Planet Mandalore, Pef Empire (almost)

21 BBY, next week.

"Dear Satine, you know why the CIS and the old Death Watch and a dozen bounty hunters tried to kill you, so many times?" I asked politely, as prime minister Almec was squirming on the floor, under my armored boot, while a dark acolyte was gasping for air, without hands or legs. You can't hurt my family, damn idiot. Even this, more distant one.

"Because I want peace?" she replied coldly. Huh, so different from my Bo.

"No, dear sister-in-law. A million species want peace. Some even try it your way. The Sharu species, in the Centrality, were so scared of a conflict with the Celestials, that they devolved themselves to primitivism, and hid everything of value under the plastic pyramids of Rafa.

The Kwa, devolved themselves to the Kwi, on Dathomir, and dig in the ground for roots, their grand teleportation gates buried and forgotten. The Gree, fled into a pocket dimension, to the north of the galaxy, and still tremble in there. The Columi abandoned spaceflight and confined themselves to simulations. And you Satine, you abandoned love and life and joy, to lead this pacifism movement..." I explained gently, producing a holo of Obi-wan Kenobi.

"T-that's, none of your business. If he really loved me, he would have asked..." She muttered, looking away from hologram, and meeting her sister's eyes.

"If you expect General Kenobi to follow custom and beat you up, dear sister...that won't happen, I assure you. However..." Bo Grayshade said, with a really sly smile. Yes...almost there, dear wife.

"Bo, you know something? Cause Jedi don't do marriage, and I can't ask..." Satine asked, with a slight blush in her cheeks.

"Here, read this plea, and he'll come running. You'll see." Bo replied with a smile and then a hug.

"General Kenobi, I need your help. You're my only hope?" Satine read from the datapad, and got recorded by the holo emitter, while saying it.

Good enough.

"Excellent, most beautiful Satine. Now, I can begin terraforming Mandalore back to a green world, and call back all the mercenaries and bounty-hunters ruining our name in the galaxy. The Death Watch will be disbanded, and former members re-organized into the Manda Navy and the Manda Marines.

The people of Mandalore want to live free, not under the boots of foreign powers. The civilian administration will remain your domain, if Kenobi marries you. If not, you'll be exiled to Corellia or Coruscant. So, you have three days till your fiance gets here. Better think hard what you want him to do for you." my Avatar said softly, and left the throne room, while the VSS droids dragged the traitor and the assassin towards the dungeons, or prison.

The rest of the guard droids were of course, relaying the conversation taking place at my back.

"I still can't believe there are hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million Mandalorian warriors. Our cube cities are full of them, everywhere! " Satine complained to her sister, and gulped another glass of brandy.

"Well, to be Mandalorian is not a species Satine. Is a way of life. It's a movement, to wear armor and defend those who can't defend themselves. I don't even know a tenth of these new Mandalorians, that came out when my husband called. And imagine, in the whole galaxy, on millions of planets...there may be millions more mandalorians. And now that Peffy is Mand'alore and carries the Darksaber, they will all come home. " Bo told her, pouring more drink to ply her sister's mood.

"Wait, his name is Peffy, not Avatar?" Satine wondered.

"W-weeelll, only his family can call him that. But you're his sister, so...it should be fine..." Bo replied, pretending to think about it.

"Sister-in-law. So, is he any good...you know...at night?" the curious Satine asked with a bit of embarrassment.

"Hey! You never told me you had a Jedi for a boyfriend. So, no gossip, untill you spill everything!" Bo exclaimed in fake anger.

Well, Bo had everything going well.

Man, this Royal prison looked really nice. Let's drain this loser acolyte, and see what the new Sith were all about. Why a loser? Well, he lost his limbs, didn't he?

And now, his soul as well.

----------

Planet Lianna, Pef Empire

Wialu is still negotiating a fair deal with Valles Santhe , giving her ten times more than she asks.

Defense fleet? Sure, there's 4000 mostly intact ships in the system, just waiting to be repaired and upgraded. You can have 1000 warships not just a meager 100 frigates. Pef is generous.

