I wasn’t entirely sure how … useful my presence here would actually be today, it might even be detrimental. Mon Cala was attempting to negotiate the reintegration of the Free Dac Volunteer Stronghold at Argai and ensure the radicals wouldn’t continue their war over the succession rules of the Dac monarchy and government. These negotiations were preliminary in every way and yet there was a quiet optimism throughout the chambers chosen for this opening discussion as Chief Ri and King Lee-Char decided on a united front.

  The various members of the court and parliament were tittering about as I take a swig of the sparkling wine that was made in New Heurkea, the cheaper product having gained much traction during wartime trade restrictions. After all, why transport a cask of sparkling wine when it was much more practical to replace said cask with liquor for grog, bacta, machine parts or simple foodstufs. It certainly helped that this was a local, patriotic product for the Mon Calamari and Rendili descended farmers who had made it.

  “Admiral Dericote.” The King’s Iktotchi adviser says in greeting.

  “Sir Barr.” I reply.

  “An exciting day.” The Iktotchi says.

  “Personally I am hoping it won’t be.” I reply as I sip the wine from my glass.

  “We can certainly hope.” The Iktotchi says genially.

  “Is there a reason you approached me?” I ask.

  “His majesty wishes for you to meet with Mayor Raddus after today’s proceedings. He has secured a room for you both for your discussions on the Merchant Fleet.” Sir Barr says.

  “Very well, I’ll be sure to try to be sober by then.” I reply.

  “Cooperation will suit us all best.” The Iktotchi says with a wave of his hand.

  I feel something nagging at the back of my mind. Had I forgotten something? I double check my internal list and realize I had left my medals on the Little Revenge instead of wearing them today. I sigh but nod in agreement.

  “We can hope for cooperation, but guaranteeing it will be far more difficult.”

  “I am glad to hear it. Until next time, Admiral.” The Iktotchi says.

  “Yes, yes.” I reply to the Iktotchi leaving before finishing my flute and grabbing another from a passing server.

  The doors open a few minutes later, the various people quieting and my person drinking more of the wine as my eyes slowly glaze over the various Quarren and Tionese human delegates. Not that surprising that the Free Dac would have to take on that many Tionese men into their administration when they relocated their primary stronghold within the depths of the Tion Cluster.

  The Quarren leading the delegation had a small visor above one of his eyes, a livefeed of some numbers and letters I could only assume were code or stock information, same difference really, while his second was a brown haired and eyed Tionese man with a bored expression. The third in charge was a rather slim Quarren, an engineer based off of his clothing and demeanor, seemingly uncomfortable being here.

  “Greetings, brethren of Dac.” Chief Ri begins, opening his arms and bowing slightly.

  “We welcome you home.” King Lee-Char says from beside the Chief, both below the dais.

  “We are happy to be here, though we wish circumstances were better.” The lead Quarren says.

  “The war caused many a loss.” The King says mournfully. I could only nod in agreement and sympathy.

  “We would like to reintegrate your peoples with our own. We would like to reconcile.” Chief Ri pleads.

  “Is reconciliation even possible when our people have been driven from our homes?”

  “Homes which remain empty out of respect for those who left.” King Lee-Char says.

  “They were not repossessed?” The engineer asks.

  “They were not, by the order of then Marshal Administrator Dericote.” Chief Ri confides.

  Various faces jump to me as I grab another flute of wine. I raise it in a mock toast to the delegation, though it appears to sour most of their moods. I smile at that, to think they would have to thank me on behalf of their people for not repossessing their homes on Mintooine and Pammant. Oh the woe, oh the shame and indignation. I couldn’t wait.

  “That would make … a return easier.” The lead Quarren says.

  “What of our shareholders?” The Tionese man asks, “Would we be permitted to reopen our operations at Mintooine and Pammant? The shipyards there were the heart and soul of our industries.”

  “That is currently not up to Dac to decide.” King Lee-Char says, “The Empire is in full control of all ship production in those systems.”

  Now various glares were being sent my way. What joy.

  “Admiral Dericote, would the Empire return our shipyards and docks to us? Will they return our repair yards, factories and warehouses?” The lead Quarren asks.

  “I cannot make any promises on behalf of the Emperor, however I will continue to advocate the release of the stranglehold the Empire has on the shipyards of the my Command alongside those of the rest of the Galaxy.” I say openly.

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  Various reactions emerge to those words. The Tionese man looks intrigued, the lead Quarren exchanges a glance with Chief Ri, the engineer looks relieved and my ISB attache was staring daggers at me. I turn to face the man and raise an eyebrow. I had always supported this action, why would he think I would change my karking mind? Was he high?

