[font=Courier New]Imperial Occupation Zone[/font]
[font=Courier New]Formerly of the <ST1:pOnyxian Commonwealth</ST1:p</ST1:p, Galactic Coalition<O:p</O:p[/font]
[font=Courier New]Festung Panzer Tank: Testing Day 1[/font]
[font=Courier New]Station Time: 1032 hours, Imperial Standard[/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype]Ilum was unsurprisingly cold and barren. This had certain benefits and, naturally, certain obvious disadvantages to go along with them. On the down side, the planet’s snowstorms and frigid temperatures could wreak havoc on any form of organic life in the entire galaxy. The presence of a Jedi cave in the vicinity didn’t help matters much for anyone present, but that could be ignored…compared to the local weather, it was but a minor nuisance. The benefit to using this world—which was strange out of the fact that it actually had one—was that the equipment being tested had the potential to function at least a little better in the cold. Even that advantage, however, was arguable, due to the severity of the climate.[/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype]The test crews for the Festung were learning that the hard way. Littered along the garage floor in the base, the casual onlooker would find the tell-tale signs of frenzied mechanical labor: welder apparatus, fuel tanks, and other sorts of things that would normally indicate someone was hard at work trying to seal a hole in a particularly damaged piece of metal. It was therefore with a great sense of irony that there were ten people near the prototype tank…[/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype]And they were trying to do exactly the opposite.[/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype]“Fucking frozen hatch!” came one of the shouts, powerful enough to echo off of all four walls in the cavernous facility. “Louie, get me the torch!” A simple blowtorch was passed up to the top of the tank, and the woman asking for it bit back another curse. “Not that one; the acetylene torch!”[/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype]Not surprisingly, the voice behind that helping hand turned indignant very fast. “Alright, you damn bitch! HERE!” Without even a second of hesitation, he hurled the acetylene torch up at her, the emitter nozzle aiming straight at her as it arced through the air, rather quickly.[/font]

[font=Courier New]Station Time: 1229 hours, Imperial Standard[/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype]Sergeant Sera Ravenlocke had been admitted to the burn ward at the Ilum outpost almost two full hours ago. Her assistant, Staff-Corporal Louis Zaine, had been relocated to the outpost’s detention facility. As Jarred walked the halls of the infirmary, he couldn’t help but shake his head at the entire affair. Either it was the Jedi cave nearby, or the weather, but something native to Ilum was having a wretched effect on his crew. If only there weren’t so many people who’d get ticked off about the cave being ruined, he’d test the Streikender on it for kicks. “Good afternoon,” he said calmly as he entered the sergeant’s recovery room, already distinctly aware of the pained glance facing him.[/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype]“Sir,” she managed weakly, her voice the only indication the lieutenant-commander needed to realize that this conversation was most likely going to be one-sided.[/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype]When she didn’t say anything else for five dreadfully silent seconds, the SS operative continued, his voice still eerily calm, even while it carried undertones of concern and compassion. “Are you alright, sergeant?”[/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype]“Not…really…” The once-soft voice was pained, croaking and cracking as it spoke. Likewise, a once-beautiful face was now marred with horrific burns, the likes of which didn’t easily heal, even with bacta involved in the process.[/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype]It could have been much worse, the commando reminded himself, staring at the injuries for a few brief seconds. The torch had only lit at partial strength, letting off a concentrated blast of intense heat. Had her grasp clicked it over to full power, Sera would have accidentally cleaved through a sizeable chunk of her skull with no effort. The culprit in this case was already sitting in jail, and Jarred had only one thing left to do as it regarded the corporal: call the boss about a pending court-martial. Other than that, there was nothing left to do about Zaine, and no real inclination on the lieutenant-commander’s part to waste any energy over him. “Alright, then. Take the rest of the day off from your duties to recover; I expect to see you on the field tomorrow, when the testing starts.”[/font]

[font=Times New Roman][font=Palatino Linotype]Without waiting for a reply, Jarred offered Sera a somewhat-lazy salute before turning on his heel and leaving the room. Just outside were two members of the infirmary’s staff, both of whom he recognized. He had them both stopped just before they entered the sergeant’s room. “Terix, Nelms. Good to see the two of you.” Skipping any further preamble, he gestured towards Sergeant Ravenlocke’s room. “I want her as close to fully healed as you can get her by 1030 hours tomorrow. See to it.”[/font][/font]

[font=Courier New]Station Time: 1247 hours, Imperial Standard[/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype]There was no joy in Jarred’s spirit as he got to work on the Panzer. Work in this garage had already cost him the effectiveness of two of his current subordinates, and was now taking time out of his own duties. Others had already offered to take care of the situation so that he wouldn’t have to delay his own work on their account, but there was an old axiom that made their offers useless.[/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype]If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself.[/font]

[font=Palatino Linotype]It was eerily silent in the garage. Beyond the noise of sparks showering, and the echo generated from the room’s natural acoustics, there was nothing but the ominous sound of silence, the only kind of noise that could shatter the resolve of a titan, and bury the fortunes of even a god. It was also cold and empty in the garage, for there were very few entities within it. Among them, only one had any life; all other people working on anything related to the tanks had been ordered out of the garage while the Panzer was being worked on, and the Streikender sat on the other side of the bay, still significantly chilled. Of course, that meant nothing at the moment, since the artillery wasn’t going to be tested until the tank was fully assessed.[/font]<O:p</O:p

[font=Palatino Linotype]Letting out a sigh, Jarred continued working on the tank. The first loud noise that indicated his success came five minutes after the last regular worker left the garage, in the form of the crew hatch creaking open.[/font]

[FONT=Courier New]Festung Panzer Tank: Testing Day 2
Station Time: 1030 hours, Imperial Standard[/FONT]

[FONT=Palatino Linotype]It was time. Within five seconds of the base clock striking 1030 hours, Sergeant Ravenlocke stepped into the garage, Lieutenant-Commander Smith watching every step she took. The burns from the torch were still noticeable, even though the medical team assigned to the sergeant’s care had managed to reduce the marks to nothing but a small series of fading scars. There wasn’t much more that could be done except to allow them time to heal, but they were at least starting to come on the mend; that was progress.

