Meena Tills
From Star Wars - Dark Horizon's MUSH
| Meena Tills | |
|---|---|
| Homeworld | Mon Calamari |
| Species | Mon Calamari |
| Gender | Male |
| Birth | |
| Height | |
| Eye Color | Black |
| Markings | Massive scar on face |
| Skin Color | Fishy |
| Ship(s) Used | MCS Rachnois |
| Affiliation | Senate, Republic Navy, Unified Command, Mon Calamari |
Meena Tills was one of the best-known politicians in the Republic during the first clone war and the following Armistice, one of the few Senators to make a reputation for himself in the difficult climate of the Republic Besieged, an ambiguous and controversial figure who managed to attract a 100,000 credit bounty on his head from figures unknown (equivalent in modern money to a 10 million credit bounty), yet survived everything that was thrown at him. His decisions as leader of the Republic influenced many of the events that followed, even after he left the Republic, leading a Mon Calamari intergalactic colony expedition with a large part of the Mon Calamari fleet.
He served in nearly every position in the central administration of the Republic, most of them positions he himself created through legislation in the Senate: Assistant Minister of the Republic Navy and the Senator from Mon Calamari, Director of the Central Command Intelligence Agency, or CCIA, Republic Treasurer, and Chairman of the Unified Command Council.
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[edit] Personality and Principles
Meena Tills was soft-spoken and subtle, cautious and careful in his demeanor, yet very skilled at the political manipulations needed to maintain power in the cutthroat atmosphere of the Republic during the first Clone War. On the surface, he often came across as incredibly paranoid and cautious; yet he was capable of extending his trust deeply to selected individuals – and capable of acting in blind rage if he felt that his trust had been betrayed. In his political life, his actions can best be understood by realizing that he was a Calamari patriot above all: committed to the Republic, but committed far more to preserving Mon Calamari and the Calamari race against any dangers that might threaten them. As a rule, he tended to choose the course of action that would save lives on the large scale, but often showed an incredible callousness to individuals when he felt the lives of worlds were at stake. And yet he showed an equally incredible loyalty to those individuals he trusted as friends, going so far on a number of occasions as to send an entire battle fleet to rescue a single friend in trouble.
[edit] Personal Life
Meena Tills was apparently engaged to a fellow cadet while he was in the Mon Calamari Naval academy, though who his beloved was can only be inferred indirectly, by examining accident records from his last year in the Academy. Apparently she died during a live fire exercise in which Meena Tills also participated. The full details of that incident remain classified in the Mon Calamari archives to this day, but whatever happened, it does not seem to have hindered Meena Tills’ political career. Though it does seem to have led to a change in his career direction. On his request, he was assigned to capital ship service rather than serving as a pilot, and he left the Mon Calamari navy after his obligatory stint of service was up, and went into politics. He appears to have had no brothers and sisters, and his parents died relatively early, leaving him essentially alone, devoted to his job, for the greater part of his adult life.
His marriage came late in life. He met Nissa Sarcat when she was serving first as a pilot, then a commander with the Republic Navy. Their relationship seems to have caused Sarcat’s career to flourish; by the time they married, she was Director and Senator of Sienar and Naval Minister, and his full partner in keeping the delicate structure of the Republic in one piece. And she became his partner in the incredible intergalactic adventure that ended his political career and sent tens of thousands of the best and brightest minds of Mon Calamari society out on an expedition that promised to cut them off from their own civilization for the rest of their natural lives.
The only other tidbit that can easily be obtained from the Mon Calamari public records is that Meena Tills belonged for many years to the Explorers Society, a group of enthusiasts who dreamed of the great days of exploration when little of the Galaxy was known, and who had published various tracts over the years advocating a renewal of exploration. Some members of the Explorers blamed the 'deteriorating morals of modern life' on the absence of a frontier, leading to the 'degradation of the explorer spirit' into criminality on the Rim, although Meena Tills never gave voice to similar sentiments himself.
