Author - First patrons, i can buy me a monster energy now. Happy days thank you. Just remember dont pay me if you are struggling yourself only if you have some spare change.
Also I got inspired again to start writing only for the pressure to suddenly plummet (due to the impending thunderstorm (it is thunderstorm season) and I spent half a day with a migraine and unable to even look at anything bright otherwise this would have been done earlier. Also I posted this early on Patreon (no I wont stop posting on webnovel or fanfiction dont worry), I also have another chapter already on patreon and another one 60% done but its fucking night time and I need to wake up at 7am tomorrow for doctors appointment. See yas.
***
The blue-white tunnel of hyperspace collapsed, and the familiar stars of the Elyria system snapped back into place. I stood on the bridge of the Iron Reaver, a bit sweaty now and probably with a new bruise forming on my arm but it is what it is.
My hands are clasped behind my back, watching as the planet grew larger in the viewport. The red-tinged world surrounded by the ships and the dockyard looked the same as when we had left plains, mountains, and the faint glitter of settlements across the surface.
Further out, the mining moon and the gas giant platform held their positions. On the surface, nothing appeared different.
Reza's voice cut through the quiet. "All ships have exited hyperspace cleanly. Local traffic is minimal. No unidentified contacts on long-range scanners."
I gave a short nod. "Begin approach. Standard formation."
As the fleet moved deeper into the system, the first encrypted reports began filtering in. Harlan's summary confirmed what we already knew about the generator: catastrophic failure, significant damage to the surrounding infrastructure, and ongoing clean-up. The new unit we had brought from Coruscant was already being prepped for installation.
What stood out more was the continuing silence that is in stark contrast to before we left, no independent freighters or smuggler traffic.
Neither the pirate scouts who thought they went unnoticed as they tested the edges of the system. The sensor logs from the past several weeks showed the same unnatural quiet we had seen during the journey home.
I was still reviewing the data when Harlan's private channel opened. His holo appeared at a reduced size, voice kept low. "Governor. One more thing about the generator," he said quietly. "When it went down, the primary security grid dropped with it. Full blackout for approximately five minutes before the backup generators came online. I've had the techs go over the failure logs twice. It… may not have been a simple accident.
I kept my expression neutral, eyes still on the planet ahead. "Understood. We'll discuss it further once we're on the ground. For now, prioritize the installation of the new unit and a full review of the security systems, make sure to find out that if someone did breach security to find out what they got and start quietly looking through people in the palace, dig through their entire lives and their family if you have to."
Harlan nodded once and the channel closed.
Havenridge.
Home.
It looked peaceful from orbit.
Take us down," I said. "Now."
***
Havenridge looked busy from the air, but the moment the Iron Reaver settled onto its landing pad I could tell the mood on the ground was tighter than usual.
I descended the ramp with Torv at my shoulder and Atii close behind.
Harlan was already waiting at the base of the platform, datapad in hand, expression carefully controlled. Elara stood a few steps back with two clan representatives, while a cluster of technicians and militia officers hovered nearby, clearly waiting for orders.
The air still carried the faint acrid smell of burned circuitry and scorched metal from the generator failure all the way out here.
"Status," I said as soon as I reached them.
Harlan fell into step beside me as we moved toward the main administrative building. "Clean-up crews have been working around the clock. The old generator is a complete loss. We've cleared most of the wreckage, but the surrounding power relays and security nodes took heavy damage. The new unit from Coruscant is being unloaded now. Estimated time to full installation is ten to twelve hours if nothing else goes wrong."
I nodded once. "Prioritize it. I want power and security fully restored before the end of the day."
We continued inside. The first detailed briefings began almost immediately. Elara's report was measured but grim. Local morale had held, but the prolonged silence and the mounting loses on the trade lanes was starting to worry the native clans and the newer settlers.
Food and material stockpiles were still stable, yet the lack of incoming freighters was beginning to create quiet anxiety.
Then the bleaker information surfaced.
Harlan pulled up a secondary file. "In the last two weeks we've received multiple indirect reports from remaining contacts in the wider sector. Someone has been systematically threatening independent merchants and smugglers across the entire Moff sector (Jerjerrods). Ships that continue to run routes near our systems have been told quietly that further cooperation with Elyria will have consequences."
That fat bastard is either the one behind it or knows about it and is laughing his triple chin at the situation.
"There's more," Harlan continued, voice lowering. "The Black Sun contacts we've maintained a profitable arrangement with have begun pulling back. Quietly, but clearly. One of their intermediaries sent a final message two days ago stating that due to more profitable ventures and shifting market they regrettably have to pull back. When questioned about the ventures they have been elusive and not forthcoming and any information broker under them or even in their sphere of influence are also not willing to sell us the information we would want to know."
