JEDI HoloNet

We raise a solemn toast, our Borelan brandy swirling in our glasses before we drank. I’d been attached to the aptly named “Snowpiercers” when they hit landfall on the icy dunes of Alzoc III. The fight had been an uphill battle in the most literal sense. The Wyld forces dug into the icy cliffs on the approach to the old Praxium that was now their headquarters. Regiments of walkers tore through squadrons on the flanks while the heavy canons of our treaded tanks behind us made the snow shake so hard beneath our boots that it caused some of it to give from time to time. The crimson bolts leaving holes in the durasteel of the walkers so large you could stand upright in them.

When the transmission came through and the Wyld put down their arms, their general having been captured, the fight leaving their spirits, in many ways was when the real work began.

I’ve been witness to the liberation of Skynara, I’ve interviewed survivors on Ryloth, but nowhere have I seen worse living conditions for civilians under Wyld occupation than here on Alzoc. The labor camps that people were imprisoned in are chilling and defy rational thought. They illicit images from four hundred years ago of the brutal Imperial regime on Kessel of Kashyyyk. Beings of all species worked to death in the glaciers under the snow on Alzoc, mining down for precious minerals to further fuel the Wyld’s war machine.

As we take our silent shots in memory of our fallen friends, the holonews headlines scroll passed on a screen not far off. Talks of the “Coalition of Free Planets” meeting on Svivren to discuss formalizing the intersystem alliance in a “League of Sovereign Systems.” The soldiers I’m drinking with murmur their opinions. I ask Sergeant Il’tak, a twi’lek who had helped the insurgency on Ryloth, their opinion.

“I speak for my whole squad, and for the people I left back home, when I say that this whole conflict happened for two reasons: One, all of us Outer Rim people didn’t look out for each other… and Two, we believed that the Republic would do something to protect us. The Republic has shown that they only care when their worlds are threatened… So what does that mean? It means us Outer Rim folks need to look out for one another, cuz no one else in the galaxy is gonna.”

As the war moves into the later years, new questions come up. What does this region of space look after the war? Can the Empire be dissolved? Or are they strong enough to hold out to legitimize themselves as a perpetual government? Sergeant Il’tak has an opinion on that too,

“If it takes another year, or another ten years, the soldiers of this Coalition will not put down our arms until this tarnish on our solar systems [The Wyld Empire] is wiped clean.”

Let’s hope it’s sooner than later,

Reporting from the front lines, I’m Andee Nevaro