The Rebel Faction

Silliss nodded and headed to where the majority of his warriors were. He instructed two of the K'Satikur warriors and four of the regular warriors to patrol around the ship, to ensure nothing tried to attack the workers while most of the marines were away. The rest he had go help the marines with the heavily lifting. They didn't like the sound of that, but Silliss explained that their better senses would help spot danger more quickly then the marines, the majority of which were human.

"So we are babysitting them then..." One of the warriors grumbled, a couple others grumbling with him.

Silliss gave him a stern look. "Would you rather not do anything at all? Just sit around here on your ass while the crew of the Triton do all the work? No, we will not do that. Tzhali is risking his fur by sharing his ship with us and it would help our cause if we did our equal share of the work around here, to show we mean what we say when it comes to 'fixing' our reputation." He leaned in close. "Unless you just want to remain stranded on this moon, with our enemies who knows how close to finding us, and with creatures that are capable of crushing your skull with a single bite...fine by me."

The warrior glared at Silliss, remaining unconvinced, so Silliss added. "Or do you want to stay in the brig with all those marines that tried to start a munity? I seriously doubt they would let you share their bunk with them..."

"Very well..." The stubborn warrior said, finally getting the hint. "But this better be worth it."

***

The rest of the day passed without any further incidents. The odd calls in the forest were still heard on occassion, making everyones skin crawl everytime, but no sign of the animal that made those calls.

Naosha, seeing the sun starting to go down, decided it was time to get the kids back into the ship to bed them down. Thankfully the puppy finally ran off back into the forest on it's own, so she didn't need to argue with her kids about keeping it. She was pleasently surprised to find that Trissan actually managed to stay out of trouble today, but deep in her mind she wondered if he was going try to make up for that later...

That night, Naosha was awakened by tapping sounds outside her door. Instinctively she looked over at the other bed and sighed with relief that there were five Trandoshan shaped heat signitures, meaning Trissan didn't slip out to cause trouble. Getting out of bed, she went to the door, opened it and looked out to see who was wondering the hallways.

At first she saw nothing, then a heat form appeared around the far corner, but it wasn't of any bipedal being. Since her eyes were in their infravision mode, she couldn't make it out exactly other then it was moving like a quadraped and about the size of a large dog. And it was looking right at her.

Slowly she reached for her pistol, the thing watching her every move. She couldn't tell if it was thinking of attacking her or not, so she wanted to be ready just in case.

"Go away..." She said softly. "Go away and back to where ever you came from..."

The animals head jerked up and something in Naosha's gut told her she made a mistake by speaking. She saw the thing tease, then charge...and she fired...

***

Silliss bolted awake at the sounds of blaster fire close by. Not wasting any time, he grabbed his lance and rushed out the door. When he reached the area he heard the shots he saw Naosha leaning against the wall just outside her door.

"Naosha...are you alright?" He asked.

"I'm fine Silliss..." Naosha replied, glancing over at him. "Just a bit shaken."

"What happened?"

"There's some animal roaming the halls. It tried to attack me but I managed to plug it with a couple of blaster shots first. It ran off then, who knows where in the ship it is or how badly injured it is."

"I'll awaken some of the warriors and do a search."

"Do that...or and Silliss...could you do one thing before doing that please?"

"What is that Naosha?" Silliss said, curiously.

"Put some clothes on first..."

"Erm..." Sillis felt the heat as he blushed profusely as he realized he had rushed out without putting thing on. "Of course....right away..."

Naosha had never seen a Trandoshan disappear so quickly: she couldn't help but chuckle.

Silliss (now clothed) and two other warriors rushed to toward the area were the last blaster shots were fired.

"What..." He started to ask Lumier, but then saw the carnage. "Oh..."

"Man something really @#%$ them up..." One of the warriors remarked.

"And that something got the Captain." Lumier said, pointing at the blood trail.

Crap. Either there's more the one of those things in here or Naosha didn't hurt it much. Silliss thought.

"We better follow this then and get that thing before it finishes him off." Silliss growled.

"If he's not already dead..." Lumier said grimly.

They followed the blood trail, the three Trandoshans taking point while Lumier and her marines provided cover fire. Quickly enough they reached the spot where the hull breach was and Silliss singled for everyone to stop.

"I see one....no...two heat signitures up ahead. Just under the hull breach." He whispered to them.

