Can One Displaced Hero Save a Galaxy?

(Chapters 103-106)

Novus Peregrine

Disclaimer: I am, very tragically, not in charge of Disney. All rights to Star Wars belong to Disney (so far as I'm aware). Likewise, My Hero Academia is the creation of Kōhei Horikoshi, not me.

Chapter 103: I Have a Bad Feeling About This

-Deep Space - Unknown Location-

Jedi Master Hallan Krintu wasn’t at all used to his particular brand of requests made to the Force getting back return that felt urgent. The Jedi Explorer Corps wasn’t normally the sort to get into major events or serious happenings. Ironically, their particular branch of the Jedi Service Corps had perhaps the greatest amount of battle experience in the entire Jedi Order, but that was entirely due to where they operated. The largest chunk of the Explorer Corps were actually Seekers, who went out to find new Force Sensitives for the Order. Yet, both the Seekers and the Corps more exploration focused activities both had a tendency to take them into the wilder parts of the galaxy. For all that they saw more conflict and adventure than most Jedi though, it was rarely urgent on the scale that the Force cared about enough to actively prod them to hurry.

Which is why, when the Force had practically slapped him in the face with a ‘get your ass moving, fool!’ the moment the veil weakened, Master Krintu hadn’t hesitated to do just that. Of course, it had still taken weeks for him to follow the convoluted urgings he got in meditation after the veil’s thinning reversed. For some reason, the Force was firm in its desire for him to not be spotted going wherever it was taking him. Now, finally, he was so close to his destination that he could feel the Force urging him on, even without meditation. It was a very odd sensation, and he had to admit that his curiosity about what he’d find when he came out of hyperspace was very nearly overpowering at this point.

Lost Jedi Relics? A foundling of great importance in danger? Some obscure world or hint about the Sith? Krintu didn’t know, but was eager to find out. Thankfully, he could feel the moment coming up and reached out for the hyperspace lever, doing his best to hit the precise moment that felt just right to his senses. Hyperspace vanished from view and he found himself…in the middle of nowhere? For long moments, he wasn’t sure he’d arrived in the right place, but then some smaller and satisfied feeling of from the Force urged him to look up. He nearly flinched when he did, finding he’d emerged so near an inactive Capital Ship, a Rendili Dreadnaught he thought, that he could practically read her hull number.

Frowning as that thought triggered another nudge from the Force, he reached for his ship’s controls. He tweaked his pitch and attitude just a bit, bringing the nose of his ship around to face the dreadnaught. A flick of one switch caused the floodlights he’d had added for just such occasions to power on, and what he saw in the next instant wasn’t a hull number, but a name, a name that caused his breath to hitch.

Katana

Jedi Master Hallan Krintu was suddenly very, very worried just why the Force thought he needed to locate the Katana Fleet, without anyone else knowing he had…

… … …

-Atar 5 – Prindaar System-

Jedi Master Rahm Kota had to admit he was impressed. Surprised too, that went without saying given what he was seeing, but certainly impressed. When the news passed on by Shaak Ti to Adi Galia, about what she’d found on Geonosis, had finally smacked some sense into the Council, they’d decided it was time to quietly check on what allies they had. That is, what few allies they had who were loyal to the Jedi Order rather than the Republic as a whole. For the most part, it was an accounting of various chapter houses, friendly Force Sects, and a few worlds that held Jedi in particularly high esteem.

Someone had remembered the Atarian Rangers and how oddly well-equipped they’d been to help with the situation at Karazak, though. Given he was one of the very few Jedi with actual military experience, gained before he joined the Jedi Order much older than normally allowed, it had made sense to send Rahm to check in with the Rangers. What he very much hadn’t expected was to discover that someone had given them a serious infusion of cash, which they’d reinvested on the advice of a few Force Sensitives among their number who were too weak or too old to have become Jedi. Not that he approved of the too old concept, given his own history, but he knew he’d been a lucky exception.

Pushing that old thought aside, he went back to being seriously impressed by what the Rangers had done with the successful investments. Who knew that a few Force Sensitives working the market would be enough to finance both a major asset and training expansion…and a shipyard complex capable of handling construction of light cruisers or repair and refitting of even larger ships. So far, the largest thing the Rangers had refit was a Munificent-class Frigate, apparently quietly acquired back when the Federation’s Trade Defense Force had been forced to downsize. They were apparently using it as a flagship of sorts to watch over the shipyard, which made a lot of sense.

Finding out that the Rangers were apparently a much larger organization than they’d once been. Not to mention that they had quite a few Defender II corvettes that they’d acquired through dealings with the Shattered Shackle, were just as pleasant surprises. Something niggling at the back of Rahm’s instincts were telling him that shipyard itself was the most important thing for some reason, though. Even if he didn’t quite yet know why.

“So, General…if you were provided with more funding, just how fast could you expand this shipyard complex? It looks like it was built with the idea of possible expansion in mind?”

The current Ranger-General, who had been showing off their expansion efforts with nervous pride, looked startled at the question. Clearly, from what Rahm could tell, the man had been afraid of being told to shutter the project, not expand it. Understandable, given the way the Jedi had handled the Rangers in the recent past.

“Uh…yes, it was built with the idea of expansion in mind. Assuming we have the credits, we could easily triple it in size within a year. It would take a pretty large quantity of credits to do it that fast, though.”

Rahm nodded, already running calculations of his own. After all, if a couple of barely Force-Sensitive people could predict stocks so well, a few Jedi who specialized in foresight could likely do it even better. With the idea of what had been found on Geonosis fresh in his mind, Rahm Kota had a bad feeling it just might be needed. Now, he just needed to figure out exactly how to sell the Council on the idea. Or, failing that, how to circumvent them and do it anyway…

… … …

Sidious drummed his fingers on his hidden throne, one of the very few expressions of his inner thoughts he allowed himself to let loose from his habitual iron control even here in his own place of power. Things were going somewhat well, keeping his actual rage to a minimum. The Jedi were, irritatingly, making more of a nuisance of themselves than he’d expected. Unlike their previous passivity, the bursts of insight they’d received when the veil thinned seemed to have stirred them into greater action than he’d thought them capable of at this point. Quite a few useful pawns had been swept up by them as they aggressively followed up on what few visions had slipped through for them. The loss of the Tarkin family and several other supporters on Eriadu was perhaps the most irritating. Though he would be able to fiddle with the results of the trials to get the more useful members of the Tarkins out of the corruption charges laid on them. The fact they would owe him even more deeply appeased his annoyance at least marginally.

The entire sequence of events was a good reminder not to underestimate his greatest enemy. The Jedi Order weren’t entirely useless, when they were properly motivated, but these minor setbacks wouldn’t be enough to truly matter in the grand scheme of things. It was too little, too late for them to stop onrushing events, even if it might slow them down slightly. Better yet, it wasn’t doing them any favors among the Republic’s halls of power. Despite several of their most renowned Jedi Masters going on ‘good will tours’ to their allies, showing far more awareness of their political peril than expected, the overall sentiment towards their Order was growing more negative. The Senate was too corrupt, with too many of those within it having every reason to fear investigation by the Jedi. They were making themselves two enemies for every one ally they soothed.

Of course, given that many of those they were targeting had Separatist leanings, they would likely gain a upswing of popularity within the Republic when the war started. That too, however, was in his favor. After all, it only would it make it easier to place them at the head of the Republic’s war machine, responsible for its inevitable and pre-determined failures. All while he could twist the narrative behind the scenes to make it seem like their aggressive actions were what had caused the crisis to renew in the first place.

More complicated were his efforts with the League.

That stupid chit Amidala had played right into his hands, again, despite her growing power base. She’d achieved the creation of an Interpol with the League of Free Stars, giving Sidious a means to start slipping agents into the bedrock of the League’s government. Her reports to him highlighting her fears that some Republic worlds might use existing treaties to break away was even more delicious. It would, after all, serve to stir the fears over the larger successionist movement. He might even push a few worlds in that direction himself, behind the scenes. It’s not like the League could grow enough to threaten his future Empire, after all. Even if they doubled in size, he would eventually crush them easily once the upcoming Civil War was over.

On the other hand, this ‘Sovereign Midoriya’ was proving to be a more capable nuisance than he’d expected. Military acumen had been a given, but his initial read on the man had been that he was a bit of a Rancor in a porcelain shop on the political side. Setting him up to blow the whistle on the Trade Federation Battleships had seemed like an easy win, one that would help push the Senate back where he wanted them. Unfortunately, his lack of direct intelligence had forced him to reassess when the man had suppressed the information instead. He seemed to have at least some level of base cunning, then. Enough to instinctively sense a trap, perhaps. Or maybe that animal of his, the Twi’lek girl that was better fit for a collar, had gotten some bare hint of it through her weak connection to the Force?

