Populate THE HUNT FOR TIRA | TSC POPULATE OF EUFORNIS MAJOR

[Eurydice]

While Eurydice was busy gagging on her own spit and bile, Meliant gave her what amounted to the best Sith-adjacent pep talk she'd ever received.

One last hurk and a viscous string of saliva dripped lazily onto the battered stone floor. The girl blinked back her own tears, wiping at her eyes with the wide sleeve of her robe.

"Wh-why would he want to eat me?"

That was just the thing; Eurydice didn't want it. None of it. But she was here, and consequences seemed determined to find her anyway.

Ancient ductwork groaned above them, drawing her tentative focus toward the ceiling. In one great heave, the building's innards delivered a gigantic lizard, just as Meliant predicted.

Eurydice scrambled to her feet just in time to catch a face full of dust. She hacked, her throat already raw from trying to vomit.

Meliant had given her a choice - live, or what.

The Seer tried to contemplate that as she wiped ash from her watery eyes.

"Y-You want him!" she squeaked, pointing aggressively to Meliant as she cowered in Krasskor's shadow. "H-He'll make a far better meal for you! I'm only skin and bones!"

Then, she turned tail and fled down the hall.

Meliant Krasskorr the Maw Ziso Kus

 

[Nilira Vornix]

Tag: Arris Windrun

It was freeing. Even if some may have saw it as a descent into the underworld, Nilira just held her arms out as she threw herself off the staircase, rolling amidst the sand and dust, pushing herself straight up to her feet afterwards as she brushed some of the sand and dust off her robes, a small grin still on her face as laughter echoed through the darkness...

Almost immediately however, the grin was wiped off Nilira's face. As much as the laughter sounded familiar, sounded as if it was coming from her, the Acolyte knew she hadn't even opened her mouth. Her hand reached down towards her lightsaber, pulling it straight up to her hand as she ignited teh blade, letting the crimson glow illuminate her surroundings. Where had Arris gone? Did the damned Cyborg leave Nilira cut and dry in this place? She wouldn't have put it past Arris to do so.

Yet she snapped out of that thought as her foot hit something hard and metal. A sudden hiss escaping her lips, the sound echoing through the darkness and taking her focus away from that laughter she had heard earlier, glancing down to see said Cyborg she had been thinking about facedown on the sand, alongside the chemlight.

"...You aren't dead, are you? Falling down some stairs wouldn't have killed you...Though if you are dead...I wonder if that would let me climb through the ranks..."

It was clear that Nilira didn't seem to care too much, as she cupped her chin between her fingers in thought. At the very least however, the Acolyte had became far more expressive now compared to what she had been previously.

​

 

[Kaelyr]

The Demon of Crimson​

The Hunt For Tira{Chandaar}

Tags: Lirka Ka

I made my way to an open showcase room within the vault. As I turned to face the creature, my eyes narrowed as a new figure entered the skirmish. Yggdrakses vibrated with concern, causing me to be on edge. However concerned I may have been, I was glad for the aid from the new figure. Their hulking mass clashed with the giant brute, causing it to thrash and wail as the new assailant sank their blade into it. Seeing this as an advantage, I pressed forward, sprinting towards them, my lightsaber primed for my assault.

I found myself on the defensive, looking for an opening in its flailing. Flipping out of the way, I had to make sure its attention was solely on the other attacking it, running and sliding from unfocused attacks and into its blind spot. So I decided to put an end to the farce with the full force of my power. Sliding out of the way of a vicious slam of its hulking arms, I gripped the force around it, lifting it into the air.

With both hands, I gripped the abomination's left and right sides and pulled on it. If the other assailant was smart, they would disengage before being caught in the brutality of my attack as I pulled the beast apart midair. It roared something vicious as one could see its body beginning to rip and stretch beyond its limitless, writhing in pain as it soon began to tear from the head, and like tearing a piece of paper in half, the beast found itself split in two halves as the force ripped it straight down the middle.

