Fel could almost feel sorry for the child if he didn't seem so pathetic. Killing him would be doing the Jedi Order a favour in the long run however, and she would hate to see that happen.

As the boy raised the glowing blade above his head, gripped tightly in both hand as he prepared for a killing blow, Aleena rolled her eyes in disbelief at his rudimentary mistake: exposing his entire frame to attack in one all-out, do-or-die strike.

He would be so easy to kill, but instead she stood there calmly, biding her time for the exact moment to act. When it came she moved with feline grace, eloquently side-stepping out of danger as the Twi'lek, with the full momentum of his body-weight behind him, found himself engaging with empty space. Stumbling to maintiain his balance the blade burned into the soft earth as Aleena took another couple of steps back and switched off her lightsaber.

The poor boy was now face-to-faceplate with Darth'Ishad with Keel and The Thumb moving in unseen....

Klahn fell to the ground. How had this happened? He was about to whip back up when he felt a cold blade at his back, turning his head quickly, he saw nothing. No, a shimmer. The other warrior must be using the force to conceal himself. A Sith Assassin! A coward! Now he was at the feet of the other force user - trapped. He'd never seen that race before - a masked reptile. Inferior no doubt, but never the less, Klahn half expected a lecture. He had been at his master's feet many a time and each and every one of those times Master Darnas said something along the lines of "You lose yourself in your anger" or, "You lack grace in your movements". Now, he had been bested by what? Pawns!

"I will never convert to your disgusting religions!" Klahn yelled up to the alien. "You're not getting anything from me! Go tell your precious Emperor that he made a mistake of coming here! There are hundreds of us here! You can't kill us all!" He laughed hysterically. He could feel the blades digging into his back, and now his arm. He felt it getting numb. "Run like the cowards you are!"

Attack fortunately turned out as Thumb have planned. With his companions succesfully maintaing attention, the unaware twi'lek hadn't a clue about the unseen attacker.

Thumb wasn't paying attention to his babbling after landing a blow, he enjoyed the noise of a cracking spine and stopped his blades right after they pierced through spinal marrow. " So reckless, not even electricity was needed to render him immobile. ", he thought while standing up and enjoying a view of the crippled jedi. " You're free to WALK away now ! " said Thumb and started to laugh heartfully. Still chuckling, he raised his head towards Keel. " Nice dodge in that heavy armour of yours. "

Crouching down he started to wipe his blades into the jedi's clothes. " Shall we return to the ship for interrogation?" he turned to Aleena slightly, with satisfied expression in his eyes.

Sharasvar frowned while listening to Vaelyndor. Force users, here? Were they walking into an Imperial trap? He could not feel a strong imprint of the Dark Side in the vicinity, however. "Unless they were ambushed our scouting team has the advantage of surprise. They'll be able to deal with anything that crosses their path. I hope they are smart enough to take some prisoners, so we know what we're up against on this planet."

"Unless it's a lone hermit, we should consider the possibility of a hidden Jedi or Sith academy, which means hundreds of inimical force users - and trouble. Lots of trouble. If there's a hidden base here, their sensors will have detected our landing by now. Probably they are sending a team to intercept us. So we should either prepare for further hostilities, get away from this location as soon as possible, or cloak our identities and intentions. In either case, we should convene with the Trandoshan."

As the situation unfolded with this, jedi insect, Darth'Ishad stood in one place watching the woman. Her style and how she reacted to trouble, he could see the disapointment in her as the jedi chose to strike.

-This one is weak a discrace, i think you should eliminate the problem-

The voice inside Darth'Ishad, Khronos, was angry. He hated jedi more than anything and would do what he had to do to get rid of them. The padawan landed at his feet, the Kaleesh cracked his neck and extended his arm lifting the jedi into the air only at aye level though.

"My friend, why do somthing so foolish when you know you are only a insect compared to us?" His eye never blinked once while staring into the young ones eyes.

"I fear the choice you made will not bode well for you, this will be painfull, but give us the information we need and ill do my best to make it quick." He paused for a minute, looked to the team, then back to him "or me and my very nice friends over there will make these next moments of your life worse then hell."

-My anger is yours, my power is yours, use it on this insect-
A surge of Khronos's dark energy flew through Darth'Ishads veins.

Vaelyndor nodded, knowing the truth of the historians words. "Aye, regardless of the attackers origin, I agree Skursir should be notified. Darth'Ishad is nearly beyond my range to sense his emotional state, and I am only able to do so now because of our close familiarity. If we are to alter our course of action or leave the ship early, they need to be informed sooner rather than later."

Leading the way to the bridge of the ship, the two Sith'ari councilmen set out to alert the trandoshan of recent developments.

