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Things didn't go according to plan.

They had made it to Grakkus' palace without any trouble. It was an enormous building, square and clay-colored, with a cavernous, decked out entrance hall that was already filling up when they entered. The party had been easy to join, with plenty of edges and corners to slip into, to watch the other guests, and to follow the Hutt's triumphant entrance as he introduced his prize. The crowd wasn't given much of a look at it, surprising no one, only assurances that it was highly valued by the Empire. It looked like nothing more than a large black box, and they had watched as it was carted away, down one of the side halls. Chopper had slipped away to see if he could plug into the palace's computer system, while Hera and Kanan slowly set off toward their quarry. And then –

It's about an hour and a half later, and Hera can still hear the music from the party, the bass beating through the dusty walls, even a whisper of the talk of the revelers. Which is all the more impressive given that she must be at least two floors beneath it, in a small, dark cell. There's a flickering lamp in the ceiling, and a small, barred window in the door, filtering in the dim light from the hallway. Hera is sitting on the floor, her hands shackled to the wall on either side of her. She can feel the low buzz of the shock collar against her throat, but she's not paying much attention to it.

Instead, she has spent most of the last ten minutes trying to contort herself to get close enough to kick Kanan in the shins. He hasn't moved since he was stunned with some kind of electrorod Hera had never seen before. It must've really packed a punch, because he's been out for nearly thirty minutes, as Hera finally manages to shove her feet close enough to him to stamp against his leg.

"Kanan!" she hisses. "Kanan, wake up!"

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"If we can surprise them," Kanan says, already turning to check that any traces of their presence here have been well-covered up.

"That'll make it easier. Which means we should probably hurry."

He's eager to shake of the dust and ill-feeling in this place. The history . . . Yeah. That, too.

Hera spends a few more seconds looking through the 'unsorted' drawer, picking out a couple smoke grenades and what looks like an astromech's electroprod, before putting back the tools she'd taken and sliding both drawers shut again. "All right, let's go."

For the most part, Chopper's route works. They avoid the palace's inhabitants, or any overachieving sentry droids quick to sound the alarm again. They can still hear the party above, and in one tense moment, they duck into a doorway as two drunk guards escort a malfunctioning server droid away to be repaired.

Finally, they reach a corner, where Hera stops short, holding out her hand to Kanan. She nods her head around it - though she can't see it, she's fairly certain it turns into a hall, at the end of which will be the two guards they're expecting.

As quietly as she can, Hera reaches into her pocket, pulling out one of the stolen smoke grenades. That's her suggestion.

Kanan cuts a glance between said grenade and the guards down the hall. He meets Hera's gaze and nods, leaving his blaster in its holster and prepping himself to run down said hallway just after the smoke hits.

They're going to want to keep this quiet, if they can.

Edited 2018-02-10 23:21 (UTC)

Hera takes a deep breath, crouching at the corner, her free hand pulling out her blaster. And then, as quick as she can, she tosses the grenade around the corner, aiming it to roll as far possible down the hall.

There's a confused grunt from one of the guards, and then a whoosh as the grenade erupts.

Kanan bolts down the hall, Force-sense spread wide so that he doesn't misunderstand where either of the guards are. He's hugging the right side of the hallway, primarily so Hera has a clear shot on the left side.

If she misses either guard, he'll be positioned to take them out.

At least that's the hope.

Hera darts behind him, moving down the opposite side of the hall. As quickly as she can, she jumps through the smoke, weapon out, and fires a blue stun beam the moment she make out the shape of the guard.

There's a thump as the guard on the left side falls to the floor.

There's a louder thump on the right, as Kanan bodily collides with the other guard. A clumsy and over-strong application of the Force drops the man down into a deep sleep.

"We good?" Kanan whispers to Hera, smoke still clogging up his vision.

Hera kneels down next to the guard on the left, running her hands over his arms and sides until she finds his belt. A few more seconds of searching and she pulls out a thin piece of metal. Hoping she's guessed right, Hera rises to her feet, and steps next to the door between the now unconscious guards, sliding her fingers along it and jamming the slip of metal into the keyhole.