A loud thud echoed as the ground shook from its corpse impacting the marbled floor, all while I stared the newcomer down for a moment. Pointing my light saber at them, I issued them a warning. Let's hope I dont have to bestow the same fate onto you as well, whoever you may be.

 

[Tamsin Starfall]

Theme: Welcome To The Jungle
Tags: Varin Mortifer

Sound of Varin's voice reverberated across the jungle that the prison had created for the mind. The air rippled through the blood red sky and the facsimile of a sun like they were water. Like the wall that had shattered so did the armor of Varin's father. Tamsin's eyes of fire watched on as the world around them vibrated and hummed like a machine that was under extreme pressure.

It had not been able to compensate for the external forces that were now being pumped into it. It was a machine built to keep things in and contained. It was meant to control and thwart powerful things from escaping. Yet when the power inside could be manipulated by external forces it couldn't handle it. It had no way to control or manipulate the outcomes to its total dominance inside.

It was a machine after all, even if designed by some of the greatest engineers that ever existed. Machines had a job they could not go outside it's main function of programing. Tasmin saw it in the ripples both her and Varin's scream had sent across its illusion. An illusion meant to keep the mind occupied and not realize initially that it was trapped.

In the ripples she could see the faintest lines of code written in it. She could see them trying to change to other lines to compensate for what was happening. A Matrix for the mind Tamsin thought to herself for a moment how it was a beautiful thing. As she thought how in a way it was a beautiful thing her right hand now reached up towards the sky like she was grabbing for the fake sun in the sky.

Her eyes closed for a moment as she began to chant something under her breath.

"Ci meni bisi pu ajsajilivat."

"Ci meni bisi pu tasedi."

"Chu tul bisi Etedu shuree."

"I'shuree tai I'shuree."

"I'shuree tai I'shuree."​

As she chanted it the ground and sky started to shake. The outer walls of the prison began to crack. Violet ichor poured out from those cracks seeping into the real world. As she continued to chant a thousand voices rang out in cries of salvation from those who had been trapped in this prison.

Outside the prison the amulet around Tamsin neck began to glow brightly. It called out to those voices in the prison crying for salvation. Telling them it would be their guiding light that it would reunite them with their spirits. Tamsin could feel them all from the most terrible to the meekest of them all. In this prison there were minds worse than even the demon that shared her skin.

Then voice sprung into Varin's mind that of Tamsin.

"Do not follow the beacon it is just another trap, not meant for me or you. Only follow your souls call."

She didn't want him to get trapped in the amulet around her neck that was calling the voices in the prison. She then Opened her eyes wide and tilted her head up to the sky as she finished her chant in the common tongue with a scream.

"I will be FREE!" As she did, the illusion of the prison began to shatter into pieces, as did the outer walls of the machine that held them. A thousand voices flooded for the beacon that was calling out them, but it was just another prison for them.

 

[Varin Mortifer]

VARIN MORTIFER

Equipment: Durum Mantle | Black Blade of Chandrila | Eye of The Dragon | Heavy Sith Mace | Cross Guard Broadsaber​

Pressure seemed to bend the fake reality of the mind prison. Weakened from the harmonial blast of both force screams. His Father was reduced to ash. Crimson ran down Varin’s neck as wind seemed to burst from all around him, causing him to cover his eyes with his forearm.

The words from Tamsin reached him as the purple light shun brightly, calling, beckoning him closer. Offering truth and salvation. For a moment, he stepped closer, his hand reaching out. A promise that was extended to him from the amulet that everything he could want, would be given.

His hand stopped, clenching into a fist.

I will not be given my home…I will take it back, I will not be robbed.

His back slowly turned to the beacon that burst through the air, calling lost souls to its embrace. The fake reality before them began to shatter from the surge of power. Varin could see a small pocket of reality that called for them both. A sarcophagus that held one of the scholars, pouring their power into them to create the illusion.

