Rising up from a Nobleman to Intergalactic Warlord!!

Cleansing Tatooine of the Hutt Syndicate’s presence, most of the liberated people accepted our aid and went to Coruscant for further processing. Giving those who chose to stay part of the treasure I looted from the palace; they graciously thanked us for freeing them before scurrying away into the back alleys of Mos Espa. Wishing them the best of luck, our forces retreated from the planet’s surface and took a moment to plan our next move.

“While my instincts are telling me to go track down Jabba’s hidden caches, I believe it is unwise as we are expecting a response from the Algrand Empire anytime now. We need to be underway the moment we receive the green light from them.”, I stated, clutching a sealed Citadel data disk I found in Jabba’s office. “With that in mind, I suggest we track down the loved ones of those we liberated at Fort Paragon. Thoughts?”

“Absolutely, we have delayed reuniting them long enough. It is time we bring them back together again.”, Olivia agreed, with a happy smile.

Nodding their heads in unanimous agreement, the others felt it was the best option as well. With the decision made, I tapped into the Force, seeking guidance on where we needed to go. Showing me a vision of an extremely overcrowded planet, presumably on the edge of Republic space, a few of the ships in the orbital docks bore the name of House Nichel.

“Hmm… does the name House Nichel ring a bell?”, I asked, opening my eyes.

“Sorry, when it comes to politics, that is Satina’s domain.”, Bo-Katan remarked with an apologetic smile. “How about you, Ahsoka?”

“No, I have not heard of them either.”, Ahsoka admitted, picking up her tablet. “Let me call Padmé and Satina. They should be able to point us in the right direction.”

Calling Padmé first, the call rang twice before sending Ahsoka to voicemail. Assuming she was in a meeting or otherwise preoccupied, Ahsoka called Satina next. Answering before the first ring ended, the duchess greeted Ahsoka warmly before inquiring about the reason for the call. Explaining that we were trying to reunite liberated refugees with their families, Ahsoka asked if she had heard of House Nichel before.

“Yes, I know who House Nichel is. The former duke recently retired and named his second son as his replacement. Please tell me they are not involved in the slave trade…”, Satina gasped, speaking in a low voice, “I heard rumors about why the eldest son had his birthright stripped from him, but I never imagined it was true.”

“Calm down, Satina; that is not why we are calling you. We believe the refugee families we are searching for are in their territory. Can you point us in the right direction, please?”, Bo-Katan said, with an exhausted expression, “Also, you really need to fix your habit of jumping to extreme conclusions with minimal information.”

“I will think about it, but no promises. As for where House Nichel is located, they control the Doirtullu System at the edge of Republic space.”, Satina answered, “Say hello to the retired duke for me. He was a kind mentor to me during my early days as a senator.”

“Will do!”, Bo-Katan promised, with a toothy grin, “Oh, there was one other thing we needed to tell you. As I am sure you are aware, we got into a fight with the Hutt Syndicate and ended up purging Tatooine of their filth. In addition to killing Boba Fett and Jabba the Hutt, our cleansing turned up a lot of information on their allies in the Jedi Order and Senate. The Jedi High Council, Padmé, and you can look forward to a lengthy report from Victor about it soon.”

Taking a moment to process what her younger sister said, as Satina began to speak again, Bo-Katan rudely ended the call. Laughing maniacally, the Mandalorian woman took great pleasure in leaving her poor sister hanging.

“Uh… are you okay?”, Ahsoka asked, tucking her tablet back into her bag.

“Every time Satina asks me to say hello to a former colleague of hers, I always get roped into something troublesome. If that happens this time as well, you have my sincerest apologies, Victor.”, Bo-Katan said with a sigh, “I dropped that bomb on her as retaliation for any trouble we experience. Since she is a goody-goody, as the first one aware of this information, she will make it her goal to see it through until the end. That means she will bury herself in paperwork and work longer hours in the Senate, thereby leaving me the fuck alone, HAHA!!!”

“You have some serious issues with your sister, don’t you…”, Deirdre remarked, understanding her pain as her elder sister was troublesome at times too.

Looking at her for a moment, Bo-Katan could see a familiar frustration in her eyes. Discovering she had a comrade in Deirdre, the Mandalorian put a hand on her shoulder and exhaustedly nodded her head. As the two began swapping horror stories about their childhood, Luxion began charting a course to the Doirtullu System. Watching how he plotted things out on the star chart, Ahsoka interjected herself when she noticed a flaw in this thinking.

“I apologize if I am overstepping here, but I recommend against jumping into the system directly. The region is plagued by pirates and raiders; if we abruptly show up on their doorstep without warning, the locals are going to lose it.”, Ahsoka remarked.

