Pulley-operated, mechanical-lifts descend into the earth below the Arena. The Abandoned Mines pre-date the Galactic Empire by thousands of years. Once used as mining routes, the long forgotten network of interconnecting tunnels has held stalwart against the sands of time. After exiting, the lift begins its retreat back to the surface. Sporadic crystals protrude from the walls to quietly radiate ochre light like naturally-forming torches. The small alcove gives birth to a maze of wide tunnels supported by old, steadfast wooden beams. The tunnels spider and split off into various directions, some leading to dead ends while others ultimately lead back to the central Mining Shaft.

The central Mining Shaft is square pit that descends into a deep pit that radiates a luminescent, cerulean glow from the horde of crystallized shards still growing below. The air hangs with a cool, windless chill. Stone stalactites hang ominously overhead, flanked by jagged jutters of rock and sediment that line the ascending walls.

To reach the surface, blocks of stone wide enough for two humans to stand side by side on, shift back and forth in a combination of a lateral and ascending patterns. Each cubic platform is controlled by a mechanical pulley and each cubic platform will eventually pass close enough to step over to another. The spacing and timing is not attuned to any formal pattern, giving equal balance to both Force users and Mundanes. Whatever your talents, the shifting cubes are the only way to ascend back to the Arena.

Holocam Drones flit about the caverns, recording a live video feed that is transmitted back up towards the surface and projected over two large holodisplays for the crowd to observe. Progress will be watched as members are tried and tested.

The Grand Master’s only concern is the resourcefulness and resilience of his members. Reaching the surface will be no easy task, and doing so will be the only way for fighters to move forward in the Tournament.

The lift groaned as it descended into the depths of the mine, bearing a single figure into the hungry void below. Titius stared intently at the passing wall, eyes scanning each opening as it passed, waiting for the chosen path to appear. A balcony passed, followed swiftly as Titius shot his arm out, pushing the control lever. The lift screamed to a halt, the sound reverberating off the shaft. Alighting to the landing, Titius sealed his helmet and strode forth. The dull orange glow from the myriad of tunnels tinted his visor, lending the air of an Imperial Darktrooper to his form. Selecting a tunnel, he drifted in, footfalls muffled by the oppressive mass of the mine.

A short time passed as Titius meandered through the tunnels, arriving again at the main shaft for the mine. Looking up, he spotted the cloud of Holocam droids flitting about the cavern, capturing the scene for viewers above. Bringing the rifle to bear, Titius hissed.

“Stitches, seek”

A low hum picked up from behind Titius as a Viper Probot unfurled itself. A low chitter sprang forth as it scanned its surroundings.

“You know whom we hunt. Report any sightings but don't get seen. You're very expensive to replace.”

The Probot mimed a rude gesture then floated down the shaft. Titius turned heel and proceeded down the next tunnel, implants tuned forward in anticipation.

“Where are you, Master?” Titius whispered, face twisting into a sardonic grin. As he moved, he began to project his thoughts, horrific imagery playing through his mind. I hope you enjoy the show.

Several layers down, a single eye snapped open, disturbed by an incredibly toxic miasma emanating through the Force. Every creature bore a signature in the Living Force and this one was pure cloying poison. “Titius…”. The very name brought a measure of bile to Ellac’s mouth. His former apprentice's presence had become markedly septic since their last encounter. This failed to faze Ellac, confident in the narrow tunnels pressing Titius into closer quarters. The Sith rose, shaking off the last of his meditation then stalked forward to the main shaft. His face illuminated in the cool blue as he lowered himself to a crouch. A breath left him as he shot his body upward in a graceful arc, landing on the higher level. Focusing himself he could faintly feel Titius ahead in the tunnel, moving idly.

“You like the venue, Titius? I finally get to look you in the eyes as you fade from this realm. Now come fight me.”

“And why...why would I make it that easy, you oversized GNK?” came the response. “Or are you once again unable to discern a mirror from a wall of stone?” Ellac huffed at the insults. Titius somehow always knew how to bruise his pride, despite their extended separation. Vowing to silence the derision, Ellac strode into the tunnel.

The artificial chasm echoed with the low mechanical groans of the cable lift system that hoisted slabs of stone through the various tunnels that snaked out from the central shaft of the mine. Opening himself to the Force completely, Ellac took in every detail of the space around him, extending his senses out through the labyrinth of stone chasms and narrow passages as he felt his old Apprentice getting farther away. “Always quick with the taunts, Titius,” Ellac shouted out into the tunnel, his voice reverberating in a delayed chorus. “But make no mistake; We are not equals.”

