Chapter 61: Pause for Breath

Summary: Tits!

...What, that's totally a partial summary of this chapter, despite the fact there's no lemon! You'll see! Also some politics stuff. But boobies are always more interesting, right?

Warning! Chapters 59-62 were all posted back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Chapter 61: Pause for Breath

—Orbit of Nal Hutta—

Izuku rubbed his eyes, trying with only moderate success to banish the ache in them. He'd been back aboard the Knight Errant for close to twelve hours, and spent virtually all of it getting a handle on both current operations and the galactic reaction to events so far. To say it was a mixed bag, at best, was a bit of an understatement. Though more in the sense of sheer quantity and complexity than good or bad. The immediate effects on trade with the various businesses he was known to own was, all on its own, a headache and a half. Some businesses were booming more strongly than ever as planets and individuals that approved of their actions or hated the Hutts were abruptly all but throwing deals and opportunities their way. Other places, there had already been sanctions or attacks on his people, though only as local reactions so far. Most of them illegal and easily dealt with by security.

Honestly, Izuku was grateful he'd largely stopped personal management of that side of things. Aside from some feelers that were more political than business, Borgan Trillian had a handle on that side. Honestly, the Chagrian almost seemed giddy, if also a little harassed. He clearly enjoyed the challenge and opportunities laid out before him. Like the business matters, the political issues were being winnowed by several people before reaching him. Governor Azatha Vy of Tythe and Esa Rotsino were the point women on that side of events. The latter was one of the most important additions they'd made to the Liberty Council in the build up to taking on the Hutts.

Esa was a first cousin of Senator Esu Rotsino, who represented their homeworld of Abrion Major in the Republic Senate, and Esa had a similar level of political acumen to her cousin. Abrion Major was even closer to Hutt Space than Tythe and hadn't exactly been treated well by the Republic. The agriworld was very grateful for his businesses various ventures. Partially because he had set up an alterative option to sell their production via his shipping conglomerates rather than the core world groups that had been utterly screwing them for decades. That his businesses had also been more than happy to sell industrial equipment to help the world diversify, and defense systems to protect from Hutt Space based pirate and slave raids, only made them even more firmly-if-quietly in Izuku's camp. They had thus been one of the places where the Liberty Council went quietly looking for recruits with the right skills, and they'd been more than satisfied when they'd found Esa.

The woman had rapidly proven herself a godsend as she got the Liberty Council ready for the galactic battering ram of politics that was going to be heading their way. She'd virtually single-handedly created an official PR team, vetted and hired dozens of exceptionally talented lawyers, and was even now handling a lot of the initial chaos their actions were causing. Frankly, he dreaded to think how badly they'd be flubbing the political side without her. Even so, as the official head-of-state equivalent, he was going to have to make some statements and field some holocalls eventually. Which was not something he looked forward to. Even if he could currently put it off a bit longer by the perfectly legitimate argument that he was a bit busy running a war. One that didn't in any way involve Republic territory, thank you very much.

A war that was currently going quite well. Shockingly enough, it was the least complicated part of what he'd spent the last twelve hours working through. While Izuku had finished with Nal Hutta, Admiral Rana and Aayla had been busy. They'd had a less-than-ideal result at Kintan, but not an outright failure. Presented with a large fleet and the in-progress conquering of Nal Hutta, a lot of Nikto had been eager to revolt against the Hutts. The Kintan government, however, had not been. After all, they'd been put in power by the Hutts.

The results had been chaotic as, even before the combined Second and Third Fleets had arrived, Kintan had devolved into a state of civil war. Enough of the Kintan military had sided with the 'rebellion' to prevent it from being immediately squished, and Admiral Lin had quickly disabled the loyalist fleets. Currently, a relatively small task force was holding the system and supplying the rebellion there with support, while the rest of Second and Third Fleets had moved on to other secondary objectives. For that matter, a solid third of First Fleet had been dispatched toward those secondary objectives as well.

For good reason.

Klatooine, Vodran, Kintan, and Nal Hutta had been among the largest concerns that their strategic and tactical think-tanks had been worried about. There had been very sound reasoning in going after those worlds first, but there were also problems with the approach. Specifically, the fact that the three slave worlds were nearly to the far northern edge of Hutt Space, while Nal Hutta was more centrally located. It wasn't truly central. That honor belonged to the Hutt throneworlds within the Bootana Hutta subsector. Throneworlds which each belonged to a major Hutt Kajidic. Those kajidics being essentially clans or groups of clans that operated a business empire or criminal syndicate together.

The throneworlds each very likely had their own defense fleets, as they were the true heart of the kajidics power, even if Nal Hutta had been home to most of the overarching Hutt Council. Certainly, the Hutt fortress worlds of Gos Hutta and Mulatan which guarded the entrances to Bootana Hutta were known to have actual fleets of Hutt warships. And no one aside from the Hutts really knew what they had in that subsector in general. No one who wasn't a Hutt or a slave ever went there.

