Planet Bimmiel, Galactic North
30 minutes later.
I found an isolated camp of Vong troopers, who may not be missed.
They are planting some kind of crystals and plants looking even more weird than most things I've seen so far.
Lambent most likely, used as communication crystals or light sources, as they could be dimmed or brightened by the thoughts of whoever possessed them. They also can be used to sense or pre-sense hidden enemies.
Didn't sense me, but then I wasn't organic.
A few hundreds Grashal used to grow nutrient vines.
And water paddies like rice ones, low, water-filled paddies were seeded with villip plants, which grow into long, fleshy stalks recognizable by their triad of blue leaves. Two to five berries would bud from the stalks, feeding symbiotically and developing telepathic communication channels originally meant to scan for predators on the villip plant's home planet. Soon the berries grew to about the size of a melon, and Shapers would pluck the matured villips from their stalks.
Perfect. I wanted a way to intercept their transmissions.
Now, let's see, how to confiscate this plantation?
Telekinesis doesn't work. Eh, whatever. Force grip their brains with Fire-nets and squeeze. Flop. 142 Vong farmers crashed dead, while I brought 2 survivors next to me, wrapped in wind alter.
Telepathy doesn't work. Damn. Animal Bond? Not exactly working...just fear and panic.
Force persuasion, 'sleep'. Fail. Bleh. I don't speak Vong.
Let's just knock their heads together for now with compressed air. Cranial trauma highly effective.
Then again, organics. Rip off an arm or two and they die screaming.
Unless I stop blood flow at the right veins and reattach them soon. Talzin survived just fine.
Let's drag a dozen sample of these plants, then set fire to the place. Cause exorcism works best with fire.
And fly away, invisible and undetected...
'You're having too much fun, Pef. Those Vong soldiers seem very dangerous to me.' Wialu muttered, from Ranroon, while trying to pacify some maniac cultists there. Seems Xim did a number on them, and they haven't forgotten.
'Eh, I'll be fine anyway. But black ops missions, they get my blood boiling' I explained in a grave tone.
'You don't have blood.' my Voice replied, not really convinced.
What? Where is my blood? Oh. Crystal self.
Nevermind...the fires were spreading, and a few slash-rats poked their noses curious at the smell of burning Vong meat. Seems slashrats are slightly sentient, in larger groups.
Oh, poor little omnicidal creatures. Have a taste, and spread the word! Vong taste better after they are dead and a little fried.
Fire? Sure, you have thumbs...spark a few metal bits...no metal?
Stones? Every planet has stones...gather dry grass, spark some hard stones together, voila fire!
Firegod? Sure, you can call me that, I don't mind.
Heh, uplifting a new species to use fire. Only a few thousands, in range of my memory imprint, but they might spread the word.
Pef the Prometheus, of genocidal rats.
Now, let's close the hangar sally and fly away...with my captured loot.
A few thousands lambent crystals, not fully grown. A hundred or so strawberry things that can communicate telepathically. A dozen roots to see what these things eat. And two live prisoners.
But first thing, let's take off their biosuits...uh. No zippers, damn it.
Use the force Pef! Kinetic force. Power armor is very strong. There, explosive strip tease!
Their crab-like shells ruptured violently, spraying the barracks walls with purple ichor and organs.
They never bathed in their whole life, my olfactive sensors alerted me, as methane and other pollutants became evident in my air scans.
The Dathomirian Mothers managed not to kill each other while I was gone, and gathered behind me to stare.
"You brought a female as well. Very thoughtful of you, Emperor Pef. Now, Let's dissect the male first, I want to see what makes it tick." Miss Djo, the paragon of the light side said politely, producing a sharp knife from somewhere.
Talzin produced a plasma scalpel, which she conjured from nothing.
Hmm. I wanted that ability too. Plasma alter seemed useful.
Sadly, some extra dimensional force prevents me from describing the details of the next 12 hours.
Centrality, Open Sea
21 BBY
So, back to more relaxing things, like meeting with the Oswaft elders.
Feytihennasraof was big guy, over 1 km wide, so a bit wider than my Calamari cruiser.
