The Pendulum Swings

[Leos Palle]

In the far reaches of space, deep within a darkened planetary system inhabited by only two bodies, both too close to the systems star to be habitable, several large ships floated. Around them, an asteroid belt circles the system. There was no life within this system. It posed no real importance, and hadn't even been charted until it was discovered by an Ignus Industries probing mission. It was charted in a private starchart, and then abandoned. Not even the majority of Ignus Industries individuals were aware of the significance of the system. This was orchestrated for a good reason, and maintained with force.

On the bridge of the Lambent Shadow, the Mirialan known to most as Ignus, sat looking out the viewport. His hand was lifted to rest against his chin. His other hand lay on the arm rest of the bridge seat. The ship floated harmlessly in space, flanked by a couple of support craft with several fighters on roaming patrol. None of this particularly mattered to him. It was the words that his associate, Alistair, were speaking that kept his attention.

"... and we've become aware that the Togruta, [member="Paa'lee"] has entrenched herself on a remote world of Lynx. Your son, [member="Sobaan Palle"], has joined with the group known as the Je'daii. He's already exhibited exceptional skills..."

Leos smiled at this, but said nothing to interrupt.

"... where he's even ventured around a First Order world. Quite dangerous. I know he's skilled but they could do a better job of watching out for him."

"There is nothing to fear, Alistair," Leos said as he turned his orange eyes to glance at him. "Sobaan will live for a very long time. Far outliving me, and doing greater things than I. You need not trouble yourself with his activities. He's following the course he's supposed to."

"Yes, sir," Alistair said licking his lips. "There is the other matter, however."

"The matter of [member="Darth Caecus"], you mean?"

"Yes. She knows your plans, sir. She could certainly disrupt them. I and some of the others believe you should try to get hold of [member="Maelasi Eramar"] once more. If Darth Caecus comes, and brings the force of the Sith Empire with her, then we cannot withstand them at this time. At the least Ms. Eramar could provide you with some form of defense. We deeply advise that you at least consider this, or consider authorizing a strike against Caecus."

Orange eyes narrowed and he turned his head to look at the human male in ornate robes that stood next to him.

"We will do no such thing. I know it's her, and I know she knows, but I will not expose her and I will do nothing to harm her. Her life is her own to lead as I told her myself. She made the choice to leave me and make her own way in the galaxy and she is free to do so. If she comes here and tries to interfere then we will deal with her then. Otherwise, you will leave her in peace. As for Maelasi, she won't come, so leave her be as well. I don't need you or any of the others to be bothering the people I care about, especially if it comes to putting them in harms way."

"I-"

Leos lifted a hand to cut him off.

"Was I not clear, Alistair?"

"Yes, sir. You were."

"Good. Now go see where we are with preparations. We have big days ahead of us and the sooner we get started, the less chance we have of being interrupted."

The man nodded and turned to depart the room, leaving Leos alone with Arus, Milan, and the dragon, Set, that was perched above the door. The hand on the arm rest dropped down to brush against Milan's head, causing her to purr incessantly. Given the silence in the room, aside from the occasional beeping, it was a welcome sound. He said nothing further, but looked out the window, waiting for the moment the ships were ready to begin.

[OOC: If you are tagged in this thread then that means you are free to join if you want.]

 

[Leos Palle]

"Sir, the constructors are reporting nominal functionality and are requesting placement orders."

Leos stood from his seat and looked out the viewport at the four large vessels that were floating in the empty space between the nearest planet and the asteroid belt. Four ships. Billions of credits. This was his ultimate life's work, aside from the Reformation and his son. Nothing else would ever compare to what was about to happen in this system. And when it was done? The ships would be disassembled and scrapped for use in other ships under construction by Ignus Industries. Nobody else would ever get to use the ships the way that he would.

"Inform them we will transmit coordinates shortly," he said as he started to walk towards one of the bridge's doors. "I'll be in the Orerry."

"Yes, sir."

He stepped through the door and into the large orerry chamber. Activating the device triggered a sector map to appear floating within the room. Searching for a moment, he selected the Tavos system and zoomed in on it. The ships of Ignus Industries appeared marked on the celestial map. He drew an x within the systems habitable zone, marking the target location. Next, he positioned four circles, spaced evenly, near the asteroid belt, surrounding the target location.

After several minutes of examination, he moved a couple of the circles, and then hit the transmit command on the control console.

"Transmitting data," the captain said from his seat in the command chair.

Leos studied the map for a moment longer, and then turned it off before returning to the bridge. In the darkness of space, the four large vessels began traversing to their assigned locations. A single tug began to fly towards the location he'd marked with the x. It towed a large buoy behind it, meant to be a targeting marker for what was going to happen shortly. The ships needed something to focus their cannons on else this wasn't going to work the way that it was meant to.

"Only a little longer, Captain. Then we make history."

 

[Leos Palle]

"The ships are reporting that they are in position, and the buoy has been placed in the optimal position."

