Chapter 107: Sands and Stars

Chapter 107: Sands and Stars

-Tatooine – 230 Days into the Hutt Crusade-

Anakin Skywalker still hated sand. It was rough, coarse, and got everywhere. Not just on people, but into mechanical parts and electronics. An engine component that would last fifty years on a normal world would be lucky not to be ground away to useless trash in twenty or less on Tatooine. A planet on which he hated the sand only slightly less than everything else.

Which, he had to admit, made it exceedingly weird that he wasn’t angry at being back on this Force forsaken sandball. He’d originally believed the only reason he’d ever come back here was to free his mother and the other slaves. Only for Knight Aayla and her companion to free his mother years ago, then have the League of Free Stars, which they’d somehow launched as a major galactic power from out of nowhere, come back and free the rest of the slaves before he could too.

He couldn’t, wouldn’t, resent them for that.

There were no more Hutts on Tatooine, Gardulla and Jabba having both died in the fighting when the League-sponsored and supplied rebellion had kicked off. Now, he found himself actually glad that the High Council had sent him and Obi-wan to feel out the world. The fact that Tatooine was being ‘guided’ by A’Sharad Hett concerned them. Not enough, among the other chaos going on elsewhere, that the Council had prioritized checking in on the situation until now. But enough that, now that Tatooine had a slowly forming official government in which Hett was thankfully only an advisor, they wanted to get a feel for the situation.

More specifically, of course, they wanted any insight Hett could offer about the greater goals of the League of Free Stars. He’d had to be recruited for their Crusade somehow, which they hoped meant he had some ideas about the scope of what ‘Sovereign Midoriya’ was planning. Without potentially being compromised by being too close to said ruler, as Knight Secura was.

Personally, Anakin was pretty sure it was only the conservative faction that had pushed for their mission here, with the more progressive members of the Jedi Order (progressive members he hadn’t even realized existed until recently) simply finding it an easy-to-approve compromise mission. Since it was fact-finding only, it shouldn’t be seen as threatening by the League. Meanwhile, it appeased the traditionalists that ‘steps were being taken to find out more.’ Of course, Anakin was one of the only natives of the horrid planet in the Jedi Order other than Hett, and Obi-wan was a well known and skilled diplomat and negotiator. So it legitimately made a sort of sense that they’d tagged them for the job.

Personally, Anakin appreciated that Obi-wan had only accepted after making sure Anakin was fine with it.

Now, finally free of initial talks with Hett and the government, Anakin was very glad he’d said yes. After all…

“Hello, Kitster, Wald. I’m glad to see the both of you looking so well…and free.”

Kitster grinned hugely, even as Wald did the Rodian equivalent right beside him. A moment later, Kitster had Anakin in a bear hug. For perhaps only the second time ever, Anakin thought he might just have a good memory of something that happened on Tatooine…

… … …

-Rothana – 232 Days into the Hutt Crusade-

As he stared out over the Rothana Heavy Engineering manufacturing facility, Master Tholme was displeased that his instincts had been right. That was, sadly, not a new thing. Given he was the closest thing the modern Jedi Order had to a spy master, following instincts and patterns as much as the Force had often led him to unpleasant revelations. What he was watching now was only confirmation of something he’d feared the moment he’d gotten word about what Shaak Ti had found on Geonosis. He’d already put together some disturbing bits of information over the last few years, as he’d poked and prodded various parts of the galaxy in an attempt to find the Sith. For example, he’d known for quite some time that Kuat Drive Yards was, for some unknown reason, building a large number of Venator cruisers. Not to mention pouring enough money into black projects that even a Megacorp of their size couldn’t hide it completely.

Shaak Ti’s information about the Droid Army being built, combined with Aayla passing on word of the Battleships that the Trade Federation was building? It had practically screamed in the back of his mind that more than one group was aware of the shadows moving in the dark. The one the Jedi were only just now becoming aware of themselves. KDY had a well-known grudge with the Trade Federation, which had led to his coming here. Near to the same site he and Aayla had discovered the early days of secret testing for new a wide variety of new designs by Rothana Heavy Engineering three years ago.

