The Force's Balance
By Kassien
Chapter 10: Building Avalon
Before I even knew it, we had spent over two months on the new planet that Sirius wanted to call Atlantis, since our city had already been named Avalon again by Sirius, and I refused to call anything Hogwarts no matter how nostalgic. The time had been spent in ridiculously long days filled with clearing land, digging out foundations, and mapping out and marking all the places for buildings throughout the city. I had worked almost exclusively on securing the border to our own personal property, building a stone fence three meters high that encompassed all the land that would hold our large Manor house, separate reinforced ritual room, large gardens, a quidditch pitch, and several acres of forest too.
I had the pleasure of warding it to the high heavens too, which was why we needed to establish the boundaries of the property before I put down the main ward stones I created to give our property everything I had on my tent to keep it protected and safe. Luckily, all the work was really helped by the large contingent of droids of varying abilities I had at my disposal, who were constantly moving around our new planet delivering stone and building materials to the various construction sites, clearing and moving the trees from the planet, and helping with the building in several cases too. We were however, quickly running out of the necessary building supplies, namely durocrete as every building that we had begun, started with a substantial basement or several levels of it in regards to our Manor House, or at least needed large stable foundations.
Sirius had been equally busy, as he was mainly working on the buildings of the city center, namely the City Hall (government building), Library, Gymnasium, Theater / Stadium, and multi-housing options too. We worked together at the beginning to plan and implement plumbing and drainage, as well as leaving room for electrical to be added, before we split off to focus on separate projects as we felt we could get more accomplished that way. Sirius really did know his stuff when it came to building, but we both felt it was important to have the correct materials versus transfiguring everything to work, and later having it fail at a bad time.
Kenroo and the girls were currently trying to finish the work on the attached Cantina and Hotel of the new spaceport we built as one of the first things we knew to be needed using everything I stole from Ilos. The girls' focusing on design and layout, with Kenroo and several dozen droids providing most of their manual labor, the Hotel was finally starting to come together as the last of the three to be completed. Once it was in fact finished, we had plans to go on a materials run and take a break from all the work we were putting in, as everyone was starting to get a little stir crazy from the long hours of work and isolation.
Thankfully, Kali had gotten over any shyness she had around me, probably helped by Felici'arnustri showing up in her room naked on a regular basis until the shy human girl decided to join us in our bed on most nights for some relaxation and fun time. Sirius was a little pouty about Kali joining me and Felicia, and not him and Selene, but I reminded him often enough that she needed a younger stud and not an over the hill former playboy. It saw the start of our latest prank war again, but this time the girls demanded we stop when they started getting hit with the crossfire, and another truce was called ...for now.
"What is it with you and pranks anyway?" asked Selene one rare evening when we spent some time relaxing after our family dinner, as she sat on Sirius' lap slowly running her hand over his chest, while I lied down on the nearby sofa with my head in Felicia's lap getting one of the few breaks I had all month.
"Pranks are the best," declared Sirius without any thought, as if stating the most obvious fact in the known universe, but eventually continued at his lover's searching look. "I guess pranks were my way of sticking it to my family growing up, and then they played a big role in my greatest friendship with Harry's dad, as we were the kings of pranks at our school, and it was the happiest time of my life."
"After school, James and I went right to Dumbledore to fight for the Light," continued Sirius, his eyes slowly taking on a darker hue as his memories resurfaced and played out in his mind. "The War was all consuming, and before long I was in Azkaban with my best friend and his wife dead, reliving every horrible thing in my life on a constant loop for years ...and when I did finally escape and meet Harry I was a complete wreck. Pranks are one of the only connections I have to my former personality and self, the dementors took so much else ...I guess I just still look at them and think of simpler and happier times, and would rather be laughing and planning a prank than thinking about all the fucked up shit I've had to deal with."
"Here here," I saluted, causing Kali and Felicia to snicker as Selene huffed, "but ...I think we should have a few ground rules and keep out of each other's bedrooms ...agreed Siri?"
"Fine," grumbled Sirius after a moment of getting glared at by his girlfriend until he agreed, to which she shot him a smug smile, and got relieved sighs from both Kali and Felicia, who would most likely find themselves in the crossfire again.
"Good, then I am taking these two gorgeous ladies to my bed, which will never again turn into a glitter pool when there are three people in it ...am I right?" I responded glaring daggers at Sirius until he gulped and nodded along.
One of our plans after we left was going to be swinging by Begeren, the last planet after ours on the hyperspace lane, and implementing the few pieces of terraforming equipment we had, both to see if we could collect any natural resources in the primarily desert planet and find out what else we needed in the way of terraforming and mining. That would help with our plans to start mining the nearby moons and gas giants all around our new planet and the several nearby star systems, until we had built up a wealthy and protected area we could call our home for the foreseeable future. I also wanted to use the farming equipment I commandeered on the next to last planet in the hyperspace lane, Kalsunor but would need more equipment and some time preparing that planet so that farming could commence there.
