Republic Address, Shortly After the Fall of Coruscant
Citizens of the galaxy! Today, we move forward into a new age of prosperity and light! The Empire has fled Coruscant, and we are victorious!
We are the Rebel Alliance no more, but henceforth shall be known as the New Republic! From Coruscant, we shall be a shining beacon of hope and light in this galaxy of darkness!
Under the banner of the Republic, we shall end the tyranny of the Galactic Empire and restore the galaxy to its former glory!
Long Live the Republic!
He gave a laugh. The ideals of the New Republic had been crushed long ago by the corrupt and self-serving leaders that it enjoyed during the Vong Crisis.
The Republic had faltered under Borsk Fey'lya's reign, and now, at long last, it had fallen. A series of nearly compitent but unaware leaders had shown the Republic her downfal. Xlyon Hexyra, Gash Jiren, Jeric Tantor. All were blissfully unaware of the impending doom facing their great Republic.
But one was not. Working vigorously from the inside, Hiram Drayson set about righting the old wrongs. The Republic once more began to show sings of glory under his defacto leadership.
And then, the Empire struck. Corellia, Coruscant, Selonia, Talus, Tralus... all fell under assault by the New Order and her forces. And Jeric Tantor once more took up the mantle, only to drop it again in a fuss.
And for a moment, it looked as if Drayson may yet lead them to victory... until Xlyon Hexyra emerged, and abdicated just as quickly.
Now all that is left is a shell of the Admiralty: Admiral Hiram Drayson, Supreme Chancellor of the New Republic by circumstance. Vice-Admiral Vondiranch, leading the defence of Corellia, and JediGhost, who had not been seen in far to long.
A hush fell across the Senate Chamber as he entered. It had been far to long since a compitent and willing being had risen to the Chancellor's platform, and he did so now only under the gravest of circumstances.
Looking out across the assembled delegates, far fewer than there should have been, he began,
"Fellow Delegates. I come before you today in the gravest of circumstances. Coruscant has fallen to the Empire, and they now assault our capital.
"The government is inept to deal with this new threat. Jeric Tantor is gone, and the new Chancellor is missing."
There was a pause as he spoke next, his voice wavering slightly.
"I therefor announce my intention to, under Security Measure 19-A, take immediate control of the New Republic and declare myself Supreme Military Chancellor. I will lay down this power immediatly after the crisis has been averted."
There was silence for a moment, before the shouting started. It was, as far as he could tell, an equal mixture of cheers and boos, but he thought he heard a hint more of the former.
OOC: Drayson, your knowledge of NR history and hierarchy organization is completely @#%$ up. The NR's history does not include a single element of the EU NR's history. But it's governmental organization is the same as the EU NR's.
IC: New Republic Embassy Theed, Naboo.
Leia Organa Solo's personal secretary walked up to the front desk of the New Republic Embassy in Theed. The man seated at the desk smiled and waved her past, as he did every day.
The secretary came here quite often, twice a day actually. Once in the morning to pick up Leia's paperwork for the day, and once in the evening to drop off the paperwork Leia had finished, and pick up the news and more paperwork for Leia to look over for tomorrow. This was her evening visit, and she tightly hugged the heavy stack of papers and datacards that she carried.
For years now the Chief of State of the New Republic had dutifully filled the demands of her office from Naboo, while simultaneously overseeing the growing Jedi Academy in Theed. The constant juggling of priorities and duties heavily taxed the Jedi Master, but somehow she managed to thrive anyways. After all, it was her life's work, and she knew nothing else, except for war and battle.
The secretary had reached Leia's set of remote offices in the embassy, which merely only served as a pickup and drop off point for her work. When she entered, she found a cluster of people standing in one corner of the office, their attention glued to a viewscreen.
The secretary sat her heavy load of paperwork down on a nearby desk, and walked over to the crowd of people.
"What is going on?" She asked. A man, Leia's main liason between Naboo and Corellia, turned to face the secretary with a concerned look on his face.
"You need to see this..."
***
There was an insistent and loud knock on Leia's office door. The door opened and her secretary entered before she had even had a chance to say "come in."
The secretary quickly covered the distance to Leia's desk, and handed her a datacard.
"You need to see this, Ma'am..."
Leia studied the aide's serious, concerned expression for a moment, before taking the datacard and sliding it into her desktop terminal.
A recording began to play, and Leia instantly recognized the setting and the people as one of the Republic's Senate meetings.
Now what was this about?
