Author Note.

This story is proving to be very easy to write, and I hope you are all enjoying reading it as much as I am enjoying writing it.

Rule34Economy 4

Star Wars 6

The Infinity and Beyond. Orbit of Courscant

You'd think with me having so many attractive females inside the ship that my private quarters, which were full of entertainments and things for half-naked or totally naked women to lounge on, that I'd be having a lot of orgies while waiting to meet with the Supreme Chancellor down on the planet below, and sure that idea sounded fun, but for now I needed to focus on improving my equipment and weapons so as to prepare for what was to come. Only once I felt ready would there be time to enjoy my life some more.

Even a failed Jedi such as myself had some technical skills. For sure I was no Anakin Skywalker, but I did know a fair bit about technology, all trainee Jedi picked up some knowledge in that department as we had to understand how our lightsabers worked so that we could maintain and repair any minor damage done to them, and we needed to know how to least fly a starship and do some clever work with computers in case we ever needed to recover information from them.

Taking in the experiences of hundreds of Jedi and Sith, at least in part, hadn't really helped with me gain much in terms technical skills (although I felt sure that I could easily build myself a double-bladed lightsaber like the one wielded by Darth Maul, or a crossguard lightsaber like the one used by Kylo Ren) so to help with the recent upgrades I had Andromeda's hologram supervising my work, she was offering tips and making sure that I didn't make any mistakes that could result in anything exploding in my face.

Since my ship grew over time and we could expand the internal space with magic I'd been able to give myself the present of a private workshop that connected to my chambers. It was much easier to ignore the tempting luxuries of my private quarters by staying in the worship and remaining focused on my work. Which involved upgrading my equipment as best I could.

Not that I remained totally focused on the work as there were lots of projects that I wanted to work on and they all demanded my attention. Plus while my waifu and I were recording a lot of information we'd gotten from the spirits into different media so that we wouldn't lose too much, over time the knowledge was fading. The human mind simply wasn't mean to have information downloaded into it by such means.

Then there were our midi-chlorian counts. Midi-chlorians were microscopic, intelligent life forms that resided within the cells of all living organisms, thereby forming a symbiotic relationship with their hosts. The Force spoke through the midi-chlorians, allowing certain beings to use the Force if they were sensitive enough to its powers. In order to gauge an individual's potential in the Force, blood tests were used to estimate the number of midi-chlorians within the subject's cells. Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One, possessed the highest known count in galactic history—over 20,000 midi-chlorians, which meant he had a count higher than any of the other Jedi, including Grand Master Yoda.

The tests with samples taken from myself and all my organic waifu had shown counts equal to that of Anakin Skywalker, over twenty thousand, but now they'd lowered to about 18,000, that was thousands higher than it had been from what my memories had told me, and while the levels had settled down I kept worrying that we'd have to return to the Vally of the Jedi to recharge.

Since I knew how to construct a device which could measure my levels I kept checking them and this was distracting me from my work. I really shouldn't worry much as if the levels remained stable, and it looked as if they would, there were only a handful of Force-users in this galaxy with more raw power than myself. Sadly a good number of those people were Sith of some kind

"You need to finish your work" Andromeda's hologram gently chided

The AI could have done most of my work for me, but I wouldn't always be on the ship with access to the manufacturing facilities so I needed to know how to alter, repair and maintain my equipment in the field. Besides all that, I needed every advantage I could get as my group had many enemies, at least potentially. As such, I was working on those advantages.

My lightsaber, the one that was made from some dark metal, with a couple of golden switches, was even now in pieces before me as I added a security feature to the weapon. This was a bit of High Guard tech that would activate upon sensing the touch of someone who wasn't cleared for the weapon and give the person touching my sabre a rather nasty shock. To make space for this addon I'd added a pommel cap to my lightsaber, altering the design so as to allow more room inside the weapon. The pommel was somewhat spherical, which meant that weapon couldn't be stood on its base any longer.

