Tahiri paused at her entry point. The metal in the vents were 38.1 centimeters thick, way too thick for most portable cutting tools on this planet or most portable tools found in her world. She wasn't sure how long it would take for her light saber to cut through but she was sure she could do it in less time then the natives here thought she could. Tahiri started by drilling a very small hole first, just big enough to get a mini-cam through. She rotated the mini-cam to make sure that the passage way was clear. According to the information the droid gathered this maintains corridor should be clear at this time of the night but she wanted to make sure. This was the mostly like time that she would be discovered. If she could get the hole cut fast enough, before the cams in the corridor caught her image, she could drop down and get to the relay box and get the droid into their system.
That was tur phahg of this whole operation. The people who designed and built this complex had no landlines leading into the base; the base's computer net was a complete closed looped. It was an effective security measure that actually worked against her. All communications were transmitted by radio waves; radio waves that were shorter in duration, more random in timing and just plain riskier for the droid to tap into. The only way the droid could assist her was for her to hook the modified data pad directly into the information node on this level, the information node that was directly underneath the very cam that watched this stretch of corridor. So she had to spend several minutes watching the cam swing up and down the corridor, timing how long it was facing away from her and how long it took to come back. She also checked to see the timing on the other 2 cams further away.
After about 15 minutes she saw her first snag of the operation, all three cams were facing away from her location for a total of 20 seconds. That meant that she would have to work slowly so as not to reveal her position. She would have cut for 17 seconds and pause for 40 seconds plus stay alert enough to catch any change in the aliens that may signal that they were on to her. She sat back against the vent and took some calming breaths.
It's ok so far they don't even know you are on planet let alone in this vent, she said to herself, it will just take a little longer then you planned but not so long as to be a worry yet. Take your time and do it right, there is no reason to hurry.
On one level her Jedi instincts were agreeing, this was not really much of delay and she would lose more by rushing then by taking her time. But her Yuuzhan Vong side was warning her that they were on a clock here and any delay was too long. She clamped down hard on her Yuuzhan Vong side, she still had 5 hours till the next shift change, and the prisoners would still be asleep in their cells until at least dawn. She had time; she had to take it slow. So, after making sure she had the timing down right, she set the alarm on her data pad and begun cutting her way free.
"Lord Major I have that flash again!"
Lord Major Smit, the 6th cousin to the royal family, looked up from his magazine. The corporal at the security monitors has been bugging him for the past 45 minutes about some strange blue flash down on level 17. Lord Major Smit was already annoyed with the way the world was turning out. When he was assigned to the Central Command last year he saw it as a fast track to promotion in the ever-shrinking military force. All this talk of peace and no more wars was having a disasters effect on the military, no longer was the King willing to spend money on something that would soon be needed as much as a root canal. Then the impossible happened, just as the finial nail was being hammered in to the military coffin, aliens invaded them. Oh sure it was a pretty pathetic invasion as invasions go. There was only one ship, an extremely big ship but still it was only one ship that crashed on Hope Island. The aliens hadn't even left their ship and it appears to be so badly damaged that it can't even fly. Well, what would one expect from any creatures that would stoop so low as to deal with the Empire of Goth? But they did kill the King's parents and most of his brothers and sisters and their spouses, as well as most of all the planets Ruling Class. That was an act of debauchery, a crime so low it was not even thinkable to most if not all the people of this planet. It was a crime that demanded a square inch of alien hide and blood in payment. He screamed and demanded a transfer to Hope Island, to lead their glorious troops in a vengeful attack against the barbarians who dare to invade his planet. But to no avail, his cousin the Lord General Smit, refused to let him be transferred.
"You're duty is here! We must be on guard in case more aliens invaded!" his loud mouth, smelly, hopelessly antique, fat hog of a cousin told him the last time he asked. But it has been 5 months and still only one ship. Even after they transferred the prisoners to the Central Command he had some small hope that they would launch an attack to retrieve their comrades. But no such luck! They may look like real men, a fact that caused much discussion when they found that out, but they had no real fighting spirit. He couldn't imagine these aliens being able to conquer a playground let alone anything else. And they call themselves Imperials, he often thought with amusement.
"Corporal, I'm getting tired of this nonsense!" The major said getting up from his desk at the back of the room and walking over to the security control station.
