Humbarine system

Centerpoint station

14BBY

The work on the Commenor new capital is proceeding as fast space, as billions of emigrants from all over the Empire have started to settle the new planets, while the navy is busy organizing itself to defend the system, and also their new logistic chains.

All we need is a direct route to the Hydian Way, coreward from Humbarine and having a gas cloud impeding navigation called Marasa Nebula blocking the way.

Planet Trellen is on the other side, another large ecumenopolis with 500 billion people, so I'll just have to stretch my powers, and those of the Centerpoint station and collect the gas, and compact it into asteroids.

Not so easy as it sounds, since this nebula is a hundred light years thick.

Who am I kidding, of course is simple. I just have to bring a small black hole nearby, then shove all this debris into it.

And that's what I am doing, using the Endor's tiny black hole. Don't worry people of Bakura, I'll give it back next week so you can keep making repulsorlift components and another nice stuff.

Ah much easier now, simply shoving...hey there's planets here!

Inhabited planets and quite advanced. 'Hello Mindnet , this is Emperor Pef, of the Pef Galactic Empire' I sent a bit amused to this brand new cyborg civilization, that nobody knew about.

And was right next to our capital...

Heh. I did tell people we might find brand new civilizations out there, intersecting ours and invisible, but it seemed just a dream.

See, you try to build a new highway, cut down a few trees, and there is the City of Monaco, highly advanced and right next to Washington DC. And nobody noticed it for 30 millenia because of the trees...

'There's a Galactic Empire? Is it big? Do you have ships?' various Marasan asked curious.

'Well, it's only a few billion star systems spread around the galaxy. We're still growing and exploring...' I replied amused.

And while this was going on, the nebula was being cleared, and more and more of their colonies entered the range of the Centerpoint.

And took me two weeks to establish a hyperspace route between Humbarine and Trellen, and expose the Marasai homeworld to the wonders of Hutt salesmen and erotic holograms.

'Now esteemed Mindnet guys, you realize by now, just looking at the maps you just downloaded that you are very close to the most important trade route in the galaxy, as well as our new capital at Commenor. Also, I cleared the energized gas of the nebula by teleporting a blackhole nearby, then had it travel along a S thread artificial hyperroute untill the hyperplane was stabilized into a new trade route. Now, I'm going to give the blackhole back to the nice people from Bakura, the largest industrial center in the southwest but, by the time I return, I expect you all to vote whether you want to join the Empire.' I explained politely, before the Centerpoint jumped away.

Hmmm. The blackhole barely grew in size at all. Guess gas really has too little mass. But this Din Pulsar is making a mess out of navigation around here. Sweep it in.

There you go! Better and blacker blackhole, and no more annoying pulsar. Plus a larger accretion disk so better productivity for the energy refineries. Here, a hundred asteroids close by, as thanks for loaning me the blackhole.

Nobody even protested with pancarts in front of the Imperial Service Administrata offices. Maybe they didn't think they owned it.

Actually let's make it a law. Only the Emperor can own blackholes and stars. Not like anyone else can really use them, and if someone blows up a star, in my galaxy, then it's destruction of Empire property. Unless it's me doing it, for reasons.

Yep, doing reasonable laws on demand is quite nice.

And let's jump back to Commenor and help out. Those 33 billion construction droids are having a hard time doing all the work themselves.

I should give them a hand, and finish the new capital system this year.

And jump. Now, where were we? Ah, the cyborgs want to join the Pef Navy and pilot starfighters remotely. Seems like fun, and pretty safe. Just like the commercials say, since a torrent of adds hit Marasai while I was away.

'Yep, it really is safe, deep in the armored belly of a Meteor or a Mountain, or even a Hammer. Not so much on the other ships...

Hmmm, yes we will send immigrants to your colonies. This whole area of the galaxy is called the Colonies. And yes, no overpopulation, just a few billions from Trellen. Come on, the math is simple! A dozen colonies, 5 billion per planet, 60 billion immigrants. It will be fine. They're all nice people, who never seen sunlight except maybe once in their life.' I explained amused, as dealing with the Mindnet was like being Trump, bombarded by tweets.

