Jedi Mission - Righteous Defenders

[Fromikeable]

Vance could feel the pain in both his head and leg before he even opened his eyes. However the bandits had moved had not helped his broken thigh, and the welt on his head was a painful reminder of his captivity. Perfect, Vance thought. He then noticed that he was lying down, and tried to sit up. After a good deal of agitating his leg more, Vance saw the room in which he sat.

The bandits must have been operating out of a system of caves, for Vance found himself in a damp, stuffy cave lit by a few hanging lanterns. The floor was even thanks to a group of set planks and sheets of metal, which crossed minature streams and a small river. The cave itself was fairly large; about 50 feet tall and, from where Vance was, about 200 feet or so wide. The bottom of the cave was what seeemed to be a lake, and rising out of it were multiple plateaus, each of which contained small encamplments of bandits. Vance rested on one such encampment, which was devoid of objects save for a rack of knives, and a small table accompanied by two chairs.

Vance tried to get up. Fighting off the pain in his broken leg, Vance rose shakily before meeting tough resistence and falling backward. He checked his ankles and wrists; fashioned about them were cuffs chained to a metal ring in the ground. Vance found that he was at the edge of his chain, literally speaking. Curious, Vance yanked at the chains tied to his wrist; the chain was strong, and the ring moved little.

Vance then noticed a grim chuckle coming from the table. Turning on his back, Vance looked to see a scruffy bandit sitting at the table. He was middle-aged with an unkept beard and different-colored eyes. The man had a rather noticeable scar across his shaved head, and wore torn, dirty attire that reminded Vance of an amateur mercenary. The bandit laughed a little harder as Vance looked over, and spoke with a gruff, rough voice, "S'matter, Jedai. Chained ta' tha' ground, are wee?"

Vance looked at the bandit a bit closer. On his belt was the common assortment of what a bandit would keep handy; a gun, a knife, a small pouch, and...

... a keychain.

"It would seem," Vance responded, sounding as calm as possible. He may have been in a cave surrounded by bandits chained the ground broken and disarmed, but even then there was hope. If he waited for the right opportunity and thought of a good plan, he could escape.

The bandit chuckled again before grabbing a drink from the table next to him and taking a swig of it. Burping thereafter, the bandit scratched his beard before saying, "You, Mista' Jedai, are one lucky son ofa' Bantha ta' be alive, righ' now." He leaned forward in his chair and stared at Vance half drunkenly and half challengingly. "Ya' 'ave any idea 'ow many of me boys you and yur' ya' friends put down?"

Vance returned the bandit's gaze. This man seemed to be his jailer, and getting to know him a bit better could help with any sort of escape attempt. Beyond that, Vance needed information, which could be extracted from any drunk with the right touch. "Yeah, sorry about that. It's just that we don't care much for pillaging innocent villagers."

"Bah! Ya' Jedai's neva' unda'stand nuthin'!" the bandit claimed. "I 'ad half a' mind ta' kill ye meself on tha' way back 'ere."

Here we go, Vance smiled a little before returning his face to a blank expression. Even drunks could pick up hints. "I'm surpirsed you didn't. How long did you mull that over?"

"Oh, a good 30 minutes 'er so. Town's a ways out frem 'ere."

"Yeah? I guess it must be hard to settle your desires that way. I mean it must be a real pain to find women and booze out here."

"You kin' say that agin', Jedai," the bandit laughed, taking another swig of his drink. "Ye have any idea 'ow much effort 'takes to git' me a good drink? Weeks a' preparashin!"

"Oh drat!" Vance said, pretending to just notice he had lost his saber, hoping the bandits still had it. "I lost my weapon!"

"Aha!" the bandits exclaimed, nearly tipping his seat over in his excitement. "I took it, I did! Why s'right 'ere in me belt!" The bandit patted his waist for a moment, searching for the saber. After a minute, his look of happiness and superiority transformed into a look of surprise and horror. "Bloody sarlac! I musta' dropped it! Oh, boss's gon' kill me!"

Great. I'm miles from town and without my lightsaber. Vance sighed. "That's too bad."

[Ghostie]

“I know they took Vance Tem, I know.”

Rune sighed as the two Jedi walked towards the town hall. They took a slow steady pace, although Rune had a feeling Tem wanted to run, to go, to hurry up and get after the bandits. But where would they even start looking? They could end off in the wrong direction. And Rune couldn't leave the village defenseless. Tem was also injured, that needed to be treated. Rune decided that he needed to be the voice of reason right now. They would find Vance, but they had things to do first.