Varin roared as he reached his hand through the portal, his clawed gauntlet gripping the man’s throat as he struggled to breathe. Crimson dripped from his neck as the claws slowly dug in. The madness in the man’s eyes briefly leaving him as he stared death in the face.

Varin’s eye flared as he yelled, a great beam exploding from his socket bathing the man in a superheated cone of blistering heat and death. He screamed as his flesh began to peel and his bones began to blacken. Varin’s grip tightened around his throat until all he held was a spinal column. His hand flexed, crushing the bone as reality finally started to bleed through for him and Tamsin.

Only then did he fall to his knees, his breathing deep and heavy.

Tamsin Starfall​

 

[Lirka Ka]

TAGS: Kaelyr

With machete dug deep into unnatural flesh, using the blade as a hook Lirka clambered atop the goliath. Hacking, hacking, and hacking away at its musculature with a savagery to mask the careful efficiency of the butcher slicing away the finest cuts. For all of that mechanical bulk, the metallic form of Lirka Ka moved in a strange alien grace that seemed unbecoming of the suit she wore as her second skin.

Seeing that the scuffle was to be a short lived one, Lirka wrenched her blade free with the sizzle-crack of electro plasma filament freed from flesh and leapt back down to the ground below with the metal thud of her boots making landfall. Rising with the bristle of metallic plates moving as if they could’ve been alive.

The slit-lenses of the marred helm upon her face now fell upon the true quarry though, this new curiosity that was Kaelyr as the beast’s torn form fell in a crumbled mass of gore behind her.

An unmoving creature, a hungry void in the force now starred this Sith down. Head cocked ever so slightly in curiosity.

He was being studied, that much was certain.

A purveyor of potentialities. And what was a new Sith face but another potentiality in both Lirka’s endless ambitions, or her maniac paranoia. But, Lirka only laughed now.

It was a horrible thing, loud, obnoxious, and utterly humorless. Words purred out of her helm, distorted by a vocalizer.

“How very aggressive! Are we not all friends within this dusty hole? Sith hunting towards a common goal of plunder in places forgotten?”

Of course, she didn’t believe it for a moment. For what was Sithdom if not a swirling mass of competing goals forced to walk a similar path.

​

​

 

[Meliant]

​

Krasskor landed. Meliant felt the gust of wind and dust at his back. That did get Stumpy to lock-in, sure, but she wielded this clarity to run away. Run away very fast, very hard. The unchanging, faintly sneering face of his mask watched her go. Sometimes if you want to see someone succeed, you have to let them wander unaccompanied into traps, possibly dying.

Eggs and omelets. No one understood better than Meliant.​

​

Meliant made a sound like a tired sigh and slowly rose to his full height.​

​

"If it isn't the last limping member of the Dark Side Elite," Meliant unhooked his cloak and let it crumple behind him in a dusty, red heap. "You're the only one still waiting for Fossk to come home. Did you know that? Yes - it's no wonder he remains so far away..."​

​

He laughed cruelly and turned to face the mutant. Krasskor was taller than Meliant by a fair margin, but there was no question who looked down on who. He ran a thumb and forefinger along one edge of his sword, producing a brief flash of sparks and a sharp, scraping sound.​

​

"Look at the state of you... Pathetic. Listen: I'm an important person now, Krasskorr. I have appointments to keep. Either take your vengeance or fuck off."​

Eurydice Ziso Kus Krasskorr the Maw ​

 

[Krasskorr the Maw]

FOOD: Ziso Kus Eurydice Meliant

​

The haunting wail of Eurydice echoed in his mind as he observed her retreating figure down the corridor, her garments swirling in the ash before she vanished into the darkness. Her desperate words hung in the stillness, suggesting he would make a far more satisfying meal. A deep, resonant growl rumbled from Krasskorr's broad chest, as if to signal his approval of her unsettling plan.

