Crystal Clear

[Kane]

Ilum---1200 Hours
​

As the shuttle touched down on Ilum's surface Kane threw on the large brown parka he had brought with for himself and a pair of goggles, he brought an identical coat and goggles to Tynian as he went to brief the boy on their mission.

"Alright Tynian. Simple job here, there have been reports of vandals in the crystal caverns here. Stealing Kyber crystals that belong to the Jedi and destroying our statues. Our job is to stop them, diplomacy will be preffered but we are authorized to use force and kill them if we have to."

After delivering his breifing and double checking that his saber was easily accessible, The old Sentinel waited for his apprentice to get ready for the cold.

 

[Tynian]

Tynian had never been to a planet like this before. It was cold. Real cold.
The planet he grew up on was warm, with hotter summers. But never cold.
As they exited the shuttle, the reality of exactly how cold it was hit him with full force. The parka he wore did help but the young Ysanna was not prepared at all for this.

He watched as his breath turned to fog as it left his lungs, and the ground even crunched beneath his feet... he looked at his master and shook his head. “I’m not sure I’m cut out for this type of place Master Kane. I can’t feel the end of my nose.”

 

[Kane]

"Yes, it is a lot colder than you're used to. Your body should get used to it my boy." Kane chuckled as they exited the ship and he felt his own nose go cold. He pulled a pair of scarves out of a pocket oh his large coat and handed one to Tynian before tying the other around his own face. "There, that should help. The caves are just over here." he said, pointing before moving off toward the caves.

"It is a little warmer in the caves. Closed space and all that." he informed Tynian as they walked.

 

[Tynian]

Tynian too the scarf and wrapped it around his neck and face like Kane had done. “How can people live here anyway? It’s so cold!”
He followed Kane across the snow covered surface and toward a small mountain. The trek wasn’t too hard and the snow was packed pretty well, but the cold bit at Tynian as much as possible. He found himself folding his arms to stay warm.
And then a strange thing happened. Something he hadn’t felt ever before. A slight tickle in the back of his throat began to form and his nose started to plug up. He tried to shake it off, but couldn’t. By the time they reached the cave, his eyes were watery, his head ached and his throat felt like someone stuffed cotton balls in it.
“Master Kane, I don’t feel so good.” he said as he let out a rough cough.

 

[Kane]

Kane chuckled as Tynian proclaimed he wasn't feeling well. "You might be coming down with a cold my apprentice." he told the boy, "I am not the best at this, but try focusing the force in your chest. Think of health and healing." he explained. Healing was not exactly his forte, but he understood the basics enough to try and teach them to Tynian.

As they arrived at the cave opening Kane ducked inside and pulled his goggles up to his forhead, by now ice had encrusted his beard and his nose and cheeks were red. He looked around and could see large chunks of the stone torn out of the walls where the vandals had smashed into the stone and taken crystals. What non force sensitives wanted with the precious stones who could tell? He had heard of someone once trying to weaponize the conductive crystals outside of a lightsaber but that blew up in the persons face. Literally.

Kane reached out in the force to try and feel where the theives were, and could tell so far that they were in fact in the caverns. "They are in here, Tynian. Stay mindful. I have a feeling that this will turn violent." he told his apprentice.

 

[Tynian]

Tynian nodded and leaned up against the wall of the cave. He felt weak and miserable. The so-called “cold” had zapped him of strength and he felt like crawling under a rock and dying.
But his master told him to try and heal himself. I’ll see if that works. He thought as he closed his eyes.
He flet the force moving inside his body and localizing around his chest, throat and nose.
Within moments the headache cleared and he felt like he could actually breath freely again. “It worked Master. I feel much better.”
As he stood up, he reached out with the force and also felt that there were others in the cave.
He took his lightsaber off of his belt just in case.

 

[The Storyteller]

The four theives had been working their rumps off hauling crates of rocks into their little base camp in the caverns, they had come here to this frozen rock all the way from Tatooine on some crazy idea Jimbob (the groups leader) had.