"Lord Major, please forgive me but I do see blue flashes on level 17 sector G, it is near the air vents."
"Yes, and all sensors in the vents came up with nothing as did the walking patrols outside, so it must be a electrical problem."
"Yes Lord Major, but they are too regular and they only appear when all three cameras are out of line of sight." the young man insisted.
"Corporal," Lord Major Smit said standing next to the young man staring down on him with the entire Royal demeanor that he possessed. "Our outside patrols and guards have reported nothing out of the ordinary for the past night, correct?"
"Yes Lord Major but …"
"Our air forces have reported no other air planes, ships or any unidentified flying objects have been seen in or near our airspace, correct?"
"Yes Lord Major but …"
"Our army has no reports of any hostile forces crossing our great land, correct?"
"Yes Lord Major but …"
"In fact Corporal," he said leaning down and putting his face inches from the other man face, "except for a shooting star seen earlier nothing unusual has been seen around here for the past week."
"Yes Lord Major but …"
"And yet you keep insisting that something out of the ordinary is important enough to continually bother me? What do you think it is a band of aliens breaking into this complex? Do you think those blue flashes are some kind of teleportation device like you seen on TV shows?"
"No Lord Major, I had thought …"
"Don't think Corporal you have neither the breeding nor the IQ to undertake such a monumental task." He heard a ripple of amusement work its way around the vast control room. The corporal at least had the brains to be embarrassed, judging from the blush growing on his face.
"Lord Major, regulations state that I'm required to report any and all abnormalities that I observe during the course of my tour duty to my superior officer."
Smit heard a rustling of the more experience crew members as they busy themselves with anything, to avoid any appearance of them paying attention to the conversation. Smit hated being corrected, especially in public, especially by one with such inferior rank and breeding and they all knew it. Especially when he knew, and they knew, that the corporal was correct. He stood there staring down at the boy as if his stare could make the boy disappear into the floor.
"Technician!" He growled out. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the sergeant at the engineering station snap to attention. "Send one of your people to Level 17 sector G and have him check the electronic control panel, substations, buses, and other areas for these 'blue flashes'. When he finds the source assign a repair crew to fix the problem."
"At once Lord Major!"
"And you, corporal, shall take a flashlight and your side arm and escort the technician to Level 17 sector G and stand guard. When the problem is solved you will stand guard as the repair team is fixing the problem. Then to be on the safe side you will stand guard until the afternoon shift begins. In fact you will stand guard there, double shift, for the next two months! Do you understand me!"
"Yes Lord Major!"
"Get moving!" Smit turned away and headed back to his desk thinking that should solve his problem nicely.
Tahiri sat back, she was finally finished. It took what felt like forever for her to cut the hole in the kane a bar vent. It was hot in that vent, she had sweet pouring down her back and face, and she had to remove her jacket and facemask to try to keep cool. The Nang Huls on her bandoliers were feeling her agitation and it was driving her nuts having them vibrate against her chest. A couple times she nearly gave in to her Yuuzhan Vong impulses and just cutting her way through as fast as she could. At least I got some good training in controlling my impulses, she thought as she took a short break, feeling the cool air going by now that the fan was going again. Even as long as it took to cut the hole, trying to move the Grakh plug was a new challenge. She knew that size matter not; Master Skywalker pounded that into her head over and over again. But she had no idea that this plug would be so hard to move, she nearly dropped it twice. She finally settled on moving it by pushing it, using her hands and body, once she had enough of it on the vent floor.
But now she was done with the second objective and was nearly done with the whole operation. Now she just had to get the data pad into the information hub so that the droid could help her, and then go up 7 levels to the prisoner cells. From there it be a simple trip up the remaining floors and freedom. She got up and put her facemask and jacket back up, talking softly to the Nang Huls to calm them down, and pulled out a powered multi tool, comm. link and the special data pad.
"One, Two; stand by," she said softly, the droid didn't answer her back but she knew he was up there ready to go. She looked down at the counter, waiting for the all three cams to be out of sight. When the time came around, she jumped down the 4 meters to the floor and ran across the room, she slid on her stomach for the last few meters. She used her multi tool to unscrew the nuts holding the cover on. The droid had a map of the connections she need to make and downloaded the picture into the pad, so she had a reference to work from. Her data pad pinged and she tried to make her self smaller, she still hadn't got the pad attached. She could feel the cam getting closer as she worked furiously to finish.
