At the Edge of the Knife

[Darth Caecus]

Felucia​

.....Four Days after Mirial​

​

​

The first distress call sounded an hour before dawn. A small trading outpost crying out, only to fall silent not long after. It was the first outpost to call- but not the first to find themselves at the edge of the knife. In the small hours of the morning two villages had been left in blood and ruins. Only the third was able to call for help before the end.... and the third was the first to burn.

It wasn't much, not really. Less than fifty in that first village, scaling up as they moved across the vibrant landscape, dulled by the clouded night sky above them. The death toll was nothing compared to Mirial, military and civilian on both sides of the divide. No one truly won that day, as far as Kith was concerned.

But her orders were to make sure that the Jedi lost just a little.
Bit.
More.

They came in the night. [member="Darth Carnifex"] had not simply ordered her to kill. No. His words had been both more general in one way and far more specific in another.

Make them bleed....​

There were living, left behind in their wake. Dead as well, but that was largely incidental to the swath she had begun to cut across Felucia. It was not necessarily obvious at first glance that it was Sith bringing death. No lightsabers, no lightning. No signs left behind beyond a thousand cuts leveled on the flesh of those only guilty of their association.

Kith didn't care if they lived or died.

Only that they bled.

The sun rose red, casting light over three locations, the third a beacon even before the light hit it. They pointed in a straight line, no deviation. It marked the likely fourth target clearly. The next outpost, larger than the last. Kith was being driven by something, pushed through the jungle with bloody hands and ash in her hair. [member="Luca Thorne"] followed, unflagging in the grim determination.... of what? Kith didn't ask. The Dark Lord's order, triggering a deeply inlaid programing to obey had changed the Sith. Not in nature, but in action. But Luca was the same as ever, and if she asked, well.... He would tell her. And in that moment, there was nothing but the curve of the knife and the lights of the next outpost at the edge of the jungle. He followed, and that was enough.

They slipped over the wall just before the sun rose high enough to kiss the top. Just before the smoke was spotted on the horizon.

The screams started a heartbeat later.

Make them bleed.​

 

[Zerrak Windwalker]

As he searches the remains of a building for survivors he sees a jedi crawling away and shoots him in the head and chuckles

 

[Eugen Aker]

[member="Silence"]

Blaster fire near a ruined house attracted the attention of a battered Ranger, Private Pyle. Wincing, he slowly dragged himself to a corner, leaning out right to see a lone stormtrooper standing over the smoking corpse of his Jedi compartiot.

With just one good arm, Pyle could only manage to handle his sidearm while his service rifle hung uselessly from a sling. His arm trembled as he brought his blaster up level with his chest. He sucked in a breath of filtered air as he focused and zeroed in on his target, aiming for center of mass.

He began to squeeze on the trigger, but his finger wouldn't finish with the pull as a blade became lodged through the back of his neck between the gap of his armor. There was a single instant of white hot pain, then nothingness as Pyle crumpled to the dirt as a corpse. One of many to join the dead of the village. Not just the men, but the women and the children too. They all bled out as one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLI3fSgccZU​

 

[Zerrak Windwalker]

looks at the now dead man and nods to the figure holding the blade

 

[Kiso]

Death, destruction, that was all she saw in the Sith, and thus despised their very nature, there was no point to this attack, no goal, no end, just needless slaughter to quench their own blood lust. It sicked her, to the very core. The Silver Jedi had long left, sought better ground, leaving their once controlled territory to their own will, their own control, freedom to do what they wished, but the Sith could not accept that. To her the Sith where the type to be like, 'your either with us or against us', and these people where not with the Sith, so the Sith killed.

"Why do the Sith not understand war, people die, that's just how war is, so why, when they are attacked, when they suffer from retaliation, they then use it as a mean to needlessly slaughter. Its like getting into a fair boxing match where you wail down an opponent, then they get a nice right hook in on you, and in turn you draw a gun and shoot his family... that just not right".

Kiso corvette flew above the jungle plants surface, the ship being well suited to patrols and exploration, its engines humming loudly as it made haste towards the distress signal, smoke filling the air, clouding the sun with a dark dusty shadow, almost a bad omen for the rest of the galaxy. "Try and find us a decent landing ground, well land, see what survivors are alive, but must not stay to long, the Sith will no doubt try to track us, and I do not want them finding the main fleet, got that".