"Oh yeah, come freeze our b-b-b-buts off-f-f haulin' rocks around. We'll be rich. Great p-p-plan Jimbob." bitched Cletus as he stacked yet another crate of rock.

"Ahh shaddap an' do yer job Cletus." Horace snapped. He was busting up the rock chunks to extract the crystals.

"Yeah Cletus, shut yer hole." Tom chimed in. So far he was doing...nothing. He was SUPPOSED to be putting the extracted crystals into their own crates, sealing them and piling them onto the hoversled.

"You shaddap too Tom unless ya plan ta start kriffin' workin' too." Horace snapped at Tom. Their tempers were all high and much grumbling was had and it seemed a fight may break out soon.

"All of you shut yer holes. I hear somethin'" Jimbob said calmly, the griping stopped immediately, every one of them worried Jimbob might go off on them with his large hammer.

Once they were all quiet they could here feint echoes of voices coming down one of the shafts, "We aint alone boys." Jimbob proclaimed quietly, shifting his grip on the hammer.

 

[Kane]

Kane took his lightsaber out and listened, using the force to heighten his hearing in an attempt to locate the theives as he also reached out and tried to probe the area and locate them that way as well.

"Be ready for anything my apprentice, I don't know what we will be up against here could be dangerous, are you prepared?" he said to Tynian.

The boy had shown great promise in their fight against the Sith master Serie. Obviously Tynian had done well or Kane would not have woken up after he had been taken down.

 

[Tynian]

Tynian nodded with confidence in his voice. “I am ready Master. How many do you think there are?”
He began gathering the force around him in preparation, just in case things went violent.
He wasn’t looking for a fight, but he wouldn’t back down from one either.

 

[The Storyteller]

The crystal theives stayed in their cave listening, Jimbob and Horace flanking the mouth of the tunnel with their large phrik-coated hammers while Tom and Cletus remained back behind the crates with small blaster pistols at the ready.

"Well where are they?" Tom said far too loudly, his voice echoeing off through the caverns.

"Shut up ya dumb kriffin' idjit!" Cletus barked, smacking his younger cohort up side the head with his pistol.

"Both of ya shut it or when Horace an' I leave here you two'll be buried upside down in the snow." Jimbob growled back at the pair as they started bickering.

They stayed like that, laying in wait for whoever would come down that tunnel. Thankful for it being a cave with only one entrance.

 

[Kane]

Kane paused another moment to confirm what he felt through the force before opening his eyes. "More than one for sure, but I cant tell exactly how many." he answered Tynian's question as a voice echoed through the tunnels. "They know we're here, but I know where they are." he said.

The old sentinel started to slowly walk through the caves towards where he felt the raiders, and where the occasional bickering voices were coming from. Motioning for Tynian tonfollow him.

Eventually he stopped a couple.dozen metres from a cave opening with artificial lantern light spilling out of it and stopped, holding up his hand to signal Tynian to do so as well. They're in that cave, be very quiet. No doubt they will be expecting us. he sent telepathically to his apprentice.

 

[Tynian]

Tying an waited for his Master’s instructions. He knew better than to talk or move before he was told to... Keeping himself calm was much easier than when he first came to be Kane’s apprentice. He was so full of energy and eagerness to learn that he many times acted before thinking.
Now through the guidance of Kane’s leading, the young Ysanna had become much more calm in situations like this.

 

[The Storyteller]

The bandits waited. And waited. Aaaand waited. But it seemed to them that whoever they had heard had decided not to come their way, lucky for them.

"Ha! They left! Back to work i guess." Tom hooted, getting glares from all the other theives.

"Shh, we don't know that yet ya idjit." Cletus hushed him.

"Both of you can it." Horace snapped.

"Give it a few minutes, then back to work." Jimbob proclaimed, loostening his grip on the shaft of his hammer.

