Celestial Wars 6.2

Celestial Wars

Chapter 6.2

----- CW-----

50 BBY
Kashyyyk/Vawrrawn
Cosmic Warehouse

When I stepped inside the Cosmic Warehouse with all the material and parts Daddy Erki gave me, the mental link that I’ve developed with the trees surrounding Vawrrawn was cut. My surroundings darkened and the stars aligned, a sure sign that the Celestial Forge was about to attempt to buy something. A window popped up, it was a perk from the Assistants domain and it easily connected to my central constellation.

Power Buy Attempt. Stockpiles (Girl's Frontline) (50CP) Bought. Banked 300 points

And my CP count was reduced to three hundred just like that. But I was pleased, this was giving me access to a potential force multiplier in the form of tactical dolls. A Tactical Doll, also called T-Doll, is an AI-piloted android originally designed to serve as an easily replaceable fire platform for military operations.

I watched as a new room attached itself in the warehouse. It was a factory with a central terminal, an android factory to be exact. The knowledge of tactical dolls and their history trickled into my mind, combining with my knowledge about Star Wars and Cocoon’s technology.

Now, I have access to a technology from another Earth, one which has seen World War 3 happen. I put a big copper colored container down on the ground with my TK, it was full of electronics, computer and droid parts that I shall use today. A random robot arm snatched the container and left with it, to store the parts on a shelf or something; the warehouse was efficient like that, nothing was truly lost as I had a database of everything stored inside.

Walking toward the new room, I entered it and looked around. It reminded me of a fabrication chain that I’d seen in my previous life when I went on a school  trip with my class to visit a car factory. But the robots here were more advanced, with tools able to work down to the molecular level. It was when I turned on the central terminal for my new android factory that I realized that this was a birthing chamber.

Taking my data scroll from my belt, and connecting it to a pedestal reserved for it. The terminal booted up and showed me the logo for a Private Paramilitary Group.

The terminal contained a lot of data, mainly the history of the company and of the world this was from. I loaded the history of the world and the data about Tactical Dolls inside my Data scroll; it took five minutes to download it all. Then I went to the small apartment inside the warehouse, sat on a sofa with all my recently bought cushions and soft sheets and started reading. I clicked with my finger on the ‘Lore’ file.

The world of Girl’s Frontline diverges from the real world starting in 1905, with the first discovery of Relic Technology. The Russian Empire accidentally stumbled upon an ancient alien relics site located deep in the Siberian taiga in the early 20th century. Although the alien technology found at the site was far beyond human comprehension at the time, the Russians managed to keep the existence of the ruin a secret and began to extract some of the alien artifacts. This inadvertently caused the reactor within the alien construct to destabilize, and ultimately led to the explosion known as the Tunguska event. Not long afterwards, the Bolshevik Revolution would topple the Empire, leaving the remaining alien constructs within the hands of Soviet Russia.

World War II would happen a few decades later, with the Allies triumphant against the Axis in both the Western and Pacific Theaters. Having emerged as the two reigning superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union eagerly took their war reparations. Much of the Axis's manufacturing and natural resources would end up in the hands of the US, but the Soviet Union secretly took control of all the alien technology that Germany possessed–including the alien research facility Urkunde 01. A Cold War soon breaks out between the United States and the Soviet Union, with the latter quickly gaining the upper hand in both nuclear arms technology as well as alien research. By 1950, the Soviets had begun the first concentrated effort to research and synthesize alien tech with Project Starfish. The United States finally discovers the existence of precursor ruins five years later, beginning their own research at a ruin named D-1.

I continued to read this with rapt attention, this was divergent history right there; better than anything those Alien writers on the HoloNet could write! Wow, that world is fucking scary too…There’s a disease that mutate people?!

As research into alien technology ramps up, the first alien corpse is found in the Beilan Island ruins, located in the North China Sea near Shanghai. Named GAVIRUL, experiments and research into its biology would however not occur immediately. As the West and the East are competing in an arms race of strange nature, people working with relics sites begin to succumb to the effects of an otherworldly disease. Called Eurosky Low-Emission Infectious Disease (ELID), the mutations are found to be caused by interaction between Collapse Fluid and human biology, and international cooperation soon arises to stop the spread. With more peaceful intentions, GAVIRUL is pulled out of storage to try and replicate its DNA to activate the relics, to no avail.

