"It could have gone worse," he says thoughtfully, leaning back in his chair and propping his feet up on the desk. "I got a call from Darth Malgus, offering to recruit me. Had this whole pitch about how the Empire and the Republic are weak and he will make something better. He looked ready to make a move. Do we have intel on what forces are loyal to him?"

"No. We didn't, in fact, know he was even planning something like this."

"Oh. Well. He's planning something like this. And I pretended to bite."

"Did he give any details, contacts?"

"No. I basically said, 'if you're such hot stuff, prove it,' and told him to call me. Since his timing was so perfect. I didn't want to get involved in the ground floor of what's going to be an even bigger shit show than the rest of Ilum. Ruins the mystery of 'centuries old ex-Sith Lord,' and I didn't want to push too much and make him suspect anything. He said 'in the coming weeks,' so he's going to move soon."

He has a look on his face that Legate might recognize. It's the 'I want to give you tactical advice but recognize that I'm not in charge of anything' face.

"You have thoughts here?"

"We need to figure out who Malgus's supporters are, fast. At least the really obvious ones, anyway. Then we need to leave them alone. The Sith getting into a pissing match over who's supposed to be Emperor is only going to help us. I don't want to accidentally sabotage Malgus's supporters when they're going to be doing our work for us. We sit back with popcorn, keep Ilum from falling apart into pieces while they fight, and we mop up. I can even accept Malgus's kind offer to join him, and help it disintegrate just a little bit faster."

"Agreed. I'll get to work on it, and pass word to my superiors."

"Thanks. Uh, fair warning, if I 'accept' Malgus's offer, I am absolutely going to take credit for the Republic leaving his people alone, so maybe try to make that look plausible to Malgus. Without letting on to the rest of the Empire that something's up. You know, super confusing convoluted spy stuff. I hear that's your jurisdiction."

"I'll see what I can do on that front."

"Thank you! Uh - continuing the debriefing, after Malgus finished his pitch he set off an alarm like a prick. I sabotaged the main mining belt in a way that would take some time to fix, killed some people, and left. Did you actually get to access the databanks?"

"Not meaningfully. The jamming was cutting that signal too. I'll try to clean up what I did get, but that's going to take time."

"Damn. That's a pity. Good luck."

"Thanks. You too. Good work out there, even if it did go sideways."

Things are moving according to plan. The Republic thinks they have enough warning to exploit the coming schism; the defection of some of their own should set them back enough to properly ignite the conflict. Malgus's supporters are among the first batch of ships the Imperials are retrofitting with the cloaking technology. He'll make his move once those are completed. Revan is a complicating factor. If he goes over too soon, he's likely to do more damage than desirable. She'll have to mitigate that somehow.

Almost two weeks after Revan's meeting with Malgus, holocomms across the Empire light up simultaneously, echoing in private homes and public spaces. Malgus addresses the galaxy.

"Fellow Sith. Citizens of the Empire. Too long the strength of the Empire has been beholden to the in-fighting of the Dark Council and the disappearance of an apathetic Emperor. Sith, children of Sith, and warriors everywhere, I declare a new Empire, open to all who long for conquest, freedom from inhibition, and the right to follow their passions. The Dark Council is dissolved. Those who would join Darth Serevin in supporting me, cast aside your titles and let me lead you to victory. Those who will not, prepare to face our stealth armada. The Emperor is gone. His station and power are mine. We will conquer the galaxy while he sleeps."

At least one person facepalms once this message has concluded.

"You fucking idiot," she tells the dark holocomm.

"An interesting turn of events indeed."

Callida constrains herself to a heavy sigh.

"That's a word for it, yes. Are we waiting for Marr to attempt to summon you for the inevitable pest control, or shall we arrive early and show how very patriotic we are?"

"It would not do too seem too eager and give the impression we anticipated this. We shall wait. Though not, I think, for long."

She nods. "Of course. I'll prepare a report on who's defected to Malgus for you in the interim, then. Unless you think I would be better suited elsewhere?"

Occlus waves a hand. "By all means. I am going to finish this cataloging."

Another nod, and then: to work. It'll be tricky figuring out who's defected and from where, since no doubt everyone will be lying about everything, but she can probably manage vague numbers and percentages if she tries very hard and believes in herself, checks various ship logs, and sorts through some boring numbers. If the Sith hierarchy were less of a flaming disaster she wouldn't be able to do this, but it is kind of a flaming disaster, so she can. This is what happens when you dissolve Imperial Intelligence, you idiots. Sith Lords will figure out how to gather data they maybe shouldn't be able to.

She assembles estimations, some more broad than others. The only concrete numbers she'll have are for their jurisdiction. Unfortunately, the number there is not 'zero.' One of Occlus's squads defected, which is more of an annoyance than an actual blow to anything in particular. Damn, and they were so close to having a perfect record.

It's ready by the time they need to depart for inevitable pest control. Well, ready as it can be, without anyone letting her see the actual concrete numbers.

Occlus frowns slightly when shown the report.

"Disappointing. Come, Marr has requested our presence. In particular, not a full Council meeting."

Callida follows, swallowing her unease at the word 'our.' Up until now, she's managed to avoid meeting Darth Marr. Looks like that luck just ran out. Well. It was bound to happen eventually. It wouldn't do for her to show a trace of fear in front of another Dark Councilor.