The day for the fated Imperial fleets' arrival was at hand, and Corvus had done everything in his power to prepare for this monumental event. Within his office aboard the Herald, he reviewed the things he had accomplished.
Using the vast quantities of trash, and other detritus, he had used his Workshop, and converted the wasted materials found on this massive manufacturing planet, and converted them into chemicals, and components. Thousands of grav-trucks were commanded to deliver these 'goods' to Corvus nearly every hour of every day.
Accepting this crap into his inventory, he then converted it into weapons, armor, medicine, ammunition, personal shields, explosives, and droid parts. Taking the mask from the Mandalorian, he now had beskar in his hands, and as such, got to work. Although crafting beskar armor took up a ridiculous amount of resources, Corvus also had a nearly constant stream of materials flowing to him. If he was a generic rpg guy farming all this stuff on his own, it would take decades, but since he had a planet with over 20 billion people working for him, it wasn't all too difficult.
As such, he had created 20 million full suits of beskar armor for his clone Legions. Meanwhile, the tritanium armor that had been issued previously was handed down to the Eriaduan military regulars. Hundreds of millions of men, swayed by his acts of healing, had pledged themselves to the Republic. Each and every one of them received a shield, a blaster, and a pair of thermal detonators. Almost every one of the regulars were equipped with a tritanium helmet, and chest piece combo.
Although Corvus had considered arming everyone with beskar, it was simply impossible. For one, even with a planets worth of resources, it was too difficult to funnel enough materials to him so that he could supply his 50 million clone troopers, much less the 1-2 billion men that were the Eriaduan regulars. Secondly, he couldn't 100% trust the volunteers, and would rather rely upon those in the Starcrusher Corp.
Among the many things he produced, the droid parts were surprisingly amongst the most important. Eriadu had long been a droid manufacturer, and had once upon a time been scouted by the CIS due to their influence, and Outer Rim location. Having already produced an improved battle droid code for Tann, Corvus took that to the same factories on Eriadu. As such, several thousand automatic turrets had been deployed at chokepoints, each one capable of scanning between friend & foe.
Particularly of note amongst the new droid-brain developments was the deployment of flak cannons that used AI targeting. Corvus had tested these guns out against the Falcon, and it was almost impossible to escape their net of criss-crossing fire.
The last thing he had done with droids, was to commandeer several factories, and had them produce 100,000 Mark IV Sentinel Droids. Clad in armor that made them look little different from ordinary clone troopers, their parts were made of beskar, and came from the Workshop. These were the same droids that Revan used during the Mandalorian Wars, and were critical to his victories in the past. Each and every one of them were planted deep in the earth, and equipped with a stealth generator. When the time came, a signal would activate them, and they would emerge from their burrows as a trump card meant to surprise the enemy.
Besides all of that, Corvus had been busy sending clone troopers, and civilian engineers all around Eriadu City in an effort to transform this sprawling metal jungle into an impregnable fortress.
Millions of tons of sand had been used to create barriers, literal metal shields made from tritanium were handed out for clearing rooms, civilians were evacuated to the north, or flown off planet altogether, and multiple shield generators had been deployed in scattered locations.
At this very moment, a document was lying in front of his desk. Written by Commander Pots, it detailed much of what had been accomplished:
STRATEGIC & TACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Planetary Shield Integrity
The executive (Commander Pots) hitherto known as "command" had to assess the status of all planetary shields, be it city-scale energy domes, full atmospheric deflectors, or Golan defense platforms. They ensured that backup power grids were operational and that shield redundancy protocols could activate instantly in case of sabotage or energy surges.
Orbital Control
Command had to confirm orbital superiority or, at minimum, contestation. Orbital defense systems such as ion cannons and hypervelocity guns were brought online. Any defending fleet in orbit has been ordered to maintain tight coordination to intercept landing craft or capital ship bombardments.
Ground Defense Deployment
Commanders arranged armored divisions and infantry units across critical zones, distributing tanks, artillery, and air support to maximize coverage. Fallback positions were established in case of breakthroughs, and defensive fortifications were reinforced with traps and heavy weapons emplacements.
