Hey everyone, welcome back to the tenth day of Star Wars Xmas! So I tried to add some dates to the future chapters as some asked, but they might not be 100% accurate as I am not 100% sure where we are date wise during each part of the chapters (mainly cause I didn't write these as chapters), as I don't know it off the top of my head. I only really have where the story is now (end of chapter 12) in my head perfectly. However the dates should be close.
The other thing some asked about was an actress for Shmi that they could picture so I google attractive female brunette actress, rolled a dice and landed on... Gemma Arterton as the actress for Shmi.
Chapter 10:
(30bby)
Padme was going through another long meeting about the recovery of Naboo. It was slow going, but food reserves were already fully recovered, but that had less to do with her and more to do with the resources they had to work with. They had learnt since the deal they signed with the Trade Federation not to take outside finances to help their recovery, and this time they didn't need to. Well besides public funds from the Republic.
It all came down to one person, or one company really, and that was Hadrian and HPI. Even with their low 2% planetary tax rate the amount of credits that HPI was paying to their government was incredible. In the tens of millions a month, and she was not even sure if HPI was reporting honestly in the first place which meant they could be making absurd amounts of Credits. Making Harry easily one of the richest single individuals she personally knows in the galaxy. HPI's revolutionary medicine was selling so quickly that demand far outstripped HPI supply at the moment. It wasn't a surprise, as their medicine even exceeded Batca in some specific cases for its ability to heal. HPI even after the invasion paid out of their own pockets to purchase the spaceport built by the Trade Federation and expanded it to handle all the extra traffic coming to Naboo.
Because of this there had been no need for austerity measures for her people to aid their recovery. In fact, just a year and a bit since the invasion, Naboo was already back on track for it's previously projected economic growth, and that did even account for some of the ongoing economic expansion. While not all HPI products were sold here out of Naboo, it didn't matter because HPI for some reason chose her planet to pay taxes on. This was something she had to ensure continued so her people could prosper in these hard times, because as far as she knew the main reason Hadrian chose Naboo was his love for the planet and people. This meant there was not a lot actually keeping him here.
She was still not quite sure what to think of Hadrian. He was certainly an interesting person, a bit too good looking for his own good, and he and Shmi had raised Anakin well. On a side note, Anakin was a cute adorable boy. The Jedi also seemed to respect Harry, even if he didn't seem to share the same respect for the order as a whole. He even came to Naboo's aid when no one else but the Jedi would, not even the Republic, and that struck a chord with her. That was why she was so surprised to get a message asking for a private meeting between the two of them just a few days ago.
Harry, as he asked her to call him, was to arrive soon. Rather than a formal reception as she had wanted to do, so she may once again acknowledge his contribution to Naboo's liberation, he had begged off instead for a private meeting. She was fine with this, as sometimes getting prepared for public appearance was more than she wanted to have to go through in a day. Not to mention how uncomfortable all the extra makeup was, even with HPI's luxury brand cosmetics that she and her doubles now used. Sabe honestly couldn't shut up about them, which brought a smile to her face when thinking about her best friend.
What this meant for her, was that Harry was not someone Naboo could really afford to alienate, unless they wanted to reverse significant amounts of the progress they have made over the last year. With that in mind she walked to the large doors, and went out to her waiting area, where Captain Panaka was standing. She and Panaka were having difficulties right now, as they disagreed on what Naboo should do to defend itself against further possible attacks.
She did not want to see Naboo armed, and many agreed with her, her parents among the most vocal. However there was a similarly large vocal group who wished to increase their defenses substantially. Panaka belonged to the second group. She did need to acknowledge her people's wishes though, even if she did not agree with them, so she was still looking into more defensive oriented options.
"Your Majesty. Mr. Peverell has just landed with his ship and is making his way here." Captain Panaka informed her, as professional as ever.
"Is there anyone with him?" she asked, hoping to see Shmi again.
"No, just himself. However he did have some security droids, which he left at his ship." Panaka answered softly, as the door to her private receiving room opened and a smiling Hadrian walked in. She was surprised he had not changed much at all since she had last seen him, but it had only been a year and a half, so not much was expected. He still wore that nice dark leather suit he usually had on, however she could tell a few alterations had been made to it.
His deep emerald eyes always shocked her with their uniqueness, and how they sometimes seemed to shine with hidden power. He walked confidently while looking around and observing everything. However an even bigger smile broke out over his face as he made eye contact with her.
"You are looking as lovely as ever your Majesty." Hadrian said, giving her a small bow, and taking the hand she offered. Before giving it a kiss.
"You too are also looking well, and will find yourself most welcome here." she said, and could see Captain Panaka shared her opinion. If there was one thing they could agree on, it was their like for the man in front of them right now. "I hope your trip to Naboo was pleasant?" she asked knowing personally how dangerous travelling the Outer and Mid Rim could be. They had also been hearing of the rising pirate incidents in the sector for years now, but lately it has been even worse.
"It was, I can say that I personally believe I have one of the safest shuttles around. How does the recovery go?" he responded and asked after having shared a silent nod with the Captain. "It seems to be progressing well."
"Yes quite well. Businesses are expanding, and trade is now at an all time high with our Gungan neighbors. We are also looking into expanding our defenses, but there are many against such initiatives." she replied, not giving the man her position. She wanted to hear what his thoughts were.
