01.23 : The Light Begins to Dim

[21 BBY][3256LY Lothal Calendar]

[Republic Aegis Guard Frigate Bright Eagle, In Orbit Tatooine, Tatoo System, Arkanis Sector]

Damn but Jurdan Ironhill hated dealing with the Hutts and their minions; when he'd started off as crewman on ore haulier, and for the here and now as Admiral of the Republic Navy. Thankfully he could let that pirate-witch of a female Shesagora do the shady dealings while he played the watchful guard dog and planned out the route back to Ryloth. Oh, and the joy of false route planning that went on the official record too of course, since they couldn't trust on the fact the Separatists wouldn't find out through intelligence leaks.

They were safe enough here, from the Separatists at least, as this was 'informal' Hutt space; but that didn't mean 'Mighty Jabba' might not turn on them at any moment; or warn the enemy once they left. He and his battle-group was far too close to Geonosis and Rodia for his comfort after all, even if the first leg of escorting full cargo laden merchantmen to the exchange point was now complete. Spice, ores, raw fuel, and non-war relevant data on members of the Confederacy of Independent States that they'd ripped from the captured machines of Wat Tambor. Whatever it took to get the equipment, fuel, and soon-to-be-freed-slaves the needed to maintain the war effort...and make a profit doing so of course.

"Everything looks clear Admiral..." echoed back over the communications channel from the lead engineer on the teams they'd sent over to the small, but as eclectic as those he'd guarded so far, collection of ships hanging in space in the planet's shadow "...systems are clean, holds are fuel with manifests, and we've moved the...refugees...over to the Itragana Tal for medical treat and later screening"

Jurdan nodded to himself, thumbing the communications button "Good to hear Arik, just confirming we're ready to get the lot of them underway?"

"That's a yes Sir, boards are showing good on the hyper-drives, life support, fuel...we're ready to get out of this system and its dust-ball"

"Excellent, prep for departure, form you ships up with the convoy and await my orders" he responded with a nod to his Executive Officer to organise getting them formed up as he closed that channel, and then opened up one to Captain Shesagora. Her holographic image popping up moments later, hands gesturing and clearly giving orders so he waited a moment to do so, before speaking "Engineering teams have completed all checks, and we're ready to get underway. How do we stand with our...friends?"

"Paid and chuckling, being a Hutt in general" she replied frowning in disgust perhaps "...you how they are. Just waiting on us to kriff off somewhere else basically"

"Good, tell we're happy as can be, thanks for ships, and we'll be seeing them again for later profitable ventures...etc, etc, etc" Jurdan replied "...just get em' happy, make'em think we're taking Route Alpha if anything gets asked....and of course this never happened either"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the drill, Shesagora out"

Daron, as ever, was being his usual scavenger self; and that had extended to buying these old fighting ships, and what were essentially retrofitted wrecks of ones, from the criminal lords of the Outer Rim. At times over the past few weeks Jurdan had almost felt like a Pirate himself at times as he brought ships over 'recalcitrant' or 'rebel sympathizing' mining stations or worlds to 'encourage' a 'change of heart' to the situation. Or, to be more honest, turning up and either playing friend to the locals, or basically indirectly threatening them by stating 'protection' of their traders would not be offered outside of Republic approved routes. Which had a small fee of course to 'help' with costs of such protection....

'....and essentially giving pirates' free reign over any non-Republic shipping just feels wrong at time' he admitted with a sigh. Nothing could be done about it, and all Jurdan could do was blame the Separatists for being the bastards they were despite a decent cause, and the Senate for being so corrupt that Jurdan, Daron, and the others had been forced to resort to 'open port' policies to keep the fleet intact and expanding. Not to mention the secret conspiracy lurking out there that had created a Mind Controlled Slave Clone almost a decade before the Separatists had even got started. It almost made him wish for the simple life of hunting down Trade Federation 'pirates' for the bounty...

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[21 BBY]

[Groundside, Republic Command Centre, City of Lessu, Ryloth, Ryloth System]

I was tired....we were all tired really...as I sat down at the conference table across from Jedi Master and Republic General Kota Rahm. It had been absolutely exhausting taking on the role of Governor-General of Ryloth, and even more stressful role of Sector Army Quartermaster. General Kota had a similar look of course....I think we all did due to the constant small scale skirmishing with the Confederates, demands of our jobs, and news of general enemy advances in the Mid-rim and Colonies region.

"So you've got it operational?"

I nodded "Yes, the Outer Rim Oreworks left behind some functional equipment, even if it needed massive amounts of effort to restore, and we've cut a deal with the little gremlins that call the world home. But that's planet-side sorry, spaceborne we've got a number of repair ships, tugs, and rigs setup and beginning a restoration effort on the ships we've acquired....we've instituted a blockade on the Lamaredd system hyper-lane of course, but it barely gets more than the odd tramp freighter once or twice a year so it shouldn't be missed for a time. Are you ready to start sending over crews for training and work up?"

Rahm Kota nodded "Yes, I'll have then ready to depart by the end of the week if you're ready to receive them...secrecy will be maintained of course"

"Of course, I'm glad you all agree telling too much to the Senate Oversight and Republic Intelligence isn't ideal till we're combat capable on them?"

The Jedi Master sighed "One is....not happy at such half-truths, but events when we fought the Separatist 1st and 3rd Fleets, and our actions here, have shown there are some who would sell our secrets. I warn I have informed the Council of several matters of course, but I have not compromised tactical data such as Bolthole, Deepdive, and Magic Mountain"

'Of course not, you don't know exactly where they are with Deepdive and Magic Mountain, just that I've set them up' I mused giving a polite nod of thanks in response. One of the important things to get up and running was our 'secret' repair and refit yard at Lamaredd in addition to our efforts here at Ryloth, then a spy 'station' in CIS territory. Magic Mountain was mine and General Yanthis's other contribution; a Sector Army Intelligence Agency with multiple slicers and whatever droid and computer experts available in our region focused on cracking Confederate codes, and establishing our own networks outside the Republic Naval ones.

