Ylesia, Wednesday Fandom time
Getting onto Ylesia had been enough of a challenge, with surprise Vong coralskippers going after the landing party and forcing Twin Suns into more combat aided by Jag Fel's Chiss squadron, but the New Republic (or the GFFA, whatever they were calling it these days) ended up taking out an entire Vong frigate, and as starts to a battle went, that was pretty good. The Brigaders' fleet surrendered, leaving Kyp and Saba's squadrons to come help, which in turn left Twin Suns free to take out the spaceport and cover the landing party as planned. It was nice when things worked out.
Jaina only took Lowbacca down with her to the planet, leaving Twin Suns to aid in the sky where needed under Tesar's command. She hopped out of her X-wing and removed her helmet, stepping around Lowie's ship just in time to see a familiar face try to look away quickly like he hadn't seen her.
"Hi, Cousin Thrackan," Jaina called, taking on a downright cheerful tone. "However did you know we've been looking for you?" She walked over to where he was being held, tilting her head as she studied him. "You know, I think you look younger without the beard."
If the commander of the landing force, General Jamiro, hadn't arrived about then, Jaina really thought she could taunt Thrackan all day. "You say this is the Peace Brigade President?" he asked, making sure they had the right person.
"That's Thrackan, all right," she said, and looked over his female companion. "I don't know who this is. His girlfriend, maybe."
Thrackan tried to get some sympathy from the general, pointing at Jaina and saying, "You know, there's a family vendetta going on here. She's got it in for me over something that happened years ago." He'd held her prisoner when she was nine years old. He was lucky she was just mocking him.
"So you aren't the Peace Brigade President?" Jamiro asked, clearly not caring about family vendettas.
"I didn't volunteer for the job!" Thrackan protested. "I was kidnapped! The Vong were getting even with me for killing so many of them at Fondor!"
Jaina listened to Lowie's growls, and translated, "He says, 'They got revenge by making you President? If you killed more of them, they'd make you emperor?'" Of course not, that would only happen if Luke had conned him into the position and then the government fell apart somehow. Silly Wookiee.
"They're diabolical," Thrackan said. "It's a very elaborate piece of revenge!"
Jaina ignored him and turned to the commander. "General," she said, "I'd put Thrackan on the first landspeeder into town. He can guide us to our objectives." She turned to her cousin and winked. "You'll want to help us, right? Since you're not Peace Brigade, after all."
"I'm a citizen of Corellia!" Thrackan insisted. "I demand protection from my government!"
"Actually, you're not a citizen anymore. When the Centerpoint Party heard you'd, defected., they expelled, you and sentenced you in absentia and confiscated, your property and-"
"But I didn't defect! I-"
"Right," General Jamiro interrupted. "On the first landspeeder he goes." He looked at Thrackan's companion. "What do we do with the woman?"
Jaina looked at the dark-haired woman, really looked at her, and a moment after suddenly moving, had the woman's wrist pinned and had taken away the blaster she'd been hiding on her. "I'd put stun cuffs on her," Jaina answered, handing the weapon to the general.
"How did you know she was armed?" Jamiro wondered.
She looked at the woman as she decided her answer to that, and finally shrugged. "Because she was standing like a woman who had a blaster on her."
*****
The first ambush took place on the outskirts of the city center, Peace Brigade soldiers firing from atop flat-roofed buildings on the landspeeders below. Blaster bolts and shoulder-fired rockets sparked off the landspeeders' shields, and the soldiers aboard returned fire from their heavy vehicle-mounted weapons.
Jaina, crouched low in the speeder they were using as transport, looked at her cousin, who was crouched likewise. "Want to order them to surrender, President?"
"Oh shut up." Taunting him never got not fun.
Jaina ignited her lightsaber and sprinted to the nearest building, a two-story block of offices, Lowbacca on her heels.
She figured they'd count on her busting down a door, so instead she sliced open the viewport window and climbed through that. While there was no one inside, she did the spot the mine set up as a trap for anyone unlucky enough to go through the door. It took a button push to disarm it, and cut the wire from it to the door as an added precaution.
