Business On Nar Shaddaa
Darth Nox traveled to Nar Shaddaa from his secret space station to meet with the executives who ran his business interests on the Smuggler's Moon. Transformative Technologies was a manufacturing firm which, among other products manufactured for other markets, produced several vital components for the Imperial Navy's super weapon. It was a steady and significant source of his personal wealth. He liked to keep abreast of business matters, checking in periodically.
Over eleven years ago, before he'd ever traveled to Taris and subsequently met Ashara Zavros, his late wife and reluctant Sith apprentice, he had come to Nar Shaddaa to procure an ancient relic that once belonged to Tulac Hord, a Sith lord who made his mark in Sith Imperial history three hundred years ago.
At the time, Nox was the apprentice of Darth Zash. The relic he was to bring to her held dark knowledge she required for her research. In essence, she was recreating and replicating Tulac Hord's research for extending one's life, but Nox did not know this at the time.
While on his task, Nox, then known as Kallig, defeated a Sith lord who had built up a cult of followers. Kallig took control of the cult from the dead Sith lord for himself. He also completed his task of taking the relic from the Sith lord's possession for his master.
After completing his mission on Nar Shaddaa, Kallig had returned to Zash, on Dromund Kaas, to present her with Tulac Hord's holocron which contained many of the ancient Sith lord's research secrets. Zash had surprised Kallig when she congratulated him on securing the cult of followers for himself. Kallig had never told his master about his dealings with the cultists beyond the fact that a few of the disaffected and ostracized members helped him to obtain the holocron.
This made him realize that he was being watched. He also realized that his master would not have congratulated him unless she wanted him to know he was being watched.
"Why is she spying on me?" he asked himself, "Doesn't she trust me? She lets me do what I want as long as I do what she wants. So, why care about what I do for my own interests?"
At the time, Kallig was happy with his relationship with his master. She taught him secrets of the Dark Side of The Force, and he obediently carried out her wishes. It was a good arrangement. She even gave him tremendous freedom of movement. So much so, that he'd even spent a period of many months transforming his cult of mindless followers into a well organized crime ring with the help of Andronikos Revel, whom he'd met less than a year before on Tatooine.
His crime ring conducted itself in many criminal enterprises which included blackmail, intimidation, and money laundering, in addition to the trafficking of illicit materials from time to time. These activities helped to increase his organization's influence and criminal territory.
Then one day, Darth Zash summoned Kallig to Dromund Kaas. He was to assist her with a dark ritual. Kallig saw it as yet another opportunity to learn a dark secret of The Force and happily left Andronikos behind to run things until his return.
Andronikos spoke cryptically, "You got a pretty good boss, Boss. Too good to be true, if you ask me. It wouldn't hurt to grow a pair of eyes on the back of your head. You know?"
Kallig laughed, "Darth Zash has her sights set on her master's post, not on mine. I'm only her apprentice. She wants to step up, not step down. If anyone needed to keep eyes on the back of his head, that would be Darth Thanaton. Darth Zash is a crafty one!" He laughed some more, adding, "She's climbing up and bringing me up with her, and she's teaching me her secrets. If she had any problems with me, she wouldn't give me so much freedom and knowledge."
Andronikos merely shrugged, thinking, "Sometimes you got to step on the little people to step up. Well, it's his hide to be skinned, not mine."
Khem Val, who'd been bound in service to Kallig for just over a year, added his two credits.
"My master is blind to the ways of the Sith. He will open his eyes, or I shall be freed upon his death."
"Your only concern is to obey my will, Monster! Speak out of line again and I shall forbid you to hunt for a month!"
Khem Val bristled at the reprimand, but kept silent, vowing to himself, "One day, I shall gain the strength to make you into my food, my detestable master."
On Dromund Kaas, he assisted Darth Zash with the preparations for her experiment with one of Tulac Hord's archaic rituals. In an ancient ruin of a forgotten temple overgrown with vines, deep in the jungles of Dromund Kaas, he set one of the relics he had collected for his master on the center of the stone floor. That was when his master tried to take over control of his body. However Khem Val, who'd been watching Zash closely, intervened…
After the first time that Thanaton tried to have Kallig murdered, he returned to Nar Shaddaa to prepare his criminal organization for his coming absence. Kallig knew he wasn't going to have the time to devote to his cult of followers-turned-crime-ring, so he turned operational control over to two of his lieutenants.
"I'm in the middle of trying to not get killed by my dead master's master," he said, facetiously, adding with a chuckle, "He should have taken me as his apprentice, but it seems I've inherited Thanaton's grudge against my dead master along with all of her other worldly possessions."
Kallig paused to let them laugh and, dutifully, they laughed as expected. When the required laughter had ended, he gave them their assignments.
"I'm going to let you two run things for a while, while I deal with Thanaton. I expect monthly reports, and I expect to see my credits grow." Turning to Andronikos, he said, "I'm sure you've done a good job teaching them what they need to know. I would have liked to have kept you here, running things, but I need your skills with a blaster and your underworld connections for my plan to kill Thanaton."
Andronikos was unhappy about this development, but he kept his mouth shut, merely shrugging his shoulders. Kallig returned his attention to his two lieutenants, and listened as they acknowledged their new orders.
Destris Veran, a human male, promised, "Don't worry, Lord Kallig. We won't let you down."
