The wild planet of Kashyyyk is known to be home to the gentle, but short-tempered race of Wookiees. Wild and untamed, the lush, wroshyr tree-filled forests form a multi-layered deathtrap. The local wildlife presenting more dangers as one descends towards the forest floor. However, as one ascends the vertical environment, the danger of falling increases until one comes in contact with the Wookiee settlements. Fauna and flora flourish in delight, growing within dirt pockets in the crevices of the trees. Some of these plants are carnivorous, becoming larger and deadlier closer to the forest floor. Others have some form of consciousness, able to communicate with the Wookiees to give some understanding of their use.

In one particular forest, you have traversed the vertical nightmare from Wookiee settlements and into the unknown to become lost within the canopies. Within the crevices in the trees, empty fruit and rotting shells from seeds show the spring season has ended. A soft wind whistles between the thick vines and shrubs that stick to the trunks of the ancient and sleeping giants. Despite the near-ending lack of footholds aside from the branches of wroshyr trees, you have found a series of abandoned and rotting platforms suspended a hundred meters above the surface, once home to a Wookiee settlement. Overgrown and decayed, it has since nourished countless plants and trees with their outstretched branches sheltering the dense and soft floor from the extreme sun rays and torrential rain. Upon closer inspection your eyes can pick up unusual signals. Moss carpets particular areas on the platforms and nowhere else, tree-dwelling animals and birds never land on the surface. In the corner of your eye you see something swaying, at first thought appearing to be another species of vine. But when you turn your head fully, you clearly see it is rope, damp but tightly locked. You feel that you have entered an arena without invitation, and the motivation to search further intrigues your mind. Tread carefully, or you will fall whim to the creatures that inhabit this terrain.

In a duel that had sapped most of her strength, the Dark Jedi Knight had finally succumbed to her opponent’s furious barrage of lightsaber thrusts and slashes only to fall over the edge of one of the abandoned village's platforms. Hanging precariously hundreds of feet from the forest’s floor below, she remembered the Neti’s furious gaze as its lightsaber dived for the final strike that should have committed the newly raised knight to her ancestors. However, the strike fell inches from her face and cut through the wooden plank she had been holding on to.

Gravity had done the rest, and Calindra was suddenly hurtling downward into the darkness below. She could feel the air rushing around her as she plummeted backwards. That’s when she saw the Neti jump after her – and after what seemed like an eternity – caught up with her, cradled her in its arms and pushed away from Calindra and accelerated towards the blackness below. The Neti had smiled at her, kindness radiating from her in waves before Calindra was pushed back up towards the safety of the abandoned structures above.

After the pain and suffering Calindra had orchestrated in an attempt to turn V’yr to the darkside, the Knight hadn’t expected to be shown an ounce of mercy, but there it was. Too tired, conflicted and exhausted from the ordeal to save her opponent, Calindra could only watch helplessly as V’yr disappeared into Kashyyyk’s dark underbelly, leaving the human alone with her thoughts.

Calindra decided that she had had enough of the humid, rain-drenched forest and all its dangers. It was time for the long arduous trek back to her vessel.

Several painstaking hours later, Calindra let out a low growl of frustration and untied the damp shouffa that clung to her face, placing it in one of her survival suit’s many pockets. All she wanted was to strip down, have a shower and stretch herself out on her satin sheets in order dry-off in the comfort of her own bed, but she had to get off of this infernal rock first. Kashyyk was simply alive with too many sensations and dangers for her to assimilate. She was grumpy, and tired.

A desert was just as deadly, but at least there were less distractions. But here, everything was alive; which meant there was always something hiding or waiting for her to let her guard down. In the desert, you had rocks, sand, a few tenacious plants, and heat -- DRY heat. Point being, however, you could sense the dangers long before they were actually a problem.

Trying to get a better sense of her bearings, Calindra pulled out a small scanner in the hopes of finding the quickest route back to her shuttle.

“Awwww… Is the big bad Imperial lost?”

A small curse escaped her lips in surprise, and the Dark Knight swiftly turned around and fell to a crouch, lightsaber at the ready and the scanner clutched firmly in her left hand in some exaggerated martial artist’s pose that bespoke of several years of practice.

Calindra glared at the newcomer who was leaning on one of the wroshyr trees, a cocksure grin on its face, and its unblinking, bulging eyes staring back at her like a some creepy toy doll on ryl.

The Nautolan and herself were probably as diametrically dissimilar as you could get – it, coming from a water-drenched world, and her from a water-parched one. Of course, she took an immediate dislike to him and his smooth, rubbery-green skin. “I don’t have time for this. Aren’t you a bit far from the pond, Aquaboy?” she asked as she slid the scanner back into its protective pocket, getting back up from her crouching position.

“Aren’t you a bit far from Imperial space?”

