Undisclosed Location
The countdown chronometer ticked off the last seconds, coming to rest at 000.000. It stayed there long enough to be recognized, and a sound projector gave off a small beep, indicating the alloted time had elapsed. The pair of eyes watching the clock noted this change, coordinated with the ears as they heard the chime. There was no other reaction, just acknowledgement within the man's mind. His eyes watched, and the chronometer began to change again. A new number popped up on the chronometer, and began ticking away. The silence around the chronometer was sufficent so that the tiny mechanical sound of its old fashioned gears clicking the seconds away could be heard. The number on the timepiece was not long. In just a short while, it would once again reach its final point, beep, and then repeat. It would continue in it cycle, 4 time after that, then it would come to rest. The man felt a surge of satisfaction as he thought of what each cycle would mean, but made sure not to allow his body to change in such away that such elation would be apparent. Nothing could interfere with its mechanical percision; it was pre-set to complete six cycles. It would do such, no matter the situation, no matter the enviroment. It would continue in the prescence of others or alone. In a way, the chronometer was symbolic of the acts it was tracking- methodical, unstoppable, pre-planned. They, like the clock, had a clearly defined mission, and had been set in motion by the hand of one man, who now sat there, watching the small timekeeper doing his bidding. Yes, the chronometer's progess was parallel to the acts it was tracking.
And the time was ticking away.
Galactic Empire: Empire Proper
Carida
The electronic card swiped easily down into its intended slot, and the door slid open. He had never doubted that would work, but apprhension had alway crept up in the back of his mind, ever since he had been approached, and asked to perfrom the task he was about to do. He had been vary, but his own feelings and the money involved had swayed his cautious mind. He hated everything about where he was- the discipline, the physical training,his peers- all of it! He wasn;t cut out for this line of work. Becoming a soldier was not his mindset. Sure he had thought it would have been great or he wouldn't have volunteered, but he had been dead wrong. Still, with the money he was getting to do this one small act, he could quit, slip back home to Ralltiir and no one would be the wiser.
He acknowledged the man who walked out as he stepped inside the doorway. He didn't speak however- formality was very tight, especially here, the explosives armory. With class rooms, and a large cafeteria nearby, often on the other side of partially armored walls, foolishness could be deadly. Besides- he didn;t want anyone to remember he had been here.
Getting guard duty had been easy- he had been assigned
it and had switched with a fellow classmate for the necessary time. He would be with another, always have at least two guards, but even in this zone, things would normally be very lax; the Imperial Academy was the heart of Imperial loyalists. Now all he had to do was carry out his plan.
It was so easy, as he put his rudimentary plan into action. He went in for an armory inspection, then sounding confused called for the other guard. Surprised, the other guy had entered, and been bashed in the face by a small box of thermal detantors. Out cold, he did what he had to do... cutting the guys throat with a standard issue vibr knife. It was lucky, that even in the armory, guard weren't required to wear full armor, not here on Carida. No- you weren't a trooper or officer yet- you wore fatigues. He thanked for the first time, Imperial beuracrcy. He went behind a pile of boxes and placed the small detanite charge. Then opened several boxes of thermal detantors and other explosives, primed several of the larger charges, then hit a small button starting the timer. Praying no one came in for an explosive requisition he locked the armory door, and then began making his way to the docking bay. He need to steal that TIE Avenger being serviced by new technican recruits and high tail it out of here.
Minutes later as he reached the docking bay, he felt the base rock as the explosion went off with a muffled roar...
Outer-Rim Sovereignty: Expansion Province
Honoghr
The transport was a stock model, bearing an ORS insigna and IFF transponder code. It declared it's cargo as food stuffs to be delivered to a wharehouse in Honoghr's capital city, a part of the well recieved ORS renewal package which had restored the homeworld of the noghri to its rightful state of beauty. The sentiment of gratitude to the ORS was high, and such continual aide seemed to be a great pennance for sins commited by the former governments who had dabbled in the affairs of the minute noghri.
The freighter followed its intended flight plan, and made an uneventful landing at a landing pad not far from the wharehouse. Unlike earlier such deliveries it was not met by a throng of happy noghri shouting praise (although that had been rare evn back in the beginning of the renewal process) instead a group of noghri and ORS soldiers were on hand to oversee the transfer of ORS property to the noghri people. No one expected anything, certainly no one could have anticipated what happened when the freighter's landing ramp let down, yet no crew exited. Unsure, several of the ORS soldiers and noghri moved forward, though distance from the vessel would have hardly mattered. In an instant, a tremendous explosion the landing pad was consumed by flames....
