Star Wars - Ripples of the Void Chapter 2: Ascension (Patreon)

Chapter 2: Ascension

“I am surprised, Jarik,” Dooku – now Count – mused as he looked over at me from across his desk. “I would have thought you’d hate me for killing for father.”

“It’s been almost two decades since then, and I was four years old when Ramil died. Even before that, he barely spent any time with me,” I replied. “He was no father in my eyes. Aunt Jenza has been more of a mother than he ever was.”

“Is that so?” Dooku hummed. “What about hate for me taking the title of ‘Count’ from you? After all, as Ramil’s son, it is yours by birthright.”

“I don’t care,” I replied with a shrug. “Unless things change radically in a few years, I will be Count someday. After all, I’m from House Serrano, just like you, and your heir. Unless you plan on fathering some children, I will inherit.”

I then shook my head. “And even if you do have children, forcing me out of my status as next in line, so what? I am still of House Serrano. I am set for life with a cushy administrative job. I don’t need power. And I certainly don’t need to take it.”

My uncle leaned back in his seat at that, eyeing me contemplatively with an unreadable expression.

“It is a shame you have no Force sensitivity. Training you would have been an experience, I am sure,” he said, his expression remaining unchanged.

“Even if I did have some talent in it, I’d have declined,” I replied with a scoff. “Becoming a Jedi sounds like a terrible idea.”

“Ah. It is a shame you believe those lies about the Dark Side the Jedi have spread,” Count Dooku hummed.

“The Force is unnatural,” I retorted. “But my thoughts on the subject don’t matter. I wouldn’t want to be a Jedi, either. Suppressing all emotions? Foregoing attachments? They’ve forgotten what their Order once stood for and have become hidebound puritans. I’d sooner shave my head and call myself a Hutt than join up with those fake monks.”

I shook my head. “Must we go through with this every year, uncle? You ask me these same questions, though the pontification is new.”

 A moment later I squinted at him suspiciously. “There’s something else, isn’t there. What, exactly, do you want from me?”

“I will be giving an important speech soon,” Dooku informed me. “And since you are already enrolled in the Serrano Naval Academy, you will be granted a commission as soon as you complete officer training courses.”

“Ah. You want me to become a commander in your Confederacy,” I said in realization. “Now I see the angle.”

This actually worked out for me. If I joined the CIS military, I’d be able to do a lot more from behind the scene. I thought I’d have to convince him to let me join, but it seemed Dooku wanted to stack the deck early with officers he could trust – or were at least loyal to him.

I’d be graduating in a few months, too. I bet I could get a swanky commission out of this. They’d need officers of any stripe for the start of the war, and promotions wouldn’t be hard to acquire, either.

“You tone is unnecessary,” he said, a glare slipping onto his face as he heard the hint of disdain in my voice for his little pet project.

“I disagree with your choice of allies, uncle,” I shot back. “Mega-Corporations are half the reason the Republic and Senate are as corrupt as they currently are. Their goals may seem to align with yours, but how true is that, really?”

‘To say nothing of the Sith,’ I thought but did not say. I was not meant to know about his ‘secret’ allies.

He frowned, not at all pleased by my words. “Enough. The Confederacy is necessary to save the galaxy and change the Republic.”

“I cannot deny the second part,” I replied under my breath, before turning and walking off. He let me go, but I could feel him staring at my back as I did so.

Leaving his office, I found my aunt standing nearby, waiting for me.

“Did the talk go well?” Aunt Jenza asked, and I smiled at the kind woman who’d pretty much raised me by herself.

“Same as always,” I replied, then frowned. “Auntie, I think you should be careful. Uncle Dooku is planning something dangerous, and I want you to stay safe.”

“I understand,” she assured me, but I shook my head.

“I’m going to assign you a protective detail,” I told her. “And some special defensive items. They should protect you.”

“You’re a good boy, Jarik,” Aunt Jenza said, smiling at me while placing a hand on my cheek. “But if it makes you feel better, I will.”

“Thank you,” I whispered. I refused to let what happened to her in canon occur here in this timeline.

