Star on Earth (Open)

[Corruck Kazen]

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"But the worst enemy you can ever meet will always be yourself..."​

-Friedrich Nietzsche​

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Location: Space, Outer Rim​

Reason: Break​

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Here they were, in some silent portion of the Outer Rim, beyond most of the trouble that plagued this region of space. He outside of any star systems, simply floating through space. He had needed time to think though his current situations. This was a difficult time for Corruck. He had spent so much time simply moving from mission to mission that he no longer really thought about what he was fighting for. He had assumed that his reasons had been to defend the peace that he had come to believe in. But now he questioned everything, even himself.

Why had he been fighting? What was his purpose here? Was he truly here for the rebels?​

He didn't know the answers and he certainly wouldn't know it for awhile. He had time to think for once, there was no battle, no pressing mission, no threat that would destroy the rebels. He wondered what his purpose was now...now that there was a temporary peace. He was not a warrior, but why did he not feel in place here. He knew that one side of him always said that it was for the power that he would gain. The resources allowed him to accomplish things that previously he had never been capable of. His strength had been increased almost a hundred fold. That was only one side of the truth.

The other main portion of his mind told him that he was here to defend all those who could not defend themselves. That side's altruistic explanation was the object of much derision from his more prosaic mind. He felt that it was also partly true, his willingness to fight for those he did not know was proof of this. He had taken many risks for the rebels and he could not easily say why.

While he should have been able to not worry about it, he felt that this was incredibly important and an immensely necessary bit of knowledge. If he didn't know why he was doing this then he would have no true reason for doing it. Without that information he would simply be following some unknown feeling that would lead him to his death in the near future. He needed to know. He needed to plan for it. If he didn't he was dead. Emotions were dangerous when one did not know what it was. Was he infatuated with the rebel's leader, Matchbox? Not really. She had a beauty about her that was beneath the surface, but it was hardly what affected him. It had been many years since his heart had been let loose in such a regard. He had to admit that no one had ever really stolen his heart, no one that was alive that is.

Was he drawn by the risks involved? Only partially, a very small amount. His impulses in that regards were never strong enough to overwhelm his logic.

Was it the power as one side said? There was certainly an allure there that helped him join, but staying was not controlled by that power. He had gotten the power he wanted and had been able to make it fairly permanent whether he was there or not. That was no excuse for his staying. Power was something that didn't matter to much to him in the long run anyways. He was no Sith...

Was it the want to defend the weak and defenseless? Maybe. He was going to be the last person to admit that. He did not want that; he did not want to become some Jedi like person who was a defender of the galaxy. He was willing to accept that he did have weaknesses in that regard. But he was no Jedi...

His reverie was broken by something pawing at his leg. Almost immediately, he recognized it as Norgorth, one of his pet Vornskr. He smiled as he looked at the creature. He pet the dog like animal, rubbing behind one of its ears as he stood. His bed had become something of his meditation retreat for the longest of times now. The creature made small movement around Corruck's legs as it excitedly followed him. "What's the matter boy? Is food late?"

The creature made the cackling noise that Corruck had come to assume was the Vornskr's version of a bark or purr. He moved to the door that had closed behind the Vornskr and opened it. As he walked through he remembered how quickly the Vornskr had figured out the door mechanisms. It was fortunate that the door consoles were large allowing the creatures to open the doors without damaging the equipment.

He walked slowly down one of the hallways in the Recalcitrant bringing back his thoughts from earlier. He just kept on going through the already thought through. He needed to take a break... What was he saying, he was on break. What he needed was time alone.

He came to the ship's galley and stepped in. He was buffeted by a rush of warm air that smelled of meat and cooking vegetables. Norgorth almost bowled Corruck over as it rushed through trying to get to the food. The sound of sizzling food filled the air, almost covering the noise of the other Vornskr barreling down the hallways to get the kitchen. Corruck held back a laugh as he moved out of the way. Karneth yelped as the five Vornskr huddled around his legs. Each tried once to get up his legs at the food being prepared. However, Karneth had gotten used to it and batted them lightly away. They all sat expectantly until Karneth tossed a large portion of meat to each of them. They happily devoured it, five different cackling noises coming into being.

