Chapter 16: A Symbol of Peace

“Master, Midnight has fallen.” A quiet voice whispered from the distance. For a moment there, I thought I was hallucinating. I looked over towards the northwest. The direction of Mos Espa and smiled wryly.

“Middy isn’t dead. I would’ve felt it.” I focused a little harder and then saw through the eyes of the invisible centipede that was crawling across Anakin’s ceiling. He was frantically working on some contraption, while some machines were pumping oxygenated blood into Midnight’s severed head. The cat was unconscious but still technically alive. Otherwise his Force Ghost would probably be over here bitching and complaining by now.

“Father, do you wish for me to send a Drone?” Izsha asked curiously, “A Drone should be perfectly capable of replacing his missing body.”

It really wouldn’t be that hard to clone a new body for the cat. In fact, that wouldn’t even be necessary. Midnight has immortal cells. He can theoretically heal from any wound as long as his brain isn’t too damaged. He might not have Wolverine or Deadpool level regeneration, but it’s at least on the level of a regular Zergling. As long as he was placed in a Creep Cocoon he could heal in a matter of hours or days at most.

“No. I’m curious now. I might as well let my Apprentices get some experience.” I snickered and shook my head, “Even if they fail and Middy dies for real, it just means that it was his time. He probably did some stupid shit and got himself killed again.”

Yes, again. This wasn’t the first time he almost died. Not even the tenth. Usually it’s from eating something poisonous or toxic to cats. Or getting bitten by venomous insects… Some of which I created myself during my experiments. I’m just kinda numb by now.

If he dies, he dies. It’s kinda fucked, but what am I gonna do? Cats aren’t meant to be immortal anyway. If he was a regular cat, he’d be dying of old age soon anyway.

“Sometimes I feel like I’d fit in well with the Jedi. At least in their ability to not give a fuck about life and death most of the time.” I sighed and returned my focus to my own body. I was in one of the three Evolution Chambers. One of them was completely hogged by a big-ass Rancor momma, another one had the baby Sarlacc, Rancor and Greater Krayt Dragon inside… I was in the third. It was a lot more peaceful and serene without all the roaring or growling, or just the heavy breathing.

“I doubt the Jedi would tolerate our existence.” Izsha whispered into my mind as I leaned back into the pulsating fleshy chair. In front of me there were seven large black and smooth spheres. They had stary lights in their centers. Three were green on the left, one was blue, then an orange, yellow and finally just plain black.

I reached out and pulled the black one towards my hand. It was the size of a… Bowling ball? Something like that. They were all pretty big. The biggest Krayt Dragon Pearls we managed to find within the stomach of that poor bastard we devoured from the inside out. The other twelve were only about the size of baseballs. They still looked pretty, floating in front of the white bony wall.

“Kyber is such an interesting… Organism.” I squeezed my hands, forcefully crushing and warping the black ball down! Smaller and smaller, until it was only the size of a tennis ball at most. It roared and screamed in discomfort, pain… The Force was agitated by the crystalline lifeform’s suffering.

“I wonder if the Jedi know or care how much they torture their poor Kyber buddies?” I smiled wryly and shrugged my shoulders, “Or maybe these Kyber Crystals enjoy the pain a bit too much? Are they screaming in agony or pleasure? Maybe a bit of both.”

I thought for a moment and the blackened palm of my right hand opened up with a slit. Crimson blood flowed up and engulfed the condensed Krayt Dragon Pearl. My wound closed with a thought. Then I molded the blood into the shape of a simple cylinder that was rounded on one end and concave on the other. It quickly started hardening, with the blood transforming into organs, muscles, veins and arteries. The black crystal at the center like a throbbing heart.

“Hmmm…” I pursed my lips and tried to think, “Let’s see…” I muttered as I quickly covered the center with bony white ribs, then a spine down the back, a reddish-brown carapace covered everything else in layers of armor, but the white bones were still visible on the outside. The concave part looked like an open toothy maw, but there was no tongue, only pinkish meat.

“That should do it?” I wasn’t totally sure it would work. So I put on my mask just in case it exploded in my fucking face.

“Father, wouldn’t it be more logical to make a shield, rather than a blade?” Izsha suggested, “Jedi and even Sith are rarely very durable. A Zergling with a personal shield and Force Powers should be able to handle most enemies.”

“Because that’d be way too overpowered. Obviously.” I squeezed the hilt a bit and it screamed in response! A huge black beam of deadly plasma shot out from the gaping maw and kept going! Arcs of purple lightning shot out everywhere and struck other Krayt Dragon Pearls floating nearby! It looked scary, but they were totally fine and didn’t explode or anything too dramatic.

