"I do not own Star Wars or any related copyrighted media. All rights belong to Disney/Lucasfilm, respectively. I only own my OCs."
Chapter One:
Time: 19BBY
Location: Klegger Corperation mining facility, Mustafar.
Wat Tambor was becoming rather concerned. Things weren't adding up. The Techno Union had made significant investments into the separatist cause and played both sides of the conflict. The current profits were indeed a great boon, but he had banked on the belief that the Republic would eventually tire of the fighting, and the clone wars would turn cold. Such a thing was greatly sought after within the Techno Union as of late—the projected profits of a Confederacy of Independent Systems, free market competing with the Republic's, was any corporation's grandest dream come to reality.
But then, Dooku had died when it mattered most, and Grievous had followed soon after. The Separatist Council was barely able to escape to Mustafar ahead of the Republic's forces, who had rallied so soon after the strike at Coruscant that it tickled his suspicions that something was amiss.
To further stir the pot, the Galactic Republic was even now in an emergency senate session, called by Chancellor Sheeve Palpatine. A man whose likeness was also unmistakable in the intercepted public broadcast played over the shadow feed—a man who was apparently all along their supposedly mysterious ally and separatist mastermind.
The architect of their current safe haven, the one who said that his apprentice would soon arrive to assist them: Darth Sidious, Lord of the Sith.
Suffice to say, Wat Tambor was very good at advancing the interests of the Techno Union. This required the necessary skill of negotiating with various groups and powerful people. To make a profitable deal, one had to know who they were dealing with. Tambor was now very concerned to realize that he did not apparently truly know Sidious or Chancellor Palpatine, despite them being the same person.
To think that one man had been the main influencer of both sides of the conflict. Such political manipulations in this now apparent blatant seizure of galactic power were admirable in the extreme. Truly, a feat of skill unheard of in galactic history.
Tambor was truly impressed. However, he was a creature of logic and mathematics through and through, and he couldn't find a profitable solution to the current situation as it was now unveiled to him. Palpatine dressing as his Sidious persona in public meant something, something important. Anyone who could put the two personas together now held significant leverage against the very powerful and entrenched Chancellor of the Galactic Republic.
Dooku, Grievous, The Council of the Confederacy—these were the people who Tambor knew for a fact knew that Sidious existed. Now, only the Council lived, with Dooku and Grievous having died within the past week.
How had their last communication with Sidious concluded again? "My apprentice will... take care of you?" This Lord Vader was even now in the system and had just received clearance to land, and the stream of the Galactic Senate he was watching had taken an unexpected turn.
The Jedi had suddenly and mysteriously rebelled, in such a way that their wholesale extermination had been regretfully ordered by the Chancellor, who even now waxed verbose about the newly uncovered plots of the Jedi to manipulate both sides of the war.
That it effectively pinned the blame of Sidious's own actions on the Jedi was not lost on Tambor. This only increased his concern. When the Chancellor began elaborating on the newly discovered ties of the Jedi Council to the Separatist movement, via their associate Dooku, only pretending to be no longer a part of the Jedi Order, Wat Tambor's concerns became very much justified in his own mind.
He was starting to feel like a loose end.
Things never were profitable for loose ends. He should know; he had snipped his fair share over the years spent working as the head foreman of the Techno Union. A quick check of the local network, on a hunch, turned his concern into a slight panic. Their only transport was suddenly under maintenance. He had inspected those particular droids himself out of boredom.
There wasn't supposed to be any maintenance this cycle.
There were only minutes until this Lord Vader landed, and the Republic Chancellor was now describing in great detail how the Jedi had attempted to overthrow the Galactic Senate. It sounded like this was all leading to some great crescendo that Palpatine was orchestrating for show to the galactic public.
This Lord Vader's arrival was eerily in tune with what was even now occurring on Coruscant.
Tambor didn't like it. This was quickly shaping up to be a trap of some sort. If the Separatist Council were captured or even killed, then all the backdoor contingencies to control the droid army and much of their corporate funds would be in the sole hands of Palpatine. Both his personas had unique ties to different portions of the Techno Union alone, not to mention the other competitors that sat upon the Confederate Council.
This could be absolutely disastrous.
In the name of profit, he would not allow it. The Techno Union was vast, and the branches of the research divisions he oversaw as head of Baktoid Armor Workshop were indeed many. He knew for a fact that not even Palpatine, in either guise, could know them all.
He knew the Sith were powerful. If this was a trap and he was indeed a loose end, then he would be the kind that, when snipped, would unravel the entire garment. Like the annoyingly garish one the Chancellor wore as he started what seemed to be the conclusion of his grand speech to the Republic Senate.
