Malice breathed in deeply as she stepped foot once again on her home planet of Cholganna. The earth was soft under her feet and a cool breeze blew through the air, causing a few of the people behind her to shiver.
Having been newly promoted to Aedile of their house, Malice and Kalon had needed to find someone to fill the position of Battle team leader. They'd chosen Kul'tak Drol, who was both able to give orders to his battle team and follow orders from his superiors. Thus far, he was doing a marvelous job, and when he suggested that he wanted to take the battle team out for some survival training away from the base, Malice had immediately volunteered to take them all. Once the group had been gathered, they'd set off for Cholganna.
Malice had the most survival experience of the group by a long shot. Kul'tak himself had a little, but none of them came close to matching the experience of actually living on a wild, uncivilized planet for almost your entire life. The brisk breeze didn't bother her even a little bit, and it bothered her Nexu companion even less. She turned to the group to begin addressing them.
"Alright, we're here for one night only. I don't want to get in trouble because most of you die here, so we'll be returning tomorrow morning. If you survive and manage to retain some desire to continue survival training, then we can talk about more nights, but for now, it's one night only. Now, who can tell me some of the first things you should do when staying for an unknown amount of time in an unfamiliar location?"
A few people scratched their heads, but no one spoke up. This was going to be both more difficult and more frustrating than she'd originally thought.
"You," She said, suddenly pointing at a seemingly fit male. She knew his name was Felix, and that he was the only non-force user in the group. Though she considered it a slight waste of time to have him there, her desire to return to her planet overpowered her distaste for the human.
"Well, you should find shelter of some kind. Or make one." He answered, scratching the back of his head.
"Correct. Anyone else?"
A few murmurs of 'food' and 'fresh water' and a fire sprang up from the group. All of which were true, but there was one more thing they were forgetting.
"Those are all very good points." She said after they had quieted down. "But there is one more, very vital thing you need to do to even stay alive at all, and that is knowing what creatures you're up against."
She called for Aiya to come sit beside her, who swished her tail before growling lightly at the group.
"Aiya is a Nexu. They are extremely dangerous creatures of feline origin. They've got four eyes, a tail that can act like a very painful whip, more teeth than they know what to do with, large claws, and a good part of their body is covered in spikes. They are the top predators here on Cholganna, and they will not hesitate to rip you to shreds." she said, starting to pace in front of the group. They looked wary but not nearly as terrified as they should be, especially to survive an overnight stay on the planet. She hadn't wanted to jump right to the most drastic tactics, but she only had one night to teach the lesson she needed to teach, so it had to be done.
"Here's where the fun part begns. Everyone is going to march back onto the ship and place all your weapons down. You are to take no weapons with you at all. Anyone caught with one will be severely punished. I'm sure Aiya would love any one of you as a chew toy."
The small group mumbled to each other before heading back up the ramp and into the ship. Kul'tak followed to make sure no weapons were kept, and then after tossing Malice the only device that would unlock the ship again, he sealed himself in with them. Malice called the group back, laying a hand on Aiya's head.
"Now that everyone is unarmed, you've got a task in front of you. You're going to work together to survive the night, without weapons, and without me."
There's the fear she was looking for.
"Your objectives are to find food, fresh water, shelter, and to not get eaten. I'll return to collect whatever's left of you in the morning." and with that, she and Aiya took off into the treeline. For a moment, the group only looked at each other. She couldn't be serious, could she? Once it became painfully obvious that she was indeed serious, a few of them began to speak, forming everyone into a tight circle. Malice and Aiya hadn't gone far. In order to test their abilities they needed to be able to watch what they were doing, but they could each hide well enough that they wouldn't be seen by anyone, even with their force abilities.
Something else they did not know, was that Aiya and Malice had made a trip to Cholganna only a few days earlier to speak with their mother and her pack. They knew the humans would be arriving, and had planned out a way to test their responses to encountering the entirety of the pack. They had no weapons, and they were not strong enough in the force yet to cause the Nexu any damage.
Malice's thoughts were interrupted as the group below seemed to agree altogether and start off into the forest. She and her Nexu were deathly still as the group passed underneath them, not realizing their Aedile would be watching their every move.
"Wouldn't they get in trouble if we all died?" One of the group asked from below as Malice and Aiya stalked them from overhead. "I mean, they need us as troops, don't they? If we all die, we weaken their numbers."
"We aren't adding much to their numbers right now. Sure we increase the number but skill wise we don't matter. Not yet. That's why we're here, to get better and prove ourselves." another answered, who seemed to be one of those who had inserted themselves as a leader.
