A steelbridge to nowhere.

[Gabriel Sionoma]

En route to Komodan

Aboard a transport ship, unmarked.


One hand lifted, pressing index against index. Then index against middle finger. He prodded, one more time, against the ring finger of his right hand. Lockers were adhered to the bulkhead with bolts that didn't seem quite tight enough, rattling with every jump or slight pull of celestial body. He was nearly finished with donning the vanguard armor of grey steel and subtle blue.

"Is it getting worse?" A blonde male, breaching thirty, leaned against one of the lockers with lean arms crossed.
"Hmph...yeah." Gabriel responded, flexing his hand as the numbness seemed to cement itself. Pins and needles would return, then it would cycle all over again.
"You should get it checked. Not much good if you can't use your hand."

Gabriel proceeded to wrap the hand, as if he was about to enter into a shadow boxing match in the deep pits of some shady bar. Perhaps Coruscant, perhaps he would find her there. "I'll be fine."

"Sure..." Clear blue eyes rested atop a smirk. "Until, you know, you're not."

The war-torn warrior sighed, stretching against the bench as it shifted loosely against the floor. "I didn't bring you along to lecture me, Daegon."

"Yeah...speaking of that, why did you bring me? Couldn't find another pilot for the job, huh?"

"Something like that..." It was nothing like that. He knew plenty of pilots, plenty of soldiers too. But the Galactic Alliance stood on the precipice of peace, however feigned or forced it might have been. Gabe wasn't permitted the use of Alliance forces because it would look suspect, particularly when he stood in such ardent protest of this truce. So he was forced to pull from other pools.

Daegon stood at equal height to Gabe but weighed a good deal less, standing lean and wiry. His father had taught him how to pilot just about anything that crashed on the moon, from dusters to starships. But the old man forbid his son from taking part in the war, forcing him to live on the planet with his family and ailing parents. It was a matter of cancer, something that seemed all too common on the dusty planet, even for those Gabe held close to heart. Perhaps, in some ways, it hit even closer to home than he wanted to admit.

But this wasn't war. This was exploration. A matter of import of a very rare set of species in a particularly unique pattern. To the estate of the Higgins, always that estate. But it wasn't for use on their lands, instead for direct export out to a planet that the Sheriff had never heard of. Komodan. That violated a series of laws and despite what protection the commissioner had historically provided the Umbaran immigrants, he could not abide the loss of tourism. So Gabe was given the chance to question them and what that revealed was beyond what he expected.

A cult, sacrificing sentients and non sentients alike, on a dead planet.

Pressing the remaining bits of armor on, leaving the helmet as is, he looked towards Daegon with a hardened gaze. "Where are they?"

"Oh, that ragtag group of mercenaries? Just lounging around in the cargo bay."
"Good. We arriving soon?"
"Should be any minute."

He nodded as he strolled off, finding his way to the group of assembled mercenaries.

[member="Aver Brand"]​

 

[Aver Brand]

The ragtag group of mercs weren’t exactly lounging around. Well, some, sure – Aver among them – but others clearly knew each other. Two twi’lek were off in one corner, rolling dice as the shuttle shook around them and squabbling each time the turbulence upset the result. A stepping trio of kilik, gank, and trandoshan were leaning against the back wall, neatly arranged by height as they chattered about a past job.

And next to her on the bench, a pair of humanoids. Couldn’t tell rightly what they were, and didn’t care – of more import was the fact that they kept sideeying each other like they were gonna start a fight right then and there.

“You Lesher?” one of them spat, puffing out his chest.
“Who’s askin’, smartass?”
“Kalia’s brother, that’s who.”

Oh, great.

Lesher squinted his beady eyes, hand inching towards the knife on his belt. “Dunno anyone by that name, friend.”
“Ya don’t, eh? Think you’d know the girl ye knocked up.”
“Kno— hey now, we was karkin’ around! Gonna kill a man if he saw a hot piece of tail an’ asked her out? How the kark was I s’posed to know she wasn’t, y’know—”

“Save it.”

“Wot?” The smaller one, Lesher apparently, whirled around. “Got somethin’ to say, gal?”
“Y’all can shiv each other all you like groundside. Keep it in your pants ‘till then, thanks.”
“Listen here, girl. You keep yer nose outta others’ business, ya hear?”
“It’s gonna be everyone’s business when you start a knife fight in here. Sit your ass down and shut the kark up.”

With wide brown eyes, the man stood huffing on the spot. One of the twi’lek rumbled a laugh, sweeping the dice back into a bag. “Dan mtan ayhnu’k, foh.”

