Off Course


Interlude

"No matter what you think of your enemy, no matter what propaganda you were fed in your education, never, ever underestimate him. You can detest his guts, you can call him a blithering fool, but never forget, you are there to kill him, and he you."
—Excerpt from a military lecture circa yonks ago; the Jedi and the Sith are still fighting over credit.


Though to all appearances he was surveying the endless flows of traffic, Darth Sidious' mind was far removed from the mundane world, roaming about in the distant reaches of the Force, plodding along paths of past and probability, future and certainty.

Visions flitted by just as fast and numerous as the speeders out there in the real world. Visions of woe, suffering, failure and problems. And bankruptcy, it seemed. SithCo shares would be taking a nosedive in three days.

In short, things were not going as he had foreseen.

Upon reflection, it was partially his own bloody fault. Events had transpired superbly up to the Battle of Geonosis, and he got careless. Instead of carefully playing the market and seeing what the future held in store, he had devoted his time to politics. And it showed. He was three steps away from being Galactic Emperor in terms of power, but, it was now a race between the Jedi and financial ruin as to who would foil his schemes. After all, bribes were not cheap, and what good would be mere destruction of the Jedi Order if he could not hold onto his power?

Along with his stocks, the pall of the Dark Side had lessened, and the Jedi managed to sneak an entire conspiracy under his nose. Not only had they foiled – though probably unwittingly – one of his schemes to sever ties between Anakin and the Order, but they also greatly embarrassed and inconvenienced him.

Getting back into good graces with the public was not that hard, his spin artists were, after all, the best in the Galaxy, and credits solved all kinds of problems nowadays, but that was not important. What was important were the political and logistical implications of the Order's rebellion.

Loyalist systems had gotten a second wind, and began to go vocal over several of his policy decisions. Marginal senators were beginning to sway toward the Loyalists, and even some of his own powerbase was in danger of fracturing. Above all that, he could no longer go along with the Clone Wars and his original plan. By his latest estimate, nearly 87% of the Jedi Order had withdrawn from the Galaxy. No matter his ultimate goal, the Jedi were great commanders, and their absence from the battlefield caused the Republic to lose several engagements that ought to have been won. This had prompted him to push the Sector Governance Decree ahead of schedule, which got passed by an uncomfortable majority of two.

Even so, the balance of the war had shifted toward the CIS, and many – Bel Iblis most prominent among those – began to speculate that he was not suitable for command, and unable to deliver victories without the Jedi. Others were even so brazen as to say that he used the Order as a smokescreen for political machinations. It was, all of it, the uttermost truth, but the Galaxy was not to now it.

Things were dire, yes. He was out a lot of favour, a bit of power, a bunch of scheming and down a few plans. But it was not all lost. Dooku still needed to be offed, his next apprentice needed to be turned, the Jedi Order had to be hunted down and a plan needed to be devised to eliminate both the Temple Remment and the Exiled bunch. Kenobi's little insurrection on Mandalore needed to be addressed – Sidious still didn't know how he pulled it off – and there were a not-so-metaphorical thousand-and-one brushfires that needed putting out. Including Alderaan, Corellia, and Caamas…

Caamas!

The Death Star was not yet ready to shoot at planets – well, it could, but the planet in question would be, more likely to giggle "That tickles!" rather than explode. But Caamas, it relied heavily on energy shields and generators. Whereas Alderaan would take a superlaser, Caamas could be destroyed with a fairly small contingent of agents, and some masterfully positioned capital ships for orbital bombardment.

A thorn in his side would be removed, the people of the Republic would rally behind him as he launched an investigation into the destruction of the planet, and the Jedi would be either crippled by the effect on the Force such a momentous loss of life would invoke, or, they would withstand it and come gunning for his head.

Either or, they could be trapped. And eliminated.

Feeling once again invigorated, Darth Sidious darted for his holoterminal, a spring in his step such as had not been present in well over a year. He had calls to make, officers to pay off, and evil deeds to indulge in.

All was not proceeding as he had foreseen, but all was proceeding, once again, on track to total Sith dominance of the Galaxy.

Now if only he could figure out where he left his phonebook….


And here's a little interlude to bridge the gap between the Mandalore Arc and the Coruscant Arc. I felt that I have neglected Sidious and his evil schemels long enough, and it was high time we saw what he was doing. Plus, it was a good warm-up for me after my start-of-year break!

Actually, you could probably thank Dire Straits for me putting this chapter up today, I was actually planning on writing it the week after next, but after listening to a few albums during a long commute put me in a cheery mood, so here it is, short but to the point.

There is not much to say about this chapter, I did try to tone down the ridiculous humour we saw in Chapter Three, but a little bit did get through...

Caamas and it's destruction come from The Thrawn Duology, those being two obscure little books, I'll give a quick rundown of canon events:

• Caamasi were a very peace-loving culture, first signatories to the Republic sonstitution and devoute diplomates. They kind-of went the way of Mandalore. During the early gears of the Empire, they were getting too vocal over Palpatine's methods, so he went ahead and ordered the planet's destruction.
• Caamas had no military, (what's it with Star Wars and no planetary militaries, anyway?) they were protected by very powerful energy shields. So, circa 17-16 BBY, Palpatine got a bunch of Bothans to do the logical thing: sneak in, blow them up. After which the imp fleet Base Delta Zero'ed it.

That's about it.

Oh, before I go. My will finally broke down, and I decided to spoof some non-Star Wars things I've come across. Right now I'm taking a wrechking ball to Mass Effect Canon over with "Reap THIS!" (see profile for link). Also on my list are Back to the Future, Independance Day, the Honorverse and possibly Terminator.

Reap THIS is on a "whenever I feel like" posting schedule, and the others are just concepts, so Off Course should be finished without major interruptions.

As always, thanks for reading, and your wonderful support, and May the Fiction Be With You!

Clean word Count: 869 | Published: 13/01/15, 1123 GMT