Chp-111
Las
The University of Coruscant was a simple name for an institution so ridiculously glittery.
It sat in the Imperial Center, of course. It was an important institution, or so it claimed, and as such had to stick to the center of power.
I think it had more to do with sucking up, but I wasn't going to say that out loud, was I. No, the copious number of Imperial flags slapped onto every surface did that for me.
"This hall is severely lacking in-" I quickly elbowed Myr'thos in the ribs to shut them up. This was neither the time nor place to be talking smack about the institution about to give me a diploma.
I could feel their stare boring into the back of my skull, promising retribution in private. My mind succinctly shut that thought away for later as we walked to the grand doors of the building.
They were, in a single word, large. Like, at least 6 or 7 stories tall. At the base sat a series of perfectly normal sized doors instead.
And yes, we walked to the front door instead of taking a shuttle. Apparently, the University liked wasting people's time.
Upon reaching the base, we entered to find an equally large hall stretching out before us. The roof was a glass skylight, and the hall was lined with statues of various people rich enough to pay for one.
To either side, corridors ran to the college's various wings. A myriad of students milled about, all human and all looking as though they were raised by nannies while their parents cheated on each other.
Despite the hall's size, it was surprisingly bereft of activity. Students and staff milled about, certainly. But for an institution of this size one would expect more students.
Then again, considering the cost of tuition, it was a surprise anyone could afford to attend in the first place.
The reception desk was ironically quite small, the clerk behind it clearly cramped.
"Moff Las Mola, here for my Doctoral defense." I said quickly, keeping my arms held behind my back despite the growing pain in my elbow.
Why is their armor so damn hard? I should've never given that program adequate funding.
The clerk's eyes widened a fraction at hearing the word Moff, posture straightening up in an instant.
"Ah of course Moff Mola! Let me just check the system here and get you set up."
As he went through the system, his posture slowly slouched down once more.
"Here you are, Moff. This pass will let you through the needed sections. This map will lead you to the correct hall." A chromium token was placed on the counter between us, engraved with the Universities logo. The clerks' tone was the same you got from service workers after a double shift. Painful.
"And my bodyguard?"
The clerk sighed as though this was the most unimportant event to ever occur. He even rolled his eyes!
What was it that wuxia novels always say? Oh, right. You are courting death!
Given the way Myr'thos twitched in the slightest way, it was true. This clerk was a single sarcastic statement away from getting beheaded.
The clerk proceeded to slap a second token down after a few seconds of typing. At this point, I wasn't sure if he wasn't going to literally wave us away, but I wasn't taking any chances with Myr'thos's attitude.
Instead, I swiftly followed the map, Myr'thos in tow.
"That one will suffer."
"Please wait until I'm off-world. And at least keep it untraceable? I don't want to get my diploma revoked because you got pissy."
They didn't respond, content to grumble under their breath. Mugwuffin let out that strange laugh of hers from her position curled on my shoulders. A weight I was getting tired of carrying.
"You're getting heavy, you know? Might want a harness or something."
Indignation!
"If I didn't exercise, I wouldn't be standing upright you scaly rat."
Annoyance
She then proceeded to poke at my belly. So what, I like hot coco, sue me!
Our argument continued the entire walk there, drawing stares from passerbyers as I seemingly argued with a lizard about weight. All the while Myr'thos stalked to my side, every step an opportunity to aura farm.
They were enjoying their new armorway too much. The hooded helmet and monochrome color scheme made them a walking shadow, and Myr'thos took every opportunity to make the drip clear as day to all.
Well, it is a drip or drown world, after all. If only I had my helmets of old, I could aura farm as well. Unfortunately, I was stuck with just a measly uniform.
The walk itself was long, nearly half an hour of gilded halls and statues of business magnates with more money than sense.
It didn't help that every staff member we passed was floating along on a repulsorlift hoverboard of some kind, ignoring all those around them.
One of them fell over, faceplanting so hard I was certain I saw blood. From Myr'thos's quiet snickers, I had a suspicion it was no accident.
Eventually, we reached the meeting room. As the door slid open, the first thing I noticed was the smell.
Perfume utterly saturated the place. And not just one smell, but dozens deigned to assault my senses. Any one of them would've been fine enough, but the combination almost made my eyes wander.
See!? This is why I wore those helmets, they had filters!
The room itself was as ostentatious as the rest of the academy. Every seat in a lecture hall built for maybe 200 students seemed fit for a king. With adequate leg space, cushioned arm seats and cup holders.
In the very front row sat a single person. A corpulent man to put it lightly, the armrests of his chair raised to allow his girth to remain unconstrained.
Considering there was not a single other soul in the lecture hall, he could be the only source of the perfume.