 

[Kane]

one...two...THREE! Kane counted telepathically to Tynian before activating his lightsaber and dashing into the cave, he swung high to his left as he saw one of the men out the corner of his eye. Hitting the stone above the man's head and leaving a hot glowing gash in the wall.

"ALL OF YOU DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND SURRENDER!" he yelled, using the force to make his voice unnaturally loud and booming. He doubted that they would comply but it was worth a shot.

He quickly glanced around and counted four men, two with hammers and two with blaster pistols. He took up a stance in the midlle of all of them, keeping the hammer weilders by the entrance to his right and the blaster weilders to his left, ready to defend from any attacks.

 

[Tynian]

Tynian ignites his own weapon and went into the cavern behind Kane. He saw the four men and Kane positioning himself in the center of them all, so Tynian stayed in the entry way to make sure no one would try to make a run for it...

 

[The Storyteller]

Suddenly a pair of kriffing Jedi came barreling through the cave mouth, one taking a swing at Horace and the other just kind of standing there blocking the exit.

"Ahh kriff! Dust 'em boys!" Jimbob barked as he realized what was happening. Someone had evidently tipped off the kriffing Jedi about their operation. After Jimbob's yell he swung his hammer at Tynian, not aiming well or with much power due to his previously relaxed grip on the shaft.

Horace was too busy ducking Kane's initial swing to do anything for the moment, mostly just relieved to still have his head at this point.

Cletus fired two shots towards Kane before ducking back behind the crates.

Tom fired a single shot towards Tynian before realizing that Jimbob was moving into the path of the shot.

"You kriffin' moron!" Cletus cursed at Tom as they watched the bolt fly towards Tynian and Jimbob.

 

[Kane]

Kane watched as the raiders devolved into chaos. They clearly weren't too bright, a fact that he was thankful for.

He deflected the first bolt fired at him into a crate and the second bolt at Tom since Cletus was not on an angle he could hit, then he watched as the bolt fired by Tom went straight into Jimbob's left arm, causing the man to stumble and swing wide over Tynian's head -the head of his large hammet buring itself into the wall of the cave.

These four are complete buffoons he thought to himself before using the force to shove the crates on top of Cletus. Causing a huge crash and a scream from the man who was now pinned under the pile of wood and stone.

 

[Tynian]

As the big guy swing his hammer at Tynian, it seemed the Ysanna was already moving. Ducking down and bringing his lightsaber up in a purposed defensive block.
Because of the blaster bolt hitting Jimbob in his arm, Tynian’s block was off target. So instead of cutting through the hammer as planned, the lightsaber cut clean through the man’s arm, severing it right at the elbow.
He cried out in pain and dropped to the ground clutching the stump of what remained of his left arm.

 

[The Storyteller]

"Kriff!" yelled Tom grabbing his side as the blaster bolt went through his lower ribs and he fell to the ground, cracking his head on the cave wall and immediately falling unconcious.

Cletus groaned under the weight of the crates and worked on worming his way out of the pile, so far he was stuck but the rocks were coming loose and he still had his blaster in his hand.

Horace got a hold of himself and readied his hammer, he wanted to swing at Tynian but since a screaming Jimbob was in the way he settled for a swing at Kane's abdomen.

Jimbob remained kneeling, screaming in pain and staring in shock at the still-glowing stump where his arm used to be.

 

[Kane]

Kane watched his apprentice strike deftly at the raider who had swung at him, and almost laughed as the blaster bolt caused the man to stumble in such a way that Tynians blade went right through his arm. He didn't have much time to admire the boys skills though as the large man he had scared initially took a swing at his stomach.

The old Jedi brought his blade up and absorbed some of the shock from the hammer as he sidestepped the heavy blow. He then spun away and kicked out at the mans left kidney, using the force to speed his movements.

Judging by the fact that the hammer had not broken on meeting Kane's lightsaber, the old Sentinel could only assume that the tools were coated with phrik - a lightsaber resistant metal- this would make destroying the makeshift weapons impossible with the Jedi's blades. A fact they would need to remain mindful of.