Tame The Beast

[Ra Vizsla]

Ord Biniir​

​

The Canyon Podraces​

​

Tsavong stood in the crowd, standing silent in the humid torchlit summer's eve. This was a race night, where crowds would gather to cheer on their favorite podracers and gamble. The Yuuzhan Vong, now made whole by soul of the Dread Lord that now possessed him, peered on through ocular enhancements towards the race. Though he was large in stature, his presence was mostly masked by the ferocity and excitement of the crowd. Besalisks, Rodians, Bothans, Humans... there was no way to distinctly separate one from the other, not unless you knew what you were looking for.

And Tsavong... or Artemis, as he now referred to himself, had no reason to expect anyone would be looking for him.

This was his day off. This was his day out. Artemis, in his days when he was Dread Lord... despite the disliking of the various fanatical Yuuzhan Vong factions that had followed him and were strict about sticking to the heresy of technology, he loved podracing. The excitement, the feel of it. The rush. He had found a home in the Primeval, for now... and though Ord Biniir was strangely close to Mandalorian territory - the nemesi of both Tsavong and Artemis Obauldi alike - Tsavong felt it was worth the trip to relax.

Relax... a word neither of them had experienced for an eternity.

[member="Azrael"] [member="Bestala Vizsla"] [member="Jericho"] [member="Preliat Mantis"] [member="Javik Quar-Kai"]

 

[Azrael]

If pressed by the aruetiise of the Galaxy, Mandalorians didn't admit much in terms of loss, cultural instability, or economic issues. As a people group they were rather tight lipped (or lidded for that matter) on issues of their culture to those not warranted to such information. Often called stubborn or simply 'bucket headed' about certain ideals and traditions that kept their culture both alive and distant at the same interval. Truth be told however, the decimation left behind in the events of the Netherworld calamity had taken their toll on the Mandalorians, as well as everyone else. Social unrest, loss of trade routes, and other social and political issues haunted each faction and everyone in between. They'd lost good vode, agreements with factions, and even entire companies to that madness. Most of all they had lost territory - and that was the big picture, that mural of the organization that Azrael was now tasked with staring down and working to come back from. The Mando'ade needed to recoup their losses before others like the Primeval took more worlds that had once been solidified in the Mandalorian influence.

:: Protectors defense network is still operating well on the south quadrant, but I want to expand this region in preparation for defense. :: The Mand'alor radioed over to the small fighter fleet he was leading through space at the edge of their territory. The Ca'prudii streaked ahead forming the tip to a delta pattern of fighters that he'd called in to do a survey trip in preparation for another grasp at re-gaining what they had lost. :: Our presence here isn't as generous as it once was, and I'm not sure the faith in the people we protected has gone unshaken. :: Azrael admitted as the large looming orb of Ord Binir grew larger on his view-screen. :: This is just a survey trip, and possible diplomatic run if we get any official chatter. :: Clouds pulled by soon enough as the sleek black ship cut through the cloud barrier and into the atmosphere to the planet proper. Exploratory missions were something he hadn't done in a while, but had missed. The last time he was exploring once he finished on Phaeda it was for an entirely different purpose, something he still didn't talk about with just about anyone.

The holonet connection for local color buzzed to life on the instrument panel. Planetary news hit the feed, and scrolled through as the salvager exited the cloud range and started to dust into the normal upper climates of skylane traffic. Ord Binir didn't have a lot of lavish cityscapes, so the skylanes were not crowded at all. Doing a knife-edge bank, his craft turned sharply to start towards the capital, and work his way around from there. Those in his party were welcome to do the same or break off into their own splinter excursion, but they'd remain in radio contact.


[member="Tsavong Kraal"] | [member="Preliat Mantis"] | [member="Bestala Vizsla"]

 

[Ra Vizsla]

Tsavong's villip chirped. Artemis looked down at it.

<Possible threats in the area>, Green responded. Green was his contact onboard the planet, an Intendant who specialized in espionage. <Recommend Imminent Extraction>

Tsavong sighed. Artemis pocketed the villip into the folds of his cloak and continued watching the race. He wasn't one to easily shy away from bad news, and he hardly surmised anyone at all would be looking for him. It'd be hard to even know this was Tsavong's body, as he had no tail and the number of limbs he possessed had been reduced by two. The beast was still massive and stood out of the crowd like a sore thumb, but never the matter - many others in this crowd did, too. Artemis made his way towards a gang of Besalisks who were primarily focused on exchanging bets between the Red Racer and Le'Boob, the top two podracers in the mix of the crowd right now. Tsavong stood silently and raised his binoculars once more.

He was really hoping for Blue Ridge to move into the front crowd, but it seemed big Blue had some engine trouble on the second canyon pass. Shame. Artemis was really rooting for him.

[member="Azrael"]

 

[Grrwunhoooll Agaburry]

Where did he go?

