Paneau: remote Naeron Mountains
6.0 APC
The extraction team's shuttle couldn't have been more silent as the tense minutes wore on. Under the skilled direction of Lieutenant Saross Wip, the small, agile ship was only just skimming the rocky terrain below it, barely a breath from nicking upward-projecting formations along its vulnerable belly. Soon they would reach the forested portion of the mountain range, where they would land the shuttle and continue on foot, hopefully keeping their arrival at the abandoned factory as stealthy as possible. The plan was simple enough, but unable to predict just how well the Kel Dor had defended his hideaway, it was the execution that was likely to change.
As Ri looked to each member of the team, she could tell their silence was one of their tools. They were handpicked for the mission from the Elite Guard, the most well-trained and specialized operatives in the Royal Forces, and though she didn't know any of them personally, she trusted them. Despite having been delayed from their deployment by three days, they were all intensely focused and prepared...at least, as prepared as they could be with the little intel they had been able to gather.
With security at an all-time high, the Dalon Palace Memorial Ceremonies had kept Milowi's rescue mission on standby. Understandably, King Verojec wanted his half-sister at his side for the day-long remembrance of the disaster that had claimed so many and violently launched Paneau into its darkest days. Ri had been eager to participate with him as they specially honored her late mother during this sixth anniversary, but she regretted having gotten Major Jax's hopes up so soon after he had regained consciousness. After inviting him, she had forced him to prove that he was well enough to accompany them on the mission, and though he had seemed sturdy just days earlier, she watched his left hand tremble noticeably as it rested atop his thigh.
He sat just behind the cockpit, his gaze firmly fixed out the viewport into the deep darkness that blanketed the foothills ahead of them. Had she not known any better, she would've simply thought it nerves or anxiety making his hand shake, but she was beginning to second guess herself. Maybe he hadn't recovered enough to travel with them, and the stress of the search for his wife would only worsen his condition...
Somehow feeling her focus on him, Major Jax turned and looked back at Ri...and right away, he noticed her attention on his hand. Self-conscious, he quickly clasped his hands together to mask the tremor, though to little avail. He straightened his posture as if proving his strength to her once more, though perhaps it had more to do with protecting his pride. But as Ri moved to step over to him, Lt. Wip made an announcement, the first words spoken since they'd left Dalon over an hour ago.
"Arriving at first target landing zone in fifteen seconds."
The leader of the team, Commander J'Arvir Strai, stood from his seat in the rear of the hold and tugged tight the straps over his shoulders. The only non-human in the group, J'Arvir's appearance already commanded their attention: he was a tall, muscular Zabrak, a native Paneau and veteran of the Elite Guard for more than twenty years. His own choice, he carried a backpack with an array of supplies they'd most likely need, as did his second in command, Pavali, a lanky, golden-haired woman. Three more men seated beside Pavali rounded out the two teams, and with a crisp nod from Commander Strai, they all began last minute gear preps in nearly perfect synchronization.
"Remember," Strai began coolly as he holstered a small holdout blaster on his belt, "comm blackout until Mrs. Jax is secured. Coordinates will be dispatched in a standard hour for a rally point if your team gets separated. Princess, stay close to me."
Though she could feel her cheeks warming with frustration at being singled out, Ri held her breath and nodded, keeping her senses on keen alert. This mission was her first official chance to demonstrate her skills as a Jedi, and being ordered under heavy protection, most likely by her brother, wasn't going to keep her from being at her best.
The familiar hum of engines slowing to a halt was the only sound Ri heard as the shuttle's rear ramp lowered, and rocking forward with the gentlest of landings, she watched as the first team, Pavali and two men, swiftly exited and disappeared into the darkness outside. A quick roar of power lifted the shuttle back into the air, and a few tense moments later, another landing was the second team's cue to disembark. Ri only just had time to glance at Major Jax up in the cockpit, giving him a confident nod before she, too, left the shuttle with Strai and their third teammate, Dahr.