That landed heavier than the generator failure.
Black Sun did not lightly walk away from a working arrangement. If they were withdrawing, the pressure being applied across the sector was significant.
And the fact that we just now only realised something is wrong and we are still in the dark says a lot about the enemy we are facing. It's no longer a rag tag group of pirates who's immediate thought is getting a high and a pretty woman on their lap.
I stopped in the corridor and turned to the small group. "Continue the generator installation. Double the work crews if needed. I want a full security audit of every critical system by tomorrow. And start compiling every name, route, and intermediary that has gone quiet or received threats or you think received threats. I want a clearer picture of how far this reaches."
Harlan and Elara both acknowledged the orders.
As they moved off to carry them out, I remained still for a moment in the hallway, the low hum of the damaged power grid still faintly audible through the walls. I had only just returned and already the ground under my feet felt less stable than when I had left.
I am afraid even my new bed is not going to let me sleep lightly today.
***
The first clear signs of deliberate pressure arrived within two days of our return.
I was in the main administrative office reviewing the generator installation progress since the one we bought is top tier core premium and, the infrastructure we have here is well... Not ideal for it.
But we managed to hook up a temporary main generator routing it from the barracks nearby till we get the new one installed, along with clearing all the rubble and updating the infrastructure like the cables and power outlets and shielding.
That's Harlan placed a new set of encrypted transmissions on the holotable.
The messages were all officially stamped and properly formatted, that almost made them worse.
"Three new directives from the sector office," Harlan said quietly. "All issued within the last thirty-six hours."
I opened the first one, it was a formal notice stating that several pending trade approvals for Elyria and the three systems were being delayed pending "additional compliance review." No specific violations were listed neither was there a timeline for resolution given.
The language was polite, bureaucratic, and deliberately vague.
The second message scheduled a series of sudden "routine" inspections. Imperial auditors and compliance officers would be arriving within the next two weeks to examine industrial output, shipping records, and militia readiness across all four systems.
The timing was aggressive, The scope was broad enough to disrupt normal operations for weeks if handled poorly, not to mention that the 'security detail' attached to them was beyond what a so called 'routine' inspection calls for, a proper star destroyer along with 3 small cruisers.
The third was more subtle.
A navigational advisory had been issued for several secondary hyperspace routes that connected our systems to wider trade networks. The advisory cited "increased security concerns" and recommended alternative, longer paths.
In practice, it would raise fuel costs and slow down legitimate traffic while giving patrols under Jerjerrod's authority more opportunities to interfere or outright block incoming and outgoing traffic and to frisk anyone coming through if they felt like it.
I read through each document twice, face darkening as I can feel my eye twitch.
"This isn't random," I said eventually.
Harlan gave a short nod. "No. The wording is careful, but the intent is clear. They're applying pressure without giving us anything solid to challenge. It's not going to halt everything to a stop or stop traffic completely but it will throttle it, I fear if we have stayed in the capital for much longer the scope of this would be larger."
I leaned back in the chair and stared at the floating documents.
Delayed approvals to choke trade.
Sudden inspections to force us onto the defensive.
Shipping interference to isolate the systems further.
It was the kind of quiet administrative warfare that never looked dramatic on a report but could slowly strangle a sector if left unanswered.
Jerjerrod wasn't sending warships or hiring pirates. Not yet anyways.
He was using the machinery of the Empire itself.
I closed the messages and stood up. "Acknowledge receipt of all three directives. Offer full cooperation on the inspections but make sure every record is clean and every facility is prepared. I want no excuses given to them. At the same time, start mapping alternative routes that avoid the new advisory zones. Quietly."
I pause for a brief moment. "Give a call to everyone, I want any interaction with the sector office people recorded and stored in secured location, every interaction meticulously noted and written down."
Harlan hesitated. "And the trade delays?"
"Document everything, every lost contract. Every delayed shipment and every additional cost. Who bent to it, who cooperated with it and who is against it. We're going to need a clear record of how this started, along with who stands where."
He nodded and moved to carry out the orders.
I remained alone in the office for a moment longer, looking at the now-empty holotable.
Everything that has been happening since before we set out till now.
Jerjerrod seems to have had enough and has begun his opening moves, nothing drastic, they were still deniable. Still prettily wrapped in proper procedure.
Expecting me to break and kiss the ground he walks on and let my people and myself suffer because his ego is the size of his stomach and he just wants more and more.
I turned away from the desk and headed for the door.
If he wanted to play bureaucratic games, then we would play them masterfully.