Planetary shield? Take five. You will probably need them again.

Ground armies? Sure, keep them all. You don't want the ugly Brubbs? No problem. They can die elsewhere.

Shipyards and factories? Pef's already on it.

New cities? Almost done.

Voting rights? Don't push it. Autonomy is just fine, considering you bring nothing to the table.

Yea, Wialu had everything going fine as well.

--------

Meteor One and 11 more battleships jumped to Garos, to clear out the CIS and obtain some strategic Hibridium as well as to find the site of the failed Ssi-ruuvi Hyperdrive system.

Then more and more fleets jumped to secure key systems, at Balamak for example, again to chase away the CIS and secure a route to the wookies.

The Wheel, just past Centares, had to be secured as well, since it was a major source of revenue and intelligence.

And also more ships to Corlass and Panna, to bring law and order to those worlds, and kill whatever pirates.

The whole Tion Cluster was now ripe open for conquest, about 500 worlds, including Murkhana and all the goodies of a galactic scale corporation.

Possibly worth a few hundreds trillions, if it was captured intact enough. Not bad.

Solana went with 12 Meteors, to make sure it will be intact, as much as possible.

In the end, the Battle of Lianna had proven to be quite fortunate, giving me a hundred droid tri-fighters. And enough ships and scraps to construct another major orbital shipyard.

I got to re-assemble 3000 Muni destroyers and 300 more Recu carriers. Plus the Lucrehulks I captured intact, and those less intact, that could be used for transport or building material. Our loses have been mostly repaired.

The CIS has been very generous with it's war materiel and technology donations.

The population of Lianna had enough of the CIS and the Republic as well, as both tried to incinerate them in the same month and, with carefully orchestrated propaganda, joined the Pef Empire with cheers and ovations.

Having a navy and an army of their own will help too, as there were plenty of volunteers eager for payback.

Thousands of CIS sympathizers were found murdered in the streets, with Imperial Servants and the Empire Police and the new LiannaSec being unable to contain the wave of enthusiastic patriotism. In their case, it wasn't even fake. They really wanted revenge for the orbital bombardment.

And finally, my favorite Dornean Admiral, Etahn got sent towards the Core, with 3 numbered Meteors and 27 normal ones, to guard Duro and Corellia from a similar fate, as it happened in the original Battle of Duro (Clone Wars) when 18 billion people got burned from orbit.

I had a feeling that the CIS will try it this time too as during the battle, General Grievous ordered an orbital bombardment of the surface. This resulted in the pollutants from the numerous factories which covered Duro's surface to be released radioactively, and the surface being rendered the uninhabitable wasteland that it would remain until being Vongformed years later.

Damn, these people had no respect for life at all.

To simply kill 18 billion people, just to attain a victory faster?

We'll have to build a lot more planetary shields for our allies, and some ground to orbit lasers.

Now, where is my friend, and soon to be brother-in-law Kenobi?

"The setback at Felucia has affected our efforts in the whole sector. It'll take weeks before we can…"

―Obi-Wan Kenobi

Well, he's not at Felucia, this time...but Anakin is.

And they have are trying to retake the planet in the Second Battle of Felucia .

With a Jedi Council Member called Plo Koon ?

Well. You were gonna die anyway, since you're not cute.

Being in a starfighter is very dangerous, mister hot shot pilot. A bit of Balance...a hundred Vultures should be enough. Well, not for you it seems. Jedi do make exceptional pilots.

But, escaping the first time, and trying again on foot?

Let's see my dear TZ-33 tactical droid. Keep a reserve, and use the B1 to shoot at his legs.

He jumped up, gracefully. But can you dodge in midair? Now, have two droid spiders, fire at once, from different sides.

And tragedy strikes...another Jedi Master dies in foolish melee against ranged weapons.

Shoot at Anakin a little, cause he feels left out. Eh. Not sure if deflection works that way. The Force really is with that one.

I wonder if they'll burn Plo Koon on a pyre? Most likely.

