Harry Potter and A Galaxy Far Far Away

by kossboss

A small change had Harry slowly absorbing memories from Voldemort's soul shard in his head after the battle in the Chamber of Secrets. Follow him as those memories lead him to an escape from the Wizarding World and an adventure in a whole new reality with spaceships and space wizards. Grey/Smart/Powerful Harry. Slow Build Up.

8. Chapter 8

Welcome to the eighth day of Star Wars Xmas! I am glad a lot of people liked the last chapter, and I hope you all enjoy this one as well.

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Chapter 8:

Harry was getting more efficient and better at creating new designs as his proficiency and knowledge with technology kept improving each day. When he scanned something tech related with the Force, as long as he knew most of the principle knowledge behind the technology already, it allowed him to gain an intimate understanding of whatever he just flooded with his magic. It was extremely helpful in learning from other people's technology, and what to apply to his own designs, how to improve it, or even apply some concept from back home to this tech. It also clearly helped point out flaws, and what not to do as well.

That is why it took only a week for him to finish the hyperspace probes, and even get a few up and running and tested. They worked great, however he realized that he was not going to be able to make these manually every time, simply because of the numbers they would need. Of the ten Harry made, all ten had had unfortunate ends due to hyperspace accidents trying to get to the closest star to Tatooine.

The closest known populated system to Tatooine was Geonosis, and yet there were still hundreds of stars between the two systems. Harry had early on tried to broker some deals with the Geonosians, however they seemed to be quite closely connected to the Trade Federation, and a bit arrogant. This was quite frankly another reason for Harry to worry about possible Federation attack here on Tatooine, and even more reason for a secret base off world. Geonosis was not strictly controlled by the Trade Federation, but just seemed to have close ties with them, so it still worried him after the failed invasion of Naboo. It also didn't help that trying to have productive dealings with a hive species was not easy.

However what that meant for him was that instead, for the first time ever, to get a bit of experience with the concept, he and R3 developed an automated factory floor to produce his hyperspace exploration and sensors buoys. He was just going to call them hyperspace probes to make it easy on himself and others, as they truly did fit into a number of roles with their advanced sensor and communication suites. He and R3 quickly decided to in the end put a small factory in one of the large areas in his underground complex here on Tatooine for protection.

The factory line could produce about 156 probes a day at a cost of about 28,000 credits each. They were a bit pricey, but they did do quite a bit for him, and there was a reason why exploration for new hyperlanes was expensive. Not that his funds were hurting, as his business just kept expanding, with his Elves more than just keeping up with demand. A ton of materials were needed and had to be imported for the factory to operate, and as he was still working on his own reliable hyperdrive, those needed to be bought as well.

During the month since Naboo, and as he had been working on this factory line, he had felt this ever shifting movement in the force. Something massive had happened around the Battle of Naboo that Harry hadn't caught at the time, but there was almost a sadness coming from the darkside of the force of all things. He at first thought it was because of the death of Maul, but then he thought differently as he meditated on the feeling. It was certainly a change in the force, and it didn't feel for the better, but not entirely bad either, it was clearly a mixed signal type of situation. He believed that the change and threat wasn't focused on him so it was why he was getting such odd feelings from the Force and was what was making it hard to discern.

Anakin had contacted them once every two weeks so far, and he seemed to be having fun. The kid clearly missed being here with them, but kept going on and on about all the things he was learning from Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. So it was clear that they had made the right decision in allowing him to go. Harry imagined this is what parents who sent their kids to Hogwarts felt like, only a bit more serious in this situation. Qui-Gon said he will be traveling here sometime in the future to learn more about him, cough spy on him cough, but was going to spend some time training his new Padawan first. Harry was happy Anakin ended up as Qui-Gon's Padawan, the kid really needed someone with experience to ground him.

The only negative of that situation so far that Harry found, was that apparently there was some stupid prophecy here too, and that Anakin may be the chosen one spoken of in said stupid prophecy. He told the kid not to let it get to his head or he will have to come over there and show who was really the boss. Chosen one or not. Only semi-jokingly. That had gotten him a small glare from Shmi, but it broke into a grin, and she told Anakin that arrogance was an ugly trait in people and she didn't want to see her sweet baby boy become ugly.

With the factory line for the probes online now, and with them being sent out daily to navigate to new systems in almost a web like fashion out of Tatooine, he was now available to move onto his next project, a personal shuttle. The Scimitar, Maul's vessel, was quite the machine once he truly got to look it over. It was just over 26m long, 15m wide, and came with two decks with ample room. He and a team of droids in his personal workshop strip the entire thing apart right down to its frame, as he wanted to add some magical enhancements while they did some upgrades to the ship to truly make it his own.

Already the ship was equipped with 6 concealed single laser cannons, so he felt that the firepower for a personal shuttle was already quite substantial. So he 'only' upgraded it to dual laser cannons. For heavy ordnance it did come with a proton torpedo launcher, something Harry felt was only right for him to abuse. So rather than the measly eight torpedoes it used to carry, he expanded the magazine with magic to allow for it to carry just over a hundred, each. Enough that he could do some real damage to most things flying the skies if he felt like it, even a small fleet.

Due to all the electronic monitoring and counter measures on the ship already, as well as the weapons, experimental engines, and cloaking device, there was a need for four heavy power generators. This meant quite a bit of room was taken up by them, however Harry simply ripped them out and put an entirely new power generation system into the ship. He equipped it with his fuel caps, and went about putting cooling runes where they were needed, and even reinforced the whole thing with impervious charms tied to runes. In the end it was nearly a work of art.

With the upgraded power systems he now had even more power to work with on the ship, and he was going to need that if he wanted to improve the hyperdrive and deflectors. While he was working on that, R3 and his army of R2s and other droids were removing the armour plating and carving runic arrays into them, that would, once they were charged, help reduce damage to the armour by spreading a blast evenly throughout the armour plate, while also negating some. This meant that a lot of the power of a smaller laser cannon would be nearly completely negated. However for larger turbo lasers he could only hope to not be in the place they were being fired at once his deflectors failed.

At the end of the day, once it was all back together after about three months of him redesigning things, and spending quite a bit of time looking over those experimental ion engines, it was finished. He had decided to rename it, The Marauder, to honor his father and his friends. It was one sweet ship, both for its looks, and capabilities. Cloaking, powerful shields, ample anti fighter laser cannons, more proton torpedos than one knows what to do with, electronic warfare modules, electronic counter measures, Class 0.5 hyperdrive, 1400 km/h atmospheric speed (faster than anything he has encountered yet), ample room due to him internally expanding it four times, backup hyperdrive, permanent pilot droid, and the ability to be commanded from afar from a wrist communicator.

Using magic had allowed him to squeeze even more out of the ship's systems and to increase its overall defenses by quite a bit. All said, he did find a few limitations. Nothing with magic was perfect and once the magic that was powering said enchantment or runic arrays ran out, the effect would end with it. Tieing them to runes prevented this from happening to simple decay, however if say an armor plate was getting repeatedly hit with laser cannon fire, it would eventually drain the magic in the runes protecting the armour plate.

A lot of what he had seen and examined when he took apart from this ship would go a long way to helping him improve what he builds in the future. This was a huge reason why it had taken so long. It was simply brimming with bleeding edge tech, and he wasn't quite sure where it all came from. The engines alone seemed to be a game changer if they could be downsized and improved a bit for fightercraft. The computer systems were astounding, and the cloak blew his mind. He activated it and even with his mage sight he couldn't see the ship.

