Well, that's quite interesting to see - though she hasn't quite yet actually seen General Syndulla.

She's looking forward to it, though, as she sets up the holocaster for their pre-mission meeting; she wants to get a measure for the man, a metonymy for Republic skeptics.

When they meet, General Syndulla is actually prepared with his plan on how to approach the mission! Apparently Kina is no longer the only person in charge of ideas!

Given that they don't technically have authority to attack the Hutts, they will begin simply by sending a few representatives - Syndulla, Mundi, and Trebor - to meet with Jabba and search the premises. Once they find something highly illegal, which shouldn't take more than a minute or two, they can slip away to a private area and then call in the full strike. Jabba's forces, while numerous, have little in the way of aerial weaponry, so most of the attack will come from directly above - after a few droids draw away their attention at the front gate. The main force will first take the tops of the smaller towers, and fortify them as sniper positions, then head from there to the large dome that makes up most of the palace. From there, they can head downwards and hopefully make it to Jabba's throne room at the bottom.

Primary backup plans in the event that they end up outnumbered would mostly depend on just using what ships they have to directly bombard the palace, although this isn't ideal due to the potentially large amounts of casualties. One obvious area of concern is if Jabba just tries to kill them the moment they walk in, but hopefully the Jedi will be able to defend themselves and Syndulla long enough to get to safety, and if possible, take out some of their enemies from the inside. The other potential problem is if Jabba turns out to have reinforcements available from the other criminals and bounty hunters of Tatooine, but they're counting on nobody wanting to get too close to a battle against galactic superpowers, as well as just hoping they can capture Jabba before he has time to call for help.

"If you want to find something illegal, just check that the slave towers are broadcasting.  They can't have taken them offline if they wanted to keep having their current slaves; that would cause their slaves to explode because of their own security measures, and even if they did bother setting up a whole new smaller-scale network...That still provides our evidence.  ...I sliced a command in that would disable the implanted bombs, before I left the first time.  We should trigger that before our raid, and tell the local abolitionists."

"Yes, I've checked. The broadcasts have been shut down, although that doesn't mean they haven't set them back up in less verifiable or decentralized locations, or found other ways around the official ban."

"Wow.  We made the Hutts do things.  I'm honestly surprised.

"Hm.  Even if they moved the sources, I do still have the traffic pattern, and that's harder to just hide.  Especially with the if-you-mess-up-replacements-it-explodes thing.

"Threepio, you still have the logs of the protocol, right?  It's worth checking for it."

"I do, Maker; I shall transmit the data on its nature to General Syndulla immediately."

It's probably possible to locate the new sources, but nothing seems to turn up within the next hour or so, and then they get the message that the mission on Nal Hutta has begun. They're trying to start all of these at about the same time, so the Hutt Clan doesn't have time to coordinate, so they should probably get moving now.

Kina has spent the intervening time rigging up EOD droids, and, after a horrible thought crosses her mind, seeing if there's programs for mass drug detox in the medic droids' databanks.  Hopefully they won't need that, but she doesn't want to only hope.

...That said, she's honestly been neglecting something, and it is the alert that Nal Hutta is beginning its operation that prompts her to remember the power of connection.

Does the Force wish to show her anything, here?

Nothing that she doesn't already know.

But her memories of the torment she had to face, when she was enslaved, are particularly prominent now. As is the knowledge that these people will likely have it even worse.

Syndulla, Mundi, and Trebor make their way to Jabba's palace. "We are representatives of the galactic police force," Syndulla snarls into the monitor, "sanctioned by the Republic and the Confederacy. Open your gates at once."

It lets them in. Soon afterwards, several Gamorrean guards will scuttle towards them, with Jabba's vizier at the lead. "Die wanna wanga!" he snaps in Huttese... and then sees Syndulla.

Oh, no. The vizier, Bib Fortuna, happens to be a Twi'lek, who had drawn Jabba's attention in the first place due to his skill in capturing slaves. In fact, he had sold hundreds of his fellow Twi'leks into slavery, and may very well be the most hated criminal in all of Ryloth.

His eyes anxiously dart back and forth between Syndulla's furious glare, and the Jedi's lightsabers, before he shrieks and runs away. The guards, somewhat confused, follow him.

Syndulla growls, and marches after him. Soon enough, they find themselves in Jabba's throne room.

Fortuna is now anxiously whispering to Jabba. Everyone in the room, including an assortment of bounty hunters, seem to be in a panic, and there is what appears to be a very hastily cut remnant of a chain attached to Jabba's throne. And across the room...

...are several very nervous, barely clothed women, looking down and trying to hide bruises. Two of them are Twi'leks.

"Jabba," hisses Syndulla, striding towards him and motioning to the Jedi to follow. "You are believed to be involved in a number of atrocities, including the slavery you claimed to have ended. We are here to - "

Jabba presses a button, and the ground drops out beneath them. With a laugh, he reaches for something to drink. It's rare that he gets to pit Jedi against his rancor. This'll be fun!

Back on the outside, the group receives the notification that Jabba has actively begun to attack their companions. Well, that's certainly justification for them to invade!

Thankfully, Kina didn't forget to pack the initial contact team some rancor-strength tranquilizers.

Kina doffs the covering cloak that constitutes her Jawa disguise (used for sneaking around to get local intelligence from the abolitionists of Tatooine as someone less notable than Kina herself) and leaps aboard the hovertruck chassis full of 'scrap' droids, sending the vehicle screaming towards Jabba's palace as she reassembles them.

She could probably put together or take apart a battle droid in her sleep, by now.

When she lands, there will be an assortment of goons! Like, a lot of goons! There are some Twi'leks on the other two towers, helping snipe them down, but there's still a pretty large swarm coming for her.

