Galactic Alliance Guard

"It's an embarrassment for the Jedi Order to see the son and nephew of the Grand Master kicking down doors with the boys in black!"

- Kyle Katarn

The Galactic Alliance Guard (GAG) was a secret police and paramilitary force that came into existence around 40 ABY. It was created by the Galactic Alliance, under the auspices of Chief of State Cal Omas and Senator G'vli G'Sil, during the Second Galactic Civil War in order to counter Corellian terrorist activity on Coruscant. The primary purpose of the GAG was to enforce domestic security, which had been increasingly threatened by the secessionist movement of Corellia and its sympathizers.

Under the command of Colonel Jacen Solo, a Knight of the Jedi Order and nephew to Grand Master Luke Skywalker, the Galactic Alliance Guard swiftly became a major deterrent against terrorism and disloyal Alliance citizens. However, the particular methods that they used to ensure the continuation of the Alliance's security and stability drew criticism from several parties, including the Jedi Order. Even though they were technically a secret police force, there was nothing inconspicuous about their appearance. Solo wanted the GAG to be a visible symbol of the Alliance's policy on terrorists and traitors, and thus the GAG's soldiers were equipped with distinctive black armor. Although one of their primary functions was to defend Coruscant, the GAG was provided with an Alliance Star Destroyer, the ''Anakin Solo, which served as their base of operations and Colonel Solo's flagship.

Shortly after its creation, the GAG participated in a military coup d'état against their Chief Omas after their spies discovered how he secretly attempted to appease Corellian Head of State Dur Gejjen in order to end the hostility between the Galactic Alliance and Corellia. Solo responded by co-opting the support of Supreme Commander Cha Niathal of the Galactic Alliance Defense Force and, through amendments to the Constitution, executed his legal authority to arrest Omas for jeopardizing the security of the Galactic Alliance. With the support of the Galactic Alliance Guard and the military, Solo and Niathal established a duumvirate by ruling together as Joint-Chiefs of State. By then, the GAG had become the personal army of the Sith Lord Darth Caedus, whom Jacen Solo declared himself to be after fulfilling his covert Sith training.

Throughout the Second Galactic Civil War, the Galactic Alliance Guard became fiercely loyal to Darth Caedus and his vision of bringing a New Order to the galaxy. Like many citizens on Coruscant and abroad, the GAG viewed Caedus as a great man and a savior who heroically risked his life to save the Galactic Alliance from absolute chaos and ruin. Although some members became alarmed by Caedus' increasingly brutal tactics and uncompromising style of leadership, the GAG as a whole ultimately remained loyal to him. However, the end of the war saw the death of Caedus and the dissolution of the Galactic Alliance Guard in 41 ABY. The Galactic Alliance ultimately retained its dominant position in the galaxy and protection of Coruscant was transferred from the dissolved Guard to the Galactic Alliance Security, otherwise known as "GAS."

Organization and role
"No, I need my own team&hellip; that's visibly separate from CSF. If civilian police are seen raiding homes and rounding up residents, it's going to make ordinary policing hard. Politically, it has to be separate&mdash;a Galactic Alliance special guard, if you like."

- Jacen Solo

In response to the severe and dangerous threat posed to Coruscant by Corellian terrorism, the Galactic Alliance Guard, informally known as the "GAG," was founded for domestic security, and thus it was organized into a secret police force that operated independently of the Galactic Alliance Defense Force. The GAG's primary objectives were to protect the government, ensure the safety of the citizenry and safeguard the sovereignty of the Galactic Alliance against all domestic threats.

Upon its formation, the GAG was based in the Galactic Justice Center on the Alliance's capital world Coruscant. As a paramilitary force, the GAG was composed of personnel drawn from police officers of the Coruscant Security Force, spies and agents of the Galactic Alliance Intelligence Service and its predecessor, and elite soldiers from the Special Forces military division. In its capacity as a secret police, certain members of the GAG were also trained assassins who targeted certain individuals that destabilized the Galactic Alliance as a whole.

