Welcome to the 11th day of Star Wars Xmas! This chapter has a bit more action in it, and I had been hoping to have another scene but I ended up not being able to finish it in time and had to cut it.
So it seems some people are confused thinking the story is only going to be 12 chapters long, that is not the case. I am only posting 12 chapters for now, as that is all I have written. Please go read the Author Note in chapter 1 for more info.
Chapter 11:
30 BBY
It was only a few months in when he quickly realized that he did not enjoy Maul's double bladed lightsaber as much as he liked dual wielding single blades. This led him to start looking for another crystal for his blade, when during his research he remembered an obscure reference from something he read about the local animal life here on Tatooine. That being that Krayt Dragons here on Tatooine could actually possess a 'Dragon Pearl' which once a Force user baths in their Force power, it can be used as a powerful focus crystal for a lightsaber.
The animal he needed to look for was one that was far older and ancient, and not the smaller version like the one he had to dispose of out of the cave the podracers went through a number of years back. Apparently some retrieval teams were complaining so he went over there to kill the oversized lizard in the cave. And it had been big, and those were considered the smaller cousins to actual Krayt Dragons, and apparently there was an even larger variant that is even rarer.
With that in mind he prepared himself quickly and took the Marauder to some of the tall mountains on Tatooine. There he would hopefully be able to find a suitable Krayt Dragon and get himself a proper pearl. It was not even that hard; he simply needed to focus on what he wanted in the Force and it happily guided the droid via him where to go. Honestly his new skills were already getting put to use, and it was nice, almost felt like cheating to be honest. Before his attempts to ask the force for things were quite frankly, primitive in nature, fumbling about, and only worked as well as it did because of his deep connection to the Force.
So he was quite surprised when the Force led him into the Dune Sea instead of the mountains where he had heard he should look. It did not take long for him to find out why when he saw the largest Krayt he had ever seen on the sensors and then in the view screen. It was over 150m long, black, had ten legs, and it was now just gobbling up the last Bantha from the herd it clearly had just slaughtered. Honestly how the hell had one of these things not come crashing into a Tatooine city was beyond him. He was not sure what blasters would even be able to do against one, and someone would need to take out something much bigger just to injure the beast enough to deter it. Personally he was not really afraid, and more than trusted in his ability with the Force, but by Merlin was that intimidating to see.
Going to the back of the Marauder he had the cargo ramp lowered mid air, while they floated cloaked a few hundred meters above the absolute monster below. He had a few ideas on how to take care of this 'Dragon', but he wanted to try the easiest method first, and see if that worked. So he flew out of the Marauder using his modification of Voldemort's flight ability, and when above the dragon that was feasting away on its food swallowing each animal in one bite. It didn't even realize he was there, mostly because the ship was cloaked and it had not noticed the ramp opening above it in the air.
So it didn't notice or feel anything as Harry charged an overpowered Avada Kedavra that he then sent to the dragon with a whisper. It flew from his wand and impacted the beast right in the chest, it seemed to almost resist a bit before causing it to simply slump over dead. It was quite an anticlimactic 'battle', but also a painless way for the creature to die. Harry didn't want to cause something so majestically badass as this over hundred meter 'Dragon' pain, so he was happy his killing curse idea worked. He had been a bit afraid it may resist it, but even dragons of his planet feared the killing curse, as even their resistant hide did not prevent them from falling victim to it.
Not many knew that the original reason the killing curse was invented was to give animals a clean and painless death when they were harvested for their organs, and other potion materials. In fact it didn't cause magical contamination of ingredients when used which was important for wands and certain potions. It was also created to help with creatures such as Trolls and Dragons that usually had quite the resistance to normal spells. Hence the unstoppable killing curse.
It was kind of shocking to see such a creature just lying there dead after he sent something as inoculants as an admittedly oversized green bolt of light at it. However he quickly got over the off putting element of the activity, and decided to land on the ground near the dragon. All he needed was a pearl, and originally he was going to simply cut it out and be gone, however now he had other ideas. This bad boy's skeleton would be awesome to display somewhere, and could even be hung wherever he wanted to make an awe inspiring impression.
With that in mind, he quickly cast a shrinking, featherlight, and preservation charm on it, before putting it in his pouch. He would get the Dragon Pearl out later when he got back to his workshop, and would figure out what to do with the body there. Thankfully his workshop was about 250m across to allow for larger ships, so he quickly made some room for the Ancient Krayt Dragon, and unshrunk it there in his workshop. Now he just needed to figure out what to do with it, however it came to him almost immediately.
His Elves were quite skilled in harvesting animals with all the practice they get for potion ingredients, and with a few droids to record everything, they could even make a scientific report on this massive specimen. It was not everyday an Ancient Krayt Dragon Corpse or body showed up to be studied. With that idea, he called Dobby to collect R3 for him. When both arrived he explained what he wanted to do, and his goal of getting the Krayt Dragon Pearls for a lightsaber. For now he would put the meat and other materials away and store it, as he had no idea what to do with it, but it would be good to see if it could be used for potions or other uses.
It 'only' took them ten hours before he had a crate full of about 30 Dragon Pearls sitting in front of him. They were in a variety of sizes and colours, ranging from white, to dark purple, from 4cm across to nearly 30cm across. They were quite beautiful and clearly resonated in the force to him. However as he reached out with the force, it kept trying to get him to choose the large 30cm across dark purple pearl. Which annoyed him as he needed a smaller one for a new lightsaber, that was when he had an idea or possibly was supplied the idea.
