A/N: Sorry everyone about the delay, there was a flood at work that created a massive amount of extra more work. Here is the chapter, the longest chapter I think I have written yet at over 37k words! I will keep the words here to a minimum so this chapter can get out faster.

Sadly I didn't hear back from my Beta so this chapter's mistakes are all on me and may be a bit rougher. I did do an extra edit though so hopefully caught anything.


Chapter 15:

It had been a week since his triumphant return to Coruscant and overall, the reception had been better than he could have expected. Even the non-militarists were having trouble crafting a negative narrative about the event, at least in terms of his involvement. It was hard to be negative when Tarkin returned with 15 additional ships, 34 hostages, some of which had been held for years, and 121 now former slaves from the station. Let alone the crates and crates of illegal spice, and other contraband. The bounties on the nearly 1000 criminals apprehended could alone buy a few ships. He of course knew the HPI droids had cleared out any other valuables, but the spice and other illegal goods being left to be confiscated was a pin on the whole operation.

It seemed his droid friend, 'Admiral Don', was right about how the raid would go over when presented to the wider galaxy as they had. He was still skeptical of HPI involvement, but he was willing to work with them for now. He was just reading some more info on the ongoings he had missed while away, and watching the HoloNews, which of all things was covering his raid nearly 7 days later. Though it has only been known to the public for about 3-4 days now. He would know as he was the one to ensure 'accurate' information about the events was leaked to multiple outlets.

"The results of the raid by Governor Tarkin with the help of HPI showed what one could expect from our Judicial Forces with proper aid. These are quite exciting results." said the male reporter happily.

"I don't disagree with you, but I think many people are either ignoring or downplaying the two major issues I see here." The male guest on the program started speaking, getting Tarkin to put his padd down for a moment to concentrate on the holo program. "The first issue being that without the aid of HPI, which I think Governor Tarkin should be commended in seeking out, the Judicial Forces would not have been able to take on this pirate stronghold." The male guest said confidently, building up steam. "And then there is the massive glaring problem I am seeing, being this new 'Dagger-Class' ship HPI is fieldling. Even its name has implications!"

He watched as a high-resolution image of the Dagger-Class ship he had leaked was shown on the screen. He had been surprised when Don had sent over a small bit of information on the ship HPI had been fielding, but he guessed at that point it had not mattered much to the droid, as their sensors would have already had 95% of the information sent over already. It certainly looked like a ship he would love to get his hands on. Sadly, there were still many capabilities of the ship's design that were still not known, and so the information sent over by Ron and what he could see from his scans had him tantalized and interested in knowing more.

"From the reports it should be clear to anyone that any two ships in the Judicial Fleet during this raid could not have handled a single of these new HPI Frigates. How can we sit here and celebrate when private companies like HPI are now able to field ships that from what I can see the Republic has no real answer for or comparison. Outside of some ships in planetary defense forces that due to regulations, have no hyperdrives, I strongly feel these new ships could brush aside most Republic vessels!" The man finished his rant having ignored the male reporter trying to interrupt him.

The man was not wholly right. Tarkin doubted that even three of his best ships, including his AC cruiser, could have taken a single Dagger-Class in combat. After reviewing the basic specs Don had sent over and his more detailed scans during his trip back to his staging area, he had come to some stark conclusions. The Dagger-Class was a powerful warship designed to fight and take on other ships designed for war. It had unfortunately only confirmed some of what he believed, HPI while not in opposition to the Republic it seemed, were still afraid enough to design and build these ships to defend against some threat they perceive that the Senate seems blind too.

The sleek design, with all its turbo laser cannons set up along the center most area allowed the ship to concentrate all of its fire on a single target. Not just that, but even concentrate that fire on a single location more easily on said target. With HPI's growing reputation for use of ruinously costly torpedoes, he also imagined those four launchers detected on the ship would have large magazines full and ready to be fired at a moment's notice. And that didn't even consider the very powerful reactors that his ship had detected in the Dagger-Class. Something which no information on had been provided by Don.

It was a well-known fact the larger the ship you could make, the larger the reactor onboard you could put, and with more energy, it meant all your ships' systems would be more powerful. More powerful shields, weapons, jamming capabilities, communicators, tractor beams, and so on. It was why he had been pushing so hard to get the Republic to build some larger ships, because a large powerful ship could instill the right amount of fear in their enemies and with shields so strong you wouldn't need to worry about smaller threats. It would be like a Lizard Bat trying to take down a Krayt Dragon.

The real worry he had was that if HPI was willing to show these Dagger-Class ships, what else even bigger ship wise could they be building. It was also expensive to just keep operating fleets like the one he encountered. Extremely expensive. Buying or getting the ship was only the start of the costs. Operating them, equipping them, fueling them, and manning them can easily be several times the price of the ship at times depending on how long your logistic chain is and how long you wanted to stay operating. He would know having had to organize the credits for some of his more private ventures since leaving Outland Regions Security Forces, so it would be interesting to see if HPI can continue to afford to do this over the long run.

"I am not sure if that is entirely a fair characterization of the events. I think the current system should be commended. This event showed it's entirely possible for the Republic to make achievements similar to this without rampant militarization." The female guest replied to the male guest. "Though I do feel it is a bit concerning, that the Republic doesn't have ANY ready answer to a fleet like the one HPI sent to aid Governor Tarkin; especially without stripping many of its planets of protection." Tarkin honestly could not have paid to have better guests on this program to put him in a good light if he had tried. He usually avoided the news, but he may need to make a more regular habit of watching.

"So, you think the Republic should have to rely on the good will of corporations like HPI to take policing actions against major criminal elements?" the male guest asked the female guest in disbelief.

"Of course not, as I think we both can agree that some change is necessary, however I believe this event shows, as I have said, that the need is not as drastic an issue as some is saying it is."

"Yes, because one company decided to play ball with the Republic, the issue is not as drastic as some say!" the male guest said sarcastically.

"Now you both brought up a good question, what should the Republic's response be for the larger more powerful ships as they appear in the hands of independent corporations. I was under the impression ships like that were illegal?" the female reporter asked, clearly trying to steer the conversation back to more civil grounds. He snorted at the attempt but was still interested in what the 'eggheads' had to say.

"Of course it is illegal! Anyone with a bit of knowledge on ships could look at that picture and see a dozen violations in seconds!" The male guest started screeching again.

"Actually, the situation is a bit more complicated than that." the female guest said, waiting for a dramatic pause before continuing. "From what I have been able to determine, HPI is not actually a Republic based company, and therefore any ships of theirs they use outside Republic controlled space are technically not illegal. This event also took place just on the edge of Republic space and one could argue successfully, and I would imagine HPI lawyers could do this, that it is actually outside Republic control. So, until those ships start showing up in the Republic proper, I am uncertain what the legal status of them truly is." The female guest finished her reply, while the male guest just looked at her like she was crazy.

"That ship is illegal, and it shouldn't matter where HPI operates it! Its mere presence and those like the Luchkerhulk's of the Trade Federation demand that the Republic has some answer to them." the male guest stated confidently.

"I cannot disagree that it is disquieting that the Republic seems to have such limited answers to ships like this Dagger class and others like it. It is certainly something that needs to be looked into." The female guest replied as she didn't seem to like her own answer much.

"Do you think HPI will face any legal consequences for this new ship design?" The male reporter asked.

"Unlikely, when was the last time a large corporate entity was held seriously accountable? At most some fines may be levied I feel, while these issues are quietly dismissed." the female guest snarked.

"Now that is certainly something we agree on." the male guest commented. There the program went to commercial, so he muted it for now.

Tarkin picked up his padd again thinking to start reviewing it when his mind wandered a bit. He wondered if Don knew how much of a hornet's nest, he had released by allowing him to leave with the detailed scans of their new ship, and wondered how much trouble that droid was getting in. That ship's design will get those in many circles talking, and other design companies trying to find out what they can steal. Hopefully Don didn't get mind wiped, that would put back some of his plans on cooperation with HPI. Putting aside the issue for now he concentrated back on the padd.


"Admiral Don. Am I to understand that this command net copy of the raid on Iridium Pirates station is accurate?" PA asked the droid in front of her, or well one of her PAM units.

"Yes ma'am. It should be accurate, as I copied it directly from my ship's computer core." he answered promptly.

"Hmm interesting. Then I think you are to be commended Admiral Don. Your initiative to work with the Judicial Forces and capitalize on these circumstances into a positive event has helped blunt the impact of the reveal of HPI's newest ship design to the greater public and Republic government. While it may have thrusted the issue and HPI into a far greater spotlight than desired, I cannot argue against the results, nor your internal reasoning or the reasons you gave to Governor Tarkin. Our Lawyers are handling any issues easily." PA said happily.

"Yes ma'am. I truly felt it was the best course of action for a number of reasons, even if I was personally prioritizing my fleet's mandate."

"Well, I can only caution you against getting too involved with politicians and the politics that naturally follows them." she said to the droid, before floating to the side to look at the view screen acting as a window to the outside of the ship. "I have assigned several more fleet assets to your task force, and will be personally informing the creator of your actions over the last few weeks." PA said before looking at Don to see the shocked look on his face. Oh, how she was a bit jealous of the HB series droids' abilities to showcase so many facial expressions. Maybe something to talk to Lerla about with the other 'secret' project they were working on together. Even Shmi had been helping a bit. Things to think about later.

"I will not let HPI or the creator down!" Don said after a few nanoseconds of collecting himself.

"See that you don't. I would hate to have to inform Lord Peverell of any great failures, especially just after reporting your successes." she said before disconnecting from the pam droid.


"Sir! Shipyard-C156-G18 says they are not going to be able to meet this week's promised number of CR90s, and their Aftermarket Division is also behind." Marleen, Lar's sole secretary said as she came into his office in a panic. His name was Lar Onolio, and he was a sales rep for Corellian Engineering Corporation. In fact he was quite a high-standing sales rep, and only handles a single account, that being for the company HPI. However, the news his secretary brought him was not good, as he had just gotten another order from HPI on top of the ones he was already working on trying to get fulfilled. That didn't even account for the cargo haulers they had somehow convinced CEC to custom design for HPI to some fairly specific requirements and were now being bought in the hundreds every week.

"That's Armello's place, right?" he asked back after racking his brain a bit.

"Yup that's the right one." she replied.

"What! How come?" he asked, as it was quite rare to run into these problems internally within the company, but there was still some competition between reps to get their orders finished first. So, it was possible somehow another rep had used their influence to bump his order, but he didn't believe someone had a better reputation with cousin Armello than him or would be willing to offer a high enough price. Or at least that is how it used to be, because today it was almost always for one reason.

"They said they can't source materials quickly enough at the agreed costs. Seems there has been another spike in prices, and you will need to contact HPI again to renegotiate or have them send more materials here to bring down costs." Marleen said with that sad pouting look she gave him when she knew she was delivering him bad news, but just confirming his thoughts.

"If we increase the price again, HPI might reduce orders by a good number this time." he said a bit angrily, more ranting than anything else. And certainly not angry at Marleen, she was a god sent.

"Do you really believe that?" Marleen asked with a cheeky smile, as they both knew the only direction the weekly deliveries of CR90s to HPI went, was up.

"Not really, no, but I have heard from reliable sources that HPI has cut all orders from Kuat Drive Yards, not just the orders of Arquitens-class light cruisers that Kuat stupidly decided to stop producing for HPI. If that happened to us it may hurt us badly, not just in this office, but across every shipyard and factory. The whole company would feel it." he said seriously. It was still annoying that he would have to call back with renegotiated prices on ships he just accepted orders on, let alone ones still from other past orders yet to be delivered.

It was honestly starting to become a disaster. Usually, the factories could eat any changes in prices for materials and select components, but lately the price spikes have been too large to do so. Meaning that they either had to cancel ship deliveries that were not complete or maybe it was time to seriously discuss HPI becoming one of their main suppliers for materials if their other suppliers were going to keep gouging them on raw materials needed to produce ships. Let alone ordering some materials at a certain price and having them show up to be 5% more expensive than when ordered. He had heard from some of his colleagues that it was getting frustrating, thankfully purchasing wasn't his department.

HPI never really complained about any issues he brought to them if he was honest about the situation in the first place. He expected they knew better the changes in material prices than even him, and probably faster too, with how closely tied to transporting and selling all sorts of stuff they were. The fact that they kept increasing their orders did surprise him still a bit even today. He knew they were a fast-growing company, as he followed news about his sole customer closely, but it was still surprising. A lot of companies had shrunk their orders in response to the constant rise in prices, and either fast tracked ships so they were done before the prices could rise again, or ordered far fewer, expecting to spend the difference on the rising costs.

The current business atmosphere outside Corellia was not good, and it made his job working with HPI quite advantageous and coveted by the other less fortunate brokers here at CEC. HPI had also rejected any attempts to have him replaced due to his inexperience after first taking the account before HPI blew up, but HPI had been extremely loyal to him. Weirdly though was that he had only ever talked to Lord Peverell twice in all the time he had been handling the account. Discussions with his sole client were almost exclusively done through PA, the Lord's personal assistant droid, and whom Lar sometimes thought ran HPI. The decisions the droid seemed to be able to make without approval only cemented that opinion in his mind. Hey, he had no issue with droids as some people did, and was happy to work with PA. She's good people.

Having such a large account did have enormous benefits internally within the company as well. Being able to fill up an entire block of shipyards with a single order was something most yards desired, as it reduced huge amounts of headaches and paperwork. He had less problems getting slots in shipyards than some others and was able to get a good price at the same time. The inner workings of CEC were quite interesting, as each individual division, and then factory or refinery, were all trying to save the company a credit here or there because those were reflected directly on their budgets and bonuses at the end of each month. So, each shipyard tried to make the most profit for their yard at the least cost, hence why they may refuse to deliver a ship at an agreed-on price to an internal broker.

Regardless of the headaches caused by the system it worked well and had been for thousands of years. It also allowed people to move up or prosper by doing good work. Due to that fact he was currently doing extremely well because he was selling tons of ships, even if the margins weren't as good, but still his bonuses were quite.. substantial. Marleen, also being in his small 'department' of two people, got a nice bonus each month too. Well, no time like present he thought, so he opened his communicator and put in a call via the G-NET to PA's personal line.

"I am assuming your call is not good news today, Lar?" PA said without any pomp or circumstance after answering, wasting no time. One of the things he loved about the gal.

"Sadly, it's rare that my reasons for reaching out are positive, my friend. It seems prices of materials are going up again, and we are going to see about another 2.6% increase in the cost of all ships not delivered so far." he said looking down at the number his terminal had just spat out at him after running some calculations.

"Yes, it was expected. Even our most optimistic projections here at HPI have prices rising again shortly and continuing to do so, so this comes as no surprise." PA said over the communication line to him. It had him thinking that PA probably had a self-satisfied smile on her face before catching his own thoughts, as it was weirdly easy for him to forget that PA was a droid. "I am sending you a large data packet where I outline a comprehensive plan for HPI and CEC to work more closely together to benefit each other, help relieve some of the pain being felt by CEC due to rising material costs and see an increased number of our orders being filled. See to it that you can get approval of whoever needs to sign off asap, as I hope to move forward immediately with my plan." he replayed what PA had said in his head again to confirm he understood what she was saying and that was not the answer he had been expecting.

"Ahh certainly PA I will take a look over this right now and get talking to whomever needs talking to before the hour is out then get back to you stat!" He said truly eager to see what his friend had come up with, expecting it would probably make him even richer and an even more important rising star in the company.

"Excellent Lar. I look forward to talking with you soon." PA said ending their conversation while a large data package arrived at his padd.


"This is a stupid idea." He ignored Meev as the man followed him as he marched to his destination on the other side of the town. Passing by several small dwellings, and the odd shop. Their town wasn't too large, only just a thousand or so people.

"Any more stupid than blindly following the advice of your 'friend' to get that loan from the InterGalactic Banking Clans?" he snapped back angrily.

Meev had brought in this suave fellow, Hykkins, who had charmed all their pants off into agreeing as a community to get these loans to expand their fields and harvesting equipment. The way the man had made it out to be like, they were going to get ample assistance with their purchases and everything, only for them to find out after signing that they were on the hook for a ton of fine print of a predatory nature. Their interest payments went from something reasonable to cutthroat rates because of a clause they were unaware of requiring them to pay off an unreasonable amount of the loan in the first year alone. What this meant was that they were now struggling as a community, barely able to even make interest payments on their loan, let alone grow and prosper.

He could see his destination coming into sight, a medium sized well-built blue building but Meev didn't give up trying to convince him otherwise. Unlike the rest of the town's buildings this one was built out of sleek-looking metal paneling, and some nice-looking windows.

"Guy, you can't expect to be able to get a loan by simply going up to any old company and just asking. It's not the way it works, and how many times do I need to apologize." Meev whined again, still not really taking any responsibility for the fact that he was the one that had brought Hykkins into their community and vouched for him. They were a close nit collective farming community, one of the three on the planet, and so they had to trust each other. He stopped walking and got right in Meev's face.

"Do you have a better plan? Because if not then shut the fuck up! We either pay or the Representative of the Banking Clans made it clear they would make us do so via their enforcement branch! Do you get what that means?" he said angrily before turning around and continuing to march towards his destination.

HPI came in only a year ago, but because of their last interaction with a large company the community's reception had been cool, to say the least. Fortunately for us, HPI seemed to be incredibly understanding, and it quickly became apparent that HPI operated in an entirely different manner to The Banking Clans. Shipping their Fazza Beans out was far easier now than ever before as they simply had to come to the HPI building and organize a ship about a week before they wanted to ship things out. That and processing the beans had been substantially reduced in cost, as they no longer needed to import fuel for their generators to heat and pasteurized the beans as HPI sold power directly from their small buildings in each town to their community at very good rates.

He knew he should be skeptical and wary of this company that almost seemed to be too good to be true, but nothing they had done had pointed towards them being anything but what they presented themselves as. Even what he had been able to learn through that newfangled G-NET showed they were mostly above board. Though just to be safe he made sure their old generators were in working condition, and that they had ample supply of water and fuel to tide them over if HPI cut off services suddenly. However, that fear had been slowly reducing as time went on and HPI continued to be as they presented themselves, and even trying to be an active member of their community.

He walked into his destination, the doors automatically opening for him, and saw the HPI droid whose designation was too long for him to remember except that most called him MR-GO, was sitting there behind a desk with a computer in the clean entrance room. MR-GO stood up in excitement as he entered and greeted him.

"Greetings Community Head Guy! How can I and by extension HPI help you today?" MR-GO said to him, as he entered and looked around. The small front room had only a few things in it and not much else, but there were several displays with rates for several services that HPI offered, most of which he was already familiar with. There was even a display advertising a new holovid that had come out. And finally, a nice desk and computer that the droid had been sitting at but little else. Looking back to MR-GO he decided to simply not beat around the bush.

"Margo." He greeted the HPI droid with a nod. "We were hoping that HPI would be able to help us refinance a loan our community took out two years ago?" he asked hopefully, getting a head tilt from the droid.

"I am uncertain, as Financial Services are not something HPI offers to the wider galaxy, only usually to those on our planets at our banks." MR-GO said back to him, causing his heart to sink, while the droid sat back down behind his desk, waving Guy to a seat. "Please explain the situation to me, while I forward this request to upper management." the droid said happily while bolstering Guy's faltering hope that they could get out of this mess.

