AN:
GM: I've been waiting since the PROLOGUE to write this! FINALLY we can get to the "main" plot of January. This is a truly epic chapter, in my opinion. HERE WE GO!
I had so much fun writing this. I wrote half of it in one day, beating my previous record of "most pages written in one day." :D
Anyway, read. Learn more about the world.
[][][][][][][][][][][][][]BOLD BREAK. ALSO REDUNDANT[][][][][][][][]
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]ALSO REDUNDANT[][][][][][][][]
Monday, January 9: Tatooine.
Romo Lampkin stood atop the new Central Tower, the hub of all activity within the Terra Metropolis. He looked out beyond Central, where all the important things were, and observed the sprawling city.
The Metropolis was big. Not huge, but big. The buildings were generally very similar: basic colonization houses. Most were only one or two rooms, and all were very simplistic. There was some variety in certain places where people decided to stack two on top of each other, or tried to make their own houses out of their own materials, but for the most part the Metropolis was very similar everywhere other than Central. Beyond the Metropolis Lampkin could see farms. Or the beginnings of farms. Nothing was really growing yet. Beyond that, mountains, plains, and trees. Nature.
They had also found traces of a very primitive human society, possibly remnants from a lost Kobolian or Colonial ship. They had seen no ships, but there were some ruins on the other side of the planet. Lampkin had made a note to check the ruins out after the Metropolis was stable.
The Metropolis was not stable unfortunately. As refugees came in from both Colonial and Cylon sides, there was hate. The Cylons and Colonials who had been involved in the recent battle had learned to at least get along, but the new arrivals were becoming… annoying.
And as if the Cylon and Colonial parts of the Metropolis weren't problem enough, the smaller Peacekeeper area just flat out refused to mingle with anyone. Most of them chose to remain on the Command Carrier. Scorpius was still ticked that he didn't get into the battle. The Command Carrier was still in orbit, itching for action. It wasn't getting any. So far, none of the ships brought back had been stupid enough to try anything. None of them wanted to give Scorpius any excuse to shoot at them.
Lampkin sighed. There had to be some way to deal with all this bad blood in the air. They were going to have to work together for goodness sake.
He wondered what the rescue fleet was doing.
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"All in."
Crichton's mouth dropped open. "Seriously Tom?"
"Of course." He sat back, folding his hands behind his head, a smug look on his face.
Crichton was glad he was back to his old self, more or less, but still. Crichton had four-of-a-kind. And Tom was known for bluffing.
But… All in…
"All in." He said against his better judgement.
Mal simply smiled. "Call." He said, taking only a fraction of his chips.
And that was it. Crichton showed his cards.
"Four of a kind." Crichton said.
Paris grinned. "Four of a kind- aces."
"ARGH why? WHY WHY?"
"Because I'm excellent at this game?"
Mal turned his cards over and sat back with a smirk.
Straight flush.
Paris and Crichton gave Mal all the chips.
"I reckon I'm getting rather good at this game." He grinned. "Rematch, gentlemen?"
The two of them quickly shook their heads and left the table. "What have we created?" Paris asked.
"A monster." Crichton answered.
Meanwhile, on the bridge of Voyager, more important things were happening.
"I'm betting that we find a thousand people!" Kara said, with a challenging grin.
D'anna, the last remaining model Three cylon, smiled. "I bet ten thousand." She was a middle aged woman with blonde hair and an intelligent look about her.
"You're on!" Kara grinned.
Cavil held his forehead. "Can you two stop being children? We are leaders!"
D'anna shrugged. "And leaders need their rest time. I spent months on Eart- Ophich contemplating my own life. I'm surprised I didn't take it. But I realized I could use some more spice in my life."
Cavil glared. "Fine."
Janeway rolled her eyes. In some ways they were like kids. It was almost surprising that they had been at war just a week ago.
Cavil turned to Janeway, his face betraying the fact that he was going to say something nobody liked. "Why are we going here anyway? There is no way any of our ships went out this far!"
"We detected a signal Cavil. We have to check it out. For all we know it could be from an ancient ship of some kind we can use. Or it could be more people who need help."
"Fine. Whatever. Let's just do this quickly."
Janeway looked at the viewscreen. "Is Moya still within the warp bubble?"
Tuvok nodded. "Yes captain. She is still well within it. As is Talyn. Both within safety parameters."
Janeway nodded. "How long until we reach our destination?"
"No more than an hour, captain."
Janeway sat back, wondering what they would find.
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Jabba the Hutt was an ugly alien. Just flat out ugly. He looked like a slug and a mutated celery stalk had fused together and then halfway melted. He had hands, sort of. He also had a face with a huge mouth. Many had wondered how this alien who could hardly move had managed to become one of the most feared crime lords of all time.
It was a combination of three things: Smarts, connections, and luck.
And here Jabba the Hutt was, sitting in some building on the desert world of Tatooine, enjoying various delicacies and enjoying his success, all the while plotting his next completely illegal venture.
"Boss?" A minion asked, terrified. Often when Jabba the Hutt was in a bad mood he'd throw anyone who so much as spoke to him into the Rancor pit.
"What?" Jabba said in his completely disgusting language.
"Well… two things. One you have a bounty hunter here wishing to collect bounty on a… Wookie."
"Very well. Tell him to come here. What else?"
"Um… well there appears to be a drifting ship preparing to crash into the planet."
"Why is that my concern?"
"Well since you control most of the functions of Tatooine I'd think-" The look Jabba was giving him told the minion he was treading on thin ice. "Nevermind. Forgive me lord. You know what you're doing. I shall let you do as you please." He got out of there as quickly as possible.
Jabba quickly checked a computer to see if the ship would crash anywhere near his place. It wouldn't. Let it crash. He could care less about it hitting anything. Maybe it would get the people to shut up for once.
The bounty hunter was brought before the crime lord. He was one of those weird aliens that talked like a little gremlin. Jabba could never understand them, no matter how hard he tried. He gestured to his new gold translator droid, C-3 something. He was humanoid, shiny, and moved in a jerky fashion.
"Um… She said 'I have come for the bounty on this wookie."
Jabba grinned. Apparently the bounty hunter was a she. "At last we have the mighty Chewbacca!"
