Old Blood

[Nyx]

As his unit moved through the forests, Private Morus couldn't help but feel very afraid. These...things that they were fighting, he'd seen their handiwork. Colonists devoured, blood sprayed across the room, Imperial soldier's opened like a tin can to get to their flesh. It was gruesome stuff, and now they were going after them, in their territory, no less.
The Imperial soldier gripped his blaster rifle tightly, sweating underneath his armor. He had no great desire to be doing this, but also knew that the alternative was death at his unit's resident Sith. The Darksider in question was leading them deeper into the forest, their cloaked form hard to make out amongst the darkness of the trees. Around them, the creatures of the forest made their various noises, and it was putting their already on edge nerves to the breaking point. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a lightsaber.

Then they heard it. A rushing through the forest, twigs breaking and leaves rustling. The Sith activated her lightsaber and the soldiers primed their blasters, ready to fire at a moment's notice. It came closer and closer, and sweat was dripping down Morus's forehead as he waited, his finger on his blaster's trigger.
The creature broke into their line of sight, and the soldiers all sighed in relief and chuckled, for they were looking at a small woodland mammal. They'd gotten worked up over nothing. The Sith scowled at the mammal as it hopped away, and called for the unit to keep going.

But they were once more interrupted as one of their own screamed in agony and blood sprayed onto his comrades.

They came from above them, the creatures they were hunting. They dropped down from the branches, their strange appendages brandished and their fanged mouths snarling hatred. The first among them to go was a young kid by the name of Starchaser; he was skewered by one of the ones with a tail.
The unit took a moment to react, and two more went down before they could open fire. The opening barrage of blaster fire tore one of the creatures to shreds, but it's comrades closed into melee range, and Morus found himself face-to-face with one.
On the surface, it looked like any other human woman. The only thing giving it away was the red-on-black eyes and the blue tentacles shooting out of her back.
She snarled at him, and her tentacles raised to shoot at him, but a moment later they were on the ground. The creature screamed in agony before it was beheaded by his unit's Sith.
The Sith was a blur of motion, and two more of the creatures fell to her lightsaber before they retreated, taking both their dead and the Imperial dead with them.
The forest was silent once more.

 

[Nyx]

Private Morus was too stunned to move for a moment. Two minutes. That was how long it took for these things to take out half his unit. They couldn't even recover the corpses, the creatures taking them to do Force-knows-what with the bodies of his comrades. And it hit him.
He had just watched several of his comrades get slaughtered in front of his face. These things, it had been nothing to them to take their lives, to snuff out so many prominent flames.
When mothers told their children of monsters, these were what they spoke of, surely. It horrified him, and also infuriated him. How dare these beasts take so much!

Then he had the Sith looking down at him. "Get up." She ordered. "I have seen enough. We're going back to report to my master."
The trek back was a miserable one, the remaining Imperial troops looking down at the ground. They had accomplished nothing, and they knew it. Their comrades had died for nothing, and now they would march back to the Sith empty-handed. The thought was not exactly exciting, to say the least.

Morus stared at the trees, half expecting them to attack again, but he was dissapointed. The march back to civilization was silent, no one speaking to each other, for what was there to say? The new soldiers had seen things that would haunt their sleep for the rest of their lives.
Morus could only hope that he never saw one of those horrors again.

 

[Nyx]

"Come again, Mi'Lady?"
Morus could only blink as the Sith delivered the bad news.
"You heard me." She muttered. "We're going back."
Morus's unit whispered among themselves. They were down half their unit, and Command wanted them to go back?! To those... Things?
"But Mi'Lady," he objected. "Surely-"
She interrupted him with a raised hand.
Morus saluted as she walked away, then he called out: "Mi'Lady, I'm a Private."
The Sith looked back.
"Not anymore, Corporal."

About forty minutes later, Corporal Morus was once again following the Sith into the forest, but this time, he had veterans at his back. These guys had better weaponry than his recruits, one even had a blaster cannon! Those things wouldn't stand a chance this time.

The unit soon came to the area where they were ambushed on the previous expedition, and Morus gripped his rifle tightly, and glanced around, nervous. If they came again, the Imperials would be ready, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that this was about to go horribly wrong. . .