"Well, it's fairly simple, we took out a loan to expand our ability to harvest and process our Fodiberries and Fazza beans for market. All was going well, and we made our first few payments easily before the bank claimed we failed to meet our obligations and cranked the interest rate up from a reasonable 2.5% to 45% compounding daily interest. All because we failed to pay off 75% of the principal loan in a single year as stipulated by some fine print in their loan agreement none of us saw. We are at our wits end here and have no other options as we can't make the next payment nor seem to be able to get a new loan from anywhere else." he said sadly while sitting down, thankful Meev had decided to stay outside as he didn't want to have to deal with that fool right now too. MR-GO was a good sort, and the droid even joined them at a few of their celebrations over the last year, to apparently 'represent HPI's interests in the community'.

"Unfortunate but not unheard-of circumstances in these wilder regions of the Galaxy." MR-GO said while interfacing with his console. "How much is the loan principal, and which bank is the lender?" MR-GO asked which made him wince a bit at the amount. They had worked out things beforehand, and even without HPI having shown up, they should have had no issues paying off the loan in a reasonable time. With HPI's presence came reduced costs for both the energy to operate their new processing facilities, but also the shockingly cheap transport costs for bulk cargo, which meant they were making more revenue than ever before, but only just enough to keep up with the absurd interest payments. Forget about even paying off the principal.

"We took out a loan of 5.4 million Republic Credits from the InterGalactic Banking Clans." he said sadly, but his interest peaked when MR-GO tilted his head and looked more intently at him.

"Please confirm, you took out a loan from IGBC, and they are now demanding increased interest payments that your community cannot reasonably pay to force you into default?" the droid asked with heat in his voice he had not heard before from the otherwise soft spoken and likable droid. Not that he had anything against droids, but many out here really detested them, and MR-GO did a good job at putting those people at ease.

"Well, that sums up the jist of it." he said tersely, his anger now returning. "The no-good bastards are just trying to get some claim on our land and property that we had to use as collateral for the loan."

"Hmm well in that case, contacting management may not be required." the droid said, causing him to start, and a hollow feeling grew in his stomach. "It may be easier to request a loan directly from the Droid Monetary Fund." MR-GO said, making him repeat the words in his head. He had never heard of this Droid Monetary Fund before, but MR-GO seemed pleased.

"Droid Monetary Fund? Who are they?" he asked, a bit worried. MR-GO looked at him particularly before answering.

"THE DMF is an organization operated by a council of droids that work on behalf of the fund for HPI and is where the bulk of monetary assets belonging to the droids who work for HPI are stored. This is an unfortunate reality because the IGBC refuses to open accounts for droids to own and utilize. Nor are they willing to support droid ownership of assets. It has been a contentious issue for some time within the DMF and has caused its many members issues and a great dislike of the IGBC." MR-GO said to him only confusing him more. Droids with assets, and money? What was going on here? His confusion must be clear on his face as MR-GO continued explaining.

"One of the first things that Lord Peverell decided was that 10% of the profits of HPI would be equally shared amongst all active droids within the company as compensation for their efforts. The DMF was created to invest and manage the growing funds that we were collecting as most droids are simply happy performing their tasks with no need for money, so their shares of credits just sat there initially. So, the council was created amongst various well-established droids in HPI and was charged to invest those funds. I believe a simple loan to this community to refinance their debt would be well within the permit of investing funds. If it just so happened to upset or derail the plans of the IGBC, then I think the council will simply see that as a bonus of doing business with this wonderful world." MR-GO said happily to Guy's stupefied appearance and continued to interface with the computer.

That answered his unasked questions and shocked him for more than one reason. The implications alone were clear to him, and it meant that the droids of HPI were not undergoing regular mindwipes as all droids were required to by most planets, or at least that is what he deduced. He may be a farmer, but he wasn't stupid. Two the number of credits this DMF controlled, if his grasp of even a fraction of the size of HPI was correct, must be staggering. No wonder a 'small' loan to their world would not be out of the question. The last for him was that it was the last straw that put any doubts he had about the type of company that HPI was in the dirt. It was clear if they cared about their, quite frankly, disposable assets like droids as much to cut them into their profits, then they would most likely do good by them too here. It also explained a few of the more perplexing oddities he had observed about HPI.

HPI just seemed at times too good to be true, but every time he thought the carpet was going to get pulled right out from under him, he was proven wrong once again. Maybe he should not be too surprised, it was an Outer Rim company if what he had learnt was true and was founded by someone from the Rim. So, the fact that they had an understanding of how things were done out here didn't shock him, but it did make their use of droids that much queerer as most here in the Rim had a negative view on droids after the few droid rebellions in the past century or two. Either way he was just happy that his request was being taken seriously and got back into discussing the finer details with MR-GO.


"Thank you for agreeing to join us to meet with them. We were honestly not expecting to see these cretins again and appreciate the support." he said to Margo as the droid had agreed to join him and the town council as they waited for the arrival on IGBC's ship. They truly thought they had finished all dealings with those vultures and would never see them again after sending payment for the whole debt after getting a refinancing loan from DMF, but it seemed they were wrong as they had gotten word not ten minutes ago that an IGBC ship was coming into to land and speak with them in person.

"Think nothing of it Guy. I am happy to support the community with things like this." Margo said happily back to him. "I am not as surprised as you are that they are arriving. I even prepared for the possibility of something like this happening. From the DMF's experience, the Banking Clans like to play fast and loose with the laws of the Republic. Often they use barely understandable excuses you are hard pressed to argue on the spot to strong arm their way into taking more than they are entitled to." His droid friend said with his biased opinion leaking through his tone, which shouldn't surprise Guy. Over the last week or so since approaching the droid he had learnt a lot about the metal head, and certainly his dislike for the IGBC was clear.

"Well hopefully all goes well, and we can send these scoundrels packing and get back to doing some real work. There are fields to be cleared for the next planting season." he said while they could just start to make out the incoming ship. It was bigger than he was expecting, either classified as a large transport or maybe medium freighter, he was no expert, but still it was much bigger than what the representative of IGBC had used previously to visit. The ship came in low and slowed down before landing with a thud a hundred meters away from them half in a field, rather than fully in the open barren plot of land they had been waiting for them at.

"Those bastards... that's going to ruin a few thousand credits worth of crops!" Thagan, another one of the town councilors yelled when the ship set down. He couldn't agree more, but decided to not say anything and watched as the rear hatch of the ship was lowered into the ground, making a ramp. Out of the hatch walked the bastard Hykkins of all people all dressed up. Hykkins was followed by a half dozen mooks in combat gear carrying rifles, and as they all made their way down the ramp, he saw maybe two dozen shitty uniform looking battle droids following them all armed. He suddenly had a very bad feel about this.

"Gale, can you head back to the community center, and let everyone know we might have a spot of trouble here and to make for the forest if something nasty goes down?" he said to one of the other councilors. Gale was one of the younger members and newer to the council, she also wouldn't slow down anyone running away if things went really bad.

"Are you sure Guy?" she asked which he nodded to her in confirmation which had her setting off quickly. There was not much more they could really do but wait a little bit more for Hykkins' group to arrive. As Hykkins approached the fop didn't even let anyone else speak before opening his mouth.

"Well Head Councilman Guy it's great that you are already here, me and these fellers from the IGBC enforcement branch are here to collect the collateral promised in your loan for failure to make this month's payment and for finally defaulting on the loan." Hykkins said, causing Guy to reel back in shock. What the hell was this guy talking about? They had paid in full!

"We already paid this month and every month's payment. The loan was paid in full eight days ago, and even then, this month's payment would not be due for another 6 days, so it couldn't be late." he argued back, getting angry now, but only caused Hykkins to smile.

"Well this here padd.." the man said waving a padd around "..says that no payment was made and that you are now in full default. And seeing as I am here, I can't confirm any supposed payments, I will just have to follow procedures and start liquidating all the new property of the IGBC according to these orders." Hykkins said with a smirk to his comrades who were all smiling and laughing. The fucker didn't even have the respect to look him in the eyes.

"It is quite refreshing to have one's opinions of others confirmed for them right to their own eyes." Margo said from beside him, surprising him and causing everyone to look at the droid, who also pulled out a small yellow metal ingot from somewhere and tossed it to the ground in front of Hykkins. "That is 99.9% pure Aurodium, current rate set today by IGBC puts it at around 5.8 million Republic credits, enough to pay the entire loan off in full. I expect a receipt and confirmation of payment and then you can leave this planet." Margo said, surprising everyone there. Hykkins bent down and picked up the ingot inspecting it before looking back at Margo.

"And who the hell are you supposed to be?" Hykkins asked with a snarky attitude.

"I am MR-GO, representative of HPI stationed here on the planet at the small facility we have here." Margo replied proudly standing straight.

"Hu well this will make for a very nice bonus." Hykkins said before putting the small ingot in his pocket. "Deal with him boys." Hykkins said to his comrades, causing them to immediately raise their rifles and before anyone could say anything, letting forth several blaster shots each right into the chest of Margo.

"What the fuck are you doing!" Guy yelled jumping back from the sparking droid that had been right beside him as it fell over. Looking down he could see Margo was damaged, but not completely destroyed due to its good construction but was now fully offline. "Do you know what you just did?" he said, turning quickly to Hykkins.

"Who said we did anything, and who's to say this ingot ever existed?" Hykkins said, patting his pocket with a sinister smile spread across his face. That smile faltered a bit as an alarm started going off part of the way across town, but easily still heard from here. The town wasn't that big so a loud alarm like that would be easy to hear anywhere. "What is this now?" Hykkins asked while pulling out his blaster to threaten him. It took Guy a few seconds to think about it, as he was not entirely sure.

"I'm not too sure, but that does sound like it's coming from where the HPI facility is!" he said honestly. "Probably due to, you know, you BLOWING UP THEIR DROID!"

"Be quiet! How many droids are stationed there?" Hykkins asked quickly, pushing his blaster pistol under Guy's chin digging it in.

"Not many at all, and nonactive I have seen beside Margo here. They usually always arrive and then leave with the transport ships that come." he said truthfully in a bit of panic and fear with a blaster in his face. However, his stomach dropped as Hykkins' smile came back in full force.

"Well then it looks like there won't be much of a problem here." Hykkins said that while spinning them both around causing Guy's back to now be to the ship and was able to look at the town. It was just then he noticed two very large blue droids jogging quickly from the middle of the town towards them, two droids he had honestly never seen before. "I am sorry your backwater community was not able to pay off their loan, because I.. just.. hate.. having do things like this." the disgusting man said in the most unconvincing voice and smile on his face as he pointed the blaster back at him.

"Ah boss looks like we have company." One of the goons who had shot Margo pointed out to Hykkins, who spun back around to look at who was incoming. The two much larger looking blue droids approached the area and stopped about 50m away, seemingly assessing the situation for a second.

"It looks like we will have to take care of a few more small nuisances." Hykkins joked to his goons before giving orders to seemingly the droids and enforcers. "Take those droids out before they start causing problems." Before Hykkins could even finish Guy already saw the two droids raising their arms and aiming toward the group. In fear for his and his friend's lives he looked to his fellow councilors and yelled at them.

"Get down!" he said before hitting the dirt, not two seconds later a torrent of blaster shots started streaming across the battlefield from both groups. If he didn't know better, then from the sound of blaster shots whizzing over his head coming from the direction of the town he would have thought a group of 50 had engaged Hykkins guys. Rolling over a few times to the side and crawling away he started to look around.

"Shit! Fuck! Someone deal with the droids!" he heard Hykkins screaming in panic and looked to see more than half of Hykkins droids were already smoking ruins on the ground, not that he had expected much from them as they look like flimsy crap to start with, at least they were all the same, so they gave off a uniform and semi-competent look. Even two of the armored enforcers were on the ground, clearly dead as neither was yelling in pain or moving from the smoking holes in their chests. For a second, he couldn't understand how things had devolved to this level so quickly.

Taking the chance feeling decently safe on ground he looked over to the HPI droids to see how they were doing and was surprised to see them marching forward steadily with their arms raised seemingly none the worse for wear. However, his confusion was cleared up as he saw a few blaster shots from Hykkins group land on the droids and harmlessly splash off what could only be a deflector shield. He had a brain fart for a bit and paused as he realized what he was looking at, something he had only ever seen in holovids and that was two state of art battle droids, both stationed on 'his' planet for some reason.

"Retreat back to the ship! Droids cover our retreat!" Hykkins yelled seemingly also seeing the shitty position they were in. "We'll use the ship's cannons to clean up this mess!" Luckily for Hykkins there was a small ditch back a bit that gave them some minor cover as they retreated. The IGBC droids didn't last very long but it was just long enough for Hykkins and two of the goons to make it back to their ship before the two HPI droids made easy work of the rest.

"What happened to MR-GO?" One of the large blue droids asked in a deep, much more robotic voice than Margo's. However, it did help snap him out of his shock at what happened before getting up.

"Those assholes from IGBC shot Margo and then we're gonna strip the town bare all in the name of a loan we already paid off!" he said angrily. "They even stole Margo's additional form of payment he had prepared just in case."

"So, they are pirates then?" The second droid said, causing him to pause for a second.

"Well.. yes you could classify them as that I think?" he said honestly after thinking it over a bit.

"Good." the second droid said while they all turned to watch the ship start to take off from the ground for a few seconds. Suddenly, he heard several mini explosions from beside him causing his head to whip over to look at the cause, but all he could do was stupidly watch as four rockets or missiles or whatever they were called streaked away from the two droids and targeted several sections on the rising ship, including its two big engines. This caused several large explosions and for a second, he thought the ship was just going to crash back down to the ground. However, seemingly just to defy his belief it exploded into a massive fireball causing him to cover his face and take cover as small pieces of debris started raining down. They all sat there for nearly a minute gawking at the small spread-out wreck that had crashed to the ground in a fireball and the fallout from the truly quick battle.

"We will be taking MR-GO here back to our facility for safekeeping and for any possible repairs we can perform here. HPI central was already alerted to the emergency and will have dispatched ships to aid. We will make sure to send an updated report with all the pertinent information to the community council after hearing back from management." The first droid said to him while both knelt and took Margo away quickly without any more fanfare.

All Guy could think was what the hell had just happened, and what would it mean for the future of their small settlement. Hopefully Margo would be ok, he was quickly becoming a good friend, and was even growing on a few of the more anti-droid types in the community. It's hard to hate the droid when it went out of its way to help you. Looking at the back of the two departing droids, all he could think was that HPI made some good, if odd droids.


"Welcome back to Holonet News! And to tonight's special program where we take an in-depth dive into what some experts have declared The Great Galactic Economic Crisis, and more specifically planets and regions bucking the downward trend! For those just tuning in we are just about to discuss the interesting situation going on in the Corellian system over the last few months, and their general bucking of the trend for several years." The male presenter opened, before the camera panned to the female presenter.

"As previously covered, the overall economy of the Republic is looking to be in a large downward trend, and we are seeing little growth across the vast majority of worlds. Bankruptcy is looming, and yet some local economies like Corellia have been recently booming. Let's go to our local correspondent to get the inside scoop. To you Garnt Threll!" The female presenter said.

"Thank you, Kyla. As you can see behind me business here at Corellian Engineering Corporation is going like gangbusters." Camera pans behind Garnt showing a booming open industrial complex building with thousands of workers crawling over several dozen ships. Activity was clearly high everywhere someone looked. "The question many of our wonderful viewers will be asking themselves is why? And for once in this segment the answer is quite easy, a company named Hadrian Peverell Incorporated, or more commonly known as HPI!"

The camera showed the logo of HPI, some B-Roll of HPI ships and gorgeous company HQ on Naboo. Finally, more shots of other busy factories and shipyards on Corellia were flashed in quick succession. All showing many people hard at working building ships. Several ships were painted blue and had the HPI logo slapped on them. The camera finally returned to Garnt who was now standing in a much smaller shipyard that was only big enough to be producing three ships of cruiser size but was still clearly busy.

"The real question here on Corellia that I had after finding out the culprit for the recent boom, was how could a single company be responsible for the uptick of the economy of this entire planet and system? To dive into this question, I had to search only a little bit before the answer became apparent but only created even more questions. Let me introduce my childhood friend Crint." Garnt said indicating a man who was far less nicely dressed but was in clean working clothes. "Crint here is the foreman of this very factory and has many of the answers to our questions for us. Crint can you tell us some of the recent changes that were implemented by HPI in partnership with CEC?"

"Sure buddy, while it's a bit new to us down here on the floor since the program is only three months old, but in practice it's quite simple. Well, there only really two changes that matter to us down here and that is the new classification system for the few models of ships HPI buys and the new discount offered on a number of raw materials we use here at the factory." Crint explained as they both walked farther into the factory getting a closer look at the people at work.

"Can you explain the new classification system to me?" Garnt asked.

"Oh, sure it simple as I said. HPI introduced this grading System Starting with A being the highest and going down to an F. All we must do is once we are finished with a ship call in one of the handy little scanner droids HPI developed just for this purpose. Let me tell you those little guys are incredible pieces of technology." Crint said excitedly. "The droids take about ten minutes to scan a CR-90 and come back with a grade and detailed scan of the ship and everything wrong with it. And I mean detailed, they can even tell you everything you could ever want to know about the ship, and some stuff you may have rather not known." Crint chuckled as they approached a seemingly finished looking CR90.

"Interesting, can you tell us how these scans are different from others, and how the grade of the finished product plays into its sale?" Garnt asked the man, clearly directing the interview.

"Of course, the scans are done on the ship down to the molecular level and in real time compared against a perfect example high detailed scan that is stored offsite somewhere due to the sure data size something like that would have uncompressed. Apparently, the whole process is only really possible due each Scanner droid having a dedicated connection to an offsite G-Net server." Crint said clearly passionate about the process while indicating to the finished ship. "This allows them to identify any flaws, from simple things like misaligned power cabling to nearly impossible to spot issues like material flaws in the structure of the ship.

Once the scan is done a shipyard can then take the results and make any changes if necessary to bump it up to an A grade otherwise they may decide the effort won't be worth it and sell it to other customers with not quite as exacting standards as HPI. In fact, having these detailed scans has allowed other customers to more easily purchase ships with peace of mind due to having such a detailed scan of the ship they are buying. I have heard a number of our customers for CEC have been asking about getting the service done on other ships too, but so far HPI is only scanning the models they are buying. Might be something to get their rep.."

"Ah Crint if I can interrupt before we get sidetracked, could you explain to the viewers at home what the significance of getting an A grade ship to sell to HPI?" Garnt asked.

"Oh apologies, yes HPI offers an excellent premium of 10% above market rate for the models of ships that make A grade they are interested in. It is a nice bonus HPI offers CEC shipyards and has made for a good incentive to meet their orders for ships. Some are even fighting now to be the first to fill their orders to lock in these very real bonuses. Thankfully HPI rejects anything below a B+ grade so slots aren't taken up by substandard products. It's becoming an interesting new dynamic between shipyards within the company. The first real shake up in years." Crint said and looked to be about to launch down another tangent.

"And Crint the second major thing you said HPI was offering?" Garnt asked.