A snore ripped its way out of his gullet, a bone shaking thing.
"This is the elite of the most prestigious university in the galaxy? Pathetic. Mongrel, do you truly value any simple piece of parchment these fools allot to you?"
Moving over to the podium at the front, I took to connecting my PDA and readying my presentation as I responded.
"Well, considering we're 45 minutes early, I'm surprised anyone showed up at all. Still, it's not about the people who run the University as much as it is about proving myself to, well, myself."
The holoprojector lit up with uncharacteristic quickness, a testament to the best consumer electronics one could buy being the norm at the academy.
"Ah, so it is a lack of pride that drives you. Pathetic, but I've come to expect no less from you mensch. Now, I am off to acquire refreshments from the nearest cafe. They seem to have quite the selection in this building alone."
"Cool. See if they've got coco please."
Myr'thos left without another word while I took to doing a quick test of the projectors capabilities to ensure everything was functional.
It was effectively a slideshow with 3d graphics. Instead of a normal graph, I had projections that covered the entire Myto sector. Instead of boxes of text and images, I had 3d simulations and videos. All standard stuff.
It was around 5 minutes before the presentations started that I noticed something was off. No one else had arrived, and I was certain I'd come to the right room. Maybe that clerk fucked up? Seemed lazy enough for it.\
"HRRK!"
The loud sound shook me from my mind as the only other person in the room woke with a snort.
Indignation!
You're a rat, shut up.
The man seemed to shake himself away, long robes barely hiding how the folds of his fat rolled like waves.
"H-huh? Where…oh. Who are you?" His confusion lasted mere moments before locking onto me.
"I'm Moff Las Mola. I'm to present a defense in this room in a few minutes for a diploma by experience."
His eyes widened in recognition. "Ah, yes, now I remember. That was why I chose this spot for my nap. The seats here are quite comfortable."
"You're one of the examiners then? Pleasure to meet you, Mr?"
"Doctor Quinzeltion Burtra, head of the Butra family and majority stockholder in Butra Electronics. That holo projector is one of my company's products."
That it was, the Butra logo shining on the side in blue light.
"Well, again, it's a pleasure to meet you Doctor Butra. Do you know when the other examiners will be here? Its almost time to begin."
"Bah." He waved a hand my way. "They'll be here when they see fit. Best focus on preparing your defense. Something about taxation law?"
"Actually, it about transaction cost reduction using-"
He waved again, interrupting me. "Yes, yes, I remember." The Doctor yawned, a hand reaching into the depths of his robes to retrieve a crumpled bag. From it, he pulled a strange purple and orange pastry easily the size of my hand, half of it disappearing into his mouth a second later.
I decided to ignore him as he did me, focusing instead on re-reading through my presentation and notes, ensuring I was prepared for every question that might come my way.
When the meeting time came, the only one to walk through the door was Myr'thos, holding two drinks.
They handed me one, sipping on the other with the straw poking through an open port in the helmet. < add "thank you" from Las >
Myr'thos said nothing, even though the feeling I got was that a barb was hidden, waiting.
Instead they settled into a corner, their new perch giving them a view of every entrance and exit.
"My bodyguard." I told Doctor Butra, answering the silent question on his face.
He simply hummed, returning his attention to his pastries. He'd produced a half dozen more from his robes when I wasn't looking.
It was only 15 minutes after the presentation was meant to begin that people started to trickle in.
Various doctors and assorted professors in robes worth more than the shuttle I flew in on. They chatted and laughed, none bothering to even look me in the eye, much less greet me.
Though they shot curious looks at Mugwuffin on my shoulders, and wary ones towards Myr'thos.
Eventually, nearly 25 minutes after the designated starting time, the final examiners had arrived. The front row was filled with around 15 or so people, strange given I had been told my committee would only be around 6 people total.
Once they had, I decided I needed to start quickly. The quicker I was done, the quicker I could get off the planet.
"Hello esteemed members of the University. I am Moff Las Mola, of the Myto Sector."
None of them responded back, boredom clear. Some were still talking amongst themselves, and Doctor Butra was completely absorbed by his pastries, zoned out entirely.
"My presentation is on Reconstructed Institutional Frameworks and Transaction Cost Reduction in Frontier Economies: A Re-examination of Pre-Imperial Development Models Using Contemporary Evidence from the Myto Sector."
From there, it began, starting with the history of the topic. The Guild wasn't a new type of organization, but in this galaxy few things were given there were some twenty five thousand years of history. Being original in these things was hard, and many went more for a rediscovering and reapplication of older concepts.
As the section continued, I was pretty sure I heard a snore.
