Journey to the West (Matsu & Matsu)

[Matsu Ike]

[[bahahahaha it timed up perfectly the gif of Meiko walking down the street and your gif of shoes walking in the same direction]]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Matsu could feel it, she looked at Matsu and was expanding her senses. There was so many things on this world at first it was hard to take in. The overwhelming sense of the dangerous sithspawn that resided here. A far flung world the sith could experiment and keep them on to breed. She looked at and touched the bio organic plants as they glowed visible to the eye but not the force. The Vong had come here and much like Mimban created creatures, transporting to breed more with the environment. A look in her eyes while she heard the sound off in the distance pointing over the outcropping for Matsu and her eyes were alight with excitement.

"Rancors, tyrant rancors at that.... and others. Looks like a herd of them." In the distance a clearing of trees and several dozen rancors were walking, the largest nearly twice the size of the others while some glowed green showing they were the sithspawn... One of the few species that had been created to breed with its own kind and produce more of itself. Large teeth and horns where they had become, Gallos was a marvel to behold while there was more things going through the world. She saw the planets, saw the creatures and heard the sounds of it while her senses were opened.

She could also sense the small warring between herself and Xiangu not a battle of the real sort but as her friend had noted their were light and dark pressing against each other. Neither giving as neither of them doubted or their side. Neither pushed against the other and as she clipped her saber on her belt the solari crystal felt warm against her suit, the darkside was on this planet but it wouldn't suffocate her. She knew herself more then she knew what could come from the darkness and the solari crystal could handle protect her. Much like on Korriban when it had protected her from the darkness of the crypts leading her to the bloody slurry.

Matsu though was surprised and she was looking from under the hat as the rest while the sun was high. "When we have a chance I will have to get you a hat like mine, it is just shell spider silk and some flexsteel." Her smile though wasn't leaving as being here right now on a world few set foot on in the last few centuries was worth it. She turned looking at the ship as they had unloaded the Jun-la and it was loaded with stuff for exploration and camping. Nothing to heavy but a small grid for protection and motion sensors in case they needed to have early warning and protection.

Matsu climbed up on the large creature and offered her arm for Matsu to climb up and join her on the saddle while she checked the other things. The gleaming of the refitted songsteel armor that the one Templar had given her. Eight foot of the armor and it was heavy, she had been able to make armor her size from it so she could have some protection with it. She was still working to make it a really useful suit of armor. with enough features of it to justify herself empowering it. Matsu covered the golden armor with a blanket while looked forward, the Jun-la sniffing the air but it didn't have a scent to follow so just had them.

"We'll be back." She waited for Matsu to get on and settled before using the reigns and going off as the mount used its claws to dig into a large tree and used the downed tree to head down lower into the jungles. Its movements swoft and not making as much sound as more creatures came out, baby sabercats, several vong creatures they used for disposing of waste and on their ships. There was creatures flying over head while she held her hat closer with a smile. "This world is more beautiful then I thought at first." She hadn't expected this, primitive, untouched yes but the creatures despite being created and dumped here had made a world of wonder.

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

She watched the herd of rancors barreling across one of the raised landmasses across from them, trees bending and snapping as they pushed their way through the jungle. She’d been in the presence of some of the creatures before, seen them used as untamed ‘pets’ to destroy people’s enemies in gruesome and hands-off fashion. She had a healthy respect for the kind of power they had even if she felt the threat somewhat dulled by Ike’s presence and the things they’d accomplished before.

Wrapping her hand around Matsu’s arm she hauled herself on to the Jun-la, settling herself so she wasn’t bumping in to the suit of armor she’d watched her friend cover delicately. It appeared to be a work of art – enormous, heavy, but she assumed there were ways to work around that. But before she could even think they were off, the Jun-la a surprisingly smooth ride as it slipped through vines and tree trunks as if it had been born to the environment. It was an infinitely useful creature she thought, though Matsu had a tendency to anthropomorphize animals, imagining their thoughts and feelings more clearly than she understood the other people around her.

As they sped along she found she couldn’t move her head fast enough to keep up with the profusion of wildlife bursting from their hiding places among the trees, wide-eyed and wondrous as they took in the two intruders they didn’t recognize. She had to agree with her friend, watching as a pair of Narglatch so startled they couldn’t think to attack watched from the sidelines as they sped by. “No, it’s not what I was expecting at all, and certainly not the— ” She was cut off from what she meant to say as another of the small Vong creatures skittered by along the treetops, an organic jumble of a thing with appendages in places that didn’t make sense, spikes in ridges along what Matsu assumed to be its sides. She had heard tell of a growing Vong presence elsewhere on the planet and it intrigued her above all else – she wanted to get closer, to understand so that if and when she faced some larger and more dangerous version of what she was seeing now she would be prepared. “Have you fought Vong?” she asked, watching the creature continue on its path and disappear.