While she does spend a few seconds disembarking the droids...she's not here for them.  They can eat her backwash.

...You thought she wasn't going to drive a vehicle indoors?  Silly defense planner, she's a podracer.  Of course she is.

AAAAAAH!

Well, she'll find herself in Jabba's throne room pretty soon! She'll see that Syndulla and the Jedi had thoroughly defeated the rancor, but were then attacked by an assortment of a dozen of the galaxy's top bounty hunters. Now Syndulla is nursing a wound and hiding behind a corner, while Master Mundi frantically fights the remaining few hunters - Cad Bane, Aurra Sing, and Bossk. Master Trebor is on the ground, dead.

Kina and the vehicle part ways; the vehicle launches into the bounty hunters, while Kina leaps directly onto Jabba, saber flashing out in a threat to cut right through his flabby neck, blasters trained on the bounty hunters.

"Surrender right now and nobody else dies."

After a slight pause, several of the criminals in the room open fire on Kina, despite Jabba clearly not being in favor of this idea. Meanwhile, Bane and Sing - although not Bossk, he isn't moving - disappear into wherever the rancor is usually kept.

Fine then, she warned them.  If they get hurt by their reflected blasts, that's their problem.

Fleeing?  No, you don't get to do that, people.  Kina's blaster-armed hand flicks upwards, and yanks them out of the rancor pit to meet her stunbolts.

Well, Cad Bane happens to have flamethrowers attached to both his wrists and his boots! Plus various grenades filled with knockout gas... which, actually, turns out to be flammable as well! Does Kina enjoy being on fire?

Kina enjoys being far enough away from him that Cad Bane's autoimmolation doesn't affect her, because she didn't yeet the enemy in closer!  She launched them in a ballistic trajectory at the wall!  There's knockout gas grenades?  She's commandeering those, thanks!  If they're not too on fire to help any.

They are very on fire! Actually, so is most of the room! There is now a combination of smoke and the gas, which probably isn't enough to make everyone unconscious, but it will probably make most people pretty dizzy.

Soon enough, everyone but Kina, Mundi, Syndulla, and Jabba have either fled or collapsed. Which... uh, is not great, given the fire that they seem to be collapsing into. Someone should do something about that.

...Well, there is a fire extinguisher in the hovertruck's cab.  And maybe Cad Bane brought cryo grenades to this party?

If all else fails, Kina will just...haul everyone out with the hovertruck, cutting her way out instead of stunt-driving this time.

Um... remember earlier, when Kina was asking if the Force had anything to say? Is she still paying attention? Because it has something to say!

Most of the bounty hunters are supposed to have been defeated by this point. But, of course, there are always tricks available, for those who have unique talents. Such as Aurra Sing, who before being a top bounty hunter had briefly trained as a Jedi.

Still lying in the back of the truck, eyes closed and being careful not to even breathe, Sing will fire a blaster bolt at Mundi's head, and then fire a stun bolt at Kina just a fraction of a second later, aimed with Force-boosted precision directly at her leg, where the shield shouldn't cover. It might not knock her out in one hit, but it should at least weaken her enough for Sing to take her out.

But Kina might be able to dodge or block in time, if she's warned by the Force. So Sing will be ready to leap out, reach with the Force to call Trebor's fallen lightsaber to her hand, and attack them from much closer.

And this is why Kina has a proper shield!

She has two of them, actually; one, modified to be spring-loaded for emergency activation, lives on her back, one's carried, which is good, because she needs both of them when the Force screams in her ear.  Flinging her handheld shield out to deflect the blast at Master Adi-Mundi, and springing the shield on her back to deflect Aurra's stunbolt with, of all things, an actual backflip, several thoughts go through her head, in addition to indignation that she's doing combat acrobatics.  Blasters are by far the most common weapon a Jedi will face and Kina directed her limited training with that fact in mind, but as she stares down Aurra, sabers ignited, one a rainbow-shimmer white, the other her saber-blaster's blue...

She's really regretting that she didn't train a bit more saber-work when she had time!

Sing isn't actually the greatest with a lightsaber either; it's been a long time since she trained, and she hasn't trained against a girl much smaller than her with two lightsabers. But she can still probably take Kina. But if she saved Mundi... that'll make things more difficult.

Hmm. She wants to take Kina alive, but she can probably find someone who'll pay for her death, so she'll kill if she has to. Still, stunning her would pay better. She hurls herself at Kina with her lightsaber, while in her other hand, her blaster fires again, letting off another stun bolt. What happens when Kina has to fight someone who's holding both a saber and a blaster?

Kina's two blades practice deflection as she gives ground, backstepping but not actively trying to disengage even as she puts her Soresu lessons to good use - seeing the world in vectors and angles and lines-of-fire as she tries to get her own shots off, and furthermore lash out at the blaster to render it inoperable!

Sing will not let her blaster be cut, thanks! But she won't be able to keep attacking Kina for long, because someone is being very annoying.

He sure is! Mundi will join in the fight, and hopefully overwhelm her with a third saber.

And Syndulla will also try to be annoying! From a safe distance.

This was a bad idea. Why does this girl mess things up. She has killed Jedi Masters and they were not this infuriating.

Fine! After frantically trying to dodge and deflect the multidirectional attacks for a few seconds, Sing manages to slip out and runs at top speed towards the exit recently blown through the wall.

Yank.

Resist yank!

Kina, her cunning plan (of having and utilizing allies) having succeeded, takes the breathing room this gives her to line up a shot with which to blast her opponent already!

...She's going to make some more equipment, when she's done here.  The shield's useful, but she needs an offensive option that isn't on her arms.  Possibly two or three, even.  Because then she could have just flipped a switch and kriffing blasted this - what even is she?  In Force terms?  Blasted this probably-not-a-Jedi without trying contortions that didn't actually work!

