Private Here be Monsters

[Kylraya]

Planet: Ithor
Mother Jungle
Midnight

In a remote deep jungle area known as Narithia with sparse village communities, people have been disappearing. Those sent out to investigate have also disappeared. People are frightened and they have asked for assistance.

Hunt
Feed
Grow
Swarm

Hunt
Feed
Grow
SCREAMS
Silence

Thick jungle, with warm heat, and humidity, the air was equally intense. Many creatures were going about their business, small, and large, some tame, some wild. No unusual flora and fauna, maybe if you looked very close you could see a few species that looked exotic, but otherwise, it looked like a normal jungle.

At a small campsite lay two bodies. Hunting here for years. Silence had been endless. Years without contact with hivemind. She was not feral like the others had become, she had her will but not a frame of reference. The silence was driving her as mad as the others, just more slowly. Many billions of voices were no longer with her, from insects to flowers, up to titans. A dawning concept of other was coming over her, she was one, alone. Madness. Lacking hivemind's voice and clarity, an ocean of reference and meaning was lost.

The two Ithorians had never seen her coming or stood a chance. Now one more she sensed, somewhere, something not hive. Seeking through animals' eyes, tracking. Although she lacked hivemind, the force was in her, she had once been a Jedi a very long time ago, and been sought out for her natural gifts. Feeling outward across their jungle for eyes to see. Primal instincts were returning, Hunt, Feed, Grow.

Deep pain unleashed from her throat, cutting aside part of a tree with her claw, she raised up on her four terminus talons, releasing the screaming Ithorian body below her feet, mercifully he finally perished. Movement and hunger drew her, primal and all-consuming. Crawling along with her talons like a giant spider, she came through the undergrowth, the practiced predator she was barely now making a sound except.

Hunting

From wherever they were...

...Swarm Mother was coming.

Tag: Hilal Vizsla

Gear:
Terminus Barab Armor
Natural Terminus Exoskeleton with 4 Talons (Back)
Naturally Razor Sharp Yellow Claws on Hands and Feet.

 

[Hilal Vizsla]

Mandalorian Armor

Hilal's Ship

"Okay DVA we're almost to Ithor," Hilal heard the beeping on the navigation, the ship was in reach of the planet's orbit. The young woman had received an impromptu contract from a desperate client saying that the a "Witch" was wiping out entire villages in their jungles and the needed a Bounty Hunter to take them out due to the Jedi being occupied with the Brotherhood. To Hilal, "Witch" meant a Sith. Those bastards loved to experiment with magic in order to augment their dark powers. Though the credits were more than sufficient, if the Witch was indeed a Sith then it'll be satisfying to kill that fucking monster.

The Sith destroyed Mandalore, killed her parents on the day she was born, and caused her people to be scattered all over the Galaxy. It took the Mandalorians years to rebuild but they never forgotten what happened. Though Hilal was only a baby when Mandalore was glassed, she felt that same anger as well. She remembers and she will avenge Mandalore one day. "Standby," she said while DVA: Her faithful droid companion was by her side communicating with the ship's computer. Hilal wished that she could afford a better, more efficient Hyperdrive. The best ones were the ones that internally did the calculations. All a pilot needed to do was press the button when it was time to get out of Hyperspace. All this preparation was tedious and outdated.

"Turning off the sublight engines," Hilal muttered, the ship shook as the Ithor was close to them. DVA continued to beep rapidly his small body shaking with concern.

"She's attacking now?!" Hilal's heart skipped a beat at DVA's bad news. "This is where the fun begins, I suppose, lock onto her coordinates and accelerate at full speed as soon as the engines warm up."

DVA gave an eager beep as the engines roared back to life. After about five minutes, Hilal arrived at the jungles of Ithor where this monster was causing a rukus. "We can't bomb them because there's people there," Hilal said standing up and checking her armor. "Keep the ship in orbit and let the people know that I'm here."

