The capital Confederate sins

[Jessica Med-Beq]

OOC: Per the rules of ionite, this thread is about the fallout of Jessica's past actions as told from a NPC perspective. Plus, as there is no good resource for Geonosian the closest Basic translation is there in place of the Acolyte's dialogue.

IC: A few days have elapsed after the nightmares on Ryloth and Geonosis. Ryloth was hopefully a non-factor and forgotten about, because they realized that it was not going to end well, but Geonosis was another matter entirely. A riot erupted inside Stalgasin Memorial Arena, where an estimated 40,000 Geonosians were unable to escape while the Sith began rioting. It was a disaster, mitigated only by the fact that Jessica only asked the battle droids to engage confirmed Sith, and not the other non-Sith unless provoked. They might have been gassed but the gas was non-lethal. While officially the responsibility of this disaster on Geonosis was attributed to one Herr Vanderhing, who is awaiting trial for this tragedy, Jessica is not entirely blameless: Catria, on the other hand, was. Catria played no role in organizing the convention, she didn't unleash the gas, nor the orb. It was a clumsy handling and she knew it. Not even her would have made such actions and she knew next to nothing about military strategy or crowd control.

"Jessica, I'm afraid that I don't entirely understand why you even made that speech in the first place, what do you hate about the Sith Triumvirate?" Catria asked.

"I harbor a deep-seated disgust for Sith factions, as opposed to Sith Lords themselves" Jessica answered.

"What makes you hate Sith factions as opposed to Sith Lords? I am a Sith Lord all right, in exchange of my life being spared I had to swear fealty to the Confederacy" a Sith Acolyte asked Jessica, in Geonosian.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Catria was puzzled by the Acolyte's question. In her mind, all too often, people who hated Sith, hated both the Lords themselves as people and the factions. Yet Jessica only hated the factions, and not the Lords in and of themselves. The blue-haired healer listened attentively, thinking that perhaps she had a good reason or two to hate only the Sith factions and not the Lords in themselves. To her it was easier to make a case for hating Sith Lords themselves rather than the factions, rather than the other way around. The Geonosian, who was among the Sith Acolytes scheduled for execution, was previously a Sith Triumvirate lackey, but why he served the Sith Triumvirate instead of the Confederacy, was not known to Catria, nor was it to Jessica. It also seemed that the Acolyte was puzzled that someone would hate the Sith factions and yet still be willing to give a chance to some Sith Lords on an individual basis.

"Use me in the Force as you would a computer; after all I'm so accustomed to the likes of you doing that to me that it is not a big deal to me"

"That sounds like Drain Knowledge; how do you know how it works?" the acolyte asked in Geonosian.

"She could use it, but she decides not to"

"You will find your answers: just use my brain as you would a computer in the Force"

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Wow! Look at what I'm getting out of you! A real beskar mine of information!" the Sith acolyte exclaimed.

"Don't get carried away. Found anything in my brain that answers your question?"

"Oh yes, it seems that the words pure evil are everywhere when you talk about Sith factions: yet you say that, as Jedi are not purely good, so Sith should not be purely evil"

The Sith acolyte now knew why it was so tempting for dark-siders to use Jessica as a computer in the Force: she was a treasure vault of knowledge all to herself. Plus some practitioners of Drain Knowledge would even use Drain Knowledge to have the target perform some high-level cognitive functions in their stead. While Catria knew very clearly what people wanted to use Drain Knowledge on her for, medical knowledge, Jessica, on the other hand, not so much, especially given her level of erudition. In addition some dark-siders in high school or in undergrad would simply be tempted to use Drain Knowledge to cheat in tests or some other such things out of laziness. Unsurprisingly because most educational institutions have no wards against Force-users cheating, a lazy but talented dark-sider can cheat its way through with the Force. At most one would expect FUs to crop up at the rate of about 1/500, so it would not be cost-effective.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"They why did so many of my brothers get killed? What purpose did that serve?"

