Tentacle Covered Chaos Chapter 15: Planning

Tentacle Covered Chaos

Chapter 15: Planning

<<<Poppy>>>

The secret to a successful plan was to not involve too many moving parts, have it be flexible, and welcome any additional information and input from your collaborators.

In essence? KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. Overly elaborate and convoluted plans, while not doomed to failure, were more likely to fail due to the fact that things needed to go perfectly throughout every aspect of it. And in reality this rarely, if ever, happened.

After all, the saying “A Man Plans, Gods Laugh” existed for a reason. Though in this case it's the Force, Poppy supposed. Though she didn’t rule out Gods in the slightest.

All that said, most of her plans were not fitting that mold because… she wasn’t nearly strong enough to go with plans that were simple. She wasn’t some form of war-machine that self reproduced, she wasn’t a grand mage that could shake the fundaments of reality, and she wasn’t some genius that could pump out super-weapons every Tuesday and Friday.

Nor she was Force Jesus, though she knew him… well her. And while she’d be using that connection, abusing it really, she couldn’t control Ani. Sure, it was probably a flaw to want full control over every aspect of the path to victory, but she needed it. She needed to keep things close to her chest.

Besides if she tried to be heavy-handed about it, it was entirely possible it would backfire on her horribly. And she appreciated Ani and her adorable padawan too much to even attempt something like that.

Still, Poppy believed that between her and Mother Talzin they could come up with the basics of a plan. Which would be revised as new information became available or relevent. 

“I’m not sure if she'll have the same vulnerability as what the vision told me,” Poppy started, “But showing her that there are more paths to healing and defying death than the Dark Side will still remove a hook Palpatine could use. And, of course, further empowering her in the Force could prove highly useful too.”

Mother Talzin nodded, “Interesting…” She said thoughtfully, “And if she proves too stubborn we could simply eliminate her. If she can’t help then it would be wise to deprive Palpatine of an asset…”

“No, killing her would earn the enmity of the jedi as a whole,” Poppy countered, “And she’s too good of a person. Better to send her to people that would be more permissive but still act as a moral leash, the Corellian Jedi as an example.”

“Just speculating.” Poppy doubted that very much but didn’t comment.

She understood that sometimes you had to get your hands dirty, but if she had the option she would rather avoid doing so. It might be a futile effort ultimately, but it was something she was going to try regardless.

Still, best to steer the conversation towards more productive ends. “More concerning to me is the CIS. I know that we intend for Ventress to take over, but she may die before she can. We need backups for it.”

“Leave that to myself and Daughters,” Mother Talzin said, “We will ensure Ventress is prepared and ready.”

“If Palpatine notices and kills her, we need backups,” Poppy insisted, “I have backups for if he kills Ani too early, starting with her apprentice but not ending there, but I don’t have any idea for how to deal with the CIS as a military threat. I’d use the Katana Fleet as a sword but I have no idea where it is. It moves around too often.”

Mother Talzin just nodded her head thoughtfully, “This is no easy task you’ve given yourself…” She commented, more of a statement than observation, “So much will simply rely on luck… I’d call it a fool's errand if my daughters and our culture wasn’t at risk…”

“Quite,” Poppy agreed, rubbing at her face, “It would be different if I were super-galactically rich,” She joked, “Then I could just build a second Katana Fleet…” She paused, “But what if I didn’t need to. I think I could find it, I just need… a lot of probe droids. A lot of probe droids.”

The Witch Mother looked at Poppy thoughtfully, “Certainly an audacious plan…” She mused, “Though hopefully you wouldn’t use junk clankers like the Trade Federation is so fond of using?”

“No… Each droid would need the fuel for three jumps and I’d need two hundred of them, that would be a total of six hundred possible jump locations. And the fleet is so recognizable that simple programing would be able to identify them and transmit the location back to me,” Poppy’s eyes were closed as she did math for how much it would cost to do. “Still absurdly expensive, and crewing them would be a problem, but slaving the fleet to the lead ship would let me get away with a skeleton crew for traveling to a more secretive location… Any ideas where I’d get a good crew for it?”

“Depends, Corellia is a possibility,” The Witch said after some thought, “None of the Corellians are pleased with the way the war is going, so they’d be open to the possibility.”

“And they have an extensive fleet production program already, so sending crewmen around the galaxy for training wouldn’t be unexpected,” Poppy said, slowly nodding, “With some empty star systems around their planet, there’s plenty of space to hide a fleet too. Logistics could be hard, but they’d only get complicated when the time came to drop secrecy anyway. And they’re still mostly modern designs, their shields and weapons are a little outdated but they’re more than usable still.”

“It would work, no… I believe it would work rather well actually,” Mother Talzin said, “Still, that’s one issue addressed and… dozens more left…”

“Most of which are on the Republic side of the equation,” Poppy agreed, “... So many people need to be removed from the senate, fuck me sideways.”

“Maybe one day.” Poppy blinked in surprise, having not expected to hear that from Mother Talzin. “But you are correct, that is a fundamental issue. I would suggest assassination, but that would risk getting people just as bad if not worse involved. But perhaps…” She trailed off for a few moments, “I could perform a ritual on you to make you more… persuasive to unshielded minds. In a way that is undetectable for Sith.”

Poppy blinked at that, she wasn’t surprised that she could do that but still it was surprising to hear it. Still she wouldn’t deny it, anything to remove people as bloodlessly as possible. Though she knew it was only a matter of time before things would get bloody.

“Helpful, but I won’t pretend I’m a great politician either,” Poppy warned, “I can set things up for other people with that, but I’d be relying on them to finish the job. There are people I trust in the senate, Bail Organa as an example, but I’d be leaning hard on them.”

“Wise of you.” The Witch said.

