4 Chapter 4

After giving R4 her well deserved oil bath and a polish, I headed off to practice with the Force. I mostly practiced in an old conference room like the one in The Phantom Menace, but I had the table and chairs taken out and replaced with the captain's bed in the corner and a few droids to practice with/on.

Upon entering my room I took off my Obi-wan clone war clothes/armor and laid it out on my bed leaving me only wearing my black undersuit. Walking into the center of the room and plopping down on a cushion, I get into my meditation position, with my left leg crossed in front of my right leg and the back of my hands on my knees, head dipped downward. Clearing my conscious mind, putting aside all distractions and irrelevant thoughts and only focusing on trying to form a connection to the Force.

Imagining a cloud, a mist that drifts from living creature to living creature. Set in motion by currents and eddies... It is more than me. It is more than a planet or a star. It is the passions of all living things turned into energy. Into a chorus…

My breathing started slowing and I reached outward to the world around me. With my senses stretched out I could feel the droids walking and such around the ship hard at work. That's something I learned recently, that I could sense droids but from what I remember Jedi could never do that in any of the animated shows or movies. Looking through my memories of the star wars fandom and fanfics revealed the power was Mechu-deru.

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"It is believed that through their bizarre alchemies, the Sith somehow stumbled upon the ability to manipulate mechanicals of complex nature through the Force: ships, computers, and, indeed, even droids."―Tam Azur-Jamin

Mechu-deru was a dark side Force power that bestowed an intuitive understanding of mechanical systems upon the user. Invented by the Sith, the technique allowed its practitioners to exert their influence over inanimate and robotic constructs. Through mechu-deru, mechanical structures could be bound to the will of the user and imbued with the power of the Force itself. The dark side power of mechu-deru also enabled the creation of machine-organic Sithspawn mutants called techno beasts.

The Sith origins of mechu-deru led to its avoidance by members of the Jedi Order, relegating its use to a small number of Jedi tech specialists. Even among the followers of the Sith, mechu-deru was an obscure technique practiced by only a few at the time of its initial discovery. During the New Sith Wars, the Dark Lord Belia Darzu used her own variant of mechu-deru—dubbed mechu-deru vitae—to create an army of techno beasts by means of a nanogene virus. Centuries later, the secrets of Lord Darzu were unearthed by Cronal, a servant of the Galactic Empire who practiced mechu-deru on mechanical devices and living subjects—himself included.

Description:

A dark side technique, mechu-deru allows the user to manipulate mechanical systems through the power of the Force. By means of a specially-designed cybernetic brain implant, it was possible for a Force-sensitive individual to develop a mastery of mechu-deru at an accelerated rate.

Applications:

The application of mechu-deru allowed the user to instinctively comprehend the inner workings of machinery and circuitry. Through mechu-deru, technology could be upgraded to suit a purpose beyond its original intended role, even allowing mechanical devices—including droids—to detect Force-attuned beings. Users were bestowed the ability to convert robotic machines into extensions of their will, overwhelming their internal circuitry. Attempting to possess the body of a cyborg would drastically transform the victim's cybernetics, enlarging them into a mass of tendril-like appendages. Mechu-deru was used to combine both the inanimate and the living, allowing the creation of part machine, part organic hybrids known as techno beasts. Using mechu-deru, it was possible to imbue the techno beasts with the dark side of the Force, binding them to the will of their creator. The technique allowed the applicator to rebuild and replace parts of their body with cybernetics.

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I decided once I found out what the power was to not go overboard with it, like taking over a cyborg or creating techno beasts. I told myself I would only use it like the Jedi would.

Compared to the Sith, members of the Jedi Order were less willing to blend technology and the Force. Not wishing to tread the same path as the Sith, the Jedi diverted their attention away from mechu-deru and the study of droids. Despite this, certain members of the Order would still practice the technique of mechu-deru, specifically Jedi Sentinels operating as tech experts. Such specialists were a rarity among the ranks of the Jedi Order, known for their ability to strip down and reassemble various types of technology.

'With this power I could add onto the upgrades I have planned for the droids and ships later on.' Other than that thought, I mentally reached out for a ball of scrap metal and slowly lifted it into the air. I make it rotate around me, like the Earth around the Sun, once it's in a steady orbit I add another one into the mix and then another, until I have ten twenty pound balls of metal circling me.

I did this everyday for two hours the past month or so and added a new ball once I'm comfortable enough, slowly growing my Telekinesis skill. Examples of using this power are Force pull, Force push, Force grip and so on, with a derivative of Force pull being Force disarm. Yoda used Force Disarm to disarm Asajj Ventress when she tried to assassinate Toydarian King Katuunko, though it is noted that due to Yoda's greater power in the Force, he would have been able to overwhelm any attempts of Ventress to resist his power with her own. Prior to the Occupation of Bespin, Darth Vader used this power to disarm Han Solo as part of the capture of Solo and his companions by Imperial forces. Starkiller had employed force disarming against riot troopers by taking their weapons and using them to attack, in the Star Wars Force Unleashed game.

