Chapter 45 Head of a Snake Part 1 (Part 1)

Kaitain, Padisahah Imperium...1002 ARR...

It was a momentous day for both the Imperium and the Mandalorians as two enormous ships were going to be launched.

Given the use of their shipyards had been vital in the building of their new special dreadnought, the Infinity, the Mandalorians had shared the design with the Imperium and fund the construction of not one but two new ships of the same class. One would be given over to the Mandalorians and had been called Eternity. The other would be controlled by the Imperium and had been named Atreides Revenge.

Today in the presence of both Imperium Nobility, people in high positions of power and the Mandalorian houses both new giants would be launched. They watched as the ships left the docks under their own power and began to depart for their shake-down cruises, Haron and Ara both stood there with Paul, Irulan and Alia watching with smiles on their faces.

"The Imperium will be targeting some systems along the Imperial border." Paul admitted to Haron and Ara who nodded, it was his decision to expand the Imperium and press against the Empire. But he might find himself distracted from conquest soon both Haron and Ara thought as they sensed the growing life inside Irulan. Happy for Paul and Irulan they did not say anything and would let them discover it on their own.

"Then I wish you and your people success. I only wish we could strike at the Emperor." Haron said with frustration as despite their best efforts the old bastard was so entrenched on Coruscant that they just could not take a shot at him, he was too protected there for a covert mission and any large scale action would need to fight its way through the intense Imperial Fleet presence around the Core Worlds.

It was impossible at the moment.

Ara knowing him well enough to see his frustration put a comforting hand on his and her squeezing it did help relieve his annoyance at not being able to destroy the old bastard and perhaps end his empire and this war for good. He just hoped that an opportunity would present itself or they would be faced with a long and hard campaign to push into the Core Worlds and how many would die was a question that he didn't even want to think about. If they could destroy the command structure of the Empire then it would definitely make such a thing much easier but that was as entrenched as the Emperor was on Coruscant.

He managed to distract himself from these thoughts though as they had to leave very quickly after the launch to make it to Trak'el Sigma, they had never missed one of their children getting married and he and Ara were not going to start now.

Trak'el Sigma, Outer Rim...A Few Days Later...

The formally feudal world of Trak'el Sigma was now enjoying many benefits of higher technology but was doing its best to maintain its own old fashioned aesthetic, trying to hold on to some of their own past while they are embraced the modern. As such it looked like something almost medieval on the surface but beneath was a highly advanced culture technologically and surprisingly they showed a great talent at all things technical. They didn't just built efficient gadgets and equipment, it was done with an elegance and style that was impressive even by Mandalorian standards.

A perfect world for Corridan to rule as his own.

The weddings of Trak'el Sigma especially royal ones were extremely grand affairs, with all the pomp and ceremony you could imagine crammed into a seven day period. Feats and parties, the hen night and the stag do along with a blessing ceremony which involved both bride and groom immersing themselves in pure water to show their purity and devotion to each other, staying under almost until they drowned.

That had seemed stupid to the Mandalorians but seeing Corridan stepping out of the pool with Nyssa in his arms seemed to win over the locals.

Now it was finally the seven day, the wedding itself. Held in the gothic and enormous cathedral of the capital where people gave thanks to the universe for their good fortune. Gods were not believed of on Trak'el Sigma and instead it was the universe to which they gave thanks instead.

The cathedral was extremely large but was packed with as many people as it could manage, not just Mandalorians and locals but also some foreign guests here to maintain diplomatic ties with the Mandalorians given Corridan's father was the Mandalore and one of the most powerful men in the galaxy.

Corridan's armour was polished till it gleamed, he stood with his brothers at the altar ready for him and Nyssa to make their pledge to each other. Haron, Ara and the rest of their family sat in the front row on the groom's side of the cathedral while nobles sat on the bride's side. The sound of the wedding theme on the ridiculously gothic and elaborate organ started playing so they all rose to their feet and looked as the bride made her way down the aisle. She had no one with her beyond attendants that followed her and helped carry the long and awkward train, it was not the culture for the bride to be on the arm of her father or some other male relative it was seen as something a bride must do alone.