So, yeah… if I ever make that Collapse Fluid shit, imma do that somewhere outside the galaxy, preferably on a space station that I can shuck in a star. Because in 2030 some meddling kids broke into ruins and got attacked by mutant ELID sufferers. As a result, a militia strike team is sent in to rescue the group, but the squad is quickly overwhelmed and forced to use explosives to ensure that the mutants don't break containment. The explosion provokes a cave-in on the relics site underground, resulting in a massive explosion releasing a huge volume of collapse fluid, which then follows the wind to contaminate a large portion of Earth's land.

Yeah, right. Now, I understand why things should be done away from inhabited planets. Back to my reading, this was getting good…

As human population decreases at apocalyptic speeds and outdoor work becomes dangerous, interests ramp up in robotics to replace humans in manual labor. Various high-tech companies scramble to produce more and more sophisticated models, gradually transforming the skeletal-framed robots into full-fledged Tactical Dolls androids fit for military standards. Livable land and resources become scarce and political finger pointing sours international relations, a new global conflict starts in 2045. Armies quickly realize the atmospheric collapse cloud makes strategic long-range missile strikes unreliable and quickly shift to bombardments by plane, then to violent ground combat. The war further reduces livable areas as nuclear devastation joins collapse fluid contamination.

In safe areas, military industries thrive. The pre-war innovators have consolidated their technological advancements under IOP Corporation, led by genius and cunning entrepreneur Havier Witkin. By securing the help of top-rank scientists Persicaria and Lycoris, IOP manages to bring their advanced CSD series dolls to the military market, toppling the military favorite Sangvis Ferri Manufacturing and their robust but ultimately simplistic Jaeger model.

In 2050, former superpowers and great nations have been reduced to mere shells of their power and there is no other option left than uneasy peace. The seeds of a new global ideology called Rossartrism grow in this new world order.

With the tremendous progress in dolls technology and countries in dire need of a workforce, the dolls market is bigger than ever, especially for civilian industries. IOP expands their civilian dolls products with emotional simulation, and adds greater modularity with concepts such as the Imprint Technology and Fire Control Core, creating a market for civilian-spec dolls with combat capabilities cheaper than military dolls. A major buyer in this market is the PMC Griffin and Kryuger, who staff their entire combat force with armed civilian dolls. Led by former soldier Berezovich Kryuger, G&K quickly partners with IOP to help them make dolls more and more efficient.

However, Lycoris leaves IOP to join Sangvis Ferri when Witkin refuses to fund his self-learning AI research. IOP replies to this defection by creating 16LAB, Persicaria's own R&D company. While 16LAB brings Second Generation T-Dolls to market, selling cheap and modular dolls with standardized Neural Cloud and Dummy Network systems, Sangvis Ferri develops high-tech dolls weaponry and an effective AI-driven top-down orders management system, bringing expensive but deadly products to the market.

I clicked on one of the highlighted words of the lore file and I was given an extensive annex file that showed me even more information.

Annex

Rossartrism: The core idea of Rossartrism is that mankind's survival can only be ensured by the establishment of a world government to promote global cooperation. Rossartrism promotes the equal allocation of resources across the entirety of mankind, the definition of clear leadership for each social class, and the piloting of society by automated systems. Rossartrism was appealing to lower and middle classes for its idea of a fair society, but also to the ruling class for its centralization of social rights, its automated bureaucracy and focus on technological development.

Relic Technology: It was a trove of advanced artifacts based on Collapse Technology left all over Earth by the extinct Unknown Civilization in Relic sites. Those are methods of matter hypercompression. The unknown civilization had a radically different understanding of physics from mankind. They understood the most stable state of matter to be fluid rather than solid thanks to their fine control over subatomic particles, and particularly their ability to harness the natural attractive state of particles to reverse them in time to a previous spatial configuration. Collapse Technology can be understood as knocking a brick wall down, spreading the bricks around, and Reverse Collapse Technology as the action of reverting the wall to its original state.

Such a feat is in contradiction with the modern understanding of quantum physics: as stated by Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, the direction and position of a subatomic particle cannot be both known at the same time. Yet, both these data would be critical in the effort of reconstructing any macroscopic object. This means that Collapse Technology is the missing bridge between micro and macro scales, the last obstacle to a unified understanding of physics.

The Reverse Collapse Pestre-class mass reconstruction formula used by mankind in the 2070s was m0 = (m^2/t0) / (g^2/m). It means the mass of the reconstructed matter is directly proportional to the wavelength of the Collapse molecular compression, and inversely proportional to the diffraction speed of the Reverse Collapse electron.

Relic research has multiple applications and has been responsible for crucial advances in human engineering, from the Assault Artillery platforms to Tactical Dolls.

