Aboard the Invincible, Malden and his colleagues were hard at work processing the intelligence extracted from the captured vessels of the Hutt fleet. Most of it was garbage, and some of the material was disturbing enough that even the hardened veterans of Imperial Intelligence would need some time off after reviewing it. But dozens of warbands who'd operated in the Outer Rim for years still had plenty of information in their ships' databanks about the situation in the Outer Rim.
They'd even lucked out and captured the slug assigned to the pirate task force alive for interrogation. Grice the Hutt had been found by a boarding party hiding in his personal chambers aboard the Hutta's Magnificence. The slug had hoped to somehow stay hidden from the Sith, but had surrendered the moment he'd been discovered, promising to tell everything he knew about the Cartels as long as they spared his life. Upon being informed, Darth Cain had given his blessing to the bargain, while warning the Hutt that how comfortable his life would be would depend on how truthful and valuable the information he gave was.
While Grice had only bargained for his life, given their current relationship with the Republic and the Jedi Order, the more brutal interrogation techniques Malden and his peers had been trained to use were off the table. Fortunately, they wouldn't be necessary in this case : Grice had been subjected to the Lord of Terror's power during the first phase of the battle, and that typically made people a lot more willing to talk, so long as it meant they wouldn't be brought before the Sith Lord again. And watching an entire army enter the sandstorm and never come out hadn't hurt, either.
Grice was telling them everything he knew, and the news were mixed. On the one hand, they now had confirmation that the forces Darth Cain's expedition had faced were merely a punishment force, meant to raid Tatooine to show the rest of the Outer Rim what happened to those who defied the Cartels. Given how easily they'd been slaughtered on the planet, Malden would've been surprised if that hadn't been the case : back in the days of the Empire, the warbands of the Outer Rim had been bloodied, cruel, efficient warriors, the kind which numerous Sith Lords had spent fortunes to hire to serve as their private enforcers before going to war with the Republic. The ones the Legion had faced on Savareen had been chaff, with an eye toward quantity rather than quality.
On the other hand, that armada had been gathered by a single member of the Hutt Council, one Marlo the Hutt. The rest of the Cartels had been uninvolved before the Scourging of Savareen, as the troopers were calling the one-sided slaughter that had taken place in the desert. But that was likely to change now that the might of the Sith Army had been displayed and the Invincible was back in action. Given time, the Cartels would overcome their petty feuds, the Hutts' legendary survival instincts driving them to unite against a common threat.
In Malden's professional opinion, they needed to strike while the foe was still off-balance. Liberate other worlds suffering the Cartels' control, while making allies with those in the Outer Rim who had struggled against them for centuries. Count Dooku would be of paramount importance in this : anti-Republic sentiment in the Rim had been growing for generations as a result of neglect from the Core, and if the so-called Separatist Mouvement could be brought into the fold of some sort of anti-Cartels alliance, their industrial and manpower base would dramatically increase.
In Malden's experience, Sith sorcery was all well and good to turn the tides of battle in a pinch, but cold, solid steel and firepower were still far more reliable when it came to planning military campaign. Of course, Darth Cain bent that rule like he did most others : it had taken Iskandar and every acolyte working together to summon the storm, yet the Lord of Terror had been able to call lightning down from the skies in mere seconds all on his own. Once again, the Chiss was reminded of the vast chasm that yet existed between most Sith and Darth Cain.
Apparently, the acolytes had thought the storm would last for days, but Darth Cain had nearly drained it of power when he'd obliterated the Gen'Dai leading the enemy army – inasmuch as that rabble could be said to have had a leader.
While the Lord of Terror had ordered the fleet to land as far from the inhabited regions as possible, there had still been a few isolated homestead in the desert, mostly around oases. A particularly brave (or foolish) local had apparently decided to go investigate once the worst of the storm had passed, bringing a recording device with them to document their findings.
As a result, numerous images of the devastation left behind by the Scouring were now being shared all across the Holonet, with their author being well on their way to becoming the wealthiest Savareen native thanks to the royalties being paid by every news network. The sight of thousands of mercenary corpses already half-buried by the sand, as well as the strange, obscurely beautiful fulgurite shapes which had formed as a result of the lightning, made the whole battlefield look like something out of legend.
Malden had assigned a team to monitoring the public reaction to the images. Civilians could be awfully squeamish sometimes, and the fact each and every one of the Hutt mercenaries had been vicious outlaws whose gangs had preyed on the Outer Rim for centuries might not register in the face of such one-sided slaughter. And it had been one-sided : given the number difference between the two sides, the handful of casualties the Sith forces had taken would be considered a miracle by any military strategist. But then, of course, making miracles happen was something of a speciality of the Lord of Terror.
Not that Darth Cain had a monopoly on miracles, Malden added silently. The operative was still reeling from the fact that a Jedi Padawan had somehow managed to fix the Invincible's hyperdrive. He'd read the reports from the engineering teams, and knew just how much work it had been expected to take, yet Skywalker had done it in mere hours.
It was an awe-inspiring feat, and one that made Malden very glad he hadn't interfered when Khayon and Nefertari had brought Shmi Skywalker-Lars back to Perlia aboard the Dread Son.
When Anakin had woken up in the infirmary, Obi-Wan had been right there at his side, telling him that they were in the Savareen system, the battle was over, and Darth Cain wanted to talk with him. Once the medics were satisfied he wasn't going to collapse the moment he was out of their sight, they'd let him get out, to where a transport was waiting to bring him, Obi-Wan and Master Plo Koon to the surface of Savareen. Darth Cain had gone back down to Savareen after being brought back to the Invincible to meet with the local civilian leaders – those who'd survived the occupation.
On the way through the ship, Obi-Wan filled him in on what had happened in more details. He didn't tell Anakin he was in trouble with the Council for fixing the Invincible, but it was strongly implied. Much to Anakin's surprise, Obi-Wan patiently listened as Anakin explained to him that he'd felt compelled by the will of the Force itself. The Jedi Knight looked like he believed the Padawan, but didn't seem all that relieved by the explanation.
