Finally, after staying on Tatooine for about a month, Amir piloted The Traveler back into the galaxy.
Not long after dropping out of hyperspace, the silhouette of the Eternal Ark came into view.
It was as neon-lit and bustling as ever.
Euphemia—whose name Kahraman always seemed to forget—was waiting at the docking bay to welcome them.
Having not seen her for a while, Amir noticed that Euphemia's mechanical body had undergone significant modifications. With his experienced eye, he instantly recognized that the new components were top-tier configurations.
It seemed Kahraman wasn't as unfeeling as one might imagine.
"Doctor Kahraman is currently performing surgery. I apologize that he couldn't welcome you personally. I will take you to him," Euphemia said.
"It's fine, it's fine." Amir waved his hand, walking along the street.
Milisen had long since pulled out her "free dining" card. She grabbed two cups of a fluorescent beverage from a roadside stall and handed one to Amir.
Of the four people present, only two could actually eat.
Amir took a sip of the drink, his face twisting in disgust. It tasted like a mixture of cucumber, soy sauce, and yogurt. He wondered when he could research a taste perception system for electronic components.
At the very least, he shouldn't be the only one suffering this kind of torture.
32 should have to bear it, too.
Jokes aside, as a member of a culture that loved food, Amir still felt some sympathy seeing that Euphemia and 32 couldn't eat.
. . .
The group walked into the main hall. They didn't have to wait long before they saw Kahraman walking out of the operating room.
"A former customer. His mechanical arm was damaged by a blaster. The Empire's doing again." Kahraman gestured behind him.
"Yeah, finish your business first. I'm in no rush." Amir and Milisen sat down to the side.
"It's already done; my assistant can handle the rest." Kahraman finished and looked at 32. "How is the new body treating you? No issues?"
"No issues." 32 moved his arm, demonstrating his flexible motor functions.
Kahraman noticed the modifications Amir had made to 32 and stepped forward to examine them.
"Very good design. How is your intelligence system? If it's anything like those Imperial combat droids, then forget it." Kahraman activated the auxiliary attack mechanism on 32's back.
"It is definitely much stronger than those droids. This isn't some piece of junk that just shoots at whatever it sees. I added a motion analysis template that can predict enemy movement trajectories. The flexibility is also high; I sacrificed some structural durability to increase the attack frequency . . ."
Kahraman listened typically, nodding frequently. "Using these small mechanical arms to control blasters is indeed the most suitable choice. Without a heavy torso dragging it down, the target locking speed is faster than assassin droids. However, we could increase the length of the mechanical arms. That way, you can launch covert attacks even from behind cover."
Seeing Kahraman sink into thought, Amir continued, "It's not just on 32. I also made an external 'Smart Tactical Backpack.' The materials are simple, and the cost isn't high. I want to see if we can mass-produce it to equip the Resistance."
"Mass production? That's completely feasible. The only issue is that the target acquisition mechanics for these tools are always hard to perfect. On a chaotic battlefield, it's very easy to accidentally hit your own people. Otherwise, the Empire would have equipped every soldier with one by now."
"Its attack mode is primarily to assist the wearer. It prioritizes targets the wearer is aiming at. In automatic attack mode, we can preset it to only target enemies with specific silhouettes or uniforms."
Kahraman thought for a moment and added, "We could make a control panel—a HUD eyepiece worn by the user. An external scanner would search for all targets on the field, and the user could manually select whom to attack."
"That is a good method, but in emergencies, there might not be time for manual selection. We could assign letter tags to the scanned figures and add a voice command function. That would be 'calling out targets' in the truest sense."
The two discussed the results and smiled at each other.
Milisen, 32, and Euphemia listened in confusion, though they could still tell that if this thing were realized, it would be a massive upgrade for the Resistance fighters.
Every bit of difference could influence the outcome of a war.
. . .
Not following the technical discussion any further, Euphemia took Milisen and 32 shopping outside.
Amir took only BD-4 and followed Kahraman into his office.
"The workshop I use for fabrication is right here on the Eternal Ark. Since demand is low, I only use a few droids, and the output is low." Kahraman knew what Amir was concerned about.
"A factory is easy enough to sort out. The important things are high-end instruments, and I have many concepts that need testing," Amir said.
Kahraman smiled. "You don't need to worry about that. I've procured blueprints and actual units of many top-tier instruments from the Empire. Haha, after all, many high-ranking officials use my goods. If they want to be comfortable, they have to arm me first."
The two discussed for a long time and settled the matter.
Kahraman would clear out a space on the Eternal Ark to serve as a factory, establishing an assembly line. It would first be used to manufacture Amir's Smart Tactical Backpack—though, naturally, they would modify it to make it more suitable for the battlefield.
In addition, they would find a site to conduct experiments for other projects.
A few hours after receiving Amir's communication, Ahsoka arrived. She was pleasantly surprised to hear of their plan and couldn't put down the Smart Tactical Backpack prototype.
To Amir, this might have started as an entertaining toy, but to them, it was a treasure that could save the lives of countless comrades.
With Ahsoka joining in, Amir and Kahraman were no longer just talking theory. Every idea they proposed was reviewed by Ahsoka to confirm whether it would actually be effective in combat.
During their chat, Amir realized that the "tech tree" of this galaxy was a bit skewed.
They had extremely high attainments in large-scale mechanics—gravity control systems, deflector shields, hyperdrives, planetary shields, and so on had been invented and widely applied eons ago. But these were mostly utilized on massive, powerful-looking fleets and space stations.
Few people were willing to spend time strengthening and expanding research on small-scale devices.
Let alone microscopic nanotechnology; only a few isolated planets had achieved negligible results.
They also didn't care much about electronic information technology.
Although they could manufacture fully intelligent droids, those were completely based on existing templates. Amir could say that in terms of software application, this world was not as flexible or deep as it appeared.
With Amir's mindset from Earth, he could conceive of many interesting things that could be easily realized with existing technology. And given the high level of mechanical engineering in the galaxy, the cost would be very low.
If these could be realized, individual soldier strength could become terrifyingly powerful under such armament.
This was especially true for the Rebel Alliance. They didn't often engage in large-scale campaigns, being more suited for small-scale guerrilla warfare. If every person in a squad were equipped with a set of mechanical armaments, their strength would allow one soldier to take on ten.
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