When you are traversing the wild and untouched landscapes of the savannah, just remind yourself that you are never the apex predator. The vast and desolate area of sand, rocks, dead and ancient trees are all the same blood-orange color for a simple reason: to hide your worst nightmare from your sight, the Akul. A large, quadrupedal and orange furred mammal, the Akul are the top predators that hunt all sorts of bovine, dog, hooved and giant mammals. Using their extraordinary sense of smell, they can trace your scent from days long past and track you down without mercy.

Throughout the Savannah, tall and wispy Turu-grass stretches out into long ranging fields. Watering holes are sparse and spread thin, and the terrain offers little safety from the blazing sun that hangs overhead. When the sun retreats and gives way to moonlight, the Savannah becomes almost chill, but the night is dark and full of wild creatures. In the Savannah, it’s hunt or be hunted.

A mild gust rustled the stalks of turu-grass with a sound of serrated chimes. The Savannah lay still, but far from dormant. Keen steel-blue eyes scanned the crimson horizon, hazed by heat distortion, while the hunched form of the emotionless KX-series droid stood beside her with a gleaming white flamethrower nestled in its mechanical arms.

“Are you absolutely sure?” Alethia's words were cold, sharp as her gaze and sparingly used.

The droid passively scanned the Savannah, olfactory sensor picking up, identifying and filing away a dozen species of plant life and countless other bio-organisms. Upon her query, it ran the triangulation again through a hundred fold recursive before arriving to the same conclusion as it had before.

“Yes,” KX-57 stated in as blunt a manner as its mistress. “The last known location of OEF-29 was recorded in this location with a circular error probable of 23.55 meters. We stand at the epicenter of that datum.”

Alethia wiped her brow, smearing red dust across her forehead that had caked and crusted in the recesses of her matte black warplate. A part of her loathed the surely unruly and disheveled look she struck, though another appreciated the tactical advantage that camouflage provided.

Many senior commanders would have delegated this task to a subordinate. A lost recon squad was hardly worth the time of a high brass officer to personally be involved in, but Alethia was not like most commanders. Despite the outwardly callous nature she liked to uphold, these men put their lives in her hands every time they accepted her orders. She had signed their mission dossier and she was responsible for them. Personally.

“That hill.” Alethia pointed at a distant protrusion in the flat landscape. “Distance?”

“Twenty-seven point four-nine meters. Outside our…”

Alethia sat off without bothering to let the droid finish its predictable objection.

KX-57 stood dumbfounded for a moment before following the Odanite with long leaping strides. Catching up with the silver-haired woman, the knot behind her head having taken on a tint of crimson during their trek, the droid suppressed its curiosity just long enough to force the Human’s hand.

“Your calculation accounts may be accurate, but I know my men. They would have sought to gain the high ground and around here, that hill is the highest ground there is.”

---

Gingerly pushing the mangled corpse onto its back with the tip of her boot, Tali scowled as the man’s torn entrails slipped onto the red grass with a wet squelch like a mass of worms. The edges of the wound were cauterized.

The corpse was only one of four, all clad in identical high-grade combat armor bereft of any identifying insignia. Still, she could clearly see they’d all been part of a unit and it didn’t take much to infer they probably shouldn’t have been here. Just like her.

Arcona wanted answers and it seemed she was not the only one seeking them this far from their home turf. Whispering a soft prayer of passing to whoever the soldier before her was, her eyes caught the glint of a scratched holopad. Fighting the revulsion, Tali leaned in past the leaking innards and scooped up the bloodied pad, inspecting it for any markings of ownership.

She found none, but something about its design seemed familiar. She had seen similar ones before, but where? Placing her hand upon the pad, she closed her eyes and focused. The rustling of turu-grass faded and was replaced by the crowded smells and sounds of a Togruta bazaar.

Half whispered words. Sweaty credit chits. Dark cloaks.

“Pravus.”

She almost lost her focus. Brow furrowing, she dived deeper into the fading vision, letting go of her mundane senses as she followed the fleeting imagery.

A running man. Panic, fear, betrayal. Violence.

A long chase. Exhaustion. Despair. Four grey shapes, identical, unyielding. Pain. Surrender.

Danger!

