Chapter 10: Empires of Crime
June 23, 2228.
The first phase of the assault had been a success. Now, while Tristan was attacking the fortress frontally, with heavy fire support from both orbit and land batteries that had been brought down, Sabine and her team decided that it was time to move.
As the sounds of the blasters resonated in the background, the older Wren sibling guided the squad of ten through a forest, where she knew there was a secret passage excavated centuries before by the clan leaders just in case.
"This tunnel was built for rapid escapes." she commented with Moreena. "Ironic that the only time we are going to use it will be to attack the fortress."
"Who says your ancestors didn't take this possibility into account?" Moreena quipped.
"For sure, those pirates won't expect this!" one of the warriors commented, excited to get back at the Consortium for tainting his clan's world.
"Be careful, anyway. We don't know if they discovered it or not." Sabine recommended, then she dialed the code for the hatch and that opened, allowing the strike team to move inside the tunnel.
It soon became apparent that the passage was empty, and still as abandoned as it had been for decades, since even Sabine's family had kind of neglected it. For now, however, the fact that the pirates seemed to ignore its existence was the only thing she was hoping for.
Soon they walked deep enough into the tunnel that they couldn't perceive any noise coming from the outside world, only the darkness around them that they could fight with the small lamps attached to their helmets and their weapons.
"I heard that we had such a route to the fortress." one of the warriors, Krida, said. "But where does it even get?"
"To the lower underground floor." Sabine explained. "My family only kept the secret to the level of the strictest relatives of the running Count or Countess. My mother showed this to me when I came back to the clan."
"If we are at the lowest level, we will have to move quickly, though." Moreena noted. "And disable their outer defenses before they surround us."
"That's the plan." Sabine reassured. "The control room for the automated defenses has to be right next to where we will emerge."
They walked for about six more minutes before they finally reached the access point. Sabine inserted the code and something started moving on the other side before the door slid open. It turned out to be a fake wall covering it, and now the strike team found themselves inside the Wren fortress, specifically into one of the storehouses where even the pirates had placed several weapons and ammunition.
"Watch your steps." Moreena jokingly warned, seeing that the arrangement of materiel inside there was quite chaotic.
They managed to reach the exit and peek inside the corridor, finding only a couple guards pacing around. One of them happened to be turned toward their direction, but Sabine quickly disposed of him before he could set off any alarm, then one of the warriors quickly sneaked behind the other and slit his throat.
"Well done." Sabine complimented before going toward the left. "Come on. The control room should be over there."
The squad reassembled and moved in. Indeed, in the same room where clan Wren stored their communication equipment, the local Consortium's garrison had placed its command post. Sabine spotted a defiler inside, who was clearly in charge of the operation.
She promptly fired at him, hoping to seal the deal right away, but the man instinctively dived behind the large holo-table, so a more risky firefight erupted. Yet, exploiting their superior skills and armors, the mandalorians eventually disposed of the pirates without taking any casualty.
After that, Moreena hacked the system and disabled the automated turrets, thus leaving the defenders at a huge disadvantage against the well-armored enemy warriors. Once they were taken between the hammer and the anvil, the pirates were eventually crushed.
Yet, as the two squads regrouped inside the old throne room, there wasn't even the time to contemplate what the Consortium had done before Tristan expressed a doubt.
"Something doesn't add up: there were supposed to be many more."
Sabine looked around. Indeed, counting how few she had encountered fighting upward, it seemed like the garrison was a tad too small to carry out a prolonged defense.
"Could they be waiting somewhere in the forest?" she suggested.
"Duke Atin!" Byro, who was following Tristan, said with urgency as he rushed toward them. "Emergency transmission from the fleet: their rear-guard is under attack!"
"What?!" Tristan exclaimed, then reacted more appropriately. "Get the Burcyan, I want a report immediately!"
As soon as a link was established, Shipmaster Farr reported in. "Lord Wren, at least five frigates just appeared behind us."
"What do you mean 'appeared'?" Tristan asked quite angry.
"The Burcyan's radar caught them by chance, but there's no doubt: they are equipped with an optical camouflage."
