Nal Hutta, Pef Empire

Hutt Council Hall

14 BBY, 3 months later

"Esteemed Clan leaders, there is nothing I or anyone else can do, to resolve your predicament. It is your own poor decision-making to ignore the Empire credit as a guaranteed currency, and use diamonds and other sparkly rocks to purchase goods and services.

The Empire is doing what it can, even moving the newly discovered diamond planets to Muunilist, and use them as a Galactic Bank security deposit, but the third planet is shattered, and those diamond asteroids were often too tiny to be picked up by scanners."

Proto One declared with a sad voice.

"But...what will we do? All our wealth, all our information brokers, our client races, we cannot pay them anymore!" a fat Hutt using some kind of starfish for a hat complained with real desperation.

"Well, I do have a number of solutions to preserve the health and well-being of those poor citizens, but it is mostly this, the Empire will hire them all, to work in various state-owned enterprises, like factories and mining and farming and even as soldiers and navy crew. We do pay very well, so they won't starve." my droid Ambassador replied placidly, and exulting in his victory.

The Hutt were laid low, and without a shot. Well, except for a hundred times he was fired upon. And then his security returned fire and killed half of the Hutt entourage, then confiscated the slaves...

Not a war though, so the Droid Emperor was not displeased.

"That's...you're stealing our worlds, the very space our ancestors fought to defend!" another Hutt exclaimed in a sobbing tone.

"Of course not, honored Hutts. Why would anyone steal impoverished and starving people, or primitive planets? The Pef Empire will have to invest trillions of credits for every planet it rescues from famine and poverty, just like it already did on Klatooine and Kwenn .

Surely we must ensure our investments do not get stolen or misplaced, like any civilized entity would do?" Proto One asked rhetorically.

The whole meeting was just a polite way to let the Hutts save face, and not just take everything they had.

The Emperor basically owned everything in Hutt space now, except the core worlds around Varl.

"Most valued Ambassador, surely some compensation can be obtained, for the ruling Hutt families? Perhaps as investors in the corporations or part-ownership, like it was arranged on Klatooine?" another Hutt, the smartest one asked with a begging tone.

"That was then, most venerable Hutt. Your subordinate from Klatooine did bring some value by sharing the lands and the servants with the investing companies. You own nothing now, I'm afraid.

However, the Emperor is generous and is willing to establish factories and shipyards in the core Hutt systems, to produce the new Palmpads and transport vessels and various luxury yachts,

with furnishing and windows made of diamond.

There, it would be possible to allow every Hutt a share of the profits, rescuing a million of Hutts from poverty and starvation, and even more, depending on how well the products sell and which Hutt manages better bulk sales and profit margins." the old droid explained politely, as the realization dawned on the leading Hutts.

"You want to turn us into corporate salesmen and executives? Working for a salary and a tiny share of the profit?" the last Hutt asked almost incredule.

"Your talents in this area are well-known, most honored Hutt. And do not dismiss this for a simple offer. The Empire has 12 million worlds, with quadrillions of sentients, and billions of mining systems. Just think about. One single transport ship can produce 100 thousands credits of profit. One Palmpad 20 credits profit.

Now, if we total the possible market, we have at least 1 billion ships needed, and quadrillions of palmpads, one for every sentient in the galaxy. Even a tiny share of those quadrillions of credits will mean billions, for every Hutt, and trillions for each of you. And the Hutts do have contacts everywhere, isn't it? I'm certain with a few calls, you can have thousands of ships and billions of palmpads already pre-ordered, by the many planets you have dealt with in the past.

You can be great again, most venerable Hutts. Sell a million GR-45 medium transport to your friends, produced by your own shipyards and factories, with guaranteed Hutt resilience. And just like that, a trillion credits will appear in your bank accounts, safe from thieves, and most all legal. Do you want to be great, most esteemed Hutts?" Proto One proclaimed dramatically, punching the sky upwards.

Victory at last!

The Hutts hesitated for a few seconds, then greed won, and they punched the sky as well, with weaker fists.