"Ah yes the slight discount on materials. On top of offering the bonus for producing a ship at A grade, HPI is offering a 2.5% discount on materials cost to shipyards that use at least 30% of the capacity to produce ships for HPI. Now 2.5% might not seem like much but for a ship as big as a CR90 or a large freighter that can mean a good bonus for each ship produced. And if you were a keen minded one, you'd notice that that discount also applies to the up to 70% of your production that is used to make ships for other clients. It a major win-win as nearly all the shipyards are clamoring to buy materials from HPI and sell ships to them, and HPI is selling more materials to Corellia than ever before and getting more ships to boot, often freighters or transports of all kinds built right here on Corellia are used to often then transport materials to Corellia for more ships." Crint said getting incredibly excited again, while Garnt was standing there beside the man with a smile of his own.

"Incredible, and this whole process is working out?" Garnt asked.

"Absolutely. Not just working, but HPI is also a far more reliable and stable supplier for refineries and factories. And let me tell you they garnered a lot of respect here on Corellia over the last while. I was speaking to a few of my friends in the business, and they were telling me that 2.5% is usually just above the margins transport companies make selling bulk materials to planets like Corellia. Meaning all those material HPI is selling to us they are selling at best at a break-even cost, and if worse a straight up loss. They're most likely buying materials from some planet somewhere, shipping it to us here and possibly selling the materials for less to us than they bought them for. It really put things into perspective how much they value the cooperation between our two companies."

"Truly, at a near loss?" Garnt said excitedly, seemingly getting some new information he had not had.

"Yes, and that is why we are proud to be able to say that here we have put 100% of our production to producing ships for HPI and can loudly boast that we have gotten an A grade or higher on all of our ships on the very first scan!" Crint exclaimed excitedly while waving to the finished ship beside them.

"And I am assuming this is the ship here that is going to get scanned today?" Garnt asked Crint while the camera panned out to give a better looked at the finished CR90 that look almost shiny in brand new paint job, with some worker unplugging a few remaining power lines and cables from the ship.

"Yes, the HPI droid team should be here any minute now." Crint said excitedly.

"If you don't mind me saying, it does look like a lot of the agreement with HPI relies on them having enough orders for ships in place for shipyards to fulfill. Would in not be a huge issue if orders dropped suddenly?" Garnt asked.

"It was a small fear for the first month, but after a while we all just realized the number of orders just kept increasing. If an entire order was ever filled, it wouldn't take to the end of the day without fail for another larger order to already be posted by their CEC rep. And if anyone is following the right G-NET news sites anyone can see HPI is constantly expanding how many planets they serve with their transport business and they sure don't look to be slowing down too much. I really think it was smart for upper management to agree to work with HPI on this partnership." Crint said happily, before pointing toward another end of the shipyard, where the camera panned to show a dozen or so droids enter the facility.

"Is that HPI? Why are there so many droids, I thought it only required single droid to scan the entire ship?" Garnt asked.

"Of course, that is them, and the other droids are actually protection for the scanner droid which is the short bulky square blue droid on tracks in the middle of their pack. I did say the technology in the scanner droids is incredible, and therefore extremely expensive and proprietary tech of HPI. Could you imagine all the smugglers bursting a vein if all the planetary customs teams had scanners like these. HA!" Crint chuckled at the answer.

"Fascinating! That was not something I thought of. Do you know if the technology will become available for such purposes?" Garnt apparently couldn't hold back asking.

"Nah, I doubt it. Doesn't seem like something a company like HPI would give up controlling, and I haven't heard of them having any big issues with smugglers; well, that is as long as they ain't dealing in slaves." Crint said absentmindedly as the man was clearly getting distracted as he patted himself down to make sure his clothes were in place before the HPI droids arrived.


Harry had not gotten such a strong feeling of direction from the force in many years. The feeling was quite distinct and didn't take him long to decipher, and that was it was time to finish a small project he had been neglecting. This endeavor for once was entirely magical in nature and would be a great break from his almost purely technological binge over the last few months. So, there he sat meditating like he often did, but rather than looking beyond himself he was looking deeper into his inner self looking for a specific sign.

See there were a few methods to find out what your Animagus transformation was, but the main two was to either meditate, or hold a leaf under your tongue for a month and take a potion. Most believe the former was harder as it took quite a long time to get skill in meditation to that level, however for Harry it was no issue as he had immense skill in meditating with all his practice lately. So, it didn't take him long after he was focused before he noticed a slight disturbance in his inner self that made him follow the feeling till he came out of a wall of fog to be right in front of a massive dragon.

It was like no dragon he knew of it was certainly bigger than he expected, and far larger than the ones back in the magical world. It was black with red highlights where its scales shifted as it moved to inspect him. It looked long and hard at him with its piercing purple eyes before zooming towards him catching him entirely off guard causing him to tumble backwards, however rather than being impacted by the massive dragon it was absorbed into his chest with the oddest of feelings. He then knew he had passed whatever test was needed, and only needed to practice his transformation and get used to his new form to become a proper Animagus.

After he came out of his meditation, he was still a bit shaken up, he had read in many of the books of the process and that magical Animagus was not possible or so rare it was not documented, and yet here he was. It didn't take him ten minutes either to look through his LIS to confirm that yes, the dragon he had seen in his vision or whatever it was called, was not in the books. His form seemed to dwarf those of other dragons, and looked more brutal or dangerous in some way? If that was at all possible.

When he tried to transform for the first time, he decided to sit in the middle of the massive hanger attached to his workshop. Mainly because he didn't really want to advertise his transformation, but he also needed quite a bit of space. So, his workshop worked perfectly. Sitting down on the floor he quickly went into a meditative stance and floated off the ground. All he really needed to do was have a perfect picture of his spirit animal in his mind, which was not hard for him with his occlumency, and then 'cast' his magic or send it forth into the image. All the books seemed to have difficulty describing the action of first triggering the transformation, but all said once you got it the first time, further transformations got easier and easier.

It didn't take him long, only about ten minutes the first time but he could feel his magic spill forth into his body and the oddest feelings as he got used to everything not being right anymore. There were new and odd sensations that were indescribable, but he opened his eyes and looked around the room. Everything was so small, the colors so vivid and there were even colors he had no words for, and he then heard PA.

"Harry is that you?" the droid asked, a bit afraid of him of all things. He looked over at his assistant and could see the magic in her droid body pulsing away, and even the way it was connected to him. He looked away from PA and inspected himself with his magic and with his eyes, after a few minutes he concentrated on his human form he was quickly back in his natural form. The sudden shrinking in size and mass was a bit disorientating, but he expected he would get used to it in time.

"Wow, what a rush!" he said to PA who was looking at him oddly. "I really didn't think I would be that big," he said.

"You're telling me? When you said you were going to transform into your 'spirit animal', I didn't think it would be a bloody rancor with wings! AND THE SIZE OF A LARGE CRUISER AT THAT!" PA said angrily, which only made him let out a deep belly laugh at this entirely new side to PA that he hadn't seen before. It did look like he was going to have some research to do, and more than likely some firsthand exploration to figure out what hell his Animagus form is as he had never even heard of any dragon of similar description. "Well, I only came to make sure you were prepared for the board of directors meeting at SoroSuub. You have been putting off actively engaging the company till the last moment, and I would suggest you review that brief I sent you." PA said which caused him to groan.

He hadn't even started that thing yet and had honestly forgotten the meeting was so soon. It was something he would need to get working on pronto. "Ya I will get to it right now PA. As you said I can't put it off any longer. I promise to only take a short break to practice with my form a bit." he said, dragging his butt back to work, he still took the lazy route and Apparated to his living room, and plopped down on the couch while grabbing his padd to get to work. A cup of tea appeared next to him, this new blend he has been drinking lately has been really growing on him, and he couldn't help but smile at how amazing Elves were.


25 BBY.

The Marauder jumped out of Hyperspace cloaked and made its way to its destination in system while Harry looked out the front port and was thinking about this upcoming meeting. He had spent nearly every waking moment over the last week, besides a few hours a day playing with his new form, studying since PA had reminded him about this meeting; and it was not because PA's report was so large, no it was because what he was learning had sent him down a rabbit hole. It seemed he had been underestimating what his role was as a large shareholder of SoroSuub, and certainly had been ignoring the implications of being so closely connected with the Commerce Guilds via the company.

Regardless, he had spent a lot of time learning about the company, the Sullustan people, and many of the players involved in the company. It seemed he had been ignoring too much the fact that some of his important trade partners may choose a side in the various coming conflicts. He was surer today there was some sort of conflict coming between various interest groups, and therefore he could lose access to the goods those companies make if someone shut them down. SoroSuub more than any other company for them was important, being responsible for more than 95% of the repulsor cores they used in all their construction of droids, machines, and even ships. Losing access to that would be an issue, clearly.

How did they let themselves get into such a situation? Well, it really came down to two things, the fact due to the unique difficulties in producing repulsor cores there were so very few operations doing so and even fewer companies controlling those few operations. SoroSuub was by far and away the best of all those choices for HPI and as such was the one, they went with primarily at the start. However, before their explosion in ship and droid production, the ratio coming from SoroSuub wasn't quite as high as it is now. Even then, early on he and PA recognized the risk of having a single supplier they didn't control to any degree, so they had started buying up an increasing share in SoroSuub to gain some control and reduce the risk of getting cut off.

Sadly they, or at least he, was not thinking about what would happen if SoroSuub itself ended up siding with someone he was against in the future, or more likely against some of their other trade partners. HPI was certainly not the majority shareholder of SoroSuub, that went to the Commerce Guilds, and even then, there were the four of ten votes on the board that belonged to representatives of Sullust system and not shareholders. This single supplier was a risk they were going to HAVE to work on defusing in the coming years before shit hit the fan. That all said, he had loved what he had been learning about the Sullustan people. They almost felt like a species of people after his own heart.

They as a people were extremely firm believers in the free market, something they took as far as giving shareholders of SoroSuub the right to vote in local elections. Something he had learnt about just during this past week and had been one of the rabbit holes of implications he had not realized there were with his purchase of what had grown to 28% stake in the company. That love of the free market was however tempered by several core cultural beliefs of the Sullustan people, and that was their general kindness, friendliness, willingness to help others out, and desire to see their families, clans, communities, planet, and even company prosper. This meant that the worst parts of a free market economy never really existed in the Sullust system, with it having one of the highest average standards of living in the galaxy.

Suffice it to say there had been a lot he had to learn in the week prior and it had made him realize how important this meeting may be. What he had learnt also made him surer of their decision on partnering with SoroSuub while having put them into a bit of a pickle, it was the right choice in partners then, and still is today. He would just have to ensure they don't get cut off and make sure that this will be a beneficial partnership going forward. His only real worry was the large ownership stake the Commerce Guilds had in the company, and speaking of, seeing some of their ships around the planet he was fast approaching.

Looking over to a console, he saw four cruisers and even a frigate belonging to the Commerce Guild's security forces. It seems one of their important members had decided to join them for the meeting, which was not too surprising. There was little other activity over the planet as it was SoroSuub's new site for the brand-new factory he and PA had been pushing them to set up for several years now to produce more repulsor cores. It was decided they would hold their meeting here as it was near to being complete and opening for operations.

"Decloak and get coordinates for landing, put us down where indicated." he said to the pilot droid, who started doing just that, as he saw the ship decloak and a few moments later start descending into the smoky atmosphere covering the entire planet below. Well at least today shouldn't be boring.


Shu Mai, head of the Commerce Guild, stood with the other board members of SoroSuub near the transparisteel windows looking out onto the landing pad waiting for their last member to arrive. Leave it to the Sullustans to choose a planet with a type two atmosphere, one toxic to most species after being exposed for just a bit. Not that the company had many choices, as the singularity nearby was the whole reason for them choosing this site and a necessity to build repulsor cores. It certainly was more economical to set up on this nearby planet rather than another more hospital one somewhere else, so it is a choice she commended.

The last member they were waiting on was Lord Peverell of HPI and someone she was fairly interested in meeting and getting a better read on him and his company. HPI had been quite the enigma and a quickly growing topic of discussion amongst those tied close to any major industries HPI even looked to be dipping their toes in. Their meteoric rise astonished many and put those paying attention on alert. In the regions HPI was operating in many companies, including those tied to the Commerce Guild, were quite happy with the company, and certainly happy to take advantage of the extremely competitive rates for hauling cargo around or energy they sold from their spaceports. There were however those who had been put out of business by HPI's rapid rise and were not happy about it at all, including the heads of a few other smaller companies owned by the Commerce Guild.

Many traders in the transport business, something thankfully the Commerce Guild had a much smaller stake in, had gone out of business in the region or had their interests in those sectors bought out by HPI. Who was taking over space ports like a spreading disease. Then there were a number of companies that used to provide energy and fuel to planets also taking a nosedive in their sales, with HPI making a big name for themselves in the energy business. Let alone the half dozen other industries it was making a name for itself in. And don't get her started on the medical industry, she had one of her friends in a close door meeting after a few drinks almost pulling what little hair he had left out in frustration over HPI's bombastic entry into the medical industry.

It was all quite fascinating, and HPI had been by far a more positive impact on the Commerce Guild than on some of the other large conglomerates, The Trade Federation has seemingly been particularly hit hard in the sectors around HPI HQ on Tatooine. Which she was quite happy to see with them being one of their major competitors. It was frustrating however that she and by proxy the Guild could not get any sort of stake in HPI, nor were they able to strong arm it in any meaningful way, not that they had seen a need to do so far to try anything beyond basic bribes; but leverage was important. Though it was hard to underestimate how much of a boon having HPI Transporting your cargo for you was. She has seen many of the Guild's companies more than double their profits margins because of it. HPI seemingly also made discount concessions on transporting bulk cargo like crops and ore too, which was the opposite of what other companies did!

All these contradictions, mysteries, defying of the norms, and the sure fucking gall of HPI were just some of the reasons she had chosen to come to this meeting personally. She wanted to learn as many of HPI's secrets so she could use them to strengthen the Guild and possibly even convince HPI to join with them. Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a stealthy sleek looking transport that landed smoothly on the landing pad. She knew it was stealthy too as her ships in space had contacted her just moments before their party had been informed by the staff here that the last member had arrived and was approaching to land. Apparently, her ships had only detected the ship just as it was about to enter the atmosphere, indicating impressive stealth technology onboard.

"Just a moment, we are going to go greet the guest." one of the Sullust system representatives on the board said, indicating another as they moved to the fast-acting airlock before walking out the long path to the transport. She was surprised to see the entire ramp on the back of the ship drop down and a human looking man walk down without any breathing or face apparatus. For a moment she thought it was going to be a disaster before the well-dressed man, who seemed to be wearing a nice green cloak over a blue suit, smiled and walked up to the other board members. She watched in interest as they seemed to be having an amicable chat on their way over, with presumably Lord Peverell completely fine with the toxic atmosphere. Another mystery to investigate. As they walked in, she caught part of their conversation.

"..utilized your voting rights to vote in some of the local elections?" one of the representatives said happily to Lord Peverell. "When HPI started to buy up a large stake in SoroSuub many in the Sullust system took a keen interest in the company. And if I can be so bold to say so, many in the system have fallen in love with your clear leadership direction for your company, and many feel that SoroSuub has founded a kindred company with similar values in HPI." The one representative went off truly excited as he profusely praised HPI and Lord Peverell.

This may be a bit of a problem if the looks from the other representatives being similar to the one speaking. There were 10 votes on the Board of Directors for SoroSuub, four of which were automatically controlled by votes of representatives from the Sullust system. And while yes while shareholders had the right to vote in those elections, the share of votes they got was only 50% of the total, meaning that the populace of the system had quite the say still in who was elected. And till recently there had been quite a bit of shares in the hands of many smaller corporations, however those had been gobbled up by HPI over the last decade.

Why she was a bit worried was that while she controlled 4 of the votes on the board, Lord Peverell controlled 2 himself, and if he could gain the support of the representatives, which it seemed he could easily do, he would control a majority voting block on the Board of Directors. Allowing him to have complete control over the company even while the Commerce Guild holds more than 50% of the company shares. What an utterly cunning man, and if going by the conversation, he was able to achieve all this without even needing to utilize his shares to steer local elections to desirable results. Her opinion of the man she was about to meet had only risen to higher levels.

"Well, I had not realized that there was so much interest from Sullust in myself or HPI, nor how similar many of the companies' values were till recently; and I must admit that realization was quite recent too." Lord Peverell said with what she assumed was false humility. "As to the voting, it is a similar situation. I feel myself and HPI don't know enough about the system to truly have a good enough understanding to vote in anything. Nor do we have a representative or someone the company can trust in the system who knows what is truly going on and give us honest advice on how we should be voting and keeping us up to date on the ongoing of Sullust." Lord Peverell said as they finished coming into the room, almost making her scoff. HPI's moves have been too perfect for her to believe they don't know exactly what is going on in most places they set up shop in years before moving in.

She was about to fully turn away from the window to greet the new guest, when out of the corner of her eye she saw Lord Peverell's transport take off and a few meters off the ground she saw the ship literally disappear before her eyes; Turning invisible! No wonder the ship wasn't detected if it could do something like that, she didn't even realize there was tech like that out there. It was something she would need someone on her team to investigate and maybe get for themselves. Turning back to the newcomer she saw Lord Peverell observing closely the Sullustan that had been talking to him.

"Representative Klyp, do you know the Jedi and the power they have, the Force?" Lord Peverell asked the Sullustan representative, letting her know the name of this one. She really had trouble telling them apart and relied on mainly on keeping track of them after introductions during board meetings. However, the abrupt change in topic took her aback and her attention fully back on the conversation.

"A small amount, but really only that they have incredible powers. Why do you ask?" Klyp asked, looking up with an intrigued face at Lord Peverell who towered over the Sullustans.

"Well, I also have a connection to the Force and when I had said that HPI had no person it could trust to in the Sullust system, the Force quite strongly indicated that YOU could just be the individual to fill such a role. And the Force has yet to steer me wrong, so what do you think Representative Klyp?" Lord Peverell asked that man, causing her suspicion that this was all orchestrated by Lord Peverell to grow more concrete. However, this admission that he had access to the Force, the so-called source of the power of the Jedi was quite interesting to her. And she was no disbeliever as she had seen several Jedi at work using their powers, and it had been impressive to say the least.

"Ah well I don't even know what to say Lord Peverell!" Klyp said excitedly. "I don't even know what such a position would encompass, but if you just need someone to give your company advice on what is going on in the system, and unbiased information then I think I can certainly help provide that! Or at least try to do my best!" Klyp said happily.

"Excellent! Here is the contact information for my personal number." Lord Peverell said with a big smile of his own while passing over a nice-looking metal card with some writing on it, and most likely acted as a datachit too. "We will certainly need to talk more after the meeting here finishes." Lord Peverell said before turning to the room. Shu quickly looked around the room to read the responses from the other representatives and sadly saw that it was all positive from what she could see. This might certainly be an issue, and it was all the more important for her to get a read on this man and his intentions with the company. He had played them well and she wasn't going to give up without a fight if he wanted to screw the Guild over.