"Optical camouflage?" Sabine asked baffled. "Where did they get it?!"
"Can you fend them off?" Tristan asked.
"We moved quickly, but it might take a while. Also, we are detecting shuttles on the surface heading toward you. They were hiding in the mountains."
"Kriff...everyone, fortify this position!" the Duke ordered.
"We will chase off this filth and then head send support, Duke Atin."
"Understood. Please, be quick."
Since the ground floor where the throne room was had large glass doors all around, the mandalorians spread out and took positions on the low terraces and looked out, searching for the enemy dropships that eventually appeared on the horizon by the next two minutes, coming from the mountain range that was visible from both south and west of the fortress.
"Get the launchers!" Sabine promptly ordered.
It was Ketsu who quickly emerged from the inside with two heat-seeking rocket-launchers that some warriors had just brought in. She handed one to Sabine and they both took aim. The rockets hissed and flew rapidly to smash against two of the seven shuttles coming in, bringing them down. The others decided that they couldn't simply drop onto the fortress and landed immediately, hiding among the trees.
Without the need for an input, the entire group aligned their guns on the balcony, whereas Tristan only left five people to cover the other side in case they were attacked there.
They waited, hearing the faint but clear rustling of the enemy soldiers on the snow, and after a minute or so they started seeing the first movements among the trees. So they opened fire.
Yet, despite hearing and seeing that several bolts had hit their mark, the Consortium's troopers kept rushing forward, so Sabine stopped firing and got a better look. Thus she realized that those men were wearing a strange armor that she had never seen before, yet she recognized the shine on them.
"They got beskar on them!" she promptly informed her brother.
Tristan peeked better, but after seeing another bolt from Moreena bounce on one of the mercenaries, he couldn't deny that fact. Still, after taking four shots, one of the mercenaries finally fell dead on the snow, meaning that those armors only had a small fraction of beskar, limiting its capacity to protect the wearer.
Nonetheless, that first wave was still comprised of around 50 troops and there were more dropships incoming. With the armor they had been provided, the mercenaries were able to reach the balcony in a sufficient number to force the mandalorians back.
Soon enough, the battle moved inside the throne room, with the Consortium troopers flooding in from the windows, but another wave of mandalorians came in from Tristan's camp, led by Asha.
Bolts flew all around, along with wrist-rockets, detonators and other explosives. The mandalorians lost a total of 14 warriors, but still, their skill was far superior to their opponents, and their armors overall more resistant than their enemies. So despite their losses, they still came out on top, and even the battle in orbit quickly ended as the pirates were chased away, but not before they had managed to destroy a tanker ship.
On the ground, the Duke and his sister drew their breath, noticed that they were overall fine and after giving the last dispositions to their men, went to take a look at their mother's throne.
The podium had been severely damaged by the fighting, and the chair itself had been blown on the upper left corner, but it was miraculously most intact.
They removed their helmets to look back at it without filters. The podium was spoiled, almost to the point of being depressing, but at least the reason was that they had evacuated all the portraits and decorations around it three years before.
"Wanna try it?" Sabine quipped.
Tristan chuckled. "I have always stood next to it, wondering what I would do when my time came. Now, I honestly don't know what to think."
"You gave everything you had to lead us back here, brother." the sister encouraged. "You earned it with your blood and sweat. Come on, then. Take it."
Tristan looked at it a little more, with more hesitation that he expected. After gulping down, he took the first step. Then the second and the third, all the way until he was in front of the chair itself. A brief moment followed where he remembered his mother, who had occupied that throne since he had memory.
When he was a child, he knew that Sabine was next in line and that he was unlikely to be sitting on it ever. But then his sister was gone for a few years and he started to be trained to become the next Count, yet there had been a period after his sister's return when it seemed like Ursa was going to reinstate her firstborn.
In the end, Sabine herself willingly gave up any claim to be the leader of clan Wren and asked him to step up in the direst moment for the Mandalorian civilization.
Although his people had acknowledged him as Duke, the desire to reclaim his birthplace had constantly gnawed at his mind.
