The Force's Balance
By Kassien
Chapter 9: To the Rescue
It never failed to shock the shit out of people when I changed my appearance so definitively, as to become Tago Tidell the moment before I placed the call to Ilos' Hutt controlled landing dock to get the proper authorization to land with my only 36 Wookie slaves. Said Wookies who hadn't seen me do the exact same thing to Salek Farndi, could hardly believe their own eyes as I finished the landing protocol and told them all to remain on board until I cleared out the space station. With the main slavery operation out in the fields, there wasn't a specific area to infiltrate to get directly to all of them without first going through the space station run primarily by droids with a few loyal Hutt people in charge.
I say people, but Weequay in charge and Gamorreans providing the muscle were hardly what I would consider people, as both races often followed Hutts and preyed on others, and this planet was no exception. The two Gamorreans I met at the landing bay, were stupid and pathetic, recognizing my Tago face and instantly bringing me to the three Weequay in charge of the station I usually dealt with, not even bothering to do any security checks, which suited me perfectly fine. Within minutes I was standing in front of the same three Weequay, Tago's memories provided were here six months ago on his last drop off, and left alone by the Gamorrean guards.
An overpowered cutting curse to the two Weequay on the right, followed by a stunning spell on the final Weequay I knew to be the smartest and within seconds I had taken control of the space station. Sealing the doors quickly, I then riffled through the memories of the last living Weequay on site to gather everything I needed for this rescue mission. A quick application of the Imperius Curse, and one revival spell later and he was giving orders to all Gamorrean guards to get ready for processing incoming slaves in the pen, while simultaneously using the computer to power down all the droids and cameras in the port.
Once the Gamorreans were inside the slave pens, I had him gas the room, a failsafe in case of a slave revolt that worked to our advantage this time, removing all the guards in one quick and easy step. With them taken care of, my Weequay guide contacted his fellow Weequay enforcers among the current slave populations, and called for a relatively frequent slave inspection, as he was bringing a Hutt employee along to inspect the entirety of the operation. It wasn't often that the Hutt sent anyone to actually inspect the slaves, as long as food production stayed at a constant rate, they were usually left alone, but were so conditioned to answer to any of the Hutt's whims that nobody even questioned the order.
I made a quick call to Sirius and Kenroo, who were still aboard Tago's freighter that the space station was clear, and to round up all the droids, unshrink all our ships, assume control of the station, and start pilfering anything they could get there hands on, especially the private quarters of the three Weequay. I then went with my Imperiused guide on the largest ground transport shuttle they had, which held at least 500 people at a time, while shrinking and pocketing three more transports that were almost as big, and I was hoping to tug if I had to. The first stop was a twenty minute ride directly north of the station, which according to my guide's memories housed the 1200 Whiphids and 300 human slaves mostly controlling the livestock and creating fertilizers.
Here was the real test of my infiltration, as I had obscured my face with a small charm, my polyjuice having worn off by then, and then putting on a concealing cloak to help hide my identity in case of any trouble. We arrived at a platform with two Weequay and over three dozen armed Gamorreans standing before the arranged slaves, who were being corralled by another two dozen Gamorreans with whips. Luckily, only the Weequay had access to the slave collars they all wore, and after an over powered cutting curse removed both of them from the occasion, it was only a matter of time before I had put down the Gamorreans on the platform, and then moved on to the ones trying to corral the slaves with my lightsaber to help ingratiate myself to the slaves by believing the Jedi were here to save them.
After all the Hutt's men were taken care of, I quietly unshrunk one of the ground transports I brought with me and tripled its size so that all 1200 Whiphids and 300 humans could fit onboard it. I then told those gathered that I had secured transportation for them all with the help of the Wookies to be returned to their homes and put in the coordinates to return the ground transport back to the space station. I radioed back to Sirius, who now had the space station under complete control and the transport ships ready to be loaded and depart once they were filled with the rescued slaves.
My imperiused Weequay guide then put in the coordinates for the next stop, another twenty minute ride to the northwestern station but before we departed, I made sure I had a tracking charm on him and sent him off to the next stop. I then apparated to the nearby processing station, animal pens, and food storage silos for this section of the operation and began systematically shrinking everything I could down and filling over a dozen trunks with food, equipment, and unshrunk animals for a good fifteen minutes until everything that could be taken was packed up. I then found my tracking charm and apparated to my imperiused guide's side, ready to do it all again with the next stop approaching.
The northwest section was much smaller, with only 500 Wookies and another 200 humans mostly working fruit fields, and I was ready with the same plan as the previous station. Taking out the Weequay first, then dealing with the Gamorrean guards, unshrinking a ground transport and filling it with the rescued slaves, and sending them back to the space station to be loaded on the transport ships home. With the next destination entered in ground transport, I once again called Sirius to let him know the next transport was coming, and ensure he sent the empty transport to the southern section before I apparated to the storage facilities and orchards of this section and filled another dozen trunks before returning to my guide with minutes to spare until we reached the western section.
The western section housed almost two thousand Wookies and one hundred humans, and was primarily a packaging center for all the food to be packed for transport. As it had a more centralized structure that most worked in, it was both easier because everyone was already gathered close by, and harder because it was simply enormous with staging and storing areas for everything they were growing on this part of the planet. This section also had a few dozen of the native Ilosians helping the Gamorreans keep order of everything and took much longer for me to subdue and clear out any Hutt supporters, and we ended up taking several injuries and even a few deaths among the revolting slaves.
The Wookies here were quick to follow along after I showed off my lightsaber skills and then healed several injured before they were soon all loaded onto the final transport I had with me, and working their way back to the space station while I stayed behind to make my call to Sirius who was insanely busy trying to get slave collars removed and them all sorted into the proper transport ships. I then systematically started filling trunks quickly, reaching almost two dozen, and afraid that I wasn't going to have enough at the current rate I was going. By the time I apparated back to my guide and we were nearing the southwest section, I was starting to feel the strain of all the magic I was using, but plowed on knowing I had to push through.