It was another few minutes before they came along a drop-off. Matsu got the sense the planet itself dipped down much farther, earth carved out in the name of expansion by attempt after unsuccessful attempt. As the Jun-la slowed as if sensing her thoughts she felt an overwhelming sense of despair; not her own, but the thoughts of hundreds of people who’d died close to here. It was unexpected in a place that otherwise appeared so deserted.

They’d stopped in front of a hole that led deep down in to darkness – a mine of some sort, it appeared, the calls of the animals they’d left in the dense jungle behind them. “Surprises upon surprises.”

[member="Matsu Ike"]​

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Matsu was watching everything and thinking about that. She had fought the vong... kind of there was a clear distinction between some of them. She had been to Zenoma and their new world. They were very interesting to see and learn from even if they disliked some jedi or technology. She thought back to it and the vong had been nice enough teaching her how to work with their equipment and ships. She remembered riding one of the large worms and using an amphistaff. With a smile though she spoke. "I have in practice, a small group of jedi were sent to talk with them and it was a strange things. Some of their creatures are interesting to see."

She was starring at the mine shaft now and while this world was many things it wasn't hugely inhabited but that wouldn't mean people didn't try. She knew the sith before they fell had pushed to try and take the world. The Fel's Imperium had pushed to try and take the world each time they had been pushed back as slowly she inched the Jun-la into the mouth letting the force enhance her senses. She was pushing it now and wanting to have all of it secured as she moved about scenting the air for anything poisonous. Her eyes flickering while she moved him back and let it scent the air with its large nose. She could think of a few things it might be smelling.

"Surprises are always a good thing, never know what might be down there." Matsu brought it over near a tree and some rocks as she lashed the reigns around it and spoke petting its face. "Stay here and we'll be back." She was listening with the force as she slid off getting her pack for it all while she started gearing up. The golden bracers with a flashlight and her belt useful while she held one of the equipment packs out for Matsu speaking. "There is a utility belt for food rations, fiber cord and grappling hooks. The basic amenities of a stoemtrooper/jedi/sith/republic command belt plus a few extra pieces. A quickshot dart shooter it is quiet and automatically reloads."

Matsu had her sabers but those were bright and could give out more light then just the glow rods while she ran a hand through her hair and began taking a small set of training remotes. Their blasters upgraded enough to hurt as needed and they were flying around while she thought about what else they might need. She had their small area protected, light armor on, weapons for herself and Matsu then there was the food pellets and cubes, medical packs. "We should be ready to go." She was looking at the mine entrance and well this was the fun of it, explore everything they could find. She was going to do just that.

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

The Vong were mysterious creatures to her, myths and legends made real. The idea of extragalactic beings, real confirmation that there was something out there beyond their own space and time (though who could ever have doubted it, considering what their Galaxy had become?) was mind-blowing to her. That sensation of wonder was at the core of Matsu’s being and perhaps her yearning for a face-to-face with those creatures.

Slipping off the Jun-la after its’ initial sweep of the cave’s mouth, she watched Ike tie it loosely to one of the massive trees outside before joining her again and moving slowly inward, her borrowed utility belt around her hips. “As always, exactly the right thing for the right situation,” she complimented as they continued on. Her friend Kesare had – somehow – gotten close with an assassin, a man who had the Force but refused to use it due to events in his past that made him mostly distrustfully of the gift. A shame, to be sure, but one that made him highly proficient with weapons of all sorts. He’d been so kind as to teach Kesare & Matsu how to hold and wield anything with a prowess that would win them the day. So the blaster, foreign in some Force-users hands, felt more natural when she palmed it.

Exploration for its own sake was at the heart of Matsu but not something she’d had the fortune to participate in for quite some time. Leisure was a luxury and though she was consistently able to afford the more material things, what she truly craved was freedom. To carve time out expressly for the purpose of this, to dive in to the unknown – that was living.

As they trekked in to the cave, it was abundantly clear that none only did the people before mine extensively for something but that whatever moved through here had been massive. She wondered if they didn’t use large Vong creatures as make-shift trolleys, beasts of burden to lumber through the tunnels with no real idea of their potential. They had traveled for a few minutes or more, deeper and deeper in to the canyon wall they’d scaled to get down to the entrance and discussing the grooves in the wall that only confirmed the idea of mining equipment, when the yawning mouth of a huge excavation opened up in front of them. The ceiling reached high, high up and thankfully nothing she could see nested up there above the drop-off in to the shaft below. There were man-made steps to either side of them leading to tunnels deeper in to the system, but the one that interested Matsu was the one she saw the very tip of a greenish tail disappear in to as they came to the edge of the mineshaft.

“What do you think? One of those Sithspawn rancors, or Vong?”

