Chapter 60: Rebellion
Summary: Not all warfare is direct, and not all changes involve guns...
Warning! Chapters 59-62 were all posted back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!
Chapter 60: Rebellion
Rebellion, A'Sharad Hett discovered, was remarkably easy to achieve when you can convince nearly every major local faction that it's a fantastic idea. It gets even easier when your benefactors are happy to give you access to hundreds of tons of modern hardware, an information network that has penetrated your enemy's strongholds, and elite teams of remarkably respectful commandos and negotiators. When Aayla'Secura had approached him shortly after his knighting with what he'd thought was a crazy idea, he'd been leery. But the more she'd talked, the more she'd revealed, the more he had realized she might not be crazy after all. Well, not the sort of crazy he'd expected, at least. Arguably, the entire idea and everything linked to it wasn't something a traditionally sane person would come up with. Probably. Hett wasn't exactly fluent in 'normal,' after all. No Jedi was, though he was less so than even the average Jedi.
Back on point, he'd know the Tuskens had shamans that could use some measure of the Force. Of course he had. He'd been born among them, lived their culture, and had learned almost as much about the Force from those shamans as he had from his self-exiled Jedi Master father. He hadn't known that the Jawas had the same. Nor had he known the full story of Tatooine as shown in a vision on that very world Aayla described. It actually had explained a lot about how the native Tusken people and the Jawas largely had peace between them, despite the vast differences in their cultures. Both recognized in each other the last remnants of their original people.
He hadn't just taken her word for it, of course.
No, he'd taken the information about the location of the Force Nexus she'd provided and visited it himself. As one who was, in a powerful way, tied to the sands as a native, he'd gotten even more of the history of the world out of the visions he'd had at the hidden oasis than Secura's partner in insanity. He had also, perhaps predictably, been forced to face his own darkness in a way that not even the Knight trials had force him to. Thankfully, he had come out the other side stronger for the experience…and with a mission. The very tides of the Force were shifting. For the first time in eons, the once nearly-slain spirit of Tatooine itself was rousing with those currents. It was time for the world to grow once more, rather than just survive.
It couldn't do that with the Hutts around.
Convenient, then, that someone with balls of pure doonium was apparently preparing to make the Hutts regret 25,000 years of species-wide life choices.
Better yet, he'd had that person's comm code, and a high-security comm to use it with. It had taken only a few short meetings with Izuku Midoriya for A'Sharad Hett to realize he was possibly the most dangerous thing in the galaxy. A fundamentally good man…ready to go to war. More meetings, not with Midoriya but with his local factors on Tatooine, had revealed even more. Firepower wasn't a problem, access wasn't a problem, people weren't really a problem.
The problem had been what to do with Tatooine after Gardulla and Jabba the Hutt were both dead.
A'Sharad Hett was the solution.
The Tusken people remembered him. More to the point, they remembered his father, who had led them in the war against the humans on Tatooine, yet insisted on limiting the atrocities that said war had seen. The respect they had for his father had helped. What had helped even more was taking some of both the Tusken Shamans and the Jawa equivalent to the Force Nexus. To his surprise, many of both had already known their history in full, with the details having been faithfully preserved by Tusken Storytellers and Jawa Elders. But the feel of the Spirit of Tatooine encouraging the actions he was suggesting had been more than enough to start gathering the tribes. Not all of them had agreed with the terms he'd laid out for this little rebellion…but a majority had.
Something very, very few people realized was that thousands of years of raiding had resulted in a significant percentage of 'Tusken' peoples actually being human under their traditional garb. Not a majority, no. Of course not. But a significant enough minority that Tusken hatred for the settlers of Tattoine wasn't race specific. It was the fact that they were outsiders, ones who didn't 'belong to the sands' that was seen as wrong. And even that was mostly the result of actions by the Hutts after they'd taken control of the world well over 4,000 years previously. With him to act as a negotiator, representatives of the 'outworlder' settlements, the Jawas, and the Tusken had been able to come to agreements.
