Kashyyyk, 0800 hours

[Prancing Yawn]

From lightyears away from Kashyyyk on the Light of the Force, Battlemaster Valhalla patiently watched. Today would be extremely informative for him.
Six of the Galactic Alliance and it's allies' best soldiers had been formed into one sort of 'super-squad.' Most of them, the Battlemaster picked personally. Today they were being put through an exercise to gauge their ability to work together. Most importantly, it would tell Blank whether it was worth it for the Jedi to fund such a team with the high-tech equipment they needed, or not.

They were all known to be excellent shots and the best of the best in combat, so Blank made sure it wasn't an ordinary shoot-em-up live fire exercise. One thing was made clear to each member of the team - their ship would be crashing on a GA planet[the title totally gives it away, though, durrr hurrrrr] and they would have to survive for a few days in the wilderness. It wasn't made known what planet they would be crashing on, as the proper self-destruct codes had already been implanted into the banks of the ship. There would be no undoing them.

The scenario is that the team is coming back from destroying an Imperial outpost in the Outer Rim. A few days in the wilderness of any environment would probably sound like nothing to most of the members of the team, but the Battlemaster made arrangements to make sure it would test each of their abilities, especially the charismatic leader, Tomix Reiger. Blank's decision to appoint Reiger the leader of the squad did not come without much meditation and thought, as he was somewhat arrogant and mostly worked solo, but the Battlemaster did have faith - even if very little.

Invisible drones had been planted on the planet which fed a live feed directly to the Battlemaster's room on the Light of the Force, allowing him to view each of the members of the team in whatever they were doing. A squadron of Galactic Alliance fighters with a dropship were also waiting in the nearest system, just in case, if by some strange happening, something went awry..

---

"Entering Kashyyyk system in three.. "

Tomix leaned back in the co-pilot's chair, swinging his legs onto the dashboard. He interlocked his fingers on the back of his head, completely relaxed. His mask was hanging down beneath his chin, and he was dressed in full battle uniform.
"Eh, if this kooky Jedi -

no offense to you - " he looked at Tach Enarai, grinning.
" - really has this ship done in for us, it's gonna be within the next.. two systems, or somethin'."

 

[Dmitri]

Vier Ziele stepped into the cockpit, hearing the dialogue. He groaned. "I hate flying. You guys are suppose to be the expert pilots. Try to get us to our destination in one piece." His voice was full of vexation and annoyance, but there was a hint of something. Were his rebreather not on, one might notice the slight upward crease on his lips.

Vier took a seat at one of the back seats in the cockpit. He drank water from a flask. He then reclined a little. "And don't worry, Tomix, the Jedi aren't purposely kooky. They're just too cryptic that no one knows what they're saying." He gave a short little chuckle. The sarcasm had been calculated to get a response from the Jedi, Tach Enarai. Tach would defend himself and the Jedi Order, giving insight onto his opinions on the Jedi, and possibly the Sith.

 

[Black Noise]

Tach stood up, shrugging to himself and keeping an indifferent expression. Normally no Jedi would ever let a chance to 'educate the uneducated' like this one slip away, but he didn't care. Truthfully, Tach was an annoyingly stoic type of Jedi and he knew it, but he was also young enough to simply not give a crap about what people thought.

Though, he thought he might say something to make the one called Vier think, if only for a second, as his brain might be capable of thinking longer than that.
"If you really think we're too cryptic to understand then why have you given us full control of the Alliance?"

 

[Praetor]

Brok sat at a table further back in the ship. He was glad to be with another Shistavenen (his cousin Lyco), but was aware that if he was going to be a part of this team, he would need to get out of his comfort zone to work with the other operatives as if they were his cousins. With that in mind, Brok stood up and approached the cockpit to join in on the conversation. He popped his head through the doorway and growled, "Greetings. I'm Brok."

 

[Lupe]

Lyco sat with Brok, cleary overhearing the conversation in the cockpit. He shrugged, he had his experiences with Jedi, not that they were good, but he did not put all the jedi in the same ship. He watched Brok walk to the cockpit, Lyco growled, he did not want to participate in jeers but walked behind Brok to make sure he will be fine. When Brok introduced himself, Lyco just growled "Lyco", nodding towards the group.

