The Dark Times
Chapter 4: Shakedown
The asteroid belt of the Corellian system is a very chaotic place, asteroids flying all over the place along a set orbital path, the asteroids ranging in size from small pebbles to planetoid sized chunks of rock, which was the target for the Challenger battle group today. After over a year in dry dock the Commodore and his crew were just itching to take her out for a spin, but so far over the past three months there had been a lot of problems, necessitating the ships of the battle group to return to the shipyards. Mostly small things, but now it was time to begin testing out the ships weapon systems.
The planetoid that was their target had a number of mineral deposits that were very valuable and useful in the construction of ships, and Hal Hawks thought that this would be like hitting two birds with one stone, they get to test the weapon systems while he gets the mineral wealth held in that planetoid.
"All hands man your battle stations," Commodore Jack Hawks commanded, his voice sounding on every deck of the ship, and the crew jumped into action. Fighters were fuelled up and ordinance loaded, weapons stations manned and weapons began powering up. The xo had an old fashioned mechanical pocket chronometer which she used to time the crew's response time and when all stations were manned and ready she clicked the chronometer to stop.
"Three minutes and twelve seconds, sir. Way to slow," she barked out at the crew over the intercom.
"All ships, report in response times," the Commodore ordered.
The times soon came in. The Dauntless had a response time of three minutes twenty two seconds, while the Endurance was three minutes twenty one. Captains Macdougan and Richter were both annoyed with their crew's response time being so rusted, though it was to be expected since they had been at liberty for almost a year, and this was their first combat drill. The escorts however had a response time of one minute thirty seconds, not bad for small escort corvettes.
"Gentlemen, that is not good enough, I want to get our response time down to less than two minutes. Schedule more drills and exercises as you see fit captains, Commander," he said from his command chair, not liking what he had seen. The response time of the crew before the refit had been no more than two minutes flat, and he knew the crew could perform far better than this.
"Commander, coordinate with the various department heads for more drills with the crew, I want that response time cut down to under the two minute mark ASAP, in the meantime let's try out our new teeth."
"Aye sir. Weapons officer, prime the Bow Chasers for firing," the xo commanded.
On the bow of the Challenger, to the sides of the nose doors for the dorsal launch bay, two heavily armoured doors opened up, and a pair of beam turbolaser cannons extended forward. The gun captains in charge of the weapons tested out the mechanisms that aimed the big guns, then they began to charge up, the muzzles of the guns began to glow a bright blue.
"Bow Chasers armed and locked on, sir," the xo reported.
"Fire at will Commander, let's clear our throat," the Commodore commanded.
With a smile the xo ordered, "Fire," and with a mighty blast both guns discharged at full power. The twin beams travelled instantaneously between the Challenger and the planetoid, connecting them for a short instant. The beams cut deeply into the asteroid and blew a massive crater. From the Dauntless and Endurance similar beams lanced out from their bows, deepening the crater and almost knocked the planetoid out of its orbit.
"All gunners, fire at will, all turbolasers," she commanded, and the Challenger seemed to light up in a storm of blue weapons fire, sending high energy pulses directly into the asteroid, causing it to break up into much smaller pieces.
"Not bad," the Commodore commented.
"I told you, you would be pleased," said Hal as he watched the large asteroid break up then asked the xo to tell the shipyard to send out the mining droids.
"I have also prepared another test for your ships, in particular the point defence systems. I managed to acquire an old CIS Lucrehulk class droid control ship with a full complement of droid fighters and bombers, as well as a pair of Munificent class frigates. They were originally slated for the scrap yard, but I managed to get them cheap from the Empire," said Hal, looking quite pleased.
"Good. Helm set course for the second testing ground, I want to see how our new teeth stack up against some real targets," said the Commodore.
The battle group moved away from the asteroid field and headed for open space just a few hundred thousand kilometres out, where three old and doomed ships were waiting for their final fate.
"I had all three ships disarmed, their fighters as well. The only thing those ships are armed with are ordinary targeting lasers. They should pose very little threat to your ships, but to make it a little more realistic I also had them crewed by battle droids, even got an old tactical on the cheap side," said Hal.
"Good, hopefully that will mean that we'll get a real challenge instead of just a bunch of dumb battle droids with basic programming, those tactical droids may have been among the most boring droids you could come across, but during the war the few of them that survived long enough to learn, could throw some real curveballs at you," Commodore Hawks commented.
On the droid control ship a tactical droid, known as TA-22 stood on the bridge, overseeing operations. Tactical droids were among the most intelligent series of battle droids in the CIS military, commanding entire fleets of ships at various times, though their demeanour towards other droids was less than stellar, even sacrificing allies to achieve victory, when it wasn't necessary.