They would all work together to rid their world of the disease that were the Hutts. Afterward, there would be peace, and representation for both the Jawa and the Tusken in the new 'Over Tribe' that would take the Hutt's place. It wouldn't be easy, and Hett had somehow known the moment it all snapped into place that this was going to be his life's work. That it would be him that kept the peace, built something out of Tatooine. Helped it become more than just a smuggler's haven barely scraping by.
As he watched gleeful Jawas pour accelerant over the corpse of Jabba the Hutt, with eager humans and Tuskens alike standing by with torches to make absolutely sure the bastard was dead? Somehow, A'Sharad Hett thought he could live with it...
... ...
Jedi Master Norcuna watched in utter bemusement as his people's homeworld fundamentally changed right in front of him. Oh, not the world itself. Nothing so grand as a physical change was occurring. On the other hand, what he was seeing was almost more surreal than if Ryloth had suddenly ceased to be tidally locked and began having actual seasons. While he himself hadn't been born on the planet, he'd certainly studied it long before being picked as the Jedi Watchman to replace the now deceased Master Bondara. In the six years since then, he'd gotten to know it even better in that position, and the change that he was witnessing was both surreal…and not entirely unexpected.
Master Norcuna had been surprised when, just a couple of years after his arrival on Ryltoh, a major influx of offworld money had begun pouring into one of the two capital cities of the planet. Not Lessu, where the government was technically based, but Kala'uun. The fact that most of the less reputable trade of the planet ran out of Kala'uun had made him investigate, fearing Hutt influence or yet more problems with the illegal slave trade.
Instead, he'd found Twi'leks.
That might seem like a very odd statement if he'd expressed it aloud. This was the Twi'lek homeworld, after all. Close to three quarters of its population here was, for obvious reasons, Twi'lek. But, specifically, he'd found that nearly every single business setting itself up with offworld money in Kala'uun was run by Twi'leks. The vast majority of them were offworld born, but a not-insignificant percentage were ex-slaves originally from Ryloth itself. The sort who'd been sold off in some fashion and who normally avoided returning to Ryloth like the plague it had originally been on their lives.
To his bafflement, these businesses all had possessed significant financial backing from off world, and they covered a wild spread of different, completely legitimate, industries. Historically, the nature of Ryloth meant it had little native industry other than Ryll mining and the slave trade. With only a narrow band of habitable land between the light and dark sides of the planet, there wasn't a whole lot of other opportunity to be had. Not, that is, without significant investment that no one had ever been interested in making.
Only now someone was.
Three of Ryloth's five moons had proven to have enough mineral wealth to be worth mining, and two of them now had Twi'lek owned major mining operations fully under way on their surfaces. Headquartered, of course, in Kala'uun. The closer of the two moons even had a breathable atmosphere and was, in fact, undergoing mild terraforming. Leading to a modest city springing up around the mining there. Orbital installations, including a small but extremely modern shipyard, had also been added, and promptly began building something called ES-23 cargo carriers. All of which were being sold even before they were finished. Again, of course, it was based out of Kala'uun. Vertical indoor hydroponic farms had been introduced, electronics manufacturing facilities feeding off the mining now ongoing had been built up. A legal entertainment district, amusement park, and resort had been constructed. All of it employing as many local Twi'leks as possible.
Over a period of roughly three years, Lessu had fallen far behind Kala'uun in economic power. The clans that had been running all the illicit activity out of Kala'uun had been stomped on by smaller clans that had swelled in size and wealth as the new businesses glutted the city with profits and opportunity. The Anx crime lord Graxol Kelvyyn had been hunted down and killed by the Shattered Shackle, gutting the slaver business that used to be run out of the port. All of which had resulted in no lesser attention than that of Senator Orn Free Taa.
While the Senator was well known for corruption among the Jedi, it had rapidly become apparent that he actually did give a kriff about his homeworld. He also legitimately loathed slavery, much to the confusion of those who watched him surround himself with beautiful Twi'lek escorts at virtually all times. To the shock of those paying attention, he'd actually gotten off his ponderous backside, gotten behind the movements and changes coming out of Kala'uun, and pushed.
