JEDI HoloNet

Major news in the Back Reach today, as final results are in. After a series of local audits to confirm, it’s now official that a new populist, grassroots, party in the Back Reach, The Roilers, have swept a number of major elections. 

Most notably, the de-facto capital system of the Back Reach, Feena, has seen the Governorship of the planet, as well as 40 percent of the local legislature (the largest proportion of the coalition-style parliament on the planet) flip to their control. Every major system on the Ardan Cross Hyperlane including Chenowei, Pygorix, Kalishik, Arda, and B’trilla have seen major gains for the nationalist party. 

Newly elected governor of Feena, Vahn Goreing, a former ace pilot who served under the Wyld Empire*, had this to say at his inaugural speech:

Today marks the beginning of a new Era for our sector. I was born here on Feena. I have seen the Republic continue to forget about our brother and sister systems on the other side of The Roil. We’ve seen our Reachmen and Reachwomen fall into living in squalor. We’ve seen dysfunction in the Republic cause homeless rates to skyrocket while they fully fund expensive foreign conflicts to interfere with the destinies of those systems who choose not to bow to their rule. 

The Republic claims to be a “Democracy for all Sentients”, but time and again they quibble and bicker about what Coruscanti Oligarchs they will send their next trillion-credit budget bill to. All the while, systems continue to deal with disasters, equipment failures, and random acts of terror that go unanswered! We say no more!

To all of our siblings who live cowed under the yolk of oppression under the guise of a government ‘for the people’, we implore you: take your own destiny into your hands! Support Ralskun Direeb in your upcoming election for the Senate, and he will lead you to independence, to join those of us who have given ourselves the tools and weapons to forge our own destiny. We will reclaim the glory of the Reach’s two bygone empires. Come with us as we forge the “Third Great State” of the Reach!

Senatorial Incumbent Senator Kielbras Pol’cal gave this rebuttal later that day from the sector capital of Torque,

People of the Reach. I implore you, do not allow yourselves to be swayed by this ultranationalist propaganda. The Roilers, who are only just now a legitimate political organization, were only to achieve such a status by bullying, intimidating, and using strong-man politics on the worlds who are across the Nebula. The majority of our brothers and sisters in their independent systems do not support them! They have been silenced through coercion and suppression! 

You, now, have the choice to vote to continue to uphold the values that our ancestors bequeathed to us. To continue the legacy of Rebellion versus tyrants like people of the reach did centuries ago, to continue holding close the values of Skywalker and the reforged Jedi Order in this very sector! That Order who, to this day, continue to be the example we can follow. You, in this election, have the choice to maintain our course for a people’s government, governed by good judgment, reflection, and the rule of law… Listen not to those who want to take us so many steps back into oppression, xenophobia, and totalitarianism!

The race is heated, as polls show that both candidates Kielbras Pol’cal and Ralskun Direeb are neck-and-neck along species lines. Ralskun Direeb is far, far ahead in the polls of majority human populations on the agriworlds and factory-districts of Reach planets, while Senator Pol’cal is leading by a wide margin in mixed-species urban city-centers on trade planets such as Torque.

All eyes in the sector are on the polling booths which will open at 08:00 Torque time on 435.25. Given the rising wave of violence in systems on both sides of The Roil, the Jedi Order has volunteered its members as a neutral third party to oversee the elections and maintain a security presence, drawing ire from Roiler politicians. Senator Ralskun Direeb,

It is clear that, while ostensibly the Jedi Order is not in bed with the Republic, they have never made it a secret that they hold a deep sympathy and bias towards the Republic. Many of the Order’s own leadership team were soldiers in the Republic army, or commanded Republic soldiers in conflicts as recent as the Wyld Crisis! Anyone who truly believes that these ‘security details’ from the Order are anything more than goons who will intimidate the body politique of the Gordian Reach into maintaining the status quo are at best willfully ignorant or at worst in league with the cabal of oligarchs that play behind the scenes both in the halls of both Coruscant and Ossus.

 

Know this: Anything that happens on election day is certainly orchestrated by the entrenched powers whose self interest relies on the current galactic order of exploiting those who cannot rise to speak for themselves.

The Galactic News Network will be providing live coverage and updates on the turbulent senatorial election in the Gordian Reach on 435.25, so please tune in then.

* It should be noted that, along with all other military participants of the Wyld Conflict, those not directly associated with War Crimes were given full pardons at the end of the war so long as they agree to not participate in any hostilities towards the Republic, League of Sovereign Systems, or any of their allies.

Greetings Residents,

The Council of Rannon is pleased to announce two more students are beginning their journeys in learning to serve the Force and the beings of the Galaxy.

• Rhys Cardin
• Virea Leosha

We have high hopes for the pair. Mentors, guide them on their paths. Students, support them and offer advice when it is sought.

Kind regards,

– The Jedi Council

Companies such as Czerka Enterprises, Lerrimore Contracting Company, and Corellian Engineering Corporation – in cooperation with the Bank of Aargau, have granted 50 million credits to the University of Coruscant, Corellia University, and Mrlsst Trade and Science Academy. This unrestricted donation is meant to bolster creativity and ingenuity in the respective school’s engineering and science departments.

