Real vacation spot ya found here…

[Darth Zilti]

Maja scanned the surroundings using only the Force. Given the density of the trees, her vision was not much better than sight, but given it was dark and it afforded her a 360-degree view, it was a lot better than the average person.

She knew the approximate direction they were travelling in, so she headed forward, keeping up a decent pace – whilst all the time looking for any signs of life. Any signs. For creatures here tended to be the ones that saw you as supper – or a light snack, depending on their size.

But here, in the trees, she figured anything big enough to eat them without having to chew was not going to be around. But even small predators could be deadly – she’d found that out on Dagobah, where spores on the trees could kill you if you rubbed against them.

And she was reminded of Kashyyyk, so regularly made sure her vision was trained upwards, just in case a giant spider should come calling.

At one point she paused as a metre long creature came into view – but she recognised it as a lemnai, one of the victims this planet had to offer. But no sooner had she breathed a sigh of relief and uttered the words, “False alarm,” than she sensed something entirely more worrying.

There were five of them, closing in fast. Vanx. It was the one creature she knew of that hunted in a pack – led by an alpha. They were carnivorous and vicious, which was probably all you needed to know, but to complete the mental picture they were muscular and had powerful claws and sharp teeth.

They oddly had two ear stalks on the top of their heads and did not rely on stealth. Instead they circled their prey and then charged. And the circling part appeared to be over.

[member="Darth Pyrrhus"]

 

[Darth Pyrrhus]

While Tanek did not have the same field of view as Maja, he did have the racial benefit of being a Togruta. His montrals served a function; the hollow horns able to work as a kind of echolocation. That, combined with the effort he made to heighten his awareness through the Force made him a decent sentinel as well. While his eyes served him little purpose, his other senses were focused.

Tanek kept up with Maja's pace, walking on her left flank. She seemed to know where they were headed. That part of the mission briefing was something he had skimmed through rather quickly. The Togruta tensed, a hand landing on the hilt of his lightsaber. Maja's voice alerting him that it was a false alarm eased his tension. Of course, then the Vanx came.

"I'm not so sure about that" Tanek muttered. From the way she tensed up slightly, he could tell she felt it too. The Togruta unclipped his lightsaber, ready for what was coming. There were probably many ways to deal with them, and more effective methods than this, though the Vanx didn't exactly chill in the background and let the Sith ponder on how to best combat them. Soon, the group was upon them.

The crimson blade lit up the dark jungle, casting a red shadow around its immediate surroundings. The Vanx didn't care. Their speed and ferocity made them extremely dangerous. He didn't need to come to them, they came to him. One sought to draw his attention with a direct frontal charge, while the other leapt at him from his flank. Tanek, apparently having paid attention to Maja's instructions, dropped into a Soresu stance. As the beast leapt at him, it was a simple matter to hold his blade in a steady guard and allow the creature to split itself in half as it met the blade. Simultaneously he shifted his feet, stepping to face the second beast. Presumably, at this point, he was back-to-back with Maja, unless she had moved. Tanek slashed his blade at the beast, in an attempt to carve it open and slap it down into the ground. However, the two creatures had coordinated their attacks well, and even with him putting it down, the pace at which it came at him was enough to have the impact with the Vanx carcass make the Togruta topple over. This left him temporarily exposed to another of these beasties.

[member="Darth Zilti"]

 

[Darth Zilti]

Maja smiled. It was the grimace of gallows humour. She was right but in a split second she was wrong. On such knife-edges lives were lost.

Maja grabbed her saber. Mental Abilities worked well on a group – but animals spread out? A much harder trick to pull off. So she relied on the simple things…like Soresu.

She held the hilt in her left hand and activated both blades. It emitted an odd buzzing hum on ignition and she held it horizontal to the ground – not a standard Soresu stance. She put her right hand on the hilt and started to spin it. Over and over, faster and faster until she had effectively created a shield that she then moved around, creating a hypnotic pattern

She was back-to-back with Tanek. He’d clearly listened about using the surroundings. In this position they could not be out-flanked.

Two came at her, each at forty-five degrees from an imaginary line drawn directly in front of her. She didn’t seek them, instead she waited. Perhaps they were expecting this? Maybe their usual prey froze in fear? If that was their hope then they were sadly mistaken. They came at her and she took chunks from each of them as they attempted to launch themselves at her – they leaped from two metres away, their mouths open and their claws leading. She was knocked back a step but remained upright.

They seemed shocked that their initial efforts were repulsed but they did not stop to lick their wounds. Instead they came again.

Maja smiled. Such predators perfected attacks to the point that they invariably killed their prey at the first attempt. Which meant they had no plan B. They had never needed one. So this time when they attacked, she knew precisely what to expect and when was best to counter.

They charged and – as expected – when they reached a point two metres away, they jumped at her.

[member="Darth Pyrrhus"]