Corridan's breath was stolen by Nyssa the moment that he saw her, she wore a long white gown with dark crimson and plum coloured bodice and patterns woven into it. It was hooded and framed her delicate face as she made her way up to the altar, the look on their son's face made both Haron and Ara smile as it was so clear that their son was in love with Nyssa. They had worried about her marrying into their family at first but having gotten to know her over the years they had soon realised that she was a very peaceful and responsible young woman. She was as smart as a whip and ready to govern her world with Corridan as the sword at her side.

Nyssa eventually reached the altar and knelt before it with Corridan, the Lord Minister who was the administrator of the capital city was the one who officiated.

"It is a glorious day when two young people come together to swear themselves to each other for the rest of their lives. Princess Nyssa and Count Corridan Ordo have discovered that their hearts are united by love, the greatest of the universe's gift. They had have come to this place to swear to the universe to honour that gift which they have been given and to love each other forever." The Lord Minister said and a long monologue carried on for what seemed like hours and given the heat of the cathedral was started to put many of them nearly to sleep, it went on for hours and hours before finally it was over and the bride and groom were allowed to rise to their feet and embrace, kissing each other deeply as a cheer went up through the hall.

For Ara it was hard to watch in some ways as another of her children married and would now find his own path as her eldest two already had married, Astoria already had a child of her own and had communicated that another might well be on the way. Ara was feeling like a bird who's entire brood was flying away from her, three already had lives of their own, the other three and Nila would soon follow suit. It made her sad in a way but sensing her feelings Haron took her hand and squeezed it tightly, his reassuring presence a balm to her worries. Regardless of whatever their children did they would have each other and their family wasn't disappearing, it was just growing and spreading its outwards as it should do.

She had ensured that all of her children would have impressive inheritances, worlds of their own even the adopted ones. Their family was going to be the most powerful in all of the galaxy with links to just about everywhere. That was a legacy that she and her husband and their friends and family had spent years building, and they were not done yet she thought with determination. There was still much to do she thought to herself and they still have a few good moves in them yet she decided with determination.

Imperial Palace, Coruscant...

The Throne Room was a dark and grim place as news of more territorial losses seemed to come in by the day. The pressure on the Empire was now worse than ever now and defeat seemed more likely every single day.

Palpatine was in so much pain from his spice deformities as apparently some issues had turned up in recent clone batches and they couldn't provide him with any replacement organs or limbs until the cause was found. He had been met with silence at the reason for this apparent problem and he was wondering if he needed to go to Byss and interrogate the cloners to find new ways to motivate them.

But he was at last perhaps getting somewhere with recovering his precognitive abilities he thought with satisfaction.

It has taken months and months of going through the Sith Holocrons but he had finally discovered a possible answer, a Sith Lord named Darth Glovoc who had been a lesser lord under Darth Revan. He had disappeared while investigating one of his visions and then nothing was heard of him for thousands of years, but in the hope that Palpatine might learn something useful he had the planet Nyriaan where he had been last seen scoured before the Rebellion had managed to force them from the Mid Rim completely.

They had found the remains of his ship the Dying Sun and after clearing out the degradations that were living there they had discovered something more crucial...Darth Glovoc himself!

The man had survived the crash and put himself into stasis and remained that way all of these centuries while the survivors of his crew degenerated and worshipped him as a god. Having recovered his stasis unit he had been brought back to Coruscant Palpatine thought with satisfaction, he would eventually provide answers to his problem or serve as a substitute in the meantime.

He walked down into the prison of the Imperial Palace where he saw the man, now revived from stasis and strapped firmly into a frame that was fitted with several rather significant pain causing devices to 'encourage' his co-operation.

