POV Tanya von Degurechaff.
My ship was in front of Enarc, but there was a problem.
"Unidentified vessel, please identify yourself," said a droid in a holographic call to my ship. The protocol droid quickly identified the ship but as I had been reading a book while we sailed along I just looked at the droid. When the droid disappeared from the call I looked at my protocol droid and then at the planet we were approaching.
"You're telling me the Trade Federation controls this planet? And absolutely no one warned me?"
My complaint was more to the world than to anyone specific, but the droid misunderstood my complaint as a criticism of him as he seemed to grow angry. Wait, droids have feelings?
"My programming has no such information, only navigation, basic information and translation," he said, clearly annoyed.
"I wasn't blaming you. By the way I'd rather avoid landing on a trade federation planet, let's go to the next planet."
The droid looked at me and then nodded.
"Understood."
I sighed and looked at the map, the next planet was Acilaris, I hope it doesn't belong to the Federation. Without warning my spacecraft entered hyperspace and I sighed as I acknowledged the situation.
The Trade Federation had a fully controlled planet next to our planet and we had not been informed. Didn't anyone in the Empire try to find a map with all the information about what systems the Trade Federation controlled?
I angrily pulled a laptop out from under my bed and got up to sit at the table. I had to write a report quickly.
—-
"We have arrived in Acilaris" The droid said, I stood up and looked out the window in front of me to see the city ahead. The city looked like the classic utopia of a lazy science fiction writer. I guess science fiction writers weren't wrong in their theorizations of what society would be like in the galactic era.
"Follow me" I said to the droid as I put on my clothes, a black poncho with a hood that allowed me to conceal my weapons while granting me relative discretion.
"Understood" the droid said, the ramp of the ship lowered and I stepped out of the ship, in front of me was a man with a tablet in his hand.
He said something to me in a language I did not know and I looked at the droid.
"The parking tax requires you to pay 200 credits."
Aye, tax. I reached into my pocket and pulled out two 100 credit pieces. He took them in his hand and walked away.
"Close the ship and come with me" I said as I started walking in and looking at the city. Doubts quickly began to assault me. Why were they using human labor if they had droids? Why, despite the riches of galactic trade that were here, was there so much misery?
This last thought came about when I left the port I saw dozens of people lying in the streets, talking to each other and wearing clearly ragged clothes. They clearly looked homeless and I could not figure out why this was so. I put on my hood and started walking to the city center, which, unlike the outside, looked like my ideal galactic capitalist society. Although I didn't appreciate the corporate advertisements covering the sky, I understood that it was a legitimate way to advertise.
"Droid, do you have the ability to answer complex questions about the galaxy?"
The droid, walking helpfully behind me, stopped for a second and started thinking.
"Yes," it said.
I nodded and continued walking, forcing him to follow behind me.
"Why don't you use the droids for manpower?" I asked. It would be the first thing I would do in a galactic society and clearly my homeland thought the same thing when they saw the possibilities.
"Approximately four thousand years ago there was a massive droid revolution, at which time societies heavily dependent on droids, including Coruscant, were devastated by it. It took centuries of repair efforts to restore them to pre-revolutionary levels of prosperity."
My shin froze like the Russian winter and my mouth went dry.
"There was no more?" I asked the droid suspiciously.
"No, the proper technology to avoid these situations was developed. Any droid without the disabling chip is illegal, which decreases droid capabilities, making developed societies less reliant on droids and more reliant on manpower."
It may be that in the old galaxy there was a decrease in droid efficiency that transformed societies as well as created fear in the population. However, our productivity will increase incredibly with the introduction of droid labor. So while for the old republic those droids were less efficient, for us they were not.
"What is the population of this planet?" I asked, the droid stopped for a second and his eyes lit up.
"Approximately over 50 billion."
We also had a clear problem of low population compared to these planets.
"Thanks. Hey, tell me what you need, I don't want to upset you."
The droid looked at me quizzically and I sighed, "Forget it."
We continued walking and there was nothing of interest, nothing worth investigating, until a huge building caught my eye. It bore the insignia of a red cross with two large circles surrounding the cross. I approached and saw the name of the company, however I did not understand this language.
"What does it say?" I asked. The droid read it and then looked at me.
"Cross Corporation is an advanced medical company. They provide planets with state of the art medical resources for the right price."
I frowned, modern medicine, that would definitely be of interest.
"Do they have competitors relatively close by?" I asked.
"Define close."
"Within a week's distance in hyperspace"
The droid began to make a strange noise, and stood still.
"Hello?" I asked, however the droid didn't react. I touched it and it didn't move.
"Don't bug out on me like you're a damn Windows!" I said, frustrated, but finally the droid came to.
"Sorry for the wait, my program is not made to produce these calculations. However, I already have an answer. There is a competitor but this one is the Trade Federation."
I nodded and looked at the company logo.
"Well, time to make a holo-call".
—-
Pov Zettour
Zettour was looking out from his balcony at the night sky, so similar but so different when he received a holo-call. He took the device out of his pocket and pressed a button, however the hologram did not appear.
"Damn it" he said, trying to accept the call but failing. In desperation he slammed it against the iron fence of his terrace. The call was accepted and the figure of Lehrgen appeared before him.
"Fuhrer" said Lehrgen, saluting militarily. However, Zettour quickly waved his hand in a more informal manner.
