Governor's Gambit - Star Wars SI into Imperial Governor

[Yacov]

And to be honest, she liked the challenge. Oh, sure, infiltrating Hutt complexes and high-sec Coruscanti apartments had been difficult, but she'd had the peak of Imperial spyware on her side.

Here, she didn't. She got some basic gadgets for sure. Bugs, poison, etc… But nothing fancy. Every challenge was a joy to overcome, a million paths open to her, so long as she was clever about it.

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Ah so no really fancy tools like baffleweave and multispectrum disguise suites. Just mostly pure wetwork.

But they were competent enough, and more importantly totally loyal to the Empire. MI was supposed to be that way as well, especially with that crazy bitch in charge. However, much of MI was former-Republic infrastructure, command structures and people.

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For reference, I give you Director Ysanne. She got that position from her father, after getting him executed for treason by the Emperor. The woman who had knowledge of a lot of Palpatine's atrocities and continuously rumored to find it romantically attractive. The woman who had a clone and no one could agree which one was the crazier one. She systematically starved an entire planet and forced them to beg to the deceased Emperor for mercy and praise his name.

But of course, I can't just rule by fear. That never ends well. So I have to show that I'm not just a tyrant. How do you do that? Infrastructure!

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Ah yes, having large public displays of where your taxes are going. The best public justification for collecting them.

Over a hundred enemy fighters had dropped into the system. They came in all shapes, from the most common hunks of junk to mismatched parts slapped together. But they all shared one thing in common.

They seemed hell bent on smashing into the shipyards. Sure, they engaged other fighters, but only to get them off their tails. Other than that, they simply focused on dodging AA.

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These are either droids or slaves with their loved ones on the line. Given the probable nature of the attacker I am guessing the latter.

 

[piledriven]

Isn't the Mindan shipyard technically "Rebel controlled" like it was at the start of the fic or was it taken over by the Guild sometime later? I'm assuming the enemies are some flavor or EVERYBODY (slavers, corrupt imperials, rogue Rebel forces, CIS, pirates, etc.) someway/somehow.

 

[paxus22]

Isn't the Mindan shipyard technically "Rebel controlled" like it was at the start of the fic or was it taken over by the Guild sometime later? I'm assuming the enemies are some flavor or EVERYBODY (slavers, corrupt imperials, rogue Rebel forces, CIS, pirates, etc.) someway/somehow.

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that's the refit yard, that has rebel cell onboard.
the minda shipyard is the old ronthana heavy engineering yard. that las controls

 

[Arrowthorne]

Suiciding Pilots....that's suspicious as fuck. Pirates are cowards above all else so the fact they're seemingly doing suicide runs is suspect.

I'm thinking its Droid Pilots, someone found a cashe of Pilot B1s from a seppie wreck and decided to ruin Las's day.

 

[drunkenBavarian]

Isn't the Mindan shipyard technically "Rebel controlled" like it was at the start of the fic or was it taken over by the Guild sometime later? I'm assuming the enemies are some flavor or EVERYBODY (slavers, corrupt imperials, rogue Rebel forces, CIS, pirates, etc.) someway/somehow.

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The Rebels have control with of a repair station build into a large asteroid (or was it the moon?) with several berths reserved for the empire iirc.

 

[readsalot]

They would not win.

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Kick their ass pilot

 

[faultlesselm16]

Okay, things are excalating, I am now thinking we're dealing with a convergence of enemies. The Rebellion trying to cripple an imperial shipyard. And the Slavers alliance trying to undermine mola and dislodge him from power, the Slavers might be trying to cover this as a rebellion attack though so who knows. But attacking the shipyard, which is an important imperial asset might just get ISB to take interest, which brings eyes we don't want.

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nah it wont be the rebels. they own the repair station nearby with a cell and that cell as in other interludes told off other cells for starting shit near them, if i remember right. they dont want minda to crack down on them because if i remember right they think he knows about them but lets them be if they dont act out, but i could be remembering wrong its been a bit since they were brought up.

 

[oscar e Sampedro Lopez]

Thanks for the chapter Great story as always.

I guess the repair of the shipyard will include a lot of AA guns now

 

[SwaffleWaffle]

MACs are cheap, probably, at least in the Star Wars setting, as they're basically just oversized Slugthrowers. Just spam a bunch of them all over the system, especially around critical assets and overwhelm the enemy with high volume of fire. They should be good enough for dealing with Fightercraft at the very least, even if they're not as effective on properly shielded and armored ships.

