A/N: I am SOOOO Sorry for not updating in forever everyone. It's just that I had a lot of stuff going on in my life. If you want the whole story, check out My explanation in Through The Storm's ch. 17. Otherwise, long story short, other than the ton of classwork, I lost of friend over a petty disagreement, I lost one of my best friends for reason I can't explain (my friends theory she has a jealous controlling boyfriend who won't let her continue being friends with me) and we severed ties with a relative.
*PLEASE READ A/N2*
*A/N2*: I posted this on TTS, but no one voted, leading me to thing it was too varied in notes or that people simply skipped over the notes. As mentioned previously, I have decided to write another story while waiting for Summer (to those of you going "Another?! You're barely working on these!" I had my reasons as stated above, and now classes are coming to a close and I'll have more free time). I put up a list of the stories in my profile page in the subcategory Upcoming Works Choices (under my Current Works category). There are 15 choices (two are under the same name Try). All of the stories are Jelsa. Eleven are are fully original works of mine that I've been working on for some time. The other four, which I have dubbed the Disney Remembering the Magic series are inspired by current rides at Walt Disney World (the stories are not about the rides as rides, but about the plots behind the rides). All four have fully independent plots are unrelated except that they are inspired by Disney rides. I also decided to make my first poll for you guys to choose, so select 5 (in the event of a tie, there will be a tiebreaker poll) and vote! :)
(If you are not registered on this site and are unable to vote, just leave a review with your five choices and I'll add the tally to the final results at the end. But please don't cheat or I will be forced to not accept any unregistered votes and void the ones received. Don't ruin it for others.)
P.S.: I know I said on TTS this would get updated on Monday. I completely messed up. I'm to blame and am at total fault. I got the day for the rough raft of my final essay confused and I had to work on it all of Monday to turn in today. The class I confused it with is the same professor and pretty much the exact same subject, albeit one studies 19th century literature and the other 20th century.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except the idea for the plot.
Gathering Darkness
Chapter 4: Homecoming
Jack and Elsa sat in Jack's quarters enjoying dinner and chatting about whatever came up. Jack had decided to introduce Elsa to some Earth cuisines, which she was happily enjoying.
"There are thirteen primary planets in the Sol System: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Eris." Jack was saying as the topic shifted to his home system. "Mercury and Venus aren't inhabited, but have fully automated science stations. Earth and Mars are the most inhabited planets, with large parts of Mars already terraformed. There are actually plans to create a large shipyard on Mars, both planetside and above it. Earth's own moon, known as Luna, also has large habitats inside large terraformed areas enclosed in huge domes. Luna actually has more residents than Mars. Jupiter through Uranus are gas planets, but they have science stations in orbit and some people living on some of their moons, mainly scientist, but also some trial-run colonists."
"Wow that's amazing!" Said Elsa, genuinely intrigued.
"Neptune through Eris are all mostly inhabited by science teams, with Neptune the only one really big enough for much habitation."
"It's all so nice. I hope I get to see it one day." Elsa said. There was a hint of sadness in her voice and in her eyes, which Jack did not miss.
"Elsa?" He asked with concern in his tone.
"I'm fine. I… I just miss my home." Elsa sighed, looking down, both hands resting on the table. The Captain thought for a moment, then decided to comfort Elsa. He moved to place one of his hands over one of hers.
As Jack's hand touched Elsa's, a shock suddenly ran down her spine. She felt as if she had been suddenly yanked away, far from Jack and the Enterprise as she was rapidly bombarded by a series of visions.
She saw a damaged X-Wing plummeting into a planet's atmosphere. Next was an ice planet with a group of mammoth Imperial AT-AT Walkers trekking across the ice and snow, firing their blasters and cannons at an unseen foe, most likely the New Republic.
