Legend of the Harp
Episode I: Birth of a Jedi
Chapter 14: Diplomat
***Jedi Knight Jors Zaemon, Dandoran***
"I'll try diplomacy, but if it doesn't work, I want the planet." Furry said in that flat, menacing tone he had developed since he apparently became some sort of nano-creature.
"Well, let's just try diplomacy first." I replied.
I knew we had a variety of cards up our sleeves and we were hardly helpless. At the same time, I knew about a million things that could go wrong. Having seen a lot of combat, I knew firsthand how many ways things could go wrong.
We had flown into Dandoran space together. Furry in his "Revenge" and us in the Bearer. We had docked and Furry came over. Furry's new friend would keep a low profile in Revenge and Furry would fly down with us. Bearer's Vultures would stay top side with Revenge. Couldn't do that with humans in fighters, but droids would be happy to stay sitting there in hard vacuum on Revenge's upper deck indefinitely.
Furry had come over with pictures. Korpluck looked like it was in good shape.
"We'll go in, just you and me Furry. We'll leave Bayo and Fio on the ship." I said.
"That sounds good to me, but I think Shield should come with us." He replied.
Furry's spooky robot was with him as well.
"Fine." I answered.
I didn't like leaving Shield around Bayo and Fio anyway. There were enough damn droids around as it was.
Fio still was nowhere close to assembling her lightsaber. She had her practice balls. She could move one fist size ball around fairly comfortably. The second was a bit more stiff. The third, not much. But she was making progress. I hoped once we got done with the Hutt, we'd have more time to work together.
With nothing else to stop us, we got a good night's sleep. This was going to be a long day before us, and then we orbited in to land at the Hutt's palace at the beginning of the tenth hour of the day.
We landed outside his front gate and took the lift down.
The Hutt's palace was a huge armorcrete dome with four surrounding armorcrete towers. Each tower had a fairly serious looking gun on it, which could likely be used against ships or ground invaders.
We approached the doors. They appeared to be a tall ornamental arch, opening in the middle, made of some thick durasteel. The doors had heavy durasteel bands which had been highlighted in ever so modest gold.
No one seemed to greet us, so I knocked. For once, I was wearing my gauntlets. I had on the Stage One calf and forearm armor. Well, it looked like Stage One, it had been reworked by Furry's armorer droids so now it had the best solid armor Furry could come up with, and I know how he agonized over it, then a layer of Zillo beast protection as well. I was also wearing the Zillo beast jacket and pants. I had declined to wear the helmet and was wearing a felt hat that was a twin to the wide brimmed, stove pipe hat that Furry was wearing, though I know it had a dose of Zillo beast goodness as well. My pistol was on my hip, for show only, I hoped. My saber was in the map case in the small of my back as usual.
A camera eye popped out and in Huttese asked, "What is your business here?" In a very brusque and rude tone.
I replied, in modestly polite Huttese, "The Hutt asked me to do an errand on his behalf. I have returned with a report."
The camera retracted. A few moments past.
"That's a strange response." Furry said.
"They're figuring out who we are and deciding what to do." I answered.
Finally, the door opened and there stood Digozeev the Devaronian, "Where is the beast? Is it in the ship?"
Since Digozeev had spoken in galactic standard I replied in kind, "It's not in the ship. But I do have some information I think the Hutt would want."
"You no bring the beast, Hutt make you broken, take his remaining anger out on town. Hutt been very patient with you. No hurt town yet. Could lose patience." Digozeev explained.
"That's why I'm here with a report. Wouldn't want the Hutt to think I ran off or was defying him." I answered politely.
"You give me the information. I tell Hutt. You go get beast." Digozeev said.
"It is bad news, but I know what a reasonable and even-tempered sort the Hutt is, so I'll tell you and be on my way. Though I would be willing to tell him myself if you prefer." I replied.
"Maybe better you tell Hutt." Digozeev said.
"Maybe you're right, is he available at the moment? We'd be happy to get this all sorted out right now." I said.
"I take you." Digozeev said.
Digozeev then led us back past a bunch of Gamorrean mercenaries to the throne room. The throne room might have had some barbarian splendor, unfortunately the phony gaudy displays and filth ruined it. There were a number of mercenaries, bounty hunters and assorted low life hangers on around the place.
The Hutt asked in Huttese, "Where is the beast? I have been very patient, but my patience is not unlimited."
"I appreciate your kind patience mighty Hutt." I began in Huttese then continued, "I have faced many dangers on your behalf. My ship has been lost. I and some of my companions have been wounded and one of my companions has died in your service. All for your honor. I do not have the beast, but I know where it is."
"Where is it?" The Hutt asked.
"This man," I said gesturing to Furry, "has it."
Furry bowed ever so slightly.
"Give it to me." The Hutt said.
"I'm hardly likely to give up the beast to a lowlife gangster like you. Probably just so you can give it back to the Empire for a few Credits." Furry said.
I wanted to put my face in my hand. We had figured the Hutt was trying to recover the creature for the Empire, but if we asked nice, we might have been able to figure out what the Empire was offering and match it in some way. Okay, maybe not the best plan, as there would be nothing to stop the Hutt from taking the money and then still demanding the beast, but it was at least worth a try. I had no idea why Furry had been so rude!
