A distant future..
The rather tall figure, dressed in royal green walked about the area followed by 20 -30 young children, some Caprician…some not yet all seemingly protected by the shadow of the figure.
The area was flat and grassy, the winds cutting ravines across the plains digging in as the solstice drew closer.
A time of renewal was at hand.
A time of remembrance.
The Jubilee approached.
The celebration of individuality, the celebration of unity and of the brave sacrifices those of old made to protect what the present cherishes.
Not that the present really understands now…
"Teacher.. I am hungry. When are we going to eat?" said young Caprician boy.
"Always tinking wit your stomach, Tysssseeeeoo." Another girl, with a missing tooth complained.
"Children.." came the warning voice of the Teacher. It seemed, no matter the passage of time, no matter the rise and fall of kingdoms, empires, light and shadow… one thing remained constant…even throughout species.
And that was children.
"We are here." He said and the little group stopped, as kids started to move off in every direction.
Some went off to play in the tall grass. Some boys caught creatures of varying sizes to scare the girls of the group. Some girls were chasing boys with the very same creatures.
And the Teacher, noting it all, smiled to himself.
A sad smile.
One remembering greater times of bygone eras.
He stood before the remains of what used to be an ancient technological …
what was the term? Ahh, yes.. Construction Yard.
Every child remembered the tales, remembered the individual stories of valor, sacrifice, and desperation.
The tale of the Invader's Second Coming.
Even now, centuries past, the story of the Second Invasion remained fresh on the minds of the people.
The Teacher let the children roam off, his perceptions aware of each child's movement and location…. And yet, his senses perceived something else as he walked toward the yard passing the crumbling remains of what was once walls.
His senses perceived something oddly familiar and yet distant.
Voices..
"Hold the line! Hold dammit!" came a rough voice from the past, explosions from plasma volleys striking everywhere.
"There's too many of them! Gather your men, swing around to the left! The Left!"
The snap-hiss of an ancient weapon and the hum of it's swing.
"Leia! Look out!"
The musky stench that filled the air as dead littered the ground.
Dirt, duracrete, steel and flesh broke apart on the massive battlefield as Capricians and their allies attempted to hold the creatures at bay.
"They are breaking through!!!"
"Leantre's been hit! The Regent is hit!!"
"We are lost." Came a whisper over the pounding of guns. A sudden twinge of humor crept into the voice of the one spoken too. "It's not over till it's over." The man's eyes looking behind the one despairing. "The entire west is shattering. Let's go reinforce them, now!"
"Bring the payloads down on us!"
"But sir, you'll be hit!"
"Soldier, do your duty and drop them!!!"
"Bombs away!"
*
The Teacher closed his eyes as the sun overhead suddenly flashed nearly as bright as the explosion the bombs wrought so long ago.
*
The heat of the battle had flared the Leveller to intensities unimagined as the tiny creatures sowing their destruction upon the flesh of soldiers and civilians alike felt the nearness of their Yuuzhan Vong creators.
But stubbornly hold the Capricians did, even under affliction and pain too intense to bear.
Rise they did to the occasion.
"Here they come again!"
"Do these @#%$ ever stop!"
"The first line has fallen!"
"Why? Why are they doing this?"
"They are passing the second line!"
*
The Teacher stopped at a shiny disc with a look of metal lying upon the ground, letters etched into its surface and a never-ending fire burning through the letters.
Though the symbol (as it is) is not used anymore, (a different incarnation taking its place as is the custom with all things that experience advancement and growth) the meaning of the disc remained unmistakable.
Vinda Corporation.
Who would have thought that one so dedicated to the acquisition of personal wealth and power would ever take a stand..especially one as precarious as coming to the aid of the Capricians?
*
"All lines have fallen!"
"Fall back! Fall back!"
"Mathias? You're still alive?"
"Try not to act so surprised," a grunting reply came. "Damn, those Vinda people fight like devils possessed!"
A pause, "Think of recruiting some?"
"I couldn't pay them what Vinda does. That plan of his split the enemy three ways but we didn't have the strength to capitalize on it."
"It's not us. It's those damned aliens. Where the hell are their masses coming from?"
"Oh hell, LEIA! Pull back!"
An AT-AT went down crushing both friend and foe.
"Rally to the Yard! All forces, RALLY TO THE YARD!!!"
The alien chanting became more fervent as they could smell victory within their grasp. Their voices drowned by the blood, sweat and tears that overlaid the battlefield of the dead.
*
"Rally." The Teacher whispered as his eyes fell upon the gaping holes throughout the structure.
The Last Bastion of Capricia.
Jak'Tol
"Teacher, What happened here?" intruded the little voice of Tyscio.
"I know! I know!" another little boy rushed up. "A big war! And then Tyscio Korban and his mistress Leia were married!"
