It had been weeks since the Fresia mission had wrapped up and intel weenies were still giddy with all of the information that had been extracted from the planet.  The intelligence gathering devices left behind were still functioning, with only a 60% decrease in existing sources by discovery.  Basically, intel ran on the holomarketing scheme: if you maintained an 8% response rate, you were golden. 

Of course, some of the collection points would become useless as the prefab buildings were turned over for more mundane use or the sites of active collection were abandoned in favor of relocation or newly built structures.  Which was fine as enough turncoats had been bought out to ensure that some construction worker would be packing some devices to toss into the still-drying ferrocrete of the new administration compound. That tidbit of news was from a geosynchronous satellite placed in the shell of a destroyed TIE Droid fighter.  Every planet was notoriously slow on clearing up their local debris field and this camera's eight year life span would probably be long past before the craft's wreckage was salvaged and disposed of.

No, Fresia would be giving the Vast Empire years of valuable insight into local New Republic activities despite anyone's best efforts.

What was most unusual was the spattering of interaction with other planets in the Unknown Regions.  One of them, Nalbrice, was a waystation on the new Remnant Trade Lane, which the VE used to get goods and services between it and the Imperial Remnant.  The others were just completely unknown names and quantities to him.  Intel was pondering sending out search teams to discover what they could, but that had danger written all over it.

If any set of planets actively interacting with Mid-to-Outer Rim planets had thus far been undiscovered by either Imperial or New Republic officials, it was damn sure that any information sources would clam up once an Imperial research team showed up.  This needed a bit more stealth and discretion than even the spy guys had.

Fury typed up some orders for Supply to begin obtaining for a couple of the squads.  Then he sent off some "Out of Office" messages to Peacemaker and everyone else that might have direct need to contact him.

That only left getting a civilian flight suit, a transponder scrambler for the Kodama and a check on a certain set of astrogation coordinates Intel had on their short list of primary targets.  Better he screw it up on his own than a small flotilla of warships.
 
-----------------------
PRF/LG Fury/VEA/TADATH/VE [SCP][PoC][SotE:HC][SotE:VEA][IOC]
Prefect - Stormtrooper Corps
Administrator - Imperial Center

The Daoloth wasn't the most exotic restaurant he'd ever been in, but it was the closest.  In any case, whatever they were cooking smelled good and his contact was nothing if not a connoisseur of the most refined tastes.

He had met him as a former police officer, mind shattered by a truly grotesque case.  That was many years ago and the man had pulled himself together and was the man to go to if you needed to find anything missing.  The price, however, was having to deal with a being so pessimistic towards the survival of any life form that it sapped your own will to live.  Not that he was rude about it....

The hostess led him to a dimly lit private table far from the rest of the patrons.  Fury acknowledged that not only would he be paying for this meal, but for phantom meals at the five empty tables around them as well.  Maybe he could get a credit voucher and come back and eat those later.

As the hostess left, the human seated at the table nursing a neat whiskey stood up and took his hand.  "Welcome you old pirate.  Or should I say General?  Congratulations."

"News travels fast.  Hello yourself, Inspector."  That seemed to get the older man.

"Yes, well, that was a long time ago.  Unless you count the nightmares.  Then we are talking about events merely hours old.

"I trust your entry to fair Nalbrice was not too bothersome?"

"Considering they lack a government here, it was passable."

"Ah yes, you have become accustomed to order and neat lines.  The Empire has spoiled you sir.  I remember when you served on ships that, at best, had clean galleys and nothing else.

"Ah well, I've taken the liberty of ordering for us.  I know you are fond of bruallki but I've found a series of delightful treats I know you are going to enjoy.  Now, let's get you a drink and begin our little conversation. 

"And yes, before you ask, I have taken every precaution.  That little blonde at the bar you passed on the way in?  She is not only a wonderful assassin, she is hands-down the best slicer I've ever met.  Her name is Mika.  Found her working for some type of cult on Yog-Sothoth.  Anyways, enough of my passions, esoteric and others."

As was the case with Legrasse, no work was discussed until the meal was complete and the cigars lit with a drink in the hand.  As usual, the meal was delightful and the liquor in stock fantastic.  The cigar was probably one of the best he'd ever had as well.

"Alright Dar'Namell, about your phantom 'pirate' bands and those who hire them.  I have good news and bad news.  It looks as if I can point you in a couple directions, neither of which will lead you to the final source.  That, of course, is the bad news.  The good news is that its going to be a lot of fun for you.

"Basically, when Palpatine got his - and let's admit it, his 'human's first' crap irritated most Imperials too - all these little chunks of the Empire went running around consolidating resources and building little enclaves.  Everyone did it, for good reasons too.  The problem was, the Vast Empire went the wrong way apparently.  Instead of wiping out the Ssi-ruuvi or whatever your mandate was, you chose to meddle with affairs closer to the core and out in this part of space.