"Give it to me and I will not torture the two of you to death." The Hutt said.
"Belike the price of a Jackal's meal were more than a thief could pay." Furry said.
Why was Furry quoting classics now!
"Take them! We will torture what we want out of them!" The Hutt bellowed.
Two blasts, a split second faster than my lightsaber could be in my hand came from recessed holes in the wall. Luckily, Shield was a split second faster than they were and had a deflector shield up around us and the blasts were dispersed without harm.
Then my saber was in my hand and Furry's sabers were in his. As I began to deflect shots away, I noticed that Furry had one double green saber and one double blue. On his double blue, one could really see the new Kyber crystal, I had never seen a darker blue saber. Kind of cool.
It took me a few shots, but then I was deflecting bolts back into the crowd. Furry started by doing that while he shot one of the hole shooters with a third arm and Shield shot the other. Then Shield started unloading rapid-fire on the crowd like a destroyer. There was a lot of screaming and running. Not everyone in that throne room was a hardened killer and many of those that were, were not there to die for the Hutt.
I felt the floor shake, then roll and heard the echoes of huge explosions from outside.
The room was mostly empty, and the Hutt's pedestal started to back away.
"No, no, no." Furry said and grabbed the pedestal with the Force, dragged it back forward clearly breaking the thing's motivator unit. A stream of smoke began to come out the side.
I could hear blaster fire coming from the entrance. Bayo led in a detachment of Commando droids, clearly painted in Furry's colors with a Harp on the right shoulder and upper left chest of each. Bayo was wearing what looked like his Phase II armor. It had the same forest green highlights and demi-cape. I knew Furry's armorer droids had breathed on it.
Furry looked at me.
With a bit of exasperation, I turned to Bayo, "Captain remain here with us. Have the soldiers sweep the palace. Kill everything, but what's in the dungeon. Bring any other Hutts alive here."
Furry and I had discussed this eventuality. Bayo went back and gave orders and the droids marched off.
One could hear blaster fire elsewhere.
We turned back to the Hutt.
Furry began, "I don't want to be at war with you or your kind. It's not convenient. Do you think you could see your way clear that we could come to some sort of terms where we could have peaceful coexistence?"
"You will be punished for this outrage!" The Hutt bellowed.
We stood and stared at each other for a while. I'd never seen such an angry Hutt. Then droids brought in cages holding three Hutt females and a number of spawn.
"Are you sure of that?" Furry asked again.
"My wives, my children, release them immediately!" The Hutt screamed desperately.
"If we can't come to terms, I don't really need to have them, or you, alive. Your death actually makes it easier to come to terms with the other Hutts. Arok has expressed a willingness to smooth things over." Furry said.
"I will negotiate." The Hutt said.
Furry pulled out a holotablet which he used to project a map. Then they negotiated. The Hutt would keep Doran City and the port, which were the only occupied parts of the planet and the only places of value. Furry would get several thousand empty square kilometers to the northeast as well as considerations in orbit and the outer system.
"Generally, you won't know we're here. You'll just have to restrain yourself from bothering us. If there are any issues, I will be happy to negotiate them with you in good faith. If there is a problem we can't resolve, I'll deal with Arok. Do you understand?" Furry finished.
"I understand and accept." The Hutt said.
We looted the Hutt's palace. Any substantial hard currency we took. Anything of real negotiable value, we took. Furry found his accounting work stations and looted his off-world accounts. We also reviewed the Hutt's dungeon. It had a variety of scum. We put them on a cheap speeder with instructions that if they were in Hutt space in a week, they'd be hunted down. We found some decent people, we put them on a nicer speeder, gave them some money and sent them on their way. There were a number of non-sentient monsters, those we euthanized.
Just as we finished sending the last people out, I got a commlink from Fio, "An Imperial Star Destroyer and troop carrier just showed up. There are a lot of Imperial Storm Troopers on the ground. I managed to get airborne before they closed up, I'm in orbit now and there are a lot of TIE fighter's chasing me."
I looked at Furry.
"We were kind of expecting this." He said.
We ran up to the front of the palace to see that the front door had been blown in. The entry hall was full of the carcasses of mercenaries Bayo and the droids had left. As we got outside, one could see the turrets on the four towers had been blasted. Bearer was gone. There were a huge number of Storm Troopers advancing toward us across the open grassy plain. Behind them were two big four-legged Walkers. They reminded me of our six legged tanks, only much bigger, more heavily shielded and much more heavily armed. Hanging low in the sky, was a massive Star Destroyer. At least there were no TIEs, they were up in the sky destroying Bearer and would be down shortly.
Across the space between our forces a clipped, formally accented voice announced, "Lay down your arms or you will be killed."
"Feel like laying down your arms?" I asked.
"Nope." Said Furry.
"How you want to handle this?" I asked.
"I'll take the Walkers. You run the troops. The girls will handle the ships." Furry said.
I didn't like the idea of Fio going up against the Star Destroyer, but she had already probably been killed by the TIE Fighters.
"Okay, let's do it." I said.
