The blaster rifle was a reassuring weight in Seth's hands, but it wasn't nearly as comforting as it had been even a few hours ago.

He and Nova walked through the jungle, their pace as sure and steady as they could make it. Neither had spoken a word since leaving the others and plunging into the foliage. It was still raining, and it was beginning to pick up. Seth tried to tell himself that he could handle it, that they both could, but he knew that the odds were bad. He felt decently confident that they were facing a Mandalorian, and they'd each killed a lot of them over the years, especially back during the Mandalorian Wars, but this was different.

Seth continually scanned the trees and plant life around them as they pushed southeast. They'd made it almost a klik so far, by his count, so halfway there. Roughly. Hopefully. This was all rather imprecise science and he'd kill to have some working tech. But he had a good sense of direction, and his instincts were honed enough that he wasn't completely lost in this environment. His mind was wandering a bit, though, background thoughts drifting through his cranium. He found himself wanting to meditate. That still wasn't as routine as it should be, not that his life had been routine lately. And he'd kill for some green tea right about now.

That made him think of Maya, and her relaxation techniques.

As he walked through the rainy jungles of Dxun, Seth tried to imagine his problems, his anxieties and frustrations and fears, as a ball of red light in his head. He could see it with surprising clarity. That little light show with Maya really seemed to have helped him be able to focus on stuff like this. He concentrated on that ball of red light, and allowing it to solidify, to really take shape, to have weight in his head.

And then he imagined blowing it out.

It disappeared in a puff of red light, diffusing into the darkness around it, and he felt his body relax, his muscles release their tension. That worked a lot better than he ever thought something like it would. Not that he was totally carefree now. But he felt calmer, more ready to take this on. Nothing had changed but his own perception, and sometimes that was enough. If the situation was screwed, then it was screwed, and often, the only thing you could directly control was how you reacted to the situation. And it paid to chill out, because the situation might not be as screwed as you thought it was. That could just be your own fear and anxiety.

Although this situation was pretty bad.

Dxun was a shit environment, especially if you were being hunted by an expert in stealth. The Mandalorians were usually the 'come at you screaming' type, but they could hunt with the best of them. And they had that obsessive, cult-like devotion to war that meant that they could relentlessly focus on something until they were amazing at it. Especially if they had years or decades. Whoever this guy was, he was obviously good, and it was probably going to take some real damned luck to take him down.

He'd already pretty much wiped out a Republic outpost.

It wasn't like a huge outpost or anything, as far as outposts went, it was kind of skeleton crew, but still, that was impressive. And intimidating. But if they could just take this bastard's jammer out, they would take away one of his most powerful abilities. It wouldn't make taking him down easy, per say, but it might make it easier.

"I think we might be getting close," Nova murmured.

Seth looked around and realized that she could be right. Something was different about the area they had just come into, but at first he couldn't place it, only that it made him even more anxious. Finally, he had it: it was quiet. When there was a predator about, things tended to shut up, and even native wildlife could recognize something like what they were facing as a dangerous predator. It could indicate that they were on his turf, or that something else was around. Either way, it felt like a bad place to be.

Kind of like the quiet before the storm.

They kept going, hunting around through the dense foliage for wherever the Mandalorian may have hidden his cache. Seth began to worry after ten minutes. Honestly, it was kind of a losing proposition. Of course the bastard would hide it, and hide it well. But he and Nova were good at sniffing out stuff like this, he being a veteran soldier and her being a veteran bounty hunter. So how to track it down then? Well, if they could find the path the Mandalorian took, then that would certainly be a lot of help.

But how to do that? The guy was stealthy, obviously good at covering his tracks. Then again, did he even leave any tracks? He seemed to spend a lot of time in the-

Seth looked up.

The trees.

They were dense, packed together often, and appeared to support a lot of weight in the right areas. So where were the right areas?

"Nova, maybe we should be looking up," he said.

"What?" she asked, her gaze shooting skywards. "Oh..." she murmured, and they continued their search.

