Private Flying Blind

[Makko Vyres]

SHIELD | LIGHTSABER | PISTOL | SHIP​

Aris Noble

"This is the Thearterra Mining Colony broadcasting on all emergency subspace channels. We are under attack. Our defensive platforms are down. We are under attack."

"That has been broadcast for two hours," Makko explained. "No further communications. We don't know if that means we're too late, or they can't access any comms systems since raising the alarm."

He was in the passenger compartment of the stealth shuttle. The hyperdrive was being run at close to failure. They risks being dumped out into real space in the void to shave a few minutes off their arrival time. He was slotting the last of his armour into place.

"We are thirty minutes ahead of the Alliance Navy frigate and reinforcements. We don't know what we're going to find."

He looked to Aris and sat back down, settling his helmet on the chair next to him.

A holomap of the mining colony came up. The expansive transport docks, the control tower, the habitable zone and the mines themselves.

"What would you do?"

 

[Aris Noble]

"Take the control tower as quickly as possible. With a droid who can slice. If there are survivors, that control tower has complete control over if they live or die by affixation. And, it'll have camera control, so we'll be able to find the survivors." That was the logical step. Aris frowned in thought though. Two hours was a long time for radio silence from the people who sent the message. There were all manner of reasons, up to and including trap, but he didn't want to think that drastically.

No, wait.

"It could also be a trap. We've many enemies. I still think that's the best path, but we should keep an eye out for that possibility."

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

Shield ARMOR Lightsaber DRONES SHIP PISTOL

"Good, we'll do that," Makko replied.

There was a subtle shift. As if the gravity had changed. They were neither heavier nor lighter than a moment ago, but the quality of the pull at changed. They were back in realspace.

Makko leaned forwards over the table. He reached around his neck and pulled a cover up and over his hair, tucking in the last pink and blue strands. The cap went between him and the helmet and kept his comms equipment in place.

"If the miners lost the tower, which - given the message on repeat - seems likely. I reckon they wouod have fallen back to the mines. If they were real desperate, they might have sealed themselves in."



He collected his helmet and moved towards the cockpit. Behind him, three small drones detached from the wall and followed him.

They were already breaking into the atmosphere of the planet. The ship made barely any sound as it leveled out and skimmed the ground. As they approached the facitility they arched upwards, settling into the low-hanging rain clouds.

An iris opened in the floor of the passenger compartment. All three drones darted down and out.

On one screen an image of the facility appeared. Several large, rusty coloured vessels were strewn across the facility. Nothing moved.

"I don't recognise those ships."

 

[Aris Noble]

Aris reached up to click on the helmet Zaiya Ceti had made for him. The metal shifted and melded into a proper mask, in preparation for whatever they might come across. Knowing that they frankly didn't know what was going on was enough for him to be prepared. "I don't either." Aris responded as the HUD of his helmet patched into the drone's feed.

"Their uniform and sleek. They don't seem like pirate vessels."

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"They don't. They're clearly from one shipyard. But nothing I can think of."

One of the drones returned. Makko didn't dare reach out to them with the Force, let alone establish a signal that could alert anyone to their presence.

At short range, it relayed imagery to his suit. A holo projection came to life, showing several large being walking around the control room. They carried heavy rifles.

"I don't recognise them or their equipment. They look large."

Aris was one of the few Alliance members to have met one.

 

[Aris Noble]

Aris did. His expression tightened into a deep frown as he saw the figures, though the helm he now had on hid it. Tense. Fear? It wasn't hard to imagine the beating he had, how he very well couldn't even move by the end. And now there were more.

"Sith. I think. I faced a Lord with a similar build. They might be a different group entirely, but, I believe these to be Sith. If they are, it's likely they did make a trap to lure Jedi for the fight."

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"Brilliant," Makko muttered.

Disorganised pirates was one thing, but this was a sith raiding party. A species he didn't recognise, but Aris had met them.

"I don't like the look of those rifles."

They were almost five feet long, industrial black durasteel with a barrel as thick as his arm.

"Take us down to above the control tower," Makko told the pilot. There was a soft hiss as the iris at the bottom of the passenger bay opened.

The ship started to descent, a sleek black dagger in the night sky.

"Can you work in the dark? I can kill the comms and lights and we can try and take a captive."

 

[Aris Noble]

"I can somewhat. I can't see like Vera or mom, but I can hear and act accordingly. And the helmet helps a lot." Zaiya Ceti 's inventions coming in clutch again. He glanced to his lightsaber, nodding once. So the plan would be to capture one. That might work. Though if they were like the Sith, maybe.. "It's possible they're fight freaks, if they're like the Sith I fought. They won't surrender and they'll just get mad at being captured. Maybe. But it's worth keeping in mind?"

Makko Vyres