He took the big purple Dragon Pearl, and held it in his hands as he started to pump his magic into it. He sat there for about fifteen minutes before the pearl seemed to have had its fill, and started to glow. From there he inscribed many runes on the surface, to ensure that anything that this pearl was attached to could return to him, never be used by another without permission, and a variety of additional protections to prevent it from being damaged.
The final rune he put, was a rune to tie it all together and allow him to basically permanently shrink it down to size. Hopefully this would work, and he would be able to get the best of both worlds. Once it was put together, he moved out to the middle of the desert before charging the array up, as the pearl contained a ton of magic and if it exploded it would do significant damage to anything around it for a few hundred meters at least, possibly kilometers. He could just imagine the shit show that would result from him blowing up a part of Mos Espa because of his experiments.
With that wonderful thought in the back of his mind, he activated it and Apparated back a half km and put up a powerful shield to see if something would go wrong. Seeing nothing, he moved back to find a perfect sized dark purple Dragon Pearl for his next lightsaber. Pickling it up he could feel it resonate with him and unlike the other crystal he had cleansed out of Maul's saber, this one seemed to be far more in-tune with him for several reasons, some obvious. After this feeling he decided to instead make two whole new blades, rather than just taking the synthetic crystal out of his other lightsaber and using that one.
So he went back to his crate of dragon pearls, and instead of getting the next largest, which was about 26 cm across and was near pure white, he gravitated towards a smaller 17cm deep emerald green Dragon Pearl. It almost looked like a reflection of his eye color. He spent a bit less time this time round when inscribing the runes, and bathing the pearl in his magic now that he knew what he was doing. He also didn't run away this time, as he knew his array would work without blowing it up during the shrinking.
Finally he had another idea for the second largest near pure white crystal. Using a bit of his new skills in force with 'Sith' Alchemy, he started to channel a Patronus into the crystal. He was infusing the crystal with the spell's effect and was not allowing it to escape as he enchanted the crystal using his newly learnt techniques and his will for what he desired. He wanted this crystal to be a nexus of the lightside and give off an aura very similar to his patronus with a few other functions. This was his first 'attempt' at Force Alchemy, and it was going far better than he expected it would. The way Sith Alchemy worked was to almost change the tune, or imprint of the item, with the Force by constantly reinforcing your image and desires upon it.
It only took him about two hours of infusing the large Dragon Pearl with his magic and will, and ended finally holding a softly glowing large white orb. It may not have glowed brightly, as it was there to calm, and sooth, however one could clearly feel the waves of the lightside it gave off; In slow distinct and calming pulses. He was planning to possibly trade this to the Jedi in the future or maybe even make a Force temple here on Tatooine and put both a darkside and lightside font like this in it to make it balanced.
Ever since he absorbed the souls and powers from those who were undeserving of eternal rest, he had come to realize that using the Force required balance to truly excel. Otherwise you become a self deluded mad person drunk on the darkside if you let it control you, or an arrogant, self-assured, stagnated group like a person who uses the lightside too heavily without restraint. That being said, clearly of the two, one was far more damaging in the short term, however the Jedi or old men like Dumbledore could do major damage over the long run with those attitudes if given free rein. Stagnation can be the true death of a society, and the people may not even realize it until it was far too late.
This Galaxy seemed to ironically be clouded by the darkside, more so than the light. So that was why he thought to make this crystal for the Jedi, to help remove the ever present darkside of the planet Coruscant in their temple, and improve their home life. So he took the three pearls, two small and a huge one, back to his workshop to get started on his new lightsabers.
For the big white crystal he created a chest that he could store it in, and that would shield its effect for a time collecting it within. When opened, it would release a nice big wave of the lightside, and would be a nice big display if he ever presents it to the Jedi. However before he did that, he inscribed a single rune on the large white pearl. That rune was to protect it from damage, even if it was already incredibly hard to destroy, seeing the Krayt dragon used the pearls to break down and digest food, let alone the power flowing through it.
With that stored away and dealt with, he moved onto fashioning himself two new lightsabers to be used together in combat. He had quickly come to realize due to him having so many different lightsaber forms he absorbed, that he tended to use a combination of them rather than any single one. Though he did mainly tend to concentrate on three forms, those being 3, 6, and 7. It was part of the reason he wanted to get two blades, as he felt a single one, even dual bladed like Maul's, only limited him. Though, he also felt the exact opposite with a real blade, as having a shield then added way more utility. However lightsabers were another story all together.
Add on that he had started incorporating his magical and force abilities into combat without having a hand wave or anything similar also encouraged him to use two. It had actually taken him longer than he wanted to admit to fully drop the hand movement cantrip he used to cast spells. It truly did help in focusing your powers from a point in your body, and was why wandless magic usually still had a hand movement of some kind. However, it was just that, another crutch and one he forced himself to work on not using, and had seen some success after weeks of hard work.
To build his new lightsabers he sat down in his workshop with tons of different components all over, and even opened up a few of his trunks. From there he let the Force guide his actions as he levitated the two Dragon Pearls, one from each hand into the air, as pieces small and large came floating towards each Pearl. They all started to slowly float together, tiny crystal fragments, powerpacks, wood, leather, and most importantly the Dragon Pearls. Small little clicks and solid sounding connections were all that was heard for a few minutes.
