Chapter 134: Collision Course
Chapter 134: Collision Course
– Tythe – 21.7 BBY –
Izuku and Shaak Ti had taken the long way back to Tythe, choosing to do so in order to prevent any risk of cluing people into Celeste’s own mission, or even her existence in general. That wasn’t to say that the two week loop they’d spent had been without value. Even aside from spending more time together and studying the holocron they’d found on Rishi, they had used their cover identities as a pair of smugglers to take a personal pulse of the underworld. While Izuku got regular reports from LIS, and Shaak Ti had access to similar reports from the Jedi Order, nothing quite replaced firsthand intelligence. Doubly so for Force users, who could get as much out of the emotions of a people group or place as they could out of hard numbers or data trails.
They had both come away with a matching and unfortunate assessment that tensions had reached a point that a single major flashpoint might set off the war everyone was bracing for. Everything from large illegal bounties on specific senators to a massive uptick in arms smuggling had been noted, though for that last bit the players had changed in some surprising ways. Apparently, Corellia, Alderaan, and several other unexpected worlds had abruptly started buying up war materials. Not obviously. Corellia, in particular, was quite good at hiding such things. But it was there to be noticed if you knew where to look and what to look for.
It had been Shaak that had first picked out the pattern, one that they’d confirmed when they’d double checked it against LIS reports. Apparently, the Jedi Order must have spread something around, as it was mostly those worlds or groups with some connection to the Order that were making quiet moves. Just as one example they’d found to verify the pattern via LIS, Kashyyyk had been purchasing additional ships from the League. Not only more Defender IIs as system patrol craft, but also some of the Munifex II Heavy Frigates that the League Navy was phasing out. For the most part they were only selling those to defense forces in places like Abrion Major, but someone had approved the sale to Kashyyyk and Izuku certainly agreed with that decision.
Christophsis, Belsavis, Brentaal IV, Dac, Kalarba, Manda, Mrlsst, Nubia, Tynna, Thisspias and a two dozen more worlds besides. All of them had connections to the Jedi Order, or else connections to some other world that did like Kalarba to Alderaan. Each of them was showing quiet signs of making preparations, using assets unique to them. Mining operations, shipyards, droid manufactures and more. All were beefing up assets entirely independent of the other buildups already ongoing. Whether that was a good or bad thing, they weren’t sure, but it was certainly another hydrospanner in the works.
Things were clearly coming to a head and all the galaxy could do was brace for it.
It was a reality which honestly only made it easier to start making arrangements for Izuku to travel to Coruscant to speak with the Senate. As the League had surged in size, to the point of having surpassed 2,500 major worlds and thousands of smaller settlements, he had become a figure of interest for the Galaxy at large. A figure that was wildly divisive and which all manner of groups wanted to manipulate for their own ends. In other circumstances, he’d have avoided the situation like a particularly grotesque and infectious plague.
Yet with Celeste’s warning and request in mind, he had no choice but to begin making arrangements. Though it would take a few months to make everything happen via proper channels. Hopefully, the growing tensions in the galaxy didn’t explode before then…
… … …
– Cularin System – 21.6 BBY –
Aayla had to admit that she hadn’t expected to get pulled straight from Ryloth after talks there had ended, into another confused situation, by Master Fay of all people. Complete with most of her League diplomatic team, too. The fact that Master Fay had proceeded to take her to Ossus, where they picked up several additional people. Including Master Altis, Master Thorla, Knight Agai’i, and Master Plo Koon of all people. The fact that they’d then picked up a few Republic Officials, who had seemed as confused as anyone else, had only added to the mystery. At least until they’d arrived near where the Cularin System had just flat out vanished from the galaxy several years ago…
Just in time for the entire Star System to flicker back into existence.
Matters had gotten complicated shortly after that, as the system had vanished before the Separatist Crisis truly began. Hell, they’d missed the entire Hutt Crusade, too. Which, given that the system was located within The Slice, wasn’t exactly a small detail. Politics within this section of the galaxy was virtually unrecognizable from when the star system had up and disappeared on everyone.
