Spice Mines

Dazed. Try as he might, he couldn't snap out of his stupor. Dutch's death had sent Janos into deep introspection - an existential crisis - that, while unwanted, came never the less. They came to a stop, one hallway leading upward, the other downward, behind him Fel put down suppressive fire; the sound of battle was muted in Janos' ears, as if he was deep underwater. What was the point to it all? He came to Kessel, to get information, to get Dutch killed, to go to Mygeeto, to steal a chip, to...what, exactly? To get rich? He had money. Ten years he'd wandered the galaxy; he'd seen every sick and twisted act known to sentient life - hell, he'd taken part in some of it. He had been searching...searching for meaning. For purpose. Maybe there was no purpose. Maybe there was just a big star filled galaxy out there - and we're just going along for the ride.

From the lower hallway, a strange noise pierced through the fog that had settled over Janos. He had never heard anything like it. A strange warbling, a trilling, musical and harmonious. It seemed to echo, soft enough to be barely be heard, yet simultaneously impossible to drown out.

Janos was already moving, practically running down the hallway that went down into the complex. No, it wasn't music. It was a call. Something was calling for him. Wordless, the sound was his, and his alone. Somewhere...down. Deep down.

"This way. It's this way." Janos said breathlessly. He said this to himself, referencing the sound he heard; the fact those words would be misconstrued by his companion didn't even occur to him. Running down the hallway, he turned left, then right, then left again - navigating the circuitous hallways as if he had been here all his life. Coming to the entranceway to the mines, Janos stepped through the portal without hesitation; running through the darkened tunnels at a breakneck speed.

The sound grew louder - not rising in volume, but more forceful in his mind. "C-can...can you hear that? What is that?"

*Sounds...that's all they were.
The words they spoke were nothing but background noise. Erpons concerns for leaving and finding their comrades was the only thing that stuck out. She closed her eyes and took a steady breath while moving her lightsaber into a saluting position.*

"Erpon. Be prepared to move. Stop for nothing, and do not wait for me if something goes wrong. I will clear the way."

*Her Master always told her she had an interesting way of solving challenges, now matter how unorthodox the plan was. She focused her mind on two things. One, centering her mind.
Two, the flashbang attached to the back of her belt. Breathing out she opened her eyes decided it was now or never. Pulling her blade into an attack position, she charged. The force built along with her like an electric charge. As she closed into striking range, she did something unexpected. She unbalanced herself. Tipping slightly to her left side she became unbalanced and reached out with her left hand as if the steady her fall. A fall that never came. Instead it was a short but strong force push at the ground that launched her into the air, horizontal to the ground. Her momentum carried her forward up and over the Sith. Just as she started to clear the woman, Ellie released her force hold over the flashbang. As she landed on her feet, Ellie closed her eyes and swung the blade. With only the guidance of the force, the blade sliced through the charged end of the explosive and detonated it. If true to her plan,
Vasari would have followed her path and would catch at least part of the blinding explosion.*

Breathless. Janos ran through the portal into the entrance to the mines, various work stations were set up in the large cavernous room; lockers for mining clothes and equipment, tables with hammers and other simple tools for busting open geodes, and carts full of unrefined spice. The entire room was bathed in a dim red light, the only light that could be shown without activating the photosensitive spice. Skidding to a stop, Janos cast about, mindless and near frenzied. Where was it? In the absolute silence of the mine, it was barely a whisper, so distant - yet somehow Janos understood that it was very close indeed. Where? Where did this music come from? Wordless musical harmony, a resonance of the air and Janos' being; the noise drew his eyes to the geodes on the table. "There...it's there." Fevered, nearly mad, he ran over to the table in desperation, his hands picking up first one geode, then the next. Here on Kessel, they didn't just mine spice - sometimes valuable ores and jewels were dug up in the mining process. This table and its tools were used to separate such material from the worthless rock.

First one rock, then the next; carelessly, and with no regard for his own safety, he went through the geodes and stones as fast as he could. His nails split. His fingers bruised. Blood trickled down from nicks and cuts. Desperation. It could make one do incredible things, turn one into a singleminded machine. He didn't know how, he just knew, he knew that answers, purpose, meaning...it would be at the end of this search. He had sworn no one else would get killed. No one else would get hurt. Not since Jabiim. He'd steal things - no one would get hurt. He'd never carry a weapon again. He'd run away; as long as he could remember, he'd run away. From family, duty, and responsibility. He hadn't known that those actions would kill so many; so many undeserving men, women, and children. All he wanted, all he needed, was the slightest glimmer of hope, the slightest potential for redemption and forgiveness for selfish and thoughtless actions.