Padawan Klahn heard a sharp crack, but felt nothing. He felt number and number, trying to use the force to stay awake, increase his alertness. These mongrels were torturing him! He was suddenly off his feet, levitated off the ground. No, his arm was being held by the alien lizard. He was speaking to him. Something about information and hell. Huh, they wouldn't get anything out of him, any... thing... And with that, Klahn fainted, the pressures of true combat and his injuries, not used to real ones, were too great, although it made no difference to his already limp body.

-----------------------------

Master Darnas meditated. He looked through the force, swam through it like it was water, basked in it's glory and searched every light. He read force like a star map, noting constellations of lights. But there was a darkness, somewere, somewere...
"Can you see it?" Kurnos awoke Darnas from his concentration. The Kel Dor frowned at his colluege, before continuing. "It feels strange, cold. An anomaly in the force." He sighed, staring blankly into space.
"What of the ship that landed close by?" Master Darnas interrupted.
"Hmm? Oh, it landed south east of here, about two miles. I've told the sentries to be on the look out for more Twi'leks..."
"I don't think it's refugees, Kurnos"
Master Kurnos stroked his chin. "Fleshraiders?"
"They don't come this close to the Temple" Master Darnas replied, "No, whoever it is doesn't want to just pick off padawans."
"Maybe they're searching for the same thing that we are"
"Maybe"

-----------------------------

Skursir angrily shook the communicator, "Sscout team! Report! What iss going on out there?!" He shouted into the microphone. There had been a lot of banging coming from the other end, although the Scouts seemed to have the upper hand, with faintly hearing Darth'Ishad's threats. He gave a great groan, this was a good start.

He suddenly detected movement, swivelling round to face Vaelyndor and Sharasvar. It just occured to him that the crew were absent, probably taking a break, and Jylan was no-were to be seen. "Ah!" He gave a deep bow, "Newss from the front line, lordss. The Sscout team sseemss to have engaged an enemy. I'm jusst trying to contact them now."

Aleena watched with delight as the hapless Twi'lek struggled pointlessly against Darth'Ishad's iron grip...it was like watching a Tatooine Firebug trying to escape from under the claw of a Krayt dragon.

Suddenly the voice of Agent Skursir roared across her communicator. He didn't sound happy.

"Sscout team! Report! What iss going on out there?!"

Tilting her head in aggrivation at the loud and intrusive sound, she replied to the Trandoshan.

"Agent, this is Fel reporting in." She wanted to reply and stop shouting! my ears are close to bleeding point... but thought better of it. Instead she continued with:

"We have encountered light resistance, nothing we can't handle. Our group was attacked by a rather....overconfident Jedi Padawan. It seems likely that there is a Jedi presence on the planet but size and relative strength remain unknown. We will question the boy further....when he regains consciousness but our primary objective remains unhindered. I will report back in as soon as we have an update."

Taking one look at the slumped and unconscious twi'lek she concluded with:

"Is there anything to report back there? Are the sensors picking up anything that might indicate a presence near our location?"

After hearing the message coming through the communicator, Skursir smiled at his company, "And there you have it." Making another grin, he raised his hand, "If you would excusse me?". Satisfied that there were no interruptions, he turned to the mike.

"Chief Operative, good to hear from you. I tried calling you but you were occupied, pressumably in the action." Skursir remembered the current situation. "Jedi, eh? Negative, continue your movementss with caution. Tie up the Padawan and ssend me your current co-ordinatess. I'll ssend Jylan round to pick up him up on hiss Sswoop sso we can interrogate him here ssafely. We alsso recieved a message from a community of some kind, I think they've sspotted us and have been told to be on guard."

With that, Skursir typed something into the communicator and hooked his own datapad to the computer, typed some more and then, he and directed a message to Jylan, "Jylan, I'm patching some co-ordinatess from Aleena to your Datapad, can you pick up a prissoner, he'ss a male padawan, but should be bound."

Skursir then turned back to the Sith'ari Path. "Ssorry for the dely. You heard for yoursself that we have a Jedi, I'm ssure that thiss will help uss find the transsmission - or at leasst know what we're up againsst..."

Sharasvar narrowed his eyes. "A Jedi padawan seldom travels alone, Ambassador Skursir. The Jedi are quite protective towards their young apprentices. If there is a larger community of force users here, we might have been spotted already. If we have been spotted, they will send a team to investigate. And it will probably not be another lonely padawan. Of course, I do not want to intrude on your authority, let alone dictate the technicalities of this operation, but I advise extreme caution nonetheless. Perhaps we should evacuate, or fly under the radar and hide the ship elsewhere."

"Thanks" Keel replied to 'The Thumb's' compliment. He now stood facing out into the forest, blaster rifle at the ready, scanning the vegetation for other life-forms or signs of movement. Shifting slightly he tapped at his suit's wrist mounted interface and narrowed the scanner's digital comms receiver to a wavelength band more commonly used for transmissions by Republic and Jedi forces. You never know, if they're not expecting company someone might get sloppy.