"Glovoc, what is next?" Palpatine demanded and the man glared at him before answering him.

"If you would use the sith rituals to purge yourself of the contaminant then your own foresight would be restored. Neither then would you need me in this ridiculous contraption." Glovoc said and Palpatine sneered as despite not having had a dose of the spice in quite some time his long consumption of it had increased the scope of his powers and Palpatine refused to give that up, not to mention he was sure in his great paranoia that Glovoc was deceiving him to get him killed so that he could take over the Empire himself.

In punishment for that, Palpatine activated the mechanisms.

Live electricity coursed through the device and into Glovoc's body who screamed out in pain, Palpatine smirked as he held it on for as long as he dared before turning it off and asking the question again.

"What is next?"

Glovoc breathed deeply as he struggled to get his breath back before telling him.

"An attack will come in three months with the intention of attacking the Fondor Shipyards, it will be a Separatist Alliance and Mandalorian combined strike force." Glovoc told him wit ha rasping voice and Palpatine sneered before leaving Glovoc to his meditations.

Glovoc managed to send a bitter smile at his back as he left, he had knew what was to come, his ability to see the future the greatest among Sith and he could see that Palpatine's destruction and his potential freedom was just over the horizon.

He had never imagined that his visions would have led him here, to be nearly four thousand years out of time. Once he had been a trusted and great commander, one of the most trusted of Darth Revan himself and in command of a state of the art warship that could devastate any ship in known space. He had even managed to convince the rest of the Sith that he was mad to distract them and made them underestimate him, allowing him victories that no one else could have pulled off.

He in some ways wished that the vision which had brought him to Nyriaan had never happened, he wished he had managed to discover just what had been hidden there before the ship had crashed and he had put himself into stasis.

Now here he was, a prisoner in a new century that was so different than his own, he might have been excited about the destruction of the Jedi and the corruption of the Republic but he could see through his visions that the Jedi were far from extinct and if anything were stronger than they ever were before, much stronger than his own time. Not to mention he could sense the forces of democracy were striking out at the Empire and growing stronger every day. It would only be a matter of time before they managed to destroy the Empire but what really concerned him was the destruction of the Sith.

Learning that the Sith had assumed the Rule of Two were there could be only one master and one apprentice made Glovoc fearful, Palpatine was failing and he had not yet trained a true apprentice to take over his reign when he died, meaning it was a very real possibility that the Sith might truly become extinct.

That was not acceptable to Glovoc, he thought with disgust at the short sightedness of Palpatine to allow this situation to happen. Vader was no true Sith, he was just an enforcer of Palpatine's will and had no idea of the true complexities of being a Dark Lord of the Sith Glovoc thought with a dismissive sneer at the thought of Vader trying to be a Sith Lord.

He was nothing but a cybernetic thug that should be put down the moment he was able.

Still his visions had revealed to him a potential chance of escape was coming soon, the possible end of Palpatine and then he hoped that he would take over and continue to the Sith into a new century. Perhaps that was why he had been brought to this millennium by the Force itself. To preserve the Dark Side and keep the way of Sith going.

Botor Enclave, Core Worlds...

The Titan and the Coming Thunder, the two new Subjugator-class vessels that had been built by the Separatist Alliance led their fleet in a massive attack against the Botor Enclave, a smaller interstellar empire that had attacked several of their member worlds in hopes of taking their resources.

Prime Minister San Hill, the leader of their new nation since its reunification had been waiting for this for awhile now since allowing those worlds into his alliance. It was exactly what he had wanted as the Botor Enclave had many particular attractions of its own which interested him. They had a few well positioned worlds and due to the fact they had fought many wars with the planets that had had now joined his alliance they had a well-built up military infrastructure and industrial base. Not to mention considerable fuel reserves. While this did mean that he had to deploy the two enormous ion cannon armed leviathans that he had just had built to overwhelm them but it was a worthwhile investment as once properly absorbed into the Separatist orbit they would be an extremely useful asset. He knew it would not be easy but it was an incredible asset for the Separatists to have the two dozen star systems and would also provide extremely useful transport routes into the Core Worlds when the war was over.