With that done, she followed Lowie up the stairs to the roof, though she was hardly needed by the time she got there. He was deflecting bolts with his lightsaber, and the Peace Brigaders, for some reason terrified of the sight of a Jedi Wookiee capable of removing a limb in several new and interesting ways, dropped their weapons and headed for the scaffolding hanging off part of the building. A couple of them just tried to leap off the scaffolding, figuring that was easier. There were a few of the soldiers still hanging on, and with a glance, Jaina and Lowie shared the same thought. They used their lightsabers to hack away at the connectors on the scaffolding, then worked to simply shove it over. When they hit the ground- albeit, unpleasantly- Jamiro's troops were ready to round them up.
Jaina and Lowie kept the fight to the roofs for now. Working wordlessly in sync, the two made it to the next rooftop with Force-assisted leaps to take out the enemy still firing below, and after that, there didn't seem to be much sense in going back down. From there they were able to scout out the situation from above, taking down anyone still on the roofs, doing their absolute best to capture, not kill.
By the time they got back to the ground, Jaina had a Force-aided surveillance report to give the general. "There are defenders in the Senate building, sir," she told him with a salute. "A couple hundred, I think."
"I have enough firepower to blow the Palace of Peace down around them," Jamiro said, "but I'd rather not. You might see if you can get your cousin to talk them into surrendering."
That would go well. "I'll do that, sir."
"The general's got a job for you, Cousin Thrackan," she announced when she got back to the lead airspeeder, Thrackan still holed up inside.
"I'll give diplomacy my best shot," he said wryly, "but I don't think Shimrra's going to give Coruscant back."
"Ha ha," Jaina said, hopping into the speeder.
The troops made their way to the Senate building, stopping a good two hundred feet away amid plenty of unfinished landscaping and building work. At Jaina's cue, Thrackan stood and picked up a proffered microphone, to ensure he would be heard inside the building. "This is President Sal-Solo. Hostilities have ceased. Put down your weapons and leave the building with your hands in plain sight."
For a long moment, nothing happened. It was a long enough moment that Thrackan turned to Jaina and asked, "What did you expect?"
He spoke too soon, as there was a commotion coming from inside the building, and the soldiers around Jaina tensed in preparation. "Repeat the message!" she ordered Thrackan.
He shrugged, but did it anyway. Before he was half-finished, the doors burst open, Peace Brigade soldiers clad in vonduun crab armor suits holding their hands up in surrender. The leader, a Duros, saluted Thrackan. "Sorry that took so long, sir. There were some Yuuzhan Vong in there who thought we should fight."
"Right," Thrackan said, and ordered the warriors into the hands of the landing force. He turned to Jaina, his look dour. "My loyal bodyguard," he explained. "You see why I decided to head out on my own."
"Why are they dressed in fake armor?" Jaina wondered.
"The real armor kept biting them."
"We need you to lead us to the bunker where your Senators are hiding," Jaina said, ignoring that. "And to the secret exit they'll use for their escape."
Thrackan sighed. "If there was an escape hatch from that bunker, do you think I'd be here?"
The bunker was protected by a thick vault door that took too long in Jaina's estimation to cut through. They'd hit a few bumps in the road with this mission, nothing major, but she didn't like how the delays were piling up. With permission from General Jamiro, she was prepared to be the first one inside the vault, knowing exactly how this would go. And by the looks of it, so did Lowie, which was one of the reasons she loved working with him.
When the vault door was finally unsealed, Jaina flipped herself into the bunker, timing it exactly right so that any weapons fire from inside would let Lowie in right behind her. From there it was a quick succession of movements from both herself and Lowbacca, deflecting blaster bolts and knocking out anyone who got close enough to be a serious threat. Some of the deflected bolts ricocheted off the inside of the bunker, sometimes on purpose, to disable the people inside, but Jaina wouldn't cry over it. The way she figured, if they were trying to kill her, they could stand to take a hit to a nonessential body part without making her feel bad.