Surely bribery and blackmail would work fine, to sell comlinks and bulk cargo, just like it did for weapons and mercenaries...or, so they thought.

Emperor Pef already had a dozen Hutts learning the ropes and preparing to take the lead, with huge sales and profits, and becoming the new Hutt Council by merit and competence.

The fittest Hutts were not the most backstaby, although it helped, but those more prepared to change and adapt, using the new tools in their inventory, like apps for palmpads and faster more economical hyperdrives on their transports.

Thousands of new companies were started on the major trade worlds, to sell the new devices and ships, and competition would increase technological progress, just like war did for various sensors and weapons.

The Columi had looked at the Biplane drone telepresence helmets and chuckled, then simply produced their own variant based on theta brain waves and intuitive subroutines, and the hit ratio of our organic drone pilots increased from 10 or 20% to 70% .

Just like that. Because the Columi used this type tech for a million years, for everything, from washing dishes to going shopping or various simulations. Lazy brainiacs, I know, but in this they case saved us thousands of years of research.

I need to hire more of them, just need to figure out what motivates them. Perhaps access to tactile holograms in their simulations? New math theories? Nature documentaries?

No idea, yet. But I will find out.

Planet Arkania , Perave system

Colonies region

Arkania is an ice planet, which makes the white hair and the pale skin of the locals very appropriate.

They also had diamond mines, now worth less than the droids used to collect them, so the mining stopped. Not that anyone is buying diamonds anymore.

Their value has dropped to a mere industrial useful mineral, for lenses and glass cutting or similar needs.

And thus Lira is here, to diplomatically arrange the most innovative geneticists in the galaxy to work directly for me.

"Aren't Arkanians fascinating? So loving of science—and so willing to use it." Demagol

"Voice Lira, it is good to see that rumors of your death were greatly exaggerated" Nasdra Magrody said with a curious tone.

"Oh, they were not rumors or exaggerations, most esteemed professor of Magrody Institute of Programmable Intelligence . I was shot in the head by Cad Bane, the famous bounty hunter, and died during the negotiations on Dellalt. The Emperor brought me back, in this new body. And yes, samples are available..." she explained politely as the man's eyes widen in surprise.

"Oh dear. This indeed fascinating. Let me bring...here. A testing device measuring the Force. 17000 points!" the man exclaimed in surprise, after using some gizmo to scan Lira for Force markers.

"17344 points yes, honored professor. The Emperor used a number of genes acquired from the Jedi Grandmaster Fay, to enhance my force connection. And we have our own measuring devices for the Force connection, although they are archeotech from Kathol.

This device measures alignment, and was built by the Emperor himself. As you can see, I am currently at 65% blue and the rest mixed. Most Jedi would measure at 99% blue, or flip and become 99% red or black, due to flawed training" Lira Greyshade said softly, after scanning herself with the Mimban crystal detector.

"I see now. Those dark jedi... I would so want, to study a few..." the man muttered with scientific objectivity.

"The south-west offensive is dealing with the Sorcerers of Rhand just now, most enlightened professor. Surely, a few can be captured and be made available. As long as your own person is protected, using this belt or helmet for example, or this taozin amulets or a Culexus bodyguard." she replied patiently.

"Oh, real relics too? And what is that Culexus?" the man asked oblivious.

"That would be me. Culexus 0089, your droid bodyguard." the assassin droid replied coldly, patting the man on his shoulder, still invisible.

"Oh! I was thinking to create a chip, to allow anyone to control droids with their mind...perhaps I should work on that as well..." professor Magrody muttered lost in thought.

"Here, we already have three variants, professor. We prefer using the last one, since organic chips are less prone to malfunction or crash from ionization weapons." Lira said with a thin smile, opening a slim box with the three chips inside.

"Amazing! Do you think I could...?" he asked with some trepidation.

"Professor Magrody. You can have all this and more. But, all these devices are classified Delta by the threat assessment chart.

Only government licensed professionals are allowed to even know of their existence. Not to mention the genome optimization programs or ..."