"Well, I can see how some people would not ever want to go to war, or fight against others. However there was once a great man from my planet that once said, `The price of freedom and liberty is eternal vigilance.' " Harry said as she led them to the lounge area where she and he sat down. "It basically meant that even though one may not want war, they must be prepared for it, or be prepared to truly lose their freedoms, and liberty. Eternally preparing for a war that hopefully never comes." he finished.
It made her think. It was so alien to what the Republic had stood for, for over millennia. An invasion and battle like what happened here a year ago, had not happened in the galaxy for centuries. It was not like she was blind, she could see the rising tensions in the galaxy, and that was why she worked so hard to preserve the peace and stability here. She still wanted to see if there was a peaceful solution.
"So you believe we should arm ourselves in some way? To prepare for another invasion?" she asked to clarify his meaning.
"Yes, in part you should prepare something. A lot of people forget the first part of the sentence being price. No one wants to pay for something, but we all accept that it is simply a fact of life when we go shopping. This is the same, there will always be those who want to take from you what you have, even your freedom. Therefore we must pay the price to keep our liberty, by preparing for a hopefully never approaching war." Harry explained camly, and gave her something to think about. "The unfortunate part about the whole thing is one must be strong in the first place to prevent wars from happening, as really it is only the weak that gets preyed upon. Would you like my suggestion?" he asked her.
"I would gladly accept your council." she said earnestly to him, as she was personally conflicted as people she respected where taking entirely different positions on the topic. She also felt she understood Panaka's position a bit more after Harry explained it to her in that way.
"I would increase the size of Naboo's Royal Hangar slightly, maybe add one or two more squadrons." he said before continuing. "After that add some ground defenses, maybe something to help with droids in the future, and an Ion cannon or two. Finally, I would be willing to offer a few ships to be stationed over Naboo to protect it while mostly being there to help the Royal Naboo Security Forces deal with the constant increase of traffic Naboo that it is currently having to deal with. Since it is mostly my companies fault, as when we started using Naboo as our point of export of medical supplies to most of the republic, traffic around here sure increased a lot." he said with a bit of humour as their spaceports now saw more than 500% increased space traffic since HPI setup here.
"That is something I will have to think about, and I thank you for your honest advice." she said before looking over to Panaka and saw that he also seemed to agree with Harry. Harry made good points, and it would be far easier to sell someone else's ships being present than the arming of actual Naboian ships to many detractors. "However I do not believe you came here to talk about Naboo's possible rearmament." she said with a bit of a smile at some of her own internal dialog being more resolved than before their chat, and saw Harry's rising excitement.
"Well my company has invented something new, and I wanted Naboo to be our first customer." Harry said excitedly, almost jumping up and down, he was just so different from the calm and collected Jedi, even if she knew he apparently also used the Force. He was just so much more lifelike than the Jedi often came off as. "I want to set up a small facility here in Theed, most likely at the spaceport, to connect Naboo to my newly created G-Net." he said so proud of himself.
"Ah Harry, what is a G-Net?" she asked, a bit confused and saw his slight embarrassment.
"Sorry, I got caught up in my excitement," he said. "You see it was actually the invasions on Naboo that prompted me to see if I could find a fix to communication issues during blockades and such. I quickly came to realize during said investigation that Holonet connections were not cheap for everyday middle class citizens or even the rich in the Outer Rim to have. Often many people go without, but I wanted to change this while also fixing the other issues common with the Holonet, such as being jammed, or sliced. So I invented a new network, G-Net, that also connects securely through my secret central hub to the holonet."
She was a bit confused but understood Harry's goals. Her inability to contact the Republic during the invasions was what almost got her killed a few times, and had ensured the continued suffering of her people which was beyond vexing. So she indicated for him to continue explaining.
"Through my G-Net I hope to offer planets cheap networked connections to the whole galaxy via my service, through which people can also access the Holonet. The networking planet side can be handled either by my company or that planet's government if they have censorship concerns. All this while ensuring that blockades such as the Trade Federation performed here and their jamming of communications would not affect continued service operation. I want every household on Naboo to have access to the greater galaxy, and hopefully through connecting people, tensions will reduce as they come to know and understand each other better." he finished.
"I can see that is a worthy goal, and I would definitely like to get something like that setup here on Naboo. However cost is always a concern, and a large Planetary Holonet Transceiver is expensive to purchase." she said, pointing out the reality of why most couldn't afford long term access to the holonet. As the cost of such a transceiver would either be handled by high taxes, or exorbitant access fees to customers. Making Holonet connections out of the price range of most people to have in their homes.
"Yes I agree, and due to the maturity of the HoloNet technology, it truly is difficult to reduce the cost further. That is why I invented my own technology that is entirely independent and not reliant on holonet relays. My company will install, maintain, and set up a G-NET service provider here on Naboo, all at our own cost. We just need permission to set up a new local transmission network so that we can start selling to people across the planet." Harry said excitedly, as well as her own rising excitement at the prospects of such a service coming to Naboo, and Naboo before the core worlds as well sounded would also be a bonus.