Under the command of Colonel Jacen Solo, a Jedi Knight who was secretly aspiring to become a Dark Lord of the Sith, the mandate of the Galactic Alliance Guard quickly expanded to arresting and detaining all traitors, both confirmed and suspected, for betraying their allegiance to the Galactic Alliance. As Solo's metamorphosis into the Sith Lord Darth Caedus followed its natural course, the Guard employed a level of ruthlessness and brutal efficiency to the point where Caedus and his GAG troopers developed a similar image and reputation to his grandfather Darth Vader and the 501st Legion. The GAG's status as a secret police force also drew similarities to the former Galactic Empire's omnipresent Imperial Intelligence.

Anyone who expressed a negative opinion of the Galactic Alliance was placed in detention cells, either in the GAG headquarters on Coruscant or on the Anakin Solo, a modified Imperial II-class Star Destroyer that served as Caedus' flagship and mobile base of operations. Ultimately, Darth Caedus intended to establish peace and security throughout the galaxy by embracing the dark side of the Force and by using the Galactic Alliance Guard as the enforcers of his New Order. Although their creation and activities were marred by controversy and even hostility, the actions of the GAG were largely successful in protecting Coruscant, and thus many of its inhabitants hailed Caedus as a savior for defending the capital against violent terrorists.

The formation of the Guard
"You have to keep the secret police separate from the nice, polite officers who police the street. Sends a message that ordinary law-abiding Coruscanti have nothing to fear, while demonstrating maximum force to the enemy."

- G'vli G'Sil

Leadership of the Galactic Alliance Guard was initially offered to the Jedi Mara Jade Skywalker, wife of Grand Master Luke Skywalker, due to her previous exploits as a Hand of Emperor Palpatine. Like most within the Jedi Order, she was disturbed by the thought of any Jedi leading a secret police unit, and thus declined to have anything to do with the GAG. However, Chief of State Cal Omas believed that it was imperative that a Jedi should lead the Galactic Alliance's domestic stance against terrorism. Hence, command of the GAG was bestowed upon the Jedi Knight Jacen Solo, a direct descendant of the redeemed Sith Lord Darth Vader.

However, unknown to Omas and even the Jedi Order, Solo had grown extremely disillusioned with the ongoing cycle of violence and large-scale warfare that had plagued the galaxy since the Clone Wars. Convinced that the Jedi and the Alliance in its current form were utterly ineffective at establishing a truly harmonious era, absent of war and destruction, Solo discreetly apprenticed himself to the instructions of the Dark Lady Lumiya in order to eventually ascend as the first active Dark Lord of the Sith since the deaths of his grandfather and Palpatine.

Despite the extreme danger that terrorism posed to Coruscant and its citizens, many within and outside of the Jedi Order stubbornly protested against the existence of the Galactic Alliance Guard; the Jedi Council was especially disturbed by the sight of the Grand Master's nephew leading GAG raids against Corellians and their fellow subversives. Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon objected to the Guard's creation by resigning his commission as Supreme Commander of the Galactic Alliance Defense Force. Secret police units were one of the aspects of the former Galactic Empire that Pellaeon despised, and thus abolished during his leadership of the Imperial Remnant. The Jedi were especially outraged when the highly impressionable Ben Skywalker, the only son of Luke and Mara Skywalker, joined the ranks of the Guard as a junior lieutenant out of admiration for his cousin, Jacen Solo.

Shortly after joining the Galactic Alliance Guard, Lieutenant Skywalker became fast friends with fellow GAG members Captain Lon Shevu and Corporal Jori Lekauf. Shevu, a former officer in the Coruscant Security Force, privately disapproved of Jacen Solo's hardliner style of leadership. Nevertheless, Solo and Skywalker both found him to be a loyal and competent soldier who obeyed orders and offered valuable input. Lekauf was the grandson of Erv Lekauf, who was ironically an Imperial officer who faithfully served under Darth Vader's command. As a result of his childhood admiration for his grandfather, as well as his respect for Vader's grandson, Jori Lekauf was fiercely loyal to Jacen Solo and extremely proud to serve a soldier in the Galactic Alliance Guard.