This section was the exact same as the last, a packaging facility with 2000 Wookies and 100 humans that I had to load onto my current transport after removing the Hutt supporters and sending it to the next destination as I stayed behind to fill another two dozen trunks. My call to Sirius mentioned my need for more trunks, and he promised he would send a dozen from the Marauder that I kept behind as backups with the next transport ship heading to the southeast as the south bound one already departed. I apparated back to my guide and the now filled ground transport, shocking the hell out of several nearby Wookies before quickly locating a pepperup potion and downing it.
The south section housed 1200 Boosodians and another 300 humans, and luckily by the time I liberated them from their Weequay and Gamorrean oppressors, they were quick to load onto the newly arrived ground transport and head back to the space station. This section was primarily a wheat derivative farm, and didn't take nearly as long to shrink all their stored supply and the equipment that went with it before apparating back to my still filled main transport. I was glad for the easier cleanup, and hoped the last three stops were similar as I didn't want to risk taking another pepper-up potion before I finished.
The southeast section held 500 Skups and 200 humans and was much wetter than the rest of the planet, and filled with rice paddies. The opposition was quickly dealt with and I transferred to the newly arrived transport finding the trunks Sirius sent, and sending the Wookies back to the space station knowing the next stop had the rest of the Skups and wanted to keep them together. The rice silos were also pretty easy to clean out and I was grateful that I had another coming next as well, when I returned with a few extra minutes to catch my breath.
The east section wetlands contained even more rice paddies, and another 500 Skups and 200 humans, and after going through it so many times now, almost no true resistance to speak of. I soon had the transport loaded, and off to the final north east section that contained most of the seasonings and spices that were grown here, and not the illegal kind of spice mostly associated with the Hutt crime bosses. This area had a mix of 200 Skups, 200 Wookies, and 200 humans and made for a pretty tight fit once the opposition was taken care of and my ground transport was loaded.
I ended up having to use every single one of the dozen extra trunks Sirius sent me, as I cleaned out the remaining food, seasonings, equipment, and seedlings located in the north east section and then returned to the transport with only moments to spare before it arrived at the now overpacked space station. I joined Sirius who had taken over another processing station alongside the half dozen others filled with Wookies as they removed collars of the incoming slaves, confirmed where they called home and wanted to return to, and then sent them into the appropriate line to enter the correct transport ship where other Wookies were keeping a total count to ensure everyone was accounted for.
I almost kissed Kali, when she showed up with a sandwich I had shown her was one of my favorites, and let me scarf it down before continuing the processing as we still had a rather large crowd remaining. It took the better part of another hour to finish dealing with all the rescued slaves, and with my droids still in charge of the space station, clearance was quickly given to the three transport ships heading to Toola, Kijimi, and Durkteel to depart as soon as they could. The largest of the transport ships returning to Kashyyyk was the last loaded, and quickly followed the other three transport ships off of the space station and out into the hyperspace lanes.
With all the slaves now off planet, and all the stored food now in over a hundred shrunken trunks inside the Marauder, I finished cleaning out the space station and removing all the computer equipment and transports we used. With the space station itself broken down into pieces and shrunken, we now had the beginning of our own space station to set up wherever we ended up, and everything of value had been stripped clean off of Ilos. With nothing remaining, Sirius and I boarded the Marauder and told Kenroo to get us out of here before we both collapsed from exhaustion.
Tired might have been an understatement, as the next thing I remember is being woken up by the ship's alert alarm that we were exiting hyperspace, and about to arrive at Kashyyyk. Thirty-two hours of sleep is rare, especially for me, but I am damn glad life didn't interrupt what my body obviously needed and allowed me to recharge. Though, I was ravenous as we arrived in my now usual docking bay, and stopped in the cafeteria on my way out to grab a sandwich I could eat while I walked, knowing that Ganroowarr would need to be informed of the mission's success and wanting to ensure the other transports all got to where they were supposed to.
Ganroowarr was in great spirits when I arrived at his council chambers, and was on a holovid conference call with several of the other Wookie Clan Leaders, going over the arrangements to return their rescued clan members. Less than 5% of the rescued Wookies were from Thikkiiana, as most of those rescued were actually from the Kashyyyk capital city of Kachirho, and they were beyond grateful to have them returned, as were the other smaller clans. With those arrangements taken care of, I gave Ganroowarr a run down of how it went, including letting him know that I robbed the stored food and equipment and would be giving them a large share which had him very pleased with me.
With that business taken care of, I went back to my ship to have a large meal before going through all the stolen food stores and putting aside quite a bit of the packaged stores to give to the Wookiees. Knowing it would be a while until our still undiscovered planet would be up and running, I was pretty generous to my hairy friends, but made sure I had everything I was keeping packed away in stasis. It allowed me to free up two dozen of my trunks, so that I could use them later as the ones I brought with me were all now in use, and resigned myself to figure out how to make more of them for the future, or to start going through the ones I originally brought with me to consolidate.
The problem would probably be alleviated by itself once I had a more permanent residence where I could store some of the things I wouldn't need to keep with me at all times, like the books. Now that AD-7JL, my former Jedi Archive droid, had completely integrated my personal library into his already immense database, and created a pair of backups in two of my older protocol/library droids in case of an emergency, I could dump my physical books in a home library. I was hoping to do that with a lot of the equipment and items that I had been gathering on my travels, and would need to make some trunk room so to speak before I followed the two other biggest leads from Tago's stolen memories.
