Planet Boonta, Pef Empire

2 weeks later

A dozen billions of droids and an AI helped a lot into reshaping Boonta into a modern and pleasant looking planet, with a thousand cities able to house a million people each, along with adiacent factories, restaurants, spaceports and maglev trains.

I just hope people will come. The AI calculated everything a human civilization would need, from crops to energy and jobs.

He's very good at that, and also converting B1 droids into police officers, and custom enforcers.

Just the shipyards could give jobs to 30 millions people immediately.

Farms are being prepared, lacking only happy colonists, toiling from sunrise to sunset to produce crops and sell them to feed their families...

Should I plant crops already?

No idea, Peffy eats whatever and he's fine. Bantha seems popular for meat, so I guess I can also create pastures and abattoirs.

Eh. Should be enough. Not like most colonists even have toilets or clean water for the first hundred years.

Things will be fine.

I just hope anyone will come. The planet looks like a ghost world now, a billion houses empty.

Look! A ship. New colonists? Nah, just smugglers from Kessel.

'They'll come Pef. Just send more promos with captured images from the surface. There are people on Coruscant who never even seen the sun, or green grass, in their whole life' Lira argued, convinced this will work.

'And reserve transport with cruise lines. They can't walk this far' Ventress sent, somehow amused at my panic.

Right. It would take a long time to walk to Humbarine, 30 thousands light years from here.

I got used to calculating distances in hyperdrive power and hyper route quality.

But these people will be poor...possibly not even have their own starship...

'Sigh. I'll do a campaign for you Pef. Vette and Celine could be of help as well.' Dora said with a resigned voice.

Vette! where was...oh. Pirates.

This obsession wasn't healthy though. So much hate. I should call her back, and get her meditating.

And done. She should stay a few months on Sanctuary, and strengthen her soul and mind.

Celine too, most likely. My dear blonde singer, still famous around the empire and the Centrality. They were important somehow, even without magic powers or useful skills.

Angie was ageless, so time wasn't a factor that much.

But the original maids...4 years have passed almost. They won't get younger.

They had to learn the talortai ability now, while bota was still working.

Make a note, double the dose for every force user in the empire. Our huge stockpile might be worthless soon.

And check about Vera, my Zeison Sha twi'lek.

Connecting with holonet receiver on our spy satellites over Yanibar . Hmmm. Still enduring, but a bit better now.

A new city, with electricity and a library and a spaceport. A million droids as farmers and miners should help too.

So pitiful. I could give them a thousand times more. Only they were also, very far away. 80 thousands light-years.

One light year is 9 trillion kilometers. Too far, for now.

Another starship! Just a Hutt ship, still en route for the Boonta races. Not here anymore, just a memorial obelisk.

They had nova crystals to sell though, so sure. They're useful.

I should go to Felucia though. That huge sarlacc thing annoys me. 53 assassination attempts have failed.

Nothing should be that resilient. Unless...

'Just like that tree on Kubindi, the million years of ritual sacrifices connected him with the living force, distorting and increasing its force connection to unnatural levels' Wialu argued, with a bit of worry.

How soon till it wasn't passive anymore? Or a Jedi stumbled into its maw, and while dying he shifted the whole planet to a vicious nature. It did happen just like that, in my memories. Shaak Ti died in the Abyss, and Felucia became a dark nexus.

"I'm coming too. Solanus is worried as well" my water maid said gently, while her face almost became human.

Almost there. A year maybe, and her shapeshifting will be perfect.

"Okay then. Let me send Core back to Malagarr" I replied, as the partition in charge of the Eighth Hand did just that.

And by the time I return, the nano-droids should arrive as well.

In a month or two, I should master controlling trillions at once, to craft the first real warships of this galaxy, since the Kwa or the Gree.

And warmachines, walkers and tanks and power armors, but in huge quantities.

'Third Hand, it's time. Begin Operation 4999.' I sent through my encrypted comlink towards Gand.

The Outer Rim sieges would begin now, Jedi leading the clone troopers to assail the Separatists strongholds, those not already under siege by my empire, but the Spaarti cloning will be ours.

