The three x-wings sailed on the air like eagles, the forest underneath them
an ocean of green hues, broken here and there by island like clearings with
a mountain range rising like the crest of a wave over the landscape. Anagha
regarded the scenery distantly, trying not to let her emotions at seeing
her old home overcome her: there was work to be done, and she couldn't
afford to be distracted.
The mission launch had gone smoothly, with Galiana setting up watches of two pilots to stay in a geosyncrinious orbit over Middle-Earth to intercept and relay any comm traffic between the landing team and the Noquizvor's Reward, which had moved further out system as soon as Anagha and her team had left the shuttle hold. On their approach to the planet, they hadn't been challenged by any coral skips, the Vong's version of a starfighter, and she had begun to think that maybe, just maybe, Middle-earth had beaten the odds....
Then she had seen the battlefields that scarred the countryside.
Most of it was already beginning to heal, her scanners had picked up new growth where the forest had been cleared near Isengard, but it bothered her nonetheless. Where had all this damage come from if there was no trace of the Yuuzhan Vong? What could have caused such wide-scale destruction?
She shook her head to clear her thoughts and glanced at the tracking screen in front of her. She could worry about that later, right now she needed to find a suitable landing site for them: something close to where they needed to go, but secluded and safe enough that some hunter or ranger wouldn't stumble onto the x-wing's while they were away. The program she'd created based on her uncle's notes quickly highlighted a clearing in Ithilien, and Anagha passed the coordinates on to her wingmates.
The starfighters settled easily in the long grass, the engines dying from a faint roar to silences, while the astromechs beeped and hummed to themselves. Their excited whistles carrying easily in the clear night air.
Anagha hit a switch in the cockpit and jumped onto the deck of her x-wing as soon as the canopy slid out of the way. She walked along it towards the stern and engines, sliding down the hull to one of the wing like stabilizers. The Firrerro paused there, glancing upwards at the pale moon in the star filled sky, complete with a hazy comet traveling slowly against the endless curtain of black. She smiled at the peacefulness of it all and jumped off the stabilizer, dropping effortlessly to the ground below.
"Cheater." Goldie hissed, materializing from the shadows surrounding his x- wing. "We should've brought some ladders: I nearly broke my neck doing that move."
"The extra weight would've slowed us down and wasted fuel." Anagha sighed and brushed her knees off, "and besides, you're young, dangerous stunts should be your stock and trade."
"Ha-ha. Very funny. You'll have a promising career as a comedian when you retire."
"If we're able to."
"Commander?" Leeni's voice was soft and hesitant as she stepped into the dim illumination the running lights casted on the ground. "It's so quiet. Is it supposed to be this quiet?"
Goldie stifled a chortle, "Didn't you read your dossier on the way down?"
"Yes, but."
"Then you should."
"Goldie." The tone in Anagha's voice turned his name into an order, silencing the stick jockey quickly and effectively. She glanced at him briefly before turning her eyes on the younger pilot, noticing for the first time herself that the area was unusually silent. Their arrival had probably scared off any insects or animals, though something in her doubted it making the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She shook her head slightly and sighed, "Leeni, Middle-Earth is severely primitive when compared to Coruscant, or even Yavin IV or Hoth. I thought I'd made that very clear before when I explained why we wouldn't be having any contact with the."
".Locals, yes, but still, shouldn't there be some noise of some sort?" Leeni's face was worried, even frightened.
Anagha shared another look with Goldie then rolled her eyes skyward. "Go and get your pack, Flight Officer Onoy, then get Lt. Kenner to help you camouflage your x-wing when you're ready. I want to be able to move out in 30 minutes."
"Yes, Commander." The petite pilot threw Anagha a quick salute, then trotted off towards her x-wing
Goldie waited until she was out of sight before he said anything. He sighed and ran his fingers through his mass of hair in a useless attempt to tame it, "I was afraid of that."
"Of what?"
"That she might go all spastic on us once we got down here. She's from Coruscant y'know, I doubt she's ever been in a forest in her life."
Anagha quirked an eyebrow as she bent to check her own pack, "Well it would've been nice if you had voiced your doubts before we had landed."
"And miss all the fun of watching her learn how to deal with camping out?" He gave her his most dashing smile, his expression growing wary as he saw her pull a cylindrical metallic object from her pack and clip it to her belt. "You don't think it's going to get that bad do you?"
"No, but it's better to be prepared than to regret."
*~*~*~*~*
They came across the clearing at dawn. Scorched grass and displaced dirt showed that the creatures had been there, and the acrid smell clung to the air, refusing to be dispelled by the gentle breeze blowing down from the mountains nearby.
