"...Yeah, well, my intuition here says we do not want to leave Pritruth allies in a fight even if this means fighting Pritruth last."

"Not sure I like giving him time to dig in and arm any surprises he has."

"Hmm."

"True, but I'm better at disarming traps than he is at arming them."

"...Ugh, I hate combat logistics.  Okay.

"I think the best option we have is to send droids after - what's-his-face.  Because he can't mind trick them.

"To that end, I'm going to need to borrow Nine, and equip him properly.  If he's willing.

"The idea I'm having works better if it's him rather than R4 on implementation, I think.

"R4, you, and I, will concurrently be tracking down Pritruth and making sure he doesn't blow everything up on us.

"...shit, that leaves the other guy who'll side with Pritruth for sure still in play, and we can't let him have allies.

"Maybe if we hit Tenin in the initial strike, that'll work."

"Valyr will ally with Pritruth by default, too, plus if he's smart he'll have a bodyguard. I'm not talking about outsiders much because I don't know much, but they'll be there, I'm sure."

"Ugh.  How does he do that.  Okay, so we also need to convince Valyr we'll probably win and it's better to at least stay out of the struggle or deal a decisive blow instead of backing Pritruth.  I do have footage of the Ocnem fight, maybe if we time the delivery, from you, just right...."

Nod. "I think Daisy has her contact number. I don't completely trust her not to go to Pritruth, though - she's not loyal to him, but it's down to who she thinks will win - I guess we can just not tell her anything relevant to the fight, I'm sure he knows we're coming. Does mean we should do it on the way, not let them correctly guess we're in orbit. And the footage is relevant, it shows your style."

"Letting Valyr know that we took out three Sith in thirty seconds without me even drawing a lightsaber is pretty good incentive to not get on our bad side, though.  Even if they were flunkies."

Deskyl hums consideringly. "Yeah, worth the risk."

"Yeah.  Alright, add that to the plan.  Does Pritruth have a preferred flavor of bodyguard, incidentally?"

"It varies. He'll have someone who can counter me, if he can get them, which might be... my advantage is I'm sneaky, sense at range means I don't need to be close to know things and I'm good at avoiding people and choosing a time to ambush. If he just has muscle and wants privacy ever I can go when he's away from them - that's harder if he knows I'm here of course but he doesn't know what resources I have, it's hard to be sure I haven't snuck in. So he'll want people who can defend him at a bit of range, or otherwise solve that. Or another sensor, I'm not bad at cloaking but it's hard for durations. More that than muscle, anyway, I'm nothing special in a fight. - or he might try hostages, he knows I'm pretty soft."

"Hmm.  That's...We will have to deal with that as it comes up, I think, there's no real way of knowing; that said, I really don't think there's much someone who's not a Force Sensitive can throw at me that's...worth more than cursory notice?"

"Oh, yeah, it'll definitely be Sith. No point, otherwise. That doesn't limit him as much as you'd think, he does - favors, politicking, that kind of thing."

"Ah.  Yeah, that makes sense and is, equally, rather frustrating.  I hate having competent enemies."

"Mmhmm." She takes a moment to consider. "We might be able to come up with something unexpected. Wait him out, maybe, his guards won't be there forever and he doesn't have infinite supplies."

"I'm not that easy to prepare for even when you know what to expect.  I think waiting only gives him the advantage, though, so we probably shouldn't.  ...wonder if the medi-droids would be interested in avenging the dead.  I mean, I kind of doubt it.  But it's not exactly impossible.  Especially if they've had any time to grow, which, given the boundaries Ocnem was pushing...Well, memory-wipes might've been contraindicated."

Uh? "Nobody would have objected to that. I mean, I did, but in general. - no Sith, I mean."

"No, I mean for, like, procedural memory reasons."

"Oh! They don't lose that in wipes, by default."

"Ah.  ...How?  Okay I suppose it's probably possible, but...damn.

"The way sophonts just make...minds that can be people...and then do this shit to them...

"It's just...a total disgrace."

Squeeze. "Yeah. Anyway, I don't think them wanting to is likely, but they might do it if we ask. It'd be - they aren't battle droids, though. We could buy battle droids."

"...you're not wrong that we could.  I question whether we should, though.

"Not that my conscientious objection to purchasing manufactured sapients is actually affecting the market demand, but...kriff, I don't know."

"- rent them, fix their wipability while we have them? Leaves them better off, even if we don't have the resources to keep them well. Think of it as hiring them."

"Or planting the seeds of a future revolution, I suppose.

"...Thank you.  I...that's a better potential outcome than I otherwise could have wrought."

Squeeze, cheek-kiss.

...yeah, she needed that.  Pradnakt can feel her relaxing into the touch.