Leos tapped fingers against his arms and could feel the cold sweat beading on his neck. This was the moment he had been working towards for so long. Almost everything he'd done had been leading up to this. While others were off waging war, slaughtering countless people for no real reason, he had turned his efforts towards more substantial endeavors. He was going to do something that, to his knowledge, had never been done before. Perhaps the Vong had done something similar, but nothing on such a scale as this. They'd always had something to work with and most of their work had just been a different form of terraforming. This was much different from that sort of challenge.

Striding forward, he stood next to the bridge's viewport and looked out. Four ships, all positioned around the buoy. Behind them, the asteroid belt. This would work. He was certain that it would work. The science, the math, all of it had been double and triple checked way before anything was even built. It had to work.

"Proceed with stage one."

"Confirmed. Proceeding with stage one."

For a few moments it seemed that nothing was happening. To the untrained eye it would take some time to figure out what was going on. He, however, knew what it was. The four ships began using their tractor beams to grab hold of the asteroids that tugs were slowly pushing into their vicinity. The tractors pulled it into the center of the giant ships, where a giant furnace melted it down to slag. High velocity projectors then spewed the slag towards the buoy. Each ship fired in unison, precisely aimed, and all four beams of slag collided at the same time. The beams were continuous as soon as they started, each ship feeding itself more and more of the asteroids to fuel the process.

At first the process was extremely hot. The center, the core, had to be molten in order to provide the necessary movement to create gravity. As the mass was poured on, gradually the beam from one of the ships tapered off, which caused the center to begin spinning in a gradual rotation. After a few moments of the one ship not firing, it began firing again, and the size began to expand. It was starting to work. If nothing else, he was going to make a rock in space that would orbit the systems star, but he was confident that his plan to seed it with life would work.

"Stage one completed, proceeding with stage two gradual cooling."

Leos smiled. All according to plan.

 

[Leos Palle]

"Number two is reporting a heat anomaly."

A heat anomaly? Either the cooling built into the ship was failing or the output was too warm for what they were doing. He looked across towards the ship in question as plasma continued to fly forth at the growing sphere of stone and magma. If they lost the unit it would make everything for not, but if they stopped it the same result would be given. He had to rely on the internal temperature being right and it being a stress anomaly.

"Deploy a fire vessel and hose it down with chemical cooling," he said. "It's probably friction burn."

"Yes, sir."

Worrisome all the same. He drummed his fingers against his forearm as he watched ships go into motion. He couldn't see where they were headed, which meant he couldn't watch them perform their task, but it didn't really matter that much. The ships were piloted by specially trained crew, so he knew they could do their job. Plus he paid them well, especially on this job. Doing anything less pit what he was doing at risk.

Rising from his seat, he left the bridge and went to his meditation chamber. Sealing it off, he climbed inside the sphere and closed it. It was an uncomfortable space, but it worked. He settled on his knees with his hands in his lap. It took a while to get comfortable each and every time he entered the sphere. In the meantime, the myriad of screens showed him the entirety of the ships surroundings, which allowed him to view what was going on as if he were floating in space himself.

A novel notion for the future, he thought.

"Status, Captain."

"The ship is on site and deploying. No further anomalies to report. Stage two is nearing completion. Estimates are another hour."

An hour and then he'd begin the hardest part of the whole thing. The most expensive, too. Getting enough crystals had been costly. In the end it would be worth it. This would be one of the greatest feats in galactic history. Sidious' had been a fool to focus on personal longevity and giant hunks of metal. So much more was at his fingertips. His loss. Leos would make it his gain.

 

[Leos Palle]

"Reporting Stage Two completion, sir."

Good. With stage two complete, that meant that the core and shell of the planet were completely formed. He examined the view and could see the molten ball floating between the ships. It was most certainly formed, but that didn't mean that everything was done. They still had a lot of hard work in front of them. Most of that hard work had to be completed by him personally, but some of it was going to come from the crews of several other ships that were lurking on the edge of the system. One of the most essential elements for life on a world was water and other minerals that needed to be present. That meant he had to bring in more than just a bunch of asteroids that were melted down and blasted together.

"Deploy the mineral ships."

"Yes, sir. Deploying."

From the edge of the system, several ships, some of them rather large, moved towards the newly formed planet. Some of those ships were laden with dirt and plant material from other worlds that would form some of the planets crust. Inevitably, numerous elemental compounds would have been pulled in from space itself when the asteroids were being broken down and shot together as super heated material. He was counting on that for part of it, not to mention that a lot of the asteroids were laden with metals of various kinds, which would help form that core of the world, giving it the rotation necessary to create gravity and hold an atmosphere to the world. Both were essential.

The mineral ships began to divest themselves of their load, flying down towards the molten surface and literally just dumping the material on the world. There were hundreds of such ships, mostly smaller ones so they could approach and maneuver quickly. There had to be that many to cover the whole planet. Everything about this operation had been meticulously planned, even the number of ships that were involved. Too few and they'd end up with spots that couldn't grow anything. Too many and they'd just end up with a mud pit that absorbed all the water. That wouldn't be good either.

