"Firan here, I read you Kovin. Now, where in the blazes are you and everyone else?" His tone irritated, his patience for this planet and his trust in his new comrades starting to wear a little thinner.

Perception check: 2eA+1eP+3eD 2 successes, 1 threat

Maya scanned the grounds. These birds were clever. They were using techniques unusual for simple creatures. There! She saw a path in the tree line that her and Kovin could follow, but the avians' movements would be extremely limited.

Kovin! Head for the tree line. Then you can guide us the others. I'll cover our tail.

With that, she drew from within the sleeves of her armored, burgundy, robes, a peculiar rod-shaped object. It was a couple of dozen centimeters in length and just a few centimeters thick. It was made of dark gray metal - with copper trimming and a hooked thorn of bone capping one end. She breathed deeply. Go now!

She ignited her lightsaber in a flash of crimson and stood between the creatures and Kovin to allow him to make his escape.

Kovin pauses, shaking his head in confusion. A red blade! A Sith? Could she be? What is this?

"No!" he says. "I'm not going anywhere with you! Xan! Jonas! Firan! I need help, there's," he pauses, considering what to say. "There's a Sith here." He casts his eye about him, using his knowledge of tree and earth to spot a way to escape from both the birds and the Darksider before him.

I love good drama,

Kovin's message was as clear in her ear as it was in the others.

Her cheeks were lined with tears, but she gripped her lightsaber firmly.

Sith The word hit her like a spear through her heart. No. Not Sith. Another man's thoughts joined her own. One she could never forget. No! Something more. Something superior!

The young Togruta grit her teeth and bared her fangs for the world to see. Without giving her closest - and only - friend a second look, she said to him, with watery eyes, I'm sorry Kovin. I never meant for you to find out this way

She focused on her grief and greeted it like an old friend. Through it, gave focus to her agony. She reached out with her free hand - and the Force.

The front line of avians stiffened, like puppets whose strings had gone taut. With but a gesture, they fell like paper dolls, lost to the wind.

"Kovin, where are you? What can you see around you? Do not engage the Sith until you get help!"

Xan grit his teeth together and tightened his grip on his lightsaber.

Sith...

"Sith Lords are my speciality, be right there." Firan says over the comm, overtaken by a wave of bravado. Switching from his pistol to his carbine, he lowers the electrobinocular scope on his helmet and scouts out for Kovin's position.

Perception check!

Searching: 2eP+3eD 1 failure, 1 threat

That was bad!

Although his scope normally removed the natural conditions that would obscure his vision, now a strange snowy static obscured the display, making it practically useless compared to his unaided eyes.

"Blast it!" he exclaims in anger.

While the winged creatures were held in place by the Force and Maya's own fears, she turned to Kovin. Blast it, Kovin! I'm trying to save your life. We can talk about this later. Make for safety, I'll be right behind you!

What she fails to see is that Kovin is already making for safety. He's confused, mentally battered by the sudden confusion this has brought on. A few nights before she sat with them at the campfire, discussed with them the dangers of the Sith, of the Dark Side of the Force. Now she turns out to be one of them? He no longer knows what to believe. This girl, with whom he's trusted and confided over the last weeks, is a user of dark and terrible powers. The warriors who he's just met, only just begun to trust, are the antithesis to Maya. He's confused as he slams through branches, thickets and vines, seeking out the nearest of his allies.

Where can I find the closest person who's not just broken Kovin's heart and ruined his trust?

Can I hear any of this over my comlink?

For her part, Maya wasn't speaking into her coms. But Kovin had is out and had used it, so that's on the Colonel.

Everything I've said has been audible over the comlink. Kovin's a bit too frazzled to turn it off just at the moment.

Perception: 1eB+1eP+2eA+3eD 2 successes, 1 threat

Jonas found his lightsaber among a patch of brambles, but he scratched his wrist and felt a mild plant toxin work against his skin. Nevertheless, he ignited the blade and, with the form of a star phaseball player, swung the saber through one, two, three, four hawks all in a row, before the rest broke off and disappeared among the tree branches overhead.

Jonas receives 1 strain.

Perception check!

Searching: 2eP+3eD 1 failure, 1 threat

That was bad!

Although his scope normally removed the natural conditions that would obscure his vision, now a strange snowy static obscured the display, making it practically useless compared to his unaided eyes.

"Blast it!" he exclaims in anger.

The sudden, inexplicable burst of static caused Firan to stumble over a root, pulling a faceplant that would have been very embarrassing if there were anybody else around. At least the birds were gone by now!

