Legend of the Harp Episode II: The Tempest

by Hemaccabe

The Harp's personal war against the Empire continues and grows. Can arbitrage defeat tyranny?

1. Chapter 1

Legend of the Harp

Episode II: The Tempest

Chapter 1: In the Middle of the Night

(Author's Note: As we begin my second novel, set in the period between the end of the Clone Wars and the Battle of Yavin, the technology descriptions I use get closer and closer to mainstream canon sources. This is reasonable as I consider the Original Trilogy the most canon and definitive and we are getting closer in time to that moment. Still, since we are some distance away, my story does not agree in all ways.

One of the frequently heard refrains in discussions of the Star Wars universe is that energy weapons must have large magazine capacities to make it clear that was the reason the Star Wars galaxy moved away from slug throwing (I.e. the sorts of guns used on modern Earth) weapons.

I don't agree. There is no mandate that a particular technology must come at some time or in a particular order. The idea of using an explosive powder to move a metal slug down a metal tube to strike and kill a target downrange is not obvious or intuitive as can be seen by how many civilizations here on Earth got caught by surprise by firearms technology.

Further, many of the same sources depicted in the Original Trilogy that show blaster tech is new, show that slug throwers did not proceed them. We never see a slug thrower in the hands of a Sand Person for example. Storm Troopers, despite being the best trained infantry in the galaxy, still don't know how to carry a weapon correctly. Even the relatively competent Mandalorians often choose a two-pistol rig over a rifle in long range engagements. This is not optimal and reflects an immature understanding of ranged weapons. These indicators, among others, show firearms, of any sort, are new, not just blasters.

While we don't have libraries of ethnographic and anthropologic histories of the Star Wars galaxy, based on what is described in Bloodlines, it's clear that most galactic civilization comes from a single source, probably the first civilization to acquire FTL travel. Further, there is no "Prime Directive" in the Star Wars galaxy, advanced civilizations will go to and trade with primitive civilizations eventually giving away the keys to the FTL kingdom. This observation is particularly borne out by the number of primitive civilizations (Toydaria), that have become part of the Republic community. It is almost a trope of the Star Wars galaxy to see the mixing of new and old technology, such as the animal drawn hover platform.

The conclusion I draw is that blaster tech would not likely have had the deep capacities to fire so many shots without reload.

A second issue that comes up is that Imperial Forces seem to be, as I will call them, "Smoke Gundarks" or as we might say here on Earth, "Paper Tigers." Clearly the Empire's ships are built by low bidders with poorly thought out designs, particularly the Star Destroyer. The quote from Tarkin at the beginning of the Imperial Star Destroyer entry on Wookiepedia describes a philosophy, not to actually BE powerful, but to LOOK powerful. The Empire intends to rule not through direct combat, but intimidation. If you were a planetary leader and saw a fleet of huge Star Destroyers enter your system accompanied by clouds of TIE fighters, you wouldn't be thinking, "five of my capital ships can take on three of theirs and my X-Wings can handle 4 TIEs apiece." You'd be thinking, "that force is overwhelming, we need to surrender before we're destroyed."

This policy means the Imperial Military is vulnerable to deterrence. Too many well-armed planetary militaries choosing to resist would cause more Salient-style embarrassments, which could encourage further resistance as the remaining Republic Member Governments see the inherent weakness of the Imperial Forces, which is actually what we see happening in Return of the Jedi.

A second issue is the number of troops and TIEs a Star Destroyer can potentially carry. We actually have a good idea of the Star Destroyer's size based on the Falcon's landing on one in Empire Strikes Back. 72 fighters seems like a painfully high estimate for what they could reasonably hope to carry. More worrisome is a number like 9,700 troops. I think the number of TIE Fighters and Storm Troopers is overstated substantially. Star Destroyers are clearly multi-role ships. It's more likely they carry compliments of fighters and troops reflecting their specific mission. More troops when supporting a ground action, more fighters for space combat. Even then, carrying more than 1000 troops or 72 fighters seems like a conservatively high estimate, and not in combination. Further, we have other canon sources to support my position, particularly the battle sequences in Episodes 4 and 6. In the battle of Yavin we know the Alliance sortied approximately 30 fighters. The Rebel fighter force is engaged by Imperials, but they don't seem very outnumbered and are able to clear the skies and that's the force being carried by the Death Star! The number of enemy fighters is way smaller than what we would expect from such a vast fleet. In Episode 5, the whole fleet doesn't seem to send down much more than a single, admittedly well equipped, battalion. My story will reflect the 72-fighter capacity but will keep that as balanced against a lower potential number of carried infantry.)

***Jedi Knight Jors Zaemon, In Thought***

Since the beginning of the Empire, the end of the Republic and the end of the Order, Furry and I, perhaps I should say, my fellow Jedi Knight Kazan and I, have been trying to raise support to oppose the Empire and restore the Republic. It hasn't been easy. You'd think a totalitarian regime replacing a democratic one, with centuries of tradition supporting individual rights, would be unpopular. You'd be wrong.

When Palpatine declared the Empire, the Clone Wars had just ended. Justified or not, the Empire got the credit for it. Peace and victory tend to be popular things.

Then the Emperor abolished the clone army. Troops went to Kamino and dismantled the cloning systems. Sanctions were placed. Funds were seized. People were arrested. A lot of Kaminoans and their sympathizers complained bitterly that this was hardly gratitude after what they had done for the Republic during the Clone Wars. Generally, the Kaminoan complaints fell on deaf ears. There was a huge amount of anger left over from the decision to use clone troops, including some of mine.

Just before the invasion of Exxelon, I had found myself with Master Mace Windu. Master Windu was in a candid mood, perhaps realizing what he had asked of me. So, when I asked, "It's been over two years. What is the problem? When are we going to stop using clones and start building a conventional army?" He didn't simply brush me off.

