Iulius didn't need much time to understand what his advantages were: the terrain in front of the castle's access was deprived of trees and any cover that the Yavzakhs could use during the assault.
"We must not allow them to breach the perimeter." he said to Cody. "Have you sealed the main gate?"
"As much as we could. We installed a heavy turret there, should keep them at bay." the clone replied.
"Good. We should have at best ten minutes before they get upon us, send the engineers to mine the passage." the Admiral ordered and Cody didn't waste a second giving the orders.
Three stormtroopers quickly headed out of the barricade with their bags and quickly planted a total of 20 land mines in front of the old gate that the Yavzakhs would need to cross, then reentered inside the walls.
While the Imperials and the Carunoans fighters finished to deploy on the walls, Iulius received a call from the Captain of one of the Gozanti transports.
"Admiral, this is Transport 71241, we're starting our approach on your position. ETA, 10 minutes."
"Acknowledged, 71241." Iulius replied. He then turned to look into the courtyard and noticed that there were around 200 non-combatants among the Carunoans. He thus concluded that the extraction was going to take around 20 minutes.
Around two minutes later, the growls of the Yavzakhs became louder and louder, until a wave of infantry started to pour our from the woods and into the plain.
"Don't shoot, wait until they're closer." the Admiral ordered. He had already asked Burk to tell his men to wait until the stormtroopers opened fire, so they would hopefully waste less ammo, which was even more important in the case of the Carunoans and their weapons.
The Hybrids and Steel-Heads kept getting closer.
"Focus fire on their group leaders." Iulius instructed his men through the comlink.
From there it didn't take long for the aliens to be in range, as they were the first to shoot toward the walls.
"Fire!" Iulius ordered with a restrained tone.
Red blaster bolts and lead started to rain down on the Yavzakhs. The Steel-heads were targeted first, and since they all received a large amount of bullets in the span of a few seconds, they quickly fell.
This left only the Hybrids standing. They still seemed to use some basic tactics, because half of them returned fire while the other half advanced, alternating the roles as they tried to reach the wall. But the fire of the Humans was way more precise, the blasters pretty much ignored the aliens' light armors and they had high ground and cover. It didn't take long for them to decimate the attackers, who fled back toward the woods.
Some of the Carunoans taunted the enemies briefly, before Burk alerted them that it wasn't over.
"Cody, have the rockets brought up here, I think we're going to need them." Iulius instructed and Cody relayed the order.
The rocket troopers reached the walls and pointed their launchers toward the direction of the attackers.
As Iulius predicted, the Yavzakhs now deployed heavy artillery: three of their walkers, that were armed with mortars and plasma machine guns, supported by another wave of infantry.
While the men on the walls opened fire again, with the rocket troopers able to destroy the first walker, Iulius called the Admonitor.
"Tanis to Admonitor, how's it going for our fighters?"
"Admiral, we're gaining the upper hand. The enemy fighters are less maneuverable and do not have shields. We'll soon have total control of the sky." Bolo answered with an inch of enthusiasm in his tone.
"I need a bombing run on the enemy. Transmitting coordinates." Iulius added as he used the range finder to send the signal.
"Sending the bombers." Bolo replied a few seconds later.
That said, Iulius went back to shoot, gunning down two more Hybrids himself. The walkers did some damage, especially their mortars. A couple grenades hit the top of the wall and wounded two stormtroopers and a Carunoan that were promptly evacuated in the courtyard by a group of women that acted as nurses for the medical officer of the stormtroopers.
Finally, after a minute, the bombers called Iulius.
"Admiral, this is BP-942, we're starting our attack run from vector 4." the leader of the squadron said.
Iulius quickly turned in that direction, which was on his right, and quickly spotted the first bomber. There were five of them and were coming in one at a time, ready to release their payload of proton bombs on the aliens' heads.
The first bomber managed to destroy one of the walkers and hit a platoon of Yavzakhs. The second one destroyed the last of the machines and caused other losses. Eventually, the bombing run proved to be extremely destructive for the aliens.
Now it looked like their hive mind had completely rejected any cautious approach, or perhaps they simply went mad, and the surviving Hybrids kept charging forward, only to be met by the precise fire of the Humans and the fire of the heavy turret at the entrance.
Needless to say, they were completely annihilated.
In the distance, Iulius saw the TIE Fighters shooting down the last Yavzakh aircraft and finally putting an end to the battle, for the moment.