In a matter of seconds, the shuttle was gone, leaving a deafening, eerie silence in the wild, solitary valley. Neither Strai nor Dahr moved beside her, hunkered down in the tall brush for what felt like an eternity. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the deep night, as did her ears to the new sounds, like small nocturnal foragers moving about nearby. Becoming more anxious by the second, her own heartbeat pounded so loudly she was certain Strai could hear it, but she took in slow, calculated breaths, drawing on her training to calm her nerves. Just as her Master had instructed her for the past two years, she used the Force as an extension of her senses, feeling the surrounding area...
With a quick tap on her shoulder, Strai took up a steady, swift pace toward the abandoned factory a half kilometer ahead, a lifeless, dilapidated building in the middle of a serene field. They would soon leave the natural brush cover they had landed in, but discarded mining equipment littered the ground outside the building, providing more chances to hide should they need it. Ri kept up just on Strai's heels as she swept her gaze back and forth, scanning for any dangers they might encounter, and Dahr watched behind them as they progressed forward. As a unit, they moved in tandem as though they'd been operating together for years, focused and determined for the mission. The longer they continued ahead without incident, though...the more Ri's anxiety began to wear her down.
Almost at the factory's doorstep, Strai led the three to a large overturned crate, kneeling down behind it to pause, listening for any new movement or alarms they might have triggered. Ri and Dahr did the same, barely breathing though they'd nearly sprinted the entire way. With her senses trained on the building, Ri slowly peered up at the towering structure, studying its design and appearance. On the outside, it appeared just as its schematics said it would, fairly simple in dimension and function, but thinking through the mission briefing they'd had just hours earlier, something suddenly felt very, very different...
"Strai," she whispered as carefully as possible. She quickly earned his intense attention, and swallowing to steel her nerves, she kept her tone even. "We need to go down."
He only furrowed his brows in response, demanding an explanation without a word.
"I think...I can sense her," she continued quietly, "very weak, very far down."
She didn't have to read the commander's mind to know what he was thinking. The factory's schematics had originally described the building as a processing center with its production mine nearby, but the two were not connected. If she was right, and Milowi was being held far below in the abandoned mine instead of within the factory itself as they had thought, then it was possible that the two teams could be walking into a trap. Strai's gaze met Dahr's for a minute, carefully weighing their options before he nodded and tapped a keypad on his wrist, sending a silent signal to the other team. Ri knew he had to be more concerned than his outward appearance let on. though; with the signal he'd just sent, he had told Pavali's team to hold their position.
Strai, Dahr, and Ri would be entirely on their own for the rest of the rescue.
Undeterred, Ri looked expectantly to Strai, waiting for him to give the order to move. With another glance at Dahr, Strai nodded and started for the mine entrance, and again, the three moved in formation. They closed the distance rapidly, and after a quick sweep of the entrance, they drew their blasters, lit their glowrods, and descended into the mine.
Decades of neglect and wildlife growth were evident all around them, but there were no new tracks or footprints on the floor as they went, adding an even more mysterious air to the shaft. There was no air movement, no perceivable sound except for their careful steps, but Ri knew they were headed in the right direction. Her feelings were pulling her down, deeper and deeper into the mine, she was quite certain of that, but how long would Strai believe her?
The shaft spiraled down for at least a kilometer, she guessed, and both Strai and Dahr remained silent as they moved, still on high alert. When the walls slowly began to shorten and the corridor began to narrow, as if they were coming up on the mine's end, Ri slowly came to a stop, doubt suddenly creeping into her mind and forcing her to second guess herself. She had been so sure...
Strai and Dahr stood tensely beside her, wordless as they waited for her explanation. She closed her eyes and held her breath, opening herself to everything around her, stretching her senses as far as they would go...
A quick, buzzing zap caught her attention and snapped her eyes open. But as she looked to her team, neither had reacted to what she had heard, still studying her reaction. It was an electrical spark, a sound unique to a fluctuating power generator...