Malice and Aiya followed the group all the way to an area higher up on a hill, where it seemed they were going to set up camp. The group was divided into smaller teams who were tasked with a few of the mission objectives. One group set off for water, one for food, and one for trees and wood for a shelter and fire. Food would be the most difficult to be sure. There were many streams with fresh water nearby, but food was scarce if you didn't know how to catch it. Cholganna was lush with vegetation but as far as the fauna itself went, it consisted mainly of only three creatures. The Nexu, the Arboreal octopi, and the bark rats. Both of the other two were hunted by the Nexu, and could be great food sources. The Bark Rats were small and fast, often difficult to catch. However, if you could follow one back to their nest you'd find a few more. The Arboreal octopi were more of a problem. The Nexu hunted them easily but the octopi were usually much larger than the standard human. They stayed in the trees and liked to drop down on unsuspecting prey. She wondered absentmindedly how many of the group would be eaten by them.
After a few hours, the group was finally back together. Thus far no one was missing, but a few had a good amount of cuts and scrapes. A few had dead bark rats hanging by their tails that would eventually be cooked over a fire if they could manage to start one. One boy she noticed had hair that was standing up in all different directions, a result of getting the mucus from the Arboreal octopus in it. She would have loved to have seen that.
She raised her head as one of the group explaimed happily. They'd gotten a fire started, and their little shelter was coming along nicely. At least altogether their abilities equaled perhaps one Kul'tak. If they had known better, they would not have yelled so loudly. Though she knew that the Nexu pack would not come out to aid her until night time, if it had been any other situation they would not have been so lucky.
The smell of cooked flesh slowly wafted up to them. It did smell delicious, but now was not the time to get distracted. The smell could attract other creatures, so the group still had to be on the lookout. The sun was beginning to sink, painting the sky with brilliant pinks and reds and oranges. Though it was a beautiful sight to be sure, it greatly contrasted the overal deadliness of the entire planet. Soon they'd be going to bed, and if they were smart, they'd set up sleeping shifts. They weren't going to get much sleep anyway, Malice intended to make sure of that.
As the group assigned who would be sleeping first and who would be keeping watch, Malice silently climbed onto Aiya and the two jumped off to find their pack. Dark shadows cast from the trees could very well be seen as creatures with malicious intent to the frightened eye, and she hoped they were able to all stay alive without her watching them for a few minutes. Once they'd finally found the pack, they set off altogether to approach the sleeping battleteam.
Even those who had been meant to keep watch were starting to doze off, which was a rooky mistake. The lives of their groups depended on them, and though Malice would have liked nothing more than to pick out those of them that had fallen asleep at their post and let the pack eat them, she decided against it. Scaring them out of their minds would have to do.
Their mother let out a piercing cry, which was often done at the start of hunting missions. Malice watched as not only those who were supposed to be keeping watch woke up, but all of the rest who were allowed to be sleeping. She stopped the back from dividing and surrounding the group, as it would be more frightening to see them all come out at once. Even that did not happen straight away. More shrill cries echoed the first, and the group scrambled to their feet, pressing their backs together to stay on their guard. Malice and Aiya stayed behind, watching the terrified looks on the groups faces as the rest of the pack slowly came out of the shadows and paced towards. A few angled weak force pushes in the packs direction, but they barely ruffled the feline packs fur. The darkness made it difficult to aim and see, and eventually it was only the reflective eyes of the pack that stood out against the night sky.
The group wasn't doing anything. No more attacks, no attempt to run, nothing. They just slowly backed together as the pack now began to surround them. Once they were within attacking distance, Malice called them off, walking out with Aiya. The group looked at her in surprise, still very tense.
"All in all, you didn't do terribly. You found food and water, made shelter and got a fire started, but you also did a lot of foolish things. Any sort of loud sound will draw predators to you. Even cooking food can be a death sentence. Usually setting up shifts for sleeping would work, but your watch shift fell asleep almost instantly. That would have gotten you all killed, so for those people, we'll have a special training back at base. For the rest of you, I suppose you'll be allowed to live. If we do this again, make no mistake that the stakes will be raised, and if some of you die, I will make no attempt to find your body. Back to the ship."
The group hesitantly moved towards the ship, stopping when they got to the few Nexu that had been guarding them on that side. The felines stepped aside, and the group did not stop running until they got to the ship, banging loudly on the doors to have Kul'tak let them in. Unfortunately, Malice still had the only device that would unlock it, and she had no desire to leave so quickly. They'd be fine waiting.
She thanked their mother and the pack before turning to enjoy a pleasant and calming walk back to the ship together through the familiar forests of their home.