The hunter babbled something again. C-3 something turned back to Jabba. "She said 'I want fifty thousand, no less."
Jabba swung out in rage, hitting C-3 something and getting him all slimy. "OH I say! This is… vulgar…"
At this point the bounty hunter revealed a bomb, and armed it. Jabba didn't understand what she said next, but he knew what the gist of it was. Everyone in the room whipped weapons out at the bounty hunter, preparing to fire. She apparently wanted her full fifty thousand.
Jabba laughed. "I like this one. Fearless and crafty. My kind of scum. Give her what she asks for. Take the wookie to the cells." He chuckled to himself. "Enjoy my facilities little hunter. Perhaps I will ask you to do a task for me later."
The bounty hunter nodded, and tossed Chewbacca to some of Jabba's minions. She then walked off to explore the compound.
Jabba smiled. He liked her. Obviously his minions didn't, but none of them were of his intelligence.
She had spunk. And she got what she wanted. Nothing to worry about.
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Leia let out a breath, and took off the mask. Man it was sweaty in there, and extremely unpleasant. She whipped her hair around, missing her trademark hair loops she usually wore. They didn't fit in the mask well, however. The loose hair was annoying.
Anyway, she had found what she had come for. On display in one of Jabba's rooms was a slab of black carbonite with a man frozen in it.
This man was Han Solo, smuggler and captain of his own starship.
He was also ridiculously handsome. At least in Leia's eyes.
She walked right up to the carbonite, accessing the panel. So to free him I need to do this… and this... and… got it.
The carbonite began to glow, revealing the skin beneath. His fingers began to twitch. His face came to life, his mouth moving. He gained color.
He then unceremoniously flopped onto the ground with an "oof."
Leia smirked, hoisting him up and kissing him.
THAT woke him up. "Well… hello! Uh… what happened?"
"I'm rescuing you. Let's get out of here-"
She turned around to see the barrel of a gun. The wielder of the blaster was one Boba Fett, famous bounty hunter clad in green body armor. HIs signature rounded visor-helmet covered his face, not giving any indication to Leia what he was thinking.
He produced some imprisonment chains.
Great. Leia thought.
Han chuckled despite himself. Saved, then captured again.
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
Voyager, Moya, and Talyn dropped out of warp.
What met their eyes was quite a surprise. Before them was a world which appeared to be largely desert.
There were also several dozen ships of unknown design surrounding the sandy world.
Janeway recovered first. "Broadcast a general introduction and a request to speak to this world's governing body. All frequencies."
D'anna accessed a computer console using a custom interface which involved plugging a cable into her arm, drawing blood. She became one with the data. "I'm checking the radio chatter… they heard us. Most are ignoring us. A couple seem curious, but aren't responding. I am gathering that we have just requested to speak to the 'Hutts,' whoever they are."
Janeway nodded.
Cavil threw his arms wide. "Why are we here? These people obviously aren't refugees. We have no need to be here!"
"They're our neighbors. We want to be on their good side, Cavil, if they decide they don't like us we may have a problem."
Cavil glowered, but shut up.
"We're being hailed." D'anna said.
"Bring it up."
A face of a blue-skinned humanoid appeared "I am Arthon, speaking on behalf of Jabba the Hutt. Why have you requested an audience with him? You should know he doesn't see people who don't have anything to offer."
"I apologize if we offended your customs. We aren't from around here."
The man made a strange noise, presumably equatable to a "Humph." "Don't be ridiculous. Everyone in the Empire knows about Hutts. Even the Covenant knows of the Hutts. Everyone knows about us."
Janeway turned. "Send him the general area of space we've been in recently."
Arthon looked at his screen. His eyebrows raised. "The barren sectors? There's nothing there but dead rocks."
"I agree that the amount of habitable planets is low, but in the area we've charted there's over a dozen."
"Look, there's no way you're from there. We've sent several patrols into the area because pirates tend to hide out there. It's just a thousand light years of nothing. I mean-" He paused as a message popped up on his screen. His eyes widened. "...Um… Excuse me…"
The picture changed from Arthon to a strange slug-like alien. "I am Jabba the Hutt."
Janeway tried to read the alien in front of her. He wasn't humanoid, which made it difficult. All she got was that he spoke with authority, and she took that inference with a grain of salt.
"I am Captain Janeway of the U.S.S. Voyager of the Terra Federation. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mister Hutt."
Jabba squinted. Either they were really bad at lying, or they had some device that translated what he said. That would be useful. It'd save him a lot of money on translation droids. "You say you are from the barren sectors?"
Janeway barely hesitated a moment. "Yes, we are a collection of a few peoples who formed in that area. You'll excuse me if I don't tell you the location of our worlds?" She needed to make him think they had some power. "Worlds" carried more weight than "World."
Jabba the Hutt smiled. She was lying about something. He had no doubt there really were some worlds in the barren sectors and that they occupied at least some of them. But the way she said "Yes" so quickly indicated that some of them weren't from there. Elsewhere in the Empire perhaps? But then they would know about him. In Covenant space? No… the Covenant knew about him too. It was an interesting puzzle.
Contrary to popular belief, Jabba loved puzzles and mysteries. It made things interesting. He just didn't like them when they made him lose power. So far, these people didn't seem to be a threat of any kind. "I have no desire to know where your planets are. Yet. I am curious in your technology however."
Ah so he was a trader. "Federation laws dictate that we can't give away technology unless we receive something in return. The only exception is medical technology."
Medical technology? So this Terra Federation liked to help those in need so much they had a special law saying they could give people all the medical technology they needed. Touching. "Some of the people here could use some medical technology," he said, trying to appear like he cared for his people. "but I'm interested in that translator of yours."
Janeway blinked, surprised. "You don't have a universal translator?"
"No." Jabba said, confused. Was the translator a common thing where they came from?
Janeway recovered quickly. "I'm sorry, I just thought that since there are obviously so many races here you would have invented one already. A universal translator is an easy enough trade, but what do we get in return?"
Jabba thought about this. What would these people want? Credits probably meant nothing to them, they were obviously a government operation, probably with nigh-limitless funds. It had to be something of value. He had a particular feeling they wouldn't want slaves either.
