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Chapter 11

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Part 5

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MFW frigate Peerless Warrior

Mandalore

It has been over sixty years since I was back on Earth and my memories of that time were muddled at best. There was a clear distinction between them and those after I found myself in this universe and under the influence of the Force. The former memories were often like a half-forgotten dream by this point, while I could clearly remember almost everything I've done since I began my Sith training at Korriban. That was less than an issue back then, when I most needed those memories, they were still fresher, less faded. Nowadays, however? When news of this so called Earth Bet first appeared, it sounded vaguely familiar but that was it. It took some time and reviewing a lot of intelligence before things began clicking into place in my head, and even now, my recollection of a work I haven't even finished back in the day were vague. There was a threat lurking behind Earth Bet, I knew that, yet all details eluded me. I might have never known them properly in the first place.

On the bright side, there were a few names that were familiar, sounding almost important when I racked my brain over them. Alexandria, Legend, Skitter, whoever or whatever that might be.

Coil as well. That's why I was here, on board of this frigate, overseeing an atrocity as efficient as any committed by the Sith of old without any second thoughts.

"Full penetration of the cerebral cortex, no counter-measures detected, then again, we're out of range of the portal…" Professor Gangos spoke in accented Basic.

My pet war-criminal was one of the few people aware of my concerns, and as expected given his profile, he was very eager in unraveling the mystery that was Earth Bet and the source of the powers there. They weren't based on the Force and our examination of retrieved tinker tech raised a lot of concerning questions. While the designs were often solid, especially for things often made of scrap, it simply shouldn't work considering that every single example had critical elements missing. While so far we could replace those and get the tinkertech in our possession to work, that still didn't explain why it worked on Earth Bet or close to the portal. That's why we had a freighter being modified with all known scanner types in order to observe tinkertech in actions and detect how whatever was responsible for it operation made it work.

Coil was a piece of the same puzzle. First, we were going to drain his brain from everything he knew, then put him close to the portal and see what the nanobots currently burying themselves in his gray matter would notice once he had access to his powers.

"And we have control." The Professor announced. That was fast, which was one of the primary reasons why the puppeteers were so universally terrifying – they needed less than a minute at worst to have full penetration of a person's brain and from that moment on, the poor bastard was a puppet they pulled through invisible strings, unless the victim was powerful enough Force Adept. In that case, survival and fighting was at least in theory possible, with a few known successful examples. Either way, the brain damage had been significant requiring extensive implants and Force related healing to bring those poor bastards to something resembling their past selves. The same was true for the relatively few people "saved" from the brain-jacks – the severe physical and mental trauma meant that they were never the same again even if they could eventually become fully functional.

The great majority of victims? They were as good as dead the moment a puppeteer got their claws in them.

"Beginning download. Do you have something of particular interests you want us to search for?" The Bloody Butcher asked. "You know we can't do it in real time here, I lack the facilities and support necessary."

"What he knows about powers and their source, who he worked for, his contacts, people to be wary of and critical targets to retrieve who might possess vital information. Give the rest to the Military Intelligence to go through."

"Why are you here anyway?" The Sullustan turned his head my way and looked up at me. "Why am I here in the first place? One of your minions could do this in their sleep. It isn't like the puppets are hard to operate."

"You're getting a facility in the area for when we need to get actionable intelligence fast and we don't have a Force Adept with adequate training on hand. If you're good boy, you'll be among the first who get to play with anything useful we retrieve which catches your interest. Like what some of the Masters down there can achieve without the Force or any technology the locals could detect."

"Like that Heartbreaker fellow?" The Professor perked up. "Turning people by making them love you, that isn't an avenue I've explored. Sticking the relevant implants in their heads is more reliable I think."

"Easier to notice as well. Someone mastered might be able to pass through most regular screening unless a Force Adept is involved." I countered. "The primary reason why I am here is as a counter measure in case something reacts violently to the puppet when we bring this ship close to the portal."

