AN: Another double release today. Why? Because chapter 9 is diabolical.
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After deciding he would try and relocate to Tython after thinking it through, Corvus didn't have to wait long for the clone commander to act upon his geas.
Within 10 minutes of having given the order to Gamma Squad, a report had come back, and the commander had ordered a LAAT gunship to come pick him up.
The iconic vehicle thrummed onto the scene from the sky, and hovered just a few feet off the ground.
Following in the commander's coattails, Corvus boarded the ship with little fanfare.
As soon as the shuttle took off, Corvus once again admired the cityscape of Coruscant.
The entire planet was one endless hellscape of concrete, and he wouldn't want to live here unless he was a member of the upper echelons of society. However, it was at least pretty from the sky.
After about 10-20 minutes of flight, they had bypassed a few security checkpoints, and landed in a hangar. Dozens of other ships were constantly coming and going, making the scene a whirl of activity. Corvus was somewhat in awe by all the flying craft he was surrounded by, but couldn't allow himself to get lost in this sci-fi fantasy, as he had a mission to do.
By bypassing so many security checkpoints, Corvus was already liking this plan over his idea of jumping onto a random shuttle car, then sneaking his way in from the front door.
Essentially what he was doing was the equivalent of sneaking into the White House by riding along with a secret service agent. Much easier than going through the front gate.
Disembarking the LAAT, Corvus realized he had no idea where to go, and decided to tag along with the commander. Whoever he reported to was sure to be important.
Following behind the commander once more, Corvus left the hangar, and quickly entered a massive complex filled to the brim with soulless, corporate cubicles.
All around him, as far as the eye could see, the entire area felt like a 90's businessman's worst nightmare.
A sea of humans, near-humans, and a handful of aliens clogged the narrow walkways between cubicles as they hurried to and fro, datapads in hand.
Marching forth, the clone commander drew a few arched eyebrows, but no one said anything to him.
Along the way, Corvus overheard a few people discussing rumors around a caf machine-a stupid sci-fi way of saying coffee-and Corvus wouldn't have paid two cents to what they were saying, but it pertained to Order 66.
"I can't believe the Jedi would do such a thing. Master Yoda was nothing but pleasant the few words I spoke with him."
"I told you, all these years, their kindness, it's just a facade. They wanted full control of the government, it was only a matter of time!"
"Well we have to catch them now. It's estimated over 500 of them are still out there, that masked guy, what was his name again? His broadcast really made our job difficult."
"Revan, his name was Revan…"
Corvus was curious what they were saying, but they quickly shut up as the commander walked by. However, what he heard was cause for a little celebration.
500 or more Jedi survivors was more than he could have hoped for. It seemed that his broadcast warning the Jedi not to gather had led to something positive.
Smiling to himself, knowing he had already made an impact, Corvus resolved himself to do what needed to be done.
Eventually, the commander stopped at a checkpoint manned by a squad of clone troopers.
"Commander on deck!" A trooper-with black highlights on his armor signifying he belonged to the security bureau-saluted.
"At ease boys, mind letting me through?" The commander saluted back, then asked.
"One sec commander, aand finished." The trooper said whilst he activated a biometric scanning device.
"Welcome to the Imperial Inspectorat, commander."
"Imperial Inspectorat, huh? I guess I'll have to get used to all the new names."
"Don't we all, sir, don't we all."
"Very good, trooper, carry on." The commander nodded, then moved out.
Sticking close to him, Corvus moved in a whoosh past the scanners.
"Bee-boo bee-boo."
"Is there a problem, gentleman?" The commander turned back to ask.
"No sir, just a damned malfunction. Blasted machine will act up sometimes if something moves past it too fast." The clone thoughtlessly replied.
"Hmm. Get that looked at, trooper." The commander hummed in suspicion, then resumed his trek.
Corvus felt his heart in his throat at the close call. It would seem in his haste, he had caused the air to whoosh just a bit, making the sensor go off.
It wasn't as if he was afraid that he couldn't escape, but his planned sabotage and assassinations hinged on remaining unseen. Being discovered was out of the question!
Calming his panic down, Corvus took this incident as a lesson. That he had to be patient with this mission.
This little kerfuffle also revealed that his stealth wasn't 100% perfect. If he was stupid about it, then he could be detected.
