A project's fruition...

[Eldrak Gruuhl]

It had been a project in the planning and development stages for quite some time now, and the day for an actual prototype test had finally come.

Eldrak had been designing and crafting a most unique saber, unlike that of any other Jedi in either its design or its implementation. He lifted the weapon in his right hand. By obvious appearance it looked to be nothing more than a steel edged weapon, very similar to the Katana he always carried with him, but had yet to draw from its sheath as a Jedi.

He had picked this one up at the Trading Base to use as a prototype test. If the test was successful, his modifications to the steel edged weapon, would be transferred over to the Katana he carried normally.

Upon close inspection of the hilt, one could see a small cylindrical apparatus had been added to the back of it. The apparatus seemed slightly out of place and would probably be uncomfortable for a person with a standard sized humanoid hand. Eldrak did not have that limitation. His hands were massive and far from standard humanoid type.

At the base of the hilt guard were two small buttons. Eldrak pointed the weapon outwards and pressed the knuckle of his thumb up into the switch on the outmost edge of the hilt guard. With no real sound a small rod with a pointed tip shot from the cylindrical apparatus on the hilt. The rod followed the curvature of the top Edge of the Katana blade. The extension too nothing more than a nanosecond and was followed by another process which did make a small sound.

Its sound was not a familiar one to anyone that may hear it though. It sounds like small bands of steel clicking together, very small bands of steel. Interlaced in the minutely small rings of steel were likewise small pieces of blue crystal interwoven into the mesh material.

The steel mesh, laced with blue crystals encompassed the entire blade, having exited from the rod following the back edge of the steel weapon. With a smile, Eldrak looked at how his project worked so far. Everything was going just as he had designed and intended it, but the true test was what would come next.

The knuckle of his thumb moved upwards and pressed gently against the innermost button on the hilt guard…

[Eldrak Gruuhl]

Preceding the moment Eldrak’s thumb met the innermost button, the mesh surrounding the steel blade of the Katana had laid loosely ands flimsily around that which it covered, but at the very moment the button was pressed it seemed to spring out and stand rigid around the weapon’s cutting surface a hum of energy starting low and very quickly building louder.

To those who had ever heard a lightsaber, the hum itself was familiar yet not quite exactly the same as the one they had all heard before. The inner workings of the unit’s power supply were spread up lengthwise through the rod that the mesh had exited from, its bulk residing in the hilt guard itself.

In the split second that the hum of energy grew to full volume, a blue glow began to emit from the mesh interwoven with crystals. The glow was the last thing that made his test’s result very obvious. Eldrak had constructed a curved lightsaber, one that emitted from the mesh that surrounded the curved blade of the steel weapon.

<img src=http://thesithempire.clanpages.com/eldrakblade.jpg>

The initial phase of the test of his design had been a complete success, but there were other parts to this test that would need to be completed before he could implement this design on his Katana that he traditionally carried, and even now was tucked into the belt of his robe.

Would the weapon stand up to meeting something equally powerful….a standard lightsaber?