Chapter 14: Lubang Minor
Lubang Minor was all they had expected and more. And none of it was positive. The hot, humid climate made the beskar armour extremely uncomfortable for the three members of the rescue team who wore one, and Ahsoka did not fare much better. The dense underbrush was obviously home sweet home for a lot of insects and too many were of the stinging type for her likings. Besides, it made it difficult to move.
They had argued about the best approach, and Ahsoka had suggested that Rex should stay with the ship and be ready to pick them up after the hopefully successful mission but the old trooper would have none of it.
"I'm not that old," he had argued indignantly.
Mando had tended to agree with Ahsoka for practical purposes. He still had the dispute with the mudhorn fresh in his memory and on a rescue mission like this he really would like to be sure that their means of escape was unharmed. Coming back to Razor Crest after saving the kid only to discover that the ship had been stripped for most vital parts had been really unpleasant. On the other hand - they needed all hands on deck, especially since Sabine insisted on bringing a rather comprehensive arsenal of explosives and weapons with them.
He didn't argue that. The value of good armour and good weapons could not be overestimated and eventually they decided on landing and leaving the ship in the jungle. It would take them a few hours to get to the place where they believed the Empirical troops were staying. Able's instructions had given them a fairly good idea of where to find the 'dead ship' and they chose to trust Mando's vision enough to assume that the facility would have to be nearby. If the kid had seen it, he must have been close by because there was no way anyone would have seen it from above.
As they closed in on the spot where Able had had his base they became more careful. They could only assume that the place would be guarded, but the numbers of guards and their level of awareness was hard to guess. They just could not be discovered. Period.
It wasn't like they had a good plan. They knew they had to get inside the facility but how they should accomplish that was an open question. So much depended upon its construction and how it was placed in the terrain.
"Makes me feel young again," Rex had chuckled, only to earn himself a sharp glance from Ahsoka.
"As long as you don't mention 'ventilation shafts'…" she sighed.
A couple of hours later she began wondering whether she'd suddenly got the gifts of foresight. Regretfully. The Imperial base was squeezed in-between two mountain tops more or less like a nerf ham in a sandwich and there was no way to get through the sidewalls. It had to be the front door or the roof and from the look of the huge gate in front there was likely a hangar just inside. Which meant an open space and very little to hide behind.
"Dank Farrik!" Mando exclaimed, "That one isn't going to be easy to sneak into."
None of his companions did comment on the obvious. This would certainly not be an easy hit and run mission.
Ahsoka sighed again: "I guess it has to be the vents then. There has to be something like that on top of that building. Even the imps have to breathe, unfortunately. Sabine and I will likely be able to get down there, but the two of you are a bit more…bulky."
"You calling me 'fat'?" Rex shot in and the tension in the group eased for a moment.
"Nah…more like 'broad' - over the shoulders, that is…"
Mando silently agreed that she had a valid point. There were many good things to be said about beskar'gam, but 'flexible' was not one of them. He could see that crawling through ventilation shafts with that on would be…not very practical. Sabine's slim figure would likely make it if the vents were of a decent diameter but for himself and Rex it might be difficult indeed. But there was another concern too - how would they get up there? The jetpacks would bring himself, Sabine and Rex up through the air, but Ahsoka didn't have any. She would have to climb and the mountain walls seemed frightfully steep. And how would they get up unnoticed? It wasn't like the jetpacks were free of sound or even sometimes visible flames.
"Guess we'll all have to take a beeline," Ahsoka concluded. "We cannot get in through that gate and they will clearly see us if we try to move up to the roof. We'll have to move to the ravine over there and there you can use your jetpacks and with some luck I can climb. I guess they have some security on the roof as well but we'll get over that obstacle when we come to it."
"You don't have to climb," Sabine comforted. "We'll lift you."
"What? A jetpack cannot carry two persons. Not that far, at least."
"Nope, but two can. I think. I've had some good spare time on Lothal so I've done some neat improvements on mine, and Mando's seem to be more or less same model as mine so I bet I can give it some extra boost too. Then we can lift you between us."
"There's something about the 'I think' phrase that's not too comforting," Ashoka said rolling her eyes, "but I trust your abilities so let's give it a try. It would save us a lot of time. But first we have to get to the ravine and that means at least one more click in this jungle."
An annoyed 'smack' to a pesky mosquito followed her words and the group began moving again. At least they now had some kind of 'Plan - part A'. Rex was quite sure they would see more parts coming up before the mission was ended.