Well, Kina's plan hasn't entirely succeeded, because in the meantime, Jabba has escaped!

Wait. No. He is a very slow Hutt. He isn't even halfway to the door yet.

And in any case, Windu is at the door, with several battle droids and Twi'lek soldiers. He will knock Jabba upside-down with the Force, and let him struggle to get back up.

"Kina. Master Mundi. General Syndulla." Master Trebor... is dead. Well, other than that, "Good work. We haven't completely taken the tower, but there wasn't a lot of resistance, and we have several key areas secured. Let's get that," he says, gesturing to the still wobbling Hutt, "to give the order for surrender, and we can end this."

"...Darn.  I have to admit, I was hoping I would get a chance to blast him.  Not that I'm going to do that now, when it would be counterproductive, but...

"You were the symbol of the boot upon my neck, the bomb under my skin, for almost all my life," she says to Jabba.  "And now, you're finally knocked off of it.

"Make the best of the chances you're given to make amends, now.  Or else."

She turns away, continuing to keep an eye on even the secured Force-Sensitive being much more important than a soon to be powerless slug.

Syndulla was also hoping for a chance to blast Jabba, and was significantly less likely than Kina to have had his blaster set on stun when doing so.

He helps secure the area, and then, probably with Kina's help, finds the slaves' quarters, and gets everyone to safety.

By the time they've wrapped everything up with Jabba, the word has spread that he's surrendered, and his army seems to have disbanded! Also, they, along with the leaders of both the Republic and the Confederacy, are getting very urgent messages from the three or four members of the Hutt Council who were either away from their bases or really had gotten rid of any visible crime around them. But it's not like they have any coherent arguments beyond hey, stop it, and they're not really willing to risk their own political power to help the others. So it seems like they really have put an end to the Hutt Clan!

Probably the most pressing issue on the political side is what to do with the planets that the Hutts had de facto owned. The people of Nal Hutta and its moon probably have a legitimate desire to continue under the Hutt Clan's leadership, but there are still plenty of others that will probably need new, uncorrupted governments set up, including Tatooine itself. And while most of the people are probably not going to love the Republic or the Confederacy, both sides seem to think that if they don't take them under their jurisdiction, the crime will only grow worse and worse.

"Well, this sure is suffering from success," she quips to Master Windu, in private, after an almost interminable meeting.

"...I wouldn't suggest abandoning Coruscant entirely, but I certainly do think the Order could stand to have closer contact with the disenfranchised of the galaxy.  Perhaps we could arrange for a longer-term mission, with the Service Corps?"

"Well, we have a somewhat limited number of Jedi available, with all the chaos that's been going on recently. But yes, we can keep travelling around and helping with these sorts of things."

"...Yeah.  That's not going to solve the underlying problems, though.  The biggest one being that - Tatooine really just does not have anything that's worth living there for, and somehow I doubt that's a problem it has all by its lonesome.

"So we need to get people off this forsaken rock, or entice some actual business to the Outer Rim.

"Tourism might not be an implausible way to focus some of those economies; the twin suns of Tatooine do produce striking sunsets and sunrises, for example.

"Really, the thing is to make sure that the locals will fight back against someone swinging their weight around.

"And if the Republic and Confederacy both want to keep an eye on these planets, as much as they're really not useful...

"Well.

"Cooperation has been working well so far, hasn't it?"

Kina sketches out a plan that goes something like this:

1.) Neither the Republic nor the Confederacy shall proactively attempt to lay claim to these worlds until five years have passed.

2.) Until that time, issues on the planetary scale shall be resolved by a three-person council, composed of:

- A Republic appointee

- A Confederacy appointee

- A Jedi Order appointee, or the said appointee's recognized representative of a planetary government or intergovernmental dispute resolution body.

3.) Should said planetary representative see fit, they may unilaterally empty an appointee's seat, at which point the Jedi Order's appointee will sit it pro tem.

4.) After a planetary government has been stable for at least one year, the Republic and the Confederacy will respect a plebiscite upon membership in either or neither body, or continuation as is; it shall require a strict supermajority (75%) vote of the population at or above the age of majority, as determined by joint census operations, in favor of one option for the option to pass.

- The voting process shall meet at least as many equitable voting criteria as ranked-choice voting.

"I think, Master Windu, that this is the plan I would suggest to best produce positive results, at the moment.  I'm certain refinements exist, but this is where I'd start to look."

"There are a few nitpicks I would have, on the voting processes, and also about how the Jedi aren't really going to be seen as neutral between the Republic and Confederacy. But more generally than that, I just don't think such a plan would be accepted. At least one side is going to believe they can get the planets mostly for themselves, and they'll be lobbying against this idea. And Tatooine itself probably won't like this either. They're not upset about whose side they end up on, they're just generally not looking for anyone to be controlling them. They'll probably prefer to just join whichever side seems to be less legally strict - I would guess that's the Confederacy - and then hope they can stay out of everyone's attention, not get a special place in galactic politics."

"Galactic politics are the only hope they have of avoiding getting caught up in another Hutt Cartel, this time with a thin veneer of legitimacy.  Neither the Republic nor the Confederacy, despite their idealists' best efforts, can truly claim to be good, especially for the average citizen.  Not as things are.  Not yet.  And these planets need the resources and time to build something lasting, lest they be drained of what little remains of their own.

"And I think you could make quite a pitch to the traders of the disputed planets, on the basis of starting a bidding war for their allegiance, and the just-freed slaves of not putting their throat beneath a different boot just because it wanted to remove this one.

"That said, some of these complaints I truly have no answer to, especially perceived Jedi non-neutrality.