He paid no mind to her retreat, his colossal feet pulverizing the fallen duracrete beneath him as he redirected his focus to Meliant . The former Dark Side Elite stood amidst the debris, exuding an irritating sense of boredom. With a casual flick, Meliant unfastened his cloak, allowing it to cascade to the ground, and began to deride the Saurton.

He tossed around the name of the True Emperor as if it were a joke, inflating his own sense of importance while proclaiming himself a important person with pressing engagements. Krasskorr's bloodshot golden eyes narrowed into menacing slits. "Forgive me for intruding then, Your Highness. I'm sure your real busy as the Secretary of Coruscant, filing out forms, dressing up for parades. Must be so taxing.." He let out a deep, mocking laugh at the sight of the Dark Side Elite, now nothing more than a pawn of the Sith Covenant.

Krasskorr dismissed the traitor's potential retort without a second thought, for the age of words had been consumed by the flames of the Imperial Palace. Gripping the elongated hilt of his lightclub with both massive hands, he felt the crimson plasma surge to life, its unstable hum echoing the turmoil within his mind.

With a thunderous roar that seemed capable of collapsing the very ceiling above, he propelled his three-ton frame into action, unleashing a relentless barrage of Juyo, the Ferocity Form. There was no grace in his movements, only a chaotic tempest of raw power as he swung the three-meter blade in sweeping arcs, each strike intended not merely to slice but to batter, crush, and obliterate anything that dared to stand in his way.

 

[Quinn Varanin]

//: Mercy //:

Quinn raised a brow at the new information of one of the three leaders being murdered. They were Sith; this kind of information wasn't new or surprising. Still, she wondered who was able to topple those who stood 'equal' to Mercy.

As much as the Sith Princess wanted to dig deeper into this new knowledge, she decided against it. But it did provide the girl with an avenue to be useful to the Empress of the Core. She was a bit of a scholar in her own right. Having studied under Taeli Raaf, seeking knowledge and solving mysteries had rubbed off on her. Once they obtained what they were looking for, Quinn would offer up her skills in that realm.

She also wondered whether Taeli would have any knowledge of the item. It never hurt to reach out to her Master.

Quinn looked to Mercy as the woman mentioned getting her hands dirty, feeling the blood on her skin. She didn't respond right away; her mind drifted to the very vivid memory of Mercy smearing her blood along Mother's face. The way the act was as primal as it could be, a connection she would never have with either woman… nor would she ever understand it.

It made her uncomfortable as she shifted her weight as Mercy burst through the doors.

Despite everything said, Quinn did smile softly, seeing the acknowledgment of her abilities. Though Quinn knew Mercy didn't fully understand what she was doing, the words still meant the world to her.

All of it felt like a lesson, one Quinn was still learning. She had never really expected Mercy to be the one to try to teach her; in the girl's mind, they were equals. They had been friends for some time, and despite their age difference, something more had developed. She would have to inquire later where this philosophical sense was echoing from in the Knave.

Once Mercy had finished, Quinn smirked — as much as she hated this, to be useful was nice… also, this seemed to be much simpler than her issues with the Jedi, with the Mandalorians… and everyone else in the galaxy.

"Carnal destruction?" Quinn would echo with a laugh. "I'm sorry, Knave, but I feel you, and I may differ with this." Her eyes would glance towards Mercy, and she attempted to understand the enjoyment of something like the inevitable slaughter brought. But she found none within herself.

"I'd rather do other carnal things with my body. I'll leave the bathing in the enemy's blood to you, my Herunín."

Her influence would quickly spread as more guards arrived to defend against the intrusion. Whatever this control node was, it seemed important enough to throw more lives at them.

There was a dim glow on her chest, a pin that only aided in the spread of the mental control she was already doing. Each mind connected to hers, bleeding their fears, feeding the phobis device. Maybe it was then she understood, feeling the excitement that bled from the core that anchored her soul to existence. Was that something that Mercy often felt in battle? Is that what made her a Sith?

