The five soldiers and their droid had been walking north-west for what felt like hours, Rehnar had point again as they wandered through what Joker called "The Forest of Darkness." To everyone else, the name seemed incredibly stupid, it was a forest, but darkness was a term that wasn't descriptive enough for the others. Rehnar thought about the Jedi that was taken from the base as they continued to walk, following along what felt to them like a trail through the woods. The whole idea of taking a Jedi prisoner, or from what he could understand, seemed too problematic. Why take the Jedi when you could have taken a number of the Rebel soldiers?

Perhaps, because the Jedi would have more knowledge about the events that they needed? Or knowledge of the fall of the Republic? If neither of those, then what? Rehnar grimaced, and his ears perked up at the sound of talking just ahead of the path. Silently, he raised his hand to the other soldiers behind him with a clenched fist. The group halted before moving Rehnar gestured for them to move to the bushes nearby. The group rolled into the bushes and waited.

"I mean, I just don't get why they're sending us back to the base. We destroyed whatever those soldiers who guarded that place anyway." They heard a voice say.

"Yeah, I know right, who the heck could be still alive after that?" Another chuckled. The five troopers listened carefully to the sound of the men talking as they walked forward. They looked through their visors toward the noise of the men who were speaking. Rehnar gestured to Jack through the bushes to ready her rifle and for Joker to get ready to interrogate the enemy that was heading their way.

They looked at them when they finally came into view. Their armor was shades of gray and black with the sigil of the Sith Empire in a deep red on their shoulders. Around their belts was multiple energy cells for their blasters that they had in their hands. Their helmet had a grey face plate but around it from the forehead down to the back sides of it was a deep black. A red stripe was down the forehead and was imprinted with the same crest as the shoulders. The armor appeared to be similar to that of Darth Vader's in many different ways. The pattern of the plating just above the chest around the neck to the shoulder looked the same, as well as the respirator on the front of the mask.

Jack aimed her rifle little ways ahead of the target that she was going to take down and she could swear that she could hear Joker sharpening his vibro knife from behind her. Rehnar looked at her and gave a subtle nod. Jack then fired the rifle into the head of the trooper on the right, dropping him to the ground of the forest floor below. The soldier on the left started to panic, getting down on the ground to check the pulse of the other trooper.

"We have a-" He was about to say before he heard the click and smelled the ozone of the blaster that was pointed at the back of his head.

"Put your weapon down, and kill the comms," Rehnar demanded in a cold tone that shocked even the soldiers under his command. Slowly the trooper set his blaster on the ground, and he looked over at the five soldiers and the droid. "Okay, Joker, find out what he knows," Rehnar replied pointing his blaster at the soldier.

"Okay, anything else you want me to do?"

"Don't kill him until you find out everything." He replied. 

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To be frank, Rehnar had entirely expected Joker to start slowly cutting off the man's limbs, dismembering him until quite literally only his torso was left. Joker, unbeknownst to most members of the imperial military was a part sociopath. They only said half because he had two separate personalities in that head of his, the one that he affectionately referred to as "Mr. Stabby." This was the kind of thing that the Empire's black ops units needed to extract the information of the quote-unquote "expendable" and in Imperial language, anyone who wasn't in the military. Joker's alternate persona was a sadist to the highest possible degrees, a person who would get a massive laugh out of slapstick comedy that ended in someone getting a blaster bolt to the face.

How it exactly had surfaced was a mystery to everyone. However, Rehnar had heard several stories going around the Intruder. One of them was that he'd witnessed his parent's brutally murdered. Another was that he made it when he was going through the training program so that he could increase his effectiveness. The other Black Jacks were just checking their blaster ammo counts while they heard the muffled screams of their Sith prisoner in the corner of the woods. All the while they heard brief interjections of Joker asking him questions. 

A few moments later Joker walked back over to them with parts of his uniform covered in the blood of the interrogated. "Alright, I've got what we need. Well, a location, that's about it." Geric replied walking over to them. 

"Well, spit it out then," Jack replied checking the vents on her rifle. 

"Okay, so, there's a bunch of outposts all over this planet, and several cities exist across the surface. One of them, the capital of the planet and the empire, is several kilometers away from here. And he told me, that the same city was where the prisoner was taken and he gave me a name: Kris Tarzin." 

"Tarzin?" Rehnar asked. "That name sounds familiar..." 

"He was a general in the Clone Wars wasn't he?" Queen asked. 

"Most of the Jedi were until the plot was uncovered." King countered as he put his Z-6 on his back.