Mace rolled his eyes and looked at the ceiling. This was clearly a question he had been asked many times. Then he exhaled resignedly and answered. "Think about it. There are more Republic troops going into this battle than there were soldiers in the last war. On both sides. By over a factor of TEN. If we reached out to member governments and asked for contingents of troops like we did the last time around, the militaries of those civilizations aren't much bigger now than they were the last time round, so they'll send the same number of troops. Think how far that many troops would go considering what we're up against? In addition, those governments would also not feel they had to contribute monetarily to the Republic war effort, hey they're contributing troops, and they are some of the biggest financial contributors. We can convert their Credits into clone troops faster and cheaper than any other method of producing troops. That's why rogue regimes use clone troops even though they're so heavily sanctioned."

"Couldn't we take that money and build a conventional military?" I asked.

"We could, and all things being equal, we'd get fewer troops. Also, all things aren't equal. We would have to create a whole new recruitment and training infrastructure, at great expense, before we ever saw the first non-clone Republic trooper. Not to mention the Seppies aren't likely to wait patiently while we pull all that together. Then we would be spending all those Credits while we can barely get the Senate to approve enough funding to scrape by with clones. Our good friend Senator Amidala and her committee just shot down a new funding request. Apparently, they feel we have enough troops."

Ah yes, Senator Amidala and her peace at any price even if it means slitting our own throats party. Count Dooku had tried to have her killed, many times. You'd think she'd get it. Apparently, she wasn't that bright. Yes, her relentless opposition to the Chancellor would seem smart later, but only because the Chancellor ended up being a Sith! In any other war, she would have been clearly and relentlessly wrong with Republic citizens paying the price in blood and treasure for her stupidity.

As for the Jedi, it was easy to paint us with every bit of tar from the Republic, and the Republic was covered with plenty of tar. It was easy because the Jedi had been clearly and openly complicit in the crime of clones. That made every other accusation flow smoothly. The Jedi were accused of being cloistered, religious fanatics who were neither transparent nor democratic, which was basically true.

The Emperor actually figured out how to establish a new Imperial Military that the Republic could never manage. Yes, they did have the luxury of time, which we didn't with Seppy offensives falling on us like rain, and huge, unfettered by Senator Amidala the now absent, budgets. They inducted troops by the millions. The vast majority of those troops came from poor and working-class families. Each one of those kids given a first and only chance at a decent job, life, pay, benefits and dignity. You can bet they, and their families, were very grateful to the Empire. If you're a mom and dad and your boy is in Storm Trooper armor, you're probably not rooting for Imperial Military defeat.

They also created all sorts of new government spending which made jobs. This included building a huge new fleet. Yes, the ships had mostly been designed by the Republic for the Clone Wars, but it was the Empire who built them and that was thousands if not millions of new jobs as well.

That was just the beginning. The Republic was full of deep wells of broken government and corruption. The new Emperor went to work digging them out. How many buckets of corruption did he find, protected for endless years by politics and bribes, then slice open the belly to find, literally, planet sized hunks of Credits? Too many to count.

How many boondoggles, similarly protected, did he uncover? Like the far mid-rim planet desperately needing it's first orbital station to facilitate trade and development, but the Republic sponsored construction, which should take months, has taken decades and become a sinecure of corruption. Not only did the Emperor find them, he raked back money, put people in prison, but most importantly, finished the station! Every person on that planet, enjoying new prosperity, will look up each night as the station flies overhead and be grateful for the Emperor.

How about other problems? Like the Republic High Court Judges who, protected by politics and enjoying their bribes, couldn't figure out how to convict Nute Gunray. Four Times! The same Nute Gunray who demonstrated he was very much a traitor through years of Clone Wars. Watch those Judges be hurled down to prison cells or the gallows. Their vast criminal fortunes hurled into the Treasury. Every person who had been abused by those courts, and that included entire civilizations, or despaired of using them to seek rightful justice, which was many times as many, they all loved the Emperor.

It didn't end there. The Emperor started a whole new era of investment in infrastructure spending and development, including new hyperspace lane exploration. Very dangerous and very expensive. But each new lane can create mountains of new prosperity for many worlds and systems. Furry doesn't talk about them much, but I looked up his homeworld. They had been at the end of a long set of awkward jumps. They would never even have expected the Republic to do something. They wanted to do something but would never have been able to afford it. The Empire had already drilled a new hyperspace lane right to their home system. Furry's own people were experiencing a new era of prosperity thanks to the Emperor.

The ultimate tool the Emperor used was the Senate. You might say to someone, "But we are no longer free."

The most typical reply would be, "But we still have a Senate, we haven't completely lost Democracy."

Yet.

***Jedi Knight Furin Kazan, approaching the Rock***

It was time for Jojo and me to meet with Admiral Pagot. We flew over to the Rock, landed and took the internal magrail down to the conference room.

"Welcome." The Admiral greeted us.

"Congratulations on your appointment. May the Force be with you." I said as we gripped arms.

Jojo gripped arms and said, "May you go from success to success. May the Force be with you."

"Thank-you very much. My senior Captains and I have asked you here to observe and advise as we develop strategies for the defense of the system should we come under attack." Admiral Pagot explained.

I recognized Captain Thomas, but the other captains were new to me.

"We're honored." Jojo said. I just nodded.

Admiral Pagot continued, "Master Kazan, you apparently have additional sources of intelligence that might be useful, could you give us a sense of when we might expect an attack, what numbers it might come in and from what direction?"

It was traditional in a Jedi-endorsed battle council such as this, that the Jedi present be asked to use their prescience to contribute.

"Unfortunately, I have no insight from the Force that I can contribute. I'm sure that if I, or any allied Jedi have such an insight, we will provide it immediately.

"What I do have to offer is the strategy that has underlaid my decisions that have brought us to this point. I knew that the humbling of Corellia was inevitable. That has been borne out. By saving part of the Corellian fleet, we have not prevented the rest of the fleet from being subsumed into the Imperial Fleet, nor have we prevented the occupation of Corellia. We have, however, saved a shred of Corellia's dignity and that is valuable.