Their transport landed in the largest settlement on Savareen, known to the locals as Dry Gulch, where a squad of Sith troopers (very politely) escorted them to the settlement's largest building. Judging by the building's brutish style and the signs of short, violent battle inside, Anakin guessed it had served as a garrison for the local warbands until very recently.
There were Sith acolytes and troopers moving in and out of the building, and Anakin could feel their gazes lingering on him. That would have made him nervous, but he had overheard the whispers of the soldiers aboard the transport which had brought them down, and knew that the story of how he'd helped fix the Invincible's hyperdrive had spread through the ranks like a podracing champion's coins in a whorehouse.
They passed by a makeshift infirmary, where Imperial medics were tending to a handful of wounded soldiers and many more locals. From what Anakin could see, the locals didn't appear to be here under duress, and were coming to ask for assistance with a variety of things – although far too many of them bore injuries Anakin was all too familiar with : the bruises of savage beatings delivered by brutes who knew you couldn't fight back, and the lashes and cuts of whips and wicked knives.
He felt his fists tighten, and forced himself to relax. There was no point in anger now : the ones responsible were already being handled. There were going to be a lot of trials on Savareen in the coming days, as the raiders were brought to justice for what they'd done to the locals while waiting for the muster to be complete. Anakin was familiar with the judicial codes of places like this : there wasn't enough time or resources to spend on keeping people imprisoned, so either the culprit could make up for their crime by paying some sort of compensation to their victims, or they were exiled or killed.
Anakin had no doubt there were going to be a lot of executions before this was done, and the markets of Savareen would soon overflow with off-world equipment taken from the survivors as payment. And there would be a lot of buyers, as the people looked for means of defending themselves.
The Lord of Terror greeted them from behind a desk covered in datapads and sheets of flimsy. The sight was surprisingly mundane – after what Anakin had sensed the man do, seeing him dealing with paperwork of all things felt … strange. Out of place. Like he should have other people do that kind of thing for him. His droid, JURG-N, stood behind him, looking at rest but undoubtedly ready to deal with any threat to his master.
"Ah, Jedi. Thank you for coming. Have a seat, all of you," said Darth Cain, gesturing at the chairs on their side of the desk.
"You have my thanks for repairing the Invincible, Padawan Skywalker," he continued once the Master, Knight and Padawan were seated. "This will make our campaign against the Cartels much quicker, and, though I'd rather you not repeat this, I understand it also helped keep my dear apprentice calm."
"If I may ask," cut in Obi-Wan, "where is Lady Vaylin at the moment ?"
"Hunting down some of the mercenaries who ran for the desert when they saw the Invincible arrive. I expect it will keep her busy for … oh, a few more hours. More importantly, it'll give her an opportunity to sort out her feelings." The Sith Lord sighed. "Her progress since becoming my apprentice has been remarkable, but she still has a long road ahead of her before she can truly call herself Sith. But enough about her for the moment. I find myself in your debt, young Skywalker, and my honor demands that I repay the great favor you have done me."
"I have been told that your mother's husband and stepson are still on Tatooine," Cain continued. "Do you think they would be amenable to resettle on Perlia ? Your mother, it seems, has become quite involved in the community that's been growing around the Temple."
Next to Anakin, Obi-Wan made a choking noise. Anakin didn't understand why he looked so nervous : clearly, Cain wanted only to thank him for his help, his sense of honor forbidding him to not repay it.
"I think Mom would like that, but I don't know whether the rest of the family will want to leave Tatooine behind," he said. It still felt strange to think that his mother had gotten married, and that Anakin had a brother he had never met, but he had to assume they were good people. "I've no doubt that their lives would be more comfortable on Perlia, but leaving their home behind might be too much for them."
"Well, I shall still make the offer to her," said the Sith Lord with a smile. "But what about you, Padawan ? Is there anything you want that I can grant you ?"
Now, Anakin had stood at Obi-Wan's side on negotiation missions for the Republic enough times to know that he needed to approach this with tact. With delicacy. With diplomacy.
"As long as you keep doing what you're doing and freeing people from the Hutts, I think we're square," he replied with his best smile.
Uh. Why was Obi-Wan looking at him like that ?
"You …" Darth Cain shook his head, and Anakin was almost sure he caught a brief flash of a smile on his lips. "You remind me of someone I once called a friend. He, too, had a habit of doing great things for other people and rejecting all attempts to balance the scales. And from what I've seen, your power is as great as his was. So, I will give you a word of advice, young Padawan."
Cain bent forward, and when he spoke, his voice was much more serious, and his face set in the determined, focused look which Anakin had seen on him whenever he made a public appearance on Perlia :
"You must be cautious. In my life, I've met a few people as strong in the Force as you before, Skywalker – men and women whose actions shaped the course of galactic history."
"I … I'm not that strong," Anakin protested. "I mean, all I did was fix the ship. I didn't fight anyone."
Cain shook his head.
"There is power in violence, but not all power is tied to how well you can wield a lightsaber. Power lies in your ability to shape your reality, and what you did, regardless of how or why, is going to affect the course of galactic events. Your name was already known as the pilot who took out an entire Lucrehulk at Naboo, but soon, the entire galaxy will learn the name of Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi Padawan who repaired the mightiest warship in the galaxy. That will have consequences, and draw all manner of attention. I hope," and here, Darth Cain turned his gaze to Obi-Wan and Master Plo Koon, "that the Jedi Order is ready to handle this situation."
"Of course," replied Obi-Wan. "This isn't the first time one of the Order's actions end up causing a stir."
"Good," nodded Cain. "But this isn't just about politics or warfare. I know from experience that the Force itself will respond to such actions, Skywalker. How, I cannot say : perhaps others of the Order will be able to divine it. But there will be a response, and it will test you. So, be mindful of your actions, and keep up your training."
Again, the Lord of Terror smiled. "If nothing else, I believe you might grow up to be a suitable sparring partner for Vaylin to train with using the fullness of her power."
Remembering the recording of Vaylin killing Jabba, Anakin was at once intrigued and terrified at the very notion.
