After his level 2 Combat Engineer training session, Mako got back to the DD barracks late that night.  The next day he spent trying to gather information about the surrounding areas and decided that he would go orienteering at first light.  He readied one of his sniper droids, leaving the other to guard his precious refresher booth, and ordered his newest droid from the ICS in time to accompany him as well, a Basilisk War Droid.

Mako readied his gear for the scouting trip the next day.  He packed ration packs, DarthWater, his DC-17 Interchangeable Combat System, his heavy republic Flame Thrower for heavy shrubs, a few Med Packs, Macro Binoculars, and a few grenades.

He didn’t figure that his orienteering trip would require even half of these items, but he sure didn’t want to be without them if he did need them.  Besides, he was able to pack most of it into his Basilisk droid and so didn’t have to carry it himself.

The next morning he woke up early and set off to find a good spot to cook breakfast.  He left a message on the Dark Dragoons’ data pads to message him on the COM link if they wanted to join him.  He would stop within a few miles of the base and hunt some breakfast, while he waited to see if the other members of DD wanted to join him.

Soon after arriving at his temporary camp, he set off to find a kill.  He crept slowly and quietly through the woods, waiting patiently for something tasty looking to show its head.

A little while later, he caught sight of some large, rabbit-like creatures and took a shot.  Crack!  One of the rabbit-like beasts fell silent and awaited his dressing. 

Mako skinned the creature and stowed its skin to make a pelt of later.  For now he gutted it and placed it on a spit.  It only made sense to conserve the horrible tasting ration packs for use when they were more needed. 

The smell of slow roasting meat filled his nostrils, and his stomach growled impatiently, as he cooked over the small fire.

He started to eat his breakfast and waited to hear from his squad mates before setting off.

Mako heard Garyll's arrival before seeing where the Imperial was coming from.  He stood up as he lit a Lung Blaster and reflected on his full stomach.  He stretched his legs and waited until his squad mate pulled up.

Garyll dismounted and walked toward Mako.

"Want some rabbit or a Lung Blaster Garyll?"

"I'll have some rabbit, thanks." and Garyll sat down to breakfast.

"You know if anyone else is coming?" Mako asked.  "I think that we should give them a bit more time, but we can leave as soon as you are done eating, if you'd like."

Mako started checking over his gear and looked impatiently at his datapad.  He gathered some nearby Tea Bush leaves and beries.  He recognzed this species of bush from his travels throughout the galaxy, and was not surprised to see it here too.  It was a common plant and was easy to grow.

He took the berries over to the fire and started crushing up some of the berries and grinding the tea leaves under his armored hand.  He started the tea to brew as he watched Garyll eat the rabbit-beast hungrily.  He lit another Lung Blaster and waited.

"Fifteen Minutes sounds like a good plan, Garryll." Mako said.

He sat around smoking Lung Blasters with Garryll.

Garryll got up and started putting his armor on, and double checked the sytems of his droid and looked again at toward the base.

After most of the remaining time had passed, Mako Strapped his Helmet on, synced his comlink channel to Garrylls frequency, and loaded up on his droid.

"I'll race you out!" he said into his helmet. 

Garryll replied by taking off in his ULAV.  He covered a decent bit more ground than Mako's Basilisk Droid because of he fact that he didn't have to land and leap again, but Mako was not very far behind by the time the woods started getting thicker.

Mako glanced behind them and noticed the eight foot or so wide path that lie directly behind them.  THere were trees and bushes down, and it would be easy for a kindergardener to follow them blindfolded.

The trees were alos getting older and thicker as the woods grew more dense.

"Garryll.  That thing has some spped on it!  Good race!"  Mako said.

"Don't challenge a pro" Garryl said laughingly.  Mako could almost hear his smile through the comlink. The Basilisk Droid may not be able to keep up directly with a hover speeder, but hover speeders were wide, and the Basilisk was able to twist and turn where necessary to get deeper into the woods, though its' sheer size would prohibit a rider when they goot too deep.

"I think that we may have to leave the ULAV now that the woods are getting thicker, then we may need to drop the Basilsk Droid  a little later.  That way we can get pretty deep into these woods before we have to dismount and deal with wildlife." Mako said.

Mako slowed his Droid to judge Garryll's response.

"Hop on behind me" Mako said.

Garryll climed on board and they went deep into the woods.  The pair stopped occasionally to check their maps and survey the area.  They rode through the morning liek this, and near lunchtime came upon small clearing that housed a little river.