"Worst case scenario, this ship will be destroyed with us on board." Gangos glared at me.

"That would be merely a brief inconvenience for me if it happens and I am on board to prevent such an eventuality."

"What about me?" The Professor exclaimed.

"What about you?" I peered down at him. "You did cause me a lot of trouble during the last years of the war. You are alive because I find you useful, Professor, otherwise your death sentence would have been executed just like the galaxy at large believes it was. This is merely a friendly reminder who owns you. Don't think I haven't noticed your little side projects."

Gangos froze in place and his small dark eyes looked wildly around. The feeling of his terror was like a glass of sweet wine to my senses.

"You're very good, Professor. One of the best even. My people are very good as well. Your primary utility is that you lack any and all moral scruples that hold back better people than either of us. You can continue to pursue your interests within reason, just like Zash does on Coruscant. We both know what will happen if you step out of line, do we not?"

Gangos nodded so rapidly it looked like his head was about to fly away.

"I don't want to know, do I?" The Captain of the vessel muttered quietly.

"You have more than enough nightmare fuel already Commander. It is not prudent to add to it unless you really have to."

Couple of hours later, the puppeteer had a comprehensive map of Coil's neural network, and more importantly, his memories ready to be processed into a more useful format. The frigate slowly moved into position, still escorted by a cruiser division that had it locked in with both weapons and tractor beams. As we approached the portal, I submerged myself in the Force, my body becoming little more than anchor while my awareness expanded and slowly drifted within an endless ocean of power. We passed through an invisible line and Coil twitched.

"The puppet is going active, attempting to use it's power…" The Professor announced without looking away from a data-pad connected with the nanite cluster within Coil's brain. "Huh, that's a lot of new data, copying it in real time within fresh data storage…"

"There's nothing out of the ordinary we can detect." That came from the ship's XO in the CIC.

Looking at Coil through both my eyes and the Force, initially there was nothing to notice, besides the obvious familiar worngness that came with someone being a puppet. I focused, going deeper, until I was aware of the nanite strands perforating his brain. I could brush over the surface of his mutilated mind and drank in the horror he could now experienced after the puppeteer had Coil fully awake and as aware as he could be in order to force him to use his power.

He was screaming inside, begging for release, scrambling to figure out a solution, because until very recently he simply didn't lose, couldn't lose because of his power. A power that was now a curse because no matter what he tried, the nanites wouldn't allow him to get rid of them and unless the gestalt allowed it, he wouldn't even be able to give an outward sign that he was a puppet. It knew what Coil might try as soon as the thought crossed what was left of his mind and even that was only possible because this was one of the newest and most modern puppeteer models, refined to cause less damage and keep more of the original personality intact in order to act as a better camouflage.

This has to be hell for him, and he knew it. No matter how much times he tried, it wouldn't matter. All his power did was ensure that Coil would experience agonizing failure twice as fast and soon he got that fact, which plunged him in gibbering spiral of utter despair spiced by flashes of hatred aimed at everyone who brought him this low.

I went deeper, crushing through his mind and searching for the trigger that launched his power. I almost missed it too, because to my senses it was like it was a mirage that one might barely perceive. It was like a buzz just outside the ability to hear consciously, yet still irritating. I focused on the distortion now that I knew where it was and merely observed without probing or prodding it. It was fascinating – like it wasn't really there or what I perceived was merely a much smaller part of something larger existing beyond the scope of my ability to experience.

"Have him stop using his power." I ordered in a distant voice.

The Professor grumbled but complied and suddenly the distortion almost fully went away, leaving merely a ghost of a touch behind. So this was the so called Corona Potentia. It was nothing else but a transmitter for whatever gave people on Earth Bet powers. While interesting and confirmation that we now had a starting point to investigate, it still left the question how tinkertech worked without anything similar my engineers and scientists have been able to find. I really didn't like the implications of the most obvious theories on that front.

