Heavy Risks, But The Priiize (Fabula)

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Fabula Cavataio"]

Korriban, homeworld of the Sith - though some called it Morriband it seemed - Tomb world, graveyard to Sith lords upon Sith lords. Nexus of evil. All these were shiny, somewhat dramatic names for this lifeless rock of a planet that had seen Emperors come and go. Like a gaping maw it had swallowed countless travellers, adventurers, would-be conquerors, all of whom had been drawn to the planet like moth to a flame, seeking riches, power, or perhaps just a good challenge.

A cluster of rocks stood amidst the sand dunes in the wasteland, immense statues of sandstones rising up high into the air. A fallen obelisk could be seen, arcane symbols engraved upon it, from an age long bygone when the ancient red Sith had reigned upon this planet, when their subjects had venerated them as gods given flesh. The orange glow of the sun shone down mercilessly upon the valley that seemed in the middle of nowhere, for one could venture endlessly through it and come across nothing but ruins, sand and dust, the skeletal remains of those who had come before and paid the price, along with monsters and beasts of all sort. The Jedi Crusade might have laid claim to this planet and driven out the Sith, but they could not banish the darkness even if they had wanted.

The faces of the Sith Lords of old were hard and unyielding, but they were just that, faces, which had over time fallen into decay and disrepair, having no power anymore. The howl of the wind could be heard, if one paid enough attention, if one was the sort of forcer who listened to the ripples instead of shouting and chucking rocks, one might hear the whispers of the ghosts bound to this place. Then again, it was quite likely that they would have nothing interesting to say beyond reciting their old glories like Ozymandias.

A transport penetrated through the atmosphere of the planet and touched down upon the valley, near the carcasse of a couple tu'kata and some mutilated bodies of soldiers from the invasion, forgotten and left behind, swallowed like most who came to the tomb world. Of course, the occupant of said transport had no intention of this happening to her, but then pride comes before the fall. The landing ramp of the vessel lowered with a hiss and Siobhan Kerrigan sauntered down, clad in ultrachrome stormtrooper armour that would surely appreciate some repairs, fully killed out in combat gear. Her trusty MK1 boltguns, unholy instruments of death and purgation were at her side, as was the lightsabre that seemed hungry for souls to reap and send forth upon a voyage into the dark realm of Illyria, dread mistress of hell who sat upon a throne made of the bones of the wicked.

She stretched slightly as she gazed upon the valley before her, long brown hair flipping back slightly in the breeze of the wind. The war might long be over, but then she had not come Sith and though she was the exact opposite of a bastion for common sense, she was not the sort to go on a quest for ancient artefacts with names like the 'Daemon's Heart' because there was no way that could go wrong. Then again ventures of that sort would require an amount of research for which she had neither the patience nor the knowledge.

Instead she was here to hunt. No matter how high she might rise, no matter how much she might enjoy the aristocratic decadence and luxury she enjoyed in Kaeshana, at heart Siobhan was a predator, in search of the biggest game, the most dangerous prey. That was why the Bando Gora had declared her a Chaos Goddess after she had torn their Cult apart. It was an intense craving she could not deny, like a fire that could not be quenched. Perhaps one day it would get her killed, but no matter. The Force flowed through her, becoming a bludgeon in her grasp. She walked across the sand-covered ground, past the burnt-out husk of a battle tank from this or that battle. It was time to go find a few big things and kill them.

That was one of her two ideas of what constituted tourism.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Korriban was evil from the moment Fabula laid eyes on it for the first time, and the scream of air ripping past her Bloody Pilgrim as she descended to the planet's surface didn't dissuade her from that conclusion in the slightest. An entire planet wasn't normally so evil, but Korriban took the cake. Corbos and Demonsgate had been nothing compared to Korriban, and Vendaxa and Felucia were practically worthy of building a summer home on. All of them were vicious, and tainted, but none to the sheer extent that Korriban was. If ever a world was beyond cure, beyond help, it was this one.