This particular tactical droid had managed to survive from the very start of the Clone Wars until its deactivation when Lord Vader sent the signal that shut down the entire droid army. It also had access to Commodore Hawks' combat record; it knew its opponent well enough to almost precisely calculate how he would attack and react to its own counter attack. It also knew that the forces at its disposal, even if they were fully armed, had no chance against the Challenger and its battle group; however its orders were clear.
"Launch all fighters and arm all weapons, prepare to engage the Challenger battle group," it ordered.
"Roger, roger," a B1 battle droid responded as it relayed TA-22s orders.
Within seconds Vulture droids began falling from racks suspended from the ceiling of the hangars of the Lucrehulk and rocketed out, following the commands from central control, their mission, to destroy the Challenger battle group by any means necessary. Vulture droids lead the way with Hyena bombers coming in right behind them, screened by the vultures. On the flanks were several squadrons of Tri-droids, accelerating hard and fast for the corvettes, to draw as much enemy fire as possible without getting shot down. These droids were the first to be destroyed.
They closed in, launching concussion missiles at the six corvettes, but those were quickly destroyed by their CIWS guns, and shortly after the fighters themselves got blown out of the sky, tracked by the extremely fast targeting systems. Anything that got within range was tracked, targeted then destroyed, the barrels of the CIWS guns span like crazy as they spewed out blue streamers of plasmatic death into the droid fighters paths. The Corvettes handled most of the fighters, but a fair few managed to bypass the them to get to the capital ships, launching their own missiles at the Challenger, Dauntless and Endurance, only to get shot down by their CIWS guns, placed strategically on the ships.
"Enemy fighters down to 70%, 65%, they're dropping like flies sir," Commander Hess reported.
"Mister Blissex I see that my trust in you to make these modifications work wasn't misplaced," said the Commodore.
"It wasn't just me, Commodore, it was a team effort," Blissex responded, just before a squadron of fighters came straight for the command bridge.
"Incoming," an ensign shouted as the bridge CIWS guns opened up on the fighters, destroying them all only to reveal a squadron of Hyena bombers coming right behind them with missile bays opening.
"Close blast doors, now," Commander Hess ordered just before the Hyenas launched their missiles, thick durasteel armour plating with Mandalorian Armour reinforcement slammed loudly into place and holographic images of what was happening outside were laid over the viewports, showing dummy missiles impacting the shields, not even weakening them in the slightest, but the shield rippled like water from the impacts, but the Hyenas kept coming.
"Enemy bombers have begun making suicide runs," Commander Hess yelped in surprise as a pair of bombers crashed into the side of one of the corvettes, hitting with such force that they shoved it off course. The Hyenas attacking the Challenger gunned their engines and targeted the command bridge, charging straight through the massive barrage of weapons fire that the Challenger's CIWS put up, downing all but two who impacted hard into the shields, weakening the bridge shields significantly.
"Don't tell me you had those droids programmed to do suicide runs on us?" Jack asked his father.
"No, I didn't, I just wanted to test the new CIWS system with a mass fighter attack with fighters, bombers and interceptors, nothing like this," he responded fearfully.
"Well we can't deploy fighters with those droids flying this close to the ship, they'd be picked off in seconds," said the Commodore, fearing that the droids would ram his fighters while they launched, plus the particle shields would have to be lowered, leaving the launch bay open to attack.
He quickly opened a channel to the battle group. "Corvettes move closer to the capital ships, but do not get too close, I want you to cover our blind spots while the Challenger, Dauntless and Endurance engage the capital ships directly, remove those droid fighters from my space," the Commodore ordered.
The six corvettes acknowledged and moved closer on the flanks of the three capital ships, firing every weapon at their disposal, destroying dozens of droid fighters in seconds, but it was like being attacked by a swarm of bees, there were so many of them. They soon closed to weapons range to the Lucrehulk and its frigate escort, their bow chasers charged up and ready to fire.
"We're now at optimal range," Commander Hess reported.
"Fire!"
In an instant four bright blue beams of energy erupted from the three ships, two from the Challenger and one from each of the Acclamator IIIs. The two beams from the Challenger converged upon the Lucrehulk battleship, piercing the shields and destroyed its bridge, taking out the droids command and control. At the same time the Dauntless and Endurance each fired upon a frigate, their powerful beams cut straight through their shields and cored through them from bow to stern, setting off secondary explosions which began in the engineering section and blossomed out forwards, consuming both droid vessels.
"Helm, change course twenty degrees to starboard, port gunners standby to give that ship a full broadside of all portside main gun batteries," the Commodore ordered.
"Aye sir, changing course," reported the helmsman.
