Line

Darkness Falls - The Story

Chapter 10

Line

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.

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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.

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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.

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"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.

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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.

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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."

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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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