7 Chapter 7
(AN: The images used as reference in this chapter don't belong to me and were pillaged of the net.)
(1st month of Year 35 BBY)
It's finally time. The base is almost fully operational .The extra ships are being built , while all the fighters for us are complete, the droid version of the fang fighter( meaning has advance droid brains and can fly the star fighter when a pilot is not present) are being churned out and the hangars on the cliff sides were being filled. I have left the droids, designs and orders to carry on base maintenance and improvement on their own. They will first turn the plateau into a fortress and then the planet, then the system and then move on to neighboring systems in the unknown regions one at a time. While I travel outside. While I can't reach the level of certain progenitor Von Neuman death bots, but with the deployment of legions of droids I can atleast make up a quarter of their capabilities. I also have scout ships searching for the star forge, I have a rough estimation , but the rest is up to luck. After scouring through the old databases here, I learnt this planet has quite a few resource mines and there was detailed scan data of nearby systems and resource rich zones as well, I task the droids to use the mining equipment that was brought in and the ones in the large garages near the two exits to start the mining process. This will provide much needed metal reserves for the base and the excess can be used to carry out the different phases of my plans. We had also gotten the droid foundries started up and making droids of all types, including my own droidikas and modified B1 battle droids, but one section each is fully dedicated to sky trooper droids and 19STs. All new droids will have a shield generators of varying strengths. I had atleast 5 regiments of already existing sky trooper droids from the storages repaired, rearmed and modified (gave them the Mandalorians touch, Cortosis coated armor, hidden blade, flame throwers, personal shields), they will play the role of my elite shock troopers, my own 501st. They were also given a the same colour scheme all my droids will have black with more prominent green accents. While the special ones, the two regiments of ZEM-19ST droids, who will act like my commando droids and personal guard, got something special. A wrist mounted minicomputer to hack the Kriff out of things, stealth technology, Cortosis blades and add to this all the improvements the shock trooper variation got. If the skytroopers where uploaded with Mandalorian super commando combat circuits, then the 19STs also got different the Jedi blade forms combat circuits as well, that cost me a pretty chunk credit to get. They got the same Black and green accented colour scheme, but they had more prominent golden accents running all over their chassis. No way Am I having my ninja bots go about without stealth tech and unable to hold off space wizards in combat. I even gave special attention to a particular 19ST droid which was to be in charge of the rest, I named him ZEM. I gave him more golden accents in his color scheme than the others to make him stand out, but made sure that he doesn't stick out too much like a sore thumb. The ordinary skytrooper droids were uploaded with Mandalorian shock trooper combat matrix along with many other functions as well, making each droid satisfactorily self-sufficient and are able to fill multiple roles. Although each droid had a broad spectrum of combat and operational skills, each squad of my droids had individual droids playing the specialized roles of squad lead, assault, sniper, heavy , engineer and medic( for when they work with organics in the future). Now all I had to do was wait for the squad to arrive tomorrow with the new shipment of goods, this time mainly heavy weaponry, planetary level shields and power generators. Never a bad idea to have too many backup generators or shields to cycle between, I don't want my base to end up like the rebel's Hoth base. I am all jittery. can't wait to show the guys the new toys. Now I know how Q felt showing of all the new tows to James Bond. While speaking of Bond, there is no 007 without his rides. The vehicle factories were all repaired, upgraded and pumping out new designs I came up with. The first type of tank I named the Tarantula. It was a spider tank. It came in both heavy and light tank variants( Tarantula-L & Tarantula-H respectively) and an Anti-air variant ( Tarantula-A) which can also be used for anti-personal applications like any good AAA should .(https://www.rpnation.com/gallery/tarantula.30562/).
The second type was also a spider type but servers the purpose of a mobile artillery and a bunker buster.(https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcdnb.artstation.com%2Fp%2Fassets%2Fimages%2Fimages%2F000%2F790%2F227%2Flarge%2Ffelix-van-den-berg-dst-beauty-metal-01.jpg%3F1433185082&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.artstation.com%2Fartwork%2F9EZgQ&tbnid=ez5XrjPHvKSi8M&vet=12ahUKEwiAyPbQ98nqAhW9IzQIHabzBLsQMygJegUIARDqAQ..i&docid=IzSWxAuToG0fDM&w=1920&h=1080&q=spider%20tank&safe=strict&ved=2ahUKEwiAyPbQ98nqAhW9IzQIHabzBLsQMygJegUIARDqAQ).
Then comes the heavy hitter the Canderous type heavy assault tanks (https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Canderous-class_assault_tank).
And the last is an APC which hovers using repulsors (https://in.pinterest.com/pin/721983383997723835/?d=t&mt=login).
All these vehicles were also shielded and integrated with advance droid brains, so that they can function even without operators present. I had one of the APCs also stealthed out, and integrated as a mechanical component of our ship. Sure, this reduces cargo capacity. But we will have armored and shielded transport. And all these droids and vehicle were programmed in such a way that their loyalties are to me. Can't afford to have them being turned on me.