The Botori who were the local species who formerly ruled the area were fairly good at space travel but the wars dragged on due to rigidity in their ways of thought and practices so despite the wars going on for 'centuries' San thought with dismay at the situation with the Botori, little if anything would happen beyond a few brushfires until it was just forgotten about. They would have their uses if their skills were put to the proper use, such as being privateers against the Empire or other states that might be dangerous to the Separatists and as Navigators which they were actually rather talented at so once he ensured they were loyal he would find uses for them. The new Jedi he had created were starting to be a considerable boon to his cause as they were often taking leading roles in his military or other positions in the Separatist Alliance or travelling around their space to resolve issues, all of which aided him and his cause, making his leadership secure.

He had no doubt that the Empire was going to fall, either through internal troubles or external actions from him and those who had their own organisations. The Core Worlds and Inner Rim where highly garrisoned by the Empire but that unity which held it all together was breaking down day by day now and it would only take one single hit in the right place to shatter that illusion of unity and strength that the Empire depended on, the Empire itself would not fall over night but it would break apart if anything happened to the upper leadership with ease.

The other Rift Alliance powers had already requested that they look into the possibility to using the Botor Enclave to launch raids into the Core Worlds but the Empire had fortified their border too much and had even added interdictor cruisers along the hyperspace routes so there was little chance of a fleet sneaking through that way so he had been forced to inform them of that even if he was disappointed that he couldn't use it to extort something from his 'allies'.

He was fully aware that the state of affairs in the galaxy would be incredibly unstable after the Empire fell, many new nation states such as his had risen up in the war and while he was sure the Rebel Alliance would build a New Republic or some other such state he and his people would not be joining it. He knew the Mandalorians, the Than and some other factions in the Rift Alliance felt the same and this would create a very delicate state of affairs in the galaxy.

It would certainly be less dominated by one as it had been under the Republic and would provide opportunities for them all he thought with satisfaction.

Reijar, Ordo System...

The Open Sky, the Skywalkers' YT-1300 Light Freighter came into orbit of Reijar. It had been a long time since they had last been here and this time it was only Anakin and Padme this time along with one of the Noghri Ghazhak and C-3PO who had shut down to recharge. HK-47 was with Mace on the front lines of the war, Luke & R2 were both on a mission with Rogue Squadron and Wila, Tash and Zak were all currently training with Master Shan and Meetra Surik who had quite a few unusual but important lessons to teach.

Anakin and Padme though were here to visit their daughter, Leia had written to them all the time while she was first living with her new husband and had recently returned from a long tour of the Mandalorian worlds to learn all of their different cultures and customs. It had astonished Anakin and Padme that for a culture that on the surface was so unified and uniform that they could be so different from each other. So many clans and houses had their own practices and customs that Leia had been learning to prepare her for her role as the Duchess of House Ordo.

They had known how scared she was by all of this despite how she tried to hide it behind her strong person persona but they had known her all of her life and knew when she was scared and vulnerable. She didn't show it, she just got frustrated and angry.

But recently she had started to mature a little, grow up now that she was moving on with her life and earning the respect of her new people. All of the plans that she had, while the fact she wasn't their little girl any more hurt them a little they were definitely extremely proud of her.

As Anakin brought the ship into land they saw that Leia was already standing there to greet them and they quickly disembarked followed by Ghazhak and Leia walked over to them and gave both of them a big warm hug the moment she was able.

"Sweetheart, you look amazing." Anakin told Leia who smiled brightly at her father's praise as at heart she had always been a daddy's girl. Growing up Anakin had been her idol and hero not that she didn't love her mother any less than she loved him but they had a special bond of their own.