The next image was of a flight of X-wings opening their s-foils and diving to attack something. Behind them, the Enterprise also dived to join in the attack. This was followed by a view of a massive gray sphere seen from space. It had very strange, square panel texture and a large round depression, with an octagon in the center, near the equator. At first, she thought she was seeing a Death Star, but as the object got closer, she realized to important things. First, this object was infinitely larger then the Death Star; easily tens, if not hundreds of millions times larger than a typical M-Class planet. Second, the 'depression', was actually a gigantic hatch, which was opening. Through it, she could she landmasses and seas inside the sphere. Following this, she saw numerous Super Star Destroyers, Star Destroyers and other unknowns ships under construction, landscape far below them, perhaps indicating they were in low orbit of a planet. Soon she was seeing a planet similar to Arendelle, albeit not as beautiful, with a squad of Star Destroyer flying through the sky and companied by swarms of TIEs. Below, legions of Stormtroopers marched. Far in the sky, higher than the Star Destroyers, a Super Star Destroyer lazily made it's way about, eventually blocking out the sun and casting a colossal shadow over vast potions of the planet. The next scene horrified Elsa. A planet, virtually destroyed. There was immense devastation everywhere and she was standing in the heart of a ruined city, misery and suffering all around as people wailed in terror, pain and hopelessness. Next was of a gigantic Super Star Destroyer firing on a badly damaged Enterprise as the white ship tried to flee. She saw a strange looking dark ship. It was long and wedge-shaped, like an over-elongated Star Destroyer, with a very odd shape to its forward bow in another, downward facing, wedge. The ship was charging some form of a very large beam weapon at it's bow which it let loose in an enormous mint-green blast. Following that, the next image took her breath away and made her heart clench with fear. A starship floated dead in space, heavily damaged with multiple hull breeches and scorch marks from energy weapons' fire. The vision was from behind and slightly above the ship, so she couldn't see the name, but the shape was unmistakable. The Enterprise. Before her mind could even process this realization, she was watching a black clad man brandishing a red lightsaber. She saw her and Anna charging the man together, but he easily parried and countered each of their blows. The scene changed a bit and she was lying on a metal floor, the crimson blade of a lightsaber at her throat, the same figure above her. The figure raised the lightsaber, then struck down.
Elsa started with a gasp, startling Jack.
"Elsa?" Jack asked.
"Oh!" Elsa groaned, feeling a little woozy.
"Elsa? You were frozen for a few seconds." Said Jack. He looked at her with concern on his face. "Are you alright?" He asked as Elsa placed a hand on her head.
"I…I'm…" Elsa realized she was breathing rather hard and her heart-rate was erratic. She took a moment to compose herself. "Yes, I'm fine." She lied. Even if she hadn't been hiding her Jedi abilities, how could she possibly tell anyone, let alone a member of scientific exploration vessel that she had visions of the future? By her reasoning, it would completely destroy her credibility. Even she was unsure of what she'd seen, having never previously experienced a vision and having only ever heard of them from Master Skywalker.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, just a little… tired. That's all."
"Hmm, by ship's time it is very late. Please, allow me to escort you back to your quarters."
"Thank you."
Jack led Elsa down to her quarters in silence. She kept her gaze down, while the captain would occasionally glanced at her. When they finally arrived, she looked up at him at last, and smiled.
"Thank you for a lovely dinner, Jack."
"You're very welcome, Elsa." Jack replied with a huge smile. "I hope we can have more some time." Elsa nodded in agreement.
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight." Elsa entered her quarters and the door automatically shut behind her. Done with escorting Elsa, Jack proceeded to his quarters for some rest. He changed into more comfortable off-duty wear and lay down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, deep in thought. He couldn't help but think that something big was heading their way. The Enterprise was plunging full warp into and into a galactic war and it was too late to turn back. It was already too late even before they met Elsa, ever since they ran into the Star Destroyers. For a minute, the captain thought about going up to the bridge, but he knew know of the regular crew would be there, having instead been replaced by the night watch duty shift. Sighing, Jack rolled over and tried to get some shut-eye.
Hans stared at the distorted image of the white ship destroying one is of his Star Destroyers for the umpteenth time. He had been reviewing the footage for hours, hoping for some idea, some clue the Empire might have missed. Something to tell him more about what had so easily defeated five Star Destroyers. If only the damn recording hadn't been so badly damaged when the Star Destroyer was lost.
As it was, he could barely make out more than colors and badly distorted shapes. For all he knew, Hans could very well be viewing the blasted thing upside down! Other than the white ship and gray Star Destroyers and the Star Destroyers' laser blasts, there were also several streaks of orange-red, the white ship's weapons fire, Hans presumed. What he couldn't begin to fathom was what kind of weapon it was using. Though the image was distorted, he could tell they were larger and thicker than laser fire normally seen on ships, but with an overall shorter length. It kinda reminded him of an overcharged blaster bolt. There were two possibilities as to the origin of that vessel. The first was that it was a new New Republic ship. The second possibility, suggested by Admiral Goebb, was that this vessel belonged to a third party. Hans was loathe to admit this possibility, though it'd be foolish not to, as it precluded that there was another force behind the ship besides the rebels and that left the possibility that there were more ships of this sort out there.