The two dosmounted and looked around the area.  There appeared to be some caves nearby, but they had no lights. 

"Damn!  I knew I would leave something" Mako said frustratedly.

"Garryll, if you will get a few ration packs ready, I will scout out some good torch materials.  I have some fibrous rope stashed in the droid, and there should be some good lumber around, but I don't know what we can use for fuel.  I want to go exploring.  Got any ideas on the fuel source?" Mako asked.

Garryll thought about a fuel source as he prepared the ration packs, and Mako ran off to hunt up some timber closeby.

Mako saw the explosion and ran toward Gates.  He heard a somewhat disheveled "oops" come through his comlink and  then some muffled breathing.

Mako ran to wher ethe tooper was lying on the ground and checked him out.  "I'm no medic, he thought.  Jope he didn't trash himself too badly, or we may need to get outta here." 

Mako stooped over Gates, looked him over, and there didn't appear to be any faults in his armor other than some char marks. 

"Must have hit his head pretty hard in that impact with the tree." Mako thought. 

He tried to remember the utterly simplistiv medical training he was given in basic.  That stuff really only counted so far as keeping akid alive long enough for the medics to get there.

Mako tried to remove Garrylls helmet, figuring that some fresh air may do him good.  Then he remembered his MedPack in the Basilisk Droid.

He went to retrieve the pack and opened it near the downed trooper upon his return.

Mako found a set of smelling salts along with some headache powder adn a few other minor medical items.  The MedPack was more for battlefield emergencies like a blaster bolt through the lung than it was for unconsciousness, and the burn cream would do no good as the fla,es were brief and never penetrated the downed troopers' armor.

Mako ran the smelling salts under Garryll's nose and watched as he stirred fora second, then came abruptly awake. 

"You all right?" asked Mako.  "What the hell wa sthat stuff?  What happened?"

Mako inspected Garryll's head for lumps, knots, or unusual marks that may not have been there before.

"Your melon looks ok. You want to head back, or go explore those caves? Did you find a fuel source?"

"No Problem Gates" Mako said.  "I can't leave a trooper on his back unless he is in a bag."

Mako dug into the ration pack hungrily, but was a little dissappointed at the awkward taste of the potatos.

After both troopers ate, they started to rig up the torches with the cones.

"I don't know what made you think to put sap on the cones.  I wonder if we should take them back for analysis.  THey are probably in the database somewhere anyway though.  Mako carefully stowed a few extra cones in his rucksack, careful to keep them separated and as cushioned as possible.  "Hope these things don't rub together" he thought.

"they don't seem to put off much heat when lit" he said absently, more to himself than to Gates.

The two troopers readied their gear, Mako pulling out the things that he would need from his droid, and they started for the caves.

The torches put off some good light, and the cave floor was fairly dry for a cave.  Not that much chance to slip unless they hit some loose gravel.

They started making their way deeper into the cave.

"Oh yeah?" Mako asked.  "I am no geologist, but I think you may be right." 

The two traveled deeper into the cave.  It split off a bit into several paths. 

Mako looked into one of the paths, holding his torch high for better light.  He saw a few scuff marks and some camp remnants.  He called for Gates and walked over to inspect the camp remnants. 

He didn't see much.  A few rats scurrying around and some ration wrappers. 

"These guys didn't do too good a job cleaning up." Mako said.  "Do you see anything?"

Mako saw some dust near some of the scuff marks.  He inspected closer.  There were scorch marks on the wall, and a bloody smear of wound drippings on the ground.

"It looks like there was some type of explosion, and the injured person made off that way.  This blood looks pretty old.  Whoever it is is probably dead.  Let's go check it out, Gates" Mako said excitedly.

"I think you are right Gates.  What do you think got him?  A pine-cone?"


Mako readied his DC-17 Combat System and moved a little deeper in. 

"Careful Gates.  Whoever moved the body may still be down here." 

Mako moved quietly in a little at a time, Gates close behind him. 

He noticed some slight movement
in the darkness ahead.  He held up his hand to Gates, silently telling him to stop, while he tried to figure out what it was.

"Get ready trooper!" Mako said.

He flung his torch toward the motion, hoping that his low-light enhancement in his helmet would be enough to quickly determine what the object was, and if it was friend or foe.

As soon as the torch left his hand, he readied his rifle again, preparing to shoot. 

As he raised his weapon to firing position, he heard Gates' blaster go off above his right shoulder.

He looked into the darkness and saw the perimiter defense blaster sparka nd fizzle to silence. 