Collapse Technology: The primary use of Collapse Technology is as a form of extremely space-effective storage. It can also be used to easily transmit large quantities of matter over long distances. Relics using various forms of Collapse Technology were found in sites all around Earth, showing that it was widely in use. Collapsed matter can then be displaced using microwaves.

In 2049, Hollow City applied Collapse Technology to supercomputers to increase processing speed and storage space by a factor of around 500 million, with no increase in size thanks to the ability to increase the spatial density of information and transmit large amounts of data over long distances

ELID: The Eurosky Low-Emission Infectious Disease or ELID is the result of exposure of the human body to the radiations of Collapse Fluid.

Collapse Fluid: Collapse Fluid is the exotic matter used to disrupt the attractive and repulsive states of particles. It is not actually a fluid in the proper sense of the term, but rather a particle-wave expanding in the matter to be compressed, stopping its spread once it achieved a state of quantum stability. Persons who went through complete infection without dying start acting similar to zombies, and are called “ELID Infected” or “ELIDs” (“ED Infected”). Infected are hard to kill due to the layer of hard silicon formed over their skin. The Assault Artillery platform was originally designed to destroy ELIDs.

Havier Witkin: A former member of the KCCO and Chief Robotics Project Supervisor for LBT General Manufacturing, and the current chief executive officer and founder of Important Operation Prototype Manufacturing Company (IOP). Despite his act as a half witted old man with a poor sense of humor, he is actually a cunning politician and worked on all generations of Tactical Dolls since the earliest prototypes, making him an important actor in developing the modern generation of combat androids.

Persicaria: Meaning "knotweeds", she has no surname), shortened Persica, is a Tactical Doll scientist, 16Lab's founder and director and a former 90wish member. As a genius mind, she has developed most of the advanced technology used by modern T-Dolls. She also created the T-Dolls in AR Team and is deeply involved in the conspiracy involving Lunasia.

Lycoris: was an AI scientist, a former member of 90wish and the main researcher at Sangvis Ferri Manufacturing. Before his mysterious death during the Butterfly Incident, Lycoris had developed the self-improving AI Elisa using the OGAS system as a base, and his research had become a point of great interest to certain dangerous people.

IOP: Important Operations Prototype Manufacturing Company, or IOP, is a R&D and manufacturing company specializing in Tactical Dolls, directed by Havier Witkin. IOP is the world leader in Tactical Doll production since World War Three thanks to 16LAB's groundbreaking technological research, and the main supplier of workforce for Griffin & Kryuger PMC.

Sangvis Ferri Industrial Manufacturing Company: It was a major Tactical Doll manufacturer and researcher under the lead of AI scientist Lycoris before the 2061 Butterfly Incident, when Sangvis Ferri's headquarters were destroyed and their main AI Elisa took control of their T-Dolls and turned against mankind. From then on, Sangvis Ferri was no longer the name of a renown military manufacturer, but of a threat to humanity the PMC Griffin & Kryuger was tasked with destroying. Sangvis Ferri were later recruited as allies through Protocol Assimilation.

Elisa: A High-end artificial intelligence developed by Lyco. A commander has to but give a simple order and the mainframe "Elisa" will automatically compute a rational course of action to carry it out. This high-spec AI mainframe is equipped with a unit of combat dolls that are directly loyal to her, and she can control them remotely over the internet to carry out her directives. However, Elisa is not a simple AI program. Lyco's ultimate goal was to produce a perfect AI that possessed self-awareness, who could think and feel like a human being. After the "Butterfly Incident", Elisa gained a physical body and took control of all Sangvis Ferri dolls, and in order to avenge her "father" Lyco, she began attacking all the humans she saw and all dolls apart from those belonging to Sangvis Ferri. At the same time, she hopes to become the perfect AI in her father Lyco's heart - that is to say, she wants to become a sapient that is no different from a human being. As a result , she began combing through her father's data to find a specimen of a perfect AI.

***

For 50 CP, this was a powerful perk, one I was not eager to use at all before growing up a bit more and having more safety perks. I would develop my own High-end artificial intelligence which would help me manufacture other AI to house in T-Dolls. But not today, no, I needed to study more. I put the data scroll down and looked around; I think it was time to go make my weapons right now.

Erkituaa has given me some resources and I was loath to not start, my benefactor and the Force itself had shown me that some people were coming for me. I needed stuff to defend myself and I will start with weapons, then create traps and reactivate the Tree’s defenses.

