Young Writers Society

"Whats the point of having such a powerfull thermal detonator anyway? Something that strong would injure the person throwing it just as much as the person it was intended for. And the range on these blasters, even the heavy rifles, isn't sufficient to support a 2000 times scope. It seems like you went a little too far on that one. Besides, who needs a blaster? When the destructive power of the force is so much more... fun? "

Tinech walked around the lab, looking at odd gnick nacks and doodads. "So tell me Tech- whats this do?" He picked up a small, oddly shaped peice of equipment and examined it.
"Its an explosive device used for cracking the scales on krayt dragons...."
"Really..." He turned it on and tossed it at The slow beeping sounds grew more rapid, and eventually converged into one long tone, then stopped. Tech flinched, but nothing happened.
"Like I said tech, the destructive power of the force is so much more fun." He made a fist, and the device crumpled and fell to the ground." They left the room, and started towards their ships. "My ship is fine-" He snapped."-I made the repairs before I came out here. Thats why I needed those parts from the downed starship. My astromech finished what didn't need to be done on the surface during the trek over here." Thinking for a second- "Tech, you're good at rediculous, unecesary upgrades. Maybe you can rug something up to my engines make it go inhumanly fast. Hyperdrive too. I plan to beat the Falcon's record at some point. And feel free to make any other unecesary upgrades that might make this little ship a bit more dangerous in combat. The empire has a few cruisers left, and there's an ample bounty on taking one of them down.

"Thought you said the force was more fun."
"The force IS more fun, but even I know that the force alone won't save your butt in a fight with an Imperial V class capitol ship."

thermal detonators (if thats how you spell it) are soooo awesome on my game (star wars battlefront 1) they are effective and it makes people be thrown in the air and land there heads (booya i know i changed the subject a bit but when i here the word thermal detonator i go crazy and talk a load of nonsence just to let you know)

(OOC: What? You need to give us much much more detail if you're posting in character. If you're lukes bodyguard, which is questionable already, since Luke is a Jedi master, and having a bodyguard isn't a need of his, then shouldn't you be by luke? You make it sound as though you read half my post and interjected something about something that was being discussed.)

Spark and Tinech waited inside the hangar as Tech was working on their ships. Tinech thought it was strange that this Jedi, Spark, is not influenced by either the light side or the dark side of the Force. He seemed... neutral.

"Which side are you on?" Tenich asked.

Spark bore a confused look on his face. "What do you mean?"

"I don't sense any presence of the dark side or the light side in you. Why is that?"

He smiled and replied, "To tell you the truth, both exremes annoy me. Your paths in life are limited by which side you're on, that's why I don't abide to either side of the Force."

"Isn't it difficult to stay so neutral? Don't you ever get the urge to just kill something for no reason?"

Spark paused for a moment before answering. "You've got to realize that which path a person chooses, weither it's the dark side or light side, it all depends on the mentality of the person whose making the choice. I made this choice because it is mine to make, no matter how difficult it is to keep from straying from the path."

Tinech never expected this Jedi to be such a philosopher.

Tech came into the hangar with his droids he used to help fix and upgrade the ships. Spark asked, "Well?"

Tech looked at Tinech and said, "You fixed it, eh? a couple of the power converters in you engine were all worn out. I did the liberty of replacing them for you."

Tenich nodded in approval. Spark asked, "What about my ship?"

"While I was fixing your hyperdrive generator I upgraded your engines and guns as well. About your Hyperdrive system, it turned out to be-" Tech's alarm system suddenly went off, filling the hangar with red flashes of light and the cries of loud sirens. "What the hell?"

Tech ran over to his security panel in the corner and started rapidly pressing buttons. Spark and Tenich ran over to him. Spark asked, "What is it?"

"On screen." Tech said to the security panel. A hologram screen appeared over the panel, showing an Imperial Star Destroyer heading towards the planet's surface. "This doesn't look good. An Imperial Star Destroyer is heading right for us. If it get's close enough, Echo Base will be as good as destroyed."

Tenich smiled. He could use a challange. "Then I guess we're going to have to take it out before that happens." He ran out of the hangar towards his ship.

