A gust of air blasted them as the doors parted, causing their cloaks to flutter about. The air was breathable, but could only be described as smelling 'old.' They peered into the hallway beyond the open door and saw nothing except what little their lightsabers could illuminate.
"Huh. For some reason, I kind of expected this to be illuminated," Raezyr commented. "If you want to go back and get Huck, I'll scout ahead just a bit."
Raezyr began to move down the hall with lightsabers at the ready when he heard Trychon behind him. "Um, Raez, I hate to interrupt your daring gesture of bravery, but if you look to your right, I think that's a light switch."
Raezyr turned and looked at the switch, back at Trychon, then back at the switch for a moment, before activating the controls. Instantly the hallway filled with a dim light, as if the emitters were not receiving enough power. He turned back to Trychon. "Yeah, I knew that was there." Changing the subject he continued, "Weren't you supposed to go get Huck."
"I did. I sent him a signal over my datapad. He should be here shortly."
"Oh... well then, I guess I'll just wait."
It wasn't long before they heard the droids servos, marking his approach. When he arrived they moved forward. About ten meters down the hallway, the corridor ended at a stairwell heading down.
There were some markings on the wall at the top of the steps, written in the strange language of the ancient Sith, but even though their protocol/assassin droid boasted over 3 million forms of communication, apparently this wasn't one of them.
"Oh well, lets just keep going," Raezyr commented.
"Good plan," Trychon replied, following Raezyr down the stairs with Aitchkay bringing up the rear.
"Shut up, Trych."
It was a long staircase that descended in a spiral. They'd gone about 15 steps down when they heard a grinding sound from the top of the stairs. "Observation: Masters, there is a door that just slid closed at the top of the staircase."
They turned quickly and rushed back up to the top of the stairs, but it was to late, the door was already closed.
The lights went out then, leaving them in total darkness, and the steps beneath them began to tremble with a loud grinding noise. "Find something to hold onto!" Raezyr yelled as the smooth stone steps began to angle downward. They reached out toward the walls in the darkness, but the walls were smooth and seamless as the steps underneath them had become.
They all slipped and fell, sliding downward and gathering speed. They scrambled to find any hand holds on the floor and walls as they spun, tumbling and sliding, bouncing off the walls and each other.
Light flared in the hallway as Aitchkay activated his emergency lights, illuminating the floor and walls rushing by them as they slid down, unable to halt their quickening pace.
Raezyr managed to get his slide under control, getting to his back and sliding feet first. He frantically dug into his utility belt for his grappling hook. He managed to get it out and hooked the mechanism to his belt and pulled out some slack in the cable.
"Grab onto me, if you can!" Raezyr yelled. Trychon twisted his body around so he was going head first on his stomach and reached forward. He caught hold of Raezyr's cloak and twisted his hands in the material for a better grip.
The lights came back on, just as stairwell ended and they shot out into open space. A huge pit, nearly 15 meters across spread out underneath them, it's bottom obscured by blackness, if there was a bottom.
Catching a brief glimpse of a railing on the other side of the cavern, Raezyr launched the hook and used the Force to guide it. It lached on with a click.
When the cable snapped taught, Raezyr thought he was going to be ripped in half, and he heard the material of his cloak give a little as it supported Trychon's weight. He also heard what sounded like a slugthrower being fired, but was unable located where it came from or what it might mean.
The bad part of Raezyr's plan became apparent as they swung toward the wall on the far side of the pit. They slammed into it and Trychon nearly lost his grip on Raezyr's cloak.
They hung there for a moment, their hearts still beating in their throats. "Did you see what happened to Huck?" Raezyr asked.
"No, and he never grabbed hold of me. I'm assuming he's gone,"Trychon replied.
Suddenly Raezyr's cloak began to tear again.
"Uh, Raez, reel us in or something," Trychon said more calmly than he felt.
"I heard it, but the mechanism on this cable isn't rated for our combined weights. I can lower us, but it won't reel in and this cable is too slick. I can't get a grip," Raezyr replied.
Suddenly they were jostled and began moving upward. Looking up, the couldn't see anything but the cable being pulled over the top of the railing. All they could do was hold on, and hope whomever was up there was friendly.
When they finally reached the top of the pit and were able to peer over, they were relieved to see their gun-metal gray droid hauling in the cable.
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