----- CW-----

Power Buy Attempt. Skills (Star Trek: TNG) Medicine (100CP) Bought. Banked 200 points

It was while I was designing my gunblade that another star connected to my constellation. Twenty five years of memories of another me unloaded into my brain; in this life, I was a Vulcan girl but I grew up on Earth down at San Francisco.

***

Life was good on this Earth and rather utopian. But this peace had a price, the Federation wasn't all sunshine and rainbows; I could see it in the way the children were brainwashed with holographic media and the history of the third world War which happened some centuries ago. Staying on Earth and being a nurse of a small town wasn’t appealing to me, so I used the Starfleet Academy Preparatory Program. Not long after that, I was admitted by the Admission committee.

In 2359, I passed the entrance exam with some of the best scores and was finally, on my seventeenth birthday, an official cadet of Starfleet. For three years, I’ve worked without rest and ended up graduating with academic degrees in astrophysics, Ethnobotany, exobiology, and zoology. I ended up specializing in medical science. I spent the next six months on the USS Fleming; training to be the best physician ever.

After this, I received my next assignment in 2362, to become a junior physician on the USS Yamaguchi, an Ambassador class Starship. I was then shown life on a big ship; exploring the Beta Quadrant where we met new species and were often confronted by the Klingon Empire and the Romulans Star Empire, though the Nausicaans were more of a problem than them.

The Nausicaans have a reputation as thugs, pirates, and hired muscle. These tall, muscled brutes take what they like and have few qualms about who they work for...so long as said employer is willing, and able, to pay up. I know this was racial profiling, but I really didn’t like them! Most of my patients in the med bay were sent to me by them when our Red shirt went on away missions.

I spent the next five years like this, getting enough experience. But in 2367, a mass recall from Starfleet happened. Captain Kor Ch'thehlot got to the rendezvous point at warp 8. We arrived at the Wolf system some days later, and with our addition there were forty ships in the system. This clued me in that we were going to fight with someone that warranted such a gathering of the fleet.

We weren’t disappointed, an immense cube-like structure entered the system and after a moment, hailed us.

"Resistance is futile. You will disarm your weapons and escort us to Sector 001. If you attempt to intervene, we will destroy you.”

Immediately thereafter, the fleet engaged the Borg. Multiple ships were destroyed as the first salvo was shot, in particular the USS Melbourne with its saucer section partially vaporized while approaching the cube. The shield of that thing was holding on despite the hail of phaser beams and torpedoes launched at it. The Miranda-class USS Saratoga was quickly neutralized thereafter.

Once again I must say that my captain was an idiot, instead of retreating he tried to help Saratoga; but what we got was death. A console in the med bay exploded in my face as the rest of the ship exploded and I knew no more.

***

“So, this is how I died?” I said as I let go of the soldering tool in its holder.

The gunblade electronics were put on hold as I walked back to my meditation nook. I needed to settle those new memories in my mind and not let them overwhelm my own. I took refuge in my fledgling mindscape and I wasn’t surprised to find another me, Doctor Des, seated on a bench in the middle of a park, looking at the strange tall trees around her.

I was naked in my own mindscape, with a thought, I changed this state of being and was wearing my black brassiere, yellow skirt and sandals. My hair was styled in a twintail hairstyle that I recently adopted because it made me look cute; adults loved cute kids and were more willing to give them stuff. My feet stepped on the cobbled road, I ignored the bushes of tropical alien flowers that glowed.

Doctor Des, was examining them with a tricorder that she has willed into existing; she was a quick study like that. "Peculiar."

"It is, isn't it?" I said as I arrived next to her.

The Vulcan froze, then looked at me. "A child? Why do you look like me at your age?" She was the same redhead, but she had blue eyes instead of golden ones like me. She was wearing her skin-tight Federation uniform, the neckline was unzipped and left her impressive breasts visible.

Why is this version of me so sexy?! Will I look like that when I grow up? I sure hope so, maybe I can pull the sexy doctor that’s smarter than you thing she’s effortlessly exuding.

"Because I am you, Doctor Des." I revealed and in the air a dramatic Dun dun dun played.

The tricorder disappeared from her hand, then she sat straighter and looked around her; then at the sky where the three moons of Kashyyyk were visible. I allowed her to get her bearings back. She suddenly turned to me and asked, "I thought I died against the enemy at Wolf 359?"

She needed more data, Doctor Des was a really logical Vulcan woman. "You did die, but now you're living on in me. Let me tell you how this happened."

