Ember kicked pushed open the hatch of the escape pod and rushed out of the metal box her Westar34s out and at the ready scanning the misty forest. She had specifically had the two blaster pistols painted matt black so they didn't catch the light. All her weapons were dull colors that didn't shine to revile her position. Seeing her and stopping her may have been two different things but she still preferred to get the jump on whoever she was going to arrest. She clicked her back teeth and changed the view on her HUD changing over to the infrared view to get a better idea what was out there. The thick forest outside was filled with fog and she wanted maximum visibility. She ran into the woods trying to make sure she didn't disturb the foliage as she cleared a good distance away from the escape pod. She doubted she had a lot of time before the imperials sent a drop ship full of stormtroopers to inspect the pod. They had established a several RV points before embarking on Naya's ship. Lucky for her she only had about five clicks to the first RV point. Once she was sure she was a safe distance from the pod she holstered her pistols and unslung the duroplast case off her back and opened it up to retrieve her Verpine sniper rifle, she checked her prized weapon making sure it was in good condition after the rather rough landing she had to go through. As much as she liked the weapon it wasn't very durable and if it wasn't for the case it would probably be in pieces by now. She switched her HUD to its normal view and shouldered the weapon content it had survived the landing undamaged. She looked through the scope and scanned the forest she closed the case and slung it across her back again. She took off her pack and checked the contents grabbing several spare power cells for her blasters pistols along with a few thermal detonators and a couple of ration bars. In case she ever needed to leave her pack behind she would have some spare ammo and rations. And as long as her Verpine had a charge she could just load stones into the weapon. And now that they were stranded on this rock they needed to make use of whatever they had on hand. If what they had been told in there briefing was true Imperial forces forbid any ship with a hyperdrive to land on the planet. Meaning if Naya couldn't manage to shake off those Tie interceptors and land at the extraction point then there shebs were stuck here with no chance to escape. Not unless Cassus had a plan to get aboard the orbiting star destroyer and steal something capable of flying them home.

Ember chuckled to herself, knowing Cassus he'd probably try to fly back in the star destroyer itself. She wondered if the other ARC troopers had been as bold during the Clone Wars. She had a hard time imagining Cassus dressed in white armor standing at attention. Aden may in fact be the first and so far only jedi she had met but if the others were like him before the Great Purge than she couldn't imagine how anyone could stand taking orders from people such as him. She had overheard Cassus telling Liara some of his old war stories. He had mentioned that he was under orders to treat every jedi as a superior officer regardless of age experience or even rank within their own order. Padwan's with no formal training in leading men into battle. If Aden fought during the Clone wars all those years ago he couldn't have been more than a teenager. Aden was maybe three to four years older than her meaning he couldn't have been more than sixteen maybe seventeen by the time the war had ended. Only a kid when the war had begun yet with the lives of formally trained men in his hands to do with as he pleased. She had been thirteen when the war had ended, back in a completely different life. Her teenage years had been far from pleasant. But then again Cassus was living a completely different life, he was the same age as she was, though he didn't look it, he was physically twenty six years old and had years of combat experience under his belt. She didn't even know how to use a blaster at the time; she was living a comfortable life on Botajef. So very different from when before she became a Mando'ade, before she had met Cuyan. Ember shook the thoughts from her head. There was no use in thinking about that right now, all it would do was depress her and distract her from her job. She loaded in a magazine into the Verpine rifle and reminded herself not to get caught up in the past at times like this. It didn't matter right now; she was a mandalorian and no longer that naive little girl she used to be. And the dead, well they were dead. She didn't know if they had passed onto the Manda, she didn't know if she truly even believed in the Manda, but she missed them dearly. She chambered a round and moved out ready to make the first RV point in due time. All that caf she drank earlier was certainly going to be put to good use. She scanned the area again with her infrared HUD and switched to night vision. As much as her infrared vision helped with all this fog, it was disorienting at times and didn't help against stealth armor designed to be invisible to infrared vision, she wouldn't put it past some imperial commandos to have such armor and now that the empire knew they were here it made it all the more likely she had to keep her eye out more for stormtroopers and not the local wildlife. The sound of repulsors made her stop and take cover ducking down behind a jutting root her head to the sky and, she leveled her rifle. An imperial drop ship flew overhead skimming the treetops scanning the forest with spotlights. They passed right over her head flying towards the location of her pod. She stood from her hiding spot and stepped over the massive root. It wouldn't be long before that drop ship released the troopers it carried and the hunt would be on. She would need to pick up the pace if she planned to get away. This area would be crawling with stormtroopers any minute now.