“Tem, we can't just rush off and expect to find Vance instantly. The bandits had a speeder, which means they would be traveling much faster then we would. Their repuslors mean that we cant track them without sensors. We don't even know where they are going, where would we start?”

They entered the Town Hall in silence. Battered militiamen ran from place to place, rushing supplies or messages or anything else from one end of the building to the other. None where without wounds. The two Jedi were approached by a man with a blaster rifle slung over his shoulder. He had short black hair and beard, with a scar across his jaw. He looked like a very rugged man, and seemed to be the one in charge as those militiamen that could called him sir as he passed by.

“Thanks fer your help back their Jedi. I appreciate it. I'm Sergeant Martinez, Republic Military. Actually here on leave, thought the topical islands and oceans might make nice vacation. I was the one on the comm. When you guys flew in.”

The Sergeant took his comlink off his his belt as it beeped. He talked into it for a minute or so, and then returned it to the same spot where it once sat. He then gave the two Jedi an apologetic look.

“Sorry, but I'm needed on the other side of the building. If you see anything at all you can do to help out, go ahead and do it.”

The sergeant walked away, but Rune wasn't paying too much attention at him. Instead he was studying the militiamen in the building. Despite being battered and wounded, they still carried on, ready for the next attack. Rune admired the fact that they certainly did not look like they were about to give up.

“Let's see if they can spare a bandage for you Tem, and then maybe the sergeant will have some idea where the bandits went, and maybe even some transportation.”

[Charlie Sharper]

Tem listened as Master Oki spoke about not rushing off. "I understand Master Oki, but we still need to move quickly." Tem spoke in an urgent voice. The needed to find a transport and find the bandits location as soon as possible. Tem followed Rune when they walked over to who they learned was a sergeant in the Republic, he told them the his situation and asked for their help before leaving to do something on the other side of the building.

"Let's see if they can spare a bandage for you Tem, and then maybe the sergeant will have some idea where the bandits went, and maybe even some transportation.” Tem looked at his arm again, nearly forgetting the wound he had sustained. While he felt that it wasn't the most important thing to be done, it was necessary so that it wouldn't become a permanent scar or hamper his movement of the arm. Tem walked over to someone who was treating the militias wounds, "Can you spare a bandage?" The man looked at his arm and frowned. "You'll need some Kelto on it." He examined the damage, touching the wounds with his gloves, Tem called on the force, his facial expression unchanging. "Whatever you can spare will suffice." The medic smiled at Tem, "Your in luck, I still have some Kolto bandages right over here"

The medic lead Tem over to the med station, which was just a table with various medical implements on it. The Medic applied the bandage before speaking again. "I can't thank you enough for what you Jedi did out there, the bandits have never attacked like that before." "Do you know of any reason they might have attacked?" "No, they never attack the village, the just raid the supply caravans from the capital. There's nothing of real value in the town anyways." "So there hasn't been anything new that happened in the town?" The medic thought for a few seconds. "Nothing other then the Republic soldiers on leave. Well, that and the new mine..." "Mining? Mining for what?" "We found a deposit of Salt up in the mountains west of here and set up a mining operation two weeks ago, but we haven't started the mining yet...All done here." The medic bowed to the Jedi before heading over to help one of the militia. Tem thought about what the medic said for a few seconds before getting walking back over to Rune. "Master Oki, I think I may have a lead. The Bandits have apparently have never attacked en mass like this, but there is a new mine that they set up in the mountains west of the town. I think we should investigate it."

[Fromikeable]

The jailkeeper had retreated after his realization of his blunder. Vance was actually kind of hoping he would stay; the longer he stayed, the more the padawan could learn. Unfortunately, such was not the case, and Vance now sat broken and chained alone on a hard rock plateau in the middle of a cave above an underground lake far from any potential help and totally disarmed.

Once again, perfect.

As the hours ticked by, Vance considered what he had learned, and furthermore tried to discover more about the bandits. A thirty minute ride from the town we fought in, eh? The speeder was going, let's say, 100-200 kilometers per hour traveling over a relatively flat terrain... Vance tried to crunch the numbers. He'd always been pretty good at math, and after a few assumptions and a few cringes over his leg, the padawan figured he had to be a good 50 kilometers from the town he had battled in. I certainly can't walk that sort of distance, Vance admitted, again testing his leg. The bone had done little healing, but if nothing else, the pain was usual now. That means I'd have to procurr some sort of transportation.

