[Kallile]

The day was quiet; peaceful, one might go so far to say.

The base was still--those on duty were out on patrol on on missions and those with precious time off were spending time with those they cared for. The sun shone brightly and the position on the fertile boarder of the Wilt'no Desert kept the winter chill away. At least, on the desert side of their rather expanded base territory.

It was here that there'd been a garden started--in bloom with fresh produce just waiting to be harvested and enjoyed. At least...that had been the general desire and design of having the garden.

However, the fence surrounding it was decidedly crushed and among the plants was a giant lizard beast of rather centurion build. The six-legged creature walked idly on it's back two sets of legs, the front set was working delicately at the vines of the plants. Razor sharp claws sliced the ripe produce from their vines and the beast would lower it's giant head and carefully pluck each vegetable off the ground in turn to savor it.


Drali

The Rathril lifted it's head--already standing a daunting seven foot tall at least at the shoulder--, mane littered with leaves that had gotten caught by accident in the sweeps of it's sharp claws. Fresh tomato juice slowly trickled down the from of it's muzzle and the beat rumbled lowly and contently. Long double tipped tails lay motionless on the ground behind it, only upturned enough to keep the furred tufts on the ends from dragging in the ground.

The spotted scales sported another strange sight--a small pack attached at it's hip and what looked like a loosely fashioned reign tethered and twined around the massive jaws. It didn't seem to mind either unnatural addition, despite it's rather feral patterning. just how could it have gotten past base defenses anyway?

[1]

[MillietheWarrior]

(Human Form)

Well wasn’t this just peaches and roses?

Spike narrowed his eyes, one hand resting on the holster at his hip, and the other swinging to and fro at his side as he stormed down the hall, leather kama swinging against the backs of his thighs. He growled, head tilting from side to side as he mimicked a shrill, feminine voice. “Oh Spike, there’s a monster in the vegetable garden. Can you take care of it, Spike? The kids are so worried it might get hurt Spike; please be as nice as possible. Do our dirty work for us, Spike. It’s okay if the children hate you; after all, you don‘t even like them. Would you be a dear, Spike? Oh, thank you so much Spike!”

He threw his arms into the air in disgust (And had to shake off the very disturbing thought that he imitated a female voice a little too well) and continued his mad dash down the hall, all but jogging towards the door to the small garden beside the base. “Why do I have to do everything? Isn’t this why I’m a commander? I should have underlings doing my dirty work, but noooo…Those petty, idiotic, foul-minded, annoying…” He trailed off as he made it to the door, reaching up to nearly slam his hand into the panel. He stepped out into the bright sunlight, ducking beneath a few branches of nearby trees to observe what it was that had everyone spooked.

Despite the snow still on the ground, they kept their vegetable garden relatively warm using special shielding and technologies invented by none other than Jaing. Unfortunately, those had been nearly destroyed by the giant beast happily munching away in the garden. Spike sighed to himself, and leaned against a nearby tree, lifting his blaster from it’s holster with surprising ease and silence. He primed the charge, and inched his way around the tree, backing up to get a better shot as he leveled the muzzle of his blaster in the creature‘s direction, finger resting lightly on the trigger.

“Sorry, beastie. But I can’t have you ruining the only good thing in my life. And Spike needs his veggies, thank you very much; I am, after all, still a growing boy.”

[Kallile]

The beast in the garden flipped one of it's massive ears in Spike's direction, but never raised or batted an eye at him. It apparently knew he was there and dangerous (with ears like that, how could it not?) but it didn't seem the least bit spooked by his presence. In fact, it only seemed to gloat at the man by tearing apart another tomato plant and bending it's thick, strong neck to pick around the still-green tomatoes and savor the bright red ones instead.

Human Form

From the branches above him, a woman watched in slight amusement as the Clone lined up his shot intended for her mount. Darkly tanned skin marked her as a desert-dweller for the most part--light brown hair bearing silver streaks in it which made her look more elegant that aged. The wrapped hugging her body were, for the moment, carefully positioned to stay gathered under her weight as she lay on her stomach on one of the strong branches just above the man's head.

