Governor's Gambit - Star Wars SI into Imperial Governor

[MorbiIIionaire]

Shal simply stood there. Eyes glued to her brother's back. Is this how their relationship is now? Cold and detached.

She was an Imperial officer. She was used to pain.

But not this kind.

Never this kind.

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It's cute how out of touch they are with him. Even before the whole SI thing, now all he thinks is that all the rest of his family is more then willing to have him killed if ordered to.
They see a brother drifting apart, he sees high ranking imperials that he just happens to be related to.
Will they ever mend bridges? Will a green rubber ball help? Prolly not lol, so long as their MOTHER and the empire still exists. I can't wait to see the eventual interlude when he "dies".

 

[Mistroz]

excellent chapter, wonderful job.

 

[Crixxis]

Shal simply stood there. Eyes glued to her brother's back. Is this how their relationship is now? Cold and detached.

She was an Imperial officer. She was used to pain.

But not this kind.

Never this kind.

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That kinda happens when you value your ambitions above all and practically have zero positive relationships with your brother. Add in the fact that said brother has to live up to the shadow his sisters casted. Granted Las is an SI but I have a feeling the original Las doesn't like his sisters because of the high expectations that was placed on him due to their accomplishments.

 

[Havalt300]

I have to ask, does our Mc have the body's memories when he took over?

 

[ZzzSlothzzZ]

She was used to pain.

But not this kind.

Never this kind.

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Spoiler: Sloth Live Reaction

View: https://youtu.be/bHb5CFGYz1A

 

[ImperialBriton]

I have to ask, does our Mc have the body's memories when he took over?

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From what I understand yes. Coloured of course by the perspective of being a highly incompetent immature core boy, but yes.

He also seems to have taken on some of his mannerisms as well it seems, to the point his sisters don't really think he's a different person, outside of noticing how paranoid he is (which is accurately chalked up to being related to their mother, and suspecting them for conspiring with her).

It could be argued that Las, and the MC, are the same person, its just his previous lives memories were only unlocked after las had a mental breakdown during the Tax riots.

EDIT: Potentially one alteration is that Las was an emotionally starved Toady before the SI, sucking up/fawning at his largely (or publicly facing) frigid family, who might have cared but were too embarrassed/afraid/busy to actually display any affection to him. Now that they have some breathing room, they are attempting to interact with him, but since he's 'grown up'/been replaced, there is no opportunity to make up for lost time, especially since they are all drastically older than him.

 

[Yacov]

And I understand them, I do. The Governor of Clok, one Umber Tion, and the closest thing I have to a friend on the political stage, has been under more pressure than the system can handle.

Trade is good through his system, but the strain is evident. Clok will survive, so I thankfully don't have to intervene. Because that would be a massive headache.

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Hey Clok is still around. Last update on their situation was back in chapter 17 I believe? I think it has been a year or two since we heard from them. Sleepy agriworld with an old Republic fueling station. Should have around the same citizen population as Edin and steadily industrializing. Only with less crime and transitory population.

Nice for Las is have an allied governor. Well at least one with shared interests.

Fuck! Now I'm having flashbacks to 2077!

As my mind spirals into a haze of chromed out borgs, chooms who got zeroed too early to matter, glitter snorting cyber-psychos, and rockerboy freedom fighters/terrorists, my terminal pings with another report.

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Yeah for all of Star Wars is full of cyborgs, none of them really have the glam of the cyberpunk kind. Between the Ganks, the Iskalloni, and the Junkers, it is really the more bleak, dangerous, and depressing kind of folk. Named characters like Grievous and Vader don't make things better.

On some plains, just a mile north of the city's edge, the R&D team was busy tearing apart some Vigil, Raider, and Custom's Corvette's in order to simplify them, and ensure an easier logistical flow.

Last I heard, they were considering using more TIE parts, since we already build a shit ton of those, and it's the most common Imperial ship in the galaxy.

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At this rate even Star Destroyers are going to be composed of at least 20% TIE fighter parts.

