Glaciers, Ice and Everything Trite

[Tathra Khaeus]

​​​Mandalorian Empire Space - Vullain

​Southern Hemisphere - Wilderness

​The wind was harsh. But the pain, like ice in his veins was more difficult. It was an empty tundra, boundless and endless from one edge of perception to the other. Tathra mounted the winding cliff, his thick hide's deep crimsons and blacks muted by the storm. His claws dug deep, pulling himself along the icy and rock as his massive black cloak carried itself along his spine, clinging to his form as the wind bellowed past.

​Every step taken was cautious, he could not see too far in front of himself; his primal eyes granted him no definition. Regardless the endless snow made it nigh impossible to perceive more than three feet ahead of himself. Luckily, Tathra had a small device at hand; a small compass that he had locked onto the energy source before making it to the surface.

​It was both parts foolish and daring that the Bryn'adûl made haste in the storm, as it was the only time they could arrive without being caught on censors. But, this storm had been projected to last but a few days.

​It had been more than a week or so now, and it only grew worse. The titan wondered if it had something to do with what had wakened. The energy signature that came to life no more than a few days before the storms began, perhaps they were connected. He was thankful for it, it kept the natives quiet and passive. Safe in their homes.

​Tathra had arrived in the company of two hundred Bryn'adûl Crusaders, it had been harsh on them. The cold bit at Draelvasier like small bugs on flesh. And it was only getting colder. They'd began digging, setting up a small compound deep within the ice, on the side of a large glacier, nearby the energy beacons place of origin. They'd begun work on figuring out where to dig. However, the Draelvasier had noticed other sources of heat within the snowy tundra around the source.

​One of which, Tathra drew closer to now. It sat just above the beacons entry point, or as close as one could get on the surface. The beacon was deep, however he was not sure how far.

| [member="Yasha Cadera"] |​

 

[Yasha Cadera]

The Goddess of the Snow and her mouthpiece the Empress of the Zhornee called to Mand’alor the Infernal. A planet far from her space, its’ call was one of bewilderment and curiosity. It was less a potential boon and more a place of backwater import, where the young Mand’alor could hone skills and see an Empress-and-Goddess worship culture in its’ burgeoning near prime.

She bathed in the locals’ lore, honing in on thermal energy points within the ice. Now standing before the monument itself, Yasha felt neither the cold nor the wind. Her armour was thermally protected by silicar, a hearty and insular material. Her booted feet dug into the snow up to her knees, and in the midst of the storm the Infernal discovered what others feared of snow.

A crunch, crunch, crunch echoed behind her, lost in the shuffle of the cutting wind. It would have been completely lost, but for the sensor array in the Infernal’s buy’ce.

Heat behind her. Enough for one body of massive size. Swerving around and unsheathing her sword, Yasha ducked behind a snow bank, her wolf-helm waiting to see what came upon her in the blizzard.

[member="Tathra Khaeus"]

 

[Tathra Khaeus]

​To walk on ice and snow was as if to walk openly on a ocean, frozen in time for one with the primal eyes. A large brown cloak bellow around his shoulders, arms crossed as he pulled the massive rug around him; feet entrenched in ice and snow. Every step ripped a two to three feet of snow out of the ground as he pressed uphill.

​The hood of the cloak shuddered and scattered across his head, flying down his back as the wind and snow beat against his primal eyes and furrowed brow. His crimson skin ached under the deep cold. His boiling blood caused what little snow that collected on his body to melt in moments, yet he could not fight off the weather. Without some years of terraforming, the icy cold of this planets primitive regions would continue to spite his very flesh.

​With wincing eyes Tathra mounted the side of the hill. Bent out of shape by its steepness, Tathra found his back twitching, muscles fighting with greater effort to perform simple tasks. It bothered him some, but the pain of the body was an old friend and a negligible one at that.