While this was a very useful feature, I didn't put into the lightsaber that I'd taken as a trophy from the bounty hunter Aurra Sing, who I'd killed in combat, as I wanted a sabre that I could lend to any Force-using ally in battle. My waifu would be cleared to use my sabre just in case I was ever too injured to fight and they didn't have their own sabres on them for whatever reason.

The sabre wasn't the only weapon I was working on. I'd gotten it into my head to combine a phase pistol and as gauss weapon into a heavy pistol of sorts that could stun people while still having enough kinetic energy in a shot to damage even the stronger types of droids. Such as the B2 super battle droids, the Commando droids, and the Manga guards of Separatist leaders.

Since the phase pistol part of the weapon only needed to stun people and phase weapons were quite light the gauss/phase pistol wouldn't be too heavy even if it was a bit too big for some people to use. My waifu were all female, as such had smaller hands than me, so they'd find the weapon too cumbersome to use in battle. Perhaps I'd be able to minimise the weapon once the prototype was ready.

Since it might be weeks before I met with Palpatine in person, he was a busy man and had a war effort to run, I should have the time to also work on my armour. While the materials it was made from and the magic cast upon it made my armour something special I wanted even more cool features, and thanks to Andromeda poking around the archives on the holonet I would have them.

Already the helmet had been upgraded so that I would be able to survive gas attacks, breathe underwater for a time, and even be exposed to the horrid conditions of space for long enough to be teleported back to my ship. I had a teleporter beacon built into my armour, and we'd gotten the transporters working on the ship. None of my waifu had been willing to test them out unit recently as they'd not been familiar with the technology, but after running some tests we'd gotten the system sorted out.

I'd added a combat blade to the armour suit, a grappling hook that could be fired from the wrist, as even with the Force there was only so high I could jump, and if I was with someone who wasn't part of my group then I couldn't simply teleport myself around using magic.

My belt carried a hand scanner, and inside my pouch of holding were a number of useful things such as dung bombs, in case I needed a distraction, Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder for the same reason, as well as some medical potions, a magical rope which would secure itself if you needed to climb down something, and a few other tricks.

One of the advantages I wanted for myself was a personal energy shield, they were a defensive technology that projected a field of energy that protected the user from blaster fire, the elements, or other hazards. Most were small enough to be worn on a belt or on the arm, and some were designed to be held much like a traditional physical shield used by less advanced societies.

When activated, the device protected the wearer with a glowing energy field. Typically, the standard energy shield was only effective against energy attacks, such as blaster bolts. However, according to the archives, other variants created by the Mandalorians and Echani could block melee attacks, while other shields developed by the Arkanians, Verpine, and other cultures, were capable of resisting a variety of different attacks, including electrical, kinetic, cold, heat, and sonic damage.

As with most deflector systems, shields required large amounts of energy in the form of energy cells or a portable recharger, and while long ago they'd been effective energy shields were rare in this time period for a few reasons. Mostly it was lost technology, but the shields fell out of common use because blaster tech had advanced to render them less effective, that combined with the cost and the periods of peace in the galaxy, made them lose favour with population.

Despite this, there were designs for a kind of energy shield on the holonet buried in some of the old archives, and Andromeda was working on recreating the tech because in future levels we'd face foes who didn't use blasters, and if she could supply the shields with enough energy then they would be useful even against what I considered to be modern weapons, and I liked the idea of having another layer of defence.

There was some danger of the devices overheating and leaking radiation, so lucky for my group there were ways around that. We could use cooling charms on the devices to help combat heat, and Andromeda tech included nanobots that could help counter the damage done by radiation poisoning. Any serve cases could be handled by the medical tech on this vessel.

Those were things to think about later, for now, I needed to focus on installing the security feature into my lightsaber and on insulating the parts that made up the weapon so that the shocking someone who wanted to use the weapon without my permission wouldn't lead to disabling my sabre. I didn't want in short-circuiting and becoming useless on me.

(Line Break)

Chancellor's Office. Courscant.

After waiting for an hour in a side room I was finally allowed to see the big man himself who apparently wanted to thank me for my aid in capturing Nute Gunray, who amazingly hadn't been killed or liberated from prison yet, the Sith must be letting him suffer, and to also offer me more work. This suited me just fine as while it was very likely that Palpatine was setting me up for a trap or maybe a test I'd rather trigger the trap as then I would have some knowledge of it, and he wasn't going to blast me Sith lightening with so many Jedi around.