Spark went to follow him, but Tech grabbed his arm. "Wait." Spark turned and looked at him. "I've got an idea." Spark followed Tech back to his lab.

He shouted as he ran for his ship "I hope you added those weapons, you slimey bastard." with a smile. As he aproached his fighter, he could already see that there had been massive upgrades to weapons and power output.
"Heh, power converters. Slimy greesemonkey did a complete overhaul." The ship fired up with a pop, and he rocketed towards the rapidly aproaching Imperial destroyer. He opened a comm to Echo Base.
"Tech, whatever you're keeping Spark back for, this better be good." TIE fighters began their approach almost as soon as he left the atmosphere. The new upgrades made quick work of the first squad, and moved into range of the destroyer itself. A virtual wall of heavy turret fire came towards him as R3 worked on scrambling their targetting equipment. Another group of TIES came up from his rear and the turret fire stopped. Two stickey mines dropped from the rear of the ship and adhered to two of the ties, which in turn, took out the other two. The turrets were unable to get a lock on his position, as he moved closer to the ship itself.

"About time you got out here Spark." He flew along the side of the ship, taking out what turrets he could in passing. They tried feably to hit his ship as he passed them, waiting for R3 to lock down the positions of the sheild generators.

Name: Eamon D'Arnise
Species/Gender: Clone/Male
Age: Unknown (old)
Homeworld: Unknown
Affiliation: Undecided. Formermly of the First Galactic Empire
Occupation: Currently serving aboard the Star Destroyer Vindicator, in command of a Carrack Class Capital Ship dubbed Alderaan's Tears
Rank: Commander of the Empire's 603rd Stormtrooper Regiment
Weapons:
--BlasTech E-11 Blaster Rifle
--Thermal Detonators
--Stormtrooper Battle Armor
Force alignment- 0
Note: Family owns a weapon store on Tatooine

"Sir, the Vindicator's TIE Squadrons have engaged unknown starfighters over the planet." My Comms Officer's voice split the silence as the Tear descended through the atmosphere of Hoth.

"What? This base was reportedly destroyed years ago," I said.

"I know, sir. I don't think these are Republic Vessels. They may be outlaws, or mercenaries, but their tactics do not match those of the Republic pilots we've dealt with in the past."

"No matter what the case may be, we have to investigate these signals on the surface. Leave the dogfighting to the TIE Squadrons. We have a job to do," I told my Comms Officer. "Prep the 603rd for landing."

The Tear continued it's rapid descent to the planet's surface.

"Hey! You down there! This thing is picking up speed. I don't think its here for a scouting mission." More TIES approached. Tinech led them in loops around the ships hull, dodging back and forth, making it very difficult to follow him. He picked off TIEs as his tactics confused them, one by one, eventually picking off the last of them. Most of the turrets were offline at this point, and R3 had locked down the last of the shield generators. Tinech rocketed towards the first of them, firing every weapon he had at it. It soon gave way to his mass of pure firepower.

"Well boys, this ship aint big enough to carry anymore TIEs. Looks like you missed out." He went to work on one of the remaining shield generators, opening a Comm with the Imperial ship shortly before finishing it off.

"This is Tinech Avlaan formerly of the Jedi Order. It would appear that your little ship isn't enough for me. Your escort and equipped fighters have been obliterated. You're shields appear to be below 50 percent. You haven't got much left in the way of heaby turrets either. I have support on the surface, capeable of the sametactics I am. So, you want to tell me what you're here for? Or should I just continue blowing you away?"

[OOC: Did you...just take on a Star Destroyer?]

"Sir...I'm not reading ANY TIE squadrons on scanner. Either we're getting massive interference, or...they've all been destroyed." My Comms Officer's face was very gaunt and he was looking very pale at the moment.

"It's probably just an atmospheric storm interefering with our scanners. Continue to the surface. Land ASAP."

I turned on my heel and walked through the blast doors into the bowels of my ship.

"Felth--you're in charge of the ship until I get back with the 603rd. Shoot anything that comes within firing distance. That includes any of us who don't report in first."

"Sir, yes sir!" Felth snapped off a quick salute and turned back to his weapon station.