"Well, I'll be quick, the Mandalorians have offered me a treaty but I don't have the authority to accept it."
Zettour raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Mercenaries make treaties?"
Lehrgen shook his head, quickly understanding the source of the problem.
"Not those Mandalorians, they are still doing their job. This is a representative of a government, they say something about a moon and that they will offer us the right way to mine the Beskar as well as process it. The problem comes with what they ask for."
"Tell me bluntly" Zettour said with some impatience.
"Fifty percent of the planetary Beskar production, in return they will bring their smiths and create the largest Beskar processing complex in the history of the galaxy"
Zettour massaged his chin in contemplation. Unlike before, when he would have totally denied such a thing, now he had to think about it. They didn't know how to process Beskar properly and it was a valuable material, paying the mercenaries for raw Beskar ore wasn't the only thing. One ton sold for the same value as over a thousand tons of any kind of exotic plant. However, that price could go up as much if they could process it properly.
Still, fifty percent was fifty percent for sure. A scary figure in itself.
"Have a representative that is up to the task brought to the Reichstag and I will negotiate face to face with him."
Lehrgen nodded, and was about to cut the call short when he stopped for a second and looked Zettour in the eye.
"Tanya von Degurechaff is really dead?" He asked, Zettour raised his eyebrows and sighed.
"Yes, we all mourn her death. She was a great heroine of the fatherland" He said with regret even though he knew she was alive.
"Many agents have died in succession, first the spy Erya, then the rare wizard of the 122nd who fought on the Rhine. Many mages have died suddenly and the latest is Tanya von Degurechaff. What action are we taking in the face of this clear attack by the Federation?"
Zettour smiled to himself that they were being attacked by the federation. It gave a perfect excuse to make agents disappear who had to investigate the galaxy in secret. No one would share their routes or the information they had. They had to find out for themselves and if it was made public the federation would hunt them down and murder them.
"We are taking the appropriate measures, but with this climate of social revolution we can't afford to announce that so many elite troops have disappeared. By the way, do you have any relevant information from the south?" asked Zettour. Lehrgen had been active in the south and was their main informant on how the social revolution was going in the south.
"The masses are calming down. I think the social revolution no longer represents a danger. It will gradually dissolve and we will be able to continue with our development plans.
Zettour let out a laugh and Lehrgen gave him a military salute.
"Long live the Empire!
With that the call was cut short and Zettour sat back in his chair.
"Everything is starting to go well again."
—-
Palpatine paced the senate as he thought about what was happening. The Trade Federation acted impulsively in obtaining a new planet, and they were repelled like foes. Now years of planning had to be reformed. However, this planet was becoming interesting for his plans.
Its large amount of resources was interesting, its large amount of force-sensitive individuals was even more so. To make things even better, they were not subject to any force cult. That was what he needed. Now he had to control them or get their loyalty. Or both.
Speaking of the Kaiserreich, Palpatine thought to himself when he saw the senator accompanied by a brunette girl. Missing was the blonde who always accompanied the senator.
"Good morning," Palpatine said with a gentle smile. The senator quickly smiled but Palpatine knew it was fake. Both of their feelings betrayed them. They were sad and angry.
"Where is the blonde woman who always accompanies you?" Palpatine asked, quickly feeling the anger and sadness rising. Had the blonde died? It seemed the logical conclusion.
"She is on our home planet," the senator said with a false smile. Palpatine nodded, knowing that was a lie and began to think about how to take advantage of the boy's emotional state.
"Join me in my quarters with your company. We are going to discuss matters of planets. We are neighbors and I think our trade relationship should be even closer, not just focusing on the Interstellar Stock Market but on a direct relationship between planets."
Karl nodded after looking at Viktoriya.
"Sure, please guide us."
—-
Pov Tanya
I was drinking in a bar, taking a rest. Zettour told me that he will send an agent that will have the ability to negotiate. When I confirm his arrival I can leave the planet.
"Hey beauty" said one guy who approached me, sitting at my side. I had the hood down so the guy probably saw my face and decided to fuck around.
And he was about to find out.
"Leave me alone" I said. The people around clearly didn't care about this clear violation of my space.
Suddenly something cylindrical touched my back. Was it a gun?.
"Cmon beauty, accompany me"
I looked around and people seemed to mind their own business. I stood up and saw the guy's face. He looked like a handsome guy with a fine mustache.
"C'mon girl"
I accompanied him to a darker place. The droid didn't take notice of my leaving and that angered me, but I could solve this by myself.
"Turn around"
I turned around and the guy looked at me with a proud face.
"You will be a fine slave. I can see many people paying alot for you"
I sighed and put my hands in front of him, as if I were trying to ask for mercy.
"Please good man don't do this to me"
The man put a mischievous smile on his face, as he took one of my hands and put it near enough to his death.
"I can't do that, I have a debt with Jabba"
Then I cast a mage blade that was created instantly and cut his head in half.
"Fucker, fuck around and find out" I said as I pusher his dead body to my left so that it didn't fall on me. I stopped casting the mageblade and looked at my poncho, being covered fully in blood.
"Well fuck, this place is dangerous"
I looked at the guy, and started to search around his dead body, finding something similar to the smartphone in my first life.
I grabbed it and took my poncho off, hiding it in my backpack. Then I looked at myself and I didn't have any blood on my body, just a little bit in my face and hair.
"Well fuck, I hope they have self defenses laws, or that the agent comes fast enough"