The core often looked down on worlds like Naboo even though they were quite beautiful and prosperous, all simply because they were in the Mid or Outer Rim. The fact that some products were coming here first before the core only made her smile, as that was something that never really happened in the Galaxy often. Being able to ensure secure and uninterrupted connections for her government would be a critical asset in any possible conflict.
"How much will you be charging?" she asked him, wondering.
"PA and I were thinking 10 credits a month per small connection. This gives enough bandwidth for a small family or family groups to stay connected to the G-NET without issues, with unlimited data of course. For smaller businesses or institutions it will be 50 credits a month. For larger business or government connections, it will start at 100 credits a month and rise according to demands." Harry said to her seriously, and quite frankly to her shock.
"You can ensure a connection for that cheap?!" she asked incredulously at the price. If a holonet connection to a household was that cheap, she didn't know anyone who wouldn't take advantage of it here on Naboo. "How do you ensure your G-NET is connected to the HoloNet?" she asked quite interested now.
"Well on our central hub, which the location will remain a secret, we have a super massive holonet transceiver setup. We also have multiple smaller ones in other locations to ensure that if a single G-NET Holonet transceiver is jammed, the others will still allow our customers connections to the Holonet. Of course this is entirely reliant on the Holonet not totally going down, however that will never affect your connection to the G-Net network itself and others connected through it, such as in the near future Coruscant." he said, clearly happy with his new invention, and she could see why, this was going to make his company at least a billion credit a month from Naboo alone if it was widely adopted. This was huge! Not just for her planet, but for most planets across the galaxy. If true it was going to revolutionize interplanetary communications.
"By the ancestors Harry! If it works as you say you will be making another fortune each day." she said getting into his excitement now. "So what do you need from us besides for us to give permission?" she asked, not wanting to turn away possibly tens of millions of credits in new tax revenue.
"Not much really, and that is the beauty of it." he said smiling. "Regardless I would like the Naboo government to be our first customer, free of change." he said with his green eyes almost shining. Dang, if he wasn't to already taken, and far older than her, then she may have been interested in his stupidly handsome face. That got her thinking about the last time he was here, and the now big pile of droids, and Trade Federation technology they had.
"Harry, I told you, you would have the first opportunity to purchase the leftovers from the Droid Army that attacked Naboo." she said. "We have had some students cleaning them up and stacking them in two large piles, with the most intact in one and otherwise scrap droid parts and equipment in another. Are you still interested in purchasing them?" she asked him.
"Honestly your majesty, I would be ok with buying them, but they will mostly be used for scrap except maybe some of the larger machines." Harry said to her, much to her surprise. An army was an army to her, she was not sure why Harry would scrap most of it. "I learnt quite a bit from the few I have gotten earlier, and it was mostly what I wouldn't do if I made a droid army." he said with a cheeky smile at her.
"Yes the B1 droids were truly lacking, but that was to our advantage at the time." she admitted. "You still wish to purchase them?" she asked, wondering why as usually scrap was too expensive to move around, often planets had to pay for it to be taken away.
"Yes we have started building a massive scrap and salvage refining facility, and are now shipping in stuff from all over the Galaxy." he said to her explaining something she didn't know HPI did on any large basis other than in their store on Tatooine, that being scrap dealing. "You would be surprised how many large forgotten battlefields there are all over the place to get a lot of materials at. Sure most of them have been picked clean for the easy to get valuable pieces by scrap dealers, but often there will be huge hulls with key components hidden in their depths still just sitting there." he said clearly excited about what he was discovering in those battlefields.
It was interesting and something she wondered why it was not more well known, or better scavenged. It would take a large operation to make that profitable, but it would certainly be doable for a government or large corporation. It might just be that people forgot about the battle sites or something else similar. Or maybe it was just that much easier to mine and refine materials rather than recycling existing scrap, she was just not sure, as it was certainly no area of expertise of hers.
"Well then, I will have Captain Panaka send your assistant PA a full list of what we have to sell from the army." she told him, finally getting rid of the army that people were complaining about.
"Are you sure you don't want to keep a few tanks here or something?" Harry asked her. Making her think about it more deeply, before their chat earlier she would have quickly dismissed the idea to keep some but her mind was slowly changing on the topic. "You could simply put them somewhere in a warehouse for emergencies, and because you are neither procuring them or spending money on them, it may be easy to hide from your enemies as a trump card in the future." Or those who would have umbrage with such a hidden trump card.
"You may be right. I will discuss it with the Captain here before we send the list over." she said honestly indicating Captain Panaka who was standing there just beside her seat.
"Well I better be letting you get back to your duties, your Majesty. However, don't be shy or afraid to visit Tatooine, it has changed quite a bit in the last while since you have been there and Shmi would love to see you again. Progress is fast, as me and Jabba decided at the end of the invasion of Naboo here to take a more active role in securing and governing the planet. So it is significantly more safe than a year ago." Harry said.
"That honestly sounds like a nice retreat for a bit when things get hectic, and I may even be able to sell it as ensuring continued close relations between your company on Tatooine and us here on Naboo." she said as she started thinking of a way to get a vacation sooner rather than later. She wondered how much progress could really have been made in a year, but then thoughts of the changes Harry's company has made in a few years here on Naboo made her excited to see the changes. "I wish you safe travels." she said to him as he left the receiving lounge and out the entrance.