Corruck turned around and looked up at the Ysalamir that was set in a nutrients frame near the top of the wall. He rubbed the creatures head gently before he left. Karneth could deal with the Vornskr well enough. Corruck smiled as he remembered the first few days that those creatures had been aboard the ship. Karneth had been very cautious around them, him being a Force user made this a natural response. After the surgery in which the Vornskr had had their tails removed and some time spent on Corruck's part to tame the creatures, Karneth had warmed up to them quite a bit.

For the next few minutes he wandered the mostly empty ship, trying to recall everything he had been thinking through with his purposes. Then something clicked. Something suddenly entered his mind that practically put an almost perfect answer in his mind. The reason he was here was not to defend, gain power, or simply to fight. It was to show something to everyone in the galaxy and to reveal a threat that had tricked all into believing that it was a shield.

His mind reached out, bringing himself into a mental state of pure thought. His physical body disappeared as his mind created an infinitely larger body within his imagination. Within that imagination he held the galaxy in his hand. As he held it aloft all he could see was an imperfection that became all too apparent upon closer inspection. He brought himself onto the battlefields all over the galaxy. He watched as countless battles unfolded. Men and women of all species falling in droves, slaughtering each other mindlessly. They fought not knowing their true enemies were ones that stood right before them and all around them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcu3s-INbP0​

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This was what he wished to show. The greatest danger they all faced was from within. The Force was the true enemy. The Force was not the danger, but those that wielded it. The Jedi claimed that the Force was looking for balance, but nowhere did Corruck find evidence to this. The Sith wanted power, more power than they could control. To bring peace to the galaxy would require the removal of those that claimed control over others. Without the Force all men and women, all species, all people, were equal and could attain the same kind of power. The Force allowed certain individuals to claim power over others. It-

"Sir, needed at the bridge immediately."

That was it. Corruck now had the answer and he had to prepare to think on it more. But for now there was something that needed to be taken care of. Apparently Sheera required his assistance.

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck opened his eyes, the images his mind had created disappeared as he found himself back in the familiar surroundings of his ship. He made his way steadily to the bridge, where he found Sheera and Rathur conversing over a game of Pazaak. As Corruck came in however, Sheera dropped her cards face down and walked towards the comm unit in the corner. "Sorry to bother you, Corruck. However, there was a message from ReCal, they used the emergency line."

Corruck shook his head and sighed, "They always use the emergency line. Was there anything particularly important about it?"

"I wouldn't know. It was encrypted using that key that you set up awhile back for them."

Corruck felt a jolt of surprise, the scientists had so far ignored the encryption, finding messages much easier to send without it. If they had decided to use it this time that would probably mean that they had found something important. He nodded silently before he moved over to the console. He opened the message. Even as he downloaded it to his datapad his mind had begun to decipher its contents. His mind was racing through the possible situations that had warranted a message which the scientists had taken the time to encrypt and then send to him.

His room was probably the most secure room to decrypt the message. Within ten minutes he was there, the door locked behind him. He sat on his bedside chair with the datapad in his lap. He preferred to keep these sort of decryptions in his mind only. That way, there was a much less likelihood of people gaining access to his codes. He didn't write down what the message said, as the message was supposed to be relatively top secret. He read slowly, making sure to correctly decode each word and then memorize it before moving on to the next one.

Half an hour later he had the whole message in his mind:

"Commander Corruck​

I hope that you have found this message in good health and that the encryption was proper according to your original coding.​

I send this message to let you know that Project O and End Operation have both been further explored in your absence.​

Some of the scientists were becoming bored while you were gone and had begun work on it in lieu of waiting for your next project.​

So far, we have gotten three basic designs made and and three basic models have been produced.​

I intend on sending a follow up message with the designs and further information in the next day or so. Please contact me if anything is required.​

Message End"​

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Corruck rubbed his eyes, well he had hardly expected that. Project O and End Operation had been as good as scrapped a few months ago when his scientists had stated that the concepts were both archaic and inefficient. Obviously thanks to being left alone for awhile they had decided that there was more to explore in the field. He shut off the datapad, tossing it into one of his drawers before running to leave the room. He was so excited that in his hurry he almost didn't unlock the door in time.

He was in the bridge faster than his mind had expected. The walk or run that had taken him there was not in his memory, testament to his excited state. If those two things had been accomplished or at least started on a route that would lead to fruition, then the whole plan that he had in mind would have to be trashed. If it succeeded then his goals would be even easier to attain. He opened the comm frequency and quickly typed in a message to the effect that the scientists should not send another message and that he would be coming within a week. He encrypted it and then sent it before turning to Sheera and Rathur, who had begun playing a game of Sabaac.