"Thank you father. Father...Mother." Leia said as she gave them both a warm hug. "Markus would be here but he is handling some other business today. Come on, we'll talk on the walk to the compound." Leia said with a smile and they all fell into step with each other as they went into the large compound. It hadn't changed much since Anakin and Padme had last been here and walking through the main yard they found their way into a social room where a bar had been set up with some comfortable seats.

Leia poured them some tea and they all sat at the sofa and began to gently chat to catch up on any news and Leia blinked in surprise at the fact that Luke seemed to have acquired a girlfriend, a woman that was working for the Underworld Alliance and that they hadn't even managed to get her name out of him yet which given how honest her brother was made Leia wonder just what was going on there. She and him did not meet very often any more for obvious reasons but they did still have a deep understanding of each other and so the only reasons that she could think that Luke would be so secretive about whoever he was dating was either he hadn't told her who he was but Leia doubted that given how high profile their family was, or possibly that there was something about this girl that he didn't want them to know. She pondered on that as she was sure that Luke knew that better than to think them judgemental or something like that, as long as he was happy they were happy so maybe there was something in her past that he wanted to hide.

She was fairly certain after mulling it over that it must be the last one but put that aside for a moment until she could speak to Luke herself to see if she was right before saying anything to anyone else and especially their parents, their mother would come down especially hard if she was right.

The door mercifully opened and offered a distraction as Markus walked in followed by his father. Leia got her feet and walked over to her husband who gladly took her in his arms and kissed her.

"Sorry it went on so long, there was a lot to deal with." Markus said with a genuine tone of guilt that he was not there with her to greet his in-laws. He turned to Padme and greeted her and Anakin. "I hope you had a pleasant journey." He offered and Padme looked at him sternly before saying.

"It was smooth enough, I just hope your treatment of my daughter has been as gentle." Padme said sharply and Leia gasped out in surprise.

"Mother!" She was appalled at her mother's words to her husband while Markus took a subconscious step back. Anakin glared at Markus briefly to show his own concerns but since his son in law had been apparently been a good husband to Leia he put his hand on Padme's shoulder to calm her, taking the hint from her husband she stopped there without pressing any further.

Seeing his son being afraid of his mother in law almost made Haron smile but then he caught Padme's eyes and gave her a warning glare. He knew his son would stand his ground but he wanted to let her know that he was backing his son all of the way whatever it took.

"I have never thought of Leia as anything more than my partner in all things." Markus said calmly and Padme frowned before backing down, accepting things as they were for now.

Leia breathed a sigh of relief as she took Markus's hand and squeezed it, trying to comfort him but he squeezed back letting her know he was okay. After a year or so of travelling around all of the Mandalorian clans and houses they had learned a lot but also it had acted as something of a honeymoon for them both.

They had a year to themselves as they travelled, to really get to know each other and learn how they worked as a couple.

It had been the just the thing that they needed and while she appreciated her mother's protectiveness she did not need it.

Seeing the tension had not entirely left the room Haron decided to interrupt in the hopes of changing the subject.

"Anakin, good to see again." Haron told his old friend and shook his hand and Anakin grateful for that as it was a much needed distraction. "I believe you had a proposal the Rebellion wanted to put to me?"

"Yes." Anakin said and told him. "I have some...information that there might be something of importance in the Iego system on one of the asteroids there."

Haron's eyebrow rose up at the vagueness of what was Anakin was asking. It wasn't unreasonable but the fact that he wasn't actually telling just what it was was highly suspicious.

"Any more information?" Haron asked and Anakin admitted to him.

"No, it was just a vision but...I think that something might be there that could help us find a way to hurt Palpatine." Anakin said.

Haron did not doubt Anakin's honesty even if he always maintained a healthy level of doubt in 'visions', they were even if real and not anything like a hallucination and were highly difficult to interpret at the best of times but he knew better than to just dismiss them out of hand.

Iego was inside of their space now so the Rebellion would need their permission to check if there was anything to this so he gave it but with one condition.