Some people--when you think you're the biggest and baddest, you never expect to be ambushed from above. Even if you're standing below a tree.

Tracyn watched him inch back to be sure he had a quick-kill spot on the beast. She was well aware this place had families in it--she'd seen them in fleeting moments over the past few months she'd been scoping this place out. Well, now was as good a time to find out just how big of an obstacle these guys might really be.

Wrapping her strong legs around the branch of the tree, Tracyn simultaneously released with her arms and grabbed her own blaster at her hip. She swung downwards and tightened her grip with her thighs to stop her swing dead in front of Spike's line of sight. His gun was just inches in front of her and a few inches too low to hit her head should he misfire; her own gun, however, was pointed point-blank at his temple.

"Wrong choice, Clone-boy." She said with a confident sneer.

[2, 17]

[MillietheWarrior]

To say Spike had been expecting to be ambushed from the tree above (Or that it would be a woman, in fact) was a gross understatement. In fact, he hadn’t been expecting it at all. So when someone swung down in his line of sight and abruptly stopped inches form his nose, he let out a very undignified, very feminine shriek…and instantly regretted it.

His blaster had jerked upwards, but he was well-trained enough not to open fire at any point in time unless he intended it, so he simply ended up with his blaster inches from her head, while her own was pointed at his temple. Without thinking, he quickly lifted one hand from his weapon, and folded it as if to embrace her. However, the distinctive ‘shunk’ of a vibroblade ejecting from it’s sheath would tell her otherwise. The tip of the blade rested against the back of her neck.

Spike’s heart was pounding a mile a minute; he had not expected any of this to happen, and the fact that he’d let out a very ‘girly shriek’ was not helping matters any. His face burned with mortification, but his eyes had hardened and narrowed to the point of looking like tiny crimson daggers. “Seems we’re at a bit of an impasse, crazy-lady,” he said, his voice no more than an angry growl. “Get out of the tree, and I might reconsider silencing you forever to keep this little incident in the dark.”

[2]

[Kallile]

The shrill caught the attention of both the woman and the beast in the garden. Tracyn stared at him with stone-like features for a moment before a snicker slowly found it's way onto her face. Well well...what was that all about? The sound of the vibroblade and the feel of the cool point against her neck did not make the smirk fade from her face; she seemed completely used to such situations. "It would seem that way, now wouldn't it?"

She listened to him talking, her eyes moving slowly over his face as he spoke. She didn't need to be a scientist to know he was mad or strong enough to make true with his threat. She also knew she was probably a fair deal quicker that he was--given her current position at least. "Alright, have it your way, Shrill."

Steeling her abs she pulled her torso back up into the tree; nearly colliding their heads as she did so. There was a light rustling of the leaves as she disappeared back into the foliage that had hidden her before, then all went still and silent. There was barely time to take a proper breath before there was a soft "thunk" on the ground behind Spike--the woman now behind him with her blaster shouldered in an amused fashion. "Prefer killing your women on foot, huh?" She jested, not making a move to fire or attack. She was nearly as tall as the Clone--lacking only a few inches on him. Her hair--now rightside up-- had fallen back into the rather playful looking cascades of tendrils in twin buns on either side of her head.

Ahead of Spike, the giant centurion lizard had approached with equal speed and silence as it's apparent master. It's normally placid face was shriveled up slightly, revealing lethal fangs that were as think as his arm and nearly as long. Tracyn placed her opposite hand on her hip, still grinning at the Clone before her. "I'm sure the Republic will take care of their precious warriors if you let them know an "unforeseen incident" has crippled your food here. But, if you insist on doing things the hard way...I'm not about to let you dent my poor, hungry babies scales over some veggies for all you 'growing boys'".

[3, 18]

[MillietheWarrior]

Her smirk infuriated Spike, and for a moment, he seriously contemplated swinging his blaster around to wipe it off her face. But he was a commander; he had to maintain some level of calm and diplomacy if he was going to get anywhere in this situation…even if she was already annoying him. Would it be bad to slot someone without first knowing who they were? Spike decided it would be, but it might be worth the court marshal and charge he’d get slapped with later to keep her quiet about his girly scream. He swerved his head to the side to avoid hers as she hauled herself back into the tree.