Perhaps one of the super weapons from the Onager-Class Star destroyer could be made without the whole Star destroyer around it, as a sort of overpowered floating turret. A weapon with a fraction of the power of the Death Star should be good enough for dealing with whatever enemies come by, right?…right?


I wonder if some part of this was an inside job, relying upon saboteurs disabling specific detection / early warning systems to ensure the element of surprise. If so, then I expect they won't get a second chance.

Maybe the enemy came through some secret way to the minds system, an unknown hyperlane only known to a select number of pirates and smugglers.

 

[al103]

*snip correction*

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I would say he's actually more first than second. "Can take risks, but prefer to kill them in infancy" instead of "scared of taking risks". So adverse is more correct than averse. Mola prefer to prevent risks, not avoid them... and crush them underfoot if not preventable - too many risky moves taken.

 

[Watching]

Because there aren't meant to be more than maybe 20 of these people. The larger the organization, the more prone to corruption it is after all. Their effect will be more psychological than anything really.

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Ehh… 20 still feels way too little for them to be an effective scare though.

Holo-net relays were being spread across the sector to help facilitate communications sector wide.

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Should probably poke R&D for better sector space infrastructure like hyper lane highways or quantum catapults or something.

It was as I was working through various possible paths of sector development that an alarm started sounding. Not the intruder alarm, but the general attack alarm. The same alarm that had rung years ago when pirates attacked Accordia.

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It's time to don the old helmet once more.

Sake lined up the first bogey, a Cloakshape. It tried to dodge, twisting and turning but he was faster, streaks of red ripping through it in seconds.

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Uhhh… wasn't he flying a Tie interceptor? Did he modify his fighter crafts guns or did the local navy decide to swamp to lower quality gas to save on money and logistics?

Need some Golan-III's? There's gonna be a lot of fallout from this attack.

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Might be better to use defense satellites instead of a full blown Golan 3 platforms. It'd be cheaper and faster to build.
Maybe build a Golan or 2 later down the line to help defend against capital ships since those things are mostly just turbo lasers anyway.

 

[Andrew1993]

MACs are cheap, probably, at least in the Star Wars setting, as they're basically just oversized Slugthrowers. Just spam a bunch of them all over the system, especially around critical assets and overwhelm the enemy with high volume of fire. They should be good enough for dealing with Fightercraft at the very least, even if they're not as effective on properly shielded and armored ships.

Perhaps one of the super weapons from the Onager-Class Star destroyer could be made without the whole Star destroyer around it, as a sort of overpowered floating turret. A weapon with a fraction of the power of the Death Star should be good enough for dealing with whatever enemies come by, right?…right?


I wonder if some part of this was an inside job, relying upon saboteurs disabling specific detection / early warning systems to ensure the element of surprise. If so, then I expect they won't get a second chance.

Maybe the enemy came through some secret way to the minds system, an unknown hyperlane only known to a select number of pirates and smugglers.

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Nah, cuz then people get worried about why some back water has superweapons, plus the empire would never allow it anyway

 

[SwaffleWaffle]

I would say he's actually more first than second. "Can take risks, but prefer to kill them in infancy" instead of "scared of taking risks". So adverse is more correct than averse. Mola prefer to prevent risks, not avoid them... and crush them underfoot if not preventable - too many risky moves taken.

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That reminds me of the enlightened self interest of Caiaphas Cain, where all to often the most safe option in the long term is to put himself in danger in the short term to prevent even greater danger later, or escape from some danger, etc.

With how Caiaphas Cain has impostor syndrome and is perhaps an unreliable narrator when it comes to providing a truthful perspective about his own virtues and heroism, and how similar Las Mola can be to him, I wonder how unreliable Las Mola's perspective is in this story - how much of his calm facade is actually a facade versus him slowly accepting his new reality and adjusting to it, and then just telling himself he's terrified out of habit / reflex, because he's unable to believe that he's confident / brave.


Speaking of avoiding taking risks, I think that there might be some non-Jedi force practitioners who might find themselves in Minda for one reason or another. According to at least one wiki I've found, the Matukai were nomadic, and could be found nearly anywhere spacefaring creatures could be found. Perhaps the Matukai, or another minor force sect of little importance and power, could be discovered by Moff Mola.

