“Lord Zaros promises security and wealth. We have medicine that far exceeds your current abilities. We also have the ability to create better infrastructure for the city,” Bariss said with her hands outstretched. She was currently addressing the assembled council of Cleo station. In front of her, arranged on ramshackle chairs were the five elders who made up the council. Around our meeting, pressed as close as they could get, were probably all of the citizens of the station.

It was decided, quite easily, that Bariss would play the carrot to my stick. So, I was happy to let her offer the world so long as she stayed within the bounds of what I was willing to give. And to these people, what we had to offer was basically a set of impossible-to-refuse comforts and necessities.

“Our droids can rebuild the city in its entirety. You can have new wells, better irrigation, power generators, and indoor plumbing,” Bariss explained.

“And what would you have us do in return?” questioned one of the humans on the council. He was probably the only one I would consider an actual elder. He looked to be over seventy years old with tanned leathery skin and pure white hair.

Bariss looked at me and I nodded in return.

“We require sole access to the old factories and foundries. The fabricators that you have lost power to. We may need to confiscate other structures as well, but we would be willing to compensate for anything we take,” she offered.

I rolled my eyes.

“That’s it?” the old man asked suspiciously.

“You would also accept me as your unquestionable lea-“ I began to say.

“We are offering civilization. There would be laws of course…and a power structure. Citizens of any society have duties as well. But the benefits would surely outweigh any costs,” Bariss quickly explained after cutting me off.

“And your leeader heeere, would beee at theee heeead?” another councilmember asked. This elder was a Gand. The insectoid was wearing tattered but thick robes and a respirator that seemed to elongate some of his words.

“Obviously,” I replied after pushing past Bariss.

“Is it brave or stupid to walk into our midst?” asked a third council member with a chortle. This one was a Dug. The reptilian creature had arms longer than its diminutive legs. Its snout was settled into a sneer as if it knew something I didn’t.

More telling than his sneer was danger radiating off it. That danger was mirrored in many of the people scattered around us. It was…infectious. As I felt their willingness to kill wash over me, it seemed to seep into me.

I continued forward until my proximity with the council members elicited a general unsheathing of weapons.

Then I continued onward towards the Dug. It had two Dug guards standing, I guess you could call it standing though Dugs stood on their hands, behind it with weapons raised. As I got closer, they lowered their spears in front of the councilmember to ward me off from getting closer.

I continued walking closer, so they raised the jagged weapons towards my neck.

I only stopped when the blades were inches from my neck.

Then I said, “I’m motivated by neither bravery nor ignorance. Harming me or my group would be the worst decision of your life.”

“Did you take this meeting to surrender, or did you take it because your enemy’s leader would present himself helplessly among you?” I asked before the Dug could answer.

“Lord Zaros, we are here to negotiate,” Interjected the human.

“That may be your plan, but I wonder if your compatriots shared it. I mean, wouldn’t this be the perfect chance to kill the enemy’s leader? I’m sure the worm in front of me is thinking just that,” I replied without taking my eyes of the Dug.

“Weee can offer you protection from the raiders! You’ve seen our army. That isn’t even close to the whole thing. Those ships in the sky all answer to Zaros!” Bariss said quickly. She sensed the same danger I did, but she was probably also sensing my own lethal intentions.

“Yeah, all you have to do is swear your loyalty to me,” I added and then crept closer to the Dug. I only stopped after I pressed my own neck against the tip of the spears.

“Take him!” yelled the Dug councilmember.

A few members of the crowd leaped out towards me, but the councilmember’s two guards didn’t budge. Instead with a flick of my left wrist, their spears moved away from my neck and reoriented themselves until they were pressing into the councilmember’s skin.

“Let’s not get too hasty everyone,” I said as I turned around to face the other combatants. With my right hand, I froze them in place.

“What are you fools doing, why-“ the Dug sputtered.

“Alhoy, do you have the holodisk I gave you on the way here?” I said, cutting off the now sweating Dug.

“Uh…yeah. Is that something important?” he asked while he had his right arm raised towards the crowd. His flamethrower was ready to go at a moment’s notice. My companions were all on edge. Though we weren’t allowed to bring weapons to the meeting, the primitives here had no clue what a lightsaber was. Thus, Bariss had unsheathed her Pike. Alha wasn’t so lucky. Her vibroblade was an obvious weapon, though she hardly needed it in her current state.

“Just pop it into your datapad and search up the punishments for threatening a Sith Lord,” I replied. The disk in question was a gag item from my time in the game. As the Empire’s Wrath, I was basically an executive officer of the True Sith Empire. When you attained the title, the player was given a holodisk of the Empire’s laws and regulations. I never bothered to look at the thing until we cleaned out my cargo hold.

