We returned home from our stay at Alpha Base to find that… Everything was fine. We were still waiting for a response from 2nd Group as to how their mission was going, but other than that, things were going well. According to everyone I talked to, our projects at Vercopa were moving along. Already, money was starting to flow as we began to invest heavily in projects to increase our self-reliance and decrease how much we spent. The first project was our farming efforts, which started by finding a river basin close to Vercopa, just a short flight away.

  The area had excellent soil, and with only a small damning project, we could build massive farms safely and without worry of seasonal floodings. It would take at least a month or so to complete, but as the rivers were low now, construction and clearing could also start for the farms themselves. It would be months before the projects were finished, and longer until they started producing food, but it was a start.

  We were also working on manufacturing, starting from the ground and working up. First, we started by scanning the system Nirn was in for useful deposits. After a bit of work, we uncovered several asteroids with materials we wanted, as well as a few thick veins of useful metals on one of the system's barren, uninhabitable planets. Even Nirn's moon had some locations where mining facilities were worth setting up. We did have a bit of bad luck, as the system's only gas giant was not the kind we could extract fuel from, meaning we would either have to search out another system or continue to buy our fuel.

  Quartermaster Finder was in the process of negotiating for a large shipment of almost completely automated mining equipment, which would be expensive but would massively decrease the required monthly expenses since we would have to hire and pay significantly fewer people.

  Plans were advancing nicely, and our group was growing well, expanding and bringing in new people. We were starting to evolve past being just a military faction into something much more well-rounded.

  Once I had been briefed on the immediate progress we had made, I headed down to one of the hangar bays, where Ahsoka and I would finally get to see what sort of ship the still young 4th Group had stolen for themselves.

  The walk was relatively short, as they had parked in one of the separate hangar bays rather than one of the two main sections. Stepping into the hangar was like stepping into a windstorm, the interior a rush of activity. The ship itself, a, was just a bit larger than the , had a comparable armament, and was in the process of being painted our colors. It was the traditional Imperial wedge shape, with a slightly raised bridge and three TIE fighter-like wings, two on either side and one on the bottom. It was an impressive-looking ship, and it looked just about brand new.

  As we watched, several members of the 4th group's first ground team hung around, talking to engineers and helping out where they could. It didn't take long for Sabine to spot us as we entered, the young warrior lightly jogging over to greet us.

  "Boss, Ahsoka," She said with a nod and a smile. "What do you think?"

  "I think it looks good," I responded. "Though I don't know enough about it to tell you if it was a good choice for your ship."

  "It is. The Raiders are designed for strike teams, so it's just about a perfect fit," Ahsoka explained, Sabine nodding in agreement. "I forget what the hangar is like, though."

  "It's good for the ship's size," Sabine assured us. "It's got two hanging in the bay, but I know you don't want our people in those. Miru stopped by yesterday to inspect the ship and see what sort of upgrades we might be able to apply, and she is certain that we should be able to keep four A-wings, as long as they are stacked."

  "That's good, though you don't have to worry about starfighter support," I assured her. "We managed to snag an Imperial Escort Carrier on our most recent mission, and I plan on assigning it to the 4th Group. I'm willing to bet we can fit two squadrons in its hangar."

  "That's great," Sabine said eagerly. "Does that mean we will be ready to start running more missions?"

  "It will take some time to get everything set up and inspected, plus Miru will need time to get the ship up to our standards," I pointed. "During that time, we might start looking for more ships for the group, preferably something for another ground team. Then we need a heavy hitter, something that can serve as the group's tank."

  "You're going to ground us for that long?" Sabine asked, sounding baffled.

  "Of course not, who do you think will be getting those ships?" I said. "You just might not be riding on what you just stole. No, keep looking, work with our mission finders, they should be getting some major upgrades very shortly. If you find something that fits what we are looking for, I can send you out as part of 3rd Group until 4th Group ships and assets are set and ready."

  "Great, that's good news," She said with a nod. "Our team is eager and ready to move."

  "I'm glad to hear it," I said with a nod. "How was that, by the way, leading together?"

  "Honestly, working together with Ezra is just second nature at this point," she answered with a shrug. "He covers my weaknesses, and I cover his."

  "How did the team handle it?"

  "I won't lie, there was some tension," she admitted. "But I think we set a good example, and we were able to prove that together we are stronger than apart, which got them playing nice. Mandalorians approve of anything that makes them or their group stronger, and Jedi love the cohesiveness of people working together. Once you get past the initial tension... it's actually a really potent combination. Like more than either Ezra or I expected."

  "Hmm... Do me a favor. When you get some downtime, reach out to Corvak. Talk to him about any other surviving clans or single Mandalorians out there who would be looking for a home. I'm not interested in religious zealots, but if either of you can think of any Mandalorians who would be interested in having a real home, let me know."

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  "Will do, boss."

  "Great. Now, tell me about your mission," I said with a smile. "I want to hear how it went."

  We talked for a while about their mission, which had more or less gone off without a hitch. After doing some research, the group spotted a system patrol that had gotten a bit predictable, so the Jedi and Mandalorian mixed ground team set up an ambush. The ship landed in its berth, and as it was loading in supplies, the ground team swept in and took control. The worst part, apparently, was waiting for multiple days for the ship to arrive, since they weren't sure of its time frame.

  Eventually, after a short tour of the captured Imperial ship, Ahsoka and I headed to one of the other hangars, where a transport was waiting to take us down to Nirn. We had just stepped onto the ship when my comms went off.

  "Admiral Deacon, this is the Comms officer of the we received an urgent hyperwave message from 2nd Group."

  "I'm on my way," I responded before giving Ahsoka a look. "Looks like time off is canceled."

