Star Wars: Darth Nyx (Book 1)

Ch22: Canto Bight

It has been a few weeks since our initial push ended. So far, we've already managed to transfer all prisoners of war to Stenax and even sent 200,000 people from Lianna and Elom to Felucia to up its food production. Things are going well at the moment and though the Galactic Empire was quick to respond to the attack by dispatching Eight Imperial II Star Destroyers to the Lianna system, the ships were swiftly defeated as our dreadnoughts had been in system to protect the Executor while it was being refitted while themselves also being repaired for any minor damage they had endured. 

The Galactic Empire seems to think we are still merely rebels and as such haven't noticed that our dreadnoughts can easily take down their primary ships. After all, the Harrower-class were built not just to take out other capital ships but to fight against an entire fleet of capital ships and win. To that end, it'd probably take around 3-5 Star Destroyers to take down a single Dreadnought and given we have 11 of these ships...

Since losing the second battle for Lianna, the Galactic Empire has remained remarkably silent. To be fair, we have also refrained from pushing further, mainly due to the fact that the other planets on our attack path have billions and in the case of one, over a hundred billion citizens while not producing enough food to be self-sufficient. We're already having to do major restructuring just to accommodate the population of Lianna. We absolutely cannot afford another Lianna-sized world right now.

Still, things are going smoother than I'd have previously hoped as the people have been surprisingly cooperative with 500,000 of them even willingly relocating to Yavin IV and Florrum to begin new colonies on their own. We've also made contact with and incorporated the people of Maridun along with a prison complex on Lola Sayu which it seems was used previously as a means to hold force-sensitive individuals. After realizing it has little value to us, save for one jedi padawan that had been left there to die, our fleet bombed the complex from orbit before dropping the young padawan off on Korriban to undergo "rehabilitation". 

Apart from such minor activities, most of our work was focused on merely getting everything working properly. To that end, Lady Valles Santhe and I are onboard Thrawn's new capital ship which he's renamed The Chimaera in keeping with the symbol he'd chosen for himself while still serving the Chiss Ascendancy. With us, as our escort, is the Venator I'd initially given him under the command of a young man by the name of Jon Duridan who supposedly impressed Thrawn enough to warrant the promotion. The other two Imperial II's I'd given him as the spoils of his victory are still being repaired and thus not ready for use, not that it matters for what we aim to do today.

We've just arrived over the planet of Cantonica. Thanks to the ships we're in, no one questions our presence and even gives our shuttle the clearance to land within the planet's capital city. It's only once we're on the ground that we are approached by guards but once they see me they all bow. I suppose they think I am some high-ranking official within the Galactic Empire, perhaps due to my clothing or perhaps due to the Sith accompanying me.

Valles: Welcome to Cantonica, milady.

Lady Valles Santhe wisely refrains from addressing me as Empress or Your Majesty while giving away the fact that I'm a noble, a fact which the guards don't miss as they apologise while asking that I enjoy my stay.

Thanking them, we walk by and into the heart of Canto Bight. 

Valles: To find the people we're looking for, we'll most likely have to go to the Casino. That's where the wealthiest gather.

Me: Are you sure this will work?

Valles: I'm certain we'll find at least a few of the surviving Kaminoan scientists here.

Me: I'm referring more to the cloning aspect.

Valles: Well, it would take care of the immediate need to expand the military without drawing too heavily from the civilian populace.