Planet Orion, Pef Empire

Orion's belt

21 BBY

Another project held my attention for a day or two, as I had dismantled a Diamond-class cruiser and a Carrack-class light cruiser and now tried to figure a way to mate them into a workable ship.

Gahhhh. Nothing fit, every bolt and part constructed with different standards.

At least the insect-made starships were all perfectly crafted.

Guess, I'll just design my own stealth-frigate, and just copy the ideas, not the measurements.

Let's start with the main objective. Fire and fade away. A bomber shape then, like the Diamond or the B2 of my old life.

Keep the frontal profile small, and then engines hidden in the hull.

The fast hyperdrives of the Diamond, with the shields of a MC40 cruiser. A small hanger for covert insertion for the black ops.

Room for 20 Biplanes and a shuttle, or 5 Reapers and shuttle.

Medical bay with kolto and bacta tubs, galley, barracks, bathrooms.

The small bridge from the Carrack, so it could be used with minimal crew. Two integrated droid brains, one for navigation and one for weapons.

Now, the obvious part, the stygian crystal cloak. Let's give it 30 crystals, cause I had enough coming from Maramere now.

And then, weapons. 20 missile launchers for defense. And 10 heavy masers for attack. Kinda...weak?

'Give it 20 proton torpedoes too, on the forward blade. And an ion cannon battery. And 10 gatling lasers. And enough storage for food and parts. At least 100 cubic meters' my new AI friend advised me, going over my schematics with interest.

'You expect it will be detected, anyway' I muttered with a sigh.

'Not from the beginning. But if you build thousands, they will invent and upgrade themselves with gravitic or magnetic sensors. It's only logical.' the AI advised me in a friendly tone, changing a few things around to make more room.

'Hmmm. This ship will need a visual observation blister, beside passive and active sensors. Outside the armor. Some Force abilities require organics to see. For psychological reasons.' I hummed deep in thought.

'That is...troubling. Most ships do indeed have large windows, and thus prevent sensory obfuscation through jamming. A weakness, but for a logic reason. For now, let's place a transparisteel cradle under the hangar sally. No need to create structural weaknesses elsewhere.' the Core replies after poking at the virtual ship with virtual turbolasers.

"I see, like a pilot cockpit. Eh, good enough. My Avatar should be able to phase through the ship's armor anyway. But other lesser organics can't do that trick. We'll have recess the armor a little, to keep the cockpit inside the particle shield." I said gently, doing exactly that.

"Yes, and raise the top of the armor in accordance, and use the height gain for more sensors. Not bad, for a novice, esteemed droid." the Core congratulated me, with a tiny bit of sarcasm, and a tongue emote.

'Well, if you can do better, most venerable flower tender? Please enlighten this most unworthy Emperor' I sent with, all the grace I could fake.

'Perhaps, this millenia old AI was a bit hasty. Criticism is truly easier, than creating something new. I shall try to adapt this cloaking device to the new Orion corvettes as well. Perhaps our Empire will lose less of them, if they become invisible when in danger.' he said with another wrong emote.

Small steps Pef. At least he isn't omnicidal anymore.

'Good idea, my friend. We'll test the devices on the Liberty star cruisers and the Recu Carriers as well. And then..." I said politely, thinking of the next logical step.

'The Meteors. Most likely the stealth won't be able to cover the massive discharges of energy of those magnetically accelerated projectiles, but we could devise an ultraviolet laser. Few organics can perceive that far visually. And perhaps..."

"X-ray lasers. The Hutts used something like that in the Crusades. I'll have to ask around, if any are still around to be bought or stolen." I concluded, happy to finally have someone to chat so politely about medium levels of destruction.

If only...

'If only, your completely genocidal new Hand wouldn't turn these weapons on your empire, once he has them...' Wialu grumbled in the Voice bond.

'Eh. Still playing on easy mode, my love. The things possible, by melding Force and technology...let's hope I never have to use them.' I answered gently, but my memories were not wrong. Rakata Prime and Yavin and Ruusan. And even worse weapons.

'The wills are five Pef. Only one of them...' Solana added, then stopped, probably cause Solanus asked.

Great. More secrets.

-------

Planet Erlinar, Centrality

Peffy arrived at Erilnar on Celestial River, the MC80 Calamari cruiser, and escorted by a thousand brand new, or rather say newly reassembled Muni destroyers and 100 Lucrehulks filled with trade goods from the whole empire.