"Sheera, we need to get back to ReCal as soon as possible."

"You got it. ReCal headquarters here we come."

Corruck just hoped that the project would prove to be worth it. The dangers of what they were working with was far more than what most people would find acceptable. The possible gains had made Corruck more than willing to take the risk.

The Recalcitrant moved to make the jump to lightspeed.​

 

[Corruck Kazen]

A week later, after taking careful detours so as to avoid unnecessary holdups, the Recalcitrant reverted to realspace. For the first time within that week the ship would remain in realspace for longer than a few hours. They had reached the base planet for ReCal, Praesitlyn. The planet had proven to be quite a good place to set up shop. It was outside of any major galactic faction's control. However, it was a planet that was incredibly important for information transfer for between many smaller factions.

While this presented no immediate gain, as Corruck's people hardly had the capability of tapping or changing the information, it did open the opportunity for the future. Unfortunately, it appeared as if Corruck would have to move, leaving his company without leadership for longer periods of time than they appeared to be ready for. Especially if they were going to use that time to work on supposedly dead-end projects, not that he was complaining about that in this case. There were other projects though that were most certainly dead-end and did not need to have time wasted on them.

"Rathur, send a message ahead. We will be arriving shortly and I expect the models in preparation," Corruck said while moving away from bridge. There were some final things to prepare before he left.

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Half an hour later, Corruck stood before the leader of the scientists of ReCal. They were both looking out one of the windows, at the top of the ReCal science building, they were viewing the loading of three large crates into the Recalcitrant's cargo hold. It was the culmination of the work that ReCal had put in while Corruck was gone. Apparently they had not told him everything, the scientists had gone far beyond simply making models. They had created three basic prototypes of the Project O. He had a planet in mind in which to test them on. It was conveniently under command of an ally who would probably forgive him if he did not ask for permission. The secrecy of his projects required that as little information as possible was released, also he doubted that the associate would agree with what these were capable of.

"So you say the potential for these are almost infinite compared to what you have currently attained?" Corruck asked quietly, his mind on what these would be able to do if this were so.

"Well. While the potential is limitless what is actually attainable if finite. We are far from a completed product and the prototypes are but a fraction of what is possible. However, as we speak there are already scientists working on it. We expect a some type of jump with the next month, after that it may be years before we begin advancing in this field."

Corruck grunted while nodding. He then asked, "There were three classes correct? What were they again?"

The scientist's voice picked up a perkiness which came with explaining something of incredible enjoyment for him. "Well the smallest and probably the weakest is Mark I. It uses nuclear fission. That was created from our beginning efforts into Project O. The second one, the middle largest, is a missile that utilizes nuclear fusion. Much more difficult and much more powerful than the Mark I. The Mark II was created from the necessity of Operation End, it utilizes a fission bomb within the system to reach temperatures that allow fusion. The fusion of atoms will create much more energy and therefore a much larger explosion. The third is a mix of the first two, it uses fission to get to fusion which then allows more fission. That one is multiple warheads of the Mark II inside a single missile. It should accomplish the bombardment scale you had in mind. However it is unknown just how powerful it is. I would suggest keeping your people away from them as any leaks will be lethal."

"Thanks for the warning." Corruck smiled to himself a little. The scientist would most definitely not approve of what Corruck intended. But it would be fun.

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Five hours later, with the sun setting on the dusty scene, Corruck watched the horizon disappear as his ship left the surface of the planet. Oh there would be much more work to be done. The Recalcitrant did not have any sort of missile launcher for the missiles or bombs he was carrying. that meant that they would have to use their ingenuity to be able to test these things.

The ship would soon be jumping to lightspeed; headed for its new intended destination, Helska.

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Helska IV, the Hoth of the Helska system, was just as desolate if not more so. This world was not even inhabited by the gentle Tauntaun or the ferocious Wampa. Instead it was nothing but a frozen planet with water beneath the surface. It was a surprise that there had been anything living on the world at all, but then the Rebels had built a base there. One that, so far, had been undetected and was fairly safe. In that way it was like Hoth during the Galactic Civil War.

