Astralis wasn’t the best at sneaking, being two meters tall tended to make stealth a tertiary option at best. He crouched behind the trunk of a star palm tree to pause and listen. The heat didn’t make this any easier, nor did the rugged terrain of Mount Tantiss. After retrieving the Holocrons relic he was after, he had left the tunnel system through the dilapidated barracks building and was immediately aware of other force-users nearby. He instantly froze and cast out his senses using the force. It wasn’t hard to miss the ridiculous number of life forms half a click away through the jungle; there were thousands. Only a half-dozen were force sensitives and none were a match for him, individually or most likely even as a group. But thousands of soldiers were not something he could deal with alone even on his best day. He snickered at the thought of trying to deflect several thousand blaster bolts at once. Despite the fact that he would only have to deal with a squad at most, he really didn’t want anyone to know he was here.
As his yacht was hidden four clicks away on the OTHER side of these soldiers, he quickly ran through his options. There was a relatively thin spot in the defensive perimeter they had set up and he decided to try and sneak by, undetected. Thirty minutes later he was done with stealth - he thought to himself it was best to know one’s own limitations. He was about three hundred meters from the thinned out portion of the lines when he stood and yawned. He’d been up for almost twenty four hours, and attempting to sneak when he was hot, tired, and two meters tall was obviously not the appropriate tactic.
Astralis yawned a second time, causing his eyes to water and redden. He removed his helmet to wipe the tears of exhaustion from his eyes and the sweat from his forehead. He cursed and decided that as soon as he returned to Aliso he would make the repairs to his armor a priority. The environmental controls should be much more effective than they currently were. A new plan came to Astralis as he yawned yet again. He sat down on a fallen log and sent out a telekinetic beacon, hoping one of the enemy would be attuned enough to detect his presence. He really needed a nap. He dozed on the log while he waited, but nobody came. With a heavy sigh, he looked around himself. The trees were shorter here than many areas nearby, so he emitted several bolts of force lightning upwards in upwards, arcing over and towards the soldiers. “Hey! You’re surrounded!” he yelled. “Don’t move!”
He lowered his hand, stretched out his legs in front of him with his right ankle crossing his left, and laid his chin on his chest. He was fully asleep when they arrived ten minutes later.
“On your feet, now!” the voice woke Astralis. He casually opened his eyes to assess the response he had solicited. Two full squads of what looked to be poor foot soldiers stood in a half-circle in front of him. He sensed four hidden behind him, surely with blaster rifles trained to his head.
“No problem” was his response as he pulled his legs underneath himself and stood, hands raised to each side. “ it looking for trouble”.
“Keep your hands up! You’re alone, did your team leave you? Who are you with?” The lieutenant had a nasal, annoying voice. At least it held a small amount of the confidence earned from leading men in combat.
“Not with anyone. You saw the force lightning so you know that I don’t generally run with a unit”
At that, a short robed figure stepped out from behind the large star palm to the right of the lieutenant. “Why are you here?” Asked the Jedi.
“Same reason as you, I’d think” Astralis didn’t give the Jedi a chance to respond before saying “I’m not going to offer any resistance, I just want to leave. I have traipsed through the jungle as long as I care to and the reward isn’t enough for me to continue. Have fun searching, I didn’t find a damn thing. Time for me to cut my losses and head back to Nar Shaddaa ”.
“We shall see” the Jedi raised his hand and Astralis felt the weak attempt to perform a stasis hold. He easily shrugged it off with his superior abilities; going slightly rigid and looking shocked.
“Release me!” Astralis shouted, keeping himself absolutely still.
The ruse worked and the Jedi squinted and closed his fingers slightly as his hand seemed to reach towards Astralis. “Bring him along” the Jedi commanded and two soldiers holstered their blaster pistols, starting towards Astralis. One reached and brought Astralis’ right hand down from the elbow since he couldn’t reach his wrist. Astralis allowed himself to be bound.
The lieutenant approached and whined “surrounded, are we?” with a snide grin. “Did you expect us to flee?” He didn’t wait for a response but threw back Astralis’ cloak to check for weapons. He found none. “Nice armor, Sith scum” the lieutenant finished his search and bent to retrieve Astralis’ helmet. “You are ill-prepared and ill-equipped. No surprise that your foolish attempt to retrieve the treasures of Mount Tantiss has failed.”
“Like I said, I’m done - giving up and going home. No resistance”.
“You’ll stay awhile. Master Lyzell will decide what is to be done with you”. Astralis yawned, a bit annoyed that his eyes teared up and reddened and he was unable to rub them. “Take him to base and put him in the cell” the lieutenant turned away and the two soldiers walked Astralis off through the jungle. The young and inexperienced Jedi led the way and in a few minutes, Astralis found himself in a not-so-rundown structure of the original base. He was placed into a forgotten cell beneath the facility at Mount Tantiss. The red laser screen hummed to life while Astralis rubbed his wrists where the stun cuffs had been. The three that had brought him here sat just outside. The Jedi padawan who had “captured” Astralis spoke.
“We are the Seekers of Light. You will wait here until tomorrow when Master Lyzell arrives. He will decide what to do with you”.
“As I’ve said, I am no threat - I just want to leave”. Astralis repeated. He didn’t expect less but he also just didn’t want to be bothered, so the less they said the better. He sat on the durasteel shelf that served as a bed in the small cell. He rotated to his left, swinging his feet up. He kicked an old clone commando helmet and several other pieces of trash off the end and laid back. He was asleep as soon as he closed his eyes.
After several hours of much-appreciated sleep, Astralis awoke. A quick survey revealed that only one soldier remained to guard him. He surveyed the call and the junk he had kicked off the bed. The helmet was just as he thought - no visor though. An old data pad that looked as if it hadn’t been functional in years. There was a small blaster with a huge and obvious crack in the power supply. A disused and rusty cybernetic hand and a utility belt with only two pouches. The belt was the standard issue for storm troopers. This junk was obviously thrown into the cell to clear the adjoining room’s desk. Astralis bent to retrieve the utility belt and checked the pouches. A small fusion cutter (looked to be a F-187) and a tiny hologram projector were in the first pouch. The second contained only a glowrod that flickered on and off periodically. Astralis thumbed the hologram projector on amd a miniature holographic Palpatine smiled and said ‘welcome to Mount Tantiss’ before glitching hard and repeating itself. He thumbed it off and tossed it in the corner. The sound alerted the sentry to the fact that Astralis was awake. The lackey turned and shouted at Astralis.
“Keep it down in there!”
Astralis laid aside the rest of the useless junk and arced lightning into the laser screen. The lightning popped and sizzled, and shorted out the screen. Without the red haze of the laser screen of the cell, the foot soldier paled quite noticeably. Before he could unholster his blaster pistol the poor sentry was struck in the chest by another blast of force lightning. Astralis held this one, gritting his teeth and pouring the force into it. The sentry died. Astralis left. When he got outside he checked his bearings and cast his senses towards his ship. The troops had moved off in the other direction, spread out to search the ruins. Astralis ran towards his ship, and stopped halfway there to retrieve his belongings from under the fallen log he had been “captured” on. He ran the rest of the way to his yacht. While running, he had the ship prepare for departure and once there, was able to quickly leave the horrible planet - WITH the Holocrons he’d been tasked to retrieve.