But promoting immigration instead. Different times.

Who knows, in a billion years I might build a wall around the galaxy too.

Anyway, time to send the Avatar to Rendili, and restart the Light corvette program, only without those silly frontal prongs.

The new Verifier-class corvette will be using a tractor beam and getting a large inner barracks for the custom inspectors, and their marines, in the big space that can be obtained inside, once the huge inner space between the prongs is armored up and connected to life support.

Also a pair of ion cannons and dozen missile launchers and gatling guns. Just in case the ships they're supposed to inspect do not stop. Or they have to fight pirates.

Commenor system, Pef Empire

Celestial Senate

13 BBY

There are possibly 50 million ships here at Commenor, being guided on their intricate paths by Core, and millions of cyborg traffic analysts.

And this is just the beginning of what a galactic civilization can do. We still rely on ships for too many things.

From bulk transport like the Bulk cruiser and even larger ships like Lucrehulks to luxury yachts and protocol shuttles, and then warships and starfighters.

The Celestial Senate is a double pyramid made from a large diamond asteroid, 1000 kilometers tall and 500 kilometers wide, similar in outlook to the Mortis monolith, only much larger.

The diamond had to be gently sculpted and faceted, then reinforced with a billion tons of steel and diamondoid inserts, then transformed into the singly largest building in the galaxy, floating in vacuum.

It's a wonder of a galaxy, especially as its position above the plane where the planets spin, makes it sparkle constantly in the sun, and keep it visible at all times from the northern hemispheres of the nearby planets orbiting Commenor's sun.

"Esteemed Senators, and delegates and galactic citizens. Here we are, a month later than my dear husband anticipated, celebrating the new galactic capital on Commenor, and inside a moon sized diamond. Not only that, but this World Senate is now truly representing every single planet in the Empire , almost 12 million planets. And yes, I know we have billions of star systems but I say we can barely fit the inhabited worlds representatives in here. Can you imagine thousands of times more Senators?" Bena Greyshade proclaimed from her aurodium throne.

The newest World Senators like the Geroon remained speechless, possibly a little overwhelmed by the words, or just the huge 270 degrees spherical section, with the Senators lodges arranged in a roughly correspondent slot to their planet's galactographic position.

Others cheered or clicked or wailed or waved their algae. Yep, this galaxy had diversity all right. Sapience arose from every likely candidate and millions of unlikely ones.

"As my most adored wife and Empress said, the celebration for the new capital was a little bit delayed, but only because I had searched the galaxy for a suitable gift. Who knew that sculpting a thousand kilometers tall diamond would take this long? But I believe the wait was worth it. Not only this Celestial Senate building, but also the new hyperspace route to Trellan and the Hydian Way. Just now, Emperor Pef and the Centerpoint station are laying down a new hyper route from Brilbringi to Roxuli, then Genroon Selvaris and Iol and finally Jedha. It's a very expensive and time consuming endeavor, but if the galaxy is to become civilized and rich we need trade routes, not just in the east, but also the west. And once the west is freed from slavery and untold horrors, there are still a trillion stars in the galaxy, waiting to be discovered. I believe if we truly work together, we can make the whole galaxy a garden, radiant and beautiful just like Empress Bena" I proclaimed dramatically, mostly for the quadrillions of humans in the empire.

Sure, there were millions of other races, but not in sufficient populations, even the killiks were just trillions. Perhaps the mynocks or the lugubrra matched the humans in numbers, but in a decade they'll become an endangered species too.

The killik survivors will be resettled on Woteba , and kept under watch and quarantine, without animals or other living beings to take over. The planet had an environmental defense system that attacked anyone, anytime they interfered with the ecosystem, destroying both structures and living beings with a corrosive substance known as Fizz. Perfect place to keep the killiks alive but contained.

The navy still had much work to do on that front, even with establishing droid factories on the ground to replenish loses.