[member="Silence"] l [member="Arisa Yune"] l [member="Darth Caecus"]

 

[Zerrak Windwalker]

As silence walks past the burning buildings he winces at the screams of the people dying as he walks he sees a ship and decides to follow it while griping his rifle

 

[Kyle Raymus]

Planet: Felucia
Location: Small clearing in the jungle
Equipment: The Excalibur, Refurbished Mandalorian Armor (Complete with Vambraces and Jetpack), SD-61 assault rifle, Grenade bandolier.
Enemies: [member="Silence"] , [member="Darth Caecus"]

Death. Destruction. Blood. War.

That is what the sith brought to the table of galactic existence. Nothing else. No progress. No sympathy. No compassion, no help to the galaxy. They were a chaotic evil, and unless controlled, they would decimate the universe as we know it. That is what Kyle thought of the Sith. He hated them. Simply hated them. To him, they were nothing more but a plague that murdered, cutting through life like a hot knife through butter.

Kyle winced as he saw the burning villages. The dropships approached the ground, preparing to let loose a force that would hopefully decimate the sith presence in this area. Along with him came seargent Kiso. Both of them came on the behalf of the Shrouded Republic. While Kiso was a fighting machine, Kyle was more of a thinker. A tactician. But he could certainly hold his own. He was a skilled sniper, and well versed in skills with the blade. He was dying for a fight, since months of doing essentially nothing left him rather dry. He unsheathed The Excalibur, a songsteel vibroblade, and ran his hand along the blade, hearing it's calming song once more. The blade hadn't spilt sith blood yet, but it was never too late. Kyle was very familiar with Makashi, a lightsaber form he studied for a while now, with the mission of perfecting a form that suited his chosen weapon, and his abilities, as much as possible.

As the dropships reached the ground, hundreds of troopers moved out, securing the immediate area around them. The jungle was too dense for any heavy vehicles, so the men would have to move on foot. The small clearing they had used to land was very open to air strikes, but scanners showed no enemy aircraft in close proximity. Kyle jumped down from the ramp and looked around. The jungle was... strange, different from other planets. But that did not matter. Kyle took his rifle from his back and walked up to one of the trooper commanders who came with him.

"Move towards the next village, through the forest. We don't want them to see us too early."

The small army moved off, creeping towards the next village, in hopes of intercepting the enemy there. If they did, they would put up one hell of a fight. The Sith would bleed and die, like they caused the deaths of thousands of others.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Darth Caecus"] | [member="Silence"] | [member="Kiso"] | [member="Kyle Raymus"] | [member="Arisa Yune"]

Thorne was not a leader.

He followed, obeyed and executed.

This was deeply ingrained in the very fabric of his DNA. It had never bothered him, in fact, Luca thought he was better off than most. Some were born in this world with not a single hint of their purpose. They wandered aimlessly through their lives, wasting it, throwing it away, always hunting for something that could drive them. It was the search and the hunt that drove them in the end.

But Luca knew exactly what he was born for and that knowledge brought a certain sense of peace to him.

The first village had shown him that Kith was a forcer, painfully powerful one too. If that had been a concern for him in the past... then right now it didn't matter. Might even be a good thing with the kind of purpose they had on Felucia.

He had lost count of the bodies they left in their wake.

Men, women, children, elders, it didn't matter. They all died the same death.

The path of his beskad was grim, sturdy and to the point. There was satisfaction, yes, in the mission done right, but no enthusiasm. Luca ducked and the vibro-sword hummed past the edge of his head, before beskad swept from the side, tearing through the kneecap and followed it up with a straight-forward pummel to the face. It knocked the regular down and the beskad came down, cutting through armor and skin and meat.

Blood trailed.

Bled.

"He came from that building," Thorne remarked calmly while gesturing with his head towards one of the buildings. The windows were barred, but the door was still open and beckoned.

Probably a trap.

 

[Zerrak Windwalker]

as he walked the village he wouldn't look at the buildings hating what has happened

 

[Darth Caecus]

Kith and Luca were not here as soldiers, as conquerors. They were here as butchers, and while she found no joy in it, the drive to follow that order kept pushing her on. It was an itch on the inside of her skull. A physical sensation of need, compulsive and anxiety inducing to even contemplate ignoring. She didn't know how much blood needed to be let in order to shuck off the command, at what point the ingrained programing would be sated. Like someone compulsively washing their hands over and over again because they simply could not help but do so, Kith moved, killed, and moved again. The compulsion was ravenous, and she didn't know if she could ever fully fill it.