Mako quickly scanned the area and moved over to the defensive gun turret to ensure that it was shut-down, and not just temporarily disabled. 

He opened the maintenance panel with his multi-tool, and started disconecting wires. 

Gates moved silently near him to cover the busy trooper.

"If there is anyone in these caves, they know we're here now.  Be ready for anything, and saty behind cover as much as you can, in case they use grenades."

Mako started inspecting the next few yards for traps, and noticed the faint glow of campfire embers many yards off into the cave.

"None" Mako replied as he started to tie up the two offenders.  "Maybe the prisoner knows.  My guess is that they are just rogue pirates."

Gates started to untie the prisoners mouth enogh so that he could speak to answer questions.  Mako grinned satidfaction at Gates, no sense in freeing him until it is certain that he is not a threat also, he thought.

Mako searched the two downed men, hoping that the contents of their pockets may lead to some clues.  All he found were some credits and a datapad with the name and some background on their prisoner, aside from their blasters.

"Blasters don't give away their identity, nor do they have any identifaction on them, but our prisoners name is Dashel Bryant, according to this datapad.  It says that he is wanted for questioning related to galactic privateering matters.  We need more." Mako said to Gates.

"You want to talk Dashel?  I have an Imperial Persuader if you say no, so we will find out the truth.  May as well spill it now, I say." Mako said to the prisoner.

Gates stood over the prisoner somewhat menacingly, waiting for his reply.

"I will try when we get back to the Droid.  I have an interrogation model out there that I haven't tried out yet."  Mako said in the open channel so Bryant could hear.

"Oh, I see!" said Gates.  "A new toy!  But you have never used it before right?"  Gates asked excitedly.

"Yep.  We get to break it in right!  Though I'm not sure about the settings, I may accidentally kill him slowly or end up putting him in a waking coma where he can feel all the pain, but is unable to respond, but I'm no medic, so we will just have to hope that we recognize it if we do" MAako said loudly.

The prisoner's eyes opened wide at the possibility of a personal hell induced by an inexperienced torturer.

"I'll talk" Bryant said.

"I don't hear anything I'm interested in yet." Mako retorted.

"Ok.  These Bloody Banner Pirates came to me with an offer.  THey wanted the Imperial codes to access the main database top secret sections, and were paying pretty well. 

I took their money, expecting to be able to sham them, but some of my other researchers caught wind, and so I had to bail. You know what the Empire does to traitors and spies!" The prisoner was spilling his story quickly, and stumbling little.  It almost sounded rehearsed.

"Do you, or do you not have any real access codes?" Mako asked.

"Not any of value, and I am sure that they changed as soon as I left.  THese pirates wanted their codes though, and apparently discovered that the ones that I gave didn't work.  THey were going to try and excract real ones from my memory, I think.  But they would have spaced me as soon as they learned what they wanted."

"What did you do with the money?"

"I....I...." Bryant started, then shut down again.

Mako walked gracefully over and stepped lightly on his toes, as he prodded the mans neck with the barrel of his blaster.

"Gates.  You want to make an entry wound?  Or save him for the droid?"

Mako stood looking toward Gates, hovering over the man, barrel stuffed deep into his neck under his wincing face.

"Well.  Let's load em up and notify HQ.  If you wanty to get the prisoner I'll get these goons."

Mako grabbed the two soldiers by their ankle bondings and started to drag them out of the cave.

He switched to his channel to HQ and said:

"PFC Mako Sanguin to base.  We have encountered some traiters in the caves a few miles off base.  We will be transporting the prisoners back for interrogation.  Be aware that our defenses may have been compromised.  The traiters were selling trooper armor and IFF codes." Mako said calmy.

"Also, the deserters' kidnappers roughed him up pretty badly" Mako added, looking at Gates, smiling under his helmet.

"I think that we should ask him where the money is when he wakes up.  What do you think?"

"Hang on a sec, Gates."

Mako grabbed the smelling salts out that he had used on Garryll earlier.  He ran them under the prisoners nose, being sure to have his blaster stuffed very close to the mans eyes when he awoke.

Mako imagined the sight from the prisoners eyes.  Looking down the long gun barrel, looking oblong from this angle, only to see a stormtrooper at the other end.  Mako decided that it would be enough to make a regular guy shake a bit, and from these standards, graded the prisoners reaction pretty well.

"Wha...?" the prisoner said.

Mako shifted the gun slightly so that the prisoner could see it better.

"We haven't told the Empire that we found you yet," he lied.  "My partner and I would like a bit of a transport fee.  What did you do with those blood credits?"

