Chapter 25: Infiltrate, Part II

The team gathered in the hallway down low in the ship adjacent to the hangar bay.

Nara and D'razz had elected to be Demo Team. Winson and Rei had agreed to be Intel Team. All was in place, except for one crucial thing.

"What about you, Nova?" D'razz asked. "Which team are you going with?"

"Neither," Nova said. "I've got... other matters to attend to."

Winson gave Nova an inquisitive glance. Nova shot him a "not now" look. Nova quickly changed the subject.

"Everyone got all they need?" he asked.

"Think so," D'razz said. "I've got enough explosives here to punch a 2-meter hole in the armor in an AT-AT."

"And I've got a lightsaber that's just begging to see some battle," Nara said.

Nova nodded, and reached over to a small wall panel to his right. He punched in a code, and suddenly, three large, glowing seams appeared in the floor in front of them. Then, the floor lowered downwards and extended out to the surface of Dantooine. Nova gestured to D'razz to lead the way, and the group made their way down the large gangway that had extended from the ship's belly.

As soon as they cleared the ramp, D'razz turned to look at the ship they'd just disembarked from.

"Whoa..." he breathed. The others turned to see what he was staring at.

The ship's cloaking tech was no joke. Before them stood the boarding ramp, which led to the inside of the ship. But on all other sides of the ramp, the ship was completely and utterly invisible, albeit for a faint blue, heat-like shimmer, which rippled through the ship's outline at random intervals. It appeared as though the ramp led up into nothingness.

The others marveled at it for a moment, until Nova reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small, oval-shaped device. A few small, holographic buttons appeared above the device, and Nova pressed one of them. The boarding ramp began to retract, accompanied by a mechanical whirring. When it had closed completely, there was nothing left to see. Nova smiled to himself, then placed the device back in his pocket. He called for the others to follow him.

"Come on, guys," Nova said. "It's a bit of a walk, and nighttime doesn't last indefinitely."

The walk seemed to stretch forever, but finally the group arrived at the fence to the grounds of the biggest factory complex any of them had ever seen.

"I thought you said this was a small outpost," Nara said.

"I... I thought it was," Nova replied.

Nova suddenly perked up, and pulled the elliptical remote out again. He pressed a different button, and pointed the device at each of them. As he did, everyone's clothes shimmered, then changed colors, becoming pitch black.

"Are you freaking kidding me?!" Nara whispered harshly. "What else do these things do that you haven't told us about?"

Nova only shrugged and attempted to give her an innocent-looking smile. It didn't work.

"Alright, guys. Let's do this," Nova said. And with that, the group split, running in their teams in different directions.

As soon as Winson and Rei hopped the fence, the two of them were like a well-oiled machine, exchanging various military hand signals, which both had learned in their brief times at the Imperial Academy. Soon, they had their plan worked out, and began sneaking through the maze of storage containers that had been right by where they'd gotten in. Leaping from container to container, the two of them soon made their way to one of the doors to the control tower. The intelligence center was on the 7th floor. Rei rushed over and ripped off an access panel next to the door. To her surprise, instead of a computer terminal, she found a bunch of wires and cables.

"I... I don't know how to work this!" she whispered to Winson, who moved over to see what she'd found. His face lit up when he saw the wires.

"Hotwiring. Excellent," Winson said. "Rei, you cover me. I've got this," he said.

Rei stood watch as Winson disconnected and rearranged the wires and cables until a soft click was heard from the door mechanism.

"Gotcha!" Winson whispered. The door slid slowly open, stopping at its halfway point. Just enough for them to squeeze through. Winson replaced the wall panel, and the two entered the tower. They approached the corner, and Winson gestured for them to stop. He closed his eyes, and tilted his head, seemingly listening. Then he opened his eyes again, and pointed down one of the hallways. They moved further, until they reached a lift. They climbed in, and selected the 7th floor. The lift began to rise.

"Get ready," Winson said, "I sense two on the far left, three in the center, and two more on the far right. Get ready to take them out all at once."

Rei simply nodded, and drew her dual blasters.

As soon as the door opened, the officers in the tower spun to face the intruders, only to be stuck down mid-draw.

