Lucky Strike (A Star Wars SI)

[Fanof1]

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

 

[Yacov]

"None of us are trained on ships this old," Teskit replied, meeting my gaze firmly. "You're familiar enough to recognize the ship when no one else here could. Ronard and a few engineers will accompany you. If either ship can be restored, we'll move both of the corvette crews aboard to act as a skeleton crew and move on from there."

Click to shrink...

The Interdictor class was made by Republic Sienar Systems, who are currently selling ships to the CIS and whose successor company would go on to land a massive contract to make the TIE series.

"Well, I guess we'll find out," I chuckled as Ronard and the engineers split up between the handful of LAAT/Is and shuttles. "Pilot, get us over to that Interdictor," I ordered. "Might as well find out what ghosts lie here."

Click to shrink...

Given the era it is from, that last phrase might be literal.

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter

 

[MovingTarget]

He might be able to nab a cortosis weave vibro blade in the ships armory for his own use

 

[Grimmouse197]

I hope he finds an artifact That contains The essence of a jedi And then fuses with him. Or even better both a sith and a jedi Essence.

 

[MarkWarrior]

The ride through the void was silent apart from the rumble of the gunship's engines and repulsors. Knight Durald had her eyes closed and seemed to be in some sort of meditative state underneath the clear bubble that made up the helmet of her environment suit.

There were a hundred and twenty people split up into halves to inspect the two ships. Ronard had half of the engineers and was heading up the inspection of the hammerhead looking ship, and I was going to be in charge of seeing how spaceworthy the Interdictor was.

All of which filled me with nerves. Especially as we crept ever closer to the looming cruiser. The odd shape filling the transparisteel viewscreen of the gunship.

"Sir, where do we want to make an entry?" the pilot asked.

"See if the hangar bays are open at all," I replied. "If the bulkhead doors aren't closed, we'll work our way through there. If not, we'll use an escape pod hatch."

"Yes, sir," The clone replied, pulling on the sticks and moving us over and down the side of the ship.

I looked out the front and saw very minimal damage to the hull from anything. Sure, there were a few minor turbolaser scars, but it didn't seem like there was a ton of battle damage. Whatever happened to these ships wasn't external. No, there was something else going on here. And based on the fact that Durald was with us, I figured it was something to do with a Force ghost or some leftover Sith or Jedi bullshit.

All of the hanger doors were shut, probably a safety feature similar to the one aboard modern ships where when the power initially cuts out, the doors slam shut as it's more power efficient to close the doors than it was to keep the magnetic fields up and running. Which meant we were going in through one of the escape pod hatches.

"I've located one of the larger escape pod hatches," the pilot informed us as he dropped the gunship 'down'. "Secure your tethers and get ready to breach in."

Every clone and engineer had a line of strong but thin cord attached to their utility belt that was able to be secured magnetically or via a grappling hook if necessary. In this case, we locked them onto the side of the cruiser and locked our magnetic boots onto the armored hull.

"There isn't any power to the doors," An engineer called out as he examined the external control pad that was covered by a panel he'd pulled off and left floating beside him. "I can plug in a temporary battery and get some power to them for now. With it being without power for this long, it should have reverted to factory standard access codes."

"Do what you need to," I ordered. "Just get us in."

It was kinda odd that Durald hadn't taken charge yet, but I simply shrugged as the second LAAT/I touched down and the other thirty clones and engineers attached themselves to the hull.

But working out in the void took time. So, it was slow going as a trio of engineers pulled a case to them and began working with various cable ends, struggling to line everything up with the correct power requirements.

Waiting on them, I looked out around me, Battlegroup Huntress being tiny specs barely visible in the light of the local star, and the small nebula around us shimmering with a rainbow of colours as the dust scattered the light. If nothing else, just getting to see this view made signing up with the Republic Navy worthwhile.

Maybe it was the view, maybe it was that I was locked into the task we were doing, but any nervousness I'd had vanished as soon as the escape pod hatch slid open and the engineers waved us through. Replacing it was a calm certainty that things were going to go wrong, and it was only a matter of time before we encountered something life-threatening or changing.

---

"Get those generators hooked up to these terminals!" Ronard barked. "And someone close the blast doors on this hanger!"

Whatever had happened aboard this ship, it was bad. Debris lay everywhere, all but four of the starfighters were in pieces, and scars from blaster fire, grenades, and what looked like a plasma torch covered the hanger.

If Ronard were a betting man, he'd put money on there being bodies further inside the ship. In fact, he was counting on it. Which is why he tapped a Clone Sergeant's shoulder and pulled him in close.

"I want a squad with each set of engineers," Ronard ordered. "And two of them clearing out the interior of the ship. Beyond the damage here, something feels off."

"Lucky, Shrap, get over here!" The clone pointed to two clones that looked identical to the rest. "Take two squads, go through this ship, make sure nothing alive is in here."

"And if there is, Sarge?" Lucky asked.

