Chapter 78: Pieces Falling Into Place

Disclaimer: Star Wars and all of it's Intellectual Properties is owned by George Lucas and Walt Disney, This fictional work and all of it's original characters are however mine.

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Jake's P.O.V. :

Getting to tinker for a whole week without anyone breathing down my neck felt like being let out of carbon freeze. No more time-outs, no more lectures about “over-experimenting” or “risk assessments.” Just me, my tools, and a backlog of projects I could finally sink my hands into. Kriff, it was euphoric.

But… and I hated to admit this even in the privacy of my own head… it had also been quiet. Too quiet.

After months of bouncing around the galaxy with this crew, even the noisy ones—especially the noisy ones—had grown on me. I’d gotten used to Davik’s occasional grumbling but he is currently busy but with what I don't know, Mira’s sharp wit and remarks, Rina’s exasperated sighs whenever I got too deep into a tech ramble but not really. Even Kado’s brooding presence had some kind of background effect, like a steady hum in the ship’s engine. But with half of them gone for the past week, it was like someone had turned the station’s atmosphere generators way down, leaving everything feeling… quite empty.

So, now that everyone was back and we had a group meeting in a bit, I figured I’d kill some time catching up with the most excitable person on this station—little Anakin.

I tapped my commlink. “Hey, Shmi, where are you guys? I wanna see what our little mechanic’s been up to.”

A moment later, Shmi’s warm voice crackled through. “I’m with Mira, supervising the droids in food storage. Anakin’s in the mess hall playing with Zero.”

Mess hall it is.

I made my way through the station, passing a few of the sentinel droids I’d repurposed as temporary workers. The droids were busy hauling crates of food, stacking them in the storage bays under Mira and Shmi’s supervision. As I walked in, I caught sight of the two women issuing direct verbal commands to the droids, telling them exactly where each crate should go.

That made me pause.

I didn’t think I ever told them that they don't have to micromanage the droids like that. The sentinel droids were programmed with at least the basic task framework—they should’ve been able to store everything efficiently without needing a babysitter. Maybe Mira just didn’t trust them not to mess it up.

Speaking of droids, this station actually had its own worker droids. Problem was, they were currently scrap. The first time we scouted the station, we’d found their remains scattered all over—broken, deactivated, left to rust. I’d since scheduled them for repairs and had them queued up in the assembly line, but I hadn’t had the time to get to them yet. My focus had been on getting the sentinel droids operational first. So far, I’d managed to bring forty of them back online. Not bad for a week’s work.

While I was mentally monologuing, I didn’t notice the small blur of energy that had just launched itself toward me.

“Jake!”

I barely had time to brace before Anakin skidded to a stop in front of me, looking thrilled to see me again. Zero, his ever-present companion droid, trailed behind him, its photoreceptors blinking in what I could only assume was the droid equivalent of amusement.

“Hey, kid,” I greeted, ruffling his hair. “Looks like you had fun out there. What’d you get up to?”

That was all the encouragement Anakin needed.

He immediately launched into rapid-fire babbling about their week away, his words tumbling over each other in excitement. He talked about the food shopping they did, which I assumed meant Shmi had restocked everything we were running low on. Then he mentioned something called “shopping without buying,” a term he proudly attributed to Mira. I raised an eyebrow at that. Sounded an awful lot like window shopping, but knowing Mira, it probably had a more strategic angle to it and a hidden lesson for sure.

Then Anakin started talking about Tarek.

Apparently, the guy had spent a lot of time “practicing his flying” because the ship was “jumping to different planets.” Took me a second to piece that one together. Ah. The scenic route strategy. Basically, a fancy way of saying they were making random hyperspace jumps to shake off any possible followers. Smart move.

I was about to ask more when my commlink buzzed.

Kado’s voice came through, as flat and no-nonsense as ever. “Meeting’s in the assembly room. Be there.”

I sighed. Right. Time to get back to business.

I ruffled Anakin’s hair again. “Looks like we’ll have to continue this later, kid. Gotta see what Kado’s got for us.”

Anakin pouted a little, but Zero beeped something at him, which seemed to distract him enough. As I turned to leave, I couldn’t help but wonder what intel Kado had been keeping under wraps. It had to be something big if he refused to share it until we were all in one place.

Well. Guess I was about to find out.

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A bit later, we were all gathered in the assembly room, the dim overhead lighting casting long shadows across the durasteel floors. This old station had seen better days from my casual observation, but it had a certain rugged charm—like a beat-up freighter that still had some fight left in her. 'Heh, look at me pretending to be sophisticated' I jokingly said in my head.

Rina was off to the side, helping Kado with something on the viewing screen. I considered offering my expertise—because, let’s be real, I always had an excuse just to mess with tech—but I could already tell she had it handled. Besides, this was probably just me wanting to be included. And while I might be a 'wizard' with machines ever since I found myself in this reality - although I originally thought that I had Tony Starks expertise in my head.... I can't seem to know how to build an arc reactor, I also wasn’t about to step on Rina’s toes when she was in her element. Looks like Rina's done with helping Kado.

Kado cleared his throat.