During the three months he had been working on the Marauder, PA had been running with his plans, already they had discovered twelve new shorter hyperspace routes, and four systems of which all were being scanned at the moment. However that had cost a lot of probes, and he was still slowly improving the navi computer code to reduce the rate they were going through them, but at the current rate it was nearly 3500 probes per system discovered. It was honestly staggering losses, and those systems basically cost him 65 million credits each. However improvements were being made, and losses were already down 40% this month.

One system they had discovered had nine planets in it, 5 terrestrial and 4 gas giants. The second only had four terrestrial planets, but had two large asteroid fields. The third was a dud, with a single large gas giant around a red star, and the fourth was quite interesting in that it had 3 terrestrial planets, one of which had a proper atmosphere, but seemed to be devoid of intelligent or larger life, with just a few plants and small animals. He would have to wait for scans and surveys to know more.

He was hopeful his probe droids would send back some data soon, but it took nearly all this time just to get to the systems and it still took about 2 weeks for the probe to scan each panet, and then longer for more detailed mining scans with future survey droids. Thankfully he could send multiples, so he did. So he was still waiting on getting back the scans of the fist large system to see if there was anything worth the expense so far. PA assures him it will only be a few days now and he should have a report. So as he was waiting he was working on a laser cannon design for a future ship when a PAM droid spoke with PA's voice.

"Harry, the new AC Transport Four that is carrying Jabba's new deflectors and power generators, has arrived. I have also included a small defensive Ion Cannon for Jabba's palace as a gift from you to him." the motherly voice of PA said breaking him out of his work. "I suggest you contact him and deliver it as soon as possible, as we could use the ship back out there, we are getting more and more customers for the new transport and cargo division of HPI." PA said excitedly. "I am already working on deals for purchasing or building 45 spaceports on planets we are now servicing." PA continued just as excitedly giving him a quick update.

They had only a few ACs now, about 15 from Kuat, as they had to spool up a few shipyards and retool them for the AC class as they were not expecting so many orders. Though they had promised increased delivery rates soon, as those new factories came online. If what PA was telling him was true about the feelers she has been getting when word she has spread of our transport business had got around, then there was quite a bit of area for expansion to be filled by those ships. Profitable expansion at that. The fuel caps were really cheating.

They currently, in the four sectors they were operating in, had service lines running all the way from Ryloth to Corellia, and even some to Socorro, a fairly backwater and illegal haven for smugglers was now getting regular service from them. They made all the stops on the way, and soon to be added to the service was going to be Naboo as they expanded to the neighboring four sectors to the west of the ones they were already operating in. However PA says they are going to need way more ships for that because the demand in the sectors they are already servicing is increasing exponentially. That meant the ships they were ordering to expand their services, instead needed to be sent to bolster availability to existing ports of call rather than said expansion.

It is a good problem to have that is for sure, but they were burning through nearly all their profits during this expansion phase, as they placed orders after orders for more ships, equipment, and droids. Each AC had at least a single CR90 in escort, sometimes three if the planet in question was often a hot spot for pirate ambushes. Each CR90 had 10 CS fighters escorting them, on top of the 15 carried in the AC's hangar. So really each of their AC transport convoys was a small fleet in of itself, and that made Harry kind of giddy to think about, the Force was certainly happy about his business expanding too for whatever reason. He really had no idea about the Force sometimes, it certainly had more of a personality than magic seemed to have back on Earth, but it may just be his connection is just that much stronger now and he can feel the difference.

"Alright PA, send a message to Jabba that I am on my way to him, coming with me is his new deflectors in a big ship so tell him not to worry." he said deciding to do something besides tinker for once. It had been an exciting few months since the time of the Naboo invasion, and now things have really quieted down around here without Anakin kicking about, so he had been able to get a ton of work done.

He walked over to the Marauder, which was parked in his workshop and sent the signal for it to start up, and lower the ramp. He walked into it and could feel it take off across the sky towards Jabba's palace before he even made it ten feet inside. "PA send Transport Four to follow after me, I decided to take the Marauder out for a spin." he walked into the cockpit and sat down in the pilot's seat beside the pilot droid. Looking over the sleek black instrument terminal, he loved his new ship, so he grabbed the steering controls and took over from the Droid. He loved flying even more when in a ship like this that was forsure, the speed alone got his nerves tingling.

It didn't take long for them to come in for a smooth touchdown just outside Jabba's palace. He disembarked from his ship and walked up to the entrance as the door opened without having to knock only to see Fotuna was waiting to show him to Jabba. He greeted Harry with a bow of his head and a wave of his hand to come inside.

"If you would follow me Hadrian." he said politely. Fotuna always treated him as his master would want, therefore he was always polite to Harry. They walked into the big room where Jabba was, to see him clearly excited, not all people could read emotions in Hutts, but Harry didn't need the force to see something big has happened for Jabba.

"Jabba, what has you in such a good mood? I don't need the force to know it's not just because of my message about delivering your new toys." he said to the Hutt, actually wondering this time around as the Hutt was almost shivering in excitement.

"Harry I must introduce you to someone!" Jabba said, waving a hand to the side to have one of his attendants bring someone out. "I know most Hutts would scoff at me for choosing to go this route, however I believe it is important for one to experience the world." Jabba said to him, only increasing Harry's confusion till he saw a small repulsorlift carrying a nice cushioned bed that held a small baby Huttlet in it. "This Harry is my Pedunkee Mufkin.." which took Harry a moment to translate to 'Punky Muffin' "my little Rotta. I wanted him to meet my good trading partner and friend Hadrian Peverell." Jabba said excitedly even moving around a bit which he usually doesn't do while introducing him to the baby Hutt.

The little guy was both cute, and ugly. Harry could really see how excited Jabba was about having a kid now. He knew that the species was hermaphrodites, and didn't actually need another Hutt to procreate, however he had not known Jabba was expecting. Though he did understand Jabba's comment now, usually Hutt parents had their children spend the first fifty to a hundred years inside their brood pouch, safe away from the outside world. Hutts were well known for their durability for a reason, the world they came from was like a cesspool of stuff that wants to kill you.

"Jabba congratulations! I didn't even know you were expecting!" he said to his friend. "That makes my delivery today all that more important, and what I have to discuss even more so." he said to his buddy a bit more seriously as the little Hutt was taken away to be taken care of.

"Yes, the deflectors. Your ship is arriving?" Jabba asked him as they both walked from the main receiving room, and into Jabba's private area.

"Yes, it should be here soon, and it will be unloaded by my dorids and the Cargo Transports carried in each transport ship of mine these days. So you don't need to worry about that." he said to his buddy as they both sat down in their usual area with two water bongs they both slowly smoked. "I will have my droids start installation when they arrive if you can have a few of yours show them where. I also brought a present along, a small defensive Ion Cannon, so you can defend against some medium sized ships in orbit, even from here." he said happily to the Hutt.

"Hmm...Yes.. that sounds excellent! To be able to shoot my enemies out of the sky from my palace without lifting a finger! Thank you. I will have my droids assist yours." Jabba said to Harry, still clearly interested in what they need to talk about. "The important matter we must discuss?" Jabba asked.

"Jabba I have even more worries my friend, I imagine you have heard about the escalation of the blockade of Naboo turned into a full out invasion?" he asked, and got a nod in return. "I am worried about our recent successes and something like that happening here, and no matter what defenses we put on the ground it's not going to stop a fleet of ships. I want to start stationing a defence fleet above the planet to at least slow down any attackers that may come." he said to Jabba clearly not finished.

"Go on." Jabba said listening closely to what Harry was proposing.

