Planet Nirauan, Pef Empire

Next week

I'll have to leave the Centerpoint station here, since whatever superlaser that hit Nirauan in the past is still operational on Alashan, the planet I want to investigate. And losing Centerpoint would be a strategic loss.

Seems Thrawn wasn't idle at all, having fortified the system immensely even bringing some of his personal phalanx of Chiss, including Kres'ten'tarthi .

There are shields and defense platforms everywhere, factories and shipyards, some of them 'upgrading' Chiss vessels with our tech...

Figures, give a man a claw, and he takes your whole hand...

Hmmm, transports arriving from Aeten II , loaded with stygium crystals...that's not actually okay. We are not making Orion or Fades here, so they must be smuggled to the Chiss. Tracing...they are! Not cool, my blue friends.

"Major Kres'ten'tarthi , I will not explain again. Stygium is a strategic resource for the Pef Empire. If any such mineral or technology using it, gets 'lost' , I will blame the Chiss. If your friends in the Ascendancy want to benefit from Pef Empire's richness or technology, they are welcome to join our benevolent Empire." I told the blue man, and noticed him gulp slightly.

"Understood Emperor. We will do our best to find any lost shipments..." the Major answered with a calm voice.

"No need. All ships carrying stygium were teleported back in the Nirauan system. Some of them even reached Rhigar by some miracle. Now Major, please make sure no pirates steal the spacestation, while I go deal with whoever fired that superlaser at the High Tower fortress. I'll use the Meteor Five, since it's expendable. " I explained politely, then made sure the deduct 90% from the next three month salaries of every Chiss employed by Thrawn, including the man himself.

Just a gentle reminder I was paying them for another job, like protecting the Empire from whatever threats they found in the Unknown regions.

The Chiss were smart so they'll figure it out. The Immortal Pef was not happy with the quality of their work.

I understand you want to protect your race, but ask first, it's not so hard.

And this Chiss frigate will be confiscated, so I can reverse-engineer it. I was getting quite a collection of confiscated ships inside the Centerpoint.

"Emperor Pef! Hello..." my Captain exclaimed in surprise, as I just teleported on his bridge.

"Hello to you as well, Captain. We're jumping towards planet Alashan . We'll maintain 200 thousands kilometers from the planet, as they are armed, quite potently." I said politely to the Dornean Captain, in command of the strategic Meteor.

"Orders understood, Immortal Emperor. I'll ready my ship and deploy a few escort corvettes to cover our emergence point.

Records show exploring ships were vaporized at 100 thousand kilometers from this planet..." the Dornean muttered a bit wary, after checking the nav computer for our destination.

"Indeed, that superlaser is one of our capture objectives. There are some 20 small ships with various types of shields that are docking with the Meteor as we speak. I want to see which ones fare better. Depending on the results, we'll see if we need to test the Meteor itself or not. Cheer up Captain, and fellow officers. It's all in the name of science!" I proclaimed gloriously, punching towards the ceiling.

My officers punched as well, a bit slower and reluctant.

Huh, seems nobody is eager to test the shields in a real engagement. Not even the tactical droids...

"Roger, Droid Emperor. We'll all be vaporized for science. Best day ever..." a newer model of droid muttered audibly. A Tactical-strategic variant, made by Core to serve on flagships!

"Exactly TSS 11XR. The Galactic Empire is struggling to produce a prototype superlaser just now. The Sharu possibly have similar weapons. The Gree as well, even if they forgot how to use them. The Hutts had their own planet crackers for 25 millenia. A force sect called Heinsnake Cult has a similar weapon. Even the CIS had something like this, which we now use as this ship's primary weapon, the ion beam. Our technological superiority needs to be tested and advanced further, and I am certain everyone in the Pef Navy will do their duty. For the Empire! " I declared, in a more professional tone.

"For the Empire!" the entire bridge crew replied in a loud chorus.

Much better. Perhaps knowing how desperate things could become motivates people?

Now, let's see if my force call ability can bypass the Rakata field. It can! So...either unknown to Rakata, or not perceived as a threat. Stupid fish. Anything that can appear inside the forcefield is a threat.

My Zeison Sha maid, Vera, appeared next to me, a bit bewildered.

"Another force trick, Pef? How many force abilities do you know?" she muttered with a sigh.

"Almost 900 abilities. Although, they can be compacted in ten trees, and five waveforms. You will learn more once you spend some time with my Avatar. The way synthetics use force powers is different for living beings, and half don't even work the same."