Luckily, Vance had a pretty good idea as to where the vehicles were kept. Across the cave, on the far wall, was a large opening leading into what appeared to be a mine shaft. So far as Vance had seen, bandits had been coming and going from that tunnel for the duration of his captivity, meaning it more likely than not led to the surface. It couldn't have led to bunks or an armory; the bandits carried their weapons at all times, and slept on their plateua encampments.

Finally, after a few hours, a bandit approached the chained padawan. Saying nothing, the rogue threw the padawan a slab of rarely-cooked meat, which slapped into his face and fell to the ground. Vance, after some effort, turned himself to see the bandit; he was stone-faced and totally devoid of any inclination to speak. The padawan then looked at the meat; it appeared to be fish, and from what he could tell, was devoid of liquids or meddling.

Deciding that the bandits would gain nothing from his poisining, Vance knelt and ate the meat directly from the floor (since his hands were chained behind his back). After a cautionary first bite, the padawan couldn't help but gag a little; the meal was incredibly salty. Come on, choke it down. It's not like they're going to give you anything else. Swallowing his discomfort, the padawan tried his best to stomach the meat. After about half of it was gone, he couldn't stand the thirst.

"Am I allowed some water?"

The stone-faced bandit grunted and picked up a canteen he had brought with him. "Open yur' gullet," he commanded, unscrewing the cap. Vance leaned his head back, and sighed a little as the bandit poured some of the liquid into the teenager's mouth. It wasn't water, but Vance didn't care; the salt was unbearable. Swallowing, he thanked his captor. The bandit grunted unackknowledgingly before sitting down at the table, taking out his knife, and picking at the furniture's edge.

Vance finished eating in silence before looking at his new jailor (he was carrying the same set of keys the other had carried). There was a way to get him talking; Vance knew it. All I need is the right subject.

After thinking for a minute, Vance decided the best idea was to begin with something menial.

"That was incredibly salty," he mentioned, trying to sound as innocent and childish in his tone as he could. The bandit looked at him, sighed, and returned to mangling the table. For a moment, he seemed like he'd stay quiet. "And I care, Jed'ai?"

Vance frowned a little. The response was lame, unemotional, and totally disconnected. At least it's something.

"I'm just saying; I figured bandits would be able to get fresh foods. You don't imagine they have to turn to salting for preservation."

"Then ya' shud' stop figurin' so much," the bandit answered. Again, his tone was dead, tense, and uninterested. There's gotta be something that will get this guy talking...

"By the way," Vance asked, again taking the trivial approach, "is the sun up?"

"Tha' heck if I know," the bandit answered, throwing his hand up in aggrivation. Then he began silently whispering to himself in anger. "Stuck in a fekkin' salt mine we got frem' some ass' villagers who run' back to their buddies 'after they knock off Jeff, me' life-long mate, and what am I doin'?" The bandit snarled a little, and violently stabbed the table. ""uardin' some mini Jed'ai 'stead of shootin' the bastard miners like we should be." The bandit stood up and began to pace.

A salt mine? Vance looked around; the cave he didn't appear to be a salt mine, or even an artificial cave, but as he examined the far walls again, he noticed something he had overlooked; rows of wall-hanging rock ways near white stones. So they must have taken this place from the villagers and are using it as their HQ, so to speak. He grinned. That explains the terrible food.

The bandit, however, was in no mood for any happiness. Noticing the Jedi's grin, he grabbed his knife and grabbed Vance by his throat. "Wha's that? Think me' dead mates 'n misfurtune's funny, do ya'?" Vance experienced a moment of panic; he had let his emotions out-of-the-bag again, and this time it was going to kill him. Did he plead? Not to an angry man. Did he bargain? With what? Did he fight? Not while chained and broken to a rock.

Patience. This is an opportunity! Vance calmed himself and looked into the bandit's face. In it was nothing but angst, sadness, and, most prominent, blind rage. An emotional mind is a weak mind...

Summoning the Force, Vance attempted what he had only ever seen instructed and demonstrated. Channeling the Force through his own being, the padawan reached out and touched the being of this angry bandit. That's the easy part. Being as gentle as he could, Vance slowly pushed the Force into the man's being. As he plunged deeper and deeper in, he found the man's mind engulfed in a sea of angst. Attempting to control it would be impossible, but perhaps that wouldn't be necessary. Instead, Vance tried to encomapss the mind, sealing it from the rest of the being. It was a risky and desperate move, but the padawan couldn't think of any other.