Taking a deep breath, Hilal headed to the exit. "Wish me luck," she gave a nervous giggle while DVA beeped. Jumping out from the ship, Hilal flew high in the air, starting to track down her bounty. "Time to earn my pay," she muttered hearing the sound of a nearby roar. "Scanners indicate she's only a few clicks south," Hilal muttered looking at the results of the soundwave scan from her HUD. "She won't have to wait long then."

Kylraya

 

[Kylraya]

More screams from somewhere in the jungle, Ithorians snatched and pulled out of view. Like some vine had curled around their legs and dragged them away, leaving marks across the ground where their footsteps stopped and they were snatched. A few hastily dropped belongings might be seen the closer Hilal got to her target. Backpacks, a makeshift wooden spear, a toy music box still playing.

Closer. Seeking. They were running. Scattering into the deeper jungle. One by one a voice would go dead, a desperate message over a communicator cut short. Coming from trees above them, and below their eyesight. Where the bodies were taken, nobody knew, and perhaps that was for the best. One was shooting all around himself, not that many Ithorians were warriors, panicked farmers, scientists, and botanists for the most part.

Then there was silence. Just the flocks of birds probably moving somewhere around Hilal Vizsla and the jungle's canopy when she got closer. With the scattering of animals, the jungle was often considered a living thing, with its own language if you could read it or listen. She might see where the center of the commotion was directly, and then how silent it had become. Were any from this latest batch alive? Yes, but they were running.

Temporarily sated. The Swarm mother rested, close to the ground, lurking beneath the trees. Curled around the bottom of a large ragged trunk, older than she was. Talons resting into the earth and claws gripping the wood to latch her in place. After the carnage, there was momentary peace. Clear markings led directly to her, like a monster in her temporary nest. Yellow eyes watching from the midnight black.

A Shamarok flitter, known as a flying rodent, was flapping around the head of one of the fleeing victims but gave up the chase eventually. Maybe Hilal Vizsla caught sight of the animal as she flew closer, or descended to track her bounty. Strange behavior for the vocal bird, which was a pest or a prize depending on your view, but not especially vicious.

 

[Hilal Vizsla]

Mandalorian Armor

"Wait a minute," Hilal's HUD picked up on the creature in her airspace. It was a Shamarock Filter flying underneath its claws was the head of an Ithoran bloodied and torn apart. Poor bastard.....

Hilal frowned accelerator to its location, but it flew away before she could reach the Filter. "Strange," Hilal said. "Filters are predators but there's no way they could kill off entire villages. They're smart enough to stay away from civilized areas."

Besides the roar that Hilal picked was more intense than the average Shamarock Filter. She had faced placed plenty of these creatures during her preliminaries to become a Bounty Hunter and they were had a higher pitched screech. The young woman descended to the jungle below touching down onto the surface. Breathing lightly, Hilal surveyed the destroyed area the flocks of birds flying in the distance. The monster was here somewhere..... "Activating Prowler 1000 exploration droids," Hilal voiced the command as two small probe droids shot out from her blaster cannon. It was another installment that the young woman added to her Armor. Sometimes it was best to scout the area before making any rash decisions. Hilal didn't want to go into this blind after all.

"Scan the area," Hilal ordered her Droids. "There might be a place that the ship overlooked."

The two droids immediately scurried deeper into forest leaving them open for the monster to ambush them. Hilal took a deep breath hoping that the two droids would come back safely with information about the monster's exact location.

Kylraya

 

[Kylraya]

Metal smelled of nothing, no scent for those watching. Only a subtle movement of some small droids through her jungle. Claimed as her own hunting grounds, all were sustenance. Small animals may notice and move, while bigger ones watched from where they sat. Small ripples became larger through an intricate ecosystem, nothing which disturbed Kylraya immediately.

Only as they moved closer to her location, behind the night's blackness there were shifts around her location to call her. Chittering of animals and flapping of wings disturbed by approaching small metal. Chittering from the back of her throat became a crackling sound to raise in pitch. Other animals echoed a lively song in chorus, howls of predators, and warnings of prey seeking shelter. She slid down her tree, crawling along the jungle floor like the spiders above her, mimicking them, bonding.