"But the greatest art of politics is the compromise, within which no one is happy - and I think the Republic and the Confederacy will certainly be against letting the other party have these worlds immediately integrated as a bloc, whereas places like Tatooine, who know they have suffered and must mend their wounds, but are offered only a choice of new masters to take...

"Raising the possibility of proper independence from two nations that clearly care more about them as political cachet than people, despite Antilles and Dooku's efforts, might well get them onboard overall.

"If I were trying to represent Tatooine's best interests, I think I'd think that this plan is the least horrible, considering that Tatooine simply doesn't have any administration without Hutt-Cartel connections and there needs to be time bought to find replacements somehow - but I'm a strange girl, and I think strange things.

"Perhaps we should ask Tatooine about it.  We should certainly ask the Force."

If she is looking for somebody to ask, General Syndulla has relevant opinions! Such as that planets should have the right to remain completely autonomous, and that if that isn't possible, the Confederacy is clearly the better option due to its lack of restrictions and commitment to freedom. The Confederacy isn't an oppressive tangle of bureaucracy like certain other groups he could mention, it's just an agreement between various independent peoples to protect each other and work together for their common goals. More planets should join it. Like Ryloth. Has he ever mentioned that? Well, he would love to mention that! Even if it annoys various officials running Ryloth! And at the very least, they should get out of the Republic.

Kina...thinks the aims of the Confederacy are admirable, in some senses, but that the membership of the Confederacy betrays them simply by - well, she's speaking somewhat hyperbolically, here, but her point stands - half its core constituency being Trade Federation client states still under the Trade Federation's metaphorical thumbs.

You know, the people who, mostly on their own initiative, decided that a war, and all its associated death and destruction, was an entirely appropriate response to a trade dispute, and then attacked the Republic Senate for mostly no reason.

Given that, and knowing that these systems will need time to develop self-government if they want to have any government that's actually under their control...

Well, she does have a few thoughts, she's just workshopping them right now, but something clearly needs to be done to ensure that planets like Tatooine can truly be free, and it's certainly not that squabbling mess she sat through earlier - but perhaps in sneaking while both factions' power-hungry rancors squabble over their planned meal, the humble and resilient - well, both metaphorical and literal Jawas - could get at the parts they need to build something useful.

Most of the things the Trade Federation did were because of Palpatine's manipulation, although that doesn't necessarily make it better. He agrees that the Federation is pretty corrupt, but they don't actually have much control over the other Confederacy states; joining would not force them to do whatever the Trade Federation wants.

Putting these planets under the jurisdiction of both the Republic and the Confederacy doesn't seem like a good way to get them independence; it'll only make it harder for them to separate themselves from the system. It's possible that they could play the factions' opposing aims against each other, so that neither would be able to control them, but he's worried that letting these planets be a political target instead of just a settled issue would only increase the amount of pressure that each side tried to put on them. Not everything would cancel out; having to obey the knotted mess of laws that will inevitably arise will just make it harder for them to do what they want.

Kina's working from the wrong framework. You don't respond to people trying to control you by making more and more regulations to try to balance out their power, you stop making things complicated and try to remove restrictions until you get as many of your freedoms back as you can. Putting Tatooine and these other planets into a specified, rigorous structure under two governments is not going to decrease the number of restrictions on them!

...You know what, he does have a point.  Still, there needs to be transitional support, if he doesn't want Tatooine to continue being problematically itself, just under new management - and she's relatively certain that the Order can't handle providing this alone.  Someone needs to figure out how that should work, and that's what she came up with for a framework.

So what would he do, in order to keep order while Tatooine, and dozens of other planets besides, are built up into places where local government is capable of operating by rule of law rather than rule of biggest stick?

Yes, Tatooine is obviously in a lot of trouble. He's not sure how Kina's plan is supposed to help with that; does she really expect joining an interplanetary government to benefit them? The other Republic planets wouldn't really have much of an incentive to help Tatooine, only to tax the hell out of it and transform the disorder into an advantage for themselves. (To be clear, the same also applies to the Confederacy, if to a much lesser extent, and he would only recommend joining them because it seems like they'll be forced to join someone.)

He suspects that just not having the Hutts will be enough to set them in the right direction. Without everyone being forced to pay tribute and fear the Hutts' power, they should hopefully be free to live better lives. As for how they can do that... well, there aren't a lot of areas in which Tatooine would have business interests, although Kina seems right that tourism would be something to look into. Honestly, maybe people should just try to evacuate. Although it'll be tough to afford that.

What even are Tatooine's exports?

Dilarium oil and silicax oxalate, two substances that can only be mined on Tatooine. They're both incredibly expensive, but also incredibly rare, meaning that anyone who attempts to mine them will have a tiny chance of becoming very very very rich but will most likely find nothing and starve. This has had wonderful effects on the economy.

Seems simple enough as long as there are large groups of collaborating miners, so that they'll average enough to pay everyone a decent salary. And... looks like the Hutts had previously made it impossible for any such corporation to form, except for the ones that were owned by them, and giving pretty much all profits to them. Well, now that the Hutts are gone, hopefully the economy will be less restricted, and people will be able to cooperate and survive!

But yes, there will of course be many problems still existing. Does Kina really think the Republic, or even the Confederacy, would actually help? That... doesn't seem in line with how they usually operate.

She can't speak for the Republic Senate.  She can say that Vice-Chancellor Antilles is a genuinely good man.  She can say that while Count Dooku is not evil, and she expects him to continue being not evil, she's worried that he'll lose - or has already lost - the ability to be proactively good without expending effort.  ...She's worried about what's whispering in his ear, really.  It's not a friend or ally to anyone, not even its servants.  Dooku keeps that in mind, she's sure, but...all people have flaws.  Goodness knows she does, or this would have been solved long ago.