After that exercise, I pulled out Obi-Wan's old lightsaber, really mine now, and went through all seven forms. I had a rough idea of the time I was in and it was definitely Imperial, so I expected to eventually come across an Inquisitor or more, so I had to get ready for what was to come. Once I went through the forms, I was sweating and decided to take a sonic shower that I had installed in the room next door.

A sonic shower, also known as a sonic, was a piece of technology that was used for personal hygiene. It was faster and more efficient than water-based showers. It used ultrasonic vibrations to cause dirt and grime to simply vibrate/evaporate off a person's body, leaving it fresh and clean. Sonic showers were often found in refreshers.

Hopping out of the sonic shower, I brushed my long hair back, then donned a pair of pants and grabbed a datapad on a small pile of them that were on my nightstand. Leaning back against the pillows and turning the datapad on, I start reading about the history and pretty much anything related to the galaxy, also about the CIS.

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The very next day I woke up excited and jumped out of bed, throwing on a pair of clothes. Then taking off for my morning jog throughout the ship that lasted for a couple hours, I eventually ended up in front of the Firespray with tools and parts laid out around it.

Bending down and picking up a Fusion cutter. I turn it on and start walking to the ship while humming the opening theme to the movies. As I pass by a repulsor sled filled with clone armor from one of the republic ships, I snatch up a helmet. Donning the Phase II helmet and walking into the ship, I get to work fixing and upgrading it.

Over the course of the day I replaced all the panels and wires inside, along with cleaning it cause the guy who owned this before me seemed to have never cleaned the ship since he got the ship.

While I was doing that I had a group of droids removing the armor and replacing it with durasteel from the Venator that was melted down and reshaped using the nanofurnaces. Then having them repaint the landing part of it a dark blue and the rest of it a light grey with yellow highlights.

During all of this, I had a different group of droids fixing up the YT-1300. First I had them get the ship up on a lift and take apart the areas that had rust. Then using spare parts and melted down durasteel, I had them remake those areas. Once they got done with that I had ordered them to take apart the inside of the ship and to remake it into the YT-1300 fp configuration that I found on the HoloNet the night before. R4 said it would take a week or so with only a group of five droids on it. I wasn't going to take droids off of other things. I also had the Firespray in flying condition and space worthy, so I decided to let the droids work on that while I finished upgrading The Predator.

Later on after all that was done and I got something in my stomach, I started to take the weapons off the ship and either upgrade them or replace them with different weapons. The two rapid fire laser cannons were replaced with an ion cannon and a miniature tractor beam projector that I had droids make from a bigger tractor beam projector taken from the Venator. Replacing the two Concussion missile launchers with two AA/SL proton torpedo launchers, then the Twin blaster cannons with two GN-40 twin rotating blaster cannons.

I spent the rest of the day doing that and had ordered the droids to upgrade the three F-31 drive engines from 1,000 kph to 1,400 kph and the four XF-16 power generators to get more power into the weapons.

Other than that I had every droid that was online to make preparations to leave the planet in a week. While they were doing that I had R4 help me use the nanofurnaces to make a light durasteel armor inspired by Captain Rex and his Phase II armor. With all the clone armor on the ship, I had R4 find the dimensions and such of the armor, then refit it to my body. Having the droids collect enough durasteel for the armor and thinning the armor in the design a little bit to not be as clunky as it usually is. His armor was all white with blue stripes, I ordered my armor to be painted a dark grey with red stripes, with the helmet modeled after Darth Revan's.

Two things I made for the armor as it was being made were vambraces, specifically Mandalorian inspired vambraces.

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Mandalorian vambraces were devices designed to combat the abilities of a Jedi, but were also utilized for many other combative purposes. Vambraces could be equipped with a large array of different weapons. The Mandalorians developed these vambraces alongside their armor as a reaction to the Jedi's Force abilities encountered during the Mandalorian-Jedi War.

Description:

Mandalorian vambraces were combat gear designed to counteract the Force abilities of a Jedi. As such, they were equipped with various weapons that also proved useful against other foes. Sabine Wren's pair of Mandalorian vambraces, given to her by the Protector of Concord Dawn, Fenn Rau, came equipped with a repulsor, grappling line, paralyzing darts, a shield emitter, paired blaster barrels, and a flamethrower. The vambraces of Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin were equipped with whistling birds and small automated projectiles. Boba Fett had a chain code encoded into his armor's vambraces.

History:

Following the Mandalorians' war against the Jedi, they developed vambraces to work in tandem with their armor to combat the Jedi's abilities. Bounty hunters, such as Jango Fett and later his son Boba used them in their line of work. Death Watch leader Pre Vizsla and his followers such as Bo-Katan Kryze used vambraces during Death Watch's exile from Mandalore. Vizsla used vambraces when he fought Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano, forces of the Hutt Clan, and when he dueled the renegade Sith Lord Maul for control of the Shadow Collective. The post-Great Purge Mandalorian group known as the Tribe also used vambraces.

