Tython! Sharasvar was overcome by excitement. Tython, the planet where the Force was discovered, more than three millennia ago. Tython, where the rift between worshippers of Ashla and Bogan happened. The mysteries and secrets of this legendary place had been lost for the Sith Empire after the Great Hyperspace War, only to be recovered now by a small group of Imperial renegades and heretics. The Historian smiled and he seemed much younger now, as if old age withdrew in the face of this grand discovery. The irony! So close, and yet so far... the "home planet" of the Jedi it had now become. The place must be crawling with force sensitives, carefully veiled by the planet's abundant wild life and ecological energy.

The Judge looked down upon the padawan and then glanced sideways to Vaelyndor. The risk was too great, they should leave immediately, but... to have come so far now... The force aura of the members of the Path was less clear to read than those of the "purer" disciples of light and dark. Perhaps they yet made a chance to infiltrate and discover the secrets of this place.

Sharasvar nodded slowly. "We would be honored to meet your Master Kurnos. As I said before, we come in peace and our small number makes us hardly any threat for a planet full of Jedi." He grinned, but his probing eyes betrayed the inner, cold calculations of his mind.

Leaned against a nearby tree, Thumb was forcibly trying to supress thoughts of blood and violence. He wouldn't want to be consumed by them, not now. Fortunately, calmness of this place made it easier to achieve and after a few moments of heavy breathing and great muscle spasms he was aware of his surroundings again. He hoped, that his companions haven't noticed his struggle with himslef. Fearing, that it could lead into even bigger mistrust and complications.

He approached Aleena, who was speaking to agent Skursir and overheard a bit about Jedi temple. Wave of uneasiness went through him. Taking on a single, young and unexperienced Jedi is easy, however temple full of skilled, battle hardened veterans and masters is another league. They had some force users as well, but the sheer number of enemies, that can be present there would overcome them easily. Anything they were looking for, he was sure that Jedi have found it already.

After Aleena ended he sat down and confusedly looked up: " So, a Jedi temple. How are we supposed to avoid them? I dont think they will greet us with open hands after we nearly killed they're youngling." starting to stare at ground he continued, " I'll do whatever is needed, but I have a bad feeling about this . " After he realized he's being irrational, and unprofessionaly dwells on his feelings too much he made a reassuring suggestion, " I can move cloaked all the time, stay behind a little. This way we can confuse enemies that are unaware of our exact location yet, about our numbers, hoping they won't deploy any motion scanners. In case you would be attacked, I can quickly plan the best approach to maximize my damage outcome and deal with the threat. "

Keel nodded once to Aleena's decision. “As you wish”

Still chafing at Ishad crashing his party and the implication the alien could do a better job of his suggestion, Keel ignored the Sith as the masked figure proceeded to scuttle up a nearby tree like a cockroach.

Holstering his rifle, he wandered over to the fallen tree trunk and picked the spot where the giant log was lowest to the ground to mount it. Keel was cursing the thing as his hand-holds in the thick bark crumbled to mulch when Agent Skursur's warning came over the comm. Great. Just what we need, he thought gaining the top of the log. He glanced at Aleena to see if her instructions had changed and almost gawked in incredulity at the remaining pair. Apparently 'The Thumb' translated Aleena's instruction to guard the clearing as 'sit on your *rse'. He looked at the tree Ishad was climbing but could no longer see the Sith wizard. With is confidence in his companions since leaving the ship at an all time low, Keel shook his head and carefully made his way up the length of the trunk to gain some height. He wanted to leave no visible trace of their having been here.

This would do. Taking a short run up, Keel leaped off the log and engaged his jetpack thrusters. He quickly matched thrust to weight and hung in the air momentarily, suspended on the spot, before slowly making his ascent. He stuck to the centre of the clearing careful not to inadvertently set the forest ablaze.

Breaching the level of the treetops he looked for Darth'Ishad but couldn't see him. Eamonn was still doubtful the Sith could gain as clear a view as he himself could. Not unless the spindly branch tip's he'd need to be amongst to see very far could support a man's weight. Maybe he was using magic...

Maintaining a perfectly level hover, Keel was aware of burning through his limited fuel. Tapping at his wrist unit he set his helmet's small surveillance cam to record and began his visual assessment of what lay ahead.

Switching to a traditional Sith dialect, the Executor addresses Sharasvar and drops his voice to almost a whisper. "The temple is surely our destination, however I doubt a Jedi training facility would welcome our kind with open arms. Even with this little one in tow, I doubt the wisdom of formal introductions with these people."

