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Coruscant - Galactic Throne


Exodus

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A Curich-class shuttle dropped out of hyperspace in high orbit above Coruscant, near the edge of the massive debris field that surrounded the planet. At the helm were Kane Wartide, the up-and-coming entrepreneur,  and his Lawyer, a Zeltron named Tuulah Jydt. The shuttle began the task of maneuvering to the planet through the sea of stones. The massive imperial Flagship loomed in distance, slowly growing ever more imposing as they approached. Kane whistled, impressed by the magnitude of the craft.

"Well, this is it. We're in the big leagues now." Kane announced, taking in the sight.

"I gotta say, I never thought this job would take me to the Sith Flagship." Tuulah replied, checking the controls.

"You know what we should do right?" Kane asked with a silly grin.

"Aww yeah, lets!" Tuulah said, giggling

Kane took his Datacomm out of his pocket and leaned over to smush his face against Tuulah's, the both of them making awkward faux model faces. He aimed the holorecorder on his Datacomm toward them, framing the Super Star Destroyer in the back and then capturing a still of the scene. Kane pulled the new hologram up on his Datacomm, and the pair shared a laugh at their own ridiculous faces, before depositing the device back in his pocket. This was a ritual they had done often with especially scenic places they went. The premise of boarding one of the biggest battleships in the galaxy to meet with a representative of their  brutal authoritarian overlords was an ominous errand, but it would take a lot more to break Tuulah's dedication to levity and Kane's willingness to indulge in it. As the shuttle grew near to the Scarab Tuulah transmitted the docking codes and plotted a course to the assigned landing pad. Kane took the last few seconds they had on the shuttle double check that they had the things they would need for the meeting.

"Alright, H4-R0-" A spherical droid made some affirmative beeps. "Check."
"Palm grease." Tuulah held up a medium sized weapon case. "Check."
"authorization for us to approach the Scarab without being detained and interrogated for the next couple hours." Kane dug around in his breast pocket, pulling out an encrypted imperial datapad. "Check."

Kane and Tuulah stood up and looked each other in the eye as the shuttle touched down.

"Game Faces." In synchronous, the pair waved their hands over their faces, replacing their lighthearted smiles with stern, serious expressions befitting businessmen about to meet with the galaxy's wealthiest power to sell a contract worth more money than an average person would be see in 100,000 lifetimes. "Alright Lets do this."

The pair and their droid exited the ramp on their shuttle, meeting with their armed escorts for the customary pat down and scan you receive when meeting with government officials. Kane handed over the encrypted datapad, while Tuulah sat down the weapon case in front of the officer in charge of the hangar, raising her hands as Kane did the same.

"This case contains a weapon. It is not loaded, I do not have ammunition for it. It is a gift for the man I am meeting. Do not damage it or it may reflect poorly on you."

A stormtrooper scanned the case to verify the accuracy of the statement then picked it up himself and motioned for the duo to follow. His droid, once scanned, took its position behind Kane while few more soldiers flanked them. After a few minutes of awkward silent marching, Kane, Tuulah and H4 were herded into the conference room.

Kane approached the Chiss Officer that had been waiting for him, Tuulah still at his side. The stormtrooper set the case down on a table, apparently intent on delivering the parcel himself. Kane extended his arm for a handshake.

"Ahh, you must be Canan'ans'iitthral." Kane said, quietly hoping he had pronounced it correctly. "Thank you for allowing me to meet with you today. I am Kane Wartide, of Wartide Arms, Aeronautics and Automatons.  This is my Lawyer Tuulah."

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Kane locked eyes with his lawyer for a moment, her stern unflinching expression acting as a cue that he was unmoved by his gift, or that she had felt nothing from it at all. Kane raised his hand and pointed out of the window toward the sea of detritus.

"I will fix that." Kane proclaimed. "I will clear the debris field, and the damage it caused. I will restore Coruscant to its former glory, and turn this half-decimated warzone into a center for galactic commerce again. I will convert this planet from a useless money pit to the most valuable world in the Sith empire, and I'll do it faster than the Sith could if they turned all their soldiers into construction workers. And I'll tell you exactly how."

 

Kane turned and took a few steps away from the Chiss, taking a deep breath.

"H4, begin the simulation."

H4 began to make a series of rapid beeps, tilting downward to aim its holoprojector at the space between them. A large hologram filled the space between them with the image of a Skyhook, a scaled model of a massive city design to float freely above Coruscant. Kane turned back to face Anansi.