Or perhaps there could be a force / magic / sacred arts / whatever sect present on some unexplored world. It could have any of a wide variety of practices, but it would be really funny if their practices were based primarily on bonding with each other in the force, bonding with animal companions / famikiars, bonding with force ghosts, and other things like that. If that's the case then maybe their training could involve a way for Las to develop force sensitivity even when he is not naturally force sensitive, like what Matukai can sometimes do. He might be a rare case due to both an uncommon affinity to their practices and his bond with Mugwuffin.

Perhaps the force "sect", instead of being in a group of humanoids, could be in a group of the same species as Mugwuffin? Mugwuffin becoming some grandmaster or other high level character due to her connection to Moff Mola and smugging all over the place at her relatives and ordering them around as their new god empress or something would be hilarious.

Maybe Mugwuffin could view herself as the power behind the throne of Myto Sector, and she could spread her influence by getting other members of her species installed in various places in Myto, and perhaps even beyond. Having her true name be something absolutely menacing and terrifying which intimidates her species but her public, known name be "Mugwuffin" might make people even more afraid. A powerful and deadly creature is scary, but one which can hide its nature and subvert power structures and manipulate others can be even more so.

Having a humanoid species on that planet which treats mugwuffin's species as sacred / holy, like the ancient Egyptians might have, would be hilarious.

 

[TheVictor]

Reminds me of general kota in the force unleashed games where you hear tie fighters shrieking and laser fire in the background when you are sent to hunt him down by lord Vader

 

[LordEdric]

Honestly, this was probably the dumbest move Laz's enemies could pull. There is about a sector's worth of governors and Moffs, that the yards are building stuff for, and no one likes delays to their orders

 

[SwaffleWaffle]

Honestly, this was probably the dumbest move Laz's enemies could pull. There is about a sector's worth of governors and Moffs, that the yards are building stuff for, and no one likes delays to their orders

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Much more than a single sector, really. Las alone is now Moff of Myto Sector.

I'm unclear on the size of the territory / scope of responsibilities of his predecessor, the current Governor General.

 

[RageKnight]

Yo. Not super duper happy with the fight scene, but that's because I dunno how to write them and its late.

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I don't know how you're supposed to write pearl harbor from 1 pov

 

[Watching]

Vigil-Class Corvette go down, slammed into by two fighters while three more made a beeline for the yards

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Can't help but feel that ship went down a bit too fast there, I mean it was only 2 kamikaze fighters wasn't it?

Nah, cuz then people get worried about why some back water has superweapons, plus the empire would never allow it anyway

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Ehh… it depends on how big they build the MAC platforms. No one in Star Wars uses pure Kinetic weapons in star was outside the Chiss Ascendency so people might just dismiss it as worse than slug thrower.

 

[RoyalOlive]

A Vigil wouldn't be brought down by two suicidal fighters. Modern shields are incredibly effective against kinetic attacks. That's what phased out the popularity of mass drivers/railguns in the very early Republic. It's the in-universe lore for why kinetic strikes and suicide rams aren't really used.

 

[saylin021]

Damn, who is this Raina person, and how did she steal the Governor job from the highly competent, loyal, skilled, beautiful, good girl Mugwuffin? It's unfair!

 

[SwaffleWaffle]

Damn, who is this Raina person, and how did she steal the Governor job from the highly competent, loyal, skilled, beautiful, good girl Mugwuffin? It's unfair!

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Nah, Mugwuffin is the real Moff, Las is just her puppet. She can't let herself be distracted by minor system manners when she's now ruling a sector, and is progressing well on the path to becoming Empress.

I bet there's at least one person who has a conspiracy theory like that. Maybe someone will even try to assassinate Mugwuffin for some reason. Perhaps it would be some other member of her species, wielding a little weapon with their little paws / claws to kill the cute little villain Mugwuffin to stop her dastardly plans of galactic dominion.

 

[kano547]

Kamikaze pilots? Either they're putting slaves in there and threatening their families or the slavers he's been dealing with aren't actually slavers. Now I'm very curious where this is going.

 

[saylin021]

Nah, Mugwuffin is the real Moff, Las is just her puppet. She can't let herself be distracted by minor system manners when she's now ruling a sector, and is progressing well on the path to becoming Empress.

I bet there's at least one person who has a conspiracy theory like that. Maybe someone will even try to assassinate Mugwuffin for some reason. Perhaps it would be some other member of her species, wielding a little weapon with their little paws / claws to kill the cute little villain Mugwuffin to stop her dastardly plans of galactic dominion.

