Wild Space

“Sorry, it’s not that I don’t trust all my people, it’s just that the fewer that know a secret the more likely it is to remain one. What I want to set up with you is exactly that.”

“Sabine and I have discussed the conversation you two had. I think you get the idea exactly, there are just a couple of things we need to get ironed out and finalize.”

“I certainly am open to suggestion,” Sparrow said, “Sabine and I had a more or less hypothetical discussion, we didn’t really get into any specifics.”

“As far as I am concerned you got specific enough. What I want to do is make you House Legion. You will be listed on no documents that are accessible to anyone below a house ruler and that won’t change unless some time in the future you need to come out in the open. As a house ruler you can have clans organized beneath you, and that is why I want to make you a house and not just another clan.”

“I want to work with the other houses and clans and over time try to grow a second clan under each out here, maybe not large but enough people from each that we don’t lose any more of our bloodlines if war breaks out again.”

“Unless there is a war, and you are called upon by me or the mandalore ruling at the time, you will operate 100% on your own, with only the guidance given by

“That is quite the offer, and don’t get me wrong, but why me?”

Bo laughed and exchanged a grin with Sabine, “You were right, he did ask.”

Sparrow, you have accomplished an amazing series of feats. I realize you haven’t done it by yourself but you have been at least involved in everything that has happened and have been critical to most of it.”

Bo thought about it for a second. “That really only means that you should be able to handle what I am asking. If you are looking for a specific reason why do this at all and why you it is because it was the legion you made up that made me think of it.”

“I will do what you ask Bo, but there are a couple of fairly large obstacles to me being the head of your secret house. I plan on taking those like me, boarding this ship, and heading very far from here, out to the edge of the galaxy where there used to be a lab run by the sith. We will orbit that planet and attempt to aid any survivors but will also be working on our own cure. Only when I am sure me and those like me are not a danger can I come back.”

“You being that far out actually works for us. If the leadership of the legion is far out of reach then it will keep the organization more mysterious. As long as we can get someone local to act as your representative it should be fine.”

“Rook and the clones might work for that, or at least whatever portion of them chooses to. Other than that I wouldn’t have a clue who to name yet.”

“I will meet with them and we will see how it goes. Thank you for the ship, by the way. I am not sure whether we will use it openly or not but it will be a mighty asset.”

“I explained that to Sabine as well, no one out here can safely keep that thing. The only reason I am holding onto this one for now is because we need the room and the labs for our long term isolation.”

"Why do you remain convinced you need to be so isolated? You have worked closely with all these people in combat situations and nothing has gone wrong."

"When Miley starts working out the solution she is going to be creating some kind of new viruses or whatever that we will need to all be infected with. Couple that with the danger we already present due to the possibility of some kind of mutation and I just can't see risking it."

"Well thought out. Has she given you any idea how long the process will take?"

"I don't think she knows yet. We have gathered the information from every source of this type of knowledge that we have been able to get access to so hopefully not long."

"Is there anything you need from me? Need in general?"

"I don't think so. We have arms, armor, equipment, and supplies."

"Then best of luck Mandalorian. I will let you know how my talks go with Rook."

"Ahsoka and I are heading out tonight Sparrow. We have delayed as long as we can. Ezra needs to be found."

"I understand, and I thank both of you from the bottom of my heart for the aid you have given me and mine."

Rook actually approached him the next day and informed him that the hidden clones were going to effectively play both sides. While the majority of their population intended to officially become part of the legion they planned to work through the local culvert and allow their people to go and stay there for a time. It was all cleared already through Jith.

Sparrow went for a walk with the former Death Watch member and they discussed how the legion would operate. Basically they decided to openly recruit. Any person who wished to join the legion would be permitted to do so with few restrictions. This would give them the fastest population growth and make them more of a force, at least locally.

After he finished that talk he tracked down his entire team and touched base with them all. He made sure everyone had what they needed and anything he could provide of what they wanted. It was the least he felt he could do since it was his plan they were following to head so far out into the wilds.

He next tracked down Jith and Caleb, and just spent some time with them, he knew it would most likely be a very long time before he would get that chance again.

He also tracked down Boba and Fennec. He asked Boba if he was ready for their little play. Boba agreed and they planned it for when they got to the derelict fleet because that is still where the exo-galactic ship was.

They had received word that the remnants efforts to locate him were picking up for sure. There had been people searching for him and for Kitten and the ship at every planet any of them had contact with out here. He knew if it wasn't taken care of soon someone would get hurt.

