Tatnia has a very... interesting definition of the term "Capital Ship". I suppose within the context of the existing Skyforged Fleet it could be classified as such... but in the general sense, using the term to describe the Arquitens to be in the same league as, say, an MC80, Venator, or an ISD seems... kinda hilarious in a way. Though I guess if one of those and a handful of support ships and fighters was considered good enough for Bo-Katan to consider herself a claimant of Mandalore it really must punch out of its weight class, doesn't it?
Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage
- Thread starter MetaBettaOmega
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- elder scrolls skyrim star wars
Chapter 173
New
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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.
"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.
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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.
"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.
Chapter 174
New
With the suitable materials found, harvested, refined, and charged, and with a product worth working on, I was finally ready to push our combat personnel to the next level. There were two groups I needed to work on in general: the Navy and the Army, though the Skyforged differentiated that into crewmen and ground Teams. All combat active crewmen, namely pilots and gunners, would need a set of enchanted uniforms. The uniform consisted of reinforced combat boots, beskar woven pants, and beskar woven shirts in the same design as before, including our symbol on each shoulder.
The uniforms for the Crewman would be enchanted with two dexterity bonuses and a single stamina buff. While wearing their uniforms, our crewmen were faster and had better reflexes than any other biological being in the entire galaxy. It was almost to the point that they could be the precognition of a Jedi through pure speed. It was honestly impressive to see them running around the hallways of their ships, testing out their enhancements. It also made their flying and accuracy shockingly better, as was the entire point of the process. Even our new pilots were absolutely devastating the Rebel groups we managed to trick into training with us. Slowly but surely, our crewmen developed a reputation similar to that of our ground teams.
While the active combat crewman got the best of the best, I handed out some of the lesser enchanted items I had made to the rest of the crew. These were hand-me-downs and experiments from the last few months of enchanting and replacing older stuff with newer equipment. It was a bit more random and noticeably less significant, but there wasn't a single baseline person in all of my crewmen.
The process of enhancement was following behind the process of replacing old gear with new, since the Armorer's advice had reduced the amount of beskar needed to make a uniform even more, all without reducing their effectiveness. We could collect three old uniform sets and use the melted down and refined beskar from them to make five, some of which I would enchant.
As for the armor, a similar process was going on as our old equipment was being collected, the plating stripped off, melted down and purified. The resulting beskar was re-alloyed into a slightly lighter, more efficient mixture shared by the Armorer. It was still pretty beskar intensive, but for every four suits of armor we converted, we could make another new one from scratch.
This process, plus the process of refitting our new members, was scheduled to take place over a week and a half, thanks to the Armorer's help, as well as his own workers joining the armor team. This, of course, dwarfed my ability to enchant things to a hilarious degree. Still, I was determined to get everyone outfitted properly so that, going forward, any time we added new ships or groups to our team, I would only need to worry about upgrading their equipment rather than slowly upgrading everything together.
While I was dedicated to my new, massive, daunting, mind-melting project, the Skyforged Vanguard did not lie dormant. Our secondary team went out on another pirate mission, departing not long after I left for my material-gathering mission. They returned within a week, having successfully completed a bounty and managing to retrieve some basic supplies. They were not able to force a surrender, so the paycheck was not massive, but they definitely covered expenses and made a good chunk off of selling some of the supplies.
It was around the time they came back that we had another meeting to discuss the fate of our currently empty ships, namely the Arquiten, the gunship from the secondary team's last job, and the IPV. The frigate from their previous job had already been integrated into our supply chain, and the starfighters were already sold to the Rebellion.
"If we are trying to form coherent groups, like having the Whale Shark, Nautilus, and Intervention on the second group, and the Arquiten and whatever escorts we decide on being the third, then we obviously need the first group," Captain Irsee pointed out. "If that group already consists of the Loyal Hound and the Talos Chariot, then we should assign the gunship to it as well."
The gunship was a Vanguard-Class heavy attack ship, a U-shaped vessel that packed a big punch for its size. The pirates had treated it surprisingly well, but Miru had looked it over and done some research. It was a ship built and armored for war, and better yet, it was a CEC design, meaning with fifty thousand credits, we could buff the energy output quite a bit, increasing shield density and acceleration noticeably. It would need some repairs, but that would amount to fifteen thousand credits, a drop in the comparable bucket.
