As always, arriving back at Nirn was a weight off my shoulders. It had taken a few extra days, as we were forced to wait in deep space for the Rebellion to pick up their new ship and hand over payment for it. Watching the Arquitens go was more than a little painful, but the three million credits were nice, as was the increase in the Rebellion's debt.

  I just had to remind myself that there would be other opportunities to pick up ships like the Arquitens. After all, the Imperial Navy was massive, and they seemed determined to give us more starships than we could ever need.

  By the time we arrived in orbit around Nirn, we were all getting a bit antsy to be home, enough that when we finally arrived, it was easy to see everyone's improved mood. Even those of us who stayed on the working in the production and repair section of the ship, were happy to be in orbit once more, as if simply being near Nirn brought them comfort.

  My crew almost immediately headed down to the surface, and I was soon to follow them after dealing with some business, namely talking to the quartermaster about our progress towards independence. He reported that our farms and production facilities were developing as planned and that the first delivery of gas refinement equipment had arrived while we were gone.

  Luckily, this particular delivery did not require as they deployed the equipment directly on Nirn's moon at a preselected location. A cadre of repair and labor droids then set up the delivery under the watchful eye of several specialists, new members of the Skyforged, who were stationed in a single, sizable, pressurized module. Not only would the module serve as a command and control center for the refinement operation, but there was enough space for ten people to live, more than enough to run and maintain whatever equipment the droids couldn't. The lack of atmosphere on the moon did make things more complicated, but given just how horrible the emissions for the refiners were, most people agreed keeping them off the planet was for the best.

  On top of our slow but steady progress to independence, or at least being less dependent on off-planet goods, the economy of Vercopa was flourishing. Dozens of small businesses were popping up, with credits beginning to circulate naturally, beyond just what the Skyforged injected into it. Cargo transport was still a bit of an issue since the Vanguard still ran all outgoing and incoming shipments, but the citizens seemed to understand that it was for a good reason.

  Even better, people were starting to find local alternatives, like fibrous plants for making cloth. One enterprising teenager had realized that a specific weed, one thought dangerous since it contained a lightly caustic chemical, could be mixed with several other ingredients to make a surprisingly potent cleaning solution. He and his family had started a large business, supplying half the colony with this safe yet effective cleaning product.

  When I arrived back on Nirn, the first thing I did was take a short tour of the city, checking out the construction crew's progress. In preparation for a new wave of growth, a few dozen buildings had been built, including two large apartment buildings. The construction team received some reinforcements and some more equipment, and I was hopeful that we would be able to keep up with our next recruitment run.

  I also toured the manufacturing facilities and farmland, marveling at just how quickly we were expanding and evolving as a colony and people. Then again, with how many credits we were throwing at it, I would be slightly concerned if progress was slow.

  When I was done with my tour, I spent some time with the Jedi, talking and meeting with many of them and listening to their concerns. I had agreed to take responsibility for them, at least temporarily, which meant I needed to know what they wanted and needed. I approved the purchase of some specific training equipment, a restocking of their lightsaber parts, as well as several trips to Dantooine.

  Apparently, there were quite a few Jedi who needed their own crystals so they could build or, in some cases, rebuild their lightsabers. I would only reveal the location to Amescoll, who agreed to run the missions personally. Everyone else would have no idea where they were going or where they had landed.

  The older Jedi would be running four trips in total, using his experience in the process to help anyone who needed it. Unlike the original Gathering tradition, however, they would return directly to Nirn to construct their lightsabers. Despite that change, still volunteered to join Amescoll since they had worked together previously. We did have Huyang download a backup of his historical records, however, since he was a treasure trove of Jedi lore dating back thousands of years.

  The last thing I approved of for the Jedi was the construction of a trio of lecture halls large enough for three hundred hundred people each. The Jedi wanted a place to give presentations, discuss, and teach the way of the Force, a place where opinions could be expressed and debated rather than the decreed rhetoric style used by the last Jedi Order.

  After a bit of a discussion with an architect and an engineer, we had a vague design idea for them to work with. The three halls would be built in a large circular structure, with a central room for storage and other necessary rooms. The halls themselves would be open-air, with a closed-in section in the middle for storage and meeting rooms. To keep them functional during off-weather, we would install an environmental barrier, similar to what the Rebellion used as their emergency ejection EVA suit, just on a much larger scale. This would keep everything dry, warm, or cool, depending on what the people using it wanted.

  I agreed that it was a worthwhile investment, as long as anyone who wanted to could come and participate in the lectures, or even perform their own. The fact that everyone I talked to readily agreed, and was even excited by the concept, was an incredibly good sign.

  The best part of the whole thing was that they planned on using natural Nirn stone for the vast majority of the structure, which, for us, meant we only had to pay for labor since we had already set up several quarries that had more than enough stone for the project.

  Not long after finishing my meetings with the Jedi, we also received an update on the Venator's progress. The Mon Calamarians had managed to get around a fourth of the work done, perhaps a bit more by the eyes of the workers. The update also included a secret message from Sabine and Ezra, assuring us that nothing suspicious was going on as far as they could tell.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  It was the third day of recovery, just after Tatnia and I started meeting with Intelligence to hash out our next mission, when the 3rd and 2nd Groups returned from Tatooine.

  It was immediately apparent that the had taken a minor amount of damage, with some turbolaser carbonization along its hull, which led to one of its own turbolasers, which was now non-functional. Beyond that, according to the captains of the ships, everything had gone about as well as we could have hoped.

