The shuttle door opened as it came to a hover, exposing the forested terrain below. Twiford hooked a rope to the shuttle before tossing it out the back before looking at Jasmin and yelling out over the sound of the shuttle. "Good luck Sergeant." Jasmin gave him a nod before fast roping out. Once he was on the ground the shuttle moved a fair distance away. Jasmin walked out and grabbed the rope and waited. Today was different, only two teams fighting and one objective. She knew One Seven Four was on the field and the other was Eight Three Eight. Active colors where red and blue for the day but she didn't know what team wore what color. The Shuttle stabilized and Jasmin jumped. Using the rope to guide her decent and griping it only to slow down before hitting the ground, performing a sweep as the shuttle departed the area. Making her way to a decent over watch location she radioed out to get some the standard info. "Twiford, Johandulc. What is the delay timer today?" Twiford took a moment to respond. "Johandulc, Twiford. Considering its two teams and we are the only ones not on the objective. I say we get right on it. Also, do not engage the staff team today. They are with us today." Jasmin nodded to herself as she looked into the trees. "Twiford, Johandulc. Understood. No wait time and staff is blue." With no response after her confirmation she jumped at a tree, using it to kick off and get the little bit of height she needed to grasp a branch. Swinging forward she pulled herself into the tree as she came back, hauling herself up she began the hunt.
She spent a few hours looking for a trail to follow. Even though they were staff they were not allowed to know when the teams started from, and with that Twiford and her both always got deployed after the event begun. Sometimes they were a few minutes difference sometimes it was hours. This was training for all involved. Able to only find trails belonging to smaller groups, maybe three to four people she grumbled. Either one team was smart as hell and realized moving as one unit was a bad idea. Or someone was patrolling further than they should from the objective. She had seen both happen recently so this didn't help her. Her best course of action in her mind was to follow and see if there was a convergence into a larger group, though, both teams suffered in numbers as they were slowly whittled down over the last month.
It took her almost five hours to find the convergence she was looking for, the small trail mixing in with a few more. Needing to make sure she dropped from her tree and examined the trail. It was easily a few hours old as the mud that formed the print had already set, finding the direction she looked up and followed it. It lead to the south and the choice lingered in her mind. One hand she could go slow, stalk them and hope she catches up or she can go into an aggressive pursuit and run them down. Looking at the spacing between the steps they appeared to be in a standard combat pace. Estimating only a max of three and a half kilometers between them and her she looked for a print about her foot size and measured her stride. She measured it out in her head and took a few practice steps, making sure her step matched the one she was stepping in. "One issue with weighing so much. Almost always leave tracks." She huffed at herself. She started making her way down the trail slowly working her way into a run. Her steps started skipping prints, landing in every other from the original trail. Her gear made no sound as she ran, the only sound made was the soft thump of her foot on the ground below her. Like a ghost she moved through the forest.
Slowing down after traveling about two and a half kilometers she took in the sounds of what was around her letting her body settle. Once her breathing came down a bit she was able to hear what sounded like a fire fight. Muffled by the forest she estimated about five hundred meters is all that separated her from them. Checking her map she realized that the conflict was way too far from the objective to be the staff engaging the teams. And it sounded too large to be an isolated patrol. A twisted grin came over her as she sauntered to the sound of battle. "Twiford, Johandulc. Message." Again it took Twiford a moment to reply. "Johandulc, Twiford. Send traffic." Coming over a hill Jasmin was able to lay eyes on the battle. "I have eyes on the two teams fighting each other about four five zero meters north north-west my position. Their grid is three seven seven break two zero niner. I say again. Student teams are engaged with each other in grid three seven seven break two zero niner. How copy?" When Twiford replied she could almost hear his excitement. "Johandulc, Twiford. Student engagement in grind three seven seven break two zero niner. Understood, I well be within range in one seven minutes. Clear to engage in the mean time." Jasmin pulled her rifle and looked down at read team. Her voice carried her evil pleasure. "Twiford, Johandulc. Clear to engage. Aye." She had already sighted in the red teams medic.