She stood up from her own opponent.... not opponent, no. This was no armed combatant, no soldier that lay quivering on the ground. But she bled. It was enough. Stepping back, she turned away, the compulsion not requiring the killing blow, merely the wounding one. She was bleeding enough that, without treatment, it certainly would be the death knell.

What did it matter to Kith?

Absently, she pushed the back of her hand across her cheeks and nose, fresh blood mixing with sweat and ash to leave her stern visage slashed with death.

For the moment, there were no people in sight. So far, Kith had followed that instinct, that drive that pulsed in her head. From heartbeat to heartbeat pushing her on. For a moment now, she paused, abled to without someone waiting to bleed.

But it didn't last long, the order pulsing in her head, sending out tendrils and making her skin itch from within.

She looked up and down, noting the three stories, the slightly fortified location. A barracks, perhaps?

"Blow it," she said, voice quiet but hard.

Up until now, they had slaughtered in the streets. But larger outposts required different responses. Better to collapse the building with the charges she knew Luca had brought along. Going into the building would be like following rats into their warren. While the order drove her, it hadn't made her blatantly suicidal.

It took all of her control to stay there, to wait and watch his back while he set the charges. All she wanted was to head deeper, find more. The itch turned into an almost physical pain, but she waited. It was a momentary aberration, she told herself, the order, the mental programing.

A momentary aberration.

[member="Luca Thorne"]

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

"Nothing?"

The Cyborg Chiss rubbed her temples with her fingertips as the Felucian gave his intelligence report. The unassuming creature's confidence began to quickly disintegrate under the weight of the question and his hands tightened around the datapad as his eyes began to stray.

"In short... Yes." "So you came all the way here, in person, to tell me you have nothing to show for." "... Correct?" "Is that a question? -Nevermind."

A one thousand word essay about finding absolutely nothing. Darth Filiae's cloaked form hunched forward for a second as she pinched the bridge of her nose and contained the frustration.

"Any news from the forward scouts?" "None my Lord." Filiae stopped herself from interjecting that she was not in fact a Lord. "Well when did they last check in?" "They are, uh, four hours overdue." "Fo-" She stared at the diminutive, beady eyed creature. "Just give me their last location and directions." She gestured for her Noghri companion to round up the squad. "And Kerrec, go home." "Ye- Yes my Lord."

What would her mother have done? She never cared much for failures. Was Filiae soft for not flaying the Felucian where he stood, or making his blood boil and squirt out of his eyes? She shook her head and exited through the hut's front door. She had to bend in order to pass under the low arch. A squadron of six agents followed her on her mission to track Darth Caecus and Luca Thorne, equipped with speederbikes and unassuming clothes. She made a mental note to improve on their Felucian spy network. It was simply not up to standard.

"East, North-East."

The Chiss straddled her speeder-bike and put the helmet on her head. If there was one thing her mother had taught her, then it was to wear a helmet. Crashing a speeder and dying from a cranial fracture was not a fitting end for a Sith.

[member="Darth Caecus"] [member="Luca Thorne"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Darth Filiae"] | [member="Darth Caecus"]

Solemn nod.

"Done." He would have followed her into the building, if she had decided to go with that angle. But this was preferable- the smarter choice, the one that minimized risks and maximized damage done. His movements were methodical, to the point, there was no waste, no, there was only economy of movement. Reach out, take the charge, plant it, charge it, then onto the next one.

Key points were targeted to make sure the building would collapse entirely and that maximized explosive damage inside.

It was done in quick order, no hesitation and no waste of time.

Because sooner or later the soldiers inside would start to wonder where their prey was. But already Luca retreated, brushing past Kith and towards some cover around the corner of another building. It had been a store, still was and Luca could hear feint sobbing from the inside. Not something that he cared about right now. Not with Kith following him and the charges set to blow.

He waited for her nod.

"Mark." Fingers flipped the switch and the rumble followed by the shockwave of the explosion caused windows to shatter. At least Luca had thought of protecting his ears in the moment.

 

[Kiso]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38OrYAAYISk​

​

Kiso bionic eye glowed in the shaded forest before she placed her combat eye patch back over it, the familiar HUD and general area analysis playing away as she and her marine attachments silently stalked closer to their goal. Eyes pealed and senors up, ready to let weapons lose at the slightest natural movement. Mixed in with the marines where the odd Wolf Guard, the Shrouded Republic finest trooper and more then skilled in taking down force users, Sith and Jedi alike, "Keep communications to a bear minimum, we don't want to make a sound, let alone be tracked or picked by other means, from here on out hand singles and local code, nothing more, over and out". Kisos message echoed inside the ears of all those presents, each squad commander giving a check in and copy of conformation.