“Oh yeah? Why’s that, headtails?” He kept his gaze trained on the merc. The merc kept cleaning her gun, unconcerned.

“Dan sahak rehilkan xaeo velid? T'u si’hklesi ir Do tarhan.”
“Wha— what’s her armor matter, lekku? She ain’t— oh. Shet.”
“Foh laboo cla tilor si’kr vil dey t’u, koa?”
“You, shut up,” he barked, pointing the knife at the blue twi’lek.
The man, grinning, raised his palms in mock defense. “Dan fiyet eti, mliry foh.”

“An’ you,” the merc sneered, blade drooping as he turned to Aver. “You— you keep your Alliance outta this, and I letcha off with no trouble.”

“Sure.”

The woman rubbed at the worn Captain markings on her shoulder, folded her cleaning kit into her belt, and settled back. If the flames licking along the hull were any indication, they were seconds from touchdown.

And then on to whatever expedition entailed.

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

He steadied himself against the threshold between locker and cargo bay. Hazel eyes moved from one person to another, tingling fingers gripping the bent tin of the seal. Daegon had the right of it - this was a ragtag group indeed. As the last rumbling past, he knew that they had breached the atmosphere, and he strolled casually into the den of mercenaries and warriors. Such an act would have been enough to make most men nervous and maybe, in his own way, he was.

He wasn't a big fan of large groups. Especially if that group consisted of people he didn't really know. Two Twi'lek gambling, a Kilik, Gank, and Trandoshan were conversing. And a woman wore the apparel of an Alliance Captain. It sounded like the solid workings of a bar joke, but he couldn't seem to conjure one in the moment.

Pressing fingers against the bulkhead, a heads up display lit up the cargo with a shimmer of blue. The pair of Twi'lek started yammering, oohing and awing, before Gabe turned to peer over his shoulder. His silence was enough to spawn more, it seemed, as they quickly shut up.

"Planet is called Komodan..." He started, pointing to the 3-D landscape. "We are entering an old facility or city, called Steelbridge. Though the cartographer isn't certain on whether that'a nickname following the devastation of the planet...or what the natives called the place before all the events that transpired. I don't think it really matters." Wrapping his right hand in the collar of his armor, he turned, the bottom of the display catching the braids of his black and grey hair.

"I've hired you all because I was told you were the best. But if that display of arguing and bickering was any indication..." His hazel view shifted towards Lesher, soft spoken in his criticism. "I can't say that I'm all too impressed. And since I pay your salary...I'm the only one you should really care about."

His free hand lifted up, pressing a remote that shifted the colors of the display, dotting blue with spots of red. "Steelbridge is a hellscape for the heavy footed. So tread lightly. The infrastructure is all but lost to the wear of time, the building's integrity lay threadbare..." He stopped, eyeing the pair of Twi'lek and coming to terms with the fact that the education level was perhaps disparate at best. "There's no integrity to speak of. Watch your step, pair up, keep each other safe. You go in with someone, you come back with them. Or you don't get paid."

He let out a long breath in the silence, turning as he clicked on the next display. "Our expedition and purpose is to yield information. A growing cult, sacrificing creatures and sentients. Gather information, extract what can be extracted, and...make it out alive. Any questi-"

A voice rang out over the intercom.

::You all aren't going to believe this. But I found a steel bridge in...Steelbridge! I think that's gonna be our LZ::

Gabe looked up towards the loudspeaker.

::Just kidding. We are landing though. Sensors have provided us with primo rooftop access. View should be real nice.::

[member="Aver Brand"]​

 

[Aver Brand]

While the advantages of armor were many and Aver could certainly spend hours lauding them all, at this moment she cared only for one.

Helmet.

Helmet.

There wasn’t enough Sabacc experience in all of her lifetimes combined to keep her expression from twisting as he stepped in. She went rigid, taut with tension and instant awareness as a man she’d never thought to see again paused in the hold. Breath shortened, fingers splayed slightly where she was gripping her bench – tighter, all of a sudden.

Fuuuuck.

Blue eyes locked on [member="Gabriel Sionoma"] as he talked, but it was all white noise to her. What the hell are you doing here and then What the hell am I doing here were the only thoughts running through her head, so loud that he might as well have stood mute in the doorway.

Someone, somewhere, was having a massive laugh at her expense. Fallen off his chair by now, probably.

Aver wrested control of her limbs with all the grace of rusted metal joints. She dragged air in through bared teeth, pressing herself flat against the hull of the vessel.

