Chapter 87: Shadow Games
Summary: Say, what are other people up to?
Warning! Chapters 83-87 were all posted back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any!
Chapter 87: Shadow Games
Plo Koon was, once again, actually quite grateful for his mask. He had long, long ago gotten used to the need to wear the antiox mask on most worlds, able even without the Force to largely ignore it's physical presence. The fact that he'd equally long ago modified it to also filter pollution and unpleasant scents, instead of just the oxygen that was poisonous to all Kel Dor, was what frequently made him outright grateful for the need to wear it.
Ubrikkia was not exactly a pleasant world.
It was, in fact, a grimy, industrial, hell hole. One that undoubtedly smelled awful.
That fact wasn't exactly a shock. While the Ubrikkia system was currently technically independent, it had been effectively under the control of the Hutts for the last 5,000 years or so, give or take another millennium or two. At times, when the size of their space had waxed, it had been officially part of Hutt Space. At other times, it had fallen under the control of everything from pirates to Darth Revan's Sith Empire.
The underlying truth, though, buried below the ruler-of-the-day, was that it was effectively a Hutt World. Something evidenced by the fact that the sprawling umbrella company of Ubrikkian Industries, which included everything from the Ubrikkian Private Shipyards to Ubrikkian Steamworks, was managed by the Hutts. The umbrella company produced everything from sailing barges and landspeeders, to the personal yachts used by many Hutts. Being perhaps the foremost experts in the galaxy at building such to comfortably accommodate the large gastropods.
The problem, and the reason why Plo Koon was here, was that officially Ubrikkian Industries was actually a subsidiary of Kuat Drive Yards. A company that their recent peek through the Veil of the Darkside had revealed quite a few concerns about. Unfortunately, attempting to investigate Kuat itself would be the next best thing to outright impossible. Kuat Drive Yards, for all intents and purposes, was the Kuati government. Oh, they had a ruling class. But the original ten families that were the top of that ruling class had started out as merchant families, 25,000 or so years ago near the very founding of the Republic. Their entire purpose in the founding and terraforming of the planet had been with the express and explicit intent of forming the 'biggest and most influential' shipbuilding concern in the galaxy.
Something they'd honestly succeeded at. Frankly, only CEC even came close to matching the sheer tonnage produced by Kuat, and not even they matched Kuat Drive Yards' output if you started considering all of KDYs subsidiaries like Ubrikkian Industries. It also, unfortunately, meant that everything important that was Kuati, was linked to the yards.
Eighty percent of their system population lived and worked on the orbital rings, the nobles all held positions or interests within KDY, and all of them were covered by KDY's insane internal security. Kuati security could and would bribe, blackmail, assassinate, or orbitally bombard anyone trying to poke to deeply into the system itself. They were, almost without question, the single most dangerous corporate security the entire galaxy over. Which, of course, also meant they had one of the most dangerous interstellar espionage services almost as an accidental byproduct.
Which left the best avenue to try and investigate Kuat Drive Yards to be directing your efforts at the subsidiaries. The fact that Ubrikkian Industries was also effectively Hutt-operated only made them a doubly good target of the moment. With Hutt Space currently a mess, the Hutts here wouldn't be getting the usual support from their Kajidics. Add in the fact that the entire system was wildly stirred up with a slowly mobilizing Fleet, one almost certainly intended to help the Hutts, with dozens upon dozens of mercenary ships moving through the system? Well, even someone as high-profile as a member of the Jedi Council hadn't had much difficulty slipping into onto the planet under these circumstances.
Now, how to go about getting to the Ubrikkian Industries mainframe was a bigger issue. The solution, of course, was something the late Qui-Gon Jinn might well have approved of. His challenge to the Council that they were ignoring the regular people of the galaxy too much, and the resulting mission to the planet of Kwenn to attempt to address his challenge, had taught Plo a few important lessons. Not all of the Council had learned from the experience, with some like Master Tiin mostly lamenting the amount of work that piled up on larger tasks while they were gone. Plo, however, had fully understood Master Jinn's point, and learned from the experience.