A first metal droid came toward her, nothing happened, no sound, no vision. Spiders were patient, and as she bonded, she behaved like a spider. Only when that first droid was close enough did she pounce, leaping from the ground in a snatching motion with all four talons, nails and teeth, like a claw extending out of the black toward it to grab.

Perhaps the second droid saw this black image shooting out of the darkness towards its prey. Almost like the jungle came alive to have and consume before Kylraya's talons withdrew again from view.

Hilal Vizsla

 

[Hilal Vizsla]

Mandalorian Armor


Hilal always found the Jungle terrifying.

Being alone stuck in the middle of a large, tropical rainforest teeming of dangerous lifeforms. Being a Bounty Hunter meant that you have to go to the more savage areas of the galaxy to earn you pay. Hilal could feel her lithe body shaking her lips curled in anticipation. The worst part of the jungle was sifting through the tangled vegetation some of them poisonous searching for a beast that sees your innards as a free buffet. "The waiting," Hilal impatiently stared at her HUD seeing no signs of life from her two probe droids so far. "It's the fucking waiting."

Every part of Hilal's body screamed to follow up on the Probe Droids. Given how dense the jungle is, it'll be hard to do low level scans. The young woman was about to take a step, her armored foot slowly sinking onto the fresh grass until she heard frequent beeping from her second droid. "Show me," Hilal said as her HUD showed a brief glimpse of dark sharp talons in the corners of the picture.

"Position marked," Hilal muttered her engines flared up and she accelerated deeper into the jungle. The nav point marked the target's location southwest about 3 kilometers that's not too far from where she was at.

"Getting closer," Hilal's heart was thumping wildly but she needed to push it aside. She is a warrior and fear was only a temporary set back to glory. "I will find glory," Hilal muttered to herself.

Kylraya

 

[Kylraya]

Again her tree was her familiar purchase, claws, and talons holding place. Clawed markings of weeks, months, perhaps years here. Black on black, hard to make out. Quiet moments for Hilal, sleep had Kylraya trying to rest after the kills and primeval violence. Jungles that should sleep here rarely did, there was barely any rest, always movement and hunger. Legacy of the swarm in her and others it had touched. This jungle had been marred.

Roogak were passing by in a small herd. Stubborn animals that made her want to sit where she was and never move, equally as stubborn. Then there was an Arrak snake on the branch, curling its way to the top, wrapped like she had been around her tree, hissing like she was crackling in her throat. Spiders were all over her temporary nest, webs in trees as Hilal got closer. Below were discarded items showing the way, piles of clothing and equipment scattered about. She was definitely in the right place to find a beast, nests had moved month to month or if understood, season to season to better move with the jungle's natural movement toward the water.

There would be a pause as the distance between both closed, restful, quiet, and perhaps eerie. To the untrained, they might have let their guard down. Had the target gone? Was anyone here but her own footsteps? Perhaps twenty minutes, perhaps an hour later....

Shifting again, the jungle heard approach. Bonded to the spider, the snake, and the herd animals, Kylraya sensed them move and so she did. Scuttling across the ground, winding up a tree somewhere to see whoever was disturbing her jungle, her hunting ground. Yellow eyes might be seen from the black, or was it an animal? Whether a shot came or not Kylraya moved so fast, so used to this terrain. There was no warning sound now, no sound at all, there was just a hunters instinct.

Hunt
Feed
Grow
Swarm

Dropping low again to avoid pursuit or shot, her jungle was her shelter and armor. She moved somewhere left of Hilal Vizsla , circling around where the newcomer had moved, like the Feline that had just crossed her path would have done. Trying to get behind her, stalking her as a cat might. Now four animals flooded her senses, her instincts sharpened and she became more dangerous, predatory, ferocious but still patiently stalking. Time was not on Hilal's side! The hunter was being hunted.

Hilal Vizsla