Rylee Dray, a human female, assured Kallig, "My lord, we'll also keep your front operations looking squeaky clean. People will still get medical treatment, so the money we launder through the free clinic will look like legitimate donations."
"See about getting actual donors to help fund the medical clinic," Kallig said, explaining with concern in his tone, "I don't want to have to use too many of my laundered credits to run it."
"Get actual donors. Got it," Rylee confirmed.
Several months later, Kallig's drawn out duel with Thanaton had reached a point where the military began to take sides. Thanaton had killed their big weapons research project, angering a very high ranking military official who took exception to his project getting axed.
Valion Pyron, a very powerful moff in the Imperial military hierarchy, and a vassal of Darth Thanaton, took advantage of the rift between Thanaton and his subordinate, Lord Kallig. Pyron used their enmity to convince the Sith lord to sign off on the continuation of the research and development of his super weapon. Kallig merely saw it as an opportunity to spite and embarrass Thanaton, so it was easy for Moff Pyron to sell the idea to the young Sith lord.
When Moff Valion Pyron approached Kallig, it was not just to get him to approve the continuation of research and development of the super weapon, but to ask that Lord Kallig secure technologies being developed by a small startup firm which Kallig owned via his crime ring.
"How do you know about my organization?" Kallig asked the moff, greatly surprised.
"In searching for appropriate technologies to adapt, copy, or modify, we came across Transformative Technologies. When seeking to make contact with the business, we came across your organization. When investigating your organization, we learned that you are its leader."
Kallig would learn from his lieutenants, some days later, that a group of investors had borrowed a large sum of money from his crime ring – and then failed to pay back the loan. During the resulting shakedown, his criminal organization had ended up owning the majority stake of a technology manufacturing firm, holding eighty percent of the shares.
Unfortunately, most of the original executives who ran the firm resigned, leaving the gangsters to run the business. Only the inventor of the technology and the senior engineers helping him to develop the technology remained.
"Who else knows?" Kallig demanded of the moff.
"I wouldn't doubt that Imperial Intelligence is aware of your business interests. Beyond that, I couldn't say, my lord."
Kallig was shocked to hear this news. He hadn't known about this acquisition. He began to wonder how much else his lieutenants had been keeping from him. In the meantime, he saw an opportunity to gain more power and new allies and acted on it.
"I'll approve and support your project. In exchange, you shall be my vassal. Answer to my calls, and help me to defeat Thanaton."
"My lord, I wouldn't have it any other way. However, until the weapon is tested and the Dark Council approves the production and deployment of the weapons system, my service to you needs to remain secret. If Thanaton finds out I've turned to you for support… Well, you can imagine what will happen if he finds out."
Kallig nodded agreement, saying, "Very well. The day that you testify before the Dark Council to present your completed and successful weapons system, sing my praises. Say that it's thanks to me, that the project was a success."
"That, I can and will do, my lord."
With that, Kallig secured the secret backing of the military – provided he could pull off a successful test of the ship-mounted super weapon. Meanwhile, Darth Thanaton, unknowingly, lost a significant amount of military power because of the secret defection of Moff Pyron to Kallig's side.
"Good," Kallig said, smiling his satisfaction and promising, "I'll go to Nar Shaddaa to get you that technology."
"As the owner of the controlling shares of Transformative Technologies," Moff Pyron said, smiling, "you're going to become even wealthier than you are now, my lord. Military defense contracts are quite lucrative."
When Lord Kallig returned to Nar Shaddaa, he found himself surprised that not only had his criminal organization really flourished beyond what he'd been told in reports, but that his organization had also become the target of rival criminal gangs which saw his operation as easy pickings. Kallig decided to put off dealing with his cheating lieutenants until after he took action to protect his organization and his criminal enterprise.
Over a period of several weeks, Lord Kallig had gone on a rampage, wrecking and ruining the rival gangsters' operations and killing a significant number of their thuggish members until the leaders called for peace, asking for a meeting to discuss terms for an end to the fighting.
Kallig had agreed to meet with the leadership of the rival gangs. He attended the negotiations with Andronikos Revel and Khem Val (or maybe it was Zash) backing him up. The rival gang leaders numbered five, and each of them had brought two body guards with them. Their alliance leader called the meeting to order.
"We're all here. Let's introduce ourselves."
"That's a good idea," Kallig agreed, saying, "I'll start. I am Kallig, Lord of the Sith." Then rhetorically, he asked a question – answering it himself, "Do you know why you've invited a Lord of the Sith to meet with you? It is to discuss peace." Then he asked another question. "And do you know the first tenet of the Sith Code?" He paused this time, looking at each of the leaders in turn, allowing them a few seconds to think about the answer before telling them with glee, "Peace is a lie."
Whereupon he drew and activated his sabrestaff, leaping into the attack, while Andronikos and Khem Val (or maybe it was Zash) stood back to watch the slaughter. Kallig betrayed their trust, murdering them all and leaving the, now leaderless, rival gangs in a state of collapsing ruin. He made them into pitiable object lessons from which all other potential rival gangs, with ideas of moving in on his operations, could learn from.
After the slaughter, later that day, he held a conference with his lieutenants and the officers of his criminal organization. He called to task his lieutenants, Destris and Rylee, for withholding information from him, including the fact that they were under attack by rival gangs. After scolding them and pointing out their errors, it seemed that he was done teaching them a lesson and was going to move on to the next topic, until he suddenly decapitated the two with his lightsaber, one right after the other.