"Glowrods off," she instructed curtly with inspiration. Strai and Dahr only hesitated a moment before complying, uncomfortable with plunging themselves into the darkness of the mine so completely, but she had to listen for it with all other devices powered down.
...and she heard it. Coming from even further down in the mine, a low, electric droning hum.
"A containment field," Dahr announced aloud, having heard it, too.
With their glowrods instantly reignited, Ri took off at a sprint toward the sound, pulling her lightsaber hilt from her belt. The hum grew louder and louder as they neared the belly of the mine, and spotting a familiar blue glow from the shaft up ahead, she knew they'd found her.
"Milowi!"
Rounding a bend in the corridor, Ri stopped to find the mine open to a round chamber, centered around one containment field that not only suspended a motionless Milowi by her wrists...but it also held the room's ceiling in place above them. Several beams all crossed and converged onto one lone vertical support in the middle of the room that was locked into position by the electromagnetic field, and displacing it even a millimeter could prove disastrous...for all of them. Ri could hardly breathe.
"Can we get her down?"
Commander Strai studied the room's structure silently, attempting to make that determination as he thought through other options. There was no control console for the containment field that they could see, only a power generator at the far end of the chamber that seemed to be supplying the field's energy. Though Ri's knowledge of the technology was limited, she at least knew that without the means to selectively disable the field holding Milowi aloft, they'd have to sabotage the entire unit, which would collapse the room on top of them.
"Maybe the wrist cuffs can be disconnected separately," Dahr offered carefully, but Strai was quick to shake his head.
"They could be rigged to disengage the field if they're tampered with." Taking in a slow breath, Strai set his jaw. "We can bring some of that old equipment down here from the surface, pile it up to the ceiling to hold it up."
"Or I could do it."
Meeting Strai and Dahr's surprised glances with a confident one of her own, Ri spoke with determination. "Bringing those things down here will take too long. Milowi needs help now. I can hold that beam in place long enough for you two to get her down and take her up to the surface."
The two men locked gazes for several tense moments, heightening her anxiety. As she expected, though, Strai returned to her and shook his head again. "Princess -"
"Listen," she continued adamantly, "she does not have time. I can do this, Commander."
Though Strai began to protest once more, he stole another glance at Milowi, barely breathing but still alive, and with a quick nod, both he and Dahr stepped over to the center of the room. Once they took up their positions just below Milowi, Ri closed her eyes and stretched out her hands, extending her invisible grip on the beam with the Force as a slow, steady breath left her. Telekinesis was her strongest skill, and it always had been, but knowing just how much was riding on her mastery, she had to remain so focused, so determined, so strong...
"Ready?"
Taking only a moment longer to solidify her hold, Ri nodded and drew on the Force even more as a single blaster bolt rang out, followed immediately by the loud crack of a power surge as Strai destroyed the containment field's power generator. She couldn't concentrate on much else, though, only on holding the support beam up...and she could tell it was slipping. She kept her eyes tightly shut, blocking out all her senses except for what she could hear. The other beams creaked and moaned with the added stress they suddenly had to bear, but she only had to keep it up for a few more seconds...
She heard Strai and Dahr sprinting away up the shaft, taking Milowi with them as quickly as they could. She would have to follow soon, but she held on as long as she could keep her grip, giving them as much time as possible in case the collapse began a cascade that would follow them to the surface. In her mind, she could already see it happening; would she be fast enough to stay ahead of it?
She heard Strai's voice weakly echoing down the shaft to her, calling for her to follow, and with one final burst of strength, one last boost of Force power, she relinquished her hold and flew as fast as her feet would carry her.
Glancing at the shuttle's chrono, Major Jax refused to believe that only a standard hour had crawled by, certain that it had been at least three. His left hand tremor had only intensified as the night wore on, a reflection of his increasing anxiety and his worsening headache, but thankfully Lt. Wip had remained silent beside him. Both were on edge as they sat in the lifeless ship, awaiting the return of the two teams at their predetermined rally point, and Jax couldn't help but fix his gaze out the viewport into the pitch black outside.