For a brief moment, Spike contemplated just shooting into the branches to be sure she’d come down, but she dropped down behind him before he could. Spike watched her beast tromp towards him, keeping one eye on it as it circled him and went to stand with it’s master. He stared at the ground for a moment, before his arm shot up once more, aiming his primed and charged blaster at her face. With one swift motion, he’d pulled his second gun from it’s holster, twirling it around his fingers gunslinger style, before it too found itself trained on the woman and her beast. “Look lady, nothing personal, but keep that reeking thing away from our garden. It’ll be my hide on the line if anything else happens to those veggies. Consider them my ‘babies’ if you would. Now-”

He flicked his thumbnails against the butt of each blaster purposefully, and they gave a soft blip as they became primed to fire. “-while I would prefer not to get chewed out by a bunch of women and cried on by a boatload of kids about how I ‘shot the monster in the garden,’ I think it may well be worth the risk. Get it out of here...Or I fill him full of holes to match those lovely spots of his.” He tipped his blaster slightly to indicate a ‘move it’ motion. “You, however, stay. I have a few questions for you.”

[3]

[Kallile]

Tracyn kept the smirk that she was sure must have the man's blood boiling and raised a delicate eyebrow, tipping her head to the little show he was making out of un-holstering his weapons. Oh, this one was a riot. She chuckled, just staring at him in complete relaxation with her large, almond-shaped red eyes. "Did someone not get enough attention in their childhood?" She purred as she reached up with the hand once occupying her hip to carefully touch the spotted , smoothly scaled skin of her mount.

"Udesii, Drali." She cooed, taking her eyes off the man. He wouldn't shoot to kill--she felt secure in that. He'd said it himself--he was probably being watched by a base-full of women and children. No--any shot he took would likely be for show; it was the only reasonable thing he could do. The Rathril instantly lowered it's lips and looked down to her rider with huge amber eyes. Tracyn smirked and patted the beast on on of it's numerous legs before turning her attention back to Spike.

"Unfortunately, there's no getting rid of her if I stay. Rathril are loyal mounts like that--she'd stand just outside your fences having a little fun destroying your security cameras and floodlight poles until she knew where I was." Her confident aura only seemed to intensify with each passing moment, though she was out gunned at the present point. "What's the matter--have you reached your estrogen maximum capacity around here?"

The sheer fact that she seemed to know so much about the base and who lived there would be unnerving to anyone--but one could only assume this would be amplified by being the rank of 'commander'. "So either you live with her milling around, or this is going to turn into a very deadly light show. Then where will you be? Two dead bodies and no idea who we might have been...or been working for."

[4, 19]

(Udesii--"hush; quiet")

[MillietheWarrior]

“Frankly lady, I couldn’t give a mott’s backside who you are, or who your working for. It might just be worth all the suffering I’ll go through to dump you two in the river.” He took a step forward, blasters still raised. It was unnerving how much she knew, yes, and the fact that she’d spoken Mando’a language commonly unknown throughout the galaxy by anyone but Mandalorians, was even more disturbing. The Republic didn’t have a tendency to hire mercenaries to work for them, so she was either a freelancer, or a Sep.

“Listen-” he growled in a low, dangerous voice. He kept his eyes trained on her, making sure to take in every movement made by both her and her mount; Spike was very good at multi-tasking. If he wasn’t he wouldn’t have risen to the rank of commander. “If that thing destroys one more vegetable, I’ll dispose of her master first, and then we might consider adding Rathril to the menu in the cafeteria. There isn’t enough variety in my men’s diets.”

He was standing close to her now, and he leveled the blaster inches away from her face, while the other settled on the creature. He didn’t seem afraid of the giant beast; but then Spike was hardly ever afraid of anything. He was beyond caring at this point in time, beyond caring about whether he lived or died, or whether they won the war or not. So why should he care if some giant beast tried to rip him apart? He pressed the sharp metal of his blaster into her forehead, leaving a dark ring in her skin.