  When they first arrived, quite a bit of Jabba's fleet had already run, happily taking their new ships and leaving Tatooine behind. They would likely travel as far away as they could, out from under the Hutt cartel's thumb, where they would probably become pirates and raiders eventually. The few ships that remained had clearly fought off another splinter part of the fleet, as they were floating amid a debris field several starships thick. The survivors were damaged but seemingly determined to protect Jabba's planet, insisting that the footage we had sent out was a hoax.

  Thankfully, at that point, our group still had the with them, so the two groups had a good amount of firepower. In the end they managed to damage the , as it was acting as the fleet's tank, but were quickly taken down and destroyed.

  Tatnia asked if there was anything worth salvaging, but as far as their scans had come up, they had been pretty thoroughly damaged even before they arrived, and they had then proceeded to smash them down even more during their battle.

  Once the space battle was over, as planned, we began landing groups of troops down on the surface, large battalions of droids distributed to several of the planet's cities, including Mos Eisley and Mos Espa. Violence was tamped down pretty heavily, and our forces worked hard to free any slave they could get their hands on, with nearly a hundred and fifty of them returning with them to work with us.

  While the situation was still not optimal, 2nd and 3rd groups, as well as the extra droid troops, were able to keep the situation from spiraling out of control, or from being taken advantage of immediately. By the time they left, several new leaders had arisen, spread across the major cities, who were working together to set up a ruling council. A few of them were even former slaves.

  We would have to keep an eye on the growing situation, but for now, we had done all we could. If the planet had been closer, we could have possibly come up with some sort of patrol route, but we didn't have enough assets to protect our own planet. Never mind adopting a new one that was barely habitable.

  After meeting with everyone from 2nd and 3rd Group, I started the process of interviewing the former slaves to allow them access to the surface and work here long term. I was about thirty people in when it finally happened, something I had been waiting for since we had first started recruiting.

  I found an Imperial spy.

  It was an older human male, who at first explained that he had been a slave on Tatooine for twenty years, and had been freed when we started removing tracking and explosive implants. He had initially refused to join up, only coming back just as the groups were planning to leave, reporting that he had skills in speeder and starfighter repair he had picked up while under the ownership of a ship landing pad owner. He even had a cut along his neck, just starting to heal, as if he had had an implant removed.

  Unfortunately for him, he was not prepared to hide the truth once he was convinced everything was okay and there was no source of conflict or any threat. I was his friend, after all, why would he hide anything from me?

  "So tell me, do you have any plans to betray the Skyforged?" I asked, looking up at him from my tablet.

  "I do," he answered simply, catching me off guard. "I plan on revealing your location to my superiors once I am able to figure it out."

  Once I had recovered from my shock, I sat up straight, my hand immediately on my pistol, while my left hand recast the calm spell into his chest.

  "Who exactly do you work for?" I asked next, suddenly very awake.

  "I am a member of the Imperial Military Intelligence," He explained.

  "Right... would you mind telling me why you were sent to us?"

  "Your organization is making people nervous," He explained. "I was ordered to ascertain your location so you could be taken care of."

  "Interesting. Was anyone else sent on this mission? Do you have any comrades coming with you or after you?"

  "I was the only operative close enough to make it to your recruitment drive before you left," He explained calmly. "But there will likely be more, even if I am successful. The more opportunities we have working with you, the more we can sabotage your operations, making taking you down easier."

  "That is a lot of interesting information," I said with a smile, once again recasting calm." Listen, I hope you don't mind, but I have quite a few more questions. I'm going to invite a few friends to chat, so just sit tight, okay?"

  "Okay," he said with a shrug, as if he was happy to help.

  I sent a comms to Corvak, who was on board the Fury, moving his people back into the as well as working with Miru to try and design a simple anti-beskar weapon. Together, we drained the spy out for all he was worth. Unfortunately, there wasn't much he could tell us beyond his mission, his orders, and whatever information his superior had given him to prepare for the mission.

  "The fact that they are trying is not surprising," I pointed out once our interrogation was over. "It took them longer than I thought, to be honest."

  "What are the chances someone might have already slipped through?" Corvak asked, looking through the one-way window of the interview room at the worried-looking spy.

  "Very little," I said, shaking my head. "I've met and magically interviewed everyone on the planet's surface. Besides, most of our people don't even know the coordinates of the planet. They would need to figure it out with scanned information. I'm more concerned about physical devices than I am about people. Some sort of beacon or tracker."

  "That… does seem more likely with how strict we have been with your scanning and information control," Corvak admitted. "What do we do?"

  "We up our security," I said with a shrug. "Let's see if Finder can get his hands on some high-detail scanning equipment. I want a ship that can scan a ship's hull for abnormalities. Beyond that… we just keep being careful. We already scan our ships pretty heavily before making the last jump here, so let's start double-checking. Other than that… maybe ask around? We may be stumped, but someone else might have an interesting idea or two about how to lock this place down. I'll be the first to admit this whole espionage thing is not my strong suit."

  "Fair enough… Maybe we should find some people willing to spearhead that," he suggested before nodding. "I will ask around. What are we doing with the spy?"

  "Keep him around for a few days in case we think of any questions that we missed," I said. "After that, knock him out and kill him. He came here with the explicit purpose of doing us harm. He'll get no mercy from me."

  With a disaster averted, I finished interviewing the rest of the incoming members from Tatooine. A good amount of them were people with repair and maintenance experience, but plenty of them were slated for training as crew or even starfighter pilots. At the same time, a significant chunk of them were excited to learn how to farm.

  When I was finally done, I made my way through heading down to the private hangar. It was there that I would finally start working on a project I had been putting off for a few days. Now that I had been gifted a physical sword, one made from beskar even, it was time to enchant it. I had been trying to puzzle out just what I wanted to put into it for the last few days, and it was finally time to make it happen.