"Do you have any droids?"
"What?"
"Machines. Robots that do your work for you."
Janeway glanced at D'anna and Cavil. They both vigorously shook their heads.
This hesitation was enough to get Jabba suspicious. "You do have some kind of machines, and you don't want me to know about them."
Janeway sighed. He was good. But she knew a way to get around the real secret of the humanoid cylons. "We have several… Centurions… on board. Mechanical soldiers, designed to think and act like real soldiers."
Jabba laughed. They really WEREN'T from around here. "In the war a few decades ago entire armies were composed of those kind of droids. No need to keep that a secret. I'd love to see one of your centurions face one of my old battle droids. I have a few."
"Perhaps later."
Jabba knew this meant never, but he didn't care. "Well what do you want? I can offer weapons, engines, smaller ships, information…"
"Information. In exchange for the universal translator a database detailing anything we'd want to know about the galaxy."
Jabba understood now. They had no clue about anything in this galaxy. He smiled. He could get that easily. But he wanted them on his good side. If he just gave them a cheap one it'd be annoying…
He had an idea.
"Deal. I will give you an advanced database, complete with AI. She'll be sent up shortly."
"Can't you transmit her if she's an AI?" Janeway asked.
"No. She's both ancient and tremendous. I don't have much use for her, I've already gleaned all the info I need. Seems like a suitable gift?"
Janeway wasn't too sure. But, then again, a universal translator wasn't that hard to give up. "We'll rendezvous where?"
"Why not just let me send it to your ship."
Janeway smirked. "I'd rather not. I'll send one of our shuttlecraft to meet yours."
"Of course." Jabba said. "You can call me if you need more. I suspect we will get to know each other well…"
The connection was cut.
"A small vessel has just launched from the surface." Tuvok announced.
"Get Paris into the Delta Flyer, have them meet up." Janeway ordered. "D'anna, go with them. See if this AI is truly an AI."
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The Delta Flyer was a custom-built shuttlecraft designed to face wear and tear from extensive use and take more damage than a regular shuttlecraft. Rather than the practical squarish appearance of the normal shuttlecraft, the Delta Flyer was sleek, more angular, and looked a tad more menacing. It also had a basic warp drive.
Paris and D'anna were standing in the Delta Flyer, looking at a strange bluish-black device. It was half as tall as they were, and roughly three meters in diameter.
All Jabba's associate had told them was where the on button was.
Paris walked up to the device. "Well… we've got an apparently ancient AI right here. I'm ready to turn it on if you are."
D'anna nodded. Paris moved forward and pushed the button.
The device lit up, and slowly a humanoid female shape began to appear. Blue, and laced with apparent circuitry. Her face was smooth, blue, and had short dark hair.
She blinked, and looked around. "Okaaaay…" She said, apparently confused. "So I got shipped off again without being told. Great."
D'anna smiled. "I'm D'anna Biers, we just traded for you."
"I know. I'm accessing your ships logs. Very interesting."
D'anna and Paris blinked. How was she accessing the logs? They didn't plug her in!
"I'm connecting using light frequencies. Don't be concerned, I'm not going to tell that ugly Jabba anything. The prick is a slaver. By the way, impressive computer systems. Much more advanced than I'm used to. Let's see here…" She went silent for a moment. "Well well would you look at that! Looks like Voyager's main computer has enough processing to sustain me…"
Paris interrupted. "Wait. Don't go in yet, please."
She stopped, sighing. "Fine. Ask away. You must be terribly curious."
"Who are you?"
She smirked. "I am Cortana."
Well, she had a name now. "Well Cortana… mind telling us more about you?"
"Well where to start… perhaps I should just read my own file. Ahem…" Then, as if reading off a boring report, she began.
"Cortana, UNSC Artificial Intelligence CTN 0452-9. Created by the ancient human UNSC millennia ago. She was one of the most advanced AI they ever made, designed to interface with alien technology and come up with complex plans, as well as go out into the field with supersoldiers. She 'died' saving one such soldier, but was reactivated centuries later by a crazy mad scientist who put her together from a ton of fragments, 'improving' the design to fix rampancy every few years. Since then she has gained millennia of memories and has gone from owner to owner, slowly accumulating more and more information. Current residence: Delta Flyer II, United Federation of Planets."
She smiled. "I'm an AI who has all the information about this galaxy, and I'm currently adding all the information about yours as well. Interesting place, I must say."
D'anna shook her head. "There's no way you could store that much information-"
"Why do you think i'm stored in this giant machine? Back when I was created I could transfer myself to and from any computer with even a remote amount of space. I'm limited to a core location now simply because of how much data I HAVE. I have to be careful not to overstretch myself, because if any part of me loses communication with my core, I lose that part. It's happened a lot."
Paris whistled. "I'm surprised Jabba gave you up."
Cortana smirked. "He didn't know my capabilities. He thought I was just for information. I can do much, much more. For instance, I could fire the two torpedoes from Voyager and have them impact each other. Now do I have to wait anymore or can I just interface with Voyager's computer?"
Paris held up his hand. "Let me ask the captain-"
"Calling."
Paris glared. "You are NOT to control the Delta Flyer."
"Delta Flyer II." Cortana retorted.
D'anna chuckled. She was a real AI all right.
Janeway answered. "Hi there!" Cortana said, grinning.
"I take it this is our new AI?" Janeway said.
Paris nodded. "She wants permission to fuse with the computer."
Janeway squinted. "I'm sorry but I don't know if I can trust you…"
Cortana frowned, then she snapped her fingers. "You just need an AI of comparable intelligence to interface with me. They could determine my motives."
D'anna shook her head. "No. We do not interface. We won't."
Cortana sighed. "Take me back to Terra then. That Data fellow shouldn't have a problem with it."
Janeway shrugged. "Fine by me. I'll send you back, let Piccard think about this."
"Thank you." Cortana said. "Oh and I've downloaded a 'guide to the Empire' to your computer along with some personal points of interest. It should get you started."
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
Luke Skywalker marched into Jabba the Hutt's presence. "You." he said, showing his young face. "Have some of my friends."
