Private The Warrior's Forest

[Red Mobius]

Red's Uncle, almost as much of a giant as Grendel Krayt was glanced his way at Red as she went to work helping others with casualties, tending to injuries before turning back to Grendel.

"I'm fairly certain these people aren't really poachers. None of the trees here are touched except during combat. If they wanted to poach this place, they've had plenty of opportunities to do it. But they're overstaffed, over--equipped, and their aggression increased to a massive level after you arrived. The Force they sent was four times what they would have needed to kill us. Or what they think they would have needed." he spoke in his rumbling baritone.

He looked around the giant underground forest.

"I suspect they're after Red. They used the perfect bait. Her father is missing here along with our Alor. If I had thought for even one second it was Red they were actually after, I never would have brought her. She's consulting on two major projects of ours that are close to completion. Battle Cruisers we were developing for the Enclave at our dockyards."

 

[Grendel Krayt]

"Yeah sorry about the increased aggression I've been on this planet for about a week and they attacked me first so I hit them back a lot harder" Grendel chuckled. Processing the information Red's Uncle was giving Grendel believed he got what the gist of what the man was saying.

"So if I understand you right they may have captured Red's dad and Alor they may have been pressed for info at best or at worst joined them for what ever reason or even knew she was important from the get go. I'm guessing that you would like me to take Red Mobius home unless I'm misreading what you're saying?" rumbled Grendel.

 

[Red Mobius]

"Red won't leave without her father. Or the Alor. I know those two. Known 'em for decades. Neither one of them could be a traitor. Both were honorable Warriors in good standing, who had the full confidence of the clan. The Alor in particular always leads from the front. Red's father is one of our forge specialists. But it's not inconceivable they could have been tortured until they talked...even so, we have to find out their fate. We can't just leave. And even if we wanted to, we're cut off for the next four hours until our back up team decides to look for us...and they will be vulnerable to the same weapons that shot us down. We have to make our way to their stronghold somehow."

Just then Red ran up to them.

"We took more casualties. Gregar just died of his wounds."

"Damn!" Red's uncle snorted. "They'll pay for this, whoever these bastards are."

"I want in on the hunt for my father and Amar." Red said quietly. "We have to take the fight to them now. And everyone left are those still able to move. There must be a way to that fortress they shot us down from from here, it runs almost underneath it..."

Her Uncle looked to Red.

"We'll have to move deeper into the woods...and Red..." her Uncle said hesitantly.

"What, Uncle?" Red asked.

"Be very careful..." Her Uncle said, fearing telling her what he suspected would make her reckless, guilt ridden over what happened here.

Red nodded, looked to Grendel Krayt .

"Let's go clubbing..." she joked, holding up her hammer, and running off to rejoin her clan to help them get ready to move out, stripping remaining ammo from bodies, taking small pieces of their armor to give to their surviving relatives later, distributing what she took among the clan because she couldn't carry all the the small pieces herself. She said a small prayer for each fallen member as she did.

"Ge'tal's a good lass. Loyal to the Manda. She'll follow you into Hell if she respects you." her Uncle remarked. "And she's very fond of big strong guys who use giant hammers."

 

[Grendel Krayt]

With a grunt Grendel pulled the piece of shrapnel from his helmet and by extension his eye.

"Aye I can respect that she wants to get her family back. If it helps I've got a working ship not far with a med bay it may be a good idea to try and move the wounded there for the time being" Grendel said "I shall try not to disappoint you or her"

Grendel approached Red Mobius where she was tending the dead, not wanting to disturb the last rites of the clan Grendel waited until she had finished with one before speaking up.

"Red if it's not much trouble could you look at my chest piece its pretty much useless after the rocket it took" said Grendel "And I agree we need to hit them now before they have time to dig in, can you build a big bomb with parts of my ship as a welcome gift?

 

[Red Mobius]

"It might not be a bad idea, but I'm concerned about any patrols outside. Ah helll....its screwed up as it is anyway..."

Her Uncle went silent a moment, assessing the risks.

"Anybody who goes there might be at risk of an ambush. We'll have to be very careful going back there if we send anyone out." Red's Uncle explained. "But we'll risk it. Thanks for the offer...and again...thank you for rescuing my niece."