And, if it somehow came to pass? Then nothing would stop me from avenging her.

111 &&& 111

I awoke to an incessant beeping, and I opened my eyes with a grunt, my eyes locking onto the ceiling of my quarters aboard my flagship, the Refuge In Audacity, a heavily modified Subjugator Cruiser.

Shaking away the lingering wisps of my dream, I got up and prepared for the day, using the sonic shower to clean up and then dressed quickly. That done, I ate some ration bars before heading up to the bridge.

It was an impressive sight, and I took a moment to admire my personal vessel. The Refuge In Audacity was a tool of destruction but also subjugation, just as its class name evoked.

The massive Ion cannon was toned down significantly. No longer a gigantic pulse weapon, it was instead focused into a more traditional laser-like beam, which improved the range significantly, as well as boosted the accuracy. This change also saved power and let it recharge faster. It also meant the ship could use better shields.

Aside from that, it was equipped with numerous Proton Torpedo tubes and heavy turbo-laser batteries. But the largest change was the expanded hangars that could deploy hundreds of extra fighters and others droid transports, enough to single-handedly conquer a planet and bring it under CIS control.

I’d also added numerous fabricators to the ship, allowing me to craft repair parts on site, and even entire droids and fighters if given time and resources. This turned the Audacity from a one-hit wonder to a serious threat that acted as the core of my personal war fleet.

Accompanying the Refuge In Audacity were numerous other CIS warships. My group, the 1st Fleet’s 23rd CIS Naval Task Force, consisted of a trio of Munificent-class Frigates, six Recusant-class Light Destroyers, two Providence-class Destroyers, two Supremacy-class Heavy Cruisers, fourteen Dauntless-class Fast Light Cruisers, two dozen Diamond II-class Cruisers, six Fanatic-class Carrier, forty Expense-class Gunboats, two dozen Nativex-class Corvettes and York-class Support Ships, and dozens of lesser support ships and landing craft and transports, such as Hardcells and Protus.

A large force, but relatively small compared to the total size of an actual fleet or the entire the CIS Navy, with it hundreds of thousands of ships.

The 23rd was also quite large thanks to a bit of sneakiness on my part. I may or may not have fudged the numbers and written off certain ships as ‘destroyed’ when they’d actually been lightly damaged, then hidden them in off-the-charts systems so they could be used later. Like now.

Couldn’t do it often, and not with a lot of the big stuff, but the smaller ships had been simple enough to write off as total losses while ensuring they could be hidden and used by me later on, in case my plan to assassinate the Emperor had failed.

There were still a couple of these secret junkyards scattered about, waiting to be reactivated if I needed, but so far, the 23rd had what I needed.

“How soon before we arrive at our destination?” I inquired, and Nail beeped as the Tactical Droid processed the data.

“We will exit Hyperspace in two minutes sixteen seconds,” he informed me. “From there, it will take nineteen minutes to reach Raxus Secundus’ Lagrange Point.”

“Excellent,” I said, pleased. “And the rest of the First Fleet?”

“Orders to reconvene at Raxus Secundus were given, but only 85.913 percent have responded, and 78.447 have been positive.”

“Better than I feared,” I admitted.

A minute later the swirling energy and lights of Hyperspace vanished, and we dropped out of the bizarre realm back into Realspace. It was a smooth transition, and the rest of the 23rd popped in around me.

“Excellent work, Nail. My compliments to the nav-crew,” I praised, and some of the B1s sat up straighter.

Flattery worked on everyone, even droids, and it didn’t hurt to give thanks to somebody who’d done a good job, no matter who they were.

I didn’t pay much attention to them, and instead looked out at the blue-green marble in the distance.

Raxus Secundus, or just Raxus, was the capitol and seat of the Confederacy government. It was a beautiful world, with plenty of greenery. Nothing like the overcrowded hells of Coruscant. Though the sudden ascension to such an important position in the galaxy had pushed the local settlements to the limits. There had not been much time to improve the living conditions or expand during the war, but that was just one of the many, many issues I planned to deal with.

