Above the treetops [SJO Exploration]

[Milla Caranthyr]

Location: Emergency landing zone on unnamed jungle planet, Wild Space.


Water slowly dripped off almost every surface as steam lazily rose from the ground, only adding more moisture to already muggy conditions. A heavy afternoon rain had kept most everyone cooped up inside the exploration vessel, and now that the rain had let up, a few weary souls ventured out for fresh air.

Milla watched an oversized, brightly colored moth go fluttering by. She had attempted to catch it several times already, but it always stayed just out of reach. Her toes sank into the mud soaked ground as she braced to jump for the insect again. Unfortunately the moth had other plans and drifted further up into the canopy.

She gave a huff of agitation before starting back towards the ship. Her bare feet splashing through the mud as she ran back to the loading ramp where others were starting to gather. In the distance, she spotted several large structures reaching above the forest canopy. They had spotted them during their emergency landing on this planet. Well, more like almost hit them during the landing since the fog had been so thick.

The ship she had been traveling on made an emergency drop out of hyperspace earlier that morning. She didn't understand half the mechanical lingo tossed at her when they tried to explain what happened. All she knew was that they were lucky to find this place.

She came to a stop at the bottom of the ramp, all the while trying to wipe the mud off her brown Jedi tunic and matching shorts, but only managing to make them muddier. Her blue eyes gazed around to see who else was gearing up for the journey to the nearby structures.


[OOC - Any SJO welcome to join. Any other LS are welcome (Just PM me.)]

 

[WolfMortum]

Bekk Mag'ra had spent the majority of the time working on the vessel's engineering bay alongside the rest of the maintenance team since they had crashed down upon the unnamed world. Working on smaller vessels was one thing, but a ship this size took days to repair and it didn't seem as though they were going to have the equipment to overcome the damage that had brought them down. At this point, he didn't understand what had happened in detail, but there'd been some kind of malfunction that had caused a fire and spread out across the bay killing two of their people and forcing the crew to bring her out of hyperspace and down upon the nearest world within their reach.

As the rains had passed and Bekk had come to realize that no matter what his efforts, there didn't appear to be much hope for the Exploration Ship to fly again on its own, the Zabrak Jedi Knight stepped out into the open air seeking to get a better impression of the ground they'd arrived upon. There were other Jedi with them of course, some old and some young, but the majority of them were accounted for. He'd been on the job as a means to assist the Silver Jedi on a temporary exploration gig, having signed on via the Academy Network, but this had all gone and taken a completely unexpected turn.

 

[Audren Sykes]

He had heard that it galled pilots to be passengers on vessels they were capable of flying. Not all pilots of course, but enough for the sentiment to be known. Audren was good enough at flying to stay in the sky, but put him against an experienced dogfighter and he'd be the one flaming out every time. Thus it didn't normally bother him to simply ride on another vessel. Unless it crashed of course. He reserved the right to be annoyed if it crashed.

The vessel had dropped out of hyperspace unexpectedly and eventually ended up dirt-side. The Sephi had been in his bunk at the time, but had been told that a fire had caused the deaths of two crew members and severe damage to several systems, including the recording system that might have told them what happened. The repairs were apparently urgent and required that the ship not be in space for the duration. Either that or they'd lost control and didn't have a choice but to ground the ship. Though he owned a company that designed and built space-going vessels, he himself was no engineer and so stayed out of the way of those who could diagnose and repair the systems.

For all the places they could have ended up, the planet wasn't the worst he could imagine. They could have encountered a toxic or even acidic atmosphere requiring full survival suits to exit the ship, with rancor-sized creatures that fed on metal deposits being the only inhabitants. Instead, the area they'd landed in was a forest teeming with varied life forms. It was a very humid climate and tended to rain or fog up easily. That tended to keep many - even the other Jedi - inside the ship for many of the daylight hours. Not much different than the planet he'd grown up on as it happened, so he was fairly close to comfortable.

There were some that the weather didn't seem to bother of course. Namely, one of the children that had come along. She apparently felt the need to explore any time she could, even with the mud and fog making the place so treacherous. Or maybe that was why she went out. Who knew, humans were odd. Satisfied that the child wasn't getting herself into trouble - she'd been chasing a brightly-colored creature - the Master's blue eyes returned to the nearest structure and the land between the two points. Before long a group of them would head towards the structure with multiple intentions: they'd be looking for parts, for supplies, and for others not accounted for, but there were also those who were curious as to the nature of the structures. Whatever their reason, it needed to be done and there was some modicum of safety in numbers when it came to unknown planets.