Deciding to take some time off Hans left his quarters and made his way to his personal training room.
"Began combat protocol three." He announced. A floating reflective-black spherical droid appeared from a hatch on the wall. The droid was rather large, about a foot-and-half across, with numerous blaster ports. The lights in the room went out, perfectly hiding the droid. Though Hans could still hear the droid as it moved, the room caused the sound to echo, effectively hiding the droid. While the droid floated around the room, Hans pulled out a silver-and-black cylindrical device. A lightsaber. It had a thin, almost oval, end with a flat butt and three protrusions pointing forward at the emitter end of the lightsaber.
As Hans ignited his lightsaber, a crimson blade of pure superheated plasma rose from the hilt, lighting up his features and bathing a small portion of the room in a red glow. Hans adjusted his position as the droid moved around, using the Force to sense its movements. Every so often, the droid would fire a bolt of laser, which Hans would easily deflect. Gradually, steadily, Hans pushed his way forward, step-by-step while continuing to deflect blaster bolts. Soon he had tracked down the droid and was standing right before it as it fired point-blank at him. During a lapse in the droid's constant attacks, he saw his opportunity and took it.
"Aaarh!" Hans growled. With a swing of his lightsaber, he cleaved the droid in two.
The man frowned. He had finished faster than he wanted, but no less than he expected. He knew he should have used the larger, humanoid droids for more of a challenge, but Hans never liked them anyways. They were clunky, clumsy and made a hell of a lot of noise. Instead, he now found his thoughts obsessively turning back to the mystery ship. He had redirected much of his efforts and resources into locating this mystery ship. Finding it was a top priority. From there he'd either capture it, or if that proved beyond possible, destroy it.
And what of its weapons? Hans has studied the distorted images as best he could, and though he couldn't be sure, he hadn't seen the telltale 'splash' effect of the weapons impacting the Star Destroyers' deflector shields. As the Star Destroyers attacked first, he knew that their shields would have up. That meant that whatever weapon the white ship used, it had easily penetrated the Star Destroyers' shields, completely bypassing them, to directly impact the hull. But what weapon could completely ignore a Star Destroyer's shields? Another theory that Hans had, was that perhaps the weapons had not bypassed the shields, but that the initial blasts had either been powerful enough to knock out the shields, or had somehow overloaded the shield array, causing the shields to drop. But that led back to his original question - what kind of weapon could do that to the shields of a capital ship like a Star Destroyer? It had destroyed five Star Destroyers in short order nothing the rebels previously had had ever achieved that and nothing short of the detonation or the destruction of a super weapon could ever possibly wipe out a group of Star Destroyers that fast. The last time he had heard of Star Destroyers being decimated that quickly was when some had been caught in the explosion caused by the destruction of a Super Star Destroyer of another faction of Imperials. Neither the Super Star Destroyer that the rebels had attacked, nor the lost smaller Star Destroyers, had been his, belonging instead to a group of Imperial remnants still loyal to the cause of their dead Emperor. It could destroy a Star Destroyer, but that didn't tell him anything about its full capabilities. Could it prove a match to a Super Star Destroyer? And what of speed and maneuverability? It definitely outperformed the Imperial-Class Star Destroyers outside of hyperspace, but could it outmaneuver a Victory-Class Star Destroyer? Was the smaller Victory-Class fast enough?
And then Hans paused, an evil smirk making his way to his face. It was so perfect he couldn't fathom why he didn't think of it before. As he reflected on his newest thought, the smile grew larger, a terrible, distorted visage, grotesque by the pure amount of evil behind it. It was all Hans could do not to burst out laughing on the spot.
Hans proceeded back to his quarters with speed and purpose. He immediately turned his viewscreen onto the Super Star Destroyer's main bridge. The crew was startled to see his face appear on the screen
"Lord Narcerous!" Said a man in an admiral's uniform standing beside the captain. This was Admiral Goebb.
"Admiral, get me a map of all Imperial vessel deployment in the sector of space that the Taskforce was lost."
"At once my lord." As the admiral, strolling off. Hans turned to the Captain.
