[Closed X-Guild RP] Pathway to Stone - Sith'ari Path & EPOCH Only

After Thumb attached his breathing mask, he prefered to wear to partially hide his face and adjusted his wrist-attached device to scanning mode, he got off the ship. Immediately sharpening senses, a various sounds overwhelmed his brain. He stood there motionless, dividing the sounds to avoid confusion later. Even he was taken by tranquility of this place, untouched by any sentient spieces. His concentrated state was disrupted by a voice in his commlink. Aleena's instructions. After hearing them, he joined Keel in the front and they started to advance.

Moving through the forest, Thumb never let his senses down. With wrist blades detached, ready for any danger, he was pointing his big eyes in every direction in front of them.

Getting further, his scanners started to pick movement. Immediately, his companion Keel reported it as well. Visions of battle, blood and violence were appearing in his mind, visions he embraced in.

"I will try to outflank the source of the movement as soon as I'll see an opening." said Thumb via commlink, " My blades are powered with electricity, single successful hit will send out a charge capable of complete muscle failure. Increasing the intensity of discharge will lead to heart-stop."

As the readings on scanner were getting closer, he maintained battle stance. Anxious for any possible bloodshed. " Just tell me if you want it dead or only disabled Chief."

"Yes i felt it, and of course, ill share any discovery i find or feel with you."
He replied

As the group ventured off into the unkown forrest, the two agents in front picked up a life form.

Darth'Ishad paused lifted his head in the air a tad, and tried to catch the scent of what ever it was. Then before he could catch it he looked to Aleena,

"Do you feel it?"

Moving up into the cockpit he came across Skursir sat at the controls, Skursir was a Trandoshan and a perfect example of why you should never judge a book by its cover or or basically a lesson for Jylan on why not to be a speciesist, he'd never trusted or liked Trandoshans before, always spitting and hissing in their unnatural way, they were also renowned for their violence but Skursir was the ultimate professional and one of the only people he'd truly clicked with since his arrival in EPOCH.

"It'ss okay, Jylan. We're jusst sscouting forward now, you can go back to ssleep if you'd like..." Skursir said with a smile.


“I'd never sleep on the job”, he said with a grin, “Anyway if you've sent out the scout party I should be working as well”, he looked out the cockpit viewport at the planet they were now on, he always liked it when he slept through a journey and woke up somewhere new, it always left him slightly in awe.

“You always take me to the nicest of places” he said looking at the lush environment outside, “I'll go set up the communications decryptor, this place doesn't look inhabited but we'll see what it can pick up”, he patted Skursir on the shoulder and moved down into the hold.
Shuffling over to cargo storage he pulled a large metallic case from the wall and took it over to the exit, again breathing in the the fresh air from the planet Jylan felt more alive then he did cooped up in space ships or living in the constant fumes of Coruscant.
Flipping open the case he pulled out a connecting wire and plugged it into one of the on board communicator ports so the data would be sent up to the bridge and turned on the machine, the screen lit up and began its automated scan of all the local transmissions, “Its all set Skusir just let me connect dish to the communications array” he shouted up the stairs.
Pulling the array extension from the case he steeped out onto the still warm hull which was steaming in the humid environment and pulled himself up onto the roof, the array was too sensitive to be attached through planet fall and needed to be attached each and every time they landed. “We need a better ship” he mumbled as he connected it to the clump on antennas attached to the hull, he walked over to the front of the ship and stuck his head in front of the view port, “You getting anything S!?”

"Do you feel it?" Darth'Ishad said in his quiet, confident voice and Aleena was just about to reply when the familiar sound of a light-saber being activated could be heard followed by the sight of a twi'lek leaping from within the undergrowth.

"Take Cover!" she yelled into her communicator in an attempt to make both Eamonn and The Thumb scatter and assume more defensive positions but their over-confident attacker was moving with increased speed and had already covered 90% of the distance in one leap and was heading straight for Keel.