  “Then we will continue to await for the restrictions to change.” King Lee-Char says with a sigh.

  “Can you at least guarantee it will be us who will inherit our former assets once Imperial control is over?” The Tionese man asks.

  I frown a moment before speaking: “I cannot guarantee anything, but I will do my best now so there are less issues in the future. For peace, I am willing advocate for the return of what was taken.”

  “You cannot be serious.” The ISB man says slightly too loudly.

  “Captain, you are dismissed, see yourself out now or else be removed.” I order.

  “You have no such power!” The man barks.

  “Yet I do.” King Lee-Char says, “Guards, remove this man from the premises. His undermining of his superior officer does his posting shame and insults the man who Mon Cala has declared a savior from Separatist and Karkaradon invasion.”

  A Mon Calamari and Quarren Guard take the ISB Captain by the armpits and drag him out as he continues to bray about his authority from Coruscant. Damn, that was embarrassing in every way imaginable.

  “Apologies, your majesty, your honor, for the disgraceful actions of my attache. I promise, he will be removed as soon as I am allowed to.” I say with a bow.

  “We shall accept your apology.” King Lee-Char says.

  “That we will.” Chief Ri agrees.

  “And I thank you for it.” I reply easily before fading into the background again. Best let the negotiations go on with minimal interference from here. I grab another glass of the wine after finishing my last one and glance around the room. At least two ISB plants my men knew of, probably a third about somewhere. Despite their best efforts they were not blending in too well, they lacked the typical Rendili and Tionese features and fashions of most humans in the area. It was like the ISB just wasn’t bothering with doing their homework.

  I chuckle at that and raise a silent toast to Solomahal. He was certainly making things easier for me.

  It is late in the evening as I meet with Raddus. We’re both a bit intoxicated, yet I figured touching base would do us good, especially since I had started and ended my drinking early during the open negotiations. So we were both sitting in a far away parlor room with a bottle of water between us.

  “Eighteen retrofitted Star Cruisers then?” I ask.

  “Four MC80 Home One Types, three MC80 Liberty Types, three MC80 Wingless Types and seven more MC75s modeled after what we did with my Profundity.” Raddus confirms.

  “And you’re sure one of them could take on a Tector?” I press.

  “Probably not by themselves, but with fighter support and a pair of frigates? Certainly.” Raddus reaffirms.

  “And you’ll have another six Star Cruisers ready in two months.” I state.

  “Unless something drastic happens, yes. We could probably rush their retrofits and have them done in three to four weeks, but that would make what we’re doing far too obvious. Our operations are already being suspected with the short absence of the Home One, New Heurkea and Pride of Ruisto. The three are now operating openly again, but all it will take is one Imperial inspection of any of them and we’ll be in a storm with broken fins.”

  “I’ll see about keeping ISB attention on me while Colonel Green continues to run interference with Imperial Intelligence.” I offer.

  “We’ll take whatever meddling you can do.” Raddus agrees.

  “But your frigate and light cruiser production continues unmolested?” I inquire.

  “The frigates more so than the light cruisers. For all their weapons and the upgrades to their missile tubes to be capable of all ranges, the MC30c is a close range picket and assault ship at heart. Perfect for any enterprising Merchantman escort for our fleet. The MC40a though is a purpose built warship, made for medium to short range. We have only ever sold one of them during wartime, now three in total. That makes their increased production all the more suspicious for the Empire.”

  “It also doesn’t fall neatly into Kuat’s near monopoly on Imperial warship design.” I add.

  “It certainly doesn’t. If I didn’t know better I’d halfway expect the Empire to start shutting down Corellia’s ship-design bureau just to ensure the dominance of Kuat.”

  “They’d have Corellia in revolt faster than it would take to actually read the decree.” I agree with a smile.

  “Manpower will be an issue.” Raddus warns, getting us back on topic, “Mon Cala and her peoples may number around a hundred and fifty billion souls, but not all are willing to join such a fight, you may end with a billion soldiers and sailors in total and that’s only if you’re lucky. That will not be enough.”

  “I know that.” I reply, “But it will have to do, at the very least until we can gather further support.”

  “Mon Cala alone cannot win you this war.” Raddus stresses.

  “But the elite core built from the veterans of our Republic Navy will.” I counter with grim determination.

  Naomi looks onto the streets of Fondor to see the protesting mass of Herlgic and their various neighbors slowly and deliberately marching down the streets, banners of the Syndicates, Unions and Republic waving once more. She knew from her son Elix that the entire southern Core was suffering from similar protests from their Herglic minorities.

