Commenor system, Pef Empire

Celestial Throne, Redbox

10 BBY

The holomap was kept zoomed in, focused on the North of the galaxy, detailing the latest deployments of the Pef Navy and their Vong counterpart.

"We're doing great, I believe. By next year, the last Vong ships and bioforms should be eliminated" Zuckuss spoke, with confidence. Not a great analysis, my friend. These are just the scouts...

"We did take substantial loses, especially in engagements not covered by your battle meditation" Admiral Thrawn commented wisely. Again, not helping. We are getting murdered on the ground, by their recon elements...

"Hey, so what if we lose ten times more droids in ground assaults? We can always print more. Which I'm doing right now..." Core exclaimed from its Centurion droid chassis. The AI was the worst...

They all turned to me, hoping for some magic answer.

"Yes, the Praetorian Vong should be done. Unless they hide a couple of secret bases somewhere. The Exploration Corps is still searching." I replied calmly, just as my Third Hand's doppelganger appeared next to me.

"I lost contact with my spies in sector V5, Emperor. Cloaked ships, mechanical. Very advanced." He whispered in a fake tone, feigning competence.

Hmmm. Not the best timing, but I knew it would happen, sooner or later.

I zoomed the holomap towards V5, where an arm of the galaxy was located, unexplored and unknown, for the most part.

"Core, any thoughts?" I asked at random.

"It wasn't me! I promissed I won't shoot down my counterpart's spies, not anymore..." the droid exclaimed in fake outrage. Not anymore, he says. Why are they wasting my credits on stupid inter-service rivalry...

"Then, it is most likely these are the fabled Silentium droids, I would think" Admiral Thrawn said softly, while eying the Core's droid with some suspicion.

I stopped for a few seconds to assemble a number of first contact plans, mostly rehashing the old contact plans, with the new info at hand.

In the end, I went with the variant I knew it did work, in my other future. Why fix it, if it works.

"Mujilik, I will need Lehesu detached from your Corps, and be ready to depart on a first contact mission in sector V5, by next week. The expedition will depart from Munto Codru. Core, you detach 5 Silencers for this. And Jaybo and Lando will be in command" I ordered in a polite tone, as already the hypernet orders were sent.

Perhaps, Solanus will need some input too. 'Nope, you're doing great Pef' my water maid sent through the Voice bond.

Okay then...if you say so.

Director Isard lifted his head from his console, looked at me for a second, then resumed his current work, likely the continued search for Vong infiltrators. Did I need Intelligence on this? Nope, not yet.

But, it did pose some risks.

A second later, and the secure holonet to Vanquo went online, showing me a tiny hologram of Strategos Grey, of the Gray Paladins.

"Hello Strategos. I need a memetic counter-subversion unit for the V5 expedition. Next week." I asked politely.

"Errrr. Hello Emperor. Let me see...Force-based or not?" Gray Xman asked while scratching his cheek, and doing stuff on his own console.

"Advanced AI, we think. Nanite subversion included" I answered with a tinge of fake worry.

"Ah. Phasing tech? Electromagnetic effectors? Gravity alter?" he asked me while dotting thinks down.

"It's a first contact situation, my friend. We don't know yet. Except it's possibly extragalactic, old and dangerous. Possibly Silentium" I answered with a fake cheek scratch of my own.

The leader of the Paladins blinked confused for a second, possibly downloading the relevant info with his biochip.

"Well...I can spare a team, sure. This seems pretty big. Especially if they have records of Vong operations. Three organics and one droid. For the Empire!" he replied cheerfully and shut off the transmission.

Cheeky guy.

My Hands in the Redbox looked at me and then at the ceiling, pretending nothing happened.

"Right. What else?" I asked in a business tone.

"The Ssi-ruu that we liberated are starting an underground revolution, or something. They don't like the Empire much..." Director Isard replied in a business tone.

Oh well. Time to opress more people then.

Planet Zeltron, Pef Empire

Advanced intelligence Campus, University of Zeltra, Dormitory 344433, room 4

"Sorry girls, I don't really have a choice. If Pef wants me to go, I have to go" Jaybo muttered, trying not to wilter under the gazes of his friends. Girlfriends.

"I am coming with you. You might stumble and break an arm, or something." Ysanne demanded in her usual tone, like her will could bend the universe. Which it did seem likely, sometimes.

"I survived stinger-sharks when I was 7. I'll be fine" he answered with a sad smile. Nobody believed him though.

Serene just looked down in her lap, hands white on the briefcase handle. Her prototype weapon and most cherished possession was inside. After a minute of heavy silence, she looked up with confidence.