"Very well, I will allow a rebel salvage team to go to Iego and see what is there but my people must also be involved. Any discoveries will be shared. That is the price." Haron said, the offer on the table and Anakin nodded in agreement, glad that he would allow it as he was sure there was something important in this.

- x -

Iego System, Mandalorian Space...A Few Days Later...

The Rebel salvage team was impressed at the efficiency and sturdiness of Mandalorian design, everything would rarely fail it was so resilient and yet worked perfectly when needed.

The Spirit of Fire had been pulled from its regular duties to act as a support vessel for the joint rebel/mandalorian team, fighters and shuttles carefully checked each of the so-called 'Thousand Moons' of Iego to see just what might be there with a fine tooth comb but apart from some old ship wreckage there had been nothing of note so far. The ship was slowly expanding the search into the outer most system where there were some large pieces of rock yet to check.

But the mission had allowed Haron and Anakin the chance to do something that they had not been able to do in a very long time...hang out together.

They both made themselves a drink at the bar and settled down on the comfortable seats to share stories from the last twenty years.

"And my little sister, who me and Deera raised since she was a baby flew up on top of the walker, cut open the cockpit, threw the crew outside and then took over the walker, turning it on the Imperials themselves. My little sister." Haron said with a smile as he remembered that day.

"Its been a long road." Anakin said with a tired voice, Haron hummed in agreement. So much had happened over the years that it didn't seem possible that it had been so long since the end of the Clone Wars.

"And its not over yet." Haron said with a similar tired voice, both he and Anakin had been fighting for most of their lives so far. "But while some might say we're past this sort of thing I have a few fights left in me."

"Same here." Anakin said with a smirk, they might be getting on in years now but he and Haron were not done yet. They still had plenty left to do.

That was when their pleasant discussion was interrupted.

"Mandalore, the fighters have made a sighting on one of the asteroids on the outer edge of the system." One of his people told him and Haron answered with some interest.

"What have they found?" Haron asked and the report was somewhat disappointing.

"Its an old Separatist ship sir. Recusant-class light destroyer, Patriot's Fist."

Both Haron and Anakin sighed as this was hardly unexpected, there were a good number of Separatist ships wrecked in this system so this was wasn't exactly the ground breaking discover that they had been hoping for. Nevertheless they were hoping this hadn't been a complete waste of time and so Haron ordered.

"Check the ship out, see what its carrying and check the computer system. Probably a dead end but best be through." Haron ordered and they acknowledged his command.

"Understood Mandalore."

They both sighed before getting another drink and kept talking and sharing stories with each other before finally a report came in.

"The ship was wrecked in the last month of the war, nothing in the cargo holds. Regular droids all destroyed in the crash." The salvage party leader reported and both Anakin and Haron who had hoped for so much more felt that this had been a waste of time.

"What battles has it been involved in?" Anakin asked more out of curiosity than anything else and after a long pause Haron told the leader.

"Answer him."

"It fought in the Battle of Coruscant and crashed here on the way to the rally point after the battle." The salvage leader answered calmly without much thought.

That suddenly made both men start, they shared a look as suddenly this discovery changed the entire situation but it depended entirely on one specific thing not being done.

"Has the navi-computer been wiped?" Haron asked intently, it had been standard procedure for the Separatists to wipe the computer after some operations when they didn't want to risk the enemy finding out where it had been so he was dearly hoping that they hadn't this time and there were a few tense minutes as the team made the necessary checks. Haron and Anakin both waited with great impatience before finally the answer came.

"No. It must have crashed before the droids could do it."

Both Haron and Anakin suddenly realised that this ship might be the most important asset in the war now! Haron immediately gave his instructions.

"Get all of the data we can from the ship's computers but especially the navigational routes the ship has travelled, we need to know those hyperspace routes. Top priority get any help you need but recover that data." Haron ordered with insistence. They needed that data as soon as possible as Haron and Anakin both spoke on the importance of it.

