Returning to Nirn with Clan Galti in tow, I wasn't sure how my people would respond. We were recovering from some casualties, and those casualties happened while we were attempting to rescue their leader. It wasn't too far of a stretch to envision some level of tension arising with their joining. I didn't think it was guaranteed or anything; my people were pretty accepting, but it was still something that tickled the back of my mind.

  Thankfully, as we arrived, my worries were proven completely wrong, and the Clan was accepted with open arms. It was not a full, city-wide block party, but we did have a celebration, which did end up lifting the city's spirits quite a bit.

  Moving our newest members in proved, to me at least, that Vi was taking this change seriously. When given an option for where her people could move in, she spread them out around the city, letting her people integrate fully, rather than creating some sort of Little Mandalore issue by having all of them live in one place. I hadn't even considered the problem until she solved it herself.

  Almost immediately, just a bit over a day after they were settled in, three of Vi's people came to me, along with one of Corvak's civilians and a few others, proposing something that we had been holding off on for a bit.

  Nirn's first brewery.

  The group obviously couldn't afford to build one themselves, since their plan was to create something big enough to supply the growing city. Still, they come to me with a sizable chunk of credits, a well-thought-out plan, and a list of flagship beverages that wouldn't take too long to make, to keep the whole enterprise from working at a loss for very long.

  The Mandalorians knew the recipe for, a traditional Mandalorian drink, which we tasted previously while working with Clan Galti. Corvak and Vi both assured me that the drink would sell well on the open market and that it wasn't overly expensive to produce. That, combined with about four more normal drinks, and some plans for longer-term beverages that would need time to age, the group convinced me to invest in the plan, covering the cost of labor and the creation of the facility.

  To be honest, I didn't need a lot of convincing. We had considered setting up a brewery before, and again when I first learned that Clan Galti had traditional brewers among their civilians. Alcohol was already a common source of trade, and being able to make our own would not only lower the costs, but it would also provide us with a source of incoming credits to stimulate the local economy. It could also be a source of good morale, both from consuming and being known for producing something people enjoy.

  It didn't hurt that I enjoyed the Ne'tra Gal when we tried it before.

  Once the new arrivals began to settle, Sheora contacted me, asking to speak in person about something we apparently managed to grab during the Gideon raid and rescue. I agreed and hopped on a shuttle, flying off the planet and toward the Fury. As I did, my ship passed the yet-to-be-renamed Gladiator, watching as repair ships floated along one of its forward "spikes." It had been damaged during the capture process and was now being patched with spare armor plating.

  The Gladiator was an interesting conundrum, one I contemplated as we flew by. I had no plans on selling it, as it fit our MO way too well. The hangar could likely fit three squadrons of starfighters, and it also had an incredible troop-carrying capacity. With a few escorts, it could be a Group all its own, carrying ground teams and troop transports, as well as a supporting droid army. Or it would make the start of a powerful third grouping for 3rd Group.

  The problem was that it was an Imperial design through and through, meaning its crew requirements were insane. Over a thousand people to control and maintain a ship that was six hundred meters long. Apparently, Gideon agreed in some way, as there was a cursory attempt at shrinking the crew size, but nothing near what we would need to make it a functioning member of our fleet. Unfortunately, like the modifications to the Hope, really fixing the crew size would require some serious work, and would require a functioning repair station, something big enough for the large ship.

  And that meant contacting the Rebels and bargaining for a ship bay at Mon Cal's shipyards.

  The IPV we stole was already being worked on, was well on its way to being upgraded, and would be part of the 5th Group, along with the CR90 and the Marauder, which were already assigned to it.

  As I arrived at the Fury, I made my way around to Sheora's office, which was in our intelligence offices. By now, Sheora was running an entire department, going through news and rumors from around the Out and Mid Rim, but also analyzing information from the Rebellion Intelligence network, which was part of the same deal we made to let the Rebellion accrue debt.

  As I entered their office space, several people stood up, but I waved them off, allowing them to focus on their work. Meanwhile, I approached Sheora, who was standing at a table, looking at a star chart.

  "Alright, so what's up?" I asked as she spotted me. "Seemed like you found something."

  "I swear, Deacon, your people are the luckiest bastards in the galaxy," She said, shaking her. "Your ground teams had minutes to loot the base before you called a retreat, minutes! And yet, somehow they still managed to find something worthwhile."

  I raised an eyebrow, letting the ex-Rebel talk since she had clearly built up some steam.

  "Lieutenant Rider's men walked into a building, started looking around, and left minutes later, and one of them snagged that on the way out."

  Sheora was pointing to a datapad I hadn't noticed before. Now that she was pulling my attention to it, I could see that it was a more Imperial design than the datapads we generally used.

  "A data pad, completely random, recovered from a dead officer, that contains a curious amount of data which I am almost certain he should not have had," Sheora said. "Good news for us, though, because it contains information on the sale between two Moffs, both of which were working with Gideon, funding his project."

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  "What kind of sale?"

  "A rare Imperial ship, in exchange for three and a whole lot of credits. Most of which would go directly to the Moff's pocket," she explained. "Since Moffs are stingy and controlling, while transferring ownership, each ship will only be running a light, skeleton crew. Just enough to jump to lightspeed and lock them in orbit around their destination. Four ships, in great quality, with barely any crew to stop you."