No matter, it had hardly been Sidious’ only move to get the Senate back onto the topic that mattered. Other methods to reveal the needed information organically would be slower, but more certain. More time just meant more clones and more droids to fuel the fires of war, anyway…

… … …

“Very good, initiate Ra. You truly have a gift for this.”

Kalda Ra beamed up at Master Bnar, even as the previously-ill tooka kitten happily nudged her hand. At the advice of ecologists that were attempting to revive Ossus, tookas had been imported to keep down pests. So far, very little in the way of animal life had been reintroduced, but pests were inevitable unless you had a very sophisticated starport setup, which Ossus didn’t and might never have. Semi-domesticated tookas were considered an ideal solution, as they were perfectly happy to stick around the sentients on the planet and feed on the pest problem. All while getting attention from any local who was a sucker for tooka eyes.

They, along with a few different types of domesticated livestock animals, also served a purpose for the new Ossus Academy. After all, animals got sick, and it was a lot safer and more ethical to practice Force Healing on a sick animal than on a sick sentient. Kalda was lucky enough to be one of the rare Force Users who was, apparently, extremely gifted with Force Healing. To the point that, only a month into studying here, she’d been allowed into the very first class focused on teaching healing of others instead of just yourself.

It was incredibly rewarding, as far as she was concerned. Far more so than the basic combat exercises, though she was so far doing reasonably well in those as well. The structure of the Academy as a whole was still…experimental. Everyone got certain basics, such as using Force Senses to detect life or danger. Meditation, basic telekinesis, self-healing and basic combat were other areas that everyone was being put through. That, however, tended to be where the similarity with the Jedi Order ended.

After all, virtually their entire student body were adults.

This meant that, beyond a barebones foundation, the students of the Academy could far more easily voice what they felt called towards doing. Where Jedi Younglings might virtually all think that becoming a Jedi Knight on the Guardian path was the coolest things ever and obviously the best option, as adults with already-formed personalities, most of those now training knew themselves better. Kalda was an example of that, knowing full well she wasn’t a fighter by nature, despite her species’ predator past.

So far, the rough methodology of allowing students to specialize into ‘electives,’ taking one of several sets of classes that most interested them, seemed to be working. Healing was just one of those in the set Kalda was taking, others being focused on studying the Force itself. A more esoteric set of Force branches for which Master Bnar was the most frequent teacher. She found it fulfilling, but certainly didn’t begrudge those who seemed set on more combat-focused paths. The galaxy could certain use more Guardians, in her experience.

No one seemed quite sure just what the results of letting the students self-filter to such a degree was going to be, but it certainly seemed to be producing results more quickly than the various instructors seemed to have been expecting. Though no one seemed at all sure if that was an effect of the greater age and maturity of the students, or the ability to focus first on what they were most called towards. It was one big experiment, and one Kalda Ra was happy to be part of…

… … …

For the first time in his life, Mace Windu really wanted to bang his head on an appropriate desk and ask the universe why him in a voice entirely too close to a whine. He didn’t, of course. Such would be an inappropriate reaction for the Master of the Order, or for any other Jedi Master, for that matter. Still, as he looked over the report he’d gotten from Shaak Ti, not through critical channels but more mundane ones, he had a weirdly strong compulsion to try it. That, or to shout ‘Motherfucker’ out of a sense of extreme annoyance.

Technically, the information Shaak Ti had sent along by slow courier wasn’t important, exactly.

What it was, however, was several different landmines just waiting to go off when some idiot eventually stepped on them. He fully understood why she’d sent the information along. Not just a report, but also a physical package containing some samples and copies of data for First Knowledge. He was however, absolutely, positively, not looking forward to explaining that there was apparently now a Sith, as in the species, running around with the League of Free Stars. He was looking forward even less to the reaction of everyone when it inevitably leaked that she was also from one of the old Sith Empires, even if she apparently wasn’t a Dark Sider.

Frankly, it was a complication that was absolutely going to cause him migraines. Hopefully, the data on a lost section of Jedi/Sith history and the personal accounts from someone who’d lived through it would be enough to placate First Knowledge, at least. He just hoped he could keep a lid on any conspiracy theorists trying to link the woman to the modern Sith, and any hotheads that wanted to kill her just because of her species or previous affiliation. He had more than just Shaak Ti’s word that she wasn’t a Dark Sider, after all. Several other Jedi who had met her had been prevailed upon to add their own notes. Including Masters Eno Cordova and Bant Errant. They’d all been…bemused by the apparently rather chaotic storm of a girl. But Eno Cordova had positively gushed about her historical knowledge, and all of the various Masters were certain she wasn’t a Dark Sider.

Mace wondered, sometimes, if reincarnation was actually a thing, just what he’d done to deserve this sort of problem always landing on his desk. Maybe he should retire for a decade and force Yoda to handle this? It was looking like a more and more attractive option as he considered how to deal with the newest little bomb Shaak Ti had deliver into his possession…

Chapter 104: Forward to Siege

-Sovereign of Tythe – 160 Days into the Hutt Crusade-

Izuku studied the latest reports to come in with considerable satisfaction. Over the last six weeks, his own force, working with a few smaller flotillas, had finished securing the entirety of Western Hutt Space. At the same time, Admiral Lin had managed the same with both the North and East, while they’d already entirely controlled the South. Much to the Hutts dismay, several additional attempts to break the slowly tightening noose using forces hired from Republic space had failed. Which, with the turn of the new year, now left the League of Free Stars in control of over seventy-five percent of formerly-Hutt Space.

Of course, what remained to the Hutts was their core subsector, Bootana Hutta. Izuku’s efforts to get scouts into that region had paid off, with a dozen Toru II class scouts having now thoroughly mapped the previously unknown area of space extensively. That mapping had shown that the League still had a hell of a slog ahead of them, as the 157 worlds within that sub sector were all fortified to one degree or another. Several had significant shipbuilding capacity and sizable defense fleets, many had planetary shield generators, and all of them had extremely loyal ground defense forces. It was, without question, going to be a multi-year slog to chew their way through to conquer those worlds two or three at a time.

That said, Izuku no longer had much doubt they would ultimately succeed.

Yes, the Hutts had shipyards and fleets in there. In fact, he wouldn’t be at all surprised if they had a bunch of squirreled away Super Weapons too. Yet, what they didn’t have were raw resources or the means to acquire them. Those worlds were the oldest Hutt holdings, their star systems having been long ago stripped of most material useful for building anything. That’s what they’d had the rest of Hutt Space for, after all. That little detail was why the League had come to a halt in their offensive again for now. By initiating a Siege on the entire subsector, complete with sneaking in some additional commerce raiders to make it hard to pass material between the world within the sector, they could choke the Hutts while rebuilding and rearming themselves.

Meanwhile, of course, they could also focus on building up their own resource sources and increasing their own production. They were already well into retooling the Nal Hutta and Nimban shipyards to League standards, just as one of the more productive examples. Soon, they would be laying down new hulls for warships in those systems, and they were already producing various logistics ships at the Nal Hutta yards in particular. Starfighter production programs were starting on a few other worlds with particularly successful rebellions, while quite a few raw resource extraction industries were slowly coming online in still more. It would take time, but the League was committing the resources to help their new worlds exploit their own resources. Putting money into those new economies as they formed new governments would help shore up the political issues in the long run as well.

Simply put, the Hutts were no longer in any position to keep up with the League’s building pace.

Better yet, the slugs efforts to disrupt trade into the League had begun to falter too. Padmé and he had both been right that there was no way the Republic could allow the Corellian Run to be disrupted for long. Recently reinforced Ord System Fleets, along with some local elements from various planets that had been affected by the disruption to trade, had swept down the Run and kicked the crap out of the pirates.

It was an effort that had been led by Corellia itself, with their Senator, Garm Bel Iblis, having actively taken part. Apparently, the Senator was ex-Corellian Navy, and had taken part in several major anti-pirate operations within the Corellian Sector in the past. He’d proven to be quite the capable leader and shattered the various groups taking Hutt credits to prey on the Corellian Run. In other places, on smaller hyperlanes, it had been others to respond. The Jedi had taken care of a few groups, the Trade Federation seemed to have quietly vanished a few more, and various local defense forces had taken care of the rest.

