Rule34Economy 4

Star Wars 17

Lehon. Unknown World.

Before returning to Republic space I'd wanted to come here and since the drones had finally found this once important world I decided to come for a quick visit.

"There's nothing of value on this planet," T'Pol said, as she put away her scanning device "We should leave".

She and I, as well as some other of my waifu who were currently looking around, had come to this world to see if there was anything worth taking from here, however, there was not. Therefore all I could do to just stand here on this world and think about where I was.

Lehon was a tropical world in a remote and relatively unknown corner of the galaxy known as the Tempered Wastes, a sparsely populated area of space. Its surface was largely covered by oceans dotted by numerous clusters of islands and archipelagos, it was a paradise and yet aside from my group there was no one around here to enjoy it, a big shame. The planet itself was orbited by two small moons, and one of them was close enough to be visible from the surface during daylight, covering a significant portion of the sky, an impressive sight.

This world was the only habitable planet in the Lehon system, and long ago it had shared an orbit around its primary star with the Star Forge, an ancient Rakatan space station and factory which drew its fuel directly from the system's primary star. The Star Forge had been destroyed thousands of years ago by a redeemed Revan and there no traces of it left, or if there were any then they couldn't be told apart from other forms of space debris.

Millennia before the birth of the Galactic Republic, this planet was the capital of the ancient Infinite Empire of the Rakata. These Rakata were a scientifically advanced species that powered their technology with the Force that they could use due to their natural Force sensitivity and intelligence.

They used their knowledge to enslave and subjugate other, less-developed species. They created several technological marvels including the semi-sentient Star Forge, which churned out war droids and starships at a rapid rate. Also, the Rakata built large cities on their homeworld, which later became crumbling ruins reclaimed by the jungle. I could see some of the ruins from where I now stood.

The Infinite Empire ended in a brutal civil war. During the final days of the Empire, the Rakata were forced to flee back to their homeworld due to widespread slave insurrections and the ravages of a deadly plague which stripped them of their Force abilities, but here their war continued. What few Rakata there were left, now extinct beyond their homeworld, succumbed to barbarism, and the species never recovered from the loss of their empire.

The planet itself had once protected by a powerful disruptor field that could disable any incoming ship's communications and navigational systems. This field, operated from the summit of the Temple, was originally constructed to protect the Star Forge, but it no longer functioned.

Over the millennia, the planet had become a technological graveyard, with its tropical islands strewn with the wreckage of spaceships unfortunate enough to have stumbled across the mysterious planet's hidden location. The planet was infested with foreign fauna as well, including rancors and gizka, which must have come here aboard crashed ships, as they were not native to this world.

Around about a thousand year ago, Darth Bane arrived here on Lehon and gained access Darth Revan's Sith Holocron. Upon landing on the surface, he sensed that the planet was still deeply steeped in the dark side of the Force, even more so than Korriban, although that power had started to fade, I could sense it. Something had changed, perhaps it had to with the Jedi Order having been in power for centuries, or it could be something else.

By the time of his arrival, the planet was reasonably well known, but it was largely ignored because many of the darker aspects of Rakatan history had been suppressed by the Republic and the Jedi. In a battle with the Sith Lord Kas'im, Bane destroyed a part of the Temple of the Ancients by collapsing one of the major archways, in a duel with his former master. The temple was another ruin that I'd had the chance to see.

Now the world had been forgotten about by the galaxy and it had any sentient inhabitants they were well hidden, and there wasn't much left here to prove that there ever had been a civilization. Only ruins and rusted out hulks of starships that had crashed here centuries or thousands of year ago still remained.

"You're right," I said, agreeing with the Vulcan waifu, who was so often the voice of reason "But I wanted to come here and see this world for myself".

I waved my arm at the ruins and rusted out wreaks that were the only signs of anything not made by nature left here.

"This world was once the centre of a mighty empire," I told her "and now all that remains is a few worn-down monuments".

Nations and regimes fall, and this place was a good reminder of why it would be pointless for me to become a conquerer. My works wouldn't last, and it also reminded me that while the dark side is powerful it doesn't give you immortality. The Force abandoned the masters of this world and when it did their empire ended. The dark side could be a useful tool, but it was not an ally to be trusted.

(Line Break)

Base. Ruusan.

