I hope this chapter is not boring, I'm fully aware that I'm not writing an action pack series but more of a political thriller (well at least building up to it): that leans heavily with bureaucracy, institutions, ideologies, and just general logistics. So if you guys want to read lightsaber duels this is not it. I'm writing a story about a guy that works in the background of administration, and a political figurehead.

There's a reason why I chose a military industrialist as the Mc because they touch every subject I want to discuss and write about in Star Wars, and how war is how we could see society and the system that governs it at its very best and worst.

But if you like those kinds of stories please stay, I would like to read your comments about them and you discuss them with me. I'm the star wars nerd that is more fascinated by politics and fake history, and having people to discuss it with me will make me very happy :)

After all, like a certain Prussian general says, war is just politics by other means.

…

Leirra Zuraiys

When you picture an Imperial governor you would think of an arrogant man, full of vanity, corrupt, ambitious, and cold towards the subject he or she ruled upon, following protocols to a fault if it benefited him or her, and exploiting the planet the emperor essentially gave them to rule as fiefs for the betterment of the greater Empire. The man before me, laughing with a non-alcoholic drink in hand with jolliness, as you would expect from Santa with a beard and belly to match, was not it. Governor Klevens Metternich(1), is a great man, he's friendly, easy to talk to, and has this grandfatherly charm you wouldn't expect from someone of his station, he clearly is not ambitious, no ambitious imperial would want to be stationed in a planet like Birren, human-dominated, by all account peaceful, and in the inner rim; they would always grumble saying not being able to show off their skill or finding the connection to climb the Imperial ranks in which only the core world and the ongoing fighting in the mid-rim and outer rim could offer. No, he shows constant gratitude to be stationed on this planet that for all intent and purpose, is a dead end for any imperial career.

He's currently talking to his granddaughter; the year older than me, Alyssa Metternich, trying to console the poor orphaned girl by giving her words of encouragement and promises of sweets that would be given if she is a good girl for today's soiree. It is working, with how the girl now managed to calm down and wiped tears from her eyes and instructed to snot her nose on a serviette that Klevens kept in his pocket, I slightly squirmed at him as instead of tossing it away by instructing the maids or butlers to dispose of it, he pocketed it again the snot-filled serviette like it was nothing. Either the man is frugal or weird there is no in-between(2).

The duo approached my family that attended the soiree, father was predictably not here with us; his face would be instantly recognizable by the Clone War veteran. They have to wait maybe for another 2 or 3 years when the clones are properly retired, so, for now, Bas's cover story is that he is too busy with business that he can't leave (which is true business is booming, and they are quickly approaching their maximum theoretical crop yield.) and mother helped to reinforce the cover story by also not attending to give a picture that both of them are busy, and not because Tasnime doesn't like event like this, yeah who would've think of that? Anyway, that just left Grand pa, and Ma to represent the Zuraiys tribe, something they are used to except for the first time they brought me with them.

Grandfather shook the governor's hand with a practiced smile, "How's the party been for you Governor? I hope our cuisine is to your liking," he opened a conversation starter.

"A bit spicy but such things are expected from a world that is placed in an old hyperplane trade route. Tribe leader… "

"Asad, sir, tribe leader Asad of the Zuraiys with my family accompanying me, " he put his hand on my shoulder and another on my grandmother, "this is my wife, Ithma of the Zuraiys,"

Grandmother bowed, "It's nice to see you, Governor, and little lady," the girl with short hair and wearing a standard dress that is modified for children her age, just pressed her face harder behind the governor's leg. My shoulder was pushed a little bit by Grandpa signaling that it was my turn.

"And my grandson, Leirra of the Zuraiys," Grandpa introduced me. I only bowed, not knowing what to do that wouldn't embarrass myself.

