I walked the bridge of my own star destroyer. My very own star destroyer. I can't believe it! After all this time, I'm finally on the bridge of a star destroyer, that's all mine!
Except for the small fact that it's in a simulation but we'll cross that bridge later.
"Commander?" I heard a voice say behind me. I turned to see the two braids of Kira standing behind me. I noticed everyone was looking at me. Apparently some of the cadets Simmons assigned to me were bridge technicians, because the dugouts of the bridge was filled with people.
"Yes, Captain Hart?" I replied to Kira, who wore the uniform of first mate.
"Our orders?" She questioned.
What were my orders? I know the Kashyyyk system, better than many actually. I took a course on "Turning Point Battles in the Clone Wars" and Kashyyyk was one of the biggest ones. I know all about the planet Kashyyyk, and it sister planet in the system, Trandosha. The only way to win this game would be to make it on hmy rules.
"Cloaking at 100 percent. I want to watch for the other two before I do anything else." I ordered.
Kira nodded my orders to the bridge crew, and I smiled as I saw the cloaking shields appear around my destroyer.
My destroyer.
She needs a name. All good ships do. Even if it's in a simulation.
"Commander Tryo," Kira asked, quite earnestly, "if I may ask, why am I up here on the bridge instead of down on the TIE level?"
To be honest, I didn't quite know, but she was assigned here, and here is where she will stay. That doesn't mean I'll take the blame for it though.
"Simmons assigned you here I guess. I had nothing to do with who is what. Call all the department heads to the bridge. We're going to have a meeting." I commanded to Kira, after responding to her question. She relayed the orders through the comms with one too many exasperated sighs.
While I waited for everyone to join me, I sat down at a holotable and examined a map of the destroyer. It was quite massive in all its glory. I zoomed in on the bridge, where I most likely would spend all my time, and looked at the layout. There were quarters for all department heads, quarters for myself, quarters for first mate, offices for both myself and first mate, the command deck itself, a small lounge for bridge staff, a locker room for bridge staff, a personal armory, and a conference room. All in all, it was quite handy.
I assumed the rest of the ship had a lot of the same stuff, and I was right. Barracks', lounges, meeting rooms, and offices were all throughout the ship. Along with hangars and armories, the ship was complete.
"Commander, they're ready for you in your office," a new voice rang over my comm unit.
"Thank you," I commed back and I made my way to my office.
That sounds weird. I have an office.
When I got there I found everyone waiting for me. Decked out in black suits were my department heads. Amadeus had orange coloring on his shoulders, Zoe had green, and Reed had a deeper black. They all wore badges signifying their rank as well. There was another woman in the room as well. She had blue coloring, signifying she was head of all my fighter pilots.
"Damn Fallon, this whole ship gig is pretty awesome!" Amadeus exclaimed after Kira walked in and shut the door.
"Yeah Amadeus, I'm pretty stoked about it too," I replied back. "The things massive too! I had a look at the map and its gigantic!"
"Yeah man! I got lost almost three times on the way up here! If it wasn't for Zoe it probably would've been hours before I did," He said, shooting a look at the blonde.
"Please Amadeus, there's no way you would've made it up here, period. You're lucky I'm just an amazing friend and helped you up," Zoe shot at him.
"Guys, I'm glad you love to banter with each other, but we have an objective. One I preferably get done so we can get back and be a step closer to graduating. So if you could focus on the problem at hand, that'd be great," Kira said, rather annoyed. And for once I'd have to agree.
"Yeah, we need to have a plan on how to win this. Anyone have any ideas?" I asked the room.
"Well," Reed started, "We could try and draw them out. Send a ship out with us cloaked behind it. When one of the other teams sees our ship and goes to fire, we can uncloak and take them by surprise."
It was a good idea. I sure thought so. Risky, yet rewarding.
"Or," the unknown woman in the room began, "We could turn our scanners on, and just wait for the other two to attack each other. Then, we swoop in and pick up the pieces."
"That's a fair plan Mrs-" Reed prompted, asking for her name.
"Delheart. Commander Cara Delheart," she responded.
"Fallon is the only Commander on this ship, Captain Delheart," Kira corrected
"Well Mrs Delheart, we could do that, but I've fought with those two men on the other two ships. That will also be their plan. With mine, we can dictate the terms of engagement. We can find the best area for an ambush, hell, we might even be able to have them fight each other before we take the rest, but we have to play smart," Reed explained.
Cara just slumped in her seat and resigned, leaving me to make the final decision.