Unlike Kuat itself, Rothana was in the Outer Rim, a world purchased wholesale by Kuat Drive Yards specifically as an isolated black site where they did a lot of their research and development work. Approaches to the system were not on galactic standard maps, and the KDY corporate-security fleet was very heavy handed with anyone that tried to poke their nose anywhere in its general direction. It had, as a result, taken even Tholme a fair bit of time to infiltrate the place…not even his previous trip here having made it easier. They’d radically upshifted security since then. For, it appeared, sound reasons.

Despite the time it had cost away from seeking the Sith, everything he’d seen since he’d arrived in-system told him he’d been right to make the diversion.

After all, the testing and manufacture of the new heavy walkers, artillery, and landing craft visible during his last visit had been one thing. KDY and its subsidiaries were one of the largest defense contractors in the galaxy, with most of the Core getting their primary defense hardware from the massive mega corporation. That hadn’t been actionable information back then, as it was perfectly normal for KDY to research and build new product lines. What he was seeing now, though…the scale was worrying.

Instead of R and D, he was now seeing massive manufacturing complexes all over the planet, and equally massive expansion of the orbital yards here besides. There were hundreds of Kuat’s new Acclimator assault ships just sitting in parking orbits above the planet. Hundreds more were being built in massive shipyards that hadn’t been there just three years ago. Combined with huge numbers of new walkers, self-propelled artillery, and landing craft designs being built and stored? It was very obvious that Kuat was gearing up for war.

The question, of course, was ‘with whom?’

If the build up had been perhaps half the scale he’d seen so far, he might have thought they were simply anticipating market trends. Or, perhaps, that they’d gotten wind of the Hutt Crusade early and were anticipating a lot of worlds wanting stronger fleet and ground defenses. With this much, though? No. It was very, very obvious that KDY knew something that he and the Jedi Order didn’t. Or, rather, that he and the Jedi Order were only just starting to put together. Given the implications of the Trade Federation’s battleships, the Geonosis Droid Factories, and the increasingly loud debates in the senate…

Tholme was very much afraid he knew what these ships were for.

What he was less certain of is just why the Sith were causing two entirely separate factions to build up for a conflict. Assuming this was the Sith at all, instead of good intelligence on KDY’s part leading the sharks to smell blood in the water. One way or another, it spelled a great deal of trouble, and he was very much afraid he was too late to stop the on-rushing collision. The arguments in the senate were, unfortunately, over extremely legitimate issues, after all. He could only hope that he and others could find out enough to keep the galaxy from tearing itself completely apart, when the collision eventually came…

… … …

-Muunilinst – 235 Days into the Hutt Crusade-

Celeste wanted to growl with frustration, but instead forced herself to reach for the Force for calm. She had finally managed to track down records, at least some records, regarding Damask Holdings. Unfortunately, what she’d found was at least a partial dead-end. The entire leadership of Damask Holding except Hego Damask had died to an attack by a group apparently called the Order of the Canted Circle. She had no idea who they were, though they’d apparently hired Maladian assassins to do the grunt work. A group that had come to her attention in her research of the modern era, mostly due to them being one of the only groups known to be capable of killing Jedi.

The problem, of course, was that she had no idea if the assassins had been working for the Sith, possibly even trained by one, and Damask had been intended to survive? Or was Damask himself the Sith and had fought off his assassins? He had apparently been somewhat seriously injured, after all. Sighing and determined to dig deeper into the records, Celeste hoped that her…apprentice…was having better luck. Allaya was back on Dathomir, separated from Celeste for the first time in years, attempting to convince the Singing Mountain Clan to send representatives to the Ossus Academy.

