Reviews
Iskandr
While you've given me some things to think about, I don't agree with all of your points, and frankly I don't want to go through them all.
Jim
Thank you for your support.
Frankieu
Joe Lawyer and I are working on a couple of more chapters of Augment Gothic, but we're both busy with other things so you'll have to wait.
RoyalTwinFangs
He won't be joining the CIS, he'll be founding it. And yes we can have Battlestars.
Ryo no Kitsune
I do know about giant robot/mech/exoframes with big honking space guns, they exist in a lot of fiction I just happen to know nothing about the ones in Gundam.
Chronus1326
Making Spartans requires a lot of training and the abducting of children, not really worth it when he has so many advantages in terms of technology. He's only fighting crime lords and a large shipping corporation, so asari commandos and clone troopers will be more than enough.
Ha'taks make sense for Jumper Gothic to use because they don't require a large industrial base to create them, don't require a large well trained crew, and don't seem to need much maintenance either.
Also as Anubis proved it's pretty easy to upgrade Ha'taks if you know about Ancient technology, which Jumper Gothic does.
He can build bigger ships, such as Battlestars, later on once he has the resources of more worlds to call upon.
As for plasma cannons verses turbolasers well the Ha'taks will be fighting converted bulk freighters and pirate vessels that normally go after small cargo ships so I think the Ha'taks will have enough fire power.
Jump Chain Gothic 6 - The Phantom Menace
Part 7
Lantea. Tatooine.
Life for Anakin Skywalker had taken many strange twists and turns lately. Not long ago he'd been a pod racing slave who'd worked at Watto's junk shop, then he'd been brought by a very odd man who'd taken both him and his mother off this planet.
Only they'd come back again, after spending time on a very cool starship, but now they lived in luxury in brand new city, one that hadn't even existed a month ago. Which raised all sorts of questions, the answers to which he didn't fully understand.
Not that he was going to complain, he had a R2 unit to hang out with and a massive workshop to mess about in thanks to the man who'd freed him. The only disappointing part had been that Gothic, the guy who'd ended his slavery, had promised to train him in the use of the Force, and had hadn't done much of that.
After weeks of waiting the young human was finally getting his first proper lesson. Anakin couldn't hide his excitement as he held in his hands a lightsaber. Okay so it was a training lightsaber that only mildly shocked anyone who touched the blade, and it could only deflect the bolts from the training remote, but for a boy like Anakin it was just like the real thing.
So far the young lad wasn't having much luck deflecting the weak bolts the remote was sending his way, and as he grew frustrated it became harder to anticipate the bolts, which led to Anakin becoming more frustrated. Which soon turned into anger.
"Don't let your anger control you" Gothic advised "And don't try to control your actions too much, let the Force guide you. Like you do when you're pod racing".
Anakin missed pod racing. The sport was now banned due on this planet to the deaths it caused and his mother had forbidden him to ride swoops until he was older.
"Try this" Gothic instructed.
The Jumper placed a helmet on Anakin's head and lowered the visor.
"Now I can't see" complained the boy.
Despite not being able to see, Anakin could sense Gothic's amusement. Something about this situation was funny to him.
"The Force doesn't need your eye it needs to guide your movements" said the near-ascended human "Let go, and trust in the Force".
Anakin did that, and to his surprise it did feel like when he used to pod race, his limbs moved as if someone was partly controlling his actions, but it didn't feel as if he was really being made to do anything.
"It works!" he yelled.
Unfortunately when he called out, and lost his focus, he got badly stung. Which wasn't at all amusing to him, yet Gothic couldn't help laughing.
(Line Break)
Lantea. Tatooine.
"Can I help you, Jedi Kenobi?" I asked as the robed man entered the hanger bay.
Seeing no benefit to misleading or hiding things from the Jedi Order I'd let Obi-Wan Kenobi stay in my cit,y and he'd been here for weeks, exploring Lantea, meeting with people, and reporting back to his masters. Of course I hadn't let him learn too much about what we were up to, as frankly it wasn't any of his business.
Right now all he would be able to see was me working on the next generation of Death Gliders. While this model of the fighter, which I called Reapers, were vastly superior to the Goa'uld version of this craft, when compared to the starfighters used by the peoples of this galaxy they were slow and seriously lacking in agility. As such the Gliders needed some more upgrading before they could be put into service.