"It has also been brought to my attention that with the increased traffic from our recent business ventures, and expansion, we are also in need of a proper traffic control system here. Unless we want it to devolve into the mess that is around Nar Shaddaa." he said with a chuckle at the notoriously bad airspace traffic of the crime system. "PA informed me that such an occurrence would result in a significant reduction in credits coming into Tatooine." he said, Jabba being well aware of PA and her temperaments.

"No, that is not something we want." Jabba said. "However such a thing is not cheap to set up or maintain." Jabba said getting to the crux of why there was not one in the past.

"Yes, well not that expensive in comparison to what we are making these days." he said to the Hutt alluding to the absurd amount of money they were both now making. "I also heard you have taken quite a bit of power within your clan, the Desilijic. I wanted to also congratulate you on that."

"Thank you, my father has stepped back to allow me more control, while he is still willing to represent the clan on the council, to remove that burden from me till I wish to take it up, he is still stepping back from Clan Head." Jabba explained the changes to Harry, as Harry certainly didn't have the details on internal clan matters beyond the large highlights. "It was our business partnership that has allowed the fortunes of my clan to turn around lately. So in respect of that and your views, the Desilijic voted to ban running any slaving operations while we continue to be partners." Jabba said to Harry's surprise, sure it was only one Hutt clan, but it was a rising old power within the Hutt Council. "The last slave market here on Tatooine will be closed within a month. While I can't say we will not still own slaves for our own use, we will no longer participate in the trade beyond personal purchases. I hope that still pleases you?" Jabba said to the honest surprise at the gesture Harry was displaying.

The only reason that he had disliked working with Jabba was because of the slavery issue, the rest he honestly could look the other way on. Most of what Jabba was involved in was gambling, podracing, spice, smuggling, bounty hunting, and his work with Harry. Without slavery, Harry could only really protest so much, and so it made what he wanted to propose next a bit easier for him to suggest.

"Jabba I don't know what to say. I will just say, Thank you. Here's to a long and prosperous relationship between the two of us." he said to the Hutt, raising his glass to toast the occasion, which Jabba happily obliged raising his own. "Now what I wanted to suggest is that we officialize to some extent our joint rulership of Tatooine." he said to the Hutt, using the force to read his reaction, and was glad to see he was intrigued and excited about whatever Harry was suggesting. Apparently Jabba really saw him as this golden goose that kept suggesting things that made him oodles of money, or increased his power.

"Joint rulership? Don't we already ruler over Tatooine together?" Jabba asked intrigued, stating the basic reality of things.

"Yes we do, however due to how large our operations are becoming here, I think we need to enact a few proper measures to ensure that our investments are protected. That goes doubly so now that Rotta is here." he said bringing the conversation back to what he first mentioned after meeting the Huttlet. "I felt that you could be responsible for ruling a number of the day to day aspects here on the planet, especially that related to criminals, while I handled off planet relations with other entities." he said to Jabba explaining his plan. "We both will have to agree to any new laws, or major changes we want to make, otherwise we simply continue doing what we have been, but make it well known to others we now claim full rulership of the planet. With droids there won't even be much we need to do, and this could even bring in money to offset the costs by us charging taxes or fees."

"You wish to do this officially…. in a way that the planet will be recognized by others to be under our rule?" Jabba asked intrigued.

"Yes, I know you control other planets through various means, and I don't want this to affect those. However I want us to be able to interact with other entities like the Trade Federation, or the Republic on equal footing or at least as equal as we can make it. They will most likely look at it like a corporate government of the planet. I am also worried about Geonosis being so closely linked to the Trade Federation and being so close to us with the issues we have had." he said to his friend. "What is to really stop them from coming in and taking everything we have worked for, except for past precedent. Which they just blew to hell on Naboo, a Republic world. So who would even complain about them doing it to a Hutt or Outer Rim world?" he asked his friend, getting a bit passionate about his argument, but he clearly saw Jabba was also getting more worried now too, and was even more on board. "Many would probably even celebrate them for doing so."

"How would we do this then?" Jabba asked, getting more and more sold on the idea as he was thinking about it. Jabba's excitement in the force kept rising to Harry's surprise.

"We sit here while the droids install the new tech and come up with some rules or laws we agree on. Like having any dangerous criminal activity moved out of settlements and deep into the desert. That way it is out of the way of the general populace, and if something bad goes wrong, then it is happening in the desert not beside say an important offworld customer." he said explaining some of his ideas to the Hutt. His company would fund much of the development and changes, however it would also reap the benefits of, say being the sole utilities provider to a planet full of people.

Installing proper utilities found on core worlds was one of the things Harry first discussed with the slug. Proper roads, infrastructure and even a few factories for small goods. There wasn't much they were going to do other than that besides expanding Harry's droids to cover all settlements on the planet, ensuring they kept the peace. They talked about instigating a tax, but felt holding off on that until the changes were underway so people did not think it was another way to extort more money from them. Protection money Jabba and others collected would instead go to the 'government', and those funds would be used by the droid administration they were going to put together.

Jabba would be in charge of handling any issues that may come up on the planet related to criminals, unless he asked for Harry's input. Harry would handle most offworld things, but in reality nothing would really change for now except one would need permission from traffic control to enter the planet or potentially have their craft seized by Harry's ships, or blown up. All in all they discussed things they wanted to put into place, and of all things it was Jabba who suggested increasing the size of the hospital in Mos Espa to be able to handle both on and off world patients. Harry already had some of the medication they would need, so Jabba thought it would be a good investment, and Harry agreed.

By the time they were done, it was getting late and the droids would be a number of days till they were finished. So he was going to head back to his place, as he only had so much time to shoot shit with Jabba now that their 'work' was done. "Jabba I have a much better feeling in the Force on the outlook of our futures now." he said to the slug who was escorting him out of the palace, and to see some of the work being done.

They saw a few Cargo Transports moving things from the 300+ meter long wedge shaped ship. It was quite a sight to behold as it hovered there on its repulsors being unloaded by floating cargo droids a hundred or so meters up. He also saw the various construction droids his company now used, moving about taking apart things and assembling others on the ground, even excavating in some areas. He could see beside the palace proper the deflector emitters being installed beside the 'small' single shot Ion Cannon. It was similar in design to a large turbo laser, however just a bit more substantial. Harry had heard of a few Ion Cannon designs being dozens of stories tall and powerful enough to knock out battleships in a single shot, but this certainly was not one of those.

He pushed a button on his wrist communicator, signaling the Marauder to come pick him up nearby. "Well Jabba I think we will have an even brighter partnership to look forward to in the future, and I will get started on my end on things as soon as I get back to my place." he said to the Hutt in goodbye before he walked off to a small clearing he could sense his ship landing at. The only reason he could even sense it was because he put a special rune inside, keyed to him, otherwise the Stygium Crystal cloaking device would interfere with his force ability to clearly sense the Marauder. Using his senses and ensuring that he was out of sight, he walked onto the cloaked ship, as it had its loading ramp down and waiting for him, allowing him or anyone else to see inside for a brief moment before the ramp closed.

Usually you wouldn't keep it parked and cloaked as it took too much power, however with his fuel array, that was not a problem anymore. Neither was overheating due to a few well placed charms and runes, so he could in theory have it parked and cloaked at all times, even armed and ready in sentry mode. Something he may consider if off world, or even have it fly around cloaked. Deciding not to even bother waiting till he got back, he and PA started to discuss implementing some of his plans he discussed with Jabba, and how to monetize them to keep everything profitable.