And it was at the perfect moment, because the transports also started to land, opening their ramps so they would allow everybody to get on board without the ships needing to touch the terrain.
"Have first the doctor with the vaccines get on board." Iulius ordered on the radio. "Then the women and children."
"Yes, Admiral." the captain of the transport replied.
"Tanis to Admonitor, any sign of enemy activity?"
"Negative, sir. Looks like you killed them all, but they might try to bring in reinforcements from other regions." Bolo answered.
"Copy that, recall the fighters and keep the scanners on." he ordered to the ship before turning toward Cody. "Commander, have our wounded loaded with the civilians. We'll leave only when everybody is on board."
"Admiral, if I may..." Cody said with a bit of hesitation.
"Speak up." Iulius simply said.
"What are we going to do with all these civilians? We don't exactly have the resources to keep them in the base."
"They're bringing their own food." Iulius explained. "But that's not the point. I think these people might serve the Empire in the future, especially the fighters."
Cody gave a fleeing glimpse at the armed Carunoans, before turning again toward the Admiral.
"I mean, they know how to use their weapons, sure, but what would they have more than our soldiers?" he asked skeptically.
"Theoretically, they should be stronger and faster than an average Human. We couldn't verify that in this instance, but I will test them, before telling the Emperor what I have in mind." Iulius explained.
Cody simply tilted his head. "You're the boss."
"That's right, now keep your eyes peeled, Commander." the Admiral concluded.
Luckily, the Yavzakhs didn't try to attack again. They probably understood that these new Humans were far more dangerous to them and it wasn't worth losing hundreds of troops for killing just a small number of them.
In the span of ten minutes, all the civilians were loaded onto the transports, and then the fighting forces. Iulius was the last one to leave the field of battle before the Gozanti closed the ramps and lifted toward the skies, turned around and headed for Titan Base.
---------------------------
July 1
The return to Yavin of the Jedi and their crew was very well-received by the rebels at the base.
While they appreciated the show of support, the siblings also reminded everybody that they were just doing their part in this fight and encouraged everyone to resume operations.
Ezra eagerly took up the new load of responsibilities that being a General brought with it. Particularly, he focused on training the infantry of the various cells around the Outer Rim that had converged on Yavin. To distinguish these troops from the Army, they were called the 'Militia', because they lacked a formal training.
Soon enough, though, the first units of the Army Rangers were smuggled into Yavin, including Rhino Squad, and so the training for the Militia could now start in earnest.
Jaral resumed her daily life of planning, reading reports, making sure where the scattered rebel cells were at every moment so she could plan the guerrilla campaign that aimed at keeping the Empire stretched thin while the Joint Fleet was building up for the new offensive toward Felucia.
She also made sure that Hera was grounded and always around the command room. The Twi'lek was visibly annoyed that she wasn't allowed to fly as much as she would have liked, but the Grand Marshall was irremovable that her future god-son had to take priority over Hera's contribution on the frontline.
Today, though, it was a critical day. Today, the major cells of the Rebel Alliance were meeting to decide whether the Rebellion should forge a military assistance pact with the Imperial Federation or simply accept a tactical and strategic cooperation without any other obligations.
The siblings were already in the conference room, with Jaral sitting on one of the chairs and Ezra standing at her side, kinda like a bodyguard. With them there were already Mon Mothma and some of the Rebellion's more active Generals: Dodonna, Draven and Garm Bel Iblis.
The sun of Yavin had already set when the first delegations started to arrive. Among them there was also the Mon Calamari delegation, now led by a proper diplomat of the restored government. It seemed like the Regency Council was still choosing a new King, since Lee-Char had no potential heirs, thus forcing them to search among the cousins and other relatives of the dead King.
However, there was a big absent: Saw Gerrera.
Ever since their mission on that transport months before, the relations between Jaral and Saw had been steadily deteriorating, which also reflected how much Saw was growing discontent with the Rebellion. Saw and his Partisans had increased the intensity and frequency of their attacks, but their attacks completely disregarded the safety of the civilians, most of the time communities of the Outer Rim that were oppressed by the Empire and that the Rebellion had promised to liberate in the first place.
When the invitations for the summit had been sent, Saw had answered without ambiguity: if the Rebel Alliance was going to make a pact with an extra-galactic faction that, in his opinion, was going to supplant the Empire, he and his followers would have broken all ties with the larger fight and kept going on their own way.