"Ah, yes the Zuraiys tribe," his eyes immediately glistened in recognition of our tribe name, likely just realizing that he was speaking to one of his keys to control the planet. "I doubt any of you don't know my name," he chuckled then sidestepped to the left so that the little girl was no longer unobstructed from view she immediately told her displeasure with a meek yelp and head that is looking at the ground nervously, I almost gasped as the Imperial governor is kneeling beside her with a smile in encouragement and pushed her back gently and whispered to the little girl, "It's alright I'm here," his voice full of warmth.

The girl furled her dress tightly mustering the courage to speak, "M…my name is Alyssa Metternich," she bowed while raising the side of her dress, "It's a pleasure to meet all of you." Klevens Metternich surprised me once again by ignoring any decorum of high society and laughed heartily, visibly proud of her granddaughter and not afraid to give her affection, he immediately hugged her to Alyssa's dismay, "G-Grandfather, stop, h-hugging me, I'm a big girl!" She pouted and was angry but that anger was held back by shyness.

Grandma smiled looking at the duo but Grandpa, just look at the two with calculating eyes. He's plotting, I know he is plotting.

"I'm sorry about that Asad," he forgoes Grandpa's title and just calls him by his name like an old friend. He shocked everyone at the ball again, for what may be the third time in less than 2 minutes, "I'm just proud of her." Grandpa dropped his calculating gaze, the governor's abrasiveness and warm personality now finally made him befuddled and destroyed his stoic mask, nods approvingly at the Governor, and smiled warmly or the closest thing to a warm smile he had.

"It's alright Gove… "

"Just call me, Klev, titles never suit a person like me," he laughed with a bellow once more. I noticed that the girl was now back hugging the man's leg.

"Klev, I too am also proud of my grandson, "the two men talked like old friends, making me look at Grandma confused, which she noticed with a small smile of her own.

"Why don't you entertain the young lady Alyssa while your grandfather entertains the governor," she patted my head softly not wanting to shake it that could ruin my hair.

"How about you, grandma?" I asked.

"Someone's gotta keep watch at your old pa, now go, don't wait on me," she pushes me towards the little girl making me almost crash into her.

The both of us just stare at each other, I visibly have to look up a little as she is older, looking back at grandma, she says with silence lip that I can do it, they made me almost sigh in exasperation that would probably offend the governor if he isn't such a likable guy, Alyssa look at me in anticipation mixed with fear. The girl was visibly lonely and had no friends yet as this was the first time she was out in public, feeling pity for her I finally spoke. "Want to eat the cake at the buffet table?" I offered her.

She looked up to her protector for approval. The governor had heard my offer, briefly looking at the table in question then to her with a nod accompanied with a smile. She said in almost a whisper but enough for me to hear, "Sure." That's all I need to grab her arm and lead her to the table. I don't want to make this a slow endeavor, we came for cake and cake only, not a minute of pleasantries. Besides, there's probably a reason why Grandma wants me to give Grandpa and the governor room to talk with each other, it's probably serious talk that concerns the planet or system as a whole. I'm also not blind that they want me to be friends with her, besides the senator who represents their sector in the next system: Kleven Metternich is the most powerful person that is practical for us to be connected with, having this girl and me being friends is the most surefire way for us to be close to him. She seems also to be easily an influenced lonely girl, and being her first friend would prove advantageous. And me being the good grandson I am, will help them with their cause for influence.

I look behind me and can't help to let out an amused chuckle, she was shamelessly drooling at the sight of the 5-layer cake. Her shyness was replaced by the pure childhood wonder of sweets glittering like the stars. It made me rethink my possible relationship with her, no matter how you see it even if I am reincarnated back into being a child this is fucked up, while my body is of an adolescent, my psyche is adult, and I don't want interdimensional (or in this case intergalactic time traveling(3)) FBI come to arrest me. I can never be a peer that she needs to interact with; that leaves me with only one option: operation acquisition of a little sister has been commenced!

…….