Jabba glared, pulling on a chain. This made Leia come out from the shadows. She was tied up in chains and some metallic bikini.
Luke twitched. That really chapped his hide.
"No." Jabba said.
Luke shrugged. "Very well-" He stepped forward, preparing to make a move.
Jabba waved his hand, and a trap door opened beneath Luke's feet.
Uh-oh. Luke thought as he fell into the pit.
He propped himself up, taking in his surroundings. The pit was dark and damp. And there was obviously a creature of some kind in there with him.
A Rancor. Big and ugly. With lots of teeth.
Great.
This could be annoying…
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Cortana was bored. Even though they had sent a message for the Enterprise to meet them halfway, they still wouldn't get anything done for a few hours. Cortana herself couldn't transmit across a FTL communication medium, those kinds of connections were too unpredictable. She'd had to pull all of her 'arms' out of Tatooine before they jumped to warp.
"So… you two. Tell me about yourselves."
D'anna and Paris turned to Cortana, blinking. "Um…"
"Come on. I spilled my life story. Let's hear yours."
D'anna sat back. "Well then… I am the last model Three, the line of cylons intended to question things and have an investigative personality. I think that's the reasoning behind our creation anyway. Then again we WERE only the third try, and we all know how crazy One and Two are."
Cortana nodded, she had read the files. Heck, she knew what was recorded on all the files. She just wanted to hear their personal side of things.
"My name, D'anna, comes from the Three the Colonials encountered first, D'anna Biers. While the rest of the cylons have started taking other names to distinguish themselves, I kept this one. Because… I'm the last Three. The rest of my line was boxed and killed in the civil war simply because we WERE inquisitive and questioning. We, or rather I, had decided we wanted to know who the final five cylons were, our creators. Well Cavil decided to deactivate all of us and box our consciousnesses, hoping to never deal with us again. I was the only Three rescued from that fate when the Hub was destroyed."
Cortana nodded. Nothing she hadn't already found out from the records. "And you?" She asked Paris.
"Well let's see… I was born to a father who expected far too much of me. Oh don't worry, we've made up now. But back then, I was a kid who cried all the time because he wasn't meeting his father's expectations. I slowly, but surely, learned to not give a rat's ass about what he thought. Probably not the best move I made in my life, because while the man was a bit demanding, he DID know how the world worked and I didn't. I enlisted in starfleet academy, went through four years of turmoil and punishment, the stuff. I was expelled very shortly afterward for lying about… a pilot error I made." Cortana accessed the file: He had accidentally killed three people by crashing a ship. "After that I wandered around looking for a fight, and joined the group known as the Maquis. You know about them." Cortana did, they were a group of people who didn't like the fact that a certain border treaty had left their planets on the wrong side of the border. The planets on the Federation side of the border were treated fine, while those on the Cardassian side were often brutalized. The Maquis were freedom fighters against the treaty, though fighting Cardassian ships, because of the treaty, made the Federation their enemy as well. "Well I didn't care about their possibly-just cause. I just wanted a fight because of young man's stupidity disorder." Cortana chuckled. "Well I was caught by the Federation on my first mission. Put into prison. I was let out early so I could give information about the Maquis. I just happened to be on Voyager when WHOOPS we ended up in the Delta Quadrant. We were there for several years. During that time I met my wife. B'Elanna-"
Cortana choked as she accessed that file.
"What?" Paris asked.
"I'm terribly sorry about your child." She said, suddenly very sorry that she had made him tell her his life story.
He smiled sadly. "Don't sweat it."
"I could have figured it out on my own. I didn't have to ask you about THAT."
D'anna looked from left to right. "Did I miss something?"
Paris sighed. "I had a little girl. Miral. She wasn't on Voyager when Q teleported us. She was with my dad."
D'anna put a hand to her mouth, it open in an "O."
"As I said, please don't sweat it. I haven't been the luckiest guy lately."
The Delta Flyer continued in silence for a few minutes.
"Hey anyone want to learn how to play poker?"
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"Captain." Tuvok said. "A ship is heading for Tatooine at high speed. It's already in the atmosphere. Judging by damage it appears to have been drifting."
"Where's it going to land?"
"Over a desert area with some kind of pit. But there are hundreds of people that could be killed by the impact shockwave."
Janeway wondered why nobody was doing anything about the ship. "I take it destroying it would be a bad idea?"
"The explosions could affect the planetary weather patterns drastically."
"Tractor beam?"
"That would keep the ship from doing too much damage."
"Do it."
Voyager went into the atmosphere, locking a tractor beam on the unknown ship. It was greyish-purple with blue ports. It looked vaguely like a hammerhead. And it looked really damaged.
The ship was pulled up, its acceleration slowing.
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Well, I did defeat the Rancor… Luke thought. Wish I didn't have to kill it… Least I made it that far.
Here Luke was, on one of Jabba's sail barges with Han and Chewbacca, about to be fed to the Sarlacc. Boba Fett was watching the three of them closely.
Jabba was here personally, with Leia on her chain.
"We are now over the Sarlacc!" He heard someone say.
Great.
Jabba said something in response. Probably around the lines of "The Skywalker one first."
Sure enough, Boba Fett dragged him onto the plank, looking down into the Sarlacc's pit. It was rather boring: a hole in the ground. With teeth.
He took comfort in the fact that if he over jumped the Sarlacc he'd probably die from the fall. Jabba really wanted him dead.
Then Luke saw R2D2, his little blue droid. He smiled.
Ah yes, there's the streak of luck I've been looking for.
He motioned to R2D2. Boba Fett saw it, but there was no time for him to react. R2D2 shot a lightsaber into Luke's hands, and with a flick of his finger, the green blade shot out, burning through his bonds. Luke quickly brought the lightsaber up to deflect the incoming attacks. More of Jabba's minions rushed forth. Luke leapt right over them, cutting left and right, freeing Han and Chewbacca in the process.
Jabba roared. This was not going to plan this wa-
His thought was cut short when Leia wrapped her chain around Jabba's neck. He began to choke. How DARE she assault him! He was- Well he was stupid for tying her to him with a chain. That much was certain.
With Jabba taken care of, and with Han and Chewie taking care of the minions, Luke turned his focus to the one enemy on the barge who would be difficult to deal with.