I explained gently as our ship finished loading the test subjects and began moving away towards our jump point. Very slowly.

--------------

Planet Alashan, Pef Empire

Next week.

Damn, I forgot how slow the Meteors are.

Guess I kinda abused Centerpoint, but I can't risk the station getting damaged or destroyed.

Now, let's scientifically observe the Alashan superlaser in operation. Very strong and actually vaporizing the Gozanti cruiser sent on the first test run.

Hmmm. That facility that the Heinsnakes use is most probably another base from this extinct race.

I wonder if they're still around...possibly yes. They are covered in a Dark Shroud ability, like Palpatine had.

Guess that's why they hated him, most likely stole it from them.

Or maybe he learned it from the Aing-Tii monks, those use something similar, and are known to have taught Yoda, Darth Caedus and Luke Skywalker.

The superlaser beam comes from the underground city of Forever and is guided and bent by an energy creature, looking like a huge humanoid reptile.

Next ship, a YT freighter, cloaked. Detected much much later, only at contact with the upper atmosphere.

Next, another Gozanti, using the new energy reflecting shields. Oh? Survived the first hit, although the engines are fried and the ship crashed.

Not actually dangerous then, if the energy is discharged fast enough.

An Akorec frigate, from the Centrality, was sent next, with 10 times more shield strength and with 30 ion cannons to shoot off the extra energy.

One, two, three strikes to overwhelm the capacitors. Still blew up, but only because it had no thermal shielding.

Now two Dakka II corvettes, at once. The Guardian managed to split off the beam and hit both ships. Very good.

Now come back, I actually like my corvettes.

The Guardian fired again, but the corvettes managed to get away, slightly damaged.

Next, my first frigate, the Interceptor-class made by Corellia. Heavily armored and upgraded, with thermal shields and the new deflector screens.

Four hits and it veered away, engaging cloak and escaping.

I did kinda dotted on it, upgrading it with 50 million worth of shield emitters.

Last test, a simulfuture illusion of Lucrehulk. I knew those very well, having disassembled quite a few.

The AI down on the planet didn't fire. Sigh, it has to be really smart then. The donut battleship looked real on our sensors. Let's begin slicing in, and take over the Guardian.

"Take us in Captain. Target the gas giant with our ion cannons, and park the ship at 99 thousand kilometers. Let's see how our forcefield fares" I commanded with a joking voice.

"Engines at full. We'll reach the designated spot in...11 minutes" The Nav droid reported after a few seconds.

Yep, big slow ship. Takes time to arrive anywhere.

"Come Vera, get ready, we're beaming down soon" I said softly, rotating my helmet 170 degrees backwards, to be polite and keep my faceplate towards the addressed recipient.

"Gah! Don't do that! It's creepy..." she exclaimed, somehow disturbed at my full range mobility.

"What's the point of a fully traversable helmet if I don't use it?" I asked with a shrug.

My droids snickered and rotated their heads 360 degrees, to show they could too.

"Damn droid humour. So, we're going down to fight whatever is shooting at us?" Vera asked worried.

"It is not even a force weapon. I kinda lost interest in testing the laser" I muttered softly.

"So what is it?" Vera asked curious, as the entire bridge nodded.

"An AI, with a solid hologram. Very advanced, but barely of any use, unless I can reverse-engineer it. And...the city is ours. Mine to be precise. I'll let one beam fire though, so our brave crew can feel some well deserved bravery" I explained with a chuckle

and teleported into the underground Alashan control center .

Then called Vera and teleported her to me, so she could feel brave too.

In my other memories, a certain moisture farmer had been pretty amazed to discovert his place.

"You could fit all the people and settlements on Tatooine into this place...without filling a fraction of it."

―Luke Skywalker

Yep, the city was quite large, and powered with some exotic machinery.

The guardian was summoned next to us, now small as a dog, and I petted its head absently.

Some kind of holographic entity, semi-sentient and draining power through some subspace emitters, working at short range around the city.

Ah, good thing I arrived here before someone called Luke or Leia. Those morons would have destroyed this marvel of science by using explosives and lightsabers, instead of technopathy.

And there was a million years of advanced science here. I hummed happily, as I began downloading all the databanks. Jackpot!

Planet Alashan, Blueforge system, Pef Empire

16 BBY, Next month

Science is not easy, if you ever wondered.

And, while being what I am has perks, I'm not actually much smarter, just using thousands of partitions at once, to look smarter.