As leader of the Guard, Solo was enlisted into the Alliance military and immediately promoted to the rank of Colonel. Together with the GAG troopers at their disposal, Colonel Solo and Lieutenant Skywalker unleashed a series of swift and relentless raids throughout Galactic City, specifically in districts and areas containing a heavy Corellian population. Both Solo and Skywalker personally favored the 967 Commandos, a squad of the most elite soldiers within the Guard, and thus the 967th accompanied their Jedi officers on many assignments against terrorist threats. The GAG as a whole came to admire Solo's as a leader, especially since he emulated his grandfather's command style by "never issuing orders to his soldiers that he wasn't willing to carry out himself."

He further won their personal loyalty and devotion by leading on the frontlines and sharing in the life-threatening risks that the GAG troopers faced on a daily basis by fighting terrorism. Although Solo acknowledged the weaknesses that undermined his grandfather's role as a Sith, Solo was deeply proud to be the grandson of Darth Vader, and thus he sought to openly display his veneration by mirroring Vader in behavior and appearance. Thus, he discarded his old Jedi attire in favor of a black GAG suit of armor, complemented by dark robes that resembled typical Sith apparel. Due to their nephew's new appearance, Luke and Mara Skywalker both noted how Colonel Solo looked ominously similar to Darth Vader.

In order to counter the increasing threats of Corellia's secessionist movement, the GAG was authorized to intern, deport and interrogate its suspects, a duty which they carried out with brutal efficiency. Furthermore, they were given assets to spy on civilians suspected of being or sympathizing with terrorists and traitors; the extent of their spy activity extended to certain branches within the government itself, particularly the elected dignitaries of the Galactic Alliance Senate. Occasionally, Colonel Solo oversaw interrogation sessions where he utilized his Force abilities to coerce the cooperation of the detainees. However, there was one incident where he lost control of his anger and accidentally killed a prisoner, a bounty hunter named Ailyn Vel, who had been hired to kill Solo and certain members of the paternal branch of his family.

Under Colonel Jacen Solo's command, the members of the Galactic Alliance Guard earned a fast reputation as an uncompromising band of hardliners. Although the majority of Alliance citizens supported the actions that Solo and his soldiers took to protect Coruscant, there was a number of protesters who negatively referred to the GAG troopers as "stormies" because of the strong similarities that they shared with the Imperial stormtroopers. Nevertheless, the GAG proved remarkably effective under Solo's guidance in their overall mission to disrupt and defeat terrorist plots and activities on Coruscant.

Expansion and coup d'état
"The Empire's back! The Empire's back!"

- Protesters on Coruscant

As a reward for their effectiveness, Colonel Jacen Solo requested that the Galactic Alliance Guard be upgraded from their headquarters at the Galactic Justice Center on Coruscant to a mobile command center. His request was answered upon being given command of a modified Imperial II-class Star Destroyer. The new vessel was painted black in order to symbolize its affiliation to the GAG and was designated as the flagship of Colonel Solo. Upon its completion, the destroyer was bestowed with the name "Anakin Solo" in honor of Jacen's deceased younger brother, who fell in 27 ABY during the Yuuzhan Vong War. However, none of the colonel's family approved of the decision to name a GAG Star Destroyer after the late Anakin Solo.

When Corellian-backed assassins attempted to kill Tenel Ka Djo, the Hapan Queen Mother and Jacen Solo's secret lover, Han and Leia Solo, both of whom had been framed by the Five World Prime Minister Dur Gejjen, happened to be in the Royal Palace during the failed attempt on Djo's life. Though unaware of Gejjen's attempt to kill the sovereign of the Hapes Consortium, the Leia and Han were both guilty of high treason after switching their allegiance from the Galactic Alliance to Corellia and its illegal secessionist agenda. Furthermore, their son was convinced that they were also responsible for trying to assassinate Djo, and thus he issued GAG warrants for the arrest of his mother and father.