With all of our building supplies used up, and our new planet having fully solidified the ley lines that now ran throughout it, and wards established on our Manor House, we were getting ready to make our supply run and see some more of the galaxy before returning to finish our work. Checking and ensuring that the wards I had placed were successfully hiding our residence and the planet itself from any who might come looking for it, we packed our things and returned to the hyperspace lanes to get back towards the core worlds. Using the Marauder's scanners, I was able to confirm that nobody else would be able to find our little planet without being invited by Sirius or myself, and we left into space for our first stop on the way back towards Kashyyyk, and a place to let loose a little ...the Sith Planet of Korriban.
My magic and Force senses had gone haywire when we first passed Korriban on the route towards Ashas Ree, and despite all the evidence in the Jedi Archives pointing to Korriban as the birthplace of the Sith race and location of former Sith Temples and Tombs, we still needed to check it out. The feel of the Dark Side of the Force was actually growing stronger, the closer we got to actually landing on Korriban, and it took a little while to find an area we could land that was not near any of the very Dark spots in the Force that seemingly littered the entire planet. From our ships' scans, we were somewhat surprised at the rather high population planetside that wasn't near the Sith Temples, as well as the high concentration of both the Dark Side of the Force, but also dark magic that was prevalent throughout the planet.
Landing the Marauder near a very isolated mountain range with no readings of any nearby species, we were able to convince Kenroo and the girls to remain on the spaceship where they could stay safe and undetected, while Sirius and I explored the ancient Sith Planet. We promised to check in with everybody every three hours, and in case Sirius or I ran into any problems, we would also have our communication mirrors to contact one another before we split up to cover more ground quicker. We had only been on the planet exploring for about thirty minutes until I got my first frantic call from Sirius, that his disillusionment charm wasn't working too well, and the residents seemed to always know when he was close by even if they couldn't spot him exactly.
"So they can't see you, but can sense you?" I asked for clarification, and to get him calmed down and talking.
"Yes, they are always looking around when I am in any room or space with another of the resident beings," answered Sirius with some urgency.
"Are you shrinking your Force presence?" I asked, already knowing the answer, as it wasn't something he had really learned yet despite it being one of the fundamentally most important things for the pair of them to remain undetected by Jedi and Sith.
"I'm trying, but I don't think it's working," came the quick response from Sirius. "I've already had to apparate away from detection on three separate instances ...and I've only been out here for a few minutes."
"Head back to the ship and stay put, the Marauder will hide your Force presence," I answered with a shake of my head, knowing all the work exploring Korriban was going to fall to me, and deciding I better try and speed it up a bit so we weren't here for weeks, and maybe only a few days.
For the rest of the day, I scouted out all the major points on the planet, apparating all over to cover as much ground as I could without alerting anyone to my presence, and trying to understand what was happening on Korriban. I had already encountered over a dozen small Sith Temples, though none of them were abandoned, and instead were full of acolytes and Dark Side users learning and teaching the ways of the Sith. I also encountered several criminal elements, and seemingly Sith factions among all the Sith Temples and leaders.
Each Sith Temple seemed slightly different, and it took an extra day of observing them all through the droid spies I left behind to catalogue and record everything I could, to determine that each temple and leader was claiming themselves the True Sith as opposed to the others. There were subtle differences between them all, almost like denominations of Christianity, there were different interpretations of Sith law and practice that each School or Temple was translating or using differently from its neighbors but they all shared the same taint of the Dark Side. The second day of observation, also allowed for me to tag and place droid spies at every major local hub on Korriban, namely at the Cantinas and Space Ports because I also learned that everyone on the planet that wasn't a Sith or learner, was a slave in some capacity that worked for them.
The population was one of the more confusing aspects of Korriban, as the Sith here were an actual species that had integrated with Dark Jedi in the past, and developed a high concentration of Force users among their population. Due to the strong presence of the Dark Side, everyone present was tainted with that same Dark Side brush, even the traces of magic I could sense in several of the Sith species was tainted with the Dark Side that I was surprised any of these Sith Schools got along with one another. With all thirteen Sith Temples marked and being observed by spy droids, I had moved on to the less inhabited places, trying to find and restore anything of value and had encountered a veritable wealth of goodies.
Not too far from the abandoned mountain range I had parked the Marauder, was the real prize of the planet for me, an enormous city sized junkyard that had hundreds of twisted and broken spaceships, transports, blasters, and droids, plus some old mining equipment, and luckily enough for Sirius and I, dozens of old light sabers in varying degrees of repair. Telling my small crew to get my personal droid's assistance in listening in on the droid spy devices at all the Sith Temples while I cleaned out the junkyard, I quickly filled over two dozen available trunks with all kinds of goodies.
