I suppress my murderous rage as I march down the descending ramp of my shuttle, locking eyes with the target of my ire. The Colonel, and damn it all of course Coruscant would put a damn Colonel in charge of the entire 4th Assault Corps for its garrison duty on Raxus, tries to keep up a stoic facade, but I can see the small twitches of fear. I gesture for her to follow me, ignoring usual protocol, as I march through the halls of the former Exarch’s palace. Chain and Dudd keep quiet as they march alongside me. The silence of an approaching storm.

  Finally we end up in an isolated meeting room where I finally unleash the built up anger of two entire weeks into a freezing cold hiss: “You lost Exarch Singh?”

  “Yes, sir.” Comes the Colonel’s reply.

  “I … wish to read to you a list of your achievements while on Raxus.” I decide to follow my recently favored approach to this damnable mess, “Firstly, you decide that armored patrols of AT-RT walkers were necessary, I can almost understand that. Then you decide to dedicate the limited Engineering Companies under your command to build up roadblocks and rebuild the palace after my direct subordinate over the Tion Hegemony and various other Tionese Sectors ordered you to prioritize critical civilian infrastructure. When the people protested over the heavy handedness and lack of sympathy, that not even the droids managed when they ruled here, you decided to block them with Saber tanks, AT-TE walkers and threatened to shoot if they rioted. Why would you even REMIND THEM THAT ARMED RESISTANCE WAS AN OPTION!?”

  “Sir-” She tries.

  “But no!” I cry out, throwing my hands up in the air, “Your heavy handed tactics resulted in an uptick of armed resistance, a twelve percent increase of off duty soldiers getting beaten and fifteen Clone deaths! And what did you do next? When Vice Admiral Sykes was pulled away to negotiate the surrender of a Separatist holdout in the central Tion Cluster? Come now, tell me.”

  “I ordered the responsible hanged.” She answers.

  “You hanged thirty men without trial!” I exclaim, “You hanged thirty men, whose innocence you cannot convince me you were not at least suspicious of, and finally did something slightly sensible far too fucking late and enacted a curfew!”

  I take a pause to try and recenter myself: “Too little too late, Colonel. When the people protested again, peacefully mind you, against the curfew and our occupation, you dolled up the Exarch and Senator of Raxus and had him give an in person speech. And what did he do?”

  “He caused a riot!”

  “YOU caused a riot.” I bellow, “Maker I cannot believe this, Singh may have been the final nail in the coffin, but the damn thing was already halfway into the sands by the time you tried to fix things. Maker be praised no one died in the following riots.”

  “It showed the prudence of deploying our AT-TE walkers in a preventative manner.” She tries.

  “It shows that this crowd was not filled with insurgents willing to spill innocent blood.” I counter, “And then, you lose the Senator.”

  “He was rescued!” She tries, “By mercenaries!”

  “Which if I read your report and the reports of your subordinates correctly, disabled two AT-TE walkers and downed over a platoons’ worth of men.” I sum the mess up, “Honestly I wish those mercs had done worse, at least then I wouldn’t have needed this damn meeting. Could have simply reported your death and been done with your incompetence. However I am not so lucky, so instead here is what will happen. You are being court martialed and sent off to Lantillies for trial. This level of incompetence has to either be endangering of our efforts or outright treasonous. Either way you should be demoted, dishonorably discharged and likely sent off to a prison colony due to your sheer ineptitude. Clone Commander Lock, meanwhile, will act as interim Governor of Raxus until Coruscant sends your replacement. Lieutenant take her away.”

  “Wait! Wait! I can fix this!” The Colonel tries.

  I raise a hand, stopping Dudd and a spare arms-man for the moment: “Explain exactly how you plan to fix this?”

  “I … I’ll resign as governor. I’ll resign my post of the 4th Assault Corps.” She starts, “I’ll … I’ll hunt down Singh.”

  Damn, she was desperate. I sigh before speaking: “If only you had this level of motivation directed towards the improvement of this world and its reintegration into galactic society. It shows you at least had fire, but now it comes too little too late. Take her away.”

  “Yessir.” Dudd says before grabbing the Colonel by the arm, one of my arms-men grabbing the other and the men begin dragging her away.

  The door closes behind them as I turn to Chain and the remaining arms-men: “Copy down the list of supply depots we found in the Sepy Army Headquarters, then burn down the building. Nab any of Adjutants and our reprogrammed B1s that escorted us to speed it up, make sure to remove any of the droids’ memory of the events afterwards and be thorough. We’ll blame the fire on the rebels our dear Colonel provoked and her focus on setting up fortifications instead of rebuilding here. After we burned down the headquarters we’ll have enough cause to just demolish it properly later.”

  “Understood, sir.” Chain replies.

  Three months. Three months until we would try to destroy the Empire. I begin pacing my office, R4’s photoreceptor following me as I think. An attempt to turn this travesty into nothing but a footnote in the history books. Preparations had to be made. Sacrifices had to be made, I sigh. I wasn’t allowed by my co-conspirators to burn more favors on their behalf than what could easily be dismissed as self-interest. While Zsinj was practically using up every friend’s trust and patience I had been ordered to prepare in case we failed.