Aside from that, things had actually been slowing down for once! With the yards being the big project on the way, and considering the fact that Minda now owes KDY some 9 billion or so credits, any infrastructure projects or other such things that don't drive profits up won't be implemented.

When I say that, I mean that unless the project is needed for some reason, or is already being worked on, then it will not be started. The Mega-Buildings, for example. Construction started many months ago, and so by now it would be a waste not to finish them, especially with all the workers that will be coming in to work the yards.

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At this point a normal governor would cut corners or use this as an excuse to use the ex-slaves as slave labor. Thankfully Las isn't that cheap and/or stupid.

So, I look away from the stars, and towards my terminal once more. Information, publicly available, on the ongoing endeavors of the other Governors. Some were trying to replicate my success, but started far too late or used the wrong methods.

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Well at least their failures will allow those positions to open up. Wonder if the Empire would be willing to source "local talent" for those positions? Minda is full of staunch Imperial loyalists after all.

Some were actually doing well. A few systems further southwest had banded together to create a trade union of sorts. All of them were broke as shit, but together they came to around a third of the Minda/Edin economy. Quite impressive, I should get into contact with them. Might be worth it to team up, boost ourselves. Assuming they aren't all prideful bastards, which is more likely than I enjoy.

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Congrats Las. Minda is big enough that the Guild would be seen as Big Business stepping on the little guy if they intervened.

She was still a Captain. She still commanded the Heavy Judgement. But now, she was assigned to a world, a system, a sector with no prospects.

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Veers is going to be so jealous. Despite commanding an entire fleet, she is still going to be salty about there being something that dwarfs her Gladiator in system that she isn't the captain of.

Still, what she had been able to gather told quite the story. A system with only 200,000 people had more than doubled its population in the past two or so years. Now, with a little over 500,000 people, Minda was a prosperous world.

And that was just the permanent population.

Tens if not hundreds of thousands of merchants, mercenaries and more moved in and out of the system on the daily. Companies were setting up shop left and right, mercenary companies were forming, and credits were flowing.

The Edin system, also under her brother's control, was worse off. A hive of scum and villainy, it took concerted military efforts to rid the system of the worst criminal elements. Even now, mercenaries and military forces work to hunt pirates and crush cartels. The system had only 200,000 citizens accounted for.

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Dang still not even a million "permanent residents"? On the other hand all that "transitory population" and "undocumented criminals" probably pumps those numbers up at least to a couple million. Those that stay only a couple of years technically will be there for the remainder of the lifespan of the unified Empire.

Now, she was here. Sitting in a Lambda flying down towards Minda's capital city of Accordia. From the window she could see the city glimmering in the light of dusk. Warm lights shone from windows and lampposts. A million different architectural styles could be seen, from the brutalist ferrocrete Imperial structures to the rounded spires native to Lothal. Arched domes that reminded her of images of Naboo dotted some parts of the city, seeming to center around patches of grass and trees, vines climbing up the sides and encircling garden filled terraces that overlooked the many, many local markets.

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It is not the sleepy semi-resort world for Imperials that Scarif was, but Ugea has its own charm. That warmth and the people's love for the Governor will only make things worse as it shows Shal that Las has the capacity to care about others.

 

[Dariusz]

Understandable.
I get the impression she's looking at the past with rose tinted goggles after all the stress and thinks they were closer then they were.
Not realizing they might as well be strangers.
Tho I am lookin forward so a screen where all 3 sisters try to stirring some shit up and he had to drop the door on em.

 

[King_Gilgamesh0321]

Cool, why didn't they help Las escape too then? You can pretty it up all you like, but they ran away and left their little brother to fend for himself.

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How? You can say they should or they could but how are they supposed to get around their mother, who vastly outranks them, and help the MC

 

[Geno K. Celdran]

Damn, I hope MC and all his sisters would reconcile.