Izuku and the rest of the strategic minds of the League of Free Stars would have really liked to aim for those fortress worlds early on, in order to bottle up whatever was in Bootana Hutta. Sadly, that wasn't in the cards just yet. No, what they needed to do, what their fleets had actively been doing already while Izuku sorted out Nal Hutta, was secure the systems along the Ootmian Pabol, Pabol Kreeta, and Pabol Sleheyran hyperspace routes that connected the four systems they'd taken initially. To that end, Admiral Rana was busy seizing Nar Kreeta. It was a major trade world, with its own defenses, though not ones that would be able to stop her fleet from taking the world. Meanwhile, Aayla had stopped at Sleheyron itself, another trade world and one of the economic powerhouses of Hutt Space. It too had enough defenses to put up a fight, but fewer than Nar Kreeta. Nimban, situated between the two, would need taking at some point, but was a far more minor world that wouldn't be too troublesome to leave alone for the time being.

Meanwhile, the third of First Fleet that had broken off had headed out of Hutt Space. Specifically, they were back tracking the route that Izuku's sneaky Jedi navigators had let them run without being spotted. Rorak had been taken without a fight, and Circumtore was soon to fall. As one of the entry points to Hutt Space, Circumtore had decent defenses, but the part of First Fleet assigned to it had been shored up by reserves dispatched from Tythe. It would fall relatively quickly unless something went wrong, giving them a logistics route from the edges of Hutt Space to Nal Hutta. Their entire strategy was fragile, in a way, reliant on a fast campaign to secure a direct line almost entirely through Hutt Space from Galactic South to North. They had deemed it the best plan for their long-term strategic goals, however, as letting the immense ground forces from Vodran, Klatooine, and Kintan weigh in on the war would have made a difficult war outright impossible.

So far, it was going well, and…Izuku's brain shut off as he opened his eyes. He'd heard Asora bringing him more dataslates, and opened his mouth to thank her, only to stop and stare at her outfit. His personal assistant was, for reasons his brain was currently not capable of imagining, dressed in a reverse bunnygirl outfit. He'd long failed to convince her not to use the Bunnygirl Office Version, as she referred to her uniform as, but this was a considerable escalation. Instead of most of her torso being covered and her long shapely legs uncovered, the reverse was true. Her arms and legs were covered in a latex light set of thigh-highs and sleeves, but the rest of her…

Technically, his sexy Mirialan secretary's most intimate bits were covered. A pair of pasties in the shape of hearts were applied to cover her nipples, and a minuscule style of panties called a C-string, which he'd only ever seen on Aayla before, just barely concealed her lower apex. That didn't do a single thing about the fact that, aside from those threadbare pretensions, the rest of her was entirely uncovered from mid-thigh to choker. Given that his PA had exactly the sort of figure you'd expect out of a former dancer for the Lucky Rabbit, there was a lot of tight, toned body uncovered. Suffice it to say, there was a good reason for the abrupt shift of blood flow priorities that had short circuited Izuku's brain. An issue that wasn't helped as she winked at him and slowly spun to show off an adorably fluffy tail held in place by mysterious means, that only drew additional attention to one of her best physical assests.

"Do you like my new working uniform, sir~? Aayla suggested it! It's quite comfy, I have to say, and she thought you'd need a pick-me-up while you slogged through data-hell!"

Izuku wasn't even mildly embarrassed to admit that it took long seconds for him to drag his tired brain away from the distraction in front of him, in order to process that set of sentences. When he finally did, he wasn't sure if he wanted to kiss Aayla or spank her. No, that wasn't true. He absolutely wanted to do the second option. When she was riled enough, Aayla enjoyed being spanked, after all. So it could be a perfect mix of punishment and reward, suitable for this stunt, if he did it right by only arranging for her to be riled up that far after he started the spanking. Shaking himself from that extremely pleasant daydream before his brain could add Asora to the list of people that needed such a spanking, he leveled an extremely half-hearted glare at his grinning assistant.

"As much as I do enjoy the view, don't you think it might be a tad unprofessional when you have to take calls?"

Asora giggled at the slight blush as he admitted to liking the view, but then shook her head.

"Nope! Watch!"

His assistant tapped some invisible control at her collar…and Izuku blinked as her entire outfit shimmered and shifted. Aside from the bunny ears, which apparently weren't part of whatever this was, the rest of her outfit warped and changed until it had reconfigured to the 'sexy secretary' look that Asora usually favored when she had to do more than just personal and private work for Izuku. An otherwise professional looking blouse and skirt combo that was just a little too tight and a little too short respectively to call truly professional office wear. It was close enough that he'd never pushed her on it, knowing she enjoyed teasing more than just him. Particularly given that the 'sexy secretary' outfit was a considerable step better than the Lucky Rabbit dancer lookalike bunnygirl costume she'd tailored to pretend was 'office wear.' An outfit she still insisted on wearing on any day she knew he didn't have physical appointments to manage.