Fabula felt her ship lurch in a violent updraft high in the planet's atmosphere, but she simply sat calmly in the pilot's seat and initiated the same auto-landing sequence she'd used a thousand times over. By the standards of the worlds she'd been wandering between for a few months, a simple gust of wind was almost daycare. She didn't let it unnerve her, but more importantly she didn't let it convince her that this world was harmless. Dead though it might have been, the Force was still very much alive here, and ill beyond compare. Breezes and turbulent landings were nothing like the real dangers of Korriban, the quiet evils lurking in the hearts of every terrified survivor attempting to cling to life in the shadows of old, abandoned tombs. The monsters of darkness and silence that were simply waiting for someone to stumble across them yet again.

The Matukai wanderer definitely couldn't deny it would be a good place to experience, at least once. For contrast. She had fought corruption and darkness across the galaxy, purged it wherever she found it, and yet she had never once been to Korriban. As she neared the ground, she started to understand why. All planets spoke with their own unique voice, and Korriban's was that of rage. Hatred. Ancient loathing long since passed and left to fester. It was almost painful to simply be on the world. She had no idea how she would survive training in it, forcing her body and her spirit to adapt and thrive in this sort of danger. Compared to the constant whispers of Dark fantasies and wicked desires, the simple scalding sun and barren, deadly wastelands felt almost cozy.

Eventually, the Pilgrim lurched to a stop, and Fabula stood at its boarding hatch by the time the door hissed open. She leapt down to the planet's surface without considering the repercussions of such a decision any more than she already had, and forged off towards the tombs and caves of a world of pure and unadulterated evil. Once again, she carried little. Clothes, lightsabers, toolbelt. The Force would provide all she needed, and in return, she would heal it. She would cut out whatever darkness she could find, before it took her over.

Or she would die in the process.
@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Fabula Cavataio"]

The call of Korriban was strong, like that of a siren. But it was the call of the dead. Amidst the powerful wind a thousand dead voices whispered, speaking of their glory, promising power and riches, making threats. This was a dead world, and the stench of death was palpable, more than that it was like a physical presence. Evident in the rotting corpses, the vultures that feasted upon them, burnt-out vehicles, collapsed monuments of past Sith glory. More than that in a very real sense of wrongness, of decay and corruption.

Of course darkness did not just come in black robes, red lightsabres and veiny skin, though some would have one believe that. But if one sought to find it out in the open, not hiding behind an aura of righteousness and civilisation, then there was no better place to seek it out than on Korriban. Here it was raw and primal, the hatred of millennia had been allowed to fester so strongly. Siobhan was no stranger to the rage and anger that she felt assailing her, seeking to envelope her and make her a part of it, or rather its pawn. All too often she played fast and loose with morality and the dark side, welcoming the darkness as an old companion, a weapon that gave her the edge she needed to go on. Perhaps this was what had been required to exterminate the Bando Gora cult, to make her the warrior she now was. Perhaps the price had been too high and sooner or later she would jump off the slippery slope of sanity, for one cannot stare into the abyss for too long before the abyss stares back into you. Or perhaps this was not the day for haphzard attempts at philosophising and one should get to the actual work.

Thus was why she was here after all. The rays of the scalding hot sun reflected off her armour, bathing it in light, ironic considering that its wearer was anything but an avatar of that, but then appearances could be and often were deceiving. Passing across more burnt-out bodies that showed the dangers of sun-bathing on Korriban, with no flesh even for the vultures to feast on, leaping high across a formation of sand dunes just because she could, she found tombs and mountain cliffs stretched out before her eyes as she gazed through her binoculars.

Sand was still annoying and got everywhere, she could do without that, thank you very much. But then There was something else she sensed - or rather someone! A blazing presence in the Force, powerful, volatile, strong. Something like a thin smile graced her lips. Passing a fallen pillar that had long faded hieroglyphs she would not be able to read anyway engraved upon it, she approached. Ready for violence if needed, though her stance was not hostile. Her aura much like that of a barely tamed predator eager to get off the leash or a contained wildfire.