"Is one of them the Captain?" Lumier asked, unable to see into the darkened hallway.

"Hard to tell. Though one of them definately looks like an animal."

"If it is the Captain, we need to get that thing away from him."

Silliss nodded and rapped his vibrolance against the wall, getting the creatures attention. He heard it snarl and start to advance toward him. Silliss and his warriors branced themselves, preparing for a fight.

Behind him, Lumier took out a flash light and shone it into the darkened hallway, wanting to be able to see what they will be shooting at. It apparently didn't like the bright light, for it shrieked and fled out of the hole into the ceiling: no one got a good look at it...other then it was completely black in color.

"Well, we know it doesn't like light." Lumier muttered as Silliss went over to the Captains prone body. "Is he alive?"

"Yes..." Silliss said, a grim look on his face. "But you are not going to like what you see..."

“Silliss!”

Silliss turned around to see Naosha run up to them, a panicked look on her face. “What is wrong Naosha?” He asked.

“I don’t know how…but Trissan slipped out of the room.” The distressed Councilor said.

Silliss muttered a few Trandoshan curses. “And we don’t know if there are any more of those creatures roaming the ship…great…” He grumbled, knowing this will make the search more difficult. “We’ll keep and eye out for him while doing our search. Hopefully…we find Trissan before one of those creatures do.”

Lumier and Silliss arranged their search parties into parties of three. Each party had one Trandoshan with them to make use of their infravision in the darker sections of the ship. Guards were placed with the work crew working on the hull as a precaution. Anyone not working on the ship’s hull or conducting the search were strictly instructed to remain in their rooms until further notice.

Sillis and the two marines searched the area of the ship where the kitchen and Canteen was, looking for any signs of any more creatures…and that troublesome Trissan. As they passed the Canteen, they heard growling inside. Poking his head through the open door Silliss looked inside to discover the source.

The Canteen was mostly dark, save for a few soft lights in the back where the doors to the kitchen were. The light present was just enough to negate his infravision, yet not enough to see anything with any real definition. So Silliss slid his semi-transparent third eyelids over his eyes to force his eyes to switch to infravision.

Off to the far right side was a large heat signature, looking like it was crouching. Wanting a clear view of his target, and for the benefit of the two marines with him, he reached over and pushed the slider for the lights up a bit, filling the room with enough light to see by.

While the creature resembled the puppy they saw earlier that day, this thing was far from cute. The fur on the paws, half the lower forelegs and shanks of the hindlegs, face and roughly a third of it’s tail looked to have been worn away, revealing scales underneath. On it’s shoulders and flanks were two large flexible spines with a membrane of stretchy skin between them and the tail. It’s neck was covered with a thick mane of feathers and the three frontal fangs consisted of two upper fangs and one long central ‘spike’ on the lower jaw. The whole thing was pitch black in coloration and seemed to ripple with muscle.

He noticed this one was already injured, he could see a couple of raw flesh wounds on it’s hide, which meant this was likely the one that tried to attack Naosha earlier. However, due years of hunting experience Silliss knew this meant the thing was likely to be even more dangerous then the one they chased off of Tzhali because of the pain it was in.

He turned to speak to the marines, when he realized he was now alone: the marines had fled.

@#%$ cowards. Must be rookies. Silliss thought, snarling softly as he looked back at the creature. He didn’t know if he could take the thing himself and decided not to try to at the moment. It seemed to be distracted anyway: it kept reaching into an open ground level air duct with a paw, apparently trying to reach something inside.

He was about to leave to see about finding some help when he heard a whimper and a faint cry of ‘leave me alone’ come from inside the duct.

Silliss immediately whirled around and charged inside. His noisy entry attracted the creatures attention and it jumped to it’s feet to face him. A stand off ensued, the two opponents circling each other. The creature made the first move, jumping onto one of the many tables in the room and rearing up on it’s hind legs, it’s ‘wings’ unfolding. Silliss knew it was just trying to intimidate him, so he rushed forward, jabbing at the creature with his lance. To his surprise it twisted out of the way of his attack and latched onto his weapon with it’s jaws. There was a brief tug-o-war between them before the creature made a twisting motion with it’s head and effectively yanked the lance out of Silliss’ hands and tossed it out of his reach.