Legolas stood at the edge of the clearing, his fierce elven eyes surveying the area around them. The trees behind him, while relatively unharmed, were marked here and there by broken limbs and scorched leaves, and the beasts had obviously rested here at some point during the night. but the forest ahead was unharmed and showed no sign of their passing.
They couldn't have just disappeared. Creatures that large would have left some sort of a trail. It was impossible for them have not to. And yet.
It was a mystery that he doubted even Mithrandir could solve. He turned his gaze skyward, lifting his face to greet the rising sun, watching as the pale light crept over the treetops, shimmering in the space before him.
He snapped his head back down, suddenly very alert, his eyes searching out the anamonaly. The clearing was still the same, the grasses shifting ever so slightly by the light wind. except for right in front of him. There the grass blades stood straight and tall, undisturbed unlike the areas a few meters to either the right or left of him. Now he began to notice other things, how the ground there continued to stay in shadow, lightening a few seconds slower than the rest of the clearing. There were also two other places just like the one directly in front of them, the rising sun reflecting dully off of something hidden and metal.
He began to walk forward slowly, his hands held out in front of him like someone struck blind. Ahead of him the image of the clearing blurred almost imperceptibly, changing ever so slightly as he moved forward. He could hear a soft beeping and chitter, dulled by an unseen wall. The air began to crackle in warning, and snapped around him just as his hair began to rise by some unknown force. He stepped backwards quickly, and the unknown menace relaxed: the air becoming still once more.
One of his companions from Mirkwood materialized from the forest across from him, and gestured for his princes' attention. Legolas ran across the space swiftly, dodging the three unseen predators by a berth of several feet. The other elf pointed at some prints left in the damp forest floor, "Something passed through here, they continue on into the forest."
Legolas nodded and bent to inspect the trail: there were three different pairs of prints, varying in length and shape, and their style reminded him of the boots that the race of men so preferred. He frowned: there were three sets of prints just like there had been three of those creatures last night. Had they changed shape and then moved on? He glanced back at the clearing, his eyes unable to detect the anomonalies from his new vantage point. No, the creatures were still here, he was sure of it. The only explanation possible was that the beasts had had riders, who had dismounted and left their rides to rest or die before moving on. If that was so, then the quarry he was tracking was even more dangerous than any Orc or Uruk-hai could ever be, possibly even more dangerous than the Nazgul.
The only answers laid ahead, buried within the forest. He un-slung his bow and motioned for his fellow travelers to follow him as he took up the chase again.
The mission launch had gone smoothly, with Galiana setting up watches of two pilots to stay in a geosyncrinious orbit over Middle-Earth to intercept and relay any comm traffic between the landing team and the Noquizvor's Reward, which had moved further out system as soon as Anagha and her team had left the shuttle hold. On their approach to the planet, they hadn't been challenged by any coral skips, the Vong's version of a starfighter, and she had begun to think that maybe, just maybe, Middle-earth had beaten the odds....
Then she had seen the battlefields that scarred the countryside.
Most of it was already beginning to heal, her scanners had picked up new growth where the forest had been cleared near Isengard, but it bothered her nonetheless. Where had all this damage come from if there was no trace of the Yuuzhan Vong? What could have caused such wide-scale destruction?
She shook her head to clear her thoughts and glanced at the tracking screen in front of her. She could worry about that later, right now she needed to find a suitable landing site for them: something close to where they needed to go, but secluded and safe enough that some hunter or ranger wouldn't stumble onto the x-wing's while they were away. The program she'd created based on her uncle's notes quickly highlighted a clearing in Ithilien, and Anagha passed the coordinates on to her wingmates.
The starfighters settled easily in the long grass, the engines dying from a faint roar to silences, while the astromechs beeped and hummed to themselves. Their excited whistles carrying easily in the clear night air.
Anagha hit a switch in the cockpit and jumped onto the deck of her x-wing as soon as the canopy slid out of the way. She walked along it towards the stern and engines, sliding down the hull to one of the wing like stabilizers. The Firrerro paused there, glancing upwards at the pale moon in the star filled sky, complete with a hazy comet traveling slowly against the endless curtain of black. She smiled at the peacefulness of it all and jumped off the stabilizer, dropping effortlessly to the ground below.
"Cheater." Goldie hissed, materializing from the shadows surrounding his x- wing. "We should've brought some ladders: I nearly broke my neck doing that move."
"The extra weight would've slowed us down and wasted fuel." Anagha sighed and brushed her knees off, "and besides, you're young, dangerous stunts should be your stock and trade."
"Ha-ha. Very funny. You'll have a promising career as a comedian when you retire."
