Faction The Strength of the Wolf | Iron Wolves ME

[Mythra]

The Mines of Ronion

"The strength of the Pack is the Wolf;
the strength of the Wolf is the Pack"​

MINES OF RONION, MANDALORE
Finish What was Started

The Force had been systemically purged from Mandalorian society time and time again. It has been mistrusted at best and vilified at worst. And the galaxy’s most prominent practitioners only gave proof that it should be eradicated.​

​

No longer.​

​

Mand’alor the Iron set a new decree: the galaxy’s ultimate weapon would be denied to the Mandalorians no more. At his direction, the Iron Wolves took form, the Mandalorian answer to the fervently zealous Jedi and the barbarous Sith. Less hierarchical than either major religion, the Iron Wolves are siblings-in-arms and the first defense against Force threats.​

​

With Mandalore’s surface restored to its Clone Wars-era state, all that remains is to purge the last remnants of the Sith Occupation. An order had been given long ago: the Mines of Ronion must be cleansed. But the enemies of Mandalore intervened, drawing the Great Heathen Army far from home to put an end to the harassment. And so the corruption of the Sith lingered on, festering beneath the surface.​

​

Until now.​

​

Messages from Ronion have indicated the situation can no longer be ignored. Locals have reported tremors being felt on the surface. Sithspawn attack the village by night and harass would-be travelers by day. Mand’alor the Iron has dispatched the Iron Wolves to rid themselves of the Sith influence once and for all.​

​

The entrance to the mine lays bare and open to the surface, the heavy doors that once kept the Darkness sealed away torn from their hinges. The smells of rot and death hang heavy in the dank air. It is eerily silent but further in, faint rumblings and growls vibrate the air.​

​

The Dark side is palpable, a pressure in the sinuses, a weight on the lungs. With every step past the threshold, it grows. The unprepared will soon find themselves tested as it seeks out weakness and vulnerabilities. Even those that have braced for it will find the Dark side’s influence gains strength the deeper they go.​

​

And every so often, a tremor runs through the earth.​

​

Let the hunt begin.​

​

Spoiler: Objectives

TEAM SOLUS
LEVEL CRESH

Reports have come in of phantom creatures haunting the western tunnels of Level Cresh. Tracks left behind and recorded by survivors indicate a pack of nexu or a close relative. Hunt down and exterminate each one, but exercise caution. The few survivors of these phantom attacks describe swift large animals with plenty of teeth. Numbers unknown.​

TEAM T'AD
LEVEL DORN

Other reports from Ronion describe an additional problem: bipedal wolf creatures have made their den in the northeast portion of Level Dorn’s tunnels. These beasts harrass the local villages and roads at night, killing the livestock and often breaking into homes when livestock cannot be found. Extra caution is advised: territorial markings made by the creatures have been found to contain an unidentified crystalline substance.​

TEAMS SOLUS AND T'AD
LEVEL ESK

A third problem remains once Levels Cresh and Dorn are cleared out. Locals report seismic activity in spite of no faults in the area. Geologic scans of the mine show fractures and crevices opening up in the ceiling of a large natural cavern in Level Esk. Rejoin with the entire task force, investigate the source of the tremors, and exterminate it.​

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Level Cresh
Tags: Eenia Vahn | Kael Varr Bastiel Skirata | Liorra | Garo Vevut-Varkor

The tunnel seemed to stretch endlessly as the bootsteps of Adelle and her pack of Iron Wolves made their way down the main shaft of Level Cresh. Tracks left at the nearby village said they were hunting nexu but none of the villagers were able to describe how they looked or how many there were. Based on the reports, they might be hunting several packs, although the villagers themselves had taken care of quite a few. Adelle held a newly forged beskad in one hand, her lightsaber in the other, unlit for now. Her beskad she had imbued with the Light side last night, along with Kael’s and Liorra’s beskads while teaching them the basics of imbuement. Even Warmaster Monroe had let her imbue her own beskad.

Shades of green and black revealed the shape of the tunnel, her visor on nightvision since the thick layers of rock interfered with the thermal and vitals scans. Her pack followed behind: her adopted son, Kael; the volatile foundling Liorra, who had way more of her mother in her than she probably wanted; and Garo, the quieter member of their pack. Fortunately, Adelle wasn’t the only adult present. Nia had been able to come with them.