[member="Milla Ordo"] | [member="Bekk Mag'ra"]​

 

[Ronak]

Asking the Jedi to give him a ride after having joined them on an exploration mission had sounded like an innocent request and a good idea at that time. Naively, the Shistavanen had thought that a ship the size of the exploration vessel would not crash as easily as some of the badly patched up ships he had served before as a crew member to earn his passage. How could he have been so wrong? The thought still bothered him, when he tried to get an overview of the "landing site", if you could call it such - crash site more likely.

Repairing ships or machinery was none of his expertise. Although he had helped out several times in such situations, he could mainly follow orders like "press this button, when I tell you so" or "Bring this tool to this location", but had no detailed knowledge of what he was doing. Thus, he rather wished to get outside of this metal cage of a ship which always felt constringent for him independent of its size.

At least, when he could get out of the ship and the planet turned out to not onyl be habitable but also have a jungle forest which greatly improved Ronak's spirits. Just having trees around him, hearing the whisper of the wind in the foliage above, smelling the scent of blossoms and green leaves calmed him down. To focus on the forest, the wolfman had to consciously blend out the sounds from the crew members trying to assess the damage to the vessel as well as the smell of burnt rubber and overheated metal, but that was mainly a matter of concentration. Nevermind how bad that crash was, on a planet like that he could find means for himself and the others to survive - water and food could be found aplenty in a forest according to his experience as a scout.

The sounds of feet jumping in the mud made him turn around and focus his attention on [member="Milla Ordo"] . The girl was the main reason why he had wished to stay with the Jedi a while longer except for the convenience of getting a safe passage. The two of them shared the urge for exploration driven by mere curiosity. In addition, he felt a need for watching out for her in an older brother way since having been made responsible for her once which reminded him of his younger siblings he used to watch over back home on Uvena Prime.

The colourful insect she had been after soared into the canopy. "Don't rush off alone!", he growled in a friendly way. "Will you join me in getting to know our location?" If he did not offer her to come with him, he knew her to rush off all by herself which would be much worse. His intention was to find out whether any creatures lived here that could be dangerous for the ship or crew members and to sate his own curiosity in getting to know the planet's wildlife.

Before actually taking her along, the wolfman took a look around the camp to see whether anyone else had similar intentions and might wish to join them. To [member="Milla Ordo"] he growled: "Do you still have that tracking necklace? Who has the tracker now?"

[member="Bekk Mag'ra"]
[member="Audren Sykes"]

 

[Cassius Droma]

The fog rolled through the trees, threatening to blanket everything in confusion. In the distance, some sort of chittering animal was echoing its cry throughout the jungle. Through a mess of vines, branches, and giant leaves, a small escape pod sat on the jungle floor, still steaming and smoking. From within, Cassius Droma woke with a start, sitting up. He would have smacked his head on the door if it hadn’t been ripped off during the fall, and instead Cassius saw just the jungle around him.

With a groan, he wrenched himself from the pod and slid down the side of it, his boots squelching on the muddy ground. Briefly, he checked himself for injuries – no bad bruises or cuts, no blood to be seen – the pod had done its minimal job of protecting him in the descent. Next, he made cursory glances at his belt and into the pod to see if he had things he needed for survival. He still had his lightsaber, a few pouches of various gear, and a survival pack had stayed intact inside of the escape pod. Unlatching the survival pack from the inside of the pod, he checked it, glad to see there was some medical supplies and dried food.

His mind went through the events that had brought him here. The Pathfinders had been testing out a brand new, larger ship that would hopefully be used for longer-term exploration missions into the Outer Rim and Wild Space. Cassius had been near the engineering section when a busted conduit exploded and caused a fire. Disoriented and trapped by a wall of fire, Cassius had been fortunate enough to be by some escape pods and climbed into one as the ship came out of hyperspace and was making its way to the jungle planet below.

He had no idea whether the ship had survived the crash or not, but he hoped it did. In his belt was a small scanning device, but when he went to check it, it had been busted. Of course. After a few smacks to the scanner, it seemed fruitless, so Cassius discarded it back into the pod. His communicator was also malfunctioning for some reason – it sounded more like interference, as if something in the atmosphere was blocking his signal.

Shouldering the survival pack, he began to think of his next move. He needed to find shelter. The pod would have sufficed, and the emergency beacon probably activated, but he had the feeling any number of poisonous fauna that tended to develop in jungle environments would be attracted to the sudden commotion.

