It took two days for everybody to arrive on Coruscant. There were well over a hundred army group commanders and about 20 planetary system admirals that had arrived. The rest were either killed or captured. Those who stayed behind were mostly newly promoted officers from fragmented units, some too young to have ever served in a real battle before this war.
The Jedi Order was represented by a dozen Masters and a little under 30 Knights. The intelligence officer who once had thousands of agents, now only had a handful left at his side.
Progenitor Nyssa entered the room as everybody got silent. Every eye turned to her, and though she was technically a "guest commander," everyone in the room understood who now held authority.
She started by dismissing the pleasantries. "We have one directive. We hold the Core, so that we relieve pressure on the Outer Rim. This is what we will focus on for the next 6 months, and we will succeed. There is no path of survival for the Republic unless we succeed in the next six months."
No one interrupted her as she moved on. She tapped a holopad and pulled up the map of the current war state. "From this moment forward, I will be judging each and every one of you, looking for capable military leaders among you who will reform the Republic High Command." Progenitor Nyssa announced.
The men and women around the room were a little excited, but also a little worried. For several months now, Republic officers have been getting killed by Sith assassins non-stop. It started with the top military officers in the High Command and then spread out to frontline generals and admirals.
This crippled the Republic military on caused young officers to be thrust into command when they weren't ready.
One of the generals, a young man of only 28 years old, spoke up. "I realize I am not qualified for this post, Supreme Commander," General Eseff said, his voice wavering only slightly as he stood. "But if you give me a task, I will see it done."
"That is the only quality I require," Nyssa replied. "You survived this long. That alone suggests you learn quickly." She looked around the table at each officer.
"I will be blunt. Most of you are here because you were not assassinated or captured by the Sith Empire. I cannot afford to replace all of you, nor do I wish to. Your failures are not entirely your own: you were set up to fail by centuries of neglect and sabotage." she paused letting her words sink in.
"But the time for blaming ghosts is over. From this day, you are the rebirth of the Republic military. If you cannot handle that, resign now, and I will send you home with honor." Nobody moved.
"Good." Progenitor Nyssa turned to her staff, who began to record the meeting.
"We start with the only thing that matters: the next battle. We will not let the Sith gain another footstep into the Core. We will not give the enemy a single unearned victory." She moved through the map, highlighting a few systems.
"The Sith will likely try to concentrate forces on Anaxes, Brentaal, and Corellia. Their goal is to break our fleets and collapse our military control, causing a chain reaction which will allow them to breach the Core. Our strategy will be to feign weakness and bait them into a single focused assault, then encircle and destroy their main fleet. The key is not to defend everywhere equally. We will concentrate power at the most decisive points."
She gestured to an Admiral in the third row, an older woman whose unfirm still bore the burns of her flagship's last, failed defense. "Marshall Tenner, you will command the Inner Ring defense. You have the most experience with fleet logistics."
"Yes, Supreme Command," Tenner replied.
She moved down the line, assigning command after command, re-organizing two dozen shattered groups into three new ones.
"General Eseff, you are now head of the Rapid Response Corps. I will pick some young officers and will train you up." He blinked after receiving such an assigned despite his lack of experience, then nodded. "Yes, Supreme Commander."
To the Jedi, she said, "You will operate alongside, not above, Republic troops. No more Lone Jedi actions or rogue heroism. Jedi operate in teams, support Republic units, and lead if they prove themselves capable."
The Jedi Master nodded her head. "Understood, Supreme Commander."
"Thank you." she concluded the meeting with a warning, and words of hope. "We have six months to show the Republic that the Republic military is still capable of defending against the Sith. If we do, the galaxy will never forget it. If we fail, the Republic will fall forever, and the Sith will rule over a pyre of their own making."
With those words, the gathered military officers took their leave and returned to their units.
In the next few days, Progenitor Nyssa rolled out a few reforms which she first got the stamp of approval from Chancellor Ranik. She reassigned officers and spoke with several corporations to hopefully secure an increase in war production.
Thanks to her connections and good reputation within the Republic, she was able to secure more production from a few corporations, increasing ship and weapon production.