 

[apg666]

How? You can say they should or they could but how are they supposed to get around their mother, who vastly outranks them, and help the MC

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It seems like regardless of ability to directly help MC, they didn't even support him emotionally or commiserate/empathize about their mother

 

[Andrew1993]

It was mentioned that Shal was in imperial academy when las was young, it also very clearly mentioned that she very much regretted the distance

Edit- Shal also had a section where she worried that if something happened she was very much too far away to be able to do anything to help/ protect las back when she was at scarif. So im hoping to see reconciliation between las and shal at least

 

[frozone]

didn't he live with his father when he was younger while they lived with the mother?

 

[The Returned]

Family tends to get hurt with the relationship changing...it's not a bad thing but it does take time for everyone to settle into a stable communication.

 

[RedDeadShyguy]

Just a thought but presumably the ISB is still going batshit over Yavin and the Scarif incident meaning they're going to be looking closely at everyone even remotely involved in those incidents which would include Shal here, what's the chance that those investigations spill over to Las and Minda as a result?

 

[Oroku Saki]

Just a thought but presumably the ISB is still going batshit over Yavin and the Scarif incident meaning they're going to be looking closely at everyone even remotely involved in those incidents which would include Shal here, what's the chance that those investigations spill over to Las and Minda as a result?

Click to shrink...

Unfortunately, that probably will happen. I'd be very surprised if investigations didn't happen.

 

[Objectivepersona]

Snip.

Click to shrink...

Shall was not allowed to talk to anyone outside of the exclusion zone at Scarif. BUT yeah, I get that Shal feels pain, but I also understand where Las is coming from, after all, he thinks if he was placed in the general forces to fight and die, NONE OF THEM would shed a tear.

 

[vtkun]

thank you for the chapter

 

[Rustic]

Chp-57: The Weight of Judgement


My family, is really stiff and well friends outside the family is rare. We have friendly relationships. However outside of our spouse. We really do not get out much.
Until my mothers generation. We were all self employed. My grandfather ran a race track in duke city raceway. That was located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. No you do need a passport to travel to a differen state in America.
Now i had big issues with my aunts. I saw them as gossips. Absolutely hated talking to them because what ever i said would be spoken about in the next conversation. Absolutely drove me nuts. I hadn't realized at the time that my aunts just had Absolutely nothing to say to each other if we kids were not brought up. There lives were so dull and boring. That gossiping was the only way they knew to communicate.
I joined the military because it was family tradition. However getting away from my family was the driving force. Now older. I reconnected and i realized they were not malicious. Just extremely awkward. I think this is an age equals wisdom and maturity issue. What looks extremely harsh and judgemental might be just social awkwardness.

 

[Yacov]

Omake: Nothing More Permanent…

POV: Yela May Operations Director of The Raxshir Fangs Mercenary Order,
Approaching the Orbit of Towei, Clacis Sector

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE GOVERNOR RAN AWAY!?"

The stereotypical calm demeanor Yela cultivated shattered upon hearing what their client had done. The comms specialist flinched at the uncharacteristic outburst.

"A-apparently Governor Kruul fled the system after determining that engaging the Rebels on Towei with his current strength was detrimental to Imperial efforts."

Yela ran her hand across her montral. Having her client flee the system before they even arrived was not a good look. Clearly this contract to restore order to this system was going to be even messier than the Guild thought.

"Do we know anything about the Kruul's whereabouts?"

The thought of an Imperial Governor fleeing from Rebels was a hard thought to process. The threat of punishment at least should have been enough for them to continue the fight. She couldn't see Governor Mola doing something so cowardly.

"Kruul's last transmission from his Lambda stated he would return "with the full might of the Empire behind him". That was dated three weeks ago."

Given this Sector's government hadn't even heard of Kruul's flight, he probably had a different destination in mind than reporting to his superiors.

"What's the status of the Imperial Garrison? Is there a second in command we can link up with?"

When Kruul's request came to the Guild, the Rebels had been conducting a guerrilla campaign on Towei for months. Despite Kruul's claims of only minor damage being done, the Guild's analysts knew how to read reports. It was clear this situation was more dire than a dozen insurgents taking potshots at patrols.