"Say no more, Voice Lira. You want my soul, dear lady, it's yours. I must work with this. I just must. Where do I sign in?" the man asked with a desperate look.

His Culexus bodyguard placed a datapad in front of him, unfazed. Nothing fazed those droids.

Kuat system, Kuati Drive Yards

Kuat corporate board

14 BBY

The Kuati are very similar to the Japanese from back home, with stylish etiquette and food, and rigorous work ethic and immense productivity.

They just don't like to listen. My Avatar is having bit of hard time explaining their role, because KDY wants to produce anything military, even if they suck at many things. Inventive, but expensive and not that effective.

"Please calm down and sit, esteemed leaders. As I said, using KDY as an umbrella for a thousand different products has to stop.

For example, most of the war material produced by your subsidiary Rothana is 10 times more expensive and with 5 times less effectiveness in ground combat than what the Land warrior designs already produce.

The new generation of Gauntlet III armor cost 15 thousand credits, 10 times less than those walkers you came up with, and they actually have a turret. So no, land vehicles are indeed not feasible to be bought from KDY. Dropships and shuttles much the same, our new Gozanti III will suffice the needs of the navy for a generation and perhaps much more.

The TIE starfighters are interesting, but only because they are just 3 times cheaper than your competitors'. Not actually combat effective, unless you do remodel them as I had advised, with an oval body and planar wings, and having at least one turreted Gatling gun and two missile launchers. The TIE bombers will need to have their upper solar panels flattened and support two torpedo launchers, not just bombs.

Now regarding capital ships, KDY is not interested in corvettes which is fine by me. The Arquitens-class command cruiser and the light cruiser variant can be upgraded here, and brought to the same standard as the new Ardent-class frigates produced by your competitors.

There are 100 thousands such ships in the Navy, which simply put mostly waste fuel and crew. The Light and Sound Arts corporation will provide KDY with long range turbolasers and medium masers for this upgrade, while Gatling guns and missiles launchers can be produced by your subsidiaries.

This will provide work for KDY's smaller shipdocks, and we will buy every single Ardent frigate you can produce, the upgraded model at a third of the cost, of course, since they are already owned, and just need upgrades in armor and reactor and engines." I explained politely, as the holotable in the middle was running a fast-forward model of striping down an Arquitens, then rebuild it with better armor and reactors.

"That's robbery! Even if we use quadranium steel to uparmor the Arquitens, the docks will still be blocked by this order for 5 years! At least 50% of the cost must be paid, or we will lose money" Kuat of Kuat exclaimed upset, after doing some profit margin calculations.

Hmmm. 40% would have given them a good profit anyway, but fine. Everyone must be happy.

"Agreed, honored Kuat of Kuat. 500 billions credits have been wired to KDY right now. I expect my frigates in less than 5 years. Now, for the cruisers, I will place an order of 10 thousand units, to see how they compare with Gyndine and Sluis Van competitors during trials and various combat engagements in the west.

Keep in mind, that the Navy will need millions of cruisers, and Mon Calamari already make fine ships. If your designers and engineers decide to change or modify the schematics agreed by the Ship design bureau, I expect an increase in performance and combat efficiency. Or the KDY will not be premiated but instead penalized procentually for any margin lost in turn speed or firing arcs." I said more serious.

You block my guns from firing 2 degrees left or right, you lose 2% of the price. Seems fair.

"I'll oversee the modifications personally, esteemed Avatar. The guns must stay on target, that's a simple goal" Lira Wessex the lead designer for the Imperial star destroyers said with a frown.

Yeah, if that was true, why aren't the guns of your ships staying on target? Who placed those guns for broadsides and didn't even stagger them?

"And miss Wessex, do make peace with your father. You are both brilliant, but if he gets assassinated, I will blame you personally. Walex Blissex still has 40 years of brilliance and ingenious design in front of him. You steal those years from my Empire and you'll lose them too, in prison" I said with a calm tone towards the murderous daughter.

She nodded with a frown, perhaps confused how I knew.

