Saga of the Bridgers-Year 5

Chapter 15: Challenge of Governing

May 5.

Iulius was expecting the title 'Lord-Protector' to be an honorary one. Instead, at the banquet held in his honor, he found out that he was basically becoming Grand Moff of the Mid Rim, if not even more powerful, but it also came with an enormous responsibility: now, every minor military setback in the region would be blamed on him.

This wasn't a promotion. It was an attempt to make him crash down under the adage 'the higher the stand, the greater the fall'. And there was a chance that such fall wasn't that far away.

The Grand Admiral had just taken office the previous rotation on Naboo, the homeworld of the Emperor, and had immediately asked for a report by the cadre of ministers that he had been assigned. All agents of Palpatine, for sure, but at least they did their job with no bias.

When Iulius read the report, the situation delineating was one of absolute chaos.

Ryloth had staged a massive uprising with the help of a small fleet gathered by various rebel cells and the planetary capital had already fallen. On the Perlimian Trade Route, imperial intelligence caught notice of the rebels and their allies gathering a massive fleet, which could only be the prelude to another offensive. And to top it all, there was still major unrest on so many worlds that he didn't bother learning the precise number.

On the major worlds, like Naboo and Kashyyyk, Iulius had already managed to put more moderate Governors after his first package of reforms, so slavery was abolished, taxes had become less burdening, and these two had become quiet worlds, from which he could count on to build the base for future campaigns. But many other Moffs had mostly ignored him since they could. Now, the Grand Admiral and Lord-Protector would use all the authority delegated by the Emperor to change things. The Empire had to adapt, or it would succumb.

"You know, they will push back with all they have." Qathora commented as he enunciated this last point. "And I don't think the Emperor will let you remove his henchmen."

"Not without a plausible excuse, at the very least." Iulius commented with an ounce of optimism. "But the problem here is that I won't have much time to go the frontline. I need to pick up some good Admirals, and there aren't many."

"What about Sloane? She seemed to know what she was doing at Charros."

Iulius hummed. "You're quite right..." he replied and tapped the datapad to go and pin the name of Sloane into his list of people to promote for Sector Commands. "Have I already sent the new curricula for the Academies of the Mid Rim?" he asked to his confidant.

"Yes." Qathora answered from her seat on the desk. "Along with the order for all fleets to stay on the defensive, for the moment."

He nodded tiredly before massaging his eyes with his left index and thumb. He hadn't slept much in these last few days. He didn't want all of this responsibility. He had always argued that mixing political and military careers was one of the major flaws of the Empire. He feared that the prospects of a political fallout might start poisoning his mind and lead him to bad decisions.

He quickly recapped in his mind what he had done since the day before, to see if he was leaving some important matter behind, but nothing else came to his mind. He had already ordered to enact major reforms: slavery was to be made illegal, as of now, the Mid Rim would recognize all sentient species as citizens of the Empire, therefore annulling the imperial law that stripped them of every right. He had instructed the military industrial complex to shift production from the Star Destroyers to smaller classes of ships, especially because the loss of the Outer Rim had severely reduced the resources available to the war machine.

And yet he felt that all of this might be too little, too late. He had ordered his new responsible for the propaganda, some guy named Tonio Gauvanis, to focus the public attention on the so-called 'New Republic', and underline that in reality it was only a puppet state set up by the extra-galactic invaders, who wanted to subjugate this galaxy by destroying its culture and identity. Gauvanis certainly took the task on with a certain degree of diligence, as the HoloNet was bombarding the public channels with this narrative almost non-stop.