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Post by Salt on Jan 17, 2014 3:30:45 GMT -5
The landing craft touched down on the mud-matted grass, scattering a collection of mammals huddled underneath.
"The settlement's half a kilometer out, my lady," said the pilot. "Gan should have the speeder bike prepped for you."
Countess Shyvekul glanced at the grey sky through the viewport from her seat in the co-pilot's chair. "No. I'll walk. They're only primitives, and I can run quickly enough."
"Yes, m'lady."
Shyvekul unstrapped herself and rose, heading for the exit ramp. "In approximately three hours I want you to begin preparations for launch."
"We'll see you then, m'lady. Happy hunting."
The clouds hung low and the wind nipped at the thick grass, each step she took cushioned by the drying mud. The river gurgled slowly a hundred meters to her right on its route past the village ahead of her. No shadows, and not a lot of sound except the wind. When she rounded the hill that hid the transport there would be an open plain between her and the village.
Shyvekul cloaked herself in the Force, absorbing the light from the surrounding terrain and masking her power. No one would notice her until she was right in front of them. And if there was anyone with enough training to see through her camouflage, well . . . The pilot hadn't wished her a boring hunt.
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Post by Salt on Jan 31, 2014 2:31:40 GMT -5
It took Shyvekul some time to find the woman she believed to be her target. The communiqué had been vague: dark hair, part of one of the larger families, an air of loyalty and a superb informant for the Sith. It had been some months since she began this work, and she was getting used to this self-directed, low-intel approach, but some jobs still took a surprising amount of reconnaissance. She imagined her handlers were evaluating her methods. She wasn’t any closer to knowing their reasons.
For being so small, the village seemed choked with a forest of thatched huts, and aside from the broad footpath that cut through the middle of the village and meandered to the river, there was no apparent effort to organize the buildings or connect them with convenient walkways. No more than a handful of people ever wandered outside while she searched, and she couldn't tell much from looking inside their homes.
She entered several of the structures and found nothing beyond rough-hewn wooden furniture, devices she assumed were hunting traps hanging from walls, the odd decorative rock or gemstone, and people huddled around fire pits and mending clothing. No one seemed to notice her through her Force camouflage.
And then there was something. Like a shiver, a ripple down her back, the sensation of a feather being drawn across her shoulder when she hadn’t expected it. She looked out the small window of the hut in which she’d been lurking. Nothing but drab grass and sticks and the gray log walls of the three huts nearby, their thatch now dripping with a rainy drizzle.
She stepped between two children playing a game with pebbles on the floor and went through the entryway outside. She looked to the right, then the left, but still saw nothing. She shut her eyes and felt around the energy of the place. There was another feathery ripple, this time on her other shoulder. She looked up past nearby roofs to the single large building in the settlement, only visible by its second story from where she stood on the central path. There. The ripple was emanating from somewhere near that building.
As Shyvekul cleared the central area and had the building in clear view, she saw it, long and intricately decorated with carvings and wooden statuary, a veritable palace by contrast with the cramped and dreary domiciles she’d just seen. It was on a slight incline at the end of a delicately cut stone path, surrounded by trimmed brush and interlocking hedges made of entwined tree limbs. She didn’t recall seeing any quarries in the vicinity on her ship’s approach. They couldn’t have been able to afford to ship purchased stone of this quality from off-world, she thought, judging from the state of their other structures. Unless there was something more valuable within that building.
She began the ascent up the stone footpath and saw a black-robed figure emerge from the pillars shadowing the arched doorway to the building. She stopped, instinctively pulling her focus inward to increase her stealth. The figure was discussing something with another person on a holo-transmitter, but the blue image quickly fizzled out and the figure pocketed the transmitter. Then it turned and looked at a second figure approach from the same place behind it. This one looked like a soldier or a mercenary. This second was followed, again, by a third: a woman, with dark hair, wearing thick, earthy clothing like the rest of the villagers here. They began speaking with one another.
Shyvekul grinned. It seemed she'd found her mark, but the fun would come in making sure. She moved slowly closer to the hedge of trees for cover and tried to listen in to their conversation.
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