Star Wars: The Age of Peace-Chapter 123 – Entering
Leaving the mines through the shaft Jalo and Iowi were using wasn't as easy as I expected, even if they used it frequently. Or maybe it was because I felt imbalanced with two slughtrowing pistols attached to my hip. But it was the same for Vila, who also constantly adjusted her belt with the pistols in her holsters. Only Iowi and Jalo were used to it, and while the former brought a repeater-type weapon, Jalo said his was like a scattergun. Haaah... I just hope it will work, since we weren't really training with them due to the limited ammo situation. I will have to have complete trust in the Force to guide my aim and spend my six magazines ideally.
Walking downwards the shaft felt stuffy, especially when dust fell in choking curtains after one of us managed to disturb a fallen piece of debris or something. It was annoying, but after reaching the bottom, it leveled out considerably. There was a massive rockslide that blocked the route towards who knows where, so we had to take the smaller shaft Jalo had mentioned and begin to ascend from the belly of the land. I knew we were close to the exit when the air grew colder as we approached the surface. Well, not just colder, but abruptly wet: as the storm became audible outside, the heavy rain poured into the tunnel through small cracks, making it very slippery.
Still, we had to attack because, indeed, this was our chance, so we moved fast, not even talking. With the ship back... what if they decide they all leave before our Masters arrive? They could infer that more of us will come... And if they disappear... haah. No. We had to act.
Reaching the entrance, when the final bulkhead creaked open, the storm hit us in the face, letting more water in, almost washing me off my feet, before we stepped out, closing it behind us. Looking around, I no longer saw stars, the gas giant, or the black hole. Instead, the whole sky was dark as the black hole itself, as if it swallowed us, giving off a deeply ominous feeling, mixed with the Dark Side. It would have been pitch black if not for the storm throwing blue lightning everywhere like an enraged Sith, almost every three to four seconds.
Shaking myself, I began following Iowi, pressing forward while the wind howled around us, ripping at our cloaks and straps, turning the rain into needles of cold water that pricked against our exposed skin. It felt like an attack in itself. The next part of the trek was the easier half, though, as we walked through the surface, mostly a bit hilly, uneven surface. It took us about an hour in the storm to get close to our target, which was the truly difficult part of our infiltration. Looking down at the jagged cliffs, slick with water, I won't lie, I felt a bit of fear rising within me, imagining falling down into the endless churn of waves that would smash me against the rocks and then drag my mutilated body into its depths... But just as I did, Vila nudged me, and looking at her, she was smiling through the storm, chasing my fear away just like that.
"No wonder the Sith chose this place," I spoke up quietly, and I don't think anyone really heard me because of the storm.
"I'll go first!" Iowi said, miming it with his hands, which is why I could understand what he said, his voice muffled by the howling wind.
Going down, without any harnesses, only trusting ourselves and the Force, haaah... I swore that I would never do anything like that again, but who am I fooling? I probably will. With my chest flat against the cliff face, as the wind tried to tear me off, I began following Iowi and Jalo, with Vila and HK picking up the end of our line. Speaking of HK, he was surprisingly silent, or I wasn't hearing him speak, thanks to the wind. Huh. Feeling curious, I looked up and watched as his mechanical fingers simply tore into the cliffside, hanging from there... Oh... damn. His strength and the way he used it reminded me of something... So, I began pressing my cortosis fingers against the cold, almost oily rock, slick from the algae and rain... imitating what HK was doing... And it worked. Now, I had such a better grip on it all, my fingers lodged into the cliffside, that I felt way more secure. Smiling to myself, I also noticed that Vila wasn't stupid either. The moment she noticed what I was doing, she began using the holes I left behind, slipping her fingers into them, grinning from ear to ear, sometimes hanging with only one hand... I could tell she was in her element.
I wanted to tell the others but... oh well. It was too late for that! I don't think I will be able to get ahead of them. Hm... At least, if we come out this way, they will be here, helping us ascend.
In the end, the path we were taking wasn’t really a path, just a sequence of ledges in the cliffside, natural fractures where part of the stone had given way, falling into the ocean below, or ancient anchor points drilled into the stone long ago when the whole thing was being built. Haaah... It was tiring... The descent felt like it took forever, yet it probably only took about 10 minutes to reach the entry point. It was already way too long to be something I looked forward to repeating.
The end came at the best moment because by the time we reached the shaft, my forearms were shaking, and my lungs burned from breathing the cold, thin-feeling air as half of it was inhaling the salty oceanic waters. The opening that we had on the map was indeed not an entrance, just a hole in the cliff, barely circular, lined with blackened stone and heat-scorched metal reinforcements. Then, I felt it before I heard it... There was a pressure deep in the shaft, like a giant drawing breath as the air was audibly and almost visibly traveling down on it.
"You hear that?!" Iwoi asked, yelling over the wind.