And we would start preparing for the moment the games stopped being bureaucratic, we just need a little bit more time. Hopefully we can find some allies or a trade path soon or we are going to get slowly choked by the greed and ego of one man.
***
Next evening I called a closed meeting with only the people I trusted to handle delicate work. Harlan, Elara, Jaster, Torv, Reza, and Rusty gathered in the secure conference room. The lights were dimmed, the jammers active. I stood at the head of the table and laid out the situation without embellishment.
"We're past the point of treating this as isolated pressure," I said. "Jerjerrod is moving against us through official channels while someone else who is either allied with or working for him is choking off independent traffic across the sector."
I began assigning tasks. "Harlan pull every record we have on the stormtrooper armour and weapon shipments if we caught him once selling it we will do it again and this time we will make sure he wont be able to burry it. Look over he tribute discrepancies from last year, and any previous irregularities tied to Jerjerrod's office. I want a clean, chronological file. No speculation, just evidence."
He nodded and made a note. "Elara, work through native and local merchant contacts. Find out who has been threatened, who has been paid off, and who is simply too afraid to speak. Be careful. I don't want anyone exposed."
Jaster and Torv received the sharper edge of the work. "I want deniable inquiries into the bounty hunter groups that hit our convoy before Coruscant," I continued. "Who hired them, who supplied them, and whether they've taken other contracts in the sector since. Use intermediaries. No direct links back to us, and keep looking for reputable mercs, preferably those far away from this corner of the galaxy that way there is less chance of them having ties to Jerjerrod."
Reza was given the task of monitoring Imperial fleet movements across the wider sector for anything unusual sudden redeployments, quiet build-ups, or supply shipments that didn't match official schedules.
Then I moved to the broader piece. "We also need allies," I said. "Not friends. Interested parties. Other governors in this sector who are feeling the same pressure. Independent merchants who are losing money. Local politicians who don't like Jerjerrod's methods. Extend the search to neighbouring sectors under different Moffs as well. Anyone who has reason to dislike how this sector is being run."
Rusty spoke for the first time. "I can begin passive mapping of communication patterns and trade disruptions across adjacent sectors. It will take time to remain undetected."
"Do it," I said. "Priority on discretion. If Jerjerrod realizes we're building a picture of his activities, he'll accelerate whatever he has planned or worse and with his pull he will take some heat but nothing catastrophic."
The room was quiet for a moment as the weight of the orders settled.
I looked around at them. "This stays compartmentalized there will be no wide discussions or loose talk. We gather information first. We do not react openly until we understand the full shape of what we're dealing with."
The investigations would take time.
Finding people willing to stand against a sitting Moff even quietly would take longer.
But the alternative was to wait until Jerjerrod's pressure became something we could no longer answer.
I cant lean on Pellaeon or Thrawn. They can give me support and back me up once I have evidence but they will not risk it all. Even for a kid of their friends, its just the way empire is. They didn't become top dogs for nothing if not for a closet full of skeletons and acceptable loses and dirty deals, even if some have more than others.
***
Over the next several days I made a point of reviewing the practical state of the system while the quieter investigations began to move in the background.
The orbital dockyard was further along than I had expected. From the viewport of the shuttle I took up to inspect it, the skeletal frame had filled out into something more substantial. Entire sections were now sealed and pressurized.
Two of the larger construction bays were already capable of handling mid-sized vessels for repair and refit with 2 more somewhat ready to start production of small type ships. Progress had slowed slightly during our absence, but the crews had kept working. It was not yet a true shipyard by Core standards, but it was no longer just a collection of scaffolding and ambition.
On the surface, the economy was holding. The factories on the mining moon continued to output refined materials and basic components at steady rates.
The gas giant platform was producing fuel and energy cells without major interruption while local markets in Havenridge and the larger settlements remained stable for now, though the lack of incoming trade ships was beginning to create a quiet tightness around certain imported goods.
Nothing had reached crisis levels, but the direction was clear.
The old pirate shipyard we had taken in the previous campaign sat further out few system out, still under heavy guard. Most of its useful equipment had already been stripped and transferred either to the new orbital dockyard or into secure storage. What remained was being slowly converted into a secondary repair and staging facility. It was ugly, inefficient, and still carried the scars of the battle that had taken it, but it gave us options.
I have been thinking of changing it into a truly dedicated orbital defence platform but the cost of refitting the guns itself would drain Elyria dry so I will have to put it off.
While the larger infrastructure continued its slow growth, I turned attention to the conventional forces.
Patrol schedules were tightened across all four systems, routes were adjusted to cover the most likely approach vectors without creating obvious patterns that would look like a mobilization. Militia training rotations were increased, with emphasis on discipline and unit cohesion rather than flashy exercises.