While originally I'd been thinking about having Thrawn come work for me that didn't look it could happen now as the Jedi Order had snapped him up and taken him into their temple. Of course, I'd known that this might happen, what worried me was that the Jedi would try limit who knew about the threats in the Unknown Region of the galaxy using the justification that they didn't want to cause panic among the civilian population. Which was a valid concern, but they should at least tell the military leaders about the Vagaari and the worst things out there. Perhaps I would share the information I'd gather to some select parties later.

As for the Vagaari, I now had information on the worlds that those raiders had attacked and had sent spy drones to keep an eye on them in case the Vagaari returned to harvest more slaves, and if they did I could help those worlds out, but other than that there wasn't much I could do and there were plenty of other things that I could be doing in the more well-known parts of the galaxy.

I'd had a lot of fun while in this universe but I'd been here for quite some time and as such, I was eager to move on, and if I got the portals as part of that Home Sweet Home perk I'd be able to come back anyway so there was no reason to drag things out.

To this end, I was working hard to put together a large enough military force so that when the ceasefire came to an end, which it would sooner rather than later, I'd been in place to strike. For that, I needed many more bioroids and slipfighters, and so I'd been helping Andromeda as best I could. However, Padme had turned up to distract me.

"I am trying to win this war," I said to Padme "I don't really have time for any goodwill missions".

She did not like hearing that so I explained that in the show The Trade Federation created a blockade around Pantora, which led to some of its people to believe that it would result in the Pantorans joining the Separatists for assistance. Chairman N. Papanoida met with Senator Riyo Chuchi on Coruscant to discuss requesting that the Republic take action on the blockade. Shortly after they did so, a Trade Federation member who is a Separatist, hired two bounty hunters, one of them Greedo, to kidnap Papanoida's two daughters as leverage to force him to join the Separatists. When the daughters were rescued, one by her father and one with the help of Ahsoka Tano, the Trade Federation removed the blockade, so that the Senate wouldn't find out that they had been working so closely with the Separatists.

"Ahsoka isn't on Coruscant," Padme told me "She's on Kamino last I heard from her".

Because of this change in the timeline, caused by me, Riyo Chuchi wouldn't have Ahsoka with her when she went to talk to the Trade Federation and would likely end up captured while trying to free whichever daughter was on that ship which was blockading Pantora. Assuming that one of them was even there to be saved.

"Let me guess you and Riyo Chuchi are old friends so you'd like me to go save the Chairman's daughters so you can use the kidnapping as leverage to end the blockade," I said.

As if I needed the hassle, but I might as well bind Riyo and have her spy for me in the Senate, then once this level ended I'd have her as a friend for Padme.

"Please" requested the former queen of Naboo.

Maybe this was why Padme was only a Tier 1 waifu. She was much more demanding than others.

"Very well. You can take the cruiser to Pantora," I said, getting up from my command throne "With the teleporters and stealth tech you won't have much trouble recovering any captured Pantorans. I'll take the Scimitar to Tatooine and get the other one. Assuming she's there, and if she isn't I'm sure Greedo will know".

And if he doesn't some bounty hunter will.

"Thank you, Gothic," said Padme.

Before she left she spent some time giving me a nice long hug.

(Line Break)

Cantina. Tatooine.

"Everybody's dead Dave," I said.

Finding the place that one of the chairmen's daughters was held in turned out to be rather simple, proven by the fact that someone had gotten here before Asajj and me, who were both in disguise, and they'd killed all the crooks here, but not with blasters it seemed.

"These scum were killed with a sabre," Ventress said as she looked over some of the bodies.

While Asajj had simply dressed as a bounty hunter as she would have in later seasons of the clone wars I wore the armour I'd been working on. I wore the armour I'd been working on for some time now and while my efforts at Force Attunement were rather basic, meaning that this set of armour would need to be replaced once I had a better handle on how to forge such things, it would do for now.

It was a modified set of Imperial Knight armour, only my set was only re-enforced with cortois ore, so while it can block lightsaber blades without breaking, they won't turn off and my armour's ability to withstand sabre attacks is limited as it can only handle so much energy. The amount of cortois ore I'd had to work with had been limited so I'd had to use other materials which were somewhat effective against energy attacks.

