Middle Ring. A planet unknown to the maps of the Beynites.
751 DBYA.
13 years before the Mandalorian Purge.
A week later.
Darth Doom.
"So... We're finally done." I said with satisfaction, looking proudly at the structure in front of me.
Its creation had been briefly interrupted by the recent appearance of a dark-gifted individual from among the cultists of the Force who had fallen to the Dark Side — the Breath Guardians.
According to the Sith archives, it was a very ancient organisation of Force-sensitive beings from the planet Kashy.
In fact, the very name of this organisation had its origins in a series of delusional beliefs that keeping written records of skills was pure blasphemy... A huge misconception, but for this reason, the Guardians passed on their knowledge to each other exclusively in oral form, in what they called the Breath.
In reality, this Breath was actually a separate type of Power, similar to the Wild Power I created. In ancient times, tens of thousands of Kashians sought to join this order every year, but only a few were granted such a high honour and were chosen for training... That is, only those who were Gifted and sensitive to the Force.
Constant improvement of their abilities elevated the Guard to a higher level on a specific scale — the so-called Levels of Achievement. Interestingly and amusingly, foreigners who were not residents of Kash and applied to join the organisation were almost always condemned to life imprisonment in the dungeons of the Kash-Mer dynasty.
In general, the Breath Guard specialised in using the Force to grow crops and heal the body. Among ancient sources, there was a belief that they were blessed with a strong connection to the Living Force.
However, even at the time of the Republic's creation, their home planet was destroyed by a supernova, which is why all this knowledge was obtained from individual members of the Guard scattered throughout the galaxy, who had not yet been completely neutralised by the Jedi and Sith.
That same fallen Guardian was... a complete nobody who, by some miracle, managed to notice my use of the Force on Metalorn, which was related to the beginning of the subjugation of that planet's administrative structure for its future subjugation and incorporation into the Hyperbernia.
It was extremely easy to subdue him with the Force and make him serve me. However... The fallen one proved too stupid and ambitious to obey me unquestioningly, and began to think about how, in the best traditions of Darth Bane's Sith Order, he would kill me after gaining knowledge for the destruction I had allegedly caused him.
This was his fatal mistake, and the Jedi... proved to be a convenient tool for destroying such elements. Honestly, what will people think of me when they meet real, tangible adepts of the Dark Side?
"The Dark Meditation Sphere... Oh yes, one of the greatest creations of Sith genius..." — In a few seconds, revealing his ghostly figure, Tulak Hord agreed with me. Thanks to his memories of the blueprints, supplemented by my advanced technological developments, this thing was created.
I was partly inspired by Doctor Xavier's Cerebro, which he used to find mutants. So why couldn't I, Doom, find the gifted ones I needed with something similar? At least within a radius of a fifth of the galaxy.
The result was not so much a sphere as a three-dimensional polygon of black and green.
A tremendous amount of Power was used to create it. Power that now overflowed every detail of the Sphere, created exclusively with the help of Power Forging and filling every atom to the limit with Power. Thus, the Power emanating from me will only grow stronger, and its radius will increase accordingly. And at the same time, it will not interfere like ordinary metal.
The properties of the Force are such that a large amount of matter in its path somewhat limits its ability to detect living beings. And if the barrier is as dense as the beskar from which a significant part of the sphere is made... This could limit the capabilities of my improved Cerebro, had I not filled the Mandalorian iron with my own Force.
Where did this metal come from?
Oh, we had to intercept a convoy from the Mandalorian Sector to Hutt Space.
And this is how it happened...* * *
One of the alphanumeric star systems on the border of the Mandalorian Sector.
A few days ago.
Darth Doom.
"The Hutts, my lord, have decided to escort the valuable cargo themselves." — A hologram of a member of the network of Beynite spies bowed before me.
This... Duros has proven himself to be an extremely competent and loyal alien, despite a series of tests I set up for him. And considering that these tests were designed with my genius in mind, this intelligent creature could safely be called quite clever. In fact, it was for this reason that he was sent on this mission, which was very important for my plans. It is not every day, or even every year, that one learns of a carefully concealed convoy of beskar that the Mandalorians have decided to sell to the Hutt and use the proceeds to purchase items they need for their own development, given the economic noose around their necks, which I have diligently tightened and perfected... And to do so, once again, through the Hutt. Cunning creatures.
But they deserve to be punished for such audacity towards me.