A week has passed since the admittedly uneventful Soiree and another week of waiting for the blaster-smith Bas promised to arrive at the ranch. While the week passed had been uneventful; that doesn't mean I was being unproductive, Tasnime was mad at me, I'd been cooped up in my room just drawings upon drawings of schematics for the new blaster, it was a hard choice to choose which type of blaster was to be my first custom design, but after careful consideration, it's clear which type that I should develop first: a rifle or more specifically a marksman rifle that is used for long-range engagement. While pistols and assault blasters are good they are too complicated, scatter guns even more so, if it is a slugthrower then it could be the easiest to make but because its main function is to split high-energy plasma bolts into sub-bolts, I think it is too advance for me, rifles are the most straight forward, I don't need that much redundancy to implement a heat sink that could maintain continuous fire and the engineering to put a mechanism of a fire select, a pistol is also not that good of a first choice, i'm not confident enough to design the circuitry and internal mechanism to fit in a one handed device, all of my knowledge of blaster is after all only comes from the public info in the holonet, while dark holo would probably give me enough information to understand more about the device, knowing what regime I'm under makes it a really-REALLY bad idea to open it, 'I don't want to be in a list thank you very much.' that just left me with my very esoteric knowledge of gunsmith (A very rare skill in the galaxy) that could only help me in designing minor improvement such as trigger mechanism, ergonomics and general trinks that could improve the built that doesn't involve the mechanism to produce the highly heated gas and the magnetic accelerator to launch the plasma. While that sounds boring and minor, never overlook it, often those minor improvements and trinkets will make and break a project, you could design the best weapon you want but if that weapon is a hassle to use people will use the less powerful option.

Me not knowing how Blaster works is also a factor why I chose a rifle, it is straightforward to design and could be modified easily, and for the past few weeks, I have not designed a mechanism to make the plasma and the chamber that heat the Tibanna gas but the body to contain it, first, of course, is me deciding what kind of rifle do I want, a dedicated marksman rifle or just to be used for general hunting and sports competition while there are overlaps in the design for accurate long-distance shooting, but after thinking about it blaster tech in star wars is so advanced that it doesn't necessitate to differentiate,the blaster i'm designing could have the compact and mobility of a marksman and the accuracy and firepower of a sniper. The blaster itself would probably be semi-auto, making it capable of full auto will be redundant and just put unnecessary heft to the blaster and change its designation from a general marksman/sniper rifle to a battle rifle, something again I don't want, for now at least, having a battle rifle sounds like a great idea if I can design it, and figure out how to maintain it properly.

I look at the design proudly, laying it out on a table at Bas' workshop. He had been generous and let me use it to do my hobbies as he called it, not a crusade against crude designs. I almost scowled when he just designated this as a childhood curiosity. I've asked him if I can buy some equipment to produce the blaster Myself, he sighed and of course like any sane parents refuse to let their child have the equipment to produce weapons that can kill a man, yet he relents reasoning that this probably is going to be what I'm most passionate about and promised to support me, within reason, of course. Yeah he's a cool dad.

Studying the design once more I couldn't help but smile seeing it in all its magnificent glory. It's just your standard modern sniper, but standard modern sniper rifles seem to be nonexistent in Star Wars, most of the best-selling ones, and even the ones used by the Mandalorians look like machine guns converted into sniper rifles(4), or World War 2 and world war 1 rifle being fitted with scopes that looks like it belongs to a martini Henry from WW1. In essence, what the fuck is wrong with this galaxy designer!!?? That leads me to one of the other endless pet peeves I have with Blasters in Star Wars: the material they used, like cmon wood? And even metal or stamped steel? Are they being constricted to the materials being used in WW2!!? I mean for force's sake, earth has used plastic in its weaponry and Starwars has something much superior to plastics called plastoid that can withstand heat to a much higher degree, why not make the less critical components like stocks, railing, and bino and others that don't directly involve the heating chamber draped in plastoid!! Heat problems can easily be solved with just heatsinks answering any worry about the material melting off(5).

A loud grunt broke me from my admittedly fun musing and loud toolbox.

I looked at the new guest bewildered, surprised at his arrival, almost jumped to the air, possibly knocking up the tools hanging on the wall behind me like a cat if I wasn't being too careful. The man was trying his darn hardest not to laugh instead plastered a coy smile and walked towards the schematics I've drawn up and said, "Why did you use paper instead of a holo?"

