AN: Double release today, go back a chapter.
Corvus was mere hours away from exiting hyperspace, and he was going over what he knew, and had learned about his next target: Eriadu.
Famed for birthing Tarkin, the planet ran on a 24hr day/night cycle, had a singular moon, and a ratio of land to water nearly identical to Earth's. In short, it was the perfect location for human colonists, and colonize, humanity did! Thousands of years ago, a group of five families brought with them ships full of slaves with the ideal of transforming Eriadu into the 'Coruscant of the Outer Rim.' As a result, they transformed this eden-like world into an industrial hellscape, one where the sun rarely shone upon people trapped under the toxic clouds of industrial waste. In essence, the people lived like it was the very worst Chinese smog city x100. An absolute nightmare.
It wasn't until about a thousand years ago, when Eriadu was conquered by the Sith, that they joined the Republic once the darksiders were defeated. As a result, slavery was abolished, and democracy became the law of the land. That is, except the only candidates who won any of these elections just so happened to belong to one of those initial five family clans that founded this territory. In short, the legislative & political structure of Eriadu was an oligarchy cloaked in the paint of democratic/republican values. Oh sure, you could vote, but one of the candidates had to belong to one of the preselected families.
Corvus had seen corruption like this run rampant on Earth, and figured that one of the purposes of the Jedi-when acting as the guardians of peace and justice-was to eliminate such blatant disregard for human rights. Furthermore, the over exploitation of resources had created a disease ridden, pollution state.
Whilst Corvus wasn't one to force people to constrain people, or impose rules on them, it was common sense that some rules regarding the environment had to be followed. Now Corvus well understood the importance of businesses to society, and knew that most people working for them were good, ordinary people, that didn't mean he could turn a blind eye whilst he had the power to stop the abuse. If some company was openly dumping nuclear waste into his water supply, well, that was no different from poisoning him! That kind of behavior might bring out a violent reaction from him!
By reading these reports on the extreme efforts the five families-aka the Quintad-had taken to turn a profit made him sick. Eriadu, for all intents and purposes, was like if Earth's sweatshop culture of 1800~ never introduced human rights laws. It was disgusting, and sickened Corvus to his core.
The worst part of this whole debacle was how intensely proud the natives were of their homeworld. To them, they were the shining jewel of the Outer Rim. Everything they did-manufacturing weapons, droids, ships-was the very best!
And to a degree, Corvus couldn't fault them for that national pride. In general, the Outer Rim was a complete shitshow. Pirates ran rampant in these parts, and all sorts of psychopathic warlords attempted violent coups all the time. Especially given its location in the Galactic South, they truly did have grounds to be proud when places like Ryloth, Geonosis, and Dagobah were their neighbors.
That same nationalistic pride was further buoyed by a strong military. For generations of humanity, joining the armed forces had always been a means to rise in both pay, and social standing. Violence was always the greatest common denominator when it came to determining who ruled, and the Quintad paid well. Therefore, the Eriaduan military was one of the most robust forces within the Galactic South. Their volunteers frequently left the Sector, and fought alongside the clone troopers on the front lines.
With a planetary population of over 22 billion, well over 100 million soldiers could be deployed, with a further 500 million reservists. Furthermore, as the preeminent hub for commerce in this region of space, they fielded their own defence fleet, and dozens of armed space stations. Each major city had its own shield, and the place was wealthy enough to afford secondary shields for important buildings such as barracks, spaceports, armories, etc. Disregarding the Legion that had been stationed here before their inglorious deaths at Geonosis, Eriadu was a hard nut to crack.
Given his current forces, Corvus did not want to engage in open warfare. Even if he had a fully staffed 10 Legions-and their accompanying fleets-it would be extremely difficult to outright win.
Which is why Corvus had elected to arrive with his damaged ships! Currently, Eriadu was under strict traffic control due to the continued war, and very few ships were allowed within a certain distance of the planet without being blasted into stardust. By masquerading as an injured Legion seeking repairs at their dockyards, Corvus would have the perfect in. Now, of course, he could try and immediately go guns blazing once he had bypassed the first layer of defense, but this seemed incredibly foolish to him.
Even if Corvus achieved victory in a spacebattle-and that was a big if-he would have to lay siege to a planet populated by billions. It was like the Americans looking at the Japanese in WW2, and realizing that an island willing to fight to the death was a grim possibility. Should he go down this path, the meat grinder would resemble something out of 40k, and completely bog down his offensive. So far, Corvus's actions in the Galactic South had taken roughly 2-3 weeks. It was his goal, by the end of the month, to completely subsume this industrial juggernaut back to the side of the Republic.