My version of the suit of armour was black for the most part with the armour pieces having been painted a dull silver since if I wore all black it might look a bit too Sith. I'd even gone with wearing a cloak, but that was only due to the fact that cloak kind of worked well with the mask and the hood. The mask I wore was rather plain-looking as I was no artist, it was useful to me as it allowed me a few different kinds of vision, it filtered the air I breathed and it made sure that no one would recognise my voice.

Along with the mask, I had some other cool features. On the belt was an ECM generator, which would make it very hard for any scanner to gather any data on me, a High Guard force lance, a teleporter beacon, and a pouch of holding with some magic tricks in it just in case I needed an edge in a fight.

Reaching out with the Force I tried to get a sense of what had happened here. Sometimes if an event had a big impact on the Force such as lots of people dying at the same time, it could leave an impression in the Force, or so I'd read in the archives, but when I tried to sense my surroundings I found something else.

"I sense a presence" I whispered.

From a back room came Sora Bulq, a Weequay Jedi Master from the Bulq family on Ruul. He'd become renowned among the Jedi for his skill with a lightsaber, he mastered every form of lightsaber combat known among the Jedi, becoming one of their greatest instructors and Weapon Masters. Because of this Bulq was recruited by his colleague, Mace Windu, to assist in the refinement of Vaapad, Windu's new combat form.

However, Vaapad required that the user dance along the edge of the dark side of the Force, and Bulq fell captive to the darkness. He pursued his studies of the dark side in secret until Count Dooku captured him during the earliest days of the Clone Wars and turned him fully to the dark side.

Bulq reemerged on to the scene as a secret agent of Dooku's, calling together several Jedi who were unwilling to fight for the Galactic Republic in an attempt to create a schism in the Jedi Order. But instead of setting up Windu to look like an assassin as planned, the meeting saw Windu expose Bulq's scheme, after learning that he had fallen to the dark side and Windu convinced the Jedi dissidents to rejoin the Order. Bulq then returned to Dooku's side, where he commanded the Dark Acolytes, a collection of other Jedi who had fallen to the dark side and joined the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a few of which I'd killed in person.

Later, he was placed at the head of the Morgukai Shadow Army on Saleucami. When that army was besieged in the closing months of the Clone Wars, the Separatists could not hold out against the Republic. Bulq managed to kill Jedi Master Oppo Rancisis of the High Council but he was no match for Master Quinlan Vos, who had served as a double agent for Dooku before rejecting the dark side and killing Bulq in a final duel

But in this timeline, Quinlan Vos never joined Dooku, and even now served the Jedi Order, I knew this because he'd been involved with bringing Zero the Hutt to justice, hunting down and capturing the Hutt, and it had been on the news, so it looked as I would be the one to slay the corrupted Jedi Master or be killed by him.

As for the unknown Dark Jedi with Bulq, she must be serving as a sort of Padawan for Bulq, she could be dealt with by Ventress. I figured that the human girl was just some young Jedi who'd gone over to Dooku's side having lost faith in the Jedi Order and the Republic after finding out about Palpatine. Not that I would blame anyone for doing that as I had little faith in the Jedi Order, but if she served Dooku then she was an enemy of mine.

"I assume you have the chairmen's daughter," I said to the fallen Jedi Master.

His answer was to ignite his blue blade.

"Kill the girl!" I ordered, just before Ventress leapt into action.

This would be a hard fight as this alien wasn't just fallen knight he was a corrupted Jedi Master, I would need all my powers if I wanted to add his sabre to my collection, and much more importantly, I didn't want that lightsaber removing any limbs or ending my lift.

Right away the Weequay went on the offensive sending a table at me that I slashed at with my silver blade cutting it in two and swinging my weapon around just in time to block a blow that could have removed one of my arms. Due to a need for mobility in a duel my arms and legs were not as well armoured as my torso.

While I was able to use a series of well-timed blocks to defend myself from the rapid Vaapd strikes of this Separatist warrior he was proving to be very fluid in his movements and much faster than the Dark Jedi I had faced in the past. My new armour proved its worth when the Master slashed at me in a move that would have cut open my chest if not for the protection I wore.