"The situation as I, admittedly an outsider, see it right now on Corellia is that there are a substantial number of those who remain directly loyal to the Empire. CEC loves the Empire and the huge contracts they are writing. CEC's perceived best interest drives a great deal of public opinion in Corellia-space. Unfortunately, there are also many who are quite happy to have traded freedom for safety. Thankfully, there are also those, as evidenced by you in this room, that realize that Corellia was giving up her freedom and dignity when she gave up her fleet and that the cost would eventually be too high. I suspect everyone on Corellia is soon going to realize that it's not a small thing to have given up one's freedom and that will become more and more uncomfortable for them. The Empire's plan is to have Corellia so deep in the noose before she realizes what she's lost, that when she does, it will be too late. So long as this fleet survives, Corellia keeps a last shred of her dignity and hope. If I had a plan, it was that a last shred of her dignity and hope would ruin that Imperial timeline. To that end, we must preserve this fleet at all costs.

"The obvious strategy for the Empire would be to send a fleet here, trap and destroy as many of our ships as possible, as soon as possible. However, I do not believe they will do this. The reasons I have are each small, but they add up to a whole which would seem to be enough to stay the Empire's hand, at least for now, as evidenced by the fact we are standing here, not dead.

"The first reason is simply, such an action would be painfully unpopular on Corellia. With you just sitting here making no trouble, for the Empire to pick a fight will be seen as bullying and bloodthirsty. It will reveal their true nature much more swiftly than they wish to and damage their Corellian timeline just as much, if not more.

"The second reason is part of why I picked Dandoran in the first place. Dandoran is in Hutt space. Clearly the Empire is not afraid to make large scale forays into Hutt space as they have so recently demonstrated. However, any further incursion into Hutt space will give the Empire pause. Too many incursions will become an unbearable insult to the Hutts and, even if the Hutts have no possibility of prevailing on the battlefield, they have many ways to make the Empire's life miserable.

"Also, very important is what I call, 'the Salient Effect.' The Empire sent a fleet under Grand Moff Tarkin to enforce their will on the Corporate Sector. As some of you are aware, the Corporate Sector negotiated certain concessions and autonomy from the Republic. The Empire wanted to show that those concessions would remain only at the whim of the Emperor. The Corporate Sector wanted to show depriving them of their autonomy would be expensive. The Empire may have won on the battlefield and crushed the resistance at Salient, but the Corporate Sector won the war as the Empire is clearly flinching from further such demonstrations. The Empire does not have unlimited military resources, no matter what they may want you to believe. It was far too expensive to quell Salient. Another such demonstration could encourage resistance throughout the galaxy as endless worlds see how little it takes to frustrate Imperial rule.

"A third reason is that the Empire also has a lot of fish to fry. If we stay low on their priority list, it will take them a while to get here.

"My fourth reason, and this is just a suspicion of mine, the Imperial military is something of a smoke gundark. It's designed to be scary and intimidating, not necessarily effective. Star Destroyers are massive, but surprisingly ineffective weapons considering how huge and expensive they are. They can disgorge vast clouds of TIE fighters, which are not helpless, but were clearly bought as a low bid. It's like they were designed to convince politicians to cave. Imagine how someone not versed in military matters would see them. CEC still sells Corvettes with the idea that ton for ton, it can take on larger ships. I agree. Incom sells those fighters of theirs saying they can defeat between three and four TIEs, they are likely right. But a politician would just see, 'We're greatly outnumbered, let's just cave.'

"Still, don't underestimate the Imperial Military, they can still overwhelm you.

"Lastly, Imperial strategy seems to be holding back. It's like they have some sort of plan to have a new generation of weapons about to deploy. This suspicion of mine coincides with rumors of a plan for a Super Star Destroyer. The Imperials may also have something else up their sleeve. They may be waiting until they have enough of those new pieces on the table before they strike.

"On the positive side, I do wish to point out that in addition to your fleet, Dandoran-space will soon become the home of two other fleets, the Hope Shipping fleet and my pirate fleet. I believe that both will be available should you come under attack."

Realizing I had spoken at great length. I bowed and stepped back.

Admiral Pagot replied, "Thank-you for your opinions. I'm sure we'll find them very helpful." Then, turning back to his Captains, he continued, "Whatever is staying the Empire's hand, we must be ready for the moment the Empire's hand loosens and comes our way." Then paraphrasing a Classic he continued, "Think we the Empire strong; and Captains, look you strongly armed to meet them."

After that, they got down to the nitty gritty of defending the system. I'm not sure how Jojo took it, I think he might have been a bit bored, but it was a real clinic for me on fleet tactics.

Dandoran, unlike many of the backspace holes I'd been living in, had two hyperspace corridors. Hardly a nexus, but still twice as many options for retreat and twice as difficult to defend.

One hyperspace lane led back into the Empire, the other deeper into Hutt space. The obvious vector for an Imperial attack was straight down the Imperial hyperspace lane. The second was for the Imperials to circle around through Hutt space, a higher risk strategy for them as we would be more likely to be tipped off and they would lose the element of surprise. Also, it would be a far greater insult to the Hutts. If the gambit worked for the Imperials, they might hope to sneak in our back door, so we needed to be ready. Then lastly, the Empire could try and come from both directions, this would cut off our escape and put us at a tactical disadvantage, being forced to defend ourselves from two vectors. One further possibility being that the Empire could attack from one side first, get us fully committed to defending that axis only to then bring in ships from the other and put us at a substantial positional disadvantage.

I watched as Admiral Pagot and his Captains plotted out all the possibilities and then use every wisp of gravity and every rock's shadow to give themselves the maximum advantage. Then how they would delay and fight against an incursion inflicting the maximum casualties on an attacking fleet.

During one of the breaks I pulled Captain Thomas aside and said, "It was my expectation that you would command the Hope Fleet. Are you here in that capacity or have you been asked to command one of the Patriotic Fleet vessels?"

Captain Thomas replied, "I've been asked to take command of one of the D2 Frigates, the Raptor. Some of the crews of all the ships chose not to defect. Of those, command officers tended to be the least likely to come, meaning the Fleet is painfully thin in that area. Unfortunately, that means I'm not available to command the Hope Fleet. I was also going to speak to you about having someone take over my duties in running and managing Hope Shipping as well."

That was depressing. Best laid plans though. "Do you think Captain Kory is able to take over the duties in question?"

"He should do fine," Captain Thomas answered and continued, "and I think he would appreciate getting out from under my shadow."