Eventually, I got into the meat and bones of the system and the proof of the Guild's benefits. The rising employment rate and subsequent boom of taxes was a large part of it. It was here that I got my first question.
"You claim this 'Guild' is more productive and better suited to industrial concerns. Yet your anti-monopoly practices seem to favor low-class individual businesses. How can your system hope to prove itself productive when all you seem to do is coddle the small ventures of the peasants?"
The woman who asked was rail thin, in a way that would be considered unhealthy if not for the fact that I knew such a body type was actually quite in vogue right now amongst the elite. Her unnaturally green eyes seemed to glow with malice, contrasting her taut, molasses colored skin.
"Well, that's because monopolies actually fail to hold up in terms of long term, high yield productivity in the same way. A monopoly has no competition that necessitates higher quality products or services. They just have to keep their competition out of the market, and tend to spend more time and money currying political favor and ensuring no competition arises than actually refining their internal processes or eliminating waste. Data from the Myto Sector has shown quite the opposite under the Guild. Actually, I have more material on this I cut for time."
I took a little time bringing the info up, a complex chart appearing from the projector. A variation of a later map of the sector, but focused on the individual productivity averages of small to medium businesses in the sector.
"Based on the data gathered, it was shown that smaller businesses were on average through the Guilds systems able to grow and showcase productivity and output more efficiently than mega-corporations. While lacking the individual scale, they make up for it by virtue of being easier to start thanks to Guild sponsored classes and resources."
A click brought me to another deleted slide. "Now looking at data from the Kuat system, the dominance of KDY as a corporation has led to immense production of ships. However, this dominance comes with an oppression of other, smaller companies attempting to compete. The average small business productivity rating in the Kuat system is much lower, and if it was at the same rate as the Myto Sector, the Kuat system would see a near 18% increase in productivity overall."
I paused to take a breath and a quick swig of the mediocre swill this establishment dared to call hot chocolate. Should've brought my own.
As I did, the room seemed a tad quieter. Maybe those in the back had stopped talking and started snoozing instead. At least the sloppy sounds of eating had reduced. They could stand to be nicer, I was missing my lunch for this meeting!
"Now, I have about a dozen more pages of notes on this topic specifically, but for the sake of time I'm going to return to the main presentation. I'd be happy to speak further on it after the defense is over." A few more button presses, and I was back on the main presentation.
Specifically, the part regarding slavery and the tax base.
After going over some of the basics regarding the Guild's bylaws, especially regarding slavery and how the focus on smaller businesses was affected by them, another question arose.
"Forced labor of local alien populations has been economically proven to extract resources at the maximum rate with minimum cost. Your model seems to eschew this entirely for the sake of giving aliens benefits they have no need of. Is the outer rim so lacking in proper human administration that you must make such concessions?"
This time it was an older man, seated next to the previous questioner. His long white hair was braided into elaborate patterns, interconnecting with each other and held together with rings I was pretty sure were made of aurodium.
"Thats actually answered here on the next slide." I replied, taking another sip to calm my nerves. This was getting irritating, if you have a question make sure its good! These guys sucked.
"As seen here, yes, the cost of maintaining a well paid labor force with mandatory time off and workers protections does start off more expensive. However, these workers now have the time and money needed to go out and engage more proactively with the economy."
A click brought up the next slide, showing the wider effects on the sector economy.
"While at times harder to see on a case by case business, zooming out to the wider economy shows that this increases the overall money flow of trade, as businesses have more customers to sell to. The increase in economic activity then plays into the previous points mentioned about small businesses."
"More importantly" I continued, flicking to the next slide. "Tax revenue has seen a dramatic increase. Not only that, but this increases the size of the tax base as well. This increases the states fiscal capacity, allowing more investment into infrastructure, military and other programs. Not only that, but it reduces costs in a myriad of other ways."
Here, once more, I was forced to bring up slides removed for time. "As seen here, extractive operations that utilize forced labor in the neighboring Veragi sector report vastly increased military costs. Droids, soldiers, and a bevy of monitoring equipment is needed to ensure slave revolts don't break out. And for putting them down when they inevitably do. As it stands, a non-humans needs or wants are irrelevant, only their productive capability. And the data shows that these concessions allow that capability to rise."
"Next, as seen here, the skill ceiling is important. While this may not be a concern here in the Core, in the Outer Rim skilled workers are rarer. By allowing non-humans to engage in the economy and educational system more freely, an engine is created that allows higher difficulty positions to be filled quicker. A slave cannot be whipped into becoming a systems engineer."
"Is this system competitive to neighboring sectors who do use slavery? How does this Guild ensure companies' margins are maintained and people stay to do business?"