“No running off,” she warned the pack quietly but mostly for Lio’s benefit. “Reports said these creatures were invisible and we don’t know how many there are. Stay alert and stay together.”

 

[Kael Varr Bastiel Skirata]

Tags: Eenia Vahn Adelle Bastiel Liorra Garo Vevut-Varkor
OBJECTIVE: Level 1 Cresh - Solus

Spoiler: Arms and Armor

Ship: The Cabur Rekr (The Guardian Wolf)
Armor: Dauntless-type Beskar'gam
Blade: Tal'Alor Beskad
Primary Weapon: Plasma Bow
Secondary Weapon: Bastion-Pattern Kad’au

Kael saved his Beskad, leaving it in its dagger form on his hip. His bow remained on his back, safely protected by his wolf pelt cloak. At the moment, in the dark corridors of the tunnel, Kael gripped his Kad'au; they too remained unlit, but at the ready to defend himself or his pack from attack. His armor glowed from the runes etched along the edge of each piece; the Mandalorian heart at the center of his chestplate glowed a soft blue as he focused the Force in readiness for the incoming fight. He focused not on what his visor was feeding him but on the sounds of the cavern, relying on the Force and his natural Togruta senses to pick up any contacts. Stepping into his moving battle meditation, he extended the web of awareness and focus to his packmates, avoiding offering it to his Buir, knowing she would reject it just as she had during the Verd'gotten, but tentatively offering it to Eenia as the only other Alor here. The way Kael felt about it, the Battle Meditation was a hunting song for his pack, a way for them to rally and coordinate as a group and act as one, not with him as leader, but with the pack as equals.

 

[Mia Monroe]

Tags: Jaren Kast Torva Vikar

Gravel crunched under foot, the noise echoing through the tunnel as the pack moved forward, beneath the glare of their lights, the tunnel's walls glittered with red crystalline growth in gouges left behind by large claws. Some were fresh and bright, others were older, deeper and darker in colour.

Mia lowered at one patch, running a gloved hand over the substance. It did not belong here, much like the lupine creatures that had left it behind. Another tremor ran through the ground shaking dust and stone from the ceiling, mimicking the sound of rain as it pinged harmlessly off beskar clad Wolves.

Somewhere ahead of them a rumbling growl echoed, the acoustics of the mines making it difficult to gauge how far ahead it really was. The Warmaster rose to her feet, adjusting her grip on the rifle in her hand, beskad still resting in its sheath on her back.

The wolves were not stealthy, once they realised their den was infiltrated they would come at them as a pack. “We’re getting closer.” she said in a low voice. “Be ready.”

 

[Jaren Kast]

Wearing:
Beskar'gam - Vibro-ax​

LEVEL DORN

This hunt was a monumental honor...but...

Jaren's thoughts should have been on the mission at hand. They should have been focused on facing down the lupine adversaries that lurked within the cracks and crevices of their homeworld. And yet, as he strode behind one of their people's finest warriors, his mind was anywhere but. At a glance, he certainly looked the part for the operation. He was draped in beskar, cloaked with fur, and armed with a hatchet that was thirsting for battle.

Yet behind his T-visor? His gaze kept moving to his flank. To the fiery-haired woman who kept pace with them. This was the first time that they would see combat together. The first time that they would taste danger together. And while Jaren was wholly confident in her abilities as a warrior (she was the Mand'alor's daughter for godssake), his stomach couldn't help but worry.

Why? The damned words "what if?"

What if he let one through?

What if he wasn't fast enough?

What if he wasn't strong enough?

Doubt clawed at his very soul, so much so that his grip upon his hatchet trembled ever so slightly. It wasn't until Warmaster Monroe spoke and advised them to be ready that he gripped his weapon with vigor. "Feth..." he breathed, before looking upon Torva. "I've got your back."

Those words he would attempt to make good on, even if it meant he had to die trying.

Mia Monroe , Torva Vikar + Open

 

[Veyla Krinn]

LEVEL DORN — TEAM T'AD

Veyla Krinn had been inside enough mines to know when something did not belong beneath the ground.