By the time I had finished cleaning out the junkyard, we had been on Korriban for four days, and knew pretty much what was going on at every Sith Temple, and roughly how many acolytes, Sith learners, Sith Lords, and Dark Jedi were currently in residence. Acolytes numbered just over a hundred all total, with two dozen more Sith learners, 6 who considered themselves as Sith Lords, but were in fact only graduated Sith learners, and a pair of Dark Jedi who were the most dangerous of everyone on Korriban. They were a pair of former Jedi Knights, that both left the Jedi over a dozen years previously according to the records in the Jedi Archives on them, and they apparently came to Korriban to learn the Dark Side and had really fallen into the life of a selfish Sith Lord relatively easily, but weren't to be underestimated.
According to their Jedi records, Akdo Julvenes and Druen Sturken were both good friends before their departure from the Order, and respected Jedi Knights who had yet to take on Padawan's of their own. However, over twelve years previously they split with the Jedi Order as they both desired the Jedi to have a more active role in the galaxy, and be the true leaders of everyone else. It was this sense of pride and arrogance in their Force powers that led them both to be corrupted and tempted by the Dark Side, and who knows how much they have grown as combatants since that time.
The Jedi Archival records only went as far as them leaving the Jedi Order, and a few observations made by the Jedi Council members at the time over the perceived reasons and the danger they both held if they fell to the Dark Side. But, after that nothing, no follow up, or attempts to reach out to them again to learn what became of two of their fallen brethren, and it again put a strike against the Jedi that they didn't care about you once you were no longer a part of them. This blind sided devotion to the good in everyone was rather sickening in its blindness, and reminded me too much of Dumbledore's hypocritical view of Light and Dark, and the institutional blindness of the Light to their own shortcomings and ability to learn or even incorporate ideas from others that usually drove their fellow peers out into the Dark.
Neither Akdo or Druen were previously violent people, both raised as Jedi younglings with good records and skills, but the moment they wanted to learn more, expand beyond what the Order thought was right, then they had to be marginalized and thrown out to the Dark to fend for themselves. It's no wonder that almost all fallen Jedi find themselves Dark Side users, when there is no alternative to learning anything beyond what the Jedi Council deems appropriate for you, and the moment you try to find those answers on your own, they abandon you and label you an enemy. Of course, once you have fallen somewhat, what's to stop you from going a little bit further and supplementing your Jedi teachings for any Force teachings you can acquire, which almost always seems to be Sith in relation as all Jedi teachings tend to lean towards the impossible.
Don't even get me started on their stupid Jedi Code, the new one they are all now drinking the CoolAid for, is ridiculously impossible and restrictive and will only hurt the Jedi Order in the long run as their people become less human and more robotic in their thinking. Can you imagine actually supressing all your emotions, how fucking unhealthy that is? I'm surprised they aren't losing Jedi on a daily basis, as the strictness of the Order has exceeded the capabilities of sentient beings and is only going to increase the divide between the Jedi and the rest of the galaxy.
Regardless, I was planning to hit the Dark Jedi last as I would need to cull the much larger numbers first before going after the two most likely to give me the hardest fight, and started planning the assault. Luckily, the rest of the crew minus Sirius, was all too happy to leave all the Sith and Jedi wannabees to me to deal with, and agreed to stay out of all the fighting completely which was actually helpful. I made sure Sirius had learned over our few days on Korriban, the basics of concealing his Force presence, growing comfort with our new found lightsabers, had the same Basilisk Armor I had on, extra weapons and emergency portkeys in case we ran into any kind of trouble, and were well rested and ready to begin by first light on the fifth day on Korriban.
I figured a morning start with the sun was probably the least favorable to a Dark and Evil Force user, as I knew it was for Voldemort and his followers after their long nights of revelry. Sirius and I apparated to the smallest of the Sith Temples, and quickly killed the pair of sith learners who were the only pair to frequent that specific temple before they even realized we were there. Two quick cutting curses to the neck by each Sirius and myself, and we had successfully cleaned out the easiest of all the temples, and spent a whole ten minutes going through the rest of the temple and bagging anything of importance or value that we might be able to use later, and managing to fill one complete trunk with artifacts, writings, and whatever technology wasn't bolted down to the walls, and even some that was.
We then set off a small Fiendfyre spell that had the Sith Temple melting down to nothing within a couple of hours, not that there would be any Sith left on the planet to see the fires come to an end. Apparating to the next temple, we repeated the same process, killing any sith learners or acolytes that attacked us, ransacking and cleaning out said temple before setting it ablaze with Fiendfyre and repeating. At the third temple, we encountered a pair of acolytes that hid the entire time and never raised their hands or light sabers against us, so we simply stunned the pair and threw them into the jail trunk Sirius had worked on setting up before, for this very situation, or in rescuing slaves until the mission was complete.