By this time, Luke Skywalker came to suspect that Lumiya had infiltrated the Galactic Alliance Guard and was attempting to corrupt both Jacen Solo and Ben Skywalker. To ensure that the Grand Master would not prematurely discover his true relationship with the Dark Lady, Solo vehemently denied that there was any evidence of Sith infiltration within the GAG; Skywalker remained skeptical and worried about his nephew's gradual fall into the dark side of the Force. The Anakin Solo was given its shakedown cruise at the Battle of Hapes after Jacen Solo decided to use coordinate the GAG with Hapan forces in order to destroy the traitors who wanted to overthrow the queen's rule on Hapes. During the battle, Solo ordered his gunners on the Anakin to fire on the Millennium Falcon, piloted by his parents. The Falcon suffered severe damage, but Han and Leia escaped with their lives, though Leia's Noghri bodyguards were killed in the process. New evidence was eventually discovered that indicated Gejjen's deception and the innocence of Colonel Solo's parents. Although he gave them the benefit of the doubt, he had no intention of rescinding their arrest warrants. He also considered the possibility that he would have to sacrifice them as a final rite of passage before becoming a true Sith Lord.

Due to the close family relation between Colonel Jacen Solo and Lieutenant Ben Skywalker, and also because of the fact that they shared the same grandfather, Solo and Lumiya contemplated the possibility of converting the young Skywalker to the dark side. Solo was especially hopeful that his cousin could be converted, mainly because of his desire to avoid sacrificing Skywalker in order to become the new Dark Lord of the Sith. However, before a final decision could be made, both agreed that Skywalker had to be tested. Hence, he was dispatched alone on a GAG mission that eventually led him to the planet Ziost. He then discovered a Sith Meditation Sphere known as the Ship, which he presented to his cousin and superior officer upon returning to the Anakin Solo. Colonel Solo, in turn, gave the sphere to his master, Lumiya.

As the stalemate between the Galactic Alliance and Corellia escalated into the Second Galactic Civil War, the Chief of State and the leader of the GAG became increasingly antagonized with one another over the Alliance's war strategy. Through certain emergency-level amendments that the Senate added to the Constitution, the GAG was permitted to use its resources to spy on high-level government officials, including the Chief of State as well. Colonel Solo's decision to assassinate Gejjen in retaliation for his attempt on Tenel Ka Djo's life coincided with Chief Omas' secret meeting with the Correlian Head of State on the planet Vulpter in the Deep Core.

Omas conspired with Gejjen to end the war by entertaining the notion of appeasing Corellia and its terrorist supporters. Although the negotiations concluded with no real changes or agreements made, he considered the possibility of removing Colonel Jacen Solo from power by assassination, which is exactly what Gejjen demanded due to Solo's status as the most visible symbol of the Alliance's opposition against Corellian secession. Acting on orders from Solo, Lieutenant Skywalker monitored and recorded the meeting so that the Chief of State's treason could be exposed at the right moment. Once Chief Omas left to return to Coruscant, Skywalker assassinated Prime Minister Gejjen by shooting him in the back of the head.

Although the mission was successful in its primary objective, the recently promoted Lieutenant Jori Lekauf decided to sacrifice his life to preserve the secrecy of their assignment. During a firefight with the Vulpter spaceport security forces, Lekauf was fatally wounded and, before dying, claimed to be a Corellian extremist. Knowing that their assassination mission was highly confidential and potentially volatile information, Lekauf's last act of loyalty to Colonel Solo was to sow misinformation in order to hide the GAG involvement in Gejjen's death. Skywalker and Captain Shevu escaped from Vulpter and returned to the GAG headquarters on Coruscant. Lekauf's ploy was largely successful, as many theories were spun regarding Gejjen's death, among which the possibility that the killer was a Corellian extremist featured prominently. Ultimately, several Corellian extremist groups claimed responsibility for Gejjen's death. Throughout the rest of the war, the galaxy at large never discovered that Skywalker and the Galactic Alliance Guard were responsible for the Gejjen assassination.