"This is Midnight City, the first step in the project. Many of its components are already under construction an off world facilities, ready to be shipped here when I provide notice. It will be both the base of operations for the reconstruction effort, and a permanent hub for business to resume normally in the sector. Using the massive construction droid assets I've acquired--"

The city itself dimmed and blueprints of his primary construction droids appeared above the City, along with a number specialized droid deployment ships, cargo craft, and space salvaging craft.

"-we will assemble the city, and then begin the task of removing all of space debris, condemned buildings, and hazardous waste from the surface and orbit. I have over 10 million construction droids ready begin this task, with another 40 million planned for the initial stage of the project. They will work 24 hours a day until the task is complete. They are a mixture of the droids I've created, and construction teams from a dozen different droid manufacturers I have acquired."

Kane pointed toward the north end of the city and the droid models disappeared, and instead an enlarged view of the city's northern section appeared in their place.

"This will be a ship yard, where, where we will build the necessary craft. It will also serve as a dock for commercial ships, and when the projects assets are fully constructed, it will become a new, permanent shipyard that the the Sith will be able to employ to expand their fleet. The South-"

As Kane changed where he was pointing the focus changed display a different section.

"-will contain a massive recycling center and raw materials forge. It will convert the twisted metal husks and floating rocks into virtually everything we'll need to restore the city. To the West, a large droid factory will generate the droids required to  complete the task, and then convert to serving the needs of the Empire and its citizens. With Mechis III no longer usable, there is a need fill a void in the market, and this section of the city capitalize on that. In doing so, it will end the shortages of proper droids that have followed many companies losing access to their production facilities. To the East, we will construct weapons, armor, and other equipment, with which the Sith will be able to gear their troops. The central block will house a commercial hub and office space."

Kane lowered his hand, the hologram disappearing. Tuulah drew a datapad from her pocket and handed in to Anansi

"You have in your hand a copy of the proposed terms and budget for our contract. In summation of my proposal, If you are able to get the Sith's upper management to agree to it to this, the Coruscant Restoration Project will supply many factories to support the Sith war machine. In just a few years of collecting taxes on the revived commerce of this world they will make back what they spent. Naturally, we will only do business with those the Sith permit us to deal with, so that the Empire and its allies will be the sole beneficiaries of this investment. Currently we project the we will have the new skyhook facilities can be constructed after around seven days and 100% of the planet's surface and orbit restored within one year, which would be a most magnificent display of the Sith's great power to reshape this galaxy."

Kane took off his glasses and attempted to clean them on the surface of his coat before replacing them.

"What do you think Anan? Do you have any questions about my proposal?"

Edited by Kane Wartide

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Kane was not surprised to hear mention of his father, having fielded such concerns many times before.

"It is a perfectly reasonable concern. My Father betrayed everyone he ever knew, myself included. And though I was raised almost entirely by my Mother, I retain his name as my own. You can rest assured that I do not follow his footsteps, and my business is entirely legitimate. My father would break the law to take what he wanted. Me, I know that it is much more efficient to use the law to take I want. No matter where you go, the law exists to benefit the wealthiest and most cunning. In business, as in life, the strong dominate the weak."

Tuulah took a step forward, adding a clarification.

"We have dominated many weaker businessmen to achieve our position--Much as the Sith have conquered inferior forces to achieve theirs. But we have done so playing by the rules that they themselves set, on both galactic and planetary scales, because at the end of the day, having the Law protecting your wealth is vastly preferable to having the Law trying to take it back. As such we are very transparent about our dealings, and are prepared to let you review our ledgers should you want to verify the legitimacy of the Wartide corporation yourself."

Kane nodded in agreement, adding "The name Wartide is just a bit of calculated marketing, nothing more or less. Evoking the menace that was Ronin Wartide makes for good branding when it comes to guns."

Kane took out his Datacomm and made a few taps on his screen to transmit an encrypted message to the datapad Tuulah had given Anansi.

"You have just been given the private channel for our droid R&D team. Specify what sort of droid you're looking for, and I will personally ensure that your needs are met. Our team is extremely capable, and I am sure we will be able to exceed your expectations."

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"Likewise." Kane said with a thin smile, taking Anansi's hand for a firm shake.

"I think you and I are going to get along famously. You have my comm frequency, I will be anticipating your contact when you're ready to begin. For now, I must go oversee preparations. Good day, sir. "

Kane made a slight bow, then turned and signaled his droid to follow him as he left the conference room. Once Tuulah and Kane were safely on their shuttle Tuulah offered her reassurance.

"That went well. I think we sincerely convinced him." She said.

Kane grinned, wiggling his fingers before starting up the prelaunch sequence.

