Resurgence

Lot 297

Lady Erika entertains the guests at her estate on Coruscant. The small hovering platform not far from the government district has been in the family for generations. She and her wife Anita are anxious for their eldest son and daughter, away on Gannaria to help in its liberation from the tyrannical War Lord Kane. Their friends in the New Republic, being few and tenuous, haven't spoken to Erika socially since her liberation of her Grandmother's secret facility in Zygerrian space.

It didn't help that Task Force 17 essentially disbanded following the incident, still haunted by the image of a bona fide slaughterhouse for aliens to sate the perverse and monstrous tastes of a woman kept alive by her immeasurable bitterness. It didn't help that Erika had known the exact location for years and only recently remembered to see it brought to an end. But she had liberated eventually, and in doing so, delivered nearly 23,000 people from bondage and a cruel fate. You can imagine how awkward it is for her friends in the Republic.

The guests they entertain today are friends from their academy days, many of whom had once thought just as they had. Some of them probably still did. Erika is pleased with their company, but it doesn't help her depression for long. Since the incident, she and Anita haven't even visited the luxury super yacht Opulence that Erika had constructed as a gift to her beloved.

Anita comforts her in the sitting room when Reilly comes in from the hallway, having just taken a call from her husband. She says, "Miss, there's a problem. An anonymous transmission just went on the holonet calling you out. For the moment, your companies are ignoring it or dismissing it as a distasteful hoax but... well, you'd better see it for yourself."

Erika and her former Hammer Captains walk to the study to watch the holovid in privacy.

The hologram of Zygerrian Crown Princess Cezat appears. As she begins to speak, she gives off an air of toxic elitism that disgusts Erika so much she immediately pauses to say, "Royals like these disgust me... the descendants of war criminals and barbarians think they deserve better than everyone else by birthright. It's like my Grandmother only even more narrow and conceited. I should have been beheading people like her, not Rebels."

She resumes the recording, "People of the Zygerrian Slave Empire, it it with reverence and humility that I take on the responsibilities of the crown as my father battles illness. I will continue his glorious mission to restore the once Great Zygerrian Slave Empire. With the needed obedience systems now entering wider distribution, the great truth of slavery shall once again sweep the galaxy. 

"And to mark the crowning jewel in our supreme mission to prove that all can be controlled... and that weakness, whether it be weakness of mind, body, or resolve, is to be bound in chains and directed by a strong Master... I promise to you my subjects that we will subjugate the Galaxy's Strongest being, the dog who calls herself Lady of the Hammer of Light, Erika Ritter.

"I make this claim not out of hubris or arrogance but out of acumen and discretion, and because we once nearly had her. For it was 18 standard years ago that 5 unnamed Imperial slave girls found their way through one of our auctions, implanted with Ritter Obedience systems from the more upstanding half of the family, and were made to serve strong and wise masters.

"The unnamed slave called Lot 297, a female human, age 21, hair shoulder length blonde, skin fair white, eyes deep blue, force sensitive, attracted exclusively to the female sex, and highly alluring herself, I have just been informed, was Erika Ritter herself. Once a slave, always a slave, that is the way of things. I swear to you, my people, that she will adorn my throne room on my left hand with a collar and leash that match my darling Nexu Lorash. And more, she will serve as the turning point in history that brings the Zygerrian Slave Empire back into Glory!"