Mr Fluffy began to slow the ship down and brought the ship into a wide orbit around the system’s sun. All along the side of the ship facing towards the sun, sections of the armoured plating slid back to reveal twelve large silver dishes, all a thousand feet across. From the centre of each, a sixty-foot needle extended to point towards the sun. The surface of the sun started to react; sun spots formed and solar flares arched out to strike the needles. The energy of the sun was converted by the twelve dishes to produce energy within the ship’s power core. More power was drawn from the sun and it was diverted directly to the shield as the disruption on the surface spread and more solar flares burst into space. Still, the energy build-up was too great to contain and a thirteenth section on the side of the ship slid open to reveal a giant exhaust vent. Inside Mr Fluffy’s great ship, the temperature began to rise and despite the increased power to the shields, the ship began to move away from the sun.
The excess energy was sent back at the sun in a massive rush of energy that pierced deep into the photosphere. The return of energy caused the solar flares to increase in frequency and to dance further into space as they followed the ship. Giant sun spots sprang up, merged and disappeared within minutes of first forming. The droid ships turned as one and raced for the edge of the solar system as the sun’s activity increased and its magnetic discharge sent the closest ships spinning away out of control.
Mr Fluffy’s ship continued to pull away and the distance was increased from twenty thousand miles at the start of the operation, to more than seventy-five thousand miles. Still the flares continued to follow and often shot way past the ship. Across the surface of the sun, hundreds of thousands of giant solar flares erupted and raced far out into space; Mr Fluffy’s great ship was engulfed and rocked by at least five of them. Mr Fluffy sat purring loudly on the bridge while the High Priest of the Order of Righteous Indignation lay on the floor wailing in fear.
The defenders of planet RS465 watched in horror as the sun swirled in anger. Earthquakes shook cities and the oceans rose and fell in fury. In the outer atmosphere, the planet’s defensive ring convulsed and fell apart. The gun turrets tumbled back into the planet’s atmosphere to burn up like thousands of shooting stars.
Still the giant ship increased the distance from the sun and the fury of the sun increased. At two hundred thousand miles, Mr Fluffy ordered the dishes to be turned off. As soon as the needles had retracted and the armoured plating was back in place, the great ship turned and raced away from the unstable sun that was wreaking havoc on its planets. Ships from the surviving Federation forces were already trying to flee and Mr Fluffy order them to be let past; he wanted word of what he had done to be spread by the survivors to the systems still loyal to the Federation. He knew that when his ship was seen, those standing against him would know exactly what terror could be harnessed by him.
To be continued.
All images are mine.