Looking up, he spotted some strange structures that, at first glance, would have looked like trees. However, they had clearly been built by someone. Civilization, perhaps? Maybe they had food, or even communications equipment. Either way, Cassius figured it would be a good vantage point to maybe find the crash site. With a deep breath, he began to walk towards the tall structures.

[SIZE=11pt][member="Milla Ordo"] | [member="Bekk Mag'ra"] | [member="Audren Sykes"] | [member="Ronak"][/SIZE]

 

[WolfMortum]

[member="Audren Sykes"] stepped out of the crashed ship, seemingly to check on [member="Milla Ordo"] and [member="Ronak"] outside within the foreign climate. "Master Sykes" the Zabrak acknowledged his superior, Bekk leaning back against the hull of the vessel with a cigarro glowing brightly with every inhale that he would take. Chip remained inside the ship, though he had retrieved the passenger manifest for Bekk when the little droid had been helping to repair whatever they could for the engineers on-board. "I'm Bekk. Pleasure to meet you, Master" he smiled in fond greeting; despite his dark skin tone, the young Jedi Knight was rather light-hearted.

"I'm afraid we haven't yet arrived at our destination" he mused, trying to make light of their situation. He took a slightly more level tone shortly there-after, however. "Hope you don't have anywhere to be in a hurry. We're not going anywhere any time soon" he frowned, dropping his gaze a moment to take another drag from his cig, soon expelling the smoke out through his nose.

"On top of the damage we've sustained, apparently a couple of the escape-pods were jettisoned on our approach" His gaze turned back to the clearing around them. Nature was rife around the crash site, though the temperature was less harsh than Iridonia's climate was in terms of the warmth. The Acidic aptmosphere however was something else, it made his skin crawl, yet his people were a stubborn kind.

The Zabrak had no way to tell whether or not [member="Cassius Droma"] had been inside one of them, only that a number of them had been launched and it remained unclear whether that was by design or by malfunctioning software. "My astromech is trying to boost what little sensor readings we can still manage, but I'm probably gonna have to go and hunt them down. You mind keeping watch over the youngin's?".

 

[Cyrus Nova]

Deep under the cover of trees the hatch to a badly damaged escape pod tore off its fastenings and flew across a clearing, landing with a clang that rang out across the jungle. Cyrus crawled from the pod bleeding from his right hand. As he shoved himself over the edge and tumbled to the ground he winced in pain. Cyrus used a tree to pull himself off the ground. The boy shivered for a second, being used to the arid deserts of Tatooine, he was very much out of his environment here. He stretched his arms and cracked his neck before climbing the same tree. Using the force to augment his leaps, he jumped to and fro until he reached the top of the highest tree near his pod. The padawan surveyed his surroundings looking for any sign of the rest of the ship's passengers.

After catching a glimpse of a rather large plume of smoke, the boy thought to himself, "Still better than stealing random kark from other scavvers all day."

He began his journey, but never touched the ground. He gracefully used the thick upper canopy of the trees to make his way towards the crash site, steering clear of larger animals, and keeping an eye out for natives. As he got lost in thought his pace slowed a bit. The events leading up to the crash were strange. Growing up among the outlaws, smugglers, and scavvers one learned things were not always as they seemed. The more he thought on it, the more he became suspected this crash had not been an accident. The masters back on Tatooine had sent him on a simple exploration after finding some "misplaced" items in his quarters. Eager to see combat this mission seemed more of a chore than anything else to Cyrus.

[member="Bekk Mag'ra"] [member="Cassius Droma"] @Ronak @Audren Sykes [member="Milla Ordo"]

 

[Milla Caranthyr]

Milla looked up at [member="Ronak"] and gave a nod. Going out into the jungle to explore was something she wouldn't miss. "Yeah, I'm going with you." His second question made her pause for a moment. "I still have the necklace, but...I think Sabine has the tracker for it."

She was glad that some people that had been on the last expedition with her had joined in on this one. Speaking of, Milla wondered what happened to [member="Cassius Droma"]. He had been missing since their landing on this planet and she was beginning to worry. She turned her bright blue eyes back to Ronak. "Do you think Cassius is all right?"

Her attention focused on [member="Bekk Mag'ra"] joined them at the bottom of the ramp. He spoke with [member="Audren Sykes"] about several escape pods that had been launched shortly before they landed. Maybe Cassiuss was in one of them. He had a plan to go looking for the escape pods while his astromech tried boosting their sensor range.