And his Maser voice-stream was almost the strength of a medium maser, which for something organic was pretty good. And gives me ideas on a future Force-maser beam.
I kept the Rakata field turned off though, since the Oswaft might not like how the lion inside replied.
And why does my Calamari cruiser have a maser battery and 100 ion cannons?
Pure coincidence.
"So, Avatar of Immortal Pef, also known as Honored Avatar Greyshade, Voice of the Emperor, Metal Gand, Adeptus Astartes, Omnissiah and Master of Orion, Merchant Prince for the Commonality and Mand'alore the Charming and richest man in the galaxy. You want us to be friends and allies." the Oswaft Elder sent with a maser message.
Uh, I hope he knows I don't need to be called that at every sentence.
Then again, his fellow elder is called Senwannus'gourkahipaff so this might be a regular name for him.
"Indeed elder. My Empire can benefit from such extraordinary explorers like yourself, charting the galaxy. For example, we're looking for a lost colony of humans, at the northern edge of the open sea, about 4000 years ago. They should number in billions and be very small mammals about 500 times smaller than your body" I explained politely, while sending a telepathic message with a normal temperate planet, then going closer and seeing lakes and cities. And closer and seeing trees and people.
He replied with a near identical image, but the cities looked different and the people wore different clothes.
Then he hyperjumped without explanation, but I kept a force marker on him and his vector.
A hundred stars lower on the galactic plane than our droids were focused on.
I sent the coordinates to the hyperspace tracker of our navdroids.
"Follow that Elder Oswaft, Nav" I said out loud, and we jumped to hyperspace after him.
Because if Fay or Maul could do it, so can I now.
"You're tracking him through hyperspace...seems I did choose the right husband" Clara exclaimed, half happy, half envious. Now that I think on this, it does seem a valuable tool for spies.
"This jump may take 5 to 6 hours. Let's try to obtain a heir for all my titles" I murmured in her ear, while fondling her uniform.
"Oh my..." my wife started to complain, before I shut her up. With a kiss.
Renatasia system, Pef Empire (almost)
21 BBY
The system actually has 8 planets, 2 of them inhabited.
Renatasia IV looks pretty similar to the Commonality planets, only with older tech levels.
Renatasia III is just fields and pastures, producing food for the billions of forgotten colonists. Not very efficiently though, still using manual labor and animal muscle for traction.
A few millenia-old transport ships, with sublight engines, are making non-stop rounds, carrying cereals and meat to the hungry billions of the populous world.
Use the plastic thing, if you can't feed your children...
Our scans detect plenty valuable minerals on the other planets already. Well, at least those that emit radiation on their own, like neutronium and uranium.
"Thanks Elder. I'll arrange a space station to be constructed farther into the comet cloud, for keeping in contact and gifting you with maser translators and holo-tech. Come back next month, and bring any adventurous youngsters who wish to explore the galaxy." I sent to the huge sentient manta, with long tentacles and vacuum immunity.
Wait, the angels on Iego were also immune to vacuum, if not capable of hyperjumps. Probably. Let's hope not. I should bring a few angels here too. They'll like the Oswaft for sure, and use them as mounts. Win-win.
And if they learn to hyperjump too...I'll deal with it. Somehow. Herding cats might be hard, if they can jump to hyperspace.
Now, let's slice in and take over the main transmission towers for their news bulletins.
Cause, this planet was pretty much like my old one. Competing governments, and warring armies. At least they still used galactic basic.
"Greetings citizens of Renatasia. This is Avatar Greyshade. Rejoice, for today you are found. No longest lost, your colony is. My hyperspace cruiser is now in orbit over the fourth planet of this system. Please send any questions you have to our com droids, using regular coms. Our number, on every network, is 2. Press 2 and speak with our very pleasant droid chat operators." I proclaimed on the holorecorder, after taking off my helmet.
A face does make a man, after all. Even if I copied mine from Jaybo.
Hey, I have 40 thousands droids on board, they can answer basic questions.
Like: 'where are we? what year is it? who leads the Republic?' and so on.
"Peffy, these people...you're not bringing them into the Centrality, right? They'll cause problems and disturb the work markets..." Clara muttered in my neck.
