Negotiations with the Bomongos resumed the following day.
The Bomongo chieftain, Mbongongo, arrived with samples of their goods and dyes, while Solo's team had prepared the maintenance equipment and weapons the Bomongos requested.
To finalize the details, Solo shuttled back and forth between the base and the Bomongo village several times, eventually securing the trade.
In exchange for several hundred DUM Maintenance Robots, a batch of B-2 Robot batteries, fifty tons of scrap metal, and nearly three thousand E-5 blasters, they received ten thousand Republic Credits, several tons of natural dyes, and the Bomongos' promise to supply five tons of fruits and meat daily for the next six months.
Solo knew he had likely been "fleeced," but upon reflection, he felt relieved.
The exchanged goods were all captured war spoils. Even if they weren't used now, the higher-ups might have confiscated them for redistribution anyway.
Moreover, these items weren't particularly valuable. The hundreds of DUM Maintenance Robots were a mere drop in the bucket compared to the base's tens of thousands of units in storage, and the E-5 blasters were piled up with nowhere left to store them.
So Solo didn't dwell on it. Besides, whether he had truly been taken advantage of remained debatable.
The natural dyes were urgently needed, and high-quality, "purely natural, pollution-free" meat and fruit weren't exactly roadside finds.
This food far surpassed the freeze-dried rations consumed by the Clone Troopers, making the trade a clear win.
In the end, everyone benefited. The indigenous people acquired a wealth of advanced technology and equipment at bargain-basement prices, while Solo's troops feasted on natural foods.
When news of the deal reached the Clone Trooper units, no one objected. These Clone Troopers had rapid metabolisms and insatiable appetites. Their usual high-calorie freeze-dried rations were already staggering in quantity, and switching to fresh food meant their consumption would multiply several times over.
Being able to eat natural ingredients daily was practically a "perk" for them, and the laughter in the camp's mess hall noticeably increased.
For the next few days, Donovia remained unusually calm. No Separatist attacks occurred, and Solo initiated no offensive actions. The entire base basked in a rare tranquility.
Yet this peace proved more exhausting for Solo than war itself. Merely managing the base's administrative details nearly overloaded his mind, like sour milk swelling in a paper bag.
During wartime, things were so much simpler. He'd command troops to fire, occasionally deflect energy blasts with his lightsaber, and enter a shallow meditation to anticipate danger and warn his soldiers. Afterward, he could finally catch his breath.
Now, just trying to understand the organizational structure of his command felt like cramming for his university thesis defense the night before. His mind was a jumble of questions: "How are the battalions, companies, platoons, and squads organized?" "What's the supply chain flow?"
And that was before even considering his responsibilities as fleet commander. A proper commander should know every detail of their ships, from the hyperspace engine model and its architecture to the duty roster of the corvette's kitchen staff. He had to scrutinize every detail, terrified of overlooking something that could lead to disaster.
The only thing that eased the buzzing in Solo's head from information overload was his daily hour of lightsaber practice and meditation with training droids.
The training droids were the same "small spherical training droids" Luke Skywalker had used on Tatooine. Solo had requested six, but initially he could only handle one. Now, he could fight three simultaneously.
Through this method, he honed his precognitive abilities while practicing Form III Soresu with his lightsaber, attempting to fuse it with his foundational Shi-Cho.
During meditation, he followed the traditions of the "Stargazers" (the Jedi Balance Group's internal name), focusing the Force to gaze into the cosmos and completely emptying his mind.
As for getting a proper night's sleep, it ranked last on his list of priorities. He knew this period of relative calm wouldn't last long and that he needed to make the most of it by catching up on everything and fully establishing the base. Throughout this process, he rarely even removed his armor.
The base construction was nearing completion. A four-meter-high perimeter wall encircled the camp, punctuated by seven-meter-tall defensive towers at regular intervals. These towers were armed with captured cannons and topped with rocket launchers.
All equipment was painted with alternating red and white stripes and emblazoned with the insignia of the 13th Legion. The ground was covered with neatly laid sand paths—a common "anti-slip" method used by military forces throughout the galaxy.
A minor setback occurred during trench digging: the Clone Troopers had no shovels—not a single one.
Solo had to improvise. He placed an urgent order with the Engineering Department to manufacture "Bayonet Shovels" and "Entrenching Tools" from salvaged scrap metal. After all, even those unfamiliar with military equipment back on Earth knew what an entrenching tool should look like.
Soon, a batch of sharp-edged tools was produced, and trench digging progress accelerated dramatically.
All robots were assigned tasks. Charging stations were set up throughout the base, and B-1 Battle Droids were organized into squads for perimeter patrols.