 

[Vencu]

Corden had kept to the furthest corner, near the stern of the craft, the conversation taking place nearer to the cockpit not of any particular interest to him. He had decided to keep his reservations about the team and its members to himself. He was content to observe for now and give the assembled warriors a chance to prove themselves before he judged their worth. They were aruetiise. Outsiders. They had been held to different standards all their lives and had taken to different specializations, each unique and useful in their own way. He had promised himself that he would keep that in mind when working with them. This was a gesture of cooperation between their two governments after all. He intended to do his part to ensure it proceeded smoothly.

Without pause, Corden began to reassemble the high powered rifle whose polished components sat in his lap, piecing them together by muscle memory alone as his eyes scanned over each of the armored figures within his line of sight.

 

[Prancing Yawn]

Tomix grinned, laughing at loud at Tach's reply.
"Loooooooow blooooow, man! That was great."

He glanced out the viewport at the scenic orbital view of Kashyyyk, even though he'd see it ten times before. He acknowledged Brok and Lyco's entrance with a nod, leaning on the control board and examining it. He slightly adjusted the thrust control by twisting a dial, causing the normal whir of the engine to raise in volume slightly, then die down shortly after.

Under his hand was a blinking red light, which he discovered upon removing.
"'ey, this is it."

He leaned over the controls, inputting several commands into a small keyboard, pulling a switch or pressing a button here, his fingers and eyes moving like lightning to review every .. thing.
"Okay, our engine is dying in fifteen and we've got twenty of fuel left. Communications are dead, but they can be fixed with what we've got onboard. "

He paused, smiling. The challenge was beginning, the ship already plummeting towards atmospheric entrance.

"Yeah.. we're gonna crash. Looks like around.. a hundred miles away from any Alliance outpost. Dead middle of the forest.

Everybody gear up, grab as much rations as you can, we might not be able to salvage much. There's a speeder bike in the back, we'll take that aswell.

Go!"

 

[Dmitri]

"We haven't given you Jedi anything," remarked Vier. "That would be the pencil-pushers in the Senate. They're fools who cannot lead in battle, so they desperately search for people to do the work for them. However, they need people who won't usurp power from them. And who did they find? The Jedi, of course. The Jedi, the antithesis of the Sith and those not willing to keep power if they can keep it. And when the war is over, the Senate will pat all of you on the back, applaud themselves and claim the credit the Jedi deserve by saying it was their judgement that brought an end to the war, in order to obtain reelection."

Vier smirked. "You're also the Senate's scapegoats. All the pressure is on you. If the Galactic Alliance loses, you'll be blamed. You're the savior and expendables of the war." He reclined back a bit. "In truth, we all are. Every war needs its soldiers. Soldiers fight in wars, but in reality we're nothing but figures on paper for the people in charge. This is the case for both sides. As long as results come, the pencil-pushers care little about the casualties as long as they can use the war to obtain reelection."

Vier glanced at the Mandalorian, Corden Vencu. "The same can be said of allies. In war, warring factions tend to not like neutral states. They're rogue cards that could end up joining the enemy. It's why ultimatums are brought forth. Join, or be labeled an enemy. One could say that the Mandalorians suffered the most so far in this war by that phenomenon. The Mandalorians weren't doing much to help either side, so the Empire decided to kick the Mandalorians out of their territory to try to prevent you from being able to carry out a heavy blow against them, though if that one farce of a Holonet broadcast is to be believed, the Imperial Knights are to blame. The Empire are no fools, else they wouldn't have done so well in this war like they have been. Relations between the Mandalorians and Sith are unmendable, and thus did not seek to turn you into allies. Now, it's always possible the Mandalorians could become allies with the Sith, but it's unlikely, especially with what the Sith did."

