Planet Locust. The Outer Ring.

Maria's feverish.

She stood by the window, wrapped her shoulders around her hands, looking at the glow of the many fires that had engulfed the capital.

The latest events on the planet gave her a cramped desire to get away.

And it would be better to be "far away" on Coruscant, where normal people are always comfortable and relaxed.

The scoundrels outside the window were waving black flags. They were shouting, "Galaxy for all!"

They've already taken over the spaceport. And the shootings were always breaking out everywhere.

The last hyperlink was blown up yesterday, and the girl was completely lost.

The "YouInHolo" social network, where she laid out her voice and talked to the reasonable, is unavailable. The police efforts have resulted in nothing. Neighbors said that some of the police had joined the robbers.

Locust, a planet in the Outer Ring where many farmers lived quietly and peacefully, under the wise leadership of Concordat, was boiling.

Just two years ago, Free Organization Of Locust was never heard of.

Then FOOL decided to nominate their candidates for Concordat.

Of course, no one was going to give the poor flock an opportunity to lead the planet.

The families of the aristocrats tried to deal with it peacefully, with debts.

Loans, mortgages...

But collectors were hung, tax collectors were killed, and the army...

Locust had no army.

There were a few Army of Light veterans who now fought in the streets with bandits who thought they could get rights like the Families.

A single parent, when he left for work today, told her not to leave home. Their house was equipped with a sealing system. The gases that were going to be used against the rioters wouldn't have gotten in here.

There were a few explosions, someone screamed loud and scared.

Maria jumped into the driveway, forgetting to lock the door.

On their floor there was already a crowd of Kian, a funny sensible man who had not yet decided on his gender identity, and the Harrid family, a single parent, a parent-two and five of their adopted children.

They all looked frightenedly at the noisy girl coming out the door.

One parent, Conrad Harrid, licked his lips and nervously noticed:

"You could've kept it down."

She did not have time to answer anything, because the parent or two, Romual Garrid, abruptly threw his hand, calling for attention.

A barely audible knock, and the door leading to the stairs was skewed.

Then she just fell in.

Five reasonable men, dressed in different clothes, but with black bandages on their hands, punches in their buttstocks, and just kicks and stabs, made all the adults run thirteen stories down.

The street smelled like garbage, and in Maria's eyes it immediately protected.

In their once cozy, quiet courtyard, there was a crowd of tenants.

The fence was broken in some places. The guards' house near the entrance was blown up by an explosion.

For about fifteen minutes the bandits dragged out the rest of the tenants of the elite multi-storey, and the children were taken out carefully, albeit preventing their attempts to rush to their parents.

The screams and cries were so loud that they completely muffled the engine noise of the flycats that arrived.

Maria was shaking for fear of the unknown. She noticed the new actors only when a group of intellectuals came almost at point-blank range, and the cordon of bandits parted, letting the new arrivals through.

The obvious boss, a gray old man of high stature, stood so impressively that all the prisoners were silent.

Even the children.

Only a little rustled, fluttering in the wind, the canvas of the old man raised behind his back, black as an abyss, the flag.

White, a little skill, eyes looked closely and attentively, as if penetrating into the soul. The old man examined the crowd of prisoners, not lingering on anyone deliberately.

Thin lips were cracked by the failure of his mouth:

"What, bastards? Shit themselves?"

Planet Locust shuddered.

Locust had accepted the will of the Great Power.

The planet has a future.

***

Ruusan's orbit.

The girl fell asleep in a small cabin. Zannahh is tired.. Too many changes in life. Too sudden.

I kept sitting there, staring dumbly at the dashboard in the ship's wheelhouse.

The first steps.

Everything's too important. Everything will have consequences.

Looking at the documents from the Brotherhood made me think.

What lies in the secret room accounts of the Lords will allow many generations of descendants to have a long and merry time. Theoretically.

In practice, it gets more complicated.

Nobody's gonna let anybody take out or move large amounts of money.

There was power behind the Brotherhood, so the bankers allowed them some financial autonomy.

And now the remains of the late Sker Kaan's fleet and his companions are being killed everywhere.

The battle in orbit allowed a little caution, seeped out of the gravitational shadow of the planet and slip into hyperspace. Thank you very much, former comrades-in-arms.

I have no power behind me.

The agency will no doubt lay low, surrender me to the Jedi, or simply and banally try to destroy me.

I have a huge number of documents, all with completely different names.

It's certainly good for initial legalization. But documents alone don't guarantee access to a society where you can spin big capitals. Everyone knows each other there, so the emergence of a new face requires a strong legend.

Just to live the life of an underground millionaire?

Oh, please. Power will not allow you to exist in the shadows and do nothing.

I spent a couple of years thinking about a gentleman from the planet Serenno.

Not Dooku, not even an ancestor, a weaker and simpler figure.

But there were prospects in this option.