Once he broke out of his trance and looked at his new blade hilts a huge smile broke over his face. Both of them were not entirely round like a Jedi's, but more rectangular, with cut corners to round its over shape out for easier gripping. One had a hilt made out of black Phrik, while the other was some Pinkish metal he did not know the name off the top of his head. Each had small wooden inlays on each side of the faces of the hilt, which he could use for either engraving runes easily or some form of inscription later on.
Summoning each blade to his hands he could feel them thrum almost like he was getting new wands; like they were a missing piece of himself. He then realized what he had created, as they each had wand woods in their hilts, not just simple wood, and the Pearls acted like their cores. He had essentially created wands. They were basically improved focuses, far more than lightsabers were normally to a Force user.
Looking them over in awe, he got even more excited. He would have to test it out but he didn't see any reason they would not be as good as a wand in battle. Maybe not for something as delicate as say rune engraving, but casting battle spells should not be an issue. As much as a wand was a crutch in casting, it was still a focus and amplifier for spells. There was a reason wands were used, both when he had left and in the beginning when they were first introduced to the Wizarding world.
Igniting the blades he was happy to see the deep emerald that came out of the pink hilt, and the dark purple that came out of the black Phrik hilt. They both hummed and bathed the area in the most eerie light that it made him smile at the impression it would make. With that he started quickly going through katas he created for his mix style with resounding success as the blades seemed to try and work with him, rather than against him or the indifference of the cleansed crystal. Truly they had that almost sentience feeling that came from true wands.
It didn't take him longer than three hours to get used to using two blades when he realized he was going to need an opponent to fight against to truly sharpen the skills he had taken and was developing. Qui-Gon was still a few months out from visiting at the earliest, and he would be surprised if he actually showed up on time, rather than stretch it for a few more months. Though Qui-Gon did seem different than most of those on the Jedi council he had met, and may actually keep his word. His contacts honestly didn't give the Jedi that good of a track record when it came to keeping their word. They could be incredibly hit and miss, and invoked the name of being a Jedi far too often apparently.
So instead of just waiting and putting his blades down for now, he took the base model of a HB-2 and started to make himself a few sparring partners. It was not too hard as he had most of the components already made and it simply took him a day to get 12 droids created and built. It was the programming that was harder, but he realized he may simply need to teach them. They would learn and excel quickly with the awesome upgraded programming and hardware he had added, and the Droid Control Units which had their droid brains inside. Each would be able to share what they learnt during the time they spared or observed him to their brothers.
So that was how he was spending quite a bit of his spare time when not working on some basic digital and physical models of his future Hyperdrives. He would train and spar with his droids, teaching them all the styles he knew and allowing them to run with it. They all ganged up on him, as he still outskilled them, and even out performed them physically as well with his stupid speed and strength. It was a sight to behold, with each of his droids wielding a lightsaber he built for them from small Dragon Pearls, and a blaster in their spare. All their weapons were on stun settings just in case though, his included.
They were working together as a team, launching themselves all over the room without the aid of Force like he would. He moved around rapidly in the middle being attacked from all directions, defending while dishing out destruction with his sabers and force skills. He had to even spruce it up a bit, as the droids often required him to use different skills than the ones he would normally use for organics, often due to simply being metal. All he knew was that it was liberating getting into battle for minutes at a time simply weaving through blows, deflecting shots, parrying strikes, dodging jabs, and using his force abilities to own the battlefield. Often all at the same time.
That wasn't to say he won every time. His dozen droids were getting damn good, and he had even enchanted them to increase their already amazing abilities. They often would get lucky hits in, or back him into a spot where he was forced to take a hit, simply due to there being 12 of them and nowhere to move. However he was the teacher here so it was his duty to win more than he lost, and so he did, often defeating them with a ratio of 5 wins to 1 loss. However they, the HB-2D(s), had become quite formidable, and he was thinking about maybe assigning a few to Shmi or other important people when he was not using them for spars. Having them just sitting in standby was a waste when he was not sparing.
It was during one of these spars when an alarm started blaring around the base. A robotic voice started calling out in Basic all over the facilities loudspeakers. "This facility is going into Red Alert. All guests are to move inside a facility building. Deflector Shields are being activated. Repeat Deflector Shields are being activated. Please stay calm as the situation is dealt with." the voice said as he could hear humming start around the place and defenses started activating. Before the message repeated over and over.
He looked at the PAM droid that was in the room. "Make sure Shmi makes her way into the safe room in the bunker." he said before Apparating right into his command center sunk below his facility in his underground complex. "Report." he said to the command droid present.
"Sir, a large fleet of ships has dropped out of hyperspace, and has already started to engage our fleet above the planet." the command droid said as it indicated to the holotank which showed his 3 ACs, 9 CR90s, and 130 CS fighters that they carried all engaging in battle with an enemy fleet. His company's first real battle and he wasn't even in space to contribute. "Sir defensive squadrons are preparing for launch in the hangar and are just awaiting your command."
He looked to the holotank and could see his ships were quite outnumbered. Whoever was attacking them was fairly serious, as they had somehow gotten together more than 200 ships of various sizes. Almost all of them were smaller than his AC cruisers, but there were a few of what looked like modified freighters that were actually bigger. That being said they had underestimated his droid's abilities to fight together, as his Cloaked Shaped fighters were ripping their starfighters and smaller ships to shreds, even before they could break his droid fighter screen and engage his cruisers.
It was kind of surreal looking at the holotank and seeing small green streaks from his ships, indicating weapons fire, slam into the enemy fleet, and vice versa, except theirs was red. "Launch fighters and activate all ground defense." he said, however even before he could finish the holotank zoomed out a bit and he could see Jabba's Ion cannon had started firing. Good on the slug, reacting even faster than him.