<Even though we are registered as an official vessel of the Imperium of Man, do you still believe they will panic when we arrive? We have not worried about that in the past. What makes this situation unique?> (Luxion)

“The star system is jam-packed with refugees from three fallen nations who were overrun by the Chaos Warbands. If an unknown Imperium vessel suddenly appears on the spaceport authority’s sensor arrays, what do you think will happen?”, Samus reminded him.

<Ah, I had not taken those variables into consideration. Thank you for correcting me, updating the jump point to the outer edge of the star system.> (Luxion)

Adjusting his calculations accordingly, Luxion sent the data to the city ship’s computer. Firing up the Folding Drive, we rapidly relocated to our next destination.

---Doirtullu System, Algrand/Republic Border ---

Just as Ahsoka and Samus had feared, our arrival sent the entire system into a frenzy. Believing that a lone Chaos vessel had somehow managed to reach them, dozens of antiquated military vessels departed Doirtullu on an intercept course with us. Hailing the ships and the local spaceport authority immediately, Ahsoka and Bo-Katan had to thoroughly explain things to them as they refused to listen to me. Showing them photos of the people we rescued, the Jedi Padawan inquired if they could help us reunite them with their families.

“We do not handle missing persons, thankfully.”, the traffic controller answered with an exhausted sigh. “Speak with the former Duke Nichel; he might be able to point you in the right direction. Do not get your hopes up, though; last I heard, he has several stacks of missing persons reports over seven feet high.”

“Are you serious!?”, Samus gasped. “I knew the situation out here was grim, but I did not realize it was that bad.”

“Thank you for the information. Where would you like us to dock?”, I asked, following the military ships toward the orbital spaceport.

“Uh… well, I am not sure.”, the traffic controller replied, looking at his option. “Our spaceport was not designed to accept cityships or motherships, as they are extremely rare. Since you cannot moor with us, go ahead and put your ship in orbit over these coordinates. That will put you over Duke Nichel’s residence; we will let him know to expect you.”

Thanking him for his assistance, I moved the New Genesis into position before disconnecting from the call. Sending Ahsoka and Bo-Katan planetside to meet with the retired duke, the two women would contact us once they had details on how he wanted us to proceed. Teleporting a contingent of guards down with them, I got up from my seat and headed toward the lift.

“Where are you off to?” Angelica asked, glancing over her shoulder.

“There is something I need to check out from Jabba’s palace. Let me know when we hear something from the ground team.”, I requested with a smile. “Be back in a bit.”

Leaving things at that, Luxion and I descended into the bowels of my cityship. Arriving at my private laboratory, the two of us stepped inside to find Bloodtide and UR-025 patiently waiting for us. Apologizing for the delay, I slotted the data disk into one of the computer terminals and attempted to access the encrypted information contained within.

“Hmm, none of my decryption algorithms are going to work for this. Dair, do you think you can brute force the encryption for me?”, I requested via a private channel.

<Child’s play, give me a few moments.> (Dair)

<Remind me again, what exactly are you looking for on this data disk?> (Bloodtide)

“The paperwork I found this disk stashed away with suggests it contains highly classified information from the Human Galactic Empire. An Asari ambassador from the Citadel came to this region of space looking to warn us about something but ended up suffering the same fate as Rose and her fleet.”, I answered, watching Dair chip away at the encryption. “If another major threat is headed our way, I want to know about it now.”

(AN: From the series The Galactic Navy Officer becomes an Adventurer.)

Completing his work a minute later, I began rummaging through the decrypted data. Sifting through countless corrupted files and empty folders, eventually I found a folder with several accessible photo and video files. Clicking on one of the video files, a security feed from a Human Galactic Empire vessel popped up. Showing several dozen well-armed soldiers firing upon something off-screen, when they stopped to reload, a swarm of insectoids flooded into the room and began firing back. Watching them get overrun in seconds, the poor souls were torn apart and eaten alive.

<Well, I’ll be damned, they look really similar to the Tyranids, don’t they?> (Bloodtide)

“Yeah… I suppose they do…”, I agreed, noticing that as well. “Let’s check out the rest of the files here.”

Finding more recordings and snapshots of attacks, the last video file was of an older man sitting beside a holographic screen. Unsure who he was, as the series I read never delved into the empire itself, I hit the play button, eager to see what they had to say.

