A Hunt In The Deep Forest

Nox and Khem approached the first of the five hidden commando bases. Earlier, they had been dropped off by a small troop carrier that promptly left the scene. The two ran through the dense forest to arrive at their first target. The base looked like nothing more than a long abandoned storage shack.

The bases were only a few kilometers apart, so they would certainly hear any sounds of battle at any of their neighboring bases. Even with communications silence, they'd know they'd been discovered. The other commando teams would then likely abandon their bases and disappear into the dense forest.

Nox whispered to Khem, emphasizing, "Speed and silence."

Khem replied to Nox, whispering, "Then I shall wait to feast, until we've destroyed the last base, my master."

Nox was about to rush the final hundred meters to the shack's entrance, but Khem's huge hand held him back. He pointed to the left of where they hid behind ferns with his other hand. Nox looked in that direction and saw a single commando on patrol. Khem signaled that he would take the single patrolling commando, while Nox rushed the shack.

Nox nodded agreement. Khem waited until the commando got out from behind a sapling and entered a small clearing. He uncoiled his enormous frame, leaping through the air while drawing and activating his over-sized vibrosword.

Nox dashed for the shack a split second later, activating his sabrestaff as he ran. By the time he entered the shack, both ends of the dual bladed deep red lightsaber staff had fully activated.

Nox entered the shack just as Khem's vibrosword drove into the commando's helmet with a loud popping noise, splitting the helm apart along with the poor commando's skull. Nox rushed the table nearest the doorway he'd entered, seating four commandos playing a game of pazaak. In an instant of flashing and twirling sabrestaff, he cut the four men down in their seats.

He immediately Force Pushed the table, the chairs, and the bodies with such force, that when those smashed into the next table, with four others seated, the whole mass of furniture and bodies smashed, with a resounding crash, into the far wall. The wall partially collapsed from the tremendous impact of the mass of bodies and furniture. Nox then turned left and began to kill the commandos still trying to get out of their bunks.

Khem entered the shack and turned to the right side of the shack. Finding none in any of the bunks, he went to the back of the shack to untangle the tables, chairs, and bodies. Khem made sure there were no survivors. He cut them all in half, whether they were alive or already dead. Khem cheated. Lopping off a dead commando's forearm, he began snacking on it.

All was suddenly quiet again. Nox counted and inspected the bodies. Eleven bodies inside and one outside. All twelve had on them their identification tags. Nox noted that they were all equipped with high-grade but non-standard weapons and armor.

Nox nodded his satisfaction after storing the recovered identification tags.

He said to the Dashade, "Khem let's get to the next one before they figure out what's happening."

Khem Val spat out the bones from his snack as he headed out the door without a word, Nox was right behind him.