The Maw Cluster occupies much of what was once the border between Sith space and the Galactic Alliance. Long before the Blackwall was raised, it served as a natural barrier, a region of unstable gravity wells and distorted hyperspace lanes that punished the careless and erased the unprepared. The Blackwall only reinforced what the Maw already was, a graveyard of ships and ambitions navigable only by those with the fortune or the forbidden knowledge to do so. Sith charts and inherited routes turned catastrophe into passage, but even then the Maw demanded respect.
That balance has shifted. What once functioned as a barrier against Coreward advance has become an obstacle of a different kind. The collapse of authority beyond the Blackwall has opened paths that invite movement, yet the Maw itself remains ill suited for sustained, large scale deployment. Fleets cannot linger there. Supply lines cannot be anchored in its storms. If the Sith are to move beyond probing raids and isolated strikes, a stable rally point is required, a world that can absorb pressure and project force outward without relying on the Maw itself.
That world has already been identified.
Chalcedon has long served as a way station rather than a prize, lightly populated but precisely placed. Galactic powers passed through its ports without lingering. Criminal syndicates used it as neutral ground, a place to refit, bargain, and vanish back into the lanes. Its value was never in what it produced, but in what it connected. For the Sith Order, that quiet relevance makes it indispensable.
Chalcedon is not intended to stand as a symbol of conquest. It is meant to function. Its docks will gather forces. Its corridors will stabilize movement. Its position will allow the Order to deploy deliberately rather than opportunistically, ensuring that the advance into the Mid Rim and toward the Core is sustained rather than sporadic. Control of Chalcedon transforms ambition into infrastructure.
But usefulness invites resistance. The same syndicates and local authorities that once thrived on Chalcedon’s neutrality will not surrender it willingly. They understand its value as clearly as the Sith do. Before it can serve as a doorstep into the Core, it must be stripped of competing claims and brought under singular control.
Only then can the advance move forward with certainty.
Objective 1: Controlling the Board
Chalcedon must be made to recognize Sith authority as a physical and unavoidable presence. Before criminal networks can be addressed or rival powers dismantled, the Order requires a secured foothold from which to operate openly. Spaceports, orbital control, and key infrastructure must be seized and placed under Sith command.
This phase is not about subtlety. It is about making control visible and permanent. Garrisons must be established, supply routes stabilized, and resistance broken quickly enough that no competing authority can claim legitimacy. Those who act decisively during this phase will determine how Sith rule is expressed on Chalcedon, and whose influence shapes the world once control is formalized.
Objective 2: Cornering the Market
Cyklo Market, once one of the key shadowports of the galactic slave trade, still exerts significant influence over Chalcedon through its black markets and criminal networks. Securing control of the world, and more importantly ensuring uninterrupted military access, will be impossible without bringing the market under control. Local crime lords must be brought to heel, replaced with more agreeable figures, or the market itself placed under direct Sith authority. The method is irrelevant so long as Cyklo presents no threat to future passage, logistics, or operations. Those who move first will decide who profits from Chalcedon’s underworld, and who disappears into it.
Objective 3: Flipping the Tables (BYOO)
Not every action on Chalcedon will fall cleanly under authority or commerce. The arrival of the Sith will unsettle alliances, expose rivalries, and create opportunities that cannot be fully anticipated. This agenda exists to address what emerges in the wake of that disruption.
Intelligence gathering, political maneuvering, countering outside interference, internal rivalries, and unexpected threats all fall within this scope. Actions taken here may strengthen or undermine the primary objectives, often without immediate visibility. Those who operate under this agenda shape the environment in which control is asserted and markets are dominated.
THREAD LAUNCHES JANUARY 3!!!
