En route to Planet Dennogra, Tharin sector.
24 BBY
Dora called just before we left my newest planet, to let me know we have lost a Lucrehulk and its escort to pirates at Junkfort.
Seems they have a new weapon, able to pierce even the huge donut's shields.
My first real combat, not just black ops and other clandestine operations.
Our fleet is massing at Dennogra, the system itself a node on the long Triellus trade route. We'll conquer the planet, and then we'll jump in to the next node and clear the pirates.
And maybe find a new toy.
And thus, I'm in the shield emitter room, delving into the Rakata forcefield, and trying again to find out what makes it tick.
With the knowledge of the holocron manufacture, at least the Jedi type of it, I'm approaching 5 percent.
Those segments...yea. Definitely alchemical transmutations. It's just that the element table is too different here.
Some properties shouldn't be possible...
'You have most of it inside you, tolerated Emperor. Solana thinks you should know yourself first' the living water whispered, studying me just as intently as I was studying the Rakata.
And tolerated? Was that a clever insult?
"Kriff. I'm gonna stop now, and work on the ion cannons. They must use some ion technology to bring down shields so fast"
I muttered, and floated towards the nearest ion blister.
'Still not listening. But then, you're so young...you haven't made enough mistakes. Watching you fail again and again might prove fun too' Solana sent with a faint impression of mocking and regret.
Great. Everyone was young compared to Solanus.
Perhaps not Sekot, but that one came from a different galaxy too.
Now, let's see...how to reduce ionization again? Right, organic materials. Reduce conductivity...
******
Planet Dennogra, Pef Empire
4 days later
"Do they have swords? Will they have metal swords or vibroblades or maybe energy ones...I want to see a lightsaber" Jaybo chattered, as our ship came to a stop in the middle of our fleet.
"Pistols and rifles I think. Maybe knives" Glikas explained, expanding the holomap.
"Oh. This might be dangerous then..." the boy said with a mix of fear and anticipation.
A holoconference opened up, showing me a few captains and the war maid, Ventress.
"Report, my adored maid" I said softly.
"We have 2 cruisers, 2 frigates and 55 corvettes ready to depart, Emperor. HMS Greymist has already arrived at Junkfort and feeding us tactical data. The Pirates have at least two cruisers, the Longprow attack cruiser variant, armed with a modified weapon of unknown type. They also have support vessels, 16 in total, but possibly more.
Another MC80 cruiser and its escort is heading this way, but it will take one day more to arrive." she reported, highlighting our various units, then another sequence containing the Greymist scans.
"Okay. This system is secure? I don't want our retreat to be cut off, if we have to fall back and regroup" I said, already expanding my senses to observe our droids and new marine divisions occupy Zio Snaffkin and the other major cities.
"No organized resistance. Some criminals and smugglers trying to escape. 3 Lucrehulks are deployed as temporary space stations. Our incoming cruiser can secure the orbitals if we leave now. If needed, I can call more..." she started, switching to the overview map. Still, too few ships and might suffer attacks elsewhere. Hmmm. Let's not thin out our presence in the new colonies.
"No. We're leaving as soon as every ship reports in. Pef out" I commanded, and closed the holo.
A minute later, the fleet jumped towards Junkfort.
Junkfort system, Tharian Sector.
24 BBY Second month
A few hours later, we caught the pirates with their pants down, possibly literally.
They were busy looting our ships, and fighting the droid crews.
One of my new corvettes was broken in half, while another was just floating, seemingly dead in space.
Oh well, corvettes were never intended to engage capital ships, not unless they had major numerical superiority.
The Junkfort Station was a civilian one, with barely any particle shields to fend of meteors. It was larger than a Lucrehulk, but it won't pose a threat. I hoped.
"Target engines first, I want to catch them all" I ordered on the fleet wide band, and we rushed in, hungry for blood.
Junkfort system, Tahrin sector.
The pirates began panicking as soon as the fleet was detected, some of their ships trying to scatter.
