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Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 226
🕑 Added 2025-04-28 15:37:04 +0000 UTCOur arrival at Nirn was different from what it usually was. We were still playing the robbery and killing of Jabba close to our chests since we didn't want to be connected to it quite yet. That would be a really good way to start a lot of trouble, so we kept things simple, no bragging about our loot or showing off what we had gotten. Instead, the two L-2783s filled with our loot landed inside Boxi's Fury, where we carefully unloaded their contents into several storage rooms.
Despite technically being the later, purpose-built warship version of the design, the Fury was still a Lucrehulk, a ship originally designed to store the entire production capabilities of whole planets. Not only did it still have plenty of storage room, but it even had rooms specifically designed for holding art and other valuables, which we had discovered when storing the loot from the Jedi Lord vault.
Once everything was off-loaded, I held a small meeting with group leaders to discuss our victory and what it meant. The leaders of the 3rd Group, who were two days away from jumping to Tatooine to offer aid and hopefully stabilize the planet a bit, linked to us through the holonet.
"The total profit should settle somewhere around forty million," I explained once everyone had settled in. "But only about six of that is ready to be used, and another seven is in credit ingot form and will be ready once we deposit it. Everything else needs to be curated, appraised, and sold."
"The jewels and jewelry will likely be the easiest to sell," Tatnia pointed out. "There are groups who will pay reasonable prices for them wholesale, so that should be easy. Hells, I may have an old contact who I could call to get us a good deal, especially with the quantity we have."
"Discretion is important, don't forget," I pointed out. "Twelve million credits is more than enough to start our plans with, so letting it trickle in overtime is fine."
"We have good news on the sales front," Quartermaster Finder said, calling attention to him and his assistant. "One of Corvak's Mandalorians has trade experience, so I put them in charge of our new merchant branch. So far, they have three sales yards already working on selling our freighters and starfighters. They have also found several specialist salesmen willing to work with us."
"That was fast," I commented, slightly surprised. "The sort of people I had in mind when you first brought up the idea didn't seem like the type of people who would jump to join a group like ours."
"Apparently, we offered some interesting and compelling options," Finder explained with a chuckle. "The luxury of working from a completely unknown planet, protected by an increasingly growing military force who consistently brings in new stock, is something of a dream for most of these people. When we agreed to a flat pay plus a scaling commission, all four people we were talking to practically jumped into our arms."
"Scaling commision?"
"They get a certain percentage of each sale, which decreases depending on how much money is changing hands," Finder described before making a repeating gesture with his hand. "The scaling goes down, but they will be making considerable amounts of money for larger sales, so expect the occasion sale of larger things, or even requests if they can find them."
"That's good, though the requests need to be reasonable and remain requests. I am not getting us tangled into commissioned theft for specific targets," I explained. "I'm assuming I'm the last hang-up here, then?
"Yes, sorry, Sir," Finder confirmed with a wince, waiting for your approval so they can finally start moving into the city and settling in."
Despite how large our group was getting, I was still a primary part of our security. I was happy to say I had met every single person who lived on Nirn or worked with or in the Skyforged. At this point, Calm was by far my most used spell, and I was so good at it that I was preparing to start trying to modify it into something designed explicitly as a truth spell.
"How are we filling the yards?" I asked, looking back at Finder.
"We were just waiting for the Salvage Fleet to arrive so we could start shipping things around," Finder explained. "We are keeping the TIE hunters here, obviously, since they are way too hot to sell to the public. Our sales specialists are working on them right now. They've had a few leads, so we hope to get them out of here soon."
"Same with the stuff we just got from Jabba," I pointed out. "Our sales specialists can say we got them through contacts, but if too many show up in one place, it's going to give the game away."
"Agreed, they are already salivating at the basic list," he admitted. "This complete one is going to blow their minds."
"Then I suppose I need to reach out to Admiral Ackbar and start negotiating for a repair birth on Mon Cala," I said. "We are on track for that to work, right?"
"Absolutely," Finder agreed, nodding his head. "Tatnia was correct about the jewels and jewelry. That will be another chunk of income pretty soon and will cover for the rest coming in a bit slower."
"Good, that's good," I said with a nod, before looking around at everyone. "Did anything else happen while we were gone?"
"The Raider and the Imperial Escort Carrier have been cleared and named," Sabine volunteered. "The Raider will be Tarre's Pride since it will host a Jedi and Mandalorian ground team. As for the carrier, we went with Petrichor, since you stole it from the Storm Commandos."
"Fitting for both of them," I said with an appreciative nod. "Get the usual battle droid compliment on Tarre's Pride, then put a larger complement on the Petrichor. It's designed to land ground forces, so it should have that capability. Some B2s and BXs, as well as some DSD1s. Maybe even a few AATs, just in case. There should be enough room for that, right?"