A soft crunching of leaves alerted her and she rounded on a tree with her rifle at the ready. A young black haired woman stood with her back against a tree. She was dressed in furs and leather looking half-starved and frightened to near death. She clearly wasn't a stormtrooper. More than likely she was one of the planets natives. From the look of her she was a pale skinned human. She clutched a primitive bone knife in her hands she doubted the weapon could even pierce the bodysuit of her armor, Ember lowered her rifle. The last thing she needed right now was to waist a perfectly good shot of her rifle on a harmless native, besides she could be useful to them. If she really was a native she could have useful knowledge of the local terrain and possibly know of ways to get close to the Imperial prison.

She kneeled down to the woman's level her rifle braced across her knee. The woman scanned her with her eyes petrified. "Can you understand me?" she asked trying to make herself sound as friendly as possible. The woman clutched at the tree behind her as if it was her safe haven. Ember sighed putting her rifle down and reaching for her buy'ce and breaking the seal pulling her helmet off for the woman to see her face. She imagined with her helmet still on she looked like just another stormtrooper to the poor girl. "It's ok." She said still unsure if the young woman before her could understand her or not. "I'm not going to hurt you. " She moved to grab a ration bar from her food pouch making sure to not seem threatening to the girl. "Are you hungry?" she asked knowing she had to be. Ember knew malnutrition when she saw it; she had once confiscated a ship from a rodian that had caused a ruckus in town. The cargo hold had been full of twi'lek slaves all scared and starved with that same look in their eyes as this girl right here. The woman nodded her head reluctantly and reached out to take the flavorless food.

A hard stone suddenly stuck her from the side knocking her down. She turned her head to see a young horned zabrak charging at her with a large stone clutched in his hand.

"Bru'tal!" the woman yelled at him as he pounced on her. Ember punched him in his stomach sending the kid back. The blow didn't seem to faze the kid as he swung at her hitting her beskar plate. A dull thud sounded from the blow and the stone crumbled at the strike. Ember gave the child a nasty right hook to the face knocking him down. A sudden invisible force swept her up off her feet crashing her into a tree and pinning her there. "Don't touch my son!" she said standing up with both her hands stretched out in front of her. The grey and black skinned zabrak was lying on the ground not moving. "Sorry." She stammered trying to move her arms only to find them pinned to the tree trunk by the same invisible field that held her up, she knew now the woman could speak Basic and talking her down might be the only way she had to get out of whatever this was. The sharp whistle sounded through the air and dart stuck the woman in the side sending her down to the forest floor. The invisible grip on her released instantly and she fell to the ground catching herself on her feet. Her hands immediately went for her blasters drawing them and sighting them to the direction of the dart.

"Udesii Emb'ika." It was Cassus; his carbine was in hand as he approached her checking on the woman. "What the shabla happened here?" he asked slinging the weapon. Ember holstered her own weapons relieved she didn't have to deal with a platoon of stormtroopers quite yet.

"Met a couple of the locals." She explained picking up her Verpine rifle. "I think you can guess what happened as a result."

Cassus pointed to just above his right eye. "How'd you get that?" he asked. It took a second for Ember to realize what he was talking about. The adrenaline could do some crazy things; she didn't even notice she had blood in her eye. She wiped it away and dug through her medical pouch for the bacta spray.

"That little osik got me good." She explained closing her eyes and letting and tapping the spray to close the wound. She would probably have a decent bruise from the little scuffle. Cuyan used to call the bruises she would get beauty marks. He'd just brush the ugly black marks off as symbols of her attractiveness; it was one of the things she had liked about him.

"Who this little guy?" He asked sounding rather impressed. "You must be losing your touch if such a little kid could get the jump on you."

"He got lucky." She said, "I didn't have my buy'ce on."

"I can see that." He counted checking the kids body. "Well he's still alive."

Ember sighed inwardly of relief, sure the little brat may have got her good and embarrassed her but the last thing she wanted to do was kill a kid.

"Let's drug them, cuff them, and drag them. See what we get from them when they wake up." Cassus said preparing an anesthetic for the kid; his mother was already out like a light. They got some plastoid cuff around them both. Ember returned her helmet to her head and picked the kid up while Cassus threw the woman over her shoulder like a sack of grain. "Barely an hour on this rock and I'm have to fight children and witches. This is one Shabla place we landed on I'll tell you that."

"Welcome to Dathomir." Cassus said.