The ravine they'd seen from a distance was narrow and steep and in a way exactly what they needed. There was no way to be seen directly from the Imperial base and if anyone did a fly by, or fly over, the just had to handle the problem when or if it occurred.
"We'll get you up first, Ahsoka. Then you can do some investigations of the surroundings and the three of us will get the gear up and follow you as soon as we can."
Ahsoka just nodded. She wasn't too eager about her personal lifting operation but it would for sure save a lot of time compared to her climbing the steep ravine, and she'd done worse in her life. With Mando's hand firmly in her right hand and a secure grip from Sabine around her left they took off from the ground.
Sabine's modifications held and she landed safely on the rock on top of the ravine and disappeared in the dark. She more felt than saw Sabine and Mando disappear over the edge of the cliff again to haul up their so-called gear. She had a suspicion that if they lost some of that the imps would hear it right away. If that happened at least she needed to be free to get the others out of the clutches of the Imps.
Just like in the old days.
They all knew the drill except Mando. Stick to the plan as long as you can, improvise when everything blows up in your face and save your friends if or when you can. And preferably get out alive. She doubted Mando's experiences with such joint operations but on the other hand, as a bounty hunter he was well acquainted with dangerous operations and he likely knew how to handle a dangerous situation. All in all they were a good team, she thought.
When Mando came with his first load of "gear" Ahsoka had nearly reached the roof already. When he came with the second, she had disappeared again. Hopefully she was somewhere in or between the huge ventilation pipes that stuck up from the roof. It would be tight but from the looks of it both Rex and he would fit in, which was a relief. On the other hand, he didn't know if it would last. Most ventilation pipes usually branched out into more narrow pipes and that would be challenging. But for now it was the waiting game. They just had to sit down and blend in with the cliff as much as they could which for him meant pulling the cape over the beskar'gam. It was just too shiny and reflective for this purposes. Rex and Sabine didn't have that possibility so they positioned themselves behind him the best they could. At least their armours weren't as reflective but on the other hand, the colour markings on theirs might stand out towards the background.
It felt like an eternity but in reality it was less than half an hour before Ahsoka's head perked up from one of the largest pipes and soon the rest of her followed and they could see a shadow jogging towards their position.
"It's doable," she declared. "Even for you two guys."
Rex arched an eyebrow and Ahsoka gave him a pointed glare: "No, Rex, I did not say you're fat…"
Then she continued: "Most of it seems OK, but there are a couple of pipes that are more narrow than the rest so I believe the two of you should take off your chest plates. That will make it easier. Sabine, you will have no problem so when we go in you will go after me so we can protect the guys while they're dressing up again if some problems occur. It seems like the area we will enter through is some kind of maintenance room so if we're lucky there's no-one there when we appear. "
The phrase 'lucky' made Rex scoff. He'd never seen a mission where that word was involved in his entire life.
Ahsoka continued: "From there we will have to go step by step. I would guess that they keep the kid somewhere on the lower levels. Detention cells are usually placed low in any construction. I just hope that the kid can feel you, Mando, and that I can pick up some of that connection when we're inside - or even better, we will find a map over this place and skip all the 'Jedi-mystical-mumbo-jumbo'."
Mando had rarely been so glad to have his helmet on as in this moment. He felt a blush flaring on his cheeks and realised that she'd picked up some of his thoughts on their way to the Lothal Temple. If the Jedi could read his thoughts he might be in trouble.
Ahsoka chuckled: "No worries, Mando. I'm shielding so I'm not reading your thoughts on a regular base, but that one you projected loud and clear."
"My apologies," he said, "all this is new to me."
"None offence taken," she said, "now, if everyone is on board with the ..uh…plan, we'll just go."
"Nope, not yet," Sabine said, "if possible we should place some of the stuff from my 'goodie bags' scattered around the roof. Obviously we can't bring everything with us inside through the vents and I'd really like to blow up this place when we leave. If we can damage the roof roof it will likely break a lot of the underlying construction too. I somehow doubt we will have the chance to place them when we are on our way out."
"Agreed," Ahsoka nodded. "Let's place as many as we can in 15 minutes. One quadrant each. keep to the sides so we're not spotted and let's head down the vent I came through immediately after that. And, Sabine, please don't push the detonator button by accident while we're still inside…"
Sabine rolled her eyes grabbed four bags and handed over to her companions.
"Here, place them as close to where you imagine a bearing construction will be and hide the bag under some rock or whatever when you've finished. Let's get moving."
And with that four shadows disappeared into the darkness