"Captain, I have a plan. Prepare to employ it immediately."
"Yes Lord Narcerous!" With that, Hans cut off the transmission. He sat back in his chair and folded his hands together. A large, cruel smile made it's way to his face.
"Captain, please report to the bridge." Came Hiccup's voice through the comm.
"On my way." Jack replied automatically from his bed. He got up and checked a console, seeing he'd gotten about six hours of sleep. Changing to his duty uniform, he proceeded to the bridge. "What's the situation?" He asked, entering and taking his seat. Elsa entered the bridge soon after.
"Sir, we have come across a freighter that matches the descriptions of one of the ships Elsa told us about." Said Astrid. On the viewscreen was an image of the ship she was referring to. The main hull of the ship had a round, saucer-like appearance. It had a cockpit tube that was attached to the starboard side of the saucer by two bracing arms.
"Hail them. On screen." Ordered Jack. A man in his mid-thirties appeared on the screen sitting in the pilot's chair of the freighter. The man was muscular with messy brownish-red hair, green eyes, a pale complexion and short, but present, beard and mustache. He wore a blue-and-brown jump suit, a gray flexmetal blast vest with large, brown padded shoulder pauldrons and brown gloves. He had a handsome, if overall scruffy, look. To the man's right was a worn, light gray droid. The droid had an overall humanoid appearance, but its shape was exotic enough that no one would ever mistake it for human, even if it had skin.
"Captain Dash Rendar of the Outrider, at your service." Said the man with something of a flair. He sounded a bit to Jack like he should have been a used starship salesman. "How may I be of assistance?"
"This is Captain Jackson Frost of the USS Enterprise, we hope you have information on the whereabouts of a missing fleet we're searching for."
"A missing fleet of what?"
"A New Republic fleet. Namely one led by a Liberty."
"Well, I have plenty of information… for a fee." Jack thought for a moment. This seemed too easy.
"Really? You'd just give them up like that?" Asked Jack. "You'd sell them out without even knowing if we were Imperials?"
"If you were Imperials, you wouldn't be asking for directions, you'd be trying to shoot me up." Dash replied.
"Fair point." Jack acknowledged. "Unfortunately, we are new to this region and don't have any currency."
"Well, now we've got a problem." Said Dash, crossing his arms.
"Sir, if I may intrude…" Said the droid.
"In a moment."
"But I think you'll find this interesting."
"Not now Leebo!"
"But sir, I've been scanning their ship like you asked..." Dash rolled his eye, clearly annoyed that the droid had just stated that during live and unmuted communications. He sighed heavily.
"And?"
"I'm unable to determine their shield or weapons type. But even with their weapons offline, I can detect residual signatures from here without sensors."
"Meaning?"
"Their weapons are incredibly powerful and could probably destroy us in one shot." Dash's eyes widened and he looked at his copilot in surprise, then back to the screen. Jack gave a toothy grin. Elsa stared at the man on the screen and a spark of recognition flashed across her face.
"Hey! Wait a minute!" Said Elsa stepping into view. "I remember you!" Dash gave her a confused look. Apparently he didn't remember her.
"How so?" He asked. "I don't recall ever meeting you."
"I know that four years ago, you flew with Rogue Squadron during the Battle of Hoth as Rogue Twelve. That was the battle we lost Zev, Dak and Kit."
"Wait a minute… Elsa?!" Said Dash, eyes going wide as he seemed to remember something. "Zev told me about two little girls who were always listening to his stories — Elsa and Anna."
"That's my sister and I!" Said Elsa.
"Huh! Well, whaddya know!" The man was clearly surprised at the odds of coming across that very same girl on this strange ship. "Normally, I don't do things free, but I owe it to old Zev for saving my butt in Hoth; he would've liked to see you find your way back. But don't let it get out that I told you for free! Otherwise, everyone will be looking for a handout, and I'm not in the charity business."
"Thank you." Said Elsa. Dash turned to the droid.
"Leebo, transmit to them the coordinates of the Liberty fleet.
"Yes sir."
"Captain, we've received the transmission." Toothiana announced.
"Thank you for your assistance Captain." Said Jack. "We'll let you be on your way now." Dash nodded and the screen cut back to the image of his ship in space. The Outrider turned, flying off before leaping to hyperspace. Jack turned to Elsa and smiled. "Let's take you home."