"Oh yes. I think so too. I had a low bar for success coming here. Any interaction with the Sith Empire where we don't get thrown in prison or murdered is a resounding success to me. I was expecting them to say 'No thanks, the Sith like the radiation.' But no, he was quite a bit more agreeable than I would have expected out of the Empire."

 

The shuttle took off and exited the hangar, heading outside of the planet's gravity shadow through the mess of space debris.

"We're gonna save this world and we're going to make a fortune doing it. It's not often you get to look like a savior while raking in mountains of Credits. Usually you get one or the other, not both. Our greatest deal has just begun." Kane Mused, then kicked on the hyperdrive and disappeared into space.

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 A message came in to Anansi.

 Be advised, construction fleet inbound. Alert Sith fleet of non-hostile intent. Anticipated Arrival in 16 hours.

 When the specified time struck, ships started jumping out of hyperspace at such a rate that, at a glance, one might have mistaken it for the rebel fleet. It was a heterogeneous fleet from many different worlds: Zeltros, Yag'Dhul, Csilla, Firefist, Omwat, Neimoidia, Hypori, Devaron and more. They came from all directions and continued to appear for hours, each stopping at the far edge of the system and transmitting clearance to the Sith fleet before approaching the planet. The largest of the ships were specialized hauling transports that carried massive repulsor platforms up to a kilometer in length. Paths through the debris field had to be cut with laser canons to even approach the planet without incurring damage to oversized payloads.

 After entering the atmosphere, the repulsor platforms took up a position in low orbit, stabilizing on their own power before the hauling ships that brought them detached and retreated from the Coruscant airspace. Nearly a hundred platforms began to coalesce as engineering teams set about the careful task of linking them together with extendable bridges and tractor beams. Eventually the seemingly random shapes combined to form one massive island, floating untethered in the sky and onto it landed a vast numbers of ships carrying stores of building materials, components and droids.

 Kane emerged from a shuttle, surrounded on both sizes by an Omwati and Given. They stared at their datacomms as they feverishly discuss logistics and tracked the progress for several minutes before splitting in different directions to oversee their individual tasks. Kane took a few moments to look out over the platform with barely contained glee. The broad empty platform didn't look like much but a giant landing platform at the moment, but for him it was a beautiful canvas upon which he could already envision his masterpiece taking shape. Raising the datacomm to the side of his head he resumed his communications with the construction teams. He navigated ships with open cargo ports, noting K0 droids and Protocol droids filing out in absurd numbers before scattering to begin their tasks. H4 Astromech orbs flocked about like migratory birds, sweeping down on different areas to perform jobs and then swarming to the next.

 Meanwhile on the surface the ships that didn't land on the platform washed over the planet, dropping off P0 droids with tectonic survey equipment at strategic points to scan the land. H4 droids dropped out of the back of moving ships like rain, scattering through the ruins to gather data about every building for the purpose of constructing a precise image of the the conditions on the ground. Their task was massive, and though the surface droids grew to number in the millions, it would take them weeks to complete their survey.
 

 In space work was beginning as well, automated drone haulers going about the laborious task of synchronizing velocity with space debris so that they could safely capture it piece by piece. Their focus was on clearing a path to get interstellar traffic through without having worry as much about getting dashed upon the rocks, yet even that seemingly manageable goal would take constant effort for a long time to accomplish

 Kane took a seat in a temporary command center that had been erected while the Midnight office building underwent construction, tracking progress on a variety of screens and holograms as he continued his perpetual meeting via comm.

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The last few data points from the tectonic survey rolled in, prompting a Geologist, male Besalisk, to join the holo conference.

"Hoh der', yeh foundation is all mucked up. 'At aint up to code. Yeh gonna need to fix 'at before we can start constructin' on it." He said, hiking up his pants. Kane sighed, motioning for him to wait while he got Anansi in the conference.

Kane observed the hologram of the planet peel back a layer, revealing a layout of the planet's tectonic plates, the same image appeared in Anansi's office. One of the plates had been shifted dramatically by Hesperidium's impact. "Yuh, 'at's a big problem. Yah see ow' is folded up along the next one over? Yuuuuuge Earthquake waitin' to happun. We gotta fix 'at first."

Kane cut off the Besalisk's audio to speak directly to Anansi.