Fine. She could deal with this. Voice modulator – check. Armor disguise – check. Alliance credentials – check. Just had to keep away from the man, do the job, and get home. Plain. Simple.

Feasible.

The steel of Steelbridge – or what remained of it, anyway – crunched under their landing gear as the pilot brought them down on top of a building. As soon as the ramp dropped, Aver shot out into the open, never so glad to be under a dirty gray sky.

Her boots crunched gravel that no sentient foot had set upon in decades, and the merc paused at the edge of the roof. Wrecks like this one stretched north and east, with rain-eaten metal beams jutting out of the crumbling ferrocrete like broken ribs. Further still, plantlife encroached on the remains of civilization, slowly crawling back into the refuge man had once made out here.

Loathe as she was to speak – the sooner she did her part, the sooner she could leave here. Could leave him.

“Aight, who’s with me? And you best be able to keep up, ‘cause I ain’t carrying no one back.”

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

He watched as each mercenary huffed, moving out of the belly of the ship as they departed. Lifting his wrist to his mouth, he laughed.

"Steel bridge huh?"
"Bucket list, bruh."

Gabe paused, clicking the communication device as he returned silence.

"Ok ok, sorry. God, you're as bad as the old man."
"I am an old man."
"Best start acting like it, right?"

Gabe moved to the side beams, pulling a cloak off the hooks that rested against the wall. Draping it over himself, he picked the helmet up and secured it over his head. The user interface kicked on as he strolled out onto the roof, next to [member="Aver Brand"]. The others were pairing up in natural form, though the trio's were left with stragglers who had to learn to make friends or risk being left behind.

Though in truth, he knew those trios would be meeting up and forming packs of four with the fourth wheel stranger being graced with the certainty of life. But that worked to his benefit, so he was fine by it.

"You sound like a Drill Sargeant, not an Alliance Captain..." He uttered quietly as he stepped up on to the ledge. The phantasm cloak activated as he disappeared in a shimmer, calling forth the ubiquitous power of shatterpoint and the less than subtle inflection of force jump. With only the glistening of the grey sky to follow his path, he landed in a plume of dust against a bridge in the distance. Duracrete crumbled beneath him as he looked over shoulder, watching as a few of the mercenaries took to flight with fire and jet packs.

The bridge led into a speeder parking garage, the likes of which likely acted as a vertical conveyor belt that descended into the surface of the planet. As good a place as any to start.

 

[Aver Brand]

His presence crawled all over her skin – the distant and the familiar. So many years.

The only response she offered was a low snort, too focused on watching him work the Force. Methods she’d seen before, smooth and called to the fore without a second thought. He practiced them still, but Rev… had moved on. Gabriel had taken the finesse, and Reverance had kept the brutality.

Aver lingered a moment longer on the lip of the roof, blue eyes flickering between the contrails of fellow mercenaries. Like a few others, she hadn’t brought a jetpack. Unlike others, she could just use space magic to cushion that landing. Seemed like a mighty fine way to raise questions and eyebrows, though – so instead she calmly took to jumping from building to building, soon leaving the others behind.

Deceptively light on her feet, Aver landed like a cat at the bottom of a rusted fire escape. The tangled metal gave an ominous creak, and the merc quickly cleared off into the open. Eyes and a myriad scanners worked in tandem to analyze her surroundings – the merc wrapped her fingers around Sa Sevai and moved to investigate what looked to be the remains of a mine entrance.

Footsteps behind her. A quick glance to the pineal feed, and her gaze met the unsure step of the Gank. She signalled him to keep quiet, drawing on military gestures of a time long past. The other merc gave a sharp nod, cradling his carbine as they headed inside.

​

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

Duracrete crunched beneath his feet as he stepped into the darkened garage. Hand gliding up the stock of the lifted rifle, he flicked on the lamp as he filled a narrow band of the structure with 10,000 candles worth of brilliant white light. Taking another step forward, the rifle swiveled as a pile of debris caved in.

With the safety off, his finger hovered over the trigger as he watched a small reptilian beast skitter about like an electron, staggering quickly upon its path. He felt the company behind him, responding in a similar fashion, before letting out a nervous chuckle.

Moving forward, he approached a crumbling column. Plates of metal and duracrete stood in a disheveled pile at the base with pock marks indicating wear and tear along the vertical length. Cutting on the helmet lamp, he slung the rifle before kneeling and turning over a particular slab. With gloves covering his hands, he wasn't particularly honed in on the properties of psychometry.