A man with the insignia of a New Republic Admiral was standing on the podium, addressing the senate. Drayson was his name, she recalled hearing it before. His speech went on for a few minutes, with nothing particularly eye catching happening. But then...
"I therefor announce my intention to, under Security Measure 19-A, take immediate control of the New Republic and declare myself Supreme Chancellor. I will lay down this power immediatly after the crisis has been averted."
At that point in the recording the senate erupted into a large commotion, and Leia cut the video feed. She was silent for several moments before her gaze returned to the aide. Now the chief military advisor of Naboo stood beside the aide, as well as the communications officer that oversaw her communications with Corellia. They all stared at her expectantly, and she leaned back in her chair with a sigh.
"Well, I would first like to point out that the New Republic hierarchy goes, Chief of State, High Council, Senate, with the military operating independantly, but taking the orders of the High Council, as well as it's highest leaders participating in High Council meetings and functions. The office he has just appointed himself as does not exist, nor is there room for it with the way the government is set up."
Leia abruptly rose from her chair, glaring down at the terminal and the frozen image of the admiral on the podium.
"I have no idea who he thinks he is, but he has no place doing what he has just done, and I am not going to let him get away with it. He may think he has enough support to overpower the remaining Hierarchy, but he underestimates the situation."
Her gaze snapped up to the military advisor.
"Send a call up to my escort taskforce, and tell them to prepare for departure to Corellia. And prepare a shuttle to take me up to my ship. In the meantime I need to gather a few things, and inform the Academy of my departure
She glanced back down at the terminal.
"No, I don't know what you are up to, Drayson. But you're not going to get away with it."
Location of Imperial Intelligence Operational Command
Deep within the dark depths of a palatial strucutre, the size of which rivalled even those towers on the unending Coruscant skyline, sat one man in a darkened office, the only illumination coming from a water filled tank, blue light shining the liquid and into the room. From floor to ceiling it ran, bathing the room in its plae glow.
A gloomy place indeed.
Behind a steelen desk sat a man working slowly and deliberately on a small computer screen. He seemed to be performing for whatever forces dared watch a Colonel in the Imperial Department of Operations.
" Play it again," the man ordered, his face barely lifting from the object is his gaze, the padd in front of him.
Off to the side of the room sat a dark polished droid, its casing immaculate and reflecting what little light passed the tne meter distance between veritcal aquarium and seat.
The droid gave out a single beep and a small, circular abbarition appeared in mid air off the front of the desk. In the glowing portion of space stood the speaking figure of an Admiral of the Republic Navy, gesturing with his hands and speaking with a great sense of self importance.
It did not take long for the Colonel to recognize the man.
Fleet Admiral Hiram Drayson.
At the realization, the Colonel drew on his holographic memory a bite of report he had seen by the Terrellians on the Republic High Command.
...Admiral Drayson...has a pomposity and arrogance that suit him more to click about in jackboots. He is as Imperial as a Republci officer can be in uniform, and more so when not...
The Colonel smirked, watching the figure before him gesticulate as if a propaganda rally. He had read the text of the clip several times, and was astonished. Three words came to mind every time he reviewed the materiale.
Republic civil war
Through the bubbling of the tank and the humm of the droid's projector could be heard the muttering of Colonel Marr.
" Perhaps this can be used to our advantage. Here is a situation we shall have to follow."
Nathaniel Somir, Director of the New Repupublic Secret Service, stood and instantly made coment, once the uproar had quelled.
"Your words are treasonous, Admiral. After the current hostilities cease, you will find yourself in a brig.. for a long time."
With that, the Director turned and left the chambers, slamming the massive doors behind him. He would indeed deal with this later. However, right now.. the Empire must be dealt with first.
He sat silently, the echoes of the engines flurrying around him as he simply sat. Not a sound escaped his lips as he meditated on what course of action might he take to further shore up the defences at Tatooine. He exhailed slowly and silently, the breath escaping as a visable vapour as the heat of his breath mingled with the icy temperature of the cabin.
Outside his quarters and outside his ship over 1,000 craft of the TIE variety flew, ducking and weaving in a massive cosmic ballet as they practiced maneuvres for the wargame. Around 800 other assorted snubfighters also flew, massive formations of B-Wings and Clawcraft dazzling the mind of any who watched with their complex twists and turns.
They had all been sent here to run a mock up Imperial Assault on the New Republic world of Tatooine, a significant planet on one hand, a dustbowl on the other. Already, only a week into their arrival they had simulated massed formation assaults on the planet from every possible angle of attack.
