The Final Storm

  

The Final Storm

[OOC: This is the final piece of GJW plot. I apologize if anyone feels slighted about the amount of screen time they got - I made an effort to give everyone some space in the story, but when tracking over 25 characters, someone is bound to get the short end. That's not intentional, it's just the nature of such a story. I hope you'll enjoy reading this fiction as much as I enjoyed writing it.]

Deep under the Dark Hall, a generator that had been unused for several years slowly came to life. The amount of power generated by the ancient nuclear fission device was minimal compared to the needs of the hall - it would have been insufficient to even power the many computers alone - but it was not made for that purpose. Instead, all its output was directed to one purpose - gradually heating the main fusion chamber of the fourth power grid. Hunched over the Seneschal's console, the dark figure of Arania was browsing through online manuals written for a situation that was never foreseen in the operation of the hall: a cold restart of the main grid. In the corner of her eye, she saw a readout going from red to a flashing yellow. Rechecking the scribbled, fragmentary instructions a last time, she initiated the tritium stream to the main chamber. The yellow light steadied and a mechanical female voice was heard: "Fusion sequence initiated."

In the depths of the machine rooms, the controlled chaos of powerful nuclear reactions began to wreak its pandemonium of power, oblivious to the fact that a small but vital coolant valve had been damaged in the corridor fighting and was now permanently stuck in a one third open position.

As the restoration of power to the main grid began, Arania quickly allocated it to priority targets - vital defense systems in areas under blue control came back on line one after one.


On his unplanned resting ground of hard rock, Lucius groaned. Every bit of his body hurt from the tumbling and scraping on the basalt. What remained of his robes did barely resemble the garments of an Obelisk Templar any more, in fact most Tatooine beggars wore more sophisticated clothing. Still dazed, Lucius focused his thoughts on his mind and body, gradually pushing the worst of the pain aside until it became just a mildly displeasant throb. The haze in his mind however refused to lift. He staggered to his feet, surveying his surroundings. Two of the three cave exits were closed off, one by a still red hot stream of lava that had thankfully stopped just meters before his body and the other by a massive rockfall. The one exit he really needed however seemed still passable. Igniting his saber to have more light than the dim illumination provided by the molten rock, Lucius made his way into the tunnel towards the reactor level of the Dark Hall.

And as usual, the rest of this can be read here.

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