Vinda Corp Space
Aargau
The huge complex was bustling with people as it always was, both employee's and customers. Bussiness in the Bank or Aargau never stopped, constantly recieving transactions from across the galaxy, and often handling millions of in person customers a day, many who traveled lightyears to meet with financial advisers or start an account because they didn't have the technical acumen to do so virtually. Security of course was high, as always, even more so as a previous attack by the Jutraalian Empire had allowed the Aargauun Government to boost funding for defense measures during the wartime scare. Still, the bank was a nightmare to watch, so many people, milling about, going of to various departments to deal in specialized bussiness- many of them foriegn dignitaries who stopping or delaying could cause intergalactic incidents, and other representatives of huge megacorporations whose lost time could mean millions of lost credits.
Thus, when a single man walked into the bank carrying accompanied by an astromech droid, no one took notice. The astromech was obviously modifed, with a large access screen that was currently displaying stock market reports from the Bonadon Exchange, as well as perfecly accurate clock. No one noticed that the man tapped a small button on the screen, then got in line in a main teller area. He waited several minutes, peering at the screen often, and grimace or smiling as he watched his own holdings sway back and forth- it was a hard trading day. Suddenly, a look of panic came over his face, and after giving explicit instructions for the droid to save his place in line, he made his way quickly out of the bank.
4 minutes later the baridium packed droid exploded in a firestorm of death and destruction.
Galactic Empire: Bastion Conclave
N'Zoth
He hated them. Hated every last one of them. They were the oppressors. The traitors. Most looked up to them, thought they were the best, the true example of the perfect warrior. He merley despised them, and everything they were. He would kill them he would. Crush them, many of them, even though he would die in the process. It mattered little to him. He would die anyway. If he tried to escape, and they found out he had perpetrated the act, he would wish he was dead. He didn't want to live in this slavery anymore. Working for those infediels- what would Nil Spaar say?
He had been approached, very clandestinly, and had finally saw a way to go out with honor, to cleanse his body and soul. They had provided him with the means, and now it was his turn to carry out the act.
It would be on the bridge, the new one over the chasam. A large bridge, but just getting started. They would be supervising. They didn't need to- the workers were completly loyal, like the rest of the population. Still, they had orders. Years ago the legoinnares or the stormtrooper would have been needed on a project like this, to ensure it was completed. Today it was different- they were only there because regulations told them to be. It would be their undoing.
As he approached the site, his work position, he counted. A dozen human stormtroopers, and a spattering of legionnaires.
Plus all those traitorus workers.
He got into his welding harness, and with deft perscision, made his way over to the crital support beam. With no back- ups in place because of the earlier stage of construction, everything would fall. He manuevered himself under then beam, then pulled out the small yet extremly powerful permacrete detanator. He pressed the primer, then the detantor, and the world exploded into a sheer ball white, followed by nothing...
Tholatin Republic
Genosis
The huge stadium on Genosis was a draw to hundreds, even thousands of those bloodthristy creatures. Simulated battles, death duels, animal fights, whatever it didn't matter. The event that was taking place during the act mattered little- knowing the Geonosians, even after becoming part of the Tholatin Republic, it would not be a moral or ethical one.
It hadn't been hard to find a Geonosian to do the work. No, they were greedy, bloodthirsty aliens, and finding one to wedge the 5 heavy detanite charges with cobbled together timers on them had been simple. Since no one could possibly check under all the support sections, and because no one would ever want to, they had sat there, hidden in perfect locations for just the right time. When the appointed time came, the 5 explded in a special sequence, causing technically designed damage to a specific part of one of the many sections of the stadium. The damage was disasterous . A huge peice of the stadium collapsed in upon itself, and a avalance os stone and steal spilled out onto the occupants of the stadium floor, crushing and consuming all in its path. Hundreds of Geonosians took flight amid the confusion, but the deed had been done. A later look at the stadium plan would reveal the section contained a private section for TTR soldiers and officals, all of them perishing or liein trapped under the huge pile of rubble. This time, a visit to the collesium had truly been a quest for blood.
