Star Forge - 41 (Patreon)

We grabbed one of the ships that were on Tatooine once things in the palace were settled. Beth and Bo decided to stay behind as they had taken a liking to building a safe place for our new people. I didn't mind; I needed someone close to monitor the terraformed patch. Besh requested a few of the commandos be sent for reinforcements. I agreed and sent the entire second batch. They seemed to be up to speed once they thawed out. The addition of professional soldiers helped secure the area beyond the palace as well as staff a monitoring post for the GECK circle. My original team of commandos were working to make sure the different crime syndicates didn't get the bright idea to take a shot at us. They sent status reports. I was happy to let them do their thing until I needed them.

Terraforming Tatooine with GECKs alone wasn't feasible. Each one transformed roughly an orb roughly two-miles across. They would needed to be woven across the entire planet. The upgraded versions were more streamlined meaning that they could produce a steady supply, but it would take a couple of years of steady production to make a dent.

Mandalore, luckily, wouldn't need a complete terraform. The planet had a few cities, Keldabe being the capital, but it was more rural than anything. Ranches, strongholds, and bases were the most common sort of settlement with the occasional town or village where they overlapped. A speeder could go from a slice of the Republic, Keldabe, to scattered homesteads in a couple of hours. There were a few other cities across the planet, but they were made in the classic Mandalorian style. Duchess Kryze had basically retrofit the entire city to look like another generic portion of a Republic metropolis. It was yet another reason why a growing portion of the population wasn't impressed with her. They would have been perfectly happy if the changes were implemented in a way that wasn't disrespectful. To a lot of people it looked like the Duchess thought the planet was some backwater that needed to be uplifted.

All of that could wait a little longer. We had some clones to rescue.

"Carrie," I said over my comms.

"Captain?" She replied.

"Have the Red Dawn set course for Kamino," I stated. "This ship isn't big enough for everyone."

"Roger, roger," Carrie answered.

It would take a while to get the ship here, but it could go faster without people onboard. There were a multitude of areas in space that did horrible things to biological material that were completely harmless to machinery. No living crew meant the ship could pass through these patches without any issues. It cut a couple of days off travel with minor issues that were easily fixed.

The trip from Tatooine to Kamino would take about a day and half. We would have to wait a couple more before Red Dawn arrived which should give us enough time to convince the Kaminoans to release Ahsoka's brothers. I was willing to buy them if needed, raiding the Hutts had been very, very lucrative even after using it to fund refurbishing the Palace and making sure everyone had healthy food, good water, and a safe place to sleep.

I was also not opposed to using Aggressive Negotiations if it came to that. Violence wasn't always the answer, but it was an option. My armor wasn't just armor. I was nearly a walking X-Wing with the suite of systems it had. That was the reason Carrie messing with my HUD had been so disorienting. Any other slicing attempt would have been identified the source and shut it down. Carrie was already inside my system; it was a simple as flipping a switch for her. With that being said, I was confident I could override whatever security the cloning facility had to prevent any alarms or calls for the guards. Part of me was curious how difficult it would be to snap one of their necks. The temptation was strong. I doubted they would use their heads like giraffes to smack each other, but the image did make me smile.

Bringing the Ryett back from extinction would have to wait until the business with Mandalore was handled. Their pods had enough genetic material to use as a source if any of them should die. I would need to give a few vials of blood to make sure my DNA was among the soup. We needed as much genetic diversity as possible. My current plan, which would be looked over by those smarter than me, was to create a set of fraternal twins of each commando, and myself. Then we would basically go down the line pairing them with as many variations as we could manage. If possible, we would do the same for the next generation as well. Basically, take Subject 1 then combine their DNA with every viable partner, then do the same with Subject 2, and so on.

Like I said, someone smarter than me would look over the plan.

Space travel took longer than expected. It made sense, but it was still annoying. The really annoying part of this trip was that the new ship wasn't nearly as big as Red Dawn. It was a passenger vessel that had been converted into a pleasure barge. There were a couple of open areas including a dining area. It also had an entertainment room that I did not want to see again. I would have burned the place if it wasn't a part of the ship.

"Carrie," I tapped the side of my helmet.

It wasn't needed, but it showed the others that I was busy.

"Yes, Captain?" She answered.

"What is the progress on the new droids?" I asked.

"Your plans had merit," She replied. "But I have had my systems asses and adapt your work."

"You're taking my crayon drawings and making them legible?" I chuckled.

"Your words, not mine," She teased. "The Stark Tech works well with Cyberdyne. It is the VaultTech that is causing some issues. The archive is extensive, just not on the same level as the other two." She paused. "The technology is just too far behind. At best we can use it as a rough guide to create something similar with Stark Tech and Cyberdyne."

I nodded, "They aren't going to be ready soon. Got it."

