Chapter 81: Welcome to Corellia

Chapter 81: Welcome to Corellia

A couple of minutes before the Star Fighter's arrival, Pacifist stated aloud for Rayleigh's benefit, "We're coming out of Hyperspace soon." He then sent a message inside the Jedi Chat Room.

[Pacifist: Mechanic, do you want him dropped off on a shipyard or planet-side?]

[Mechanic: Planet-side. Use Frequency 1577.89, callsign, Pizza Boy.]

Pacifist sighed and didn't reply.

Rayleigh asked, "How useful is the Chat for communication across planets?"

The Jedi replied, "Extremely. Even if you don't have a communicator or ship, you can always reach out using the Chat. There have already been more than a dozen instances of Players getting stranded or needing assistance and using the Chat to call for Backup. If you are available, it is a good idea to respond. Though that means that the asker usually owes the one who responded a favor."

Rayleigh asked, "What if the Player doesn't repay that favor?"

"Then the next time they get in trouble, everyone will know they aren't worth rescuing," Pacifist answered evenly.

Rayleigh only considered it for a moment before agreeing that such a situation was natural. If someone really got stranded on a Planet and couldn't get rescued, they could just use the Tavern to go to a different world, so it wasn't like leaving them meant dooming their existence.

A moment later, the lines of passing lights came to a halt and turned to dots of starlight once more as the ship seemed to almost pause in motion before their destination.

Corellia was almost Earth-like in appearance, save for the fact that the continents were the wrong shapes, a bit smaller, and more spread out. Plenty of green on the planet's dayside and lots of orange lights around the planet's cities on the nightside. The world's most distinctive feature though was not its surface, but what was above it. Countless space stations, hundreds if not more, dotted the planet's orbit. A stream of spaceships traveling in lines back and forth from the planet to the stations could be seen from most of them. Many of the ships heading to the stations were tied with massive cables that lifted large, irregular structures. It reminded Rayleigh of ants, with the line heading to the nest carrying food.

Sensing Rayleigh's open curiosity, Pacifist commented, "Those are Corellia's Shipyards." He then turned on his ship's radio, tuned it to the frequency mentioned by Mechanic, and said, "This is pizza boy requesting vectors for landing."

A moment later, the radio replied, "Authorization confirmed. Permission Granted. Sending vectors for landing. Confirm reception."

The screen on his Pilot's display lit up and Pacifist scrolled through it a bit before answering back, "Vectors received, heading in now," before turning the radio's microphone off and steering the ship. In addition to the countless ships coming and going from the shipyards, countless more circled the planet like swarming insects, each a different shape and size, with this craft being the smallest that Rayleigh could see.

Their ship seemed to be moving into a line of other ships that were flying into the planet's atmosphere. Rayleigh asked, "So what can you tell me about Corellia?"

After confirming a path to safely merge into the stream of ships heading into the planet, Pacifist answered, "For some reason, born and raised Corellians have an Italian accent."

"Wait, really?" Rayleigh could not tell if he was joking.

"Kinda. Obviously, it's not really an Italian accent, but that's the closest approximation that I can think of. After recognizing it, you can usually tell if someone is raised on Corellia or not by its presence or lack thereof. The only thing you really need to know about this world is that Corellians are all born with wanderlust. It's a known joke that there are more Corellians off Corellia than on the planet. You saw those seas, right? Before their industrial revolution, sailing on a ship was every Corellian's dream job. Once the age of space exploration started, Corellians were some of the first to start up their prototype Hyperdrives and start exploring the unknown. Ships made here are reliable and pilots raised here are dependable. Don't forget those things and you'll be fine."

"That's it? That's like saying, 'Earth is peaceful except when it is not' and 'The United States likes oil.' It's true, but not exactly useful. Where's the juicy stuff?"

Pacifist shook his head, "Corellia prefers to solve their own problems and I doubt there is a single Jedi on this Planet. This is actually my first time here, so I don't know much except rumors."