Eamonn was fast as well-trained, but his next movement was liable to be a dodge; being on the end of a light-saber was not preferable for anyone.

Unclipping her own lightsaber from her belt, it lit up with an eerie red glow and characteristic hum.

"Take him alive," she contiuned calmly into the communicator. "We need information."

At the same time she lifted her other hand and unleashed a wave of Force energy in an attempt to knock their opponent back before he hit the forest floor.

Jylan dashed off to work with his specialist equipment. The man would have made a good smuggler - fast on his feet, good with ships, and women too. Skursir remembered when they had first met, the man had a female companion, whatever happened to her, the Trandoshan didn't know. She was probably whipped up by another man.

For a time, the bridge was quite. Faint murmers and sounds were heard coming from the hold. His employer, Creed, came in, he too looked tired though with enough energy to make an order. "I'm ssorry ssir, we do not sseem to have any refreshmentss other than water and carbohydratess...". Skursir said emotionlessly, hoping that the man wouldn't hold it against him, he was probably used to good service, not recognising that his employer had made a joke.

Before Creed could reply, static started coming in from the ship's communicators, though not the ones linked to the scout team. Jylan must have succeeded in hooking up the decryptor, although as expected - nothing. No, wait. Something faint was coming in.

“You getting anything S!?” The Zabrak shouted through the view port. Just then, words became clear.

"Uni..ntifyable Tran...zzz...essel land...zzzzz...iles south ea...zzz...emple ..zz.. Guiding Light. Reque...zzz...ilable guar...zzz...e on the look...zzzz.. more Twi-lek ...zzz... Report to ...zzz... arnas if ..zzzzz..thing. Be on guard ...zz...may have ..zzzzzzz... do wi..zzzzz...urbance ..zzzz... Kurnos sensed."

The transmission cut out there, the speakers rumbling back to static. "Check the frequency for any more messagess" Skursir told the Bothan captain. The Trandoshan nodded over to Jylan who must have been listening, or at least trying to through the view port.

What had the words said? Someone must have seen them, which means that they aren't alone in this forest. Guiding Light. Was that a metaphor? And what had this to do with Twi-leks? They had been told to be on guard though so they new that someone was coming. Better tell the scout team. Skursir opened up a communications link: "Sscout team, look out for guardss, ssomeone know'ss we're here". Almost immediately, there was a loud, "Take Cover!" from Aleena, perhaps it was too late.

"What'ss going on over there?!" Skursir yelled down the communicator with a rasping hiss.

Location: Forest of Tython
Terrain: Dense vegetation with several small clearings
Transmission Proximity: 10 miles

---------------------------------------------

Klahn had almost reached the warrior before he was thrown back by the force. It felt like a whole weight had been swung into his side, but no matter, he quickly leapt up and started pounding towards the person who had delt the blow, a Sith Witch wielding a red lightsabre blade. A slave driver to the force if he ever saw one. With yet another cry, he swung his own lightsabre horizontally aiming at the woman's waist.

Location: Forest of Tython
Terrain: Dense vegetation with several small clearings
Transmission Proximity: 9.5 miles

Upon hearing the scream of the attacker and gaining visual, The Thumb made a series of quick movements in a circular pattern to outflank the hasty lightsaber-bearer, possibly attacking him from the back when chance would appear.

As Aleena ordered to, he set his wrist blades to disabling discharge only, to prevent killing the target. He prefered this choice, because thinking of latter torture and blood when possible interrogation would appear cheered him up and strenghtend his resolution to strike perfectly.

Expecting that Siths wouldn't let him attack so easily, he waited. A massive force wave had the incautios twi'lek knocked back strongly, but he decided for yet another mindless attack. To this point, The Thumb had been watching for an opportunity very closely.