"The Pef Empire has some 200 planets that need colonists, adorable wife. Don't worry, everything will be fine" I replied, stealing another kiss.
Uh, still live on the holorecorder. No matter, this just proves I love my wife.
Let's hope no one paid attention to my secret name...
"That will be all for now, gentlebeings. I have to return to Mandalore now, but a Voice of the Emperor will arrive soon, with uplift technologies. Farewell, and see you soon!" I proclaimed grandly, then made sure to cut the transmission.
"Setting hyperdrives coordinates for Zebitrope system, Avatar. Estimated travel time at 0.9 speed, 13 hours" the tactical droid announced loudly. The Findsman captain checked it again, to make sure we didn't hit a star or something.
And jump.
----------
Planet Dathomir, Pef Empire
21 BBY
Old Daka was very pleased with the Vong prisoners too.
She seemed pretty baffled why some sisters' magicks didn't work on them, but she'll figure it out.
The male one was pretty cut up, so he may not survive long, since every Mother wanted some bits of him to study.
Oh well, there's trillions more where he came from. Not like anyone would miss a farmer.
The woman was a bit more interesting, some kind of higher caste. Maybe Intendant caste . They might miss her, but it wasn't like I could give her back. Let's hope the slashrats eat the bones too.
Still trying to form a Vong vocabulary, but the woman seemed disinclined to cooperate. She'll be sorry soon. I'll leave a few droids to record her screams when Daka gets to her.
Now, I had to reverse engineer the Devastation and that Wennis cruiser with hellfire projectors from the Centrality Navy.
Then get ready to study the Scepter of Ragnos. It should be en route to Gand as well, by now.
"Well, most learned Mothers. Time to decide. Do you want to have powerful clan planets of your own, with skyscrapers and starships and jacuzzi baths, with millions of sisters, each helping the Pef Empire grow and civilize the galaxy. Or back to the mud huts and caves and rancors?" I asked gently, as I glided a few crates with advanced tech and armor from the cargo hold.
The lids opened and they gathered round poking this or that, straining to lift some bolt pistols meant for power armors.
"My clan sisters are not warriors Emperor. But, some civilization doesn't sound too bad. And medicine and knowledge...we can help, in our own way" Miss Djo said after a minute of internal deliberation.
Healers are good too.
"Great news Miss Djo. I'll make a few dozen holocrons for you, with what biological and engineering knowledge I know. The Vong will use viruses and plagues, and we need to prepare" I answered with a polite tone.
"I'd like some holocrons with force abilities, if you could, Emperor" Another Clan Mother said with a bit of hesitation.
Hey, I'm not the Jedi archives, keeping everything locked up!
"Sure, no problem Honored Mother. I know a few hundred abilities, gifting a few to my loyal allies is a great pleasure. Although, a dozen of them involve sacrificial rituals and draining entire planets of life. Or turning people in zombies. Or wiping memories. Or.."
"I get it, Immortal Pef. Nothing radical. Healing and speed and such. Keep the terrifying ones to use on the Vong or others like them." the Dathomirian Mother replied with a shudder.
"I'll make a composite then, for each of you. The basics, and a few energy abilities. But, in a years or two, I expect every sister to know them, or I won't give you more" I declared sternly, holding a finger up.
"That sounds...really good. You're not what we expected, Emperor" another Mother said, with keen eyes.
Huh, what did they expect?
"And, I'll select a few maids from each clan. They'll return with me on Gand, and learn from my gardener. This place...is too tame. Miss Zero will make them 10 times stronger." I said, with a pulse of vague creepiness and terror that I associated with my Avatar's teacher.
The Mothers looked around at the menacing jungles and the screaming of animals being devoured alive behind the walls of vines and leaves, and then at their rancors, domesticated and with saddles, and gulped in unison.
Yeah, be afraid, be very afraid.
The poor girls will have to craft clothes and baskets and even tree houses, without their hands, just with their minds. Using grass.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
And after that, compose poems, using ants and snakes to form letters. And after that, scorpions or sharks?...or no. I skipped that.
What was it? Unarmed combat or lightsabers? One or the other, my Avatar only used his hands anyway. Sometimes kicks.