The effect was immediate, if not weak. The man's expression became blank for a moment as he starred at the Jedi. Suddenly he regained his train of thought, and looked around. "Wha't tha'..." He seemed lost; like a man who had lost his train of thought. He then looked at Vance, and snarled before throwing him to the ground. "Bah! I"m finding Lorenzo; we're outta' 'ere, and I don' care what some "Boss" 'as to say 'bout it!" With that, he stormed off.

Vance took a minute to breath. The experience had been new, frightening, and desperate. As he sat up, he shuddered a little; he hoped the next time he attempted that, he would be affecting a calmer, more stable mind.

After a minute Vance smiled. He remembered why he hadn't tried to escape the man's grip. For in his hand he grasped a small key...

The first part of my ticket to freedom...

[Ghostie]

Rune left Tem to look after his wound. The Mon Calamari was worried about the Knight. It seemed that Tem couldn't calm down since Vance was taken. Yes, they had to find the padawan, that was imperative. But it would do them no good if Tem ran off looking for him, and then Rune had two Jedi to find.

Rune walked out of the town hall and towards the back of the building. That was where the Republic Sergeant had headed off to. Rune was going to see what kind of vehicles he could turn up. They couldn't hike the whole way after all, that would take too long.

The sergeant was with a group of troops behind some barricades, huddled around a large tower with a dish on top. If Rune had to take a guess, this is how he made contact with the sergeant from the shuttle. Rune called out to the group of soldiers.

“Sergeant Martinez! I need your help.”

The sergeant looked around and ran over when he saw Rune. They met about halfway. The sergeant waited for Rune to speak.

“I need to find a vehicle. One of the Jedi that was with me was taken during the battle, and we intend to rescue him.”

The sergeant did not have the happiest look on his face. In fact, he looked completely disgusted. He shook his head at Rune.

“You can't leave us now. The bandits could come back any time. We need everyone we can get to hold them off. “

“Sergeant, I don't think they'll be coming back any time soon. We put a rather large dent in their numbers. They'll think twice before coming back.”

The sergeant looked like he was ready to explode. He dropped his gun on the ground and pointed one of his index fingers at Rune.

“You think one Jedi matters more than this whole village?! I've seen war on the front lines like this, probably more than you have! AND I'M IN COMMAND HERE! No one is leaving!”

If Rune was not a Jedi, he probably would've blow up just as the sergeant had. He understood why the sergeant was angry. The only reason they had driven back the bandits this time was because of the Jedi. If they attacked again while the Jedi were gone, didn't think they could hold out. And apparently neither did the sergeant. Rune took a few deep breaths before he started.

“Sergeant, are you saying that I condemn a young man, a teenager, to death or worse?”

Rune looked into the sergeants eyes and he looked back. There was a few seconds of silence, and then the sergeant frowned. He looked sad. Rune knew the answer without the sergeant saying anything. His expression gave it away. No, that wasn't wasn't what Sergeant Martinez was saying.

“Think about it this way: wherever they are holding my fellow Jedi, that is probably their base of operations. We can shut them down for good.”

“Alright, alright. There are some vehicles to the right of the square. I'll let the guard know you can take whatever you want. But I'm not sending anyone with you.”

“I didn't expect you too. May the Force be with you, Sergeant Martinez.”

“I'll take whatever help I can get...”

Rune walked back to the front of the town hall to meet Tem. He was already there, with a bandage on his arm. Militiamen come in and out of the building, either running supplies or messages from one part of the courtyard to the other. Some of the villagers started to show up now that the fighting was over.

"Master Oki, I think I may have a lead. The Bandits have apparently have never attacked en mass like this, but there is a new mine that they set up in the mountains west of the town. I think we should investigate it."

“Sounds solid. Good work. I've got access to some vehicles, lets go.”

They walked across the square to the vehicle compound. There was a lone militia guard who let Rune and Tem in. The two Jedi inspected the vehicels before Rune made a decision. Some of the vehicles took a beating during the attack. But others, mainly in the back or larger, seemed to be in okay condition. There was a rather large speeder truck that looked up to trekking through the mountains. That would work.

“I'll drive, you point me in the right direction.”

[Charlie Sharper]

(I know it's short, but I want to get this moving again.)