"And that, my old friend, is what brought on your plague of pirates.  Nalbrice is apparently the buffer zone for some little piece of the Unknown Regions that does not want to be found.  What you discovered on Fresia, and got confirmation of when you picked up and escort, is that Incom has been selling a lot of hardware out this way.  And they aren't the only ones.  There is literally a luxury liner dispensing arms to various planets out this way.  I'll give you info on that and various other oddities.  This part of space is arming up and getting ready to fight off whoever.

"And yes, they dislike the Empire.  But they really hate the New Republic.  And you want to know why?  At least you guys were the legitimate government.  The New Republic is a pack of terrorists who threw a coup and took over Coruscant like they had earned it.  Now isn't that just a bit odd to you?  Like this whole place is a bunch of Old Republic holdouts.  Hell, maybe even Separatists, I'm not sure yet.

"The point is, there are a lot of people just on the other side of known space, more than most planets you see out in this part of the galaxy.  They are well-armed, if just recently, have a lot of credits to pass around, have some ties to the Old Republic, and were part of some group buying off pirate captains and hiring mercenaries to take out the Vast Empire.  Why?  That still eludes me.

"What I have for you are coordinates to two planets or quasars or something.  I know very little and won't know anything unless I decide to go into this area myself.  The whole gob is called the Thilidian sector and there is a corridor into it originating right from here.  So we are close, but light years away without proper documentation."  Fury felt a nudge at his leg and palmed the datapad presented to him there.  "From Nalbrice you can catch a ride on that luxury liner I told you about.  You can also start looking into where the arms are coming from and what they are being bought with.  Its pretty unusual stuff.  Also, I'd fire all your current employees here.  The whole local pack is compromised.  Indeed, I myself would space the bastards somewhere."

Legrasse took a sip of his drink and remembered he had a cigar burning.  This left his speechless for a moment. Fury began, "If you are willing, I want you to keep going on this.  It sounds like a whole wealth of possibility, either for us to have or to keep away from others.  I don't care, but something like this can't be ignored.  I'll get some teams on some of this." Legrasse opened his mouth.  "Don't worry, I am not marching in legions of troopers.  I have a couple squads of discrete low-lifes and non-High Human Culture types that would be just perfect for this kind of thing.  And I'll probably check out one of these coordinates myself.

"Thank you for the dinner and the conversation.  Pop me a message when you need more funds.  Always a pleasure Inspector."

"I'll be in touch General," the man smirked.

Just for kicks, Fury ordered a drink for the assassin as he headed out the door.  It was always hard getting the last word in with the former cop.
 
-----------------------
PRF/LG Fury/VEA/TADATH/VE [SCP][PoC][SotE:HC][SotE:VEA][IOC]
Prefect - Stormtrooper Corps
Administrator - Imperial Center

Five days of almost constant microjumps.  he first few legs from Nalbrice weren't bad as they were ostensibly to see if anyone was tracking him and to shake off any curious fellow travellers.  Now it was just a constant irritation.

Actually some fellow travellers would make for some interesting conversation at this point.  As it was, he was stuck in a very large debris field that had been his constant companion for three days now.  At first it was a pocket of asteroid fields which then kept increasing and becoming a solid, physical impediment to travel.

The charts given by Legrasse only hinted at the amount of difficulty navigating this route offered. Which was why Fury and his ship were taking a breather after 6 straight hours of microjumps which shook both ship and pilot around like rag dolls.

The Kodama was currently running a full systems diagnostic and uploading yet another transponder code.  The charts showed some kind of nexus coming up in the next day or so of travel so it was best to be prepared for any security that would precede it.

He himself was going over all the charts he had been able to glean from the Vast Empire's archives and from Legrasse's investigation.  The Empire had done a damn good job of covering its mistakes and secrets, but even it needed a historical record.  However, born of an intergalactic civil war, even it had holes in its databanks; holes exacerbated by the Empire fragmenting into thousands of pieces, each with an incomplete copy of the records.

By the looks of it, a series of natural asteroid fields were interconnected with fragments of a planetary body that was either accidentally or purposely blown up.  These fragments were tractored into place to make an almost unnavigable region of space separating "known" areas from this particular part of the Unknown Regions.  To top it all off, much of it was mined.

The mere expense of such a venture was staggering.  Even the Empire would have strained to amass so many resources to one goal.  And this was just the fence to keep strangers out.

In any case, Legrasse's maps had kept him out of a minefield thus far and would soon lead him to another piece of the puzzle.
 
-----------------------
PRF/GEN Fury/VEA/TADATH/VE [SCP][PoC][SotE:HC][SotE:VEA][IOC]
Prefect - Stormtrooper Corps
Administrator - Imperial Center