He turned once again, seeing that now the whole group was looking at him with a certain trepidation, as if him sitting on that throne would be some kind of turning point. While that seemed rather naive to him, even Tristan couldn't deny that he was filled with emotion.
He stepped back and finally settled on the seat. After Sabine and Asha smiled at him, they were the first to bump a fist on their chest plates and to make a small bow, prompting everyone else to imitate the gesture.
It might have been a small achievement, compared to what they still had to face, but that was still a very important victory for clan Wren, and for the Crusade, Krownest was going to be a fundamental foothold to continue the reconquest.
A few minutes passed, with Tristan settling in on his new position, when Byro reached him with urgency. "Tristan, we are receiving a transmission from the Consortium."
Surprised, but quickly guessing who that might be, Tristan replied "Pull it through." as he stood unyielding on the throne.
His friend lit up the omni-tool and soon enough a hologram appeared, facing the Duke, and Tristan immediately recognized Corvin Kray thanks to the dossier that he had received from Iulius.
"Duke Atin, I suppose." the man started in a neutral tone.
"Kray." Tristan replied with a slight hiss.
"I must commend you for repelling my forces. You mandalorians did not disappoint."
"This is just the beginning, Captain or however you call yourself. Since you have seen what we're capable of, how about you immediately leave our homeworld, before we take your head alongside it?"
"I am afraid you're letting the inebriation of victory going to your head, my lord. While I recognize your valor as warriors, what you fought today was just a fraction of the army I have at my disposal. A prolonged battle will be detrimental to both sides, but yours will simply die by attrition. Hence, my employer asked me to forward a deal."
"A deal?" Tristan asked, both skeptical and partially amused that he had received two offers from his sworn enemies in such a short period of time. Then he made a sarcastic chuckle and immediately shut him down. "We have no interest for credits, Kray. We will rather die with our honor than be other slaves for your master. If you want to save your skin, the only thing you can do is to leave Mandalore before we get there." then he turned toward his left. "Byro, close the channel."
The warrior didn't hesitate and the hologram disappeared.
July 1, 2228.
"Here we are, boys. Nal Hutta. The Glorious Jewel...or so the name says." Hondo quipped as his ship's engines powered down.
"Look over there." Vizago said, pointing slightly higher over the viewport.
Ezra, Jaral and Luke approached the glass and noticed what he meant: the largest palace in the capital city, Bilbousa, an opulent and majestic construction compared to the squalor surrounding it, had several huge galleons docked at its higher levels.
"Is that them?" Luke asked.
"Yeah." Ezra replied softly. "There's no doubt about it: the Hutt Cartel is meeting right now."
"And security has become stricter than the imperial one." Vizago commented, now pointing inside the spaceport: a squad of port authorities (nothing more than thugs of the Hutt) were heading toward them.
"You better go now." Hondo said somberly to the Jedi. "We will come get you in four hours."
"Don't worry." Jaral said gently. "It was a one-way trip, Hondo. We will find a way out of the planet."
"Then good luck, my friends." the old Weequay replied respectfully.
From behind them, Melch squealed, saying them that he had opened the emergency hatch on the lower deck of the freighter. He accompanied them while Hondo and Vizago headed to the main ramp to go and get the attention of the wardens. The Jedi said goodbye to Melch as well and then sneaked outside. Since Hondo had parked their temporary vessel next to the decaying outer wall, the Jedi took only a second before finding a hole in the fence and sneak out with the guards being none the wiser.
After putting on a disguise thanks to the omni-tools, the Jedi wasted no time and ventured inside the city in order to reach the palace. They already had a map of Bilbousa and they had already studied it, guessing where there might be some hidden accesses to the Hutt's stronghold. It was thus quite easy for them to find a classic for any infiltration: the sewage pipes.
The siblings materialized their armors while Luke a simple protective suit to avoid getting his regular clothing soaked with all that unsanitary effluent.
The group thus sneaked inside one of the large pipes, the one unloading less liquids into the already murky pond outside the palace. At first they encountered a single guard that never noticed them, for Ezra sneaked behind him and used the omni-tool to stun him before hiding the unconscious body.