"I'll be here, waiting. Try not to die Jay"

Gah, what could he answer?

"Lando will take care of that. At least Han won't be around to start a fight, this time" he replied in a more joking tone.

"You need better friends Jay. I mean, better boyfriends. I mean, men. Gah! " she continued, stumbling through words and blushing, possibly imagining whatever stupid things girls did.

'I'm ready' he sent through his implant, and was displaced away, avoiding more heartbreaking sobs.

He knew this day would come. The Emperor didn't waste anything or anyone. Perhaps, this mission was the payment he was due to pay, for all the good life he had, after Iego.

Teeth clenched and eyes closed, he waited for the translation sickness to fade.

A robotic hand patted him on his head, and he felt fresh and awake, and cured. Great, another magic trick.

"Father"

"Why the long face, my son? Great news, we found some aliens! And you're going to greet them" Pef said cheerfully, in his usual sociopathic manner.

Aliens? Everyone in the galaxy was alien. They had plants and rocks and insects and snakes and mermaids and thousands of other species, just in his campus. Millions of species, in the galaxy.

Truly strange, his father.

"First contact mission?" Jaybo asked, just to make sure. The only logical reason to call another race alien.

"Smart too! Your mother would be proud. But yes, if these guys are the Silentium, then they are truly alien, more so than any race in the galaxy. They like number five, and are lead by the One and the Other. Also, the Vong kinda exterminated them in their home galaxy" Pef continued in the same cheerful tone, while tinkering with a Terminator armor, pouring a grey liquid inside, for whatever reason.

His biochip fed him the info he lacked. War nanites. A variant not in the database.

"I only see one Terminator set. Where's the one for Lando?" he asked with a leap of logic. Not really a leap though. His father was quite easy to predict, for him.

"Ah yes. Your friend, Lando. He likes to wear leather jackets and boots, doesn't he? He'll be fine" Pef replied dismissively, as four Paladins entered the Mechatronic Art lab, one of them lighting up in his threat scan, for wearing a functional lightsaber.

A real Jedi! And a Paladin droid too! This mission looked quite serious then.

"The boy is our commanding officer for this mission?" the droid Paladin asked with a doubtful voice. Jaybo looked confused at his father.

"Nah. Jaybo is technical support. Lehesu will lead, and Lando is second in command. Now come, you need to be fitted with maser translators" Pef replied, explaining nothing.

His biochip parsed the available data and brought up a picture of his commanding officer. A space medusa called Lehesu, holding Explorer Third Rank, 1051 new systems discovered. Species called Oswaft. Natural habitat, vacuum. Age 31.

Weird, but a highly capable leader, at first glance. Most Explorers don't survive more than 10 new systems. And even telepresence exploring wasn't that great, with migraines and aneurysms leading to death and early retirement after less than 100 blind jumps.

Maybe this guy was like Angie? Hopefully not a scatter brain like her.

"Maser translators? Are they for the Oswaft?" he wondered, a soft whisper.

"Exactly. Lehesu and Lando's job will be to establish contact and a trade agreement with the Silentium. Like for example, immigration rights in my galaxy, for working strategies against the Vong. Your job is to safeguard the expedition against AI subversion. All five of you will need to be on guard. If you do get infected, I'll detonate the nearest stars and avenge you. Have fun!"

Pef concluded in the same creepy cheerful tone, after pouring more nanites over the Paladins.

Huh. That sounded right. Pef did like monumental funeral pyres.

Jaybo entered his new armor, and closed his eyes.

Duty was a heavy mountain.

Munto Codru system, Pef Empire

HMS Silent Night

"So, you're saying half of that huge blobby thing is your brain?" Lando asked, actually curious.

"Yes. I am very smart" Lehesu replied proudly.

"Damn. You must get monstrous headaches with a brain that big. Doesn't your brain freeze in space?" Lando wondered, still amazed at this guy.

"I am starting to feel a headache..." the Oswaft muttered with a stronger maser beam.

Lando Calrissian thought deeply, then came up with the correct answer "You should wear a hat!"

On board HMS Silent Night, Monto Codru system, Pef Empire

10 BBY

The dizziness of the latest translation was still messing his head and his stomach, and Jaybo sat down on the floor, hoping for a minute of respite.

'Vital signs at 98%, injecting stimulants' the armor murmured to his implant, and proceeded to do so, regardless of his want.

Damn it Pef. So overbearing, again.

A familiar face leaned closer, and peered curious into the helmet's photoreceptors. Knock Knock! "Jay, my boy. You alright in there?" Lando asked with his normal flair.