It was, ironically given the continuing general instability of the Outer Rim, a bad time to be a pirate in the Mid and Outer Rim territories. It was a little concerning to note how many such local defense forces seemed to be growing within the Outer Rim. Notably it was a little telling how many of them seemed to have access to specific designs favored by the Trade Federation, Techno Union, Commerce Guild and Baking Clan. Yet, for all that there was some concerns about that fact, given what Shaak Ti had discovered on Geonosis, the reality remained that for now those forces had been used to smash pirates. Better, the fact that so many pirate groups were dying had finally cut the Hutts off from disposable assets. Even dim bulbs, like most pirates were, eventually clued into the fact you couldn’t spend Hutt credits if you were dead.

Of course, the writing being somewhat on the wall by this point, even if the rest of the Galaxy wasn’t aware how much that was true, meant that other issues were starting to come to a head. Specifically, there were a lot more unaligned worlds and Republic border worlds now initiating talks with the League than anyone had really expected. In some cases, it was enlightened self-interest, with formerly Hutt influenced worlds realizing they needed an in with the new proverbial overlords. Those were the most distasteful of the batch, and they were having to handle them very carefully. They typically had functioning governments, which meant they could theoretically be brought into the newly forming League Parliament. Doing so before both cleaning them up somewhat and getting a healthy counterbalance of non-corrupt worlds was too risky, though. Injecting poison into the system right as its infancy was a great was to reproduce many of the Republic’s issues.

Those worlds, thankfully, weren’t actually the majority.

The largest single chunk of worlds currently applying for membership were previously unaligned. Worlds that had no love of the Republic due to how they’d been used as a buffer between said Republic and Hutt Space, but which had also held strong against the Hutts. Sometimes for decades, other times for centuries, and a few for several millennia. Understandably, they were still cautious, but many of them were very firmly interested in the League of Free Stars. Better yet, quite a few of them had robust, functioning governments of various types.

Unagin, Daalang, Lannik, Sinta and Laboi II were some examples of that group that were farthest along in talks with the League, having started such exchanges months ago. Each had their own reasons and their own difficulties. Lannik and Laboi II were both relatively primitive and very interested in the League’s offer of uplift technology, for example. Both also had forms of government that didn’t gel well with the Republic, being a Monarchy and an Elders-led tribal species respectively. That didn’t pose a problem for the way the League was structured, which made it an extremely attractive option to both world’s respective leaders. Unagin, Daalang, and Sinta on the other hand had simply had issues with the Hutts. Having managed to keep the Hutts at bay for various reasons and through various means, they were interested in the trade and mutual defense that the League could provide.

The most potentially problematic group, even more so than the corrupt worlds that would need careful cleanup, were the Republic worlds. Chalacta was one of the least troublesome examples, it’s status as a border world with Hutt Space nebulous enough that no one was likely to blink too hard at it shifting. Bimmisaari was the opposite extreme, as it was technically the Capital of the Halla Sector. The Bimm were an extremely peaceful species, who had been loyal members of the Republic for close to two thousand years. Unfortunately, the decline of the Outer Rim since the New Sith Wars and Ruusan Reformation had not done them any favors. They were, in fact, pissed at the Republic for practically abandoning them. Only the fact that they were largely pacifistic had kept them from joining the louder dissenters in the Outer Rim who were growing more volatile and extreme by the week, now that the Crusade wasn’t distracting the Galaxy quite so much any longer.

Bimmisaari was within the zone that the current treaty regarding the Hutt/Republic border zone still covered. Yet it, along with several other worlds who had expressed interest, would be a bit more eye-catching if they left the Republic. Bimmisaari was the most eye-catching, since it was a Sector Capital, but there were several trade and industrial worlds that were within the zone and very bitter at the Republic at the moment. Worse, in a way, those worlds needed to be acted on the fastest in some ways. Now that the League had so much control over former Hutt Space, it was virtually certain that the Republic would begin pressing the issue of redrawing those treaties. They could put it off for a while, they were still at war with the Hutts and the Senate didn’t exactly move quickly anyway. But if they had even a year before that became a serious issue, Izuku would be surprised.

At least, on the flip side, they’d gained several PR wins with the Republic. The first, one which had actually done far more to settle the naysayers down than he’d expected, was to get the Interpol between the League and Republic working. The first way that helped was that it had vastly accelerated the speed with which they could ‘clear’ a lot of Republic businesses in Hutt space and pass many or most of their assets back to their parent company. In some cases, the companies involved had even been clean enough to allow them to continue operations within League space. He’d expected there to be friction when a fair few big companies had criminal charges brought up as a result of the Interpol…but he’d underestimated the major corporations.

While any number of minor ones had gotten in a lot of hot water and were now busy drowning, the big corps had all built cutouts into their operations as seemingly a matter of course. They were still guilty as sin, of course. But they’d had the cutouts in place to blame the crimes on local operators and get at least a percentage of their assets returned. Most of the local cutouts had been arrested for illicit Hutt dealings anyway, and been written off by corporations that could realistically write off entire planets at need.

In part, letting them go had annoyed Izuku and Aayla both. Sadly, they both also had previous experiences with that sort of thing and it wasn’t worth getting into a fight with a galaxy-spanning Megacorp over most of the things they’d ‘gotten away’ with. A few particularly heinous crimes like sentient-experimentation were another matter, but the Republic public was more than happy to pile on the people arrested for those crimes and their parent companies. Most of whom had already possessed questionable reputations in the first place.

The second way that the Interpol had helped was also the PR coup that none of them had the slightest issue with. There were thousands of slaves in Hutt Space, tens of thousand more likely, that had been captured from all over the Republic. The Interpol had set up a specific sub-division, with careful oversight, to identify and return those slaves to their homeworlds and families. Worlds like Ryloth and Kashyyyk were singing their praises. The PR it gained them with the more peaceful factions, ones that were now forced to acknowledge there had been very good reasons for the Crusade, was immensely valuable. Success, particularly success where Observers had to admit they’d managed to keep their noses fairly clean, was the best justification. Not, perhaps, the way the universe ought to work if one wanted to call it a fair place, but it was how it did work, fair or not.

Those PR wins, combined with political efforts by both Esa Rotsino and Padmé, had at least temporarily assuaged the Republic’s fears and concerns regarding the League. While not everyone was happy, given that Hutt Space had been convenient for certain brands of corruption, the majority were starting to consider that the bleeding sore that were the Hutts being removed might be a good thing. At least in the long run. It wasn’t like the Hutt Empire had ever been popular, it had merely been considered inevitable. The idea of it being gone was pleasing more people than it was pissing off, even if it had also somewhat destabilized the political climate of the galaxy as a whole.

The Hutts had been an institution, in a lot of ways. They might have had less than a thousand worlds in total, but they’d been obscenely rich and well connected. Their sudden absence from their previous positions of power-behind-a-whole-lot-of-thrones was disruptive to the halls of power. Eventually, that would settle, but a lot of shifting of factions and Senate seats was occurring in the short term. Particularly from worlds within The Slice region of space that had been most affected by the Hutts. Thankfully, the biggest winner of the shifting positions was Padmé’s faction, who were attracting a lot of people interested in the opportunities the League may open up for them.

Yes, despite the amount of paperwork this was all generating, even with his best efforts to delegate, Izuku was pleased with how everything was going. Of course, he was even more pleased with the idea that he’d be able to get away from it all for a vacation soon. Mei had a new experimental test upcoming, of a system which promise to bring major benefits for the League. More importantly, Aayla was insisting that they all take some time off afterward, while they could get away with it, to help avoid burnout. Considering that they’d been going pretty full-tilt since the start of the Crusade, with only the occasional day or two of proper break, he had to admit she had a point.

Work-life balance was important!

No, it wasn’t just because he was looking forward to seeing Aayla, Mei, Zavra, and Shaak Ti in bikinis or less! Honestly, he’d been surprised how easily Shaak went along with the idea of a break, even if she and her padawan had spent a fair amount of time since Padmé’s group left getting hip deep in the fighting. Come to think of it, maybe the reason Aayla was so insistent on this break was because she wanted to see Shaak Ti in a bikini? His lover did seem to have quite a bit of lingering thirst for the other Jedi. Not that Izuku could blame her…

Chapter 105: Punching Holes in Space and Taking a Break

Aayla watched fondly as Izuku managed, somehow, to manage Mei. Even Nikkila had seemly given up, out of exhaustion more than anything else, at trying to keep Mei focused this time. Once they’d arrived, Izuku had barely blinked before stepping in and, with some sort of personal magic Aayla thought might be greater than the Force, somehow got Mei to calm down. To a degree, at least. She was still acting a bit manic and was clearly strung out on far too much caf, but he’d gotten her to actually concentrate that manic energy on properly following the checklists and procedures for the large-scale test they were about to watch.