Corruck was no fool, he did not live under the illusion that the base would stay safe forever. Actually, the fact that the base had remained secure for so long was impressive to Corruck... but also worrying. It was simple not possible that a planet like this would be overlooked, especially when there were many enemies in the galaxy. While the galaxy was large, it was becoming smaller and smaller with the ever increasing number of enemies of the Rebels. He had not spent much time on this world, mostly because he was not one for colder weather. Corellia was not a world known for its cold winters, so he had not spent much time in cooler climates. While he probably could have adjusted he had found no need to, he had not been forced to live there for any lengthened period of time so he did not see a necessity.

This would probably be his longest stay in the system, and he would probably never touch the planet. Yet it was the planet that was key to these testings. It was uninhabited, relatively speaking, and it was controlled by the Rebels. This meant that he would be able to conduct his testing at will and he would probably not be questioned. It even seemed that his timing was perfect, the side with the Rebel base was currently on the sun side. That meant that the testing would have to be conducted on the night side. Normally that would be prohibitive of the testing, however in this case it would allow the blast radius of the prototypes to be basically tested.

Corruck had understood the reasoning that had stopped the scientists from testing the bombs on Praesitlyn. These weapons, if they were anywhere as powerful as they were supposed to be, would have wreaked havoc upon the planet's population. That would have been unacceptable and would have made enemies of what once were friends. That planet was allied with the Rebels as well, however Corruck doubted that they would continue to be if any of the three bombs were dropped or used in their vacinity.

As the planet's dark blue, due to the fact that it was the night side, surface came into view Corruck sighed. There was only one problem with the plan. The Recalcitrant had no launchers capable of firing the bombs. His intent was to launch the large missiles from orbit, the projectile would fall through the atmosphere picking up speed until at last he crashed into the planet and detonated. Hopefully it would explode and prove to be just as strong as the scientists had theorized. Unfortunately, because the ship had no conventional way of launching the bombardment missile it would require some out of the box thinking.

He had already thought of one plan, however it had proven to be not very safe. He had thought of positioning the missiles out in space and have himself in a spacesuit launching them each one at a time. However the launching process would be fraught with a number of possible failures and each one could not be fixed easily.

That was why he was having the missiles moved to a corridor with an airlock. His solution was to simply launch the missile from the hallway aimed out the airlock. The airlock was too small to contain any of these missiles and therefore he planned on having the hallway sealed off and to have the air removed so that it was a vacuum. The missiles would be set up to be facing the planet out of the airlock. The two who would go in would be in suits.

There was a klaxon that sounded, telling Corruck that the missiles were in place and that the walls would be sealed within ten minutes. They had set it to an automated schedule to avoid sentiment getting in the way. He had feared that the slightest problem would cause people to halt the tests. Corruck made his way to the hallway entry. The somewhat clumsy looking suits were lined up on the wall, two of them. They looked like relics, from an age long past. They were actually in very good condition, aside from their appearance. He would be in one, it was just a matter of who wanted to volunteer to be in the other. The missiles were too large for one person to carry on their own so he would need another person to help maneuver them into position.

He was about to use the intercom to call all the crew for volunteers, but he found that they had already congregated in the area. They seemed to have preempted his intentions. They looked expectantly until Corruck decided to speak.

"Alright you probably know what is going on. I need one volunteer to help me with the missiles. Anyone takers?"

All of them had the look in their eyes that they would take the job, but one voice spoke quicker than all the rest. "I'll go!"

Corruck was surprised, it was Nothy the youngest crew member. She was something of a trouble maker so Corruck had a few reservations about having her along. But she had spoke fastest so she got to help. This was going to be interesting.

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck tried to calm himself down. He felt some giddiness at the work they were doing, or at least would be doing fairly soon. Right now he was having Nothy work on a mockup version of the missile mechanics. It was just in case Corruck needed to work on something else, or he was otherwise disabled from completing the work needed. She had the gloves from suit on to simulate the clumsiness with which they would respond. He had realized a little too late that the mechanisms within the missile were very fine and that thanks to the large size of the gloves it made it difficult to manipulate the devices.

That was why he had Nothy were quickly trying to learn the best way of working with what they have. The thick fingers of the space suit were an incredible detriment to the process, but it was the best way that Corruck guessed would work for these tests. They had spent about ten minutes at it and had found only small things that seemed to help. He bet it would take maybe at best another five minutes before they had a workable solution. In any event, he was somewhat enjoying listening to Nothy. She was talking the entire time that she tried to work with the gloves, if one wasn't paying attention it would be easy to think that Nothy was not really focusing on the mechanism. However, Corruck was keeping a sharp eye on himself and her progress and she showed no signs of being behind his work. She seemed to have an acute awareness of what her hands were doing, even when she looked around and talked to him.