What both Darth'Ishad and Keel see is a large, worn, but cleaned temple of about six stories in height sitting atop a marble base. Watch towers circle the structure. With a keener eye, Darth'Ishad is able to see that the guard towers are manned by a single sentinel, though being higher up, Keel is able to count four towers. The buildings are founded upon a meadow and both Scouts are able to see clearly that the forest cuts off in another hundred metres before opening up onto the open landscape.

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

Skursir returned to the hold and frowned. No one seemed to have asked the vital question. "Have you recieved a transmission of ssome kind lately originating from the local area, or found a problem in the force?" The Padawan looked slightly started, probably believing that the questions would be over. However, when posed with it, the Twi'lek seemed to give some great thought.

"Our communicators only work on a certain frequency - I think one or two. But, I heard Master Kurnos had indeed sensed a disturbance." The look on the Padawan's face showed direct honesty, and any malice had now vanished. It was a long throw from the insults thrown about previously.

"What dissturbance?" Skursir's eyes narrowed.
"He wouldn't say. Master Darnas said he couldn't feel anything though so it could be a false premotion. Many people get that after what happened on Coruscant. Apparently the sky turned red and the streets were engulfed with shadow."

Skursir wasn't satisfied. This Kurnos knew something, and he wasn't letting on even to his students. Something big must be down here. The Trandoshan turned to his party. "We have to find thiss Master Kurnoss, he might be key to finding the sssource of the transsmission. In the meanwhile, what shall we do with the Padawan?"

In Skursir's opinion, the young Jedi had outlived his usefulness. However, the Path may have better interests in mind, and after all, it was the highest ranking officer's duty to decide what should be done with Agency property and with a quick scan of the room, Skursir couldn't spot the Special Officer.

"The temple is surely our destination, however I doubt a Jedi training facility would welcome our kind with open arms. Even with this little one in tow, I doubt the wisdom of formal introductions with these people," Vaelyndor said.

Sharasvar retorted in the Ziost tongue: "Indeed, but we can use this young and naive Jidai as bait to find and interrogate his master."

The Judge frowned when Skursir arrived, asking questions about the transmission and thus bluntly revealing the reason for their arrival on Tython. Whispering to the Trandoshan so the padawan couldn't overhear them, he said: "The padawan is our means to get hold of this Master Kurnos. Either we can convince the twi'lek to bring his master to us, or, if he proves unwilling, we can use him as a hostage."

"Chief Operative, be advissed, there iss a temple full of Jedi at the co-ordinatess. Sscout out the area and then report back. No doubt that the Ssith'ari Path will be wanting to find out more about thiss world." Came the hissing voice of Agent Skursir over Aleena's communicator.

Nodding to Ishad and Keel confirming the order, Aleena watched as the two vanished up out of view.

"Roger that," she replied into her communicator. "We will advance and scout but not engage. I have confidence in the scout group but I doubt even your forces and ours combined would stand much of a chance against an entire temple full of Jedi...." there was a moment of silence then she added. "Not a direct assault anyway. Agent, I will contact you shortly. If you have heard nothing from me within twenty, assume the worst and dust off. The crew aboard the ship get priority. Clear?"
She didn't expect Skursir to go against her orders, despite the clashings of their personalities he had been nothing but forthright and could follow orders precisely. To her, his military training was all too obvious. She also knew that he was Trandoshan however, and retreat was never preferable to their species if they had even the slightest chance of success. If the scout group were overwhelmed however, it would be by a force of superior skill or considerable size....or both. Neither would have much problem overpowering the ship if it were still on the ground. Their advantage lied with their ability to get airborne.

Jylan went to the bridge he had heard enough anyway, he looked out the view port into the dense forest and blue skies and tried to recompose himself, the group behind him had a aura of perversion about them like when a group of predators toy with a lame creature they're about to tear apart and it and it was effecting him more than he'd like to admit.

He tried to put it out of his head, but he couldn't help the sickening feeling that was creeping into his stomach, where ever he went the only people he ended up with seemed to embrace death and cruelty like a close friend. He'd been around it his whole life but he had never thought he would be aiding its cause himself and with so little questioning of why...

He pulled himself from his thoughts he wouldn't get by this by placing doubts in his mind he needed to be focussed, he looked around and realised Creed was missing, surely he should be overseeing any prisoner they had captured he couldn't just leave it to the Skursir to hold back the mob, he took a deep breath and released his vice like grip of the control panel and began to search the ship.

