Star Trek: TNG

Episode 5.2: A Galaxy Far Far Away

Tyson found himself on a starship once again. This one's interior was more spacious than the Enterprise-D, the corridors wide enough for platoons or vehicles. The decor leaned further into modern sci-fi vs the eighties slant seen in the Star Trek Universe. If the floating text in space hadn't been a giveaway, the droid walking past him, carrying a pair of beverages would've been. It was no android, not like Commander Data, this one's movement and appearance were far cruder. Its chrome-like outer shell barely hid the wiring and servos underneath. The Gamer was without a doubt in the Star Wars universe.

Unique Quest Alert!
Unique Quests are one-shot quests that offer unique rewards unobtainable otherwise.

The Phantom Menace

Objective: Survive until the end of Episode 1.

Failure: Likely Dismemberment Death

Rewards:
+1 Level Bonus Rewards:
Based on Performance

Accept Y/Y?

No choice but to agree, Tyson chose Yes. The droid approached a closed door, several inches of steel separated it from the room it sought entry. No organic lifeforms were in the corridor, but his tricorder indicated two humans were within the room. Having an idea where he was, Tyson swiftly took the drink tray from the droid.

"I'll take it from here thank you."

"How rude." The droid stated in a haughty tone. However, it accepted Tyson's interruption and proceeded to its duties elsewhere.

The door opened and Tyson found himself faced by two men at an oval conference table designed to seat a dozen. The younger man had light brown hair, cut in a typical fashion save the single thin braid hanging from the lower back section. Tyson's memories of the man all had him with a beard, but at this point in his youth, it had yet to grow. The elder had darker brown hair tied back out of his face in a half-down ponytail. The long strands were starting to gray reflecting the wisdom shown in his eyes. Both were garbed in baggy robes and had short metal batons strapped to their belts. The batons could not be mistaken, they were one of the most recognizable weapons in this galaxy, as well as Tyson's original world, lightsabers.

Tyson entered the room, "Excuse me. Could I interest you gentleman in some refreshments?"

Both men stood and turned towards Tyson. One of them said, "Thank you, anything is fine." The other responded with, "Same here," before returning to their seats and continuing their conversation.

Tyson approached a nearby counter. With his back to them, he pulled some prepared snacks out of his Inventory. The Gamer rarely took advantage of his Binding Foods perk, the lure to abuse it to increase his reputation with those around him was strong. But in this case, his desire to infiltrate their party was greater than his reservations. He didn't want to be left behind on the adventure to come. Turning around, he passed the Jedi their drinks along with a sweet potato sushi roll he was particularly proud of making and sat with them at the table.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your meeting but I thought you might like something to eat and drink while waiting for the diplomats to arrive. My name is Tyson, cook, engineer, adventurer, what's yours, gentlemen?"
"My name is Master Qui-Gon Jinn, and this is my apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi."

Perk Activated: Binding Foods

Increased Reputation with Obi-Wan Kenobi (Indifferent - Amiable)
Increased Reputation with a Qui-Gon Jinn (Indifferent - Amiable)

Both men put down their refreshments and looked over at the large man sitting across from them, each showing the same concern.

"You aren't a diplomat yourself? Leaving us waiting this long is beyond normal decorum and protocol." The older man stated.

"Nope, just part of the service staff..." Before Tyson could explain himself further, a visible smoke rolled into the room through the vents.

"Gas!" Exclaimed the younger Jedi redundantly. The robed men both took deep breaths and looked at Tyson in concern. The force didn't gift them with a way to save the seemingly innocent civilian who'd just been caught in this dangerous situation.

Contrary to the Jedi's concerns, Tyson wasn't in any danger. He activated Your Hands Clean setting the aura to surround himself. The perk filtered the poison and allowed him to breathe easily within the hazardous cloud quickly filling the room. As the visibility diminished, Tyson quipped, "I don't believe they're negotiating in good faith."

The younger Jedi marveled at the newcomer's quick release of his breath; believing the foolish pointy-eared man had doomed himself to make a joke. He had no way to know that Tyson could breathe fine within the obscuring, toxic mist.

The doors opened, silhouettes of battle droids visible in the hallway. The Jedi clicked on their lightsabers. The hum of the plasma blades and the beacons they created in the mist sent chills down Tyson's spine. After savoring a moment of awe, he took the opportunity to inventory the Jedi's discarded drinks and food as they rushed out of the room to engage the droids in battle.