Boba Fett, bounty hunter.
As if on cue, Boba Fett fired several blasts at Luke, which he barely dodged. He turned back towards Boba Fett, brandishing the lightsaber. The bounty hunter pulled his arm out of the way and delivered a kick to Luke's side, sending him dangerously close to the edge of the barge. Luke recovered just in time to dodge more blaster fire. He thrust his lightsaber forth, but Boba Fett simply backed up. The bounty hunter then proceeded to rush at Luke, arm outstretched.
Aha! I can get his arm now!
Luke swung the lightsaber, making contact with Boba Fett's armor. To his dismay, the armor deflected the lightsaber.
What the heck was his armor made of?
Boba Fett rushed forth using his other hand, pushing Luke off the barge, falling towards the Sarlacc. The beast sensed food approaching, and opened its tremendous jaws. Luke prepared for impact.
It never came. Someone grabbed his ankle, and hoisted him up on a smaller barge.
Luke blinked. "Han?"
"Yes?"
"How do you manage to come in at just the right time?"
"I'm amazing that way." He grinned.
Luke looked around. Leia, R2D2, C3PO, and Chewbacca were all there.
"Nice work. Let's get out of here."
"Already on it."
It looked like they were going to get away.
Then they saw him.
C-3PO shook his head. "Is he… using a jetpack?"
Luke groaned. "Boba Fett… you sure are quite the pain…"
R2D2 made a bunch of spastic bleeping noises.
Luke slowly turned towards him. "What do you mean 'he might be the least of our problems?"
R2D2 gestured his body upwards. Luke looked up.
There was a ship coming down. It was going to hit square on Jabba's barge.
And even though it was going rather slow for a crashing ship, there was still going to be a shock wave from impact.
BOOM
In that instant, the Sarlacc and Jabba the Hutt were both killed. Jabba realized he had been stupid not to check the ship's course. The Sarlacc's only thought was big food… Often considered the two worst things on the planet, many people would shout in joy upon hearing the news of their demise.
They wouldn't have long to celebrate.
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The wait was over.
It was time to spread.
Time to replicate.
They awakened after their long sleep,
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"Minimal casualties." Tuvok reported.
"Get me Jabba the Hutt." Janeway glowered. "I want to know what the heck he was doing letting that happen."
"That won't be necessary captain. We're being hailed by… Arthon."
Janeway motioned, and Arthon appeared on the screen. "Well I should probably thank you…"
"You bet you should. If we had done nothing hundreds would have died!"
"Oh that's not what I'm thanking you for. Those people don't mean much. I mean Jabba the Hutt was right where you dropped the ship. The scum finally met his end."
Janeway blinked, not sure how to respond to this. "Um…"
"Oh don't worry, if you're blamed for the event you'll be celebrated as heroes. Everyone hated him. They'll like me." Arthon grinned. "I invite you to a feast tonight in your honor."
"But we didn't- oh." Janeway said, realizing. If they were blamed, they would be celebrated as heroes. And if Arthon was associated with heroes, the people would like him more.
"On one condition: you let us distribute medical supplies to your people. And you actually make an EFFORT to help them."
Arthon grinned. "Sure. Whatever. Just be here." He closed the channel.
Janeway rolled her eyes. "We'll be there…"
And with that, Voyager left the crash site. They did a scan, but found nothing.
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
"Ow." Han mumbled. "This reminds me of the time-"
Chewbacca let out a roar.
"Oh come on! I have not told that story a billion times!"
R2D2 made a bunch of beeping noises.
"I have not!"
"The approximate number is one thousand and twenty."
"3PO. Shut up." Han dusted himself off.
Luke rubbed his head. "Everyone in one piece?"
"Yeah." Leia said "But I'm literally covered in sand… EVERYWHERE..."
The shock wave had hit. They had been far enough away that THAT hadn't knocked them down.
What had knocked them down was the resulting flash sandstorm.
Luke looked around. "So where did we park the Millennium Falcon again?"
"Several dozen miles that way." C-3PO said.
"Great. We need shelter."
R2D2 beeped in the direction of the crashed ship.
Luke rubbed his chin. "You know… we know nothing about them…"
C-3PO nervously babbled. "But we DO know that at night the SANDWORMS and OTHER CREATURES come out!"
"Other creatures?" Han asked, dubious.
"I heard the Hutt minions talking about them.. dreadful things that remove some appendage called the sohk!"
"That would be socks, 3PO." Han said, facepalming.
"What? Oh…."
Luke turned to the wreckage in the distance. "He is right about the sandworms. But I say we head for that town instead." He pointed in the distance. Sure enough, there was a town.
The vote was unanimous. Head AWAY from the wreckage.
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Boba Fett was grumpy. He had been knocked to the ground by a random impact. His jetpack was broken, and his opponents had eluded him. It had been so long since he'd faced a jedi. They were challenging opponents.
Normally he would welcome a challenge. But this was just embarrassing.
Never mind that. He just needed to get out of the desert. While he could take about a dozen sand worms, he didn't think he could take an entire herd of them.
The wreckage had been the closest place for shelter. Perhaps he would find some technology he could use from the wreckage.
As he approached the purplish-grey ship, he tried to identify it. He failed. It looked really, really old. And beat up. Perhaps it was an ancient ship designed to go at sublight speeds, and had just now reached a destination.
As he got closer, he could swear he saw it start to shrink. Parts of it appeared to be vanishing, and it seemed to be crawling. He attributed this to heat waves.
He quickly found out that he was wrong. The shrinking of the ship became exponential, losing more and more of its mass. What the heck was it doing?
Then he saw the first bug.
It was metallic, and had six legs. It seemed to be composed of roughly a hundred identical thin blocks. It had wings, though they looked useless. It was barely bigger than his foot.
He shot at the machine, but his laser just bounced right off it.
It seemed to ignore him. It didn't even seem to care. It just continued walking on.
He tried a few other guns before he realized lasers would do absolutely nothing to the bug. At least it wasn't attacking him.
Then he saw another. And another. And then a bigger one.