[edit] Career
[edit] Before the Clone War
[edit] Early Political Life
Meena Tills rose to prominence shortly before the beginning of the war with the Black Imperium. He was elected to the Mon Calamari parliament and after a fairly long and distinguished carrer became Prime Minister of Mon Calamari and Republic Senator about six months before the start of hostilities.
He was noted in that six months for his energy, political coalition-building, and a tendency to amend opponents' bills into something quite different than their original design. It was his initiative that led to the establishment of the offices of Chancellor, Treasurer, and Navy Minister after a thousand year hiatus, and he was instrumental in passing a sales tax and bond issue that funded what little military buildup the Republic was able to accomplish before the war began. He succeeded in getting his ally Tarkin elected Chancellor of the Republic, and was elected Republic Treasurer, but had the misfortune that Tarkin's protege, Petrus, turned out to be a traitor and absconded with the navy's best ship at the time, the Vanix II.
Meena Tills was also elected High Chief of the poor core planet, Byss, and lavished resources on upgrading the planet's infrastructure and installing basic security. Some time after the clone wars began, Meena Tills resigned his rulership of the planet in favor of Supreme Justice Palpatine, appointing him Imperator, or military ruler, of the planet for the duration of the emergency.
In another reflection of his political energies, Meena Tills was instrumental in first Yaala'ani (later a Jedi) and then Amelia Karanthes becoming Judicators of Ryloth and in suppressing the slave trade there. A number of his closest aides and supporters became Jedi, most notably Aure Kaia, Yaala'ani, and Rena Sarrabi and persistent rumor suggested that he built a close working relationship between Mon Calamari Security and the Jedi Order.
[edit] Military Buildup
While serving as a Republic official, Meena Tills also led a military buildup on Mon Calamari, successfully obtaining a modern heavy cruiser, the MC80, MCS Rachnois, and later obtaining other modern ships, while building heavy ground defense installations. Mon Calamari became known for an almost paranoid attention to security, often at the cost of trade and a degree of xenophobic isolation within Mon Calamari society that stood in stark contrast to Mon Calamari's role as one of the pillars of the Republic within the Senate.
Rumor also suggested that he channeled considerable resources to build up Ryloth's defenses, which may have been partially responsible for its holding out long after other Republic planets on the Rim fell either to the Blacks or to the Hutts. He also appears to have been instrumental in building turrets and other defenses for the government installations on many worlds, though those appear to have been little help during the Black Imperium's invasions.
[edit] Danger & Distrust
Shortly before the war began, Meena Tills suffered a heart attack, and proffered his resignation as Republic Treasurer. While he was in the hospital he suffered some kind of assassination attempt, which marked the beginning of an even more paranoid attention to security on his part and on the part of the Mon Calamari government, an obsession which reached new heights after a second assassination attempt left him with a permanent blaster scar across half of his face, leading him to go at all times dressed head to toe in bright blue blast armor. The crisis of the war delayed his resignation, as no acceptable alternative candidate was found, particularly after he raised, but then dropped accusations of treason against then-Chancellor Eluriel Persee of Corellia. He and Eluriel formed a common front to prosecute the early stages of the war, though their alliance was always one of convenience rather than mutual trust. He outlasted Eluriel, and other rivals of the early period, including Ksar Antilles of Corellia, often by an extraordinary political flexibility that led him to undertake tactical withdrawals where another politician might have stood his ground and gotten destroyed as a result.
[edit] The First Clone War
[edit] Early Stages
During the early stages of the Clone Wars, or more accurately, the first Clone War, Meena Tills' energetic actions with the small Mon Calamari navy presented one of the few bright spots in a scene of general calamity. Acting as Naval Minister Tarkin's assistant, and thus unofficially as an admiral, he directed much of the Republic's defense. Using the MC80 Cruiser MCS Rachnois, Meena Tills covered the escape of key elements of the Republic Navy from a one-sided engagement over Merr Sonn as that planet was evacuated in the face of a clone invasion, raided the Imperium's base world of Paxo, and thwarted Imperial intentions to capture at least two worlds by intelligence fleet dispositions.