Milla turned to look at the strange structures in the distance. Maybe someone there could help them find the missing pods, or help them fix their ship. The young girl turned her attention to Bekk and pointed towards the structures. "Do you think we can get a better signal from those? Or maybe someone there could help us."

 

[Audren Sykes]

Audren was greeted outside the ship by a dark-skinned Zabrak male. Light-hearted and not depressed by the crash or the weather, went by the name of Beck. The two of them were roughly the same age if appearance was any indication - typically it wasn't - but Beck was definitely the better-informed between them. Names were important after all, and he didn't know many here.

"Pleased to meet you, Beck. I actually find this sort of environment very familiar...I'm in no hurry to leave.

Others in his companies might not be so lax regarding his disappearance, but they would have to live with it. Fortunately, the companies weren't large enough to have the rabid dogs scrambling over scraps at the first sign of trouble.

It was both good and bad news that there were jettisoned escape pods. He knew they had missing personnel, and the pods meant there was a chance they had survived. If no pods had been launched however, the chances of recovering the personnel - or more likely, the bodies - dropped to near-zero. There was now a moral imperative to at least search for those missing though. He took the news in stride and shifted his mindset towards what was needed moving forward. Ultimately, child-sitting was not very high on that list. Especially if it was this child; he'd be chasing after her not thirty seconds after the others left.

"I'm not a minder, but it looks like she already knows this one. I think I'll go with you actually, two pairs of eyes are better than one and we don't know the local fauna situation."

As he said this one his head twitched at the wolfman. It wasn't a sign of disrespect, he just didn't know names. At the girl's question though, the Sephi's right eyebrow raised slightly. She was right, there was a good chance that they would get a better signal from the towers. Comm and sensor repeaters networked in with the ship's remaining systems - especially when placed at known locations - would allow them to perform some basic location and communications tracking locally as well as potentially boost power to the outside.

Good idea. Beck, if your droid can network some comm and sensor repeaters with the ship's systems, it would most certainly be...

His words faded off as his eyes lost focus somewhat and his head tilted like he was trying to hear better. Somewhere in the distance, the Force was being used in a way it hadn't been before. He couldn't sense how it was being used or who it was, couldn't even give a good direction. The use was intentional though, the same pull against the riotous weave of the local Living Force.

...be useful. Just keep comm units handy, there's something out there that can use the Force."

His other words were unspoken for the sake of the girl: keep weapons as well. Audren and Beck, as Jedi, carried lightsabers; the Sephi also had a pistol. Since he hadn't expected trouble his other weapons and gear weren't with him, but his Jedi robes would at least provide some decent protection.

[member="Milla Ordo"] | [member="Bekk Mag'ra"] | [member=Ronak] | [member="Cassius Droma"] | [member="Cyrus Nova"]​

 

[Ronak]

That [member="Sabine Galen"] still had the receiver sounded fitting for the bad lcuk they had today. Following [member="Milla Ordo"] after her good suggestion about having the others at the ship scan the environment first, the wolfman stood a step behind the girl when she turned to the Jedi. Being not one of their ranks, he treated them with respect, but thought that it was up to their members to speak up first.

"I'm not a minder, but it looks like she already knows this one. I think I'll go with you actually, two pairs of eyes are better than one and we don't know the local fauna situation." Ronak's ears picked up the words, but unlike many mentionings of him he had heard before, they held no derisive undertone. "I am Ronak. I worked as a scout for Master Galen and his team on a previous mission", he decieded to introduce himself to ease things up. In slight suspicion, he glanced at the droids. Even if they were useful, he just could not bring himself to put trust into metal things as much as into living creatures.

As [member="Audren Sykes"] tilted his head, the wolfman pricked his ears in trying to detect any possible indication of what the man had picked up. Being neither as sensitive nor finely attuned with the force, the wolfman did not sense the soft disturbance, but his sensitive ears picked up a rustling in the trees, not too close by to be in direct visible range. Also something had changed in the environment: many birds were soaring and flying, maybe fleeing in one direction. Something was off, this much he could sense.

"The birds behave strangely, as if something disturbed the wildlife around here, many leaving this direction", Ronak pointed in the direction where the animals had come from, "and going in this one. Should we check out what disturbed them?" Turning to @Bekk Ma'gra he added: "Can your sensors pick up anything in this direction."

 

[Sabine Galen]

When their vessel had been forced to make an emergency landing, Sabine had held tight to her seat. She could get a small transport from A to B, but she did not consider herself much of a pilot. Mechanical things were intimidating, little bits and bobs, switches, countless tools... she'd leave it all to people that knew better.