"Then you make sure that it isn't anymore," Ronard cut in. "Anything still alive here isn't something we want to deal with."

"Understood, sir," Shrap nodded, moving to his squad and giving them some directions while Lucky did the same.

The two squads disappeared further into the dark ship, green chemlights on their shoulder pauldrons and helmet mounted lights the only sign they were there at all.

"Jon!" Ronard turned his attention back to his job, trusting the Clones to do theirs. "I want the lights on and a floor plan!"

"Workin' on it!" The other old engineer yelled back. "I ain't seen anything this old since you and I had to break into that one freighter back in the day."

"Just get it done," Ronard sighed, the glint of a Vibroblade floating nearby catching his attention as it reflected some of the rays from the flashlights. "I want to get this over and done with."

"Sir, these starfighters are in immaculate condition!" Praul called out, his lekku constrained by the helmet he wore. "We should be able to put them into service if we can get them into one of our hangar bays. The concussion missile tubes are even the same diameter as ours!"

"Well, at least we won't be going back empty handed," Ronard reached out and grabbed the Vibroblade, attaching it to his hip. Something told him he'd want to have it later. "If you can get them powered up and running, have them taken back to the Inevitable. They'll have the hangar space for them."

"Yes. sir!" Praul replied.

All around him, engineers began cleaning up debris, the ones with the generator eventually got the hangar's power working and Jon got the console working enough to pull a rough layout of the now identified Thranta-Class Corvette.

"Jon, we're going to go check out the core," Ronard called his old friend over. "If I recall, these Thranta's had an older annihilator core that had issues. If this thing is unstable, the last thing we need is for us to power it back on. We'd kill half the battlegroup and ourselves in an instant."

Jon shuddered. "I hate these old ships," he muttered. "Always feels like there're ghosts watching your every step."

"You and me both," Ronard replied. "Sergeant, any word on those squads we sent further in?"

"They haven't encountered anything yet," the Clone replied. "Nothing aside from bodies, anyway."

"Bring them back until we get the power back on," Ronard called out. "Last thing we need is for us to activate some security measures and kill our people."

---

"I'm breaking you into six groups," I looked out at the sixty clones and Engineers. "One tech to one trooper. Group one," I pointed to myself and a handful of people. "We're heading to the bridge. Group two, engineering, see if we can restore power. Group three, head over to the hanger, see if there's anything there. Groups four, five, and six, I want you to spread out, police bodies and see if you can find any information on the ship and what it was doing here as we reactivate systems."

We were about to disperse when I gave one more command.

"Updates every five minutes," I ordered. "If you're delayed, we'll assume the worst happened and all groups will reorient on the last known location."

With that, they all moved through the rest of the ship, leaving me with nine other people and a Jedi to wrangle.

Thankfully, there were aurebesh markings and arrows pointing to common areas on the ship, even if we were going to be roaming through the ship's corridors until we finally got to the bridge.

With a few short hand signals, the clones took point and we began moving through the ship, the darkened corridors only lit by the helmet lights of the clones and some chemlights. The eerie darkness consuming everything but not in a way that seemed threatening, just lonely.

Then, as we bypassed a door to go through the barracks on the way to the bridge, we saw the bodies.

They were clearly on their way to their battle stations, their uniforms marked with the symbol of the Republic, and some of them floating above their bunks as if they'd died trying to climb out.

"This is Lieutenant Hull," I opened a channel to the other teams. "You guys seeing this too?"

"They're everywhere," Engineer Aliya breathed quietly. "So many of them…"

"Team four," I felt an epiphany strike. "Once the power is on, make your way to the atmosphere scrubbers. See if there's any chemical agents present or lingering there. Everyone else, keep your suits on until we've got verification that it's safe to breathe."

Walking through the barracks, I nearly paused at the armory room before shaking my head and continuing on. There would be time to loot things later.

Thankfully, ships weren't wholly reliant on turbolifts to get from one area to the next, there were hatches and access points that had ladders and other old-fashioned means of transportation throughout every ship in the galaxy. Unfortunately for us, said ladder system stretched from the bottom of the ship all the way to the top, and even on a cruiser that wasn't as massive as a Mandator or Praetor, there were still a lot of rungs.

The only good thing was that we currently didn't have any artificial gravity. So, instead of having to physically climb, we were pushing ourselves off and allowing momentum to carry us to the levels that we wanted to be on. Eventually, after an hour or so of stopping to check which floor we were on, we reached the floor that the bridge was on.

Just in time too, as Aliya informed all the groups.

"I'm about to activate the backup reactors," Aliya informed us all. "It should allow critical sections to be accessed and systems restored. But one of those is artificial gravity. If you're in the access corridors, you need to hold on."

There was a slight sound heard and the red glow of the emergency lights slowly illuminated everything. Sure, it made everything seem more sinister at first until my eyes adjusted, but being able to see the dead actually made things less terrifying. Also, being able to open doors made our transit even faster.