"Ms Cavataio, I presume. I take it you're not here for long-lost treasures to be found in ancient temples with lava pits and marked on a map with an X! Cause we all know there's none of those left" she called out, very intentionally parodying a certain Jedi Master Phylis Alince, everyone's favourite hot librarian who sadly insisted on wearing very covering robes. "I'm afraid I missed the big battle...well, from what I hear it wasn't that big. Sith are back in the shadows, whatever. Just their ruins, ghosts and the dark beasties they left and who are in need of a purge."

 

[Fabula Caromed]

It would have been a trivial matter for Fabula to cover substantial ground simply by using the broken temples and plateaus and abandoned structures as springboards, to leap about like a frog attempting to get frequent flier miles. She might do that at some point, too. Sling herself into the air just to feel it rushing past her ears, become one with the wind and sky. Let it go. She could scarcely think of a better way to become one with the Force than through that. Until she'd solved the planet's problems, though, her main purpose on Korriban was not to enjoy it or become one with it, but to cure it. She couldn't very well do that while soaring like a wingless bird.

Instead, the girl wandered for an unknowable amount of time. Her purpose, the will of the Force itself, prevented her from feeling any fatigue no matter how far she walked, or how hot it was outside. Her eyes wandered over every broken temple, into every dark cavern. Her fingers traced over hieroglyphics as she passed by, attempting to feel out the spirits and memories of the very rock. Her ears heard nothing but the howling, screaming, crying, whispering wind...until she heard something very different.

For the second time since she'd met her, Siobhan Kerrigan managed to sneak up on Fabs. For the second time, Fabula berated herself immediately for not keeping properly attuned to her surroundings. Last time it was because she wasn't being attentive enough. This time, she was being too attentive and was so distracted by rocks and spirits and Dark Side auras and history that she didn't even bother to keep track of Force signatures around her. Fortunately for her, Sio didn't mean her any harm. Or at least, it didn't seem like she did.

Fabula managed to keep herself from jumping and instead stood very peaceably still with her hands clasped in front of her and an almost neutral smile on her face. She waited until Siobhan was close enough to hear her before she bothered attempting to speak; most people didn't have the amazing superhuman hearing necessary to hear her almost-whisper from more than a few feet away. "Miss Kerrigan! You're quite the unexpected surprise. I didn't think to find any other living people on this unfortunate planet."
@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Fabula Cavataio"]

For her part - without wanting to brag, since unlike Fabula Siobhan could not punch stone walls into gravel with her fists! - Siobhan could actually fly. Sustained force flight was quite an entertaining thing and she felt far more freer, far more glorious that way than by using a ship or even a speeder. As for sneaking up on Fabula, Siobhan was not really that good at stealth.

Anyway, judging by her expression the former Exarch seemed quite happy to encounter the force warrior on this gods-forsaken, burnt-out, desolate husk of a planet. "I hear some Jedi were going on an archeology trip. Not sure whether they're done with it now," she shrugged at that, clearly not really caring either way. She had very briefly encountered Phylis - or perhaps that had been a different trip to Korriban, it was not really important anyway. "Though I gotta say, you're far more pleasant company to have," she said with a friendly smile. She had unfortunately not managed to get Fabula to stop addressing her as 'Ms Kerrigan' so she was just rolling with the formality, much as she would like to be less than formal.

No, she was not at all oggling Fabula's, how shall we put this diplomatically, huge tracts of land. It was not her fault that they were eye-catching. Unlike the Dathomiri Siobhan did not muse about the will of the Force and her place in it - she was far less of a thinker and not philosophically inclined. In the past her views on the Force, when she actually bothered to formulate them, had probably been close to Potentium. Today things were different...she knew the darkness to be very real, had faced in several times, often risked being consumed by it. Depending on who you asked she was already halfway there and would fall into the abyss, for she still used the Force as a can opener. However, both liked a good fight and the death world had game aplenty to offer. An abundance of monsters and supernatural terrors left behind by the Sith when they retreated to...wherever they had gone.

