Room 424 [afternoon]

[momslilassassin]

Ben hadn't really had much of a chance to talk to his dad that week: lessons with his grandfather (who was still kicking his butt with a lightsaber without moving. It was annoying), a date with Tahiri (which he would definitely be doing again. Yes.), classes, clubs, stopping in on his weekly trips to bother Ender, Kaylee, and Aravis...for a not-so-social person, he had managed to fill up his schedule pretty well.

But he'd promised Tahiri that he would ask his dad about starting a dance troupe--mostly to see if he could get Luke to crack a smile--and so he was lounging on his bed with his comlink, pretty happy for the first time in a while.

Naturally, that couldn't last.

When he clicked his comm shut a few minutes later, he'd not only forgotten to ask about the dance troupe, he'd learned that Centerpoint Station had been fired again, Jacen had kidnapped Tenel Ka's daughter for use as a bargaining chip (because that had worked so well with the Jedi), and Jaina was on the trail of Alema, who Luke was still convinced had murdered Mara.

"Kriffing hell," Ben muttered to himself before settling down on the floor to build something loud and complicated.

Mmm. Repression.

[OOC: Door closed, but he's loud enough to be heard in the hall...]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

"A bit of an oversight, yeah," Ben said. "Unless you already had them take over or something. People get twitchy about that."

[endsthegame]

"No take-overs, as far as I know," he said, "But our ships have always just held people."

[momslilassassin]

"Droids are really, really convenient for long missions," Ben said, "since they don't age like we do."

[endsthegame]

"We used relative speeds to help patch that hole," he explained, "We can cover great distances and only lose a few years."

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "Like your mentor."

[endsthegame]

"Yep," he said. "It's how they ran the bugger fleet, too. Most of those ships had been sent there thirty years ago."

[momslilassassin]

"With the oldest tech on the closest front," Ben said. "If you really even have fronts in space."

He wasn't thinking of what his father had just told him about Centerpoint. He wasn't.

[endsthegame]

"Front isn't really the right word," he said, "But the idea works, if you're adjusting for the extra dimensions."

[momslilassassin]

"There's only so many ways you can approach a system," Ben said, "at least if you're sticking with the hyperlanes that aren't going to spin you through a star."

[endsthegame]

He smiled a little. It wasn't too happy, but it wasn't too sad, either. "We used a weapon called the Little Doctor," he said.

[momslilassassin]

"When you ended the war?" Ben asked.

[endsthegame]

"During the entire last war," he said, shaking his head. "They outfitted even the oldest craft with it, right after the second one. The Little Doctor would start a chain reaction: one atom would explode, and take the one next to it with it, and then the next, and so on. Pretty useful when your enemies liked to clump together."

He was starting to realise he was trying to help Ben as much as he could, with all of his little feigned weaknesses. Putting a name to it made it easier.

[momslilassassin]

Ben hissed in a little breath as he imagined how it would happen. "Sounds fatal for everyone."

[endsthegame]

"It stopped when it ran out of matter," he said, "So as long as you weren't near the target, you were okay."

[momslilassassin]

"How often did you use it?" Ben asked.

[endsthegame]

"A lot to start with," he said, "But less as the enemy started to adapt to it. We stopped using it for a while, until the last one."

[momslilassassin]

"They didn't think you'd do that, huh," Ben said quietly.

[endsthegame]

"The enemy's gate is down," Ender recited. He looked up at Ben, intent. "That's the only thing you should remember."

[momslilassassin]

"Centerpoint Station blew itself up," Ben blurted.

[endsthegame]

Ender simply tilted his head at him. He felt that was question enough.

[momslilassassin]

"It's not really a station," Ben said. "It's more like a really big moon. Or a smallish planet. It's also a weapon. Or was. It was used during Jaina's war...accidentally obliterated a good chunk of an ally's fleet. The reason we're at war at all was because Corellia was trying to rearm the damn thing."

[endsthegame]

"But it blew itself up," Ender said, slowly.

[momslilassassin]

"It was rigged to blow," Ben said. "I helped do that. If it tried to target something, the program would put the coordinates in as Centerpoint."

[endsthegame]

"Smart," he opined, neutrally. "How did you help?"

[momslilassassin]

"Snuck in with Jacen a year ago," Ben said, "back when we thought disabling the thing could stop the war before it started. That...didn't happen, but the program was still there."