Planet Gand, Pef Empire
Celestial Throne
Next week
"Teth? That's Wild Space. The droid army isn't even in that sector."
―Anakin Skywalker
If it wasn't for the strategic location at the node of two trade routes, nobody would want this planet, with its jungles and forests. Only pirates and smugglers did business here till last year.
Our liberation is being called the Teth Offensive, by a vague memory from a distant planet.
The Teth offensive is going poorly, because why not create our own Vietnam, dear history lesson?
It's a four way war there, with CIS, the Republic, Pef Empire and the Hutts throwing armies desperately at each other.
Well. At least the Republic isn't shooting at my troops, yet. Not helping either.
The Hutts want to prove something, or Ziro is defending his father's grave.
Also, there are wild rancors, because why not? They bite everything not protected by medium armor.
Flight is severy restricted by swarms of Hunting fly which clog engines and crash gunships.
Some Jedi can fly on Can-cell insects, but missiles are bad for their health then.
Inner Teth is pretty much divided into sectors, with snipers and tanks defending any access corridor.
A dozen Jedi died in the last three days there, and more are coming.
A few red lightsabers were also spotted by our snipers, but they seem to prefer duels with the Jedi, than coming close to our lines.
The pirates are helping the CIS, for some reason, and shoot at everyone else.
The B'omarr Order are scooping the brains of every injured they find on the battlefields, and 'save' them, by installing the still living brains in nutrient bowls under spider droids.
So glad I didn't send any marine divisions there...
The space battle is also contested, mostly by my fleet and the CIS, as the others have laughable inventory.
We lost 100 Muni destroyers for 400 Munificent frigates, so...it's about okay.
50 Invictus-class carriers are heading towards this battlefield, so test the new Biplane starfighters and reduce our loses from small fighters sinking bigger vessels by abusing their starfighter Vulture numbers.
But as the focus of the CIS is on Teth, which they consider important, we had taken Bherizwithout a fight, and are building huge mines to exploit the Teniline granule deposits, and provide our shipyards with the highly expensive and rare mineral needed to make hyperdrives.
Misdirection and mirrors still work, even against Sith Lords.
Planet Dor in the Endor system has been quietly kidnapped, and taken away, to be mined to the core, in secrecy. Enough minerals there to construct a billion ships.
A single Lucrehulk advanced one jump on the Kessel run, and found Prishella III was not claimed.
Free planet!
Little Kessel has a small CIS garison though, so two more Lucrehulks are heading there to liberate it.
What do you mean, there was no CIS? Look at those dead B1 droids without uniforms. They were CIS, right?
Aeneid system will be trickier, since there are 13 inhabited planets, in a single star system.
Yea, pure luck and happenstance. Not that the Maw is right next door, and the Celestials were known for constructing highly improbable star systems from scratch. Like Corellia.
Sigh. I hope there's nothing there that will eat the locals alive. It probably is, isn't it?
'Can I nuke like 12 cities here on Renastasia? Only the capitals. The rest of them should calm down then. Why did you tell them the Avatar is Mand'alore? They have lots of preconceptions and prejudices about that.' Solana sent me with an annoyed tone.
'Manda'lore the Charming, tell them that! Only for the girls, not for the warrior culture...well, not yet' I sent back, a bit ashamed.
Sigh, 4000 years ago, when the colonists of Renastasia had departed the Old Republic, the Mandalorians were kinda pillaging the galaxy.
But times have changed!
'You're pillaging a quarter of the galaxy, right now!' Ventress added her misguided opinion.
'Saving! And liberating and building...'
'Kidnapping young women to make them your maids...' Dora added with a bit of humour.
'Rescuing, from misery and slavery! You're all billionaires and have ships and privileges...' I muttered with some despair.
'Pef the Despot, they call you here...' Wialu added her own voice to the chorus.
Because the current Queen Indrexu still remembered her ancestor being kidnapped and forcefully married by Xim the Despot.
But, it was all a misunderstanding! NOOOOOOOOOO!
-------------
Planet Mandalore , Pef Empire
Charming Castle , apartment 5A
a second later
"Something wrong Peffy?" Alisia and Alice asked me concerned, as the Avatar spasmed in his sleep and woke them up.
"Nah, just a weird dream. You girls love me, right?" I asked with a tinge of panic.
"Of course we do. You beat us up, and forced us to marry you. Everything is perfect..." They spoke in a strange echo, and their eyes glinted with a secret look.
NOOOOOOOOO!
Planet Gand, Pef Empire
Celestial Throne
21 BBY , next week
A month has 7 weeks in this galaxy, and a year ten months. It's a bit confusing. The weeks have 5 days so it's even worse.