His hand game down on a geode, and his whole body froze. This...this was it. Turning over the stone, no bigger than a fruit, he furrowed his brow. It looked completely normal; unremarkable in every way. Running a hand over its surface, he dropped the stone as a jolt of...something...ran through the stone and into his very being. The music hummed in response. This...this was most certainly it. He picked up the stone, examining where his hand had brushed across, and repeated the motion; once more, his body jolted, though being more prepared for it he didn't drop it this time. Picking up a sonic pick, he brought it up against the geode, probing its surface, penetrating it and splitting it in half.

The geode split in half, revealing its crystallized interior - and the whole of the mine was bathed in a bluish green glow.

Janos hands shook, reaching out to touch the glowing crystals. No, not crystals, a single crystal nestled among many - a single brilliantly glowing shard, brimming with untapped energy, humming and calling to Janos to be found. "Impossible!...It's impossible!" Gasped Janos, falling to his knees as his legs gave out - the geode cupped in his hands. The crystals surrounding the shard was ranite, a bluish green mineral of little consequence. Where ranite grew, however, trace amounts of another mineral could be found; a jewel most valuable, only glowing to a chosen few. "Kyber!"

The jewel thief understood well the implications - being a gem of unparalleled value, he'd done his fair share of research. Kyber; the crystal of the Jedi. A lightsaber crystal. A beautiful stone, it's true appearance and power only shown in the presence of the one chosen to wield it. Hand shaking, Janos reached out and pulled the crystal from its place among the ranite.

As he did so, the faint glow of the crystal pulsed in a flash of light; all around him, spice activated, sparking and glimmering in the darkness - millions of credits worth of drugs instantaneously ruined. Janos would never realize this. In the pulse, Janos mind was opened, the life force of the planet, the soldiers, the force-users - everyone and everything was bared to his mind, raw and pure, before his mind was closed off - the pulse from the crystal fading away, leaving Janos to fall backward onto the ground, eyes distant, jaw slack.

An instantaneous spiritual connection. A means to redemption. A path to purpose. Janos blinked, his eyes focussing, he licked his lips and coughed, clearing a dry throat. In his hand, the crystals light died away - somehow, vaguely, he was aware of its presence, at the edge of his mind. Its call silenced, it waited...though for what, he could not say.

A presence behind him. Three troopers lifting weapons - in shock of what they just witnessed.

Janos threw himself to the side; twisting, implants activated as he rolled across the ground, his rifle coming up to spit fire into the three troopers with deadly precision. The whole action had taken less than a few seconds, and, trembling, Janos let go of the rifle, looking down at his hands. "H-how...how did I know?" Part awe, part fright; Janos already knew the answer. He new little about force-sensitives, but even someone living under a rock had heard of their legendary danger sense. What frightened him was how seemless, how natural it had been. He had not even paused to contemplate how he knew - he simply knew.

Balling his fists, Janos secured the crystal in his pocket, before reaching down and picking up the rifle once more, checking its charge as he did so. He had to be careful. He may have new abilities, but they were raw and primal. He couldn't imagine doing some of the things he'd seen Spark do, let alone use weapons like that black armored forceling in the hallway. His meager and limited ability, combined with experience and cybernetics, would have to suffice - at least, until he knew what the hells was going on. Where did you even start in something like this? Didn't people start as children? Questions upon questions for people far more qualified than he; Janos pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind. He had to focus. Escape through the mines, escape with the pilot.

"Oh Frell! The karking pilot!" He had completely forgotten about the man. Casting about, he didn't seem to be in the room. Wait. During the flash. A man on the ground; pain, agony...and something else. Emotion. "The frelling pilot." Turning, Janos ran back the way he came, through the entrance, around a corner, left, right, then left again.

The pilot was on the ground, blood and bile streaked across the floor next to the man. Breathing shallowly, the man looked like fried shit. The man had seemed brighter than the others through the...well, through the force. Were all people like that? Probably. After all, if he was sensitive, he wouldn't be on the ground dying. He'd be kicking ass like everyone else - not running like Janos. "Frell, hang with me man. No offense, you're my ride out of here. You can't die on me!" Idly, Janos realized that that wasn't exactly the most altruistic thing to say. If he truly wanted redemption, he'd have to start thinking differently. "I...uh, I mean you don't want to de here, right? The scum of the galaxy don't even deserve this place. And you don't seem like scum." Baby steps, Janos, baby steps.

Attempting to sling the man's arm over his shoulder, Janos attempted to help the man down the halls, trying to keep the man talking. His med pack was empty, as he'd used it on himself - fortunate for both, as Janos didn't know about the man's bacta allergy. "Come on pilot, talk to me. What's your name?"