Creed watched the Trandoshans action carefully through the monitor, the light illuminated his face in the dark confines of one of the side rooms the ship contained, he ran his fingers through his long purple hair and took a swig of some exotic beverage from a flask.
The mission was a great opportunity to strengthen ties with The Falleen's apparent new allies the Sith'ari Path but it was also a chance to test the metal of the operatives under his command, although Aleena was in charge of the Operation the Trandoshan Skursir was was being tested with partial responsibility of the mission and of course being closely monitored.
Up till now he had shown respectable qualities, even managing to remain respectful to Aleena under her carefully disguised taunts, he smiled slyly wondering if he could have remained so polite but realised the time for observations was over, this prisoner they had captured needed to be dealt with and the mission progress.

Steeping out of the side room he caught the eyes of a few Epochians who had yet to have been utilised and gave them a nod and a smile which was not uniformly returned, “Never mind, there's not a looker among them anyway” he muttered grinning as he descended into the hold.

“Good work Skursir” He said patting the agent on the shoulder as he entered, not letting on how he had managed to listen in on their conversation without being present, he looked down at the bound Padawan for a moment then turned to the Trandoshan “I think its time we moved position, if we have our target and we know his possible location we should move up to it, it wouldn't hurt to be backing up the Scout party as well.”
“Do you know if they will they be able to sense his location?”, he said turning to the Path, “I have a suspicion you can hide your own presence if needs be but if they can sense him.... our mission could be compromised”, he cast the young Twe'lik a look of pity “I'll leave it to your judgement however we'll need a decision soon as well be moving shortly”.

Skursir straightened up when he met eyes with his superior, yet frowned for a second and looked around once he heard what the Special Agent said. No one appeared to immediately challenge the order, although most were concentrated on the Padawan, either engaged in questioning or analysing the fresh meat. Either way, it sounded like a good plan. Skursir took some steps back to address everyone.

"Right, we're moving up to the Sscout Team's possition. We'll back them up and move on from there. Remember to look out for anything out of the ordinary. It'ss top priority that we find that transsmission ssource." Skursir then pounced up to the bridge. The crew must of heard him because they were quickly pressing buttons and below, he heard the doors close.

"Sstay closse to the tree line and move to the nearesst clearing to the Sscout team's co-ordinatesss". Skursir then spoke directly to the Scouts through the communicator, "Hang tight Sscout Team, we're moving up to your possition". Luckily, the engine had been heated up on a previous command and so they were in the air quickly, but for being in a ship, they moved quite slowly - akin to a predator hunting the prey. It was only a few minutes though until they started to land.

The doors then slid open. "We're a hundred metres from the Scout Team's last known co-ordinates" One of the crew members said, looking up at the Trandoshan, who was given a nod in reply.

Skursir proceeded to put on his breast plates, shin guards, forearm defenders and shoulder plates, before decending down to the Hold. "Everyone move out to the Sscout Team'sss location" Skursir hissed loudly, grabbing his rifle from it's holder on the hull wall, grabbing some ammunition as he did so along with several fragmentation grenades. "Jylan, sstay on board to make ssure everything iss running sssmoothly". He then ensusiastically leaped out of the ship and proceeeded forward after making sure that everyone had gathered their belongings and was behind him.

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

"I... I feel it, an anomaly, but active", Master Darnas murmered. The room was empty save for him and Kurnos. The Kel Dor looked equally agitated.
"Yes. I believe it to be like a light. A trapped, but shrouded, light. It is North" Master Kurnos stared at the statue of an old Jedi Master, a hooded human clasping a long lightsabre. Although it was fairly obvious that the proud Master was not looking at the statue, but into space.
"Are you sure?"
Master Kurnos thought for a moment. "No. Give it more time. This light appears to be quite immobile. I doubt that it will cause any harm".
"I would not be so certain old friend." Master Darnas gave a sigh and in turn, stared up at the cloaked Jedi of stone.

"Hang tight Sscout Team, we're moving up to your possition." came Skursir's reptilian voice over the comm again.

Aleena furrowed her brow in confusion at the Skursir's response, as he had directly countered her recommendation of the scout team making sure the area was safe before bringing the second team in. Still, he had Special Agents Dekkar and Trell with him and perhaps they had ordered him to advance. Regardless this was fast turning into a military operation and they had to work as a team.

"Confirmed, Base Team." She responded into her comm as Keel and Ishad decended back down into the clearing, having also received the same communiqué. "We will secure the area pending your arrival; Scout Team out."

As the group gathered round - with the exception of "The Thumb" who was still cloaked but Aleena could sense was near - she addressed them as a whole.