Soon, he was standing in a sea of the bugs. There seemed to be four sizes: Small, like the one he had encountered. Medium, the size of a dog. Large, as tall as a person. And, occasionally, he'd see a tremendous one, three times bigger than the large ones.
He really was glad they didn't see him as a threat.
Then one of them apparently tasted his armor. It decided it was worth having.
Boba Fett noticed in terror that the bugs were removing his armor. They hadn't hurt him personally though. Yet.
Eventually, all his armor was removed, leaving just his underarmor, a fancy cloth stronger than kevlar. They didn't seem to care about it.
He watched as his armor was broken down, and crafted before his eyes. Several bugs would slice it up, and compress the green armor into the exact shape of another block.
Soon, before his eyes, several small green bugs were fully functional, and began the march away from the ship.
They were replicating themselves.
They were Replicators.
Boba Fett did some quick math.
They were on this planet to replicate, obviously. First, they'd harvest all the valuable materials they could find. That would obviously include any ships, vehicles, and buildings.
Then they'd probably progress to lower materials. Rocks, wood, clay-
- or bone.
Boba Fett began to run. He needed to get off this planet. Now. He needed to find a ship, somehow.
He saw some Replicators with bigger wings fly over him, moving quickly.
They had begun to convert the planet.
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"Han, we shouldn't steal this barge…" Luke said.
"We can return it! The Millennium Falcon can hold this tiny thing and drop it back!"
Luke shook his head. "It still doesn't feel right-"
Leia rolled her eyes. "For goodness sakes Luke! We're criminals according to a crime gang! Just grab the stupid thing. Our reputation will not change."
"It's not about reputat-"
Han slapped Luke on the back. "You heard the lady. LET'S STEAL IT!"
"And put it back." Luke said.
"Okay, and put it back, fine." Han murmured.
As they climbed into the mini-barge, a Replicator flew overhead.
"What was that?" C-3PO said, shivering in fear from the unknown.
Luke felt a serious disturbance in the Force.
It was nothing at all like what a Sith felt like. A Sith's disturbance ringed with dangerous intent, with malicious desires. That disturbance often disgusted him, leaving a taste not unlike wet moldy bread in his mouth.
This was different.
This was cold, precise, metallic. There was no maliciousness. Just a single directive. The disturbance didn't fluctuate or change, it was constant. It almost seemed as if the Force was having trouble figuring out why the presence was bad. There was nothing inherently evil about it.
In many ways, it was much worse than a Sith's disturbance.
And unlike a Sith's disturbance, this was getting larger exponentially.
Luke lost all cheerfulness. "Get out of here. Now."
"Okay…" Han said, bothered by his friend's change of attitude.
A Replicator flew right onto the barge, and began to take off part of the metallic casing. Luke sliced the bug in half with his lightsaber. "Faster."
"This thing won't go any faster!" Han yelled.
"Let's hope we get to the Millennium Falcon before they do…"
Three more landed. Han tried to blast them away, but the lasers had no effect. Luke's lightsaber was the only weapon having any measurable effect. It was enough, however, to keep the Replicators at bay.
Then a greenish one appeared, the same color as Boba Fett's armor. It deflected the lightsaber, and leapt at Luke.
He solved the problem by pushing out with the Force, sending the Replicator flying.
The small ones weren't very heavy.
Slowly, they overtook the swarm. Replicators landing on the barge became less frequent.
Luke let out a sigh of relief.
They rushed to the Millennium Falcon. They only hoped they could get there in time.
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Arthon was oblivious to all this, he was just preparing for his feast.
In roughly three hours he would announce Voyager's 'deed' and seize control. Sure he wouldn't be controlling everything with an iron fist like Jabba, but there was something to be said for having people actually like you.
He decided to read up on politics and speeches. He would need a good one. Perhaps it would take his mind off that odd scraping sound he kept hearing.
The scraping continued. It was as if someone was doing construction work on the building he was currently in. But that was ridiculous, no one had done any work on this building in years.
Then he heard the sound of something scraping against glass.
He turned his head to see a Replicator cutting away at his window.
"What in the…" He muttered, flinging the window open, and tossing the Replicator onto the street below.
He saw them. At the moment there were dozens, crawling through the city. Crawling in and out of buildings. Tearing down machines. Making more of themselves. They were like a plague.
He didn't have much time to ponder his next move. The foundation in his building was being harvested, and it gave out.
He was crushed.
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It wasn't until hours later that the ships in orbit suspected something was up.
Trying to call anyone on Tatooine and getting a failed signal wasn't that uncommon.
Crazy people asking for help from bandits wasn't that uncommon either. Most of the early messages were dismissed.
The distress calls probably just meant that the 'government' was having a little fun with the inhabitants. And the few who mentioned robot bugs were dismissed as crazy. And generally, the ships in orbit didn't monitor every little message sent out. It was too much to keep track of.
No, the first hint to everyone was when the capital city began to change shape before their eyes.
"Tuvok… what's going on down there?" Janeway asked.
Tuvok furrowed his brow. "I'm not sure…"
Cavil sighed. "Plug me in. I'll analyze the data stream for you." Then he smiled, realizing this showcased his superiority over the humans.
Tuvok glanced at Janeway, to see is she was fine with this. She nodded.
Cavil interfaced with the computer, and analyzed the incoming messages.
"There's a lot of confusion…" He muttered, focusing. "Panicked cries. A lot of messages seem to indicate that there's apparently a bunch of robotic bugs attacking…"
Janeway stood up. "Thrace?"
Kara looked up. "Yes?"
"You're going on an away team to one of those cities. We're going to evacuate the people we can. Get them to stand still so we can beam them to the cargo holds and Moya. Get as many as you can."
"That's not going to be much…"
"It'll be some."
Kara nodded, and ran to the transporter room.
"Contact Moya." Janeway ordered. "Tell them to expect refugees."
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D'argo groaned. "Refugees? Again? Last time we had those here we had-"
Crichton held up his hand, silencing D'argo. "We need to help as we can. Pilot! Tell Mal to keep Jayne under control. Now let's go to the cargo hold and see if we can find anything to quell panic…"
Pilot's image nodded. "I'll seal off the bridge to everyone coming aboard."
Crichton cracked his knuckles. "Let's do this."
