Ten years and the thirty-fifth day after the Battle of Yavin…
Or the forty-fifth year and the thirty-fifth day after the Great Resynchronization.
(Seven months and the twentieth day since the arrival).
The steady sound of heels on the polished surfaces of the floors in the Emperor's Citadel echoed like a metronome through the half-empty corridors.
Here, Imperial officials did not wander as they once had in the Imperial Palace on Coruscant.
Here, lively debates among senators, their aides, and secretaries were not held.
Here, there was no irritating gleam from protocol droids.
Here, nothing reminded one of Coruscant.
Because this was not Coruscant.
Ysanne Isard, clad in her unchanging admiral's uniform of the Imperial pattern, executed in the crimson tones of arterial blood, slowly crossed the Citadel in proud solitude.
She paid no attention to the stormtroopers marching behind her, their numbers clearly exceeding what was necessary for her destruction.
She didn't care about the Imperial Guards who began to appear more frequently in the corridors the deeper she penetrated into the magnificent structure rising kilometers above the rooftops of the tallest buildings on Byss.
Ysanne Isard was heading to her goal.
And not a single muscle on her face betrayed the tension that might—and should—have been inherent in one who had so recently fallen from the Emperor's favor.
For the first time since her birth, she had visited Byss.
Not as a valuable prisoner whose fate the Emperor Palpatine must decide.
Not as an invited guest who had responded to the call of the Emperor and his officials.
She had come here by the will of duty, an inexplicable magnetic connection that arose between a man and a woman on a platonic level.
Such actions were not dictated by logic.
They could not be assessed or measured.
They had no criteria for comparison.
They simply were.
Therefore, she was here.
On Byss.
The planet Byss.
For that portion of the population familiar with the name, Byss represented a mythical world of pleasures and freedoms that Emperor Palpatine had discovered and provided for his most loyal subjects many years ago.
He had charted hyperspace routes here, without knowledge of which no one could reach this paradise.
Located in the isolated and practically inaccessible Deep Core of the Galaxy for ordinary folk, Byss was the endpoint of a hyperspace route known as the Byss Run.
The latter was an artificial and carefully guarded hyperspace route, maintained by hundreds of non-mass S-thread accelerators, connecting the planet to the Core Worlds.
Otherwise, it was nearly impossible to reach the planet safely through hyperspace due to the high density of stars in the Deep Core and the constantly shifting patterns of the region's natural hyperroutes.
From these words alone, knowledgeable sentients could understand how generous Emperor Palpatine was in giving this world to his subjects.
Each S-thread accelerator cost as much as entire planets, and maintaining it in operable condition—not to mention using it—required colossal sums that many states had never seen throughout the galaxy's existence.
Positioned in the fifth orbital slot in the system named Beshqek, Byss was merely one of two habitable worlds in this corner of the galaxy.
But, reaching a diameter of just over twenty-one thousand kilometers, Byss accommodated just under two hundred billion inhabitants on its surface, the vast majority of whom (excluding a tiny percentage) consisted exclusively of individuals significant to the Empire.
Rellius, occupying the fourth orbital position, was smaller in size but equally hospitable.
To the hundreds of billions of people comprising the industrial, agricultural, military, and other potential of the Galactic Empire in the Deep Core.
Ysanne turned a corner and found herself in a large corridor, a significant portion of which—the ceiling and the right wall—were made of transparisteel.
Thanks to this sturdy yet transparent material, Ysanne could see all five small moons of Byss in the cloudless night sky, which at present had been turned into massive barracks and military factories ceaselessly supplying the Emperor's troops with everything necessary.
For this, minerals were plundered from planets throughout the Deep Core, but who had ever cared about that?
Likewise, through this transparisteel, Ysanne could see the horizon line sinking into the illuminated urban developments.
She might even see the blue-green glow of the Beshqek system's natural sun if she passed here during daylight hours.
But she walked at night because such was his desire.
From scraps of dropped words, the Iceheart had pieced together a unified picture of the mosaic fragments that seemed to be features of this planet.
Insensitive to the Force, she could not test a number of these claims in practice, but those members of the Dark Side Elite she had already met had casually mentioned that Byss was literally saturated with the Force, which the Emperor had turned into a source of the Dark Side by his will.
The Jedi, as she knew, used the Light Side.
And this fact alone confirmed the difference between the Emperor and the Jedi: they submitted to circumstances, while Palpatine subjugated the circumstances themselves.
It was no wonder that the greatness of such a man made one's head spin, and his achievements made the heart beat faster.
For those to whom it meant anything.
Ysanne was far more interested in the talk that the billions of Byss's population fed the Emperor with their life force.
And this claim was in the realm of Jedi metaphysics, but it was still another crumb of information.
She had spent much time studying this planet in the company of the Dark Side Elite, who served as both her guard and escort.
Until the Emperor found time to receive her.
The Iceheart saw that Byss's surface was dotted with chains of lakes and rivers inhabited by microscopic life forms, as well as wind-smoothed plateaus and canyons.