Ylesia was another Hutt controlled planet that was a slave colony and one of the leading spice producers, that Tago had visited twice to transport slaves and make pick ups for the Hutt Aruk, one of the big crime lords from Nal Hutta, who I was definitely going to avoid for now. Ylesia was much more heavily protected and fortified than Ilos, as criminals often took better care of their drugs than they did their food and this planet was a perfect example of it. But, it was definitely on my list of things to look into at some point, as the slave conditions Tago was able to witness were horrible, and the slave population near the space station he visited was too big to ignore, not to mention the incredible wealth contained within.
The other lead was Tago's connection to a mid-level Hutt crime lord named Bargos, who he often ran small errands for around Nimat, a small star system just outside of Hutt space on the Outer Rim side only about a week away from Kashyyyk. Bargos, was a down on his luck Hutt thrown out of Hutt space, and trying to make a name for himself by taking control of a small system in the Outer Rim, though he lacked any of the riches or resources to successfully do so. He still dabled mostly in the slave trade aided by his sometime ally Tago, and with a small spice drug habit that was to his detriment and had put them into contact with Hutt Aruk in the first place.
Both of those leads however, where to follow after I ventured out to Ashas Ree to check out the Outer Rim planet in the old Sith Sector, to see how viable it was to take over and put down some permanent roots for Sirius and I. Sirius was eager to get going now that we had completed the slave rescue and food theft on Ilos, as I had convinced him to hold off on doing the magic enhancement rituals until we arrived on Ashas Ree to help saturate the planet with more magic and possibly create or boost the natural ley lines that we hoped were present. We told Ganroowarr that we were going travelling a bit, and would always be reachable by comm. Plus, we wanted to know that the other slave transport ships were all returned to their homeworlds safely, as we then loaded up in the Marauder ready for the next step.
Selene and Felicia, as I had taken to calling our two twi'lek "friends" were both insistent on going anywhere we did, as despite all attempts to convince them otherwise, they both truly enjoyed being shagged silly by the pair of us. I couldn't really say I was unhappy with the arrangements, as Felicia was literally sexuality on legs, and a truly great bed companion that I really enjoyed getting her to squeal and orgasm as often as I could, and knew Sirius felt the same about Selene. We seemed to have convinced the twi'lek pair that they were not in fact bed slaves, and were free to go and do anything they wanted, but they liked the stability and protection we offered, as well as the orgasms.
Kali too, was insistent on joining us, as she felt she owed us for her freedom, and wasn't really ready to settle down in any one place after never having left Onderon prior to meeting us. I insisted that she became our ship's paid cook, and every time she complained about how much money I was paying her, I usually doubled it until she just accepted it the way it was. Kenroo too, was sticking with me for now as I promised him that Kashyyyk would be a constant stop in our travels and he was always free to do whatever he wanted and a partner in all our successes and wealth if he ever wanted to go off on his own.
I expected our trip out to Sith space would probably take us almost a month, and the Marauder was loaded with everything we owned and had it's weapons upgraded yet again in case of any trouble. Leaving Kashyyyk, we headed north on the Randon Run towards Lantillies where we would jump onto the Perlemian Trade Route out to Lianna, then switch over to the Ardan Cross Route to Korriban and the Sith Sector. We would be passing a lot of planets that I would want to check out and explore, but knew it would have to wait until after we scouted out Ashas Ree and discovered its viability to being our new home, and promised the others we would hit a few of them on the way back.
I spent most of the month long travel split between studying the Jedi Archives I had copied, planning the Foundational Magic Rituals I was planning if Ashas Ree worked out, and practicing my lightsaber forms with the help of the six lightsaber training droids I had "borrowed" from the Jedi Temple. The training droids were pretty good in providing the basic forms and stances of Jedi combat and especially Form V that I felt was the best for me to learn, but they didn't think too far beyond the basics or adapt too well to my slowly growing skills. My progress was slow going, though I did convince Sirius to begin learning Form I as it would be a real boon to his fighting abilities and continue his Force training, and also great for his overall strength and endurance to help please his lady.
My hope was that he would eventually get to the point where the two of us could train together and spare, as that seemed the truly best way to learn based on what I had observed during my lessons on Coruscant and the history of the Master and Padawan traditions. It was always easier to understand the instructions of Yoda or Rohann Silvere, and sparring with them and Qui-Gon Jinn had really shown how much quicker I could advance with practical lessons and constant spars. The lightsaber training droids were only an adequate alternative to a true teacher, but they were what I had to work with from now on, or at least until I could get Sirius trained up enough.
He was at least interested, as his smaller initial instructions in the Force left him with a decent base to work with, and having just gone through the same instructions myself, I was easily able to keep him working on the next step as he built up the proper Force powers and stamina to really begin lightsaber instruction. The biggest problem we had was that we only had one real old lightsaber, and a pair of training sabers that would not serve us well in the galaxy. The old lightsaber we did have was one rescued from Milthanex's hideout, along with the unknown holocron he had, and wasn't a great match for me or the Fifth Form I was trying to learn.
I hadn't touched any of the holocrons yet, of which I now had four as I was hoping to be a little further along in my individual lightsaber training before I introduced a new teacher or method that I didn't really know anything about. I was however getting close to giving in and activating the holocrons I had, hoping they contained good teachers for what I was hoping to learn about the Force and lightsaber combat. I couldn't afford to waste any resources now that I was kicked out of the Jedi Temple, learning directly from the Jedi now became a whole lot harder than before, and I needed the training, maybe once we stopped in Ashas Ree.
The trip began very easily, with no issues or problems, but the moment we reached Korriban you could feel a sort of corruption or sickness in the Force that I had to estimate being the Dark Side the Jedi were so hung up on. If this is what it always felt like though, I could see why they didn't want any part of it, as it was suffocatingly oppressive and negative, reminding both Sirius and I about our own Dementors which was the closest feeling I could liken it to which wasn't good. My patronus charm got a good workout from that point on, as we all benefited from having Prongs patrolling our spaceship keeping the mood inside light, and seemingly driving the oppressive dark feelings away from us.