When it had gone mostly silent, New Republic soldiers filed in with blasters drawn, and Jaina held her lightsaber out, calling for surrender.
"On the contrary," someone said. "In the name of the New Republic, I call on you to surrender."
Jaina looked in surprise at the tall, cloaked figure that rose from a huddled group of Brigaders, at the arrow-shaped head and writhing face-tentacles of the Quarren who had spoken. Of course she knew him, but that didn't mean she would have expected it. 'Senator Pwoe?"
"Chief of State Pwoe," he said. "Head of the New Republic. I am present on Ylesia in order to negotiate a treaty of friendship and mutual aid with the Ylesian Republic. I call upon New Republic forces to cease these acts of aggression against a friendly allied regime."
Jaina actually laughed.
When Coruscant fell, Borsk Fey'lya had been killed, leaving the New Republic without a leader. While it had floundered and the Alliance took its first roots at Borleais, Senator Pwoe had decided that all one had to do to become a leader was to step up and say he was one. He declared himself the Chief of State and began acting the role, despite the fact that he overstepped his boundaries too soon and the election had brought Cal Omas to power. Technically speaking, they weren't even the New Republic anymore. Oh, government.
"This peace treaty is vital to the interests of the New Republic," Pwoe continued, unfazed by her reaction. "This typical Jedi violence is on the verge of spoiling everything."
"I'm very sorry to disturb any important treaties," Jaina grinned. "Perhaps you would care to step outside and speak to General Jamiro?"
"That will not be necessary. I call upon the general and the rest of you to leave Ylesia at once."
An Ishi Tib, lying at Jaina's feet, began twitching, and Jaina stepped on her hand to prevent her from reaching whatever weapon she'd been reaching for. "I think you should speak to the general," she insisted, and ordered the soldiers to escort the Senator to the appropriate person amid his insistence that they couldn't do this to their Chief of State.
From there it was escorting those in the bunker out of said bunker, which was easy enough, leaving Jaina and Lowie alone in the room with a very sudden realization through the Jedi meld that things were about to go really badly here.
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. All dialogue is from Ylesia by Walter Jon Williams. It's early, guys. Where's my coffee?]
Jaina only took Lowbacca down with her to the planet, leaving Twin Suns to aid in the sky where needed under Tesar's command. She hopped out of her X-wing and removed her helmet, stepping around Lowie's ship just in time to see a familiar face try to look away quickly like he hadn't seen her.
"Hi, Cousin Thrackan," Jaina called, taking on a downright cheerful tone. "However did you know we've been looking for you?" She walked over to where he was being held, tilting her head as she studied him. "You know, I think you look younger without the beard."
If the commander of the landing force, General Jamiro, hadn't arrived about then, Jaina really thought she could taunt Thrackan all day. "You say this is the Peace Brigade President?" he asked, making sure they had the right person.
"That's Thrackan, all right," she said, and looked over his female companion. "I don't know who this is. His girlfriend, maybe."
Thrackan tried to get some sympathy from the general, pointing at Jaina and saying, "You know, there's a family vendetta going on here. She's got it in for me over something that happened years ago." He'd held her prisoner when she was nine years old. He was lucky she was just mocking him.
"So you aren't the Peace Brigade President?" Jamiro asked, clearly not caring about family vendettas.
"I didn't volunteer for the job!" Thrackan protested. "I was kidnapped! The Vong were getting even with me for killing so many of them at Fondor!"
Jaina listened to Lowie's growls, and translated, "He says, 'They got revenge by making you President? If you killed more of them, they'd make you emperor?'" Of course not, that would only happen if Luke had conned him into the position and then the government fell apart somehow. Silly Wookiee.
"They're diabolical," Thrackan said. "It's a very elaborate piece of revenge!"
Jaina ignored him and turned to the commander. "General," she said, "I'd put Thrackan on the first landspeeder into town. He can guide us to our objectives." She turned to her cousin and winked. "You'll want to help us, right? Since you're not Peace Brigade, after all."