Of course, they were immaterial at the time. The important thing, as far as Jarred was concerned, was that the driver was here and able to function. That meant more to him at the time than anything else about the project. With a simple smile and a casual wave over to her, he took one last swig from his stimcaf and placed the empty cup down on a table near where he was standing.

Lining the room, tools of all kinds spanned the floor, each in various states of use or abuse. The two vehicles in the room, a Festung Panzer tank and a Strekiender artillery vehicle, were both in working condition; the former was set up and ready for a long morning of systems testing, and the latter appeared to be ready for the afternoon. Gunners for the tank had already taken position inside, manning their stations no more than five minutes ago as they waited for their driver to show up. As she got into the vehicle, they all let out a sigh of relief; soon, they’d be out on the field, testing the new weapon of war.

Jarred’s voice crackled in on the comm.-link as the tank started to roll out of the repair bay. “You’ll notice a few things out here right away: a passenger shuttle offloading people, a few obstacles to your freedom of motion on the field, and some obsolete drones flying overhead. Those ‘passengers’ are offerings from the Imperial prison system. Drive around the training course and clear everything out, and we’ll be able to go back inside.”

Before he could even get to the surveillance bunker, Jarred would have heard the first shots from the mighty tank, proving at the very least that the people inside it were thrilled with the idea of being able to get back inside relatively quickly, assuming everything went well. With how late the test was starting in the morning, it was entirely likely that they were going to be getting an early trip back in just so that they could start the artillery test promptly after lunch in the mess hall. Of course, that would have been at least a little extreme… They were there to test a project, not just ride around really fast and blow stuff up.

Though that really is what testing the tank will lead to, Jarred thought to himself as he finally entered the room, grinning to himself. Already, the team was doing well, and already a good amount of the barricades had been turned to rubble under the power of the tank’s devastating cannons. If it weren’t for the damn restrictions against firing on that infernal cave, I wouldn’t even have to wait long to set up the artillery test for them. The thought was a little on the bitter side, but he still held to it; there was no point, in his mind, for keeping the thing for anything other than high-ordinance target practice.

…It was, after all, a potential sanctum for the Jedi, not the Sith.

The tank was performing well, despite those ruminations—or, rather, the team inside it was performing well. The anti-air defense had destroyed all but one drone, which was coming around for a pass that it likely wouldn’t escape from, and half of the prisoners sent over had become test subjects for the various small cannons on the tank’s chassis. All in all, it was looking like the test would be a complete success within the matter of a few short minutes.

Perhaps it’s too easy? he thought absently, watching the continued performance with barely even the slightest doubt about the new vehicle and the crew inside it. If things were going this well in just the test phase, he was more than overjoyed at the potential that it had in the field. Eventually, the Panzer was finally brought back to the garage, and there was a noticeable smile on Jarred’s face; the first test of the day was complete. That was, all in all, a stroke of good news.[/FONT]

[FONT=Courier New]Station Time: 1345 hours, Imperial Standard[/FONT]

[FONT=Palatino Linotype]With very little time remaining for the second test, the grounds crew at the Imperial test facility had finally prepared the course for the Streikender artillery platform. Several aging, captured vehicles of enemy design had been littered along the field, and all of them had to be eliminated. Naturally, some had been placed farther away than others…

…And, to the continual regret and frustration of the commando overseeing the demonstration, none of them were in the general direction of the crystal cave. Damn them, not letting me have any fun messing with the Jedi…

That would come at another time, though, he was sure, so instead the vehicles were left where they were, all slated to become nothing more than spare parts. It would, at least, be a blazing glory of a session.

This time, he’d made a note to get to the observation room before the test subject was put to use; that incident with the tank had been embarrassing enough, and he certainly didn’t feel like getting a repeat experience of it. Instead, he’d run to the room as soon as he’d seen the hatch for the artillery platform close, and had managed to get to the room just in time to see the colossal vehicle start to break out of the garage.

As far as he’d been able to tell, the majority of the SPA’s weaponry shared functionality and design with those the tank used in defense, so those weren’t the focus of this course. Instead, it was targeted specifically for the large 150-mm cannon mounted on top of the vehicle, and the people inside had already gotten to that point, targeting the first of five enemy vehicles. It was interesting, as far as the lieutenant-commander was concerned, that they were targeting the farthest vehicle first; they could have gone with some of the nearer targets instead, to get a better feel for the vehicle before going for the long shot…but if they wanted to do something else instead, that was their choice; it was a demonstration, after all, not a real exercise.

The explosion was, from the given range, nothing more than a pitiably small gout of flame reaching into the sky; at the very least, it was still an explosion, and proof that the massive weapon was up to the task it had been designed for. In short order, the five-person crew inside the SPA turned their attention to the next farthest target from them, unleashing the same torment. Still, the pattern confused Jarred; he wouldn’t have expected anyone to intentionally work down from the most distant target to the closest. It just defied his expectations of standard military protocol. Perhaps they were doing it for fun…perhaps to test the weapon’s reach and their familiarity with it…or, perhaps, just to bother him. It would be worth finding out later. For now, though, he watched the explosions come, all the while drafting a message to send to his commander. As soon as he finished the draft, the final explosion blossomed in the test field, and the artillery platform was brought back to the garage, another successful test.
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