Firan receives 1 wound, and 1 strain.

Perception check: 2eA+1eP+3eD 2 successes, 1 threat

Maya receives 1 strain.

Regret hit Maya like a wave breaking against the cliff. She swallowed hard, burying her feelings of guilt before chasing after Kovin. When she finally caught up to him and the others, she said nothing. Instead, she allowed the others to speak their minds and their feelings.

Alright, so I can hear Kovin, but he isn't responding. Is there some way I can triangulate his location using the comlink? Otherwise, I'm not sure how I can find anybody here, unless I'm missing something.

"Kovin, this is Xan. Do you read me?"

I'm not sure how initiative is working now, but my intention is to maintain my defensive stance in my secure location while speaking.

To be clear, you are outside of the turn structure now, in narrative time. So there is no initiative structure.

You are now just narratively working out the gathering of yourselves together. It can involve a strong amount of deus ex machina or a simple triangulation of comlink signals, as you say...no skill checks are required except for the one Hard skill check I asked everyone to make so as to end the combat encounter.

"This is Kovin," he's out of breath, haggard and shaken as he darts under vines, through thickets and over fallen logs. Despite this though, he possesses the presence of mind to keep to an open channel on his comlink. "I need help. There's a - a clearing, about three hundred metres ahead of me. At the top of the small waterfall in that stream? It's only about a dozen feet up but it's clear. Meet me there."

To be clear, you are outside of the turn structure now, in narrative time. So there is no initiative structure.

You are now just narratively working out the gathering of yourselves together. It can involve a strong amount of deus ex machina or a simple triangulation of comlink signals, as you say...no skill checks are required except for the one Hard skill check I asked everyone to make so as to end the combat encounter.

That was the Survival check I made, correct? In that case, I triangulate the comlink and find Kovin.

The Jedi and Firan converge on the waterfall just as Kovin reaches it, Maya not far behind...

Kovin races into the clearing, heart pounding and head spinning at the sudden revelations. He sees the others gathered in varying states of readiness, and approaches them at a fast walk. "Listen," he begins. "Whatever you see, just remember that she's a good person at heart," nonetheless, he turns and readies his staff to fight.

Xan already knew who Kovin was talking about. He'd suspected it since that conversation at the hideout, when Maya had claimed the Jedi had victimized the Sith. Maya, a woman with mysteriously strong Force powers and the delectable stain of the dark side upon her...

"Kovin," he said, making no move to draw his lightsaber. "The Sith recruit Force users as well as the Jedi. But their methods differ greatly. Sith Masters endeavor to crush their apprentices and force them to commit atrocities to show their loyalty, a process which is intended to strip them of all traces of compassion and empathy for others. They refer to this as a 'breaking of the bonds' as if it were a noble effort, a quest for emancipation from tormentors, but in reality the bonds they speak of are not chains or shackles, but rather the bonds that tie us to all living beings around us, bonds the Jedi believe instill upon us obligations--the need to protect, preserve and nurture. Sith despise those things as brakes upon their personal quest for power."

Xan turns his head as he hears Maya approaching. "It is a brutal process," he continues, "one which some Sith apprentices cannot endure, possessing too much of a conscience to ever sink to the levels required by their Masters. Usually the training process disposes of them, but sometimes they run, hide themselves far away. And this place is very far away, indeed."

He turns to look at Kovin. "Is Maya a Sith? No training method makes you a Sith or a Jedi. These things only occur by choice. Yes, it's true fate and genetics play a role--one must be born with the talent to feel the Force strongly enough to call upon it--but what defines us is what we choose to do with what we're given. I wanted to be a warrior; circumstances called for me to become a diplomat instead. But I chose to do it, and that's why I'm a Jedi."

He heard Maya's footsteps approaching. "If you want to know what Maya is, ask her, Kovin. She is who she chooses to be. Let's see what she decides before we take action."

Maya entered the clearing with all eyes upon her. Clearly Kovin had told them. She opened her mouth, hoping the right words would form of their own. Instead she held out the crimson lightsaber. With a sad smile and a watery voice she said It's only a practice blade.

As a show of faith, she tossed the tool at her companion's feet.

My master never kept real weapons near me.

"How could you hide this from us, from me? The Sith are evil, and you know it - otherwise you wouldn't have been so ashamed to mention them - so why would you do this," he spins his staff into a warding stance, front end low and back end high, under his arm. "Even if you tell no-one else, tell me."