Galactic Empire: Yaga Minor Protectorate
Eriadu
The final peice of the puzzle fell into place, preciscly 1 time unit, Coruscant standard time after the first. The final letter of the message was spelled out in no special way, just what happened to work, although of all the events it might seem like the most spectacular.
The small ships had popped out of hyperspace close to Eriadu, a pair of skipray blastboats and two large bulk freighters, marked as a shipping company making a scheduled ore delivery to fuel the industrial fires of Eriadu. Not acknowledging the hails from the Imperial ground control, a Victory Star Destroyer and some scrambled TIEs, were sent to intercept the possibly dangerous skiprays, and their odd fellows, 2 container ships. Hailing the vessels failed, and the victory was forced to open fire. Turbolaser shots slammed against the container vessel, busting through the weak sheilds, and opening huge holes in the thin hull of the ships. The TIE's came swooping in, and got into a life and death struggle with the skiprays, which tenaciously guarded their transports.
The VSD's fire suddenly sent one bulk freighter up in a shower of sparks and flame, and huge peices of wreckage littered the space over Eradiu. However, the other transport continued flying, veering only slightly, pulling up as if trying to escape the deadly shots of light eminating from the VSD. The next barrage sent up another explosion, but as the shockwave died another vessel had appeared in the place of the large transport- a robot ramship. The VSD's captain fought back a sudden blast of anxiety and ordered evasive manuevers, as well as diverting engine power to weapons, a set of contradictory orders that would prove disasterous. It locomotion suddenly lessened, the VSD let losse a torrent of fire, which struck the bulbous head of the ramship, but had little visible effect- solid durasteel melted away to reveal more durasteel.
Suddenly the ramship fired it's booster engines, and coming in from a high angle collided with the VSD, with it's first contact point being just below the triangular bridge. A catastrophic explosion resulted, as the tons of ramship collided at high speed with the armor and structure of the warship. It was no contest.
The skiprays turned, and made a beeline for the hyperlanes, TIE chasing intently afterwards....
Undiscolsed location
The chronometer clicked its final seconds off, beeped twice then lay still. The man nodded, and got up from his seat, where he had sat watching the chronometer. He pulled out a small control and turned on a holonet broadcast.
I wonder how long it will take them....to figure out the message?
The countdown chronometer ticked off the last seconds, coming to rest at 000.000. It stayed there long enough to be recognized, and a sound projector gave off a small beep, indicating the alloted time had elapsed. The pair of eyes watching the clock noted this change, coordinated with the ears as they heard the chime. There was no other reaction, just acknowledgement within the man's mind. His eyes watched, and the chronometer began to change again. A new number popped up on the chronometer, and began ticking away. The silence around the chronometer was sufficent so that the tiny mechanical sound of its old fashioned gears clicking the seconds away could be heard. The number on the timepiece was not long. In just a short while, it would once again reach its final point, beep, and then repeat. It would continue in it cycle, 4 time after that, then it would come to rest. The man felt a surge of satisfaction as he thought of what each cycle would mean, but made sure not to allow his body to change in such away that such elation would be apparent. Nothing could interfere with its mechanical percision; it was pre-set to complete six cycles. It would do such, no matter the situation, no matter the enviroment. It would continue in the prescence of others or alone. In a way, the chronometer was symbolic of the acts it was tracking- methodical, unstoppable, pre-planned. They, like the clock, had a clearly defined mission, and had been set in motion by the hand of one man, who now sat there, watching the small timekeeper doing his bidding. Yes, the chronometer's progess was parallel to the acts it was tracking.
And the time was ticking away.
Galactic Empire: Empire Proper
Carida
The electronic card swiped easily down into its intended slot, and the door slid open. He had never doubted that would work, but apprhension had alway crept up in the back of his mind, ever since he had been approached, and asked to perfrom the task he was about to do. He had been vary, but his own feelings and the money involved had swayed his cautious mind. He hated everything about where he was- the discipline, the physical training,his peers- all of it! He wasn;t cut out for this line of work. Becoming a soldier was not his mindset. Sure he had thought it would have been great or he wouldn't have volunteered, but he had been dead wrong. Still, with the money he was getting to do this one small act, he could quit, slip back home to Ralltiir and no one would be the wiser.
He acknowledged the man who walked out as he stepped inside the doorway. He didn't speak however- formality was very tight, especially here, the explosives armory. With class rooms, and a large cafeteria nearby, often on the other side of partially armored walls, foolishness could be deadly. Besides- he didn;t want anyone to remember he had been here.