After another five minutes, he found something: a scrape that looked oddly peculiar. It seemed to stand out almost like a signal flare among the vegetation and trees and foliage. He looked up, higher, and saw a few more. Pointing them out to Nova, he began to follow them. She joined him. There weren't many, but there were enough. He could be wrong, this could be a creature, something he hadn't seen yet, something he didn't know about, there were probably dozens of different species around, hundreds even.

But this was all they had to go on right now, and this couldn't drag out for too long. The longer they stuck around hunting, the higher a chance of something bad happening was. And then, finally, after another ten minutes of running down a few false leads, Seth basically tripped into the cave. There was a rock wall they found and it was covered in giant leaves. He was walking along it, looking for an opening, when he tripped over a root sticking up out of the ground like a son of a bitch and fell into the rock wall.

Then he fell through it.

Or rather, he fell onto a patch of huge green leaves that had nothing behind them. He shouted in surprise and managed to catch himself by grabbing the corner of the rock wall by the opening, and regained his feet.

"I think I found it," he said.

There was a narrow gap that was just barely big enough for him to fit through with his armor. It was almost perfect. "Only one way to find out. I've got your back."

He was tempted to tell her to stay put, guard the entrance, but he didn't want to go in alone...plus, the Mandalorian might be in there. If he was, he knew they were here, after that display. Seth pulled out his pistol and began charging it up. He slipped forward, making his way carefully through the narrow opening in the cave wall. Before long, he began to hear a very soft sound: the white noise of functional machinery, a kind of continuous whirring sound.

This had to be it.

Finally, the gap widened and he came into an open area. Seth hit his flashlight, given that he couldn't see hardly anything save for a few very small lights a little ways away. He imagined the Mandalorian had light-amps built into his helmet, or maybe was just that good at operating in the darkness. His light revealed a small cave.

They had found it.

There was a simple bedroom, a workbench cobbled together from what looked like spare parts and broken furniture, a chemical toilet stuffed in one corner, and a table that might serve as a kitchen. There was a lot of blood staining its surface, and it held several cutting implements. So, he caught, killed, and skinned his own food.

Well, that fit with everything else Seth had seen so far.

And there, pressed up against the back wall, was a squat, blinking piece of technology. It was basically a square of metal, with a simple interface, and a miniature comms tower sticking out of the top. "Son of a bitch," Nova growled.

"Let's ruin his day," Seth said. He aimed the pistol he'd been charging at the piece of tech, then pulled the trigger. The overcharged shot nailed it directly and it exploded into pieces with a satisfying pop and a shower of sparks and metal. "Head back out, I'm going to toss a damned frag grenade in here," he said.

Nova grinned and chuckled darkly, then quickly began making her way back out. He followed after her, grabbing one of his fragmentation grenades and prepping it. As soon as they were back at the entrance and she was fully out, he primed it and threw it back the way they'd come, then quickly got out of the way to avoid the blast of concussive force and metal fragments. A few seconds later, a thunderclap of an explosion sounded and a rush of dust blew out of the opening.

"Ha, we nailed that son of a-"

Something sailed through the air and nailed her in the shoulder. Nova screamed in pain and rage and Seth reacted immediately, aiming his pistol in the direction of the attack. And there he was. In the rain, he could just make out the form of the Mandalorian, the water bouncing and beading and running across his armor.

He was large.

Taller than Seth was. Still, it was hard to truly make out accurate dimensions because of the stealth field. With perfect silence, he began firing off more darts. Two of them caught Seth, one in the thigh, one in his chest, and he screamed and opened fire. His aim was bad, but he quickly readjusted and kept on firing. Nova joined him, both of them moving quickly. Several more darts whirred past them, barely missing them and sometimes grazing their armor or tearing at their skin. Seth cursed and kept up the rate of fire until his pistol was temporarily exhausted. He dropped it, brought his blaster rifle to bear, grimacing and fighting against the pain, because those darts hurt, and opened fire again. Blaster bolts washed across the Mandalorian's position.