He could feel a light rumble as the massive reinforced hangar door to his underground facility opened up a several stories above him and CloakShaped droid fighters started zooming out of his facility and joining the battle raging in space. He had 142 fighters parked here at his facility to defend Tatooine and more than likely not something anyone attacking expected. At least he hoped so, because he could see his fleet in space finally starting to get pushed back as the enemy's numbers increased as about 60 more small ships dropped out of hyperspace with other smaller groups coming in.
"Did the enemy communicate anything before the attack?" he asked his command droid beside him.
"Nothing Sir. They attacked immediately after dropping out of hyperspace when getting in range." the droid answered, as it really had little to do here as the Droid Control Units handled most of the coordinating of battles for his armies, with this droid simply issuing directives through his own DCU. He could already see the effect the additional 142 fighters were having even before they arrived as they pooled their targeting and sensor data with the network to increase his other ships targeting accuracy.
He really needed to get a few Ion Cannons of his own here, as his base's Turbo Lasers could only hit things in low orbit over the planet, however Jabba's Ion cannon had some decent range. "PA, where are the closest reinforcements, and is Shmi safe?" he asked the droid as she had joined him just a few moments ago. "Also place an order for a few dozen Ion cannons for ourselves."
"Shmi is safely squirreled away in your secure room at the bottom of this facility. Unfortunately the closest ships are Transport 81, and its single CR90 escort, they are 4 mins and 31 seconds out. They have been informed and are already patched into the battle network." she answered him as she floated closer to observe the tank too.
"By the Force I feel so useless down here doing nothing." he said as he watched his first AC get torn apart in the ensuing battle. However it didn't go down without a fight as dozens of smaller starfighters and a few corvettes had been taken with it. Truly though it was his starfighters as they zipped around the battlefield ripping the larger enemy ships to pieces that were doing most of the work. Those two modified large freighters hadn't lasted two minutes to proton torpedoes from his fighters when the battle had started. At least the AC light cruisers were doing a good job of slowing the enemy and absorbing large amounts of fire power.
Just then he could see a group of thirty enemy fighters break off from his fleet of under 100 ships now, and started to make for the planet. His ships moved to intercept, however there simply were too many targets they were already dealing with. Unfortunately it didn't seem like he was only facing an unskilled mob, as this group were clearly a well trained group of bounty hunters, pirates, and/or what looked to be mainly mercenaries.
At least this told him somewhat who was behind this attack and all evidence would point to a Hutt which was quite the development. However his ships were holding their own, but he had already lost another AC, 2 CR90s, and about 40 fighters, whereas the enemies had lost 3 cruisers, 5 frigates, 11 corvettes, and at least 80+ fighters. Most of his CS fighters from the planet went to engage the main enemy fleet, however a small group veered off to engage the enemy fighters that were just making it into low orbit over Tatooine.
That was when his turbo lasers and laser cannons started to light up the sky like it was Chinese New year. All over the area, from his main facility and the many other hidden defence installations he had put in the desert around Mos Espa, weapons fire could be seen rising from the ground in defiance. He could see the hundreds of small lights now heading towards enemy fighters on the holotable and so he smiled. When the laser fire final met the fighters they started to drop like flies. What was amazing, however, was the fact that none of the CS fighters which were engaging the enemy were ever hit by friendly ground fire. Another example of the power of the DCU.
By this time unfortunately a few of the enemy fighters had gotten close enough to the city that their burnt out husks dropped down amongst the buildings and exploding, doing some damage, and most likely killing a few people. The ones that had made it through the defensive screen of fire, managed to even get a few shots off and even a torpedo at his facility before they also crashed and burned from the weapons fire they were taking. He didn't even need to look, but he did anyway, and saw the shields were still holding strong on his facility, not even feeling the torpedo. It seemed the humongous underground power generators they hand installed were paying off.
Just then his reinforcements dropped out of hyperspace behind the enemy fleet and started to do major damage to them from the rear. It seemed they had caught the enemy by surprise one too many times, as their lines were now crumbling under the combined fire power of all of Harry's ships. "Harry Jabba is on the line." PA said to him.
"Put him through," he said as a small Jabba hologram appeared on the side of the holotank. "Jabba! Amazing response time with that Ion Cannon, I hadn't even launched my own defenses before you had started firing." he said happily to his friend.
"Harry, who dares attack us?" Jabba asked angrily, cutting right to the chase.
"I am not sure, but it's mainly mercenaries, which as you know would most likely point to another Hutt. However I know that would be against the rules you all play by so I am not entirely sure." he told Jabba honestly. "Hopefully we can learn more once we finish this battle here."
"It goes well then? My sensors show many enemy ships still in orbit." Jabba asked, slightly worried.
"The battle progresses in our favour, but if the enemy gets any more reinforcements we will start taking significantly more damage here on the ground." he said to Jabba as he was paying attention to the battle overhead being displayed in the holotank. His ships were tearing apart the enemy in greater numbers now that the enemy had expended most of their large ordinance, and his ships' endurance and durability started to show. Thankfully his ships were well stocked with ammunition, something he never skimps on.
"Sir, information is coming in from one of the captured vessels in space." his Commander droid informed him, giving him another small surprise. Harry honestly hadn't even known they were trying to board enemy vessels. "Analyst department already has some relevant information sir." the droid said, indicating the blinking report on his Padd. Opening it up and reading he saw that the fleet was indeed what he thought it was, it being made up of all the ships from a group of three Hutts and that what spicer gang could get together. Apparently Jabba's sales of Cannabis had cut quite deeply into both Ryll, and Glitterstim sales around the core, and even in the Outer Rim. Not to mention Death Sticks were a dying industry wherever Cannabis was available.