At the end of five hours, we had cleaned 12 of the 13 temples, managed to kill all 6 Sith Lords who were really no better than inexperienced Jedi Knights that Qui-Gon could have easily defeated individually, 26 sith learners who were maybe the equal of Jedi Padawans, and 104 of the 112 acolytes which were no better than Jedi Younglings, though some were more advanced than others. The eight captured acolytes remaining, never attacked us and surrendered at the first opportunity, and had instead been put into our small trunk jail until we had a chance to talk with and interrogate all of them after this was done. We had filled countless trunks with more artifacts and valuables, and cleaned every temple completely before torching it to the ground, including the Sith Tombs we encountered attached to several of the temples.
So much so, that the overwhelming feeling of the Dark Side on the planet was slowly starting to recede as all the dark elements were being cleaned and burned out. With the final Sith Temple to go, and the one containing the pair of Dark Jedi, and their personal apprentices the only thing still standing in our way, I made sure Sirius was up for this next round before we engaged. So far, Sirius had been a big help, and despite his desire to not really kill others, had done a remarkable job along the way, even if he was only defeating around 25% of the enemy and leaving the bigger fights to me, it was really helpful to have him watching my back and picking off some of the others as I took the fight straight to these Dark Side users.
Entering the last temple, I tried to ignore the overwhelming feeling of wrongness that clung to everything in the Sith Temples we had encountered, and sought out the life forces of the final four Dark beings on this planet with Sirius right behind me. Somehow, the Dark Jedi were expecting us, and seemingly waiting in the largest room of their temple sitting in meditation as we slowly and carefully approached after checking all the corners and edges of the room we were in and only seeing a single bronze droid that looked very different from any droid I had seen. Deciding it wasn't important now, as the unknown droid appeared dusty and unresponsive and probably not working, and closed in on the final four combatants.
"You dare challenge me?" came the loud rage filled voice of the largest of the four, Akdo Julvenes based on the Jedi Archive files as his apoplectic arrogance and rage made the air around him warp with seeming heat as the Dark Side of the Force clung to him like a cloak and added to his already dark features.
The other older Dark Jedi, Druen Sturken looked equally as menacing and angry as his counterpart, but as the dark eyed and dark haired Akdo was loud and imposing in his presence, the pale skinned and blond haired shorter man seemed even more dangerous in his quiet nature. I knew that Sirius had really improved greatly over the last day of fighting Sith, and had learned the best method to wear them down by apparating away, but I also knew he wasn't quite ready to face either of these two Dark Jedi. They were going to be a real problem, and I was just hoping that Sirius would be capable of handling the pair of apprentices while I took on the pair of Dark Jedi alone.
The two younger apprentices, were both barely teenagers that despite the Darkness of the Force all around, were not too steeped in it as their older teachers were and were mostly looking around in shock at the overwhelming Dark Side that was bleeding off Akdo and Druen and then looking back at Sirius and myself. I could tell from their surface thoughts, that they were beyond scared and both expected to die here by either us or their masters. Just the brief glance told me everything I needed to know about the type of training / torture these two young Force users had undergone with very little say in it themselves, as well as the usual fighting styles of the two former Jedi.
"I'm leaving the apprentices to you Siri," I called to my godfather behind me as I gathered my magic and flooded my already Force enhanced body to the very max and charged directly at the larger Akdo and watching him settle into his powerful stance before feinting an attack and instead sliding in front of a now wide eyed Druen, who I knew was expecting me to go after the bigger target while he attacked from the shadows.
I was counting on the change to give me a small advantage at the beginning of the fight, and wanted to use it to the best of my ability, especially as I figured they would not be taking me as seriously as they should right from the start. It worked too, as Akdo was unused to being ignored, he was a little slower to react to my feint and come to the aid of his partner who was likewise unused to fighting head on, and unprepared for my speed. It took only a second for several lightning fast flashes of my attacking lightsaber until I scored a deep cut into his leg before his partner came to his senses enough to jump into the fight and prevent his early demise and cause me to go defensive which I quickly countered.
I instead apparated behind a limping and hurt Druen and launched another quick volley of attacking swipes, scoring another hit on his shoulder before he and Akdo seemed to realize that I had moved without them even seeing it. Another pop of apparition, had me now behind Akdo, who I sent a dark cutting curse at his unprotected back, but in the blink of an eye he was reacting and spinning away from it and cutting through the worst of it with his red lightsaber. This allowed just the little edges of the spell to cut across his face, making him scream out in pain and retreat a bit to check on his eyesight, as I just pressed the attack on a now undefended and slowed Druen.
It still wasn't easy, as the pain from the previous hits into his leg and shoulder only increased the amount of the Force he called upon, but his anger also made him overextend and become sloppy in his forms. It was only seconds into this one on one moment, that I was able to capitalize on him overextending on a wild and heavy swing, and brought my blade down across his arms removing them both at the elbow and finishing with a spin that took his head clean off his body. I only had the shortest moment to enjoy the victory, as before I could even reset myself, an unholy scream of primal rage came from the now bleeding faced and dark haired ex-Jedi as he lept at me with such anger and hate that I could literally feel it emanating off him.