"I'm a citizen of Corellia!" Thrackan insisted. "I demand protection from my government!"
"Actually, you're not a citizen anymore. When the Centerpoint Party heard you'd, defected., they expelled, you and sentenced you in absentia and confiscated, your property and-"
"But I didn't defect! I-"
"Right," General Jamiro interrupted. "On the first landspeeder he goes." He looked at Thrackan's companion. "What do we do with the woman?"
Jaina looked at the dark-haired woman, really looked at her, and a moment after suddenly moving, had the woman's wrist pinned and had taken away the blaster she'd been hiding on her. "I'd put stun cuffs on her," Jaina answered, handing the weapon to the general.
"How did you know she was armed?" Jamiro wondered.
She looked at the woman as she decided her answer to that, and finally shrugged. "Because she was standing like a woman who had a blaster on her."
*****
The first ambush took place on the outskirts of the city center, Peace Brigade soldiers firing from atop flat-roofed buildings on the landspeeders below. Blaster bolts and shoulder-fired rockets sparked off the landspeeders' shields, and the soldiers aboard returned fire from their heavy vehicle-mounted weapons.
Jaina, crouched low in the speeder they were using as transport, looked at her cousin, who was crouched likewise. "Want to order them to surrender, President?"
"Oh shut up." Taunting him never got not fun.
Jaina ignited her lightsaber and sprinted to the nearest building, a two-story block of offices, Lowbacca on her heels.
She figured they'd count on her busting down a door, so instead she sliced open the viewport window and climbed through that. While there was no one inside, she did the spot the mine set up as a trap for anyone unlucky enough to go through the door. It took a button push to disarm it, and cut the wire from it to the door as an added precaution.
With that done, she followed Lowie up the stairs to the roof, though she was hardly needed by the time she got there. He was deflecting bolts with his lightsaber, and the Peace Brigaders, for some reason terrified of the sight of a Jedi Wookiee capable of removing a limb in several new and interesting ways, dropped their weapons and headed for the scaffolding hanging off part of the building. A couple of them just tried to leap off the scaffolding, figuring that was easier. There were a few of the soldiers still hanging on, and with a glance, Jaina and Lowie shared the same thought. They used their lightsabers to hack away at the connectors on the scaffolding, then worked to simply shove it over. When they hit the ground- albeit, unpleasantly- Jamiro's troops were ready to round them up.
Jaina and Lowie kept the fight to the roofs for now. Working wordlessly in sync, the two made it to the next rooftop with Force-assisted leaps to take out the enemy still firing below, and after that, there didn't seem to be much sense in going back down. From there they were able to scout out the situation from above, taking down anyone still on the roofs, doing their absolute best to capture, not kill.
By the time they got back to the ground, Jaina had a Force-aided surveillance report to give the general. "There are defenders in the Senate building, sir," she told him with a salute. "A couple hundred, I think."
"I have enough firepower to blow the Palace of Peace down around them," Jamiro said, "but I'd rather not. You might see if you can get your cousin to talk them into surrendering."
That would go well. "I'll do that, sir."
"The general's got a job for you, Cousin Thrackan," she announced when she got back to the lead airspeeder, Thrackan still holed up inside.
"I'll give diplomacy my best shot," he said wryly, "but I don't think Shimrra's going to give Coruscant back."
"Ha ha," Jaina said, hopping into the speeder.
The troops made their way to the Senate building, stopping a good two hundred feet away amid plenty of unfinished landscaping and building work. At Jaina's cue, Thrackan stood and picked up a proffered microphone, to ensure he would be heard inside the building. "This is President Sal-Solo. Hostilities have ceased. Put down your weapons and leave the building with your hands in plain sight."
For a long moment, nothing happened. It was a long enough moment that Thrackan turned to Jaina and asked, "What did you expect?"