Blinking at first to his question. I pulled myself from that embarrassing fit of not being watchful of my surroundings and answered the man that wears a traditional orange Birren clothing with a blue turban and slippers. "I'm just used to drawing with my hands," I answered truthfully.

The man just nods, and silence once more befalls the room; the man whom I presume the blastersmith Bas has requested to meet one, puts a hand on his very lush black beard, only to look at me then nods approvingly.

"How old are you again, young lord?" The man was still studying the design as he ask the question

"5 sir?"

"Reshim, Yehni Reshim. '' he told his name. "Why did you put an unnecessary spring on the trigger for the blaster? The rest of the designs such as your innovation of using plastoid and railings are understandable, isn't the spring a hassle for when you want to fire rapidly? And the handle," he grimaces."It's too human-centric. "

"The rifle isn't meant to be used as a rapid fire system, it's more for precision and the feel of the gun when you pull the trigger." I answered quickly, surprised that the first question he asked was not about the material I propose to build it, this kind of thing should've been more of a big deal, material choices and engineering failure is often why great gun designs fail. "Why do you focus on the trigger and the handle, Mr. Reshim? Isn't the material and railing the more innovative and design choices that should be more discussed? "

"Oh, I know about what you are trying to do and I must say it's innovative, and tells me that you can handle making big choices, I'm focusing on the handle and trigger because it's attention to detail, you didn't design it to be friendly with every species in the galaxy but just for humans, this trigger handle is to small for a Mon Calamari and a Duro; the stock are too big and straight for semi-bipedal species and you just handle the entire gun for the main use by humans and no any other species like the rest other do, and the way you handle the trigger, I guess that it is purely for user comfort and feedback on how they feel the texture, if that make sense, the most apt description I have is like on how the blaster feels when fired, the pattern to are not heavily ornate but not barren like mass produced designs. It has the purpose to prevent slipping besides being just an ornament, a crude way of doing it but undoubtedly effective. . "

He understands all of that with just a glance… This guy is one of my people!! Yes, yes finally someone I could talk to!

"Yeah, I made it for myself and intentionally designed to be human-centric because I don't expect it to be mass produced or anything. "

"Then why did you chose plastoid as the mainframe for the sub body? and the shape itself looks like it was meant to be mass produced, no matter how you look at it the design just screams that it needs to be adopted for military use. " that's because it was meant for military use, I may or may not copy some design elements from popular regions rifles like the AWM and the AXR sniper rifle that is designed for modularity so him saying it was made for mass production is somewhat true, custom blaster rifle are usually lavish and have over complicated design that has too many ornaments and bulbous shape that is hard for any industrial tooling to make even in star wars.

"Just something that I thought was obvious, plastoid is cheap enough to make and the production assembly is easy to use and the materials are easy to find with the restriction around its use are almost nonexistent." The empire are heavily restrictive with weapons manufacturing than the republic, but that doesn't say much, as a baseline any blaster that are capable to pierce plastoid armor is automatically illegal, through modifying and purifying Tibanna gas that can pierce stormtrooper armor isn't that hard, so it's a useless ban for the most feverish of rebel, and because the senate still have some modicum of power, any weapons that give its victim unnecessary amount of pain is also illegal even for the military (just the military branch of government ;] ). And any military equipment is of course banners for civilian use, obviously.