She shrugged, hand going through her hair. “I know some of my limits, at least. And I can’t be everywhere all at once, if I could we’d have significantly fewer issues.”

“Which makes you wiser than most Sith and a majority of politicians,” Mother Tizren said dryly.

“Damning with faint praise there, damning with faint praise…” Poppy sighed back, “Second issue with the Republic, the clones are compromised. Heavily. Between psycho-indoctrination and a control chip in their brain, they are made to kill the Jedi when Palpatine deigns it a good time to do so. I’d see about using some form of genetic disease to target them specifically, but that has a good chance of mutating to kill all humans. Is there anything like… sympathetic magic you have, or would just destroying the facilities be better?”

“There are magics that can do that, but it’d be safer to destroy the facilities just in case.” She said, “But this would be no simple ritual… ah, it’s been centuries before any Witch has performed such a grand ritual…” She added with a smile, “Thrilling…”

“... would the ritual require the person that they’re cloned from?” Poppy asked after a moment, “Because I can’t provide that one. Because he’s dead, very dead.”

“While that would provide a truly powerful connection, a blood sample would suffice,” She said, “The fresher the better, of course.”

Poppy nodded with a sigh, “And the younger the clone the better too, I assume?”

“While not strictly necessary, it’s a safe assumption to make,” Mother Talzin said, “Though it’s never really been confirmed if it's necessary. But my Daughters are… overachievers.”

“Well, they’re effectively braindead before they’ve been programmed, so that’s not going to be a moral issue,” Poppy replied, “The issue of killing millions of people because of something they might or will do in the future is another matter, but I don’t see another way. He’d issue the order if he felt himself getting cornered out of spite, if nothing else.”

“Ah moral quandaries…” Mother Talzin commented, “It helps to focus on the Greater Good, or so I hear.”

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions and on each stone is carved in gold ‘For The Greater Good’,” Poppy quoted, voice dead and dull.

“It is the sin all sentients must bear when attempting to fight such a vast conspiracy,” Mother Talzin softly retorted.

“Forgive me for wanting to be an idealist,” Poppy drawled, “I’m a technical pacifist at heart, but pragmatism forces me to admit when I’m outmatched on a tactical, strategic, and logistical level. The only thing I have to sacrifice, aside from my life, are my morals. If some of those must burn, so be it. Right, two plans to deal with the army… orbital bombardment as a backup plan to kill Palpatine sound fair to you?”

Poppy honestly didn’t trust that anything less would kill the beast, but if Talzin knew a way to survive that type of thing then Palps would too. And wasn’t that a worrying thought.

“It depends on if the Muun’s foolish apprentice completed his apprenticeship…” Mother Talzin said.

“He did,” Poppy replied, “He didn’t learn everything, some things just can’t be taught, but he learned most of it. He’s not as good at illusions and life manipulation, but everything else…”

“Hmm, in that case I wouldn’t rely on it,” Mother Talzin said, “While I doubt Palpatine is the sort of Monster past Sith Lords were, no doubt he has dozens of countermeasures to make up for the areas he’s lacking most.”

“He’s strong enough to power a ritual that would send fleets and planets into hyperspace,” Poppy noted, “He is exactly that sort of monster. After he’s dead, I’ll have to have an entire planet scoured of life to ensure he stays dead.”

“Ah,” Talzin started, “That is a problem.”

“I have a justified phobia of the man,” Poppy noted, “because I can’t do that.”

“A completely understandable one,” The Witch said with a nod, “But you’ve yet to learn what you’re fully capable of. So who knows?” She added in what could’ve been a consoling manner.

“Oh, I’m more than capable of killing most things,” Poppy said, “But I have my limits and he firmly exceeds them.”

Talzin just nodded, “Perhaps when all this is resolved, we can see if you could use magic like we Witches?” She mused, “Though I doubt you’d allow yourself to be tied down, such as it is, by our teachings.”

“Perhaps,” Poppy replied, “The Valley of the Jedi can make people force sensitive, even after being used to empower someone else, so it’s not out of the question.”

“Well, if the Jedi won’t have you, we’d welcome you.” Talzin said with a faint smirk, “I certainly know one of my Daughters would be overjoyed.” Was… she teasing?

“I’m fairly certain she’s teasing…” And that was a rather surreal sight in all honesty. “More than one of them, I’m sure,” She replied, “Now, onto other matters…”

[hr][/hr]

While she hated to admit it, it was good to be back in the Republic.

Admittedly it’d be even better if Palps just fucked off and died, but she isn’t that lucky. Though she was grateful for Talzin ‘gifting’ her a ship that should take her back to Coruscant. It wasn’t the most up-to-date ship, but it worked. In fact if things ever calmed down, she’d enjoy going over it and gradually improving it.

Maybe even one day she could properly explore this Galaxy Far, Far Away?

Well, it never hurt to have goals… though she wasn’t looking forward to the Council questioning her about her whereabouts. It was always a balancing act, how much to withhold and how much to tell. The trick being that she had to tell the truth, just not the whole truth. Just enough to give them peace of mind and allow their assumptions to do the rest.

“Maybe I would make for a good politician…” Not that she was willing to sell her soul and morals to do so, no that was unfair… there were decent politicians.

They’re just in the minority.

“I got lost on the road of life,” Poppy said whimsically, “More importantly, I was kidnapped and I had to figure out how to use the ship that took me back home,” She explained, “Escaping the kidnapping was relatively easy, they didn’t know the full extent of my abilities, but I can’t say it was all that pleasant. Getting rid of the bodies before going into port so I could get some food and fuel was… a trial.”

She shrugged, hands clasped behind her. “The CIS stooges they had weren’t particularly useful, information wise, but I’ve learned from the mistakes I made to get captured and I won’t be making them again. Any questions?”

[hr][/hr][hr][/hr]