Normally I'd leave Tali to do this sort of thing, and I now had many asari to help out with such tasks, there was something I found satisfying in getting my hands dirty with projects like this. Besides my understanding of Ancient technology allowed me to improve on the gliders more than anyone else.
"It's more of a matter of us helping you" said the young Jedi Knight.
Now I was really listening.
"Oh how?" I asked.
The Jedi wasted no time in telling me the news.
"Republic Intelligence recently shared some information with the council" I was told "And they have requested that I pass on that information to you".
I didn't need to ask which council he was talking about.
"The Hutt Clans have made an alliance with Nute Gunray the Viceroy of the Trade Federation" I was informed.
I found this to be interesting news, but it didn't concern me too much as we'd been preparing for a larger attack ever since the bounty hunters had tried to kill me. I also knew that the Trade Federation had a reason to dislike me, but I'd not given any thought to the two groups working together.
However this was not totally unexpected as Morgana had the habit of seeing the future in her dreams. Really big events, like an invasion of a planet, didn't escape her notice and she had informed me. Alas the details had been vague.
The information from the Republic had just told who the invaders would be.
"Any idea on what forces they'll send at us?" I asked the Jedi Knight.
Before he even spoke I sensed his uncertainty.
"Given that the Viceroy is under house arrest, as are several other Trade Federation leaders, I doubt that they'll be able to blockade this planet, like they did with Naboo" he said "And it's uncertain how many pirate gangs and slavers the Hutts can bring together. But I would think that they'd send several Lucrehulk-class cargo freighters at least".
That didn't sound too bad, but still it would be wise to talk with Samantha Carter about the city's defences. The Trade Federation would likely send a droid army with those freighters, and while the city had a shield, without some way to counter attack we'd be in for a long siege.
"Thank the Council for me if you would" I said to the Jedi "I need to go and inspect our defences".
Kenbio bowed, and before departing he spoke again.
"Tatooine is outside the jurisdiction of the Jedi Order" he said "However should your city be invaded you can be assured that I will help you fight to defend it".
Hopefully it wouldn't come to that, but it was nice to know that he'd lend a hand if we needed it.
(Line Break)
Aurora-Class Warship. Outer Rim.
While I'd gotten some warning from the Force, as well as other sources, about the coming attack, none of them had been much help when it came to pinning down when the invasion would come and what level of threat the invaders would be.
By sheer chance Anakin and I had been flying around in one of the new modified Death Gliders. We'd been out testing its improved speed and agility when the enemy fleet appeared out of Hyperspace.
Thankfully I'd gotten a warning from the Force, and since my warship was in orbit over the city we'd managed to dock with the vessel before the enemy had been able to use their massive numbers of fighters against us.
Once I'd gotten to the bridge I'd had to cloak the Thunderchild because it had been in danger of becoming overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemy fighters. Even ZPM powered shields had their limits.
Now that I had some breathing room there was a chance for me to check out the enemy fleet, and to come up with a plan of action. I wasn't too worried about the safety of the city as rather than bombard Lantea from orbit, which might have overwhelmed the city's shields given the sheer amount of firepower, the Trade Federation and their Hutt allies were landing troops.
Clearly they intended to take the city, and its advanced technology for themselves. I could see the wisdom in such a plan, as access to my tech could make both groups even more wealthy and powerful than they already were.
However unlike the shields that the locals used to defend whole planets or cities, the defensive barriers of Lantea could not be simply passed through by slow moving objects or soldiers, as had happened at the Battle of Hoth.
Besides from that my city had drones, the Ancient kind, which could bypass shields, and by the looks of things Miranda, who was in charge down there and had the ATA gene, was going to wait for the enemy to land before firing on the army. Although it was more likely to be Samantha Carter who actually fired the drones as the defence of the city was her job and she too had the gene as I'd given it too her.
Given the sheer size of the enemy force the few drones that could be fired wouldn't be enough to destroy the invaders, not when they had a massive and disposable army, an army that wouldn't run away or surrender.
Since the enemy couldn't get past the shield they'd have to settle in for a siege, in the hopes of weakening Lantea's defences. Which was fine with me as my city was totally self sufficient. It didn't need outside trade thanks to replicators.
