By the end of my four-day transmutation extravaganza, I was feeling understandably antsy. I had enjoyed not needing to do much for the first two days, during which I had been brought up to date on a lot of what was going on around Omega Station and our fleet. Our supply lines were doing well, and as long as we continued to take on worthwhile bounties on pirates, our finances were relatively stable as well.

We were a bit dependent on our sales to the Rebellion for my taste, so I instructed our quartermaster to start looking for groups willing to purchase ships, resources, and starfighters that weren't pirates, gangs, or the Hutts. According to him, there were plenty of planets in the Mid and Outer Rim looking to expand their defense fleets. If it came down to it, we would likely be able to sell most of what we took from our pirate targets to them, though if we found anything larger than a small gunship, we would likely have to sell that to the Rebellion.

It was about finding a balance between people who didn't care about the Empire's laws on civilian-owned weapons and people who could actually afford the weapons and ships we were acquiring. Warships, starfighters, and decent freighters could get expensive, and not everyone had the deep pockets and funding that the Rebellion did.

Thankfully, once I was done converting all of the Rebellion's precious metal cut into beskar, as well as a good chunk of our own, I didn't have to wait long to get off the station and stretch my proverbial legs. With our beskar reserves once again filled and with Pola and the Armorer already replacing our old armor platings with the Armorers' better, lighter, and less beskar-intense versions, it was finally time to consider the next step in the Skyforged Vanguard's power levels. It was time to finally get everyone who needed them outfitted with enchanted gear.

So far, everyone who fought directly already had three enchanted objects, all done to my highest ability. Our pilots and gunners, including our starfighter pilots, all had three dexterity buffs in the form of two rings and an amulet. My ground team, as well as the clone ground team, all had three as well, though their loudout was more bespoke. People who were more agile, like Ahsoka, tended to focus on dexterity buffs, while people who focused on strength, rather obviously, focused on strength enhancements. Everyone had at least one stamina buff, and in the case of the clones, the whole team went with one strength and dexterity each.

My first step would be getting rings and amulets to Corvak and his team, as they had yet to get any enchanted equipment. Once they were all set, the next step was enchanting everyone's armor. Rather than mix and match as everyone pleased, I decided that it was a better idea to have at least part of the armor standardized so that I could assume a certain level of performance from my people.

The armor started with Stamina enhancements on the boots. Everyone already had at least one stamina-enhancing item, usually a ring, but a ground force functioned on its ability to move and keep moving, so doubling down on that could only be a good thing. Next was a strength buff on the legs, chosen to make carrying the armor easier. And finally, I decided to go with the wearer's choice for the chest. This would let people push further into their own talents and abilities.

Hopefully, eventually, I would be good enough to apply a second enchantment to the chest plate. When or if that happened, I would be able to upgrade people considerably.

Unfortunately, while I already had this grand idea in mind, I lacked a critical resource, namely filled soul gems. I had roughly a hundred and twenty Kyber pieces left, but that wasn't nearly enough to finish the rather large task I had set for myself. On top of there not being enough, I would also need to fill each of them.

Thankfully, I had a solution to each of these problems.

The first solution involved a trip to Dantooine in the Starcaller, with Ahsoka, Nal, Julus, as well as a bunch of labor droids. It was a two-and-a-half day-long trip, during which I spent most of my time making my remaining Kyber into soul gems.

When we finally arrived, we flew above the planet, circling around it while I cast Clairvoyance in its compass form. Rather than focusing on the Crystal Caves, I concentrated instead on Dantooine Kyber crystals themselves. The idea was that Dantooine had already proven to not only have a deep enough connection in the Force but to also contain the environment where it was geologically viable for Kyber crystals to grow. By any logical, scientific mind, that must mean that other pockets of crystals must exist on or in the planet, we just had to find them. Of course, the Force didn't always follow logic, but it was still worth a shot.

Now, my Clairvoyance could only detect pockets that were exposed enough for a person to get to, and these crystal pockets were set pretty deep, according to how deep we had to go to get to the Crystal Caves. But, with a whole planet search and a little luck…

"I'm getting four positive connections," I said with a smirk. "If one of them is the original Cave, then that's three chances. Let's start with the most distant from population hotspots first and then work our way down until we find what we need."