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Now I'm imagining this epic showdown happening, with Las and the entire office peaking in from the doorway cooing at the scene

 

[Nickjr104]

He'll be in an arranged marriage to a bombshell who actually genuinely cares for him, but like the yaht, he will be far to busy with his imposter syndrome to enjoy the situation.

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it would be funny if it turns out to be one of the few things he will want to thank his mother for if he knew she was the one who set that up thinking his wife would push him as hard as she did only for her to turn out to be caring and try to get him to relax more. top it off with their marriage being one of those things that happen in the middle of a PR flow so he doesn't realize he actually got married and thinks it was a PR stunt that was having his new wife brought in as a new secretary or something like that. he finally realizes that whole scope of the whole thing after their honeymoon. Leading to something like this

Las : that was a good vacation felt like a honeymoon
wife: it was dear
Las: good one
Las/wife:..
Las: oh we were serous about that?
Wife:...oh dear I married a workaholic

of course this is when everyone comes in and yells a Las for being so dense to his wife.

 

[SwaffleWaffle]

Now I'm imagining this epic showdown happening, with Las and the entire office peaking in from the doorway cooing at the scene

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Given how much entertainment potential that idea has, I think it could make a whole show, or even a series of movies if it does well enough. It could have elements of Tom and Jerry, Spy vs. Spy, and perhaps any number of random stories.

• The Lion King being done with force sensitive reptile/felines instead of lions and animation countless orders of magnitude more advanced.
• Maybe the animated film Treasure Planet could be copied, with some of the magitech robot characters being replaced with droids, and somewhat more plausible technology (brought to life through special effects when practical effects would be unreasonable and overbudget), and maybe the main character replaced with a magic space cat. Why replace the main character with a magic space cat? Wrong question: why not replace the main character with a magic space cat?
• Maybe Las could rip off the story of Harry Potter, but replace wizards with force adepts and Hogwarts with some kind of force sect. I kind of got distracted by that idea and got lost in it, not sure how I got from magic cats to that. Maybe Hermione's cat could be made the main character, idk.
• Ratatouille could, instead of having magic(?) talking rats and a hallucination ghost, have at least one actual magic cat, and maybe visual effects simulating a Force Ghost. Or maybe instead of having a cat, it could have a little mouse droid or something.
• Shows like cyberpunk edgerunners could have star-wars-universe versions made, with a cameo from a random magic cat somewhere. Maybe the magic cat could be the head of a megacorp, or something.
• Mass Effect could be an interesting Sci-Fi story, perhaps in game and / or or show format, which shows an alternative galaxy
• A version of the Dresden Files could be made, with the white council taking the place of a generic light-sided force sect, and perhaps being presented in a slightly worse light than they were in the books, which wasn't that positively anyways. A magic private detective / bounty hunter with inner turmoil fighting monsters and having adventures might get a decent audience. Maybe that version of Harry could be in a magic / force Diad with Elaine Mallory.
  • Having hyperspace be quite risky for him and prone to either fail or dump him into very dangerous circumstances could keep him in the same system. Or if the technology level was lower, then maybe society would already be stuck in the system and he'd just have problems with more advanced kinds of space travel, and he'd go around in a poorly maintained antique that needs constant maintenance - maybe something which from the outside looks like a hunk of junk like the millenium falcon
  • Maybe Outsiders could be extrasolar threats, extragalactic threats, threats from other universes, threats from other timelines, etc. which are a problem due to force shenanigans (a wizard did it!)
  • Forgot this was still about cats, but maybe Mister could take on some of the roles of other characters in the story and become more prominent? Perhaps Mister and Bob could be merged into a new magic cat character? Mouse could be a magic cat instead of a magic dog? Idk. There's options
• A version of the universe of Warhammer 40k could be fun - I think the idea of a grim dark galaxy with dark gods laughing at all the horrible things in it might be compelling to some people. Having something normal, and everyday like Hyperspace travel being replaced with travel through the exotic Warp / Immaterium. A Humanocentric imperium led by the god-emperor of mankind which seems absolutely horrible even compared to the Galactic Empire might make some political statements that Las might not feel safe making just yet. But perhaps it could be released, as an experiment in writing speculative fiction with minor amounts of political commentary.
• A version of some kind of political drama where a magic cat gets themself elected as the chancellor of some kind of republic due to visions of a dark future which they want to prepare their nation for could be fun. There's so many ways that palpatine could have been a hero, if he wasn't just so fucking evil. Even the reasonable and arguably beneficial decisions he made often had stupid evil reasons behind them. He's not a complex, or tragic character. Maybe the magic cat chancellor could be the fictional hero that Palpatine wasn't in reality. Perhaps they could become the magic-cat emperor or empress due to separatists fielding armies of droids that looks suspiciously like housepets, being as stupid as animals (and lower level droids) can be sometimes. Maybe they could even be cats, and the enemy, the count of whatever, could be literally herding cats when trying to lead his side, to his inevitable defeat.

