[14 BBY]
[Iskaayum, Rodia, Tyrius System, Savareen Sector, Outer Rim Territories, Disputed Territories]
"Dispose of them" Navik ordered of his clan troops in relation to the survivors of his allied forces assault on the Confederate garrison headquarters as he moved towards his waiting vehicle now had the secured data-cores in his hand "Then ensure all munitions are secured by the time I return"
"Yes, Grand Protector, as you command!" was the reply from the officers as he strode away, though he was not yet in a position to claim that title in anything more than name. His Clan Chattza had been forced to move well ahead of schedule, and against the local garrisons rather than against his clan's rivals as they'd planned. Though the reaction times of said rivals hinted they too had had their own plans, likely to face his clan despite those actions currently being to his advantage. Events had spun out of control far too quickly after all to do more react in an ad-hoc manner and ensuring his dominance when such matters had settled…would be decided by such actions as this and their success and failure.
It was quite….vexing…in fact, as he had been almost ready to deal with his rivals in the wargames in less than two years, and now Rodia itself law on a needle's edge. While the Confederacy had been beneficial to him, and his world, the sudden civil war between the Neimoidians and the Bothans had erupted into a civil war on his world. Martial law orders. Chaos. Such matters could not be allowed to come to be as Rodia had suffered enough during the brutal last offensive against the now Imperials, and all agreements had forbidden such orders upon Rodia. Now the CIS could no longer protect them. It had also insulted them.
Blaster rifles echoed out behind him as he sat into his staff hovercar, eliminating the remnants of the Neimoidian controllers over the destroyed droids in the streets. The Techno Union garrison had been dealt with three cities north of his clan's stronghold and soon to be new planetary capital, and now the spaceport was firmly in Rodian, in HIS, hands. It was not a coherent and whole plan, but it was better than the prior situation of droids warring it out with each other in his streets, even as warships clashed in the skies and orbital beyond the city-dome shields and theatre shields. Such defences were serving well now, as beyond them fires raged, and every now and then the skies above Navik's forces were illuminated as stray turbolaser fire hammered into those shields.
Tuvik, one of his better aides, and clanmates, sat on the other side of him, the vehicle starting to move as the driver and escort vehicles headed towards the next location that needed his personal touch "The situation?"
"The orbitals are still in play Protector. Coded shutdowns have worked within expected parameters, but these Jedi…"
Navik nodded. In the many ways the arrival of a half-dozen of these Jedi, leading a large pirate band, had been the spark to the tinder after the clans had worked to calm matters over recent weeks. Since the battle at Nexus Ortai had caused a slow, but also somehow sudden and swift, collapse of the Confederacy in sector after sector by all his information. Pick a side and fight the other side. Though who the other side was less than clear, and now these raiders, and they were clearly not Imperials pretending at being raiders neither. No, what they came for Navik was not yet sure, as they had landed at Equator City and were….doing something, refusing hails that Imperials or even the Chancellorists would have answered. Instead, they seemed to simply just want to…slaughter and steal.
"How bad?"
"Bad, but the clans are not aligned, so…"
Navik nodded once more. That was a positive. Better losses for future enemies than useful allies "Not any great loss for now, good. But it will be a significant problem if they are attempting to assume control over our soon to be former capital"
"Reserves are currently committed?"
He waved off his fellow Rodian and clan-member "For now we can but reach out and have others do our work for us, but against those creatures it is beyond dangerous. Ah, yes, ensure those are warned of the Jedi tricks, they are prone to false surrenders and have no honour. Their words are as wind on the air"
Even warning rival clans of such things served two purposes. First that it reminded all that he was 'fair' as Warlord's went, and secondly it would not do for these raiders or invaders to gain control of his rivals by some mind tricks. Best that they died bravely on those flashing energy blades, hopefully taking out the problem, than trusting those who had consistently proven they had no honour during the war. It was to be expected of Clanless creatures like that, for they had no loyalty to anything beyond their unnatural and God they seemed to believe the Force to be.
The greatest difficulty now lay in what do once his forces had secured enough control, as was starting to be the case in space and on this continent at least. Truly it was a matter of picking a side in the Civil War that had caught him and his by surprise and attempting to seek terms with either the Imperials or Republicans. Though the had already discounted the Chancellorists as, prior to all this chaos, word had reached him that the Imperials were transferring significant fleets to the border. No, he knew he needed to know more, and then cut a deal with the most beneficial party. Or, at the very least, with the one most likely to come out on top in the wars about to consume his sector and all the nearby ones. His position, his clan's power, depended on such. And if the Jedi pirates persisted, then perhaps he could draw in others to get the problem removed…
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[14 BBY]
[Independent Trader Tinmolok, Marl-class Heavy Freighter, in orbit space-station Togoria, Thanos System, Taldot Sector, Mid-Rim, Confederacy of Independent System]
Sanna Mdimu splashed her face with water, trying to somehow wash away the exhaustion before drying herself with a towel and leaving the fresher to sit down with her fellow Etti the XO, Dal Ynniu, and her senior engineer, the human Mikoyan. Decision time had come, and they couldn't put things off much longer, not with the engines finally repaired and fuel stores full despite the suddenly exorbitant prices being charged. That, more than anything, showed her that things were beyond kriffed and everything going into the bantha poodoo disturbingly fast.