Sigh. It's a Terminator Armor. He would be alright even if fired upon by a medium war fleet.

'Helmet lock off' Jaybo asked, and then proceeded to remove the helmet. "Yes Lando. Owww! Stop knocking on my forehead!"

"Still a baby, like always. Come and meet our commander. You're gonna love him, he's almost as smart as you!" Lando demanded in his careless voice, and tried to lift him up.

Didn't work, obviously. Even the modern variants of the Terminator still massed over one ton.

"Yes sir. Coming" he replied in more serious tone and raised to his feet.

"Oh! I am your boss for this mission, right. No rank though, since I'm not military. Something about civilian oversight, forgot about the rest..." Lando muttered and waltzed towards the Silencer's bridge.

Duty Jaybo. Think about duty.

A minute later, he followed Lando onto the bridge, noting the silent whispers in his implant, indicating the Core AI presence.

Made sense though. The Silencer cruisers were always hooked up to the AI, the Eighth Hand guarding over his creations jealously.

He nodded to the bridge crew and Captain, awaiting permission to proceed forward.

"Jaybo Greyshade, reporting for duty" he spoke softly.

The Captain was a Toong, also sporting an Explorer badge, and his implant began pouring the available data into his brain. This guy discovered Orion! A legend from the early days of live exploration, and one the rare survivors.

"Indeed you are. Honored to meet the Emperor's son. Please link with the bridge systems and begin checksum calibrations. You have 10 minutes." The Captain ordered after a nod, then turned around and forgot about him.

Right, he did have a job to do. Establish a baseline and monitor intrusions into the ship's systems. And hopefully keep them from being taken over, or worse. No pressure.

Lando opened his mouth, then looked at the Captain with the corner of his eyes and closed it. So, he could learn, after all.

The galaxy might not be doomed after all.

"Hey Lehesu, say something, my friend! Jaybo is here, and is eager to meet you" Lando exclaimed loudly into a side station.

Sigh. The galaxy was still doomed. At least Lando addressed the Expedition's leader, bypassing the chain of command aboard the ship.

'Greetings Jaybo. Do you like poetry? Your friend Lando is sadly not equipped with sufficient brain matter to admire the beauty of the sky...' the Oswaft sent via a maser beam, tingling minor alarms in his armor and the ship's datanet.

'Greetings Lehesu. Stand by while I complete the system scans. And no, poetry is not a current interest. I enjoy hyperspace physics and material synthesis as my primary hobbies.' Jaybo replied via his maser translator.

'Oh? You can understand hyper mathematics transforms with your tiny human brain? Not too shabby. So, you think I should wear a hat, like Lando says?' the huge space manta asked in curious tone.

Jaybo sighed, again. By next week, the Landofication of the Expedition would be well under way, half of the crew would be wearing leather jackets, and the rest laser pistols hanging from their hips. Or both.

'Checksum established. Commencing system architecture scans' his implant announced with a familiar print inside his visual cortex.

The Silencers were a strange class of ships, and the newer generation like this one even more. Mass shadows, artificial mass, solid state holograms, synthetic aperture sensors.

The Core AI went overboard with bleeding edge tech on his ships, not to mention the Ardanium reactors or the Force-maser beams.

And this cloaking...stygium-hibridium 4D holographic Simulfutur incorporating a holocron AI and Fallanassi subroutines...how...

Nevermind. Not his problem. But possibly it had required a torture probe to extract the operating systems from a Fallanassi adept, a procedure extremely painful and not really survivable. Don't think about how, Jaybo. It doesn't matter.

Jaybo closed his eyes and tried to meditate. A minute later, the teachings finally worked and his own Force powers emerged.

A thin technopathic Force link merged him with the ship's computers, giving him an additional layer of security.

Nothing major, but enough to notice when something was changed.

The Oswaft was constantly screening the cruiser's transmissions, stealing data being parsed to nearby hyper nav beacons and fleet bases. The Core AI was doing the same, but in different way, modulating an artificial boson field.

It worked kinda similar to Serene's weapon...but had the same sharp feel that the Alashan tech did, especially when the computers pretended to be running at low power. Core was scared a little.

"We're good Captain" Jaybo announced after rechecking twice.

"Great. After you, Explorer Lehesu. When you're ready" the Toong Captain spoke politely, poking his station with a clawed finger.

"Sure. Here we go, jumping to V5, last known position of the lost spyship. Jaybo, don't forget about my hat" Lehesu sent with a maser beam, the amplitude too high by an order of magnitude.