"Good work," I told Aliya. "Anything else that we need to be aware of?"
"There's still hypermatter in storage, but it'll take time to reactivate the pumps and restore power to the main power plant," you could hear the shrug in her shoulders. "There's no sign of critical issues, it's like the main plant just ran out of fuel eventually. Leaving it here."

"Copy that," I nodded for the Clone Engineer to open the door to the bridge. "Keep me posted."

The bridge had the same bodies that the barracks had, only they were in slightly more decorated uniforms barring the lone figure in the prominent brown robes of a Jedi lying on the center of the ground.

"Nothing but dust and echoes," Durald finally said something, having been mostly silent during our trek through the ship. "Not even so much as a Force Echo is here to mark their passing."

She knelt next to the mummified corpse and pulled out a lightsaber, igniting it and seeing the pale blue beam before shutting it off and adding it to her belt. Crouching down again, she eventually removed a small brown pouch before tucking it into a pocket and standing up.

"There is no threat from the Dark Side of the Force here," She murmured and then jolted as if struck by an electric shock.

"Gunship Besh, meet me at the hangar we passed by earlier!" She ordered into her comlink. "Lieutenant Hull, I'm taking this squad with me. They're going to need assistance on the other ship."

"Go," I replied and gestured for the Clones to follow. "We'll be fine here."

With that, the Jedi left us alone in the dark red lit corridors filled with the dead.

Author's note: The Interdictor was technically a Galactic Republic class of ship before Revan mass-produced them with the Star Forge. I rolled some dice in order to see what happened here. And, well. Sometimes things get flipped on their heads.

 

[Yacov]

Replacing it was a calm certainty that things were going to go wrong, and it was only a matter of time before we encountered something life-threatening or changing.

Click to shrink...

Seeing as it was a Jedi Civil War and the Clone and Non-Clone crew are wearing Mandalorian style armor… eh I am sure you will be fine.

"Sir, these starfighters are in immaculate condition!" Praul called out, his lekku constrained by the helmet he wore. "We should be able to put them into service if we can get them into one of our hangar bays. The concussion missile tubes are even the same diameter as ours!"

"Well, at least we won't be going back empty handed," Ronard reached out and grabbed the Vibroblade, attaching it to his hip. Something told him he'd want to have it later. "If you can get them powered up and running, have them taken back to the Inevitable. They'll have the hangar space for them."

Click to shrink...

Well I am sure those Star Fighters are going to confuse the heck out of some Separatist sensor specialists. They're going to have no idea what is flying at them.

"There is no threat from the Dark Side of the Force here," She murmured and then jolted as if struck by an electric shock.

"Gunship Besh, meet me at the hangar we passed by earlier!" She ordered into her comlink. "Lieutenant Hull, I'm taking this squad with me. They're going to need assistance on the other ship."

Click to shrink...

Hull: "Woohoo! Not me!"

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter

 

[cestus41]

Nice sick addition to the fleet and not every old wreck hides evil some just hide sadness

 

[MarkWarrior]

Kalyna Durald had never been the strongest or smartest Jedi. She knew that she'd only barely squeezed by her trials with her endurance and specialization at healing. With the Republic going to War against the Confederacy, she'd only barely accepted being made a 'Jedi-Commander'. She was 'adequate' at all of the disciplines expected of a Jedi, but only good at one. Fighting, strategy, leaping into danger without thinking twice?

No, she left the strategy, battle plans, and everything else to those who were good at it. Captain Teskit was a highly competent and capable commander, as were the majority of the ranking officers among Battlegroup Huntress. She would much prefer to remain in the background, listening and assisting as needed.

Which is why she'd simply observed as Lieutenant Hull and his people went through the derelict vessel. Instead of directing, she'd reached into the Force and waited for it to speak to her. But the deeper they got, the less danger there seemed to be. The only thing that remained on this ship was that of a deep sadness. There were no Force Ghosts here, no lingering madness of the Dark Side.

Yes, it was a tragedy that so many died, but after reaching the bridge and collecting the dead Jedi's lightsaber and Holocron, she'd been confident that there was no lingering issues on this vessel. That was, until the Force screamed out at her as the Dark Side surged nearby. It shocked her senses and she reached out, feeling the panic and dear of the personnel on the other ship as well as the loss of life that had just happened.

"Gunship Besh, meet me at the hangar we passed by earlier!" Kalyna ordered into her comlink before turning her gaze onto the officer aboard this ship. "Lieutenant Hull, I'm taking this squad with me. They're going to need assistance on the other ship."

"Go," Hull seemed concerned, his brow furrowed as he replied and gestured for the Clones to follow. "We'll be fine here."

The clones simply fell in behind her as she sprinted down corridors, eventually arriving at the turbolift that would carry them down to the hangar below them.

"Ma'am, do you know what the enemy is?" the Sergeant asked.

