First Reply Buried Power

[Brooke Waters]

The power here was deep. Not like the Lurker, but for once Brooke could piece together His voice from hers. This island, an atoll, really, was in the Unknown Regions and it was supercharging the Force here. She saw the beasts and vegetation on this world. So amplified. The aquatic predators had too many teeth, had shark razorlike fins. The vegetation? Large blooms sucking the water from the sea, and pulling energy straight from other living creatures.

Not to mention the weather. It was dimly lit on this world, the sun of this world too far to create a good life source, it was clearly just the Force feeding everything. Rain came down in liquid and crystals, flashes of light illuminating the world better than its own bioluminescence could.

The feeling was… addicting. And Brooke was wondering if maybe she should be bringing the other Witches here. Or hide it from them.

The Lurker told her it was her world, to shape, and to own. But Brooke knew what she was, and what she wasn’t. Her quests for power were to help others. But still, it was… tempting

She could feel the entire system and its life. The other being that had landed not far. They were coming, and she was waiting. What she needed to do was keep whoever that was away from this place. Push them back, and make them forget.

Force them to forget it.

She waited. In a meditative trance. Lightsaber on the floor near her, a knife on either side.

There was power here and she was going to guard it, chase off those who wanted to claim it, and bury this place.

 

[Dankaia Virkenn]

​

Tag: Brooke Waters

Dankaia stepped off the ramp of her ship and into the planet's heavy, ion-rich air, her boots sinking slightly into soil that looked half-metallic under the muted sky. The place didn't appear on any star map; uncharted, untouched, and unsettlingly quiet. Jagged formations of blackened-like rock jutted from the ground at seemingly deliberate angles, as if engineered by some forgotten civilization rather than shaped by geology.

Her holo-binoculars display scrambled the moment she powered it on, glitching with static bursts that crawled across the screen in erratic pulses. Something here didn't want to be observed. She holstered the device and let her senses open instead, relying on instinct and training the way she only did when tech failed completely.

The moment she inhaled fully, the Force hit her like a surge of current; dense, electric, and impossibly alive. It wasn't subtle; it pressed against her awareness with the weight of a living storm. She felt it coiling under the surface of the landscape, threading through the rocks, the air, even the faint tremors beneath her feet.

Whatever lingered here wasn't passive. It was watching, evaluating, almost curious. Her pulse tightened as she scanned the horizon, every instinct urging readiness. This planet wasn't just strong in the Force, it was saturated with it, humming at a frequency that made her skin prickle, and her thoughts sharpen to a razor's edge. Whatever had drawn her here, it was no accident. Something powerful was waiting.

Dankaia moved through the alien forest with a soldier's caution and a predator's silence, every step sinking into soil threaded with bioluminescent roots that pulsed faintly beneath her boots. The trees towered like armored giants, their bark plated in dark, mineralized layers that reflected fragmented light from the broken sky above. Between them, clusters of jagged rock rose like shattered fortifications, some humming with residual energy.

She kept one hand near her hilt, the other brushing foliage that felt almost synthetic; smooth, cool, too perfect. Whatever shaped this ecosystem had engineered it with intention. And yet the deeper she walked, the stronger the Force current became, crawling across her mind with a steady, rising charge.

When she reached the river, its surface cut through the landscape like a silver fault line, sharp and clear against the darker terrain. The water moved with natural clarity, crystalline and undisturbed, as if filtered by some subterranean machine. Dankaia crouched and dipped her bionic fingers in; a jolt shot through her with a chill that felt almost sentient, as though the river recognized her presence.

She lifted her head, just enough, and took a cautious sip. The water tasted impossibly pure, cleaner than anything she'd encountered even in controlled environments. For a moment, the constant tension in her muscles unwound. But beneath that fleeting calm, the Force thrummed harder, resonating through her bones. Whatever this world was…it was awake. And it knew she was here.

Spoiler: Loadout

• Cybernetics / Bionics
  • Left Hand
  • Cybernetic Brain Chip
  • Cybernetic Heart
  • Cybernetic Spine
  • Cybernetic Rib Cage
  • Cybernetic Limb

 

[Brooke Waters]

There was someone else here but no one that Brooke could recognize. That was fine. She didn’t need to recognize someone who was coming through this area. It would be easier for her to push the person off the world, rather than them try to debate with her and to win her over on letting them sample what the world could offer.

Hushed meditation continued.

The Lurker in the Dark was giving her power, and it helped her focus in the darkness. The cold of the sea was giving to give her power as well.

The Force was strong, it had depth for the darkness, and the natural world, the scary part of the natural world, predation.

“And what brings you here?” She called, letting her voice carry from where she was meditating to the newcomer. To the organic aspects of the being, the call was in the Force, deep, and echoing. But not providing the most clear direction or indication of where the voice was, who it came from, or where it laid in the Force.

At the moment, in this meditation? Brooke wasn’t even sure herself.

Dankaia Virkenn

 

[Dankaia Virkenn]

​

Tag: Brooke Waters

Dankaia moved beneath the tangled lattice of branches, the forest knitting itself close around her like a living circuit, every leaf whispering with static possibility. Above, the sky dimmed and then surrendered to a soft, patient rain that slicked her cloak and traced cool silver paths along her cheek, each drop a note in an unseen data-stream humming through the roots.

The air thickened with the scent of moss and damp earth, and with it came a presence; light, then suddenly intimate, an unseen current threading itself through her mind. {"What brings you to this planet?"} the female voice murmured within her thoughts, not spoken but felt, like a gentle pulse against her consciousness.