His communicator dinged with an alert: Lord Vader had arrived.
He was the only one in the conference room. No one would interrupt him, and he could easily disarm his contingency if his paranoia were truly unfounded. Opening the communication screen built into the conference table, the Skakoan started crafting a unique message in a code that only a few of his kind knew.
The sudden declaration of the dissolution of the Galactic Republic into an Empire by Sidious was suspiciously timed with the sudden noise of desperate combat in the war room. His paranoia was vindicated. Once again, he, Wat Tambor, was proven right.
Sending the encoded message, he wiped the computer and closed the screen. From the sound of it, the others were being slaughtered like banthas, their pleas and desperate attempts at negotiating falling on deaf ears. Revealing his contingency in an attempt at preserving his life was unlikely to succeed. It would likely, in fact, prevent his contingency from succeeding before it could even begin. It wouldn't do for the results of his actions to become known so soon. Likely, his last actions at that.
Tambor's revenge had a nice ring to it, he thought. A pity no one would realize it was him that had set things in motion.
It seemed that the last of the personnel in the war room were dying, and the livestream of the shadow feed was filled with a thunderous applause as Sidious, or Palpatine, or whoever he really was, declared himself Emperor.
Truly, with the death of the Council of the Confederacy and its military's central command and control, who could contest him? Wat Tambor had to admit, Sidious was indeed a genius of a mastermind. He had won... for now.
Pulling himself to his feet, the Skakoan waited expectantly. If he were to die, then he would die standing. The final noises ceased from the War Room, and the doors opened to reveal a shrouded figure. This must be Lord Vader. However, his face wasn't unrecognizable to Tambor.
"Skywalker... unexpected. So, even you do the bidding of Sidious? His reach must be far indeed." The man did not look to be in good health. His eyes also had a disturbing light to them. Tambor concluded the man must be on some sort of combat drugs. It would explain how he had wiped the entire war room without any apparent backup to assist him.
The Hero of the Galactic Republic walked towards Tambor with an aura of menace, his eyes glaring with an intent to kill. Wat Tambor let out a breath. "So, I am to die then?" The only answer he received from Skywalker was a murderous smirk, two words Tambor had never thought he would have to use to describe a human facial expression. Very well then.
He let his opponent approach him. He would only have the one chance, and engaging at range was a fool's gambit when facing a trained Force user. With a deliberate thrust, the follower of Sidious attempted to spear him through with his lightsaber, only Tambor had shifted, faster than he had ever moved before. Combat drugs, two could play at that game.
Grabbing Skywalker's saber arm, Wat attempted to break it while also simultaneously delivering a blow to the Jedi's head. His attempt, however, failed. As he had honestly suspected would happen, the Jedi had snarled like some wild animal from Umbara. Tambor found himself frozen and unable to move, in some sort of projected vice grip that held his entire body in place. Force-related sorcery was such an unfair advantage to go up against. The Skakoan leader of the Techno Union desperately struggled against this power to say his last words.
"For the Confederacy!"
With a snarl, the yellow-eyed Jedi Knight tore his arm from the Skakoan's grip and crushed Wat Tambor's pressure suit control unit with the Force. Skywalker watched as the Techno Union foreman died in a way that was most feared by his kind. Pressure suit failure was an agonizingly painful way to die for a Skakoan.
But Darth Vader found no satisfaction in killing the last member of the Confederate Council. Wat Tambor didn't wallow in fear or terror in his death throes. He didn't beg or plead. He didn't make desperate platitudes. No, he simply glared at his killer with vindictive anger and a very odd sense of satisfaction.
Satisfaction in what, exactly, Vader didn't care to know. The first part of his mission was complete, and the shutdown codes could now be sent to the majority of the Separatist droid army.
Unknown to Vader, however, there was another very important code, one that was known only to one person in the entire galaxy. One that could have undone what had been done that day. That code died with Wat Tambor.
And both the Force and the galaxy itself would come to tremble for its loss.
Authors Note:
So, I have another story to tell. This particular concept has been rattling around my brain for years, and I'm finally putting it to paper, so to speak.
Expect several updates to my other works this month. There will be several updated, reworked Unknown Defender chapters, and both The Wreck and The Rider of The Misty Mountains should get a new chapter soon.
I'll likely be starting a P-a-t-r-e-o-n soon. Many of you have asked me to do so for some time now. It's a responsibility I've been kind of dreading, but as people wiser than me have pointed out, any form of motivation to keep writing helps when you want to actually finish your tales.
I may end up cross-posting to other sites in the future, although that has yet to be determined.
If you liked this story's first chapter and you want to find out just what Tambor's revenge entails, then slap that follow/like button to get emailed when the next chapter drops.