61 Resequenced

Proteins and vital nutrients had been resequenced to have the general flavor and appearance as the Nerf Steak. This dish was sitting in front of all three of the 'heroes' sitting within the mess hall. they simply stared at the food.

Despite how it looked, when they poked it with a fork, it had a very tofu-like texture and resilience.

The Princess scrunched up her nose seeing this and look over at Maddie who was scarfing it down as if it was some high quality meal. Of course she had been living for fifteen years and even a flavored protein pack would have been better tasting than the slop fed to her originally.

Rin's eyes then glanced over towards Valad who was casually shoveling it into his mouth, thoroughly chewing it and then swallowing. Of course, she also witnessed him sniff his food before putting it in his mouth every now and then. She was used to that, even though her parents had people to test their food before they ate it themselves.

She was just rather thankful no one was too ambitious on her arctic homeworld. It was pretty much a iceball, but it had plenty of high quality food for her to eat at supper, lunch and even breakfast.

Letting out a sigh, she used the side of the fork supplied to her by the mess hall droid and shoved it into her mouth. It tasted like nerf meat, but the texture was like eating really soft clay. It couldn't replace actual meat either. The one thing she was rather thankful about was there was a lack of fat and gristle.

Valad smirked seeing her eat the food, finally giving in after twelve minutes of staring at it and playing with it with disbelief in her eyes. "So she can eat," he snickered lightly, watching her roll her eyes in turn.

"Haha, very funny. But seriously, what is this?" Princess Rin Gan asked with an annoyed tone after swallowing the resequenced ration. "It feels like paste... It's not paste right?"

Valad closed one eye as he thought of a reply. Technically it was a collection of protein and nutrient paste. "It's Resequenced rations," he replied with a light nod, smiling lightly.

"So it is paste..." She began playing with her food again, her stomach grumbling. "Why am I being fed paste?" She asked as her eyes narrowed on the man, her cheeks puffed up in annoyance, she wanted to be pampered if she was expected to stay obedient.

"Because I'm eating paste?" Valad said without a second thought, "And everyone else is eating paste." He let out a soft yawn, "It's inexpensive and easy to get."

She sat there for a few moments, still playing with the food. It was better than nothing, but she wanted something better. How would she be able to convince him of that? Her eyes gazed over towards Maddie, who was now picking at Valad's steak which he hadn't eaten fast enough.

He didn't seem to even bother trying to stop her even though he was still eating it.

She squinted her eyes slightly at the Zabrak who was stuffing her face boyishly. She then looked over towards a handful of force sensitives walk over towards the table and sit down around them. One of them was a small orange humanoid that looked around four years old.

"Once we have the rest of the Archipelago under our control, food and supplies will improve enough to supply your 'Highness,' with better foodstuff." Valad called her a Princess mockingly, since she was a Princess of nothing as of late.

She ignored his teasing and nodded slowly. So he was going to war with a section of space called the Archipelago from what she could understand. Where ever that was, she had no idea. However she assumed that it was a place in the unknown regions or wild space as she never heard of it.

Taking in a mouthful of this somewhat tasteful meal, she sat there and chewed with a dull expression on her face. She was just eating it to sate her hunger, but her taste buds were yearning for something more. She let out a sigh after swallowing and looked over Valad for a few moments. Wondering what kind of person he was, and what kind of Empire he was going to create.

That's when her eyes locked upon a group of people dressed in double breasted tunics. They looked like imperial officers, even the rank insignias were down to the mark. Counting all the people within the room, it seemed that there were a hundred or so people wearing the white Zakuul attire, while the many others were wearing imperial-esque uniforms.

Was he going to be centered around Harmony? Or was he going to be a Warmonger? Would he give his people liberties, or will he kept them under a nightwatch state's gaze? The Princess let out a quiet hum as she tapped her finger against the neck of her fork.

Her eyes narrowed on the floor however as she noticed a massive emblem which encompassed the center of the room. It was a modified introverted Imperial Emblem with a golden yellow laurel wreath surrounding it on either side.

Was this introverted color arrangement a symbol? An opposite to the Tyrannical Empire? She was rather curious of what was to become of this ship, the purpose of the children present.

"How many planets?" She asked curiously looking over at the man, she wanted to know how many people they were fighting. The size of their enemy, their resources and level of technology.