The opening was clear, he was too concerned with Aleena, that he seemed to forgot about others. That's when The Thumb turned his stealth field generators and decided to make a quick dash from a side, possibly crouching at the very last moment. With blade aimed at his back, specifically the spine. His other blade, covering the twi'leks striking arm. Wrist blades, were made from Mandalorian iron, so he was hoping that they could withstand some punishment from a lightsaber if needed.

Keel, blaster rifle raised and ready, observed the highlighted and outlined target through his visor's tactical display which was moving steadily through the undergrowth towards them. It paused for a moment then a wild cry pierced the air as a lightsaber was activated and the target leaped towards him with unnatural agility. A split second later Aleena's voice warned over the comm, “Take cover!”.

Tracking the attacker with his rifle in it's arial assault, Eamonn barely hesitated before obeying his Chief's order. “Take him alive” she added as Keel tensed ready to move. The airborne aggressor brought his lightsaber to bear in a sweeping overhead attack as Keel ducked and rolled to the side feeling an eerie pushing clip his shoulder upsetting his dive. Immediately regaining his feet he remained in a crouching position and watched as what he could now identify as a Twi'lek Jedi of some type, crash to the forest floor, repelled backwards a few paces from where he and his blow should have landed.

Keel watched as his companion known as 'The Thumb' activated a stealth unit and after that hadn't a clue what that one was up to. As the Jedi lay sprawled on the fallen leaves Keel made a quick check on his other companions status and saw that Aleena had her own red lightsaber extended and was ready for the Twi'lek who had already collected himself for a charge towards the woman.

Again, Keel tracked the target with his blaster rifle but remained ready until ordered (or otherwise prompted) to intervene. The helmet's visor hid his grin as he watched the Jedi begin his attack. This should prove educational, he thought to himself.

Bringing the glowing red blade into position to meet the Jedi's onslaught, Aleena watched his movements as he charged her with renewed vigour.

He showed a lot of agression for a Jedi, an angry passion burned in him and he had hate in his eyes; he meant for her death if he could achieve it - hardly fitting for one of the Jedi Order....

The Dark Jedi had to stiffle a slight grin as she came to a realisation: the way the Twi'lek handled the blade, his movements and focus...he was using Shii-Cho. the first and most basic form of lightsaber combat. It all made sense now: the brash attack, the sweeping movements and overconfidence... this one was a Padawan Learner!

Aleena herself knew many of the Lightsaber fighting forms, some at a more basic level than others; but her old Master - Neabel - had painstakingly taught her the very complex and refined Juyo Form over the last sixteen years and it was more than a match for this Younglings' over-stretched posturing.

At the very last moment she changed her stance and calmly brought her blade up to meet his in a clash of sparks mere inches from her waist line, calmly fixing the frowning Padawan with an icy stare.

"I wouldn't," She said matter-of-factly. "Even if you were somehow to best me, young Padawan; the others would cut you down where you stand. Two snipers are at your back and several more are in the tree-line. Even the greatest Jedi cannot deflect that many unseen blaster bolts."

Holding the two blades in place, a slow wicked grin spread across her face.

"...and my colleague behind me is far more unforgiving than I." She tilted her head toward Darth'Ishad as she spoke, never once taking her eyes off the Twi'lek.

She had seen The Thumb dissapear and could not tell his exact whereabouts but knew from previous experince working with the hunter that he would be close, lining up a "killing shot". Keel was poised and ready, only Darth'Ishad was an unknown quantity but she suspected he would more than live up to his companions respect. The Twi'lek would be insane not to stand down.

Yet he was young, and the young are impulsive...

Klahn's blade was parried, the woman was good enough with a blade, but now she was taunting him with her warnings and threats. She nodded her head over to the other Sith, but the Twi'lek knew better than to break concentration. He leered at the near-human, bringing his face closer. "You don't deserve the force," and he spat in her face, then bringing his lightsabre over for an overhead strike. He was aware that there was only the one warrior behind him now, the other must have ran - and rightly so. He was the best.