On the other side of the slab, he found what appeared to be an image of a face painted in red. Beast in form with a large set of horns, swirling upwards into a spiral above it's head. The neck of the disembodied head dripped red, as if it had been severed from something bigger.

Sending the information back to the ship, he also fed the information over to the mercenaries across user interface. He spoke into the communications, standing back up. “This might be something…keep an eye out.”
He waved the mercenaries on, finding a turbolift with a dented door. Pressing the button, much to his surprise, it powered on and started to slowly open.

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

The steady drip of water. The soft crunch of moss and gravel underfoot. The skitter of critters retreating to their nooks and crannies as the pair advanced. Ganks weren’t much for talking, and it was just as well. Better to stay quiet in places like these, keep your eyes and ears peeled for creatures lurking in the dark.

The merc ahead stopped, motioning at the far wall of the mine shaft. Even with nightvision, the place was dark as all hell, but feth if she hadn’t seen the shape before…

:: This might be something…keep an eye out. ::

Her eyes flickered over to the edge of her HUD. She bit back a curse as she saw the exposed snapshot. Of course it’d be these guys. Her ribs remembered Arbra like it was yesterday, a phantom pain rippling along her back.

Turning to the gank, Aver flicked off her comms and whispered for Chomsky to climb up to her forearm. “Hope you carry all those cybernetics you folk brag about.”

Chances that it’d help? Kark all – they’d wiped the floor with a pair of masters – but if the mercs put up a fight, they’d at least be a solid distraction.

Still had to figure out what these cultist pricks wanted. Gods? They worshipped statues and symbols and were about as quick to die as a cockroach in a nuclear apocalypse. Aver frowned at the wall as she neared.

Horned god. Leviathan. Karking A.

Her spine ached as thoughts flickered to Rev. Shouldn’t be too hard… echoed in her head and the woman bared her teeth, pushing the memory out of her mind. No time for that now.

Aver didn’t report in, and the gank stayed silent.

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

The turbo lift door whined open as his cloak deactivated. The pair of Twi’lek looked in suspiciously as he stepped in, light above flickering with a jingle of the bulb. Not burdened with any over abundance of patience, he looked out as he waited for them to enter. Hand hovering over the button, they look towards each other before stepping in.

Gabe wiped his hand across the pad, removing the excess of dust. Such presence made him concerned that they were going in the wrong direction but the nature of the inscription compelled him to steer the course. Finding the button that indicated basement, he clicked and the engines moaned to life before the door shut and they began their descent.

It went faster than he expected and the time was spent in silence, only the heavy breath of mercenaries to remind him that he wasn't alone. That was, until the door opened.

Lifting his rifle, the beam of light trailed from the duracrete floor to the empty chasm that rested ahead. Structural columns extended hundreds of feet upwards, towards the cavernous ceiling, like stalagmites and stalactites forming together. Stepping out, he heard the slight echo of laughter, bouncing across the slick walls.

“I thought this was just for exploration…” One of the Twi’lek uttered in choppy basic.

Gabe frowned beneath his helmet as the cloak came to life, leaving nothing but a shimmer in his wake. “That hasn't changed…” His voice was unforgiving for the complaints of mercenaries. After all, it was their choice to be there.

The beam of light lit up various piles of debris and what appeared to be makeshift shanty towns of strung up tents and box seats. Approaching one, he knelt and peeled back the armor from his left hand. Hovering over char, he took in a deep breath. It wasn't just warm, it was hot. And embers were evident beneath the soot, hastily buried.

He lifted the communications device to his mouth, pulling the armored glove back on.

“We have contact beneath the speederport. Number and identity unknown. But they know we’re here.”

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

This place was a claustrophobic hell, and Aver had crawled through plenty of tight spaces in her life. Maybe knowing what waited for them in the dark made it worse – or, rather, knowing that she knew kark all about waited for them.

Yeah. Definitely worse.

The gank glanced over, metallic voice spilling from his helmet as he gestured at her arm “Hey, you got something—”
“I know. Shut up.”
“Wh—”
“I said shut it,” Aver hissed, pressing him against the cracked duracrete of the tunnel. “Shet that’s out there, you don’t wanna get noticed first, got it?”

The cyborg breathed heavy, his rifle bearing on his chest. “You… you know who left these?” He jerked forward, pressing his mirror helmet against hers. “The kark you keepin’ shut for, Alliance schutta? What else ain’t ya tellin’ us?”

Aver shoved off and let him cough the air back into his lungs. “You think an Alliance Captain would come with you shetgobblers just because? These crazies sacrifice humans for fun, you piece of shet. Might be much, expecting of scum like you to care, but try, eh?”