  "Maybe, but I bet we get another few days of hyperspace to enjoy," She said with a smirk before we both headed to the bridge.

  We arrived just a minute or so later, and the comms officer played the message immediately, which was sent via the It detailed exactly what they had stumbled into, their current plan, and how long it would likely take.

  "Damn… That's one hell of a risk," I stated, trying to envision the scenario in my head. "Brilliant idea, but risky. Not sure what I would have done in that situation."

  I chewed the inside of my lip before shaking my head clear. What could have been didn't matter. My teams were now committed to their plan and had called for backup just in case. What else could I do but back them up?

  "Get 3rd fleet together and prepped," I ordered, giving a look at the Captain of the "They have an hour, I want to leave the second we can. Our people might have bit off more than they can chew. Even if they didn't, they are dancing with the Hutts, can't have too much support when you're doing that."

  The deck became a flurry of activity as they began preparations as we left, Ahsoka and I heading right back to the same hangar as before, where the transport took us to the which was already forming up with the and the

  I warned my crew I would be on mission for a few days before 3rd Group finally jumped to lightspeed, coordinates set to the information that the gave us. Unfortunately, since they were not there during the engagement, they had no idea if the Trojan Horse ploy had worked or not.

  "There are a few issues we could run into," I pointed out during a mid-jump holo conference with the captains of the 3rd Group. "There are a lot of different situations we could be heading into. Assuming that we are stepping into a situation that did not go well, what are we worried about?"

  "From what information we got from the , the only situation we truly need to immediately fear is if the Hutts sent reinforcement," Captain Gimbel pointed out. "We will have plenty of time to retreat if even the Venator is active. If there is much more waiting for us than what our intelligence stated, that quickly stops being a guarantee."

  "Dropping out of hyperspace with some distance should help that," Another captain pointed out. "It would give us significantly more time to retreat."

  "It would also make attacking immediately impossible, which would have otherwise given us a major advantage," Ahsoka pointed out.

  "We should engage at mid-range," I said, a compromise between the two options. "If the situation is dire, then we will pull out and call home for the big guns."

  "You mean the Ahsoka asked.

  "Correct. Unless the Hutts sent a pair of Star Destroyers, having the at our backs would all but guarantee control of the situation," I pointed out. "But that's the last option, in the already worst-case scenario. I have faith in our people that this worked. I'm just playing devil's advocate so we have a plan."

  The trip took two and a half days in total, but we finally dropped out of hyperspace along the edge of a clear spot inside a nebula. It didn't take long for us to spot our ships, looking relatively unharmed. Even the Venator was already designated as an ally.

  A barrage of messages came in, mostly from our own fleet, but several others from ships that had surrendered, hoping we were either reinforcements for them or strangers who could save them from who they insisted were crazy pirates.

  Once we had sorted through our comms and linked up to our own people, the true story came out. The plan to Trojan Horse the Venator had worked flawlessly, our ground troops washing through the ship like a wave, capturing it in less than seven minutes. They had then sliced into the control computer, using the gunnery controls on the bridge to target the Hutt fleet, wiping out a chunk of it before demanding that the Nebulon and several other smaller repair barges and salvage ships surrender. As they were then staring down the barrel of the 2nd Group and the captured Venator's weapons, they quickly agreed.

  some internal command restructuring.

  The Venator was already entirely under our command, and the Nebulon was full of every single battle droid that 2nd Group could move from each ship to the larger ship's hangar. The droids, along with the Lieutenant Riders clone team, were spread out through the bridge and several other key locations to keep the ship locked down. The group had done an incredible job, and now the 3rd fleet could move in and clean up.

  And boy, was it a big mess.

  Don't get me wrong, what the 2nd Group had done was nothing short of brilliant. Despite the… interesting design choice of the Nebulon-B, it was still a formidable ship for its size, especially since this specific model seemed to be modified with extra armored plating along its bow and neck. And that was nothing compared to the Venator, which, despite being a Frankenstein's-monster esque amalgamation of three separate ships, seemed to be in a functional state.

  The large destroyer was a class above even the Its heaviest weaponry was a size above anything our Dreadnaught could bring to bear. Sure, Venators as a whole functioned better as a heavily armed carrier than a front-line, but that didn't mean we couldn't put it to work as both.

  But just because we had captured both of the large ships, as well as a variety of repair vessels, did not mean our problems just went away. For one, we now had the crew for both ships to deal with, somewhere around seven hundred people in total. We needed to scan them, snag anyone with worthwhile bounties, cash those in, and send the "innocent" ones away. We quickly decided to drop them off on various inhabited Outer Rim worlds, spreading them around and letting them work out how they would get home.

  On top of the paid crew, we would need to deal with the nearly four hundred slaves that they had been using as labor and crew. That would be done with a much more gentle hand, though we would still need to scan them for bounties, just in case.

  Then, after all that, every ship we had captured needed to be gone over with a fine-toothed comb for faults, bad parts, or just negligent work. Not only did I not trust the Hutt conclave that funded this project to spend the necessary money to do anything right, but I also didn't trust slave labor to produce safe results when it came to starship repair.

  The payout would be amazing, but it would likely be some time before we saw any of it.

  The first step was to put Skyforge pilots and security on every ship, gathering the Hutt-funded crews and putting them into secure locations. After that, we jumped every ship out of the nebula into deep space, where the Hutts could never find us. Once we were safe from surprise ambushes, we immediately began the scanning process for the old crew and the now-freed slaves, as well as searching the ship for beacons.

  The quicker I could get them off our new ships, the better.

  From there, we would jump the starships again, this time to our designated inspection spot, much closer but still well spaced from Nirn. There, our repair teams would begin the long process of vetting and double-checking nearly everything on the ship.