Episode X Dark Hunter

What Terah Would Have Done

Now, I realize that you may not be familiar with cloaking devices; their history, how they work, their limitations, and requirements. You have seen at this point, our heroine use her personal cloak; a device often used by her mother, and adopted by Videsse. This tech, like everything else, had its uses and limitations. Foremost is the fact that, compared to all her other tech, it demanded the largest energy requirements. So much that no other powered tech could function when the cloak was activated; that included her leg brace support. Thus, when activated she, not having the strength from her brace, would limp, though no one could see it.

The same liability was also present when equipped on a ship. However, this did not prevent its use historically. Grand Moff Tarkin of the Empire had a cloaking device on his personal corvette, the Carrion Spike. Prior to that, Asaj Ventress, the assassin, used one on her starship, the Banshee, in her attempt to assassinate Count Dooku of the Separatists. More recently, the Millenium Falcon was fitted with one temporarily, in the now well known Lebeya battle of the previous Galactic Civil War where the cloak was consequently destroyed beyond repair. Here, Terrah Ottlel, who was fond of her personal cloak, had equipped Slave-1 with a cloak of its own, years prior to Videsse taking command of the ship.

This cloak was a visual cloak, distinct from the more common signature cloak that hid a ship from most tracking monitors. The visual cloak, actually made the ship invisible to the naked eye. However, it did not hide Slave-1's signatures, thus if it was known to be present, her ship could be found without much effort. A visual cloak's strength relied on stealth and more importantly, inattention. Its weakness, like the personal cloak, was that no other ancillary systems would function while the cloak was activated; this included the shields and weaponry. Essential systems, such as the sublight drives, were still active but functioned at limited capacity.

Now, why did I take the time to distract us from our heroine's story? Because Videsse was about to use this tech in a way, as you will see, consistent with her method of fighting in general; our heroine being, if nothing else, consistent.

First, two ion cannon blasts plunged into the forward Arkanian snub fighter, melting into a web of electrical filaments that enveloped the ship and left it incapacitated. Second, and at almost the same instant, Slave-1 vanished from sight, Videsse activating the cloaking device.

From the two rear snub fighters' perspectives, Slave-1 disappeared obviously, and their leading pilot's ship now in view, appeared unaffected. It took them all of a millisecond to realize that their lead ship was offline. Adrenaline then sharpened their attention as they realized Videsse's ship was cloaked and they darted their gaze at their signature monitors.

Unfortunately for them, Videsse had not dived for the planet (the obvious move) but pulled up into a loop. The half-second of confusion suffered by the Arkanians was enough. Their eyes had just come to rest on their monitors. Slave-1's red heat signature was present above them, unexpectedly. The cloak was already removed. Her ion cannons had fired.

The Needle-class snub on the starboard was enveloped in the crackling electric storm, it's plasma-weaponized stabilizers fizzling into a vacuum, dead; and it's pilot slamming the stale console in frustration.

The second snub fighter had time to react and accelerated like a dart, the Slave-1's ion blast missing only by a few meters astern. It then made a sharp cut pulling up and starboard. The Needle-class starfighter was faster and more agile than Slave-1, and before Videsse knew it, the Arkanian accelerated toward her from starboard, the plasma webs within the stabilizers, coalesced and fired. Two lightning-quick, parallel flashes of light cut through the black void like blades. Videsse had already pulled as sharply as she could to port; fortunately, both plasma beams thus passed under her hull, as her ship angled away. It was luck, not skill.

"Holy Diathim!" Videsse exclaimed. She knew it was luck. "There's no dodging that!"

There was also no outrunning this ship, and Videsse discerned that. She activated the rear shields to full power, though her gut told her the action was probably useless against these plasma beams.

The Needle-class ship's plasma web began reforming in its elliptical stabilizers, an indication that it needed a moment to recharge; a blessing for Videsse. She did not want the ship to fire again if it could be prevented. She cut hard to starboard, away from the sleeping Arkanian snub fighters. The pursuit craft mimicked her turn, but being much faster, the quarter-second response time resulted in the fighter traveling twenty meters further than Slave-1's path before its mimicked turn. It then accelerated and was back on her tail.

Videsse noticed the wide turn. She was no novice and knew what that meant. She spun the ship to port, parallel with the sleeping snubs, and watched the Arkanian respond in the same arc as before. When he was again lined up with her astern, the plasma cannons now coalesced into pulsing orbs ready to fire, she pulled hard to the port and went between the sleeping fighters.

The Arkanian took his thumb off of the trigger, worried he might hit a friendly target, as he followed her. Videsse whirled again to port placing the rear snub in between them. The Arkanian cut to port, still behind her but to her left on the opposite side of the snub fighter. He anticipated her next move, and as soon as he had cleared the lagging friendly starship, he cut to starboard.

That was what Videsse was waiting for. She swiveled Slave-1 up and to port in a nauseatingly tight corner, and opened up the ion cannons in a rapid trill. Now she was behind him. One of the blasts was likely to find its target, and one did.

The ion pulse blanketed the ship and the Arkanian swore in his harsh tongue, slamming the electrically fizzing console more than once. His starship was dead.

Videsse assessed the situation to make sure no new snub fighters were approaching, then she activated the ship's cloak. With the electrical systems down in the Arkanian ships, they would not be able to follow her angle of entry.

Cam had already unstrapped and was behind her like a shadow, a pattern that was not easily avoided.

"That was amazing!" he congratulated.

Videsse did not respond and just angled the ship toward the planet.

"You didn't kill those guys," he said. It was more of a question than a declaration.

"Didn't need to," she answered. "Killin's a good way to get revenge seekers on your tail." She winced a little as she repeated her mother's instructions from a long time ago. It was what Terrah would have done.

"You didn't think that way at Felga's," Cam argued.

"Well, that was different," Videsse answered.

"How?"

"It just was." That was what Boba Fett would have done.

Videsse suddenly and spasmodically leaned forward with an unproductive wretch, putting her hand to her mouth.

"What's the matter?" Cam asked.

"Nothin'," she said. "I just think that last turn, made my stomach turn as well."

Cam squinted his eyes and scratched his head. "Mine was fine," he said with pride.

"Good for you." Videsse shook her head, her mouth thinning into a line. Something was not right. She knew it.