Someone knocked at the office's door, which opened to reveal a blue-skinned, red-eyed alien with a datapad in his hands and a troubled look on his face.
"Ah, it appears our time together is at an end for now," said Cain. "Please, feel free to return to the Invincible or explore the planet as you wish : I've given orders to the troops to accommodate your requests. I expect we'll stay on Savareen for a week or two, maybe more, before returning to Perlia."
They gave their goodbyes, and left. Anakin was curious to know what the alien (who didn't belong to any species he recognized : he'd have to look it up on the Holonet later to find the name of that particular type of near-Human, especially since the Sith Empire hadn't exactly been tolerant of aliens) wanted to tell Cain, but he knew better than to try to eavesdrop.
"Now," said Master Plo Koon as they walked out of the building, "let's return to the Invincible. We have a holo appointment with the Jedi Council."
Ah. Right. Somehow, Anakin was more nervous about that than he'd been about meeting a Sith Lord.
As the sun set on Savareen, I dragged myself to the quarters the locals had prepared for me and, once I was certain no one other than JURG-N was present, collapsed into the closest chair.
I was exhausted. Once the adrenaline from the battle had stopped flowing, the strain of using my powers against the Hutt fleet before engaging Durge in combat had come crashing back. And, with the Invincible having arrived to reinforce us, I couldn't just sit down and let Broklaw and Sulla handle the aftermath, not when there was a whole planet to manage.
After what had happened on Tatooine, I didn't trust Vaylin to take care of establishing relationships with Savareen's population. The locals were understandably shocked and terrified : they had spent weeks with a fleet of raiders gathering in their system, with leave parties going to the planet for entertainment.
The horrors they had endured were a familiar refrain to me at this point. I had always done all I could to prevent that kind of behavior from the troops under my command, because I didn't want to give more people a reason to try to kill me even if it meant their own certain death, but most of my peers hadn't been so enlightened. Force, even the Republic had had that kind of issues with discipline at times : decades of a brutal galactic war and the ensuing lowering of the standards for recruitment affected us all equally, I supposed.
But it didn't make the situation any less bad for the people of Savareen. And since I had just given the Republic three distinct reasons to be worried about me (first by using the Force on the fleet, then by winning the battle, and finally when the Invincible had arrived with its distinctly non-broken hyperdrive), it was in my best interests to show myself in a better angle – like, say, spending time ensuring the innocent civvies who had suffered under the yoke of the Cartels were taken care of.
Malden and the other spooks were making sure some of the footage had made its way to the Holonet, using the contacts they had somehow already built with the media. It wouldn't be enough to assuage the (entirely reasonable from the perspective of everyone else, I was forced to admit) fear of me, but hopefully it would keep people too confused to start demanding my immediate arrest by the Jedi or push for a remilitarization of the Republic. I had nothing against the latter on principle, so long as said military wasn't built for the sole purpose of hunting me down.
While the sudden arrival of reinforcements had been welcome – save for calling up another storm, I hadn't been sure what to do to keep the Hutt fleet from bombing us into oblivion once it became clear their ground forces had been annihilated. But it had still been a surprise, and one which would complicate our relations with the Republic a great deal – and then, of course, there was Skywalker himself.
When I'd offered to have his family permanently relocated to Perlia, it hadn't been out of the goodness of my heart. On Perlia, I could make sure they were protected from anyone who might want to strike at them in retribution for Skywalker's actions.
Apart from the damage to my image such a hit would cause, the idea of Skywalker blaming me for harm having come to his family was a terrifying one. Right now, I was confident that I could defeat him if he decided to come for my head, but that was only due to my greater experience. Between what had happened in Naboo's orbit years ago and his somehow repairing the hyperdrive of a ship thousands of years old in less than a day, his potential reminded me of Vaylin's, and one confrontation with a superpowered, unstable Force user was already more than enough for me.
Hopefully his relatives on Tatooine would see reason and leave that burning sand-ball for the much more comfortable climate of Perlia. Which would still leave me with a number of headaches.
For one thing, I now had around a hundred captured ships I needed to find a use for. Getting crews for them and refitting them to the standards of the Imperial Navy would take time : many of them were in an appalling state of disrepair, which gave me the perfect excuse to delay their use, as there was no way Darth Cain, Lord of Terror, would send his forces to war in such lacklustre vessels. And, now that the Invincible's hyperdrive was fixed, I couldn't just empty it of personnel to crew the smaller ships.
What I could do, however, was ask Kasteen to figure out which of her crew deserved promotions, assign them to the new ships, and give them crews made up of the worryingly large number of volunteers from the rescued slave population on Perlia. It wouldn't be enough for every ship, and teaching them their new jobs would take time, but it was a start everyone was more or less satisfied with. Well, except the Republic, and I imagined the Cartels wouldn't be very happy with it either, but you couldn't please everybody, and I was more worried about the warmongers I lived with than the politicians on Coruscant. Besides, compared to the Invincible, a handful of ex-pirate ships was nothing worth mentioning when it came to fearmongering in the Senate.
The first ship on the line to be refitted and added to my new navy would be the one which had served as the command vessel of the Hutt fleet. The Hutta's Magnificence was one of the best-maintained of the lot, and once the spooks were done sweeping it over for intel and traps, I was going to give it to Vaylin. The Dread Son had served her well on Tatooine, but the Hutta's Magnificence was larger, better armed, and just generally better than Varan's flagship, and I didn't want my apprentice to think I was snubbing her. I had even decided to let her decide what its new name would be, bracing myself for the worst – Vaylin's tastes were very … peculiar. I could only pray to the Force she wouldn't rename it Teacher's Glory or something else equally asinine.
I was dragged out of my pessimistic imaginings when JURG-N entered the room, carrying a tray with a glass and a bottle on it, which he set on the table next to my seat before uncorking the bottle and pouring out two fingers of the liquid with the same precision of movement he'd displayed when shooting every raider who'd wandered close to us in the middle of the sandstorm.