Command & Communication Infrastructure
High Command has maintained encrypted, redundant communication channels to prevent jamming or slicing. Command chains were restructured for resilience, allowing field commanders autonomy if central leadership was incapacitated.
Supply Chain Security
Stockpiles of food, ammunition, bacta, and fuel were secured in deep bunkers. Defenders anticipated prolonged sieges and arranged for covert supply drops or smuggler access. Internal threats to supply caches-such as spies, and Imperial sympathizers-were identified and neutralized swiftly.
Civilian Protection & Control
Evacuation routes were coordinated for high-risk zones. Those civilians who remained were directed into shelters or conscripted for support roles. In tense regions, security teams were deployed to manage unrest and prevent panic.
Terrain Advantage
Defensive command analyzed terrain features such as: mountain ranges, dense forests, deserts, and urban structures for strategic use. Chokepoints were mined, the high ground was secured, and camouflage nets with thermal stealth capabilities were deployed to conceal installations.
Reconnaissance & Intelligence
Surveillance drones, orbital scans, several stealth satellites, and forward scouts will provide real-time enemy movement data. Infiltration teams were dispatched to assess landing zones, and all defense personnel were briefed on known enemy tactics, including the use of stealth vessels or cloaked units.
SPECIAL THREAT PROTOCOLS
Force-Sensitive Threat Assessment
If Sith were confirmed among the attackers, specialized countermeasures have been prepared. Command anticipated sabotage, psychological manipulation, or direct assaults. Several special forces kill squads under the direct control of Captain Hunter. One thousand of the most elite clone troopers in the Starcrusher Corp have been equipped with the best gear that could be assembled.
Superweapons & Exotic Warfare
Command monitored the enemy for indications of superweapons, planetary-scale bombardments, or biological/technological warfare. Contingency plans for ion storm cover, orbital dispersal, and mass evacuations were drafted.
Internal Security & Sabotage
Sleeper agents, slicers, or sympathizers posed constant risks. Internal security units conducted sweeps and lockouts in sensitive installations. All critical infrastructure are to be operated under dual authorization and biometric restrictions.
III. FINAL CONTINGENCIES
Evacuation Protocols
Evacuation assets (transports, escape pods, stealth shuttles) were prepared for both civilian and command personnel. High-value individuals and data cores were prioritized. Chief among these figures includes: General Corvus, Commanders Jax & Yon, the youngling Omega, and the Kaminoan scientists.
Scorched Earth Tactics
Should the defense collapse, destruction protocols were enabled across key facilities to deny the enemy access to strategic technology, data, or manufacturing capabilities.
Post-Occupation Resistance Planning
In the event of total occupation, insurgent cells were activated with pre-stocked weapons and intel caches. Long-term resistance operations were prepared to make the planet ungovernable under enemy rule.
Conclusion:
The planetary defense commander's success depends on a balance of technological strength, foresight, adaptability, and the will to resist. The key to victory is the ability to endure.
Leaning back in his chair, Corvus nodded his head at that last sentence. As it stood, the CIS was in a state of recovery. Thanks to him and Tann drawing the Empire's ire, the Separatists had a bit of breathing room. Additionally, the economic situation in the Empire was really busting their balls. Palpatine could make as many fancy speeches as he wanted, but no politician could wish away economic woes.
This meant that what he faced now would be the eye of the storm. The Imperials were desperate for a victory, eager to put to rest any Jedi momentum, and end this war once and for all. That meant that they were going to have to commit a ton of resources to stamp them out.
If Corvus could survive this onslaught, then the Empire would be temporarily drained within this region of space. He wasn't expecting anything grand like a total reversal and slaughter of Imperial forces, because for him, victory meant stalling. The longer he could hold out, the more time the Separatist factories had to churn out more ships, droids, and weapons. Therefore, the people coming to kill him this time around would not be few in number.
Through his scheming, and connections he had established as his Imperial Agent alias, 'Bond,' he had discovered that no less than twenty clone Legions, and a total of 1 billion regulars were coming to Eriadu. Emperor Palpatine must be pissed to send that many people to his doorstep! Just the thought of that bald prune's face indignant with disgust filled Corvus with glee. He could just imagine how distraught the old man would be once he discovered that his siege failed!