While Meena Tills was responsible at least in part for some of the Republic's early successes during the war, he developed a reputation for harshness. Mon Calamari forces participated in the destruction of both dreadnaughts stolen from Corellia during the early phases of the war, and successfully captured a Hutt supernova that had been intended to take part in a Brood of Zergata assault on Ryloth, but were also accused of opening fire on friendly ships on at least three occasions, mistakes officially attributed to identity confusions before security procedures were properly updated.
[edit] The Rise of Palpatine
In the end however, Meena Tills could not have saved the Republic. Black profits from looting captured worlds were too large, enabling them to outfit a fleet powerful enough that they would have been able to defeat the navy the Republic had entering the war. But Doramon Palpatine, Supreme Justice of the Republic, an immmensely wealthy man, personally funded the secret construction of a force of six of the new Victory Star Destroyers. Receiving intelligence that the Black Imperium was sending a large fleet to Vanix, including a massive new ship type that turned out to be the new Guardian Battleship class, Meena Tills convinced Palpatine to commit all six star destroyers to the Second Battle of Vanix, which resulted in the first significant Republic victory of the war.
After this victory, Palpatine rapidly became the dominant force in the Republic leadership, personally funding the war effort, while Meena Tills faded somewhat into the background, focusing on his new role as head of the Central Command Intelligence Agency. During this period, in fact, Meena Tills was instrumental in shepherding legislation through the Senate creating the Unified Command Command Counci that was established to unify the Republic's disparate forces to better prosecute the war, as well as the military posts of Moff and Grand Moff. He supported Palpatine's election as chairman of the Council--just after being shot in the assassination attempt that left him deeply scarred--and thus established himself as one of the Imperator's most public supporters.
The earlier stages of the Clone War was interrupted by a short armistice (the First Armistice), occasioned by a raid by Meena Tills over Yidri, then supposedly neutral, but really an Imperium world led by Draven Gamahon that led to a standoff with a Black fleet. This armistice was temporary, ended by a surprise attack in which Palpatine recaptured Vanix. During the armistice, fearing that he could not protect two worlds at once, Meena Tills resurrected an old law which allowed the creation of a planetary Imperator during an emergency, and made Palpatine the Imperator of Byss. The war resumed shortly thereafter, when Palpatine led a surprise attack by the Republic Guard which recaptured Vanix.
[edit] The Fate of Worlds
Meena Tills had early established a close working relationship between Mon Calamari and Alderaan, most obviously shown by Alderaan's decision to station its smaller fleet in coordination with the Mon Calamari fleet rather than hold a separate station. Correctly guessing that a Black attack on Alderaan was imminent, he committed Mon Calamari forces to the defense of Alderaan, including the new retrofit MC15i interceptors, equipped with four concussion missile launchers. This first defense was successful, though it contributed to Meena Tills' reputation for harshness when the Republic forces blasted a troop carrier that claimed to be attempting to surrender.
Unfortunately, Meena Tills and the CCIA failed to anticipate a second Black attack on Alderaan. Caught out of position while Tarkin led a raid on Paxo, with only one VSD and his own planetary defense forces available, unwilling to leave Mon Calamari undefended, Meena Tills came too late to the defense of Alderaan, which fells to a massive combined Black/Brood of Zergata assault. That assault may have been prompted in part by his vigorous actions to save Ryloth, controlled by a protege of his, Amelia Karanthes, including the capture of a Supernova Battlecruiser by the CCIA, exploiting the dissatisfaction of a Brood commander. Thus he saved Ryloth, but lost Alderaan: what few in the Republic would consider an equitable trade.