Admiral Pagot and his Captains continued for several hours late into the night until they had worked out some very well honed and extremely efficient plans. When they were completed, Admiral Pagot turned to me and asked, "Is there anything you would like to add Master Jedi."

I think everyone, Jojo in particular, was ready to break for the night so they were disappointed when I said, "Your strategies reflect how you would have defended Corellia. They reflect a typical planetary defense. However, your goal is not to fight to the death to extract the maximum deterrence. Your strategy should be an ordered retreat from the system to a prepared position. The Empire, when they come, will not be deterred, but they can be delayed. You will need to be fighting to give time to evacuate and preserve your fleet. I suggest another meeting in a week's time to discuss?"

Admiral Pagot nodded his head and said, "We will drill these plans this week, but next week we'll meet again to create revised plans."

After that, we all filed out. The looks I got were rueful but respectful.

Sky and I ferried Jojo back down to the house. Jojo and I wished each other a good night and he went in to get some well-earned sleep.

Even with my extra time, I was still a busy man. With everyone asleep, I went to my next project. I now had massive assets under management. I had the Credits from the Jedi Order, Funori and PanGalactic. Hope shipping was making money hand over fist and that was nothing compared to the mountains of new funds coming each month from my pirates. My already existing investments were also showing nice returns. Yes, I was spending like a drunken sailor, but it was a drop in the bucket to what was coming in. I needed a new management strategy. What I came up with was to buy large positions in as many major galactic firms as possible. I had already purchased chunks of a number of up and coming tech firms to challenge the remains of the Techno Union. Many of the major civilizations of galactic society had one, or at most a handful, of champion firms that represented them in the galactic economy. My first purchase in this process had been a one percent share of CEC. I had also bought one percent of Coruscant Media Productions, Alderaan Lifestyle Products, Kuat Drive Yards, Elysia Resorts Unlimited, Sienar Systems, BlasTech Industries and Spires Motors Company, among many others. There were thousands of major civilizations in the core alone. I had also bought up positions in many smaller companies like Incom, Batampte and all the outfits who had contributed to Revenge.

Having these large positions conferred many benefits, though they varied depending on the company. Typically, they included some form of dividend which meant ongoing income to wage war. They also frequently included preferred access to services, for example, I got to buy ship parts from CEC at cost.

I was also frequently on the inside of the circle of trust with the companies which often provided marvelous intel.

Another bottleneck I had was shipyard capabilities. I had Corellian Specialty Ship Yard Corporation and Jotun here in Dandoran space and pretty much the entire staff and their families had come as well. However, I had one small shipyard and a whole lot of projects I wanted to pursue.

I had a lot of plans for the Hope ships. The Hope ships, all IXp3s, were typical container freighters. We had considered starting to add some IXp5s but would probably wait until after the IXp9s finally debuted. The IXp3, like other freighters of her type, had a forward hull containing piloting station, all other duty stations, except engineering, and crew facilities like life support, quarters and mess. Behind the forward hull, there would be a long spine. The IXp3's spine just large enough for a single human-sized crewperson to walk down to the engines. The Engineering duty station was, not surprisingly, where the engines were. In other freighters, like the Class Four, the spine is fatter, with room for guard droids, a brig and a large loose cargo area. The spine of either sort of freighter is actually an external grav cargo bay. One can stack up to a thousand containers on the IXp3, as long as each container doesn't exceed mass limits, has all other requirements firmly in hand and they are stacked carefully. Insuring these considerations represents one of the major crew duties during loading operations. As an aside, there is a tug mounted beneath the forward crew area and is not typical of this sort of ship, it's a special feature of the IX line and one of the reasons Corbeen chose this particular model. In addition to containers, many other things can be mounted on the spine. For example, a tanker attachment. Instead of a thousand containers, one big fluid or gas holding tank can be placed on the spine and the versatile freighter becomes a tanker. Hope fleet's contract with Dandoran's new station required Hope fleet to make this conversion on at least one freighter. So, Hope fleet was currently working hard to acquire a tanker, a task which had fallen to Corbeen, who had come along to Dandoran, but was now back in Corellia-space shopping. At least the tanker attachment was something that had been manufactured and could be bought, though it would need to be installed. I also had a lot of other plans for the Hope Fleet's IXp3s which were much more problematic. I wanted to build B-Packs for the Hope Ships. I hoped all the crews would be ready, willing and able to fight. I knew, even with the mega-sized IXp3 sized B-Packs, the Hope ship freighters wouldn't be Star Destroyers, but they could provide critically valuable fire support in a large-scale capital ship engagement. The Hope ship B-Pack would be a several orders of magnitude bigger project than Revenge's B-Pack and it was not clear if it was something the yard staff could design on it's own without support or if the yard itself was even big enough. Revenge had stretched the yard's physical size capabilities and one of these IXp3 B-Packs would be much bigger than Revenge. The whole idea was still up in the air as the Hope ships might be better used and more needed as evacuation ships. Though to be evac ships meant creating people transport cargo holds for the IXp3s, which had never been made and we would also have to create. Of course, there was also simply the option of acquiring people transports and building capital military ships.

Other shipyard projects included that I still wanted a second B-Pack for Revenge. I also had Corbeen acquire three Corellian made versions of the Light Cruiser from the Clone War era. Yes, the Light Cruiser was designed and built by Kuat Ship Yards, but like many other contracts, some of the work had been farmed out to CEC and CEC had built better examples than the originals adding extra structure and improved off the shelf CEC parts, particularly engines. The Empire was still using the Light Cruiser, but most of the Light Cruisers from the Clone war era, nicknamed "Jedi Light Cruisers" had been mothballed and the Empire was buying and deploying an upgraded new generation of the ships. I had bought the Light Cruisers out of scrap with the idea of adding some umph to the new Corellian Patriotic Fleet, but all three ships needed extensive renovations just to be space-worthy. I also wanted Bearer-like upgrades and Revenge-like guns. The problem was the Light Cruisers were too big for CSSYC's shipyard. The work I was suggesting on the Light Cruisers was hugely more complicated and would require a much bigger staff. At the same time, the Patriotic Fleet, the Hope Fleet and my Pirate Fleet needed maintenance facilities, and CSSYC's yard was all we had. Jotun's yard was getting swamped.