Rayleigh asked eagerly, "Rumors are good. Give me some of those."

Rolling his eyes, Pacifist replied, "Fine, let's see. Like Coruscant, Corellia was originally a human-only world. Most historians believe that some random civilization a long time ago seeded a bunch of planets with one or two random species depending on the environment, so Humans were on a lot of planets even before the era of spaceships. Because of its origins, Corellia is thought to be pretty speciesist, especially its gangs. The Kaldana Syndicate is the best example and one of the bigger interstellar gangs that operate out of Corellia and Sullust. They cause a lot of problems and are the only thing that the Jedi really get involved with on a regular basis when it comes to Corellia."

Rayleigh asked, "What, do they attack non-humans?"

Pacifist snorted, "That would make sense if they did, but apparently they hate droids even more than aliens and cause a lot of pointless, expensive damage. Like planting explosives in droid-run businesses or ships, robbing droid-run companies frequently, and being general terrorists to anyone that uses Droid labor over human labor."

"What about Mechanic?"

"You can ask her yourself. We'll arrive in a few minutes."

Pacifist knew that Rayleigh was just trying to get a bunch of useful info for free and humored him on some things while being vague on others. It was par for the course with Player to Player interactions, especially if they were not going to work together in the future.

The Jedi Starfighter had already entered the atmosphere and was closing in on the planet's largest city, its capital of Coronet. From above, the uneven surface and green tint of the air made the city look like a massive patch of mold but became more clear as they descended closer to the planet's surface.

Pacifist referenced his Pilot's display every few moments before making turns, using the directions he was sent to find the right location.

Much of the city was a cross between industrial complexes that built structures to be carried to the shipyards in orbit and landing ports for the various ships.

Plenty of towering skyscrapers dotted the horizon in every direction, though were far from the spaceship traffic lanes to avoid unfortunate collisions.

The display on the Pilot's dashboard turned into an image of a nearby landing pad and highlighted it while flashing, indicating it and the approach direction that Pacifist had to land on.

The ship's radio was still dialed into the frequency Mechanic provided and on the ship's descent to the landing spot, a woman's voice was heard from it. "Thank you for the delivery, Pacifist, did you want to stick around for a while?"

Pacifist turned the microphone back on and answered, "Thank you for the offer Mechanic but I need to head back to Coruscant. If you can take care of Swordsman, I'll drop him off here."

The radio answered back, "That's fine. Have him jump out and I'll get you your departure vectors for Coruscant."

The moment that the craft landed, Pacifist opened the hatch and said, "Good luck Swordsman, see you later."

Rayleigh replied back, "You too, we're definitely even now," and jumped out of the fighter's back seat.

Pacifist had not even turned off the engine, so the moment Rayleigh jumped out, the hatch slid back up and the ship lifted off once more. It reminded Rayleigh of a Taxi, but he didn't hold it against Pacifist as he had done everything he was obligated to do.

The landing pad, like just about all the other landing pads in the city, was highly elevated and far from the ground. There was only one path from the landing pad to the nearest building and waiting there at the entrance was a black-haired young woman in dress-to-kill business attire wearing sleek glasses and holding a tablet. Her suit had an Earth aesthetic but would stand out quite a bit on Earth due to the expensive and sophisticated-looking blue and gold embroidery that gave it an other-worldly feel.

On his approach to the woman who was obviously Mechanic, he halted and looked around with caution. Although he could sense Mechanic's presence in the Force, it was raw and untrained. This matched what he had been told. But he also felt something else, something subtle and refined. It wasn't coming from her though.

Seeing her measuring gaze, Rayleigh continued his walk and asked, "So who else is here?"

Mechanic lifted her glasses up a notch and made a show of looking around, "Do you see anyone else here?"

Seeing that she wasn't going to admit it, Rayleigh muttered to himself, "Open Babylon."

