Roleplay

(Haha, great minds think alike! I was planning an acklay attack, so I'll start it now.)

Hurrying into the trees, still in the direction of the cannon, they heard one last shriek but this time it sounded further away. Heading through the forest, after a while it became clear whatever it was wasn't chasing them. "I guess it was just territorial," Crow heard one of the clones mutter over the helmet's internal comm, and couldn't help but agree, though he said nothing. He started to relax, and thought to himself, Maybe it wasn't hungry, or didn't see us as a meal. He found it reassuring that the unknown beast didn't seem to be hunting them, and he hoped it wouldn't get in the way of them getting General Reed and the others back to the ship.

At the head of the group with Sarah, he moved cautiously. They were much closer to the cannons now, and the team had spread out to make it easier to spot any possible threats. Everything seemed to be going fine until a large shape darted out from a thick strand of what looked like giant glowing blue flowers straight towards a clone. The huge beast launched its head forward and grabbed the clone trooper in its toothy maw, picking him up from the ground and shaking him. Now it was standing still, Crow realised that the long-legged creature was an acklay, it's green hide having a yellowish tint. "Fire!" he heard one of his brothers yell, and his moment of surprise was broken as they shot at the creature.

The trooper in the acklay's jaws was screaming, whether from fear or pain Crow couldn't tell. He started to move backwards, away from the creature as it scuttled towards him, firing all the time. While it was large, it was moving erratically, meaning most of the hail of blue blaster bolts hit it's bony head crest or the shell on its back and did not seem to bother it. One of the other clones charged at the beast, causing Crow to yell, "No! Get back!"
The trooper didn't seem to hear him, and he yelled at the acklay, "Put him down!" The acklay's response was to swat him aside with a claw-like foreleg, the poor man going flying and hitting a tree with a loud crack. He didn't get up again.
"Everyone, stay away from the acklay," Crow ordered. "Try to concentrate your fire on its underside or face!" Far as he could tell those would be the most vulnerable parts of the creature, though his mind was scrambling to remember exactly how tough acklay hide was.

Seeing that the concentrated fire did seem to have some effect, as the acklay was now no longer trying to charge and the clones and had even started to back away, Crow started to walk towards it. He switched to his blaster pistol in one hand, and with the other he reached into his pack to pull out a thermal detonator. Even if their blaster bolts didn't seem to harm it, he was fairly certain the grenade would do enough damage to convince the creature they were too dangerous to be seen as prey. As he drew closer to the creature and got ready to prime the explosive, it caught him by surprise as it sprang towards him. As it reared over him Crow could only fire his blaster at its belly to try and make it back down, unable to get out of its reach.

Sarah let her guard down when she heard it was further away from them now than earlier. She couldn't sense it anymore, nor did she try to. She turned her focous over to the cannons, they were awfully close now.

Suddenly a big shape shot out from the jungle to their left, the creature practically plucked a clone from the ground and shook him as if he was a ragdoll. Everyone backed off and started fiering, Sarah was in shock. Droids she had expected, a lot of them.. but not this. An Acklay! Things couldn't possibly get worse. The beast was shrieking, even with the human in it's jaws. She didn't quite know how to handle the situation.

One of the men charged at the creature, but he was easily wacked aside. The trooper hit a tree, and didn't get up. She rushed over to him, thankfully he was alive. He'd be alright. The acklay kept on charging, shrieking, stomping and digging it's long legs in to the soil. Agressive behaviour. Maybe she'd be able to get close enough to give it a mark with the saber, the blasters didn't seme to be harming it. But she didn't want to kill it, only make leave.
Then it seemed to grow a bit tired of this and it simply dropped the man it'd had in it's mouth, and partially started to back of.

Crow started to approach the acklay, and pulled out a detonator. That would most likely drive the creature of. But she thought it wasn't a good idea, she sensed the beast wasn't done with them yet. Sarah approached the creature gradually from it's side. She was about to shout something to the daring seregant, but it charged at him when he was close enough. Sarah launched forward, using the force as a speed-bost to get between the two in time. She then quickly twirled her sabers and sliced off a part of the acklays front leg, under the limb. It shrieked and backed off analyzing the stump where one of it's claws had been only seconds earlier. It faced them once again and growled, still showing signs of agression. "Bomb?" She looked at Crow.

Crow's muscles tensed at the creature reared above him, as he got ready to try and roll out of the way. When Sarah came flying in from the side, using her twin blue blades to cut off one of the creature's claws, he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. The acklay pulled back and seemed to look at the cauterized stump with surprise and confusion, before growling at them again. To Crow it seemed like the creature was desperate if it still looked at them as prey, or trying to defend something. Thank you, he said mentally, but didn't voice his gratitude.