My block barely held, and I could feel the bones in my arms straining under the pressure and power of the hit by Akdo, and had to quickly catch myself from falling backwards from the momentum and get into position to block the next strike. For almost a minute I was completely and totally on my heels as I desperately blocked every hard slash and strike that came my way, barely keeping up with the raging Dark Jedi and hoping I didn't make a mistake that cost me everything. Shortly after that thought, I had to duck a wide sweeping swing of the lightsaber, and therefore missed the follow up sweeping leg kick that knocked me on my ass and was then sent skidding off across the floor with several large pieces of metal being hurled at me by Akdo's repeated Force pushes.
The separation, however brief it was, provided exactly what I needed though, and I used the fraction of a second for the second round of Force pushed items to reach me to apparate out of the way and behind Akdo again sending another dark cutting curse at his back before leaping away. When he turned to the spell this time and sliced through the majority of it, he also ducked and closed his eyes at the last moment to prevent another temporary blinding or more damage and I used it to my advantage by aiming several lightsaber swings at his now unprotected back. It was almost scary how his body twisted at the last possible moment to intercept the first of the strikes, and it was only four or five swings in, that he was quickly catching up to my assault and switching back from defensive to offensive fighting and again putting me on my back foot as I frantically fell into a completely defensive fight just to keep his overwhelming onslaught from getting through.
His speed and lightsaber skills were incredible, and it was quickly apparent to me that I was losing this fight, and came close too many times to barely keeping up with his relentless attacks, including a heavy kick that shattered my left knee, as I simply pushed more Force power into the damaged leg and pushed on. He wasn't giving me enough time to apparate far away, and my small jumps were never far enough to overcome his speed and relentless aggression, and knew that I needed to pull off something else quickly if I was going to survive this fight. That something came a few moments later when our blades met at the exact same moment as our eyes did, and without any thought I quickly and desperately threw the strongest Legilimency attack I could right at his rage fueled mind.
For the next several moments, I was reeling from the pain and images filling my head as my Legilimency probe tore through his natural defenses and rage induced brainwashed Sith teachings, and started copying everything it could while I continued to push outwards with my mind magic as the physical battle thankfully seemed to be paused as we were locked in mental combat. It was more difficult than any other Legilimency probe I had ever encountered outside of maybe Voldemort himself, and the level of pain and hatred that filled his mind was grossly unclean and made the whole process actually painful for me on a level I had never experienced previously. Slowly, I felt the mind I was attacking crumble underneath me and shatter, leaving the remaining uncopied memories broken and fragmented and unusable, as I breathlessly ended the probe and watched somewhat detached as Akdo's body crumbled to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut.
My own head was ringing and pounding, forcing me to my shattered knee painfully, as I tried to work through the mental agony that was assaulting my mind as it desperately tried to assimilate and organize the intense lifetime of memories I had just stolen from the former Jedi Knight. I knew instantly that my own knowledge of Jedi teachings and lightsaber forms would be insanely advanced with this new knowledge, but first I had to survive the assault on my mind and remove the feelings of wrongness associated with so many of the memories I was trying to incorporate. Luckily, I could faintly hear Sirius checking on me, and knew that he must have been successful in his own fight with the two apprentices and was grateful that this was the last of the Sith locations we needed to clean out and destroy.
"Harry?" came Sirius' concerned and urgent voice, "are you alright?"
"Ugh," I groaned, as the pain continued with no seeming end in sight, "I will be ...just give me a few minutes."
"Thank Merlin," came his relieved voice, as he just stood by and rested his hand comfortingly on my shoulder as I continued the mental fight to control and assimilate all the new memories for several long moments.
My head still felt insanely heavy even after the worst of the pain seemed to pass as the memories were added to my own, though still in chaotic disarray. But at least I was able to finally stand up with a little assistance, and take stock of myself and the damage our intense fight inflicted on the old Sith Temple. Sirius gave me a grateful smile that I was okay, and told me that the apprentices both quickly surrendered the moment he tried to engage with them, and were currently stunned and in our prison trunk with the others awaiting our interrogation and judgement.
"Let's clean this temple and get the fuck off this miserable planet," I responded tiredly, leaning down to tap my injured knee with the Elder wand and grimace as the bones, ligaments, and muscles came back together with a sickening sound, before getting a nod from my godfather as he instantly started pulling out empty trunks to start filling with anything that wasn't bolted down.