Sneering, the gank waved his carbine around. “I swear, if yer lyin’...”
“What’d I lie for, you kark?” Licking her lips, swallowing the rest of her act, Aver motioned with her chin forwards. “Keep on your toes and your finger ready.”

As they marched deeper, neither of them noticed shadows peeling off from the beams above and licking along their footsteps, quiet like the night.

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

He had the distinct impression that he was being swallowed whole. Even with the rifle head at eye level, moving back and forth across the horizontal plane, he felt as if he was being engulfed. Nothing in sight, at least not in front of him, yet he had the surreal sensation of being watched.

The chasm inhaled and exhaled, the world was filled with dark tones and shifts that made the mind misbelieve what the eyes were seeing. A shadow here, a demon there. Gabe dismissed it as his overactive imagination.

But reaching out with the force, he suddenly realized that it wasn't the case. Eyes drifted up along dark columns and he stopped walking.

“Keep moving forward…” He whispered to the duo as he cut off the lamp. Begrudgingly, they turned on their lights as they moved ahead.

“Figures he would make us lead the way…”
“Yeah, typical Kiffar trash…” Their basic was raw and without elegance, but it got the message across, despite their ability to simply talk in another language.

Gabe shook his head as he continued to watch. Eyes tracing and adjusting, the lamp of their lights fading into the peripheral, the Marshal soaked into the bleak darkness of the chasm. And as they drifted away, he aimed his rifle towards the midpoint of a column and cut on the lamp. In the headlights, a cloaked figure clung to the wall with gleaming claws and eyes of fire - staring out from the depths of a hood. Gabe clenched his teeth, the columns roiling around them with activity as the figure jumped towards the Marshal. And Gabe squeezed the trigger.

He stepped back as the body hit the ground, bouncing with a wet smack. The light from the rifle flashed across the chest, scorch marks indicating a solid shot. Yet Gabe watched as it clawed at the ground, seemingly unphased and frothing with anger. Far back in the depths of a chasm, a great fire lit the basement with a warm and growing glow. And the sudden sound of an impending swarm.

“RUN!” He yelled, tracing the ceiling with the light. He yelled it again and that time, the Twi’leks listened. They had a lot of ground to cover before they got back to the lift.

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

Over the course of minutes, sound seemed to flee from the corridor. Her boots stopped clicking. The gank’s rebreather stopped wheezing. White noise creeped in from all sides – a faint buzz, like an itch she couldn’t scratch.

Her skin was crawling. Her hair stood on end.

Aver paused, jaw flexing as she pushed out a deep exhale.

Nothing.

“Ya feel it too?”

Her gut did a somersault. Something was so karking wrong and she couldn’t put a finger on it. Every living place had noises. Even this deep underground, there ought to be something. Rats. Water. Her own damn breath.

Maybe it was that she could hear better than a gank. Maybe it was the Force. Maybe it was just the amount of instinct you scraped together in a solid three decades of killing people – didn’t matter in the end. What happened was, the creature snapped forward, and Aver wasn’t there anymore.

A blood-curdling shriek tore from its throat as the thing lunged forward again – this time, it slashed at the gank.

The merc, to his credit, got a couple staggered shots off. Bolts and muzzle flash lit up the tunnel like fireworks, and a hundred eyes gleamed in the darkness behind them. Screams joined the staccato of automatic fire, with the wet sounds of ripping meat as the melody.

No going back, now.

Aver kicked CERS into overdrive and broke into a sprint.

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeJ-z6lgojU​

The flames grew. Shadows formed within the darkness, stretching out from the back of the world across it's monstrous length. Fires that formed standing silhouettes and moving guises of black, long vertical rows covered in skittering ants. Ants as big as men, as hungry as dogs, and more vicious than either.

The larger of the Twi'lek screamed a monstrous roar as he felt the world surrounding him and turned, dropping his gatling rifle to his hip and pulling the trigger. The world lit up with a white brilliance, exploding from the perforations of his barrel, as bullets flung through the dark and pierced duracrete and pursuer alike. Gabriel was in a full run now, phantasm cloak flapping in the wake of his movement, as the other Twi'lek was hot on his trail.

The screams of the man and his gatling gun would forever haunt the Marshal's dreams. How they stood so triumphant in those fleeting moments, exploration changing to something far more drastic, and then were snuffed out. Brilliants flashes of lightning soon subsided in the coming wave, overcome by the upwelling. The turbolift was close, still powered on and flickering as a final beacon of hope for those who would survive. Gabriel lifted his wrist to his hand.