From what I was able to research from the Jedi Archives, all of the Sith Sector was steeped in the Dark Side of the Force, and physically uncomfortable for any Light Side Jedi to tolerate or navigate within. It at least provided the cover that I was looking for, so our magic could be used on a planet wide scale without detection, as nothing penetrated the Dark Shroud of evil that seemed to literally permeate the very planets in this sector of space. We had to keep leaving hyperspace to check on the planets we were passing on the way to Ashas Ree, to ensure that there weren't any large civilizations to deal with or an actual Sith presence planetside.
Korriban, Bosthirda, Dromund Kaas, and Jaguada were all briefly stopped at, and hovered above in our spaceship, as I tried sending out homenium revello spells and my own Force powers to try and see what was happening planetside. Unfortunately, other than learning there were several temples in use on Korriban with tens of thousands of people currently present, the thick obscuring nature of the Dark Side didn't allow anything else to be revealed. That there were active Sith Temples at all, as the feelings it gave off couldn't have been for anything else was extremely upsetting, and probably something the Jedi would need to know about, unless Sirius and I decided to do something about it instead.
We would need to remove a Dark Side presence this close to our chosen home anyway, and we could both test our growing Force skills against others, and test the strength of these Dark Side users as well. Even better, we could also strip the Sith planet of its resources and lightsabers to increase our working collection, and remove their stain on the Force. It wasn't something we were going to just jump into though, and would require a bit of scouting and planning on our part before trying to do anything. For now, we just checked out every planet on the hyperline route towards Ashas Ree until we finally arrived at our destination.
Ashas Ree looked a lot like Kashyyyk did from space, a heavily forested planet with only a few large bodies of water, and practically nothing in terms of large civilizations or technological advancement visible from space. In fact there was only a very small area that had seemingly been built on at all, and contained a crumbled down looking temple next to the only other inhabitants of the planet. A small spaceship marketplace had grown up near the dilapidated Jedi Temple, that housed only three small shops, three equally run down looking spaceships, and less than two dozen beings according to my revealing spell.
As we were trying to maintain our secrecy, I asked everyone to stay on board, and to let me go scout out the area and marketplace, before deciding what we should do. With a heavy cloak covering me completely, I walked purposefully up to the open marketplace area that had grown up between the three parked and old looking spaceships, my own parked a ways from the others in case of hostility. The inhabitants of this market though, were very weary of my approach, and all ten visible beings, of which most at least looked human, drew blasters and held them at the ready in case I tried anything.
"What do you want, stranger?" came the harshly barked words from the man closest to me, a large and muscular man with his blaster rifle aimed directly at me, and his glare unrelenting.
"Access to the temples," I answered, figuring that there wouldn't be much other reason to come to this planet otherwise, and also using a bit of Legilimancy to get a read on anything the man knew about the Sith and Jedi Temples that were built here a millennium ago, and finding just the standard knowledge they exist and the many times trying to explore them and hunt for treasures unsuccessfully.
"You want temple access?" came his gruff reply, "it'll cost you."
"How much?" I asked, and got ready to move as his thoughts betrayed his upcoming attempt to get rid of me."
"Your life!" he roared as he fired his blaster rifle without warning directly at me from only ten meters away, and if I hadn't lived through what I had, trained my body and magic, and seen this coming I might have been too slow to react.
As it was, I spun out of the blaster's way, drew my wand, and fired my own sectumsempra spell before any of those present even recognized that I wasn't hit. My spell however did hit true, and the large man collapsed with a strangled scream as three long and deep gashes cut him open across his neck, chest, and legs killing him moments after hitting the ground. A shield spell came up next as seven of the remaining nine visible beings all drew their blasters and fired on me as well, with the only exceptions being two younger boys who both dropped to their knees instantly and tried crawling away from the others.
Within a minute, the remaining seven who fired upon me were now dead, and I was wrapping the two young boys in ropes while looking around to ensure nobody else was about to spring out and attack me. A revealing spell told me that each of the three spaceships had a few passengers in them, probably the wives and youngest kids of these scum, but I would leave them for the moment to find out what is going on here. With two young prisoners, I was going to attempt to question them both separately to try and get a better picture of what was happening here, and who else is still here.
"Who is in charge here?" I started by asking the two now frantic young boys as they squirmed within the ropes now binding them, and doing a surface scan of their thoughts to ensure they were being truthful and to learn anything else I could about the situation.
"Rahm," spoke the older of the two, who somewhat resembled each other when seeing them close together as he motioned to the first man that tried to intimidate and then fire upon me. "He's been in charge of this little settlement for the last ten years."
"And what is this 'settlement'?" I continued, finding the boys both honest and even somewhat grateful to me for killing Rahm, their father and tormentor for most of their lives.
"Um ...our father ...Rahm, was trying to find Sith teachings," spoke the younger of the two boys, "he's been killing and swindling everybody who comes here unless they agree to follow him."
"And what about the three people in the spaceship behind you?" I asked, causing both boys to instantly gain wide-eyed looks of fear as they frantically looked at me as I glanced around their camp with a sad shake of my head. "Or the two people in that one? Or the three in the last one?"
"Our family," came the practically whispered response of the oldest. "Mom and sisters behind us, the two are wives of Fristol and Gaensre ...those two," he continued pointing at the two oldest of the now dead men, "and the other three are our aunt and her two children."
"And these men were?" I asked, knowing I wouldn't have too much to worry about from the wives and younger children from the pair's memories.
"Our father's gang," came the small voice of the youngest. "Mostly thieves."
"Well, " I continued after a long moment to collect my thoughts and what I wanted to happen, "if you promise not to attack me, I will release you and allow you to gather everyone ...I am going to need you all to relocate."