  "That… is one hell of a tempting situation," I responded. "What is the rare ship? And what are the chances this is an ambush?"

  "If you found this on Gideon, unlocked and conveniently on display, then I wouldn't have even bothered to contact you, honestly," She admitted with a shrug, most likely intentionally leaving out the ship class. "But a random officer, in a random building? How would they predict that?"

  "Hand out the datapads to every officer and tell them they have to carry them with them," I spitballed. "Though then you run the risk of us finding multiple of them…Okay, fair enough. Now, what is this rare ship?"

  "In exchange for thirty million credits and three Arquitens… Moff Burbill will be receiving a single."

  With a smirk and a gesture, Sheora switched the projector over to show the ship she was referring to, along with some metrics. It was most definitely not the I was familiar with, and occasionally saw in my nightmares. At six hundred meters long, it was just about the same length as our new Gladiator, and according to the data Sheora had, but it needed more than twice the crew. Even with Imperial standards, that was a lot.

  "That… Is a lot of ship," I commented, staring at the slowly rotating projection.

  "Yup," Sheora responded.

  "Especially after getting the Gladiator."

  "That's true."

  "We are supposed to be focusing on automated systems so we can consolidate our size, not triple it."

  "That was the plan."

  "Getting the Rebellion to spare two ship berths for this and the Gladiator is going to be like pulling teeth."

  "Without a doubt."

  "And wouldn't just be going for the Immobilizer," I admitted with a frown. "We would have to shoot for at least some of the Arquitens."

  "It would be a waste of an opportunity not to."

  "God dammit..." I finally said, shaking my head. "You sure this isn't a trap?"

  "As sure as I can be," She responded. "There is always that risk, now that we've started seriously messing with things. Vader hates you in particular, Deaco. There is no way he ever stops trying to catch you."

  "What sort of resistance are we looking at?"

  "Nothing that we can't handle, especially if it's just a hit and run," Sheora assured me, tapping the datapad. "Of course, this will be happening around an Outer Rim planet, in secrecy, since the Emperor has recently become very protective of his Interdictors, and would frown on his Moffs using them as bargaining chips. I wonder why that is?"

  "Nice to know that battle did something other than just ruin my sleep schedule," I responded, shaking my head. What's the time frame on this? What sort of data do we have on this?"

  "The time frame is four weeks, something about needing time to gather up all those credits. We have just about everything you might need to set up an ambush," my head of intelligence answered. "The only thing we need to focus on is finding a way to ambush them properly."

  I nodded at her words, honestly only half listening. My eyes were locked in the slowly rotating image of the ship, internally fighting a rising feeling of anxiety. While the last mission had been an ambush, and we did lose people, I knew I couldn't let myself be locked in indecision over the fear of losing more people. We were living in a dangerous galaxy, plying a dangerous trade. Not only that, but we were doing a lot of good for the galaxy, clearing our slavers and pirates, preparing the Rebellion, and fighting against the Empire.

  I knew all of this, and I was still struggling to accept that this was a good idea, that we should start planning immediately. Sheora seemed to at least sense some of this, as she stayed quiet, waiting for me to respond. After a long, dull minute, I let out a long, ragged breath, finally nodding.

  "Alright, you're right, this is a great opportunity," I agreed. "The tactical advantage an Interdictor could give us is massive, not to mention the three Arquitens. They make great additions to our fleet, or as a trade to the Rebellion. And if we can't get a ship berth at a shipyard for a while, then we can always mothball it and land it on the moon or something."

  "So does that mean we are going for it?"

  "Yes, but we need to get a preliminary team together to start planning now," I said, shaking my head. "The only way I accept this happening is a complete and utter stomping. I don't even want there to be a chance."

  "Sounds like something we can do," she said with a nod. "You want me to start calling people, or…"

  "No, first just let me read the info," I said, holding out my hand and accepting a datapad when Sheora handed it to me. "I'll call for a meeting after reviewing it."

  Sheora nodded and offered me a spot at the table, letting me sit down to read through the information we had about the deal and about the Moffs in general. The two Moffs involved in the deal, Moff Burbill and Moff Calyso, were both fairly influential, and the systems they were in charge of were just a bit more complex than we usually dealt with. That said, most of their defenses were not the kind you could just send out whenever you wanted to, and even if both of the leaders brought all of their mobile defenses, we should still be able to handle them.

  That said, it was unlikely that the Moffs would arrive themselves, which made it unlikely that they would send all of their mobile fleets. So, as long as we were prepared for the maximum size, we would be more than enough to handle what they actually sent.

  The more I read, the easier it was to move past the anxiety and hesitation of calling another mission. It was still there, and would likely stick around for quite a while, unfortunately, but by the time I finally called our first meeting bout the potential target, I was working through it pretty well.

  Once the first group was gathered, we went over the situation, Sheora presenting the details before I cut in to wrangle the meeting towards working ideas.

  "Alright, we have just about three weeks to come up with a solid plan," I explained, eying the group. "We have all the details we may need, but I want a solid plan, and at least three solid backup plans. This is also a great chance to slap the hands that helped make the Gideon problem a reality, and I want this whole thing to run smoothly like a well-oiled machine. So let's start from the top and work it all out. Once we have an outline, we can bring in more people and start working out the details."