It concerned Corruck a little the first few times, but after seeing that nothing negative came of it he simply found it normal. He wondered if she was usually this talkative or she was just as giddy as he was. It was difficult to tell, Corruck had never spent that much time with her before so he was seeing more of than usual. It was interesting to say the least. He had come to the realization that she was more philosophical than he had originally bet. She enjoyed blasting things and causing general trouble, but she also did a lot of thinking. She wanted to know where her life was going and other such questions.

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Fifteen minutes later Corruck and Nothy had found a relatively simple way of activating the rocket sequence for the missiles. He had Nothy get into one of the spacesuits, which turned out to be quite big for her. She was enjoying this quite a bit more than Corruck had anticipated. Once the suit was on Corruck could rest a bit, Nothy could no longer be heard... until the comm was turned on. Nothy went through a brief check list of the suit's systems. Everything was green so Corruck did the same. He checked air supply, pressure, and made sure that there was no leaking.

That was the quickest part, the next one would take a little longer. Corruck and Nothy walked down into the hallway and locked themselves into the restraints that were along the wall. Corruck had taken the liberty and had restraints installed while they were on the hyperspace jump. The restraints would hold the suits, and the people inside, in place while the air was vented. Corruck helped Nothy with her restraint, because the suit was too large it made it difficult to maneuver on her part. Corruck then set himself in.

He spoke, "Ready?"

Nothy responded, "Ready to go!"

Corruck smiled before speaking again, this time to Sheera whose comm was set to the same frequency. "Alright then. Sheera begin."

Within a moment of his words ending, he heard through the suit the sound of air moving quickly. The Recalcitrant was fitted with a basic vacuum like device in its ventilation shafts. These were in case of a fire, which would be extinguished due to lack of oxygen. These devices were now sucking the air out of the hallway. The logic behind removing the air was to avoid any accidents when the airlock was opened.

As the air outside slowly disappeared, Corruck had to listen to Sheera telling him the levels because he couldn't see that much, Corruck was able to plan. He intended on the 'phase 1' missile to go first. The nuclear fission should be the least powerful of the bunch and Corruck would test that one at the beginning. There was just one thing he was afraid of happening, a premature detonation. The missiles seemed pretty stable right now, but after the initial launch sequence they would turn live.

That was a problem that they would take care of when and if it happens. As the last bits of air were removed from the hallway, Corruck undid his restraints and was about to help Nothy when he noticed that she was already moving slowly towards the first missile. The missiles had been within similar restraints which kept them against the floor. Corruck spoke, "Sheera, override the airlock in the hallway."

He heard a response but didn't hear the words. He watched as one of the doors on the hallway, the one leading to the airlock, slowly rose until there was a normal entrance. He walked to the far side of the first missile and undid the clip while Nothy undid the other end's clip. He lifted his end while Nothy did the same. They hefted it slowly and steadily towards the airlock. The missile was too long to fit lying down in the airlock so both doors on the airlock had to be open so that the missile was laying part way into the hall.

When they had lowered the projectile to the floor, Corruck ushered Nothy over. He was looking out the open airlock right towards the surface of the planet. It was truly a beautiful sight, he moved close enough to the open space that there wasn't anything obstructing his view. There was nothing like what he saw in the galaxy. Not even the view from the bridge was quite as truly magnificent as this.

He noticed Nothy was also looking, she was very quiet at this point. He could only here her steady breathing as she watched the planet slowly spin below. The planet, the stars, it was all amazing to see.

Corruck felt a little humor come to him. Such beauty, and they were about to mar it in a way that the galaxy would not soon forget.

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck had taken a few steps back so that he was at the end of the missile. Nothy would make sure that the front end stayed on target, didn't want to have the missile heading away from the planet. Or getting caught in orbit to fall at some random place that may very well end up being the Rebel base. It would be difficult to say the least to have a nuclear explosion right on top of his allies. He would really have preferred to avoid that sort of thing.

Corruck opened a small hatch on the back to the missile, it was a manual control that the scientists had placed there. They had done so because Corruck had not told them of any launching device and they had guessed that he would be testing manually instead of using a launcher of some sort. He pushed the small button that armed the missile. In that moment Corruck realized that he had not asked if there was a time interval before the missile detonated or if it was set for some impact. Corruck fumbled with the controls for a moment before he was able to start on the launching mechanism. Within a minute he was ready to activate the propulsion system which would send the missile onto its doomed voyage.

