Diaries of a Jedi Knight: Dark Forces part 4

Moff Rebus wasn’t the wealth of information the rebels had hoped for, but he did slip up and reveal that a mineral testing facility on the ice planet of Fest was important for some reason. Jan and I were sent to investigate, and looked over the plans of the facility: the Empire had built a fortress into the ice canyons. Whatever they were doing here was clearly very important, and we’d need an army to take this base from the front.

A back door approach was needed, and the facility plans the Alliance had procured showed a vent system. We found a place for the Crow to slip in relatively undetected, and I soon found myself in the frozen canyons. I looked over the edge of the ledge down to the icy death below: the Empire chose a strong place to hide. I moved away from the edge and through a small tunnel, greeting a Stormtrooper patrol with a swift barrage from my pistol.

The snow hid the sounds of their bodies hitting the floor, so I was able to sneak across the top of a metal barrier without being noticed. There was a series of stair cases crudely carved into the ice, and climbing them led me to the front entrance of the base. I was spotted by a small platoon of troopers, and quickly retreated away from their view. Jumping across a gap on a slightly lower level, I found myself at the vent we had identified as my best route inside.

The vent was pitch black, so I switched on my head torch. Crawling through, the way split in two. Alliance intel didn’t have detailed plans of the ventilation system, so I continued heading straight forward and fell into a large chamber. A green laser shot past my ear, and I quickly drew my pistol and returned fire. A laser turret was mounted on the ceiling, though a few direct hits destroyed it. I glanced around the room; it was filled with supplies, blaster energy, shield repairs, and a pair of IR goggles.

The IR goggles allowed me to move around in the dark without needed to use the head torch, meaning I could sneak around undetected. Returning back to the vents, I turned left into the path I hadn’t taken earlier and was greeted by an unaware Stormtrooper’s crotch. A slight smile creeped onto my face as I blasted him from the vent, emerging in a multi-level hallway. I shot covering fire at an Officer on a higher level, and ran for cover on the central staircase. At the top, two more laser turrets perked up as I reached the top of the stairs, and I had to duck in and out of cover to destroy them both.

The door at the end of the hallway was locked, so I explored the surrounding area. Finding a switch, I activated it and sprinted through the door. Turning a corner, I found myself on the balcony overlooking the staircase room and locked in combat with the Officers up there. Assisting them was more laser turrets: this base was prepared for assault. I took a few hits but I’m a much better shot than your average Imperial soldier, and the turrets could only shoot once every few seconds.

Finally out of that corridor, I took an elevator down and knocked out the troopers in the next corridor. At the far end, a stout staircase climbed into darkness so I activated the IR Goggles. A door to the right was almost invisible, but with the IR Goggles I could see it clearly. Three troopers guarded this room, and with it being so well hidden I knew this was what I had come to Fest to see. The giant red door was locked; I would need a pass code to get through. I hadn’t seen any key cards on the Officers I’d killed so far, so I returned back through the hidden door and explored the rest of the base.

Emerging from the darkness, a pair of Stormtroopers directed me towards a command room. The number of guards ramped up, and I soon found myself in an overseer’s office. The Officer in here didn’t have the keycard, but they did have a rather nice looking gun. Picking it up, I looked over it: it resembled a smaller version of the weapon I recovered from Talay.

I returned to the room the Stormtroopers who directed me in the wrong direction were in, and took the stairs up. If my sense of direction was anything to go by, I was heading towards the front entrance - the one with the platoon waiting out front. A large door - similar to the locked one I found earlier - opened before me and presented me with a small elevator. As I approached the top of the elevator, I felt the cutting cold return: I was close to the outside.

A group of rather surprised Stormtroopers greeted me at the top, most with their backs turned to me observing something through the windows. I threw a thermal detonator towards them, and ran to the edge of the room, keeping away from the blast radius. This attracted the attention of the remaining soldiers, but I killed them before they took a shot. An Officer was amongst their number, and searching his body revealed the access code I had been looking for.

Returning back to the hidden room, I entered the code and the door slowly slid open. A staircase was revealed behind the door, and climbing it took me past several locked doors. Reaching the top, I had to destroy two more laser turrets before moving down a corridor. A single door came off the hallway, and I could hear voices coming from inside. I opened the door, threw in a thermal detonator and hid behind the wall. Two Imperial Officers screamed out their final breaths and I moved inside.

The small control room had a window that showed a sample of a strange looking mineral being tested on top of a pillar. I would need to deactivate the tests before I could retrieve the sample, and it looked like this required activating switches on the pillar itself. A pathway leading to the sample appeared to be moveable, so I fiddled with the control panels in the room. The platform lined up with one of the doors on a lower level, and the door slid open. I ran down the stairs, across the platform and activated the switch. Looking around the room, I saw two more switches that needed to be activated. Manually.

After about five minutes of running up and down those stairs, the pillar was deactivated and a door slid open to the side of the control room. I repositioned the pathway to its original position, and collected the crystalline sample. Radioing Jan, she urged me to get out quickly and I agreed: I had murdered my way through this base with relative ease so far, but I doubt that Imperial reinforcements weren’t on their way. Heading down the staircase for the final time, I ran back through the now empty halls and back towards the front.

With the doors now open, I slipped out, knocking the platoon out with another thermal detonator. Fortunately they stand in such a close formation. I slipped back through the ice canyon, and returned to the drop off point just as Jan slipped the Crow into view. Another successful mission completed, and a new lead to follow.