Chp-6: Immigration Easy! No Green Card Needed!

Chp-6: Immigration Easy! No Green Card Needed!

For once, I am not coming to you from the safety of my office. Instead, I am standing in a refurbished LAAT gunship, one that had been repainted in Imperial colors. 

The ship is flying fairly fast, the wind whipping across the bulkhead doors. We are enroute to the continent east of the main settlements, for the inauguration of the first real city there. 

It has been a solid month since meeting with the entrepreneurs, and things were actually looking up. As jobs opened up on both the refinery station and across the planet, more and more colonists were streaming in, courtesy of the ad's we put out. Apparently, people had been asking if they could get a ride on the trade fleet to Minda even if they weren't clones, and with so much space, the captains had no reason to say no. 

With all of that happening, the Minda system had seen an influx of nearly ten-thousand new people, with nearly two-thousand of those being clones. While the colonists had spread about the various towns and cities, a good portion flocked to a new factory being built by YewCast. After scouting was done, I had begun selling land to various companies and individuals on the other continents of Minda 3. 

We had eventually decided that it was a good idea to actually name both Minda-3 and the continents within. Therefore, Minda-3 was now officially known as Ugea, the central capital continent, was called Shubeon, while the northern and eastern continents were Mukrix and Alhea respectively. 

Alhea was found to have an abundance of metals in its mountains that, once refined, were useful in small electronic parts. YewCast had paid for a decent chunk of land around there for a factory and mining facility they wanted to build, in an attempt to consolidate their own supply-chain. I allowed it, on the condition that they helped with the setup of the city that was bound to spring up around there. And when the colonists came knocking, looking for work, there was a whole prebuilt city, ready for action. 

In fact, once things had calmed down in the newly named city of Vrectin, I had let the people hold an election to determine their mayor for the next five years. It was a test-bed for introducing democracy to the people of the Minda system in slow doses. The hope was that, if I was able to ensure that the candidates were qualified, then these cities would be able to govern themselves, and sort out corruption themselves, therefore reducing the amount of paperwork I have to do. 

After their first election, the new mayor had insisted that I come down and cut the ribbon of the Vrectin city hall, and have dinner with her and her wife. 

So here I was, flying over to a cold shithole of four-thousand people, to cut a ribbon and politely decline dinner. Fuck.

At least the clones seemed to be doing well. In fact, the pilots of the LAAT that I was in were clones. The clones had taken fairly well to being treated like actual people once they arrived. Like the other colonists, they had been given tax cuts and the possibility of land grants/low interest loans to start businesses. The majority, however, fell right back into military positions. While some found their place in the army, or the system defense fleet, or as pilots, the majority wanted little to do with military conflicts. Those clones opted instead for joining the planetary police force. They patrolled streets, checked id at checkpoints, patrolled the roads between cities, and so on. There they fit right in, working in roles they were used to that didn't treat them like slaves or meat shields. 

I am pulled from my musings to the pilots announcing our approach of the city. While the windows on the LAAT were small, I caught glimpses of cranes, smokestacks, and ferrocrete/pourstone roof's. The ship shuddered as it made its landing, and the doors swung open to show a stark black landing pad, rimmed with yellow warning markers that matched the color of the YewCast logo emblazoned on the ground. 

As I stepped out, my personal guard encircling me and checking the area, I was met by a Pantoran women of about fifty years or so. She sported a beige suit with ash colored linings and a badge above her heart in the shape of an eight-pointed star, while the center held the Imperial insignia and aurebesh inscriptions for wisdom, leadership, loyalty, surrounding the center. At the bottom of the badge was the simple title of Mayor of Vrectin. I had instituted these badges as simple identifiers. They weren't overly flashy, but there was only one per city, so they had to be symbolically passed down from mayor to mayor. The hope was that this would help ease tensions between candidates, like how U.S presidents used to welcome the new president into office when they lost the reelection campaign. 

"Hello Governor, it's so nice to meet you, my name is…

At that point, I was just going through the motions. Shake hands, say pleasantries, walk, shake hands, etc… as I met with the mayor and her staff whose names I couldn't be bothered to remember. My attention was primarily focused on the buildings as we stepped into a landspeeder and took a tour of the city.