I should also mention that Hope Fleet was now up to thirty ships. My Pirate Fleet which had previously peaked at six and had lost two crews so was down to four, now had regrown to ten. We had picked up four ships from Corellia, mostly YT and YZ freighters, and one more each from Die Tze and Salient. I wanted the six new ships to get breathed on, while crews got trained, but we were still swamped.

Which pointed to another issue, I had promised to help try and liberate Die Tze. I was feeling very uneasy about this promise. My Insight said it would not work out well. Still, I had probe droids on planet collecting intel and we had been sneaking in Vultures. Human piloted fighter craft couldn't linger indefinitely, but Vultures could be brought in, left on rocks in low power mode, and be ready when the signal was given.

I wasn't worried yet about the space combat, but the ground combat was another matter. Of my 100 BXs, after the recent battle, 54 were still in function. My repair droids were confident they could get 8 more up and running. Then we'd have a supply of some, but not all repair parts. I was shopping for more BXs, or BX parts, but the Empire had dismantled all the production plants and the droids were popular with many people for the same reason I liked them. None of my freighter guard droids could be brought back to life. Nineteen of my destroyers were still running.

There was a substantial Imperial presence on Die Tze. The Die Tze military was under heavy guard. I still didn't have a good plan for how we would get in there. Luckily Jojo and Bayo, who were much better at that sort of thing, were working on a plan.

There was some good news. We had acquired over 900 of the new E-11 rifles that the Empire was issuing as well as a variety of other equipment pieces including rocket launchers, grenades, radios, binoculars and other useful bits.

The E-11 could fire 20 more potent shots more accurately than the E-7 rifles the BXs had come with, so that would be an upgrade. We also equipped the Korpluck Town militia and the Patriotic Fleet with the E-11s with quite a few left over.

I was always looking for trouble I could encourage so I packed twenty of the E-11s, a whole bunch of other surplus weapons and some other nice things into a shipping container along with another full container of Batampte emergency rations and two more containers of equipment. All four containers were loaded on Revenge for a little side trip to Ryloth.

Ryloth had never been willing to knuckle under for the Hutts, then the Confederacy and now, surprise, they weren't willing to knuckle under for the Empire. It hadn't taken long for Ryloth to go from happy Republic member liberated from the Confederacy to open rebellion against the Empire. Force Bless Them.

I snuck into Ryloth system, relatively easy since they were a close neighbor. I had upgraded my stealth systems on the Revenge slightly, I could send a random registration for a Gozanti which would confuse Imperial Forces which were enforcing the blockade. For Ryloth I had an Imperial Fleet Gozanti registration and code.

I knew, from Clone War days, that the leader of the Ryloth resistance would be Cham Syndulla. Finding Cham, whose location would be the greatest secret of the Ryloth resistance, and something the Imperial Military didn't know and wanted desperately to find out, gave me an excuse to exercise some mental muscles I hadn't used much since my days in Jedi Intelligence. Rather than try to apply greater resources and technology to the problem, pretty much the only solutions Imperial Officers were trained to use, I read the Imperial military after action reports, mapped their locations and, with some review, it became clear that Cham Syndulla was living in his ancestral home in Tann province. Despite this being obvious to me, the Imperials had not figured it out. So that's where I landed.

Revenge's elevator placed me on the ground next to Cham's handsome home. I was greeted by a large group of armed Twi'leks.

I put up my hands in a non-threatening way. One of the advantages of my current condition was it was easy to change my appearance. On my left shoulder was now proudly displayed a Jedi Order Battle Ensign. On my right, was an emblem of the Republic.

The leader addressed me with a thick Twi'lek accent, "What brings you here?"

"I've come on a mission of friendship. I know this is the home of my old friend, Cham Syndulla. I believe he's present inside." I replied in a friendly tone.

"Twi'lek have no friends. You claim to be a Jedi?" He replied.

"The Jedi have been friends to the Twi'lek people for many years. Jedi have died on Ryloth fighting for Twi'lek freedom and yes, I am a Jedi. I am called the Harp." I answered in a friendly tone.

"All the Jedi are dead. Prove it." He snarled. Then he shot me.

Well, he tried to shoot me. My saber was in my hand and I deflected the bolt down to the ground.

"This could get expensive for you." I said in gentle warning tone.

Cham took that moment to come out and say "Stop. Lower your weapons."

Not, "Put your weapons away," but an improvement.

I doused my saber and re-stowed it.

"Master Syndulla. It's so nice to meet you." I said warmly.

"So, Mister Harp, what brings you to my home?" He asked.

"Master Harp." I corrected.

"Master Harp." Cham acknowledged.

"Mister," was what one might address any given private person of low standing. "Master," was not me claiming to be a Jedi of Master rank, just the correct protocol for addressing someone of a high status. Essentially, I was demanding that Cham show me appropriate respect, which was particularly important as Jedi were known to be prickly about such things.

"I have brought you gifts. As the Jedi and the Republic brought in the past, so again do I bring them now." I said.

"What did you bring?" Cham asked.

"Perhaps we could repair to someplace comfortable in your home, and then, perhaps over some refreshments, you could tell me where you want the containers and then my pilot could put them down there?" I offered.

"Where are my manners, please come in." Cham said, gesturing to the doorway.

Cham led me and several of his people to a large, nicely decorated and comfortable sitting area and gestured for me to sit in an honored guest chair. I sat.

Cham sat opposite me and some of his people sat or stood about the room in a way that wasn't overtly threatening, but clearly there to insure my good behavior.

Cham spoke into a comlink and a few minutes later, an attractive and well-dressed young Twi'lek girl brought a tray with drinks and small snacks.

"Hera, why have you disobeyed me?" Cham snapped at the young girl.

It took me only a split second to parse. Cham had not wanted me to see his daughter or for her to be exposed to my possibly, still nefarious, plans. Hera, the privileged and curious daughter, had engineered an excuse to see the interesting stranger who might be a Jedi.

Hera bowed, placed the tray on a low table between us and ran out of the room.

Sigh.