Damn these smart droids, two of them shooting at the same second, when a dear insect Jedi had only one lightsaber.

And no armor, or shield...such pity.

And for nothing too, as the Commerce Guild will retake Felucia in a few weeks. If only the Republic had an army to occupy the planets it conquers.

--------

And look! A Jedi cruiser is approaching Sundari , the Mandalore capital city!

The frustrated and charming Jedi rushes to help the love of his life, possibly the 46th time, in this life. But probably more.

See, Satine, he does love you!

But now, you have to keep him. And don't worry, while he won't use a lightsaber anymore, I got him a really nice armor and a Songsteel sword . Now, Kenobi can be truly be your knight in shining armor.

Don't cry Satine! It's for love!

And babies. I really want to see Kenobi's babies.

Planet Orion, Pef Empire

21 BBY, next week.

I arrived at the pearl of the Empire with all my Mountains and Lucrehulks loaded with droids, and broken parts of ships and starfighters and began constructing 500 shipyards at once, while the Core is slowly learning to do the same, only using tractor and repulsor beams from his new home, another double circle made of mated Lucrehulks donuts, one vertical and one horizontal.

What? I really like that shape, for an administrative capital.

Only Dakka class shipyards, since I'll need a lot more of them. And let's change the design a little, adding a pair of wings, and double the missile capacity, along with a pair of proton torpedo launchers.

They look a little like the MC12 corvettes of the Calamari. Oh well. Form follows function, after all.

And down on the planet, 100 factories for the new starfighter, the Biplane.

Like a tridroid, but only two wings, to let the turrets above and below the hull to fire in a 360 degree angle.

One a gatling laser and one a medium maser. And with a missile launcher and a proton torpedo launcher as well.

5 homing missiles in an autoloader, and only one torpedo. Not like they'll really survive that long.

Now, let's armor it up a little, and add shields and an extra energy cell.

Total production cost, 29000 credits. In ideal conditions, like perfect supply and all. Proably twice that in war.

So, about 50% more expensive than the Scarabs, but three times as fast and agile.

And a much better droid brain. Let's add some solar panels on the wings...cause free energy is free.

Now, I'll send the designs to be checked over. By my RD and engineer geniuses at Land Warrior. And let's give a prototype to the Core, who still hasn't finished his first shipyard. For an AI he's a bit slow. Perhaps I should upgrade his computer cores, since they are 25 thousands years old.

'Esteemed overlord AI, please check this starfighter and see if it works' I sent with a happy face emote.

Damn this galaxy, their droid binary language had just long tones for sadness or short tones for happiness.

A few hundreds emotes will change this galaxy forever!

'Hmmmm. This Biplane maneuvers very well. But the energy cell will explode when the guns overheat. And if you fire the torpedo and a missile at the same time, they'll connect and explode. And....' the Core started educating me about the perils of reassembling a new ship from different other components.

Hey! I figured out why my dropships keep crashing. I think...

'Core, my friend. So...take a look at all the inventory, okay. From droids and gunships and fighters. Here, take one of each. And send me a complete list of bugs and errors. Those damned designers have no idea what they're doing!' I exclaimed, with 3 emotes of anger and sadness.

'But Emperor, you just built this thing, right now!' the Core exclaimed in confusion.

'I know! I just said that. I'm not perfect you know...no need to step on my neck and be so proud about it...' I answered with more sad and depressed emotes.

'Stupid droid. I mean...incompetent ship builder. You're just fine, in other areas...' the Core AI said, after rethinking his first words.

'It's okay, all my friends and relatives express the same concepts often. I don't mind, as long as we fix the problems, and don't get murdered by the next invasion, or the next, or the next...' I muttered, with emotes of B1 waving white flags.

'H-how many such invasions you foresee, Immortal Emperor?' my new friend wondered, same as me.

'At least ten extragalactic ones, and thousands of local things...in the next century.' I explained camly.

'We're fucked...' the AI concluded, as his project exploded for some reason. Tractor beams would explode my starfighters. Noted. Probably need to envelop the energy cell in bioarmor.