The fallen Jedi was so shocked by the fact that his attack hadn't been fatal that I was able to blast with the power of the Force and send him flying over a broken table, but he recovered fast, and with a gesture, he sent a chair flying at me, if the Force hadn't warned me I wouldn't have been able to duck in time to avoid it. Due to the angle of the chair's flight, the corrupted Jedi Master had to destroy the chair with his own weapon to avoid getting struck.

During that very short distraction, I channelled my magical power into a great blast of lightning, knowing that I would not win this contest with a lightsaber. That proved to be somewhat of a mistake as like Windu he was able to direct some of the energy back at me despite the attacking having been magical rather than of the Force, but I did face a master so I should have expected something like this.

Thankfully my armour was partly made from cortois ore and as such it could absorb energy, this meant I felt nothing more than little pain that was easily ignored. I would need to further insolate my armour in the near future, assuming I survived this battle.

"Stupefy" I yelled while thrusting out my free hand.

A bolt of red energy that should have stunned the corrupted Master jumped out of the palm of my hand and headed towards the Dark Jedi, only he batted the bolt aside with ease. At least he seemed wary now and kept some distance between us. I took advantage of this to use more magic, this time a Dragon Age spell called Crushing Prison.

Invisible strands of magical energy ensnared the corrupted master and tried to crush him, but he was able to push back with his own powers and shatter the spell with such force that he broke what little of the bar that was still in one piece. All that remained intact was a single table that he soon tried to throw at me, but I held it in place with my one command of the Force, and we each ended up trying to bash it into the other, only this lead to the table getting stuck in the air between us.

I drew more heavily on the Force letting my growing anger and desire to kill this fucker fuel me, and this would have been effective if the guy I was fighting hadn't been able to do the same, so I had to let the table nearly hit me only for me to duck under it before it could strike me as I had done with the chair only moments ago.

Then without any warning, there was a scream as Ventress cut down the much younger Force-User, and now that we outnumbered the fallen Master two-to-one he decided to do the smart thing, which in this case is to blast us both with the Force so that we have to use our powers to steady ourselves, and while we are distracted doing that he ran for it.

"Guess bringing Panatora into the CIS wasn't worth dying for" I muttered.

Ventress went over to her kill.

"For you my Master," said Ventress.

She was offering me the sabre of the woman she'd just killed, but it was not I who had earned it.

"Keep it for yourself" I instructed, "You earned it".

She hooked the weapon, which had a green blade, to her belt.

"Let's find the chairman's daughter and get out of here before the Hutts send someone to investigate," I said.

The Hutt clans were allied with the Republic so if news got back to them about people with lightsabers trashing a cantina it could cause problems.

I had other concerns. Given that one of Dooku's minions had been able to fight me on equal terms I clearly had more to learn and I didn't need hassle from the Hutts as well. Plus soon Dooku would know that I had powers beyond the Force and that would only make him more interested in me. I expected the bounty on me to go up very soon. Plus Dooku would not be happy if learned that Ventress was with me. Bulq might have recognised her despite her not using twin red blades any more.

(Line Break)

The Infinity and Beyond. Hyperspace.

Ryloth was a planet in the Outer Rim Territories, and the homeworld of the Twi'lek species. Its terrain varied, filled with jungles, mesas, valleys, and volcanoes, and had an atmosphere breathable for Twi'leks and humans alike. A great forest covered most of its equator, and it was filled with dangerous predators. Given the varied and dangerous terrain, those who couldn't shelter behind city walls wisely lived in caves underground where it was safer.

As a member of Ryloth's nobility, Cham Syndulla, who Padme was currently speaking to, opposed the policies of the Galactic Republic and Ryloth's senator. When the Clone Wars began and the Separatists invaded his world, Syndulla formed a group of freedom fighters to combat the invading droid army.

When the Republic came to Ryloth to free the world from the Separatists, he formed an alliance with Jedi Master Mace Windu and his Clone Troopers to liberate the capital city of Lessu. The liberation of Lessu ended the battle for Ryloth and saw the capture of Separatist leader Wat Tambor.

Well, that was how events had played out in the Clone Wars series. In this different reality, the Republic had never liberated Ryloth as the resources needed to drive off the CIS from that world had been needed elsewhere. However, because of the regrouping of the Separatists ships during the ceasefire, the fleet that had been blockading the Twi'lek homeworld had been sent elsewhere even though the droid army remained.