'Shield integrity at 99 percent. Recharging' the ship's computer droned in his implant.

Jaybo sighed, as the Oswaft Explorer opened a hyperspace window and jumped through.

The fleet of five Silencer cruisers engaged their hypertrackers and followed.

On board HMS Silent Night, Unknown regions, Sector V5

Jaybo checked the ship's sensors again, then turned towards the Captain, and opened his eyes.

"The ocean planet. It registers to the sensors as inhabited by mechanical lifeforms. Microscopic in size, with a few macroscopic specimens in centimeter range. Droids or some equivalent, but alive" He reported with a steady voice.

"What do mean alive? Metalheads are smart but not alive..." Lando intervened, rapping his knuckles on a nearby nav droid's head.

"They grow in size, and multiply by themselves. Also, our scans have been detected. I suggest we deploy the ship's blades" Jaybo continued, as if Lando's words flew past him like the wind.

The Captain turned towards Lando with a stern look, and his friend retracted his hand sheepishly.

"All ships, deploy blades at 80 degrees. And wait" The Captain commanded, after listening to something in his own implant.

How many entities were looking over their shoulders?

Lehesu flew around, his tentacles swirling behind him as the Silencers blades started to extend out, forming a bouquet of military flowers.

The silence was soon disrupted by alerts coming from various sources, like his Force senses, the gravitic sensors and hundreds of tiny scintillations in the ship's datanet.

They were being scanned in turn, by an unknown cloaked vessel which just translated above them, without a hyperspace wake.

Superior tech, even beyond the Alashan tech. Nothing to worry.

Slowly, Jaybo began closing the most vulnerable sections, and erasing partitions that appeared compromised.

The Core AI had already vanished, his AI subroutines already in purge mode. Yeah, you better run.

"I suggest we transmit a first contact package. Also the Vong logs." Jaybo said softly, his attention focused on keeping the architecture intact enough for an emergency hyperjump.

"Right. Make it so, Lieutenant Troy." the Captain responded after a second of deliberation.

That someone else monitoring the Captain was still online then, and undetected.

'It's Solanus. Don't worry, son. Not yet.' his implant printed using Pef's encryption.

Jaybo sighed and closed his eyes. Why did he even bother?

He should have expected it, the moment the system was noted to sport a water planet.

All the Triumvirate was interested in this encounter, minds so powerful they controlled the entire galaxy.

"Hey you, big droids! Are you the Silentium people?" Lando yelled loudly in his com.

At least the first contact package went through, and thus half of the job was already done. Maybe it won't be so bad, if the extragalactic droids responded with gridfire, or some other nasty weapon. His duty would have been...

"Thanks alot One. This hat is really nice!" Lehesu transmitted after a few seconds of tension.

The screen focused on the Oswaft leader, now wearing a fluffy hat, about 400 meters in size. Which the big droid just instantiated around his head.

Jaybo sighed and left the bridge, his stress levels decreasing with every step.

Morons everywhere! It seemed stupidity was truly an universal constant, crossing inter species barriers and extra galactic voids with ease.

Soon, the newly discovered Silentium droids will wear leather jackets and chew bubblegum. It was inevitable.

Suddenly, the whole mission made sense in Jaybo's mind, the weird commander, the even weirder second in command.

'Don't be upset Jay. We might win the war with the Vong now. And friends are important.' Pef sent him through the bioimplant, but he wasn't in the mood for platitudes.

Jaybo Greyshade wanted to live in a galaxy that made sense. Was that so much to ask?

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

HMS Dart, Zaddja system, Pef Empire

"That went well. Not even a single star had to be exploded." Solana whispered as I leaned back on the couch.

"It went well because Jaybo stopped the infiltration. Made the Other pause and step back. He couldn't be sure if we just pretended to be idiots. Not when his takeover was stopped by magic means." the Avatar explained, as a cup of coffee was wished into existence in his hand.

"That kid deserves a better family. You're all idiots." his water maid replied carelessly.

"You're technically his mother. What does it say about you?" I answered with a grin, and sipped the exquisite, irrationaly tasty, coffee.

Solana sighed and changed her eyes color to grey. As good an answer as I was likely to get.

"Let's go find Sekot then." I muttered in a low voice as my ship teleported at the edge of the system and then jumped into hyperspace.

"Let's hope he likes morons too!" Solana whispered to herself.

"Hey, I'm pretty likable!" I murmured in my cup.

The Dart dodged some hyperspace anomaly and the coffee scalded my hand and chest. Damn.

I wasted half of my precious coffee!