The Challenger began turning, showing off its profile to the crippled Lucrehulk. As soon as the Challenger turned twenty degrees her portside gun batteries opened up, each battery had four turbolaser turrets, and each turret had three cannons. They fired at full power, unleashing a dozen megatons of energy with each shot, and each cannon fired three shots per second, the space between the two ships quickly became filled with a firestorm of blue energy, quickly tearing down the remaining shields of the Lucrehulk then blasted at the ship's armoured hull until it failed, massive explosions rippled across the hull as the Challenger continued to relentlessly destroy its target until one could see the inner workings of the ship.
"Commodore I suggest you cease fire, I think you've neutralized those ships," said Jack's father as he watched a ten million credit investment get ripped apart.
Jack merely nodded and said, "All gunners cease fire, all weapons safe."
The batteries ceased fire instantly and went to idle.
"Damage report, Commander?"
"No major damage among the battle group, a few strained shield generators on the corvettes, but nothing crippling and all ships report fully combat capable despite the overzealousness of our droid opponents," Commander Hess responded.
"Very good, Mister Hawks if you would join me in the CIC, you too Mister Blissex," said Jack intensely as he rose up from his command chair, a personal touch he had done even before the Challenger was upgraded, he didn't see why he had to keep standing all the time on the bridge. He ordered the CIC cleared, not wanting any witnesses to the ass chewing he was about to give these two.
"Alright, what the hell happened out there, this was supposed to be an exercise, not a battle between life and death, these are veteran crews, but they just recently got these ships back, so tell me, what the hell happened?"
Blissex and Hal Hawks exchanged nervous glances then Blissex put forth his theory.
"I believe that the tactical droid reverted to its original programming."
"What original programming?"
"It was originally programmed to fight this ship, and its mission orders stated that your ship was to be destroyed by any means necessary even sacrifice itself so long as it ensured the destruction of the Challenger."
"I knew that I was on the Separatist hit list, but I never heard of anything like this. I know that they employed bounty hunters to hunt down good captains and certain high level officers, but to commit resources to destroy just one ship?"
"Not massive resources, just a tactical droid that was programmed from the very beginning to best you," said Blissex.
"It didn't exactly live up to expectations though..."
"This tactical droid had only some disarmed warships and fighters at its disposal, two of which you destroyed and the last one you've practically scrapped, did you really have to do that son?"
"Sorry dad, old war time instincts, I used to scrap ships like that for a living you know."
"Mister you are making my hair go more grey by the day," Hal said exasperated.
"That just means I'm doing my job," Jack responded cheekily, giving everyone a good laugh.
"On a more serious note I just received a message from Admiral Rod, he says the new base at Bespin has been completed ahead of schedule, my battle group has been ordered to take up station there and to be placed directly under his command."
"I thought you were supposed to go on a six month patrol of the Core Worlds before heading out to the Outer Rim?" Hal queried.
"That was before the various delays we had with the refit of the Challenger and the other ships, our patrol got taken up by another battle group. We'll drop you off back at the Shipyards then head out. Has Kayla's surgeries been completed?"
"The last series of treatments to her DNA has been completed and she should have completely recovered by now, she's just waiting for you back at the shipyard," said Hal smiling, he had been among the first to have seen her, right after the doctor, and even under her bandages the changes were apparent.
"Very good," said Jack smiling as well. He hadn't seen her for almost a year, three months of strenuous surgery and genetic modification and the nine previous months before that she had mostly spent in seclusion in her quarters. 'Meditating on the Force in an attempt to find my purpose,' she had said, though Jack suspected she was mostly grieving the only way she knew how, plus he knew for a fact that she was having terrible nightmares, having walked in on her in the medical bay once to check up on her to see her thrashing in her bed and only being able to wake up to his touch and the sound of his voice.
"I won't keep you anymore, and my crew needs to get back into the CIC," said Jack, and strolled out of the CIC towards his Command Chair, settling in and watched as they approached the Hawks Shipyard, which still evoked feelings of home for him every time he saw it. He walked his father and mister Blissex down to the hangar deck.
The hangar deck was huge, much larger than on a standard sized Venator, this was the main difference between the Challenger and other ships of her class, her enormous size, being roughly the same design as the standard Venator she was as big as the Imperator, now known as the Imperial, class Star Destroyer.
There had been some considerable changes to the layout of the ship. Now every twenty metres thick armoured bulkheads were in place that would slam in place to seal off damaged sections of the launch and hangar deck, to prevent the spread of fire and explosions.
Jack and his father said their goodbyes and left in a new Lambda class shuttle, one of several that the Challenger had received to replace the old assault shuttles, though Jack had kept a few that had been modified for boarding purposes. Minutes later the same shuttle returned and Jack waited excitedly for its occupant to come down the ramp. Soon the atmosphere inside the shuttle equalized with the Challenger and the ramp lowered, landing with a soft thud down on the deck and down the ramp its only passenger came out, a young Twi'lek with a strong seductive figure, her skin a dark shade of blue, darker than her previous complexion. Her lekku, head tails, had swirling intricate designs tattooed on them. The process of getting them tattooed must have been extremely painful for her since the Lekku of a twi'lek are very sensitive. She wore soft opaque black veils over most of her body with tight fitting black armless leather shirt and very short leather skirt underneath, leaving very little to the imagination.
