Seth's eyes moved to the Doctor, "What about the test itself?"


The Doctor looked at his Syn Band, "Well, as you know, we took a random society from our databanks.."


"What? You mean those fucking Tans are real?" Admiral Wilkar asked surprised.


"Oh, quite real, Admiral, quite real. Anyway, we took them and put them into a 'conquering mode' to fit the simulation. Actually, they do not have the industry to support such a conquest as in this simulation but their characteristics in the sim were spot on. Everything they touch becomes a "Tan" something or other."


"..could they figure out our Syn-Bands as fast as the sim suggested?" Wilkar pressed and Vinda turned to the Doctor, "Yes, I found that distressing as well."


"Well, conceptually, whatever is introduced into the sim the AI builds upon and redirects.."

"But the Syn-Bands do not have such a self-destruct mechanism. At least to where the wearer is hurt."

"The AI did not know that, which is strange," the Doctor admitted.

"The sim was adjusted for our dear, good Admiral," Councilman Bortel admitted giving Wilkar a smug look.

"I beg your pardon?" both Vinda and the Doctor asked, surprised.

"The sim was tailored to push the Admiral to his limits to show everyone that, had this been reality, he would have snapped! And it worked! He did snap and if that city had been real..." he let his words trail off.

"So you pushed a soldier with PTS to break? You augmented the opponent's abilities and even hardlight manufactured the butchering of his relatives? Even I thought that was strange for an sim AI but this? Your actions could be considered mad, Councilman."


"But..but... No.. He's the crazy one! He's the one who hit me!"


"Admirals don't go around hitting people for no reason." the Doctor replied.


"He's gotta reason! He's got this Post Tramatic madness... that.. that.."


"So you knowingly pushed a sick man.." the Doctor started but then Wilkar growled.


"Watch it, Doctor.."


But the Doctor would have none of that, "No. No, Admiral. While I deplore Mr. Bortel's actions, that does not change the fact that you are sick. PTS is no laughing matter."


Councilman Bortel abruptly walked away from the party but the damage had been done. Executor Vinda could see that the good Admiral was not the only one with issues.


He sighed.


So much to do but if you use up all the people, who will be left?


After a moment of silence, Vinda asked, "Well, Admiral, what do you think about this Republic we have built?"


"Well, Executor, do you think this Republic will last?"


It was an annoying retort but Vinda recognized that the Admiral merely put to words what everyone else was thinking.


So, Seth Vinda narrowed his eyes and turned to face his Admiral, "Only if we keep our wits about us."


Admiral Wilkar sighed. "Message received."


"I need you, Admiral. And I need you whole. I don't need you broken!"


"Can I ask you a question, Executor?"


Vinda brightened, "Of course, my good man, what is it?"


"Why me? Why do you always throw your support behind me? I am a foul-mouthed drunk who..."


Vinda put a finger up forestalling the rest. "Admiral, I support you because I trust you."


The Admiral was very confused. "But... Why?"


Now it was Vinda's turn to sigh, "Well, Admiral. Because I wanted to burn those buggers to cinders as well. Just like I wanted to destroy every vestige of the Corporate Sector Authority that hurt my people. Just like I felt about the Yuuzhan Vong after the Conquest."


"Isn't that like a Darkside emotion?"


"It can be. But it also means that you feel for those that are hurt. And, in my book, that is going to be an important quality to have in our Republic."


"We just gotta keep our wits about us," the Admiral concluded.


"We just have to keep our wits about us," Vinda confirmed.




**




The Sim Debacle, as it was known in some circles, was decidedly Councilman Bortel's career ender in politics. It was later revealed that he had lost a son during the Domain War and blamed Admiral Wilkar for that death; especially since Wilkar did not end up destroying the buggers but was part of the team that brought them into the Commonwealth. It was ironic because Admiral Wilkar wanted nothing more than to destroy the bugs and ended up being the face of Commonwealth forgiveness and progress.


Admiral Wilkar, while he still liked to drink and curse and know the touch of a good woman, knew that the excesses were being acted upon because of everything just piling up inside.


It was time to let it go.


**


"My name is Eric Hofferstein and I was fired by Seth Vinda for..."


Wilkar blinked in surprise.


"My name is Supreme Commander Isstal and I was fired by Seth Vinda for..."


Wilkar stood up. "What the bloody fuck? I am in the wrong room!"


The door slammed behind him after he left..


Another spoke up, "My name is..."



**

Admiral Wilkar sat down and looked at all the scraggily-haired, hardly shaved faces before him as they were all situated in a circle. These were the old war horses of the Republic, those whose lives had been pushed to the brink and then over the side. They had seen too much, experienced more and yet were considered a valuable asset still to the ever shrewd Seth Vinda.

Some he knew, some he didn't and he was a little surprised at seeing yet others.


They looked at him expectantly and he sighed.


It was time to heal.


"My name is Wilkar and I am a dirty, stupid Kuati drunk.."


An old man with one eye and a scar running down the side of his face stood up and glared at the Admiral for a good long while.


Wilkar shifted in his seat uncomfortably before the old man grinned.


"I'll bloody drink to that!" he shouted and tossed the Admiral a bottle of...well... something.. someone had hidden behind a chair.


The old man sat back down. "Now where was I?"


"In Natabb," some murmured.


"Oh, yes! So there I was bleeding from my scalp, half my face torn away holding a damned stick as a staff when the invaders bloody walked by thinking I was one of...."


Wilkar grinned as he tossed back the drink.


Vinda may be a shrewd bastard but, damn me, I'd die for the man!