The occasional tremor did little to bother her. Concordia had taught her from an early age that the earth was rarely as still as people liked to imagine, and old mining tunnels had their own language of settling stone, shifting supports, and distant machinery. This was different. Every shudder seemed to travel through the soles of her boots and climb the length of her body before disappearing again, leaving behind an uncomfortable silence that made the next one feel inevitable. More troubling were the marks covering portions of the tunnel walls. Deep gouges cut through the stone where claws had bitten into it, and within some of them glittered the strange red crystalline growth the reports had mentioned.

Veyla slowed beside one of the older markings without allowing herself to fall far behind the others. Her helmet remained sealed, emerald eyes studying the material through her visor while the sensors in her beskar'gam tried to make sense of what she was seeing. She had spent enough time around metals, ores, crystals, and the things people dragged out of the ground to recognize when something looked wrong. Whatever this was, it did not appear to have formed naturally around the gouges. It seemed almost as though the creatures themselves had left it behind.

Her hand moved toward one of the deposits before stopping short of touching it.

Months ago, she probably would have taken a sample and trusted her equipment to tell her the rest. Kallous had complicated things.

Veyla closed her eyes behind the protection of her visor and drew a slow breath. She did not reach deeply for the Force, nor did she try to impose her will upon it. She had learned enough by now to understand the difference. Instead, she quieted the questions already gathering in her mind and allowed herself to feel. The oppressive weight of the Dark side within Ronion made that considerably less pleasant than the currents she had experienced on Oralis Prime, but she did not retreat from it. There was something here. Something beneath the obvious danger of the creatures they were hunting, although she could not yet put a name to what she sensed.

Another tremor rolled through the tunnel, shaking loose a thin shower of dust that pattered harmlessly against her armor. Veyla opened her eyes and rose.

"I don't like those crystals."

It was hardly a revelation, but she wasn't going to pretend she understood something she didn't. Her attention shifted from the markings toward Mia and the others ahead before settling upon the darkness stretching farther into Level Dorn. Somewhere beyond the reach of their lights, a low growl rolled through the tunnels. The acoustics distorted it enough that judging distance was difficult, but there was nothing ambiguous about its source.

The creatures knew they were there.

Veyla reached over her shoulder and drew her pike free, settling the familiar weapon into her hands. Her new weapon was not finished yet, leaving her with the spear she had carried and trained with long before Kallous had ever introduced her to the Force. There was something reassuring about its familiar balance as her grip adjusted along the shaft. The Force might have been a new addition to her life, but this was not. Hunting dangerous things through hostile terrain was something she understood considerably better.

She moved forward to close the small distance she had allowed to form while examining the wall, taking her place with Team T'ad rather than ranging away from them. The reports had warned them that the blood wolves hunted as a pack, and wandering alone through their den would have been an excellent way to discover just how accurate those reports were.

"If those markings are territorial, we've been inside their den for a while already." Her voice remained low over the team's comms as she scanned the tunnel ahead. "And from the sound of that, I think they've decided they've let us wander around it long enough."

She could feel something prickling at the edge of her awareness now, faint enough that she couldn't have said whether it was the Force warning her or simply years of instinct telling her that a fight was coming. A few months earlier she might have tried to decide which it was. Kallous had spent enough time teaching her why that wasn't always necessary.

Veyla loosened her shoulders, kept her pike ready, and continued deeper into Ronion with the rest of the pack.

Whatever waited ahead, they would meet it together.

Jaren Kast Mia Monroe Torva Vikar

 

[Sylor]

Level Dorn

Mia Monroe Jaren Kast Torva Vikar Veyla Krinn
​

There was always something sinister and dark lurking in the deepest corners of the galaxy. Beings and creatures that hid away from the light of day, waiting in places few dared to venture. Artorious had seen many such things, perhaps more than most, though he knew there were still horrors out there that even he had yet to encounter.

The Clan Verd warrior stood beside the others, listening to their words. Their voices were quiet and measured, but carried enough conviction to show that they possessed strong hearts and resolute wills.

“We’re getting closer.” she said in a low voice. “Be ready.”

