Capítulo 9: The Star Forge
A small alien, smaller than even a baby with big slinted eyes let the small crease in his brow relax as he sat silently in his quiet quarters. Watching as the newest ship in the Empire being finished and being prepared to be launched gives him a satisfaction, as the newly christened Eclipse, the third Vengeance-Class Star Dreadnought is being fitted with several new weapons system while several ships including two Resurgence-Class Star Destroyer is being loaded in its hangar bay
Good.
The order of his Emperor that there might be war soon had been decidedly concerning, as the shipyard is still being upgraded and therefore unable to run at full capacity.
Luckily, with this the Navy would be bolstered and can hold on for several more months until the Star Forge would run at full capabilities.
Opening his eyes he stood up, making his way to the door which opened automatically he stepped out into the corridor beyond. The two Guards that were tasked to keep him safe didn't move from their places by the door as he gazed out at the view beyond the Omnisteel walkway.
The Star Forge was truly a marvel to gaze upon.
Named after the Forge of Nidavellir it was the burning forge of the Empire and one of the most important locations within the entire Empire, perhaps second only to the beacon and capital of the Empire, Zakuul itself.
Located in deep of Imperial territory, the forge had been created under the order of the Emperor a few months after his ascension to replace the old and ageing forge. Tje discovery of a stark similar in capacity to Nidavellir was a boon that quickly becomes the Empire's gain.
After its discovery, the Emperor had ordered it transformed. It had been one of if not the new Empire's greatest feat of engineering and organization to construct but the blood, sweat and tears that went into bringing the massive infrastructural project to life had been well worth the effort.
The dying star was reenergized and had become the main centre of Imperial manufacturing, nearly singlehandedly supplying the entire Empire with all its vehicles, weapons and starships. By the time it was completed it was more than capable of matching the manufacturing outputs of all existing forge in the Empire combined, resulting in eventual abandonment of the rest of the forges.
The star itself was only a small star by imperial standards, with only half a dozen planetary objects rotating around the small dying star, a system like any other of the millions throughout the Universe or at least it had been until a few thousand years ago.
Although the biggest boon is the fact that one of these planet is habitable.
The planet named Irkalla was a tropical but somewhat chaotic planet, its atmosphere and biosphere in a constant state of flux as if pulled in two directions. It was a recent geological and atmospheric shift that the planet was only recovering from.
That didn't stop the Empire from colonising the habitable planet, erecting large scale mining operations to excavate the resource-rich world along with permeant settlements for the large workforce that would come to call the planet and the nearby Star Forge home.
The planet was orbited by two moons that also possessed large scale mining operations on their surfaces and enormous shipyards and ship repair stations in orbit that worked to maintain the Eternal Fleet along with the numerous other space stations scattered throughout the system.
Both moons were protected by massive military instillations built on their surfaces bristling with long-ranged turbolaser batteries, massive hangers filled with starfighters and large planetary Ion Cannons all on a hair-trigger ready to fire at any hostile ship that jumped into system.
The rest of the Star System was protected by a series of long-range probes that scoured the edge of the system for anything approaching either enemies or allies, mobile Turbolaser defence platforms, three Golan Defence Platforms and numerous space mines that made the forge and the nearby system nigh impossible to navigate unless guided in.
These were not the only defences the System possessed, far from it, there was a permanent fleet of two dozen Autumn-Class Frigates and half a dozen Resurgence-Class Star Destroyer led by a Vengeance-Class Star Dreadnought, the Executor that patrolled the System for any hostile assault.
Together the static defences along with the roaming fleet made it the second most well-protected place in the Empire, second only to Zakuul itself and one of the most well-defended places in the entire universe.
But it was neither the planet, its moons nor the large amoubnt of defences that made the system the powerhouse of manufacturing and construction capable of rivalling Shipyards across the Universe including Nidavellir that had been operational for thousands of years.