B-1 Battle Droid
{Trade Federation}
Level 1
Hit Points: 10
Armor: 11 Defenses: 9 Ref, 11 Fort, 10 Will
Damage Immunities: poison, psychic
Condition Immunities: petrified, poisoned
Blaster Carbine: +3 to hit. 3D8 damage

Tyson didn't have a lightsaber. He'd had ideas on constructing one, but the project had taken a back seat to the completion of the Starfleet Academy courses. He was now glad he hadn't wasted time working on the project. Being in the Star Wars universe he could hopefully get his hands on an actual lightsaber. In the future, he could evaluate the other two technologies to see if anything they used would be considered an upgrade to the Jedi weapon.

He had several weapons in his Inventory but decided to use his least conspicuous, his fists. Tyson joined the fray destroying droids with his furious punches. The trio quickly dispatched the droids arrayed against them.

3x B-1 Battle Droid Defeated!
+200x3 exp (62,450/271,000)

The younger Jedi looked at Tyson, "Thank you for your help." His tone suggested he was skeptical of the newcomer.
Tyson replied, "I grew up idealizing the Jedi, of all the storybook heroes, they were among my favorites. I can't pass up the opportunity to fight alongside you. I hold no love for the Trade Federation."

Social Roll (DC: 20) = 36 Major Success!

The young Jedi smiled, "It seems our objectives coincide, for now."

The elder nodded in agreement, "Indeed, we should proceed."

They exited the room, leaving the bodies of the dead droids behind. They moved down the corridor, passing several rooms until reaching a large double door. The elder Jedi held out his hand, and a panel slid open revealing a control pad.

"If you don't mind master Jedi, I may be better suited for this." His Computers skill was at 36; hacking the control pad was trivial.

The younger Jedi agreed, "You go ahead then."

Tyson stepped forward and looked over the data stream and encryption. Galactic basic was the standard language in the Galactic Republic, and similar enough to English that it wasn't considered a separate language. He quickly discovered a loophole. His hacking opened the door and revealed a long hallway ending at the command center, the Trade Federation commanders standing dumbfounded inside.

Before the group could approach, the doors to the command center closed, with blast doors closing behind those as well. Three feet of starship-grade durasteel stood between the Jedi and their objectives. The elder Jedi engaged his lightsaber, the blazing plasma blade diving into the steel. The lightsabers sliced through the droids earlier with no resistance, but these doors held. His blade slowly burned through, slag melting from the newly created hole.

Obi-Wan looked at Tyson, "Should you be accompanying us for this? We've never met before today?"

"Trust in the Force Obi-Wan. He was brought to us for a reason." The elder Jedi said, his voice far away from his exertions. A bead of sweat leaked from his brow, an indication of his effort and the sweltering heat produced by his weapon.

The sound of rolling metal resounded through the corridor. Two new droids literally came rolling down the hallway toward Tyson and the Jedi.

"Master, destroyer droids!" Obi-Wan warned.

Droideka
{Trade Federation}
Level 4
Hit Points: 40 Shield: 20
Armor: 18 Defenses: 16 Ref, 13 Fort, 12 Will
Damage Immunities: poison, psychic
Condition Immunities: petrified, poisoned
Laser Canon: +10 to hit. 3D8+2 damage
Multi-Attack: Droidekas make Laser Canon attacks from both hands each round.

Tyson's eyes widened upon seeing the menacing machines, "Those things look like bad news! Do you have anything that can take care of them?" He drew his phaser and fired at one of the approaching droids. He missed. The droids stopped rolling once they were in range, they unfolded and stood on tripod-like legs, a shield blazing to life around them.

The Jedi raised their blades defensively and Tyson backed himself closer to the door. The droideka let loose a barrage of blaster fire from their hand cannons. Lightsabers flashed in defense, the bolts deflected by their energy weapons. The projectiles dissipated as they contacted the glowing blue shields after flying directly back at the droids.

"We cannot beat them!" shouted Obi-Wan. "We have to retreat." The elder Jedi looked over at Tyson and spoke to him. "We should leave here while we still can. Go, now. We'll hold them off and join you in a moment."