I actually decided to remove Akdo's head, and store it with Druen's to provide proof of their demise in case I could claim a bounty on either of them, or decided to give them as gifts to the Jedi Order before moving onto the rest of the temple. Several trunks worth of holovids, training equipment, armor, weapons, and even holocrons were gathered before we encountered the pair's old Jedi personal transport ships which we shrunk and pocketed as well. The biggest find however, was the underground catacombs filled with Sith Tombs of past Sith, and another dark well of Force underneath the catacombs similar to the one we encountered on Ashas Ree. This time, instead of trying to purify it, we simply burned it out with Fiendfyre as we watched the temple and everything underneath it go up in a fountain of magical flames that burned for several hours until it had devoured all the Dark Side energies of the Dark Force Well.
With that Dark Force Well being burned out of the planet, it would instantly be noticeable on the surface of Korriban, and we wanted to make sure we got out of there quickly before anybody else really noticed as the population of that planet was still pretty high. We did make one stop though at a small weapons and spaceship manufacturing plant that was run exclusively by slave labor, and controlled by one of the Sith Temples we have since destroyed. It was the main location for all the Sith on Korriban to get weapons and space ship upgrades or work done, and was filled with some of the most oppressed slaves I had witnessed to date.
When we entered the facility, we had to override all the droids that were in charge of keeping the slaves working, and then gather all the slaves and tell them we were here to liberate them all and were planning to remove the entire facility from Korriban and relocate it. Every slave was offered a job at the new facility, or offered their freedom to be dropped off in Kashyyyk so as to find their way home. Since most of the slaves were born in captivity in Korriban itself, most agreed to stay with the newly relocated facility as long as they were truly given their freedom and became paid workers versus horribly treated slaves.
The biggest dilemma was what to do with all the slaves while we continued on our journey to Kashyyyk and the rest of the galaxy to gather our building resources and supplies. Kenroo actually came up with the idea to house all the slaves on one of my large Quasar Bulk Cruisers until we returned to Atlantis (formerly Ashas Ree), and slave the ship to the Marauder until we could pick up a temporary crew in Kashyyyk to operate it independently. It was a great idea, and within a few hours, the Quasar Bulk Cruiser was being filled with just under two thousand slaves of varying species, and several hundred droids were employed to keep the peace among the population until a more permanent solution could be found when we reached Atlantis.
Luckily, we had located the food storage facility on Korriban as well, and emptied it completely to help feed the large former slave population that would be leaving on the Quasar Bulk Cruiser until we could reach a more permanent solution. With the immediate concerns met, we loaded up in the Marauder, set the Quasar Bulk Cruiser to slave to my ship and set course for Lianna where we would stop briefly before changing over to the Perlemian Trade route. There were several other small planets and star systems that we would now have to skip over, as we had too many people to take care of, to unnecessarily extend our trip even further, but needed to hit a few to gather the needed supplies.
The capital of Lianna, appropriately named Lianna City was a very populated and economically diverse city that was home to the Santhe Corporation which built mostly spaceships and ship components, but also had a sizable construction industry which was our main destination to resupply at this point. While I sent Sirius and Kenroo, along with a small team of droids to buy the necessary supplies, I scouted out the Santhe Corporation's ship building facilities, and found them to be very orderly and secure and their salvage yard stored on their neighboring moon forcing me to abandon any attempts to collect more ships and parts. Upon my return to the Marauder, I learned that we were only allowed to purchase a small amount of duracrete as unknown outsiders, and were severely overcharged on that small amount as well, and wondered what we should do next.
I had half a mind to return to the construction company and rob them blind, but instead decided to go a different route before we left the planet. I searched the holoweb, and found a large commercial construction crew working outside of the capital city, and apparated to their job site. Quickly finding a foreman that was willing to sell his building supplies at just a bit above cost, as his brother was his local supplier and he could get great deals on any of the supplies he needed to resupply after we left. I also learned he had several slaves among his crew, and purchased all of them as well, wanting a few construction workers that knew what they were doing to add to my own forces, even if I had plans to free them once we left the planet.
Six young men in their early twenties were quickly brought in and had their slave controls transfered over to me as money changed hands. After that I stunned the foreman, removed all slave collars and asked the former slaves to join me in helping to build my new city. They were all happy to agree. Once I promised them fair pay and granted their freedom, I explained that I was creating a new city on an uninhabited planet, and would have a lot of work for them for a long time. I then shrunk all my purchased supplies that were brought to their site's loading dock, before leading the six new construction workers back to the Marauder and setting them up in the guest quarters as we left Lianna behind.
Our next stop was Antemeridias, and the Loronar Corporation who specialized in defence systems, various droids, and mining equipment and was along the Perlemian Trade Route on the way towards Lantillies where we would change over to the Randon Run to get to Kashyyyk. The Loronar Corporation was well known as exemplifying corporate greed, and this time, I left everyone else on the ship as I visited them alone. It took some time, and several promises of throwing a lot of money around to talk to one of the executives of the Loronar Corporation, but once we met, I quickly used Legilimency to learn as much about the company and their products as I could, before we sat down to strike out a deal.