"Understood." he responded, matching their tone. He looked toward the others and gave them a small nod.

"Feth..." he breathed, before looking upon Torva. "I've got your back."

"We are in this together."

Sylor moved slowly ahead, advancing only a pace or two. Aside from the soft sound of their boots striking the ground, the only noise came from water dripping into a distant pool, each drop echoing through the darkened passageway. It was then that the atmosphere suddenly changed. Growls and snarls suddenly echoed through the cavern, drowning out the steady dripping of water. The sounds were getting louder, drawing closer with inhuman speed.

Sylor's expression hardened as his hand moved toward his weapon.

"Contact..." he whispered, drawing his blade.

 

[Garo Vevut-Varkor]

​

Garo brought up the rear, accompanied by his canine basilisk; the basilisk's sensors were operating at full capacity, relaying data to the shaman's helmet HUD.

The sound of footsteps didn't bother the young shaman, who walked alertly, though his arms seemed relaxed as he carried his vibroaxes.

Occasionally, he turned his head to check behind him, to the sides, and above, trusting that the group would cover the front.

"If these creatures are as cunning as they seem, they'll wait for us to go deeper into the mine… a basic hunting and ambush tactic."

He stated it as a simple fact of the hunt.

"It's great for splitting up a group."

Adelle Bastiel Eenia Vahn Liorra

 

[Eenia Vahn]

​

TAG: Adelle Bastiel | Kael Varr Bastiel Skirata | Liorra | Garo Vevut-Varkor
Wearing:


The responsibility of trying to keep people alive was not something that was new to Eenia. Considering her healing abilities, she was quite familiar with the task, and yet any time the idea of being responsible for the lives of others in the heat of the moment came into play, the blonde felt oddly out of place. All of her life she had been the one pushed to the background, stood in front of, protected from whatever was coming her way. Now, it was her turn to do the same for others, and it made her understand why her older sister had always been so overprotective for all of the years they were around one another. This pack was young, and Nia would step in front of anything for them all.

She felt the press of awareness which brought her focus back from her thoughts and she smiled gently at Kael. There was no visible, protective beskar cradling her body, but by no means was she unprotected. The armor she did have was solid, and the Force hummed around her like an old friend's embrace. The grip of her right hand was wrapped around the hilt of her lightsaber, the weapon quiet and unignited for the time being.

"Seconded," she commented after Adelle. "I will personally drag you back if you attempt to run off." This was not the time or place to be overly curious and separate from the pack, and Eenia had every confidence that she wouldn't be the only adult dragging pups back into the fold if they decided to disobey and wander off. The blonde then sighed through her nose at Garo's comment. "We'll just have to keep things tight to keep them from getting in between us." Not easy to do when your foes are invisible, but Nia was ever the optimist.

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Tags: Eenia Vahn | Kael Varr Bastiel Skirata | Garo Vevut-Varkor

The thread of battle meditation wove through the Force, linking the pack together but not reaching out for Adelle. But she got the distinct impression that there was room for her in it if she chose. Adelle nodded to herself, satisfied. Battle meditation would help coordinate their movements, keep them connected if, like Garo suggested, these creatures succeeded in splitting them up. But with Nia just as vigilant, the odds of that happening grew slim.

A dull headache settled in her skull and seemed to throb more the deeper into the mines they went. Adelle reached over to her vambrace and switched her visor’s visuals to thermal. Night vision hadn’t revealed anything and the reports hadn’t been able to give a description on looks alone. Which meant either camouflage or a concealing power in the Force. In either case, the HUD was going to do a better job of revealing the creatures than her sense in the Force. She hadn’t felt any lifeforms since they entered the cave.

An echo of claws and teeth pierced her skin as Adelle’s precog flashed. She ingited her lightsaber and swung as the creature leapt at her side. Claws scratched beskar and tore through armorweave as its weight crashed into her. Adelle fell beneath it, the acrid sting of burnt fur overpowering her buy’ce’s filters momentarily. She rolled the dead weight off her, shoulder burning where the claws sliced through the armorweave bodysuit. The pressure of the Dark side behind her eyes increased.