At the same time, I would get enough of this excellent material, worthy of participating in a number of my projects.
"So there will be no Mandalorians accompanying them. Strange, that makes things easier." — I nodded, not particularly wanting to reduce the number of my future elite troops. "Continue monitoring the loading and update the information as it becomes available."
"As you command, my lord." — The blue-skinned man replied obediently, closing the communication channel and disappearing from my palm-mounted holoprojector.
"... Rob the Hats of such a sum..." — Vi, who was sitting nearby, shook her head in disbelief.
Apparently, I hadn't yet firmly established myself in her mind as someone more powerful than everyone else... Especially some Hutt. The latter had built up too good a reputation... At least enough for even someone from Nar Shaddaa to consider them close to my power, even with my current abilities. Well, this raid will show her that neither the Hutt nor any of their mercenaries... None of them are even close to me.
"This is just a small step on the path to my true goals." — I smiled condescendingly, returning to calibrating the engines of my fighter.
Yes, a fighter.
As practice shows, Force adepts can use small flying vehicles much more effectively thanks to the Force.
At first, I was quite sceptical about personal flight, but Tulak Hord, who had piloted a fighter himself in his time, and without deflector shields at that, presented a number of convincing arguments that persuaded me to give it a try.
Moreover, it would be further proof that I am unmatched in everything. Be it the power of the Force or simple piloting.
Besides, something stirred inside me... Something like nostalgia.
Because once upon a time, back at the very beginning of my confrontation with the Fantastic Four, I really loved flying small aircraft. Why not... give it another try? Besides, it would be quite fun to destroy an entire fleet with just one upgraded fighter equipped with proton missiles, which could easily destroy a cruiser if they hit its vulnerable spots.
Anyway, for reasons of secrecy, the Hutt didn't put anything more powerful in the convoy.
Moreover... It would be less suspicious to the most meticulous investigators, whom the Hutt would undoubtedly hire, than if I destroyed the escort ships with the Force Storm. And there would be less suspicion for the Jedi...
Hyperbernia's own fleet couldn't be used for such a task, either. After all, it's also top secret, so much so that apart from me and Vi, the small squadron of ships consisted only of Dumbroids and a couple of my Dumbots, who served as officers for their less intelligent brethren.
"Hmm... Boss... Well, you're powerful. The main thing is that afterwards... Ahem. I understand, I'll shut up." — Catching my promising glance, the restless girl shut up. She seems to understand the difference between us, but still... An extremely brave person.
I usually call such courage stupidity, but the thing is, she wasn't an idiot by my standards.
Returning to the fighter, I continued to work personally on her next system. Every screw, every piece of armour and every power line... I assembled everything by hand.This spaceship would have the honour of being my combat vehicle, and therefore had to be the best in its class... That's why I wasn't going to waste time and let the Dumboots or Dumdroids interfere with my work, let alone any outsiders.
Even my limited understanding of meku-deru was enough to understand that in order to form an unbreakable bond between a machine and its owner in the Force, it must be created in the same way that a Force adept creates his lightsaber, or in the case of Tulak Horda, his power sword.
I hadn't tried such a trick with armour, it was too noticeable, but with a fighter that would only be used for such top-secret parts of my global plans... Yes, that would be the best solution. For so said Dum!
"Nice machine..." — Vi also decided to change the subject, looking around at my creation.
The predatory features and contours of my fighter really did give it a magnificent appearance, which was also not particularly typical of the local shipbuilding traditions of the MLA.
But when had I ever cared about the opinions of fools, idiots, and narrow-minded morons?
That's right — never.
And so the green-painted ship was created by me without any basis. I simply evaluated all the best models on the market, even those that cost a fortune... And I was frankly disappointed. All these people and eccentrics were limited in their knowledge, or were forced to follow the requirements of their companies, which always counted on good profits and took into account the cost price... And that didn't suit me at all.
If there were any suitable bases for my fighter, they were clearly custom-made and extremely exclusive. And only in single copies.
So I didn't rely on the locals and used my own technical skills, thanks to which all the US military used to chase after me. It was funny to see the moments when they decided to use my own weapon, which I had generously left them when I became Doctor Doom, against me. Oh, how I laughed then!
"Boss, tell me what you've stuffed in here?" — Vi glanced at me with interest, completely unconcerned about her latest impertinence.
For form's sake, I shot her a piercing look and sighed, unnoticed by her. Fine, I'll let her admire my genius.