  I pause in my pacing. It wasn’t like I disagreed with the need for another backup plan. Better have and not need than need and not have, just like Pa’ liked to say. Did it have to be me though? It made me feel slimy. I sigh out, my train of thought not quite enough to steady my racing mind: “Damn it R4. What am I gonna do?”

  A question about what I am worried about this time.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “I feel like I’m walking into a sandstorm.” I sigh, “I fear that when they summon me to Coruscant it will be too late. I fear I will be the last survivor of a doomed cause. I fear what will happen if the Empire succeeds beyond all our hopes and fears. I’ve spent too much of my life a soldier already.”

  And months too many serving something I did not believe in.

  I pay attention to her whistles. It’s mostly empty platitudes she picked up from Ma’, but a whistle of shared concern catches my attention. She always was overly empathetic. I let out a small chuckle as I hear her advice.

  “You’re right. You usually are.” I admit, “I’ll comm Elix and Alice, they’ll at least have some decent news.”

  A small affirmative whistle as I nod to myself. Nothing was lost yet, I was worrying over nothing.

  I stare at my old man like an idiot, mouth agape as I try and formulate my thoughts. Eventually I manage something resembling a coherent sentence. “I- You- Again? I just … mind sayin’ that … another time, please?”

  My pa’ sighs in that way only parents can, both exasperated and slightly disappointed yet fully expecting this reaction nonetheless: “ We’re interested in submitting a squadron from the Fondorian Planetary Defense Force Fleeet to your command. The Ghormans, Herglic and a few more liberal Tapani worlds have also shown interest in sending their possibly soon to be nationalized defense fleets to a local known for his victories and willingness to compromise with his underlings. ”

  “I’m sorry, you, Fondor, the famously uppity Ghormans, the famously self-aggrandizing Tapani and the mostly pacifistic Herglic want to send me their ships?” I request further clarification.

  My pa’ gives me a dead eyed stare as he continues: “ Yes, enough to form three squadrons.”

  “Maker you just want to give me enough ships for a battlegroup?!” I exclaim.

  “It’s only some sixty ships in total.” Pa’ says dismissively.

  “Pa’ do you forget how many ships I started this war off with?” I ask him.

  “Didn’t you take over your old CO’s squadron? Must have been at least a dozen ships.”

  “Pa’ I love you, but I started the war with three ships under my command.” I remind him.

  Pa’ frowns before slapping his forehead: “Damn, how’d I forget that? Never mind. Yes, we’re willing to offer theses ships to one of our own, or at least one of our own that has enough influence to actually take us on.”

  “You’d probably have better luck with Zsinj.” I muse,”Easier to hide our forces in her fleet than to basically double those under my command.”

  “It’ll be so obvious they won’t notice the smaller moves we’ll be doing too. A squadron to Zsinj’s logistical department to work as escorts, a couple ships to a relatively trusted Tapani Commodore, another two squadrons to Fleet Admiral Grant, maybe a few ships go missing during a patrol, blamed on the Seps, it’ll all add up to maybe a quarter of our defense fleets being in trusted hands outside of our polities’ direct command.”

  “Your going as far as activating the old pirate protocols?” I ask.

  “No, just the preparation for activating them. Not even sure if we’ll actually do the preparation stage itself with how closely the ISB is riding our collective ass.” My father backpedals.

  “Well … I’ll see about pulling some strings I have on Coruscant. My rank does usually come with the assumption of actually having a Fleet.”

  “Well either way, I’m sure you’ll do us proud.”

  I roll my eyes at that: “Sure pa’. Tell ma’ and everyone else I say hi.”

  “I’ll be sure to do so. Love ya, kid.”

  “Love ya too, old man.”

  My father rolls his eyes at that before the transmission goes cold.

  I drum my fingers against the glass as I avoid looking directly at Fleet Admiral Honor. She was in a bit of a mood, the months of maneuvers from within her faction were making her suspicious of a couple of my co-conspirators. She hadn’t outright said anything, but over the last three years or so that I had known her, I was starting to get pretty decent at reading her.

  “You want a Fleet?” She asks.

  “Well … it would be appropriate. I know the main reason I got my rank in the first place was so that I had the authority to command the forces of Operation Vengeance, but it’s been months since the end of the war and Taskforce Vengeance’s dissolution. I understand that more forces are being allocated to the Southern Theater and Serenno Theater, because that’s where we think most of the major holdouts are,” partially thanks to me downplaying Sy Myrth, “but we cannot forget the various holdouts in the Tion Cluster.”

  “No, that we cannot. Especially with a firebrand like Singh escaping.” She agrees, “Though I am not sure how many ships I could gather for you. With so many ships being disassembled and recycled for parts … well the budget is rather tight.”

  “I … technically have two thirds of the forces I need.” I say, making her raise an eyebrow.