The killiks kept reproducing even faster, though they were slightly running out of adults. Without force-sensitives to absorb, the hives were still quite primitive, using methane and spitcrete as their industrial and weapon arsenal, along with various melee castes.

Ah, it's my turn to speak now.

"All right, Honored Senators. I do not need to explain why a Republic doesn't work, not on a galactic scale. There can simply be no consensus between so many varied races and interests. The World Senators are here to submit their grievances. And unlike in the former Republic, it won't take a hundred years of lengthy debates to solve whatever problem arose, from natural disasters to plagues or civil wars or economic issues. Rest assured, in a few days, or up to a month in difficult cases, any problem can and will be solved.

Be advised however. Once a grievance is brought before the Office of the Emperor, any and all autonomy rights are suspended, for that world. Myself or the Empress or a Voice of the Emperor will decide which, if any such rights are to be restored once the problem is fixed.

I'll give a simple example. There was once a race, moderately advanced, who began drilling towards the core of their homeworld for more energy. At first it worked great, boosting their production and energy a thousand times, then radiation began leaking from the core, untill it was too late and they all perished, destroying the life on that planet completely.

In such a case, the Empire would have acquiesced to help and restore the planet, but that race in particular would have lost their privileges, since they clearly didn't have enough brains to keep themselves alive.

So, keep in mind, with autonomy comes responsibility. If your world is proven to be reckless, then clearly it has to become a ward of the Empire for a few generations.

Also, do not play around with bioweapons. Yes, you esteemed Senator from Arkania. And many others who think they are clever and hid their traces well. There is not such thing as accidental release or a dropped vial. For every person who dies from such a weapon, everyone involved, from design to manufacture and handling, will be tormented in my private Hell dimension for eternity.

Next thing, the Sector Senators. Yes, you are much more important and will work on various committees establishing policy and budgetary issues, each of you in their respective qualifications. If you were a holomovie star, before you were elected Senator, then you can work in the Cultural Commission. Various former priests and cult leaders will work on the Religion and Refugee Commission while officers can work in the Naval or Army Commissions.

And be advised, corruption and collusion from any of the Senators is considered treason. The penalty for treason is death by dismemberment and then being eaten by the nice lugubrra. In this matter, if you're doubtful about your actions, then you are possibly already committing collusion. Better ask the Emperor to make sure, on the hypercom emitters that you all received when you were instated as Senators.

That will be all for this month Honored Senators, get to know each other and please bring any problems you have forward." I declared with a polite by stern voice.

Cause yeah, while I did want representation for all the planets in the Empire, I wasn't going to let them run amok, restarting the very problems that lead to the Clone Wars and various genocides.

The budgetary concerns were more delicate, as the treasury couldn't work with a disgruntled population. Taxation demanded representation, as well as accountability. Sure, sometimes money will be wasted on idiotic plans to save some rodian eating lizard or weather satellites on temperate planets, but people had to be kept happy, where possible.

I was much more concerned with keeping them alive and healthy, which was the purpose of the military efforts and the Medical Division. Money and happiness would follow, but as secondary concerns.

Our western fleets began encountering the Ebruchi , who were also nomad slavers, only using smaller ships and hit-and run raids. They often used other races like Tarro or Eickarie who lost their home planets to a supernova or invaders.

Two small fleets were sent to Lakra system and Kariek , to solve those local annoyances and give my vice admirals more experience.

Also, the Navy exploration fleets keep advancing westward, and have found more habitable planets like Umaren'k and Osseriton and Carrivar .

By the end of the year, our western borders should reach the Chiss Ascendancy. I mean, we already have limited contact, mostly through Thrawn and his phalanx of Chiss followers, but it isn't official. Not yet.

Iol system

Naval Cube Station West.

13 BBY

All the large ships produced so far by the shipyards of the Republic and the Galactic Empire have been called here, to undergo refit and modernization by the Emperor, while billion tons of armor plates and extra weapons and engines and reactors arrive every day.

From Venators to Victory then Procurator and Praetor, to the Mandators, each of these ships simply hurt my soul with how much work and credits were invested in them, and then barely made combat worthy, by poor decision making and fear of automation and droids.