::Everyone get out! GET OUT!::

::Gabe! We got so----i-g g-i-- on up her-. Ge- ba~~ to the sh~~::

His mind drifted as each step took him forward, to thoughts of his children and of Cerusia. And Avalore. Jacen, Taheera, Spark, Kana. Mother, the happy three, the Jedi Master. The Alliance. To the...

Twi'lek. Neither of them deserved this, no matter their profession, and he wouldn't leave one behind for the impending slaughter. But the Twi'lek was weighed down by armor, his fuel cells burst in a single push to urge momentum. In that, Gabe came to a sliding stop. The force called to him. Through the ring he wore on his finger, through the lightsabers that rested at the small of his back. The Twi'lek raced past him, just as the phantasm cloak dropped.

From his hand, a powerful kinetic force belched from nothing. Spreading outward and towards the mob, it shook the columns and knocked foes from their standing. Like a dog smacked for doing bad, the group as a whole recoiled. It surprised Gabe but he took the advantage that was given, watching the room shake from the change in integrity.

Running in after the Twi'lek, he pressed the button that would take them to the top. As the herd moved towards the door, it creaked closed as the view was filled with red eyes and sharpened talons.

"What the KARK!" The mercenary screamed, sliding against the wall into a slump on the floor. He was bleeding from the abdomen profusely. Gabe's expression narrowed beneath the helmet, the thing was too much. He ripped the helmet free and tossed it to the ground, kneeling down as he checked the wound.

"I'm sorry about your brother. He died bravely." Brother.
"He died like an idiot! Just like you!"

Gabe grimaced as he looked up, feeling the turbolift rattle. "I may be an idiot but I'm the only thing you've got down here."
"Ye-a-Ea-h..." The Twi'leks eyes hazed over. Gabe backhanded him across the face.
"Stay awake! You're going into shock."

Nothing returned. That was probably a good thing. They had made their ascent now but before the power cut, leaving them at the apex of a very unnerving and frustrating freefall. Pulling the mercenary by the arm, Gabe yanked the Twi'lek over his shoulder. Aiming the rifle towards the top of the lift, he blew the top cover off. Pushing off with the force, he leaped upwards, just as the lift crashed into floor beneath the basement. Tumbling through duracrete, it cut a deep fiery hole into the earth, through crete and steel and everything else.

[member="Aver Brand"]​

 

[Aver Brand]

An explosion, distant, shook the foundations of the earth. Dust and dirt rained down from the ceiling. The screams behind her were louder, and so much closer – could practically feel their hot breath on her neck, the fetid stink of rotting flesh caught between sharp, sharp teeth.

Phrik boots pounded age-old duracrete as she sped up. Sweat. Ache in her thighs, the hum of blood in her ears. To feel so alive fleeing from the jaws of death, to feel every last inch of her body – it was what she fought for, in the end.

Their claws hissed through empty air as a grim grin split her face. Legs pumped harder, and Aver ran faster.

Ahead – a bend.

Her breath came quick as she made a split second decision. With a grunt she parted from the ground beneath her feet, striding once, twice… when her boot struck the wall for the third time, the merc twisted through the air around the corner and drew the Force to her with a roar.

The cracked ceiling gave out as she hit the dirt, coiled end-over-end into a roll. Her pursuers shrieked and wailed behind her. The earth came rumbling down upon them, rocks and rusted beams burying the horde alive.

If they even were that.

Memories of Arbra intruded, unwelcome, unbidden, but Aver just ran, and ran – no longer from the creatures, but from the wrath of nature, now. The landslide followed hot on her heels, more ancient even than the beasts who would tear her apart.

When she glimpsed the black of a shaft to her left, the firrerreo didn’t deliberate. Didn’t have the time.

Aver jumped, and heard the soil avalanche through the corridor behind her.

The light went out. Her fingers – claws, and toothed boots, they scraped against a wall she couldn’t see. A surprised breath of air was knocked from her lungs as she slammed into the remains of a ladder.

She fell further, grasping for purchase on nothing at all—

clang

Blue eyes screwed shut in preparation. She cried out as the force of the fall bore down on her shoulder. Blinding pain shot through her arm, but she held.

Aver held.

Gingerly, she reached out with the other hand, wrapping shaking fingers around the rusted rung of the ladder. Heavy breath. In, out. She pulled close, resting her head on the wall. Wet her dry lips. Flicked her comm back on.