Hard.
His many, many connections were put to use and the influx of changes had accelerated drastically. His own previous entanglements had mostly been in Lessu, and he used that fact to leverage quite a few predatory off-world businesses out of said city. In their place, more and more home-grown businesses, these not even needing the boost from the outside source Master Norcuna had long realized the identity of. Not that he'd told anyone. What he was seeing was entirely a good thing as far as he could tell. Even if recent events might make the Council chew him out a bit about having remained silent.
Ah well.
Worth it.
A week ago, with proof that Pol Secura was dead having recently been provided by the Shattered Shackle, all four of the remaining Twi'lek Ruling Councilmen had been required to walk out into the brightlands to die. Such is the way their government had worked for centuries…but Master Norcuna didn't think the timing was accidental this time. No, he was certain it wasn't. After all, as he watched, five new council members were being appointed. Four of them were from extremely progressive clans that would have been too minor to earn a spot just three years ago.
Without a single shot being fired, Ryloth changed. Whatever happened in the greater galaxy, a new day with new rulers and a booming economy on Ryloth meant there was abruptly going to be a shortage of Twi'lek slaves and illegal spice. Somehow, he didn't think the fact it was all happening within hours of someone having the sheer gall to start a war on Hutt Space was at all a coincidence…
... ...
Jim Murray had been a farmer a year ago. Of course, he'd also been an enslaved farmer. One of countless humans born into it all across Hutt Space. Hosko wasn't even the only argi-world where the fields and equipment were worked almost exclusively by slaves. The strong-but-not-pretty ones that the Hutts simply worked to death instead of selling off as mercs or arm candy to the rest of the galaxy. Nor was it only agri-worlds. Mining colonies run by slaves were even more common, and Jim could only thank whatever slim bit of luck he'd had in life that he hadn't been sent to one of those worlds. Mining operations always had horrible accidental death rates even when they weren't run by abused slaves. The death rates on ones that were didn't bare thinking about.
Of course, Jim Murray wasn't a slave now.
He wasn't a farmer either.
Nope. As he pointed his practically-new blaster at another bloody motherfucker that used to torture him for kicks and gunned him down, Jimy Murray contented himself with the bliss that was being a revolutionary. Honestly, it might be a bit of a fancy title for someone like him. But those nice folks in the fancy armor who'd removed his slave chip and given him a few weeks of solid training on how to make sure the other motherfuckers died before he and his friends did thought he deserved it. So he'd own the title happily enough.
Hosko wasn't exactly anyone's priority right now, of course. But that just made it easier for the thousands of slaves they'd quietly armed and trained, plus the commandos that had trained them and the fancy powersuits they'd brought, to take it away from the Hutts when they were a bit busy elsewhere. Frankly, Jim didn't know if it would work.
He also didn't know if other Hutt worlds, worlds seeing this exact same sort of rebellion playing out, would end up free either. But he'd stayed behind, even when offered a way off the planet before the shooting started, because he was pissed off and intended to make the sluggy bastards pay for every whip lash and electrostick jab he'd ever gotten. If he died in the process? Well, Jim Murray was old as kriff for a farm slave at thirty-eight. He hadn't expected to make it this long anyway, and at least he was taking a bunch of these assholes with him…
... ...
Master Fay watched the Hutt shake hands with a local firebrand with considerable bemusement. Her visit to Jabiim had started normally enough. The locals had been experiencing a plague. The Brainrot Plague was nothing new. Known in other parts of the galaxy as the Loedorvian Brain Plague, it was a nasty and highly lethal affliction with, thankfully, a known treatment. In the Core, it could be stamped out relatively quickly. Here in the Outer Rim, it was a disaster that could wipe out a world.
It wasn't the first time Fay had been called by the Force to deal with such a thing. She was an extremely accomplished healer, after all. In fact, despite how grim the work often was, such occasions were among her favorites. Not because people needed help. But because she was able to do something that was unquestionably positive. Even negotiating peace during conflicts wasn't always that way. Often times, there were legitimate causes behind such conflicts, and no one was completely happy when she negotiated a compromise. Beating back a plague, however, was entirely a positive thing to do in her books.