"Course laid in sir." North announced.
"Hit it."
As the Enterprise made its way, Jack and Elsa went into Jack's ready room to discuss what they would do when they found the New Republic fleet. Jack asked him about the fleet's sensors and weapons capabilities and Elsa had told him that their sensors' range outreached their weapons' range, which Jack relayed to the bridge crew. Jack had wanted to show that they meant no harm, so he came up with the idea to warp in just inside the edges of their sensors, but still outside their weapons range in case the fleet had a jumpy trigger finger following the loss of Blue and Bronze Squadron. The Enterprise would then come to a full stop and wait there, so as to not inadvertently provoke a fight, while Jack and Elsa would take a shuttle to the fleet.
The comm chimed and Jack looked up.
"Captain, sensors read a large collection of ships. I believe we have located the Republic fleet." Came Astrid's voice.
"Yellow alert; bring us to a full stop just outside their weapons range."
"Aye, Captain, yellow alert."
"We may have superior weapons and shields, but we don't want to startle them into shooting at us. Elsa and I will take a shuttlecraft to meet the fleet first. Await my permission before warping in."
"Aye-aye, Captain." Said North. Jack got up from his chair and started towards the turbolift.
"Elsa, with me." He said as he walked.
"Captain, I do not believe you should head into an unknown fleet without weapons and only a shuttlecraft." Said Astrid.
"I concur. Her logic is sound." Agreed Hiccup.
"I trust Elsa." Said Jack. "The Republic is not the bad guys."
"That's not the primary issue at the moment, sir." Hiccup continued. "They might not believe we really have Miss Norge, or they may think we are holding her captive. Either way, odds are high that they will attack."
"Well then, Elsa and I will just have to ensure that that doesn't happen." Said Jack. With that, he entered the turbolift with Elsa and the doors sealed.
On the Liberty several sensor alarms immediately went off as the Enterprise enter the very edge of their range.
"Captain! A ship has just appeared at the very edges of our sensors range!" Said a man clad in an officer's uniform.
"A Star Destroyer?!" Asked the Liberty's Captain
"Unknown sir. But it does not appear to be large enough. It is to distant for us to properly analyze."
"Order all ships and pilots to condition yellow! We are at battle alert!"
Jack and Elsa entered the shuttlebay and Jack led them off to the rear, near the bay doors.
Before them was a slightly grayish/off-white, twenty-four foot long craft. The shuttle. The shuttlecraft had a boxy, rectangular shape with a sloping front top-half and a curving front bottom-half and two small nacelles along the shuttle's ventral side. Each nacelles was held in place by two diagonal pylons protruding down from small, wing-like structures coming off the side of the shuttle at 90 degrees to the ground, along its centerline. On the shuttlecraft's side, in large black letters, was its mothership registry and the shuttle number: NCC-1701/7
Below that was a horizontal red stripe. Near the front end of the shuttle was a yellow, triangular emblem pointing towards the shuttle's nose. There was a break in the red stripe, directly under the registry and number, showing the mothership's name: U.S.S. ENTERPRISE
The stripe and emblem identified the craft as belonging to a Starfleet vessel. The same strip-and-emblem design was on the nacelles, but instead of the Enterprise's name it was labeled again with the registry and shuttle number. Finally, the shuttle's name was written in stylized red letters on its side, just forward of the side entry hatch, near the forward slope at the front of the craft.
It was one of several new Class-F shuttlecraft that had been assigned to the Enterprise and other Starfleet ships to replace the aging Moore-type, of which the Enterprise still carried a couple.
"Ladies first." Said Jack. Elsa climbed aboard to see that the interior of the shuttle was spacious, with plenty of personal room for each passenger. It sat seven with four on the starboard side and three on the port side. She took a seat at the front starboard seat, and Jack joined her, sitting in the chair on her immediate left. The captain pressed some buttons on the console and the entry door sealed while blast shields at the front of the shuttle slid open to reveal three rectangular viewports. Outside they were able to see the Enterprise's hangar doors opening.
"This is Captain Frost." Jack said into the comm. "We are taking off."
"Affirmative Captain." Said the Shuttlebay controller. "You are cleared to proceed."
"Here we go." Said Jack. The shuttle sped out of its bay in the rear of the Enterprise's secondary hull and turned in a big arc towards the front of the ship, passing beside the Enterprise and allowing Elsa her first good look at the ship from a close range.
