A master's call

[Arthos Vynea]

Slavery was a misunderstood craft Arthos felt, the public largely related it to merciless beatings and fatal working conditions, of course Kessel had done quite a bit to give life to that image. The Zabrak had found that if you beat a man continually and took everything from him he had nothing to lose, he fought back of simply died. Instead he'd hired rather brutal mercenary bands to swoop in and do it for him, inept and cruel they'd pushed the people of Nadiem was a farm world ruined several times over again by galactic conflicts and it had always been somewhat of a ghost world ever since. Outside of any major power's sphere they were the perfect place to reap a harvest of life.

At few thousand had been lost in the subjugation of the population by the mercenary bands and their subsequent brutal enforcement of their slavery. When Arthos had deemed the time right he simply sent for his Master's real forces and wiped them out in a merciless onslaught of orbital bombardments and swift strikes on merc squads, and the populace had welcomed him with cries of joy. Their slavery was over by no means, but now they had something to lose. Arthos had allowed them to retain shares of their crops and labors. He stopped the beatings, and crimes against the population, even allowing them some basic governing over their day to day lives, but if they failed to met their quotas they knew how much they had to lose now.

His Master's new rules were creating some difficulty though, but he'd forged a loop around it, the horror at losing their children were more then the people could handle, instead he'd created an addendum to it, he allowed parents to keep their first two children, the others went to the state, to Aurum. Some families had even opted to go on their own, gaining secondary citizenship was better there they believed then on a planet full of ghosts.

Now Arthos found himself headed towards Aurum, the farming world left behind, now overseen by his lieutenant, an emotionless bastard, but his heavy hand was fair for a slave world. So with several thousand secondary citizens, and a few thousand children slaves ready for state schooling Arthos felt the presence of his Master for a moment on the planet below, so she was here, it had been a long time since he'd been given his assignment, yet she had called him to return, finally.

 

[Lief]

Before the capture of Nadiem Kyros had taken all the children from Togoria, alongside a few older males and females of the Cat-like species, when the Sith Emperor had ordered their extermination. Her decision had been made there and then to maximize the yield she made in any endeavour, and since killing was so final there had to be better ways to deal with the unwanted in the Galaxy. Children, she had found, made the best slaves. Or at least, they made the best potential slaves. If taken at a ripe age, Kyros' own cut off point proved to be five years old, they lacked any true memory development which might hinder their adjustment into their new life and role.

Of course, many of the Togorians had been dormant Force Sensitives, their power not yet unlocked but the potential there. Those fortunate individuals had been taken not to the slavery camps but instead to the newly constructed white-granite Academy, within which they would be raised as Sith and granted full citizenship. The rest were not as fortunate. They had no rights upon Aurum, owned by the soon-to-be-revealed State. The strongest of the young boys, and by that was included physical and mental health, were taken to one side, and raised in servitude and training to become elite soldiers, the Bladeborn. The rest were simply set aside to train as slaves.

Nadiem, she knew, worked a little differently. Everyone had been put into partial slavery, in a way which did not seem to be wholly limiting on their lives. Yet Togorians were not pure, not even Force Sensitive Togorians, and as such Kyros knew that she needed the presence of humans upon Aurum too. As such she had sent out instructions to her Apprentice, Arthos, instructing him to bring all children beneath the age of five, alongside any parents who were unwilling to send their children away, minus their first two children. This clause had not been to her liking, and would never be exercised upon Aurum, but she knew that Arthos could not afford an uprising.

The parents, and any additional family members who opted to venture to the promised land of Aurum, were set aside as members of the lower caste, second rate citizens with limited rights. Yet they were always ensured a roof over their head, food in their stomachs and even money in return for the work they did. Many of their children were not so lucky, and separated in the same way the Togorians were. The only redeeming factor was that all Force Sensitive children, whether from Togoria or Nadiem, were immediately elevated to the status of full citizen and placed upon the top rung of the castes. So too did the Bladeborn find themselves elevated, to middle class status. If the parents were not happy about their own positions, at least some of them could be safe in the knowledge that their children were in a better state.

Kyros awaited her student patiently. There were many Bladeborn awaiting the slaves who were being brought here, ready to segregate them upon arrival. Those who were Force Sensitive would be honoured, the rest set aside for further testing to determine first if they were eligible to become Bladeborn, an honour which only befell males, and finally which sector of the slave profession they would be put into. The planet was visually far more beautiful than Nadiem, and even more bountiful in what it could produce. The air was cleaner, and the standard of living would be higher, even for the lowest citizens and even the slaves. Health would always be maintained, food always provided, everywhere would remain clean and orderly and safe. And to parents, which most of these individuals would be, that was all that mattered where children were concerned.

[member="Arthos Vynea"]