The Senate chamber was filled to capacity. Palpatine had called the emergency session to assess the damage sustained during the most recent expansions of the war and to determine how the Republic would respond.
Projected star-maps displayed Separatist incursions pressing toward the Core. Red lines marked shipping losses. Yellow zones marked infrastructure strain on military supply worlds. Green highlights showed worlds deemed strategically indispensable: Kamino for clone production, major garden worlds for food supply, logistical hubs for fleet repair, and key shipyards at Kuat, Corellia, and Fondor.
Palpatine stood at the central podium, voice even and controlled as he summarized the situation. "The Confederacy's renewed offensive threatens critical infrastructure. If we do not reinforce Kamino, our clone legions will falter. If we do not safeguard the agricultural worlds, our fleets will starve. If we do not protect our shipyards, we will lose the tools with which we defend ourselves."
From the viewing tiers, Senators shouted competing demands. Some pressed for immediate expansion of the clone legions. Others called for a strengthened naval presence in the Core. Reports from logistical officers confirmed shortages in materiel and crew, with entire sectors requesting reinforcements simultaneously.
Padmé gained recognition and stood. Her voice carried clarity rather than volume. "We cannot sustain this war indefinitely. We face rising debt, exhausted industries, and terrified citizens. Negotiation must remain an option. Dialogue is not surrender dialogue is survival."
Her opponents seized the opening. A Core Senator countered immediately: "Senator Amidala speaks of negotiation, yet what will we do when the war reaches her own world? Will Naboo bargain with battle droids in the streets?"
A wave of murmurs followed. Palpatine observed silently, allowing the chamber's anxieties to build.
Bail Organa called for moderation, warning that the Republic was "mortgaging its future for victories measured in days." Mon Mothma cautioned that emergency powers could not be treated as a permanent state. But their voices struggled to slow the momentum.
The majority demanded immediate reinforcement measures. Committees presented proposals: increased clone production quotas, accelerated shipbuilding timetables, and expanded deployment of Jedi as frontline commanders.
The decisive motion came from a bloc of Core and Mid Rim Senators. They proposed an emergency defense credit an unlimited line of funding issued by the Republic Treasury for military expansion, to be repaid after the war through post-conflict levies and reparations. It passed with overwhelming support. Additional motions followed:
• Expansion of the clone legions
• Acceleration of ship construction at major yards
• Reassignment of Jedi to new campaigns across the Outer and Mid Rim
• Extension of emergency powers to coordinate wartime logistics
As each item passed, Palpatine's expression remained restrained. Only when he lowered his head to review the datapads did the faintest hint of satisfaction cross his features. The path remained aligned with his broader design.
The meeting adjourned under tense applause and mounting dread. The Republic would grow stronger militarily, weaker structurally, and increasingly dependent on centralized authority.
While politics consumed Coruscant, Shepard remained on Oraven. He had finished processing the recovered Jedi material holocrons, sealed research, ancient records and integrated it into his broader archive. The volume of information was vast, ranging from historical data to esoteric disciplines the Order kept hidden.
It was not enough.
He dispatched multiple Seraph commando teams and clusters of nano-droids to new targets:
• Yavin IV the Lost City of the Jedi, a site containing pre-Republic knowledge and rumored Force repositories.
• Ossus once home to the Great Jedi Library, containing archives lost after ancient conflicts.
These operations proceeded without broadcast or oversight. While the Republic mobilized fleets and armies to defend itself, Shepard mobilized covert assets to acquire what neither Republic nor Separatists understood was missing.
Each side prepared for a different war entirely.