Rubbing his hands together in an effort to raise his own morale, and do away with any lingering panic that he felt due to the upcoming siege, Corvus continued to review his preparations.
Omega and Triss had been shipped off to Malastare for peace of mind. Omega had been distraught, but Corvus wouldn't be having the Bad Batch going AWOL if she came into danger. As for Triss, he somewhat harbored reservations about this former darksider. Besides, Triss wasn't particularly skilled at combat. In fact, her natural talent in crafting had born fruit. Several low-level, Force-attuned artifacts had been produced by the white haired teenage girl. A handful of rings, amulets, and other items had been imbued with something that Corvus could only describe as an aura. Pulling upon her great sense of fear, the objects she had created could impart a weak illusion of fear onto a singular target, conversely, those who wielded these artifacts had their own fear suppressed. They were of no use to Corvus, but he had handed out the dozen or so items to his students, CF-99, and a few special forces units.
As for Jax, he had fully committed to mimicking the aura of the Zilo beast, and could mimic a portion of its majesty. During combat, he could even become more animalistic, and primal with his movements. Both his speed and strength had dramatically increased, so much so, he could almost match Corvus's own speed. With these abilities, Jax had been assigned to work alongside Hunter, and other special forces units to challenge flanks, and other high risk targets.
Meanwhile, Yon had delved deeply into the holocron that he had obtained on Kamino. The ancient Jedi spirit had taught Yon how to breathe underwater, and in space using the Force. At the moment he was even being taught how to fly. Yon could do little more than hover a few inches off the ground, but he could also increase his movement speed by sort of 'ice skating' an inch above the air. Therefore, Corvus had assigned Yon to spacewarfare. By using the [Mentor] ability, Corvus taught the precocious youth how to cover a craft in invisibility. Yon couldn't cover anything as large as the Falcon, but by using a regular Arc-170 when he landed in the hangars, it was estimated that he could board an enemy capital craft with ease.
Both of his students had made him incredibly proud. These last two weeks of preparation had been incredibly nerve racking, but they took to the challenge without complaint. Corvus had had high hopes that one of them would be recognized by the Kotor 2 System as having achieved Knighthood, unfortunately that was not the case. Not only did he want them to be stronger, but that was one of the conditions to complete the Jedi Master quest.
[Jedi Master:
1) Reach Level 50 in Path of the Jedi: 50/50
2) Master One Lightsaber Form: 1/1
3) Raise a student to Knighthood: 0/1
4) Raise a Force Ability to tier IV without system assistance: 1/1
Reward: Jedi Master (low)
+2 all stat points]
During this short reprieve, he had achieved mastery after defeating the Mandalorian chieftain, and all the healing he had done met the Path of the Jedi requirements.
That wasn't to say that there wasn't a quest that couldn't be completed. Way back when he first promoted to the Jedi Shadow prestige class, he had been given a new quest.
[Path of the Shadow:
1,000/1,000 Stealth Kills
100/100 Infiltrations
10/10 Purged
1/1 ??? (Slay a Dark Adept)
Reward: ???, + 1 All Attributes]
He had completed it, and the ??? reward wasn't useless! The prestige class allowed him to experience the Darkside without being corrupted, become invisible, and siphon dark energies away from others fueling himself. His newest ability was: Shadow Hop!
[Shadow Hop: Blink between shadows within a 25ft radius.]
This new ability was insane! Practically allowing him to teleport! Of course, it came with a high FP cost, so he couldn't spam it every second. If his new levels let him cast about 12 abilities in a minute before he ran out of energy, then [Shadow Hop] cost about 2 points. For example, he could cast 12 [Heal's] in a row, but could only cast 6 [Shadow Hop's].
All that was left after that was his status page.
It had been a long time since he looked at it, as ever since he was level locked at 25, he had little reason to consult it. He had four menus to peruse upon level up.
These were: Skills, Abilities, Attributes and Feats.
Skills were things like Stealth, Demolition, Persuade, Awareness, etc.
Attributes were stats like strength, dexterity, constitution, etc.
Abilities were Force powers.