"If you would all like to follow me, we were thinking of giving a small tour of the new facility before your meeting starts?" One of the company's upper managers dressed up in SoroSuub's company suit, with the logo proudly displayed, asked them all. She hadn't bothered to learn the man's name.

"Sounds good to me." Lord Peverell said amicably with a charming smile.

"Then we are in agreement." she added quickly, wanting to use the time to observe and maybe talk with Lord Peverell.

"Excellent, then follow me!" the manager said as she moved up beside Lord Peverell and ignored what the manager was saying as he explained what the room and machines they were seeing did. Though it did seem Lord Peverell was more interested.

"We didn't get a chance to be introduced, Lord Peverell, but my name is Shu Mai, President of the Commerce Guild." she said to the tall imposing man, who looked down with a smile.

"Ah! I had been wondering who the Commerce Guild would send to represent themselves, and I am glad to see it is you as I was hoping to get the chance to meet you, President." Lord Peverell said to her, and from what she could tell he was being honest. It shouldn't have been so difficult, but she was having a hard time not liking this man, and it was easy to respect him if the show she had watched was anything to go by.

"Then I am glad we were given this opportunity, as it gives me a chance to have a less official chat with one of the rising stars in the community." she said honestly to the man and saw he was a bit surprised.

"I didn't know I was so well known."

"It is hard not to garner the attention of some individuals in certain circles when HPI has had such an explosive rise in the last decade. As such your name and that of your company's get bandied around some of the events centered around that community." she said with a smile before continuing. "You have made lots of people poorer, and even many richer, so of course you are considered a hot commodity." she said with a hint of humor at the end.

"Ha! Well, I usually don't involve myself in those types of things, so I had no idea." Lord Peverell said while scratching his head and looked to be being honest.

"Then you won't mind if I take the opportunity to get to know you a bit better and see your stance on a few things?" she asked while looking around and seeing they had moved into another massive room with factory machinery. She also noticed the other people in their group were listening to their conversation closely. Not that she cared much.

"No, feel free to. If you don't mind a few questions in return?" Peverell said while raising an eyebrow and smiling down at her. Damn she never really found humans to be attractive but this man in front of her was making her understand the appeal.

"No of course not. Well seeing as you are not present in some of the common discussions, I may as well see what your opinion is on some of the hot topics, like the looming Republic Bankruptcy?" she asked with a teasing tone. The man really should be taking a more active role in certain circles. For god's sake she didn't even know his stance on the most basic things and made working with his company on a longer term basis more risk prone because of it.

"Honestly I don't really care whether or not the Republic Senate gets their act together to save their economy or not. It doesn't really matter too much with us being outside the Republic, and the worlds we trade with, we would continue trading with regardless of the state of the overall Republic economy." the man flippantly answered, but from what Shu could see he was being honest. "Obviously there would be some issues that would arise due to a general economic collapse, but with issues come new opportunities to profit by bringing solutions to those problems." Peverell said with a smile.

"To true Lord Peverell. To True." Klyp said beside them.

"That is a very pragmatic opinion, Lord Peverell. And can I dare say a quite refreshing one." she replied.

"Do you think the Republic will turn itself around?" Peverell asked her.

"I have my doubts." she said honestly, which got a laugh from the man. "What is HPI's position on the rising threat to trade by malcontents, and the rising negative voices in the Senate at the protection fleets of various corporations getting bigger?'' She wanted to see what this man's opinion on the issue was, she had a good idea what it would be, but it was never good to rely on assumptions in high stakes business.

"HPI has never relied on the Republic to protect its interests, and will continue to protect our own, with force if necessary and regardless of various voices in the Senate." Peverell said seriously.

"An understandable position." she said with a nod.

"One I assume The Commerce Guild shares if going by the ships in orbit?" Peverell asked with a chuckle.

"We are congruent in our opinions on this issue, and so are many of the realistic companies operating outside the Core." she answered. "And your thoughts on the rising tensions between some systems and the Republic Senate? There are even rumors that planets are looking to leave the Republic." She asked getting to one of the core issues she wanted to hear about. It was being hotly discussed in the upper echelons of the Commerce Guild, and what they should do if there is a widespread schism between the Republic and many former systems. History would show that the Republic will not allow systems to leave peacefully. There was ample historical evidence of that if you simply wanted to look.

"Now that is certainly an issue that could become a big headache." The Lord replied with a sigh. "HPI would most likely take the stance of neutrality and continue to trade with all our trade partners regardless of their decisions. I don't think I would blame a system for wanting to break from the Republic, it has a ton of issues I don't see them fixing any time soon. Hopefully the Republic will allow these systems to leave peacefully, but I personally think too many in the Republic have strong interests in not seeing these planets go, so it will be interesting to see how it will unfold. Regardless, I feel HPI will try to stay neutral and allow Republic worlds to figure their own issues out."

"Hmm." she said as she thought it over. To her it sounded like Lord Peverell was positioning himself to play both sides in the coming conflict, and it seemed he was fairly certain it would devolve into warfare. It was a position she was also considering for the Guild but was leaning more to ally with some of the other Mega Corporation and Conglomerates to fight back against some of the ridiculous rules and regulations the Senate has been imposing on them. Even if some of them were the Guild's largest competitors. "A position most likely shared by many." she said diplomatically.

"And if you mind me asking, what are the Commerce Guilds plans for SoroSuub?" Peverell asked her, looking at her more closely. She was a bit guarded in her answer.

"To ensure the company continues to prosper, grow, and turn over a good return for the Guild." she said honestly, but who didn't want those things. "And HPI's interest?" she asked back.

"Well simply, to ensure we continue to have a reliable source of Repulsor Cores, and today I was hoping to get another agreement to expand production of more cores." he said, causing her to look at him like he was crazy.

"What?" she asked in surprise, looking around them as they were standing in a brand new Repulsor Core factory that was going to increase SoroSuub's production capabilities by 45%.

"Well, I know this facility was greenlit due to HPI agreement to buy at least 50% of his production for the next 10 years to ensure the demand was really there to pay for the facility. More recent HPI projections have us already buying 100% of the facilities output within 2-3 years. Seeing's HPI found two of what we believe to be suitable singularities that can be used to make cores and the fact these facilities take years to get online, as shown by this lovely one we are walking through. I thought it a good idea to broach the topic today at our meeting." Lord Peverell said to them all, having the entire group's attention, including the manager showing them around.

If he was telling the truth she could see his reasoning for wanting to do this, and from the perspective of both SoroSuub and the Guild, this seemed like a positive. If they could get guarantees in advance on sales, then there should be no reason not to do this. It could drastically increase the value of SoroSuub and would mean the company would need to borrow capital to see these new facilities built. Something the commerce Guild would be more than happy to provide. The Sullustans would be easy to convince, especially with them seemingly already in Lord Peverell's back pocket.

"Well, I certainly think that is something that should be brought up during the meeting and not something I see any real issues with so far." she replied. The more interesting question was HPI building that it needed all those extra cores for?

"Excellent!" Peverell said happily before turning to the Manager. "Were you saying you were using this to create the control boards? How does it incorporate capacitors on such a small form factor and combine it all together without damage to other components from heat?" the man asked catching her by surprise. Clearly there was more to learn about him if he was this obviously interested and knowledgeable in tech. Today was turning out to be well worth the trip.


Harry really was enjoying this Sullustan wine. It was almost like drinking a glass of cranberry juice but instead when it was just going to turn sour, it instead tastes like chocolate covered strawberries with just a hint of sour, all undercut by a strong flavor of alcohol. To be fair he was not the biggest fan of Earth's wines to start with, so to him this was several steps up in improvement, and something he would need to get for home.

"I am still astonished with your ability to handle Sullustan wine so well, Lord Peverell." Kap Klyp, his newly made friend commented as they were enjoying their drinks, a few bottles already polished off. "And your ability to handle Sullust's atmosphere without any discomfort or issues and all without aid! Once word spreads my lord your popularity in the system is going to skyrocket even more!" Kap said excitedly, causing Harry to smile. It was not what he had been going for, but he would not complain. And his natural and magically enhanced ability to handle any foreign substance in his system made it so normal alcohols like this had little chance of getting him tipsy.

"Yes, my people usually have a much stronger tolerance for alcohol than the average species.'' He passed along a tidbit of truth to his new friend who had spent the last few hours showing Harry around Pinyumb, the capital city on Sullust. They had come here after the board of directors meeting; it had only taken 2 hours in the Marauder. Speaking of the Board of Directors meeting, that had gone a lot better than he had been expecting on his way to it. It had not been hard at all to convince any of the members about his wish for them to expand after making a few guarantees on behalf of HPI. They had even organized preliminary financing before they had even left the room. Overall, a huge win for HPI.

One thing he had not mentioned was the surprise to him that he was not as affected at all by the atmosphere as he had originally thought he would be. He was planning to use his new suits' charms to filter the bad gasses from the atmosphere and make it breathable, but when he had opened the Marauder on the planet with the new facility, he had realized he had no issues breathing the air, at all. Even without his magic filtering it. The only thing he could think of was that it was a side effect of his recent acquisition of an Animagus form or maybe his rituals? He was still not sure.

"If I am not intruding, and it's not against your culture or religion or anything, could I ask about the Force and why you chose me because of it?" Kap asked while using his hands to make a placating gesture, clearly trying not to step on any toes. It did make him chuckle a bit, which seemed to relax the Sullustan.

"Ha, no there is nothing against talking about the Force amongst my people, or as my people like to refer to the larger encompassing source of the Force, Magic." he said with a smile. "And while yes there are some religious elements connected with Magic and the Force, none I can think of off the top of my head that would be offensive to just ask about. Culturally there are some avoided topics, but I will forgive you for asking about any of those due to ignorance." he replied honestly after thinking about it for a second.

"Excellent! I was hoping to ask mainly why you think the Force choose me and why you followed its direction? I know you said it's never led you wrong, how often do you get direction?" Kap asked, obviously interested.

"The Force gives direction all the time if you are listening to it, however a person doesn't need to follow said direction, and usually it is in more of a form of giving you a feeling of where you can find the answer to something you want. At least for me. In your case I mentioned not having someone on Sullust HPI could trust who would be honest with us, and the Force indication in several directions, of which towards you was the strongest by far. The more powerful the Force user the more useful information one can obtain on the location of whatever they are seeking. Novices would only feel a pull, someone like me could easily view the location from far away if so desired." he said not having had a chance to talk about the Force with a non-Force user outside of Shmi, Lerla or PA in some time. And he wasn't even sure if PA counted anymore, with her growing Force presence each day.

"Incredible! Would you be able to demonstrate the Force in any ways I could perceive?" Kap asked excitedly, sitting up a bit.

"Hmm sure." he said while causing the bottle of wine to rise from the table to Kap's astonished eyes, float over Harry's cup and refill it. "Would you like a refill?" he asked, and getting a nod in return he floated the bottle to Kap's glass the man was holding and refilled it carefully. He then floated the bottle back down to the powered cooling coaster on the table. He had done that all without moving much, and certainly without hand movements. Kap simply sat back in his seat in shock and seemed to be digesting the event for a few seconds.

"Amazing, I will be honest. I had some doubts about this Force or Magic, but I can see now there is a lot of truth to it. And with that in mind." Kap paused for a few moments before continuing. "I couldn't help but follow your conversation with President Shu Mai prior to the board meeting, and if I am to take this position you have given me seriously then I feel I should inform you of a few hot topics here related to that conversation." Kap said obviously a bit excited and a little loosened up from all the wine but clearly still in full control of himself. Still, he got even more of Harry's attention. Thankfully he had put up a privacy ward around their private lounging area at this wine bar long ago.

"Go on." he said, interested in what the smaller man could add to the picture.

"Well as you both were discussing rising discontent within certain systems and companies in the Republic, I felt it only right to point out that there is also a growing vocal minority on Sullust who are also for leaving the Republic. Now while a good majority are still undecided from what I can tell, the pro-Republic group is notably smaller and less vocal than the leavers. I fear there is a good chance Sullust within the next decade may choose to leave the Republic, and I hope this would not too negatively impact relations with us here and between our two companies." Kap said, causing him to close his eyes and think for a moment before opening them up and smiling.

"Well as I said to President Mai, I can absolutely see the reasons systems, especially places like Sullust who are much more developed here in the Outer Rim, would look at the Republic and see so few reasons to remain and many reasons why they would want to leave. I entirely understand those people's feelings. And if it ever comes to a large-scale schism in the Republic where people are forced to take sides in some stupid conflict that I can just imagine happening, then I will simply have HPI treat each and every system as an individual and not a part of the whole. Doubly so if it's just a few systems. To be honest we already somewhat do that at HPI, and it was primarily due to the Trade Federation of all people." he said getting into the mood. Maybe the wine was affecting him even if only a tiny bit?

"After the invasion of Naboo, you could imagine relations with the Trade Federation and HPI were low as each had ships owned by each other getting destroyed by the other. So, things were a bit tense, but we at HPI had to come to realize that many of our ongoing business partners at the time were other members of the Trade Federation that had nothing to do with the small portion of the Federation that invaded Naboo. Many of them are honest traders that had been trusted business partners for years at that time, and almost all of them had been more than a little apologetic. So, we started to have to look at the individual instead of the entity even in the case of many large organizations, and it would soon seem we will need to add governments to that too." he finished up.

"Ah fascinating. And this is why you would see any separation of Sullust from the Republic as simply being a non-issue if business continued as usual?" Kap asked, refilling his glass.

"Yes, that is how I see it, but if a war broke out it would certainly complicate things. However, I am not sure if you have noticed the Republic doesn't really have a navy or army they could go to war with." he said with a laugh getting another odd feel from the Force.

"Too true! And is paradoxically one of the reasons many in the Outer rim want to leave. The belief that the Republic doesn't have the capability to protect us, even if they had the desire to." Kap said with a laugh of his own taking a large drink of his wine. These Sullustans were truly wine aficionados. "Let us change the topic to something more positive. I happened to notice that HPI's presence on Sullust is not too large, I can tell you I know several different districts that would be more than happy to accommodate a HPI Starport for just the energy you sell out of them if nothing else." Kap said happily changing the topic. Causing Harry to laugh and take another drink of his wine before he got deep into this conversation, good thing PA made him come prepared.


He's not sure how he was convinced to do this, but Kap had managed to convince him to stay around for an extra day and go on a tour of Sullust with the man the next day to really see the planet and people as the Sullustan had insisted. It may also have to do with Kap bringing up this absurd sport they play where it is played in 'glass' balls inside lava flows. Something he absolutely wanted to check out.

One thing he can say that is super nice about having your own ship was that it was like having your own place to sleep in that moved with you wherever you went. There was no need for a hotel, simply go back to your ship and sleep in the comfort of your own home away from home. It could almost be seen as a mobile apartment. This must have been how all those folks who used campervans for their vacations back in Surrey felt like.

So, they spent quite a bit of the day in the underground cities that were simply beautiful. The cave walls were covered in crystals that reflected and glowed in bioluminescent light and gave off an amazing sight. The Sullustans were also quite prolific in that they tried to strive in becoming amazing at several different fields. That meant every few hours he and Kap had stopped at some great places to try the food, and wander around to various historical and cultural sites checking out the fantastic art.

The lava sport, Hot Ball, was not as amazing as it sounded, but was still fun to watch. It was basically two teams of five in round balls made of transparisteel and a bit of tech to allow them to move more easily, all floating in the lava and the goal was to keep another smaller ball away from the other team. The last person's team who touched the ball before they all fell over the cliff edge of the lava flow scored their team a point. Still probably worth adding to Ryloth, even though he's not a huge fan, others here seemed to eat it up.

Ryloth was being a big credit sink right now, as absurd amounts of planning were being done, and on a few rare occasions some major foundational construction work was being started. Tons of land had been purchased up, and PA was going as far as to purchase mountains of antiques, artworks, and other things to be putting in displays and museums. There were many archives, universities, and museums also willing to loan huge portions of their collections for an appropriate price. The purchases were even including the large amounts of animals going to various reserves or zoos they were planning or in the middle of construction. Mainly the jobs that were being produced right now were construction and other various things related to planning and designing the attractions, but it was already having an incredible impact on the people of Ryloth. And it was all costing a lot and returning nothing at the moment which was actually good for them. He was happy to leave it in the hands of PA and Sugi who seems to have fallen in love with Ryloth.

Thankfully he and Kap left at half time rather than staying for the whole game, because as they were taking the long path to one of the elevators that transported people to the undercity, a huge explosion took out the elevator when they were about 50m away, and the fireball and debris blew their way. He had just enough warning and time to pull Kap to him and summon 4 of the 6 people nearby before erecting a Force Bubble around everyone. The blast blew over them and blew apart the walkway they had been walking on, and while their view was obstructed by dust, he didn't need to see to know the lives of the others nearby had been snuffed out. He had his magic and the Force to tell him that.

A few of those inside the shield were screaming and Kap looked to be in a bit of a panic but was snapping out it as Harry lowered the shield once the dust settled. Harry could make out a few more people screaming and was going to go and help when he felt another warning from the Force, and this time was given enough warning to look up and see 3 ships coming in clearly for an attack run. He was not sure what was going on, but he had a good idea now. How he was going to handle this, he was less sure but had a number of ideas, just which to choose. Suddenly one not so great idea popped into his head, it was impulsive and probably a bit dumb, but in his current mood he decided to just go with it.

Using his powers, he grabbed everyone around him and quickly levitated them a few hundred meters away back towards the stadium. Then looking up at the incoming ships still about a minute away, he transformed into his dragon form, towering nearly 40 meters high and reaching a length of 150m, his Animagus form was massive. Far bigger than any Wizard's Animagus he knew of, and one of the few rumored magical ones. Opening his maw, he let forth a giant roar, before quickly taking a deep breath and releasing a torrent of what looked like white plasma streaked with blue lightning straight at the incoming ships at incredible speeds. The torrent simply hit the small attack ships and after a half a second the torrent cleared where the ships once were they were simply now gone now. No debris, nothing. Just gone. Even he was a bit surprised by the results.

He had tested his form out a few times since gaining it and had been having some mixed results with his breath, how it fully worked had been stumping him. Sometimes it destroyed everything in its path, other times just a few things leaving everything else perfectly in place, and other times it seemed to do little but clear the dirt away. He had been hoping to do some more testing but had been busy prepping for the meeting. Something he was going to now rectify when home. He was about to transform back but he could sense with the Force that there were a few more threats coming his way.

Looking around the sky he saw about six more attack ships coming at him in two more groups. Deciding it was time to spread his wings, with a few wings beats he took the sky and brought the fight to these fuckers whoever they were. This was a well-equipped assassination attempt, and he was more than a bit angry. He had felt maybe two dozen people who had died in that initial explosion. People deemed a nonimportance when deciding to strike at him, worth less than a consideration he expected.

Beating his wings, he could feel the magic soaring through his body as it was in fact what gave this form most of its ability to fly, it also let him have more speed and control than one would expect from a huge flying tank like beast he appeared to be. He immediately took off towards the closest group of three and closed the distance quickly with a few strong beats of his wings. However, it was not fast enough before all six ships start to shoot at him, few landing but each blaster cannon shot he took from what appeared to be several heavily modified shuttles and a single dedicated fighter craft, each shot seemed to tickle more than anything, and he just ignored them.