  It had all started when the Empire had seized various Herglic industries in their territories and stationed a large garrison at Giju, the Herglic homeworld. Then when the local Herglic had protested this heavy handedness the Empire had cracked down and imprisoned and detained tens of thousands of peaceful protesters.

  And so the protests had spread, though the news of them hadn’t spread beyond the Herglic diaspora. Naomi frowns, seems the moment the Empire realized what the had caused they had shut down the holonet and various news organizations harder than when Trench was moving along the Perlimian.

  She sighs and returns to her work, it was all she really did nowadays. Work and keep up with politics. After another hour, something eventually catches her eye. Rope?

  Fondor was importing three centimeter thick rope. Naomi stares at the datapad in shock and horror. Fondor doesn’t import rope. It was part of the karking constitution, had been a part of the old constitution too. Anything which could be done with rope had to be done with cords and wire by law, with one exception. An exception that hadn’t been practiced in over a millennium.

  “Why are we importing rope?” She asks in a fake confused tone to the Imp they had brought in from offworld to double check her work.

  The Imp glancing over to her in boredom, takes the opportunity to try and start a conversation: “The Governor thought it was quite odd that Fondor refuses to use rope for some of its industry. Decided to import it.”

  “But … rope is illegal.” She mutters in that dumb blond tone her darling husband hated.

  “No its not.” The Imp mutters.

  “Yeah, kinda is. Can’t be used for industry or private sectors under Fondorian law.” She presses.

  “Hm, what is it legal for?” The Imp bastard asks.

  She hums and types the question into the terminal. She puts on a fake shock as she gestures the Imp over. If this one could be made into an ally, this would be the first true test.

  “Executions?” The Imp wonders.

  “Only reason rope would be allowed in system.” She says, nodding to herself, as if her persona was faking having known all along that this was the case.

  “Hm.” The Imp acknowledges, tone light, short and accepting. Naomi’s eyes darken slightly. Another Imp for the dunes then.

  The hologram flickers to light easily, Moff Therbon appearing before me in his usual uniform and getting straight to the point as usual: “Dericote. By order of his Imperial majesty, all Navy ships are to now carry a compliment of the Stormtrooper Corps. Expect a brigade’s worth of Stormtroopers to arrive within the month for your Navy forces. His excellency has also decided that each Corps is to have at least one regiment of Stormtroopers to act as an elite core of shock troopers.”

  “Does he intend to disband the old various specialized forces within the Volunteers?” I ask.

  “Not yet. Though he has confided in some of my associates that he feels restrained by the Volunteer’s structure. He is planning a large scale re-organization of the Imperial Army. To separate the Regiments from their homeworlds. Something to do with ensuring loyalty to the Empire over ones planet. I can see the sense behind it of course, but the paperwork will make it difficult.”

  “Do we know by when he wishes to push such reforms? I’ll need to inform my comrades within the regional command’s administration to start preparing for it.” I ask.

  “Within the next three years I believe. Though he doesn’t seem too upset with the current state of the Garrison Regiments as they’re raised from entire regions instead of a sole world or system.” Therbon explains.

  I frown openly at that. This information could prove rather problematic: “But no interest yet in disbanding further forces?”

  “I believe he will wish to have it done in one fell swoop. Disband the less capable and older regiments and replace them with new ones around the same time while reshuffling the remaining old regiments into something he believes to be more practical.” Therbon explains.

  Damn. This could make things very difficult for me very fast: “But you say he will only do so within the next three years?”

  “That’s what my sources tell me.” Therbon says, “Why the interest? Your command is rather stable and not suffering from many of the pirate threats the rest of Cerulean Spear and Blazing Claw are suffering from.”

  “I simply worry, sir.” I explain, “After all, many of my regiments are beloved by their planets and vital parts of their employment statistics. I fear what may happen if too many are found lacking at once.”

  “Then I suppose you should drill them more. It may not quite be the same as proper battle, but it should make up the difference for now.” Therbon suggests helpfully.

  “I believe I shall do exactly that, sir. Thank you for the advice.”

  “Think nothing of it, Dericote. Just continue to keep those piracy and insurrection levels low and I’ll see about sending in your end of year bonus early.”

  “Thank you, sir.” I reply with a genuine smile.

  “That will be all. Dismissed.” Therbon says, his hologram going out a moment later.

  I consider all the information a moment longer before grabbing my comlink and punching in Luis’ number: “Luis?”

  “Yeah?” Comes my friend’s reply.

  “We have a new deadline.”