It did not take a genuine to finger out their next target, a large plume of smoke rose in the distance that had followed after a large explosion, what where the Sith destroying? she did not know, but what ever they where up to she could be it was no good. "Alpha, right flank, Barvo left flank, Charlie with me, delta cover our six and secure retreat to streamer is necessary do not engage unless attacked or I give the word... Snurgle".

With no more words to say the company rolled out, their usually white armor painted in general purpose camouflage as all serving marines of Chisel Head wore as they where the most likely to take part in jungle and back water planet operations. Kiso truned to her second in command, "Wolf will you be able to shoot well enough here". "Don't worry K, I'll be fine, so long as we get the drop on them, I am more then ready to spill some Sith blood today", "You'll get you chance Wolf, just don't do anything rash". With that Operation Shadow Slug was ago, the Shrouded republic first operation to strike back at those who had caused them so much pain, the first chance to show them that the Dominion lived on, and would never surrender.

Tranlation of code words:
Stremer- Ship/craft
Snurgle- To advance warily, or to crawl

[member="Luca Thorne"] l [member="Darth Filiae"] l [member="Arisa Yune"] l [member="Darth Caecus"] l [member="Kyle Raymus"] l [member="Silence"]

 

[Kyle Raymus]

An explosion echoed through the once silent jungle. The shockwave was powerful enough to rock the ground under the small-ish group of troopers, about 30 men. The ground shook, and a streak of flame and debris rose from the site of the explosion. Well, they found their target, and it wasn't far away at all. The troopers moved silently between the buildings, attempting to avoid giving away their position. There were no force-sensitives in the force, so sensing it wouldn't be an option for the Sith. No, they would have to search the old fashioned way. With their eyes, like the non-force sensitives always did.

The squad moved in a semi circle formation, half- surrounding the enemy, leaving them no way of escape but backwards, where the second Shrouded Republic force led by Seargeant Kiso would probably be waiting (though that was not certain).

"Advance on enemy position, focus on the sith with your slugthrowers. Energy weapons, do not attempt to engage the sith. Soresu will outmatch your blasters."

After giving out his orders, Kyle peeked out from behind a building, aiming his high powered rifle straight at [member="Darth Caecus"] ' head, ready to deliver the killing shot. It shouldn't be that difficult. He pulled the trigger.
Once.
A charged powerful shot.
Twice. This time less power was put into the shot.

Kyle then switched his rifle to CQC mode and charged forward, taking cover behind the ruined wall of a building. The entire shrouded republic force charged from out of the shadows, slugthrowers blasting targets with lightsabrres, the rest focusing on the enemy troopers. The blood bath began.
NOW.

|[member="Kiso"] | [member="Arisa Yune"] |[member="Luca Thorne"] |[member="Darth Filiae"] |[member="Silence"]

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

Rumble

Darth Filiae could hear it over the howl of the speederbikes' engines, and she could feel a tremor in the Force. Her head turned due north of their direction and her left hand went up in to the air to signal the squadron to stop.

"Qripe!" She pointed up at a rising column of smoke. "Take half, circle it and come in from the east" She brought the tail-end of her speeder about. "R'shik, approach from the western side with the other half." R'shik the Tiss-Sharl growled in dissatisfaction, but he would do as instructed "I approach from due south. Do not attempt to detain them. Do not threaten them directly." She turned back to look at Qripe the Noghri "Kill anyone who interferes." The Noghri grinned

"Yes Inquisitor."

The hunting party divided, leaving Filiae alone. She looked at the column of smoke once more and revved the engine of her speederbike before darting off to approach the explosion from the south.

It did not take long for her to realise she was far from alone. The troopers around were perhaps hidden from immediate view, but she could sense the danger. Her speeder slowed down to a halt as she focused her cybernetic eye and, scanning over the area, she could pick out their signatures. The Chiss slipped off the speederbike and crouched down in the grass. She had been trained by a master assassin since she was a child, how to track, how to kill, how to hunt.

The Force enveloped her in a shroud of stealth, one that tricked viewers to look past her. Filiae approached the troopers of the shrouded republic quietly, near soundlessly as she drew a blaster from her hip. Her legs curled under her in preparation, the Force surging through her.