*Ellie made her way through the halls as fast as her injured leg would let her. Every turn she came to she would stop and feel for Fels presence in the force before moving again. This was a slow process and the constant digging of the metal in her leg made it even more so. She had made it down into a mine passage that brought her very close to Fels location. As she closed on, she stopped and felt a ripple in the force. Something familiar stirred in her mind but she couldn't quite place it, something she had felt years before.*

*She stumbled into the mine entrance and usef.rhe lockers as support. Then she spotted them heading down another hallway away from her. Even at this distance she could tell that Fel was in bad shape. Quickening her pace she moved towards them.* "Fel! Janos!."

Galdaart was groggy and near unconscious, half-dragged by Janos, he seemed to lurch every now and then as his legs tried to engage. Despite it all - damn the man was heavy! - Janos continued to half-drag half-carry the sick human down the halls. Listening to Galdaart's slurred words, Janos laughed grimly, replying to the man through gritted teeth. "Well, Galdaart, we have more in common than I thought; half my name is fake as well. As for my life, there's about ten different versions of it - most of them filled with me getting innocent people killed. I guess that makes us a pair of fakes."

Fel? FEL!? Listen to me? Where are you? I'm circling thirty km South your last position... tell me where to pick you up, gorram it! Fel? FEL!

Grabbing the comm, Janos talked into it, laboring more than a little now under Fel's weight. He'd been in a prison doing hard labor for a week, and was severely underfed...he was nearing his limit to continue on. "I don't know who you are, but if you're going to save us we need you at three two one five, mark five seven aught eight. Blast a frelling hole in the side of the base, and pick us up." Janos was uneasy - more uneasy than he had been before going down into the mines. It was an unusual feeling...like an invisible knife was at his throat. Was this, too, danger sense? Janos couldn't tell. It didn't matter. Whether it was his gut, the force, or paranoia, he wanted to get out as quickly as possible. Galdaart was failing as well, and Janos severely doubted the man's ability to make the trek through the mines.

Up ahead, the Mandalorian rounded the corner. "Fel! Janos!" Relief flooded through him. The Jedi. He could get answers, even if was just a few, he could get some answers. But first, more important matters. Blood seeped out of a shrapnel wound in the woman's leg, and Janos cringed internally. What kind of fight had she been in to receive that kind of injury? Had it been the black armored being? There was no time. No time for any of this. "Jedi! Help me lift him!" Shifting, Janos switched sides so that she could help support Galdaart on her uninjured side. "We have to get down the hallway to our left, then through the next one. If help arrives, we'll know it; we have a pilot that's going to blast a hole into the base."

"What happened to Fel?"

"Battle damage, partly. Some kind of disease for the rest." Movement. The going was much faster with Jedi and barabel in tow. Receiving some much needed relief, the Jedi moved to help him move Galdaart - to the side, the Barabel from before joined them. This...this was much better. They would all escape, soon. Down the hall to their left they went, and on reaching the last hall, Janos wondered if the pilot was going to come through; the end of the hall, in theory, should be a weak point. Yet it was still whole, Perhaps the pilot wasn't as reliable as he- A thunderous explosion, a cloud of dust, and the group was nearly knocked to their feet as the base shook.

On site. You have a new exit. Use it.

"Thank the Gods for turbolasers." Replied Janos under his breath. Atmosphere regulators struggled to compensate, and air rushed through the breached hole; Kessel's surface wasn't exactly hospitable. But, they should be fine going across it to the ship. Already, he could see the ship coming in for a landing - rather awkwardly he might add; between them and the ship, FO troopers who were firing rather futilely at the ship. All they would have to do is go down the hall, through the newly opened hole, through the troopers, and into the ship. At his belt, a resonance. The crystal singed. Why? He had not accessed it - let alone touched it, since they had started running. Casting a glance at the Jedi - who seemed oblivious - he ruled her out at well.

The crystal hummed; the feeling of impending danger sharpened. The knife turned at his throat.

"Behind us!" Janos snapped out the warning as he pushed the Jedi away - Janos would have to manage carrying Galdaart himself. Barely a second after he gave the warning, a voice came from behind. Sparky. Lovely. He winced as some of her lightning traced over them collectively; but, Janos more than anyone else - excluding the Jedi - was well adapted to resisting it. His subdermal armor was made out of energy deflective material, and the dispersive bio-gel suspension itself was essentially non-conductive. As such, Janos focussed on moving forward - on not stopping. The lightning bit, and what got past his armor was...draining, somehow. It didn't matter. He had to get to the end of the hall.