Some connected and he stumbled back a few paces. Seth kept up the fire, hosing his area down, and Nova joined him, though he saw that her shots were not very accurate. He glanced at her. Her right arm had blood streaked down it, and it hung at her side. Oh shit. She was firing her pistol with her left hand, grimacing furiously, her teeth bared. As he returned his attention to the Mandalorian, one of the darts connected with his blaster and threw it from his grasp.

"Damn!" he yelled, and made a snap decision.

He began sprinting towards the big bastard. He wasn't sure what he was going to do once he actually got there, only that it felt right in the moment.

And sometimes, your gut was wrong.

Seth thought he might surprise the enemy, but the Mandalorian seemed prepared for this particular scenario, evidenced by the fact that as Seth tried to launch his attack, the Mandalorian grabbed him and flung him right over himself. Damn! He was strong. Seth yelled as he flew through the air and slammed bodily into a nearby tree.

Something cracked inside of him.

Falling to the ground, he flipped over, struggling to get the air back in his lungs, and he saw the watery, uncertain figure coming his way.

Suddenly, an overcharged burst nailed the son of a bitch right in the back. The Mandalorian stumbled forward and for a few seconds, his stealth shielding failed. Seth grabbed his knife and surged to his feet as the Mandalorian turned around and returned fire. He lurched forward, brought the knife up, and then drove it into the huge bastard's back.

The Mandalorian let out a grunting kind of bark of pain.

That was satisfying. It was even worth it, Seth felt, as the man whirled around and punched him solidly in the face, sending him crashing back to the ground again. Expecting a more damaging blow, or more of those darts, Seth instead heard blaster fire, followed by another enraged bark of pain. He looked up and saw Nova firing on the Mandalorian's position still. And apparently she hit something sensitive, because suddenly he turned and ran into the trees. Nova took a few steps after him, then slowed to a halt and looked at Seth.

"Are you okay?" she asked, glancing back towards where their assailant had disappeared. Seth couldn't even hear him anymore.

"Think I fractured something," he grunted. "Your arm?"

"It's busted," she replied.

"Shit." Seth slowly hauled himself to his feet, wheezing. One of his ribs might be broken. It sure hurt enough.

"What do we do?" she asked.

"We go home and heal up. We completed our objective and did some damage," Seth replied, he saw his blaster in the mud and hobbled over to it, knelt, retrieved it, then began looking around for his pistol.

"Okay," Nova said after a moment, sounding a little defeated.

He found his pistol, and then they took a moment to tear the darts out of themselves and perform the most basic medical care before heading back to the outpost.

* * *

"Seth! Nova!" Seri cried.

Seth fell on his face as he finally made it back to the outpost. He had a lot of endurance, a high pain tolerance, and an intense hatred of appearing weak, especially in front of other people, especially people that he respected, especially someone he was sleeping with, but that walk through the jungle had really pushed him hard.

"Where's. Maya?" he asked slowly, struggling not to pass out.

"Seth, shit," Nova said, crouching by him.

"We need her," he growled, fighting to get back up.

"Yex! Jensen! Help me!" he heard Seri yell.

A moment later, he heard footfalls, then hands were on him, helping him. He barked in pain as they bumped his chest. "Fractured rib," he grunted as Jensen and Kato got him to his feet. They each took an arm and helped him begin hobbling to the ship.

Yex helped Nova while Seri ran ahead to prepare for their arrival in the infirmary.

"What happened out there?" Jensen asked.

"Did you do it?" Kato asked.

"The jammer has been destroyed, I'm pretty damned sure. And we bombed his damned home base. He was living in a cave. Then he showed up. I stabbed him in the back and Nova managed to get some good shots in on him," Seth replied.

"Nice!" Jensen said.

"Yeah." Seth grunted as they reached the back ramp and started making their way up it. "Damn, this hurts."