As the first shot went off, she sprung into action. Her cybernetic hand grabbed one of the shrouded republic troopers by the back of the head and slammed it, nose first, into the ground. She planted her right knee on the trooper's neck as she fired three shots from her blaster. First shot got the one next to her through the neck. Second and third bolt got another trooper in the chest and sternum. The one under her knee got a fourth one through the lower hip; immobilising, but not killing her instantly.

Then, quickly as she had come, the Chiss dived back out, slipping around and putting her back to a tree.

[member="Darth Caecus"] | [member="Luca Thorne"]
[member="Kiso"] | [member="Kyle Raymus"] (Currently engaging troops)

 

[Darth Caecus]

She knelt beside him, hands against her ears and the building shattered. Long blonde hair flew in the hot wind and she looked up, squinting against the dust. Then a nod of satisfaction at Luca as she stood.

Focused on one task, the soft sobbing in the building beside them shifted through.

That was not a trap, and it only took a few moments after she slipped into the building for those cries to fall silent.

Stepping back out again, she paused in the doorway. The dust from the explosion was starting to settle, and there was a certain eeriness to the silence that hung around them. The air on Felucia was always thick and wet, but now it seemed positively oppressive. The sensations of life skittered across her flesh, the press of a jungle full of pinpricks of heartbeats, the flutter of wings- but since they had arrived here if was too difficult to sort out one beating heart from all of the others. There was too much life, and it make tracking individuals or sorting them into categories virtually impossible for her.

She turned to Luca, her voice quiet.

"We need to-"

A warning through the force- danger- the tickle of precognition that was as familiar as any physical sense had her moving. Kith moved, speed and strength enhanced through the Force- no question there, no unaltered human could move that fast- as the pair of shots shattered the doorway she'd been standing in a moment ago.

It had only been a matter of time until someone found them.

"Luca go!"

Lashing out behind her with the force, she darted around the corner after him, the wave of telekinesis rough and aimed only at knocking down and slowing them. To gain them enough time to melt into the outpost. Kith could cloak herself in the Force, step into shadows... .but Luca could not.

She didn't run from the fight. But she did refocus efforts on not fighting at the place of *their* choosing. Split them up, slaughter them. One. By. One.

She was so focused on her own workings, she did not catch the barest blip that was Filiae- taught by a master of stealth, it would take far more of her concentration than she was able to give to notice the other woman.

For now.

[member="Luca Thorne"] [member="Darth Filiae"] [member="Kyle Raymus"]

 

[Kiso]

Fighting [member="Darth Filiae"]


The sound of fighting echoed closely, gun fire and blaster bolts going off near the smoke pillar, 'what the... why is he attacking now... great, now we lost the element of surprise... still to late to back out now'. She gave the hand single to keep advancing, though at a slightly quickened pace, even if the enemy group was small Kyle only had 30 men, compared to her 60, they would need all the help they could get, especially if there where Sith involve, but that would have to wait, anther distant sound reaching her ears, that of engines... speeder bikes.

She place her hand up in a fist, the company halting, they were close, but one was closer, she gave several more hand signals, open palm, claw, finger twirl, flat neck chop, (groups of 5, circle formation, shoot to kill). her men scanned the surrounding areas but could not see any intruders, almost like a shadow, but Kiso did, it was fiat, the person using some sort of skill to hide, but it wasn't a technological cloaking field... it was different, like a natural phenomenon, no sound not light, but emitting a slight magnetic, or electric signature... a cyborg of some sort?

What ever it was struck quickly, grabbing one of her marines by the back of their head and slamming them into a ground firing off several shoot with quick accuracy, the shoot that hit one in the neck glance across heir armor, but still killing them, the other marine armor took the brunt of the chest shoot, putting him onto their back, but not injuring to badly, the last laying one the ground in pain with the hip wound.

In the second that the assassin had engaged Kiso acted, her own cybernetics increasing her speed and reaction time, unsheathing her vibro saber and swinging it in a wide arc towards the strange being, though it was hard to see her, the unnatural response that came up on her HUD gave a unorthodox way to track the attacker. Her blade slicing through the tree from which she though the person was behind, 'what next, cyborg zombie ninjas'? who ever this person was they where a very skilled as staying hidden, something Kiso did not like to fight.

[member="Darth Caecus"] l [member="Kyle Raymus"] l [member="Luca Thorne"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Darth Caecus"] | [member="Darth Filiae"] | [member="Kyle Raymus"] | [member="Kiso"]

They had fought and bled and killed together for months now.

