Chương 175: V.2-C.76│Casus Belli I│
Fast approaching from space, was a ship fully prepared and armed.
A ship of which there was some people onboard that was ready to go to war, or at least seemed to be armed to the teeth and ready to engage in some form of violence.
"General Grievous, sir!" An armored man, larger than Grievous shouted as he also gestured with one of his hands, making a gesture that was like that of a soldier showing a sign of respect.
"Yes. At ease." Grievous greeted the man back, as he then went around making sure to both check and greet all of those onboard.
Their battle wouldn't exactly be a nice one, and would have their squaring off against the Hutts, something that the Republic is and was terrified of going up against.
"Sir, the situation at hand is that they seem to be quiet..." A soldier reported.
"So they have gone quiet..." Grievous looked over everything, and could tell that he would need to start commanding the armies a bit more efficiently.
"Yes sir. They have also created a blockade of sorts... Meaning that it would be quite hard to breach through their rather large fleet size." The soldier continued, replying and giving information as efficiently and effectively as he could.
"Their numbers?" Grievous asked.
"They dont seem to have as much, but I think, from the gathered reports that they have spread out their forces thinking that we would attack from all choke points." The soldier replied.
"I asked for their exact numbers soldier."
"I'm sorry, sir!" The soldier replied while also bowing deeply to show that he would accept any punishment in a time like this.
"I will decide your punishment later, but you should take this as a learning experience. Come prepared, fully prepared the next time you meet a superior." Grievous gave some friendly advice. "What would happen if you had meet the Emperor with your incompetency?"
"Yes, sir! I will remember for the God-Emperor!" The soldier was now on the ground, but he wasn't exactly in that position because of Grievous but instead because Grievous had mentioned Anakin. The precious, precious God-Emperor of the synths and to most of the Empyrean as well.
'Man, I get the idea of the Emperor being a divine-being, but there is no way that I would ever go down to that level of devotion...' Grievous thought that within his head as he both simultaneously pumped for the action to come while at the same time observant of those under him.
One might wonder he didn't really question the behavior and only made a small mental note on this soldiers action and that was because he was desensitized.
Desensitized to what the synths did and most of all because of the amount of time he has spent either within the Empyrean and even on Dathomir, he was still exposed to the madness of the Empyrean.
The chaotic, mad, mad, order of the Empyrean.
If the Jedi were ever looking for peace, and if the Sith were ever looking for their chaos, then everything would be found within the Empyrean. All of those aspects that take from the best of both worlds were found from within and Grievous loved it.
It was something he could totally get himself behind, especially since Anakin wasn't all peace loving and was even starting a grand scale war. A war of which would have him center field, leading and commanding people like he had done all those years ago, with his old body.
Even before the cyborg form thanks to Anakin, where he was a proper biologically living being. Of course, he has his own body now, a new old body, recreated from the left over DNA of his previous self.
Walking around the deck of the ship, there wasn't only just the synthetic marines that used to be living droids onboard but there were other things.
Other things that were specifically going to be used as canon fodder, or something like that as they were also upgraded to be as good as possible.
Droid of course.
"How many droids do we have and can we deploy them straight away? Are they the pilot kind or do we only have simple combat droids?" Grievous was asking spitfire questions, as while he had gotten a report already before he had come, there was still a problem of logistics.
It was never perfect and there could be mistakes in the coding or system.
"We have access to combat droids, a few medic droids for the synth soldiers as well as some pilot droids that can be used as the forward attacking force." Another soldier, different from the one before stepped forward to give this information.
Grievous wasn't staying around in one place and was moving throughout the area to make sure everything is ready to go.
They would be launching and declaring war soon, and Anakin was so gracious as to give the Hutts to prepare some level of defense. While they had taken care of the mercenaries and the hired droids, the Hutts still had access to their very own army retinues.
It only made sense, as if they didn't have their own standing army, then how could they still be in control? Money is a powerful thing, but it is something dangerous to hold for the owner, as people could get greedy and just take it from you if it is left unprotected.
"Are the medic droids set up?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Are the combat droids ready for planetary deployment?"
"Yes, sir!"
Grievous came to a stop as he gazed at the large amount of smaller vessels that housed some other weird looking droids that seemed to have the capabilities to pilot a ship. A star ship to be exact.
Gesturing towards all of the smaller vessels, Grievous then asks. "Are the pilot droids ready for deployment as well?" He looked into the eyes of the man that was larger and taller than him, and it was quite intimidating.
One doesn't just spend some time under Anakin within her persona of Vader and not adopt some of his intimidation tactics or the way Vader would hold himself.
"Y-Yes, sir!" In the end, while the synths were trained, particularly trained through normal training, nothing like what the actual creator of the Sky-Seed intended, as it was quite backwards. At least to Anakin it was backwards and he instead decided that it would be better if he just generalize and specialized things to make it easier on the synths.
Being loved and respected through hypno-therapy wasn't exactly what he wanted, but it would still be used, when their bodies went through the growth process.
Watching off from a distance, within the hangar bay, Grievous oversaw the pilot droids and their small ships take off, going into the distance and forming a small formation.
Some were in weird formations that looked as if they had no purpose while others seemed basic and normal, while hiding the true strength of what they could pull off. There are other things in play as well, from the battle droids that would be on full display and the medical droids also there to help heal any of the synth marines.