“Eyes up!” Adelle barked. “Pay attention to motion sensors. Thermal scans were negative. I didn’t feel it in the Force either.”

Ice burned cold through her shoulder, down into her arm. Adelle tried to look at the injury but the beskar’gam limited her ability to look at it.

“Dammit. Nia, I need you to take a look,” Adelle said. She switched her HUD back to night vision and nudged the body on the ground with a foot. It looked like an average Nexu, albeit a touch bigger. Scars covered its body, cutting through the pale fur. Anger began to simmer under her confusion. Her buy’ce hadn’t been able to catch it, save for the motion sensors. She’d have called it faulty but she hadn’t felt the nexu in the Force until her precognition had flashed. It was stupid. She’d been stupid. She should’ve felt it in the Force!

Adelle winced as the Dark side pressed heavily against her head. Something was very wrong here. She shouldn’t be so angry, even with the influence of the Dark side. And underneath everything, the scent of death hung heavy in the air.

Spoiler: OOC Note

Team Solus, we've made contact. Go ham. There are less Nexu than expected from the reports and they will not show up in the Force or on most scanners. Otherwise, refer to the linked sub in the opening post for details.

 

[Torva Vikar]

Tags: Mia Monroe / Jaren Kast / Veyla Krinn / Sylor ​

Torva was nervous.

She was always nervous when facing the unknown, and the prospect of a fight. She was still learning, still so new. At least, that was how she felt. She had learned, though. Trained with others, trained with her father when he wasn’t busy doing his duties as Mand’alor. She had improved in her fighting skills - she wasn’t exemplary, but she was better.

Enough that she had been dragged along for this mission with the other Iron Wolves.

They were hunting down in the mines, chasing after something that had been left behind by Sith forces long before her time. She recalled hearing something about wolves (how ironic that the Iron Wolves were hunting after something that they were named after) - but these wolves were not the average variety. They were twisted by dark forces that Torva didn’t understand and had no desire to understand or truly interact with - the oppressive feeling that brushed against her mind made her sick to her stomach.

At least she had Warmaster Monroe with her, and alongside her was her cyare, Jaren, and beyond him were her packmates, her vod. Their presence gave her strength, gave her courage. Whatever was beyond them, they could defeat it by working together.

Warmaster Monroe was studying signs left behind by their prey; Torva took a moment to study her surroundings, noticing deep gouges left in the stone and some sort of red crystalline like substance left behind.

“I don’t like those crystals." one of her packmates, Veyla, said nearby, as a tremor rippled through the mines, shaking dust free to settle over them all. "If those markings are territorial, we've been inside their den for a while already."

Somewhere beyond them, deeper into the tunnels, echoed an ominous growl.

"And from the sound of that, I think they've decided they've let us wander around it long enough."

Torva’s grip on the vibro-sword’s hilt in her hand tightened a fraction, as her heart lurched within her chest and began to beat a little faster.

“We’re getting close. Be ready.” Warmaster Monroe intoned to the pack with her, and Torva took a moment to take a settling, deep breath - just like how she had been taught when trying to rein her emotions under her control. She couldn’t allow fear or uncertainty into her heart now.

“Feth -” Jaren breathed beside her, and she glanced at him through her visor. “I’ve got your back.”

Another Iron Wolf, Sylor, responded to Jaren in the same low voice that everyone else had been using, bolstering those around him. "We are in this together." He said, before moving ahead cautiously a pace or two. Torva felt the prickle of unease, the sensation that something was coming. She had been taught that this was how the Manda sometimes guided those who were sensitive to it, but she wasn’t entirely certain about that yet.

And then she heard the louder growls and snarls, and they sounded like they were closing in, fast.