While it hadn't been the main point, one of the things he had learned was that the galaxy actually rested on the willingness of the lower classes to accept their positions in life. Which, if those positions got bad enough, would quickly become less and less true. Given this was a Hutt world and he was set on infiltrating a Hutt controlled business, he suspected he wasn't going to have any trouble finding some discontent workers to help him out…
… … …
Palpatine was, for the first time in a while, pleased with something regarding the irritating speed bump that was the League of Free Stars. Oh, he'd made use of their movements, of course. Everything, even the unexpected, could always be made to serve his ends. Such as with the modifications to the ORD defense fleet laws and agreements that he'd pushed through. Those fleets being brought back up to something realistically useful would mean he didn't need to hobble the opening blows of the Separatists nearly as much when they came, and the resulting greater number of deaths would only empower the Dark Side and the Veil.
The League itself, however, had continued to be irritatingly good at information security. Even shifting a few of his better assets, led in this case by Kinman Doriana, had failed to meaningfully penetrate the League's security. Unbelievably, the entire League seemed to be using some sort of novel communication method, instead of relying on the holonet, meaning the taps the Sith had long ago put into the holonet system were useless. It was a revelation that had at least partially explained how their military buildup had been hidden so well and for so long.
Longer term efforts had born only middling fruit. The sheer number of sentients pouring into Tythe and Hutt Space to help in the Crusade meant his agents had little trouble slipping some people of their own in…but the League was showing good sense in keeping the new acquisitions from anything critical. In time, some of their plants would work their way upward in the League's various services. But for now, that wasn't a useful source of information. Worse, the League's own people had been formed from sources that meant they were remarkably loyal. So simply offering bribes wasn't getting very many useful bites either.
Padmé Amidala had once again proven herself useful, however.
While he was still annoyed at how well the little chit had managed to parley her personal connection with this 'Sovereign Midoriya' into a much larger power bloc than she should have had access to, she still hadn't realized he was no friend of hers. It had been hilariously easy to convince her to add the idea of a 'Judiciary Interpol' to her agenda for her unexpected recall to the League for negotiations. Now, he'd just gotten confirmation from her that some form of that idea would be going forward, even if the details were still limited.
Perfect.
The Judicial Forces of the Republic had been one of the first places he'd focused on 'clearing of corruption,' once he'd taken office. Which meant, of course, that he'd replaced all the key figures with people that answered entirely to himself. Some directly, and others through numerous cutouts. It would be child's play to make sure that the various investigators tracking 'criminals' into Hutt Space were his own agents, and those agents would give him a clear look at what was going on inside that region. Not to mention that their own interaction with the forces of the League would give them plenty of access to plant spyware and find blackmail to turn more assets still.
Yes, that insipid little bitch had given him the perfect opening to pry into the League's secrets, at last. Now, it was only a matter of time before he knew all he needed to…
… … …
Anakin had to admit there was a certain satisfaction in seeing a senator arrested. He wasn't really one to follow politics all that much, but the reasons weren't quite what he was sure Obi-wan thought they were. It wasn't that he was uninterested, so much as that he found their complexity frustrating. It was, beyond anyone else, the politicians that made simple solutions impossible. It was politics that stopped the Jedi Order from tackling the slave trade. It was politics that forced the Jedi to toe the line and not interfere when they saw blatant corruption happening on various Core Worlds. Even on Coruscant itself, where the Order itself was based!
He left politics alone because they were not conductive to his calm.
Which, considering that calm had never exactly been an easy thing for him, was something he felt was simple common sense on his part. Or, at least, it had been. For now, at last, the Jedi Order seemed to be moving on a lot of the corruption it had strongly suspected existed but had stayed its hand on looking too deep into. The results were evidenced before him now as soon-to-be-former Senator Ronet Coorr was led out to a Judiciary Ship in cuffs.