"We had anticipated this issue with the planets tectonic plates. What we'll need to do is deploy baradium charges. Unfortunately, they will need to be deployed from the surface via drill, and my security teams are ill equipped to handle possible hostile activity without the risk of getting wiped out and leaving baradium charges in the hands of savage underdwellers.  I have some specialized drilling equipment earmarked for the task, but I'm going to need the Sith to oversee the deployment. I'm sending you the coordinates for the detonators, along with a ship full of drills. Once all the charges are in place, you'll need to have the Sith evacuate the surface over that plate. It's going to cause an earthquake, but doing so will relieve the pressure and make it safe to build on."

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Kane observed the formation of the Baradium teams from feeds sent by a series of H4 Droids that had been packaged along side the warheads. He felt satisfied that the situation was under control. A message came in on his holomonitor from one of many protocol droids tasked with acting as construction foremen.

"I have a progress report. The Refineries are operational, and we have already begun to receive shipments of recyclables from the surface. We should have raw materials ready by the end of the day. Weapons factories are at 25.2% Completion, on schedule. The Shipyard is at 12.7% completion, ahead of schedule. Droid Factories are at 64% Completion, some production lines are starting preliminary tests. Midnight Spire Is at 40% completion, with your new office ready for your use."

Kane stood up from his desk.

"Excellent. I'll be relocating immediately. Notify the crews."

Kane walked out the temporary command station, K0 construction droids tromping up and surrounding it. In moments after clearing the doorway the walls were torn down and swarms of H4 ball droids were picking it clean of equipment. A speeder pulled up in front of him, opening its door automatically for Kane to enter. An H4 docked inside whistled a greeting, then shut the door and began to lift off. The building he had just left had already vanished, its pieces being dragged off by dozens of droids.

Flying above, he could see shuttles full of debris lining up to dump material in the south. The city below was absolutely crawling with droids, with shuttles still landing and leaving more behind. The landscape was a jungle of bare building frames, lit welding sparks and shadowed by plumes of smoke. Things were shaping up quickly. Soon his speeder closed in on the tallest structure in the city, a massive spire in the skyhook's center. It was mostly covered in transparasteel windows now, with hints of the internal structure peeking out from the edges.

 

The speeder touched down on an isolated landing pad at the top of the tower, letting Kane off and flying away almost immediately after he stepped foot on its surface. Once he had cleared the doorway a large blast door sealed behind him and the platform itself collapsed and folded into the building. Inside he found his office, sparsely furnished but outfitted with an array of holoprojectors and cameras from which he could continue supervising the progress of his city's construction. He sat down in big black nerf leather chair which stood lonely in the massive room with only a nearby desk and the Holo equipment in it. Kane slotted his datacomm into a port on the surface of the desk, prompting the holograms to kick on and bring up his data feed from the project. He resumed group communication with the many supervisors overseeing various parts of the construction, silencing most of them temporarily while he contacted his press secretary.

"Get ready to transmit to holonet. It's time for my keynote presentation."

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Kane concluded recording his presentation for Holonet, and informed his press secretary that it should be presented as though it was live while the remaining details of the keynote were filled out. Looking over his progress reports, he noted that the observation platform that Anansi had requested was completed, and docked right outside the door. He had relevant data transmitted to Anan, then pulled his datacomm from the port on his desk and took off to board it. He wasn't terribly enthusiastic about the prospect of schmoozing when there was so much work to do, but he couldn't pass on an opportunity to make more business contacts.

The observation deck was a large repulsor platform, notable for its thick transparent floor. Already aboard were several of Kane's most trusted advisors, including his lawyer Tuulah. An Omwati and a Given were conversing in the corner near a large catering table covered in hors d'oeuvres. Nearby, a bartender droid cleans glasses while awaiting an order.

Kane signaled for the platform to ascend and it immediately disconnected from the Midnight Corporation Spire, ascending rapidly ant taking up position high above the continent that was to undergo the tectonic shift. Anansi's shuttle appeared in the distance, and was given the signal to dock on the platform.

Kane glanced down at the planet from the rather dizzying view beneath his feat. Tuulah joined him with a Martini in each hand, handing one to Kane.

"Should be a good show right?" Tuulah asked before sipping her drink.

"Perhaps" Kane muttered, still staring down through the transparasteel floor. "Assuming Anansi's associates aren't susceptible to vertigo."

Kane closed his eyes and tilted his head back. "Lets just go ahead and dim that until it starts."

Kane walked to the edge of the room as the clear floor turned black, breathing a small sigh of relief. Ever since is father's demise he had been leery of extreme heights.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kane eyed Anansi's guests suspiciously, sizing them up. He Tapped a button on his glasses to scan their faces and find records on them. His mouth curled with disappointment.

"Not a useful one among them. The 'High Paying Clientele' all appear to be... well... not even wealthy enough to afford tonight's bar tab." Kane whispered to Tuulah, slinging back his martini.