"But the planet is still occupied and if we are to liberate our homeworld then we need supplies, weapons and allies" the hologram of Cham Syndulla was saying to Padme, who was commanding the cruiser as it returned from its successful mission to save one of the daughters of the Pandoran chairmen "We can not pay much, but we have no choice other than to ask. The Jedi can not, or will not, spare anyone and we'll have all died of old age before the Senate will decide what to do".

The sad thing was that Cham Syndulla wasn't exaggerating by much, the Senate was deadlocked on so many issues that there was no point going to them for anything and the Jedi who could have done something had so much to do simply keeping the Republic together that they could spare no one to go help a lone planet on the Outer Rim.

"We're not a charity," said Lara Croft to the former Senator "and you're not in any place to make a commitment for the rest of us".

Padme was used to having a certain amount of authority and a desire to use in order to do good as much as possible, but her fellow waifu was corrected. Saving the chairmen's daughter and using the kidnapping as leverage to end the blockade had been her mission, and that mission had gone well, but this didn't mean she had any right to speak for their master. If she did he would be right to punish her, and he'd only agree to help the Pantorans as a favour to her, she didn't want to push her luck.

"All I can do for now is to promise to speak with Captain Gothic upon his return," said Padme "Perhaps he can find some way to help you while profiting".

He did seem to be good at that.

(Line Break)

Capital City. Ryloth

Not long after dropping off the chairman's daughters somewhere safe I'd brought my cruiser to a system in the Outer Rim so that I could earn some more credits and strike a blow against the CIS who were even now attacking Sullust having broken the ceasefire.

While Padme hadn't promised anything on my behalf I did see this as an opportune chance to capture a CIS leader, who all had high bounties of their heads that the Republic would happily payout. Yet despite this, I wasn't aware of anyone else going after the members of the Separatist Council. The fact that they had armies of droids was a big reason behind this, but I had ways around that and the bounty for the Separatist leader I was going after wasn't as high as what I'd gotten paid for Nute Gunray, it was still nothing to sneeze at.

Padme was now leading a relief mission aimed at aiding the Twi'lek resistance who would very soon be getting their planet back if I had anything to say about it. Once I had my target in custody he would either order the droid army to shut down or he would be killed bounty or no bounty as while I wanted the reward it wasn't worth putting my waifu at risk to get it.

I was going after Wat Tambor, a male Skakoan who was the foreman of the Techno Union and an executive of Baktoid Armor Workshop. During the Separatist Crisis, he pledged the Techno Union's resources to the Confederacy of Independent Systems, earning himself a seat on the Separatist Council during the Clone Wars.

In the main timeline during this conflict's early stages, Tambor was appointed emir of Ryloth and he supervised its occupation by the Separatists, which was fiercely resisted by local Twi'lek freedom fighters led by Cham Syndulla. After defying orders to abandon Ryloth when the tide of battle turned against the Separatists, Tambor was left behind and captured by the Galactic Republic. He was briefly imprisoned on Coruscant before being liberated later in the conflict.

What differed in this version of events was that Tambor had remained on this planet, occupying it despite Dooku having called away from the world its blockading fleet. I had no idea why Tambor hadn't left with them, perhaps he had some experiments going here, or maybe he just liked lording it over the natives, not that it really mattered as soon he would either be dead or on his way to Courscant.

As for how I a group of my waifu would get to him, this involved using Lancer Drop Pods which were single-seated armoured transport used by the High Guard forces of the Systems Commonwealth. The Lancer Drop Pod is equipped with two rear VTOL thrusters capable of arcing 90 degrees for rapid course corrections, evading incoming enemy fire, controlling rate of decent, and re-entry back into space. It is also outfitted with four double-barrelled Point Defense Lasers, capable of light ground-attack operations and clearing out a landing zone.

We were using it to drop right into the heart of the Twi'lek city so that we could avoid nearly all of the droid forces and grab Tambor as quickly as possible. Teleporting down to the planet was also possible, but it was best to only use that technology when everyone getting teleported had beacons and besides Andromeda had gone to all the trouble of making us these cool drop pods, which did a very good job of clearing us a landing zone.

As soon as the pod opened I lit up my silver blade and began to bat blaster bolts aside from those droids who hadn't yet been destroyed by the pod's automated weapons, they didn't last for long and soon I was heading for Tambor's chambers. It was late at night so he should be in bed.