He, Silliss, a K’Satikur warrior…just got disarmed by a lowly animal. How embarrassing! He knew he was in trouble, for the lance was the one weapon he specialized in. The creature leapt at him then, before he could figure out what to do now, and before he knew it he was underneath hundreds of pounds of muscle, fur, feather, and very sharp claws and teeth. The creature clawed at him, shredding his tunic like wet tissue paper and penetrating his tough Trandoshan hide. He would be dead by now if he wasn’t holding the things head away from this own, keeping those dangerous jaws away. With a bit of effort he managed to bring his feet up underneath the thing and throw it off him: it crashed against on of the tables with a loud yelp.

Silliss scrambled to his feet and made for his lance, managing to grab it just before the creature barreled into him. This time he used the shaft of his lance to hold the creature’s jaws away and taking the advantage of the additional leverage he now had, he flipped the creature over him, sending it crashing into another table.

It had managed to get in a few more rakes in before that though and Silliss knew he may not be able to survive another raking if it got that close to him again. Bleeding from a dozen wounds, many deep, Silliss got to his feet again. Again the thing leapt at him, this time he was ready and twisted out of it’s path, swiping at it with his lance and leaving a gaping wound across it’s side. However he got a head full of it’s tail and he staggered backward, shunned.

It was pure instinct that saved him then, for when the creature came flying at him again he had his lance braced in front of him, angled slightly upward. The creature impaled itself on his lance, knocking him down again, but was dead before either hit the floor.

Weakened by blood loss, it took considerable effort to push the thing off him and get to his feet again. He didn’t bother to try to extract his lance from the corpse, instead he staggered over to the duct, where Trissan finally poked his head out.

“Is it gone?” The young Trandoshan asked.

“It’s gone…” Silliss said, finding breathing to be a bit difficult. “Lets get you back to Naosha…”

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine…” The world suddenly seemed to turn upside-down as Silliss collapsed against one of the tables. “Ok…maybe not…”

He realized then just how @#%$ up he was and wondered how he was going to get Trissan back to Naosha and himself to sick bay. Fortunately Lumier, who had heard the noise and came investigate, entered the Canteen just then…

By this time Silliss was barely aware of anyone's presense, though he was fighting to stay conscious.

"Your...marines need a lesson...in courage." He managed. "Oh and...there's a dead critter...in there if there's...any sciency minds that...want to study it. Stupid thing...ruined my favorite tunic...maybe I should...make a rug...out of it..."

"Shut up and save your strength." Lumier scolded.

Fortunately Trissan decided to stay with them and not go exploring the ship by himself anymore...not after that thing tried to make a snack out of him.

***

Meanwhile Naosha was pacing in her room, worrying about Trissan. She jumped when there was a knock at the door and when she opened it she breathed a big sigh of relief when she saw Lumier, who was holding Trissan in her arms.

"Thank goodness." Naosha said, gladly taking the troublesome youth out of Lumiers arms.

"Silliss found him in the Canteen, along with one of our critter guests." Lumier explained. "He apparently managed to kill it, but it messed him up real good in the process."

Naosha blanched: if a creature could mess up a K'Satikur warrior like that...

"Will he be alright?" She asked.

Lumier gave a snort. "Most likely the way he kept complaining about how the thing ruined this clothes. Never mind his own hide."

Naosha laughed. "That's a K'Satikur for ya!"

"Well we need to finish searching this ship, in make sure there's no more hiding on the ship somewhere..."

Lumier made tracks to the hanger, a handful of marines and two trandoshan warriors in tow. Soon they reached a side door, which had a glass window. Lumier could see the six creatures inside the hanger, some were lazing about, others where feeding off the unfortunate victims they caught.

“Looks like they made themselves at home there…” Lumier muttered.

“Likely a nomadic species.” One of the Trandoshans said. “Making there home where ever the food is.”

“And there’s a lot of ‘food’ to be had on this ship.” Lumier grumbled. “We need to send them an eviction notice…and the damn light switch is out of reach.”

“Excuse me Mam.” One of the marines said. “But didn’t Meredenz and her repair crew have to bring lighting equipment with them to repair the hull?”

Lumier smacked herself in the head for overlooking such an easy solution, then called Merendenz on the com. “Merendenz, turn on your lights!”

~What?~

“Turn on your lights! Those things don’t like light!”

A moment later the hanger was suddenly filled with bright light and the creatures screeched with pain, their screams sound like sheet metal being ripped apart. Lumier watched as the things charged around the hanger floor, trying to get away from the light. Finally every single one of them ran out the hanger door, right past Merendez and her group.