Shortly afterward, Jacen Solo co-opted the cooperation of Admiral Cha Niathal, Pellaeon's successor as Supreme Commander of the Galactic Alliance Defense Force. Like Solo, Niathal was an important Alliance figure that Gejjen wanted to assassinate with Omas' help. Although the emergency amendments gave Solo the constitutional authority to arrest the Chief of State for endangering the security of the Galactic Alliance, Solo understood that he needed the military's support in addition to the Galactic Alliance Guard. Accompanied by two GAG troopers, Sergeant Wirut and Trooper Limm, Colonel Solo casually entered the Chief of State's office at the Executive Building and placed Omas under arrest on the charge of treason. Both Wirut and Limm considered the act of apprehending the Galactic Alliance's highest executive official to be the hardest decision they ever made, but their loyalty as GAG troopers lay first with Colonel Solo and the Galactic Alliance. Under Solo's orders, Chief Omas was placed under house arrest indefinitely.

Immediately after Cal Omas' fall from power, Cha Niathal and Jacen Solo rushed to complete the military takeover of the Galactic Alliance. Even as Niathal quickly moved to announce their actions to the Senate, there was initially a great uproar of confusion, surprise and even outrage amonsgt senators and citizens alike. Niathal explained to the skeptical dignitaries of the Senate that Solo and the GAG had acted well within their legal parameters as a domestic security force. She then revealed the GAG security recording of Omas' secret meeting with Gejjen, which left many senators shocked and furious at the betrayal of their government's own head of state. To alleviate the tension and the suspicions of the Senate, Niathal stated that she and Solo intended to wield executive authority over the Alliance as a duumvirate; the office of the Chief of State would remain unoccupied until the situation with the Corellian-led Confederation was resolved, at which point an election would be held to properly elect a new Chief of State.

Colonel Solo also helped to calm the fears of many civilians by meeting with several protesters in person. Although they had been vocally volatile at first, the presence of the Jedi leader of the Galactic Alliance Guard was more than sufficient enough to silence most of them. To improve public relations between the citizens and the new Solo-Niathal administration, Solo invited the protesters into the Executive Building where he showed them how the doors to the Chief of State's office had been sealed shut. After calmly explaining how the system would be restored with new elections after the war was over, the protesters left the building, mostly satisfied and even impressed. Hence, the coup d'état of Solo and Niathal was completed with a smooth and bloodless transition of power. In addition to his rank as colonel of the Galactic Alliance Guard, Jacen Solo also became the Joint Chief of State Number Two, alongside Admiral Cha Niathal, who held the rank of Joint Chief of State Number One.

Not long after taking over the state, Colonel Solo was confronted by his aunt, Mara Jade Skywalker, about his recent behavior and the revelation of his secret allegiance to the Dark Lady Lumiya. Unknown to Solo, Ben Skywalker inadvertently stumbled onto a conversation between the Sith master and apprentice, thus allowing Skywalker to discover Solo's secret connection to the Sith. Neither Lumiya or Solo were able to sense the young Jedi's presence, ironically because of the fact that Solo had taught his cousin how to conceal his presence in the Force. Distraught and confused, Skywalker brought the information to his mother, who decided to act on the information with explaining to anyone about what she intended to do about Solo. Mara presented her nephew with an ultimatum&mdash;abandon the dark side and return to the Jedi Order for rehabilitation, or suffer the consequences of continuing down the path of the Sith. Solo declined and feigned ignorance of Lumiya's existence and his own Sith aspirations.

Mara, convinced that Jacen Solo was beyond redemption, ambushed her nephew on Kavan and intended to murder him, thus forcing Solo to defend himself against his would-be assassin. They both fought a vicious duel to the death with a combination of Force attacks and lightsaber combat techniques. In Mara's determination end Solo's life, she ironically destroyed the last remnants of his inner doubt about becoming a Sith Lord. As the fight increased in viciousness and intensity, the leader of the GAG came to realize that his life as a Jedi Knight was well and truly over; his destiny as Sith would begin with Mara's death as the sacrificial act that was required to complete the creation of the new man that Solo had become.