After serving the drinks Cham finally got back around to, "So, what did you bring?"

I described the contents of the containers and he gave me directions where they should be placed. Then he was, perhaps, impressed when Revenge lifted off without direction, went and placed the cargo then came back and resettled in exactly the same place.

"So why do you bring me this aid unasked for?" He asked.

"I know you're at war with the Empire. You know I am also at war. I had surplus. I remembered how Ryloth needed aid during the Clone Wars. I brought. It's that simple." I explained.

I actually felt guilty. I had brought a lot of my cheap surplus, like the old E-7 rifles and their magazines. I could have brought a stack of catalogs and procured the finest equipment from around the galaxy. Giving him less than the best meant I was reducing his odds of victory and increasing his number of casualties. However, I knew this might be a long war and the Empire had deep pockets. If I blew my wad on every delivery, I'd rapidly run out of money even with pockets as deep as mine. I had to prioritize and make the best use of the assets we already had, including those E-7 rifles. They were a gift. I wasn't ripping him off in a purchase. If they weren't useful to him, he didn't have to use them. I guessed they would be useful since I knew there were still a lot of pre-blaster weapons and single shot muzzle loading smooth bore blasters out there and E-7s were a big step up from those.

"I'm sure there are many you could have brought presents to, why us?" Cham asked.

I leaned back into his cushy chair and took a sip of his Rylothian liqueur, I couldn't enjoy the liqueur, but it gave me a moment to compose my answer. "I could say something to try and play on your vanity, like 'Ryloth has been fighting the good fight since before I was born.' I could say something cynically pragmatic like, 'Clearly you are the enemy of my enemy so for now we should be friends.' But the truth is that around the galaxy, when someone thinks of Ryloth, they think of pretty dancing slave girls and think of Ryloth as nothing more than a little back-space tawdry burlesque show. While all the rich, powerful and proud are hurling themselves to their knees to kiss this Emperor's ring, knowing that it compromises every principle they have ever claimed to support, here, tawdry little Ryloth is standing up for what is right. When it's not easy. When victory is not assured. When most precious blood may have to be spilled. I respect that. Greatly. So right now, I have the ability to support you. Little enough though it is, I hope it helps. Further, the list of those in open rebellion is short. I would be happy to find support for any others you are aware of."

Cham leaned back in his chair and after a moment, "Well said."

"There is one thing I would like to know?" I began.

"What?" Cham asked.

"If I can come back again, what do you need the most?" I asked.

Cham leaned his head back for a moment and thought, then answered, "Portable power supplies and fuel."

I had been expecting guns and grenades, so I was pleased.

"Why those?" I asked.

Cham answered, "The Imperial blockade stops most supplies from getting through. We can grow food, though portable rations are useful. We have weapons, there is a great deal of Separatist war material that got abandoned here. However, our power grid remains down as a punishment from the Imperials, spreading misery. Portable power supplies and fuel would help that. Also, many of the Separatist weapons we could use are not operational for lack of power and fuel."

"On my next pass, power supplies and fuel then. You say you have a lot of Separatist war material?"

"Yes." Cham replied.

"By any chance does that include any BX droids?" I asked hopefully.

"It does. We have a few hundred, not in working order, and a supply of spare parts." Cham answered.

"I could put those to good use. If you would not mind, put them in one or more of the shipping containers I brought, and I'll take them on my next pass." I requested.

"It will be done." Cham answered.

More BX parts could really help. After that, our little tête-à-tête came to an end and I departed.

Power supplies and fuel, where to find them? I did a bit of research, found a nice firm in the Corporate Sector that produced well regarded power supplies. I purchased one percent of their firm and then got three shipping containers of power supplies at cost. Most fuel was purchased from the Mining Guild, as in the commerce guilds that supported Palpatine into fomenting the Clone Wars and were still his lickspittles. I was going to need to purchase fuel for the station anyway, but one couldn't purchase ownership of a guild. So, what does someone do who wants to purchase fuel not from the Mining Guild? I went to Malastare, purchased one percent of Malastare Energy, and started buying fuel from them at cost. I took delivery of three shipping container sized tanks immediately.

I got back to Dandoran a day before the next Captain's meeting. I had done a bit of negotiating on the way and was working to solve some other problems. I had talked to Jotun by subspace commlink.

"Do you think you could set up another facility? Do you have someone who could manage it? Do you have enough personnel?" I asked.

"Yes and no," Jotun answered. "I actually have an excellent candidate to manage the facility, Old Hack. He's practically entitled, and he pretty much taught me how to run this place. It's kind of a bad deal that I pushed him to the side, though he always did know this was a family business. Still, he deserves better. As for personnel. We've hired on some hands from the folks who came from Corellia and even one kid from Korpluck Town, but we're short hands."

I knew about Old Hack. He was a Besalisk that had been Corbeen's first hire and strong right hand. He'd been running that yard with Corbeen for decades and was more than qualified. It would have been quite natural for Hack to be promoted from Assistant Manager to Manager upon Corbeen's retirement, but Corbeen had given the business, as had long been expected, to one of his children, in this case, Jotun.

"Well, start thinking about splitting up your personnel we're expanding." I said.

"What do you have in mind?" Jotun asked.

"You'll see soon." I said obscurely enjoying myself.

It would take six full Hope ship cargoes, but a new shipyard was on the way. As luck would have it, CEC made ship yards. I had ordered a big one. It would be sent in pieces. It shouldn't take a shipyard to assemble, just lots of conduit connecting, welding and bolting. Also, some tugs.

I got back to Dandoran space just in time to dock with the old shipyard and walk into the main office space where Jotun and the inside crew worked, to watch the six Hope ships emerge from hyperspace. It took several hours, but they unloaded the new yard pieces.

"Once the new yard is assembled, we'll move the old yard to Elysia. I have a deal with the main resort operator. We will be offering a new service. Many folks come to Elysia on paid transport. Many come in private ships and are very wealthy, so they have their own arrangements for maintenance. However, many come in their own ships and could use some maintenance done. They drop their ship off when they arrive, then get shuttled down to their resort. They don't have to pay for parking their ship at the resort. While they're frolicking, our crew brings the ship up to full standard, or as close as it can get, also a nice clean in and out, and have the ship ready for departure when the guests are done. All for a reasonable price." I explained.