My concern was therefore more focused on the Ha'tak vessels that my group were currently building. While they were shielded, their defences weren't anywhere near as good as those of the city as they weren't ZPM powered. Not that we really needed them yet and my warship should be enough.
We'd erected twelve pyramids to act as landing platforms/ship construction bases, around the city in four groups of three, and while one ship had been finished it wasn't here as I'd gifted that to Count Dooku so that he could impress some of the local factions I'd sent him out to met with on behalf.
As a Jedi Master, Dooku had decades of experience of travelling around the galaxy solving diplomatic problems so he was quite the diplomat. Which was why he'd been able to form the CIS in the original time line.
While I had no intentions of overthrowing the Republic, Count Dooku rather liked the idea of taking the Hutts down and building a rival for the Republic. The mere existence of the future Confederation would shake up the Republic, and force it out of its stagnation.
In another case of bad timing Seven of Nine and her Asgard made vessel were also out of the system. I'd sent her out to scan worlds in Hutt Space as well as to launch more probes. Ironically in the hopes of finding the very fleet that was now threatening Tatooine.
My intention had been to attack first if possible, and to neutralise the enemy fleet in a surprise attack, in case the Hutts and their allies bombarded the parts of the planet that didn't have shields or manged to catch us with our city's shields down, but now that hoped had been dashed.
At least the Trade Federation and the Hutts weren't bombarding anyone. They seemed to be focused totally on the city, and in keeping the Droid Control Ship protected. Which made sense as Lantea was the big prise, and there was no profit in slaughtering moisture farmers.
"Judging by the amount of signal traffic that must be the flagship" one of the asari crew reported to me "It's also the most well defended. They have their deflector screens up".
The ship was very similar in appearance to the standard Lucrehulk-class battleship, of which there were two of in this system. The Control Ship not only had better deflectors, and more weapons, it also had a larger number of fighters. Over a thousand had been launched so far and more were on the way, and that just from the one ship.
The major addition to the Droid Control Ship was an array of transmitters and broadcasting equipment, which allowed it to control the large battle droid army the bulk of which was currently making its way surface of the planet.
A Droid Control ship had two large main antennas and six backup antennas. Equally important, the Droid Control Ship was equipped with 16 signal receiver dishes, located around the perimeter of the vessel, in order to pick up transmissions from droid units, which could be some distance away.
Sensor equipment included one main sensor, which was a big of a weakness as it gave me something to shoot at, but it was important to remember that Trade Federation ships were meant for trade. The droids and other weapons were meant to drive off pirates not real military forces.
Also of note the ship was fitted with an extremely powerful Central Control Computer to sort through and process incoming information, formulate commands, and to broadcast them to the droid armies.
To compensate for this additional power drain, Droid Control Ships were equipped with two reactor cores, one at the back of each hangar, which provided more than enough energy for the vessel.
Unfortunately, there was a fatal flaw in this design: Both reactors were linked; if one core were to be destroyed, the other would go with it, which was a weakness unknowingly exploited by Anakin Skywalker during its attack on Naboo during the Phantom Menace movie. The Force had guided the boy during the battle just as it had when his son, Luke Skywalker, had destroyed the Death Star.
"There's a lot of fighters out there" the Chosen One was currently saying.
While I could have used the ring platforms to send the young lad back down to the city to be with his mother, this could be done without lowering the shields, Anakin was just as safe here as in the city.
Besides this was a educational opportunity. With the holograms on display the Force Sensitive human had a chance to look over the battlefield as it were. I wondered if the Force might guide him into coming up with a plan.
"The complement of a Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship appears to be about 1,500 Vulture Droids, 50 C-9979 landing craft, 550 Multi-Troop Transports, 6,250 Armoured Assault Tanks" an asari told us "and 1,500 Platoon Attack Craft".
While that might seem like an unstoppable force the Trade Federation fleet and army had vulnerability would ultimately prove to be their downfall in this battle. With all commands emanating from a central control ship, destruction of that ship would essentially shut down every droid under its control.
I'd taken advantage of that weakness at Naboo, and they wouldn't have had time to fix it, but now that there were more than a thousand Vulture Droid starfighters out there I didn't want to get into a shooting match with the Trade Federation ships, which had their shields up. Sure my drones could bypass the shields, but while I was doing that I'd come under fire by all those droids. It would be like my ship got stung to death while blasting a bee hive.