Furry and his robot literally lifted off the ground and flew off to the right.
The Storm Troopers were advancing and firing, but their accuracy was terrible. Reminded me of certain clones I'd once commanded. I raised my light saber.
One hundred meters, eighty meters, sixty meters, forty-five meters, thirty meters, my saber went down and the droids, who were well dug into the turf, fired and a huge number of Storm Troopers went down and most of the rest started looking for cover on the pitiless plain. Strangely, Droids were smart enough to be trained a lot like troops. Lots of trigger time and they became more accurate. More training and they learned to take initiative and they learned how to dig in as they were right now.
Suddenly, I was lying on my right side. One of the Walkers had missed just to the left. I had been watching Furry and his droid, they had moved around to the side, faster than the walkers could turn so they could flank. One walker was distracted and trying to turn to keep up, which meant one was blasting the turf trying to dig out our battle droids. The Storm Troopers seemed like they were trying to get reorganized, but they were well within our roughly ninety-meter range and were being shot down mercilessly by the droids. How many times had I seen scenes like this during the Clone Wars. Of course, the Empire was too good to keep clones around as officers and advisors, they would need to learn all the same lessons all over again.
Just then, Furry and his droid caught the right-hand walker and were inside almost immediately. The walker stopped moving for a minute, then it turned and fired on it's neighbor and it was very satisfying to see the left-hand walker's head explode.
I was thinking it might be nice to have that walker since we were still vastly outnumbered. Then Furry and his droid emerged from the walker just as the Star Destroyer blasted it. Then the Star Destroyer started raining down fire on us. The rain of fire provided very effective cover for the still hugely outnumbering us Storm Troopers.
Furry and I retreated into the front door of the palace. Furry sent his droid off. We couldn't communicate with Fio or Sky with the Star Destroyer above us blocking all communication. We hoped we might be able to establish communication if Shield could get out from under and would act as a relay.
***Ti Bault, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
Gall, Master Rain and I had found our way in through a back door on the east side of the Hutt's now smoking palace. We had heard the alert to the Empire from the Hutt that rebel Jedi were in his palace. We reconned through the palace as we expected to meet our quarry in the west entry hall. We eyeballed the throne room and saw the Hutt guarded by some commando droids. I could hear the sounds of a crazy battle outside.
***Jedi Knight Furin Kazan, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
Jojo and I backed into the entry hall. Jojo's clone friend was on one of the turrets, directing the battle. The Star Destroyer didn't seem interested in blasting the palace out of existence, yet. I was pretty durable, but a blast or two from one of the Star Destroyer's bigger guns could probably get the job done.
We heard something and turned around. There were the two from Aram station and a third, of Zhonghuan extraction if I was seeing him right.
Gall said, "You took my axe. I want it back."
"I'm afraid I don't have it with me." Jojo replied amused.
"Fine. I'll kill you and track it down, killing any who get in my way." Gall replied.
That made Jojo seem much less amused.
"Who's your friend?" Jojo asked.
"Oh, we have not had formal introductions. Master Rain of Fantuan, meet the last two Jedi." Gall introduced.
"It's not really necessary," I said. "We won't know each other long."
"No, we won't." Master Rain replied igniting two swords.
I didn't know if Master Rain's weapons were light sabers, some variant on shock weapons or a completely different technology. They were short, perhaps a meter long and had elaborate decorative handles. I imagined they would be fast. I was not disappointed.
He was so fast.
Of course, my sabers were in my hands. He had speed. I had reach. He had maneuverability. I had more blades. We moved so fast.
***Jedi Knight Jors Zaemon, Hutt Palace, Dandoran***
I could see Furry and Master Rain get going to my right, but I didn't have much time to analyze their fight because Gall was on me.
You'd think a man as big as Gall would be slower, but he was fast. You'd expect him to be strong. You wouldn't be disappointed. He clearly had a spare axe because he had brought it and my belly remembered the knife he wielded with such speed.
I still had reach and this time, I had spent some time thinking about what I might do if I ran into him again. So, I had some moves prepared.
***Ti Bault, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
Gall and Master Rain were fully engaged, I backed up and found a place to shoot from. Then I pulled out my rifle.
***Jedi Knight Furin Kazan, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
I was pushing Master Rain. He couldn't break my guard and every so often I swiped with one of my lower blades making him hop. The third time he hopped, I was ready. I hit him hard with the Force and a blade against his blades. I expected him to go down hard. Instead he did a series of back flips. I was just about to go after him when someone shot me!
***Jedi Knight Jors Zaemon, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
I had a plan for Gall. Move him to his right. When I was on his flank hard enough, I could take the axe and back slash to end this without giving that knife a chance. As he came around to face me again, I moved him again. I'd done it three times, each time getting me further to his flank, I was almost ready to make my move when I tripped over a dead bloody Gamorrean!
***Ti Bault, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
It was tricky lining up the shot. I didn't want to shoot Master Rain in the back, at least not till both Jedi were down. There was an opening, I lined up and fired. I got him!