"All for the ambush?" I asked. The hands of Kira, Reed, Amadeus, and Zoe all went up. "Alright. Before we leave, I want status reports. Reed, you have control over the infantry, how's it looking?"
"Well, we've got a steady 30 thousand normal infantry, 4 thousand special forces, and 8 thousand officers, about half of those are on the bridge." Reed reported.
"That's good," I looked at Zoe, "How are we on the medical side?"
"Ten thousand medics. About 8 thousand are field trained, so the rest will have to be confined to the destroyer. We are fully stocked on supplies and the like." She explained.
"Good. Amadeus?" I asked.
"Engineering is great!" he exclaimed, earning a few smiles around the room, "Star Destroyer is running at full capacity, all personnel are running at full capacity, and damn do my quarters smell nice!"
We all laughed at his statement and I looked to Cara, "How are my pilots?" I asked her.
"44 hundred ships and 44 hundred pilots to fly them. No complaints so far, and I'm not expecting any," She reported, rather bluntly.
"Okay then." I turned to the last person in the room. "Kira, hows my bridge staff?"
She smoothed her uniform out before answering. "Everyone seems happy. You have about 8 thousand men and women up here."
"Alright. If no one has any questions then we can leave," I finished, waiting for any questions.
"Yeah boss, what's this baby's name?" Amadeus asked, making a gesture to the ship.
I thought about it. Most people name their ships after things they loved. I didn't love many people, but there was this one girl a few years back.
"Lyman's Bane. That's what we'll call her," I decided. Amadeus pumped his fist in the air and left the room. It seemed like everyone else was done, because they all left, leaving me to my office.
It was a fair sized office, a few paintings, some windows showing the depths of space. You could see Kashyyyk in the distance if you looked. There was a big table that the people who occupied the room just a few minutes before sat at, and then my desk. All in all, it was nice. I sat in my chair and began to relive the day.
It started off weird but okay. Kira was quite awkward in the morning, and Amadeus and Zoe believe we're going to become a thing. S3 was set to do my chores and buy a ship, and Reed became a part of the team. I met my competitors, and our first test happened.
That's exactly what Simmons referred it as. A test. We didn't even know it was a test. Was that the point? If simply calling up your squadmates to a stage was a test, what else could I be judged on? Was the strategy a test? Was this new woman a test? Hell, was the ship's name a test?
I'm getting paranoid.
Just then my comm lit up. It was Kira from the bridge. "Fallon, the ship was sent out and Reed's plan worked! A Destroyer is coming out of cloak as we speak! It's the Grey's Heart, Grey's ship!"
This is it. It's time to see what I'm made of. I ran from my office to the Commanders seat on the bridge.
"Captain Hart, call Captain Hartley and have him get to the bridge! Tell Captain Delheart to get her squadrons ready and meet me up here as well. I want Captain TreVoe to get her medics ready, we don't know what's gonna happen," I commanded to Kira.
Less than five minutes after Kira relayed my commands to Cara, Reed, and Zoe, Reed and Cara were on the Bridge's command deck.
"What's the plan Reed?" I asked.
"Tractor beam. The minute they fire I want them stuck here. Then, use our turbolasers to break down their shields. Mainly aimed at their bridge. After we get the bridge down, we send a team in to kill everyone in the bridge, lock it down, then shut off all the destroyers systems. After that, we set it to self destruct and get the hell off the ship," He explained. It was a fairly good plan.
"Okay, that works. Cara, you'll fly it. I want Amadeus and Zoe to send an engineer and a medic down to the hanger. Me and Reed will finish the team off. Kira, you'll be in charge up here," I ordered. God I hope this works.
Cara and Kira both gave me weird, disapproving looks, but didn't say anything. Reed probably thought it was a bad plan too. I personally did too but I was put on the spot.
"Is there a ship ready Cara?" I asked.
"Yeah, there's one in docking bay 15D," she replied.
"Okay. Get there, and get it ready for takeoff. I want us off the Bane immediately when we get the word that the Heart's shields are down. Kira, call Amadeus and Zoe, have them send their people up. Reed, join Cara. I'll be down there once I hit the armory," and with that I left.
When I got to my personal armory, I was quite surprised to find that it was well stocked. I changed from my Commander uniform into something more battle ready. I grabbed a pair of blaster pistols, a vibroblade, and an earpiece for my comms so it'd be more convenient.
