Lost in A Memory

[Barinthus E'ron]

Barinthus brought the coat up to cover his face as he and observed the prison. Even in this weather he needed the mask over his face because his eyes would freeze without them. The current temperature was about fifty degrees below freezing, with winds about thirty klicks an hour. At least it wasn't snowing right now though. Still, Barinthus didn't like the freezing cold conditions one bit.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

He was wearing heavy cold-weather gear from head to toe. It was white and light-gray to blend in with the snow and ice on the ground. His hood even had thick masking for his face. The gear was supposed to be rated to over seventy degrees below freezing, and wind over fifty klicks an hour. In spite of the rating, Barinthus's hands were freezing even with the gloves on, and the rest of him wasn't much better.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

The reason he was observing the prison was that the Peace Brigade slime were holding about two thousand prisoners there. The scarheads slavers weren't expected to pick them up for several more days. With a small window to act, Barinthus, along with twenty-four special-ops troopers on loan from the Republic, had been sent to free them and he clenched his fist.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

I had to notice that Peace Brigader on Abiimir, Barinthus thought as he shivered in the cold but a smile was on his face. Under all the cold he was free, somewhat. The council had reformed, the Republic restructured and it had allowed him to slip into obscurity. He had been healing still but had authority needed from Tython and as a jedi. With the attack on Coruscant and its fall he had chosen to remain quiet on the issue.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

"I hear that about a thousand klicks north of here the temperature is all the way up to freezing," Lieutenant Koflan said cheerfully from the snow next to him. He practically had to shout to be heard over the wind but it was a fun sentiment and for a moment the jedi padawan pinged with envy.... Freezing sounded enjoyable compared to this.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

Barinthus lowered the mask just a bit and felt the wind biting into his face. "More like three thousand," He responded gloomily. "And the wind would still be blowing forty klicks an hour," He added as he shivered slightly from the cold again. "Now we have to get in there and out hopefully without to much trouble." He was chuckling a little more, inside he might be able to shed a layer or two and let his body heat warm him more to fight.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

The Peace Brigader had been easy enough to notice. The rest of the cantina's patrons were a depressed lot of sentients, no doubt from HoloNews showing the destruction the hordes of One Sith, New Order and other groups tearing their way across the galaxy had sown. The skinny, forty something year old male human however, seemed quite content with the state of affairs. The contrast was easy to pick up with the Force.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

At first Barinthus had just wanted to wipe the carefully guarded but smug grin right off his face. He voiced his plans to her companions, three humans and a Noghri, just in case they wanted to help out. Then Lieutenant Koflan had to suggest that the slime might be Peace Brigade, and therefore might have some intelligence. Military, at least. Or better yet things that could be given and used for aiding the Republic,

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

helping the Silver jedi or useful enough to the Protectorate that they could get an upper hand to protect the galaxy from Fringe, Horde and Crusade forces closing in. So instead of breaking a few of his bones in a cantina fight, he had lured him outside by whispering under the white current. It had been easy to sneak up on him and plant the idea there was a better party outside..

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

Then he and his friends hauled him off to a more secure area, and found out if he knew anything. Between a growling Noghri flashing her claws at him on one side, and Barinthus pretending to be friendly from the other, he was spilling his guts in no time.It turned out that the frakkin' scum regularly delivered supplies to a Peace Brigade prison. He has just made a run, and they had about two thousand Republic citizens from the outer rim worlds.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

Naturally, since he reported the details of the operation to the Republic command stationed on the Watts, they tasked him with the mission as small as it was. Luckily the fellow had told them that the prison had very little defenses, and less than fifty guards as well as a sub basement just above a large cavern that no one used because of the dangerous creatures.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

The prison was just a few buildings above ground slightly scattered with two basement levels. One was a command center, with an observation post above it, and a HoloNet communications antenna on top of that. The observation post was perhaps five meters above the command center, and the comm antenna ten meters above that. He mused it might be like the pit but no where near as effective. At least in some terms a prison in a frozen wasteland was still effective wherever you had it.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

The second, and largest, building was barracks for off-duty guards, and storage. The third building was access to the prisoners, who were kept below ground, in twenty hundred-person units and there there was the small landing pad he would call in reinforcements when they were needed. The jedi padawan looked at his small team and focused on the force and the rippling of the current to hide them.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

There were supposed to be eight-to-ten guards in the command center, plus four more in the observation post. The guards rarely went into the prisoner areas, and never patrolled outside. They delivered food to the prison, and the prisoners took care of themselves. The main security feature was the deadly cold, along with the fact that none of the prisoners had any sort of footwear, and only minimal clothing.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

If they escaped, they would die from the cold in a matter of minutes. Anytime the the doors to the prison area were opened, the command center and barracks blast doors were closed. If the prisoners caused problems, then their unit could be opened to the elements as well. Or they could be sent down into the cavern underneath and left to die from whatever lurked in there.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

After observing the prison a bit, Barinthus and his men decided on sending a small team in to take out the four guards in the observation post, and the HoloNet antenna. Then the other team would storm the command center. Between the two teams they would also keep the rest of the guards pinned inside the barracks if necessary. The jedi padawan had a face though while he looked at the others there.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

Then Barinthus took a deep, frosty breath and reached out with the Force. None of the guards in the observation post seemed to be looking their way. In fact, they didn't seem to be too alert at all. He continued to reach out and with the white current focused on himself and the people with him, trying, straining to make it cover all of them as they went.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

He nodded towards Lieutenant Koflan, then climbed to his feet, and began slowly moving forward in a crouch through the deep snow with his six men. They were moving into position to attack the observation post. Lieutenant Koflan's team of a dozen would be following them, to hit the command center, and hold the barracks. He made careful movements like a hunter stalking with barely a crunch underfoot.

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

A two person sniper and observation team was a little over three hundred meters away. Further out were two more pairs of troopers, with each pair manning a rocket launcher, and also acting as observers. The forms of each of them in the force came to him while he expanded his senses to cover all of them.
It was a lot for him to handle,

 

[Barinthus E'ron]

but fortunately Lieutenant Koflan was happy to help him out. The Noghri mostly needed everyone to stay out of their way. Barinthus had almost sent them ahead on their own, but the Force had told him to go with them instead of Lieutenant Koflan's team. There was something else here buried below the surface and while the prisoners were a priority he suspected they might end up going into those caverns later.