Celeste was nearly certain now that the existence of the new Academy was the reason why she’d been driven by the Force to make her promise of acquiring more instruction for the clan. Yet, she was still an outsider to them. It would be up to Allaya to convince her grandmother to allow more of the Witches to attend the Academy. Both to learn and, hopefully, to share their knowledge as well. This was, Celeste reflected as she dove back into the records looking for leads, a very odd time in the galaxy. Well, at least it was keeping her busy and she was still being allowed to hunt Sith and attempt to destroy their workings…

… … …

-Jedi High Council Chamber – 237 Days into the Hutt Crusade-

“He’s a Force user who has a Sith traveling with him! An actual Sith! How is this not a concern!?”

Mace Windu sighed and took control of the recently-installed holoprojector in the Council room. Such things had always been resisted before, since it turned the room into something too much like a Situation Room or War Room, and they’d never wanted to be seen as militant. Unfortunately, recent events had become too chaotic, and he’d pulled the trigger on the well-hidden addition during other recent work. A security review, quietly executed by a combination of Sentinels and security experts they’d borrowed from a few allies, had turned up numerous holes in Temple security. Upgrades had been quietly being put in throughout the Temple to close those holes, and Mace had personally signed off on adding the holoprojector during the upgrades to the High Council Chamber.

Now, he used them for the first time both to shut up the debaters and throw up the reports he’d already gotten on ‘Zavra S’hi.’ Well, not all of the reports. Just those provided regarding whether or not she was a Dark Sider. There was currently no need to complicate the matter by getting derailed with little details like her…implants. Only some of which were combat focused. Or with the awareness that she’d apparently taken the Darksaber and there was at least one video going around in the League of her attempting to use it to make toast.

“Addressing the ‘Sith’ in question first, I’ve already known about her for some time. She might be of the Sith species, but I have multiple reports here from multiple highly respected Jedi Master, who have examined her and stated categorically and on record that she isn’t a Dark Sider. They also admit she has something of a chaotic Force presence, but at least two recognized it as similar to the effect Qui-Gon Jinn sometimes had on the Force. That of a Living Force specialist making the local Force a bit turbulent by their method of ‘Living in the Now.’ Though, apparently the effect is considerably more pronounced with Miss S’hi than it was with Master Jinn.”

Confronted with calmly stated facts and multiple reports from Jedi whose names practically lept off the screens they were being projected on, the Jedi who had been most riled up stilled. Each of them set to reading the reports, a couple of them looking chagrined that they’d become so impassioned without getting all the information. As they should be. They were Jedi, not Senators. Debate in the High Council was supposed to be calm and rational, not about who could shout loudest and be heard most.

For several minutes, the group that had reacted poorly to the latest revelation were busy absorbing and contemplating. Adi had been the one to bring up this matter in the first place, at Mace’s request, when reports regarding Sovereign Midoriya’s political tour began to leak. Zavra, thankfully, hadn’t been a prominent member of any talks. She’d barely been seen in the background most of the time, in fact. After the clusterfuck of Bothawui in particular, however, there was no chance that Midoriya being a Force user was going to remain unnoticed. The scrutiny that little detail generated was going to reveal Zavra S’hi’s presence one way or another, so Mace had decided to headbutt the blaster bolt and cut the problem off before it could be blown out of all proportion by rumor.

Eventually, Oppo Rancisis was the Traditionalist that finished his contemplation first and took a different track with his first comment. Mace was grateful for it, as the Thisspiasian was perhaps the most capable of coldly rational outlooks out of anyone on the High Council, Traditionalist or not.

“While I still disagree with these Jedi having left the Order, I respect several of them too much to believe they would all report falsely on this matter. Despite their past actions as a collective species, there have been Sith that became Jedi before, if I remember my history correctly. Assuming that one is a Dark Sider, against all evidence, is speciesist at best. That fact does not, however, address the greater concern of this Izuku Midoriya apparently being a powerful Force Sensitive.”