They had staged out of the systems of Vor Deo, and Cranan for only a short time before starting their attack. They were also attacking him and not Jabba as they were trying to skirt around the heavily enforced rule from the Hutt Grand Council preventing internal Hutt conflict. This rule was strictly enforced, and would be doubly so for dealings with Jabba seeing his father currently sits on the council. So it was an interesting move by these Hutts, and he would be interested to see if it plays out as they hoped with the council even if they won. This spicer gang involved in the attack was even based out of Ryloth, which just royally pissed him off.
"Jabba it's not great. I am sending over the data my droids captured to you. Some idiot pirate recorded everything he knew about the operation on his personal systems for collateral." he told the small hologram of Jabba that was still on a small side circle of the large holotank. "I don't know how you want to handle the three Hutts indicated in the report, but I have a few ideas on how to deal with the spricer gang on Ryloth. I have a few interests there already, and would not be opposed to expanding them." he told Jabba a bit sinisterly waiting for the Hutt to go through the report.
Just then he saw indications that enemy ships were starting to retreat from the battle field one by one as they could through hyperspace. "Try to stop as many ships from escaping as possible." he ordered the droid who transmitted his orders to his troops. He saw one of his ACs change its Turbo Laser fire from another ship onto the engines of the last remaining large sized enemy vessel, an older CR70 Corvette. Enough turbo laser fire managed to get in before it could make its escape, and the ship listed sideways as power clearly failed throughout the enemy ship. Unfortunately a few seconds later something unfortunate happened, most likely a secondary explosion, as it erupted into a giant fireball, blowing itself apart.
Just then more of his reinforcements dropped out and started wailing on the backend of the retreating feet, catching many of them off guard one again while trying to escape. It didn't take long as he and Jabba watched the battle get finished as his remaining troops finished things up. Honestly he was still kind of in shock. He expected something like a small ground attack, or a sabotage attempt first, rather than a massive attack like this. He felt like he was missing something, just like on Naboo, however it was not quite the same. Did not have the same feel to him, which made him even more wary.
"Can I get a casualty report?" he asked no one in particular.
"On you padd sir." the command droid responded. Looking down he could see he lost quite a bit today, of the original fleet in orbit he only has 1 AC, 4 CR90s, 26 CS Fighters left, meaning he lost well over 2/3s of his ships he had stationed there. With reinforcements from the planet and returning transports, he still had over 140 fighters on hand. Which sounded like a lot, but considering what he had faced it meant he was going to need to get a way bigger navy.
"Jabba we lost big here, over 2/3s of the fleet in orbit and from the ground was taken out. We are going to need to find those assholes who did this and make them pay. I also think this was a bit of a wakeup call. What we have defending our home and industry centre with is clearly inadequate, because we came far too close to losing everything today for my comfort." he told the Hutt angrily, and a bit upset with himself over his fairly lax attitude lately. Sure he trained often and prepared more than most, but clearly it was not enough, and not enough to meet the demand for the feelings he had been getting through the force.
The fleet that had been stationed protecting this planet was more than most places had defending them, even in the core. So he had honestly thought he had overdone it in the first place, but life always seems to prove him wrong. That made his project of getting his own hyperdrive technology down all that more important, and from there to finishing design on his own ships. By the force there was just so much to do. He may need to get some help.
He could see Jabba hologram getting angrier and angrier as he read through the report Harry had sent over. "How could those fools think attacking a planet co-ruled by me would be acceptable!" Jabba yelled in his deep rumbly voice. Honestly he had not seen Jabba this angry in a long time, if ever, even when Harry had been attacked before. An attack on Tatooine put Rotta at risk as well, and quite frankly the little Huttlet was growing on him, and was clearly Jabba's first priority. He was kind of cute if you look at him with the right angle.
"I am not sure Jabba, but I will handle this spicer gang that's based out of Ryloth, if you handle the Hutts." he said to Jabba who nodded clearly already having his evil deeds planned out. "Can I make a recommendation on a way to start hurting them and help us while you go about your business?" he asked the Hutt.
"Anytime Harry. Your ideas always warrant at least being listened to." Jabba said to him with a Hutt-like smile on his face.
"For a start actively hunt and capture each and every slave those Hutts own. Bring them here and then release them as citizens of Tatooine." he said to the Hutt who was clearly confused. "Jabba as fast as we are growing here, that growth rate is too low, and only hampering our expansion. On top of hurting those bastards, as you do even more damage with other means, it will also give me a larger worker pool, both skilled and unskilled, and both of us more customers with money to sell to. The cherry on top, as my people would say, is that we would have an extremely loyal base of citizens to ensure stability during this high period of galactic turmoil that seems to be coming." he told the Hutt trying to sell him on the idea, and change thousands of years of Hutt mentality.
There were other reasons that he didn't bother explaining, like getting the best of every species. There were clear advantages to certain species in certain tasks. Just like in Podracing where certain species excelled, some did so in engineering, architecture, public speaking, writing, and so on. Slaves often came from all over, with varying degrees of education, one could be quite surprised at times, as he had been since coming here. Shmi for example was very skilled in quite a few fields, with a good set of valuable skills seeing she had taught most of what Anakin knew to start with.
