Episode II - Full Stop - Part 2

Reidus Kain transmitted the bad news to Captain Sarcune and the Absolute. “We’ve lost V19003. We’ve lost Dolan,” said Kain over the Marine’s comms. “Something attacked before he could jump.”

Kain waited for a response, but none came.

        “Captain Sarcune? Acknowledge?”

        The marine communications tech, Booker, spoke up. “I think we’re being jammed, Commander Kain.”

        “Whatever attacked us thinks we’ve said enough, I guess” said Bondi.

        Kain spat and tightened his grip around the communications unit. He shook his head, but said nothing. The whole deck was silent, save the sound of the air-ventilation fans.

        “You were right, Commander,” said Fen Dolan, very much alive, putting down the comms unit he’d used to speak his deception. “Sorry to lose my ship. But better that than my life.”

        “I’m just glad whoever is up there fell for the auto-pilot,” said Bondi. “That’s a droid command ship, no doubt, though seems to be modified,” said the veteran marine.

        “Yeah,” said Kain, straightening. “But where did it go? It seemed to just disappear.”

        “I don’t know of any visibility cloaking that the Seperatists developed during the war. At least none we ever encountered,” said Bondi. “I’d heard rumors of the Republic working on such a thing, but the best we achieved was scanner invisibility, and that just with small ships. The hyperdrive engine alone creates such a huge signature…”

        “That’s it!” cried Captain Fordice. He turned to his navigator, once of the few survivors of the initial attack on the Bold Born. “Bell, is the hyperdrive navigation system still intact?”

        “Yes, Captain. But with our drive down, what use…”

        “Scan for a jump through the point where we saw the droid command ship appear,” interrupted Fordice.

        “Yes, Captain,” answered Bell. “What destination?”

        “Just beyond the current system,” said Fordice.

        The navigator ran the calculations through the computer. He frowned, and ran the calculations again.

        “What’s the problem, Bell?”

        “I’m not sure, Captain Fordice,” said the navigator. “I’m getting an error. Possible the nav-computer was damaged in the attack. But it’s giving me an alternate route that seems indistinguishable from the requested one.”

        “Lengthen the jump destination,” said Fordice.

        Bell did as instructed. “Ok, the difference is more clear now. There is definitely something in the way, but the nav computer can’t identify it. And it seems erratic. The computer is throwing me errors I’ve never seen before.”

        “Shorten the jump destination back to the original distance. Redirect slightly and recalculate. Disregard any directions that shows as clear. Mark all directions and coordinates that give you the error, if it can be reproduced. Once you have reproduced the error, scan in a line from the initial error point to the second, then follow that line and scan again for the error. I believe we will find a path of errors in this way.”

        Kain understood what the Captain’s hunch was leading to. The navigational computers and related sensors were some of the most sophisticated, sensitive pieces of equipment in the whole of the known universe. Without them, extended, uncharted hyperspace travel would be impossible. Without precise calculations, you could fly yourself through the heart of a star, or bounce too close to a supernova. A fast trip to a quick end.

        “You think the droid ship is in hyperspace,” Kain said.

        “I do,” replied Fordice. “And I think it’s orbiting this planetoid, which is itself orbiting the old hyperspace lane.”

        The whole of the bridge watched in silence as Navigations Officer Bell made calculation after calculation, sometimes making notes as he worked. Then, Bell spoke.

        “Captain Fordice, I think I’ve got it.”

        Kain and Fordice leaned over Bell’s seat and looked at his readout. “See here,” he said, pointing to his screen. “This is where the ship first appeared. And here is the next place I found the ‘error’. It was difficult at first, but I re-entered the size of our by about five times, just to get the general area, then narrowed it down.” Bell smiled, evidently pleased with himself.

        Fordice wasn’t amused. “Fine, that’s a line. Did you verify this the way I asked?”

        Bell turned back to his screen, sobered. “Yes, Captain. Three more points.” He drew his finger along the screen, showing the trajectory of the errors he’d discovered. “And then it disappears behind the horizon of the planetoid we’re on.” He readjusted his screen, and pointed again. “Then, the errors occur again here.”

        “Looks like your hunch was correct, Captain,” said Kain.

        “Indeed,” said Fordice. “But what good will it do us? And it doesn’t explain why the Bold Born was pulled out of hyperspace in the first place.”

        “The two must be related,” spoke up Bondi. “I remember hearing rumors of tests, a weapon that could hit ships while in hyperspace. The problem, if I recall, was always power. The size of a weapon that could do such a thing would have to be enormous, just to contain the power generator capable of such a feat, while providing enough shielding so as not to kill the men who controlled it.”

        “Kill them? How?” asked Kain.

        “Radiation poisoning,” answered Fordice.

        “Right,” said Bondi, shaking his head. “Maybe that’s why all the droids. Anything that can drag a starship out of hyperspace must produce close to the same power levels as we’re talking about.”

        “But could it fit on that droid command ship we saw?” asked Fordice?

        “Maybe eventually,” said Kain. “But the technology isn’t there yet. As far as I know. It would have to be huge.” Kain pointed at their feet.

        “The planetoid…” said Dolan. “We’re standing on the weapon.”