In fact, Ryloth only was taken by outside forces, and briefly, after his proteges Ryka Starn and Amelia Karanthes chose to betray the Republic, and attempted to take Ryloth out of the Republic with a flotilla of Republic Navy ships. Amelia was killed by an assassin--rumored to be an agent of the Central Command Intelligence Agency--and Ryka Starn killed himself as a result. After a brief invasion by Cerebra the Hutt and the Brood of Zergata, Ryloth was restored to the Republic. Apparently some Mon Calamari troops had been deployed secretly on Ryloth, and were successful in recapturing one of the lost ships, the RNS Ryloth, an MC80 cruiser. But the treason of his close associates seems to have further turned Meena Tills inward, deepening his already infamous paranoia, particularly after a heart attack hospitalized him during the Merr Sonn invasion, when his famous ship, the MC80 cruiser MCS Rachnois, was destroyed in a disastrous diversionary action over Alderaan which also saw the capture of a Star Destroyer by the Imperium.
[edit] Later Stages
For most of the rest of the first Clone War, Meena Tills occupied an increasingly background role, focused on building up the defenses of Mon Calamari and the other worlds of the Dac Federation (Ruisto and Mantan), and securing the rest of Mon Calamari sector (Taanab and Krinemonen). But behind the scenes, he had actually begun an incredible military buildup: a massive centralization of economic resources in the Dac Federation that raised huge sums for defense, and a secret research program that led to the development of the MC90 battlecruiser, a ship superior to the Victory Star Destroyer in firepower, shielding and armor, and slightly faster to boot. But this program would not become publicly known until after the armistice, and certain of his actions, like the seizure of a Taanab Defender after the planetary leader was killed in fighting over Kashyyyk, had a somewhat unsavory feel, especially considering that he seems to have struck a deal with Bail Organa to elect Bail's teenage ward, Anneke Kitaran, as the replacement leader of Taanab.
Instead, Meena Tills' primary contributions in the final stages of the war were logistical. He contributed heavily to the construction of turrets that helped save the Republic forces during their recapture of Merr Sonn, and also contributed large funds to the Republic's failed attempt to recapture Kashyyk. By the end of the war, he was widely perceived as Doramon Palpatine's strongest supporter in the Senate, a loyal second in command in the Navy to Wilhuff Tarkin, with whom he had been allied in the Senate before the war even began, and a force for a strong, centralized, militarized Republic.
Similarly, he contributed heavily to the development of Reconnaissance Command, a flotilla of the Republic Navy equipped with modern fighters, and led first by Ryka Starn, and then by his protege and later his wife, the Mon Calamari admiral Nissa Sarcat. Reconnaissance Command was the first flotilla of the Republic Navy able to hold its own against Black Imperium X-Wing starfighters, through its use of the fast and well-armed V-19 interceptors from Sienar Fleet Systems.
[edit] The Second Armistice
[edit] Peace is Declared
The Second Armistice with the Black Imperium is one of the strangest interludes in the entire history of the Clone Wars.
It began with a series of events that led to Doramon Palpatine's resignation as Supreme Justice. Meena Tills had always maintained a close working relationship with the Jedi Order, and attended a meeting of the Order at which Yoda and other leading Jedi practically accused Palpatine of intending to make himself a dictator. Meena Tills provided a tape of this meeting to the Supreme Justice, which led to him submitting his resignation, on the grounds that he could not, as a prime supporter of the Republic, allow such accusations to undermine it. Shortly afterward, Palpatine disappeared, apparently kidnapped by parties unknown, which left the Republic in a huge predicament: short on funds, since Palpatine's personal wealth had largely funded the war, short on troops after massive losses in the recapture of Merr Sonn, and with Meena Tills left in the uncomfortable position of leading the Senate with few reliable allies, and with the public weary of war.