We just needed to take Gizer, then Cartao, followed by Myrkr and Alpheridies.

Gizer was a CIS world, so it would be simpler. Myrkr was unclaimed, so clearing pirates should work. The others...Wialu will have a hard job getting them to become interested. Contruum would be the key, as they claimed most power in that region.

From Myrkr, finding planet Wayland should take a month or less.

Time was running short, and everything balanced on the edge of a knife.

Some resources could not be found elsewhere.

I held Solana's hand as we boarded the Fade frigate. This ship was becoming my favorite, due to its speed and stealth, but I should probably figure out how to cloak the larger Calamari cruisers.

Waiting to be rescued, while floating somewhere in the void would suck.

'We'll be fine for now. The hyperlanes till Felucia are guarded. And we're invisible' Solana said with some amusement.

"Take us to Felucia, Honored Findsman" I said politely, as I entered the frigate's bridge.

A host of VSS operatives and droids made themselves comfortable around the ship.

"A minute to compute the jump, Emperor. And then check for anomalies" The Captain replied in a serious tone.

Wait, what anomalies?

"Gravity echo distortions, magnetic refractions, black hole lensing?" I asked at once.

"The first thing, Immortal Pef. Our detector is barely picking anything. But, other Findsmen feel the same. There's something on the hyperlanes, watching" He replied, with some uncertainty.

Yea, there would be, wouldn't it?

The Vong had stealth ships too, mapping our galaxy right now.

"We're clear for now. Jumping" The Gand Findsman said in a relieved tone.

Bigger walkers then. With flamethrowers and plasma projectors. And torpedoes. And missiles. And masers.

And nukes. Yea, nukes will save the universe. Maybe. At least I hope so.

Planet Felucia, Pef Empire

Next day.

Damn, these mark 0.7 hyperdrives of my Fade stealth frigates are amazingly fast. At least when you take well known hyper routes.

At this rate, it won't be long before I can devise a 0.5 hyperdrive like Han Solo had.

I looked on Corellia for him, of course. But, nothing.

Let's hope he wasn't butterflied away, in some fight that didn't happen the first time.

While en route to the Felucia system, I created two classes of mecha walkers.

The first type, with a height of 4 meters, are basically big power armors, and pretty much light tanks in armor and mobility.

They will form our flanking power, with an oversized gatling gun and a medium maser cannon. A missile launcher and a flamethrower too.

two legs and four arms, two arms with fingers and thumbs, for no creation should be denied thumbs.

Hmmm. Seems I made a land version of the biplane, if I would add a droid brain. Why not both? A machine spirit and a pilot.

Able to operate without an organic pilot, like all my tech, but much smarter and cunning with a veteran pilot inside.

Though, 5 times more expensive than a light tank, and with less firepower. Alas, they need to be fast and strong, to fight hordes of Vong organic monsters. I will call them Phalanx, because of the gatling guns. Only they can glide on repulsorlift engines as well.

And then a big one, 40 meters tall. There won't be cables hanging around and exposed knees or such. Sorry guys, no mynocks will chew on my power cables. However cool that sounds. And it won't glide, since it's not that kind of story.

Overlapping armor plates, one meter thick. Starship class reactors and shields, 6 legs and 6 arms, two of them with thumbs.

Maybe one day, when out of ammo, they'll have to pick up stuff, like a huge sword, or a tree, to batter away hordes of zerglings...or just move rocks and debris away.

And armament? Everything!

That continuous laser from spider droids, check. Let's get two.

Missile launchers? Yea, at least 10. Masers and gatling lasers? Give me 6 of each.

Hell projectors? Yup. Just one though, as they need lots of energy.

Proton torpedoes? Of course. Proton bomb mortar? That's the nuke launcher. Here they use the other part of the atom's nucleus,

not the neutrons. Because of less radiation. Still melts durasteel and makes pretty blooms. I know, I've tested it a few times.

Very good at erasing forensic evidence too.

A bridge with holomaps and holo-emitters and tactical net. Because they may be used as army headquarters in the field.

And...