Perhaps, given these stories would be cute and animated and prominently feature a talking cat, they could give some representation to underappreciated species and cultures in a wholesome way. Species and cultures which don't often find themselves being represented in media. And while being presented as the equal of a talking cat might seem like a patronizing insult by humanists, those who look closer will come to understand that mugwuffin is actually a sentient being in her own right, she just can't talk the same way other people can. So the only fictional part would be a magic cat like her actually talking instead of using telepathy of some kind.


I wonder if the Empire recognizes Service Animals / Service Droids, and what kind of rights they have.

Could MugWuffin be given citizenship? A paycheck / stipend which she could use to buy her own favorite treats (or pay minions to purchase for her)?

On another note, Las should get the R&D team to come up with some kind of talking device which Mugwuffin and other sentients can use. They can't be that difficult if primitives like us can fairly cheaply make something similar

 

[vtkun]

thanks for the chapter

 

[bloodyparty]

Can't help but feel that ship went down a bit too fast there, I mean it was only 2 kamikaze fighters wasn't it?

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Ships in SW seem to have a weakness to flying debris, like a whole isd being destroyed by a asteroid to the bridge, or over endor the executor dying to a a wing fighter crashing into the bridge (had damage before but that killed it)…
There's also the point that destroyed doesn't need to be the whole ship exploding like alderan, it can also mean it rips in 2 pieces or just goes dark because atmospheric loss / power loss etc

 

[OrderedOrb]

It's gonna be interesting to watch how the powers that be will respond to this. If the slavers really are behind this then the Emperor himself will likely be rather pissed off, since the whole reason slavery exists in the Empire is because he allows it out of convenience for large scale manual labor. If he gets pulled into the is, he'd have to choose between the shipyards or the slavers who tried to destroy it. Talk about a lose lose with a loss of face either way.

 

[Freefaller]

Chp-96

1.11 ABY
Aren Hiral
Ord Mantell

Aren stared at the screen of his terminal, its light illuminating his face.

In his gut, worry pooled. In his mind, thoughts raced.

Because the report before him bore nothing but ill tidings. An attack on the Mindan shipyard. A vital piece of infrastructure that had been instrumental in boosting his career as quickly as possible.

Thankfully, the report cited that only two berths took any serious damage, and the repairs would take only a few months.

But that wasn't the problem. The problem was that someone tried in the first place. And he didn't know who.

Oh, he had a hunch it was the same person who tried to kill the Grand Moff at his gala, twice! The first assassin had been caught, with Hiral only being alerted during the Grand Moffs speech. But the guards weren't able to catch the second one before they opened fire.

And now they had targeted important assets under the command of his largest supporter base.

Certainly, he had no real doubt that Las Mola would figure out any problems within the Myto sector. The young man had proven himself competent and unambitious, with his Guild project already seeing rising revenues across the sector.

But this attack made him and Hiral look bad by association. That wasn't acceptable. And more than that it proved that this was an issue that was larger than any one sector.

The worst part was that the Mindan Shipyard was a vital piece of local infrastructure and one of the few shipyards in the oversector with such a high level of production in both size and speed. Other yards, like the Gwori yards, were limited in size and came with the stain of being former separatists.

He got up from his desk and started to pace the room, mind racing.

What contacts did he have that could help with this…he had few criminal contacts, and with the debacle at the gala getting caught with one of them would be disastrous. But it might be his only option.

Of the Moffs of the Oversector, he was friendly with about half of them, the richest of the lot, especially those in the mid-rim portion of the oversector. He'd given them ships on the cheap from the shipyards in exchange for their support or neutrality in his bid for his current position.

But friendly did not mean friends. They were predators, stalking him. They helped him up because to them, an upjumped newcomer in the seat was a failure waiting to happen. One they could benefit from.