Corruck looked up and spoke to Nothy, "Armed. Ready?"

Nothy spoke an affirmative. Corruck pushed the last switch as Nothy pulled away from the missile. For a infinitesimally small moment Corruck was afraid that nothing would happen, or worse that it would explode. But that time passed and the rocket kicked in. The missile streaked away from the ship, as if happy for freedom. It headed in an almost straight line, then the rocket shut off. It was sufficiently within the gravity field that it was pulled directly towards the surface of the planet. Now it was moving perfectly straight. It seemed like an eternity as Corruck watched the progress of the missile.

It seemed to be inching its way slowly to the surface. Then a brilliant flash of light and suddenly everything was gone, the line that had denoted where the missile had been was gone and in its wake was a massive cloud of smoke and dust. It had struck the surface and detonated. It looked to be a star on the planet's surface for only a moment. He watched as a shock-wave moved slowly across the white-blue surface of the planet. The cloud followed the wave only what appeared to be a finger's width apart. It was a spectacular show and it proved the nuclear weapon to be functional. Now was the beginning, the beginning of a new era for ReCal's research.

Corruck spoke into the comm to Sheera, "How does it look?"

There was a moment of silence, followed by many voices speaking at once. Corruck was only just able to make a distinction of one from the other. "Wow! That was amazing! The blast radius, the computer says, is about 1.3 kilometers for lethality."

Corruck was a little pleased, but he found it more frustrating. One point three kilometers, sure that is a very large space, but it isn't large enough. They needed to be able to devastate a large city. This wouldn't cut it. Maybe the second bomb would, but it would take a little before they were ready to launch the next missile.

 

[Corruck Kazen]

"Alright, turn off gravity." Corruck said as he and Nothy set up to move the next missile into place. For a moment nothing happened, then he felt the large object rise slightly onto his fingers. He pulled up gently along with Nothy. The two of them slowly moved, maneuvering the bulky missile around. They tried avoid banging the bomb, just to be safe, though there were a couple dings here and there by the time they had it in position. A few minutes would show them with the bomb on the floor, gravity having been reactivated.

Corruck knelt at the front end of the missile this time, while Nothy took care of the mechanics. She had asked if she could and Corruck had given her his permission. She seemed to be more proficient at it, but it could also had been that Corruck was a little slower in regards to finger movements. He felt something click, it must have reverberated throughout the entire missile. Was that what Nothy had felt when he armed it? But she hadn't asked if he was ready. Maybe she had hit her hand against the missile. He couldn't tell, but something in the back of his head told him that it was not good.

A few moments later he heard the comm crackle to life, "Alright, ready?"

Corruck responded, "Yep."

He held it for a moment longer, then he felt the shaking that heralded the launch. He watched as a moment later the missile had disappeared, heading towards the planet. He watched expectantly as the bright rocket headed directly downwards, but something went wrong. Before it had entered the main atmosphere, the missile detonated. There was only a small amount of flame as there was not enough oxygen to hold an explosion. What came instead was a massive shock wave. Corruck felt himself move slightly backwards and he heard Nothy fall onto her legs. She had apparently lost balance and fallen over.

He heard a loud voice over the comm, "Corruck! It detonated early, we have a shock wave incoming along with an E..."

The comm suddenly shut off. This was bad. Corruck looked at Nothy, but she seemed unresponsive. He tried moving over to her and shaking her, but for some reason or another she wasn't reacting. He picked her up and moved slowly to the doorway. It was more difficult as the gravity was now offline. The entire ship must have been hit, or so he guessed. He assumed that what Sheera had been about say was EMP. If that were true, and the current state of things lent testament to it, then they were in even more trouble. He couldn't close the airlock door, open the hallway door, and get Nothy inside. They were dead in space.

He knocked on the door, banging it as hard as he could with one hand. He then laid Nothy down next to the door and continued banging at it with two hands. He imagined himself able to simply push the door up and open, dragging Nothy in and then closing it behind them. Oh the flights of fantasy... At such a time he could do little else. He sat down next to Nothy, hoping that the power would return soon. He put his hand on her arm and just shook it gently back and forth. He had not expected this and that may be what dooms him now.