"But, yeah, I don't think you'll find many people with a pulse beyond me. Wouldn't surprise me if a couple zombie hordes are hanging around in an old tomb somewhere. Never got to the big battle, figure now that the Bando Gora capital's got razed I should pay the Sith homeworld a visit. Well, that and hunt. Like terentateks, nasty big beasties that pack a mean punch and got an appetite for forcers. What takes you here? Down for some hunting?"

 

[Fabula Caromed]

"I appreciate your company much more than I would a Jedi's as well, Miss Kerrigan," Fabula responded with a little smile, trying her damnedest not to consider what she might do if she did find a Jedi. She'd met nothing but pleasant members of that particular cult, but considering the things she'd heard about them recently, it would probably have been a better turn of events for her not to run into any of them.

Zombies. Treasure. Ancient dark lords and their fallen glories. Fabula really didn't care about any of this. In fact, she really hadn't had any plan at all when she landed on Korriban, other than "explore and kill evil things." The little bit of exploration she'd done so far had turned up a disturbing lack of evil things to kill, and the only thing she had to show for it was a chance meeting with the only telekinetic psycho-soldier she'd thus far met. A pretty unimpressive adventure, by her own standards, but the idea of a terentatek...that sounded interesting.

Fabula gave a quick nod and looked away in no particular direction. "I suppose I wouldn't weigh you down too much in a hunt like that. Do you have a specific area to look for your monsters?" It would probably be in caves. Or tombs. Or cavetombs, tombcaves, cavecaves, or some other combination thereof. For some reason all Korriban seemed to be was desert, caves, and tombs. Whatever the planet had been once was quite thoroughly dominated by the stench of the Sith and what they brought with them. Fortunately Fabula was there, and now Siobhan as well. Maybe they could destroy a tomb or two in between so much attention to eradicating murder-rancors.
@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Fabula Cavataio"]

"Glad to hear you appreciate my company, hun," Siobhan returned the smile, not making bad innuendo at all. Or closely inspecting Fabula's chest, for she knew where the she-hulk's eyes were - somewhere above it! As for the Jedi, Siobhan's opinion of the cult was pretty low these days. There was a good chance that a meeting with one of their own - one who was neither Phylis nor Coryth Elaris, but then the latter while a Jedi in beliefs was not a member of the Order - would turn rather violent. Of course, she was quite certain about her ability to come out on top.

"Weigh me down? C'mon, Ms. I Duel Sith In The Middle of a Force Storm!" Siobhan spoke cheerfully, apparently still unwilling to accept Fabula's complete lack of an ego. Of course, the telekinetic psycho-soldier, as Fabs had so kindly christened her, did have a very big inferiority complex combined with very serious issues, but those did not relate to her combat abilities! If anything her opinion of herself regarding those might be higher than warranted. Regardless she produced a datapad and showed what appeared to be a map and rough outline of where they had to go.

"Down the Valley of Dark Lords, big tomb of some Sith oldtimer called Thule. Big surprise, since as a death world and general crapsack world Korriban is the Mordor," Siobhan replied, managing to use three tropes in one sentence, but then she was under the impression that this made her a Pop-Cultured Badass. "Long caverns. Terentateks are big, tough bastards. Hungry for the blood of forcers and very resistant force powers. In other words, perfect game." Destroying the tomb sounded rather attractive to Siobhan, preferrably by tearing the roof down and burying the unholy monstrosities under it, smashing the sarcophagus of an ancient Sith lord if it was still to be found. Artefacts and riches held no interest for her, the latter because she was rich anyway, the former because despite being on the slippery slope far as sanity was concerned she had enough sense to know playing around with darkside artefacts was bad news.

