Governor's Gambit - Star Wars SI into Imperial Governor

[Knight Sovereign]

With all this talk about the Harrower ships, what about the Terminus-class destroyers? Those are dedicated warships used by the Sith Empire for a number of tasks such as escort missions, search and destroy or transporting important Imperial figures. The Terminus can even be modified, though I am uncertain about the specific modifications. In fact, I recall that Darth Marr used a Terminus-class cruiser as his flagship after it was outfitted with additional turbolaser batteries on top of the standard model.

 

[Freefaller]

Chp-62: A Thorne in My Side

My neck craned upwards as I watched the Lambda-class shuttle fly downwards towards the landing pad.

Well, I say landing pad, but it was really more of a hangar at this point. The capitol building tower seemed to always be growing, partially to handle administrative strain, and partially because the architects seem to be dead set on having it be the tallest, most identifiable building in the entire city.

I can only imagine the latest additions of shuttle hangars attached to the sides of the towers were a work of frustration, considering they can't reasonably make the building taller than the Mega-buildings. They can make them prettier though.

Then again, it's not hard to be more aesthetically pleasing than a concrete brick.

Still, the ever present construction of the capitol building wasn't my concern at the moment. What was my concern was the shuttle that was just about to touch down. And the man within.

Myr'thos stood to my side, clad in a simple, if imposing set of red and black armor. They had initially wanted a cape, but Gary told them off. Capes are for central figures, not bodyguards, and draw too much attention.

It was honestly hilarious watching them argue about it. Myr'thos wasn't even doing it out of anger or hatred, just legitimate aesthetic debates.

Apparently, fashion was quite important during their time.

Eventually, they had settled on the armor they now wore. It was very smooth, with sharp lines of red cutting around their limbs. A hood covered part of their helmet, lending to their mysterious vibe.

Combined with the vibroblade at their hip and general aura of malice, Myr'thos made for an effective bodyguard through presence alone. Very professional looking.

All ruined as soon as they spoke, of course, but that's neither here nor there.

What is here is the shuttle, which finally settled down.

The ramp opens, and out steps ISB Agent Thorne. I don't know his first name, and frankly speaking really don't care to learn it.

Thorne is around my height, just shy of 6ft. A very pale man, it looks like he would get sunburnt from a desklap. His eyes, however, were in stark contrast to the rest of his complexion.

They were dark. Not just dark brown, but pitch black eyes. His cornea was normal, but his pupil and iris were the color of night.

It was quite unsettling, but I decided not to comment or stare.

As he approached, I took the initiative.

"Agent Thorne. My name is Las Mola, Governor of the Minda and Edin systems. Welcome to Accordia."

Quick, cordial, respectful but not subservient.

He said nothing for a second, studying me, before responding.

"I was sent here to hunt down the rebel scum that dared to attack the Empire. What leads do you have?"

His voice was sharp, a sort of professional monotone that likely hid a fierce underbelly.

"The Commander will have more details for you, Agent. As far as I know, little has been found. These terrorists use droids as fodder and secrecy as a cloak."

His gaze is intense, but I stand my ground.

"No leads? You have found nothing?"

"As I said, Agent. The Commander has more details in regards to what we know. I urge you to speak to her at the barracks for further information."

I can tell he wants to say something, but I continue. He seems dead set on interrogating me about the rebels, but I have other matters to attend to regarding his arrival.

"As I understand, you and the battalion you brought came on a Victory-II Class. Will said battalion be rotating from the ship, or staying on the ground?"

He seemed a little confused, as if wondering why that would ever be a question I ask.

"Planetside. To facilitate security."

"Wonderful" I say, knowing damn well it isnt. "And the ship? Will it stay in the system?"

"Yes."

Dammit. I know damn well I'll have to foot the fucking bill on this one as well.

All throughout the conversation, we were walking deeper into the building, heading towards the tram station.

Yup. Tram station. Since the capitol and just about every other important Imperial building resided on a single island, it required its own transportation. There were many walking paths, and even a nice park for recreation and down time, but no real roads. So, a tram system.

A few lines running to and from the labs, capitol, barracks, guild HQ, and more ferried hundreds of staff across the island.