I looked around the armory when I finished. It was actually quite well stocked. Blaster rifles lined the walls with crates of ammo right under them. Buckets of blaster pistols and vibroblades were on the corners, and in the middle of the room were shelves with heavier weaponry on it. For a personal armory, it was decked to fit a small army. Maybe it was, I don't know.
There was an elevator that led from the armory, so I took it down to the hangar level. While on the elevator, I heard the whine of turbolasers, signaling the beginning of the battle. Or maybe it had been going on for a while, and I just never noticed. Who knows? Certainly not me.
The elevator stopped at the hangar level, and I found myself right near docking bay 15D. Passing the other hangars full of TIEs and Interceptors, sitting in 15D was a sleek Y-45, waiting for its crew.
I stepped aboard to be greeted by Reed. He pointed to one section of the fighter where about six special forces troops were sitting, chatting mildly.
"Those are who will actually board the ship. Along with me and you, if you're up for it. Cara may come along as well, but the medic and engineer will stay aboard, for obvious reasons. That should be more than enough to take the bridge," He told me.
I nodded and walked towards the center area. I saw two unfamiliar faces, wearing green and orange. I approached the man in green first. He saluted as he saw me.
"At ease," I told him.
"Thank you commander. My name is Consus Clark. I'm Captain TreVoe's right hand man, and she told me to come assist you in whatever way I could. Sir," he barely got out, somehow in one breath.
"Alright, well, you can do what you want until we leave," I dismissed as I turned to the woman in orange and asked, "Who are you?"
"The name's Pax. Pax Walker. Deus sent me here to help you out. I'm gonna do my best to do that sir," She replied, a whole lot more relaxed than Clark. I waved her off to go join the troops as I went to find Cara in the cockpit. When I did, she definitely looked pissed, so I slowly backed away.
Which was crappy timing, because Kira rang over our comms, telling us that it was our time. The Grey's Heart's shields were down. Cara immediately started the launch sequence and we were thrown into space.
What I saw at that moment was chaos. Complete and utter chaos. "Hang on!" Cara yelled over the ships comms. Broken TIEs littered the dark void of space. Green lasers flew left and right. One hit our shield and I saw the ripple around our ship. Reed and some of his men manned some of the ships turrets and returned fire. Starships left and right fired.
The best part? The chaos was beautiful. I found myself more and more entranced by it all. It consumed my minds thoughts.
"Commander! We're approaching the Heart! Have Captain Hart launch turbomissiles at its bridge!" Reed yelled at me over my earpiece.
I commed Kira over the same earpiece, "Kira! Have the missile gunners aim at the bridge, we need a hole!"
"Got it boss! Stay safe!" She commed back.
Right as she clicked off the channel, I saw missiles fire from the Bane onto the Heart's bridge. The hole was made and we flew in.
"Ready?" Reed asked the nine of us that were on the loading deck. I nodded and unholstered my pistols, as did everyone else. He hit the button to open the deck, and we unboarded. The minute we hit the bridge, we massacred the bridge staff. They all disappeared in a dust of one's and zero's. We met some resistance, but not much at all. Not until Grey and her crew showed. That's when the fun happened.
"Tryo. You dare attack my ship? Go burn in hell!" Grey screamed at my while she withdrew her vibroblade.
"Yeah likewise," I retorted, bringing up my pistol and shooting her in the chest, ending whatever thoughts of combat she had.
"All of you, on your knees. Now!" Reed yelled at the remaining crew members of Grey. They reluctantly followed his orders, and one of our special forces troops, who carried a heavy rotation blaster, executed them.
"Reed!" I yelled, "What the hell?"
"It's a simulation Fallon. We have to end it by ending the people. It's harsh, but it's not really killing them. They just get kicked out when they die," He responded, calmly.
I nodded and we kept going on our journey. We got to a console and Cara accessed it.
"So we shut down the destroyer before we blow it, right?" She asked.
"Yes," Reed and I replied at the same time. She nodded and began working.
Every so often some troops would try to take it back, but Reed and his troops gunned them down so there wasn't a problem.
Then a different one came. A group of about 30 troops stormed the bridge, making a last stand. Most were gunned down quick, but a few shots got off, and where did they go?
Cara.
She screamed as she hit the ground.
A couple of Reed's men brought her back to our ship, but as me and Reed made eye contact we knew something.
We couldn't get off the ship.
To make it worse? Kira commed.
"Fallon, Tough As Steele just entered the battlefield. We're now in a three way fight. You need to get off that ship."