"Nice to meet you again. So let's get going, shall we?" she spoke cheerfully, giving Fabula a light slap on the shoulder, then turning to move down into the valley that lay before them. Which, looked pretty much like the ground she had just covered, just as desolate, just as barren and void of life. Like virtually every world Korriban was a Single-Biome Planet and since it had been designated as an inhospitable death world it was not a place for tourists, unless they were adventurer tourists like our lovely ladies here. A foreboding tomb down the valley would be their destination, with the skeletal remains of those who had come before lying around to greet them.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Fabula's reaction to being slapped on the shoulder was nothing short of a whimper, less because it hurt and more because of her reflex that anything that touched her normally wanted to hurt her. Granted, nothing really managed to hurt her most of the time, due to her Nigh-Invulnerability, but that didn't stop her from nurturing that instinct simply to keep herself from getting sucker punched. She responded again with that same little squeak of a voice and followed in behind Sio. "Of course, Miss Kerrigan. I'm a little excited to be able to fight beside you."

Was that too forward? Oh Force, she was being too forward. She'd barely met Siobhan once before! There was no way she should already be telling her how it was fun going on adventures with her! She was going to scare her off, alienate her with being so-'Aaaaaiigh!' Her own internal panic parade played out entirely beneath the notice of the world around her. Her face looked no more or less broken than ever, and her silence was normal.

Instead, she tried to distract herself by focusing on the valley. Broken tomb entrances, cracked and fallen pillars...the whole thing looked like a whirlwind had crashed through. Chances were that it was nothing so merciful, and was instead damage from orbital weapons or the ravages of time. Fabula probably would have felt a bit melancholy if she didn't realize that every bit of this was constructed with slave labor to the glory of evil. Instead, she walked in solemn silence.

For a while, anyway. "So, Miss Kerrigan, where's our destination?"
@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Fabula Cavataio"]

For her part Siobhan found Fabula's reaction rather cute. "Excited, I like that. We can do a lot more than just fighting." Evidently the Dathomirian was not being too forward. Not at all. After all, she happened to be going on an adventure with Siobhan Kerrigan, whose attempts at flirtation and innuendo had not become any less crude over the years. However, she seemed to remain largely oblivious to the inner turmoil going on inside Fabula, but then Siobhan had never been the most attentive crayon in the box.

Regardless they proceeded through the uninviting, lifeless valley for a while. To Siobhan at least virtually all of Korriban looked the same and she wondered how the Sith had been able to stand it. The valley was a hot, dry wasteland, marked by fallen pillars and statues of darklords who had long lost their power, tombs long pillaged and stripped of anything valuable, dead bodies. One might suppose a bomb had been dropped upon the valley - or perhaps several. Siobhan was quiet during her march across the barren wasteland upon which the merciless sun continued to shine down. She had never been to Korriban aside from her brief trip where she had encountered Phylis again, but the desolate rock reminded her strongly of Gehenna, the den of evil upon which the monstrous Bando Gora had lived.

Emphasis being had. Their capital had descended into a pit of lava, though splinter groups of the cult still lived. Sooner or later she would exterminate those as well. At Fabula's question she paused for a moment, flesh and bionic eye scanning the area and briefly checking the holomap on the datapad before her gaze fell upon a large tomb, the great doors that formed its entrance seemed in slightly better state than those before, having as of yet withstood the test of time. If Siobhan had been able to read the ancient hieroglyphs, she would have been able to read those of the words engraved upon an obelisk that were still identifiable.

'Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.'

As it was Siobhan was incapable of doing so, instead she just gestured to the building. "There, that one." Heading over she passed the corpse of what seemed to be a salvager. A datapad was lying next to him and had the particularly informative words 'drums, drums in the deep' written upon it. Thus equipped with what was undoubtedly profound knowledge she focused her gaze upon the great doors before them. The dark taint emanating from inside it was palpable, a nexus of malevolent power that beckoned to anyone able to hear its siren call, whispers amids the breeze of the wind that sought to mesmerise and beguile. Siobhan felt sickened at the sensation, all too familiar to her, though the only result was to steel her resolve. Great beasts lurked inside here and they would die, likewise anything else that the Sith had left behind as their empires crumbled over the millennia. Every vestige of the Sith left would be purged.