"He had just as formidable a presence as the last time I saw him here on Naboo." Captain Panaka said to her after Harry had left.
"Yes, I also think he is good for Naboo. And certainly wise." she said to her captain. "Well Captain I believe our guest made some good suggestions. It is our duty to go and discuss them, and find the best solution for Naboo." she said as she moved to her office with her chief of security following her.
Harry loved Naboo and that was why he was in an Airspeeder going around various places with a real estate agent looking at a few plots of land to purchase. He decided to build a truly beautiful villa here on Naboo for him and his hopefully large future family. This planet seemed perfect to him, and after looking at a few areas he finally saw what he wanted.
It was a medium sized grass plateau that looked over a steep cliff with waterfalls, that curled down around for a few hundred meters to come to the base of the valley where another river flowed. Behind the cliff and away from the river was a nice forest, with tons of room. This was to be a new area for development outside of Theed, and he was lucky to arrive just as it opened for sale.
"I will take it." he said to the female real estate agent.
"Which plot was it you wished for, just point it out and I will find it here on this map." she said, holding her Padd up with a smile happy to make a sale.
"You misunderstand, I want all of it. All the plots." he said to the woman. This would make a great place for a wonderful vacation home for his family, and give him ample privacy.
"A..Al..All of it?" she asked a bit hesitantly.
"Yes all of it." he said to the woman who was getting her composure back together. "Tell the development agency that I accept their asking price for each lot, and close the sale." he said to the youngish woman who was looking at him like he was crazy. "PA here will wire the funds to your company so you may handle the development agency. I hope this will suffice to show my seriousness." he said to the woman indicating the floating droid that basically always followed him around, usually quiet and almost unnoticed.
"Ah yes it shouldn't be a problem. Who should I contact to get a hold of you?" she asked as they started to pull back towards the spaceport where she had picked him up from when he contacted her agency.
"You can get a hold of me through PA at either any of the HPI droids here at the spaceport or at my company HQ in Theed, just find the building with the big HPI sign on it." he told the shocked woman as he left the vehicle. Apparently she had not made the connection between his name and HPI. Not that, that didn't surprise him as most people referred to it as HPI and not Hadrian Peverell Incorporated.
He walked through the space port and made his way to his ship, where he had parked it after finishing with Padme. It seemed that the girl was quite stressed lately, and he hoped she took him up on the offer for a vacation. That being said, she also seemed to be torn on the issue of rearmament, and hopefully his words helped with that.
As he was walking through the spaceport he could see large screens advertising his products, and many different 'specialty' stores that sold his goods, and even things from other companies. No reason not to make some money there too. Or at least that is what PA tells him, he was not a business expert, that is why he built the droid. That and to be the amazing assistant she is.
He walked into his private Hangar which he had on many planets now, and walked onto the awaiting Marauder. The ramp lowered for him as he approached thanks to his droids onboard, who are always keeping watch. He walked up to the cockpit and told the pilot droid to take off. As he was about to go back down to his private area, he felt the weirdest feeling in the force.
It was almost like it was asking something of him, and directing him towards the navi computer. Not really seeing a reason not to let it guide him at this time, and seeing where it takes him, as his magic had never truly let him down. He moved to the Navi computer and started to enter coordinates for a hyperjump.
"Sir those coordinates are not in our computer. Are you sure you wish to make the jump?" the ever serious pilot droid asked.
"Yes, it is the Force that leads us this time, but give me a moment." he said, opening up a comms connection to Shmi.
"Yes, Oh hey Harry what can I do for you love?" she asked him as she answered the line, clearly busy with something.
"I just wanted to let you know I am gonna be busy for a few days extra, the Force is leading me somewhere and I get the feeling it's gonna be interesting." he said with a smile at his busy fiancé. She seemed to love her job, and was even in charge of their expansion of shops offworld to their spaceports.
"That is fine, just let me know when you have a better idea when you will be back." Shmi said, looking at him with a smile. "Just be safe, and I love you." she finished.
"Love you too, and I am always safe... ok almost always safe." he said to the look of disbelief on her face. Somehow word of his extracurricular podracing had gotten back to her, thankfully she didn't know about him letting Anakin try when he was nine or he would be in deep Bantha poodoo. He cut off communications and nodded to the droid to engage the hyperdrive.
During the two day trip, he had only gotten the feeling to go to the bridge and enter in new coordinates twice as they dropped out of hyperspace. Seeing that they were traveling quite a distance, only three jumps was actually a small amount of stops, but he guessed that was to be expected when traveling by Force navigation. If that was what he was doing, as he had heard from Qui-Gon that Jedi did this in times of need, or in some cases for security. It had come up when he asked about light saber crystals, and where to get them. Apparently you needed to Force navigate to this special planet or something, Qui-Gon was not too open with that information or specifics.
When they came out of hyperspace at their third and final jump point according to the Force, they were in orbit above a large habitable planet. However that was not what drew his attention the most, no that was the giant beacon he could feel in the Force. It wasn't so much calling to him, more like a giant lighthouse in the dark. It was by far the most concentrated amount of Force he had felt since arriving in this Galaxy. Far out stripping what the Jedi Temple felt like to him.
"Do we have any navigation data on the planet?" he asked his pilot droid, as it started comparing it to known worlds in their database.