Back on the Liberty, the crew had detected the launch of a small ship from the larger one and, along with the rest of the fleet, was tracking its approach. The captain had gone down to the hangar and was surrounded by personnel, including Kristoff and several pilots.
"Unknown ship, identify yourself and state your intentions." Said a controller on the Liberty.
"This is Shuttlecraft Galileo requesting permission to land." Jack's voice came over the comms.
"It's transmitting authorization codes from one of our pilots!" The controller announced in surprise. "It's Elsa's codes!"
"What?!" Gasped Anna in shock.
"It could be an Imperial trap." Someone cautioned.
"I don't think the Empire would send a lone shuttle, with codes we know to be from a missing pilot, and just ask to land here." Said Kristoff to the captain.
"Shuttlecraft Galileo, where are you coming from?"
"This is Galileo, we're coming from the starship Enterprise."
"We don't have an Enterprise."
"The name is way too harmless to be Imperial." Kristoff argued.
"It could be a lie." Said the man who first suggested it was a trap.
"Then why give the name of a ship that's not part of the Republic?" Asked Kristoff. "This is too obvious to be a trap." The captain nodded in agreement.
"Give them permission to land, but I want a security detail down here in the hangar." At the captain's orders, several marines were sent down to the hangar, lining up in a perimeter around the open bay. Anna stood off to one side with Rapunzel and Merida while Kristoff waited with the captain, Olaf and Sven across from them. In a matter or minutes, everyone in the hangar could see the strange ship called Galileo, approaching. It passed the personnel force field over the hangar bay doors and landed. The marines raised their blasters, but held their fire. Everyone waited with bated breaths as the craft's door opened. A figure emerged at the door and Rapunzel gasped.
"Elsa!" Cried Anna as she ran forth. Elsa ran too, meeting her partway and the sisters embraced in a huge hug, sliding to their knees. The gathered crew could only watch in stunned silence as the two women immediately broke down into tears. Elsa noticed Jack watching them with a small smile on his face and she mouthed 'thank you.'
A/N3: Sorry that this chapter is the shortest one of all, but as you can probably guessed from the title alone, it's greatly important and the one I think you've all been waiting for. Action scene coming up in chapter 6 (with a bit starting at the end of ch. 5) so wait for that.
*NOTE* The extra planets that Jack mentioned are all current "dwarf planets". While most of Trek was made before the classification of dwarf planets. However, my reasoning for making them full planets is that in Trek, they would discover countless fully inhabited planets of various classes and of all sizes, both large and small, so it wouldn't be fair for the inhabitants of naturally small planet to have their homeward not classified as a "full planet". M-Class planets are planets that not only can sustain life without environmental suits, but are also the most similar to Earth (similar atmosphere, surface, core, mantle etc.). However, planets with harsher conditions can still be classified as M-Class as long as they're not downright hostile. The icy world (actually, a moon and not a planet) of Andoria is still considered M-Class. Well known M-Class planets include Earth, Vulcan and Qo'Nos. Arendelle is also M-Class in this story. Since Star Wars uses a MUCh simpler classification, it's hard to tell precisely, but Alderaan and Coruscant are also very likely M-Class. Hoth is likely somewhere between M-Class and L-Class (while very similar to L-Class planets, the L-Classes have vegetation but no animals. Hoth is the inverse). Hoth is also very similar to the L-Class world that Voyager smashes into in Timeless.
*NOTE 2* The character of Dash Rendar is from the Star Wars Expanded Universe, most famously from the Shadow of the Empire game and novel. Zev, Kit and Dak are all full canon characters. All three appear in The Empire Strikes Back. Zev is the pilot of the Snow Speeder identifying as Rogue Two who finds Luke and Han when they're lost out on Hoth. He later participates in the Battle of Hoth where Kit is his harpoon tow cable gunner. Dak is Luke's gunner in the same battle. In the SotE game, Dash also participates in the Battle of Hoth as Rogue Twelve without a gunner.
P.S.2: Can anyone guess the origins of Hans' Sith name? It's actually quite simple and describes him perfectly. And how many of you Trek fans out there immediately recognized Jack's shuttle of choice just from her number? She has one of the most famous shuttle names in all of Star Trek history.
