The courier ship had made good time coming from Imperial Center, truth be told. Near one full standard galactic day on the Corellian Run before having to turn off the main road as it where to begin looking for my fleet. It had arrived at Lettow a few hours after the main force had departed and since strict orders had been given to not give our heading, the courier had been directed to head into the Deep Core, vaguely close enough to Ottabesk that they could find us but not until the battle would be over.
I made a mental note to offer a commendation on the smooth handling of the situation to the captains of the Peregrin and the Boundless next I saw them. It was a inglourious task, guarding the ground forces stationed on the newly constructed base on Lettow, but someone had to do it and I trusted the captains of the Pacer and Relentless to fight in battle against Teradoc more than the newer Victory-class captains.
Still, back to the courier ship and its summons.
Marked with the identification codes of the Grand Inquisitor himself, I was informed in blunt terms to hurry to Imperial Center for a conclave of the Inquisitorius, at once. While it was addressed to me, I could tell that this was a form letter that had my official number filled into the appropriate places.
Unfortunately for my plans of an advance, I couldn't just ignore the summons of Ja'ce Yiaso, not if I valued my ability to breath air without the assistance of machinery.
So I had packed up, issued orders to Masal on what he was allowed to attack in my absence and penned a summons to my ground forces stationed on Lettow. It was time for the army to earn its pay. Teradoc might be dead, but that only meant his underlings now had the opportunity to make their own play for power in his fracturing territory.
The ground pounders, as Masal's officers liked to refer to them as, would be able to prove their worth in the liberation of Hakassi, a fairly prosperous colony that ex-Teradoc forces were reportedly digging into. While that was going on, a line formation from the fleet would go to Ojom to reinstate order on the planet. Apparently the complete absence of tangible Imperial authority in the system had given the local aliens ideas above their lot in life. The rest of the fleet would garrison Ottabesk and Lettow, while patrolling the short hyperlanes that linked them all together.
And no, this definitely wasn't me setting up a fall back plan in the event that the good Grand Inquisitor had decided on a purge. Just a coincidence Mr. Officer, I swear.
A direct order was a direct order after all. No bodyguards were granted to travel with me and I was to depart at once. Commander Atten wasn't pleased by the news.
One standard hour after the courier ship had arrived at Ottabesk, I boarded the courier ship and was enroute back to Imperial Center. I had only been to the great ecumenopolis one other time, when I had received my commission from the unfortunately not departed Emperor.
39:7:7 GrS
Imperial Center, Coruscant system, The Imperial Core
The planet below was burning alive. Waves and waves of seething fire undulated along its metal crust, deep in the depths of its durasteel body raced great thorough ways of light and the flames gathered in great conclaves all across the many levels. Occasionally, embers of this great conflagration would leap away into the coolness of the void, journeying on the winds of fate and luck to a new destination.
I opened my eyes and stood from my kneeling position to get a clear view of the mighty ecumenopolis below from the window next to me.
Imperial Center, of course, was not on fire. In the physical sense.
In the Force however, it was a pillar of life. Not static or simple life, at least to my view, but true life. A burning world of struggle, fighting, death. A world of competition that only I could see. It was a beautiful fire that only a world that was overstuffed with sentients could create. However the Force was different here than it had been the last time I had visited the planet, three years ago. The flame of life shone brighter, dominating more of the planet in the Force. The shadow, that muffling blanket of power that Palpatine had first cast during the twilight years of the Republic and maintained during the length of his reign, had been broken by the death of its master.
No longer did the first planet of the Empire
The courier ship was cleared through the last of the defense screens at last, and the ship began its descent into the planet's atmosphere. There were more fleets guarding Imperial Center than I remembered and the number of Golan stations had grown.
The Ruling Council had taken their new military strategy to heart, and seems to have decided, with no ulterior motives in mind I'm sure, to make Imperial Center the example of what a proper fortress world would be.
"We will be landing at the palace in five minutes, Ninth Brother." One of the menial crew members informed me, giving a perfunctory bow as he did so. His uniform, like the rest of the crew, was marked with the red cog of the Inquisitorious on both shoulders. The respect they gave me was markedly less than what I was used to receiving and it irked me greatly. No longer was I the ultimate authority, quite suddenly I was back as a junior member of the junior rankings of the Inquisitorius.
How infuriating.
"Who else is arriving with me?" I inquired, thankful for my helmet allowing me to conceal my feelings on the change in position I would need to rapidly adjust back to.
"The Twelfth Brother, Seventh Brother and Eighth Sister are arriving in concert with this ship, Ninth Brother. The Grand Inquisitor in his wisdom, orchestrated the arrival of his Inquisitors in accordance to their posting. You four are the last group to arrive at the palace." The menial gave another shallow bow.
"Alert me when we are on approach to the palace." I instructed and sent the annoying man away. So I was arriving with the Twelfth, Seventh Brothers and the Eighth Sister. I pulled a datapad into my hands and logged into the Inquisitorius database. I couldn't access mission details or even the exact locations of my fellow Numbers, but I could dig up enough to have vague ideas of their areas of operations.
All three of them had been in the galactic south, like I had been. Eighth and Seventh had been deployed on rebel suppression missions. The Twelfth, I really had no clue what he had been doing. What I could see from requisition statements suggested a hunter killer assignment, but even that was a stretch.
I looked down to confirm that the butler droid I had taken off the Adamant with me still had its cargo secured. The fat chromium plated cylinder was still clutched in the three maniples of the droid. Good.