"I am sorry sir it does not appear to be any world we have in the databanks, nor in the current Republic records." The pilot droid answered, as Harry moved to the scanner to locate the nexus to allow them to head there. It was clear to him the Force wanted him to go and investigate this Force concentration, and he could only feel something good was going to happen. The Force was almost giddy that he was here for whatever reason, and it seemed that now he was here, whatever was going to happen the Force felt it was a near certainty.
"Take us to this location." he said to the pilot droid as he found the nexus on the scanners, it was below in a deep valley that seemed to house a ton of statues or something. Definitely worth investigating what was going on, he would have his ship hover close by and he would go in with his magic. "Just take us close, I will take it from there."
Their approach was calm, as Harry could feel only a few thousand other sentients on this planet, and it was clear that it was not a highly advanced planet. The planet seemed to have a fairly harsh environment, being quite arid from what he has observed so far, not a desert planet like Tatooine, but still arid. He had still made out a few bodies of water on their approach from orbit, so they at least had enough water.
The fact that he seemed to now be approaching a giant valley with a number of towering statues that screamed being Jedi to him, made him reassess his quick judgement on how advanced this place may have been. Doing a scan with the sensors, he could also tell that those statues were made with rocks from all over the Galaxy, including of all places, Naboo. Clearly someone brought them here, and this was looking more like a monument than anything else.
On top of that, the feeling in the Force was indescribable, nothing like he had even felt on Earth. There was such a concentration here nearby, it was like taking a shower in the Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, it also felt slightly tainted by the darkside. With them now floating over the top of the valley, looking down upon the monument of Jedi statues, it was quite an impressive sight.
"Go back to orbit and wait for my signal after. Ensure you stay cloaked." he told his droid before concentrating in front of the ship a ways, and Apparated out of the Marauder into mid air. He used his magic to keep himself floating in place as he let his magic spread out in the surrounding area. He could feel the nexus coming from his right, as it seemed to be buried in the cliff quite a ways. He could also see some sort of building that looked to be an access shaft towards whatever this place really was that housed the Force nexus.
With one more look back at the quite amazing Jedi monument, and it was certainly Jedi as he could now feel the lightside coming from each statue, he started to use his magic to fly towards the cargo shaft building that seemed to not have been in use for hundreds and hundreds of years. Flying came to him fairly easily, with his natural ability, and Tom's memories on how to actually do it, Harry could easily launch himself a few hundred km/h through the air under his own power now.
He didn't get many opportunities to use it outside his trunk, and some of the flights he had with Hedwig in secluded areas. It was one of the few things that he was still able to do with Hedwig, as she was not a huge fan of Tatooine. The understatement of the century. Often though he used his broom, as it required far less active concentration on his part, and could go faster. The small building took only some judicial use of his ever developing Force telekinetic ability, or more aptly, his ability to use his magic to will things to move around, to get inside.
Inside he looked at the damaged cargo shaft that seemed to go down a few hundred meters with no lift in sight, so he simply walked off the edge and slowly floated himself down. He probably looked super badass right now, he thought to himself as his long suit jacket was flapping around him as he did a controlled descent. It was a fairly basic mining shaft of some kind, which led Harry to believe this planet had been a mining planet, but was abandoned some thousand years ago by the looks of it.
At the bottom, he found himself in a creepy base of some kind, and was clearly long abandoned and scavenged for anything useful. He followed the pull of the Force deeper into the facility before once again finding himself at another elevator. This time it was only a few stories so he just jumped down, and with a cushioning charm landed without issue. After that it was him following ramps down until he found himself in a cave complex looking at the oddest sight before him in many years.
It was a glowing silver 2m tall oblong orb, that had a terrible feeling to his magic, but he could clearly tell what this was. It was somehow an object that had trapped inside itself the power and souls of many of what he presumed were Force users. He was not quite sure how many, but definitely dozens if not many many more, and the Force only confirmed his beliefs with the feelings he was getting from it.
However he didn't even need the nudging of the Force to know what to do, but as he got to work he could feel its joyfulness at his actions and its outright guidance at times. He started by first transfiguring the ground in 20m radius around the silver grey force nexus into a flat stone surface. Perfect for carving some runes, he also pulled out a few books from his LIS and looked over a few things, before he got to etching. See, in front of him was the perfect source of Force power, or magic for him to absorb, while also giving those who were innocents inside a chance to become one with the Force or move on to the next great adventure as Dumbledore was fond of saying.
The others, like the Sith he could clearly feel from even a few meters away that were stuck inside still now trying to claw their way out, would be stripped of their Force powers as he absorbed them much like he did with Peter Pettigrew. However he had an entirely different ritual in mind this time that he wanted to perform, so with the guidance of the Force he started creating what he needed. Unlike last time instead of just taking the power from the source, i.e. the nexus this time around and not Pettigrew, he would have the runic array first judge the soul on how tarnished it was, basically determining how terrible of a person they were.
If they were not a bad person, then the ritual would release that soul to the Force, if they were bad at heart, well then that is when the fun started. First the ritual will basically rip their souls apart ensuring they never returned to the Force, and then it would funnel their power into Harry giving him a huge power boost. It would also come along with some of the knowledge of those souls, but nothing like when he absorbed someone's full memories. This knowledge would only be related to their force and combat abilities. Or at least he hoped that was the case, as he was making this ritual up on the spot.