“If you are seeing this video, it means the crew of our experimental interstellar vessel did not survive the use of its untested Folding Drive. While I am sure you will find our method crude and downright insane, please understand that our region of space is on the verge of collapse, and we were left with little other choice.”, He spoke with a conflicted look, “The Human Galactic Empire and our neighboring allies are in desperate need of your assistance. Hopefully this message reaches our former allies from distant neighboring regions, but if it does not, please allow me to give you an overview of our grim situation…”

Approximately six thousand years ago, skeleton-filled ghost ships began arriving across their region of space containing information about a dire threat heading their way. Taking the warnings seriously, the Human Galactic Empire and its allies began preparing for a long, drawn-out war with an enemy they had precious little intelligence about. In the centuries that followed, reports of planets being stripped bare of life and resources began slowly trickling in, suggesting that time was running out for the galactic nations. Deploying a large number of resources and soldiers to the frontlines, when the number of reports began to skyrocket, nothing could have prepared them for the hell they were sailing into.

“On Founder’s Day, fifty-five hundred years ago, the allied forces encountered a large enemy fleet numbering over five million vessels on the outskirts of our regional space. Outnumbering the enemy force three to one, we pushed our advantage and engaged them in a grueling naval battle that lasted nearly ten weeks. Managing to wipe out the enemy fleet, at the cost of half of our own, the soldiers barely had time to celebrate their victory before a second wave arrived with double the number of ships.”, he said with a grim expression. “Though we were evenly matched, our troops were totally exhausted and weary from the prior fight. Overwhelming us in a matter of days, a third host arrived soon afterward, joined up with the second group, and began a steady advance across the region.”

Becoming visibly distraught at the mention of this, the man began to silently weep on screen for a few minutes. Clearly still a sensitive topic millennia later, I could not begin to imagine the heartache these people had gone through. Through tears, he said that they lost a third of the region before being able to halt the enemy’s unyielding advance. In the chaos leading up to that point, countless worlds were abandoned, their populace left to fend for themselves, and trillions of refugees were used as bait to buy time for the defenders to adequately hunker down.

“After… after sacrificing so many of our own to save the masses, the allied forces managed to draw the bugs into a stalemate, which we maintained for the next two thousand years. As our science and technology have progressively advanced, we slowly began retaking our ancestral territories, but here recently things began to change once again. The enemy has begun fielding technology we have never seen before, causing our casualty rate to soar.”, he remarked as the screen morphed into some of the tech in question. “Up until this point, their usual tactics have been to use technology taken from those they have slain. Our scientists are certain the bugs are not undertaking research and development as they are all connected to a single entity we have dubbed the Hive Mind. As they lack the ability to perform R&D, that means they are collecting technology from elsewhere. With no answer to the firepower they are fielding now, we are being pushed back and are at risk of total collapse.”

Shutting off his holographic screen, a string of characters suddenly appeared along the bottom of the video. Unsure what it was for exactly, Dair took control and began messing around with the corrupt files. Restoring their accessibility one by one, it appeared the empire had undertaken additional security measures to safeguard the critical data.

“This is our last-ditch effort to save ourselves from complete extinction, or at the very least, warn others of the impending threat looming on their horizon.”, he stated, bowing his head. “I know you probably no longer remember who we are, as our Interstellar Gate has been offline for eons now, but please, help us! Our region has over seventeen octillion souls with nowhere to run. Outside our region, the next inhabitable galaxy is over five million light-years away from us. None of our current vessels can travel that distance in a timely manner, hence why we are risking everything on bleeding-edge technology. As prime minister of the Human Galactic Empire, I beseech you, help us before it is too late!”

Ending his recording there, I leaned back in my chair and released a long sigh. Taking a second to process everything we had just been told, it appeared that my list of things to do had just grown significantly larger. Having hoped that once this region was stable, we could head out into the wider universe, my lifelong dream was rapidly slipping away from my grasp.

‘No use crying over it; I am still getting to sail around the universe… just not as much as I would like too.’, I thought, looking at UR-025. “Can you please do me a favor and put some feelers out for additional information regarding this subject? Utilizing these star charts, I will send a team out to contact the Human Galactic Empire. My fear is that Bloodtide’s comment is correct, and this region is the reason they are on the verge of collapsing.”

<I do not mind, but it is unlikely that I will find anything. As the human stated, they are very far removed from this region of space.> (UR-025)

“Be that as it may, I want to ensure no one has been sitting on this information. If they have, I will personally bury my foot in their ass because this is ruining my plans!”, I grumbled, leaning on my right arm, “Luxion, please have a team prepare to head out from the main base. They are entering a potentially hostile environment, so use the utmost caution.”

<Relaying the data and orders now, Master.> (Luxion)

Opening the repaired star charts, I began searching for names of nations located in the region when Deirdre called me. Informing me that authorization had been given to use the old terrestrial spaceport, Ahsoka relayed the coordinates to us and said they would meet us there. Acknowledging her transmission, we picked up the liberated slaves and made our way to the hangar where a shuttle pod was waiting for us.