"It would make a great addition to the insertion heavy, quick delivery strategy we usually end up using the Chariot for," Miru pointed out. "It won't be able to carry its own ground team, but it's fast, punchy and tough. Not much else you could ask for, Boss."
"Okay… having a bit more firepower as part of our insertion group is not a bad thing," I admitted. "As long as it can keep up with us."
"Oh, it can. The Vanguard… they are pretty potent. I had to look them up because they are on the rare side, but these guys were built to fight, and they aren't cheap because they are well made," Miru assured me. "I'm glad you guys got me on it before you sold it. It's a good find. Kind of shocking that some random pirate group had it."
"Okay, so our first group now consists of the Loyal Hound, the Talos Chariot, and the… Forward Charge…?"
I trailed off after giving the ship a tentative name, looking around at everyone for approval. When everyone had either shrugged or nodded, I continued.
"... Our second group consists of the Whale Shark and its starfighters, the Nautilus and the Intervention," I finished. "With the Mandalorian group stationed on the Loyal Hound, the first group has two ground teams, and the second group only has one. I'm thinking that the third group, whatever form that takes, stays as primarily a naval force, so when our new beskar droid group is finished with their upgrades, they should station on the Nautilus to even out the ground teams."
"So all that's left is to finish the third group," Tatnia finished for me. "A wholly naval-focused group."
"The idea of using C-Rocs as support for the larger Arquiten is a solid idea, especially since they can provide a screen of starfighters as well," Captain Irsee admitted. "I just worry about the cost."
"Why are they costing us anything?" Lieutenant Rider asked with a slightly confused look. "At this point, I assumed ship seizure before purchase was Skyforged standard procedure."
"Well, I didn't know how long that would take, and who knows what sort of condition they would be in," I pointed out. "We would have to locate one, plan out a method of capturing it without damaging it, then repair whatever wear and tear it accrued before we can start the upgrade and modification process."
"Boss… I think you might be underestimating how popular C-Rocs are," Miru said with a frown. "They are pretty common with all sorts of groups, including pirates and smugglers. I'm honestly surprised we never stumbled into one on Nar Shaddaa or any of the pirates we've fought."
"They are the perfect ships for smuggling, and they are easy to modify," Tatnia explained. "It's why you aren't going to get one in good repair for much less than two hundred thousand credits."
"Okay, fine," I agreed with a nod. "If we can find some to take from slavers, Hutt's, or pirates, that's great. But I would like to get to work on the modifications as soon as possible. Having the third group up and running will push the Skyforged into a new power level. We can start taking on bigger jobs, which in turn will mean bigger profits, and we can start hitting Imperial targets."
"We've hit Imperial targets before," Miru pointed out with a frown.
"But never in an open, head-to-head fight," I explained. "On all of our previous Imperial-focused missions, we relied on tricks, cheating, finding gaps in security, or playing certain stuff to our advantage. With an Arquiten and the rest of the fleet, we could slam through the defenses of quite a few of the lesser protected worlds around the galaxy, take what we want, and leave. No special conditions, no tricks, no unexpected, out-of-the-box plan."
Most of the people in the meeting seemed to understand what I was getting at, but I continued just to hammer what I meant home.
"Imagine the supply line raids. Previously, we would have to rely on a greedy Imperial shrinking patrol size or a lucky break revealing a tight window of opportunity. This kind of stuff is rare and eventually could be used to stage an ambush," I explained. "But with a much more powerful fleet, we could just drop out of hyperspace, blow up the escorts, and demand the cargo ships come with us or be destroyed. Simple, easy, no luck or loophole required."
The group murmured and nodded at the idea of being able to overwhelm our targets rather than trick them through elaborate plans. After a minute of everyone talking, I spoke up again. "We can give our research people a week or so to come up with some appropriate targets. Meanwhile, I want Quartermaster Finder to locate ships that are being sold for reasonable prices. If we don't have three targets by the end of two weeks, we can buy the rest."
"And the IPV?"
"Sell it to the Rebellion. This is already going to be another big jump in growth, and we will need the money. Three million five hundred thousand should be a good price for our friends, correct?" I asked, looking around and nodding. "Good. Now, we are obviously going to have to do some recruiting over the next few weeks. I need a captain for the Arquiten, but I also want there to be a lead C-Roc with a captain on board as well. Their job would be more about monitoring and strategizing all three starships working together than directing the ship he was on."