'Have faith, my faithful friend. We have a few other friends that will help. We're not the only immortals in the galaxy, after all. We're quite some of the weakest, I may say...' I explained politely.

'So, we're not rolling over everything huh? By the way, I need a brand new database with all the new science. I'm kinda lost here...' the AI muttered as another fighter prototype exploded. Damn newb.

------------

Planet Mandalore, Pef Empire (almost)

21 BBY

"Mister Greyshade, this is outrageous and a violation of Republic laws and..." Obi-Wan argued, as the Imperial Servants dragged the former prime minister out, for trial (and execution).

"Irrelevant. We are at war. And this guy conspired with Dooku to kill Administrator Satine. And he's already confessed of that, and other plots, like dosing tea for children with toxic chemicals at the behest of Commerce Guild. Now watch!" my Avatar said softly, as 4 Mandalorians climbed their speeder bikes, then looked up towards the podium.

I nodded firmly and the speeders accelerated at opposite vectors, ripping the traitor to bits.

"Barbaric. The Republic..." he whispered in dismay.

"We are in Mandalorian space, Kenobi. Now, a polity under MPT with Pef Empire. Let me ask you this, dear knight. When Satine was about to be killed by a dark jedi, where were you? Why were you not by her side?" I asked with a stern voice.

He looked towards Satine, who was silent, but a little green in the face.

"I have duties...you know well enough. The war..." he muttered, looking down.

"Bantha crap! The Corellian Jedi are all married. Skywalker is married, to that Senator. Why aren't you? Why does Satine has to live in fear and alone? Why don't you tell her, if you don't love her? Why keep her waiting for a decade, alone, to never have children, hoping one day you come back, and stay ?" I asked, a little louder.

Satine was all red in her cheeks, embarrassed and pleading with her eyes at me, to stop.

"W-what ? She waited..." Kenobi said with an amazed look on his face, staring at Satine.

"You can check you know. Use the force. I might be lying..." I said with a sigh, then held my hand for Bo and left.

Bo hugged me with one arm, and sighed as well.

"If he leaves her again, he's a dead man, Jedi or not" my wife grumbled, loud enough to be heard by a powerful Jedi.

"He is a bit of an idiot. Too bad Satine will also die...alone and scared..." I answered a bit lower, just at the limit of Force Listen. Kenobi's aura fluttered a little. So he did hear.

"We can't guard her forever. 13 assassins..." Bo whispered, wiping a fake tear.

Ah, they hugged. Maybe they won't die now...

---------

Orion system

'Great. You saved another Jedi. Now send me some more ships!' Ventress said in the bond, no doubt listening to what the crystal self was narrating to his AI, and Eighth Hand.

'Sure thing, love. 200 Muni destroyers and 20 Recu, leaving for Dathomir in an hour. How goes the thing?' I asked, as the first shipyard above Orion IV began preparing to construct the first Orion-class corvette.

The weapons were similar to the Dakka, one heavy maser, 4 medium ion cannons in a forward battery, a tractor beam and 20 missile launchers, beside the two proton torpedo tubes and 10 gatling lasers.

It was almost a frigate now, if twice as small and 5 times cheaper.

Now I only had to build a few millions of those. Even at two thousand ships per month, with all the new shipyards, it will still take a long time. Too long.

I had to mobilize the Centrality and the Calamari to help out as well.

Good thing I had an Avatar to send on errands.

'The thing is going...we'll have the first Kwa gate excavated and lifted up in a week. If the damn rancors don't attack again.' Ventress said with a suffering groan.

Well, those were just big carnivorous things.

I had to win an election.

Planet Coruscant, Galactic Republic

Jedi Temple

21 BBY

Grand Master Yoda looked over the much depleted High Council, and felt regret again.

These Clone Wars were killing the best Masters of the Order, and causing more Jedi to deny the Order and refuse to listen to the Council, even giving back their sacred lightsabers.

The whole Almas Academy had deserted en masse, and left seeking refuge somewhere in the Outer Rim.

