Chapter 10: Infiltration And Information Gathering
Sar had never really been trained in or considered the fact that learning stealth techniques could come in handy; he was beginning to reconsider. Sure, he could use the Force to mute or mask the sound of most of his movements, but other than that he was on his own.
He was currently he was studying the fence in front of him, the way he saw it, there were only two ways to get in. The first would be to somehow get rid of the two guards guarding the main entrance, but this option was immediately ruled out as Sar did not believe he could pull that off without being discovered. Therefore, he chose to go with the second option, jumping over the fence.
While the fence was way too tall for any ordinary person to jump it was no more than a slight inconvenience for a Jedi, the problem, however, laid in the fact that if he jumped over it, there was a chance that he might get spotted by one of the patrolling slavers.
"He couldn't have found me a way over the fence?" Mumbled Sar annoyed.
Sar spread his Force Sense out, trying to figure out a time to jump over the fence. During the three years since he left Eoliv hed had meditated constantly every day honing his Force Sense. This would prove quite useful now. Normally he would have had trouble considering the fact that there were so many people gathered over a small area, but now he could clearly sense who were slaves and who were the slavers.
He waited for that moment where he would be in the blind spot of the slavers before he used the Force to jump over the fence and then using it to make his landing silent. Sar was worried that the slaves would make a fuss alerting the guards around them, but this worry was proven unfounded though the reason was not pleasant.
The slaves around him were all malnourished and dirty; they looked like they hadn't eaten a proper meal in weeks. While Sar was disgusted by the handling of the slaves, he had to admit it was clever. They had fed them just the amount required to keep them alive, which, meant that the slaves had no strength to run or fight.
This also meant that Sar's and Alistar's current plan was bound to fail. Even if Sar got to the tower and disabled the pen's fences, the slaves would be too weak to run much less fight. Sar's mind was racing; he had to come up with another plan. What he decided was finding Hulma's lieutenant and then contacting Alistar to inform him about the state of the slaves.
Having arrived at his conclusion, Sar once again began moving, going from crate to crate avoiding the flashlights and spotlights. This was a more difficult task than it seemed as Sar had neither experience nor skills concerning stealth operations, though his ability to use the Force to silence his movements proved invaluable.
He had slinked his way past the many patrols going between the many slave pen's and had finally arrived at the base of the tower.
It seemed that the tower only had two functions; controlling the fences and serving as an office. There were once again two guards guarding the entrance to an elevator that Sar assumed would lead up to the top of the tower which was of course where he needed to go.
This would have been a problem if not for the fact that these two were pretty isolated since Sar couldn't sense any patrols nearby. Sar quickly used the Force on both of the slavers lifting them off the ground and before they even had a chance to realize what had happened, Sar slammed them together, knocking both of them out.
Letting them drop to the ground with two soft 'thumps,' Sar made his way in front of the elevator door. He noticed that the door had to be opened by entering a code onto the panel next to it, but Sar merely waved his hand in front of the door using the Force to make it slide open.
The elevator was small, it would probably only be able to fit two people at a time, and even then they would have to stand shoulder to shoulder. Inside there were only two buttons; one had an arrow pointing up, the other pointing down. Seeing that only the button with the arrow pointing up was glowing Sar pressed that.
Sar barely felt the elevator move, but almost as soon as he had hit the button, the elevator doors slid open once again. Apparently whoever designed this elevator did not like to make people wait.
Sar stepped out of the elevator and into the room still on guard for any enemies. The room was designed like a very simple office, a metallic desk with a computer sat at the back of the room. There were a sofa and a couple of bookshelves along the wall, and a bright red carpet covered most of the floor.
What drew Sar's attention was the door that seemed to connect the office to another room, Sar suspected was the control room. Sar tried spreading his senses around trying to find his target. However, he could not sense anything around him.
He instead went over to the computer at the desk; he assumed that there would be at least a clue to Hulma's location hidden on it. The problem was that the computer was locked with a password and Sar couldn't use the Force to unlock it.
Sar was getting impatient it seemed that at every turn something was going wrong and Sar was begging to think it was his fault for not planning ahead well enough, but there was no time for self-reflection right now, the senator's son was running on borrowed time, and he had to find him soon.