“Okay…” he said. There was an awkward silence as he rummaged through his bag, then slotted the disk into his datapad. It continued as he searched for the article and only ended when he said, “Ahah!”

“Should someone of an unworthy, yadayadayda, defy a lord of the Sith with violence they…are you sure about this Zaros?” he asked suddenly unsure of what he was reading.

“Oh, just read the crinking thing,” I replied while getting impatient.

“The offender,” He took a deep breath before continuing, “should be put to death.”

“And the footnote additions?” I asked.

“By order of Empress Acina, the offender must be made to wait until after three generations of their bloodline have been reduced to ash before their eyes so they may fully repent their mistakes,” he finished reluctantly.

“Now, I count at least six people who have made threatening movements towards us,” I explained. “I think the man who gave the orders would also be included. So, let’s say you’ve just jeopardized the lives of seven families,” I continued after turning around and facing the Dug councilmember.

“Wee neeeed not go so far, Lord Zaros,” the Gand hurriedly.

“Yeah! I think we understand the situation!” yelled the human member.

“So, you submit?” I asked.

“Well…we uh,” the old man began to say, sweat was beading around his face.

So, I simply lifted the would-be combatants into the air. The crowd around us pushed back in shrieks and gasps. They were finally realizing that something weird, something beyond their capabilities was happening.

“I came here as mercy. I have little use for your people at the moment, but I do require this city. It doesn’t matter if it’s lifeless or not,” I explained while staring into the eyes of the Dug. Then I ignited my lightsaber.

“I vote for surrender!” yelled the old man.

“I agreeee,” the Gand quickly complied.

“I-I vote for surrendering,” the Dug choked out.

“So, is this a majority ruling or do I need your votes too?” I asked after tearing my gaze from the Dug so that I could look at the other members.

The last two, a middle-aged woman and a dark green Rodian both quickly expressed their surrender.

“Great!” I said with a toothy grin, before tossing the would-be attackers back into the crowd and pushing the Dug’s guards onto the ground.

I sheathed my saber and placed it back on my belt. Everyone seemed to relax for a moment as the tension faded away.

“But that’s not enough,” I said with a shrug. At the same time, the Dug councilmember was lifted into the air and slowly floated into the center of our little meeting space. The whole time he struggled to escape his bonds. With a flick of my other wrist, I grabbed onto four of the crude weapons from the guards and tossed them at the feet of the other councilmembers.

“W-what are you doing?” sputtered the elderly man.

“Isn’t it obvious what I want? Kill him and swear allegiance to me.”

“I can’t believe this!” hissed Bariss. As soon as Telro and the droid army marched into the city and established the command center, she pulled me into one of the empty alleyways and was dead set on giving me a piece of her mind.

The city center was a flurry of activity thanks to the efficient super tactical droid. All the residents of the city had been ordered to their homes so that our teams could sweep the place door to door with teams of droids. They would be carrying out registrations, searches, and surveys of the city populace simultaneously. Teams of engineers and repair droids were dispatched to the now decrepit factories and foundries of the city, while others were roving the city to inspect the state of its infrastructure.

“That we took the city so easily and with minimal bloodshed?” I asked with a smile.

“I can’t believe you just…and now are you going to murder his family too?” She questioned with genuine concern written across her green face.

“First, that wouldn’t be murder. It’s more like execution, and why would I do that?”

“Your imperial laws said so!” she countered.

“As far as I know, Empress Acina and the True Sith Empire is long dead,” I replied. “So, I’m not bound by her little addition or their laws. Kriff, I only used it as a scary prop anyways,” I explained.

“As far as you know?” she asked. Of course she would latch onto that detail.

“I’m pretty sure she didn’t become a Sith spirit, but I’ve never been to her temple so it’s not- We’re getting off-topic,” I replied.

“I got no enjoyment from that man’s death,” I explained.

“Oh? I sure felt bloodlust radiating out of you!” she retorted.

“Get off it. In one action, I forced a surrender, caused their leaders to become complicit in our regime, and killed off someone willing to attack us during negotiations!” I replied while counting with my fingers.

“He was weak! His people weren’t a threat to any of us! We could have easily navigated this without killing him!”

“They needed to understand we mean business! Sure, they can’t hurt me or you, but how long until that snake was sabotaging our droids and stealing blasters?” I questioned.

“We could have executed them after we found him guilty of something!”

"This is rich coming from the Temple Bomber herself! I’m not here to make friends. I’m trying to build a kriffing powerbase!” I shouted at her. I was probably getting too worked up over this little disagreement.

