Paradise, Collab with Sep and Enalais
When the droid came and ushered him away, he followed silently. When he entered the room himself and Koren started speaking both about Alderaan which to him seemed like a subtle insult. “Alderaan was unfortunate business, were I in command things would be different. I only saw glimpses of it during the clone wars, I wish I could of set foot on it.” He sighed, that wasn’t a lie. While he idolized the Emperor, and Tarkin. Anything having to do with Vader left a sour taste in his mouth. “I also apologize for Moff Taurus, he couldn’t make it. So in his stead let me offer anything within my power I can do. Credits, slaves, ships, my help, and if you want Taurus himself you can have him but I fear he’s probably not much physically nor can he dance.” He laughed, a rare joke from the Orro was still a joke. “But in all seriousness I have come for information and am prepared to offer you whatever you need in exchange.” He looked at the man in front of him, awaiting a reply.
Koren waved his hand. “Taurus is your business, and a sign of business that you need to deal with yourself. There’s discontent in the fragments of the Empire all over Hutt Space, even within your own faction. There’s only six Moffs left in Hutt Space, that number has halved since Endor-” He paid careful note not to explicitly mention the death of the Emperor. Koren signalled to the drink opposite his as Orro moved to sit down. “- and will continue to do something unless someone pulls them together. Of course I’d rather it was you, you’re a reasonable man.” He shrugged, there was nothing wrong with a bit of free advice. “In terms of your offer, you know I don’t use slaves. You can’t trust them to keep a secret to save their lives, a paid happy worker is a lot more efficient when you have the funds to do so. Something the Empire really should have capitalized on. After all, the Empire has history with malcontent slaves, not to say the Separatists didn’t. If you’re offering ships, you could probably spare those nice new cruisers that Taurus gave you, you wouldn’t be able to staff them anyway.”
He took a sip of his own drink. “Now that you’ve bribed me to be in a good mood, what is it you’re after?”
The man took a sip of his drink, he savored the taste of it and thought about how his host had good taste before moving on. “You want them? They are yours of course. One for the inconvenience that was Moff Taurus, the other for your bit of information which I am most thankful for I fear for my fellow Moff’s with you in this sector of space. But that’s not what I’m after. You see my men don’t like fighting other imperials anymore than I do, I need information on the New Republic.” He scowled after saying that as much as he hated saying it calling them rebels at this point was, inadequate. “For this information, I would be happy to provide you a crew who could train anybody you need on the operation of those ships until you don’t need them anymore of course, as well as my services on things you might need a...” He paused. “Heavier hand on, as long as they don’t interfere with imperial business I mean.” He sat back in his chair, and took a drink. Letting what he just said sink in.
“I appreciate the offer of military assistance, however I don’t tend to go on the offensive. The crew is also appreciated but unnecessary, the Arquitens-Class has been in service since the Clone Wars. They’re a relatively simple model to figure out. The two ships will be sufficient for now, however you need to be more specific in terms of your request for information. The ‘New Republic’ as you call it-” Orros words, not Korens. “- Is almost in as many places as the Empire is these days. Though I presume that what you’re after is something you can rally your fellow Imperials around, perhaps as a show of power to take some form of leadership? It’s not unheard off.” He took his own drink swirling the glass in his hand, the brown liquid moved around the glass. Forming patterns that were entertaining to watch.
“Also you must remember that in order to appear strong, you need to get your house in order and fear tactics-” Koren shrugged. “-They aren’t going to be all that it takes nowadays. Before Endor, well… there was no real alternative to the Empire. Now there is, people don’t feel like the Empire is the only option anymore. Just something to consider, as having New Republic to fight isn’t going to solve all your problems.”
Jacsen nodded. “I wish to show the other Moff’s that I have the bests interests of the Empire, and defeating our common enemy seems to be the way to do it. A show of force for any of the Moff’s who turn their back to the real empire, something to show the New Republic that we are here to stay, and a rallying cry to show all the Moffs in this sector of space that joining me won’t be misplaced.” He took a drink. “I can’t go to the other Moffs and ask them to join me. A lot of these men quite like their power and them standing down is like admitting defeat, and I very well can’t go to war with them it’s a waste of life. I was lucky with Taurus, but the others I won’t be so lucky with.” He sat forward in his seat. “So that’s why I need you. If the New Republic has their hands in everything now, then they might be in hutt space. And I can’t have them wooing the hutts now can I?”
“Well no, you can’t. Though I find it far more likely that they’d end up financing Ciphers little pop up group. After all the Rebels never got along with the Hutt Cartel. Cymoon, Grakkus. There’s a very tough relationship between the two groups, not to mention they’re much likely to work with the underdog group.” He took another long sip from his drink. “Your points about the other Moffs are well made however, I’d also suggest improving the infrastructure of your own sector and the improvement of the lives of your people. Make them happy and you’ll succeed. Others will soon follow. In terms of the New Republic, I’m actually appalled at your intelligence network.” He keyed a button on the arm of his chair and a hologram appeared above the table of a New Republic fleet.