Deciding to target the fighter first he halted in the air a few hundred meters away before letting go another breath of destruction, taking another one of the ships flying beside the fighter out. Quickly using that magically enhanced speed and maneuverability he darted his significant size quickly and with a quick dive to side grabbed the other shuttle with his claws and tore it apart like butter, the metal giving under his efforts like tearing through cardboard. He quickly released the wrecked pieces of the ship and looked towards the other attackers but not before taking a few more shots and finally something that hurt as he was hit by what could only have been a missile. It smarted quite a bit but glancing down showed no real damage but some scoring of his scales.

He let forth a breath at the ship that fired the missile and leapt through the air towards another, while of all things the third decided they had enough and was quickly trying to fly away. His arrival at the fifth ship was punctuated by a look of utter terror on the Trandoshan pilot as he grasped the ship and tore it apart before tossing the parts into a lava stream. He was about to pursue that last ship, but then thought better of it, as it was already a good distance away, and he was unlikely to catch up quickly.

He swooped back around and came in for a landing where he took off from, and as he was about to land, he smoothly transformed back into his human form. Oh man that was cool, he mentally patted himself on the back. He really was getting good at that already after only playing around with transforming for a bit. His many early failures attempting to transform while landing in the sand dune sea of Tatooine shall never be mentioned. He used one of his favorite abilities to interface with his communicator in his pocket and send PA several messages.

Hopefully they could use that escaping ship to find out who was behind this, and he could sense in the Force there were nearly another dozen or so people who could use some medical attention and so they were his immediate priority. To say he was feeling like shit for being part of the cause for this was an understatement, and he was beyond angry; if he wasn't using his occlumency right now, he imagined the whole area would be utterly chaotic due to his magic responding to his strong emotions. He looked over and saw Kap of all people running over to him in excitement and a bit of fear, yet it still brought a smile to his face. The little man was quite reliable it seemed and didn't let his own emotions rule him too much.

"Hadrian are you alright?" Kap said using his first name as he had asked the man during their tour that day. "And that big creature that was you right?" the Sullustan quickly added on. He was going to deny it, and even maybe use his magic to take anyone's memories, but from thinking about it quickly and the warning in the Force he felt that would just not work.

"Yes, and just a little sore on the side." he said not lying as that missile had hurt a bit. "And yes, I will give you a better explanation on my people's ability later, but first I think we need to see to the injured, and the two people I can sense alive still trapped in some of the rubble." he said hastily to the Sullustan whose large black eyes widen even further at the news of helping the injured and those trapped.

"Yes! We must aid anyone trapped or injured. I have already sent a message to emergency services, let us go!" Kap said already running towards where the elevator access had been. Instead of waiting he simply grabbed both in the Force and flew them in seconds to the edge of where the ruble started, saving them a 20 second run at a Sullustan's speed. Immediately they got to work, and that mainly was him homing in on where he could feel life signatures in the Force. And like when using his abilities to take apart machines, he quickly lifted all the debris away while supporting everything where it was needed and extracted the injured and unconscious person who he put down so Kap could help them while the sounds of debris settling back down, and sirens could be heard.

He was about to repeat the same process as last time, but when he had the person for lack of a better word in the clutches of his magic, he had an idea, and summoned them to him. And he didn't mean summon as in Accio, no he meant using a combination of Apparition and Portkey magic, along with a Force ability he learnt from Ruusan, he teleported the injured person to him. The person who both happened to not be unconscious and wasn't a Sullustan this time looked at him in shock with a weird boney face and beady eyes. It took Harry a second of reviewing his memories to realize this was a Mustafarians and a woman at that, thankfully she also didn't need a mask to breath on Sullust.

The woman was in terrible shape even though she was still conscious unlike the other, who simply seemed to have broken an arm and was knocked out. It looked like her entire bottom 70% of her legs had been crushed. Using another one of the Force abilities he learnt from the power aboard on Ruusan, and one of the few he felt had no good counterpart from his world, he started to channel his magic into the woman and converted it into a healing energy, and before the shocked woman's and his face they watched her legs regained their shape and straightened out into proper form. It only took about twenty seconds before the woman's lower half was back to normal, as odd as their normal was for him.

Reaching out with the Force to scan the ruins carefully again, he couldn't find any more people alive to excavate from the ruble. So, he turned his attention to helping those who had been caught outside the building and explosion while Kap started directing emergency personnel who had shown up in Airspeeders to the two people they had uncovered. He and Kap helped out for the next twenty minutes as he felt it was the bare minimum, he could do for these people who got caught in the crossfire so he had made sure to heal each and every person. During the commotion he had summoned the Marauder cloaked and he and Kap had retired there quietly before the emergency personnel noticed or finally got around to detaining them and asking questions.

They were both around one of the tables in the lounge area drinking water this time catching their breath. He had used his magic to clean both of them off already, but they were still recovering from all the adrenaline that had been pumping through their bodies. "If you don't mind me asking, is now an ok time to explain what that was?" Kap asked a bit fearfully but also clearly excited. It almost reminded him of a UFO nerd back on Earth about to get to talk to a real-life alien. He took a long sip of the water and organized his thoughts a bit. He didn't even bother considering changing the man's memory as it was too late now, and so he decided to explain a bit.

"You remember me telling you my People had access to magic?" he asked, getting an enthusiastic nod in return. "Well one of the abilities we can learn usually through great effort is to turn into what we refer to as our 'spirit animal'. In my case my spirit animal is the flying dragon you witnessed, an unusually large size of a transformation for my people, but I am quite fond of it. Unfortunately, while my people are acquainted with many different Dragons, mine is in none of the records of my people that I have access to. So, I have yet to discover its species name." he said to his new 'friend' and watched his reaction closely in the Force.

"Incredible! And to be born with such an opportunity, so many of your people must revel in learning to turn into their spirit animal! Are the animal forms all along similar veins or can it be anything?" Kap asked excitedly, causing Harry to smile, though he decided not to tell the man the truth, as it would burst his bubble if he learnt so few Wizards or Witches bothered to learn. One of the things he had hated the most about the Magical World was how unexcited and mundane the magicals treated magic of all things. They saw no wonder and barely any excitement, even the muggleborns lost that sheen of excitement so quickly due to the attitude of other witches and wizards around them.

"Ha! Yes, the forms can be a variety of things. I know of forms from small insects barely bigger than a thumbnail, all the way to my form you saw earlier. My Father's form was a quadrupedal herbivore known for their ability to run fast and jump high." He said simplifying things for the man but decided to poke some fun at the same time. He was a prankster at heart still, even if he was mellowing a bit in his 'old' age. "You could say the Jedi and their counterparts the Sith, are mere children playing around in the tidal pool that is the Force while my people long ago reached to the ocean and have been conquering its seas for eons."

"Incredible! I don't know why I haven't heard about things like this before." Kap said, almost bouncing in his seat in his excitement, seemingly having almost forgotten about the attack. "Where can the rest of your people be found?"

"I am the only one of my people that I know who travels the stars, and I sadly don't know the location of my home world." he said honestly, getting a look of shock and pity from the man, which quickly changed back to excitement when Harry moved on. "As to not seeing much evidence, I would think that it is because it is rare to have a deep enough connection to the Force to be powerful enough to express it externally in a visual manner. Then there is the Jedi and the Sith who both seem to feel they should be the sole authorities on the Force so hoard information on it and often prevent it from being spread far and wide; but you can still certainly find some on the Holonet or G-NET these days." he went on for his growing friend. He felt nothing nefarious from Kap, and just honest pure excitement and curiosity. Any fear had left the Sullustan almost at the beginning of their chat.

"It would be incredible to meet more of your people. It is sad they choose not to travel the stars, and you don't know a way home." Kap perfused morosely. "I will have to look more into the Jedi, and these Sith you speak of and see what I can learn. Seeing the Force or Magic in action was awe inspiring, and it will be worth my time to hunt down others just to see what they can do with it." Kap said happily. "If you don't mind me asking, I was reading about the Jedi on the Holonet last night, and one of the things most common said about them was that the Force gave them warnings of danger, why didn't you get warned about today?" Kap asked seriously. Harry thought about it for a few seconds, trying to figure out the answer himself and what he should share.

"Passive precognition or divination if you prefer, is probably the worst of all my talents when it comes to using the Force. To give you an analogy and this shouldn't be taken literally, many Jedi and my people can at nearly all times hear the voice of the Force speaking to them of the future, and the more skilled individuals can even hear the Force when it is only whispering to them. Whereas for me without me actively trying to divine something, which I am paradoxically very good at, I can only ever hear when the Force is yelling at me." he said making sure Kap was paying attention and following along as he tried explaining something about the Force to someone without the Force which was not easy.

"The Force in general only yells at me when I am in danger, and that is part of the problem today. From that distance at no point today was I in true danger from that explosion, and so till I got close enough and it became super imminent the Force simply didn't bother yelling at me about it, and by then it was too late." he continued getting a more shocked and but seemingly understanding look from Kap. It was honestly a bit amusing, and he was having fun sharing with his new friend and watching his eyes get wider as Harry went on. In fact, he was not even too sure why he was sharing this much but the Force said he could trust him, so he was going to trust the man, and go out of a limb and see where this takes him. There was also the fact that he never really wanted to hide his magic completely in the first place, just not going around advertising it.

"It seems the Force is even more complicated that I was giving it credit." Kap said back a bit sadly. "Even with such an amazing power it seems to take time and dedication to get good at even doing one thing with it, and much like life one can't be good at everything." The man pondered out loud and was quite right. Even him, with all his advantages, had SO much more to learn about magic and the Force. So much to practice and get good at.

"Those are wise words to live by. Unfortunately, I would love to continue talking about the more wondrous sides of magic, as it is one of my true passions, I do need to deal with this situation, and I can already feel my communicator going off repeatedly." he said to his friend getting up and walking towards the exit of the ship. When the ramp lowered it showed them back at the landing pad he had been using for the last day or so, well away from where the incident took place. Their new location caused Kap to be surprised for a second before turning to him with a small smile.

"Understandable. I will put together that report you requested soon to give you a more in-depth look into Sullust." Kap said to him before they shook each other's hands and the man walked down the ramp before turning back around. "Safe travels and thank you for saving my life and that of the others today." Kap said more seriously than he had heard the man before and bowed slightly.

"You don't need to thank me; I would have done it for anyone. However, don't be afraid to reach out with anything you may need." he said before deciding to have a bit more fun. "Live long and prosper, and may the Force be with you." he said while smiling and closing the rear entrance. It was time to deal with the fallout of this shit storm and find who ever the fuck was responsible for this attack. He would also need to make sure PA takes care of the families of those who were hurt and killed in this attack, it was the least he could do. Finally, he would have to talk to PA about the growing separatist sentiment, and Kap had not been lying about the rising movement on Sullust. He had seen ample proof of that during his tour.


Jabba was no one's fool. He was too old to be a fool and have survived this long. So of course, he had heard the talk, the whispers, the rumors, that he was now nothing more than a simple lacky of HPI, that he had no real power to himself, which he scoffed at. While they were not wholly wrong, in substance they were, as he was no fool to believe he was the leader in this partnership with Harry nor that he commanded HPI to do anything. But to say he was not more powerful than ever, was to ignore reality.

That day so many years ago now that Harry had walked into his throne room, he knew this human was different. He exuded no fear. Had a certainty in both his own safety and on Jabba being interested in the products he had for sale. And somehow Jabba had known deep down in his third gut that this man was not full of himself, nor was he someone to play around with. Jabba had agreed to the deal and sent the man on his way, thinking he was more trouble than he was worth and could be ignored.

Oh, how wrong was he, and yet so right too. Lord Hadrian Peverell was not the normal type of person the Hutt clans dealt with. No, he was not. Their normal methods of controlling people and the situation through bribery, mercenaries, criminal groups, using the legal system to their advantage and its loopholes, blackmail, force of arms, addictive substances, and the tried and true, intimidation, none of it would have worked with Harry. He quickly realized this and concluded that working with the man was the only real route forward, and oh how did partnering make him even more filthy rich. Kaltho the Hutt had once bragged to him in passing that he was making 250,000 credits on the worst day from his enterprises, and here Jabba was now laughing at that amount.

The best thing about the entire situation was that he and Harry had become great friends. While he knew Harry had things he disliked about him, mainly because the man wasn't afraid to say them to his face, something he appreciated as a rarity over his long life, they had many things in common. Especially their love for good pod racing, dangerous sports, new technology, pretty girls, and last but not least, betting. The simple act of getting rid of slavery from his clan's businesses and banning the sales on Tatooine had cemented that friendship. So much so he had named Harry Rota's godfather, something Harry took very seriously. A bit too seriously he thought, looking around him and laughing!

"Is there something I can do for you, my Lord?" The droid beside him asked.

"Nothing just pondering." he said before looking back at the extremely fancy holoprojector that showed him a clear view of the entire fleet. While Harry got to take his stealthy transport to his important meeting with SoroSuub, Jabba had to take an entire fleet to the Hutt Council Meeting on Nal Hatta all because he was taking Rota with him to meet Mama Hutt.

And what a fleet it was, 20 of the same ship he was sitting on, some new Frigate class Harry designed a year or so ago to replace the AC light cruiser. 80 CR90s from Corellia a ship he had been getting quite used to roaming around in as Harry had gifted him several modified ones almost a decade ago now to act as mobile throne rooms for him when needed. And finally, the hundreds of starfighters all surrounding and intermixed in the fleet. It may be one of the largest military fleets organized in the galaxy since that invasion of Naboo.

This was a statement to everyone here in the system, including the Hutt Council, the criminals here, and maybe even himself. And Harry was most certainly just using Rota as an excuse to make the statement. Sure, the other members of the Hutt Grand Council could get a fleet together to rival this one, but that would take time to assemble from other planets and money no one wants to spend. Time which they had not gotten as this fleet had appeared above the planet in formation without any warning, as they had taken a secret single hyperlane from Tatooine straight here. In an instant a fleet that no one knew about appeared in the Nal Hutta system and he was laughing watching the various ships in the system panicking over the sensors as many were trying to escape the system and others seemed to not know what to do. He believed Harry called this pranking.

"Prepare my transport. It is time for me to join the Council." he said to the droid beside him.

"Certainly. Should I launch a landing craft and have the arrival zone secured? And will master Rota be joining you?" the droid asked, causing him to halt and think.

"No need to clear the landing site, and no Rota will not be joining me right now. He will join me later when we go to visit my grandmother, Mama." he answered and descended through the ship to his transport with his droid bodyguards following along. It only took about 15 minutes before they were landing just outside Oruba's Palace, where this meeting was taking place.

Interestingly as he was descending from his transport with his entourage, including a few HPI battle droids, he saw of all people Kaltho, a Hutt he had just been thinking of, waiting for him before the Entrance to the palace proper. He continued moving up, interested in seeing what the other Hutt wanted.

"Jabba, I had been hoping to speak with you today." Kaltho said to him a bit submissively.

"Kaltho, it has been some time." he replied naturally. He didn't mind this Hutt and has admired his methods, and restraint over the years. Steadily and unassumingly building his business empire throughout Hutt space to great success. If Jabba was being honest with himself the current him would more than likely get along well with Kaltho. Kaltho was also known as a Hutt that restrained himself from normal Hutt vices to a degree at least. Well except perhaps when it came to collecting beautiful things and artifacts. That is something Kaltho had in common with Harry. "What is it you wished to discuss; I am expected in the Council meeting."

"I am here to get a recommendation from you for HPI, as I am hoping their rumored more advanced private medicine will be able to help with my condition." Kaltho said clearly disliking the topic of discussion. Jabba did in fact pity Kaltho for the condition of his that caused his wasting away. If he was not wrong, the Hutt had been exposed to something as a Huttlet, and issues only cropped up later in life causing this wasting. He pondered what he should do, and while Kaltho could pose as some real competition, having the Hutt owe him would also be quite valuable.

"Why approach me, you could have simply walked into one of their hospitals on Tatooine?" he asked, wanting to hear Kalho's answer.

"While that is true, there is a good chance they won't be able to help and there are strong rumors that the leader of HPI, Hadrian Peverell has access to even more advanced medical technology. It is my hope that is where I will find the answer to my ailment." Kaltho said with clear hope.

"Hmm. Give him PA's contact information." he said to one of his attendants. "Katho, tell PA that I personally recommended you contact her and tell her that I would take it as a personal favor if Lord Peverell would see if he can heal you of your condition." he said emphasizing the Lord's title. It would be interesting to see what happens, and it would be useful to get Kaltho working with him on distributing Cannabis and other spice through the Hutt's various operations.

"Thank you. I won't hold you back any longer." Kaltho said bowing slightly after taking the datachit from Jabba's attendant. He nodded to the Hutt before continuing into the Palace, making his way through quite a bit of opulence on display towards where he knew Oruba's council chamber was. Walking into the council chambers the first thing he noted that boosted his mood was seeing three Desilijic banners noting his clan holding three of the five Council seats. This reflected their growing wealth and power amongst the Hutts due to his leadership, the remaining two banners belonging to Gorensla and Besadii Kajidics.

Gorensla Kajidic was headed up by Oruba who was a through and through traditionalist, and conservative for a Hutt, with his clan primarily focusing on the black market and high end auctions. He also happened to be one of the rare cases of an Albino Hutt. Oruba was his strongest support outside his family, mainly due to the Hutts respect for the traditions of the council and the long-standing concept of the most powerful Hutts ruling the Hutt species. To Oruba this had worked for millennia and to upset it would be to put the entire Hutt species at risk. Or at least that is what Jabba's father years ago had told him about the Hutt and some of the more traditionalists.

The next Hutt was his cousin Groga who had a larger than average love for money, which for a Hutt was saying something. It made his cousin predictable, and therefore not a threat to his power within the clan. Jabba knew the smaller Hutt had been skimming from the clan's finances but did nothing about it because Groga was both surprisingly competent and capable, which meant the Hutt made far more credits for the clan than he skimmed.

The final clan member of Jabba's and his closest ally on the Council was his Uncle Ebor. Ebor was someone who Jabba had personally placed on the council to keep an eye on things for him while he was busy with his business ventures on Tatooine. Ebor had always treated Jabba well, and while not an overly ambitious Hutt, and therefore not spectacularly wealthy, he was very trustworthy and reliable. It had been an easy choice for Jabba to put his uncle there when he was throwing around his wealth and power to acquire the Desilijic clan another seat. Thankfully he had the full support of his clan, primarily because as the leader over the last few years he has made them the richest they had ever been in their history, while reducing their enemies at the same time. More credits with less effort were just what you needed to offer a Hutt to get them on your side.

The last Hutt, Arok of Besadii Kajidic who is joining them via hologram, was anything but an ally, and was outright vocally against many of the proposals of Jabba's clan regardless of what they were. Unfortunately Arok held his position soundly as his clan was heavily involved in the slave trade and is where most of their credits were made from, and there were a lot of credits in the slave trade. Besadii had gained a lot of extra market share when Desilijics had pulled out of the industry to appease Harry and as a result the Besadii clan became more powerful. While Harry may spurn the slave trade, sadly there was always someone wanting to buy, and others willing to sell.