Vaelyndor only half heartedly listend to the chatter between the ships crewmates as they went about setting up a communications array. Gazing out of one of the ships small, circular, viewports the lush vegetation surrounding them seemed quite unnatural and alien to the young warrior. His home planet of Rhen Var as well as Korriban, the planet on which he now spent the majority of his time, were devoid of such abundant plant life. Before his thoughts could dwell long on the matter, a burst of static masking a broken transmission could be heard from the ships speakers. The Executor had suspected an organized presence on the planet, most likely the origin of the transmission they had received or perhaps in search of it.

Closing his eyes, Vaelyndor turned his focus inwards and visualized all the information he knew about this operation, trying to form a clear, coherent picture out of the chaos. Shortly into his meditation, he felt a disturbance in the Force. Once more redirecting his thoughts outward, he focused on the distant presence of Darth'Ishad. After a few moments, the warrior walks close to Sharasvar, "Darth'Ishad and the scouting party have come under attack by a Force user." The Executor gives a slight grin, "The plot thickens."

Fel could almost feel sorry for the child if he didn't seem so pathetic. Killing him would be doing the Jedi Order a favour in the long run however, and she would hate to see that happen.

As the boy raised the glowing blade above his head, gripped tightly in both hand as he prepared for a killing blow, Aleena rolled her eyes in disbelief at his rudimentary mistake: exposing his entire frame to attack in one all-out, do-or-die strike.

He would be so easy to kill, but instead she stood there calmly, biding her time for the exact moment to act. When it came she moved with feline grace, eloquently side-stepping out of danger as the Twi'lek, with the full momentum of his body-weight behind him, found himself engaging with empty space. Stumbling to maintiain his balance the blade burned into the soft earth as Aleena took another couple of steps back and switched off her lightsaber.

The poor boy was now face-to-faceplate with Darth'Ishad with Keel and The Thumb moving in unseen....

Klahn fell to the ground. How had this happened? He was about to whip back up when he felt a cold blade at his back, turning his head quickly, he saw nothing. No, a shimmer. The other warrior must be using the force to conceal himself. A Sith Assassin! A coward! Now he was at the feet of the other force user - trapped. He'd never seen that race before - a masked reptile. Inferior no doubt, but never the less, Klahn half expected a lecture. He had been at his master's feet many a time and each and every one of those times Master Darnas said something along the lines of "You lose yourself in your anger" or, "You lack grace in your movements". Now, he had been bested by what? Pawns!

"I will never convert to your disgusting religions!" Klahn yelled up to the alien. "You're not getting anything from me! Go tell your precious Emperor that he made a mistake of coming here! There are hundreds of us here! You can't kill us all!" He laughed hysterically. He could feel the blades digging into his back, and now his arm. He felt it getting numb. "Run like the cowards you are!"

Attack fortunately turned out as Thumb have planned. With his companions succesfully maintaing attention, the unaware twi'lek hadn't a clue about the unseen attacker.

Thumb wasn't paying attention to his babbling after landing a blow, he enjoyed the noise of a cracking spine and stopped his blades right after they pierced through spinal marrow. " So reckless, not even electricity was needed to render him immobile. ", he thought while standing up and enjoying a view of the crippled jedi. " You're free to WALK away now ! " said Thumb and started to laugh heartfully. Still chuckling, he raised his head towards Keel. " Nice dodge in that heavy armour of yours. "

Crouching down he started to wipe his blades into the jedi's clothes. " Shall we return to the ship for interrogation?" he turned to Aleena slightly, with satisfied expression in his eyes.

Sharasvar frowned while listening to Vaelyndor. Force users, here? Were they walking into an Imperial trap? He could not feel a strong imprint of the Dark Side in the vicinity, however. "Unless they were ambushed our scouting team has the advantage of surprise. They'll be able to deal with anything that crosses their path. I hope they are smart enough to take some prisoners, so we know what we're up against on this planet."