Today she traveled with a number of familiar faces and a few new ones as well.

It was quite nice, she had to admit, having others to go around with. The young woman was learning that exploring did not have to be a solitary hobby. In fact, it was helpful to have company, especially when faced with trouble. As some of the other passengers were busy with the ship, Sabine made her way out – the rain looked to be letting up.

Sabine ventured out alone, taking in the landscape of the jungle world before her. It was vastly different compared to the last journey of the Pathfinders, where they had found a desert world and a rather nasty spirit.

She strayed from the ship, curious about the strange structures that peeked above the trees. But, Sabine eventually thought better of wandering off by herself. There were other presences and voices gathered outside the ship now, and she sprinted back, just in time to catch Milla telling Ronak the whereabouts of her tracker.

“It's here.” She said, catching her breath. “Sorry. I've got it still.”

Offering young Milla a grin, she immediately noticed how muddy the young one had already gotten. Oh, goodness... The others seemed to be discussing the next plan of action.

[member="Milla Ordo"] | [member="Bekk Mag'ra"] | [member="Ronak"] | [member="Cassius Droma"] | [member="Cyrus Nova"] | [member="Audren Sykes"]

 

[WolfMortum]

"As far as Chip's managed to tell, there haven't been any communications active in the area...-I've told him to keep working on the array so we can hopefully get word out to the Order" Bekk explained, soon turning to look to the towers off in the distance and agreeing with the others, "A good place to start, and likely any other survivors would recognize that too. High ground will give us a good understanding of the terrain and what we're dealing with here", survivalist training had paid off after all, thanks to his former Master.

[member="Milla Ordo"] and [member="Ronak"] were rather interested in making themselves useful, taking the initiative was something that Bekk found admirable from students of the Order; evidence that their training was moving in the right direction. "Ronak, how capable are your senses?" the Zabrak asked him curiously, the Shistavanen likely having quite a deal more ability to track a target or be led the way back thanks to the trail they were certain to make in getting to the vast structures, "We may need you to guide us back, just in case we get lost out there".

"My droid will call for me should there be any further developments with repairs" Bekk raised his comlink in his right hand for show; "But for now, we'd best make a move. We don't know how our fellow crewman are looking after such a rough landing...", and he was rather thankful to have [member="Audren Sykes"] coming along with him for that reason, if not the risk of running into a local predator of the land.

 

[Ronak]

As [member="Bekk Mag'ra"] asked him about his senses' capabilities, the wolfman found himself grinning inspite of himself baring wolfish teeth while doing so. This was a question he had never been asked before. "I'm a scout and forests are my home territory. I can track by sight or even sniff our way back blindly, if the need arises", he growled with humour playing in his voice.

Ronak's ears twitched, as he perceived the sounds of foot steps hurrying on the muddy terrain and straigthened up quite delighted to see [member="Sabine Galen"] approaching them. Confirming that she still had the receiver was a great relieve for him. Now, worrying about losing [member="Milla Ordo"] , as it had already happened to him once, would not be that much of a worry anymore.

Something potentially dangerous was acting out there, some of their crew members in those escape pods were missing and would have to be brought in in joint efforts. "Even if we would be more efficient when splitting up, we do not know what is out there and we have to bring back our comrades in the escape pods who might be injured and would have to be carried. It is probably better to go out there as a single group. The strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack, my people say. We better not weaken that strength", the Shistavanen suggested looking from [member="Audren Sykes"] to [member="Bekk Mag'ra"] to [member="Sabine Galen"] and finally with a reassuring smile to [member="Milla Ordo"] .

Gazing towards the dense jungle which surrounded their crash site on all sides where the trees had not been smashed by the crashing craft, he took stock of his equipment. His belt pouches held basic first aid material, dried meat and multi-purpose knife, attached to the belt he had a rope, vibroknife and blaster pistol. Those should suffice for their current situation, there was no time for gathering material now, when their stranded fellows needed their aid. Not being a Jedi padawan himself, Ronak wore his leather vest, breeches and boots for protection and a shawl around the neck.

[member="Cassius Droma"]
[member="Cyrus Nova"]

 

[Milla Caranthyr]

Milla's attention turned to [member="Sabine Galen"] as she came jogging up to the loading ramp. The young girl returned her grin with a smile. The fact that Sabine still carried the tracker showed how often Milla ended up being around her, and also how often she tended to wonder off on adventures.

