Lorshan Pass.
Perhaps even the Jedi Temple. but the Jedi Temple wouldn't ever smell like this.
Would it?
'Master Windu?' He remembered the voice, and it brought him back to the command bunker.
'Is it over?' Geptun called tentatively from the transceiver chamber. He sounded very old, and more than a little lost. 'Can I come out now?' Mace looked down at Kar Vastor, and the spreading pool of blood in which he lay. He looked at the scattered corpses of clone troopers and militia techs. He looked at Nick Rostu, crumpled against the wall.
'Master Windu?' Geptun's head appeared slowly over the rim of the hole in the floor. 'Did we win?' Mace looked at the sad, shrunken form of Depa Billaba, and thought about his victory conditions.
'I seem to be,' Mace Windu said slowly, 'the last one standing.' It was the only answer he had.
AFTERWORD THE JEDI' S WAR FROM THE PRIVATE JOURNALS OF MACE WlNDU: I still dream of Geonosis.
But my dreams are different, now.
A Republic task force arrived to take possession of Haruun Kal and the Al'har system within forty-eight standard hours of my arrest of Kar Vaster; it seems they had already been dispatched to answer a distress call from the acting commander of the Halieck.
Their landing was unopposed.
The Republic will not occupy Haruun Kal; acting under my authority as General of the Grand Army of the Republic, I redesignated the Korunnal Highland. It is no longer enemy territory, and Haruun Kal is no longer officially a war zone. On my recommendation, the Senate has declared the combat operations on Haruun Kal to be a police action.
Because I have decided to treat the Summertime War as a law enforcement problem.
Which it would have always been, had the financial interests behind the thyssel bark trade not been able to buy off certain Senators and Judicial sector coordinators.
We are in the process of disarming the jungle prospectors and the remaining bands of Korunnai guerrillas. It's going surprisingly well; the jups are terrified of Republic soldiers, and the Korunnai bands are mostly exhausted and sick. As they come to understand that they will not be mistreated, many simply surrender altogether. All charges of atrocities are being investigated. If those responsible can be identified, they will be tried, and they will be punished.
The planetary militia remains, though at greatly reduced strength. The militia regulars will now become what they should always have been.
Keepers of the peace. Not soldiers.
Many of them have volunteered to be inducted into the Republic Army.
Including, unexpectedly, Colonel Geptun.
He has not been charged with any crime. The vast bulk of the atrocities committed against the Korunnai were done by jungle prospectors, not the militia. Even his threat of a massacre at the Lorshan Pass turns out to have been a bluff. He never ordered any such thing; in fact, the militia's written rules of engagement specifically prohibit the targeting of civilians.
Not only have I recommended he be accepted into the Grand Army of the Republic, I have already written out his transfer to Republic Intelligence.
We will need him.
Nick-I should say, Major Rostu-continues to convalesce in a medical center here on Coruscant. I do not know if I can keep my promise of a job teaching unconventional warfare, but I have no doubt we can find something for him. I have submitted a recommendation to the Senate that his brevet rank be confirmed.
And that he be awarded the Medal of Valor for conspicuous gallantry under fire, and actions above and beyond the call of duty.
I have also assigned to Chalk a posthumous commission. Her real name, I have learned only now, was Liane Trevval, and that name will appear in the Senate record. I gave her the commission to render her eligible for the same medal.
I have no other way to express my respect for who she was.
Her great akk, Galthra, has vanished. If an akk's Force-bonded part ner dies, it is customary to put the beast down, for it is not uncommon for akks who have lost their person to go insane, and vicious.
Galthra went into the jungle. I can only hope she stays there.
Pelek Baw will be rebuilt. There is too much money in the thyssel trade for its epicenter to lie in ruins for long. The casualties- Are recorded elsewhere. It is a staggering number.
No one on Haruun Kal will ever forget that night.
Kar Vastor also continues to recover from his wounds. His hands were saved, and he is under detention here in the Jedi Temple, where his power cannot sway his jailers.
He will not be immediately tried for the murder of Terrel Nakay; that will only be filed against him in the event of his acquittal on his initial charge. For the trial of Kar Vastor, we have revived a category of crime under which no one has been prosecuted in four thousand years: since the days of the Sith Wars.
Kar Vastor has been charged with crimes against civilization.
And Depa- Depa will face the same charge.
Someday.