The analysts predicted the Imperial Garrison had taken upwards of 27% casualties. It was part of the reason the Guild approved sending a force of this size and coordination. Those rates have likely increased dramatically with Kruul's departure.

"About that, Ma'am. It appears from the reports that the entire Imperial Garrison blew up. There's no one to link up with."

Yela's entire body froze. Struggling to process what she just heard.

"Would you care to repeat that specialist? Because I thought I just heard that every organic sentient comprised of non-combustible material that should have been spread out garrisoning an entire world made the collective decision to explode. Care to elaborate?"

This was obviously some kind of sick joke. All that time organizing The Raxshir Fang's allies' armed freighters to form this small fleet and topping up supplies for The Prancing Kybuck for the journey must have gotten to Yela's head. She wasn't expecting Kruul to provide the Fang's with a proper supply chain after all.

"Well, in order to address the low morale of the Garrison with the ongoing conflict, Kruul decided to give a speech to all Imperial forces. He gathered the entire Imperial presence to the Imperial command center and talked to them via a large screen hovering over the plaza.

Unfortunately, the plaza was also right next to the city's fuel reserves. A small team of Rebels infiltrated the base and detonated the fuel. The resulting explosion killed every Imperial soldier and administrator on the planet and caused a massive fire to break out across Towei's sole city.

Kruul survived by being in the command center's bunker while giving the speech. Shortly after he took his personal shuttle and fled the system. The rest of the system defense fleet chose to follow him rather than try to fight the Rebels."

Yela massaged her forehead and tried to collect her calm. The contract stipulated that The Raxshir Fangs were to "assist Imperial efforts to restore order to Towei". They couldn't just turn around and leave without firing a blaster. That would ruin all their collective reputations, maybe even bump them down a rank. The threat would risk the other companies under her mutinying.

"Alright, The Prancing Kybuck will form the spearhead along with our most heavily armed freighters. A Class-C may be a small frigate, but it is still a frigate. That should be enough to dissuade most Rebel ships from trying to play hero.

This force will establish a path above Towei from which we can secure a landing zone dirt side. We will use this position to recon the Rebels' movements and prepare for reinforcements from the Imperial Military."

The Rebels will not have enough ships and fixed positions to secure the area around the city, let alone the entire planetary orbit. The 500 armed personnel in this stitched together coalition the Fangs assembled would not be enough to dislodge the Rebels. Especially if the demagogues can rally the thousands of locals in the city into a militia or even a disorganized mob.

Hopefully securing a front base on the planet for the proper soldiers to deploy from will be enough to avoid a contract breach. It should be easy to convince the other mercenary companies to pitch in on this token effort. Yela just hopes they can hold out against the Rebels' incoming assaults.

——

Later on Towei's surface

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE REBELS RAN AWAY!?"

Screw the cool headed persona! Yela no longer cares if people think she's impulsive! This is rancor dung!

"Please Mistress May! Have mercy! We had no idea the Rebels' plan to unleashed such chaos and destruction upon our fair, humble world. We would never participate in such vile acts against the Empire's benevolent rule.

The cowardly and immoral Rebels noticed your mighty war fleet some time ago. They fled after determining it was the vanguard of a full invasion to reclaim the Empire's rightful property and liberate its citizens."

The Alderman's groveling brought Yela out of her (mostly) mental rant. She took some time to calm down and reassure the simpering official.

"It's okay, it's okay. We are not going to go around killing civilians without cause. Since the Rebels have been dealt with are you all able to handle things on your own?"

This was the Outer Rim after all. Planets tended not to stick around if they weren't able to handle clean up on their own. Unfortunately the Alderman's quivering lips told otherwise.

"Oh Mistress May, how I wish we could say it was so. However the Rebels' campaign of terror has left the city in shambles. The Great Explosion tore through the Great Wall protecting our city from the Towei's host of dangerous wildlife. Now whenever night falls packs roam into the city to prey on the citizens."

Well at least that would give something for her mercenaries to shoot at. Although something about the story bugged Yela.

