OOC: One more plot update and probably the penultimate one. Yeah, I'm trying to weave the last bits of story in time :)

At the outskirts of the battle-torn Anthar city, a nondescript sniper team had retreated from the current

fighting. They had not made any real progress in hampering the Taldryan forces nor had that been their goal.

Perched around a small opening in the ground, the six quickly removed their mobility-restraining heavy armor and

exposed their robes and blackened faces.

"Okay, in case anyone loses contact with the rest: Third left, seventh right and then straight on until you come

to a yellow marker on the floor showing the Arcona crest. You need to step on that one and wait twenty seconds,

then make a mad dash for it until you've rounded two corners. Any delay and you're going to be nicely buried

under twenty meters of rock", the leader reiterated an instruction they had all long since memorized.

The Naga Sadow assault team – for that is what the seemingly ragtag group of snipers truly was – nodded.

"Then let's go. Kat, you're with me, then Xayun, Ylith, Nathies and Lucius, you're rear guard", Manesh ordered.

One by one, the dark-robed schemes disappeared into the manhole.

---

Fifteen minutes later, they had successfully made it to the marker through the dark and deserted tunnels. No

being larger than a rat had crossed their path and, thankfully, no traps had been installed by any of the

rivalling factions in the disused tunnel that was not shown on most of the fragmentary maps that existed of the

Dark Hall's egressway system.

"Here goes – let's see if our engineers' instructions were right", Manesh declared, carefully placing his right

foot on the Arcona crest in the floor and counting. As the time was up, he made an Olympic-class standing start

and was off into the darkness in front of him. His steps echoed in the deserted tunnels, quickly fading as he

rounded the first corner. Then, only silence remained.

<careful in the second corner, there's a puddle of something slimy>, a mental warning reached the five

still assembled Sadowites.

Kat readied herself and ground her shoe into the enemy logo on the rough floor as if to erase it with her weight.

Then, she as well was gone into the darkness. Xayun and Ylith followed with respectful ninety-second gaps. Then

Nathies stepped up to the Logo, spat on it and trampled on his spit. Counting off his seconds, he tensed his

well-built muscular legs before he too was off in full sprint. The echoing footsteps were however soon replaced

by a Corellian curse yelled at the top of a man's lungs. Lucius interpreted the situation within a fraction of a

second – he was definitely not in the place one wanted to be when someone tripped in the trapped section. Calling

on the Force for extra speed, he set off to where he came from. He had barely passed the second crossing when a

wave of heat and pressure threw him to the ground, followed by the deafening rumble of several hundred metric

tons of falling rock.