The twisted emotions blended with her own, fueling the depravity of the mind-controlled horrors that the soldiers felt. Their twisted minds saw each other as enemies, as the ghosts of their pasts trying to drag them into the dark pits of Chaos.

Quinn watched from behind her own eyes as her own conscious self began to retreat, refusing to watch the bloodshed that her puppeted existence created.

"Teach me to enjoy this, my Herunín…" ​

 

[Delvin jeth]

Madrona A’Mia Ra'Shayne Vorr

Objective 2| rakatan mind prison

Delvin mentally stood there his usual cold clinical approach to most things prevalent even here. He could sense ra'shaynes anger and hear her scream but didnt react didnt even care as he touched the rakatans mind entering it he could feel madrona touch his mind. See her roots on his hand feel her peering through his eyes without risking herself.

As he explored the rakatans mind he could feel the rakatan attempt to touch his well guarded mind back. As delvin began sifting through his rakatan memories for anything useful to himself besides the location of the weapon. That he was sure the other two where after aswell his cold intelligence catalogueing everything for future revelance.

 

[Meliant]

​

The mutant launched himself forward, swinging his lightsaber in a near-mindless frenzy. Meliant recognized the general form as what passed for Juyo among the Dark Side Elite. It was an already undignified, meritless form, and as exhibited by Krasskorr it seemed somehow even more degenerate.​

​

Krasskorr only ever hacked the empty air, as Meliant weaved and lunged and contorted himself so as to always be just out of reach of that slow, cumbersome lightclub. He laughed the whole time, that ugly hyena sound echoing down the halls and rattling the brainpans of anyone unfortunate enough to hear it.​

​

Eventually he side-stepped Krasskorr entirely, whirling past him in a golden blur, positioning himself a few paces behind and away from the shambolic reptile.​

​

"You swing like you're shoveling bantha shit," he said, the mean smile he might have worn was at least detectable in his tone. "No talent, no style..."​

​

There was a tingling in the air, and Krasskorr would soon feel it against his scaly hide: the subtle drain of the old Sith assassins, brought to bear against him. Invisible fangs drew out his strength in the Force and siphoned it into Meliant. Not a full meal compared to some others Meliant had enjoyed, but it'd suffice. ​

​

"...And no hope."​

Eurydice Ziso Kus Krasskorr the Maw​

 

[Krasskorr the Maw]

FOOD: Ziso Kus Eurydice Meliant

​

The Ferocity Form did him no favors as the lightclub bit deep into the obsidian walls, sending showers of sparks cascading over his scarred hide but Meliant remained a ghost, a mocking golden blur that danced and weaved through his attacks like they were nothing at all. As the traitor side-stepped and unleashed that grating, hyena-light laughter there was a feeling of coldness creeping into his veins.

It wasn't the chill of the tomb they both resided in but a deep spiritual wound, as the invisible fangs of his opponent began to siphon his connection to the Dark Side. His muscles felt heavy, not with their usual three-ton power, but with a sudden, lethargic weight. The crimson glow of his blade flickered, reflecting the dimming light in his own soul.

No talent... no style... no hope.

The words stung more than the Sith's blade ever could. For a fraction of a second, the creeping fear that Meliant was right that for all his might he was nothing more than a relic guarding a presumed dead man's throne flickered into his mind. But the Saurton was not built for doubt and the true Galactic Emperor still empowered him as a member of the Dark Side Elite, and in the absence of hope there was only destruction.

"You talk a lot for a dead man." He snarled, not attempting to retrieve the strength being taken from him but instead focusing his intense fury into a single, fiery spot in his throat. If the golden secretary craved his power so desperately, he would not refuse him. He anchored his enormous, flat feet into the stone ground, his claws sinking deep enough to create sparks from the ground.

