SWRP: 31 Days of Halloween

[Ayden Cater]

The terrors of the undead had mostly fallen to stories and rumors. No one wanted to think about such a frightening series of events, much less entertain the idea that they could ever repeat themselves. Afterall, the dead didn't just dig their way out of the ground. Once you were dead, you were dead.

Silly mortals.

Once again the dead rose amongst the planets of the galaxy to bring terror to the living. There was no reason, no condition for their return. No one could claim responsibility, but all would share in the terror. Ghostly ships were soon sighted along the hyperlanes, claiming the souls of the wanderers as their own.

Unlike before, though, these dead had returned with more than a grizzly visage. Haunting wails, the malevolent cries of those who sought to swell the ranks of the undead, filled entire worlds. And the dead did not stay dead. They could vanish in an explosion, only to reappear days later, eyes still seeing and grins still grinning.

Some sought their own twisted version of justice on those responsible for their untimely deaths. Still others went after the young and innocent. Old, young. Men, women. Humans, aliens. None were safe.

The dead had come back. And this time they would not rest until the galaxy was filled with their own kind.

 

[Ayden Cater]

Ayden groaned as he stepped out of a bar on Corellia and rubbed the back of his head. He didn't remember the bartender having that strong of a left hook before. Looking at his face in the mirror, he did not look at all like the Lord Protector. His face was much different, a product of him expanding his use of White Current. It made excellent use as a disguise. With it, he could step out into the galaxy and walk in comfortable anonymity. No one knew him with that strange face. He was just another random soul.

As he walked down the streets, he found himself swinging a leg over a speeder bike and heading for his old family home. It had been on Corellia for centuries, even by the time he had been born centuries ago. It had not changed much in that time. The walls were still where they had been, the yard still kept clean by droids. The only change from pictures of it he had seen when he was a boy was the sprouting of several new apple trees. He personally never liked them, but his mother had been fond of them. She said geldan sun apples had the perfect taste to them. They tasted like every other apple to him, and he wasn't impressed.

On this night, as he approached the house, a storm began to brew. It sounded like it was gonna be a bad one. The leaves on the trees began to shake in trepidation, the branches creaking and groaning in soft agony. He picked up one apple and tossed it in the air some while walking up the drive. This certainly did bring back memories. Stepping up to the door, he laid a hand on the front of it and was surprised when the door opened effortlessly. Ever since that day he had last been in it, Ayden had kept the door locked. No one lived there. So why then was the door open?

He went to bite into the apple and immediately spat it back out. Spitting a few more times to rid himself of the taste, he peered down and discovered that the core was rotten, despite the seemingly health outward appearance of the apple. And that was when the smell hit him. Ayden knew what the smell of death was. He had been around enough of it in his many lifetimes to miss it. Bringing out one lightsaber, he ignited it and stepped into the hallway. Everything seemed to be how he had left it, immaculate and untouched by time. Yet the smell still hung in the air, sickly sweet.

Lightning flashed as he stepped into the living room and instantly he knew what the source of the smell was. The walls were spattered with blood. Furniture had been strew about, violently. And in the corner of room lay a woman whom he had never seen before, yet knew to be some manner of bloodkin to him. He could see in her certain features, bone structure in her face, that he recognized as his own. That he had seen in his daughters. Even through the bruises and dried blood, he knew this woman had been related to him. Her chest did not rise, and the amount of blood covering the walls let him know that she was certainly not among the living anymore.

Left with more questions than answers, Ayden turned and inspected the room some more. A chill worked its way up his spine as a voice suddenly rasped.

Ayden...

He froze. Eyes wide, he slowly turned around and found himself staring into the glazed-over eyes of the woman mere centimeters from his own face. Her smile was crooked, several teeth missing from her mouth. She slowly rolled her head to one side and seemed to smile a little while.

"Ayden," she cooed. "You've been gone for so long. You shouldn't make your mother worry like that. Come and sit down. We have so much to discuss." She placed a pale, gaunt hand on his shoulder and he winced at her unnatural strength. Pushing her off him, Ayden called his lightsaber back to his hand, losing it at some point from shock He held it tightly as she slowly crawled up the wall from her heap on the floor, still smiling before it turned into a feral snarl as she lunged. "You shouldn't hit your MOTHER!"

