Catastrophe, with a Capital C

[Amea Virou]

It wasn’t common to see rain in the desert, but it was known to happen. Dark gray clouds had crept on the horizon with thunderous intent, and by the time nightfall had hit them so had the storm. The merciless rain had been pouring for little under a week now and there was seemingly no end to it. The expedition had come woefully underprepared for it too. The thin clothes that covered the diggers had long since been soaked through. Several teams had already given up on the venture as it was, deeming the rain a bad omen and then left in search of something they might actually profit off of. An encroaching sense of dread and fear began to seep into even the most stubborn of workers as the failure of their lead seemed to grow ever the more obvious. Amea herself had begun to wonder why she was here, but something in the air told her that there was something to be found here, almost as if part of her knew that she had to see it through for better or worse.

“The men are digging through mud at this point. Whatever we uncover might just wither away in the dirt before we realize we’d found anything, and the rain is not letting up.” The Corellian foreman lamented and dragged a tired hand across his wet face. “Maybe we should have followed Thaarn’s advice and left.”

“Nonsense, Philian. We are closer than ever, can’t you feel it?” An older man past his prime exclaimed loudly with a hunched finger extended towards his friend. “The way the force seems to rejuvenate the spirit the further down we go?”

“Don’t start again with that mess, old man.” Philian groaned and shook his head from side to side with a subtle weight that almost threw him off-balance. “You’re just being superstitious. It’s wishful thinking at best. Until we actually find an entrance, I won’t-”

A loud roar like gravel on paper called out into the evening. Screams of workers in distress followed closely thereafter and once the noises started there seemingly was no end to it. Amea perked up from the discussion and began to run towards the site. Foot after foot touched against the ground in rapid succession before they slid to a complete stop. In front of her was the dig. It was no longer an organized and structured site. Where once had been little more than trenches upon trenches divided into smaller trenches was now one big hole that seemed to lead straight down into a dark abyss.

As the initial surprise subsided, Amea would push on towards the lip of the hole and peer into its endless darkness. From the looks of it the team had managed to find a weak spot of some sort. It was little more than a hole, perhaps fifteen feet by fifteen feet built in a square pattern, yet the amount of sand it had managed to pull down was immense. Either it was an indication of the size of the area below or it was a sign of something else. Amea’s hand reached out for one of the worker’s.

“Give me your torch.” She said while keeping her attention fixed towards the hole. “Now!”

The man hurried over and placed his flashlight in her hands. Amea flicked it on and pointed it at the darkness below while taking a careful step forward.

“Everyone just… Step back for a moment.” She ushered them back with a wave in their general direction, still not letting herself look away. The closer she got the more of the room she began to pick up. The flashlight shone against the walls, offering a glimpse of the almost untouched temple walls and the inscriptions on them that spanned what she could only assume was far out of reach for her little torch.

“It’s a steep fall, Amea...” She muttered and placed one careful foot on the cracked edge of the hole.

“Do you see anything?” Philian shouted from afar, back amongst the safety of the crowd. “Was our lead good?”

“I see inscriptions and…” She tilted the flashlight to shine further into the room below. “Pillars, I guess.”

Philian’s ears perked at that and he knew that he had to see this one for himself. Pillars implied this was a structure, and a structure indicated success. Success meant money, and money meant he could finally get out of this muddied hellhole. Eager to secure his investments he approached the slope leading down towards the hole. Amea, hearing his footsteps only far too late, turned around with a surprised twist. A brief whine and thud tore against the peripheral of the woman’s hearing as Philian seemed to have slipped through the mud and came sliding towards her.

“What are you-” She began to hiss, but fate seemed to have made other plans for her. Something that seemed to include getting thrown down a dark hole with an overly eager employer. A surprised yelp parted her lips as she fell for what she knew to be far longer than this fall had any right to be which either meant she was in for certain death or something closely related to it. The ground pounded against her back and knocked what little breath she had remaining out of her lungs. The crack of breaking bones echoed around her as she began to roll atop of the mud that had entered through the hole that the team had uncovered yet the pain didn’t seem to be her own. As she came to a stop she tried her best to give her systems a check up but the lack of air caused her to collapse to the ground.