"O.K. people, as you just heard we have The Aurillia inbound. We'll secure this area for their arrival. Keel, take the North and make sure we don't have any more unexpected 'guests'. Ishad, you've got the West and Thumb? you take the South. I'll cover the Easterly approach."

Waiting for confirmation from the team, she added:

"If we meet any resistance, neutralize it."

Keel nodded and tapped at the interface mounted on his armour's forearm. A two dimensional hologram of his recording sprung from the projection node and a semi-transparent yellow video of the temple began to play.

“This is what we're facing” he said for the benefit of Aleena and 'the Thumb', who he assumed was nearby. “Those watchtowers are, I think, manned. You can just see some movement... there. And from the looks of things it seems there's a sizeable distance of forest cleared from it's perimeter. Approach will be difficult” He waited a moment for his companions to finish studying the image before tapping his wrist console and stopped playback. Keel's fingers hovered over the keypad in momentary hesitation. Something wasn't adding up here. But he'd not be responsible for endangering their mission. He forwarded the recording to the Aurillia.

“I'm on North approach” he confirmed to the chief Operative. Unslinging his blaster rifle he moved out.

Back amongst the cover of the trees and circling northwards he waited a while before contacting Aleena on an encrypted personal channel. “Chief, this is Keel. I wanted to speak with you about the mission” Although he was still concentrating on his stealthy approach he considered carefully what he was about to say.

“I have a bad feeling about this. I think we've been set up or the mission has been compromised. You've seen for yourself the compound which is the apparent source of this mysterious transmission; the coordinates we've been zeroing in on... The coordinates the Aurillia was originally set to land at but had to be adjusted to find a clear landing spot...” He paused to let his words sink in. “You see what I'm saying?”

“To ascertain there was nowhere to land the transport at the coordinates, we must have buzzed close enough to see that temple. And there's no way sensors couldn't have picked up the amount of clearing around the compound; there's more meadow space near the temple than the clearing we set down in” He paused again chewing at the inside of his cheek in thought. “Whatever the case, something smells rotten. If you ask me, either these Sith have been lying to us and knew about this place all along, or your Agent Skursur is purposefully keeping essential intel from us. That or the ship's crew are collaborating with the Jedi and leading us all into a trap” Keel shook his helmeted head “Nothing about this makes any sense. You want my advice? Trust no one”

"O.K. people, as you just heard we have The Aurillia inbound. We'll secure this area for their arrival. Keel, take the North and make sure we don't have any more unexpected 'guests'. Ishad, you've got the West and Thumb? you take the South. I'll cover the Easterly approach." Ordered Aleena



As Darth'Ishad raced back down the tree, he saw the team waiting at least the ones visible.
"I dont feel we are ready to move out with the whole team, we still dont knwo what is all out there." Waiting was somthin he could do very well when needed, and right now he felt it was needed. "Those jedi know we are here, and we still know nuthing." Looking around, "But an order is an order."

Darth'Ishad started goin west.

Listening to Darth'Ishad's concerns, Aleena nodded in confirmation. She'd not known the Kaleesh long, but she was fast learning his reputation as a patient hunter was well deserved.

"We need not go far, Ishad." She updated him. "Ten, twenty feet at the most. The ship is due to land here, in this clearing. All we need do is make sure they can do so safely."

As she watched the group fan out to their compass-points, she received a secure transmission from Keel, and he sounded less than convinced by their mission.

As he ended on “..Trust no one”, she smiled at the Bounty Hunters wise choice of words. She virtually lived her life by that line.

"I agree with your diagnosis, Eamonn." She said softly into the comm. "It wasn't to hear the sound of my own voice that I advised against attacking the Jedi Enclave to the Base Team. We're all well-trained and I have confidence in everyone's abilities here, but we must be realistic: We are but a small team, their numbers could easily dwarf our own by comparison."

She was going to leave it at that, but felt she owed the Bounty Hunter more of an explaination.

"Besides, we were hired to aid The Path investigating the signal. I believe we've done that. The second part of our contract stipulated we help them locate and aquire any artefacts; not start an armed conflict. If they want us to go against a group this large we'll need a new strategy, a different weapons load-out, back-up, and one frak of a pay-raise. Stay frosty, Keel. We'll sort this out with Base Team upon their arrival."

"We need not go far, Ishad." She updated him. "Ten, twenty feet at the most. The ship is due to land here, in this clearing. All we need do is make sure they can do so safely."


"Of course," he nodded and started looking around as he headed towards the edge of the clearing. This place reminded him of the jungles of Kalee, thick vegitation, almost untoutched by modern poison. He almost felt at home.