SWTFW 12 - "A Chink In The Armor"

Vader nodded, "Yes, a poisonous atmosphere ! Their moon will die ! Their ships will corrode before they can escape. They will be unable to leave and all will perish here, choking on sulfur !"

PRESS CTRL = (EQUALS) TO INCREASE THE PAGE SIZE AND CTRL 0 (ZERO) TO RESET THE PAGE SIZE THIS PAGE VIEWS BEST IN FIREFOX Want to read this in a different language ? Change the TO field to your own country and click the TRANSLATE button after going HERE THE FORCE WITHIN © June 2017 Written by David Wicker Please do not reprint without permission CHAPTER 12 - "A CHINK IN THE ARMOR" [ CHOOSE A DIFFERENT CHAPTER ] * * * This entry is Rated: EVERYONE With no-one to stop them, Vader and his team of Empire soldiers had returned back to the clearing where they landed their spacecrafts. The rebel soldiers had it wrong about Smite, however. No, he was not a Jedi. He could perhaps become one if he so chose, but he was a little bit more than concerned about his soul in the afterlife should he decide to be lured in by the Dark Side of the Force. No, he was just an incredible warrior, a cold and calculating tactician, and a lethal opponent to any who dared oppose him. Once having returned to their ships they took off again to just on the edge of the moon's artificially induced atmosphere for normal life. Vader clicked a control for a private conversation with Smite. Smite, on his vessel saw the yellow light and knew that Vader was contacting only him. He hit a switch and responded. "Yes, Lord Vader ?" "Their energy convertor down there is for the shields. Do you think we could disrupt it ?" Smite turned to bring up a program that showed the stability of the atmosphere on the moon. It showed all green readings. "I don't think so. We don't have any weapons to cause a chain reaction - if that's what you're wanting." "What about a Corbite explosion ?" Vader pressed. Smite nodded. "Yes, if we had some Corbite, that is, we could do it then. That would probably be enough to cause an explosion with their shield generator and contaminate the feed for it. In minutes, their atmosphere would be completely unbreathable and take years to correct." He paused for a moment to think. "But Vader, we don't have any Corbite with us. Not even Boba Fett whom you chose to shoot down the aperture guard was carrying any. It would take weeks for us to formulate such a specific weapon and get back here with it." Vader lowered his tone, as if that were even possible, until he was just a scary rumble. "No, Smite. Think. The primary engine coupling in the tie-fighters each carry a small amount of Corbite for the fusion reaction to enable light speed travel." "Yes, Vader, but in order to ignite it would mean sacrificing the lives of - wait ... nevermind." Smite knew Vader well enough to know he would be more than happy to sacrifice lives of his teammates in order to strike out at the enemy, the Rebels, any way he could. As if on queue, Vader turned his relays to address 3 other ships nearby. "18, 19, 20. Do I have your attention ?" he inquired in unfamiliar friendly tones. There was a moment of confusion as the pilots were not expecting any messages from their leader. Finally #19 clicked in. "Yes, Lord Vader ?" Vader spoke glibly, "I want you to use your onboard cameras, all three of you, on that shield generator. I think we may learn something useful from it." "All three of us ?" pilot number 18 finally spoke. * * * Vader growled, "Yes. All three ! I want all three of you to go down there and record video on that particular shield generator. I will examine your recordings later." The 3 pilots were wary. What Vader said really did not make a lot of sense. A single pilot could easily get a good reading on the shield generator directly from where he was. But no pilot dared disobey Vader. As ordered, all 3 pilots descended towards the shield generator until they hovered a mere hundred feet above it. There was a moment of hesitation from the pilots, but finally they began recording video on it as Vader instructed. Vader broke formation with the others. He leaned in slightly from the swell of the other pilots and surprising everyone around him, fired off 3-shots simultaneously - straight towards the 3 pilots ! While two of the pilots were occupied in the recording, the 20th, suspecting some foul play, was already on top of Vader's missile launch. But because of the cramped space of the other ships around him, he could do absolutely nothing except close his eyes to what would be certain death. And it was. The 3 shots hit the immobile tie-fighters with flawless accuracy and caused them to explode in a beautiful nova of fireworks. While this did no damage to the shield generator, a slight purple burst of light emitted from the back of each tie-fighter hit which did react violently with the shield generator's primary coils. The shield generator then made a strange whining noise and suddenly released a strange brown vapor that at once reacted with the moon's atmosphere. The shield generator, unable to keep up this metamorphosis then crumbled into a pool of fiery mass and molten metal. And less than a minute later, the very air of the moon itself was gone, replaced by this sickly yellow cloud. "Sulfur." Smite said in his own ship, observant to the last. Vader nodded, realizing he still had the line open with him. "Yes, a poisonous atmosphere ! Their moon will die ! Their ships will corrode before they can escape. They will be unable to leave and all will perish here, choking on sulfur. It will be the last of the Rebels !" Vader then directed all ships backwards, for it wasn't just sulfur but other chemicals as well, several of which had a habit of decaying the material of spacecraft, including tie-fighters. In moments, however, all had retreated back into space. On the surface, loud alarms were sounding. People were running around, trying to close off the vents to outside, coughing and choking as they went. Jan was still in command. She issued a rare and planet wide alert that their atmosphere had been compromised, and everyone was directed to use breathing and protective gear. Then sadly, she issued her final order. To evacuate the moon ! . . . Back with Luke, he flew as co-pilot to Rebecca's ship as they warped to the last known location of the atomized Death Star. Sure enough, on Luke's screen, large flashing yellow objects appeared in the galactic map showing pure strains and sources of Duranium. Suddenly there was a loud click in front of him and Rebecca had ejected from the craft and even now was collecting the loose and desired material from floating meteoroids in a long metallic bag. Luke heard her laughter on the speakers. "Come, Luke. Join me ! Let's get this Duranium before someone else does. Hit the top-most button marked "E." That's for eject. Your spacesuit will protect you." Luke did so and was suddenly flung from the craft. Using the little rockets on his suit he came alongside Rebecca. She reached out and gave him a zero-G hug. Then both started to find and collect the Duranium. They were doing quite well when suddenly there was a shift. It was silent but felt in the spacesuits. Both Luke and Rebecca looked to see a massive ship come alongside their considerably smaller one. While Rebecca's ship looked very much like a beautiful bird's with feathery wings, this new ship was quite sinister in appearance. All in black with razor sharp cuts of metal both in front and behind it, as if it were some deadly and ancient machine used in warfare. Rebecca spoke fearfully, "Oh crap, it's Duke !" (to be continued) END OF CHAPTER 12 Return back HOME You are Earth Visitor #