The officers gasped and gave short startled shouts of surprise, before silence returned to the room. Only Kallig's lightsaber hummed its deadly promises of death as Kallig menacingly glared at his officers. No one in the packed conference room saw that attack coming at all, and no one dared speak a word of protest.
After a moment, Kallig powered down his weapon, returning it to his utility belt, and as he returned to his seat at the head of the conference table, he appointed new lieutenants to take over operations. The bodies of their former leaders lay in spreading pools of blood as he conducted business with his newly appointed lieutenants. They were shocked at how casually Kallig had killed both of their predecessors – who were well liked. Kallig warned the new leaders.
"Don't make the same mistake of thinking you can steal from me and get away with it. And don't keep me in the dark if a rival tries to move in on my enterprise. When that happens, I have to take action quickly to protect what's mine. Am I clear?"
His two newly appointed lieutenants nodded somberly, replying, "Yes, Lord Kallig."
Leaning against the wall at the side of the conference room next to Khem Val (or maybe it was Zash), Andronikos looked at Kallig's profile, thinking, "I'm definitely making a big pile of credits working for him." Then, looking down at the floor to look at the unexpectedly decapitated bodies, he considered, "but I think it's time for me to start planning my retirement."
Kallig continued his meeting with his newly appointed leaders and his other officers, going over strategies for the expansion of his criminal operations and other interests. However, it immediately became clear to him that, while his newly appointed lieutenants and their officers could run his criminal gang, they were woefully inadequate to run the technologies business. Under the management of the now deceased Destris and Rylee the business suffered, and he was sure the company wouldn't do any better under the management of his new lieutenants.
At stake was an almost guaranteed defense contract with the Imperial Navy, certainly worth hundreds of billions of credits over several years to supply custom made components manufactured by his company. He was tuned in to the stock market news, on his holo-transceiver, watching the ticker show the price dropping on shares of Transformative Technologies as the minority shareholders tried to dump their shares. Kallig worried he wouldn't have a company to win a defense contract with, if he didn't do something fast. He ended the meeting, deciding to split the technology business from the criminal enterprise.
Kallig turned to a professional headhunter, to help quickly recruit and hire professional industrialists and business men to bring the company back around, improve sales of their established product line, and to ramp up the company's operations, increasing the pace of research and development of the specialized technology in which the Imperial Navy showed interest.
In the meantime, he bought all twenty percent of the shares, which were being dumped by the minority shareholders. From their point of view the manufacturing firm was being mismanaged and was failing. Any price they got for their shares would be at a loss, but it would have been better than losing it all. They didn't know the Imperial Navy wanted their technology.
Kallig got sole ownership of Transformative Technologies, and then he took it off the stock market, making it a privately held company. After inking the contract with the Imperial Navy, Kallig recovered his considerable losses and watched his fortunes soar afterwards.
Several months later, Lord Kallig received an invitation from Moff Valion Pyron to witness the test firing of the Imperial Navy's new super weapon, code named, Silencer. Coincidentally, another task force of Imperial warships was ambushed by a Galactic Republic naval battle group with numerical superiority in the next sector and had called for reinforcements. The three moffs in attendance began to debate amongst themselves about the matter.
Moff Graham asked, "Do you think the Republic meant to interfere with this test, and were accidentally intercepted by the 3027th?"
Moff Pyron replied, "Regardless, their ambush was sprung in the wrong sector. Let the Republic waste their time there." Then he urged Lord Kallig, "We must complete the test firing, here, or we will lose our opportunity to win more funding from the Dark Council for the weapon system."
"We can't leave an ally to die!" Moff Dolus remarked with indignation, adding, "It would be tantamount to giving aid and comfort to the enemy!"
Moff Graham noted, "That's the Carnage, Darth Achelon's ship." Turning to Kallig, he asked, "You do know that Darth Achelon serves Darth Thanaton, don't you, my lord?" Then he advised, "Let him die."
Kallig was slightly stunned on hearing Graham's suggestion.
"There are four Imperial warships out there with thousands of Imperial soldiers and ships' crew serving aboard." He asked, "Don't we need every one of them for the war effort?"
"Exactly so, my lord!" Dolus agreed, adding, "We can't let our allies down!"
Pyron shook his head worriedly, telling the young Sith lord, "Lord Kallig, if we miss this opportunity to test the weapon, then all of our efforts will be for naught. We must produce results to continue to get funding."
"Then we shall do both," Kallig announced to the moffs, "We shall save valuable Imperial naval assets, and test the weapon. There are a whole lot of Republic warships that we can test this weapon on in the next sector."
Graham and Dolus both looked at Pyron, expecting him to explain things, and he did.
"Lord Kallig, we've never fired the weapon before. We don't know if…"
"Moff Pyron," Kallig interrupted at the edge of anger, "you didn't call me all the way out here, more than twelve sectors away from my important work, to test a weapon that has a high probability of not working. Did you?"
"The weapon will work, my lord, but we don't know what the energy throughput is, yet. It may fire successfully but end up only scorching the paint off of the enemy's hulls."
Resolutely, Kallig ordered, "Tell the Carnage to withdraw out of our field of fire. We will flank the enemy and engage them."
Pyron stomped his boot, snapping to attention with the two other moffs joining him.
"Yes, Lord!"