Early next day I am out waiting at the dock yard. Looking at the shield gates I had installed around the central cavity of the plateau. The whole plateau is covered with overlapping shields. This is not taking into account the planetary shield projectors. Yes, the shields, I nearly forgot to mention them, you see these shields are a bit unique. They function like normal shields and environmental domes. But, due to having access to a hibridium stockpile I integrated a clocking field generator to the shield generator facilities. This in turn hides the base from all sorts of scanners. To reach these well-fortified generators and shield projectors the foe must first climb plateau while under fire from hundreds of lasers, turbolasers and ion canons along with my well entrenched troops and vehicles. Then clear the killing field of hundreds of lasers, turbolasers and ion canons along with my well entrenched troops and vehicles. Yes, I covered a large portion of the area under the shield with fortified gun battery emplacements and fortifications on top of fortifications, on the top as well as sides of the plateaus. I made it into my very own Extra-large version of Fort Drum (The concrete battle fort off the shore of the Philippines). And now add to that the shield gate around the central cavity (imagine Scarif's shield gate, but fixed to the sides of the cliffs instead of floating), nothing enters the central cavity without authorization.
Meanwhile I had construction droids building a fortified city in the mountain clusters. It will be a self-sustaining city. I converted one of the smaller mountains into a giant hydroponic farm. There are water sources underground. I aim to move the entire Mandalorean population to my occupied territories eventually. Starting with my clan. And that is just the start of my grand plans.
After a few minutes of waiting, I see the gates opening up for four freighters to enter. One land on the docking area where I am waiting. Soon as the door opens three guys in Mandalorians armor walk out towards me.
"Ya go missing for one year and look at what ya did, making a secret fortress for us in the ass end of nowhere. Why, you shouldn't have" Guffaws Doth while pulling me into a bear hug.
"Yeah man, impressive set up you got running here" says Subail.
I grin like a lunatic and say "Wait till you see the surprises I got in store for you chumps" ...
That got me slap on the back from Vanzii, he says "Well what are you waiting for Mr. Mandalorean warlord, show us the goodies."
I winced at getting slapped on the back by an armored hand, then lead them to the ship yard.
And show them the completed Crusader S class corvette, complete with a dark grey skull with sharp teeth and downward horns painted onto the front. "I present to you the Shev'la Kyr'am, or in galactic common, the Silent Death". Then I go on to explain the specs of the ship, which had the boys in shock.
"you know you could have bought a small fleet of cruisers for the price to build this one ship, right?" was Subail's question.
I just smiled "well I would have, that is if I had to buy the material or leased out construction" then I went on to explain from where I got the Cortosis covering the outer coating of the ship to the hibridium and stygium for the stealth tech. While they were in stunned silence, they spot the modified Fang fighter being loaded on to the ship." And what are those?" asks Vanzii.
"Those are our modified Fang fighters, the Ne'tra Fangs (Black Fangs in galactic common)." I responded to his question. Then I went on to explain the specs of the fighters, one of which includes an inbuilt advance astromech droid to help with navigation. Which lead to further eye bulging and cursing. At the end of the tour of the shipyard, they were looking at me like I was a monster. Can't blame them, if I hadn't had my lucky findings, I wouldn't be able to build these ships to their current monstrous specs.
Then I lead them through a base tour. They were all still in the being shocked phase, and the sheer scale of the base just added to this. Hope showing them the armors don't give them a heart attack.
Finally, we reached the armory. I lead them to a vault I had installed; were I store the special gadgets. As the blast doors slide open It reveals a vault wall lined with weapons of various kind and at the center stood five armor sets stop. They were completely bitch black with green accents and a bit of yellow here and there (similar to the cover pic, colour scheme of Clan Eldar). "Welcome gentlemen to the candy store, these babies are our armor and tools of trade. The weapons are all moded with the strongest modes available and to add a bit more punch, I have used kyber crystals as focusing crystals in them. As for the armor. This a hard suit style armor I designed. Completely space worthy, once completely sealed. The hard suit parts are made of Beskar, while the jump suits are made of Beskar and Cortosis weave. There is also a detachable streamlined jetpack on the back, it's also coated with Cortosis, just in case. The Helmet also has an inbuilt heads-up display, all band communication relay, inbuilt micro binoculars, different vision modes , target tracking and identification and the mask region (the T-Shaped visor region and surrounding fixtures.) retracts back into the helmet, so you can eat and drink without taking it off" I walk over to the gauntlets, more commonly called Mandalorian vambraces . "These babies also pack loads of surprises. The left one has an inbuilt minicomputer for communication, hacking and all the fun stuff. It also has a hidden Cortosis blade (imagine the blades in the New Assassin's creed Valhalla) and a mini grappling hook with a Durasteel rope of 40 meters length, it can also double as a shock whip, I have added batteries for that as well. Now the Right one also has a hidden blade, a modified plasma flame thrower whose intensity can be adjusted to also be used as a plasma torch."
"Damn. well why didn't ya add a tihaar dispenser as well, ya squeezed everything else into it" ribbed Doth.