Rayleigh's lightsaber had been replaced with a leather wrist guard that pressed his Nen-inscribed Kyber Crystal into his arm, so the conditions for using his second Hatsu that massively enhanced all of his senses could be fulfilled at any time.

Under the effect of Babylon, Rayleigh's En extended well beyond the length of the landing platform. Very little could hide under Rayleigh's Babylon, so it was a surprise when Rayleigh didn't find any hidden observers or guards, but upon closer inspection using his Haki to examine the air, he found that some of the wind was not moving correctly, as if it was moving around a volume of slightly hazy gas.

Rayleigh looked over to the side to the mass of hazy gas that didn't move naturally. It was so thin that it could hardly be seen, but Rayleigh detected the Force's presence in that gas, meaning it was likely a Player.

The gas moved, but seeing Rayleigh's gaze follow the gas, Mechanic smirked and said, "You're pretty good. Alright Vash, come on out."

The gas gathered into a light red mist before turning into a person, a human wearing a red flight jacket and yellow sunglasses that was clearly cosplaying the Vash the Stampede look, complete with spiky blonde hair.

Despite being the same age, he was almost half a head taller than Rayleigh was. The moment he formed, he sagged down and said, "I can't believe you found me. How is that fair? I even used Stealth and was completely invisible!" He both whined and complained like a girl.

Rayleigh considered it for a moment and said, "Yeah. You can make a small tube with the bottom sealed and a hollow cone of the same size, I could set it so that when the cone and tube are connected, they stick and become indestructible until the cone is pressed down hard from the top like what would happen if the bullet impacted a target. Why do you ask?"

Vash gave a smirk that was half mischievous and half devious and replied, "I use custom weapons. Mechanic has the best tools in the galaxy to make the best weapon, but there aren't many good ways to make a better bullet."

Rayleigh asked, "Do guns here even use bullets?"

Vash shook his head and complained, "Slug throwers are a thing, but most weapons use Tibanna Gas."

Deciding to add some details, Mechanic filled in, "Blasters and most weapons are basically laser pointers enhanced with Tibanna Gas. When laser light passes through it, the gas becomes energized, reducing in volume but increasing in speed. Blasters direct this energized gas out a magnetic field through the nozzle and although it is not nearly as fast as a bullet, it hits even harder. The kinetic energy generated on impact for a blaster shot usually converts to thermal energy before it can disperse through the material, melting it at the blast point. Tibanna Gas acts as both the gunpowder and the bullet for most weapons with the laser acting as the spark. The gas can be stored in carbonite which is slotted in the weapon. An average blaster pistol's battery has a strong enough charge for 50 laser shots and enough gas for 120 shots. Both battery and gas cartridge can be reloaded."

That reminded Rayleigh of Vash's Devil Fruit so he had to ask, "Can your Devil Fruit use Tibanna Gas?"

Vash shuddered as if repulsed and disgusted by the idea. The question was then answered by Mechanic who succinctly replied, "Tibanna Gas comes from the farts of floating gas blobs that live on some gas giant planets. He can absorb and manipulate it just fine, he just doesn't like to."

Vash countered, "Hey! Don't say it like it's my fault! I'd die for real if I was saturated with that stuff and someone shot me! I'd rather be saturated with Helium-3 and Deuterium!"

After yet another session of whining, the hovercraft had pulled into a private area filled with security systems and what looked to be gun turrets. Seeing Rayleigh's questioning glance, Mechanic stated, "You can never have enough security, especially on Corellia. Although a majority of the planet works for the ship-building giant, Corellian Engineering Corporation, there are multiple factions within the company, and many other companies, like the Big Three that Vash told you about, have research and development branches on Corellia. This is one of them. As you can see, we don't take uninvited guests lightly."

Vash cheerfully added, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you, probably one out of every three people on this planet is a spy of some kind that has made money selling secrets they had no business possessing. So do keep quiet about anything you see, alright?"

The vague threat hidden under his tone made Rayleigh roll his eyes. He said, "If I do get approached for secrets, can I make up something?"