"Hello Kayla," said Jack in greeting.
"Nice to see you again, Commodore," she responded in her seductive accent, bowing respectfully, though there was also a slight mocking quality to it as she bowed, the bow also showed off her ample cleavage without seeming to bulge out.
"Easy there Kayla, no need to over act it," said Jack as he took her up in a hug, which she gladly returned.
"Anymore bad dreams?" he asked quietly.
"A few," she said as they began walking towards the turbolift at the back of the main launch bay and entered one, heading up to the command bridge. "Some are just nightmares, creations of my own fears and bad memories, but others I feel are Force visions of what is happening in the galaxy, mostly to surviving Jedi, a dark figure in armour with a mask features most of all in my visions, sometimes in my nightmares, or perhaps visions, he is hunting me down."
"Does he look anything like this?" asked Jack as he handed her a pad with a profile of a very recent public figure.
"That's him, that's the man from my nightmares and visions, wielding a red lightsabre, who is he?"
"His name is Darth Vader, the Emperor's apprentice and general enforcer, as well as my boss's boss's boss, and has the potential to possibly make our lives extremely difficult, and probably end them with just a flick of his hand. He has the full support of the Emperor and he is the one in charge of hunting down whatever Jedi survived Order 66."
Aayla studied the image of Darth Vader more closely. "In my dream this dark lord has an aura of malice, anger, but also sadness, it's as if his very soul is being tortured, but he is unable to turn away from the dark side, he's just too immersed in it to come back and survive. I believe he wants to die, but he has to obey his master."
"So the man behind the mask is little more than an obedient attack dog," said Jack.
"An attack dog with the dark side of the force at his command and most likely capable of ripping you apart with merely a thought, and the cunning to make anyone dance to his own tune," said Kayla.
"That new defence system, what was it called, the CIWS network, seemed to be most effective," said Kayla, quickly and seamlessly changing the subject, she had seen the mock fight from the Shipyard's C&C.
"Yeah, wish we had something similar back in the day, would have probably saved a lot of lives if such a defence system were implemented as standard on all Republic ships back during the war," said Jack as they entered the turbolift.
They took the turbolift up a couple of decks then walked a short distance to his quarters, with Kayla by his side. They entered and Kayla took in the Commodore's quarters. It was a simple three room State Room, its size worthy of an Admiral, but tastefully decorated, the walls a simple off-white colour with a few paintings, two depicting this very ship, one before her refit, and another after, along with a couple of landscapes obviously of his native Corellia.
"Your quarters are right through there," said Jack as he pointed out a side door that was almost invisible, a servant's door. She looked for the door controls, but they were not easy to find, until she ran her hands along the sides of the door, and to the right hand side of it was a hand shaped depression. She placed her palm over it and with a soft, almost soundless, swish it opened up to a small set of quarters, mainly just a comfortable looking bed, a simple table and a wide assortment of pillows, plus another door that led to a small bathroom.
"This was originally meant for an Admiral's steward, but since I was just a Captain, and I never requested one, so it's never been used. Besides, this way we'll be able to sell the idea that you are my personal attendant to any white coats that come snooping around," said Jack with annoyance at the mention of the Emperor's agents.
"White coats?"
"Agents from the Imperial Security Bureau, the Emperor's new secret police within the military that has just recently formed, and a pain in the ass for just about every captain and Admiral in the fleet," said Jack, his anger at the very idea of the ISB utterly disgusting him. "All to ensure the loyalty of his soldiers through fear, this damned Tarkin doctrine that most of the admiralty is getting behind of."
"I've heard of it, certainly not something the Jedi Order would have approved of, ruling through fear and threatening every world that dissents with death and destruction," said Kayla sadly.
Jack visibly pulled himself together then turned to leave. "You have free reign in both these quarters, use them however you wish, and I also have a first rate personal chef that you can call if you need anything," said Jack before he left for the command bridge.
Aayla spent a few moments looking around her small set of quarters then sat down on a large comfortable looking pillow in the middle of her room and began her meditation, finding her calm centre and looked into the Force, trying to get at least a glimpse of what is happening out in the wider galaxy, searching for her fellow Jedi, but her senses were still being clogged by the black shroud of the dark side, though it was fading and every now and then she could see a glimpse, but there was still too much darkness, too unbalanced, too skewed towards the Dark Side.
AN: I've been beating my head on this chapter for months now, and I can't seem to go any further, or improve it, so here it is, hope my readers enjoy this.