"Not yet," Kalyna shook her head. "I sense that someone or something is killing the other boarding party and it is fully immersed in the Dark Side of the Force."

"Whatever you say, ma'am," The green-striped clone shrugged. "We'll follow orders."

When they arrived at the hangar, the doors were just beginning to slide open, the pair of gunships sliding into the bay and setting down next to the rows of starfighters that dominated the space.

If they'd had the time, Kalyna would have marveled at the immaculate condition that everything was in, but as it was, she and the clones bypassed the fighters and bodies that filled the hanger, heading for the closest gunship and climbing aboard.

"Pilot!" she called out. "Get us over to the other ship, and open a channel to the Providence."

"Yes, ma'am!" The clone replied, sliding closed the bay doors and taking off at a rapid speed.

"This is Captain Teskit," The voice of the Battlegroup's commander was calm.

"Captain," Kalyna's mind raced to figure out how to explain the issue to him before the calming influence of the Light Side filled her. "The other ship is under danger and their party is being attacked."

"I presume you're asking for reinforcements?" The Captain asked.

"No," she shook her head. "If we don't manage to defeat whatever this is, then you need to destroy the ship."

"I'll take it under advisement," Teskit replied. "But I'll not destroy a ship that has any of my people aboard it. Not while there's a chance to recover them. I'll leave communications with the gunship open. If you require reinforcements, then call for them and I'll divert more troopers your way."

Kalyna simply sighed and immersed herself in the Light. She would need to be at her best to face this, and she wasn't confident in her ability to handle an ancient Sith threat.

–
–

The gunship settled into the hangar of the second derelict, the red glow of emergency lights and harsh white of flashlights pointing down a corridor with Clones and engineers keeping their blasters trained on the entrances.

"What's going on here?" The Clone Sergeant asked as he stepped off the gunship, Kalyna pulling her lightsaber off her belt and holding it close. Whatever was aboard this ship, its attention was caught by something further within.

"Sir, first and second squads encountered something after the backup power was restored. We all heard the screams, but there was nothing we could do." a sole clone replied. "The Chief Engineer is trapped in the engine room along with Sarge, and we haven't had any contact from the few engineer teams that are scattered throughout the ship."

"Stay here and protect those who are left," Kalyna ordered, swallowing her nerves. "Sergeant, your squad is with me, we'll eliminate this or buy time for the Engineer and his group to evacuate."

With that, she stepped into the corridor and gestured for them to follow her as she followed the directions of the Force.

The deeper they went, the more oppressive the feeling became, until eventually they discovered the two squads of clones that had been exploring the ship. They had been cut apart by lightsabers, the burn scars littered throughout the room showcasing the fight the clones had put up against whatever they'd faced, and the long gashes in the floor and walls showed that it was clearly raging or some sort of berserker.

Igniting her own lightsaber, Kalyna allowed the comfort of the weapon to center her as she took point, leading them even deeper. The Sith Markings on the wall showing exactly who this ship had belonged to.

Finally, after what felt like hours of looking through the dark corridors for the enemy, they found him. A dark figure shrouded in dark robes, a violet lightsaber held in his hand as he carved apart a bulkhead door.

"Finally," a smug and charismatic voice seemed to echo through their minds and the stale air of the ship. "An opponent that tastes different. I will enjoy pulling the life from you, Jedi."

With a quick shift of his wrist, the dark-jedi pulled his lightsaber out of the door just in time to block the blue bolts of the Clone's blaster rifles.

"Please, must you have the help with you?" He settled into a stance and taunted. "Have the Jedi become so weak that they fight against me with this filth?"

Taking a deep breath, Kalyna settled into a Soresu stance and centered herself. Waiting for the enemy to make the first move was hard, but she knew where her strength lay, and outlasting the enemy was her way.

After a few seconds, the violet blade lashed out against her, the enemy blade clashing against her yellow as she redirected his force into the wall before stepping back into her stance. But that was only the first probe, and a flurry of attacks came soon after that.

This Sith, Dark Jedi, whatever he was, was more skilled with the blade than she was, the only reason she was able to keep up with him was due to his weakness. It was obvious that he was holding back or struggling to overcome some sort of injury.

They clashed in the hallways, Dark versus Light as Kalyna struggled to keep the enemy bottled up in this narrow space. Occasionally, one of the clones would get a shot off, the blaster rifle bolts enough of a distraction to allow her to stay in the fight as her energy slowly began to dip.

As her energy levels flagged, she began receiving small wounds, the violet lightsaber leaving small cauterized wounds on her. Then, right as she was about to flag and knew her end was near, a stream of fire retardant material streamed from an overhead nozzle, covering the Dark Jedi and distracting him enough for his deflection to lag behind by a few seconds, just long enough for her yellow blade to drive through his heart and lungs.

"This is Ronard, you guys alright?" A voice echoed through the comlink. "We managed to gain control of some interior systems and tried to lend a hand."

