For Days of Auld Lang Syne (Sasha Santhe)

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

Velok bit his tongue as he watched the Santhe/Sienar heir flounce from the meditation chamber. With an inarticulate growl, he crouched on the chamber's floor. Her baiting was transparent, but he could respect the points she was making.

This particular technique, the false Light Side aura, was something far different from the other skill she'd taught him. This one was Sith Magic, relying on a complex spell and an innate gift that one had or one did not. Like his father, Velok had that gift, but he'd never identified or exercised it before. This would be his first proper spell.

He could do it, pull it off, but it took effort to sustain this kind of Force clouding. Endurance, and a balance between strength and delicacy. In some ways it was akin to doing pull-ups while typing: precise control, unflinching resilience, brute power. He became keenly aware that even a spell this basic -- this was no dark side web or spear of midnight black -- might well be beyond his abilities. Still, accountability could work wonders; so could a deadline. And if his massive fingers were sore from approximating human gestures, well, that was the price of training for long hours. He sacrificed sleep, too. Control of the body was linked to control of the mind, and self-deprivation could enhance power in certain circumstances.

 

[Sasha Santhe]

A week passed, and Sasha left her room infrequently as she tinkered with her design concept. Near the middle of the second week she had completed it, finished with what she could until smokestone was available for her for testing. As she left her cabin she wondered around the ship to find the Whiphid practicing the craft. A smirk went over her face as she observed him and his aura fizzled out of existence and then warped and contorted. "With the Dark Side we can command the fundamental forces of reality. Warp them to our will. It is a skill your father taught me, after a fashion." Truth was she had learned much under the Whiphid, but more had been gained by the invasion into his mind. "And the the most fragile reality is perception. It is an art to hide ones self among their enemies...."

A rumble erupted and the ship shook. They were entering into a system which housed an old Chiss outpost. Although all information was the outpost had been abandoned to a lugubraa swarm it had served as a listening post into Rand space. After looking over the information Sasha thought it might be wise to see what information could be gleamed from the station. "We've arrived as the listening post." Sasha pursed her lips. "I doubt that I'll be able to access the listening posts database from orbit so a shuttle is being prepped. We might have to land on the planet. Are you ready for that?" A horde of walking leeches. What was there not to be ready for?

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

Over her shoulder, Velok eyed the file on the listening post. "Lugubraa -- the ones that look like mynocks or leeches around the mouth bits, yes? Am I remembering right that they're semi-sentient cannon fodder before a certain age, and the only intelligent ones are old? Ferocious, brainless, unending swarms -- sounds like the last time I visited the Republic."

His blaster rifle had a full-auto mode, and he had a basic lightsabre for short range. Compared to him, though, the Lugubraa were puny. Unarmed combat should be enough, unless the numbers got overwhelmingly ridiculous.

"I have what I need. This shouldn't be too bad."

***​

​

The shuttle put them down on the planet. It was technically habitable, though the soil and atmosphere were thin and the gravity was a bit weak. Long-term settlement wasn't in the cards for this place, and it had no inhabitants of its own, so clearly the Chiss had been comfortable putting their stuff here. Lugubraa were the semi-sentient vermin of the Unknown Regions -- you could find them anywhere. Clearly this group had come here with some ship landing or crash, maybe long ago. The Chiss hadn't been a serious power in quite a while, after all, and the file hadn't indicated the age of the listening post.

Velok hefted his gun and stepped off the ramp with a squish. This area of the planet was marshland, bordering on jungle. Wet, fetid, disgusting, perfect for Lugubraa.

 

[Sasha Santhe]

[member="Velok the Younger"]

In addition to a lightsaber Sasha was a big proponent of gun. Sure the lightsaber could deflect blaster bolts, and it could easily rend a person in two but there was always the chance you'd need to strike someone at range or else defend yourself without appearing to be a force user. Sasha had been in enough scrapes that her proficiency with a blaster pistol would hardly be out of place and so she'd taken to carrying one on her hip. A combination of saber and blaster could be deadly against an opponent who wasn't expecting it, and so she'd soon learned to appreciate the less civilized weapon.

She wore a tight fitting black armored suit, pressurized for zero g combat as well as being comfortable and made of fiber materials which could protect her. She was glad for the suit and helmet as she walked across the desolate plane of the planet. "The outpost is ahead. I'd rather not fight the entire horde if possible. I'm hoping we landed far enough away as to not draw their attentions."

