Ssh'Peka's surface was indeed very similar to Endor's. Dense forrests covered the planet with an occasional clearing making for a welcome change in scenery. Several mynock-like creatures were making their way to a small pond, where other exotic creatures were drinking and bathing. The sky was unusually clear, an effect probably induced by the close proximity of the planets' moon, SshMuk (;-P).

After recovering from his state of sub-consciousness, Talon was trying to get a damage report from his T/A's onboard computer, the last perilous minutes running through his mind over and over again…the Challenge suddenly opening fire, the fighters that were in its close vicinity switching to auto-pilot, Talon's own onboard systems going haywire, forcing him to enter the planet's atmosphere and making a manual landing in one of the planet's clearings. The use of an EMP weapon of some sort crossed his mind as the LCM failed to get the onboard computer to respond. After unhooking the fighter's datapad, Drear looked down on the small instrument and sighed with relief, the last few inputs made by the computer before it died were successfuly downloaded onto the datapad.

***System scan activated***

*activities

-Logged 4 communication(s)

-Logged 2 data entries

Opening communications log…..

Converting to Basic…

3 message(s) successfuly opened

1 message(s) opened, with errors

- Msg 1/4 -

Now now Cal, dont go berserk. Bran's gonna cope with it. And I'm right behind you.

*received on open channel

*tracing sender….

*sender: T/D #324513 des. Typhoon 1-3

- Msg 2/4 -

Get away from me, BB and Jenn, I still got a missile on my ass.

*received on open channel

*tracing sender…..

*sender: T/D #263112 des. Typhoon 1-1

- Msg 3/4 -

Cal, the Challenge's moving. Moving fast!

*received on open channel

*tracing sender…..

*sender: T/D #324513 des. Typhoon 1-3

- Msg 4/4 -

T^#get  HYPERLINK mailto:a~@uired a*~uired, stan$ by !ire control..Fi#e

*received on unknown channel

*tracing sender…..

*trace failed

So it was some kind of weapon, Talon remarked to himself as he stumbled out of the cockpit and jumped of the T/A. He found himself on the edge of a clearing, looking back at the long trail of scorched earth his unfortunate landing had produced. Checking the two data entries, he found one to be Androns' last known trajectory, the other one was half garbled..must've been a glitch when the onboard computer crashed. Talon hadn't yet noticed the beautiful blue sky, covering the planet in a crystal clear veil. As he looked up he saw a small dot, rapidly growing in size, accompanied by a very distinct and familar high-pitched screech. A TIE, no doubt about that.

 * * *

Cal's systems were flashing and almost every safety monitor was either chirping or worbling uneasy sounds into the LC's ear. She had absolutely no idea where the auto-pilot was taking her, but she was sure getting there awfully fast. Just sitting around letting stuff happen to her was definitely not her style, so Cal tried activating the comms again, as she repeated:

"This is Lieutenant-Colonel Callista D'ohma on an imperial frequency to any imperial personnel, my fighter is going down, suggest you pick up my plotted trajectory and send an SAR a.s.a.p"

She once again repeated the sentence, but gasped and came to a silence before finishing it.

Her T/D had made a sudden jink and was now headed directly for the surface. Specks became larger specks, which became trees and shrubs, all of them closing fast. Looking to the left Calli noticed a long black streak of earth and at the end of it what appeared to be a TIE-Advanced. She suddenly noticed the clearing which she was looking at had shifted from the left to the centre of her HUD, the T/D had made one final course correction before hitting the ground hard…

* * *

As Talon saw the TIE touching down he was forced to cover his ears as the deafening screech had turned into a thundering crash, the vibrations of which causing the creatures around the pond to scatter and head for the forrest edge. The TIE-Defender was still dragging along the surface, taking a fair amount of shrubs and earth along with it. With one of the bent wings breaking off, the fighter came to a shuddering halt and moments later, a dazed-looking LC Callista popped out of the cockpit….

"Drear, thank god you're alright!" Callista shouted from the centre of the clearing.

She saw the LCM waving frantically at her…what the Sith was he doing?

"Hey Talon, get your butt over here now!" She shouted, her voice being a bit more persistant the second time around.

The waving had now turned to pointing…and at that point (=P) Call figured it out….

Slowly turning around she saw about a dozen blasters pointing in her direction, the owners of which definitely not being Imperial.

"Step out of your busted-ass vehicle, Imperial scum" said one of the men, who was wearing a distinct rebel-commando like outfit, which was the same as the others.

Drear saw it all from the edge of the forrest and decided to make a break for it, ermm… decided to initiate a tactical retreat (=P) before being confronted by a group of similiar size to the one that captured his Commander.

* * *

The two groups met at Call's T/D in the centre of the clearing, and out of the forrest came another group, accompanied by a tracked Armoured Personnel Carrier. Upon it's arrival, Drear and Call were thrown into the back of the APC..

"Hey Call, how's it going?"

- "Oh, same as always"

"That bad eh?" added Talon with a grim smile.

"Shut up you two" commented one of their captors as he was just about to lock up the APC's compartment…when suddenly he turned around in response to one of his men shouting something.

"Sir, incoming craft on an attack vector!"

But the observation was made too late and the APC shuddered as an advanced concussion missile hit the ground a few meters away. The blast was immediately followed up by a double strafing-run performed by the two attacking vessels. A few minutes later the clearing was almost pitch black. Covered with patches of scorched earth induced by explosions and laser hits, the surface reminded Talon of Correlia, where he witnessed a somewhat inconventional surface landing made by a Calamari Cruiser leaving a similar mark and smell.

Jumping out of the compartment, Callista and Talon noticed that one of the vessels had made a landing, it was an Assault Gunboat, marked "Mr. Thumpy", Jenn's GUN! As Jennifer stepped out she ran towards her two fellow pilots.

"You guys alright?" gasped an out-of-breath Jennifer.

- "Oh, same as always" replied the two typhs in perfect unity.

"Hehe glad to hear..I think" Jenn continued: " Blackbird and I got your message before you crash landed Call, I figure these guys got it as well" she said, while looking around the maimed battlefield.

- "Yeah thanks for the help Jenn" remarked Talon as he waved to the T/D which was loitering above them. "But I think we'd better move, I doubt these guys were the only ones on this planet."

- "Agreed" replied Call, "We can continue the search for Andron in the APC, while maintaining contact with Jenn and BB, who can check the planet from above"

And so the search continued……..