"Thank you," she breathed in response, kicking the now deactivated lightsaber out of the dead Dark Jedi's hand. "Do any of you have flamethrowers?" She asked the clone squad behind her.

"Negative," the Sergeant shook his head. "If you want the body gone though, I have a solution," He held up one of the thermal detonator grenades. "We can leave this behind on a short timer and close the door behind us."

"No," Kalyna shook her head. "We're not leaving this out of our sight."

Touching her comlink, she connected to the channel Ronard had spoken on.

"Engineer, are you able to reactivate the main power on this vessel?"

"Everything's kriffed," the engineer replied. "We've got blasterfire scars and bodies all over the place, the main reactor's likely to go if we turn it back on, and there's enough damage here I wouldn't want to even try limping this thing to a museum."

"Pull the logs as best you can," Kalyna replied. "We've dealt with the threat, but there's no telling what other evils lie on this ship."

"Already ahead of you," Ronard said. "We pulled the system and logs across the ship as soon as we reached the engine room. We'll tuck them into a storage device and meet you in the hangar."

"Alright," Kalyna let out a breath she'd been holding. "Grab the body, we're throwing it into the sun before we leave this system. But we can't leave it out of our sight."

---

"Air scrubbers are going to be an issue," Aliya said, showing me her datapad. "There's some sort of biological compound that's grown into the scrubbers themselves. It was probably created to be used as a weapon, with this ship being the test case for it."

"How long will it take to remove it?" I asked.

"More time than we have," she replied with a heavy sigh. "I've shut them off and sealed them for now, but we'll have to find a yard and have that system overhauled if we want to use it. Outside of that, we should be able to set up some areas with backup scrubbers for sections of the ship, but we'll have to use some bulkheads as an airlock."

"Alright," I nodded, already thinking about which sections to set up. "Anything else?"

"Port side hangar doors are sealed shut, and I don't think we'll be able to open them with the equipment we have, also, the power conduits on that side of the ship are in disrepair, looks like there was a small collision with something that broke something there. We can reroute the power, but we won't have the turbolasers on that side, only deflectors. Beyond that, it seems that this ship was refitted and didn't have the gravity well generators that the other ships of her class had. Instead, they placed ion cannons, more point defense lasers, and a half-dozen heavy turbolasers around the ship."

"Well, there goes that hope," I shrugged. "Tell me the thrusters on the port side still work."

"They do," She nodded. "We've got full engines and if we can make it to a yard, we can get this ship up to modern standards. Honestly, if we can improve the power efficiency, we'll have stronger deflectors than the Inevitable. Not to mention we already have a thicker hull."

"Well, let's hope we can get to that yard sooner than later," I said. "I've got most of the clones working on policing bodies and taking inventory of the armories and barracks. If there's anything you want, let us know."

"Honestly, sir," She replied. "I'm just happy to work on the Horizon as it is. Sure, the tech is old, but you can see where we based ours off of it and where we diverged. It's fascinating."

"I'm sure it is," I agreed. "But right now, we need to piece together exactly what we need to get the Horizon limping along. As well as what we do and don't have aboard her. If there's anything we can use the ship's fabricators for, we'll do that, if not, we'll source it from the battlegroup."

"We're gonna need a lot more personnel," she tapped a button on her datapad showing the necessary amount of crew to just get the most basic of systems running.

"We're getting five hundred," I showed her the memo. "That doesn't include the sixty already here, but we're going to have to make it work."

"That's just enough to get us moving," She sighed again. "Now, which sections and subsections are going to require power. If we're going to be operating on a skeleton crew, we're going to be able to focus on a handful of sections and pump more power to the shields and turbolasers…"

 

[Andrew1993]

Nice

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter

 

[Frater Astrotechnicus]

So no Hammerhead, and the interdictor is only half operational
Unfortunate

 

[Yacov]

With the Republic going to War against the Confederacy, she'd only barely accepted being made a 'Jedi-Commander'. She was 'adequate' at all of the disciplines expected of a Jedi, but only good at one. Fighting, strategy, leaping into danger without thinking twice?

No, she left the strategy, battle plans, and everything else to those who were good at it. Captain Teskit was a highly competent and capable commander, as were the majority of the ranking officers among Battlegroup Huntress. She would much prefer to remain in the background, listening and assisting as needed.

Click to shrink...

Congratulations, you are already a more competent Jedi-Commander than a lot of your peers. Being able to shut up and let the better trained people do their jobs is a skill a lot of Jedi of this era don't learn.

This Sith, Dark Jedi, whatever he was, was more skilled with the blade than she was, the only reason she was able to keep up with him was due to his weakness. It was obvious that he was holding back or struggling to overcome some sort of injury.

Click to shrink...

It's called millennia of deep sleep. He must be reaaallly groggy.

As her energy levels flagged, she began receiving small wounds, the violet lightsaber leaving small cauterized wounds on her. Then, right as she was about to flag and knew her end was near, a stream of fire retardant material streamed from an overhead nozzle, covering the Dark Jedi and distracting him enough for his deflection to lag behind by a few seconds, just long enough for her yellow blade to drive through his heart and lungs.