[member="Matsu Ike"]​

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

The cave was a place of wonder and Matsu's eyes were glowing a little from the low light. Easy enough to do with some simple lessons but she was glad seeing in the dark was brought to the Silver jedi as she walked through it. The low light reflecting off the slick walls and she could hear in the distance something. Her hand came up as Matsu let her eyes flock around feeling the slickness of the walls as Matsu spoke about the green tail. Her eyes darting while she reached out with the force and tried to sense something... anything but couldn't find it. The vong creatures and food chain possibly making it harder while she worked to think about it.

"Might be a baby rancor, with the eco-system here the creatures eating the vong could have different effects after awhile. Eating corrupted flesh can taint a creature.. maybe eating meat that is force dead can obscure ones signature." It was something to ponder as she moved forward and was working on what came to her mind. She knew there were ways to sense the vong, to connect to their wavelength but it was a strange technique. You needed something special that was living and able to be bonded with you.Matsu could think of a few things coming to her while her breath came out.

A small smile coming on her face though while she moved ahead and slowly was coming around the corner, the end of the tunnel holding the faint green glow from the creatures tail as she didn't make a sound and started creeping forward. Matsu held a small look on her face biting her tongue as the trail from it gave way to lightly glowing lichen on the walls and hanging moss. Matsu could smell it now from passing and coming out in a wider cavern there was the baby rancor with large glowing trees and small flying creatures. The trees had her attention as she moved back a bit and spoke.

"Lambents I think, they are fruits... things grown by the vong. Like living apples or fruits that can be small glow lights that might move around."

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

The earthy smell in the passage was unexpected, as if she had been shot straight back up to the surface but not of Gallos…but instead perhaps Endor or some other forest moon. The lichen glowed slightly as if in time with some heartbeat of the nature surrounding them, soft and unthreatening as she brushed her natural fingertips over its surface.

When they reached the mouth of the trail they’d seen the tail of the creature disappear in to, Matsu was even more surprised to see what seemed like a forest covering the floor of the cavern. It was, however, like no forest she had ever seen before with what seemed like what she could only call crystals dotting its ‘trees’, vine-line protrusions from the floor of the cave. It almost seemed like at some point these had been farmed, perhaps harvested for potential helpful qualities. Even with the juvenile rancor in its midst, a beast that seemed to know they were there but strangely went about its business unworried, Matsu felt a sense of quiet to the whole area – a peaceful, long untouched hush. The creature moved within large gaps between rows of the plants, pausing every once in a while to inspect something only to decide it wasn’t edible before moving on.

“Fruit?” she asked quietly, sounding quizzical. She, like many, had been left with the distinct impression that all Vong were war-faring people and it was hard to imagine them growing something so ethereal and entrancing. But she supposed everyone had to eat somehow and that not all Vong were the crusading invaders of legend – she should know that not everyone was what they appeared, or what they should have been.

She waited until the rancor had made its way a bit deeper in to the cavern to move forward through the plants. She could swear they had some type of recognition of her – not watching her per se, but aware of her proximity. Moving closer to one she felt a sudden trickle of what she could only describe as agitation and the feeling she should… - she reached out, touching her fingers gently to the shoot branching off of one of the flowering plants, a pod of light shining softly on her face as the planet seemed to relax under her touch, calming itself down. “Strange,” she said softly, loud enough for Matsu to hear.

[member="Matsu Ike"]​

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Matsu looked on crouching a little there as she watched. She knew vong plants, animal things... their technology and creatues which were the same thing grew on worlds and vong forming was a powerful way to go about things. Looking that the trees she moved with atsu forward but paused looking around at all of it. "Kind of... these are... lambent crystals. They are... fruit growing from trees but you woudln't want to eat them. They can be bonded to a person and used to communicate or sense hidden enemies." Matsubrought a hand up to the tree and slowly ran a hand along the surface until one of the sacks was in front of her.

Then she had a knife while she ran it along the sack and a crystal slid out. She was working with it for a moment and offered it to Matsu while she went to a second up cutting it and letting the juice spray a little before it slipped into her hand. Matsu squeezed it for a moment while she was pushing the force into it, she was sensing around them and slowly working to bond with it if only because here on this world as her senses lit up with a great deal more life she was backed by it. Leaning against the tree for a bit while she was shaking her head and looking at the crystal. The inner light of it dimming and flickering for her while she reached out.

Can you hear this? She was wondering if it could be heard as slowly she looked up and around. Above them it ws an open area at the very top and more of the lichen was there growing, more sounds from around them as other creatures were tunneling around the rock and earth. Matsu didn't stand up she just leaned forward and moved slowly digging around with her hands as she picked up some dead sparkbees grinning. The limbs of the trees were slick while she moved slowly finding a hive that was filled but the sparkbees while docile were hard at work. Their use in bladders that could house and hold them for shaping not a bad idea.