The Imperium too perhaps was suffering at that point. Having lost Merr Sonn and Vanix, and having been driven from the lightly defended northern Galactic rim worlds of Shili and Thyferra, it held territory only in the Galactic east and southeast: Alderaan, Yidri, Paxo, and Kashyyk, a shrunken configuration that however placed Mon Calamari and Sienar as its next logical targets. Perhaps it is not so surprising, then, that a Mon Calamari prime Minister like Meena Tills would have signed an armistice with the Imperium and begun peace negotiations (Indeed, given the events that followed, one must wonder whether there had been secret contacts between Mon Calamari and the Imperium even before the Armistice.)
[edit] There is no Peace for the Wicked
There followed a lengthy period of false peace, in which both sides remained armed to the teeth, and the real question was whether the Republic would disintegrate politically and be digested by its enemies without a shot being fired. In the political events of this period, Meena Tills played a central, and highly ambiguous role.
He entered the Armistice as a hero of the Republic, the only political figure other than Tarkin to have remained in power throughout the First Clone war, and a dominant political figure strongly associated with Doramon Palpatine's defense of the Republic. Throughout this period, he put all his efforts, simultaneously, into maintaining the armistice, while keeping his allies in power within the Republic, though his alliances shifted in a dizzying way, with only two themes remaining constant: maintaining his own power, and supporting the Jedi, who came increasingly under attack. By the end of the period, he was best known as the sole remaining pillar of Jedi support in the Senate, after even Bail Organa retired from public life. And the foreign policy the Republic adopted during this period can only be described as pusilanimous, the behavior of a defeated power, essentially giving the Imperium a free hand on the rim, and ignoring its most provocative actions, while steadfastly upholding the need for a peace treaty.
Without actually passing one.
Peace talks proceeded in fits and starts, with the person in the Republic responsible for negotiating changing at regular intervals: first the chancellor, Rylas D'Hannen, later a committee from which Meena Tills was explicitly excluded. That committee apparently deadlocked over some of the proposed terms, and the treaty was locked in secret negotiations for several months, and Meena Tills made no effort to force the treaty to the floor of the Senate.
During this time, the Imperium under its second leader, Euphemia Bellamy, made gestures toward peace while actively strengthening its position in the Galaxy and suppressing rivals. It voluntarily withdrew from the Republic worlds of Alderaan and Kashyyyk. But Euphemia Bellamy managed to get herself elected Princess of Vanix while Meena Tills was in the hospital for heart surgery, and he chose not to call her on it, despite the fact that technically, under Republic Law, it was treason for someone to hold positions in the Rim and the Republic simultaneously.
[edit] The Triumvirate
In the early stages of the Armistice, Meena Tills' primary alliances were with the former Chancellor and new Supreme Justice, Sho'lar Vreeth, and with Dash L'hnnar, Viceroy of Corellia. His primary opposition was Bail Organa and his allies, many of whom seemed to be in Euphemia Bellamy's pocket due to the continued presence of Imperial clones on Alderaan until deep into the Armistice. That alliance focused on building up the Republic's armed forces. It had its greatest success when the Imperium, under the guise of suppressing the slave trade, isolated the Brood of Zergata, and prepared for war to wipe it off the map. Meena Tills, working with Sho'lar Vreeth and Dash L'hnnar, arranged for the Brood to surrender to the Republic. The Republic Navy, as a result, nearly doubled in size. A large army was also surrendered, the Ord Mantell 'Orphans' to Corellia, the remaining troops to the Republic. The surrendering leaders -- Zamir and Zilana Luce -- ended up getting full pardons after a court fight, as promised to them, but if they hoped for influence or power within the Republic as a result, it did not happen. Meena Tills guaranteed it, using his influence right and left to prevent Zilana Luce from winning a Senate seat, just as he used his influence and power many times to quash attempts by rogue force users, popularly called 'Sith', to take power in the Republic. And he managed to keep peace with the Imperium in the process.