"I like that idea." Jabba said sternly. "However we will need to ensure that the council does not believe we are trying to outlaw slavery in Hutt Space." Jabba seriously replied to him. "Otherwise we would be drowned in mercenary armies that we would not be able to stop.'' Jabba finished seriously, giving him a warning. Harry knew this to be true, and it was one of the reasons he didn't push things. As much as he may want to change things, slavery was a large part of a huge number of planets, and cultures here in the Outer Rim. For more 10s of thousands of years.
"I know that Jabba, and that's not what I am recommending." he said seriously. "You know my position on slavery, but mostly its that PA continues to complain about how much money slavery takes away from our possible profits. Not only do we lose paying customers, she bemoans the lost economic potential they could create with innovation." he said explaining some of the finer details to the Hutt. Hutts may be hedonistic to the extreme at times, but no one would really ever describe them as stupid or uninterested in economic dominance.
Just then he could hear the hanger that was above him, doors were opening up as he looked to the holotank and saw a number of yellow highlighted fighters, the yellow which indicated damage, returning to the hangar for repairs. Seeing numbers on a padd was one thing, but seeing it in person was another. For that reason he wanted to take the Marauder up and see the damage.
"Jabba, I am gonna take a ship to look at the damage. I will talk to you later, and pass on any additional data my droids and intelligence division acquire." he told the Hutt. His company had many people informing them of information, and others hired to hunt out and get data by the oodles. This was mostly in preparation for when the G-NET goes online, however for some places like Ryloth it helped deal with the locals, and their 'Troubles'.
"I will also start dealing with these... fools." Jabba said, referring to the three Hutts who attacked them. "I also want to purchase a number of additional defenses, could I send that list to PA?" Jabba asked him.
"Of course Jabba, I am going to do the same. I saw how good that Ion Cannon worked. I was thinking of getting a few too." he said with a smile. "See you around buddy, stay safe." he said signing off with his ever closer friend, and business partner. Before he left he went down to share the news with Shmi, who took it far better than he expected. In fact throughout the entire battle she had been working on some of her paperwork. Her spine, and conviction sometimes surprised him, but it shouldn't, as she truly was someone he had come to love.
It didn't take him long before he was in the Marauder rising up from the ground looking out over the city. He could make out of a few smoke streams from a half dozen fires around the city. That must have been where fighters crashed. "PA, pay for any damage, and ensure for anyone killed that their families get a little something to take care of them for a few years." he said to the droid who was with him.
In orbit, it was a disaster zone. That being said already his salvage ships were corralling debris big and small towards one central area, mostly pulling things away from the planet that were at risk of being burnt up. There was just so much of it though. A half dozen 300+ meter long carcasses out there with dozens of smaller ships and hundreds of starfighter, and small freighter sized ship wrecks. It would take weeks for this to be cleaned up, and his other ships that weren't damaged too badly were on clear active patrol in case of another attack.
Already another AC transport had returned, bringing his strength up to above the numbers in orbit just before the attack. They would need to divert more ships here for now, as clearly what he had here was not nearly enough if an attack from a few rogue Hutts could almost take him out. Just as that thought passed his mind, he saw a dead alien pass by his ship's view port just floating there in space. It was certainly a stark reminder that even though he may be using droids, his enemies were still people. Not that he felt bad for them at all.
"Will our salvage yards be able to handle this amount of additional influx?" he asked PA not having ever really looked at an overview of the salvage operation beyond getting a few highlight updates from PA.
"Yes, this is not that much compared to our overall capacity." PA simply commented, but took him entirely by surprise.
"How big are our salvage refineries?" he asked, not having actually visited either of his new industry planets. Something he may need to rectify sometime soon, however, he is so busy these days.
"You would be amazed at how many forgotten battle zones there are in the galaxy, and there are entire planets filled up of scrap and garbage." PA said excitedly. "So we have been increasing operations steadily to give us another source of materials from refining and recycling. It is amazing, it is like people simply leave free money lying around for us to come by and scoop up." PA said in wonder. "So we have a few dozen large refinery and recycling operations in orbit over Bountiful Mine, as well as two mobile ones."
"What are we doing with the bodies?" he asked, thinking back to the dead floater.
"Along with scrap we are often picking up all sorts of organic and inorganic garbage. We have extensive facilities to turn said garbage into fertilizer and nutrient paste. We then store or sell that to many of the Agri worlds we purchase food from. Many core worlds also like taking in huge quantities of nutrient paste. So we simply send the bodies to one of those facilities." PA said to him, with Harry having had zero idea HPI was doing that. Honestly when your business gets so big there were bound to be dozens of things that simply slipped through the ever widening cracks.
"Wait so HPI is now a garbage service too?" he asked incredulously, realizing just what she had said.
"Yes, there seems to be quite a bit of money to make in the service when our internal costs are so low." PA said sagely to him as if it was an important piece of information. "It has also allowed us to stockpile significant quantities of materials in preparations for ship designs of a larger size." PA said turning towards him, her message clear, asking for when he would have the designs ready.
"You know as well as I, that it is still a few years out. However I am hoping to have the hyperdrives and designs for our new smaller craft ready within the year." he told his slave driver, he meant droid. "That reminds me. PA I need you to order more defenses, and set up a probe network in all known nearby systems, not just the ones we discovered. I think that was a large oversight of ours. Had we had them, we would have seen this fast build up before it had even arrived." he told the droid.