More than enough to fight the whole Centrality Navy at once.

Not that it would come to a fight...but better prepared, and not need, than need and not have.

A familiar Centralian cruiser escorted me from Oseon, as a sign of goodwill.

On the way, I claimed the Dagelin Minor planet and its system, because why not.

It was free. I mean, it is a crappy planet hot and full of jungles, but anyway. Free!

The bewildered locals got to experience a great party and food delicacies from a hundred planets, then were told of a new trade route and factories and jobs...

Yea. Took me 20 minutes and maybe a billion credits. Because a planetary shield costs a billion, not the food.

The Centrality will be trickier. Not that most Scriveners didn't just assume leadership on their own, but I expected a few traps from my religious fanatics. Well, not mine.

There were a few Imperial Servants who got carried away and built holo-shrines to the Immortal Pef.

Official policy on religion was 'do whatever, don't hurt and kill people'. Or else.

Only officials had the right and duty to kill people. Well, bad people. Most of the time.

But here, they had laws going back 10 thousand years. Traditions would be hard to overcome.

Oh well, I didn't expect ovations. Yet.

I marched into the Central Administration building, escorted by a thousand commando droids and my VSS guards.

And then politely declared: 'I desire to lead the Centrality. Who is opposed?'

An awkward silence followed.

Planet Erlinar, Centrality

25 seconds later

Maybe my helmet is defective and didn't transmit my voice?

I took it off, and smiled gently at the important people of the Administration.

"So, where do I sign to become the next Scrivinir ?" I spoke a bit louder.

The only non-human present was mildly interested, and turned his beak to stare at me. Her beak, in fact. Pleading for some trade concession, and not part of the government. Yet.

"You'd be the wonder boy, the Avatar of Pef, ef? Well, you look human enough.." the Quor'sav said with a slight tinge of sadness and oppression.

"We heard of a conquering fleet above our heads. You're welcome to lead this mess, mister Grayshade" the current Scrivinir, one called Banol vin Ornkenn said with a tad of envy and resentment.

"You misunderstand me. Of course I am welcome. I want to know where do I sign, and who wants to be part of my cabinet." I explained politely, looking around the very, very old building of the Central Administration.

It was like leading a modern corporation out of an egyptian pyramid. Sigh.

Barely any new tech around, just a holomap and a dozen librarian droids. Which were possibly the actual administration.

Pretty sad place.

A droid raised a hand, a bit timorated. Excellent.

"Yes, esteemed cabinet member?" I asked softly.

"Errrr. Just a data archivist, not a cabinet member..." the droid answered confused, as a dozen eyes bored into him with hatred.

"You raised your hand, that's good enough for me. Now, you have the signing form? Please come forwards so I can sign." I demanded a bit sternly, and the whole group of Administrators, and a few Centralian Navy officers raised their hands at once.

Initiative, and enthusiasm! Perfect. Hey, even a winged hand was raised! I love it when people volunteer.

First thing, let's sign the thing: Avatar Greyshade, new Scrivinir or Central Administrator. Now, my words were actual law, here in the Centrality as well.

"Miss Kal'Falnl C'ndros right? You know trade and stuff right? That's your cabinet position.

Now, the military people are easy...navy, army, intelligence. The droid is surely better at being the registrar of my cabinet that anyone present. What do you other people know best?" I asked curious, comparing faces with the files I had on them.

"Myself...I am from an old family, and quite rich and I know everyone..." vin Ornkenn said with a slimy voice. Perfect.

"Foreign office then, Negotiator vin Ornkenn. Just stay away from the Hutts, and the CIS and Coruscant. I want to keep the Centrality out of wars, and make it a rich and prosperous place.

Admiral Collin, you can take charge of those destroyers I gifted the Centrality. I expect 500 of them to guard Oseon and the gateway into our territory. Patrols up to Junkfort, but not further." I said softly, as my helmet glided back onto my head.

The man nodded politely and went to sign the datapad without a single hesitation. He must have been expecting this promotion for 3 years.

"I can do housing and relocation, Scrivinir. Maybe parks and recreation too. I have a dozen real-estate companies..." another man demanded, pushing the others aside rudely and smiling sweetly at me. Oh, a trump card!

'Very well, mister Thrump. There's a transport Lucrehulk with construction droids and architect droids up there, and a few more with cranes and tractor beams and repulsorlift bulldozers. You can keep the cabinet position after you show me a new city on Dagelin Minor, by the next month.