Personally, Aayla was still trying to wrap her head around what Mei had achieved.

Their pinkette had cracked the secret to porthole tech capable of delivering troops to a battlefield roughly a month ago, with one of the last planetary invasions they’d done before calling a temporary halt to the offensive quietly testing the concept in action. Several refitted and up-armored assault shuttles, stripped of a lot of offensive punch due to the need for maximizing power generation, but simultaneously toughened to an insane degree, had landed on their target planet. Not wanting to completely reveal their hand, they’d only sent an improbable number of troops through each of the portals that had been established once those transports had landed, rather than an outright impossible number.

If the transports had been optimized for maximum troop carrying and stuffed to a degree that would have strained both space and life support, they could theoretically have carried the 100 troops each had deployed. Of course, if you actually ran the numbers on their loadout and compared it to theoretically lift for the ships, you’d have realized something was off, given that a full Striker squad had been included in each transport. It was unlikely their enemies had picked up on it, given how they’d used it, but it had worked perfect…and 500 troops had been deployed to the planet directly from Nelvaan. Or, more accurately, from the new space station in Nelvaan orbit that contained the secret counterpart to the portals.

The station had immense power generation ability, the bulk of the power for a portal coming from the initiating side, even if a fair bit was needed from both sides to keep it open. The amount changed significantly with the size of the portal, with Mei’s…interesting first use needing only a power cell on either end that could have powered a heavy-duty cybernetic limb. That use case had only needed a portal a few inches in shape on either side, resulting in the trivial power needs, but things scaled rapidly with increased portal size requirements.

The 3-meter portals in the new assault shuttles, for example, were big enough to pass through Striker mechs. They needed a lot more juice as a result. Enough that the even the shuttle-size generators required Isotope-5 to get them small enough to squeeze into said shuttles. The space station side didn’t need Iostope-5, though only because Mei had built massive capacitors into the station’s deployment hangars instead. The bulk of the power was required to initiate new portals, not to maintain them, so the capacitor rings allowed the station to charge up for a couple of dozen portal initializations in rapid succession.

Aayla most certainly had not understood the techno babble when she’d asked why they didn’t just establish portals in the ships beforehand and then maintain them. What little she’d gotten out of it was that, apparently, past a certain size there was an interaction with gravity that didn’t play nice with the portals being in motion relative the nearest gravity well. Meaning they’d collapse, violently, if you tried to fly the transports with the portals active. There were some other limitations too, such as the portals currently not playing nice with too much power transmission passing through them, though that was apparently something Mei was working on fixing.

Because she wanted bigger doom lasers, of course.

Regardless of possible future doom lasers, the results of the first test operation had spoken for themselves. Even under combat conditions, all five of their test transports had gotten down to the ground and deployed 8 Strikers, 24 Power Suited Troops, and 68 combat droids each. According to previous tests, they could have deployed a thousand troops through each portal just as easily as 100, making the new system a massive leap forward in ground assault. One they had every intention on abusing the hell out of when it came to capturing the heavily fortified worlds of Bootana Hutta.

Of course, now Mei had taken the things to an even farther extreme. One that would be a massive force multiplier in both logistics and response time to attacks. Another, even larger portal generator…which could theoretically open a ‘Jump Gate’ between distant star systems. One capable of passing anything up to a Volition in size through it. To say it would make keeping their hidden shipyards hidden much easier, not to mention the benefits of not having to pass through any Republic or unaligned space for their logistics train…those parts alone were worth having. The ability to reinforce one nodal defense fleet from another? That would be an even bigger deal, allowing them to respond to attacks on any world with a Jump Gate in overwhelming force, deployed rapidly from either a central reserve fleet or other defense fleets.

Of course, Mei had needed to figure out how to siphon energy from a star to power the damn thing. Which was scary as fuck but apparently how the original Star Forge had worked. Surprisingly, that part hadn’t even required the Force like the rest of the Star Forge, meaning Mei had been able to apply the principles here. Though she’d run into some sort of hard limit on physical Gate size using her current model. Large enough to get a Volition-class through, but not to handle a Paladin-class. Still, Volitions were their bread-and-butter heavy ships, so it was absolutely nothing to sneeze at even if Mei never figured out how to overcome the current limit.

“Checklist complete! Safeties disengaged! Prepare to be amazed at my Jump Gate Baby!”

Aayla’s attention sharpened, even as she had to resist chuckling as Mei flung herself at a completely unnecessary lever almost taller than she was, needing her entire body weight to move it. All, Aayla knew, for something that could have just as easily been done with a button press. Not that any of them were going to deny Mei the satisfaction of her melodrama. Aayla had to admit that the sound of that lever thunking from one position to the other added a bit of gravitas to the moment anyway.

They were, of course, all standing before a massive window that was overlooking the test site. Equally obviously, they weren’t actually anywhere near where a giant hole in space was going to be projected, meaning that they could only see what was going on via the magnification features built right into the frame of the observation window. The ‘Jump Gate Baby’ was only just barely ring shaped. Its primary components were actually six separate satellites, each of them a 100-meter-long, vaguely rectangular structure with multiple ‘refining’ projectors along their length. The satellites were anchored together by a skeletal frame, making the vague form of a massive ring that held the satellites precisely in place relative to each other. The final design would almost certainly be more streamlined and armored, but the prototype had been thrown together for testing, and looked more than a little ‘steampunk.’ A term Izuku had used for some of Mei’s more archaic looking designs.

As Mei flipped the oversized switch, the first and brightest set of the Jump Gate’s projectors lit at the far end of the rectangles and a rush of greenish-white something swirled into existence as space twisted unnaturally. The second set of projectors grabbed that splash of ephemeral unknown energy and refined it into a whirlpool. Each of three more successive projectors refined the whatever it was energy into something like a tunnel, more than a portal. Then, seemingly between heartbeats, the entire thing stabilized into a vaguely swirling and not-so-vaguely glowing shimmering lake of energy in space.

“Stabilization achieved! Ordering EX-1 to make transit!”

The announcement came from Nikkila, not Mei, with the Mikkian having been placed in charge of managing the test vessel. EX-1 was an entirely droid-piloted Defender II, with its armament stripped out and replaced with a ton of extra sensors. The Jump Gate’s partner was, as it happened, in the same system as IES-Beta. By far their most productive shipyard, they’d long since had to shift from getting materials to run it from the Ship Graveyard to various hidden mining operations. Not because the Graveyard lacked materials to pull from, but because the number of flights needed to move that material would have started drawing far too much attention. As it was, getting a way to more securely and clandestinely send IES-Beta materials would be an incredibly valuable first use for the Jump Gate network they were hoping to build.

They all watched with bated breath as EX-1 accelerated into and through the ‘tunnel’ of the whole in space, everyone looking to Nikkila as soon as it vanished from local space. The Mikkian rapidly tapped through command trees, accessing the QEC feed from the EX-1, the smiled hugely.

“Successfully transit! EX-1 has arrived cleanly as IES-Beta Gate. No complications beyond a bit of turbulence! At least, not that we can detect so far. We’ll need to run tests, of course. Particularly on the organic matter and cloned tissue we sent through.”

There was a cheer all around, with Mei being the most overtop, bouncing around until Izuku caught her in a hug to keep her from accidentally pushing buttons or resetting the lever unintentionally. Though, on that note, Nikkila quickly proved just how unneeded the giant switch was with her next announcement.

“The prototype Gate is beginning to show system strain, shutting it down in five, four, three, two...one…mark.”

In a reversal of the previous sequence, the tunnel in space grew more chaotic as each projector went offline in sequence. Eventually, normal space returned as the still-unnamed energy it was made of vanished entirely.

“So far, integrity of local space seems normal. Though we’ll need a lot more tests to make sure that remains true.”

Nikkila’s follow up comment was met by nods from everyone, even Mei. One did not poke holes in space without making very sure you weren’t damaging space in the process. Not unless you were completely insane. Still, that could wait. For the first time in the last hour, Aayla spoke up.

“Now…let’s drug Mei to get her to sleep and prep for our vacation on a high note, shall we?”

