From above the gray mists of the lower troposphere a lone pod fell into the dusted landscape. The landing impact disturbed the sleep of the surrounding flora. These lashing carnivorous plants with constricting tentacles grasped around the outer walls of the pod. Try as they could, the pod proved far too heavy for their tendrils to lift or pull. After a few more attempts that proved folly the forest grew quiet once again into a still slumber.
A door slid open along the tilted side of the pod. By looking within one would be able to see a small glowing red dot staring back. A second later a holographic scanning light moved up and down along the closest plant.
//Bioanalysis Complete// Database Identification = Vixus// Species ≠ Good for eating//
Creon opened his eyes to see this message appear within the screen visor of his helmet. His attention was fixed on mapping the coordinates given by the Shadow Cabal from his location. Once the minimap & compass software was displayed at the corner of his screen Creon was ready to address the outside world. The database confirmed that the Vixus reacted by detecting movement with their roots, so Creon krept slowly and made his steps land softly until he was just outside of the pod and able to stand upright. He searched the skies to check for obstacles before taking off with his jetpack. He flew almost blindly into the sea of black clouds but felt confident that his navigation program would stay the proper course.
When he was but a few short kilometers away Creon lowered himself just below the clouds and scanned the horizon. In the distance were glowing round houses encased by a fortified wall with a long tower near the center and a landing pad just outside the gate. He looked for the best elevated terrain feature within the environment of the but failed to find anything of use. The garrison itself was staged at the highest elevation point with only a small forest of zabrak spines surrounding it. The highest possible vantage point was the tower with the longest protruding antennae to which Creon could only assume was used for long range communication for landing aircraft. It was on top of this tower where he chose to make his landing zone.
Just over the brim of the black mist of the sky Creon kept his body completely still. His jetpack decelerated its thrust to give Creon a slow descent. His mind went into a practiced trance that drew in the surrounding light and darkness of the Force which cloaked him within the veil of obscurity. Although he was in motion the shroud of the Force concealed his body in a translucent shimmer, with only the dying light of his jetpack capable of view. When he was close enough to the tower to land on his feet, the jetpack was switched off. Creon landed softly and quietly thanks to the safety repulsor in his belt. He then took a knee and remained still for a moment. The cloak of the Force intensified from an opaque shimmer to near invisibility. He slowly lifted his head and checked to see if he had been spotted by any nearby patrols. Unless heard by an approaching vessel, hardly anyone ever looked up when pulling security. Most tend to look simply outward past the walls of their fortress, making the probability of entering directly above their heads worth the risk.
There wasn’t any sudden movement, shouting, or blaster fire so Creon felt safe to assume his arrival went unseen. He lowered himself slowly to a prone position and stopped concentrating on his force cloak. He withdrew his blaster rifle from its magnetic holster and selected the first firing mode with the attached silencer. He used the macroscope that fed from his rifle onto his helmet’s HUD display to survey the surrounding patrols. He noted about three squad sized foot patrolmen who seemed more tired than alert. Outside the walls he witnessed a large beam of lights moving through the forest with what Creon could only guess was some kind of ground vehicle. Once the UMHC cam into view he was able to identify how it moved and became mindful of the turret stationed at its roof. The outside landing pad had two light assault aircraft and a single transport vessel. This was just an outpost rather than the mining quarry he was looking for. Creon’s interest in Ubara was the doonium the planet exported. One could simply buy the metal from their vendors through a trade network, but Creon didn’t come to be a customer. The combat enhancement stimulant that was for sale wasn’t exported to other star systems, meaning a potential ‘customers’ had to meet Umbara in order to make a deal.
“BD, see if you can hack into the communication’s mainframe and put a blip on their radar a kilometer southwest of here. After that I want you to find the doonium mining facilities’ central control coordinates. Be prepared to completely disable the tower on my command.”
The droid processed his orders through the language decoder into binary. It gave confirmation by giving a quiet yet high tone beep. BD scurried off his shoulder to the edge of the tower on its side and clamped its feet to the edge. Just under the roof visor was a ventilation shaft above the main window. Inside the window BD observed two men who appeared to be half asleep monitoring the comms. BD slid down a curve in the structure and jumped to a small metal plating next to a ventilation shaft. Within its repertoire it ignited a small torch cutter to make an opening large enough for the tiny droid to go inside. BD walked slowly within the vents until it stood over a vent cover above the comm server. Cold air was being fed into the room directly over the server hardware in order to keep it from possibly overheating. BD used its tiny hydrospanner to pry open the cover and hop down onto the server. It’s landing made a small sound but not one loud enough to deter the nearby resting guards. Umbaran technology was quite different from most galactic standard models to where a standard dataport wasn’t compatible. BD activated its data probe protocol once it had found a receiver port it could slice into. First it hacked into the radar detection software and put a reading to simulate a detected UFO within its long-range sensors. The beeping alert from a monitor screen showing the radar spooked one of the guards. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the screen before calling on his commlink, “Hey uhh, boss. I think the buyer is here. We are getting readings of something to the southwest.”