Hetton.

Why?

He's rich. An aristocrat. By the standards of his planet, has some attention there.

He looks at the Dark Side with interest.

I checked the information on him.

His mother died a few years ago.

It was a sign.

The canon is present.

Hetton found Kaan's idea of Sith equality in the Brotherhood disgusting and contrary to everything he had learned and believed in.

His mother, Lauranda, thought only of political alliances. She put pressure on her son. He could have been a ticket to an alliance with the Brotherhood.

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Hetton poisoned her in her sleep. He was afraid his mother would turn him over to the Brotherhood.

Hetton hid from the Jedi and the Brotherhood, and continued to look for Sith knowledge and artifacts.

It's a promising option.

"King, set a course for Serenno."

I will look at this Hetton.

***

Serenno.

Come on come on come on

Come on is such a joy

Come on is such a joy

Come on take it easy

Come on take it easy

Take it easy take it easy

Everybody's got something to hide.

Except for me and my monkey.

The deeper you go the higher you fly

The higher you fly the deeper you go

Your inside is out and your outside is in

Your outside is in and your inside is out

So come on come on

Come on is such a joy

Come on is such a joy

Come on make it easy

Come on make it easy

Make it easy to make it easy

Everybody's got something to hide.

Except for me and my monkey.

Serenno.

I was enjoying the time. It was a lot to do. A lot of pleasant and unpleasant things to do.

But it was interesting for me to live these few years.

Much more interesting than my years at the Assassin Academy.

I accepted the practice of destroying life normally.

I studied dark and bright with interest.

Were there more darkness?

Can't help it. The Force itself put me in the dark.

But on Serena, it was as if I remembered my old life.

When you do a job. And that job makes you happy every day.

When you understand the meaning of "born to do this".

***

In the beginning, I showed Hetton a technique to speed up his learning, and he has grown considerably in skill.

Where he could collect all sorts of dark stuff. He'd drag everything that belonged to the gifted into his mink.

But there couldn't be any information in the holocrons to speed up learning and increase efficiency.

Because that's what they teach from the beginning, that's obvious to all technicians.

To find them in the holocron is like finding an encyclopedia article on how to write the first letter in the alphabet correctly.

Zannah was making progress, too.

Home schooling on Serenno was great for heirs to wealthy families.

And the girl also spent a lot of time studying the Force.

The day I arrived at Serenno, I found Hetton's address and came to visit.

We had a fruitful conversation.

An hour later, the mercenaries he had pulled out of various places, under the command of loyal lovers, rushed through the academies, libraries and caches I had indicated.

In the papers of the Lords there were coordinates and access codes.

Hetton himself decided to fly with me to the Korriban.

Maybe I don't have a very good set of statistics. I get the feeling that all the Dark Ones I've met are suffering, to varying degrees, from brain aggression.

Just "let's get everybody on their knees!"

Yes, the Dark Force Techniques require negative emotions, but only in the mastering phase!

Then, when the consciousness remembers what to do, it's not necessary to torment the consciousness with negativity.

So, no, these bruised on the head go on, "anger gives me strength..."

Funny and nasty.

I think that's what the ancient dark lords understood.

Yeah, I'm sure they were funny life lovers at home.

And these modern sith...

Well, how can you stay with a healthy head when you have to either be angry or at least annoyed to do something.

Hetton took a walk at the Academy. Then he and I took a walk to the Valley of the Dark Lords while the servants gutted the archives and searched for the hiding places.

This guy really walked in the tombs with an inspirational expression on his face, and then went to make all sorts of pathos speeches.

What's it to me, I turned off the external microphones of my helmet and turned on the music, and the servants what's it like?

"Come on take it easy

Come on take it easy

Take it easy take it easy."

I got tense at first.

But probing the Force didn't do anything.

The Spirits of the Lords did not come down.

And I wanted to shit on them, too.

After three days, they finally went back to the Academy, found their losses.

Three jerks had their hands torn off when they opened the caches. Four of them were ripped to shit. And one managed to sit in a chair in a torture chamber and activate it.

Nothing, but the chair was meant for women.

He yelled loud and long.

The Jedi squadron arrived three days after our company made the boot in the floor. The satellites we had hanged in orbit before the operation started said warships were coming, and they shut up.

At the end of the operation, Hetton got inspired and appointed me his teacher. He decided that he would now be the coolest and strongest in the Serenno scale.

Then he worked his way up to the practical top of Shii-Cho. Then he started shyly trying to conquer Niman. Hetton had the idea of swinging two swords in a pathos.

And after the remark that Exar Kun owned Niman, but used a staff, he was completely blown away.

Hetton got himself two blades, which were connected to the staff and cosplayed Exar.

I was interested in teaching this funny aristocrat.

It was important for me to understand that my plan had a right to live.

***

Erwin Hetton invited me to his place for an important conversation.