"Time to make a door, be ready," she spoke as she focused, the Force flowing through her and being harnessed into a bludgeon. Stretching out her bionic hand she exerted her telekinetic will, the power being concentrated and focused upon the door, then as she felt a rush it was violently slammed against it much like a battering ram trying to smash the gates of a castle. Under the pressure of her will the doors shook, as did the ground before them, then as she slammed into them with full force they were banged open as the telekinetic shockwave tore through and sent flying down into the tomb, the entrance being blown free for the two intrepid adventurers with a powerful explosion, what was left of the doors crashing into the walls.

From further down inside the tomb animalistic screams of pure rage and hatred could be heard...what beasts were inside had been awakened and they were hungry...

 

[Fabula Caromed]

It was profound to witness an ancient stone door being imploded by an invisible Force, but Fabula was far too busy concentrating on keeping herself alert, keeping her body ready and her soul burning to care about anything so complex. The tombs of Sith Lords were dangerous places, with predators and monsters inside that could withstand the passage of millennia in hibernation. None would be worse the wear for being woken up so rudely. Fabula was too busy anticipating them to marvel at how thousands of years of rock could be shattered by a woman's will in a matter of seconds.

Instead, she moved in ahead of Siobhan, trying to allow her eyes to adjust to the poor lighting inside the tomb. That wouldn't work, of course. Instead, she turned back to Siobhan and raised an eyebrow. "It'll be quite dark in here, Miss Kerrigan. Do we have a light source?" Crossing her arms, she leaned up against the destroyed doorway and grimaced a bit. "I can fight blind, but I don't enjoy the prospect of navigating a maze without my eyes."

Her muscles felt like they were lightning conductors, sparking and twitching with contained power with every movement she made. She needed some way to vent it out, and soon. Fortunately, she didn't have to wait long for a volunteer. The snarling, pounding noise of some large creature started behind her. Its claws scraped the stone floors as it scrambled towards the newly-made exit to the tomb, its snapping jaws the only thing interrupting the growling sounds. Fabula's reaction was what might almost be termed calm. She didn't move until it had already jumped into the air behind her.

...At which point she leapt into a standing backflip and brought her leg around to kick the top of its skull with speed and force literally impossible for a human body. The monster - what a more learned individual might have called a Hssiss - crashed to the ground with a bleeding head and a concussion that it might not wake up from. Fabula landed silently a moment later, the flipped her hair back into position and returned her worried look to Siobhan. "Do we have glow lamps, or something? I don't often bring light sources with me."
@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Fabula Cavataio"]

Deep into the belly of the beast they had ventured. Well, strictly speaking not into the belly, for they were still very much at the start of their journey. Doubtless the tomb of the ancient Sith lord Kallig, who was clearly a great and terrible servant of darkness whose monument would need to be cleansed with fire and sword. And with the immense force punch power of the Dathomirian tank. The lightning inside the tomb was indeed rather poor, providing little illumination. It seemed there had been candles once, but they had lone gone out. Through a crack in the ceiling some sunlight fell through and Siobhan's bionic eye glowed eeriely in the dark, illuminating some ancient paintings that could be made out on the wall. Paintings of submission and devastation as the ancient red-skinned Sith enslaved worlds and conquered, receiving sacrifices from their slaves.

However, neither of them probably had much time to admire the artistry or be repelled by it. For her part, Siobhan would be reminded of the unholy temples on Gehenna. Those had been purged just as thoroughly. "We have...," her words were interrupted when suddenly Fabula knocked out a Hssiss with a kick, showing off her prowess, and, as Siobhan saw that out of the corner of her eye, another creature manifested, having used its powers to cloak itself it seemed, to a limited extent at least. A Hssiss it was three metre long, with a green, scaly hide, a metre long tail covered in mean looking spikes and a mouth full of large teeth eager for blood. Indeed, some pieces of human flesh were still hanging on its choppers. Perceiving a warning in the Force Siobhan leapt as it came pouncing at her and swung its spiked tail, its aura radiating malice and hunger, hunger for blood and flesh.