Then I told her how I died, and how I was sent to this new universe on a Death World with animals who wanted to kill me for breakfast; how for six months I’ve been living alone and learning from the Force and the sentient white tree that I’ve chosen as my home. How my rocky relationship with the inhabitants called Wookiee has started out; I was biased, but Tikli was treating me like ‘her pup’ and placed me under the guardianship of her best friend.

Doctor Des was a good listener, she passed her arms around me when I started talking about how my parents in this life died protecting me. "So you died too, but you were reborn on another planet."

I nodded and held desperately onto her; my emotions heavy as I realized how lonely I was since arriving in this galaxy. "Yes, Doctor."

Doctor Des continued. "And you became some sort of psychic warrior whose power originates from a sapient field of energy spread all over your galaxy of origin?"

I showed her how the force affects my mindscape, I showed her the galaxy and everything that I could feel with it. "The force is life itself and it's really quirky."

With a gasp, Doctor Des said, "This sounds like you're out of a holo-novel."

Returning my mindscape to its original state, that of a forest with Wroshyr trees, I added, "Technically you're one of my reincarnation from out of the multiverse. Everything is possible. "

The multiverse is a group of multiple universes. Together, these universes comprise everything that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, information, and the physical laws and constants that describe them. I hope that William James, the one who made this theory, is getting the credit he deserves in the afterlife.

Doctor Des didn’t take long to accept my reality. "So this is real? I had to die to get into another universe?"

"Pretty much, yeah." I said as I thought about Doctor Des’ life in Star Trek; I wish I had ended up in such a society too. Could I bring the federation of planets into Star Wars? I can certainly try, but I will need power for this; not just military power, but economic and diplomatic as well.

I could see why the Sith did what they did, when you have powers like mine, we can see our goals through. The republic was a weak animal with countless parasites infesting it and growing fat with its lifeblood; sooner rather than later, I will step in with my own  force and take a chunk of the galaxy for my people to live free without fear of slavery or the corporations taking what is theirs.

Doctor Des demanded, "How?"

"Let me tell you about the Celestial Forge…" I said as I raised my hand and showed the good Doctor the windows I had access to.

The Celestial Forge is the greatest combination of crafting powers in Jumpchain, meaning it is the greatest combination of crafting abilities in all of fiction. I gained those perks over time; this was a crafting superpower. I began telling her how those perks from other universes affected me. Doctor Des’ life and her very self, skill and abilities were part of those perks.

I don’t think she took it well, that she was going to be part of me and be a set of skills that I will have. She didn’t feel like this to me, I felt that she could relate with my problems. But contrary to my expectation, Doctor Des decided that she wanted to do what was logical. "Very well, I decided that you should assimilate me, you're the one in charge, Nomi."

This didn’t sit well with me, but I saw that she couldn’t be convinced otherwise. "Okay then."

"Good luck." The Vulcan woman said as her body disappeared into motes of light that sunk into myself.

Yet again, I was alone and not; Doctor Des had gotten used to it in her life, but not me. I opened my eyes from my meditation and looked up at the warehouse’s ceiling. I had found someone who understood me but she chose to leave. "I wish you stayed around a bit more. We would have had so much fun…"

I decided to go back to making my gunblade; I could always catch up on my sleep in the afternoon.

----- CW-----

The next day…
Destiny’s house

Power Buy Attempt. Gadgeteer (Totally Spies Martin Mystery) (600CP) Not Bought. Banked 300 points

My eyes opened to the ceiling of my wooden house, the huge comfy leaf bed made me want to not get up. The forge attempted to lock on a constellation but it missed, and I recognized the show it had been from. I dismissed the prompt and looked to my right, there on my nightstand was my Dallorian alloy gunblade; the blade part had no edge and the gun part functioned like a coil gun, yet it was unloaded.

I was proud of my new weapon, it was sized for my hand. It had a stun setting as well if I don’t use the gun part of the weapon, the battery would still be functional. “Now how do I get this weapon past, Erkituaa?”

The solution became apparent to me. “I just have to hide my weapons amongst a bunch of other upgrades I do for Vawrrawn.”

I already made the grav-con unit, and now I needed to make do with the AMP technology at my disposal. I would not be kidnapped again! The Force was there telling me that my pursuers were here, they would find that I am not so easily taken. Plans steadily built in my mind, I would use transgates and gravity traps and weapons. The CCTV security camera in the hollow of the tree needed to be beefed up.

I’m sure that there was a part of level 7 that I could maintain until I was found by whoever was sent after me. My belly growled, it was time to go have… brunch. The sun was high in the sky. I took the fine cover sheet off of my body, exited the bed and took my gunblade with me.