He also had her look into getting the best version of what they needed and what she felt would fit our needs, mainly a lot of different mining equipment and related goods. He also had her look into temporary prefab construction factories, and refiners, mostly to start getting materials from any planets they find. Even if they didn't have any great mineral deposits, they could still use them as test beds, or even as factory worlds. He finally got her to order even more droids for now to operate their new and existing operations till he had enough time to look over the Trade Federation's droids and equipment. He would then incorporate those advantages into the robust droid components that he and Anakin had been working on for a few years.

They had not gotten down to designing the actual droid chassis yet, however they were building everything that went into making a droid from scratch. Testing a bunch of designs for each small component such as power relays, till they had the best they could make, and even a few extra components for purpose made roles. Such as ultra cheap design but decent quality, or incredible quality usually at extreme cost. Even designs for high pressure situations, like deep in the ocean. Though the main design they had been working towards was simply something that was great quality at a good price.

There had only been the servos yet to finish when Anakin had left, and since then he had worked on that in his spare time between working on the probes, their factory and the Marauder. So now before he started making designs and finalizing things for the various roles he needs filled, mainly so that HPI would no longer have to rely on someone else for their droids, he needed to look over the Trade Federation's droids first.

When he arrived at his workshop, after having a lovely dinner with Shmi, he started right away unloading some more of his goodies from Naboo. There was a lot of work ahead of him, but with his timer turner he didn't expect this should take him too many months.

---

"What do you mean you have not uncovered anything new?" Nute Gunray said to his subordinate, as he paced in his private rooms on Coruscant. He was here to face trial for the invasion of Naboo in the courts, though he has been assured that such a trial will be dismissed soon enough. However, he was still incensed with that small puny company helping Naboo fight his blockade and landing him in this mess.

"I am sorry Viceroy. We have been unable to find out where he is sourcing his goods from, the only target we can find for attack is a main retail facility on Tatooine, or his Republic HQ on Naboo." his fellow Neimoidian subordinate, and legal council answered his inquiry. "Neither of which seem to be good choices, as they are both high risk, and low reward targets." his underling said as Nute got madder at their constant failure. Blaster gas can't simply appear from nowhere, and definitely not at those grades. They had to have a high quality source somewhere. Where were they getting their medicine or other goods was also still another mystery as well. It was driving him mad, as he wanted revenge on Hadrian Peverell for helping ruin his plans for Naboo.

"Keep the search up, we will turn up something soon." he said to his assistant. "We still know so little about this Hadrian Peverell. Find me more!"

"Viceroy there is another matter related to them." the lawyer said, getting his attention. "HPI's legal team has managed to successfully argue in the lower courts that reparations are due for our attack on their ships during our 'illegal' blockade. The courts have ordered us to pay them 30 million credits in compensations for their losses. I believe we should pay them to prevent any issues with our defense in the higher courts." finished his legal aid. Nute could only sit there and sputter in response, he would have revenge on this Hadrian, but he would be patient and wait for the right time to strike. There was no way this human would be able to withstand the might of the Trade Federation when it turned its ire on him.

However some of the stories he has heard about this human from their agents reports sent shivers down his spine. Mutilated inside out bodies in the middle of the road! He shuddered again at that thought. Some places were simply so uncivilized to spread such clearly false rumours.

---

"Harry I got a few important reports for you to read." PA said to him, interrupting him only a few days into his breakdown of the Trade Federation goodies.

"Go ahead." he said, putting down the small inbuilt blaster cannon he was looking over for his own droids.

"Well first, is that my contacts and informants have told me the Trade Federation has more than doubled their efforts to try and locate the sources of our goods. Specifically out blaster gas." PA said with clear humour in her voice which was dropped before she continued. "It does worry me that they may get more bold and attack, so I have had 2 ACs coming from Kuat diverted here directly for protection instead of being added to our shipping lines." she finished.

"That sounds alright to me PA. I am glad you share my worries, at least it doesn't make me look too paranoid then." he said to the droid not having known she had spread her informants so far and wide. "What else have you got for me." he asked.

"We finally have got the preliminary reports on the four systems we have discovered." PA said from her floating body. "There are a few interesting things you will want to take note of." she said as he went to a close by console to pull up the report himself.

It seemed that a few of the planets held some promise, one in fact had enough surface minerals to even be easily picked up by the probes from orbit. They definitely needed to get out there with survey droids to get closer scans of what is on those planets. There was one gas giant that the probe picked up some promising layering in the atmosphere which may mean presence of plasma or a useful gas of some kind. Unfortunately most of the report simply told him the size of planets, their gravity, primary composition, and such. Nothing amazing stood out to him, but he now basically owned four systems all to himself. And no one else even knew, which blew his mind.

"PA we're going to need you to send out ships full of survey droids to all these planets to get better readings. Especially that one with promising mineral deposits." he said to his assistant. "I think you may as well send out mining hardware without waiting for the surveys to get back to just test things out and learn what we may need to change for future mining operations." he said out loud spit balling his thoughts on what they needed to do.

There were thousands of companies that developed mining equipment as it was big business all over the Galaxy. So there was little reason for him to try and make his own equipment, when there was tons to work with in the first place. He also had a literal list of better things to look into rather than designing a new refinery. Either way he will put R3 on it as well, as that little guy had an eye for efficient layout design. He may look into making a mining droid later, if he felt there was a need.

"I am already on that Harry. I have been having them quietly transported here to Tatooine via trunks." she said to him. "We will move the mining equipment out there in the same manner so that there are no large shipments going to or out of our new systems for now." PA said bringing something to Harry's attention he hadn't thought of, and that being others now watching his every move since Naboo. Or at least watching where he and his ships were going. Thankfully tracking anything through hyperspace was extremely difficult, if not impossible. "I will also place a few more orders for large mining and refining prefab buildings." she told him.

"Well sounds like you have it all handled, is there anything else?" he asked, wanting to get back to ripping apart the Trade Federation's droids and ships. There were quite a few things he was learning, and had already changed his preliminary plans he had in his head a few times now after recognizing a few good design choices.

"The last major development I have to report is that it is looking like the Trade Federation will get out from facing any serious consequences for their invasion of Naboo." PA said back clearly annoyed. "However they have lost to our lawyers in the lower courts and have been ordered to pay us 30 million credits for damages." she said happily. "They also tried to argue the return of their army from Naboo, however Naboo's Queen was not having that, and instead is having it decommissioned and sold as scrap. I have already made an offer." She said to him, extremely happy about the Trade Federation having to pay them, on top of having already gotten rewarded from Naboo in payment for their services.

"It seems good acts pay, maybe we should get into the protection business in the future." he said jokingly. "I should get back to working on what I was doing." he said to the droid.

"Alright Harry, just don't forget to spend time with Shmi. I want little Peverells running around here." PA said innocently as she floated away ignoring the gobsmacked look on his face. He and Shmi had not even really talked about children beside the fact that she insisted with him being the 'last' of his species he must ensure its continued survival by having lots of kids.

She had in fact been fairly insistent that he take up other women to increase genetic diversity of his children. Medical science here could only do so much, so having a larger gene pool helped ensure a viable species, and its survival. It was something he had been ignoring rather than thinking about, as he had simply been so busy. Shmi though kept hinting at it, but even still he had not stopped using his charms to prevent any 'accidents' with each other let alone looked for other partners. He may have to rethink the charms and talk to Shmi, but there was no rush. With that thought he got back to work.

---

Harry learnt quite a bit breaking down the Federation droids, and equipment. It took him nearly two months to do so, however that was because he ended up spending quite a bit more time looking at the C-9979 landing craft than he had expected. It had the most ingenious track and storage systems that he had ever seen, the fact was that it was so good he was going to incorporate it into his factories and some of his ships. It allowed for the close storage and deployment of a number of different types of equipment in a single craft. The only real complaint he had about the craft in general was that it had neither a shield nor a hyperdrive.