He could feel the Force almost humming to him as Harry seemed to be fixing something it did not like, and it even seemed to encourage him in his effort to drain the evil ones of all their power. He was not quite sure why, but the Force always seemed to want Harry happy, and quite frankly that made him happy for some reason too. If there was one thing that had never let him down in life then it was his magic, sure sometimes it didn't work how he wanted, but that was because of his lack of knowledge or ability and not magic itself. If anything magic gave him more leeway than would be expected and helped him along the way, so he had no problems following the few nudges he got here and there during the carving. It took him nearly a day to finish carving the array, and he had done so without break, almost in a trance like state, but when he was done it was magnificent.
The whole array was about fifteen meters across and within were two sub runic circles with runes almost flowing around them that then made up the larger array. Within the larger of the two circles was the force nexus thing that Harry was still not quite sure what it was called, however he may know soon. All that he needed to do now was stand in the smaller of the two inner circles and activate the ritual. He was a bit hesitant to start, as him absorbing a few dozen Force users power was going to cause him a bit of pain, as his core expanded in response. Resolutely though he walked into the small circle and activated it before he could chicken out, and then immediately fell to his knees screaming bloody murder.
"ARRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH." he screamed out for minutes on end as the ritual took place, repeatedly damaging his throat in the process at it healed from his natural abilities. It was almost like someone had distilled down the Cruciatus Curse and was injecting it right into his soul. All he could do was sit there enduring the pain while feeling his magic increasing by leaps and bounds. He seemed to have underestimated the number of Force users inside the oblong orb as he was currently absorbing well over a few hundred force users powers. He could feel his body changing on an almost fundamental level at the same time too, and his core kept expanding, before growing to such a size before collapsing back in on itself, more dense than ever before. Before doing it all over again. Each time more excruciating than the last, causing him to cradle his head with his balled up fists and dig his nail into the palms of his hands, opening weeping in pain all while still screaming.
It may have only taken minutes, but to him it felt like days on days, as he was vividly aware of everything, all because of how the ritual worked. There was always a price. He could feel when many of the Jedi were being released to the Force, leaving him with almost a hand on the shoulder in thanks before going. Surprisingly, even a few of the Sith also passed the ritual's judgment and also joined the force. Not as surprising to him at least, were the decent number of Jedi who didn't pass and were now having their souls ripped apart and their powers absorbed by him. Oh if some people from back home could see him now, they would most likely decry him as the worst Dark Lord ever, and others would see him doing justice pure and simple.
As soon as it was done, he sat down and started to meditate to center himself. While he did that, he could feel how happy the force was now in the area. It was still a large concentration of the force focused around the former nexus, but there was no longer an orb, or font of magic spewing out from this location. It was like a stain on the force was gone. However, what he also felt was all the new power, and quite frankly over sensitivity of his magic. His 'core' was super dense and powerful now, beyond anything he had experience or read about before. His body felt almost renewed if that was possible, and even stronger than ever.
However, it was the almost instinctual knowledge he seemed to now have about using the force that took most of his attention right now. Unlike his memory absorption, these memories of the abilities were already 'sorted' as they almost seemed to have formed into new memories of Harry's own as the ritual was going on. So it was less him taking other memories this time, instead he was taking their skills and knowledge with nothing else attached to it, and translating those into an experience of his own. It was an odd sensation, having a vague memory with minimal details of you practicing something, even though you know you have never done that.
That was also how he now knew what that orb he had just absorbed was, and it was called a Thought Bomb. Something created by Darth Bane, and used by a moron to try and end the threat of the Army of Light; a group of Jedi basically responsible for the end of the New Sith wars. This planet was also called Ruusan, and the accords after the Sith War that radically changed the Republic were named after this place. It was funny then that it was lost to the Republic for some time that it was not even in the public navi records.
His knowledge of the Jedi and Sith ways of using the force had skyrocketed, and he even had to admit to himself that he had personally underestimated the power a highly trained Force user could wield. He really had not seen any evidence of a lot of these abilities he now knew from the Jedi currently alive now. It also seemed the Sith treated the Force as something to be understood and controlled, whereas the Jedi saw it almost as something to be revered and guided by, never controlled. Honestly neither philosophy really worked for him, as he used both methods daily in his use of the Force. He let it guide him at times, but also controlled it to his will with common frequency. He studied magic and the Force extensively to try to figure out how it worked, so he easily saw the merits of both approaches.
Sometimes you barely even needed to ask and magic would respond to you, other times you needed to tell and instruct it on what to do. As he was thinking about this, he let his force senses cover the whole planet, something he felt far more comfortable and able to do now that he had gained Sith and Jedi knowledge for his own. He spent nearly a whole day, moving things small and big, far and near to gain a better control over his huge increase in power. Control was the name of the game right now, as he was afraid to even try to fly right at this moment. He could just imagine accidentally rocketing himself into a cliff side at extreme speeds.
It didn't help that along with his core drastically increasing, his connection to the greater Force around him had also gone through drastic changes. Meaning that he was almost brimming with magic wanting to be used, and had the ability to pull on the surrounding magic almost instinctively. That being said, while he was playing around and experimenting with his force, he had felt in the surrounding a number of odd crystals that resonated with his Force. Not in the way his lightsaber crystal did, but almost like the way the deathstick acted as an amplifier and focus for magic.
