Classified Defense Outpost,

Outer Defense Perimeter,

House Acclivis Draco Headquarters Facilities,

Heimdall Mountain Range, Li Gandor Continent,

Antenora, Cocytus System,

Dark Brotherhood Territories

The young Protector took a deep breath, and gently squeezed the trigger of the E-11s sniper rifle. The shot, of course, went wide. Even worse, it alerted his prey to the danger that they were in.

His prey in this case used its' rudimentary sensors to triangulate the location of the sound of the blaster bolt while also seeking cover. Since the area it was in was basically stripped clear of any vegetation, it settled for going prone.

The prey used its' ancient servomotors to drag itself forward, and began to spray the area from which it thought the bolt came from with blaster bolts of its' own.

Normally this wouldn't be too bad of a thing, but since the prey, a hastily thrown together combat droid, also was networked with almost a hundred other hastily thrown together combat droids, the volume of return fire was impressive.

"Frak!" The Protector cursed, and dragged the sniper rifle back in. The shooting port noted the departure of the weapon's muzzle from it and automatically sealed the port with a meter-thick blast shield.

The Protector took no note of that, however. He glanced at the passive sensor readings, and his mouth went dry. There was a solid confirmation of at least forty combat droids headed his way, and he knew there had to be more that the passive sensors could not make out.

Remembering his orders and his training, he engaged his commlink again and reported in. "Sir, they've found my location! They're targeting me and I need reinforcements!"

A smooth, modulated voice came back and acknowledged his request, and told him to hold off the droids at any cost, and that reinforcements were on their way.

The Protector sighed, and looked back at the sensors. The numbers of confirmed combat droids now quickly making their way to his location was dismaying.

Looking around himself, he hit the button to have the anti-infantry blaster batteries start to fire on their own, taking a moment to have the droid brain scan his commlink code to tag him as a friendly. Looking around and seeing that there were no other weapons available to use in this sort of fight, he sighed heavily and resigned himself to his fate. He grabbed his personal and cherished lightsabre, and exited the outpost, ensuring that it remained sealed behind him.

Apparently the combat droids detected his movement and was immediately the target of several dozen combat droids. The others, he noted, were systematically trying to engage the anti-infantry blaster batteries, which were raking their lines in their own systematic fashion.

Typical of the Protector's temperament, the thought of the audacity of anyone to attack his home provoked a familiar rage within him, and using that to fuel his power in the Dark Side, the Protector ignited his crimson-red lightsabre and fell on the hapless droids with a vengeance.

As was often the case, his rage caused his mind to kind of blank out, so when he returned to his senses, he stood alone over a field of broken, mangled, and deformed droids. His armor bore new mute testament to the fury of the battle, and several limbs where blaster bolts had singed his skin burned with their own anger. Breathing deeply, he expanded his senses in the Force to see if he missed any of them.

He did not, but he found a new presence. Turning to face the new threat, he realized that it was not a threat at all, at least not in the conventional sense.

Standing mutely with his own cerulean lightsabre humming quietly to itself, Epis Timbal stood about a quarter kilometer away, a pile of crushed droids littering the area around him. The Protector even noted that the Epis wasn't even breathing heavily.

The Epis shut down his lightsabre and walked over to the Protector, which in turn shut off his own and walked towards his Aedile. The Epis spoke first.

"Well done. You have passed a test not many have passed. You used your anger to focus your power, and it has served you well. Remember that lesson, it can keep you alive. I shall tell the Quaestor that you, Lailoken, have exceeded my expectations. Consider yourself at liberty for the next three days."

While the Protector departed with a smile on his face, a beep interrupted the sudden silence of the area. A message from Phoenix himself, he saw. A one-line message once again appeared on the screen of his datapad. "Report, whore!"

Timbal sighed and was once again aggravated, and then activated his commlink....

--

Greetings!

Yo! Fourth report time (Late, even!)! This week I chose Lailoken because I wanted to. ;) Hope I did him proud. =)

Things to Cover (House Stuffs):

• All's (Still) Quiet on the HAD Front! But not for long.... ;)

• Comps: My Jedi or Mutant comp has finished running, and as soon as this report is done I'm going to judge the entries and submit medal requests. Results to be released to the Clan on Monday.

• Fictional Stuffs: Nothing much here, although there will be a lot of work to accomplish soon-ish.

• Random Shadow Academy thingy I Was Thinking About: I was thinking about going for another SA Degree. Anyone want to challenge me to a race on who would get done with it first? ;)

• Welcome to four new peeps to our House! We've got APP TWicHy23, APP Adramach, JH Macindus Koth, and DJK Gavan Sykes. I expect great things out of our new members, and everyone make 'em feel welcome! =D

Random Other Things:

• Reminder: In case of nuclear explosion, blame Thran. ;)
  

Real Life Stuff:

More random stuff going on in my life!

• Work: I still hate this place. =P

• Star Wars Weekends @ Disney: Sheesh, I still need to put up the pics that I took up on my MySpace page.

• Metal Gear Solid 4: OMG. Enough said. I know I said the same thing last week, but it deserves mentioning twice. ;)

• Super Smash Bros Brawl on the DS? OMG! Ylith, thanks for making me drool for no reason! =P

Well, that's about it, peeps. Until next time!

KE Timbal

AED guy

Random medals and stuffs goes here.