"Okay, now for the destroyers. Get it in your heads, esteemed KDY gentlemen, destroyers are not orbital bombardment ships, nor battleships in the front line. Their role is in the name, to be fast and hunt down smaller ships, like cruisers or lower. They are not carriers, to use half of their volume to carry starfighters. Sure, from frigate upwards all Navy ships will carry dropships and fighters, because space is big and volumes get searched faster using remotes.

But, the Nebula-class is designed to serve as escort and picket ship in fleet engagements, with 200 long range turbolasers placed along the central spines, and 400 medium maser guns, 100 Gatling batteries of 5 guns, including ion canons and plasma guns, along with 500 Gatling pointdefense lasers and 650 missile launchers on top of every battery turret.

As you can see on the hologram, the Nebula will create a mist of exploded starfighters and gunships from any wave of small class attackers, while being able to engage targets at long range to support the heavy elements or harass big ships from outside they fire envelope.

The energy for these weapons will come from the new solar ionization reactors class 3.2 using belskar and cortosis armor to contain hypermatter while it's being ionized.

And as with the Acclamator III, they will have their bridge and engines armored up

and three secondary 4S shield emitters, thus able to withstand one salvo even from a Hammer's magnetically accelerated guns." I explained with some pride, since these was actually leading edge engineering.

"Very impressive, for a ship only 920 meters long. But there's very little room left for anything else but guns and reactors...where will the troopers and the crew live?" someone asked from the end of the table.

"I think I already said, didn't I? Destroyers are warships not troop transports or carriers or occupation ships. This Nebula could take an Imperial-class destroyer down, alone. Or an entire pirate fleet. Or 2 Lucrehulks filled with Vulture droids. It has 1200 organic crew, officers and gunners mostly, and 20 thousands droids. And because of that, the crew wasted on an older model of destroyer can crew 10 or 20 ships of the Nebula-class. And when they get destroyed, the Navy loses a thousand people not 47 thousands crew and officers like on an Imperial-class." I explained with a sterner voice.

The KDY board looked at each other and then at the hologram again.

"How many of these ships will the Navy need?" Kuat asked with a bit of excitement.

"A million for a start, but at least 13 million. The Empire will have all its planets defended, no matter the cost." I said with a blinding smile.

"Oh my! We're going to need 50 times more shipyards and mining planets and..." Kuat muttered in his native language.

"Exactly, honored Technician. The Emperor is bringing 100 planets here in Kuat sector , half of them rich in minerals, the others to house immigrants from all over the Empire. Also, a few more gas giants and a billion metallic asteroids. It is a massive investment for the Empire, both of trust and resources. So all of you, get to work and build me the ships I need. Voice Sera Greyshade will oversee Kuat for the next hundred years, and make sure Kuat has everything it needs, from resources, credits or employees, to security." I concluded in Kuati, and smiled even wider.

"But, many of those systems are classified and..." an older Kuati lady muttered for herself.

"Yes, and now each of your four classified mining systems have 10 extra mining planets. Nothing is concealed from Emperor Pef, do not forget this. The other systems in the sector now all have 5 planets to house more immigrants and factories. I can provide planning and planetary ecology designs, but I believe you do have everything, mostly figured out.

This is Sera, my wife. Just like me, her words are law, everywhere in the galaxy. She doesn't talk much though..." I said with some amusement, as Sera Greyshade, the red twi'lek maid, my newest Voice and former Zeison Sha adept, looked around the Kuat board room, perhaps surprised everyone here wore green tunics, without many ornaments.

Duh, the CEO's title was Technician...these guys took work very seriously.

"Hello everyone. I am Sera. We'll be good friends, I am certain." she said with a beautiful smile, then gave me a short hug. The Kuati council took a step back in concert.

Yep. She'll do just fine.

"Was that a teleportation?" Miss Wessex asked curious. Hmmm. Her name was a bit obvious too.

"Give me your hand, most enchanting lady. I can teleport you in orbit aboard my ship, and then we can go find your father" I said gently. She hesitated for a second, then took my Avatar's hand.

Your father can wait, while I get to know you better. I do need to bind Kuat to me tighter. Skin tight even.