Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage - Chapter 365 (Patreon)

Hey guys! So, some good news bad news happening right now. As I was editing this chapter, I spotted some inconsistencies that required me to start heavily changing things. Unfortunately, as I was fixing it, it all just kept coming apart, like a cartoon character pulling on a thread from a sweater. Good news is I was able to combine what remained with this chapter with what remained of Mondays chapter to make something just a hundred words short of my usual length. Bad news, that means this chapter ate 366, meaning there is no post on Monday.

Its unfortunate, but honestly its better than posting the stack if dominos that the chapters were before.

Thank you for your patience and enjoy the chapter!

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The conversations continued for quite a while, and in total, we spent six days negotiating and debating before we finally called it to an end. Unlike when we finished the first page of the Pages of Collaboration, Leia and I did not sign anything, since for now, the latter pages didn't actually mean anything, at least from a formal standpoint.

The first page was active, a declaration of friendship, a statement of why the Skyforged was considered a friendly organization to the Rebellion. It was fact, just a list of what we had done, so signing it was just confirming that we recognized that everything on it was true. The latter pages were more of a contract, an agreement on what we would give them or commit to doing. It also declared what they would give us in return, and we wouldn't agree to the terms until we officially submitted them to the Rebellion's new charter, whatever they decided to call it. This was both a statement of approval, a message that we agreed with the charter's construction, so we agreed to submit to the discussed terms, as well as our last chance to pack out.

It was also how we would be able to influence the charter itself, without having an actual seat at the table. They really wanted the things we agreed to, so holding back and pointing out that we didn't like something, and wouldn't agree to put our Pages of Collaboration in unless it was changed, would hold a lot of weight.

By the time the six say rolled around, and sliding into the seventh, I was very glad to be done with the process. As much as the Rebellion was going the extra mile to make sure we were being treated well, it was still a political quagmire of debate, and it took all too long because we couldn't just come out and barter properly. I was pretty sure that if we had, we could have finished it in a few days, but all the backward talk stalled so much forward progress.

I had no idea how Princess Leia seemed to be enjoying the process, at least in some way. 

When it was over, the Rebellion hung around for another full day, during which we had a closing feast. Before that, however, we had a mostly cleared day, where we met in the morning and more or less just shook hands and agreed that we were finished, and that the pages were ready. It wasn't until the following day that I learned from Luke that Leia and Han had actually spent the rest of that last day in town. He had taken her to the restaurant I mentioned and explored the city on foot. 

Luke was quite happy that Han had made such an open move, though Winter seemed a bit less enthused. As I assumed, Winter's disapproval of the scoundrel had nothing to do with Han being lesser. There was no way someone so dedicated to a cause like the Rebellion, which was filled with criminals of just about every shade, doing incredible heroic things, would care that Han was a smuggler. As I had guessed, it was more that she was worried her sister would be taken advantage of. 

Even after the date went well, Winter hadn't changed her mind, but after a conversation she at least admitted it was likely he wasn't after her for her influence, power, fame, or whatever underhanded purposes she had envisioned, which was quite an upgrade compared to most of the suitors Leia was exposed to during her day-to-day. 

With the political summit over, and the extra day over, on the eighth day, the Rebels were transferred back up to the Fury. After a final goodbye, the large ship left with our guests, to deliver them directly to Alpha Base. Leia assured me that the next stage we would need to participate in for the charter would happen within two months, likely less.

When they finally left, Ahsoka and I spent all day at home, mostly sleeping off the ordeal. Despite the fact that we never left Nirn, I was more tired than I had ever been from any combat mission. We slept most of the day, a rare occurrence for both of us, since we both hated lazing around doing nothing for so long.

"And people wonder why I work so hard to prevent the need for real politics on Vercopa," I said, shaking my head while enjoying a box of takeout in our living room. "I would rather fight a dozen Inquisitors than do that again."

"You are doing it again when the charter is finished," she pointed out. "And you're only saying that because your shouts make fighting you in a melee impossible." 

She wasn't lying. I had all but mastered the grimoire version of Unrelenting Force and Whirlwind Sprint at that point, to such a degree that when I was using them, I dominated almost any melee fight. I beat Luke and Ahsoka soundly when we sparred during the free day, even when I specifically held back and didn't shout them into the ground the moment someone said: "begin!"

It was the cast simplicity that really made them hard to beat, as the shouts required no hands or buildup. Just a simple shout and the effects were conjured instantly. Were magic was a powerful card that allowed me to fight people with considerably more experience than me, and with the Force, Shouts were an absolute trump card. At this point, I felt decently confident I could fight Vader on my own, using the shouts to counter his incredible Force capabilities.

Assuming I still had beskar armor, of course. I was confident, not arrogant. 

Of course, that was all in a fair fight. I wasn't delusional to think that someone couldn't trick me, or ambush me, or come up with some sort of situation where I would be in trouble. The idea of a slug thrower packed with beskar rounds was still a concept that terrified me. Enough that I brought together my ground team leaders and, under the agreement to keep it a complete secret, explained the concept, warning them that if the Empire, or any other organized group, started fielding slug throwers in any way, but especially in a uniform, large-scale way, they should really start to pay attention.

The Mandalorians had reacted the worst to the news, realizing that a simple mental gap that separated beskar as armor, not weapons for most people, was all that stood between them and Mandalorians being considered easy targets by anyone who could afford a few ounces of the wonder metal. 

After a day or so of recovery, Miru contacted me, explaining that her engineering group had come to the conclusion of whether our primary battle droids should just be improved B2s, or if they should design something new from the ground up.