If he showed weakness now, failed to solve this problem, relied on them for help, he was done for.

Especially with the ISB investigating. They had far too much power for him to be comfortable, especially with his lack of connections in the ISB itself.

Lieutenant Bree was a competent man who likely faced fierce competition in the Core to gain the position he held today. It would only be a matter of time before the investigations dug too deep.

Aren Hiral did not want that. He had secrets, dirty dealings and more buried that deep, after all. He couldn't afford the ISB getting a hold of any of that.

–

1.11 ABY
Zyx Mola
Arkia Prime

In the week that she'd been sitting around on Arkia Prime, Zyx had been bored. Incredibly so.

Normally, she wouldn't still be here. She'd planted the bugs, she'd done her part of the job. At this point, analysts would take over, monitoring the bugs and such, while she flew off to her next target.

But no, her dear brother's operation wasn't just defunct in the gadget department, but in the manpower department as well!

Apparently their other on-planet operatives were tied up in difficult to leave positions, and the rest of the organization was spread thin as-is.

So she had to sit here day-in, day-out, listening and recording every noise made in the Governor's office.

Honestly, it was a complete bore! It was mostly just the Governor laughing snobily with some pompous friends, or crying silently over how his parents never loved him, or having the most pathetic sounding sex with his mistress, who was most certainly cheating on him.

It sucked. More than that, she had to do this for at least another week, because that's how long it would take for someone to be sent to take her place.

At least she had games on her PDA. All offline, of course, but she was getting quite good at this Requiem of Vengeance game. Las was apparently quite good at it, so as his older sister she was compelled to surpass him just to brag. If only the parry windows weren't so damn tight!

And the new ship she got was pretty nice as well. A basic freighter with none of the bits and bobs of her old ship, but it didn't have any listening devices and she was free to decorate!

Eventually, a few days into her second week waiting out in the middle of nowhere while listening for anything of use, something did come up.

Putting on the headpiece, Zyx listened in, hand already reaching for her PDA so she could play something while whatever nonsense the governor did went on in the background.

That is, of course, until she heard this.

"Is the line secure, Governor?"

Zyx sat up straight, eyes locking onto the receiver, checking if the recording light was on. It was.

"Of course it is. I presume you're calling about the shipyard?"

"Why else would I be calling! You promised results, Governor Trice. A shipyard in ruins! That rat Hiral embarrassed! You said those slaves were pilots! What was the point in threatening their families if they can't even finish the job!"

"First of all, I said they were pilots, not good pilots. If they'd been good pilots, the Hutts never would've captured them. Secondly, Hiral has been embarrassed, though not as much as planned. A few more incidents and he won't be in his seat much longer."

"I don't have time for a few more incidents! The investigators are tracking the slugthrower from the gala, and it's only a matter of time before they find out it came from my sector! When can the next attack happen?"

"My apologies, but neither I nor my compatriots are particularly flush with funds these days. That detestably Moff has increased patrols sector wide, making it harder to engage in our preferred commerce. And please, I doubt they could track you down from a single measly slugthrower. Those are the weapons of primitives and the exceptionally poor. Why you decided to arm that poor excuse of an assassin with one is beyond me, really"

"Slugthrowers are so outdated they bypass most scanners. More importantly, NO OTHER SECTOR HAS THEM!!! Mines the only one where slugthrowers are used in any capacity, if only by the rebels! It's only a matter of time!"

"Relax yourself man. Do you not have contacts for this kind of thing? It's easy, I tell you, to hide your indiscretions. I've been doing it for years! All you'd have to do is lay low for a while, let your enemies think they've won, then strike once more!"

"You will address me by my title, Governor. I have earned the rank of Moff and I will not be disrespected. Nor will I lay low like a coward. I've already had to resort to such dishonor as assassins. No, I will do what must be done to dethrone these soft hearted civilian fools and return this side of the Empire to its glory days, those of unparalleled military might, conquest and more! The Outer Rim Sieges were the best of the Empire's glory days!"

"Of course, if you say so, Moff Surrde. I will endeavor to create new plans to the best of my ability."

"You'd better. Or I'll throw you into one of your slave pens and see what they do to you."

At that, the communication seemed to end. On the other end, she heard the governor sit down, loudly given his mass.

"What a fool…I'd better see to cutting ties before he drags us all down. What did that mercenary fellow say his name was again? Cad?