Which is why the entire planet was kidnapped, and brought to the place where the smartest people in the Pef Empire work.

The energy and bioweapons guys. Because a Columi or an Omwati scientist, not to mention Jenna Arbor or other galactic class geniuses, are ten times smarter than me.

Even Jaybo is smarter, just needs to complete his education. That is, his postdoctoral studies on hyperspace mechanics.

"Wow, Emperor, I thought it was the time you came to cut off my head...not bring me to a technological marvel..." the boy said, possibly still a bit impressed with how we first met. Hmmm. Just pretending, for my sake.

"Drop the act, my son. Do you see any stupid people around?" I asked rhetorically, as the geniuses around preened at my compliment.

"Oh, not even a finger? My life is ruined! Then again, it has been worth it, digesting all that crap literature I had to read, before I made sense how things work. Now I can do real science, untangling all this mess.

That computer there just pretends to work, and is actually stealing energy to play games in a simulation. That one there doesn't even work, but keeps the lights on so it doesn't get replaced. Ugh, I thought you said the creators of this city were geniuses! " Jaybo complained, after a few hours of exploring the control center and interfacing with his own neural chip links.

"No...I said you and these other people here are geniuses. The makers of these town were just very advanced. Still people, some smarter and others not. Don't play with the Guardian though, it's core programming was really omnicidal. I did locked his controls, although I am certain any of you brainiacs can unlock him, and get you all murdered gruesomely, for science." I explained gently, almost expecting the hologram to begin ripping the scientists to shreds any second.

"Roger, roger. Omnicidal sapient hologram. Do not revert to factory settings" the boy replied in a fake droid voice.

"Good. And stop posting all those harem stories on the blacknet. There's a trillion real girls in our Empire. Just tell me who you like..." I said in a fake whisper, and chuckled a little as the boy all blushed up.

And teleport.

I did make sure to sprinkle his research team with five bookworm girls, so he could impress them with his brains.

Come on, just tell them they're beautiful and smart, and they'll eat you up! Possibly.

---------------------

Planet Gand, Pef Empire

Zero garden

"Wow Avatar, your kids are all so cute, I want to eat them up!" Vera exclaimed in real amazement, kissing one baby after another as a morning exercise. I smiled gently and nodded in agreement. They were all cute, indeed.

I walked behind Vera, and kissed each wife deeply, while my maid pampered the kids. Having a harem was quite exciting after all. And everyone felt happy, except the few Jedi women not married to me yet, who didn't get a kiss.

"More training for now, Honored maid. We'll explore your baby eating habits later, after you master plant bond." I said gently, guiding her away from the adored kids and their mothers, and towards a patch of long grass.

"B-butttt....babies...they're so cute..." the twi'lek maid murmured half-dreaming.

"Now, close your eyes, and feel the grass just in front of you, like you would during combat..." I whispered, massaging her leku gently.

The grass started to bend and waver, like in the wind. Huh. That was fast.

"Now Vera, weave a pair of little baby shoes from this grass, without uprooting it. Just make it grow longer if you need to" I said on a hunch. She really liked babies...

And indeed, in one hour, and with a few more suggestions, she mastered grass weaving like a pro.

It took me two days! This wasn't fair at all.

Oh well. Guess we can use the next two days as bonus time, and explore her baby loving.

She did great and deserved her reward.

"Come Vera, let me show you where those babies came from..." I whispered gently in her ear, while hugging my lovely maid a bit tighter.

"Babies..." she muttered, still half dreaming.

Yep, this one didn't take long at all.

Gand system, Pef Empire

Celestial Throne, Redbox

16 BBY, next month

The expansion of my Empire has mostly stalled in outer width, and began focusing inward, now engulfing most of the mid rim, and parts of the expansion region.

Also, hundreds new routes were found inside the outer rim, mostly by simply buying them from scouts and explorers and various libraries. A million credits for a route? Amazingly cheap, considering some routes had cost us billions of credits.

Sure not all are important or lead to any good place, but it doesn't matter. In fact, let's announce to the whole Empire the new rewards, 100 thousands credits for every hyperspace route, leading anywhere new, and 1 million for routes leading to planets.

I might get thousands of new routes cheap, and make exploring a rich business to work in, for many smugglers or pirates wanting to find a new lucrative occupation.

"Very amusing, explorer Emperor. Now you get to spend ships and lives that you didn't pay for. And only reward palpable results." Mujilik commented, possibly irritated at losing some prestige for his Exploration Corps.