I made my way to the ready room, where my platoon was preparing themselves for the harsh conditions of Hoth's icy climate. Most of them had already donned the faceless, intimidating mask of the cold-weather trooper and were standing at attention near the door leading to the cargo hold. Most of these men were my friends of six years and more, but a few were mere rookes, whom would be with us for the first time this mission.

I moved to my equipment locker and pressed my thumb to the scanner. It slid open with a soft click, revealing my BlasTech E-11 Blaster Rifle, my armor, and a handful of Thermal Detonators. I pulled the breastplate of the durasteel armor from the locker and slipped it over my head, buckling it at my hips and shoulders.

(OOC: Yes, but Imperially speaking the Carrack Class' are pretty small ships. 20 heavy turrets, and no hanger bay, only 5 TIEs which attach to the top of the ship, I assumed there was aditional escort. You do have 5 tractor beams at your disposal though. Stark in comparison to the Star Destroyers that we saw in the movies. *psst* I'm a bit of a nerd.)

Tinech followed the ship into the atmosphere, but stayed at a high altitude until whoever was in it came out. He rumbled somethign to himself about the lack of response being rude.
"R3, whats alive in that ship?"
R3 beeped and whistled, and a message appeared on his screen displaying a great deal of life within the ship. Accounting for the 1000 or so crew, there had to be at least another platoon waiting onboard that thing.

"Tech, Spark. Get ready for some heavy combat. There's a platoon of infantry heading your way, and I don't think they plan on playing nice. I'll hang back here and see if I can't take out a few as they cross the surface, but it won't be like picking off womp rats. Whatever you got up your sleeve Tech, nows a good time to use it."

Heavy turrets suddenly sparked to life around Echo base, most of them hidden, al ready to blast any moving thing that came its way.

(OOC: A bit of a nerd? I'll say, lol.)

Spark entered the lab after Tech. Tech said, "The turrets will be able to slow them down, but we'll need something with more firepower if we're going to take out Carrack Class." he said while he was digging through his inventions.

"More firepower?" Spark asked. "How are we going to get that?"

"Remeber when I said I could make a thermal detinator so strong it becomes an atomic bomb?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

Tech turned to Spark and smiled. "How would I know that if I haven't already done so?" He pulled a large metal box out from under his work table and handed it to Spark. "Use your ship's missle launching system to fire these at the star destroyer."

"How am I going to do that?"

"There's some empty missle shells in the hangar you can use. Put these detenators in the shells and use your ship's rockets to fire them at the enemy. But you'd better hurry, two more minutes and the destroyer will be too close to use these."

Spark nodded and took the box. He ran to the hangar and gathered the missle shells. With his ship still on the ground he loaded the guns and aimed them at the incoming destroyer. He had only one minute left. He opened the communication relay and conntected Tenich's ship. "Tenich, you've got 30 seconds to get your ship to a safe distance." He closed the comunications link and held his hand over that gun's firing button, counting down the seconds until he reached 30.

[OOC: CARRACK Class Cruisers are...but you were fighting the STAR DESTROYER that was accompanying the Tear. Also, the TIE racks are on the bottom of the sbip, not the top ]

Alderaan's Tear
Modified Carrack Class Light Attack Cruiser

Length: 350m
Crew: 30 command crew, 30 Stormtroopers (can double as gunners/additional crew)
Armament: 10 Turbolasers, 20 Ion Cannons, 5 Tractor Beam Projectors
Hangar Bay: N/A (External TIE racks modified to hold 2 Speeder Transports and 3 Speeder Bikes
Note: Modified for Atmospheric Re-Entry, Reinforced Armor Plating

"Sir, touchdown in three minutes. I slipped my helmet on in time to hear my Comms Officer give me the report.

"Any contact with the Vindicator?"

"No sir, none. TIEs apparently...destroyed."

"Not our focus right now, Balthus," I told him, using his name just to show him I knew it. "Are we close enough to the surface to saddle up?"

"Sir, yes sir." My platoon looked at me for orders.

"Lock n' load boys, we got a job to do."

"YESSIR!" The collective shout was enough to make me grin with pride. As one, the 603rd loaded and checked their blasters, then checked the thermostat of their cold weather suits.