"You're in pretty bad shape," Kato muttered.

"I know. We need to talk about what we're going to do, but first, Kato, go get Maya, she should be in her quarters. Wake her up if you have to, tell her it's an emergency, get her to the infirmary, okay?"

"Okay," she said, and cautiously left him with Jensen, then hurried off to find Maya.

They got him and Nova into the infirmary and laid them out on the examination tables. Freaking deja vu, Seth thought unhappily. Seri finished preparing the emergency medical supplies and Seth began taking off some of his armor, barking in pain as he did.

"Here, let me do it," Jensen muttered. "You don't need to be moving."

"Fine," Seth replied, trying not to get angry. He was just trying to help, and he had a point, it wasn't a damned insult.

He really sympathized with Nova in that regard.

By the time he managed to get his upper armor off with Jensen's help, Maya groggily stumbled into the infirmary.

"Oh by the Force," she muttered, looking at them, rubbing her eyes.

"Maya. I'm sorry, but I need your help," Seth said, extremely unhappy that he was going to have to ask what he was about to ask.

"Seth...I'm barely conscious and coherent as it is right now-" Maya began.

"Maya," he said, and something in his voice made her stand up a little straighter, "I'm sorry. I really am. But we need to get to a minimum standard. I don't have time for my rib to heal naturally, same with Nova's arm. We need you to use the Force to heal at least those. I know what I'm asking, and I'm sorry, I genuinely hate to ask this, but we need it. He's out there, and he's pissed now, he's going to be coming for us sometime in the future, probably soon, and you won't be ready in time for a battle, but you can make us ready for a battle. It's two of us being semi-ready versus three of us not being in any shape to fight."

She was silent for a few seconds, probably running it all through her head for herself, and everyone was staring at her. Finally, she nodded. "Okay," she said, coming over to him and laying her hands gently on his chest.

"I'm sorry, Maya, I-"

"I know, Seth," she interrupted quietly. "I believe you, and I agree with you. This isn't your fault. I know you did the best you could, and we just got dealt a bad hand through no fault of your own. But I must warn you, I will be unconscious, as in, I will pass out, right here in the infirmary, and remain so for probably a good twelve hours. I will not be able to help you or defend myself at all. So you must take that into account."

"I understand. We will protect you," he said.

"Thank you, Seth. That does mean a lot," she murmured. "Now be quiet, I need to focus."

She laid on the pressure a little more and he winced, then he felt a warmth begin to emanate from her hands. It seeped into his chest, and he grunted as he felt his fractured, or possibly broken, rib shift. A sharp pain hit him.

"Dammit!" he snapped and clenched his hands into fists. Gritting his teeth, groaning sickly in pain, he felt his rib mending hastily with the use of the Force.

It only lasted twenty seconds, but it felt like a lot longer.

When it was finished, the pain was gone, like it had never been there to begin with. He took a deep, experimental breath, then released it slowly.

"You did it," he said.

She nodded, turned, and staggered over to Nova.

"Jensen, Kato, be ready to catch her," Seth warned.

They both closed in around her, attentively watching her. She laid her hands over Nova's wounded shoulder.

"Thank you, Maya," Nova whispered.

"Yes," was all Maya said, and she trembled with effort and concentration. Seth grimaced as he propped himself up and watched, pained in more ways than one, as Maya fixed Nova up. She kept going until she literally passed out, letting out something like a sigh of relief and just going slack. Jensen and Kato caught her immediately. They got her over to the unoccupied examination bed and laid her out on it.

"Watch her, run a scan," Seth said, slowly laying back down.

Seri was already getting to work on Nova.

"How's your arm?" Seth asked.

"Still a little sore, but I can fight like this," Nova replied.

"I hate this," Seri whispered.

"Don't we all?" Seth muttered.

He settled in to wait to be put back together again, and hoped that the fight that was inevitably coming towards him would wait long enough for him to get back on his feet, and that Maya was going to be okay.