“It might be the Republic, but it’s not just a few ships,” she said, and looked back up at him, her organic eye gone wide.

“It’s…a battle fleet.”

Admiral Kronara stood on the bridge of the Third Horizon, analyzing the tactical display, focusing on the rapidly updating data about the enemy forces provided by his ship’s sensors. It looked like his coalition was about to face the full Nihil fleet—and this didn’t seem like a force of disorganized marauders, either. Dozens of ships of all sizes, from fighters all the way up to a central flagship, some kind of custom-built thing about the size of a standard corvette. Scans were already building a picture of its military capabilities, which seemed fairly significant. It was no pushover. None of the ships out there seemed to be, in fact. Every single one was armed, with everything from laser cannons to magnetic mines.

There was potential here for a battle the likes of which he, a ranking military commander in the Republic, hadn’t seen in decades. That was the problem with how good Chancellor Soh was at her job. The Hutts were quiet, the Mandalorians hadn’t kicked up any trouble since before he was born, and the largest engagement most of his people ever got to handle was on the level of a skirmish. There wasn’t even a standing Republic fleet—just the odd Emissary-class cruiser like the Third Horizon, and various smaller support and tactical ships.

By and large, sectors and planets handled their own security. On the rare occurrence of a more serious threat, the Republic Defense Coalition treaties could be activated. Prosperous worlds like Chandrila and Alderaan were called upon to supply ships and personnel under the command of Republic military officers, which were returned to their homeworlds once the crisis was complete. That’s what had happened here. On the chancellor’s orders, Kronara put out the call, and he’d managed to assemble a good-sized task force. Most of the treaty worlds had been more than happy to contribute matériel—all wanted a chance to strike back against these Nihil, the criminals that had crippled the galaxy.

Under his direct command, Kronara had the Third Horizon, with its Longbeams and a fairly robust complement of Incom Z-28 Skywings—in fact, his hangars comprised most of the small division of attack craft under direct Republic control. Beyond that, RDC member worlds had contributed five Pacifier-class sector patrol cruisers, each with a crew of a hundred, as well as their own Longbeam and Skywing squadrons. And…another group was on the way. Not a signatory to the RDC treaty, and not necessarily the people he would have invited along, but also not the sort of people you could easily refuse. Especially considering the tragedy visited upon them by the Emergences.