Click to shrink...

Eat your heart out Obi Wan. Now Kalyna is the second Jedi in the modern era with a full blown Sith Kill under their belts. nobody even died when the Force Users began fighting.

"Negative," the Sergeant shook his head. "If you want the body gone though, I have a solution," He held up one of the thermal detonator grenades. "We can leave this behind on a short timer and close the door behind us."

"No," Kalyna shook her head. "We're not leaving this out of our sight."

Click to shrink...

And Kalyna kept an eye on the body to prevent any dark side shenanigans. It took Obi Wan decades to finally put Maul down for good.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Eat your heart out Obi Wan. Now Kalyna is the second Jedi in the modern era with a full blown Sith Kill under their belts. nobody even died when the Force Users began fighting.

Click to shrink...

More Dark Jedi than full-blown Sith. But still, she does get props for keeping calm.

 

[GrimmKenway8646]

"Air scrubbers are going to be an issue," Aliya said, showing me her datapad. "There's some sort of biological compound that's grown into the scrubbers themselves. It was probably created to be used as a weapon, with this ship being the test case for it."

Click to shrink...

Oh for the love of the Force, please don't tell me it's another zombie virus/fungus/curse. It doesn't look like Rakghouls and it's a tad early for the ones we know to be here.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Oh for the love of the Force, please don't tell me it's another zombie virus/fungus/curse. It doesn't look like Rakghouls and it's a tad early for the ones we know to be here.

Click to shrink...

No zombies, just death. No life after death for this one. Undeath, whatever it is.

 

[GrimmKenway8646]

No zombies, just death. No life after death for this one. Undeath, whatever it is.

Click to shrink...

Oh that's good, which is weird. But considering what could happen, this is better.

 

[Blankmask]

This Sith, Dark Jedi, whatever he was, was more skilled with the blade than she was, the only reason she was able to keep up with him was due to his weakness. It was obvious that he was holding back or struggling to overcome some sort of injury.

Click to shrink...

Yes. He's probably half dead on account of having been here for god knows how long.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 16


"Try the test now," I ordered Aliya over the comms.

"Checking power conduits," She replied from the engine room. "Everything's green on my end."

"Good," I reached up to wipe sweat off my brow before running into the stupid dome. "If all of the tests check out, then we'll have bypassed the damaged section."

"Running the whole suite now," Aliya said. "Stay where you are, it'll take about thirty minutes for us to get the results back."

"Understood," I responded. "I'll be here."

We'd spent the better part of 24 hours working to restore as much of the Horizon to full functionality as possible. While more and more personnel were reassigned from the battlegroup to assist, Ronard and his group were stripping everything of value from the nearby Thranta, a steady stream of Gozantis and shuttles ferrying everything into the impressive cargo holds of the Interdictor.

There were still bodies to be policed and set aside for a space burial, systems to be checked and worked on, but the initial work in getting us prepared for the jump to the next system was done. Or it would be after these tests came back.

When we finished working on this, I was going to crash for a few hours and then look in the Armory to see what loot I would be claiming for my own. I already had a decent blaster pistol and holdout blaster tucked away in a hidden holster. But it never hurt to have more specialized arms.

Frankly, I was hoping to pick up one of the Cortosis-weave vibroblades at a minimum. Even if the sword simply served as a wall hanger for my quarters for a while. I'd rather have it and never need it than need it and not have it. If I managed to find a decent set of armor that fit within the regs, I would probably grab that too. (Though, I was likely never going to wear it barring another boarding action.)

"Lieutenant, what's your location?" Ronard's voice broke through my thoughts.

"I'm at the port side power control center," I replied. "Waiting on tests from Engineer Aliya for verification that we're good to go."

"Stay there," the other man ordered. "I'm coming to you. Captain Teskit decided on the command of the ship and it's something you're going to want to hear."

"Understood," I shrugged. "I'll remain on station."

Bringing out my datapad while I waited, I ran through some of the ship logs we'd pulled. Eventually, we were going to submit them to the historical archives, but right now they simply made for fascinating reading.

The door slid open a few moments later, revealing Ronard in his standard issue suit, the only modification being a helmet that was designed with his background in mind.

"Lieutenant Commander," I stood up as he entered the room.

"Sit back down," He commanded, looking around for a minute before grabbing a chair and dragging it in front of me before plopping down. "I'll get straight to it. I'm being given command of the Horizon."

"Yes, sir?" I raised an eyebrow. I hadn't expected to be given command of a ship yet.

"But I don't want anything to do with running a ship," Ronard said bluntly. "And Condev kriffing knows that. So, here's how things are going to work. I'm an engineer, that's all I want to be, that's all I want to do. You're going to essentially be the captain, running the day to day of the ship. The Captain already cleared this. If we encounter another Republic fleet, you let me know and I'll come up to the Bridge and look the part. Until then, enjoy your new responsibilities, Lieutenant."