But the Teth Offensive is now in the second week, and our front lines have advanced 4.3 centimeters.
By the time the war ends, we may cross the street.
Who ever conceived such deployment, taking only a quarter of the city, and leaving the other factions take theirs unopposed?
Also, too few troops to do anything spectacular. Droids were easily ambushed in cities and jungles. So, we stay on defense.
Our Empire needs people, lots of people. Most planets around Gand, including Gand, have only a million citizens.
And buying slaves wasn't quite as profitable as I first thought. The Hutts just attacked more defenseless people to sell them to me. This was encouraging slavers!
I needed a new strategy, which the lost colony of Renatasia proved a vital clue.
Immigration! Even if a billion or two people from Renatasia chose to relocate, it was too small a number.
We're not building walls, we're giving land and farm droids for new colonists!
So, a minute later, I composed a campaign of attracting young, vigorous (or sick) people from the major ecumenopolises around the galaxy.
"Emigrate to the Pef Empire now! Hundreds of virgin planets, with forests and rivers and green fields! Request a visa from our nearest embassy, and poverty is far behind you! A farm, or a job in an office. Piloting a starfighter or working in a shipyard. Earn three times the galactic average. Free housing. Farming droids. Free education! Only a few billion may get the chance. Hurry and become happy, in the Pef Empire!" I declared using my Voices and maids faces for better impact.
Now, let's transmit this to all the big planets, from Grizmallt to Ator and Carratos , Denon and Metellos, Trantor and Humbarine .
I'll avoid Coruscant and Nar Shaddaa, since it wasn't that kind of operation.
But these planets alone had 500 billion, even 900 billion people each. There had to be plenty hungry or poor people there, right?
And when they arrived and were given their free education, they'll become loyal and perfect citizens.
Any force master would resist most of the imprint, like Talzin proved, making me insist, a few times. But those were less than a hundred now.
But normal humans, would be imprinted with the empire laws along with their desired courses, and work to build a better future.
I should send some propaganda to the other cute species out there, like Twi'leks and Togruta and maybe the Firrerreo and the Alsakan as well.
Sure, why not.
My insectile Gand friends were great, but not compatible with my atavic soul and the Avatar genes.
And just imagine, from those billions of immigrants, I could select hundreds more maids, with force-connection, and millions of Sisters of Battle and Astartes templates...
A great idea indeed!
'How are they gonna get here, Pef?'
'What will they eat?'
Where will you educate them?
What if they bring children?' Wialu and Dora started bombarding me, with irrelevant questions.
'We'll figure it out. What if nobody comes?' I asked, a bit worried.
'Silly Pef. They'll come, all right' Lira said with a certain tone. Huh. The locals might know better about some things.
'You should prepare for an invasion, Pef. The subterranean levels on those worlds are quite gruesome' Dora added, with a tinge of reminisce. Huh, I never asked how they became slaves.
'On Carratos. My family was...it was bad. You'll need a larger passenger spacestation at Junkfort. And Centares. And start building cities.' Lira said with a determined tone.
Okay then. I'll do that.
After this battle was won, and Celanon was taken and the Hydian Way blockaded.
The battle for Etti was finally over. And every Meteor and Mountain was gathering at Phindar, with just a single group of 12 Meteors going to secure Listehol and block the way up the Hydian way as well.
The Republic should have an easy victory now...oh.
Not yet. The CIS had this huge fleet building at Rendili , while under blockade from the Republic fleet, which was ordered not to intervene and destroy those shipyards, by their dear Supreme Chancellor.
The Duro fleet should go and help out, destroying the fleet under construction and part of the shipyards.
They'll just have to jump 1000 kilometers above the North pole of that planet, and shoot once.
Three thousands MAC rounds, fired by the thirty Meteors of the Duro fleet, should be enough to destroy most of the shipyards and the ships under construction, while sparing the population from direct fire.
Then continue onwards, to Centares and join the fleet massing at Phindar, in preparation for the Celanon liberation.
And orders sent. The Dornean Admiral should know what steps to take.
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For once, I was glad someone capable was in charge of a major operation.
'And so you learn, Pef. Do what you can do, and let others do, what you can't. Also, the Diathim here at Renatasia station are making a mess. Why do I have to herd 30 hyperactive energy beings?' Solana muttered in the bond, now that most of the problems were solved with the people on the planet.
Finding out that the evil dark jedi were trying to kill everyone, with orbital bombardments kinda turned the public opinion back towards our glorious Empire. Plus our Holonews and the contact Lucrehulks bringing luxuries from a hundred worlds.
They'll come around, as our education centers open for newest technologies and jobs that appeared since 4000 years ago.
In a decade or two, they'll be loyal citizens all.