The facility loomed on a cliff edge with a position overlooking much of the region. There was two ways up, a long, treacherous climb, or a route that wound around and up a more easy gradient. "What do you think? Leisurely walk or arduous climb?"

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Sasha Santhe"] wore high-tech light armour and a helmet; Velok wore his ratty gray robes, and handled the air impurities by coughing as necessary. There were ways to filter the air, adiabatic shields and so forth. He could pull them off, like most Jedi Padawans, but even those relatively basic techniques would require some degree of focus. He didn't have focus to spare. Lugubraa were easy to underestimate. A swarm of them could chew your limbs off in short order.

"Walk," he said. "Gives us a better view of our final approach, and keeps us fresh in case we need to run. Fresh for the fight, too." His stomach growled. "For the slaughter. I wonder what Lugubraa tastes like. I imagine something like meatier calamari; what do you think?"

Motion twitched in the treeline of the arcing grade, and he nestled the stock of his rifle into his shoulder. But a concrete target refused to present itself. Eventually Velok lowered the weapon, though he carried it two-handed and ready to go.

"Either way, of course," the Whiphid said absently, "they already know we're here."

 

[Sasha Santhe]

[member="Velok the Younger"]

Sasha would normally not have thought about the culinary qualities of lugubraa but Little Velok, who she called Locke, had brought up the subject and thus she was forced to consider it. "A Hapen eel. I imagine they taste something like that. They certainly have enough looks in common" She had a wonderful eel dish finely prepared by a master chef on Hapan once. "The Hapanese make a fine eel, cooked to perfection," she noted as they continued up the slight gradient. Personally Sasha might have preferred the cliff, she considered herself a good climber and would have liked to avoid combat for as long as possible, but the whiphids points were just as valid as hers and besides her blood was pumping.

Perhaps it was the atmosphere or the fact that she had been cooped up on a ship for so long but she was raring for a fight, anticipating it with every fiber of her being and hoping for it. Maybe it was just lack of a good flirtation, pickings being slim on a voyage of this type. Sasha caught the motion with the Whiphid, a scurrying from the treeline vaguely. "At least now we know they know we're coming." It wasn't a comforting thought. "If we walk confidently do you think they may leave us alone. Exude an air of confidence and dominance in order to kowtow the natives?" A line spoken almost verbatim from old Imperial manuals. Sasha didn't really believe it would work, but then again with the force as an ally anything was possible.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

"I've never had Hapan eel. After I'm done eating here I'll have to compare them."

They were maybe a quarter of the way up the long, curving, tree-laden slope, with a steeper drop off to the left. The whole approach was a single counterclockwise swathe, with a hollow of scree in the middle. He paused at the edge and looked out over the steep rubble-pit; on the far side, the Chiss listening post reared up on the high point of the curved ridge. Activity boiled around the front door, partially sheltered by trees. Some Lugubraa fired a blaster; it punched into the slope near Velok's feet. Rather than fire back and waste ammunition at this range, he stepped back into the treeline, away from the steep scree.

"Confident and dominant walking. Noted. I'll be sure to give that a try immediately."

If there were more Lugubraa on this side of things, near where he'd first spotted them, they didn't move to attack or even show themselves. Somehow he doubted cowardice was to blame. Semi-sentient pack-hunter leeches didn't have a whole lot of fear, by all accounts.

"I'm assuming an ambush at this point, probably quite close to here as we keep going up. Do you sense anything along those lines, Sasha?"

 

[Sasha Santhe]

[member="Velok the Younger"]

Sasha didn't flinch as the blaster bolt echoed out and landed next to her large companions feet. The whiphid mentioned an ambush and Sasha had to agree. She'd seen enough combat with the Techno Union and Sith Empire as a girl to understand the basics of tactics. She reached out with her senses and attempted to feel for the creatures. "Living things have only ever been of tertiary interest to me," Sasha said as she felt several power packs and blasters up ahead. "But most people use modern weapons," after pinpointing a location she was able to intensify her scan with the force allowing her to detect the ambush in full. "A little over a dozen, maybe closer to eighteen. Eleven powered blasters and at least one more not functioning." She thought for a moment as she continued to ooze confidence. "I'd suspect they intend to charge us when we get within a certain range. Considering only some of them have blasters they will lay down fire while the others run in. We should be quick and ruthless in dealing with the chargers, it might discourage more attacks. Even animals can sense a threat." Of course the flipside was they would probably then call for more reinforcements and eventually they would dealing with a full swarm....