Jaxxe Gilthenea left our meeting with a large grin on his face, thinking he just made the deal of a lifetime as he sold the entirety of his companies older models and offsite trash that they no longer even cared about, but I knew to be very valuable for someone of my repairing skills. The mining equipment alone would be over a million times more expensive after I worked my charms, and the small amount it cost had me smiling all the way to the loading bay to pick up everything I purchased that was currently on site. After an hour of shrinking and loading up trunks worth of old mining equipment and droids while an illusion made it appear to be loaded on transports and taken off site, I had more than made up for the money I spent and was only partially done collecting my new goods.
The remaining "junk" I purchased was actually stored on the local moon, as the Loronar Corporation had commandeered the entire moon and had been using it as their personal junkyard for over a thousand years. When I arrived at the moon in the Marauder shortly after leaving the planet, the junkyard facility was informed that I had purchased the entirety of their trash collection and the droids in charge were given orders to let me take any and everything I wanted. It took the better part of the day as Sirius and I shrunk and loaded up hundreds of trunks with more old equipment than we had ever seen in one place and was going to be an amazingly beneficial transaction on our side.
The next stop on the Perlemian Trade Route was at the planet Euceron, a world known for it's smuggling and other illegal activities, of which slavery was the most prevalent. They also had a large marketplace for smugglers to sell their wares, and we quickly hit them up and emptied out all the building supplies we could find, as well as several more junk yards that had been abandoned to scavengers. From there we headed to Lantillies, which was in the Kashyyyk region of space at the junction between the Perlemian Trade Route and the Randon Run, and only days from our final destination.
Lantillies was a major shipbuilding planet, and we were again able to make a deal to clean out the junkyards and practically double our large amount of old spaceships and components, as well as buying up all the building supplies we could locate easily. By this point, it had almost been a month since we left our new planet of Atlantis, and the Quasar Bulk Cruiser's occupants were starting to get very restless after being in space for much longer than any of the former slaves could really remember. I had to go and spend a day answering questions, and making promises that we would soon be in Kashyyyk, and anyone that wanted to start working at their growing shipyards could, and that my own shipyards were still a few months away from getting started but work would be available to all of them.
A few days later, and we were landing the Marauder and the slaved Quasar Bulk Cruiser into the newly expanded ship docks to the delight of the Wookies, who were again overly happy to see my return and show off all the progress they had made so far. The expanded docking bays were very impressive and easily large enough to have several Quasar Bulk Cruisers parked at once, since it was the main ship of their planetary police force. I scheduled a meeting with the Clan Elders, and only had to wait an hour before they could all be gathered for a debriefing and update on everyone's progress.
They were shocked to learn about my colonizing an uninhabited planet in the old Sith Sector of the Outer Rim, but promised to help in any way they could, and I agreed instantly to form a partnership between our planets. I also expressed my desire for a crew that could run my own Quasar Bulk Cruiser, that was currently overcrowded housing for over two thousand former slaves, of which a little over a hundred of them wanted to be returned to their homes, and the Wookies agreed to help with that. I also gave them the first pick of several of the new droids and ships I picked up in case they were hoping to continue to expand their own fleet and growing droid production facilities.
In return, the Wookies asked me how to counter the increasing amounts of pressure they were receiving from the Galactic Senate, who were asking about their growing fleet and worried about the seemingly overwhelming arming of their race and planet. In the past, they were mostly overlooked by the Senate as a small backwater planet with no economic power or resources that interested the rest of the galaxy, and only a few of the more noble planets and the Jedi even considered them as more than simply beasts. I told them the best way would be to elect a Senator and force their entry into the Galactic Senate to give them galaxy wide representation in regards to other planets and systems, and use that as a springboard to bring in other neighboring planets under their umbrella of protection.
Ganroowarr was very pleased with my suggestions, and quickly agreed to bring it up at the next large planetwide forum with the other Wookie Clans that ran the many Wookie settlements throughout Kashyyyk. I got several leads on nearby planets that sold duracrete and other essential building supplies I needed, and we also talked about getting a proper full time crew to run my Quasar Bulk Cruiser for the next several months until the current group of slaves were brought to Atlantis. He even commented that I may want to keep the large ship on standby to house all the slaves I kept encountering and rescuing across the galaxy, as temporary living quarters for them until they could be either returned to their home worlds or settle in Kashyyyk or Atlantis.
When brainstorming for that crew and the position of Head Pilot, he actually made another great recommendation, in Kenroo who might want a more proactive and independent role, and would make a great leader of the large spaceship. As I knew that I could trust him, I gave it some serious thought, and was planning to go over it with Kenroo to gauge his level of interest as it made a lot of sense. Ganroowarr also provided me with several other planetary contacts that he knew of that had large stores of old droids, weapons, and ships sitting around in need of repair, that I could get on the cheap to build up my inventory even further.
