Chapter 101

Renn smiled slightly as he walked down the ramp of his ship and onto the deck of the Bastion 1 space station.

He had been forced to delay his departure from Geonosis after he discovered that Anakin had lost his hand in the fighting.

His friend had ended up spotting an escaping count Dooku and along with his master Obi-wan had rushed to try and capture the separatist leader.

Only for the count, who was formerly one of the strongest jedi in the order, to cut down both jedi, leaving them both wounded as he made his escape.

Renn had reunited with his friend on board a republic medical ship and after making sure he was okay, he had proceeded to chastise the jedi for running off without back up and getting himself hurt.

Renn had also been surprised to learn that Anakin and Padme had not only confessed their feelings for each other but had already agreed to get married.

Anakin had been granted some medical leave, from the army that he was suddenly a senior officer in, to recover from the prosthetic hand he had just been fitted with and had been given permission to escort Padme back to Naboo during that time.

And the two were planning to use that time to hold a secret marriage ceremony on naboo. They wanted to keep the marriage hidden because of the problems it would cause Anakin in the jedi order if it was made public but had still invited Renn and the others to attend.

Padme had wanted Opal to be there as she was her best friend and Anakin had similar feelings about Renn being there but was a bit more awkward in expressing them.

Opal had been excited about attending the wedding and Renn had promised to try and attend too but first he had to return to bastion 1 to help prepare his people for the coming galactic civil war.

He'd messaged ahead and he could see his head of engineering, the verpine Zix, waving at him from across the hangar bay.

Zix's kaminoan assistant Teah was stood by his side, her daughter Nia holding on to the hem of her dress while bouncing up and down in excitement.

Unlike every other kaminoan Nia had been born with green eyes, which according to kaminoan law meant she would be put to death.

But she and her mother had been saved by Renn and his friends and were now living happily on the massive bastion 1 space station with Zix.

Over the years as Nia had grown up, she had begun to see Renn almost as a big brother and as soon as she saw him across the hangar bay, she ignored her mothers protest and raced away to meet him.

Renn smiled as he saw the kaminoan child running towards him. Kaminoan's grew to maturity much quicker than most other galactic species, and so despite only being four years old she was already over three feet tall.

Nia reached Renn but yelped in surprise when she saw a stranger coming down the ramp behind him.

Renn turned to see Seela walking down the ships ramp while leading her sister Dia by the hand. Dia was looking around the hangar with amazement until she saw a tall worried looking four-year-old staring at her while trying to hide behind Renn's legs.

"Err, Hi there!" Dia said tiling her head to the side and looking at the green eyed kaminoan girl who flinched away and hid behind Renn.

Nia hadn't really spent much time around children her own age, and with every member of her species except her mother intent and killing her she was a bit uncomfortable about meeting new people.

So, when Dia launched herself at the girl with the speed of a malfunctioning pod racer and began rapid firing questions while jumping up and down Nia didn't really know how to react.

"Oh, wow I've never seen anyone like you before. Where are you from? Oooh, what's your name? I'm Dia by the way. What's your favourite food? Do you like droids? You should meet my droid, he's soooo cool.

Do you live here? It's so shiny, who cleans it? There's like no sand anywhere, not like my home. You don't talk much do you? That's cool. What's your favourite colour?" Dia said excitedly and Nia clung to Renn's shirt and looked at Dia like she was the strangest person she had ever met.

"You know, when she talks at a million miles per hour like that, she seems more likely to be Opal's little sister than yours." Shae muttered as she walked over to stand beside Seela.

"Ha, funny." Seela said tonelessly before walking over to restrain Dia, "Calm down, you're scaring the poor girl," She chastised her sister while picking her up by the collar of her shirt.

"WHAT?!" Dia shouted dramatically then looked back at Nia in panic, "Oh no, I'm sorry. I just got excited. I've never had a friend before apart from Mr. Wires, so I might have said too much.