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
Kara and her team beamed down into J Random Town on Tatooine.
To her surprise, someone was already rounding up people.
In front of a strange disc-shaped ship with all sorts of protruding apparatus, stood a man. He was handsome, young, and seemed to be going through life with a purpose.
He was rushing as many people as he could into the ship, looking concerned that not everybody could fit.
Kara walked up to him. "HEY YOU!"
"What?"
"We're here to rescue these people. We've got a device that can take them directly to our ship in orbit, but they have to stay STILL. Got it?"
The man looked dubious. "Show me." He gestured to three panicked people, telling them to stand next to Kara. Kara radioed Voyager, and told them to beam up the three life signs next to her.
In a flash of light, they vanished.
"Good enough?" She yelled.
"Plenty." He said. "I'm Luke by the way."
"Kara Thrace."
He nodded. "OKAY PEOPLE LET'S START ORGANIZING BY THAT BUILDING! DO NOT PANIC!"
People panicked anyway, but what was he going to do. Those he could organize would walk up to the building and be beamed out.
Luke nodded. Things were going well.
Then a Replicator appeared. He cut it in half, but it served as a wake-up call.
"They're coming!"
Kara drew her two weapons, her Colonial gun and her Federation phaser. "Let them come." She turned back to her teammates. "Keep them organized!"
And with that, Luke and Kara rushed forth to meet the replicators.
Kara quickly found that the phaser would only disintegrate one block at a time, so that was useless.
But her Colonial gun, well, that blew the things to pieces. She had no clue if it was permanent, but it was working. Not as well as Luke's lightsaber, but it was working.
"Nice gun. I didn't think anyone used projectile weapons anymore." Luke commented.
Kara glared. "Why does everyone think these weapons are outdated? They've turned out to be very useful when those frakkin energy weapons do jack squat!"
"Good point." Luke said. He suspected Han would want one of those guns now.
Speaking of Han…
"You can take off now!" Luke yelled. "I'll meet up later!"
Han yelled back. "But-"
"DO YOU SEE THE PEOPLE BEING TRANSPORTED? Meet us in orbit."
Han nodded. "Gotcha."
With that, the Millennium Falcon took off into orbit.
Luke and Kara kept decimating the incoming Replicators. But they just kept coming.
Then Luke saw a greenish one. Crap.
Kara shot it with her bullets, but they were nowhere near as effective as they had been. They only slowed it down.
Luke called on the force, and tried to crush the bug with a speeder. It crawled out unscaved.
By itself, the little bug wouldn't have been a problem. However, it had friends. Lots of friends.
"Fall back!" Kara yelled. "We can't take them!"
To drive her point home, one of the large Replicators appeared.
This wasn't going over well…
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
In orbit, a new front was appearing.
Early on in the first few hours of the assault, the Replicators had hidden on several ships that went into orbit, and docked with other ships in orbit.
These few Replicators now numbered in the thousands, and they controlled many ships.
All at once, dozens of ships turned and fired on the other ships. Many were destroyed instantly. The bigger ones without shields got Replicators planted on them.
After the initial strike the Replicator ships focused on the larger ships with shields and weapons.
Voyager was among those targeted secondarily.
Tuvok couldn't help but admire their tactics. Take out as many ships with the first strike, and THEN focus on those who could fight back.
"Fire weapons! Focus on the larger ships!"
Tuvok nodded.
"Shields at 60%. They're hitting us hard."
"We can't survive this! Beam the team up! Get us out of here! Get Moya to leave now!"
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
Pilot had already started the starburst procedures. He was absolutely relieved they hadn't been destroyed.
Then he took a minute to catch his breath, and then he felt Moya's pain.
She had been hit. Bad. There was a big gaping hole on one of her decks. The atmosphere had been vented. Hundreds of refugees had been expelled.
And she felt crawling around that area.
"Crichton!" Pilot yelled over the intercom. "We've got bugs!"
"Can you contain them?" He yelled back.
"I don't know.. sending DRD's now. Oh my… They're taking Moya apart piece by piece!"
"I'll be down in a-"
"You can't. The deck is venting atmosphere."
Crichton smirked. "I've still got my spacesuit don't I?"
"Of course but they may be-"
"I'll be back!" He yelled ominously for effect.
He ran down Moya's corridors, grabbing his suit and getting into it on the way. He amazingly managed to not trip while performing this maneuver. He exited into the destroyed deck. Artificial gravity still worked, and he could see them. About five of them, walking around near the breach. They had already started to disassemble the DRDs Pilot had sent.
Only one was metallic. The others were made of Moya's skin.
Crichton was impressed by how fast one bug had become five, but that emotion was outclassed by his utter and complete anger. He rushed forward, firing his blaster.
The four skin-Replicators were easily burnt. The metallic one was completely resistant. It leapt at him, legs forward.
He reached out with his hand, grabbed one of the things wings, and threw it out. He then called Crais on the radio. "Crais! There's a bug outside Moya! VAPORIZE IT."
Talyn's weapon fired, disintegrating the bug.
Apparently energy weapons could destroy one. You just needed a lot of power.
Crichton rubbed his eyeballs. The flash had burnt an impressive streak across them. "Are there any more Pilot?"
"Moya doesn't feel any, and the DRD's haven't found any more."
"Good. Now I want some crackers please."
"Cargo area 2."
"Thanks Pilot."
And with that Crichton started muttering to himself. "One of these days I'm going to completely lose it." Then he giggled. "Oh wait. I've already lost it."
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"LUKE!" Kara yelled. "GRAB ON!"
"What?" He said, as he grabbed Kara's hand.
"NOW HOLD STILL!"
Luke had a hard time standing still as a giant replicator leg came down from above.
Just before the moment of impact, they were in Voyager's transporter room.
And with that, Voyager went to warp, following Moya.
Shields at 12%.
Nearby, the Millennium Falcon was flying under the radar.
Han saw the strange ship vanish, and decided to gamble that it was the one with the transporter.
The Millennium Falcon entered hyperspace, and followed.
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
After Voyager and Co. left, many ships decided to follow. Escape sounded like a really good idea. Most of the ships just high-tailed it and ran. Many were already infected and would suffer a particularly nasty fate later.
