The forest had become so dense it was nearly impossible to see farther than an arms length in front of you in the so called Black Forest. Havock was having difficulty seeing how anyone could get in and out of the forest much less live there. She was starting to thing the ghost stories were far more plausible than Dane's mystery people. Maybe she had let her need to kill Paric cloud her judgment. Maybe they already should have been on their way back to Tadath rather than being poked and scratched by branches as they tried to find something other than dead trees and dirt.
The RAIDERS had put their helmets back on to prevent anyone losing an eye to a random branch. Everyone had put their weapons away, unless they were lucky enough to bring a machete to hack through the branches. Still, if there was a group of people living out here, the last thing Havock wanted was for them to know they were paying them a visit.
Havock could understand why the locals found this area spooky, the surrounding woods had random odd things that did make her hair stand on end. What looked like dolls made out of branches hung from the trees leading up to the path-less Black Woods. Like RB said, textbook scare tactics.
So that meant someone had to be doing that, keeping people away, so there had to be people here, right? Suddenly the impulse to slam her head into something hard and painful returned, the lack of sleep must have been catching up to her.
The squad was dissonant. Now Karash and Aeos were at odds and all Havock could think was that it was her fault for bringing the dark cloud-like mood into the barracks. She had to find a way to get everyone back on the same page and to stop arguing about everything. That needed to start with her, it was time to let go of the anger she was felling towards herself. That meant that the only anger left would be directed straight at Jaenna for leaving and Paric for putting that event in motion, but she needed to get herself and this squad through this mission alive and hopefully not as broken as last time.
Havock was at the front-most position of the squad. She slowly moved through the dense branches, many times having to get on hands and knees to crawl through the tight spaces. She was getting tired, drowsy even, which wasn't good at all. She slid on her stomach to the next thicket and tried to push the branches aside with her hand, only this time they didn't move.
She frowned and tried again. Yet again the object refused to move. It was way to dark now and she couldn't make out anything in her visor other than whatever it was did not give off any kind of heat. She yanked her helmet off and was surprised to see a grayish structure mixed in with the dead branches and leaves. “What the hell?”
“Everything okay, Chief?” Aeos sounded concerned, Havock was getting used to that twinge in the woman's voice.
“Hold your posistions, let me see what we're dealing with.” She whispered back on the squads channel.
Havock scooted to her left, feeling her way around the structure. She could swear it looked like the cargo bay of a large freighter, without the rest of the freighter intact. She finally crawled to the edge and realized they were on a rise above a sunken clearing in the forest. The crater was large, as far as she could see across in the dim light. In the crater was several dozen, if not more freighters, ships, and pieces of both smashed toether in the most creative ways to make almost a small town. Then she saw the people. At least a hundred of them roaming around about their business.
“I wonder if they have any booze down there.”
“Don't you dare, RB.”
He crawled up next to her and looked out over the small community. “So I guess this means Dane was right. Any sign of our Twi'lek or his zabrak friend?” They both scanned the camp. The people definitely had lived on the moon much longer than the people at Finder's Landing. Their clothes looked mostly homemade and even some of the weapons she could make out hanging from makeshift straps looked put together.
Movement under one of the larger structures caught both of their eyes. A group of four men were dragging the two former Daggers into a smaller structure. Rogueboy could also make out several VE containers probably from the survey team sitting outside the smaller structure.
Havock reacted without thinking. Luckily Rogue was there, he placed his hand on her back and shoved her back to the ground. “Using that head of yours today Havock? Or would you like them to shoot it off for ya?”
“Right, sorry.” She grumbled just loud enough for him to hear. “Alright, lets regroup with the others. I've got an idea.”
==---===---===--===---===
“Are you telling me that Paric is down there, all we need to do is go in and get him and we came back out here?” Bright's voice was cold and even up until the last word. The fact that she wasn't yelling was frankly scarier to the others than if she had been.
Havock looked at all the faces staring at her. It was getting dark, they needed to make camp and her plan would have to wait until the morning. “That camp has at least a hundred people in it. A hundred angry pissed off locals that will shoot first and ask questions later.”
“How do you know that, the other group was wiling to talk.”
“Njall, if you lived in the middle of that would you like it if people just dropped by for a visit, oh and while we're there we need to borrow your prisoners. No.”
She sighed. “This can work. We know the other group sends out hunting patrols and they go as far as just over that ridge. If we take out a patrol and make it look like these guys did it, Dane will attack them. Then everyone is distracted and we can walk in and deal with Paric and Racus.” She didn't miss the look in Brightstar's eye when she mentioned the twi'lek, it was probably mirrored in her own blue orbs.
“For now lets find a place to make camp and in the morning RB, Njall, Smilez and Karash you find some evidence we can plant so that it will look like these people killed the patrol. Me, Bright, Grahim and Aeos will take out the patrol. Let's get some rest.”