Mister Rott, you want industry right? Same thing, build me 100 new factories on Dagelin. Timber, furniture and medical labs." I added with a friendly pat on their shoulders. The man folded under my power armored hand. Ah, they seem a bit weak, physically.

"We're going, mister Grayshade. Just...let us delegate some duties to our assistants. We never actually left the Administration building, on the job. It was simpler to make them come to us..." The new minister of Industry complained, possibly because just my glove weighed some 50 kilograms.

I waited till the scum have left, sent to solve various things around the Centrality.

Then looked at the droid collective and the military people. These were the people I actually needed.

"Any ideas how to stop a bioship 100 kilometers long and wide?" I asked, producing the last holo that Ray managed to send from Helska system .

The Vong worldship rotated slowly, with its huge teeth sharp and scary-looking frame, like a disc-saw.

"Organic hyperdrives, weapons...and millions of starfighters?" my admiral muttered, staring a bit impressed at my holo and the description below.

"And trillions of soldiers, yes. And it's not the only worldship the Vong travelled with, from their home galaxy. At least nine worldships, and thousands of battleships similar to my Meteors. They're mapping our galaxy now..." I explained gently, and giving a datacube with most info we had on the Vong, to each of them.

"I see. You're training the navy crews on those CIS morons. Testing what strategies work on millions of starfighters at once, like at Lianna. Glad to know someone is doing something about this, sir." Miss Clara Holsten mused, her hand clenched white on the datacube. Perhaps a bit terrified.

"Eh, we have time, at least 20 years. But, we have a better chance if we prepare in advance. There's a transport with some stealth ships for you, Miss Holsten. Do see if our base at Hosrel XI can incorporate shield camouflage as well. " I said softly, as her eyes became wide and a little surprised.

"And for me, Avatar? What gifts did you bring for the army?" the last man, a grizzled bearded man, with scars on his hands, asked politely.

"Lots and lots, my friend. Tanks and gunships, power armor and droids...and memory flash units for a billion troops. We just need to wait a month, till the survey droids find Renatasia . That lost colony would have 10 billion people to recruit from." I said softly, the holoprojector in my palm forming a map with the likely position of that planet.

"Indeed, a great gift. The Jedi High Generals only have half a million clone soldiers to command. A billion soldiers..." he muttered, with dreams of greatness in his aura.

Yeah. Maybe not so easy...

Planet Gand, Pef Empire

Redbox

It was time to clean up the mess in my backyard, now that we had a month or even two months of relative quiet in the NE quadrant.

"Where do you get the tea?"

"From Mooga. The Commerce Guild controls it."

―Duchess Satine Kryze Kenobi

The Commerce Guild should soon be overrun at Mooga, their capital planet in the Perkell sector and also at Felucia and a hundred other planets.

And my sister-in-law through my Avatar was named Kenobi now...pretty sweet.

Bo was asking her everyday if the babies are coming already. Made Kenobi stutter a lot.

Planet Gromas was taken for the phrik mines, and planet Bal'demnic for its cortosis veins. The Confederation already had a few initial mines on the planet, which we captured almost intact. I did wonder where all that cortosis for B3 droids and Nikto clone spears came from.

Then we began fortifying the planet with planetary shields, and planet-to-orbit lasers and defense platforms.

And droid armies on the ground and sea, and 30 Meteors in orbit.

By the next week, we had repulsed and captured 3 smallish CIS fleets, their ships being dragged to our shipyards or converted into more orbital defense platforms and shipyards. We did have almost a hundred million droids in the system, they could be put to work.

And next week, one confused Jedi called Skywalker arrived with his own fleet of Venators and Acclamators.

But my admiral had clear orders and just turned him away with a warning shot. 'This is Pef space, restricted installation for the Empire only. Turn back now, or be destroyed. ' and ordered his Meteors to open the maws wide.

I guess the Force didn't like the chances of its chosen. The boy turned around his ships and took them to fight the easier CIS fleets.

That reminds me. There are more places we can mine cortosis.

"Third Hand I have operation 4339 in mind. Planet Apatros , planet Engebo V , planet Gertafuu VI , planet Lamaredd . To be surveyed and mined by our companies. Additionally, any and all assets of the Outer Rim Oreworks Company to be aquiered, with money or otherwise. Our Financial Division can contribute as well." I explained politely, finding the said planets on the holomap and marking them orange.

"It can be done, Emperor. As long as we do not need substantial defenses for our mines. We are spread thin..." he complained, sipping his own drink with tired hands.