On a personal note, I got PMed before chapter 3 about my thoughts on Ep. VII trailer but forgot to reply last chapter, so I'll do it now. Personally, and these are just my own opinions, I liked the human characters and that was about it. I wasn't very impressed with anything else. The little ball droid seemed like it had been inserted merely for 'Disney's usual cuteness' factor (see Pascal). The girl's speeder looked kinda silly admittedly. It's way too big and she looks like she's riding a Podracer engine (heck it probably is). The Stormtrooper guy in the desert was intriguing, but the redesigned armor was just stupid. Why the connecting visor from the eyes to the mouth? For alien species with eyes on their cheeks? I also hated that the armors are a lot LESS detailed than the original Stormtrooper armors. When the desert guy turns around, there's practically no details on the back. However, we do get a good view of his armor's black undersuit. The UNDERSUIT has more detail than the armor! You want see a real badass Stormtrooper armor that would strike fear in the rebels? Check out Play Arts Kai's redesign. The X-wings made me cringe. While their flying fast near the water was awesome, and while they're still identifiable as X-wings, their sweet lines (especially noticeable on the nose/fuselage and wings) have been ruined in favor of something that looks like it was designed to easily make a toy of. The pilot gear looked okay-ish, but the helmet offer LESS protection to the lower jaw, due to the helmet terminating at the cheeks. The red lightsaber was, in my opinion, the stupidest of all designs. A friend told me the mini-blades are supposed to be hand-guards, but the emitters are on the OUTSIDE. That means they can easily be sliced off even by accident while blocking. Finally, the Millennium Falcon's (unless that is another YT-1300) shape seemed a bit off, mainly at the rear, but I absolutely detested the rectangular dish. The Falcon has a beautiful design. With her, it's all about the curves, and that dish just jarringly breaks that. Plus, remember who owns the Falcon? HAN SOLO. He loves his ship the way it is (hence why he refuses to change his *own personal* modifications) and he would have simply gotten another round dish and upgraded that. At least the TIE Fighters still seem a-okay...
So, yeah, characters are good, ships and gear, not so much.
Furyian: I LOVE TNG! The Enterprise-D is my all time fave (as are the Galaxy-Class starships)! If you look carefully, you'll actually see several references to other Trek including TNG (the dermal regenerators were created in TNG and there was the reference this chapter to the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, where most Galaxy-Classes, including the big D herself, were built). There will be even more references in the future. This Enterprise is actually the reboot Enterprise. When I started writing, first I decided between describing the Enterprise or leaving it up to the readers to choose what they wanted it to be. Since the Enterprise is a HUGE part of this story, I knew it would have to be described so I decided to choose between the Enterprise-D, the original movies refit Enterprise, the TOS Enterprise, the Enterprise-E and the reboot. I ultimately decided on the reboot as I felt it was the one that my readers would be most likely to recognize.
Kahnartis: Thank you!
You should watch a few more, they're really good. I recommend The Next Generation and Voyager for shows (or definitely the Dominion War episodes of Deep Space Nine), and The Voyage Home and First Contact for movies.
It's a mix of the occasional challenge and perfect fit for writing the characters in this universe. Thanks again!
Ah! Of course! Yes, and it was one of the earliest trilogies and very likely the first to achieve such massive popularity. Did you know that when the first movie came out, not only was it NOT titled episode IV, it didn't even have the A New Hope name?! It was just known as Star Wars. This was officially changed on January 1, 1978. Episodes V and VI always had the numbers and titles. Also, when Lucas started he actually planned for 12 episodes! Hmm, never heard of that one. Have to look it up.
See if you agree with me on this: Han shot first!;)
How was this chapter? Do you think it lived up to the build up?
Sabine Knight:Thanks! And I'm happy to meet another big nerd like me, lol! Yes, indeed Hans is, though he is self-proclaimed, self-studied and self-taught, so how true of a Sith follower he is (as I know you know there are true Sith, and there are followers of the Sith religion and teachings) is up for debate. Also, Hans does not follow the Rule of Two yet (may or may not change during the course of the story) as he has not taken up an apprentice, partly because he is such a narcissist and is trying to avoid the same fate that befell the Palpatine/Vader duo. He would wait for someone he can appropriately manipulate (and if need be, defeat), like he does Weselton, before taking an apprentice.
Fenrir Wylde Razgriz: Well here it is!
Elsa the frost archer: Yep! And their pretty close in personality. I was surprised no one tried this crossover before I did.