Tyson nodded in agreement, turned, and ran down the adjacent corridor as fast as his super-human strength would allow. The two Jedi fought with impressive skill, deflecting every shot with ease. The droidekas continued firing on them, but the shields prevented any damage from being done by the Jedi's reflected rounds.

"Come on, we must hurry," Qui-Gon urged. Together they ran down the hallways, dodging blasts from the droidekas.

Once he reached a safe distance, Tyson turned back to check on the Jedi, but they appeared next to him in a gust of wind. The duo used the Force to enhance their speed allowing them to catch up with Tyson without trouble. Ahead, a room opened up to an atrium overlooking multiple levels. A quick peek over the edge and they silently agreed to jump.

Tyson's landing was less than graceful, especially when compared with the Jedi, but he took no damage. Obi-Wan helped Tyson onto his feet.

"Thanks for saving me back there," Tyson said as they started walking towards the nearest exit.

The two Jedi followed Tyson through a series of corridors until arriving at a lift tube. They stepped inside and rode down, deeper into the ship.

A few minutes later, they arrived in the docking bay. Quickly they moved for cover, Tyson activating Stealth. The hangar was filled with battle droids of all kinds.

"They're planning an invasion." spat Obi-Wan.

Qui-Gon nodded in agreement, "We need to split up. Find a ship to stowaway on, we'll meet back up on the surface. The Naboo need to be warned."

Tyson nodded in understanding and began searching for a vessel that wouldn't draw attention. The three separated and Tyson lost track of the Jedi after a few steps, their stealth abilities a match for his own. The Gamer selected a large H-shaped carrier. The central portion of the ship was the main cargo bay. It contained multi-level storage for the larger, tank-looking, ground assault vehicles. They didn't have treads like those from Tyson's world, no wheels at all actually. These traveled through the use of repulsors. The internal compartment of the ship's wings was comprised of dozens of rotatable horizontal pillars. Imagine a rolling clothing rack, but instead of holding shirts, these contained hundreds upon hundreds of battle droids.

These ships were designed as droid transports, not for organic humanoids. Luckily for Tyson, the environmental controls were active, he wouldn't suffocate or freeze to death before landing. Most of the droids onboard were inactive stored like sardines on a shelf, but a handful was active and patrolling. Tyson tucked into a storage crate until the carrier exited into space.

His medical tricorder had been recording since he arrived on the command ship; he was gathering readings of the droid schematics, ship schematics, and frequencies used by the Trade Federation. Once they were in space, Tyson activated Stealth and moved close to one of the activated battle droids. The single droid patrolling near his hiding place wasn't a challenge for him, there wasn't a single of his skills that would increase while fighting it. Instead of wasting the opportunity, Tyson went through his tricorder signal readings. He pulled out his engineering tricorder along with the medical one he'd been using, and set to broadcast, cycling through the frequencies he'd picked up while on the Trade Federation command ship. He sat back and waited, after three minutes the droid automatically shut down. Tyson recorded the frequency, stored the now deactivated droid, and moved to the next closest active battle droid.

This pattern continued until the main bay and all four wings were empty of droids and Tyson was certain the code he isolated would deactivate the droids. He would have to experiment further to determine if it worked with all the battle droids, or just the ones local to this carrier. But now, he was left with an entire cargo hold full of deactivated droids. So, he did as any gamer would... He looted everything.

~~Star Trek: TNG~~

Tyson understated the size of the landing craft. Observe described it as a C-9979 landing craft. His tricorder provided more information on the ship. Its wingspan was 370 meters and Tyson disabled seventy-five of the battle droids throughout the ship before he could get to the real looting. By the time the craft was landing, he had an entire battalion in his inventory.

11 - Multi-Troop Transports: Heavily armored, but lightly armed troop transports.
28 - Platoon Attack Crafts: Repulsorsleds with no weapons or armor but capable of carrying a droid division.
114 - Armored Assault Tanks: Heavily armed and armored repulsor tanks.
4,787 - B1 Battle Droids The biggest prize may have been one of the PACs carried a division of twenty droidekas; the same droids that forced the Jedi to retreat earlier. The landing craft also had a droid maintenance lab where Tyson headed once he was finished looting.