The hive as she held it there was nothing else inside of it but lightly cracking as the honey combed and filled pods came into view. She grabbed a couple of them for herself speaking after a gulp. "Now this if you have never had it is wonderful, sparkbee honey and it is fresh. Those little things can make something so very good with some good effects on crab armor when it comes into contact." It also was mildly alcoholic in some ways making drinkers tipsy but they were force users and could resist the effects but it is something few get to really eat or drink. She had a smile on her face while she stood there for a moment taking it all in.

Matsu had a small grin on her face though through it all and just breathed in and out a small sigh of enjoyment. She was rather liking this now and all of it was coming to a head or at least the mouth. There was a fresh beam of light as she walked through the cave seeing the tunnel the rancor had led them to peaking out upon a large overgrown structure and landing pad, a rancor herd sleeping and caring for its young while Matsu was feeling the euphoria of the honey a little but using the force to counteract most of it. The small look she had on her face though while some of the babies were around old model stormtrooper armor and weapons.

"An old Imperial base seems promising."

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

At first the plant had seemed to want to fight her. She could almost feel the tension in the leaves, an instinctual urge to protect itself. But Matsu, despite the path she’d chosen in life, did not seek to destroy without thought, and the adventurous side of her was high with wonder. The sensation of the pod between her natural fingers was strange – tacky, but dry, skidding under her skin. She was about to use one of her durasteel claws in place of a knife to slice open the pod when Matsu beat her to it, placing one of the crystals in her hand.

It was a strange sensation – heady, like suddenly seeing everything from the most slight change in angle that somehow made all the difference. She couldn’t really understand exactly how to read its signals but it felt natural in her hand, a slightly heightened awareness she thought she could get used to.

She was just beginning to try different things with it, tapping in to its wavelength by arranging the flow of the Force in her mind, when she heard Matsu’s call to attention. At first she thought maybe Ike had finally lost it – one too many hunts for crazy creatures, one too many adventures to places in the Galaxy that had the power to warp minds – when she saw her by a beehive. Xiangu had learned pretty early on that was one animal that did not bear messing with. (Exogorth? Sure. Bee? No way.) But her companion wasn’t being attacked, it didn’t seem – in fact, it looked like she was rather enjoying herself sampling the bee’s work. Moving closer slowly, she reached out and took a small section of comb, raising the waxy substance to her mouth and pulling the honey. It wasn’t like anything she ever tasted and she felt its rush distinctly. Though she could tamp it down, she didn’t work too hard to do so. She liked the feeling, a sudden lightness, the sensation of being filled with possibility. “Oh, now this is nice…” She palmed the lambent crystal in to one of her pockets, safe and deep down where it would remain while they continued.

It was an experience to savor as they moved forward, coming upon the herd of rancors at the end of another branching tunnel. (It didn’t really seem to matter that they were moving deeper in to an underground maze, tunnels that could take them Force knew how far. She didn’t care. It could go on forever and she would be content to discover, discover, discover.) The old structure towered over the herd, filling one section of the cavern wall, overgrown with nature’s takeover. She could just make out the door underneath the growth. Padding softly around the herd, most of which were sleeping and seemingly unconcerned if they noticed at all, she looked for a second before using her durasteel arm to pull over the worst of the growth around a control panel next to the blast doors. If she had a droid she might have reprogrammed it, but instead she did what all great explorers do when faced with something that would try and impede her progress towards something promising – she ruined it. Plucking wire by wire she played with the electronics until they malfunctioned, the blast door shuddering and lifting about a foot before clunking to a stop.

“Well, better than nothing,” she offered with a sarcastic little smile, using the enhanced strength of her metal arm once more to clear a hole in the vines and flowers for them. Pushing the top of her body through, she looked around carefully but was greeted by utter silence and no movement. She couldn’t sense anything living at least in the immediate vicinity, and pulled herself the rest of the way inside before waiting for Matsu, dusting herself off while she waited.

They had come in near a huge holoterminal, ancient and disconnected for centuries. But maybe it still held secrets. “This is the last thing I expected to find.” She sounded far too excited.

[member="Matsu Ike"]​

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Matsu looked at it all and the vines, the growth were there, she was following behind Matsu and the major part of it all. A look on her face of intrigue at the exploration as she vainly tried to see if anything worked... You never knew and that would just be the way of having a complicated plan to get in and the door was unlocked. She had seen that happen once before when a soldier forgot to lock the door and a large plan was made to through past it but none of the others had thought to try the door that had been left unlocked. She moved behind Matsu and was looking as her senses expanded outwards.

She could see the holoterminal and was bringing her hands up to it before she even spoke. A datapad coming out of herpack for it but nothing to serious as she grinned. "Never know what you might find out here." There was a joke in there somewhere but mostly it was the truth as Matsu rushed away everything until she had the datapad set down with a line going into the terminal. She was working on finding a way to activate it hopefully and withdrew a small knife while she pulled away from a box on the other end of the room. Flipping a switch as she looked back seeing a light explode and burn out with a pop.