Ahsoka, who was flying the Starcaller, followed my directions down to the planet, around a rocky, hilly area that was relatively empty of settlers. Dantooine's main export was grain, as its massive plains were fantastically fertile and perfect for growing mass quantities of the product. That meant that, by and large, its more rocky, mountainous areas were more or less left alone. We flew around for a bit, running scans and following my tracker until, eventually, we found the entrance to a cave. Ahsoka expertly landed the Starcaller in the low valley that my arrow pointed to, and after a few minutes of walking, we found the entrance.

We explored the cave for an hour before finally finding the crystal chamber. It was impressive by most standards but was ultimately not nearly as magnificent as the original Crystal Cave. After confirming with Ahsoka that the Force did not have any sense of foreboding or negativity from what we were about to do, we set the labor droids to work. Despite basically getting the all-clear from the Force, Ahsoka did not like watching the droids as they disassembled the crystal clusters.

"There are two others like this on the planet, not to mention who knows how many underground," I assured Ahsoka when the labor droids started packing the crystals into crates. "And I've already promised you to show you some other places you can find Kyber."

"How many do you know of?" She asked, turning to focus on me, pointedly ignoring the labor droids as they snapped chunks of crystal free. "You never really gave me a number."

"I know of a handful. Some of the locations are places you would need to look for a while, others that should have more, and in greater concentrations," I admitted. "That said, I really want to start deeply scanning Nirn for mineral deposits. I'm not keen to tear it to pieces trying to find it, but I would not be surprised if there were Kyber crystals somewhere on the planet. It has a strong presence in the Force, but that's not nearly rare enough to explain the temple."

"Should probably scan under the island. Islands usually have histories of being geologically active," Julus pointed out. "Plus, if it's why they settled on the planet, what better place to settle than right on top of it?"

Both Ahsoka and I looked over at Julus, who was peering into a deep orange crystal, watching it refract the light that passed through it. When he noticed we were staring at him, he stopped.

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"What?"

"Just wondering how you thought of that first," I responded, the younger man throwing the orange crystal at me, Ahsoka catching it in with the Force before it could get close. "It's a good idea, we should get the Arrow to do some laps around it to scan under it, see if it can't pick up any hidden elevator shafts or something"

It didn't take too long for the labor droids to finish breaking up the crystals, filling several large crates in the process. With no concerns about depriving future Jedi, we cleared the cave to the rocks, not leaving a single shard of Kyber behind. Each crate contained hundreds of crystals, meaning I now had plenty to start my next enchanting adventure.

With the first half of the soul gem issue solved, it was time to fill them up. Rather than traveling around the galaxy, looking for settlements that were struggling with animal issues or the like, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle. Yes, we made a few thousand credits, but these days, our time was worth more than that, so the quicker we could get back to work, the better. We returned to Omega station, dropping off Julus and Ahsoka, the latter of which wanted to spend some time with Felia, and pickled up Vaz. Then, we headed to a small, unnamed Outer Rim world that Nal found for me after a little research.

The world, which was designated by a long string of numbers, had gone through some sort of ecological disaster long before any modern surveyor located it. The disaster had resulted in most of its natural biome being completely wiped out. While most of its living creatures died, one species came out on top, a decent-sized mammalian creature that looked like a cross between a squirrel and a bear.

The creature just happened to have a strong enough biology to withstand the harsh new conditions and could eat basically anything, meaning it had no issues surviving whatever little life remained. The planet was basically a massive farm for them, with the majority of them fighting and eating each other to survive.

I could land, kill them by the hundreds and not worry about damaging an ecology since the planet was already screwed beyond all recognition anyway. On top of that, since the population was so dense, as long as we kept moving, all we would be doing was giving the renaming animals a free meal. It wasn't exactly pretty, but I put the lives of my teams far above the lives of several hundred wild animals.