"Are there any particular creatures we need to look out for. Also shouldn't you have hunters for this sort of thing?"

"The worst of horrors is the maneating pack of Early Death Dogs that former Governor Kruul kept as pets. The blackout from the Great Explosion caused them to escape their enclosure. Their taste for sentient flesh and familiarity with the city makes them truly a vicious menace.

Normally we would have at least hunting blasters to dissuade these animals. However when the Rebels fled from your righteous wrath, they took most of our blasters with them as "aid to the cause".

The question of why they had access to your blasters is something Yela will definitely be including in her report. Still it was a fairly easy problem to solve by arranging some patrols.

"We can handle that. Is that all you need?"

The look on the Alderman's face dashed any hopes that was it.

"If only that was the worst of it. When the fires from the Great Explosion consumed large portions of our city. This included large portions of our crop silos for the coming winter.

People have been eating through their reserves at an alarming rate. This was exasperated when the Rebels "encouraged" us to host a celebration to their "great victory for freedom". Sadly I was too injured and dazed by the chaos to prevent the feast from occurring."

The Alderman's rotund frame and slight hiccup when he didn't see Yela looking left her quite skeptical of his virtuous intentions.

"We can arrange for emergency contracts for food transports through the Guild channels. That should stop the population from burning through their seed crops. Is the treasury ready to help pay for this?"

Yela wasn't sure what was more infuriating, the long pause that followed or the Alderman being unable to look her in the eye when he gave his explanation.

"The government of Kowei would have been glad to assist with helping alleviate the oncoming famine of its people. However the planet's treasury is unfortunately rather bare at the moment. The contents appear to have all mysteriously vanished during the confusion of the Rebels' temporary victory."

Yela struggled to decide who to strangle with her mind more. The ex-governor Kruul for creating this mess, or the Alderman if there is even a single missing credit that leads back to him. Her thoughts were interrupted when a messenger arrived with a data pad.

"Message from Sector Command ma'am. Said it contained further orders for the Fangs in regards to Towei."

Finally this world would be somebody else's problem. Yela's eyes gleamed before darkening like an eclipse as she read.

"The mercenary company The Raxshir Fangs will continue to assist Imperial efforts to restore order on Towei for the full duration of the contract and only be be released when a sent official relieves the company of their duties. Whenever both requirements are meant. Cooperate with Imperial forces and collaborators in system to ensure stability and productivity.

Funding and compensation will not be provided from the Imperial Sector Fund. Permission is granted to utilize Imperial resources on world for compensation and resupply. Note should Towei fail to meet its quotas and taxes after the grace period indicated below, it will count as a breach of contract and The Raxshir Fangs will be held accountable for recouping losses."

"Is something the matter Mistress May? Did I ever tell you that those are some lovely horns? They really bring out those stra- I mean GORGEOUS markings on your face."

Yela was starting to understand why Kruul kept the maneating Early Death Dogs around. This was going to be a long, long contract. A half burned city and an undeveloped world is not going to pay everyone's bills.

Or will it? If Kruul was half as corrupt as Yela expected, he'd probably have nationalized a lot of land. The Guild is always looking to open new markets and operations. This was a new sector and a base could help the Guild avoid duties and tariffs. Maybe this dirtball could turn a profit after all.

"Mistress May, are you all right? Your face is looking rather dark. Is that normal?"

That Geologist still owes her a favor after a pirate tried raiding his dig site. A good word from him could attract some a bevy of Prospectors and a few Extractors. Maybe even a Company or two.

"Why are you bearing your teeth? I may be a bit bulky, but I-I assure you I don't taste good Mistress."

As for the city, getting the locals to sell shouldn't be too hard if she dips into the company reserves and utilize some gentle elbowing. Yela can spin it as reconstruction efforts. No one will mind if all their new neighbors come from the same organization.

There are always newly promoted Merchants and Registries looking to expand their networks and willing to stomach risk. Yela put her arm around the Alderman's shoulder as a plan began to coalesce.