Dankaia came to a slow, deliberate halt, as the rain continued to thread down from the canopy in thin, glimmering strands, drumming softly against leaves and fern, each impact sending a ripple through her awareness.

Her gaze swept the undergrowth and the clustered trunks, parsing shadow and light like encrypted data, searching for the source of the presence she had felt inside her mind. She opened her mind carefully, letting her thoughts flow outward upon the currents of the Force. {"It is curiosity that brings me"} she sent to the unseen woman, her mental voice steady and luminous {"curiosity for what sleeps here."}

Dankaia softened her presence within the current of the Force, dimming its sharper frequencies until it moved like a gentle, harmless signal through the trees. {"I bring no harm to you or to this forest"} she whispered into the girl's mind, her thought warm and sincere {"no blade raised, no shadow cast; only respect for the life that surrounds us."}

Spoiler: Loadout

• Cybernetics / Bionics
  • Left Hand
  • Cybernetic Brain Chip
  • Cybernetic Heart
  • Cybernetic Spine
  • Cybernetic Rib Cage
  • Cybernetic Limb

 

[Brooke Waters]

There was a chill in the air. She was listening, watching, and feeling.

The Witch was here for the power that she tracked and hunted. The history that was here, the natural world was giving off the power, and she wanted it, she wanted to bring it with her, and use its influence in her spells. The bioluminescence of the world was giving her some warmth, but not what she needed.

The cold of the depths was one thing, but this windy chill was difficult, and she called the Force to her for warmth. This other being was not meaning harm.

“How did you find this place? What do you wish to attain here?” She felt the warmth in the other being and smiled softly. Maybe it wasn’t that wild, another Force user finding this place. But she was interested in what they were looking for.

This was a world she was going to need to keep an eye on.

Dankaia Virkenn

 

[Dankaia Virkenn]

​

Tag: Brooke Waters

Dankaia lowered herself to the forest floor as if answering an unspoken invitation from the roots, the moss springing softly beneath her armored frame. Around her, the undergrowth pulsed with faint, delicate veins of light threading through fern-fronds, blossoms breathing in slow, luminous sighs, and spores drifting like tiny, spectral planets in miniature orbit. Insects with crystal wings stitched patterns in the air, their hum harmonizing with the distant calls of unseen creatures.

The trees, ancient and circuit-laced by nature and time alike, rose like sentinels crowned in tangled canopies, their bark etched with symbiotic growths that glimmered as if remembering forgotten stars. She stilled her breath, letting her presence fold into the rhythm of the living world, feeling the planet's pulse beneath her hands.

Her eyes closed, and she let the current of the Force stretch outward like invisible threads, gliding through the undergrowth, coiling around the heart of the forest, until it brushed the mind of the stranger once more. There, she whispered without sound, her presence a warm ripple in the girl's thoughts.

{"I did not find this world. This world found me."} The words carried more than meaning; they held gratitude, reverence, and the quiet certainty that destiny here was not drawn on maps or charts, but written in leaf, root, and silent starlight.

Dankaia exhaled slowly, her gaze tracing the strange constellations flickering through the canopy as she murmured, {"My ship's sensors didn't just fail, they blurred, like a dream dissolving behind glass."}

A faint, crooked smile touched her lips as she inclined her head toward the whispering trees around her. {"In truth, I was forced to land here...wherever here has decided to be."}

Dankaia let the other question coil slowly through her mind, a thread woven of doubt and wonder, as she considered what it was she truly sought upon this nameless world so steeped in the Force. Was it knowledge whispered through ancient roots, or absolution buried beneath layers of luminous moss and forgotten stone?

The air trembled with possibility, every leaf and tremor of the planet humming like a waiting oracle, and she realized that whatever she could attain might not be an object, a power, or a victory, but a quiet, irreversible change within herself, shaped by a planet that seemed less a place and more a vast, sentient presence awaiting her answer.

{"I'm not sure what I seek here,"} she admitted, her words carrying in the girl's mind as if riding the currents of the Force itself. {"Perhaps self-reflection, perhaps some fragile peace, or a taste of tranquility this world seems to guard jealously. But until I understand what it is I truly need, I don't believe this planet will let me leave, it has a patience far older than my own, and I believe it will hold me until I am ready."}

Spoiler: Loadout

• Cybernetics / Bionics
  • Left Hand
  • Cybernetic Brain Chip
  • Cybernetic Heart
  • Cybernetic Spine
  • Cybernetic Rib Cage
  • Cybernetic Limb

 

[Brooke Waters]

This world found the other? That was… unexpected. Brooke Waters had been finding herself in the depths of space, far from her witch sisters and the picturesque tropical worlds she preferred to call her homes. She was missing her sisters, but right now? She had been taken, she was not fully herself as she worked to hunt these old worlds. Partly Selab in mission, partly that ghostly vision of the Lurker guiding her hand and her ship.

What guided this other being?

“You speak similar to my experience.” Brooke whispered, in the Force and out loud. She was waiting for this being to come close. However, she was not sure who would be in charge at that point. Herself, or the Lurker’s drive. She did not want to find out.

“This world calls to many, and has a great power…” The voice came out in both Brooke’s soft, lilted coastal accent, but in something much deeper, buried, submerged, and baritone.

The blonde was not hiding, and she was found in a clearing with a waterfall, and biolumenscent… were they palm trees? Some form of grass.

“This world has provided answers I did not initially seek. It is full of darkness, life, and nature…”

Dankaia Virkenn