Deka laughed gently, and stabbed the Vong woman with a syringe made of green mist. Made her talk, alright. Well, the Vong can scream, so that's verified. Still, you're ruining the mood, mad scientist witch.
"Don't forget to get me a few Sith holocrons, dear droid. I might find something to...kriff. Her leg melted off! I thought you said these Vong are very resilient." Daka complained with an annoyed voice, kicking the twitching leg away, and going for the next leg.
Yea, not if you inject them with plasma or acid alter. Still just organics.
"Try some sound alter too. Most organics feel vibrations, after all" I advised Daka with a curious tone.
"Interesting thought, inventive and...yep. The finger fell off. Just need a medium to transfer the ability, like a wire or shard of glass..." Old Daka muttered with real concern. Not sure if it's science or alchemy, but I don't mind, if it works.
Okay then. Time to construct a space station in Dathomir's orbit, and start building civilization here as well.
But, first! Picking up new maids. I loved this part.
Planet Gand, Pef Empire
Zero Garden
21 BBY two weeks later
I looked at the host of 25 maids that I selected to join me from the Dathomiran clans, then at Miss Zero, who wasn't happy at all.
"These girls are hopeless, Droid Emperor. How can they be one with the Force, and control their surroundings, if they can't control themselves?" Zero whispered, with a little despair in her aura.
Huh, my Avatar spoiled her alright. Not everyone was born with Master's levels of force connection and control.
"Let them learn slowly Zero. Remember, savage jungle planet with rancors as their mounts. Whatever teaching methods they had, they invented themselves. Their Mothers though, are at least our equals. You can learn from them as well, as they learn from you." I answered with my vocoder, but forming an air channel to restrict vibrations to a voice tube, like on submarines.
Zero noticed and smiled sadly. She still couldn't use air alter, yet.
"Stop inventing foolish abilities, Immortal Pef. That's the fifth you did, past week. I'll never live long enough to learn them all." my Zero Hand complained, punching my shoulder in a friendly gesture.
The power armor's pauldron almost cracked. And it was made to withstand starship levels of damage.
She really was very friendly.
"You will, Miss Zero. As long as you stay away from saber duels and leading clone armies with a flashlight. Half of the Order's Knights are already dead." I said in a gentle voice, and turned to leave.
"I sense them die...all over the galaxy. Masters and Knights and padawans too...and a lightsaber is a sacred weapon, not a toy..." Zero replied hesitantly, just as my personal Fade frigate came about, to pick me up.
Not really sure about the last part, are you? Tools should never be made sacred.
And soon, the Jedi Order will be gone. Fugitives and rebels, begging for food and help from whatever planets they didn't opress that much. Making friends with pirates and smugglers, to obtain transport and information. If only there was a safe place for them to run to.
Once in orbit again, I spread my senses to the nearby shipyards, now forming half a circle around Gand.
Back to constructing a warship, using the Wennis cruiser as a template. Well. Not really.
I'll make something on the lines of the Strike-class medium cruiser , which were small enough to use the 0.75 hyperdrives of the Diamonds and Fades. The shape would be much the same, but with a pair of stubby wings for extra missile launchers and a pair of small hangars underneath.
The core of the warship shouldn't be left vulnerable by having large hangar doors. Gonna have to rearrange the same for my MC80 Liberty cruisers. A few of them exploded due to lucky hits through their hangars.
Now. An ion cannon battery or two at the prow, because they're always useful to collapse ray shields and ionize small ships. Let's make it two then, 4 guns in each battery.
Then 40 heavy masers and 40 plasma guns, my own version of the old hellprojectors on the Wennis. The masers on top and the plasma projectors below, in case I needed a planet sterilized from orbit.
3 tractor beams, one at the prow and two beside the hangars doors.
80 Missile launchers, 30 on every wing and 10 protecting the prow and engines. And 60 gatling lasers, 20 on the wings and 10 to the prow and ten more around the engines. And let's add a bank of proton torpedo launchers as well, 2 on each wing.
Barracks for 600 Marines and large storage capacity, for a droid division and 20 light tanks.