"My dear Alderman, why don't you join me for a drink. We have a lot of business to discuss."

"O-oh. We can head to my penthouse? I stock good wine. A-and meats!"

Who knows, maybe it will all be enough to put this poodoo contract in the black. At least by that point it will be someone else's problem. The Empire will send someone to take over when the contracts ends. This was only a temporary solution after all.

——

Wanted to give a look at how a high ranking organization in the Guild may operate. I am thinking the equivalent of a highly successful and influential privateer commander from our world.

Even a "fleet" this size is more a coalition of allied companies working together for a big contract. The Fangs providing the big ship and a lion's share of the manpower while the allies provide most of the individual ships. Enough to thrash most single system enterprises, but still nowhere near challenging military naval squadrons or proper state military units and really unstable after the short term.

Crossposted to SV and SB

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

Everyone here talking bout drama.

Me: ...did a planetary governor just threaten a giant lizard-cat with budgetary cutbacks? AND IT WORKED?!?!

I mean, I know that he's talking bout the treats. But to anyone not in the know, that was one hell of an odd conversation.

 

[None of your bee wax!]

You just know that at this rate the entire family, mother dearest included is going to end up at minda with him...

Click to shrink...

"Christmas Vacation" Vibes all around...

 

[perdarest]

Sometimes I think Las feels that the only person he can trust to be himself with is Mugwuffin

Click to shrink...

I mean, he's got the ancient Sith, the bloodthirsty commander, the obsessively driven career chaser commodore, the ex-rebel secretary, the chiss spy other secretary, and the force-cat.
So yeah, cat was always gonna be this man's best friend.
Darna is the only other possibility since he doesn't know her background is shady, but playing the role of the proper imperial governor probably means not getting too friendly with your twilek secretary...unless, I suppose "friendly" actually means "sexually abusive". Fortunately our boy Las is too moral to be like that.

 

[CanYouMeme]

There was nothing they could do physically yes but this is Star wars galaxy and they could have reached out using there version of discord/phone/text. We know that's possible as they show video calls across the galaxy. So if they wanted to they could have reached out and talked to him.

Click to shrink...

Three letters:

ISB.

Everything you say can and will be used against you in a court martial, assuming you're lucky or powerful enough to get one instead of a sudden vacation.

So no, as a matter of fact they cannot just call or text. Welcome to the true reality of a corrupt government.

 

[faultlesselm16]

Three letters:

ISB.

Everything you say can and will be used against you in a court martial, assuming you're lucky or powerful enough to get one instead of a sudden vacation.

So no, as a matter of fact they cannot just call or text. Welcome to the true reality of a corrupt government.

Click to shrink...

thats way more extreme its not like im saying they will talk rebel shit. im saying they could have said love you brother or yeah moms harsh but im in your corner. stuff like that. ISB has nothing to do with this. thats like saying ISb will imprison you because you sent your husband a text saying i love you.
will ISB be watching most likely but will they care about sisters giving there brother support in hard times not likely.

 

[davelll]

....POOR bastard is going to end up as the MOFF holding the imp remnant together isn't he

 

[CanYouMeme]

thats way more extreme its not like im saying they will talk rebel shit. im saying they could have said love you brother or yeah moms harsh but im in your corner. stuff like that. ISB has nothing to do with this. thats like saying ISb will imprison you because you sent your husband a text saying i love you.
will ISB be watching most likely but will they care about sisters giving there brother support in hard times not likely.

Click to shrink...

You're missing the point;

Nobody cares what you think.

I'm not insulting you - I'm stating a fundamental rule of how corrupt cultures like the Empire work. Anybody who's willing to jump through the requisite hoops, can and will do anything they want to you no matter how stupid or petty, it will be entirely "legal", and unless you're running your own spy operation you will never know it's happening until it's too late.

Your sibling gets framed for a crime in a system on the other side of the galaxy? Oops, you sent a letter saying you love your brother two years ago, clearly you're a person of interest and need to be hauled in for an interrogation so an inquisitor can cover their ass. Rising through the ranks fast enough to inconvenience a superior officer? Go rifle through their belongings, see if they have some questionable dataslates you can use to slander them.