When Sarah spoke, Crow was starting to back away from the creature. He'd been planning to throw the thermal detonator at the creature's feet or face, with the explosion hopefully hurting the animal enough to make it back down. But with her question a new and hopefully more effective idea sprang to mind. "Can you levitate it? Get it to explode in its face?" He figured it would at the very least injure the beast and make it run away, if not kill it outright. He had to admit to himself that he hoped it would kill it, to stop it attacking anyone else ever again. All the while he was watching as the creature bobbed in front of them, ready to shoot if it tried to charge them.

She twirled ther lightsaber once more seemingly trying to tell it "not to mess with them anymore", but the beast didn't seem to have recieved the message.
She hated the thought of even killing living beings.. It would seme like it had been stalking them for a while before the attack. She didn't want to kill the acklay, yet it had attacked them first, and they hadn't bothered it at all. Perhaps it did need to die for them to be able to continue.. She sure didn't hope so, they'd have to hurt it enough though, for it to retreat.

"Alright, you throw it and I'll get it in position." She replied. The acklay was enraged and kept on shrieking at them, probably trying to muster the courage to launch at them again, and this noise would most certanly attrackt some unwanted attention. Crow quickly activated the detonator and threw it towards the acklay. (i do apologize for controlling your character. i'm just moving the plot allong) Sarah extended her arm and used the force to guide the bomb close to the creatures head. She sighed before clenching her fist and the bomb exploded.

(Sorry for taking so long to get back. Assignments have been taking up all my time. I don't mind toy taking control of Crow, I was going to have him throw it anyway)

Throwing the thermal det, he stood beside Sarah as she used the Force to levitate it near the acklay's face. He shifted slightly when the creature leaned towards them, ready to step in front of Sarah if it charged and the Jedi wasn't able to get out of the way in time. However he didn't have to, as the creature only leaned forward to see what the small ball flying towards it was, before leaning back again. As he mentally counted down the timer, the seconds between throwing it and the explosion seemed to stretch out and his chest felt tight. He turned away when it did explode, to protect his eyes from the flash, and didn't see the large creature flinch back with a shriek before toppling over due to the force of the blast.

When he heard-and felt-the creature hit the ground he looked towards it at noticed it wasn't moving. Approaching, he noted the smoking remains of it's face before shooting it at few more times, to make sure it was dead. He could feel relief rushing through him, now that the creature was no longer a threat, but was worried it had attracted unwanted attention. He didn't want to get ambushed by droids while they were still regrouping. Looking back at Sarah he said, "Thanks for the rescue." Now they weren't under direct threat he realised it would be rude to not say anything about her slicing the creature's claw off to save him.

"Sir, Even's dead." The voice of a clone broke into his thoughts about having to get ready for an ambush. Looking towards it, he saw the trooper that spoke crouched next to the man that had been snatched up by the acklay.
He let out a sigh and walked over to him, before asking, "Does anyone know Div's condition?" Div was the trooper the acklay had swiped with his claw, and Crow hadn't had a chance to see how he was, or if he even was alive.
He let his hand rest on the trooper's shoulder, lending silent comfort to the man as his stood up, regretting Even's death. He wasn't grieving, not yet, because he didn't have time for that. But he knew that once they got back to the ship he would start trying to think about how it could have done better and avoided Even's death, if only to not make the same mistakes in the future.

(oh, it's quite alright, i have't had much wifi lately)

When Crow had confirmed the acklay's death, Sarah deactivated her sabers and sepparated the two weapons from one another. They'd have to move even more quickly now, and that long hilt would be unpractical. She attatched them back on her belt. "No problem," She responded to Crow's thanks. And her heart sank when the death of one of her men was announced. She looked at the acklay, not angry at it, but both deaths could've been avoided.
"I checked on Div, he'd been knocked unconcious, but he'll be alright." She stated, before turning away from the dead aclay.

Two troopers ran over to Div, one of them managed to wake him. He most ceratnly would be having a headache. Sarah nodded to him as he was being brought back to the group, foolish to carge the acklay alone, but brave to try to save his friend.. Sadly they'd have to leave Evan now.. "Come on, we need to keep moving.." She said, quickly continuing onward towards the cannon. As she walked she noticed the illuminating beauty of the jungle around her. She could't believe the war had reached this planet, the separatists should've just left it alone.

(and sorry for the stort replies)

(No worries. I hope you don't mind me naming clones, I just find it easier to differentiate them that way.)