While plastoid can be easily made into body armor that is a military equipment; the Empire doesn't even try to control its production because of the wide use by the civilian sector. What is illegal and need special equipment, is the production of body armor without imperial permit, even if you have the permit the exclusive buyer for those body armor is the Empire and the Empire alone, so selling it to other third party is a serious charge that will make you be accused of treason with the minimal punishment is a lifetime in jail. That is why not many dare to make weapons with plastoid, the excessive fear over the law made no weapon manufacture want to innovate and invest in the civilian market, the Empire while a great customer doesn't want unasked innovation; they will not reward company that shows initiative e.g. Incom corporation(6) they ask for reliability, because they know realistically for the next 20 years the Empire isn't fighting any peer opponents that are technologically advanced enough to compete with them or even if they are more advanced; they can't match the Empire's vast amount of resources. That is why Imperial tech doesn't advance that much compared to the times of the old republic in the movies except some minor advancement here and there that is wide spread and not for special purpose; it is intentional and the doctrine for cost effective measures.(7)

"Impressive, very impressive but I can't help but notice you didn't even touch the other most important part, the thing that makes it a blaster and not some glorified walking stick, " he smiled. "It's smart of you to wait for a professional to design the blaster mechanism, even if you can make it within your own garage without special equipment. "

"What," he ignores my horrified expression of the possibility that every man within their garage/slash dad's man cave can produce their own device that could hold plasma and launch it with a single mistake could blow the entire mancave. At least with a gun you just kill yourself or the guy in front of the gun, jeez Louis blaster manufacturing is dangerous.

"So you said that you want it to be a sniper rifle right? You want an option that could possibly and easily make it store armor piercing Tibanna Gas?" again he just said something that is out-of-pocket, he just suggested to me the gun equivalent of putting automatic fire on a civilian AR-15 with a bumstock! (for non-gun nerds out there, it is very super duper illegal after the mass shooting of a certain public education institution.)

"Isn't that you know, illegal?" I hoped for the force! That this man is not crazy!

"Eh they won't notice until we fire at them, worth a shot don't you think?" He made a manic grin.

I like the guy he's clearly competent but

He is also clear as fucking day not fucking sane!!!

'either this going to be great success or me entering prison as a 5-years-old…. Fuck it, we ball!'

…..

Tasnime Zuraiys

Tasnime is attending a biannual meeting with the company she hired to find tutors to teach Leirra; they also have a job to summarize every teachers' report and review of Leirra performance to give her a clear view how well her son is doing, a service that they promised when she and her husband payed 200.000 credits for their son education alone, while that is an absurd amount of number that could buy you a squadron of transport aircraft that is nothing compared to the education cost core world elites give to their children, it is not unheard of that they will pay millions upon millions of credits for their sons and daughters education being teached by the best in the galaxy.

While she and bas could afford to send Leirra the same education of the core worlder; that would put too much pressure in their spending, and after the Empire implement the new tax policy against the moderately rich like she and her family, it has been a struggle, she and Bas is rich for Birren standard that is, they have tens of millions already stored in their accounts in just five years but they are nothing when compared to the other rich family in the core world, when the core world family breathe they already made the same amount of money that is equivalent to a full harvest but the Empire never give them any new tax levies instead only given them more loopholes and breaks that can make them even richer. It is agonizing for planetary nobles and merchants like she and Bas; the Empire intends to suck them dry of her family's wealth. Profit from this year has been cut to 2 percent from last year and if this continues it would probably be around 10 percent in a decade or more.

They are not going to be poor, force no, it's just Tasnime is bitter that the Empire shows obvious favor towards the core worlder drying them of their income in the name of imperial progress. They need to diversify their income stream if they want to maintain their wealth and pedigree not just in Birren but the whole sector. But what to do? Birrens doesn't like any industrial businesses on her soil and mining and logging is again a very debated and controversial topic in Birren; there's a reason why mining only exists in the Bolachis Plateau and not anywhere else in Birren. The tribes consider the land as sacred and any changes to her would result in violence.

While the Blaster Industry is alive and well; it is mostly handmade and not the ones that are mass produced like in other planets. Force, she hopes no one is foolish enough to open an industrial complex in her lifetime. That would be disastrous.

"So how's my son's education?" She asks the Droid that was sent as the ones to report her son's progress. "Is he doing well?"

