DOGS OF WAR
There was something in the water. A shift in the currents. A change in the tide. Tukphen wished it was an unfamiliar feeling, but it was anything but. He had felt it when the Republic and the Confederacy had brought their war to Mon Cala. He had felt it when Vader and his Inquisitors had punished Dac and her sovereign for the actions of a rebel few. He had felt it when King Lee-Char had with his dying words compelled the Mon Calamari into uprising, and into the role they had taken within the Alliance to Restore the Republic. He had felt it at the Liberation of Bothawui, as their Rebellion slowly began to evolve into a viable beacon of liberty; and again with the Starkillers, the Treaty, and the Alliance of Free Planets. Sometimes the change in the tides tasted sweet, and warm. Sometimes it was cold and bitter. Others, the flavour was more complicated, squirming in your gut like over-ripe shellfish. That latter kind was what Tukphen tasted now, stronger and more vile than ever.
They all knew why they were here: Admirals and Generals, Senators and Ministers, gathered together to have the talk, the conversation that would end with the question: are we ready? The Defense Committee had already been briefed on the tragedy that had befallen the Imperial world of Terminus, and the terrifying prospect that the saurian monsters the Novgorod and her unlikely Imperial allies had once driven from the Gordian Reach had returned, and this time in greater numbers. It was a nightmare scenario come true for the select few that had been made aware of that classified encounter two years ago, and the knowledge that the nightmare had struck at the Empire this time rather than the Free Planets offered only the faintest modicum of solace.
At least the surroundings were familiar, both in location and atmosphere. Though the auditorium where they had gathered here on Bothawui - some via hologram and others in person - had been constructed for more noble purposes, the general shape and the way that the officers and other participants clustered into small pockets of familiarity and conversation while they awaited the last arrivals reminded him of the old days, of the briefings before Endor and Bothawui. Back then, the Galactic Civil War had scattered the Rebellion in all directions, and these meetings and briefings were often rare and precious moments of being in the same room again as those you respected and fought beside. Certainly, Tukphen's own responsibilities to Supply, both for the Rebellion and the Free Planets, isolated him from many of those old familiar heroes. Guilty as he felt for it, Tukphen allowed himself this one small comfort. That was something you learned during war - to make the most of every small positive you could find - and, if the tides were turning the way it seemed, it was a lesson that they would all need to revisit in the days to come.
The Minister's eyes settled on one of those old familiar heroes, a face more familiar than most. Tukphen strode over without hesitation, careful to moderate his tone and expression to convey his pleasure while at the same time respecting the grim cloud that hung above them all.
"Reshmar, old friend," he uttered warmly, as he drew close. "It is good to see you again, despite the circumstances."
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