***Jedi Knight Furin Kazan, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
Oomph. I'd been shot in the gut. Stingy, but meaningless. I had a second while Master Rain came back. There was Ti. He'd shot me again. I might as well return the favor. I shot him, and he went right down. I should be grateful to Ti, he made me realize right then and there that I was holding myself back. Again. I had wanted to see, for so long, how good was I really? I was holding back like this was a thrice damned sparring match at the Temple, not a street fight to the death. I turned up my pistol, widened out the blast and started shooting at Master Rain. To my surprise, the blasts had no effect, but he threw one of his swords at me with Force improved velocity. I barely deflected it and had to step awkwardly to my right.
Just then a huge series of explosions that just seemed to get louder and louder started outside.
***Jedi Knight Jors Zaemon, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
As soon as I tripped, that knife came for my back. Luckily, the knife had a long way to go so I somersaulted forward and came up just in time to parry one of those massive axe blows over my shoulder from my knees.
Only this time I was ready for it. Then a series of ever louder explosions started going off outside.
***Sky, On Revenge, above Dandoran***
I stood before the pilot's control console on Revenge. Somewhere down on the planet my Beloved was fighting for his life and what he believed in. I needed to help him. Normally Changed could sense each other and communicate, in fact, we could not avoid it. Since the Star Destroyer had shut down communications, I could not sense him. It was possible he was dead. I sent the signal.
I watched Bearer blast out of the atmosphere with a host of TIE Fighters on her tail. The Vultures and I launched. I kept a rock between us as I wanted to be on the perfect vector at the perfect moment when Bearer and the TIEs went by. At just the right moment, the Vultures and I slammed perfectly into their flank. We destroyed a huge number of the fragile craft in our first pass and it was enough to scatter the rest.
That gave Bearer time to barrel roll around and go on the attack. Then we were in a cloud of TIEs fighting for our lives. We carried the attack to the TIEs and pressed our attack, but there were just so many of them.
Eventually, it seemed like we would be swamped, our shields and weapon's banks were low. The first Vulture died screaming. A second was in trouble.
Six more ships exploded into the system and they attacked! The pirates were all here!
I engaged the B-Pack!
New energy flowed into Revenge.
I thought we would now have the advantage, but the Imperial forces had been maneuvering twelve TIE Torpedo Bombers into position to take us from the rear. They unleashed their torpedoes on our pirates. Some dodged, some shot the torpedoes down, but several took hits. Pride exploded. Divide was clearly crippled and started diving for the Star Destroyer.
I deployed the Big Gun and said into the commlink, "Vultures and Pirate Two on me. Everyone else, cut us a path."
We all dived into the Star Destroyer. Under normal circumstances, Revenge would be no match for the Star Destroyer. Yes, Revenge was packed tight with all sorts of high tech wonders and kilo per kilo was a much tougher ship, but the Star Destroyer was more than forty times her size. These weren't normal circumstances. The Star Destroyer had put itself at the bottom of a deep gravity well which meant she would have a terrible time maneuvering. She had depended on her cloud of TIEs to be more than a match for us, and they almost were. But too bad for her, they weren't.
Since the Star Destroyer was pinned, I fired the Big Gun and enjoyed watching it hit the Star Destroyer square. The Hammarchi sensors could see that the Star Destroyer's shields had really not liked that. That should have been it for the Big Gun for this battle. Except my Beloved had installed something called the B-Pack.
Revenge, despite being mostly a high-performance warship, still had a substantial cargo hold. That hold was now filled with a single piece of equipment, bespoke fit to fill every square centimeter of that hold, the B- or Battle Pack. My Beloved had found an energizer from the Foreaufai civilization which was much more powerful, but much less fuel efficient in his survey, the B-Pack had one of those. In addition, the B-Pack had a fuel tank and large energy reservoir for the Big Gun. Just as the Star Destroyer was managing to reorient it's shields and turn some guns toward us, I hit it again with the Big Gun and ordered through the commlink, "All torpedoes away."
The seven remaining Vultures fired their fourteen. Bearer fired eight, one of which was an Icer. I fired twelve, one of which was also an Icer. I kept the H-Torpedoes in reserve.
The thirty-two torpedoes went through the big hole in the Star Destroyer's shields and slammed into critical positions on the Star Destroyer I had been preparing while waiting for Bearer to be ready to join battle. The Destroyer was having a very bad time. There was now very little fire from it and it was listing. The crippled Vulture hit it and that didn't help, but I thought she might just still survive. Then Divide slammed into her and her main magazine detonated.
***Jedi Knight Furin Kazan, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
I was off balance for a second, but that was all Master Rain needed to call his blade back with the Force and be upon me. But my patience was done. One of his blades hit my lower left side and another my right shoulder. It was irrelevant. I cut him to pieces.
***Captain Bayonet, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
Standing on the parapet, it was one last glorious day in the Grand Army of the Republic.
With the Star Destroyer actually out of the battle, I now had some options.
"Mortars fire!"
We were still massively outnumbered, but we did have mortars. If we had fired them with the Star Destroyer above, that would have been giving the Imperials a gift, their counter battery fire would have been the end of that pretty quick. Instead our mortars fell into the enemy and caused terrible casualties as the idea of cover and maneuver still seemed to mean nothing to them.