"They were not!" a girl said, rather indignant. "Tyscio died here and she married Mr. Vinda."
"Mr. Vinda ate their babies!"
"He stopped that though because he was part Jedi! So he only ate their legs!"
"Liar!"
"Am not!"
"Then why are there still Vinda's in the galaxy
with legs? I saw a commercial on…"
"You aren't supposed to watch the holochannels without mom and dad!"
"Well, who's gonna tell? You?"
"Maybe they're artificial."
"Maybe your brain is!"
"Teacher!?"
Giving a large mental sigh, the Teacher sat down on a nearby rock that had, at one time, served as part of a duracrete wall. Sensing a story coming on, as if with telepathy, the children seemed to pop up from the oddest places to gather and sit around the regal man dressed in royal green.
"The story of this battle started a long long time ago…. For you see, if it wasn't for what I am about to tell you, the invaders would not have come back."
Of course they may have won the first invasion but perhaps not..
He held out his wrist to reveal a metallic symbol (as if embedded into his skin).
"Cool." Several children whispered.
"This is the symbol of the Commonwealth Union of Worlds. We called it, "The Union" and it existed many many many years ago ….almost before the beginning of recorded history.
"Before the Empire?"
"Yes, even many millennia before the Republic." The Teacher's eyes seemed to glaze over as his voice took on a distant quality. "Even before the force."
"The Jedi say that the force has always been here."
The Teacher felt a scowl coming on. "The force has been around even before the Jedi were a twinkling in their parent's eye. The force is older than those damned "Darth" names. It is older than the Ancient Sith Empire. It is older than when the Sith from Korriban crawled out of the primordial soup to formulate a coherent thought to excrete wastes!"
The children giggled.
"What is the force channeled by? What do you need a high level of to be considered 'force sensitive'?"
"Midichlorians!" the children answered in unison.
"And every living thing in this galaxy contains midichlorian. But there was a time when not one was found in us. A long, long time ago."
The Teacher shifted in his seated position, "You see, children, how much of our brain do we use?"
"Our biology teacher said less than 10%." A girl in the back answered.
"Correct. In all our lives, with all our knowledge and experience, it seems that all creatures in this galaxy do not use their brain's fullest potential."
"What do you think you would be able to do if you could?" The Teacher's eyes sparkled at the possibilities. "Advanced telekinesis, telepathy perhaps? Enhanced memory and motor functions?" the Teacher's voice trailed off leaving the children's imagination to fill in the rest.
"It would be as if you had force powers
without the force."
"You see, the galaxy at one time had this ability and the capacity," the Teacher tapped his head, "and there was no knowledge of the force. This was the galaxy of the Commonwealth Union of Worlds."
He smiled. "But this Union was not full of superbeings. The ability to use larger portions of your mind takes great effort, skill, and work. The best of the best were trained to be the Guardians of the Union and for a great many millennia, peace ruled.
The Capital world of Brindheir, the throne world, ruled the Union under the Clannus Prime. Under Brindheir, the galaxy was divided into four parts, each holding a "Cornerstone World": Coruscantes (before the caves of steel), Elroodia, Brayden, and Capricia. Brayden was destroyed long ago. Coruscantes is now known as Coruscant and Elroodia is known as Elrood (which housed a great Jedi Temple at one time).
Now the growth of the Union took many many years with their own wars, battles, envoys, and agreements until civilization reached it's pinnacle and all transcended beyond the desires of self.
During the last millennia of the Union's power, it was discovered that the full use of their minds was waining and scientists were at a loss to explain why. The Guardian's abilities began to slack and while things appeared as normal on the outside, behind the scenes panic was setting in because.. without full use of our brains, ability, memory, skills are dimished and culture begins to die.
The Union's culture was dying.
And at long last, they discovered the reason why. For you see, children, there were others in the Union who suddenly showed remarkable abilities (even abilities never seen before by any) that were not attributed to the proper genetic functioning of their brain..
In fact, it was found out that these people who showed so much ability used only less than 10% of their brains."
"Like us!" a boy exclaimed.
"Yes, like us. Those people had midichlorians in them and a frantic study of the entire Union uncovered a vast spreading of midichlorians into all living things. They embedded themselves into the cells of living tissue and during cell replication, they too grew fruitful and multiplied.
No one knows where exactly these midichlorians, called Nephys by the Union, came from. In fact, no one knows how they spread so quickly though it was theorized that perhaps they might have entered our life cycles as many as two thousand years prior.
What alerted the Union to these midichlorians was not their existence in cells but the effects their existence brought about in sentient living organisms.
People started cropping up more powerful than the Guardians. A Union General named Bane became obsessed with the power of the Nephys and attempted to seize power for himself by conquering the Union.