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

"Eighteen leeches, you say." Velok shifted his blaster rifle to a one-handed grip, stock tucked between his elbow and his ribs. With his off hand, he pulled out his lightsabre, a simple, bloodstained thing he'd taken off a tasty Jedi. Something about lounging around in burlap and hot tubs made Jedi taste succulent. Maybe it was their rigorous beauty regimen, or the endless alchaka, also known as Jedi sex yoga.

He refrained from voicing such thoughts. The phrase 'Jedi sex yoga' might have unusual effects on Sasha's concentration.

A pause left the ridge quiet enough that he could feel fairly sure there were no Lugubraa in the immediate vicinity. The closest had, it seemed, scouted them and withdrawn to form part of the group that Sasha senses. Doubtless they'd picked a location with some sort of clear firing lane, which largely obviated frontal assault possibilities. That was a pity: he'd have rather liked to run straight for them, tear them apart, slurp their entrails, etc.

"Tempted as I am to charge in, I have to ask. You can sense their blasters. Can you disable them at range?"

 

[Sasha Santhe]

Sasha considered for a moment. Could see? Some of them at least, sure, but as soon as the first blaster ignited or sparked into ruin she was nearly positive the lugubraa would attack. Besides it was a tacky maneuver, disable near a dozen blasters with the force instead of accepting a fight. It seemed like something [member="Gerion Ardik"] would attempt, and Sasha rarely wanted to be associated that little mans feeble attempts at her art of Mechu-Deru. "I can neutralize some, and in a fashion which should provoke them into attack," Sasha replied letting thoughts of the shampoo sales man leave her mind.

"How confident are you with a lightsaber? Am I going to need to stand in front and deflect the bolts or do you have skill enough for that?" She cocked her head over at at [member="Velok the Younger"]

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

"Provocation is good." Velok squinted through the trees. "A dozen blasters at once would be a problem, but a dozen blasters held by infuriated semi-sentients constitute something else entirely. I should be able to protect myself adequately."

A loose plan took form in his head: charge, firing blaster; drop blaster and switch sabre to dominant hand as necessary; feast. He also entertained some vague thoughts about the larger trees and a lightsabre's ability to cut things with minimum hassle.

"If that fails, some of these trees are sizeable enough that I can make a barricade relatively easily. Or a logslide, if we could somehow lure the Lugubraa down the defile. Still, better not. Crushed calamari is pointless."

He hefted the blaster rifle and switched it to fully automatic. He was no master of the weapon, but even semi-sentients tended to think twice when someone sprayed fire in their general direction.

 

[Sasha Santhe]

[member="Velok the Younger"]

Provocation is good? Sasha's father would hardly agree. Then again the context of conversations with her father were somewhat different. "Log slide could be good, especially if some of them try to come up behind us. I imagine trees making a satisfying thump rolling down this hill. Anyways ready up, I'm going to ignite a few of their blasters..."

Sasha didn't close her eyes like many did when concentrating through the force. To her it was an essential skill to keep both eyes open and aware at all times. She imagined many jedi were attacked when concentrating in such a manner and refused to allow herself to fall for the same trap. She could feel the blasters, understood its power system and began a surge. In a few seconds sparks flew from two of the blasters and one erupted into a electrical fire causing the lugubraa holding it to drop it and send out a howling screech of pain. Still they didn't move showing a remarkable amount of discipline. That was until Sasha upped her attack and exploded another blaster. With a howl the lugabraa charged breaking from the woodline.

Sasha ignited her saber and began to deflect the few errant bolts that would have actually been on target.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

Whiphids had two broad fingers and a proportional thumb. Releasing and tightening his trigger finger, then, had a major impact on accuracy. Any Whiphid who learned to shoot a blaster also learned to compensate to some extent. Even so, if Velok hadn't been hosing down the charging ranks on full auto, he likely wouldn't have hit much of anything. He still didn't: two fell, three more got winged but stayed up, and then they were on him. He swing the rifle in a broad arc, shattering Lugubraa cartilage to clear some ground, then dropped the rifle and switched his sabre to his good hand. The yellow blade hissed to life. Extending, it lanced through the tight-pressed Lugubraa. Velok scythed around him with the puny human-scale weapon. Teeth sheared through his robes and into his side, his legs, his off arm. As soon as the enemy latched on, they died. He removed their heads without compunction, or bisected their torsos instead of the angle demanded it. His off hand's knuckles and claws wreaked short-range havoc inside the sabre's guard, and clutched and threw away the clinging, amputated leech-mouths. Blood stained his ragged robes, but he rarely gave their conical mouths a chance to grab anything they could really nom. One tried to latch onto his elbow; he brought his knee up and crushed the underside of the leech's pseudo-skull.