“Captain Vyrgg reporting. Heard an explosion.” Slowly, she opened her eyes. “Anyone alive?”

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

He wasn't sure what he should have expected, force jumping upwards from a soon to be plummeting turbo lift. Maybe there might be some cords from an archaic lift structure to grab onto, or perhaps an emergency ladder that could be used for maintenance in the event that the lift stopped function mid ascent. And maybe there was something there, but between the lack of lightning and the likelihood of rust and corrosion, Gabe found no purchase for anything preventing free fall.

Twi’lek hoisted onto this shoulder, he clawed at the wall with armored fingers, only to find the persuasion of gravity to be too much to ignore. Falling in the wake of the exploding turbo lift, the chasm vomited out fire into the shaft. Cutting through that, he felt the scorch kiss across the metal plates, as he anticipated the unknown.

The force quickened around him, exerted in a manner to both slow his descent and to protect him and the wounded. But what actually happened was far and away removed from hopeful intention.

The duracrete extended down into the causeway below, like teeth from a sarlacc pit. The lift had hit the earthen ground and with a second explosion, careened and bounced down the shaft. Gabe smacked one of the duracrete outcroppings, letting out a grunt as his grip on the Twi’lek was lost. Separated, the Twi’lek bounced and landed unconscious amidst the debris below. Gabe followed quickly after, landing in a hunched kneel next to the body. Wincing, he looked up as the entrance to the chasm shot out flamed and embers and charred the interior of the turbo lift corridor. He reached down, checked for a pulse, and pulled the man back onto his shoulder with a grunt.

“This is Marshal Sionoma. Glad to hear someone made it…” He trailed off as he heard another explosion, earth corridor rumbling and letting loose curtains of dirt. The Twi’lek grumbled as Gabe moved forward, heaving him up, until he found the rusty remains of a ladder bolted to the wall.

Hazel eyes moved upwards as he suddenly realized that he forgot to put his helmet back on before jumping out of the lift. Damnit. “Captain Vyrgg?” He yelled upwards, stepping back from the ladder in anticipation of that shadowy figure not being her.

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

Motherkarker.

Aver thumped her head against the duracrete. MotherKARKER!

Couldn’t have been easy for once. Brother dead by neither hand, a pile of issues resolved, centuries of hatred buried under centuries of dirt. Plain. Simple.

But noo-o.

“Yeah,” she returned his call, glancing down past her smarting shoulder. Aver had kept her helmet, and the lingering fires were enough to shed some light on the situation.

Heh.

As fast as protesting ligaments would allow, the merc slid down the ladder, glad for the sturdy gloves. Rust would’ve scraped her palms raw elsewise. She landed on the trampled earth a few paces away from the Marshal, shaking off her arm. It would pass in a few minutes as her body worked to repair the damage, but for now, it stung something fierce.

“He dead?” she asked, gesturing to the limp figure hanging over his shoulder. Blue headtails glinted in the glow of embers, slick with violet blood.

It was settled, in that moment when she looked upon him. His face looked decades older in the harsh light, creases etched into tan skin by time instead of blade. He would never know. Easier that way, for both of them. This was Marshal [member="Gabriel Sionoma"] and Captain Aleesh Vyrgg.

Nothing but good ole Alliance business.

“Take it you met those karkers too?”

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

He let out a grunt as he knelt, rolling the armored mercenary off his shoulder. “I hope he's not dead…otherwise I've been carrying him for no reason."[SIZE=11pt].[/SIZE]His brow furrowed as he removed his glove, placing fingers against the man's neck. Pulse was faint but still there. He had lost quite a bit of blood, the drop in pressure was fairly obvious.

Propping the rifle next to the man, he cut on the lamp and placed it near his abdomen. Not only had the plate been pulled back, but it appeared that a chunk of flesh was gone entirely. As if it had been ripped out or chewed out, or maybe both.

Gabe didn't offer any tell-tale signs of being distraught or stressed, but the wound bothered him. He didn't recall seeing the man get hit by any of the attackers. On top of that, the mercenary was burning up and the wound was etched in necrotic veins that stretched upward into the abdomen and under the intact armor.

“This wound is beyond my medic capabilities…” He confessed, a bit downtrodden at the realization. It was his fault that they were down here, and it was his fault that they were dead or dying. “We need to get him top side, soon, or he will die.”

Eyes glanced up towards the wall, a sheet of square metal hanging from rusting chains. With every residual explosion and quake, it rattled. The beam of light from the rifle caught the edges of an inscription and Gabe moved the rifle. Another diagram in red, a great beast of jagged scales and gaping maw. One eye closed, the other bleeding red and dripping down the length of the metal panel and onto the ground. The painting was recent.