  “Where? Vice Admiral Sykes’s 387th does not count, Dericote.”

  “No of course not. Not unless he agreed to it anyhow.” I agree, “I was speaking with my father, apparently a not inconsiderable number of the worlds in the Rimma Trade Split are interested in supplying a battlegroup’s worth of ships to me.”

  “What?” Honor asks, her face betraying her confused state.

  “That was my reaction.” I say with a chuckle before taking a sip from the whiskey, “Apparently there’s a bit of worry about the Empire nationalizing their defense fleets. Yes I know that the Republic already did so, but the Ghormans and Fondor have extra autonomy in their membership agreements which partially protect their defense fleets. The Herglic technically only have their exploratory forces that do double duty of planetary defense, and the private forces of the various Tapani worlds are always a bit of a gray area on account of them belonging to the noble families instead of the various worlds or states the nobles rule.”

  “And they just want to … give their forces to the Empire? No further guarantees for them handing over their men? No negotiations, no stressing the Navy and diplomatic corps?” Honor asks, trying to find the angle.

  “No, as far as I can tell it is to ensure, at least temporarily, that it’s someone who understands various cultural practices and is willing to respect and understand their … political interests.” I say.

  “So keeping their autonomy in all but name.” Honor says, then considers it a moment longer, “I can agree to supporting this, but I am also concerned they will not be giving you useful ships.”

  “Let me grab the list real quick.” I request to which I get a nod. I fish around for the right datapad before scrolling down to the appropriate pages, “There we go. A full Fondorian Planetary Defense Force Fleet squadron consisting of three Dreadnought M4-M heavy cruisers, nine Hammerhead cruisers and twelve Sphyrna class hammerhead corvettes. The Ghormans are willing to separate with their 1st Defense Section consisting of an M4-I Dreadnought and three Carrack light cruisers. The Tapani that were interested have a combined force of eight Dreadnoughts, consisting of a M4-M Command Dreadnought, three M4-M Dreadnoughts, four M4-I Dreadnoughts and four Pelta transports. Then the Herglic have offered up seven Explorator class frigates, a trio of Caravan class corvettes and six Pelta transports.”

  “Aren’t the Explorators and Caravans rather outdated?” Honor asks.

  “Yes ma’am.” I reply, “From what I’ve been told they’re about nine hundred years old, but well maintained.”

  “So they were produced during one of our worst technological dark ages. Have they been updated since?”

  “No major retrofits, ma’am.”

  “Then I cannot in good conscience allow them to enter front line service. We’ll gladly take the Peltas, but request they retract the transfer of their Giju produced ships. Make sure whatever reason is very diplomatic, last thing we need is an upset member state with a major diaspora.”

  “Agreed ma’am. Though that does cut into the picket line and transport escorts of the formation.” I say.

  “Then I’ll see about replacing them with the newer Nebulons that Kuat’s made.” She decides.

  “Perhaps we could still take on some more of the Herglic’s crew?” I ask, “It could placate any fears of unemployment these nationalizations of planetary defense forces seem to bring about.”

  “Not many ships are … expansive enough to comfortably fit Herglic.” She says.

  “Don’t let them hear you say that.” I reply easily. Herglic usually hated being reminded of their sheer width and heft, it’s what made many of their diaspora congregate into various Little Gijus and Herglictowns.

  “You know exactly what I mean.” My sponsor huffs.

  “I’m sure we’ll be able to make appropriate modifications to allow them to assist our crew. After all, a decently strong Herglic can usually do the menial labor of three or four men. They’d probably do good work on the pair of Invincible repair-dreadnoughts we’ve got in production.”

  “Fine, on your head be it. And you’ll be doing the negotiations on the modifications and integration of the forces you have requested.” Honor orders.

  “With pleasure ma’am.” I reply smugly.

  “Though that still leaves you a battlegroup short of a full fleet.” She says.

  “I am … considering negotiating with Vice Admiral Sykes for his battlegroup. I don’t really need a full fleet for combat purposes nowadays, I can always rally the local patrols and defense forces for that,-”

  “It’s the prestige of it. I understand, Dericote.” Honor says, to which I nod.

  “I figured I would offer him my recommendation to the Admiralty for a promotion to full Admiral and place him as second in command of the decentralized fleet.” I say.

  “Not a poor offer. And rather befitting of his taking on of the ditties of a Marshal Administrator in the north of your joint commands. I’ll have someone take a look at if we can give him something more if he takes you up on the offer.” Honor decides, “Very good. I think that just about does it for this topic, doesn’t it.”

  “Yes ma’am, thank you ma’am.” I say.

  Honor nods to herself before we give our goodbyes, the hologram going out a moment later. I nurse my glass. Something to finally make my hoarding of materials make more sense I hope. After all, if I’m about to have an influx of ships in my command, it would be expected I have enough resources to keep them all up and running if supply lines were somehow cut.

  I chuckle to myself: “Not until we’re ready.”