It was also quite apparent to him that simple droids armed with blasters would not work after looking over all the stuff he had gotten on Naboo. However he knew quite a bit from Earth, lessons they learnt in the many wars fought there, that he could apply to his own droid designs. It wouldn't be perfect or anything, that required battle testing, however he felt he would be able to put together a far better Army than was on Naboo.

The first thing was the humanoid battle droids, the OOM series and the B1s. Surprisingly he learnt some even from the B1s, but more from the OOM series droids. The fact was that it was nice to have large numbers of cheaper droids to pad out your army that were also easy to transport. That being said, the B1 was a disaster, someone, clearly a moron, who had been in charge of its creation should be taken out and shot. The materials were crap, prone to breaking just from being handled roughly, and the programming was so bad it almost felt deliberate. Though from what he had learnt from a few sources, they were literally designed to get destroyed at the smallest bit of damage due to fears of crazy battle damaged droids ignoring orders. Stupid misplaced fears affecting serious matters like army compositions.

He did learn a few lessons from them B1s, mainly the fact that each of his droids needed to be able to act independently of any form of central droid control. The OOM-series also showed that having a droid that can fit a specialist role in his army, with a wide range of skills easily downloaded, or exchanged made for a versatile product. It would make more sense than having dozens of different droids for piloting, commanding, operating, maintenance, engineering, firefights, ect. Instead build a single good droid that can perform all of those roles by simply swapping a bit of programming, and possibly an external kit.

The Droideka was certainly an interesting droid, but lost quite a bit of its versatility if it wasn't on flat ground. Sure it could still move, but not at the speed it could roll. What he took away from this most of all was that integrating blasters into droids was probably a good idea for most models, and the fact that a deflector shield could be downsized enough for a droid to use was nice to learn. However unfortunately it gave a form of radiation to anyone inside that prevented organics from using personal shields without ironically other shielding against said radiation. Harry had read that there had been good working personal shields in the past, and one could even get an ancient one if they were lucky and had oodles of credits to pay for it, but none knew how to make them anymore. It was the sad state of several different technologies used in the past.

The Droidekas did have even more flaws that Harry could see besides mobility. Their sensors for whatever reason only faced forwards, and the shields they use, was disabled when in rolling mode. This basically made any versatility from rolling useless in any dangerous battle zone. The shield would also allow for extremely slow moving objects to pass through, more of an oversight it seemed, than a limitation of deflector shield technology. It also had many exposed key parts meaning even glancing damage that gets through the shield could outright disable them. Though Harry did learn from PA that the Trade Federation didn't make these, but instead bought them for quite a high price off of another species, and for meat of all things.

He also looked at the droids from the Sith's ship, and this is where he got a huge upgrade for his droid sensors and communication package. The little probe droid also had quite an amazing analysis function for both searching out people or information. This was certainly something he wanted to include in his own future droid models, because it simply seemed like a far superior system, and nothing about it screams overly expensive to him. The Sith clearly had been hoarding some secrets lost to the past that they equipped themselves with. This made him even more certain they were still out there and semi-organized.

After he finished with the droids, he took a small break to update the hyperspace probes with a few things he had learnt, and to investigate something interesting he had noticed lately. The failure rate of his probes finding new hyperspace lanes had reduced significantly to nearly 90% less than the last time he checked. It took him quite some time to figure out what was going on, and it was that the Droid Control Unit in each probe was in fact sharing gravitation sensor data between them to increase their ability to calculate new routes. It was quite amazing and entirely unexpected, however he was super happy with the massive reduction in losses.

He made a few additions to his probes, like a small deflector shield, he also incorporated some of the expanded processing modules that were in the OOM series droids. He added the better sensors and circuits he found in the DRK-1 Dark Eye probe droids on top of everything else and sent the updated design to the factory. This would allow for far more accurate, and speedy calculations by his Hyperspace Probes. Hopefully reducing their failure rate even more as they found new systems and hyperlanes.

After updating his probes over a day or so he moved onto the other equipment they took from the Trade Federation, deciding to start with the smallest first. The first he looked at was the Single Trooper Aerial Platform, or basically a flying unicycle bike with blasters on it. This really highlighted to Harry something he didn't even think about, and that was transport for his droids once they had landed on a planet. How would they get around, what should he use to do so, ect.

Even though he enjoyed the overall design of the swoop bike called the Bloodfin from the Sith's ship, he still felt the Trade Federation's design was quite adept already. It could easily be stored for transport, and offered even more than the Bloodfin by being faster and having weapons equipped. It also seemed to be fairly economical in design being a decent chuck cheaper than the Bloodfin would be to produce.

Next there was a tiny tank thing that was on a central roller that Harry felt was something that had been built long ago as it had clear flaws, and was missing improvements he had already seen in some of the other tech. That being said, the fact they included it along their much better armoured vehicles made him think about having two sizes of armoured vehicles in his 'army' to apply to different roles.

The Armored Assault Tank was clearly the Trade Federation trying to cut corners on things, and reduce costs at the expense of the capabilities of their equipment. It was not a bad platform, however it had many MAJOR flaws, and it still required a crew to boot. That made zero sense to Harry, if you were going to make a tank for a droid army, why waste room inside for a crew, why not make it simply a droid itself? In many ways that would open up opportunities, and reduce costs in some others. It did have good armour, and had another rare example of a Heavy Laser cannon for him to look over that fired shells encased in plasma instead of standard blaster/laser bolts made purely of plasma. These were often ideal for on a planet, as blaster shots tend to lose their cohesion fast in atmosphere.

The two transports specially made for the B series droids, the heavier Multi-Troop Transport, and the Light Troop Carrier made him also realize that he will have to make these types of crafts for his droids basically special made once the droids designs were finalized. This was to ensure he could have as many droids on his traports as possible. Though he didn't like the extremes the Trade Federation went with in terms of cost savings and design choices, which seemed to be a pattern over all their designs, he certainly could respect their choices in some areas. He would most likely go with something in between the big slow armoured carrier and the basically entirely unarmoured fast transport instead of having both.

He left the best for last, at least in his mind and that was the vulture droids, or Variable Geometry Self-Propelled Battle Droid, Mark I. They were simply a great piece of hardware, being able to act as fighters, then turn into ground walking sentries on a dime. It truly made them versatile crafts, with quite the armament as well with four blaster cannons, 2 torpedo launchers, all the while still being cheap to produce. It had one major flaw to Harry's eyes, beside the programming of course, and that was its operational time.

The Vulture droid used a solid fuel slug that only gave it a 40 minute operation time in battle, and could be replaced or recharged. He could see why they went with this choice, it kept costs down while also giving it access to quite a large amount of energy in a small package. This would be a flaw easily fixed for him however by simply incorporating his fuel caps. The Vulture droid platform was a great starting point for him to change up his fighters and star fighters when he gets around to finally doing that. He only had so much time, even with his timer tuner, and so many different projects to work on that his list of things to do was get insane.

His CloakShaped starfighters were great, but they only performed well in both roles of being a fighter, and starfighter. The difference being that a starfighter truly needed hyperspace capabilities and large ordinances like the CS has, but the CS also still needs the hyperspace sled to fit this role. Whereas it was worse as a fighter, as it simply cost a lot, and was far larger than say the vulture droid, and had less maneuverability than some top end fighters. So it was not hard to make the decision to borrow much from the Vulture droid when he started his own fighter project.