The biggest was certainly the YewCast complex, towering over the rest of the town, situated further up the mountainside. The factory was large, and seemingly built into the mountain, while long tracks stretched further up to the various mining facilities, their trains sending materials and workers and other sorts up and down. The rest of the city was mostly drab in its construction, with boring grays and beiges of ferrocrete and pourstone being the primary colors.

The most interesting thing wasn't the city, but the people. Not only were there more non-humans here than in most other places, but everyone seemed to be utilizing a phone-like device. 

It clearly isn't a smartphone, but something more like a PDA. Tablet-like, many were carrying them in arm-mounted holsters, or smaller versions slid into pockets. They were the first generation YewCast IntraLink PDA's, the big phone project that I had paid for. 

The IntraLink was incredibly useful. It connected to the still growing planetary comms network so you could access your home/work terminal from afar(assuming you had the credentials), it had picture/recording features, and many of the basic functions you would expect out of a smartphone. The more advanced IntraLink/Av was more expensive, and the one that I held in my breast pocket, which came with an embedded holo-system for holo-calls/recordings. It could also expand to fit more things on screen, though I wouldn't be using it for long, as I had charged YewCast with making a military specific version in semi-secret(tighter lips, but not death-star secret). It would have better cyber-security and extra military specific-functions like tactical maps, easier connection to superiors, and more. I was hoping to expand production and see if I can't sell them to other governors or military commanders for that extra bit of cash.

Some people were even playing the games that were developed for it! Real gaming consoles and the like were still a way's off, but little mobile games were the start. The idea of course, being that since the Empire owns the communications system used to download things, people who make games will have to pay a tax to let people download the game, which means that they have to charge to buy the games, etc… Obviously the games currently available on the limited network are free, and work more as proof of concept for potential future companies, but it's a work in progress, and was fairly easy to implement at this level considering how much it might make in the future. The games market back on Earth was one of, if not the largest entertainment industry in the world, so imagine the profits on a galactic scale? Millions of loot boxes!!! 

I'm once again pulled from my greed-filled musings as we finally land at City hall, I prepare to make a silly five minute speech and cut a ribbon. 

I am so bored.

Just kill me. 

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alvi Mola

Imperial Factory, Experimental Wing, Lothal

Alvi was bored. So bored, she had resorted to bouncing a rubber ball against the wall for the better part of an hour while she waited.

She had done incredibly well in all of her tests back home, and had served for two years as an ace TIE pilot on the borders of Hutt space. She had even gone on a joint mission with some of the aces from Lord Vader's personal Death Squadron. She was one of the best!

So, naturally, when she had been voluntold to test a new TIE prototype, she had been ecstatic! Few ever tried to innovate on the TIE design, because it was already well made and cost-effective, so to get to test state of the art TIE prototypes? It was a dream come true.

Problem is, ever since she got to Lothal, all she's done is sit in simulators and fill out surveys for weeks! Not even some R&R! Her hair had been stuck in the regulation tight bun, and she wanted to flaunt her signature pigtails, and it sucked. Not for the last time she felt envy for her siblings. Shal was the captain of an ISD, so she could style her hair however she wished on her ship, and Zyx was a spy, she probably changed clothes and hairstyles all the time. 

Even Las probably got to choose his hairstyle, since he was a governor and all. She sighed, as her thoughts turned to the youngest and only boy of the family. Las and her had been inseparable during childhood, but had drifted apart during their time at the Eriadu Academy. He had struggled with the subjects, and was almost always in trouble for contradicting the teachers opinions, or questioning orders, all while she had shot ahead straight into the pilot program. 

And the dressing down Mom gave him was horrific. She didn't say much, but the disappointment and disgust was visceral in a way only Commandant Mola could ever do. Las hadn't just been booted from the academy, he had been stuck as a governor on a backwater. While governor was a good position, to be the governor of an outer-rim system was basically asking to either stagnate or get killed by pirates. If that wasn't enough, he had to improve the system in real and tangible ways? 