"Enough Pef. See how much it will cost to build one, then dream of huge armies of them" Solana said beside me, looking doubtful

at the hologram is assembled on the frigate's bridge.

"Your voice might be right, Metal Gand. This thing looks impressive, but perhaps not exactly feasible. It also has too many legs"

the insectile Gand Findsman added with a slight shudder.

Huh, if even insects think 6 legs is too many...

Fine then. Biped walker it is, and just 4 arms. Have to reduce height to 30 meters and triple the leg thickness. Or it would just fall.

Even with small steps. Damn. Lost 30% of firepower now.

Let's estimate costs now...2 million credits. Just for one single Titan mecha. Twice as much as a corvette.

Guess I can build less, just to boost morale for my legions. Maybe three or four per legion.

Just like the empire fleets work now, with three Meteors supported by hundreds of smaller ships.

30 Meteors should come back from the Redforge after repairs. With twice as strong shields now, and a layer of durasteel armor over critical parts like the fins.

The other 20 Meteors too damaged for full repairs, are being reconfigured as high explosive shells, with ten times more sublight engines and their internals partly removed, to make more room for a lot of proton bombs. A five kilometer long spear, with a diamond-boron tip is being crafted for them, to reshape them in Narwhals.

In theory, they could impact a worldship and detonate inside. I know they did it with an executor-class dreadnought. Might have been luck though.

They whole Skywalker family strategy appears to work purely on luck. And lots of hope.

We're outnumbered and are about to be wiped out? Luck!

They enemy has overwhelming superiority in tech and ship quality and strategy? Luck!

The enemy is building a superweapon? Let's jump in a dozen of starfighters and hope it ends well.

Ah, we have arrived at Felucia.

Now let's sense...nothing. Just a trade station, our defense fleet, some spy satellites...

A dozen million farmers and smugglers. Mostly farmers.

A few tribes of Felucian jungle savages, around the Abyss.

A thousand more warships arrive from Lianna, to help me extract this worm from my planet.

But first, let's collect the natives and relocate them. This operation might cause earthquakes or worse.

As we descend through the planetary shield, I take the scepter and try to see if there's anything to drain.

Ah, there is! Coming from the big mouth with a hundred tongues, each kilometers long.

Should I go spelunking?

"Don't joke about it Pef. That thing has hundreds of stomachs. With molecular acid inside." Solana said with a light tremble.

Okay then, not rappelling into the huge Abyss.

I'll just twiddle my thumbs, while the feral locals are being corralled and extracted, some peacefully, others with sleep gas and tranquilizer darts.

And let's begin. A thousand harpoons and hundreds of tractor beams, with lasers evaporating the earth around the crater like maw.

"It won't budge! Not enough traction or it's stuck." I muttered in surprise.

"Or its tail is coiled around the core of the planet" Solana added with a bit of amusement.

Gah. That's not possible, is it?

Hmmm. Let's try it like they do with stomach worms then.

You, Muni Destroyer 2447!

Come closer and get caught by the sarlacc's tongues.

There, see, a hundred tongues have latched onto my ship. Now let's spin it while lifting it with tractor beams.

Seismic tremors? It's working!

The maw snapped shut on my ship, annoyed at the escaping prey.

And now, lift!

Meter by meter, the huge sarlacc began emerging from the ground, dragged by the engines of a thousand warships.

After one hour, the maw with it's starship hook emerged from the atmosphere, dragging a 5 kilometer thick worm after it.

And as the ship continued to rotate, a yarn-like ball started to form around it.

At least 50 kilometers long. 70, 100!

"Damn, I hope the planet won't be left empty inside. No matter how cool..." I managed to say.

"The tail is visible Emperor, estimated length 150 kilometers" my captain interrupted my words rudely.

Okay then. Still longer than a Vong worldship by 50% but not that scary.

"I say we should mount engines on it, and use it for theme rides. Should attract lots of tourists" I mused, as the tail was being straighten up, to let us admire the specimen.

"Kriff. It might even work..." Solana said with a long sigh.