Joker dusted off the blood from his plastiod armor. He walked over toward the other members of the group with grenade launcher in hand. "So, we've got a few outposts nearby and the capital city not too far from there." He said with his belt of grenades gently clicking as he stepped. Rehnar looked at him; it was almost like he was an armory on two legs. Or a walking explosion factory.

"What are you guys thinking?" Jack asked them holding her rifle with the barrel pointing to the dirt trail they were standing on. The group all looked at each other.

"Strategically, it makes sense for us to break into an outpost first. It'll give us the lay of the land of the capital city and maybe even give us some insight as to what we're dealing with." Queen replied.

"Agreed," Rehnar replied. "We need to know the scope of what we're dealing with, and if these guys get into contact with the Rebels, then we could be in for a real problem."

"What makes you think an Empire lead by the Sith would be interested in working with a Rebellion?" Jack replied.

"She's right," Joker noted placing his grenade launcher at his side. "But I think I know. If they help the Rebels and oust the Emperor, then they'll take control of the Galaxy, and the Sith will rule once again."

"Do you think they're planning something?" King asked looking down the pathway.

"I'd assume so," Rehnar replied. "We need to find a way to contact the Intruder. If we can get a hold of the captain, then we might be able to get a detachment out here."

"You don't think we'd be enough?" Joker asked.

"We're commandos, not one man armies," Jack replied.

"We're pretty close."

"Enough, both of you," Rehnar said breaking up their argument. "Blackjacks, listen up." He said with all He attention falling on him. "Here's the plan, we're going to the closest Outpost, then from there, we will assess the capabilities of our enemy. From there, we will decide if we can contact the Intruder. If we have to, we will. If not, then we move to the capital and investigate what the Sith are up to. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!" The other four soldiers replied with Hearts giving him the thumbs up with his blow torch. Rehnar smiled under his helmet at his soldiers. This was what they were made for. The situations that require the precision of a surgeon, and Blackjacks, never fail.

Jack took point, and the group started walking through the forest in a line as they normally did. Joker and Rehnar were at the back with Hearts at the front with Jack.

"Hey Joker, did you happen to-"

"Snatch their communication codes?" He asked finishing Rehnars sentence. "Come on, what do you think I am? An amateur?" He said passing a commlink to Rehnar from the trooper they killed.

"Never doubted you for a second," Rehnar smirked locking the commlink into the top side of his gauntlet. He then started turning and turning the channels with little luck. He then ejected the link. "Hey, Jack!" He called out to her before tossing the link to her at the front. Jack caught the device in her right free hand before getting a close look at it. It was rectangular and had only a few small buttons on it, meant to lock into the gauntlet of the user.

Jack locked it into her gauntlet and started breaking into their comms network establishing communications between each other and the outposts of the Sith. "Alright, we're good." She said handing the link to Hearts who hen locked it into his storage compartments. Then she heard a sound coming from the talking end of the comms.

"Patrol 22, report. I repeat this is Outpost Theta, patrol 22 report."

Rehnar then jumped on the comms line. "Rodger that Outpost theta this is Patrol 22 read you loud and clear." There was silence for a brief moment causing everyone to stop for a second, their hearts collectively pounding.

"Where were you? We've been trying to contact you for the past thirty minutes."

"We didn't receive any outbound transmissions," Rehnar replied as honestly as he could. "Must have been some interference."

"Understood Patrol, head back when you're able, Outpost out."

The group let out silent sighs of relief. "Okay, Outpost is about a kilometer away, we get nearby then wait for nightfall to make our move," Rehnar said to them.

"Sounds like a plan to me, but we need to be careful. Remember that monster that we saw earlier?" King replied. "You know the one, the thing that would have literally eaten us alive if we didn't blind it." 

"Yeah, we know what comes out at night now, we need to be careful," Queen concluded. 

"Right," Joker replied. "Though, if something does show up, I think I've got more than enough firepower to repel one of them." 

"Yeah, but just one," Jack replied. 

"Hey, it counts." 

Jack scoffed at his response. "Come on Joker, just one? The noise that you make lugging all of that around you'd attract a horde more of them to our location." 

"Can you go one day without bashing me, Jack? Or is that just because of your own insecurity of -" He said before he was cut off by the blaster rifle of Jack being pointed right at his helmet visor. Right, she hates it when I bring that up. Joker thought to himself.

"Jack. Gun. Down." Rehnar ordered. Jack then lowered her blaster to the ground and moved forward again, going further ahead than everyone else. Hearts rolled after her with King and Queen following closely behind. Soon after Rehnar punched Joker in the right shoulder. 

"Ow!" 

"You really need to watch what you say. You know how much she hates it when anyone tries to talk about it." Rehnar said as they walked behind the others toward their next destination.