Kallig kept his pazaac face on, but he was shocked at the moffs' response to his order. He didn't expect such deferential obedience to him from such high ranking military officials. But he liked it. He liked it a lot. Kallig was legitimately a bona fide actual lord over Sith. Several weeks before Darth Zash had attempted to take control of his body, she had elevated him above ordinary Sith, granting him the title, Lord of The Sith.
However, because of his ongoing kaggath with Darth Thanaton, he'd been viewed by other Sith lords as a rogue with his days numbered. His title barely gave his words any weight in official circles. Having moffs treat him with such respect was intoxicating to him. It made him crave such deferential treatment even more.
Lord Kallig swore to himself again, for the umpteenth time, "I will destroy Thanaton, and force the Sith to recognize my power!"
Moff Pyron spoke to the admiral in command of the task force participating in the weapons system test.
"Admiral Karamon, you shall direct your ships to enter sector wesk fifty seven dash krill six twenty four dash dorn two five two (W57-K624-D252). There, you shall relieve the three thousand twenty seventh naval task force, which has been ambushed and currently under attack by Galactic Republic naval forces.
"As Task Force 3027 disengages the enemy, to withdraw from your field of fire, you shall use the Silencer weapon system, mounted on the Doombringer, to engage and destroy the enemy. The dreadnought Ruiner, its destroyer escort, and the Doombringer's destroyer escort, shall supplement the Doombringer's firepower as needed."
Admiral Karamon snapped to attention and, stomping his boot, barked out, "Yes, Moff!"
Kallig, Pyron, Dolus, and Graham stood quietly, watching as Admiral Karamon held an impromptu holographic conference with the captains of the two dreadnought warships and the captains of their six destroyer escorts, giving them their orders. They watched as the admiral then coordinated with the executive officer, an admiral, of Task Force 3027 on precisely when to maneuver out of the field of fire to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.
The Doombringer, the Ruiner, and their six heavy destroyer escorts traveled for an hour in hyperspace, exiting hyperspace precisely one hundred and sixty thousand meters from the rear of the enemy's formation. Kallig looked up at the huge display monitor mounted on the command bridge's overhead, high above his head.
On the huge monitor above him, he watched the black markers against a soft white background, symbolizing the Carnage and two of its three escort destroyers disappear from the screen as the ships shot away into hyperspace. The third heavy destroyer escort ship had been disabled, rendered unable to maneuver, and so its marker remained on the screen.
The markers representing the Republic ships numbered nine, three super battle cruisers and six heavy destroyers. Kallig read the information on the display and learned that the Republic warships were concentrating their fires on the lone marker symbolizing the crippled Imperial Terminus-class destroyer even as they maneuvered to face the newly arrived Imperial warships, which were represented by another group of symbols marking their position.
The Doombringer's captain had been issuing commands, readying the Silencer super weapon to fire. Kallig and the three moffs intently watched the battle symbolized on the huge display monitor as the weapon was readied for firing. They were surprised by how very quickly the weapon built up its charge, less than fifty seconds.
A few moments later, an engineer involved in the development of the new weapon system rushed into the control bridge and made a beeline to the ship's captain. Kallig couldn't hear what was being said, but he could tell by the captain's expression that it was not something the captain wanted to hear. Yet, the captain gave a single curt nod, as though approving something. The engineer ran off.
As the engineer exited the command bridge, the captain announced, "Admiral Karamon, we'll have to fire the weapon continuously and shift targets to discharge the energy build up. The energy regulator has gone off line and the system is continuously building up a charge without let up. We will overload and blow up if we do not discharge this excess power. I will attempt to target as many enemy ships as possible until the charge has been exhausted, after that, we'll have to rely on conventional weaponry to complete the counter ambush."
Admiral Karamon replied, "Very well, carry on."
Kallig asked, "How much of a charge have we built up to?"
Karamon nodded at the captain, giving him leave to address the lord of the Sith. The captain snapped to attention and reported.
"Captain Brance Tokk, commanding officer of the Doombringer, my lord. We are, as of the report given me by the systems development lead engineer, a moment ago, at two hundred and thirty eight percent and rising. If my lord will excuse me, I must issue orders to the targeting team."
"Carry on, then."
"Thank you, my lord." Then, to his subordinate, "Weapons Officer, target the ships from left to right, for two seconds each. Sweep the beam across each target, and do not interrupt the discharge of the weapon. Continue to repeatedly sweep the targets for two second intervals until the weapon system is depleted."
"Yes, Captain!" replied the weapons officer.
Then she proceeded to direct her team on reprogramming the targeting parameters.
Moff Pyron told Admiral Karamon, "Order the task force to prepare for a prolonged engagement."
"Understood, Moff!"
"Then contact the Carnage and ask them to return to the fray."
"Yes, Moff!"
The weapons officer called out, "Target parameters have been completed. Ready to fire on your command, Captain!"
Without hesitation, Captain Tokk ordered, "Commence firing!"
Nearly simultaneous to the captain's order, Admiral Karamon ordered, "Task Force, ATTACK!"
The triangular Harrower-class dreadnought has a split bow. In between the split bow, recessed about a third of the length of the ship, are two humongous hanger bays, one directly over the other. On the Doombringer, the two hanger bays had been merged into one enormous space, converted to accommodate the machinery for the enormous Silencer super weapon system, of which Transformative Technologies' components made up a small but indispensable part.