He tried to keep his mind clear by focusing on a distant object, a mountain peak silhouetted against the starry sky, but his mind continued to race, bringing back memories of the night he almost couldn't remember. He had gone downstairs to his daughter Tavyna's room to put her back to bed, since the girl had suffered yet another nightmare in the aftermath of the disaster at the Dalon Academy. It had taken the better part of an hour to comfort her, and once she had gone back to sleep, he left to return to his room...but the Kel Dor stopped him before he had even reached the staircase. He remembered no unusual noises, nothing out of place around him; he had been completely taken by surprise, and it angered him. He should've fought back, he should've been able to protect his family, but he hadn't. If he lost Milowi because of it...he'd never be able to forgive himself.
Though bitter tears formed in his eyes and blurred his vision briefly, he stared hard, watching the illusion of movement in the darkness ahead. The longer he watched, though, the more he noticed that they were moving uniformly, becoming human forms approaching in the brush. Only hesitant for a split second, he spotted the glowing wrist comlinks on the figures, signatures of the Elite Guard teams that were returning.
"They're back," he managed to speak, getting Lt. Wip's attention, and Jax was on his feet in an instant, meeting the three at the shuttle's rear ramp.
Breathless, he looked desperately between the operatives for his wife...but they had returned empty handed.
"We were signaled to maintain our position before we got into the factory," Pavali answered his unasked question, looking to him for an explanation, too. "The other team hasn't returned yet?"
A sickening, sinking feeling settled into the pit of his stomach. Pavali's team had returned at the standard hour mark, routine operating procedure for stealth missions like this, and if she hadn't heard from Strai or even Ri...
"There!"
Jax followed Lt. Wip's line of sight out the back of the shuttle, somehow spotting the second team still far out in the brush. They were moving swiftly, nearly running, and only when he saw them carrying Milowi on a stretcher between them did he release a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding for minutes.
"Get this shuttle moving, quickly!" Strai ordered as he and Dahr rapidly climbed up the ramp and into the main hold, gently settling Milowi on a bench. Lt. Wip complied, powering up the shuttle and getting it airborne before the ramp had even been lifted. Almost numb with shock and relief, Jax knelt beside his wife, carefully taking hold of her bruised, broken hand as he looked her over.
She was pale and emaciated, so far removed from the strong, capable woman he knew, he hardly recognized her. Her breathing was shallow and weak, but as he gently stroked her cheek, her eyes lifted open just slightly, and again, he couldn't breathe.
"Milowi..."
Surprising him even more, the smallest hint of a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, and she, too, was breathless. "Aurin..."
All the worry of the past three days compounded in that moment, he began to break down again. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."
But her weak smile remained. "Shh..."
He couldn't help but give a bittersweet laugh. She was only just clinging to life, but she was the one comforting him instead. She was still the same.
Without warning, though, her face contorted into a deep grimace followed by a sincere moan of pain.
"Milowi?"
Another intense moan, and he knew she was crashing, and quickly.
Stepping up beside him, Ri checked Milowi's pulse and was only just able to withhold her alarm. "Her heart's racing... We need to get her to a medical center immediately."
"Kirodai's still twenty minutes away," Lt. Wip announced reluctantly from the cockpit.
"That's not good enough!"
He felt Ri's hand heavily on his shoulder, a calming gesture, he guessed, but he frantically wracked his mind as Milowi suffered in front of him. There had to be another option, something in between, someplace that could treat her...
"The Retreat," he blurted, looking up at Ri. "There's a fully-staffed medical wing there. We have to take her there!"
Despite the numerous bloody wounds she bore all over her body that he hadn't noticed until just then, Ri didn't even blink as she confirmed the change of destination to Lt. Wip at the helm.
"Two minutes."