That was his usual way of telling everyone to shut up and pay attention, so I leaned back in my seat, arms crossed, and waited for the show to start. He didn’t begin right away, though—he waited until Rina had settled in before he finally spoke.

“Got some information from a black-market merchant,” Kado began, his deep voice carrying easily across the room. “This merchant operates out of a mercenary-focused service station.”

That was enough to grab my full attention. Kado didn’t just talk about any informant unless they were worth listening to.

He continued but with an exasperated sigh, “It’s a station we’ve been to before. Not that it matters, because we’re banned from ever going back.”

I barely held in a groan. Right. That one.

The place we’d visited where our ‘over-eager’ droids caused just a tiny bit of chaos. In my defense though, it was a very minor droid-related chaos. Hardly worth a ban. But sure, let’s pretend it was a big deal.

Kado kept talking, but my mind started connecting dots on its own. If this black-market contact was from that station, then that meant… wait.

Shady guy. Really sketchy face. Kinda oily presence, the kind that made your skin crawl like you’d been dunked in Dagobah swamp water. That guy.

For a second, I struggled to place the name.

Then it hit me, we'll of course because Kado said his name just now.

Kado says, "The guy's name is Zarok."

The Twi’lek merchant from Vannis Delta Space Station. What was he doing on Ryloth? Then again, that actually made a lot of sense. Twi’leks operating on Ryloth wasn’t exactly rare, but it still struck me as interesting that Kado ran into him there of all places.

Kriff, I needed to start paying attention again—Kado was still talking.

Apparently, Zarok had been making a trade on Ryloth when Kado’s own intel-gathering efforts put him in the Twi’lek’s path. One of the merchants Kado had been pressing for gossip had recommended Zarok as a go-to guy for hard-to-get information—shady as hell, but honest with his intel.

That made me snort under my breath. Rina was like that too before she joined us full-time. Information brokers took pride in being the ones with the best knowledge, and the good ones made sure their intel was accurate. It was their whole thing.

Kado went on, explaining that he’d gotten a meeting with Zarok and was going to be skipping all the back-and-forth negotiations. Instead, he just went straight to the point:

“For the information I got, I had to promise the services of a top-of-the-line bodyguard droid. Something on the level of Jake’s custom builds.”

Kado turned to me at that, giving a slight nod. “Apologies for lending out your services without asking first, but Zarok's seen your droids before and he wants one, I think as a bodyguard.”

I blinked.

Honestly, my gut reaction wasn’t annoyance—it was curiosity. Well because if Kado had to resort to offering my services up as part of the bargain, then this intel must’ve been serious. And if that was the case, I wasn’t exactly mad about it.

I shrugged. “If it got us something good, I’m not gonna complain.”

Kado exhaled a small breath—relief, maybe?—and gave a quick, “Thanks.”

Now that the groundwork was laid out, Kado finally got to the meat of it.

“Zarok confirmed something big, for the outer Rim at least—Jabba the Hutt has been actively undermining and sabotaging Gardulla’s operations.”

That made everyone sit up a little straighter.

Kado didn’t slow down. “And one of those operations, The certain datachip from the Old Republic Era—the so-called ‘relic’ that was given to slicers for hire to unlock. That wasn’t just some random black-market trade. It was part of a much larger play.”

I felt my jaw tighten. That stupid chip was the reason we’d ended up in the middle of a kriffing warzone above Malachor V’s orbit.

Kado continued, “Jabba’s side set up three different merc groups to act like independent freelancers. Their job was to spread the news about the contents of the 'datachip', make it seem like it's contents is a prize up for grabs.”

And then wham, everything clicked into place.

So that’s why Malachor had turned into an all-out slugfest. It wasn’t just random scavengers and mercs fighting for a payday at all—it was manipulated chaos. A manufactured free-for-all designed to make Gardulla’s project completely unmanageable.

And it kriffing worked.

I rubbed the back of my neck, my mind overheating from my thoughts. Okay… so why does this matter now?

Kado answered that question a moment later.

“And the recent surge of pirate crews hiring en masse is confirmed by Zarok to be connected. Zarok’s intel says Jabba has been putting out rewards for any operation or businesses aligned with Gardulla to suffer major setbacks., be it physically or economically”

The room was dead silent now.

Kado’s tone was grim. “This isn’t just a simple feud between Hutts. And this is either preparation for a decapitation strike against Gardulla’s power base… or a full-scale takeover. So if Jabba succeeds, he won’t just be crippling Gardulla—he’ll practically replace her as the dominant Hutt on Tatooine.”

That was when it really hit. Is this how Jabba is the one in charge of Tatooine from the movies?

Jabba wasn’t just chipping away at Gardulla’s empire—he was setting up for the kill shot.

I glanced around the room. Everyone else was just as stunned as I was.

But my shock didn’t last long. Because where everyone else saw danger, I saw opportunity.

Gardulla had put a target on our backs. She had made our lives hell.

And right now?

Now, she was going to be in her most vulnerable.

And a slow grin crept across my face. I ignore Anakin's question on why I was making a stupid looking face.

Time to figure out how to cash in on some payback.