Objective 1
Zygerria, Groundside
3/20
Things were starting to heat up now. Nowhere near as hot as they were going to get once people started realizing what was actually happening, that the light show in the sky wasn't just a fight in space but one that would be a change in regime here on the ground as well. Even now there were small riots in the street. Much as he would like to, he couldn't allow them to distract him from his last objective. As bad as they may be, they were still slaves that could be killed by the owner rather than freed.
This last group was a particularly violent one. The violence was encouraged, and from all reports enhanced. There were rumors of performance-enhancing drugs being put in the food, possibly even rage-enhancers. It was on file that they were trained for their work, just like those in the previous two houses. These ones were trained to fight and kill in the most "entertaining" way possible. If they were just taught how to kill, that wouldn't be so much a problem. People were taught how to kill all the time, from the most benign martial artists to Jedi and Sith. The potential rage-enhancers skewed things somewhat though. Couldn't let the 'roid ragers onto the streets with civilians.
This building was more secure than the others, simply because the people who belonged there knew how to get in. They didn't have guests of the owner getting invited to "help train" or other people going in and out. It was as closed a system as it could be, which meant that Audren had to get creative. Well, kind of. He was going in through the vents. This wasn't a military or "secure" building by any means, it was unlikely they'd put laser grids inside. And even if they had, he carried a lightsaber. Maybe some alarms would be set off, maybe not.
Once again up the side of a building, but this time to the roof. Only two of the air conditioner units weren't running, so he used the lightsaber to cut the bolts on one side and then pried it open once the metal had cooled. In and down, a controlled descent made possible by "walking" his way down the vertical part of the vent. If the nearby buildings were anything to judge by there were ten stories to this particular building. Seemed like a lot more, but that was probably just the height talking. The first building, which had been owned by the same person as this one, had its control center on the third floor, so the Sephi operated under the assumption that this one did too. The fact that there was a dense metal grill for the main vent opening made that even more likely.
Unlike the grill on the top of the building, this one wasn't bolted in place, it was welded. As difficult as it was to wield a lightsaber blade in the cramped space, he managed. He held the hilt as far back as it would go and angled the blade so it wouldn't intersect the shaft walls, then cut two sides. Once the metal cooled, he grabbed hold of one side and cut the remaining two, ensuring the grill wouldn't fall when the last bit was severed. He set it down gently and crawled inside. A couple minutes of looking through vents revealed that his assumption had been badly mistaken: this was the medical level. His assumption had cost him time, which wasn't an invaluable commodity in this venture. And now he had to get back to the vertical shaft behind him. There were other vent shafts, but if the one was any indication the others would be secured as well. A lightsaber would be a bit more noticeable in this place than elsewhere. So he crawled backwards, very slowly and very awkwardly. In twice the time it had taken him to get this far, he was back in the main ventilation shaft and headed back down.
Ten floors down, what should have been the ground floor, Audren paused, frowning. The ground floor should have been the bottom floor, but the ventilation shaft kept going. There hadn't been anything in the building records about a basement. There were at least two levels remaining underneath him, possibly more given the security grate was blocking his sight. Really not wanting to have to search the entire building, the Sephi went down another floor and cut the security grate below his feet. He used the same method he'd done before: two sides at a time, grip to prevent loud noises. Much to his surprise, not only was there another two floors below, the last one was protected by a laser grid rather than a metal grate. He'd planned for that possibility, but it was still a surprise to see. The last floor had to house the control room. Rather than hold the lightsaber mostly horizontal for these cuts, he went mostly vertical, extending the blade down next to his legs. He was confident in his skills, but even so was grateful that the blade was only at training strength. One simple slip and the results wouldn't be pleasant. This time he cut into the wall just above the laser emitters and moved down, cutting into the emitter and overloading each individual beam. Once all the beams were shut down, he slid to the last level and made his way in.
The metal grate on this level was a meter into the horizontal shaft. As he positioned himself to cut it, the shaft itself collapsed under his weight, sending him and metal bits clattering to the floor. More embarrassed than anything else, the Padawan barely made it to his feet before two guards rounded the corner, blasters already drawn. His lightsaber had fallen out of his hand - extinguishing as it did - when he fell, and there was no way he would get to pull his own blaster before the two shot him dead. That left one possibility. Hands reached into opposite sleeves and grabbed blade hilts. The first was thrown instantly and buried itself in the guard's neck. He dropped instantly. The second was thrown after a step forward and to the side, allowing him to avoid the blaster shots that would have killed him. That knife slid into the man's eye, a much smaller target and not at all what Audren had aimed for. Blasted off hand. However, he had the presence of mind to pull his blaster while the guard was still shocked by the pain and shoot him. The muscle spasms wouldn't do much for saving the eye, but it stopped the pain. For now.
The blaster shots had brought another guard running. Fortunately, Audren already had his blaster out and was able to hit said guard with his fourth of five rapidly-fired shots. Around the corner he went, hoping to find the control room. And he found it already...the nerve center for the place, inside the bunker who's door was slowly closing. A sudden burst of speed - fueled by no small amount of panic and maybe a bit of the Force energy he could draw upon - allowed him to slip inside just before the door closed The two technicians inside had shocked looks on their faces as the Padawan brushed by them, and the third occupant - a well-dressed Zyggerian - had only outrage on her face. Like her guards, she raised a small pistol at the Sephi. Hers was sleeker than the guards' had been, but like the guards' it did her no good. She didn't even get a shot off before Audren barreled into her, his shoulder knocking the breath out of her and impact with the floor knocking her firmly unconscious. For someone who made combat slaves, she was remarkably fragile. In a second's time, Audren was back on his feet with the blaster aimed at the technicians. Under his command, they locked down each room and scrambled the armory codes, sent a retrieval signal to the Rangers, and opened a video feed of the streets above. The riots were worse, but dropships were already swooping in to disgorge soldiers. Total control wouldn't take long now, and he'd be on his way back to Voss soon enough.
Now that he was fairly still, the adrenaline not pumping through him so much, he started to notice the damage done. Bruises from the fall, burns in his clothing and skin from blaster misses kicking up superheated debris, scrapes from the remaining edges of grating, and most of all: a solid ache from climbing down thirteen stories of ducting. He wasn't invulnerable, no matter what the adrenaline rushes might tell him.
Even through the pain, one thought kept rolling through the back of his mind: hopefully the Coalition leaders were wise enough to actually do something for the place.