"They were caught doing piracy in orbit over Geonosis. Much like the Hutt Cartel lackeys that were killed"

"Don't forget that Herr ordered the actual killings: I left the arena when said killings occurred"

The Geonosian acolyte realized that, while Jessica's brain was, as he said, a real beskar mine of information, there was only so much he could actually get out of it in any one go. Plus he exhausted much of its energy in getting the relationship of Jedi and Sith on the good-evil scale Jessica held. The more tired Geonosian refrained from making any further use of Drain Knowledge for a while. But Catria added a piece of information that may shed some light in the evils committed by the then-Techno Empire; the Confederacy has a grand total of four Jedi on its payroll, and two of them were in the room with the acolyte, one of the survivors of the event. But Jessica doubted that the punishment fitted her criminal involvement in the events in the stadium. Officially all that she did for crimes was an unauthorized organization of a political convention. She even offered a ceasefire as penance for the crimes of the governor of Geonosis, even though all she did was to ask the battle droids to engage Sith and leave everyone else alone until they are themselves engaged.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Then what exactly did you do?"

"When the riot erupted, all I did was to deploy EG-5s to engage confirmed Sith among the rioters and leave everybody else alone. When the orb was deployed I then offered a ceasefire which was promptly rejected. Werah wrecked everything"

"How?"

Jessica has shown more restraint than Herr, whom Werah blamed for this entire setup. Now the Confederacy was the laughing stock of the galaxy but soon, hopefully, the Confederacy will avenge the screwup on Geonosis, depending on their handling and how much success they will get on Hypori. But Catria estimated that, if the Confederacy screwed up on Hypori, it may never recover. The Rogue One Sith was rumored to be there, and all three people knew why the ROS would even try to hit Hypori: interfering with the industrial capability of their enemies. To this end the Jedi knew what to protect: industrial assets and their owners. They were to hit only the Rogue One Sith, and spare civilians. Even though Catria was a relative stranger to external policy or to military strategy, she knew that the Confederacy is still trying to recover from such mishaps but even then it was a somewhat unknown entity in the galaxy.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"We could have dealt with the riot without looking like fools if only Werah didn't see fit to deploy some blue orb which worked on me, somehow, and not on the Sith"

"Probably because the stadium is a dark-sided nexus: the stadium makes light-siders' defenses weaker and dark-siders' stronger"

"Don't forget the dome! I was trapped in it even though I saw nothing of why there was a dome in the first place"

"Z-5s were sent in as reinforcements, yet were ordered to stand down. And then came the gassing using psychotropic, non-lethal agents"

The Geonosian Sith acolyte saw that it was tiresome to interrogate Jedi. Yet, somehow, the acolyte chose to give Jessica's version a chance. She might be telling the truth to said acolyte's eyes. For some reason he didn't see the same fanaticism in the Wookiee-sized Jedi as he saw in most other Jedi he met in his career as a Sith. Especially since she can somehow stomach certain dark-siders and have a reason to stomach the First Order. Several Jedi were nothing more than Sith hunters to his eyes, whether light or dark Jedi. This whole stance forced the acolyte to reevaluate his whole approach to Jedi, too. All too many Jedi - and Sith, too - needlessly killed - and got needlessly killed as well - because of mere dogma; that was where all three people in this interrogation room agreed. Poor Sith pirates that plagued the space lanes around Geonosis! How many survived? Knowing that the survivors among the Sith Triumvirate prisoners are mostly NFUs.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"What is it that you hate about Sith factions anyway?"

"They promote a pure-evil doctrine, where the Sith running the show engage in rape, torture, pedophilia and other sadistic acts like eating their prisoners alive. It's mostly a question of actions rather than a question of the Force-alignment. There are Sith that do not exclusively engage in such evil actions, however, and there is a place for them in the galaxy. You can't have light without dark, and Jedi have shown time and time again that they weren't purely good"

"The First Order: is it a Sith faction or not?"

"No. This is why the Confederacy can count on the First Order as allies even though they are dark-sided"

Most puzzling. The Acolyte was always taught that Jedi were to be kiled on sight. But here he was, devoid of lightsaber, and only with the Force, interrogating Jessica about a number of things pertaining to Stalgasin and its context, in ways he was introduced to ever since he successfully used Drain Knowledge to access Jessica's internal "hard drive". Not that she minded that much, she knew from experience that her memory was much stronger than usual. Plus Catria also had that effect on him, to push him beyond the dogma, even though he lacked the energy to attempt Drain Knowledge a second time. And so he was to learn that even from his diametral opposite he could still learn something, from someone whose creed has much to oppose him to them. Poor Confederate Executive Council! The Confederates have had very little going for them, and sparing the life of one of the prisoners in exchange for Confederate service was a better idea than killing the prisoner outright.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"What makes the First Order, well, a non-Sith faction? They're loaded with dark-siders!"