We spent four days on the planet, hunting during the day cycle and flying up into orbit during the night since, according to our scans, the air became increasingly more toxic during that time. It was so bad that the masks we were wearing during the day would not have been able to handle the level of toxicity.

We would land, Vaz and I would go hunting, and after killing about twenty animals in an hour, we would return to the Starcaller, lift off, and land somewhere else, rinsing and repeating for three days, filling up a ludicrous amount of soul gems in the process. When we were done, we flew off into the void, heading towards Omega Station.

Rather than heading there directly, however, we stopped by our newly acquired ships. Miru had completed her inspection and declared everything cleaned out and safe for our use, so I wanted to see the interior and travel back on that.

We arrived at the deep space waiting location after a few days of hyperspace travel, a welcome break from the constant hunting and searching of the previous three days. We dropped out of lightspeed not too far from our newest acquisitions, both ships floating silently in the void. As we approached, we were hailed by the Arquiten, who we sidled on next to and connected to with a small docking clamp.

While the new model of the Arquiten might have a hangar, the older model did not, something they did not or could not change during the ship's several updates.

As we finally stepped onto our new ship, we were greeted by Miru and Boxi, the latter of which saluted while Miru hugged me tightly. I hugged her back tightly before reaching out to shake Boxi's hand.

"Well done on another successful mission, Boxi," I said, the droid reaching out to take my hand. "You and the survivors of this mission have more than earned a proper reward. Once we return to Omega Station, I am going to have all of you plated in beskar. Feel free to request any other upgrades as well. As long as they are reasonable, we will make them happen."

"We are simply performing our programmed tasks, Sir," He responded. "I believe spending such resources on us reduces our intended use as disposable troops."

"That's where the second part of your reward comes in," I assured him. "You and the remaining survivors will be reformed into a proper droid strike team. You are no longer disposable assets but the fourth ground team of the Skyforged Vanguard. Welcome to the family."

The droid seemed to freeze as I informed it of its change in status, almost like it was stunned. Miru stepped back and watched as well, holding back a laugh as the droid finally snapped back to an even more rigid salute.

"Thank you for this honor, Boss," he said, calling me boss for the first time since he had been turned on. "We won't let you down."

"You certainly haven't yet," I said with a smile.

"I have some ideas for upgrades that you and your team might like," Miru added. "Stop by my shop sometime after we get home, and we can talk about them."

Boxi nodded before Miru started giving us the basic tour of the ship, showing off several things she found interesting. The ship was definitely well made and certainly would increase our overall power significantly. Unfortunately, it was also easy to see that this ship was on the older side. As always, the Empire Navy kept things as up-to-date as they could, but there were only so many layers of makeup you could put on this pig.

Miru explained that while it would lose a straight slugging match with its more stock modern compatriots, it still had plenty of power to give.

"It's a fine ship," I agreed as we stepped onto the bridge, looking out of the bow of the ship as the IPV cast a subtle shadow over it. "And you're sure it's completely clean?"

"I'm as sure as I can get," Miru responded, peeking up over the consoles to look out the forward viewports. "We went over it several times and had all our slicer droids running through its programming. Not to mention, we've been scanning it thoroughly for days now. It's possible there is something tucked away we can't scan for, but with a lack of proper power output, the device may as well be someone tapping on the viewport, trying to get a passing ship's attention."

I chuckled at her metaphor, nodding in understanding.

"Well done, then we can make the jump to Omegas Station," I said, still looking out of the forward viewport. "Tatnia and Nal will be going on another hiring mission soon, both for this and the ships we will be buying, assuming someone hasn't come up with a better idea for this ship's escorts. What about the IPV?"

"The IPV is clean as well and is in just about as good condition, save that damage to its cargo bay, which looks minimal," Miru responded. "They are both ready to move whenever you are ready."

"Good. Let's get them ready to jump, then reach out to the station," I said with a smile. "No reason to scare anyone by jumping in unannounced."

Miru laughed and nodded, heading off to do as I said. I looked around for a minute before smirking, making my way to and sitting down in the captain's chair. It was about ten minutes before we finally jumped home.