Her Tinmolok was quiet for now, her son Swori asleep just Mikoyan's daughter and the majority of her small family crew readying for another series of shifts on the Marl-class. They were a family business of sorts, and that was hurting them right now as they could lose the ship, far too easily, if things keep going as they seemed to be going. So Sanna strode out, calm now, sitting at the table across from her two friends after filling up a big mug of kaff and grabbing some morning-shift rations. Long shifts were the name of the game of late, and these coming shifts looked to be long ones indeed…or very short ones if they were unlucky. Sanna really hoped they'd be lucky and tired than unlucky and getting unlimited rest breaks.
"Well?"
"You're the boss, boss" Mikoyan replied as he drank his own kaff spiked with…whatever weird concoction he'd added into it to stay as chipper as he did "Not much well? for the peons like us to think on"
She rolled her eyes "Very funny. I'm asking your opinion you druk"
He nodded, shrugged as he shoved back into the bolted in place chair as best he could "Things be kriffed. We can't stay here. That be my opinion boss"
Dal shrugged "He's right in that"
Sannu sighed wearily "On that we all agree, it's the where to go after we leave being the thing we are needin' to be talkin' about"
She waved at the star-charts "Since, ya'know, they be impounding ships at Nazzi by all accounts, and that bantha humping kriffer Ohnaka is supposedly after jumpin off from Lantilles"
Mikoyan grunted, doing his nervous tick thing of trying to use his bulk to push the chair that wasn't going to move into moving as he pushed off the table back into the seat "Can't go to the Republic, not be safe. Kashyyyk won't be safe neither"
"Patrol fleets gonna be gone" Dal pointed out "That could help?"
Sannu shrugged "Mayhap, but more likely it just means there'll be more fighting taking place there. I'm think we take the….scenic route and head towards Charros, then to Boonta, and into Hutt space"
Both of them grimaced, Dal sighing "That'll cost Capn. They'll charge us an arm and a leg, they always do"
She gave a helpless shrug "I'm open to suggestions, but we ain't getting to Raxus or Mon Cala let alone trying to the Corporate Sector…even if we wanted to. That leaves the Hutts and the Imperials, and I think we can sell our cargo between them to breakeven, even if'll add months to our journey. Cuz it don't matter I reckon. Trade lanes are going to be full of angry krayt dragons and rancor killin' each other after all. That or we risk getting conscripted in case ya weren't listening to the drunks over on the station bar"
"Could be just talk" Dal stated drinking with a blank look on his face "Could be many things they guessed wrong"
"Could be" she stated, and all three of them winced, grimaced, or nodded unhappily at the implications of such things as Could Be when the ship was at risk. Mikoyan moved forward, arms on the table now, as he made as if to say something, paused, then grunted before he actually spoke.
"And then what? We only got the licences sorted…"
Dal rubbed his forehead "We still have the licence with the Imperials, and they'll want to buy our stuff…what we do after that gonna get complicated though"
"Everythins about to get complicated Dal" she stated simply, taking another sip, making an unhappy face at the two of them "What's left of the galactic economy just went to poodoo don't cha know lads. Gonna be the first days of the Jedi-Confed War all over again….cept way, way, worse I reckon. We might need lay low a bit"
Mikoyan let out a breath "I'm with ya there boss, but….right, not a bad route more I think on it. We full holds, which is good and bad"
"Well, we didn't tell anyone that, so let's up they think we're running empty. Don't want anyone getting' ideas of chasin' us down" she pointed out. Paused, groaned "All of them credits wasted!"
"Tell me about it" Dal grumbled "Had a guy on The Wheel, reckon won't be seein him again"
"Oh, for shame the second round of the galactic civil war interrupts your dating life" Mikoyan joked back but nodding in sympathy to both of them "Who the kriff could guess. Least we aren't the only ones in the situation?"
"Every damned indie and any beyond that I reckon" Sannu agreed then knocked on the table, making this an official decision if they agreed "Right. We head the long way back to the Hutts and then unto the Gamorr run to the Empire?"
Dal nodded "Don't see a better option, gonna hurt, but better than been dead, stranded, or conscripted I say"
"What he said" the bigger human muttered unhappily "Better tell the rest of'em and then move fast I think, before others get the same idea…"
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