“Yeah I met ‘em. And I'm starting to suspect that we were lured here.”

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

Was this how Rev saw Gabriel? As this bleeding twi’lek, sentenced to die because of weakness, incompetence, and shet luck? She stared at the hole in his gut, violet turning black as it disappeared under blue skin. If the Marshal was moved and didn’t show it, Aver simply wasn’t moved. In her long and colorful history of violence, she’d seen – and caused – worse.

Lips pulled into a sneer. If it would get them moving…

“Here,” she grunted, fishing an injection from her belt. It was a medishot – bacta, coagulants, disinfectants, all that jazz. “Should give him some time.”

As he worked to administer the shot, Aver stepped closer to study the symbol. More of the same. She took the Hand cannon out of its holster, clicking off the safety as she scanned their surroundings. The fire was slowly dying off as its fuel ran out, and with it, so was the light.

Last time she’d fought these shets, there’d been less. And there’d been light. And a man she could fight alongside with to her fullest, not curtail ability and skill to hide who she was. Blue eyes found the Marshal again as he stood.

“What makes you say that?”

With a puff of smoke, the last flame went out. They were left standing under the cone of light spilling from the rifle, illuminating the grinning Leviathan and little else.

The metal panel clinked rhythmically against the chains.

That flashlight was a dead-giveaway beacon. Without it, they were blind. With it, they were sitting ducks for anyone… anything down here. She breathed out, straining her ears for the softest sound.

Quiet for now. Probably regrouping. The town above was huge – no way this was it.

We’re so karked.

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​

 

[Gabriel Sionoma]

Bacta wasn't going to help, not with the spread of infection and the inflammation. If anything, it simply provided the illusion of relief by causing the wound to heal. At this point, it might even entrap the infection further. But for the sake of the captains constitution, not knowing her leaning on pragmatism, Gabe took the injection and administered it with a nod.

Lifting the man back onto his shoulder, he watched as the fires descending from the turbo lift shaft slowly died. Embers and soot, falling from the gaping hole, persisted.

Eyes fell on the Captain as she asked the question. Maybe investigation practices weren’t a part of traditional alliance training. He approached the panel and placed his fingers against it. “The horned beast marking topside had a distinct smell to it, albeit faint. I couldn't place it until I noticed it down here, on this serpent or leviathan. Based on the mold, moisture content is high…” Helped with sense of smell. “The air is thick with acetone and titanium dioxide, disperant combination associated with spray paint. But that goes away with time…this…” He scraped at the etching. “Was done less than a day past. ”

He pressed his palm against the panel, closing his eyes. The world unfolded like the deconstruction of an accordion, revealing snapshot memories in still frame. Leading backwards from this moment to the moment where the plate was hung by cloaked figures, coated with paint afterwards. And then he watched as they moved further down the causeway.

“We are being corralled…” Looking over to her, the gleam of his eye followed the distance as he used a particular trait inherent with Arkanians. “Infrared light is indicating a heat gradient in that direction. Could be machinery powering on, could be assailants. Only one way to find out.” He huffed as heaved the figure on his shoulder, moving casually through the shaft without a light source.

[member="Aver Brand"]

 

[Aver Brand]

Stock-still, Aver listened to his lengthy explanation. A karkin’ cop, alright. How the feth had these two ever survived in the same head so long was beyond her. How the feth she hadn’t noticed, too.

So he had infrared sight. Fancy that. The merc was no biologist, but figured it had to be something species related. Either that, or he’d gone for cybernetics as well. Aver grinned behind the faceplate. Unlikely.

Switching to thermal herself, the firrerreo kept the Marshal’s six as they advanced down the underground corridor. Barely any supports left this deep. Where whole walls had been plastered with duracrete upside, they were lucky to glimpse the occasional crossbeam down here.

Aver crossed her earlier maneuver off the list. Pulling anything like that would send them both to Netherworld on the express train. She risked a glance upwards as they walked – how deep were they, now? Couldn't even be a hundred meters, could it?

Frowning, the merc ran her fingers across her gauntlet where the Ternion sprawled. She needed the other brother. Not this… imitation.

“You got any evidence to go with that theory?” Aver grunted as they slowly progressed towards the source of the heat. Her grip on the gun strengthened. “Cause I gotta say, I got no clue what… they could want with a bunch of two-bit mercs and two Alliance soldiers.”

[member="Gabriel Sionoma"]​