Ahead, a few paces away, Sylor warned the rest of them with a single word that made the red head feel a surge of adrenaline dump through her body: “Contact…”

She wasn’t sure if she was ready for the fight, but her vibro-sword was already in her hand and there was no turning back now. ​

 

[Kael Varr Bastiel Skirata]

Tags: Eenia Vahn Adelle Bastiel Liorra Garo Vevut-Varkor
OBJECTIVE: Level 1 Cresh - Solus

Spoiler: Arms and Armor

Ship: The Cabur Rekr (The Guardian Wolf)
Armor: Dauntless-type Beskar'gam
Blade: Tal'Alor Beskad
Primary Weapon: Plasma Bow
Secondary Weapon: Bastion-Pattern Kad’au

Kael saw the beast just before it hit his Buir, but before he could react, she already had it off of her and was calling Eenia over to look at the wound. Seeing how nothing he had, as far as sensors were picking it up, he defaulted to a more archaic form of finding the enemy. Igniting his left Kad’au, causing the nearly meter-long silvery-white blade to emerge and travel backwards past his left shoulder in a guard, he opened a compartment on his right vambrace and exposed an array of thin, needle-like Beskar darts. From the inside portion of the vambrace came small Beskar spheres that, using the Force, started to orbit his body, making a tight cloud of metal. His intention was if something tried to attack, the orbs would hit them first, hopefully spoiling both cover and attack. He could then send out his Dabida Bev, the Force Needles, to further incapacitate, then finish off with the Kad’au. ”Werd’la Cabur, guard the Alor, please. I will use my blades and spheres to keep watch ahead.“ Kael moved forward past Adelle and Eenia and concentrated his cloud of bearings ahead, the darts lifting off one by one till they spun poised to strike the moment the bearing cloud was disturbed.

After a moment more, the sound of a Beskar sphere striking flesh rang out, followed quickly by a dart which found its mark. Kael’s silvery blade struck out like a viper swinging forwards to strike along the flank of the Sithspawn. The runes of his armor flashed ice blue as its wards, fed by his light side energy, pushed back against the beast, seeming to stun it long enough for him to finish it off. “It seems these beasts fear the light; use it to your advantage.” He called out and sent it along the battle meditations.

 

[Liorra]

Tags: N/A [Solo Development]

The smell hit her before the dark did.

Rot and damp stone and something underneath both of those things that she couldn't name, something that pressed against the back of her sinuses like a held breath. Liorra stood at the threshold of the mine entrance for a moment longer than she strictly needed to, her beskad at her hip and one hand loose at her side, and breathed it in. Tried to read it.


The heavy doors that had once sealed this place lay torn from their hinges, scattered like something had decided doors were an insult. She noted that. Filed it.

Scratchy, stinky doors, got it.

She stepped in.

The Force Cloak settled over her like a second skin, or tried to. At her current efforts, it was more suggestion than certainty, more please don't look here than actual invisibility, a soft persuasion aimed at the peripheral attention of anything that might be paying attention. She had practiced it in open spaces, in daylight, against targets that weren't actively hunting. This was none of those things.

She felt it shimmer as she moved deeper into Level Dorn's tunnels, the dark side pressure finding the edges of it the way water finds a crack. Not breaking through. Just testing. Noting the weakness. She tightened her focus and felt it steady, barely.

Don't look here. There's nothing here. Keep walking.

The bipedal wolf creatures were somewhere in the northeast section, according to the briefing. Territorial. Aggressive toward livestock, toward homes, toward anything that moved at night. She had hunted predators before, tracked nexu on Monastery as a training exercise, read their patterns from the way they marked territory and cached kills. She knew how to think like something that owned a space.

What she didn't know was what to make of the territorial markings.

She crouched at the edge of a chamber where the tunnel opened briefly, her Force Senses reaching ahead of her physical sight. The dark side pressure pushed back, not overwhelming, not yet, but present in the way a migraine was present before it fully arrived. She breathed through it. Held the cloak. Looked at the wall.

The markings were claw-scored into the stone in the patterns she would have expected, territory declaration, warning, the biological grammar of mine written in scratch and depth. But threaded through them, deposited in the grooves of the deepest cuts, was something else. A crystalline residue catching the faint light from her helmet's internal systems. Not organic. Not quite mineral either, or not any mineral she recognized.

She reached out, not physically, not yet, and let her Force Senses touch the edge of it.

The dark side pressure spiked, brief and sharp, and her Force Cloak dropped entirely for two full seconds before she caught it again.

She pulled her hand back. Stood very still.

Okay, she thought. Okay. So it's that kind of mine.

Somewhere deeper in the tunnel, something moved.