Calindra gave a long exasperated sigh before turning around. Maybe if she ignored the Nautolan, it would go away?

“Not so fast, girl…”

Apparently she wasn’t going to be that lucky.

Her patience at an end, Calindra turned around and glared at her interlocutor. Though no move was made to hit him, the Nautolan was suddenly hit in the chest with what felt like a sledgehammer to the sternum, and was unceremoniously sent flying a few paces back before landing ungracefully on the crosswalk.

“I said I don’t have time for this..!” she growled before turning around to resume her trek.

It really didn’t matter what words were growled from the woman’s mouth. Ravenously spat out as they were, as if they were choked out through gritted teeth and foam, the words had fallen upon the deafened ears of the Nautolan. Heat had risen to the creature’s ear lobes as a fit of embarrassment and anger surge forth in reaction to the woman’s assault that had down him.

That would be the last time he underestimated this bitch.

Despite the ruckus that had taken place, the lush environment surrounding them had ceased to have made notice of the short exchange. Throughout the abundance of overgrowth that hung over the platform, life of a variety of sizes had continued about their business without a sense of the danger that was approaching. The signature sound of a lightsaber’s blade crackling from it’s hilt was enough to draw silence and all of their attention to Raiju Kang - all expect for the defiant woman stomping away.

Perhaps she was ignorant of the Nautolan’s resolve, or just had faith in the Jedi Code, fore Calindra refused to acknowledge the threat that charged at her back. And she may have been right; a typical Jedi would try to end the issue without ending her life - most wouldn’t even harm a defenseless individual. Yet, Raiju wasn’t most Jedi; and he wanted to harm her.

Catching up with the woman, Raiju’s left hand was quick to clutch the back of Calindra’s shirt and reef her back towards him; lifting her from her feet. A sickening smack of metal upon meat coincided with the butt of the creature’s hilt slamming into the Knight’s skulll - driving the woman to the ground. Limp, the way the woman collapsed to the ground revealed she had been preparing for the Nautolan’s attack as her own lightsaber rolled away from her lifeless hand and rattled upon the wood of the wookie platform.

Where once embarrassment and fury had swelled within the Nautolan, all that remained was guilt. Too familiar was this situation for the Nautolan, and many across Brotherhood space could attest to the swaying emotions of the one and only Raiju Kang - the Sith turned Jedi, fallen back to darkness and redeemed again and again. Standing over the lifeless woman on this fragile pathway that was surrounded by life and hung over certain death, Raiju felt annoyed at the symmetry of the situation; as he wondered if this was a message from the Living Force.

Yet, mysterious messages would have to wait for the moment as a man with a mission couldn’t be held up by the spiritual. Looking over the woman something spoke to the Nautolan that a clue to his mission could be found here, and damn if he was gonna wait for her to wait up. Several long drawn out minutes passed as the Nautolan searched all of the woman’s pockets and belongings in an impatient frenzy yet nothing stood out to Raiju until he looked upon the Knight’s lightsaber again. Sitting in the place it came to rest on the wooden platform, mere inches away from the woman’s outstretched hand, Raiju felt an urge to pick the weapon up.

Cold to his touch, Raiju felt an internal sense that brought warmth to his mind. Drawing upon the urging, he knew from past experiences that his eyes would pale as his mind searched the history of the weapon. Soaked from the humidity of the jungle, the blade had been irritated by the environment - picking up upon its owner’s emotions - as it traversed through the overgrown terrain and occasionally been drawn upon to swat back the encroaching brush. Yet, as the moments played backwards through the Nautolan’s mind; it was the events surrounding the the fall of V’yr that caused Nautolan’s heart to leap. Understanding what had transpired, Raiju looked down upon the woman wondering what her punishment had to be.

The vines had been double-checked, and in some cases been triple-checked, much to Raiju’s relief as he inched his way down. Yet, a sigh of concern was slowly released from the creature as he lowered himself another few feet down towards the jungle floor. Determined and dedicated would be the words the Nautolan would chose to describe his noble mission to rescue the Neti and earn himself a place back into Clan Odan-Urr. However, when the woman tied to his back began to stir as they were still a good twenty meters from the ground Raiju wondered if future generations of wookies sent into the Shadowlands would just think of his remains as another idiot offworlder. Only when she began to panic did Raiju completely understand his mistake taking the woman as his prisoner.

Calindra’s arms were bound together and swayed rhythmically with each step the Nautolan took in Kashyyyk’s savage underbelly. Her mind was fuzzy and dulled because of the blow to the head, and again waking seemed to be an ordeal more than a blessing considering the headache that stiffened her neck and caused a throbbing pain behind her eyes. Her body had healed most of the injury, thanks to the Force, but that didn’t stop her confusion…

Her eyes opened, and she found herself bent over someone’s back and shoulders, the pain at the base of her skull dimming the pain of her bound wrists. The world seemed darker, wherever they were, and she saw the lush exotic foliage and the towering trees around them. Feet that weren’t her own, were trudging through the moss covered ground, and she suddenly realized that this fool had descended where even the bravest Wookie wouldn’t…

‘Why does this keep on happening to me,’ she wondered when she realized that she had been abducted again.