Ones we assumed were compromised....though my reasons were slightly different of course for thinking so than his and the others "Thank you, we can't trust transmissions over the holo-net with the CIS astride many of the major routes, and there support infrastructure"

He waved his hand side to side for a second "I understand, no point in rehashing the argument. Now, unto this idea of yours to put droids in Twi'lek star-fighters"

I sighed, resting back into my seat "Only temporarily, we've got a production line established, and expanding, on these Chir'daki star-fighters they'd designed and we modified a little. Now we've got four hundred up and running already, if not all atmo-sealed yet, and we'll have seven hundred produced next month....and more the following..." it was amazing how fast you could ramp up an entire world, though those were tiny, tiny, numbers compared to even World War Two on a world I remembered two lifetimes ago "...but we don't have pilots trained on them yet. We're going to have the problem of having fighters sitting idle when we need them immediately....so, we've got hundreds of thousands of B-1's sitting around"

"Hardly sitting around, you've got them doing construction worldwide..." he replied with mild distaste "...but it's a step up putting them in a combat role"

I shrugged "We already make use of droids General, droidekas, modified B-1's, so it's nothing unusual for us let's be honest. Even the locals have gotten used to our....reconstruction crews let's call them. Anyway, we rip out their cores and insert our own, with our own programming, so there's no danger of factory reset nonsense from them. They'll make less effective pilots than organics, even our modified B-1s are dumb as a bag of bricks, but their better than no pilots.....and we've already switched the Scarabs and Vultures over. I don't see the problem with a temporary fix till we get Chir'daki pilots up and running"

"My forces will take...purchase, several of the star-fighters"

I shrugged again "If you wish, they are....limited"

"We have enough ships to operate as carriers to make it work, and it frees up more of our hyperdrive equipped squadrons to step up raids towards Geonosis, Rodia, and Christophsis"

"Chrisophsis....hmmm....so let's get down to business then I guess"

General Kota nodded "Yes, we are to aid in the evacuation, my forces from our side of the hyper-lane, and a relief force from Bothawui by way of Rishi. We need transports and..."

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[21 BBY]

[Confederacy of Independent Systems Providence-class Destroyer, In Orbit Emberlene, Emberlene System]

His Master's image vanished and Dooku, Count of Serenno, Darth Tyranus, rose to stand. One arm across his chest he began to stroke his beard in thought as he brought up the galactic map once again. The Grand Plan was going well despite some minor difficulties that had required adjustment; most notably members of the Trade Federation and certain mercenary Captains going off-script so to speak. Oh, it was certain proving useful at the moment as he had publicly cheered on the advances made by the new Viceroy Findos and that traitorous vermin 'Admiral' Toth....but not under his or his Master's control.

Equally unfortunate was the fact he could do little at the moment to deal with the upstart, who, due to delusions of grandeur beyond his status, had decided he was some sort of rival to the power that was a Sith such as Dooku had now become. A pathetic effort amusing in its irritation, though one that his dispatch of bounty hunter/assassins had failed to deal with as yet; the sad result of the best ones in their employ under orders of his Master for now. Grievous was amusing too, in his way, as he succeed thanks to Dooku's own efforts by arranging the board in his favour....the pieces in motion at the silent direction of their betters as was right.

'Well...not entirely of course, but beyond expectations. Truly, the Order and the Council have fallen lower than I had even imagined' he thought with a momentary shake of his head at the thought. His discussions and plotting with Darth Sidious had assumed somewhat greater awareness or resistance to their influence on the Republic effort. Instead they allowed themselves to be led by the nose to a greater extent than he'd estimated....plans having to be adjusted at times to account for Jedi Generals just not noticing obvious opportunities unless directly ordered into the trap behind the possible opening.

'Yes, and time to eliminate a few more fools as Sidious advises' he thought looking at Christophsis where Trench had Senator Organa and Clone forces besieged. His Master had ordered an evacuation along with a relief force for the under pressure Republic forces holding the Outer Rim from Naboo to Ryloth. A nuisance was what they had been his commanders had reported; constant low level raids, ambushes, and dire rants from various groups such as the Techno Union for the Mercenary Generals there looting everything that wasn't nailed down apparently. Dooku had found it a valuable factor for motivating those groups...

...but now it was time to take advantage of the trapped forces and deal a blow to the Republic there. His Master had supplied detailed Republic reports on what was available to the 4th Mobile Army an 14th Sector Army, and allowing the evacuation and 'relief' to go ahead....and then been utterly crushed at Ryloth would be ideal. Three, maybe four, Jedi would be assigned to the operation and with distrustful Rahm Kota in place it would be an ideal time to eliminate numerous Jedi and a Senator. Along with inflicting a blow on the Republic easily blamed on the Jedi Order in a system being used as a rally cry within the Core for support....further enraging the public against the CIS and in favour of his Master.

'Who to send....ah, yes, the Twins and Saato I think' he decided after a few seconds. Admiral Trench would be loath to abandon the Blockade of Christophsis, but all that need to be done there was ensure he followed the Republic's battleplan to draw him away. Then it would be merely a matter of reinforcing him and have him chase down the relief force and then crush them along with the Sector Army defences there. That should be enough to serve as a serious blow, but not enough crumble the Republic's forces in that area of the Outer Rim...