Sar pulled out his transmitter and proceded to contact Alistar. The sound that the transmission had been accepted sounded out, and Sar immediately got to the matter at hand.
"Alistar, we have a problem," Sar said while he paced around the room looking through the books for any clue as to how to open the computer.
"Problem? What kind of problem." Alistars confused, and slightly distorted voice sounded out from the transmitter.
"The kind that's going to cost that senator son his life." Sar stopped what he was doing and concentrated on the conversation. "First off the slaves are too weak to fight, I can't find Hulma's lieutenant, and the computer which might have the information is locked."
Alistar was silent for a moment.
"Okay, okay, I get it. Try going to the security room maybe there is something there." Sar was just about to turn off the transmission when Alistars voice once again sounded out. "And Sar don't try to free the slaves we can't help them now."
This made Sar freeze for a moment. He knew that Alistar was right the slaves could neither run nor fight so opening the cages was little more than a death sentence but were that really the way a Jedi should behave?
Sar once again forced an important question down with his will and the Force and just responded in a monotone voice.
"I understand Alistar, just be ready to cover me." After having said this, Sar cut the transmission and headed towards the door.
Sar was just about to open the door, but it slid open by itself, and before he could get his bearings, he was kicked in the stomach launching him back a little. It would seem that there was someone skilled enough to avoid his Force Sense.
He guessed that it would probably be the lieutenant so he decided to finish it quickly so that he could get the information he needed. He studied his adversary to discover that the person in front of him was a female Rodian. She was currently aiming he blaster pistol at him.
"So, they really did send a Jedi?" Though the Rodian had said this in a soft tone of voice, Sar still heard it clearly.
"Yes, they did. Surrender yourself, and I promise no harm shall come to you." Sar tried defusing the situation, but the only response he got was a blaster bolt fired straight at him.
This time Sar had sensed the attack coming so, he quickly used the Force to pull his lightsaber to his hand and using it to deflect the bolt. The Rodian did not let up as she continued to fire red blaster bolts at him, all of which were deflected.
Blocking a couple more bolts, he quickly closed the distance between him and the attacker. Once he was close enough, he used his lightsaber to cut through the blaster, destroying it. Seeing that her weapon had been destroyed she tried to pull out the Vibroblade attached to her waist, but Sar was faster delivering a Force Blast that launched her into a nearby wall making her groan in pain.
He then used the Force on the dropped Vibroblade and threw it to the other side of the room, before pointing the tip of his lightsaber at the Rodian's throat. It seemed that she was unwilling to give up as she kept trying to get up.
"Enough!" Sar embued his voice with a bit of the Force to really get the point across, and it would seem that it worked as the Rodian finally resigned herself to her fat, slumping against the wall. Seeing his enemy was pacified, Sar began asking his questions.
"Who are you?"
She just glanced at him before she gave a simple answer.
"Viera."
Sar sighed at the short answer.
"Well, then Viera I'm going to ask you a few questions and trust me. I will know if you lie." Viera just snorted in response.
"Where is your boss currently located." Viera just shook her head.
"I'm not telling you anything, Jedi scum." She spat out.
It would be no lie to say that Sar lost control of his anger as the stress of the mission and the sight of the slaves just made his rage boil over. He made a grim face before he did something no Jedi should ever do. He held his hand in a way that looked as if he was chocking someone, and soon both of Viera's hands gripped at throat while she gasped for air.
Sar lifted his hand a bit making her float a bit above the ground he feet desperately swinging back and forth trying to find something solid to stand on. Sar could feel the whispers of the Dark Side get louder, but he merely ignored them, proceeding to ask his questions.
"I will ask another question then, the password to the computer, what is it?" Sar tone was completely calm, which just made it all the more frightening. He also relaxed the Forces hold on her throat a bit to allow her to breathe.
"Starlinker432134." Viera managed to squeeze out between wheezes as the hold on her throat still hadn't faded. Sar sensing that she wasn't lying released the hold on her throat, making her drop heavily to the ground gasping and coughing.