Many of the captured ships were sold to finance a massive expansion in the Republic's fighter forces, balancing a fleet that had been perilously focused on Victory Star Destroyers; and eventually, the weapons and armor of the surrendered Brood troops were used to outfit loyal Republic and Mon Calamari soldiers to help protect the Republic. He also built massive fighter forces to supplement Mon Calamari's five MC90 cruisers, and purchased the makings of a large armored ground force for his home world. During this time, as Chairman of the Command Council, and having placed his allies in control of Sienar, the Republic Guard, and the Republic Navy, he had practically unlimited power, though he stuck closely to the rule of law, and gradually began rebuilding the Guard and Navy into elite forces fanatically loyal to the Republic.
But at what price did he achieve all this? Corellia had long had a questionable reputation, and rumors had been rife early in the war that there was some under-the-table relationship between Corellia and the Imperium. It would not be until much later that the Galaxy would learn from Euphemia Bellamy's will that Rem Dolor, a hero of the Imperium, had had a child (Liam) who was adopted by the Corellian Viceroy. If, indeed, adoption is the right word. The inclusion of L'hnnar in the triumvirate that Tills formed led to L'hnnar steadily increasing in power, even while his ties to the Imperium became more and more blatant.
By the end of the Armistice period, Dash L'hnnar was openly known to have been honored as a Knight of the Imperium. He had led a thinly disguised attack on Kuat, a Republic world, to kick out the dastardly Graf von Mourn, a figure who somehow hijacked control of that world and turned it into a clone factory. And Meena Tills stood by and did nothing while a Republic world was invaded by clone armies brought in to fight another clone army, though somehow, perhaps because of the continued hope for a final peace treaty, that shameful interlude was concluded by a complete withdrawal of Imperium forces. In a similar incident, the Imperium withdrew from Nar Shaddaa after it and its allies, including Sullust, forced Nar Shaddaa to eliminate slavery. By the end of the Armistice period, Dash L'hnnar was legally more powerful than Meena Tills: as Chancellor and Grand Moff, L'hnnar was legally commander in chief of the Republic forces, though he had almost no say in the administration of the Guard and Navy and was as wildly unpopular with both as Meena Tills was loved.
[edit] Defending the Jedi
A similar story can be told of his emerging role as a defender of the Jedi Order. Even in the early days of the First Clone War, there were signs of Tills' willingness to work closely with the Jedi; apparently, he used the notorious Jedi Mina Vairde to test the loyalty of Guard and Navy officers early in the war. Later, he appears to have loaned ships to the Jedi on various occasions, and made secret locations in Mon Calamari sector available for the Order's use. But this friendliness was deeply submerged during the period of Palpatine's ascendancy, though he did oppose efforts in the Senate to remove the Jedi Amnesty that put them outside the reach of Republic law. During the Armistice, that reliance on the Jedi was very useful at times ... but gradually became a millstone around his neck. He supported Obi-Wan Kenobi to lead the Republic Guard, and the Jedi Master was very effective in putting the Guard on a sound financial basis. That alliance also enabled him to prevent two attempted Sith takeovers of Bothawui, but Obi-Wan showed critically questionable judgment, most notably in an affair in which Obi-Wan Kenobi ordered the Navy to bombard the roof of a hospital to prevent escape by a group of Sith who had just attacked some people inside. That led to a long controversy, lengthy hearings, and ultimately Obi-Wan's resignation from all Republic posts and his retirement to an unnamed, distant world. Even more damaging was the apparent assassination of the missing Doramon Palpatine on Nar Shaddaa -- by a somewhat unreliable union activist, Akurel, and several members of the Jedi Order, including Tuil Lindo, who proceeded to lie about the entire event to the press. This controversy damaged the Jedi's reputation, while first bringing to light the accusation that Palpatine was really a Sith Lord, not a hero of the Republic, which put Meena Tills in a very difficult position, as a well-known supporter both of Palpatine and of the Jedi.