"Neimoidians spend the first seven years of life as "grubs," maggot-like larvae that are forced to compete with each other over a limited food supply. Only those that hoard the most food survive" I explained to Anakin "This means for this species that greed isn't a sin, its a means of survival".
Anakin was understandably confused as why I was telling him this when my city was under threat, and there were better things that I could be doing, however he didn't need to worry as unless the Hutts and Trade Federation pulled a superweapon out of their asses they couldn't really threaten my city, and they couldn't detect my cloaked warship.
"You need to understand your enemies" I said to Skywalker "These aliens are materialistic and cowardly, you can tell by the way they fight. Notice that they've surrounded themselves with droid fighters and how the outer parts of their ships seemed to wrap around the central part. It's like they are trying to shield themselves from everyone else. They value their own lives, and the safety of the big ship far more than of their droid army".
They somewhat reminded of the Wraith in how they depended on expendable fighter craft, but the Wraith backed up their fighters with massive Hive Ships that had big guns, the converted freighters had good shields, but not much in the way of weaponry when compared to ships used during the Clone Wars, suggesting that the aliens wanted to avoid using their big ships to fight. I explain all of that to Anakin as best I could.
"They're scared of everyone" Anakin said after thinking over my words "They don't even trust each other, that's why they use droids".
Their species was noted for being highly fearful and unwilling to fight their own battles. Also they were deceitful to the point that they did not trust living soldiers. Such traits meant that they were often criticized for their cowardly nature, and was one of the reasons why they made use of a mechanized army consisting of droids
"Now tell me" I requested of the boy "How can we take advantage of their cowardice".
Anakin had a habit of acting without thinking, something that got him into trouble a lot in the original timeline, so if I could get him into the habit of thinking and then acting, it might help him avoid becoming Darth Vader.
"You can threaten them" the lad suggested "If you can make them think you'll kill them they'll run away, or maybe turn on the Hutts".
That was good thinking. I could fly pass all the droids fighters and other ships in a cloaked puddle jumper, use its drones to take out the shields, then land in the hanger bay, and make my way to the bridge while out of phase. Once on the bridge all I'd have to do was threaten the leaders and they'd do whatever I told them to do.
The only flaw in that plan is that a Puddle Jumper might not be able to take down the shields, and as soon as I decloaked the ship it could be fired upon. However on TV I'd seen an entire Ha'tak destroyed by two drones that were fired by Jack O'Neill so it wasn't impossible. I'd just need to make sure I knew where the shield generator was on a Droid Control Ship.
Or I could broadcast a hologram directly onto the bridge of the Droid Control ship, and use my telekinetic powers to snap a few necks, but I was cautious about doing that as they might be able to trace the transmission or simply block it. The Droid Control ship had a lot of communications equipment so it wouldn't be so strange if they managed either or both of those things.
I could attack directly, but the Droid Control Ship had deflectors so if my first salvo did not destroy the vessel I'd get blown apart by the thousand plus Vulture Droids out there, or worse they'd cripple my ship and board it. Which was what had happened to some Aurora-class ships during their war between the Lanteans and the Wraith.
Which left me with my sneak on board idea. Which could work as long as the two escorting converted bulk freighters didn't turn on the Droid Control Ship. However I didn't think it was likely and once I had the life of the captain of the Trade Federation vessel in my hands I could just order him to use his fighters to destroy all the other ships.
The Hutt forces would be so easily dealt with, but all they had were a few pirate vessels and light freighters, they lacked the fire power to bring down the defences of a large vessel like a Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship. If they had they wouldn't have needed the Trade Federation's help in the first place.
"Anakin, stay here" I ordered while getting out of my chair "Keep an eye on the battle and comm me if anything happens".
I expected him to protest, but he just went and sat in the control chair, command throne I sometimes called it, he lacked the ATA gene so he couldn't make the ship do anything so I had no problem leaving him in that seat.
He could mess with the control consuls, by they were all being used as workstations by the asari crew who could only use them because I kept them unlocked, and they certainly wouldn't let a small human boy start pressing buttons.