Vier waved his hand as if to shoo them away. "My apologies, I ended up ranting on. Since we're introducing ourselves, my name is Vier Ziele." Vier had heard of a couple of the other guys, but he doubted they would have heard of him. The largest accomplishment he managed to do was kill a Sith Lord, Darth Crysis.

The pilot reported they were going down. Vier strapped himself in. "I guess we're in for one wild ride."

 

[Black Noise]

Tach nodded and replied to Vier.
"Indeed, but to think that you cannot do anything about it is quite foolish in my opinion. Besides, it is my opinion that Jedi should not lead battles, only fight them, just like the rest of you."

Tach sat down, strapping himself in and closing his eyes. He centered himself in the Living Force, the only thing he would ever fully rely on. Unlike the others, he packed nothing. He was positive that, no matter where they landed, he would be able to fully live off the land and the Force. After all, he never actually held a paying job in his life.

 

[Lupe]

Lyco nodded, and made his way to his gear, grabbing it. He did not need anything else as far as he was concerned Kashyyyk was full of prey and luckily him and Brok were two of the best hunters in the galaxy, perhaps a little exaggerated but somewhat true. He sat down and closed his eyes, bracing for impact. Hopefully the rest of his compainions would stop talking politics once they hit the surface.

 

[Praetor]

Brok followed Lyco back to the table they were sitting at earlier and grabbed his pack. He checked through it to make sure he had everything that was absolutely necessary. He do with a minimal amount of ration packs and water, knowing that Kashyyk was teeming with both food and water. He mainly filled his pack with weapons, ammo, and other equipment that could come in handy. Brok was confident he could succeed in this mission, but was aware that he might be faced with some unexpected challenges. He sat down and kept his pack next to him to make sure he didn't lose it in the impact and braced himself for the chaos.

 

[Vencu]

Corden stood abruptly, slamming a power cell into his Moru-Val Sig-7 Precision Blaster Rifle and locking it into place. Clipping the rifle buttstock to a loop near his shoulder, he silently retrieved one of the repulsor packs that lined the crew compartment and quickly attached it to his chest using the magnetic clamp at its center rather than the folded straps at the sides.

"Never go down with the ship, gentlemen. Nothing against the pilot, but a hard landing on Kashyyyk is suicide and the crash site is the first place the enemy will focus in on. You can take your chances landing this bucket in the trees, or you can punch out now. If you're with me, get on your feet! Repulsor packs on... green light in sixty seconds!"

Corden slammed a fist into the emergency ramp release button and the crew compartment lights flashed to red as the ramp itself opened to a steadily darkening sky. Night would soon be upon them and Corden knew that it would be crucial that they stuck together. Few jungles were safe in the dead of night and Kashyyyk was no exception.

"Let's move!" Corden shouted over the roaring wind, "Single file!"

 

[Black Noise]

Tach looked back, jumping out of the ship? A perfectly ludicrous idea. Tach unbuckled himself and jumped up as well. Grabbing one of the repulser jet packs from the wall, Tach decided that the ludicrous was the smartest option. Lining up behind the Mandalorian, Tach prepared the repulser jet pack and lined up to hop out.

"Sounds insane enough to be right to me."

 

[Dmitri]

Vier had his pack already with him. He climbed out of a cockpit and unlocked his locker to pull out personal rocket boots. He placed the rocket boots on.

As he strapped on his new boots, he turned to face the Jedi. "That's the deal with politics. You rarely vote for the person who has the same ideals as you, but the least worse candidate available. We don't make the decisions. We just elect some pencil-pusher to make the decisions for us. We're no better than the Empire in the respect we don't truly make the decisions on what our faction does."

Securing his equipment and having his rebreather ready while placing goggles on his head, Vier was ready.

 

[Prancing Yawn]

Tomix scanned over the controls once again, an eye trailing on the fuel indicator in particular.

"He's right. There's enough gas left in this to make a nice little fireball - and these trees ain't gonna help stop a fast moving fire.."

Keeping his eyes fixated on the controls, he put one foot on top of his chair at a time, pressing a button on the side of each boot which popped out the miniature jet repulsors. He made sure a power pak was loaded in each weapon, then locked down every piece of gear onto his armor. He peered out the viewport once again; they were approaching too fast for his liking.