“They’re already here.”
Jacsen frowned and polished off his drink basically gulping it down. “I guess with the other Moffs I’ve been paying attention elsewhere. Your ideas are great and don’t worry with my rule my people are already happy, but with the New Republic here I fear we are going to have a war of attrition once again.” He sighed and thought back to the combat. Rebels striking from the shadows then disappearing again, the inability to fight a enemy who used guerrilla tactics due to the massive bureaucracy that was the empire. Maybe it was time to fight fire with fire, but at that moment he realized where he was and that he had been silent for too long. “Then I’m going to need your help it’s only a matter of time before they seek you out. And if you help me, i’ll give you an entire fleet if you want it.” His voice was grim, and he looked at Koren his eyes seemed colder. “I have to end them…”
Koren picked up the decanter and poured Orro another drink. “Moff Orro, I’m going to be entirely honest. I don’t have a lot of time, and a fleet-” Koren shrugged. “-I suppose I could use. It could drastically increase my revenue, and I have plenty of more droids ready to go. With the bonus of already having worked out the various different programmings that I needed to do in order to have them do what needed to be done. Tell me what you want, and I’ll see if I can provide. Though if you’re looking at using me to bring an end to the
entire New Republic I’m sorry to disappoint but my sphere of influence is largely consolidated within Hutt Space. Though you should know by now how this works, ask me a specific question. I’ll state my price, and give a specific answer.”
Orro smiled. “I just want to see what I’m going up against here in the system. I will derelict a ship in hutt space, you will feed them the bit that an Imperial ship went derelict with some juicy juicy intel, and I’ll spring the trap. In return you are welcome to whatever ships I capture in that fight.” The moff folded his hands in his lap, before deciding to speak again. “You are not giving me information as much as you are feeding them misinformation, you will be rewarded for it of course.”
“No.”
“No?” Orro wasn’t bothered by his reply, but still it bugged him.
“No. I have a reputation of giving information, that is fine. People have come to accept that I sell information that I find on occasion. That’s their own fault, and I take no sides. Giving false information? No. That’s a road I’m not going down. You want information? You ask, I sell. Misinformation, I will not give.”
Orro nodded, the man had some honor after all. “Give me a location, numbers, and training. If you have them anyways, that’s all I want.” The other man sighed and drank a little bit of his drink, before looking back at Koren.
“In compensation, I want both Cruisers sitting out there. I also want any and all
Imperial Sentry Droids that were in Taurus’ possession before his imprisonment. I mean all of them, you’ve got enough staff sitting around doing nothing that you can protect your own cargo vessels. For this I’ll let you know the area that the New Republic is in as off this moment, the location of two listening posts and the rough fleet composition as well as a couple of names. I’ll give half the information now, and the other half once I’ve received full payment-” He pointed out the windows all around them. “-I’m taking the cruisers still sitting there as the down payment. The droids will be the final payment.”
This man was asking a lot of him, but to be able to unite the empire no price was too much. “You have yourself a deal.” Orro said, looking into his glass as if it somehow held the secrets of the universe and then looking back at his host. “I will uphold my end of the bargain of course.” He quickly passed his demands along to his second in command via comms and turned back to his host. “It Is done.” He stood and awaited his reply, but he knew this meeting was coming to a close.
Koren nodded and tapped something into his own datapad, a Sheathipede-Class shuttle departed towards each cruiser mere moments later. He had however been planning a boarding party anyway. “I’ll give you three pieces now. They have a listening post on Toydaria, naturally, as well as Nar Kaaga. Their fleet composition I’ll send directly to your datapad. The third piece of information-” Koren shrugged. “-Consider it more of a gift from doing business with me, and incentive to come back. I have recently discovered that a New Republic vessel crash landed on a planet, this ship was an important blockade runner, it’s cargo so important no official manifest exists. It crash landed on Dirha. From what I can tell it was damaged in an engagement with Imperial Forces outside of Hutt Space before performing an emergency hyperspace jump, through luck or coincidence it has placed it right in our back pockets.”
He gulped down the last of his drink. “That said, move fast. I’m sure there are many others, including the New Republic, interested in this information.”
Why would this man, share this kind of information with him? But if it was true he needed to act quickly. “I will get right on it, you have my thanks Koren.” The Moff stood a little straighter before grabbing his drink off the desk and gulping it down. “Such a shame, Alderaan. Would love to have an entire crate of this stuff.” He turned and walked out of the office, letting himself out of the office. As soon as he was out of the office he broke out into a dead sprint looking to find his off duty crewmen and cut the trip short.