The air smelled delicious: freshly grilled calamari. As the Lugubraa broke and ran back up the slope, Velok grabbed a smoking half-corpse and took a bite.

"Succulent. Shall we?"

 

[Sasha Santhe]

Where [member="Velok the Younger"] used brute strength and brutal force on the incoming Lugabraa Sasha was elegant. She used her blade to keep the creatures at bay and jumped, dodged, or vaulted over those who closed the gap. Where the whiphid had been covered in gore, Sasha had remained fairly unsoiled her armor wicking away much of the blood and grime from battle. It was near the end of the engagement that Sasha saw the sight of Velok munching away at one of the Lugubraa. Normally people would be disgusting at such a display, but the young woman had long since been desensitized to such things. "Succulent huh?" She said with an eyebrow quirk. "Right well lets get going.

Sasha moved towards the facility, the failed ambush having broke with legged leeches running in all directions. This was both good and problematic. As they scattered they were clearly broken and out of the way, for now at least. As they ran in a multitude of directions and the pair moved themselves up and eventually into the facility they ran the risk of the cowardly little creatures coming back in from behind them. Oh well, risks had to be taken. "I imagine the main body of these creatures is inside the facility. That is where we will likely meet the greatest resistance." Sasha licked her lips, as she often did when in thought, "I can sense technology though. We should be able to use that to our advantage."

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

By common consent, they paused at the front door, which bore the marks of Lugubraa claws and various tools. He'd picked up his blaster rifle once the dust settled; now he used the long gun as a lever to pry the door along its tracks. Once a good-sized gap materialized, he wedged his massive fingers between the door and the frame. One explosive breath powered the door open with a squeal of stressed metal, junk on the tracks. He'd half expected a Lugubraa swarm to jump him immediately, but the first room seemed clear, and the corridor behind it.

"They'll close in behind us shortly," he murmured to Lady Santhe. "Even I can feel that." He'd bent his rifle into uselessness; now all he had was the basic lightsabre he'd taken from that delicious Jedi a couple years back. He kept the yellow blade deactivated for the moment.

He found himself wanting to walk quietly, though a four-hundred-pount, eight-foot Whiphid in long robes was the very antithesis of stealthy. Something about the abandoned listening post -- the old Chiss blood smears, potentially -- set him on edge and prickled the fur on the back of his neck

 

[Sasha Santhe]

[member="Velok the Younger"]

The facility was dark outside the occasional strobing light. Further ahead was a dim red, emergency lightning designed to not irritate natural night vision to allow eyes adapted to the dark to operate in the event of a breach in the facilities defenses. Sasha wasn't sure exactly what this all meant. Power was fluctuating to several areas making a mish mash of operational systems randomly splattered about the facility. It was almost as if someone, or something, was trying to repair the station. She pondered if even the sentient elder lugabraa had that sort of capacity. "As long as we know that they can come from behind and remain vigilant we should be okay." Sasha replied to the lumbering hulk.

Dried blood splatter decorated walls, not the random splatter of combat but a deliberate placement of primitive bloody hand prints as if to mark the site of victory. Sasha gripped her lightsaber tightly as they delved down into the facility. "Thick walls," she said as she moved through a doorway and examined the width of the threshold. "This place was built to withstand a significant attack. I wonder how it could have fallen to primitive lugabraa." Maybe the aliens had starved the Chiss out, and when the Blue Skins tried to leave opened the door for their conquerors. "If this facility follows the normal logic of a military installation the command will be in the center, well protected. It's either that or up high where they could command a view." Two military philosophies at play, but Sasha couldn't tell for sure which was right. Chiss had a predilection for defense, and yet in viewing their light and maneuverable craft one could say they were aggressive minded in matters of military. Either assumption of command location could be correct. "Well Lock? What do you think?