The Besadii Kajidic were Jabba's biggest opposition in the Council, not that Jabba had been making too many waves through the council and instead had been keeping his changes more within his clan. He had originally thought that moving out of the slave business would have appeased the Besadii Kajidic, but it seemed that it had only made the clan angrier. Claiming Jabba and his clan were looking down on them and the trade Besadii Kajidic primarily dealt in. Jabba couldn't be bothered to explain his reasoning beyond when he had announced his decision, and if they became too much of an issue, he would simply have them removed, permanently. He had no patience for anyone outside his friends and family who thought to get in his way. Well maybe these days that was softening a bit, but only a bit!

"Jabba, you fool!" Arok said in anger over the holocall. "If you think that fleet you arrived in was going to intimidate my clan you are sorely mistaken." Jabba almost snorted at how Arok verbally confirmed some of the rumors he had been just thinking about.

"If I wanted to intimidate you, I have much better methods to implement." he said calmly as he moved along to take his rightful spot. "The fleet is simply here to escort my little Rotta to meet his Great Grandmother, Mama the Hutt. Lord Peverell, Rotta's godfather, takes the role a bit too seriously as we can all see by the fleet and the army of droids that are onboard." he said letting them know it was not just a naval army in system, mainly to spite Aruk because while he may be here by hologram, the Hutt and many of his clan have palaces on this very world. Nal Hutta was considered the beautiful jewel of the Hutt empire. Though due to a long-standing agreement he had made with his grandfather, he had not built a Palace here and was not supposed to for another 50 more years. At this point Jabba preferred Tatooine anyways and didn't think he would build one even when the time came for that agreement to expire.

"Ha! Well, Peverell's opinion is not something anyone will need to worry about anymore." Arok said with a sinister laugh, causing Jabba to look over in worried interest. "I heard just a few hours ago that he was caught up in a large explosion and giant creature attack on Sullust." Arok said, causing Jabba to stand still for a second before bursting out in loud laughter for several long seconds catching everyone off guard including Ebor who was now looking at him like he was crazy.

"No explosion is going to kill Hadrian Peverell, and I invite you all to come to Tatooine sometime so I can show the skeleton of the Greater Kryat Dragon Lord Peverell personally killed. With his bare hands." he said with more laughter. He didn't believe for one second Harry was dead or seriously injured, though he may have over exaggerated his friend's ability to survive explosions, at least he was fairly certain he had. Regardless it's better to let others think that it was a dead end for assassination attempts anyways. "I doubt any beast on Sullust will compare and even if my faith in him was misplaced, it would have been several hours since his death as you say, I would have already been informed. HPI has the best communication network in the Galaxy." he said, indicating one of the HPI droids in the room and settled himself down confidently in his central place of the Council.

"You are Correct Lord Jabba. I would have informed you the moment of Lord Peverell's Death." The droid who oversaw his security detail said, surprising him as he was not actually expecting the droid to answer him. He was thinking about questioning the droid when Arok took the decision from his hands.

"And how would a moronic droid like yourself know that?" Arok asked arrogantly, showing his and his clan general dislike for droids. From what Jabba could discern over the years the dislike was simply from the fact they felt droids took away from their sales of slaves. It seemed like a truly foolish position to take, as droids had many uses slaves couldn't fill easily, and vice versa. He distracted himself for a moment and internally laughed at his adoption of several of Harry's turn of phrases before returning to the topic at hand. The battle droid simply stood there near the entrance to the room that Jabba had used and said nothing. It took him a moment to realize the droid was waiting for his word to speak.

"Go on." he said to the droid who looked directly at him.

"As you wish, Lord Jabba. It is as Lord Jabba already said, it would have taken at most 3 minutes after my Lord Creator's death for a message to have been sent through the HPI communication network and reached my team and I." the droid's tone had clearly changed when addressing him and then when looking at Arok. Clearly this droid had little patience for Arok either. He would maybe have to learn its destination later on; it had been the head of his droid security detail for some time now.

"As you can see, I had no reason to worry." he answered, settling into his spot for this long meeting. There had been several issues and decisions brought to the table to discuss, by both the clans on the council and the other 10 clans that made up the ancient Kajidics of the Hutt species. And many from lesser important Hutt clans that they will get to last.

A number of topics were highlighted as important for him by Ebor: the rising separatist movement in the galaxy and how they could use it to exert larger regional control in many systems, the large uptick in demand for slaves in general but especially those suited for labor over pleasure a reverse of previous trends, a new possible source of a potent spice inside Hutt space of all places, several new profitable smuggler routes, the HPI Ryloth resort world plans, the rising cost of Twi-lek dancing girls, and a dozen more important issues. That didn't even get into the deep hard mud of the swamp, as found there were hundreds of 'unimportant' topics to go over too. A fairly large increase from the last meeting.

This was certainly going to be a headache, but not as big of a one as when Harry had introduced that new legal code for HPI territories, which had mostly been fine, but the fact that Bounty Hunters had less legal protection on Tatooine now then on Coruscant had set off a bigger podoo storm then Jabba outlawing slave markets on the planet did. Go figure, greedy bastards, don't know what's good for them. Though his quick brutal retaliation to those who went too far in their 'complaints' brought a smile to his face to think about.


Ashoka woke up from her surreal dream with a quiet gasp, not loud enough to wake any of her clanmates, thankfully, as she looked around and saw everyone else asleep. She had been dreaming of an adult man, just for that very same man to be hit by the edge of an explosion. He had used some Force shield she hadn't seen before to protect him and some other people nearby. The Bubble had shone in her dream so brightly, and she could see it just rejecting the damage being inflicted on it. After that the man had somehow taken to the sky while transforming into some kind of flying beast, it was a bit murky to her and hard to make out from her position in the dream, then the man destroyed some attacking ships before transforming back, and proceeding to extract several people from the rubble, and heal them with the Force. She didn't know Force healers were that amazing or you could make shields like that to protect yourself! The Masters were really holding out on them!

The craziest thing to her was that she recognized the man. He was the same man she remembered running into all those years ago in the temple, and he seemed no different in her dream today, except dressed in something different. It was one of her oldest memories, and she looked back on fondly. She was almost certain he was also the one responsible for the gifts she got once each year. Why? Because the gifts felt the same to her as the bracelet, she still wore to this day that he had given her. Her favorite gift other than the bracelet, that she treasured as something important, was the brown leather boots she had gotten. They always were the right temperature, had seemingly somehow grown with her as her feet had got bigger, didn't seem to get damaged or wet, and always made sure she had a solid grip on whatever surface she was walking on. They were simply astral!

She had been collecting a few items over the years that she received as gifts, far more so than any other member of Clawmouse Clan. It had surprised her but most everyone seemed to ignore her gifts and didn't ever seem to comment on them. She also doesn't bring them up because she noticed no one else got any gifts and didn't want to make any of them feel sad or left out, they were her closest friends. Her family. And that was not what a Jedi should do, making their friends or family upset for no reason at all. So, she never discussed her gifts with anyone.

Tonight, her dream had left her rather unsettled and she was not sure what she should do, so she decided to head to one of her favorite places she had found over the years to meditate. Hopefully Master Mispy will be there or sense her unease, as the enigmatic Master she had once found cleaning a room with the Force often would offer her advice when she was troubled. She chuckled as she had never seen another Master use the Force in such a mundane way, or seemingly dedicate so much time to taking care of the Temple. She smiled at the fact that there seemed to be so much about the Jedi and the Force she still didn't know.


"Harry. Do you know how many issues you have created for me in the last 24 hours?" PA said to him in that cold voice a parent used with their kid when the kid was in serious trouble. Ya that voice made him gulp a bit as he sat down talking with PA via a PAM droid on the Marauder after having had a quick nap due to being worn out by the events of the past few days.

After giving it some time, he did realize using his Animagus form of all things was a bit impulsive, but what is done is done. He was angrier this occurred in the first place, and while he knew he and by extension HPI were pissing a lot of people off this was not an easy hit to put together. This group had to slip all those ships through the Sullust Defence Forces, which unlike a lot of other planetary defense forces, Sullust's was actually well equipped, funded, and extremely capable.

Then there was the bomb and smuggling that in too. He was still not sure why that went off when it did. All of it screamed of a well-equipped group who was being well financed and something that HPI needed to investigate stat. It made him even more angry as he more than likely expected their investigation to hit dead ends or walls, they could not get through just like the last few they had gone looking into similar coordinated attacks on HPI. It was incredibly frustrating that he felt there was not much he could retaliate against and in this assassination attempt many people died. It was part of what made him use his dragon form to answer this attack.

"I think I have some idea." he said honestly to his droid friend with a small smile.

"I am uncertain you do." PA said slightly angry, before pulling up a video for him to watch. It clearly showed him transforming into his dragon form, taking to the sky, letting out a few breaths destroying several ships, then tearing into a few more with his claws, and finally landing back on the ground while smoothly transforming back. And dam did his transformation while landing look just as cool as it had felt doing it. It sadly also showed his dragon form shrugging off some of the blaster and laser cannon fire. It had probably been captured by some of the cameras covering the lava sporting event. It makes a bit of sense why the initial explosion and his actions then weren't caught on camera. Though he did wonder about some of the events after, like flying with Kap. Stuff at the bomb site should have been too far to be captured by cameras at the stadium.

Sadly, he could see how this could be an issue, mainly because he didn't want to have to deal with any Jedi coming to pester him with questions. God forbid somehow the Trandoshans get it in their heads he was the ultimate hunt to go after. Now there was a people he had been meaning to deal with for some time, but he had so many more higher priorities right now that he kept putting it off. One of which is to test out his dragon breath a bit more, as he had more of an idea now how it worked and if that was the case it was the bloody coolest dragon breath he had ever heard of. Magic really brought the inner child at heart in him out, he just never stopped loving learning something new and interesting related to magic.

"There is a small cult on Sullust who is now convinced you are their Lava god taken physical form and your other form is a ancient powerful progenitor species to the Ash Angels found on the planet." Hu that could be a bit of a problem, and not something he wants at all, but he did have an odd thought but was interrupted by PA continuing her rant.

"And when I meant small, I didn't mean tiny, as they have a membership rate of nearly 4% of Sullust's population in the last census. That means over 200 million people on that planet now are thinking you are the embodiment of their god! Which is simply growing by the day since the footage went viral on the planet. And don't think you escaped being identified, because it only took an hour before your identity was confirmed by most media on Sullust. There is also the fact that the authorities there wish to still speak with you. And finally, I am already fielding complaints from people within the Republic and getting requests for answers to questions I don't want to answer from reporters about the Fleet you sent with Jabba. And don't think you can simply remind me of how sales are going to skyrocket on Sullust now because some of its people believe you are their god; it won't be enough to appease my annoyance right now." PA said clearly finishing her rant.

"You know we really need to stop caring as much about people who are simply morons thinking about what we are doing." he said in a soft voice after a few seconds of thinking about it then getting much more passionate as the idea started to really resonate within him. They were at a point where they didn't need to be as safe; taking as conservative of moves as they had been when starting out. "Let them complain, and if they do simply stop taking those people's calls unless it amuses you; I certainly don't want to talk to them." he said with a laugh.

"In fact, let's make another statement with that fleet we sent with Jabba, but one with a different meaning. Let us have that fleet or something possibly more suited to it, I will leave that decision up to you, go back and forward between Nal Hutta and Tatooine on a schedule through our hyperlane. Publish that schedule and allow others to join our fleet for safe passage or purchase a ride between the two planets just like normal. Even drop the fleets speed down so ships with hyperdrives with ratings of 4 or better can join. Or maybe if the ships become available, run multiple fleets going at different speeds and times. I imagine you can find some way to make it not entirely worthless credit wise as the Nala Hutta system is one of the wealthiest and most populated around. Just don't step on too many Hutt toes, as we don't want to piss them off without Jabba telling us too.

Combine that with the fact that the route from Tatooine to the Corellian Run is one of the safest routes today due our constant use of it and nearby HPI patrols... Imagine the message it sends that in a few simple years HPI managed to setup a relatively safe route to go all the way from one of the most dangerous crime ridden planets in the galaxy, Nal Shadda, where you can buy anything with credits to another only slightly less crime driven planet where credits can pretty much buy you anything you want too, Coruscant! All when the Republic and others have failed to do so for thousands of years. And if people complain, let them. If we have a legitimate reason to show up in a system with a fleet of a certain size and we get complaints, ignore them.

We should also start enforcing our sovereignty of our ships as a sovereign piece of our 'land' more strongly and calmly inform anyone interested, that Republic or Foreign laws end at the ship's doors or hull. Don't be a prick about it, because if someone has a legitimate reason to search for something we would normally accommodate like a missing child, go ahead, but Melin be damned I am tired of constantly marching to the beat of others when their beat is just bullocks!" he finished ranting before sitting back down in shock as during his own rant he got up to pace while speaking without even realizing it.

He was not too sure where that had come from to be honest, he didn't really disagree too much with what he had said but had surprised himself by saying it out loud like that and so strongly taking a stance. He was a bit puzzled but then almost did a face palm as a light bulb went off in his brain. There was a good chance he was going to have to look a bit more closely into the effect your Animagus form can have on you for a time after acquiring it.

It was then when he looked up to see what PA's reaction had been only to feel her pure excitement in the Force and could hear the droid's circuits buzzing in joy from a few meters away. He however froze and had a giant brain fart, before rebooting and looking at the droid more closely, this was a PAM droid not PA's real body, so he shouldn't have been able to feel her Force presence through this droid like he normally did with her real body. A Force presence that had been steadily growing more solid and strong in the Force over the years. This was something he was going to be looking into, when he gets some free time.

"If that is the new direction you want to take, I fully support the change! I only held back in many regards because I believed you wanted to keep a lower profile." PA said excitedly, now getting him a bit worried why she was so excited by the change in direction as she calls it. "We can stop holding back from making credits in so many areas. I am assuming you still wish to prevent any suspicion arising about the magical enhancements used in HPI's operation?" PA asked him, knocking him out of his thoughts about PA being so excited.

"Yes of course if only for strategic reasons alone it would be worth it to still hide our use of magic in the business." he said back seriously, just realizing it seemed that this discussion had morphed into something entirely different at some point. "And revealing our entire hand to others would be stupid and leave us vulnerable, so holding back in certain regards is important, but I think there are other areas whereas I said we should stop limiting ourselves to appease others. Like the price of food rising all over the galaxy, there is a market ripe for exploitation. Let's start massively increasing our food output on both planets and through the help of magic with the Elves and trunks, then start selling it at a more reasonable price. If people start questioning where it's all coming from, simply let them question." he said seriously after having calmed down a bit but could hear the telltale sign of PA's excitement. It was nice to see PA was on the same page as him, and that it wasn't just his recent gain of his dragon form unduly influencing him.

"If that is what you want, Harry, I am in full agreement." PA said in her motherly voice she dips into at times, almost causing him to laugh.

"Oh, and make sure to not flood the market with too cheap of food stuffs or too much in one region, we don't want to drive farmers out of business or impact their bottom line too much." he said seriously back to PA after sitting there and pondering for a few seconds. "And I know these days we are always running a massive surplus of Republic Credits, so why don't we start offering Insurance to third parties for their ships, goods, or whatever else in the surrounding sectors at cost. And if they are HPI citizens, offer it at dirt cheap rates, below cost even. This should help promote economic activity in the region outside the company."

"We could also start offering life insurance, and protection services for individuals traveling to planets deemed safe enough. We already do this to a degree with our renting of HPI droids on Tatooine, but we could expand this to space we frequent with our transports." PA said getting into the idea.

"HA! That's a good idea." he said, really getting into the topic. "We could offer various packages of protection, some with escalation insurance, and the number of droids offered so on. Limit their coverage to certain planets deemed safe enough, with extensions to allow them to go to slightly less safe worlds for a price." he said with a smile. "Insurance for ships would also give us much more reason to be active in Republic space with anti-piracy fleets, as we can claim the pirates are directly hurting our business by attacking ships being insured by us."

"It will also give us a good use for some of the droids we are producing as it is becoming troubling to find enough places to put them to work or guard." PA replied happily to him causing him to be a bit surprised, he hadn't realized their production was that high on Droids.

"To summarize, we essentially just keep doing what we have been doing, just a lot more. Because whatever groups that are working behind the scenes seem to be getting annoyed with us, so whatever we have been doing is working to piss them royally off. Ah bloody hell, I forgot to bring up the growing 'separatist' issue I discovered on Sullust." he said seriously, sitting up straight again for this conversation after just remembering his talk with Kap.

It wasn't a fun conversation with PA, as they discussed the impacts of the growing movement on Sullust, on their business, and the growing sentiment in Outer and Mid Rim planets. How they should handle it and started to brainstorm a few plans on how to handle various situations. As PA said, 'It's important to have the proper number of contingencies.' It was a long discussion that took most of the day, but when he finally went to sleep that night, he felt a lot better than he had in a long time. As if the future was looking for a lot brighter, and his place in it that much more secure. Ironic to feel that way just after an assassination attempt.


"Hmmm, gravely concerning this is." Yoda said to Windu in the private meditation chamber they were using for their discussion.

"A little more than just concerning I would think. This is proof he has been holding back seriously from the Jedi Order, and even from Qui-Gon and Anakin." he replied a little annoyed at the situation. They had just finished reviewing the video of Lord Peverell's 'transformation', possibly an illusion, and then a fight in some form of Krayt dragon or possibly flying rancor, against several shuttles and fighters.

"Always knew this, we did." Yoda replied, pointing out the obvious. "In the years since knowing Lord Peverell, proven not an enemy of the order, he has."

"I am uncertain of that assessment," he said diplomatically. "What should we do about this and the rumors of a large HPI fleet being sent to the Nal Hutta system?"

"Investigate the situation on Sullust, send a few Jedi we do." Yoda replied after thinking for a bit. "And increased surveillance on Lord Peverell, agree with your request I do." Yoda said, opening one eye to look at him. "Once done with his important mission, send Qui-Gon to question Lord Peverell we should."

"Agreed. We could also get Padawan Skywalker to acquire us some of the information we seek?" he offered up already feeling he knew the answer.

"Too soon that is. Can only use such a method once. Betray young Skywalker's trust we would." Yoda finished before they both went back to meditating for some time on the issue.


"Rise my apprentice." his master spoke out over their secure holo channel. "I have reviewed the sensor readings of the fleet your agent sent along. Well done in acquiring these."

"Thank you, my master, and my recommendation?" he asked, interested in seeing what the Master of the Dark Side of the Force thought.

"Unlikely to succeed. Lord Peverell has too many close connections within the Republic, but you have my permission to attempt to have him join the CIS when it is finally formed. However, the primary plan will be to increase efficiency in the droid foundries and shipyards to give you enough of a force to deal with HPI if it comes to that." His master elegantly spoke his answer. He and his master had built several faults and inefficiencies into the various droid and ship building operations planned for the coming war. There was a real fear the Republic would be too quickly swept aside early on and their plan failing outright if the CIS possessed too strong of an army too quickly. Hence hamstringing production in many ways.

"What if HPI joins the CIS? Having that many extra droids will make the Republic's possible collapse early in the war all that more likely. I fear we will have trouble orchestrating a believable offense with those additions and not show our hand." he replied, seeing a few holes in the plan.