...Okay, that's not actually counterfactually possible, because she's too young to have been getting involved in politics earlier, and honestly isn't sure how she's doing this now, but still.

She thinks that the best way to get Tatooine to a place where it can stand on its own is to give the Republic and Confederacy something they think fighting over will help them secure advantages with the eventual planetary governments - to turn the corruption against itself - at least, what remains of it after what...happened on Coruscant.  Most of the corruption...either left, or was removed from office.

(She takes a moment to breathe slowly after just mentioning the Battle of Coruscant.  Sometimes, she wakes up in a cold sweat, having just shot Sheev Palpatine in the head.)

(She doesn't regret that in the slightest - but it's wrong, that she still had to do it.)

But really, Kina's plan is for fighting a bureaucratic delaying action, to give Tatooine, and everywhere else, time.  Not a single winning maneuver.  This is an interim governing procedure, with interim authority, or at least that's her intended design, here.

General Syndulla saw how she fought...what was her name, the bounty hunter, with the lightsaber, right?  It's sort of like that.

Giving the Confederacy and the Republic a fight they can get focused on, luring them closer to something they won't pay attention to, stalling their attempts to strike - until they end up realizing that there's something else that they neglected, that blindsides them.

Urgh. It is possible that Kina's plan is less awful than everything else, but it seems like there are generally a lot of vulnerabilities when your idea for helping someone is to throw the two most powerful forces in the galaxy at them, and deliberately call for a political conflict in the hope that you can trick them.

And is this really going to be temporary? That, in particular, seems like it would fail even given the somewhat questionable premises. She's trying to set up incentives that lure the Republic and Confederacy into helping these planets, but how is she possibly going to make them voluntarily leave them alone in five years? Once they have power, they'll want to hold onto it.

How is she going to make them leave the planets alone in five years?  She's playing them against eachother, again.  Neither of them will want the other to continue to have the influence of this transitional government, ergo if they have a reason to pressure the other out, they'll take it.  It's mutually assured destruction.

No, they would each prefer to share control, than for these planets to be completely out of their reach. They'll never agree to leave just to deal a blow against the other side.

Kina does think, to be clear, that public opinion and precedent both mean that the Republic and the Confederacy have to respect the self-determination votes, which are the actual means of establishing "and kriff off".

Maybe, although he's not sure if the public would even have a strong objection to the contract being violated. Still, if they get an explicit agreement beforehand that they'll both be willing to respect these planets' wishes after a clearly defined time frame, that should help.

Well, if Kina wants to go forward with this, she'll at least want to do something about the previously mentioned issue of the Jedi Order not being neutral. At all. It would make more sense to have things determined by a Republic representative, a Confederacy representative, and an elected representative from the planet itself. That would probably maximize their ability to make the Republic and Confederacy think they can get power, while actually leaving power in the hands of the people, because in practice their representative will decide everything except in cases where the Republic and Confederacy agree with each other - and those they never had a chance of opposing anyway.

Of course, if the elected representative is horrible, then that won't go well. But they're most likely going to be less terrible than someone from the Republic or Confederacy would have been, given that they would have a higher interest in their own planet.

...Did he not read the bit where Jedi-backed appointees are the stopgap measure for while there's not a government that's stable enough to have elections?  But yes, she can spell that out if that'd help, or fiddle with the wording.

Even if there isn't much of a structure for elections set up yet, he would pretty much take anyone over a Jedi, just because that would mean throwing everything to the Republic. They can probably get an election set up pretty soon.

And yes, Syndulla will admit that some hastily organized election probably won't be good enough to find some amazing leader; there are no well-known politicians who weren't working for the Hutts. Most people will probably be swayed into electing someone with charisma but no actual ability to manage things. But that would be better than just letting the Republic take over everything!

...Just how badly miscalibrated is she on the average Jedi's expected behavior if it is a highly ranked public figure's approximate conclusion that they or those they choose to appoint will just roll over to Republic demands, whatever they are, when directly tasked to advocate for a planet's wellbeing, General Syndulla?  Did he see what happened on Naboo?  The Order has, for a long time, been complacent about standing ready to determine the right thing to do, in the moment, or what sources they could trust...but they've had their blindfold torn off, these days, and she will not let them backslide on that if she has to stand for Tatooine herself.

She really wants someone that she can trust to raise a stink if there's blatant abuse given actual authority, basically, and she thinks the Jedi are the best available organization as far as having any skill in finding such people goes.  Perhaps combining local nomination petitions with a Jedi-backed interview would work, for that first period?  She just doesn't think that hoping the power vacuum fills itself cleanly will work in the slightest.

He did see what happened on Naboo, and he might support having Jedi there to help out. Actually putting them in the government still seems dangerous, though. Kina's probably right that the Jedi have good intentions, but they work for the Republic. Technically, the Republic would have the authority to order them to vote a certain way. And yes, going that far might not be very politically viable, but in any case, the Jedi would still have a pretty strong pressure to cave into Republic demands.

Maybe Kina's right about having the Jedi just recommend someone, though. As long as there are some checks to make sure the people approve of them, and that the Republic won't have any influence on them. Ideally, they should look for someone from a neutral world. Although, of course, quite a few of the neutral worlds are themselves in trouble with crime.

Kina thinks that recruiting from local trusted community figures ought to help with that problem, who she imagines a no-campaigning-allowed community vote would turn up.

Oh, he had thought she wanted to find someone who wasn't necessarily from Tatooine. He's certainly in favor of the Jedi finding a trusted local leader, as long as the Republic isn't peering over their shoulders in the process!

Kina can be pretty sure of that not happening.  And if anyone tries anyway, she'll ask Mace Windu to Glare at them until they stop.

