Chapter 94: Chapter 84
Coruscant, Republic senate building, Supreme chancellor's private office.
Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine sat at his desk and glared at the holo-terminal in front of him.
The grand plan was so close to completion that he could practically see the day the Sith empire would rule the galaxy.
But there had been complications, unforeseen bumps on the path that Darth Bane had set in motion long ago.
Things weren't going according to the plan, and he was finding that intensely irritating.
His master had once told him about a minor change to the plan, a change that didn't do much in the grand scheme of things but was still a cause for concern.
Darth Bane had prophesised the entire plan, he had seen the whole process and left a detailed plan behind to show the Sith that came after him exactly what to do.
Years ago, before Palpatine had even become a Sith apprentice, his master had been grooming a number of republic navy officers, politicians, senators, and even a couple of jedi.
Carefully manoeuvring and manipulating them into positions to weaken the republic and the jedi, so that when the time came the New Sith Empire would face little resistance in its takeover.
But some minor conflict with Warrior Clan living on a tiny forgotten backwater caused a large number of these unwitting Sith agents to be wiped out.
This had only been a minor issue, new agents could be created and the Sith had remained undiscovered, but it had caused a delay.
A delay that had not been foreseen, and a delay that could threaten the timetable that had been laid out in the grand plan.
Palpatine, or Darth Sidious as he had been re-named by his former master Darth Plagueis, had replaced the agents, and created more, but there wasn't anywhere near the amount there should have been.
The plan couldn't be delayed any longer though. The chosen one had been born and was currently living in the Jedi temple, waiting unknowingly to be moulded into the perfect Sith.
He had had to concentrate on building up his influence among the politicians of the core worlds and as such he had been forced to sacrifice a lot of the influence he could have built up within the inner and outer rim.
But that wasn't what was currently causing him to chew the inside of his mouth in anger.
That damn bounty hunter Jango Fett had stopped responding to Palpatine's 'current' apprentice's calls.
Count Dooku was only a temporary agent, a placeholder until the chosen one was ready, a mould to help shape the boy into the perfect weapon for Palpatine to use.
Fett was similarly a pawn, the perfect genetic template for an army designed to annihilate the jedi, not many non-force sensitives could kill a jedi with their bare hands after all.
He had also been a deeply damaged and angry man, and so it had been easy to begin manipulating him.
Fett would have been the perfect spark to ignite the planned war as well, a spark that would turn the entire galaxy into a raging inferno. And from the ashes of that inferno the Empire, His Empire, would rise.
But Fett had gone silent, cut ties with Dooku and that was irritating.
They still had his DNA, and the bounty hunter was still living on Kamino training Palpatine's army, but they wouldn't be able to rely on him to start the war.
Palpatine already made contingencies for that though. He had reached out and enlisted the services of one of the training sergeants assisting Fett. A member of his pathetic little, Cuy'val Dar, or those who no longer exist.
The new agent wouldn't be as skilled as Fett, he wasn't even a Mandalorian just some Corellian bounty hunter that Fett had worked a few jobs with in the past and was there to make up the numbers, but he would get the job done.
The plan was still in place.
Fett wasn't his only problem ever. He hit the replay button on his holo-terminal and grimaced once more as the video it had been playing restarted.
The holo-video depicted a pirate attack on an empty passenger ship and had been quickly taken down or censored on most holo-net sites due to its 'graphic' contents, but that hadn't stop people from watching it, or it being uploaded to less moderated sites.
The video showed the pirates storm the ship before an unknown bounty hunter slaughtered all of them.
The bounty hunter moved like a ghost, appearing, and disappearing before striking from the shadows like some vengeful spirit, leading to the galactic public nicknaming him 'The Wraith'.
The Wraith had destroyed several bands of pirates in the months since the video had first been uploaded, in similar brutal fashion, and was starting to build up quite the following, especially in the outer rim.
Apparently, he was starting to give a lot of people hope that they could be free from the scum and villainy that was rampant throughout the galactic rim, without having to rely on the unreliable whims of the republic.
The Wraith had also given a great deal of support to certain annoying political activists such as Cham Syndulla, and Ryloth's bloated carcass of a senator was already complaining loudly at every senate meeting for something to be done about both men because the impoverished people of his planet were starting to put more faith in people who wanted to look out for them than the ones in power who were stealing all the wealth for themselves.
Palpatine paused the video as the armoured form of the Wraith materialised in a corridor before wrapping a forearm around a pirate's throat and snapping the hapless man's neck like a twig.
He stared at the man's black helmet with its blood red visor and a hint of recognition filled his eyes.
Palpatine tapped his figures on a data pad and brought up a picture of an old enemy. He and his master had known that it had been the survivors of that insignificant warrior clan that had massacred their republic agents after the destruction of their home-world.
And so, they had taken retaliatory measures. They had hunted the survivors, discreetly. Killing all of them and returning them to the forgotten reaches of history, or so they had thought.
Because although the shape slightly different, clearly designed for a man rather than a woman, and the armour itself didn't match at all, but the Wraith's helmet bore a striking resemblance to that of the leader of that small band of survivors.
Palpatine found the image he was looking for, a decades old holo-picture showing one of the more fearsome, but somehow least well known, bounty hunters of the time. A woman who many thought to be a rouge jedi because of her force abilities.
He examined the two image's and sure enough the helmets were incredibly similar, too similar for it to be just some fan copying the design.
That and the similarities with their brutal efficiency in combat left Palpatine with no doubt, the Wraith was somehow related to the feared Lilk Dredd.
The irritating thorn of House Dredd was still messing up the grand plan.
-
"Noble delegates and senators. I am honoured to speak before you, and before the people of our glorious republic, today.