There was laugher all around, even as Mei tried to protest, failing miserably to make a dent in their decision as Izuku threw her over one shoulder and spanked her lightly to shut down her protests…

… … …

“Annnddd we’re off!”

Aayla and Zavra gave little cheers and even Shaak Ti smiled. Mei was still busy sleeping off the crash once she’d come down from all the caf, so she wasn’t present in the cockpit for their jump to hyper. Asajj, despite being invited, had decided to stay behind. Considering how much time she and Asora had been spending together, and some of the things Izuku and Aayla had felt from the pair with their empathy, they had a good idea why. Which, frankly? Good for them if it worked out.

“Three days to our destination, whatever shall we do on this ship and its luxurious ways…”

The teasing comment from Aayla got a giggle out of Zavra and a snort from Izuku. Sadly, since they were looking to travel without being recognized, they hadn’t been able to take The Wandering Fate. Their personal ship was just a little bit too recognizable by now, and would have likely triggered quite a few alerts as they passed through Republic Space. Given they didn’t want to be up to their eyeballs in Hutt assassins while they were trying to relax, that had meant taking an alternative option. Thankfully, both his businesses and the League Intelligence Service maintained plenty of armed freighters and yachts they could pick from. Many of them were even modified by Anash, who’d long since been recruited for her talents in turning used ships into excellent assets. The fact that the ships had history making them better blend in on the spacelanes.

Their current ride, the Glittering Sapphire, was one such modified ship, though it was more unusual than most. It was a Starwind-class pleasure yacht, specifically acquired by LIS for agents that needed to move among the wealthy and influential. Already equipped with a pair of quad-lasers, the KDY-built Starwind series were meant to be secure transports for the rich. Which also meant incredibly fine interiors and extras like a holotheater, game room, and a zero-g relaxation chamber.

As a League Intelligence Service asset, it had, of course, been given an overhaul. Improved shields, some armoring, and additional hidden armament as well. Honestly, though, even that wouldn’t look the least bit out of place for the sort of people who normally owned Starwind-class yachts in the first place. At a million credits a pop new, the yachts were for high rollers who had reasons to be paranoid about their own security.

“Well, how do you all want to start on our relaxation? Holotheater? I admit I haven’t had much time to enjoy such things in the last few years.”

Izuku’s suggestion was happily seized on by the others, as apparently none of them actually had that much experience with Holotheater productions. The Jedi Order wasn’t exactly big on ‘idle recreational activities’ and they apparently hadn’t exactly been a thing that a Sith Apprentice could or would spend time on either. Mei probably would have gone stir crazy, but she was still passed out, working off her sleep deficit from mainlining caf and sugar to finish the Jump Gate prototype for testing.

It took a bit of back and forth to settle on what Izuku couldn’t help but think of as a movie, even if holo productions were more immersive than that. Action didn’t really appeal to any of them, given they were trying to relax after coming out of war zones. Comedy was deemed a better choice but was rarely a genre all on its own. A bit of searching through reviews on the holonet found them settling on a Mystery/Comedy mix that was supposed to be quite good.

Much to Izuku’s surprised, Shaak Ti settled into his side without hesitation, having beaten out an amused look Zavra while Aayla took his opposite side…

… … …

Izuku loved it when a long-term plan came together. Sure, thinking ahead by buying up a resort under one of his many alternate names and shell companies probably wouldn’t seem like a long-term plan to most. After all, he owned multiple casinos, restaurants, and hundreds of others businesses, including many in the entertainment industry. Those had started as places to help ex-slaves get back on their feet. The Lucky Rabbit being a runaway success, now the single most famous and profitable casino on Cloud City, had been an eye opener.

A lot of ex-slaves had developed skills the hard way, which they didn’t actually mind using if they were being fairly paid for them. Not just pleasure slaves and dancers, either. Cooks, housekeepers, even artisans and crafters at times. They weren’t, by any measure, the single most common type of slave. But such people still were common. Providing places where they could work for fair pay, with minimal retraining needed, helped a lot of ex-slaves feel more secure in their new freedom. Such had been the original excuse when Izuku started diversifying into the entertainment sector more frequently. The fact that it had proven fertile ground for intelligence operations in the long run as well, so long as they didn’t overuse it, only helped to further justify the practice.

On the surface, his purchase of a Mid Rim resort and its renovation into Universal Studios Corusca was just another such enterprise. Only he and Aayla knew that he’d gone far more out of his way than usual to keep this specific property from getting anywhere remotely near his official holdings. Something he’d done, much to Aayla’s amusement at the time but understanding and appreciation now, to ensure there was somewhere nice they could go that would provide actual privacy.

Unlike Aayla, who hadn’t quite had the concept of what could happen if you popped up prominently enough in the news cycle for long enough, Izuku had seen the cost of being a famous Hero back on Earth. While some heroes and heroines had been lucky enough they could go unnoticed off duty, others like his own mentor were too recognizable to get away with that. So, when Izuku had realized that his own plan was inevitably going to make him famous if it didn’t kill him first, he’d taken steps.

Steps he deeply appreciated now since it meant they had a private beach to themselves, with no one knowing where they were to bother them. Yes, he absolutely loved it when a long-term plan paid off. Something that it was doing now quite nicely as he saw the four women that had come with him coming out of their changing room in bikinis. Perhaps some might have thought his appreciation of the sight odd, given that he regularly or semi-regularly saw three of the four naked. Those people, Izuku would cheerfully call fools to their face. His girls and Shaak Ti all looked amazing in skimpy bikinis, thank you very much!

“Izu! Sunscreen!”

Not to mention that there was that too look forward to, as Mei bounced over to him with a bottle of sunscreen. Technically, Mei and he were probably the only two that truly needed it, and he less than her due to the Force letting him absorb the extra UV with Tutaminis. That ability, also known as Force Absorb, allowed Jedi to absorb and convert various types of energy. A true Master could outright block a lightsaber bare-handed, but very few Jedi had ever reached that level of Mastery. At the same time, it was taught to every Jedi as part of a series of ‘utility’ abilities. Absorbing harsh sunlight that would normally burn, preventing sunburn in the process, was a common use for many races of Jedi.

That said, it still took effort, and they were here to relax. Mei in particular still needed it anyway, and Aayla would benefit from it even if she didn’t technically need it as Twi’leks were hardier than humans in that regard. She’d still suffer from dried out skin without the lotion, but she wouldn’t develop the burns that he or Mei would. He genuinely didn’t know if Togruta required it, and Sith very much didn’t need it, though he fully expected Zavra to demand a turn of having it applied anyway.

After all, the application of it was fun, in and of itself.

Smiling, he took the bottle from Mei and waved her to a set of beach towels he’d already laid out for everyone. She cheerfully bounced over to them…and removed her bikini top without a second thought, flashing her tits casually before lying out on her front. Grinning, Izuku straddled her back and got to work, fully intending to enjoy his boyfriend duties. Knowing Mei wasn’t the type to be still for very long, he didn’t stretch it out too long for her, through he made sure to take advantage of her willing vulnerability to work her up a bit. She outright pouted just a tiny bit when he didn’t spend longer on her tits, or push for more, but he gave her a grin and a spank to get her moving. They knew full well not to expect her to enjoy ‘normal’ beach activities, so they’d brought along her Wave Skimmer to tinker with, and she cheerfully went to play with her ‘Skimmer Baby MK 2.’

A grinning Ayala was next, and he spent a fair bit more time on her, not even Shaak Ti seeming to mind as his hands drew moans from his lover as he worked her over with far more unnecessary thoroughness than he had Mei. She too, pouted when he stopped, thought she made hers a more deliberately outrageous thing…and didn’t bother putting her bikini top back on as she lounged about in the sun, grinning as his eyes tried to gravitate to her boobs.

Then, before Zavra could demand her own application, the unexpected voice of Shaak Ti spoke up.

“Hmmm, could you help me with my own, Izuku? Togruta are made for jungles, not beaches, so we need such things almost as much as humans do.”

His eyebrows only twitched a little. Shaak had gotten far closer to them in the last few months, their spars in particular becoming more and more charged as time went on. Add in the mild-but-obvious flirting she’d done with all of them aboard the Glittering Sapphire, and he wasn’t completely caught off guard. It was a definite escalation, of sorts, though. He could practically feel Aayla’s attempts not to vibrate in excitement over their bond. She really still had a thing for Shaak, or perhaps had a new and deeper appreciation beyond her original crush? Something which Izuku could admit he wasn’t immune to himself, Shaak Ti seemed to just click with him, Aayla and Zavra all three. She got along with Mei pretty decently as well, though hadn’t had as much exposure to their adorably chaotic inventor.