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

Alderaan, a Few days after the Events of Mayferria. (Join in if you want [member="Hakora Cinthra"], seeing as we have the same parents)

Alexandra had returned home, Daeda and [member="Darth Tsolan"] filling in the bits of her memory she wanted back, those including the people she had been close to her. She wanted their memories not because of the fact that she wanted to know her past again, but to remind her of what the force did to people. How it had caused the death of her parents, of her former master, and of Boolon Murr most recently. She was already sad before the storm came.

The storm was a great bonus, the winds whipping outside and the rain falling hard as that meant she could not even find solitude in the stars that she loved to watch when Vulpesen was with her, but also when he wasn't. For now she was sitting in what used to be the council chambers, wrapped up in a blanket and watching as the sky had opened up and flooded the ground with a torrent of sorrow. In her hands a glass of tea shook with each blast of thunder.

She wasn't there for a simple reason, sure she couldn't use the force but the visions still came and this one was a frightening one, she had seen her parents... her master... and Boolon all together, armed and coming to strike at Alexandra. She knew this was impossible but none the less she looked out the viewport, shaken up as she held her drink tight in her hands.

 

[Aithne Charr]

Dantooine, the Day after the Treasure hunt. (If you want to join in [member="Una Gal"], go ahead, if not -shrug-)

Solan stared as a storm gathered over Dantooine as well, confused where it had come from when he suddenly heard a door open and the sounds of something strange... it sounded like running. Had his friend come to visit him or was this something of his imagination. Either way his saber found his hand and he started towards the edge of the roof, looking off it and speaking. "Una, did you come back to say hi?" He looked closely into the darkness below, who ever was down there stopped, now time would tell if it was his friend or someone else...

 

[Noamd]

Dantooine

"The weather was meant to be fine today!" Nomad yelled to the clouded sky, trying walk against the wind. the rain was unreal, it was as if someone was pouring Mannan's water onto Dantoonie. He was less than a kilometre from his ship but that kilometre seemed like hours.

He finally shut the door to his light freighter when the voice came. "Why?..." the word was faint but there. Nomad tried to fight his paranoia when he heard it.
"Why?..." it was louder, and this time Nomad searched his ship... nothing, was his mind playing tricks? "Why... did... you... leave?" Nomad was in the cockpit preparing to take off when that was said. He turned and he saw it; a transparent figure in a cloak, the head concealed by the hood was standing by the entrance. He was trapped. "Who are you!?" Nomad yelled. "it's... me..." Glowing eye appeared from under the darkness of the hood.

The figure walked slowly towards Nomad. He jumped from his chair calculating a way out. 'viewing glass is too tough, the only exit is blocked... I'll have to try and fight'
"You... cannot.... fight... me...." The figure was less than 50 centimetres away when they started raising their hand. Then hand reached Nomad's head and the figure grinned as the hand passed though Nomad's skull and into his brain. Nomad screamed in agony as a cold hand reached into his him "This... is... the... price... of... life... Galen..."
"H-how?.." Nomad spluttered before he collapsed to the floor, unknowing of what happened.

 

[Darth Vaildra]

Hakora quietly walked up behind his sister and adjusted her blanket and sat next to her with his arm around her. "How are you feeling?" He understood the pain she was going through as he was going through it too. "You know I love you sis right? You didn't need to wipe your memories just to stop all the fighting.... I couldn't bare to lose you again." Hakora was feeling sad for his sister and his parents. He could literally feel his mother's embrace as he held his sister. Wait.... He could feel his mother's embrace?! He turned his head slowly to find his blonde mother hugging the two. Hakora shot up and ignited a lightsaber. "This isn't possible, you said last time we met in the temple that you would not be able to appear again. Who are you?!" Hakora was frightened and angry at the same time.

