Chapter Text
Las
3.1 ABY
3 Days Later
Minda System
I watched out the window of the MARD as the last Acclamator-Class ship jumped to hyperspace.
It wasn’t a standard Acclamator. Its internal bays had been reconfigured to house administrative staff and facilities. Extensive crew facilities, server bays, communication systems and more.
It was in effect a mobile space station. A mobile hub of coordination.
Not for me, no. I’m perfectly fine where I am now. No, this was for a project I’d been working on for a while.
See, running a sector was hard work. There were already a million things I had to manage at all times. And with my time increasingly taken by larger scale projects and out-of-sector diplomacy, I couldn’t keep splitting my attention.
So, subsector hubs. Each ship would host hundreds of administrators, tax experts, and more. Their job would be to settle disputes between Governors, collect taxes, administer the tax code, and coordinate infrastructure projects.
That last part was especially important. Just creating a sector wide project wasn’t enough. One had to properly implement it across all subsectors. Having these sub-capitals would help immensely.
“The fleet is already stretched thin. Are you sure of this?”
Ife was at my side for the event.
“No, but I’m running out of options. The sector is growing too quickly. If pressure isn’t relieved, it’ll create a myriad of problems.”
And wasn’t that the truth. Sure, the sector growing quickly was incredibly news. More immigrants streamed in from across the galaxy by the day. As the Empire got harsher and the civil war got hotter, people sought refuge.
If they couldn’t afford the Core or safer parts of the Mid-Rim, then the Myto Sector was one of the few places in the outer rim considered nice to live in.
This came with problems.
Colonies were expanding far ahead of schedule. Cities were filling as soon as we could build them. I’ve started approving the purchase of pre-built space stations because there just aren’t enough homes or infrastructure in many of the newly built, quickly growing colonies.’
And this was all without mentioning the larger projects. There were multiple concurrent programs in place to increase things like quality of life, medical production, industrial capacity, transit capacity, and more.
None of this was easy to manage, and while I could continue to expand my own capital administrative staff, that created far too much of a centralized location of power. It created bloat. If everything has to run through one single place all the time, that place gets slow.
And if things got slow, things started to go wrong. And that sort of stagnation compounded until it was impossible to fix.
As for why they were mobile? Well, the Governors were on average a lot cleaner now. But I still didn’t trust most of them. After all, most of them were just cleaning up their acts, instead of being people I trusted from the start. If I made one system the capital of each subsector, that system would undoubtedly gain unparalleled power and prestige they could use as political weight.
“They won’t be as well protected as planned. If they get targetted…” Ife’s concern was real. The Acclamator-class was no slouch in combat, but it wasn’t built to brawl either. Its primary escorts were mostly frigates and light cruisers, such as the Raider or Nebulon-B. Solid ships, but for such important vessels it wasn’t enough.
“I know. But as things are, I can’t avoid having them. For now, they’ll stick near better defended systems, and only move when extra forces can be spared by system defense fleets to escort them. However, I can’t delay this project. Already as the sector expands and projects become larger, we’re seeing failures, delays, and compounding errors. If this continues to get worse, we could start seeing major problems.”
Like smuggling, which was already finding a new niche to fill. Immigration was booming, yes, but it was easier get in if one had prior work experience in a field we were looking to expand. Medicine, for example, was at the top of our list.
But not everyone has such experience, and doesn’t want to, or can’t wait. So, they pay smugglers, and get smuggled in.
Sure, I could tamp down on immigration to slow things down. But that would only create a larger smuggling market. Right now, I had a fair grip on the underworld, reigning in the reasonable and eradicating those who wouldn’t play ball. But if enough people got desperate to get in, smuggling would explode and a hundred new rings would pop up.
And that would create a million new problems.
“Coaxium profits have left up solidly in the green. I can release more into the naval budget for mercenary contracts and ship purchases.” I replied. The Mando’s weren’t great at escort work, but there were countless more in the sector who did great at it.