"It won't be too hard to promote incompetence into the right spots to create some spectacular losses. Fear not my apprentice, and ensure my will is done!" his master ordered.

"Your will, will be done." he said just before his master ended the holocall. He had been hoping for some time to convince HPI and Hadrian Peverell to join with his growing movement, but to him it was too early to tell whether HPI would join or not. However, the time was coming where systems were going to have to make a choice, and the years of planning were coming to fruition. Thankfully he had avoided some punishment by not turning over that ridiculous fabricated video made on Sullust that had been spreading around about Lord Peverell. How absurd.


Womppppboooom echoed out through the sky causing him and Mario to look up from where they were scanning the hillside with their Surveyor57. That was the telltale sound of a ship making a way too fast and probably a dangerous entry into the atmosphere. It didn't take long for him and his mate to see the smoking outline of a medium size ship coming in and no more than twenty more seconds before he could recognize the ship, a YT-2400 light freighter. It was one of the several pirate vessels that liked to regularly prey on their mining community here.

They sadly had a few different pirate gangs that would come around every year or so, sometimes more, and demand money for their 'protection'. The fact they had to pay protection to several independent bands who would attack them if they didn't show how much that protection was really worth. It was not an uncommon occurrence out here in the Outer Rim. If the dam Republic would do their job, then this wouldn't be an issue and they would have started prospering earlier! No wonder there had been a number of talks about tying themselves to one of those groups pushing for independence from the Republic.

The scene in the sky changed, as another ship came in right on the heels of the first. This one was not smoking, nor did it look damaged. It only took him a second before he saw streaks of green light leave the second pursuing ship and impact the first, creating more smoke and even some nice fireballs on the first ship. Now he would normally be surprised if this had not been the third similar such event in the last few months. He watched calmly with a smile as the ships got a bit closer but were thankfully not heading directly at them so there were no worries that he and Mario were in danger.

It was clear the smaller ship in the front was trying desperately to get away from the bit larger CR90 chasing it, but there was no chance that was going to happen as the CR90 almost looked like a cat that was toying with its catch. Just then the ship that he knew to belong to HPI must have hit something important as the smaller pirate vessel in the front lost all power and just plummeted to the ground like its strings had been cut causing a massive pillar of dust and smoke over the hill a way. It took a few seconds but then the sound of the crash did finally arrive with a loud banging sound and a crunch.

"Well, I think we should report that to the Foreman at least." Mario said after a few seconds.

"That would probably be a good idea, a few fools may have gotten unlucky and got caught in that crash." he said after pondering for a second.

"You had gotten any more info on what going on with HPI and the pirates?" Mario asked as they walked back to their ride to radio in the situation.

"Na, just the same info on the story as before." he said before repeating that info anyways because he knew it was what Mario wanted. "Just that a few pirates tried to get fancy and hit one of HPI's CR90s pretty hard that was doing low value solo transport to an Agri world nearby. Apparently, they succeeded in blowing it up, and it was all this group's apparent master plan to push HPI out of the area by making transporting goods not worth the cost for HPI. Drive em out with high costs. As we can see that worked out splendidly for them, HPI tripled their number of ships coming here, and got super aggressive against all the pirates." he said to his friend. That had all started just a few months ago and was the big news of the camp, and the surrounding planets in a few nearby systems.

"Hu too bad there is no new info, but I am still really glad the mining collective signed that contract with HPI, we haven't been doing so good in ages." Mario said, which he nodded back to in agreement. Things were changing in the galaxy, but everyone still needed credits to survive, that never changed, and working with HPI was putting more credits in all their pockets than ever before. Their cooperative had never been so rich, so he could not disagree at all with his friend. Hopefully the money train continued for years more, but he had a feeling things were going to get worse fairly soon.


Nal Shadda Cantina.

"I am telling you HPI has gone into hyperdrive in the last few months!" Mog said before taking another swig of his drink from his HPI theme tankard he had brought into the pub with him. "They have been going even harder against any pirates or slavers they can find. I even heard some whispers that they were hitting a few slave hubs just inside Hutt space too, no survivors though, so as to not lead back to them and piss the Hutts off."

"HA! Not just that, I heard an interesting story from my good friend Da'hem." Kulack said after slamming the table, almost knocking over the hookah filled with Cannabis that was bubbling away as their third friend, Erin, smoked. "HPI popped a fleet of 3 cruisers and a frigate out of nowhere on him and his team's small smuggler's base they had set up for themselves. A tiny thing for a team of three in a hollowed out asteroid and here was a small fleet appearing outa nowhere on them. Da'hem said they almost shit themselves in fright. Apparently, this part I believe less, but HPI searched the base, didn't take any of their contraband, and even bought some stuff they were interested in for fair prices, all before leaving like nothing happened. If I had not also heard other reports of HPI hitting a half dozen pirate way stations and bases in the last month from other friends, I wouldn't have believed it. It's a tough time these days to be in that business here in the Slice."

"Aye, some fools down at the spaceport, calling em some type of ghosts. Popping up where they don't have any business being, and ain't no one got any idea how they know where to show up in the first place. Just like you friend's story there." Erin said, having been sipping slowly from his drink in between puffs of the hookah the entire time. "And barely anyone talks about how their droids are devastating machines of war, mainly because anyone who meets them in battle is either dead or in jail somewhere for some bounties on them all the while still shitting their britches."

"Aye, I heard a few horror stories too. And then there's the Escort fleets coming and going from here to Tatooine." Mog said again, taking another big swig of his drink.

"What escort fleets? Those are just transport fleets." Kulack said.

"Aye sure, but they're also escorting other ships along, not that it's needed now that the single jump route is getting spread around. Hence escort fleets." Mog replied.

"Sure, but escorting is clearly their secondary role, so they are transport fleets and not escort fleets." Kulack said and Mog was about to reply back before Erin interrupted.

"Regardless of what we call it, that fleet is causing an economic boom in the system and tons of people are scrambling to get here. Whereas before many people were working up the funds to escape Nal Shadda, now many are struggling to get here and lock in a place before rent goes up too much." Erin said sagely, only taking a break from smoking long enough to speak.

"Ya the dirt-cheap rates HPI are charging to ship things to Tatooine from here and vice versa, and then the good rates from Tatooine to pretty much to a 1/4 of the people in the Galaxy. Add in that new shipping station they are building and are expanding over Tatooine speeding everything up. Makes it almost difficult not to be able to turn an extra buck these days." Mog said whimsically, before drinking even more.

"Pah! can we change the subject; you know I don't like talking about work related stuff at the pub." Kulack complained.

"Alright. Well have you seen that video of the dragon yet?" Mog excitedly asked Kulack.

"Not this again. No, I am not watching your stupid DGI vid." Kulack complained, taking his entire tanker and finishing it in his sadness for his idiotic friend.


"I expect you all to have better information for us today than that last poor showing. Chancellor Palpatine and several key figures in the senate have been quite interested in our results." Senior Officer Dodd Rancit said as he walked into the room causing everyone to sit up a bit straighter while the man took his seat. They were all in a clean, windowless, and spartan conference room deep within the Republic Intelligence Bureau building on Coruscant. Officer Dodd didn't even look up till he was situated before looking at the 12 other Intelligence Officers each in turn. "Now what can you tell us?" he asked the room.

"Sir, our agents on Ryloth were able to uncover a bit more information for us, as well as getting some detailed images of each of the droids and the equipment that HPI seems to be using. I had analysis done on those images." Hazfern said as he indicated the large central screens which he put those images up on. "We were also able to get some information on their capabilities, as limited as that information is. What I was mainly able to uncover was some of the financial information on the ongoing gargantuan investment and construction on Ryloth by HPI."

"Were you able to discover anything about the production of these droids?" Dodd asked, looking through the information in front of him.

"Unfortunately, the droids are all being brought to the planet from off world, and no new information on their production location, except the rumors previously reported. I was able to confirm through several contacts that none of their components are being produce on Ryloth. Not even their built-in weapons are being built in the blaster factories established on Ryloth." Hazfern said putting more information up on the screen showing droids coming into the planet from off world ships.

"Anything else pertinent to report on the weapon's factories on Ryloth before we move on?" Dodd asked another question of Hazfern.

"Not a lot that we are not already tracking, though blaster sales have been increasing quite rapidly, and HPI has started offering several different discounted packages of blasters and related equipment to UFA and official PDFs." Hazfern replied.

"And what does UFA stand for in this situation Captain? I can think of several organizations in just a few moments." Dodd annoyed, slightly ridiculed Hazfern.

"Sorry Sir, that is the United Farmers Association, it is an organization focused on farmers created by HPI that provides farmers with many different benefits and access to discounts and resources, at the cost of a nominal yearly membership fee. It seems HPI is using this organization to help promote farmers on planets they are involved in. It is a newer organization but seems to cost farmers little to be part of and comes with many immediate benefits, such as discounts on fuel and shipping rates. I am still looking into what HPI's angle on this is as it seems they are simply losing money." Hazfern replied a bit perplexed.

"I can also confirm that UFA has been a recent rapidly growing presence on every single agri world that I have been monitoring, and I was going to bring them up when it got to me." Tollume said calmly, adding more information.

"And these discounts for blasters?" Dodd asked Hazfern again.

"It seems they give a 25% discounted package for farming communities to be able to buy to protect themselves and their livestock. The offer seems successful, as my contact says many of these packages are being sold each day. It's one the angles I am looking into, that being HPI trying to get arms into the hands of as many people as possible. But nothing really concrete in that department." Hazfern answered.

"And any changes with HPI's plan for Ryloth? Public or otherwise?" Dodd asked another question while making several notes on a padd in front of him, before looking back at Hazfern.

"No large changes except for a possible increase in pace, as more resources and equipment seem to be flowing into Ryloth each day. The entire circumstances of the planet have truly changed in the last year, and HPI now is the undisputed power on the planet." Hazfern said clearly not to upset with that reality.

"I am still a little confused why the Republic is allowing HPI, a mega corporation, to come in and essentially take over a Republic World?" Tomas said clearly upset at the idea of a corporation taking over a Republic world.

"It is less of them being allowed to do anything, and simply being the first actually able to pull off any meaningful change on Ryloth in this manner." Dodd Rancit replied calmly. "There have been many attempts in the past to stamp out crime, and the pseudo slavery of Ryloth, but they have all been failures. HPI seems to be the first to actually be willing to put the investment required to fix the systems on that planet, but also the first with a seemingly workable plan. If absurdly expensive." Dodd said concisely, before checking a message he had gotten on his padd.

"HPI also has ample local support from the people of Ryloth, as they have been bringing in much needed jobs to the world." Hazfern said following up on Dodd's comment while the man was replying to the message he got. "I believe their initial expansion of production facilities on the planet was not enough to meet the demands of 8.2 billion people. So, they quickly realized that to bring about any significant positive economic change to the world they would need to expand dramatically, so they went with their current plan. As long as they can keep the credits rolling into the finance the huge endeavor, they may be quite successful." Hazfern finished excitedly.

"While 12 months ago I would have doubted HPI's ability to maintain their investment rate into Ryloth, they have clearly shown that not only do they have that cash flow to do so, but it seemingly has also not impacted any of their other expansion efforts." Kattrin said while bringing a few documents up for everyone to see. "While we have few direct numbers on financials from HPI, we do have many ways to get an idea of their operating cost by using known third party figures. Our model previously had HPI barely breaking even, if even that, due to the high operating costs of their ships and droids, and the fuel for their energy sales. Over the last few months, we have been working on updating that model and if it is more accurate then HPI should have no issues continuing their rate of investment into Ryloth." Kattrin answered

"Keep up the good work, getting a better idea of HPI's financials will be paramount to determine how to respond to some of their actions. Speaking of credits, has anyone got information on the source for HPI's fuel?" Dodd asked, clearly having finished his message.

"Inconclusive. We are tracking regular shipments to their spaceports but have limited evidence of where the fuel they are using is coming from. A small percentage is coming from open purchases on commodities markets, but little more than that, and that is mainly hypermatter and other fuel types they are selling onto others. We are still looking into it, but we expect it is one of their off the charts systems." Derrick replied calmly.

"Seeing as I asked to be informed immediately if serious progress on discovering those systems had been made, then I am assuming none has?" Dodd asked the room.

"We have been able to triangulate a number of hyperspace jumps, and it seems these systems are in the area near to Tatooine, but the area they could be in is large, and encompasses many tens of thousands of stars. Besides that, sir, we have made minimal progress on finding those systems." Derrick answered emotionlessly again.

"My efforts to get an agent onboard a ship headed to one of those systems has also been an utter failure." Tomas said clearly frustrated. "It seems that only droids are present on those ships when they transit to their factory worlds. Though I have confirmed that the planet Avalon is real. Though the one in question seems to be a planet near Tatooine named after the home world of Lord Peverell and not his actual home world, all evidence I can find is that it is in fact the major production hub for HPI." Tomas said with a bit more positive emotion.

"Good, and I am assuming ongoing efforts to put trackers have been giving limited results?" Dodd asked.

"Correct. Annoyingly HPI seems incredibly adept at finding any trackers on their vessels going to their worlds. They also use only specific vessels that transit to and from many of the hidden factory worlds and rarely anywhere else, so opportunities to plant the trackers is scarce to start with. Other factory locations like on Tatooine and Ryloth, HPI doesn't even care to hide. Even the 'hidden' underground production facility built under their HQ on Tatooine is an open secret amongst the entire population. Their use of proprietary droids, and no organics is proving to be incredibly difficult to circumvent to get one of our agents inside their operations headed to the secret production facilities. We can't send in droids, and we can't recreate HPI's droids without it being an obvious fabrication, and all attempts at gaining one of their droids and successfully reprogramming it have failed." Tomas said bitterly, as it seemed he was taking anything HPI did personally.

"Understood. Keep up your efforts. HPI will slip up somewhere and we will get the information we seek. It's just a matter of time." Dodd said before looking towards another member of their group. "How about HPI's ships and the fleet that was seen over Nal Hatta?"

"Well, we have quite a bit of information on some of their ships, but one interesting tidbit I was able to confirm is that their ships are droid controlled. And I don't mean simply piloted by droids, but have droid brains installed directly in them that can pilot the ship itself without any additional aid. As to the new ship model we have some information on that mostly coming from Governor Tarkin's interactions. As we can see from this image of the fleet over..." Qaw said as he started going over what they knew late into the night.


End of 25 BBY

Harry could only laugh to himself as he felt the admittedly powerful Force presence of another 'guest' to come by Tatooine to ostensibly keep a close eye on him and his company's moves. There were several non-force sensitives too, but each of the Jedi was easy to pick out as soon as they arrived in the system. The fact that they never came to see him and kept a bit of a distance but not too far away clearly spelled out their entire purpose of being here. It seemed the fact that he had PA put together a fleet months ago to escort Jabba and Rotta to Nal Hatta and the incident on Sullust had ruffled a few more feathers than he had been expecting. PA said there was a constant stream of intelligence operatives coming through Tatooine now from a hundred different organizations and groups.

There had been no chance he was going to let Rotta go that deep into the criminally strewn Hutt space without a proper escort. The little tyke was honestly adorable, and had grown on him tons, especially after he started using cleaning charms on him. And during these times it was better to be safe than sorry. It wasn't like they didn't have the spare fleet assets. He chuckled thinking about the uproar the first fleet created, and the even larger one the others created.

Sadly, one thing that was a downer was that Anakin was getting more distant over the years. Or should he say, the teenager got a lot less time to visit but he was the same old kid when he was on planet with them, if a bit more confident and surer of himself. Cough, cocky. Cough. It was just that it seems pressure from members of the order for Anakin to distance himself from his family is getting to him and he is more reluctant to come by now.

The kid truly wanted to prove himself to his peers. Anakin did still call his mom often, and him as well but far less so, so there was still that. Anakin did seem to be keeping extremely busy these days, primarily following around Obi-Wan while Qui-Gon was helping the order with some super secret mission that Harry wasn't allowed to know about that was keeping the man busy. Thankfully Anakin seemed to have found a firm friendship with his mentor in Obi-Wan and the two got along quite well, so he knew Anakin was not lonely or in bad hands.

Tatooine on the other hand had become even busier, there had been a large influx of population over the last decade and even with his company's presence, and creation of many industries creating millions and millions of jobs, there always seemed to be an ever-growing demand for jobs here on Tatooine. Like always they approached the issue by looking at several of their 'problems' and trying to see if one solution could work for multiple ones. In this case HPI's huge demand for torpedoes and missiles for space combat had been ballooning recently especially with their increased use over the last few months and stockpiles were running low. So, they started building and expanding several dozen weapons foundries here on Tatooine designed specifically for missiles and torpedo production.

The other industry he started exploring in his own spare time were smart mines. It was something that could be useful in trying to cut someone's access to a hyperplane without stationing a huge fleet there to stop any incoming ships. It was honestly not something he had expected to need, but here he was so he had designed a smart mine using a bunch of his new tech skills he had developed over the years and his tried-and-true signature runic fuel cap. All only in a few days.

One of the core features of the mines were that they were extremely stealthy when not fully powered up, to the point that while technically visible to the naked eyes, they were not going to be picked up on even some of the most powerful sensors till far too late if at all. Once powered they would still be hard to pick up, often still too late, but still much easier to spot in comparison. This was all done through advanced sensor dampeners, an electronic warfare module, and covering the mine in a special sensor dispersing material.

Each mine was propelled by his newest model of Ion engines making them little speed demons with 130 MGLT. They all had their own simplified version of the DCU and had a secure connection to a single supplementary drone that was fully cloaked using a stygian cloaking system. These supplement drones were designed to be deployed with a swarm of mines to offer them a connection to a segregated portion of the G-NET to continuously stay in contact and be directed. They would hopefully be recovered after any mines were used up, as making more mirrors for G-NET connections was a pain and Stygian crystals were not cheap or in huge abundance.

Thankfully they had figured out a cheat recently for the mirrors, and that was to enchant two extremely large mirrors, then place them together and cut them with a precise laser into tiny mirror pairs just large enough for a high bandwidth data link via light to be established. While a larger mirror did take slightly longer and substantially more magic to make than smaller ones, they sped up the whole process to a stupid degree and the droid who had accidently discovered the process was richly rewarded by PA. And he had not asked any more details how the droid had been rewarded; he had a feeling he didn't want to know.

The mines all came with a robust sensor package to pick up targets and an extremely powerful explosive charge. They would be deployed in low power mode, and then when detecting a target, activate themselves before zooming towards their target and exploding on contact with the ship. It was fairly simple, but the mines could automatically spread targets amongst themselves when confronted with multiple targets in a fleet. They were nothing crazy, but were another important weapon in his arsenal, and had created many more jobs as he set up a few foundries for producing them here on Tatooine. While their factories were mostly automated, there were still many roles that could be filled by people instead of droids or computer systems. Quality control was a great area for people to work in.

Finally, the last major change happening on Tatooine was him and PA correcting a bit of a hole they had when they were 'setting up' their city here and others. That being the lack of places for people to get educated outside the G-Net. Even worse was higher education, so they had, alongside building many schools for younger people, started construction of a massive university city in one of the deserts here on Tatooine. It was going to have institutions and academies for all sorts of fields, including a Naval academy as there was more than a little demand by HPI citizens, how crazy of a thought is that to be able to serve some role in defending their homes. Tuition was free, one simply had to pass certain competency tests, and scholarships and grants were also available for the higher achievers.