As we entered the station, Thornes eyes seemed to whip in every direction, scanning over every detail. On occasion, his brows would quirk. Sometimes in confusion, sometimes in acceptance, and sometimes in disdain.

I could already tell there would be a long conversation ahead of me.

Worsened by the fact that I had my own tram cart. Notably nicer than the others.

The funny thing is, I never asked for this thing. Never commissioned it. It was just assumed I'd want my own.

I never used the damn thing. Took ten minutes to get it out of storage, and by then I would have been halfway to my destination.

Of course, I had it prepared for Thorne's arrival. Toned down somewhat, as the original used gold for some reason. Instead, it was like the other cars. Sleek white and grey, nice carpeted floor, but instead of a row of seats, there was instead a small table in the center.

It was small, yes, but fairly comfortable, with enough space for both of our bodyguards.

Sitting down, the tram started to move not seconds afterwards.

"So, Agent Thorne. What are your plans regarding the rebels? Anything I can assist you with?"

He said nothing for a moment, before responding.

"You employ many aliens, Governor. Why?"

Damn. Straight for the throat. And not at all on topic! Where did he learn his social skills, the fucking Inquisition?

"The majority of the Outer Rim's population is non-human, Agent. It would be inefficient and wasteful to employ only humans in such an environment."

Another pause, more silence. This guy really likes his silence, huh? Must be some kind of interrogation method.

Jokes on him, cause I like the silence! Less time I need to hear him talking.

"Yet, these aliens…they are not slaves. They seem to have positions high in the administration. Explain."

Again with his bullshit! I keep my best poker face on, hiding the fact that my face is attempting to grow a frown by actively thinking about Myr'thos raging after losing a match. The conflict between my attempts to frown and smile kept me in a neutral looking state.

"Slaves don't pay taxes, Agent."

The flash of confusion on his face is priceless! As the tram pulls into the station, and we get off, he turns to me, expression making it clear I should continue.

"The Imperial Guild of Commerce, Production and Protection is how Minda has been able to grow as it has. It encourages local growth, local businesses, and local economies. It then connects these to other systems, offering benefits to all sides and making commerce easier for everyone."

We continue walking through the station, people parting before us as we make our way into the barracks.

"Slavery removes local jobs. It takes a usually significant portion of the population and refuses to pay them, meaning those people aren't spending money. If a large portion of people aren't spending money, then businesses catering to those people don't come to fruition. And competition to said businesses doesn't become a thing. The economy doesn't grow, only the wallets of those who own the most slaves."

Into a large elevator we step. In fact, most of the elevators around the island were quite large. I think it had something to do with moving more troops quicker? But wouldn't that work for both attackers and defenders? Questions for later.
"As to why non-humans are allowed into higher levels of the administration, that's because they have proven themselves. Promotions are based on merit, skill, and dedication. If we didn't reward people for their efforts, they would have little incentive to work diligently."

Finally, we were at the Commanders office. This was, hopefully, the last time I would see Agent Thorne for a while.

Sure, he would likely come bother me with some inane thing or another, but the Commander would get him sorted out. Her competence was just the kind of thing that would help him solve the rebel problem and get him to leave.

I knocked on the door politely, and waited a second before I heard her invite us in.

As we entered, Grant's eyes widened a tad from her position at her desk, before quickly snapping into a salute.

"Governor, Sir!"

I almost want to chuckle. My relationship with my subordinates has always been looser, more casual. Facilitates a better workplace environment.

Agent Thorne, however, doesn't know that, and would likely take exception to it. He is ISB after all. That Grant was able to identify this so quickly speaks to her competence.

"Commander Grant, this is Agent Thorne, here on behalf of the ISB to investigate the recent terrorist attacks. You are to collaborate with him on this assignment."

Turning to face both of them, I continue.

"If you have any need of additional support, don't hesitate to ask. I want these rebels dead and gone ASAP. If you have need of me, I'll be in my office, as usual. Feel free to contact my secretary."

Confident my part in this was finished, I excused myself and made my way out. I had far too much work to do and not nearly enough time to be doing all of this bullshit.

Hell, the only reason I escorted the Agent here personally was to ensure he got here. If I didn't, he probably would've gone off and started doing shit on his own. At least with me there, he couldn't just blow me off, and that combined with my little intellectual conversation, meant I could get him here without him really noticing.