Trust had been established.

Once her voice shouted the warning Luca did not wonder or ponder the action, his body was already moving by the time that the mind caught up with the course of action. He was slower than Kith, but he was still much faster than a regular human had any reason to be. He had been made to specification, DNA mixed and prodded and spliced, until the perfect killing machine came out on the other hand. One that did not stop, did not pause, did not rest until the job was completed.

They turned a corner and again by instinct they simply split up.

If this had been a small group that would have been suicide. Splitting the party wasn't a good idea- but this was a large group from the way the blaster fire appeared from several directions at once. Two made a target, one... made a dagger.

He ducked into an alley to his left and disappeared into the shadows.

Somewhere Luca could feel Kith, but it was strange, warped, he wasn't a forcer and yet... he didn't know. Something had changed. "North and south, Kith- sloppy work, someone made a mistake on their side and attacked too soon." Thorne relayed over to her through integrated, sub-dermal communication array. His attention shifted as Shrouded troopers passed his alley, some of them splitting up to go door to door and alley to alley, he crouched deeper in his corner and held his breath.

His heart ticked, ticked... thunk it went as the soldier lashed out, hands, knives, eliminating one after the other, until four dropped down. Quiet. He faded into the shadows again.

It was about time that someone tried to stop them- Luca already figured the Silvers had given up on their own citizens.

 

[Kyle Raymus]

Kyle saw his men get murdered. What a show of incompetence. A 30 man team couldn't take down a group of sith barbarians running through villages with the single purpose of infliciting pain. Such incompetence. He detested it, for it was his own incompetence that caused his brother's death, by the hand of the man's own lightsaber. Kyle's spine chilled at that thought. Those were memories not meant to be remembered. Besides, now was not the time. Kyle's infrared scanners and heat sensors allowed him to see what other's couldn't. In this case, it was a lone cyborg, killing his troops. How would he fare against a man of Kyle's skill? He would see.

Though the Shrouded Republic trained it's troopers well, they were far below Kyle's skill in combat, and mentally as well. They were not tacticians. They did not think. But one does not need to think of tactics in a duel. In a duel, there is you, the enemy, and the two weapons of murder either of you wield. In Kyle's case, it was a CQC rapid fire blaster, and a songsteel vibroblade with a powerful lightning blaster. Should be enough to kill a cyborg. Besides, metal will conduct the Endeavour's lightning beautifully...

Kyle wasted no time. He activated his jetpack and followed the enhanced heat signature emanating from the man's cybernetics, before coming down right in front of him, blade drawn, in the standard makashi stance, the form he excelled in, even without the guidance of the traditional users of such weapons, the sith or the jedi.

He analysed his opponent, something he preferred to do before engaging in battle. Then came his attack. Kyle moved forward with ridiculous speed, and performed two thrusts, one for the stomach and one for the heart, followed up by a light slash towards the head. Such an attack would cripple your regular stormtrooper, but this was a cyborg. A dangerous oponnent, though if even one of the attacks connected, [member="Luca Thorne"] would have a hard time controlling the huge amounts of electricity blasting through his body.

[member="Darth Caecus"] | [member="Arisa Yune"] | [member="Kiso"] | [member="Silence"] | [member="Darth Filiae"]

 

[Nan'eth'illa]

Fighting [member="Kiso"]

Kiso's first swing did not entirely miss, but cut fabric and scraped against the metal of the Chiss' metal leg. It was a glancing blow, tearing clothes and notching the metal, but not harming her.

For a moment, Filiae had thought the tree-trunk would cover her, but she was sorely mistaken as it was sheared through by the vibrosabre. She ducked down and covered herself with her cybernetic arm in case the blade sheared all the way through. It did not, of course, but it did cut through enough that the tree fell. As it crashed into the rest of the vegetation, the Chiss made a dive and roll in the same direction.

Focus.

It was hard to maintain focus on stealth in such circumstances, but she was a knight of the Sith - Apprentice to the Pale Assassin.

As she rolled to her feet in the under-bush, not entirely hidden, but partially shrouded by the vegetation. The Chiss made a subtle swipe with her left hand and focused on the dirt beneath the sabreur's (Kiso) legs. She attempted to shift the soil under Kiso and put her off balance. Filiae acknowledged that the blade-wielder was a little too quick, and thus a little too dangerous to not deserve her focus.

Was it time? No, not quite yet.

[member="Darth Caecus"] [member="Luca Thorne"] [member="Kyle Raymus"]