Vash smiled, "No need, Mechanic has a file of authorized lies to use when that happens. It even has a price listing of each piece so that you don't undersell it."

Rayleigh looked back over to the driver's seat where Mechanic wore a confident smile. A moment later, the vehicle slowed down and started descending. Mechanic said, "Welcome to the Research and Development Branch of Merr-Sonn Robotic Securities. We've arrived at the combat testing facilities."

Rayleigh perked up at the implication and asked, "Ah, would this be considered the interview?"

Mechanic answered, "Just need to make sure that you haven't been slacking in your training. As an added bonus, you can get familiar with the combat standards of the Galaxy."

The facility's main entrance looked normal with a front desk and some guards that Mechanic bypassed, but the further into the building they entered, the more security seemed to be required. ID Cards, typed passwords, retinal scans, voice passwords, and X-Ray scans. One door generated three random questions that Mechanic had to type the answer for. Eventually, he stopped seeing any human guards at all. Only sleek, sterile halls with slots on the walls, floors, and roof that Rayleigh guessed were not a part of the building's AC.

The space they finally reached looked like a Paintball Arena, though far more advanced.

Mechanic said, "I won't just throw you off the deep end, so you can watch Vash do the course first and then try it yourself."

Vash looked positively giddy at that. He ran over to a wall and started selecting some sci-fi looking handguns. Rayleigh also caught a glimpse of a large, solid-looking handgun in a hidden holster at Vash's side, under his flight jacket.

Vash entered the arena while Mechanic showed Rayleigh where they would be watching from the side. When the lights turned on completely, a white mannequin was visibly lit in the center of the arena and Vash had made its way to the fake figure's side.

A ten-second count-down timer started and Vash's smile changed to a smirk. His lazy cat-like personality shifted into that of a prowling tiger.

Once the timer hit zero, doors opened on all sides of the room and tan colored skinny robots walked out, each holding a blaster rifle.

Mechanic introduced them, "The B1 Battle Droid, though most call them Clankers. This model is produced in the highest volume in the galaxy. What they lack in... well, everything, they make up for in numbers. Each costs about 1000 Credits and the blaster rifle they carry costs 600 credits a piece. The one with the yellow head directs the groups."

Almost before her description finished, the last of the thirty clankers fell. As Mechanic described, the one with the yellow head in each group of five pointed in a direction for the rest to go to surround Vash's position, but each simply walked into an open area free of obstruction and before they could even take aim, Vash shot them all in the head using one of the two blasters he held.

The moment the last one was shot, another set of doors opened. Bulkier silver droids walked out. They did not carry weapons, but a quick inspection of their arms revealed built in weapons.

Mechanic explained, "The B2 Super Battle Droids, also known as Supers, have decent armor, decent weapons, and are a little smarter than Clankers. They are pretty slow though. 3300 credits a piece."

As stated, these ones were very different from the prior batch. They didn't simply walk into an open space and let Vash shoot them. They examined their surroundings before blindly walking around and hid their bodies behind cover while shooting and even used rocket-propelled grenades built into their arms.

The target of the attacks was not Vash but the mannequin, making it obvious that this combat scenario was designed with protection in mind. Vash didn't need to dodge or move the mannequin though, he handled each attack with an attack of his own. The Player titled Vash the Stampede deflected blaster shots aimed at the mannequin using his own blaster shots, intercepting them mid-air. Rockets fired would be shot the moment that they were launched and explode, destroying the Super Battle Droids nearby.

Had each Super kept attacking, the old adage that two hands cannot stop four fists would have applied, but the aim of the Supers wasn't amazing. Vash did not have to deflect every shot, allowing him to only deflect the attacks that would have hit the mannequin with the blaster in one hand and take out the droids with the blaster in his other.

Even when under fire, the Supers did not get out of the way. Maybe they weren't programmed to and were meant to rely on their armor. Though longer than it took to dispatch the clankers, Vash still took out the supers in less than ten seconds.