Ife scoffed. “Trying to buy a warship right now would be near impossible. HIGHCOM is throwing everything they have at the Rebels, even if they don’t want to say it.” Her eyes slid from the window to my own. “Speaking of HIGHCOM, have they sent word about the Hubs replacement Admiral?
I sighed, rubbing at my temples in frustration. “All the people they’d trust with the assignment are out on other duties. And given Dionhar's treachery, that list is quite small and not budging any time soon. In the meanwhile, I’ve been given commanding authority over it.”
“I see…” Her reply was quiet, and as I looked over at her, she seemed almost…anxious? What the hell? This wasn’t the career climbing Admiral I knew?
“...Sir, I just wanted to ask–I know it’s inappropriate given the chain of command and everything–”
No shot. No fucking shot. Did Ife Veers have a crush on me? This couldn't be happening. I meant that literally, this could not be happening! She was too good at her job, too vital to the sector! But still, I can’t say yes, that would make things worse. Fuck, I’ve got to somehow reject her and get her to stick around!
“–but I just wantedtoaskifitsalrighttodateyoursister!?”
“Absolutely n–” I pause for a second. “Wait, waitwaitwait, what do you mean date my sister? Which one?”
She couldn’t seem to meet my eyes, which was extraordinarily strange for her of all people. Her cheeks were a shade of red I wasn’t sure was possible, much less healthy.
“S-Shal, Sir. I know she’s a subordinate but she isn’t under my command, and there’s just this spark of sorts and it's not anything yet but I just wanted to check–”
I raise my hand, and her mouth clacks shut at an impressive speed to stop the flood of words. I sigh. “Look. You’re not in the same chain of command. So long as you keep it private, stay effective, and avoid any scandals, I don’t care.”
Maybe it’ll get Shal to stop pestering me to go out on a family rendezvous or whatever.
–
Clifcor Gabrsta
3.1 ABY
Kuat System
Clifcor sighed in relief as he sat down on the bench, the heavy zero-G suit hissing as the seals opened and he tasted the Rings air.
Still recycled, like the suits, but less so. To him, it might’ve well been a fresh summer day breeze.
From a storage compartment below the bench he retrieved his lunch. A nutri-pack and energy drink. He could afford more, sure, but his break was shorter now than it used to be. He didn’t have the time to eat anything more.
The Ring had been working overtime for a while now. Ships were being built on tighter schedules, workers pushed harder for the same or even lesser pay.
“Hey there. How done are ya?” To his side, he saw another worker, Sernat he remembered, sitting down.
His eyes found their way to the window, beyond which sat the hulking form of a half-built star destroyer.
“About halfway. Parts shipment got delayed again.”
Sernat sighed in frustration. “Same. Just got started on this Bellator when we had to stop because they only sent us half the wiring! What a mess…”
Clifcor nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it's bad out there. I hear the rebels are hitting supply convoys all the time. It's why all these ships are being rushed out. For patrol duty.”
“See, that's what doesn’t make sense” exclaimed Sernat, waving his nutribar like a lecture stick. “If they wanted patrol ships, they’d build patrol ships. We could’ve pumped out three whole Raiders in the time it took us to put the Bellators frame together!”
“Well, you know how the military is,” Clifcor shrugged. “They want big ships with lots of guns. Hell, just last week the future captain of the ISD we’re building came by to demand we add extra guns!”
“Yeah, a total kriffing disaster. Didya hear their even pulling ships from the system defense fleet? Apparently some rebels hit Mardona and Najan-Rovi, and there aren’t enough ships anywhere else.”
Clifcor scoffed. “And we end up paying for it. Bet they’ll toss another hundred orders of ships, tell us to make em by tomorrow, and be mad when they take months.”
“Like they always do.”
He nodded. “Like they always do.”
–
Yo.Tired. Take this and enjoy. I will defend my literary choices when I am of sound mind once more.
–Freefaller