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Part 6

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Royal Palace

Sundari

Mandalore

Danny Hebert felt many conflicting emotions as of late. Fear and sense of failure were predominant, soothed only by a dull relief that Taylor was handling things better than she had any right to be. That however was a state of affairs he was afraid might not persist for much longer.

There was no reason whatsoever that the head of an interstellar state would take notice of two nobodies like the Heberts, no matter if Taylor was a Parahuman or not. Yet, here they were, following another invitation that they could not possibly refuse. Danny did his best to keep a brave, nonchalant front for Taylor, so she wouldn't be concerned. That was probably the only thing he could do for her, considering that they were both neck deep in a nest of vipers. Dealing with Brockton Bay's local politics, which his job often required as a head of hiring for the DWU certainly didn't prepare Danny for rubbing elbows with such people. Hell, probably no one on Earth was ready for something like this, yet here they were!

The two of them disembarked from the shuttle that brought them to the underground portion of the palace, which obviously was the only part that had survived the fighting that ravaged the city. The hangar itself was cavernous and well lit, almost full as well. There were dozens of vehicles parked around – from two lines of tanks resting on wide tracks in one corner to large possibly fighters carrying a lot of big weapons. One of the first things that struck Danny about all that hardware was that it had little to nothing in common with what he recalled from Star Wars. No X-Wings or TIE fighters, almost nothing that reminded him of the Empire in the movies.

Well, the ships they saw in orbit was a pointed reminder where they were, however what they saw since then raised many questions he lacked good answers for. One thing was certain, he knew even less than he thought about all of this, which was even more disconcerting.

The Droid who was their primary minder led the way past busy maintenance crews and security until they reached a pair of doors that were nearly twice taller than Danny where they had to wait to be scanned by an eight person security detail wearing bulky armour and weapons large enough to be vehicle mounted. Light blazed from a spherical device mounted above the door and washed over the Heberts making them feel a moment of warmth before it flashed off. A trooper a head taller than Danny, who had yellow stripes on his shoulders, consulted a bulky data-pad large enough to be used comfortably by armoured fingers and nodded.

"You're not compromised and are on the list. Follow HK-117 and stay away from the restriction sectors."

"Compromised?" Danny asked, while Taylor merely looked curiously at everything around them,

"Did you live under a rock or something?" A deep, vaguely feminine voice came from the far right.

"Or something." Danny noted.

"Our guests don't know about all the fun we had during the Black Rebellion. They were lucky enough to be away for it."

"Lucky bastards…" A different guard muttered.

"I've heard about a Black Rebellion but not what exactly it was… People don't want to talk about it."

The man in charge of the security detail snorted. "With a good reason girl, it was hell and some people were lucky it didn't really reach them so they can't telly you much beyond rumors and what they saw on the news. Don't you have places to be?"

"We do. Do open the door, Sergeant."

The NCO pressed a few buttons on his data-pad and the armored doors leading out of the hangar slid open with a quiet hiss that was barely audible over the noise coming from the hangar.

"What exactly was the Black Rebellion?" Danny fished for information. It might be useful to know and possibly a good way to distract him from the knowledge that they were led straight into the lion's den.

"I'm not surprised you were unable to gleam any real details. That particular mess didn't directly effect Mandalore after all. During the Clone Wars a large number of the Confederation's Droid Armies went rogue and began a Droid Rebellion, the now infamous Black Rebellion. That was bad for many reasons and large parts of the Empire still bears the scars."

That summary was very unhelpful, probably because it was intended as such. HK led them in silence through multiple long corridors and a few turbolift rides until they reached their destination – a small dinning room that was richly decorated like something straight out of a movie. It was a blend of metal and wooden furniture, fabrics as well all weaved in a tasteful yet alien way. A not too large round table covered by what looked like a silk coverall took up nearly a third of the room. It was surrounded by intricately carved cushioned wooden chairs that simply fit with the rest of the furniture. The various colored glasses and utensils on the other hand were intimately familiar – nothing out of the ordinary there.