Matsu gasped when it sparked up above while she moved around looking over everything, her palmshot going into a part of her gunbelt and the datapad lighting up as Matsu typed into it what she wanted to do. Access the records and hope it was compatible enough to know what she was asking. She was asking and hoping for possibly the impossible but hey this was Gallos so you never knew what might be able to happen and you never knew how dangerous something could be in the end. Matsu watched the datapad bring up some things mostly inventory lists and a few logs about patrols going missing in the lower sections.

"Well I don't know about that good stuff but some things about missing patrols and people around the base while they were here. Some inventory and looks like old model rifles, armors and weapons. You never know they might have some special weapons which could be valuable or useful to have if you take care of them. From the sounds there are polyps that could be vong creatures like amphistaffs which wouldn't be such a bad thing to have, could be used for a lot of things and not just having something that can spit venom at some of the more dangerous creatures on this planet."

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

As Ike went to work on the terminal, Matsu went to explore the spaces surrounding it in the large chamber they’d entered in to. By virtue of its design there was nothing of supreme value around them but it was still more than a little interesting to see the centuries old architecture. She’d seem similar things or buildings designed on these aesthetics, but nothing quite so old.

She was just about to go down a short hallway when she heard the spark of the terminal and Ike’s gasp, snapping her head over thinking she might see her friend’s sleeve on fire or something equally as disruptive. But instead there was excitement on the Atrisian’s face and Matsu quickly moved over to join her. She poured over the lines and lines of information Ike had managed to pry from the old terminal – and true, nothing interesting. But she was still intrigued by the reports of patrols going missing. The likelihood that whatever was going on down there was still going on was small, but Matsu wasn’t about to pass it up just because of that.

“Let’s see if we can’t figure out what happened to them. Long shot, but I’m up for a murder mystery. And those amphistaffs sound like they could come in handy.” She’d never held one or even seen one, but she knew what they were and what they could do. She didn’t have much use for guns, but she loved exotic weapons.

The rest of the base was eerily quiet as they traipsed downwards, Matsu trying to imagine what it must have been like in those days…where she would have fit in, if at all. She thought perhaps things weren’t so different now as they were then, at least now from what she’d seen. The same basic conflicts, the same struggle of light against dark…perhaps more had found balance.

But she was waxing philosophical about things she couldn’t possibly know and instead centered her attention on the hallway they’d just slid in to, the same eerie, light green glow coming from its end. There was an empty set of trooper armor lying along one wall, the helmet tilted as if watching them as they passed. A reptilian ticking sound, like something growling from far away and slowly as it slithered by, echoed lightly through the walls.

[member="Matsu Ike"]​

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Matsu looked at Matsu and gave a nod of her head to that, heading down and investigating wasn't such a bad thing and she knew the way back through the caves. Worse case scenario they fly and climb over the mountain which while large wasn't huge back to the jun-la and their equipment they hadn't brought. Matsu was all for that as she moved and started looking at the walls letting her senses expand outwards with her breathing. Inhale and expand your awareness, exhale and contract it. A good way to keep everything and if you felt something you could hold your breath to figure it out then exhale.

She was walking and listening as the sight of the stormtrooper brought her attention and Matsu crouched a little lower setting her hand on the ground and sending a small pulse of energy through it. She was listening now to the vibrations and focused upon it all as her mind raced thinking and search for the source of that sound. There were many more things down there in the dark and she was searching for them while her senses contracted coming back in and she started listening letting the force tell her what was scratching on the ground. Unless she held and focused the lambent crystal it wasn't going to be easy but she was moving deeper.

Matsu came to an old door and there was a section at the bottom bent up and inwards as she started pushing at it to force it open. Bringing her attention around to how loud it got as she lifted to try and get it off the ground so it wasn't scraping, her hands gripping the metal until it was opened enough for her to go inside and dig around her belt to get a glow rod. Activating it while she went further inside motioning with her head at the entrance and tossing the rod down the stairs to illuminate them. Matsu started heading down and offering a second rod while she cracked a third to keep it lit up and guide their path.

"This place runs deep, it will likely be nightfall when we come back up."

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

The crack of the glow rods seemed louder than normal in the enclosed space, the light flaring over the walls and corners of the hallway leading them further in to the cave system. She’d almost forgotten they were closed within miles of rock and heading further downwards until Ike mentioned it – the place was as quiet as the depths of space, and she could almost imagine they were up there. Despite the outpost’s obvious age – layers of collected dust disturbed only by their passage, the out-of-date styling of the architecture, and the signs of disrepair like the door Ike had used their advantage – she could still feel the traces of life that had once bustled through its halls. Research, the idea of conquering…or maybe that was just whatever rumbled deep below.