For now, only few thousands of the new citizens traveled to the Centrality, and none beyond Junkfort.
Why? because the war required us to keep travel to minimum, except internally, towards new colonies.
Planet Phindar, Pef Empire
Next week
Those pretty shipyards at Rendili are toast now, since they didn't even bother to shield them. The fleets being built there are gone as well, and the hundred billion people they were going to snuff out at Humbarine are saved. I hope.
The Republic is not happy, since the Rendili had living workers on those shipyards. Huh?
How does that make any difference? Tanks have crew in them too.
At Phindar, the last corvette arrives, at the last minute. The paint hasn't dried...wait, we don't paint the corvettes untill they survive one year. No point wasting paint on unlucky ships.
And sadly, corvette loses are the worst of any classes of ships, with barely one in a hundred surviving a whole year. Then again, we're at war, and our crews and officers have minimal training.
Peffy is not with the fleet, nor is any of my dear friends or family.
We might lose all the ships in the next battle, especially if the dark jedi have another Subjugator or two.
Admiral Etahn A'baht will have command, from his new Mountain flagship.
Because he will have 10 million droids on that ship, to keep him safe from boarding.
Five numbered Meteors, one of them with a force beam weapon, only using natural kyber crystals along with couple big synthetic ones from the Devastation. It still has 40 MACs, though it's unsure if there'll be any power left in the capacitors after the beam fires.
We can't actually test the weapon in secret, since every time it fires, every master in the galaxy can sense it.
The Devastation is present as well, since it's a 7 kilometer long dreadnaught, with some few upgrades by me.
Like 50 short MACs , only 2 kilometer long. Cause, there was a big hole left there after I dismantled the big ion pulse beam.
Should do well enough with frigates and such.
305 Meteors and 10 Mountains are gathered here, along with 1000 Muni destroyers and 400 Recu carriers. The Calamari ships are also not present, but instead we have 330 Lucrehulks donuts and 3000 corvettes.
The Lucrehulks will provide engine protection for the big guys. And also carry some fighters. The Recu carriers have fighters too.
5000 thousand ships and 1 million fighters.
Please don't die!
'You're being too dramatic Pef. They can't have enough to break your fleet' Wialu sent me, as she was returning to Gand, with a promise of MPT, in case Dooku really went crazy.
'I have my Peffy, so I'm good. Let me know how the battle went' Lira sent in a dismissive tone, as she was exploring my Avatar and the joys of being young and vir...
"Emperor Pef, we are departing in 10 seconds. For the Empire !" my Admiral announced as if I didn't know.
But following orders and rules was cool too.
Planet Gand, Pef Empire
"They shall not pass, Admiral. For the Empire!" I answered solemnly on the holorecorder, and punched toward the sky.
And there you go. Not that we didn't have Fades and stealth satellites all over the sector, and expanding our network faster than lightspeed.
Already we could backtrack most spies just by noting their jump route through 3 adiacent systems from our borders.
So you claim you're a refugee from New Apsolon Great!
But that ship came from beyond Gyndine and didn't even stop on New Apsolon.
Come on, at least try harder!
Anyway, I had a Scepter of Ragnos now, but a depleted one. I'll have to go drain some dark side planet.
The Silver Forest of Dreams on Kubindi is quite close, and not very important.
There a kilometer tall tree there, with 20 meter leaves. Smaller than the wookie trees, but extraordinary by being the only such tree on the planet. Something must fuel it.
And if the tree it's not dark, I'll visit Felucia, and stare into the Abyss. And Dathomir next.
That was quite a dark place, most likely. Only problem, I couldn't quite tell, which one was which.
For a crystal like myself, the force simply was, not light or dark. Just a grey haze, stronger in some places.
The ysalamiri, for example, didn't cut me off from the force, they just restricted outward effects, of the living force.
The essence transfer worked just fine, and my Voices could hear my thoughts.
So, Bendu used something like my Cosmic Force, only tangible, to float the lizards around.
Good to know then. One step farther, into knowledge.
Let's take a few maids and see what they discover with the living force senses.
In the pilot seat of the Fade, Culexus 0097 stood with the Scepter in his hand, inside a cortosis suitcase, keeping it safe from observation.
We flew down to the Zero garden to collect a few pretty deadly girls.
"Honored maids, we're going on a trip, to see a big tree. So, Kirana Ti , Kara'Teel , Kyrisa , Duala Aidu , Magash Drashi and Talia , come, hop in!" I yelled from the door of my Fade frigate.
"Yay, no more grass! Now it's a tree!" Kyrisa exclaimed, dropping the half completed tunic she was weaving with telekinesis and Plant alter.
The other witch girls were more circumspect, expecting some kind of test or trap.
Which of course it was.