Err am I still talking too much aren't I? Anyway, I'm Dia let's be best friends." Dia held her hand out towards Nia and grinned expectantly.

Nia took a few tentative steps out from behind the cover of Renn and looked at Dia slightly nervously.

"…Friends?" Nia said shyly as she fidgeted uncertainly with her hands and a split-second later Dia managed to slip out of Seela's hold and tackled her.

"Yay! Best friends! That's a verbal agreement, no take backs," Dia said while hugging a confused and terrified Nia and bouncing up and down with excitement.

Renn watched the entire event with an amused grin on his face and couldn't help but wonder how chaotic the two girls' friendship was going to be when they grew up, and how much damage they would probably cause the galaxy.

But that was a problem for the future, for now he had to try and prepare his people for the war that was already raging across the galaxy.

"Lord Dredd," The insect like voice of Renn's head of research and development sounded from behind him and Renn turned to see Zix and Nia's mother Teah stood behind him.

"Hey Zix, good to see you Teah, you might want to rescue your daughter from Seela's hyperactive sister." Renn said and Teah smiled at him before walking over to stand next to Seela and Shae in watching Dia and Nia.

"Are the others ready Zix?" Renn asked after Teah had stepped away and the verpine engineer nodded.

"The only one's missing are from the war room are you, lady Vizsla and captain Cecelin, but she should arrive shortly after you." Zix informed him and Renn nodded.

"Alright then let's go."

-

The New Aruum Commonwealth was still a fairly new galactic power and while it was slowly growing and expanding it had yet to centralise its power base.

Most of its economic power had moved to the capital that was being built on the world of New Aruum and its current citizens were so diverse that apart from swearing fealty to house Dredd, they didn't yet have any common culture.

But while the commonwealth was expanding and growing its military headquarters had remained the place where it had started, the bastion 1 space station.

The system bastion 1 had been built in was a nexus of multiple hyperspace lanes near the edge of known space, and all the planets colonised by the commonwealth were further along those lanes that led deeper into unexplored space.

This meant that anyone wanting to travel to New Aruum, New Kalee, or any of the other commonwealth worlds would have to travel through the Terror system, where Bastion 1 was located turning it into a natural intergalactic choke point that any invading fleet would have to overcome.

Renn had named the system after the flagship of Darth Kress's fleet that had made the system it's final resting place, mainly because of Neo the A.I. with Darth Kress's memories insistence.

But he had to admit the name was kind of appropriate. On its own Bastion 1 could probably destroy multiple of the new republic venators with ease.

And if you added all its defence platforms, star fighter squadrons, mass driver batteries mounted on asteroids, the defence fleet lurking in the system, not to mention the massive newly finished dreadnought that Sapphire and Neo had been working on, it truly was a terror to behold.

Which was why the meeting Renn had organised to discuss house Dredd and the new Aruum Commonwealth's reaction to the galactic civil war was being held on the space station rather than the capital planet.

The War room as it had been named, was a secure conference room located deep within the armoured core of Bastion 1, and apart from a few holoprojectors and boards around the room's exterior was fairly sparsely decorated.

A single circular table dominated the centre of the spartan room and seated around it were Renn and the other important members of the commonwealth's leadership.

Seated to Renn's left was the ever-fidgeting Zix, who looked like he would much prefer to be back in his workshop and tinkering away at new inventions.

Next to Zix was Xat Pill, a twilek man that Renn had freed from slavery shortly after the battle of Naboo and who had then become the leader, at least publicly, of Renn's trade guild Dredd industries.

Over the years Pill had proven himself to be both competent and trustworthy and he was now the economic minister for the New Aruum Commonwealth, overseeing all trade and growth within the commonwealth.

Renn looked at the group next to Pill and smiled slightly despite the seriousness of the meeting.

Three armoured Mandalorians sat next to each other with their helmets placed on the table in front of them, and all three seemed to be competing for who could frown the best.