(Line Break)
Lantea. Tatooine.
Morgana Pendragon, Miranda Lawson, and Tali'Zorah, all stood in the main control of room of the central tower while studying the displays which showed the invading forces. Currently Seven of Nine was off world as was Gothic, and Samantha Carter was even now heading towards the city's control chair so that she could control the drones.
Lantea was not a city-ship, building a new one of those was a feat of engineering beyond even their talents, but while it couldn't fly to another world, it did have shields and weapons similar to those of a city-ship. Which included drones.
While most of Lantea was powered by a series of naquadah generators, more advanced than those made by the Tauri, the shields of this city were powered by a fully charged ZPM, as such it would take a fleet of warships to bring the shield down, which was something the enemy had, but they weren't trying to destroy Lantea, they wanted to capture it.
"Our shields work differently than those used in this galaxy" Tali said "Their ground forces won't be able to enter the city while the shield is up".
Anyone who'd seen the Empire Strikes Back would understand this. Although the shield that protected the rebel base was virtually impervious to orbital bombardment, even if that bombardment came from a fleet of Star Destroyers, it did nothing to protect Echo Base from ground assaults. The Empire therefore opted to attack the base with ground-based vehicles.
Which was what the Trade Federation Droid Army was planning to do here. They had a large army of expendable droids as such they no doubt thought that they could simply march the army into the city and take it tower by tower if needs be with the Hutt forces helping them when possible.
Had Lantea been dependant on the shields of this galaxy to protect them, that plan would have been costly, but it would of worked, however as the enemy would soon discover their army couldn't simply march into the city.
"When they find that out they'll try to bring down the shield with artillery and tanks" Miranda reasoned.
Which would work if the enemy could sustain a high level of bombardment for several weeks, or maybe even months. Then they might put a strain on the ZPM. Not that this was a big issue because it was highly unlikely that the Hutt army, which was made up of pirates, mercs and slavers, would be content to stand around for all that time.
Miranda didn't think that the Hutt's would be able to keep their army in line and supplied for all that time. Which meant that they might risk orbital bombardment once it became clear that the ground base assault was getting them anywhere.
Also the Trade Federation was a shipping corporation, and couldn't afford to keep three of its bulk freighters in this system for too long, so assuming that Gothic didn't find a way to destroy this enemy sometime soon, there might be a siege, however it wouldn't be a long one.
"Drones are away" Tali reported.
Even with the experience she'd gotten with advanced technology Morgana didn't fully understand what was going on here, but her level of understand was high enough that she knew that the shield would hold, and so the real danger was from above. She knew very little about star travel and space battles, despite having a background in this galaxy with some memories to call upon, but she trusted that Gothic would handle the enemy fleet.
"Samantha is targeting their artillery" Tali was now saying "Smart, we don't know how powerful those cannons actually are".
Miranda hadn't been concerned about the cannons having faith in their shields. No she was more concerned about orbital bombardment, or the idea of the droids tunnelling under the shields, but the city had good scanning tech so she could keep an eye on things to make sure that didn't happen.
(Line Break)
Droid Control Ship. Outer Rim.
I'd gotten all the way to bridge without any trouble, only then to come across another user of the dark side, another fallen Jedi. I didn't know this one by name, but the existence of this dark Jedi didn't surprise me.
The dark side was still strong, despite my efforts, and some Force Users could have given in to its temptations. Heck for all I knew it was influencing my actions as well, it would explain a few things.
Not along ago a group of marauding Dark Jedi were known to have roamed about in the Elrood sector a few years before the Invasion of Naboo. Their raids were brought to an end when the Jedi Knight Jorus C'baoth intervened by leading a strike team of fellow Knights into the sector.
C'baoth's victory over the Dark Jedi ultimately led to his assuming the title of Jedi Master, a claim the Jedi High Council recognised as valid if only because arguing against it wouldn't have been worth it given C'baoth's fame at the time.
This fallen Jedi, his green bladed lightsaber suggested that he'd at least gotten to the rank of Padawan, was a Barabel. They were a bipedal race of reptilians that were covered in very tough dark coloured scales that served as natural armour. I felt sure that blaster set on stun would not damage them at all or slow the alien down, as the shot would merely bounce off the scales.