With the crystals focused in his mind he quickly summoned a spare trunk out of his pouch and opened it on the ground in front of him all the while still submerged in his Force senses. Once the trunk was stable he felt for the many millions of those crystals nearby to him, and surrounded them with his magic. Once they were saturated and he could clearly picture them all in his mind, he gave a quick yank summoning them all into the trunk in front of him. They flowed into the trunk in waves as they appeared in hordes from a blue white portal in front of him.
Picking one up after he was finished, he immediately knew this was a Ruusan Crystal, basically as he had thought, it was something used to help in the use of amplifying the Force. Useful to Force users, but not nearly as useful as Kyber crystals, or many other unique lightsaber crystals. He would hopefully find a use for them in the future, maybe he could make wands or something out of them. That was worth an investigation. With that thought he grabbed a handful of crystals and put them directly into his pouch, before shrinking the trunk and putting it away as well.
He gave the now quite empty cave one last look. He waved his hand causing the ritual to be sundered in a million pieces making sure the ritual was destroyed and started silently making his way out of the cave system. On his way back up he sent a signal to the Marauder that he was ready to leave the planet. There was not much here, but a few thousand lifeforms spread across a few small settlements. He was not that interested in seeing the Jedi monument, maybe sometime later he could enjoy it with someone else, or maybe bring another Jedi here, but without other information it was hard to appreciate.
Outside the old Sith base, he was presented with the sight of the decloaking Marauder as it came in smoothly doing a quick turn pointing its rear in his direction to pick him up. Harry was interested to check the Holonet to see why this planet had been forgotten, and also to meditate and test out a few of his new powers. Once inside and on a holoterminal he got right to work while the pilot droid handled all the rest. Knowing this planet's name, it didn't take him longer than them reaching orbit to find out that this place was lost due to an expanding nebula in the area. This meant that the hyperspace routes to and from the planet became cut off, and no new routes were established.
That made him think about possibly giving the location to the Jedi, as it seemed fairly important to them at one time. It was also a monument to many of their fallen, so it seemed only right to him to let them know the way. He would talk to Qui-Gon about it when he came in the next few months. Holy Merlin, he could not believe that it has been nearly 5 months since he last saw Anakin, it only felt like yesterday. His recent projects had kept him so busy that time just seemed to slip by.
With that he started to analyze a bunch of the new abilities he had gained. Some of them were really interesting, and he could certainly see their use. Others made him think quite a bit about what he thought he knew about magic, and the Force. Most unfortunately were mostly more limited, or less powerful versions of his own abilities. That being said, there certainly were a few stand outs.
One was a Force Protection Bubble, which was a more powerful, far more encompassing, protego shield that surrounded an entire being, or whatever one was trying to shield. It was quite powerful, and depending on the user could tank anything from a lightsaber, to turbo laser fire from a capital ship. He also loved the idea of Force Lightning, and being able to toss that around with a flick of his hand. It didn't even take much thought, as he simply channeled some emotions behind one of his 'emotion doors' he had built during the second year of Hogwarts, a bit of will, and bam a torrent of lightning.
However that had nothing on things like Sith Alchemy, which reminded Harry more of enchanting objects than what he knew of alchemy from back home. He was not sure why this was purely a darkside ability other than it was bending the force to your will. Rather he was almost certain it could be easily used with the light side as well or simply a balance of the two. In fact it kind of reminded him of a few of the stories about Norse gods enchanting weapons back home. He would definitely want to try and explore that more in the future, however even the few hundred Sith he had absorbed only had some minor knowledge on the art.
The one that made Harry the most excited was Sith Sorcery, or Sith Magic, as some called it. It really made Harry believe that if a force sensitive got powerful enough they may be able to use some of his spells, even without a core. It also confirmed for him that it may be possible with trial and error to teach a powerful Jedi or say Anakin a few of his slightly more advanced spells with say the right focus or even something like a magic construct that only fired a single spell. It was another thing he definitely wanted to look into.
The Force seemed to be nearly as versatile with the proper training for a Jedi to use as magic was, and he imagined they would school the average witch or wizard in battle in most cases. Then there were those like himself however, and others like the teachers at Hogwarts that would take a number of Jedi or Sith to take down. So clearly Wizards still had the better starting position, but the Sith had truly taken to the use of magic and studying it to the extreme, often with science. Which was something he had thought impossible to truly do, due the changing variables magic seemed to constantly create. However the Sith made a habit of it apparently.
There were also other powerful abilities like Spirit Transference which seemed to be a form of possession, but seemed far more elegant. There was even the ability to block someone's access to the outside force, which basically made Jedi and Sith powerless. However he was fairly sure it wouldn't stop him from simply removing the block with his internal magic, and it would not stop him from using his core either in the first place. So it was not something he needed to worry about, but was definitely something useful for dealing with annoying Force users.