We ended up meeting for lunch, since it had been a while since I had checked in on the young genius engineer. Like always, she was happy as a clam to be working as the Skyforged head engineer, and was thriving. I still made a note to spend more time with her, even if I did spend some time with her on almost every break on Nirn.

"In the end, while the B2 is a decent design, they focused too much on making a big bad war machine, rather than an actual combat unit," Miru explained with a frown. "It works, but they wanted something intimidating and big, so there are some issues. I mean, it can't even look behind itself without turning completely around. Sure it has some sensors focused backward, but they skimped on them too much to-"

She cut herself off, shaking her head and pausing long enough to take a bite out of her sandwich before continuing.

"It really doesn't matter, and I've spent the last week debating every little issue with the B2. I don't feel like going over it again," She admitted. "Bottom line, we decided to go with the redesign. We even sketched a potential concept for the standard general combat model. 

She slid out a small holoprojector onto the table, tapping it on to show off something that kind of looked like if someone had made armor based on a B1 or a BX design. It was robust, definitely less spindly than the B1, but not nearly as lopsided or top-heavy as the B2.

"This design combines the flexibility of a B1 with the armor and strength of a B2," She explained, gesturing to the glowing projection. "It's just a basic concept right now, but this is the general idea we want to go with on the redesign. At this point, we have made a statement using the old CIS tech, so sticking with some visual similarities is a good idea. Plus, with an actual head, it can look around independently from its torso.

"And what about the ground team version?" I asked. "If this is the B2 equivalent, what's the BX?" 

"That's… A good question," She admitted with a frown. "The BX units are already elite, the best of what the CIS could make for that size and frame. Technically, you could make the argument that magnadroids might be better, but they are tuned for melee combat, where the BX are prepared to excel at most tasks."

"So we just make more BX's, then?" I asked, leaning back in my chair. "I mean, they are hard to take down with the beskar plating." 

"Well, we could make something better, but it would probably take a lot more credits and even more rare materials," she responded with a frown. "Droids like this, and a lot of technology, function on exponential costs. Making a B1 is cheap. Making a B2 is more expensive, but really you get plenty of wham for your wupi, enough that even ten B1's would struggle to take a single B2 down. Obviously, a BX is better than a B2, but it costs way more, and even five B2s could take one down. At least, the normal versions. Beskar plate kind of throws out the scale a bit."

"The cost-benefit ratio is off, I get it," I said with a nod. "So it all depends on how much money we are willing to spend on our robotic ground teams, compared to how much better they are actually going to be. What would you consider to be the next level up after a BX?"

"Something like an IG-88," she answered easily. "Lots of custom, intricate, expensive parts. Yes, the result is a step above, but the cost for each model is exorbitant, and the step is much smaller."

"Right, well we aren't making squads of 88s unless we can steal a whole lot of them," I said, shaking my head. "The whole point is to make combat teams that real people can count on, but can also be sacrificed if absolutely necessary. We don't want to, because they are all armored with beskar, but it would be better than sacrificing a person."

"Just to give you an accurate idea of what it would cost, the alloy we use for the BXs is pretty low in beskar, about a half of an ingot for the entire droid. But even after that beskar is added in, an IG-88 would still be more expensive." 

"Damn…. Yeah, that's not worth it," I said, shaking my head. "I mean, obviously I would sacrifice an 88 for a person, but…"

"I get it, boss, too much for the job," she agreed. "We can make some improvements with the BXs themselves, update some internals, use a slightly higher ratio of beskar, things like that, if you're desperate to make the droid itself better. It won't be much, but it will be something. That said… There is an alternative." 

"Which is?" 

"Improve their gear," she said with a shrug. "They have repulsor packs, but giving them a few more tools would improve their flexibility and capabilities a lot."

"They have access to the same things that the normal ground teams have," I said, before continuing. "And that is a decent list of high-end weapons and gear. We don't skip on equipment."

"But the standard loadout for equipment is pretty low," Miru pointed out. "And that's fine. Between the utility of our armor, and always running missions from ships with ample equipment, we hardly ever run into issues, so keeping it light is good. But the BX are droids, we can build their equipment into their bodies. For example, with a slight thickening of their left arm, we would integrate a mag lock system…" 

For the next hour or so, Miru spitballed a couple of ideas for making the BX's better combat droids, without getting in the way of what made them so effective already, and without jacking up the price.  Some of the ideas had a lot of merit, like integrated utility slots built into their armor, or holdout weapons added to their arms. Other ideas smacked of Bond gadget craziness, where someone is given a whole list of cool-sounding gadgets, but were often so niche the plot had to bend over to make them useful. Things like that were more often than not just dead weight, and even if they did come in handy, there was usually another method just around the corner.

I told her to make small improvements, but keep some of the crazier stuff for the equipment that they could carry with them. 

"That said…" I added, a thought entering my head. "You're welcome to make yourself a custom bodyguard. Actually… weren't we supposed to be getting Magna-guard bodyguards? I seem to recall that discussion happening...?" 

"Yeah, those were finished months ago," Miru responded with a frown. "I thought you just didn't want them following you around all the time."

"No, I've never seen any of them," I said, shaking my head. "I'll look into it. Even if I never use them, they are too impressive of droids to just leave them sitting around, so at bare minimum we would find another use for them."

Our meeting and lunch continued on, eventually ending after another hour, and plenty of time to talk about things other than work. When it was over, Miru rushed off, excited to get to work on our new general combat droid.