That residual nagging feeling never abated, it was a chill that competed with the coldness of the atmosphere. Dread and baleful intent thick in the air as if such intentions were atomized around them. Anything truly visible disappeared into the mists of the distant horizons. With the Rangers around her pointing their scopes to the slinking silhouettes around them, keeping their targets locked, the dropped to kneel next to her faithful astromech once more.
<Can you retrace the source of the initial anomaly report?>
What am I looking for? Validity of origin?
<And interceptions. It should have been encrypted but this many people around..I just..> she exhaled a breath that clouded as soon as it touched the air.
<How could we be ambushed out here? This feels like a trap, and if we keep going, we're just going to spring it even more. Maybe we should go back.>
Overhead, snow fell away in a sizeable clump landing on Frank's dome. She brushed it off him and snapped her sapphire gaze upward to seek out the perpetrator for the unwarranted dump.
Rrr, thank you. Give me a few seconds to warm up my circuits.
Loske frowned behind the mask like gray bandana that protected her against the frigid winds. Amidst the frozen-looking branches, was a lingering object that emitted a droning mechanical sound she was surprised she hadn't heard earlier. It looked like some sort of alien organic life, its head a multiobed, skull like-horror, its dark-lensed blister eyes training their cold gaze right at the group beneath it. From the cylindrical body, connected to it's circular head, appendages extended in various directions -- sending off signals within it's internal mechanical systems.
How long had that thing been following them before it was bold enough to be so close?
With a grimace, the girl reached up, her palm outstretched as she sought the void of the machine amidst the snow. Her fingers closed against her palm, tensing it into a fist. In reaction, the droid above them felt incredible pressure against it's plating, crunching in itself. It spitzed and spatzed, dark plumes of smoke rolling from it in protest to the crunching sensation on its circuits. No longer able to manage it's motor functions to remain afloat against the blizzard's winds, it started to spark and fall victim to the whims of the gale force of the weather. The object streaked away in a fiery course away from the group, and Loske watched intently as it crashed to the white ground and was consumed by it's own explosive brilliance.
<<“We need to form up or start moving..”>>
Loske confirmed through the comms. Uncertainty prevailed the young captain's decision-making process. There was no sense in moving forward into a trap, and no purpose in heading back to their base and bringing the bad guys with them.
<Let's deal with this now. Stay close, mark your targets and fire.>
As if in response, another blaster bolt whirred in their direction from the distance, and her sword snapped up to deter it's path. The superheated plasma was redirected from it's objective of the droid's dome to the snow, scorching a tunnel through the mass of white. It was the first of many shots that rained on the group. The Rangers held no fire, immediately reciprocating to the best of their ability through their obscured vision.
Confirmed the message was repurposed and forwarded. Well encrypted, too. Someone knew what they were doing. Tracing back to origin now, so far it matches Alliance semantics.
<I knew it. I hate the idea of coincidences. Guh!> Her sentence was interrupted by another bolt she deflected, and she peered against the whiteness to see if it had any success in hitting anything. There was no grunt or fire in response. She saw no blood spurts; the bolt swallowed by the void. She commed the wider team beyond Frank's receptors:
< -–If we can, let's try and keep one alive for questioning. If not, we recover that downed drone.>
The white and grey of the forest was soon ignited with the light fighting exchange of green, red, and blue. Agonized shouts were consumed by the winds.