When I entered the office, the waifu with me had been made to wait outside, I saw Masters Yoda and Windu who were sitting with Palpatine at a large desk. The Vaapad master glared at me, I didn't know for sure why he would be so disapproving of my presence here, but I could guess, it could be because I'd left the Jedi Order rather than spend my life farming on some rural planet, or maybe he just didn't like the idea of a failed Jedi getting involved in the war. Not that his opinion mattered to me unless he somehow suspected I was involved with the recent upsettings in the Force.

I greeted them all amicably, and Master Yoda gave me a slight nod, he did not seem unhappy to see me, but he could be covering it up better than his peer, and if any Jedi had a chance of figuring out that I was the one the messing about the timeline despite the perks I had protecting me, then it was him. When we made eye contact I was glad that I had mental defences as well as the perk that protected my fate.

Palpatine really looked just like he did in the movies, and he really did have that kindly old man's look perfected. If I did not know better I would have believed what it was I saw before me as reality. He had a certain presence around him. During the last level of this game, I'd heard people speak of Dumbledore and the effect he had on people. Palpatine had something similar going on with him, only the strong impression he gave was a lie.

To my surprise, Senator Padme of Naboo was also here in the Chancellor's office. She was wearing a blue and purple dress, and she wore way too much makeup, and while this was probably the high of fashion on her world I thought it made her look like a life-sized doll. Given how involved she had gotten and would get in the Clone Wars I had to start wondering if she spent enough time in the office actually doing her job as Senator. I really hoped she didn't leave Binks in charge that often.

After exchanging the expected pleasantries, our host signalled for me to sit before getting down to business. When Palpatine told us why we were all here at the same time I really wasn't surprised. Something must have come up to push my appointment back and to cause the Jedi Master to be here as well as a member of the Republic Senate.

The Sith Lord. Dooku. He'd gotten himself caught by pirates. At first, that might seem silly, but it was important to remember that for all our power men like Windu, Dooku and myself were still humans. Yoda and Palpatine were on different levels and so would never end up getting captured as the count had.

As you might expect, the Jedi were surprised by this development. They as well as Palpatine did not believe that this news was a piece of credible information but it was not something they could ignore, and it was true, they really had captured Dooku, how long they could hold on to him was the question on my mind as capturing a Sith Lord and holding one long term were not easy.

I kept silent and waited to see how the events were about to unfold. Soon enough the pirate leader, I couldn't remember his name, appeared as a hologram on Palpatine's desk.

"If you want the Sith it will cost you a million credits in spice. I want it delivered on a diplomatic transport" declared the crook.

Palpatine's face was an unreadable mask, and he was projecting a sense of annoyance that might be coming from him or his alter ego.

"We want proof that you have him and that he is still alive before agreeing on anything" the disgusted dark lord demanded.

Dooku was marched before the camera.

"I present you the fearless Sith Lord, Count Dooku!" said the pirate leader.

The guy in charge of the crooks really seemed to be enjoying this.

"The hologram is fixed," said Palpatine.

To be fair it wouldn't be hard to alter someone to look like Darth Tyrannus, and the man hadn't spoken, so it could even just be a generated effect. I knew otherwise as did Palpatine, but he was playing his role.

"If you don't believe me" replied the criminal as he took out a curved lightsaber from under his jacket and activated it. "This is his lightsaber".

That would be harder to fake as every lightsaber is unique in appearance.

"Yes. Dooku's lightsaber it is." Yoda confirmed.

"It still proves nothing," Palpatine insisted.

My thinking was the dark lord wanted the Jedi to doubt this so he as the leader of the Republic could call it all a sham and then send someone like Ventress or Grevoius to save the Count. Palpatine needed his current apprentice alive for now as he didn't have a replacement lined up for him, well not just yet.

"You have not shown us anything that can not be easily faked," said the leader of the Republic.