He drew a breath that seemed to suck the very air out of the corridor, his massive chest expanding until his armor plates groaned and shrieked. He ignored the fading strength in his limbs, reaching instead for the primal, destructive core of his being.

"RRRRRAAAAAAGGGGHHH!"

The Force Bellow was a physical wall of sonic and telekinetic pressure. The air in the tunnel turned into a solid hammer of vibration. The vaulted ceiling above Meliant disintegrated. Ancient obsidian beams shattered like glass, and the iron supports warped and snapped under the sheer volume of the sound.

 

[Anet Raine]

Mellia Raine
​

Anet scrambled on the beast, rather gracelessly, and clung shoulder-to-shoulder with her sister as the creature carried them across the ravine. She wasn't in the mood for small banter. However, she did address Mell.

"Good work," a great compliment coming from someone like Anet. "So I see it runs in your blood, too..."

Theirs wasn't a family in the traditional sense. Childhoods in silos, to avoid cross-contamination, as if they were--no, they were experiments to their father. Anet, however, could remember the day the Jedi came inquiring after her... and how their father told them all but to fuck off. That was when she knew, and part of her always wondered. What if she had been trained from an earlier age? Would she be the prodigy - would it be Kirie who recognized her potential; taken under her wing?

Speaking of wing(s)....

Anet rolled off the moment the creature reached the threshold, tumbling onto the stone street and catching herself on hands and knees. She stood quickly, now only a few dozen meters away from the towering structure.

"Let's not waste any more time," she declared and broke into a sprint.

The half-pantoran was panting by the time they reached the entrance, but her lack of physical conditioning was not her immediate concern. The great presence in the Force was. She sensed power. Great and overwhelming power inside. Only one of whom she could readily identify.

"Mercy..." Anet murmured. Mercy

 

[Arris Windrun]

Nilira Vornix
​

Her eyes opened a crack, before finally the cyborg groaned and rose to her feet.

"How would my death possibly contribute to your success?" She asked, half-amused.

Arris might've been more enthused had the fall--and strange flashbacks--not shaken her nerves. She looked around the dark and quiet room. Was that a dream then? Some kind of Force vision? The thoughts, as well as her lack of understanding, frustrated her.

Finally, she looked down at her lithe companion. "What's gotten into you anyway?"

She was surprised (read: startled) by Nilira's grinning and behavior; a stark contrast from what she's come to know. Had something changed? All the Talusian could consider was their last exchange before this mission, inside one of the training dojos at the Sith Temple on Coruscant. They didn't exactly depart on good terms, she thought. But then again, this was Nilira... not exactly the most predictable acolyte of the lot.

Arris knelt and collected the damaged chemlight, and as soon as she held it, the device flickered on despite being impossibly damaged. There were more perks to being a technopath and mechu-deru master than enhancing one's own cybernetics or annihilating droid armies with sheer willpower.

She pointed the light down their only option: a hallway, since reduced to a sandy tunnel, with little scraps of old, dried paper.

"Maybe something's making a nest?" She wondered aloud, recalling Nilira's comments that something was making a home in there.

The cyborg continued deeper, following the path and the paper trail, until they finally arrived at what appeared to be a sort of library. Shelves filled with scrolls - most in a state of total disrepair. But that wasn't all. At the center was a grand orrery of Jedha's night sky. The machine and the star-dotted ceiling were remarkably intact with little damage. A sure sign that the Force maintained a strong and constant presence.

Indeed, the Light was pure here, sprouting up from a wellspring of serenity. Even in darkness, there was life. Tiny plants sprouted from barren soil, their roots coiling along a path that formed a perimeter around the orrery. And that wasn't all. A small family of dune scratchers made a nest of paper, organic decay, and bile. One of the larger rodents peered out from its lair before withdrawing quickly within, hissing a warning at the two intruders.

"Rats." She sighed.

For all there was to be in awe of and discuss, Arris addressed only them.