"See! Mei-Mei totally wanted someone to test it out! It's some sort of holosuit that she thought up for the spooks, but it needs a test drive for prolonged use! It actually looks like…"

Asora touched her collar again, shutting off the hologram that was displaying over her body. The result was a full-body suit that was, in anything, ever-so-slightly less modest than the bunnygirl outfit had been. It was utterly skintight, to the point that Izuku was abruptly quite knowledgeable about the exact shape of his assistant's nipples and lower lips. As Izuku got over the newest surprise, mentally adding Mei to the people that needed a spanking, he managed to tear his gaze away from the interesting bits and note that there were several thicker portions of the suit with what looked like tiny holo-emitters embedded.

"I've worn less at some of my jobs in the past, of course! But this is, as I said, actually quite comfy. Mei managed to make it breathe nicely in all the right places. Though I might need an extra long break to take care of myself halfway through the day~."

Grinning not-at-all-repentantly, his secretary languidly reached for her collar again, tapping buttons he could now see, causing the holo disguise to return back to the bunnygirl configuration.

"There you go, boss! Fun for me, eye candy for you, and a practical test for Mei-Mei! Oh, but enough about that, I actually have something important for you!"

Blithely moving on from her outfit commentary before Izuku could come up with any form of objection, she held out a single data slate that hadn't been set down on his desk. Curious what she'd held back from the regular queue and why, he accepted it as she explained.

"I know you're mostly letting Miss Rotsino deflect official attention at the moment, but this particular political request came in over your private comm, instead of through the official channels on Tythe. Given who it's from, I figured you were going to want to reply to it sooner, rather than later. Honestly, she's pretty cute when she'd clearly pissed but trying not to show it!"

Baffled, Izuku keyed through the security on the slate, then snorted as he discovered who it was from. Yes, he supposed Senator Amidala was likely quite cross with him. All while, most likely, trying not to cheer about what he was accomplishing. Smirking as he imagined how conflicted she likely was at the moment, he thanked his assistant…who winked and sauntered out of the room, hips swaying in a way that was most certainly intentional. Sighing, he realized she'd distracted him in just the right moment to prevent him from bringing up the outfit, meaning he'd tacitly agreed to let her keep using it. Oh well, he couldn't say that it wasn't something to look forward to amidst all the data-work he was going to be stuck with as everything played out.

... ...

Izuku leaned back in his chair a little bit later. He'd watched Senator Amidala's message through, twice. Partially because Asora was right, Padmé was cute when trying to control her conflicting desires to strangle someone and cheer them on. That was a secondary thing, though. Mostly, he'd been carefully considering the opportunity presented. Strictly speaking, they already had a friendly senator that they could speak to, in the form of Esu Rotsino. Abrion Major was the sector capital of, shockingly enough, the Abrion Sector. A sector of space that was, not at all incidentally, the most populous of the three minor sectors that lie between Tythe and Hutt Space. All three of those sectors had, at one point or another, been part of Hutt Space. With many of the planets in them still effectively controlled in one way or another by the Hutts.

The truth was, though, that the Abrion Sector was one of the many Outer Rim territories that had little to no influence in the Senate. Senator Amidala, on the other hand, represented a Mid Rim sector that, despite being relatively lightly populated, was fairly influential. A significant part of that influence came from the fact that the current Supreme Chancellor was from Naboo, and had built his power base from the Chommell Sector senate seat. The fact that the sector had gotten considerably richer in the intervening years, due to Izuku's own operations, had only helped the senators that followed him in that seat remain relevant. Padmé was currently still a newcomer, with minimal personal connections. But she was riding a senate seat that people paid attention to.

That presented both an opportunity and a risk all at once.

The opportunity, of course, was obvious. If he used Senator Amidala as a connection to the Republic, she would be in a position to actually make the Senate listen, rather than just make high-handed decisions that could ruin everything. At the very least, there was a real chance they could buy time in which to make what they were doing in Hutt space too much a fait accompli before the Republic could act. Military intervention had never been an option for the Senate, of course. The Republic didn't have enough of a military to do that. But they could make themselves extremely annoying by throwing sanctions at his legitimate business operations in Republic Space. Worse, they could try and deny him legal passage through sectors like Abrion.