The siblings knew very well that this was just a pretext: they had received news that, while they were campaigning on Lothal, Saw had suffered a major injury that had taken away his legs and half a lung. The old rebel had to walk around with bionic legs and an oxygen mask to use from time to time, but his bodily condition only exacerbated his already unstable mental state. Saw was becoming increasingly paranoid and saw enemies everywhere, which had led him to already take some distance from the Alliance.
All-in-all, the siblings had concluded that this was only going to be beneficial for the Alliance: having Saw's extremist out of the organization meant that now the Rebellion could restore its image as the 'good guys', even though that wasn't entirely true. Out there, there were still spies, saboteurs and other agents doing dirty jobs to make sure the Rebellion could live on and defend it from the Imperial net.
As all the major delegations finally arrived, the ambassadors gathered around the round table and turned their gazes toward Mon Mothma, the elected leader of the Alliance.
"Councilors. Friends." she started. "You already know why you've been summoned here. The Alliance is at a crossroads, and we all need to take a decision. The war against the Empire is going to be difficult, and even if we will stand victorious at the end, the galaxy will be in shambles. With this said, we must decide whether we want to seek closer ties with our extra-galactic allies in the Milky Way. So what I'm asking you is: should we sign a formal treaty of military and political cooperation with the Imperial Federation?"
Contrasting opinions started to buzz in the room.
"I don't think there is much to debate." the Mon Cala ambassador said with a more imposing tone. "Right now, we can't possibly hold our liberated territories if not for the support of the Federation. Increasing our level of cooperation will be beneficial even for the postwar."
"That's exactly what I'm worried about!" a woman with a golden dress and hood replied. "What assures us that we won't become all dependent on the Federation in the future?"
"We're not fighting to trade an Empire with another." another Councilor added.
"How can you even make such comparison?" someone else said. "The Federation has already lost thousands of men to help us. I believe granting them full cooperation is the least we can do to return the favor."
Then it was Bail Organa who spoke up. "I agree. The Federation could have simply ignored our plight and focus on defending their borders, instead they traveled all the way here, they traveled so far from their homes to help us in our fight. If that is not a testament to their goodwill, then I don't know what is."
The bickering went on for a few minutes, until one of the Councilors said something that seemed to attract the attention of everybody.
"Why don't we ask the Jedi what they think?" he said eagerly.
So far, Jaral and Ezra had stayed quiet. They were simply soldiers, with a very short knowledge about politics, though they did expect that someone might have asked their opinions: after all, them being Jedi was held in high esteem by everybody. There were some rebels coming from planets where the Jedi, in the past, were considered almost divine, and even if most of them was not so extreme, everybody still put some faith in them because of their connection to the Force.
The siblings gave a quick look to each other, then Jaral was the first to speak.
"Gentlemen, I understand you are concerned about the fate of your peoples. After all, that's the reason we're fighting in the first place. However, if we are to build a peaceful future, we must have the goodwill of trusting those who are risking everything to help us."
After a very brief break, it was Ezra who went on.
"The Federation could have easily closed the wormhole. Trust us, their Guardians could have easily done it. They could shut themselves in their own galaxy and forget about the chance of our problems becoming their own. Yet, when we asked for help, they answered by giving us their resources."
A positive murmuring followed among the assembly.
"So you think that we should sign this treaty?" Mothma said plainly.
"We believe that we have much to offer to them, as much as they have to offer our galaxy." Ezra replied, leaving the word to Jaral.
"They have many technological innovations that will be precious to rebuild our galaxy after this conflict and establish a New Republic that will be able to act as a beacon of peace. The Federation wants to make sure that something like the Empire will never rise again, because it would be a threat to them, as well."
"To answer you bluntly, Madam Senator, my sister and I believe that having the Federation as a friend and ally will be of great help once we win this war. So, yes, we support the idea of signing a treaty."
"But this is the Alliance's politics." Jaral intervened. "Me and my brother are in charge of the military operations, so we will leave the final vote to you."
"Thank you, Bridgers." Mothma said kindly, then turned toward the assembly. "Unless anyone wants to express other doubts, I suggest we put it to the votes."
Nobody replied.
"Very well. Then let's proceed by hands raised. Who's in favor?"
Pretty much everybody eventually raised a hand. Only a handful of representatives didn't, but they didn't raise their hands neither when Mothma called for the opposing votes. For now, they decided to abstain and see where this was heading.
"Very well, then I shall depart for Mon Calamari as soon as possible." the leader of the Rebellion concluded.