I AM IN. The droid said, thanks to the tizowyrm she didn't need to have the comm. link translate it. She said a quiet prayer to the gods that on one level she knew didn't exist but on a deeper level couldn't deny. I HAVE ACCESS THE ARCHIVES, I FOUND ENOUGH FOOTAGE TO LOOP FOR THIS CORRIDOR. I HAVE FULL ACCESS NOW.
She let out a long held breath.
"Gods, this is more nerve racking then I though."
YOU ARE 32 MINUTES BEHIND SCHEDULE DID YOU HAVE ANY TROUBLE?
"The vent was harder to cut and move then I thought it would be. Plus the cams were only out of sight for 20 seconds every minute. Have there been any alerts?"
NEGATIVE YOU ARE STILL UNDETECTED.
"Good," she said as she replaced the cover leaving the data pad hooked into the wiring. "Ok time to move on to phase three."
AFFIRMATIVE STAIR WELL IN SECTOR C IS UNOCCUPIED AND SHOULD BE FOR NEXT 2.45 HOURS. I HAVE PROVIDED YOU ACCESS UP TO LEVEL 10.
"Astro lets go."
A few minutes later she was peeking around the corner on Level 10 Sector J, the high security prison section. As the droid had said there was only two guards on duty right now and they both looked to be bored. One thing that has worked in her favor on this whole trip so far that the natives seemed to be in a relaxed state. Having months of inaction was taking their tool on the troops alertness. She leaned back and pulled the amphistaff from around her waist; she gave it a small kiss on top of its head and said a small pray as she waited for the droid to loop the video. The both knew that of all the post on this base, this one and the control room would be watched closely. Having two guards fall asleep on duty would raise a few alarms.
GO.
She released the amphistaff so it would crawl along the ground. She heard them talking but couldn't understand what they were saying. She heard one of the guards yelp out in surprise and then the other one. Only after hearing the sound of two guards falling did she look around the corner. One guard was sprawl out under the desk while the other was slumped in his chair. She scooped up the amphistaff as she ran over to the door.
"Some kind of lock vertical, 5 studs." she said in to the comm. link.
STAND BY. KEYS ARE 1 THRU 5, 1 ON TOP 5 ON BOTTOM, CODE IS 425.
"Ready?"
GO.
She punched the code and was rewarded with a click, which meant the door was unlocked. When she opens the door she saw two rows of primitive looking cells. They were open aired with just bars. Each cell appeared to be 2.4 meters long by 1.82 meters wide. Each held two bunks and some very primitive and open refresher station. She shook her head in disgust, wondering how anyone could use that with everyone watching.
"Commander?" she asked quietly walking toward the cells, "Commander?"
"Don't you barbarians have any sense of decency it is in the middle of the night?" A clip and precise Imperial accent came back to her from the dark.
"Hold on Commander I've have you out in a second, just cover your eyes."
"What? Who are …"
Tahiri flip on her light saber, the icy blue blade making short work out of the metal lock.
"Come on sir, I need your help waking the others."
"A Jedi?" He said still sitting down, his mouth open. In the dim light of her saber she could see his once proud uniform was dirty, tattered, ripped in many places and many new and old bruises covering the parts of his body that she could see.
"Yep, I'm here to give you the standard Jedi rescue." She gave him a confident smile.
"You are a Jedi?" He said in a tone that suggested to her that he would believe Ewoks could take basic and fly star ships before he believed her.
She balled her fist and planted them on her hips, giving him a stern look.
"Yes, I'm a Jedi Knight. You know not all of us are 2 meters tall with huge gross muscles and male! I need your help waking up the others so we can get out of here but if you want to stick around and wait for some male to come help you be my guest."
"No, it is …", he started to say getting up and with as much dignity as he could muster, straighten his uniform. "My apologies Jedi, you are right we need to get out of here first. After we are free we can discuss how far the Empire has fallen to leave such delicate work as this mission to Jedi, instead of more profession storm troopers."
Tahiri just rolled her eyes and moved down the hallway to the next cell. So this is what Masters Horn, Durron and Skywalkers are always talking about when they talk about the typical Imperial attitude. How annoying!
"So what if you're right? He is the Lord Major and that makes him right all the time." The tech said to his friend as they got off elevator at Level 17. "All you got for your trouble is 2 months of extra work."
