Legends had various people blamed for the Death Star. But considering the size of the project... Why couldn't they all be responsible alongside Krennic and Erso?
by lord Martiya

Year 9 of the Empire: Tarkin's great scientist

It was rare for Orson Krennic, Galen Erso, Bevel Lemelisk and Umak Leth, the four head designers of "Project Stardust", to be together in the same place. Even rarer for them to be at Tarkin's new secret base, hidden right in the middle of the Maw Cluster. It was enough for Krennic to label Tarkin as a mad genius.

"Gentlemen, welcome to the Maw Installation." the Grand Moff welcomed them, with a group of lithe blue-skinned near-humans standing behind him. "Here new advanced technologies will be developed to both help your tasks and see to the needs of the Empire. And these ten Omwati, led by Qwi Xux, have been trained and tasked to do just that."

"No offense, but they're little more than children." Lemelisk pointed out.

"Doctor Xux, if you please..."

One of the Omwati, a female, gave a datapad to Lemelisk, who took a bored look-then almost jumped and called Erso to check it himself.

"This-this is going to speed up our work by years!" Erso exclaimed in surprise and admiration. "How were they trained?!"

"Standard procedure: they've been kidnapped from their homes and given the best and most challenging education and training the Empire could provide, and if one of them made a single error their village would be destroyed from orbit before their eyes before they themselves were killed. Doctor Xux was the only one to never err once." Tarkin replied. Then, after leaving a few moments for the others to realize he'd been tooling with them, he explained: "I have known the potential of Omwati minds for years-not long enough to recruit them for the Clone Wars, but long enough to select the smartest ten children on the planet, get their families' consent, and give them the best and most challenging education the Empire could provide, and as I am not an Inquisitor I motivated them with rewards for their families and home villages for their successes rather than the threat of exaggerated violence. Other questions?"

"Why did you put a research center here?!" Krennic demanded to know.

"As soon as the station is complete this will be the main and most advanced research lab in the whole galaxy, and the safety of the scientists shall be paramaunt-thus I put it where nobody would even suspect." Tarkin said, before turning to the window. "And even if they did, it's impossible to come here without knowing the route, not even by acciden-"

Something streaked in front of the Installation, leaving Tarkin speechless. Before he could ask what it had been, however, he received a call from the Star Destroyer Hydra, sent to deal with the mess on nearby Kessel, that explained what had just happened.

"Gentlemen, I stand corrected-without knowing the route it's next to impossible to come here, with the only known exception being having a YT-1300 and apparently dropping raw coaxium in the fuel tank to escape the black hole with the summa-verminoth in, that they had got too close to by trying to escape the Hydra." Tarkin said, his tone betraying admiration and exhasperation. "I hope those madmen survive, they deserve it."

notes

Tarkin and his pet genius team... Also witnessing an epic moment in the history of smuggling.