That was the question that needed to be solved. There were many who accepted Tsavongs absence and then their was Javik. The De'Nochsax that pondered, questioned and could not accept the absence. << " Those who seek, shall find." >> he told himself in his mind. The comma in the phrase was truely something to understand. It represented a pause and a pause it was indeed. Despite loyalty held for the culture and ways of the Yuuzhan Vong, It was not without issue.

<< " I am a trusted Ally and that is all." >> he reminded himself knowing the barrier of species blocked him from truly leading the Yuuzhan Vong. There was only one who could rally them, One Sith could never handle the Vong not forever. Over the Course of 9 years the very large De'Nochsax wandered and took many names to find his someone he considered a friend and the pause hopefully over.

Walking the streets of Ord Biniir the Large blue one known as Javik lumbered about with a massive grey cloak, it covered his belonging he carried as well as his extra limbs. His 8'9ft height made him a tower amongst the medium of the crowds. Last he heard a familiar figure had been seen on this planet, if the information was false it would only be a waste of time and that would been a bad day to whoever tipped him off.

Javiks mind drifted as he watched a group of kids sprint through the mass of bodies. They were smiling and shouting to each other about podracers.
- Podracing, Another violent sport maybe? Dathomir never had such risky and dangerous events.- Chuckling at that odd though he began to sniff the air the blue lizard could smell and taste the fumes that were not too far, Every large figure caught his attention.

Determined to find that which he sought.



[member="Tsavong Kraal"]
[member="Azrael"]

 

[Preliat Mantis]

His Firespray felt more like a tomb than a ship. A vessel with too many memories associated with it. They were the good ones, which made it harder to understand that they were gone and they were never coming back, never going to be the same. So when [member="Azrael"] had sent out a message to the Ori'ramikad and Protectors (he wasn't overly fond of the Protectors himself), to come do some goodwill, Preliat jumped at the chance. The people of this planet were frowning upon the Mandalorians as of late, with good reason. They were supposed to be crusaders and guardians of the planets they governed, and they had not had a show of force of a presence here for quite a while, thanks to the Primeval. He'd knew they'd end up like many other factions, built upon sand and weak concrete. They would stand, but they would crack, and they would break, and the galaxy would spit out another to take their place. He looked around his ship, before clipping on the final pieces of his armor. He reached for his helmet, the signature helmet he wore now. The back of it was completely armored, and it was more old fashioned than the other armors that his vode wore.

He pulled his hand away from it. He had been wearing it for too long. Preliat Mantis was a name, and to most of the galaxy, it was left at that, maybe an image of a Mandalorian in armor. But not a face. He didn't feel like a person with it on now. He just felt like a soldier, a tool of war. So he left it on the ship, letting the visor stare back at him as the ramp closed. He wasn't exactly unarmed, but he wasn't overly armed as well. He was here on goodwill, not to wage a one-man war. He was getting too old to do that. Preliat left the spaceport, knowing that somewhere, [member="Azrael"] was in the vicinity. He wasn't sure where, and it didn't matter truthfully.

Preliat looked around, noticing the crowd. Humans. Humanoids, bustling around the street. Some alien lifeforms, but nothing out of the ordinary. Until that is, he spotted whom he would later know as [member="Javik Quar-Kai"]. The being was massive, far beyond any giants or other monsters that Preliat had encountered, or at least, along the same lines. He wasn't going to start a fight, but checking this giant thing out- was more curiosity than danger. So Preliat walked along, snatching a cloak from a nearby shady character, throwing it over his armor. The protests of the alien were lost to him as he kept moving, and he only felt slightly guilty. For the greater good, he thought.

Preliat kept reading signs as he followed the beast, that showed them getting closer to a podracing area. He used the datapad on his hip beneath his cloak to simply give Azrael his location. Preliat wanted to make a slight quip about a wolf on the prowl, but found that it would be distasteful and rather uncalled for.

 

[Ra Vizsla]

Artemis's headaches began to burn through him once more. It was Tsavong, clawing from the inside out, desperate to scratch his way back to the surface.

But the Dread Lord retains complete control.

The headaches would come and go every once in a while, especially in very stressful episodes like this particular podrace as Artemis continued to watch his favorite racer make his way to the front of the pack. He was silently thrusting his fist up and down under his cloak, watching from a holo-pad. But as much as he didn't want to leave the roar of the crowd, to satiate these head tremors Artemis would usually go feed on his favorite food in this new Galaxy...

McYoda's.

Artemis headed to the galleria to fetch some food from a kiosk. "Double Down McJawa Burger with bantha jerky, please."

As he began to slurp on his jawa juice and chow down on his burger, he looked up at the empty streets behind the galleria of the stadium for a second before turning to the stairs. Then he took a step back from the stairs and looked back at the street. A streak of familiar blue had passed by, did Artemis recognize it?