"Here, sir," he said, handing me the glass.
"What is that ?" I asked, taking it and inspecting it.
"Savareen brandy. A gift from the locals, supposedly the best quality." Then, because JURG-N knew me all too well, he added before I could ask : "I checked : there's no poison in it, beyond its normal alcoholic content."
"Oh. That's very nice of them."
I took a sip of the drink and paused, eyes widening.
"This is actually really good," I said, rising my glass to look at the amber liquid.
"I'm happy to hear it," replied JURG-N. "I've taken the liberty of asking the cooks to prepare a meal for you as well, sir : it will be ready in twenty minutes."
"Thank you, JURG-N," I said.
A good meal – or as good as Imperial Army cooks could make with military rations, which was better than one might expect, given how much money I'd invested in making sure my forces had as little reason to hate me as possible – before a night of sleep would do wonders for me.
I took another sip of the brandy. I hadn't lied : it was really good, and my decades of living as part of the Sith Empire's nobility and galactic wanderer had left me a connoisseur of alcoholic beverages.
Well, at least some good had come out of this whole mess.
Once again, Amberley stood before the assembled Jedi Council. Under her tranquil facade, she idly wondered if she should ask for her own seat up here, given how much time she was spending in the chamber since her return. Sure, she'd never passed the trials for becoming a Jedi Master, but that had only been because there'd never been enough time for it back in her time.
She discarded the thought as a useless distraction, and focused on the reason for the meeting. The battle of Savareen, which was already being called the Scourging on the Holonet's news stations, was over, and it had ended in a Sith victory so decisive as to shock the entire galaxy.
Upon learning that the reason Ciaphas had used his terror aura was because Savareen had turned out to be the mustering ground for the Cartels' counter-attack, Amberley had been in equal parts relieved, amused, and unsurprised. It was typical of Ciaphas, really. He claimed not to be an oracle, and, given that his point of reference was Erebus, he was entirely correct in this assessment. But while Ciaphas may not bend the future to his will using the power of the Dark Side like the Vile One had done time and again, his instincts were clearly guided by the Force.
Of course, he saw it as the Force wanting to kill him, rather than ensuring he went where he was needed.
Kenobi and Plo Koon were delivering their report after their meeting with Cain. Skywalker was also present by hologram, but had kept silent. In Amberley's opinion, this whole thing looked far too much like the Padawan was being put on trial – which, given he was still on a planet full of Darksiders very grateful to him, wasn't an impression she felt the Order wanted to give right now.
"From your description, what Padawan Skywalker used sounds a lot like the Sith technique known as Mechu-Deru," said Madame Nu, who had also been asked to attend.
"That name is unknown to me. What is that ?" asked Amberley.
"A Sith technique, allowing one to use the Force to manipulate mechanical structures," explained the Chief Librarian.
"Oh, I see," she nodded. "I think I remember a Sith Lord using something similar during the Great Galactic War, but I never learned the name. I'm a bit surprised his discoveries survived that long, though."
"Something the galaxy paid a heavy price for," said Madame Nu. "Mechu-Deru was used to create all manners of horrors during the Sictis Wars, when the Sith Lord Belia Darzu created the technovirus, a plague capable of turning all it infected into cybernetic monsters enslaved to her will. Entire worlds were lost to this plague before she was stopped."
"With respect, Madame, that is not remotely what Anakin did," protested Knight Kenobi.
"No one is claiming otherwise, Obi-Wan," replied Master Windu. "But Mechu-Deru is still the closest thing we have to compare it to, and given its origins and what he used it for, I'm sure you understand there is cause for concern."
"Padawan Skywalker," cut in Yoda. "What you did, in your own words, describe for us."
"I … the Force was guiding me, Masters," the young Human started, clearly nervous. "When I felt what Darth Cain did, the danger he was in, I knew I had to do something to help."
"Skywalker," said Windu. "You realize the consequences of what you did, don't you ? With the Invincible once more fully operational, Darth Cain can project his power much further into the galaxy."
"Well, it isn't like he's using it for anything bad, right ? And – and fighting the Hutts isn't even illegal."
"That's beside the point, Padawan," Windu all but groaned.
"An observation, I must make," suddenly said Yoda, and everyone went silent to look at the Grandmaster of the Order. "If not acted as he did, young Skywalker had, then still faced with a fleet in orbit, Darth Cain would have been. In this situation, to drastic measures, he would have had to resort. The arrival of the Invincible, end the conflict without further bloodshed, it did, did it not ?"
"Some of the pirates tried to escape after Commodore Kasteen ordered them to surrender, and they were destroyed," replied Master Plo Koon. "But the rest stopped fighting and were captured without incidents, yes."
"And if still stuck at Perlia, Darth Cain's flagship had been, hmm ? What, then ?"
"Cain would still have won," Amberley declared confidently. She had seen what Ciaphas was capable of when his back was truly against the wall, after all. "But it would have been … messy."
"Messier than using the Force to terrify an entire fleet, before summoning a Dark Side-fuelled sandstorm ?" asked Master Mundi, not bothering to hide his incredulity.
"Yes," Amberley answered curtly.
There was a moment of silence, until it became clear she wasn't going to elaborate – not while Skywalker was in hearing range, at last. Windu must have picked on her reluctance, because he was the one to speak up :
"Then it seems Padawan Skywalker's actions were indeed the guidance of the Force. Knight Kenobi, we will leave admonishing your Padawan for not warning you before going on an excursion aboard a Sith vessel to you."
Slowly, hesitantly, the rest of the Council agreed. The cynic in Amberley told her that some of the Masters would have delivered a much different judgment on Skywalker for his use of a Force technique with such a dark history, if not for the risk of pushing the most powerful Force user the Order had seen in centuries straight into the arms of Darth Cain. Of course, Amberley knew Ciaphas would be horrified at the thought of another overpowered apprentice dropped in his lap, but the rest of the galaxy didn't know that.
"Now that the Invincible's hyperdrive works again, however, Perlia is clearly in violation of Republican law," said Master Trebor. "Do you know what Cain intends to do about that ?"