[]
Within the throne room, Anakin was on display through a hologram and some Hutts were on display as well, given that negotiations were going on right now.
A war wouldn't just happen straight away with no back and forth between the two opposing parties as the one that doesn't want for the war to happen would try and get the other side to let up. This is exactly what the Hutts are trying to do right now.
Negotiate with Anakin, where they would offer him many things.
This is, if they are scared and wanted to not be demolished, but the Hutts have a different view of their situation. Especially since they know that they have more money, supposedly have a larger and greater wealth than the Empyrean and they believe that they could bribe Anakin.
If not Anakin, then they could offer wealth to all of those within Anakin's armies, whether they be from foot soldiers to those higher up in command.
In this instance they believe that they are on the top of the galaxy, with them being on the top of the long list according to the food chain.
It is true that they have a large amount of wealth but Anakin would be able to contest them, and even then, their attempts at trying to bribe others would be unsuccessful within the Empyrean. The fervor and zealotry had already reached a point of no return a long time ago and it would truly take something drastic to happen for the people to turn against Anakin.
Those within higher positions may be more prone to doing so, and Anakin was waiting for those elected officials, some that were corrupt to just try.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Anakin was speaking with those that were a part of the higher, no, highest management positions within the Hutt Cartel.
They were quite intimidating to see, given that they were large tanks that could mostly resist and be immune to physical damage. That is just a part of the evolutionary route they had taken, and it had payed off very, very well.
"Pleasure? Please dont try to humor us, puny Emperor. We the Hutts take your threats very seriously." Instead of relying on someone to help communicate with Anakin, the Hutts didn't even bother because they believed that Anakin would know their language.
It wasn't like it wasn't public information that he used to be a slave, specifically on a planet owned by one of their own.
Anakin would be using a combination of the normal galactic standard language along with their own, to make sure they play into the fact that he is 'below' them. It works wonders to have your opponent underestimate you, especially since he wasn't within his Vader persona.
A persona that had been retired, because it would make the Empyrean look weaker than it actually was. Then there are those within that would try to do something because the supposed military leader was no more, or at least had vanished.
Who would believe that Anakin was Vader, even with all of that religious squalor from the people, or more specifically created as rumors that was integrated into the legends of Anakin.
A mythos was already starting to formed and some parts of it had already been done so, with Anakin becoming the center of the Empyrean peoples world. It was certainly strange, if not flattering at some level for Anakin to know that they thought so highly of him.
"Puny Emperor, eh?" Anakin said as he looked at the Hutts within their holographic forms, many as they were, Anakin knew without a doubt that they would be easily dealt with. "You must have an idea of why this is happening, correct?" Anakin asked them, to see if they did have an idea of why but it would seem that they didn't see the full picture.
His plan had worked. "What are you talking about, slave Emperor? Of course this is because we, the Hutts wanted to take something, something that is not yours and should be ours." Their laughing could be heard, as multiple found this funny.
"It would seem that you are a jester instead of a almighty leader then. How could you create jokes when I am right in front of you? Do you not fear for the wellbeing of your subjects, those that you all lord over?" Anakin wanted to see if they had some level of care.
"Jester! How dare you! Whatever it is you want, you better call off your armies and retreat back to whence you came, slave!" It would seem that Anakin's display of talking ruler to 'rulers' didn't seem to affect them much.
They felt assaulted by Anakin insinuating that they would even dare to feel anything for those underneath them. It was the world of business for them, and there was no need in getting involved with those that were beneath themselves.
"Insulting me wont do you any good, and in fact it would only worsen the situation if you all were to be captured." Anakin could start to use the Force on them and kill them, even though he was so far away, but he still needed to capture them all instead of doing that.
What he could do however, is intimidate them.
"I advise that you all take caution when insulting someone." Anakin said as on the other side, the Hutt leaders started to feel some pressure.
It was as if something was wrapped around, and it also felt like some lifeforce or something similar had been taken from them. This was so prominent that one of their fellow members, who was quite advanced in age now was starting to wither away.
"You see this. This is your fate if you do not surrender to me and follow through with my terms." Anakin stated, and made sure to at least kill one of them. In doing so it would set a precedent that they shouldn't get on his bad side.
"You-" One of them started before Anakin started to choke hold him, and started to make sure that they knew that he is the one doing so. He makes the same chocking gesture to imply what he is doing.
"Stop that!" One calls out and Anakin lets go.
"This is what is coming for you, your wives, your children, the entirety of you families..." Anakin looks around at all of them as his eyes came to life within their own projection of him.
Instead of the blue coloring the entirety of his body would take, they could actually see that Anakin's holographic eyes went from blue to purple, the same color as his natural eyes.
"Never! You slave boy! You and your mother will pay for what you have done. The Hutts will have their revenge!" One of the Hutt leaders said this but they would immediately start trying to evacuate their families wherever they may be.
They dont want their offspring or loved ones to come into any harm. They were incorrect in assuming that Anakin would just kill off all of their family, because what he would be doing is putting on a front.
He wanted to make them believe he was just going to go on a mad slaughter, but that would be detrimental to those beneath them. While it is true that the Hutt Cartel had created a monstrosity of a their own semi-republic, but they had normal people under themselves as well.
Not everywhere within Hutt space were there criminals of all calibers.
"So be it." The communication was cut, and this was the final straw before it would lead to an all out battle.
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