"Come on," she mutters, as the door slides open.

Kanan goes to follow, then stutters to a stop, eyes going wide as he sees what the hall contains.

There are statues, some he recognizes from the Temple on Coruscant, others similar but clearly from different places. There's a ship in the style he knows Jedi used for individual missions, especially in the nearer star systems. Smaller containers and boxes might contain uniforms, training droids, training sabers . . . everything and anything. Maybe even books from the library, or holocrons --

"What we're looking for is in here?"

There's a weakness in his voice that wasn't there before, but Kanan stumbles into the room next to Hera, trying to feel anything at all besides gobsmacked and horrified.

"Um -"

She forces herself to look from the set of Jedi robes displayed at one side, trying to regain her focus. "It's - that black crate we saw -"

Hera scans the room, trying not to be distracted by every statue, the old starfighter - the lightsabers, the ones they'd found must have been the excess, Grakkus must have so many -

"There -" She spots it in the far corner, and starts off toward it. Her footsteps echo through the cavernous chamber, and the moment she reaches it, she presses a button in crate's top corner. Its lid and front side retract. She just barely gives it a glance before pulling out her holoscanner, and her comm.

"Specter-3, we're here. Let Specter-4 know we'll need a pick up and meet us at the exit."

Edited 2018-02-11 01:43 (UTC)

Kanan's gaze is caught by the opalescent gleam of a series of lenses along one side of the device. The rest is long snaking hoses -- metal-coated and ribbed -- coiled around it to keep the coils caught in place. Maybe they're for coolant? But what really draws his attention is the hum from a large shard of crystal tucked deep away within the system.

"Hera, that's -- I might be delusional, but that's . . . "

His voice trails off.

"Why would anyone want to refine raw mined kyber?"

Even as Kanan's asking that question, he's moving toward the crate, trying to see how they're going to haul this thing out of here. It . . . seems vanishingly unlikely. But they can't leave it, either.

Hera doesn't answer at once. She still holding her little device over it, its bright white light glinting over the refining machinery, until -

"Okay, scan complete." She tucks the scanner away, then looks back to him, with a small shake to her head. "I don't know, Kanan."

She wishes they had more time with this, not just whatever the Empire must be doing with technology like this, but this room, the lightsabers in storage below - she wishes there was something else she could say, beyond rushing them on to where they needed to be next. But she can't. They could talk later. Now she had to make sure they'd have a 'later.'

She reaches for the panel again, and its lid and side move back into place, closing it. Then, she hits a second button, and the antigrav is activated, the crate rising about half a meter from the floor.

"Let's get the hell out of here."

"Right. We'll have time for all the rest of it later."

Provided there is a later. He knows there are no guarantees.

Kanan positions himself behind the crate and starts shoving it, moving off at a light jog. It's likely to be suspicious, but what about them isn't suspicious at this point?

"You're getting directions out from Chop?"

"He'll meet us there. Go left out the door, there's a staircase to the next level right near us, and a door to the ledge there -"

The smoke has cleared once they're out the door, and the guards are still stunned. But there are voices from farther down the halls, definitely not the ruckus of partygoers, and Hera tugs at Kanan's arm.

"Sounds like we need to hurry."

"We can try faking being prisoners sent to do errands, but I'm not sure how well that'll hold," Kanan says, picking up his pace at Hera's urging.

"And this thing is going to be hell to deal with on the stairs."

Especially if they have to move fast.

"One of us is going to have to be provide cover."

Her call on which one it's going to be.

"Here it is."

The staircase is wide and not too high. They can see the landing, which for the moment still looks clear. "You focus on getting it up there," she says, taking out her blaster and moving into position behind him.

"Can do," Kanan says, not even moving his hands off the crate long enough to toss off a salute. He just grits his teeth and shoves, keeping most of his focus on his feet, because slipping out here would lose them time they can ill afford.