Ignoring the coughing Rodian, Sar turned towards the computer, but just as he had turned around, he sensed an attack coming from behind him. He swiftly turned around and in the same motion cut off the arm that was holding the blaster aimed at his back.
Viera screamed out in pain as she watched her arm and the small blaster pistol drop to the ground, but before she had any further chance to plead or say anything, she felt the room spin and soon after she felt like she hit her head on something.
Sar had not been merciful as shortly after having cut off her hand he quickly raised his lightsaber before swinging it horizontal decapitating Viera making her head go flying.
Sar waited a moment before he turned off his lightsaber. He stared at the corpse at his feet; this was the first sentient life he had ever taken, but strangely enough, he didn't feel much about it. He convinced himself that he did it because it was necessary and that this was actions necessary to complete his mission, but somewhere in the dark part of his mind was a small whisper.
It felt good.
He calmly turned away from the dead female and once again headed over to the computer. He entered the code Viera had given him shortly before he had killed her. The screen briefly flashed green before a bunch of files were spread out in front of him.
There was a lot of useful information such as Hulma's clients, routes and secret hideouts, but there wasn't time to sift through all of that right now as Sar could sense that he was running out of time. He quickly looked through the list of slaves before he found the name he was looking for. Sar downloaded the coordinates before he turned off the computer and headed towards the security room.
The security room had a lot of panels and cameras surveying the whole compound; it was dumb luck that Sar had made it through without being discovered. Sar spotted the fence control but walked past them he knew that it would be a fruitless endeavor. Instead, he headed over to a big button located on the wall to the left of the door.
His hand hovered over the button for a while. He wasn't going to do this for revenge; this was necessary to the mission, and sometimes you have to do things you don't want to for the greater good. Having finally convinced himself, he pressed the button.
***
Alistar was still on the cliff overlooking the compound. His blaster still aimed at the windows of the tower. He was getting a little nervous, it had been a while since he had been contacted by Sar, and the last time they talked there wasn't any good news.
He turned the scope of his blaster away from the windows and scanned the different patrols walking around. There seemed to be about six patrols with four people in each. They would be hard-pressed to take all of them on which was why Alistar had demanded that they leave the slaves since they couldn't fight with them.
Alistar was pulled out of his musing by the sound of an alarm going off. Quickly aiming down the sight, he saw the patrols panicking and aiming their blaster towards the tower. Shortly afterward Alistar's transmitter began beeping suggesting that someone wanted to contact him. Accepting the transmission Alistar kept aiming down the sight of his blaster while he asked.
"Sar?! What happened!?" Alistar exclaimed hurriedly keeping his sight on the slavers.
"I was spotted they sounded the alarm!" Sar responded. "I'm going to have to fight my way out, cover me!" After he said that he cut the transmission.
"Sar?! Oh, for kriff's sake!" Exclaimed Alistar adjusting his shooting position and placing his clawed finger on the trigger.
Suddenly all the windows of the tower shattered but not in a natural way it was as if a large explosion had happened inside pushing all the glass outwards. In that exact moment, Alistar fired a bolt that went straight through the head of one of the slavers.
The slaver crumpled to the ground a fist-sized charred hole in the back of his head. Seeing their ally crumpling the remaining three slavers turn towards the direction of the shot.
This was a huge mistake, however, because Alistar soon saw Sar jumping out of the now broken windows landing silently behind them. He proceeded to stab one of them in the back, making the lightsaber emerge from his chest.
The other two finally realizing something is wrong turned around to face Sar, only for the one on the right to be shot by Alistar and the one on the left to be decapitated by Sar's sapphire-blue lightsaber.
And just like that, a whole patrol was wiped out.
This was not the end; however, as two more patrols were heading towards Sar one coming from a left pathway the other from the right. Sar seemed to sense it as he began running towards the group coming from his left, which prompted Alistar to focus on the patrol coming from the right.
He managed to shoot one through the head and another through the chest before the remaining two took cover behind a couple of stacked crates blocking Alistars line of sight. Alistar searched for a way to get a clear shot but could not find one.
This was quickly solved when the crates suddenly flew over to the right removing the two slavers cover. This was all that Alistar needed as he didn't hesitate to put a bolt into their heads.