Tomix's pulling of a lever on the control board opened the hatch of the back compartment of the ship, which contained a speeder bike.

"Brok, grab that bike and meet us in the forest. The rest of us get to have some fun!"

He stepped into the back of the line, eyes focused on that drop-hole. He counted down the seconds until the indicator light turned green..

..

..

"GO!"

 

[Praetor]

Brok furrowed his eyebrows at first but then nodded at Tomix's command. He and Lyco had no repulsor boots, so the speeder bike was the best choice if he wanted to escape with his life. Fortunately his pack was small enough so that he could bring it with him on the bike. He motioned for Lyco to follow him as he stood up and made his way to the hatch that had just opened. It was big enough for the the two of them and their gear. Brok jumped on the bike and looked back to check if Lyco was following.

 

[Lupe]

Lyco simply shuffled his way calmly to the speeder bike and sat down on it. He looked at his cousin "Are you sure you can drive this thing or should I put the drivers assistance on?" Lyco said with a smile. He got ready for the jump, holding on to the speeder bike. The rest had repulser packs and boots, but Lyco and Brok had a speeder bike, just the way he liked it, they were gonna have a hell of a lot more fun then the rest.

 

[Vencu]

Corden raised his voice higher, fighting to be heard over the loud rush of wind that blew across the open ramp, "Your repulsor packs have one minute of continous flight time before the power cell is depleted. You need to wait until you're close enough to the tree canopy, then hit the activator on the chest piece. It'll jerk you upward, then you can slow your descent manually by turning the activator nob. If you black out, it'll automatically activate at a preset distance from the nearest flat surface, but trust me, there's no flat surface around here for kilometers and trusting factory settings is the surest way to get yourself killed. Keep your breathing steady, don't panic when you're trying to get your footing, and try to conserve as much power as possible. We'll probably need these later."

The crew compartment lights suddenly flashed from red to green in what appeared to be the blink of an eye. It was time to jump. Corden shouted the next command as loud as he could and his helmet's exterior speaker system automatically adjusted, amplifying his voice so it could be heard over the steady drone of the engines and the constant howl of the wind that battered the doomed transport relentlessly.

"Green light! Go, go, go!"

Corden gripped a safety rail directly behind him with one hand and used the other to guide everyone out, timing each of their jumps so they wouldn't hit eachother and so the speederbike in particular would have plenty of space to maneuver. Only once did he let go of the rail behind him, and that was to slap an extra repulsor pack against the chest of the armored figure that had donned a set of rocket boots several moments before.

"You'll light up the night sky with those, burc'ya. Not to mention leave a smoke trail... do us all a favor and take the repuslor pack, yeah?" Corden nodded to the man, then gestured to the open ramp and the dark sky beyond, "You're up... Let's go!"

 

[Black Noise]

Tach, without prompt from any of the others, was one of the first to hop out of the open ramp. Soaring down through the sky, he free-fell most of the way down. Only once he was a few hundred meters away from the top canopies did he activate his repulsor pack. If it weren't for the Force and Tach's Jedi training, it was likely that he would have blacked out instantly and ended up dead.

Thankfully, despite the extreme jerk on his body, he stayed conscious. He deactivated the pack once it had successfully stopped his fall, and reactivated it once he hit the canopy tops. After hitting a few smaller branches and expending a little over thirty seconds of the pack, he found a nice, large branch and landed on it.

Tach stopped and concentrated through the Force. Using Force Cloak, he made himself entirely invisible in his surroundings. Such a power required his complete concentration, but he could hold it for extended amounts of time as long as he had no requirement to concentrate on anything else. Looking about, he waited to see if any of the others decided to follow his direct route and land near him.

 

[Dmitri]

Vier Ziele felt the thrill flow through him. Adrenaline pumping through his veins.

"Fine," said Vier in response to Corden.

Grabbing his packs, Vier took the repulsor pack rather, using it instead of his rocket boots.