The only thing that he didn't learn anything from was the worker droids, as he had a few similar models already on hand. They were cheap, and did an ok job, but Harry knew he could do better for the same price or only slightly more. He also didn't understand why the Trade Federation just didn't make a slightly better more versatile worker droid, instead of using the firefighter b1 droids he somehow got a few off. The Trade Federation's droid army reeked of boardroom meetings where people were making decisions they knew nothing about, mostly to try and shave pennies off the cost. It also showed their own fears of their droid army being turned against them, by either someone else, or more importantly by those making the decisions, the droids themselves.

"Harry transmission coming in from Anakin." PA said interrupting Harry as he was putting away some of the Federation scrap he now had all over his workshop.

"Oh, did he talk to his mother first?" he asked PA as he finished floating stuff around sorting it into piles of what he wanted to keep in here and most of which would be taken out sorted, and refurbished or recycled for sale by the Droids and Elves.

"Yes, however he said he wanted to talk to you before getting back to his training." PA said to him.

"Alright put him through." he told PA as her PAM droid started projecting a video of Anakin. "Ani, how is your training going?" he asked the kid, seeing he was looking good.

"It's great! I am learning so much and meditation is a bit easier for me because of your past help." Ani answered his question with exuberance. "But I miss you and mom... And Padme." Anakin said a bit embarrassingly at the end there.

"Ooh Padme hu, didn't know you two were so close." he teased the boy. "Don't worry kid I imagine she misses you as well, but she is probably as busy if not more so than you." he answered him, it was clear the kid was missing all his friends here on Tatooine, and was crushing hard on the pretty Queen. Honestly was the kid not too early for that type of crap?

"Oh I got to train with my first training saber today!" Anakin said, getting to what he obviously wanted to share. "Do you think you will be able to train with the one you got too? Then we could practice sometime when I visit, or when you come to visit." the kid asked him. Harry had talked to Qui-Gon about visits, but it seemed they Jedi didn't want any visits for the time being, as Anakin was just getting introduced to the order. Harry would give it some time before he goes and simply visits Anakin himself without permission if they stalled too long.

"I can try that Ani, I do have some skills with a real blade, but a lightsaber certainly has its own unique from to learn." he told the kid, and if his one attempt at using it proved anything, it was that it was not the same as using a normal sword or solid bladed weapon. Shared tons sure, but nothing in the Mandos, or Tom's memories of using blades had anything related to deflecting blaster shots, or using weightless swords. "I still have to get some work done on that saber I got before I feel comfortable using it, but I promise to practice so I can see how much better you are getting when we next see each other next."

"You have a deal!" Anakin said. "But I gotta go now. I got another class to get too, and the masters would be upset if I was late again." Anakin said before realizing what he had let slip.

"Late again hu?" he said jokingly before continuing. "Alright I see you next time you call, and be safe." he told the kid just before the connection cut. He really did need to get on the lightsaber, and with that in mind he stopped the clean up he was doing and went into his Manor trunk after pulling it off the chain around his neck. Inside he quickly made his way to the ritual room he had, as he wanted to cleanse this blade before he tried using it again. It was only after he had used it for the first time against the b1s did he truly realize that the blade itself was actively fighting his use of it. Almost like a wand that was not bonded with you.

He was hoping it could be cleansed with a normal purification ritual, otherwise it may get a bit trickier. He took the long dual lightsaber and put it to the side as he got out a ritual carving knife and started to carve the ritual into the floor. Before each time a ritual was going to be performed, a new floor would be automatically replaced so that you could carve a new one without having to keep going to a new ritual site. It was fairly standard for high quality ritual rooms back in England, and so he had of course added it to his own. It only took him about an hour to set up the ritual, mostly because he was a bit out of practice with craving, before he put the lightsaber into the circle at the center of the large circle.

All he did was simply walk outside the ritual circle and activate it. There was nothing spectacular, no flash of light, nothing except to those trained to see magic. Beside a surge of magic there was simply the lifting of the taint that was on the blade causing the surrounding area to feel the presence of the dark side of the force for a brief moment before it was purified. Harry walked into the middle and picked up the blade, it felt almost lighter now, and far more comfortable in his hands. He channeled his magic into the blade and felt it quickly get absorbed by the now clean crystal inside.

It only took about ten seconds for his magic to no longer be absorbed by the crystal but by then it had started to glow slightly to Harry's force senses, the crystal inside was an almost clear silver colour. Deciding to give the blade a go he was pleased at the color it had now compared to before. Now it was almost a golden blade with a very thin black core than seemed to give it the coolest color combinations. It felt almost right in his hands, and he quickly realized that he may be able to use this as a focus much like his wand too.

Giving it a try he deactivated the saber, and pointed it like a wand but held it more securely in his hand and let go a torrent of blasting curses into the enchanted wall. They came out easily, like he was using a wand before hitting the wall and getting absorbed by its protections. It could act as a wand it seemed, and made learning how to actually use this blade all that more beneficial to him.

Moving to the training area in his manor, he activated the blade and started to give it some experimental swings. Quite quickly he started to get the hang of using a lightsaber, or to be more precise a weightless blade, as there was quite a bit more emphasis on wrist movements. Thank Merlin that, that mando had quite the repertoire of sword skills, otherwise he would be far closer to the starting line than he was now. Helpfully it was almost like his magic was guiding him through katas for various sword moves too. It was certainly relaxing as his stress seemed to leave his body through each strike and was definitely something he will be doing everyday now going forward if it was always like this. His training would improve his physique too, and would allow him to explore a few of those force technique he saw the Jedi use, or just an activity for him to do to destress and let his mind relax.

Maybe winding back the clock each night for say six hours or so to practice with the blade would do some good for him. He was certainly getting a bit stressed lately due to how volatile the galaxy seemed to be getting. More of his ships were getting hit by larger and larger groups of pirates, and that was just one of the problems. He honestly could not imagine how smaller operations were managing. Not that the pirates had any success, especially now that he has the ACs running around instead of just the CR90s. Either way, the workouts would be a great thing for him, personal improvement combined with destressing relaxation. With that in mind he started swinging the dual saber around, trying out both blades for a time, looking like an utter buffoon.

---

It had been a year now since he had seen Anakin on Naboo for the last time. Apparently the Jedi still felt it was 'too early' for a visit, but he felt otherwise, and since they seemed to be willing to push back the date till he pushed the subject, it seemed the ball was in his court. He had also recently finished working on his designs for his droids, some of the equipment for them, and hardware to accompany his troops. So going to visit Ani before he hands off those designs to PA for production, will allow the designs to ferment in his mind and see if he comes up with any improvements or tweaks before starting production.

Things around Tatooine had really changed. No longer was it really a blackwater world, as it had proper city infrastructure, and even district planning. The spaceport had been increased again to handle larger capital ship sized traffic, and Mos Espa was now clearly the commerce capital of Tatooine with nearly two million people living there. Thank Merlin for droids, and technology improving construction rate and reliability, otherwise the expansion would have been a nightmare. However one could not forget magic or the Force, as without it it would be nearly impossible to economically supply water to the much larger population on the planet.

The stability, job opportunities, and simply the money his presence on Tatooine created, had managed to bring in a lot of people from all over Hutt space and the Outer Rim. It also meant even more credits for him, as nearly all of them were paying him credits each week regardless of whether they shopped in one of his 12 locations in Mos Espa or not. That was mainly because they paid him for water, energy, 'protection' services aka tax, and PA had even introduced local rental properties and public transportation.