“Of course, if you’ll lay out on your towel, I’ll be happy to.”

-Lemon Starts Here-

He only had a brief warning from her smirk and a shot of mischief in her aura before Shaak Ti casually escalated still farther. She removed her bikini top just as Mei and Aayla had done…and then undid the side-tie of her bottoms and stepped out of them as well, without the slightest hesitation. The resulting full-frontal-nudity view of her as she languidly took the few steps to her towel and sank down was attention grabbing to say the least. Izuku’s breath had hitched in his throat, right along with Aayla’s, as he’d gotten his first look at Shaak completely nude. Exotically beautiful, with differences from the other girls he’d quite like to explore…

Shaking that thought off, Izuku pushed past his immediate reaction and forced himself to remain calm and in control as he repeated his previous actions, straddling Shaak Ti’s back and applying the ‘all species sun lotion’ to his hands first to let it warm a bit. Leaning forward, he started with Shaak Ti’s well-muscled shoulders. The moment he touched them and felt the sort of long-term tension there typical of fighters who didn’t properly take care of themselves, he realized the woman really needed a massage as much as sun protection. It was something he’d noticed in Aayla early on as well, the Jedi apparently not realizing that Force-induced muscle relaxation still wasn’t as good as more physical physiotherapy.

Immediately shifting gears a bit, he rubbed the lotion into her shoulders, slowly increasing the power he put into his fingers until he felt her tension start to release. Working each individual knot, using his thumbs to dig in and stretch the muscles, he quickly figured out the patterns that worked best for her somewhat alien musculature. She began to groan and moan, surprise and relief shooting through her emotions as he worked his way down her back and sides, working out knots hadn’t even been truly aware of. Applying more lotion, he went back for a second pass, spreading it properly this time for coverage instead of massage, before flipping around and moving on to her legs. They were less tense, thankfully, though the difference caused an entirely different emotion to build in Shaak as he worked on them.

Arousal.

He’d felt some of that right from the start. Despite her calm appearance, his and Aayla’s empathy couldn’t be cheated, and he’d felt a moderately strong burst of arousal from Shaak as she bared herself to them. It hadn’t been simple lack of nudity taboo, but an intentional desire that was now growing further under his touch. The release of tension while he’d worked on her back had distracted from it slightly, but now it was spiking higher and higher as he worked his way up her legs. More, with her having stripped her bikini bottom he could see her pussy drooling as her arousal rose.

Mentally communing with Aayla and Zavra, he took a chance.

Shifting back around, he moved from straddling her waist to firmly trapping her legs in place. Then, somehow sensing hesitation would be wrong here, he firmly placed his hands on her ass and began to equally firmly mix massage and outright groping. Shaak Ti gasped, then moaned, low and breathy, her breathing coming faster and her arousal spiking through the roof. Apparently, at least for her, her rear was most decidedly a sweet spot, and his instincts pushed him into ruthlessly taking advantage of it.

Of all the girls he’d laid hands on this way, Shaak was perhaps the one who most fit the definition of ‘thicc’ that the internet of Earth had idolized. Her rear wasn’t as soft and malleable as Mei’s, his sexy inventor the only true civilian among them. Mei was in good shape, yes, but had a light layer of padding in certain places that just wasn’t possible at the extreme levels of fitness the others possessed. In Shaak, however, some quirk of Togrutan biology had produced something similar. She was just as fit as Aayla was but, just as Aayla’s own physiology provided her with boobs larger than anyone of her insane fitness should have been able to develop, Shaak’s did something similar.

She, entirely naturally, had more soft tissue in certain places than would make sense on a human of similar fitness. Her breasts, he was pretty sure, were at least a cup size larger than Aayla’s, even if that wasn’t so obvious as she was taller and a bit broader of build as well. Her butt, on the other hand, was a work of art. Heart shaped to Aayla’s round, with a certain, satisfying give to it despite the firm muscle underneath. Sensitive, too, in a way that took him a minute of massaging and groping to properly figure out. When it finally clicked, and the new information slotted in with a few other things he knew about Togrutans, he smirked…and firmly smacked her ass.

The result was one of the lewdest moans he’d ever heard in his life, accompanied by the feeling that she’d very nearly cum from that strike.

Grinning in satisfaction at his guess being right, Izuku built on the pieces that had clicked together by rubbing the slightly reddened spot with one hand…and dipping his fingers between her legs with the other. He didn’t tease or gently work her up. Instead, he plunged three fingers into Shaak’s pussy without warning or hesitation. She came, instantly and hard, and then came a second time when he brought his hand down to smack her ass even harder a second time. He could feel what she wanted now, and so could Aayla and Zavra.

Aayla was the faster to act, scrambling behind Izuku to pull down his trunks. His cock, rock hard by this point, sprung out from its confinement even as Izuku leaned forward and captured Shaak’s arms, pulling them behind her. She struggled for a moment, but he could feel both with his empathy and through her own blatant excitement in the Force that it wasn’t an actual attempt to escape. It was just a test of his strength, an instinctive one built right into her species’ genetic code.

Togrutans were predators, ones who’d only relatively recently joined the Republic. As in within the last two hundred years. Despite being technologically advanced, boasting a considerable military that had actually outright warred with the Republic successfully a century or so before that, Shili and its colonies were almost primal. Most Togrutans eschewed cities to live in tribal settlements, bare feet were the norm as the species considered the ground scared and felt more at home in contact with it. They were a lot like Wookiees, in many ways. Advanced, yet retaining a primal core that most never realized they hid.

Apparently, on an instinct level, that translated to Togrutan mating practices being partially about strength and dominance. Izuku doubted it was as true with Shaak Ti, raised by the Jedi Order, as it was for a Togrutan raised entirely on Shili among their own kind. But clearly at least part of it was outright instinct. Which firmly explained why their spars had been getting more and more heated over time. She was clearly attracted to him, to Aayla as well, and Zavra too he was fairly certain. Now it abruptly occurred to him that he might as well have been flirting with her in some of their more recent and intense spars.

Today, apparently, she’d decided to give a rather big hint and he was thankful that the possibility she might be genuinely interested was something he, Aayla, Zavra, and Mei had already discussed.

Something that was evidence in full as Aayla pressed diamond-hard nipples into his back and helped him line up his cock, even as he, in turn, used the Force to pull Shaak’s hips off the ground. He kept her lower legs trapped, her body folding at the knees as her hips came up and her tits and face were pressed more firmly down into the ground. Shaak’s excitement was practically shouting in the Force, unconsciously urging him on, and he found himself roughly thrusting into her depths without any further buildup. That plunge set Shaak off again, her internals clamping down on his cock even as she cried out her third release.

Izuku was thankful for the few seconds she was occupied with that, as he was forced to rapidly process the new sensations of yet another exotically alien pussy. If he’d been caught completely off guard, he might have lost it immediately. As it was, he had been curious enough to look Togrutan anatomy up after a few too many charged encounters with Shaak. In some ways, her sex was the most alien of any of his lovers. Not in external appearance, there bearing a fairly similar look to Aayla, if in oranges instead of blues.

Internally, was another matter entirely, as the Togrutan biological predisposition to multiplicity like their lekku, montrals, and multiple stomachs extended elsewhere. Togrutan females had no clits. Instead, their inner walls were lined with hundreds of nerve-laden nubs. No single one of them had anywhere close to the same sensitivity as a human or Twi’lek clit, but combined Shaak had nearly as many nerve endings in total as Zavra’s arrangement of both a human style clit and multiple nerve-heavy internal rings.

Only, Shaak’s were spread out in such a way that contact with a goodly amount of them was near-constant from the moment of penetration, and every thrust would be like an electric current sliding through her body in waves. All while providing him with an exotic texture unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Even just grinding with small movements would likely make her cum quickly, yet the arrange was clearly built for much more than just grinding.

Adjusting, Izuku pulled back, bracing himself to give Shaak exactly what her body was built for. If his first thrust had been rough, his second was even harder, and his third would have been downright bruising to a human woman as he put quite a bit of his strength into it. Which, of course, was the connection he’d finally made when he was exploring her gloriously padded ass and its surprising sensitivity. Togrutans were apparently built to be absolutely railed, with that padding and the sensitivity pf her rear making complete sense as an adaptation, when the expectation was to be hammered hard from behind.