With that, he stood up, pausing at the door.

"I'll be in the engine room if you need me."

A few minutes passed and I sat there somewhat frozen, still putting everything together when my comlink chimed and Aliya broke through my mental fog.

"Lieutenant, all the tests are coming back positive, hell, they're better than we expected. If we can get some repairs made, we should be able to get some of the turbolasers on this side of the ship back up and running!"

"Copy that," I shoved aside the shock and focused on the tasks we were doing right now. None of the other stuff mattered if we couldn't get the Horizon moving. "Where do you need me to go next?"

"There's two stations further up that are giving me some odd readings," she replied, pausing for a moment to do what I assumed was to look at a panel. "I need the conduits there inspected and marked as to whether they can be repaired with what we have on hand or if we need to wait for yard time."

"Alright, give me directions," I stood up. "I'll go check things out."

---

It wasn't until we'd begun moving that I finally found the time to grab a couple of trophies for myself. Sure, I probably could have done it earlier, but I wanted the Horizon to be in as good condition as possible before grabbing whatever might help me.

Of course, picking which armory to loot was the hardest decision. According to the ship's logs I'd read, this ship was commanded by a Jedi Knight and had a handful of commandos onboard. Given how prominent the Cortosis-weave vibroblades were back then, I was confident in finding one that I'd be comfortable having and learning how to use.

Eventually, I settled on the armory the closest to the bridge, assuming that it would be the one that the Jedi and his commando team would likely be using. An assumption that I was proven right in when I opened the door and looked at what was present.

Racks of Republic Modular armor with varying helmets, vibroblades, and what looked like custom blaster rifles and pistols were tucked into racks and footlockers. There was also a small fabricator resting on a nearby workbench, a feed ramp with materials sitting just beside it.

First things first, I went to the rack of vibroblades, bypassing the katana looking ones immediately and heading for what looked like a straight sword, grabbing each in turn until I'd found the one I thought was balanced the best, then tucking it and the sword belt onto my side. I tested the draw and nodded, sliding it back into its sheath before turning to look at the armor.

Republic Mod armor was one of the things that many people in the Republic Navy wished hadn't been phased out. From what I understood, the basic armor remained the same for nearly ten thousand years before being changed. With only minor updates to the systems. All of which meant that I wouldn't have to do much shopping around to find compatible helmets or accessories for the armor.

Even better, it was technically still allowed in the regs for space suits, (Provided it was painted appropriately).

So, after looking through all of the suits, I grabbed the one that fit best and tossed it and the vibroblade into a footlocker, then turned my attention to the blaster rifles. My issued sidearm was again, probably one of the best procurement decisions the Republic had ever made, but it was still technically just that. A modular sidearm, and anything that tries to do more than one or two things is probably not going to do particularly well at any single one of them.

With that thought in mind, I looked through the blaster rifles before deciding on a cutdown carbine with iron sights and an optic that reminded me of the AR platform I was familiar with.

Then I was done. I didn't want to take any family heirlooms we might find. After all, families here in this galaxy oftentimes could trace back lineage thousands of years. So, after grabbing ammo for everything and a few power packs for the armor and blade, I dragged the footlocker out. There was still work to be done before we reached known space.

---

"Captain, we've arrived in the planned system, the Horizon and corvettes are lagging behind," Franz reported.

"Very well," Teskit replied. "Have the battlegroup fall into formation Cresh and start scanning the system. "We won't be able to fool the Separatists for long, so calculate our jump to Ord Cestus and have the Horizon, Adept, and Jackal join the formation as soon as they arrive."

"Aye, sir," The ensign replied, speaking into her headset and relaying the information.

"Commander Task, you have the con," Teskit moved back to the tactical display and pulled up the known information on Ord Cestus.

There were a handful of known battle droid factories producing the somewhat upgraded B-1s that were in common use throughout the Confederacy. Sure, it was only a few factories, but anything to catch the Separatist's attention and drag it away from other operations would be useful.

Teskit considered the planet, resting his hand on his chin as he was notified that the Horizon and other two slow ships had caught up.

He currently had a manpower problem. He had enough crew to keep his main fleet in action, but not enough to keep them fresh. But there was a solution if they could manage to pull it off.

B-1s weren't the smartest, but they were easily reprogrammed if you had control of the factory. Assuming he could capture and hold the factory long enough, he could manufacture enough of them to ensure his crew issue was solved and then destroy the factories as they left.

The largest issue lay in the shutdown codes. They would be on a limited timeframe to change the factory codes to something only his troops had access to. He needed to speak to Ronard and his engineers. If they were going to do something like this, he needed a guarantee that they could make it work before he exposed his people to the potential threat.

–
–

"It can be done," the Captain's old friend sighed on the other end of the private comms channel. "But we'll only be able to do this once. If we do this, then the enemy will put together that we were able to do it and will adapt."