'Slow and steady, slow and steady.' Corvus repeated to himself.
Sufficiently calmed down, Corvus followed the commander into a hallway with gunmetal grey sliding doors. Many of the doors held placards saying something like 'Director of xxx, Major xxx, Department of xxx.'
This hallway was practically deserted, and had no foot traffic, and the noise from the cubicle area was virtually eliminated. It was the perfect place of respite, and a middle managers wet dream.
After passing a dozen doors, they came to one that made Corvus smile.
[Director of Security, Colonel Wullf Yularen, Department of Intelligence]
It would seem the good admiral had received his promotion, and was ripe for the plucking.
As one of the most competent Imperials, Yularen posed a significant threat to the enemies of the Empire.
From Corvus's perspective, he was perhaps within the top 3 most important targets that he could eliminate.
As soon as they arrived, a voice came through a speaker just outside the door.
"I've received a summary of the incident, enter." Yularen's strict, no nonsense voice ordered.
The sliding metal door hissed open, and the clone commander stood in the doorway for an uncomfortable amount of time.
"Trooper?" Yularen asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Sir, here to report suspicious activity from the Jedi Temple, sir!" The clone commander said, walking into the room.
Corvus moved to follow, but the Force was screaming at him.
Instantly Pausing, Corvus entered a third person perspective, and scanned everything around him.
It was then that he noticed what had sent his senses off. The commander had begun to roll forward, and was halfway into unholstering his blaster pistol!
'The damned bastard must have grown suspicious after multiple Mind Tricks, and had his suspicions confirmed when Corvus had set off that scanner!'
Corvus could only internally tsk at himself. Clones had some serious training, and commanders were no slouches either. It was no wonder he had noticed something was up!
However, that didn't mean that Corvus was in trouble. From this angle, he could react with [Force Push], [Force Lightning], or [Force Speed] into a lightsaber attack.
Any of those options would cut it.
However, there was also Yularen to consider. The man was sure to react within 3 seconds of the clone commander. He would likely activate some sort of alarm, then reach for a blaster.
Sitting behind the terminal of a computer, this brown haired, mustachioed middle aged man posed a unique dilemma to Corvus.
Half of Corvus's goals were related to the data he could mine from the Intelligence Bureau. Yularen's terminal above all others would be the prime target, and Corvus had dumped a massive amount of points into his Computer skill for just such an occurrence.
He had to get his hands on that terminal.
Now maybe he could kill the clone, then Mind Trick the colonel, but Corvus didn't think such a strategy would be viable. The middle aged man had a will and intelligence as strong as iron. Corvus wouldn't attempt such a strategy unless he was a Master in the Force, or had severly broken Yularen via conventional torture first.
Scrapping that idea, Corvus figured he could just go old school and shoot the man. Within his inventory were tons of blasters, blaster pistols, and other weapons he had scavenged from the Jedi Temple or made from the workbench. He even had a blaster with a silencer.
They were perhaps less than 10ft apart, and it was a clear shot with the terminal off to his right.
Corvus wasn't a marksman or anything, but by focusing on the Force, he was sure he could do it.
3 seconds? That was plenty of time!
Figuring he had a decent plan in place, Corvus decided he would be relying on his [Two Handed Weapon Mastery] for this next part.
Psyching himself up, Corvus un-Paused.
Acting in a premeditated fashion, Corvus cast [Speed III] (1 second), stepped forward, ignited his lightsaber bisecting the clone (1 second), then in his off-hand, a silenced blaster pistol appeared out of his inventory, and barked 3 shots clean into Yularen's chest (1 second).
As soon as he exited bullet time, and those 3 seconds were up, the sliding door snapped shut behind him, the clone's body parts hit the floor, and Yularen's corpse spilled over some wine onto the nice hardwood floor.
Feeling his pulse quicken and a flood of adrenaline enter his pounding heart, Corvus found himself repeating the mantra of the Jedi Shadows once more to calm himself.
Wrinkling his nose over the burnt smell of flesh and plastic, Corvus gently lifted Yularen's corpse away with the Force, and hurriedly got to work.
Having produced spikes (hacking tools from KOTOR) at the Lab Station, all Corvus had to do was look at the computer with the intent to use it, and his body got to work.