We live in a chaotic time, and I know the rumblings of several systems contemplating seceding from our great and virtuous republic leaves us in fear and uncertainty.
But we must not let that fear consume us! For we are strong and as a united republic we will prevail!
And though I may not have long left before my time in office is over, I Will endeavour to everything in my power to see us through these turbulent time, stronger and more united than ever!
Let us not forget that not only do we have the veiled threat of these so called 'Separatists' we also have pirates and criminals running rampant throughout the outer rim.
As well as unaffiliated bounty hunters running wild and taking the law into their own hands. We have laws for a reason and these hunters operating independently of the registered and regulated guilds are no better than the criminals they are paid to apprehend.
Though we are strong, we must be stronger. Strong enough to weather any threat, be they foreign or domestic.
For too long we have had a policy of disarmament and now our military is so small it can barely protect the inner rim let alone the outer rim.
We must begin the process of rearmament for our own protection, to help us deal with these threats.
I am also calling for the Jedi to preform a crackdown on piracy as well as to start hunting down these unlawful bounty hunters like the criminals that they are.
Starting with the criminal known as 'The Wraith'."
-
Padme Amidala, former queen of Naboo, and the newly appointed senator for Naboo, sank back onto the lavish couch in her Coruscant penthouse and sighed tiredly.
It had been a long day. First the chancellor had made that speech hinting at a military creation act, then she had spent the rest of the day in meetings with other senators from neutral planets that opposed the idea of rearmament.
In her opinion the republic didn't need a military. They didn't need soldiers or warships. They just needed diplomats, to spread peace and friendship throughout the galaxy.
There were a lot of senators who agreed with her and so she had spent most of today in meetings with them, discussing how they could get more senators onto their side.
The only part of the chancellor's speech she agreed with had been his criticism of independent bounty hunters, they were essentially lawless thugs who committed mindless acts of violence.
At least the guild bounty hunters had some oversite and where nominally under republic control, but they also used to much violence for her liking.
She was however unsure why the chancellor had singled out the Wraith as the focus of his crackdown on non-guild hunters though.
From what she had heard the wraith seemed to actually have some morals. He only seemed to be taking jobs against criminals after all and appeared to go to great lengths to protect the innocent, unlike a lot of the non-guild hunters.
Maybe the chancellor had some personal vendetta against him, but that couldn't be the case. The chancellor was the leader of the republic, he would never abuse his position for personal gain.
She was pondering what the rest of the galaxy had made of the speech, by now the holo-net would have transmitted it to even the furthest reaches of the republic, when her personal comm-link beeped.
Padme looked over to the flashing device and recognised the caller I.D. as that of her self-proclaimed/probably actual best friend, Opal.
She had first met the girl calling her many years earlier during the invasion of her home planet and since then she had become great friends with the energetic younger girl.
It had been refreshing at first, most people would treat her with reverence and respect while she had been queen but Opal had ignored that and just treated her like an ordinary person.
Since then, they had become much closer, and Padme had to 'grudgingly' accept that Opal probably was her best friend.
She was also got to know Opal's 'friends' better but wasn't as close to them as she was to Opal. Although she was very grateful to Renn for his help in freeing her home planet from occupation and it wasn't like she didn't get on with him, she just wasn't as close to him as she was to Opal.
The same went for Shae, and to a lesser extent Seela. Renn and Shae were both clearly wanting to become warriors, something that Padme believed had no place in the galaxy, and those opposing viewpoints prevented them from properly bonding.
She knew that despite training to be a healer Opal was also prone to violence as well, but unlike the others she had an openness and a happy bubbly energy that let her, and Padme overcome their differences and become close friends.
Padme moved over to her comm link and accepted the holo-call. She expected that Opal had just watched a new holo-show or something and wanted to tell her all about it.
That wasn't an unusual occurrence and after the stressful day she'd had watching her friend excitedly explain the entire plot to a holo-show, without taking a breath, would actually be quite welcome.
"Hi Opal." Padme waved at her friend as the call connected and the holographic image of Opal flashed into existence in front of Padme.
She was expecting Opal to launch into one of her excited rants but instead she was unusually quite for a moment for a moment before exploding in rage.
"WHAT'S THE DEAL HUH!" Opal screamed furiously, with her hands crossed in front of her.
"Wha---?" Padme stared baffled at her friend, completely unexpecting what was happening. She tried to ask what was going on but was cut off.
"I mean seriously I know the republic sucks and all, but why is your boss trying to kill my boyfriend!" Opal's rage continued and Padme just continued to stare in shock, her brain not working properly.
"Boyfriend?.... kill?" She said softly in confusion before things started to click into place. Renn, the speech, the Wraith, Opal's anger.
"Wait!" Padme said in shock before gasping out a question, "Is Renn the Wraith?"
"Corse he fuckin is, who else could be as cool as him!" Opal continued shouting but Padme raised an eyebrow as Opal trailed off a bit in her tirade.
"SO! Why's your boss bein such a dick!" Opal screamed but was cut off as two armoured hands appeared under her armpits and dragged her kicking, screaming, and swearing out of sight of the holo-call.
Padme caught sight of the flash of Shae's face as Opal disappeared, although she could still hear her shouting in the background, before a third figure appeared and sat down in front of the holo-camera.
"Hi Padme, sorry about that." Seela said sweetly with a kind smile on her face, but with a cold terrifying fury in her eyes, and Padme gulped nervously.
"We were just curious as to why your boss has put out a hit on our man and were hoping since you're a big shot senator now you could do something to fix it… before we are forced to do something about it ourselves." She said the last part in a low menacing tone, her smile dropping and her face becoming a mask of non-emotion.
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