The planet's isolation from most of the galaxy had allowed its natural islands and ruins from the pre-Expansionist era to remain untouched for thousands of years.
She had visited the old ruins left on the planet by the Rakata race with interest, who had previously used this world as their forward base for further conquests.
But she had found absolutely nothing there—it was an empty, half-ruined structure.
Which, as she had managed to notice, was being hastily restored and furnished.
This ancient outpost was being rebuilt for someone significant to Palpatine.
The planet had no predatory flora or fauna, as one might have imagined.
No sentient species had ever arisen on Byss through natural evolution, and the living nature in this world was mostly nocturnal and harmless.
Byss also contained no rare earth elements or heavy metals, so there were no thousands of mines on its surface, as on many other planets in the Beshqek system.
The Emperor's secret throne world was indeed a resort—for those close to the Emperor.
For the billions of aliens and slaves brought here to work on constructing cities, assembly shops, and serving the needs of Imperial nobles, Byss must have seemed like a penal colony.
The planet's calm, mild climate and gentle seasons, from clear to rainy, were primarily due to its minimal axial tilt and stable geological base.
Severe phenomena such as storms and volcanism were extremely rare.
All this combined helped the Empire create the myth of a beautiful and mystical paradise world hidden from the galaxy as a whole, where blissful contentment awaited anyone who decided to apply for immigration to the aforementioned planet Byss.
Billions, if not more, sentients fell for this cheap and ancient trick.
They died here over many years, buried right on the construction sites where death overtook them.
The colonization of the world never ceased for a moment.
Mas Amedda, Palpatine's aide since the days when he was Supreme Chancellor, had once, during a confidential conversation with Isard after her arrival here, said that erecting the Emperor's Citadel, in which she now found herself, had cost the lives of more than ten billion sentients.
But they had created a masterpiece of architecture.
The Emperor's Citadel (planet Byss).
Slaves and their bodies were the very foundation on which all these richly adorned buildings with flashy exteriors and intricate resort complexes stood.
Year after year, billions died here, but new and new batches of migrants were delivered here at the Emperor's whim.
And their labor, their deaths, paid for the construction of the city covering the entire continent.
Any sacrifices for the Emperor's greatness—the sole indisputable and unquestionable organ of power on Byss.
As far as Isard had learned, full power on Byss, and indeed in the Imperial worlds of the Deep Core, belonged to the adepts of the Dark Side of the Force, commanded by Palpatine.
In essence, the Emperor had created a theocracy on the ruins of the Empire and placed himself at its head, ruling it absolutely according to his will, without any obstacles to implementing his decisions from the Senate or other vestiges of the Old Republic, as it had been on Coruscant.
After his death at Endor, the Emperor had turned Byss into a fortress planet, and judging by the identifiers of thousands of starships in orbit around Byss and in the system itself, the secret throne world had become a gathering place for the remaining Imperial Remnants and a base of operations for Palpatine's forthcoming conquest of the galaxy.
From what she had seen in orbit, it was clear that Byss had also become a construction site for numerous variants of Imperial superweapons.
She had seen dozens of starships of a class unknown to her, which literally devoured asteroids and the surfaces of other planets besides Rellius and Byss, producing ever new weapons from their internal factories.
Mas Amedda had called them "World Devastators" and assured her that they were indestructible.
She had seen both "Eclipse" vessels.
One, being built for the Emperor on Byss and stolen from there by Kuati engineers after the attack on the "Kuat Drive Yards" by the Zann Consortium fleet. Obviously, to complete the star superdreadnought here.
Its near-twin "Eclipse II" was practically finished—equally menacing and massive.
She had seen thousands of starships that were only mentioned in Imperial manuals but existed here in metal.
She had seen the under-construction "Assertors" and dozens of Allegiance-class battlecruisers, "Executors" and "Bellators," "Vengeances"…
And from the "Imperials" and smaller ships, one's eyes simply swam.
It wasn't even worth thinking that such an armada could be defeated, even in the most fierce battle.
Under Imperial rule, Byss had become one of the most secluded and heavily guarded worlds in the galaxy.
Most natural routes into the Deep Core were mined, and the rest were protected by the Imperial hyperspace security network—a system of gravity well projectors and hyperwave transceivers designed to monitor and control traffic entering and exiting the Deep Core.
Something similar, as she had heard from the same Mas Amedda, Grand Admiral Thrawn had applied to the capital of the Dominion he had recently created before his demise.
However, unlike the Core, whose key was known to few, the Emperor, it seemed, knew the way into the Dominion.
And as soon as the hour of destroying the traitors arrived, the worlds that Grand Admiral Thrawn had so carefully gathered together would blaze from orbital bombardments by the armadas that Palpatine was preparing to unleash on the heads of the galaxy's inhabitants.
Nowhere in the Empire had there ever been such security as on Byss.
As a fortress world, the Emperor's secret throne world was guarded by a array of security forces and technologies, all overseen by a specialized security service.