As the Audacity and the 23rd Naval Task Force approached, the bridge lit up with countless communication notices.

“Head of State Jarik, we are detecting a large number of CIS warships in orbit,” Nail noted.

“Not as many as I’d hoped, though,” I muttered, glancing at the data on a nearby screen.

I’d sent messages before the massacre at Mustafar ordering the fleet elements under my command to disperse in order to guard the different border worlds of the Confederacy, but also had instructed several groups to meet here to block any attempts from the Empire at attacking it. Or an upstart politician or officer trying to seize power.

‘I see Commadores Teekla, Rozenburg, and Lap’Lap have made it,’ I mused, eyeing their flagships.

Those three were some of my loyalist supporters. With them, I should be able to claim the Head of State title for real, but glancing over the fleet idents flashing on the screens, a number of my largest detractors were absent.

“Well, once I get down there, everything will be sorted out,” I said aloud, more confidently than I felt.

It wasn’t just the highest echelons of government that has been killed at Mustafar by Darth Vader, countless Congressmen, businessmen and military officers were assassinated, and those who had survived had no idea what to do.

They would be scrambling, and either begging for help and answers, or going to ground and taking as much loot as they could with them.

“Admiral Jarik!” a male Skakoan exclaimed, his holographic features flickering.

“Commadore Teekla, I am glad to see you survived,” I said, glad to see him.

“What has happened?! The droid armies suddenly shut down, and we received orders to surrender, that you and the others had been killed-!” he began, but was cut off when a second, followed by a third, head appeared on the holo-display.

“Commadore Lap’Lap, Commadore Rozenburg,” I said, nodding at the female Quarren and male human that joined Teekla.

“Admiral!” they both exclaimed at once, talking at the same time, and I quickly held up hands to quiet them.

“Enough!” I ordered, and they went quiet.

“What happened?” Rozenburg demanded. He was a dark-skinned man with golden tattoos on his face and arms. A middle-aged human, and someone from Ondarion.

“I will explain everything once we convene in the Congressional Hall,” I replied. “There is a lot to go over, and I don’t want to explain it too many times.”

“Can you at least tell us something?” Lap’Lap pleaded, her mouth-tendrils twitching violently.

“Hm. Fine. We were betrayed,” I said grimly. “The whole war was a ploy by the Sith to take control of the Republic – though it’s now being called the ‘Empire.’”

“The Sith?” Teekla hissed.

“Yes. To be more precise, Sheev Palpatine was also a Sith Lord. He was playing both sides. He turned my uncle to the Dark Side and convinced him to create the CIS. All for the sake of creating an enemy for the Republic to fight, to give it an excuse to rearm,” I revealed, to disbelieved shouting from my allies.

“Enough!” I repeated sharply. “I will explain everything when I meet with the other survivors of the Confederacy’s leadership!”

“I hope you have evidence,” Lap’Lap grunted, to which I nodded.

“Of course,” I replied. That satisfied him, and he turned off his connection to the holo-call, no doubt preparing to descend to the planet’s surface. The others disconnected as well, and I made my way to my own shuttle.

Three shuttles descended to Raxus from the Audacity, but all were decoys. I’d hitched a ride on a shuttle from one of the cruisers in my group, and managed to avoid any assassination attempts that there might have been down below.

“We’ve already begun broadcasting word of your arrival to the surface, and the survivors of Congress wish to meet with you,” Nail informed me as I stepped out onto a private landing pad, and I nodded.

“Of course. Have the admirals and generals join us as well. They all need to hear this.” I then paused. “Have my Tier-1 allies join me in the Head of State’s personal quarters.”

“Understood, Head of State Jarik,” Nail replied with a salute before heading off.

An hour later, I was sitting behind my uncle’s desk in his former office within the High Congress Building, a collection of friends and partners seated in front of me and giving me varying looks of distress after my lengthy presentation on what had happened on Mustafar, and why.

“You cannot be serious,” Congresswoman Unpellga uttered in a deadpan.

“I assure you, it is all true,” I replied, hands folded on the desk in front of me. “Was the proof I provided not enough?”