Frankly, she was very glad that she herself wasn’t all that needed to deal with the legal and political clusterfuck that the system reappearing was causing.
No, instead, she and Plo Koon had chased after one Len Markus, who had caused the star system to jump forward in time in the first place. He’d done so with a powerful Sith artifact called the Darkstaff, an ancient relic known to be able to both meddle with time and destroy worlds. Aayla had managed to destroy it in the end with a burst of Force Light channeled through Heart of the Guardian, in much the same way she’d done with the Muur Talisman. Yet, in doing so, she and Plo Koon had stumbled into additional truths.
The first was that the native species, the Tarasins, were universally Force Sensitive. While rare, that wasn’t unheard of, with other examples being the Miraluka, Iktotchi, and Neti. Thankfully, the locals were closer in general strength to the Miraluka, not the Neti. A detail which meant only their strongest members would likely have made the cut for Jedi training. Apparently, this fact had been known to the Alamas Jedi Academy, but they’d historically kept it quiet out of respect for the local’s desires.
Thankfully, Plo Koon was of a mind to agree with that decision, so neither the local species nor the Alamas instructors would face any backlash over the issue. It also explained why Fay had, either on her own initiative or by guidance of the Force, brought more than just the two Alamas Jedi of Master Thorla and Knight Agai’i from Ossus. Representatives of the Matukai and Luka Sene, in particular, promised to be of interest to the locals. Apparently, while the Tarasins were a very curious people, their culture didn’t mesh well with the Jedi most of the time. Which explained why so few of them had ended up taking Jedi training even if they did have the strength for it.
Aayla suspected the Ossus Academy would have another influx of recruits soon.
The second discovery, that there was yet another extremely powerful Force Artifact here called the Eye of the Sun, had been even more unexpected. Apparently created originally to protect the planet from the Brotherhood of Darkness during the New Sith Wars, it was a Force Amplifier of immense power. One that the Darkstaff had been trying to guide its wielder to reach. Its secret would be kept even more tightly than that of the local’s Force Sensitivity…because both Aayla and Plo Koon had realized immediately what it could be used for.
Master Fay, after helping the locals work out how to reintegrate with the rest of the galaxy (which much to Aayla’s shock included a deal to quietly place a Jump Gate in the system) would be taking charge of the Eye. Even more than what Celeste had discovered, what they had all instantly realized might be possible with the Eye of the Sun could well ruin the Sith’s plans. Figuring out how to manage it without harming the planet or its people would be Master Fay’s task for the foreseeable future…
… … …
– Tythe Central – 21.5 BBY –
“Well, the arrangements are made. We’re off to throw ourselves into a deep pool of sharks, I guess.”
Aayla snorted at that, even as she tucked into Izuku’s side as they stared out from the observation bubble attached to their personal apartments, looking over the constantly flowing traffic moving in and out of the massive space station. The bubble was, in fact, quite real rather than a projection, which might have been more secure. It did have multiple layers of shielding over it in the event someone tried to assassinate them through it, and the door connecting it to their rooms was a thick blast door. They’d insisted on it despite all resistance and required protection, however, having wanted the view. It was one well chosen to give them a prim view of both the stars…and one of the space docks for the station. Izuku had been fascinated with ships since his arrival in this reality, and the sheer variety of those that moved through Tythe Central these days made for great watching in idle moments. Few of those that either of them may have these days.
Tythe’s already explosive growth had only ramped up since the Hutt Crusade, Tythe Central now running at full capacity despite additional habitat stations having been built to ease the strain. The planet itself housed some population as well, of course, but the fact that its ecosystem was still recovering had caused them to limit how much industry was placed on it. As well as how many people lived on the surface. There were less than a hundred and fifty million beings down on the planet…and Tythe Central alone had another twelve million. Add in the rest of the stations, habitats, and industrial complexes on the rest of the planets in the system? The total population of the Tythe system was around 225 million.