Just like disabling the mines, or crafting, his 'game' ability carried over to consoles as well.
The first thing he did was look for files regarding the names & identities of agents, as well as any past & active plots, and downloaded them to his commlink.
Tens of thousands of people + their reports, locations, and secret projects had become his. Corvus planned on leveraging this information against corporations, the CIS, politicians, and anyone else who was affected. The data collected right now was a coal mine full of dirty laundry, and Corvus fully intended to sell it for the most valuable currency within the universe.
Power.
Money talks, but power walks. An Imperial spy may have info on a CEO that he's cheating on his wife, or knowledge of the exact layout of a senator's penthouse, what he eats, when he sleeps, and who he sleeps with. Such personal information would make anyone want to know who the rat was. By peddling such information, Corvus could make many 'friends' and garner great influence.
After downloading all of that, Corvus found the bounty list, and edited it for a few people. On all the Jedi that were in his party, he edited them to KIA, and in the Padawan's cases, deleted them from the record completely. He didn't delete the rest of the list, because that would be too suspicious, and he didn't want anyone else to know that he had hacked into Imperial Intelligence's system. As for the Padawans, Corvus figured they wouldn't be famous like a Knight or Master, and thought that no one would notice their removal.
While he was in the bounty section, he had one last thing he wanted to do. To add a bounty on Boba Fett's head!
The cold killer was a great enemy of the Jedi, and had sworn himself to eliminate every last one after Mace Windu decapitated his dad.
While Boba was a cool badass from a fan's POV, from a Jedi's POV he was a powerful Mandalorian, one who would be better off dead than left alive.
Next, he took a look at the operational budget for the department. Militaries were notorious for their slush funds, and this one was no different. The sum that flashed across the screen was in the billions. Considering how credits were much more valuable than Earth dollars, this was an astronomical amount.
Looking at the past history of transactions, Corvus saw that there were many small, medium, and large checks sent out to various subcommittees within the department, as well as quite a few anonymous agents.
Corvus wrote several new work orders and sent them to new departments. He put in requests for tens of millions of umbrellas, sandals, blankets, and other inane objects all to waste government funds.
Hidden within the orders to all the departments, Corvus had sent an anonymous order worth 100 million credits, and generated the code on the PC, then saved it to his commlink.
Before he left Coruscant, he would have to make a stop at the bank. Corvus smirked thinking about all the money he had just robbed from the Empire's coffers.
It was all the better because these were Imperial credits.
Papa Palpatine had thought himself clever when all the corpos came running to him claiming war debts. However, the Supreme Politician that he was, Palpatine informed these companies that those were debts issued to the Republic, and that the Empire would not be paying them.
Corvus's action right now was a giant middle finger jab straight into Palpy's eye.
If Corvus could prolong this war even for one more year, he might just be able to crush the Emperor with economics alone!
Pleased with himself, Corvus had one last thing to do before he rigged this place with a timed explosive, and vamoosed.
Check Yularen's work email!
Downloading the guy's dm's post death felt scummy, but it was sure to be a treasure trove of information.
With all this miscellaneous stuff that he was collecting, he figured he could task the Padawans of going through it for him. Corvus was sure he could spin it as training, or maybe in Yon's case, punishment.
Chuckling to himself, Corvus decided he would search the HQ a little more with the hopes of discovering the Isaards. Then if that proved fruitless, he'd pay the Military HQ, then the Senate a visit.
As he had such a thought, a new message pinged on the monitor.
Glancing at the header, Corvus found it was quite the rare opportunity.
[The Future of the Empire, The Destruction of the Jedi, & The Elimination of the CIS]
Opening it up, Corvus saw that it was an email RSVP for a high level meeting happening one hour from now.
Glancing at the invitees, Corvus saw at least 3 more names that were on his list!
A wide evil grin spread across his face, like the one that the Grinch was famed for.
This was it!
In their haste to establish the Galactic Empire, these Admirals, Generals, and bureaucrats were delivering themselves to him upon a silver platter!
It was as Corvus had said, if you aim at a Jedi, you'd better not miss!
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AN: Read up to chapter 30 at karpqq patreon
I release on patreon mon, tue, wed, th
Publically on Fridays.