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Corruck just sat there, listening to his heart beat and breath for what felt like years. They both seemed to loud. He wondered at nobody else hearing them. His thoughts wandered far and wide. He could almost hear the crew going about their daily business, the scientists with their usual chatter moving around the center, the familiar thrum of the ships engines when Corruck rested in the engine room. Of course, these were but illusions. Tricks that his mind played to pass the time. There was so little else. He was powerless in this moment and there was nothing that could be done to change the situation. He knew the foolishness of his decision to not have any safety precautions for this, but then he had never expected it. That was no excuse...

If only he had been told. If only the scientists had warned him of the missiles effects. But they could not be to blame. How were they to know with this somewhat experimental technology? What could they have planned for if they had never known it was a possibility. There were no contingency plans, no backups, no hope of getting out. It was ironic. Here he was in a place of supposedly complete safety and he was dying. There was no way around it. His death was inevitable. He realized, as many people do, that death would come for everyone. He hadn't expected it and so the realization was shocking and more painful than if he had been ready.

He had known in his mind that all men live and die, but his heart had never truly accepted that fact. Now that it was facing him and that he could no longer hide from it, he realized that it was foolish to try and sidestep death. Death would come for all and it would never be stopped. He could see that Death was not an evil force bent on destruction, it was simply a natural response to life. One could not complain that there was unfairness in the act, just as one could not complain about choosing one thing and living with the decision.

He felt his left arm move. He turned and found that Nothy was looking around. She must have been hit pretty hard by the shockwave, she didn't respond immediately to Corruck's attempts at communication. Perhaps it was shock, or maybe a concussion? Corruck knew little in the way of medicine and the medical field. Sure he knew how to bandage a wound, set a broken bone, and deal with minor diseases, but his knowledge was based on the need to know rather than wanting to know.

A few minutes passed before Nothy seemed to pay more attention and began responding to hand gestures from Corruck. She seemed to be thinking and responding appropriately however Corruck was still concerned. He tried to use hand gestures to ask her how she felt. It took a couple tries before she comprehended the sign. Once she understood she replied with hand gestures. She said, if Corruck understood it correctly, that she was doing mostly alright though her head was in pain. He didn't know how to work forward with this. There was simply nothing that could be done at this point, until the system could be reset and the necessary parts replaced they were trapped. While this was bad, Corruck was glad that he had made sure to collect enough replacement parts that hopefully the system would come back online fairly soon.

His hope was based on the fact that the limited air supply of the suits was steadily running out. These suits were special, from a time when trying to save space was all the rage. Their system was based on a rebreather where the breath from the wearer was cleaned and oxygen was added. The effect was a system that used less air than a conventional breathing system. The problem with that system though was that it used a computer and electronic sensors to add just the perfect amount of oxygen based on each person's individual rate of air usage. Because the EMP had fried the electronic systems, this rebreather was no longer functioning properly. Corruck had been sure to make certain that there was a backup system, which the makers had put in. Now it functioned with normal air tanks.

He found that his supply was at about another two hours of air, while Nothy signaled that she had another two and a half. While he hoped that they would not trapped out that long, it would be better to keep their hands busy so that their minds didn't have to think on the time ticking away. He got to his feet as quickly as the bulky suit allowed him. He offered his hand to Nothy, who accepted. She had difficult getting up with the size difference in the suit. He knew what they could do.

 

[Corruck Kazen]

The last missile flew off, its rockets only lasting a few moments before they cut out letting gravity do the rest. Corruck frowned slightly, it had been difficult to get it in place. The gravity was offline so moving it around was easy, but keeping it steady was difficult. There were more bumps moving that around than the others, but it had worked and had been armed without incident. Now that he looked back he noted that the walls and floor had quite a bit of smoke residue on them thanks to the launches. It would need to be cleaned once the power was back on and they were safely back inside the ship safely.

He felt a bump and he almost lost his balance, he guessed it was the engine trying to come back online. It seemed to happen again and again until the feeling became a general rumbling. It was a rumbling that seemed a little harder than it normally was. It was a feeling that was common on ships, but thanks to the almost perfect stillness that had been present when the engines were offline made the rumbling feel much more present than it normally felt.

Well that was good, at least now the main engines, which supplied power to the life-support and other mandatory words, was back online. Hopefully soon they would be able to return to the safety of the sealed parts of the ship. He looked back out towards the planet and noticed that the missile was almost at the ground. When it landed a few moment later Corruck waited for the impending explosion. However none came. For a few moments Corruck waited, hoping that there would be some late explosion. Nothing happened. Maybe it was a dud, maybe it had was not activating fully.