Damn I wanted a real fleet engagement, not chasing rabbits.
Anyway, I also predicted this scenario, and our fleet had deployed in a sphere around the pirate fleet, with our capital ships interposing themselves to block the obvious jumps up and down the trade route exit vectors.
One of their own cruisers tried to test the blockade running into HMS Furious, Ventress's flagship, and was soon halted, without engines. The hyperjump lane to Taskeed was closed.
The other cruiser changed course and attempted to blast its way to freedom through my own frigate, and towards Boonta, since it should have had less armor and firepower than the menacing Calamari cruiser guarding the lane towards Nimat system.
Didn't work exactly as expected for either of us.
Their laser beams sliced through the frigate's energy deflectors, then hit the Rakata forcefield, for no effect. I mean, not even a single percent decrease in shield integrity.
Instead, the field reacted like a feral animal, growling like a lion, and pushing more energy into our already firing ion cannons, directly through the Force.
The pirate cruiser was engulfed in a cloud of ionizing radiation, and listed to one side, everything technological on board being fried completely, and began venting air and bodies as it's airlocks and fighter bays opened to vacuum.
My chest hurt for some reason, and Solana laughed through the bond, somehow amused greatly.
'Told you this would happen, barely tolerated Emperor. Maybe next time, you listen, eh?' my water maid declared with regret in her aura. Right. Maybe next time you spell your warnings clearly too.
My corvettes were busy fighting off starfighters and pinnaces and the cruisers began launching boarding shuttles, filled with droids and Brubbs.
Tactical overview. Pef Empire vs pirates, overwhelming victory. But, if I didn't have my Rakata shield, whatever force weapon the pirates had, would have cracked my ship in half. Just avoided a strategic defeat, since the ship carried the Emperor, and a few precious beings as well.
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It had to be a force powered weapon, or the Rakata tech wouldn't have reacted so violently.
'Stop whining and go find the thing. Baby Emperor' Wialu sent from thousands of light years away.
Right.
"Rescue ops for our transport ship and escorts. And take over the planet and the station too." I ordered on the encrypted holoband, while I drew strength from the pain and floated towards my own shuttle. Nashira floated beside me, and we reached the hangar in a minute, my assault droids already checking their weapons and filling in the shuttle as well.
I delved in the force, using the droids like fingers and piloted the shuttle towards the ruined pirate cruiser.
"There's only a few alive on board" Nashira reported as we entered the trashed hangar.
Damn, without electronics, the ship was mostly dead to me. I couldn't sense much, except a beacon towards the front weapons battery.
The whatever that powered the guns. Felt like a nexus, or kyber crystal. Huh, I thought Death Star lasers were 2 decades in the future...
My droids sprinted forwards, launching themselves with repulsorlift beams and shooting whatever pirates still survived due to genetics or a nearby helmet. Very few of those too. Change orders, stun and retrieve a few pirates for interrogation.
Our trading routes and their schedules weren't public after all. Then again, my empire had a hundred inhabited planets now. Plenty potential traitors or security breaches going unnoticed.
New partition, public security forces, allocate a percent of our spending towards police and traffic scanners. Gand wasn't the only security risk anymore, and I could only be in one system. For now.
A male pirate was hiding in a room nearby, clenching a frag grenade and a slug pistol. Not going down easy, eh?
I punched the wall, and sent a snare inside. Drain his soul. And let's see.
Pirates of Iridium, a long way away from their usual hunting grounds.
Paid half in advance, and the rest when they returned.
They had a mystical power gem, and it has never failed so far.
He did see someone speak with the captain. Shady dealer, used to be known as Banking Guild go-between.
Huh. I caused this, after all, when I robbed the Centrality. And with Vette turning the spice trade upside down.
Well then, guess I knew which side I will take in the Clone wars.
"Draining souls is creepy. But at least he was a pirate and a slaver." Nashira commented beside me.