"I'm into their comms." Jaral said after quickly hacking inside the personal comlink of the guard. "We shouldn't find too much resistance down here. Things will change once we reach the prison level."
"Are there prisoners, here?" Luke asked a little worried.
"That was a taken, Luke. You saw for yourself what the Hutts do with whoever wrongs them." Ezra noted.
Luke in fact had a small shiver when he thought back to the Rancor and the Sarlacc, and he knew that he had had it quite easy compared to most other people, who more often than not could not fight back against the perverted entertainment of the Hutts.
Gathering their courage, the Jedi moved in. After finding an exit that brought them first into the mechanical hold of the sewage, they finally found their way inside the palace, and specifically the detention floor, which stood into a slightly underground basement. It was quite a large basement, perhaps holding some 30 different cells. Not many, which made the Jedi think that only people who got the attention of the whole Cartel would be locked up there.
Now, Crimson Dawn had provided them with a list of the people currently detained in there, and they were all criminals of some kind. The Jedi had thus no interest in freeing them, not before they had achieved their goal and made sure those guys wouldn't sell them out. Maintaining a hologram that made them look like guards, they crossed the prison as shortly as they could before proceeding toward the upper levels.
As they went further up, they couldn't hope to keep the disguises, so they removed the holograms and simply moved quietly and carefully, using the Force to detect when they were about to cross some guards and where they could possibly hide.
That way, they managed to reach a service elevator and, using a map that they had copied from a terminal, they reached a storage room near the top, closing in on the grand hall where all the major Hutts were supposedly discussing the current troubles caused by Crimson Dawn.
They peeked into the corridor outside, immediately noticing that there was a large number of guards protecting the access to the central tower. Nonetheless, they managed to wait for the right moment to slip inside.
It was dark in that room. Very dark. So much that the three wondered how that could be possible. Yet, before they could even suspect anything or activate their night visions, Ezra and Jaral suddenly stopped moving.
It wasn't on their own volition: their armors were locked in place, leaving them like statues of walking persons.
"Guys?" Luke asked, but the others two could only grunt.
Before they could even complain, the lights finally came on and the Jedi realized that they were in the middle of a large, circular room with windows all around it on the topside.
And behind those windows was the Cartel. All the twelve biggest Hutts of the galaxy, already laughing as if they had caught a huge fish. The siblings tried to react but their armors just wouldn't move, signaling an unknown mechanical failure. Luke ignited his lightsaber just as a large number of guards poured in from four different doors and quickly surrounded them.
"We were expecting you, little fugitives." an unsavory familiar voice said.
Even if they couldn't turn around, the siblings could easily recognized that.
"Melvek…!" Jaral grunted as even talking strained her muscles.
"We were expecting you." the slaver, who appeared suddenly from the crowd of armed mercenaries, gloated. "You have caused quite the commotion for my employers."
The Jedi didn't answer, and while even the other pirates cheered for what they perceived as their victory, Luke looked around to try and understand what was blocking the armors, and then looked upward.
"Up there." he said to the siblings, who couldn't do anything anyway. He spotted what looked like a large device shaped like a dish.
"Good eye." another familiar voice, which startled the Jedi much more than Melvek's, taunted him.
Now, from the crowd emerged someone that the Jedi had not heard of for months, but they certainly didn't expect to find there.
"Brie?" Luke asked quite confused.
Standing next to the slaver, the red-haired woman looked on the immobilized Jedi with a triumphant face. "What you see up there is the latest invention of the Imperial Research Division. A stasis field that targets the Legionnaire armors, specifically. The Emperor was aching for a test, and you delivered yourself just as he predicted."
From the observation bleacher came the voice of one of the Hutts.
"Jedi! You have insulted the glorious Hutts one time too many. Now you will die of the most painful and horrible death! All men, prepare to stun!"
The large number of mercenaries clicked their guns and pointed the three trapped Jedi. Luke focused, but surrounded like that, there was simply no way he could get out without being shot.
"No chance that you could just shoot them right now?" Shira asked, not really believing in that possibility, but trying anyway.
"You heard the great Lords." Melvek replied with an amused shrug. "Don't worry, though. Soon enough, your master will be able to sleep more easily."