"Is that so?" the Pirate Leader was now saying "Perhaps the CIS council would be more receptive to my offer".

The Senator from Naboo spoke up at this point.

"This is our chance to capture Dooku!" exclaimed Padme.

"If that is him. This could all very well be an elaborate scheme of some sort" replied Palpatine.

Had this been a mere ploy it never would have reached this office. Someone had to be filtering out the dark lord's junk mail.

"Perhaps we could send a Jedi to confirm Dooku's identity," said the Senator "They wouldn't be fooled by an actor or a special effect".

No, they wouldn't as while Dooku could hide his presence in the Force there were plenty of Jedi who'd actually met the man.

"Fine. But they won't be armed" insisted the pirate captain.

Now Padme seemed ready to argue with the outlaw.

"They will be safe. I guarantee it" the alien promised.

I laughed and the pirate turned to look at me. Everyone in the office must be a hologram at the criminal's base.

"Yes, because the word of a pirate is beyond reproach," I said sarcastically.

Anyway who willingly walked unarmed into a nest of vipers deserved to get bitten.

"We do not want to be part of your war! They won't be harmed!" the crook insisted.

Palpatine finished the conversation.

"We'll send someone to confirm the Count's identity, then we will arrange payment," the Chancellor said before cutting the connection.

After that, he turned to the two Masters.

"Kenobi and Skywalker are near Florrum, which is close to the pirate's base, but we could not establish a connection with them," said Windu

Florrum was a sulfurous desert planet located in the Florrum system, within the Sertar sector of the galaxy's Outer Rim Territories if I recalled the star charts I'd studied correctly. I'd become aware of the planet only because some of the charts I'd seen actually warned you away from that system.

"We'll have to send someone to pick them up" the bald-headed Jedi Master then added.

There was a chance for me to earn some credits here.

"My ship is ready to leave now, and I can ferry the two Jedi" I offered "That way if the pirates don't keep their word, which they won't, I can give them some armed backup".

Plus I'd have a couple of Jedi Knights in my debt, which was always handy, and I might even be able to kill Dooku, that would really mess things up for the Sith.

"Since our fleets are spread fine this would seem to be the best course of action," said Palpatine to me "I can put together the payment and send it to your cruiser, it will be more secure if delivered by an armed escort. An escort you must provide the bulk of as we can only afford to send a few clones".

I gave the ruler of the Republic a short bow.

"As you wish, Your Excellency," I said.

With that, the meeting ended and I headed out of the room.

"Gothic, a moment of your time" Master Yoda requested "If aiding the Republic you are then something there is you need".

Windu reached inside his robes and took out something I'd only seen in my memory. It was was a silver and black cylinder.

"My old sabre" I muttered.

I could feel the crystal inside it, the warmth touched me even though the metal of the weapon was cold to the touch.

"Know I do, a new lightsaber you have built," Yoda told me as we walked out of the office "But need this you might one day, and reminded you of your training as a Jedi it will".

No doubt returning the sabre to me was more than a gesture of kindness or gratitude, but right now I didn't care. I'd bonded with the gem in my silver-bladed sabre well enough, but the crystal in this weapon had chosen me when I'd visited Illum, even if the choosing was only a memory, it still felt good to hold the sabre in my hand. This lightsabre had a more rectangular profile than most lightsabers, making it look more like the hilt of a western-style sword than a Jedi weapon.

"Thank you, Master," I said as I put the weapon away careful it wouldn't do someone who was not a Jedi to be seen with one near the leader of the Republic "Now if you'll excuse me I need to get to Florrum. Skywalker must be in some kind of trouble by now. He seems to draw danger to himself at an alarming rate".

Which in my view showed people just how powerful Obi-Wan must be to even try keeping up with his former apprentice and not get himself killed.

(Line Break)

The Infinity and Beyond. Orbit of Courscant

"How are they?" I asked, "Any side effects from removing the chips?".

The Inhibitor chips that the bioroids here in the medical centre had removed from the clones were biochips that were engineered into the clone troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic as they were grown. Since they were bio-tech rather than simply computer chips we didn't know enough about them to try altering the commands so that the clones would go after the Chancellor if he signalled for Order 66 or something like that, but we could at least remove them.

