Mission Hide and Seek | ISB [ DE ]

[Damian Du Couteau]

“The planet has many ancient secrets, but my father had left behind some more recent and relevant secrets.” Damian nodded, attempting to encourage himself. “-Once we leave with the General and get the Imp off planet, I’ll guide a small group around the outskirts of Cinnegar.” Damian hadn’t found the notion of leaving the major city anytime soon, but the Imperials hadn’t exactly been cooperative with him as of late.

Damian picked up his data-slate once again, something felt off but he shrugged it off as he gestured for the other agents to move along. The exit wasn’t exactly far, but it was worth it to send a couple of guards ahead of them to secure it anyways. As their small group got closer to the exit Damian got a notification and an alert, he got on his Comm to answer a disturbing call.

“Locked? Not possible,” Damian brought up his data-slate and quickly attempted to remotely open the exit.

“Still?” Damian’s voice grew concerned as the reply came in negative, “-Get the Prisoner to the exit, and just try to get the door unlocked.” He told the rest of the agents around him.

The young Du Couteau heir turned his attention to Kyric, “-Let’s go get the General and see if he knows something.”

He flipped through his Commlink and attempted to reach the General, “-General? Do you copy?” Damian’s feelings began to sink deeper inside his gut. Something is terribly off. His hand rested on his blaster as he took off in a run to reach the General.
​

|| Kyric | Kazian Blackwood | Ellayina L'lerim ||​

 

[Kyric]

The tension in Damian's features did not go unnoticed by Kyric. The Jedi Knight had a sneaking suspicion that whatever worried his companion would only prove the tip of the iceberg, but he elected not to share such concerns. Now was not the time to sow seeds of panic where serenity could see them through the day.

"Let's go get the General and see if he knows something."

Kyric pursued Damian at his behest. The halls flashed by the boys in a flash as their flight carried them ahead of their escort who followed after them maybe a second later. Their confusion was not unwarranted, so the kiffar peered over his shoulder at the closest pursuing soldier.

"Stay on your toes!" Kyric demanded of them. His lightsaber bounced at his side, perhaps offering a bit of credence to the young Jedi's decree. "I've got a bad feelin' about this, so stand ready. We don't know what we're deal-"

A screaming tide of red death assailed his mind as several bodies dropped in quick succession. Blaster fire flashed through an open doorway within his thoughts, but where Kyric searched the environment around him, he found nothing. Only a single blast door awaited them at the end of the hall.

Has to be that. Kyric surmised before pulling ahead of Damian. Proximity sensors caught their approach two meters out, exposing the kiffar to the greater room where Kazian and Ellayina already massacred those left to protect the general. Kyric didn't immediately spot them as his attention was drawn to the corpses strewn about the room.

Each one died from a single shot.

"Chit," Kyric's hand fell to his lightsaber hilt. "We have a problem, Damian."

Damian Du Couteau | Ellayina L'lerim | Kazian Blackwood ​

 

[Ellayina L'lerim]

Torture and Interrogation Officer and Agent

Information

Objective: Capture and rescue
Location: Near to the city park, Cinnegar, Empress Teta
Equipment: 2x Sunfury Pistol | Light Armour | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | 2x Vibrodagger || Cloaking Device | 5x ASBF Probe Droid || Empyrean gland || OPBC-01m
Tag: Kazian Blackwood | Kyric | Damian Du Couteau | Alars Keto | Open

"Galactic Common" | <"High Nelvaanian"> | ["Essonian"] | ~ telepathic communication ~ | << comm. channel >> ​

We continued to stand in front of the general's quarters and the man inside started shouting because he realised we were here and he wasn't alone. For a moment a predatory smile appeared on my lips. This is going to be fun; especially since Kaz has left me with the options. I don't know why he did, maybe because it was a decision that needed to be made by someone higher up, or maybe he was unsure? After the question, I looked at my partner and nodded, and then spoke quietly so that the general inside wouldn't hear my words, and in the meantime, I began to concentrate by reaching out into the Force.

"Yes, there is a stunning mode on them, but I have another idea. You go first, I'll come in after you. Even before it opens, I start a mental attack on him so he can't move or shoot. If we are lucky, he may even lose consciousness, if not, he just can't move. If he can't move but is still conscious, you can easily knock him down or shoot him to stun him. Then you put him on an anti-gravity pallet and take him with you. At least you don't have to fight it later." I told him and because of my concentration my words became slower and slower because I was focused on the General with all my strengths. "As soon as I'm ready, I'll open the door, and you get going."

Just in case, I switched the pistols to stun mode, and if necessary, I handed one to Kaz. In the meantime, the outside world began to fade away as I concentrated on the man inside. It was quite difficult and stressful because he had a noticeable resistance to mental attacks. I didn't feel that he was a Force user, but he certainly had the training to withstand it, and of course a general has a strong will; without it, no person would be in that position. However, I was trained to do that, so I slowly found the points that I needed.