Planet Gand, Pef Empire

Two weeks later

The new year is coming soon, and my empire has grown immensely in surface but not in population. barely 14 million colonists have arrived at Boonta, since we started subsidising transport. Maybe they didn't have cash for tickets either.

For now, the newly conquered Secessionist planets are content, since they pay no taxes, except for maintaining costs of their defense fleet.

The big corporation worlds like Mooga or Murkhana or Etti are much harder to keep pacified, as the CIS has thousands of instigators and sympathizers. Hundreds of instigators are 'disappeared' every day. Sad, but a galaxy is not just peace and understanding.

Our black ops have expanded a thousand times, just to keep up with the volume, and thus the quality of our agents has dropped too. We have began leaking intelligence, mostly to CIS. Inevitable, but sucks.

My Astartes clones have began showing signs of madness and instability, even as they were only around 13 or 14 years old in appearance. Not sure why, possibly the force. Hell, certainly the force.

I have to send them to be recycled. 10 thousands of them, and all came out wrong.

I don't want Nikto clones though, even if their genome makes them more stable.

Can't see them as my children.

Guess I'll try female variants now, without force-sensitives. Bo and Clara and Lidia and the five A from Mandalore.

I'll look for some smart Imperial Servants as well, to get a more diverse mix.

Grafting new organs is going poorly as well, most zygotes dying without reaching newborn length. A master Shaper I'm not.

Creating superhumans is not so easy as I first believed. I should import some more galactic class specialists, and have them figure out the causes.

On the Clone wars, we are besieging a hundreds worlds at once, including Serenno, Vinsoth and Salin, while Pef Navy is 'protecting' Botajef and Bandomeer. Planet Hamad join us with just a promise of aid against the Ciutric Hegemony, from which many of them fled.

However Axxila will prove a though nut. It's an ecumenopolis, with cities all over.

Planet Taris is neutral and will possibly not join under MPT, for some time. The Sith did a number on them, just like the Jedi did on Mandalore, with orbital bombardments in the Mandalorian Excision .

The Jedi have began spreading out in the Outer Rim, sieging various CIS key worlds, but most of their younglings have been moved from Coruscant, no doubt due to the B1 droids I sent to the Temple to attempt 'extermination'

The Republic is attacking on the other hyperlanes in the north from Ansion and Dorin, attempting to reach Muunilinst before us.

Somehow they managed to get bogged down at Vardoss and other places, which is fine.

And on planet Drackmar we found the Omogg warlords, who supposedly owned Dathomir.

For the simple price of not evaporating their methane atmosphere, and a planetary shield, they agreed to turn sides and cede the ownership of Dathomir legally. Not a sabacc game, but good enough.

The first new generations of droid tanks and cheap power armor appeared in our armies, since the CIS defenses also intensified massively.

Piloted by cyborgs or select Sanctuary graduates, they can flank enemy lines at speed and create breaches for the droid footmen to exploit. Still, every day we lose about 5 millions droid soldiers, and we only print 4 millions.

Plus they need to be armed, clothed, charged and transported to the battlefields.

Botajef and Celanon have become huge army depots and refueling bases, supporting the fleets farther ahead.

The Corporate sector is almost completely captured now, since only a dozen worlds from 500 still resist.

At Kessel sector, we bypassed Aeneid, and took planets Randa and Zarm without a fight.

Not exactly bypassed, just settled the two not inhabited planets, and requested to be admitted as part of the ruling Council of Elders with two votes.

While they deliberate on that, the two planets are being upgraded and defended, as to form the main military base in this sector.

Because 15 planets able to support life, in one star system? Not a trap at all.

At least we stopped losing ships that much, and the Calamari had produced 100 more of their superb Liberty cruisers for us.

Or maybe we hit CIS too soon, before they really started mass producing ships. And killed lots of them in a few major battles.

Corellia has began contributing ships to the Republic battles in mid and south, and are twice as effective with their missiles to prevent most CIS droid fighters from winning a cheap shot.

Still keeping a largish fleet tied down at Teth, and preventing CIS traffic at Randon, so we help...

But, the Battles of Umbara and Kashyyyk have also began, so the end is near.

Soon, the hot clone wars end, and the cold war begins.