[SIZE=9pt]Location: The Planet Gashu[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Objective: Locate the source of a distress beacon[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]- In Command - [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Contact Team: [member="Iakchi"] [member="Hyonu Ye"][/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Support Team: [member="Ostdern Mastogar"] [member="Kaili Brand"] [member="Asaraa Vaashe"] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Overwatch: [member="Zak Dymo"] [member="Rick Kaloo"] [member="Finley Dawson"][/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]OP-For: [member="Saka Amara"] [member="Ravenfire"] [member="Supernal Clarity"][/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The abrupt ending to the brief interaction visibly turned Drystan's face, and she turned to glance at her companions, eyebrows expressing all that needed to be said. [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]"You're with me, Doctor."[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] She said, then turned her attention to @Iakshi, her face serious. Her fellow Jedi Knight could immediately sense her concern, and a moment of unspoken communication was shared between them: [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Stay Here. Have a look around. I don't like this. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]And then, she was stepping off, not checking behind - expecting, of course, that Hyonu would be at her heels. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Walking up the hill, Drystan could feel the dirt shifting beneath her feet - it was sandy & loose in places, and she crossed a small thicket of dead reeds (which, oddly, might have acted as a fence were it made by-hand). Her lightsaber remain strapped to her left thigh in its' ever-present & easily accessible holster, and her jumpsuit with its' utility belt and light armor stood out well against the natural earth. She approached, climbing up the steps... noting as she did how quickly the temperature dropped as she entered shade. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]She did not hesitate, stepping through the dark portal. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]~ ~ ~ ~ ~ [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]― [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Terry Pratchett, [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Reaper Man[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]~ ~ ~ ~ ~[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The house was... cold. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Colder than it should have been. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Tiny dustmotes danced like little faeries through shafts of sunlight, punctuating a dimly lit interior which was in disarray. The windows were stained, and some had been shattered long ago - immediately underfoot, she did not feel the unmistakable resistance-than-give of glass cracking under her weight, but she expected elsewhere in the house, the floor was littered with it. Many things which had once adorned the walls now adorned the floor. One of the chairs had been nearly shredded, as-if by a rapid animal. Old jars, with their insides stained, had been upended, and some had fallen. The room smelled stale with a twinge of manure. A mattress, of primitive but recognizable make, bad been curled against one wall, falling in upon itself. The kitchen (if you could call it that) was dark & foreboding... and, moving on autopilot, Drystan stopped half-way between the entrance & the stairwell toward-which she was heading. The old man was disappearing upstairs, even now. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]She stared into the placid waters, a faraway look in her eye... [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]then blinked, visibly frowning, before continuing upstairs. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]She was already considering radioing the Support Team and requesting an evac - on standby.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt](Outside)[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]- The wooded edge of the property -[/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]The stillness had traveled as far from the house as the strip of wooded land where their friends, [member="Ostdern Mastogar"], [member="Kaili Brand"] & [member="Asaraa Vaashe"][/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] lay in wait. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Asaraa, with her powerful sniper's rifle, could see much - a decent sniper's position. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]If they remained on-site for another few short hours, it would begin to get dark. The [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]Skyfall[/SIZE][SIZE=9pt] gun truck possessed its' own onboard survival equipment alongside its' heavy repeater, including a powerful Comms-Uplink which connected deployed vehicles with their mothership - in this case, The Divinity. There weren't many things moving in the dead leaves, or high in the trees. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9pt]In the distance, indeterminable through the trees, there came a long, low, mournful howl.[/SIZE]