Location: Castameer
Allies: Jedi, GA, GR, KO | [member="Kira Vaal"]
Objective: Strip Mines
[member="Kith Verloren"] | [member=Raziel]
Much to the Sephi's chagrin, he soon realized that while the district he'd been in might have appeared empty, it had only been devoid of slaves. The guards still made random inspections. It was a group of five that found him, armed with blasters. He obviously hadn't felt them coming, but somehow he also hadn't heard them. Possibly because of the ruckus of the mines and the announcements from the speakers. Fortunately for him, one of them had the idiocy to yell out before the shooting started. That gave a split-second of reaction that he wouldn't otherwise have had, and it saved his life; he caught some of the heat of blaster bolts, but that was it. His third step forward turned into a push off to one side, followed by a duck behind one of the ramshackle buildings used to housed slaves.
It became clear that the guards hadn't gotten a good look at him before shooting. Or rather, what he was carrying. If they had, the first two wouldn't have charged around the corner quite so nonchalantly. A barrage of blaster bolts from the carbine literally picked them apart from three meters down the alley. The next two had some forewarning - Audren's gun sounded very different than theirs had - but even they were too late to fully prepare themselves. The shots they got off were nowhere near aimed, and they too died quickly. The last one had all kinds of warning though, and didn't even both sticking his head around the corner to aim. He simply stuck the barrel of his gun around and swept the alley. But his target had already taken cover, meager though it was. So when the lone surviving guard poked his head around and saw no dead target, then stepped inside, three blaster bolts thudded into his torso in quick succession.
That interaction was what persuaded the Jedi to avoid the mines as much as he could. If he'd been caught flat-footed by a group of guards wandering through the empty shantytown, how bad would the mines be? The problem was simply the size of the place. The base was
beyond the mines, which were themselves kilometers across. A speeder would make the detour possible, but simple circumnavigation around the mines would no doubt take far too long. It was possible that the control towers he'd spotted would have vehicles, but they would also have a higher concentration of guards. Yet he didn't exactly have much of a choice.
The Master began a jog into the mines, down the slope and into the guts of the place. The first tower was a mere half-kilometer away, but without the aid of the Force he had to rely on his other senses to avoid the guards. What would have been a matter of minutes was almost doubled as he had to stop behind cover for guards or stop those slaves who rushed him. Some did so hoping that he would free them, others did so in a misguided attempt to capture him, maybe win their freedom. Alas, his technical skills were somewhat lacking; he didn't know how to free them from the collars without using his lightsaber, and that would draw far more attention than he wanted. He had to knock two slaves out with vicious strikes when they became insistent, but for the most part he simply ran when approached.
Unfortunately for him, the first tower had no vehicles, not even mining vessels. Few guards as well, as a matter of fact. The one bright spot. Annoyed, the Sephi backed away from the tower and circled around it, heading for the next one. Again, what should have been travel time of a few minutes essentially doubled. This time he had a bit of a running lightfight with two guards. It was pure happenstance that he got out of it as quickly as he did: the first guard was hit with a blaster bolt and the second ran in front of a mining truck. He got squished real quick.
Unknown to Audren, the tower he was heading to was the main one. All he knew, as he got closer, was that there were indeed vehicles parked outside. As such, he took several long moments to observe the guards and figure out the best way to them. The opportunity was a mining truck that rumbled by the lone guard on the east side every few minutes. Rather than the bright flash of a blaster bolt, a silvery beam could barely be seen as the truck passed by. The modified paddle-beam from the
pistol he carried instantly knocked the guard unconscious, and he was up and moving.
But a better opportunity presented itself.
Just as the Master was skidding to a stop next to a landspeeder, a Sith gunship came to a halt over the tower. Soldiers fast-roped down and in, clearly after something that Audren couldn't sense. But that left the ship open to
him. The liquid-cable dispenser and grappling claw - standard equipment for most Jedi - made short work of the vertical distance and he was able to slip in the open door without issue. The first pilot took a nasty knock to the back of the neck, which alerted the second pilot. He received a vibroblade to the forehead. Both were unceremoniously dumped out of the ship. By the time he settled into the seat however, a third tower had exploded. The tower had lines of something running to this tower...and they too were going up in flames. But below him, someone ran through the viewport and barely caught themselves by the pipes that connected the two towers. Not the greatest place to be. With a mental shrug, Audren shifted his new ship around and lowered it somewhat to face that same viewport and pulled the triggers, sending bolts powering through the remains and aiming to cause more havoc. A few bolts would suffice...the oncoming explosions wouldn't be so nice to be a part of and he had a mission to complete.