Better yet, despite the scale of the catastrophe already being beyond easy resolution, Fay had possessed the resources to call on to fix it. When she'd reached out to Izuku and Aayla, they hadn't hesitated for even a heartbeat to reroute large supplies of the medicines and materials needed. They'd even dispatched two of the medical/evacuation cruisers that they used for mass treatment of slaves. Technically outfitted with the primary purpose of dechipping slaves in massive numbers, the pair had never seen any reason not to include the ability for them to act as traditional medical relief ships as well. Having two 1,200 meter medical cruisers capable of handling tens of thousands of treatments a day pull into orbit less than five days after her own arrival had gotten a staggering amount of goodwill from the locals.
That much had been normal.
Then things had gone off script.
Those medical ships had, of course, come with escorts. Escorts that had gotten bored enough to do survey scans of Jabiim, simply as a training exercise. Only for a very excited and equally perturbed captain from one of those ships to very tentatively contact Master Fay and ask her what the heck he should do with the fact that he'd discovered the entire planet was basically one giant ball of rare ores, slathered in mud deep enough to hide that fact from civilian scanners.
Fay had been incredibly bemused when the Force was absolutely insistent that this was why she'd needed a business suit.
She'd been even more bewildered when, upon contacting Izuku thinking he would be the most likely person of interest she was supposed to bring in, he'd gotten a very odd look on his face. He'd disconnected after getting the details…then commed her back a day later with an extremely bizarre offer. Specifically, an offer for Hutt investors who were interested in migrating somewhere nice and humid. They liked swamps, after all, and it would take only a very minor amount of terraforming for Jabiim to deeply appeal to them.
Given what she'd known and suspected about his plans, she'd been so confused that it had been visible on her face for the first time in centuries. Enough so to cause Aayla, who had been with him on the call, to break down into giggles. Thankfully, they'd also quickly explained. That explanation had, if anything, shot her personal estimation of the pair up a great deal. Given that she'd already had a fairly high opinion of them, that said a lot. She still wasn't overly enthused about the means they were intending to embrace to see justice done. She wasn't a fan of mass scale violence. But the new information had changed her perspective in a way she hadn't expected.
They'd recruited Hutts for their revolution.
Unlike the majority of the galaxy, unlike even the majority of Jedi, Master Fay was aware that the Hutt Cartel wasn't all there was to the Hutt's as a species. Were a supermajority of Hutts vicious megalomaniacs? Yes. Yes, they were. Were they all vicious megalomaniacs? Of course not. One of the best Supreme Chancellors to ever serve the Republic was a Hutt. Blotus the Hutt had overcome the dislike for his species and reigned for a 275-year term as Supreme Chancellor. A period during which the Republic had thrived quite nicely. Admittedly, he'd also embodied a few of the stereotypes himself. He'd become a Chancellor who had focused on the economy, putting the business mind of a Hutt toward legitimate growth that had massively benefitted the Republic.
There had also been a Jedi Hutt a few hundred years back, though that particular tale didn't end well, and she reminded herself she should probably warn Aayla and Izuku that Beldorion might well still be alive somewhere in Hutt Space. Still, despite that example, others like Blotus had existed throughout history. Always a minority among the Hutts, and never quite morally aligned the same way humans and near-humans tended to be. There were, nevertheless, Hutts that outright hated the way their own species behaved. Most were Hutts that had been raised away from Hutt Space, and many of them were very odd individuals. Such as Geezer Odajion, who was a bass guitarist in the band Star Waver…and also apparently a member of the Underground Hyperlane, bizarrely enough.
It had apparently been Odajion who inspired Izuku and Aayla to get creative. They'd specifically sought out the odd 'white sheep' of the Hutt flock, an odd term Izuku had used, but that Master Fay had at least understood from context. Nearly a hundred Hutts, most of whom were born in the Republic, not Hutt Space, who really didn't like what their fellows got up to. All of them were legitimate business owners, and several of them were actually outright anti-slavery activists. Fewer of them were anti-drug. But Hutts didn't suffer most of the ill effects that other sentients did from drugs, so it was understandable that they couldn't muster much care on that subject.