“How about I live with you two getting out of here before I decide to stop being so nice? Your beginning to test my very limited patience and that small space of ‘caring’ I have in my heart for the opinions of a bunch of women and children.” He jabbed his blaster into her forehead purposefully. “Get. Lost.”

[4]

[Kallile]

She caught the small look of worry--no matter how minute--that flashed over his face when she asked her mount to calm. So he was one who had likely had Mandalorian teachers. Otherwise he may not have been so keen to pick up on it. She seemed content to listen to him prattle on and on about how he could care less and just wanted them to leave. As he pressed the barrel of the blaster to her forehead the first time and pulled it back, Tracyn reached up carefully to remove some of the cleaning oil from her skin. "That's a lot of juice for one blaster...overcompensating for something else?"

Her cheeky, confident smile was ever-vigilant on her face. It almost jeered at him, daring him to make some sort of move. As he jabbed the blaster at her again she felt a new moisture strike her skin and knew it was a trickle of blood from the sharp exterior. She didn't seem to mind it, only reaching up to sweep it away when it had reached eye level.

"One little word of Mando'a has you and those questions of yours running?" She jeered, snickering back at him from a nearly eye-level standpoint. "Here I thought you Clones were supposed to be tougher than that...or do you have some unresolved 'daddy' issues with your mercenary instructors?"

She reached up and place two fingers beside the barrel of his gun, moving to slide it carefully away from her forehead. "But that's fine, we'll leave." A more sinister smirk crept onto her face. "Thanks those new wolf-women of yours for showing me to their tribal base--my clients will be exceptionally happy. Though...you might want to keep a tighter leash on them...if you don't want them disappearing. I have one client who would love to get his hands on the pelt of the green female."

[5, 20]

[MillietheWarrior]

“It’s not overcompensating when you can make good on your threats.” This woman was wearing on his last nerve, but Spike remained calm. He really could care less what she said about him and his ‘past’ and he would honestly rather her just get the heck out of his sight than have to go through the messy process of disposing of her. “To be completely honest, crazy lady, I just want you out of here.” However, at her final, parting words about a ‘tribal base’ and the ‘pelt of the green female’ Spike holstered the gun in his left hand with lightning fast reflexes, and caught her neck in the same hand almost in the same instance.

He squeezed, his face darkening as he leveled the blaster at her animal. “Maybe if you’d kept your big mouth shut, you wouldn’t be in this situation. Tell your beast to move it’s shebs and get out of my way or I put a round through it‘s hide. Your coming with me; To the pit with the vegetables. Your just bought yourself a one way ticket to haran, lady.” His fingers squeezed harder, digging into her soft skin. “Now…Move.”

[6]

[Kallile]

At the hand on her throat--when most other women would have began groveling and begging and pleading for their lives....Tracyn's face lit up almost predatorily. The Rathril at her side roared loudly--the force of which was enough to blow it's master's hair around like it was caught in a hurricane. However, it made no move to snap or attack Spike. "Now that's what I like to see!" Tracyn hissed as he slowly cut her air off. "Glad to see they haven't bred the fight out of you boys...that, or you finally grew a pair."

It was Spike's full focus on her that had, possibly, given Tracyn the advantage. In his rage with her he had seemingly forgotten two things. The first was that her free hand was back on the Rathril's hide--effectively keeping it from tearing the Clone apart. The second was that she still held the blaster on her shoulder.

In one quick swoop of lightning fast reflexes, Tracyn had said blaster off her shoulder and zipping through the air at Spike's head. She knew any connection wouldn't be fatal, maybe just enough to daze him for a minute or two.

But that was all she needed.

[6, 21]

[MillietheWarrior]

Spike was about to growl a retort, his own eyes narrowing slightly, when the creature roared. He offered it an unimpressed glance, rolling his eyes slightly. “Shut up,” he snarled, resisting the urge to kick it. That would be a bad idea.

But then, apparently, today had been full of bad ideas. His first, he imagined, was deciding to get out of bed. The second was listening to the women of the base, and the third…was getting involved with this woman. Spike didn’t even have time to wish for his helmet when he saw the blaster coming towards him. He had fast reflexes, but no one in the world was that fast.