"Second Force up!" I ordered.
Twelve guard droids salvaged from the Class Four freighters came out from under a turf blanket and opened fire. They were behind and to the right of the main body of Troopers and getting attacked by surprise from behind is something I had learned many times the hard way is bad for morale. It certainly was for these Troopers. Though to give them credit, the Troopers did okay, their grey uniformed officers though, they seemed like a panicky bunch.
The troopers continued to take terrible casualties and looked like they were starting to waver.
"Destroyers forward!"
Twenty Destroyers rolled to the front of my position and started unloading on the poor Storm Troopers who had no good answer, so they broke!
***Jedi Knight Jors Zaemon, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
I was on one knee, facing away from Gall and his Axe slammed down and my saber went up to parry. It was like someone hit me on my bare forearms with a durasteel pipe. Pinned as I was, I knew the knife was racing toward my back. However, if Master Windu had taught me anything, a fight like this isn't about weapons, or even technique, it's about one's connection to the Force. I didn't let in fear, I wasn't afraid to die. I let the Force fill me. I used my leg to spin off the ground, which spun me away from Gall's knife and swung my saber to the unprotected back of his axe. My saber went straight through his axe, pretty much ending it and continued down through his left wrist severing his left forearm and the knife from his body. It took a split second for the back cut and we looked each other in the eye for that moment. My saber had already passed through his body and he went down in pieces.
***Sky, On Revenge, above Dandoran***
With the sacrifice of the Divide, the fate of the Star Destroyer was sealed. There was a long set of sympathetic explosions resulting in the ship going nose down into the planet. I peeled up with the Vultures and Bearer behind me. Some of the TIEs tried to engage me, but they badly misjudged how fast I could go so their vector was bad. They paid dearly for that. They were clearly becoming aware that their guarantee of victory had now crashed into the planet and they started to panic and run.
"Pirate Two go pick up our friends. Everyone else, clear the sky!"
And that's what we did.
***Captain Bayonet, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
The destroyers rolled into them, then stopped and opened fire. With the pressure from all directions, they were wavering. Then the two Jedi came out. That was it, they broke and ran.
Then Bearer came down and landed. There was a lot of gathering up broken droids and discarded Imperial equipment. We all loaded up and it was crowded, like it had been coming in, but we all fit. It was something of a surprise that Shield came up, carrying a well trussed Ti Bault.
***Jedi Knight Furin Kazan, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
I walked up to the Hutt again.
"I know you summoned the Imperials." I began.
It was funny watching him pretend innocence.
"How does this normally go? I call it 'Treachery' and kill you and your family."
A Hutt's eyes are normally so big, but this one's were really saucers.
"I'm going to leave for a bit. Then the Imperials will be here very shortly. They will give you a lesson in why you don't want to call them again. If you live, I think we'll have the basis of coexistence. Of course, if you ever call the Imperials on me or mine again, you're dead. You do understand that?"
It nodded.
"I think if I spare you now, you'll be happy to uphold our already negotiated agreement?" I asked.
It nodded vigorously.
I was tempted to charge it protection as a punishment. However, we were in Hutt space. I needed an arrangement with one of these creatures if my plan was to work. I had spoken with Arok. He was my backup plan, but this one would be better. It was weak and scared. But if I pushed him too hard, he might just make a stupid decision later.
"Good. The agreement stands. I'll see you sometime soon." I replied and left.
***Ti Bault, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
I was sitting on the ground well trussed up with a bag on my head.
"I really think we ought to talk." Someone said sitting down near me.
I said some things, but they came out, "Mmmph mmmph mmmph," through the hood.
He pulled the hood off.
"You!" I said. It was the green coat Jedi.
"Yes me, we should talk."
"About what?" I asked.
"You were a bounty hunter working for the Trade Federation, I could understand that. But then you worked so hard to help ImpSec. Why?"
"I assume it was you who ruined my position with the Trade Federation." I said.
"Yes. So, it was for revenge?" He inquired.
"I figured if I caught you and brought you in, I could get my job back." I said.
"You were doing this for a job?"
"Yes."
"Couldn't you just get another job? I imagine they would find something for you back on Corollon?"
"Since the TradeFed was seeking me, no one else would hire me. I could have retreated to Corollon, but I wouldn't get anything with the prestige I had at the Trade Federation. Also, even if the Corollon authorities accepted me, TradeFed bounty hunters would be on the way."
"You could have changed your identity?" He pointed out.
"Yes, but I had worked hard on that identity. I'd suffered a lot to get to that job. Trade Federation Head of Security was in sight. You took all that from me."
"So, this was all about a job." He asked surprised.
"Yes, a job that meant a life." I closed my eyes, "A job that meant I had been a success in life. Achieved some prestige. Had respect."
"Well, that life is gone. You're very wanted by the TradeFed and ImpSec now. I'd recommend not showing your face in a civilized system ever again."
"I know."
"There is still someone out there who knows and respects your work and would want to hire you though."
"Who?"
"Me."
"You?"
"Yes, I need good people who I can trust. I think that's you. There's not as much glamour as that TradeFed Head of Security, but the hours and pay are better." He offered.
