A Hostile Invasion

"Ten Minutes," Lt. Choi always sounded so calm over the comms. Xeones knew that even he was afraid though. None of them had been to the Wookie home world. They had one day to find a good landing zone for the rest of the unit. None of them liked to rush things, especialy not here. It was necessary though, the jedi were quick sleemos. "5 minutes" The deaccelaration process began as Xeones prepared to deploy the thrusters and chute on his pod. He had to fumble with three different safeties as he was falling at max velocity. not an easy task. Hopefully the wookies would just play off the pods as meteorites. "Two minutes deploy chutes" Xeones pod jerked hard as it deaccelarated to a mere 60 miles per hour. Still a hard landing though. Would the wookies now that they were coming?
Bamm! The three pods hit up against the top canopy of the forest as they screamed to the ground. The chutes were meant to deattach in a situation like this so the pod wouldn't get hung up anywhere. Xeones slammed into the ground at 60 miles an hour. He took a second to gain his senses then quickly hit the door releases and kicked the door open. Someone was trying to speak on the comms but all he could hear was static. Xeones gripped his blaster carbine close as he surveyed the area. No one insight, the jungle was a dark place especially on the bottom floor. Xeones filtered his helmet lens to the night vision green allowing him to see. It didn't work no light was able to reach down here. Damn, they didn't plan for this. He removed his helmet, he'd have to trust his senses.
They had run this senario many times during training, the team leader was supposed to stay put while everyone else went to his location. Xeones began to move as quietly as possible through the jungle night. Usually in a drop you were no more than 50 meters apart. Xeones circled the perimeter carefully. As he came almost back to where he started, he heard a branch crack in the brush. Xeones crouched and held absolutely still, listening. "Whiskey Breath is that you?" Xeones exhaled a sigh of relief as he realized it was Sgt. Mendez.
"Yeah, I'm here were is LT?"
"You'd better come with me,"
The pod was sitting in a small pool of water. From the front it looked like it survived the impact just fine. Upon further inspection however the back half had been sheered in half. The Lt was a mess, his guts strung on the trees all around.
"kriff, Sgt. what do you wanna do?"
"Let's get him to a safe area first,"
"Roger,"
Xeones hoisted the remains of the Lt. onto his shoulders as the Sgt. gathered the extra supplies. The two began to make their way across the forest floor. The Sgt. at point carefully picking his way from brush to brush trying not to be found by anything.
Just then a band of wookies popped out of no where. About 4 wookies stood in a semi circle bows drawn at the two soldiers.
"These guys don't look freindly sgt.,"
"kriff, Xeones lets get some distance on these guys and radio higher,"
"Roger," With the Lt on his soldiers Xeones began a bounding manuever out of the wookies half circle. Mendez initiated firing as Xeones was running. The Wookies dove for cover in the trees as the began returning fire. As Xeones turned to begin firing he saw Mendez running, he was already hit in the leg.
"kriff, Xeones kark lets go just run," They pair ran as hard as they could trying to put enough distance on the wookies to radio command. They finally found a clearing. They ran to the other side of it and dropped to a prone position.
"Charlie 1-6 this is Foxtrot 2,"
"Come in Foxtrot2,"
"We have 1 KIA, we are under attack we need support NOW,"
Just then the wookies caught up to the two. Xeones and Mendez got back up preparing for the worst.

Xeones tossed a thermal grenade into the wookies. They're mistake, they didn't space well enough. Two of the wookies lit into a ball of fire, the other two fell back in a daze. Xeones and the Sgt. fired away taking down the confused wookies. Four down, the two knew that more wookies would be on the way soon. They gathered the Lt again and stumbled further into the woods. Xeones thought he heard a ship entering the atmosphere but he was too focused to care. Mendez leg was getting worse and they couldn't leave Lt. Choi to the wookies. As they were going along they could hear sounds of a distant battle. Xeones and the Sgt. kept moving until they came into a big opening in the forest. They could make out the outline of what appeared to be a village.
"kriff, Xeones we need to make a decision. If that village is full of wookies we are screwed. It might be better if we went back and tried to locate that battle, we risk being killed by friendly fire but it might be worth the risk.
"Yeah, let's try and find the battle and see what we can do."
The two took a different path back but parallel to the last one so as to not attract any possible followers. The laser fire was getting louder, they had to be close. They found another clearing that was much bigger than the others. Wookies were attempting to charge a well armed company of Troopers. Xeones was on the wrong side of this battle. "Sgt. were in no condition to get around this mess, what do you think we should do?"
The Sgt. took out all their smoke and started popping them. The air filled with red blue and orange. He then slapped a fresh mag in his rifle and found a defensive postition.
"We wait."

Just when Jack thought he's ammo was going to run out, a concentrated blast of fire came from behind his squad. Two wookies went down simultaneously. Two ragged soldiers appeared from the woods. One was carrying a dead body. "Alright form a wedge around these guys, let's get them home," The Captain remained cool on the outside even though he was starting to panic. The squad moved through the middle of the feild because most of the fighting had shifted to the woodline. It was a daring move but worth it. One of the soldiers tried to relieve Xeones of the dead Lt. "kark you," was all he could manage as blood and foam seethed from his mouth. The soldier laughed at his determination. The squad moved quickly covering 200m without losing a man, adrenaline did wonderous things to the body. They loaded the injured Sgt. and the dead Lt. onto the dropship. Captain Jack motioned for Xeones to get on as well. But he didn't move.
"Look Cpt. we were sent here to recon for the main landing force, we havn't completed that mission yet. How about you leave a few good men with me and the rest of your company goes back to the destroyer. Then me and your guys get this mission done?"