However, I could feel the drops of sweat appearing on my forehead and I started to gasp for breath from the exertion. I also felt that blood started to leak from my nose. However, at that moment I also felt the General's movement slow down and finally he could not move. He was still struggling against me, but I was also quite stubborn. MANIAC opened the door at that moment so Kaz could go. If my partner started to go in, I entered behind him, and he could easily shoot or knock the general down if he wanted to. Either way, I heaved a sigh of weary relief.

"Stubborn and persistent old man... let's find something to put him on and see our general." I gasped as I wiped the blood from under my nose, off my lips and down my chin, because it was already running there.

I felt tired, it exhausted me more than I thought it would, but I'm not going to give up and I'm going to finish the mission...

 

[Kazian Blackwood]

Kyric | Damian Du Couteau | Ellayina L'lerim

​

I watched as Ella began her mental attack. It looked quite unpleasant. Was this the Force, like Cousin Amadeus had? Or was this something else?

As the door opened I expected blaster fire, only to aim my sidearm at a completely still Alliance General, with a look of fear painted on his face. I shot him once with the stun pistol, and he collapsed to the floor.

The general's quarters were austere, possessed with hardly anything useful to a living space let alone transporting a body. We'd have to go back out. I could have sworn I'd seen an anti-grav pallet jack nearby, probably the same that had sparked the idea in Ellayina.

Turning back to the door, I broke into a few strides of a run before I stopped abruptly in my tracks. There at the end of the hall, across the killing fields, stood two unidentifieds. They didn't look like soldiers, certainly. One looked like a kid. But if they weren't soldiers, and they had access to this place... and in the hand of the young one... a lightsaber?

I was cautious to approach any further, my knees unwilling to carry me into the vision that ran through my mind of being carved in two by a Jedi sword.

"L'Ierim, we have company."

 

[Damian Du Couteau]

Damian rested his hand on his blaster when Kyric spoke up, his eyes darting around the hallway and room up ahead. There was nobody standing guard, the General appeared missing and with the dead agents Damian felt a coldness tug against his heart. Well not everyone is dead in the hallway. The young Du Couteau heir took a moment to register the fact there was a person further down the hallway on the way to where the General’s office was located.

He reached into his other bag clipped to his waist, there was quite the possibility whoever killed the agents was right up ahead. Damian’s hand closed around the hilt of his father’s lightsaber and gently pulled it out. There was a non-zero chance that whoever infiltrated them were Imperials and had been tasked to kill the general, how they managed it all would be questioned to ask later.

Or that person could be the only survivor.

Damian intended to find that answer, “Kyric, ahead of us there’s someone there.” Damian spoke softly and low. “I’m inclined to offer them a chance to whoever that person is,” he added, his eyes grew wide but maintained a cold gaze. Damian figured if he could bluff that there were two Jedi present, it was a risk but Damian wanted to avoid further bloodshed.

Why can’t people just leave us alone? A Galaxy at War seemed to be the perpetual state of affairs but Damian simply couldn’t believe there were people who only wanted war and destruction. He readied himself to dodge a blaster bolt, but ignited his father’s saber all the same. A brilliant blue blade was emitted as the light washed against them in the hallway.

“You have one chance to surrender yourself, approach slowly with your hands up.” Damian shouted in his most Senatorial voice possible.
​

|| Kyric | Kazian Blackwood | Ellayina L'lerim ||​

 

[Kyric]

Kyric studied each body in the room, one after the other, until he finally registered Kazian's presence across the space. The Imperial's instincts were sharp. Kyric felt his trepidation at the sight of Damian's lightsaber. Such feelings felt like a glaring admission of guilt in the face of rampant death, but the kiffar kept himself in check at Damian's behest.

"You have one chance to surrender yourself, approach slowly with your hands up."

Kyric pushed deeper into the room while the senator offered the Imperial an out. His bare hand fell to the first corpse, where the vision of death flashed within the boy's mind.

An intense burn unlike anything he felt before ripped through his chest. The rebel lifted a shaky hand and pressed it against the superheated hole in his torso. One of his lungs were supposed to be there, right? Blackness settled in at the corners of the man's vision, and within a few seconds, his back slammed into the ground and the world went dark.

"Cowards," Kyric snarled under his breath. "To kill a man fightin' for their home is one thing, but to shoot him in the back?" He stood and moved to the next corpse. His hand brushed bloody bangs from her face, igniting another vision.

"Silvo!" she cried the moment the first blaster bolt burst from her friend's chest. She raised her gun and aimed blindly, only for a screeching shot to soar out of the darkness and scatter the left side of her face against the wall in a spray of bloody viscera.

To the onlookers, Kyric appeared to quite literally touch the body and move on within a second, as if the visions were beamed into his head much faster than the events played out in real time.