She took the glow rod offered to her delicately, holding it slightly above her head and forward to cast light on their descent. “I’m not in a rush if you aren’t,” she murmured, unwilling to break the hush more than she had to.

There were several flights of stairs winding downwards and it took them a minute or so to get to another door, this one propped open by several crates lodged beneath the door to hold it open. Matsu ran her fingers along their surface, coming away with a layer of dust…a layer not quite as thick as what settled over the rest of the complex. These boxes hadn’t been moved recently, but more so than the rest of the place. The lack of evidence thus far in their journey didn’t mean much to the adventurer – maybe whoever had propped these here came another way. Or from the inside.

She turned her head, finding Ike’s face in the wavering light of their glow rods exploring something else, tilting her head and giving her an inquiring look. Not being alone didn’t frighten Matsu, but it was something to be wary of.

There was enough space under the door for her to squat down and crawl underneath but first she took the precaution of throwing her glowrod underneath the door – waiting for some beastie to lunge or a trap to go off. If a person lay in wait they would hear them no matter what in the tomb-like silence of the place so she would rather get an idea of what lay ahead than opt for stealth.

Nothing happened so she squatted down and slid underneath the doorway which opened on yet another hallway – this time though…it smelled organic, like something living. Growing. Impossible? Maybe not. Retrieving her glowrod, she held it up for Ike so that she might be able to get a better grasp of the situation when she followed.

[member="Matsu Ike"]​

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

Time was not the issue, Matsu didn't mind taking a week to go through a place while she watched and was tracking. her eyesight trained around as she watch Matsu climb under a door and moved towards it looking at the dust, the darkness and she didn't go through just yet. Taking a moment to explore while her hands touched the wall and she sent a vibration. A small tap to see what was there that she couldn't see. Her mind was following it over the small imperfection in the metal that made little ridges you could run your fingers over. Could get a grip on for smaller creatures. She mused as it before moving to one of the cases.

It was built slightly out of the wall and the glow rod revealed it was an emergency case. For fires or other things as she opened it and there was a first aid kit. There was a fire axe and some water while she moved her hands over the kit taking it just in case. Might have some useful things like antidotes or anti venoms for the creatures on the world. She secured it in her pack and noticed a small keycard with datapad that was drained of power as she checked it. Tucking them away in the pack Matsu moved crouching down low before rolling under the door and into the hallway. Matsu was there and she could smell in here now.

It smelled more natural, like the caves in some of the bases on hoth that connected to the underground sections. The grass and tauntauns paddocks. She was wondering what was there while placing a glow rod and marker to show the path they had taken. She was moving now looking at some of the doors as one seemed off... Not marked and slightly crooked as she touched it and was feeling it. There was a small section with a breeze going in. Her hands moving as she worked her slender fingers to wedge in and try to pry it open She could feel it resisting and chewed her lower lip a little before it budged just an inch. That was all she needed.

That inch letting her grip get larger on the door before she was prying it and setting it back on its guide to move it opened. Matsu felt something fall on her shoulder and looked at the piece before it fell to the floor and there was a clicking sound. Tke door was in place while she moved back for a moment to make sure it wouldn't close once she let go crouching down as she picked it up. The piece looked like part of one of those old vibroblades while she held it. The edge was still sharp and it was the tip most likely someone trying to get into the room which meant a couple things... People hiding or something valuable.

Matsu raised her eyebrows while she pulled out another rod and threw it inside to see if there was anything as she entered. She was expecting Matsu to follow or to be exploring a part on her own but they could quickly search out and feel in case of danger with one another. No large bond just this closeness and sound carrying. Matsu was looking as there were some containers and boxes in the room with bodies... skeleton bodies as she moved in more taking sight of them. Her eyes looking in the illumination of the glow rod at them huddling together with a smaller wooden case between them.

"All that is happening and you needed to protect his?" She said it with interest and her hands were moving going over the space between them as she touched it and lifted the smaller wooden box. She picked it up and it was a deep rich ebony style wood that was still lacquered with the chill of the room keeping it preserved. She searched it for an opening and latch finding a small slide picture puzzle while she spoke to the empty air. "There is something here." She said it and rose up holding the box as she for a moment debated smashing it but this was an old model approach to keeping things safe and secret.

More then that this was something someone had spent their last minutes making sure would not be taken.. which to her meant it had more value then a shipping containers worth of credits. She was moving looking at the containers and boxes as one of the lids went off putting some more dust into the air while Matsu looked at the old model republic weapons. DC-17's with ammo and some Katarn armor, a pistol while she went for the utility belts. There was always useful equipment with those while she took one out checking the compartments. She grabbed one of the food cubes and debated trying to see if it was still edible.