Of course, changes in the system were not simply happening on the planet, oh no the changes in space could easily be called far more significant. With PA no longer bothering to try and keep a lower profile she had started construction on several defensive installations in orbit around the planet. They were actually designed by some other HPI scientist but were using many of the components he had developed for his ships, only modified for station use. The scientist clearly had taken a lot of inspiration from the Golan Defense Platforms found over several core worlds when designing HPI's own.

However, what was most impressive to Harry was the large logistical station overhead that was planned to dwarf any of the defensive installations. Its final size was designed to be about 12 km tall mushroom looking station and was being built from the bottom of the stalk up. This meant that some of the lower segments were already online and aided in transferring goods between hyperspace capable ships and transports designed specifically for use in a star system. It all helped transfer goods from one ship to another, including from hyperspace capable vessels to hyperspace capable vessels. If he was being at all realistic with himself, he was a massive nerd to be most impressed by of all things, a giant parcel sorting mushroom looking station. But the engineering and logistics that went into its design was so darn cool!

Ignoring the Tatoo system changes for a while, the other major changes over the last while was that his joke about Avalon being no Kuat drive yards was coming back to bite him in the ass years later. While the planet certainly still had a long way to go till it could be put in the same category as Kuat Drive Yards, it had come a long way since his first visit. There were so many shipyards now producing ships of so many sizes it was impossible to count without computer aid. The production of ships had only increased lately, with PA's plans for rapid expansion on coverage within closer sectors. Apparently to her it was embarrassing that they weren't shipping to every planet colonized that didn't bar HPI entrance in 36 sectors we served.

The fact that they were no longer purchasing ships from KDY was a huge incentive for them to increase their ship production, and PA and R3 have never stopped since. Even the defense fleet around Avalon was impressive, containing several of the newly produced Excalibur class supercarrier, a 1200m (3900 ft) long star destroyer. Initially based off of the ancient Harrower-class Star Destroyer design but drastically changed and named after the legendary sword from Earth's 'history'. Tatooine was not the only planet to get orbital defense either.

Naboo had also got another influx of jobs as the HPI's armor business was taking off well. The Sullust government had ordered sets of armor for their entire Defence Force, and he had tried not to smile too much at PA when she had told him that news. Several tens of millions of suits of armor were nothing to scoff at and was going to keep their factories on Naboo busy for a few years. So of course, PA expanded them too, clearly seeing a business opportunity.

Not only that but they had started producing and selling armor plates for ships and other things along those lines to other companies looking to outsource that production to someone more specialized. HPI was making so many credits these days it made him laugh to think about when he had been religiously tracking his finances to make sure he had enough for everything. Counting each droid he bought, every credit spent. These days it was more a balancing act with incoming credits with outgoing expenses, or well who was he kidding they had way more credits coming in than real expenses going out, so they had been spending credits on several frivolous wants rather than needs and stocking piling materials, and that was even with them accounting for something like 25% of CEC's sales these days, an unheard of...

His thoughts were interrupted by him realizing the Force presence that he had been tracking in the back of his head for the last hour since they entered the system was for once actually seemingly coming to the main HPI HQ. He tracked the presence's movement through the facility and was quickly sent a message that he had a Jedi guest insisting on meeting him. Intrigued he decided to meet with this guest in his lounge off his workshop and quickly sent a reply message. He finished up describing the rune on the crystal piece he had been working on for one of his magical projects, a dream he has had since Earth that only expanded since arriving in this galaxy and learning more about the Force or Magic. He put the crystal away carefully in a protective case before getting up.

Walking down the hallway to his lounge area attached to his workshop, he was happy to see his guest had arrived before him. But her appearance blew him away and made him pause for a fraction of a second before entering the room. He was not one to be prone to being shocked by others' beauty, but this woman looked like an Elf that walked right out of a Tolkien book. With otherworldly beauty that could only be gained by means through Magic or the Force. And amazingly she had no allure like a Veela. Just a dirty blond bombshell, who was clearly a powerful Force user maybe 30 years old looking.

As he walked into the room, the woman got up and approached him, putting him a bit on alert. However, the Force gave him no warning of danger and she was looking at his face in interest and not with the eyes of someone going to attack. She got up right and close to him and before he could really do anything she pulled his head down and started kissing him passionately. He would be a liar to say he didn't default into kissing her back and so it took nearly fifteen seconds before he pulled back in a daze.

"Why, who?" he sputtered out, still shocked at what had occurred. He had NOT been expecting that from a Jedi and it was clear this woman was a Jedi due to her attire.

"To ensure a brighter future for the Jedi order, and to kiss the man the Force showed me that I would fall in love with and who would give me the children I always dreamed of having." The woman said to him stepping back and beaming up at him. She really did look like an Elf, with the pointy ears and even the ethereal beauty spoken of by Tolkien. A bit short though, maybe 153cm (5foot). "I am Jedi Master Fay; it is nice to finally meet you." she said earnestly to him but taking a step back to respect his space.

"Ah yes, nice to meet you too. I am Hadrian Peverell, but most of my close acquaintances call me Harry." he said automatically to her as he tried to unravel what she just said. This was going to be a long day, wasn't it?


"Your holy eminence, I have excellent news!" Garoo said as he quickly approached his holiness as he was looking out over the area where the incident happened. Where their god had taken his divine form and smote his enemies from Sullust.

"Excellent Garoo! I knew I could trust you with that task. Now what task specifically do you have good news about?" His Holiness asked him while looking at him with a big smile and patting him on the shoulder making him smile at how approachable someone so devout could be. "Is it about acquiring this land here for a new sanctuary?"

"Well, no, but I am happy I can report that while we could not buy the site of our Lord's transformation, we were able to purchase the land underneath where the battle took place!" he said happily, pleased with the quick results he was able to get on that mission of importance for the faith.

"Ah fantastic. While it would have been great to be able to build a holy site where our Lord transformed, having the land below his triumphant battle where he rid Sullust of those evil doers is just as good. If it's not about that, then what news do you have?"

"As you know, over the past few months the numbers of the faithful coming to the temples and sanctuaries to pray and take part in some of the rituals has rapidly increased. Along with more than doubling our visitors, donations have also tripled, unfortunately the large influx of new members has been straining our capacity, so temples need to be expanded and new ones built." he said happily to his holiness.

"Yes yes, I am aware. It is a great time to be alive and a member of the church." His holiness said happily.

"Well, the exciting news is that we were able to secure a loan quite easily for expansion of our various holy grounds. A financial organization called DMU was very happy to loan us the funds we requested at quite favorable terms. These credits will allow us to easily expand the reach of the Church and the quality of service we can provide to our Lord's followers!" he replied happily, extremely excited, as his holiness says, to be alive during a time like this. A time where their god had physically manifested on their plane and had been literally walking around the very area he was in now.

"You see Garoo we are constantly being blessed by our Lord. This is delectable news and will bring about a resurgence of the church on Sullust!" His holiness said happily before looking out over the expanse of volcanic strewn land. "Now how are plans progressing on opening our first church off world and on Tatooine?" His holiness asked, looking at him with excited expectations. An expectation he wasn't going to let down. Thankfully he had good news on this endeavor too!


"I am so excited that that you and your wife chose to join us on this project! And congratulations on your recent wedding!" Lerla said to the two new employees as they got out of their transport. HPI had been headhunting many thousands of top professionals in their fields to come and work for them on any number of projects for several years now. None had been so sought after as the man before her, one Galen Erso graduate of the Brentaal Futures Program and recipient of the Kuat Systems Engineering Medal, the Ashgad Prize, and the Roche Foundation Prize. All prodigious prizes of which any single one would be an incredible achievement. Someone who's scientific career Lerla had already been following for a few years even if he had yet to graduate. "My name is Lerla, and you have already been introduced to PA." She indicated the PAM droid beside her.

When Galen had let known that he was not interested in going into the military or government like most of his peers, and instead wanted to work on crystal-based power generation for civilian uses, she had got on PA like a Rancor in heat to put together a COMPELLING offer for him to come work for HPI. And here the man was, she was still blown away they managed to get him working for them even with their generous offer, he was a genius among geniuses if his papers he had published were anything to go by. Hence her excitement at getting him to work with HPI and to see some of his results.

"Yes. Thank you." the plain looking man said as they approached where she was standing.

"Yes, your offer was quite generous and hard to turn down. Thank you for also making the accommodations that Galen requested." Lyra Erso replied much more warmly and shook Lerla's hand. "I understand you are the Head of Research and Development for HPI?" she asked.

"Yes, though thankfully much of the management load is taken over by PA here, so I am able to still head up my own R&D team and spend most of my time in the lab." she replied happily to the woman sharing in her warm personality before turning back to Galen when he started speaking.

"We were quite surprised by the offer, and it was one of the first we received." Galen said having been looking around a bit. They were in a walled secure research facility made by HPI for several of their projects, but it was going to primarily house the one headed by Galen. Right now, though it was a simple building that housed a large lab and several fabrication workshops, nothing too fancy. "I will have to apologize as I keep quite busy so I will admit to not having heard of HPI before the offer came in." Galen said honestly to them. "The more I looked into the company the more I liked it and the more interesting HPI became. It also became apparent that HPI was a growing player in the field of energy production, selling energy to small and large customers alike at fair and even sometimes called cheap prices."

"Are you aware that many of you customers are quite free with their praise of your company online, on both your founder's ingenious G-NET, the mechanism of which I am still trying to work out, and on holonet equivalent sites? It says a lot about the company that I am going to trust with the technology I want to develop." Galen went on as he seemingly had been working on what to say for some time, as the man didn't seem like the type to normally be so talkative.

"I don't blame you for not knowing of HPI before the offer as we are primarily situated out here in the Outer and Mid Rim, and only the customer reports brought to my attention are those directly requiring R&D time to fix." she replied to the man.

"Following the unfiltered online reviews is something I feel allows HPI to be more responsive to customer requirements and therefore deliver a higher value product to customers at reduced costs to us. So, I watch the reviews quite closely." PA started and Lerla was worried she was going to go into one of her deep dives on the economy her and Harry got into. "I also would not classify our rates as cheap. While yes there is a small minority of planets we do service at a loss, HPI feels it is an investment into the planet's economy, our brand, and often enables us to profit more from other services we offer to those same planets. G-NET is one of the creations of Lord Peverell, my creator, and is one such example of a service we can offer in addition to energy sales being sold at a small loss to make up for any financial deficits." Lerla coughed to stop PA there as she felt this was a Sarlacc pit they could fall down if she didn't interrupt her droid friend.

"Fascinating, do you think there is a chance we can meet with Lord Peverell?" Lyra asked nicely, seemed interested and saved Lerla from having to change the subject. "It would be nice to meet the man who created something that has stumped my lovely husband so much, and to meet the person we will be working for the foreseeable future." she said happily while embracing Galen pulling him to her side.

"Absolutely! That should not be a problem at all. I will invite you to have dinner with us sometime in the near future." Lerla said before realizing what she had just had possibly implied, and from Lyra's raised eyebrow it was clear she caught the slip. Whereas Galen seemed oblivious. It wasn't that her relationship was being kept secret, it was just mainly that she liked to stay professional while at work, when she could, and so few people knew she was in a romantic relationship with Harry.

"Wonderful!" Lyra smiled back happily looking around the compound.

"I was wondering if this building was the entire site assigned to my team and what is with the security around the facility?" Galen asked her and PA, but she decided to let PA answer this one.

"This building and this large open area are assigned to you to do with as you want. And if we run out of space, we can always expand the facility. We didn't want to assume what you want and wished to allow you and your wife a say in how your other labs, workshops, offices, and testing areas were built. As such the initial building phase to fully equip your team to your standard will not be done out of your budget and be covered by the greater HPI research and development budget." PA said happily while indicating with her small arm at the large amount of undeveloped area around the building.

"As to the security, it is mainly to ensure the safety of employees working here and the security of the several projects being developed in this facility. Some of the other ones require more security than yours." PA said to the man who seemed to be averse to security or the military. "One of the other teams working out of here is actually working on one of our large-scale shield projects. One of which has newly been installed on this site and is one of the first models of that shield developed right here. They are still improving and scaling it up." PA said alluding to the project based on the Gungan theater and city shields.

"I was hoping we could actually discuss today the full-scale site you want to be constructed as a test bed reactor for any future developments. We were hoping to get its construction underway soon nearby here if you thought it prudent?" Lerla asked, interested in what the two thought. Though it seemed the questions had surprised Galen but caused him to quickly put on a smile while glancing at his wife.

"Apologies, I had believed we would need to make some progress first before discussing putting down the foundation for anything on that scale. Most of the more detailed proposals we got were going to plan on building a test site somewhere they had room and the need, and only after we made some promising progress in the lab." Galen answered back, he seemed to be an overly honest man, and that is something she knew Harry would love about him. "The main reason we accepted the offer from HPI was the large budget promised, the small supply of Kyber crystals, and the open-endedness of my mandate. I am surprised you have taken my counter proposal for this project so seriously already." Galen said look at her critically causing her to smile, before PA laughed.

"Ha! According to my calculations there is a severely low chance HPI will lose out on investing in you and your wife. And it is only logical that we allow the person who knows the topic and material best to lead the direction of the project Dr Orso. There is a reason we rigorously protect the patent rights of our employees and offer very good profit share on any patent with those who develop them. This ensures they are properly incentivised and keeps them working with HPI long into the future." PA replied happily. "This project is quite far below average risk for HPI investments. So, I hope to be working with you and your wife long into the future." PA said happily. Lerla felt PA's love for making money, but more so making HPI successful, was just so adorable. Hopefully they would finish their personal secret project soon, they were almost to the point where they needed to recruit Dobby for some aid with the magical aspects.

"Then we will make sure to strive not to waste Lord Peverell's credits or trust." Lyra said seriously.

"Yes, let us hope this is a start to a long prosperous relationship that will lead to a cheap sustainable clean source of energy for the whole galaxy." Galen said even more seriously than his wife.


Shmi was coming home a bit early from her office, after having completed a few deals. Harry had sent her a message, asking her if she could finish up early so here she was. She heard a conversation going on as she moved into the family apartments. Drawn to the voices she went immediately to the lounge area intrigued, as one of the voices was clearly female, and didn't belong to any woman she recognized. Certainly not Lerla, who she knew she was busy this afternoon and evening with an important new addition to her department. As she approached, she caught the middle of their conversation.

"..So the Force only communicates with you when you or something you care for is in danger, or when you require something?" The woman asked with a smooth voice, and clear intrigue.

"Yes, it does not communicate or direct me in the way you describe it doing for yourself or other Jedi. Though it does seem eager to respond to any of my requests and has yet to lead me astray." Harry replied, seemingly also interested in the conversation.

"Incredible. To me it seems that the Force wants you to be doing exactly what you wish to do, and only seeks to aid you in your efforts. The Force clearly believes you are special and only confirms my own decision to come here. From what I can observe it looks to me the Force is embracing you, almost cuddling with you." The woman replied excitedly. Shmi decided it was time to enter, as she was certain both Force users had already detected her presence, and this seemed like a good time to interrupt.

"That is just because Harry is special. Even if he won't admit it most of the time." she said with a smile loving the blush she caused to grow on her husband's face. She still loved that she could embarrass him and cause him to be flustered, it made her heart soar. However, most of her attention as she walked in was taken by the gorgeous Jedi who was sitting in the lounge area quite close to Harry.

The woman had silky smooth and flowing dirty blond hair. An Oval face with skin that was clean and immaculate. She would be envious of the makeup and blemish free skin if Harry hadn't also provided her with creams that did the same. Frankly it was hard to tell the woman's age, but she would guess around or just below 30. Mostly she was just shocked at how beautiful this woman was, and if she was not sure of Harry's love, she may have been one to get jealous. She thankfully had no fear of that, as she was certain of Harry's love. So, she finished walking into the room before Harry got up and introduced her.

"This is my wife, Shmi Skywalker Peverell. Mother to Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi Padawan Learner." Harry said, taking her hand and kissing her warmly in greeting. "And this is Jedi Master Fay, she is.." Harry said getting slightly flustered for a fraction of a second which had her smiling, wishing to tease him some more as clearly something was going on here.

"I am hopefully a new prospect for joining this growing family." Fay said while getting up and embracing her warmly before sitting back down.

"Oh, Harry, I didn't think you would take the initiative without me pushing you." she said, taking his arm and sitting him down between her and the Jedi Master. "Now tell me how you met?" getting the biggest blush she had ever seen on Harry's face.

"I was given several visions about Harry over the last two years while I worked to conclude a situation on the planet I was on. In one of the visions, it showed me falling in love and getting married to him, in another it showed me supporting him in the political arena, and one of my favorite visions showed me handing him our firstborn child for the first time, and so much more. The force has never given me such clear visions on any single subject before. Nor so many. So, I had to search him out. Which was not hard with the Force's direction." she said with a smile and then a smirk at the end.

Shmi was taken aback a bit before starting to almost cackle on the inside, it seemed the Force agreed with her that Harry needed to be having many children with many women to ensure that his abilities continue on in this galaxy for many generations to come. She was about to say it but was interrupted by Harry putting a finger over her mouth.

"No, don't say it! I know you well enough to know what you're thinking." Harry said sure of himself. He was so cute when he got like this, it made her smile under his finger. "And for the matter of fact, I have not agreed to anything yet." he said but she knew it was only a matter of time, so did supposedly the Force. She would get her babies from this man! And babies of his from other women too! She had already lined up a successor to take over the sales department and was planning to devote most of her time to raising all their children. Something she had not had the opportunity to do with Anakin due to their situation as slaves.

"I am interested in knowing what Lady Peverell is thinking." Fay said, backing her up with a smile. It was nice seeing the family possibly growing. She just couldn't wait for more, now onto just convincing Harry that it was time to start having children.

"Call me Shmi." she replied. Just then a PAM droid flew into the room.

"Harry, Sugi is waiting for you on channel 3 and Lerla sent a message saying she was done with her new acquisitions and was coming soon." PA's voice said coming out of the droid. Harry looked at the droid a bit flummoxed, which caused her to laugh again, and decide to save her man.

"PA put Sugi through, we should see what she has to say. And can you get the Elves to prepare a meal for us all." she said to the droid happily. It was nice seeing the family growing. She just couldn't wait for more, now onto just convincing Harry that it was time to start having children.


A/N: Well there we are, I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, things are really starting to take off as you can see. I was not too sure on a few decisions I took in this chapter but hopefully everyone enjoyed it. I will need to take some time before the next chapter to really do some research on the upcoming clone wars and the years leading up to. I also gotta watch the new Star War shows, even if just for ideas and settings stuff. As you can tell my ability to name things is still shit LOL.

As I said at the beginning, I only have 1 beta and this time around he was not able to beta this chapter, so it really put the fire under me to get a few more betas. So if you are interested in Betaing this story or another of mine, please send me a message and I will select a few people to add as betas, but will probably take me a few months to get back to people.

As always people, thank you for reviewing and thank you all for your reviews on the last chapter, I enjoyed reading them all! Even the angry ones :D