When the next Sith attack came, it was exactly as Nyssa predicted. The Sith had hit three words simultaneously: Tirahnn, Trandosha, and Taanab.
The Sith had unleashed their Sithspawn armies created from Sith alchemy on each world they attacked. Their goals were to break through these three worlds to further cripple the Republic military before they could build up under their new leadership.
But they also understood that these three different invasions were crucial to the war effort. If they lost, then the Republic would regain momentum and Progenitor Nyssa would be able to gather even more support.
But in doing this, they fell for Progenitor Nyssa's trap. Since Tirahnn was a very rich planet, the Sith over committed their main fleet to that invasion, leaving the other invasions to medium-sized fleets.
As soon as Progenitor Nyssa was informed of this, she took the newly formed Republic Defense Fleet and departed to assist in the defense of Tirahnn. In the Republic, normally the Supreme Commander of the armed forces wouldn't fight on the front lines like she was about to do.
But during these difficult times, it was best to do what was out of the norm to achieve victory.
Another matter was the invasion of Trandosha which was extremely close to Kashyyyk, where Prince Malrik and Princess Seraphine was living alongside the Wookies.
The Sith had no intention of invading the planet due to the presence of Prince Malrik, but the fact that they were invading a planet this close, warranted some caution. As such, the 10,000 Empyrean Guards who protected Prince Malrik and Princess Seraphine were put on high alert alongside the planetary defenses that Kashyyyk was given by Daimon.
They were given these planetary defenses in exchange for giving some land for Prince Malrik and Princess Seraphine to live on, and for the Wookies to protect them in the case of an invasion.
At first the Wookies were not happy, but after a few centuries of integrating into their culture, Princess Malrik had become integral part in their society. Now the Wookies respect him, and still fight with him occasionally to try and prove themselves stronger, yet they failed every time.
On Taanab, the Republic and Jedi defenders fought valiantly to defend the planet alongside Imperial Volunteer Corps. The planet itself had importance because it was a major agricultural world that connected to the Perlemian Trade Route between Tirahnn and Lantillies. Due to this, Republic forces were allocated to defend it, in case of a Sith attack.
The first few hours of the battle saw the Sithspawn brutally destroy 10% of the planet's agricultural ability before being stopped by the Jedi and Balance Keeper teams supported by Republic troopers.
Under Nyssa's new military doctrine, the Republic fought as combined teams, with the Jedi lending their power as anchors to the line instead of storming ahead and breaking formation. This difference stopped the Sithspawn from utilizing their brute force techniques to break through defense lines.
On day three of the siege, the defenders of Taanab were forced to pull back to their second line of defense after a Sith Lord managed to defeat a Jedi Master in one of the units and make a breakthrough.
But the retreat was also used as a meat grinder. The Republic troopers utilized vehicles, automated turrets, and droids to fight a slow and deliberate battle that cost the Sith tens of thousands of casualties as they pulled back to the second defense line.
It was also here, that Nyssa had arranged for dozens of Republic artillery units to be hidden beneath the ground, using it as camouflage and firing platform.
When the Sith smashers, massive armored behemoths bred for nothing but shock assault, crashed through the perimeter of the second defense line, they found themselves in between a rock and a hard place.
The Republic utilized flame weapons to burn them from behind cover, while artillery shelled them from above. They were practically burned to a crisp every step they took.
The Sith had not expected resistance this fierce, nor for the defenders to be able to readjust after just one breakthrough.
A week later
The Taanab campaign was projected to be a week-long slaughter, but now it was being dragged into its second week.
Every day that passed, news and videos of Republic troopers were rapidly spread across the Republic and to other fronts, increasing public support and morale. The video showed battered but unbroken Republic troopers, holding their ground against monsters and the black-armored Sith troopers that followed behind them.
The same was happening on Trandosha. The Sithspawn had tried to use brute force to violently claw their way forward, but as the losses mounted, they began to hesitate which each attack.
The Republic had filled the forests of the world with kill-teams mixed squads of local defenders, Republic marines, Jedi, and Wookiee shock troops that caused tens of thousands of casualties to the Sith.
It was a slaughter, and finally after losing for so many months, the Republic was finally on the other end of the slaughter.