Something Izuku set about doing with extreme gusto, and which quickly caused Shaak to come completely unglued as she began repeatedly cumming her brains out. Thankfully, it was immediately obvious her body was built for that too, to an even greater extent than Aayla’s was, and so Izuku poured on the steam, trying to find her limit. By the time he found it, he was actually using the Force to amplify his strength slightly to hit the perfect sweet spot, as well as to try and keep himself from cumming his brains out under the incredibly sensations all those internal nubs and her wildly spasming pussy were providing.

He didn’t last more than a handful of minutes before pumping hot cum into her depths. Thankfully, the Force was a fantastic aid in stamina, as he sensed Shaak wasn’t anywhere near satiated with from just the first round…

-Lemon Ends Here-

… … …

The days after Izuku made Shaak Ti pass out from pleasure on the beach had been bliss. That same night, of course, they’d properly talked to Shaak about what she was looking for. The Jedi Master had, for the first time any of them had seen, been a little embarrassed. She’d admitted that, originally, she’d considered seeking a ‘friends with benefits’ sort of relationship with them. That, surprisingly enough, actually wasn’t against the rules of the Jedi Order. It was emotional attachment, not sex, which was considered a problem by the leadership of the current Jedi Order. She’d also been quick to explain that, over time, she’d realized both that their own existing arrangement didn’t really work that way…and that she didn’t want it to either.

Personally, even if Shaak hadn’t admitted it, Izuku suspected that she’d experienced a certain amount of contamination by interacting with other groups of Force users. Combined with the Togrutan instincts toward community, which were strong enough not even Jedi training could rid one of them entirely, and Shaak had found herself longing for something a bit more meaningful. Apparently, that realization had happened a solid month before their little vacation, but it had taken time for Shaak to reconcile her desires and beliefs. It also explained why she’d taken a trip to the Ossus Academy at one point during that time. Her stated reasons of wanting to expose her Padawan to the training there had been real enough, but he suspected that she’d also taken time to speak with Ood Bnar and listen to the Shan Family Holocrons.

The net result was that she wanted to join their relationship in full.

Much to her visible relief, they’d all immediately agreed. Aayla and Zavra the most enthusiastically, though for entirely different reasons. Mei had just seen it as another friend she could do ‘sexy fun things’ with, and Izuku himself could freely admit he’d caught more than enough feels to welcome her to the their odd little group. The new addition had spiced up the vacation, both in the bedroom and out, with Izuku and Aayla both insisting on proper dates and romance time for Shaak Ti along with more carnal pursuits.

They’d all left in high spirits, even if none of them were particularly looking forward to their next trip. The vacation had been as much them bracing for upcoming annoyances as relaxing from the war effort. Though, at least they’d get to see Padmé again unexpectedly soon…

Chapter 106: Political Tour

-Sovereign of Tythe – 180 Days into the Hutt Crusade-

After returning to Tythe from their eminently enjoyable vacation excursion, the group had spent several hectic days clearing up the issues that had built up while they were absent. After that, only Mei was able to go back to business as usual, as the rest of them had a much more daunting task ahead of them. They needed, now that two dozen or so worlds had formed up enough of a government to properly launch the League Parliament, to go play politics. Not here in the League, where Esa Rotsino had things locked down nicely, but within the Republic.

Many of the worlds that had trade connections to former Hutt Space wanted reassurances or new connections. More worlds that had trade connections to Izuku or Tythe wanted to speak with him about how those connections could be leveraged or, in some rare cases, done away with. Hundreds of additional worlds that didn’t have either but wanted to feel out the new power on the Republic’s border wanted face-to-face time with the new, ‘mysterious leader’ too.

Both Esa and Padmé had been firm that now was the time to start making inroads with various polities and powers within the Republic, in order to help keep the neutrality the Republic was currently holding with them a positive neutrality. Building it into something more than that wasn’t likely to happen quickly, if at all. Yet positive neutrality was very possible if they handled things right. But handling them right meant Izuku spending time in his position as ‘Sovereign,’ rubbing elbows and playing the political game.

“You needn’t look quite so grim, you know. This isn’t going to be all bad. We get to see Padmé and her minions some more, and we’re starting with Esa’s cousin to get our feet wet with this sort of thing, so we’ll have a friendly first stop. Besides, you get to make some of the people we don’t particularly like thoroughly nervous by showing up with our flagship~!”

Izuku’s lips twitched upwards just a bit from their scowl at the last bit of Aayla’s comment. She was right, of course. Both that it would be nice to see Padmé again and that the reactions to Sovereign of Tythe should be amusing at times. There had been long-winded debates about taking the flagship, of course. There were pretty major arguments both for and against. It was a warship, one more heavily armed than any equivalent in Republic Space, and could likely solo the entire defense fleets of many of the worlds they would be visiting. That could be taken lots of wrong ways.

On the flip side, it was Izuku’s personal flagship and not bringing it would have been its own problematic statement. One that could be interpreted as weakness. Worse, there were a lot of people who would love to take advantage of him traveling in a smaller, more vulnerable vessel. The Hutts, of course, would have been virtually certain to try taking him out in space, if they’d used an unarmed or lightly armed diplomatic ship like Padmé preferred. But there were plenty of others, including the extremely well-armed Trade Federation, that might have liked the chance to take a stab at it too.

In the end, they erred on the side of caution and simply made sure to get official approval for taking the ship through any space they’d pass through. Something that, in places, would require them to go a bit out of their way, since some worlds had refused that passage. It would also be going without escort, but there wasn’t much in Republic space that could threaten the Sovereign even traveling alone. Even the battleships that could realistically kill a Paladin tended to be on the slow side, where as the Paladin was actually quite fast for a battlecruiser. Not to mention it was carrying a pair of Toru II scout ships that would be trading off traveling before it, to give warning of any possible ambushes.

“Aayla, Padmé aside, there’s a suitable saying for politicians from my world. That the word breaks down to ‘poly,’ meaning ‘many,’ and ‘tics.’ Which are a blood sucking creature.”

Aayla snorted a laugh, swatting at his side, and Izuku’s lips twitched fully into a grin this time. At least he wasn’t doing this alone, even if they were trying to make him be one of those blood sucking creatures too…

… … …

-Abrion Major – 183 Days into the Hutt Crusade-

“Sovereign Midoriya, Knight Alaya, it is good to see both of you! Even if the two of you have managed to cause quite a bit of chaos for Abrion Major and the Abrion sector as a whole.”

The family resemblance between Senator Esu Rotsino and her cousin Esa was striking. Both had the same hair, so black it seemed to soak in light rather than reflect it, paired with striking bright green eyes. High-cheekbones gave them both a classically beautiful look, which the cousins were equally capable of wielding as a weapon at need. Esu had her own hair cut short, compared to Esa’s that was always kept in waves down to her shoulder. Yet, despite that and a few inches difference in height between them, they could have been sisters only a few years apart instead of cousins. Good family genes, apparently.

She also, despite the comment about chaos, had a genuine smile on her face for them, even as she turned to exchange greetings with Padmé. Senator Rostino wasn’t directly part of Padmé’s new faction, not having needed the connections to the League that had brought so many to Padmé’s side. Yet the two women were obviously cordial to one another, indirect allies at least, in their efforts to make sure the League of Free Stars was viewed positively. The Senator for the Abrion sector had met them before and was well aware just how much Izuku’s investments in the sector had changed Abrion’s fortunes. Once struggling in a similar way too much of the Outer Rim, Abrion Major and several other worlds of the sector Izuku had invested in were now economic bright spots among the troubles in the greater Outer Rim Territories.

“Well, come on you lot, there is all sorts of official folderol to get through! Then we can get down to duralloy nails! The Abrion Sector Fleet has been bothering me for more Defenders, and are quite interested in getting some of the Munifex IIs you’ve been starting to phase out. Not to mention that Ukio and Tieos is worried about all the new agriworlds you’ve gotten access to. Sure they sell Coreward plenty still, but Tythe was one of their most reliable customers, and they are afraid you might not be in the market for their goods much longer…”

Izuku sighed internally as Esu started to list out all sorts of problems and issues that people wanted reassurance on or possible solutions for. None of it was all that troubling, honestly. The Abrion Sector Fleet was just that, an old school Sector Fleet that was answering to Abrion rather than the Republic, so Izuku had little issue arming it with ships they needed to pawn off on someone else anyway. Then there was the agriworlds, who could be easily appeased by lucrative contracts to help teach the Hutt agriworlds how to actually do things right, instead of leaning on inefficient slave labor. Most of the issues should be easily resolved, but he knew he was going to be drug through days of negotiations over all of it.