I remembered reading that they'd evolved from nocturnal lizards, and that the Barabel adapted a thick layer of fat which allowed them to remain active and not become sluggish when temperatures dropped.
Barabel were even able to shed their tails if necessary, an ability that proved the undoing of many startled foes. They also possessed heavy retractable claws along with needle sharp teeth which could grow to be 5 centimeters in length.
Another thing I remembered was that as a purely carnivorous species, the Barabels possessed two stomachs in order to process the great amounts of raw meat they needed to eat in order to survive.
I wondered if because of this a disembowelling would work well, but because of the alien's armour I couldn't tell if the scales of his or her stomach looked thinner or thicker than else course this didn't really matter as those tough looking scales wouldn't stop my lightsaber, and nor would the alien's armour.
While there was a whole group of Barabel Jedi who worked out well in Luke Skywalker's Jedi Order I could sense that this alien had not done so well in the Old Republic's Jedi Order due to his or her anger. Perhaps this alien had failed the trails of Jedi Knight, or had simply been kicked out.
It didn't really matter now, I could feel the creature's aggression, and it was able to sense me. Unless I fled, which I wasn't going to do, there would be a fight, and my sense of honour wouldn't allow me to simply murder this Barabel Dark Jedi.
Rather than risk damaging another personal phase cloak, which weren't easy to build, I dropped the cloak and used my near-ascended power over machines to seal the bridge. I didn't want any destroyer droids rolling onto the bridge while I took out this darksider, and nor did I want the Trade Federation organic officers to be able to flee.
This alien did not use a standard lightsaber he had what I could only call a great lightsaber, a type of oversized lightsaber, that was clearly built for use by large individuals, and the Barabel was big even for one its kind.
In the hands of a human the weapon would be awkward and difficult to use, and heavy too judging by the reinforced hilt. Which must contain a larger than normal power cell and more complex emitter systems, which made the green blade longer than two meters in length.
The Barabel Dark Jedi swung its oversized weapon, decapitating one of the few organic members of the crew at its station before the weapon met my shield. I'd made another modification to my omni-tool, allowing it create an energy shield that could stop a lightsaber.
Even for someone of my intellect designing a shield strong enough to block the blade of a Jedi weapon using an omni-tool's power source had been a challenge, and I wouldn't have bothered if not for the fact that my life as a Knight of Camelot still had a strong influence on me, at least when it came to my fighting style.
The Barabel Dark Jedi lifted its weapon into the air, no doubt intending to bring it crashing down with each force that my shield wouldn't stop it, at least in theory. I had no desire to find out if my shield could be defeated so I attacked.
With a blur of Force Speed I drove my lightsaber into the chest of the Barabel Dark Jedi. His or her lightsaber stayed in the air, and when the creature let go of the weapon it dropped to the ground behind the alien in its deactivated state.
"That's it" I said to The Barabel Dark Jedi "No wonder you failed as a Jedi".
Quickly I withdrew the blade of the saber from the alien's chest and slashed with the weapon in order to end the being's suffering. I'd not destroyed the Barabel's heart so it had still be alive.
I was disappointed. Clearly the creature had not been a true Jedi, dark or otherwise, it had been nothing more than another hired thug. No doubt he or she had used its impressive size and crude Force powers to intimate lesser foes, but against a true warrior the lizard had been found lacking.
"Now which one of you is the Captain!" I shouted.
When he identified himself I summoned the greatlightsaber to my hand and switched it back on before almost jabbing the captain with it.
"You are now a prisoner of the Confederation" I said.
I'd be able to put a prison together fairly quickly and in the meantime these aliens could be locked up in a force field cell.
"Order your fighters to attack your allies or I'll kill you and get someone else to do it" I threatened.
A bluff as I wouldn't murder anyone in cold blood, but the captain of this ship didn't know that, and gave in very easily. I'd assumed he would as they were a cowardly lot and easily threatened into doing things they didn't want to do.
Which was Kenobi and his master had made for the bridge during the first part of the Phantom Menace film. Had they'd been able to put an activated saber close to Nute Gunray's head he'd have called off the invasion right away.
In this case they'd end an invasion and I'd get myself a nice new ship. I wondered if Tali would like it as a gift. I'd been meaning to thank her as she'd done most of the work when it came to building Lantea.