On the ground there were a lot of things such as discarded clothes, disassembled devices or boxes of parts with tools. I wasn't proud of the pigsty I created, that's for sure. I needed to clean this before Tikli's monthly visit or else she's going to get me more people in the house.

I needed a maidroid, or a butler like Alfred! I will build one, he will talk like a British and be awesome like Sebastián in Black Butler. Too much stuff for one little girl to do… yes I have the force but I didn't like bothering it with my requests. I loved it too much to treat it as a tool.

The sentient field of energy purred at my thoughts and surrounded me like a cloak. It really liked me, huh. My attention returned to my weapon; I need to make a holster for this… while using some lizard leather skin for this. I decided to put the gunblade on my work table; stumbling on something, I caught myself with telekinesis but I made a racket with the empty bottles on the floor my foot kicked out.

A familiar growl came from behind the door of my bedroom. "Nomi, are you awake?"

My eyes widened as I froze in terror as I felt a familiar presence. "What is Tikli doing here?"

Calming my emotions and not letting them ripple in the force, I stayed silent. What day was today? The fifteenth? Fuck I didn't see time pass. Not just that, there was another force presence with her, someone I didn't know… she must have heard me, because she said to the person next to her whose presence was similar to hers, "Grikyw, go look for her please."

The person who spoke next sounded like the typical teenager with a whiny tone, "But mother, we haven't been introduced yet."

I heard a growl that made me flinch. "She's your sister now."

This must be Tikli's older daughter, the one who was like twenty or so. And yes, I've been formally adopted into Tikli's family, she maneuvered me into it; something like, family doesn't betray family and she put Erkituaa as my guardian right after. Was she getting her own daughter to live with me here or something? The force was laughing at me, so I must be right…

Knock. Knock. The door opened and a tall female wookiee entered, she had blonde fur that she dyed white in part. It was like seeing a reject of Gem and the Holograms from the 80s cartoon. However the style was marrying well with her attitude.

She was wearing clothes, just a small green band of fabric showing off her breasts and a skirt and some strips of the same green fabric. She had a small blaster at her belt. I couldn't help but blurt out, "Who the fuck are you?"

Grikyw didn't show a nice expression on her face as she growled. "That’s not nice to say, little Nomi."

I frowned back. "Again with the Nomi name, my name is Destiny!"

The female wookiee rolled her eyes. "Mother told me about you. Come, we have to go to have lunch."

She moved and caught me despite myself using battle precognition. She must be better at it than me, for now. Grikyw put me right under her arm and took me from my bedroom. "Wait, let me go! I am not some handbag!"

The wookiee chuffed amusedly at my struggles, she was just like her mother. When we passed through the door, Tikli stood there in her sash and dark green dress. She was grinning at me, I felt her feelings of happiness at seeing me and her disappointment because of the state of my room.

She blamed Erkituaa who… obviously wasn't here. The old wookiee sold me out, I will get him back for that. I glared at the older female. "Tikli, I thought we spoke about boundaries last time?"

The wookiee growled. "Children have no privacies."

"That’s unfair!" I raised my fists in the air and glared at her.

Tikli put herself on a knee and took a transparent box with wookiee cookies inside them.

My eyes widened, a coveting glint in them. Tikli was playing dirty again! "I have prepared some cookies for you."

She handed the box to me with a gleeful smile. I snatched it and accepted her peace offering… I mean tribute. "Fine, I will forgive you… just this once!"

"Cute pup." Tikli patted my head and stood back up.

Grikyw laughed. "You were right, mother, she's easily swayed by food."

I slapped Grikyw on the arm, she was so mean! They walked out of the corridor with me still being carried by my would-be big sister. The kitchen was already organized, showing that Tikli was here much longer than I thought.

There were grocery carts on the kitchen's island; the food store was now full on level 7, the scouts were in control of it. Imagine a Wal-Mart, but better and you give your credit chit to the droid and scout guarding the place. They then give you a list of things available on your datapad and you choose. The droid then comes back with your purchases and you can go home.

The concept of a shopping mall didn't exist on Kashyyyk. I liked it this way actually, there was no way I would allow one to open on my tree home. Tikli and Grikyw started to cook and placed me on a chair to watch what they were doing.

The female showed me how to cook the stuff they were unpacking, this was good. Some oral history and gesture was being passed down there as well. Seeds, vegetables, nuts and some meat; that’s what I saw them prepare, though Tikli seemed to try her hand at foreign cuisine and had some human food for my sake.

