Chapter Seven


    “Hey boss. The proto-type Quin-Jet is complete and is only waiting on fuel.”


    “Understood. Thank you Vex.  How goes our industry initiative to the North-east?"


    “It’s proceeding according to schedule, Boss; we’ve drained the required amount of swampland. Built-up the required system of dikes and levees. We’ve installed the required number of pylons, and have completed all foundation pads, in accordance with your standards. We are in the initial stage of gathering and prepping enough material for the initial building construction.”


    “Excellent. How many android units are we up to now?”


    “Boss. We are currently standing at; Twenty-Knight Templar units, five hundred-foot-soldier units, Forty-logistic officer units, with an even ratio between male to female.”


    “Mm. Thank you, Vex.”


    “Always happy to please you, Boss.”


    Damien realized early on in his plan to unify the planet, that it took accessibility, communication, and infrastructure. Three things that need a shit ton of industrial material to create them. Thus, he planned out an industrial park, which for the initial phase included a cement plant, lumber mill. oil refinery, chemical plant, gas refinery, iron works and steel mill. These were just a few to name, as more specialized industries were in the queue for the second phase, such industries as plastics, silicon, ceramics, salts, and fishing.


    Damien first major project was a global mono-rail bullet train system, which would span the entire surface of the moon, connecting all the archipelagos together. In the end, his planned route made the moon into an enormous baseball, as he utilized the stitching pattern for inspiration, when planning out the main trunkline of the rail system.


    Damien’s goal was to power the entire rail system via wind turbines, solar farms, and emergency back-up natural gas generators. He also realized, this would bring the “Hope Foundation” out into the light, and would no doubt ruffle a few feathers. This meant having enough security to ensure his ability to fend off the political machinations he would no doubt be faced with in the future. Mostly in response to his plan to make riding the train, free for anyone possessing an officially issued resident identification card for the planet. All tourists would be charged a standard rate service fee, that correlated to the duration of their travel time.


    Damien, was suddenly made aware of a starship, exiting hyperspace and emerging into the system. This in itself wasn’t a rare occurrence, and yet. The moment this one appeared, the Force drew Damien’s attention directly to it, as he soon recognized the disturbance, as the arrival of fellow practitioners of the Force. The ship itself wasn’t very big, only on the same tier level, as a ship like the Millennium Falcon. This led him to believe, it would most likely have a small crew, roughly six to eight give or take.


    Damien also realized, that if he could sense their presence with the Force, it was just as likely they could sense his presence, even though he was currently merging his presence with the Force, just as “Altus sopor” trained him to do. He estimated a high probability rating, that these Force-sensitive beings, would likely pay him a visit sooner or later.


    Damien knew it was unfavorable, not to mention highly risky to expose himself to such apex existences, but this was also an opportunity to gage the strength of Force sensitive beings in the galaxy. Whether they proved to be friend or foe, it was an opportunity he simply couldn’t let pass by. Besides, as long as he made a few preparations, he could minimize his overall exposure...,


    “Vex, let’s move to the farm.”


    “I will of course comply to any and all of your desires, Boss.”


    The ship touched down on the vacant landing pad, then shut down power, as a gangway ramp lowered to form stairs leading down from the ship’s interior hatch. Damien stood up from where he was seated, as he watched the visiting group of six aliens exit their ship. As they emerged, the group fanned out in a well-rehearsed choreographed maneuver, which resulted in a staggered three-three formation.


    The three members taking up the rearguard positions, were each outfitted with assault-rifle type blaster variants, and fitted with tactical style body armor. These three further fanned out to take up guard positions, that would potentially counter any attempts to flank their position.


    Damien judged these three to be your typical cannon fodder units, and felt that only bringing three along was a bit lacking in their overall judgment, or perhaps these three were more of an elite warrior type, such as a “Special Operations Service” officer. Either way, he didn’t feel any threat from them, so he moved on to the three in the lead positions.


    These three, a male to the left, female in the middle, with another male to the right, were on a whole other level all together. For starters, they lacked any noticeable body-armor, as well as the blaster assault-rifle variant. Their only noticeable weapons were a holstered compact blaster pistol on their left hip, set up in a reverse grip position. This usually signaled that it was intended as a backup weapon, not a primary.