Ah… herd mentality my beloved.

Just as my foot left the doorway, however, the Agent called out to me.

"Governor."

I turn. "Yes Agent?" Please tell me you want to know the best suicide spot around? I'll push you myself!

He looks at me with an inquisitive stare, eyes boring into me like black holes.

"The aliens. Why not motivate them with fear?"

What is this guy, a Tarkin supremacist?

"Fear causes anger. Anger, hatred. And hatred breeds dissent. If the people are kept happy, they have no reason to rebel. No reason to take up arms against their rulers."

And with that, I left. Quick enough that he couldn't ask any questions without having to chase me down, which would look really fucking embarrassing.

And for an ISB Agent? Embarrassment might as well be a death sentence. That entire branch of the Empire is a fucking mess, and I want no part in it.

Getting back on my tram, I pour myself a glass of chocolate milk. And yes, I keep some chilled for these occasions.

I can stop at any time, I promise.

I down the entire glass in a single shot, then offer the rest of the carton to my bodyguards while I look down at my PDA.

I've got a bevy of things to do today, and they all make me want to go find a suicide spot.

Now that I think about it, what is the Mindan suicide rate? Should look into that, cause I'm not sure how much we've invested into mental health facilities around the system.

Regardless, there are many things to do.

Veers sent back her recommendations for cruisers, and I ended up deciding on the Gladiator-Class.

The Strike-Class had been a close contender, especially because I remember some variant or refit of it that made it far better at managing TIE's, but even with that it had a higher crew count.

Which was weird, considering its 200 meters shorter, but it is what it is. A Gladiator is bigger, has more fighter capacity, can operate for long periods of time on its own, and extend the range of fighter based patrols.

Of course, if they want to buy one, we offer them some homegrown TIEs at a little discount.

Aside from that, I had reports to sift through on new production centers opening, more immigrants being let in to try and staff the shipyards(there weren't gonna be enough, no fucking way.), and all the stuff the Guild was getting up to with its new partners.

Lotta uplifting. Lotta new businesses.

A shit ton of cash, now spread between partners. Good stuff.

I held in my sigh. I could release the pressure once I was safe and sound in my office, and not surrounded by my bodyguards.

-

Hi there folks! Wanted to get Agent Thorne in. I would've had the chapter out sooner, but I was grinding WuWa. Got Cartethyia in my very first ten pull, and spent another 2 hours grinding her to lvl 70, plus her skills.

Also, Elden Ring Nightreign. Shit is an absolute BANGER! Like, fucking hell man it somehow just works, ya know? Sure, the upgrades could be better, more consistent with the character you're playing. And maybe upgrades that change playstyles would be cool. Maybe even devil-deal type upgrades the genre likes so much. -10% HP for +15% damage and the like.

Regardless of my vices, finals week is over! While I do have a summer semester, I'll be doing a lot more writing so expect some more frequent updates.

In terms of starships. I thank you all for the suggestions. The Harrower came up a lot, which is kinda weird, because why the hell would anyone build a 1000+ yr old starship? If there even are any schematics left, it would be a major pain in the ass to modernize, for what essentially was just a heavy cruiser that no-ones heard about.

Still, I appreciate the discourse. Always fun to read, and helps keep the creative gears turning.

As always, appreciate the feedback and commentary.

Thanks for reading!

-Freefaller

 

[oscar e Sampedro Lopez]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Sam I Am]

He looks at me with an inquisitive stare, eyes boring into me like black holes.

"The aliens. Why not motivate them with fear?"

What is this guy, a Tarkin supremacist?

"Fear causes anger. Anger, hatred. And hatred breeds dissent. If the people are kept happy, they have no reason to rebel. No reason to take up arms against their rulers."

Click to shrink...

Bro, this is the Tanya flag.

With this one sentence, he has sentenced himself to the position of Imperial Regent/Emperor. It's happening.

He will never have peace.

 

[ArcanaVitae]

This is a great example of how foreign his methods are to the empire, the ISB guy is like wtf is wrong with you. Meanwhile he's out here providing reasonable reasons for moral actions.

 

[OblivionFan007]

You know what he should do? Go Super Minda when everything collapses.