In the aftermath of the Coruscant Hospital Affair, the first truly serious effort to repeal the Jedi Amnesty began. It had a majority in the Senate for some weeks, and only Meena Till's personal efforts, using all of the influence he had gathered in the Senate, and his active campaigning for pro-Jedi candidates, managed to turn the Senate around. Ultimately the move to repeal the Jedi Amnesty failed narrowly. But at this point, Meena Tills was between a rock and a hard place: a hard-line supporter of the Jedi, apparently so determined to foster peace with the Imperium as to ignore their increasingly high-handed, hegemonic ways, politically in bed with Dash L'hnnar, who now openly acted more and more as an ally of the Imperium. It was enough to make one wonder what kind of deal Meena Tills might have made with the Imperium, when the Armistice was first signed.
[edit] The End of an Era
In the last weeks of the Armistice, events happened that rocked the Republic to its foundations.
The Supreme Justice, Sho'lar Vreeth, was assassinated. By that point Vreeth had become Tills' last reliable ally in the Republic, and the leading candidate for a new Supreme Justice, Isabella Jacques, does not seem to have inspired his confidence.
Shortly before, one of the few Jedi who seems to have enjoyed Meena Tills unalloyed trust, Jana Dawnrunner, was either killed or turned to evil. She disappeared, and a figure named Nightfall began to operate out of the shadows, and was rumored to be one and the same.
One cannot say what was in Meena Tills' mind when these two pieces of news came together, or what research the paranoid Mon Calamari Prime Minister had been sponsoring, but the outcome was the most shocking bit of news since the onset of the clone wars:
Meena Tills was resigning all his posts.
After this announcement, Mon Calamari practically shut down to the outside world, all access restricted, and feverish activity took place under complete com silence. When com silence was lifted, the world learned that Mon Calamari had obtained a new surveying technology which made intergalactic exploration possible -- though costly and slow, requiring a huge fleet and years of travel time -- that Mon Calamari was sending an exploration and colonization mission to the next Galaxy -- and that Meena Tills intended to lead that expedition. With his wife, the Republic Naval Minister, Nissa Sarcat, and many of his closest friends.
Before his resignation was effective, he put the proposed peace treaty with the Imperium before the Senate, urging it be accepted, but outlining very precisely why Sho'lar Vreeth, the assassinated Supreme Justice, had refused to sign the treaty. It contained terms that could have destroyed the Republic in short order, if it had passed.
Perhaps it was no surprise that the peace treaty failed, a few weeks after Meena Tills and the colonization fleet left the Galaxy. Surely he must have foreseen what effect his speech proposing the bill would have had.
Perhaps it was no surprise that the new Mon Calamari Prime Minister was as hard-line as Meena Tills had been conciliatory. It is hard to see how Meena Tills could not have predicted how the society he had built would choose to act when he was gone, paranoid and proud of the Republic and focused on the military as it had become.
Perhaps it was no surprise that the Republic Guard and the Republic Navy supported a coup against Dash L'hnnar. IT is hard to see how Meean Tills could not have predicted the likely consequence of the military seeing one of th efew Senators they liked leaving, on terms that predicted the destruction of the Republic, leaving someone they hated in charge.
Perhaps it was even less of a surprise that the Navy he built was smashingly victorious against the combined Corellian and Black fleets in the first battle of the Second Clone War, the Battle of Corellia in which the combined Republic and Mon Calamari navies destroyed half the Black fleet and virtually all of Corellia’s vast armada. He was the one who had corrected the Republic Navy's emphasis on Victory Star Destroyers, and supplemented that hard core of firepower with massive TIE fighter squadrons.
But that leaves questions unanswered.
What danger could Meena Tills have seen that would lead him to risk everything, abandoning all he had built, on a risky venture across the intergalactic void? If he foresaw all that, why did he not do it himself?
Did Meena Tills lose his nerve? Or did he see a danger so great, and so deadly, that the only tactical retreat that stood a chance required a leap into the unknown Void? If the only way to save the Republic is to destroy it, what do you do?
It is hard to say. One day, perhaps, historians will know enough to judge.