Zyx listened with rapt attention until he left the office to go 'enjoy' his merchandise before she plugged the recorder into a secure data unit.

This was information that was too important to be transmitted. She would hand this over herself.

As she started the ships preflight checklist, a smile spread across her face.

Things were getting interesting.

–

Things were getting boring around here, and that was saying something.

You'd think, given I'm Moff now, that I'd have a shit ton of work to do all the time. That I would be swamped with paperwork and meetings and more.

Surprisingly? Not really.

When I was Governor, it was work all day every day. New contracts, new expansions, new rail lines, new factories, and whatever bullshit R&D was pulling out of their ass on that particular day.

Part of it was because I was actually doing my duties properly, and part of it was because I was a paranoid micromanager.

But as Moff, it's not the same. Instead of reading a mountain of reports, I get like two dozen 3 page reports at best. Each an executive summary of various situations sector-wide. I then sign off on them, demand more information, or change directions.

I also get to interview Governors. Not the usual process, others tend to do that part, but since I purged some 500 people a while ago I had a few Governors to replace.

The interviews were easy enough. Find someone with experience at higher management, a career not built off of corruption, slap a HAVEN spy close by and toss them to a system with a plan of action and general direction. Not perfect, but far simpler than I thought.

And of course, there was economic policy and all the stuff with the Guild and slavers, but its become almost monotonous, like background noise. I still do the work, of course, it's what I'm paid for.

At this level, there was far more delegation. As a Governor, I worked around 100 or so hours each week, weekends included of course. A tiny pinch of stims in the coco helped a great deal. As Moff? Closer to 56 a week. Insane amounts of time cut off. Not to mention the pay bump is pretty nice, makes it easier to funnel money to my work-in-progress escape plan.

I mean, 8 hours of work a day? I have so much free time I've actually started playing games with Mugwuffin, though the little rat cheats at Dejarik. I've also taken a lot of the economic and political analyses I wrote during my time as Governor and started sending them to the University of Coruscant, while starting to write more, of course.

I know it's a long shot and all, but I figure maybe it could get me admitted as a student over the Holonet and all. Even with time zone differences, I imagine there must be some equivalent of online classes that I can take. At least, I hope so.

If not, I at least want to see if I can get access to the libraries there. With all this free time I want to see if I can schedule a trip in a few months and just peruse, find some new sources and see if I can get copies to bring back. The stores I found on Dubrillion didn't have much.

That night, my workday had already come to an end. I was still in the office, however. It was a place of mental discipline for myself, making it easier for me to concentrate on my newest paper, The Droid-Reliance Paradox: Capital Expenditure vs. Labor Adaptability. It was about how droid labor, while seemingly great has a great deal of hidden problems and vulnerabilities that aren't present in sentient labor.

It was based on what I learned through the droid-buddy system in the MARD. A useful system that was now being phased out as more sentient workers were hired.

Still, as I sat in my office, Mugwuffin curled at my feet, I got an alert. Someone had requested permission to take the elevator up to my office.

Normally, I don't get these. Garp, and soon whoever replaces him, is in charge of these. But it's late, and the second shift crew is due soon. Just like when running a system, you always need people awake at all times to deal with things. 3 shifts a day is the set-up. Though I do plan to eventually get a space station as my headquarters to declutter the Imperial Island and allow for artificial day/night cycles for easier transitions.

Looking at the camera, I see its Zyx. The facial recognition blinks green, as does her ID card so I let her through.

A minute later, she's standing before me. Silently, she hands me a datastick, her mouth slowly spreading into a grin.

Creepy, but I comply, plugging it into a useless datapad, one set up unconnected to any systems in case something has a virus.

As the audio plays out, I look Zyx in the eye as the same smile spreads across my face.

Jackpot.

–

I almost made the 4th part of this chapter the POV of some Umbaran corporate delegate getting invited by Abyssal Industries to the Myto sector. But Umbaran tech was kind of OP, and I figure the Empire stole it all and wouldn't allow any real power to be left in Umbaran hands after that.

Also, it's been almost a year now since I started this story. It's kind of crazy. Thought there would be more chapters, to be honest. At least the quality and continuity has kind of increased, though, again, not by as much as I'd hoped it would've.

Eh, I'll just keep going. Bound to get good at some point.

Remember to always have that shit on, dawg.
-Freefaller

 

[AmericanNumbers]

Time to let your Sith bodyguard off his leash.