Spoiler: MANAGED DEMOCRACY

 

[BeelDplague]

You see when you rule by fear, you'll need an army, if you rule by proper motivation and happiness, you have an army.

 

[Ethertank]

Agent Thorne: what do you mean treating people like human beings is an effective strategy

 

[Knight Sovereign]

"The aliens. Why not motivate them with fear?"

What is this guy, a Tarkin supremacist?

"Fear causes anger. Anger, hatred. And hatred breeds dissent. If the people are kept happy, they have no reason to rebel. No reason to take up arms against their rulers."

Click to shrink...

You know, and this is my take on it, I think Las's method of governing plus the threat of rebel terrorists does actually make use of fear to motivate the population. You may ask, in what way? Well, to simplify:

1. Threats of rebel terrorism brings about a fear that their peace and prosperity are being jeopardized.
2. That fear thus turns to anger against the terrorists, not Las, because Las has proven himself to be a capable governor of TWO star systems.
3. That hatred for the terrorists thus breeds dissent against them and a desire to see them put down.

At least, that is my personal take on a "proper" usage of fear as a motivator.

 

[Inbredmartian]

In terms of starships. I thank you all for the suggestions. The Harrower came up a lot, which is kinda weird, because why the hell would anyone build a 1000+ yr old starship? If there even are any schematics left, it would be a major pain in the ass to modernize, for what essentially was just a heavy cruiser that no-ones heard about.

Click to shrink...

I mean kinda? The thing with Star Wars is there is little to no internal consistency with the tech base. Everyone assumes old republic shit is weaker and less useful in a fight but I don't think there's ever been an in cannon statement of fact on that. I mean hell the hammerhead 'cruisers' that the rebellion uses so much are undergunned, shrunken, escort versions of the true hammerhead cruiser that was used to fight the Harrower in its hayday.

Everyone agrees to basically say the old republic era ships and weapons were weaker because otherwise clone wars and empire era Star Wars would be a lot more stupid than it already is with its vehicles and weapons. Especially when the old republic gets all the cool shit like prolific stealth fields, personal shielding modules, power armor, etc, etc.

And as far as designs go the harrower is predecessor to all ISDs in design shape and doctrine so it wouldn't surprise me if rendilli and everyone else has its docs down somewhere especially when they were making the Venator, arquitens, etc which all look and act like modified Harrowers

I mean hell our bodyguard could say 'why not build Harrowers since he Would have been familiar with them no? I think they were in use with the infinite empire or around still with the sith but it's been a minute since i re played the games so I might be wrong.

 

[lusians]

This is a great example of how foreign his methods are to the empire

Click to shrink...

Which is funny considering how willing people are in accepting gentle tyrant.

 

[Fearless444]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[DoomLordSteve]

The Gladiator is a decent choice but it's missing heavy firepower only having light turbolasers and a couple missile launchers. Maybe you can make your own Mindan variant with a few medium turbolasers by sacrificing a few light ones. Turbolasers get exponentially more powerful and get better range the bigger they are so not having anything bigger than a light turbolaser is a death sentence in a proper fight against other capital ships that do have them. Alternatively you could just add a Carrack/ Vigil or two as escorts to each Gladiator.

 

[Profilozof]

Fear causes anger. Anger, hatred. And hatred breeds dissent.

Click to shrink...

My guy is not beating Sith alegation

 

[auraofcalm]

"But we're the bad guys. We're supposed to be evil. WHY AREN'T YOU BEING EVIL?!"

EDIT:
*bro gets back to Imperial Center*

"How was your trip to Minda, Agent?"

"0/10 insufficient evil cannot recommend."

"How about the terrorists?"

"What terrorists?"

 

[unlawfulwaffle362]

The Gladiator is in many ways a modernized Harrower so good job on that. The reason that many would consider using older models such as the Harrower(updated) is because Hyperspace technology is sooo fucking old and matured, that there is nothing new and the meta for Space Warfare is cyclical in nature.

New configurations are formed, counters are made against them, counters for the counters are made...etc and on it goes until innovations are re-using old configurations because the meta forgot how to counter them...and on and on.