"They're also terrified out of their wits. I'm not sure what Anansi's doing to them but... They all seem to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown." Tuulah replied back. Her empathic senses were clearly making this a rather miserable party for her as well. Her drink had already been destroyed

 

Kane went over to the bartender and instructed him to keep the good hooch sealed, grabbing another round for himself and his lawyer. He was not in the habit of asking questions about situations like this. He knew better than to stick his nose too deep into Sith Business, but he could glean a bit of what was happening even without trying. When Anansi asked him to start the main event, Kane eager to oblige.

"Yes, lets get this over with." Kane agreed, grabbing a spoon and tapping his glass. "Attention everyone. Today is a momentous occasion, for today we take the first major step toward bringing too life to this dead world. Coruscant is damaged, nearly irreparably so. Its very foundations have been twisted by the failures of those who came before us. But tonight, we will begin the arduous process of correcting the wrong that has been done here. And quite entertainingly, we will do so with a show of force."

Kane gestured to have the floor made transparent again, no doubt startling the guests as it suddenly appeared as though they were floating high above the planet.

"On your mark, Anansi."

Kane drifted toward the back of the room, trying to keep his eyes up to avoid vertigo, but listening for Anansi to call in the detonation. As badly as it made him dizzy to look down, he still didn't want to miss the event.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The observation platform descended back to Midnight City, the guests departing without incident. Kane also retired for the evening, his enthusiasm for continuing the celebration dulled by a rapidly worsening migraine. He ended up in his penthouse in the Midnight City Spire, a seemingly lavish penthouse connected to, and in a similar state to his office: constructed but virtually unfurnished. He closed the curtains on his his half constructed city and went to sleep. Tomorrow would be an even bigger day.

When Kane awoke the next day, he opened his curtains to view an entirely different skyline. Gone were bare girders and empty window frames, and in their place was a fully formed metropolis. He sleepily smirked at the accomplishment, rubbing his eyes. It was Dark now, as it would be in perpetuity. Now that the city had begun its continuous orbit over the surface of Coruscant, taking a constant position on a part of the globe where the the local time was Midnight, never to see the light of the nearby star again.

The traffic around Midnight was already swarming with ships, a constant stream of aircraft flowing in and out. Businesses were starting to move into their newly constructed shops, bringing in merchandise and equipment for virtually every conceivable product or service one could ask for. Huge haulers were bringing salvage from the surface and atmosphere to deposit at the forgeworks. This material was likewise flowing out of the city at a breakneck pace, freshly recycled durasteel, transparasteel and permacrete being shipped to construction sites all over the planet.

Now that the foundation of Coruscant was repaired, the wreckage was being scraped down to the planet's long forgotten surface. Construction of a new planetary irrigation system had become the top priority. Unlike the previous system, which involved central irrigation hubs at the poles, the new systems would be distributed along the surface at numerous locations. They would work in series to transport water all across the ecumenopolis, and were fitted with extremely powerful filtration systems to begin to separate the toxic waste and radiation from the largely contaminated groundwater. Moving upward from those surface level facilities and stretching to what would in the future be the highest spires of the city, were gigantic atmospheric scrubbers, which would take in the planets air and filter it in much the same way, producing clean air to sustain its inhabitants. These facilities would also be able to control the planet's weather patterns entirely. Once completed, it would still take many months of constant operation before the pollution reached a completely safe level, and so getting these online was the highest priority.

Built adjacent to these elaborate climate control systems were elaborate hydroponic and aeroponic gardens. Built with the planet's historical dependence on other worlds for survival in mind, these gigantic greenhouse spires were designed to be able to sustain a massive population with produce grown with the freshly cleaned air and water. Combined with the slum housing that would start to crop up on the lowest levels of the city, Kane believed that these installations would calm the unrest among the wastelanders on the surface faster than anything the the Imperial army could accomplish. At minimum, it would be almost as effective as decimating their population with a massive earthquake had been.

Kane continued to watch out his window as the City began to pass near Ground Zero. Midnight began lockdown procedures, deploying atmospheric shields and shepherding the organics to interior spaces. The atmosphere was growing thin, and for a few hours it wouldn't be safe to be outside without an EVA suit. In the distance he could see the still the unfathomably huge smoldering crater from where the moon had impacted. It served as a reminder of the work ahead of him and a personal challenge to show just how much he could change this world. The stars were growing brighter as the sky itself grew thinner, and the floating sea of stones became faintly visible high above.

"Alright, back to work..."

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