"Twelve crew for all three C-Rocs, twice that of naval droids," Captain Irsee continued. "Plus twelve pilots. The Arquiten needs twenty for for a proper rotation, and that's with droid assistance."
"The Charging Forward will need six," Miru pointed out. "Which brings up the point of naming the Arquitens."
"The Anvil," Corvack stated clearly. "Surely the Skyforged needs an Anvil."
"Not bad," I said with a smile. "It also makes naming the three escorts pretty easy as well. The Hammer as the lead, then the Punch and the Chisel."
"Sure, whatever," Tatnia said, rolling her eyes. "Can we please get back to the hiring part?"
"Right, yeah. For the crew, it sounds like we need fifty in total," I said, doing some quick mental math. "How much are we going to need to increase support staff?"
"We need at least fifteen more maintenance and engineering, especially if we are going to be modifying the C-Rocs ourselves," Miru explained. "Plus, maybe thirty maintenance droids."
"We will need more people and at least one other freighter for our supply lines," Quartermaster Finder added.
"Right, well then, thank God we started building homes on Nirn. The station would already be full, and then some," I said, rubbing my face and shaking my head. "This is the last time we are adding ships to our fleet for a while. For a good chunk of time, everything we find gets sold. We need to settle into this new size and build a buffer before we stretch ourselves too thin and unravel."
"Pretty sure that was already the plan," Tatnia pointed out.
"Yeah, but the Arquiten was too good of a find to hold off on," I responded, giving my second-in-command a look. "From now on, though, if we find something particularly special or expensive, we will mothball it. Maybe park it on Nirn's moon to keep it in a vacuum and free of pests."
The meeting continued until we discussed everything on our list of topics, after which the meeting broke down, and we all went about our business. I, of course, got back to work, enchanting, enchanting, and more enchanting.
While I toiled away, my workshop temporarily transferred to Omega Station so that I wouldn't interrupt the Skyforged business. As I continued to work, both the first and second groups went on another pair of missions. The first group, with Tatnia leading in my absence, was targeting a large group of pirates harassing a mining outpost and city based in the Outer Rim. They were using Clone Wars-era ground weapons, both CIS and Republic, to basically hold the entire outpost hostage. My guess was that someone from the city had found an old Clone Wars battleground and spent some time repairing all the leftover gear.
While the outpost barely offered enough credits to get our attention, the real reason for taking the job was the heavy ordnance that they described in the brief. With any luck, we could fill a rather large gap in our repertoire with the aforementioned heavy ordinance, after which we could sell the rest to the Rebellion. Hell, depending on what sort of resources our bounty had found, we might even be able to sell them the location of the battle itself.
The second group left two days after the first. One of their research teams had found a pirate group that was known to have a pair of C-Rocs, and since we were in the market, they would make a great target.
Unfortunately, the second group didn't really didn't have much of a strategy for getting the ships undamaged, so they would have to attack them directly and whittle their forces down until they surrendered. If they refused, then they would attempt to lightly disable them, but that was such a hit-or-miss concept that they were more likely to damage the two ships beyond being worth our time.
Even if they did damage both of the ships past the point of being worth fixing up, they would still bring them both back. I would have the repair crews tear the wrecks down for parts and store them somewhere safe for later use. We would eventually have four of them in our fleet, after all.
Another week passed with me doing nothing but enchanting armor and uniforms. The station was pretty empty with both groups out on missions, and I was starting to go a little stir-crazy. Then, on a seemingly random afternoon, Miru stopped by, leading a surprising guest. Luke Skywalker walked into my temporary enchanting lab, looking around and staring at the piles of armor and uniforms, as well as the enchanting table. They must have been waiting for me to be free, because they came in just as I was finishing a pair of boots.
"Luke! Good to see you!" I said, reaching out to shake his hand. "How's it going, what can I do for you?"
"It's good to see you too," he said, taking my hand but pulling me into a hug. "I came to see you and Ahsoka, actually. I have some Jedi-related questions."
"Well, Ahsoka is away on a mission with the rest of the team, but I'm sure Miru already explained the. The only reason I'm here is because I need to keep working on all this," I said, gesturing around me.
"Yeah, fair..."
"What's up?" I asked, guiding him and Miru to a small table along the side of the room and sitting down with them."
"Well… I've been having visions," He explained, wincing when I looked up at him with wide eyes. "Obi-wan has been reaching out to me about a place called Dagobah. I'm pretty sure it's actually him, but I know you warned me that the Sith are really good at mental manipulation..."