There was a huge bloody and burnt wound in the wall though. The Evolution Chamber roared and cried from the pain of being torn a new asshole randomly…

“Okay, so maybe I should’ve tested this shit outdoors?”

So anyway, I released my grip on the lightsaber hilt and the plasma blade shrunk rapidly. The Kyber kept the hilt from melting or exploding as it was meant to, but it seems like my organic forcefield technology is a bit… Okay, very sketchy.

Conventional Langhesi Forging involves merging biological organisms, usually plants rather than animals, with regular old-fashioned technology that you can find anywhere in the Galaxy really. They don’t even use special engines, warp drives or shield generators in their million Credit bio-ships. The thing that makes them awesome is the way they’re able to form a psychic connection with their pilots for the most part.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

I did study it a little bit, but honestly, it’s not my forte. One of the reasons I wanted Anakin was because I figured he would probably be a lot better at the cybernetic and mechanical aspects of Langhesi Forging. I much prefer the biological side. Genetic manipulation was fun and extremely overpowered, but then again, everything was overpowered if you got it to a high enough level. At the lowest level, everything is trash regardless of how much potential those things might have.

“Shields take power. Kyber amplifies that power dramatically. Normal shield generators are usually expensive to power. Takes tons of energy that can’t really fit in such a small space. Otherwise everyone would just wear personal force field generators that worked constantly and still allowed them to interact with the world normally…”

Izsha suggested, “Perhaps we can grow our own Kyber Crystals? Or at least amplify their growth.”

“The Jedi actually know how to make Synthetic Kyber and there are fucktons of other types of crystal that can replace Kyber.” I couldn’t remember most of them, because it wasn’t really something I memorized in my first life. However, the fact that there were so many Lightsaber Crystals aside from Kyber… It meant that we should be able to make our own variations.

“On the other hand, since there are so many different crystals that can replace Kyber, not to mention the fact that Kyber isn’t stupidly rare… Why bother making our own version in the first place?”

I walked along the brown creep that glistened and writhed in the harsh sunlight. It was really squishy and lumpy. A few sharp teeth or spikes emerged from time to time, but they moved out of my way. In fact, if I didn’t feel like walking, I could just stand still and allow the Creep carpet to push me along.

The Protoss had Khaydarin Crystals, which were basically Kyber Crystals for the most part. I don’t think they were the ‘Minerals’ that Terrans, Protoss and Zerg could miraculously turn into anything they wanted, but they were definitely pretty useful. The Xel’Naga left behind the Khaydarin Crystals and the Protoss used them in practically everything, which is why they all had personal shields and psionic weaponry.

“Maybe I should try to make some wrist blades?” I looked at the hilt in my hand and aimed it away from me, and the ground, then squeezed slightly. The black beam shot out again, this time not quite as dramatically. It only reached a couple dozen meters, black sparks shooting off randomly. I focused my will on the blade and condensed it down, tighter and tighter, until it was a little thinner than the hilt in my hand. Then it was a matter of condensing the plasma farther by shrinking the forcefield… Using the Force.

“This seems very inefficient and unnecessary.” Izsha grumbled.

“The smaller crystals wouldn’t have such a stupidly large amount of power behind them.” I smiled wryly and wondered, “Maybe we should’ve started with the normal sized Kyber and worked our way up to the biggest Krayt Dragon Pearls?”

“Condensing the pearls seems unnecessary as well. Using the large pearls for long-range weaponry or shields would be far more effective.” She sent images of the Death Star blowing up a planet with a superlaser, then of a giant laser drill from Starcraft that was used to breach the door of a Xel’Naga temple. It was also something that the coop commander could use and was kinda OP. A map-wide death laser that kills shit automatically…

“Actually, I was kinda thinking more about the possibility of using Kyber Crystals to create some sort of Stargate. Or maybe a Hyperdrive. They’re attuned to the Force really strongly and can amplify energy, while also preventing energy from overloading and reducing overheating. Hell, could even make solid holograms like in Star Trek, or maybe the Crystal Gems from Steven Universe?”

Okay, I was getting a little ahead of myself. But there were a lot of possibilities. A lot of which were completely valid in Star Wars and even Starcraft. Stargates reminded me that I had to conquer Dathomir before those fucking morons ended up wasting a galactic stargate system. Besides, there were only about five thousand people on Dathomir and there were a lot of Force Sensitives. Loads of Rancors, Sarlaccs and other creatures, not to mention all the plants and minerals.

