[14 BBY]

[Lower Forward Engineering Bay, House Stormcrow Capital-class Warship Stormcrow, Mobile Headquarters, Imperial Navy 1st Frontier Fleet, Bakura system, Bakura Sector, Wildspace, United Federal Empire]

"I hate these people. We don't even know what they look like, but I'm leaning towards really kriffing evil in some manner" I stated blandly as I felt the suffering from the damaged droid-fighters Yulen had managed to capture and study before we'd arrived. Now we had arrived, with Force Users, I got the joys of dealing with some really fucked up necromantic golem droid starfighter bullshit. Because I could see what they had done through the Force, and, unlike most of the others here, I understood the nasty bullshit that these alien invaders had pulled.

Bariss, like my former Master Stass, was horrified, even if she didn't quite grasp what was going on with however they infused souls into the technology. To. Power. Fucking. Droid-fighters. "How…what is…that, the pain…"

"That" I stated bluntly, my anger under control as I glared at the machines, at the twin-souls, or perhaps lingering aspect of the life-force rather than the whole soul, silently screamed "Those, are souls, of some poor sentients….and being used to power a droid-fighter. Because, yes, whoever they are have managed to build war machines powered by the souls of the innocent and the damned"

My wife brought her hand to her mouth as I glared at the machines, trying to figure out my next move, along with dredging up any memories on this. Celeste had a grim look about her, as did Stass, while Asajj was also on the level of fuming over such things as this, now I'd spoken it allowed. She'd leaned a lot in recent years, from me, from the Nightsisters, from the Jedi even, and this disgusted her, along with angering at the stripping away of control on such a level. Though it was our 'Jedi Representative', my old Master, who found her voice first after Barriss "This is horrifying"

I didn't look away, looking at the horror before us through the Force, my hand tracing outlines in the air, and causing the whole thing to 'glow' so to spread for me, and us "Yes, I'd noticed"

"No, Daron this…"

"I know" I glanced at her "I know Stass. Be that as it may, we need to consider how to deal with this, and, well…severely discourage such things as this ever, ever, happening again. Firstly though, we need figure out a means to free said souls trapped inside the droid-fighters"

"More Sith alchemy?" Celeste murmured, the coldest of us all, studying it like me "No…I've…never seen anything like this"

I shook my head "Neither have I….well, not entirely, there was that madman Rur on that Temple ship…and then the other Rur, the so-called Immortal Rur, in the Temple records attempting to do the same"

"They could have been the same person?" Aayla offered, sounding in a shock stated as she, again, reached out to feeling the screaming souls within "The pain…."

"Apparently not" I muttered with a shrug "There be two different Rurs are two different points in time, both trying to….whatever this is. Apparently, someone has figured it out in the Unknown Regions. Because, yes, we haven't enough horrors out there without undead droid-fighters"

I took in a breath, then let it out "Asajj I need to talk with your fellow dathomiri. Heavens and hells, I think we might need long distance correspondence with your clan's….Mother"

Stass blinked, turning to me as Asajj, and my Barriss a moment later, nodded "Why? Why them?"

"Because they have a tradition that understands undeath better than the Jedi. As shown by the army of undead sisters they rose up against Grievous" was my calm and blunt reply looking at her, arms across my chest, thinking on my own knowledge and trying to figure out how to undo this. Ideally in the middle of battle when it would tear the enemy apart. I didn't know yet, but we needed to figure out the limits of this – did they get full knowledge of the soul they'd enslaved, or just the energies for one "We'll ask what shamans we've recruited or known of as well….and what engineers we can spare. We'll inform Rahm Kota of our findings, along with the Inquisition"

Then sighed, rubbing my head "Right, we'll hold a few more days and bring up the Virtuous to reinforce while we study…this"

The Virtuous was our brand-new V-1 Series Star Destroyer, the first of the Virtuous-class Star Destroyers, one the two twin V-1 series launched. It was a pure battleship style Star Destroyer, the first batches sent to the frontier fleets for working and training, and it was my mile-long big stick in this case. Sure, my Stormcrow dwarfed it in size, and constant improvements increased our firepower, but the pure battleship was needed here and now to break the enemy lines. The Visionary-class, the battle-carrier variant, was yet to come, but it seemed the first true home grown and built Imperial Star Destroyer model was about to get a trial by fire. Against an enemy that truly seemed to be vile in its nature.