The dim incandescence of the crystal formations protruding from the cavern walls teased the Sith’s vision, illuminating the immediate areas around the formations but doing very little to dispel the looming darkness that lay ahead of him. Still reaching out through the Force to track his old pupil, Ellac unclipped his main lightsaber from behind his back, readying the hilt in his hand as he strode deeper into the mine. Somewhere ahead in the tunnel, he could still feel Titius delving deeper into the twisting burrow, luring him, baiting him into some elaborate trap that he’d spring at any moment.

Raising his offhand to his ear, Ellac knelt to the ground as he depressed the activation button on his earpiece. “Find him,” he said, reaching behind his back to retrieve his second saber. In an instant, the crimson blades flashed to life, glowing bright against the stone beneath his feet. Coiling the Force deep in his body, Ellac launched off silently with the toe of his boot, tearing through the tunnel with furious speed as he kept his blades lowered at his sides but ready to strike.

Ahead in the man-made cavern, Titius could feel the change in the air pressure as something rushed through the mine behind him, and it didn’t take a divination of the Force to know that his old master was the source of the disturbance. With the lead he had on Ellac, Titius had come to a moderately wider area in the tunnel that had been dug out presumably to harvest a large deposit of ore at some point in time, but now remained only as a vacant excavation supported by a number of aged wooden braces. Reaching the far side of the expansion, the Privateer spun on his heel as he slung the DC-17m launcher that hung from his back under his arm, crouching to the ground as he racked a Dioxis round into the chamber. “That’s it, master. Keep rushing in,” he muttered, holding the weapon firmly against his side as he fixed his attention to the winding tunnel he had come through. Keenly aware of the marginal but steady increase in pressure, he calculated a rough estimate of Ellac’s velocity, easing his finger into the trigger guard.

Behind Titius, in the deeper length of the mine he had yet to venture into, a metallic foot clanked against the stone floor, followed by a triple barrage of blaster bolts that shot out from the shadows in the mouth of the tunnel.

Had he not been paying sharp attention of his surroundings in anticipation of his master, the bolts might have seared three burning holes straight through his back, but the metal footstep had afforded Titius just enough time to roll out of the way, turning his launcher on the source of the shots in one swift motion. With a hefty SHUNCK, the grenade shot out from the rifle, slamming directly into his attacker, bursting into a thick cloud of sickly green gas. ’Since when does Ellac use blaster rifles?’ Titius thought, still knelt to the ground as he watched the green mist expantly.

Another metallic clank added to his confusion as a tall, blood-red assassin droid lunged through the Dioxis cloud brandishing an electro-sword in one of its multi-fingered hands whilst wielding its EE-3 Blaster Rifle in the other.

Leaping backwards onto his feet, Titius barely managed to dodge the tip of the droid’s sword as he found his footing in the center of the excavated space. “What? Ellac needs a droid to fight his battles now?” He spat, his hand reaching down to his belt for the electromagnetic pulse grenade that hung there.

Standing to its full height from its earlier lunge, the HK series assassin droid trained its rifle on its target. “Statement: You are surprisingly astute, for a Meatbag. It is a pity such an observant mind will go to waste when I eviscerate your fleshy body.”

A disconcerting grin spread on Titius’ gaunt face as he stared back into the HK’s glaring yellow photoreceptors. “That’s my line,” he said, pulling the EMP grenade from his belt and raising it above his head. “See you in hell, droid!”

From behind him, Titius felt a gust of air wash past him, followed by the glow of red lightsabers and the heavy footfalls of their wielder. The mineshaft echoed with the high-pitch squeak of the blades as Ellac dragged the tips through the floor as he ran, charging straight at Titius with unbridled fury.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you.” Flicking the thumb switch on the grenade, Titius raised his launcher at the approaching Sith, firing off another canister of Dioxis into the tunnel wall directly ahead of Ellac so as not to trigger his reflex as he tossed the EMP to the ground at the HK unit’s feet. In unison, the grenades detonated in blasts of green and blue, causing Ellac to reel back from the gas and disabling the HK unit in one synchronized moment.

Knowing he had no more than that one moment to escape, Titius took off past the droid into the twists and bends of unexplored reaches of the mine.

Titius jogged down the shaft, a grin trickling to his face. Opening a general comms feed, he drawled, “I forgot to tell you about my new hobby, didn’t I? Take a nice deep breath…” The taunt turned to a cackle as the brisk pace continued. Titius had grown since their last encounter but the blame for such rapid descent to malice lay squarely with Ellac. But then again, I was not very sympathetic to start with.

The gas before Ellac was failing to dissipate from the tunnel ahead. His throat burned from what little he had inhaled but it was enough to notice. Focusing himself, Ellac pushed the pain down and strode through the cloud. His foot met a mass slumped on the ground with a metallic clang. The HK droid lay across the passage as it had fallen mere seconds ago. Even as Ellac watched, its eyes lit up as it began to twitch its limbs. The extra modifications appeared to be performing to expectations. Ellac stepped over and continued into the tunnel ahead.

