Star Wars: Daimon's Story-Chapter 156: Things Are Not What They Seem

The galaxy may seem like it was at peace, but that wasn't how the Imperium was seeing it. The first was the rising tensions between the Jedi and Sith, which by proxy brought the Republic into the conflict as well. Already there have been several skirmish battles between the Jedi and Sith on the world of Taris.

Taris was conquered and colonized by the Mandalorians before their war with the Sith over a thousand years ago. The planet continued to grow, only suffering a small set back after the Sith invaded and took over. However, now the planet was against Sith rule.

The people rose up against the Sith and managed to make the planet a contested zone where small skirmishes happened between the resistance fighters and the Sith for the past two centuries. Somewhere during this time, the Jedi got involved with this conflict after the Sith Massacre 50 years ago.

The Massacre was when 100 Sith Lords were deployed to the planet to assist in quelling the resistance. However, when they arrived, the Sith Lords started to kill thousands alongside the Sith Imperial Army. This brought some drawbacks from the Republic and the people of the planet itself.

It also attracted Daimon's attention which ended up being bad for the Sith as Daimon intervened in the conflict. Instead of outright going in with the military, Daimon declared the capital city of Taris, Olaris and its surrounding areas a safe zone.

This meant that no military forces from either side could enter these areas without permission first. To enforce this, Daimon sent a garrison of 1,000 Balance Keepers, and 50,000 Ascendants from the the Aurifex Legate. The Aurifex Legate were the Ascendant legion under Progenitor Telys Kaor.

Their gear revolved around Force-infused Modular weapons, combat drones, and wearable tech tailored for all specific battlefields. Their signature weapon was an Arc-Fused Force blades that were created through Progenitor Telys Force-forging technique, then there was their secondary which was a standard Ascendant blaster rifle.

Deploying them to Taris was a spit in the face of the Sith Empire as they were not ready for total war with the Imperium. So, they voiced their disagreement with the decision, but what could they do against the vast power of the Imperium.

After this happened, the Sith was also restricted in how many ships they could bring into the system. This allowed the Jedi Order to get involved and deploy some of their own forces to the planet to help out the resistance. The Order itself claimed that these were a group of Jedi acting independent of the Order, but the Sith didn't believe that, as it wasn't true to begin with.

The Sith were angry about the safe zone. They had been angry about it for fifty years and would likely remain angry about it for another fifty.

But that was just one of the conflicts that existed throughout the galaxy.

In the western part of the Unknown Regions, the Varraxian Technocracy had some two centuries ago, uplifted the Ssi-ruu species on the planet of Lwhekk. Things were going great, until the Ssi-ruu themselves decided that they did not want to be under the influence of the Varraxian's anymore.

So, they declared war and have been fighting the Varraxian's for a year now. Normally, the Varraxian's would be winning this war, but over the centuries, they have severely de-funded their military in exchange for more scientific and engineering research.

Now, their military was so small that even the Ssi-ruu who have just become a spacefaring species is slowly winning against them.

In the Kingdom of Rylothis, the peace that had lasted was coming to an end after the current King and his heir was just assassinated which left a power vacuum inside the Kingdom. Imperial intelligence predicted that this was going to escalate into another war with various factions vying for power.

Daimon was just about fed up with these constant wars and was thinking about breaking off his little agreement with Princess Seraphine and getting involved. But it was only a thought so for now he would just sit on the sidelines.

In the Republic, there was currently a massive debate going on over whether or not to increase military spending due to the rising tensions around the galaxy, and the rising threat of the Sith Empire. The Senate was at a stalemate with nearly equal sides arguing for and against the proposal.

The pro-funding faction argued that the Sith Massacre on Taris fifty years ago had demonstrated that the militarized Sith Empire were evil and would do anything to advance their goals. They stated that the current Republic fleet wasn't adequate to defend themselves from a full-frontal war with the Sith or any other threats that may exist.

The opposing faction argued that that increasing military spending would send the wrong message to the Sith Empire especially with everything that was going on.

The cold war had remained cold for four centuries because neither side had given the other a justification to escalate. A Republic military buildup would be interpreted as preparation for aggression regardless of how many times the Senate explained its defensive intent.

The Jedi Order had been asked for an advisory opinion and had declined to offer one. The current Grand Master, a human woman explained to the Senate committee that the Order did not consider military policy to fall within its advisory competence. The committee found this answer deeply unsatisfying.

The stalemate had been ongoing for three months and showed no signs of resolving itself.

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On Veldari, Daimon was starting this year off with a group of nobles who had been the key figures in a sex trafficking ring in the Western part of the Imperium which consisted of the former coalition and Theocracy territories.

They had used their power and influence as sector governors to manipulate and blackmail planetary governors into kidnapping people and using them for sexual pleasure. This ring had only existed for a hundred years and was discovered six months ago by an Imperial Intelligence Directorate operation that had been tracking unusual population discrepancies in three border systems. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The discrepancies were small at first. Census records that didn't quite align with birth and death registrations. Transport manifests that listed cargo weights that were inconsistent with what they actually were carrying. Nothing that would have flagged as significant in isolation. But the Directorate's analytical division had developed pattern recognition protocols that were exceptionally good at finding things that people were trying to hide.

The investigation had expanded outward from those three border systems until it encompassed eleven sector governorships, forty-seven planetary administrators, and a network of private transport companies that had operated as legitimate businesses for decades.

The number of victims identified so far was 23,000. The Directorate believed the actual number was higher. Perhaps significantly higher.