    This left the flashlight looking device, clipped at their prominent right hip, their primary weapon. Even though, Damien had yet to see a lightsaber in person, he could easily guess one, simply based on how similar they were to the ones depicted in the movies. It was more surprising to him, that the design was so accurately portrayed.


    The other thing surprising to Damien, was the professional military look they had going, as they were all in matching militaristic themed uniforms. From the look and design, these were their version of the BDU (battle dress uniform), which was designed for combat and unrestrained movements. Even so, there was still a clear divide between stations, as the three forward were clearly command rank, while the three in the rear were clearly expendable foot-soldiers.


    (Damien): ..., “As arriving guests, I would normally invite you in for tea. However, the Force tells me we are diametrically opposed..., You serve a Tyrannical order, and I serve Independence and freedom for all. Thus, death to all Tyrants.”


    (Noctis): ..., “Are you insane..., We have you out numbered!”


    (Damien): ..., “I am with the Force, and the Force is with me. Numbers cannot offset such an ally. Since this is my home, I shall make a move.”


    Damien didn’t delay things any further, as he brought out his hands from behind his back. He held two kunai in each hand and flung them out two to each side. Controlling them via the Force, he zipped them in arching trajectories, that brought them back at each designated target, one for each of the Force-sensitive beings, leaving the last to target the cannon-fodder units.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Damien, accelerated the kunai to supersonic velocities, while controlling them on a trajectory that lined up each set of targets. The breaking of the sound barrier was all the warning they were given, as the kunai hit. The kunai, he was controlling to hit the three rearguard mundane blaster rifle toting soldiers, punched straight through their armored torsos, from left to right in consecutive order in a clean sweep.


    The sudden offensive, and noisy breaking of the sound barrier had been intentional, as a distraction, to pull everyone''s attention as cover for the android assault on the starship and whatever forces were remaining with in. At his transmitted command, his prearranged contingent of androids broke from concealment, by pushing themselves out of the shallow graves he had them buried in. Just like zombies rising out of the ground, only these were silent and swift as they converged on the open gangway, then penetrated directly into the interior of the starship.


    The two pilots who had been left aboard, didn’t even have time to signal a distress call or hit any type of panic button, before they were killed via precise head shots from sub-sonic blowgun darts. Damien monitored the incursion via a passive link, and once he confirmed the successful takedown of the starship, he continued his part of the plan, by hopefully taunting the three remaining enemies into directly attacking him...,


    As expected, Damien’s simple kunai attack was useless against the three forward officers.  They each met the kunai attack, stepping forward while igniting their matching blue lightsaber blades. They each perfectly timed their swipe to intercept the incoming kunai, which vaporized each into molten bits.


    Still, this left Damien more than happy with his opening gambit, now that the three cannon fodder units were taken off the game board. This would now allow him to fully focus on the upcoming sword duel, without needing to dodge incoming blaster bolts.


    Damien felt his chances were at least fifty-fifty, even at three-to-one odds, now that the only adversaries were the three who had ignited their lightsabers, which he only found slightly surprising to see were all uniformly “blue” in color....,


    (Damien): ..., “It seems my chances are improving, the odds are now three to one. Care to make a move?”


    (Noctis points his lightsaber at Damien): ..., “You. You..., You are insane. Those were our friends you just killed..., No, murdered.”


    (Damien shrugs): ..., “Then you should be properly motivated, yeah?”


    Damien didn’t take the color too seriously, as these guys were no Jedi, nor were they Sith. He surmised that they had most probably mixed the two faiths, taking what was useful and discarding what wasn’t. Just so they could create some variant cult, for their own power base. In the end, it mattered little, as they were tyrannical in nature, and he had no intention of conforming nor residing under such an oppressive regime.


    Damien drew both, katana and wakizashi, as he prepared to meet their offensive...,


    (Dax, the left most male alien, was the first to break ranks, as he charged Damien): ..., “Murderer die!”


    (Kira, the center female alien, followed his lead): ..., “You will pay, bastard!”


    (Noctis, hesitated but followed): ..., “What fucking insanity.”


    A strange effect happened, as time slowed to a crawl. Damien watched as the three started their charge, but a slinky like phenomenon occurred, as precognitive images rushed forward, displaying the three combatant’s initial moves. He suspected that this was something akin to the light side ability, “Battle sense”, which he found surreal, and truly over powered. And he had no intention of wasting the opportunity it provided. First was timing, then planning his counters, and attacks, which his cybernetic crystalline mind, had no problem doing on the fly.