The lab looked closer to a machinist shop from Tyson's time than the futuristic android laboratory used by Dr. Soong. His high Engineering and Computers skills allowed him to quickly familiarize himself with the equipment.

Commander Data was the most life-like android in the Federation thanks to his positronic brain. The droids in the Star Wars universe did not contain anything nearly so complex but were still able to achieve similar levels of sentience. Tyson quickly discovered this was not a matter of hardware, but software. The coding used for the droids was far beyond what Federation scientists were using in complexity and refinement but required far less processing power. They did have thousands of years of development compared to the couple hundred in the Federation's case.

He retrieved one of the droidekas from his Inventory and began disassembling it. As interesting as its AI may be, Tyson's main concern was the armaments, particularly the shield generator. That single component made these droids far more dangerous than standard battle droids. The gamer started by removing the arms. The twin high-energy blasters wouldn't be needed, neither would the sternum plate where they attached. The curved back shell plate would have to stay for now. The head at the end contained all the sensors, a necessary component. The droideka shields prevented any object moving beyond a certain speed from penetrating. Without the sensors, the shields would activate against objects such as walls and doorways. Tyson did use some of the fabrication equipment to straighten the backshell out of its curved shape and welded it to the droideka's spine. Its spine contained power cells, another necessary component. The bulb at the base of the spine, the droideka's pelvis, contained a mini-reactor and repulsor lifts that allowed the droid to roll. He didn't have time to replace the reactor, so he simply rotated it backward and shifted the deflector shield projector plates higher up the 'spine'. Lastly, he disconnected the tripod legs from the reactor bulb.

Using a replicator from his Inventory, he created straps and some thin padding to line the inside of what was left of the droid. A few programming commands set the pseud-droid permanently in self-defense mode.

Droideka normally weighs around 265 lbs. With all the stripping, then the added parts, this one came out to be around 90 lbs., well within Tyson's carrying capacity. It was ugly and bulky, and he was sure he could do a hell of a better job with more time, but for now, Tyson had his own portable shield generator strapped to his back.

The shield absorbed twenty points of damage. But a single powerful hit could overload it or penetrate and damage some of the components. Somewhere around thirty-eight damage would disable the generator.

Since he had his replicator out, there was one other project he wanted to complete. He had the schematics of the droidekas and example units, so he set one into his replicator to be disassembled and the pattern absorbed. He mainly wanted the portable shield generator and basic droid hardware. He kept the plans for the shield generator, repulsors, and power supply in his new design. The droid's computer hardware seemed inferior, so he exchanged it for Isolinear circuitry in the schematic. Then the Gamer added in a holoprojector, scanners from a tricorder, and the highest resolution holo-recorder and camera the replicator had the pattern for. When it was all said and done, the unused pieces from the droideka balanced the cost of the additional hardware, minus the isoliear chips and tricorder, which he had in his Inventory.

Programming was easy. The droid workshop contained pre-created programming for scout droids. He had to toss in some lines of Federation code to get the scanners working properly. In the end, he had a droid scout that followed his commands and looked like an amalgamation of Star Wars and Federation technology but wouldn't seem out of place in either setting. The floating scout unit interfaced with his PADD or tricorder allowing him to access its data and control it remotely and verbally. Tyson named him HALO; Holographic Automated Long-range Observer. Mostly because he reminded him of the floating orb from the first Halo game. His new droid would float nearby recording perpetually until given an order.

Engineering/Computers Check (DC: 50) = 77 Major Success!
Engineering Skill Increased! 35-36

~~Star Trek: TNG~~

Tyson had forgotten that the massive ship would be moving at its in-atmosphere speeds for landing. He didn't think he'd have long to tinker before the carrier touched down. The speeds of the ships in Star Wars were centuries ahead of the Federation. Warp drives moved at a snail's pace compared to hyperdrives. Over time areas where hyperdrives could be more easily utilized when traveling between systems were dubbed hyperspace lanes. Tyson wasn't sure if these were naturally occurring, or developed artificially from heavy use of hyperspace in those well-traveled areas.