It soon became apparent that nothing would come and so he and Nothy turned their attention back in towards the ship. Corruck almost forgot to check his air, almost. When he looked at it again it had gone down to one and a half hours. That was surprising as it had only been twenty minutes, he assumed though that it was related to the work that had been accomplished in the time that had expired.

He looked up to Nothy, who had preempted his question and signaled that she had two hours. They both walked back to the hallway door and sat leaning against it. For what felt like an eternity nothing seemed to happen. Then he felt a particularly rough rumble. A moment later lights came on in the hallway and he heard the distinct sound of air filling a vacuum. His eyes opened, though he didn't remember them closing. For a moment he thought that the seals on the vents had failed and that the air in the ship was escaping. He tried to stand but found that his arms and legs protested quite a bit.

When at last he stood the hallway door was opening and he realized then that the power had come back online and that the airlock had been resealed. On the other side of the door stood Karneth and Rathur. They both smiled and quickly walked in and helped Corruck and Nothy walk away from the hallway. They were taken to the medbay, just in case, and they slowly worked their spacesuits off. When he looked at the gauge he was surprised to find that it had only about ten minutes left. They must have fallen asleep and not realized it. It was a closer call than he had thought.

 

[Corruck Kazen]

Once the medical droid had decided and declared that the two patients were perfectly alright, Corruck took the time to review the data the scanners had picked up from the first bombs detonation. Apparently, it had hit the ground and after a few moments exploded. The explosion size was much larger than anticipated so exact measurements were impossible to obtain. However, that the original scan that Sheera had read had been incredibly short of the full scale damage. As he looked over the scans he found that the area that was lethal covered almost three and a half kilometers. This was a combination of the blast, fires, and radiation. The blast caused a massive shockwave that was harder than the average sentient being could handle. The flames towards the edge of the fireball that had engulfed the area was hot enough that the smallest of organisms had burned and so many had done so that the scanner had been able to pick it up. The radiation was the big factor though. That had been what Corruck had been concerned with.

The radiation was interesting in its results. The winds on the planet had picked up a large amount of radioactive dust and snow. That would likely fall far from the initial blast. Even with that, the blast itself created a large amount of radiation in the immediate area. Sheera's scan must have been on the radiation detection, because the area she gave was about the area of the lethal zone. From what this indicated, if the bomb had been detonated in air rather than ground level the shockwave would have been more pronounced but there would be less residual radiation and less radioactive dust and other such being tossed up into the atmosphere like their test had shown. Also an air burst, he recalled the name for the tactic, would put more radiation into the upper atmosphere which would then become part of the environment of the planet. That radiation would need to be removed with much work or it would slowly come back down at unpredictable areas.

The difficulty with planning such a missile strike to fall close to the ground where that perfect zone would be attained would be astronomical without in-depth research into each planet that these bombs would be used on. Corruck had no intention of using the weapons in such a way. His only plan was to use it on enemy populations. This technology presented a threat to all non-shielded facilities within the blast radius and the following fallout.

Such technology was far too dangerous to have floating around the galaxy...and as it was it appeared to be a dead end. Fission could be achieved but something was wrong with the fusion, maybe it was not possible. He would let the scientists decide on that, but for now he would need to have a ship built specifically for this technology and he would need to make sure that it did not fall into the wrong hands. This would lead the galaxy to its destiny. It was with this tech that Corruck would show the galaxy the truth and he would free all from the bondage of the Force users. He didn't know what his first target would be, but he would have to choose wisely. He could not simply begin a bombing campaign and blast every planet in the galaxy until no life remained. That was not how he could show those ignorant to the truth so he would not waste effort to prove that point. He couldn't aim for a Jedi temple or Sith Academy, those were too obvious of targets and they were the target for many people. He had to find something that would break people out of the slumber of stagnation. He had to awake people to what was truly going on and how everyone could help.

Part of him was a little concerned, the leader of the Rebel Alliance was Force sensitive. Was his goal to annihilate everyone including people whose intentions were true and good? No. His intention was the removal of the ability to utilize the Force to gain the upper hand. Jedi, and Sith, were far too reliant on the Force. Without it the power in the galaxy would shift and there would be a better balance than ever before. Those who had once tried to gain supremacy would suddenly become little more than weak men and women who were at the mercy of their past followers. That was his plan. That was his destiny. That was the fate of the galaxy.