Five minutes later, and with some yelling ...mostly from the now widowed older women whose husbands were two of the better ones in the group, and everyone was seated around the open marketplace. The two mothers, had their two youngest children each huddled very close to them, as if afraid I was going to come after them next, but decided it wasn't worth the hassle of convincing them otherwise. I laid out for them that this temple was soon going to be razed to the ground, and this planet terraformed for resources, and would no longer be hospitable for any of them ...and that information about what was happening here was confidential, and unless they preferred to join the men of their group, they better stay quiet.
After that, they all agreed to leave the planet but would need some help navigating them as the only two who had ever been shown flight controls were still young teenagers, and never allowed to fly on their own. Feeling somewhat responsible for them getting off planet now, I gave each of the three ships an astromech droid who would help keep the ships maintained, and also help with navigation in the future, and said they could slave the three ships together so only one flight crew would be needed now. With the droids moved over, confounding spells applied to not remember all the details of the planet and our discussion, and a couple credits given out to each of the three groups, they were all lifting off and leaving the space around Ashas Ree.
Calling out my own crew, I gave them all a quick rundown of what needed to happen first, and tasked Kenroo and the three girls to go through the few things left behind from the small marketplace, and pull out anything that was worth saving as we would scrap the rest soon. Sirius was going to check out the Jedi Temple ruins, while I went underneath and tried to locate the old Sith Temple ruins and hopefully the source of that disgusting feeling of the Dark Side that permeated the planet. We would meet back here in two hours regardless of what we found, to discuss what our next steps would be.
I then set out using my mage senses and apparition to follow the taint of the Dark Side that seemingly came from underground, and hopefully the Sith Temple so I could kill two birds with one stone. Several excavating spells later, and I had removed enough rubble and debris to find the underground entrance to what must have been a Sith Temple several levels below what would even be considered underground in normal circumstances. The temple was in ruins and filthy, but surprisingly still somewhat recognizable as I moved past the large entryway and into the halls beyond, constantly using bracing spells to hold the ceiling together.
Within the first hour, I found a small library and treasure room with a good amount of both, though completely crumbled into garbage and destroyed by time, but also surprisingly four intact holocrons and three lightsabers which I was very pleased with. Otherwise, everything else I encountered was basically ravaged by time and crumbling to unrecognisable dust as I continued moving down into the temple. It was as the two hour window was coming to a close that I started feeling the building and increasing of the Dark Side powers of the Force, and came across the first of many visible tombs in an area underneath the treasury I found that seemed to go on for a while.
Putting up a marker just outside of the Sith tombs, I apparated back to the now empty open marketplace to find everyone sitting around waiting for me to report in. They pulled out anything of value or that could easily be fixed, which Sirius already loaded up into trunks and stored with the rest of our things to go through in the cargo hold and discarded the rest. The Jedi Temple had been pretty well cleaned out, but there were a few old lightsabers without their focusing crystals that may come in handy later, but nothing much else had survived.
With the Dark Side wellspring of sorts noted, the next step was to see if we could ritually cleanse the planet before starting the rest of the rituals that would boost the magic, create and then boost ley lines, increase the lands' fertility and top soil before we could start laying building foundations. The problem with those rituals however, was volatility, and trying to protect everyone else not inside the ritual circle would be impossible, as would putting others inside the ritual circle itself. So, I asked Sirius if he would take Kenroo and the girls to scout out the last two planets on this hyperline, Kalsunor and Begeren without interfering in anything they saw.
That would give me a little over 30 hours to prepare and perform the rituals I needed on the entire planet, without worrying about everyone else's safety. So I grabbed the ritual ingredients trunk I put together over the last few days before arrival, and gave everyone a thankful hug for luck, before I watched them take off on the Marauder for a quick thirty hour voyage. Knowing I needed to finish exploring the Dark Side Sith tombs area and the true source of the Dark Side on this planet, I didn't waste any time apparating back to my marker with the intent of cleaning this planet up.
Four frustrating hours later, and I had finally discovered the source of the Dark Side wellspring, an actual well at the very bottom spot below the tombs marked with what had to be Sith runes and engravings in the floors and ceiling. They seemingly pulled on the Dark Side energies of the above tombs and flowed into the well that fed directly into the core of the planet, tainting and staining everything with its potent Dark Side Force energy. Knowing that I would have to remove the tombs and Sith runes before going through with the cleansing ritual on the well itself, I pulled out a pair of high level flash grenades I picked up among the collected / confiscated bounty from the raid on Milthanex and set them in the tomb's middle.
Deciding that a little Fiendfyre to help cleanse and tear down the Sith Temple ruins wouldn't be amiss, I set the grenades, unleashed my Fiendfyre spell and then apparated back to the marketplace clearing hopefully far enough away to avoid any of the blast radius. The explosion was pretty epic, and I'm glad nobody else was here to see it, as the Fiendfyre too exploded out of the hole in the ground before burning over everything for another hour without stopping until only black sludge remained on the ground. With the Sith Temple now a smoking crater in the ground of the planet, access to the well that fed the planet's core was now easily identifiable and accessible.
I spent the next four hours carving out my own runes, and laying out ritual ingredients around the large ritual circle I was using with the well at its very center, something on a far larger scale than anything previously attempted on earth. When it was finished, the runes engraved into the hard sludge of burnt rock seemingly twisted around one another in an ever growing pattern that spread from the well in almost one hundred meters in every direction, and completely encompassed the footprint of the previous Sith Temple. With a final inspection to ensure the runes were correct as far as I knew them to be, having never attempted this ritual, and the only references for it, where on a much smaller scale, I was ready to go for broke.
Worst case scenario is that I blew up the entire planet.
I probably wouldn't even die ...as the Hallows protect me, and I'm sure I could survive until Sirius came back looking for me. If it worked, however, it would surpass almost every other ritual ever accomplished on earth just for it's scale and size, not to mention leave me with a perfect planet to start growing into our own magical empire. Using the blood of four potent magical animals at each of the cardinal directions, Phoenix for the North, Dragon for the West, Thestral for the South, and Unicorn for the East would hopefully provide all the power the ritual needed. For an added bonus though, I was also including seven drops of my own blood to each of those cardinal points as well to help power the ritual and form a more personal connection between myself and the planet.