No that was the shining jewel of the Star Forge itself, the source of its name and the focal point of the System-wide manufacturing stronghold.
Project lokath.
The magnum opus of a recently discovered ancient species of extinct engineers and scientists, their race and identity lost to time but their legacy lived on across dozens and dozens of planets across the entire universe; destroyed civilisations, ravaged worlds and extinct species.
They had been obsessed with the idea of creating the ultimate weapon.
Eventually, the Master Designer Council, the rulers of this ancient advanced civilisation turned their attention inwards and devised a plan to further their civilisation with the goal of fabricating an expandable and adaptable home for their entire species that would also be secure against any outside force.
Their daring plan was a feat of engineering, unlike anything they had ever devised before. They set about building their greatest creation, a massive artificial sphere constructed around a star.
The entire system was ripped apart and harvested for materials and core elements, from which an impervious habitat would be constructed. Once the massive metal construction that was given the named lokath was completed it allowed no light from its star outside, and the entire system became undetectable to the rest of the galaxy.
New modules and biomes were continually added to Iokath to accommodate the endlessly expanding populace, while a multitude of droids tended to the day-to-day needs of Iokath's inhabitants. Living within their great artificial world they had advanced in leaps and bounds in their search for the ultimate weapon, forging powerful new devices and weapons including the recently discovered Superweapon, though only the chassis is that remained and the Six Gods Zakuul had worshipped as their divine lords before the rise of Valkorion.
The people of Iokath, however, were just as vulnerable to internal strife as any other organic and they erupted into a Civil War that lasted for over a century, a war that ended in the complete extinction of their race when the Six Gods, one of their greatest and deadliest creations were released and wiped out their species leaving a single insane self-aware Droid by the name of ARIES to reshape the world in his image.
The planet would go unnoticed by the rest of the universe for centuries until about 1000 years ago after the ascension of Thexan to the Eternal Throne. Quickly discovering that ARIES is a self aware yet hostile droid, Emperor Thexan ordered the destruction of the rouge droid though not before it unleashed a Superweapon that caused the destriuction of over 70% of the remaining ships in his arsenal, severely weakening the Empire for several years and hiding the Superweapon to be hidden from the Emperor for several centuries.
Eventually, the massive sphere would find itself floating through the nearby systems where it was caught in the gravity of the star of the system, the two great celestial objects beginning to orbit each other forming a strange new star system.
It was Iokath that had enabled the Empire to build its Military at such an incredible rate. The facilities of the massive artificial world had been advanced enough that Empire's scientists had been able to use them to improve the designs of the ship and vehicle schematics that has been developed during the reign of his father.
Fed by the resources mined from the rest of the system along with materials shipped in from other nearby systems the encased star had been transformed into a world of industry and factories. The masterpiece of the Empire, The Star Forge was thus created with Iokath at its centre, a gigantic Forge that created the Empire's blades, armour and shields.
Its weapons, ships and armours, its droids, vehicles and war platforms.
As he gazed at the massive metal-encased sun the Galvan could admit to himself that despite the history of lokath, the artificial planet was truly beautiful to look at.
Made of giant hexagonal sections that fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle containing several openings that allowed ships to travel in and out of the massive megastructure as the world glinted from the reflective light of glinting metal, lights and constant activity.
The exterior side of the self-sustaining ecosphere was a nigh-impenetrable defence almost impossible to penetrate and covered in Turbolaser batteries all covered by a massive planetary shield fuelled by the star itself. The interior side housed various biomes that served different needs, from living habitats to research purposes, and the whole structure could be altered and expanded as needed.
A true masterpiece and one that Azmuth is willing to admit, as the most impressive thing he has ever seen. The one thing that will ensure that the Empire shall never falls, as long as he is the leader and supervisor of this facility. And so he swore to himself that as long as he lived, Emperor Thexan, The Eternal Emperor, The Dragon of Zakuul will always win avery battle that he faced.
For The Empire
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