Geonosis isn’t the first time it’s happened – Kallus of all people is excruciatingly aware of that – but this… Geonosis was on the Empire’s side. A move to protect the Empire’s interests. A cover-up, though he’s still not sure what for. It would have to be something very large, larger than a Star Destroyer and more secret.Īt some point, Kallus is forced to come face to face with the uncomfortable truth: the xenocide on Geonosis – because that is the word he must use, there is no other that comes close – was deliberate. What jumps out at him most here is the evidence that isn’t there, that leaves a strange hole. He reads about the construction sites on and around Geonosis. He reads an unexpected old Republic report about mind-controlling worms that almost managed to take out a Padawan, Ahsoka Tano. With every mind-numbing report he finds, his suspicion grows. He learns that the inhabitants disappeared after the canisters came. He finds that canisters of something were shipped to Geonosis. If there’s anything the ISB has taught Kallus, it’s investigation. He is allowed to make subtle enquiries about those nagging questions without anyone so much as blinking. He is alone in his grey empty room with only a datapad and a rock for company, and as a result Kallus is allowed to think unchecked, for perhaps the first time since he was a child. Konstantine barely acknowledges that he exists.) The Rebel was kinder to him than anyone has ever been in his entire life, and the Rebel is – was? - his mortal enemy. He had to pay off a scummy little trader to take him back to his gods-damned employers. (They searched for him with exactly the minimum resources required for an officer of his standing, for exactly the minimum amount of time, and then gave up. Something to keep up the illusion that the Empire is a well-oiled machine, with every soldier in peak condition. The most attention he gets is of the medical variety: some quality time with a bone-knitter, and an hour in bacta for the frostbite. The Empire is content with the return of one of its assets, and nothing more. The Empire believes that he had the skill to survive on his own, and does not even bother to ask about the strange glowing rock he clings to like a lifeline. The Empire has no problem believing that he was the only person in that escape pod, and that the Rebel scum he had been chasing must have gotten away. He gives a short, dishonest incident report. Just as he had after Onderon and Lasan and – and all the other planets, all the other missions that Kallus tries not think about, that all blur together in his head after a while. Kallus avoids a psych eval, just as he has almost every time something like this happens to him. …That he can't get Garazeb Orrelios out of his mind? Now, he wonders whether perhaps the Empire will torture him, if they find out… what? That he's having doubts? That he's thinking? Or that's what Kallus thought, before Garazeb Orrelios saved his life and had a little talk with him. Kallus knows he wouldn't be able to hide his perhaps reluctant alliance with that Lasat for long against the subtle, well worded questions they would ask – for of course, the Empire does not torture its officers. That would be obvious to any psych eval droid, had the Empire bothered to perform a psychiatric evaluation on Kallus at any time after the event. Of course it had all started on that moon. This will ensure the continued secrecy of project Stardust, and open up planet to potential future occupation by the Empire… The Empire has authorised two countermeasures to this issue: 1) that project Stardust be removed from the system to a more secure location in the system 2) that chemical be employed to pacify the species native to. It is this investigation’s belief that the secrecy of project Stardust will soon be compromised, and that the planet will soon no longer be of use to the Empire. There is growing resistance amongst civilians against the beneficent presence of the Empire, and factory strikes have been rampant. …As per the report we have received on, it is evident that a significant percentage of the planet ’s population has become suspicious concerning project Stardust. Stats: Published: Updated: Words: 51,877 Chapters: 44/161 Comments: 112 Kudos: 165 Bookmarks: 7 Hits: 3,836
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