Situated on 5 hyperlanes, Eriadu was the chokepoint. By controlling this well-placed world, he could have it act as the fortress that stopped Imperial reinforcements from piercing deeper into CIS holdings. He had bought time for the Separatists to regroup thanks to his terrorist actions on Coruscant, Kamino, and Malastare, yet it could not be understated how scary the Empire was. Over a thousand Legions existed, and the Kuat Drive Yards were pumping out 1-10 capital ships, as well as hundreds of walkers, and starfighters every day.
Yeah, the Empire must be reeling in economic shock at the moment, but in a command economy, the people can suffer so long as the military output remains the same. One need only look at the fate of the average Soviet citizen during WW2 to see how they fared, yet the output of their army was so incredible, that Germany simply couldn't keep up. Palpatine had been wounded by Corvus's actions, but it would be incredibly naive to think he had done nothing more than set the proliferate politician back a few steps. In fact, based on Imperial intelligence, he should already be aware of the tragedy of Kamino, and might already know about Malastare.
Therefore, it was of utmost importance for Corvus to not only swiftly conquer Eriadu, but do so in a manner that didn't inflame the nationalistic populace. By starting an open war, he was sure to garner hostility, and foster an anti-Republic Insurgency.
As such, his plan was simple: overthrow the Quintad, and install a pro-Jedi/Republic government in its place.
To facilitate this goal, he would employ the services of CF-99, his Padawans, and some of his own skills. In the process of eliminating them, he intended to record their crimes/abuses of power to be used as evidence of their inhumane behavior. Of course in any big family, there would be innocents, and Corvus wouldn't mind letting them go, but the current governmental system had to go. Anyone who would 'dump nuclear waste' without a shred of ethics was not a good organization. Considering this was the place that made Tarkin-and that all other Tarkins behaved just like Wilhuff-Corvus wouldn't lose much sleep over their removal.
As for who to choose as the replacement? Corvus intended to sneak onto the planet whilst the damaged Venator was docking for repairs. Since much of Eriadu was a toxic wasteland, there were sure to be plenty of sick, and diseased people. By going around, and healing the most unfortunate people with his powers, he intended to look for those people with the most kindness. Leaders who provided for their communities, and tried to ease the suffering of the masses were those he wanted to run this place.
His close calls on Malastare reminded him that first and foremost, he was a Jedi Shadow. What he needed was finesse. What he needed was cunning, and secrecy. When he was in the limelight, he became a target, whilst when he lurked in the shadows, he was the dagger poised at the enemy's back. The fear of the unknown was a weapon best wielded in his hands.
By the end of this campaign, the staunch Quintad supporters would whisper the name Revan in awe.
Glancing at his blinking commlink, Corvus took the call.
"Sir, we're dropping out of hyperspace in five minutes. We've notified the local forces ahead of time, they are expecting us." Clip's voice sounded out.
"Very good Captain, alert Clone Force 99. Operation Perfect Dark is a go."
~~~~~~~~~~
Whilst the fleet had docked, and made the necessary arrangements for repair, and rearmament, a different type of mission was being carried out.
The cabin aboard the LAAT hummed with low energy as night settled across the industrial skyline of Eriadu. In the dim lighting of the cityscape, only the static flickering from a holo-projector provided any light.
Within this dimly lit space, were Clone Force 99, as well as Jax, and Yon. Clad in sleek black armor made of tritanium, each man in this group was equipped with stealth generators, enabling invisibility. The design was sleek, and was rife with custom markings that only special forces were permitted to wear. To an outside observer, they wouldn't know what kind of organization had produced such suits.
Hunter stood at the head of a makeshift war table with his arms folded across his chest. His eyes scanned each member of the squad, looking for any fault. The faint blue glow from the projected topographical map of the capital district in Eriadu City cast harsh shadows across their faces.
Wrecker had a ballsy grin spreading from ear to ear seemingly lost in thoughts of big guns & explosions, Tech was tapping away at a data slate, and Crosshair was in a staring contest with the troublesome kid. Jax, and Echo, meanwhile, seemed to be the only ones paying any kind of attention. Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose, and barely withheld a sigh. By the Force, he loved his boys, but this attitude was downright childish. The General recognized their talents as the 'best of the best' he was relying on them, and so long as the Jedi kept his girl-Omega-safe, he'd keep to his oath.
Rapping his gloved hand on the holotable, he brought attention to himself.
"We're not going in loud." Hunter said, voice calm and low. "This is surgical. No civilian casualties, per the General's orders."
"Naturally." Tech replied without looking up from his dataslate.
Hunter manipulated the holoprojector in front of him, and a second later, five floating, flickering heads appeared. Then, about a dozen smaller heads appeared, each one listed as a secondary target.
"The Quintad have provided five high value targets, ripe for the picking. Intel says a little gala is being held, and all the fancy members of society are gathering for a ball."