Danny had seen the man and woman that soon made their way inside flanking a grumpy looking and frowning Sabine of course – it was hard not to with large holographic images of both of them making public announcements or being shown on the news. What they wore on the other hand was a surprise – Bo-Katan Veil, Mandalore's wife, arrived wearing a simple light green blouse and pants that closely hugged her figure and showed well toned muscles. Even after days on Mandalore and catching snips of many news programs in the hotel, Danny still didn't have an idea what exactly she did besides being part of the military.

Veil on the other hand, the Dark Lord of the Sith himself, was a huge letdown appearance wise. He appeared to be in his late thirties, perhaps early forties, had a short cropped black hair and unremarkable face that you could easily forget in a crowd. No black veins or glowing yellow eyes, no mad cackling, he just simply was. The closest thing that might very vaguely point that he might be a Sith was the black clothes – pants and blouse with a nice cut that obviously didn't restrict his movements, with the only color being a silver buckle in the shape of a leering animal skull.

"Mr Hebert, Ms Hebert," Bo-Katan smiled pleasantly and welcomed them in a deep voice containing just a hint of a rasp. "Sabine here wouldn't stop praising you." She ruffed the grumpy girl's hair.

Ironically, it was Bo-Katan who had golden eyes streaked with green, but that might have been just the light. A short introductions followed, with Mandalore introducing himself merely as Delkatar Veil, doing or saying nothing that one might expect from a Sith. If the plan was to keep Danny off balance, it certainly worked without a hitch.

A pair of orb-shaped droids carrying trays came in as soon as everyone sat and began serving roasted meat and vegetables.

"As you can guess, this isn't just a social meeting." Bo-Katan glanced at Sabine who rolled her eyes.

"The thought have crossed my mind." Danny carefully nodded and now was his turn to glance at Taylor who had figured out that something was odd and intently watched their hosts.

"Don't get me wrong, the offer my Apprentice gave you back on Earth still stands. If Ms Hebert is up to, we can offer her training, both at a secure location near the portal so she could exercise her powers in safety as well as physical conditioning and assorted combat training if she intents to become a part of the ridiculous games the so called capes play on Earth Bet." Veil offered kindly while occasionally sipping from a glass full with clear bubbling liquid.

"That's appreciated, really!" Danny hurriedly nodded. He knew that he should be very careful not to even think about lying during this meeting. Offending their host could prove a disastrous idea after all.

Fortunately, Taylor did pick up on his que and thanked their hosts as well.

"However, I have the feeling that you're about to make us a different offer." Danny continued.

"That much must have been obvious." That came from Bo-Katan. "My husband already has a small group of Parahumans in our employ. Among other things they serve as consultants about the culture and the way things work on your homweworld. They also happen to be quite young, about Ms Hebert's age. We've offered them a good compensation for their trouble, access to modern medicine and if they so wish, either citizenship in the Freehold, a place to safely retire or both, with all that entails."

Danny closed his eyes when the full scope of those words dawned upon him. While it was true, he didn't know much about the state of the galaxy or the politics involved, it was damn tempting. Really, would it be too bad to work for a Sith considering what was happening back home? Gangs, Endbringers, crazies like the Slaughterhouse… and now Taylor was a Parahuman and from what Danny knew about them, the odds of her staying home when not at school instead of going out and getting into trouble were remote. His knee-jerk reaction would be to forbid it, it would be the sensible and responsible thing to do surely, however he suspected even mentioning the possibility might backfire, especially after the way he had dropped the ball concerning Taylor's life in general.

On the other hand, this man was a Sith and he was going to make an offer, one that they might not be able to refuse no matter if it was a good idea or a disastrous one.

"My offer is similar to that I gave the so called Undersiders. The high points are as follow: a safe place to live, citizenship, education, training and if you want to return to Earth Bet, Mr Hebert, Ms Hebert, backing within reason from an interstellar nation."

Taylor gasped and stared at the Sith with an open mouth and wide eyes, while her new friend giggled at her expression. Danny on the other hand was busy trying to figure out the why of it.