It most likely wouldn't work, of course. He'd made a point of courting the right people in those sectors. They'd boosted a lot of failing or hurting worlds until they were very much friendly to him and his operations. Abrion Major was only one such example. Sucharme, in the Grohl sector was another agriworld that he'd given similar financial and industrial support to, helping them push out the Trade Federation that was screwing them over in the process. The Arkanis sector, whatever the Republic might think, was effectively still Hutt Space. Its 'Sector Capital' was meaningless, the real influence in the region having been held by the Desilijic and Besadii kajidics, operating out of Tatooine. With reports from A'Shaard Hett that both Jabba and Gardulla were dead and Tatooine now effectively under control of an allied power, the Republic wasn't going to convince anyone else in the Arkanis Sector to get in the way, either.

It would still be annoying, though, as they could undoubtedly try to lean on minor systems to 'officially' deny him passage. They wouldn't actually be able to stop said passage entirely, but it would be a pretext for pissed off members of the Republic to try freezing or seizing his assets. He'd prepared for that, making sure that a not insignificant chunk of his and Tythe's income was either protected by direct planet-to-planet treaties…or simply not in his name at all. The Republic couldn't interfere with such treaties, not having that much centralized authority after the Ruusan Reformation. And they'd be troubled to even find a lot of the more clandestine businesses, let alone prove he or Tythe owned them.

Accepting Senator Amidala's proposal, using her as an intermediary between a 'foreign power' and the Republic, would give him a chance to fight that sort of thing. A better one than if he went through Senator Rotsino, certainly. There was, however, an obvious flipside and risk. By accepting a diplomatic connection with the Republic at all, it would signal that he actually gave a Flying Lunar Wedgie about the Republic's opinion on what he was doing at all. That, at least, is how the Republic-centric Senate would see it. It would be seen by all too many as an invitation to meddle.

Which Izuku didn't want.

He, after all, didn't care about the Republic's opinion of what he was doing. The League's current stance was that this was a war between two Extra-Republic powers, in which the Republic had no legal say. A stance he wouldn't be giving up, even if he did accept a connection to the Senate so that they could have some sort of way to express their approval or disapproval. The question was if it was worth the headache of having to repeatedly and frequently say, if you'd excuse his Miruko-influenced phrasing, 'fuck off.' Possibly more politely, but certainly with considerable feeling. Was the potential to benefit great enough to deal with the irritation?

Unwillingly, Izuku's eyes slid from the dataslate containing Padmé's message, to an entire pile of such slates he'd set aside after skimming. They were important, just not immediately so. On them were the reports about a steadily increasing inrush of…recruits? Supporters, might be a better word. Whatever the right word was, there wasn't any escaping the fact that Tythe was reporting significant numbers of people already streaming into the star system wanting to help against the Hutts. Which hadn't been unexpected, exactly. But Izuku had certainly not thought to see the numbers that were appearing, barely three days into their war. More to the point, he hadn't expected so many of them to be representatives of larger groups that had been rushed ahead.

Izuku rather strongly suspected he needed to have words with the head of their intelligence service, as it was clear to him that the Bith in question had carefully leaked information that something big was about to go down. To the man's credit, the Hutts clearly hadn't had a clue. But there was virtually no other way that, for example, a group of Wookiees claiming to represent eleven different clans, had all appeared two days into the assault. Each of them claiming they represented anywhere from fifty to seven hundred Wookiee warriors that wanted a piece of the 'slaving scum.'

Wookiee hatred of slavers was legendary, and the Hutts were second only to the Trandoshans in the groups of people virtually their entire species had a hate boner for. Some of them trickling in wasn't unexpected. Near enough to 5,000 of them already reporting they were ready and eager to fight on Day 2 of the invasion was a little more suspicious. To say the least. Nor were they the only such case, of course. Numerous groups with connections to the Underground Hyperlane had popped up on Tythe, already geared up for a fight. Which, Izuku supposed, he probably should have seen coming. You know, given that they'd recruited their spymaster away from the Underground in the first place.

Donations and promises were also already piling up. The Hutts had 25,000 years worth of enemies out there, and those enemies weren't exactly being quiet about the fact that someone had assaulted and conquered Nal Hutta itself. For every screaming diatribe from some Republic businessman or politician they were getting, they were getting ten promises of monetary or material support from people and governments alike. No one liked the Hutts. The Hutts were simply good for business among the corrupt.

Sighing, Izuku realized that it was worth the effort. The fundamental problem with this not-so-little war had been, from the start, the sheer amount of money, material, and bodies they were going to need. Using Padmé's offer as a way to at least partially control the narrative within the Republic for as long as possible would be virtually certain to pay off in all three of those areas. Still, he would send Padmé's message and his own thoughts off to Esa first. She would have a better idea than him on exactly how to word a response…

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

A/N: Despite their byplay, I don't really intend to have Asora get involved with Izuku and Aayla. Aside from perhaps some lite voyeurism or some such. Instead, I'm seriously considering having her get involved with one of Padme's handmaidens, assuming Padme gets 'involved' with Izuku and Aayla. Her showing off/teasing like this is simply part of Asora's personality.