Tech adjusted his goggles and stepped closer to the map. "I've mined their data, and this is what I discovered before I was forced to withdraw, less my presence was detected: Local comms are scrambled and they've integrated facial recognition into patrol drones. The Eriaduan's pride themselves on their technological prowess, and have hidden-wall mounted turrets-throughout the premises. Sophisticated battle droids, supplemented by elite organic guards patrol the area in squads of ten. We'll need to go ghost the moment we breach the perimeter. Our odds of survival if a firefight breaks out are not in our favor."
Echo nodded, and crossed his arms, mimicking Hunter's posture. "I can slice into their surveillance grid here, at the garden perimeter. Get me five minutes with their systems and I'll feed them a loop of empty corridors."
Wrecker cracked his knuckles with a grin. "And while you're all sneakin' around, I'll make sure their rooftop security teams get some fresh ventilation."
"Negative," Hunter said sharply. "We do this quiet. Wrecker, you'll handle extraction on the rooftop once Tech and Jax cut the power. No fireworks unless we're compromised."
Wrecker grunted, and blew a raspberry. The big man was lugging a massive chaingun, and had been itching to use it ever since the General had gifted it to him. Hunter swore that Wrecker slept with the damned thing.
Turning toward the two new additions to the team, Hunter regarded the pair of Jedi Padawans. During the assault on Malastare, these two had performed better than he had imagined. As a special forces unit, he had never had the pleasure of fighting alongside a Jedi, as his work often took him behind enemy lines. He could honestly say, he saw what the hype was about.
"Yon, you'll infiltrate the scaffolding alongside Crosshair-"
"Tch." The black haired teen rolled his eyes.
"Hey, why put me with the runt!" Crosshair scowled.
Hunter ignored the pair, and kept talking. "From the scaffolding, you'll provide overwatch. Crosshair will be equipped with poisoned pellets that disintegrate on skin contact. Yon, you'll act as cover, and if you see an opportunity, feel free to drop something heavy on top of one of the targets using the Force."
"Heh, I'll get them before you." Yon taunted Crosshair in a competitive tone.
"In your dreams, Ragebar. They'll be long dead before you set sights on them." Crosshair evilly smirked, without looking up. Cleaning his rifle one more time, the expert sniper disassembled it, and placed it into an ordinary looking suitcase.
"Jax," Hunter continued, pointing to the lower quadrant of the holo-map. "You and Tech are hitting the security room. You'll breach using the ventilation shafts. Use the Force to sense hostiles before you step into a kill box."
Jax silently inclined his head, eerily quiet.
Hunter barely repressed a shiver. He appreciated the kid for how much he helped Omega, but something always seemed off about him to his keen senses. Like there was a biting cold edge ready to be unleashed at a moment's notice. At least with Yon, you knew what you were getting into. The short kid was kind of easy to lead where you wanted to go, in a way, Yon was like an adorable attack dog. Jax, however, guarded his thoughts jealously. If he hadn't seen him Mind Trick a dozen men to blow their own brains off at Malastare, he'd have thought he was a regular Jedi. The white haired teen was worth watching out for. Glancing at the mask Corvus had specially prepared for Jax made him uneasy, the frosty haired teen had been assigned a new callsign: Ghost.
Hunter met his eyes evenly. "I'm trusting you with Tech's safety."
Jax curtly nodded, and didn't say a word.
"Lastly, me and Echo will infiltrate through the gardens posing as security guards. Using credentials acquired by the Boss, we'll slip in, and locate the targets. The idea is to either get them alone to do the deed, or corral them into the dance floor, where Crosshair can take the shot." Hunter explained.
"We're splitting four ways," Tech muttered, pulling up timing data on his wrist display. "Success window: fourteen minutes and thirty seconds from synchronized breach."
Hunter looked around the table. "You all know the route. We sneak in, take down the Quintad, and vanish before their comms even reboot. Eriadu doesn't see a war. Just the glimpse of a shadow, and it's gone before they knew what hit them."
He stepped back from the table and took a small data chip from the projector, and placed it in the back of his helmet. A timer began to play in the corner of his eye, and with a small command, he could pull up the schematics of the mansion they were infiltrating at any time.
"Helmets on, we're going dark." As Hunter said that, the last light in the LAAT winked out, and the pilot engaged stealth mode, significantly slowing the vehicle down, but also eliminating almost all noise & heat signatures.
Within the silence of the LAAT's cabin, the seven men regulated their breathing, capmed their nerves, and palmed their weapons. The prelude to another potential war was upon them. Should they fuck up, then the entire Sector would be on top of them with almost no hope of escape. But should they succeed, then the lives of millions would be saved. The cost of defeat was unacceptable.
They had to succeed.
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AN: Read up to chapter 206 at: patreon.com/KarpQQ
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