Master Darrus Jeht had returned with their lightsabers, and word of wise Master Zao, who still roamed the galaxy blind and without a lightsaber for centuries.

They found refuge on the moon Ruul, in the new Pef Empire. And didn't even send goodbye.

The Green Jedi of Corellia had found a Grandmaster of their own, the venerable Neti Jedi who had guarded Ossus 4000 years ago and had remained in stasis till now.

The Altisian Iron Knights had fortified their citadel on Dweem, with help from Pef Empire again.

And now, Obi-Wan Kenobi, the one he had hoped to become Grandmaster after he died...had deffected on Mandalore, and married their Dutchess.

Master Jeht stood before the Council, the very lightsaber held by telekinesis, in the air.

"Obi-wan Kenobi, thus excommunicated is. No longer a Jedi, he is. But fallen he is not. One day, he may yet return. Hold his saber, I will." Yoda declared looking at the hologram that the Jedi Master produced.

Kenobi in a suit of armor, and a metal sword as his hip. And a wife on his arm. And...without a beard.

The dark shroud clouded all vision, leaving the Order blind. New High Generals to be selected, for the Republic.

But not the angry one. Skywalker...the wars hit him the hardest. And hanging around that Naboo Senator.

Soon, the boy will be lost, one way or the other.

"Master Yoda, should we try to ask that droid empire for ships, again?" the newest member of the Council asked. Voolvif Monn , who had been at Geonosis.

"And denied again be? It's clear now an AI they have. Too fast and too soon, their ships are built. This new empire, a friend of the Jedi is not..." The tired Yoda decided, with a long sigh.

"But Master Yoda, they do not act against us. They even shelter some...former Jedi" Master Fisto added, and answering his own question.

"Indeed they do. And other sects like Jal Shey and Jensaarai. Not dark, nor in the light they are. Grey they are. And a great danger, to all of us they may be. The future clouded is." The leader of the ortodox Jedi proclaimed, making a note to send a hundred more Republic agents to infiltrate the Pef Empire, and maybe gain answers.

Maybe an emissary, to the embassy on Corellia. And find out why that Pef Navy fleet held positions at Duro. Expecting an attack perhaps? Was the Abomination able to predict the future with machine logic?

---------

Planet Coruscant, The Works

Same day

"Master, it was as you predicted. The fleet was all destroyed, but my cyborg General managed to destroy most of their fleet as well. Only about 500 ships of this Pef Empire survived, out of 2000. And my general has recovered well enough, for the next operation, towards the Core." Lord Tyranus explained, a bit uncomfortable. As he should be, this failure set back the plan by a month or two.

"No matter. Ships can be rebuilt. At least Master Koon died at Felucia. And with Master Mundi and Master Tiin and Windu and Rancisis all dead...victory is almost in reach. And what's more amusing, the failure of your incompetent acolyte at Mandalore made Master Kenobi marry our dear Duchess Satine, and hand in his lightsaber. Do try to see, if he might want a red one instead." Darth Sidious declared with an evil laugh.

"As you wish, my Master. That Avatar boy has left Mandalore though, towards the Centrality, I heard." Dooku excused himself pathetically.

Oh, now the plan was revealed. Absorbing another tiny polity no doubt, and have it produce more insignificant droids armies and corvettes.

Only those large ships mattered, but they weren't invincible after all. 60 of them were melted beyond repair, and the rest would no doubt be easy to destroy, once he was Emperor and could build his own dreadnaughts, or maybe that battlemoon that Siennar invented.

Or maybe a huge Zilo beast, 30 kilometers tall, and equipped with hyperdrives? The Old Sith did have amazing lore on how to meld beasts and technology with the Dark Side.

Too bad the shadowblade ship was lost so soon though, blowing up stars like his famous Sith predecessors would have been amusing. If the weapon even worked. Relying on old holocrons wasn't always efficient.

No matter. Once the Jedi were gone, the galaxy will be his. Galactic Emperor Palpatine! Forever and ever!