Respectable for an Outer Rim world that hadn’t possessed a native species. Yet honestly quite small compared to the population of many of the worlds they’d conquered in now-former Hutt Space. Evocar (formerly Nal Hutta) alone had a population upwards of seven billion. Nor was it the only such world they now administered. In truth, on the face of it, it was absurd that they’d managed to take over Hutt Space.
Which, of course, is exactly how they’d gotten away with it.
From the start, they’d known the only way to pull it off was to mix droids with their sentient forces…and to deny the Hutts their most critical sources of manpower on top of that. The sentient armed forces he’d had available as of Operation Ignite had only been around seven million. Five million of those had been ground forces, the other two million fleet and logistics. A tiny drop in the bucket compared to what they should have needed. If, that was, the average droid-to-organic ratio for the entire military hadn’t been 15-to-1. Since, unlike the Trade Federation’s trash droids, the League’s were comparable to a well-trained human? That meant his effective numbers had been closer to 112 million.
It still shouldn’t have been enough.
It wouldn’t have been enough, if not for the fact the Hutts had little standing military. They’d destroyed or captured the massive mothball fleets that were supposed to be the Hutt’s strategic reserve. Initial, critical targets of Operation Ignite had been the three Hutt worlds that provided the bulk of their sentient muscle. Klatooine, Vodran, and Kintan had been contained and cut off from supplying the Hutts, keeping them from instantly raising millions of ground troops. Kintan, in particular, was now a full member of the League. The Nikto had been most rebellious of the three slave species and, even if they hadn’t been willing to commit to fighting the Hutts at first, by the time the Hutts had been finished off that had changed.
Honestly, while they’d had to be careful in inducting it, Kintan was now one of the handful of Tier 3 worlds in the League. Under a new government, caused by a not-so-quiet revolution during the latter portion of the Hutt Crusade, they were now providing the League with not just more soldiers, but quite a bit of military hardware. Nor was Kintan the only bright spot, indeed it wasn’t even the most prominent. That would be Nimban, whose orbital shipyards had been fully converted to League standards and then expanded. Something which had made it one of the only Tier 4 worlds of the League, aside from Tythe itself.
“We’re as ready as we’re going to get anytime soon, Izu. I doubt we can stop the war, at this point, but if we can identify the Sith Celeste believes is within the Senate? Well, we might at least prevent them from taking over the Republic side of the war. Though I hope we can do it quietly. We might kick off the war ourselves if whoever they are is in a critical position.”
Izuku nodded, then shrugged.
“Hopefully they won’t be too high up the chain. The higher they are the more risk the Jedi would spot them, so they might only be in a ‘power behind the throne’ sort of position. In which case we might catch them out and isolate them before they can do too much additional harm. Assuming Celeste is right, of course.”
Aayla snuggled into his side deeper, not saying another word. Given how closer their bond was, she didn’t need to, though. He could feel her near-certainty that Celeste had been correct. While the Shadow’s leads were by far the best evidence they had, there were too many other fingers pointed in the general direct of the Republic’s leadership as well. If it wasn’t a Senator, than the most likely alternative was a major Megacorp head. A high-ranking Kuati noble, for example, would have a similar level of influence compared to what Hego Damask had possessed. Though Celeste had turned up no close connections between any of that world’s nobility and Damask.
Well, whatever would come, would come. Somehow, he got the feeling that it would all come to a head when he visited the Senate. He just didn’t know how yet, or what the consequences for the galaxy would be…
... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: Yes, what happened in the Cularin System, or rather what they found, was important enough to include. I wasn't just padding word count with that small aside ;-).
A/N 2: Some numbers perspective on the League, though they ARE NOT up to current. The League military has grown explosively from the numbers in this chapter. The data I intend to drop in the next release will give better numbers.