"I'm aware," Teskit replied. "I just need to know if it will help with the manpower issue."

"It'll certainly help," Teskit could almost hear Ronard's shrug. "But they're not going to be the brightest bulbs. It'd be like having the army or security forces in charge of the ship. Best to pair them with experienced crew so their learning algorithms can perform at their best. They won't fully replace any of our people. But here on the Horizon, or the other ships we stripped crews from. They'll definitely be a help."

"Get me a list of what we'll need," Teskit said. "I'll have everything ready by the time we reach Ord Cestus."

 

[Andrew1993]

Nice, possibly picking up a few tens of thousands of B1s would be a massive boon

 

[MarkWarrior]

Message in a bottle

Yoda meditated in the communications room of the Jedi Temple. Usually, he would have been found at the room of a thousand fountains or the garden, but instead, he had followed the guidance of the Force here.

"Master Yoda, we've got a transmission from Axion!" the young man in charge of the station called out. "They're requesting reinforcements!"
"Hmm," Yoda opened his eyes, still in his meditative stance. "Possess, reinforcements, we do not. Go myself, I will."

"There's also an unusual message from an anonymous source, claims it has information on the war," The technician frowned. "I'll flag that one for Republic Intelligence."

"Make a copy for the Council, you will," Yoda murmured. "Until assured of the message contents,, give to Intelligence, we will not."

"Yes, master Yoda," the technician replied. "I just don't know what you'd want with a bunch of gibberish and dumb claims like this."

"Mysterious, the ways of the Force are," Yoda stood up, leaning on his gaffer stick. "Know everything we do not. See to it that a copy is saved, you will."

"Anything else, Master Yoda?"

"Send message to the Council you will, have my ship prepared, hmm?"

"Yes, Master Yoda," the tech sighed. "I'll send the message to the council and to the hangar bay."

With that, the diminutive master hobbled away, he had a mission to complete.

Left behind on a terminal, a message was saved and transmitted to a backup drive. A virus planted long ago copying said message and forwarding it to various data banks on Coruscant. Republic Intelligence, and a lone place deep within the Foundries each receiving the same message and the contents contained within.

 

[Puga]

I'm loving the story

 

[Frater Astrotechnicus]

Republic Intelligence, and a lone place deep within the Foundries each receiving the same message and the contents contained within.

Click to shrink...

Ah well this ain't good

 

[Fanof1]

So the ripples begin.

 

[Yacov]

If I managed to find a decent set of armor that fit within the regs, I would probably grab that too. (Though, I was likely never going to wear it barring another boarding action.)

Click to shrink...

Please let it be one of those sick red uniforms from the Old Republic.

"Sit back down," He commanded, looking around for a minute before grabbing a chair and dragging it in front of me before plopping down. "I'll get straight to it. I'm being given command of the Horizon."

Click to shrink...

I'd say it's a bit rushed. However, Hull probably is the only one on the crew who recognizes anything about the ship and how it would be utilized historically.

"But I don't want anything to do with running a ship," Ronard said bluntly. "And Condev kriffing knows that. So, here's how things are going to work. I'm an engineer, that's all I want to be, that's all I want to do. You're going to essentially be the captain, running the day to day of the ship. The Captain already cleared this. If we encounter another Republic fleet, you let me know and I'll come up to the Bridge and look the part. Until then, enjoy your new responsibilities, Lieutenant."

Click to shrink...

Hull is going to need Ronard less than either one thinks. Unlike a lot of non-Clone personnel, Hull is probably one of those rare breeds that has actually read the entire officer's manual in the last year.

Racks of Republic Modular armor with varying helmets, vibroblades, and what looked like custom blaster rifles and pistols were tucked into racks and footlockers. There was also a small fabricator resting on a nearby workbench, a feed ramp with materials sitting just beside it.

Click to shrink...

Calling it now, the entire non-Clone and some Clone crew are going to loot those armories for cool stuff. The next Republic fleet they encounter next is going to be very confused when the entire liaison group shows up sporting Old Republic uniforms.

First things first, I went to the rack of vibroblades, bypassing the katana looking ones immediately and heading for what looked like a straight sword, grabbing each in turn until I'd found the one I thought was balanced the best, then tucking it and the sword belt onto my side. I tested the draw and nodded, sliding it back into its sheath before turning to look at the armor.

Click to shrink...

I am putting 59 credits on Hull having to use the vibroblade in the near future. Bonus points if it is against a force user who is shocked when their light stick doesn't immediately cut it in half.

Even better, it was technically still allowed in the regs for space suits, (Provided it was painted appropriately).

Click to shrink...

NOOOOOOOOOOO! The stylish paint scheme!

Nice, possibly picking up a few tens of thousands of B1s would be a massive boon

Click to shrink...

Especially since Hull is not going to be as jumpy around droids as most Republic officers.

 

[Lillie Jones]

thanks for the chapter