"Unless it's a lone hermit, we should consider the possibility of a hidden Jedi or Sith academy, which means hundreds of inimical force users - and trouble. Lots of trouble. If there's a hidden base here, their sensors will have detected our landing by now. Probably they are sending a team to intercept us. So we should either prepare for further hostilities, get away from this location as soon as possible, or cloak our identities and intentions. In either case, we should convene with the Trandoshan."

As the situation unfolded with this, jedi insect, Darth'Ishad stood in one place watching the woman. Her style and how she reacted to trouble, he could see the disapointment in her as the jedi chose to strike.

-This one is weak a discrace, i think you should eliminate the problem-

The voice inside Darth'Ishad, Khronos, was angry. He hated jedi more than anything and would do what he had to do to get rid of them. The padawan landed at his feet, the Kaleesh cracked his neck and extended his arm lifting the jedi into the air only at aye level though.

"My friend, why do somthing so foolish when you know you are only a insect compared to us?" His eye never blinked once while staring into the young ones eyes.

"I fear the choice you made will not bode well for you, this will be painfull, but give us the information we need and ill do my best to make it quick." He paused for a minute, looked to the team, then back to him "or me and my very nice friends over there will make these next moments of your life worse then hell."

-My anger is yours, my power is yours, use it on this insect-
A surge of Khronos's dark energy flew through Darth'Ishads veins.

Vaelyndor nodded, knowing the truth of the historians words. "Aye, regardless of the attackers origin, I agree Skursir should be notified. Darth'Ishad is nearly beyond my range to sense his emotional state, and I am only able to do so now because of our close familiarity. If we are to alter our course of action or leave the ship early, they need to be informed sooner rather than later."

Leading the way to the bridge of the ship, the two Sith'ari councilmen set out to alert the trandoshan of recent developments.

Padawan Klahn heard a sharp crack, but felt nothing. He felt number and number, trying to use the force to stay awake, increase his alertness. These mongrels were torturing him! He was suddenly off his feet, levitated off the ground. No, his arm was being held by the alien lizard. He was speaking to him. Something about information and hell. Huh, they wouldn't get anything out of him, any... thing... And with that, Klahn fainted, the pressures of true combat and his injuries, not used to real ones, were too great, although it made no difference to his already limp body.

-----------------------------

Master Darnas meditated. He looked through the force, swam through it like it was water, basked in it's glory and searched every light. He read force like a star map, noting constellations of lights. But there was a darkness, somewere, somewere...
"Can you see it?" Kurnos awoke Darnas from his concentration. The Kel Dor frowned at his colluege, before continuing. "It feels strange, cold. An anomaly in the force." He sighed, staring blankly into space.
"What of the ship that landed close by?" Master Darnas interrupted.
"Hmm? Oh, it landed south east of here, about two miles. I've told the sentries to be on the look out for more Twi'leks..."
"I don't think it's refugees, Kurnos"
Master Kurnos stroked his chin. "Fleshraiders?"
"They don't come this close to the Temple" Master Darnas replied, "No, whoever it is doesn't want to just pick off padawans."
"Maybe they're searching for the same thing that we are"
"Maybe"

-----------------------------

Skursir angrily shook the communicator, "Sscout team! Report! What iss going on out there?!" He shouted into the microphone. There had been a lot of banging coming from the other end, although the Scouts seemed to have the upper hand, with faintly hearing Darth'Ishad's threats. He gave a great groan, this was a good start.

He suddenly detected movement, swivelling round to face Vaelyndor and Sharasvar. It just occured to him that the crew were absent, probably taking a break, and Jylan was no-were to be seen. "Ah!" He gave a deep bow, "Newss from the front line, lordss. The Sscout team sseemss to have engaged an enemy. I'm jusst trying to contact them now."

Aleena watched with delight as the hapless Twi'lek struggled pointlessly against Darth'Ishad's iron grip...it was like watching a Tatooine Firebug trying to escape from under the claw of a Krayt dragon.