        “Well, one part of it,” said Captain Fordice, following Kain’s line of thought. “Probably just the generator core. The droid ship does the dirty work. This thing just messes with whatever is traveling the hyperlane. Including, I’d wager, our communications.”

        “If it’s a machine, we can destroy it,” said Bondi. “We just need to find a way in.” His white-suited marines nodded in assent. Their armor, reminiscent of the Clone Trooper armor from the war, was a little less sleek, a little less symmetrical to Kain’s eyes. Like the new TIE fighters the Empire had delivered to the Absolute, these troopers looked rougher than he’d remembered the Clones looking; and these men weren’t clones. They were conscripts and volunteers – Men who were taking part in the Empire’s defense, rather than biological weapons bought for war. It was a different time, and Kain was, by and large, glad to be a part of it. However, remnants of the war remained, and if this situation was any indication, the effects of the war would be felt for years to come. The scars might never fade from the galaxy, but Kain was determined that no more innocents should feel the pain of those scars.

        “We have to destroy it. Now.” Said Kain. “We have the tools, and the men to do it. Somehow, the droids allowed the marines to land unscathed. I don’t know why, but we can’t lose that advantage.”

        “No,” said Captain Fordice. “We need to find a way off this rock, and report the incident to the Emperor. He will decide if this weapon should be destroyed or not.”

        “It’s not a matter of one or the other,” said Kain. “To get free, we need to destroy this outpost. If a leftover Seperatist weapon, it should be shut down already.”

        “Indeed,” retorted Fordice. “And why isn’t it? The shutdown order was sent when the war ended. If these are Seperatist droids, why weren’t they shut down with the order?”

        “Perhaps the hyperspace weapon scrambled the order,” said Bell “Our signals travel through hyperspace to reach all corners of the galaxy.”

“Right,” picked up Kain. “And if this weapon is somehow able to interfere with those lines, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the shutdown order was also effected. And if so, these droids are operating on the last orders they received, and have been since the war ended.”

        “Regardless, we need to disable or destroy whatever it is that can pull our ships out of hyperspace. If not, we’re basically leaving an undetonated mine, and that’s assuming we could even get off this rock without disabling it.”

        Captain Fordice shook his head, but didn’t voice any disagreement. Bondi spoke up, ready for action. “If this rock is indeed the power source of the hyperspace weapon, there must be a way in. Can we scan for that?”

        “We should be able to, if the ships sensors are intact,” said Kain. Then, so as not to give any hint of insubordination, he turned to Captain Fordice.

The Bold Born’s Captain stood in contemplation, as if he was trying to decide his next move. After a moment, he raised his head and spoke to one of the other survivors of the crash. “Ensign Piek, scan for heat sources on the surface of the planetoid.”

“Yes sir,” replied Piek. “I scan multiple. They seem to be venting heat into space.”

“Of course. A power source the size we expect would need to release massive amounts of exhaust to keep from overheating,” said Fordice.

“Can we shut them up? Maybe we let this thing blow itself up,” suggested Dolan. The pilot was growing restless listening to strategy. He wanted to be in the sky, but remembered his ship was now part of the ether.

“Even if we could stop all of them up,” said Bondi, “We couldn’t be sure we could get away before it blew, and that explosion would probably take us with it. No, there has to be a way in to the control room. Is there anything else showing on the scan that looks like a door?”

“Not particularly,” answered Piek. “Just a minute.” Piek entered some new parameters into his scan. Shortly, he had what he was looking for. “There. I scanned for material inconsistencies, figuring there must be a landing bay of some sort. There’s your door.”

Everyone looked at the readout. “That’s on the other side of the planetoid from us,” said Bondi. “It’ll take some time to get over there.”

“And who knows what kind of resistance you’ll face, if the droids catch wind of what we’re doing,” said Dolan.

“Now, I have a thought about that,” said Kain. “The fact that the marines were allowed to land unmolested plays into the theory that this installation is indeed an old Seperatist weapon, and the droids, still acting on old orders, also have old databases. The ship the marines flew in on is new – Made after the end of the war. The droids may not have been able to register it, and as such, we might have the leeway to at least get to the hangar doors. Once we try to break in, though…”

“Then it’ll be too late for them,” said Bondi. His marines grunted in agreement. “Good. We’ll take the landing shuttle to the door and get inside. Once we do, we’ll look for the power source and see if we can’t shut down this deathtrap.”

“Bondi, how long do you think it’ll take to get in?” asked Kain. “With communications down, it’s only a matter of time before Captain Sarcune brings The Absolute to check on things himself, despite the danger.”

“Depends on what we find,” said the Marine. “We’re leaving now.” Bondi and his team spun on their feet and headed to the shuttle.

“I should go with them,” said Dolan.

“No,” said Kain, “You’d just get in their way. We’ve gotta let Bondi and his men do their jobs.”

***

On The Absolute, Captain Sarcune paced the bridge, tugging at his beard. His communications officer had informed him that Commander Kain and Lietenent Bondi were no longer reachable, despite best efforts. An Imperial ship was out there, waiting to be rescued. Sarcune trusted Kain and Bondi, but he couldn’t leave them out there alone for much longer. Sarcune turned to his second. “Mark the time. In twenty, we’re jumping to Kain’s coordinates. I want full battlestations at the ready. Even if it is a trap, whoever springs it will be sorry they trifled with The Absolute.”