He had to be strong, she realized; to have carried her down from the abandoned village structure, but he evidently didn’t have smarts for brains, or if he did, he’d left them up there with his common sense. But for now, she was safe and needed to focus on healing her injuries before her and her captor’s luck ran out, which it would… sooner than later. Concentrating on the Force, she redirected her mind to the back of her aching skull, leaving her to meditate on how to extricate herself from the situation and head back to the safety of her ship, and off this bloody world once and for all.

Mind freed from the cobwebs of pain, she reached out with the Force and her senses. That’s when she felt them… several bestial minds that were tracking their progress. Her mind burst with worry and she suddenly started to struggle.

“You need to untie me now..!” she whispered in fear.

Not for the first time, she’d have personally loved to have been able to force her captor to obey her wishes with some coaxing from the Force, but she hadn’t understood how to do so yet. “Please,” she added, “or we’ll both die down here. We’re being hunted.”

The Nautolan’s stride slowed as he looked around them, and reached out with his own senses. “Are those…”

“Half a dozen or so of overly large predators? Yes,” she confirmed, “and I really don’t like the fact that they’re waiting patiently for us to move in deeper into the brush… You couldn’t just have left me go to my vessel? You just had to get involved, eh? Well, thanks a lot… you might just have killed the both of us.”

“But General Vorsa needs help,” the creature insisted. “If I can find her and bring you back, I can secure a position with Odan-Urr.”

“You’re krifing kidding me, right!?” Calindra’s fury almost got the best of her, but she pushed it down. Fighting with her captor would spell both of their doom, and they needed to work together to survive whatever it was that was watching their every move. “You’re trying to save a seasoned war general, who is technically a plant and has the most chances of surviving the underbrush? She doesn’t need your help, fool! She has nothing to fear of the plants and the poisonous creatures..! Besides, she escaped! Then put me up on that platform because she knew it was dangerous down here! I still don’t understand why she spared me, but your foolish quest for acceptance will get us both killed. Now, untie me..!”

”You’re an enemy, I cannot.”

”Look,” she pleaded, ”we need to work together. Can you honestly tell me that you’ll be able to fight these with me tied to your back? Right now, it’s in my best interest to cooperate with you. And we need to start, now.”

A moment of hesitation, but he knew she was right. He was surprised that she hadn’t tried to fight him, or to coerce him. That alone spoke volumes. With a frustrated sigh, he set her down, and started untying her hands.

No sooner than her hands were freed, that some large shadow crossed the trees over them. Another form perched itself, then another. Soon they were surrounded.

Without any hesitation, Calindra reached out with the Force and her lightsaber flew from her captor’s belt to her hand. She activated the blade and cut through the vines that were keeping her legs immobilized. That’s when the creatures attacked.

Strands of large sticky web-like strands coursed through the air and landed where she had been moments before. She rolled, and got back up, the both of them suddenly armed and lightsabers at the ready.

“Ah... kfark... Wyyschokk,” the Nautolan declared. “Anything but those…”

“Weee whats?”

“Large spiders…”

A chill went down Calindra’s spine, and she dodged another strand, only to find herself face to face with another of the arachnid’s kin. There before her was a large bulbous creature with extremely large mandibles, carried on eight equally vicious-looking legs. She let out a yelp of fright, and swiftly cut off one of the legs that had tried to impale her where she had landed. With a hiss of anger, the creature’s mandibles clacked and snapped at her, another leg suddenly stabbing down towards her.

Behind her, the Nautolan had similar problems of his own, and though he had been avoiding several of the sticky web strands that were being thrown at him from above, his luck finally ran out.

With a growl, he shot lightning in the forest towards his right, just as another large spider jumped out towards him. It screamed in pain as electricity cackled and crackled, but the creature cautiously remained at a distance now that it had tasted some pain of its own. It wouldn’t last, he knew, so he pulled his leg out of the web, and thanks to some applied strength from the Force, freed his leg from its silky prison.

Meanwhile, Calindra had been moving with fluid grace that only years of martial arts training and the Force could impart. She avoided the creature’s poisonous maw, and plunged her lightsaber deep into the creature’s head. It gave out a terrifying screech as its body shuddered and slowed before collapsing.

Webs suddenly blocked every direction of possible retreat, and large forms descended down towards them from above. Not wasting any time, she directed her blaster upwards and fired several volleys at the shadows.

They had nowhere to run..!! They were trapped and surrounded, with only one way out of this. They had to fight and survive.