"If we're able to."
"Commander?" Leeni's voice was soft and hesitant as she stepped into the dim illumination the running lights casted on the ground. "It's so quiet. Is it supposed to be this quiet?"
Goldie stifled a chortle, "Didn't you read your dossier on the way down?"
"Yes, but."
"Then you should."
"Goldie." The tone in Anagha's voice turned his name into an order, silencing the stick jockey quickly and effectively. She glanced at him briefly before turning her eyes on the younger pilot, noticing for the first time herself that the area was unusually silent. Their arrival had probably scared off any insects or animals, though something in her doubted it making the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She shook her head slightly and sighed, "Leeni, Middle-Earth is severely primitive when compared to Coruscant, or even Yavin IV or Hoth. I thought I'd made that very clear before when I explained why we wouldn't be having any contact with the."
".Locals, yes, but still, shouldn't there be some noise of some sort?" Leeni's face was worried, even frightened.
Anagha shared another look with Goldie then rolled her eyes skyward. "Go and get your pack, Flight Officer Onoy, then get Lt. Kenner to help you camouflage your x-wing when you're ready. I want to be able to move out in 30 minutes."
"Yes, Commander." The petite pilot threw Anagha a quick salute, then trotted off towards her x-wing
Goldie waited until she was out of sight before he said anything. He sighed and ran his fingers through his mass of hair in a useless attempt to tame it, "I was afraid of that."
"Of what?"
"That she might go all spastic on us once we got down here. She's from Coruscant y'know, I doubt she's ever been in a forest in her life."
Anagha quirked an eyebrow as she bent to check her own pack, "Well it would've been nice if you had voiced your doubts before we had landed."
"And miss all the fun of watching her learn how to deal with camping out?" He gave her his most dashing smile, his expression growing wary as he saw her pull a cylindrical metallic object from her pack and clip it to her belt. "You don't think it's going to get that bad do you?"
"No, but it's better to be prepared than to regret."
*~*~*~*~*
They came across the clearing at dawn. Scorched grass and displaced dirt showed that the creatures had been there, and the acrid smell clung to the air, refusing to be dispelled by the gentle breeze blowing down from the mountains nearby.
Legolas stood at the edge of the clearing, his fierce elven eyes surveying the area around them. The trees behind him, while relatively unharmed, were marked here and there by broken limbs and scorched leaves, and the beasts had obviously rested here at some point during the night. but the forest ahead was unharmed and showed no sign of their passing.
They couldn't have just disappeared. Creatures that large would have left some sort of a trail. It was impossible for them have not to. And yet.
It was a mystery that he doubted even Mithrandir could solve. He turned his gaze skyward, lifting his face to greet the rising sun, watching as the pale light crept over the treetops, shimmering in the space before him.
He snapped his head back down, suddenly very alert, his eyes searching out the anamonaly. The clearing was still the same, the grasses shifting ever so slightly by the light wind. except for right in front of him. There the grass blades stood straight and tall, undisturbed unlike the areas a few meters to either the right or left of him. Now he began to notice other things, how the ground there continued to stay in shadow, lightening a few seconds slower than the rest of the clearing. There were also two other places just like the one directly in front of them, the rising sun reflecting dully off of something hidden and metal.
He began to walk forward slowly, his hands held out in front of him like someone struck blind. Ahead of him the image of the clearing blurred almost imperceptibly, changing ever so slightly as he moved forward. He could hear a soft beeping and chitter, dulled by an unseen wall. The air began to crackle in warning, and snapped around him just as his hair began to rise by some unknown force. He stepped backwards quickly, and the unknown menace relaxed: the air becoming still once more.
One of his companions from Mirkwood materialized from the forest across from him, and gestured for his princes' attention. Legolas ran across the space swiftly, dodging the three unseen predators by a berth of several feet. The other elf pointed at some prints left in the damp forest floor, "Something passed through here, they continue on into the forest."
Legolas nodded and bent to inspect the trail: there were three different pairs of prints, varying in length and shape, and their style reminded him of the boots that the race of men so preferred. He frowned: there were three sets of prints just like there had been three of those creatures last night. Had they changed shape and then moved on? He glanced back at the clearing, his eyes unable to detect the anomonalies from his new vantage point. No, the creatures were still here, he was sure of it. The only explanation possible was that the beasts had had riders, who had dismounted and left their rides to rest or die before moving on. If that was so, then the quarry he was tracking was even more dangerous than any Orc or Uruk-hai could ever be, possibly even more dangerous than the Nazgul.
The only answers laid ahead, buried within the forest. He un-slung his bow and motioned for his fellow travelers to follow him as he took up the chase again.