I might be at the bottom of the pecking order but it had been years since I'd seen any of my 'peers'. If memory serves me right, there hadn't been a gathering of the Inquisitorius to this degree since before the destruction of the first Death Star.
Everything was up for grabs in the hierarchy now. Too much had changed for all of us to allow the old positions to remain unchallenged. I commanded an entire fleet now. I had enhanced my command of the Force and my lightsaber abilities. I had killed two other Inquisitors and had been moved up in the Grand Inquisitor's favor as a result.
I was better than the rest of my Numbered fellows. I would ensure that they knew this.
Assuming we all didn't kill each other by the end of this meeting, I knew deep in my spirit that I would walk out a more powerful Inquisitor than I had arrived.
I wonder if Jerec has gone rogue yet?
XXX
The Imperial palace, a mighty ziggurat of black durasteel and ash gray duracrete crowning with thin spires all across its surface like the points of a crown, dominated the planet's skyline. It was designed to, of course. Anyone who had eyes would be able to tell that. That knowledge didn't detract from the impressiveness of the structure, rather it added to it. Because whoever Palpatine had designed the place had nailed the idea of a galactic emperor's palace.
The Inquisitorius on Imperial Center had a trio of towers on the palace's north side allotted to the organization as a whole for our residence when on the planet. As a matter of course, this meant that the Grand Inquisitor had a nice little fiefdom within the palace where he was akin to a god in his authority.
From what I had seen during my years on the rim, this was per the course for the rest of the government and military.
The courier ship was cleared through the guarded skylanes to the palace with little fuss, though the full squadron of TIEs that served to escort not just this ship but all others that I could see on approach to the palace came off as a bit much. I was almost certain it had comparable firepower to a star destroyer, a sole ship wasn't going to be a threat.
But still, the ship landed and I was ushered off only the landing pad, butler droid hovering behind me. The wind was cold this high in the atmosphere, piercing through my armorweave uniform and armor plates. It did make my two tone cape flutter very nicely however.
A new set of servants bowed to me and informed me that the Grand Inquisitor was expecting me in his audience hall.
I saw three other ships, identical to the one that had delivered me, depart from other landing pads. Then I felt a presence I hadn't sensed in many years.
Ah, now there is a presence I hadn't seen in years. I thought, recognizing one of the presences more than the others. The other two weren't unknown to me, but if what I was sensing was correct, they had been in 'graduating classes' a few years ahead of me.
Deciding to be cheeky, I flared my own presence in the Force, a way of boasting in my growth in power that only a Force-Sensitive would be able to appreciate. Then I locked my mind down in layers of mental shielding. The game had begun anew.
Into the dark hallways of the largest of the Inquisitorial towers, I went. Down one hallway, two lefts, down another, three right turns and down one stairway. Then we arrived.
The 'we' didn't refer to the useless menials, who had bowed to me and moved away at the top of the staircase.
No, the 'we' meant the Inquisitors.
We all arrived into the audience hall at the exact same time. I felt the shadow, which congregated in more power at the palace than the rest of the planet, flutter away at the gathering of the Dark Side that we all heralded. The stench of phantom sulfur perforated my sinuses.
The audience chamber was oval shaped, its floor, walls and ceiling all a glossy black. A giant imperial cog, made out of blood red jews had been engraved in the floor. A circle of black thrones sat around the engraved cog. The grandest throne belonged to the Grand Inquisitor, of course, and was decorated with electrum heraldry.
I looked around at my fellow Inquisitors. I was among the black armored and helmeted mass of Numbered. Thirty strong were we, as the Emperor had designed us. Fifteen Brothers and Fifteen Sisters; The hunting hounds to spend against Jedi in order to preserve the strength of those who had actual training. That remained unchanged, though our numbers never reached that cap.
What changed, and I felt great glee at confirming with my own two eyes, was the amount of Named, garbed in their maroon colored zeyd-cloth robes, that had entered the audience hall. The great Names, I confirmed, were gone. Jerec, Halmere, and Tremayne were nowhere to be seen or sensed.
Their contingents of underlings were also gone. For what had to be the first time in the history of the Inquisition, us Numbered had a decisive numerical and power advantage on the Named.
My attention was stolen away by the welcoming words of the Inquisitorius's leaders.
"Welcome, my friends, welcome!" A buttery smooth baritone called out. "It truly warms my heart to see all of you once again. It has been far too long since we gathered in such numbers!"
"But all the better for this gathering to occur now, in these times of trouble for our Empire." Ja'ce Yiaso, Grand Inquisitor, carried on. A warm smile on his face and arms spread wide, showing off his voluminous crimson zeyd-cloth robes. "We live in dark times for our Empire, my friends. Our great emperor is dead and with him has fallen Darth Vader."
He strode away from the center of the circle of thrones to his own grand throne and sat down before continuing.
"However I am sure that the Emperor, if he was here, would be pleased to know that his Inquisitorius lives on and he would rest easier in knowing that we remain to lead this Galactic Empire in the future as its rightful masters."
He gestured with one hand at the thrones.
"Sit, there is much to discuss my fellow Inquisitors."
A/N: Jedi Survivor has been released, and I played that instead of writing. A great sequel to Fallen Order, which is what inspired this fic. A shame that there isn't any inquisitor outfits.
But rest assured, there will be plenty of inquisitors in the upcoming chapters. Because the Inquisitorius always has a plan and the current crisis of leadership in the Empire has not gone unnoticed.