Honestly, it was horrible. Alvi understood why her mother had done it, Las couldn't stay at the academy, or anywhere where he could further bring shame to the Mola family. But to threaten him with infantry service? She shuddered. To fight in the Imperial Infantry front lines was to be part of an unstoppable force that would toss as many bodies into a pit just to walk over the corpses instead of going around. Of course, she would never publicly say this, as disparaging the Emperor's armed forces wasn't a good look, and she hadn't gotten this far without some understanding of etiquette. 

As she sighed deeply once more, ruminating on the fate of her brother, her com bead blared static for a second, startling her. She answered as the rubber ball went flying across the room, bouncing all over the place.

"Squadron Commander Mola, report to testing bay 12-C immediately, be ready for testing"

"Understood, Squadron Commander Mola en route."

She quickly threw her flight suit on, but just as she put her helmet on, the rubber ball smacked into her cheek.

Rubbing the pain away, she put her helmet on and made her way out of the barracks. 

Walking down the hallways, she passed a number of staff and droids, some of which gave her pitying looks as she passed. Clearly, they were worried she would die in testing. HA! As if, Alvi was one of the best!

With that self-assurance warming her chest, she entered the testing bay, only to pause in shock.

Before her, speaking with some officers and technicians, was a blue skinned Chiss man in a sharp white uniform. The badge on his chest indicated he was a Grand Admiral. And there was only one Chiss Grand Admiral in the Empire. As he turned to her, she did the only thing she could. She removed her helmet.

"Grand Admiral, Sir! Squadron Commander Alvi Mola, reporting for duty, Sir!" she saluted, a definite nervousness pervading her mind.

"At ease, Commander." He said in a deep, somewhat gravelly voice. It sent shivers up her spine, and not the good kind. "Just the person I was looking for"

He turned, and gestures for her to approach.

"I've seen your scores, Commander. Quite impressive. Top 10 at your academy, top 5 of those here. Tell me, why haven't you managed to make first place yet?"

Alvi was caught off guard for a moment. From a compliment to an insult? "...I like the TIE, sir, but it always felt… naked. I like a good adrenaline rush, don't get me wrong, but the standard TIE is wildly dangerous, and I've never felt like I could give the Empire my all with it as my fighter. I always performed better in the sims when flying ships like the old republic V-Wing, since I felt like it had more to give."

Thrawn seemed to study her face with his blood red eyes, staring into her soul. He smiled. 

He then gestured down the hangar to a repulsorlift carrying in a ship. Her eyes widened, and a feral grin stretched across her face.

"Then commander, you will certainly be happy…

…with this."

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Hi there folks, I'm back with another episode of man v.s politics. There is, as always, no winner!

Now I'd like to address some questions and concerns I've seen floating about, along with clarifying some things.

The current year is 2BBY, specifically around the star wars equivalent of late march.While 15,000 may seem like a lot of troops, that's because it is. I have yet to properly work this fact into the story, but Minda is a backwater among backwater, and troops/officers/companies that were either shit at their jobs, or pissed off the wrong nepo-baby got sent to Minda, amongst other places. It's the dead end station of the Myto sector.I don't think I made this clear in the last chapter, but Las does not know that Darna has rebel sympathies, or that the scrapyard is a rebel run operation. For all that he is fairly intelligent and business minded, this spy shit is new to him. If he had known, he would have denied their request because rebels means attention which is exactly the kind of thing he wants to avoid, which also leads well into the next point.Las is neither rich nor ambitious. While a lot of you have given great points, from Gladiator's to turning Minda 2 into a training ground for stealth troopers, or Academies, and so on and so forth, fact remains that Las doesn't have the cash or will to do that. All the initial investments in mining, stations, refineries, and the like are all gambles, where he tosses a lot of money, and rolls the dice to see if he gets a great return(which he so far has) but he knows this isn't sustainable, and now that things are evening out, he's gonna start slowing down. Even if he does get to that level of richness, it's not likely he'll invest into such resource and attention heavy projects like those would bring him. His goal is make the system decent, pass his mother's inspection, then either huddle down in Minda, or if things start looking bad, have a decent escape ship and plan ready and waiting. Tatooine is lovely this time of year, right?

That aside, it's been a pleasure. Any feedback on writing, lore, or ways the story could move forward are, as always, greatly appreciated. 

Thanks for reading!