Well, I know it's been a few days since I last updated this story, been busy with other things and haven't felt like getting out the CD-ROM disk the chapters are on. Just an idea how old this story is, the original 11 chapters were put on CD-ROM Sept. 29, 2002. As I said earlier, I originally posted this story on before any problems with that site occured. If you originally read the story there, then you'll be noticing some differences here. Biggest differences so far will be this chapter and the next. For those who did not read it there, don't worry about what the differences are to the original chapters. Though I do plan to add a new chapter or so as I never cared for the ending being so quickly before. Always felt rushed, and I think it still feels that way even now.

To those who have read this story so far, thanks for your comments. It's good to know folks are actually reading about Jace and Krysta. Oh and I probably mention Windy least she gets upset and decides to land on my house. I've been keeping in mind some of what you have said and will try to work some of it into the story, particualary the afore mentoined planned new chapters. Though I think Jace may not be what people expect from the early chapters.

Here's an intresting bit of trivia for you, Krysta was originally Jace's age, though that died early on when I decided to make her more like a little sister to Jace. In fact as I was writing the first draft of the fifth chapter Jace told his father that she had been like a daughter when she was younger but then she became more like a little sister as she got older. At that time the age difference between Jace and Krysta was much greater. But as I was writing the part where Jace was in his room after dinner, the romance between Jace and Krysta just kinda created itself before I knew what I was doing. So I had to go back and rewrite things to bring them closer to the same age and had Jace say that they'd never been close enough to be like father and daughter. Though there's still a bit of a difference in their ages.

Thank you and keep those reviews coming. And now, on with the story.

Knight in Shining Armor
Chapter 6

Breaking into the prison had been the easy part. He had expected it to be. In his opinion it was always easy to break into an Imperial prison. It was the breaking out part that was difficult. After all prisons were supposed to be escape proof. But then, it was hard to keep someone as heavily armed as he was from breaking out if they broke in to begin with.

Arriving at the Rasheil's cell, he quickly opened it and stepped inside. "General Rasheil I'm here to....."

"Rescue me," the Twi'lek general interrupted as he got to his feet. "What shall I call you? Should it be your name, which you will have to tell me by the way, or shall it be by your title."

"My title, General," Jace answered. "We can't let the Imps figure out who I really am."

"Indeed not," Rasheil agreed, moving past Jace and into the corridor beyond. "The Alliance can't afford to loose an operative such as the Knight."

"We can't afford to loose an officer such as you either," Jace pointed out. "Come on, we've got to get to the prison armory. Without getting you armed, I doubt we're gonna get out of here at all.

"Emperor's black bones!" Jace exclaimed. "Is this a prison or a weapons storage facility?"

"Prison armories are not normally stocked the same as a military base's armory," Rasheil said. "But this is not the same as any armory I've ever seen. Look at this, weapons not put away properly."

"The sheer volume of weapons in the middle of the armory is the same as what it would take to fill a cell like the one you were in. My sources said they just got a new prisoner in yesterday."

"Yes, I see." Rasheil opened one of the nearest weapons crates and started rummaging through it. "When I arrived, they worked me over for two hours before putting me in my cell. It should have only taken them a few minutes to get me taken care of."

"Except they were probably emptying your cell of weapons."

"Exactly. Knight, take a look at this."

Jace walked over and looked in. The sight of what was inside made him whistle. "Imperial DR-11 disruptor rifles."

Rasheil waved to all the other crates in the room. "Notice the DR labeling on all the crates. The same as is on this one. What do you want to bet their all filled with disruptors."

"I count at least fifty crates, but there are no doubt more than that."

"That's at least a thousand disruptors in this building. No doubt there are many more. If these get into regular circulation, that will be it for the Alliance. They'll be able to vaporize us before we can even hurt them."

"Not if I can help it," Jace said as he opened another crate. "Thermal detonators."

"With other prisoners here, we can't destroy the prison."

"You're right," Jace sighed. "But can't we just destroy the armory? Please?"

"My, but you are determined to deal with these things. Do you have some other way?"

Smiling, Jace pointed to another crate. "Mark VII high yield fragmentation grenades. Not nearly as powerful as the thermal detonators, but at least they'll be less likely to destroy the prison. Half the crate should do. At least that will wipe out all the disruptors in here. The thermal detonators will have to be taken with us to prevent the explosion from setting them off. Same thing for the other half of the Mark VIIs."

The general grabbed an equipment pack tossed it to Jace, who started loading it with thermal detonators and grenades. "The Mark VIIs can be set for three minutes," Rasheil pointed out, "but that's not long enough for us to be able to get out before those things go off."

Jace slid a hand by his hip and pulled out an oblong object about the size of his fist. "I know. But they'll sure do some damage when this bomb goes off."

The shrieking of the prison alarm announced they'd been discovered. Rasheil grabbed a repeating blaster and it's backpack-style generator before exiting the room. "Looks like they've discovered I'm no longer in my cell."

"So you mean their not as stupid as they look?" Jace jokingly asked as he followed the general. As he left the armory, he came face to face with a stormtrooper sergeant. Behind him, a squad of stormtroopers held Rasheil at gun point.

"Hands up!" the sergeant ordered.

Jace followed orders, raising his hands slowly, displaying the armed thermal detonators in his hands. "Their set to go off if I let go. And I will let them go if you don't let the general and myself go."