Celanon system, CIS space.
Next day
Planet Celanon wasn't important on itself. Only a single largish city, the capital Celanon City
with about 50 million people. But, the system was the key to a hyper-route nexus, on the Hydian Way, the longest and most important trade route in the galaxy.
The rest of the planet is rural and tribal. Perfect for my plans, which involve guerrilla warfare.
As the extra 15 Lucrehulks with gravity interdictors arrived in the system, 10 of them headed towards other two exits out of the system, and started dropping every ship out of hyperspace.
The first five also spread out and activated their gravity wells.
The then, as the Mountain was launching the liberation army on the single planet in the system, the shooting gallery started, as CIS ships traversing the system at superluminal speeds found themselves dragged out of their voyage, and directly into the guns and MAC maws of 100 Meteors at every exit.
The CIS warships stopped traversing the Hydian Way after about 6 hours, and we only caught about 100. But other ships, neutral, or CIS and even Republic or Jedi found themselves under fire the instant their appeared.
And this continued for the next two weeks, as not every freighter and troop transport were in constant connection with the main CIS headquarters.
Of course, the shooting began with ion cannons, so most non CIS ships were only delayed for custom control, then allowed to pass.
But, the amounts of minerals and war materiel we captured from these transports alone was astounding. Millions of tonnes of priceless cargo, everyday. If they kept sending transports like this, the entire cost of the war will be deducted in a month or two.
And droid transports were always welcomed, as they were carried inactive.
Give them a uniform and new programing, and they immediately became loyal Pef Army troopers.
Down on the planet, the tribal villages were given flash memories of the Pef Empire, and why they fought for freedom.
Then given blasters and other weapons and a droid battalion to guard every single community. The CIS will have to fight for every single village.
The capital was left most untouched, just surrounded, and the spaceport captured and looted of trade goods belonging to CIS corporations.
What were they gonna do, come out of the city and attack the tanks, waiting a few kilometers away, under theater shields?
In the Republic Senate, there was outrage, of course.
How could trade be disturbed? Simple, it's war.
Goods going for CIS worlds were confiscated, if they were already paid for, or returned to sender with a warning of collusion.
A surprising amount of those goods were from Republic worlds. Many of them were lost in the chaos of war.
This happy festival, and the collection of free ships and material for my Empire lasted only these two weeks.
Then, at minutes from each other, 3 large CIS fleets arrived from all three sides, Numbers exceeding 100 thousands, though most were just armed freighters and every type of ship smaller than a corvette. Thousands of pirate vessels as well, convinced by the dark jedi to join with promises of money or loot.
But still, outnumbering our ships by 20 to one.
The main danger were still the capital ships, and the droid fighters.
Two Subjugators ,1200 Lucrehulks battleships, 2000 Recusants destroyers and 7000 Munificents frigates. And 10 thousand other various starships, with all shapes but about as large as a corvette.
Only, we knew they were coming, and had already concentrated on the southern side of the system, giving us almost gun parity with the fleet that arrived at that emergence point.
Now, we just had to last till the reinforcements arrived.
Hmmm. Just half of those Lucrehulks are actually full battleships. The other half are just carriers for starfighters.
Let's blow them up first!
200 donut carriers exploded in a festival of light and colors, red and green explosions, illuminating the void like hundreds of suns.
Is this what the prophecy of the Whills means?
"…And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as THE SON OF THE SUNS."
―Journal of the Whills, 3:127
It can't be that simple, can it?
The hive battle of starfighters was already won in this part of the system, as the carrier Lucrehulks haven't managed to launch any.
And our Biplanes were having a field day, each blowing up a pirate vessel with their only torpedo, before starting to strafe another with its turrets and missiles.
The capital ship poured damage into our ships, just like we did on their, in an orgy of ion cannons and masers, against the evil turbolasers of the CIS.
Our corvettes were doing great as well, their proton torpedoes sinking small ships left and right, up and down.
Sadly, every good thing must end.
By the time the south fleet was in tatters, the other two CIS fleets gathered into a big fleet, then started advancing on our outnumbered vessels, while their Subjugators were preparing to fire their lateral ion charges.
What will the brave Dornean Admiral do?
The fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance!
"You can't end the story here, Emperor Pef! How will we sleep at night, not knowing if there will be galaxy tomorrow, to live in?" Talia asked me, with some concern.
"Eh, it's a fairytale, the hero always wins. Untill he kills his wife and becomes evil. Then starts torturing and maiming his own children. And kills his old teacher. And then the newer evil teacher. And then he dies, surrounded by carnivorous bears, in the jungle, at night" I explained poetically, waving my arms and trying for a shadow mime, of a evil cyborg breathing threatenly.