"They are not pure-evil and thus different from Sith factions"

"What makes the First Order different from the Sith Triumvirate?"

"Their actions serve a purpose other than evil, chaos and destruction: the Sith Triumvirate, and also the One Sith, betrayed their loyal allies because of evil, killed their own citizens in defense of their respective capitals because of evil (Directive 12 on Coruscant is not even about scorched-earth), and conduct genocide on their own conquests because of evil"

The interrogator was clearly clueless about the galaxy at large. Clearly this whole set-up was a trial for him as a Sith Acolyte: he was on the cusp of knighthood. He passed the Trials of Skill and Sacrifice, and his master gave him three trials before he could be knighted, according to the notes seized from the Sith Triumvirate. The Trial of Insight may well be this interrogation. But the Acolyte was still confused when Jessica mentioned serving a purpose other than evil, chaos and destruction. He didn't know anything about the First Order other than perhaps the FO stood at the southwestern corner of the galaxy, and was somehow allied with the Confederacy. Perhaps... perhaps that Confederate Jedi was going to complete the trial. But, with his master gone, which authority could grant him knighthood? Count Morcus? No, that person wasn't his master. Werah? No. And Darth Banshee was nowhere to be found.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"What do you mean, the First Order's actions serve a purpose other than evil, chaos and destruction?"

"I witnessed that firsthand: I was sent in Charzon's stead for the trade summit five years ago and I remember Dunames wanting to address the transportation infrastructure, knowing that deficient transportation infrastructure sank the Primeval economically. They might be dark-sided, but at least they can take care of law and order, and of the bread-and-circuses"

"The Primeval took it upon themselves: their own Sithspawn did that to them"

"See? The Primeval was also a faction that engaged in evil, chaos and destruction!"

And the FO actually had principles. Jessica knew that the Primeval was destroyed economically by deficient transportation infrastructure - it was no secret to anyone in the shipbuilding industry at the time, even to Ringovinda StarYards. But Sithspawn? What kind of evil maniac could mess up with genetic engineering to make them more brutal to the point of destroying entire spaceports as a pack? From what little they knew about Sithspawn, they knew they were more brutal, more cunning than the originals. But they knew very little about the process of actually producing Sithspawn. Never would they entertain the thought of producing some, for they had almost no knowledge of genetic engineering, and neither did they know about Sith alchemy. But what use could Sithspawn could be to a faction in a non-military capacity? The Jedi failed to see any. And the Sith acolyte also failed to see any.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Is it me or it is turning into a discussion about the First Order and how they differ from other historical dark-sided factions?"

"Why is it that you can stomach Sith as individuals then?"

"There are a few Sith that I can stomach, like Darth Veles, Darth Ignus, Darth Banshee, names I've come across because I'm a regular fixture of the Sith Inquisitor, but these guys are idealists or otherwise well-intentioned extremists, or that use the dark side of the Force for something other than evil's sake. They put effort and thought in what they do. But most dark-siders I could stomach, and the Knights of Ren by extension, seem to act more like Jedi that use the dark side of the Force"

"As far as putting thought and effort in what you did, Jessica, anything is better than Vanderhing or Werah. You had no hand whatsoever in gassing the people in the stadium. nor in the mass execution: you did nothing but target specific, armed rioters with EG-5s"

Of which the acolyte wasn't by virtue of not having weapons to wield at the time, or otherwise having been deemed by Jessica to pose no real threat. What both the Sith acolyte and Catria realize is that, if you do put effort and thought in what you do, you might have a rather misaligned moral compass, you might have a different set of ideals, but saving X from themselves because of Y-Z reasons, so long as said reasons are logically coherent with the actions of X, you can't deal in absolutes. Jessica accepted as much. That is the main reason why Jessica held that set of beliefs: whatever you do, put some thought and effort in it. Then you have a much clearer conscience and you are a much wiser person for it. But all parties involved know that wisdom is not at all a given. All too many Jedi and Sith younglings had the same questions of morals and ethics, and even people like Catria had no definite answer to all their questions, plus the answer depended on the individual answering it.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"You have remained awfully quiet about the actual fallout: all that we have been talking about were the context behind the speeches, and the actions in themselves"

"Did you have any idea what you did to the Confederacy?"