It took them four days to arrive on Tatooine, after tracing his 'steps' back to Naboo, then to Tatooine. During that time he contemplated the Force, or magic, he personally used whatever term felt best to him at the time, how to combine his new abilities with those he already had, and develop the almost instinctual ability to use Force powers on demand. For example, he could combine a stunner with a force push, so instead of pushing everyone away he sent out a light red, almost pink wave that knocked everyone out. It was quite interesting to try and use his spells with new approaches, and he enjoyed his time immensely. However he was already back before he knew it, and had to leave his trunk and face his fiancé rather than play with his new abilities.
It didn't take long to land, and he was walking into his apartments when Shmi found him. "That beautiful bounty hunter has returned. She is waiting for you in your office area." Shmi said with a smirk. "How was your trip? You seem different for some reason." she said looking him up and down.
"It was great. I learned a lot, and gained a few new powers to boot." he said, giving her a quick kiss, before making his way up to his office after she gave him a quick spank on his butt in farewell making him jump as she walked down the stairs back off to whatever it was she had been doing. He walked into his office area and found Sugi sitting on a couch in the lounge area of his office reading a padd.
"So you finally return." Sugi said to him looking up when he entered the room. "Where did you get off to anyways?" she asked, giving him a good once over.
"I was on a long trip, rediscovering a lost planet through the Force, interacting with several thousand year old dead Sith and Jedi." he said to her casually taking his seat behind his desk indicating a chair. "You know, the usual." he joked, getting an odd look. "So how did your hunt go?" he asked.
"It didn't get far, whoever hired me covered their tracks well. However I did some investigations to see who wants you dead, and came back with a fairly long list." Sugi said looking at him a bit exacerbated. "Between rising tensions with a few slaving and spicer Hutts, to the Trade Federation, and Pirates, you have a lot of people who would like to see you in the ground."
"I knew of some of those, but I didn't realize I was having such a large impact on the slavers or that some of the Hutts were that upset with me." he said not quite sure what that was about. Sure his stance on slavery was well known, but he had not done that much related to preventing the practice. Nor did he actively try to either, except for letting slaves run away on his ships.
"Yes well apparently it has to do with you friend Jabba as well." she said looking at him closer, but with a weird look on her face. "It seems his influence is growing far too quickly because of you, that some of the other Hutts want to stem the issue before it becomes a problem they can't do anything about. They also do not like some of the new ideas Jabba has had since becoming your friend. Which honestly I admire that you have managed to get the Hutts so riled up like this and had such an impact on a crime lord. I don't think I have seen them like this for a… well ever." She said happily that a bunch of Hutts seemed to be having a bad time.
"I guess that is the best I could have expected, it was not like someone was going to use their real name when hiring someone to assassinate another person." he said lamely. "If I could only get so lucky. Do you want another job right now, or some time to relax?" he asked her honestly.
"Hmm, I have already had a few days of relaxation here." Sugi said looking at him again with her intense look. "Your fiancé was very welcoming, and we spent some time discussing a number of topics together. You are very lucky to have someone like her." she said to him seriously, and with a bit of humour in her voice.
"I know, she makes living here feel like it is truly home." he said happily, smiling. "Let us ask PA here if there is anything new to note, otherwise I have a few ideas about where to send you." he said, as PA finally spoke up without being asked.
"Nothing pertinent directly to HPI, however there was a coup attempt on Ryloth that resulted in some damage to our spaceport, but ultimately the coup was a failure." PA responded clearly a bit peeved.
"A coup couldn't happened to a nicer group." he said sarcastically as the leaders of Ryloth were part of the reason slavery was nearly institutionalized there.
"Unfortunately Harry, the coup was attempted by an even worse group of Twi'leks who wanted to increase Ryloth's slave trade." PA said unhappily. Slaves were not great for business long term at all, as he needed paying customers, not slaves all over the place who couldn't afford his goods. PA made her position of this clear to him years ago, it many many many more words. With detailed graphs and economics to make him see the long term damage slavery does to any economy regardless of how its done.
"Well then Sugi I think sending you to Ryloth to investigate what is going on would be an ideal course of action. You could also work behind the scenes to reinforce antislavery movements, and weaken the slavers and leaders who support them." he said seriously to the woman, who brightened up at the request. "I would of course be willing to finance the operation, with whatever you may need. Within reason." he told her, as her smile grew. He liked seeing the Zabrak smile, it made her far more beautiful. At this point he basically had given up fighting with his 'improper' thoughts, and was just going to live in the bed he somehow created.
"Next time you won't be able to get rid of me so quickly." she said with a flirtatious wink, before walking out with a PAM droid following behind her. Clearly PA was going to keep tabs on her for him. She knew him too well. However for now, he wanted to spend more time practicing with his new abilities. There was only so much the knowledge helped him, he needed to be comfortable using these abilities, and practice was what would get him there.
It didn't hurt that he also was able to focus on what he wanted to meditate on better now, so that he was significantly less distracted by all the life around him like when he had mediated before on a planet. It certainly made that task far easier for him here on Tatooine. He also wanted to start getting some tests done to improve the accuracy of his future planned hyperdrive. His desire was to be able to drop his big ships in exactly where he wanted when coming out of hyperspace, and not have a large possible area of exit like it was now. So he got to work as there was tons to do.
A bit shorter of a chapter, but I hope everyone enjoyed it. I hope I was able to respond to everyone who asked a question, and thank you to everyone who left a review. May the Force be with you these holidays and see you tomorrow with the next installment!