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Devastation Comes In Big Packages [Planetary Annihilation/Multicross SI]

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18 – Downsizing
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    • 18 – Downsizing​

    By the time I'd made it back to Hub I'd basically removed the need for my unit cap to be filled with fabricator droids. The Vengeance had made its way all over Tiki by this point, smothering it in a grand planetary web of extractors and generators. Now it was chugging its way over to Drich, after which I planned on sending it to Fusou, then Faith, then Anon. It was a pretty heady feeling, not having forty fabricators just taking up my unit cap. I mean, god if I had the resources I could just make fifty Overlord ships. No one, no one in this galaxy could possibly stand up to that.

    But no. Not what I'm going to do right now. Instead…I'm going to take command of the Katana and then have the whole fleet make its way through the Mega Yard. Carefully, of course. I'd pumped out more than enough Resource Cubes at this point – always can make more when I'm not actively using the Mega Yard for something else – so there was no chance of them bumping into things without major issues coming up.

    So, the Katana fleet. The issue of the Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser was that it suffered in sublight and hyperspace speeds. Also it suffered computer failures a lot. And couldn't compete with its peers at the time in firepower or shields.

    Basically, they were crap compared to other things at the time. But their value was really in that it was two hundred ships with good enough slave programming that they massively reduced the amount of manpower it took to run them. Just the sort of thing that a numerically inferior Rebellion could really use in their fight against an Empire. Even so, I didn't plan on giving the Rebellion a bunch of crap as a gift.

    So, as the Mega Yard activated I redid their computer systems – lots of bugs in there, gone now – and basically updated them to the modern day in terms of everything that mattered. Guns, shields, engines, etc. Though I did leave the slave programming intact, that's the thing I want kept preserved. Even better by pushing them through the Mega Yard I gained access to the slave programming. Very advanced…I liked it quite a bit, but I had no major need for it right now. It wasn't like I was planning on adding it to any of my current vessels.

    As for my collection of Imperial stuff…yeah, guess what.

    That's going to the Rebellion too.

    So after the entire Katana fleet flew through the Mega Yard I released my control of the prime controlling ship and just stopped for a second.

    [3/50]

    So much space!

    One Overlord and two Executor-class ships. That's it.

    I could…I could build so many things!

    No, get a hold of yourself Theta, you've got a plan. Now all you have to do is do it. Follow through!

    First, I retake control of several droids I'd left down on Drich – basically my Tie and droid dumping ground – and shove them into my CR90 corvette. Next, talk to some guys on Mandalore. What I want – no, what I need is Beskar. A lot of it. They're pretty concerned by my utter demands for secrecy but the fact that I'm offering frankly ludicrous sums of credits for it pushes them over the edge. They agree to meet the corvette – I'll call it the Golden Boy for now – in the Mandalore system and to exchange the beskar to the droids I've left on the ship.

    Because hey, who can resist the combined accounts of an entire Hutt Cartel being dumped into your coffers?

    Just in case…I make the Golden Boy fly through the Mega Yard and receive a tremendous amount of upgrades. Top to bottom it suddenly leaps forward in its ability to destroy its foes while retaining its charming outer appearance. I almost want some pirates to try and take it so I can test it…before I remember that the pirate population is currently cut at least in half after recent events. Anyway, Golden Boy makes its way over to the Mandalore system and pays the fees that the Zann Consortium has at exorbitant cost just to land.

    It'd be cool, you know, if something happened there. If I suddenly had to dive into those droids and personally direct a fight or redo some negotiations. I was ready for it, hell I was expecting it. I'd be lying if I didn't want to see whether or not the Golden Boy could fight its way out of an enemy occupied system.

    You know what happened?

    The deal was concluded, a huge heaping helping of beskar was deposited in my cargo hold, and the Mandalorians shook the lead protocol droids hand…and left with the money. Yeah I paid them in faith, I'm not going to cheat someone if they aren't cheating me.

    So…yeah. Real exciting stuff there, business going smoothly.

    Uh.

    Anyway.

