He accessed a database on a handheld computer and downloaded a variety of savage languages to the droid in order to get communications, it appeared the tasty creatures assumed that the droid was in fact a God! 'How risible' he thought considering the inferiority of droids. He accessed the droids perceptions using the computer and saw it surrounded by a group of ewoks, one speaking 'We shall make a great sacrafice to you metal master', the begining of an idea began to form in Malaki's head as he looked hungrily at his companions, this expedition was failing so far, and he would still have to pay all his companions... the bead of an idea began to form inside his head.

That moment, the Ewok broke cover..

The young Neimoidian (not brought up as a warrior by any means) brought his weapon up shakingly (while voiding his bowels and considering running) as the native stumbled towards them shaking his spear, naturally, the Neimoidian took aim at the fearsome creature, thinking of the meat it could yeild when roasted and pulled the trigger of his blaster, sending a swift beam of red light towards the small creatures belly.

'I the mighty metal one am but the herald of a greater one to come, he is called 'He who wears a bigger hat than all of his companions' and he is the greatest god of all, you must worship him above me and my metal companions, however, his flesh companions who do not wear the large hat must be sacraficed'.

Malaki Kruus watched the outcome of this before speaking to his companions loudly 'There is a friendly village to the south of here, two kilometers, eat up and we shall head there, you wont need your blasters so leave them with the pack ponies, the locals will keep you all warm for the rest of your lives' He chuckled at that, a long, asian sounding chuckle that stopped only for him to catch breath.

His confused companions looked at eachother before chuckling too, not wanting to offend their employer before securing their blasters in the crates on the pack panies, Kruus being careful to take the key for the crates, before they set off for the village.

Deven sighed as the transport touched down upon the landing surface none too gently. His sigh was echoed by the grumbles of perhaps forty other passengers of various species and who looked none to sociable. There were fifteen Rodians in the mix, making them the majority. The rest were of Twi'lek and Bothan origin, and all were quite open to the prospect of lucrative business. Mercenaries and bounty hunters both, they, under Deven's leadership, made up the second, smaller half of the team sent to capture and retrieve tasty delectable sentient beings for use by the Colicoid in exchange for massive amounts of infantry droids. To Deven, however, the break from his studies angered him. What good was the promise of absolute power (or as near as he could come) if he was unable to learn?

Hotheaded and young, Deven had been found by Novak during his brief time on Tatooine. A rather adept young man, his anger at his family, at life and at nearly all people who were better off than he was made him a perfect focusing point for the darker side of the Force. His anger, fortunately, was matched only by his willingness to learn new ways of causing harm and a deep sadistic side that quite enjoyed ruining and breaking the lives of other sentient beings. The trip to Endor seemed perfect for such a foray.

With the word coming down that the Hand of Truth had turned away from Naboo and was on to a different target, it had seemed better to take a simple transport in as opposed to coming with a large vessel. Endor was, after all, a New Republic world. Arriving at a smaller port (incidentally, the one at which Malaki Kruus had come to), Deven and his gang of thugs departed the vessel. It hadn't been a pleasant ride, to say the least. Now, on foot, the group would begin shouldering their packs and items, looking about until they could find a trader that would supply them with mounts. Having used credits appropriated from a BlasTech subsidiary (as they carried BlasTech weapons, it seemed a good marketing job as well), they were able to purchase mounts in short order.

Ewoks didn't seem as if they'd be hard to find, so off into the forests the band rode, looking for what they needed.

Having heard of a Neimoidian-led party who had preceded their own, Deven was rather curious as to the purpose. The Neimoidians he had met in Mos Eisley had been stupid, cowardly things that he'd never been close enough to kidnap or mutilate. Perhaps this would be a good exercise in alien biology! He could easily dissect the creature and... well, all good things in time. For now, he was pushing his band of scum and villainy faster than their mounts should have been pushed, yet he was eager to find both Ewoks (which he could kidnap and stuff into creates to be turned into food) and the Neimoidian party (which could be slaughtered, ransomed or all manner of various things).