In each hangar, 50 Biplane droid starfighters and one Reaper or other advanced starfighter, plus 3 dropships. Just enough to drop all marines in a single wave, or a few tanks, or a droid battalion.
Minimal organic crew 2, maximum 30. Mostly gunners and officers. And 10 thousands droids crewmen, from cooks and medics, to repair and damage control. Also backup droid gunners and tactical droids.
Shields, again those copied from the MC40 calamari light cruiser, which were about the half strength as the new Victory star destroyer, but recharged much faster. I'll need to find better shields somewhere, but for now the Calamari shields were still the best.
5 meters of durasteel armor, same as the Victory. And then Solanus can bathe them with a layer of diamondoid and bioarmor.
And a raised upper fin, for com and sensors. Approximate cost, between 10 and 15 million credits. A bit more with the droid crew and fighters.
Something for all the largish shipyards in my Empire to build, and be able to defend a system for minor threats. For now, they'll be used in the same role as the Muni destroyers, as escorts for the Meteors and Lucrehulks.
10 trillion credits wasn't that much. Even 15 trillions. Damn it. Why were these ships so slow to build?
I should go to Redforge and begin drilling next batch of Meteors too.
One thousand more Meteors were all brought up from all over the deserted systems where we melted asteroids and packed them together with tractor beams.
The scraps of iron that remained were used to make the skeleton of new Orion corvettes, with double numbers of missile launchers.
'Emperor, the Fade frigate from Coruscant has arrived. The Culexus droid has the item' my third Hand sent from the Celestial Throne.
'Be right there. And the other thing?' I asked over the secure net.
'When we are in the Redbox, stupid droid. Coms can be decrypted' My spymaster muttered with a serious tone and turned the com off.
Hey, you could have said yes or no...no need to be so secretive.
Or maybe you did?
Planet Gand, Pef Empire
Celestial Throne, Redbox
The Culexus droid stood in front of me, the very expression of combining technology with the force. Or rather, in spite of the force. They were modeled after the A-series assassin droid and looked pretty nice.
It wore a backpack with an ysalamiri lizard inside. And a personal cloak field. Armed with ion blasters
and Gand dischargers and disruptor rifles and Verpine shatter guns, and gas dispensers.
The bane of almost any organics, that didn't have the proper codes to subvert the loyalty chip.
And my best work, almost creating a 4.5 th generation droid, unlike the normal 4th rank combat droids in the CIS.
It also had two Full-spectrum transceiver on the front armor and back of the backpack, and six Droideka types of sensors which worked on various spectrums.
"This loyal unit has returned, Droid Emperor. The holocron is safe. I deserve a promotion." the cheeky thing said politely, extracting the blue cube from the case at the small of it's back.
"Of course, my faithful servant. You have two branches I can send you to. As instructor for the Droid Defense Force at Malagarr, with the rank of General. You will be given command of that Academy, and a budget of 500 billion credits to prepare a billion new droids as veteran soldiers in our Pef Army." I proclaimed, taking the holocron and tossing it over my shoulder into an olbio tree pot.
"Very promising. Please continue" Culexus 0096 said in an impressed voice.
"Or, as Office Assassinorum Triumvir, for the Black Operations Group, under my Third Hand directly. You'll be working with the most vile organic assassins in the galaxy, and exterminate all those who oppose our Empire. Rank of Colonel, and personal Fade frigate. But, your subordinates will include only thousands of specialized droids and organics, most of them willing and able to kill you for your position" I said, in a more gentle tone.
My Third Hand wasn't really happy with this option, but I needed someone dependable to oversee the Malkii poisoners.
"Oh, a test and a challenge! This unit prefers the latter, if Terminator-class cortosis power armor is provided" my droid answered after considering for a minute. Huh, not stupid at all. Even I would have some trouble breaking a Terminator armor.
"Excellent, present yourself in the Mechatronic lab in 45 minutes. And congratulations for a great mission, Operative Arnold 006" I answered with an inner smile.
"New designation, Arnold 006, for the sixth perfect mission this unit has achieved. Arnold...compatible. For the Empire!" my droid concluded, and began unpacking the lizard from it's shock-absorbing backpack spacesuit.