"When the mineral ships are done, deploy the ice ships."

"Yes, sir."

It was a time consuming process, so he settled in for a nap.

 

[Leos Palle]

Hours turned into days. The planet took a long time for its surface to cool and accept the water without fully absorbing it. The positive side to that was it became clear that the planet had formed an atmosphere as a result of the deployment of the ice. It wasn't long after the middle of the ice runs that the ships began flaring heat when they approached the rock. That was good. The water was mostly collecting on the surface, but some of it turned to vapor and then broke apart to become separate gasses, which meant an atmosphere rich in oxygen, also with the presence of hydrogen and undoubtedly other molecules. Of the mixture was appropriate, they wouldn't need to wear breathing apparatus on the surface when they could eventually go down there.

The ice ships finished their process eventually. There was only so much ice he'd been able to harvest without drawing too much attention to what he was doing. Some of it had even been made rather than harvested. That was time consuming and cost a lot for such mass quantities. Necessary, however. It had to be done.

He gave it a couple of days, the ships floating in the space around the newly formed planet. It had no moon, which meant it would not have tidal forces acting on it. Gravity would be consistent across the planet. He remained within the sphere for those days of waiting, not leaving to eat or anything else. He controlled his body through the Force to slow his internal processes save for the necessary flow of blood to keep oxygen rushing to his brain. He needed to remain alive, after all. When the appropriate time had passed, he reached out to all three of the constructor ships, calling to each one and to the people that were waiting on it. It was time for the hardest part of all to begin.

Hello, volunteers. I trust you have all been well taken care of.

His voice and his presence would appear to all of those he'd called for. An apparition of himself walking among them on each ship.

The time has come for you to make your mark upon this galaxy. As I promised you, though you are all dying, your death will not be in vain. The ships you now reside on have successfully completed their task. As he said this, blast shutters opened and allowed them to look out on the newly formed world. This new world will be the home of many. Your lives will make it such. Many will be saved because of your sacrifice and I cannot thank you enough for that. Without each and everyone of you, this would not be possible. I will make sure that everyone who visits here knows who you are.

He was, of course, lying, but they had no way of knowing that.

The time has come. If each of you would please approach your chamber, a staff member will strap you in. I promise you will feel nothing, and when it's all over you will be one with the Force, and one with the planet. If you need someone to say rites over you, the person assisting you has been trained to do so. I thank you, and may the Force be with you.

With that, he ceased his apparition and settled back. Most of it was a lie, though he was going to administer sedatives to all of them so they wouldn't feel it. He didn't want millions of people crying out in horror. That would draw the attention of some idiotic Jedi before he was done with his task. No chances.

 

[Leos Palle]

When he was told that they were all within their respective pods, he settled back into the Force once again. The most difficult part of the whole operation was at hand, and it was sure to require all of his mental faculties, which was entirely why he'd made sure that he had his sphere available to him. Without it, there was no way that he'd be accomplishing his mission. With it, well, he could do just about anything he put his mind to, including conjuring entire armies out of thing air if he wanted to. That wasn't the aim, though. Instead, he concentrated his will and the Force on the kyber crystals inside of the three massive ships that were poised around the newly formed planet.

Through the crystals he channeled his consciousness and the Force to each of the pods in turn, activating the device that administered the sedatives to each of the dying fools that had so blindly given him access to their very being. Would they go into the Force? He didn't know, but honestly he didn't care. He needed their life energy and their very bodies. Through them would this world truly become alive. If he hadn't been so focused on what he was doing, a sinister smirk would have crossed his face then, but as it was all he felt was each life beating within the pods of the respective ships, each slowing as the sedatives wore in.

When they were fully under, he reached through and ripped them free of their bodies, pouring every ounce of their Force being into the kyber crystals and charging them with an intense amount of Force energy that could only be obtained with thousands of sacrifices. This was no small task. He'd been preparing for it for a long time, and now that it had come he was more than willing to sacrifice people for the greater good of the galaxy. It had to be known whether a planet could be artificially created. Down the line, when planets started disappearing into their respective suns as those stars failed and became black holes, new worlds would have to be formed to replace the old ones. New worlds around new stars.

When their life forces were drained, the pods drained their bodies, liquifying them and draining them into a special device that turned what they were into a fine mist. To most it was inherently disgusting. To Leos it was a means to an ends. The liquid people was drawn up to the front of the ship as the crystals finished their charge. With that done, he unleashed the full power of the crystals, sending white light blaring forth from them aimed at the planet. As it did so, the white light became tinged with red as the mist that was the people whose Force energy was now flying through spaced towards the planet was forced out into space and grabbed by that very energy.

Three brilliant beams of light collided with the planet, infusing it with that which gave life. All was according to plan.