"Son, I am back for now, but you both are in grave danger. The realm between the dead and living are open and most of the dead are pocessed by the dark side." Hakora's father appeared next to his mother. This was getting too weird, "hello son, you've grown well and can use a lightsaber I see." The father looked at his daughter, "hello sweetie, I missed you deeply and wish I got to see you grow into the beautiful woman you are now."

Hakora just stood there frozen, "what was in those drinks?"

[member="Alexandra Lianne Feanor"]

 

[Telthòr]

Thisspias

Ricardt was stationed in the Expansion Region, on the home planet of the Thisspian species. A terrifying species that was serpentine in nature, their faces covered entirely in long beards, and their bodies had four arms. It was a nightmare, if Ricardt had known any. Even with their gracious welcoming, and their ever-helpful nature, something about them made him innately uncomfortable. They were a rare sight in the galaxy. Ricardt looked around, remembering where he was. In a dense jungle, the air was humid and the rain had been endless. His boots had sunken into several inches of mud, and any hope of pulling them free would take some time. He didn't worry about this, not when he had both his hands in the mud, looking for something under the surface of the pasty substance. "Ughh," came the moanful voice from out of the bush. Ricardt turned his head, "Hello?"
"Ughhh, ahhh," the sound came again, sending a chill down his spine. He stood to his feet, and tried to pull himself free, but he was stuck. "Hey, can you give me a hand?" he asked. A figure began to emerge from the trees. His clothes were rags upon his scales, his face contorted into that of agony. His eyes were rolled back, and his body had been decomposing for some time. Ricardt frowned, the undead Thisspian slithering towards him, "Hey, are you alright? What happened to you?" The Thisspian continued to moan, getting closer and closer. Ricardt focused his mind on the Thisspian, but there was nothing. He wasn't thinking, the only brain activity occurring was that of the controls of movement and desire for food. Ricardt looked down with sudden urgency, using his hands to tug on his feet. It was no use, he wasn't going anywhere. "Oh feth!" he swore. He held his hand down at his feet, focusing a spherical orb of energy in his palm and shooting it at his feet. The mud exploded away at the force push. His feet were free, and Ricardt jumped, just in time. The Thisspian had tried to grab him, but now only fell forward. Ricardt landed on his back, sliding down his spine. "No time like the present!" Ricardt encouraged himself to run. He broke into a break-neck sprint into the jungles.

 

[Una Gal]

She crept up the stairs, her body moving silently, unlike a few minutes ago. Solan wasn't a hard man to find if you knew what you were looking for and scaring him had to be the best idea she'd had yet. It wasn't hard for her to move in the shadows. There was a thin strip of black going up one side of the staircase, cascaded down from the wall it was built upon. From her position a few steps away from the top, she could see Solan's back, leaning over the wall of the roof. There was no guarantee he didn't already know she was here. But that didn't stop her from trying.

In two quick, graceful leaps Una was behind Solan. Her hands rested on his shoulders and jolted him forward a little. "BOO!"

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Jsc]

Red Rain in Ruusan
(open)

It was a crash site. Dark with a looming fog. Bristling within the misting rain. The fire from the crash site made the jungle trees dance with fair and falling shadows. The smell of burning metal was dashed away by the bitter mushroom winds. Ruusan was disquiet tonight. The leaves dipped low, and sharp, and heavy. The mist tasted foul and sickly green. This Starfighter had fallen from the sky afoul. And even the ground dared not intercede.

The warm lights danced across Jerry's face as she stood top the wreckage's mire. Perched like a dry feather atop the burning kiln. Yellow flames swirled and her red skin tickled. The pit was like a maw. Jagged, edged, and metallically sharp. Ringed in flame and an orange flicker. It's warmth dismissing itself slowly into her cold dark eyes. Eyes that knew. Standing at the edge of the crash, she knew. Something was very, very wrong.

"Yo Jerry." The other Ranger called, "I can't contact the temple from here. Interference or something. I even tried climbing that tree over there. Nothing."

"Come here Gibbs. There. Just there. ...What do you see down there, hmm." Her voice was harsh and her eyes remained latched onto the flame.