    Beskar plus progenitor alloys equals something stronger than both that was also basically impervious to lightsabers. You know, just in case I ever ran into a Sith or something. Then, using my memories, and the beskar, I crafted for myself what looked like a pitch black HK droid on the outside but with tons of improvements on the inside. It would be faster and more dexterous than any other HK droid ever created before it by virtue of its internal circuitry…and I gave it quite the assortment of weaponry. Again, all normal on the outside…but on the inside far more powerful. A blaster rifle that was on par with a blaster cannon, an ion gun under the same principles, a flamethrower, a rocket launcher…yeah.

    Yeah, I was proud of my little stand in avatar.

    With this, I could actually talk to people in person rather than as a big scary voice from a ship.

    The last thing I needed was the voice.

    Reaper voice? Already done.

    Leviathan voice? Intriguing…but no.

    The Old HK voice? Nah.

    Ah. Wait.

    James Spader as Ultron.

    And I dub this avatar…Reddington. It won't make sense to anyone else but me, but then again I don't care. I create nine more HK-looking droids who will 'run' the ship but none of them are built with beskar. Only progenitor alloys which is admittedly still pretty good.

    Now…onto the Golden Boy…and to Dagobah.

    And in the meantime…I'll have the Mega Yard keep pumping out Resource Cubes.

    Now to Dagobah.

    If there's anyone who Leia will allow to introduce me, it'll hopefully be Luke. They're brother and sister after all.
     
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    • ....yeah.

    Anyway!

    Ovid said:
    I
    EDIT 2: I'm actually rather confused on why you haven't scanned/kidnapped Guri. Human Replica Droids, especially her, are actually quite impressive. But yeah, making an HK series body should be a nice reference.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Because he doesn't have a ship in the Outer Rim right now? Much less one capable of going after Guri.

    Much too public for now. He's not willing to risk it.

    Gideon020 said:
    Thank god I dodged that bullet then.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Don't worry man, you weren't in the running for planet naming in the first place. It was just for the fics that I'd already read.
     
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    19 – A Small Trip
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    • AN: Annnd done. For now...​
    19 – A Small Trip
    ​
    The Golden Boy was actually slower than the Cry of Gimli or the Executor by virtue of every single one of their engines being bigger than the corvette was. So while I programmed in the route and kept an eye on it…I kept the bulk of my attention in Hub.

    Now, I liked the Mega Yard. But I think it could be better. I had enough Resource Cubes down at this point alongside with the ongoing efforts of the Vengeance to do what I thought might be possible. Mostly I just wanted to see if I could make it bigger. After a certain point there would be diminishing returns due to eventually exceeding even the range of the orbital fabricator arms but not quite yet.

    So.

    First I very, very carefully cracked open the Mega Yard at specific points all along the superstructure at every kilometer. Some very careful applications of tractor beams gently pushed the sudden various chunks away from one another. Not that they were going to go too far, more like I was just expanding the cylinder…which I was. Basically the plan was to have the Mega Yard's pieces use their own fabricators to build up the next sections of it, returning the suddenly segmented portions back into a seamless shell with even more fabricators present on the inside.

    I mean, the Overlord was good…but I wasn't done making new things yet. Not by a longshot.

    As the Golden Boy scooted along the hyperspace lanes I carefully increased the size of the Mega Yard pretty considerably while simultaneously continuing the Vengeance's work. The Executor I set to looking for more of those odd Vengeance-class SSDs. Basically just some busy work. Not very exciting at all. Thankfully because the Mega Yard had more fabricator arms than the Vengeance could ever hope for the self-generated expansion went ludicrously faster than the actual creation of the Mega Yard took.

    It finished expanding itself by the time the Golden Boy hit Dagobah. Now, instead of being twenty five kilometers long with a radius of fifteen kilometers it's a much bigger thirty five kilometers long with a radius of twenty five kilometers. I'm pretty sure it's one of the largest space things running around at this point. Even then you have to always keep in mind that it's a very thin shell. It's a big cavernous hole that weighs significantly less than say a space station that was the same size. Far less materials required to build it too.