"What would the pay be?" I asked.
"It seems to me you don't have much room to negotiate. However," and he pulled out a holotablet, did some pecking on it and showed it to me. "That is what the TradeFed Head of Security makes."
It was a lot, but less than you would think. It made sense though, those TradeFed bastards are a cheap bunch.
"I'll pay you double. We'll keep track of his pay, make sure you keep pace, but you'll likely stay ahead since I'm into raises and bonuses."
"What about my identity?" I asked.
"We'll get you a new identity. A little work and you'll pass as human and fool the facial recognition cameras."
"That seems like a better deal than I'm likely to get anywhere else, I'll take it." I said with real sincerity.
"I'm glad you feel that way." He said and started to undo my bonds.
***Jedi Knight Furin Kazan, Hutt's Palace, Dandoran***
We couldn't go back to Dandoran for a while. The Imperials came in vast numbers. I think the Emperor's hound, Darth Vader, and a phalanx of his "Inquisitors" were there as well. I'm sure they found my three calling cards in Gall's pocket and the fresh one I had left there with Gall and Master Rain's corpses.
Surviving Troopers and TIE fighters were gathered up and rescued. There was lots of huffing about while poking and prodding. I knew they gave the Hutt a hard time. I figured they would spare the Hutt though because he had called them. Also, the Empire knew killing the Hutt would antagonize the other Hutts and they had other fish to fry. I figured that the Hutt would be smart enough to hide our agreement as the second the Imperials found out about it, he would be tortured to death in the off chance he knew any other morsel of useful information. I was right. The Hutt definitely learned he didn't like having the Imperials around. After a week, the vast majority of the Imperials were gone. In a month, all the rest. All that was left were various droid monitoring stations. A few months of the expensive monitoring gear getting vandalized over and over and nothing coming back, they gave up.
While that was happening, I met with my surviving pirate captains on Elysia.
"I can't thank you enough for showing up. I thought we had enough, obviously we didn't. You saved us. Unfortunately, it was at the cost of the lives of two crews. None of us will ever forget their sacrifice. The rest of you have damage. However, at this time, I can't send you to Corellia-space for repairs. Some of you may have noticed, the political situation there is getting worse by the hour. I'm working on another solution."
I tried to hand out new chips with payment, Captain Mel closed my hand on the chip and said, "We didn't do that for money."
"Do you all feel that way?" I said looking around
They all nodded.
"I'm honored and grateful."
I took that visit to have another sit down privately with Captain Crosby.
"This may seem like something I'm only offering because of the Divide. It's not. I've had some time to think and I've come up with some ideas."
"For Die Tze?" Captain Crosby asked.
"Yes."
"Okay, let's hear 'em."
"As I understand it, the rest of the planet's military is interned on Die Tze." I began.
"Yes." The Captain replied.
"We sneak in. We break them out. Maybe liberate some more ships. Maybe not. The ones who want to leave, we'll have a place for them to go soon. The one's who want to stay and fight, we support and smuggle in weapons and equipment for. Those that stay and fight, maybe they accumulate a popular resistance and make staying on Die Tze so expensive the Empire eventually decides to leave. Maybe they all die. Either way, a lot of them will die. Is that a plan you can live with? Do you have something better?"
"Yes and no."
"So, we should be ready in a few months. Let me know if you think of anything better."
***Jedi Knight Jors Zaemon, Aboard Bearer***
Furry and I had another sit down with Fio.
"You did very well in that battle Padawan. Good work."
"I could probably do more if I could get my light saber to work." She said with some frustration.
"You must trust yourself and the Force. When you're ready. You'll be ready."
"I know." She said with acceptance.
"Something else has changed."
"What?" She asked.
"It's about your Mother."
"What? Is she all right?" She asked with some alarm.
"As far as we know, aside from being worried about you, she's fine. You agreed, when we next get to Korpluck City, you would be willing to separate from her forever."
"Yes." She answered a bit confused.
"Do you still feel that way?"
"Yes." She answered still a bit confused.
"Practical considerations have changed things again. We intend to make Dandoran and Korpluck Town a major base. As such, we'll likely be there frequently."
"So, I'll still get to see my Mom?" She said.
"Yes."
A few weeks after the last actual Imperial personnel left Dandoran, in a nice window created by the Imperial equipment being vandalized. Again. We went back to Dandoran.
We escorted Fio to her Mom's shop. Her Mom didn't stop crying for half an hour, and that was just from how much she had been worried and missing her little girl. We sat on the porch, ate pie and drank tea.
Then when Fio explained she would be staying with us and learning the ways of the Force, her Mom started crying again. Fio promised to visit and her Mom settled down. It wasn't perfect, but I suspect whatever became of the Order would have to be a bit more flexible. At least for the first thousand years or so. The Widow Brown would have to accept that her daughter, had she been successful and accepted for an off-world scholarship would be offering essentially similar terms. I'm sure that didn't make it easy. Her Mom liked all the presents Fio had brought, but particularly the small, high-end, commercial grade cook/housekeeping droid.
***Jedi Knight Furin Kazan, Korpluck Town, Dandoran***
It was nice to sit with Jojo on the porch.