As the beast came at her with what was surprising speed considering its appearance, advancing very fast, it was suddenly grabbed by an invisible hand that roughly gripped its tail and yanked it back roughly before it could drive its spikes into her and its choppers came in close for her leg, the grip so hard to break it, the creature snarling hatefully as it was pulled into the air violently spun around to be slammed into a wall with great velocity, with such force it seemed to shake as its head made painful conversation with solid brick, a small hole being blown into it by the powerful smash, blood dripping onto the dust-covered floor.

Turning her eyes to Fabula, absolute calm as she thrashed a darkside dragon creature but worried about the mundane, but practical aspect of lacking illumination, Siobhan gave the woman a short smile. "Got glowrods in the backpack," she said, removing them from the military-style rucksack she was carrying. She looked approvingly at the bleeding hssiss then back at Fabula. As far as Siobhan was concerned the woman was being....really cute. "Nice work. We're really...really gonna be best of friends, dear," she said in a very chipper tone.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

When the second dragon revealed itself, Fabula's knee jerked into what was almost another kick...before it was quickly taken care of by Siobhan. Rather than exert herself any more, Fabs waited with a quiet smile until Sio was done, then gave a quick bow of her head and accepted one of the little high-tech flashlight-glowstick-things. "That's kind of you to say, Miss Kerrigan." Holding the light out into the cavernous tomb before them, she leaned her head to one side as if in thought, then started off without a word.

A slightly more sane creature would probably have made a witty comment about how unrealistic it was to make friends in the middle of a dangerous crypt full of traps, monsters, cave-ins, and the spirits of the dead. Unfortunately, Fabula was about as sane as she was witty, and she couldn't very well think up snappy comebacks when she was to busy keeping her eyes peeled for dangerous critters that wanted to tear them both to bloody pieces. At least, that was her excuse. Lazy battle goddess.

She found her next challenger within a few silent steps. The first room after she entered was as thick with the Dark Side as the rest of the planet was, which made it difficult for her (relatively underdeveloped) senses to tell if anything was in it or where those things might have been. Fortunately, her hearing was just fine, and Fabula snapped her fist back behind her the second she heard something that didn't sound like Siobhan. On her right, she connected with something, and that something went flying backwards several feet as her shotgun-punch delivered several G's of force to its face.

Turning back, Fabs looked to Siobhan with a frown on her face. "If they're all going to be invisible, I can't predict them coming, Miss Kerrigan. I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep all of them off of you." She didn't seem the least bit phased by the third massive green lizard of the day recoiling in concussed pain behind her. Instead, she moved a few steps back, walking towards her companion with a casual, relaxed demeanor...only to stop after just a couple of feet and raise one leg over her head to deliver what might have been the galaxy's deadliest axe-kick. The Hssiss' spine shattered under the power of her heel colliding with its back, leaving it gasping and twitching on the ground, but entirely helpless.

"Please take the lead. It will be easier for me to remove threats that might ambush you, and I'm less vulnerable," her tone jumped a bit as she reached down and snapped the creature's neck, ending its suffering. "...from behind."
@[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

@[member="Fabula Cavataio"]

Since Siobhan was also severely lacking in the sanity department, she and Fabula clearly fit well. As for wittiness, Siobhan clearly thought that she was witty, but it did not extend beyond repeating pop culture one-liners and making thinly-veiled innuendo, so that was debatable. In any case Siobhan could not help admire the artistry as Fabula beat another one of the green skinned dragons to death, its spine shattering under the force of her heel. In the span of a few minutes she had decided that Fabula was probably the coolest person she had met in recent times. Finally she had found someone who could keep up with her when it came to wrecking mayhem and tearing things apart.

"I'll gladly let you watch my back," she said, not trying to make bad innuendo at all. "Where we were you all this time? You and me, we could have had such fun together!" she continued in a terribly chipper tone that was remarkably at odds with the carnage all around them. Or the skeletons lying around in the corridor, some of which still had dusty and tattered rags of clothing clinging to them, their flesh stripped from their bodies, often contorted in weird angles. Not to mention the badly beaten and crushed dragons that were lying around.