Rounding a corner, Titius stopped. Taking a second to view his surroundings, Titius noted the structure of the tunnel. The mines were old and could be prone to catastrophic failure if conditions changed. Titius admonished himself, knowing full well the consequences of such a drastic action could cause. “Stitches, stop your search and start pulling support pins. I have a plan to get us out of here without the company.” A snarky retort sounded through the commpiece. “...and you want to dance with a lightsaber then?” The retort was quickly replaced with a sulking hum. Reaching back, Titius pulled a concussion grenade from his harness. A quick movement armed the device, its indicator illuminating Titius’ mask in relief. With a deft swing, Titus planted it through the support beam above then began to sprint full tilt.

Several seconds passed before the entire tunnel shook, a deep concussive thump sounding followed by a dull rumble. A cloud of dust shot from behind Titius as he stumbled momentarily. The sound quickly faded out, replaced by a roar of fury reverberating through the caverns.

“Oops”

The cavern floor rumbled beneath Ellac’s feet as he started again after Titius. The ancient wood of the tunnel supports had already decayed for millennia beyond a trustable stability without the help of the explosion that now had caused them to collapse. In an instant, the tunnel mouth before the Sith sealed itself again in stone and rubble, cutting him off from his pursuit of his Apprentice.

Ellac’s solitary eye seethed as he stared at the last of the falling stones, his focus still locked on Titius’s presence on the other side. “That’s it. Keep running…”

Brushing the dust from the shoulder of his cloak and swallowing the growing sting in his throat from the earlier gas, he turned back to his assassin droid behind him as it sat up from the ground. “Get up,” Ellac said, looking down at the droid.

Its sinister yellow photoreceptors seemed to glare up at him. “Query: Have you ever had your circuits shorted by an electro-magnetic pulse, Master? It is most unpleasant.” Despite the complaint, the HK unit pushed itself to its feet.

“I have, actually,” Ellac said, knocking the knuckles of his metal hand on the droid’s chassis. “Now, if you’re done complaining, our prey is escaping.”

“Statement: Based on the schematics I downloaded from one of the arena terminals, I estimate that we have ascended less than half of the total length of the mine,” HK said, readying his blaster. “This tunnel leads back to the central shaft, but since your former pupil caused this portion to cave in, we will have to double back.”

Racing to make up for lost time, Ellac and HK-51 traced their steps back until they emerged again into the central shaft of the mine where the pulleys and service droids continued to operate just as they had before.

“Scan for life signs in the higher levels of the shaft,” Ellac said, looking up towards the swarm of Holocam drones that hovered above them.

“Statement: My scanners were not designed with such a large range in mind and will undoubtedly be as ineffective as your own vision.”

“Eighty-Six Thousand credits wasted on a useless droid,” Ellac muttered as he held his upward glare, studying the different ledges and wooden cross-beams that he might be able to scale.

HK-51 reeled at its master’s words, sharply turning to face him. “Objection: ‘Useless’?! I am the result of thousands of years of refined engineering and programming! ‘Useless’ would be better used to describe an incompetent master, unable to properly utilize my many assassination protocols.”

Ellac clamped his teeth together, throat aching with anger and dioxis burns. “Just shut up and find Titius.” Without waiting for his droid’s inevitable ‘Commentary:’, the Sith crouched low, compounding the Force within his body as he leapt several levels up onto an suspended crossing of a minecart rail overhead.

Pushing all other distractions and thoughts from his mind, Ellac paused, settling back into the hunt. Tuning his senses to the finer details of the world around him, he peered into the shadows of the nearby tunnel mouths, head on a swivel, listening for any sign or indication of Titius’ presence. “Come on, Titius!,” he yelled up into the shaft.

Nothing.

Ellac clipped his offhand saber to the back of his belt, exchanging it for a small, square device that fit in his palm. Looking back up at the holocam drones above him, Ellac called out again. “We both know how this is going to end. Why delay it?”

Behind him, from a higher ledge that split into two separate tunnels, a stone clattered to the ground. Without hesitation, Ellac hurled his active lightsaber up toward the edge, the red blade spiraling through the air in a blur, but it met only air.

From the side now, something clicked in the shadows, and a dioxis canister barreled straight for Ellac’s chest. His hand still outstretched, the Warrior summoned his weapon back, leaning out of the grenade’s path as it burst against the wall behind him into the signature pale green mist. Activating the explosive knife in his hand, a double-sided barbed blade extended from the bottom of the device as he pitched it at the small, blinking lights of Titius’ cybernetic implants.