“For sure, it's an exhaust pipe!" Jalo nodded as he yelled back, "There must be a cycle coming!” he added, checking a battered chrono on his wrist. “We have—”
Then, as the inhale stopped, the shaft exhaled, and without warning, a column of fire spewed upward with a thunderous grumble, followed by a blast of noxious gas that burned my nose even from being a meter or so away from it. Already used to the cold wind and rain, suddenly unbearable heat washed over us, and our ears began ringing as the air screamed, as the hot, burning gas met the cold wind, carrying orange light and ashy substances, vomited into the ocean and into the storm.
Then... for a second or so, utter silence, only leaving a thick trail of smoke that kept coming from the opening, thinning out quickly in the strong wind. We waited for another such incident, noting the signs before Jalo turned to Iowi, and Iowi barked his word back at us.
“Two minutes! Exactly two!"
We didn’t hesitate when the next round came and went... this was the way in, and we will go in. The moment the last of the burning fire left the hole, we all swung in and dropped down the shaft, sliding downwards, taking advantage of the fact that gravity was on our side. I immediately thought of the reverse, how we will ascend it in two minutes...? But that will be future Kael's problem.
[Statement: That fire's temperature is even problematic for me. Move faster, meatbags.]
"Finally, I thought you were dead for staying silent for so long!" Vila laughed, despite everything, as we raced downwards in complete darkness, "Scardy cat!"
"Less chatter, please!" I moaned, not wanting to give our entry because the two can't keep it quiet.
Of course, I was still counting in my head, and even though we were 'surfing' downwards like some death stick junkie who needs his next adrenaline rush... We were still not down.
“Thirty seconds!” Jalo’s voice echoed from ahead of me, partially distorted from the echoing shaft.
[Statement: If I die because of a meatbag miscalculation, I will learn how to reincarnate and kill all of the organics within the Galaxy.]
"Light!" I said, noticing it coming into focus, and it wasn't the fiery orange HK was complaining about, and honestly, the one type of light that I also didn't want to see.
The shaft at the end curved a little, twisting slightly, forcing us to swing and brace as gravity kept carrying us downwards. Now, I saw pipes that ran along both sides, their ends pointing into the shaft, vibrating faintly, carrying the hot and dangerous fumes, probably circulating from deep within the facility, before being released as a wild exhale. I felt the pressure building again, as air began rushing along with us, giving a slight boost to our speed, right before the fiery exhale.
“I see it!” Jalo shouted. “Drop incoming!”
True enough, the hole itself was there; the end of it had been damaged in the past, no longer sealing it shut, which was what allowed us to exit into safety. Lucky! Well, luckily, we weren't going to get cooked, but I hit the floor in a roll, my shoulder screaming as I slammed into stone, my momentum carrying me across the chamber. Of course, Vila landed beside me, sliding on her feet like a cat. Finally, HK hit like a meteor, cracking the floor and immediately rolling upright, weapons already coming up, scanning the space we were in.
Just then, looking back up, I saw the flames burst from the pipes, rising and disappearing above us all. Thanks to the opening, the heat punched the air downward, rippling it like water, and the roar drowned out everything else.
Oh well... We were in.
"Good thing it had a hole... Did we fail to... check it?" I asked, moaning, getting to my feet.
"The explorers discovered it so..." Iowi muttered, looking at Jalo.
"I thought you asked them if it was sealed or not." He said, glancing back at Iowi.
"Okay, okay!" I raised a hand, "It worked out. We are in. Soo..."
"Jalo? Where are we?" Iowi asked, not wanting to get into the details... Huh. I think we just dodged an excruciating death...
"This is for sure a malfunctioning cooling station. It has been fixed up just enough to allow production, but it's in a pretty bad shape." He said after a brief pause, watching the automated machinery and the countless pipes going in and out of the rocky walls. "I can't infer much else for now."
"We need to find the middle of it then." Iowi shrugged, glancing towards what looked like a door, and it indeed was one. Sliding it open, we found ourselves in a corridor half made of rock and half of reinforced metal. It kept going ahead, stretching into complete darkness. The only light that there was down here came from power conduits that pulsed faintly alongside the walls. But worse than the darkness, down here, the Dark Side was everywhere now, permeating everything; no matter if it was non-living, it attached itself to the walls, the floor, the pipes... all of it.
“Well,” Vila met my eyes, flicking her lekku, a fierce, feral smile on her face, "Let's find that assembly line and start wrecking it.”
"You are really enjoying this, aren't you?" Iowi asked, a half-smile on his face.
"I do." She nodded, not even hiding it.
[Assessment: These droids don't need light, and I am just the same. Survival probability recalculated. Addendum: I have infrared vision, I am probably capable of following heat sources in the pipes and lead you to the core of this establishment.]
“Let’s move then,” I said, glancing at the others. “Before this place and their grumpy guardians realize that we’re inside.”
"Lead the way, HK!" Jalo nodded, glancing at him, while he looked forward at the walls, the pipes... and began walking, as if he precisely knew where we were and where we were heading.
.
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Chapter 123 – Entering
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