That has proven to be an effective way to solve one's problems.

Syndulla will thank her for the conversation. He's glad to know there's at least one Jedi who takes initiative with helping people!

Kina thanks him for helping her help others, in turn.  She has appreciated working with him.

Pretty soon, Obi-Wan will call Kina, just to check in. And also slightly to brag. Apparently he is now a Jedi Knight!

"Congratulations, Obi-Wan.  I'm proud of you.  ...What was it like?"

"It... was one of the more interesting experiences of my life," he says. "I had to go through two different Force illusions. The Trial of the Spirit was about fighting... sort of a dark side me? The Trial of Insight, I don't think I'm supposed to spoil for you. And then I had to pass the Trial of Skill, which was a lot of lightsaber tests, and I had to fight all these droids and even a Jedi Master, and the Trial of Courage I just finished yesterday, it was the raid on Nal Hutta, I actually beat this bounty hunter named Zuckuss, he's supposed to be one of the top hunters in the galaxy! And they didn't make me do the Trial of the Flesh because I had the fight with Maul."

"So... yeah! Jedi Knight!"

"Congratulations.  ...You shouldn't have mentioned the Trial of Insight at all, if I'm not allowed to know!  Now I can start deducing things about it!  Like it involving illusions!

"But it's probably fine, honestly.  I still won't know when it's happening, which is the important bit.  ...Probably; I can't be sure of whether that matters, really."

"So what have you been up to?"

"Same as you, but on Tatooine.  ...It...The mission went well, but I worry that it should have gone better than it actually did.  Not necessarily because of anything I did or didn't do, once everything started happening, but - they didn't put Master Windu in the vanguard, and Master Trebor is dead because of that.  And I saw that coming, erm, metaphorically speaking, not literal visions - and just...didn't speak up.  And I should have."

"I feel like that's too much of a burden to put on yourself? Like, from what I've heard, you did pretty well. Even if you didn't do everything completely perfectly... I don't think it has to be your responsibility whenever anything goes wrong."

"No, I suppose it doesn't.  But I still feel bad, because - at least if I had spoken up, and maybe been dismissed, it wouldn't have been in my hands to this extent.  ...Even though it really should have been in Master Windu's."

"What was happening? Why do you think Master Windu wasn't... wherever you're saying he should have been? I don't actually know much about the details of the mission."

"So General Syndulla, from Ryloth, took operational command; he spun out a pretty decent plan of police action, where he and two Jedi had to go and talk to Jabba, the Hutt, in his palace.  And defend themselves when Jabba inevitably attacked.  Except he didn't take Master Windu, who's really good at fighting, as one of the two inside-the-palace-when-the-fight-starts Jedi."

"Huh. Then where was Master Windu?"

"In the reserve."

"I mean, there might have been a good reason, but yeah, it seems like it would have made more sense to have put him in the front."

"I'm coming back to Coruscant pretty soon. Are you going to be heading there?"

"I think that's the plan."

"Great!"

"Hey, what is Master Windu like? He seems like he would be a pretty tough teacher."

And then a slight wince as his brain starts reminding him about how Qui-Gon was an amazing teacher, but now he's gone and nope he is not thinking about that right now.

"He is really tough.  But he's really good at what he does, and what he does is a lot of what I need to learn.  Not all of it.  No one can know everything or be everything, and - you must be careful, to not place people on plinths, and look up to them like they are perfect.  This way lies a subtle but disastrous mode of failure, for the person will not, cannot, live up to the image in your head.  People are always people, and we all have our flaws.  Myself included.  ...But I digress.  A lot of what I think I'll need to know...It's the lightsaber, it is combat.  And Master Windu?  He invented Vaapad.  He's an expert.

"And as for why?  ...I feel like there's still something looming.

"That there's people out there who just won't...let the galaxy keep spinning, if they aren't in charge of it - who still have the power to make that implicit threat stick.

"And maybe it's the Sith, or maybe it's some other dark-siders; maybe it's some conspiracy of the Dark Side itself...

"But there's going to be another fight, before all this ends, before I can put down the sword I've taken up.

"And as much as I wish I could make it so, I don't believe it's going to be won with words."

"Yeah. The dark side's not usually the kind of thing you can just talk to and convince to stop being evil. Doesn't matter how tough it is, it's worth it if we're fighting the Sith."

"I think there's a small, but pointed, distinction to make, there - it's worth it if we are fighting for good ends.

"Not that I think the Dark Side lets its wielders truly have those, but perhaps, someday, that might change.

"But the point is to - always be mindful of the cause for which you draw a weapon, and make sure it's truly something you'd spend lives for before you do.

"...Most things really shouldn't be."

"Well, yeah, but the Sith are evil, so... it is a good cause. Because we're getting rid of them."

"Palpatine?  Definitely evil.  Count Dooku and the other guy - not the assassin - ...there's a very convincing argument that especially Dooku is just potentially misled.  The Dark Side has agency, and so does the Light, and so does the Force itself.  And...even though I'm certain that the other definite Sith has committed crimes he ought to make much more direct amends for than he has, he's doing it because the Dark Side promised him an end to death.

"He will never get it from that source, and ought to know better.  But that's why I say misled, rather than evil on the face of it."

"I mean, sure, the dark side is trying to tempt them, and trick them, but it was still their own choice to listen to it. They're killing people so that they can take over the galaxy. I think that goes beyond just misled."

"I believe neither Dooku nor the remaining Sith Lord actually give a damn about ruling the galaxy, for all that Dooku's...ego, has him thinking he'd be the least bad person for the job more often than not, I'm sure.

"The ambitious one was Palpatine.

"Or...No, that's not exactly correct.  All of them have ambitions - but I don't think any but Palpatine had ambitions about ruling the galaxy.