Turning his sight to the culprit he was just in time to see Sar cut one down with his blade, before using one of his Jedi thingies to throw another one into one of the electric fences surrounding the slave pens, making the slaver scream out in pain before collapsing to the ground smoke rising from his body.
The other two from the squad already laid dead on the sandy ground. One was missing a hand and had a long scorch mark across his chest, and the other had lost his head.
That was three down now there were only three to go. Alistar looked through his scope, trying to locate the remaining survivors. He soon spotted all three squads on the outside of the fence heading towards his location.
"Well, that isn't good." Mumbled Alistar while adjusting his sight zooming in a bit more on the squad closest to his location. Alisat wickedly smiled as he spotted a Fragmentation Grenade attached to the belt of the slaver leading the squad.
Alistar aimed directly at the Grenade before whispering a soft "boom" and pulling the tricker.
The bolt struck true and ignited the grenade, making it explode wiping out the squad. The explosion was loud, and it made the remaining two squads hesitate a little, but they still ran ahead ignoring the corpses of their comrades.
Alistar knew he wouldn't be able to pull that off again, so he quickly slung his rifle over his shoulder and unholstered his heavy blaster pistol. He then contacted Sar via his transmitter.
"Sar, I could use some help here, friend!" Alistar had to cut the transmission as he heard the footsteps of the remaining eight slavers at the foot of the cliff. Still holding the pistol, he dived behind a rock leaning his back up against it and occasionally peeking over it.
He didn't wait long before he heard voices.
"Did you see were that lizard went?" Asked a gruff voice.
"Nah, I was too busy keeping an eye out for any more explosions." Responded a slightly hoarse voice.
"Yeah! What the kriff was up with that?!" Exclaimed an annoying and high pitched voice.
"Enough! The other guys will keep an eye on the Jedi we have to find that Bounty Hunter!" Reprimanded the gruff voice.
Alistar was relived at the information if all eight slavers had decided to come up then he wouldn't have had many options considering his current equipment and the terrain. He did, however, feel a little offended that they had only sent three men after him, but considering they were also against a Jedi it did seem fair.
Alistar clutched his blaster tightly before he popped out from his cover and fired a bolt straight through the chest of one of the three slavers. The slaver who got shot fell heavily onto his back, the other two quickly turned around and dove behind cover, before yelling.
"You just shot Jimmy! You're going to pay for that!" Yelled the annoying high-pitched voice.
"Oh yeah? Why don't you come over and get me then?" Taunted Alistar.
"We won't have to." Responded the gruff voice from behind the cover. Soon after an object was thrown, Alistar immediately knew what it was, and his eyes widened, he quickly jumped out of cover right before the grenade landed and exploded at his previous location.
Luckily for Alistar, the grenade kicked up a lot of dust making the two slavers unable to get a clear line of sight. Alistar decided to run through the dust straight at the two slavers. The two were currently standing up looking for Alistar through the dust. Therefore the rock that they used as cover only covered them up to their waist.
Alistar jumped onto the rock surprising the slavers; he then proceeded to slam a knee into the skinny blond haired slaver's nose, launching him back while he screamed in his high pitched voice in pain.
Alistar was about to slam his fist into the big guy next to him but was swiftly kicked in the stomach sending him onto his back though he was still holding his blaster pistol. He quickly got into a crouched position, before he spotted the slaver he had knocked down earlier trying to get back up.
Alistar shifted his blaster onto the head of the slaver before firing a bolt. The bolt traveled clean through the head of the skinny slaver who had gotten onto his hand and knees to try and steady himself. He lost all strength in his arms and just heavily crumpled face first onto the ground.
Alistar once again shifted his aim to the slaver in front of him, but his hand was heavily kicked making him lose the grip on the blaster. This caused it to slide over the sandy ground. Alistar reacted quickly to the loss of his weapon by rolling backward and avoiding another kick. Alistar was now in an upright position facing the muscular slaver in front of him.
"I don't suppose you would believe it if I said I was just getting a breath of fresh air?" Alistar had already gotten into a fighting stance.