The moment the ritual began, the runes all around me quickly were illuminated and only continued to grow brighter as the magic built and built around me. The thickness of the growing magic was beyond anything I had done in my own enhancement rituals, and for a moment I wondered if I had just blown up a planet as I was buffeted with insanely strong winds whipping all around me with no end in sight. The build up lasted for over an hour, during which I could hardly breath as the air became so thick with wild magic swirling around me, and saturating down into the ground as it seemed the whole planet was in the midst of an epic quake.
The built up magic eventually exploded out of the ritual circle like a thunderclap, and almost like a flood quickly spread out over the entire planet blanketing everything in a thick tingly feeling fog that even now as I looked, was slowly soaking back into the ground. Within a few minutes, that thick fog had saturated into the ground leaving a strong breeze to blow around as the feeling of discharged ozone lingered in the atmosphere. What didn't linger any longer though, was that feeling of the Dark Side of the Force, which had seemingly been washed away by the enormous cleansing ritual.
With that Dark Taint gone, I quickly pulled out my shrunken ritual trunk and prepared the items I would need for the next phase of my ritual preparation, namely creating the magical ley lines that I was hoping would fuse into the planet and help the growth of magic. With the highly magical concoction I was putting together separated into equal seven parts, and seven drops of my own blood added to each of the seven doses, I returned to the original ritual circle and core well to begin the first steps of this next ritual. Almost an hour spent at each of the seven different locations spread out to completely cover the entire planet almost two-thirds the size of earth, I laid down runes aplenty and poured out the highly magical concoction at each site I was hoping would be the intersections of our new ley line network before returning to the first spot at the now neutral Magical Force Well.
I was damn tired as I went through the final stages of the ley line ritual, but made completely sure that everything had been done correctly and was ready to start. A long incantation in an old druidic language I only had a passing familiarity with, and the runes around the first site began glowing a deep red color that only continued to brighten. Over the next twenty minutes, that red light started branching off in several directions, hopefully connecting with the other six sites I marked as the magic continued to build. It was another hour of building magic before all the branches of light formed into strong lines of dense red light and very slowly started sinking into the ground.
It would probably take a few months until the ley lines truly became permanent, as they would be growing and soaking up all the ambient magic to power them and settle in permanently. It would help to continue to use magic around the seven beacons in the meantime to give them every chance to soak up enough magic to sustain themselves. With that in mind, after downing a pepper-up potion to stay awake, I apparated to one of the other beacons to start the first of seven smaller rituals that would increase the fertility of the land, and hopefully give a boost to the growing ley lines as well.
When the Marauder returned with my friends and godfather, I was completely passed out and spent, sleeping on the ground near the well where I had anchored all the magical rituals, and was likewise unpleasantly surprised by being woken to the licking tongue of Padfoot. Not sure how long I had been asleep for, after passing out shortly after completing the seven consecutive fertility rituals, but I was awake enough to fill them all in on what happened and hear their story of the last day in a half too. They had no issues visiting the last two planets on this hyperline, as both were uninhabited by people, with Begeren being a desert planet, and Kalsunor a forested one like this, but with the same Dark Taint that this planet once had and a seemingly large population of carnivorous predators called Silooths that looked like overgrown Dark Side beetles.
They hadn't stopped at either planet to get out of the ship, just did a few passes over both planets before turning back and heading back to me. They were amazed that the Dark Taint had been completely removed, and that the planet looked so peaceful and alive right now, and I quickly filled them in on what we needed to accomplish next. I was going to use the beacon sites for the enhancement rituals I planned for Sirius, but first had another idea I wanted to try. The fertility rituals I did, were some of the more powerful when dealing with the land, but there were also sexual fertility rituals that would boost what I had already done and solidify it, and wanted to see if Sirius and Selene, would be interested in performing a few as Felicia and I did the others.
Kenroo instantly decided to go sleep in the soundproof suite on the Marauder, and not come out until we told him it was clear, while Kali blushed something fierce and ran back to the ship and her own quarters as well without asking a single question. Turning and smiling at Sirius and the pair of sexy Twi'leks, I quickly filled Sirius in on what exactly had to happen, and the magic he needed to invoke at each site. I then started apparating the group to the three sites for Sirius and Selene to christen, while Felicia and I took the next three leaving the first site for last and whoever got to it.
The ritual was pretty straight forward, draw a ritual circle, fill it with the small and relatively easy runic script and then have sex inside said circle bringing both partners to orgasm to fuel it. It was exactly the type of ritual I knew would interest Sirius, and show him the better side of rituals, in order to convince him of the need for the body enhancement ones we would be doing shortly afterwards. The extra magic from these rituals would certainly boost the fertility rituals I performed, but also help boost and solidify the growing ley lines by performing near the beacon sites, not to mention just be enjoyable anyways.
The magical backlash of these sex-based fertility rituals was pretty substantial, and while it invigorated me, it completely wore out Felici'arnustri to the point that by the third site, she was struggling to stay awake. Her two previous orgasms were both used to fuel the first two rituals successfully, but her growing weariness made the third ritual go much longer than it should have. Her fatigue came to a crescendo the moment after her third orgasm, and the magical backlash hit, knocking her out completely as the magic flowed through and around her.
Without going to look for them myself, I used my senses to ensure that Sirius and Seleni'arnustri were both doing okay, and "found" them just starting their own third round, where the pair of them were definitely slowing down considerably. Kali was sitting in the cafeteria onboard the Marauder when I came in first to put Felicity to bed, and then get some food for myself, but wouldn't meet my eyes as I wolfed down quite a bit of food. I could tell that she was gearing up to say something, and wondered if she was upset that her Twi'lek friends were being taken advantage of, or that she wasn't included.