When I walked into the room, Erwin was sitting in a deep chair, giving orders to his servants. He immediately interrupted and made a gesture with his hand, "Go away, but look at me!"

The servants made a common bow and quietly moved out.

Hetton stood up and bowed majestically.

I nodded briefly to him and continued with the circus.

I shook hands with all the departing servants.

The master of the mansion had a clear desire to cover his face with his hand.

It's simple. I'm boyfriend for everyone. I drank with all the beers. I used to talk about women and tell jokes. I'm the one who'd stop by the cooks, fix the equipment, and steal all the goodies. And they'd drive me away and laugh at me. I used to make birthday presents for kids all the time.

In the end, I know all the moves in the palace.

And not just Hetton Palace.

Don't make fun of my skills.

I know what to know if you live on Serenno.

Hetton has changed with me. Now he doesn't have on his face "I had everyone/ And if didn't, I'm gonna catch them and fuck them."

But still, nurturing the "aristocracy" has done its job.

He still thinks he's superior to someone by birthright.

Stupid foolishness.

The delirium of a rich aristocrat from the Middle Ring.

I remember a phrase from one of the Indian chiefs on planet Earth:

"We did not receive the privilege of inheriting from our ancestors. We borrowed them from our descendants."

Why were empires collapsing?

Those who were called aristocracy did not understand what they were doing instead of serving.

When they forgot that being born into a noble family was an advance that had to be worked out.

Ancient Rome could teach many things.

But who needs it?

The aristocrats of France?

Liberty. Equality. Brotherhood.

Thank you, I know what a Brotherhood is. I peed on his grave.

Erwin Hetton killed my faith in the aristocracy.

His first teacher, duros, a hired assassin and a bounty hunter, Gula Dwan could teach a little. He used only the simplest powers of the Force for tricks like levitating objects. But Dwan could teach the most important! He had no sympathy for Jedi or Sith, this fool was only loyal to those who paid more credits.

It was a great chance for Hetton.

But he didn't understand the main thing.

He couldn't understand the Greatness of Power.

For which all these divisions and currents are not important, let alone titles and titles.

I was disappointed in Erwin Hetton.

But I could work with him.

So he could work on my plans.

"Master," Hetton's voice rang in triumph. "We finally have allies!"

Too bad he didn't watch "Shrek". Then I'd quote, "Donkey, there's no "us", there's me and my swamp." He wouldn't understand. Hutt's with her, with a quote.

But the rest needs fixing.

"Well done, apprentice, well done."

I walked to the panoramic window and sat in a deep chair.

Obedient to the thought movement, the bar doors swung open, the bottle jumped in my hand.

The owner slightly wincered.

Yes, I prefer beer! And I don't give a shit that among most aristocrats drinking beer is considered a plebeian.

And now there are always bottles of beer in the palace bars.

Well done!

And yes! I like to drink from a bottle neck.

Hetton is not expected to hear the joy in my voice.

Buying his time, he, too, leaned into the chair next door and levitated a bottle of some kind of drinking must have been unreal.

The glass was also present in the set.

The aristocrat decided to find out the details.

"Master, are you dissatisfied?"

I shrugged my shoulders:

"What can I say? Basically, I don't care."

His eyebrows flew up:

"Why?"

I knew very well about his movements. And his dreams, too. And I consciously gave him the opportunity to act. I watched him.

I came to talk because it was time to adjust "politics".

If I can do that. If it doesn't work out...

The assets I've been counting on to be withdrawn from the number accounts of the dead members of the Brotherhood have been withdrawn. At any moment, you can, as my grandmother used to say, "ass on ass and who jumps next".

I faked a tired breath:

"You received promises of cooperation from your allies. Your Anti-Republican Liberation Front has won. The planet and the Serenno system are out of the Republic. Next what?"

There's a stupor in his eyes. He doesn't understand.

I'm reaching out to him:

"And, most importantly. What will you do to pay off your allies?"

Hetton came back to life.

He was clearly thinking about it.

He's stalling by taking a sip of wine.

"Master, we have agreed to establish a Royal Council, which will include..."

I scornfully waved and he shut up.

Now Hetton is looking at me with interest. Well, I've only been his teacher in training. And in politics, he thought he was a 40-8-year-old bison, and I was a 20-year-old snot.

And I've still demonstratively stayed away from all that "political movement."

"Hetton, I hear you. You want to be king. And then you just plan to subjugate your former allies. And the "they won't let you do it" option isn't even considered. Is that it?"

He nodded.

"I have a question for you personally. That's how it works. You've become king. Next what?"

He even choked on wine.

"I will lead Serenno to power and glory..."

Left him with a sorry look.

Got the datapad out of his pocket, put out charts for clarity.