"It took some effort to assemble the laser guns the way I wanted them..." — I veiled the fact that I had actually designed the local weapons myself. "But I managed to increase the output power of the blaster bolts from the best weapons of a similar size on starships by about seventy-five percent..." I began to explain for some reason. "As you probably know, laser guns are very similar in design to standard blasters. One type of explosive gas, the same as tibanna, is fed from a cooled armoured chamber to the ignition battery. I also purified it using my own methods, which made it more efficient... We'll have to synthesise our own gas later... But anyway. In our case, the released energy is directed through the smooth barrel of the weapon, where galvanic coils, whose structure I have thoroughly redesigned and improved, focus it into a destructive beam of energy, also known as a heavy blaster beam. Given the terrible primitiveness of what is available on the market, I once again had to develop my own schemes for distributing and concentrating energy in the mains, thereby increasing the power of the blaster beam and also allowing it to inflict more damage than usual.
"Ahem..." — Vi exhaled in amazement, knowing full well that I would not deceive her in such matters. There is no point in exaggerating one's skills. Mine are good enough to be greater than all others by default.
"Continuing to explain for an ignoramus like you... I hope you know that these weapons require specific power sources and advanced cooling systems to prevent overheating?" I asked, and receiving a slow nod in response, I continued in the same condescending, instructive tone with which I explained the essence of my inventions to ignoramuses like Richards: "So, as a power source, I used a number of my own developments..." — recreated, however, from my Earth designs, somewhat adapted to local materials." — And why would they only be at risk of discharge after a week-long battle?
"Holy shit... I have no words, boss... But that's not all, is it?" Being well versed in the weapons of this galaxy, the representative of the race from the Unknown Regions swallowed loudly.
But she was right. I confirmed this with an immediate nod, closing the engine cover.
"Proton torpedoes... You should know that these are very high-speed impact warheads carrying powerful proton-diffusion warheads that strike their targets." — With my hands behind my back, I immersed myself in technical descriptions, in which I was like a fish in water. "At the moment, it has almost the largest explosive charge of any weapon that can be installed on a fighter. Since our torpedo is a purely physical weapon, it easily penetrates standard deflector shields designed to protect against various energy weapons..." — I began to find more and more similarities with the time on Earth when the large guns of battleships and other sea leviathans began to be actively replaced by aircraft and their torpedoes, which were much more destructive than shells. Here, too, few turbolasers, i.e., very heavy and advanced versions of ordinary lasers, could compare to the power of a torpedo.
This made me think about creating a fleet that was not standard for this galaxy, but rather an aircraft-carrying fleet.
After the torpedoes, I switched to the technological innovations I had used in armour and engines... But it seems I lost the saboteur back when I was describing the ship's armament.
That's eight laser cannons, equivalent to fourteen of the latest on the market, and six proton torpedo launchers, two on each wing and two under the cockpit. Given their increased power, two of my torpedoes were almost equal to three conventional ones.
The rest... was small change compared to what I was creating on Earth's resource base.
One thousand eight hundred and fifty kilometres per hour in the atmosphere, incredible acceleration by local standards, a powerful deflector shield and a first-class hyperdrive...
All this was achieved not only by my technical and design skills, but also with the help of the Force, which sometimes allowed me to squeeze things in where they physically couldn't fit. Not to mention its ability to process materials, increasing their strength, energy capacity and conductivity.
...One way or another, everything comes to an end sooner or later, and so did our time of waiting.
The current secret base of the Mandalorians was practically autonomous, and there were only a few representatives of this people there. The rest of the visitors were Hutt ships and their mercenaries, including my informant and scout, with whom I had long ago agreed where he would be during my attack on the convoy. This was around the time when he learned the number and composition of the escort for the supposed ore transport with its cargo.
Of course, in reality, there were already properly processed and usable bars of bescara.
"Be ready," I said briefly, jumping into the open cab of my Dumbuster and turning on its systems.
"As you say. I'll go get ready." — she said, baring her teeth in a carnivorous grin, and ran out of the hangar of the converted civilian starship we were currently in, one of billions in the galaxy. With such an introduction, they would never find it, even if I didn't replace its engines, whose unique trail in the void of space was the basis for all ship search operations.
There were no long-range detection systems at the Mandalorian base because they could be used to find the base, so I decided to attack the convoy right here and now. In any case, my self-proclaimed teacher's ship was still here, and with the help of Dumbroyd, I used it as a manoeuvrable and invisible communication jammer in the system. So even if the Mandalorians on the planet noticed something, I would have time to descend and destroy everyone there.