Rolling from the shadows to avoid the blade, Titius looked up at his former master and the arrogant smirk he had known him to wear in situations like this one. “You really are stupid, aren’t you?”

“Insults won’t save you, Titius,” Ellac said, maintaining his smirk.

Titius sneered, reaching for the grappling hook on his hip. Just then, the tunnel behind him erupted as Ellac’s knife detonated, causing the rail supports to rattle beneath the two men. Already anticipating the disturbance to the wooden structure, Titius leapt over the edge, firing his hook into the side of a large block of stone that was being lifted by one of the pulleys.

Now below him, Ellac struggled to maintain his balance as the ancient framework of the mine rail crumbled from the blast. Unable to jump to safety, Ellac extended his cybernetic hand towards a rising Titius, a fiber whip cord launching out from his bracer, ensnaring the Mercenary’s ankle just as the rail had fully collapsed underneath him.

Titius grimaced as the added strain of Ellac’s weight tugged against him, threatening to pull his arm out of its socket. Swinging his launcher under his arm, Titius reached for the force pike on his back. “Time to lighten the load!”

“Not this time!” Reaching up with his free hand, Ellac released a blast of blue lightning from his fingers, causing Titius to seize as he howled in pain. Kicking his legs out, Ellac swung his body towards the wall, using his feet to push off and yank Titius’ grip free from his grappling hook, sending both men into a free fall for the bottom of the mine…

Titius’ arm twitched as he fell, sparks emitting from his helm as he tumbled. The fibercord wrapped around his ankle squeaked as it wore its way through the boot, still attached to Ellac as the two opponents spun around. Gathering himself, Titius reached back with his stable hand. His staff whipped around with a snapping furor...straight into his own foot. Titius yelped as his leg went numb. A cruel laugh echoed from the other end of the fibrecord.

“Excellent form, Titius, simply excellent”

Titius threw his staff in the direction of the sarcasm. Ellac easily deflected it, gently pushing it on to a nearby platform as it rushed by.

“Pathetic! You insult my teaching!” Ellac’s exclamations took on a subtle agitated note.

“The only thing I learned from you is how to antagonize, torture, offend and that you have serious maternal trauma”

Titius contorted himself to grab hold of the fibrecord linking the two of them. His gauntlet gained a crimson coloration as he began to pull hand over hand.

“Your mother…”

The distance closed.

“...would be…”

Titius grabbed Ellac’s tunic.

“...so disappointed in you.”

With a deft movement, Titius leveraged Ellac around as the bottom of the shaft bottomed out. The impact sent shockwaves reverberating through the shaft as joints popped in staccato cadence. Titius rebounded from the impact, smashing into the nearby tunnel mouth. Turning his head, he fought to retake his breath. Attempting to stand, Titius’ legs refused to move.

In the center of the shaft, Ellac stirred. His mechanical arm was dented, his other arm clearly dislocated along with most of his ribs. No creature should have survived the fall. A low rumble echoed through the chamber as a crimson glow lit up the space. The rage was palpable as Ellac dragged himself upright, lightsaber in hand.

“You DARE bring up my mother”, wheezed the walking corpse, stalking slowly toward the broken body of Titius. Titius frantically pulled his helmet off and removed a gelatinous pad from his neck.

“Useless”, the mercenary spat, unaware of the approaching danger.

The whole of Ellac buzzed, tingling across every inch as he tried to reconcile the lacking sense of presence in own body. His vision black, his arms and legs felt weightless, yet he managed to lurch forward one broken step at a time. The taste of iron drowned his tongue in mouthfuls that seeped from his cracked lips in endless streams.

A stabbing pain dropped the Warrior to his knees, his body failing to support his weight as he crumpled to the ground. With deep, ragged breaths, Ellac clawed his cybernetic fingers into the cavern floor, dragging himself inch by inch toward his Apprentice driven purely by his rage and the Force.

Lying on his back, Titius huffed, grimacing through the ache of his broken rib. The shriek of metal against stone rang in warning of his broken Master crawling towards him, but his strength waned as he tried to push himself up.

Inch by inch Ellac crawled, closer and closer until he could take Titius by the throat. Barely managing to stay conscious, the Sith focused every cell in his body towards the Force. The Dark Side grew tangible there in the bottom of the shaft as Ellac tightened his grip just shy of suffocating his former Apprentice. As Titius groaned and squirmed against Ellac’s hold, he could feel his energy being sapped away, slowly but steadily, as if his soul itself was being siphoned from his body.

Ellac’s ragged breaths gradually began to stabilize, using as much as he could of Titius’ energy to heal himself, but the process would take several hours before he would be up and walking again. ‘No matter,’ the Sith thought. ‘We’ve got nothing but time’