Objective 1
Zygerria, Groundside
2/20
On a planet with slaves and a heavy dislike of Jedi, lightsabers tended to be viewed with distrust or open hatred. Blasters were fine though. So Audren stole a cloak lying near the main doors of the slave pen, put it on, and headed for his next target. The particular cloak had no arms and the dark blue compared to his own clothing would make him visible in almost every environment. Better to be visible and not draw undue attention though. Besides, all those who
could were wearing bright, festive colors. It was race day after all.
Audren had timed out the first two raids to some degree. The first was a warmup, the second one would be difficult. Moderately dangerous, but more difficult. It was for pleasure slaves. There were actual guards here, ones designed more around keeping outsiders out than anything else. Whoever had set up the place had put security measures inside though. Those would be more difficult to defeat. Getting inside though, that was easy. One of the guards had a weakness for the podraces; oh, he bet on a few here and there, but little amounts only, nothing to put him in debt. It was watching the races, for whatever reason. He took a portable holoscreen with him when he was on duty during race-time and paid little attention to anything else. His partner didn't much care, especially because he got to share in the snacks.
All of this had been discovered a few days back, when the Sephi had taken to a nearby apartment for a day to watch them. He'd been caught too, just not by the guards. One of the few girls with a window had spotted him and...well, suffice to say the tips of his ears still burned remembering what she'd done. He
had been watching the guards. She'd just been in his peripheral view. Honest.
He'd planned to arrive at the second location just moments after the race started, when the racers were still jockeying for position. Again, his datapad came in useful, but this time it was to watch the opening minutes. He knew that the Coalition would have someone racing, but he didn't know who. He was fairly surprised to hear that someone - he hadn't caught the name, it sounded like the announcer had sneezed - was flying for the Primeval. Small galaxy. In any case, the Padawan had gotten there right on time, relatively speaking.
While he hadn't quite expected to pull it off, Audren was able to walk right up to the security checkpoint. Only the one looked at him, and that was when he was just a couple meters away.
"Just go ahead and wave me through guys, got some examinations today."
"Yea, you're funny. Got a grave waiting for you?"
"Casket, actually. A nice greel-wood one. And I really think you should just let me in."
The last part was accompanied by his blaster pistol being pulled and aimed at the attentive guard. While attentive, he hadn't been too smart and had stepped away from the blaster-resistant station to talk to the Sephi. He was alone and exposed.
"Right, that might be a good idea. Open it up, bud."
There was a grunt of annoyance from the booth, and the doors started sliding open slowly. 'Bud' had slapped the "open" button without even verifying anything. Lazy. Incompetent. Exactly as Audren had bet on. Directing the first guard with flicks of the blaster barrel, the Padawan made his way to one of the open sides of the booth, where the lazy guard was also exposed.
"I think things will go better inside, don't you? Let's go."
Once inside, the Sephi had the first guard cuff the lazy one to the receptacles built into the wall, then himself. Both were gagged with some of the gags left lying around (
who left gags lying around?) and the Sephi made to move on. In a bit of hindsight, he propped up the holoscreen where both guys could watch the race. He wasn't
cruel, after all.
Other than knowing there were security measures inside, he didn't know the layout at all. That meant quietly cruising the corridors to figure out what was going on. A few turrets were on the ceilings, but they were inactive. Maybe they required an alert to sound before lighting people up. One guard was seen, but he was easily taken down with another choke hold, seeing as how he was ogling a girl through the viewport in her door. Not that he could blame the man, many of the beings here were...physically prime specimens, perhaps, of their species. A couple medical technicians were evaded, their voices drifted down a corridor or so before they actually appeared, giving the Sephi ample time to react. Finally he reached the control center. It was problematic, to be certain. A keycard and code to get in, and a single live, automated turret inside. It shut down once the code was successfully inputted, but the codes were different for the two people he saw enter. Not that he was close enough to read the codes, they just moved their various appendages differently.
Then he saw his chance. A technician, one of the rounder ones, approached the door with a lab coat on. He slid his card, turned to input his code, and the Padawan slipped up right behind him. He crouched a bit to stay out of sight, and the man's own bulk shielded the rest of him. The door clicked open, and both of them walked right in. A hit on the back of the man's head with the blaster butt took him down to the ground. This attracted the attention of the others in the room, but the blaster aimed squarely at the lone guard in the room had some effect on them. A confiscated blaster and a couple handcuffs later and the room was his without issue. He randomized the codes to get into the room - a nasty surprise for anyone who tried to get in - and put in a request for Rangers to visit the location for subject transport. Letting these people out on the street could be dangerous for them, and Audren had no intention of having them hurt because of his carelessness.
The lady in charge of the facility had an office down the hall, according to schematics, and he headed there for a quick visit. Just his luck: she was in, her assistant was not.
"Failed inspection, then. Dismal security here."
The older lady, almost stately, jumped in her seat. She'd been engrossed in a report of some sort and hadn't seen him come in. A look of distaste crossed her face as she took in the blaster in its holster.
"Surprise inspection. Well, we have some reserves on hand that say we passed. How does thirty thousand credits sound?"
Without waiting for an answer - apparently this was more common than one might expect - she stood and crossed to a safe hidden at chest level behind a holo. Her thumbprint opened it and she reached inside. A trickle of something
not right crossed the Sephi's senses, and he took a step forward. Rather than bringing up the blaster though, the lightsaber hilt came out. With the characteristic
snap-hiss, the brilliant blue blade ignited, poised centimeters from the lady's throat just as she was pulling a blaster of her own from the safe. She wisely froze in place, then dropped the gun.
"Nice try. Goodnight."
A slash, but a last-minute twist of his wrist brought the hilt of the lightsaber into contact with her head rather than the blade. Instead of a burn, she was knocked out cold and would have a nasty headache when she woke up. Out of curiosity, he peeked into the safe itself, just to find that there were, in fact, a whole lot of credits inside. All on a few
credit vouchers. He tucked them into his belt, sure he'd find a good use for them later, and headed back out of the office after re-holstering the lightsaber hilt.
"HEY!"
That was all the warning that Audren had, as blaster bolts split the air around him. Acting rather than freezing, the Padawan threw himself at a door and hopefully out of the line of fire. He crashed right through the door and landed on his back, accompanied by a high-pitched scream of shock from the resident. His blaster was already out and aimed at the doorway as the guard rounded it, and three stun blasts hit her torso, knocking her out and back. He raised himself up on his elbows and glanced back at the room's occupant...only to find that it was a slave in an advanced stage of undress, thankfully covering herself. Mostly.
Muttering his apologies and pointedly not looking at the female, the Sephi pushed himself to his feet and out the door, pausing only long enough to grab the guard's comlink and blaster pistol and head on. Both devices were dropped in the first receptacle he saw, which happened to be an incinerator chute. Out the same way he came in, careful to close and lock the main doors via the guard terminal outside. Now on to the third location, the most dangerous of the planned stops.
Sure, he might only be a Padawan, but he was a
capable one.