"It's time," I said to myself as I took off from the hangar and immediately accelerated to maximum speed, wanting to reach the enemy fleet as quickly as possible.
Having calculated the average speed of the convoy precisely, I had no intention of violating my own calculations and allowing even the smallest enemy ship to jump into hyperspace, whose properties I was only just learning and thinking about how to put to use.
It became visible on the scanners and soon even in the transparent cockpit window.
Naturally, they tried to contact me.
Once.
A squadron of old, but judging by the contours of their hulls, modified fighters flew out to intercept me.
And, of course, they tried to fire at me.
The distance was too great for them to hit me, but they kept trying, recklessly wasting their tibanna.
Fools.
Fools who were surprised by my return fire. By a strange coincidence, my tibanna was depleted to the limit and had a green tint, which is why the most powerful laser beams burst from all the barrels of my Doom Fighter, mercilessly licking the deflector shields of my opponents. Two of them were immediately lost, veering sharply to the side.
I had studied enough piloting materials, which are highly developed here due to the small number of heavy ships after the Rusan Reforms, and therefore instantly understood that they were going to use a typical tactic against heavy variations of fighter space aviation.
Needless to say, they were terribly surprised when my starship demonstrated the manoeuvrability of a light fighter and easily changed course, opening concentrated fire. By slightly increasing the power of my guns, I not only annihilated the enemy fighter's shield, but also completely burned out its cockpit, and then blew it up completely?
Judging by the slight jerk of the others' noses, this came as a surprise to them.
A deadly surprise.
I opened myself to the Force.
And the Force began to guide me and my ship. The scanners became a little more accurate, the weapons a little more powerful, the ship a little lighter... Mystical energy began to change reality itself.
Two more fighters were destroyed, smashed and defeated, and the field of debris only lightly tapped the hull of my ship, as if signing their powerlessness as I flew through it.
The combined data from the ship's most accurate sensors intertwined before me, along with information from the Force, which complemented the overall picture, finally merging the two sources of data.
Feeling every part of my ship, from the engine exhaust during another rapid acceleration to the laser beams flying out of the guns, I destroyed the remnants of the mercenary squadron in the next seven seconds. And as I destroyed the last wounded enemy, whom I had deprived of his deflector shield at the beginning of the battle, another brilliant idea came to my mind.
If... If the Force Sword uses the Dark Side of the Force as energy for its energy blade, then why... Why can't the same Dark Side be used for all other ship systems, including laser cannons? Here it is — the key to the power of the Rakata technology, which no one in this galaxy has been able to surpass until now!
Blinded by this new idea, I even missed the moment when several squadrons, moving more professionally, flew out to intercept me.
"Idiots," I muttered under my breath. "You should have attacked me with your entire fleet. Then you would have had some chance. A measly one..." Holding down the triggers, I incinerated the first one and easily dodged the volley from his wingman following behind. Oh, that damn tautology...
Performing manoeuvres unimaginable for the size of my Doom Fighter, including both those known from Earth fighters and completely new ones, possible only in the airless void, I discovered with some surprise... That I was no less thrilled by such a battle and the feeling of my enemies' death than if I had done it myself.
After all, I use the Force even more in such battles than I do for Lightning or Sith Magic.
"Now I understand why fighters are so popular with the gifted of this galaxy," I chuckled, spinning the fighter around its axis and shooting the unsuspecting pair of leader and wingman right in the forehead.
After the flashes signifying the destruction of the fighters, as well as similar reflections of death in the Force, I felt a slight satisfaction in the latter.
Tulak Hord was pleased that I had understood another habit of the locals. Well, as long as I liked it, I saw no point in resisting. It would be unwise.
Nevertheless... The mercenaries did not possess impressive piloting skills, which is why they couldn't even hit me due to sharp manoeuvres accompanied by overloads that were unbearable for ordinary intelligent beings but easy for me.
So, after casually destroying half a dozen more starfighters, I simply ignored the rest, who no longer had any desire to attack first, so they circled around like cowardly scavengers, and headed straight for the fleet, which was in no hurry to accelerate, apparently deciding that a single small starship could do nothing to them.
A fatal mistake, you fools.
"No one can escape the Duma," I declared triumphantly, baring my teeth.