As I made my way to the chambers of Tambor some alarms started going off, however, this didn't matter because as soon as I got my hands on the CIS leader we'd both be teleported up to my ship. It would best for him to order the droids to stand down using a communications system that was carefully monitored by Andromeda.

He had Mangaguards, but they met a rather messy end due to the claws of my newest waifu X-23, also known as Laura Kinney, she was a dark-haired beauty with a toned body that she kept covered by an outfit I'd seen a version of her wear in the X-Men Evolution, much better than yellow spandex.

Laura was the clone and later adoptive daughter of Wolverine, created to be the perfect killing machine. For years, she proved herself a capable assassin working for an organization called the Facility. Then a series of tragedies eventually led her to Wolverine and the X-Men. She attended school at the X-Mansion, and eventually became a member of X-Force. Like her father, Laura has a regenerative healing factor and enhanced senses, speed, and reflexes. She also has retractable adamantium-coated bone claws in her hands and feet. Adamantium could withstand lightsabers so the metal of the droids bodies didn't last long.

I'd forked out for a Tier Five waifu to serve as my bodyguard as I needed someone to watch my back who didn't need to worry about their own wellbeing and since Laura could heal nearly any injury and had an unbreakable skeleton, she was well suited to throwing herself in danger that crossed my path. Not that I needed much protection as I was safe most of the time due to all my different protections, but I did desire some given how many groups would try to come after me if they could. Deathwatch, the leaders of the CIS, the Vagaari and I did have a bounty on my head.

"Tambor you're mine!" I yelled as X-23 slashed her way into his chambers.

I felt a sudden sense of danger as something struck me and sent me flying out of my room.

"Note to self" I muttered as I got back up "Add more padding to the inside of my armour".

The blow had hurt, but that pain became the least of my worries when I saw who were up against. Durge, the creature who was a major antagonist in the Legends continuity of the Star Wars franchise. He is a Gen'Dai bounty hunter that has lived for nearly two thousand years, participating in several wars. Durge was extremely bloodthirsty, sadistic, and aggressive and he loves killing, thinking that time is only well spent when he's busy murdering someone. I knew him to quite psychotic, likely from his torture at the hands of the Mandalorians and the numerous times he's come close to death.

As a result of being tortured by some Mandos, Durge became mentally unstable and has since grown a deep hatred towards the Mandolarians. He eventually came to serve the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars, given the opportunity to slaughter Clone Troopers, knowing that they were clones of a Mandolarian known as Jango Fett. I didn't know why he was here, and right now it didn't really matter.

"Did you think I had no protection," said a strange voice.

That was Tambor so I went with the plan and stuck a teleporter beacon on him. Once he was up on the ship Andromeda and my organic waifu would know what to do with him. He would shut down the droid army by sending the codes or be executed on the spot. That was a concern for others I needed to focus on what was going on here as things were not going well, and we might need to run away.

X-23 was on the back of Durge, having somehow gotten behind him was now holding onto him while her claws were dug into the back of this strange lifeform. As painful as that should be Durge seemed angry rather than in pain and he displayed his rage by swinging a Virbo-axe around the room, destroying what had been a nice private room. I knew that powerful Vibro weapon Durge was using features an Energy Cell that causes the blade to vibrate rapidly when activated. This gives the weapon far greater power than a standard Axe, with minimal effort from the wielder, but that hardly mattered at this moment.

What did matter was that I needed to tag myself and Laura with beacons so that we could both get out of here, but while I could easily leave Miss X-23 was another matter.

"Laura we need to leave!" I shouted.

She couldn't hear me, she was too much into the fight, and given Durge's erratic movements I couldn't do anything to help without harming my new waifu. So all I could do was watch as Laura freed one set of claws and began stabbing. In a short amount of time, she shreded Durge, reducing him to scraps of flesh, it was like watching a slow-motion blender. Very gruesome.

"Okay now we can leave," I said.

The droids had shut down, and now the rebels were laying siege to their city as planned, using weapons I'd supplied to destroy the now inactive droids, which was smart since they could reactivated, and this meant our work here was done, but before we left I summoned Durge's helmet to me. Laura needed some decorations for her room.