A guard dressed in a black jumpsuit but without helmet or goggles came through the door from the floor above. He started to say something but his words were lost in an explosive out-rush of air as Luke's fist sunk into his stomach. As the man doubled over Luke pressed a nerve bundle and knocked him out. He managed to catch the man before he fell down the stairs. Luke tucked the man out of sight in one of the empty rooms on the floor he had come in through and then headed back up the stairs; he bypassed the next floor entirely and continued to climb. Six floors later windows appeared in the stairwell looking out on to a barren seemingly airless world and the blackness of space beyond. It seemed that the mine was on an asteroid or rocky moon. It also seemed to Luke that the top people were likely to be in the top of the building.
Luke continued up the stairs, he noted that the walls had changed to a soft blue colour. Either the builders had run out of white paint by this stage or the people who used these stairs had different requirements to those below. He pushed the door at the top open and looked out into the corridor beyond, it was the same width and length as the one he had come in along but that was all they shared. This corridor was wood paneled; he was quite clearly in the right place.
Luke walked to the first door on the left of the corridor. There was no one in the room beyond. He tried the door. It was locked. He slipped his lightsaber out of his coveralls lit the yellow-green blade and carefully cut around the lock. He put the lightsaber away and gave the lock a sharp tap with the heel of his hand. The lock dropped through its own hole and landed with a thud on the floor. Luke pushed the door open and went into the room. It seemed to be some sort of office. He opened drawers at random. There were a few notes on scraps of paper and flimsy which he read quickly; but there was nothing incriminating there. He gathered up all the data crystals he could find and tucked them into one of the pockets of his coverall. There was no guarantee that any of these would have anything more on so he had to get more.
Luke left the room, pulled the door closed, and moved on. There was only one more unoccupied room on this floor; Luke opened the door with aid of his lightsaber lockpick. There was nothing at all of use in this room, so that left just the occupied ones. He knew he would have to move quickly if he wanted to get things done before a shift change. He walked silently down the corridor, there were five further rooms; three of which had one person in as far as the Force was telling him, the other two rooms had three people in each. It was therefore a simple choice, door one or door two.
Luke approached the first of the two doors, it wasn't locked and the people beyond seemed to be relatively alert. Luke tucked his lightsaber back into his coveralls. All the better to confuse, if they didn't know quite who they were dealing with it would make things easier. Luke gave the lock a swift kick which broke the catch, he ran through the door as it swung open.
There were three technicians in the room, one stared at Luke slack jawed. Luke smiled and ran past him into the room. A dark-haired male technician was reaching for a weapon; he was the most dangerous of the three. Luke knocked him out. Then he moved on the technician who wasn't gaping in shock. The second unconscious body hit the floor just as the final one of three started moving. Luke, needless to say, was faster. His fist connected with the man's jaw just before he reached an alarm panel, he too slumped to the floor. Luke stepped over the unconscious form and set to work on the computers. He was no expert in computers, certainly not in Mara's league, but he could get by. These systems were not complicated and he soon found records that were exactly what he needed: prison transfer data and more incriminatingly, financial transfer data. Luke quickly downloaded all the files on to a datacrystal. He put the crystal into his pocket with the crystals he had taken earlier. Now he had the evidence he needed, it was time to get out.
One of the three people on the floor groaned a bit; it was definitely time to get out. He left the room and pulled the door closed. He headed for the stairs. Luke reached the floor he had arrived through without incident, but halfway down that corridor a guard came out of one of the rooms. She saw Luke and shouted. Luke jabbed an open palm into the woman's chest sending her staggering back into the room and knocking her into the guard behind her and sending both of them to the floor.
Luke broke into a run and got to the door just as the alarm was tripped. He ran. Outside the door he had a moment to choose he path before the guards came out behind him. He headed for the shuttlebay access, his grey jumpsuit faded into the darkness but he knew that wouldn't hide him from the guards in their infra vision goggles. Luke could hear the sounds of guards behind him. He ran as fast as he could; given the pitch darkness and the uneven footing. He turned another corner and decided that this was the point to bring the pursuit to an end. He pulled out his lightsaber and held it ready but unignited as the guards approached. They were about to find out that it was a Jedi that they hunted.
The guards came round the corner and saw that their quarry was in front of them. It seemed as if he were just standing there, there was a moment of confusion and then, as one, the guards drew their blasters and started firing.