Speaking of adventures, it seemed as if the adults were forming a plan to venture out into the forest. Where they went she went, cause she wasn't going to miss this. Although she was missing parts of the plan as her attention was caught by the moth she saw earlier as it descended from the canopy of the forest. Her blue eyes watched the insect as it drifted in the direction of the structures.

The insect drifted here and there, ever being watched by the child. Milla watched the moth land on a branch before quickly taking off. What scared it also caught Milla's gaze, but only for a second and it was gone. She could have sworn there was a set of eyes watching them from a nearby tree. Although it had disappeared the second her eyes landed on it. Whatever it was seemed small, somewhere around her height, something that could easily disappear into the dense jungle.

Milla turned to the others and pointed towards the spot amongst the trees. "Did anyone see that! I think something was watching us."

[member="Ronak"]
[member="Bekk Mag'ra"]
[member="Audren Sykes"]

 

[Cassius Droma]

He didn’t feel as though he’d been hiking through the jungle for too long a time, yet he was already drenched in sweat. The humidity was getting to him – he felt as though he could barely breathe without feeling as though he would snort water up his nose. Growing up on an icy world had affected him more than he could realize, it seemed. At least it wasn’t much hotter, else he’d more than likely had just stayed in the pod and waited for rescue.

Removing the survival pack from his back for a moment, Cassius removed the large water bottle that was magnetically attached to the side and took a large gulp, making sure not to drink the entire thing in one sitting. There was no telling when he’d come across a fresh water source again, but since he was in the jungle, he figured it wouldn’t take but too long.

Taking a moment, he tried to reach out with the Force to see if there was any chance he could find the other survivors of the crash. He thought he could feel a grouping of presences for a moment, but then the feeling petered away. Looking up, he noticed that it was in the same direction as the tall tree-like structure he’d been heading towards, so he decided to continue that way.

Before he shouldered the pack again, he paused, swearing he could have heard something from the flora of the jungle. He stood completely still, letting his eyes, ears, and other senses try to determine if there were any threats in the area. Slowly putting the survival pack back on, Cassius continued on his way, once again counting himself fortunate that he still had his lightsaber.

Eventually, he made it to one of the large, tall structures. Placing his hand on the base, he felt the material – a rough kind of bark, perhaps mixed with metal and cloth. It seemed like a real hodge-podge of different things. Regardless, it looked like it would take some effort to climb. Knowing that it would provide a good vantage point, however, Cassius gathered what strength he could and began to make his way up.

[member="Milla Ordo"] | [member="Bekk Mag'ra"] | [member="Audren Sykes"] | [member="Ronak"] | [member="Sabine Galen"]

 

[Audren Sykes]

Ronak, Bekk. And, based on the flow of the conversation, the newest arrival (so to speak) was Sabine. At least he had names that he could use instead of calling them 'boy', 'girl', 'wolfman', or whatever other descriptors came to mind. When it came right down to it, Audren would have preferred that they headed out in two groups. The Shistavanen had a point when he brought up the potential of carrying the others back. Two in each group would be good, three would be better. It really wasn't a big deal though, and the others clearly agreed, so he nodded his agreement.

One of the droids must have clearly overheard the comments about repeaters, for it had brought over two of the mobile units and trundled off to find more. They were small enough devices to fit onto a humanoid's back and clearly not intended for interstellar communications. More equipment would help, but as Bekk had said the sooner they moved the better. As a result the Sephi tossed one of the repeaters to the Zabrak and hoisted the other himself. Ronak - given the impressive physical senses - would be their primary scout, and even carrying the unit Audren wasn't noticeably hindered.

"Did anyone see that?! I think something was watching us."

As the Master was turning back to the group, the young girl threw the comment out and pointed in a specific direction. Her voice - and more importantly, her sense through the Force - had none of the playfulness that would indicate a joke as far as he could tell. However, when he extended his senses along the direction she was pointing he sensed nothing out of the ordinary. The combination brought up several thoughts, each one worrying. They had no time to care for a hallucinating child in the middle of an unknown forest, or if whatever it was couldn't be sensed through the Force it could be a significant danger. Or his senses couldn't determine when a child - a child! - was joking...that might even be worse. His eyes glanced at each of the other three briefly before he shook his head.

"I see nothing."

[member="Milla Ordo"] | [member="Bekk Mag'ra"] | [member=Ronak] | [member="Cassius Droma"] | [member="Cyrus Nova"] | [member="Sabine Galen"]​