Maybe there would be a surprise assassination attempt to give him a break and get the blood pumping? A man could hope and dream, at least…

… … …

-Bothawui – 190 Days into the Hutt Crusade-

Izuku growled in annoyance, ripping a piece of nearby wall apart to create a crude shield for Padmé and Sabé to hide behind. To their credit, both of them immediately took cover perfectly, popping up for well-aimed shots using the blasters that they’d liberated from the first set of assassins that had ambushed them. Still not exactly eager to advertise that he was skilled with lightsabers on a world full of spies, Izuku stuck to telekinesis while letting Aayla and Shaak Ti handle the bulk of the blaster fire coming from five other assassin teams, all of whom were competing to kill them first.

Rolling his eyes as yet another dumbfuck tried to launch a rocket at them, Izuku grabbed it with the Force and sent it careening in a new direction, hammering into a sixth assassin team that had been trying to sneak up in the chaos. The idiot who’d fired the thing looked like a non-Death Watch Mando, so Izuku gave him a little bit more attention, using an interesting Force Power rediscovered by the Iron Knights. Mechu-deru might have originally been a Dark Side trick, but the Iron Knights’ unique nature made it incredibly easy for them to produce a version that was neutral in the Force, allowing its users to interface with mechanical and technological systems.

Izuku was by no means a master with it…but it wasn’t that hard to Force a Jetpack to power on at full blast. Which is exactly what he did, at a precise moment that caused the Mandalorian to slam into a traffic control pod and snap his neck. Snorting in a bit of satisfaction at that one, he set to trying to thin the numbers in a specific direction so they could at least retreat out of the crossfire. Unable to help himself, he also commented into their secure comms.

“’Oh yes, Izuku. We should go to the planet known the galaxy over for its spy networks and culture of backstabbing each other. They are a valued and respected Republic world.’ Wasn’t that more or less what you said, Padmé? I hate to tell you ‘I told you so, but…actually no, I don’t hate to do that this time. I told you so.”

He could feel Padmé’s wince, even as she reloaded a new blaster pack. She wisely stayed silent, given how her advice had turned out. Sabé, on the other hand, was quick to quip back.

“Look at it this way, Master Midoriya, this way all the assassins came at us at once! There won’t be any left to bother us at our future stops, at this rate!”

Izuku snorted, a grin tugging at his lips involuntarily. He doubted that was true…but this was less boring than the talks with the locals anyway, which had been aggressively going nowhere. A fact he was nearly certain was because every one of the local factions had sold him out to a different assassin group, given how many of them were popping up. Ah, well, the furry little compulsive liars had already been most of the way onto his shit list anyway…

… … …

-Drukenwell – 205 Days into the Hutt Crusade-

Aayla was having trouble resisting the urge to strangle the Druckenwell representative. The sleezy little bastard had spent more time staring as her tits than he’d spent on the used-ship-salesman routine he’d been directing at her love. Neither of them had really wanted to stop at Druckenwell. Not only was it a Trade Federation world, but it was also a known center for several legal and illegal slaving operations. They, in fact, were sponsoring a chapter of the Underground Hyperlane operating on the world and had been for years. There was no way they were going to make any real deals with the place…but there had been other reasons to accept the request that they stop and ‘negotiate possibly mutually beneficial deals.’

Specifically, Shaak Ti and Asajj were currently off poking into Trade Federation operations on the planet, looking for any signs of the sort of military buildup operation they’d found on Geonosis. Given that BlasTech had a major manufacturing complex on the world, it was a good bet that they might find something, and the more they found out about whatever was going on the better. Of course, she and Izuku were far too high-profile for investigations like that at this point. Which meant that they were stuck listening to this idiot jabber. With Aayla’s temptation to fall to the dark side and start creatively eliminating politicians for the good of the galaxy increasing by the minute.

Izuku might have had a point about politicians and blood sucking creatures. Though that didn’t account for Padmé. Aayla was still hoping the little talk she’d had with the Senator would produce a different sort of fluid sucking in time. But she was content to wait on that…and stir the pot a little by making sure she and Sabé didn’t forget their interest, of course. Really, Izuku needed to get more on the ball and help her seduce the pair. It wasn’t like he could pretend he wasn’t attracted to them or didn’t enjoy their company, and they would be even easier to convince than Shaak Ti had been if he’d just make a little effort.

Sighing about her loveable knight in shining armor being too noble for his own good, and for her good since she wanted a taste of the pair too, she pushed the thought aside again. She didn’t want to risk tainting any thoughts of Padmé and Sabé with the offal that this moron was spewing, after all…

… … …

-Denon – 215 Days into the Hutt Crusade-

“Well, I have to admit I’m actually quite pleased with how this particular stop is going. Well done in laying the groundwork, Padmé.”

Padmé smiled brightly at the praise, and Izuku tried really hard to ignore the way her emotions had spiked with it coming from him. He was well aware that Aayla didn’t want him to ignore it but, unlike his lover, Izuku understood properly why Padmé hadn’t tried to act on anything. He still wasn’t quite sure what had caused her and Sabé both to hit some sort of tipping point and realize they were attracted to him in a serious way, but he understood the awkward position they were in. Her house of cards in the Senate wasn’t secure enough yet to survive if she was romantically linked with him, as it would put into doubt all the work she’d done ‘negotiating’ with the League.

“Yes, well…I can’t claim all the credit on this one. It was Cordé who realized the world was having some logistics issues that a deal with the League could easily solve. I just took that information and ran with it to get you a favorable meeting. As a conservative, Inner Rim ecumenopolis, they have a louder voice in the Senate than most of the others you’ve spoke with so far. Particularly with how long they’ve been part of the Republic in the first place. They aren’t quite a Core World, but…”

Izuku nodded his understanding. Denon wasn’t a Core World, but it had already been a member world by the time of the Alsakan Conflicts and had sided with Coruscant during those. That had put it in a position to often be treated like it was a Core World, and decent leadership had seen the world become fairly influential over time. Nothing on the scale of worlds like Corellia or Alderaan, of course, but influential still. It was also a highly conservative world, which might not normally have been willing to deal with the League at all. But need and a lot of fast-talking by Padmé had gotten them a meeting, one that had gone quite well. The League was more than willing and able to meet needs Denon was struggling with due to disruptions caused by the Trade Federation and Commerce Guild getting steadily more belligerent in the Republic Senate.

The talks had ended in an excellent deal for both sides, which had thankfully been almost as much business as politics. Much better than some of their other stops to this point for sure…

… … …

-Commenor – 227 Days into the Hutt Crusade-

“Well, we could never win them all, and at least we convinced them not to take issue with your trading concerns.”

Izuku sighed, knowing Padmé was trying to look on the bright side. Not that she was wrong, exactly. But he’d had higher hopes for Commenor. It was a trading world in The Slice, after all. Which made the odd resistance he’d found among the locals very out of place. It had been so out of place that he’d tapped lightly into a few minds, in fact, something he tried not to do very often due to the invasion of privacy it represented. Concerningly, even a very light tap during the failed negotiations had revealed that the Techno Union was leaning hard on the world to shut the League out.

Foundry, a major Techno-Union world, was nearby. Which did explain their strong presence on Commenor. Yet the Techno-Union had always been known more for manufacturing monopolies, not trading monopolies. Their sudden interest in not letting any other big names expand on Commenor was odd and concerning. Enough so that he’d need to mention it to LIS and see if they couldn’t figure out what was going on.

“It’s certainly disappointing, but hardly crippling given the unexpected gains at Denon. Still, it will be nice to see more welcoming faces at our next few stops.”

Padmé was quick to nod at that.

“Yes, my own mentor in the Senate is looking forward to meeting you on Onderon, Kashyyyk is likely to throw actual parties when you arrive, and Lantillies is already friendly with you despite you stealing one of their best shipwrights.”

Padmé’s excited delivery of the first, and dry delivery of the later two got a laugh out of all of them. Personally, Izuku was most interested in seeing Kashyyyk. The Wookiees he’d talked with had all made it seem like a fascinating and wild world. They were also, notably, quite likely to be willing to let him explore the less safe parts of their world. They, after all, knew he was traveling with Jedi and were rather fond of such.

Though, there was also the complication that they might run into other Jedi, given they were quietly setting up on Alaris Prime. That could be a complication, or not, depending on which Jedi might get involved. Hopefully, it wouldn’t cause any major drama…

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