Another ship was visible on his display, outside his command authority but certainly an ally: the Ataraxia, the one large starship under direct control of the Jedi Order. It was a beautiful ship, designed to subtly evoke the Order’s symbol with its hull and sweeping, curved wings accented in white and gold. While the Ataraxia would be permanently stationed at the new Starlight Beacon station once it opened, today it had come to offer support to the RDC task force. The ship was lightly armed, but it could carry a large number of Vectors, and on this day its hangars were full. Before the ship arrived, Kronara hadn’t been certain the Jedi would participate at all, despite Chancellor Soh’s request. The Jedi were linked to the Republic in many ways, but they could and did go their own way whenever they thought it was appropriate. Whatever their reasoning, he was glad the Order was here. Jedi tended to come in handy.

Admiral Kronara would never wish for war, but he would take any opportunity he got to assemble a coalition task force and get real-time combat and coordination training. Even better, there was no moral ambiguity about the situation. These Nihil were clearly on the wrong side of history. A fully justified military action against a significant force? A chance to make the galaxy safer? Yes. He’d take it.

He refocused on the display, thinking through the tactics he was about to employ. His forces were in green, in disciplined, uniform rows. The Nihil were a swirling, chaotic blob of red. A lot of ships out there. Made it difficult to predict how things might go. Kronara had studied the few bits of intelligence available on the Nihil, gathered by security forces from various Outer Rim worlds. By reputation, they were a pretty savage bunch. More troubling—reports suggested they could almost appear and disappear at will. He didn’t know what that meant, but it suggested they could have some very unique tactics to deploy.

Well, let them. He had some tactics of his own.

He looked again at his own small fleet on the display. Not exactly an armada, but plenty of force, all things considered.

If the Nihil wanted a fight, they’d get one.

Admiral Kronara keyed his comlink, calling over to the Ataraxia in order to coordinate his initial moves with its commander, Master Jora Malli. He knew her decently well—she had a strong military mind, as much as any Jedi could, and was slated to run Starlight Beacon’s Jedi temple once the station became operational. But since that had not yet come to pass, she was here, in command of the Order’s response to the Nihil.