Tem helped Rune inspect the speeder before they both entered the vehicle. It seemed relatively unscathed from the fighting and looked like a suitable vehicle to search the mountains with. Tem turned back toward the guard that had brought the speeder to them. "Tell the others that we will radio the location of the bandits when we find them, we may need the backup." He then jumped into the passenger seat of the speeder and looked at Rune. “I'll drive, you point me in the right direction.” Tem simply nodded and pointed to the western mountains.

As the sped along, Tem looked for the landmarks that the locals had told him about to reach the mine. The first was a fork in the road, the would have to take the right fork. As the continued, Tem opened his mind to the force, letting it guide him toward their location. As they got closer, they could see the mining facility in the distance, Tem spoke up, "Master Oki, I think we should approach on foot, I have a feeling that they will be looking out for followers."

[Fromikeable]

Vance had waisted no time in unshackling his hands. As the heavy shackles dropped off into the dirt with a soft thump, Vance rubbed his long-discomforted wrists. They were fine aside from a spare cut or two and some red skin.

Following the wrists were the ankles, who also managed to remain healthy, more or less. Vance's main concern was his leg and his lack of weaponry. If a bandit so much as saw him, his empty shackles, or even him rubbing his wrists, he would surely be killed. The padawan sighed; he knew what that meant. He took a minute before reattaching his restraints. I've gotta wait a little longer if I'm to get out of her in one piece.

And so the padawan waited for about another hour. Finally, as he entertained himself by gazing at the cave ceiling, a pair of bandits approached his plateu. The men said nothing as the crossed the bridge, and each took up different positions. One began searching the ground while the other stood over the padawan with his rifle drawn and his face inquisitive.

"Find it yet?" the sentry asked, turning his head to his partner.

"Bah, a'course nah! 'ow the 'ell am I supposed to find this thing in all this, anyway!?" the other shouted in frustration, kicking the dirt as he did so. "100 credits says 'e 'as it!"

Uh-oh. Vance tried not to let his panic show as the sentry approached him and aimed his gun. "Tha' right? Ya' have our key?" The bandit grinned; he had full control, and he was reveling in it. Vance looked on half desperate and have deductive. As his instinct told him death was staring at him, his midn searched for something, anything that could get him out.

Luckily, the sentry gave him his chance. The bandit, smirking stupidly, turned to his partner. "Watch this." Vance undid his wrist cuffs. "I'm about ta' kill a-"

Vance kicked off the ground, ramming into the bandit's waist with his entire body. Between the lack of slack in the chain and the weak failure in his broken leg, the tackle was awkward, and it was all Vance could do to keep his hold on the sentry as he fell to the ground. As the other man slammed into the dirt, Vance acted instinctively, grabbing the man's rifle. The padawan slid the rifle, still strapped to the downed bandit's torso, across his opponent's body. The other bandit looked on in intial shock as Vance aimed the rifle and held the trigger. Out came whizzing 6 bolts, 3 of which knocked the second bandit dead.

But the fight wasn't over. The sentry pushed the padawan off of him and grabbed his weapon back. Staggering up, the bandit rose just as Vance, on his back, kicked him in his crotch with his good leg. Down the fell the rogue again in blidn pain and with the force of the kick. All's fair in love and war.

Vance quickly undid his shin shackles as the bandit again tried to rise. Staggering himself, Vance trotted over and crippled the bandit with a hard elbow to the neck. The bandit fell once more, and before he could utter a cry of pain, Vance grabbed a kinfe from his belt and sliced it through his skull.

Vance stood panting for a minute, looking upon his kills. The gore nauseated him, but he did his best not to throw up. It was me or them, he assured himself, again gripping his broken leg. It had done well enough, but we wouldn''t be blasting his way out with it. Luckily it seemed he didn't need to. For one reason or another, the cave appeared mostly empty with maybe a few plunderers on the far side. They seemed to be oblivious to the fight on the whole, allowing Vance a minute to catch his breath.

Vance patted down his former-adversaries, scavenging anything of use. He grabbed a couple of of weapons, including one of the badnit's belts, consisting of a thermal detonator, a balster, and a knife. He also tore a piece of cloth from one of their shirts and tied it about his leg, trying to squeeze some of the pain away. It helped, but minimally.

Finally, Vance limped off the plateu and over one of the many bridges, rifle drawn. He would try and head toward the cave exit and find some way out of the mine undetected; it was a bold plan, but a plan nonetheless. All he could hope was that the Force could guide him out.

Some luck wouldn't hurt either.