This contribution has been met with wide acclaim by the public.

One student from the University of Coruscant – Jaq Roznex (20 M), majoring in engineering, is thrilled.

This is insane! My class and I will be able to finish our robotic project without my professor coin pinching. Never thought companies like Czerka or Lerrimore cared like that.

We were able to catch up to Republic Senator Menzyx Kallian, a rising star in the Senate, leader of the Centrist party, and former executive for the Bank of Aargau, on the Senate floor – and he had this to say on the matter:

I am proud of the ceaseless work the Bank of Aargau has done to finance the Republic. And it is my firm belief that we are approaching a precipice. Every day I see more homeless people, more violence, and not on Tatooine where you would expect such a thing, but on planets that were once the models of dignity like Coruscant and even Aargau, my home. Why? The people of this great Republic, of all classes and races, have been crushed by the weight of its… imperialistic overreaching. More conflict in our Outer Rim territories? What a surprise! We must instead focus on investing in the next generation of top minds. Without their innovations, their… forward-thinking, it will be impossible to improve our infrastructure. It is imperative that we raise the quality of life and make smarter use of our resources, or this… fractured Republic will shatter.

Research done by the Associated Presses Voter Study Group shows that Senator Kallian has had a significant uptick in the quarterly Senatorial polls since this interview. Time will tell if this really is just the nudge the Republic needs.

Reporting contributed by the Associated Presses.

Jedi of the Order, please turn your attention to the following address from Grandmaster Coron Audax:

“Greetings fellow Jedi,

It has long been tradition for our Order to provide our newest students with training weapons to begin their journey on the path of learning to defend others with the Lightsaber. Traditions as old as the Order themselves often carry the risk of becoming mundane procedure. Upon deep reflection and consideration of the process, it has become clear that we have fallen into this trap.

Receiving, training in, and eventually constructing ones Lightsaber is a sacred ceremony of dedication to Jedi ideals. It is the High Council’s belief that current practices lessen the spirit of the sacrament. Jedi Artisans have lead missions to Ilum not as a personal journey, but as a perfunctory duty in collecting focusing crystals in order to mass produce these training weapons. This is costly in both time as well as credits. Mainly, however, it is a disrespect towards the tradition of the Gathering.

Henceforth, the High Council has decided that all new training weapons will be constructed in such a way that they possess a synthetic power crystal and focusing crystal chamber that stands ready to receive the crystal personally discovered by the student who wields the weapon, as the proper ceremony dictates.

This serves to reinforce the importance of a student’s journey and, following the successful completion of the ceremony, will outfit our students with a weapon fully capable to defend the Galaxy that they will be travelling into as Padawans.

High Artisans will be dispatched from Ossus to our Jedi branches, all over the Galaxy, to instruct our students in the importance and practicality of this new philosophy.

That is all and may the Force be with you all.

Grandmaster Coron Audax.”

Shown above: Jovan Station minutes before chaos broke out, killing 80 people and injuring over a hundred more.

Devastation today at Jovan Station, a deep space station and trade hub located at P6 subgrid C in the Gordian Reach. Abruptly, and for a second time in the last cycle, Industrial Automation’s line of DE units, ones that had been recalled, repaired, and vetted by Quality Assurance specialists before being reactivated; exploded and sent out EMP shockwaves that resulted in damage throughout the station. System failures and collateral damage from unit detonations caused 76 people to die during the events, as well as four others who succumbed to their wounds at a later time.

During the commotion, several storage bays opened and thousands of credits worth of goods were lost. Eyewitnesses spotted at least one freighter taking advantage of the chaos to recover several dozen crates that were adrift in space before departing and making a jump to Hyperspace. Due to the electromagnetic blasts that occurred throughout the station, flight control was unable to identify the transponder code of the freighter in question. The Republic is offering a 10,000 credit reward for anyone who has information that can help in identifying the thieves.

Industrial Automation’s spokesperson has not made any public or official comment yet. Anonymous sources from inside the business have reported that there’s mass chaos within the droid manufacturer as the leaders of the corporation hunt for people on the inside who may be conducting sabotage or other espionage inside the business.

Senatorial Candidate for the newly formed Independent Reach Party, Ralskun Direeb, had this to say on todays’ events:

It pains me to see my people, the noble and dignified people of the Gordian Reach, betrayed yet again by the incompetence of the Republic! Over the last several weeks all that my supporters, and future constituents, have been demanding is basic security and stability for their families! This is the problem with the bureaucracy of Democracy. These democratic elites on Coruscant care about nothing other than their re-election campaigns! When I’m elected to office, I will waste no time in using my voice to introduce a secession document for all systems so that we can create our own government that will reclaim how great the Gordian Reach used to be!

Of note, Candidate Ralskun Direeb was wearing an armband on his sleeve with the emblem of “The Roilers”, an ultranationalist group that has been holding, often violent, protests in the independent ‘Back Reach’ as well as on Torque after the terror attack there. The movement is gaining in momentum, and only time will tell how this latest incident impacts the radical movement in this sector of space.

Shown above: The logo of “The Roilers”, an often violent Ultranationalist group dedicated to creating an independent state for the Gordian Reach.

Reporting Contributed by the Associated Presses