They separated the next day, the clones all returned to their sphere, the mandalorians took off in the cruiser, and the rest of them rode in the CIS ship heading off to the derelict fleet. The CIS ship was actually fairly easy for the synths to control, especially compared to the unwieldy controls on the cruiser, because it actually had been designed to operate manned completely by droids. It was a good sign for the trip after the salvage mission.

The trip out to the salvage fleet was calm, everyone left on board had some experience working with each other and got along well. Sparrow actually got a couple of chances to spar with Boba, which would have been serious fantasy fulfillment a short time before. He also sparred with Fennec and found the assassin to be absolutely as good as he had thought she would be.

They arrived at the moon and found a different situation entirely than when they discovered it initially. Hanging off to the side was the transport. The budded synths had got it loose and fixed the damage from the collision.

Seeing it hanging there gave Boba quite a laugh, "another one?" he asked.

"At least this one is smaller." Sparrow chuckled.

There were also a fair number of smaller ships floating in organized rows. It seemed the synths had emptied the hangers of the ships. Sparrow did notice that the exo-galactic ship wasn't out there.

They put the command ship in orbit of the moon and took the interceptor over to the Harrower. Onboard waited Lori and Zane, the last two synths.

"Nice to meet you two. I see you seem to have this all under control."

"Yes, we got the ships untangled as much as we could and rescued what small craft were salvageable, along with the transport."

"And our little side project?"

"We put the repair droids and the astromechs on it. It's done."

"Sparrow turned to Boba and said, "As soon as you get Slave 1 out here we can do our little project."

Fett just nodded.

Slave 1 arrived the next day and they pulled out the exo ship. Fett looked it over a bit in interest before he boarded his ship and got ready for the show.

They went around to the other side of the moon, Fett in his ship and Sparrow in the interceptor. The exo ship was flown by a protocol droid chosen more or less at random.

Once they were out of sight of the activity the show started. The exo ship led Fett on a merry chase around the area before Fett finally pulled a tricky maneuver and shot the ship with a missile. It exploded with impressive force.

Fett made a show of searching for debris and he collected the larger pieces he found before he ended the recording and contacted Sparrow.

Fett and Shand left the next day, towing their own interceptor and a couple of other interesting small craft behind them.

Fett made a stop with one of his contacts and off-loaded the other ships there. He made arrangements for several of them, including the interceptor, and then he and Shand visited the remnant.

Reputation can be a powerful thing sometimes. When Boba Fett's famous ship lands at your doorstep word gets around, so it was the local remnant commander that met him.

"I am here for the bounty." He said.

"Which bounty?"

"This one." Fett said as he showed the dead or alive listing for Sparrow and the ship.

"Proof? I hope you have the vessel."

"Sadly, the target fought too hard to be taken alive since the bounty did not specify I do so."

"I did, however, collect the remains of his ship, if that will suffice?"

Eager to obtain what they had wanted without having to pay extra for it the Commander agreed and the bits of wreckage were transferred, Fett was paid, and then he departed.

Once Fett was gone the Commander, looking at the small pieces with an air of frustration, informed his underlings to cancel the bounties on the male and the ship, but keep the one on the white skinned female. He ordered the pieces be sent to a lab for analysis and continued on with his duties.

Back at the derelicts Sparrow received word that Fett had done his part and the remnant seemed to have bought the story. He sent back his thanks and then took a walk around the control ship to think through his next steps.

He arrived at the room where several of his friends, including Jith and Akira, had been working on a little project. As he did the door opened and the pair came out.

"Just the man we were looking for Sparrow, come on in." Jith said cheerfully. Sparrow followed her back through the door and was fairly impressed at what he found inside. It looked like with some synth help and labor his new house now had access to a mandalorian forge.

The sight brought a huge smile to his face.

"I expect to be turning out my first few pieces in the next couple of days," Akira told him.

She gestured to a neat pile of ingots. "Between what we located here on the ship and collected from the derelicts we have a solid supply of material to last us months."

"That is excellent news. I think we are ready to head out on our little adventure."

"I guess we leave tomorrow then." he told Jith. "I will get the word out so folks can say their goodbyes."

"I will miss you guys, you'd better keep in touch."

"We actually plan on setting up some comm relays on the way out and the synths have set up a data disk with their comm codes. Between their encryption and the fact our gear is so outdated we think secure and timely comms won't be an issue. Another disk we'd like you to pass along to Rook, if you will, along with a set of the hardware."

"It shouldn't be a problem to get it to her."

Two days later Sparrow stood on the bridge of the CIS command ship as it accelerated away from the derelicts. They had had to delay a day because Rook had sent him a bit of a gift of her own. Several hundred people, mostly freed slaves, had jumped at the chance to head off to this new world, even with the danger of infection.

They jumped to hyper and he got excited. His next adventure was beginning.