"It's just a crash site Jerry. Nobody inside the fighter either. Come on. Let the jungle have it. Let's go."

He was a strong human male. Fuzzy brown hair, strong arms, and a good stride. Gibbs wore his Rangers armor with pride and a great sovreign weight. But now he seemed distant. Distracted. As if he was already moving. As if he couldn't wait to get away. To be anywhere else but here.

"The hatch is open Gibbs. Why is the hatch always open?"

"Look, I don't know Jerry. Maybe he wanted a coffee. Maybe he needed a bathroom break from his burning plane. Come on, let's go. Nobody could survive that. It's freaking freezing out here, ugh."

Gibbs shivered in the cold misty rain. The clouds and fog descending around them like a bitter blanket. Immune to the wind. Sprayed with the wet frost. Immune to his troubled gaze. Lavished with his distrust. Blocking his only view of safety and reflecting his own unease with every dashing glance.

"Come on Jerry. Let's go. Even the Force is winter cold out here. It's not right. ...It's just not right."

She just continued to stare into the flames. Ignore his troubled words. Those terrible engulfing flames coveted her thoughts. Those red burning ashes. They could swallow a girl's imagination. They could swallow her whole.

"What happened here?" She wondered.

"...Jerry..."

What? The hesitation and fear in his voice awoke her. Broke the fickle spell. Gibbs was looking at something. Terrified of something.

"Jerry. Oh sh... Jerry. Jerry look! Jerry right there!"

She spun around with a gasp and immediately saw it too. The creature at the edge of the trees. The black burning figure that twisted and withered like a ribbon or a reed. Some dark abyss with a dead fire in it's eyes and a cold death-like thorn wreathing like mucus from it's skin. A twisting bending, ethereal figure. Why wouldn't it stop moving? Why wouldn't it stay still? Oh god, why wouldn't it stay still!?

It was their first abomination that night. An empty furnace for their souls.

...

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Hakora Cinthra"]

"Hello Hakora... i k-" She felt it the moment it happened and she shot up and spun around too to look at the two of them, her hand on the blaster she kept now instead of her Saber. "I... How..." Her hands tore it from her side and she aimed it on her mother than her father, shaking as she was seeing exactly what she was suppose to see. Their bodies moved slow as they came to look at their children, their bodies and faces illiminated by a flash of lighting as a sickening grin was on their faces. "M-mother... father." Her hand shook worse as she was trying to aim it, but the sight was something that had immobilized her in fear.

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Una Gal"]

Scaring a man with a saber, not always the best idea as he jumped out of his skin and activated the saber. He stopped the blade though as he turned and almost hit her neck. He dropped it though, it no longer activated and he hugged his friend. "Damnit Una, you scared me half to death... something is weird about this storm, i just... it feels wrong..." Almost if on cue a crack sounded, at first Yusan thought it was thunder until his body was shot forward into una and blaster bolt caught him in the shoulder, nearly causing him to completely fall into her.

 

[Una Gal]

Her body remained motionless as the neon blur swung for her skin. In her head she knew he wouldn't hit her once he realized. The question was, when would he realize? The hair on her neck, standing on end, released a foul burning smell as the blade almost licked her flesh. Then it dis-ignited.There was a few seconds pause, before her lips cracked into a huge smile and Una laughed with pent up relief. Her arms wrapped around Solan and she returned the friendly squeeze. "There's nothi-..." His body felt heavy in her arms as it fell forward. Her small frame didn't help in terms of strength and there was a few minutes struggle where she could barely stand. She needed to do something quickly. Ducking down, Solan dropping with her, she pressed her back against the wall. "Solan.." Una hissed, tapping his cheek with the tip of her fingers.

Already she had begun to address the wound, figuring out how deep the bolt went and what she would need to do to stop the bleeding. Luckily it hadn't gone far and a simple gauze placed into the gaping hole cut most of the heavy bleeding off straight away. "Solan wake up..." One eye remained on his body while she began to prop him up to dress the wound, while the other kept an eye on the top of the stairs. Her saber was clipped to her belt, she'd be ready in case of immediate danger.