"I will get on it Harry. Is there anything else?" PA asked as they finished touring around the battlefield. It honestly was kind of sad seeing some previously amazing machines in so many small pieces floating apart and sometimes on the rare occasion crashing into each other. Many burnt out wrecks just floating there, all being piled up in a single spot where his ships patrolled to keep any enterprising individuals away.
"Nothing for now, except contact Sugi. I have another mission for her on Ryloth and a few droids she may be able to use." he said to PA, thinking about getting Sugi to help him with taking on this Spicer gang on Ryloth. He also thought maybe lending a few of his HB-2Ds to her that he had been training with as they could pick up new skills to share with their brothers which would not be a bad idea. It also seemed for the time being he was going to have to put some of his Force training on the back burner to get to work on some engineering related endeavors.
"I will get right on it. Harry there is this interesting report on the battle you may want to see." PA said with clear happiness in her voice at whatever it was she clearly wanted to show him. Looking over his Padd it didn't take him long to understand what he was looking at. It was the data from his DCUs, and their performance in battle in various roles.
It was quite interesting to see the palpable increase in targeting and accuracy for his ships as those 142 fighters from the planet added their resources to the DCU network during the battle. However what PA was really trying to show him was not that, but the clear improvement in efficiency and skill that his fighters and ships showed throughout the battle as they learned.
Their prediction and accuracy algorithms, even as the number of ships in the network started to decrease, still improved, as they anticipated enemy fighter moves, and learned how to work better together. Like a fighter leading pursuing enemy fighters to be taken out by an allied ambushing fighter from below, all coordinated in a few moments in real time. It was quite amazing to see them learning and improving so quickly. A few more battles and they were going to be very difficult to deal with on the battlefield for anyone, even potentially other skilled droids. That was simply the power of the DCU, and its ability to integrate battle plans with small and large ships. It was quickly becoming his third greatest invention after PA or his LIS.
It was still sad to see his once awesome fleet just broken up like that. Sure he still had ships in orbit, and a good number of them; however, it just felt like a gut punch for some reason. Which only hardened his resolve to get things done, and ensure he would be protected from attacks like this in the future. That meant finishing his dam Hyperdrive technology, and finishing his designs for own ships.
"Sir I have gotten in contact with Sugi, she is being routed to your holoterminal." PA said to him as he took his eyes away from the former battlefield, and the few captured vessels he was inspecting. Nothing great, as they would most likely be mothballed, refurbished and sold, or recycled. He enjoyed having uniformity in his fleet for a number of reasons, and logistics was a big one, but uniformity also created a more professional image of his fleets.
"Put her through." he told PA, who quickly had Sugi appear before him. He smiled seeing her beautiful face, as it took him a bit out of his funk. "Sugi HPI's fleet over Tatooine was attacked, and some fighters even managed to take a few swings at my facility in Mos Espa." he told the surprised bounty hunter.
"Was anyone injured?" Sugi asked, a bit worried. It was amazing that he could feel that through the Force even over a holocall. The difference in his ability to use the Force from a distance had increased so much since his trip to Ruusan that it shocked him nearly every time it came into play.
"A few I would imagine as some of the enemy fighters crashed and burned in the middle of the city, no one at my facilities though. That is being handled however by PA, what I need is to give you an update to your current orders." he said to her. She had already made some great progress in hunting down those who had attacked his spaceport, even if only during their 'coup' attempt. "One of the four major players in the attack here on Tatooine was a Spicer gang based out of Ryloth." he told the Zabrak.
"I got no information about this for you, as I have heard nothing about anything like this." she said a bit mad with herself clearly. Sugi might come off as a badass bounty hunter, but he knew she mostly helped out those who needed the help, while making a credit or two along the way. "What is it you will need me to do?" she asked a bit more seriously.
"That alright, I didn't expect there to have been any word. So I am gonna send you info on the assholes who attacked us, and I want you to hire a number of individuals to deal with them for us. Permanently." he told the bounty hunter who smiled at his orders. "I then want you to continue your presence there, but grow HPIs control of the area. Don't get into any major conflicts with the government there, but crack down on anyone around our spaceports that may be doing things we disapprove of. Even if it has to be behind the curtains." he said with a smile giving the bounty hunter a lot of freedom to operate.
"I will most likely need more resources if you want us to do that long term. Why Ryloth though, it doesn't seem like it's worth the investment to facilitate an operation of that size here?" Sugi asked him.
"It not so much about the profits, as it is about sending a message about not being able to fuck with me or HPI. When we move into an area, or take a contract, we will complete it and do it right even if we lose money on the operation. That is simply how my company will operate. Not that we have ever lost money anywhere, even really in the short term." he explained his reasoning to his... he was honestly not sure what to call Sugi right now. "I will send a shipment of droids that we have recently finished building to reinforce you, as well as two of my personally trained combat droids for your own protection." he told her, indicating to PA to get it done.
PA had let him know that the first fully equipped and armed Rapid Troop Deployment Craft (RaTDaC) had been finished recently. It had all the droids and craft, except for his future fighters inside and was ready for deployment, as it was the first one of many coming out of Avalon. Another reason to go see his planets, as Avalon truly was producing his company a ton of products these days. HPI was importing materials at a crazy rate it seemed now, even though he had more than one mining planet now operating, and their apparent massive recycling program that was going at the moment too. It should change in the future as more and more mining operations on his terrestrial planets come online, and spread across their respective planets, but he was not going to count his chickens before they hatched.
"Harry, taking on this spicer gang will not be a small operation." Sugi said to him clearly concerned after looking over the report he had sent over. "We may need to supplement the lost industry too, as I know that this group employs a number of good people here on Ryloth." Sugi informed him of something he was already vaguely aware of, but had not given a lot of thought.