"To be honest, you should ask the question to Herr, not me. The only criminal action I conducted was to co-organize an unauthorized political convention"

The acolyte's supply of Force-energy steadily recharging, he decided to simply ask the more regular questions when questioned by the other two. But he wondered why he was to question Jessica; as per Jessica's statement, he really ought to question Herr. By now Herr was going to be brought in front of the two and be questioned. He had a lot more to atone for than Jessica ever would have. May Jessica be patient with the primary organizer of the political convention; Jessica always wanted the convention to actually be, well, a convention, and so did the Geonosian Sith acolyte. The riot wrecked everything, and he knew it, but the convention should not have been held during gladiatorial games. And neither would the Geonosian acolyte think as much, certainly he would have preferred to be an event separate from any gladiatorial game. What they all expected at the onset was that the convention actually be a convention.

"The governor of Geonosis has arrived, one [member="Herr Vanderhing"]"

 

[Herr Vanderhing]

Herr Vanderhing limped angrily inside putting a lot of force unto his cane as he waddled inside in annoyance. He held a particularly sour expression in his face. He took a glaring glance at his co-conspirator in organizing the rally them glared at the Geonosian as he sat down.

"...... Good evening"

He said with obvious anger in his voice. He held his cane in his hands and in between his legs as he uncomfortably sat in the room

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"We were finished with Jessica: she said that she had no hand in the actual deaths in the arena and that she has shown more restraint than either you or Werah" the Geonosian acolyte asked.

"But we all know that Jessica's viewpoint will only provide one portion of the facts. Hence why the inquisitor saw fit to summon [member="Herr Vanderhing"] here today" Catria commented.

"Why host the convention alongside gladiatorial games? Jessica said that it was your idea"

And perhaps Jessica could be contradicted by Herr, the Geonosian acolyte thought, while sensing the anger in Herr; the inquisitor was also angry at Herr because Herr ordered the deaths of so many among the Sith Triumvirate, whom he suspects was responsible for the riot that happened after the deaths. But the Hutt Cartel had nothing, and he means it, nothing to do with the riot. What Jessica said earlier made sense to Catria however. She would never picture Jessica to be a butcher, no more than she pictured Charzon to be one, but no one would have predicted that Charzon would have become a butcher. But for some reason Catria expected Herr to fall to the dark side (by the NFU definition of the term, that is, becoming evil) any time soon if he wasn't already. Jessica was a lot nicer to her eyes and she knew her for years; in comparison, Catria only knew Herr by name until today, and even so, she didn't know him for more than about a month or so.

 

[Herr Vanderhing]

Vanderhing gritted his teeth and moved his jaw around in anger

"So she expects me to take the entirety of the fall for this?! I'm afraid that won't happen!! Hosting the convention during the gladiatorial games was HER idea NOT MINE!!! HERS!! I-I will not allow her to weasel her way out of this!!! Though I will admit, I've hosted rallies during the gladiatorial games before, it is the only way many Geonosian's will care to come to a rally.... As for her restraint, no comment...."

Vanderhing was increasingly agitated and was tapping his left leg up and down waiting for this to be over with

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"So you touched a point about the organization of the rally. The only charge filed against her at this time is the unauthorized organization of a political rally" Catria commented.

"Jessica might have caught a few of those who were killed, but she has no judicial power. What was your role in the organization of the rally?" the Geonosian acolyte asked.

"As he said, in most instances, Geonosians are pretty bread-and-circuses in their approach to politics. It might have been my idea this time around, Herr, but beyond the idea of the rally being organized at the Games themselves, I was responsible for the financial aspect of organizing the rally as well as the speech order. You came first because I knew that the Geonosians would listen to you more than they would me, and you knew the local Geonosian population better than I do"

After all, there was a reason why [member="Herr Vanderhing"] governed Geonosis and not her, even though she was less corrupt and would have run Geonosis in a manner that would not be akin to how Nar Shaddaa was run when the Hutt Cartel was in power. She knew that, with Herr, graft was the order of the day for off-worlders to be carrying out business on Geonosis. But since she knew she had her limits, she knew there was a kryptonite or two to her. Like her utter lack of subtlety (back in her NFU days). Strong dark-siders are key to corrupting her, Stalgasin showed it. As tempted as Jessica was to administer some short-term Force-induced sedatives, she refrained from doing that, and the acolyte refrained from using Force-lightning. Now that her role in the organization of the rally is made clear, the Sith acolyte is about to ask an additional question to an already-angered Herr about the security at the rally:

"Did you expect the Triumvirate to come crash the rally before it was held?"