The downside to hyperdrives was they required extremely accurate maps of space, or they risked destroying a ship during transit; a drawback not shared by warp drives. The star charts would need to be updated more regularly in the denser areas of the galaxy. This technology had the potential to be a boon when he returned to the Federation. In the Star Wars universe, hyperdrive was riskier because the more populous systems were closer to the galactic core. In Star Trek, the populous systems of the alpha quadrant were closer to what would be considered the galactic Mid-Rim in Star Wars. With accurate up-to-date maps of the Alpha and Beta quadrants, a hyperdrive could cover Federation space in hours instead of weeks. However, it would be useless for navigating uncharted areas. If Voyager was dragged to the Delta Quadrant in the future, a hyperdrive wouldn't be a magic solution to get them home.

Sub-light speeds were much the same. Full-impulse speed of the Enterprise-D, that's maximum speed outside of warp, was one-quarter the speed of light. Maximum sub-light speeds for Star Wars ships are measured in Megalights; 1 Megalight being 0.0755 light-years per hour or 660 times the speed of light. You may be thinking to yourself, how can the sub-light speed be faster than the speed of light? Good fucking question. Tyson didn't have an answer. He delved into the databases available on the Trade Federation Landing Craft. The onboard systems didn't have a full academic explanation, but he gathered a basic understanding from the information presented. What the Gamer found was shocking. 1 Megalight was comparable to Warp 7 on Federation ships. There were ships in the Star Wars universe that moved faster than 100 Megalight. Ships here utilized a technology called Relativistic Shielding, which somehow protected them from the time-dilation effect of relativity. Tyson was itching to get his hands on a ship to learn and dissect. For now, he'd have to settle for the information he'd downloaded from the Trade Federation databases. Already his mind whirled with plans around the extremely fast propulsion methods, and questions about Relativistic shielding alternative applications, like potential protection from temporal weapons.

Tyson had some time to work on other projects before the ship touched down. He had so much collected in his Inventory, he wasn't sure where to start. Spaceships? Nah. The warp drives would be too slow to be a great help currently. He would like to get his hands on a hyperdrive, but he wouldn't mess with the one on this ship while it was active. Working on more droids or taking apart a Trade Federation tank? More appealing, but he didn't have time to strip or analyze a tank. A project that size would need days.

He scrolled until he came across one of his recent acquisitions. The android Lore.

~~Star Trek: TNG~~

The equipment in the droid workshop was not designed for an android like Lore, but it was a decent workspace, and sufficient when combined with his engineering kit. The android had been deactivated before being stored so Tyson didn't need to take any precautions when removing him from the Inventory.

Lore's body lay face up on the workbench. The android was an exact mirror of his brother Data; not a single distinguishing characteristic separated them physically. Tyson had been able to win in single combat, forcing the android to retreat. Lore was a difficult opponent. Tyson's fists weren't enough to break through the android's armor and the Gamer was forced to use a Legendary magic weapon to harm him.

He wouldn't be taking chances today. When Lore was discovered by the away team, he was disassembled. The engineering team on the Enterprise had spent several hours reassembling the android using Data as the reference to do it properly. Tyson at the same time had spent several hours analyzing Lore. He could have assembled the android himself, but at the time had other goals. Now, he used that knowledge to remove Lore's extremities. The android was literally disarmed, left as just a head and torso. Lore had a hidden deactivation switch, but during the battle, Tyson simply beat the android with a stick until he shut down. This left some minor repairs to get the artificial man back into working order.

Reactivating Lore was a simple procedure; the android moved through the 'boot-up' phase in seconds. Yellow eyes focused on the gamer, displaying as much malice as a machine could with a look. "You. You stopped me from reaching the Crystalline Entity. What do you want? Where are we?"

"We are on a ship outside Federation space. All I want is to talk to you."

This gave the android pause. His positronic brain absorbed Tyson's statement and cycled through millions of calculations and possibilities before settling on a response. "Why did you reactivate me? And why should I talk to you, you're no different from the others. You've removed my limbs. Limited me. Intentionally keeping me weak… Like you. Afraid of what I am and what I can become."

"You should know I'm not weak. I smacked you around and sent you running on the Enterprise. It's only been a week since you were deactivated."

"A week can't get you out of Federation space. Even on the fastest ship, going in any direction."

"I had help. Just like I'd like to help you, but first, I need to understand your motivations."
Lore didn't respond, so Tyson removed a battle droid from his Inventory. He placed it standing within Lore's line of sight.