More often than not, there is no shadowy cabal out to get you. Just a couple people who want to push your shit in, and an innumerable legion of people who don't care but are willing to be bribed/intimidated.

See exhibit A) Shal Mola, now exiled into a (supposedly) dead end career despite literally everyone involved knowing she's not at fault and doesn't deserve it.

 

[TheEldritchKnight]

Roadripper said:


Omake: I Want the Red One (R&D interlude)
-------------------------------------------------------
The pantoran reached into the crate and pulled out another metal sheet, this one a menacing crimson color. "I have been running metallurgy projects on the simulator, and with this project I finally got to test out some of them. This is a regular 9 RU titanium panel, but I've come up with a way to electroplate it with Havod," The pantoran nervously rubbed the back of his neck, "kind of. It's a bit more complicated than that."

There was a gasp from a tech to Alvi's right, "How! Havod is an alloy."

"Well… there were multiple coating dips and…"

"Wait!" Alvi spoke up, "What even is Havod?"

"It's an alternative to doonium hull plating," said the human techie, "You know, what we cover our star destroyers in?"

"So, its rare?" Alvi furrowed her brow, "I thought we were trying to cut down on costs."

The techie shrugged, "Not really rare, but hard to work with. Shipyards only bother to use it if a customer is willing to pay for the extra work. It's cheaper to just use doonium."

"Which is why my new process is so useful… for small ships," Hry added. "Instead of trying to forge down a full plate of Havod, we applied a thin layer of the stuff to the titanium panel. If a ship part can fit within five cubic meters for an electrolysis bath, we can plate it."

"Does it work?" Alvi asked. "All this talk is pointless if the coating doesn't stand up to the punishment."

"Let's find out." Hry inserted the red panel into the slot and ran it out to the firing range. Everyone crowded around the transparesteal as they waited for the blast. A flash of red and the panel still stood, though with a carbon-scoring mark now marring it.

"Do it again," suggested Yop, backed up by multiple nods from the crowd. Another blast went out and now the panel was now smoking. Hry hit the return button, and the panel now sported a small glowing hole in it. The Defender project crew started breaking out in murmurs.

"How feasible is this compared to the other panel?" asked one of the human techs.

Hry gave a wince, "its an extra step. Any material savings even out with the electrolysis processing costs."

"It doesn't matter," Alvi stated. All eyes turned to her, though she could see her fellow pilots nodding along. "With the weight reduction we can do more with the Defender, tighter turns, faster speeds. Its worth it even if we had to pay double."

"Not to mention," one of her pilots spoke up, "we'll be spending less energy on propulsion. We save fuel and that adds up."

"Less mass in storage," added another.

"Good job, Hry," said Yop, giving the pantoran on the back.

"I…I wasn't done?" All eyes turned to the Pantoran as he walked back over to his crate. "Are you familiar with Duranium?"

"Strong, lightweight, high melting point, hard to work," said a female human technician. "I think we use it in prison cells?"

"Don't tell me you found a way to work that too?" shouted one of the alien techies.

Hry pulled out a brass-colored scale-shaped plate. "I figured, why work it at all? I ground down a duranium sample and baked it into an ablative ceramic plate. Like how we make transparent aluminum. Originally, I had the idea for coating our mechs in interlocking scales of the stuff, but haven't had approval to test it outside of the sims. If we wanted extra protection around vital systems on the craft, we might be able to add a layer of these ceramic plates?"

"What are you waiting for?" shouted one of the human techs. "Load it up!" the crowd of techs, human and not, proceeded to cheer on the pantoran man as they sent laser fire into material samples. The original tension Alvi had noticed from her crew now seemed to have dissipated as they all started taking notes on their PDAs.