"Look here, future majesty. Forty percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Unemployment in the system is eight percent. Mining equipment is worn out by an average of sixty-three percent. There are no factories in the system for any industry. There is total dependence on imported food supplies. What is produced here provides only seven percent of the population.

Of those who are reasonable and engaged in various fields, one and a half percent have higher technical education. Only eighteen per cent of the population has access to medical services. Forty per cent of children can attend schools. There is simply a lack of schools."

I put out the charts. I've already felt it. That aristocrat didn't get it. He doesn't understand. And the reasons aren't in him at all. Reasons lie deep in the past, Serenno's system and the entire galaxy.

But I can speak frankly to this man.

He's been useful to me. And he will be useful to me and my plans for a long time to come.

And I'm not going to feel sorry for him:

"How are you gonna rule? Do you think that bunch of aristocrats are Serenno? You're under half a percent. The whole population is in debt, debt in credit. And you don't have your own currency. You just don't have anything to secure it. And the republican banks are just holding your balls. If they need it, they'll secure a rebellion against King Hetton's tyranny".

Hetton's face is petrified:

"Yes, we are few, but our people can handle any uprising!"

Oh, my God! God from planet Earth! Is that why the Heavenly River is so deaf, you've never even heard of Napoleon here?

We'll have to quote:

"You can do a lot with bayonets, but you can't sit on them. The best way to deal with a popular uprising is to keep it from happening."

It's singing:

"Most are a herd that's always dissatisfied. Do I have to please them all?"

The second bottle of beer slipped into my hand:

"And you don't hold the reasonable ones by the herd, so you don't have to please the herd."

I remember the other words of that funny Frenchman.

"Leader, it's a salesman of hope."

I'm sorry. For Hetton, I don't have this product. Only dark skills.

We had a good talk.

We both sensed my student approaching.

Zannah broke into her office and shouted her news:

"Master, I did it!"

Then she remembered the decency, made a kneeksen.

Hetton and I looked over and simultaneously suppressed the smiles.

The girl promised to grow into a beauty, but not stunning, and one that has something that should be in any girl.

So small, wrinkled, brown.

A highlight, if anyone doesn't get it.

"Okay, apprentice. Let's go show you your progress."

Hetton nods his head:

"Most interesting. And then we can talk about politics."

I agree.

Let him try to put my thoughts in his head first.

He won't surprise me.

I don't believe he will.

And the Great Power isn't giving signs.

***

The girl's power was already impressive.

I knew it was Zannah. It's the same Zannah who'll be able to do many great and terrible things.

It was a pleasure to teach the girl.

I understand. That it's too early for me to practice pedagogy.

I myself am only at the beginning of my journey to comprehend the Force.

But someone had to help the girl follow the path of the Force.

Heh, heh.

I need her future power. I need her loyalty.

She is my Zannah.

And any nice words about the teacher's duty are one side of the coin.

She'll work beside me. And she will work so well. As good as she'll learn.

Before our eyes, there were a few big rocks hanging in the gym, a ball of water several feet in diameter, and grains of sand fluttering around them. A lot of grains of sand. I closed my eyes. When this diamond finishes cutting, she'll have something to surprise the galaxy with.

And the girl was also spinning around the hall, repulsing the attacks of the eight Shadows.

Hetton looked at it and wrinkled annoyingly. The girl was showing a great Jar’Kai that he had never been given himself.

It's a purely psychological question.

Stretching exercises strengthened his flexibility, but there was no naturalness in his movements.

Hetton's brains did not want to believe that it is possible to bend, had to do deliberately. But unconscious movements are always faster.

Zannah curved in such a way that her body seemed to have no bones at all.

***

Hetton was thinking.

There were more and more supporters of separation from the Republic.

Their secret front was gathering strength.

There were more and more of those who loudly broadcast that it was time to make a statement.

Janus words were interesting, unexpected.

But what can a twenty-year-old boy in politics understand?

When the system comes out of the greedy hands of the galactic senate, all taxes now levied on the Republic will remain in the system.

And that's a lot of money.

A little more taxes on the population, and we can build our own fleet. Then no one would ever think that this is a place to live.

Of course, the military fleet is simply worth indecent money in maintenance, but the opportunity to have a "long hand" warms us.

Now you can make purchases at a cheap price.

After the defeat of the Brotherhood of Darkness and the Ruusan Reformation, quite good ships are actively sold out.

At first, of course, before leaving the Republic, you will have to do with the services of private military companies.

In the meantime, schools created at the suggestion of Janus for poor children with full boarding and advanced military training will prepare sergeants for him, Erwin Hetton, the army!

Hetton covered his eyes, he represented a huge landing field filled with flat "boxes" of soldiers. Behind them, huge landing vehicles were floating in the sky, ready to accept this mass and carry them to fulfill his will.

King Erwin the First...

He rode the word combination in his mind.

Sounds good.

But Emperor Erwin the First sounds much better.