Darkest Before the Dawn

[Amos Iakona]

Why don't you tell me? Amos always fired back, but managed to stop himself. In truth, he probably would have made an effort to be respectful had he remembered she was an officer; but her overreaction cemented a complete lack of respect in his mind.

It wasn't that he didn't respect her abilities: she wouldn't be here if Glayde didn't think she was up to it, and he at least respected him. To a degree, there was an aspect of it having been so long since anyone had callled him Sergeant that he'd more or less forgotten; but it was more the fact that, if anyone was going to get up themselves and talk down to him, he'd have preferred it not to be some insolent midget child, who was pretty much young enough to be his daughter.

He'd been an Imperial, so was used to taking orders from individuals who he had absolutely no respect for. But even within the confines of protocol, there was a load of scope. You'd be amazed how much loathing and contempt you could fit into the word sir.

That said, the notion of her throwing his ass back on the ship amused him no end.

"The thing that these tracks belong to," he explained, voice gruff, though not overtly confrontational for now, "Has a few things in common with your friend over there." He jerked his head in Mara's direction. "They're felines; they're hunters; and they're really not that old, either." He shot her a knowing look. "They're also in no way native to this planet."

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

Charles nodded her head in understanding, and let a small "Good work" leave her in response. She cringed internally at how fast she'd managed to say the simple thing, it felt unnatural.

Looking back over to where the Major and the Captain were, she let out a small whistle to catch their attention, impressing herself only slightly in that she could still manage to make it sound more like a bird call than some mother calling her kids in for dinner. Whether it was a bird that was native to Naboo or not was another matter entirely, though.

As far as the decision to follow the tracks or not...and if they should go the way they were headed, or the way they came from... that would have to be left up to the Major.

[Mara Tallen]

A lantern bird...here- ohh...Charlotte. Not a bad approximation, actually. Might have to show her the feathers from that hunt sometime.

Mara caught Glayde's gaze and motioned towards the others, before taking her own careful path through the underbrush. She disturbed as little as possible, and left no discernible tracks on the jungle floor.

Once she reached where Charlotte and Amos stood, she dropped to a knee and tugged one of her gloves off. Fingertips traced the track and the indentations before her eyes followed their path. "Manka tracks...considering their extinct outside of a few zoological parks on other planets, I'll assume our operative made these. We should get rid of them after we decide which way to follow them." Mara said softly, and between breaths shifted her form.

Deep auburn streaked fur rippled as she shook herself, careful to step backwards and avoid obscuring the tracks until John could see them. Her feline form was far larger than one would think, given her tall, lithe figure as a human. While she lacked the spikes that sprouted from the backs of full-blooded Felacatians, she more than made up for it with sheer muscled bulk. Her tail flicked silently from side to side as she gazed into the undergrowth, stilling as she picked up a scent that didn't seem to belong.

[Amos Iakona]

Amos had seen it before. Hell, he'd been nearly eaten by a Felacatian once, and so Mara's decided lack of glarley spikes made her considerably more formidable and menacing than she potentially could have been.

Even so, he couldn't help but stare at Mara as she shifted; it was one of those things that defied sense and logic to his mind and yet, there were Felacatians, and Lupines, and Clawdites, and all manner of other shapeshifters who were able to morph what Amos liked to think of as decidedly unmorphable things, like bones.

His eyes narrowed, slightly. "Is it wrong that I want to slap on a saddle and ride you right now?"

His gaze shifted to Glayde, briefly. I guess you already beat me to it though, huh?

[John Glayde]

Yeah, Glayde silently agreed, picking up on and correctly interpreting the sly look that Amos cast in his direction. Been there; done that; got the shredded-to-pieces t-shirt.

It took effort to focus his mind back to the task at hand; he managed, with a sigh. Mara's assessment was right, of course. And this was exactly the sort of clue that most Imperials would have missed, because of their single-minded focus. Granted, both he and Amos had previously been Scout Troopers, and had been subject to the same Imperial training and enforced mentality; but, well, back when he'd been Iakona's supervisor, the now dreadlocked Naboo hadn't exactly been the sort of person to comply with training, or mentality.

Or orders, Glayde mused.

His eyes followed the path that the tracks pointed towards, musing over the significance of having chosen to mimick a creature that had been rendered all but extinct with the destruction of Alderaan; another intentional clue, though not one that Glayde personally would have picked up on. A relief then to have two trackers savvy enough to do so.

Beyond their limits the terrain hardened, the ground not soft enough to make fictional animal tracks; nor to leave the bootprints of a fleeing operative. It made tactical sense for her to have gone that way; and the clues pointed nowhere else. He gestured in their rough direction. There was no print trail to follow; fortunately, their available tracking skills weren't limited to that. "Take point, Mara," he instructed. "Scout Troopers generally don't track with animals, so I'm guessing she won't have done much to mask her scent trail."

He turned, attention shifting to Charlotte. "We need a covert, trailing sniper. Eyes open in case we're being followed; but keep that rifle of yours handy - two clicks on comms if we run into any trouble up-front."

And to Amos, he simply added: "Mouth shut and eyes open, Sergeant. Deal?"

[Charlotte Tur'enne]

Although a quick head nod was given in recognition of her assignment, there was no hiding the fact her eyes had lit-up like Life Day had come early. Sure, her rifle had come along... it always did when it made any sort of sense to, didn't matter if it got use or not, just having the E-17d with her made Charles feel a bit more at ease. But with the possibility of actually getting to use it came a whole other realm of comfort.

One last uneasy glance was given to Mara, never going to get used to that..., a brief smile was flashed to the Major... and she quickly made room to separate from the group and vanish into the woods. Whatever they came upon would be the responsibility of the trio, whether friendly or hostile. That simple fact meant that the operative they were to meet up with would be purely in their domain, and Charlotte got to focus entirely on the enemy, keeping an eye on scouts they'd be sending out, maybe make sure a few didn't return to camp. A small smile came to her as Charles realized she really wouldn't trade that for anything at that particular moment.