“Anyway, the purpose of the lightsaber is a symbol.” I held the extremely powerful but difficult to control ‘beast’ in my right hand, staring at that pitch-black plasma blade as arcs of purple Force Lightning sputtered around me uncontrollably. When the Creep was struck, it burned and died, but it became food for the other Creep and soon… All the damage was repaired.

“A symbol of ‘Peace’?” Izsha asked sarcastically.

“A fancy death-laser to guard the peace and justice of the Galaxy.” I narrowed my eyes and looked up towards the blue sky, “Looks like they’ve noticed us already.”

“The Jedi?” She wondered, then realized: “Father, we’re being surveilled!”

I could see a glint in the sky and when I focused my vision more, I could actually see the starfighter in the upper atmosphere. Using the Force, I could ‘feel’ a few lifeforms inside. It wasn’t an unmanned vessel, there really weren’t many of them to be honest. At least not yet.

“Feels hostile.” I couldn’t tell if they had Droids onboard, but I could definitely sense the three people who were on that ship. As they got closer, probably to see us more clearly, I could actually see inside the cockpit. My vision was stupidly powerful when I wanted it to be… Maybe not superman levels, but pretty damn impressive.

“Isn’t that the Rodian? Umm, I forgot his name. The Bounty Hunter that was on the ship back then…” I muttered to myself, though Izsha obviously could hear everything easily, “Shoot his ass down.”

“Yes, Father!” She excitedly aimed her Spore Crawlers towards the trajectory of the starfighter. They shrunk down, then with a deafening *Boom~!*, they fired one after the other! There was a green misty halo and trail through the air, but the projectile was so fucking fast that even a Starfighter couldn’t react at all!

I could see their shields partially block the clumps of green goop that had slowed down to supersonic speeds by that point. However, most of the acidic Creep managed to splatter across the hull and wings of the small vessel. The Spore Crawlers weren’t finished either. There were only five of them, but each was a gigantic cannon that could nearly launch their projectiles into space.

“The effects are decent.” I watched the ship billowing black smoke as it was hit by the second volley. The vessel lost a wing, and the other wing’s engine exploded, causing the starfighter to flip and tumble through the air. It passed over our valley and crashed into the nearby mountaintop. Big chunks of black rock came pouring down, along with bits of molten metal and other shrapnel.

“The range needs to be improved. Too much loss of momentum above ten kilometers. They will not allow us to defend against orbital targets.” Izsha was disappointed, but I was pretty happy with the results. Spore Crawlers were never really meant to attack orbital targets in the first place. They were anti-air at most. For enemies that far away, we’d need ‘starfighters’ of our own.

I turned off the lightsaber, then ignited it again slowly. Carefully controlling the beam length and power level. The lightning stopped. The air around me stopped quaking. It was serene and silent, just like the void. Umm, not the ‘Void’, but like the void of space. I think the Void had an atmosphere, so sound would probably travel pretty damn far. Can you imagine how loud the stars would be roaring constantly?

“Although it’s inefficient and imperfect, I kinda like it.” I waved the blade around a few times, before turning it off again. The toothy maw shut, while a few small yellow eyes opened up along the sides, blinking and looking around, before closing again to rest.

“Unlike a normal lightsaber, it’d be much more difficult for some random asshole to steal these and using them without the Force would be extremely dangerous. No, for that matter, if it wasn’t someone that we allowed to use the blade, then…” I watched as a scorpion-like tail emerged from the back of the hilt, stabbing the back of my hand with enough strength to pierce most armor. Not mine though. Especially not on my hands.

“Worst case scenario though, it could also just explode.” I didn’t demonstrate that feature, because it was unnecessary.

“Perhaps it’s time for Banelings and Scourge?” My daughter suggested that we’d start creating children who would become suicide bombers.

“This isn’t a video game.” I thought about it a bit more seriously, “If we create something like a Baneling or Scourge, suicide bombing could be an option, but more of a last resort. They still have claws and teeth. Banelings can spew acid, so can Scourge. If they die, they explode, but if they don’t die, they can still be useful.”

*Rumble~!* There was a huge landslide, but it really wasn’t that big of a deal. The Spore Crawlers and Spine Crawlers dug themselves out, walked around on their four spiky giant legs and picked better spots to dig themselves into the rocky, sandy black dirt again.

“Send some Drones to scavenge the wreckage. Might be something useful. At the very least, make sure they aren’t sending our location to anyone else or calling for reinforcements.” I knew they were just Bounty Hunters, but those fuckers usually worked for the Hutts. Ships crash on Tatooine all the time though. I see wreckage burning across the skies every night. It’s debatable whether these assholes will be missed.