Well, the New Chapter is here, the investigation on the senate, I'll be alternating between the battle of Ryloth and the investigation with each chapter. This chapter is the 36th which officially makes this story now have twice the chapters of it's prequel. I can tell you that it will have around fifty chapters or less and that the ending will leave you wanting more. My intention is to write three Prequel AU Star Wars Stories and three other original AU Star Wars stories bringing up to six I hope you'll stick around until then and to be able to do so.
LD. I do not own Star Wars
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Supreme Chancellor Palpatine stood in his private chambers study looking at some documents that had arrived for him from Raxus Secundus, specifically from Doctor Lorianne's laboratory. He had to admit he found the news interesting in a good way. It seemed that one of the Dark Force soldiers that had at first being considered failures, Sius, was now on the way to become one of their greatest successes. Despite the fact that he had supposedly a chip to ensure that he was the perfect soldier and assassin, he was developing his skills with the Dark Side, even beyond those who'd been considered successes, one of whom had been already eliminated. Unlike his "Brothers" he had an special affinity with the Dark Force Stone, learnt more of the Dark Side everyday and would grow more and more powerful, he was already recuperating from his injuries and worked perfectly fine with his prosthetic.
The best of all was that thanks to the chip, even if he was developing his own personality and would perhaps develop even his own wishes and ambitions he was completely loyal to the Sith cause. The twi'lek scientist was fascinated with this and had asked to keep the man with her for further study so that she could use him to improve the second batch of Force soldiers that was already underway. Palpatine saw on the Dark Force Soldier saw in this much more than the twi'lek could ever imagine, looking at the charts and the Force, he dared hope the young man could be a good substitute for Anakin if the young Jedi managed not to fall.
His comm link beeped and Mas Amedda informed that Masters Qui Gon Jinn and Siri Tachi wished to see him on his office. He told his aide he would be there shortly and exited the room wearing his kind old man mask although he suspected that it didn't work on Master Jinn since long ago if it had ever worked.
Entering his office through the secret entrance he sat behind his desk and waited with only two members of his trusted Red Guard as witnesses. Soon Mas Amedda entered followed by Master Jinn and Master Tachi. The Red Guards watched the newcomers wearily, those two guards were also member of the Sith Sun Guard and couldn't help but be always on alert around the Jedi.
"Welcome, Master Jinn, Master Tachi." Palpatine greeted them with a smile. "To what do I owe the honor of your visit."
"We are here on an official bussiness for the Republic Chancellor. We believe there is someone on the Senate collaborating with the Separatist." Qui Gon explained and Palpatine faked a concerned frown.
"A separatist among the ranks of the Senate. Oh Force that's terrible." He spoke. Qui Gon nodded.
"We believe that he might have been using the long range comm system of the Senate to communicate with a Confederate complex on Tatooine and other bases, we would like to check all the messages coming in and out of the Senate during the last month." Siri said watching closely Palpatine's reaction.
The sith lord growled inwardly but didn't let it show on his expression. He knew also what the Jedi were implying he was also under suspicion and they wished to see his transmissions from his personal channel, plus those of his aides as well he supposed. He was a little trapped but it wasn't like he hadn't prepared contingency plans for this as well.
"I see you have my full cooperation on this." Palpatine finally said with a smile. "I trust you will be able to catch such a traitor." He looked at Mas Amedda. "Colaborate with everything the Jedi request of you."
"Yes Supreme Chancellor." Mas Amedda replied with a bow.
"I would like to see the transmissions of everyone working with the chancellor." Qui Gon spoke. "Even those from his office. Master Tachi will check the Senators with the help of Senator Amidala on the Comm room of the lower levels."
"Understood Master Jedi" Mas Amedda replied leading the Jedi outside of the office. Once they were gone Palpatine's scowled. If the Jedi thought they would hamper his plans with this little investigation they were sorely mistaken. He looked at his guards.
"Bring me a technician here at once." He ordered. One of the guards nodded and left the room one while the other one remained in his post. Palpatine pressed a few bottoms on his chair and the hologram of Captain Wilhuff Tarkin from the Republic's Intelligence Service.
"Milord what an unexpected surprise." Captain Tarkin greeted.
