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Broken Chain
Book 2 Chapter 9

Book 2 Chapter 9

I'd commissioned and reincarnated into my own clone that same day, and got the same results as Zash.

Many of the Perks in Essential Body Mod were generic- as in, they did a specific(ish) thing in an unspecified manner that you had to specify, and you could take the same one as many times as you want, to specify different manners. For example, Kinesis controlled a substance or energy; one could very much take it twice to control both ice and stone.

At the same time, Cheat Death was quite specific that it only worked once per Jump, or per ten years, whichever was more favorable. But, well.

It was generic, too- it brought you back from death, but you had to specify how. So if I could get it a second time- by, say, submitting to the authority of the community I'd created and accepting a use of Minion Empowerment- then it would have a different refresh timer.

That alone was mildly busted. I basically had infinite extra lives now. But I only needed to use it because of something majorly busted:

One: Cheat Death let you specify your method of resurrection, and being literally reborn, as a baby, from a vagina, was a perfectly cromulent method of resurrection.

Two: Essential Legacy means that your children inherit your Body Mod as it was at the moment of their birth.

Three: By killing myself and being reborn, I was now technically the daughter of someone who had basically every Perk in the document, and therefore I now had basically every Perk in the document too.

"Now that is going to ruin someone's day," I said, holding a lightsaber by the blade. Elemental Resistance 4: total immunity to all damage sources, mundane or supernatural, of a given element. Given how lightsabers were made of plasma and Sith Lighting was made of, you guessed it, non-radioactive beta particles, it only took two instances of that Perk before I was functionally immune to anything a Sith would think to do to me. I had more than just the two instances, of course, but I would only truly need the two of them.

There were other measures, of course- there was another Perk that gave me a flat 90% damage reduction to everything physical, meaning I could get chewed on by an alligator and only be mildly annoyed. However, I legitimately simply could not list out all of the bullshit I had going on now in a way that would enlighten rather than confuse, so I'm just hitting the high notes.

"That it is," Zash said, nodding.

"Now," I began, tossing my lightsaber- I had, of course, made a new one after Thanaton destroyed my old one, and made some very, very necessary upgrades to make it less 'explode in my hand' while still being convenient to keep charged- upward and catching it on the way down before clicking it off and holstering it. I now had a bunch of batteries in my belt, and the holster was wired up to those, containing an inductive wireless charging coil to keep my lightsaber's electronics completely contained within the protective shell. "My goal is simple: Defeat Thanaton and take his place on the Dark Council. The steps are straightforward: Publicly demonstrate the sheer girth of my mighty Sith-cock, like I did on Taris, so that I am respected as, at least, a credible threat who can't be easily steamrolled, then challenge Thanaton and defeat him in such a way that the Dark Council knows it was me. Then, hey presto, I'm the new Councilor of Ancient Knowledge."

"I have a question about the details," Zash asked.

I didn't really trust Zash all that completely, if I was being honest, and so I'd created a second, secret lineage from a new primordial ooze, all so that, when she was reborn into a body with all those Essential Body Mod perks, it was not in fact a body with all of those Essential Body Mod perks. Only the ones I didn't think she could do all that much damage with: stuff that made her bodily more durable, even ageless and immortal, but absolutely nothing to do with either skills or minions.

"Ask away," I said.

"How exactly do you plan to demonstrate the... quote unquote, girth of your mighty Sith-cock?"

"Well, that is easy," I said, grinning. "We've seen first-hand, on Taris, that just because the war is technically over does not mean there isn't still fighting going on. External Affairs has informed me that the Empire is backing a coup d'etat on Corellia, where the 'legitimate government' has declared its allegiance to the Empire, and now the Imperial military has arrived in force to 'restore order.' Naturally, the Republic is not exactly happy with this, and is declaring the Corellian government illegitimate, and preparing to send in its own forces to fight the 'terrorists, domestic and otherwise' that they're calling the Imperial military and its few Corellian allies."

"I see," Zash said, nodding. "And you intend to stick your own oar into that applecart?"

"I absolutely do," I said firmly. "Quite aside from this being an opportunity to burnish my credentials even further..." I sighed. "Corellia is burning, Zash. Innocents are dying. All for nothing more than the egos of old men who can't get it up if someone isn't bleeding. I cannot allow this fighting to continue."

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"And how do you intend to enforce pacifism?" Zash asked.

"Pacifism is about advocating for peace," I said. "What people don't seem to understand is that it does not preclude the use of force or even violence to achieve that peace. Pacifists themselves don't like confronting that fact, really- that's why the Jedi are so high-strung." I squared my shoulders. "But, well. Eggs have to be broken to make omelettes, and it just so happens I know which eggs I won't feel bad about cracking just to make breakfast. Or, in this case, a cleverly-designed peace treaty."