"I...I...I told you already....I..." the prisoner was a bit unkempt in the way that he presented his argument.

"They..they had them...in a box back there....they must have..." the prisoner went on a bit.

Mako looked at Gates.  He ran some more salts under one of the guards' noses, waking him the same way as the prisoner.

This man's reaction was different than expected as well.

"Did we start the infiltration already?  What happened?"

Mako thought quickly.

"Yeah.  The infiltration is about to begin.  The boss told me to gather up everyone and get the plans from you."

Gates, picking up on what Mako was attempting, stuffed is blaster into the prisoners mouth and put a finger over his own mouth to show teh prisoner to be quiet.

"You don't have the plans?  They were with the money in the transport locker.  It was supposed to come right behind the trooper suits.  I see you got those.  Did they all fit ok?"  The guard said.

"Yeah.  A few didn't fit too perfect, but then again not all troopers wiegh as much as some of our crew." Mako said laughingly.  He knew he was taking a risk, but he wanted to put the guard at ease and keep his mind in a different place.  Thinking about his crew may do that.

"Hah!  Old man Westinghouse is definitely not shaped like a trooper.  More like a humpback whale, I think!" the guard was pleased with his joke, and Mako laughed hard at it, even though he had no idea who "old man Westinghouse" was. 

"I better get those plans.  The boss wants them double quick!  Where did you leave em?"

"Down the hall under some brush, but you'll need my prints to get in.  I didn't trust anyone else.  Hey, what's your name anyway?  That helmet makes your voice sound different." 

Mako knew all that he needed.  He planted the blaster butt hard against the backside of the man's head.

"Gates, you want to watch these three for a sec? I'm oing to get our bonuses."

"Glad to" Gates replied.

Mako ran down the hall to where the camp embers still barely showed signs of life.  He searched for some brush that may hide a chest.

Mako found the chest and drug it back to the downed guard.

He ran the unconscious man's fnger over the scanner, and the lock clicked.

Mako and Gates both looked inside at a large stack of credits.

"I say we split it up, but leave enough to make it seem real." Gates said.

"Good idea"  Mako grabbed a large chunk of the credits and roughly split the pile with Gates.

He then took the Data Pad out and powered it on.  He searched it's databanks and recovered an encrypted message. 

"PFC Mako Sanguin to HQ.  Transmitting encrypted data source from the traitors DataPad.  You should be recieving now"

"Affirmative Private" A voice returned in his headset.

"Well Gates.  We got our transport fee.  Now let's get em back to base."

Mako again grabbed the downed soldiers ankle straps and the two troopers started dragging the prisoners back to the mouth of the cave.

The two troopers made it back to the Basilisk Droid and strung teh three prisoners from its flanks.

"I think we can run em back to your speeder this way, but then we should probably load at least one with you." Mako said to Gates.

Mako mounted the droid and gates climbed up behind him.

The two imperials started back towards Gates' craft with a careful speed that wouldn't jar their passengers too much.  They hoped along the way that these goons didn't have a platoon waiting around somewhere.  They were there to meet someone after all, and never dd find out where the bloody person went off to.

Mako spoke to Gates in their squad com:

"Be on the lookout for their buddies.  THey may be here already to meet them.  If we got these guys early enough, the Empire may be able to stage a meeting and nab the rest."

Gates replied by grabbing his blaster pistol and checking their six.

"Let's get on it!" Mako said excitedly.

"We can run them back and grab a fresh squad.  Then we can go back and meet the pirates."

"Maybe our armor will give us some time to talk before we are exposed. That way we could find out more about their plans."

Gates responded by tearing out in his ULAV.  MAko followed as closely behind him as possible.

He no longer cared how beat up the prisoners got, so long as they were alive when the two made it back to base.

Mako spoke to Gates through the com:

"Hey Gates, how about letting me knock the next one out.  You've had like three in a row!"

"You have to beat me to the punch Mako." Gates said laughingly.

Mako reached back and hit one of the prisoners on general principle.

The two troopers made it back to the base with no majr events. 

After a brief report, they started trying to round up more people for their  intervention with the pirates.

"That sounds like a plan Gates.  I hope there is a medic here though, as we will be going right into harms way."

One of the troopers raised his hand and said "I'm a medic."

"Good" Mako said.  Gates, keep him out of the brush as much as possible.  We may need him.

"Load up!" Gates said excitedly.

"A black LAAT, huh Gates?" Mako said grinning.