Feats were actives like [Power Attack] or passives like [Toughness].
The Consular class (which he still benefited from despite his prestige) granted Force Power every level, except on every third level, he had 2 Force Power points, such as his current level, 3.
He also gained a Feat every 3 levels.
Whereas he gained Skill points every level, and a stat point every 4 levels.
Starting with his character sheet, he had gained a point in everything due to the quest, as well as 2 more points that he hadn't spent as he had been holding onto them just in case.
Level: 25 (locked)
STR 10 -> 11
DEX 18 -> 20
CON 14 ->16
INT 14 -> 15
WIS 14 -> 15
CHA 12 ->13
He chose to increase dexterity the most so that he would be better at handling his lightsaber, and an even bigger beast whilst flying the Falcon. Initially he wanted to increase his INT to have a larger FP pool, but the completed Path of the Jedi Shadow quest had granted a +1 to every stat, and Corvus figured it was good enough. Reaching 20 in dexterity was a huge benchmark, and he could already feel the differences in his movements.
Next were the feats.
The two new ones were Master Toughness, and Improved Force Focus. To test toughness, Corvus, had started with blasters set to the lowest setting. He found that his bare skin could tank a high powered bolt, but if he was hit in the same spot multiple times, it would burst, requiring [Heal]. As for his lightsaber, he theorized he could take a hit, although he wasn't going to try it. [Heal] was pretty good after he Improved it, but what he did two weeks ago when he first arrived on Eriadu was a miracle. He wouldn't rely upon a miracle to restore his own hand.
Then there was Force Focus. A pretty standard feat, it passively increased the potency of all of his Force powers.
Feats:
Lvl
0 Jedi Defense + Force Sensitive + Force Focus
1 Finesse: Melee Weapons
3 Toughness
6 Regenerate I
9 Two-Weapon Fighting (Padawan)
12 Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (Knight)
15 Master Two-Weapon Fighting
18 Improved Toughness
21 Master Toughness
24 Improved Force Focus (Knight)
Skills:
Computer Use: 17 -> 20
Demolitions: 10
Stealth: 16 -> 20
Awareness: 20 -> 25
Persuade: 26 -> 30
Repair: 10
Security: 14 -> 18
Treat Injury: 10
As for Force Powers, he was holding onto 12 free floating point, and the current list looked like:
([Force Suppression III], [Slow III], [Valor III], [Heal IV], [Force Barrier III], [Force Aura III], [Speed III], [Push III], [Energy Resistance III], [Lightning III], [Beast Trick I])
[I] = Low-Knight
[II] = Knight
[III] = High-Knight
[IV] = Low-Master (Available lvl 25)
After reviewing everything that he had done, and prepared for, the intercom on his desk blinked.
Answering it, Corvus received the news he had both dreaded, and anticipated.
"The shadow of the enemy fleet has been locked. They'll be here in the next five minutes, General." Captain Clip's voice professionally spoke out.
"Very good, Captain. Sound the alert, put me on the planetary comms."
"It will be done, General."
Corvus looked out to space, and then began to talk into the microphone.
"This is Jedi General Revan speaking. The enemy is upon us. The Empire wishes to take from you, to force you into compliance. They think you soft, that the removal of their brainwashing has turned you into cravens." Corvus paused between breaths to let his words sink in.
"They are mistaken. You men, my valiant Starcrusher Corp, you are human. They want you to be emotionless killing machines, to be expendable. Hah! What a joke. The Empire has transformed your brothers into the very thing you were created to destroy!" Corvus said, his voice was filled with recrimination.
"By contrast, the armor covering your skin, the shields shimmering around your gear, they are all designed to keep you alive.
Let it be known that you are not expendable.
You are clones, but your lives are my responsibility. You do not have permission to throw your lives away recklessly. You do not have permission to die until I say you have my ascent! Now you sons of bitches go out there, and kick some bootlicker ass!
For the Republic!!!"
~~~~~~
AN: Bit of a recap chapter, but it had to be done. As you can see, I don't like spamming the status screen, it's been like 50 chapters since it last made an appearance, lol.
Read up to chapter 238 at: patreon.com/KarpQQ