"My friend, arrange for biochips for yourself and your staff. Data can be moved and changed much easily then. And hire more adjutants. Just 365 is too few. Hire 5 thousands for now, for every planet. We do have billions of Imperial Servants..." I said gently, while pushing cure poison and heal and reinforcement over him.

"Servants...maybe a few to test how they do. I have more trust in your droids, metal Gand." he mused, looking somewhere far away.

"Droids too, protocol and tactical ones, even assassin models. Just use a secondary loyalty chip, and checksum self destructs" I added generously.

"Very well, immortal droid. How long till you can gift the Black Ops those Fade frigates you're constructing in such secret?" he asked, smirking inside. Gah, he already knows? Don't answer!

"A few prototypes will be ready next week. Still not sure how well they'll perform in battle, but for reconnaissance and infiltration they should be fine." I admited with some fake shame.

"That's more than enough for our needs, wise emperor. But your Hand hopes they won't be given to auxiliary services in Mandalore or the Commonality. Too exposed, and risking defection..." he requested with some worry.

Of course not! Gand and Toong and a few others species were trustworthy due to terraforming and privileges, and the Centrality Navy will become one as well, in a decade or two, but the rest...perhaps a few Reapers to impress.

"Okay. This generation of Fades will replace the Greymists and be used for black ops. The next generation should have a gravity interdictor and a gravity detector as well. So, how many incursions since Lianna?" I asked curious.

"We captured 98 from Republic intelligence, 11 from the Hutts and 773 from CIS. And one from Hapes Consortium.' he replied consulting his pad.

Hmmm. 98? Who sends 98 agents?

"And the other 2?" I wondered, a bit amused.

"Marked with force trackers and followed to their contacts. One went to Ruul. The other..." my Third hand, hesitated for a second. Oh. Problems then.

"Yes?"

"The last one went to Sran. And met with Fifth Hand Fay. We were too far away to listen, maintaining the 77 meters force limit of our stygium crystal stealth" he explained, with a shrug. Getting close enough to spy on Fay was indeed difficult.

"Okay then. An accident as he passes back through Boonta. The body to be discovered near the race tracks, with a drill hole in his head" I demanded with a sigh.

"Very mysterious, holomovie style. May I suggest, a broken tail fragment of a geonosian mind worm, to be left inside the brain?" my devious spy master asked, sipping his drink in triumph.

It did sound even better.

Make the Republic wonder how deep they were infiltrated. Scan everyone, and probe their every cavity.

"Do it!" I proclaimed heroically, my gloves in the air, and covered in lightning.

Zuckuss opened a tired eye, and shaded himself with a hand. "Keep it quiet idiots! This dream was so good, with my females massaging my..."

"Fleet estimates, First Hand. We'll compare harem stories later." I demanded sternly.

"Yessss, loudmouth. With the final Meteors coming out of trials next week, we will be at 450 battleships in operation. 30 of them defending Duro, 30 of them defending Bal'demnic and 20 Meteors at Dathomir. 300 ready for an assault, if you think it appropriate, and 30 more left in defense.

Also 300 Liberty cruisers, 3000 Muni destroyers and 500 Lucrehulks and Recu carriers, with half of the fighters complement, for now. If the next cycle of corvettes is ready on time, we will have 4000 corvettes and 300 frigates as well. Ground armies...whatever billion they're at, 4 billion droids? " Zuckuss muttered with a tired voice and just reading from his datapad, slowly.

Hmmm. Poor organics.

"Good enough, my friend. Take a week of mandatory vacation. And hire a thousand helpers too. Ask the former villages to send you their brightest." I said gently, then had 2 commando droids carry Zuckuss to his apartment.

"I'll go arrange that operation and hire help, most gracious emperor. Then a short 3 days vacation, because I deserve it. For the empire!" my Hand declared with a weak punch at the sky.

I stared at my empty room, and felt all alone, just some lizards poking curious heads from their trees.

'Solanus says you may visit him at Sol V. Take a day at the beach. And learn about the Kwa and the Reaper' my water maid whispered, no doubt feeling my vague emotions.

A day at the beach, huh?

I should take Angie as well. Solanus likes her.

Planet Gand, Pef Empire

21 BBY Next week

The beach was great. I even swam naked, and upgraded my archeotech knowledge by 2% more.