The Silencer's muzzle was a giant ring, three hundred meters in diameter, which created a magnetic field used to focus the energy beam when the enormous energies were discharged. It was called the focusing ring.
At the forward most tips of the split bow was another magnetic ring which was mounted on electromagnetic gimbals. This was the targeting ring. It swiveled in order to direct the weapon's energy beam at the target. The targeting ring swiveled from its neutral forward facing position, with its aperture swiveling to target the left most enemy ship.
The targeting computer had begun the Silencer's programmed firing profile. Starting with the leftmost ship in the enemy's formation, the energy beam stayed on target for two seconds before the continuously discharging energy beam was swept to its next target. The Silencer's energy beam was deep red. It was almost gossamer in its appearance as one could see the stars tinted red through the dimly lit beam.
A short time had passed, when Kallig heard the weapons officer give the command to lock the Silencer super weapon to a fixed coordinate. Kallig looked at the overhead display to see which of the targets the weapon was being locked onto. The Sith lord became disappointed at the new weapon system, becoming disgusted at the whole thing when he saw that there were still nine targets on the display.
"We'll be lucky if this thing has enough power to at least cripple one of their ships. What a phenomenal waste of my time this has all been!" About his business, he thought, "Well, at least I already recovered my initial losses and made a profit before my company will go out of business. Or maybe I can sell it before the navy cancels the contract…"
Absolute silence reigned among the bridge crew in the control bridge of the Doombringer. The only sounds were from the fans and blowers keeping the computers and other various systems cool, and the rush of air circulating through the air cleaners to keep the air breathable and comfortable.
Kallig looked around the bridge, as the moffs stood in stupefied silence, waiting for a report from the ship's captain. The ship's captain and his weapons officers looked at the targeting information at the weapons control console, whispering to each other about the information they were trying to interpret. Meanwhile the Silencer continued discharging its rapidly recharging power banks.
Kallig looked up again at the tactical display monitor high overhead and noticed that none of the symbols representing the Imperial warships were moving, except for the Carnage and its two remaining heavy destroyer escorts, dropping out of hyperspace as they reentered the battlefield.
"What's happening here? Why aren't the ships of the task force attacking?!"
Moff Pyron turned to Kallig with a very grave expression on his face and spoke somberly.
"My Lord. We have, single-handed, destroyed the entire enemy task force."
It turned out that two seconds of continuous fire on each ship was overkill. After the first second of firing, the next second of energy discharge was wasted on a rapidly expanding cloud of debris which the overhead monitor still labeled as enemy ships. At the end of twenty two seconds the beam continued to fire, but all nine enemy ships had already been obliterated.
The area each ship had once occupied had become nine dangerous fields of giant shrapnel that could shred fighters and small starships in an instant, and cause significant damage to the hulls of any warship that dared to pass through the ever expanding debris fields. Overtime, the nine discrete debris fields would eventually merge into one massive debris field, making this area a hazard to navigate. The task force navigator made the appropriate notations in the navigation log, which would be passed on to the entire navy, to alert Imperial warships of the navigation hazard.
Kallig was mystified. He couldn't believe it.
Incredulous, he said, "We've won. We've won and the Silencer worked! Yet everyone here is behaving as though we were at a wake!"
Moff Pyron spoke judgmentally, "I've never presided over a battle where we nearly instantaneously killed eighty to a hundred thousand ships' crews and ground troops in less than twenty seconds, Lord Kallig."
Kallig became angry on hearing this from the moff.
"We are at war, Moff Pyron. Have you forgotten? It's either us, or it's them! We have a new weapon system that will help to end the war much sooner – in victory for us! Countless Imperial lives will be saved, and if the enemy have the good sense to surrender after a few beatings with this new weapon, then it'll result in their lives being saved, too. Do not forget, that over an hour ago, you were willing to sacrifice four Imperial warships and their nearly forty thousand ship crews and ground troops, just to test the weapon!"
Moff Pyron was brought up short on that last statement. His anger began to rise until he realized the truth of it.
"My lord, you are quite correct. I apologize for my moment of weakness. Next time, I will work hard to prevent the loss of Imperial troops and ships and work feverishly to increase the slaughter of Republic forces."
Kallig wasn't sure what to make of that comment, whether the moff was speaking facetiously. He merely nodded his acknowledgment.
Captain Tokk announced, "Admiral Karamon, the engineering team have finally disengaged and powered down the charging generator." Turning to his subordinate, he said, "Weapons Officer, take the Silencer off-line and lock it down."
"Yes, Captain!"
Darth Achelon contacted the Doombringer personally, and thanked Lord Kallig for looking beyond his feud with Darth Thanaton and for saving his task force. To show respect for the honor shown him by Kallig, he agreed to bow out of the kaggath and to no longer support Thanaton. Thus he and his three apprentices defected from Thanaton's powerbase, a humiliating loss for Thanaton. Months later, after Kallig finally defeated Thanaton in the Dark Council chamber, Darth Achelon and his three apprentices pledged fealty to the newly elevated Darth Nox.
Moff Pyron submitted a holographic report, via courier, to the Dark Council, detailing the highly successful test firing of the new prototype super weapon system – under the direction and leadership of Lord Kallig, against enemy ships – and of the successful rescue of most of Darth Achelon's naval task force. The crippled heavy destroyer was a loss, but the surviving crew and troop complement serving aboard had also been rescued before the destroyer was scuttled to keep its technologies from falling into unfriendly hands. This report gave the Imperial Navy a much needed boost and made it much easier for them to sell the super weapon system to the Dark Council.