"Don't worry, my Sixth Hand. Those systems and planets still need to be mapped and evaluated, for riches and dangers alike.

Who knows, we may find more superlasers..." I replied politely.

"Well, speaking of new planets. We did indeed locate O'reen where your visions predicted it would be. They fired on our corvettes..." he said, less amused now.

"Yep, it's an Old Republic fortress world, meant to defend the galaxy against intrusions from the west or south-west. They need to be put to work, and pointed at real enemies, not the Empire's traders and explorers. But, first they need to learn the new laws.

Our 21st fleet is heading there, to liberate them. Any luck with N'zoth or Rothana?"

"Rothana yes, we are mapping the Rishi maze now. Should be finished by the end of the month. The other not yet.

We did however find Oristrom, and Admiral Thrawn was happy to receive another fleet base.

However, untill Ansion and Rago defect to our illustrious Empire, expanding in the north east will be problematic." the leaders of the Explorers, said, tapping the holomap to zoom in.

"I know, my friend. The Imperials are fortifying the western sectors, expecting an organized counter-attack. Only, what is out there is not organized on the lines of a army, but instead they migrate and plunder, enslaving hundreds of races, then they move over to a new world. Only the Chiss and the dinosaurs have any semblance of organization. And the Vong, of course." I said, with a shrug.

"Our spies report many hot first contacts, especially directly westwards. Some force users too, so most likely Croke or Rhand.

The Imperial Navy is bombarding the hot spots from orbit." my Third Hand intervened, now looking a lot more relaxed, since most of the workload was taken over by the Intelligence Droids, and his harem was busy looking after the kits. Lucky guy.

"And reports from Sluis Van and Eriadu?" I replied, switching to the next painful chapter.

Moff Tarkin and his influential clan, entrenched in the south.

"No idea what they're trying to do, building a thousands ships in secret. The credits are stolen from the Galactic Treasury, the minerals are diverted or confiscated...perhaps a rebellion?" Lu-daal'ud muttered in his brandy glass.

"They can't have crews for something like that. So, they must be using droids for crew. But their Cutlass-9 patrol fighter is better than our own fighters. 20% faster, and also armed with missiles. At least they are also 5 times more expensive, so they won't have too many. And modifying a hundred Personal Luxury Yacht 3000 as combat dropships? You know what they're planning, Thrid Hand. They plan to assault Coruscant. And change the leadership of the Empire, in a few hours." I said, looking over the reports from our spies on the shipyards.

Those starfighters were amazing indeed. But only if upgraded again, and piloted by an AI or a force-user.

And those dropships were nice, but too small and fragile. My Gozanti II dropships were thrice as large and durable. And 2 times cheaper. No, this was a gamble, an all-in strategy, using everything available, wasting credits and stormtroopers, just to claim the prize. The Galactic Empire.

But Tarkin alone, being this bold? Risking everything?

No, he had to have support from other Moffs, and perhaps some Inquisitors and other force-users.

A plan began forming in my mind, to offer the galaxy a savior, once again.

'Don't get my Avatar killed yet. I want my own baby too' Asajj whispered in the Voice bond, and neglecting her diplomatic overtures in the Bosph system , with a newly discovered race, ruled by force-users.

'Convince the Bosph to join willingly, and you can have two kids' I replied encouragingly.

'Great. I'll be here a month then. Can't I just kill a hundred of their leaders and come home?' she complained like a horny schoolgirl.

'That won't work Asajj, the four arms will just ignore us then. Give them gifts and promise them many star maps tatoos with each planet they find. Start a few factories for scout ships and nav droids. Have fun!' I sent towards her with a telepathic hug.

"So, we're let Tarkin attack, and then we swoop in, to save the Empress and marry her?" Zuckuss said after a bit of meditation.

Huh, he was getting really good at this.

"Yes, but Tarkin will need like 3 months to be ready. We have time to root out his supporters, and prepare to strike them all at once. And start the diplomatic procedures for a lengthy state visit of our Avatar. To commence in two months, at the same time with lifting the blockade. By then half of the population of Coruscant will have been 'liberated' anyway." I explained with a dramatic punch at the red ceiling.

"My females already want to be called 'queen' in private. Next they'll want to called 'empress' . Damn females and their silly dreams..." my Third Hand complained gulping his third glass of brandy.

Hmmm. Technically, all my maids were empresses.

Maybe Shaak Ti will mellow out if Peffy calls her Empress?

Let's find out!