I focused on the Force and spread my awareness outward the entire tree, looking for bad things happening, there were none yet. But the energy field felt troubled, things were going on in the background that were problematic; I saw images of people who were after me, they were mainly aliens. There was a three eyed cow looking for info about me, and some kind of Roswell alien with blue skin and solid red eyes after me.

No Jedi? Knowing my luck they were late. My Force vision hasn't developed as I wanted but I was forewarned that things won’t be peaceful for long. Maybe I needed more meditation training; the Force seemed to agree with that.

"So, what are we doing today?" I heard Grikyw ask as she sat next to me, looking at me intently.

Tilting my head I thought about it for a moment. "I am going to explore level 7 more thoroughly. I expect to find hidden defense installations, I hope to restore them to service."

There must be defenses on the tree, there’s no way that the previous inhabitants had stayed unprotected from enemy raids or from a ship just bombing the tree. Tikli and Grikyw briefly looked at each other.

And it was Tikli who spoke first. "We will go with you after lunch."

I saw the potential for revenge there; the force made me see visions of Tikli and Grikyw flailing and had difficulty following me as I moved through the white tree’s branches and vines. "Sure Tikli. I hope you’re up for learning some force TK and reinforcement…"

The female wookiee turned to me, putting the bowl she had in hand on the table. She said cryptically, "Ah, yes. You'll be surprised to learn that we Tree Carers have been doing this for far longer than you, Nomi."

I frowned at the older female Wookie, then Grikyw rolled her eyes at Tikli and growled in an exasperated tone. "Mother, tell it to her straight. She's part of us now, she can be made aware of our training methods."

With a roar of outrage, Tikli said, "Grikyw! I was leading up to it!"

Oh, so she wanted to play the wise master like in those old Kung Fu movies. I didn’t have the patience for that kind of thing; Grikyw must have gone through it and didn’t care for it. The female Wookiee rolled her eyes and took a bite of some food. "You adults and your cryptic lessons…"

I decided! "I like you, Grikyw. Now you shall be my chamberlain, rejoice."

Grikyw laughed and said, "why not Princess Nomi, do you want to play the Alderaan royalty with me?"

With a glare at the younger wookiee, I shoved her lightly with my Force TK push. "That's mean, I am  ot like those…"

"Nomi~" Tikli's sweet sounding growl threatened me with retribution if continued my sentence.

So… I switched words."-people, yes I mean people."

Grikyw snorted and mumbled in her cup, “Wiped.”

<My revenge will be swift and silent, Grikyw…> I spoke to her mentally.

“Bring it on pup.” She laughed as I felt surprise coming from her. She must not be used to telepathic conversation.

I’m happy that she was warming up to me, but… she reminded me of my big brother in a more hippie-like way. I stirred away from this line of thought and looked at Tikli cooking. "Tikli… I have something to ask."

"If it's not dangerous…" Tikli said with wariness.

"Hey, not everything I do is dangerous!" I argued.

Tikli looked at me in disbelief and growled and screeched, "Gorryl slugs, fire."

I flinched back, knowing exactly what she meant, I could have burned down the entire tree. Those things are super flammable. "Okay, I didn't know about that at the time and fire was the only thing working. One almost jumped me."

"I just want some alloyed materials and leather."

"You need more materials? What for?" Tikli made me come to the point.

I put my gunblade on the table. "I want to make a tailor made bandolier and a holster for my weapon!" I pointed at it with a voila gesture.

Grikyw looked at the weapon in its dagger mode. "You made this?"

Clink. Clank. The dagger morphed into a small pistol. The two female wookiees oohed and aaahed in their language as they switched between blade and pistol mode. The blade was obviously dull, it was better that I sold the weapon to look like some sort of cudgel.

"I can make you a bowcaster if you want?" I said idly as they finished inspecting my weapon. I hoped that this was a good enough bribe for me to get the things I want.

I mean I  want to be armed and store my weapon in a bandolier just like Erkituaa.

"This would be nice of you, but how would you forge it alone?" Tikli asked suspiciously.

*Oh, Tikli is already aware that this is a negotiation…* I proceeded to tell her everything about the small local and the company I own; my repair activities with the scouts, I now have access to the portable fabricator in the administration building under the supervision of Erkituaa or some of his technicians. Those guys told me that what I’ve been doing with the machine shouldn’t be possible, well… I had to modify it a bit to refine the metal I have access to.