The dark side was thick in the tomb, regardless of the location, its sheer power could be felt. Intoxicating in its nature, beckoning them like a siren, ever eager for to find new avatars of destruction that could cause chaos. Thing was that the two only slightly unstable battle goddesses were already quite equipped at causing untold devastation. Siobhan's senses tingled as she moved through a long corridor, strewn with skeletons, ancient and decayed statues of Massassi warriors and red skinned, tentacled Sith lords lining both sides of the hall. If one looked up one would be able to perceive the stuffed out head of a hssiss hanging from the ceiling, glaring down upon them. That is, it probably was not glaring since it was dead and all that, but its choppers were bared.

As she thought she felt something she spun and in a blur her bolter jumped into one of her hands, safety switched off just as fast. Squeezing the trigger she fired, the weapon roaring as explosive bolts leapt out upward to the ceiling. From what had been a hole in it zombies fell down to the ground, their decayed bodies blown into foul smelling chunks of flesh. From throughout the hall zombies came storming in.

In the Force they were like empty husks, void of anything other than the instinct to devour flesh and make others join the unity, their hunger such that it could be felt. Another bolter leapt into her hand, equally loaded with explosive bolts and Siobhan fired, the roars of the bolters combined with the screeches of the undead creating an to her ears beautiful symphony, which probably said quite a bit about her. As the undead came in close telekinesis exited the magazines and in their place she switched to buckshot, blowing them apart at close range.

She recoiled as a zombie leapt at her from the left and its teeth tore into her thankfully ultrachrome armoured arm, another tore at her bionic hand with its claws, hitting solid durasteel as the synthetic flesh was ripped, then with a war cry she let loose an omnidirectional blast of force energy, enveloping the undead surrounding her as the wave swept through and sending them flying like ragdolls. More of the undead came charging and chanting in the Dark Tongue of the ancient Sith, praises to their dark gods that would need to be cleansed. Siobhan felt like on fire now, here she did not have to pretend and could fully give in to her lust for combat. Thus the pounding noise upon the floor behind the zombies was not threatening but rather music to her ears.

Very large, powerfully built Sith guardian constructs, slightly reminiscent of trolls, their bodies engraved with Sith symbols and armed with large rusty Sith hammers splattered with long dried blood, enclosed upon them, one coming from behind for Fabula, the other for Siobhan. Such was their fury that several of the zombies were knocked down, crushed beneath them or just sent flying.

Siobhan rolled as the golem brought down its hammer upon her with the force of a hurricane, such force behind the strike that it split the long damaged ground and cleaved an already beaten zombie in half. As the hammer was swung at her once more she backflipped, though a powerful punch caught her and sent her reeling as she flew towards the wall but then caught herself, shooting upward into the air. The pain shooting through her was energising, at a mental command all around her bodies, of zombies, as well as skeletons were pulled up into the air as if by an invisible hand, then hurled towards the relentlessly advancing golem at high velocity and with kinetic force behind the throw much like scatter shots. Many were cleaved in half or smashed by the stone creature's blade, but under the force of the bombardment it reeled, being knocked back as the twin boltguns roared explosive death but still continued, for it was constructed to last, but deep wounds were blown into it from blast and shrapnel, blood dripping down.

Then abruptly her mind seized its hammer arm in a powerful vice grip, violently yanking it back so that a crunching sound as she snapped its bones was heard then she twisted the weapon to smash it straight into the creature's chest. With its remaining hand it seized the hammer and in a rage threw it at her, charging in pure fury, with Siobhan dodging as she shot upward, though the weapon still struck her shoulder, pain shooting through her as her arm went numb. But then the beast gasped as she seized its throat in a powerful, choking grip then unleashed a blast of energy that propelled it across the room to smash through a wall, with Siobhan still gliding in the air a few metres before she dropped down, her boots hitting the mangled remains of a zombie. Beads of sweat dripped down her temples and forehead, she took a breath, but looked satisfied at the mayhem.