"I required of your presence Captain Tarkin. The Jedi are looking into a rather compromising affair. I'll need you to make sure they don't discover anything too soon."
"I will be there as soon as possible milord." Tarkin said as his hologram disappeared and Palpatine nodded with a smile. A few minutes passed by while the Chancellor decided to entertain himself working on some document and laws he had to sign. Ten minutes into it the Red Guard arrived with a very nervous technician. Palpatine smiled, this technician wasn't a normal technician, he was one of the very few people in the building and even in Coruscant that cooperated and knew of his identity, this one did it under threat though.
"Execute the Decoy program inmediately" Palpatine spoke.
"Y-yes milord" The technician a, a half-twi'lek half-human hybrid spoke.
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Siri observed the recordings from various senators well throughout the day without finding anything that betrayed a separatist spy or sympathiser among them. Together with her Padme also observed the recordings of the communication that seemed suspicious, most non official communications in time of war were recorded in case something like what they were investigating happened, often with disgust since they betrayed the true Dark characters of some senators she hadn't considered that corrupt, up until that moment. Siri observed the younger woman with Sympathy, she had already done more than enough providing information that would exculpate several senators already, few in comparison of the actual number of them, but it was something and she had no duty to continue.
"Padme I appreciate your input and your help in all this but you can go if you want." Siri told the younger woman kindly.
"I appreciate the thought but I would like to see this investigation to the end." Padme said with an smile. "Plus I must say I'm learning things that will benefit Naboo on the future."
Siri nodded the one of the comm room operators looked at her and nodded continuing to shift through the supicious operations without quite pinpointing the things they wanted to see yet, Siri truly hoped Qui Gon was having more luck than them although she doubted when she had probed into her colleague's presence she had sensed some frustration on the usual calm and serene Force signature.
"It seems that if there's anything supicious here we won't find it today." Siri finally said as she noticed the time. "Perhaps we will find it tomorrow."
"We could request Republic Intelligence to lend us a hand." Padme said, it was obvious that she was more than willing to stay as long as it took to have it solved soon.
"With the Senate involved I don't know if they would help us a lot, most of the higher ups of the Intelligence services are after all, elected from a list of allies of the Supreme Chancellor or allies of his allies." Siri replied. Padme nodded knowing that her Jedi friend was right.
"Let's go then" Padme said. "I could grab something to eat on the way home and since it's too late I'll probably let the girls sleep at Shmi's and pick them up tomorrow. Want to join me?"
"Sure." Siri said. "I know this place, it's called Dex's diner, it's not too fancy but their food is good."
"Sounds good." Padme said following her out of the room. Her comm system beeped and the image of Captain Typho appeared.
"Senator are you alright?" The Nubian commander asked concernedly. "I called your office and they told me you hadn't been there in hours."
"I'm sorry Captain I was helping the Jedi with a rather serious affair. I was just about to go have dinner with Master Tachi and then head home." Padme said and before the Captain could say anything else she added. "I won't be needing an escort back home. I'm with a Jedi Master."
"A rather dutyful Captain isn't he?" Siri joked as they went for the Turbolifts.
"I must say he is just doing his job and he normally gives me a lot of freedom of movement when my life is not in danger. More so when I am with Ani since he knows Anakin is more protective of me than any guards he puts on me." Padme replied. "I should have contacted him earlier."
"Well now he at least knows you are alright" Siri said. "I'll contact Qui Gon and tell him to meet us at Dex's Diner, perhaps he's gotten more lucky than we did."
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Qui Gon walked into Dex's diner with a tired expression on his face. He didn't get much information from his investigation and it frustrated him somewhat because it wasn't like he had much holorecorded messages to go through. But Captain Wilhuff Tarkin had seemed to make it his life mission to make his investigation a little harder specially when they approached the contacts of the Supreme Chancellor and his closest aides. Using all the bureaucratic technicalities he knew Tarkin had managed to stop the investigation finally when they arrived to the Supreme Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor and Chief of Staff's communication.
"Master Jinn." Captain Tarkin had told him. "I'm afraid without the explicit permission of the Supreme chancellor we cannot access these communications. Unless we have the permission of a Judge which I'm assuming you don't have.