Mace nodded acknowledgement of that readily. Quickly checking to make sure that everyone was done with the current set of reports that had been projected centrally between them all, he activated a second set when he was sure they had.

“That detail has also been known for some time. It was reported by several Jedi through various channels, and I specifically ordered an investigation started. It had not yet been brought to the attention of the entire Council as that investigation is still ongoing. What I can offer is a few details. Yes, Izuku Midoriya is a Force Sensitive, one from an unknown world outside Republic Space. By the time any Jedi encountered him, he was apparently already a fully trained disciple of a different Force Sect. Something that isn’t particularly unusual, as you should all be aware. Even if most such don’t wander the galaxy, as a rule.”

He got quite a few nods at that. The truth was that Force Sects weren’t rare. The Jedi Order knew of a couple of dozen currently in existence. Some of which they had good relationships with, others which they tended to avoid due to unpleasant interactions in the past. The Disciples of the Whills, Gand Findsmen, Matukai, Luka Sene. Such were just a few of the more commonly known groups, and there were quite a few more obscure ones out there besides, like the Disciples of Twilight or the Aing-Tii of the Kathol Rift. Yet, even of the more ‘commonly known’ groups, only Findsmen and Matukai tended to roam the galaxy, and both groups were very small in numbers that did so.

“As early results of the investigation I launched, I have admittances from Master Tholme and Master Fay both that they were aware of this long before the Crusade. Both apparently tested his knowledge of the Force and taught him bits of the Jedi way in exchange for knowledge of his own society’s Force use. This is not uncommon, so long as the tests turn up that the individual is stable.”

That comment got some scowls from the Traditionalists. Not everyone had always been happy with leaving other Force Sects alone, let along teaching them things. Mace pushed on regardless of their displeasure.

“He did pass those tests, and Master Fay in particular noted that Midoriya is the closest she’s ever encountered to an equal in telekinesis. Apparently, such was the primary focus of those who trained him. Though he apparently possessed considerable close-combat skill, with something like a Force Speed trick and something similar to the physical Force Enhancement used by the Matukai. Neither of them detected even the slightest amount of Dark Side usage from him, with Master Tholme in particular having stayed around him for quite some time to evaluate him.”

Even Piell groaned at that, sighing as he spoke next.

“And Tholme is a secretive bastard who likes playing spy too much. He was most likely aware of the build up to the Hutt Crusade and chose to tell no one. In fact, I’d wager the bastard outright helped the League conceal their build up, with an eye to using them against the Hutts. If he wasn’t so good at what he does, I’d be more pissed about it. Yet he is good, and the gambit seems to be working. It even turned up potentially critical information about other things going on in the galaxy that we’d have otherwise remained ignorant of.”

Several more members of the High Council looked annoyed at that, not just the Traditionalists. Yet none of them could say Master Piell was wrong. Particularly not in light of recently-discovered information like the Trade Federation Battleships and Geonosis Droid Factories. Thankfully, it was one of the Traditionalists that spoke the next, loosely positive thing. Specifically, Saesee Tiin.

“I, for one, am not going to dismiss the likes of Tholme and Master Fay endorsing the young man. That said, it is still a concern. We’ve tried to discourage the idea of Force Sensitives leading governments since the Ruusan Reformation dissolved the Army of Light and did away with the Jedi Lords. This is going to cause some upset, one way or another, and much of it will splash on us. Doubly so given Knight Secura’s involvement with him.”

That, of course, was the rub. One that Mace Windu couldn’t deny with facts or reports. Still, at least they were heading in the direction of reasoned debate now. He’d take that as a win, so long as they could keep it that way…

... ... ... ... ... ...

A/N 1: Yes, I showed an Anakin snippet, since a few people have wondered what they are up to. Yes, I also couldn't help myself and snuck in the infamous sand line :-p.

A/N 2: So the Jedi have found out about Zavra ;-). Thankfully, Shaak Ti and Mace were ahead of the curve. Also of note here is the mention of a security review. That's going to have effects down the line...