"Based on what we have heard from Senator Donali and Count Dooku's work on Perlia," said Kenobi, everyone carefully not looking at Yoda as his Lost Padawan was mentioned.
Amberley understood : it was one thing for a Jedi to leave the Order due to their disagreements with the Council, and another to see those same disagreements leading them to making common cause with a Sith Lord, even one as unconventional as Ciaphas. She hadn't told the rest of the Order that Dooku had turned to the Dark Side, despite Ciaphas having shared that revelation with her soon after he'd learned it himself. She hadn't lied, since nobody had asked her about it, but she had a feeling that revealing that piece of information would do more harm than good – and Amberley had learned to trust her instincts a long time ago.
"I expect the declaration of secession was already being drafted when the Invincible left the system," continued Kenobi. "As soon as their Sovereign returns, I think we will have an official announcement that Perlia is terminating its membership of the Republic."
"We already knew this was inevitable from the moment Darth Cain returned," Windu pointed out. "The real question is, how much of the Damocles Sector will follow Perlia ?"
"Count Dooku has spent a great deal of the last weeks speaking with the Perlian bureaucrats," said Master Plo Koon. "And Senator Donali isn't exactly displeased with the Hutts' influence being curtailed, either. His Sector has suffered from their depredations for years, with very little Republic assistance."
Which, in Amberley's opinion, was another reason why the Jedi Order should have changed the terms of its association with the Galactic Republic decades ago. Having spent some more time studying the archives, she understood the reasoning behind the Ruusan Reformations : at the time, there had existed a very real possibility of the Jedi, having spent generations fighting a war for survival against the New Sith, would have taken over the galaxy. With their ancestral enemy defeated, returning their power to the people they were supposed to serve and giving assurances of their loyalty by binding themselves to the Senate had made sense.
But in recent days, with the Republic's slow descent into a bureaucratic quagmire and the rise of the criminal elements and megacorps in the Outer Rim, the Jedi needed their independence more than ever before. Especially if, as Ciaphas suspected, the Sith master of the wretch Varan was lurking in the Outer Rim, far from where the might and attention of the Order was focused.
"If every world with Separatist tendencies joins in some kind of alliance around Perlia, it would be the Sith Empire reborn in all but name," said Master Mundi.
"Cain is not the Sith Emperor," said Master Plo Koon. "Of this, at least, we can be certain."
"Yes, but that isn't my point," insisted the Cerean. "Let us accept, for the moment, that Darth Cain truly has no intention of declaring war on the Republic. That would make him a rare Sith Lord indeed, but for the sake of argument, let's say that he is that special. What about his successor ? The Dark Side might prolong his life, but sooner or later, he will die. It is inevitable. What, then ? Lady Vaylin might be willing to honor her Teacher's wishes and continue to uphold whatever treaties are established in the meantime, but what about her successor, or their successor's successor ? So long as they are Sith, History teaches us that sooner or later, someone will rise who will lead this new Separatist dominion against the Republic."
Amberley wished she had an answer to that, but she didn't. It had been one of her own concerns, but she'd been too preoccupied with preventing war from erupting now to give it too much thought.
"Our fear for the future, to the present, blind us must not," said Yoda. "Keep the Damocles Sector from becoming a new cradle of evil, we must, but lightsabers and blasters, the answer they are not. Into the future generations of the Order, trust we must."
"Then what do you suggest, Master Yoda ?" asked Windu.
For a long time, the Grandmaster was silent, then he finally said :
"Meditate on this new development, I must. Padawan Skywalker's tale, that there is more at play here, tells us. The will of the Force in this matter, we must determine."
"We'll also need to discuss this with the Chancellor Palpatine," said Master Windu. "If we're to prevent a panic, we'll need to present a united front."
Amberley had yet to meet the current Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, but from what she'd heard, the man was certainly an improvement from the last one she remembered, who had let her ambitions overcome her common sense even as the war against the Eternal Throne raged. By contrast, Palpatine was reputed to be a peacemaker, even if he struggled to make headway with the disparate factions of the Republic, which had grown ever more fractious in recent years.
The Knight of the Old Republic didn't want to jump at shadows, but she couldn't help but think those growing tensions might be the work of the same Sith who'd ordered the attack on Perlia. It certainly seemed like the kind of things her old enemies would do – and had done, in the decades preceding the First Great Galactic War.
This, Amberley decided as the Council adjourned and she left the chamber, warranted further investigation. If someone was instigating chaos behind the scenes, then they were sure to try to use recent events to their advantage. She needed to get in touch with whoever was in charge of the present incarnation of the Order's Shadows, and see if they would be willing to cooperate with the Cainite Sith's own intelligence apparatus to root out their common enemy.
It would be difficult, but Amberley had never been one to be afraid of a little challenge. And it might give her an excuse to go back to Perlia in order to 'exchange intel' with Ciaphas once more, which would be a nice bonus. She missed him dearly, and she still owed him a slap for that stunt he'd pulled on Savareen.
It was fortunate that Darth Sidious had already retired within his private apartment for the evening when the news of Cain's victory at Savareen reached him – very fortunate indeed, for the Sith Lord couldn't hide his rage at the sheer scope of this debacle. Several very rare, very expensive pieces of art had suffered the consequences of his fury before he'd been able to reach the room he'd put aside precisely for such meltdowns.
Now, several hours later, Palpatine's rage had simmered down and turned cold enough that he could actually think about what had happened and consider what the best response to it was.
As Supreme Chancellor, he had been informed of how exactly the superdreadnought had been able to travel to Savareen, and hadn't needed to fake his complete surprise at the revelation that Anakin of all people had been responsible. He'd known the boy was strong in the Force, of course, though unlike those fools at the Jedi Temple he knew it to be the result of his unlamented Master's experiments, not some Chosen One prophecy. And he was aware of Anakin's skills as a mechanic, too, but there was a difference between building a podracer at nine years old and fixing the hyperdrive of the largest military ship in the galaxy.