    My economy might be tough enough to build another Overlord class but I'm not feeling it just yet. I'm sitting pretty with ten droids under my direct control, plus the Golden Boy, plus my SSD and USD. For now I actually think I'm going to go back to my old ways and build some T2 fabricators on Drich to continue economy expansion efforts there. The Mega Yard MK. II is going to go right on back to making Resource Cores.

    Right.

    Dagobah.

    Spooky place, filled with the Force and the dark side if I remember correctly which I usually do. The Golden Boy has engines more than powerful enough to escape from the swamp should it sink in but I'm not planning on that happening either. Luckily…part of my internal upgrades to the ship includes a fabricator. From that I produce a single Z-95 Headhunter, one of my pirate acquisitions while I was hunting for SSD's in the Outer Rim.

    The Headhunter is basically a sad grey primordial version of the later X-wing. It serves enough for my purposes to the point that I don't even bother upgrading it. Though I'd bet that the internal servos that I'd installed into the Reddington that it could life it out regardless. Or it would sink in. I'm not really that sure on that point just yet. In any case the Z-95 floats through the atmosphere with ease, while I use the super sensors I'd loaded onto the Golden Boy to scan for life signs. Luke in his X-wing might not have been able to manage it but my tech was a bit more advanced than his.

    Human and…short humanoid thing. Sensors start going haywire almost immediately after locking onto that location though but I'm already on the way. Or rather…the Reddington is on the way. Oddly enough the Golden Boy can't seem to reacquire its lock and I guess I can only blame weird force stuff for that. Ah whatever, the Reddington is close enough now. By this point I can – hah!

    I can see the X-wing where it's gained a fine coat of mold and lichen next to the shore. Unlike Luke I try not to land my fighter in the part of the swamp where it will shrink. Now, pop the hatch with suitable hissing noises and time for my cool entrance!

    Reddington leaps out of the cockpit and lands solidly on a rock in a classic three point landing! Ye-

    Oh.

    No one is here. Lame.

    Or maybe…given what happened to the Golden Boy…they are but my sensors just can't find them.

    Can the force beat progenitor level sensors? I don't know.

    "Ah, hello? My name is Theta! I represent a party interested in meeting with the individual known as Luke Skywalker! Not for…you know…murdering or capturing purposes! For good purposes!"

    Wow. That sounds bad. Even James Spader's mechanized voice can't make poetry from my garbage.

    "Mostly relating to the organization known as the 'Rebellion'! With uh, ships…and credits…and such! It's just been a big hassle getting ahold of the rest of them and we figured that hey – her brother would probably be able to get an in. Right?"

    "What?" a voice says from right behind the Reddington. I consider it a good example of my control abilities that I didn't turn around with blaster rifle firing.

    Instead I casually turn the droid body around to face a well-muscled guy wearing a pretty dirty robe. At his side is a metal tube which I assume is a lightsaber…while on a rock there is a short green person who sensors indicate is absolutely dying. Like…right now.

    "Hello-,"

    "I don't have a sister," he interrupts me.

    "False," I reply cheerfully. "Padme Skywalker nee Amidala, Queen of Naboo, gave birth to two children, twins. The former was delivered to a far off world where she would receive the last name Organa while the boy would be delivered to Tatooine."

    He looks pretty surprised…which isn't that much of a surprise.

    The Bespin duel didn't happen after all.

    I have the Reddington turn to Yoda, who is looking at me with a pretty blank expression. Or maybe that was just his puppety face.

    "Master Yoda, did you not tell him? You guys have been here for months, but the universe didn't stop moving."

    "I don't…Leia?! But- she – I – we – Master Yoda!" Luke finally turns to his master, his fists clenched…before he breathes deeply and I can visibly see the anger leaving him.

    Neat. Jedi training is a go, it seems.

    "Please explain."

    Yoda nods weakly and then gestures…off to presumably his house.

    "Very well, young Skywalker. Wanted to spend my last day like this, I did not. Hrumph," he does the last part with a gimlet look towards the Reddington…but I'm on the other side of the galaxy pal, you can't really hurt me.

    I think.
     
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