From what we'd been able to discover so far the chips were surgically implanted into the brains of every single clone embryo at some stage of development. If I recalled the background lore of the Clone Wars correctly this was done to prevent clone troopers from being overly independent and aggressive, however, their true function was intended by Jedi Sifo-Dyas to be a safeguard against control by rogue Jedi or the Sith.

The covert involvement in the cloning program of the Sith Lord Darth Tyranus, known as Count Dooku to most in the galaxy, meant that from the very beginning of the Clone Wars, the chips would play an integral part of the Sith conspiracy to control the clones and to guarantee that they would be capable of killing their Jedi Generals in accordance with Order 66. Should history play out without my interference then the chips would play a major role in bringing about the end of the Jedi Order.

It was only towards the end of the Clone Wars that the Jedi learned the elusive figure they had identified as Tyranus was in fact, Count Dooku. This led to the realization that the Sith had been involved in the cloning program from its inception, although they knew not to what purpose. They chose to keep this knowledge a secret from the Senate, as they thought it would destabilize the Republic and undermine the war effort. Instead, they resolved to take the only path they could see available, which was to play the game they now knew to have been orchestrated by the Sith and try to bring an end to the war as quickly as possible.

"So far we've had a hundred per cent success rate in removing the chips," Andromeda told me "and the fakes should pass inspection as long as no one takes one out and takes it apart".

While this was pleasing to me, even if I spent the rest of the war transporting small groups of clones around who could have their chips removed and their memories magically altered, it wouldn't make much difference when Order 66 was signalled by Palpatine. It might save a couple of the thousands of Jedi out there in the galaxy, but I if I wanted to derail the Sith's plans I would need to do more.

"Any chance you can whip up a virus that will attack the chips and not affect the clone?" I asked.

Somehow I doubted it.

"Sorry, Captain" answered the AI "We don't have the means to create any biological weapons and we can't outsource a project like this without information about it getting leaked to the Sith".

Even we could ensure that such a project couldn't be traced back to us they'd easily be able to shut it down.

"And we can't fry the chips with EMPs because they are biological," I said.

Since EMP weapons of some kind were bound to be used in a war against a droid army the cloners would have purposely used biological chips. More normal computer chips would have been the cheaper option by far.

"Study the chips we have" I ordered, "Maybe we'll figure something out later".

As for me, I had a guest on board that I wanted to try wooing.

(Line Break)

The Infinity and Beyond. In Orbit of Florrum.

Padme Amidala entered the bridge and there was no hiding her concern, even if she had been able to keep her expression neutral the Captain of this ship was a Force-user and wouldn't have been fooled for long as he could sense her true feelings in this matter, and at other times.

This was something that concerned Padme as after she'd come on board with the spice shipment she'd dined with the commander of this vessel before they'd recovered the Jedi, and despite his almost divine food, he'd failed when he'd made a pass at her, and she'd not been able to tell him why his efforts at seduction had failed. She could tell no one that she was married and perhaps worse than that Padme had been tempted.

She hadn't liked letting Gothic down without at least a decent explanation. The captain had saved her life, even if Padme couldn't quite recall how due to all the confusion. Aside from that, he was good looking, and he clearly wanted to keep her safe, something he had proven recently, and even now he was helping the Republic in another delicate matter. Granted he was getting paid to be here, but that didn't mean he wasn't taking risks in a war he didn't need to be involved in.

It wasn't easy having a husband who spent so much of his time away on battlefields across the galaxy. In fact, she'd spent more time with Gothic recently, and didn't that make her feel worse because she wanted to spend time with the commander of this vessel and to keep eating his cooking. Thankfully C-3PO had been around to act as chaperon.

"Captain, is there any news of Master Kenobi and Jedi Skywalker?" she asked Gothic.

She had a bad feeling that Anakin had gotten himself into trouble yet again.

"No news yet, Senator," said Gothic "and I sense that he is in danger".

The Captain had his eyes closed was standing on the bridge. Padme could only assume that he had ways of gaining information that she couldn't use.