I had recently explained to my only listener that the torpedoes had a much longer range than standard laser guns.
But only now was I putting it into practice.
My first victim was a small white ship. I saw no point in using the local ship classification system, or rather, one of them. The locals suffer from selective idiocy and sometimes call cruisers frigates and corvettes corvettes.
Several light laser cannons, not much more powerful than those of the fighters I had destroyed, tried to hit me.
Pressing a button, I fired the first proton torpedo.
The first one headed straight for the bridge of the ship, whose gunners were focused on me, still firing green laser beams at the weakening deflectors.
That's why they couldn't destroy a much more terrifying weapon.
But I didn't stop there.
After performing another pirouette, I found myself under the ship's hull and fired a torpedo at it.
The resulting explosion slightly damaged my deflectors, lowering their effectiveness by seven percent, but I ignored it and continued on my way.
Along the way, I began to encounter ships of similar tonnage and crew training, so even with fighters on my tail, I easily annihilated my targets with torpedoes, showing why such a strategy had completely destroyed large guns on Earth.
"Although... It would be a more vivid lesson if I did it this way," I concluded aloud, completing a dead loop and annihilating a couple more fighters that were desperately trying to prevent the destruction of their comrades on the large ships.
Closing my eyes for a moment, I felt the life points of the seven fighters that had once again settled on my tail in the Force.
And then I simply activated the manoeuvring engines of my Doom Fighter to full power. Spinning in almost every direction, I sharply reduced my speed, meeting the enemy starships rushing towards me.
This trick, which would have been completely insane for ordinary pilots, was possible for me... And as we closed in, we didn't just pass each other, but I activated my weapons and began to destroy each of the seven.
Four seconds passed.
Seven dead.
Oh yes...
I finally felt fear on the enemy ships. All-encompassing, all-consuming fear.
And its main source was on the largest escort ship, an entire cruiser.
Which I headed straight for. Now the Hutt mercenaries were sufficiently frightened by the swift destruction of an entire squadron of small ships, including a considerable number of freighters, that they were ready to flee at the risk of incurring the wrath of the Hutts. I couldn't let them do that, so the first proton torpedoes completely destroyed the hyperdrives, including the main and backup ones, and seriously damaged the conventional ones.
The ship had a sufficient number of rapid-fire laser weapons, which were essentially space air defence systems... But honestly, what could those whose direction I had anticipated even before firing do to me?
The same was true of the seven squadrons that were incinerated.
"Who are you... Who are you, you Jedi bastard?!" — someone screamed in panic when I finally decided to accept another challenge.
"Your doom." — I declared triumphantly, using my mind to send nightmares to him as payment for talking to me.
"A-a-a-a-a!" — The scream was not long in coming, but it quickly trailed off — I turned off the connection.
Once again passing under the bottom of the cruiser, I fired another torpedo, finally piercing the armour, causing decompression, accompanied by the intelligent beings being thrown into space and the reactor being exposed.
Each torpedo was protected by an energy field to prevent accidental detonation as a result of collision with small debris from destroyed equipment or laser shots passing in close proximity, so the debris from the previous volley did not interfere.
This cruiser is not bad after all. It withstood a second hit, even though it caused a thermonuclear reaction that I am familiar with, accompanied by a powerful burst of energy. The torpedo's proton warhead exploded, causing enormous physical damage to the target with the torpedo's filling — an extremely powerful explosive called Nergon-14.
Moving further away, I used my sensors and the Force to calculate the torpedo's flight path... And I fired it without hesitation, turning the cruiser and the thousands of intelligent beings on board into a cloud of space dust that appeared after a bright flash.
The rest of the convoy's escort ships, as well as the transport ships carrying the beskar, slowly drifted through the void of space, deprived of all engines. If I left the combat ships alive because I wanted to deal with the cruiser more quickly, then the transport ships... Of course, they couldn't be destroyed. I didn't want to have to search the entire system for ingots with the Force.
So, turning the last enemy combat starships into flashes of light, I approached the first of the transport ships, intending to dock with the bottom of my fighter. The passage and hatch were right under my seat, which moved back, and I stood with my feet on the hatch.
For someone else, such a system might have been inconvenient, but what did I care about them? This was my ship, and I was the only one who would be using it.
"Let's begin..." — I turned my attention to the mercenaries pointing their blasters at me.
Force lightning flashed on my hands, which meant that Darth Doom had once again come out to reap the lives of his enemies.
***
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