No. Tsavong did.

It was [member="Javik Quar-Kai"], and Tsavong's memories would tell Artemis how much of a hunter this beast was. Perhaps Javik could be of some use, though... or perhaps he had come here to kill Tsavong. Who knew the creature's reasons, and who cared - so long as Artemis could finish the race. He carried his holopad and continued to watch, heading in Javik's direction, slurping on his jawa juice.

[member="Preliat Mantis"] [member="Azrael"]

 

[Azrael]

A weather beaten world full of rocks and dirt, the atmosphere itself was not a fragrant windswept tropical paradise by a long shot. Still the almost stale sense of rustic living, and long days baking in the sun wherever the canyons didn't provide shelter was a piece of nostalgia to his olfactory senses. Besk'ar boots clipped the ramp of the Night Shadow while he made a path around the port lock, sliding the buy'ce into place. The world of the natural soon left under the confines of a sophisticated HUD that began to break down the scene. Radio chatter, radar tracking, and an ever changing readout tactically of what was before him. Having adopted a half cape due to certain climate changes, the fabric rustled against the breeze giving a brief glimpse to the bionic arm that shifted with each step in Azrael's path. For a world that they had once protected, the looks given to Mandalorians were not as favorable as they had once been. Still, people were more wary of them than they were outright bothered by their presence, and that meant that the tracks of the Mand'alor were causing a wide birth through the Capital city streets.

From the looks of things, a fleet of small business owners and peddlers of every conceivable back-world goods market were out and about today. It was race day after all, and as soon as the crowds that covered the canyon dunes in the stadium theater seating had wandered from their posts, they'd be coming through the gauntlet. A lined row of shops and bazaars with things to sell, trade, and envy in every shape and size posted up on either side of every street avenue back towards the space ports and the docked ships. Speeder traffic was light, but still kicked up a bit of dust here and there, going in the opposite way of Azrael's footpath - causing a few side steps here and there. A radar lock was targeting a few foreign dignitaries who stopped by, as well as chatter on some of the security channels that some of the state officials were in their company and attending the races. Even for such a rural city-scape, the officials had a more homey view of the race, complete with tracking holoscreens to catch all the break-neck action. Azrael had never raced - never really had the time on Mantell, and certainly didn't have the skills to judge motion at such insane speeds. Piloting had been much easier on his senses, given the use of technology and learned instinct - but he'd never be a pod racer.

In mid-step, Mand'alor paused for a moment, drawing up his right gauntlet which activated the holographic landscape in a 3D digital wire-diagram rendering. A crimson dotted line showed the path snaking around the canyon bed, and the adobe based city structures towards the citadel in question. Deactivating with a single hushed word, the shift to his path drew up him a gravel and dirt pathway where an adobe sky-walk took him above the lower city streets and towards his mark. A ping of activity registered a few moments later, as [member="Preliat Mantis"] crossed paths beneath him. His crimson visor turned, tracking the movement, and noting the intended trail before a silent nod and his continued advance. The citadel itself was a winding walk that would normally be traversed by landspeeder to swiftly take the steep incline with ease and deliver the state officials with ease to their makeshift tower. He doubted he'd be invited up, but that was hardly the purpose of this venture - and he suspected Mantis might even have a more productive time than he was certainly faced with. Time, like always, would tell.


[member="Tsavong Kraal"] | [member="Javik Quar-Kai"] | [member="Bestala Vizsla"]

 

[Grrwunhoooll Agaburry]

The hiss of under the cloak of the Large De'Nochsax was commonly mistaken for his own body but it was in fact Amphistaves communicating to one another. They were hungry...again. But thankfully so was Javik. He needed to eat or else he would reap the consequences of his species starvation and insanity. Something he wanted to keep for a long time his sanity, Javik loved knowledge above all else and sanity was needed to pre-sue knowledge. As the Giant lumbered about his head lifted up in his raggy cloth hood and his nose took in a scent of cooked Bantha meat, Freshly grilled into a steak. Licking his lips he eyed the stand by the Podracing and started walking towards it.

His mission was to search for [member="Tsavong Kraal"] but fighting hunger was not a battle he would win. Waiting in line he simply dwarfed all those by him with his height and so Javik hunched over and halfed his height by walking on all fours. He looked even more monstrous now but atleast he would receive not as much attention. Reaching the Vendor Javik nodded and placed some...eh...well alot of credits on the counter of the vendors stand. Eyeing the meat Javik nodded to the large chunks of cooked and uncooked meat in the back, His second and third arm sets motioned a sack cloth bag and so the Vendor raised and brow at first but the credits never lied.

Walking away partly happy Javik stood in the stands and watched the podracing. Taking of too much space he grinned and gnawed on some meat.

[member="Azrael"]
[member="Preliat Mantis"]