Suddenly the voice of Agent Skursir roared across her communicator. He didn't sound happy.

"Sscout team! Report! What iss going on out there?!"

Tilting her head in aggrivation at the loud and intrusive sound, she replied to the Trandoshan.

"Agent, this is Fel reporting in." She wanted to reply and stop shouting! my ears are close to bleeding point... but thought better of it. Instead she continued with:

"We have encountered light resistance, nothing we can't handle. Our group was attacked by a rather....overconfident Jedi Padawan. It seems likely that there is a Jedi presence on the planet but size and relative strength remain unknown. We will question the boy further....when he regains consciousness but our primary objective remains unhindered. I will report back in as soon as we have an update."

Taking one look at the slumped and unconscious twi'lek she concluded with:

"Is there anything to report back there? Are the sensors picking up anything that might indicate a presence near our location?"

After hearing the message coming through the communicator, Skursir smiled at his company, "And there you have it." Making another grin, he raised his hand, "If you would excusse me?". Satisfied that there were no interruptions, he turned to the mike.

"Chief Operative, good to hear from you. I tried calling you but you were occupied, pressumably in the action." Skursir remembered the current situation. "Jedi, eh? Negative, continue your movementss with caution. Tie up the Padawan and ssend me your current co-ordinatess. I'll ssend Jylan round to pick up him up on hiss Sswoop sso we can interrogate him here ssafely. We alsso recieved a message from a community of some kind, I think they've sspotted us and have been told to be on guard."

With that, Skursir typed something into the communicator and hooked his own datapad to the computer, typed some more and then, he and directed a message to Jylan, "Jylan, I'm patching some co-ordinatess from Aleena to your Datapad, can you pick up a prissoner, he'ss a male padawan, but should be bound."

Skursir then turned back to the Sith'ari Path. "Ssorry for the dely. You heard for yoursself that we have a Jedi, I'm ssure that thiss will help uss find the transsmission - or at leasst know what we're up againsst..."

Sharasvar narrowed his eyes. "A Jedi padawan seldom travels alone, Ambassador Skursir. The Jedi are quite protective towards their young apprentices. If there is a larger community of force users here, we might have been spotted already. If we have been spotted, they will send a team to investigate. And it will probably not be another lonely padawan. Of course, I do not want to intrude on your authority, let alone dictate the technicalities of this operation, but I advise extreme caution nonetheless. Perhaps we should evacuate, or fly under the radar and hide the ship elsewhere."

"Thanks" Keel replied to 'The Thumb's' compliment. He now stood facing out into the forest, blaster rifle at the ready, scanning the vegetation for other life-forms or signs of movement. Shifting slightly he tapped at his suit's wrist mounted interface and narrowed the scanner's digital comms receiver to a wavelength band more commonly used for transmissions by Republic and Jedi forces. You never know, if they're not expecting company someone might get sloppy.

He resumed his watchful stance, and explained to his companion, "The suit's new and fairly top of the line. But the jetpack is custom" Keel shruged one shoulder. "It might not have the range or lift capacity of standards but I don't get stuck in air ducts anymore" the unseen grin could be heard in his voice.

Keel glanced back at the two wizards. It seemed strange to him that they were delivering the prisoner back to the transport for interrogation. He'd have thought between the two of them they could brainwash the pathetic lump, or suck whatever knowledge they'd want right out of his head. He snorted in derision at his own ignorance; it was these sorcerer's mystique that was most powerful about them. In this moment Keel resolved to overcome his own superstitions and treat this mission as an opportunity to study these 'friendly' Sith. His natural repugnance of Force-use was slowly being overcome by curiosity, piqued by this glimpse of it's apparent limitations.

Yes indeed, this mission would prove very enlightening.

