Diplomacy, plotting and friends
Urin, leader of the planet Arkanis, was walking towards the landing platform. Arkanis was once an important part of the Empire but it had been on its own for months after the battle of Endor.
Now the Golden Heiress asked Arkanis to rejoin the Empire. However, Urin was an old dog in the game and did not trust the Golden Heiress, thinking her to be some kind of remnant of the old Empire. If such was the case, he would prefer to remain independent. The leaders of the remnants that existed in the galactic north were fighting each other for power and he didn't want Arkanis to be the territory of a civil war between the Imperial remnants.
When he finally reached the landing platform, Urin looked at the time, it was one minute to the Golden Heiress' arrival and yet he saw no ship. Although the rain wasn't really letting him see anything either. Arkanis was a rainy planet, where the sun was rarely visible.
"If she's late, it's a bad start," Urin spoke aloud, to which his advisors nodded in agreement. However, almost as if by divine intervention, it stopped raining. Urin instinctively looked up and saw a golden light descending at high speed, only to slow down shortly before it reached the ground. A glowing golden figure, generating light all around him, stood inches above the ground, hovering as the rain seemed to avoid falling on the area where the figure stood.
"Honourable leader of Arkanis, I am the Golden Heiress and I come to negotiate."
Urin glanced quickly at the time, to see that it was exactly the time they said they were coming. Not a second more, not a second less.
"The honour is all mine, Golden Heiress," Urin deferred, relying on his years of experience to not be surprised by her almost religious entrance.
"Please lead the way to the negotiating table," said the Golden Heiress. Urin nodded and turned around, starting to walk.
"I didn't know the Emperor's heir was a goddess," Urin commented her entrance, genuinely surprised by the Golden Heiress' abilities.
"I'm not a Goddess, Urin, I'm just a very powerful individual."
Urin continued walking, looking for a second at his guest.
'A golden figure descends from the heavens, flying down and stopping the weather at will and then saying that there is nothing divine about it,' Urin thought to himself as he continued on his way, finally arriving at the seat of his government. A large building, not surprising by imperial standards.
Both Urin and the Heiress arrived at the negotiating table.
"I hope that today we take one more step towards the reunification of the Empire," she said first. To which Urin smiled slightly.
"Let's see where the negotiations go."
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I looked at Tatooine, returning from my week long diplomatic journey, getting most of the planets including Arkanis to join my Empire. More bureaucracy, more ministries, more jobs.
It wasn't all more work though. The inclusion of Arkanis and Sirpar meant that I could join their civilian bureaucratic sector to my government, so in part it could be said that in the administrative field it had been a total victory with incredible efficiency...
Remembering the diplomatic negotiations, I sighed as well. I needed to improve the quality of my entries, first impressions matter a lot and I couldn't just walk off a ship. Presentation and propaganda, all actions must improve the vision of the Empire, all actions must present a new Empire. A visible leader, a guiding leader.
Improve the vision of the Empire...
The Tarkinists were a problem, as long as they existed, I could never really change the Empire.
With no real other choice, I based my government on what you might call a fascist government in exile. My army was based on the black shirts of this fascist government instead of the regular army.
To take an example with Mussolini's Italy and applying that to the Galaxy at large, I was now the Heir of Mussolini, with all the most extreme fascist ideologues and politicians and the political army of the fascists on my side.
The stormtroopers were the black shirts of Palpatine's regime and the Tarkinists were the hardcore fascists who only believe in me because they think I am the direct heir of Mussolini when I despise Mussolini and want to destroy his legacy.
I have already started to create my political group, but I had to re-educate my troops and remove the Tarkinists from any position of power...
What a difficult self-imposed mission of mine. To create an Empire based on the old Empire but in my own image...
Was it too arrogant of me to make a dictatorship thinking it would be better than the Empire's? But what other choice did I have? Create a democracy and have a coup d'état and be assassinated by my troops?
I might as well create a constitution to prevent me from becoming a tyrant... power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Create a system of government that gives me enough power to guide the new Empire to a decent place but at the same time prevents me from becoming the new Emperor Palpatine...
But how do I create a constitution, what system do I create....
Wait a minute, I'm trying to rule an empire without knowing about politics and law. I know about bureaucracy, I know about war, I know about economics and private companies...
But I know neither politics nor law. I never studied law or political science and I never had any experience in them...
I needed to surround myself with experts in law and politics, but how could I get them if what I had around me were fanatics of the Empire who only knew about war and terror...
I holo-communicated to Draneir, who answered immediately.
"Yes?" he asked.
"Draneir, I need a list of the most important politicians in the Empire, then from that list I need you to point out the experts in law, politics and moderates and identify where they are today."