Jojo looked at me and said, "Two crews died. There might have been a more diplomatic solution.
"Not one where the Hutt didn't sell us out later to the Imperials. I didn't anticipate the Star Destroyer. I figured on one to three Light Cruisers. So, I made a mistake.
"I suppose we could have just said, 'The beast is not on Eadu. We have no idea where it is. Unless you can give us some idea where to look, we're just wasting everyone's time. Here's your money back, leave Korpluck Town alone.' Then when he agreed, we would just go."
With a bit of frustration Jojo said, "Yes you could have done something like that and no one would have had to die."
"We have to take risks. There is no absolute guarantee that in the end the Empire has to be defeated. I didn't intend for those crews to die, but we needed a base in Hutt space and we may need more later before this is done. If we keep carrying the fight to the Empire, a lot of people will die, and we won't always win. We could find a place to hide out. I'm sure we could stay at the New Temple and just sneak out every so often for consumables. Probably do fine. The problem with that is a place called Mustafar."
"Mustafar, what's that?" Jojo asked genuinely confused.
"It's where the Empire takes Jedi they capture to be tortured to death. I hear it's a busy place. They're clearly doing better tracking down our colleagues than we are. I believe we have to take the fight to the Empire whenever and wherever we can. I will always try to balance every plan so we have as few casualties as possible, but there will be casualties, and as our numbers grow, so will the casualties. However, if you prefer to hide in anonymity, we will."
With some resignation Jojo agreed, "No, we have to take the fight to the Empire. I agree with that. It's just I've already had a belly full of war. We'll do it your way, but you have to be willing to use to diplomacy when it's a better tool."
"That's fair. After Fio is done, we have some diplomacy to do. Didn't you always want to be in the Diplomatic Corp?"
That made him laugh a bit, "Yeah I did."
We went and had a talk with the head of Korpluck's operations on Dandoran and his boss. They agreed quickly to the idea of moving the plant as that would mean they would no longer have to pay the Hutt or face interference from him. We would also give them a prime piece of real estate next to the new mini-star port we were building.
I brought in top of the line construction droids and equipment. We built a high quality paved road from Doran City one hundred klicks north east to the new town we were building.
We picked out a nice big spot with hills to the southwest, forests and mountains to the east and a big beautiful lake to the north. We would build the star port and industrial park about ten klicks to the west. Then join it to the town with a road and magtrain. We built a whole magtrain system, with a central station in the middle of the town connecting to the industrial park and four short spoke lines running northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest to make sure we had plenty of room in the town. We also made sure there were plenty of paved roads as well.
Unlike the wooden shacks in the current Korpluck Town, we started building homes that would be high galactic standard dome structures and would be made of FormCrete with high-quality comfortable amenities. Everyone currently living in Korpluck town would get a new home in approximately the same position as they currently lived. Stores would get free new locations of roughly the same size and amenities, though generally, like the homes, scaled up and nicer. We would still have the market, but the market sheds would be substantially nicer and surround the central train station in town.
Korpluck moved what they could move and built a new, much bigger facility as the first tenants of the industrial park. Next to the park we had four big landing pads and top of the line facilities built for loading and unloading.
New Korpluck Town would now have parks, a community center and Dandoran's first medical clinic. Old Korpluck Town had a one room, dirt floor school. The new school facility would be substantially nicer.
When the day came, everyone got moved out of Old Korpluck Town and up to New Korpluck town. I made a point of being present. I'd built a large villa as a residence on one of the hills to the southwest with an excellent view of the town and the lake beyond. It was a good day. The residents of Old Korpluck Town were all very happy with their new larger, more luxurious homes and nicer community. They were also a little confused as they took up less than ten percent of the land in New Korpluck Town. Of course, building continued.
We moved Jotun, his shipyard, his workers and their families out of Corellia-space quietly next. I became a limited partner in the business by virtue of investing to get his shipyard expanded and some new top-of-the-line tooling. The shipyard had quarters and runabouts and was located in an empty orbit well out from Dandoran. The families and workers would be settled in New Korpluck Town.
As soon as we had him settled, I started bringing in my pirates for repairs.
My droids and I went looking and found a nice big two-thousand-meter rock with lots of nickel-iron. We put it in orbit near a big gas giant in Dandoran system that would make it hard to find and a pain to attack. It would have lots of blaster cannon, torpedo launchers and heavy shields on top of deep rock. No nut is too tough to crack, but we made it pretty hard. The Rock, as it was dubbed, would have large docks, shops, armories, arsenals, quarters, control centers, large medical facilities, mess facilities, training space and very deep stores of supplies so that it could withstand sieges for years. I had twenty-four of the X-Wings delivered there and ferried the other six to the New Temple. I ordered fifty more, two in the T-66 trainer configuration. Word was, orders might soon pick up, Incom was in negotiations with several other interested buyers.
I told Jotun to make another B-Pack to keep on the Rock.
We took Master Rain's two sword hilts and, pointing them in opposite directions, tied them together with ribbon. We assembled Gall's two axes and knife in the same way.
"Time for a bit more diplomacy." I said to Jojo.