"Nice one," Winson said. Rei smiled, and blew away the smoke from the tips of her blasters.

Winson and Rei approached two separate terminals, and began downloading information to the two data sticks that Nova had provided them with.

And then, just as the progress bars reached 100%, the alarms went off.

Four minutes earlier...

Nara and D'razz had memorized the plan. D'razz had downloaded the structural schematics of the factory to his mask, which apparently, D'razz had discovered, had a great deal of tactical uses. With the schematics downloaded, D'razz's mask could analyze any part of the building he looked at, and calculate the exact spot he should place an explosive in order to maximize damage. So far, they'd only placed four charges, and already his readout predicted 86% destruction. He and Nara scaled the building, carefully sneaking from cover spot to cover spot, then Nara would stand guard while D'razz placed each charge. They were approaching the 5th spot when Nara suddenly had a brief barrage of images flash through her mind, and she yanked D'razz by his collar into an alleyway.

"Hey, what was that f-" D'razz protested, but Nara put a hand to his face. She pointed to where they'd just been, right as a searchlight passed over it.

"How did you know?" D'razz whispered.

"I dunno. I think it was some kind of Force-vision. Never mind, it doesn't matter. Let's keep going," she said, and the two of them rounded the corner to the charge point. Nara watched the guard tower carefully while D'razz placed the charge. She noticed the searchlight heading back towards them.

"D'razz, hurry up..." She whispered.

"Nearly there..," he said.

"There," he said. "Let's g-"

Suddenly, the alarms started blaring, and the searchlight stopped dead in its tracks. It hasn't reached them, which meant that something else had triggered the alarms...

"What happened?!" D'razz said, his voice nearly drowned in the blaring klaxons.

"I don't know!" Nara said. "The searchlight hadn't reached us!" Suddenly, her head cleared, and she remembered the mission.

"D'razz! What does the percent readout say?!"

D'razz stammered for a moment, then responded.

"Uhh... 97%! Is that enough?!" he said.

"It'll have to be!" Nara said. "Come on! Let's get out of here!"

D'razz stood, and the two of them sprinted for the gates that sat a short ways away. Imperial officers appeared ahead of the and opened fire. Nara ran ahead of D'razz, drew her lightsaber, and began deflecting shots left and right, running straight for the line of troopers. She sliced and slashed, and suddenly all the troopers lay on the ground. They all appeared to be alive, but they didn't have time to make sure.

"Did you just kill them?!" D'razz shouted.

"I dunno! I doubt it, but let's worry about living first!" Nara replied.

The gates ahead of them were sliding shut. Suddenly, Winson and Rei appeared to their left, and the two pairs met in the middle, and sprinted for the gates. Rei went through first, followed by Winson, then Nara, and D'razz slipped through just as the giant doors clamped shut.

"Where's Nova?!" Rei cried, as the group continued running.

"Over here!" Nova said, appearing next to them, as if from nowhere.

"Whoa! Where'd you come from?!" Nara shouted.

"Like I said, had stuff to do!" Nova replied. "D'razz! What are you doing?! Light the place up!" he shouted.

D'razz got a look of surprise, and reached for the detonator he'd had on his hip.

It was gone.

"Where's the detonator?!" D'razz screamed. "I just had it!"

Nova threw something at him, and D'razz stumbled to catch it. It was the detonator. D'razz stumbled to a halt. The rest of the group followed suit. They all tried to catch their breath. They'd been running a long time.

"W-wha..." D'razz stammered. "Where was it?" he asked.

"On the ground near the third charge. Go ahead. Blow it before they get a chance to disarm them," Nova said.

D'razz squeezed the glowing button, and behind them a massive explosion shook and rattled the landscape. Pieces of metal, debris, and trooper armor were thrown in every direction. The group all had to shield their eyes from the light of the blast.

When the light died, Nova turned to face the team.

"Nice work, you guys," he said, "that was some seriously good work."

The team resumed the trek back to the Stormbreaker slowly and calmly. Shortly before they got to where they'd left it, however, they realized a problem.

"Umm..." Nova said, "Anyone remember where we parked?"