Her Uncle excused himself to begin rallying the others to head out, and when Grendel Krayt walked up to her, Red was only too happy to assist.

"Of course Grendel. No trouble." she said, removing the chest segment of his armor with a disturbingly high level of alacrity despite her hands being completely covered in armor. She examined it, before comparing it to the beskar plating of their fallen enemies before ripping a piece of the enemy armor away. She grabbed a heavy welding torch from what looked to be an enemy engineer. In the meantime, she snagged three of the second least wounded, and asked them to try and head to Krayt's ship to retrieve the relevant parts needed. They nodded, turning on their stealth fields after they got the directions. Then she set to work on fixing the chest piece.

Even with substandard parts her skill stood out as she let the sparks fly to repair his armor, using whatever she could get to properly fix certain portions into place over the damaged parts.

"Bid te jate'shya, vi akaanir o'r te werda..." she muttered to herself repeatedly but very quietly as she worked, a sort of mantra to help her focus.

Finally, after about a half hour of constant work, she fixed the armor piece, at least enough to make sure it wasn't some cheap patch job and then handed it back to Grendel.

Finally, the stealthed scouts returned, uncloaking and dropping the large bag of parts at Red's feet. Without a word she instantly set to work on creating a giant bomb from it while her Uncle rallied everyone

"Alright, here's the deal. We'll be going deeper into the Warrior's Forest. Deeper than we normally go. We're heading underground to look for a possible route to the fortress that shot down our Vessel."

"And now that our scouts came back with parts from Grendel's ship we can give the bastards a proper welcome." Red added.

We're moving as soon as Red finishes." her Uncle said.

Red worked feverishly, the bomb becoming more sophisticated and efficient looking as she worked...

 

[Grendel Krayt]

As Grendel watched Red work on his chest plate and then the bomb was mesmerizing, her skill with stolen tools and sub par materials seemed to Grendel to be on par with any master armorer he'd met.

"Thank you Red, what do I owe you for the chest piece" Grendel said "Do you have any idea how powerful the bombs gonna be? Also I'll be the one to carry the bomb and place it"

 

[Red Mobius]

"You owe me nothing, Grendel." Red replied respectfully. "We're all in this together. Besides, I wouldn't feel right charging you..."

Besides, I have a soft spot for walking mountains. Rawrrr... she thought to herself. He must huff ALL THE SPINACH. Would he mine me bouncing a coin on those muscles?

Red looked at the bomb.

"Blast Radius I estimate at...eh, point seven-five kilometers. Four to five thousand tons of Mandalorian TNT in terms of strength." Red answered, quickly doing the math in her head.

She grinned under the helmet, in spite of the deadly situation, and the unknown fate of her family. When a big strong Mandalorian wanted to carry a large deadly WMD, it was always a sight to behold.

"Well, I was planning to carry it myself...but you talked me into it! Just pretend it's candy you are delivering. Deadly candy. Which explodes. Violently." Red replied, finishing up the bomb and quickly strapping it to Grendel Krayt .

"We're ready, Uncle!" Red called out.

"Alright, move out!" Her Uncle called to every one.

Fifteen minutes later...

The underground Forest, the deeper they went, the more evidence of Red's clan became obvious, reliefs of their warriors carved into the stone. These sections were ancient, and clearly hadn't been visited in a long time.

Most of them depicted the ancient Warriors of Clan Mobius wielding giant hammers, locked in combat with strange, catsuit clad women, depicted with their face composed of many others, all screaming.

Red peered at them in seeming curiosity, not sure what these events depicted, other than some terrible, long forgotten battle, but the portrayal of the multi faced witches deeply disturbed her. She wouldn't learn who they were until much, much later.

Her Uncle signalled a stop as they spotted a fresh pile of bodies in Neo Crusader Armor. Bodies they hadn't made.

Red blinked and suddenly hallucinated others to be made of living fire. The Nameless Mandalorian in bronze Armor who wasn't there, this time female, pointing at a giant sword falling from above.

Red, so overwhelmed by the vision, stumbled backward a bit as they began following the trail of bodies.

"Red! I'm getting your dad's signall" a fellow member of the clan called out to her as quietly as possible...