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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2986619" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 388: AftermathA soft hiss announced the opening of the still-not-locked door to Jyren’s quarters aboard the Araddon. Both of the humans sitting in the room turned to look as Rulae Nok stepped in and directed his red-eyed gaze in Jyren’s direction, “You’re off the hook.”    “Completely?” Tobias cut in before Jyren could ask the same question.    Both Jyren and Rulae glanced over towards the young human before they looked back to each other, when Rulae said, “They’ll be keeping an eye on both of you. And the kid will probably have a security detail with him at all times, but you’re off the hook.”    “How did you manage that?” Jyren asked, still surprised that they had gotten off so easily, “I’m still shocked they didn’t shoot us out of the sky the second we arrived in the system.”    The Duros just shrugged, “You’re lucky that the Admiral likes you. He’s the only one other than myself that knows about the bounty.”    “Obviously it wasn’t too hard to figure out, though...” Jyren mumbled under his breath, but then said louder, “I’m glad you trust me, at least.”    “And so does the Admiral,” Rulae nodded, “The bounty’s been removed. Akan Tavos is a free man. So are the others associated with him. But don’t think you’re completely free, Jyren. I will be watching you carefully...trust or not, there’s still a lot you aren’t telling me.”    There was no polite way to respond to that, and so Jyren simply kept his mouth shut. An awkward silence took over the small quarters before Rulae produced a datapad and tossed it to Jyren, “We’re leaving the system. There’s a briefing in an hour...you’re holding it.”    And then the Duros left. Jyren knew what that meant. His old friend knew he had other things to worry about, and wasn’t expecting him to show up at the briefing. Of course, it would probably be a good idea, if only to keep the squadron’s morale up...but there was much to do. Most of it involving what to do with Tobias.    But for the moment, Jyren’s eyes dropped to the datapad and he quickly took in the glut of information there. Ithor was dead. Everything on the planet had been killed by the poison. Everything. There were estimates on how long it would take to at least make the planet habitable again, but all of them pointed to decades...if not centuries. The damage was done, and there was no reversing it. Thankfully, many of the Ithorians had been evacuated, but it was only a fleeting victory. Their beautiful homeworld was gone.    Below the information on Ithor were things that Jyren saw were marked to not be spoken to the squadron. In fact, Rulae had specifically pointed out that they were for Jyren, and only for him, to see. It quickly became apparent why this was the case. Blame was already spreading like wildfire for the disaster at Ithor. It was pointed squarely at Corran Horn, who had resigned his commission in the military and as a Jedi, but that was really only for the masses. The governments of nearby planets were blaming the New Republic’s lack of action, and rightfully so. The Senate was deadlocked on the issue of what to do about the war, leaving the military to fend for themselves. Yes, the Vong fleet had been destroyed at Ithor, but it had been to late.    Because of this lack of action on the part of the Senate, which was mostly the fault of greedy Senators trying to make the best of a very bad war, the Admiral was no longer waiting for orders to direct the fleet to its next location. After a briefing of his own with the Bothan in charge of the New Republic Navy, the Admiral had decided to move his fleet to the library world, Obroa-Skai.    There wasn’t any direct threat on the planet, but it was close enough to Ithor that it was a logical place...especially since no other fleet was currently stationed there. Others would head to the so-called front lines and attempt to push the Vong back, but it was questionable just how much good that would do. So much was still unknown about the Yuuzhan Vong that too many assumptions were being made in these battles. And every single battle, the assumptions were proved wrong. The Vong were like nothing anyone had ever encountered. Their tactics were unique and unpredictable on the best of days. And until more was known, especially when it came to how to weaken the effectiveness of their so-called War Coordinators, charging into the planets they had taken was likely a suicide mission.    “What is it?” Tobias asked as he watched the expression on Jyren’s face get worse.    Glancing over to the young human, Jyren shook his head, “You shouldn’t have come back here with me.”    It surprised Jyren that Toby didn’t argue that. Instead, he seemed to sit deeper into the chair he was in and adopted a hurt look. Through the Force, Jyren could tell the boy was suddenly very worried. This was why he liked having his father around...that man always seemed to know the right things to say to these kids, while Jyren just had a habit of telling the simple truth and ending up making things worse.    So, Jyren moved over and reached out to put an arm on Tobias’ shoulder, “I know you’re strong, Toby, but this isn’t a game. This war is going to get worse before it gets better, and you’re on a military ship,” he sighed and shook his head, “But it was your choice to make...and with the tension on the Mrrakesh border to complicate things, I doubt home is going to be much safer.”</blockquote>

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