    Damien dashed forward to meet his first attacker, coating his blades in a Force powered energy shield. He caught the incoming downward strike with his wakizashi, while forward thrusting his Katana punching through the male alien’s torso. He had no time to celebrate, as he twisted and then utilized Vex''s cybernetic enhanced strength to rip his katana out sideways in order to swat away the incoming strike from the following female alien.


    Damien followed up the parry, by bringing up his wakizashi, thrusting it in just under the female’s chin, punching through and exiting out the top of her head. Again, he had no time to dally, as he needed to spin clockwise, while pulling out his wakizashi, all while using his katana to catch the incoming downward strike from the last male alien’s attack.


    This allowed Damien to slip past and behind the male alien, where he executed a slashing strike across the back of the alien’s legs, and successfully hamstringing the bastard causing him to collapse to his knees. This gave him the perfect opportunity, which he took by separating the head of the alien from its shoulders, with a cybernetic enhanced strike of his katana.


    The moment the last alien died, Damien was caught off guard as his Kyber crystal core, suddenly erupted, with six manifested Force construct tendrils that plunged into each of the slain corpses. In an effort to understand this new turn of events, he returned to his inner core space, only to find a strange vortex like maelstrom happening with the mist inside.  It took him a moment of concentration to discover the cause and effect.


    The six tendrils were siphoning the residual life force from the corpses greedily, and as a result the mist within his core was growing denser. A byproduct of this was, him gaining a full set of memories from each of the beings. Downloading six individual memory sets would have been a daunting prospect for any other person, and yet, with his cybernetic crystalline mind, he handled the load effortlessly, while assimilating them and compressing them into a single continuous timeline starting with the earliest memory and finishing up with the final moment of the last alien’s life.


    Damien discovered he was suddenly fluent in four different alien languages, as well as gaining a detailed understanding into the inner workings of the “Guiding Light Cult”. He also learned to his surprise, that this group was sent here to investigate the disappearance of one of their enforcer groups, which just happened to be the band of marauders, he had recycled into fertilizer previously.


    Damien supposed with the overall size of the galaxy; he shouldn’t find it odd that it took them nearly two years to finally come looking for them. It also explained why no one local came by to investigate their disappearance, since they originated off world.


    After picking up the three lightsaber hilts, Damien sent out orders detailing the cleanup process, making sure the androids removed all non-organic material before feeding the corpses into the composter.


    After disassembling one of the hilts, he found the inner mechanics only slightly different from Earth’s depiction, which amazed him how accurate the bleed through had been. The lightsaber hilt contained many components, from focusing lens to pommel cap, such as a blade emitter shroud, magnetic stabilizing loop, followed by a ring tuning flange to ensure that the activated blade did not in turn burn through the hilt.


    Immediately below that and mounted internally lay the blade arc tip, followed on the outside by the blade power adjustment and blade length adjustment knobs. Following the arc tip were mounted the blade energy channel which was nested amongst the cycling field energizers. Within the crystal energy chamber below this lay the focusing crystals, the focusing crystal activator and the primary crystal which was attached to the primary crystal mount and situated between the lightsaber energy gate.


    The primary crystal mount was in turn connected to the diatium power cell, which served as the primary power source of the weapon. The power cell was in turn wrapped beneath the power field conductor, power vortex ring and an inert power insulator. Rounding out the components that went into the disassembled hilt were the handgrip connector and a sturdy belt ring. The most surprising aspect of the three hilts were their uniformity, as if they’d been manufactured via an assembly line process.


    Damien shrugged off, the queerness of the hilts, as he went over to begin examining the starship, for a former Earthling, this was a monumental piece of tech. And he could help feeling like a kid on Christmas morning, staring at the biggest, coolest present to ever exist.  Fortunately, besides the two pilots, the rest also knew how to fly the ships and operate its various systems. So, he too could at least fly the ship, thanks to their collection of memories. Even though he had no immediate plans to leave this world, any time soon. It was still comforting to know he had the option if the need ever arose.


    Damien relinquished control back to Vex, and had her begin performing a thorough scan, as well as a technology autopsy on the ship, so they could potentially reverse engineer it. After all, having one ship was great, but having a fleet of ships at your command was the only way to flourish in the galaxy. He definitely had no intention of living life like “Han Solo”, who was forced to run away from practically every conflict he ever encountered.