"Damn it! I'm not giving up here!" Ezra exclaimed.
"I can't deactivate the armor!" Jaral said with enough emphasis. "All the mechanisms are blocked!"
"Me neither!...is this really it?!"
They both scrambled their brains into eggs, but they couldn't think of a real solution, yet as everything seemed lost and time looked incredibly slow, the siblings heard a reassuring voice.
"You already have everything you need, Padawans."
The two were left shocked for a split second before they both recognized the source.
"Kanan?" they asked together.
Though they couldn't see anything, they could easily feel the presence of their mentor, as if he was touching them on their backs with his reassuring demeanor.
"These armors have been part of you for so long, I don't blame you for thinking that you can't separate from them.
"But think about it: the first time you lost them, you still fought either Vader or the Emperor and you still came out on top."
The siblings quickly recalled those memories and they found some renewed confidence in them.
"You're right…" Ezra thought. "We've relied on them so much, we are almost dependent."
"Are you...suggesting we break them?" Jaral asked.
"Your instruments served you well, but I think it's high time you realize your true potential. The only thing you really need...is the Force." Kanan encouraged.
Despite asking that way, Jaral was also convinced of those words. "The Feds won't be happy we just blew up billions of credits." she commented.
"Can't be helped. Are you in, sis?"
"Is that even a question?"
Closing their eyes, using those few moments that the mercenaries were giving them, the siblings quickly delved into the Force, abandoning their mind to it. Even they had not been aware just how easily they were able to do that. Kanan was absolutely right: the armors had accompanied them for long, but it was high time that the two of them embraced their position as Jedi Masters and do what a true Jedi was supposed to do.
To trust wholly in the Force.
And as soon as their consciousness finally accepted that, they felt as if every fear left their body. Never before had the path forward looked so clear.
Luke kept his defensive position, but as the mercenaries pointed their guns all over, he kept wondering what he could do. He had a directional shield in the omni-tool, but that would only protect his blind side for only a few seconds, and with Ezra and Jaral paralyzed…
A sense of urgency suddenly rising. He activated his shield toward his Masters and then tried to cover his ears with a single hand.
A loud bang resonated violently inside the room, followed by a small wave of compressed air that stunned and confused the first line of mercenaries, including Melvek and Shira.
Luke finally turned around and saw Ezra and Jaral. Their armors scattered in pieces all around, as was their nano-suits. But they were out of them, and free to move, with a determination in their eyes that Luke had not seen before.
Before the mercenaries could react properly, Ezra threw his lightsaber at Jaral, so that she could join it with her own and create the double blade, while Ezra materialized from his omni-tool the lightsaber of his own mentor, igniting its blue blade.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Luke." Ezra quipped.
"Nice to see you found yourselves again." the other one bantered back.
"Are you ready, boys?" Jaral asked.
The two hummed a positive. Then, as the mercenaries were still trying to figure out what was happening, the Jedi waved an arm each in synchrony.
"Kill th-!" Shira yelled, but it was too late, as she and the whole room were washed away by an unbridled Force Push.
A handful of guards managed to pull their triggers, but they only ended up with their bolts missing completely or even hitting their allies as they were all sent flying against the nearest wall.
A moment, later, exploiting their position, and having reduced the enemy formation to half a circle, the Jedi sprang along three different vectors and charged straight at the mercenaries. Soon enough, they were finding themselves slicing the weapons of everyone they could find, making their way toward the doors as killing the members of the Cartel was still their goal.
But before they could do that, the mercenaries in the back had suffered the push less and were already standing, so they opened fire.
Exploiting that opportunity, Melvek actually rose up and quickly pointed his pistol at Jaral's back.
The woman however sensed him immediately and, with a smooth movement of the double-blade, avoided his blast and then one of the plasma rods swung right toward him as Jaral didn't even look at him.
Before anyone could understand what had just occurred, Melvek's head was rolling on the floor, and his body fell lifeless on the ground.
The remaining mercenaries, seeing their commander so easily cut down, quickly gave in to panic and fled, trying to put some distance between them and the rampaging Jedi.