Izuku, or rather a series of cutouts so that the Hutts had deniability, had created the beginnings of a new clan out of the group. His spymaster had used their successful businesses and the mild respect it gave them with other Hutts to good effect in helping weasel agents into critical positions in Hutt Space. Not a single one of the Hutts he recruited would cry over much if the Hutt Cartel and the major kajidics all keeled over dead, and he'd traded on that fact while helping them deal with the bad reputation of their species. They, in turn, had carefully evaluated more Hutts and recruited a few dozen more 'white sheep.'
Something which ultimately culminated in what she was witnessing today. Specifically, the leader of this new 'Hutt kajidic' shaking hands with the cautiously optimistic local Jabiim leaders. The Clan were all donating money to the greater 'Clan Project' that would become investment in Jabiim. They had been sold the needed terraforming equipment by one of Izuku's cutouts at cost, and would be using it to help tame the weather of Jabiim a bit over the next year to year and a half. After which, the environment would be settled enough for a new set of extremely profitable mining operations to get underway.
The locals would get a 25 percent interest in those mines, along with providing a lot of the local labor. Meanwhile, many of the Hutts would be moving operations to the planet, setting up everything from a massive new hospital (eleven of the 167 Hutts involved were doctors!) to industrial complexes that could make use of some of the ore locally. A spaceport would be going in even before the mining operations, so whatever ores weren't used locally could be sold off through shipping interests a few of the Hutts owned.
Shockingly, while the Hutts had been shrewd negotiators, they'd settled for a fair deal. One which Fay had been in the odd position of negotiating on behalf of the locals for. The Hutts had even been quite complementary of how professional she'd looked in her business suit. Though seeing one of the Hutts in an extremely fancy one had been a very odd experience…
... ... ... ... ... ...
A/N: So, this chapter was IMPORTANT in that it helped show the prep work that Izuku and Co put into this effort even more than the fleet build up did. They haven't just invaded Hutt Space and hoped for the best. They also arranged for slave revolts both within and without Hutt Space, with the intention of both securing their strategic position AND disrupting the Hutt's attempts to respond.
I also showed, with Ryloth, that they haven't ONLY been working on the one angle. Also, that I haven't casually forgotten bits of my own foreshadowing :-p. Cutting off one source of slavery, that just so happens to be a project Aayla would love to get behind and push, made sense. Once I puzzled out more-or-less how Ryloth seems to function, it made even more sense to arrange a sort of shadow takeover there.
A/N 2: Much like with Watto, I also choose to take a middle road with Ryloth's senator. He's disliked and bashed in a lot of fics as he's both corrupt and in Palpatine's camp. However, all actual canon evidence shows that, whatever else he might be, he actually DOES care about Ryloth. The fact that a massive boom economy and industrial overhaul for his world would also enhance his own wealth and prestige only made it more likely he'd jump onboard. The fact it also places someone in Palpatine's camp that is going to be very disruptive to anything that would hurt Izuku's interests, because of how heavily those interests are now invested into Ryloth, is also going to be interesting ;-).
A/N 3: I hope I managed to surprise a few people with why Fay needed a business suit! Jabiim reflects a couple of things. One of the most important, though, is that Izuku is still Izuku at core. He's a Hero, and the idea of blaming an entire race wholesale doesn't sit well with him. From his outsider's viewpoint, he believed there had to be 'some good in them' and went looking for it. This led to him discovering that there ARE Hutts that aren't sluggy criminals. There are very, very few of them mentioned even in the EU/Legends. But I'm with Izuku on this one in the belief that there would have to be at least SOME 'white sheep' in among them.
A/N 4: Another small note on Jabiim, for those confused. I used Jabiim's EU description, instead of the current canon one. This was less intentional than it was simply what I was familiar with for that world. It's an unusual case in how drastically different they are. The same is also true for Ryloth, where I leaned more to the EU/Legends side of things.