Alone in the dark, dank, and damp cave, the head of the Palpatine family meditated upon recent events. Kell had thought that the taking on if this mission without the support of the Imperial Scholar Guard was odd, bit he had changed it up to the Emperor not wanting the non-Force users to know ab...
Submission Text
Alone in the dark, dank, and damp cave, the head of the Palpatine family meditated upon recent events. Kell had thought that the taking on if this mission without the support of the Imperial Scholar Guard was odd, bit he had changed it up to the Emperor not wanting the non-Force users to know about the addition of this planet to the domain of the Cocytus Empire. Instead, it seemed that Xen's strange behavior was a symptom of his being taken over by an entity.
Now, it was time to save his friend and fellow Palpatine along with insuring the long term sovereignty of the Empire. With the entire clan stuck on this planet, Dante couldn't fathom what was going on within the various Imperial bureaucracies that the higher members of the clan ran on a daily basis. A Dante had been at the helm of the club's ground forces for over a decade, and they wouldn't take too kindly to having their commanding officer being announced as killed in action without a body.
Luckily, the Adept had been by himself on a solo recon mission when the betrayal was revealed. Unlike many if his compatriots, Kell wasn't trapped deep underground, and this was his salvation he thought as he made his way past the entrance to the underground mining system and up to higher ground.
The craggy features of the hilltop rose up in stark contrast to the darkness of the cave that Dante had been encased in for the past few days. The Adept shrugged off his combat pack and sat down on one of the larger rocks. After rummaging through the pack for a moment, Kell pulled out the piece of equipment that he was looking for: a transmitter that Ferraro had given him years ago when he first joined the Shadowstalkers. It was still shrinkwrapped in the original packaging, and the Field Marshal unwrapped it and flipped on the activation switch. It powered up quickly, and the system seemed to be transmitting.
Now that that was done, Kell pulled out his personal shelter and set it up to wait for the rescue craft that was hopefully on the way. He chuckled to himself as he figured this would be a great time to catch up on his reading.
Light turned to dark then back to light as the trooper awaited his pickup. Just before sunset, a speck appeared on the horizon and began heading towards Kell. Blending in with the encroaching darkness, the Zulu class shuttle covered the distance quickly before it flared its engines and hovered above the transponder. Dante crawled out of his shelter and waved to the flight crew as the ramp lowered for him to hop aboard.
After grabbing his gear, Kell hopped onto the shuttle and grasped the officer's hand who greeted him in the transport hold.
Ferraro smiled and said "Good to see you, kid. Ready to go?"
Shaking his head, Dante responded with "Let's see how many people we can find first. After that... We take back our Empire."
34 ABY
Shuttle *Khrya*
It was going to be a textbook operation for the Ascendant Clan. The shuttle was loaded with two weeks of supplies, eight personnel, and enough explosives to level a starship. Their mission was to locate an Iron Legion supply base on Ord Mantell, plant the explosives, and ...
Submission Text
34 ABY
Shuttle Khrya
It was going to be a textbook operation for the Ascendant Clan. The shuttle was loaded with two weeks of supplies, eight personnel, and enough explosives to level a starship. Their mission was to locate an Iron Legion supply base on Ord Mantell, plant the explosives, and then successfully extract from the area. Nothing about the mission was out of the ordinary, albeit anot operation of extreme risk. But in Laren's line of work, nothing was too risky for the right amount of reward.
The mercenary had an odd habit that he had acquired from his military training on Mandalore. After initially packing his equipment, he would rummage through his bags a second time while he was on route to the mission location. It was a practice of self-assurance so that he knew he was still paying attention to detail, and letting nothing escape his grasp. He found himself in the cargo-hold of the shuttle, removing items such as spare clothing, datapads, and even spare explosives in case it was needed. However, as he reached the bottom of his scout pack, he realized something was missing.
"Are you bloody SERIOUS?!" His voice was a crescendo, ending in a tone so filled with molten rage and disbelief that the commandos nearby stopped what they were doing to observe their commander.
Kneeling in front of his now empty bag, his items strewn messily around him, he looked wildly among his things. He had his ablution kit, his sleeping and camp gear, weapons, spare ammo and more. Yet of all the things he decided to forget on an operation that required them to self-bathe in the middle of an alien forest, Laren had decided to forget his towel.
Towels were mostly obsolete for soldiers in the galaxy, but a white towel served many functions. Laren had made use of the white towel in situations when he was beaten to lull his enemies into a false sense of security. It was also a good luck charm.