"Hey, Shira is not here!" Luke notified.
The siblings looked around, and for sure, they couldn't see the woman laying on the floor as she should have been.
"Looks like she's quick at running away." Ezra commented. "But it doesn't matter now: let's go find the Hutts. It won't be long before we have their entire army chasing us down."
With the Force guiding their steps, the Jedi found their way to the upper floor and managed to intercept the Hutts, but they noticed that they had more or less split up in three groups, each trying to get back to their galleons and escape. Without the need to communicate, the Jedi promptly moved divided their efforts and each went against one of the groups.
Some of the Hutts themselves put up a fight. After all, the Hutts might be slow, but they are stronger than one would think by looking at them. Still, it was clear that none of them had the skills to even think of standing up to three people who had been fighting every day of their lives for years on end.
With precision and ruthlessness, the Jedi cut down all twelve members of the Cartel. All of a sudden, even if nobody aside from the realized it, the Hutt criminal empire was leaderless.
However, that didn't change the fact that the palace was now swarming with hundreds of mercenaries that were quickly catching up to the Jedi. There was no way they could simply fight all of those armed men while looking to reach the exit.
"Guys, let's meet up at the third landing platform. I think it stands right over a river." Jaral suggested on the comlink.
"Understood." the others replied.
They rushed there and went on the pad, where one of the galleons was parked on the right side. Yet, as they approached the edge, a freighter appeared from below in front of them.
For a moment, they thought they were done for, but just as they started realizing what ship that was, its cannons started firing against the door, pulverizing the first guards that were rushing there.
As the ship kept firing, the lower ramp on the front lowered, showing a familiar Devaronian.
"Come on, Jedi!" Vizago exhorted as he held to one of the hydraulic cranes.
Wondering what those two pirates were doing over there, but grateful nonetheless, the Jedi jumped in rapid succession onto the ramp. Once the last was on, Vizago pushed the earpiece on his right.
"We got them, Hondo. Let's get off this swamp!"
"I thought I told you this was a one-way trip." Ezra commented, still happy to receive the help.
"And we were supposed to let our greatest source of income to die?" Vizago quipped. "Besides, the port authorities were so nagging, we were more than happy to screw them over."
They finished just in time to reach the cockpit, where Melch was protesting for something while Hondo was maneuvering frantically.
"I know the gunships are coming!" Hondo yelled back with irritation.
"Have you decided to become a hero, Hondo?" Jaral asked as a joke.
"You boys better have a nice reward ready for us!"
"We'll see what we can hoard." Luke said, also elated by the general atmosphere.
"I hope none of you ate too heavy. 'cause this will be a spicy flight." Hondo concluded before punching the throttle.
July 2, 2228.
"And as things stand right now, news from Hutt Space are occasional, at best, but there seems to be a major upheaval in the internal structure." Mothma read in front of the entire Senate. "The ICO has robust evidence that the entire Hutt Cartel has been wiped out some twenty hours ago by the Jedi. Every semblance of order in their territory has collapsed as a result."
After that, she put down the datapad on her table and sat down so that the Chairman could allow the debate to begin.
"Are the Jedi all right?" the first of the Senators allowed to speak asked.
"We are talking about the Bridgers. Nobody has claimed to be their killers, so we can hope that they made it out."
"We are all glad to hear that. But have the Jedi considered the consequences of this action?" Senator Ranji asked. "If it's true that the Hutt Empire is descending into civil war, we will have another humanitarian crisis on our border. One we can't afford to face, right now."
Someone else from Mothma's moderate party replied calmly. "The Hutts have openly declared war against the Jedi. We all know that. We can't blame them for taking the only action that would guarantee their lives. And we can always ask our UACT allies to help us feeding the refugees."
"But what about the inherent instability that this will cause? Who can tell if Hutt Space will now be a no-man's-land of small pirate bands or even if something worse will emerge from there?" someone else asked vigorously.
After a brief debate died down, it was Bhe-Jie who asked to speak. Once he was given the word, he calmly stood up and spoke with cold pragmatism.
"Honored Senators. I must say, I'm quite surprised that you cannot see the opportunity standing in front of us."