She and it is currently sitting on the ranch porch with a serving droids pour some tea for her, in her field of view she could see Bas' workshop where Leirra and the Blastersmith Bas hired doing their own things, a backdrop of more droids being supervised by sapients to harvest the grain of gold with blue skies and white fluffy white clouds accompanies by soft singing from the winds that moved the grain slowly that made her felt serene as relaxed.

"It was a smart move on your part to enroll master Leirra quickly into the program, Ms. Tasnime. Leirra is advance for his age but when we put her to a test that the average 30-year-old could do he struggled greatly and his pace of learning has plateau and only getting slower, it was only year by year we notice some improvements but that still isn't enough for him to learn faster to close the gap of his mental age and real age, eventually he will only be a gifted child with an adult intelligence into and adult with an adult intelligence, we predict this Nexus will start when he is 18 or 19 years of old.

"T-that's good to hear. I take it that my son after that nexus will not be a genius? But just a normal?"

"No necessarily miss, master Leirra is smart, especially in engineering, out of all the subjects the teachers have given to him he has the most proclivity toward it. That's why beside the engineering course that he shows obvious interest, he doesn't need to be pushed in this subject, but we would recommend him to have a refresher course to keep him always sharpening his brain, and increasing the study material subjects, and change the subject every 4 years." the Droid explained.

"4 years? Doesn't that mean he'll have the same course as a university student? I'm glad that the service you provided has such flexibility but isn't this too much?" said Tasnime with worry. While she wants the best for her son, just giving him education after education isn't a great way to raise a child.

"Not at all Miss, you've specifically asked for service towards gifted children like Leirra, and gifted children often downplay studying that resulted in them never studying in their childhood years, this resulted in them entering adulthood and the rest of his peers catching up and they falling behind. We assure you that while it seems too much, with Leirra already advance maturity, we could stretch the studying material that'll give him ample free time. That's why we want to ask you another path that you should decide. Should we focus on him studying social sciences or just science in general?" The droids give her the options.

"This entire course is only a refresher and acts like a supplementary course right and not acting like school classes?" Tasnime asked for clarification.

"Correct Miss, you could say it's after school hours tutoring."

Now that is a big choice for her to make and the answer is rather obvious. Her son is obsessed to say the least with blaster engineering and engineering in general. And that is a huge problem, Leirra is of nobility, him not interested in social sciences would be a huge problem especially that he is her heir, and she is her father's heir. Tasnime does now want to be burdened with her father duties and that means if her father force forbids dies, she would give it straight away her title to Leirra when he is ready. And with Leirra seemingly disinterested with the more social aspect of that duty would present a huge problem, Tasnime made her mind easily. Leirra would not be happy but this is for his benefit, besides he still has ample free time to pursue what subject he likes.

"What's the social sciences courses you provide?" Tasnime asked the droid. It smiled or something similar with its mechanical protocol body, clearly approving of her choice (8)

"Well we have Political science, law, economy… "

……

1. Yeah. I know I'm just lazy. But if you know your history I think you would immediately understand the Imperial Governor's (somewhat matching) character and his competency :) And no, Mc does not know what his name means, he is a gun guy, not a history guy (even if both of those interests often diverged into each other.)

2. He's German (Well mountain German) lol, search Uyen Ninh videos about sneezing in public and using used tissues.

3. A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.

4. While true there has been historical account of machine guns being used as a sniper rifle, notably in the Vietnam war, it is inferior in its role as a sniper compared to dedicated sniper rifles in the role it was being used.

5. The first order used what looks to be plastoid with their guns.

6. X-wing and U-wing producer.

7. Basically the U.S after the fall of the USSR. Small arms tech doesn't have that leap forward after they fell, and the U. S only started to research heavily again at weapons RnD across the board after China becomes a real threat and Russia invaded crimea, before that the U.S tries to find cheap and easily maintained heavy equipment that can spread their influence, that birthed: the F-35, zumwalt-class and independence-class littoral ships, and the many-many iteration of the M1 Abraham and old updated 4th gens plane. With varying levels of success lol.

8. This whole part basically explained why in the future Leirra acted more like a businessman/politician rather than an engineer.