"A vision, huh?" What are they telling you to do?" I asked, doing my best to keep calm. This was a lot earlier than I had expected, and I had no idea why that had happened.
"They want me to find it and go to it," Luke explained. "But I was hoping to have Ahsoka with me when I went."
"There's a chance she won't be back for several days," I responded with a wince. "But...how about I go with you?"
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The uniforms for the Crewman would be enchanted with two dexterity bonuses and a single stamina buff. While wearing their uniforms, our crewmen were faster and had better reflexes than any other biological being in the entire galaxy. It was almost to the point that they could be the precognition of a Jedi through pure speed. It was honestly impressive to see them running around the hallways of their ships, testing out their enhancements. It also made their flying and accuracy shockingly better, as was the entire point of the process. Even our new pilots were absolutely devastating the Rebel groups we managed to trick into training with us. Slowly but surely, our crewmen developed a reputation similar to that of our ground teams.
While the active combat crewman got the best of the best, I handed out some of the lesser enchanted items I had made to the rest of the crew. These were hand-me-downs and experiments from the last few months of enchanting and replacing older stuff with newer equipment. It was a bit more random and noticeably less significant, but there wasn't a single baseline person in all of my crewmen.
The process of enhancement was following behind the process of replacing old gear with new, since the Armorer's advice had reduced the amount of beskar needed to make a uniform even more, all without reducing their effectiveness. We could collect three old uniform sets and use the melted down and refined beskar from them to make five, some of which I would enchant.
As for the armor, a similar process was going on as our old equipment was being collected, the plating stripped off, melted down and purified. The resulting beskar was re-alloyed into a slightly lighter, more efficient mixture shared by the Armorer. It was still pretty beskar intensive, but for every four suits of armor we converted, we could make another new one from scratch.
This process, plus the process of refitting our new members, was scheduled to take place over a week and a half, thanks to the Armorer's help, as well as his own workers joining the armor team. This, of course, dwarfed my ability to enchant things to a hilarious degree. Still, I was determined to get everyone outfitted properly so that, going forward, any time we added new ships or groups to our team, I would only need to worry about upgrading their equipment rather than slowly upgrading everything together.
While I was dedicated to my new, massive, daunting, mind-melting project, the Skyforged Vanguard did not lie dormant. Our secondary team went out on another pirate mission, departing not long after I left for my material-gathering mission. They returned within a week, having successfully completed a bounty and managing to retrieve some basic supplies. They were not able to force a surrender, so the paycheck was not massive, but they definitely covered expenses and made a good chunk off of selling some of the supplies.
It was around the time they came back that we had another meeting to discuss the fate of our currently empty ships, namely the Arquiten, the gunship from the secondary team's last job, and the IPV. The frigate from their previous job had already been integrated into our supply chain, and the starfighters were already sold to the Rebellion.
"If we are trying to form coherent groups, like having the Whale Shark, Nautilus, and Intervention on the second group, and the Arquiten and whatever escorts we decide on being the third, then we obviously need the first group," Captain Irsee pointed out. "If that group already consists of the Loyal Hound and the Talos Chariot, then we should assign the gunship to it as well."
The gunship was a Vanguard-Class heavy attack ship, a U-shaped vessel that packed a big punch for its size. The pirates had treated it surprisingly well, but Miru had looked it over and done some research. It was a ship built and armored for war, and better yet, it was a CEC design, meaning with fifty thousand credits, we could buff the energy output quite a bit, increasing shield density and acceleration noticeably. It would need some repairs, but that would amount to fifteen thousand credits, a drop in the comparable bucket.
"It would make a great addition to the insertion heavy, quick delivery strategy we usually end up using the Chariot for," Miru pointed out. "It won't be able to carry its own ground team, but it's fast, punchy and tough. Not much else you could ask for, Boss."
"Okay… having a bit more firepower as part of our insertion group is not a bad thing," I admitted. "As long as it can keep up with us."
"Oh, it can. The Vanguard… they are pretty potent. I had to look them up because they are on the rare side, but these guys were built to fight, and they aren't cheap because they are well made," Miru assured me. "I'm glad you guys got me on it before you sold it. It's a good find. Kind of shocking that some random pirate group had it."
"Okay, so our first group now consists of the Loyal Hound, the Talos Chariot, and the… Forward Charge…?"