The fact that the Neimoidians had nine days' travel time on them didn't matter much. Deven was a harsh taskmaster though, and they were drawn to the loud sound of buzzing flies and the smell of decay on the seventh day. Forced to rest their exhausted animals at last, Deven had called a halt for all involved, and it was one of the mercenaries who found the remnants of a skinned Ewok that had likely been devoured. Neimoidian droppings were seen as well, pointing out that it had likely been they who killed, skinned and feasted upon an Ewok. The droppings were still not that old, which meant Deven's party was catching up. The broken path that looked as if it had been carved and cut through the jungle could only mean interlopers, so it was this pre-cut path than Deven and his soldiers followed at a quick pace, leading their animals now.

Within a day, perhaps two, they would be upon the Ewok village, though they did not yet know it was there.

Below his treehouse, adding to the atmosphere (in his opinion) hung the charred corpses of his companions, they having been killed in his welcome banquet. Now his closest guard of Ewok warriors stood around his treehouse, dressed in Neimoidian Gunnery Batallion Armour, which looked laughably large on them, and bearing their blaster-staffs.

He recieved a report from the hunters of the village that outsiders had come to the woods near the village, he spent a second considering before he proclaimed loudly 'And thus the great God did declare... death to all outsiders, thee shall smite them with the edge of the spear as sacrafice to me.'

One of the more sane ewoks organised the specifics of how they would slaughter the outsiders. In the trees most of the force waited, including Kruus' own Ewok Gunnery Batallion forces as well as the battle droids with many score of ewok warriors, while on the ground, as a diversion 9 Ewok Warriors and a Shaman were sent out riding on the horses in order to appear to be a negotiating party, they were inf act... bait.

From the skys, hundreds of arrows rained down on the mercenaries, and from Ewoks used to hunting fast moving mammals and birds the larger mercenaries were in fact not particularly challenging targets, many suffering from the arrows overhead.

All the blasters but two, 38, as well as the repeating blaster of the super battle droid targeted themselves on the Sith apprentice, planning to overwhelm him with sheer firepower, firing from multiple forward and sideways angles the ewoks swung between the trees carrying blasters, scattering themselves throughout the trees and firing punishing free fire down from all directions, while the super battle droid kept up its endless volley.

Two other ewoks and the 6 B1 battle droids with Blaster targeted the mercenaries scattered on the jungle floor, even as they learned their mistake for splitting up in a dense forest when surrounded by woodsmen.

Those who were too wounded and could not rise would be likely as not the first to die from knife-armed Ewoks, but even being small and fast wouldn't save Ewoks who closed with those who had the heavier rapid-fire weapons. At such a range it was hard to miss. Then the arrow barrage began. Six mercenaries were killed outright, downing Deven's force by over one-fourth as thirteen mercs were dead or dying. The downside of such would mean that the Ewoks would likely stand a chance of hitting their own that were scampering about on the ground trying to knife or spear other mercenaries.

Deven did not expect the amount of blaster fire that came his way and quickly brought his sabers up, spinning them rapidly and deflecting blaster fire away. The B2 was not expected either, but perhaps it was luck or the fact that he was an apprentice that saved him. One of the lucky shots from an Ewok caught him in his right arm, spinning him around and out of the way of the scything blasts of the B2, dropping him to the floor. Biting back a curse he cast out his good arm, shoving through the Force to attempt to send the B2 smashing into the closest tree.

The surviving mercenaries were now in a firefight with the Ewoks and the six B1 droids though, if these B1 droids were anything like their Clone War counterparts, they would be shortly disposed of and likely not good shots.

A big Ewok, named 'Wumpy' ran towards the form of Deven lying on the ground wheilding an axe, even as blasters sliced around him (from all angles aiming to put an end to Devens threat), squealing his somehow adorable scream of rage (his son having been shot down by a mercenary) he swung the axe down towards Deven.

The Ewoks, even with the loss of two of the rifles to the forest floor still had 36 firing, and redirected their fire somewhat, targeting 20 of them on the mercenaries on the floor, with the fire from the B-1s this would begin to add to the kills from the (non trivial) arrow fire (several archers turning their arrows to the prostrate Deven) that sent hundreds more arrows (as deadly as blaster shots) down at the mercenaries, even as several of their own kind were hit as they made butchers work of mercenaries.