In light of the surprisingly short and one-sided battle, thanks to the Silencer, the Dark Council voted to approve production of the new weapon system to be retrofitted into some of the existing Harrower-class dreadnought warships, this, over the loud objections of Darth Thanaton, citing costs.
Future versions of the Harrower-class warship would be built with the weapon system natively integrated into them. With this, Lord Kallig returned to the Dark Council's notice, which also began to recognize his power, as Thanaton seemed to be having trouble keeping him in line or eliminating him altogether.
Eleven years later, Nox sat in the board room listening to the CEO's report. His technologies business was successful. Transformative Technologies continued to manufacture the components, which had to be replaced after only a few dozen firings of the weapon system, because the intense energies that coursed through those parts wore them down quickly.
Following the early extreme successes with the weapon system against the Galactic Republic Navy, the Republic Navy developed new tactics to mitigate the effectiveness of the Silencer super weapon system. In the end, the Imperial Navy only built forty of the new Harrower-class variants, scrapping plans to build the remaining two thousand nine hundred and sixty of the ship class variant incorporating the new weapon system. The Imperial Navy chose, instead, to maintain those few hundred ships which had been modified with the weapon system along with the forty new ships with the integrated weapon system.
While their effectiveness against maneuvering naval targets decreased as the Republic's naval tactics improved, they remained quite effective against static space stations and bases on planets, moons, and asteroids. However, the days that this weapon system would finally be scrapped were nearing. The commanding officers of the modified dreadnoughts were increasingly reluctant to fire the weapon, because after only a few dozen shots, the ship had to be taken out of service and docked to refit the weapon system. Each refit took about thirty days to complete and cost just over a billion credits.
In the meantime, Nox's business was thriving. In addition to the contract to supply the Imperial Navy with those components, the company, looking to the future and the eventual discontinuation of support for the Silencer super weapon system, had developed new technological products with non military applications, using a drastically scaled down and greatly modified version of the technology used in the super weapon system.
It was intended for the civilian manufacturing market sector. These light manufacturing technologies enjoyed a respectable share of the light industrial manufacturing market, both in Hutt space and in Sith Imperial space.
However, Transformative Technologies had several serious issues to contend with. The problems the executives were encountering stemmed from attempted breaches to their security across their computer networks and successful and unsuccessful physical breeches against their various manufacturing plants and the company's headquarters.
On several occasions, attempts had been made to slice into their computer systems to steal information. However, these slicing attacks were successfully thwarted by the business' cyber security section. Additionally, thieves actually broke into the facilities, after hours, to commit sabotage and or theft.
A security consultant, the executives of Transformative Technologies had hired, suggested that the S.I.S., the Galactic Republic's spy organization, may have been behind the attempted breaches in security. The Neimoidian female security consultant demonstrated how she believed the S.I.S. was carrying out their slicing operations. The network systems manager explained this to Nox.
"Frima Wol, the holo-net security consultant we hired, showed me that by accessing the physical holo-net hardware through which our data flows, in the central network hub thirty sub-stories below, the S.I.S. have been connecting directly to the physical lines and singling out our data stream to access our networks. Fortunately, our networks are encrypted, and so far they don't have the proper encryption keys to be able to read our communications. Plus, we've taken to changing the encryption algorithm, and their keys, every week. The consultant also thinks the thieves were hired by the SIS."
Darth Nox turned to his CEO and told him, "Get Mulaboo on. I want to talk to him."
Veld Ming Terrek nodded to his secretary.
Shortly thereafter, the holographic image of a male Twi'lek appeared above the conference table.
"Offices of the mighty and regal Mulaboo The Hutt. Who calls?"
"I'm Veld Ming Terrek, CEO of Transformative Technologies. The sole owner of Transformative Technologies is here with me. He wishes to speak with Mulaboo The Hutt."
The Twi'lek asked, "And? What is this sole owner's name?"
"Darth Nox, Dark Lord of The Sith and a ruler on the Sith Empire's Dark Council."
The Twi'lek, initially startled, quickly recovered his cool as he replied, "I will tell his most resplendent and august mogul of this most auspicious caller. Please bear with me as I announce Darth Nox to Mulaboo The Hutt."
Word of Darth Nox's previous visit to Nar Shaddaa, only three months prior, had gotten around to the Hutts and was still fresh in their minds. None of the Hutts wanted to provoke the Sith Empire anymore than had already been done. The top Hutt moguls were still very sore at the Jedi Council and at the Galactic Republic for the trouble which the Hutts had very narrowly averted with the very warlike Sith Empire.
The Hutts had expelled several dozen Galactic Republic diplomats and Jedi representatives, ordering the closure of a Jedi enclave on Nar Shaddaa as punishment for the stunt that nearly put them in jeopardy with the Sith Empire. The sight of the Imperial warships, which Nox had brought with him, in orbit over their moon, was most unnerving. Though the Hutts complained to the Sith Empire about the breach to their sovereignty, they accepted the excuses given them by low level Imperial diplomatic officials, thus sweeping the matter under a rug.