"Did the rituals all work out?" came her small voice after several long moments of silence, where I could see her working up her courage to talk.
"Close," I answered with a small grin, trying to get a read on what she was actually getting at, "the magical backlash knocked Felicia out before we could finish the last one. I think Sirius and Selene are having the same difficulties and have almost finished their three sites."
"You both finished three sites?" came her wide eyed look, and bright red blush as she thought about what exactly that meant and caused her to take a long look checking me out. "How are you still awake?"
"Stamina," I winked at her, causing the growing blush to blare dark red as her eyes widened even more than before, and causing my own grin to stretch at how cute she looked. "Why ...you want a turn?"
"W-what? ...um ...I-I ...y-ye ...um," came the stuttered reply of the dark haired young cook as she blushed even more and ducked her head in embarrassment, not giving voice to anything while I chuckled softly to myself.
"It's okay if you don't," I continued thinking she was too embarrassed to even have the conversation, "We'll just have to wait until we finish at the last site."
"I-I ...do," came her whispered reply, that was so soft that I almost didn't hear it, and wondered if I was hearing things correctly.
"You do ...what?" I asked for clarification, but inwardly really pleased if she wanted to be a part of the rituals and share a sexual experience with me, as I had found her very attractive and a perfectly shaggable friend.
"I want to do the ritual with you," she squealed out, seemingly embarrassed by her own daring, but looking at me with a familiar hunger that I was happy to explore.
I smiled and stood up, reaching out for her hand and waiting until she put her small hand in mine, and allowed me to lead her to the last of the seven beacons, the well itself. I explained a little about the runic circle I quickly created and filled in, and explained that the ritual wouldn't be complete until we both orgasmed, and would be stronger if we could try to reach it together. I could tell she was still nervous and a little embarrassed, and I tried to calm her down by promising that she could stop at any time, and that I would be gentle. Her biting her lip in shyness as I slowly started peeling off her clothes was incredibly sexy, as was the beautiful body she was hiding and that I wasted no time in starting to explore.
It was actually pretty erotic due to her vulnerability and insecurity with her own body, to lavish her with attention that was unlike anything she had experienced prior to. The Twi'leks knew how to use and appreciate their own bodies to such a degree, that it was refreshing and sweet to be with someone that vulnerable and unsure of herself and her body as we laid down inside the ritual circle and simply enjoyed ourselves. She knew that I wasn't really seeking a partner in the complete sense, but that I was more than willing to couple with just about anyone that struck my fancy and that Felicia was more than willing to share as she had offered already several times for both her sister and Kali to join us in the past.
It was incredible, bringing Kali out of her reserved and insecure shell as I lavished her with attention and ensured she was happy and enjoying herself. The little mewling noises she made were absolutely delicious, and had me wanting to continue this well past the usual completion of the ritual, and did after the initial terms were met then added to. It wasn't until she too passed out from exhaustion, that I took her back to her bed in the Marauder and went looking for Sirius, so we could begin the first parts of his personal enhancement rituals.
The first ritual I had planned for Sirius was the same as my own, and was a Peak Performance Ritual, and was supposed to return a person's body to their physical peak and would hopefully eliminate all the damage done from his years in Azkaban. We then had three other body enhancement rituals to do after this first one, one strengthening all the bones and cartilage, another one strengthening the muscles and tendons bringing him to levels that far exceeded the average athlete, and the last to increase his healing factor. Knowing that we both had a long life ahead of us, I wanted us to both have every advantage available as long as it was relatively safe and didn't have costs we were unwilling to pay. In these cases, the cost was just some of his blood, temporary physical pain, some ingredients that I already had stored in stasis inside my trunks, and the time to draw the runes involved in the ritual.
So, I started drawing out all four ritual circles, knowing that it was going to hurt and suck for Sirius. I wanted to do them one after the other so he would only really suffer once and not drag it out over several days. Once I was ready for him, I made sure that he knew exactly what was happening, and asked Seleni'arnustri to accompany us to the ritual site to help him when he was done. Luckily, the bacta tank treatment he suffered for several years under the Jedi's care also helped heal some of the past deficiencies his body suffered in Azkaban, and hopefully would make the first ritual not nearly as painful for him as it was for me.
Within two hours, all four rituals were complete, and Sirius was apparated by me into his tent's large bathroom, where Selene was ready with a hot tub soak to help him heal and recover his energy. I reminded him that he still had two more rituals to go, and to not wear himself out and actually try to recover first. As the last two rituals were directly related to his magic and not his body, it wasn't that important that he was rested, but I wanted time to prepare for the final ritual and my plans to turn the well beacon site into our new ritual room that would only be used for that purpose.
I brought out my supplies, and started drawing the ritual circles for the final two rituals I had planned for Sirius, just as they were for me. The first ritual was a boost to your magical sensitivity, primarily referred to as mage sense and sight and only required some of your blood mixed with dragon blood and a bunch of runes drawn over various parts of your body. This would hopefully provide Sirius with the fabled mage sight and also increase his ability to sense magic and other magicals around him just like I now could.
The second was the general magical enhancement ritual powered by a few potions and wand core ingredients from various magical animals in order to boost your magical core and the flow of your magic in general, depending on what elements you used. With basilisk venom, phoenix feather, dragon heartstring, and reem blood at the four cardinal points just like I used, I was pretty confident that he too would get quite the magical boost. Though with a similar addition of acromantula venom, phoenix tears, demiguise hair, and unicorn hair in between those four cardinal points, this boost should be a little more powerful than what was normal, but was exactly what I did to myself so I knew that it worked.