"If that ship fought at Coruscant..."Anakin said and Haron nodded in agreement as they both understood the ramifications.

"Then it will have the hyperspace route that the Separatist ships used to bypass all of the Core Worlds defences and head straight to Coruscant." Haron stated and the excitement in both men was rising as they realised that at last they had found what they were looking for.

A way to strike straight at Palpatine himself...ironically given to them by the man himself in a very long drawn out kind of way.

They moved the ship's war room and waited eagerly for the data to arrive and soon it began to be transmitted to them. They both studied it intently as all of their hopes hinged on finding that exact piece of data, it came with agonising slowness and they were both pacing the room in silence, both men looking like caged rancors they were so tense.

When at last the data had finished coming in, they both stopped to study it and saw exactly what they had hoped, more in fact.

"It cuts straight through the Deep Core, no wonder we never saw them coming during the war." Anakin said with amazement as there had been little charting of any potential worlds that might be accessible there.

"No interdictors along the route, this perfect. Absolutely perfect." Haron said as at last they had a way to get at Palpatine directly and then remembered something. "My intelligence agents just discovered that there is a major Imperial summit planned to discuss defences and counter-plans for any potential attack on the Inner Rim and Core Worlds. All the remaining Grand Moffs and Moffs, the senior Admirals and Generals...they will all be there."

"So if we time the attack to happen while the summit is on, we can take out most of the Empire's upper leadership in one stroke." Anakin said and the excitement of both men was growing with the possibility that they could shatter the Empire in one move.

"The meeting is in a month's time. Can we assemble a taskforce in that time frame?" Haron said worried that they wouldn't have the time to create a usable plan and a large enough force to make this attack feasible. Even if they cut communications to make sure that the Empire couldn't bring in reinforcements there was a very large fleet and defence network around Coruscant.

They would need a large fleet of their own and to disable that defence network for any potential attack to work, Haron considered.

"We can try." Anakin said eagerly and Haron nodded, game for it and willing to do what it took to make this happen.

War Room, Spirit of Fire...

"The route head straight through the core and approaches Coruscant at an angle, Mandalorian Intelligence confirms there is little security along the route." Haron said as he studied the information that they had managed to uncovered.

"He knows about, why would he leave it like that?" Anakin asked as it was strange that Palpatine would not make sure such a potential hole in the defences of Coruscant. Haron agreed it was strange but there were explanations for it.

"He might be using it as a secret escape route if he needs one, there is probably some bolthole in the Deep Core or something like that. So if we do this then we need to make sure he doesn't make it off Coruscant alive. If he can retreat into the Deep Core it could take years to find him or never." Haron said so they got on with the planning.

"We can join the route on the other side of the Core Worlds, here in the Daio Plaz System. But to do that we will need to get the support of the Separatist Alliance since they hold that system. But there is a space station there now and it would make a good rallying point for an attack force. The trick is going to be masking what we're doing from the Empire before launching the attack. So the surveillance outpost on the border will need to be neutralised." Haron said with a considering look on his face. That was easy enough but they would have to do it literally just before the attack to not give the enemy any idea just what they were doing. The good thing was that the Empire had a big fuel refinery in the area so if they launched another raid on that location just after as a diversion that would hopefully keep the Emperor from realising their true intentions.

"But we need to gather a large strike force enough for this attack. A few hundred at least." Anakin said and Haron nodded.

"We will need to reach out to every single faction that will consider the attack. Convincing them might to risk this might not be so easy." Haron warned him as while he and his people would be up for it and so would the Rebellion most likely it would they would need more, a lot more and the only way to get that was to get the other powers on board. This meant maintaining secrecy would be absolutely paramount for it to succeed, apart from the upper most leadership hardly anyone should know just what they were attacking until just before the attack.

If the Empire had even the smallest idea of what they were planning, it would fall apart.