He was still meditating as from the roof of his room aboard the massive Zeus-Class Vlyx Battlecruiser Jacana a holoprojector appeared. Seconds later out shot the image of Hiram Drayson. He ranted for 5 minutes, almost losing the admirals attention when suddenly he proclaimed himself the effective ruler of the New Republic.
Jaiden grimaced, knowing full well that the image had been projected aboard his entire cobbled together taskforce made up primarily of Corellia-Class Vlyx Battlecruisers and Imperial Class Star Destroyers. He activated the full fleet comms immedatly and was shocked to hear masses of radio callsigns being ordered in as each ship of the fleet called back their supporting fighters. Each captain, no matter how long serving, was baffled at the turn of events.
Jaiden coughed slightly, sending a squelch of radio static down the lines which cut off the flurry of orders being sent.
"This is Admiral Lazarus.
We shall continue as planned. None of any substance would declare themselves above Chancellor Solo. Hence we continue the operation as planned, maintaining our vigillence in the face of Imperial attack.
Let the politicians fight their battles, and we shall fight ours."
OOC: Okay, you know what, @#%$ you, Isstal. You can bullshit me OOC, but when you start screwing with my character -- a character far deeper, older, and more complex than your's -- well, you know what, just go to hell. Don't you dare make up my character's opinions.
I'm sorry about the language, I really am, and I'm sorry about mucking up your RP, but I am so absolutely sick and tired of every bloody person on TRF thinking they have cart blanche to play my character for me. This is god damn ridiculous, and it's so transparent that Isstal made the whole thing up for the one and only reason that he and I don't like each other, and never have.
There. It was done. The silence over the Senate Hall was complete, save for one small voice that broke in.
..."Your words are treasonous, Admiral. After the current hostilities cease, you will find yourself in a brig.. for a long time..."
The new Chancellor turned and started at the man... the head of the Secret Service. The inept head who had failed to see the Imperial presence on Coruscant, he thought grimly.
He gave the man a small smile and shrugged.
"Perhaps you would prefer if I simply allowed the Republic to fall to the Empire, Director. I will do what is required of me to save this Republic. I recomend you do the same."
The other was gone, slamming the doors behind him like a child. Perhaps there is more there than any of us realize.
He gave another sigh, and reminded himself to keep an eye on the Director of the Secret Service. The man was dangerous. Then again, so was Hiram Drayson.
Turning away from the podium, he spoke quietly to his aide. "Alert all Republic military forces to prepare for full Imperial attack. I want all units on full alert."
The sensor boards were a mess, now. Red and Blue dots littered the surface, Imperial and Republic warships fighting in high orbit over the stronghold of the New Republic.
And in the midst of it all, a single, insignifcant group of gold appeared... gold: royalty, or Jedi.
The call went out from the planet-based command centre to the massive command ship in orbit, with the words Jedi Knight attatched.
And there was one Jedi with the power to make off with that many Republic units, epseccially in a time of war such as this. A com lane was opened to the new forces, from the Super Star Destroyer. "Welcome back to Corellia, Princess. I'm afraid you've caught us at a bad time. In case you hadn't noticed, we are at war." The words were ice cold.
The gall that Leia Organa Solo must have to visit the capitol in a time of war, purely with the intent (it would seem) to unsurp the only person with the ability to lead this Republic to what victory it could find, was amazing.
She certainly liked her power; all the more if she could take it when solid leadership was most required. And on another channel, all the Republic forces were ordered to ignore orders from the new Task Force and its occupants.
There was a war to fight, and Hiram Drayson would be damned to see it lost on the politcal ideals of one power-hungry princess who's done nothing for the Republic in more than a year.
As it was with most New Republic Vessels of any importance, a Secret Service Officer was placed on board, just in case. Their identity kept secret.
Neo had taken the time to change into her normal attire, a dark designed cloak, and had donned her weapon of choice, a blue light saber. She had also, of course, placed her other weapons about her.
She was, after all, called the Jedi Assassin for a reason.
She had received a highly restricted and encrypted message from the Director of the New Republic Secret Service. A high level emissary would soon be coming aboard and the Special Agent would need to come to be at her disposal in a military fashion.
So it came to be swiftly upon receiving the message. Neo had not only replaced her garb but had removed from a safe place her credentials proving she was, indeed, a special agent of the New Republic Secret Service.
Her wait was short and she was, somewhat, surprised to learn that the emissary was Leia Organa Solo herself.
Neo bowed deeply.
"Chief of State Organa Solo, a pleasure."
She stood full once more.
"I am Neo Sarinalo, Special Agent of the Secret Service. I am, of course, at your disposal."