Had Cain somehow known Anakin would repair the Invincible's hyperdrive ? It sounded impossible, yet Darth Erebus had been an oracle of legendary power, who'd eluded every assassination attempt from both the Republic and the Empire – until his apprentice had slain him. And Cain's long list of victories against impossible odds certainly became more likely if you assumed his foresight was even better than his Master's.
To face someone who could see the future like this was at once terrifying and exhilarating. For all the advantages such a skill conferred, it clearly wasn't all-powerful, or Darth Cain would have conquered the galaxy thousands of years ago (Sidious very firmly ignored the paranoid voice in his head telling him that maybe, just maybe, the Lord of Terror had orchestrated the Invincible's hyperdrive accident to deliver him to a time where the Republic was more vulnerable).
The Line of Bane had spent centuries gradually obscuring the Jedi Order's own ability to perceive the future through discreet rituals across the galaxy and manipulation of events to cloud their sight, but such techniques wouldn't work against a fellow Darksider. According to the Sith texts Sidious had inherited from Darth Plagueis, the best way to deal with a Sith seer was to avoid any long-term plans that could be detected, and focus instead on myriad of smaller-scale schemes whose cumulative results still served one's needs.
In any case, it was obvious that Cain knew Anakin's potential. Why else would he have ordered his acolytes to bring the boy's mother back to Perlia, where she was safely under his thumb ? And even if Cain didn't succeed in bringing Anakin to his side, the Jedi would keep a much closer eye on the boy from now on, complicating Sidious' own plans to turn him to the Dark Side and make him his apprentice – to make him the very instrument with which he'd destroy the Jedi Order.
Fine. Palpatine had ever thrived in chaos, in turning unexpected circumstances to his advantage. This would be no different. It was clear now that Darth Cain's war against the Cartels wasn't going to be snuffed out in its cradle.
Almost despite himself, Darth Sidious chuckled. There was something exhilarating about keeping track of so many situations at once, knowing that to slip up even once might send everything he had built crashing down. Never before in his entire life had the Supreme Chancellor been so challenged, and it was as invigorating as it was exhausting. If he had the chance, he would have to make sure to thank Darth Cain for the experience, right before he killed him.
Going back to his encrypted communication table, he tried to get in touch with Hanar, but in vain. Either she had gone into hiding to avoid Marlo's retribution for delivering faulty intelligence about the advancement of the Invincible's repairs, or the Hutt had already got her. Either way, Sidious had lost his main contact within the Cartels' efforts against Cain. That would have to change : the Hutts were the only force openly opposing Cain at the moment, but without Sidious' help, it was clear the Lord of Terror would crush them sooner rather than later. Not that Palpatine was fond of the alien slugs : as far as he was concerned, the best possible outcome would be Darth Cain and the Cartels wiping each other out, but he knew how unlikely that was.
There were also problems closer to home. The political factions pushing for a re-militarization of the Republic were sure to gain some ground in the wake of the Invincible's reveal, which would have to be managed carefully. On the other side of the spectrum, Senator Amidala was making noise about organising a visit to Perlia with a group of other Senators, her allies in her little anti-slavery crusade.
So far, Palpatine had opposed it, citing safety concerns. And he certainly could keep doing it, especially with the Invincible back into action, but he knew the young woman well enough to realize that at some point, she would just do it whether she'd his blessing or not.
And one of the key principles of authority, which applied regardless of its source, was to never give an order you knew wouldn't be obeyed. Better to give his permission, along with a very public expression of his hope that this would lead to a betterment of relations between the Republic and the Sith – while at the same time taking steps to ensure the opposite happened, in a way that would serve his interests.
Slowly, a plan began to form in Sidious' devious mind. He took his time, considering the ways in which this could go wrong, approaching it from various angles and making sure that as many outcomes as possible could be made to suit his ends. Then, once he was satisfied, he input a new long string of numbers into the communication table's control panel.
This specific contact was something that, amusingly enough, he owed to his last, failed apprentice. When he'd cultivated Maul's rage and hatred of the Jedi, the Zabrak had sought to sneak away to fight, and kill, one of the Jedi he hated so. In order to do so, he'd shown remarkable adaptability and innovation for someone Sidious had so carefully broken apart and reshaped into a violent instrument, reaching out to several outlaws and securing their services in exchange for credits he'd not exactly stolen from his Master.
Now Maul was dead, but Sidious had kept note of the skill one of the criminals in particular had displayed during that little adventure, and made sure to keep a way of contacting him if need be.
After several moments, the call was accepted and the connection established. The image of a male Duros wearing a greatcoat and wide-brimmed hat appeared in the hologram, looking at the hooded Sith Lord with suspicion.
"Bounty hunter," said Darth Sidious. "I have need of your services."
Sprawled out on his throne-like seat, surrounded by his terrified subordinates, Marlo the Hutt fumed.
Savareen had been a complete, unmitigated disaster. Over a hundred ships lost, and their crews hadn't even had the decency to go down fighting, so they weren't just lost, they were in the hands of the Sith now, meaning Darth Cain's fleet was stronger now than it had been before the engagement. Tens of thousands of mercenaries slain, in exchange for barely putting a dent in the ranks of Cain's Legion. Grice, one of Marlo's own blood, taken captive, and no doubt already singing like a Pa'lowick, telling the Imperials everything he knew about the Cartels' operations in the Outer Rim.
And the worst part ? He really, really should have seen it coming. His forebears' archives contained many instances of Cain striking at his enemy's weak spot even though he couldn't possibly have known about it. When first reading those, Marlo had thought it the result of the legendarily efficient Imperial Intelligence, but now, he was forced to reconsider.
It was possible that those secret agents who had followed Cain through time had already managed to re-establish their networks in the few months since their return, but the rumors of the Lord of Terror's prescience might actually be more credible. As a crime lord, Marlo knew more than most about how difficult it was to actually build a spy ring from scratch, and he didn't believe the Sith had had the time to do it – though he didn't doubt for a moment they were working on it.