"You want to do resort maintenance?" Jotun asked skeptically.

"No one else is on Elysia so it should be quite profitable. It will also make a wonderful cover for when the Pirate Fleet drops by for maintenance and upgrades." I explained.

"Ahh." Jotun answered.

"Now you'll have a yard here big enough to service anything up to a Star Destroyer. We'll have to figure out personnel. Particularly some design help, but I'm working on it." I explained.

"We'll get right on it." Jotun said.

I went down to the house and greeted Jojo. "How are things going?" I asked.

"It's really going well. They're starting to come together. A few more months, we should have a really capable force." Jojo replied as he parried away another of my thrusts.

It was really wonderful to spar with a fellow Jedi. Jojo had been among the best of our generation. If reconstituting the Order did fall to the three of us, he would definitely be Master of the Blade.

Sometimes when we sparred, I would use all four blades. Sometimes I would just use a single blade. Before I had sparred again with a real living Jedi, I had all sorts of ideas how I would be using four blades and how that would allow me to overwhelm a single blade. Jojo proved me wrong. Even as I attacked, he would manage to keep his blade dancing into my way and occasionally striking into my defenses. I won occasionally, but he clearly took more points.

Fio would join our sessions. She had a gift for the saber as Jojo had but was so much less experienced. I still had no trouble with her but sparring with her was more about instruction. I think I helped, things Jojo had said to her a hundred times would sink in when I said them once. I would see holes in her form that Jojo's familiarity had blinded him to. I was deeply aware that I had multiple blade instructors as a Padawan and Fio would likely have only two.

After sparring we would get some tea and bring each other up to date on our activities.

While I was off gallivanting and having a good time, Jojo was staying here on Dandoran building an army. Jojo had the help of his clone friend, Bayo, their other three surviving clones, Buddy had passed, and a number of the refugees were former Marines from the Corellian Guard Fleet. We had issued an order that any male between the ages of 18 and 55 would have to get training and be expected to serve in the Town Militia. Most would be serving in a reserve capacity. That meant they would complete basic training, do some days each month and once a year give a couple weeks, assuming the Empire didn't rout us out of here in the next few days. While on reserve duty, they could be completing school and doing their normal work. However, anyone from 18 to 21 would be expected to serve active duty. Females who wanted to serve were welcome if they volunteered. About a third did, including the Widow Brown. Anyone who wanted to make a further commitment could receive additional training and become a Patriotic Fleet Marine and serve on ships in space. We also had a track where they could opt to stay full time after age 21 and become officers of the militia. We had a whole lot of E-11 rifles and we were handing them out.

Jojo knew the mistakes in training first hand and was making sure our Militia would be ready to fight. In addition to the general fortifications and facilities we had built around Korpluck Town, we had set up several hidden bunkers and supply points in the mountains east of town so even if we got overrun, we could keep fighting and making the lives of whatever enemy had come miserable.

The town, in general, was really developing fast. Word that there was good agricultural land and ready buyers for food production was bringing in farmer colonists from all over. They were setting up farms and providing food. We'd had to expand the mini-spaceport to a full spaceport along with lots of loading and unloading facilities. Good thing I was no longer paying retail. Kohn's Bukar Beef noticed how good Korpluck had it and set up their own facility. We had induced Batampte to also set up a facility, based on the fact I was a very large shareholder and was consistently making huge orders from them. I needed to keep our various ships fed as well as fill many shipping containers full of emergency rations for all my new friends and acquaintances. Several entrepreneurial Corellians had set up a business in the industrial park making 'clothing." Really military clothing and equipment as I would be buying it from them to equip our Fleets, Militia and shipping containers full to various folks like the Twi'leks as aid. If anything, we had a shortage of labor, as evidenced by the shipyards. We also had notable gaps in skills, like Ship Designers.

One positive note was Ti Bault. He'd managed to shoot me. Twice. And survive. It would be good to have him on my side.

The med droid on Revenge had no trouble doing the necessary plastic surgery and Ti would now pass as a tall thin human. He wouldn't withstand a med-scan, but his genetic structure was well known to the Empire and the Trade Federation and there was no way to fix that. Well, one way that I would never use, but none other than that.

Ti now had clear strong identity papers identifying him as Bi Tault of Galtea, just as my ID, when it needed to be brandished, was Furin Kazan of Galtea. Galtea was ideal for such documents as they were out at the edge of the outer rim, had a great deal of autonomy and were not sufficiently advanced to be able to reply to a request via commlink, even if such a request could get through over the vast distances involved. This meant all requests had to go by ship, a long, long way, at great expense and be processed by hand. I used Galtea for a number of IDs for people I cared about. Of course, I had taken the extra step of making sure that even if such a check was ever made, I had entries into the Galtea system that would corroborate our identities. It would be a nightmare for any minor Imperial bureaucrat who decided to give us a hard time. Force bless the complexity of galactic bureaucratic systems.

One of the captured Gozantis had been 'cleaned' by my 'paperwork' and the work of Jotun's good offices. Ti, or perhaps I should now say, Bi? was settling in nicely to his duties running my Stash. He oversaw and brought in the, now, ten new shipments a month. Watched how the shipments were digested in and directed them to storage. At the same time, he would collect up the product that had sat long enough and market it. We still never sold more than a few containers at a time. Slowly, the fence known as the Harp was growing ever more notorious.

Once sold, the shipments would be bundled up, and Ti would use the clean Gozanti to deliver the shipments to Hope Fleet's receiving dock at Dandoran Station. As part of their other duties, the Hope ships would deliver the cargoes to various backspace stations and place them in storage lockers. The lucky bidder would then get the location and security access code for their purchase.

Ti was doing an excellent job, and it saved me a huge amount of time. Still, I monitored him closely as I expected he would eventually betray us. I added a luxury hab for him at the Stash to keep him comfy. I also made sure he had access to unlimited stays and a bottomless spending account on Elysia. He never got to stay more than a few days as he always had another shipment coming in and he needed to be moving cargo out, but he did get a few days a month. Eventually, we'd need to add more staff if I kept increasing the size of my pirate operation, but I had no idea where I would find such people.