He resumed his watchful stance, and explained to his companion, "The suit's new and fairly top of the line. But the jetpack is custom" Keel shruged one shoulder. "It might not have the range or lift capacity of standards but I don't get stuck in air ducts anymore" the unseen grin could be heard in his voice.

Keel glanced back at the two wizards. It seemed strange to him that they were delivering the prisoner back to the transport for interrogation. He'd have thought between the two of them they could brainwash the pathetic lump, or suck whatever knowledge they'd want right out of his head. He snorted in derision at his own ignorance; it was these sorcerer's mystique that was most powerful about them. In this moment Keel resolved to overcome his own superstitions and treat this mission as an opportunity to study these 'friendly' Sith. His natural repugnance of Force-use was slowly being overcome by curiosity, piqued by this glimpse of it's apparent limitations.

Yes indeed, this mission would prove very enlightening.

Vaelyndor nodded in agreement with Sharasvar's recommendation, "I, too, would advise at least a slight relocation of the ship. Our current position is compromised, regardless of the strength of the enemy presence." Thinking to the padawan, the Executor frowned. "Sharasvar is right, padawans rarely travel alone. We need to locate this Jedi threat and, if possible, neutralize it before our entire operation is derailed."

Skursir looked from one Sith to the other as they spoke in turn, "Right, we'll take off after Jylan comess back with the padawan. I think the Chief Operative and her group will know to keep cautiouss but I'll pass the message acrosss..." The Trandoshan took the communicator and spoke into it:

"Sscout team, we have reasson to believe that there iss a community of force users on this jungle. Look out for a town or villiage of ssome kind and to keep your pointss ssafe, keep an eye out for more Jedi". Skursir didn't stay long enough to hear a reply. He made a sharp hiss at a crew man coming out of their quarters, "Warm up the enginess, we'll be moving ssoon".

He turned back to the Path, "We'll be waiting for a while, but I'm ssure our sscouts can handle themsselvess..."

"Jylan, I'm patching some co-ordinatess from Aleena to your Datapad, can you pick up a prissoner, he'ss a male padawan, but should be bound."
A padawan....? What type was that, he knew that was the name for a Jedi apprentice but was it the same for a Sith? Either way it wasn't a good thing landing on a remote planet and encountering a Jedi straight away or landing on a planet and encountering a Sith hostile to the Path, he didn't know what could be worse …...then he did.
“Should be bound....!?!”,he said annoyed ”He'd better be I'm no heading out into the Jungle to pick up a loose Force User”, he said with indignity, in truth he was already preparing to move out, he clicked the communicator on the side of his head and slid down the side of the ship into the entrance hatch.

It was always easier to take orders then to give them and he liked someone else to do the thinking for a change instead of planning and executing missions himself, that said his orders recently had left him somewhat at odds with himself.

He quickly mounted the mechanical lifter in the storage bay and lifted the speeder from the wall and set it down, heavily modified it had a custom cannon on the front along with a more standard repeater, plus an area for cargo on the rear.
He moved it to the entrance and set it down, stowing the lifter he grabbed his rifle some rope, just in case, and straddled the long spear like vehicle, sitting for a second he grinned and shoved the accelerator to the max and shot out the door.

Following the co-ordinates on his nav system he quickly made it to the rendezvous, the scouting party stood there in separate states of readiness, Aleena of course looking as cold as ever even in the humid climate, they were surrounding a Twe'lik who now lay in a heap.

“Is this him?” he said pulling up beside the group, “Have you actually left anything for me to take back?”

Listening to Skursir's update, Aleena responded with a simple "Roger that."

As she turned to face the collapsed Padawan she studied him for a moment. He wasn't paticularly old which would indicate it was unlikely he was here alone and, from Skursir's intel about a Jedi community of some sort, her instincts told her that they should be prepared for anything, especially a trap.

It was amid that train of thought that Agent Jylan appeared on his swoop bike, brandishing some restraints.

"Is this him?” he said pulling up beside the group, “Have you actually left anything for me to take back?”

Her mind was elsewhere when she answered him, and it turned unintentionally into a snap remark.

"He is alive. That will suffice."

If this place was a trap of some kind then they would regret their choice of prey. No mercy.

Breaking from her reverie she turned to Jylan and her diplomatic mask was replaced.
"Carry on, Agent."

A quick glance around at the rest of scout team showed nobody to be hurt, but everyone still on alert after the attack. They had performed admirably but she felt no need to congratulate them, they were professonals after all. ...and besides she smirked to herself I'm sure they all enjoy pointing out how good they are.

Turning to address the group she continued:

"Circumstances have altered but our primary objective remains the same. We will continue to the rendezvous and contact the ship as arranged. Thumb, Keel, take point."

Her eyes scanned the horizon, looking for unseen threats and conjouring ghosts.

"Move out."