The Ruusan Reformations is a big cause of this and led to one of the longest spans of relative peace that Republic space has experienced in recorded history. So people forgot how to model, build, and fight in large galactic conflicts when the Clone Wars rolled around. The Imperial Star Destroyers are based on the Venator which is based on the Harrowers but built for different purposes.

edit: The schematics and designs for Old Republic or Sith Empire ships are probably lost to the ages so they really can't make new ones. The best they can try is to take design principles from them and apply it to modern ships ie. Hammerheads=> Spyrna

 

[Simonbob]

"But we're the bad guys. We're supposed to be evil. WHY AREN'T YOU BEING EVIL?!"

Click to shrink...

"Evil don't pay the bills."

 

[Cthugha]

Basically what Las did was the whole "I gave them Paradise, they'll hate the people that threaten to take it away more than they will EVER hate me." grind set.

 

[Astan]

Thank you for the chapter

My man works for the CEO of racism.

 

[Fearless444]

Na The Empire is Casual racist

 

[Ironwar4321]

I mean kinda? The thing with Star Wars is there is little to no internal consistency with the tech base. Everyone assumes old republic shit is weaker and less useful in a fight but I don't think there's ever been an in cannon statement of fact on that. I mean hell the hammerhead 'cruisers' that the rebellion uses so much are undergunned, shrunken, escort versions of the true hammerhead cruiser that was used to fight the Harrower in its hayday.

Everyone agrees to basically say the old republic era ships and weapons were weaker because otherwise clone wars and empire era Star Wars would be a lot more stupid than it already is with its vehicles and weapons. Especially when the old republic gets all the cool shit like prolific stealth fields, personal shielding modules, power armor, etc, etc.

And as far as designs go the harrower is predecessor to all ISDs in design shape and doctrine so it wouldn't surprise me if rendilli and everyone else has its docs down somewhere especially when they were making the Venator, arquitens, etc which all look and act like modified Harrowers

I mean hell our bodyguard could say 'why not build Harrowers since he Would have been familiar with them no? I think they were in use with the infinite empire or around still with the sith but it's been a minute since i re played the games so I might be wrong.

Click to shrink...

I thought that 'offical' reason that the old republic tech looked the same and/or more advance then clone war/empire era was cause of the jedi/sith wars from 1000 by. That those wars had gotten so bad that most tech that wasn't extremely common was 'lost', probably being kept by the Hutts in case any of the new governments try to break them so they can pull out all this dance tech from no wear and inslave the new government; and since everyone was scared by war for the first 100 years they had no military and after it just became standard to just have a peacekeeping force so the military wasn't around to help push invation and get more tech back up to old standards that they only got back to when the clone wars started.

It why in Kotor you could littery buy energy shields in a back alley but in the clone wars only clone commandos had them.

 

[ServingPlate]

I mean, yeah. If you're an autocratic ruler, but almost all your citizens live well, then they won't overthrow you. Hell, they'll even be loyal to you!

Autocracies inevitably collapse because power ends up in hands too selfish, malicious, or incompetent to sustain prosperity. Or external pressures undercut the country's stability. But that'll happen on a larger timescale than Lars currently has to worry about.

 

[SotF]

The Gladiator is in many ways a modernized Harrower so good job on that. The reason that many would consider using older models such as the Harrower(updated) is because Hyperspace technology is sooo fucking old and matured, that there is nothing new and the meta for Space Warfare is cyclical in nature.

New configurations are formed, counters are made against them, counters for the counters are made...etc and on it goes until innovations are re-using old configurations because the meta forgot how to counter them...and on and on.

The Ruusan Reformations is a big cause of this and led to one of the longest spans of relative peace that Republic space has experienced in recorded history. So people forgot how to model, build, and fight in large galactic conflicts when the Clone Wars rolled around. The Imperial Star Destroyers are based on the Venator which is based on the Harrowers but built for different purposes.

edit: The schematics and designs for Old Republic or Sith Empire ships are probably lost to the ages so they really can't make new ones. The best they can try is to take design principles from them and apply it to modern ships ie. Hammerheads=> Spyrna

Click to shrink...

There's also a lot of things pointing towards there also being a lot of things where tradition started to trump utility and development.