There weren’t many people meeting with me. A mere dozen of my closest allies. I wanted to discuss things with them before breaking the news to the rest of the Congress and military leadership.

Aside from Commadores Teekla, Lap’Lap, and Rozenburg, there was also Generals Kurbal, Greez, and Naxum, and on the political side of things, Speaker Bec Lawise and Congresspeople Avi Singh, Mina Bonteri, Daal Unpellga, Evic Fondt, and Hapn Du’Grem.

Kurbal Yud was a Dug, and a master at ambushes. He also loved the Droideka, and had built a number of tactics around the rolling, force-field wielding machines.

Greez Zebto was a Toydarian, and was quite skilled at jump- and drop-assault missions, being able to strike from the sky quite fiercely. He had revolutionized jetpack combat and was also a vital anti-Jedi commander, as the Toydarians were quite resistant to the Force tricks of the generals he had to face. Greez actually had one of the highest Jedi kill counts in the entire CIS military: a whooping seven! Two of whom were Masters!

That might seem low, but considering how few Jedi there are – and were – and how often they could escape danger thanks to the Force, only the Sith elements and Grevious had higher kill counts for the lightsaber wielding commanders.

Then, there was Naxum, a female Zabrak who had a sharp mind for logistics, being more of an administrator during the war than a fighter on the front lines. Without her, a lot of resources would have never made it to where they needed to go.

Of the politicians, Bec Lawise was a male Siniteen, and had been a loyal ally of Dooku – and through my uncle, of myself. Especially after I saved his life during a bad event on Scipio. He was his world’s Congressman and also the Speaker of Congress, basically its leader who presided over things when Dooku was absent.

After that was Avi Singh, a darker skinned human who was Senator of Raxus during the age of the Republic and later switched to becoming its Congressman in the Confederacy. As the person who represented the planet on which the government was founded, it made Avi quite influential, but he was a genuinely good and caring person who wanted what was best for his people.

Mina Bonteri was the next highly influential member of my little powwow. A human of Onderon, she had been its Senator, like Avi, and became part of the Separatist movement when the planet aligned with the CIS.

She was also an ardent follower of Dooku’s, though she never knew the truth about my uncle. Like Bec, Mina was fond of me, even if she didn’t like the fact I was constantly undermining her Peace Faction. Still, she was a good ally, and she owed me for saving her life. I was also friends with her son, Lux, which helped.

The rest were less important, but still vital to keeping Congress on my side.

Daal Unpellga was a female Neimoidian and the Congresswoman for Neimoidia, and while she did not technically answer to the Trade Federation, she had close ties with them. Her loyalty to me was more suspect, but her connections to the Capitalists was necessary for my plans.

Evic Fondt was a Gossam, a short, wrinkly, blue-skinned species. He represented not just his world of Castell, but a large swathe of the so-called Colonies, a section of the galaxy with close ties to the Confederacy since the beginning.

He liked me – or rather, he liked my policies, which included offering all sorts of aid to planets that the Separatist military occupied. Under my leadership, planets were rebuilt if damaged, and given technology to raise their industrial output, like factory ships and mining and agricultural droids and machines, all for low interest rates.

Last but not least, Hapn Du’Grem. He was a portly, green-furred Lepi, which were basically anthropometric rabbit-people. Representing Coachelle Prime (and, to a lesser extent, the Mega-Corp Coachelle Automata) as well as a majority of the Lepean All-Worlds, a vast collection of Lepi colonies that provided nearly seventy percent of all agricultural products for the Separatists during the war.

The Lepi were important because they bred like, well, rabbits. They didn’t outnumber humans in the CIS, but it was damn close. Droids were great, but you still needed organics to do certain things, and the Lepi provided that desperately needed manpower.

Hapn himself was a decent fellow. Gregarious and jolly, like a furry Santa Claus, he liked me for much of the same reason Evic did, as well as for my expansion policies. The Lepi needed worlds because of their massive population size, and I was willing to give them terraforming technology to populate lesser worlds and moons nobody cared about.