After being mortally wounded with a poison dart, Mara Jade Skywalker swiftly succumbed to the weapon's lethal effects and died. With her death, Solo's destiny to become the new Dark Lord of the Sith was finally realized, to which his master sensed and immediately came to his aid. In order to deflect suspicion of Mara's death so that Solo would have the necessary time to recover from injuries on Kavan and consolidate his new life, Lumiya took responsibility for her apprentice's actions. She was subsequently murdered by a vengeful Luke Skywalker, who later found out to his horror that Lumiya had been innocent and he had killed the wrong person in cold blood.

As the only remaining member of his late master's Sith Order, Colonel Solo contemplated on the fulfillment of his metamorphosis and concluded that he truly was a different man from the person he once was. Through the Galactic Alliance Guard, and especially through the new abilities and willpower of his Sith identity, he fully committed himself to building a lasting era of order and tranquility throughout the galaxy. As the man who was once Jacen Solo stared into the black visor of a GAG helmet, he declared himself to be "Darth Caedus," the new Dark Lord of the Sith.

Fighting on new fronts
"It's not like that. It's not about ambition. It's about the galaxy, about peace. It's about building a different world."

- Jacen Solo, to Mara Jade Skywalker

During Mara Jade's funeral, the newly christened Darth Caedus grudgingly continued to proceed under the alias of "Jacen Solo" until he felt ready to reveal his new identity to the galaxy. Clad in his usual GAG armor and dark robes, Caedus moved to take his place at the side of his grieving uncle and cousin, much to the chagrin of other Jedi attendees. Unknown to both Skywalkers, several GAG squads infiltrated the Jedi Temple on the order of the new Dark Lord. At the same time, Major Salle Serpa was dispatched with a GAG battalion to the Jedi Praxeum on Ossus as a strategy to ensure the Jedi Order's loyalty to the Galactic Alliance. Jaina Solo, who was present at the Praxeum when the GAG arrived, was almost speechless at the realization of the fact that her twin brother was willing to kill all of the Jedi, including the young students if they proved to be disloyal. Despite the Jedi's objections, the GAG troopers occupied the Praxeum for security purposes. However, although Major Serpa was a loyal supporter of Darth Caedus, he cared nothing for the Jedi. Thus, he attempted to goad Jaina and her friends into providing him with an excuse to lay waste to the entire facility and execute every Jedi occupant inside.

The GAG later participated in the Battle of Centerpoint Station, where they were sent aboard Centerpoint Station alongside Galactic Alliance commandos to try and capture it. Many of them were presumably killed when Centerpoint Station exploded due to Jedi sabotage.

Near the end of the war in 41 ABY, the GAG captured Ben Skywalker and Lon Shevu during a minor skirmish on Coruscant. During their time in captivity, they were tortured by Tahiri Veila, Caedus's new Sith apprentice. Later, she attempted to use Shevu as levarage over Ben to get him to revealing the location of the new Jedi base. When he continuously refused, an angry Veila accidentally killed Shevu in her frustration. Shocked, she asked Ben to reveal the location of the Jedi base one last time, but he still refused and, in the scene that followed, he incapacitated her with a stun rifle and hurled her into the GAG troopers behind her with The Force. Skywalker then escaped back to the Jedi.

During the last battle of the war, Jaina Solo confronted Darth Caedus on the Anakin Solo and subsequently killed him in a lightsaber duel. At the same time, the GAG suffered a horrific loss of its top operatives during a mission at Corellia. Following this event, the organization was officially disbanded though it was suspected that if any of its members still were active – they would be existing deep underground in Chief of State Natasi Daala's government and would continue to hold a particular animosity against the Corellians.

Behind the scenes
The Galactic Alliance Guard was created for the Legacy of the Force series that began publication on May 30, 2006 with the novel Betrayal. Its first appearance was in the novel Bloodlines published August 29, 2006. The GAG becomes more violent and aggressive as the series continues. Galaxy of Intrigue, published January 19, 2010, confirmed the organization's disbandment.

Appearances

 * Bloodlines
 * Tempest
 * Exile
 * Sacrifice
 * Inferno
 * Fury
 * Revelation
 * Invincible
 * Outcast
 * Backlash
 * Vortex