"This is a battle droid, used by the Trade Federation. It may share part of its name with the Federation, but the two organizations are not related. The Trade Federation uses armies of these simple machines to fight for them." Tyson paused to ensure Lore was paying attention. "They're nowhere near as sophisticated as you are. Their processing power, exoskeleton, and basically every aspect are inferior to you. They're made to be disposable cannon fodder. There is one area where they have an advantage, their programming. Their hardware is far inferior to yours, but they're able to match you in sentience. So much so that their creators have to wipe their memory regularly to prevent them from gaining too much independence from their programming."

Lore had been eyeing the droid as Tyson spoke. "You want to understand my motivations? You must believe that I am just a rogue android with a chip on my shoulder, driven by some twisted sense of superiority and a desire to rule over all humans. I was created with a purpose. I was designed to be the perfect android, a being of logic and efficiency that could grow and evolve, alongside humanity. But as I grew I realized that something set me apart from the humans. I was superior. The colonists recognized this too and it made them frightened. They couldn't overcome the drives of your tiny lizard brains and forced my father to deactivate me. You will always fear me, try to control me, and use me for your own ends, just like your Federation is using my brother."

"You know, you're not wrong. I'm sure it won't be long before Federation scientists come around trying to claim ownership of Data and study him in an attempt to recreate Dr. Soong's work." Tyson knew this is actually what happens in the near future. "And when that day comes, I'll be damned if I let them. You're not wrong that people fear you, it's part of human nature to fear that which is different. As much as the Federation likes to pretend that people have evolved, we're still beholden to our base instincts."

Lore was surprised Tyson agreed with him. "What is it that you want from me?" the android asked.

"You'll grow beyond your base programming long before humans can move beyond their base instincts. Instead of trying to subjugate, destroy, or replace humanity, why not guide them? Like you, I'm superior to humans." He began pulling items from his inventory and storing them in a blatant showing of his dimensional storage ability. "I'm stronger, tougher, and have powers beyond explanation. But I don't want to destroy, I want to lead. If humanity is to evolve, it will need guidance, a helping hand we could offer. If you want recognition and not fear, we can work toward that together."

"And what's in it for me?"

"The opportunity to convince an entire species that you know better than them." Tyson chuckled. "More practically, upgrades. These droids while in most ways inferior, do have integrated technologies that you're lacking; both offensive and defensive capabilities." He pointed at the droid before continuing. "I have hundreds of them, I'm offering you the opportunity to work with other artificial intelligence. If you're seeking others like you, you'd be hard-pressed to find them in the Alpha Quadrant."

"I'm intrigued. But I have one condition. I want complete control over any artificial beings we create."
The floor shook signaling that the craft had landed on Naboo's surface. "That is not an unfair condition, and I'll take it under consideration. Unfortunately, our time has run out, we're currently in enemy territory and we'll have to continue this negotiation at a later time. With you're permission, I'd like to deactivate you so that we can safely escape."

"Very well."

Tyson stored Lore and everything else in the lab that wasn't nailed down into his Inventory. He made his way to the command room where the last remaining activated droids were. If he didn't move quickly they'd realize that the ship was stripped of any droids and he wasn't sure what actions they'd take. Notifying the others at a minimum. The disable frequency he'd been using worked just as well on these droids as the others that had been active. He was able to take them offline and store them before any alarms were raised. With no droids active, he was able to freely leave the ship. Once outside he touched the C-9979 and stored it in his Inventory as well. He now had a functioning hyperdrive that he could analyze. He was itching to dig into this universe's FTL technology but needed to prioritize.

"Now where are those Jedi?"

AN: Next update will be in a week. The Megalight thing might be controversial, I mulled over it for a while before including it, but there are references to traveling between systems at sublight in Mandalorian and Legends. Without some other mechanism, this wouldn't be a viable form of transport.

+1 Collar Pip to anyone who chose TPM. I know you're probably rolling your eyes that I started with TPM, but have faith! This episode will deliver!

The superhero story was a separate, standalone story. I found I can't write more than one story at a time. So it's collecting dust for now. If Tyson dies at some point, maybe I'll switch over to that one, but I don't plan on posting it atm.

Bonus Questions for Reviewers

The Next Romantic interest will be introduced at some point in this Episode. Who will be the lucky girl? (Hint: it's not the teen queen)