A half smile came across her face as she let her breath out, a pull of the trigger her rifle sent out the blue bolt. The medic didn't have a chance in the world, the bolt hitting him in the back between the shoulders. Best she could do not being authorized to take heads. The medic stiffened and dropped face first into the dirt. The chaos of battle masked her shot. One man did take notice and tried to get to the medic but a bolt to the chest had him dropped too. Shifting her attention to the blue team she looked for the team's medic, again singling them out. In the war-games played, medics can revive stunned people after they have been down after a few minutes. A mechanic that she thought was absolutely stupid as if you don't take the medic down it is way too easy to force a stalemate. However the real games played outside the training locations didn't have this issue. Once she saw her target she waited a moment for the perfect shot. A bit of irony in her eyes, for once the man beckoned for someone she saw the cross that he had on his chest, and used that for her target, the blue bolt whizzing over head as it impacted in the center of the cross. After the medics where down for the count she simply watched before her radio beeped to life. "Johandulc, Twiford. I am on sight and I can see the battle. Have you engaged?" Jasmin pulled her rifle back a bit. "Twiford, Johandulc. I have taken down both teams medics with a plus one on reds side. I have decided to see how this plays out." She could almost feel Twiford thinking. Mulling over what he wanted to do. "Johandulc, Twiford. Acknowledged. Maintain sentry." Jasmin raised her rifle again to observe through her scope.
Jasmin watched the battle ensue. Without the medics the two teams only had about twenty fighters each and every person counted. Blue had better shooters though and they started pushing on red. Taking a few down here and there as they pushed on them Jasmin noticed a small team of five move north from the red side. Using the underbrush as cover the rest of the reds started falling back hard. Focusing on the detachments lead he seemed impatient, if it wasn't for the battle that was already going on she was sure that that team would have been discovered because of him. The team pushed to the blue line and waited. As blue advanced Jasmin say a volley of stun grenades come out of the bushes, rolling to the feet of blue. When they went off a majority of the blue team fell. Jasmin sang to herself seeing this. "Someone forgot spacing." Her taunt not heard by anyone but herself. The red team took the chance and pressed forward onto the blues, easily overwhelming them and securing the victory. What was left of the read team moved to the objective. Those who went down helped each other up and the fallen students went back to the staging area. Jasmin shadowed them and could feel Twiford following close by.
The students were all sitting around, the few fallen reds intermingling with blue team. Jasmin and Twiford watched from their own spot. "That was quite the show you lead me to sergeant." Jasmin looked over at Twiford. "It was, the one who made that strike team should get a pass. His execution was spot on and if they win. His actions directly affected the victory for the reds." Twiford nodded at Jasmin. "I'll keep your opinion in mind." Jasmin recoiled. "That's a first." Twiford responded with a laugh."Yeah. Can say the same to you, normally you tag everything that moves to show off you can hit whatever you want." Jasmin wanted to argue but he was right. She leaned back against a tree. "I have been thinking about that. Isn't it a little unfair to the students that we are allowed to engage at will on the?" Twiford raised a brow. "How do you mean?" Jasmin looked at the students, gesturing to the medics. "We are training them to operate like they will always be under threat of snipers, not only that, me and you specifically. We both know that we are in a league of our own even against the staff. And they give us the authorization to take on students. Yes it's a good practice but only including us in the final game it is unfair. I feel like maybe we have to take down specific people and they know they are marked beforehand." Twiford blankly stared at Jasmin a moment. "Where is this coming from sergeant?" Jasmin only answered with a shrug. "Well, sergeant. Let's head back and get the evaluations set up. I feel like our third is in this batch." Jasmin nodded, when the shuttle came she was last to board. Making sure none got left behind. The ride was full of chatter but she tuned it out. When they made it home she went back to her room, not being allowed at the evaluations herself.
Sitting on the edge of her bed she tried to figure the day out. She showed restraint as well as having her word taken into consideration. Both things she found weird. She looked down at her pillow remembering how her mother appeared in her dream. Everything just felt out of character for her. The ice cold hunter warming up, it sounded wrong but felt right. Pausing a moment she stood up and went to go find Twiford. Making her way to the evaluations room and posting outside of it. It took a few hours before the door opened and started to empty. Catching Twiford as he came out. "Sergeant? What do you need?" He sounded like he was in a slightly elevated mood. "I would like to use two days of leave to visit Corellia. However due to where I am going I need it labeled as a patrol so I can remain geared as there is a potential for looters." Twiford looked at her, dumbfounded. "You have a maxed out leave bank. Three months of leave. And you want to use two days? To go to Corellia?"Jasmin nodded. "Why?" Jasmin shifted a moment. "It's my home planet. Lost my family on life day last year and." She was cut off by Twiford's raising hand. "Very well. Just remember you are not firing stuns."Jasmin nodded and walked away. Heading out to fetch the gear she would need.