I'd already brought together Yulen's taskforce with another, similar sized one I'd had pirate hunting, with my own fleet, which included two Lucrehulks and my Stormcrow as their central element, with a large force of escorts now. Technically it should be more than enough to deal with what Yulen had run into at G'rho, but, like us, they could have been reinforced in the time it took to get here from my home sectors. Bakura below us was an important system to keep now that it was almost eagerly onboard with the empire. Funny how disappearing colonies and invaders from the unknown regions could have that effect on people. But they had an existent network out in here in the 'wilds' so an Imperial garrison backed up by an increased local system defence forces would be my goals. That'd be vital as raids were starting to increase once again…

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[14 BBY]

[Trade Federation Trade Defence Force Lucrehulk-class Battleship, Trade Acquisition Taskforce Helpful Hand, in orbit Dressel, Dressel System, Noolian Sector, Mid Rim, Confederacy of Independent Systems]

"Sir" one of the droids said "They are still shouting at us"

"Just ignore them" Captain Yup Tahuk, of the Trade Defence Force, replied with irritation as the Bothan miners over on the Dresselian asteroid belt continued to send a stream of protests and threats at his taskforce "Remind them if they actually send anything threatening our way…we'll blast them into orbital debris"

"Roger, Roger"

"Good, good, Captain" he got told by one of the obnoxious twits from the Trade Federation's 'Trade Development Bureau' told him, Yup trying to tune it out as always "Their behaviour is most unacceptable"

"Yes, indeed, Emissary, most uncivilized" he replied with a straight face, his organic crew pointedly ignoring yet another pointless 'visit' from the Trade Mission "Operations are proceeding as directed I can assure you"

'So can you please return to your quarters and allow me to get my job done in peace?' he wanted to say, but that, unfortunately, was not within his power as his force of six Lucrehulks remained in orbit of the primitives world. It was yet another Trade Mission as the various factions of the Trade Federation sought to recoup the severe losses taken during the war. Yup understood the necessity of such actions, but this seemed overly ambitious and provocative to their so-called allies with the Confederacy proper. Not that the Bothans were any great friend and were engaging in their own such operations, far viler than Yup would tolerate it as selling off human colonists to the Hutts would be beyond the pale even for a Trade Mission.

No, this all reeked of deliberate provocation by the likes of Voroo or one of the others in that faction of the upper echelons of the Federation, and that worried Yup. Largely because he was the one out here, on the frontier, with this gaggle of idiots he had to protect while they extorted the barely civilized world below them after the Bothans hadn't exploited it. It was the reason why Yup and gone above and beyond to ensure the strength of his taskforce, because the 'standard' of two Lucrehulks and a few escorts would not cut it if trouble showed up.

"That is good Captain, such efforts will be bring wealth and prosperity to all parties…"

Yup nodded, tuning out the speech for the hundredth time, watching the displays as various sites were constructed planet-side. The Dresselians weren't really all that primitive, but largely hadn't had any presence galactically as the Bothans, and then the Republic, had largely left them alone to 'develop on their own' for some odd reason. Jedi had, supposedly, visited them from time to time, and the local Bothan mining consortium had tried to keep people away…but his force was too big for their two patrol ships, and the Jedi were finished now. But Yup could not see this not causing trouble with elections upcoming within the Confederacy.

It was going to be…

"Hyperspace signatures detected" one of his fellow Neimoidian officers notified, ending Yup's line of thought, and the offended looking Emissary "Inbound to this system"

"Numbers?" Yup demanded walking forward, knowing there shouldn't any anyone in the range of vessels that they could detect at range due here "Signal all ships to raise alert status. Ready squadrons to launch"

"Unknown Sir, rapid hyper signatures, arrival minutes out"

"Understood" he turned to the Emissary, glad to be rid of them "My good Emissary, it might be best for you and your guests to retire to safer accommodation in case this situation requires military force. Refreshments await there, of course"

"Ah, yes…of course, of course" the irritant replied after a moment, but acquiescing "Send live feed to my terminal there"

Yup nodded, watching them go and ordering the bridge sealed as alerts begin to ping. Thank the ancestors for combat protocols in the TDF he thought as his battleships formed up, a small force droid tri-fighters launching to serve as escorts. Returning to his seat Yup waited, watching as about a dozen vessels emerged from hyperspace near the Bothan mining stations, joining the patrol vessels there "Do we have recognition on those ships?"

"Looks to be….one Venator, pinging Bothan IFF, two battlecruisers, older models….Corsair-class?...with cruiser escorts. I see two Imperial refit-Dreadnoughts amongst them, but their pinging Confederate IFF"

'So, a Hutt backed force then' Yup thought coldly watching the display, glad he'd fudged the numbers present in system. This would be enough to drive out a 'standard' taskforce, but not what he in-system. He gestured for him to be put on comms "This is Senior Captain Tahuk of the Trade Defence Fleet, please state the nature of your presence over this world during our negotiations with the planetary government"

An ugly fur-faced Bothan glared back a moment later, clearly unhappy, either Yup or simply from the fact the Yup still significantly outgunned "I am Captain Ysh'rad of the Bothan Protectorate, and we are here on behalf of the Dresselian Planetary Government. Your presence here is unwanted Trade Federation"

"Then complain to the Separatist Council or to Parliament" Yup replied back formally, sitting back into his command chair "We are here under our Charter of Rights, and have every intention of securing our future investments"

"You overstep your bounds Neimoidian"

Yup maintained a professional look as the overly emotional furball growled at him "No, my good Bothan, the Trade Federation does not, but you do. But, as always, we are open to trade if you wish too. If not, please remove yourself from this system….in your own good time. I'm sure the older nature of your vessels makes such transits slow and difficult compared to more modern vessels as my own"

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