"Reminds me of home..."

 

[Madrona A’Mia]

​

Ra'Shayne Vorr & Delvin jeth​

Though safer than attempting entry herself, hazards still abound as a watcher of the other two intrepid explorers. A'Mia noted with interest the presence of other minds in the box, perhaps those whose bodies were long dead? She also recognized all the hallmarks of emotional and psychological manipulation being deployed upon her unlikely companions.

Dispassionately, the neti guarded her own mind and risked little as she gathered important details about the craftsmanship of the unusual artifact. It was more than informative really and the neti was soon devising methods by which to recreate such a technology but using sorcery and biochemical engineering techniques instead. She also mused to herself what a waste it was of the Rakatan people to allow their prisoner's bodies to wallow. Why not make them useful?

Lost in reveries of what she might achieve in the betterment of such a device, A'Mia nearly missed the cues that her companions were slipping into the prison. They might already find it difficult to find their way out, despite the safeguards enacted.

"Time soon to return to your bodies — the depths of the prison stretch beyond the edge of your mind's eye and soon it will tempt you past the point of probable return."

For her part, the neti braced her physical form and sent minor electrical signals through the points of contact between herself and the resting bodies of the explorers. Those signals along with her psychic call would hopefully be enough to lead them back.

 

[Kaelyr]

The Demon of Crimson​

The Hunt For Tira{Chandaar}

Tags: Lirka Ka

I scoffed at the words coming from the distorted voice of the new figure as I found a spot that wasnt covered in the sinew and gore of the beast I had just torn asunder. "Friends? Among the Sith? That is like sitting within a den of vipers and expecting one not to bite you. I trust only the dark side of the force, other Sith have yet to prove themselves worthy." I noted, calming my mind as I went into a meditative state. To protect myself, I summoned a vortex of purple and crimson flames. I did not know this new individual and would not be left unprotected while I felt through the force to try and find any semblance of where the information I sought might be.

Attuning to the force around me, I searched, scouring through several floors until something bright caught my eye. Yggdrakses went into a frenzy; it recognized that brightness, it was familiar. It was clear that a fragment of the deity's soul was several floors beneath us. If it was as prized as the legends of the dark god suggested, then the information on Tira might be in the same place as the fragment. Extinguishing the protective flames, I stood and looked to the new figure.

For a moment, I took them in, every detail of their form, and the signature of the force within and around them. It was unnerving, erratic even, yet held the calm and calculation of a predator. They would definitely be dealt caution. "Given the situation we have found ourselves in, we will have to work together. I have my own goals here, as there is something that belongs to me within this vault that I must retrieve. As long as you dont get in the way of that, I won't give in to the impulse to melt you." I noted, placing my hands on the floor before emitting intense heat to melt the floor.

Once through to the floor below us, I looked to the figure before diving into the hole. "Do try to keep up."

 

[Nilira Vornix]

Tag: Arris Windrun

"You know how Sith are. They have to climb atop the corpses of their masters to prove they are superior. Of course, I think it's utterly pointless, I don't need to do that to prove it, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't use it to my advantage."

Nilira gave a small dismissive wave in the air at that. Arris wasn't her master, far from it. But anything that she walked away from that the Cyborg didn't could only potentially go in her favour and show that she wasn't the bottom of the pecking order. Not that the Acolyte cared anymore, the smile on her face replaced with a usual frown as she stepped back and forth to see what she could find.

"It's likely something has been making a mess. There doesn't appear to be too large a food source nearby, that we've noticed at least so I'd lean towards it being a far more smaller creature if anything. Maybe a little bit larger than a womp rat. Though considering it seems there's more plants available than meat, it's also likely that they are at least omnivores, if not herbivores..."

The Acolyte droned on for a moment, almost as if she was trying to distract herself from something. The ex-Padawan who would normally speak short and simple seemed to suddenly enjoy the sound of her own voice. Was it perhaps an unfortunate side effect of her going over the new "gift" that Vestra Tane had given her? Or perhaps it was because there was something in this place that Nilira didn't want to hear.