"One level up, right?"

Kanan's already moving before Hera can answer.

He can do this. They can do this.

And there is definitely not going to be anyone waiting for them at the top of these stairs. If he believes it hard enough, maybe it'll even happen.

Edited 2018-02-11 02:38 (UTC)

"Right."

There's the blare of blasterfire, and Hera returns it, quickly stunning the guard that's first to reach them. A sentry droid follows, but by the time it reaches the base they're nearly at the upper landing, and Hera can hear voices beyond shouting in Huttese.

"They're coming up here to cut us off," she calls, after blasting the droid.

"Not sure I can go any faster," Kanan says, taking one hand off the crate in order to loosen his own blaster in its holster. They're going to need two of them firing soon, he can tell that much.

"But this thing is definitely heavy enough to bludgeon someone with."

Just in case.

"Hey, you!" Comes the shout of a new set of guards up at the top of the stairwell. "Try running like this." Maybe if they were closer, Kanan and Hera would hear the sound of a button being pushed.

As it is, the results are underwhelming. Which is useful, since neither Hera nor Kanan collapses to the ground like electrified puppets with their strings cut.

Hera takes their moment of confusion to fire, easily picking them off. She motions ahead and to the right. "It's just up there."

She lets Kanan push ahead, but pulls the second smoke grenade from her pocket as more footfalls approach them, and tosses it behind them as they run, hopefully buying them the time they need to reach the door.

Fortunately, they're able to reach the door before the guards choose to start firing randomly through the smoke. Hera jumps ahead to shove the door open for Kanan, so that he lead the way out onto the windy, Nar Shaddaa night.

The ledge is a lot narrower than Kanan was hoping for, given Zeb's comparative skills as a pilot. But at least Chopper's already out there, beeping and blatting crankily at the fact that Kanan's been slowing Hera down this whole time!

Kanan doesn't roll his eyes, just shoves the crate in Chopper's direction, then draws his blaster and turns to lay down some covering fire of his own.

"Come on, Specter-4," he mutters. "Come on."

The sound of the Ghost's engines dropping out of the sky in their direction is like the sweetest music.

Unfortunately, their pursuers are already at the door, and Hera flinches back as blasterfire flashes out from below the ledge. She looks up to the Ghost, roaring down toward them, its bay already opening. But she can tell it'll be too far. Getting the crate up to it, giving it the cover to fly low enough -

Hera glances back toward the door as it bursts open, and then yells -

"Specter-3, leave your detonators and get to the Ghost. We'll follow."

"I can't say this isn't going almost exactly how I thought it would," Kanan bites out, punctuating every other word with a shot from his blaster.

He backs up toward Chopper's position, reaching down behind himself to pick up the detonators and moving back toward Hera.

It's a good thing he's got some skills at ducking, because the guards haven't stopped firing at all, even with all of Hera's good covering shots.

"You get the charges set, I'll cover your back."

Of the two of them, she's definitely the best person for that job, so --

Hera ducks down to switch to Kanan's place, avoiding the fire from below them. She picks up the handful of detonators Chopper leaves behind for blasting up toward the Ghost, then opens the crate again, throwing one of its side panels down from the ledge, at those firing at them from below.

As fast as she can, Hera places the detonators and her own charges around the equipment, doing her best to ensure it will be entirely destroyed. With another glance up to the Ghost, as it shakily lowers down toward them -

"Spectre-1, get ready -"

Edited 2018-02-11 05:13 (UTC)

Kanan has already started backing up toward the Ghost's eventual position, firing his blaster at intervals to keep the guards at least a little ways back.

He's reaching out with the Force at the same time, reading himself in case he and Hera need some extra help on a jump. They're not dying here today.

(And if seeing all the Jedi paraphernalia has made this the slightest bit less painful, or easier, because memories are still stirring up in the back of his mind . . . he'll have time to put them back down after.)

"I'm on it, Spectre-2."