“You! T-That was one of the greatest mistakes of my life,” she said, suddenly much more quietly than the rest of our conversation. Then she spun and began walking off. I definitely got too heated during this argument.

“Wait, wait! I’m sorry,” I said after running after her. “It was a low blow. I’m sorry” I continued.

She didn’t respond and kept walking.

“Listen, I didn’t think…that event…was something that bugged you like this,” I explained.

“That event? You mean when I threw away all my friends, disgraced the code, killed innocents, and then found myself all alone as the empire stole what little dignity I had left?”

“No! no. I meant that you were right about how the Jedi shouldn’t have been in the war. So, in my head, I may have minimized the other things,” I admitted.

“You thought smugness would carry me through that gauntlet?”

“I already apologized,” I said with my hands up.

“What do you want? That I not kill our subjects indiscriminately? Fine, done. It’s not like I was planning on practicing my murder skills on them,” I continued.

“Things like this require trials and deliberations! There should be a process!” she said.

“You want a constitution? Write one yourself!” I retorted.

“Fine. I will do just that,” She accepted before turning around and walking back toward the command center.

“Fine!” I called after her.

“Good!” she said over her shoulder.

“Good!” I replied. Then I realized the implications of such a role.

“Wait, I’ll make edits of course, and I reserve the right to line-item veto!” I said as I ran after her.

“You’re giving me a house?” Lona asked after barging into my new office. I was currently set up in what was probably meant to be city hall before civilization fell apart.

It had been a few days since we took the city, and I was only now able to tie up various loose ends. One of these was moving the Aphras down to the planet so they stopped eating up room and energy on my ships.

“A house and a small patch of farmland. Our arrangement will last a while,” I explained without looking up from my datapad. There was so much paperwork to go over. Telro, Kalani, and the various other tactical droids were drumming up reports at an alarming rate. Everything got a report. New well? Report. Stolen item? Report. Child tripped in the street? Report. I was too worried I might miss something actually important if I skipped them so, of course, I had to read everything.

“Aren’t you afraid that I’ll make a run for it?”

“To where? Outside of our little green zone, this planet is a wasteland. The only way off is via one of my shuttles, and I can easily have it blown up,” I replied.

“Well-“ she started to say.

“Listen, I had a look at your file,” I said and cut her off. Then I pulled up her information on the datapad and slid it across my desk. “This Dr. Lona Aphra has a PHD in Chemistry with further degrees in horticulture and botany correct?”

“Yes, but I’m no-“

“Not gonna work for me?” I finished her sentence and finally looked up.

“Frankly, I don’t care if you twiddle your thumbs for the duration of your time here, and it will be a long time. But the people down there have been subsisting on crap food for years. I just thought that your expertise could be put to good use,” I explained while motioning towards the window behind me.

Outside, life had gotten back to normal for much of the city. Sure there was some signs of unrest, but at the moment, nothing had boiled over.

People were going about their daily routines. It was just that now there were thousands of droids doing all manner of jobs alongside them. The large majority of the droids were B1s and most of those had been reprogrammed for engineering and technical jobs. They weren't true technicians, but they could build basic structures and repair just about anything within their database. The rest of the B1s and B2s were serving as a garrison and police. There were so many, I had them posted at almost every street corner. In addition there were now countless gonks, mice, repair droids, and maintenance droids rushing about the place.

A hurried knocking sound came from the door.

I waved her off and said, “head down to the front office, you’ll find a key and your new entourage there.”

“Entourage?” she asked.

The knocking at the door came again.

“Your bodyguards and servant droid, I can’t have you accidentally dying in my care,” I replied. That would be rich. Losing the Aphras by accident was the last thing I needed. Then I turned my attention to the door. “Come in!” I called out.

One of the regular tactical droids made his way in and rushed past Lona. “Supreme Commander, we have located a raider outpost. I require your permission to send out a search and destroy party,” it reported.

“No need!” I said and stood up from my chair. I was positively beaming at this news. “Show me the coordinates, I’ll take care of it myself!” I continued.

“Commander, that would be against protocols,” the droid replied.

I just waved him off, as I threw on my outdoor cloak and made my way towards the door. I barely made it into the hall when I was accosted by Alha and Alhoy though. They were tripping over each other to tell me something.

“Suden got in contact!” Alha reported.

“Apparently there were quite a few farming communities that want to leave!” Alhoy explained.

“So, he sent a transmission asking for a pick-up!” Alha jumped in.

“That’s great, I’ll ready-“ I began to say before stopping. I looked from the tactical droid, to the datapads on my desk, to Lona, and then finally back at the siblings.

“You two can take one of the transports and retrieve them,” I said instead. It was a little disappointing that I had to give up on one of our treks through the stars. I just had to make up for it one way or another.