A small chuckle escaped her while she checked the rest and found more weapons, more armors with some of the old equipment and files. The wooden box in her equipment pack while taking one of the DC's and checking it with the attachments and equipment that went with it. She liked these as far as weapons went, a sniper rifle, grenade launcher and rifle all in one with a sidearm made it a very useful tool you could keep for yourself. She had some of the ammo and strapped it to her back with the equipment pack opposite it giving her more weight but it was worth it as she was moving towards the doors to make space.

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Exploring was something Matsu did best. Ike was one of those people who reminded her that despite her years, despite her study of all things esoteric and a knowledge impressive in its breadth where mentalism and magic was concerned, there was still much of the galaxy that remained a mystery to her. She didn’t necessarily think it was a bad thing – after all, her head could only hold so much information. But it was still something to be rectified as much as possible. Knowledge was power.

When she was certain Ike had followed her at least in to this new set of rooms at the end of short corridors she went off to see what she could find.

The organic smell still permeated the area though with no discernible origin despite her movement around the area, its undetected nature a mystery in itself.

A room to her right called her, not far from where Ike was pushing her way past wreckage. She was here less for tangible things to take with her and more for the experience, for something to fill her busy mind when there was nothing else to think of – memories. So far she hadn’t been disappointed but as she shifted the broken blast door away from its track, a groaning protest from the metal sounding shortly before giving under her ministrations, she found that which fascinated her most: the strange. Skeletons…old, liable to crumble to dust if she so much as whispered a breath of air over their surface. They sat around each other in a circle, legs crossed and palms against the floor, all facing runes painted haphazardly along the ground. Whomever these frames belonged to did not belong inside this station anymore than the two Matsu’s did – most likely they’d used the abandoned rooms deep underground as a place to pray to their god, perform rituals, practice a summoning. (I came. Just late to the party.)

She carefully made her way within their circle, picking along the belongings they’d left behind though they seemed no more important than food rations left so long as to be fossilized. Pulling a small pad from her utility belt, a small stack of bound paper she carried with her most places she went sticking her nose in (save everything, remember it all, learn it all) she began drawing out the runes, ancient Sith – most of which she knew, but a few foreign to her. It could all help her with her magic however, none of it was useless.

Clearly these people had released something of such magnitude as to kill them all.

Tagging her durasteel claws back and forth over each other she left the room once she’d had her fill, going to find her partner. She discovered Matsu looking over a few weapons, eyeing the glossy little box the Jedi had collected but otherwise leaving it alone. “Very quiet. But I don’t feel alone.” The source of the ‘presence’ was more an absence, almost as if there were a black hole she couldn’t see but who’s gravity affected everything around it to become obvious.

[member="Matsu Ike"]​

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

"We aren't." Matsu didn't elaborate but she could feel it, almost taste it and her hand went over the weapon system more. There was something here, something wrong... she didn't know how to explain it but the feeling Matsu was feeling... Matsu felt it as well. That nagging feeling in the back of your head that told you something was out of place. It kept her alert but she spoke. "It is in the air, that underlying tinge of blood and death with a wrongness. I have felt it before, on Cularin in the air. It is something dangerous but less definitive, more the event that was done. On Cularin the darkstaff tore the system through space and time creating a fissure and emptiness, on other worlds it was a sign of charon or where the membrane between the netherworld of the force and physical realm is thinner. Sith spirits can tear it asunder to escape."

She was looking at it more and touched the air. "The order of the terrible gaze, jedi from long ago worked with creatures like this. Well something, from another place.... they were wrong in the force. Not bound by form or reason, when they appeared to the eyes they were monsterous in some cases or simple and able to be understood. Their dimension was less strict and they could exist in a collected mass of ever changing. They were angry to be restricted by solids and by other things." She continued to look and move while taking a light out and getting her barrings as Matsu started walking and exploring. She moved seeing the circle of people and raising an eyebrow as her mind was racing.. There were many things and if those were sith runes it could mean much more things... dangerous and terrible things like rituals being preformed... which never really were a good thing.

"Blood rituals." She said it more to herself, sith magic used the force but it needed something to fuel it and life energy you could twist to your own purposes was a powerful thing. They were working on it all as Matsu kept moving, kept her hand going along the length of the wall and came to an alcove. The area being lit up while she listened to the air with her ears straining to hear anything. The barest hint of wind going down as she looked and there was nothing. Even with her eyes searching in the low light for anything she couldn't see it or feel it, she needed to touch the wall and tap resonating the force outward and down the shaft. There was more and other things, slick slime that had dried in the cold air into a crust that she could feel, the smear of blood and other things for disposal but she was already moving now. Her hand remaining on the wall as she followed the lambent crystal making sensing a little easier.