​Tathra's eyes winced, piercing through the veil as something flickered up ahead. Tathra shifted in stance, quickly moving up a small crevice in the ice, bounding through as he circled toward the faint flicker. Tathra moved upward through the storm, almost losing where he'd been looking before. His hands took to the hill side, climbing upward as he pulled himself up a rock, jutting outward.

​In the corner of his eye, he saw it, to his right. A large armoured figure, brimming with heat. He quickly made out the figure to be a female humanoid by the petite muscles and curvature of her form, flaming orange eyes pierced down at Yasha amongst the storm. It seemed as though they both stalled, not expecting one and other amongst the cruel cold.

​Both froze for a moment, Tathra's fists clenched as he leapt down toward her, he was taking no chances. It was too soon for the Mandalorian Empire to find out about his operation.

| [member="Yasha Cadera"] |​

 

[Yasha Cadera]

The heat signature moved with a speed which seemed both more comfortable with hotter climates, and less ready to fail. Nothing moved that fast in the cold but a reason for Yasha to be cautious. Whatever it was did not come for peaceful means.

Searching the snowbank, Yasha unleashed her war hammer and rushed to firm ground away from the cliff. Could it see her? What was it? Large, reptilian perhaps? Xenobiology of fauna was never a strong suit of the Infernal, and this was no exception. Whatever it was, it moved with malice…

… or so thought an impetuous Mandalorian with a weapon in her hand. His heat signature betrayed a location, but not a pure distance. Rekr Karyatessa’s handle zipped through her hand to its’ outer pommel, and with strength far mightier than one expected from a slim woman, the war hammer swept in a horizontal swing toward the centre mass of her target.

[member="Tathra Khaeus"]

 

[Tathra Khaeus]

​The power of the snowstorm chiselled out a small portion of the Mandalorian Woman's form as he leapt down upon her, yet his movement was impulsive, enticed by a fear of inopportune discovery of his operation. The Mandalorian women equalled his haste in hostility, raising an electronically charged weapon for his chest.

​The Hammer slammed into the side of Tathra's upper abdomen as his feet crushed into the snow, embedding his feet. Tathra's left arm instinctively attempted to wrap around the length of the Hammer, his long arms making it easy for his hand to grasp at the hilt of the weapon. His right leg, fell into the snow as the kinetic pulse from the weapon shook his stature. However the titan recovered quickly as his right hand thrust towards her chest, attempting to knock her back and disarm her in tandem with his left hand holding her Hammer in place.

| [member="Yasha Cadera"] |​

 

[Yasha Cadera]

A wet clang struck with the hammer. It would be a battle, then. A war for the neutral snow and what? Passing Vullain landscape? Unless this was an assassination attempt, there must have been a reason for the attack. Perhaps she would consider such things, when the gigantic creature before her wasn't attempting to spill her blood in the snow.

The Rekr Karyatesa was, beyond anything, a work of art. The hammer itself was safeguarded against another grabbing hold to command it. Once [member="Tathra Khaeus"] gripped hold, repulsers within the weapon yanked back, strong enough to send a tank off course. Yasha yanked her hand off the hammer, and triggered the Rekr Karyatesa’s secondary function.

Lightning spewed from the head of the weapon toward Tathra, a conflagration powered and substantial. Yasha staggered back, slammed by the gigantic sapient’s strike to her chest.

 

[Tathra Khaeus]

​Tathra felt a rope of lightning reach around his arm, tingling and gnawing away at his nerves as the Hammer in hand appeared to work against him, pulling away. Tathra had no time to play tug of war with his opponents Hammer, Tathra's weight outmatched its; his strength allowing him to thrust it aside temporarily, away from the two of them.

​Tathra moved to his feet, lunging himself forward in a blur of motion, propelled by the momentum of pushing himself up as he moved to land two strikes across his opponents chest. If the strike was successful, he would grab the Mandalorian by her head dress and thrust her chest into his armoured knee.

​| [member="Yasha Australis Cadera"] |​