It collided with the side of his head, and he had a brief moment of conscious thought to realize he was now bleeding quite profusely from a giant gash at his temple, before darkness swallowed him, and he collapsed onto the ground.

[7]

[Kallile]

Tracyn went down partially with the man--half because his hand was still at her throat and half because she didn't need him getting anymore banged up than needed. As soon as his eyes had rolled back she all but tore the pack off her mount's hip, pulling out the bindings and gags. She was fast; experienced at having only moments to hog-tie a feral animal before the tranquilizers wore off and it began gnashing it's teeth at you again.

She ripped the gauntlets off his arms--tossing them back into the bag. Last thing she needed was him thinking he could use those shabla vibroblades to get free. His helmet was missing--another good thing. No way to track them. She'd dump his armor somewhere in the desert if she had to and let his men think he'd become vulture food. She made a small whistle and Drali leaned down to pick up the Clone carefully by the collar of his armor. Tracyn set about binding him securely--she didn't intend to let him have any freedom until she knew the area was secure. And she was sure by now someone at the base had seen what was happening.

Once she was satisfied that the man wasn't going to be going anywhere without her say, she scrambled up onto the Rathril's back. The beast turned it's head, handing over the heavily bound man so that Tracyn held him just in front of her as she took the reigns and urged the creature out towards the desert. Drali bucked slightly, letting out a small trumpet before charging off into the endless sands through the hole in the fences she had created earlier.

Tracyn carefully leaned back and dug around in the bag, pulling out a small med kit. Well...she may be a kidnapper, but she wasn't a heartless one. As the Rathril sped over the sands and quickly made the base a faded dot in the distance, the woman set her task to bandaging up the man's wound. He'd taken a much harder hit than she'd expected he'd be able to handle. She grinned lightly to the unconscious man's head that rested in her lap, the rest of his body held secure on the Rathril's wide back. "Well Clone-boy, this is where the fun begins."

She twirled the gag around on her finger--wondering just how long it would be before she'd actually need it.

[7, 22]

(Permission to steal Spike for this post given my Millie. XD)

[MillietheWarrior]

The first thing Spike was aware of was the feel of something digging into the crevices between his armor plates, and knowing it was not a good feeling. The second thing he was aware of was the feel of delicate fingers at his temple and the sharp sting of pain he felt whenever they pressed down as blood dripped across his face. The third thing he was aware of was the fact that he was beyond angry.

He struggled to lift his head, muscles protesting as the ropes he’d been bound with tightened against his limbs. He managed to twist his head, feeling the movement of the beast beneath him that now carried both he and his captor, and growled. “What is going on?” he demeaned, his vision slightly blurry from the hit to his head. The heat coming from the ground told him that they were no longer near the base; if they had been, it would’ve been much colder.

The sand and grit that was churned up by the monster’s moving legs hit him in the head, and Spike snarled. He found himself staring up at the face of the woman from the base, her infuriating smirk still there, and still infuriating. She was twirling something around her fingers, and Spike really didn’t want to know what it was. He wriggled his arms, trying to eject the vibroblade, when he noticed his gauntlets were gone. “What the shab is wrong with you, your crazy di’kut?!” he growled, teeth gnashing together as if he wanted to snap at her. “Let me go. Now!”

[8]

[Kallile]

Tracyn hadn't bothered looking up where she was going...and in fact the reins were slack across her leg. She trusted her mount; they had been paired at birth (or, at least, the birth of her second life) and the Rathril knew exactly where she was going. Home. Or, at least, the last place the tribe had been. Either way it would be in territory far too dangerous for outsiders to consider traversing. The only people to be atop Rathril where they were going were family.

"Good morning, sunshine." she chided, finishing putting the wrap around his head to stop the bleeding. She snickered down at him. Men--they always thought they could get the upper hand so easily. Well...who had been bested now?

"That's something I can't do. See, that little stunt back there? Well, that ticked me off. Now, we're going to go somewhere your brother's would be dumb to follow us into, and you're going to answer my questions." The smirk intensified t an almost feral level. "But if you really want me to let you go...I can arrange that."

[8,23]