"Yeah you missed the whistling birds and the kitchen sink" joked Vanzii.
I just smiled and took the left shoulder pauldron, which was considerably larger than the right. "Well speaking of whistling birds, I installed them on this shoulder pauldron. Six tubes for six whistling birds. With auto reload capability and three reloads. For a total of 18 more whistling birds after the first salvo, bringing it to grand total of 24 whistling birds." They just stare at me like I have gone crazy. Well I might have gone a little overboard.
Then I bring out a briefcase "I also paid good credits to acquire 5 Mandalorean artifacts".
"What now, you went and found the mask and dark saber of Mand'alore, and you are the new Mand'alore now?" asked Subail
"Well not quite, I don't know where the mask is but I know where the saber is though. But this is something else, I was able to get my hand on 5 crushgaunts in almost perfect condition, I refurbished them and added a small coat of beskar to it", I say and open the suit cases.
They were speechless.
While this was happening Janak walked in "Done giving them heart attacks?" he jibs. I roll my eyes at this.
"Well since everyone is here let's customize and prep our gear, we head out tomorrow. Tide and time wait for no man". I said in an ordering tone.
Everyone started doing their perp work. All our amor were pitch black with green and a little amount of gold accents. All of them had a signet on their pauldron of a sharp toothed skull with downward horns and two Beskad crisscrossing through them. I started by Painting a Large dark grey skull on my mask. Doth went with a Dark red three claw pattern, Subail want with a dark blue eye symbols, Vanzii went with a Blood droplet symbol and Janak with a dark grey gear symbol.
I chose two highly modified dual pistols, a WESTAR- 35 and a DE-15. I also took GALAAR-15 blaster carbine, with single, three burst and full auto mods. I also took my Beskar forged Bevii'ragir and its spares with me as well. Doth went with a scatter gun and an MWC-35C "Staccato Lightning" repeating canon along with a pouch full off assorted explosives. Subail went with Dual pistol combo and a heavily moded Longswatt-44 sniper blaster riffle. Vanzii went with an assorted med kit, pistols and a carbine. While Janak went with pistols, a scattergun and a hybrid field tool kit, for in the field maintenance, repairs or just tearing stuff down, basically a field engineer. With all the load out squared away, I had the droids load the replacements for our weapons and other necessities onto the Shev'la. I wanted it to be fully loaded and ready for action. I was also taking with me a contingent of 150 skytroopers (shock trooper variants). 50 19 STs including ZEM and 15 droidikas. That is not taking in to account the three protocol droids, medical droids, other maintenance and repair droids.
With all the equipment squared away. I gather the boys to explain my plan, or atleast what I have planned for so far. "I gathered you guys to explain the route map for our little projects, I have laid it out as such. First is project fortress, which you should have already guessed is to turn this plateau into an unassailable fortress. Second is Project Bastion. On your way in you should have spotted a small clump of mountains nearby. I plan to turn that into a fortified city with an environmental dome and shields. Just like on Mandalore. Then I will ask uncle to initiate project fulcrum, that is slowly shift atleast half of clan eldar to that city. Then if possible, half of the other clans. This way Mandalore can spread out in the future without being obstructed by other factions. This will comprise phase 1. Then comes Phase 2. We will start exploring and mining of nearby systems and planet within the unknown region this will reduce the chances of us catching unwanted attention. We will initiate Projects string of pearls, which is building well-fortified forts around the city and the fortress itself. Each fort will also have anti-orbital capability and strong shields. The city and forts will all be linked by underground trains systems and tunnels for vehicles. And then there is Project star fortress, as we can't afford to build many orbital defense platforms, until we find a certain ancient space station, also known as the the star forge. We will use the gathered resources to build a super space fortress and shipyards in the space near it. If nothing goes wrong, we will make this system unassailable and start expanding out to nearby systems. By then we can start immigrating other willing clans. Well this is all without taking into consideration the fleet building aspect of my plans. I also plan to make all categories of ships including dreadnaughts. They will have high degree of automation as our people are less in number compared to the past. These plans may alter as new assets and other changes are factored in, in the future." I explained the overall plan to the guys, from their expression it was clear I had short circuited them. Oh well.
"I thought the star forge was destroyed" asked Vanzii
"It was, but just like all other Rakatan super structures I am sure of its self-repairing capabilities. And it had a few thousand years to repair and gather resources. All we need to do is find the damn thing" I stated.
"You certainly plan, big. Why the time line though? And why expand towards the unknown regions?" asked Subail who finally recovered from the shock.
"I chose this time table for the projects because after maybe a decade give or take a few years I can predict the existence of factions that will take this base from us without much effort. The slow expansion towards the unknown region is so that we won't catch anyone's attention too quickly. This sector is too far into the unknown region and out of the way of other factions. Plus, if everything goes well, we can move all of Mandalore into this sector."
"Well it's a good plan, and here's to our success" says Doth taking out a bottle of tihaar from somewhere and starts poring five glasses. We just sit around dinking and talking about things for the rest of the day.