Within his personal office below the tower Wyss Teneb leaned forward from relaxing in his chair and took the commlink on his desk, “Good, grab a blaster and meet us outside…” He turned to the menacing Lansat with a pale complexion comparable to the moons of Iego. “I fulfilled my end of the bargain by luring the Jedi here. I hope you’re as good as you say,” Wyss told him. Normally he wouldn’t take the risk in capturing a Jedi even for a large bounty, but this Brodi Gunstar was convincing enough that Wyss trusted him to handle it.
Brodi grinned from ear to ear and replied in a raspy voice, “Finally… This Jedi is but one of the many that will feel the heel of my boot crushing into his skull.” This mercenary was thirsty for blood, which in turn fueled him with excitement. He cut a deal to share half of the bounty with the Shadow Cabal for their fortified support and for luring the Jedi to them. It wasn’t about the money for Brodi but rather a personal vendetta of vengeance. This Jedi may not be the exact one that had killed him, but his death will be a message that he has come to wipe the order’s presence off the face of the galaxy. Wyss, Brodi, and the two men he called from the tower along with a small squadron to escort them walked out towards the only gate along the outpost’s walls.
Creon watched the gathering patrol and was able to single out Wyss by his distinguished apparel compared to the other men. A dark feeling knotted his gut when he turned his macroscope to Brodi, and sensed a faint aura in the Dark Side around him. “A Sith perhaps?” Creon pondered. If the Force was with this mysterious figure then Creon would need to single him out.
A message suddenly appeared on his HUD:
//Communications Frequency Log Successfully Accessed//Coordinates to Mining Quarry saved and transmitted to HUD.//
“Good, cut the power and we’ll regroup on the ground. Find a place to hide until I decide to land.”
Once the enemy group was consolidated near the gate Creon fired a series of silent bolts in a right-to-left sweep. It took three men, one of whom included Wyss Teneb. At first there was a confusing shock with heads on a swivel until a few more fell dead before the patrol realized they were under attack. Creon’s next target was the supposed Sith, but the dark figure had already ducked and turned a corner around the gate.
Brodi pressed his back against the wall and drew out his two pistols. Where the men of the cabal were in a crazed panic getting picked off one by one, Brodi could already make an educated guess as to where the assassin could be. When witnessing Wyss get shot he fell forward with his face forward into the ground, meaning the impact sent him forward and thus came from behind. “Could this be a mutiny?” Brodi questioned at first. Wyss Teneb had earned the respect of his men instead of leading through fear, so it would seem far-fetched to believe this was an act of betrayal. The Lasat peered slightly over the corner of the gate to see fresh corpses. He also witnessed the remaining cabal pirates taking cover around the surrounding walls with some who retreated inside. Those who were too exposed were eventually executed by a silent baster bolt. Brodi saw the trajectory and pinpointed its origin from an elevated vantage point. “The Tower”, he concluded.
With a slight twist of his torso Brodi turned the corner and raised a fully extended arm with Grim in hand and lined up a shot at an obscure bulge on the roof of the tower. While holding his breath just before the exhale Brodi gently squeezed the trigger and fired a slug round then quickly retreated behind cover. The sound was like the crack of thunder and was heard throughout the entire facility. The round itself grazed across the side of Creon’s helmet. “Woah… Oh, no sir.” Creon muttered to himself in surprise. He crawled from the prone back towards the rear until he reached the edge of the tower. He launched a grappling line that attached to the base of an antenna and quickly rappelled to the ground floor behind the tower’s base. “BD, on me,” he called.
There was a moment of eerie silence in the air before Brodi decided to aim at the tower again. The figure that was once there was now gone.
“Did you get him?” one of the cabal pirates asked from behind one of the round buildings closest to him.
Brodi looked up to the skies to see Styx circling around the compound. It circled around the dead momentarily and then back again around the facility. “What do your eyes see, my friend?” the merc whispered under his breath. After a few more circles the raven focused its flight between the opposing wall and a building located to the right of the tower. He then saw from the ground a sudden hologram light beam onto the bird.
//Bioanalysis Complete// Database Identification = Avian// Species = Good for eating//
A silent shot was then fired and Styx fell from the sky.