"That does bring me back to my last question," Zash said. "You officially aren't even Lord Khar'cair anymore. You have very little authority, and this time, you won't be able to borrow Darth Gravus' authority, now that the Sith know what kind of weasel you are. Or, well, were." It seemed she hadn't quite internalized that Khar'cair and I weren't the same person. Oh well. "Meanwhile, I've been paying attention to External Affairs as well, and by my count, a full third of the Dark Council is invested in the Battle of Corellia. Overriding their will- and it does seem that they would all very much like to conquer Corellia- will be... tricky."

"Of course it will," I said, nodding. "Fortunately, I have an answer for that. Which you'll see when we head out tomorrow. Trust that I know what I'm doing, and get some rest."

"Yes, my lord."

---

The Century Eagle had been retrofitted with a few biotech upgrades- that weren't even biotech, really, since the mindless slimes had been transmuted into unliving metal- in the leadup to our departure. The hull was now ten times more durable, which I'd been informed at length didn't actually matter very much, what with the current state of the military art being that ships had two states, 'shields up' and 'exploded,' with only the briefest of transitory states from one to the other. But the hull would also fully regenerate, in the event that we ran into enemies using low-energy saboteur droids that could sneak through shields that missiles and blasters simply couldn't.

Most importantly, though, the Century Eagle now had an integral earthmover that'd let us exit our base without giving away its location, along with a very, very good cloaking field to let us get far away from Hoth before making the jump to lightspeed.

Our first destination was one I'd had scouted out by the five or so mundane (if very well-made) corvettes my factory had built before switching over to biotechnology, out in deep space, above the galactic plane. Travel out here, technically outside the galaxy, was simultaneously safer and more dangerous. On the one hand, there was a lot less shit out here to run into. On the other hand, there were a lot fewer passers-by to rescue you if your hyperdrive failed. But, well, I was confident in my hyperdrive, as it was fiat-backed, and even if it did break, I'd been taught its inner workings so thoroughly that I could just make a whole new one with my onboard fabricator.

Not that I'd need to.

"Your patience will be rewarded, Zash," I said. "You've been an excellent sounding board for explaining the exact girth of my Dark Side Dong, and now, I reward you with another quest in that vein." I activated the ship's intercom, and leaned into the microphone. "Commodore Cho! Seal the cargo bay bulkheads, then open the main door!"

Alerts sounded from the helm, informing Zash and I that my orders were being followed.

"I used to have a personal dimension called the Warehouse," I explained. "While I'm in this universe, it's sealed to me, but fortunately, there are other avenues to the creation of pocket dimensions."

"What is that thing coming out of our cargo hold?" Zash asked, watching the viewscreen.

"That's a Bioship!" I said. "Technically not biological, really, they're all made of metal and ceramic and polymer just like every other ship in the galaxy, but either way, they're still valid carriers for my extradimensional power. That house-sized ship that just slipped out of our cargo bay- see how big it is? About as big as the Century Eagle, but longer and narrower?"

"That would not have fit inside our cargo bay," Zash agreed, nodding. "Not unless it can shrink. Thirty meters, stem to stern- that's longer than our whole ship."

"Oh, it is shrunken," I said casually. "Shrunken by a linear factor of a hundred, in fact. At full size..." Which the ship obligingly shifted into, as it got far enough away from us to do so safely. "...the damn thing is three kilometers long, stem to stern."

Zash blinked a few times.

"There have been ships built that large," Zash allowed. "Not many, but... a few."

"And this one is mine," I grinned. "Zash, I would like to introduce you, formally, to the Star Destroyer Undaunted, along with its complement."

"Oh, of course there's more," Zash murmured, watching as the wedge-shaped carrier- a classic design throughout military history, for good reason- opened some secret bay doors, releasing a dozen or so more shrunken ships, which grew to full size once clear. None of them were the same size as the Undaunted, but there was a quartet of thousand-meter gunships that eschewed starfighters in favor of simply pouring unconscionable amounts of firepower into the enemy's shields, marking the top end of the Undaunted's complement. In addition to the gunships, there were some support ships carrying fabrication facilities, alongside smaller carriers that supported a wing or two of more starfighters. "Good heavens. Do you think you have enough ships, my lord?"

"We're about to see, aren't we?" I asked.

"Admiral Corcoran, this is Commodore Cho, aboard the Star Destroyer Undaunted," the commodore radioed in. "All vessels and crew are accounted for, and awaiting your orders."

"Good work, Commodore," I said. "All vessels, sync to flight control aboard the Undaunted. Undaunted... Plot a course to Corellia. We've got a war to win."

"Aye, Admiral. Prepare to jump to lightspeed."