Darkness Falls - The Story
Chapter 10

Wriiten by Michael Butler
"The Arc Hammer!", exclaimed Kyle. It couldn’t be surely. The Dark Man’s ship
looked like the ship that
had been General Mohc’s command ship. It couldn’t have been the original
because Kyle had destroyed
it along with the Dark Troopers. Why had somebody gone to the trouble of
building a replica of it.
Kyle’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the T/A’s collision alert .
He looked out of the cockpit
and saw Tie Fighters bearing down on him. He banked his fighter just in time
to avoid the collision.
Checking his flight scanner he saw that the Black Sun flag ship, 'Darkness
Falls’ was launching fighters.
Time to get out of here thought Kyle, but without a hyper drive capable ship
he was pretty much stuck
where he was. Looking outside the cockpit window, he watched as the two
opposing sets of fighters
engaged. Space lit up with criss-crossing lasers and explosions. Looking
back at the scanner, Kyle
spotted the remains of the recently destroyed planet. He steered his fighter
towards the relative safety of
the asteroids.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Onboard the Darkness Falls, General Mohc studied the tactical readout. Not
good, the enemies star
fighters were more than a match for his Black Sun pilots. He turned to Kane,
"This has gone on long
enough. Prepare the super-laser."
"But General, to do that we will have to transfer all power from the
shields."
"I know that. However it is our only hope of stopping him", he said waving
his hand towards the ‘Arc
Hammer.’
"Maybe we can convince him to surrender", replied Kane.
"Prepare the weapon!", shouted a frustrated Mohc.
"Yes sir", said Kane indicating to one of the crew in the pit. "Power her
up."
The faint background hum, grew louder and louder. Outside the ship’s turbo
lasers fell silent as the
power was transferred.
"Full power available.", said the crew member.
"Execute" ordered Mohc.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Outside from his vantage point in the asteroid field, Kyle watched the
battle unfold. Mohc’s fighters
were taking an beating. But suddenly the guns on the ‘Darkness Falls’
stopped. What’s going on
wondered Kyle.
Suddenly the gun on the underside of the ‘Darkness Falls’ started to glow,
and then an unbelievable
large laser beam was emitted from it. It struck the ‘Arc Hammer’ square on.
The ship was vaporised
instantly, blown to dust. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Ha ha ha", laughed Mohc. "The Force is insignificant when compared to my
technological terror."
"Our last hurdle is out of the way", Kane said. "Time to take our place as
rulers of the galaxy."
"Aren’t you forgetting the Rebels?"
"With this weapon in our hands, we shall sweep them aside," replied Kane.
"The Emperor had his Death Star, look where that got him."
"Yes, but the Rebels were hidden across the galaxy then. Now they are trying
to be the legitimate
government. It will be very easy to wipe them out."
"Destroy one rebellion and another one will spring up. Rebellion is a state
of mind. We need to keep
with our plans to discredit the whole principle of the New Republic. Then
with our new troops we shall
bring order to the galaxy and be hailed as the saviours of the galaxy", Mohc
said. He studied Kane and
saw that he wasn’t fully convinced. He will learn in time, thought Mohc.
"Recall our ships and then set course for the Nest." added Mohc as he
turned away to gaze out at the
stars.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Kyle was stunned by what he’d seen, by the magnitude of the fire power. This
was a serious threat to
the New Republic. Kyle ran through the options in his head. "Can’t wait to
get a message to them,
I’ll just have to deal with this one myself".
He watched as the remaining fighters headed back towards the Star Destroyer.
"They won’t notice an
extra fighter docking, I hope. Only way though, got to stop Mohc before he
uses that weapon on
innocents."
He maneuvered his fighter towards the Star Destroyer. It was easier than he
thought to get aboard.
Black Sun obviously didn’t follow the strict Imperial protocols that Kyle
remembered from his time as
an Imperial Officer. Kyle landed his fighter in one of the Star Destroyer’s
huge hanger bays. Not an easy
task - Popular myth had it that all Jedi were good pilots, unfortunately
Kyle wasn’t, but he managed to
set his fighter down without attracting any attention. He climbed out of the
fighter and ducked behind a
fuel drum as the other pilots headed towards the turbo lifts. He was alone,
apart from the stormtrooper
sentries. How to get past them without being noticed? In the good old days
Kyle would have just
blasted them and devil take the consequences. However he was a Jedi Knight
now, and the Force could
have a powerful effect on the weak minded. Moving closer, keeping hidden
behind the fighters until he
had no choice to show himself.
"Halt, who goes there. Identify yourself!" demanded one of the troopers.
Kyle reached out with the Force and said, "You don’t need to know who I am."
"We don’t need to know who you are" repeated the troopers.
"I was never here," added Kyle.
"There is nobody here."
And with that Kyle slipped through the turbo lift door. That was too easy,
thought Kyle. However he
knew that the mind trick wouldn’t work on ever person he came across. I’m
going to need another way
of getting round without being noticed. Kyle hit the emergency stop button,
and the lift came to an
abrupt halt. Using his lightsaber, he cut himself a hole in the top of the
lift car. Once on top of the car he
pried open a ventilation cover and climbed in. He crawled his way through
the enclosed space until he
came to another vent cover. Looking through, he saw what looked to be a
pilots ready room. Using the
force he determined that there were no life forms about. Kyle opened the
vent cover and dropped into
the room. Once inside the room Kyle rifled through the lockers looking for
anything he could use. A
spare tech uniform, "Perfect." thought Kyle as he put on the clothes. He
grabbed a toolbox from the top
of the locker and placed his lightsaber inside.
Disguised as a tech officer, Kyle made his way deeper into the belly of the
Imperial ship. Nobody gave
him a second glance as he walked by a myriad of stormtroopers, officers and
other crewers. He made
his way to a computer terminal and brought up the layout of the ship.
Listing the power access points
for the super laser, he determined what looked to be the best place for
disrupting the super laser and the
one which gave him the best chance of getting off the ship before it blew.
Turning the computer off,
Kyle started down the corridor towards a turbo lift.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Mohc watched through the viewport as the ‘Darkness Falls’ came out of
hyperspace. ‘The Nest’ was
where Mohc was massing his forces. A large space port facility hidden in an
large asteroid belt, close to
both the Imperial and New Republic borders. He looked out at his fleet, a
couple of Imperial Star
Destroyers and hundreds of other smaller ships. It had taken a while to
amass these ships, but things
were nearly ready. Soon the final stage of his plan would be executed and
with that the New Republic
would fall. He was watching his ship begin her approach to the docking
facilities and didn’t notice the
junior officer come up behind him.
"Sir !", said the nervous young officer.
"Yes, Lieutenant?" said Mohc turning to the man.
"Sir, I think we may have a problem," replied the officer handing the
General a datapad.
Mohc studied the pad for a moment and then said "I think you’re right."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Kyle paused outside the door of the engineering substation deep inside the
Star Destroyer. He looked
around, something didn’t feel right. He put down his toolbox, pulled out his
lightsaber and opened the
door.
Kyle couldn’t quite believe his eyes as he went into the room. The room was
full of Imperial troops,
Stormtroopers, Dark Troopers and Imperial Commandos. They all had their
weapons pointed at him. He
heard the clatter of boots behind him, turning he saw more troops pouring
into the corridor with their
weapons raised.
He turned back to the room at the sound of a voice, "Welcome back Katarn. I’
m afraid your luck really has
run out this time."
.......to be continued.
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