Getting guard duty had been easy- he had been assigned
it and had switched with a fellow classmate for the necessary time. He would be with another, always have at least two guards, but even in this zone, things would normally be very lax; the Imperial Academy was the heart of Imperial loyalists. Now all he had to do was carry out his plan.
It was so easy, as he put his rudimentary plan into action. He went in for an armory inspection, then sounding confused called for the other guard. Surprised, the other guy had entered, and been bashed in the face by a small box of thermal detantors. Out cold, he did what he had to do... cutting the guys throat with a standard issue vibr knife. It was lucky, that even in the armory, guard weren't required to wear full armor, not here on Carida. No- you weren't a trooper or officer yet- you wore fatigues. He thanked for the first time, Imperial beuracrcy. He went behind a pile of boxes and placed the small detanite charge. Then opened several boxes of thermal detantors and other explosives, primed several of the larger charges, then hit a small button starting the timer. Praying no one came in for an explosive requisition he locked the armory door, and then began making his way to the docking bay. He need to steal that TIE Avenger being serviced by new technican recruits and high tail it out of here.
Minutes later as he reached the docking bay, he felt the base rock as the explosion went off with a muffled roar...
Outer-Rim Sovereignty: Expansion Province
Honoghr
The transport was a stock model, bearing an ORS insigna and IFF transponder code. It declared it's cargo as food stuffs to be delivered to a wharehouse in Honoghr's capital city, a part of the well recieved ORS renewal package which had restored the homeworld of the noghri to its rightful state of beauty. The sentiment of gratitude to the ORS was high, and such continual aide seemed to be a great pennance for sins commited by the former governments who had dabbled in the affairs of the minute noghri.
The freighter followed its intended flight plan, and made an uneventful landing at a landing pad not far from the wharehouse. Unlike earlier such deliveries it was not met by a throng of happy noghri shouting praise (although that had been rare evn back in the beginning of the renewal process) instead a group of noghri and ORS soldiers were on hand to oversee the transfer of ORS property to the noghri people. No one expected anything, certainly no one could have anticipated what happened when the freighter's landing ramp let down, yet no crew exited. Unsure, several of the ORS soldiers and noghri moved forward, though distance from the vessel would have hardly mattered. In an instant, a tremendous explosion the landing pad was consumed by flames....
Vinda Corp Space
Aargau
The huge complex was bustling with people as it always was, both employee's and customers. Bussiness in the Bank or Aargau never stopped, constantly recieving transactions from across the galaxy, and often handling millions of in person customers a day, many who traveled lightyears to meet with financial advisers or start an account because they didn't have the technical acumen to do so virtually. Security of course was high, as always, even more so as a previous attack by the Jutraalian Empire had allowed the Aargauun Government to boost funding for defense measures during the wartime scare. Still, the bank was a nightmare to watch, so many people, milling about, going of to various departments to deal in specialized bussiness- many of them foriegn dignitaries who stopping or delaying could cause intergalactic incidents, and other representatives of huge megacorporations whose lost time could mean millions of lost credits.
Thus, when a single man walked into the bank carrying accompanied by an astromech droid, no one took notice. The astromech was obviously modifed, with a large access screen that was currently displaying stock market reports from the Bonadon Exchange, as well as perfecly accurate clock. No one noticed that the man tapped a small button on the screen, then got in line in a main teller area. He waited several minutes, peering at the screen often, and grimace or smiling as he watched his own holdings sway back and forth- it was a hard trading day. Suddenly, a look of panic came over his face, and after giving explicit instructions for the droid to save his place in line, he made his way quickly out of the bank.
4 minutes later the baridium packed droid exploded in a firestorm of death and destruction.
Galactic Empire: Bastion Conclave
N'Zoth
He hated them. Hated every last one of them. They were the oppressors. The traitors. Most looked up to them, thought they were the best, the true example of the perfect warrior. He merley despised them, and everything they were. He would kill them he would. Crush them, many of them, even though he would die in the process. It mattered little to him. He would die anyway. If he tried to escape, and they found out he had perpetrated the act, he would wish he was dead. He didn't want to live in this slavery anymore. Working for those infediels- what would Nil Spaar say?