The new ships will take a while to be produced, and we're not keeping the heavy hulls to rust.

The Procurators for example are 200 years old battlecruisers, and never saw combat, even in the Clone Wars, they were kept back,

using their 2500 meters wedge hulls for intimidation.

Not that they would have been much use with 8 turbolasers anyway. Really, whoever created these ships wanted to ram things, not shoot them.

The Venators and the Victory destroyers are small enough to simply transform them into Nebula-class, once they receive 10 meters of extra armor plating and lots of guns.

The shape is good enough that once they are plated over with armor, most of their faults are being hidden away. And the large hangars can be used to house the new bridge and secondary CIC and secondary reactors and shield emitters, as well as tibanna gas canisters and missiles.

Still lots of extra room left, since the crew is being reduced greatly and replaced with the excess OOM B11 droids. There will be two hangars at the back, one for starfighters and one for dropships, but even those will have sally gates and turrets guarding them.

The top of the central pyramid, now cleared of those silly towers will house large turrets, placed in a staggered formation to allow them to fire both sides and backwards, as well as forward.

The Nebula II, which are the larger converted Venators, at 1100 meters, can support 100 turbolasers and 1000 medium guns, and still carry 100 Biplane V starfighters, while the Victory were smaller at 900 meters but a little wider.

And now to the real battlecruisers, which get gutted completely, to make room for new reactors and engines then receive 50 meters of quadranium steel all over, and then their old armor get put on top, then I carve everything up to install 300 quad magamasers turrets and 5 quad long range turbolasers turrets on top, for the Mandators and half that for the Praetors.

The Procurators are a mess, well less now, with their new armor and all, but still not good enough at either role.Guess they can serve as missile cruisers of a sort, with 500 proton torpedo launchers and 3000 missile launchers, and just 100 heavy guns and 500 gatling lasers.

In fact anything between 1000 meters and 4000 meters is a mess, not having enough fire volume or armor to stand against a large ship, but still being vulnerable to smaller ships fire.

The Providence and Lucrehulk-class also fit in this category, as do torpedo spheres or other similar sized ships like the Hutt dreadnaughts or some Mon Calamari cruisers.

Bigger is not better, unless they are big enough, and armored accordingly. The Separatists warships had hulls about one meter thick, and the Calamari cruisers the same. Really, just fragile explosive eggs, once their shields were gone.

The Republic ships had 2 meters of armor in general, to 5 meters on battlecruisers and 10 meters on the Mandators and the Imperial-class. No wonder tractor beams were so effective at ripping ships appart, or turbolasers penetrated directly into the reactor chambers.

Still all these battlecruisers are less than 100, the Republic didn't have that many, and losing one would have been a major blow to morale, if not actual combat strength.

Guess I can send the Procurators back to guard Kuat and Commenor and have them fly the flag to impress people.

The sharks and the hammers are the real defense anyway, not 80 wedge shaped hulls looking absolutely amazing...

These larger battlecruisers will make great flagships for all the ambitious admirals from the Navy, while the 15 thousand destroyers will now be actually combat effective, able to turn on a dime due to lateral thrusters, and having a thousand times less design flaws.

Couldn't fix everything without actually building new ships from scratch, but instead of millions potential problems popping up, there are now mere thousands. And the remaining Navy crews who will not serve on the automated destroyers get to be re-assigned to the new ships being built, every decent officer becoming a captain for a corvette or frigate while promising ensigns become XOs .

This will fix the problem of not having captains for the new ships, since giving a new academy graduate a captain role is a recipe for many misunderstandings and even disasters.

For the Hammers and Meteors I still mainly use officers who served in the clone wars, while new Gand Findsmen and Dornean graduates and various Servants get trained to receive their own ships, using holosimulators 6 hours per day, plus 4 hours of bridge duty in different roles.

In fact, all Navy officers and gunnery crews have to train every day in holosimulators, as do the garrison Army soldiers.

Those deployed in the west get plenty of live fire training, so much that they have to rotate out every two weeks.