She could feel the vong on the planet and expanding her senses out she was letting her body react, that feeling in the gut that protected you while it pushed your instincts to the limit. It was for protection, for early warning of your primal self and Matsu could feel it. her mind telling her that something dangerous was here and had been brought here. She kept going and there was a part of the tunnel that was older, deeper into the ground as the air changed. From organic to stale as the scent of old death came to her nostrils. She slid a hand to her saber on instinct replacing the fear with the gentle pulse of the solari crystal that fueled her energy and would push her forward. She was looking at the power and skill that would come from it while she moved down turning the light off but bringing the force to her hand as she worked to make a smaller glowball to illuminate the tunnel down lightly so she could see down taking it slow and careful.

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

She often wondered what the dark felt like to a Jedi. Matsu’s view of the Force was something akin to nature vs. nurture, and the belief that one could really fall under either heading. Some were nurtured, learning of the Force in its raw form and then tenderly directed the ‘right’ way – right being entirely a matter of perspective, though free will was sometimes involved. And some were ‘nature’, born to the light or the dark or somewhere in between simply through a gift or something missing. Those who were nurtured, exposed to both sides of the Force even if just in ideology, perhaps could see both sides for their virtues. Matsu however, had been born to the dark. The moment her soul had been yanked from the spirit of the Force in to some corporeal body she had felt the dark side’s calling. It was what allowed her to use Sith sorcery with a mastery few would stumble on. She could comprehend the lightside, even understand why some dedicated their life to it. But it articulated weakly, strings loose without their pluck – dim in the surrounding of her shadows. She wondered if the dark felt rigid, like Pandora’s box, an unknown solution to the eternal equation to the Jedi and their order?

While the talk of sithspawn and sorcery did not escape her grasp, she soaked up the information of the Jedi orders of old. She found their ideology fascinating, willing to interpret dogma to widen her horizons. Matsu could never be accused of narrow-mindedness, a trait that served her well in many confrontations.

At the mention of old sorceries she let her mind drift, following Ike down deeper in to the cavernous, tomb-like hollow of the abandoned outpost. She was used to traveling the less-than-physical, riding the waves of old magic, the imprint left by rituals steeped in blood and sacrifice – the type of thing that left a mark. The runes, or at least what she knew based on her research, had spoken very clearly of important things happening here, of people that meant something dying. Lost to time, lost to the Gulag plague, their agony left bruises on external time deep within the confines of some forgotten planet.

Lost in her thoughts, it wasn’t until they’d reached the very lowest levels without incident that even Matsu felt choked by the dark radiating all around. To her it was pleasant – something akin to home – but she could not deny its cloying, sticky greed at sudden life in the midst of its eternal silence. Following one of the larger patches of darkness she moved quiet, the hush of her clothes the only sound she made as she explored a hall to the right, only to stop dead in her tracks at a wet, squelching sound. Something moving…

<<Matsu…>> she called telepathically, unwilling to disturb the room of sleeping, but very much alive, reptilian and amphibious creatures she had no explanation for.

[member="Matsu Ike"]​

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

She heard it and stopped moving, her eyes flicking back and forth around the shadowed room she was in. She had the DC in her hands while she wasn't moving. Much like Matsu she was refusing to move and alert what was there... something that didn't make much sense.. Not in the real way. Like she had said these weren't creatures of a single shape or form. They were vastly different, some larger, some smaller. All she knew right now was most of them seemed to be asleep but she could feel the danger coming off of them. These weren't the types of creatures you want to meet in a dark and dank cavern in the remains of a sith base. She doubted they'd be able to get and overcome Matsu but the danger of creatures like these were not their power but their numbers. In the end, the horde always wins.

~I see them~ She said it into the force and the communication crystal between them to convey it. Her eyes locking onto one of the creatures eyestalks that had appeared while the squiching sound was there. The feeling of danger and hunger radiating off of them while she relented and finally moved. The force whispering through her body and away from her limbs, Matsu pushed into the air to hover off the ground so she could move without stepping, she pushed the force under her body while going backwards towards the hallway/tunnel she had come down when the sounds came to her. She could see some of the moving and revealing bones, corpses that had been slimed and eaten. Matsu didn't think to much just brought her saber out from her sleeve sliding it onto the barrel of the gun.

It wasn't made but there was tape that could easily be applied and she had her other sabers, the one she had forged with the solari crystal on her hip for use before she touched onto the ground in the hallway. There was the sound of more rustling but nothign coming to attack them while she slowly sidestepped away from the entryway towards another room. Inside there were more bodies and equipment while Matsu crouched down letting her knee go into the dirt, letting her eyes adjust while she looked at the equipment getting the helmet removing the datachip for the cam inside. The rest she was looking to collect as well as the datapads just in case. She was listening to the lack of sound to try and make sure nothing was going to sneak up on her before speaking again.

~There are bodies and datachips, they might have more information. If you have a plan I am open to it, once these things wake up and start coming at us... well I know cutting them down wouldn't be a bad thing. THey endanger lives.~