Very shortly thereafter, the image of a corpulent slug-like creature, adorned with tattoos and jewelry, appeared. He spoke through his interpreter. Listening to the Hutt's deep, guttural Huttese translated into Huttese accented Basic was grating on Darth Nox's nerves, but he put up with it for the sake of conducting business.
Speaking through his interpreter, Mulaboo The Hutt said, "The infamous and most famous of all Sith lords in our times! I am honored to speak to a personage such as you. I am pleased to be involved in many business arrangements with you, both through your private business enterprises and through your official governmental operations. I hope that your presence here signals new opportunities for us to enter into new business arrangements. How can I be of service?"
Nox reciprocated with a wordy greeting of his own, but to the Hutt mogul's chagrin, Nox's greeting was filled with disparaging observations which, according to Hutt culture, was offensively disrespectful towards the Hutt mogul. Tenants were not supposed to speak to landlords in that manner.
"Mulaboo, most notable mogul, I am pleased to be greeted in such a warm manner. It gives me confidence that you truly appreciate my business. However, I have cause to be much less than happy with some of the services provided at the facilities I have been leasing from you."
With this, in accordance to Hutt custom, Mulaboo The Hutt and Darth Nox set the tone and scope of the coming dialogue.
Mulaboo The Hutt, feigning shock and dismay, replied, "Hearing of your dissatisfaction troubles me greatly. I am chagrined to learn that we have fallen short and have failed to meet your expectations. Please tell me precisely how we've failed, so that we can make things right."
Darth Nox knew the Hutt would immediately deny fault and deflect responsibility back at Nox's people, which Nox would then have to follow up with detailed specifics of how the Hutt was at fault. However, Nox was not going to follow the full dance routine with the Hutt. He was going to get right to the point. He knew it would anger the Hutt, but Nox did not have a lot of time to waste on Hutt niceties and Hutt manners to get the concessions he needed from them. He mixed truth with lies, and exaggerations with threats to strengthen his complaint.
"SIS agents are successfully slicing into my computers at my businesses and at the Sith Empire's facilities. We know the SIS is bribing your holo-net administrators to gain physical access to our lines. This needs to stop immediately.
"If you cannot make it stop, I will move my private businesses out of your facilities, and I will order all Imperial diplomatic services, and other Imperial government assets, to move out of your building. I will take all of our business to one of your rivals."
While Nox's private businesses had only a tiny presence in Mulaboo's building, the Sith Empire's official presence made up fully fifteen percent of Mulaboo's occupancies. Compared to Felban The Hutt's building, Mulaboo's building was small, about a fifth the size of Felban's. So, losing the Sith Empire as a tenant would really hurt the Hutt mogul's rental and leasing business.
"We pay an additional percentage on our leases for security" Nox complained, "Yet thieves find it incredibly simple to slip past your security forces and routinely break into my business."
To drive the point home while further embarrassing the Hutt mogul, Nox added, "I hope those are not your own security forces that are proving to be systemically corrupt. I hope these failures are third party contracted security services that are failing both you and me. If so, then it would be a simple matter for you to replace the contractors. For thieves to so easily bypass so many guards can only mean they sleep at their posts, or are so easily bribed to look the other way. Perhaps they are not adequately paid for their work."
The Hutt mogul, so very offended and so thoroughly humiliated, forgot himself and spoke to Nox in very good Galactic Republic accented Basic. Doing so betrayed his frustration at having been told so very bluntly by a tenant, although a very important tenant, about the short comings of his facilities' services.
"I will investigate this problem," the Hutt said, tersely.
"Good," Nox replied congenially, "I hope it will lead to improvements in your services. I am pleased that you will find a solution that will yield favorable results for both of our interests."
The Hutt mogul, thoroughly angered, cut the connection without a reply.
Nox immediately turned to his CEO and said, "Veld, stay on top of this. If you don't see an immediate improvement, or if you see an elevated rate of attacks, report it to me immediately."
"Yes, Dark Lord."
"Is there anything else that I need to know about?"
"Actually, there is something I'd like you to consider, Dark Lord. As a recap, please be assured Transformative Technologies is doing very well. We have developed new tech that has opened new avenues for growth.
"With that in mind, please note that we will eventually outgrow these facilities. We will hit a wall in product output as our need to ramp up production becomes ever more hampered by the physical constraints of our present manufacturing center. I would like leave, to buy real estate to build a larger manufacturing facility to expand our operations, or possibly to move our whole operations to."
Incredulous, Nox asked, "Have you any idea what real estate costs on Nar Shaddaa, or on Hutta for that matter?!"
"Dark Lord, I was thinking Quesh, Makeb, Ziost, or even Dromund Kaas. However, I would like to avoid relocating to Imperial space, if possible."
Through The Force, Nox felt a sudden surge of anger, fear, and hostility from the executives of Transformative Technologies seated at the conference table with him.
"Avoid Imperial Space? Why?" Nox quickly added, "And for reasons I will not state, stay away from Makeb."
The CEO of Transformative Technologies, replied, "Aside from the components we manufacture for the Imperial Navy, our new line of products have non-military uses, and it would be profitable to be able to do business with all markets, not just those aligned with the Empire."
Nox shook his head slowly side to side in utter amazement. He was honestly shocked at what his CEO suggested. He was taken by such surprise that he burst into loud laughter, looking at the horrified and outraged faces of the corporate executives seated around the table with him. Their anger filled eyes were all aimed at the CEO.