Vaelyndor nodded in agreement with Sharasvar's recommendation, "I, too, would advise at least a slight relocation of the ship. Our current position is compromised, regardless of the strength of the enemy presence." Thinking to the padawan, the Executor frowned. "Sharasvar is right, padawans rarely travel alone. We need to locate this Jedi threat and, if possible, neutralize it before our entire operation is derailed."

Skursir looked from one Sith to the other as they spoke in turn, "Right, we'll take off after Jylan comess back with the padawan. I think the Chief Operative and her group will know to keep cautiouss but I'll pass the message acrosss..." The Trandoshan took the communicator and spoke into it:

"Sscout team, we have reasson to believe that there iss a community of force users on this jungle. Look out for a town or villiage of ssome kind and to keep your pointss ssafe, keep an eye out for more Jedi". Skursir didn't stay long enough to hear a reply. He made a sharp hiss at a crew man coming out of their quarters, "Warm up the enginess, we'll be moving ssoon".

He turned back to the Path, "We'll be waiting for a while, but I'm ssure our sscouts can handle themsselvess..."

"Jylan, I'm patching some co-ordinatess from Aleena to your Datapad, can you pick up a prissoner, he'ss a male padawan, but should be bound."
A padawan....? What type was that, he knew that was the name for a Jedi apprentice but was it the same for a Sith? Either way it wasn't a good thing landing on a remote planet and encountering a Jedi straight away or landing on a planet and encountering a Sith hostile to the Path, he didn't know what could be worse …...then he did.
“Should be bound....!?!”,he said annoyed ”He'd better be I'm no heading out into the Jungle to pick up a loose Force User”, he said with indignity, in truth he was already preparing to move out, he clicked the communicator on the side of his head and slid down the side of the ship into the entrance hatch.

It was always easier to take orders then to give them and he liked someone else to do the thinking for a change instead of planning and executing missions himself, that said his orders recently had left him somewhat at odds with himself.

He quickly mounted the mechanical lifter in the storage bay and lifted the speeder from the wall and set it down, heavily modified it had a custom cannon on the front along with a more standard repeater, plus an area for cargo on the rear.
He moved it to the entrance and set it down, stowing the lifter he grabbed his rifle some rope, just in case, and straddled the long spear like vehicle, sitting for a second he grinned and shoved the accelerator to the max and shot out the door.

Following the co-ordinates on his nav system he quickly made it to the rendezvous, the scouting party stood there in separate states of readiness, Aleena of course looking as cold as ever even in the humid climate, they were surrounding a Twe'lik who now lay in a heap.

“Is this him?” he said pulling up beside the group, “Have you actually left anything for me to take back?”

Listening to Skursir's update, Aleena responded with a simple "Roger that."

As she turned to face the collapsed Padawan she studied him for a moment. He wasn't paticularly old which would indicate it was unlikely he was here alone and, from Skursir's intel about a Jedi community of some sort, her instincts told her that they should be prepared for anything, especially a trap.

It was amid that train of thought that Agent Jylan appeared on his swoop bike, brandishing some restraints.

"Is this him?” he said pulling up beside the group, “Have you actually left anything for me to take back?”

Her mind was elsewhere when she answered him, and it turned unintentionally into a snap remark.

"He is alive. That will suffice."

If this place was a trap of some kind then they would regret their choice of prey. No mercy.

Breaking from her reverie she turned to Jylan and her diplomatic mask was replaced.
"Carry on, Agent."

A quick glance around at the rest of scout team showed nobody to be hurt, but everyone still on alert after the attack. They had performed admirably but she felt no need to congratulate them, they were professonals after all. ...and besides she smirked to herself I'm sure they all enjoy pointing out how good they are.

Turning to address the group she continued:

"Circumstances have altered but our primary objective remains the same. We will continue to the rendezvous and contact the ship as arranged. Thumb, Keel, take point."

Her eyes scanned the horizon, looking for unseen threats and conjouring ghosts.

"Move out."