"Plenty, though there are already some Imperial assets on board… What should we do with them?" Sabine asked out. "There's a bunch of equipment for soldiers, but also light armored vehicles."
"Get the vehicles out. We can sell them separately," I explained, "let the quartermaster have the rest, he can shift it around to where it's needed. I want the forces on the escort to be droids so they can be deployed as we wish without worrying about casualties."
Sabine nodded, as did the quartermaster, his assistant taking notes. The meeting continued for a while, discussing how the mission went and what we planned on keeping from the art and jewels for political gifts. That led to the discussion of selecting our political minders, whom we would be sending to the Rebellion to represent us and Nirn.
"So, I was thinking about this during the trip home… but why not send a Clone, a Mandalorian, an outer rim civilian or slave, and a Jedi?" I suggested, catching several people off guard. "Not only is it one hell of a curveball, but I feel like it really represents us. A melting pot of people and species coming together to make something great. Not to mention that it's a statement of what we believe in. All four major groups were represented evenly, embodying our ideals to the Rebellion and whatever they turned into."
"That… I'm not sure how the other politicians would feel about that," Ahsoka pointed out. "Many of them are trained politicians or nobles from birth. To rub shoulders with people like that is going to rub them the wrong way."
"Sounds like fun," Julus said with a smirk. "Could I apply?"
"They won't have a choice," I said with a shrug after giving Julus a look. "It's not like they can get rid of them, not when their presence is getting them. "Plus, soon, we will be producing raw resources and materials ourselves. How eager will they be when we start offering parts and raw metal that they need desperately?"
"A fair point," Ahsoka admitted. "I can start looking through our people, trying to find someone with experience and the right attitude. Corvak, if you have anyone you might suggest, I would be grateful for your insight."
"I'll think about it," He agreed with a nod.
The meeting ended not long after that, with everyone splitting up to see their different tasks. My first and primary task was to check over the newest flood of new members. This included the four sales specialists, as well as a slew of farmers and industrial workers, people invited to join us to fill in our latest push for self-sufficient growth. Most of the mining projects we were working on were completely automated, with various asteroids around the system already being mined and the raw materials being brought back to the moon, where they were being refined by a still-growing facility.
That left setting up the production facilities that would use those materials to produce parts and other products, which was where the new recruits came in. We were going for a more flexible type of production, where three or four facilities could produce a wide array of parts and goods, which meant the factories needed a considerably larger percentage of sentient people to robotic labor forces. We were still leaning heavily into our robotic help, of course, but the ratio was much different for the factories.
By the time I had checked everyone over, confirming they were safe to let out into the general population, most of my crew had gone down to the surface. Most of the crew was enjoying time off, though I knew Tatnia was working off and on with various groups as well, helping fill in as my second in command. While I definitely wanted to join them on the planet's surface, I needed to reach out to Admiral Ackbar.
The sooner we could get the Venator up to our standards and ready for service, the better. Since she was much better connected with exactly how the process would work and how much it should cost, I had Miru sit in on the meeting.
"Admiral Ackbar, it's good to see you," I said, greeting the Admiral through the holoprojection.
"It's good to see you as well, Admiral Deacon," He responded with a nod. "What can I do for you. I was informed you had a rather large request."
"We do. Recently, we managed to recover a mostly intact Venator-class Star Destroyer," I explained, holding back a smirk at the Mon Calamarian's surprise. "Unfortunately, we are not satisfied with 'mostly intact' or the state of some of its systems. We are looking to perform a significant overhaul of several of its systems."
"And you lack a facility large enough to do that," Ackbar surmised with a nod. "You need a shipyard."
"We do. We are also willing to pay for the service, including parts and labor," I assured the aquatic leader.
"Of course... The Mon Cala shipyards do have room for a ship that size. We could take the project," he admitted. "But we would likely need to pause production of another ship to do so. While not unheard of, we would need a sufficient reason to make that happen."
"You're asking me to pay you... so I can pay you for a service?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "I understand your need for ships is extreme, but that doesn't exactly scream cooperation or allies..."
"No, it does not," Admiral Ackbar admitted with a frown. "Unfortunately, I find myself with my hands tied by orders. I dislike the situation, but I cannot simply stall a project without a reason."
"... How about a squadron of Y-wings?" I asked. "a little rough around the edges, but checked over by my people and passed as functional."
"... I suppose the Venator wasn't empty when you found it," He guessed.
"Something like that," I responded. "Do we have a deal?"
"...Yes, I will happily accept that as payment for postponing our own work schedule," he agreed with a nod. "Tell me, what sort of modifications are you looking to make..."
