Lost in A Memory

[Barinthus E'ron]

There were additional doors several meters inside the main ones. Each of the twenty housing units also had a pair of doors. There were also controls for the barracks and command center doors, as well as communications. Sansa slid the doors closed, leaving them slightly open. "I'm not sure exactly how far open they are," she explained as she leaned back.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

"But that should be about half-a-meter." She had a small air of confidence that the jedi padawan figured he could trust somewhat at least. "Thanks," Barinthus told her. "How many people are in the barracks?" The woman shifted uneasily in her seat and the jedi padawan remained still searching with the force. "Um, I'm not exactly sure," Sansa answered. "I think about thirty-five or so."

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

Barinthus had no interest in fighting nearly three dozen Peace Brigaders, even if he had superior troops, and position. "Can you keep the barracks doors closed from here?" He hoped while feeling them in the force. "No," Sansa replied. "They can be opened or closed from here or there." She looked down at her binders, and fidgeted in them a bit. Her body tensed and heartbeat changed a little. If he was a betting jedi he would win for sure.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

Barinthus thought she seemed to be about to say something else, but she remained silent. The Force was prompting him to find out. "You have something else to add?" he asked firmly, influencing her with the Force at the same time. "Um, there's about thirty guard droids in the barracks too," Sansa said softly. "We keep them hidden from the rogue sith."

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

Barinthus's eyes went wide in shock even under the sash and mask. Frakk! In a split-second he had activated his comlink. "There are guard droids in the barracks. If the doors open, treat the forces inside as hostile. Repeat, there are about thirty guard droids and thirty-five Peace Brigaders in the barracks, if the blast doors open, treat them as hostile."

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

There was a chorus of acknowledgments from his troops. Barinthus ran through a Jedi calming exercise. He had two dozen special-ops troopers, with two rocket launchers and two E-Webs. There was no way he could evacuate two thousand prisoners with the droids and Peace Brigaders nearby. They wouldd have to thin the numbers and make sure everything was taken care of.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

Next Barinthus contacted the transport that they had arrived on. He ordered them to power up, and get to their position as soon as possible. Then he contacted their bigger transport and passenger liner, and ordered them to head this way as well. The liner would go into a low geosynchronous orbit so the two transports wouldn't have to travel far to ferry the prisoners back and forth. Then Barinthus turned his attention back to his prisoner.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

"Let's go," Barinthus told Sansa, taking her by her upper arm. After a few steps towards the door, Barinthus let go of her so she could zip up his coat again. A dozen meters or so later, they arrived outside, back in the freezing cold. The sense of foreboding that came to his gut through the force. There was something stirring from the explosions and he could feel it down below. Hell he thought for a moment he had the barest flash of one of the priestesses coming to warn him.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

Lieutenant Koflan had moved the captured Peace Brigaders into the prisoner area, and had the two demolitions troopers and several prisoners keeping an eye on them. He had three troopers in the observation post, and two more on the roof of the command center. One of the E-Webs was just to the side of the command center, as close as they could get it and still cover the barracks blast doors.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

The other one was just inside the prison doors. The rest of the troopers were spread out in the snow. The sniper and rocket launcher teams were still in place as well.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

Barinthus activated the comlink that was built into his hood. Then he began issuing orders. "I want Lieutenant Koflan and five people inside the outer prison doors. I want four people in the observation post. The sniper and rocket teams stay where you are. The two people on the E-Web next to the command center stay there. Everyone else I want inside the command center."

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

There was another chorus of acknowledgments as they moved to obey Barinthus's orders. Instead of heading for the prison though, Lieutenant Koflan came to him. "We've got quite a few prisoners inside that claim to be military. They want to help. I told them I'd pass the message along," he told him over the howling wind. Then he felt it down below in his gut and for a moment was worried about things attacking or going wrong.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

There were ten blaster rifles and ten pistols in the command center's weapons closet, plus the blaster pistols in the control room. Barinthus knew that military could mean anything from highly trained crack-commandos to remote reserve militia that only cleaned up after natural disasters. He didn't have time to find out what sort of experience they had, and he wasn't about to give someone a weapon for the first time in ten years if he didn't have to.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

"Tell them thanks, but we have everything under control right now," Barinthus replied. "And make sure the Peace Brigaders that we captured don't cause any problems." Lieutenant Koflan acknowledged, and headed towards the prisoner area. Barinthus took Sansa back towards the command center. "I want to talk to the people in the barracks," Barinthus told her once they got back in the control room. "And tell me who's in charge over there." As he spoke, he opened his coat again, and began pulling off his gloves.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

"Um, it should be Lieutenant Grienn," Sansa replied as she reached towards the controls. "Go ahead," she said, nodding towards Barinthus a couple of moments later. "This is Barinthus of the jedi order and Republic," he said over the control panel comlink. "I would like to speak to whoever is in charge of the Peace Brigaders in the barracks." At the same time, Barinthus reached out with the Force to get a sense of the people in the barracks.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

He also pulled his overcoat and hood completely off, and put his regular comlink headset back on. That left him in his cold-weather-combat jumpsuit, thick outer pants, and boots. There was silence. Barinthus looked questioningly at Sansa, who glanced at the controls, and nodded her head in consent. After several seconds, Barinthus repeated the message. The third time, he added, "I know you are receiving this."

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

"This is Lieutenant Grienn," someone finally replied. "Talk." The jedi padawan scoffed for a moment and spoke. "Lieutenant, in case you haven't noticed, my forces have taken over your command center. If you surrender, then you and your people can leave this rock aboard my ship. If not, then you can stay and explain to the rogue sith why you don't have their prisoners."

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

Barinthus didn't mention that he knew about the droids. After several seconds of silence he replied. "Okay," Lieutenant Grienn answered. "We surrender. We're coming out." Barinthus listened to his words over the comlink, and did her best to sense his intentions with the Force. She was sure he was lying. He didn't feel like he had given up.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

"Actually I need to alert my forces so they don't open fire," Barinthus quickly lied. "I'll contact you in a couple of minutes." There was a brief pause. "Okay," he responded. "We'll await your signal." Barinthus sensed he was still deceiving him, but not lying that time. Maybe that meant he had believed his lie. He quickly switched comlinks to talk to his troops again.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

"The Peace Brigaders in the barracks are still hostile. If the blast doors open, treat it as an attack," he announced over the comlink. There was another chorus of acknowledgments. Then Barinthus contacted his transport to get its ETA. The pilot told him they would be there in about three minutes. Barinthus told him to pull up the map of the prison complex on his HUD, and ensure he knew which building was the barracks.