"The process will go faster if we use the VaultTech database as reference material rather than attempting to integrate it into the advanced options," Carrie explained. "The archive would be better focused on environmental development rather than combat. Their version of robotics is insulting. A reprogramed B1, before upgrades, could do 90% of the assignments. The only viable bot is the Sentry Bot, which would still need adapting."

"Got it," I said. "Drop VaultTech from the droid program. Are the other two working well together?"

"Yes," Carrie replied. "Would you prefer them to have a humanoid appearance like my avatars, or would you rather they maintain a more robotic aesthetic?"

"What would be different aside from the look?" I asked.

"The humanoid versions would have adaptive, dynamic intelligence with a focus on the selected assignment," She explained. "The robotic versions would have a lesser version of the same suite on par with the current generation of droid."

"Create five of each version," I ordered. "Generalized skillset, not just fighting. Let's see how they do."

"Roger, roger," Carrie replied. "Oven is preheating, they should be ready by the time you reach Kamino."

"Thank you, Carrie," I smiled. "You're awesome."

"I know, Captain," She teased. "It's nice to be appreciated."

Now I needed to figure out what to do for the next two days. There was just enough space to be awkward. Asajj and Ahsoka could spar if they did so unarmed. They would knock each other around for an hour, take a break for water, and then get back to fighting. I would have stepped in if it became too much. They were bonding and building a mutual respect instead of trying to kill each other. My skills were topnotch thanks to his [REDACTED] skills. The only one that could give me a challenge was Carrie. She was capable of being in a few different places at once, but I didn't want to strain her considering she was working on important projects.

There was one thing I hadn't done in a while. I needed to check in on Anakin. They were on a private ship the last time we spoke. I doubted I could have used the Warehouse shortcut even if they were somewhere I had a connection. It would raise too many questions if I showed up out of nowhere.

I made my way to the bridge and took a seat behind the comms station. My hand lingered over the console for a moment. I took off my helmet and put it in my lap. He deserved to see my face. I wasn't blind, I could see that he was angling to become a Mandalorian. The only reason I wasn't jumping at the chance was his age. I wanted to make sure it wasn't just hero worship coloring his desires. That and I needed to make sure that Shmi wasn't against it. Otherwise, I would have already had him fitted them both for armor.

"Kiskin!" Anakin said as his hologram appeared. "Where are you?"

Only his head and shoulders were displayed.

"I'm on the way to Kamino," I replied.

"Where is that?" The boy asked.

"Two days North-West of Tatooine," I answered. "I'm going to pick up some people. A couple of people joined the crew."

"How big is the crew now?" Anakin asked. His face turned solemn. "Am I still the mechanic?"

"Why wouldn't you be?" I chuckled. "You're the best mechanic I've ever met. Sorry, kid, you're stuck with me."

"I've been practicing my Mando'a," Anakin stated happily.

"Nice," I smiled back at him.

"Aliit ori'shya taldin," Anakin said confidently.

"Family is more than blood," I translated with a smile. "I always liked that one."

Anakin smiled brightly at me, "Mom likes it too."

"How is she doing?" I asked.

"Good," He replied. "She's smiling a lot more. I think she misses the ship. She likes having stuff to do." He leaned in so he could whisper. "Sabe misses you."

I shook my head at that, "We'll get everyone back together once I'm done with this part of things. Coruscant is next, we're going to the Jedi Temple to return a fallen knight to them."

"A Jedi died?" Anakin gasped. "I didn't know they could do that."

I shrugged, "Everything dies. Ask your mom if she wants to meet up before we go."

"Ok," Anakin nodded. "You don't sound happy. I thought everyone wants to go to Coruscant."

I sighed, "There are too many people. I don't want to think about what the undercity looks like. It would take at least a decade to get that place anywhere close to safe."

"Are you going to do it?" Anakin asked. "Are you going to save the world?"

"Not that one," I shook my head. "I have other things to do."

Anakin could recognize the seed of something interesting, "Like what?"

"You'll see," I teased. "Could you ask everyone there if they want to come along?"

"Ok," Anakin nodded.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"Naboo again," He replied with a slight slump of his shoulders. "I think we're going to stay here for now."

"You don't sound too excited about that," I chuckled.

"It's fine," He shrugged. "I'm getting kind of bored."

"How is everyone else doing?" I asked.

"They're fine," He replied before he looked off to the side. "Mom is calling me."

"Have fun, kid," I smiled at him.

The hologram faded a moment later. I put my helmet back on as I stood. Fuck, I needed something to do to pass the time. I already had projects going in the Warehouse. We could use it for extra space, but Asajj and Ahsoka probably wouldn't spend as much time together. I was worried at first that they were using sparring as an excuse to kick each other around. It may have started out like that, but they had progressed to joking around and Ahsoka had started teaching Asajj some 'official' Jedi techniques.

"What to do?" I muttered.

When all else fails, take care of your gear.

~
NOTE:
On the short side. Wanted to move things forward a bit.