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.

Above the Wookie settlements rests the wild rainforest canopies. Within the crevices of 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 never-ending lack of footholds aside from the branches of wroshyr trees, a series of abandoned and rotting platforms are suspended a hundred meters above the surface, once home to its own 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 unusual signals become noteable. Moss carpets particular areas on the platforms and nowhere else, and tree-dwelling animals and birds never seem to land on the surface.

Tread carefully, or fall whim to the creatures that inhabit this terrain.

Pain radiated up his side, yet it would do him no use to scream here. Trapped in a decrepit cabin made from wroshyr wood that had rotten from lack of care over the years. This was an area few would venture anymore, so it was unsurprising to the Nautolan when his captors had brought him here for interrogation; best place to beat information from someone...

Pain was a familiar sensation for the Nautolan. Raiju Kang, former Jedi of Odan-Urr, was used to defending others from suffering pain - and often felt the burden of it in this service. It even had been the catalyst for his reconditioning to the Sith Order under Clan Scholae Palatinae. Still, his nerves screamed in protest.

“What do you know about Pravus?” A husky voice to his left caught the Nautolan’s attention. It’s owner, Raiju recognized, wore the standard uniform of Odan-Urr’s shock troops.

“Want a fresh one?” Another trooper, on Raiju’s right, followed with his own inquiry and brandish a tightly bound bundle of flora - a trick Raiju recognized as a method to hurt an individual but leave no external markings. Still, Raiju kept silent as he focused on the previous injury. With each focused breath, the pain would further numb.

“New orders. She wants to deal with him personally.” A third voice entered the conversation from one side of the room. It was the Sergeant of the group, who also happened to be the one to bind Raiju’s hands together and hoist them up with a rope pulled over one of the beams of the cabin. Behind him sat a table that loosely displayed the weaponry they have found on the Nautolan.

“She?” Raiju chuckled and turned his head towards his assailant on the right. “Of course! Ladies can never pass up a chance with old Raiju here.”

A look was exchanged between the troopers on either side of Raiju, and when the inquirer shrug and offered no resistance, the other readied his bundle for a grand swing. Thankfully, the door to the cabin opened to a pair of escorts followed by a very stunning, silver haired woman who entered with presence. Immediately, the Sergeant and his two troops ceased what they were doing to salute the lady. A lady that Raiju quickly recognized from a previous life; Alethia Archenksova.

Raiju smirked towards the trooper on his right.

“This isn’t the first time she’s had me in bondage, you know…” Turning to the other trooper, the Nautolan nodded reassuringly. “She has this desire to always be in control.”

Raiju’s smirk began to bloom into a smile, yet the rest of the room felt a chill. Alethia remained fixed in her position, never adjusting her glare at the Nautolan. What were only minutes felt like hours, yet the Nautolan refused to let his smile die; meeting the woman’s eyes the entire time. When Alethia broke the silence, it was towards the Sergeant.

“Have you secured his effects? What was he traveling with?”

“Ah...On the table here, ma’am.” The Sergeant quickly stated nervously, before he pointed towards them. “Nothing of importa-.”

“Idiots!” Alethia snarled, eyeing the weaponry. She leapt in its direction, however, before she was within reach of the personal effects; his lightsabers flung from their place of rest into the open palms of the captive. When the woman met the eyes of the smiling Battlelord, he quickly raised his brow in open mockery. A smooth activation of both weapons quickly freed the Nautolan from his bonds.

He hungered to unleash what carnage he could within the cabin.

A kick drilled into the crotch of the trooper on his right. When the man recoiled in pain, doubled over with a hand grasping his groin, Raiju charged towards the man and plunged his blades deep into the man’s back on opposite sides of his spine. A painful gasp from the trooper gurgled into a panic sucking for air; which, Raiju guessed, indicated he had successfully penetrated both lungs.

“Want a fresh one?!” The Battlelord snarled as he ripped both blades from flesh and watched the hunk of meat collapsed. Across the room, the door to the cabin flung open and smacked against the wall while the remaining troopers pulled back towards it in a line; readying their rifles. Behind them, already out the door and unholstering a blaster pistol, Alethia sounded off with a commanding presence.

“Don’t let him leave this cabin alive!”

This is exactly why I didn't trust this cell unsupervised, Alethia seethed to herself as she and the surviving guards unleashed a hail of blaster fire on the Nautolan. "Fan out! And do not stop firing!"

For a moment, things appeared to be under control. Kang's weapons whirled around him, slapping the bolts away easily enough, but the sheer volume of fire kept him pinned down. It was a small miracle that none of the Odanites were caught by a deflected blaster bolt as they slammed into all the hut's walls, leaving flaming craters and flying chips of decayed wood. No trace of Raiju's earlier cockiness remained, and it seemed only a matter of moments before something slipped.

And then the traitor's rubbery face broke into a broad grin. Bad was about to become worse. Alethia grimaced and pulled the smoke bomb from her belt with her free hand and dropped it to the floor.

The chaos, fear, and destruction of the fight fed him like oxygen feeds a flame. The Sith began to slowly inch his way towards the nearest guard before suddenly erupting forward. A whirling blur of orange and red flashed through the man, leaving him in at least five smoldering pieces. They'd barely hit the floor before Raiju was on the other two soldiers, hacking weapons and limbs asunder with gleeful abandon.

Alethia managed to dart away into the billowing cloud of smoke that was rapidly filling the room. "Come on, baby," Raiju called out after her, laughing. "Don't be like that."

Ignoring the taunt, Alethia picked her way across the room, one hand over her mouth as she tried to keep from choking on the smoke. She flailed about with her other hand in front of her, desperately feeling about for furniture, a window, the exit — anything to get her out of the fight. If the smoke blinded Kang's bulging eyes, if she could get outside and regroup, there was a real chance Archenksova could regain control of the situation.

"The view was a lot better when I was tied down. Come on, sweetheart. Nobody likes a tease," the Nautolan grunted from inside the cloud. Bravado aside, Alethia could tell by the rasp in his voice that Raiju wasn't having an easy time of it either. Any feeling of relief was cut short by the telltale whirring of a lightsaber spiraling through the air.

Alethia dove to the floor, rolling shoulder-first into the wall as a scarlet blade scythed its way through the hut, carving a path of flaming ruin through the dried-out wroshyr wood walls.

The Human slapped at the comlink strapped to her wrist. "Droid! Extraction! Now!" Her words were almost cut off by a sickening lurch of the floor. The wood groaned, then cracked like thunder. This entire section of the city had barely been stable in the first place; the lightsaber, dozens of blast bolts, and the secondary fires they left behind had taken too much of a toll. Gasping for breath in between coughs, Alethia scrambled up the wall. Her hands seized a windowsill in the dark, and she struggled over the edge of it, collapsing on the walkway outside.

Raiju made another smart remark as he scrambled through the hut after her, but whatever he said, it was drowned out by the crashing of the hut's deathrattle. For her part, Alethia skittered along the walkway as the collapsing shack began to rip it apart, clawing for any purchase she could.

Inside, the fall through the air rapidly pulled the smoke from the remains of the room, leaving Raiju bleary-eyed but at least able to make out the broad contours of his situation. Could be worse… he thought, fumbling for the grappling hook on his belt. The grappling hook, he realized, that he hadn't retrieved from the table where the Odanites had laid out his gear.

"Kark."