These twelve were those whom I trusted the most, and had spent considerable time and effort ensuring they worked with me.

Not to mention, Bec Lawise and Mina Bonteri were supposed to have died in canon, but I’d saved them from that fate. Not entirely sure how I pulled it off sometimes. Maybe the Force had been with me. But I’d done it.

Bec did not get shot by Padme, and Mina was not assassinated by Dooku’s hitmen. Saving their lives had ensured they had plenty of gratitude towards me, and my military exploits and heroism gave me their respect. And now, they were some of the highest ranked members of the CIS’s Congress who had my back.

As for the others? I’d saved General Kurbal during a nasty planetary assault, General Greez from assassination, and a lack of supplies had nearly forced Naxus to surrender before I brought relief.

Additionally, all of the military officers owed their ranks to me. Without my support, they’d never have been promoted. Why? Because they were too competent, and made their previous superiors look bad. Not that that was hard, though, but still. Unacceptable for the idiots in charge.

“The evidence you provided is… suspect,” Singh said diplomatically. “Much of it is circumstantial, and there is no way to be sure. Not with everyone who could confirm this dead.”

“The transcripts of Dooku’s countless discussions and conversations between Darth Sidious not enough for you?” I asked skeptically. “To say nothing of the rest of the data I collected?”

I’d spent the three years of the war gathering everything I could to reveal the truth of the war. Primitive recording devices hidden in my uncle’s room and office helped capture a lot of the talks he’d had with his Sith master, and were quite damning, as they revealed Dooku was taking orders from this person, and that many of the previous Head of State’s commands had been made to worsen and lengthen the war, not bring it to a close.

To say nothing of the other bits of data I’d gathered. It cost a ton of money and power to send heavily encrypted holo-messages with zero lag between two places halfway across the galaxy from each other, and these left traces in Hyperspace and the various networks.

Following these trails I ended up with a lot of evidence that most of the conversations Dooku had with Darth Sidious came from Coruscant. Not a ‘gotcha’ but it was damning, as only the hyper-rich or highly placed in governmental positions could afford to send complex messages like this.

Also, Sidious never used voice changers when speaking directly to Dooku. So playing his words side by side with clips taken from Palpatine’s speeches made it very clear he was Darth Sidious.

All of this looked bad for Dooku. Especially since I’d shown many different instances where the Republic had just ‘happened’ to ambush Separatist forces, or known things they shouldn’t have – couldn’t have! – without somebody extremely high up in the chain of command feeding them intel.

“It is damning, but not enough,” Bec Lawise claimed. “The rest of the data, too, is worrisome, but again, cannot be used as the sole source of evidence for your claims.”

I sighed, annoyed at their stubbornness. Couldn’t blame them, either. Not really. After all, it was insane to think the entire war was engineered all for the sake of allowing the Sith to take over the galaxy, and had been in the works for centuries at this point.

‘They also don’t want to believe that Dooku, beloved founder of the CIS, was in truth a double-agent the whole time, working against them to tear it all down,’ I thought, seeing the way Bec and Mina were struggling to contain their emotions.

“Believe it or not, then. But the fact remains that the Republic is gone, mutated and twisted into the Empire, and with Palpatine’s death, they will be struggling to regain control,” I pointed out. “And we are little better, as High Command is dead and so are the heads of the Mega-Corps and various high-ranking Congresspeople and representatives, all executed on Darth Sidious’s orders.”

‘Well, not all,’ I privately mused.

Since I knew what was coming, I’d arranged for some ‘accidents’ to occur to a number of my opponents and rivals in both the military and Congress, as well as among the Mega-Corps. In fact, most of the deaths I was blaming on Sidious and Vader were done at my command. The only people Skywalker had murdered on Mustafar was the Executive Separatist Council and their aides, and that was less than fifty people.

“Enough!” Naxum snapped, quieting everyone down, and they turned to her. “Jarik is right! It doesn’t matter what the truth of the matter is right now! What does is ensuring the Confederacy does not collapse!”