"It just doesn't really track with what we've seen recently.

"And we don't know how much of Palpatine's plans remain - I'm sure there's more than I'd like that someone's using - but.

"Yeah, killing people is wrong, but a civil war will kill billions more than they have hurt, even if it's not one they masterminded.

"That's the problem of astropolitics.  Sometimes, the powerful escape justice because of the power they have, and there's nothing to be done but believe in karma."

When Dooku hears this (which will be a few days later, when he's going through various data collected by his bugs in the Jedi channels), he'll toss his device aside in disgust. He'll pick it up a few minutes later and continue listening; he of course recognizes the importance of strategy over emotions, but he at least was disappointed enough to have thrown it to the side in the first place, which is quite something, as Dooku's hatred for others has gotten to the point where very little can disappoint him. But this was a bitter reminder that however intelligent this child may be, she's still far more oblivious than he might have hoped. Really, she's talking about karma? This is the smartest Jedi in the Order?

Some people might be a little more charitable, when it comes to this. If they were to consider the ways in which karma might be considered a valid idea, it would immediately come to mind that, even if there isn't literally a magical higher power of karma, it's a useful heuristic. After all, it's often incredibly difficult for someone to see the specific consequences of their actions; someone who hurts others for what they see as their own benefit might only be calculating the first-order effects that will happen very soon, but won't recognize that over the years, this might alienate others and cause them to gain ire from the people around them, who would have otherwise been far more valuable to their lives than the immediate benefit they might get from their selfishness. So karma might be very helpful for someone to keep in mind, not as a literal belief, but just as a reminder that the effects of selfish actions are predictably less beneficial than what people usually expect. This should have been an obvious point. But Dooku doesn't think of it.

Nor does he think of the idea that the Force institutes its own form of karma, even though to some that might be obvious. On the one hand, this is because Dooku doesn't actually believe the Force to be sentient. It really doesn't make sense that midi-chlorians could have some sort of a collective consciousness; it would be far more likely that the apparent legends of the "will of the Force" are just imprints from particularly strong Force-users. (Of course, if he had heard about Mortis, that would have been different, but unfortunately for him, any conversations on that subject were locked behind the doors of the Jedi Council, which now has much stronger security than Obi-Wan's simple communicator.) But still, he would put maybe a 20% chance on the Force being sentient, which one might think would be enough for him to consider the concept of karma as maybe something he might want to look out for. But Dooku doesn't think of it.

So why doesn't Dooku hear Kina talking about karma, and wonder if maybe she has a point? Well, a little of it is that the specific subject is one he has a bit of an aversion to; it sounds like the sort of thing Yoda would go on about, and even though he is aware that technically Yoda saying something does not make it more likely to be false, he still is a little biased against anything from that source. But more generally...

Well, Dooku just... doesn't do that.

He doesn't listen to people saying something that sounds wrong, and ask himself if maybe there's a good reason that thing is true anyway.

He just hears it, and it's clearly wrong, so he moves on.

If Count Dooku has one major flaw, it's... well, the obvious answer if you were a Jedi would be that it's a pretty massive flaw that he runs around killing people, but he's quite sure he's justified in that. But that one flaw of Dooku's, that he might even be willing to admit, if you put it the right way...

Well, it comes from how Dooku's spent his life being the smartest person around.

He was smarter than his family. He was smarter than his friends, to whatever extent he had any. He was smarter than his teachers. He was smarter than the Jedi Master who is typically considered to be literally the wisest being in existence, and it wasn't even close. Even the Sith he's met, who at least were capable of holding up the other half of a conversation with him some of the time, were never really all the way at his level.

And of course that isn't a bad thing. Being more intelligent would of course be correlated with getting more things correct, with achieving more success; what else would it even mean. But he's missing something that most people have learned, that they've incorporated into their basic intuitions. When other people are wrong all the time, when he can see the gaping holes in any argument they even try to mention, Dooku's never had any point where he's had to notice to himself that actually no, he was wrong, they were right.

And so he doesn't even check.

Most people have experience arguing, with others and with themselves, thinking about each of the many possible answers and figuring out which, if any, is right. And if Dooku had ever met someone more intelligent than himself, had ever realized that oh, they were right, he might have been able to do that to himself, might have been able to realize to himself that just because the most obvious argument supported something didn't mean he couldn't actually have been wrong. He might have been able to ask himself the obvious questions that he would ask of other people's points, seen the obvious flaws in himself. But that's not a reflex he's ever really been trained into.

Intelligence shouldn't have led him down the wrong path, at any point. More intelligence should have been strictly superior to less. But if he wanted to get onto the right path, he should have been putting it towards figuring out what that path was, instead of coming up with cleverer and cleverer arguments, arguments that nobody could have stood a chance at refuting, for why he should have kept going exactly the way he already was.

And so, just as always, Dooku will hear what someone else says, and he'll notice that there is an obvious refutation, and he won't even think of doing the same thing to the point he just made.

Of course, he'll never notice that he has this particular tendency, even though he spends his whole life noticing flaws in others. Because that would require piercing his own thoughts with the same rigor that he applies to others, and that would never happen.

And yes, he might have been willing to listen, if it was phrased exactly the right way - just because the supporters of an idea aren't very smart doesn't make it false, so you have to use your own power evenhandedly, to evaluate the real truth; you've spent so long being smarter than others, that you haven't built up the mental rigor for challenging yourself that is essential if you want to become stronger. But nobody has ever said that to him, not in those same words. People have said you're too overconfident, or you need to be more willing to consider that other people are right, and of course neither of those have possessed the same sharp eloquence that Dooku's own words have, and so he'll dismiss them as being obviously incoherent, and won't even try to build them up into anything stronger. Dooku would have noticed this dangerous habit, had he been staring at himself from the outside, but he's not, and so there isn't anyone there to tell Dooku he's wrong.