He gave everyone a moment to look around perplexed.
"The Jedi have no doubt made a huge favor to the galaxy. After all, the Hutt Cartel was the most enduring crime syndicate of the galaxy, and in all their long history, they have done nothing but perpetrate a regime of slavery, corruption and oppression. They have been the living embodiment of the worst vices in the universe, but because they were so powerful, not even the Old Republic or the Empire wanted to face this problem head-on. The rest of the galaxy has been satisfied with just confining them to their worlds, even if that meant allowing their operations on the border worlds to go unanswered.
"But now, fellow Senators, their reign of unlawfulness is finally crumbling. There are now thousands of worlds who will fall victim to violence and anarchy, unless we take decisive action. Most of the population of the Hutt worlds is made up of slaves, who will soon find themselves without guidance, but also without a purpose. What if we, the beacon of freedom and democracy, step up to become that purpose?"
A loud chattering followed before Mothma found the space to make a precise question. "Senator Bhe-Jie, are you suggesting that we invade Hutt Space?"
"Yes, Madam President. Many worlds sitting on our doorstep are ripe with resources and manpower, and we all know that we need any we can get. All we have to do is to arrest or kill the local overseers and the population will welcome us the moment that we declare slavery abolished."
The debate heated up and went on for nearly two hours. The Senate was split between those who said that they didn't have the resources to open another front, while others sided with the Unionists' point of view, adding that if the UACT did nothing, the Empire would most likely fill the sudden power vacuum.
After much deliberation, the session came to an end, and Mothma retired with her Ministers to decide their next move.
Yet, the President herself found herself begrudgingly agreeing with Bhe-Jie: there were many riches to take in the now stateless Hutt Space, and the Republic needed everything they could get their hands on. The population could be easily won over if a sane economic system was introduced with guarantees that the major corporations wouldn't be allowed to set their claws on those planets, thus allowing the local economy to begin anew.
The government had taken its decision by the end of the day: an invasion of Hutt Space, starting on the three major hyperspace lanes shared by the New Republic and Hutts was to begin as soon as possible. With that in mind, Mothma contacted High Command immediately and sent emissaries to inform the UACT.
July 3, 2228.
Utapau had changed a lot since the last time Jordan had visited it with Ezra and his expedition. The local populace had now swore allegiance to the Commonwealth and had become an important hub for the Commonwealth's armed forces, since the unique positioning of its cities was perfect to establish safe supply depots.
For the moment, though, the visit on the surface had been brief, as it had only served for him to escort the guests of the Andromeda Task Force aboard the Amerigo, where Shepard was waiting patiently for them.
As they stepped on the bridge, Jordan made the salute and then went next to John, allowing him, Jane and Riccardi to take a look at their soon-to-be comrades.
"Admiral Shepard, may I introduce you Commander Ge'sst Fey'lya, of the Feygeri unit."
John squinted his eyes, trying to remember. "Fey'lya?"
The Bothan officer, still hiding his face behind his helmet like his two NCOs behind him, replied politely "You probably heard the name of my younger brother, who represents Bothawui inside the Commonwealth Assembly."
"Ah, yes, that makes sense." John replied, then extended a hand. "Nice to meet you, Commander."
The Bothan shook it back. "It is an honor, Admiral Shepard."
After stepping back, Ge'sst explained "I apologize for our helmets, but it's a tradition of our unit, you see."
"A tradition?" Jane asked.
"Indeed. The Feygeri operate outside of public view. In theory, I shouldn't have even revealed you my real name. As long as we serve in this unit, me and my men are like ghosts, even if the fame among our people is great."
"I read the dossier we have about you, Commander." John reassured. "I know how difficult it must be for you to confide us this information but rest assured: your identity is safe with us."
"Thank you, Admiral. Now, I suggest we start the meeting. We may not have much time to strike."
"You said the Death Star's plans are on an imperial fortress world." Riccardi asked. "Which one?"
"It's not a simple military installation." Fey'lya admonished, then said something that left everybody appalled. "We're talking about a real fortress: the plans are inside Vader's castle on Mustafar."