We spent another hour discussing our needs, and the payment that making those needs happen would entail. Eventually, we settled on twenty-seven million credits in total, half upfront and the second half upon completion. The Venator would be shipped to a neutral spot, where the Mon Cala workers would take over and bring it the rest of the way. We would still have personnel on the ship, helping with repairs and learning from them.
When negotiations were over, and a verbal agreement was reached, I traveled down to Vercopa. It was late, so I crashed pretty hard, falling asleep before Ahsoka made it back.
The next day, I woke up late to a still empty house. Ahsoka had left me a message explaining that she was visiting Yoda, and since the weather was decent, I figured I would join her.
As I headed to a shop to buy some food to share, I got a few smaller bits and some water pouches before sitting down to wait. When the order was done, I quickly made my way to Yoda's preferred park. It took a few minutes, and I had to cheat using Clairvoyance, but eventually, I managed to find them. As I approached them, Ahosoka greeted me with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, while Yoda simply nodded. I'm sure he would have liked to shake my hand, But at this point, even moving around on his floating chair was beginning to be painful for him. After we settled in, he made an offhand comment about his age, and I chimed in.
"Listen, old man, I know you've got a good feeling of when you're gonna pass," I said, calling him out. "I know you could probably name the time of day if you wanted to. I expect ample warning so we can gather those who wish to say goodbye."
"Oh? And no say do I have in this matter, do I?" He asked, looking at me with narrowed eyes. "If I wish to pass peacefully, with no excitement, hmmm?"
"No, you don't. Funerals and goodbyes are for the living, not the dead or dying," I pointed out. "You may be going on to join Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi in a quasi-immortal afterlife, but we won't be seeing you for a while. The least you could do is let us say goodbye."
The small green humanoid snorted but eventually nodded. Ahsoka rolled her eyes, but she seemed to understand where I was coming from. I was worried he would slip away without us having a chance to say goodbye.
We continued to eat, eventually talking about some of the Jedi Masters who would make good political representatives of Nirn. Ahsoka suggested that Master K'kruhk could fill the role, but Yoda shot her down before I could.
"A good Jedi, Master K'kruhk. Seen much, he has," he explained. "Much to still see, he does. Jedi of the old order, he is."
"We need someone younger, then?" Ahsoka asked, leaning back on her bench. "I'll have to ask Master Amescoll or K'kruhk if they have any suggestions then."
Yoda nodded in agreement before we focused on our food. The conversation got considerably lighter after that, just three people chatting in a park and enjoying their lunch.
Comments
Fortunis
Having the Mon Cal upgrade the Venator is smart. Especially the part about sending his own people to learn as they go. In fact, I'd take that even further if I were Deacon. Send a few people to, or hire from, Kuat and Mon Cal, so they have their own in house ship yard design crews when that becomes feasible. Honestly, the opportunity Deacon has for his future shipyard is pretty amazing. He has future knowledge of the kinds of threats coming from ole palpy as well as possibly the Vong. So he has the opportunity to get the jump on effective ships designed to fight those threats as well as the same old same old. If I were him I'd also start recruiting scientists. Especially the biosciences. He has an entire world to explore and having people like that on hand if the Vong do end up showing up would be absolutely key to keeping his people safe. Hell he might even try hitting Camino to see if there's anything left of their cloning technology or knowledge base.
Fortunis
Yeah. I can't wait for that first meeting. I expect it'll be hilarious 😂
SwiftFate
Hmm..If he plans to modify the calm spell into a more specific truth spell, and plans to continue using it as a large part of their security measures with recruitment.. why not take it a step further and make it into something that can be enchanted. A truth amulet of some kind that could be passed to recruiters of the group. They could even start a mass recruitment drive that way with people being able to verify others without Deacon there
Feliprins
Getting some autonomy is so big for post-Empire geopolitical situation... New Republic will likely be so horribly crippled with incompetence and Core World's negligence that they won't be receiving any investment or military aid like ever. It would be good to clean up some Warlords when opportunity comes like Gideon on Mandalore (The fact they can hunt them down with Clairvoyance also gives them another advantage in negotiating with the New Republic, getting paid to locate the slimy imps)
Heidao
Oh this is gonna be funny, the rebellion's senators are gonna be expecting a political delegation of familiar or likeminded politicians, instead they'll get a walking lie detector, two warriors who's people have been abused by the old regime and a random Outer Rim yokel representing the biggest ally bringing in a fat chunk of much needed supplies and ships. And they can't just swindle or snub them cause they could just as easily walk away
Noob
Tyftc
JKarrde
I have to admit, Iove the banter between Roy and Yoda. I dunno why, but it's like two old friends just sitting on a porch just firing playful shots at each other.
Jacob Gondringer
Tftc!
OmegaNano
Is it just me or this one shorter?