"So far we just took down the regime of the Tulpaa Tribe, one of the two majorly advanced factions within the Archipelago. There is a total of six remaining, what makes this easy though is they're loosely affiliated with one another. From what I've found is that the other planets had regressed technologically." Valad explained some of what was going on to the Princess so she would get a gist of their plans.

They were take out the most advanced versions of the civilization out, then take on the smaller ones which would probably surrender faster since they lacked technology to fight back. Either that or the Rakata would never surrender and they'd have to wipe out the species to extinction for a second time.

"I...I see," Rin Gan sighed softly as she leaned back in the chair. Her eyes noticing the little orange girl staring at her from across the table. She stared back at them, seeing their reflection. For some reason she felt as if there was some form of familiarity. "What's your name?" The Princess wore a friendly smile and Ahsoka shared the same expression.

"My name is Ahsoka Tano, Force Sense extraordinaire!" The child joked aloud with a wide smile across her face.

Some of the other people at the table choking on their food from the joke as they went to laugh with their mouth's full. Valad instead choked on his own saliva after hearing her and continued to cough as he laughed.

Rin simply gave her a look before chuckled a little, looking over at Valad who was now red faced. "So the people wearing white are force users?" She asked looking over at him with a brow raised. "Why are there so many here?"

Valad simply smiled at her and tilts his head to the side slightly. "We're forming our own order of Knights, our own Force Sect." He said with a somewhat proud nod as he handed this information out to her.

"Wow," her voice sounded kind of dry, she was surprised, but she didn't have much reaction to the news. She knew even in her verse, there was plenty of force organizations out there that weren't related to the Jedi, or were complete offshoots. However the Empire still wanted to dominate them all, either they served the Empire or the perished at the hands of their most lethal enforcer, Darth Vader.

"By the way... If the Calendar says we're ten years before the Clone Wars, does that mean Darth Vader isn't...?" She looked at him warily, not wanting to know that Vader was still a thing.

"He's dead. Killed him."

A tingling sensation ran through her head, it really wracked her brain that he had killed one of the 'most' notorious Sith Lords of all times. She of course didn't know the true identity of the man, which meant she definitely didn't know he had killed a child to get this done.

Ahsoka felt a little disturbed overhearing the simple reply, sipping her artificial apple juice through a paper straw. Her big blue eyes stared at the man who had said this. "Was it easy?" This question made Valad look at her with a frown which ultimately she understood.

It wasn't easy, not emotionally, to kill someone.

"How did you know who this person was?" Ahsoka asked curiously, blinking with a small smile across her lips as if anticipating a truthful answer.

Maddie frowned slightly as she was still listening to the conversation. If she heard this correctly, that meant her lover killed a nine year old boy? What could that possibly accomplish in the present? She looked over at him for a few moments only to see his face.

He didn't regret it, he didn't look guilty. However he did seem sorrowful, as if he had done something he had to do, and would do it again if he had to.

"He was a slave from the desert planet of Tatooine," he yawned slightly. "There were plenty of people who foresaw where he came from. Such as the Dark Woman who was actually trying to steer her former padawans away from the planet." He snickered a little to himself, but it didn't seem like he was laughing about it. It sounded like someone's nerves were not enjoying the conversation.

"That's depressing," Maddie contributed as she was munching on the plastic fork in her hand, her golden eyes flickering. Many of the younglings were looking at her, yet she was completely ignoring their stares. "At least he isn't one anymore." She shrugged as she leaned over, wrapping an arm around Rin Gan.

"Jedi are overrated anyway, they say they wish to serve the masses, but they serve a corrupt bureaucracy known as the Republic instead." The whole cause of the downfall of the Republic was due to this corruption. Something which even plagued the Empire, but in a way which was accepted.

Palpatine's Empire was humanocentric compared to the Republic, but the Imperial Federation was going to be free of racial-centric politics. He wanted the people to love him, not fear him, unlike his enemies which he wished to instill a deep fear into.

"Tomorrow we begin our assault on the planet of Makatak. Once we remove them, the hard part will be over..." Valad stated as he leaned back against his chair a bit more than before and reached over to pat Rin's shoulder softly. "I'll be counting on you," he said with one eye closed.