She said that, because the Federation had established a diplomatic office on Mon Cala, since the planet had officially become the first system under the administrative control of the Rebellion. Right now, it was the nearest thing the Alliance had to a planetary capital, since they had to keep Yavin IV as hidden as possible.
"Ezra will accompany you, Madam. The Silver Bullet and its crew will be able to bring you there unnoticed." Jaral said as the assembly started to dissolve.
"Thank you, Grand Marshall, I'll go get ready." Mothma concluded. Ezra had already left since he and Jaral had decided all of this through their bond.
Jaral nodded to the Senator and then headed out of the room herself, toward the strategic command.
---------------------------
July 8
When Hopler saw a bunch of civilians being unloaded into the Base, he almost had a heart attack. That was the only thought that made Iulius smirk, because everything else about that man was putting his patience really at the test.
The Colonel threw a tantrum about how this was completely against Imperial protocol. That the refugees couldn't be allowed inside of the base. They could settle right outside the walls for protection, sure, but this was too much, and, for the last week, he never stopped complaining at the slightest hindrance (to him, at least).
Still, Iulius managed to ignore him and go on with his plan. First of all, he did have a few prefabs put outside of the main gate and the refugees settled there, but aside from that, the Admiral had decided that he would have turned those people into productive auxiliaries for the expedition.
Right off the bat, he had Burk select the smartest people of the community so they could start taking lessons of Galactic Basic from the protocol droid, which at this point had memorized 90% of the main language of the Carunoans, called 'Imirgesh'.
Aside from that, the others were quickly offered a job as janitors, cooks and other manual labor that could be taken off the soldiers' shoulders, even paying them a little. The Carunoans were nothing less than grateful than this and took up the jobs with enthusiasm, quickly gaining the sympathy of the imperial troopers.
Hopler even complained about this, because he believed that the soldiers shouldn't have fraternized with the civilians, even threatening to submit a complain directly to the Emperor. Iulius simply ignored him and instead focused on organizing joint drills between the Carunoan fighters and the Imperial ones.
It didn't take long for him to notice that, indeed, the Carunoans had many physical advantages given to them by the serum of doctor Kimovir.
Speaking of Kimovir, the old scientist was among the first to master the Basic, so he could quickly explain to Iulius and the imperial scientists many things he discovered about the Yavzakhs. According to him, the virus appeared around 20 years before, in remote areas of Carunoia, where the first infected humans were mutated and slowly created the first conversion centers. They built up an army and launched their offensive against the nations of the planet no more than 12 years before, and even the greater powers fell in a matter of weeks.
However, before the complete fall, Kimovir worked for the most powerful country of the planet and he was also the creator of a project that aimed at infecting Human subjects only partially with the virus to give them enhanced abilities. Burk and other of the combatants were the result of that project.
"And what about their fleet? Why there were only three ships in orbit, when we arrived?" Iulius asked when the doctor was finished explaining this part to the General Staff and the scientists.
"That would be the problem, Admiral." Kimovir said with a thick accent, despite being able to talk fluently. "They disappeared at most two weeks before your arrival on the planet. I have no idea where they went."
A doubt, however, entered Iulius' mind and he hummed with a frown that looked downward.
"What's on your mind?" Qathora asked.
"The Emperor sent us here because he sensed a threat. What if they're preparing an invasion of the galaxy?" he asked, and everybody looked with curiosity.
A cyborg of the ISB spoke up. "That would explain why we detected only a few millions Yavzakhs on the surface of this planet. According to Doctor Kimovir, there should have been billions of converted Humans."
"Ok, but if they're doing it, we already saw that they're not a threat to our forces." Bolo reassured.
"Not all the worlds bordering this region are heavily protected, Commander." Iulius replied. "If the Yavzakhs attack one of them, not only would they find more victims to convert into their troops, but they might get a hold on our technology and reverse-engineer this."
The realization hit the officers quite hard.
"Admiral," the cyborg said. "should I inform Imperial Command of this development?"
"At once, 943."
While the cyborg put a hand on his implant, sending an encrypted message, Iulius turned toward one of his officers.
"Captain Sylgon, have the probes that we sent into the patterns of the Yavzakhs' star charts returned?"
"Half of them, sir. However, they only discovered two systems with no habitable worlds or space stations." the officer replied.
"Understood. Then we must focus our efforts on liberating this planet, first." the Admiral said.
Hopler, however, had other ideas. "That is not the mission assigned to us." he opposed.
The officers stepped aside, letting Iulius and Hopler stare at each other. Then the Admiral started to pace slowly toward the Colonel, keeping his hands behind his back and talking with a cold tone and stare.