It wasn't enough, not all by itself, but he also knew that he and Obi-wan were only one of dozens of teams that had been sent out to deal with similar situations. Maybe, if they took a big enough bite out of the corruption in the Senate, something would actually get done. It was even possible, if still highly unlikely, that some of those simple solutions might become possible.
He'd still really rather be out running Hutts through with his lightsaber, though…
… … …
Pre Vizsla wasn't one overly given to smiling. Yet, as he saw the new ships, filled with new recruits for the death watch, that their latest payment from the Hutts had brought them, he allowed himself one. It was hidden by his helmet, of course. But he knew it was there, and he reveled in the fact he felt like smiling at all. The price for their actions, first on Tythe and then in Hutt Space on Jilrua, had been high, but entirely worthwhile.
The loss of Bo-Katan was more annoying than a serious issue. Her presence as a political tool against her sister had been potentially very useful. Mandalorians, even those stupid karking pacifists that didn't deserve the name, were very family oriented. The fact that Satine's own sister thought she was so out of line that Bo-Katan had jointed the Death Watch to oppose her had been a striking point. One he'd even used to sway a few coverts and clan leaders in the wake of her very Mandalorian death. Yet, in truth, the girl had been nothing special, and the two million credits they'd gotten for managing to hit a military manufacturing complex on Tythe itself had been a massive boon.
Those credits had been enough to land the majority of the Death Watch on Jilrua, where they'd managed to outright push the League off the world, giving them a bloody nose in the process. It was the first time anyone had done that. So far, the only time, in point of fact. To say that the Hutts had paid them gloriously well for that victory would be an understatement. The world had since seen too much reinforcement to try to hold onto, but the fact the League had been forced back had proven they weren't invulnerable. Moreover, it had been a public enough victory that many of the more cautious merc groups, cowards that had balked at the high death tolls that were coming out of Hutt Space conflicts, had started to fold under the offers of huge amounts of credits.
Most of the scum were barely cannon fodder, of course. But even cannon fodder had its worth, and Pre could easily see what the Hutts were up to. They were using their fortunes to whittle away and grind down their attackers. Attackers who, for all their success, had captured less than fifty worlds within Hutt Space. Given that the Hutts held somewhere close to eight hundred, by his best intelligence, and influenced far more, the League were still punching out of the weight class. The rest of the galaxy might not realize that yet, but they would soon enough.
In the meantime, Pre would find more targets to blood the Death Watch on. All while building up the Fleet he needed to pull the rug out from under Satine. The squadron of Fang Fighters they'd just gotten, along with the half dozen Kom'rk transports, were a nice start in that direction. Soon enough, they'd have enough people and enough firepower that the pathetic 'security services' of the Duchess wouldn't be able to stop them.
Mandalore would be theirs. Sooner, rather than later.
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A/N 1: A chapter focused on showing bits and pieces of what is going on outside Hutt Space and the Crusade. While I don't want to drag the focus away too much, it's still needed to see how the ripples of Izuku and Co's actions are effecting the greater schemes of many. The Jedi are going far more active, some of Palpatines tools are being shifted or eliminated, we get a little peek inside Anakin's head. Etc. We even get a minor villain setup with Pre Vizsla, who is going to make a nuisance of himself for SOMEONE. It's just a matter of for who...
A/N 2: Yeah, you probably know this bit by now. Once per release, I point out that I have a Page with Early Access content. In example, I just released chapters 88-92 of Displaced Hero there, adding just shy of another 15,000 words which will remain in Early Access until next month. Similarly, there are at least a few Early Access chapters there for ALL of my stories, though NONE of them are ever permanently paywalled. All fanfiction content I make ends up here (or on Fanfiction.net and Questionable Questing) eventually, as new content for each story is released. Typically, there are around 45,000-60,000 words of additional early access content for patrons. As well as chances to vote in polls that influence which stories are updated, pairings, and other such things.