I had to wait until Sirius was up and rested after the first round of body enhancement rituals, before getting him started on the second set of magic boosting rituals, but did the moment he was up. The second one, much like it did for me, had a ridiculously large magical backlash, but this time I was able to actually direct it to the magic well where it was quickly soaked up and added to the growing magic running throughout the planet's slowly settling ley lines. Sirius was of course knocked out by the ritual the same as I was, and I was even tempted to put him in a Wookie cell to replicate the situation and complete disorientation I felt after my own performing of the same rituals but didn't.
But with those rituals now all completed, it was time to start preparing and developing our new planet into how we wanted it, and that started with a detailed set of plans and ideas. My first thought towards that end was to build a ritual chamber around the well beacon site that we were using for all of Sirius' and the planet wide rituals as the well would absorb any access magic and use it to boost the planet's own magic. Then it was on to the other six magical beacons that helped in the creation of ley lines, as each site would eventually be at the higher concentration of magic areas on the planet.
The plan was to build structures around the actual beasons themselves to protect them from discovery, while providing a central gathering point for magic to gather and strengthen the beacons and therefore the ley lines which would in turn strengthen the magic of the planet over time. With a lot of the planet covered in thick forest, most of the beacons would probably act as the central point of several very large magical forests at least in the immediate future. Our own residence would be built around the new ritual room, with the rest of our little planned city growing up around us ...just not too close.
Our little planet wasn't enormous like some I'd seen, roughly two-third the size of earth with less than 20% covered in water, and almost completely forested outside a mountain range at the southernmost part of the planet. We would need to do proper geological surveys on the entire planet, as I only knew a little from my brief jumps around the planet to locate and put down the beacons used for the ley line ritual. Luckily, there were several different droids whose purpose was exactly that, and I soon had a pair of teams each with a general tracker droid, a mapping droid, and a soil collector droid scouring over the planet to provide the complete ecological survey I wanted.
I then decided to start flagging off the area I was hoping to turn into Sirius' and my home base, and start laying down several more flags for the other important buildings I knew would need to be built as well, namely the spaceport and the eventual droid factory and spaceship building and repair shop. Those were the main two industries I wanted to really start expanding into, even if we brought everything to Kashyyyk to sell through the Wookies and keep our isolated little planet out here all to ourselves at least for now. We didn't really want to turn our new little planet home into a tourist location that people came to, more a rehabilitation center to prepare rescued slaves for a better life to get them to go out in the world, not stay in our isolated little corner of it.
Regardless of whether our little city grew with permanent residents, I wanted to ensure this planet didn't turn into another Coruscant with so much building that the ground was unfindable, with no natural resources. The large forests of the planet should hopefully help in that regard, as I was planning to clear large areas for our city and spaceport, but leave the rest of the planet to its own devices for a long while until the magic started settling into different areas and maybe wildlife and plants would dictate their future usage. For now though, it was just clearing a lot of trees and dense jungle to make room for the new city of Avalon.
I lost track of time a bit in my methodical clearing of land, and was therefore surprised to see Sirius apparate near me to remind me to eat dinner as I'd been out here all day, before leaving me behind to return to the Marauder's cafeteria. Instead, I apparated directly into my bathroom inside my tent, and quickly jumped in a hot shower to clean off the sweat and dirt that had accumulated throughout the day before getting out to join the others for an evening meal. It was something I really enjoyed that we had been doing since we left Kashyyyk, and that was all eating together as a family of sorts in the evening so we all could get better acquainted with one another.
I had forgotten though, that this was the first time we were all together after the sexual fertility rituals, and that not everyone of us was a gentleman that didn't like to talk too much or overshare as my godfather did. I arrived to find a completely embarrassed and red faced Kali trying to disappear under the large table everyone else was currently spread around, as Sirius teased her for her part in the earlier ritual. Luckily, Felici'arnustri didn't seem to mind at all about her time with me, so it was just relatively harmless teasing by Sirius, probably because of some of the things Sirius and Kali fought about in regards to his openly sexual relationship with Seleni'arnustri.
"Sirius ...If you don't behave, I'll have to send you to your room without desert," I stated clearly, announcing to everyone else of my arrival, which got nods from Kenroo, Selene & Felicia while Sirius just barked a laugh, and Kali tried unsuccessfully to disappear even further under the table.
"Hey!" yelled Sirius petulantly, "you're not my dad!"
"No," I answered with a small shake of my head and a growing smirk, "but, I can definitely kick your arse!"
Ignoring Sirius' continued grumbles after that comment, mostly along the lines of how he thought a fight between us would end differently with a lot of colorful language aimed at me, I instead addressed the shy cook. Making sure she was first physically okay, then asking her what was bothering her, I had to coax it out of her that she was embarrassed about our little ritual. Her lack of experience in those matters, left her feeling at odds of how to act around me, and it took a bit of time to get her to try and be as normal as possible and that there was absolutely no pressure on her to do anything she didn't feel 100% comfortable with.
After that, I described how the rituals were successful, but that it would probably take upwards of four weeks for the magical ley lines to settle permanently into place, and until that time had to be very careful with the seven beacons spread throughout the planet. I then went on about clearing out enough forest to begin laying the foundations of several permanent structures, starting with a large estate centered around the magic well beacon and the soon to be ritual room. I described what the next few days would be, and how labor and magic intensive they would be for me, and Sirius if he actually got off his ass and helped. I asked them if they would just continue in their normal tasks for now until we had enough setup that they could take on another project.
I asked Sirius how he was feeling after the magic and body enhancement rituals, and got several amazed thanks from both him and Seleni'arnustri for his increased stamina, strength, and magic. I told him, I expected him to test that magical stamina and keep pushing his boundaries, as it was the only way to truly grow stronger magically over time, and that I would need the help in getting this planet up and running. Luckily, magical construction and building was one of Sirius' favorite hobbies of his youth, and after I promised to pull all the books I had out for him, he agreed to plan the buildings themselves and teach me everything he knew ...which sounded perfect.