There is no emotion... (A Jedi Order Quest)

Special Senate Session: An Inquiry into the Syncretic Cults of Hutt Space

The Senate tower is nearly empty, compared to its usual hustle and bustle. On most days, reporters, schoolchildren, citizens and more will make their way to examine the wheels of galactic governance at work. They will watch debates, sometimes reasoned, sometimes hellish, between Senators from a thousand-thousand worlds, representing all the peoples of the Republic. The long, lamentable wars, against the Mandalorians, against Revan, against the Triumvirate, might have slowed down the function of this, the beating heart of the Coruscanti government, but they could never, not ever, stop it. Bills, legislation, law voted on here even as Malachor V burned at your hands, as the shipyards of Kuat were ravaged by the traitors of Malak and Revan, as a long echo deafened and silenced the Jedi. It was here that the greatest strategy, to fight off those and every other foe, was promulgated, though carried out across ten-thousand lightyears by commanders and captains and more, all dedicated to the proposition that democracy should not be slaughtered for tyranny.

Now they are once more called here to decide whether they should once again enter a war, with no-one, not a soul allowed entrance though holoprojectors are streaming the debate throughout Republic-- and likely as not, neighboring--space, indeed the Yuuzhan Vong Republic has sent an observer to the event, perhaps the only person not a Senator or Aide or Jedi allowed entrance. A true war, at that-- and let none doubt it. For all the title of the meeting may claim it is about the Syncretic cults, in truth it is a question whether the Republic can, or should, support the rebels within Hutt space-- the slaves rising up to cast down those who would play at the title of Master. Unlike you, though, they cling to the notion that they can master another, and not the skill within the heart, and in that they do dishonor the notion of Mastery itself. Even now uproarious debate makes its way through the thick walls and door of the Chamber, and it requires a surprising effort indeed to cut them out and continue meditating, legs crossed before you. It is good that your prosthetic still hums, lestwise that you would have nothing to distract you. It would be the first true war the Republic has fought since the Dark Wars, the matter of Czerka being considerably lesser than that-- and the Hutts, much greater than that glorified company could ever be.

You feel a presence approach you. Tired, weighted by her efforts, by responsibility, and yet her spirit still faintly pulses, a light in the darkness. Supreme Chancellor Dara. A Bothan. Veteran of the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil War, she was a foot-soldier during that long, miserable time, saw friends and colleagues die and watched as the rich and the powerful skimmed needed and necessary credits from relief funds, a do-nothing Senate sat worthless and all the worlds the Sith and the Mandalorians burned were left to rot by the interests of the powerful. Is it any great shock then that she brought with her, as she climbed the political ranks, the Work-Place democracy of the Bothans with her to the Senate? That as she seemed to improve things, others grew interested in the manner, joined her party, let her achieve, if not everything she wanted, plenty, including the reconstruction throughout the Mid-Rim, all while incentivizing the growth of Cooperatives?

"Master Jedi." You open your eyes, and find she looks much the same as she did the first time you met years ago, in spite of the threat of Czerka. "You're looking well, all things considered."

"Chancellor."

"I don't think we're going to vote for war." She sits down next you on the meditation stool, looking off into the distance. "Three apocalyptic wars in less than thirty years. The people of the Republic are tired of that plague, of watching husbands and wives and sons and daughters and friends and kin alike wander off and never return. Of worlds set ablaze by broadsides of Turbolaser fire and dead men floating for the rest of eternity in space, flash frozen. I only barely managed to sell the Czerka Intervention by making very sure the moment we had assets we shuffled them to help rebuild worlds left scarred by the Mandalorians, and even then as I'm sure the journalists will be keen to make their business out of, certain portions of the Senate were quick to try and call up impeachment, damn the Azil and damn that the confiscations of their assets allowed us to rebuild. They will be even less thrilled to face a real state power, one lesser than the Republic yes but nevertheless, they can fight us and they might even win, not on the merits but on the cost of pursuing it which Czerka was never, ever going to, I promise you that, if I had to find their Board of Directors and ki--arrest them all myself. I'll see if I can't get something done, if nothing else I'm sure there are plenty of mercenaries from plenty of worlds looking to settle scores with the Cartel and I won't be stopping them. But what do you suggest, Master Jedi? I am told, after all, that you are the wisest."

[] Write-In your suggestions to the Supreme Chancellor (note: this is broad, and you can even suggest war, she just might not listen. Even if something seems obvious, feel free to suggest it)

And then, of course, there is the matter of what you are going to do:

[] Join the Syncretic Cults in their war, deploying Jedi to aid them and to remind the Hutts that you survived. (Go to war against the Hutt Cartel, aid Syncretic Cults and Hutt Rebellion, likely will gain Detachment)
[] You are sworn to the Republic. You will not betray them in such a way. (Do not join the Syncretic Cults, do not declare war against the Hutt Cartel)
--
Vote will open in roughly twenty-four hours.