He had been approached, very clandestinly, and had finally saw a way to go out with honor, to cleanse his body and soul. They had provided him with the means, and now it was his turn to carry out the act.
It would be on the bridge, the new one over the chasam. A large bridge, but just getting started. They would be supervising. They didn't need to- the workers were completly loyal, like the rest of the population. Still, they had orders. Years ago the legoinnares or the stormtrooper would have been needed on a project like this, to ensure it was completed. Today it was different- they were only there because regulations told them to be. It would be their undoing.
As he approached the site, his work position, he counted. A dozen human stormtroopers, and a spattering of legionnaires.
Plus all those traitorus workers.
He got into his welding harness, and with deft perscision, made his way over to the crital support beam. With no back- ups in place because of the earlier stage of construction, everything would fall. He manuevered himself under then beam, then pulled out the small yet extremly powerful permacrete detanator. He pressed the primer, then the detantor, and the world exploded into a sheer ball white, followed by nothing...
Tholatin Republic
Genosis
The huge stadium on Genosis was a draw to hundreds, even thousands of those bloodthristy creatures. Simulated battles, death duels, animal fights, whatever it didn't matter. The event that was taking place during the act mattered little- knowing the Geonosians, even after becoming part of the Tholatin Republic, it would not be a moral or ethical one.
It hadn't been hard to find a Geonosian to do the work. No, they were greedy, bloodthirsty aliens, and finding one to wedge the 5 heavy detanite charges with cobbled together timers on them had been simple. Since no one could possibly check under all the support sections, and because no one would ever want to, they had sat there, hidden in perfect locations for just the right time. When the appointed time came, the 5 explded in a special sequence, causing technically designed damage to a specific part of one of the many sections of the stadium. The damage was disasterous . A huge peice of the stadium collapsed in upon itself, and a avalance os stone and steal spilled out onto the occupants of the stadium floor, crushing and consuming all in its path. Hundreds of Geonosians took flight amid the confusion, but the deed had been done. A later look at the stadium plan would reveal the section contained a private section for TTR soldiers and officals, all of them perishing or liein trapped under the huge pile of rubble. This time, a visit to the collesium had truly been a quest for blood.
Galactic Empire: Yaga Minor Protectorate
Eriadu
The final peice of the puzzle fell into place, preciscly 1 time unit, Coruscant standard time after the first. The final letter of the message was spelled out in no special way, just what happened to work, although of all the events it might seem like the most spectacular.
The small ships had popped out of hyperspace close to Eriadu, a pair of skipray blastboats and two large bulk freighters, marked as a shipping company making a scheduled ore delivery to fuel the industrial fires of Eriadu. Not acknowledging the hails from the Imperial ground control, a Victory Star Destroyer and some scrambled TIEs, were sent to intercept the possibly dangerous skiprays, and their odd fellows, 2 container ships. Hailing the vessels failed, and the victory was forced to open fire. Turbolaser shots slammed against the container vessel, busting through the weak sheilds, and opening huge holes in the thin hull of the ships. The TIE's came swooping in, and got into a life and death struggle with the skiprays, which tenaciously guarded their transports.
The VSD's fire suddenly sent one bulk freighter up in a shower of sparks and flame, and huge peices of wreckage littered the space over Eradiu. However, the other transport continued flying, veering only slightly, pulling up as if trying to escape the deadly shots of light eminating from the VSD. The next barrage sent up another explosion, but as the shockwave died another vessel had appeared in the place of the large transport- a robot ramship. The VSD's captain fought back a sudden blast of anxiety and ordered evasive manuevers, as well as diverting engine power to weapons, a set of contradictory orders that would prove disasterous. It locomotion suddenly lessened, the VSD let losse a torrent of fire, which struck the bulbous head of the ramship, but had little visible effect- solid durasteel melted away to reveal more durasteel.
Suddenly the ramship fired it's booster engines, and coming in from a high angle collided with the VSD, with it's first contact point being just below the triangular bridge. A catastrophic explosion resulted, as the tons of ramship collided at high speed with the armor and structure of the warship. It was no contest.
The skiprays turned, and made a beeline for the hyperlanes, TIE chasing intently afterwards....
Undiscolsed location
The chronometer clicked its final seconds off, beeped twice then lay still. The man nodded, and got up from his seat, where he had sat watching the chronometer. He pulled out a small control and turned on a holonet broadcast.
I wonder how long it will take them....to figure out the message?