The thought that he was facing someone who could learn his plans from thin air through sorcery wasn't a pleasant one, and was the source of much of his present choler. Such divination, if that was what it was, couldn't be infallible, because if it was, then Marlo might as well give up right now and call Darth Cain to negotiate the terms of his surrender – which his pride would never allow. But clearly, it didn't need to be perfect to be a massive advantage.
And, worst of all, the Invincible was back in action. Marlo had to assume that all this talk of the hyperdrive being damaged had been lies : sure, after being hurled over thirty centuries into the future, the Sith would want to check the engine, but clearly they had deliberately overestimated the damage in their exchanges with the Republic.
It made perfect sense in Marlo's eyes : for all the power Darth Cain had brought with him through time, not even he could face the entire galaxy on his own, which he might well have had to do if the Invincible had been fully functional right from the start. Instead, the Lord of Terror had bought time to confuse the Republic by sending his bloodthirsty apprentice after Jabba and presenting himself as a protector and liberator, so that the news that his flagship worked fine after all wouldn't be quite so terrifying to the rest of the galaxy – at least, the parts of it which abided by the Republic's anti-slavery laws.
Every base of the Cartels was in panic mode, wondering if their system would be next to be visited by the unstoppable superdreadnought. Even Nal Hutta itself had seen a few disruptions to what passed for public order – and then, there were the slaves. They hadn't had full-blown revolts yet, but it was obvious that suppressing the news of Darth Cain's crusade was a fool's errand.
Until now, the combined fear of punishment, borne out of a thousand failed uprisings' bloody retribution, and of the Sith themselves, had kept the rabble mostly under control. But the longer Darth Cain went without a setback, the more the slaves would drink of that most dangerous of drugs – hope. And the Imperial operatives were certain to make use of such discontent to weaken the Cartels in preparation for their lord's arrival.
Meanwhile, the refitting of the mothballed fleets and other assets stored by Marlo's clan over the millennia was ongoing. The Hutt wasn't under any illusions that there wasn't substantial skimming off the funds dedicated to the endeavour taking place, but he'd enough trusted informants among the workers to know that the job was still being done, only at thrice the price it should've cost.
Usually, being ripped off so blatantly would have enraged Marlo, and he'd have sent one of his enforcers to make his displeasure known. But right now, the purge this would cause would slow the entire process as replacements were brought in, and credits were more easily replaced than time. So he would grit his teeth and bear the loss, all while taking note of the profiteers' names for later.
But there was a point where no amount of money could make the work go faster, and the reactivation of the mothballed fleets had reached it. It would take time before the first of the ancient ships were ready for action. Another goal of the Savareen fleet had been to buy that time by setting Tatooine ablaze and discrediting Cain's claims of liberation, but that wasn't possible now.
And the Sith Lord had to know that. Having fought in three galaxy-spanning wars, there was no way Darth Cain wouldn't realize the limited window of opportunity he had available to strike. With the Invincible, he could strike target after target, crushing all opposition, so long as his operatives kept feeding him intel – and the mass surrender of Savareen's fleet had ensured he had plenty of that.
So. The situation was bad, and the rest of the Hutt Council knew it. Only two planets had been lost so far, and despite Tatooine's advantageous position on the hyperlanes, but neither of them were particularly great prizes. The warbands of the Savareen host had been mostly chaff, meant to punish Tatooine for its defiance rather than face the Sith Army in battle. Elsewhere in the Outer Rim, Marlo's envoys were recruiting other mercenary groups, ones far more professional and lethal. The Hutt didn't know how they would hold up against Cain's Legion, but they certainly couldn't do worse than the ones whose ashes were now strewn across the deserts of Savareen.
The mercenaries were only one of his endeavours, though. He had another plan running, and if his efforts on Rattatak were successful, he'd gain the services of a true army, many times more numerous than the horde the Sith had so easily crushed on Savareen, and much more experienced in matters of warfare. Properly arming it would cost a lot of credits, but Cain had made it clear this was a war of survival.
That would take care of the manpower issue, although he was still looking for a way to counter the Lord of Terror's fear aura – at the moment, his best bet was using droids, but from the archives it was clear he wasn't the first to think of it. Assassination was the next best thing : without Cain, the whole thing would collapse on itself. But, again, he wasn't the first one to think to use it on the Lord of Terror. Darth Cain had survived a frankly absurd number of assassination attempts over his career, which made sense considering he'd survived his apprenticeship under Darth Erebus – whose name still inspired terror, disgust and hatred alike among the Hutt Clans to this day.
Or maybe he needed to look for other Force users to recruit. Darth Cain had triumphed over many Sith and Jedi in his day, but having someone who could advise Marlo on matters of the Force was better than not. The Outer Rim was home to all manner of exiles and outcasts, and there were always rumors about renegade Force users going around. Most of those were nothing more than tall tales, or attempts by defeated warbands to soothe their bruised egos by attributing supernatural qualities to their foes, but Marlo knew there was a kernel of truth to these rumors, if you could dig deep enough.
The Hutt picked up a piece of meat from a nearby platter and threw it in his mouth, chewing on it along with his thoughts. There was another option, distasteful and dangerous though it may be. Perhaps it was time to send someone to Dathomir; someone who was both skilled enough to have a chance of success, yet not so valuable that their loss would hurt him.
… hmm. Maybe … he hadn't done anything with that wretch Hanar yet, beyond making sure she couldn't escape his dungeon. If the Invincible had truly been repaired by some kind of Force miracle she couldn't possibly have predicted, if she hadn't deliberately provided him with faulty intelligence, then maybe he could still make use of her ? A female would have better odds of surviving Dathomir, and there weren't many among his lieutenants.
Yes, Marlo decided, swallowing the morsel and picking up another, all this thinking having given him an appetite. He'd let the thief stew in her own terror for a while, then he'd summon her before him and tell her how, in his immense generosity, he'd decided to give her one chance at redeeming herself in his eyes. And she'd accept, because she had no choice. Whether she succeeded or not, well, that was up to her.