"He is a moron, if he wasn't the King's cousin he would be able to get a job scrubbing toilets with his tongue at this bases."
"Yea but he is the King's cousin. Although the word is he is not on the favorite list. He was sent here when peace was breaking out to keep him out of the King's hair. Why he is still here is beyond me. Most officer gets off the midnight shift fairly quickly and after a year he is still there."
"Would you want him around you all day if you were the Lord General?" He said with a snort.
Both men laughed as they rounded the corner and entered Sector G. The tech looked around, he couldn't smell anything that suggested electrical shorts. The Corporal walked around the area under the huge vents that supplied the base with normal air.
"Hey Sergeant, we are in Sector G." the tech said into his walkie-talkie.
"Roger, see anything yet?"
"Negative and I don't smell anything that suggests burnt wiring."
"Wen, I thought you said you were there?"
"Roger, we're in Sector G. I'm standing right in front of the camera."
"Security says the corridor is clear."
"What? I'm standing right in front of it … wait," he looked closely and noticed that the camera wasn't moving. "Private Wen to Control is the camera moving where you are?"
"Affirmative Private Win all shows normal up here." the security sergeant said breaking in to the conversation.
Wen went over to the information hub and began to remove the cover. He heard his friend come up behind him.
"Hey Win, do you know anything about a hole cut into the air vents?"
He stopped short as Wen pulled the cover off and they both saw some obvious alien device hard wired into the information hub.
"Red Alert, intruder alert!" Lord Major Smit screamed into the suddenly quiet control room. It finally happened the alien scum were attacking them. How they did it, or how long they been here no long matter; the only thing that mattered was killing them. Slowly if possible but he really didn't care it was a chance to show his cousin that he was a warrior. "Security I want extra men assigned to the prisoner cells. That will be their ultimate objective! Engineering I want that device removed now and brought to me!"
He barely heard the twin acknowledgments as he head to the special radio set, the King need to be informed immediately.
Commander Ritk was impressed; the very young Jedi had seemed to have though out this rescue very well. She had briefed him that her droid was in their security and control computers redirecting all the security cams, unlocking access doors and monitoring for the roving patrols. She even had a small but very useful medical kit which they all had need of, especially poor Dr. Hegerty. The good doctor was an ederly woman and a civilian, she held up better then he dare hoped but even she had her limits. She would need lots of care once they got back to the Empire. Commander Ritk vowed the cost of such care and the cost of the pain and suffering of his troopers would be extracted from these pathetic aliens. Two of the troopers would have to help her to the Jedi's ship. The other trooper, armed with four thermo grenades, would bring up the rear while he, with her pistol, and the Jedi lead the party up to the top floor.
"Ok droid, I need you to head down here now." She nodded her head when he replied.
"Your droid is flying that ship!" Ritk asked shocked.
"Yes," she looked at him irritably, "I couldn't very well park it out front and ask them nicely to come in and get you."
"Really, I though that what you Jedi did, talk your opponents into giving up."
"Gee, I don't know doesn't see to be as much fun as doing it this way, now does it? Besides I think I'm good at talking but I am not that good. If you want to negotiate your release make sure next time you request Mrs. Organa-Solo."
"I will make a note of that for the next time." He said amused with this little Jedi, "but right now I wondering how we will get to your ship."
"He is going to blow the main door open with to concussion missiles. It is pretty tough by these natives' standards but the missiles won't have any trouble. Then we run as fast as possible through the open door way, you and I lying down cover fire at whatever security forces still alive that will be trying to kill us by throwing slugs at us. Then we head down to the Widowmaker, pick up the rest crew, fighting past 50,000 screaming and blood thirsty natives who really keen on killing us all as slowly as possible. Simple." She said with a grin as she brought the comm. link up to her face. Ritk found her answer very amusing, she was nothing not like Master Skywalker or the other Jedi he met earlier. This one at least had a sense of humor. "Ready?" He heard one beep and she nodded her head again. "Lets move out."
They were at Level 5 when the droid beeped at her.
"Go?" she listen for a few minutes then stared at the comm. link like it was a Hutt. "What? How did you lose connection?"
Then they could hear the sound of sirens going off and a red flashing light filled the stairway. Ritk looked at the young woman, she had her eyes closed and uttered one word.
"Khapet!"