Four doors opened once the last Super went offline. The droids that walked out this time were not as skinny as the B1s and not as bulky as the Supers. They still seemed to have more in common with the B1s though, yet moved with precision and tactics greater than the Supers.

Once again, Mechanic introduced, "The BX Droid Commando, or just Commando for short. These guys are the elites of the B-Series and are often used as bodyguards, assassins, and thieves. Each costs about 15,000 credits though can be much higher if you want the manufacturer to heavily customize it."

Rayleigh understood that these guys were this era's versions of HK-47. He wondered if HK would like one of their bodies.

The Commandos had a variety of weapons and used them well, but still fell to Vash's blaster pistols in under a minute. Although they used the terrain well and had exceptional accuracy, Vash could shoot them faster than they could aim, so most of the time was taken up by them running around.

Just like before, the moment the last one fell, another set of doors opened. This time it was only two doors. From each appeared a new droid, but this one did not walk, it rolled. From two directions, this pair of rolling droids navigated around the obstacles.

Vash slipped one of his blasters into an empty holster and pulled out his large handgun.

Both rollers stopped and opened up. Before one of them finished opening, the handgun loudly fired a shot through its center, causing it to wobble and fall. The second one behind him used this chance to finish opening up and taking a stance with three legs. The moment it did, a blue orb appeared around it. Both arms that folded out of the droid had blasters, but it didn't have a chance to release a single shot as it too fell with another bang of Vash's gun. The bullet seemed to cause the orb to pop like a balloon.

Mechanic smiled wistfully and said, "Droidekas, also known as Destroyers. Jedi hate them because their legs latch into the ground, preventing them from being pushed or pulled by the Force, and their Deflector Shield is effective on all attacks or projectiles moving faster than a meter per second. The only way to beat them is to hit them before their shield comes up or to hit them with a turbo cannon laser. Luckily for Vash, the custom handgun I made him far exceeds a turbo cannon in might, so it's nothing for him to worry about."

Rayleigh's eyes were fixed on the spots behind the fallen droids where a chunk of the ground was missing, making it clear that even after piercing the shield, the bullet still had a lot of energy left.

She continued, "At full price, Destroyers cost 400,000 credits, though they do offer a good discount if you pay using exotic meat. Plenty of Jedi run from these, so it's a good idea to get familiar with them now."

Mechanic then turned to the arena and said aloud, "One minute and four seconds. A new record."

Vash holstered his handgun and smiled before excitedly walking over, "Ha! It was too easy!"

Mechanic then glanced to the side and asked with a slight tone of provocation, "So, did you want to give it a try?"

Rayleigh smiled and answered, "Of course."

Author's note*

Trying to do info dumps without them being info dumps is tricky. If your eyes glazed over while reading some of this, it's fine (I know mine did writing it). You don't need to know most of this, its just for reference.

It's canon that Melee Shields and Energy shields work off completely different principles, yet it is also canon that a droideka's shields can stop both bullets and blasters. Even thrown grenades bounce off their shields unless slowly rolled through them, and that is a deliberate weakness, not a quality of shields. The reason is that the shield generator they use is not the same as a personal shield. Personal shields are rated for human use. The shield generator destroyers use is the same as a city's shield generator and apparently are radioactive, so humans can't use them. Players probably can, but no one builds them and even if they did, they are kinda pointless unless you are not going to move or intend on moving very slowly.

Fun fact: I asked everyone to roll up their own character ideas and builds and a lot of people sent them to me. Vash's character was sent by Draconc89 and we worked back and forth to make him. Jedi are 100% able to train themselves to the point that they can intercept a blaster shot with their own blaster shot, and it is such a shame that this is never done in any media or even fanfiction. The only possible reason I can think of for keeping Guns away from Jedi is that it is too OP. (Obi-Wan had a blaster for 3 seconds and in that time, he instantly killed General Grievous) Well, I certainly don't care about little things like breaking the balance of the universe.