I trailed off after giving the ship a tentative name, looking around at everyone for approval. When everyone had either shrugged or nodded, I continued.
"... Our second group consists of the Whale Shark and its starfighters, the Nautilus and the Intervention," I finished. "With the Mandalorian group stationed on the Loyal Hound, the first group has two ground teams, and the second group only has one. I'm thinking that the third group, whatever form that takes, stays as primarily a naval force, so when our new beskar droid group is finished with their upgrades, they should station on the Nautilus to even out the ground teams."
"So all that's left is to finish the third group," Tatnia finished for me. "A wholly naval-focused group."
"The idea of using C-Rocs as support for the larger Arquiten is a solid idea, especially since they can provide a screen of starfighters as well," Captain Irsee admitted. "I just worry about the cost."
"Why are they costing us anything?" Lieutenant Rider asked with a slightly confused look. "At this point, I assumed ship seizure before purchase was Skyforged standard procedure."
"Well, I didn't know how long that would take, and who knows what sort of condition they would be in," I pointed out. "We would have to locate one, plan out a method of capturing it without damaging it, then repair whatever wear and tear it accrued before we can start the upgrade and modification process."
"Boss… I think you might be underestimating how popular C-Rocs are," Miru said with a frown. "They are pretty common with all sorts of groups, including pirates and smugglers. I'm honestly surprised we never stumbled into one on Nar Shaddaa or any of the pirates we've fought."
"They are the perfect ships for smuggling, and they are easy to modify," Tatnia explained. "It's why you aren't going to get one in good repair for much less than two hundred thousand credits."
"Okay, fine," I agreed with a nod. "If we can find some to take from slavers, Hutt's, or pirates, that's great. But I would like to get to work on the modifications as soon as possible. Having the third group up and running will push the Skyforged into a new power level. We can start taking on bigger jobs, which in turn will mean bigger profits, and we can start hitting Imperial targets."
"We've hit Imperial targets before," Miru pointed out with a frown.
"But never in an open, head-to-head fight," I explained. "On all of our previous Imperial-focused missions, we relied on tricks, cheating, finding gaps in security, or playing certain stuff to our advantage. With an Arquiten and the rest of the fleet, we could slam through the defenses of quite a few of the lesser protected worlds around the galaxy, take what we want, and leave. No special conditions, no tricks, no unexpected, out-of-the-box plan."
Most of the people in the meeting seemed to understand what I was getting at, but I continued just to hammer what I meant home.
"Imagine the supply line raids. Previously, we would have to rely on a greedy Imperial shrinking patrol size or a lucky break revealing a tight window of opportunity. This kind of stuff is rare and eventually could be used to stage an ambush," I explained. "But with a much more powerful fleet, we could just drop out of hyperspace, blow up the escorts, and demand the cargo ships come with us or be destroyed. Simple, easy, no luck or loophole required."
The group murmured and nodded at the idea of being able to overwhelm our targets rather than trick them through elaborate plans. After a minute of everyone talking, I spoke up again. "We can give our research people a week or so to come up with some appropriate targets. Meanwhile, I want Quartermaster Finder to locate ships that are being sold for reasonable prices. If we don't have three targets by the end of two weeks, we can buy the rest."
"And the IPV?"
"Sell it to the Rebellion. This is already going to be another big jump in growth, and we will need the money. Three million five hundred thousand should be a good price for our friends, correct?" I asked, looking around and nodding. "Good. Now, we are obviously going to have to do some recruiting over the next few weeks. I need a captain for the Arquiten, but I also want there to be a lead C-Roc with a captain on board as well. Their job would be more about monitoring and strategizing all three starships working together than directing the ship he was on."
"Twelve crew for all three C-Rocs, twice that of naval droids," Captain Irsee continued. "Plus twelve pilots. The Arquiten needs twenty for for a proper rotation, and that's with droid assistance."
"The Charging Forward will need six," Miru pointed out. "Which brings up the point of naming the Arquitens."
"The Anvil," Corvack stated clearly. "Surely the Skyforged needs an Anvil."
"Not bad," I said with a smile. "It also makes naming the three escorts pretty easy as well. The Hammer as the lead, then the Punch and the Chisel."
"Sure, whatever," Tatnia said, rolling her eyes. "Can we please get back to the hiring part?"
"Right, yeah. For the crew, it sounds like we need fifty in total," I said, doing some quick mental math. "How much are we going to need to increase support staff?"