 

[Herr Vanderhing]

Vanderhing stared at his co-conspirator for hosting the rally as she spoke. When the acolyte asked the question he quickly turned his head and went back to glaring at the Geonosian

"OF COARSE I DIDN'T KNOW!!!..... I was shocked and livid when whom ever that damned person who started the riot fired their blaster! Whom ever that was is lucky Madam Med-Beq offered peace and Mr. Unon cut the rally!! Else I'd have executed them along with those other miserable yahoos....."

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"At least I made an attempt to defuse the situation: while I accept it has failed, perhaps part of why it failed were the terms"

"The terms. All you have to explain the failure of your defusing attempts were the terms? You were a light-sider sitting within a dark-sided nexus: it is possible that you weren't completely yourself"

Dark-sided nexuses, like Stalgasin Memorial Stadium, can make NFUs or light-siders not be completely themselves. In the confusion at the time, both the acolyte and the co-organizer of the rally may not be fully in their normal selves, especially given the orb being deployed. Ultimately it worked on only the both of them (and possibly the other observers). The Sith flat-out rejected, but that was... understandable. Especially after the majority of the death count being accounted for at that point. The acolyte understood that the Sith Triumvirate came and started the riot by shooting that blaster at the Geonosian guards of the arena, but they both lost count of the death count, presumably because of the gas stage of this comedy of errors for which they briefly appeared in galactic news. But the acolyte was increasingly angry towards Herr as there was one question that feels need asking: the SCNN (in Alliance-land), FOSM (in First Order-land) made no mention of the actual death count.

"How many acolytes died then? How many Hutt Cartel people were killed?"

[member="Herr Vanderhing"]

 

[Herr Vanderhing]

Vanderhing rolled his eyes and shook his head at the girl, Catria's comment

"Oh please, neither the terms nor some dark side, light side, force mumbo jumbo is to blame for the terrorists not accepting the terms!! The real reason they didn't accept is because, they're naturally violent!!!"

He shouted waving his hand as he spoke

"I don't believe we had any Hutt Cartel members being executed, and I was told how many acolytes were killed at one point, but I hadn't cared in the slightest, so I didn't listen! The real worry should be about all the brave Geonosians who gave their lives to protect us from those monsters!!"

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"The Sith Triumvirate, naturally violent? Jessica blamed the groupthink among them for their violence!" the Geonosian exclaimed.

If the Sith Triumvirate was naturally violent, perhaps the Confederacy won't be as violent, the acolyte thought, especially not after what happened on Ryloth. As they are poised to attack Hypori and clear the planet of raiders, one of the key players of the Confederate power structure was being interrogated. At least now the explanations Jessica gave for her hating the Sith factions rather than hating the Sith as individuals made sense to him. But the best estimates were that a few dozen acolytes were killed, one by Amelia, and a few NFU slaves mixed in for good measure. And yet [member="Herr Vanderhing"] touched an interesting point: the death toll to the Geonosians was, by all accounts, heavier than that of the rioters or the slaves. Jessica actually knew little about the Geonosians so she had no idea how would Geonosian burials would be conducted so the Sith Acolyte would probably organize it in their stead.

"Since you mentioned brave Geonosians: their bravery is certainly not something to scoff at, how many brave Geonosians died that day?"

"The memorial service for these Geonosians is about to be held soon, since we want every one of these Geonosians killed to receive the honors befitting those organics who died on duty"

 

[Herr Vanderhing]

"Between the hundreds to thousands in civilians if I'm not mistaken, similar numbers of guards! All dead because of those freaks! Nothing but terrorists and filth is what they are!!"

Vanderhing stated, becoming more and more impatient as the seconds ticked by. He began to tap his left foot on the floor and tap his left hand fingers upon his cane, both actions done in annoyance.

"Yes each Geonosisian will recieve awards along with their families for what the worthless terrorists have done! Though I'm still poorly informed over the exact numbers of those whom have fallen"

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]