The B2 battle droid was knocked back into a tree, falling over afterwards before simply rising to stand again, shaking itself in a quick operational test before opening fire once more upon the fallen Sith, shouting loudly 'DIE JEDI SCUM' over the noise of the blasts, nearby to it, a pair of B1s were hit by blasts and dropped to the platforms they stood on, but their blasters, snatched up by ewoks kept firing.

On the ground, Deven had succeeded in rolling behind the stump of a massive, six meter tall tree stump which, for the moment, protected him from the withering hail of fire somewhat. The Ewok attacking him with an axe came as a slight surprise and it was only a reflexive duck with his head that saved said bodily extremity as the axe was likely to thunk into the wood of the tree. With the reflexive duck came a zigzag motion of his good arm with the lightsaber which, with the momentum of the Ewok and the swiftness of the maneuver, had a good chance of unzipping the furry creature from left thigh to halfway up the torso to the right and then back to the left shoulder.

With six mercenaries having fled and twenty-two dead now, only twelve remained. The upside was that these twelve had survived by skill, agility, good aim and, in no small part, superior armor to their now-dead counterparts. Two such mercenaries would approach Deven quite quickly and, while under covering fire from the others, attempt to drag him back the way they'd come to where the mounts awaited them. Then, of course, the B2 droid came into the attack again, felling one of the mercenaries. That beast was quite the menace, unlike its smaller B1 brethren. Willing to sacrifice one of his lightsabers in exchange for his life, Deven hurled the one in his good hand. Not having used the Force really in this conflict, his reserves were full and, despite the wound, his mind strong. The Force powered the whirling blade with such speed and accuracy that it's gentle curve would make it hard to target in flight. If it struck, it would bisect the B2 at an angle and, hopefully, destroy it and as such, lessen the fire enough for a full retreat.

Many Ewoks died as the firefight continued, arrows flying along with blasts and spears, also on the ground the situation became increasingly desperate for the mercenaries as the Ewoks on the ground began raining arrows and spears down upon them before retreating into trees or thickets, determined to follow the words of their god and wipe out the invaders.

Horns went up amongst the trees signalling that the enemy must be exterminated completely, with more Ewoks filing around the trees every second, ewoks on the ground begining to butcher their mounts, thrusting spears up into the stomachs and spilling their intestines or else hamstringing the poor beasts as they stood terrified in the engagement. One particularly lovely and adorable young Ewok mounting one of the beasts and leading several away as he raked the beast with his spear causing it to gallop terrified.

The mercenaries who had fled did not meet a better fate, as they had been preparing traps in the jungle for hunting or for invaders, and as the six fled a young ewok pulled the cord that caused a dozen logs to roll downhill towards the hapless horsemen.

Seven days of riding through the jungle could be quickly covered by shuttle though. The pilot, who'd been bored and sitting around, began warming up his vessel and preparing it for flight. Shuttles, thankfully, were relatively simple. All you had to do was a quick pre-flight for the Lambda-class, expand the wings after takeoff and there you went.

Now, having forty mounts meant that the Ewoks, unless they'd charged the mount line en mass, which they hadn't, would still take time to incapacitate or kill every single mount. With the deadly hail of blaster and arrow fire not slacking off, Deven and two other mercenaries were the only ones to make it to the surviving mounts. Three mounts were easy enough to clamber on, though Deven's rapidly took the lead as he tapped the Force to assist the muscles of his beast. If one could speed up their own movements through the Force, moving something else faster was just the next evolution.

Three of the wounded, yet surviving mercenaries were still trying to get to their mounts, but had gotten pinned down. They were now in a veritable fort of the bodies of the dead beasts, having crawled under one that was conveniently atop another with some room to spare. Likely as not, these three would die, leaving only the three who had fled first, Deven and the two who were trailing behind of the original party of hunters.

One of the three mercs who was under cover tried to snap a shot at the B2, only to be struck in the shoulder with a spear for his trouble and then cut down by the B2. The other two mercenaries settled for throwing down their weapons and raising their hands. It would be luck if their survived though.