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Una Gal"]

He groaned and winced as he felt the gauze and eyes shot open as she said his name the second time. "Ugh... you didn't have to shoot me, i was just hugging you." He winced as he tried to move, but was able to tell it had missed anything vital and his synthweave had allowed for the bolt only to cause slight penetration, to which Una had stopped the bleeding. Infact, the blast's force is the only thing that had caused him to fall forward and momentarily shock him. "Who shot me..." His answer would be answered as several people came over the threshold of the top step and started to come out on the roof with them, blasters leveled, their faces... their faces leaving Solan looking sick and pale white as he coughed... "Th-they are... they died..."

 

[Kahne Porte]

Kessel


"Okay, okay!" Kahne said as he raised his hands in trying to calm the soldier. "Relax." When it looked that he had seen a ghost and he was hyperventilating it seemed at which Kahne placed a hand on his shoulder just briefly using a technique to calm him and just like that watched as he slumped down just barely and Kahne and another Jedi helped him to a chair. "Alright, tell me what happened?" Kahne inquired. "What did you see?"

Kahne listened to him attentively, after he regained his focus and was remaining in a steady posture and being calm. It seemed that he seen what Kahne could only describe as a ghost or as creature right out of horror movie. "The dead?" Kahne said as he raised his hand to his chin and rubbed it lightly. "Where did you seem them. at?" As he listened and described the location it looked to be close by, and the concerned the Jedi Master because of the people that were living close to that location, it was quite a lot of them. Kahne nodded as they helped him to the bed in the Medical wing. "Stay here and get some sleep." Kahne turned to the other Jedi present. "Let's round up another Jedi or to and check this out, meet at the front of the Temple and we will go from there."

Kahne truly hoped nothing bad was happening, just then he felt a disturbance in the force. The soldier that had turned in his bed had now faced Kahne with his face white as can be. "Please,please, please, please don't go out there! I beg you, don't go out there.We're all going to die here." His voice spoke just above a whisper, but it was enough to make him feel uneasy and even sent a small chill creep up his spine.

 

[Una Gal]

He was awake. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she began to help him sit up properly. "I didn't shoot you..." Though it was meant in good health she was clearly too focused to understand the underlying meaning of the joke. She focused for now on wrapping the gauze around his shoulder and under his arm to keep the gauze stuffing inside the wound. "I have no idea who shot you." But the fact behind her sentence was short lived as she lifted her head to watch several soldiers armed with blasters make their way up the stairs. Her jaw hung open. They were clearly dead, as Solan had managed to choke out. But how had they hit him if their blaster bolts were of another life? "What do we do...?"

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Una Gal"]

He blinked as he saw them getting ready to shoot, he looked at her then them again and cursed as there was one good thing about being near the edge of the roof. Without so much as caring if she had a problem with it or not Solan reached up and grabbed Una's robes or what ever clothing it was and pulled her back with him off the roof, or tried to. If that didn't work... well a ton of blaster bolts would shortly come their way from the corpses that utterly frightened Solan. These had been the men that had killed his family, how could they be alive when he had killed two of them with his own hands. A Even more chilling sight greeted them though if they did fall from the roof, though Solan would make sure to try and slow their decent. Standing there between them and an escape into the plains was a half miralukan and half Kiffar woman that smiled softly at them and seemed to have no injuries at all and looked full of life, only she too left Solan paled and this time he was frozen, unable to even speak.

 

[Vulpesen]

Just keep on running, keep on running, running, running... The sith let out a growl as yet another of the un-dead leaped at him. Vulpesen never forgot the faces of those he had killed and when he saw the first of the sages, he thought that he was having a dream... then they attacked. Now the blood on his face was rel and he was thankful it wasn't his. Holoterminals blared out the news of this phenomena throughout the galaxy and ONE thought rose in his head. "ALEX!" He dashed to his ship and leaped in, making sure that Ace was still on his shoulder. After a few moments... he was gone.

[member="Alexandra Lianne Feanor"]