He spoke too soon, as there was a commotion coming from inside the building, and the soldiers around Jaina tensed in preparation. "Repeat the message!" she ordered Thrackan.
He shrugged, but did it anyway. Before he was half-finished, the doors burst open, Peace Brigade soldiers clad in vonduun crab armor suits holding their hands up in surrender. The leader, a Duros, saluted Thrackan. "Sorry that took so long, sir. There were some Yuuzhan Vong in there who thought we should fight."
"Right," Thrackan said, and ordered the warriors into the hands of the landing force. He turned to Jaina, his look dour. "My loyal bodyguard," he explained. "You see why I decided to head out on my own."
"Why are they dressed in fake armor?" Jaina wondered.
"The real armor kept biting them."
"We need you to lead us to the bunker where your Senators are hiding," Jaina said, ignoring that. "And to the secret exit they'll use for their escape."
Thrackan sighed. "If there was an escape hatch from that bunker, do you think I'd be here?"
The bunker was protected by a thick vault door that took too long in Jaina's estimation to cut through. They'd hit a few bumps in the road with this mission, nothing major, but she didn't like how the delays were piling up. With permission from General Jamiro, she was prepared to be the first one inside the vault, knowing exactly how this would go. And by the looks of it, so did Lowie, which was one of the reasons she loved working with him.
When the vault door was finally unsealed, Jaina flipped herself into the bunker, timing it exactly right so that any weapons fire from inside would let Lowie in right behind her. From there it was a quick succession of movements from both herself and Lowbacca, deflecting blaster bolts and knocking out anyone who got close enough to be a serious threat. Some of the deflected bolts ricocheted off the inside of the bunker, sometimes on purpose, to disable the people inside, but Jaina wouldn't cry over it. The way she figured, if they were trying to kill her, they could stand to take a hit to a nonessential body part without making her feel bad.
When it had gone mostly silent, New Republic soldiers filed in with blasters drawn, and Jaina held her lightsaber out, calling for surrender.
"On the contrary," someone said. "In the name of the New Republic, I call on you to surrender."
Jaina looked in surprise at the tall, cloaked figure that rose from a huddled group of Brigaders, at the arrow-shaped head and writhing face-tentacles of the Quarren who had spoken. Of course she knew him, but that didn't mean she would have expected it. 'Senator Pwoe?"
"Chief of State Pwoe," he said. "Head of the New Republic. I am present on Ylesia in order to negotiate a treaty of friendship and mutual aid with the Ylesian Republic. I call upon New Republic forces to cease these acts of aggression against a friendly allied regime."
Jaina actually laughed.
When Coruscant fell, Borsk Fey'lya had been killed, leaving the New Republic without a leader. While it had floundered and the Alliance took its first roots at Borleais, Senator Pwoe had decided that all one had to do to become a leader was to step up and say he was one. He declared himself the Chief of State and began acting the role, despite the fact that he overstepped his boundaries too soon and the election had brought Cal Omas to power. Technically speaking, they weren't even the New Republic anymore. Oh, government.
"This peace treaty is vital to the interests of the New Republic," Pwoe continued, unfazed by her reaction. "This typical Jedi violence is on the verge of spoiling everything."
"I'm very sorry to disturb any important treaties," Jaina grinned. "Perhaps you would care to step outside and speak to General Jamiro?"
"That will not be necessary. I call upon the general and the rest of you to leave Ylesia at once."
An Ishi Tib, lying at Jaina's feet, began twitching, and Jaina stepped on her hand to prevent her from reaching whatever weapon she'd been reaching for. "I think you should speak to the general," she insisted, and ordered the soldiers to escort the Senator to the appropriate person amid his insistence that they couldn't do this to their Chief of State.
From there it was escorting those in the bunker out of said bunker, which was easy enough, leaving Jaina and Lowie alone in the room with a very sudden realization through the Jedi meld that things were about to go really badly here.
[NFB, NFI, OOC okay. All dialogue is from Ylesia by Walter Jon Williams. It's early, guys. Where's my coffee?]