In a dingy, crowded drinking hole on the war-torn world of Rattatak, a pair of hooded figures sat at a corner table, watching the latest Holonet report on the cracked screen above the counter. While the planet was as much of an isolated shithole as you could find in the Outer Rim, it was still connected to the Holonet, even if things like the Republic and Jedi were little more than legends … although, the latter had somewhat changed in recent years – and it was due to the two figures doing their best not to draw attention to themselves as they watched the screen intently.
Ky Narec, Jedi Knight, and Asajj Ventress, his unofficial Padawan, had spent over a decade fighting to put an end to the constant warfare that ravaged Rattatak, ever since Ky had crash-landed on Rattatak on what was supposed to be a fact-finding mission (and, some nights, he wondered whether there was more to his ship's sudden malfunction than bad luck).
As far as the Knight knew, the rest of the Order believed him dead, and he hadn't done anything to change their minds, for he knew they wouldn't approve of what he'd been doing since his arrival. Jedi weren't supposed to interfere in planetary matters without authorization from the local government or the Senate itself, but Ky couldn't simply leave Rattatak as he'd found it : a nigh-perpetual, unending bloodbath, with hundreds of tribes killing each other across the continents for seemingly no reason beyond spilling blood. Nor could he leave Asajj, the orphaned child he'd rescued from slavery soon after his arrival, and taken as his student when he'd realized the strength of her connection to the Force.
At Asajj's insistence and despite Ky's best efforts to keep her safe, she had joined the Jedi Knight's self-appointed crusade to bring peace to Rattatak. And, despite the absurd odds stacked against them, they had been making progress, rallying more and more tribes to her banner. After generations of warfare, the people of Rattatak longed for an end to the slaughter, but they also believed that such a peace could only come from a position of strength. But they had been making progress – and then it had ended, in a single, sudden assault on their headquarters.
The attackers had used weapons that hadn't been made on Rattatak, and they had butchered the pair's allies. Ky and Asajj had barely escaped the ambush with their lives, and Ky was still drawing on the Force to ignore the pain from the blaster bolt he had taken to the chest in the confusion.
Ky didn't fear death, but he did fear leaving Asajj alone. His student was strong in the Force, her potential greater than his by far, but that wasn't the real reason for his worry. After years as a model Jedi Knight, he had grown attached to the pale-skinned girl in the years they had spent together. He had seen her grow from a scared five-years old to the confident, dedicated young adult she now was, and he was self-aware enough to know he saw her more as a daughter than a Padawan.
The Jedi Knight forced himself to consider the bitter truth : they couldn't stay on Rattatak. The hunters of that bastard Kirske were still on the lookout for them, and there was only so far they could run now that their network of allies had been gutted and the tribes who had joined their cause had scattered to the winds. And so, he was forced to consider other, unsavoury options.
The screen was still showing the same images, of the aftermath of the battle on Savareen. Some brave soul had wandered into the desert and taken pictures of the blasted landscape, with spikes of fulgurite rising from the bloody sands where an army had gone to its death.
Ky had felt Darth Cain use his power, like every Force user in the galaxy, he thought. He and Asajj had both sensed the arrival of the Invincible, though it had taken a few weeks for them to learn what the source of the disturbance was. The return of the ancient Sith had terrified Ky, but he'd kept up a strong face, because Asajj had needed him to. That terror had diminished since then as he heard fragmented rumors about the Sith Lord's apprentice liberating Tatooine and declaring war on the Hutt Cartels in the name of ending slavery, replaced by confusion. Still, the Jedi Knight had had little time to think about greater galactic events, busy as he'd been with his work – until now.
Asajj wouldn't countenance fleeing from Rattatak, Ky knew. Her pride and anger, which were still strong despite Ky's lessons, wouldn't allow it. But if Ky phrased it as a temporary retreat to find more allies, she might agree. He was almost certain the off-world weapons Kirske's assassins had used were a gift from the Hutts. If he was right, then Cain would definitely want to hear about it. Maybe he could bargain his and Asajj's safety for the intel.
In all likelihood, this would mean revealing his survival to the Jedi envoys on Perlia. There would be consequences for that, that much was certain. Years of fighting the various warlords of Rattatak had left a mark on Ky's soul. He had fought and killed, and spent far, far too long without talking to a mind-healer. The Dark Side had its hooks inside him now, and if he returned to the Temple, it would be years before he was allowed back out.
As for Asajj, he doubted the Order would even consider welcoming a child of war such as her in their ranks. But he wouldn't abandon her, even if it meant pulling a Dooku and leaving the Order. He didn't want to become a Sith – the stories he'd heard in his time at the Temple, as well as some of the ancient tales and horrors he'd encountered during his time in the Outer Rim, had made sure of that. But so far, Darth Cain didn't seem to be a typical Sith, and since that had apparently been the case during the Old Republic, it probably wasn't a trick to get the Order to lower its guard.
He finished his drink, forcing himself to swallow the foul swill so that the alcohol could help dim the pain of his injury. This was a bad decision, he just knew it, but every other choice was worse. All he could do was trust in the Force, and hope that whatever consequences came, he and Asajj could deal with them.
First thing first, though : they needed to find a ship to bring them to Perlia. Which, given how few coins they'd left, would probably involve more violence.
Next
Interlude : Succession
We tell you this story to save your life.
AN : Wow, the last chapter got a lot of reviews. Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer my question about the origins of so many new readers.
Ky Narec was dead in the first draft of this chapter, but ultimately I decided keeping him alive would be more interesting - and besides, he should still be alive right now if we follow the canon timeline. His characterization is based on what I found about him on the wikis, and I mixed elements of Canon and Legends, so if there's any inconsistency with canon material, that's why.
Next will be the final chapter of the first "book" of this story. It'll be a flashback chapter, about ... well, I'm sure you can guess from the title below. At time of writing this, it is already 5k words long : inspiration about it struck me a few weeks back, and I've been working on it in parallel to my other works since. So you can expect the next update to be very, very soon.
Thank you to locomotive96 and GoatBane for the awesome fanart in the style of a movie poster they made, which I am now using as the cover for this story.
Zahariel out.