We can't get the Kwa gate to work, yet, but there's no rush. We most of deciphered what's left of the Dark Reaper, and could probably build our own, if we ever need to drain the life of something.

Might build a small one to test on Felucia.

That Ancient Abyss thing...it's either that, or drag it out with a dozen Meteors and serve it as steak to the carnivorous species in the empire. But not yet.

It was time to really hurt the CIS, while bringing liberty and prosperity to the oppressed. With tanks and starships, of course.

The first 2 fleets departed a day before, to clear the star lanes of potential spies and traps, and headed towards Zygerria then Reltooine, each fleet with about 500 ships.

A dozen Fade stealth frigates went with them, to act as advanced warning, or strike the enemy in the back, if it was really necessary.

The other 10 fleets departed a bit later, as more missiles and starfighters arrived at the last minute.

Only about 300 Reapers and 11000 Biplanes were ready for this part of the battle, but production will take a while to gather speed. Won't push too hard for more Reapers though, since I do not have enough cyborg pilots with the requiered skill.

We instead used the huge stockpiles of Scarabs and Vultures fighters that we captured at Murkhana and Mooga.

Just a few minor upgrades were possible in this short time, simply replacing a blaster cannon with a missile launcher, and replacing the software completely, with a new one that Core was kind enough to create for us. And since his methods achieved 100% better results than mine, at Lianna...

The B11 and the B13 commando droids also received a further upgrade, attempting to use cover or laying prone in defensive positions. Nothing amazing, but this was a number's game. And a 20% increase in survival, meant the difference between a pyrrhic victory, and a tactical victory.

They were already 115% more resilient with woven fiber armor and faster reflexes due to pilot modules. Add 20% more and it counted. Plus the riot shields used by the first wave. Just like those gungans. Don't laugh! If it works, it's not stupid.

So what it they look like wearing yellow umbrellas in the wind? That wind is made of blaster fire, and it hurts!

Also, Baneblade heavy tanks are now driven by cyborgs. Not all of the amputees have the skill to pilot stealth starfighters, but a heavy tank is much slower and easier to pilot. The cyborgs at least ten times better than a B1 driver anyway.

The cyborgs like that Omnissiah title that somehow appeared in their vocabulary.

Guess they'll be my Adeptus Mechanicus, in the far future.

Fanatic people are pretty easy to keep happy and get them to murder whatever you ask them to.

They'll be useful, one day.

And with the wars creating more amputees, the cyborgs' number will grow.

Other smaller fleets conduct civilization efforts in the Mortex sector , especially around Almania and Choah Belt but also trying to recruit the Malkite Poisoners to our side. They would be highly useful to get me rid off certain Hutts or Senators or corporate die-hards .

I sent Solana there, since most organics will probably die in the first job interview.

Wialu made friends with a couple of Anothian living crystal we imported from a broken planet, and then went to introduce them to their cousins the Vaathkree (species) who lived just on our southern border. Living rocks, but with hands. Man, this galaxy had many miracle species.

And Angie, my immortal angel? She returned to Iego, along with Celine. Starting another Arts academy, and courses for galactic divas. Soon, a million angels will sing, and hopefully spread good news about my empire.

Luxum is still back home on Orax, only her shard mother has also returned, with a few of her children, and they are building a technological society from ground up. Already their planetary defenses rival Lianna's, which is quite something.

All they need now is shipyards and fleets, and expanding a little to gain more systems for resources. They'll be the shield for the next galactic invasion, after all. Sadly, only the younger Shards have joined the hop-into-a-droid movement.

But, once the Shards can build Meteors, they'll be pretty hard to conquer.

Also, our fleets have reached Zygerria and pretty much stomped the opposing 1000 CIS ships gathered there.

At equal odds, our fleets lost 2 corvettes and a thousand fighters. To be fair, my Meteors do not have equal in the galaxy, not yet. Perhaps if Palpatine builds his SSDs.

The siege has began, and the other fleets can bypass Zygeria at speed, heading for every major world in the Corporate sector.

And dropping off troops and siege ships on the minor worlds while en route.

It helps that the Corporate sector, while quite large, is not yet explored and populated. Only about 500 worlds, when I already know they'll have 30 thousand planets in 20 years.

Now let's see, will the CIS try to counter-attack in panic, or try to flee, or attack elsewhere?

A few hours later, the fleet at Duro came under attack, almost on schedule.

Our Reapers will have to make sure the cyborg General doesn't escape again. His outrageous attempts to bombard planets from orbit is getting aggravating.