One final breath parted Amea’s lips and she was out cold, yet as she opened her eyes again all she could see was the stumbling silhouette of a man walking in marvel away from her, seemingly paying her no mind at all as he ventured deeper into the room. The light from his torch seemed blinding almost as she pushed herself up on her knees and elbow, a hand reaching for her employer with just the one plea.

“Philian, stop.” She wheezed and coughed. “Traps.”

The man didn’t hear her and she tried again.

“Philian!” She tried to shout but yet again it was little more than a wheeze. “Don’t!- You have to-...” Amea’s voice failed her. “Traps.”

Almost as if on cue the sound of metal piercing skull and bones echoed through the hall once again. Philian’s once shambling body fell limp with the torch by his side and Amea began to crawl towards him.

“Get up, Amea.” She coughed and pushed herself back on her legs. “Time to go to work.”

 

[Joycelyn Zambrano]

[member="Amea Virou"]

"Colonel! Over here"

The shout summoned the attention of Joycelyn Zambrano. She craned her neck to look over her shoulder as several of the diggers she had brought to this force-forsaken planet had finally found what they were searching for. She put down the broken stone tablets and stepped out of the tent, and into the persistent rain. It soaked through even the heavy wool of her coat, and instantly made her short, black hair stick to her forehead.

They had found their way here through legends of the ancient force users, but had been frustrated in their attempts to penetrate its barriers. Now, suddenly, something had changed. Sand shifted as the surfaces moved with heavy grinding. Joycelyn stepped up to the fore, shielding the diggers with her presence as they pulled back and away.

The researchers had warned her against going too close if anything moved or shifted; she was adamant in ignoring them.

GROOOOOOAN

Like a gaping maw, one, enormous, white stone lifted from the mud and left a train of falling water. Joycelyn felt a draw from the Force and without even thinking, stepped inside. Shouts touched the back of her mind as her protectors, a small retinue, sought to stop her.

"Princess!" "Colonel" "Please!" "Do not" "Halt!" COME -Crash

The gate closed behind her and she stood in darkness. With a blink of her eyes she turned and touched the stone, mind overcoming the influence of the Force. She was trapped. She could feel, ever so faintly, the pattering of fists and tools against the stone. She could also feel the strength oft he Force, and the lure, keeping them separated. She was trapped, oh so easily trapped.

"Foolish." Joycelyn reached down into one of the inner pockets of her coat and brought out a small rod. Its contents shattered under the pressure of her fingers, and chemical luminescence lit her surroundings as she held the rod aloft. A wind, seemingly out of nowhere, caressed her skin with icy fingers and whispered wordlessly against her senses, jeering. Teasing.

As she took the first step forward, a sound rang through the far-ahead; a sound of metal and stone scraping, stopping, and stabbing something in its path. Joycelyn, by instinct, lifted her foot and breathed relieved. She thought for a moment she had died, but yet to realise it. No, if she had activated something, then it was made to harm further ahead.

Caution.

Yet

There was but one way: Forward.

 

[Amea Virou]

[member="Joycelyn Zambrano"]

Right there in front of her laid a monument to arrogance and the dangers of letting curiosity get the better of you. A regretful glance fell upon Amea as she stared down at the dead corpse of the man who had been her boss. He wasn’t a bad man but he had never known when to quit. While them being here was a very good example of why it wasn’t a bad thing, his untimely death was just as much of an example as to why it was. What made the moment all the more terrifying was the fact that had things been different this could have been her too. Amea was just lucky that her parents had pushed enough common sense into her before their passing.

As a final sign of respect she knelt down to pull the spikes out of him. He deserved that much at the very least before she moved on. Fingers touched against his forehead to close his eyelids. His hands were placed on his chest and Amea let out a saddened sigh before she glimpsed up at the doorway that lead into the chamber. The hallway was dark, it was hard to tell from this angle which way it went. The hole that they had fallen through seemed so small from down here. No doubt they were waiting before coming down. With time they would find him, but there were more pressing matters to attend to.

With Philian’s torch in hand she pushed into the doorway with a careful glimpse for pressure plates and other traps. Amea pointed it at the walls to take in the glyphs and symbols that riddled the wall while trying to assess their meaning, but their make deviated from any known language that she could have deciphered on her own. At least while being in her current state.

She pushed onwards with a quiet, careful sneak.

The silence was… Unnerving.