"We need at least fifteen more maintenance and engineering, especially if we are going to be modifying the C-Rocs ourselves," Miru explained. "Plus, maybe thirty maintenance droids."
"We will need more people and at least one other freighter for our supply lines," Quartermaster Finder added.
"Right, well then, thank God we started building homes on Nirn. The station would already be full, and then some," I said, rubbing my face and shaking my head. "This is the last time we are adding ships to our fleet for a while. For a good chunk of time, everything we find gets sold. We need to settle into this new size and build a buffer before we stretch ourselves too thin and unravel."
"Pretty sure that was already the plan," Tatnia pointed out.
"Yeah, but the Arquiten was too good of a find to hold off on," I responded, giving my second-in-command a look. "From now on, though, if we find something particularly special or expensive, we will mothball it. Maybe park it on Nirn's moon to keep it in a vacuum and free of pests."
The meeting continued until we discussed everything on our list of topics, after which the meeting broke down, and we all went about our business. I, of course, got back to work, enchanting, enchanting, and more enchanting.
While I toiled away, my workshop temporarily transferred to Omega Station so that I wouldn't interrupt the Skyforged business. As I continued to work, both the first and second groups went on another pair of missions. The first group, with Tatnia leading in my absence, was targeting a large group of pirates harassing a mining outpost and city based in the Outer Rim. They were using Clone Wars-era ground weapons, both CIS and Republic, to basically hold the entire outpost hostage. My guess was that someone from the city had found an old Clone Wars battleground and spent some time repairing all the leftover gear.
While the outpost barely offered enough credits to get our attention, the real reason for taking the job was the heavy ordnance that they described in the brief. With any luck, we could fill a rather large gap in our repertoire with the aforementioned heavy ordinance, after which we could sell the rest to the Rebellion. Hell, depending on what sort of resources our bounty had found, we might even be able to sell them the location of the battle itself.
The second group left two days after the first. One of their research teams had found a pirate group that was known to have a pair of C-Rocs, and since we were in the market, they would make a great target.
Unfortunately, the second group didn't really didn't have much of a strategy for getting the ships undamaged, so they would have to attack them directly and whittle their forces down until they surrendered. If they refused, then they would attempt to lightly disable them, but that was such a hit-or-miss concept that they were more likely to damage the two ships beyond being worth our time.
Even if they did damage both of the ships past the point of being worth fixing up, they would still bring them both back. I would have the repair crews tear the wrecks down for parts and store them somewhere safe for later use. We would eventually have four of them in our fleet, after all.
Another week passed with me doing nothing but enchanting armor and uniforms. The station was pretty empty with both groups out on missions, and I was starting to go a little stir-crazy. Then, on a seemingly random afternoon, Miru stopped by, leading a surprising guest. Luke Skywalker walked into my temporary enchanting lab, looking around and staring at the piles of armor and uniforms, as well as the enchanting table. They must have been waiting for me to be free, because they came in just as I was finishing a pair of boots.
"Luke! Good to see you!" I said, reaching out to shake his hand. "How's it going, what can I do for you?"
"It's good to see you too," he said, taking my hand but pulling me into a hug. "I came to see you and Ahsoka, actually. I have some Jedi-related questions."
"Well, Ahsoka is away on a mission with the rest of the team, but I'm sure Miru already explained the. The only reason I'm here is because I need to keep working on all this," I said, gesturing around me.
"Yeah, fair..."
"What's up?" I asked, guiding him and Miru to a small table along the side of the room and sitting down with them."
"Well… I've been having visions," He explained, wincing when I looked up at him with wide eyes. "Obi-wan has been reaching out to me about a place called Dagobah. I'm pretty sure it's actually him, but I know you warned me that the Sith are really good at mental manipulation..."
"A vision, huh?" What are they telling you to do?" I asked, doing my best to keep calm. This was a lot earlier than I had expected, and I had no idea why that had happened.
"They want me to find it and go to it," Luke explained. "But I was hoping to have Ahsoka with me when I went."
"There's a chance she won't be back for several days," I responded with a wince. "But...how about I go with you?"
Hey everyone, just a reminder that I have a Patreon! Being a supporter has a lot of benefits, like early chapters and access to my original content. If you are interested in those benefits or just want to support my attempt to become a full-time writer, stop by and show your support. Every dollar helps!
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What Insanity is this, brought you have!? To my swamp, hidden beyond sight as is!