Alvi glanced around the room in thought. It appeared there was a method to this madness Las had set up here. She absently glanced down at the carbon-scored red panel below, and imagined the look of horror on that rebel VCX-100 pilot's face the next time she comes screaming in behind in her upgraded Tie Defender. A predatory grin spread across Alvi's lips. Red was one of her favorite colors after all.

---end---
(Yes, this is just my excuse to add red Tie fighters. The duranium ceramic plate idea was inspired by BattleTech armor)

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I have been rereading a bunch of the omakes and I am wondering if some of them are possibly going to be made canon? This one just makes my mind run wild. Imagine Las approving this upgrade but only allows the Tie RnD department to field them while also asking them to research possible ways to expanding the electrolysis bath's for larger ship types. While also doing research for all the machine's that they can produce natively. So while that is going on and they eventually complete the research on it Las orders them to slowly stock pile the armor to outfit the ground troops with this new armor type but to hold on from deploying it for know.

Saying that he wishes to show the Empire what a fully developed system looks like when his whole army is equipped. But he stalls it until 4 ABY so when the Empire splinters and no one knows he knows that he has it. Immediately he begins to outfit his troops and ships with the new red and gold looking armor types.It will show that to others that he was aware that something was going on while everyone else is scrambling for every piece of the pie that they can get. But Las is sitting pretty with his Army and Navy fully kitted out in their new armor. They Navy is still the same color for now but orders them to stop painting over the new metal panels and ceramic plates. Eventually his entire group is very much distinct compared to other factions around him and will have a new brand that others can tell at a glance that these aren't the asshole Imperials that are carving up the galaxy while not caring for the populace. People would be immediately able to tell who is who when they interact with Las's troops.

These are my thoughts on how the styling of the ships, vehicles and armors would look like. This style for the ground troopers and also ship coloring, just add more ceramic gold to areas that should be more defended. Would be interesting to see how people in his sector of space would react after everything falls to civil war.

Cross posting from SB and also that isn't the full omake I just caught off the part that was relevant

 

[XTheVoidSeekerX]

You're missing the point;

Nobody cares what you think.

I'm not insulting you - I'm stating a fundamental rule of how corrupt cultures like the Empire work. Anybody who's willing to jump through the requisite hoops, can and will do anything they want to you no matter how stupid or petty, it will be entirely "legal", and unless you're running your own spy operation you will never know it's happening until it's too late.

Your sibling gets framed for a crime in a system on the other side of the galaxy? Oops, you sent a letter saying you love your brother two years ago, clearly you're a person of interest and need to be hauled in for an interrogation so an inquisitor can cover their ass. Rising through the ranks fast enough to inconvenience a superior officer? Go rifle through their belongings, see if they have some questionable dataslates you can use to slander them.

More often than not, there is no shadowy cabal out to get you. Just a couple people who want to push your shit in, and an innumerable legion of people who don't care but are willing to be bribed/intimidated.

See exhibit A) Shal Mola, now exiled into a (supposedly) dead end career despite literally everyone involved knowing she's not at fault and doesn't deserve it.

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To add to this, it doesn't help that, from what I remember, canonically, Palpatine is actively working to make sure that the Empire is functioning exactly like this. If you take canon sources such as the Star Wars: Aftermath Trilogy, then to Palpatine, the only purpose of the Empire was to protect him. Thus, he made sure the Empire was corrupt and generally not optimal to ensure that while it could protect him by drowning his foes in sheer weight of bodies and ships, it also was impossible to birth someone who could oppose him, and if it did, then the system would "clean" itself so-to-speak.

This gets even worse if you take the latest movie trilogy into consideration, as that means that not only did Palpatine engineer the Empire to function this poorly, but he never cared about the long-term stability of the Empire, as his over all goal was the Sith Eternal, becoming Immortal, and ensuring the Sith were supreme by recreating the Sith Empire with him as the Immortal God-Emperor.

Because if Palpatine actually cared, he probably would have adopted more of a Roman style of seeing things by having the vast military be occupied with developing infrastructure to ensure that the local population sees tangible benefits in joining the Empire while keeping the military happy as they're doing their jobs and being the good guys.