Chương 179: V.2-C.80│Casus Belli V│
The Star Cluster Casino was a domed casino located the moon Nar Shaddaa.
After the signing of the Treaty of Coruscant, it was the location of a meeting of underworld business-beings who gathered to discuss how the new treaty forced on the Republic by the Sith Empire would affect them and their enterprises.
When it was made known that one attendee, Naatu, had been sharing information with the Republic, he was executed by Nok Drayen, who proceeded to introduce Lord Darth Angral, who had come with a proposition for them.
Another attendee, the Ambassador, was apprehended by Republic war droid M1-4X during his stay at the casino for espionage against the Republic. The Ambassador was later turned over to SIS agents.
It also just so happened to be the place, of which the Hutt leadership was convening and had decided to accept Anakin's message from.
This place was quite high off of the ground, and one would need to use a vehicle of some kind to get upto it.
There was no lower entrance because this casino came up off of the ground and had no supports for it to stay within the air.
It was floating, flying above everything else, well... everything that was below its level were either places that didn't matter or places with which those that were separate stayed beneath. On the off chance that someone, somehow lost their wealth and it ended up below.
Such a dangerous game they played, with so very little gains but lots of risk.
Grievous, along with Anakin that has taken control of the droid were going towards the casino as they were told that the slug leaders were there. The Hutts weren't exactly a good species when it comes to anything involving movement, so of course Grievous and Anakin had already moved in their direction before they would go on some chase.
Anakin didn't want to have a repeat of what had happened on Coruscant, when he had to chase that bounty hunter, only to have her die by the hands of another bounty hunter, Jango Fett.
Even thought it was said that all of the Hutt Cartels were most likely within this high-rise, floating building above it all, it did not in fact have all of the Hutts, Anakin and Grievous were looking for.
This moon may be somewhat of a marvel and to Anakin he could also see the unique opportunity to study this planet and its strange state within the Force, he wasn't here for that right now. Just as he wouldn't be helping out those that were either desperate here intentionally or not.
The Hutts came first, then he would need to focus on purging this place of criminal organizations.
In fact, the Hutts didn't even originate from Nal Hutta, and they had turned the planet into what it was after taking control of it. When the Hutts left their homeworld of Varl, they displaced the Evocii, native to Nal Hutta, to Nar Shaddaa 15,000 years ago and immediately destroyed the remaining Evocii agriculture.
Anakin could see and sense the many beings here, and there was alot... alot, alot of people here that were poor and dying.
He had also seen that previous native species to what is now called Nal Hutta, and could say that they were in a state that could only be considered worse for wear.
Eventually the moon was annexed by the Hutts, who started to force the Evocii into slave labor, completely changing the moon's unknown original natural terrain, by building spaceports and docking bays across its surface, with some stretching out into orbit. Although the moon's urbanized construction had just started, it quickly began to prosper, along with Nal Hutta.
It would take 500 years after the Hutts had taken over Nal Hutta and then annexing Nar Shaddaa before the moon would be completely urbanized, and the Evocii were finally free since their work was complete.
However most had died off during the construction and the few that remained, took refuge in the Undercity. Unfortunately the Evocii began to mutate into unwholesome savages due to various technologies practiced in the moon's undercity.
That is right, those creatures that Anakin sensed were abominations of what they were before.
Here another interesting piece of information and that is the Republic had used this place a long, long time ago. For 11,000 years, had the Nar Shaddaa been known as a place that used to rival Coruscant when it came to trade.
It rivaled the galactic capital Coruscant as an important center of interstellar trade and continued to grow. Unfortunate for the Hutts and those that were in control at the time, but around 4000 years prior to now, or exactly 11,000 years since their settlement on Nal Hutta and Nar Shaddaa, the trade lanes shifted, Nar Shaddaa and its planet became obsolete and were eventually abandoned by the Republic.
Nar Shaddaa became a criminal haven and gained a reputation of being the center of illegal operations in the galaxy, earning the moniker 'The Smugglers' Moon.' Now distant from most galactic trade centers, the moon was allowed to run its own affairs with little outside interference.
Sections of the urbanized moon's vertical city included the Duros Sector and the Corellian sector, which contained three bars popular with bounty hunters. The Burning Deck, The Slag Pit, and the Meltdown Café, as well as another corner tavern called the Orange Lady.
"We are nearly there." Anakin said to Grievous who was just behind him, as Anakin needed to slow down for the old man to keep up.
"You know that I am getting on in my years, right?" Grievous asked, wanting to know whether or not Anakin had been doing this on purpose.
"I dont know what you are talking about." His robotic, synthesized version of his voice came from the droid in reply. This lead to Grievous almost doing a double take as it wasn't normal for Anakin to not know about something, especially when he should be able to figure out what he was talking about.
"Oh? Of course you dont…" Grievous responded. "How much further do we have to go exactly?"
"You will arrive at your destination, in... calculating..." Anakin was starting to get into a joking mood and decided to humor himself, instead of focusing on the despair this place oozed and the distinct weirdness within the Force calling out to him.
"You will arrive at your destination in 12 minutes." Anakin said in a way that was reminiscent of his previous life's navigation devices.
"Why are you saying it like that?" Grievous was weirded out and for some reason he felt annoyed at the way Anakin was saying that. "Emperor?" He questioned but Anakin had gone quiet and wouldn't reply, until...
"Take a right in the next 100 meters and then continue. You will reach your destination in 11 minutes." Anakin said and would continue to be this annoying until they reached the building they both wanted to go towards.
[]
Within the Casino, the Hutt Cartel leaders, otherwise known as the kajidics were discussing how things were going.