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I made my own, but with no Beskar on hand they would be vulnerable to lightsabers. I included on my right vambrace a comlink, a grappling line, paired blaster barrels, on my left vambrace a shield emitter that I used parts from a Droideka to make and finally a flamethrower. With both of them being painted to blend into my armor.

Also added onto my armor was a jetpack, specifically the JT-12 jetpack that I had found in a cargo transport from the Venator. The JT-12 jetpack was a model of jetpack used during the Clone Wars by several factions, including the Galactic Republic and Death Watch. The jetpack was capable of short and long distance jumps, with the average maximum speed in flight being 145 kilometers per hour. The only time I really saw them was in the clone wars season 7, with the 501st hanging on the bottom of the bridge and then flying topside to surprise attack the droid forces.

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I got an alert from R4 a few days later, half way till take off, that my armor was done and to come and to try it out. Taking a quick sonic shower and throwing on a loose cloak, I take off down to the nanofurnaces.

A turbolift and a five minute walk later, I walked into the storage room that stored the nanofurnaces.

Walking through a pair of automatic and feeling a burst of warm air up against my skin, I take a second to take in the room. The room looked to be ninety by ninety feet long each way with the four nanofurnaces up against the back wall, with each of them being ten feet by ten feet each way, all of them online and at work. With droids feeding durasteel from ship wrecks into the furnaces and reshaping it into new armor pieces for my ships.

In between the furnaces and me were multiple workbenches filled with droid parts and tools lining the wall. Right now half the workbenches are being used by B1 droids to fix the other droids.

+Orion, over here.+ I hear and turn to my left to see R4 and 88 standing around a workbench with a sheet covering the table. Walking over to them and coming to a stop in front of them we exchange greetings.

Rubbing my hands together and looking at R4. "Is this it?" Getting a positive whistle, I reach down and grab a side of the sheet and pull it off. Right there laid out along the table was my own version of Captain Rex phase II armor, even the Kama and Pauldron. With the Kama being black with red edging and the DC-17 blaster pistols attached to each side of my Kama, and the Pauldron being red with black edging.

Giving it an appraising look, I loved what I saw. Glancing at R4. "Is it okay to put it on?"

+The armor is okay to put on. I saw earlier that you were working on vambraces and a jetpack, so I had the armor prepped to attach them. I had 88 attach them to the armor not even a couple minutes ago in preparation of you.+ She explained, with me noticing the mentioned attachments. I threw off my cloak and started to attach the armor to my undersuit that had modifications done to it. A useful feature that I added to the armor and the bodysuit was that it could be pressurized, allowing me to fight longer in a vacuum environment than its predecessor the Phase I that the first clones wore. I also put a rangefinder in one of my armor pockets.

Finished putting the armor on, with the helmet being the last thing to put on. A second of nothing then looking through the T-shaped visor the HUD (Heads Up Display) started up.

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Rangefinders were targeting devices on helmet antennas. They could slide over macrobinocular viewplates to enhance targeting displays. They were a common accessory on Mandalorian helmets, and were also worn by some clone trooper officers and ARC troopers, with both Phase I and Phase II armor. Macrobinocular view plates were the T-shaped visors on traditional Mandalorian helmets. A rangefinder could be pulled over the view plate to enhance imagery. These allowed their wearers to control the functions of the armor, display information, highlight enemies, show tactical information and distance to the target during the battle. The HUD was controlled by eye movement.

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The HUD currently shows the fuel level of the jetpack and the status of the vambraces. Moving my head around to get a feel of the helmet's weight, it was surprisingly lighter then I thought it was going to be.

Looking at R4 and 88. "Nice job on the armor guys. If you need me I'll be in the hangar getting used to the armor and its functions." I walked out of the room and headed to the hangar for some practice.

To not get ahead of myself, I spend the next three hours practicing running and going through the seven forms. The first hour was grueling, with the added weight and the armor unbalancing me, I was a mess. Within half an hour my robotic limbs started to get adjusted to the armor and started making things smoother for me.

Once I got comfortable enough with the armor I put it through tests, such as using the grappling line to pull myself up to the catwalks above the ships and droids. After that I did some blaster practice on some sheets of durasteel, with me having to speed a hour on that till I felt I was comfortable enough with it. I also used the left vambraces flamethrower on the sheets of durasteel too.

I spent the rest of the day getting used to the armor and helping the droids repair the ships that were in the hangar. I had the thought that I should get used to having the armor on while also doing basic things.

Seeing that I was focusing on getting used to the armor and fixing the ship, I decided to use any free time I had to completely remake the droid's programming from the ground up. Also starting up a few small projects that I would have R4 help me with.