The remaining ships only stayed because their engines were damaged. They fought valiantly, but all were either destroyed or infected.
More than once, a ship would find that its friends suddenly turned on it. No-one could be trusted. Friendly fire became a common occurrence.
Only the Replicators knew who to attack, and how. They were communicating and working in perfect sync.
Within an hour all the fighting stopped, all ships either destroyed or controlled. The weapons still active on the planet were bombarded.
Within a few more hours Replicators were in every city and town on the planet.
People were allowed to live as long as they didn't get in the way. They would be harvested much later, when all other available resources were exhausted. Most would die before then anyway, with most food sources being destroyed or contaminated by Replicator harvesting processes. Those who were still alive at that time would suffer an agony much worse than starvation.
Those in space would die much sooner. As the ships were consumed, containment would breach and atmosphere would vent. They would die from the vacuum of space.
Tatooine was effectively under Replicator control in just eight hours.
The desert world of Tatooine was completely lost.
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Janeway sat in the ready room, pondering what to do.
She couldn't take the refugees to Terra, some would leave and give away it's location. And she couldn't keep them here. What to do…
Someone rang the door buzzer.
"Come in." She said.
In walked Kara and some other man. "This is Luke Skywalker. He says he has a solution to a problem."
Luke nodded. "I'm with the Rebels. We can take them in. The Empire won't. We have several planets we could take them to."
Janeway sighed. She'd read the documents. The Empire was a dictatorship ruled by a selfish ruler who had come to power by lies and deceit. Sure, it wasn't blatantly stated, but it was easy enough to piece together. Cortana's notes also helped quite a bit.
She knew full well that the Empire would never accept the refugees. They might even kill them just so they could get rid of them. Not to mention the fact that the Empire would try to capture Voyager and steal the technology. She couldn't have that.
She really was left with only one option.
"I'm not allying with you." She said. "Yet. I am just giving you the refugees."
Luke nodded. "I understand."
Janeway sighed. "Give us the coordinates. We should get going."
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
Picard was disturbed by the report he had just been handed.
A bunch of replicating robot bugs had almost destroyed Voyager. And they were taking over a planet as he sat there.
Nothing could ever be simple. He was in a difficult enough position as it was. Now there were crazy robotic bugs on the loose.
The Replicators reminded him far too much of the Borg. Though in some ways they were worse, at least the Borg could sometimes be talked to. There was no indication that the Replicators even spoke. They just wished to replicate by any means.
The good news was that Voyager had made contact with the Rebels, and Picard agreed that in this case it was much better to be with the Rebels than the Empire. The Empire sounded completely atrocious.
Riker's voice came to his ears. "Captain, Paris is here with Cortana. Data's going down now."
"Wait for me. I want to be there."
Minutes later, the four of them were standing around Cortana in the Delta Flyer. It was CRAMPED.
Cortana smirked. "Well glad I'm not actually solid." She turned to Data. "Are you ready?"
The android nodded. "I am very interested to see how your network works."
"Remember. You are trying to make sure I don't have some ulterior motive."
"Of course. I can still investigate personal curiosities as well right?"
Cortana rolled her eyes. "Sure. But I've seen a lot. You may want to turn off your emotion chip if you are going to go deep."
Data twitched his head. "Done."
Cortana gestured towards her physical location. "Touch here."
Data nodded. He turned to Piccard first. "Captain, my neural network has been copied onto a computer on Terra. If this goes wrong, reset me with that."
"Of course Data. I wouldn't allow this procedure if we couldn't undo it."
And with that, Data put his finger on Cortana's Node.
Cortana's body vanished, and Data's eyes stared straight ahead.
They were motionless.
Two minutes later, Paris scratched the back of his had. "How long was this supposed to take again?"
D'anna shrugged. "She didn't say."
Picard put his hands behind his head. "Perhaps we should return to the Enterprise and wai-"
With that, Cortana appeared and Data snapped out of it. Cortana looked at the captain with a smirk. "Impatient are we?"
Picard sighed, attempting to ignore her. "Mister Data, what's the verdict?"
"She's fine." He said. "She has no ulterior motives. She has a vast mind though. Took some time to comb through. I recommend fusing her with Enterprise's computer."
"That's against policy, we could provide her wit-"
"Sir, she has a way to improve the computer's efficiency by 223% and accuracy by 242%."
"...How?"
"The human element. Also the fact that her own neural networks are faster, and she can contain the extra programming in the empty spaces on the computer used for storage. She also has invented her own compression program."
Picard blinked. "Well then…"
Cortana looked at Picard. "Do I have permission Captain? You know I could just put myself in there with a snap of my fingers, but i'm being polite."
Picard pondered for a moment. "Make it so."
Nothing changed.
"Cortana?" He asked.
"Oh I'm on the Enterprise. I can still communicate with the Delta Flyer. It's in range." She smiled, looking down at her old node. "I'm glad to see this thing go. Enterprise is much more mobile than this thing. Speaking of Enterprise, I think I'll go say hello to the people over on there now. Introduce them to their new computer." She vanished.
Paris smiled. "Oh boy."
Picard had the feeling Cortana was going to be a mixed blessing.
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
Darth Vader looked at the report in his hand.
He let out a harsh breath.
The Emperor was NOT going to be happy about this.
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KDOR ULQJV: VRPH DUH VWLOO DURXQG.
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AN:
GM: ah yes. The Replicators are here. Episode VI will never be the same….
I've wanted to write this since the PROLOGUE! (though, to be fair, I want to write December… and the summer… AUGH too much stuff we want to do…)
Yes we do have major events planned for the summer months and December. We have it planned that far ahead.
Like, review, favorite, follow, all that good stuff. It drives us onwards. Okay mainly me. I am the one who writes the most. ^^"
Anyway, that is that.
Also we do take suggestions. we have 365 episodes to make, and plot episodes can only make up 50% of those maximum. I'm expecting several episodes where "HEY LOOK! RANDOM CROSSOVER FOR ONE EPISODE!" is a thing. So yeah.
Don't know when the next chapter will be out, but I believe we will get a look at the strange and unusual Avatar world we created here. ...It's going to take a lot of explaining…