Daimon had read the full report three times. Not because he hadn't understood it the first time, but because he wanted to be certain that his understanding of the scale was accurate.

The nobles were brought into the throne room of the Imperial Palace in a group under heavy Empyrean Guard escort. There were 19 of them, and they didn't even know why they were brought here, as Daimon had them brought under the lie that they were urgently needed by the Warmaster for some plans.

All of this was a lie and instead, they were brought to the throne room to have their trial.

As they walked in, they were wondering why they were brought to the throne room of all places as it was a place that didn't get used regularly. They then wondered why they were meeting the Warmaster in the throne room which was used exclusively by the Emperor.

Around the room were formations of Empyrean Guards and Balance Keepers who watched as the group were escorted to the throne room.

That's when the group realized that something was off. But it was too late to run now. They were in the most protected place in the Imperium. Getting out was impossible.

"My Lords, I was told that the Warmaster had summoned us. Where is he?" asked one of the nobles. But the Empyrean Guards didn't even look at them. They continued walking towards the throne until they reached a line of Empyrean Guards which stood at the steps of the throne.

"Now entering his Imperial Highness, Emperor Daimon." announced one of the Empyrean Guards.

The massive doors behind the throne opened, and Daimon walked through them.

The nobles had seen images of the Emperor. Every citizen of the Imperium had. His face was on currency, on monuments, on the walls of temples across thousands of worlds. They knew what he looked like.

But knowing what something looked like and standing twenty meters from it were entirely different experiences.

The room became very quiet as Daimon walked to the throne and sat down. He looked at the group for a long moment without speaking.

Several of the nobles had already begun to understand that this had nothing to do with the Warmaster, but a few of them still acted oblivious.

"Your Highness, I didn't expect to meet you here. If so, I would have brought a gift to present to….." He was cut off.

"You've already brought me a gift. Twenty-three thousand of them actually." The noble who had been speaking stopped after hearing what the Emperor said. The color drained from his face as he knew what the Emperor was talking about and also knew how fucked he was.

The room went completely silent as nobody said a word. Daimon let this silence sit for a few more seconds, daring any of them to say a word before continuing.

"I want to be precise about what is going to happen in this room," he said. "This is not a negotiation. It is not an opportunity to explain yourselves or to present evidence of your good character or to remind me of your service to the Imperium. I have read everything. Every communication, every transport manifest, every financial record, every testimony from every victim that my Directorate has been able to locate."

He looked at them one by one, and each one he looked at couldn't hold his gaze.

"What I want from you is simple. You are each going to answer one question, and I want the answer to be accurate because I already know the truth and I am measuring your response against it."

A noble near the back, a heavyset human who had governed a sector of former Coalition territory for sixty years, began to sweat visibly. He had built his reputation on administrative efficiency. His sector's integration numbers were among the best in the western territories. He received a commendation from Imperial authorities 14 years ago.

"Your Highness, I have no….." That was all the words he was able to get out as Daimon stood up from his throne and started to Force choked the noble. Then he slung him into the ceiling and let go, watching his body fall and hit the ground.

The other nobles were more than visibly shaken. They were full of fear, as they should be, for despicable people like themselves.

"The question," Daimon said, "is how many people."

"Each of you will tell me the number of individuals that passed through the network under your authority. Not the total network number. Your number. The people whose movement you personally authorized, facilitated, or chose not to report when you became aware of it."

One of the nobles, a human male who had served as a planetary governor on a world that had been under the Theocratic Dominion before the conquest, stepped forward slightly.

"Your Highness," he began, "I want it noted that my involvement was limited to….." Daimon nodded to one of the Empyrean Guards who grabbed the nobles head, slung him to the ground, and started to pulverize his face until it was unrecognizable.

"I didn't ask for context," Daimon said. "I asked for a number. And the next time I hear something I don't like, everybody here will die a very painful death. Then I will parade your families through the streets as they are cursed and spit on by the public. Or I can just jettison them towards the sun but give them a suit so they will slowly cook the closer they get."

The nobles didn't attempt anything else and provided the numbers. The process took forty minutes. Everybody gave their numbers immediately. The numbers varied with the smallest being 31, given by a junior administrator who had been brought into the network late and had, according to the Directorates assessment, genuinely tried to limit his involvement once he understood what he had become part of. The largest was 4,847, given by the sector governor who had been running the network's primary logistics operation for sixty years.

When the last noble had finished speaking, the room was quiet again until the doors opened and a group of children, teens, and a few adults came in. A few of the nobles recognized them immediately.

They ran towards Daimon, "Your Highness." One of them called as they hugged Daimon's leg.

Daimon reached his hand out and rubbed the head of the little one as the others also came in. These were children that had been without parents and were force sensitive. The fact that they were force-sensitive made what the nobles did to them a capital offense.

"How is everybody?" Daimon asked.

"We're doing pretty good sir." Said one of the teens who was a little shy. It was natural when one so young met Daimon or other Gen'Dai who lived for thousands of years.

The other followed suite and said that they were all doing good. All of them had in the past days, undergone treatment for the aftereffects of being sex trafficked. Daimon also healed them mentally as much as he could, making their progress speedy.

"So now, tell me which ones you recognize." Daimon asked as the group began to point out numerous nobles whom they recognized.

Those singled out nobles were dragged away leaving the rest to await their fates which had already been decided. These nobles were just the main people who were involved. The others would be brought in, executed, and their families stripped of all nobles' status once they're arrested.

There was no hiding from anybody involved and all would be brought to justice.