Part III

    As the Athena hurtled through hyperspace, the Imperial forces were belatedly reacting to the Artemis’s excursion.  A task force was charged with the task of protecting the vulnerable construction station as it evacuated the system.  Consisting of 3 Carrack cruisers and one Imperial star destroyer, it bristled with firepower and squadrons of star fighters.  Even now, the crew of the task force is bringing the mothballed construction station back to life.
 

    The head of the task force, Captain Proctov, stared in awe at the ovoid station as his captain prepared his fleet for docking maneuvers.  As the ships closed on the main docking bay, a steady stream of shuttles streamed from their landing bays to the various landing bays of the construction station.  They ferried the crewmembers not essential for the docking of the task force to the station to begin the procedure of expediting the re-animation and departure of the station.  He turned away from the bridge view ports as the Imperial Star Destroyer Imperious, came to rest in one of the medium size cradles with a resounding clang of cold steel.  Enormous grapples the size of AT-ATs reached out from the docking bay to grasp the star destroyer firmly.  Long slender gantries rose from the sides of the cradle to connect disembarking tubes to various hatches along the sides of the ship.

    "XO, you have the bridge.  I’m going over to the construction station to oversee the reactivation," he said as he walked out of the armored bridge hatchway.  His executive officer acknowledged him and moved to sit in the Command chair.  As he walked through one of the cavernous disembarking tubes, his footsteps echoed quietly.  As he reached the other side, Proctov paused in the adjoining lounge for a moment to watch as the automated systems activated and began to restock his ships’ stores.  A large hatch opened of the cavernous docking cradles and ferry drones carrying food and other items began to stream out.  He marveled that even after being mothballed for so long, the station was still in such good condition.

    Several loud thuds echoed in the distance startling him as he stepped into a turbo lift.  Then with a buzz, the lighting systems began to come online.  The dim red lights blinked off to be replaced by bright incandescent lights.  From a distance, the station, which had previously been almost invisible in the darkness of space, began to reveal it’s enormous bulk.  Lights slowly came on one by one.  Soon the lounge was brightly lit and corridor lights continued to activate.  He smiled as he approached a quintet of turbo lifts.  The rebel scum would be returning soon.  This time, they would find a rather unpleasant surprise waiting for them.

    After about 5 minutes of waiting, he got tired and sat down on one of the benches thoughtfully provided by the designers of the lift.  The lift shot out of the tunnel it had been in and entered a transparent tube running beside one of the manufacturing compartments.  He blinked at the sudden, brilliant lighting. By the time his eyes had adjusted, the lift had already stopped and the doors were hissing open.

    He stepped out into a brightly-lit compartment approximately the size of his ship’s main hanger bay.  It was a micro-manufacturing plant.  He walked to the enclosed command room that was about 3 meters above the floor of the compartment.  From that room, he had an unrestricted view of the compartment.  After a few minutes of familiarizing himself with the control boards, he brought it to life and watched as the compartment came live with motion.  Parts were brought in by conveyor belt from other rooms and construction robots of various shapes and sizes went to work welding the pieces together assembly line style.  In the midst of this, a storm trooper contingent suddenly stormed into the room with blaster rifles raised followed by a troop of engineers.  When the lieutenant saw that it was Captain Proctov, he muttered an inaudible curse and then triggered his helmet microphone.

    An enormous grasping claw unfolded itself from its storage position and moved to the end of the assembly line.  It descended out of view behind the various machines.  After a few moments, it began to come into sight again.  This time it carried an ominous sight: A TIE Defender.

Three days passed since the Athena was sent on its emergency courier mission.  Cloud nine and its sisters were put on alert.  Exploration Unlimited’s entire fleet of ships was recalled to Bespin as a security precaution.
 

    Several trips and thirty minutes of hard, sweaty work later the landing platform was cleared of crates.  As the repulsor truck trundled through the entry hatch with its cargo bed dangerously overloaded, the freighter began preflight checks.  "Well that was fun," Spook commented as he piloted the truck into the entry tunnel. 

    A tired silence fell in the cab as they moved past a cluster of anti-aircraft batteries.  Workmen and technicians swarmed over the enormous energy batteries like bees.  The scene was repeated over and over again throughout the floating cities as they prepared for the inevitable conflict with the Empire.  Worn super-conductors were replaced and new canisters of Tibanna gas were stockpiled near the energy batteries.  Security personnel could be seen drilling relentlessly in a park as they piloted the truck through the city towards one of the warehouses.

As they entered the warehouse, a tiny, ball-shaped messenger droid sped up to them.  "Gentlemen, you are relieved of transport duty.  Mr. Wawrzaszek, you are posted to the fighter pilot simulation facility.  You also have 24 hours of leave starting now.  Mr. Chiu, you are being temporarily re-assigned to survey squadron D for 2 weeks.  They are located in Hanger Bay 2 aboard Cloud 1.  Departure is set at 12 hours from now.  Gentlemen."  The droid bobbed companionably and sped off as a squad of warehouse droids began unloading the truck.

    "You lucky duck!  You get sim-time while I’m stuck with putting up sensor stations on the far side of Bespin," Spook groused. 

    Captain Proctov watched the continuing preparations with great relish.  In addition to his Imperial Star Destroyer Relentless, 3 Carrack cruisers, and their fighter squadrons; his technicians and engineers had managed to construct and activate two entire squadrons of TIE Defenders before running through the remaining raw materials stockpiled on the station.  His TIE interceptor squadron from Relentless and another squadron of men chosen from the Carrack cruisers’ TIEs were already halfway through the training course for the Defender.  Sienar Fleet Systems had truly outdone themselves with this one, he thought.  Not only could it out-maneuver the interceptor but it was also quite a bit faster.  Then he sighed.  The primary drawback, which he though sourly also happened to be larger than a pyramid of banthas, was the incredible cost of the ships.  As it stood, the Empire could only reasonably and safely afford 10 or so squadrons of this fighter at the moment.  These two squadrons were to be delivered directly to an Imperial flight testing facility for further evaluation as soon as his men were qualified to fly them there.  They would not get the chance to fly the marvelous ships in combat anytime in the foreseeable future.  However, there was a chance that, Proctov brightened slightly, the Rebels would attack before the Defenders left.  He bent his head back to the pile of reports on his desk.
 

    Mira watched nervously as the technician was pulled into the cargo bay and sent inside for a well-deserved rest.  A beeping from the analyzer in her hand pulled her back to her work.  "Control, try it now.  It should work."

    "Roger Mira, booting software now…" spoke the technician on the other end of the comlink, "It’s green across the board.  Good job, Mira, I’ll buy you a drink when you get back to the barn." 

    None of them noticed the stealthy Imperial probe droid that clung to the repulsor engine of the survey platform.  The freighter swung away from the platform and accelerated back towards Cloud 1.  Once the freighter was out of sensor range, the droid let go of the engine and plunged a few dozen kilometers down before activating it’s engine and then began its run towards one of the few remaining gaps in the sensor net.  It was part of an effort by Imperial Intelligence to keep track of the various companies that the Empire thought to be leaning towards aligning towards the Rebel Alliance.  If they demonstrated such leanings, Explorations Unlimited would be … dealt with accordingly.
 
 

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