They knew of his ideas of opening new markets for their business. However, to suggest potentially treasonous behavior to a dark lord put all of their necks on the line, not just Veld's neck.
When he stopped laughing and took a moment to compose himself, Nox said, "I can't believe you are actually asking a dark lord, seated on the Dark Council, to knowingly trade with an enemy with whom we are at war."
CEO Veld Ming Terrek suppressed a pang of dread as he replied calmly and in a businesslike manner, "Businesses in Hutt space are neutral and are much freer to do business with whomever pays."
Nox, deeply impressed, could feel Veld's internal struggle to hold his fear in check, even as he exuded a facade of steadfast confidence. Veld began to fear that he had made a terrible miscalculation, overestimating Nox's greed.
Despite his growing fears, Veld Ming added as though it were a bonus, "Plus we will be selling products that only have civilian applications to those other markets."
Nox explained, "The difficulty lies in that I – a dark lord on the Dark Council – am the sole owner of this business. It'll look very bad for me, politically. I can't chance that."
The executives of Transformative Technologies nodded their heads vehemently in agreement with the dark lord.
He won the executives' approval when he added, "If Transformative Technologies sold these civilian application only products to non-Imperial traders – not aligned with the enemy, then I would be satisfied with that." However, he surprised them all when he added, "I am too busy to notice if these wholly unrelated businesses, which I do not own, and which I have no control over, unscrupulously distributed our civilian only application products to Republic scum – while in Hutt controlled space.
"I am not responsible for where unrelated third – and fourth – party businesses sell goods that I manufacture. If they get caught, it's their problem." He added, "Of course, these third and fourth party businesses, which I have no control over, would need to hide the fact that the manufacturer is an Imperial owned business. The Republic would likely confiscate such goods."
Using this dialogue, Nox conveyed – without actually saying it, how to set up third and fourth party buyers and distributors who could do business in Republic space from Hutt space, without directly connecting Nox's business to those transactions, and how to hide this fact from the Republic. Nox did not convey to his corporate executives that he'd already been selling art and other goods in Republic space, for years, through third party art dealers and import export traders.
Veld Ming Terrek was greatly relieved that he had succeeded in selling Nox on the idea and that his neck was saved.
"In that case, Dark Lord, I think we can settle on Quesh. It's still in Hutt space, so it will be easier to hide the fact that we are an Imperial owned business. We can sell our goods to dealers in Imperial space and in Hutt space. It's their business where in the galaxy our goods are ultimately distributed."
"Keep me informed," Nox said, simply.
He rose to his feet, as did everyone else at the table. Nox walked out of the boardroom. Even before the doors slid completely shut, he could hear the angry execs begin shouting their questions at Veld Ming Terrek, the CEO of Transformative Technologies. The doors slid shut, cutting off their angry voices. Nox laughed out loud at their consternation, deciding to give the CEO a large bonus and pay increase.
Just as he reached the reception lobby outside of the executive office suite, he spotted a diminutive figure dressed in a stark black hooded robe with dark red accents. The lone figure wore a featureless matt black mask underneath the hood, which was pulled over the head. It was as though there were a void where a face should have been.
The individual quickly rose from where she'd been sitting. Nox could see that the rigid matt black armored breast plate, attached to the flexible matt black armored tunic, was shaped to accommodate the female form. The very short female knelt before him.
"Dark Lord, you honor me greatly by summoning me. I am ready to serve at your side. What is your will, Master?"
"Let me see your face, Darth Virulous."
He felt no emotions emanate from her as she pulled back her hood and removed her armored capped mask, revealing the top of her head and her face. Her face was an emotionless mask. Her eyes were cast down. Despite how well she masked her feelings with The Force and with a stony sabacc face, Nox knew she had to be filled with apprehension at the least.
But Nox nodded with approval at what he saw. He stepped closer to where she knelt and bent down to inspect her short but growing jet black hair, which just covered her ears. He examined her scalp closely along the part in her hair. He took note of the fragrance of her shampoo and became excited and aroused by her scent. Then he realized how near he was to her, almost touching.
Nox quickly stepped back, struggling to keep his feelings hidden as he told Virulous, "The physicians of Manaan are renowned for their medical prowess. They have lived up to their reputation. It is as though no harm had ever befallen you."
Nox could see relief show on her face very briefly as he added, "It was money very well spent."
"Thank you, Dark Lord," was her heartfelt reply, adding, "I swear I shall repay my debt to you."
"It is your reward," Nox said magnanimously, "for a job very well done, both on Tatooine, and on Nar Shaddaa." Recalling how she'd been defeated by the Jedi, he added, "Despite your very poor state, you succeeded in keeping that Jedi away from my servant, and protected my ship until my arrival."
Not wishing to give the impression that he was getting soft, he hurriedly added, "If you had suffered no injuries and were beaten by that Jedi, it would have been an embarrassment. Your terrible wounds, though, gave you a terrible handicap that he was too weak to fully exploit. It was his failure."
Virulous was not sure how to accept his seemingly grudging praise, and she didn't believe she did well at all against that Jedi, so she simply replied, "Yes, Dark Lord."
Nox was embarrassed at himself for becoming flustered after discovering his attraction to his apprentice, and it angered him.
"We have work," he said gruffly, "Follow me. I will brief you on the ship."
Khem Val had been standing quietly in the corner of the reception office observing the interaction between the two.
He asked himself, "What has she done to trouble my master so?"
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