A lot of the people handling the funding picking things because they looked like the warships that were famous even when the designs were outdated, which mixes with politicians spending multiple lifetimes for the majority of the population where there weren't the big wars and the worst things were small brushfires that were settled relatively quickly/easily, which would also mean that a lot of the actual institutional knowledge would be lost.

Even in more recent history you have things pop up that were really stupid even a decade after figuring things out such as the majority of the F4's made without guns, and the scramble for gunpods that weren't that good combined with missile tech that was also not developed well enough for the time.

 

[webxro]

There's also a lot of things pointing towards there also being a lot of things where tradition started to trump utility and development.

A lot of the people handling the funding picking things because they looked like the warships that were famous even when the designs were outdated, which mixes with politicians spending multiple lifetimes for the majority of the population where there weren't the big wars and the worst things were small brushfires that were settled relatively quickly/easily, which would also mean that a lot of the actual institutional knowledge would be lost.

Even in more recent history you have things pop up that were really stupid even a decade after figuring things out such as the majority of the F4's made without guns, and the scramble for gunpods that weren't that good combined with missile tech that was also not developed well enough for the time.

Click to shrink...

Also graft and corruption, when a company affords to bribe enough politicians so they will pay for shittier and cheaper ships(or any military gear) but pay the full price for generations the initial better quality blueprints and know-how to build it is lost. In theory this would be kept in check by facing a threat that the shittier ships/equipment couldn't deal with, but the republic had to deal with no massive threats for a VERY long time post Ruusan so there were at least several dozen times something has seen down-scaling in quality while keeping the same price.

You can see this in RL as shitflation, but in Star Wars so much time passed that most people have issues noticing it.

 

[Watching]

Bro, this is the Tanya flag.

With this one sentence, he has sentenced himself to the position of Imperial Regent/Emperor. It's happening.

He will never have peace.

Click to shrink...

Man's building a Federation for post-empire collapse in the outer rim and he doesn't even know it.

There was an alliance of three systems that had started their own trade deals who joined as essentially one group, while half a dozen other systems had expressed interest.

In total, 9 new star systems joined the Guild, totaling 11.

Click to shrink...

 

[Zoolimar]

I mean kinda? The thing with Star Wars is there is little to no internal consistency with the tech base. Everyone assumes old republic shit is weaker and less useful in a fight but I don't think there's ever been an in cannon statement of fact on that. I mean hell the hammerhead 'cruisers' that the rebellion uses so much are undergunned, shrunken, escort versions of the true hammerhead cruiser that was used to fight the Harrower in its hayday.

Click to shrink...

The biggest difference is better automation and switch to new reactors that happened almost a thousand years ago. Starship crews shrunk to almost one tenth of what they were during the times of Old Republic and Sith Wars.

 

[Blackenedthorn]

Bear in mind the Star Wars Galaxy experienced a brain drain during the New Sith Wars (2000 BBY to 1000 BBY) in the form of knowledgeable people and technical know-how. I imagine much of the stuff from the Old Republic Era that's hanging around is either formerly demilitarized variants or downgraded models developed as the NSW removed the abilities of the Republic to produce the more advanced vessels. Also the Hammerhead's the Harrower fought was the Thranta-class not the traditional Hammerhead-class, they are about 500 years apart. All that being said, the best way for Las to get a modernized Harrower would be locate a wreck in decent condition, study the design and recreate it with modern Imperial style; even potentially making a model that abandoned the forward hangars for a Imperial-Standard Dagger with a VSD/ISD inspired Hangar Bay and an extra 100 to 200 meters tacked on to its existing 800 meter length

Spoiler: Harrower-class Dreadnought / Heavy Cruiser

 

[Mistroz]

excellent chapter.

 

[SirAlmond]

Man's building a Federation for post-empire collapse in the outer rim and he doesn't even know it.

Click to shrink...

Bro, no need to wait till post-empire, the man's already on it, an Imperial Federation is a thing, and he's already put one in place with Edin.

That planet has enough limited autonomy to be counted as vaguely separate, but is ultimately under Minda's authority. Witch is pretty much how Imperial Federations operate.

 

[Gotenks]

I'm wondering if the Rebellion may even believe he's on their side, or on the verge of defecting. I meant, they know he's aware of the rebel connections on his staff, and his position on slavery and brutality.