Making arrangements to spend at least a few days planetside, we also lined up several projects that he needed my unique brand of help on, namely clearing some land for another expansion, this time into a droid manufacturing facility. The current arrangement was simply a larger warehouse that used to store their metal scraps and trash, where old, broken, and decommissioned droids were repaired and stored for resale. With a dedicated droid facility, they could start producing their own droids, and more easily make repairs when I wasn't around to magic everything better.
We also settled over a hundred former slaves that wanted to remain on Kashyyyk to work at one of their growing industries, or even those that wanted to join spaceship crews while the remainder were content to wait until we returned to Atlantis. Sirius and I thought about splitting up and one of us returning to Atlantis and the other continuing the supply run, but after so long apart from each other, we were reluctant to be separated again and decided we needed more people we could trust to help us. It led to me and Kenroo having a long conversation on what he wanted and how close he felt he needed to stay to me to pay off the life debt he owed me, and we agreed that his help would be greatly needed to pilot and lead the Marauder's Quasar Bulk Cruiser, now named the Freedom.
With him now in charge of the large cruiser that would transport newly freed slaves to Atlantis and other destinations throughout the galaxy, it took a large load off my shoulders and provided him with meaningful work that he could be proud of. Now I just needed to find a way to keep him and my ship safe from the many pirates and slavers out in the galaxy when Sirius and I weren't around to provide the magic or the muscle. It brought me to the next big problem I ran into, and that was how to recruit real help that could stand up to the many evil elements throughout the galaxy, as it was clear that we would be causing a lot of problems for the slavers and pirates.
Sirius actually came up with the idea to start our own school to train others in either the Force or magic depending on their skill sets, and reminded the both of us of our ten Sith acolytes we imprisoned when cleaning out the temples on Korriban. I also tasked AD-7JL, my Jedi Archive droid, to comb through our files to try and identify and locate other fallen Jedi that have left the Order as possible recruits if we could convince them to follow us. With my collection of the Jedi Archives combined with the several holocrons we now had, there was plenty to entice former Jedi to learn from us, and provide an alternative for those that feel the Jedi Order is too restrictive, and those that don't want to fall to the Dark Side.
In a stroke of luck, one of the people Ganroowarr contacted about Durocrete named Dursk, was a former manager of a mining factory that knew the entire process of mining and creating Durocrete, and was willing to relocate if promised work for at least two years after having been fired from his previous job before he could collect his retirement benefits. We chatted for a few minutes over the com channel, and soon he was told to be ready in seven days for us to pick him up in the Marauder at Lexrul, a planet just past Randon on the Randon Run hyperspace lane that Kashyyyk was also on. He provided a list of mining equipment that would be needed, and assured us that it could all be purchased in the capital of the heavily industrialized planet of Lexrul, known as Sativran City.
My next call was to line up the purchase of said mining equipment, as well as the purchase of older decommissioned equipment at a fraction of the usual costs, all to be ready for pickup in seven days when we collected Dursk. With that part figured out, Sirius and I returned to the Marauder to restock the ship and prepare for the trip, as well as to finally meet with the imprisoned Sith Acolytes and determine what to do with them. With ten of them each in separate cells inside the prison trunk Sirius created, the young prisoners were all in various states of anger or fear.
Seven of the ten prisoners were of the Sith species, also known as Red Sith, as their red skin and humanoid bodies made them relatively distinctive, and were native to Korriban. One was a Zabrak with dark grey skin and dark purple hair and facial tattoos, while the final two were predominantly human with some Red Sith ancestry that were found with the fallen Jedi. They were also the youngest of the lot, and most likely the children of the two now deceased Dark Jedi, as they somewhat resembled Akdo and Druen, and only made their torture / training from their own fathers that much more despicable.
All ten however shared one thing in common, and that was their absolute fear of me, and Sirius to a lesser extent which made trying to question them that much more difficult as they were primarily stuttering messes whenever I asked them anything and babble incoherently most of the time. Deciding that I didn't really have time to slowly work on each of them right now, I told them all that they were going to be staying here for a few weeks and brought in a pair of droids that would be responsible for keeping them all fed and their cells clean. The cleaning droid and medical droid would also double as spies to try and learn as much about each of the ten prisoners as I could without further upsetting them all, and hoping the taint of the Dark Side of the Force would slowly lessen now that they were removed from Korriban and their former Sith Masters.
The remainder of our time in Kashyyyk, was spent setting up Kenroo, and his new predominantly Wookie crew as the leaders of the Freedom, with several hundred droids acting as security and filling in the rest of the unassigned positions on board the Bulk Cruiser. With just under two thousand former slaves on board, the ship was overfull and with the many different species and their newly acquired freedom, the former slaves were learning and adapting to their new reality, and needed the extra guidance the large security force presented to help keep the peace. Luckily, one of the older and more respected former slaves, was very willing to take up a position as the voice or leader of the large group, and worked as the go-between with Kenroo and his crew as well as the droid security force.