Luke could honestly say that of all the dozens of blaster bolts that rushed towards him in the ensuing minutes he only saw the first one. Of course, with the brightness in the surrounding darkness he went on seeing the after images for quite a while thereafter. He ignited his lightsaber as the first bolt sped towards him. He intercepted the bolt with his blade and the bolt bounced off into the wall.
He continued to deflect the blaster bolts, one or three of them found new homes amongst the shooters. Luke directed most of the rest into the roof. Luke laughed. This, despite the danger, was the most fun he had had in a while. The guards were starting to back up, they seemed to have realised how much trouble they were in.
The tunnel roof eventually gave up struggling against the continuous bombardment of blaster bolts that Luke was directing against it. The sound filled the tunnel and dust circled. Luke stepped back a few paces to avoid the falling rocks. He coughed once and then waited for the dust to settle. The fall had blocked the tunnel. Luke closed his lightsaber down and turned to head down the passageway passing several cross tunnels on the way. This was the way to the main landing bay, he was sure of that; he just wasn't sure how far away it was.
The landing bay was in a large cave with a forcefield across the entrance. Most of the cavern was in darkness, the major light source was the small lights on the ore trucks although some light was coming in through the forcefield. Relaxing further into the Force Luke extended his senses to include the whole cave. It was clearly one of the places where mining had started and was now a hub. Several further tunnels branched away from the bay. There were three groups of people within the bay. One was a pair of guards supervising a dozen prisoners who were loading full trucks on to a hauler. The other two groups of people were guards on patrol. It seemed as if all was not well in the mine. Strange that.
Other than the hauler; there was a pair of small transport shuttles in the bay. It looked like leaving this particular rock behind would not be too difficult. Luke ducked back round a corner as a patrol passed the opening to the tunnel he was standing in. When the patrol had passed by Luke slipped silently into the cave, there wasn't enough cover for him to simply walk to the shuttles unseen, but there was more than one way for a Jedi to pass unnoticed. He kept a watch on the minds of all the people who might notice him, if anyone showed an undue interest in his current location then he carefully nudged their perception away from himself. It was certainly possible for him to keep a number of people from noticing him but it was by no means easy. He ducked down behind a stack of crates near the shuttles; it was now only a very short sprint to the closest shuttle. Luke took a deep breath and gentle drew his perceptions back to himself. The walk to his current hiding place had taken it out of him; he wasn't drained but he was starting to feel the affects of continually drawing on the Force. He relaxed and let the tiredness flow away from him. This hiding place wasn't bad as hiding places went but he couldn't stay here too long; so he just didn't have time to be tired at the moment.
Luke looked around the bay, he'd gotten lucky again. One of the shuttles had its hatch open and it seemed ready to go. He took another deep breath, extended his perceptions again, stood up and ran. It took him ten paces to make it to the shuttle's side and another two to make it one board He carefully closed the hatch and settled at the controls, taking a few seconds to relax as he did so. The cockpit was larger and less complicated than his X-Wing's. There were no weapons on the shuttle but he wasn't planning on shooting his way out anyway.
He had got this far without being noticed but he knew that as soon as he fired up the engines all hell would break loose. He intended to hit space before anyone had a chance to launch after him. When he was clear he could send a message to Alliance Intelligence and skip to hyperspace. He interrogated the computer and finally found out where he was: a major asteroid two systems over from Pyrad Prime. He set the hyperdrive computer to calculate the quickest route to the nearest Alliance Base. He didn't want to hang about waiting for the computer to do its thing while being chased. The computer finally beeped to say the route had been calculated.
Luke to another deep breath and focused on the forcefield, it was tuned to let large fast objects emitting the correct transponder code through while keeping air molecules and people contained. He flicked the switch to activate the drives and sank into the Force. Just as the drives lit he took off and pushing the drives past maximum headed for space. He could sense the chaos unfolding behind him but he pushed it away from his mind as it took most of his concentration to fly like this. He sent the message and then spun the ship around the asteroid to head for clear space. He had to get clear before kicking the hyperdrive in.
There were ships launched behind him, the other shuttle and a couple of other ships although he didn't see where they came from. It didn't matter; they weren't going to catch him. He was flying at 115 percent of the ship's rated maximum, it would only take another couple of seconds before he got somewhere he could cut the hyperdrive in. 2…1…Luke flicked the switched and the stars stretched.
This mission was over and it was time to head for home. Time to be with his family. Time to rest and recuperate at least until the next time he was needed.