"We have the spice" Padme was now saying "maybe we should go down and make the deal".

Gothic moved to go sit in the captain's chair.

"You're the senate representative," he said, "What do you want us to do?".

She gave the matter some thought before speaking. Part of her wanted to order the clones and Gothic's crew to assault the pirate base so she could get her husband back, but such recklessness might get people killed, the very people she wanted to save.

"We'll make the delivery, and be prepared for trouble" decided the Senator from Naboo.

(Line Break)

Pirate Base. Florrum.

Of course, the pirates decided to betray us, to take the spice and to hold the Senator hostage so as to sell her to the Trade Federation Separatist faction, Nute Gunray was in prison, but he would find a way to pay for her head, or one of his minions would.

Not that this pirate scum would get the chance as Andromeda had already launched the planetary warfare bots, they could be dropped from orbit, and as they fired their rockets so as to land somewhat safely on the ground, they kicked up a lot of dust. This was something that Padme, some of my waifu and I used to as a chance to get into cover.

When the dust settled the twins, as they affectionately known, had a heck of a lot of firepower aimed at the pirates, who didn't back down as they should because they had tanks, but they didn't know how unmatched they really were right now. Commonwealth military technology was very impressive, and the bots had been enchanted with some clever spell work by some of my witches.

"Hand over the Jedi and Count Dooku" Padme ordered the pirates, "you can keep the spice and not make an enemy of the Republic".

Quite reasonable really. I'd have taken the offer and saved my skin. Alas, one of the pirates, who was either drunk or a total idiot, opened fire and the twins responded to the threat in short order. The triple gauss cannons on each arm of the warfare bots open up as did with the even heavier weapons. Rockets of some kind took down the tanks in short order as the cannons opened up and took down anything on two legs that happened not to be a human being.

This wasn't a racist thing, or maybe that was Speciesism? it had to do with practicality. We'd come here for three humans, Skywalker, Kenobi, and Dooku, and the pirates weren't human, so anyone with a weapon that was not human got gunned down very soon. If they had other prisoners I could only hope they stayed in their cells and didn't pick up a weapon.

I didn't see the boys at work as I wisely kept myself behind crates of spice while the blaster bolts and gauss rounds flew around, so I had only my other senses to tell me what was going on, and my hearing wasn't much help as Andromeda had modified a High Guard battle song to play in battle and to serve as an anthem for the PMC company (the Gothic Consortium) to go along with the modified High Guard symbol we were using. Using the real thing would be an insult to the Commonwealth soldiers, but Andromeda was happy for us to use modified High Guard equipment, weapons, and even media. This combined with all the shooting left none of us able to hear anything other than noise.

My Force senses didn't help much either, as all was pain and fear until it suddenly over and Padme was not happy.

"You didn't need to kill them all!" she protested.

Well in truth, I hadn't. Some of them would have run away, and the bots were under Andromeda's control.

"They would have killed the rest of us and sold you the Separatists," I told Padme.

I didn't debate things further. I knew that once she'd calmed down she'd realise that while this could have been handled better, with less bloodshed, I'd acted to keep us safe. Not that she would admit it.

"Move in and secure any prisoners" the highest-ranking clone was now saying.

A ship was now taking off, and I sensed a dark presence on that ship. The Count was attempting an escape, he must have fled the pirate base during all the confusion.

"Shoot it down!" I ordered.

Unless the last time Dooku fled when I was around this time we were prepared. The twins shot his ship down long before any of my ship's drones needed to get involved.

"We should go after him" Padme was now saying.

That would be foolish. I was no match for Count Dooku and even with bioroids, clones and waifu, it would be dangerous. The big bots would also be running low on firepower by now as they were meant for shock and awe and would have expanded their ammo very quickly.

"We'll free Master Kenbio and Jedi Skywalker, and then go after Dooku" I decided before turning to my bioroids "Find the pirate leader he had the count's lightsaber I don't want it going anywhere near him, secure it on the shuttle if you recover it.

Once Dooku was dead or in custody then I would add it to my growing collection.