The new equipment brought back from Coruscant better communication systems, improved personal armour components, and a limited stock of higher-grade weapons was distributed carefully and quietly.
I made it clear in every order that readiness was not to become spectacle, no sudden jumps in visible troop movements. Everything was to look like routine improvement and responsible governance.
Reza oversaw the naval adjustments. Jaster and the Mandalorians took a larger role in sharpening the militia officers while also scouting our borders. Torv focused on the palace guard and rapid-response units.
The work was steady, unglamorous, and necessary.
By the end of the week the system looked slightly better prepared than it had when we returned.
It still did not feel safe but its better than nothing.
***
Late that night I sat alone in the secure office, the lights dimmed and the jammers running at full strength, something that has become almost part of daily life, jammers 24/7.
The investigations were still in their earliest stages. Hard evidence would take time. Allies, however we already found some which was somewhat surprising, of course they need to be vetted more thoroughly so that they have no attachment to good ol' Jerrod.
I pulled up the compiled files Rusty and Harlan had begun assembling incomplete, fragmentary, but enough to start forming a picture.
First were the neighbouring sectors.
Two governors under a different Moff to the galactic north had been quietly complaining for months about increased shipping "inspections" and selective enforcement of regulations. Their systems were not strong, but they were resentful. A third governor, older and more cautious with considerable strength and connections under him, had lost two major trade contracts under circumstances that looked deliberately engineered. None of them were ready to openly oppose Jerjerrod, but resentment could be useful if handled carefully.
Around 38% of governors or people of power and bureaucracy under Jerjerrod are openly dissatisfied with him but are being repressed, around 18% are neutral, too strong for him to openly attack or bully them into submission, 30% are hardliners connected through blood or other strong connections to him and the rest are his supporters but will go where the wind blows.
There were also independent merchant consortiums operating along the edges of the sector. Several had already suffered losses from the sudden threats and route disruptions. A few of their representatives had previously expressed interest in more stable arrangements with Elyria or at least routes that are around us, which yes those routes around us are also being harassed.
Fear might push them further in our direction or drive them away completely.
Then came the mercenary files.
I reviewed them slowly, ,most were immediately discarded like the Company of the Green Tree a Trandoshan mercenary group sporting a dozen or so medium to small cruisers and some advanced fighters and a good core of heavy infantry and light and heavy speeders but their reputation is through the gutter to the point Jerjerrod doesn't even hire them only the most desperate or those without care hire them.
Others are also too unreliable or too willing to sell their previous employer the moment a better offer appeared.
A smaller number showed more promise: groups with established reputations for completing contracts and maintaining discretion. One mid-sized company operating primarily in the Inner Rim had a history of working for planetary governments rather than syndicates, they are made primarily of Naboo people who are not as pacifist as others with only 2 medium cruisers but almost a hundred starfighters and bombers of high quality.
Another, smaller outfit had ties to former Republic military personnel and a reputation for staying bought once the credits cleared.
Jaster's earlier contacts among the less fanatical Mandalorian remnants remained a possible option as well, though that path carried its own complications that I would rather not touch upon.
I leaned back in the chair and stared at the floating list of names, systems, and incomplete intelligence summaries.
None of these people would commit easily. Most would require proof that we were worth the risk. Some would only move if they believed Jerjerrod was already weakening. Others might simply be waiting to see who offered more.
Still, it was a beginning. I saved the files under a deeper encryption layer and shut the holotable down.
We have roughly 3 capital ships, 30 or so cruisers both small to heavy, some retrofitted haulers a hundred or so patrol craft and gunships of various make.
60 or so Z-Hunters. 80 or so TIEs and bombers and an assortment of 50 other starfighters and bombers predominantly Y-wings.
The other systems bring only a few additional ships and less than 100 TIEs. While Grok has been pumping out droids left and right but no real capital ships, we still got the flying donut which is a behemoth in of itself and my trump card, some Munificents and other assorted aircraft and hundreds of Vultures and some Hyena bombers.
Now Mandalorians are technically mine but there is nothing really stopping them to packing up and go but if they stay that's a few Komrks, fighters and some haulers.
Now ground forces is where we shine the most probably, with hundreds of mandalorians, 2 thousand or so dedicated militia with another 2 signing up and training a few thousand clan warriors, 200 palace guards and last I checked around 1100 stormtroopers with around 600 trainees, due to heavy and aggressive recruitment drive courtesy of Vorn and Karlchlan.
So we might not win if Jerjerrod goes balls to the wall all in we might actually hold out long enough for me to beg some assistance, especially if I reveal the droid armies but then I would probably have to answer some uncomfortable questions from the ISB.
Fuck this, I am going to my new bed.