Jango Fett, the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy and mandalore, the mightiest and most powerful Mandalorian warrior, sat in the centre of the trio.

Spar, his clone and leader of the mercenary group the Mandalorian protectors, and Shae Vizsla, exiled relative of the current leader of Death Watch, Jango's protégée, and one of Renn's three girlfriends, flanked him on either side.

Seated next to the Mandalorians was the leader of the swords of Kalee, Gex Tessh. The huge Kaleesh warrior looked just as grim as his Mandalorian allies, but Renn could tell he was trying to hide his excitement at the prospect of a good fight.

Jango and Gex made up two of the three generals currently leading the commonwealth's army, although their forces were masquerading as mercenary groups at the moment.

The commonwealths third general and leader of its droid army was seated next to Gex and Renn smiled as he looked over at one of his oldest companions.

Alpha looked as menacing as usual as he reclined in his chair and waited patiently for the meeting to start.

Next to the generals sat the current highest-ranking member of the New Aruum Commonwealths navy.

The Navy didn't yet have any admirals, as it was still being commanded by Neo Sapphires A.I. little sister, but Captain Cecelin was the closest to being one.

As the captain of the massive dreadnought, the revenant, that gave her a level of authority over the rest of the feet.

The final person sat around the table wasn't technically part of the New Aruum commonwealth, but she was very keen on helping it grow and expand.

The former Jedi council member Yaddle was still in the process of forming her new order, of which she was still the only member, but Renn suspected she would soon be expanding it.

Yaddle had seated herself to Renn's right and was coincidently, strategically as far away from Jango as she could get.

Jango had warmed up to the small green woman thanks to her helping to heal his sister Arla, but his hatred of the jedi ran deep and so Yaddle tried her best to give him space out of respect for that.

"Okay, Saph, Neo, could you two give us an overview of what we know of both the separatists and the republic?" Renn asked and the two A.I.s avatars blinked into existence above the table and began projecting analyses of political motivations and military strengths for the two powers.

The war council listened intently to the A.I.s presentation, chiming in occasionally with questions or requests for clarification but otherwise stayed silent.

A silence fell after the A.I.s finished, until Renn broke it by clearing his throat.

"Okay, so I know that most of us around this table have no love for the republic and these separatists don't seem much better, but this war is going to set the entire galaxy on fire, and I believe that this is an opportunity for us.

As it stands, we are weak, vulnerable, and while not many can make it past this space station to assault further into our territory most of the large factions in the galaxy could destroy what we are trying to build without much fuss.

But we have an opportunity. An opportunity to become so powerful that no-one will ever be able to even think about threatening us." Renn said and looked across the table seeing determination in the eyes of the other people assembled.

"Gex, Spar, the two of you and your men will take mercenary contracts for either side in the conflict to build up resources and a reputation.

We aren't aligned with either side and so don't worry about how much damage you do to the republic or the Separatists but try to avoid harming innocents. And that includes the clones, they haven't had much choice in participating in this war and most of us have quite close ties with them.

Jango and some of his Mandalorian friends are working on a plan to 'liberate' the republic's new army from the republic, but until we are able to fight toe to toe with the republic that is academic.

Captain Cecelin, you are now promoted to the rank of commodore. You will assemble your own squadron and patrol the edges of our sphere of influence. And if you see any pirates or isolated trade federation transports feel free to do a spot of privateering.

We cannot forget however that we are not the only ones under threat in these turbulent times and so we need to try to support the innocents that will be hurt or displaced by this war.

Yaddle will be helping us to do that and as her order has yet to become as established as the jedi, Pill I want you to use as much of Dredd industries resources to assist her.

Not only is helping to protect those who cannot protect themselves the right thing to do, if some of those people should decide to join us our strength will increase with them.

Any Questions?" Renn asked and the others just grinned and shook their heads.

The galaxy was at war, and things were about to get a lot more interesting.