"Oh, do remind me what our mission is, Colonel."
Hopler huffed sarcastically. "Our job is to investigate the threat that the Emperor detected. Conquering the planet is not part of our directives and it would be overstepping."
Iulius sighed and slowly shook his head. "Colonel, have you even read the last directives?" he replied, making Hopler raising an eyebrow in suspicion.
"Have you forgotten that the Emperor has ordered me to 'deal with this threat' however I deem necessary?"
Hopler made a step back and decided to shut up, so Iulius could turn around again and explain his plan.
"If the Yavzakhs are connected to a Hive Mind, there must be an entity on this planet that keeps them in contact with their masters. Commander Bolo, work with Doctor Kimovir and draw up a complete guide on everything he knows about the Yavzakhs."
Bolo snapped at attention. "Yes, sir." he replied with a salute before walk outside of the room with Kimovir following him.
"There ought to be other communities of survivors around the planet. We must find them and contact them." Iulius went on with the other officers. "Establish an open radio frequency and see if you can find a Carunoan who always wanted to be a broadcaster."
As the officers scrambled to their posts, Iulius noticed that Qathora had a finger on her earpiece.
"I'll tell him." and turned toward her master. "Admiral, the Emperor demands your presence in the comm room."
Iulius was a bit surprised at how coincidental that call was, but he didn't argue. He nodded to the Togruta and quickly walked out of the command station and toward the holo-projector's room. He entered, had the guards outside lock the door and went in front of the projector, kneeling down.
Soon after, the hologram of Palpatine appeared in front of him.
"How can I serve you, My Lord?" Iulius said with reverence.
"Admiral, I was notified that you sent an alert message to Imperial Command. Tell me what this is about."
Iulius briefly explained the situation, how he took in Kimovir and the refugees and how he planned to get the planet rid of the Yavzakhs and, if possible, to find out where their fleet was amassing and destroy it.
Palpatine hummed in thought.
"It seems to me that you have a special interest for the natives." he then said.
"That is true, Your Majesty."
"Why is that?" his liege asked with curiosity.
"It's about the 'Dark Trooper Project'. I think the enhanced Carunoans might be valid candidates."
"Your project for creating super-soldiers?"
Since he captured the INS Athens and recovered the corpses of a few Legionnaires, Iulius had forwarded the idea of creating imperial super-soldiers, perhaps by creating a less advanced version of the Legionnaires' armors, but a regular Human couldn't handle them.
"Yes. If we can get Kimovir to replicate the version of the virus and we even develop it, we might be able to create a new generation of super-soldiers, able to wield the power-armors and finally give the Empire a tool to counter the Legionnaires."
That was the entire point of the project. The Bridgers were already very dangerous, even if one didn't factor in the fact they were Jedi. Now, the Federation had brought a great number of Legionnaires, and a single one of them was more than capable of taking on an entire imperial battalion on land battles. The Empire needed a similar kind of soldier, and fast.
"Furthermore," Iulius kept going. "this planet is not on the conventional galaxy maps. If we purge it of the Yavzakhs and save the locals, not only would we get a loyal pool of candidates for the project, we could also develop other weapons in secret, here."
Palpatine hummed in acquiescence.
"Yes...yes." the Emperor said with a grin. "It is a solid plan, Admiral Tanis. I'll tell you, if you manage to conquer the planet, I'll make you its Governor."
Iulius barred his eyes and looked to the face of his Emperor with a bit of confusion.
Then he shook his head. "I...I'm humbled, My Emperor, but I'm just a soldier..."
"The locals will see you as their liberator, Admiral. It is only logical to have you act as my representative among them."
Iulius could not object to that. Sometimes, he already had the impression that the Carunoans treated him with excessive cordiality.
"I understand, My Emperor. I will not fail you."
"Good. However, I also understand that you have difficulties to find the alien fleet."
"Unfortunately, My Lord. Without prior knowledge of the sector, we have to move with caution. Pardon my boldness, but wouldn't it be possible to request the assistance of Agent Jade?"
"Oh, I'll send you assistance, Admiral, but since you'll have to fight a battle, I'll send you my right arm."
Iulius realized. "You are sending Lord Vader?"
"Yes, Admiral. His knowledge of the Force should be enough to allow you to find your enemies and destroy them quickly."
"I see. I'll prepare for his arrival." Iulius concluded with a bow of his head.
The hologram disappeared and the light returned in the room.