"Captain this investigation is vital for the Future of the Republic" Qui Gon had argued.
"I know and I certainly would love to colaborate with you but you must know there are procedures to be followed. Why don't you give it a rest for today? I'll get the Chancellor's permission for tomorrow." Captain Tarkin had said. And so Qui Gon had left the Senate building with none of the answers to his questions and perhaps with even more questions. Reminding himself that Padme and Siri had gone to Dex's diner he had decided to meet them there.
Looking for them he saw them on one of the lateral tables with Dex's droid waitress attending them. He approached the table and sat besides Padme Who was a little startled when he saw her as he hadn't let himself be noticed before that. Siri looked at Qui Gon as he ordered a simple cup of tea.
"I take it things didn't go very well on your end." Siri said throwing the older master a sympathetic look.
"My investigation had been slowed down a lot by Republic Intelligence. Plus I haven't been able to see the messages of Sly Moore, Mas Amedda and Palpatine himself due to that." Qui Gon replied.
"You had an intelligence Agent with you?" Siri asked. "We only had a couple of Senate Guards, they didn't help much but didn't interfere with our job either. We haven't been able to check all the communications either."
"It seems they wanted to protect vital interest of the Republic that could be found among those holomessages. Tarkin said that, Jedi or not I could not access the communication messages of the most influential people of the Republic without an intelligence officer being present." Qui Gon said. "He finally stopped me when I reached, Moore's Amedda's and Palpatine's saying I needed Palpatine's explicit permission or a court order."
Siri nodded. It was unusual to see Qui Gon in such a frustrated state of mind. "Don't worry I'm sure you'll have it solved by tomorrow."
"Did you say Tarkin? As in Wilhuff Tarkin?" Padme asked with undesciphrable expression.
"Yes, Captain Wilhuff Tarkin of Intelligence." Qui Gon said. "Do you know him?"
"Oh yes I knew him when I was first appointed Queen of Naboo. I visited Palpatine here when he was still Senator and Wilhuff Tarkin was one of the people he introduced me to." Padme said. "Right now he is known as one of Palpatine's most trusted men in the Republican Intelligence."
"So if he was with you that means Palpatine has a very special interest in this investigation." Siri said.
"What's more it could mean that the Chancellor has an interest in me not finding anything." Qui Gon said. "Or it could just be Republican Intelligence wanting to take the investigation from our hands, we are stepping into their territory after all. I wouldn't mind them taking it if I knew they would get this traitor."
"Most likely he has something he doesn't want you to see. Even if he's not involved in the matter we are investigating Palpatine has a lot of secrets he wouldn't want seeing the light." Padme said, even though she had fully respected him in the past as he was her mentor, she found herself having a hard time trusting the Supreme Chancellor as time passed and he grabbed more power specially with the seductive words and the fake smiles he used with her allies. She hoped she was wrong though.
"Whatever it is we must find out sooner rather than later." Qui Gon said. "I feel something dark lurking behind the blinding lights of Coruscant. Something that could very well end the Republic as we know it.
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Palpatine sat behind his desk at his office as he looked at Tarkin and the technician debriefing him on today's advances. The Technician had finally finished the preparations for Operation Decoy and Tarkin had successfully stopped Qui Gon from finding out anything he didn't have to. His plan was working fine.
"Tomorrow you will show him the communications of Sly Moore, Mas Amedda and myself." Palpatine told Tarkin who nodded.
"Yes milord" Tarkin nodded and Palpatine looked at the technician who was clearly scared and nervous when he was near him
"You've done well." Palpatine praised the hybrid. "Your services are no longer required."
Palpatine saw relief on the hybrid's face before it was separated from his shoulders. Tarkin didn't even flinch at the sight nor did he saw any hint of nervousness when he saw Teressa Jade by his side standing over the corpse of her latest victim.
"Well done my Assassin" Palpatine said with an evil smile. "You know what your role tomorrow will be right?"
"I do my Master. The mercenaries are also ready to act" Teressa spoke as she bowed her head. Palpatine's smile went wider and his eyes turned yellow.
"Good." He said as he looked at his guards. "Take the body away, dispose of it as discreetly as possible"
Both Red Guards obeyed their Master and took the remains of the unfortunate technician away from the office.