***Bounty Hunter Mahe Jiru, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***

Mahe Jiru, or as he had once been known, Jedi Master Sa Tasta Burana, looked over the bodies of the Mila Hanska and Wing Kong. The battle at the Hutt's palace was barely over. Apparently, someone with an army of droids had pushed back the Empire, destroying one of the Empire's prized new Star Destroyers and killing a whole lot of Imperial personnel. Apparently, they had been aided or led by two Jedi.

The Emperor and his hound were too busy to hunt down every Jedi that popped up. They had some "Inquisitors" that they were using for the job, but they wouldn't work against serious Jedi. Mahe Jiru suspected the Inquisitors had already been tried on these two and failed.

The Emperor was also making deals with small Force using groups to lend him hunters to seek out the remaining Jedi. By the looks of these two, that hadn't worked out so well either.

Now the Empire was hiring the few bounty hunters with a record of success against Jedi to deal with the problem. The Empire was so desperate for skill in this matter, they had been willing to hire even him, even though he wasn't human. As a Nyani, he had always felt looked down on by galactic human society.

Nyan was a small civilization, in the outer rim, confined to a single system. It was surrounded by several much larger, predominantly human civilizations. The ever so advanced and tolerant civilizations around Nyan could never quite seem to get over what Nyani looked like.

The Nyani tended to be about a third of a meter shorter than humans, but wider and more heavily muscled. The Nyani also had dark, short fur covering their bodies, sloping foreheads and prominent mouths. Nyani tended to walk with what humans would think of as a bow-legged gait. Nyani arms were proportionally longer than human and reflected that Nyani ancestors had brachiated more than human. It was still common to find a walkway, particularly in more rural areas of Nyan, that was designed to be crossed with hands rather than feet.

The problem was the Nyani fit so many of the stereotypes humans had for those humans who were stupid and unsophisticated. Every Nyani that tried to make their way beyond their homeworld had to deal with relentless prejudice. Eventually, most stopped trying and only a handful of Nyani diplomats and business people would routinely leave the homeworld. Jiru knew if he went far enough, he found places that were not run by humans who would take him as he was, though he would always be an outsider alien. It was annoying that the Empire was clearly humano-centric and, not surprisingly, drew heavily from the civilizations near his home for personnel.

It was funny to Jiru the way the humans looked down on Nyan. Every human civilization Jiru had ever seen always outgrew their homeworld and crushed it's biosphere. Nyan had found a way to develop technologies to live in harmony with their planet and limit their population. The Nyan had off world colonies in habs and on other planets in their home system, but they kept the homeworld's population in check with great wisdom and self-discipline. Nyan had technology and science just as good, if not better, than any of it's neighbors. The Nyan had no permanent colonies out system for many reasons, not least was being surrounded by older civilizations, the nearest potential candidates for colonization would be very distant.

Still, the Jedi had come to Nyan and searched for Jedi candidates. They had found Burana and brought him back to the Temple. There had been hope that a successful Nyani Jedi could be a bridge to other galactic civilizations. That had not worked out.

Burana had studied and worked hard. He had been promoted and promoted again. Eventually being promoted to Master for his research into Faster Than Light Physics. Work Burana had done was now represented by engineering in every new hyper drive system making them safer and more reliable. Of course, Burana got no financial return for that, it all belonged to the Temple, but he had done the work for the greater good.

When the Clone Wars emerged, he had not been in the first fifty Jedi sent to lead clones, so he volunteered. One might think, with his expertise, he would be used in Republic research, or perhaps as a Fleet adviser. Burana had been assigned to lead a battalion of clone infantry. A battalion notably lacking heavy equipment, only five companies of infantry. Still, Burana had led them with distinction.

Burana had been away from his unit scouting when pain from the attack on the Temple came. As bad as the pay had been, it had been a warning. With that warning, Burana had been able to get to a safe place before Order 66 came down. His own troops had hunted him like an animal but, by the grace of the Force, he had escaped.

Then what was he supposed to do? He had circled around and got some things, mostly he grabbed the unit treasury and his false IDs, so he would be able to travel. He also stole a small shuttle and was on his way. Burana had adopted a pre-planned alias, Mahe Jiru, which meant simply "Big Chief" in Nyan.

Jiru had run for the outer rim. How could he go back to Nyan? If they welcomed and defended him, the Empire would come down on them like they had on Kashyyyk. How could he bear it if he had made them ashamed?

So Jiru had headed for the outer rim looking for a hiding place. He found it in a back water no place, but quickly realized he had a problem. He had few Credits and no way to get more.

The first bounty had been easy. A relentlessly repeat offender spice addict had murdered a girl and fled. Jiru had found him and killed the two guards his rich father had put to protect him. Then he had dragged the spice addled rich boy back to justice. Five hundred Credits. For two lives and a bounty. It was a living.

Jiru had many bounties since then. Once you've taken enough bounties, they all melt together. Each one was a moral compromise in it's own way. The innocent girl who would be better off in custody. The labor leader falsely accused. Someone a rich guy just didn't like. It was money. Jiru had given up on the idea the Order would ever come back. If there was no Order, what was the point of the Code? If he didn't take the bounty, someone else would. It took Credits to live.

Then came the first bounty for a Jedi. He hadn't known the bounties were Jedi we he took the job. Their bounty had gone up and up because no one could bring them in. The bounty offer had nothing about them being Jedi. Otherwise the offer never would have come to Jiru. They had taken quite a bit of hunting down. Jiru had a lot of time and Credits invested in tracking them. Then he found them. One of those miracle Knights that had been made quick during the war before they were ready and her even worse prepared Padawan. It was too late for them. If Jiru found them, someone else would. If the Credits didn't go to Jiru, they would go somewhere else.

They were surprised when they drew their sabers that Jiru had one of his own. Jiru had offered to take them alive, but he knew that their days were numbered even if he did bring them in alive. The fight was fierce but brief. The two bodies brought him a good bounty and a good return on his time. They were the first Jedi he had brought in, but they wouldn't be the last.

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