Right now, Dooku is in the middle of carrying out an idea of his, and if anyone else had told him to do so he would have noticed how risky of an idea it was, but he came up with it himself so he's not going to notice, and so on. That idea happens to be recruiting dark side apprentices from Dathomir!

"Count Dooku!" says Talzin, queen of the Nightsisters, as he steps from his ship, and she somehow manages to make it both friendly and subtly threatening. "We have selected only the finest of our Nightsisters and Nightbrothers for your consideration."

A warrior emerges from the shadows. Which is actually kind of surprising, given that they're in an open field with no objects that might cast shadows, but come on, this is Dathomir. He stands several feet taller than either of them, and his head is adorned with yellow and black markings and several sharpened horns that seem substantially larger than might naturally grow.

"I present Savage Opress, brother of Darth Maul, and the strongest warrior on all of our planet," says Talzin. The indicated warrior will accompany this with a loud roar.

Dooku is sure he is supposed to be impressed.

"I will, ah, take that into account."

"So, I am quite grateful for your offer, but I actually was thinking about several other qualities beyond just brute strength. You see, to be a truly great Sith, one has to draw power from sources other than just one's fists-"

"Oh, we've imbued him with plenty of power in the Force!"

Plagueis would probably be interested in how they could do that... no, he's pretty sure Plagueis knows how to transfer midi-chlorians, it's producing them that seems nigh-impossible. Anyway, they are not working together and if Plagueis wants knowledge Dooku will sell it to him.

"Yes. Well, that's certainly very important, but I'm not sure if he's quite-"

"Oh! I know what you want!"

Do tell.

"I know the Nightbrothers don't always have the greatest affinity for the Force... but there is a Nightsister whose powers exceed that of your typical Jedi, even before any enhancement! And she has more than just strength! Agile, quick, ruthless, and beautiful, alluring... I present to you, Asajj Ventress!"

This Asajj Ventress will also emerge from the unidentifiably located shadows. Instead of growling, she will give Dooku a flirty wink and jut out her not entirely covered chest.

"So... first, I have not been your age for at least six decades, and second, that was not what I was asking about. I suppose agile, quick, and ruthless are important qualities... but do you have any specialties beyond, ah..." He gestures towards her outfit.

Why isn't this working? Oh, should Savage take off his shirt, would that work better? That's probably not it. But what is Dooku looking for? Maybe just other skills? "She's dabbled as a bounty hunter," says Talzin. "She's competent in flying various spacecraft, and decent with various weapons, from lightsabers to pistols to rifles to various explosive devices."

"I suppose all of those are valuable skills," acknowledges Dooku. "I will grant that both this Opress and this Ventress are very talented in their own forms of combat."

"Then what sort of fighters are you looking for?!"

"You wouldn't happen to have anyone who's exceedingly intelligent?"

What.

"We... can probably check their scores in school? But most of our classes are in combat training, and both of them have performed very well in those."

"Well, it doesn't have to be school! Has anyone, say, developed new theories of the Force, discovered intricacies that help showcase their creativity?"

Blank stares.

"Or... has anyone shown a desire to... improve things? Looking at the ways society is structured, and trying to determine how to improve on them?"

Blank stares.

"I will accept finding interesting uses for weapons if that's the best you have."

Savage Opress will use a large club as a weight, which he will lift with one finger to demonstrate how BUFF he is. Asajj Ventress will twirl around a spear and press it to her lips to demonstrate how SEXY she is.

This is at least the third most ridiculous thing he has seen in his life and what is wrong with these people.

"Fine. I suppose I'll take Ventress. And the ranc- the, Savage."

And he'll need to work harder at recruiting Kina Skywalker, because everyone else in this galaxy is an idiot.

If there is one flaw Kina Skywalker has, it is that she has never properly learned how to stop thinking about what could go wrong, what is wrong, how she could be wrong; it is a survival strategy, on Tatooine, that is so deeply encouraged as to have become deeply engrained in her psyche.

This, too, is not strictly adaptive.

For instance, upon detecting the stream of hypernet traffic associated with Dooku make transit to one of the Suspicious Deleted Spots she's differentiated out from the galactic maps ca. the time the Jedi noticed theirs had been tampered with, she imagines quite a few possibilities for what he could be doing there, from the banal-but-still-mildly-concerning "recruiting apprentices, like he's been saying he planned to do for a while now" to the "and if this is true, we're probably kriffed" of "visiting the Super Duper Extra Secret Superweapon Project that Palpatine hypothetically started and stashed in one of those blind spots where the Order oughtn't have noticed it", and plays 'but-if-he-knows-she-knows' with her model of Dooku...which is frustratingly open-ended, because she truly doesn't know him well enough to predict him with high enough fidelity, not even after all this -

She knows he is arrogant.  She knows there is some sort of secret project somewhere in the galaxy that was Palpatine's get.  She knows Palpatine was/is a cruel, cruel man.  She knows that Dooku would not hesitate to be cruel, if he thought it was the correct thing to do, and would consider himself capable of turning even Palpatine's schemes to better ends than were intended by their designer.

(She doesn't think he's totally wrong...but she thinks he will be too used to it to assess the risks correctly.)

She knows there's probably other Darkside Force users out there.

She's going to need to train more, in the Force, in the blaster, in mechanisms and code modules, and of course in the lightsaber, if she wants to have a chance at surviving the turbulent times to come - because even in the scenarios where Dooku only found apprentices...well.  The apprentice betrays the master, time after time.  That is simply what Sith do.

She really hopes Dooku can teach them how to not be one.