We traveled to Fantuan on Revenge. I had left the B-Pack at the New Temple and had reloaded up her torpedo bays. With two more Vultures down, we ran a new tournament. It would be interesting to see if training worked. Surprisingly, eight completely different Vultures won the new tournament. We split them between Bearer and Revenge by random chance.
We arrived at Fantuan and landed near the palace that housed the Masters. Jojo and I were given entry and shown to the Lo Pan, the Master of their Order. On his right side was Master Lightning and on his left was Master Thunder. Behind him were many young acolytes, some I could tell had affinity for the Force and most did not.
I presented the hilts to the Lo Pan. "I believe these are the property of your Order."
"Where is his body?" the Lo Pan asked.
"It is in the possession of the Imperials. I am sure that if they hold your Order in high regard, they have returned it already."
It was clear they had not.
"What do you hope to gain by returning these blades?"
"We wish to leave your Order alone and treat it with respect. However, we can't have your Order accepting requests from the Sith to hunt down Jedi. For a thousand years the Jedi respected your Order and your Order respected the Jedi. I hope it was not opportunism that bent your honor, or Credits, or worst of all, hope of currying favor with the Sith."
In fact, I knew it was exactly these three things that had brought Master Rain out. It was a well understood Truism that there was no currying favor with the Sith, they saw only things they could use and obstacles. I was sure the Lo Pan knew that Truism well.
The Lo Pan looked down.
"Wise voices suggested coming here with force. Attacking your Order with violence. Add more trophies to those blades in our Temple. I said we could speak and that you would be honorable. That you would honor the ancient peace between our Orders if we treated you with respect. Was I right?"
"You were right."
We bowed and took our leave.
We had a visit with the Wakan, it went surprisingly similarly.
The day came a few months later, a fleet of eight Star Destroyers entered Corellia-space. The fleet disgorged an endless cloud of TIEs and did a high orbit parade around Corellia Prime, pointedly not accepting orders from Space Route Traffic Control and requiring SRTC to re-direct traffic around them.
The newly elevated Grand Moff Tarkin, leader of the fleet, was warmly greeted by the Corellian Prime Minister. The meeting was widely broadcast on the HoloNets interrupting regular broadcasts. Only the truly hopelessly naïve, stupid and ignorant did not know what this visit was about. Even the choice of Tarkin, Scourge of Salient, to lead the fleet was a message. It was Salient's efforts to assert her legal rights that had led to Tarkin savaging the system.
I had already shut down my offices and shipping dock on Upsalon.
The Corellian Guard Fleet was made up heavily of Corvettes in many different varieties. The Corvette is a cost effective, very flexible, very capable for it's size warship and a popular export all over the galaxy. It would have been typical of the size of capital ships up to the Clone Wars where new classes of ships hopelessly dwarfed them. Still they had a place as escort ships and CEC promotional materials claimed enough of them could go toe to toe with the new larger capital ships that had emerged. The CGF had a wide variety of them including the larger Command and more heavily armed DP-2 Frigate variants. There were also a large number of the smaller PB-950 Gunboats. The fleet was led by a handful of the rapidly aging Proficient Class cruisers.
In a pre-planned step, coordinated first by Jotun, then Captain Thomas and the other crews of the Hope fleet and also Captain Pagot and his associates, families and possessions tramped into warships, and Hope ships, and a small space station filling them to the brim. Four Hope ships latched onto the station, the other Hope ships carrying disposable single-use arks that allowed a lot more people and possessions to be packed and then all Hope ships, the station and about a third of the CGF, newly rechristened the Corellian Patriotic Fleet hyper-spaced out to Dandoran.
We put the station into geosynchronous orbit above New Korpluck Town which meant it was above Doran City as well. The station had grav-tugs, so it could run cargoes up and down which immediately made Korpluck about twice as profitable. I was the first new tenant of the station permanently renting a docking port and bay. Hope Transport was the second, they also leased a docking port and much larger cargo bay. The station contracted with Hope for fuel runs. That meant Corbeen went and started looking for a fuel tanker attachment for the IXp3.
We began settling the Corellians into New Korpluck Town. Mostly in the Southeast sector of the city. Many were military personnel who would continue to man the ships. They held a meeting which Jojo and I observed but did not participate in. At the meeting, they held a vote and Captain Pagot was elected to be Admiral of the new Corellian Patriotic Fleet. I had expected Captain Pagot to reconstitute High Reaches Flight School on the station. Plans change. Now Admiral Pagot would be taking up residence on the Rock. The families started getting settled in Korpluck town. They opened their own businesses, restaurants, tailors, shops and my favorite gunsmith, I was gratified to see, had chosen to join us among many others. I also knew this was hard on them. Corbeen, Jotun and his brothers had come with their families. But their sister, her still enlisted husband and their children stayed.
I stood on the rooftop terrace of our hilltop villa, surrounded by friends, Jojo, Fio, Bayo, Shield and Sky. I looked at the new town taking shape. It was fragile, the Empire could show up tomorrow with a big fleet and an army and smash everything we built to smithereens. For now, though, she represented our hopes and living, breathing proof the Empire could not take our freedom away.
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