Nilira scowled to herself at the sight of Jedha's night sky from the machine, shaking her head and almost dismissing it immediately. For as much as the Light might have been pure and bright here, it did not hold Nilira's attention as she used the Force like a mere tool, pulling various scrolls to her hand in an attempt to find any usable, discarding the tattered remains of those too far damaged for use by tossing them on the ground. Her eyes darting over towards Arris as she stated how the rats reminded her of home. What was home for Arris? Some wretched hive on Nar Shaddaa? The vile streets of Coruscant? Or some other scum filled abode?

"Doesn't remind me of home. Not enough dead Jedi and crying kids being ripped away from the only place they felt alive. Though I'm sure you know plenty about that as well."

​

 

[Arris Windrun]

Nilira Vornix
​

The cyborg raised a brow as Nilira talked of climbing atop Sith corpses on the path towards superiority. That wasn't something she would've taught the acolyte, but then again, it was Nilira who attended the academy, not Arris.

She was relieved when the young woman started talking about the local wildlife instead - a conversation she could stomach.

Her attention split between Nilira's exploration of the records and her own search for what might be useful, if anything at all. She stopped when the acolyte spoke of her past so sardonically. It stung a little when she brought it back around to her.

Arris sighed, then frowned. "Yeah. I'm the reason most of you former Jedi ended up on Desevro. It's true..." She wasn't feeling particularly guilty over it, though. Not that she failed to recognize it was wrong; that what she did was wrong, but she wasn't about to wallow.

She turned back to the shelf, but before she could sift through more scrolls, a strange feeling washed over her again. The room began to spin, and suddenly, she had a splitting headache. "Agh!" She grabbed the side of her head, stumbling backwards into a pillar.

The cyborg lurched forward, falling to one knee, hand still on her head as the pain grew - sharp, burning, throbbing pain. Reflexively, she cranked up her pain damper. At its normal settings (normal for her, anyway), she hardly experienced pain at all. So, it should've numbed her completely at the highest end... but it didn't.

Rather, the pain got worse, and she felt it in places she had never felt it before. Her arms. Her legs. Every bit of nerve replaced by metal and machine. It burned. Her whole body burned. "Aghhaaah!" She screamed.

 

[Mercy]

Quinn Varanin

"Teach me to enjoy this, my Herunín…"

Mercy had not noticed the last time Quinn had been taken over by the entity within. Coruscant had been a lot for a creature like Mercy, the blood, the death, the joy of smashing things apart had been so exhilarating it had all but consumed her. In a lot of ways Mercy was still chasing the high of that faithful day.

Only in the most private moments of her life did she acknowledge the unhelpful truth: she would never match that day.

When she had finished the Kaggath on her own terms, broke an Empire and forged a Throne out of it. There would never be a war as satisfying as that, never a battle as bloody as it had become when Arris Windrun turned Imperial against Imperial. She would forever be stuck yearning for something as brilliant as the War for the Core had been.

All of that was to say that now Mercy did pay attention in a way she hadn't back then.

Her eyes slowly found Quinn even as she stood in the ruins of the broken doorsteps. Past them she could hear guns being turned on their own allies when Quinn's influence took over.

"What is it inside of you, darling Quinn, that has such a hold on you?" Her frame blurred and suddenly the Mountain loomed over Quinn. Hand already moving to touch her chin and tilt her head up. Amber had already corrupted her gaze, bleeding sulfur and acid. "I do not recall giving permission for anyone to take control of you."

Chin squeezed under her thick fingers.

"Must I... drag it out of you?" Leaning in there. "Or will it relinquish control on its own? Hello..." The Empress of the Core purred softly. "A pleasure to meet you, but has no one ever told you it is rude to claim that which does not belong to you?"