He certainly did not recognize the planet he had landed on besides its rolling sand dunes, and rocky flatlands. He and Jabba had been seeing success from officializing their support, and he even now has 4 AC Light Cruisers with three CR90s each, and their escorts of fighters sat over the planet for protection. He had also installed hundreds of planet side defensive installations as well, mainly equipped with Turbo Lasers, and Ion cannons. It was amazing what money could buy you, as he had no time to design any of those things so they were procured by PA. It was also funny to him that you could be a criminal here on Tatooine, and a long as you didn't break the rules set by him and Jabba you were fine, but try and fake the identification of your ship simply because you don't want us to know you were coming to Tatooine or for some other stupid reason, could get you killed or your ship confiscated.

The discovery of new systems was moving along quite fast, as each new system added additional probes feeding the network with gravitation data to map out the ever moving gravity masses. This allowed for a more accurate and safe hyperspace jump for his probes when trying to navigate new hyperspace routes. Now they had 42 systems discovered, with 3 of them being 'rediscoveries', as there was evidence of past life on them, nothing really of note unfortunately. Currently each one was getting surveys done, with only the first few having been finished, so only time will truly tell what they had to offer. Surveying a planet takes usually between a year and a few decades depending on how much you invest.

The results of the few finished surveys were mostly normal for this galaxy. That being, a normal almost Earth like planet in it's composition of materials, with a few that were common to this universe thrown in, and others removed and reduced. However they still had only found the one habitable planet. The other planet they had discovered early with a high concentration of ore deposits ended up being quite the find for them it seemed, and something PA had raved about a number of times. Though he had been leaving all that mainly to her, as he had other things occupying his time.

PA named the planet Bountiful Mine in English, which sounded exotic here in this Galaxy. Harry had taught PA English on a lark, as with her being a droid it took no time at all. Now they had a language they could communicate in public in while being secure about what they were saying. Bountiful Mine had substantial deposits of Doonium within its crust that is essential in starship construction. Within said ore extracts it also contains small concentrations of Durelium, Frasium, and Hollinium which were required for quite a few technologies including hyperdrives. Hence why PA was so happy at the discovery.

This meant that mining and refining operating on the lifeless planet were already underway by droids. They were starting to stockpile materials and were expanding the facilities on the planet and off. Unfortunately there was nothing really to be produced at the moment, except for more mining equipment, and when doing so they were technically stealing by copying others. The minerals and refined materials were then transported to the planet Avalon, which is the factory world that PA had chosen for us and started setting up with R3.

Avalon was found in the 14th star system they discovered, and was a planet with minimal deposits of high demand minerals. Instead the planet was chosen by PA for a number of reasons she explained to him. The first was the core of the planet had cooled entirely, meaning that there was zero major tectonic and geothermal activity. This would allow for them to build extensive underground factories and facilities without them being at danger from Earthquakes or shifting earth.

They chose to build most of the factories underground for a few reasons. One being that it hid them from anyone that may somehow chance their way into the system. Two it allowed for them to pressurize the facilities far more easily if they wanted to, as they built approximately 50m down from the surface. Finally it left the surface for whatever they wished to do, and apparently PA had plans, but wanted to keep them a secret from him for now. That being said, it still was a lifeless rock so putting it to use seemed good enough reason to him to choose it, he was just not sure about PA's name choice.

R3 had been quite involved in the construction of the factories and setting up Avalon's production lines. R3 had shared his enthusiasm about the C-9979 landing craft's amazing track system. It allowed for quite versatile factory floors, and improved their design overall by a large margin. So for a few months since the first factories were turned online they have been producing more construction bots, more factory components, mining equipment, and refineries. PA was also shipping in materials and equipment via trunks to help increase the initial startup speed of the factories on the planet and others.

PA set up a few mining operations on a number of planets that the initial surveys had come back positive for in demand materials. While not in any high concentrations like on Bountiful Mine, they were still useful, especially the planet with nice reserves of Mirkanite. Mirkanite was required for the production of Turbo Lasers, which were found on most starships. They had been looking to import it as they still had not found any deposits on the planets they had surveyed till just recently. This meant that they had most of the material reserves to build whatever they wanted, in reasonable quantities of course.

The final discovery, not one that was terribly interesting to them, was a large Tibanna Gas deposit on the gas giant that had been in the second system they had discovered over a year ago. However for them it was not nearly as valuable, except for if they needed a source of stable plasma isotope sometime down the line, as his runic arrays only produced the gaseous form. Otherwise the most interesting thing to do with the probes in his mind had nothing to do with planets.

In fact what was quite absurd to him was how much more efficient hyperlanes were becoming for his company around the immediate area of Tatooine. As he expanded his company's navi data from exploration, his ships were using said hyperlanes as shortcuts during their trips, sometimes cutting 20% off of the travel time. Unfortunately this only applied to the sector around Tatooine they have started exploring so far. PA was far more accepting of the costs of exploration now that it seemed to be paying off in real terms and on a constant basis. A sunk cost that constantly gave returns without additional inputs was a rarity in any business.

In the future he was thinking of starting to concentrate his probe's coreword, so that they could take even more advantage of private hyperlanes. They were more protected as they had no pirates on them, they were shorter, and could provide them with access to systems through routes others didn't know about. All of this was quite valuable to their company and helped get PA onboard with adding more capacity to their hyperspace probe factory line.

Speaking of his company's transport business, it was expanding crazy quick now too. Maybe PA had seen the potential in his idea, but Harry truly underestimated how much of a difference removing the cost of fuel would be to their profitability. It allowed them to not just profit more, but open lines that others could not without losing money, and they would still make a small profit from those trips. It also helped cement them as being the premier choice for either personal travel or cargo transport. Their plans to expand to all of the Outer Rim were still underway but moving extremely slowly and many many decades off, but only because they kept having to send new ships to existing sectors and hyperspace lanes. It may be some time before they move beyond the surrounding sectors of Tatooine, though they have managed to include a few new sectors in the last eight months.

They added the Quiberon sector reaching all the way up to the Lyran system. There was good agricultural exports in the area to send to other planets they serviced. His Elves were already producing a ton of food for products he was selling, but food was always in demand, so connecting to food rich systems like Lyran was important. It was crazy easy for them to simply buy loads of food from one place, transport it to another, and make a killing doing so. They did offer fair deals to farmers, which often ensured they were getting the products and not others, cough Trade Federation cough, by just paying a decent price. There was also a lot of shipping going to a few other worlds in the Lyran sector for food, so they were making good money simply moving stuff around locally, and amazing money shipping food stuff to other sectors or even coreword.

In the other galactic direction they finally had extended service to Naboo and its surrounding sectors, giving them a total of 9 sectors they serviced with them having select runs to Corellia and Coruscant. Otherwise any other routes were only for their company's use, and not offered as a service to others, such as runs often done to Kuat and Sullust where SoroSuub was headquartered. Harry was not really involved in most of that expansion other than signing off on a few things, or taking a call that needed him personally to be involved in. PA truly was his greatest creation, and she only got better as time wore on. She was dedicated to him and the company, but was really a part of the family now more than anything else.

The most... spicy.. addition to their transport holdings was HPI's new spaceport on Ryloth. It came with quite a number of issues, part of it, or he guessed most of it stemmed from the fact he allowed any contracted, cough enslaved, Twi'leks who came to his spaceport free passage to Tatooine where they would be employed here by his company. From there they could get passage somewhere else after a few weeks of working, and could go anywhere they wished. The Twi'lek Clan Council didn't like this of course, however the same loop holes they were using to circumvent republic slavery laws, also protected HPI from official sanctions.

As a result, there have been several attacks on his spaceport by 'criminals', so it is one of the most well defended space ports he had besides the one here on Tatooine. Obviously they had expected him to react another way, but he would rather lose money than bow down to annoying scum like that. He had nearly two thousand GU droids out there to protect the facility because besides those issues it was making a killing for him. It was a large planet, with a fairly large population, and it was also an old member of the Republic. However being one of the farthest planets from the core of the galaxy, it was quite difficult to safely transport to and from the planet. Hence where his company comes in.