Draneir nodded.
"It will be done," he said, cutting off the communication. Fuck even I was surprised at the speed and efficiency. Draneir! I love you! Thank you for being my best worker!
I took a breath and started to organise myself. Experts in law and moderate politics to create a constitution and an efficient system. Economists won't be needed at the moment, I have that covered for the time being and we can't concentrate so much on that issue yet either. Reforming the army and destroying the Tarkinists.
I have to do those two, however army reform I think can only be done once I'm done with the criminal empires while the destruction of the Tarkinists... I can start now.
With a smile I stood up to grab a wine from my personal pantry. I had a night of long knives to plan.
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Draneir watched in despair, he had seen his friend eaten alive and it looked like he would soon be eaten himself. He never wanted to work for the Empire but he was a poor street rat from Coruscant. Few other outlets were left for him so he tried his luck.
And lucky he was, being allowed to join the Imperial fleet! The first few years were what he expected but it was much better than starving to death on the festering streets of Coruscant.
Until the day of the incident, when their ship crashed on a forested planet and communications were cut off. With few survivors, they set up a makeshift base while they tried to repair communications. However, the local population quickly discovered them, hunting them down one by one and eating them alive.
Draneir was the last survivor of that ship and could only pray that someone or something would allow him to die before he was eaten alive.
However, just as he had given up hope, someone helped him, cutting his bonds and dragging him into the forest. At first Draneir thought it was some survivor from his ship, but he saw that it was someone in an admiral's uniform, clearly worn and torn in several places.
"I am Admiral Tanya von Degurechaff, tell me your assignment soldier," she ordered him.
"I am Draneir and I was the captain of a prisoner ship, we were attacked by rebels and crashed here," came Draneir's answer, to which Tanya nodded, handing him one of the two pistols she had.
"Man-eating premises and a rebel base, we appear to be doomed, however, I have managed to contact the Empire, they are sending a ship to rescue us. The evacuation point is nearby, can you stand up?" she asked. Draneir tried to do so, but fell, only now noticing his broken leg.
"Shit, watch my back," she said. Grabbing Draneir and putting him over her shoulder, allowing him to watch the opposite side to where Tanya was advancing.
"Leave me here and kill me, if we go on like this we'll both die, I don't want you to die because of me," Draneir pleaded, understanding that they wouldn't get far in this condition.
"Listen to me soldier, I don't leave anyone behind, do you understand me? So less crying over a miserable death and get ready to shoot, I think we are being followed" Tanya said as she ran through the forest.
With a loud sound an arrow embedded itself in a tree near them both. Draneir was startled but pulled himself together and started shooting towards the general position of the natives, forcing them to seek cover.
"WELL DONE, KEEP DOING THAT!" shouted Tanya, groaning from exhaustion as she continued running through the forest. Finally they reached an open field where an Imperial ship was waiting, Stormtroopers jumped out of the ship and began firing at the natives. Then an arrow flew through the air, and as it nearly hit Draneir, he awoke from his sleep.
Draneir looked around, he was in his residence on Tatooine, though to call it a residence was unfortunate. It was a room with a bathroom and it was where he lived when he wasn't working. Though he almost always worked.
Sighing, he remembered the dream he had. Many years ago, Tanya turned to get hit by the arrow instead of Draneir, for if Draneir had received it, he would surely have died.
Draneir laughed slowly. From that day on he swore absolute loyalty to Tanya. Accompanying her on all her crazy missions, she once crashed her Star Destroyer into several enemy ships in a major naval battle. No one trusted her, but Draneir did.
"Good old days," Draneir said, getting up from his bed and looking around, the room was decorated with holographic pictures, all shared with Tanya.
"I never expected anyone to save me, let alone her to risk so much for my sake."
In an Empire where individualism was everything, rarely would people sacrifice themselves personally for someone else...
"I should have died that day," he said gloomily, walking to his bathroom and looking at himself in the mirror.
"Who would have told the young me that I would end up as Prime Minister of the government of one of the few decent people left in the galaxy?
A holographic call then rang out, and a bureaucrat appeared.
"Mr. Prime Minister, there is a demonstration of former slave owners, what do we do?" asked the bureaucrat.
Remembering how much he owed Tanya and how she was a good person and showed it every day, he thought it was the best decision to make.
"Arrest them, I don't want any dead but I want the most troublesome ones arrested, I'll deal with them personally," Draneir said, turning off the holo-call, starting to dress and leaving his room.
"Come on Draneir, a cup of caff and get to work, Tanya's Empire doesn't create itself," Draneir thought as he adjusted his cap and started to go to the canteen.