"You're bluffing," the sergeant said.

"Indeed he is," Rasheil said, putting the barrel of his rifle to the man's head. "But your men didn't know that."

The stormtrooper slowly turned around to find that he was now indeed out numbered. In that moment, Jace let loose with a roundhouse kick to the man's head, knocking him out cold. He then deactivated the thermal detonators and gently placed them into the equipment pack.

"Let's get going," Jace said.

General Artrey Aslar was a tall man, too tall to have been a stormtrooper. Not that he was upset by that fact. No stormtrooper commanded the kind of fear Darth Vader did. It was Vader who Aslar would rather be like. Thus he had completely shaved his head and went around in a black uniform with a flowing black cape. A tattoo of the Dark Lord's helmet had been etched on his bare skull, so that he actually appeared to be wearing the same helmet as Vader. His shoulders, chest, and upper back were encased in black plastoid armor. Black gloves, hiding a selection of poison injectors, covered his hands. At his hip he wore a vibroblade disguised as a lightsaber. Many with no clue what the Dark Lord actually looked like found it hard to believe that Aslar was not Darth Vader.

But not Emperor Palpatine. He knew the truth and had been the one to approve of Aslar's self designed uniform. He had also called Aslar to meet with him.

"What is thy bidding, my master?" Aslar asked, his nasally voice sounding remarkably like Vader's.

"Rise General Aslar," Palpatine croaked. "You know of the rebel known as the Knight?"

"Yes, my master."

"Yesterday, the Knight freed General Rasheil of the rebellion from the Imperial prison on Ralltiir. According to the report, the two managed to escape capture in a stolen Crescent-class transport. But not before planting a bomb that destroyed the prison's armory. That armory was being used to stock pile DR-11 disruptor rifles. Those rifles were to be used to give us the edge over those pitiful rebels once and for all .

"This Knight has been a thorn in the side of the Empire for far too long. I want you to destroy him."

"As you wish, my master."

"General Aslar, the spaceport manifests you requested."

"Ah, thank you Captain Cazar," Aslar said in that Vader like voice of his. He got up and took the datacards from the Captain.

"Sir, permission to ask a question of you."

"Make it quick."

"Why did you ask for all these manifests?"

"The Knight uses a ship to get from planet to planet," Aslar explained, his tone suggesting this was too obvious. "He can not ship his armor from planet to planet for fear of it being discovered. Thusly, he can not use a space liner as his means of transportation. That means that he has his own ship.

"His ship can not be just any ship. It must be a freighter. A space yacht would draw too much attention. It would also make it more difficult for whoever the Knight really is to cover his true purpose in being on the planet. Planets and moons such as Tatooine, Atzerri, and Nar Shaddaa are places where a space yacht would look suspicious. Suspicion is not something this man wants.

"Which is why he always lands at a spaceport. Landing outside of one could also draw attention to him. And it would give us an idea what kind of a ship to look for. But if he posses as an honest business man, he can travel anywhere in the galaxy and never be discovered. And honest business men always use the spaceports located on whatever planet they visit."

"Most planets have multiply spaceports. The Knight could land anywhere on a planet, making it hard for him to be detected, sir."

"Why do you think I requested the spaceport manifests for every spaceport on that list?"

"Oh, I didn't think about that. I guess that's why you requested the manifests to be for the weeks prior to and just after his strikes."

"Very good, Captain."

"I'll pass this knowledge on to Admiral Mryll. I'm sure he'll want to know about how you plan to deal with the Knight." "I think not," Aslar said. He grabbed his vibroblade-lightsaber and hit the switch. A blade the length of a dagger sprang into view and began humming. The sonic vibrations caused by the weapon's micro-generator caused the blade to become a blur of motion. Before the captain could move, Arsal was on him. He swung the vibroblade-lightsaber at the man's neck, easily decapitating him. "The Emperor ordered me to kill the Knight. He did not say I had to share my findings with anyone. I am not going share this kill with a glory hog such as Mryll."

Just then the door opened and a pair of stormtroopers entered. "General, is there anything wrong? We heard what sounded like a fight."

"Captain Cazar needed to be reminded who he answered to," Aslar told them, returning the vibroblade-lightsaber to his hip. "Escort him out."

"Yes sir," the first stormtrooper replied, a note of fear in his voice as he looked from Cazar's remains to the blood dripping from the weapon at Aslar's hip.

An hour later Aslar's datapad had provided him with the two ships that had been on each and every planet and moon at the time the Knight had made his attacks. Alsar narrowed the list down to one after a search of both ships in the Imperial database listed the Nova Flare as being scrapped shortly after the Battle of Nar Shaddaa. Though the majority of those opposing the Imperial forces in that battle had been smugglers, pirates, and mercenaries, Aslar knew that there had been a few honest ship captains in that rabble. The captain of the Nova Flare appeared to be one of those. After the battle, he had gone on to purchase the HT-2200 freighter listed as the Wind Star.

"Lieutenant Zalril, find out where Jace Douw, captain of the freighter Wind Star, is to go on his next run," he said as he activated his office's comm. "His last known location was the planet Ralltiir."

"At once General Aslar."

"Well Captain Douw, looks like your days as the Knight are numbered."