Ryloth had little to export but Spice(drugs), and slaves. He would need to introduce something, otherwise they would go broke, and possibly starve to death. Then an interesting idea came to him, as if almost from the Force, however it certainly was not. That being, the introduction of a new blaster line for HPI. Along the way of improving Turbo Lasers, and Laser Cannons, he had also improved blasters for his dorids and such. At the time he didn't really want to try and compete with the mass marketed blasters from places like BlasTech, however now he could get into the handmade, customizable, high quality blasters.
He could employ those on Ryloth to produce these blasters one by one, each done by hand, and mostly to order. Sure this would make profits probably low to non-existent, however it would start to make his company a name in blasters. Anyone affluent enough would probably want to get his more expensive but far better quality blasters if he priced them right. What would a bounty hunter take, a crapier 50% cheaper blaster, or clearly superior hand finished product for a bit more. It would be interesting to see, as each blaster was being made individually it allowed for his company to take custom orders for each of their customers if they wanted ensuring they got exactly what they needed while also getting detailed information on market demands.
"I just had a great idea on what to do with those needing jobs on Ryloth." he said to Sugi, who looked a bit interested, so he explained his plan. While she was working on the spicer gangs, PA would purchase a large area of land somewhere nearby, but unoccupied, to their spaceport. Here they would build their factories, and facilities to start a blaster company. Maybe The Rylothian Blasters Corporation? A subsidiary of HPI.
PA put her two creds in too, as she talked about offering accommodation, and other service to their employees. Basically everything they would need, so that most of their money they paid in salaries to them almost all came back to the company. He had to carefully explain to her that they did not want to create debt bonders, so she had to ensure they were paid more than enough to cover the services we offered and then some. Otherwise it was a solid plan, and they did need to have more industrial presence in known worlds. It didn't hurt that he, like many others in the galaxy, found the Twi'leks to be quite attractive overall as a species. It was also nearby, Galaticly speaking.
"That will certainly work I think." Sugi said after some time of them discussing the particulars. "It would also create quite a large amount of goodwill with those living here. The Twi'leks are good loyal people, but just need someone willing to take a chance on them." Sugi said passionately, letting her real feelings slip through her hard nosed bounty hunter mask she usually wore.
"I don't disagree. Alright, I think you are filled in now Sugi. Let me know if you need anything, and don't be afraid to come and visit, it takes less than a day." he told her sincerely.
"Bye Harry, and I am looking forward to our next meeting." Sugi said flirtatiously before signing off. Making him smile at her bouncing between moods so quickly.
"PA I just had another idea I wanted to let you know about before I forget." he told PA about his next idea as they started their approach back to Tatooine. There simply was not anything he could do to help with the cleanup in orbit, and there were only so many husks of ships one could look at. As we landed he discussed the idea of data storage via the G-NET, and selling that to customers.
Quite a bit of big data storage here was done via large physical drives. To move said data you usually had to physically move it from one location to another. He on the other hand had developed a while ago for this personal use a Crystal based data storage method. It was actually based off of a number of tests he did on a spare LIS he made for that very purpose. While each of his crystal storage devices, like the small one in PA, needed magic to be created, that was not a problem if he put them in his central G-NET hub. They also didn't really break down like normal Hard Drives.
So he explained his idea of offering mass storage at a specified rate to anyone connected to the G-NET. Now people could simply access whatever they want whenever they want without having to move data around. Of course there are access security issues on their end, but his was entirely secure, physically and digitally, as he had used a programming language he personally made based on those from Earth that would not be easily translated or at all. This meant that any slicers who gained access to G-NET systems will immediately run into walls as they can't even parse or understand anything they are getting fed through their connection, if they can even get one in the first place.
This could be another huge money maker for them, and would even possibly be something they could market to some of the financial sectors, including the Galactic Banks. Not that they were in dire need of money makers at the moment, but all he really needed to do was create even more of the absolutely massive datastore crystals he already had in the central hub. They were currently being used to copy data transiting his network, where it was sorted, tabulated, and most likely discarded, all by his droids before being sent to his company's intelligence or analytics division.
From there if it is something important, PA would pass it on to him, or actualize the intelligence herself. With PA's absolute loyalty, it was quite the smooth system, however it relied on him getting more incoming data for it to be as effective as he wanted. Additional data mainly came from getting more clients and data sources, like probes in every system or reports from physical agents on the ground. He decided to have PA put more effort into this endeavor as they don't want to be caught with their pants down again.
He walked into his apartment after talking with PA for a bit and saw Shmi working on something on her terminal. He walked up behind her without her noticing him and leaned down and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. She let out a small gasp in surprise before a sigh of pleasure and turned her face up to him continuing the kiss with their lips a bit awkwardly due to the position.
"You are back already, was it bad?" she asked him concerned.
"Not too bad, but it was a bit of a wakeup call, and I want to spend some time with someone I love before I get to work on some more defenses." he said to her. With that he pulled her chair back and took her in his arms as he carried his giggling fiancé to their rooms, where he proceeded to ravish her. He put his parseltongue to good use, as it was only fair he returned the favor she gave him to start their 'activities'.
Well there we are, another chapter done. I had wanted to show a scene from a Pirate/Bounty hunter perspective who was attacking Tatooine, but ended up taking me too long to write it. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and I shall see you tomorrow for the last chapter of this story to come for some time! May the Force be with you these holidays!