Not just people get worn out, but the weapons systems too. If you never seen a gatling gun melt from firing continuously for two weeks, I did. Only happens on saturated battlefields like the killik planets or various lugubrra infested worlds, but it does happen.

Some droids also crack, and become genocidal, but so far their restraining bolts have held, and they simply shut down.

I shiver thinking of billions of HK-47 wanna-be's .

Guess I'll have to implement rotation for tanks and droids as well.

At least Thrawn's droid troops have began advancing, only 20 kilometers from their landing zones but it most likely means the killik hives are running out of troops...after 8 months of non-stop massacre.

I hope they did. The army got to train a million officers, just by remotely directing their companies on the ground.

Cause we weren't about to risk losing any remotely capable officer to the killik hiveminds and have to contend with actual weapons and strategies. They get good very fast, as my own Centerpoint station can attest.

Still have 14000 Venators to upgrade to the Nebula II class, so I'll be here for a while.

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

Mon Calamari system

Orbital shipyard

"Again, esteemed shipbuilders, no. I do not want ships larger than one kilometer. I want my ships to have the MC Liberty profile but with 10 times more armor and burrowed engines and bridge. And less ion cannons and more masers and missiles." my Avatar explained again.

"You're not seeing the beauty of this design, Avatar. Like a drop of water, it flows and..." a genius artist commented at my request, the 25th today, and perhaps the thousandth this month.

"Lugubrra eat ship armor, most enlightened artist. The Vong use gravity fields for propulsion, as well as tractor beams. This beautiful and artful ship, with its long appendage bridge hanging 500 meters below the hull would simply be torn into bits. You can build it from your own pocket, but not from the Navy budget." I replied in a disgusted tone.

This MC75 cruiser was a horrendous ship. Made my skin crawl.

"You're no patron of arts, Avatar. Only war and more firepower..." a lady Calamari engineer complained, almost correctly.

"These shipyards that employ all of you, were built with my credits. Your salaries are paid by my credits. And the safety of the people below, is guarded by the ships we make here. Pretty flimsy ships, many dead Calamari, and babies eaten alive. Is this more helpful and patronizing?" I asked rhetorically.

"We have our own customs and designs, great Avatar. But, perhaps we can build something functionally similar to your Nebula destroyers and the smaller cruiser and frigates. Just...stop setting your fists on fire. It's a bit scary..." an older Quareen builder said with a peaceful tone.

Huh, didn't realize I was reaching the limits of patience, for something so trivial.

"Indeed, whenever art and survival come into balance, I tend to favor survival. Because dead people do not make art. Think of it like this: you want to make a shield and a spear, to fend of a big shark. Now, if those devices are thin and flimsy, the shark will bite them off, and eat you. If they are sturdy and strong, you can decorate them with shark teeth and carvings, because you are still alive. Simple?" I asked in a more amused tone.

Forgot I had to reference water things to make them understand.

"Hmmm, you may actually have a point here, firebender. Something sturdy to resist a bite from the sharks, like your meteors and hammers, but agile enough to run circles around them...and kill the remoras and other scavengers, while your own sharks battle theirs. We may need to use gyrating turrets, to be able to keep firing while running away. Come back next month, we'll have something for you then..." the eldest artist mused, looking at me with his only good eye.

Excellent, I got through to someone, and didn't have to punch anything!

Here, old guy, have some healing and reinforcement. You're 20 years younger now! Keep making nice ships for me.

And teleport back on the Dart.

Now, where to go next?

I had planet Monastery in my schedule for a visit, and their Force Order of the Sacred Circle , which had recently got a new female leader.

" We worship the eternal, ever-renewing circle of life." Domina Tagge , All-High Priestess .

And then, I had a long awaited vacation to planet Spunchina , famous for its benevolent women and their galactic class, month long orgies.

Hmmmm. Though choice.

Well, in this case, why not both?

I'll just have to romance that new priestess, and bring her with me to Spunchina, in a honeymoon tour of the empire.

And getting married in the Tagge family would be a bonus for both of us. I rather make them my allies, than have to kill them all.