Fiction Activity

Competition
[CNS-PLA Antiquity] Week 1: Okay, Who Packed This?
Textual submission

Khryso Mallus had been dispatched to the planet's surface in order to locate and neutralize one of many pirate scouting parties that had been spotted. While their exact location was unknown, he only had 15 hours to complete the mission. One he arrived on the planet, however, he realized a grave mistake had been made. These were not his supplies.

Where a comm-link, weapons, and supplies should have been there was instead what looked like a random assortment of junk. Fortunately, they had still managed to stick a lightsaber into the pack, so he wouldn't be completely unarmed. Unfortunately, thumbing the activation switch yielded no results. Releasing a restrained sigh of exasperation, Khryso resigned himself to the situation at hand and dumped out the contents of his pack to inspect exactly what hand he had been dealt. Beside the dead lightsaber, he also found a glow-rod, a holoprojector, a stretch of power cable, a plush toy, a droid's disembodied arm, and a set of unappetizing ration bars. If this was really all he had to work with, he would have to put some serious thought into how to tackle his mission.

Before he set out, Khryso drew himself inward and closed his eyes, reaching out into the Force. The forest around him was buzzing with life, which made it a bit difficult to be precise. After a few minutes, he gave up and opened his eyes. For now, he would have to rely on his other senses to track down the pirates. He began moving through the forest, recalling the map he had been shown earlier and doing his best to follow it.

Every hundred or so meters, Khryso would pause to use the droid arm to leave a mark on a tree. It slowed his progress, but he wanted to make sure he knew his way back. Hours passed and darkness began to descend over the jungle. Khryso decided he needed to get a better idea of where he was going. Deciding to climb a nearby tree, Khryso used the power cable as a guide rope, although he was careful never to put his full weight on it. He carefully made his way to the jungle canopy.

Due to the lack of light, he couldn't make out many details, but he was hoping that the pirate scouting party had stopped for the night and perhaps set up some sort of campsite. Which, should mean they would have built a fire or set up some sort of light source. His hunch paid off when he spotted a small light a few hundred meters to the west. Khryso carefully descended to the ground.

He made it to the campsite in good time, carefully observing his targets from the darkened treeline. Three pirates around a fire. They had a few bags of supplies scattered around them and two speeder bikes a bit further away. They all seemed a bit on edge, but also tired. Khryso paused for a moment to consider his plan of action.

After a few minutes, he had come up with something. All he really needed was to get his hands on one of the blasters each of the pirates had hanging on their hips. He wasn't sure how hostile they would be, so he didn't want to risk approaching them directly. Instead, he pulled out the plush animal and the holoprojector from his pack. He took the holoprojector and used some mud from the forest floor to stick it to the toy. Finally, he took the cable and made a loose snare out of it. Reaching out with the Force, he carefully slid the snare into position just inside the treeline, brushing some leaves and grass over it.

His preparations complete, Khryso hid in the underbrush, reaching out a hand to direct the toy to move as if it were alive. In the light, it probably wouldn't have fooled anyone, but with the cover of darkness, it might work. He reached out with the Force and activated the holoprojector. He hesitated a moment when he saw the images pop to life above the device, not realizing that they would be quite so...unprofessional. He wouldn't turn back now, though. He wanted to see this through.

Walking the toy out to the edge of the treeline, he had it mill about until one of the pirates took notice of it, pointing it out to his comrades. They looked at it, clearly a bit confused, until one of the three took it upon himself to go investigate, his hand drifting down near his holstered blaster as he approached the bait. Khryso waited until he drew close before having the toy act as if startled and flee into the woods, dropping the holoprojector near the snare.

As the man walked over to the holoprojector and picked it up, curious, Khryso carefully used the Force to ensure the snare was in place around his ankle. Pausing for a moment to draw a breath as the confused pirate gawked at the images, Khryso flooded the Force into him to ensure that he had enough strength for the next part. Gripping the other end of the cable tightly, he yanked the snare, causing it to tighten around the man's ankle and rip it out from under him, sending the pirate tumbling to the ground. Khryso anchored himself and yanked again, dragging him into the treeline and out of the view of his companions, who were already jumping to their feet.

Khryso flung out the lightsaber hilt, knocking the man's hand aside as he drew his blaster before jumping on top of him. He was already starting to feel the effects of exertion due to how much he had been relying on the Force so far, but thankfully, the bulk of it was over. He now just had to wrest enough control of the blaster from the pirate to shoot him dead before his friends got here. The struggle was quick and the pirate was still very clearly confused, but Khryso managed to succeed, turning the blaster into his chest and firing off a few quick shots, killing the pirate.

Quickly retreating away from the scene of the crime, Khryso managed to barely disappear into the darkness before the other two pirates were at the treeline, searching for their now dead friend. He only had a few moments while they were distracted to finish things off. He moved quickly through the underbrush before quickly dashing out into the small clearing, straight for the speeder bikes.

It sounded like the pirates had finally located their companion and realized he was dead, so their attention had turned to finding the culprit. Thankfully, by the time they thought to turn their attention back to their campsite, Khryso had already fired up one of the swoops and was jamming the accelerator into an on position with the disembodied droid arm as he aimed it straight for them. The bike shot across the clearing and into the underbrush, quickly colliding with a tree and exploding into fire and shrapnel.

The two pirates had both managed to dive out of the way, but they weren't completely unscathed. The distraction was all Khryso needed, however, to scoop up the supply packs they had left near the fire. Before they had a chance to regroup and recollect their senses, he dashed back into the treeline to hide in the darkness, pausing for a moment to catch his breath. He could hear the two yelling as they tried to figure out what to do about the whole situation, angrily storming back into the clearing, their blasters drawn and swinging around wildly to find something to shoot.

One of them soon made for the remaining bike, so Khryso carefully drew a bead on it and unleashed a stream of blaster fire. Both pirates immediately swung towards the source of the shots and began firing, but a few of Khryso's blaster bolts managed to hit true and caused the bike to explode in the face of the pirate who'd been about to mount it, incapacitating him. Khryso quickly rolled behind cover to avoid getting shot.

Pulling the glow rod out, he threw it to his left and rolled to his right. As the pirate's eyes snapped for a moment to the glow rod, his blaster also turned. Khryso took the opportunity to plant a few blaster bolts in his chest. Once the pirate fell to the ground, Khryso sighed, pausing to take several breaths. It was harder than it should have been, but that's a mission complete. Once he had gathered himself, Khryso inspected the site, glad to see the pirate who had been blown back by the swoop was still alive. He tied him up with the cable and took a few minutes to rest before beginning the arduous task of dragging the unconscious man back to the pickup site.