Private A new time, a new threat.

[Tess Valnora]

Location: Forest
Wearing: PD-00 "Second Skin" Light Armor, Leatheris Trench coat (black)
Equipment: Oathkeeper, Shadow's Sting, Silence, Viper's Bite
Tag: Nyx N1X3 || Holt || Ciri Jade || Eternal Fallen Angel

Tess was a few steps ahead of Ciri as she looked at the trail and where it appeared to be leading when the call came over the comms. By the sounds of it, her partner was just as disappointed as she was with the information, “Bantha shab!” she said with her own disappointment. She didn’t want to return with just some footprints and sightings of people walking away from them. The Crow stood upright and looked back at the village, “That was some quick info gathering, guess that’s possible when you’re a droid and can analyze anything faster than a human.” She turned back to the trail, with the sun setting they would have a little difficulty traveling but it would still be possible to track the four villagers.

“We have to find out where they are going.” She agreed with the Raven, there was more than mere coincidence to the villagers leaving and not returning, “Like you said, ‘it may be dangerous’ and Holt said ‘no suicide missions’, but I think as long as we stay far enough back, and out of sight we might still learn something worthwhile.”

Tess tapped her commlink in response to her partner’s question, “We are going to have to put that rendezvous on hold, we think we have something. Will report back with more information, if not we will be on-site in two hours. If we aren’t there don’t look for us.” She wasn’t planning on anything to go wrong in their surveillance of the small group of villagers, but she also was expecting everything to go wrong and was prepared to deal with the consequences.

The Crow smiled once again at her fellow Raven before quietly setting off toward the four villagers, the valley, and most importantly: answers. Holt’s team gathered their information first, which meant they won the first round of drinks. But she was willing to bet her team was going to find something worth a good story in the valley.

 

[Eternal Fallen Angel]

I N V E S T I G A T E​

Despite their hushes and low volume whispers, and being dressed quite conspicuously among the hooded villagers, to this point neither the hooded droid nor the bearded leader of the group had attracted the villagers attention. In fact, they seemed as though they didn’t even notice the pair was there, barely moving out of the way to push past them as they went about whatever tasks they deemed worthy to take on. Up until this point, the pair of agents may have not noticed the lack of talking that had come over the village. It was practically silent, aside from the clicking of machinery. There also seemed to be a lack of any droids out and about, though that may very just be a product of the villages relative poverty. Nothing too remarkable there.

In the forest, despite the orders to return to the ship, the agents deemed it necessary to gather more intel. A perfectly reasonable idea. The group of four villagers seen would continue their walk together deeper and deeper into the forest, until they disappeared over a ridge that dipped downward, eventually obscuring them from sight. If the pair wanted to continue to investigate over the ridge, they might just find something very disturbing.

The crater went deep, deep into the ground. Yet it wasn’t as though something struck the ground and killed everything around it. No, the ground just sunk in a circular motion downward. The trees there had the thickest globs of the slime on them now, some even fully enveloped. This was the place that the villages were seemingly coming too, as the forest circled this small area for miles and miles. At the very middle, the largest grouping of trees completely enveloped the center of the crater. This seemed to be where the villagers were congregating and getting down there to observe what was in the middle would be impossible without disturbing them. Perhaps something left to a different time, unless the agents were feeling extremely bold.

| Holt | Tess Valnora | Nyx N1X3 | Ciri Jade |

​

 

[Tess Valnora]

Location: Forest
Wearing: PD-00 "Second Skin" Light Armor, Leatheris Trench coat (black)
Equipment: Oathkeeper, Shadow's Sting, Silence, Viper's Bite
Tag: Nyx N1X3 || Holt || Ciri Jade || Eternal Fallen Angel

It didn’t take long for the Crow to make her way to the edge of the crater, looking down the slope she realized it wasn’t an impact zone, but rather a giant sinkhole. Not wanting to lose sight of the already distant group of villagers she didn’t look to see if Ciri had joined her as she started a slippery descent into the crater below, “We have to find out what’s down there.” Tess said as she tried to move quietly. A rock came loose from underfoot and started tumbling down the slope. She quickly crouched and froze hoping nobody heard the seemingly thunderous echoes of the fist-sized chunk of debris hurl itself along.

After what felt like forever Tess finally moved to continue her descent, and meticulously made her way to the bottom of the crater. What she didn’t expect when she got to the bottom was a light fog that had started to form, creating a ghostly mood. She knew she had to be extra careful at this point as there was no knowing where exactly the four had gone, nor if there were more in the trees. Tess inched forward, keeping her eyes open and her ears on high alert, and that’s when she heard it: sniffing, like a dog, but a drier sounding sniff. It was quiet at first, but slowly grew in volume and intensity, until it sounded like it was right next to her.

The Crow stood stock still as the sniffing moved around her, she couldn’t quite tell if Ciri had made it, but she was praying to the stars she wasn’t alone. Where her wits and courage had gone she didn’t know, but this unseen being seemed to sap it all away with the hoarse sniffing. She slowly moved her right hand to her hip where her smg was holstered, making sure not to make any sudden movements as the thing made another lap around her position.