Out of nowhere, another question erupted. Turning around, I saw it came from none other than Doctor Butra himself. His pastries lay forgotten on the desk before him, arms propped up by the elbows, hands intertwined before his face. His eyes, however, seemed wide, almost confused by the words coming out of his mouth.
"Ah, good question Doctor Butra." And to my surprise, I was sincere. "The Guild reduces intra-sector friction and has extensive programs aimed at easing trade between sectors as well. Overall, it's easy to both do business in the sector and with the sector, though more of the former than the latter. More than that, slave sectors save on wages but bleed in security costs."
Another projection, this one from the Veragi sector I had scrounged up.
"The average cost of security per slave per capita is 237% higher than what it would take to pay even the barest minimum wage. They are effectively running expensive prisons that happen to produce something as a byproduct. This, combined with all the other evidence, is inefficient."
From there, the tune of the presentation changed dramatically. The questions seemed to almost switch. Now, the panelists seemed more engaged. Their questions aimed at less obvious but important gaps in my theory and practice.
At one point they started discussing with one another as well as with me. They even stood from their chairs, the group congregating around the podium to utilize the holoprojector and holonet connection to bring up various data points and research from the school files.
I ended up pulling a great deal of those removed slides and files up throughout the entire discussion. I'll be honest, it was some of the most fun I'd had in a long while.
A legitimate academically engaged discussion on topics I was interested in with peers in the field. Many of them had read the same papers I had. Some had even written those papers.
The energy was almost exciting, and at times I watched figures such as Doctor Butra engaging rigorously in serious debate on the potential failure points of the Guilds patrols specifically in regards to said patrols effects on the economic stability of a region.
Unfortunately, the atmosphere came to an end as an alarm rung out, my alarm. A quick tap at my PDA silenced it.
"My apologies, my alarm was ringing to remind me of a dinner reservation I made this morning." I glanced at the clock. "Unfortunately, I'll have to take my leave within the next half an hour if I wish to make it . It's at The Pinnacle, you see."
I received some understanding looks as myself, Mugwuffin and Myr'thos were ushered out of the room while the panel debated.
"You should praise my ability, for I was able to maintain a state of readiness throughout the entirety of that inane babbling." Said Myr'thos, body contorting into seemingly bone-breaking stretches, sighing as their body received that relief.
"Isn't your body built to be a perfect weapon? You should be perfectly capable of sitting still for a little while. See, even Mugwuffin did it!" I poked the lizard-cat-thing, but all I got in response was a little snore.
"The truth, peasant, is that nobody, born or made, could ever hope to withstand nearly four hours of such mind-numbing boredom. Only the combination of my perfect body, unbreakable mind, and durasteel will allow me to survive this encounter."
"Fine! Next time I'll make a presentation on the fruit market. You wanted two and a half week old orban fruits, right?"
Our banter lasted at least fifteen minutes, back and forth on whether mixed fruit smoothies or coco blends were the superior drink. I know I won, no matter that dirtbag fruit-lover says.
When the doors opened once more, we were ushered back inside. There, the entire committee stood, Doctor Butra at its center.
"We've come to a decision, Doctor
Legally obligated. You see, I typed the number 6, and then within a word typed the number 7, and as such I have no choice. My brain is rotting in a peculiar way.
Been looking into expanding info on the Myto Sectors ground forces. After all, outside of the LECA's and the Broadsword hover IFV's its all bog standard. Obviously the Imp military has some decent stuff, if it was all awful they'd lose all the time. But I figure there has to be places they can improve, so tossing ideas/art of vehicles/weapons/strategies and more in the comments would be amazing, cause I am as far from a general as possible. Not even an armchair general. Mechs can be included, given the LECA, but keep them star wars themed and grounded to an extent. No Gundams flying around lobbing battleship killing nukes.
Honestly fairly proud of this chapter. Really wanted to showcase how Coruscant is kind of a glittery shithole through the academy. But at the same time, I figured there had to be people who were actually passionate about their field of study under the pomp. After all, this is just one lowly Moff, so they wouldn't send the trust fund babies with 0 passion, just the ones who are 50/50 on passion and profit.
And yes, you're right, this is a 1 POV chapter. That's because it's late but I don't want to spend another 3 hours writing up the second POV or wait until tomorrow to finish it. It was going to be Grant. Don't worry, she'll be first for 112.
While this new and hopefully improved style of writing takes longer to write chapters for, I will be uploading more often. Multiple times a week if possible. I'll be honest, I saw how Sera's seems to top charts every week and I got maybe a bit jelly.
Eh, I'll get over it with the help of carnita's filled bean dip! Perfect dinner, I tell ya.
Even the reaper files a 1040 come April
-Freefaller