Tali snapped back to her senses when a blaster smacked across her lekku. Crying out in pain, she stumbled over, dizzy and disoriented.

“Hand it over and I’ll make your death a quick one, murderer.” Alethia glared down at the Sith assassin that had slaughtered her squad with a barely restrained desire for swift vengeance.

“Ma’am…” KX-57, standing a few paces behind her and facing the other way, spoke up.

“Not. Now.” Alethia replied, struggling to maintain her composure.

“I must insist…” The next moment KX-57 disappeared beneath a flurry of vicious talons.

A horrible screeching ripped through the air as the akul’s talons raked across the droid’s metal chassis. The Twi’lek shrieked. The cacophony was almost as vexing as the interruption. The creature clawed frantically at the machine as it tried in vain to bite into KX’s body. Alethia pistol-whipped the Twi’lek again, then narrowed her eyes as she regarded the scene.

Is this why we bring a Jedi along, Alethia? Why yes, Alethia, as a matter of fact I believe this is precisely why we don’t wander around forsaken hellholes by ourselves. The Human sighed. “You. Terrorist. Stay on the ground if you don’t want me to feed you to that thing’s corpse.”

Turning to focus completely on the akul, Archenksova swapped the blaster in her hand for the cylinder at her belt and marched over to the beast and the hapless war droid beneath it. The azure blade of her borrowed lightsaber burst to life with a snap-hiss, and the akul turned abruptly toward the sound, muscles tensed to pounce. It never quite managed to launch itself at the new prey, though; lanky mechanical arms seized the creature by its hind legs, pulling back as the akul tried in vain to lunge forward.

With a flurry of whirring blue flashes, Alethia hacked at the creature, artfully dancing in to strike and back out before the akul’s claws could catch her. Her bladework was less graceful — hardly up to the standards of her knife skills — but more than sufficient to put plasma through fur and flesh. The akul’s growls turned to screams and howls of anguish as the lightsaber tore through it. The beast’s attempts to lunge forward turned to equally futile attempts to pull free from the KX droid’s grip to flee. Within moments, the noise and struggle ceased.

Wrinkling her nose at the stench of burnt fur and flesh, Alethia looked to the droid, or at least the parts of it visible beneath the bulk of the dead akul. “Status?”

KX was banged up, the paint torn from its chassis in long, jagged streaks. Aside from a missing photoreceptor, the damage seemed fairly superficial. “I remain ninety-eight percent functional and ready to serve, mistress.”

Archenksova nodded, glancing over one shoulder to see the Twi’lek darting away, her gait slightly off-balance from the blows to her lekku, but nevertheless running at full tilt toward a glowing swoop bike at the foot of the hill. “Pull yourself out from under that thing and catch up,” she said coolly. I’m surprised she didn’t try to shoot me in the back during all that. Oh well, her mistake.

---

Vhy is everyone alvays hitting me? Vhat did I ever do to them? I’m not the one who killedt those poor soldiers!

Tali clambered down the hill, the pounding of the blood through her brain and lekku exacerbating the headache that Human witch’s blaster stock had inflicted upon her. At least I got the datapadt. That’s something.

The Twi’lek vaulted onto her swoop bike, yelping as she banged her shin on the machine. She hated it when she got hit in the lekku. The dizziness, the nausea, the pain… but there was no time to linger. Gripping the throttle, the Arconan began to speed away as blaster bolts zipped past her. A burst of heat, then another, signaled that her attacker had managed to hit the bike, even as she failed to cleanly kill its pilot. Tali roared off into the savannah.

She didn’t get far before she smelled the smoke. Then came the loud banging. Whatever part of the swoop had been hit — at least it hadn’t exploded on the spot — it was important. The vehicle shuddered, flames erupting from the rear. Tali closed her eyes and threw herself off to one side, the repulsor belt kicking in just in time to keep her from slamming into the ground. Flinching, she pulled her lekku in tight against her body to keep them from slapping against the earth as she rolled for several meters. Somewhere in the distance, the swoop crashed into the ground; a smoldering pile of debris was all that remained of her way back to her ship.

Tali squirmed, pulling herself back to her feet and deactivating the belt. “Vell. That’s not goodt,” she whispered to herself.

This match has concluded by way of draw.