"Welcome aboard Captain," Xeones shook the Captains hand. He was glad to have his helmet on because he was grinning ear to ear, such display of emotion could make him look weak. "Okay were going to need two guys, I see you already have a sniper rifle so were good there, get me your best pointman and a medic we don't wanna get too big." Were going to lay up in the trees behind the dropships, when they leave order them to make two false landings."
"Any suggestions on where to start looking Captain?"

The soldiers went east for about 100meters before laying prone in the dense forest while the Imperial Shuttles made their false landings. A few of the straggeling wookies from the battle got real close to the four soldiers, but they past by to occupied with pursuing the shuttles. Xeones was glad to be able to continue the mission. He didn't think of his dead Lt. as he was too focused on the task at hand. The soldiers made their way across the forest in a file formation. Xeones was on high alert but he felt suprisingly calm, the battle seemed to have brought out a new inner focus, it was like he could see all around him in a third person point of view. Never had he felt so in control. Xeones removed his helmet and used his new found senses to his advantage. No wookie was going to sneak up on them again. They trekked for three hours before taking a break. Captain Starbuck's pointman was doing an outstanding job. Xeones was in the rear covering their tracks. They had agreed on Starbuck leading since he knew his men and the area the best. Sometimes Xeones would correct Starbuck on some basic recon techniques but it was nothing big, if anyone was learning it was Xeones, the Captain did a wonderful job of leading. They got to within two miles of this compound when Xeones signaled the formation to a halt. "Okay listen guys I suggest we carefully do a cloverleaf recon of this compound, observe from the outside before going in."

Titus walked slowely, creeping through the forest, keeping a sharp eye out for any sign of movement. He probed ahead of the small group of six with the force, searching for any signs of life.
His plan was falling into place perfectly. He'd ordered Captain Starbuck to give him five of his Gloom Walkers for his personal mission. Gunfights were for foot soldiers. Wars were won through subtley, cunning and intelligence. Strength of force was necessary at times, but real victories were gained through patience. His plan was a little more elaborate. First objective: find and capture a wookiee and interrogate them for information on the whereabouts of the jedi.
It wouldn't be the easiest of tasks, Titus knew. Kashyyk was the home of the wookiee race, ergo they knew the terrain better. They were tough and strong physically, stonger even than he. Some of them may even be force wielders, therefore he would have to be careful if he ended up in a battle with one. Wookiees were wild and unpredictable.
But he was confident it could be done, and continued onwards to his victory.


After several hours of rucking there was still nothing to be found. Titus could see the weariness in his guard escort, though they dared not complain of it in his presence.
'Weak pestilent fools,' Titus thought to himself. ' I have no time for any delays.' Titus was just as tired if not more as the soldiers were. He was lugging around his own battle armor in his massive six foot five inch frame. He was completely concealed in his black cloak to make matters worse. The heat barraged his skin. Bugs nipped at his face. His muscles ached and his legs screamed at him to stop. But he didnt care. Pain was nothing but a weapon to him, a tool used to bring his enemies to their knees and make him stronger. He continued to trudge on.


Several hours more, and they stopped for a quick rest. Titus merely stood, allowing the soldiers a brief minute of respite. Soon they would have to move. It wasnt wise to sit in one place too long. Before he rallied the troops, Titus again drew upon the force and probed around the area. Nothing of note stirred in his consciousness. He focused his searching beam and directed it straight ahead, as far as his consciousness could reach.
As he got to the end of his limits, he felt something. Titus smiled. He had found what he was looking for. He turned back to the troops to get them moving.

Running to the compound Jack saw Xeones and Veezan enter. Right when Jack neared the door he heard the loud roar of a Wookie as it popped up from the bush and started charging "Really?" Jack held his blaster up and fired 4 shots into the wookie before closing the door on him. The door jerked as Jack sealed it shut. "I'll deal with you later you piece of kriff." He looked around "Kriff, didn't think I'd be coming back here." He ran up onto a landing and saw a crowd of wookies in the treeline. He found another spot to go prone and started picking off as many wookies as he could. He pressed his cheek to the mic in his helmet. "Xeones, Veezan, Charles. Whats your status?" As he remembered the compound was more underground so he hoped they went under. He looked at rifles ammo count "Blastit, they never give enough for this type of kriff."

Jack heard the question from Veezan and had an idea on where he was going with it. He hailed Veezan on the mic "Hey buddy I'm comin down" He couldn't help but smile when he heard Veezans accepting hiss. He went down a floor till he reached the main group, he went up to Xeones "Wish I could tell you, I went as far as the third floor down below." He looked down the hallway then back at Xeones "But it probably goes deeper no doubt." He motioned Charles to plant some trip wire explosives at the base of the stairs then looked back up to Xeones "Just whats brewin in that brilliant head of yours?"

The explosion rocked the area all around the compound, disturbing a delicate network of webbing: A nest of Kashyyykian giant weavers, hungry and disturbed. They swarmed about, making no noise whatsoever except the clicking and hissing of their animal language. Coordinating an ambush plan, they lurched out of their deep-reaching next and skittered over the land towards where the explosion had been. They smelled meat, blood... fear.
A group of them snuck around where the front of the compound had been, while two more groups came in from the side, alert to any movement from inside the ruins.
They began to lay down webbing. Layer and layer of thick, mucous-like, sticky webbing--and soon the small hole going in as well as the entire ground around the compound for a good ten-meter-radius was coated with webbing.
The weavers scurried over it as if it wasn't even there, waiting just outside the opening for the first bag of meat to try to escape.