“She is right,” Evic agreed, and Hapn nodded, the other Generals and Commadores nodding in agreement.

“How do you plan to do that?” Unpellga asked skeptically.

“I can answer that,” I said. “First step is wrangling Congress – or whoever has survived. I need to be confirmed as the Head of State.”

“Why you?” Mina inquired, raising an eyebrow. “Just because you are Dooku’s nephew does not mean you have a right to his former position.”

“At the moment, I am the highest ranked member of the military still alive – or loyal,” I pointed out. “According to the bylaws in the founding charter, if the Head of State is killed while Emergency Powers are in effect, then the highest ranked military officer takes over. That used to be Supreme Martial Commander Grievous. But he was killed by General Kenobi on Utapau.”

I looked around the room. “Everyone else is dead or unfitting. High Admiral Reaves? Blown to pieces above Coruscant. Admiral Trench? Dead at General Skywalker’s hands on Anaxes. General Kleeve? Missing, presumed dead after the disaster at Kaller. Solha? Missing, presumed dead after Skywalker caused Mokivj to suffer deadly volcanic eruptions across the surface.”

I glared at the politicians. “And those are just the dead ones or those we know nothing about! Would any of you trust General Mindo or Admiral Y’Pol in this chair?”

“No,” Bec immediately replied, and Avi and Hapn both wore disgusted expressions. Unpellga looked a bit insulted, as Mindo was a Neimoidian and Trade Federation stooge, but even she couldn’t say she’d want him as Head of State – even for a short while.

“The bylaws do say just that,” Mina admitted, nodding slowly. “They also say that Emergency Power can only last for five years before it must be voted on by Congress on whether or not to extend it.”

“That is fine,” I replied. “Uncle Dooku got the Congress to declare Emergency Powers for his office a year into the fighting. I have three years before I have to worry about elections.”

I slapped the table. “Until then, I plan on strengthening the Confederacy and ensuring the Republic – sorry, Empire – does not tear chunks out of us while we do so.”

“So, you as the Head of State, is it?” Evic mused. “Possible. And appealing. But will the other factions accept it?”

There were four main factions within the Separatist Congress. The Peace Faction, that Mina led, was not very large and had become the weakest, but still had a large voice. The Total War Faction who wanted to ensure the CIS would be able to maintain its borders or even destroy the Republic, led by Voe Atell. Quite a few were dead on Mustafar, and the ones who'd survived would desperately cling to whomever provided safety.

Then there were was Dooku’s faction, the Separatists, who claimed to want to co-exist as equals with the Republic, of which Bec was a major member. Last but not least were the Capitalists, who had no one leader but was made up of stooges from the Mega-Corps and was easily the most powerful due to their immense wealth, and who sought to remove all sorts of restrictions on their powers (like unions and environmental laws).

Technically, the Mega-Corps were not allowed to have their own seats. It was something Dooku had done to distance the CIS from the corrupt Republic, but that didn't stop them from amassing large numbers of allies through bribes.

Now, I had allies in the Peace and Capitalist Factions, and the Separatist and Total War Factions had been badly weakened by Dooku’s death and the obliteration of CIS high commander, so I could bring them to my side easily enough.

“I don’t see any reason they wouldn’t,” I replied. “If we hurry and push it through today, then we will be safer.”

“I am sure the Peace Faction and Separatist Faction will vote for you, but what of the Total War and Capitalists?” Kurdel wondered.

“Atell is dead, and without her, the Total War Faction is dead in the water,” I replied. “As for the Capitalists… they’d do what needs to be done if they want their profits to stay the same.”

I was not worried about the money-grubbers, as I had them in my pocket.

I owned shares in all six of the Mega-Corps that had been founding members of the CIS. Six percent of the Retail Caucus, three percent of the InterGalactic Banking Clan and two percent of the Trade Federation, Techno Union, Commerce Guild, and Corporate Alliance.

That left just the Stalgasin Hive as one of the founding industrial powers of the CIS, but the Geonosians were closer to a state-owned corporation due to the nature of their species, and one could not buy into their industry at all.