The slaver didn't respond to Alistar's joke; he just closed the distance and began by throwing a heavy punch at the right side of Alistar's face. Alistar responded by blocking the punch with his forearm, although the brute in front him was probably stronger than him Alistar's scales served as great protection negating most of the force from the punch.
The fight soon sped up with both of them hitting each other all over. Alistar used his speed and agility to his advantage, while the slaver brute used his raw strength to keep him at bay. This fight didn't last long as the slaver managed to grab onto Alistar and pull him to the ground.
The slaver now sat on his chest as he began punching Alistar in the face. Punch after punch rained down onto Alistar, who was trying to block them by using his scaled arms. However, some of the punches got through his defense hitting him.
Finally, his defense crumbled, and his arms fell to his sides. Seeing that the lizard had lost strength in its arms, the slaver grinned stopping his assault on his opponents face removing something from his waist. It was a Vibroblade. Which he then pointed the tip down towards Alistar's throat before stabbing down.
Alistar managed to gather the remaining strength in his arms to grab hold around the slavers hands holding the blade, stopping it from penetrating his throat. The tip of the blade was barely a centimeter from his throat, and he was losing strength in his arms fast.
Alistar tried to turn his head to see if he could somehow dodge the approaching knife. Instead, he spotted someone he had been waiting for. Alistar managed to gasp out while still struggling with the slaver.
"Took...you..long...enough."
***
Sar had just finished off five of the remaining eight slavers that were located around Alistar's location when he suddenly felt through the Force that his friend was in danger. Quickly arriving at where he had last seen Alistar he was greeted by the sight of two dead slavers and one currently with his back to him.
Sar immediately noticed what was going on and quickly arrived behind the slaver while being careful that he wasn't heard. He heard what Alistar said and so did the slaver as Sar immediately sensed him tense up, but it was too late. The sound of a lightsaber penetrating flesh sounded out as he stabbed his lightsaber through his back.
He then used the Force to make the corpse fall sideways, and off of Alistar.
Sar waited a few moments while he was just watching his friend lying spread eagle trying to catch his breath. Sar did feel slightly guilty for involving Alistar, but this was necessary these guys couldn't be allowed to deliver information back to Hulma.
Sar soon snapped out of his short guilt trip and reached a hand out to the green Bounty Hunter. Alistar quickly grasped it and with a grunt of effort, he was pulled to his feet. He began laughing and patted Sar hard on the back.
"It's a tie, I Alistar just tied with a Jedi!" He exclaimed with a huge grin on his scaly face. Sar lifted an eyebrow before asking.
"Tied what?"
Alistar managed to look smug before answering in his usual raspy voice.
"Well, by my count I got exactly as many of these idiots as you."
Sar's eyes widened a bit before he began counting inside his head. Then he began laughing while shaking his head.
"You forgot the lieutenant, my friend. That puts me one ahead." Sar just chuckled as he passed the gobsmacked lizard that then proceded to count using his fingers. Sar meanwhile had sat down on a rock and was relaxing his worn out muscles.
Alistar came out of it before he turned around and pointed at Sar.
"You told me you couldn't find the lieutenant!" Sar just shrugged.
"I didn't, she found me. Who do you think sounded the alarm?"
Alistar's pointing arm slumped down his side in defeat before he sat down beside Sar and asked.
"Well, did you learn anything then?"
"I did, indeed learn something." Sar nodded before he pulled out the datapad he had used to download the information. "I got the location of the senator son and who it is Hulma is selling him too."
Alistar raised an eyebrow at the last piece of information.
"Who is buying him?" Asked Alistar more out of curiosity than anything else.
Sar tapped the datapad a couple of times before he pulled out a file. Right at the top where written the owner and the buyer's name and the name that appeared after the buyer was.
"Tyranus"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
bluesbarr
bluesbarr Done! Hope you guys enjoyed it!
Sorry for the delay I have been busy with some school and family things, but I'm back with the longest chapter yet.
Also, it really would make my day if you could take five minutes out of your day to leave a review or donate a power stone.
Anyways, I'm back on the grind and look forward to bringing you more chapters.
Chapter Word Count: 4486
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