The Dark Academy on Korriban

Wedge says, “My lord, I have Captain Harad requesting to speak with you.”

Turning to Wedge, Kristal spoke with her usual crisp Imperial tone, "Let's hear it."

Wedge says, “Yes, sir.”

He holds up the communicator and a small holo of Captain Harad forms and says, “My lord, a matter has been brought to my attention and your squad is the closest to investigate. We detected a signal burst approximately twenty minutes ago with Republic military encryption. I had my men verify it.”

“I wish to request your aid in investigating this matter.”

As the image of Harad appeared she offered the simple greeting, "Captain."

There was a glance across the soldiers she had with her, Weaver, Biggs, and then back to Wedge for a moment before finally resting back on the image of Harad. With the beast before having moved off everyone still seemed prepared and ready. If a little bit more cautious, which was good.

"We will see it done."

“You have my thanks, if you make contact use your best judgment,” he ends the call.

Biggs says, “On your word, my lord.”

"Have any of you faced the Republic proper before?" A sensible enough question to ask of soldiers assigned to the Korriban academy.

All three nod affirmative. Weaver says, “We served on Balmorra, urban warfare mostly.”

"Good," she replies with firm a nod. "Tree's can easily hide threats just as a building, do not forget that."

"We will move, ascertain the threat and act accordingly. If there is trouble," she looks to Wedge as she continues, "Wedge, be sure to inform Captain Harad of the situation."

"I trust you will know what to do, we are moving now."

Waiting a moment for anyone to air concerns, she turns toward the direction they were provided.

OOC: Survival at Average plus a boost die, spedning a Destiny to upgrade or Seek.

For a while they trekked in what Kristal was pretty sure the right direction. Then, upon the decision they should have been there by now another right direction.

They didn't seem to be getting there.

Forests were hard.

Day 9 | Boots on the Ground | Survival, Boost, [Dapper Upgrade]: 2eA+1eB+1eD+1eC 1 failure, 2 advantage

The group makes their way through the jungle but don’t seem to be making much headway. Weaver clears her throat and says, “My lord, I beg your pardon but may I speak?”

"Speak freely Weaver," she says as they stop for the moment.

“My lord, I believe we have fully assessed the area around our objective. Given your leave, I believe we can make our final approach. By your command of course, Biggs has assessed the best path of ingress,” she responds respectfully.

"Lead the way," she allowed.

Kristal never once swore to her ability to navigate a forest. Which allowed her to see the humor in the moment, if even for a bit. Not that she'd let that she while they were in the middle of it.

Biggs takes point, a natural at this and leads the group to a small camp and the signs of battle is fierce. There are no corpses but then some ransacked boxes shift and a female duros crawls free. Her tattered Republic Army uniform stained with blood.

Weaver says, “Your orders, sir?”

"Medical Training?" she asked but didn't wait for an answer, letting the implication of her words guide action, "You're with me. The rest of you secure the area."

With that Kristal made an expedient trip toward the female Duros. Watching for her reaction as they approached.

Weaver nods and follows and kneels down next to the woman and says, “She looks to be alive, probably suffered several internal injuries from the bruising and swelling. Probably in shock.”

The Republic soldier does not seem very coherent.

"Can you bring her back? We have questions that require answers."

As she directed Weaver she looked about to the surrounding area. Seeing what she could piece together herself. Given Harad's message this wasn't their work. Couldn't have been. Thus it had to be something else, but what?

“I can give her a shot of adrenalin should get her aware,” Weaver says and pulls out a shot from her medical kit. She applied the shot and the duros blinked and looked Kristal.

The duros soldier says, “Sergeant Yana Frell, Designation 4567823-X23, under Galactic Standards of war I demand to be treated as a prisoner of war.”

Weaver looks to the Sith.

Turning from the surroundings Kristal approached the Duros, kneeling before her. Looking to her straight and with a no-nonsense glare.

"Sergeant, you will have no mistreatment to fear from me, and I believe you will find my questions easy to answer."

"What transpired here?"

“The native species, we don’t have a name for them they came at us. Relentless, we killed so many and they never stopped. Violent beyond measure, some they took as prisoners… but I don’t think this species takes prisoners… I don’t know. I have never seen anything like it,” she says reliving the events.

"How much have you seen? Enough to understand their battle tactics?" she pressed.

“Close combat was preferred, they had primitive ranged weapons… bows and arrows. But they are far stronger than most humanoids and can take an incredible amount of punishment. You don’t see the corpses?” she asks looking around.

"No. Nothing so basic. Battle signs. How was their battle line formed? Was there anything different, something that was odd before the attack? Warning signs."

“Nothing like that, they were ghosts, they knew this terrain we didn’t. They used the rain as cover, it did not seem to bother them,” she says.