Other Mega-Corps existed, but those six were the top dogs, and some of the biggest and most powerful in the entire galaxy. When they spoke, people listened.

As for how I controlled them? Simple. Every single person who owned more than one percent in any of the six Mega-Corps or was part of the boards or committees was eliminated during the purge I’d executed during Mustafar.

There were inheritance laws and protocols that would make sure the shares would go to the heirs and other high-ranked managers and shareholders within the companies, but as of this moment, I was the sole living shareholder for six entire Mega-Corps, and thus all control fell to me.

It wasn’t nearly as simple as I made it sound, there were a lot of complications and red tape, but essentially the Capitalist Faction was mine, and would remain as such until the shares and positions were redistributed, but that could take months, maybe even years, and until then, I was making all the executive decisions.

Something I was going to take advantage of to rip the teeth out of the Mega-Corps and ensure they lost all power in the CIS. I was not going to let money-grubbing businessmen have any say in the government, and would not allow credits to dictate policy.

Rules against bribes, donations, and using any money to sway politicians would be instituted and harshly punished if broken, and a large number of checks and balances would ensure that capitalism would not run rampant again.

And that was just the Capitalist side of things! I had a lot of changes to implement into the civilian side of the government, as well as ways to ensure the politicians never amassed too much power.

“Alright. You seem confident. What exactly are your plans for reorganizing the Confederacy?” Bec inquired, unwilling to commit until he knew.

“Allow me to explain…” I said.

Several minutes later, the people in the room stared at me with varying emotions and expressions on their faces as I revealed my plans. Some were awed, others shocked or enraged. Mina was the first to recover though and she angrily stood up and slammed her hands onto my desk.

“Are you planning to become a tyrant with these actions of yours?!” she demanded.

“If I must,” I shot back, startling her. “You have to understand that the Confederacy was akin to a poisoned chalice, or a faulty aircar. It was never meant to succeed. The plan was always for the Separatist movement to fail, and it is riddled with countless flaws that will kill us if we do not act soon.”

I slammed my hand on the table and glared back at the Congresswoman. “In order for the Confederacy to survive, we must fix those flaws and purge the incompetents, traitors, and useless chaff from our ranks as quickly as possible.”

I then waved a hand through the air. “Right now, we are suffering from the exact same problems that plagued the Republic and caused the civil war in the first place! Allowing the Mega Corporations seats and a say in the government was a mistake, and so was permitting so many idiots to be in charge when they had no reason to be anywhere near power. I will make the necessary changes, and you can either stand with me and come out on top, or oppose me and be discarded.”

“You are willing to cast us aside?” Singh asked incredulously, to which I solemnly nodded.

“You twelve are my closest allies, and I trust you to see the bigger picture here,” I told him. “But I also do not need people who refuse to do what is necessary. And right now, we are currently in a bad situation. The Sith Shutdown Code has corrupted the majority of our armed forces, and while the Empire is reeling, they won’t be for long. We must unite in order to weather the coming storm.”

“That’s it, then? Join you or die?” Unpellga demanded, just as upset as Mina, but hiding it better.

“No, I won’t kill you. I’ll simply have you removed from your positions. It is within my right as Head of State to do so to petition members of the CIS to recall their Congresspeople if they fail to serve the needs of the CIS,” I replied. “My uncle just never bothered because he preferred to assassinate his foes and remove the problematic people as quickly and violently as possible.”

Mina blanched, recalling her brush with death from Dooku’s assassins, and a few others frowned at that reminder.

“You are not Head of State yet,” Evic calmly pointed out.

“Very true. But let me ask you this: Are you willing to throw away your – our! – best chance at survival?” I retorted.

The officers and politicians exchanged looks, and Mina finally sat down, simmering with fury but unable to deny that I was the best choice currently.

“Three years of Emergency Power,” she reminded me. “And after that…”

“I know, and I accept,” I declared. “The Confederacy must survive. Hate me all you want after we’ve succeeded. I certainly won’t blame you.”

Mina nodded, and with that, my plans were in motion. It was time to rebuild!