At each end of the airstrip, a J-1 Ion Cannon was mounted as a fixed, large-caliber anti-aircraft weapon. Each cannon was paired with two robots responsible for handling the heavy ammunition, while Clone Troopers handled technical maintenance and operation.
The primary anti-aircraft defense consisted of four SPHA self-propelled heavy artillery units. These mobile cannons could project a reliable "protective umbrella" over the base, capable of repelling even large Separatist warships.
As for the smaller aircraft, they relied on improvised anti-aircraft guns.
Solo had created a mad hybrid of captured laser cannons and blaster cannons, mounting them on gun emplacements and adding deflector shields. Some were even modified into twin- or quad-mounted E-5 blaster cannons, providing sufficient firepower to deal with Vulture Droids.
During this time, all repairable AAT Tanks were fitted with infantry-carrying racks, allowing each tank to carry an additional eight robots or six Clone Troopers.
Those beyond repair were dismantled for spare parts, or their turrets were removed and installed as fixed defensive positions in the base's outer fortifications.
During his inspection, Solo discovered an unexpected bonus: in addition to their blaster cannons, the tanks concealed six mass-accelerated rocket launchers beneath their hulls, with armor-piercing, high-explosive, and incendiary rockets.
Curiously, the Separatists had rarely used these rockets in previous battles.
Solo racked his brain, but couldn't recall any scenes in the *Clone War* animated series where AATs used rockets.
After consulting with the technical team, Solo speculated that the robots' behavior might stem from the fact that their line of sight was consistently blocked by other robots. However, this explanation still seemed fundamentally odd.
Solo also discovered a glaring flaw in the weapon's design, which partly explained why it hadn't been used in combat.
The rocket launcher was utterly impossible to reload under field conditions. To reload it, half the vehicle's hull had to be disassembled—a design so anti-human it was almost comical.
Fortunately, the laser weapons lacked such absurd design flaws, though they were far from convenient or optimized.
But who cared about the convenience of robots?
Certainly not the Neimoidians of the Trade Federation.
"No wonder they never used it," Solo muttered, shaking his head. He was reminded of the T-34 tank from Earth's history, which was even more absurd.
He recalled reading tank crews' evaluations of the early T-34 models, which described them as a nightmare in terms of handling, gunnery, crew communication, and basic comfort. Soldiers often refused to climb inside.
Field maintenance was an even greater ordeal. To access the engine, one had to lift a hatch weighing over 600 kilograms!
In comparison, the AAT's design didn't seem so absurd after all. After all, in war, all that mattered was whether the cannons could fire; everything else was secondary.
Regardless, by local standards, Solo now commanded a formidable tank force, though its numbers still fell short of a World War II-era tank division.
Moreover, thanks to the welded-on racks, each tank could now carry an additional eight robots or six Clone Troopers for infantry support—a significant advantage.
The upgrades to the AT-TE walkers were also completed smoothly. The pilot's compartment received thicker armor plating, and two sets of Deflector Shield Generators were mounted on the front, making them far more resilient than before.
Still, Solo couldn't help but grumble, "Did the engineers who designed this thing ever see a battlefield?"
The AT-TE could climb vertical walls and possessed absurdly high mobility, yet it was equipped with an open-topped cockpit like a construction excavator. In combat, the pilot was practically a "sitting duck."
But despite his complaints, Solo understood. These vehicles had been secretly manufactured, with official documents labeling them as "civilian" or "dual-use." Considering their clandestine origins, their performance was already impressive.
The reconnaissance units divided up the captured Robot Speeder Bikes.
Although these Robot Speeder Bikes weren't as heavily armed as the Republic's own models, their anti-gravity devices were exceptionally powerful, allowing them to leap up to 300 meters and glide down from such heights like miniature fighter jets—perfect for reconnaissance.
During this lull, Solo also had a physical training ground constructed at the base.
It included pull-up bars, parallel bars, climbing walls, and all the essential equipment.
He knew that once the defensive fortifications were completed, the soldiers would easily grow restless without tasks. A training ground would keep them physically fit and disciplined, far better than letting them "fool around" in the camp.
After obtaining natural dyes from the Bomongos, Solo experimented with coloring the Clone Troopers' armor.
One Clone Trooper asked, "General, with such advanced detection systems these days, is camouflage even effective?"
Solo smiled and explained, "The Separatists aren't wealthy enough to afford 'life scanners,' which are more expensive than combat droids. They mostly rely on optical sensors. Our Katarn-pattern assault armor is sealed for space travel and undetectable by thermal imaging. Camouflage will at least provide visual concealment, which is far better than standing out in bright white armor."
Looking at the orderly barracks, patrolling robots, and soldiers training on the grounds, Solo felt a flicker of reassurance.
Though he couldn't predict how long this period of calm would last, he had at least prepared for the next battle.
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