When the creatures were long gone, Lumier and her small squad entered the hanger to take a look at the casualties.

“Looks like will need to just keep the lights on for now on.” Merendez said.

***

“Why hasn’t the sun come up yet?” Naosha asked, some hours later as she looked out the door, glaring at the darkness outside. “It should be light outside by now.”

“Actually madam.” Her warrior escort said. “Tissuss takes two standard days to revolve around it’s parent planet. Which means there’s 24 hours…not 12 hours, between dusk and dawn.”

Naosha looked up at him, shocked. “No wonder I was so freaking tired when I went to bed.”

“This also means that those creatures that wiped out several marines and badly injured Tzhali and Silliss have more time to do more damage.” The warrior pointed out. “Plus be thankful we didn’t land on the dark side of the moon, where it’s dark all the time.”

“Great…just great. Tell you what…I am going to lock myself and the kids in my room and when the sun comes up…you come get me!”

***

Back on Trandosha, Besk was surprised to hear that he had been summoned to Speak-of-All Hyossk’s chambers.

I don’t have any progress to report yet… He thought worriedly as he made his way though the Council building to Hyossk’s chambers: Rissonik and his rebel kin where proving to be a much slipperier lot to catch then he thought they would and thus far there was no reports of where Naosha and the Wookiee ship she was on disappeared to.

When he entered the chamber he noticed immediately the unusually good mood the Elder Councilor was in. Either he was happy because something happened Besk didn’t know about or because he was about to be rid of him: naturally it was the latter that bothered Besk.

“You wanted to see me Councilor?” Besk asked, keeping the nervous edge out of his voice.

“Yes Besk. I have something to show you and it should be arriving shortly.” The Councilor said.

Besk subconsciously swallowed. “What would that be sir?”

“Something that would be a major blow to Naosha. Something very personal.”

Besk felt a bit more at ease now: so it wasn’t about him. “The only things you can strike at her in a personal way is her family, most of which is with her and the rest are in some unknown location.”

“Not entirely true.” Councilor said with a smile. “Through my sources I’ve been able to locate one of her family members and took the opportunity to have that one dealt with. I’ve asked for the corpse to be delivered to me as proof.”

Right on cue, there was a knock on the door. Excited, Hyossk rushed to the door and a moment later dragged a large wooden box into the chamber: Besk could smell the scent of death from where he was standing.

Curious, but keeping his distance, Besk watched as Hyossk ripped off the top cover to take a look at this prize. His expression of glee suddenly turned to one of shock and disbelief. Besk walked over then and took a look. Inside was indeed a body, but not of a Trandoshan, but of a human. It was cut up into several pieces as well and from the wounds Besk knew which member of Naosha’s family Hyossk tried to bump off: he started to laugh.

“This ain’t funny!” Hyossk growled. “This is tragedy!”

“Indeed it is Councilor.” Besk said when he was able to stop laughing. “It’s such a tragedy to be shown just how much of a fool you are. Did you honestly think you could take out Trazu…the Clan’s Holder?”

“I am not familiar with the term ‘Holder’ Besk.” Hyossk snarled, really not in the mood to deal with Besk’s mocking.

“Think about it Councilor…what is the one ‘perk’ of the K’Satikur Clan that no other Clan has?”

The Councilors eyes widened. “You mean the ‘Holder’ is the one that…”

“Possesses the spirit of the K’Satizitus.” Besk finished for him. “Even if he wasn’t the Holder of that evil spirit, Trazu is quite a formidable opponent without it.”

“But he’s a runt!”

“That ‘runt’ took out Tnossok.” Besk said bluntly, remembering all to well when he heard the news that Trazu had killed Tnossok in a bid to get his father, Rissonik, back Clan leadership. Tnossok was no easy opponent either. ”And thanks to you…he likely knows about want is going on here and is on his way to help his family!”

Hyossk, now freaked, ran off and locked himself in his bedroom: a rather amusing response from the Councilor Besk felt, not that he could blame him.

Looking back at the contents of the box, Besk noticed something interesting. This human was wearing armor, yet it looked to have been melted through and the flesh was charred. Besk knew Trazu used swords and loathed guns with a passion, which limited the weapon possibilities the Trandoshan could have used on this man greatly. One of those possibilities, and the most likely, was:

A lightsaber.