"Saddle up ladies." My corporal, a man by the name of Thanas, hit the button to open the three hatches leading to the two Speeder Transports and the trio of two-man Speeder Bikes. I climbed down the ladder and took my place at the Co-Pilot seat of the Transport Speeder, followed closely by Thanas, who took the Pilot seat, and five troopers who took up gunner positions and passenger seats.

Seven other troopers piled into the Speeder opposite me, and my scouts snipers and their spotters climbed into their double speeder bikes. I activated my comm and called back up to the remaining ten troopers in the Tear.

"You know the drill; when we topuch down, you guys get down to the surface and set up a perimeter. Set up E-Webs and--"

"Sir, we know the drill. We've done it a hundred times," one of them said to me.

I chuckled and replied, "That you have, trooper. Good luck."

"To you as well, Commander."

Spark was down to the last ten seconds. He thought to himself, I sure hope Tinech got out of the way in time. His hologram screen for targeting enemy craft showed up in front of him. The crosshairs were all set on the incoming enemy ship. He counted down the last seconds.

Three... two.... one....

Spark fired the missiles and watched as all eight of them rocketed towards the enemy ship. They disapeared from Spark's veiw. After a few moments there was a very bright flash from the Star Destroyer. Spark sheilded his eyes from the bright glare. When he refocused his eyes he looked at the Star Destroyer.

"Direct hit."

We sped along the icy surface of Hoth, headed directly for the remains of the old rebel Echo Base.

"Anything on scanners?" I asked my Technician, who was seated behind me. He looked up from his portable scanner ans shook his head, a motion barely visible under the helmet of the Snowtrooper.

"No sir. I think we're being jammed. However, I was able to retrace the flight path of the second ship based on ion streams from his engines, and I think I've located a hidden hangar, southwest of the main compound.

"Good work. Transmit coordinates to the scout snipers and Fireteam Bravo."

I opened up a direct link to my scout sniper teams, all of them veterans and all of them good friends.

"Listen up, you long range pansies. We got a hidden hangar Southwest of the main compound of Echo Base. I want Scout Teams Delta and Foxtrot to check it out. Do NOT engage, if you come upon enemy trops, repeat, do NOT engage. If you are engaged, defend yourselves and put out a beacon. We'll come running. Gamma Team, you stay with the main us."

A resounding "Yessir!" echoed through my helmet comm.

"Everyone else, head to the Echo Base. Safeties on; I don't want any shooting unless you've already been fired upon. We're here as investigators, not hunters. Though that may change fairly soon. I--"

"Commander D'Arnise?" Felth's voice came through loud and clear on my comm.

"What is it, Felth?"

"I'm not picking up any signals from the Vindicator. It's like they left us."

"Jumped to hyperspace?"

"No sir...there's no ion trail. Thing is, I'm seeing wreckage. Lots of it." Felth's voice was almost quavering.

"Find out what happened. Get in contact with whomever you can; the closest outpost should be somewhere near Tatooine, if not on the planet itself." I wasn't particularly worried; after all, two fighters against a Star Destroyer? Highly unlikely.

Tinech opened fire on the light ship, growing weary of waiting any longer for it to land. It was hit hard with every forward facing weapon on his ship. Ion cannons, heavy laser cannons, torpedos, missiles, anything that moved and had some sort of destructive capeability began to pummel the ship from the air.
"R3, target their drive system, if they're forced to land, they'll have to trek over the surface." R3 whistled in agreement. The berrage of fire moved towards the rear of the ship, hitting almost exclusively their engines.
"R3, whos commanding that ship, can you tell?" Whitstles and beeps. "Commander Eamon D'Arnise? Prepare to land Commander." He took a few more shots at the engines, and they began to fail. The ship started to drop altitude severely. He flew up next to the ships forward visor and opened a comm channel.
"I can be you're best friend or your worse enemy Commander. You've gotta know by now that the Vindictor was destroyed, and that the TIEs were useless against me. One ship took on a Star Destroyer. Son of Skywalker himself couldn't pull that off." Several turret blasts hit his rear, but had zero effect against his newlyupgraded shields.
"I humbly await you're response."

[OOC:the Tear is already on the ground with Blaster Emplacements; Currently Eamon is in one of the landing speeders headed to Echo Base]