The dense fog always made it hard for Hulan to actually visualize more than a few steps in front of her. She paused about a mile into her treck and rummaged around in the small back pack she had with her. She put on her night vision goggles. With a grimace she realized her master would consider her weak but with the days very short on this planet she needed to get going to do both her training and gather fire wood. With her vision dark green but much more clear, the young woman began to scan her horizon for already fallen trees. Those were the easier to salvage wood from, although, it was a risk of it's own…the wood closest to the ground was usually already rotting from the wet conditions.
She scanned one tree that was pretty large trunked an had lots of low lying branches not quite on the ground. Bingo, she thought! She raced over to the tree and expected the wood present. She pressed her foot against the most easily accessible wood…her foot instantly caved right in; rotten wood. With a glance up she found the closet branch. With a slight jump up, she grabbed on and swung up. She broke out her ax and began hacking away. If the ground wasn't so wet she could have just dropped the branches she sawed off onto the ground and collected later. Instead she had to gather what she could handle stuffing into a bag and haul it back to back to the hut each time. Between the sawing of very thick branches and heavy loads, Hulan knew she would be exhausted after just two trips. Her goal would be to fill the spare corner of the hut. While it was low to the ground, the amount of wood you could fit was surprisingly a lot. The teenager carefully placed the last branch of load number one into her bag and leapt off the slope of the ground she had reached. With a concentration she used the force to land gracefully to the ground and headed back to the hut.
Kylo Ren paced the small space of his quarters. He was perplexed and pissed. There was something going on with the apprentice of his, even thought he could not pin point what. He had deposited her on a remote planet three years ago to hid her presence from his master, Lord snoke. She was very raw in her talents, and he could not seem to bend her to the Dark side completely. She also was not aware or taught of the light side but with her fear of him he felt he could persuade her easily. With a jolt he realized he had been concentrating on this for far too long. There was no way his master or anyone could ever find out about his apprentice. Her blood line would make her dangerous, and easily over turn either him or a Jedi and seeing as he could not figure out which she would go to, made it all the more a problem. The more she grew and was alone the more she was surely to have an epitome.
"General Ren, your ship awaits you, sir'', a young strom trooper appeared on his intercom. Kylo raised his sweating head to the monitor and paged in, 'About time, cadet, we shall be heading out in 20 minutes sharp. Be there or your commander shall hear about it.". Kylo felt the young cadet trooper shiver before nodding and turning and marching to the launch bay. Kylo shook his head. It was infuriating to use such a young staff but they were the easiest to manipulate and thus keep his secret what it was, a secret. He had hand selected two of the youngest and highest trained young troopers. They were specifically combat soldiers. What made these two better where they were from the newest set of clones, and these were the least likely to commit treason. He stood up, wiped down his damp with sweat forhead and grabbed his helmet. The continued use of this would secure his identity be a mystery to anyone but his two little troopers and his apprentice.
He strode out into the brightly lit launching bay. With his mask on and a new robe he was quit intimidating. He had grown a few inches which had just added to his frightening appearance. Troopers 5569 and 5570 stood at attention in front of his small and powerful personal ship. With a nod they followed him onto the ship. He strapped in and piloted into deep space.
"Sir, where is our mission to be done?" a meek Trooper 5569 asked from his station at one of the gun. Per usual, Ren had not disclosed his destination with the two. This was their first mission with him. He usually went every two months to visit and train his apprentice but every time he found a reason to kill off the troopers that accompanied him. Ren felt the annoyance at the youthful trooper. The two clone troopers he had selected honestly couldn't be any older than his apprentice, easy to control.
"Trooper, were I too tell you that, I would have already told you, correct?" Ren said coldly. The young two troopers exchanged glances, Ren felt it.
"Yes General", quickly stated the two in unison. Ren smiled to himself. Their fear of him was consuming both of them. Perfect. However, he didn't want them to be so afraid the would run. It was a balance of fake compassion and fear with young ones to control them.
"Good, however, troopers we are going to go pay someone a surprise visit. We should arrive in about two days." Ren stated. He felt both the boy's confusion ripple through out the cabin. It was unorthodox to go on a mission without strict orders from Lord Snoke. The confusion would help shroud his true intention. Not going light speed would also keep his mission from seeming desperate, even though it slightly was. Ren sat back and punched in "expect arrival in 2 days, have apprentice ready for arrival. Not being ready shall result in harsh punishment" to be sent to CC-9. He smiled, this was the cruel and fun part of being a master, the harsh arrival and fear from the young one.