A minute later, the ysalamiri was back in its tree, and starting to wake up from the long sleep.
"A risky option, giving a droid that kind of armor. It's too strong. Then again, those Malkii are quite devious. You want to expose any potential flaws..." Lu'daal-ud mused, sipping more brandy and leaning on his expensive couch.
Heh, he began figuring out how I did things, alright.
The sarlacc on Tatooine was assassinated after two attempts only, and with just a single casualty. The first guy taking tissue samples, by hand. They used repulsor courier bots after that, with biopsy utensils.
The one on Felucia was fine though. Poison didn't bother it at all. Then again, those vials of poison might still be falling, and haven't reached its stomach yet. It might be a thousand kilometer long, after all.
Kriff, I kinda want a thousand kilometers space worm to ride in battle...
But whatever holocron Jabba had, we couldn't find yet, since the crater left when that crazy CIS frigate crashed on top of his hideout was pretty big. Jabba had started as a small crime lord, but quickly spread his influence into a variety of illegal activities, including spice-smuggling, gunrunning, slavery, and sometimes outright piracy. Known for his cruelty and carnal fancies, Jabba the Hutt was powerful enough to command respect and payment from the Galaxy's ruling government, so much so that during the current Clone Wars the Republic went to great lengths to avoid Jabba's displeasure. Too bad then.
The Mafia Hutts were scrambling now to pick up pieces of his trade empire and information network, killing each other and their
soldiers, and ignoring my empire.
The Civilized Hutts around Hutt space were amused and betting on who really did it. Somehow Palpatine figured in top three, after Dooku and Ziro , an uncle of Jabba. Guess who planted that tidbit of misinformation on the Blacknet that the Hutts used.
On the galactic map, our southern fleet was now holding Aduba system in preparation for on assault on Teth, while a group of 12 Meteors was en route down the Trellian trade route.
Proto One is still negotiating for Boonta, but even 60 billion credits aren't enough. The Syvris system in the south, should be much cheaper to buy.
The conquest of the Corporate sector was going slow, since the CIS has new A-DSD advanced dwarf spider droid , used as armor support. And they have missiles to keep our flyers away.
We just taken the Oslumpex system in totality, and were now fortifying it. Also Gaurick system , Issagra and Saclas .
But, about 300 planets of the Corporate sector were already taken, only the Etti system resisting most attack fiercely. For now. The Kalla system had extensive minefields which made it hard to conquer directly. With normal means.
The northern fleets were still dispersed, taking as much ground as possible, wherever a weakness could be exploited.
I will have to create a droid walker for our own armies as well. Those scout walkers that the republic uses?
Don't work well with my troops. For some reason.
I guess I can modify one of these spider walkers.
After I return from the Redforge.
"When is the scepter coming?" I asked again.
"Today, if the route is clear. Or next week. The CIS controls most hyperlanes, you know?" My third Hand said with a bit of frustration.
How is that my fault?
And I certainly didn't want that scepter being captured by dark jedi.
"We should start preparing for the Spaarti operation. Deorbiting iron asteroids through. Ice comets aren't that effective." I said out loud, calculating risks and opportunity. Too soon and we reveal our hand. Too late and Palpatine has billions of stormtroopers.
"You could cut off the Hydian way too. At Corsin would be ideal, but we need to keep Mandalore space supplied." Zuckuss added with a long sigh.
"We can't yet. Mandalore is neutral and weak. We'll find another route, if our sixth Hand uses his survey droids wisely." I said gently.
"So, still on with the main attack at Celanon then. They'll bring a huge fleet to break our blockade" Zuckuss asked, still not trusting his Emperor.
"Of course they will. And so will we. If we can take Etti in two weeks" I replied with a wondering voice.
"We will, Metal Gand. 10 Mountains are heading towards Etti system now, with 100 million war droids. A million should survive and claim the planet for us. And 10 of the new organic divisions as well. To produce more cyborgs for the Omnissiah, if any survive" Zuckuss said a bit sour, from the brandy or for my decisions.
Cause no. Not bombarding planets if I could help it. 50 billion credits lost with a huge droid army was worth it. Planets were rare, and life was precios.