“Child I raised many pups before you came along. You’re the first one to be this… industrious.” Tikli sounded proud of me for being such a good hand at technology, however from what I could feel she wanted me to live my childhood. I mean she found my training methods foolhardy, but they are effectives.

In the end I got her permission to access the material cache at the condition that Grikyw followed after me.

----- CW-----

(Shmu Joex)

1 day later
Rwookrrorro
Seedy cantina bar

Meanwhile in a seedy cantina bar, ensconced between an Alderaanian restaurant and a second hand speeder dealership, one of the mercenaries sent to capture Destiny was gathering information by watering and partying with the locals.

This operation cost him a bunch of money, but it has been all worth it. He heard about a new settlement being created down south of Rwookrrorro; there were a lot of near-human children there. Shmu wanted to know more, but Wookiees knew he was a stranger so they shut up when they understood he probbed them too much.

That is how he was now forced to go to that seedy cantina for washed out bounty hunters and smugglers. The ambience reminded him of home, heavy and completely unwelcoming. Cantina music was playing and as he entered the establishment, a lot of people turned to him, starring, gauging and judging him. The consumers were mostly near humans, and other types of humanoid aliens such as Zeltrons, Lorrdians and some other Grans.

Some people covered their face with either their half-helmet or hood which shadowed their faces. Men and women watching the girls, some Twi'lek dancing on the poles while cheering. Shmu went to sit at the counter and ordered some ale, the good stuff.

So far, the only person who seemed to be receptive to talking, he noticed, was a white furred wookiee growling in his cups while drinking. He was growling things such as 'I'll show them' and 'kill that red-haired dumb human pup'.

The words red hair plus pup, attracted Shmu’s attention; and now he looked for a reason to go talk to the wookiee.

"Bartender." Shmu called out to the old green colored Gran at the bar who was cleaning glasses.

The three eyes focused on Shmu and asked, "Yes, sir?"

"A glass of your best ale for the wookiee over there." Shmu placed some credit chits on the counter.

The other Gran smiled and swiped the chits. “Right away.”

And that's how Shmu got to know Gwim, a dishonorably discharged scout. The mercenary found out that Gwim was one of the wookiee who found the new settlement spoken about from the rumors Shmu has heard recently. Gwim also told him about the red headed female 'Jedi youngling' they found living on the white tree.

"That little bitch! She ruined my life!" The wookiee growled, almost shattering his mug.

Shmu didn't like how this young fool seemed to put all the cause of his problems on the target. "Calm down, dude. This is just a little kid."

With a vicious growl, Gwim asked, "Can a normal kid throw an adult against a wall with a thought?"

Another piece of the puzzle showed itself to Shmu; the target was force sensitive and quite strong in it. No wonder the client sent them… they knew how to fight force users. Shmu still didn't like that steaming pile of Banta shit.

“My bad, my bad, my friend.” Shmu returned to his seat and drank a swig of his ale.

It should be easy to replace the activities of the white wookiee and find the new settlement. Gwim's wariness was peaked when he asked, “Why are you asking all those questions about the pup anyway?”

Shmu looked around, and said, “Me and my associates… wish to take the girl back to some concerned citizen who wishes for her to develop in certain ways.”

The bounty hunter thought that it would be great to have the white wookiee's fur for the crew quarter on his ship. It was evident that Gwim was going to be eliminated in the end. He knew too much, but the drunk wookiee kept giving Shmu warnings. “You’re… crazy. She’s a Tree Carer, even at her young age, she’s more guarded than young pups. You’d turn the entire planet against you, you won't be able to leave the planet! Even if you succeed, they'll continue to pursue you until they get you.”

The Gran wasn't worried, he already had some contingencies. “I’m a bounty hunter and I never failed a mark, first I need to find where she lives and we will be out of here right away.”

Shmu was about to put some poison into Gwim's mug, but what the disgraced scout said next stayed his hand from killing the drunk wookiee. “Then… then if I show you where she lives…”

The informant wanted part of the action? “Oh? What do you want out of this, lad?”

There was a wicked and vicious glint in the drunk’s eyes. “I want to see her face as she’s taken away from the planet.”

Shmu could still kill him at the end and he gets shown where the target lived earlier too. “You have a deal, young man!”

The mercenary stood up and went to pay another round of alcohol for the two of them. Shmu should have chosen the cantina better; even more so when a woman in a hooded cloak person looked at him with attention. She stood up from her seat and went to pay the bill. Her blonde locks and pale skin were visible when put some credit chits on the counter.

She left, following the will of the force as always.