The Byss security zone, a defined area of space around the fortress world, was protected by a wide ring of Star Destroyers, and an entire sector fleet was additionally dispersed throughout the Beshqek system.
From her own experience, Ysanne knew that anyone approaching the protected zone, even if permitted to the Byss Run, received a warning for violating forbidden boundaries.
Any attempt to cross this invisible forbidden line met with uncompromising destruction by all available forces.
Giant probe droids "Hunter-killers" patrolled the skies over Byss and were used as platforms for capturing and detaining unauthorized ships.
The planet itself was surrounded by a planetary shield controlled by the Byss security service, and scanning systems were used to monitor movement across the entire planet.
The planet's orbit was guarded by hundreds of Golan III space defense stations, constantly on combat duty.
Byss Security Service personnel coordinated space traffic with scanner satellites scattered throughout the star system and the planet's atmosphere.
If any traveler was found to have forged documents, the Star Destroyers guarding Byss would unhesitatingly open fire to destroy.
The scanning stations also served as orbital defensive platforms for Byss, possessing firepower equal to some capital ships, and housed squadrons of TIE starfighters and other defensive forces.
On the planet's surface, surveillance and a large military presence were commonplace.
Stormtroopers were stationed on every street corner, every landing pad was guarded by a TIE starfighter, and Imperial Security Bureau agents were present in most public places on the planet to watch for any potential traitors.
In addition, shipyards, fighter bases, and military barracks large enough to house an entire army were present throughout the Imperial-controlled sector.
All these complexes were disguised as colorful plazas and public buildings, armed with the latest defensive turbolasers and shield generators.
It was terrifying to think how much time, money, and lives had gone into protecting this planet and system in such a manner.
The Golan III stations alone would have sufficed to secure several sectors.
But it had been done splendidly.
The population of Byss, as Isard could confirm, was fanatically devoted to the Emperor even after his first death in the Battle of Endor.
From conversations with the locals, she understood that none of them had believed in Palpatine's final death.
Judging by their words, they practically deified the Emperor.
And they could not be condemned for it, for what had been erected on Byss in the controlled part of the Deep Core truly had an aura of higher providence and unspeakable splendor.
Only the local inhabitants did not know that billions of deaths had been required to achieve all this.
However, Ysanne had no doubt about one thing: if the population of the Beshqek system learned the price of this splendor, even if it were proven that Palpatine was drawing their vaunted life force from them, nothing would change.
The population of the Beshqek system would do anything at their Emperor's command.
And, judging by the rumors, they were preparing to turn any planet that did not agree to believe in Palpatine's divinity as fervently as they did into molten slag, with his name on their lips.
As she approached the massive metal doors (made of beskar with cortosis plating, by the way), the Iceheart did not pause for a moment, did not stop.
The trained and disciplined guards flung the doors open for her long before she would have needed to halt.
Once inside, she entered a vast hall so enormous that an entire fighter wing from her Lusankya could easily fit here.
Polished to a mirror shine, dark glossy floors, gray walls, massive columns.
And in the center of it all—a huge galaxy map, dotted with numerous annotations.
Borders of states, positions of armed forces—allies and enemies, hyperspace routes…
Here was everything the Empire knew about the galaxy.
Isard calmly strode forward through the glowing haze.
No one stopped or challenged her.
She herself showed not a shadow of unease.
She was no guest here.
She was a loyal servant.
Servant to the one seated on the massive throne, an exact replica of the one the Emperor had on the Death Star.
But this man was younger.
And the fire in his eyes burned even stronger.
Reaching the massive steps leading to the rectangular platform abutting a huge transparisteel wall section, the woman froze upon seeing the body lying on the steps.
She recognized him.
A young man, light hair, plain face and clothing.
Very characteristic clothing.
As well as the weapon gripped in his hand.
"Do not mind my wayward apprentice, Iceheart," Emperor Palpatine said in an almost affectionate voice. "Luke Skywalker, despite the years since our meeting, has grown stronger. But, like his father, he is just as impulsive when it comes to making fateful decisions. His attempt to kill me is neither the first nor the last. The Dark Side has once again demonstrated its power to him, and soon he will understand how deeply he errs in his Jedi beliefs."
"Yes, Emperor," Ysanne bowed her head in unmistakable deference to Palpatine's words.
"Well then," the Emperor said, savoring each word, "the time has come to decide your fate as well, Iceheart."
Ysanne felt a monstrous pressure arise as if from the air itself.
Unable to cope with this irresistible affliction, the woman dropped to her knees.
But the Force continued to press down on her.
Isard collapsed onto all fours, but the weight only intensified.
Finally, her trained body gave way, and she lay sprawled on the mirror-polished floor of the throne room.
"Your ambitions are commendable," the Emperor said. "My cloning specialist has confirmed what you told me about your origins."
The voice of the Empire's ruler sounded closer, and his quiet footsteps echoed nearer, as if he were descending the stairs.
***
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