As a result of offering free passage for the slaves, they had quite the population of Twi-leks growing here on Tatooine, many working for his company. There were a few jobs that he found organics simply did better than droids, and one of those was arranging and doing the final touches on the premium products his company offers. For example gift baskets, or their like, as he now sells a premium line of makeup and jewelry for mostly his female clients. Therefore it was nice to have them packaged nicely, and in an aesthetically pleasing way by a person, not droids. There was quite the healthy market for jewelry amongst males as well, as it was a status symbol here for the men of the Galaxy too.

The jewelry had come about as they attempted to try and find more easy ways to make premium products they could sell. Apparently house Elves had no problem making jewelry, or fancy things out of gold, having spent tons of time cleaning them for former masters. Combined that with the ever growing horde of gold they had from all the Peggats they were taking in made for an easy resource to use. Most Republic worlds while having a place to exchange gold for credits, usually a bank, nearly all other Republic establishments would not accept gold or other currency other than Credits, that meant HPI was spending most of the credits they were making while stocking piling the gold. Exchanging a lot of the gold they were making also seemed to be a bad idea, not for market concerns, but because apparently the last million Peggats they dropped at Naboo were all snagged up by the Trade Federation.

It made him wonder what they were using all the gold for, as he did know it was used in some delicate technology like droid brains, and certain starship components. It was another small piece of evidence that pointed towards a seemingly larger secret militarization of the Trade Federation, even after the invasion of Naboo and the shit storm it brought down on them. So instead of simply selling the gold, they made it into basically works of Art that could be sold to absurdly rich core world clients or the odd Hutt for big bags of credit chits. If the Trade Federation wanted to buy those they could, of course because it was worked metal it sold for oodles more than the base materials cost.

All that meant was when he had asked Dobby for something extra special for him to be made by the Elves, they had no problem doing so. He had wanted to move his and Shmi's relationship along, so he had an engagement ring made, and enchanted it to high heavens to offer her as much protection as he could. He even looked into how family rings were made and added some of his blood to the ring, to give it an even bigger oomph when it was called upon. It was quite interesting diving into family magic like that, and something that boggled his mind that was not taught in Hogwarts. It was just so interesting.

However here unlike Earth, engagements were not as romantic, but were more a mutual discussion which simply resulted in the couple agreeing to get married, i.e. engaged. So he planned to do so with Shmi on their way to Coruscant to see Anakin. Which is why he was waiting for her at the loading ramp of the Marauder. It was now almost permanently parked just behind his very first shop he had made on a private landing pad, which was in the middle of his impressive complex now. He wanted the Marauder closer to home than the spaceport over yonder.

Shmi ended up coming out of the house holding a bag looking simply ravishing. She had not aged a day since he had started he on her regiment of potions and elixir, just like he had not, but for different reasons. She was just gorgeous, and had over the years adopted a bit of a sexier and relaxed style of clothing than when they had first met. Thankfully they were both never too busy for them to find time to be together, but as she now ran all the shops here for HPI on Tatooine, her days were often long as well. He had also had her's and Anakin's slave chips surgically removed years ago to eliminate any chances of the explosive ever going off, so she had been 'free' for years now.

"Are you ready?" he asked and gave her a quick kiss as she finished approaching him.

"Yup, I just wanted to get the new holster I had made for Ani." Shmi said, indicating the lightsaber holster she had beautifully made out of dragonhide for Anakin. She then had him enchant it so that when Anakin put his lightsaber into it for the first time, it would key it to the holster. When he loses his blade, it will simply appear back in his holster. Anakin could even call his blade to his hand by simply willing it or sending it back the same way to the holster. He was proud of Shmi for having the idea, as she had based it off of one of his wand holsters she had been looking at one day, and even specified which enchantments to add.

They both walked into the Marauder hand in hand and moved to the nice lounging area on the first deck. The ship was basically fully loaded now, with four large rooms, a kitchen, two full bathrooms, not the sonic nonsense, and everything they could need for a comfortable trip through space. As the ship left the planet they could barely feel anything due to the smooth ride thanks to the expensive inertial dampeners. Figuring now was as good a time as any he decided to broach the topic he was a bit nervous to discuss. Not something he was used to these days, as it was not often he felt uncertain anymore.

"Shmi I know it's not done the same here as on my home planet, so if I do this wrong tell me." he said, more nervous than he had been since arriving here over a decade ago while getting down in front of her as she sat in the lounge area of the Marauder. "I was hoping you would like to possibly move our relationship into the next stage, and get married to me sometime in the future?" he asked while pulling out the ring box he had and opened it to show her the ring inside. It wasn't anything too fancy, as that wasn't Shmi's style. However, it was beautiful with 12 pink diamonds on each side surrounding a small emerald, the gems flowed down each side of the twisting gold bands. It looked delicate but could have taken a starship landing on it without bending or breaking. But his focus was not on the ring, but the blossoming smile on Shmi's face and tears in her eyes.

"Harry I have been waiting for you to broach this topic for some time now." she said in that knowing way some women could do. "However for me to agree, you need to promise to uphold that agreement we made when we first started seriously seeing each other." Shmi said. "You must find other women you can be happy with as well, and have many kids with them too, because I could not stand the thought that because of me, your species may die out in this Galaxy. You told me it's more than likely no one will ever follow after you, and your abilities can be a gift to many or a catalyst of positive change." she said to his utter shock at her bringing that up at a time like this, however his face must have been fairly funny because she started chuckling. "Only you Harry would have troubles with your partner wanting you to have more sexual partners." Shmi finished saying while putting a hand over her mouth to hide her smile and laugh.

He had honestly not really been tempted by many people since he started dating Shmi. There of course had been a few gorgeous women that crossed his path, more lately with all the Twi'leks running around, but he hadn't really thought about his agreement in quite some time, and usually only in passing. He had told Shmi some time ago about his extra galactic origins, as he didn't feel it was fair to keep it from her after so long. She also had picked up a few clues that he had let slip before then, or from materials she read that he lent to her. So he had told her most of the truth about himself, and where he came from, though he had left out quite a bit of the details about Wizards from Earth. He also left out the fact that he was from a different reality for now.

Shmi was actually the one to suggest that humans may have actually come to this Galaxy in a similar manner to him from Earth. As even though humans were spread far and wide in the Galaxy by the Rakata early on in Galactic history, there had yet to be a planet found with early Human ancestors, or evolutionary evidence. Whereas on Earth there was concrete evidence all over the place. It was quite the theory, but he had been distracting himself with his thoughts about the past, and not addressing the issue literally at hand.

"Alright I agree, as long as you don't hold it against me. I don't totally agree with the importance you put on my people, but I do respect your thoughts and wishes." he said to her as he leaned forward and captured her lips in a heated kiss, before putting the ring on her finger, as he could feel their emotions explode around them in mutual happiness.

"Harry, that is just because of how they treated you." Shmi said alluding to what he had told her for his reasons to leave his planet. "Your judgement on your people is quite clouded Harry. Look at how much good you have done already for so many people just on Tatooine, imagine what even more little yous could do." she told him as her positivity shined through. "Now take me to bed so we can celebrate, and maybe we can get started on those kids sometime sooner rather than later. I am not getting any younger you know." she joked squealing as he picked her up and darted to their room faster than humanly possible.

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Well there we are the next installment complete. Let me know what you thought, and may the Force be with these holidays!