He eventually straightened and took up a position beside, and a step or two behind, Damian.

Damian Du Couteau | Ellayina L'lerim | Kazian Blackwood ​

 

[Ellayina L'lerim]

Torture and Interrogation Officer and Agent

Information

Objective: Capture and rescue
Location: Near to the city park, Cinnegar, Empress Teta
Equipment: 2x Sunfury Pistol | Light Armour | Viper Mk. I Skinsuit | 2x Vibrodagger || Cloaking Device | 5x ASBF Probe Droid || Empyrean gland || OPBC-01m
Tag: Kazian Blackwood | Kyric | Damian Du Couteau | Alars Keto | Open

"Galactic Common" | <"High Nelvaanian"> | ["Essonian"] | ~ telepathic communication ~ | << comm. channel >> ​

Kaz had luckily stunned the general, so I would have been glad to have had a few moments to gather my strength after what I had just done. Although it wasn't spectacular except for the concentration, it was still very tiring and I would have appreciated a long sleep, or at least some rest. However, I had no such luck. I immediately turned around when my partner said we had company. I clenched my teeth for a few moments because of the headache caused by the exertion I had just felt, but I turned immediately towards the door. I didn't want our company to accidentally stab me in the back. After all we've come so far, that would be unpleasant.

By the sounds of it, there were two of them out there and although I didn't have a lightsaber, I recognized the sound of such a weapon immediately. Of the two, at least one was a Jedi. I couldn't tell from the words if they knew about both of us or just one of us. There's a good chance they only knew about Kaz. Although, if they were Jedi, they could easily have sensed that I was here. So I rather calculated the chances that they knew about me. I've read history books where even Jedi have killed others, unarmed or something like that, okay, Sith apprentices, so I didn't want to take any chances. I wasn't a Darksider, just neutral, but still...

"I suggest you do that! Drop your weapons and the lightsaber or everyone on the base dies! Slowly, suffocating!" I shouted to the two from the general's room.

My voice wasn't shaking, and we were able to do that when we closed the base, we shut down the ventilation system, just as we took control of life support. There was nothing easier than to let the air run out in every room, or simply ask MANIAC to suck all the air out of every sealed room. So it was only a single command. I trusted that they could tell whether I was lying or not. I often used the truth-sense during interrogation to know if my guest was lying or not.

"I hope you can tell if what I said was true or not. It would be very unfortunate for you if we had to prove whether I was telling the truth or not." I said again as I stepped up to Kaz's side.

I still had the two pistols in my hands in case I needed them, but I hoped the pair would have the good sense to realise that we had the upper hand here and surrender. The previous mental attack had left me with too much of a headache to feel like fighting them. However, I was quite keen to demonstrate the truth of my words if they didn't believe me...

 

[Kazian Blackwood]

Ellayina L'lerim | Kyric | Damian Du Couteau

​

"Listen to her!" I called out across the thick tension building in the hallway between us and the Jedi. Our weapons trained on them, Damian's lightsaber staring back at us.

"This world us under Imperial control. Control that will be maintained. This effort to form a rebel cell is futile, even for the Jedi."

Playing down their abilities might have helped. Jedi were amenable to negotiations, so I'd heard. The cards weren't exactly in their favor, or so I'd hoped to make it seem. The shorter Jedi had not reached for his saber, instead focused on the dead. Was he praying for them? Was that something the Jedi did?

"If your... apprentice is quite finished touching cadavers, we should come to some terms. We needn't all leave here in body bags. You want to return to your temple don't you?"

 

[Damian Du Couteau]

Damian glanced towards Kyric, inspecting the poor souls lying on the ground, whether to determine or not if there was anyone left alive was Damian’s guess. Though. The uttering of a disdain towards their death confirmed to Damian that these agents paid the ultimate sacrifice. He grimaced slightly at the words of being shot in the back, he wasn’t comfortable with the fact they had yet determined the exact size of the breach within their hideout.

The young Du Couteau heir did straighten his back when Kyric moved closer behind him, having a true Jedi’s reflexes at his back had a calming effect. Though whatever effect it did had was short-lived when another voice broke into the open conversation, a cold splash of realization. The situation has deteriorated significantly.

“You would risk one of your own?” Damian asked, the Imperial prisoner Primen was being escorted out of the base. But if the Agents still with him had managed to break through the lockdown was another question. “-Would you risk our ability to hold our breath long enough to make sure no-one makes it out of here?” Carefully Damian lowered his lightsaber for a moment, as if indicating that he had reduced his intention to fight. In all honesty he was terrible at holding his breath.

“Is the General Lago still alive?” Damian asked, “-We can talk about a trade.” He added, I need to buy ourselves more time to think of a plan. As it stood Damian would appreciate better odds, but to find any edge required time and he intended to keep the conversation going to provide it.
​

|| Kyric | Ellayina L'lerim | Kazian Blackwood ||​