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

"In my experience, people who build thick walls tend to trust them. Trust too far, and you get blind spots. Doors left unlocked, or plumbing monitor faults left unrepaired a little too long. Lugubraa slide in where they're not expected; they're not the kind of enemy that bludgeons its way through fortifications. Not when they can catch their targets with their pants down. As for the command centre, I didn't see any especially raised observation areas, just a few perimeter windows. They got their height from the ridge, not from the design. So my guess is the command centre is in the middle, level with the rest of it. Which would put it...maybe down this hall."

Velok bared his tusks in a smile. "Come along, Sasha. He who hesitates is lost."

Snap-hiss. The yellow sabre's light merged with the emergency bulbs, flooding the corridor in orange. Something chittered in the dark corners, shifted behind half-open doors. Velok marched straight ahead. Their hunger filled his senses. He made it nine deliberate, unhurried paces before they were on him.

 

[Sasha Santhe]

Who hesitates is lost indeed. The lightsaber erupted and illuminated the corridors in the soft glow of its light. It was enough to stop the sickening existence of the strobe effect caused by failing power. Orange, not a proper Sith color. Sasha would have to change that. Then again she rarely used her red bladed sabers preferring a violet color, but that was because she had a cover to maintain. People didn't know she was a Sith, and she preferred to keep it that way. Indeed few enough people knew she was force sensitive or to what degree she could use her powers. A violet saber suited her purpose in this regard and a smile crossed her face as she remembered the Jedi Padawan who 'instructed' her in how to make it. Poor foolish guileless boy....

Sasha's musing were cut short however as the savage attack of beasts came. Velok the lesser, waded into combat, but Sasha had other plans. Lugubraa may have been near mindless beasts directed by a sentient elder, and by all accounts they were ferocious, however Sasha had the force. Closing her eyes she found many of the facilities systems still intact. She redirected the fluctuating and inconsistent power and slammed the door behind her shut locking the beasts approaching from behind out of the fight. Good step one, isolating the combat, was complete. Now she needed something else. Lugubraa still had senses and one could easily befuddle those, plus it was time that [member="Velok the Younger"] learn an important lesson... Sasha engaged the fire suppression system. Puffs of fire extinguishing gasses erupted into the room obscuring views. Even the Jedi learned to use their senses, and now so shall Velok, baptized in fire.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

'Velok the Lesser' waded into the melee with sabre and claw and so forth. At these ranges, with nice strong bulkheads available, his knees and elbows and sheer bulk worked fine too. Lugubraa came on and died.

An ongoing hiss cut through the leeches' ululation. The tang of fire suppression aerosol stung his nostrils and eyes. He took a deep, harsh breath and held it with the Force as his ally -- that stuff would do your longs no good. Squeezing his eyes shut, too, he did his level best to move on instinct. For now, granted, that meant he wound up flailing. The sabre slowed as metal and flesh tugged at the plasma blade. Globules of molten metal spun free of the walls and splatted on the floor, or hissed on flesh. A wailing hundred-pound leech hit him in the face; he grabbed it with claws and sabre, then shredded it as he tossed it away. A roar burst from his chest -- a mistake. Now he had to breathe the gas, and sight was still beyond his reach.

His next choice felt like a failure, but he stepped into a nearby room and slashed a triangle out of the wall or window. The chunk of metal clanged on the scree slope below. Wind sucked out the gas. Coughing, he turned from the gap and waded back into the fight.

 

[Sasha Santhe]

[member="Velok the Younger"]

For her part Sasha merely fought off those creatures who remain while the rest either attacked the froward positioned whiphid or else fled from the gas. This gave her an opportunity to examine the situation with a little more depth. They could not fight all of these creatures. It would be futile. How many thousands of these creatures were on planet? How many would now be returning to the base in order to defend their insipid nest? These were all questions that they could ill afford to test the answer to.

Sasha smiled as she watched the Whiphid triumphantly bellow out and then in finding need for breath cut a hole for air. "We need to move. We cannot afford to get bogged down in this mire." IT was true enough and soon Sasha found herself running down the hallway. The creatures were closing on them, and from a variety of directions. "You must focus the force in your legs. Feel it flow through you seeping into the muscle and run. Do it now." Sasha followed her own advice and soon saw herself moving as if a blur down the hall. She slowed and stopped to make sure the Whiphid would follow, or if he could not make sure he wasn't overcome. With luck the creatures would close in on a position that the pair had already left using their preternatural speed to be elsewhere buying them time.