We don't know who led as master in Bane's case, the Nephys or Bane himself. That lack of knowledge led to suspicion of everyone who became "infected" with the midichlorians. But what no one realized was that the symbiotic midichlorians intended to enmesh themselves in all life and, by the last millennium, they had succeeded.
So everyone soon became suspicious of each other and the Union died."
"But," asked a girl confused, "What does that have to do with the invaders?"
"The Union is gone and forgotten though small remembrances continue to live here and there. The architecture of Coruscant, on it's lower levels, closely resembles that of Capricia because it was Caprician Artisans that first worked with the early inhabitants of that world. You still see the imagery and symbols of the old Union still used as Noble and Minor House banners on Capricia, though the actual meaning behind them is forgotten.
But most importantly, everyone alive still retains the ability, or the potential (rather) to use their minds to the fullest. It is just blocked by the presence of midichlorians. Why this is, I do not know. But those who held onto their ability the longest after being exposed to midichlorians told of great pain from one side or the other as one gained dominance. The inherent genetic ability refused to surrender to the midichlorians as they were becoming a part of life itself. As time passes, however, the inherent genetic abilities of old are forgotten and the Nephys, the force, becomes dominant while we remain content allowing it to guide our lives.
For the most part, the force is benign. But, according to the Jedi theology, there are light and dark sides to this force."
Then his teacher smiled, "But, in a few instances, when besieged by great despair, great anger, great love, great emotions, the force's hold weakens and our true genetic abilities are awakened.
It was during the First Invasion, when hope had fled that these abilities were awakened and the invaders drew back in fear."
"Why?" asked little Tyscio.
"Because, my boy, in all the galaxy, who's power is feared and respected?"
"The force!"
"And the force did not work on these cursed invaders. But the awakened abilities in some of the Capricians did because it was not from the Nephys that they drew their power."
"My daddy said the invaders came back to kill us all."
"And they nearly did, my girl. They nearly did finish off every last one of us. Their fear drove them to do unimaginable things that will not be uttered now or never. But once that relic, that ability had manifested itself in Capricia's darkest hour during the First Invasion, these invaders were not going to simply forget it.
For according to their beliefs, they would eventually reign supreme and victorious over all living things. This was their truth..their doctrine and a most devastating 'truth' it was to them. In the face of that lay only our will."
"Belief over Decision.
Doctrine verses Will."
The Teacher pivoted on his rock and pointed to the ruins of the old Construction Yard.
"This was where the last battle was fought.
This was where the Conquest of Capricia was decided."
The Teacher's eyes shifted to the faces of his audience.
"Never in all history has so little been measured by so much. That a single planet.. that a single united people fought tenaciously to the end."
"Did they win?"
The Teacher's eyes grew soft at the question and glanced at the landscape, different and yet familiar at the same time.
*
"We are lost, Tyscio! Mathematics of war say it! Our fallen shout it! The enemy knows it!"
"What do you want me to do Hespante?! Just lay down and die?" came an irritated response as the young man threw down his empty weapon and rearmed another.
"There is still time, my Lord. Leave Capricia to it's fate. You've been through too much, have seen too much to fall to this.. this ..barbarian horde!
"Hespante, the Union is gone. Nothing will bring it back. Hiding from that fact has not taken away the loss…"
The Caprician grabbed the taller retainer and turned him around. "Live or die, Hespante, our fortunes are changed with action!
So act!"
The Caprician swung a blaster over his shoulder and gave the ancient royal retainer a boyish grin before disappearing through a gaping hole in the structure….out into the fighting.."
"We are not indestructible, Tyscio." The retainer had whispered after the man and then he too gave one last final sigh and followed his Lord into the battle..
…ready also to test his mettle against the fortunes of fate and the ripples of chance."
*
The blowing wind struck the Teacher's face as it triggered a memory.
*
An injured, battered Tyscio Korban, a bleeding Jedi Master Leia Organa Solo her iron fists still clenching her glowing saber, a dirty and grimy Seth Vinda, his corporate seal still reflecting the fading sun as their hopes lie like dying embers upon the smoldering ash of total ruination.
Even after hours of fighting, borne along by uncommon courage and a stubborn refusal to simply die, they prepared themselves for one last stand.
A stand that would be made on their feet as the both the people of Capricia and Bonadan readied themselves to meet the alien charge head-on.
Two opposing forces charging each other with unrestrained emotion.
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction but this time the Capricians hoped to hedge all their bets and with all their might summon a reaction greater than the onslaught brought to their world..
One last time!
The banners of the Regent swung forward and the massive guns began to blast at the invaders lines as, at the same time, in both the human tongue as well as alien, the same command was given.
"CHARGE!"
*
The Teacher looked at the child who had asked the question and replied, "Yes and no, son. Yes and no."
"Tell us what happened."
And the Teacher reached back into his mind and began to remember that day….