"This is ridiculous. The slave boy wouldn't dar-"
"Would you shut up!"
"No!"
Various voices were heard, but everything was being said within the language of the Hutts, something that anyone else within this place kept quiet about. They wouldn't dare go against their overlords.
Overlords that have the power to kill them if they wanted, plus they had brought along people that were considered criminals, even more so than anyone else. They were a part of the organized crime here on Nar Shaddaa, while the Hutts had also brought in some extra protection.
Those criminal organizations had something to gain and lose in the Hutts falling to Anakin, especially since they didn't even know what Anakin would request of the Hutts once they would win.
These criminals that lived here or were here for temporary work, probably knew better than the Hutts just what Anakin and the Empyrean was capable of.
"We have lost all communication!" A distinctly human character said towards his Hutt overlords, and while it may be a mistake to become the bearer of bad news, this guy would still do his job, as he was also on the cutting block.
No one here was exactly innocent, and the kajidic at least the presence of mind to not bring along any elements that could become traitors. They had also done their research into how things had happened, especially when it came to the Empyrean's droids, since it was something that always made an appearance.
"What did you say!?" A Hutt kajidic called out to the man.
"C-Communications-" He was interrupted as the same Hutt kajidic that had asked this question got his droids to bring the man over. "W-Wait!"
It was too late however, as the Hutt was easily able to pick this man up and then devourer him whole, something that wasn't exactly normal, but there would always be some unusual characters.
"Doesn't he taste disgusting? I dont know how you could ever bear to continue eating those fifth." One of the kajidic said.
"I like the way they taste... Humans taste like pork or beef..." The kajidic had this look within his eye that would most definitely not be received well.
The Hutts had decided to not keep any Empyrean made droids, or droids that came from, or even had the slightest of connections to the Empyrean, the Emperor or their company of Skywalker Industries.
They were smart to do this, and they had done this because they had discovered some things and incidents from when that slave rebellion happened.
They would not allow what had happened to their compatriots on Tatooine to happen to themselves, not that they were the ones that came up with this information. It was in fact the allies of the Hutts that had brought up this point to them, and while they use the droids from the Empyrean or Skywalker Industries within their armies, they would not use them for personal use.
Wherever his creations ended up, Anakin didn't mind what they were to be used for, as long as it wasn't for something against him. He allowed his droids to enter multiple, various economies exactly for this moment but also because he didn't just spread his reputation and the reputation through normal means for slaves and had his droids from within or anywhere connected to the slave trade in freeing people.
Obviously, the enslaved people, now free from their burdens as slaves would remember this and go towards the Empyrean. Others could escape of their own free volition, but that didn't mean that they were helpless.
Knowing that most slaves were implanted with chips, Anakin would send out multiple of his thought processors to also start taking care of the people in desperate situations.
Even though he would deny the claims of him being some divine being, at this point he has the ability to see everything at every point. Well... not at the same level of true omniscient, but because of the way his mind works in combination with his well thought out plan of planting his droids that he could take control of and see through their eyes, allowing him a greater view of everything.
He was probably one of the closet to being an actual god at this point but he would still argue against this point.
He already had the responsibilities of being the Emperor of the Empyrean, and then there were the responsibilities to his family as well. How could he be the god of his people as well?
It wasn't like he was starting to amass power enough to create his own energy-field, separate from the Force but with all of the same capabilities.
"What are we to do now!?"
"I dont know." This kajidic burped from having a nice delicious human meal.
"Shut up you! We need to think of a way to escape. I do not want to die here."
"Do you really think the slave Emperor would kill us?"
"Yes."
They were still in discussion about what was going on and what they would do about the situation.
"The only thing we can do now, is whole up here and wait for the slave Emperors troops to come knocking. It would be hard to kill us anyway..."
"Don't you remember what happened to Jabba?"
This question definitely got all of those within to quiet down at the mention of one of their most successful kajidics mutilated beyond belief that he had become a husk of what he was. There was no point in even trying to keep him alive as they had no way to sustain him.
There wasn't much medicine that was practiced on the Hutts because they had such a hard time being hurt by anything. Their bodies were just built differently and quite literally built like tanks where they would be able to survive pretty much everything.
Perhaps most remarkably of all, Hutts could even regenerate body parts when injured. Around the years ago, a Hutt known as Gargonn lost half his head, including an eye and apparently a sizable part of his brain, when he was ravaged by a wandrella, yet it was anticipated that he would regenerate the injured tissue completely after a century or so.
It is not known if the regeneration of his brain had any effect on his mind or personality. Some Hutts, such as Quaffug, were believed to possess multiple brains, though whether this was a species-wide trait was unknown.
This wasn't helpful for Jabba though as he was completely and total impaired from being able to heal ever again. Well, he could heal but he most certainly couldn't grow back entire body parts like this particular Hutt.
The slimy coating of sweat and mucus protected them from either chemical burns or heat. Hutts were resistant to many poisons and diseases and seldom fell ill. It was also claimed that the species was indigestible with creatures such as the sarlacc facing indigestion from swallowing a Hutt.
As a result, such creatures forcibly expelled their kind instead of eating them which was a trait that saved some Hutts from death. Their body odor was noted for being strong enough to upset a sensitive human stomach.
Despite all of this, they were not that hard to kill but because of certain physical advantages, most weapons like very, very old weaponry like cold weapons or guns that were not energy based would be unable to harm them.
"My kajidics! They are coming!" Someone called out, as this got everyone on alert with even the Hutts deciding that they needed to get into a better position.
"To positions!" Someone called out and they all started to move even quicker.
The place was starting to become locked down and there was minimal lighting to hide from their perpetrators, not that, THAT would do much against those whom were coming.
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