First Reply That Girl is Poison

[Kinley Pryse]

You've been hit by... you've been struck by...

If I die, bury me with a tab I still haven't paid​

She hated Force-wrecked places.

They always felt wrong, like the walls were watching, and the air had learned to hold its breath. This place was no different. Every footstep Kinley took sent echoes bouncing off crumbling stone walls, answered only by silence and the low whine of her holo-map struggling to hold a signal. The structure had no name. No surviving coordinates. Her client, a robed ex-Imperial archivist with too many teeth and too few scruples, just called it The Hollow. Said it was buried on an unmarked moon outside the Ploo sector. Said it hadn't been touched since the Old Republic fell. Said there was a vault below, sealed with ancient tech and older blood.

Kinley didn't care for Force relics. They had a tendency to glow, hum, and kill you slowly. But the price? The price had been beautiful. Enough to pay off the Sullust job, fix her ship's nav core, and maybe even buy her a week without anyone pointing a blaster in her face. So here she was, thousands of kilometers from civilization, deep underground, walking into something ancient enough to be dangerous and forgotten enough to be valuable.

Her boots crunched across a mosaic half-swallowed by dust and time. Half of it was a language she didn't recognize. The other half was a figure carved in obsidian, faceless and kneeling. Promising. Kinley clicked on the light clipped to her collar and adjusted the beam. The narrow staircase ahead dropped into darkness, the edges worn smooth by something that had passed through long before she was born.

She drew her blaster, checked the charge, and exhaled.

"Let's make this fast" she said muttered to her partner for the job. "I've got a drink waiting for me planetside."

A Smooth Criminal

 

[Thal Mantis]

​

THE DEATHLESS
THE HOLLOW | Ploo Sector
TAG: N/A
GEAR: Armor, Two Lightsabers, Utility Belt

​

He took a deep breath. An exhale, a long strand of time between the next. He opened his eyes, his hands folded in front of him. Thal turned his head, towards the staircase. He had been here to find it- it, not being quite clear. But he needed to find it, he wanted to. Perhaps out of selfishness. Righteousness. It was said to be a great thing. Or at least, powerful.

But this place, felt wrong.

His partner- well, more accurately, it would be said that he was her partner for the job, led the way. His eyes went wide and around, before fixating back on her.

"I'd keep both hands unoccupied."

He said very matter-of-factly. He seemed concerned about traps, or worse. He crouched near the mosaic. Obsidian. Dark. A language he didn't recognize either- not that Thal was a terribly cerebral man, either. He looked up, activating his own light that came from his utility belt. He shined it around the chamber, noting the smoothness of the stone in some places.

"At the least, this was a place that was frequented a lot. Probably more than what we came for here, so keep your eyes peeled."

His voice was low, quiet. And unnerving to some. He was clearly an angry man. The entire time they'd been on the job, Thal hadn't smiled, talked much, or made anything other than the furrowed-brow-frown-face.

"Your drink will still be there."

A joke? A remark?

​

 

[Kinley Pryse]

You've been hit by... you've been struck by...

You shoot first, I shoot last. We both win​

Her partner didn’t say much that didn’t sound like an angry growl, but that suited Kinley just fine. As long as he could provide backup she didn’t care if he scowled or sang show tunes. The job just needed done.

They descended the staircase slowly, eyes peeled for traps, trip wires, or unwanted guests. The trip down was uneventful but once they reached level ground again things changed. The staircase lead to a large room with a black lake spanning most of it. There was a small stretch of shore that wrapped to one side but the only way across would be in the water. Kinley had rocket boots on but she wasn’t sure she wanted to waste fuel across the water.

“What do you think?”

Thal Mantis

A Smooth Criminal

 

[Thal Mantis]

​

THE DEATHLESS
THE HOLLOW | Ploo Sector
TAG: Kinley Pryse
GEAR: Armor, Two Lightsabers, Utility Belt

​

His eyes darted across the water- before his hand went near it. There was a rise in static in the air- perhaps Thal's caution, or perhaps some connection to the force in the vicinity. Upon closer inspection, the black lake was not only dark water- but either had been painted or filled with black rock or stone. Perhaps as an aesthetic choice for the place, or perhaps, to conceal something. But for the time being, Thal only sensed the same unwelcome feeling as before.

He stepped forward first, into the water.

Not deep yet. He wasn't sure if it was going to slope downward, but for the time, it seemed like this the best path forward.

"We shouldn't linger."

He pulled his lightsaber into his hand- just in case.