Crow was silent as Sarah got the team to regroup and head back towards the cannon. He agreed with her that they'd have to get moving, and didn't have time to do something with Even's body. He hoped though they would have time to do something on the way back though; he hated the idea of Even just becoming some creature's meal. He cast a look over his shoulder at Div, who was leaning slightly on one of the other clone's shoulder. Given he'd managed to hit his head hard enough to knock himself out, Crow was worried he might have a concussion or something. He knew that both himself and the other clones would keep an eye on him, just in case, but couldn't help but feel slightly worried.

Walking at the head of the team, senses on alert for any movement or sound that might mean an ambush, Crow did not notice the beauty of the planet. All he saw were strange shadows and shapes that could be hiding who-knows-what. He felt his stomach clench when he saw smoke drifting towards them from the direction of the cannon, and put his hand up to tell everyone to stop. "Get to cover," he said quietly over his comm.

Turning to look at Sarah, he asked, "Commander, do you want to scout out the cannon with me? I don't want us walking the entire team into a trap, and I don't like the look of that smoke. In my opinion there's too much, assuming the cannon was destroyed by General Reed soon after we left the planet. I'd recommend taking Oh-six with us as well, just in case." While he had not been serving under General Reed for long, and so did not know the rest of the team very well, he had noticed some of thing. For Oh-six, he noted that he was very observant, and hoped that the extra pair of eyes may help them spot any danger.

(that's quite alright! I'm terrible at naming people anywayXD)

Sarah watched the smoke rise from the over the treeline, they must've been a couple hundred meters from the cannon. To her all that smoke seemed like a good thing at first sight, but when Crow mentioned that there was to much, made her question it aswell. The whole team had gathered around under a gigant mushroom. "Yeah I agree, Oh-six and I will join you. The rest of the team stays here." Sarah agreed and gestured for Oh-six to come over. She then looked at Div, who managed to stand on his own. "You alright?" She asked, "I'll be fine, sir." Was his response. She smiled lightly and nodded.

"Get some rest guys, but stay alert, we're deep in enemy territory. And we should be back within a half hour." Sarah said, she figured this survey of the area ahead wouldn't take to long, and she was pretty much ready to leave right away. "Lets go." She said. Then the three of them split from the group and headed towards the smoke.

The brush was thick to begin with but it got better the further in they went. The more she thought about it, the more she started to worry, they had already wasted alot of time on that acklay back there. She still felt a connection with her master through the force, but what if they would be to late? She tried not to think about it.

Crow glanced at Sarah as they got closer to the cannon. He saw the slight frown on her face and guessed she was worried about something, but didn't realise it was worry they'd be to late for her master. He thought she was worried they'd get ambushed again.

While he walked beside Sarah, Oh-six had gone on ahead. "Sir, I can see the cannon. It seems deserted," he reported over the comm, and Crow quickened his pace. At the edge of the trees he stopped and scanned the scorched clearing. The huge building that had been the cannon had collapsed it on itself, looking little more than a pile of duracrete with twisted metal on top and gouts of flame flickering in between the rubble. Debris from the explosion have been strewn into the surrounding field and forest, gouging deep black gashes into the earth. While the was some smoke rising from the building, most of it was coming from a strand of smoldering giant ferns, their huge trunks spouting out impressive quantities of soot and smoke. The clearing itself did not have any signs of life in it, looking deserted as Oh-six said. There weren't even any battle droid remains. Crow didn't say a word, not even realising he was being over-cautious as he stayed in the forest's shadows.

While from where Crow was standing there was no sign as to where General Reed had gone, on the other side of the clearing there was a trail made of trampled dirt. Bootprints were indented in the dust, along with scuff marks like someone or something was being dragged.

Oh-six had found the cannon up ahead, she hurried allong with Crow, they stopped at the edge of the trees and scouted the area. The cannon was deffinetly not functional. It looked like it had overheated, exploded and just collapsed because of the heat. The damage was most likely due to some sabotage on the inside, a lightsaber or even some blasts to the control panel would do the trick. Guess they'd never know now now that the cannon was completely busted.

The clearing was deserted, but Sarah questioned why weren't there any droid remains out there. All long range cannons stationed on the planet surface had to be guarded. Especialy now that the Republic was trying to retake the planet. She barely noticed the tracks on the other side of the clearing. She glanced up at Crow who was being very cautious about this. Sarah wanted to get a better look, and she was certain that Crow would make them stay by the treeline and go around, but that would take to long, and if they found anything they'd have to go back and get the team.. No one said anything.
Sarah wasn't sure if what she was about to do was just stupid or wreckless in this situation, probably both.. But she couldn't sense any danger.. either way Crow would not like it.

"Okay.. Cover me." Sarah simply stated and quickly proceeded to leave the cover of the trees and go out into the clearing, before anyone could stop her.