"Yeah. He got away too easy" I muttered in my com, burning away his soul in the snare.
A few minutes later, I found the Power gem.
The faceted crystal, glowing purple and indigo, size of a medium fist, and bristling with power.
Let's open a new partition and study it, shall we?
Junkfort system, Pef Empire, Outer Rim.
24 BBY
My Lucrehulk would cost just as much to repair as buying a new one, most electronics having been wiped by the power gem.
Instead, it will form the basis for a new space station, once I finish using the Junkfort Station as a metal and hardware source for the modifications. Our fleet has already began transporting the spacers to the planet's surface, along with families and belongings, a million people being temporarily evicted.
I have already begun, in fact, using parts from the wasted pirate ships and my own disabled corvettes.
Planetside, other partitions are commanding legions of droids, and a few nano-gene droids, into establishing the basis of a civilized society. Mines, and farms, factories and schools and Imperial Servants administrative buildings.
Train tracks and roads, power plants and parks for children.
I won't do everything, but one day of planetary scale telekinesis and technopathy, would be worth billions of work hours for normal people.
The Lucrehulk is being plated with armor slates over and under, with a number of transparisteel sections, for on board gardens.
On the outer hull, the docks and ports facilities of the former station are being reassembled into functional and efficient cargo transit systems. Another dock is reserved for sapients and pets, with rigorous scanning and energy shield barriers.
Ventress lazes at the window next to me, sometimes turning to examine my newer maids, Angie and Solana, with a mixture of annoyance and confusion in her force aura. Yeah, angels and sapient oceans are quite strange, even for star wars universe.
And Asajj doesn't quite dare to try and establish dominance. Both due to my presence and the strangeness of her sister maids.
Angie would possibly lap her force lightning or pyrokinesis and ask for more, with absolutely no regard for conservation of energy laws.
And Solana...no idea. But probably worse.
'Give me some money Emperor. I found things I want to buy' Solana demanded all of a sudden, having discovered of joy of online auctions. She had tinkered with a datapad, making it impermeable and using it to holo emulate a female face, floating inside the water bubble.
Okay. Take a billion credits Solana. I'm curious what did she find.
All right then, all people on board the station are gone. Force-lock the entire thing, then disassemble.
"How...that's not possible..." Ventress muttered, staring out the window at a billion little parts being repurposed.
"It's a cheat, dear maid. The smaller the things you move, the easier it is for your mind to accept it's possible. A billion bolts and wires, or a hundred trillion nano-genes...they still weigh millions of tonnes. But the mind knows they have to be very light, individually. I'll have to try with a whole star one day..." I explained softly, eyeing the star we orbited just now, with some doubt.
"Pef is being silly. Not even Angie can lift a whole star. Maybe a small moon..." the Diathim Maid commented wisely.
'Solanus can. Solanus is doing it right now, and thanks Pef for his silly ideas' the dual Voice added helpfully.
Glad to be a source of inspiration.
By the time the next trading ship arrived from Oseon , en route to Saleucami, the HMS Radiant was already a quarter operational, if just by droid operators.
"Centrality vessel, stand by to be boarded. This is Imperial space" I sent at once, directing the nearest corvette on a tangential course.
"What Empire is this, nobody claimed this system since the Hutts retreated 3 decades ago.." a bewildered captain asked, having a hard time adjusting to the largish fleet and the new space station here at Junkfort.
"Pef Empire, of course. The first rule of acquisition is clear. If nobody owns it yet, the Immortal Pef will" I transmitted with a serious tone.
"Okay, just don't shoot!" the man yelled with a panicked voice.
Right. Some rumors must have spread about me, since I nonchalantly used nukes to eradicate the sorcerers of Tund...or, so they thought.
Having a reputation was useful, after all.
"And if somebody already owns it, Pef might still shoot you and just take it" My Gand Captain added wisely. Hey, that's a cool second rule!
I'll have to search my memories and post all the Ferengi rules someday, on the Pefnet. Those were really wise people.